#and thankfully the way people gushed over them on ao3 made me feel much better | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

221bshrlocked · 4 years

Text

That Southern Hospitality

Pairing: Clark Kent X Reader

Words: 8056 (wow this got out of hand)

Warnings: Awkward encounters. Flannel. Forearms. Smut. Dirty talk. Some kinks that might not apply to you including but not limited to hickies, size difference, age gap, flannel shirts, and finally, cum play (if that’s what it’s called). I’m on my period and I’m horny so leave me alone.

A/N: Listen I’m not sure what happened here. I was minding my own business one minute and the next thing I know, I’m writing this hella long fic because men in plaid shirts are the death of me (Adam Driver in Blackkklansman) but Clark Kent in a plaid shirt/flannel can rip me to pieces and I’d ask him if he could do it again. I know I have other stories to get to and finish, but I got the inspiration and motivation to write this and I decided it was better than not writing any fics at all. Enjoy this hell that is Henry Cavill inspired. This will be up on AO3 with gifs :) Let me know if my smut is still any good.

Two exams, three research papers, and a shit ton of unnecessary assignments, and here you were doing the laundry because how else would you deal with the stress of this hellish semester. You angrily shoved your second batch of clothes into the washer, occasionally looking at the laptop not too far from you in an attempt to memorize any details of the human chest anatomy. As you measured the bleach and poured it in the washer, you forgot what it was you were reciting in your head, turning to the diagram again and repeating the function of the thymus gland for god knows what time that day.

So busy with the laundry and making sure you don’t push your laptop over the table by accident, you didn’t notice when someone walked into the room until you stood up and grabbed your orange juice. As you were about to take a sip, you heard someone shuffle behind you before speaking.

“Do you mind if I-” The man didn’t get to finish his question, stepping back when he saw you jump in distress.

“OH MY GOD!” You screamed at the top of your lungs, turning around and not watching where you were stepping as you tried to put space between the two of you. You fell to the floor, your heart hammering in fear before it beat against your chest in anger once you felt the sweet liquid spill all over your shirt.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t-” The man stepped forward and held out his hand to pull you up, his eyes unintentionally descending to your soaking shirt.

“Jesus Christ what the hell is wrong with you? Trying to give me a heart attack or something?” You took his hand and let him pull you up, grabbing the bottle and its cap before throwing it in the trash. Wiping your face, you were about to say something when you looked up and saw who it was standing with you. Your eyes widened in horror because of course it was the quiet hottie two floors down that had to see you in this rather horrendous circumstance.

“Believe me I thought you heard me when I walked in but I realized you were probably too invested in that diagram to notice me.” He pointed to your laptop, trying his hardest to avoid looking anywhere below your neck because he really didn’t want to get a boner in these sweatpants.

“S-sorry about the mess, I’ll clean it up and give you some space.” You smiled nervously at him and were about to move towards the sink when he beat you to it and pulled out some paper towels before placing them on the floor. “Please, let me.” He looked up, his jaws clenching tightly when his eyes saw two hardened peaks teasing him through your wet shirt. He swallowed the lump in his throat and wiped the floor, knowing very well you caught him staring at your chest. When you did finally follow his gaze and looked down, embarrassment washed over you and you quickly crossed your arms to hide yourself.

He stood up a moment later and reluctantly turned towards you before looking over to see if his laundry was done. When he saw the timer was down to zero, he blinked at your obvious nervousness, immediately unbuttoning his flannel and taking it off before stepping towards you. He could hear your elevated heart rate and felt bad for causing you so much discomfort. Whatever courage you had left was spent when you looked up at him, and boy did you wish you didn’t because you weren’t sure what was going to cause you to faint first, his cologne, the way his blue eyes dilated at seeing you, or how his chest expanded with each breath he took.

“I am sorry miss. Here, take this so you could finish your laundry.” He held out his flannel to you and watched as you thought it over before reluctantly grabbing it. Who even looked that good in just a wife beater and some old sweatpants?

“W-what about your laundry?” You questioned him, walking towards one of the corners and hoping he wouldn’t turn around as you changed out of your shirt. You could hear him walk away, the sound of the washer unlocking letting you know he was thankfully a few feet away and couldn’t possibly hear your heartbeat.

“It’s fine, you can keep that until you’re done.” He quickly took his clothes out of the washer and shoved them in his basket, deciding to fold them back in his place because he really didn’t know what he could do should he stay in the same room with you for another moment. By the time you turned around and grabbed your shirt to put it in the washer, he was just about done grabbing his clothes. And when he didn finally look at you, he lost whatever self control he had left, the handle of the basket breaking under his hold and causing you to blink at him.

You couldn’t really tell what he was thinking. He looked inconvenienced with his tense jaw and the harsh grasp he had on his basket. But he also had this aura of kindness around him, like a gentle giant kind of vibe. “Wow that’s one hell of a flannel collection you got there.” You cringed at the words as soon as they left your lips but he surprisingly didn’t laugh at you. On the contrary, his shoulders relaxed before he smiled at you.

“I grew up on a farm,” he said nothing else and you weren’t sure why his answer made your stomach churn. So he was a lumberjack basically. A sweet, muscular, introverted lumberjack who for some odd reason, lives in the city.

“Thank you for this, it saved me going up four floors only to come back down again.” The flannel was long enough to be a dress and you nervously played with the long sleeves, not realizing that the more you touched the fabric, the harder he became in his sweatpants.

“It’s no trouble, miss.” He was about to walk away when you stepped to him and grabbed his arm to stop him, goosebumps erupting on your skin when you realized just how muscular he is. You immediately took your hand away and waited until he met your eyes before speaking again.

“Y/N, my name is Y/N.”

“I’m Clark.” He smiled and you watched as his incredibly fine, round ass walked away from you. When you were sure he went up the stairs, you swore quiet loudly as you pulled your phone out to call a friend. You couldn’t care less about school work or how you were standing in a stranger’s flannel that smelled way too fucking good. All you cared about was squealing like a teenage girl about the cute neighbor who didn’t miss a beat and offered his clothes because you had to make a complete fool out of yourself in front of him.

Unbeknownst to you, Clark could hear every single word you were saying about him, smiling at the prospect of someone your age gushing about him of all people, an average man who didn’t scream “friendly” to total strangers. Well, he wasn’t average but that didn’t matter. He folded his laundry and continued to eavesdrop on your call, not feeling an ounce of shame because you had so far called him “a greek god,” “a sexy farm boy,” and “a big softie.” Clark honestly wasn’t sure which of these was responsible for the raging hard-on he was suffering from and he didn’t really care because he could hear you compliment his scent to whoever you were on the phone with and he hated how vocal you were about your so-called “attraction” to him.

By the time you were finished with the phone call, you’d lost all hope of retaining any new information about the human body. Then again, if it were up to you, you could have studied his body. For science of course. All the time you were switching out your clothes and absent-mindedly scrolling through your notes, you couldn’t help but bring the flannel up to your nose, taking in deep breaths and relaxing as his musky scent hit your nostrils.

“Fucking hell he smells good.” You whispered to yourself, feeling the sudden urge to reach down and scratch that itch that’s been bothering you ever since he walked in. And you really were about to do it, had it not been for the drier letting you know your clothes are clean.

So much for wanting to get some studying done.

You collected your things and made your way up the stairs, halting at the second floor and looking at Clark’s door. It wasn’t that you were a stalker or anything. You just saw him a couple of times returning from work. Granted you’d stare at his ass for a few seconds but you didn’t purposely seek him out. You looked at your clothes and thought to just give him his flannel back but you immediately shook your head, ascending the stairs quickly before you changed your mind.

Clark was writing a new article when he heard your steps slow down and stop at the top of the stairs. He slowly stood up and approached the door, looking past the wood and watching as you silently debated on something before you thought against it and ran up the stairs. He smiled to himself, knowing he was right and that you wouldn’t return his plaid shirt just yet.

As soon as you got back to your apartment, you folded your clothes and paced around the empty living room. A heavy sigh made its way past your throat and you looked down at the shirt, wanting very much to relieve your stress but knowing there wasn’t time for that self-care session. You put the kettle on and decided to force yourself to get something done before the sun set. If you weren’t going to memorize that shit then you were certainly going to finish some of the other assignments.

Surprisingly, you managed to finish one of the research papers by eight and you lounged on your couch and listened to some jazz music as you wrote the discussion responses and questions for your other classes. You were happy that you’d only had the two research papers and the exams to study for. Rubbing your eyes, you managed to shut your laptop before rolling on the couch, staring out your curtains before taking a deep breath.

And that’s when it hit you.

It was such a stupid thought but for some reason, you genuinely believed you managed to finish all of this studying because of what you were wearing. You looked down at the shirt and pulled it to your nose for god knows what time that day, taking a deep breath before letting your mind wander to the little encounter from earlier.

You’ve had several crushes before but never like this. Not ones that made you feel peaceful at least. Maybe after this semester was over, you’d muster up the courage to ask him out. But what if he had someone already? How awkward would that be? Surely someone with his manners and looks had a girlfriend, a boyfriend even.

You didn’t dwell on that for too long, not wanting to grow sad at the prospect of missing your chances with a guy like him. You let your thoughts run over until you fell asleep, not realizing that Clark was also having a hard time riding his mind of you.

You hoped you could run into him again to avoid the awkward encounter of knocking on his door and giving him his shirt but that never happened. Somehow, you couldn’t get a sight of him for the rest of the week, which was strange considering how often you managed to get a glimpse of the man. And you noticed you’d started to stress out again when you realized his scent grew incredibly weak, the flannel no longer bringing you peace of mind as it has for the past few days.

There were only five days left and even though you had turned in all your research papers and taken one exam (and miraculously passed it), you still felt like shit. Five days to study for an exam should have been a Christmas gift compared to some of the schedules you had to deal with for the past two years, but you didn’t feel like studying and you hated that you knew what was keeping you from focusing.

You distracted yourself with numerous things, buying unnecessary clothes and accessories online and even calling your friend and asking her what show you could binge watch next.

“Fuck this shit,” you threw your pillow across the room and grabbed your phone, ordering some take out before pulling up all of your human anatomy notes in an attempt to study again. You looked around your apartment and saw the plaid shirt on the other end of the couch, rolling your eyes at the sudden need to wear it because if that meant you could focus even for a few minutes, you were definitely going to put it on.

A few minutes passed and you were still on the same diagram, swearing out loud when you heard the doorbell ring.

“Well that was quick,” you grabbed a five dollar bill to tip the driver, unlocking the door and pulling it harder than intended.

And then you forgot how to breathe for a second because shit shit shit Clark was standing in front of you and you were wearing his shirt and he was looking you up and down and fuck this was not okay. You silently cursed yourself because he was definitely going to think you were weird for wearing it when you had your own damn clothes.

“Hey,” was the only thing Clark managed to say because his neurons decided to misfire and not form a proper sentence. Goddamn his clothes looked so much better on you.

“H-hi.”

Clark cleared his throat and pretended he wasn’t gawking at you, holding out a few letters and waiting until you took them before he said anything else.

“These were in my box by accident. Sorry about that. I think a few of them might be late, I haven’t been here all week.” You watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down before he pushed up his glasses and finally looked at you.

“Oh, thank you. Was it vacation week or something?” Of all the things you could have asked to not sound pathetically desperate, that should have been the last of them.

“Far from it, I was on an assignment and I had to go to Gotham to interview some businessman for the Daily Planet. Just got back.” He fixed the strap of his bag before shoving his hands in his pockets and such a simple gesture shouldn’t have made you drool but here you were.

“You’re a reporter?” Somehow, that made sense but it was weird to see someone who grew up on a farm come to the city and take the oddest job.

“Yeah.”

“That sounds nice.” You didn’t know what else to say, awkwardly shifting on your feet and hoping he’d continue the conversation for your sake.

“It is most of the time, but then you have to sit down with eccentric billionaires and then it’s not so fun anymore.” Clark remarked and he was struck with a soft chuckle that almost made him lose his balance.

“Let me guess, the infamous Bruce Wayne wasn’t as charming as everyone says he is.” You took a step forward and leaned against the door frame, noticing the way Clark stepped closer to you as well.

“How did you know?” Clark said with a hint of sarcasm and you shook your head before looking past him and silently cursing when you saw the delivery guy approaching you.

“I’ve got an order for Y/N.” The young man took one look at Clark before he knew it was best for him to just deliver the food and leave.

“Here, thank you so much.” You handed him the tip and smiled when he waved back at you.

“I’ll leave you to eat then,” Clark was about to walk away when you reached out and stopped him.

“Or you could come in? I ordered way too much food anyway.” You hoped you weren’t being too forward with him and let out a breath when he turned around and faced you.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude.”

“You’re not.” You said way too quickly to your liking but knew it was worth it when he sent you that dashing smile again. He walked in and set his bag down before following you to the living room.

“Make yourself at home,” you set down the food on the table in front of the couch before walking to the kitchen to grab a few plates and some drinks. When you walked back and handed him the beer to open until you brought out all the food, he raised an eyebrow at you and asked the question he’d been wanting to ask ever since he saw you.

“Are you old enough to be drinking this?” He asked jokingly and hoped you didn’t find his question too weird.

“Hey hey I’ll have you know I am not as young as I look.” You playfully raised your voice and watched as he held his hands up in defeat.

“Just want to make sure I’m not breaking the law or anything.”

“I’m about to turn 23 so relax.” You sat down next to him, shoving the laptop to the side and grabbing the beer from his hand before rolling your eyes at him.

“So you are as young as you look then!” Clark hoped his tone still held some playfulness because he didn’t want you to know how turned on he was because of the age gap. Not that he expected anything.

“I’m old enough…” You let the words hang in the air, pretending you were focusing on splitting the food evenly between the two of you. Clark narrowed his eyes at you before shifting them towards the bit of skin peaking through the buttons of his shirt.

Fuck, his shirt.

“Thanks for this, I definitely wouldn’t have bothered to cook for myself tonight.” He broke the silence, trying to think of anything but you wearing that shirt around the apartment. And he really didn’t want to picture you going to sleep in it.

“Of course, I gotta return a bit of that southern hospitality after all.” You took a bite of the food and were about to say something when he beat you to it.

“And here I was thinking you could have just returned the shirt.” Of all the things you thought he was going to say, that was definitely not one of them because as far as you knew, he was not a confrontational man.

“I- uhhh, I was going t-”

“Relax sweetheart, I’m just teasing.” You almost choked on the food when he winked at you and you hoped to the almighty he wasn’t just pulling your leg. If your friend was here, she would have probably told you to play hard to get. But you were tired, and you didn’t think Clark was the kind of guy to enjoy that. He was older than you after all and he probably didn’t enjoy that childish behavior.

“Honestly, your shirt managed to help me with my stress.” When he said nothing and continued to stare at you, you decided you should probably apologize. “Sorry that sounded weird. Here I am being super creepy when you were just being nice. Probably don’t need this drama anyway.” You moved to get up and were about to head toward your room when you felt a hand wrap around your wrist and pull you back down.

“Don’t. You’re being honest. It’s a breath of fresh air actually.” You weren’t sure what made your heart race, the way he was looking at you or the warm fingers he had still wrapped around your wrist. You smiled all the same, nodding awkwardly before reaching for your laptop. You touched the mouse bar so the screen didn’t sleep and turned your attention to Clark again.

“Still studying the anatomy?” Clark pointed to the screen, finishing up his food and thanking you for it before standing up to throw away the empty boxes.

“I actually stopped studying for it this past week. Had other more important assignments and exams to finish. You sure you don’t want any more?” You closed the two other boxes and followed him to the kitchen, placing the boxes in the fridge before grabbing the plates and forks to place in the sink.

“I’m good thank you. When is this exam then?” He stood at the sink and folded his sleeves, the action not going unnoticed by you. When you looked up and saw that he was staring at you, you cleared your throat and went to the table to clean the rest of the things.

“It’s in five days and I really couldn’t care less because if I have to memorize one more fucking muscle, I’m going to lose my shit.” Clearing away everything, you washed your hands as well and followed him back to the couch, pretending you weren’t checking out his thighs that were currently spread out across his seat. Fuck he looked good.

“Maybe I can help with that.” Clark said before he could think twice about the bizarre idea

“How? Do you secretly know Professor Stevens and could talk to him for me so I don’t have to take the exam?” You jokingly asked, scrolling through the powerpoint to try and see which group you had to study next. When you didn’t hear a response and looked up, you saw Clark staring at you with an expression that you couldn’t quite understand.

“I sadly don’t know Professor Stevens, but I’ve heard that it’s easier to study these things when you have a real life example to map out.” There wasn’t an inch of hesitance in his words and Clark was finding it very hard to keep a straight face when you looked so flustered.

“Is this where you tell me you’re secretly a serial killer and I’m about to become one of your cadevers?” You tried to diffuse the sudden tension growing between you two but Clark never once dropped his gaze, setting his beer down on the table before standing up and rolling down his sleeves.

“No, but I am a willing participant and I will gladly be your example.” He didn’t give you a chance to respond, pulling his blue and green plaid shirt out of his jeans before unbuttoning the front, all the while making sure you never looked away.

By the time he was finished, you could feel how soaked your panties were and you hoped he didn’t notice you shift in your seat. When he smiled, you knew he did.

“Oh,” you whispered when he opened his shirt and took it off, leaving him in the wife beater and tight, dark jeans. You took a deep breath to try and relax your mind but then he pulled the white material out of his jeans in one swift move and you were left staring at his incredibly muscular, slightly hairy chest that had you wanting to jump his bones right away.

He sat down again, this time much closer to you. You cleared your throat before turning to your laptop and scrolling to the diagram about the bones, looking it over before facing Clark again and silently asking him if you could move closer. When he raised an eyebrow and nodded at you, you cleared your throat before taking his arm and pulling it on your lap.

You should’ve known it would be heavy considering how muscular he was but nothing prepared you for how soft his arm would be, even with all the hair. This was not the time to be horny and yet here you were, wanting to do something else with his fingers.

Softly, you took his hand and rested it on your lap, tracing his fingers as you called out the different bones on the limb. “Phalanges…metacarpals…c-carpals.” You spent a little bit longer on his wrist, turning it up before softly passing over the veins of his arms. When you realized you weren’t actually moving over the bones, you blinked rapidly before continuing to his arm. His arm was now rating completely on your lap and although his hand was facing the ceiling, you couldn’t help but feel like he was purposely making sure he was touching the skin of your thighs.

Dismissing the wild thought, you applied pressure with one hand on his ulna while the other passed over the hair of his arm and mirrored your actions but on his radius. When you looked up, you saw Clark’s piercing blue eyes staring into yours, not bothering to hide his obvious fascination with your lips before looking down to where you were touching him. You swallowed the lump in your throat before moving your hand to the humerus, not bothering to linger on his arm because you knew very well which bones that was.

Before you could convince yourself not to, you decided the hell with being appropriate, hands continuing their journey up to his shoulders before lingering over the clavicle, finding it incredibly sexy because it was protruding. And when your other hand moved to his chest and splayed across the center, you made sure to never look away from his suddenly dilated pupils, pushing on the hard center and whispering “sternum.”

“You’re doing pretty well darling…don’t know why you’re worried about this exam.” Clark’s jaw was tense and you knew he was as affected by you as you were by him.

“I’m more worried about muscle groups if I’m being honest.” You replied breathlessly, not expecting him to reach over and pull you on his lap. You gasped before settling down on him, not bothering to be sly when you moved your hips and found him hard beneath you.

“Get up close and personal Y/N, I don’t mind.” Clark smiled when you grabbed his arm and brought it close to you again, tracing the forearm and whispering the muscles as you touched each of them. “Flexor carpi ulnaris…E-extensor carpi radialis longus…ah fuck.” You couldn’t take it anymore, swearing when you felt his other hand grasp your thighs and squeeze them.

“Focus,” he dared to warn you, chuckling when you narrowed your eyes at him in warning.

You continued to move your fingers on his arm, no longer shying away from feeling him up a bit more. As soon as you reached his biceps and named the muscle, Clark was flexing beneath you, the small reflex turning you on way more than it should have. You lingered on his biceps a bit more than you should have and Clark noticed, the fingers of the arm you were studying wrapping around your upper arm before jerking you in his arms.

“I said focus.” His tone was dangerous and you couldn’t help the little drag you took across his thighs. Clark looked down at you before raising his eyebrows, his chest expanding with pride because your self-control was slipping just as his.

“D-deltoid,” you passed over his shoulders before finally reaching where you’ve wanted to touch him for so long. As soon as you placed both of your hands over his chest and whispered “pectoralis,” Clark was wrapping his arms around you and pulling you towards him, lips crashing against yours so aggressively you almost thought you broke your teeth. He was hungry to touch you, his arms not letting up once as he devoured your mouth. When you tried to pull away to breathe, Clark moaned against you, fingers pushing the back of your head towards him so he could suck on your tongue.

A few seconds later, he finally realized the two of you needed to breathe, letting go before continuing his attack down your neck. You found yourself pushing your body to him, sighing and moaning when you felt his teeth nip and suck on whatever skin he had access to.

“Jesus fucking Christ, do you have…any idea, how sexy you look in my shirt?” He paused in between words to kiss your neck before deciding he wanted your mouth again. You didn’t have much choice, giving yourself over to him and not bothering to attempt to have any control of the man beneath you. To say you were surprised by how needy and bold he suddenly was would have been the understatement of the century.

“God damn baby, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of you last week. Not when you looked so embarrassed with these pretty tits begging me to get an eyeful of’em.” He leaned down and bit you through the shirt, not caring how ridiculous he probably looked.

“Ohh Clark…please.” You weren’t sure what it was you were begging him for and you couldn’t care less.

“What do you want darling? I’ll give you anything you want. You’ve been such a good little sweetheart, wearin’ my shirt all week long. Were you Y/N?” You didn’t realize he was asking a question until he pulled away and lightly smacked your ass, begging you to answer him.

“Wh-what?”

“I asked, were you wearin’ my shirt all week?”

“Oh god fuck, yes. Yes I was.” You tried to get out of his grasp to touch him but he didn’t let you, teh vice grip he had around your waist letting you know he wasn’t planning on letting up anytime soon.

“Such a pretty darling. Tell me Y/N, why didn’t you give it to me when you were done?” Before you could answer him, Clark was maneuvering you around, and for some reason, you were still surprised by the sheer power this man had because he handled you as if you weighed nothing. You found yourself buried under the hunk of flesh, and although you should have felt somewhat claustrophobic, you didn’t. On the contrary, you felt safe surrounded by him.

“I- it’s going to sound stupid.” You tried to distract him because you were afraid he’d think you were weird.

“Please, baby. Tell me.” The man cooed in your ears and you were amazed by how soft he was being when a moment ago, he was just about ready to devour you.

“Y-you smell nice…your cologne, it helped me get work done. A-and I slept better when I wore it. Made me feel safe.” You couldn’t look at him, not wanting to drive him away by your obsession. You did only meet a week ago.

You took his silence for disgust and were about to push him away when he crushed you with his weight, stopping all thoughts of wanting to get away from him.

“Fucking hell Y/N, you’re going to be the death of me.” As soon as you looked into his eyes, Clark was pushing you further into the couch, his lips savoring every inch of your own, biting and engulfing them like a madman.

“Shouldn’t have gone to Gotham. Should’ve stayed here and tried to ask you out.” He was babbling nonsense, taking both of your hands in his and raising him high above your head.

“Oh god Clark…”

“Have dinner with me baby?”

“Yes anything. I’ll do anything you want me to do…j-just don’t stop. Please don’t stah-ahh,” you screamed in surprise when you heard buttons clattering across the floor, looking down at the ruined shirt before attempting to focus on Clark.

He was smiling devilishly at you, maintaining eye contact as he ripped the rest of the shirt before giving your newly exposed skin some attention. The man somehow was becoming sexier by the second and you had a feeling tonight would be a night you’d never forget.

He kissed up your stomach, licking the valley between your breasts before winking at you. Before you could beg him to not do the same with your bra, he was already ripping it in half, not bothering with your little whines as he attacked your nipples. You were a moaning mess beneath him, his name like a prayer on your lips as he sucked and bit and pinched your hardened peaks.

Clark continued his assault on you, not caring that you were shaking in his arms at this point. You were torn between looking down at him and throwing your head back to enjoy the sensations coursing through you. He moaned and growled as he sucked and pinched your nipples harder, occasionally jutting his hips and showing you just how much he wanted to have you.

It was so little, crept up on you without you noticing. Almost as if it was forced out of you. At a particular thrust of his hips, you were arching your back and pushing your breasts into his face, swearing and screaming his name until he slowly eased you down from your little high.

“Did…did you just-” Clark didn’t move a muscle, his cock finally catching up with his brain because did he just make you come without even touching your pussy?

“C-clark.” You sighed his name, looking at him through heavy-lidded eyes when you suddenly realized what just happened.

Before you could attempt an apology at how pathetic your body was, Clark was sitting up and trying to take his pants off. When you saw him fumbling through the simplest of tasks, you felt heated and proud to have made this man a mess, unbuckling his belt and throwing it away before pushing down the zipper and trying to kick his pants down. He barely managed to take off his shoes and socks, marveling at how soft and warm your hands were against his skin as you dragged his jeans down his legs.

“I need you, please. I need you inside me Clark. Now.” You begged insistently, no longer bothered by how needy this man made you. He nodded frantically and was about to pull down his boxer briefs when he remembered something. You watched him look around for something, furrowing your eyebrows at him before you realized what it was he wanted. “On the pill.” You half-yelled at him, not wanting to waste anymore time because you were so close to finally having him. He nodded at you and quickly got rid of his boxers, standing up and watching as your facial expression hardened and fear washed over your skin.

“Oh fuck,” you swore louder than you intended, eyes shifting from his leaking cock to his face. How the hell were you going to fit that in you?

“Shit, baby don’t look at me like that. W-we can stop. I could just-” Clark tried to slow down, not wanting to hurt or even scare you in any way.

“You kidding me? I’ve only been thinking about you fucking me senseless ever since I saw you. You’ll fit, it’ll be tight but y-you’ll fit. Just- just be gentle…go slow.” Your words slowed down as you became less and less positive that he was, in fact, going to fit his cock inside you and you watched as it twitched between his legs with every comment you said.

“Fuck, don’t say things like that darling.” Clark was slowly losing himself in you, but he really didn’t want to let that affect him in any other way. He leaned down slowly, pulling you up until you were standing on one foot before turning you around in his arms and laying back on the couch with you on top of him.

“Come here Y/N.” He whispered in your ears, wanting to feel your weight on top of him to remind him of how fragile you were in his arms.

“Clark, I-” You turned your head to try and look at him, shutting your eyes when you felt his hands roaming your body.

“Shhh sweetheart I got you. I’ll go slow, won’t even hurt you. But you have to promise that, ah fuck, i-if you do feel like you can’t do this, tell me. Don’t wanna lose you Y/N.” You weren’t sure what made you shudder, how kind he was even when he was painfully hard, or how he was making sure to let you know this wasn't just sex for him.

You nodded against him, spreading your legs across his thighs and looking down to see where his hands stopped. He made small circles around the outer lips of your pussy, groaning in your ears when he felt how wet and hot you were for him.

“Ready for me?” Clark reluctantly asked, waiting until you hummed your approval before grabbing his cock and inching the leaking tip into your pussy. He stopped moving when he felt you throw your head back against him, about to ask you if it was too much when you grabbed his hand and moved it towards your center, where you were joined.

“F-fuck ahh Clark, y-you can keep going.” You barely managed to say to him, focusing on your lower muscles and trying to loosen up a bit to get used to him. Clark on the other hand was having a hard time, in more ways than one, trying to not shove his dick all the way inside of you. But when he heard your little plea, he couldn’t deny you anything, thrusting up into you and waiting until you adjusted to him stretching you out before moving again.

Within minutes, you were a mess above him, repeating his name over and over as you felt his cock reach so deep inside you while his hand circled around your clit.

“Fucking hell Y/N, you’re so tight. So warm and tight…such a good darling aren’t you?” He whispered words of encouragement in your ears, continuing to slowly buck his hips up into you as his hands touched your skin.

“Clark, you feel so good…stretching me out like no one else. I- oh god ohh my god yes right there, I’ve never had big cock like you before.” You were sure he was going to split you in half and the thought of him destroying you made you even wetter. You could hear him pushing in and out of you, your juices letting him slide in easier than a few minutes before.

“Yeah baby just like that, keep taking my cock. You’re so good to me darling…made for me. Could spend hours inside you Y/N, if you only let me.” Clark kissed your shoulders before biting and sucking red marks across your neck, wanting to touch you anywhere he could reach.

You finally managed to turn your head around enough to look at him, forcing your eyes to open and gasping when you could barely make out the blue of his orbs. You leaned down and kissed him, holding onto the hand snaked around your thighs and pleasuring you before you felt a different kind of heat spread inside you.

Clark came with a growl, holding you down to him as he continued to fuck you. You fisted your hands around the couch, shaking in his arms when you felt him harden even more inside you.

“Clark, you…did you-”

“Please baby, can I keep fucking you? Please, you feel like heaven.” You were sure you died and went to a different reality because this man did not have a refractory period and was probably going to be the death of you.

“Yes, fuck, yes okay just- I need to look at you, touch you, move with you.”

“Shit yeah alright I can do that, let me.” Clark slowly sat up, pulling you off of him and wincing when the cold air hit his skin. He didn’t give you a chance to get used to being empty, immediately pulling you onto his lap and lowering you down on his still hard cock before leaning up to kiss you. You hissed at the stretch again, distracting yourself with his lips and the flexing muscles beneath your hands to not think of how deep he was reaching inside of you.

Supporting your weight on him, you started riding him at a slightly quicker pace, wanting to come on his cock just once before he continued to use you to get off.

“Come on Y/N, want to feel this pretty little cunt come ‘round me. Please darling, will you give me that? Will you come around me? So..f-fucking good,” Clark reached around and grabbed your ass, finding it incredibly sexy that you were scratching his chest to release some of that tension you felt from having him stretch you out.

Hearing him begging you to come around him was probably what had done it.. Or perhaps it was the way his muscles rippled beneath you each time you sought out his skin for support. It didn’t matter in the end because Clark fucked you through your orgasm, whispering nonsensical things in your ears and waiting until you returned to your senses before he asked you a question.

He remained motionless to not distract you, pulling you to his chest to kiss you again before nuding you to answer him.

“Let’s move this to the bedroom?” Clark asked, perhaps the third or fourth time, chuckling against you when you just nodded and wrapped your limbs around him. He carefully stood up, refusing to pull out while trying to not hurt you and push in any further. You didn’t show any sign of discomfort when he stood to his full height, slowly walking around the table towards the only hallway in the apartment.

When he did get to your room, he wrapped his arms around your back and made sure to lay down on the bed without breaking the hazy spell you were under. When he was sure you were comfortable, he supported his weight on his arms and pulled away from your neck to get a better look at you.

He found you smiling and staring back at him, hands moving his sweaty hair away from his handsome face while the other one still held onto his arms.

“Clark.” The way you said his name twisted something in his stomach and he knew that he couldn’t possibly go on without telling you his secret. He didn’t want to risk putting your life in danger, but something told him you’d be willing to take that chance for him. At least he hoped he was worth it to you.

“Y/N, I-”

“Please, move…let me make you feel good baby.” You cut him off, knowing he was probably trying to say something that didn’t need to be addressed anytime soon.

And my god, when he did start thrusting into you again, it was like you found the answer to a question you never knew you had. He was so gentle, kissing you everywhere and smiling when he saw the dazed expression aimed at him. He continued to whisper sweet things in your ear, occasionally pinching your nipples or rubbing your clit with his navel.

You arched your back against him, feeling the familiar tug in your lower stomach but wanting to wait until he came with you. You could tell Clark was chasing after his orgasm because his grunts grew louder and his rhythm faltered. His arms moved from caging you in to grabbing your neck and pushing you up to him so he could kiss you. In the end, it was his neediness that pushed you over the edge, crying out his name as you felt him thrust into you one, two, three times before you felt the familiar heat fill your insides.

Had you had one functioning neuron, you would have marveled at how much more he came the second time around. But you didn’t.

The both of you stayed wrapped around each other until Clark realized that should he stay inside you any longer, he would probably go for round three, and the last thing he wanted was to freak you out by how long he could go.

When he finally forced himself to pull out, he swore under his breath at the sight of his cum leaking out of you and before he could stop himself, he was pushing his cum back into your cunt, smirking with pride when your legs shook and you winced at the thick fingers pushing in and out of you.

Clark, however, was surprised when he didn pull his fingers out and watched as you grabbed his wrist and pulled the two digits into your mouth, never losing eye contact as you licked and sucked his fingers till they were clean.

“You’re going to be the death of me Y/N.” Clark smiled before falling to the side and wrapping his arms around you. You sighed happily, looking up at him as you traced shapes around his chest.

“I didn’t hurt you did I?” Clark asked to make sure you weren’t feeling any discomfort.

“Pretty sure I won’t be able to walk for the next few days but fuck me it was worth it.”

“Careful what you wish for Y/N.” Clark warned and you laughed against him before you snuggled into his embrace.

A few minutes passed in silence before you realized you needed to ask him what’s been on your mind ever since he walked into your apartment.

“You aren’t put off by my age are you?” Clark looked quizzically at you before pushing up to his elbows, making sure you knew he was giving you his undivided attention. You continued to play with his chest hair, refusing to look at him when you elaborated. “I just know that…well, sometimes, older guys don’t take younger girls too seriously and..what I wanted to tell you was-”

“This wasn’t just sex to me Y/N. I want to go on dates with you. I want to take you out to galas we have at work. I want to help you out when you’re too stressed or when you need to vent about something. I want to be here with you. If anything, I feel like you deserve someone your age.” Clark combed back your hair, taking the hand on his chest and bringing it to his lips before kissing it over and over again.

“I don’t think I can find anyone my age that’ll make me feel as safe as you make me.” Clark would never get used to hearing you admit you feel safe with him. It did something to him knowing you weren’t one to shy away from vocalizing your thoughts and emotions.

“You mean you won’t find a guy who’ll let you steal his shirts and walk around with them.” You punched his chest and allowed yourself to breathe again because now that you got this off your chest, you could be sort of normal again.

Clark was about to say something when he felt you trace his skin again, the hairs on his arms feeling standing up at your obvious attraction to him. He wasn’t a vain man, far from it, but he felt happy that you were pleased with him.

“Don’t tempt me sweetheart.”

“What? I’m just reviewing for the exam. You don’t want me to fail do you?” You asked playfully, hoping to god he didn’t feel weird by how much you wanted to touch him.

“By all means, review.” Clark laid his head over his arms, flexing the muscles you were currently “studying” before looking down and raising an eyebrow at you. “But I’m not responsible for what’s to follow.”

“Is that a promise or a warning?”

In the blink of an eye, Clark was shoving himself between your legs, shamelessly rolling his hips against your wet core and not caring that you probably needed some rest before you went for it again.

“It’s just my southern hospitality darling.”

#clark kent x reader #superman x reader #clark kent #henry cavill #man of steel #dc #justice league #clark kent fanfiction #clark kent smut #DC smut #dc universe #that southern hospitality #henry cavill x reader

4K notes · View notes

sinical-boar · 3 years

Text

Through The Steam[FE3H]

“ Dimitri notices something peculiar about Byleth's behavior after joining him in the sauna. Byleth is worried Dimitri knows and won't see him the same again.”

Contains: Trans Male Byleth, Implied Dimileth and Pining

CW: Mentions of unhealthy binding.

AO3 Version: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32554615

Tumblr Version Under the cut!

Dimitri entered the sauna, hopeful that the heat treatment might help his aching shoulders. If that didn't work, he'd have to resort to a hot bath rather than a cool one. The mere idea of taking a hot bath right after going in a sauna made him feel dehydrated. It was mostly empty at the time but that didn't bother Dimitri. It gave him time to be alone with his thoughts. He leaned back and stretched his arms above his head carefully then entered a more relaxed position.

'Professor Byleth has at least been coming out of his room every now and then. The shock must still be plaguing him. I hope it does not consume him, I have to admit that I miss his lectures and-'

Dimitri stopped that thought in it's tracks once he heard the sauna door open. Standing in the doorway was Byleth, who looked a little worse for wear. The shadows under his eyes eased up since the last time Dimitri spoke to him but he looked like he struggled to upkeep his appearance.

"Oh. Sorry I didn't know this was in use." Byleth turned to leave.

"Ah wait Professor! It's okay I don't mind. I was just lost in my thoughts is all. You are free to join me if you wish. If not that's understandable." Dimitri truly did want the Professor there but he didn't want to force him to stay.

Byleth looked at Dimitri's reassuring smile and quietly shut the door behind him.

"Thank you." Byleth slowly walked over and sat relatively close to Dimitri.

Dimitri couldn't help but smile and tried not to stare at Byleth too much. All the room in the sauna and Byleth decided to sit next to him.. Did Byleth trust him this much? He hoped so. His other guess would be that his presence was comforting to Byleth during this time of his life. Dimitri wouldn't say it out loud but if that were true, he'd probably blush. He snuck a few glances at Byleth and decided to break the ice a little.

"Have you been sleeping better?"

Byleth stared into the steam rising to the ceiling, "A bit. Manuela gave me some tea to drink that helps put me to sleep. It feels a little silly to need such a thing."

"Professor there is no shame in needing something like that to help you. Even I need those teas every now and then."

"Oh right. You have nightmares too. Sorry I didn't mean to bring those up."

Dimitri shook his head, "It's quite alright. I entrusted that information to you so it's okay for you to talk about it. Besides, we aren't out in public."

To Dimitri's surprise, Byleth's expression changed and he gave Dimitri a small smile. Despite it looking tired, any smile from Byleth was mesmerizing to him. Just then, Dimitri noticed something protruding from the side of Byleth's shirt. From what Dimitri could see, it looked like bandages were wrapped around Byleth's chest.

"Professor, pardon my intrusion but..were you injured?"

Byleth's eyes got wide and he quickly fixed his shirt to hide his bandages.

"No. It's complicated."

Dimitri looked at the heated stones in the center of the room and thought hard before opening his mouth again.

"You don't need to go into it if you do not want to. I just want you to know that you can confide in me if and when you want to. There are plenty of people here too that would be willing to lend an ear to you. Though sometimes keeping it to yourself feels safer at times. No one can judge you if they never know."

Byleth looked over at Dimitri in mild surprise. Despite Dimitri not knowing a thing, he sounded as if he truly understood the weight of his secret. Only 2 other people knew of it and their view of him had not changed in the slightest. Manuela had some choice words for him but that was all he could really complain about. He could only guess what words Sothis would have for him.

'Obviously he's safe to confess in. What are you waiting for? Tell him!'

Yeah that sounded right to him. Byleth folded his hands in his lap and averted his gaze from Dimitri before he spoke.

"I'm not hurt. The bandages are there for another purpose," Byleth hesitated for a moment, "To bind."

'To bind..?' Dimitri thought, 'But what could they-'

The placement of the bandages reappeared in Dimitri's mind and the pieces slowly fell together. While he did not know the professor so closely, it did make some sense given his demeanor at times with certain activities. He had figured Byleth just really liked privacy, which still held true, but it seemed like a necessity with such a secret.

"Does anyone else know?"

Byleth sighed, "Manuela. She eventually found out after tending to my wounds. My father knew of course and quickly accepted the fact. I think Rhea knows too.."

"That's right, she was there for your birth. I remember hearing about that during our mission in Abyss. I can't imagine how awkward that must feel, her knowing without even having to tell her."

"Honestly." Byleth leaned his head in his hand.

Byleth looked over at Dimitri once again. This was the first time he'd casually spoken about his status with someone. With Manuela it was more medical than anything and with his father...His father had just accepted that he was his son. Here was Dimitri, accepting it just as quickly as Jeralt once did. It was a little jarring but comforting in a sense. Instead of a tired smile, Byleth smiled genuinely in Dimitri's direction.

"Thank you."

Surely it was the sauna that made his face turn so red, at least that's what Dimitri would say. He returned the smile and the wheels in his head turned as they sat in silence.

"Professor, if I may," Dimitri sat up a little, "I know someone who could make you a safer binding garment as a replacement for those bandages. I've heard its a much safer and less painful alternative."

"If it's a stranger I don't think I could do it."

Dimitri shook his head, "No it isn't. It's Mercedes. She's already made such a garment for someone in the academy already. I won't out them because its up to them if they want to say it or not, but I digress. She'd quite fond of you and I believe she will have a similar reaction as I did. It's up to you but I highly suggest you at least consider it. For your safety. You should be allowed to do what you must to feel comfortable in your body, but you should also be allowed to have access to safer measures to achieve such comfort."

Dimitri was right in every sense. If such a thing existed, Byleth badly wanted it over the bandages and the chest pain they caused him. He couldn't just approach her by himself on such a matter. Would it be too much to ask Dimitri to accompany him for some of it? The last thing he wanted was Dimitri to see him without any bindings on. The question had a really hard leaving Byleth's lips the more he thought about it. He internally counted to 3 and let it leave him on 3.

"Dimitri would you mind coming with me to ask her?" Byleth said rather quickly, thankfully Dimitri appeared to understand him.

"Of course! I'd be honored." He smiled from ear to ear.

They left the sauna and separately went to go clean up. Dimitri couldn't stop smiling at how quickly Byleth's mood changed. He felt safe enough to tell him such an intimate secret and he even accepted his offer to help. If it wasn't such a secret, he would have gushed to Dedue. He quickly tried to come to his senses and finish rinsing his hair in case he made Byleth wait. Just as he was about to leave he could see a faint figure standing a few feet away from him.

"Do you deserve to be so happy? To feel such a way about your Professor.." He heard Glenn almost spit out.

Dimitri scowled and turned away from him.

"I'm making The Professor happy in his time of need," Dimitri muttered to himself, "I don't need any other reason to continue doing that."

He quickly got dressed and left the bathhouse without listening to another word of the dead. There sat Byleth in his usual attire with a book in his hand. He looked like he barely had time to really get into it. Byleth looked up at Dimitri, put his book away and got up from the bench.

"Sorry I made you wait."

Byleth shook his head, "No need."

Dimitri couldn't help but smile at his Professor's blunt tone. Anyone else might have seen it as a little rude, but Dimitri could tell at this point how Byleth was trying to come across. He simply joined Byleth on their walk to the Cathedral. They passed by a few other students but made it a point to not get side tracked. Mercedes sat in a pew with her head bowed in what seemed like a prayer. Marianne was not far away from her but Dimitri and Byleth made sure to not disturb her. Mercedes raised her head once she saw Dimitri and Byleth nearby.

"Oh! Professor, Dimitri, hello. Have you come to join the afternoon prayer?"

"Not today Mercedes. If it is not too much trouble, we'd like to ask for your assistance with something."

"Oh?" Mercedes slowly rose out of the pew, "With what?"

Byleth glanced around to see all who was in the Cathedral and shook his head.

"Could you meet us outside? It isn't something I want to say in front of other people.."

Mercedes smiled warmly and nodded, "Of course. I'll finish my prayer and meet you outside. I won't be long."

Dimitri bowed a little as thanks and departed with Byleth as they sat outside near the bridge. Just like Mercedes said, it didn't take her long to wrap up her prayer, and she quickly found the pair tucked away in a more private spot.

"Alrighty, I'm all ears. I don't know how much help I'll be, depending on what you want."

"Oh it's nothing outside your skills." Dimitri looked over at Byleth.

Byleth took a quick glance at Dimitri then at Mercedes. She was trust worthy, everything about her said so. Dimitri even told him that she's done this for someone before. Byleth got the assumption that Dimitri was not going to ask on his behalf. With a heavy sigh, Byleth tried to find his words.

"Would it be possible if you could make me a binding garment?" Byleth said quietly but loud enough for her to hear.

Mercedes' eyes widened for a moment then they almost seem to light up as she radiated a warm energy.

"Of course. I'm happy you came to ask me, Professor. I know it hasn't been easy for you this month, so you can count on me to make this as painless as possible. If you're free after dinner, I can take your measurements. I just need a few of them so it won't take me long and we can do it in my dorm so nobody sees."

Byleth smiled lightly in relief and nodded, "Thank you Mercedes."

"It's no trouble at all. I'll wait for you after we eat. I'm on greenhouse duty for today so I have to get going, I'll see you then!" Mercedes waved as she walked off to complete her chore for the day.

Dimitri grunted, "That's right, I completely forgot about weeding the courtyard with Sylvain today. I must apologize Professor, I have to get going right away or Sylvain will never let me hear the end of it."

"It's alright Dimitri. I won't take points off for this. You were a big help to me today so..Thank you. For everything," Byleth's brows raised in mild concern, "Dimitri are you still dizzy from the sauna? Your face is red."

"Ah! Ahaha I guess so. I better finish my task and perhaps rest for an hour or two," Dimitri turned back to Byleth, "Before I forget, thank you for confiding in me Professor. I hope it takes some weight off your heart to know you have people you can trust this secret with. I'll see you at dinner I hope. Good day, until then."

Dimitri smiled before walking off, leaving Byleth in the glow of the conversations he just had. Byleth held his hands to his chest and sighed in disappointment. If his heart had a beat, would it have been beating loudly right then? If only. He smiled to himself and leaned against the church's walls. His father would have been happy to see him like this, Byleth thought. He was getting closer to being happy in his own skin. Perhaps, he felt more alive in the presence of people who supported him. His lions had made him feel a variety of new emotions, perhaps one in particular made him experience a new one just then. Perhaps.

#fire emblem three houses #dimitri alexandre blaiddyd #dimitri fire emblem #byleth eisner #male byleth #byleth fire emblem #dimileth #m dimileth #trans byleth eisner #trans byleth fire emblem #fanfic #kris got wordy again #binding

42 notes · View notes

alyasgf · 3 years

Text

Startrain Adrinette April Day 12 -Seatmates

Previous || Next || All

Summary- Alya and Nino conspire to get Adrien and Marinette to sit next to each other on the entire Startrain ride. Friendship ensues. (Startrain rewrite)

Excerpt- “What did you think of the storyline that they know each other outside of the mask?” He asked her, intrigued to see what else she thought of Paris’ heroes.

“Extremely far fetched.” She replied, crossing her arms and turning towards him slightly. “Of all the teens in Paris, the chances that they’d know each other and not recognize the other is insanely small.”

Word Count: 1509

Notes- catching up on Adrinette April, Day 12 seat mates! I just love an Adrinette friends fic were Adrien fails to realize his feelings toward Marinette are 100% not platonic,,, enjoy

AO3

Begin

It was Adrien’s first trip far away from his home and he was shaking with anticipation. They were taking a class trip to London.

He had been there before, but it had always been for work and under his father’s strict eye. This time he could actually enjoy some time with his friends and he could hardly wait.

As they all gathered near the train he couldn’t help but notice Marinette was missing. Not that he was paying any extra attention to her of course. He would notice if any of his friends were missing.

Just as they were boarding the train Adrien noticed Marinette slip in out of breathe. He smiled fondly as he saw her pose to take a picture with Alya.

“Did you hear anything I just said?” Nino asked, elbowing him.

Adrien jumped slightly. “No, was it important?” He rubbed his arm where Nino’s blow had hit.

“I said I wanted to sit with Alya during the ride. She didn’t want to leave Marinette alone so she suggested you ride with her. Is that okay?”

Adrien thought about it. Nearly two and a half hours beside Marinette? That was more than enough time for them to finally bond!

“Sounds great!” Adrien replied, clasping his hands excitedly.

Nino smirked knowingly, and Adrien gave him a confused look.

“What? I just want to get to know her more. You know how she acts around me. Maybe a little talking could change that.” Adrien said defensively.

“Well it could definitely change a few things.” Nino teased raising his eyebrows up and down.

Adrien shouldered him playfully.

Just then the girls walked up.

“Hey Adrien!” Alya said with an excited buzz in her voice.

“H-hi Adrien.” Marinette squeaked out quietly.

“Hi Nino.” Nino mocked. “Nino’s here too.”

Alya took a quick look at him before laughing.

“Sorry Nino guess pretty boy outshined you.” She said playfully before hugging the boy.

“Hey guys.” Adrien blushed, as he often did when people complimented him.

“So Marinette, did Alya tell you about the new seating arrangements?” Adrien asked, addressing the unusually quiet girl.

“What new seating arrangements?” She jumped and shot Alya a look.

“Well I figured I could use some time with Nino and you could use some time with Adrien. Y’know, go get to know each other.” The brunette smirked.

Marinette went red. “I think me and Adrien know each other well enough.”

Adrien’s mood dampened a little. Did she not want to spend time with him?

Marinette noticed the change in his demeanor and straighten immediately.

“But I’d love to get to know you more!” She added. “I-if that’s alright with you?”

She asked that last part unsure of herself and a little quieter.

“I already agreed.” Adrien said, a smile now returning to his face.

“Good, now that everyone’s okay with the seats let’s get on before we miss the ride!”

Alya dragged Nino in behind her, leaving them alone on the platform.

“After you, Princess.” Adrien said with an exaggerated bow.

Marinette blushed as she was walking forward and tripped on the doorway.

Adrien’s reflexes kicked in and he grabbed her by her waist from behind. He pulled her steady and removed his arm.

“You okay Mari?” He asked, adopting a concerned look.

Bright red she answered, “Better than ever!” before entering the train. Adrien followed curiously behind her.

———————————

They spent the first 10 minutes of the ride in silence. Not to say they didn’t try, it’s just every time they spoke they ended up speaking at the same time.

Marinette seemed uncomfortable at first, but once they settled into the silence she relaxed. Adrien swore he could even hear her begin to hum.

“Oooh is that the theme song to the new Miraculous movie? I loved it!” He said as soon as he recognized the tune.

Marinette jumped a bit, and then she giggled. It seemed genuine, unlike her usual nervous giggle.

“Didn’t you voice act in the movie? You’d think you’d get sick of hearing it.” She slapped her hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry! Was that rude?” Her nervous nature returned.

Adrien laughed a laugh he swore only Marinette could bring out of him. “No you’re right, I should be. Its just so catchy you can’t help but love it.”

Marinette sighed in relief before agreeing. “Yeah, I didn’t really like how Ladybug and Chat Noir were portrayed in the movie but I couldn’t help liking the song.”

Adrien smiled. Finally he broke the ice and found some common ground!

“I totally agree!” He gushed. “Ladybug isn’t nearly as helpless as they made her out to be. She’s the brains of the operation while Chat Noir goofs around.”

Marinette took on a certain look in her eye. “Chat Noir does so much more than that!” She exclaimed. “Ladybug would never be able to defeat any akuma without him, he’s the reason why she can figure out her plans anyway, he buys her time.”

Adrien blushed. “I guess you’re kinda right Marinette.” Who would’ve pegged her out to be a Chat Noir fan?

“What did you think of the storyline that they know each other outside of the mask?” He asked her, intrigued to see what else she thought of Paris’ heroes.

Adrien gasped. “I disagree. Maybe it’s not true but it made the movie so interesting! The idea they’re right under each other’s noses. Although I have to say, if I was in their shoes I think I’d definitely recognize the other. They see each other nearly every day! How wouldn’t they know?” He ranted.

“Agreed! If they hadn’t spent the entire movie dancing around each other maybe they would have defeated Hawkmoth sooner.” Marinette laughed as she said this. “Unfortunately movies aren’t real life, no matter how fun they are.”

They settled into another silence, this one far more comfortable.

“So you’re a Chat Noir fan, huh?” Adrien brought up, noticing how she blushed. Absolutely adorable.

“I, uh, yeah you could say that.” Marinette stuttered.

“What’s your favorite thing about him?” Adrien knew it was wrong to prod, but he was curious and it was nice to hear his friend unknowingly talk about him.

“Definitely his humor.” Marinette froze for a second. “At least from what I hear in the interviews and akuma video!” She added hastily.

Adrien laughed again and this time he noticed how Marinette softened. The closer he got to her the more familiar she felt.

“Well my favorite thing about Ladybug is her determination to help people. You can just really tell there’s good in her y’know?” Adrien said with a sigh.

Marinette blushed. “So you’re a Ladybug fan?”

“I thought everyone knew? I’m an insanely huge fan. That’s one of the reasons I agreed to do the movie.”

Marinette nodded and they went back to their peaceful quiet. Adrien could hear all their classmates around them, and strangely enough all he could think about was how nice it was to be with Marinette.

Then a new sound was added to the mix. Marinette let out a loud yawn. There was a pause in the surrounding noise before everyone let out lighthearted laughs.

“Girl you need to remember to sleep.” Alya said from across the aisle before turning back to Nino.

Adrien smiled fondly as Marinette turned to him with an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, late night studying.” She said sheepishly.

“It’s okay I didn’t sleep much either last night.” He said in response. Truthfully there had been an akuma late last night and he couldn’t sleep due to anticipation of this trip.

When it was clear their conversation was over Adrien put in an earbud and turned on his Mandarin lesson. He put in the earbud opposite of Marinette and at a low enough volume that he’d hear her if she spoke.

A couple of minutes later he noticed a soft snoring. He turned to see Marinette asleep against her seatbelt. She was leaned forward at an odd angle and Adrien could tell she’d be sore if she slept like that for too long.

He brought his hand up to softly pull her to rest on his shoulder. She seemed to sigh in content. Adrien smiled before closing his eyes and falling asleep as well.

He didn’t fully fall asleep, instead he listened to Marinette’s little intakes of air and felt the way her shoulders rose and fell with each one.

As he was drifting off he felt her stir and hoped she hadn’t woken up. Truthfully he hadn’t felt this comfortable in a long time, despite being sat in a slightly stiff chair. Thankfully she seemed to fall back asleep and Adrien followed her shortly after.

When they awoke, Alya and Nino wouldn’t stop showing the pictures of them cozied up together.

Adrien had to admit, they did kind of look nice together.

End notes- hopefully I’ll be back later today with another one but let me know what you think in the replies and dont forget to reblog and like if you enjoyed :)

@adrinetteapril

26 notes · View notes

marinsawakening · 3 years

Text

Late Enough to Rest

Fandom: Princess Tutu

Wordcount: 2153

Summary: Alternate Universe. Superhero Ahiru finds supervillain Rue on her doorstep in the middle of the night, hurt, holding an unconscious Mytho and asking for help.

Notes: Written for @ahirueweek day 2: superpower. Relationship can be platonic or pre-romantic, depending on your interpretation. Read here on AO3

///

The last thing she expected to find on her doorstep at 3 AM was - well, anything, it was 3 AM, the only reason Ahiru herself hadn't gone to bed yet was because she apparently made terrible life choices. But definitely the very last thing she expected to find on her doorstep was Rue.

But there she was, leaning heavily against the wall, sopping wet locks of hair clinging to her forehead, her clothes so tattered that Ahiru couldn't even guess whether they used to be her Princess Kreahe costume or not. And hanging in her arms was Mytho, eerily still.

"Please -" she started, but Ahiru was quicker.

"Rue!" she yelled, throwing the door open as wide as possible. "You - Mytho - are you hurt? Is Mytho alright?"

"We need to come in," Rue said, her voice tense. Her fingers dug into Mytho's side. "Quickly, before anyone sees us."

Despite this, when Ahiru stepped aside, Rue just stared at her.

"Come in," Ahiru urged, and finally, Rue moved inside, out of the rain. It was only then that Ahiru noticed the trail of blood she left behind.

"You are hurt," she accused. "Sit down, I'll get the bandages -"

"It's nothing," Rue cut her off. She lay Mytho on the couch and sagged next to him on the floor. Inside, Ahiru could get a better look at her. Blood gushed from wounds all over her body; thankfully, most of them were probably just shallow scrapes, but there was a large gash in her thigh that might need stitches, and from the way she was holding her chest, there was a good chance something wrong with her ribs as well. "Listen -"

"Don't move," Ahiru ordered, running to the kitchen. She pulled the med kit from under the sink and ran back. Rue startled as she knelt next to her.

"Clothes off."

"I'm sorry, what?" Rue asked, incredulous.

"I need to reach your wounds." From up close, it was clear that she was wearing civilian clothes, a black shirt and pants, tactical, good for running.

"It doesn't matter," Rue snapped. "Listen, I have information -"

"I'm not listening to anything until we've taken care of your wounds."

Rue groaned. "Ahiru, we don't have time for this -"

"Is anyone going to die within an hour?"

"No, but -"

"Two hours?"

"I don't see how that -"

"Then we have time to disinfect, stitch, and bandage some gashes."

"Who even cares!"

"I do!"

Rue glared at her. Ahiru crossed her arms and didn't move an inch.

Finally, Rue sighed and gingerly pulled off the leftovers of her shirt. "You're still as stubborn as ever, aren't you?"

"Yup," Ahiru said, in a cheerful tone that quickly morphed into a horrified gasp.

Bruises climbed up Rue's torso like vines, covering her side and ribs, sneaking up into her sports bra and down to her thigh. Without thinking, Ahiru reached out a hand to touch, before remembering why that would be a terrible, awful, no good idea, and snatching it away.

"Are your ribs..."

"They're fine."

Ahiru stared at Rue until she turned her head.

"They're not broken," she said, reluctantly. "They don't hurt enough for that. Bruised, probably. Maybe fractured."

Ahiru took a deep breath. "Alright," she said. "We're taking you to the hospital for an x-ray tomorrow."

"No hospitals," Rue snapped.

"I can't just let you walk around with fractured ribs!"

"No. Hospitals." When Ahiru opened her mouth to protest, Rue cut her off. "My - the Raven knows I'm hurt. He'll be keeping an eye on them. The risk is too great."

That's - fine.

"Okay," Ahiru agreed reluctantly, "no hospitals. But promise me you'll take it easy, at least for a while, alright?"

Which was a normal question! But Rue stared at her like she'd just announced she was marrying the Raven."Why do you even care?"

Ahiru blinked. " 'Cause you're my friend, of course."

Rue just kept staring at her. "I've been trying to kill you for the past three months."

She shrugged. "Friends make bad choices, sometimes. Doesn't mean they're not your friends anymore. Now take your pants off, I need to reach your thighs."

For a solid few seconds, Rue didn't move. Then, she burst out laughing.

"You're one of a kind, aren't you?" she muttered, and it seemed almost bitter.

Ahiru didn't know how to respond to that, so she didn't, setting out to clean her wounds instead. Luckily, she'd been right, and most of them were shallow. Only the one on her thigh required stitches.

"There!" She clapped her hands together, triumphantly. "All done. I'll get some ice for your ribs. Lay down on my bed in the meantime."

Rue sputtered. "I can't just - I can't just take your bed!"

Ahiru waved her off. "It's fine, it's fine. I can sleep on the floor no problem."

"It's indecent!" she protested, and it would've been beyond weird, a supervillain on her floor protesting that taking the bed would be impolite, but it was Rue. Rue was just like that.

"You're the one who's hurt," Ahiru reasoned. "Please, Rue. Take the bed."

Rue blinked owlishly at her, before slowly getting up and walking to the bed. With a sigh of relief, Ahiru ducked out of the room.

Problem: there was no ice left. Fakir had even written a nice little reminder on the fridge door: buy ice, right there beneath the rest of her groceries. The whiteboard has been his idea too, actually; she'd forget less if she wrote down whatever she needed right after she ran out. It'd been a huge help, except for the fact that she still forgot to go to the store on a regular basis. Whoops.

Underneath the ice, there were more supplies in Fakir's handwriting; iodine, gauze, medical alcohol. The last fight had been rough, and Fakir had spent a good half hour just bandaging her wounds. It'd been worth it, though; Mytho had actually shown some awareness, right before he slashed her the third time, and the sword had only grazed her. He'd even opened his mouth to say something, before it turned into an ugly sneer again. Stuff like that was getting rarer and rarer, and even Fakir couldn't bring himself to lecture her too much, after she told him.

And now Mytho was on her couch, offline, and Rue seemed like she'd split off from the Raven and - and she needed ice for her bruised-or-fractured ribs that they couldn't take to the hospital because the Raven would be watching them.

Ahiru took a deep breath, and managed to unearth some frozen peas from the back of her freezer.

Rue had settled in on her bed, in the same way a stray kitten would settle into a dog pound. Aside from her fingers playing with a stray piece of fabric from her leftover-pants, she lay completely still, stiff as a board and with her arms tucked in as close to her body as possible. She and Mr. Fuzzles seemed engaged in a staring contest, and it didn't look like Rue was winning.

"Mr. Fuzzles doesn't bite, you know," she said, plopping the peas down onto Rue's chest. Thankfully, Rue didn't protest the treatment anymore, and simply moved them down towards her bruises.

"I know that," she snapped. "Why do you have a stuffed animal? You're seventeen."

"What, don't you have any?" She moved Mr. Fuzzles so that his head rested in Rue's armpit. "They're fuzzy!"

"Father would never have allowed me to cling to such childish nonsense," she sniffed haughtily. But even though she glared at the teddybear, she made no move to throw him off. Maybe because that would throw the peas off too.

"Well, your father is a supervillain, so I think that might just be part of all the evil."

Rue opened her mouth, then snapped it close again. "I... suppose it is soft."

"Exactly!" Ahiru grabbed a chair. "I'll get you one too, later."

"You really don't have to do that."

"But I want to."

"Ahiru, if we don't deal with Drosselmeyer, there might not be a later." Rue hit her fist against the bed. It couldn't hide the shaking in her hands.

"Drosselmeyer?" Without even thinking about it, she touched her pendant. "Shouldn't we be taking down the Raven?"

Rue started taking a deep breath, before letting it out again with a painful wheeze. "How much do you know about Drosselmeyer?"

"I - I've only met him a few times." She remember him appearing above her lake, hovering over the water like a ghost, gifting her the pendant, a chance at humanity. A chance to help Mytho.

Rue's head snapped towards her. "You've met him?"

"Only a few times! Can count them on one hand, really." His smile was creepy, and his ability to stop time even more so, and he seemed to delight in other people's misery just a bit too much, but even so, he didn't seem - well, Raven-level capital 'E' Evil.

"That - makes things easier, I suppose." Rue blew out a breath. It seemed exhaling was easier than inhaling. "Drosselmeyer is the writer of the story."

"The Prince and the Raven, right? Where Mytho's from?"

She remembered him, that day on the lake, smiling down at her with a grin too wide for his face.

"So you love that boy, huh?" he'd asked her. She could only nod. She'd been just a duck, after all.

"Would you still love him if I told you he wasn't human?"

"It was one of the many plays he wrote, although the only one he left unfinished," Rue confirmed. "It seems he wants to finish it, now."

"Would you still love him if he was just a robot, made to perform?"

"Mytho tore his own heart apart to keep the story from continuing; with him defective, the Raven couldn't properly fight him. But when you started to rebuild his heart -"

"Do you love him enough to search for his heart, so that he may feel again?"

"The story continued," Ahiru finished. Her nails were digging into her arms. "Then - this fight. It's my fault."

"If it hadn't been you, it would've been someone else," Rue said, but Ahiru barely listened.

"He said that only I would accept being Princess Tutu. That I'm the only one who -"

"And the Raven told me I was an android built by him," Rue interrupted. Ahiru startled.

"What? But you bleed."

"Exactly." Rue's hand was clenched and white-knuckled. White-knuckled from a lack of blood, which androids didn't have. "He lied. Men like him and Drosselmeyer will say whatever they need to, in order to get you to do what they want."

And Ahiru - Ahiru was still shaking, but she took a deep breath, and suppressed her fear. For Rue. Rue needed her to be calm. "I'm sorry."

"I told you, it's not your fault -"

"I'm sorry about the Raven," she clarified. "That's the reason you were helping him, right? I'm sorry. He shouldn't have treated you that way."

And Rue just... stared. She just stared, until tears started to stream across her face.

"Rue..." Ahiru reached out a hand, but Rue was faster, wiping away the tears as quickly as they appeared.

"I'm sorry," she said, and she sounded choked up. "I don't - I don't know what came over me."

"It's okay." Hesitantly, she laid her hand on Rue's head, and when Rue didn't try to stop her, she stroked her fingers through her hair. Her hands were still shaking, a little bit, but as she continued, they stilled. As Princess Tutu, she'd done this dozens of times before, for dozens of people, and there was something comforting about the familiar movements.

"I don't know exactly what you've been through," she started, and without even noticing, she slipped into the familiar Princess Tutu cadence. "But it must've been horrible, having the Raven as a father, doing everything you could for him, even hurting Mytho, and finding out he never loved you to begin with. You've been through a lot, and you can cry about it."

"We don't - we don't have the time -" Rue choked out, but the tears kept coming faster than she could wipe them away.

Ahiru kept carding her fingers through Rue's hair, carefully working through the knots in her hair. Even as Rue's sobs increased, her whole body shaking, a certain tension slipped from her body underneath Ahiru's fingers. "It's okay," she repeated. "If nobody's going to do die in a few hours, we have the time."

And at that, Rue unraveled. It was like all the tears she'd kept in for weeks, months, maybe even years came spilling out in one giant storm. She wailed into her pillow, and all Ahiru could do was continue to stroke her head, the practiced motions just as much for Rue's sake as for her own.

A story was moving, the plot wrapping up, but even so, they could take a few sentences to rest.

#princess tutu #ahirue #ahirue week 2021 #ahirue week #ahiru #rue #my writing #my posts #TECHNICALLY i gave this one last editing pass!!#i still really don't like this at all but it's definitely better than the first draft and I'm proud of the improvements

14 notes · View notes

ecto-american · 4 years

Text

Broken Ectoplasm C16

DannyMay themed story don’t bully me over it being WAYYYY past Dannymay 2019 I’m trying my best

Day 23: Scream

There was a ghost kid in the hospital waiting for them. No, no, Danny was in the hospital waiting for them. No, Danny was in danger of another, no, of a ghost in the hospital. Well, was he, actually? His condition was bad, of course, but he had always been...impressive.

Man, this line of thinking was going to take a lot of getting used to.

"We shouldn't have left, we shouldn't have left," Maddie was mumbling to herself. Jack's eyes glanced towards his wife. She was rummaging through a bag of supplies, gathering what she needed to shove into her jumpsuit pockets. First aid, Danny's "green bull", various weapons and trackers.

"Hard right," he warned, and Maddie didn't even glance up as she gripped onto the overhead handle as Jack took a sharp turn. "We had no choice. It'll be alright. He'll be okay."

Maddie visibly relaxed.

"You're right. He's done this before."

They both immediately tensed up again. He's done this before. Neither of them spoke again as they nearly crashed their way into the hospital parking lot. As expected, it was chaotic. A flurry of a parking lot crowded with cars being flooded with people as those who could escape were doing so.

Jack didn't bother to park, just rolling as quick as he could to the entrance before slamming on the brakes. He didn't even fully stop when Maddie was already out the door, not even bothering to close the door. Jack was hot on her heels with all of his equipment in record time. They both slid out of the way as a nurse came rushing out, wheeling a patient in a chair out with her. The nurse nodded at them.

"Floor five," she told them, not stopping for any conversation as she made her way into the parking lot. That was Danny's floor.

They went inside, and it was near chaos Of course, it was full of people rushing to exit the building, while other parts were going into lockdown. Right after the Overshadowing Epidemic, the Fentons had helped this very hospital with anti-ghost measures. Supplying the security staff with basic ghost weapons, installing basic anti-ghost security measures in the form of emergency shields placed strategically.

Of course, it was just too much energy to run a ghost shield 24/7, especially in such an energy-demanding building like a hospital. And it would be foolish to only have one big shield, and thus the Fentons had optioned for a series of shields to allow the hospital to go into lockdown for this very situation. A lockdown that she could already tell was being put into place, as there was already a glowing shield blocking the entrance into the ER, and the distinctive sound of shields humming as they came to life several were loudly activated in unison.

"Fifth floor's got several shields," Maddie wasted no time, rushing for the stairs. She was already up a flight by the time Jack reached them. "We can block them in and catch the ghost."

"We should cut off their exit," Jack replied, quickly getting out of breath as he trailed behind her.

She was at the top soon after, and she was staring down at her tracker, patiently waiting for him as she gathered their location.

"They're in the hallway next to Phantom's room," Maddie told him as he finally hit the top of the fifth step. He dreamt of the day that the elevator would be consistently reliable and safe to use. Jack studied his mental memory of the hospital map, as well as the shields. This was far from their first call to the hospital for ghosts, but regardless: They never forgot where their shields were.

"How many?" he asked.

"Two, same location," she said. She squinted at the screen. "They're not moving."

"We should sneak around and block off their exit, then make our move," Jack told her. Maddie glanced up at him, worriedly.

"What if he's hurt Danny?" she asked. Jack's heart sank. Why was it so hard for him to match Fenton and Phantom? "We need to protect him above all."

"You're right," she whispered. She clutched the tracker tighter before handing it to him. "Go save our son. I'm going to block their escape, I can get to the shields faster."

Jack swallowed hard as he pushed the tracker to her. It was one thing when they were hunting ghosts, and whether they escaped or not was just a matter of property damage. But Danny's life was on the line.

"You go, Danny's more important, and you're a better shot," he insisted. Maddie forced the tracker into his hands, and he accepted it. There wasn't a whole lot of time to argue, and they would debate it afterwards.

"Be quick," he told her, and she gave a brief nod before they split up.

It wasn't until he made the first turn that he noticed how...unusually quiet it was for a ghost attack. Ghost fights were horribly messy and loud, as they used everything around them as a weapon and regularly did thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of property damage.

But he didn't hear anything even remotely close to a heavy object being thrown against the wall, or even feel the floor rumble as something was slammed into the floor. He could hear a few rushed scrambles, obviously doctors and patients going for cover. Every door he passed was closed, and the window blocked. It was eerie.

He tried to focus on tracking the ghosts, getting closer and closer with every hurried fast step. He didn't want to run. Jack wasn't exactly...stealthy, and despite intense anxiety about what he'd find, he still needed that surprise advantage.

Jack turned the corner, ready to face the horror that awaited him, only to instantly realize that nope. He was absolutely not ready.

Danny was tied to a gurney that was rocking and shifting from how much he was squirming and struggling to escape, the metal of the gurney being the background noise to muffled screaming. The bonds weren't anything from the hospital, something that looked ghostly and glowing. A familiar robot ghost was grabbing Danny's face, clutching it tightly as to hold him still. In his free hand, he held a large hunting knife and was...cutting.

The mechanical ghost was saying something in a low tone, a threatening one, but Jack couldn't make out what was being said. Not over...all the muffled screams. He was sure he didn't want to know. The way the ghost looked at the helpless teen scared him. It reminded Jack too much of himself. Of his molecule by molecule speech, of how often they talked of dissecting Phantom during dinner...right in front of Danny.

"Freeze, spook!" Jack ordered, and he made his presence known. He jumped over an overturned empty gurney, in the process nearly tripping.

The ghost snapped his head to Jack, glaring at him. Jack returned with a dirty look. With a quick fling of his wrist, the ghost threw his knife at Jack. He tried to dodge as it came for him, but it still hit his arm. Immediately he could feel blood gushing from a cut, and he instinctively slapped a hand over it. He held up his gun, putting his finger on the trigger to blast this menace to hell and back-

Only to hesitate. Oh fuck. This ghost had Danny. That was Danny on the gurney, not just Phantom. Jack swallowed nervously as he tried to quickly scan for his wife. No use. No sign of her. He couldn't take the shot. Not with Danny being so close and his terrible aim, nor with this ghost being within hurting distance of his son.

Skulker did not hesitate. He held his fist up, and netting fired off at him. Jack shifted, barely managing to miss. Despite shaky hands, Jack shot at the ghost in return. The other dodged with lightning speed, hitting the edge of the gurney. Jack's stomach dropped, watching it spin in a half-circle before toppling over. He really, really had to work on his aim sometime.

Skulker gave a chuckle.

"Hunter versus hunter," he lightly mused. "Of course though, it won't be much of a fig-" Skulker was cut off by a hard punch to the back of the skull that pushed him forward a bit. Jack glanced at the gurney, seeing one of the straps broken.

Skulker was already turned around and punched Danny in the stomach, sending the teen backwards. Jack winced hard, put forced himself to aim his weapon. He watched nervously as the fight truly began. He never had to worry about who to hit. Ghosts were ghosts, and the weapons didn't hurt humans, and even if they did, people normally had scattered long ago.

Jack watched a flurry of fists and kicks occasionally blinded by ghost rays flashing. He decided to take his chance, and he fired a shot. He hit the other ghost, forcing the fight to give each other space.

The other ghost put his fists up in front of him, and the metal on his arms and shoulders shifted to expose multiple rockets, all targeted at him. Danny paled, and he turned to seemingly fly behind cover.

But one of the shields had, at some point, been activated. Danny had froze, turning back to face them. Jack hurriedly fired off several shots and just relying on pure luck and a prayer that he wouldn't hit Danny. None of them hit Danny, thankfully, and a few even hit the intended target. Only Danny…

That flash of bright light he saw earlier appeared at his son's waist, and a flash later, he saw the familiar sight of his son hurriedly jumping backwards through the shield just as all the rockets were fired.

The rockets hit the shield in a series of bright explosions. When the smoke cleared, Danny was just silent, staring with wide eyes as he panted heavily, his chest heaving. He was in the shirt and jeans Jack saw him go off to school in just the day before. The injuries had transferred over, resulting in noticeable bruising, deep cuts and more visible of all, red blood that was oozing through his shirt. The sound of feet quietly hurrying towards them snapped Jack out of it, and apparently Danny too. Danny got back to his feet, making a rush back towards the shield, body slamming the ghost and sending him back. Scraps of the metal suit began to fall onto the ground with every hit.

Jack shuffled out of the way. A flash later, and Danny was once again Phantom, just in time for Maddie to turn the corner.

"Jack, the thermos!" she immediately shouted to him. She already had her weapon up, and she blasted at the ghost too.

Jack fumbled in his pockets for the container he was responsible for, quickly finding it attached to his hip. He opened it, and he activated it. The beam of light came out soon after, engulfing Skulker and soon, he was gone. Leaving just the family together, breathing heavily.

"Oh, Danny, are you okay?" Maddie wasted no time pulling Danny to her in a tight hug. Danny's head rested against his mom, exhaling hard with a disturbing bubbly tone to it. He leaned into her a bit more, forcing Maddie to shift so that she could pick him up. She pecked his forehead, but her expression soon fell into concern upon seeing him.

"Jack, get a gurney please," she told him. Jack picked up the gurney Danny was on earlier, turning it back onto its wheels and pushing it towards her.

He held it still as Maddie put Danny back onto it, the teenager wheezing hard. As soon as he was resting on it, Maddie had had gauze from the first aid section of her belt out, pressing it against oozing green ectoplasm that overflowed from Danny's neck. A deep, intense slash across his throat and a jagged cut that went down to the collarbone before it had stopped, a disturbing parallel to the clean slice of the previous...attempt.

"Jack," Maddie's voice snapped him out of it. "Do a quick sweep, make sure there's no other ghosts. I'll alert the staff in a moment."

"R-right." Jack stared for a moment as Maddie gently and expertly began to clean up Danny's neck. He could hear her softly speaking comforting phrases to him, interrupted by the deep wheezing coming from Danny.

He forced himself to turn away and look back down at the ghost tracker in his hands. Nothing, and he tapped it and held it up to make sure. Still nothing, and he walked around his family, staring. Still no sign of ghosts. Well, aside from the one obviously under their care.

"I don't see anything," Jack reported. He took a few steps down the hallway towards Danny's room. The door had been torn off the hinges, and the hospital room was a mess. The bed was flipped, and there was ectoplasm on the floor, some splattered on the walls. The IV stand was broken in half, and the wall itself was exposing the warm air outside, rubble littering the inside of the room.

Somehow seeing it...seeing the actual physical change from Fenton to Phantom...made it feel even more intensely real. He had suspected ever since he found out that the light was how he? Changed? But to suspect it and to see it was different. It was the very last solid confirmation of what he had already found out, and it was a bit unnerving.

He took a few steps forward to look out of the view. Danny had a fairly average view of the city, though the window's curtain was drawn to prevent anybody from potentially being able to see him, even though he was on the fifth floor. Jack could see groups of people huddled worriedly in the parking lot, as well as cop cars that had pulled up onto the scene. He saw a pure white car pull in too, no flashing lights, but the duo who exited wore white suits, and his heart sank. Least the ghost was contained, but the GIW was a much bigger concern.

Jack jerked his head down as his tracker lightly beeped. A ghost had entered their range. He watched the dot enter the tracking radius and stop. It remained there for a moment before completely disappearing off the radar. Huh. He could only assume it was a ghost passing by, but that didn't quite feel right. Most ghosts didn't seem to just hang out or pass by anywhere.

"We got company," Jack called out. He watched the police begin to handle the crowd as several GIW agents began to enter the building.

He returned to the hallway, seeing that a nurse had come out and was finalizing putting a white sheet over Phantom's form to avoid the publicity.

"We're moving him to Room 545," Maddie told him, and Jack gave a light nod as he scurried along after the pair to the room.

"Is anybody hurt?" Jack asked the nurse. She shrugged.

"We don't know for sure yet," she replied.

They quickly reached the room, and the nurse opened it for the Fentons to help her roll him in. The nurse stared intensely at the two, keeping the door open.

"I'm really sorry to do this to you," she began, and Jack already knew exactly what she was going to say.

"We're staying," he insisted.

"We're the only ones who know how to deal with a patient like him!" Maddie added.

"You don't have to leave, but I'm afraid I can't leave you alone in the room with him," the nurse explained. It finally clicked that she was staring at the weapons strapped to them, as well as the tracker tucked under Jack's arm and the ectoplasm-covered gauze Maddie was holding in her hand for now. The couple said nothing, giving each other a light glance. The nurse sighed lightly. "Please don't make this difficult. You just have to wait outside until the doctor gets here."

Jack noticed Maddie's lower lip quiver slightly in worry. Neither wanted to leave him. But it would be too weird or suspicious to fight it. Jack gave a nod, and he slowly sulked out of the room. Maddie stayed standing where she was for a moment, staring back at the nurse before reluctantly following her husband.

The nurse shut the door behind them, and they could hear the click of the nurse locking it as she was left alone to care for Phantom.

"Did you see that cut?" Maddie immediately brought up. Jack just gave a half-nod. "It's awful. The ghost wanted to really kill him." Jack rubbed the back of his neck.

"This ghost wants to skin him," he reminded her. Maddie's face scrunched up in disgust. "I wish we knew why."

"I do too," she sighed, and she paused. "Do you hear that?"

Jack glanced around, keeping his ears on high alert. Indeed, he could hear a faint, angry and familiar voice as it came closer and closer. He already knew it was Vlad before the billionaire turned the corner, hot on the heels of Ohmer and Dr. Carrington, the lawyer holding files to her chest as the doctor was wheeling a medical cart with various supplies resting on it next to her. The pair were walking towards them, Vlad nearly yelling in their ears as Vlad's own lawyer duo was keeping pace behind him, both looking fairly neutral about the situation.

"...and I will sue this hospital if you do not let me into this room, do you not understand? I have rights, and this is my child. I entrust my only child to this dump of a hospital, and you don't even have the proper anti-ghost measures to keep him safe? I demand you transfer him to my hospital, where he can actually get halfway decent medical care rather than you hacks."

"Mr. Masters, until we get that test back, we cannot assume you are the legal guardian, we've been through this." Ohmer sounded tired. Jack and Maddie scooted off to the side as she got to the room, and she knocked. "It's Ohmer and Dr. Carrington." The nurse opened the door, and Vlad tried to go inside, only to be blocked by Ohmer putting her arm out in front of him. "I will call security if you do not comply with the hospital rules."

Dr. Carrington was able to slip past them and into the room with her cart, shutting it behind her. The familiar lock clicked, and soon as it happened, Ohmer pressed her back to the door.

"I will have your job and make it so that you cannot work anywhere within the state of Illinois again!" Vlad threatened. "You and that idiot doctor and every single damn employee of this hospital, from the chief of medicine to the cleaning staff."

"Mr. Masters, you will not talk about my wife like that, and Mr. Phantom is undergoing treatment right now," Ohmer's tone was getting more and more snappy. Jack and Maddie silently watched. "He is not taking visitors of any kind at this time. I cannot legally let you take him home until he is discharged, and not without you proving your parental status."

Vlad's face was red with anger, and he began to explode into another ramble that Jack could only barely make sense of between all the long, legal jargon he used. Every time Ohmer tried to speak up to calm him down, he would cut her off with a thinly veiled insult that followed up with a threat to her job. After a minute, she just stared at him as he just continued on and on with his verbal tirade.

Why was Vlad so focused on having Danny? It was odd, and it was incredibly concerning. What did Vlad want with Phantom? Especially using the claim that he was Phantom's father? It was becoming creepier and creepier.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack noticed two people hurrying down the hallway towards them, both in matching attire.

"By order of the Guys in White, we are placing Phantom under arrest, now, and are bringing him in for questioning," Agent K growled angrily, pulling his badge out as he walked quickly towards them. Agent G was hot on his heels, fumbling but also producing his badge.

Ohmer closed her eyes tiredly, rubbing them with the palms of her hands. The Fenton adults felt bad for her. This poor woman needed a raise.

#dannymay19 #my dannymay19 #broken ectoplasm #my phics #hello from the abyss i did not forget about this

37 notes · View notes

tsuki-chibi · 4 years

Text

BlackBerries (Adrinette April) Day 2: #marinettechallenge

Or see it on AO3: Blackberries

If you’re like me and had no idea WTF the #marinettechallenge is, go here.

--------

“What?” Adrien blurted out.

“What?!” Marinette exclaimed at the same time, but Adrien was pretty sure that no one else heard her over the general calamity that broke out when Lila announced that they were soulmates. He cringed as all of their classmates started talking at once.

“This is amazing!” Alya said, her eyes lighting up.

“Congratulations Adrien!” Mylène said.

“And you too, Lila,” Ivan added.

“It must have been fate that brought you together,” Rose gushed, grabbing Juleka’s arm. Juleka was smiling as she patted Rose’s hand.

“Oh my god! That is so cool!” Nino said excitedly, grabbing Adrien’s arm. “Dude, you found your soulmate!”

“What?” Adrien said again, confused. “No, I already found -” He just barely stopped himself from saying that Marinette was his soulmate, not some girl he didn’t even know.

“Alright, everyone, calm down,” Madame Bustier called out, but no one paid any attention.

“Can you feel anything?” Sabrina was asking Lila excitedly.

“I can’t believe our class has three soulmated pairs!” Alya squealed, grinning over at Nino.

“Hey! All of you shut up right now!”

“Chloé,” Madame Bustier said disapprovingly into the silence. “We don’t tell people to shut up.”

Naturally, Chloé ignored that in favor of frowning at Lila. “You’re not Adrien’s soulmate,” she said firmly.

“What?” Lila blinked, looking shocked by the statement.

“Chloé, you can’t possibly know that,” Alix said, and Chloé’s jaw tightened, her eyes flashing in a very familiar way that spoke of trouble. Adrien decided he’d better speak up before Chloé got mad.

“Actually, Chloé is right. I’m sorry, Lila. I might have said your words, but you didn’t say mine. And I don’t feel anything from you. I’m afraid that we’re not soulmates.” He pasted on his best apologetic smile.

“But… that can’t be right. I feel something towards you,” Lila said, clasping both hands to her chest.

‘What a lying brat’, Marinette thought. She came up behind Adrien, her arms folded across her chest. Adrien could feel the annoyance and frustration rolling off of her waves, not that he could blame her. He wouldn’t have been very thrilled if some guy had walked in and started saying that Marinette was his soulmate. He needed to diffuse the situation and quickly.

“What are your words, then?” Alya said, staring at Adrien.

He recoiled slightly. “What – I’m not telling you that!” He didn’t think anyone besides Chloé had been within earshot when he and Marinette first met. But if Adrien had learned one thing in life, it was that the walls had ears. The only people who knew about the words on his chest were his father, Marinette, Chloé, and Plagg. Plus a couple of doctors. That was it. Adrien was adamant it would stay that way. The last thing they needed was more people pretending to be his soulmate!

“Alya, that’s really private information,” Marinette said, frowning.

Alya winced. “Sorry. It’s just – Adrien, come on. What possible reason could Lila have to be making this up?” she asked reasonably. “Doesn’t it make more sense that you’ve been blocked? They can do that, you know. Put blocks in place before you even find your bond.”

“That’s actually true,” Max spoke up. “I read about this research study done on this girl. Her parents had blocks put into her when she was a baby and she had no idea. When she met her soulmate, she didn’t even know.”

“I’m not blocked, and Lila didn’t say my words,” Adrien said, exasperated. Though he had to admit, that did sound like something Gabriel Agreste might do…

Rose gave a quiet gasp. “Oh, have you felt something but you’re afraid to admit it because of your father?” she asked, staring at Adrien sadly. “Or because of your fans?”

“I’m not – that’s not – n-no!” Adrien stammered, unsettled that she had so accurately guessed his reasons for keeping his actual soulmate a secret. And that was a mistake.

“Oh, Adrien,” Alya said, looking at him sympathetically. Behind him, Marinette groaned and covered her face with her hands.

‘Adrien, you idiot, tell them it’s not true!’ she thought.

‘I’m trying! They don’t believe me!’ he thought back.

“If Adrien says he and Lila aren’t soulmates, we should believe him,” Marinette spoke up.

But rather than be a point in Adrien’s favor, all of their classmates exchanged significant looks while Lila just stood there looking increasingly sad and confused. Adrien wasn’t sure what was going on, and he could tell from Marinette’s uncertainty that she wasn’t sure either. He grew increasingly uncomfortable as the pointed silence dragged on, until finally Madame Bustier cleared her throat.

“Alright, everyone. As exciting as this… potential… development is, we do need to keep going,” she said. “Lila, please take your seat.”

“Madame Bustier, the second row really is better for me. Are you sure I can’t sit here?” Lila asked, not moving.

The thought of Lila sitting next to him made Adrien feel a bit ill. He had no idea what the hell was going on, but he didn’t want to be separated from Marinette. He just wasn’t sure how to communicate that in a way that wouldn’t make him look like an asshole, considering he had just renounced Lila as his soulmate. Likewise, it wouldn’t look great if the class president refused to move for a student.

Chloé scoffed. “I doubt the second row is better, but fine. Adrien and Marinette can move here. Nathaniel can sit beside Ivan and I’ll sit beside Sabrina,” she declared, standing up.

Adrien looked at her in surprised gratitude. ‘I love Chloé so much right now.’

‘I can’t believe she’s willing to move for us,’ Marinette thought, stunned. ‘Chloe never moves for other people. Ever.’

Lila’s eyes widened. “But – but then that leaves me without a seatmate. I won’t have anyone to help me catch up!”

“Fine,” Chloé said coolly. “I’m sure Nathaniel wouldn’t mind moving to sit beside you. Right?” she demanded, spinning around and staring pointedly at Nathaniel.

“Uh – s-sure?” Nathaniel said, paling a little under the force of Chloé’s stare.

“I don’t think everyone needs to move around just to accommodate me,” Lila said quickly. “Surely it’s best if I just sit beside Adrien, right?”

Chloé’s eyes narrowed.

‘Oooh,’ Marinette thought, and, barely a second after that, Marinette’s understanding washed over Adrien and he realized what was going on. His level of dismay increased.

‘Lila is a fan of mine,’ he thought.

‘She’s totally a fan of yours,’ Marinette thought back, setting her jaw. ‘That’s why she’s claiming to be your soulmate and why she’s so insistent about sitting next to you.’

Adrien fought the urge to shudder. Normally, he didn’t mind having fans. In a way, it was a little flattering to know that girls found him so attractive. But sometimes it could get downright scary. This was exactly why his father had always warned him against letting his words become public knowledge. Some of his fans could get a little too friendly. Though admittedly, this was the first time anyone had gone this far.

“You know what, you’re right,” Chloé said suddenly.

“Chloé?” Sabine said uncertainly.

Chloé flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. “Clearly Lila should have the best person in class helping her out.”

Lila broke out into a smile. “Exactly!”

“Someone who is reliable, has good grades, and a known track record for helping,” Chloé went on, a steely glint to her smile.

“That’s exactly what I need,” Lila said, nodding.

“Great! I’m glad that you agree. Adrikins, you can come sit next to me. Marinette, you don’t mind being Lila’s seatmate, right?” Chloé asked sweetly.

Marinette choked on a laugh. “Not at all.”

“Wh-what?” Lila said. “Wait, no! That’s not –”

“It just makes sense. Adrien is so busy with his modeling job. He doesn’t always get to sit through every class,” Chloé interrupted her. “Marinette, on the other hand, is always here. Plus, she’s the class president. It makes the most sense for her to help you get settled. Right, Madame Bustier?”

“That’s a good solution, Chloé,” Madame Bustier said, nodding. “Adrien, please move your things.”

“Sure,” Adrien said. He would rather have stayed where he was, but sitting next to Chloé was a lot better than sitting beside Lila. The only crappy thing was now Marinette had to sit next to her.

‘It’s fine. She’s not my fan,’ Marinette thought, helping him to gather his things. ‘I bet she won’t want to sit here long anyway.’

Adrien suspected that she was right judging by the enormous pout on Lila’s face as she slammed her backpack down next to Marinette. Chloé, on the other hand, had a smug smile on her face as she sat back down at her normal place. Adrien took a seat next to her and took out his book and pen. Madame Bustier walked back up to the front of the room to resume class.

“Thanks,” Adrien whispered to Chloé.

“I don’t like sharing you with Dupain-Cheng, but I’ll be damned if anyone else gets a piece of you,” Chloé muttered back.

‘I never thought I’d be grateful for Chloé’s possessiveness,’ Marinette thought.

‘You and me both,’ Adrien thought back, hiding a smile.

They made it through the rest of the morning without incident, thankfully. Adrien preoccupied himself with taking peeks through Marinette’s eyes as she continued to draw in her notebook. She had moved on from pictures of Tikki and Plagg and into designing a dress loosely based on the Ladybug outfit. A dress, Adrien was sure, that would never actually be made.

When Madame Bustier dismissed them for lunch, Alya turned to Marinette and chuckled. “Looks like Kim is a candidate for the #marinettechallenge. You up for it?” She pointed to where Kim was snoozing away, drooling onto his math book.

“Not today,” Marinette said with a thin smile. “Adrien and I have lunch plans.” Adrien obediently stood up and walked over.

“Oh, okay,” Alya said with a faint frown.

‘That was weird,’ Marinette thought as she and Adrien left the class.

‘What was?’ Adrien thought.

‘Alya gave me a weird look,’ Marinette thought back.

‘Well, if I know Alya, she won’t stay quiet for long if something is bothering her,’ Adrien thought reasonably. ‘No sense in worrying about it… especially when there are pastries waiting for us!’

Marinette laughed out loud and, with a surge of fondness, thought back, ‘Oh, so that’s where your brain is. Come on, then. Race you to the bakery!’

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #adrien agreste #lila rossi #chloe bourgeois #soulmate au #post reveal #blackberries #adrinetteapril2020

176 notes · View notes

yamayamawrites · 3 years

Text

This December

A/N: Hi friends! Happy (almost) December! As a treat this year, I decided to write a short fic (and by short, I do mean around 40k - so not terribly short) about the Dekusquad spending a week at a winter cabin! The first chapter will officially go up on my AO3 page (you can find it here!) tomorrow, with updates coming out every Tuesday/Friday for the next 4 weeks, but I decided to post a sneak preview of chapter 1 here early!! Hope you enjoy!

Tuesday, December 01, 20XX

It’s been four years since Izuku graduated from U.A. Four years, and he’s moved three times since then – once, to an agency based in Kyoto, where he lived the longest. He worked many of the smaller cases there, the more personal ones – stopping a villain who’d kidnapped a mother’s newborn; keeping a local corner store from being robbed; catching a stray piece of scrap metal dropped from a crane near a construction site, and saving two children playing tag. He accredits most of his fame to Kyoto, and though it’s certainly not a small city, it feels small when he moves two years later to Hiroshima.

It’s in Hiroshima that Izuku takes on his first major case – ends up working beside Eijirou in the process, and both of them (already well-established and in the high twenties in hero rankings) skyrocket to the top ten after busting the case wide open. It’s a child trafficking ring, where children are abducted and sold for their Quirks. And, just following this case, he has perhaps a hundred offers to other agencies that will pay better or get more exposure. After all, Midoriya Izuku is just past twenty and he’s ranked number four, below Suneater and Lemillion from U.A., and, yet to be overthrown at number one, Endeavor. And while he still hasn’t learned Hiroshima’s roads, nor has he unpacked all his boxes yet, he uproots once more, and heads for Tokyo.

The biggest reason he leaves is because of the agency. Tokyo is crawling with them – agencies nearly on every block – but they’re small, full of sidekicks who haven’t broken one hundred yet, even. But there’s one agency in particular whose letter stands out amongst the rest, because the signature on the offer letter is his old friend Hitoshi’s, and Hitoshi knows just whose names to drop to garner Izuku’s attention – “You would be working side by side with Uravity and Ingenium, and perhaps partnering with Shouto and Ground Zero.”

And now, almost seven months since he’s become acquainted with the Tokyo agency, has climbed past Suneater in the latest ranking, he drums his fingers on Ochaco’s office door. She pops her head up from behind her monitor, still wearing her hero costume from her patrol while she types up a final report before lunch. “Oh!” she says, as though she isn’t expecting Izuku, despite the fact that they always go to lunch together on Tuesdays.

“Ready to go?” Izuku asks, hanging off Ochaco’s door, now. “Tenya coming today, too?”

“Tenya got wrapped up in a petty theft case,” Ochaco rolls her eyes. “Seriously. Who tries to steal a dozen watches in the middle of the morning?”

“People who don’t know Tenya exists?” Izuku shrugs, and Ochaco laughs, pushes herself away from her desk on her rolling chair and hops up. “I need to stop and grab my key card before we go. Hold on.”

Ochaco trails after Izuku down the hall to his office, one with arguably the best view in the building. It overlooks the rest of the city, some of the smaller agencies the size of peanuts from way up here. His door is ajar when he walks up, light still on. Along the right wall is a photograph – himself, at graduation, with Ochaco and Tenya to his left, and Shouto to his right. Behind all of them is All Might, having managed his heroic form just for the click of a camera. They all wear navy graduation gowns, though Izuku’s is unzipped and reveals his hero costume underneath. Shouto’s hair is swept back from his face, his graduation cap in his hands, and he’s actually smiling – Izuku thinks it may be the only photograph in his entire collection of pictures of Shouto where he isn’t frowning. And Ochaco and Tenya are leaning into each other, smiles bright and happy, caps on and hands clasped together.

“Can’t believe you still have this hanging in here,” Ochaco muses as she steps into the room, wandering directly to the photograph.

Izuku spares it a second glance before going to his desk and rooting through the drawers for his key card to get back into the building. “It’s my favorite,” he says with a defensive huff, and Ochaco laughs.

“It’s not a bad thing,” she says. “It’s just that my forehead looks huge in this.”

“Shut up,” Izuku chides, “you look fine. You look great, even!”

“I think you hung this one because Shouto is in it,” Ochaco jeers, because she knows it will get a reaction out of Izuku. And it does; Izuku, who had bent down to check under his desk for the key card, thuds his head on the bottom side of it when he tries to sit up too quickly.

“Th-that isn’t it!” Izuku huffs, rubbing his head. “Stop with that, you know I’m over it.”

“How come you’ve been waiting for the opportunity to work a case with him, then?” Ochaco says, and she sounds innocent, but when Izuku looks over he sees mischief in her eyes, the pure evil of a friend who’s been given explicit information to a secret crush that maybe shouldn’t have been told.

“Is it a crime to want to work alongside a friend?” Izuku says back defensively, still searching for his key card. Eventually he finds it atop a stack of reports he’s yet to take down to the accounting department – the longer he waits, the longer it’ll be until his next paycheck, but seriously, he makes way too much as it is.

“Well, no,” Ochaco says, crossing the room and perching herself on Izuku’s cluttered desk. “I mean, that’s how you ended up working here.”

“Exactly,” Izuku says as a means of ending the conversation, grabbing his wallet off his desk as well (he’d forgotten that, too, it seems) and heading for the door. Ochaco follows after him, realizes he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore, and thankfully, after being best friends for almost a decade now, she respects that.

The walk down the road to their usual noodle shop is cold. The first snow hit about a week ago, and the temperature has warmed enough and cooled again since then to freeze mounds of slush at the lip of the roads. The sidewalk is clear of snow, busy despite the cold weather with people walking around downtown.

When they step inside the noodle shop, the warmth floods their cheeks and hands. They’re regulars here, and the waitress seats them as though they aren’t the number three and number sixteen heroes – after all, she gets to have this experience every Tuesday. She does, however, comment on Izuku’s latest search-and-rescue, says she’s glad someone like him was there. And it’s the comments like these that always make Izuku proud of his profession, the ones where he’s not being gushed over for his abs or his good looks (though those still make him blush); it’s the gratitude that Izuku’s presence has made a difference on the scene of a crime, or natural disaster, or whatever the occasion. It’s knowing people are glad Izuku was there.

“So,” Ochaco stretches back in her chair after she finishes her noodles. “Tenya and I have been thinking about taking a vacation.”

“Oh?” Izuku says, folding his hands in front of him on the table. He’d finished his noodles a few minutes ago.

“Yeah,” Ochaco hums, twirling her weightless chopsticks around her fingers idly while she speaks. “We were kind of thinking of inviting a few old friends from U.A. to come with.”

“Oh, so not like a romantic getaway then?” Izuku tilts his head to the side, curious. Ochaco and Tenya have been together since their second year of high school, and vacations for the just two of them aren’t anywhere near uncommon.

“More like a, um, reunion?” Ochaco says, dropping the chopsticks now. “What do you think, Izuku? Are you in?”

Izuku blanches. Somehow, even with Ochaco suggesting friends from U.A. accompany them on their vacation, he hadn’t considered that might mean him. Which is absurd, because the three of them have been best friends since high school began – they even chatted on the phone all the time when Izuku was in Kyoto and Hiroshima. “Of course,” he says after he scoops his jaw up from where it dropped, and Ochaco laughs.

“You seriously thought I wouldn’t extend the invitation to you?”

“That’s not what—”

“Come on, Deku,” she giggles, rolling her eyes. “You can’t lie to me. I know all.”

He laughs, shakes his head. “I guess I just wasn’t expecting it, sorry.”

“Well, you’re obviously the first person on the guest list. Tenya and I have already found a place, too! There’s this beautiful vacation lodge for rent on the edge of the Kiso Mountain chain.”

“That’s almost four hours from here,” Izuku says, suddenly a bit afraid of what might happen being so far from Tokyo. “What if a big villain or something finds out we’re all gone on vacation?”

“You act like our class from high school are the only competent heroes around anymore,” Ochaco rolls her eyes. “C’mon, if anything happened Suneater and Lemillion alone could take them, not to mention Nejire-chan and that wind hero guy.”

Izuku exhales, forcing himself to nod and agree. “I guess you’re right,” he sighs, his smile a tad nervous still.

“What, worried the public will forget about their favorite hero Deku after a week?” Ochaco reaches across the table and pokes at Izuku’s cheek. “Have some faith! And learn to take a vacation! Seriously, when’s the last time you took a break? Never?”

“Never,” Izuku affirms, though in the past he’s been proud of the fact; now he’s a little embarrassed. “How much would I owe you?”

But Ochaco waves off the question, and she grabs for the bill on the table – Izuku doesn’t even remember the waitress dropping it off. “You know more than any of us that money isn’t a factor,” she says, shrugging. “Tenya and I can cover it.”

“Shut up,” Izuku rolls his eyes. “You guys shouldn’t have to pay for everything. At least let me cover gas and groceries?”

It takes a bit of coaxing, but eventually Izuku convinces Ochaco to let him cover grocery costs; the two of them make plans to visit the grocery store together the night before they leave. Ochaco doesn’t reveal the guest list, nor does Izuku even think to ask about it until after they’re walking back to the office, bumping shoulders and laughing over inside jokes from their high school days. And as they ascend the staircase side by side, Izuku finally does ask, and Ochaco laughs, and that’s the most of an answer he gets.

#yamayamawrites #this december #happy holidays #mha #bnha #my hero #tododeku #iidachako #sneak peek!#ao3

8 notes · View notes

wordsintimeandspace · 4 years

Text

Better With You (1/6)

Due to a petty feud between their respective department heads, Crowley and Aziraphale have been hiding their friendship for months. When they’re suddenly stuck in lockdown amidst a pandemic, Crowley is not coping well. Thankfully, Aziraphale is there for him - but their changing relationship means that keeping secrets from their bosses only becomes more of a challenge.

Crowley/Aziraphale, rated M (for chapter 4). Read on tumblr or AO3.

Crowley stared down at the pen he was balancing between his fingers, and imaged all the countless ways he could use it to get Gabriel to shut up right this second. For once he was glad that Gabriel was usually too self-absorbed to pay any attention to a code monkey like him - he had no doubt that not even his sunglasses were hiding his murderous fantasies, if the concerned glances Aziraphale kept shooting at him every now and then were anything to go by.

“So,” Gabriel finally concluded, clasping his hands in front of his chest, “if you could get that feature done by Friday, that would be great. The client is waiting.”

His condescending smile made Crowley’s blood boil, and Beelzebub let out an angry buzzing beside him. For a second Crowley thought they would leap over the conference table to strangle Gabriel until the bloody smile was finally gone from his irritating face. Crowley would pay good money to see that, but instead Beelzebub just shot up from their chair and slammed their fists down on the table.

“Absolutely not,” Beelzebub snarled. “That’s impozzible. Do you have any idea how much work that is if you don’t consider it at the beginning of a project?!”

Gabriel let out a huff, but otherwise didn’t falter. “Come on,” he said casually, as if he wasn’t just confronted with the fury of one of the most feared people in their company. “The lot of you down there in engineering should be a bit more flexible.”

“And the lot of you in client relations should actually do your job,” Beelzebub hissed. “You discuss these parts with the client right at the beginning, not one week before the deadline.”

“Listen, the client is the highest power in this company, and if they want this feature, they’re going to get it.”

Beelzebub apparently didn’t have an answer to that, because the client was the highest power, as annoying as that was. But that didn’t mean they backed down from glaring at Gabriel, fury and disdain radiating off them in waves. The tension in the room made Crowley’s skin crawl. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, glancing from Gabriel to Beelzebub and back, until his gaze finally met Aziraphale’s.

Aziraphale sat quietly beside Gabriel, nervously wringing his hands in front of his belly and looking downright miserable. Since both their bosses were still too busy glowering at each other, Crowley screwed up his face and rolled his eyes at him.

Aziraphale’s lips twitched as he tried to suppress a laugh. His eyes gleamed in a way that made Crowley’s heart skip a beat, but as soon as Aziraphale turned his attention back to the conversation the last bit of his smile was gone.

“Umm,” Aziraphale started hesitantly, wincing as both Gabriel and Beelzebub suddenly fixed their gaze on him. “We could ask the client for an extension of the deadline. I’m sure they will be understanding. They did apologize for making last minute requests after all.”

Gabriel’s face grew stern as he now glared at Aziraphale instead of Beelzebub, and Crowley quickly jumped into the discussion before he could open his mouth and all the despicable things that must be running through his head could tumble out.

“We could, ah, maybe reuse some code from the project last month,” he started, shooting a nervous glance at Beelzebub. “Shouldn’t be too complicated to adapt, yeah? Could be done in two weeks. Three, maybe.”

For a moment Crowley thought Beelzebub might rip his head off for accommodating Gabriel, who was most definitely the enemy in their opinion, along with all the others working in client relations. But then their face relaxed just the tiniest bit.

“Fine,” they hissed. “If you get us that extension.”

Gabriel didn’t look too happy, but then he nodded. “Fine. Aziraphale will take care of it.”

Beelzebub rushed out of the room as soon as they were done. Crowley hoped to get a minute with Aziraphale, but Gabriel barked at him to follow when he turned to leave, and all Crowley got was the apologetic look Aziraphale threw over his shoulder right before they vanished around the corner. Crowley let out a long sigh, picked up his pen and notebook and trotted back down to his office.

The engineering department was in the basement, a bit too dark even for Crowley’s sensitive eyes. It always felt a bit too damp, a bit too cold to be comfortable. Crowley passed the posters on the walls, both the ominous “don’t lick the walls” posters he was used to and the newer, slightly unsettling “wash your hands” ones, until he reached his office and slumped back into his chair. The hand hygiene posters with their red, bold letters had been up for a week now, ever since the whole virus situation was getting a bit more serious. It made Crowley nervous, although London seemed to be safe so far. He knew that he should probably check the news more often than he actually did, but he also didn’t feel like he had any mental energy to deal with that sort of the thing at the moment. Meetings with Beelzebub and Gabriel always left him drained.

But no matter how bad a meeting had been, there was always one single person in this blasted company who could make him feel better. It was just what he needed right now.

Crowley fished his phone out of his pockets and opened his contacts. Right at the top was the person he was looking for: Angel. A nickname he had proposed one evening after too much wine had made him bold for once. It still made Crowley’s stomach flutter every time he read it. And beside of that, it served its purpose: no one would know that Crowley was consorting with the enemy, if anyone in the office would ever catch a glimpse of his screen.

Crowley sent a text: ‘How about Vietnamese for lunch? My treat.’

The answer came just a minute later, but Crowley still jumped in his chair, his heart skipping a beat in anticipation.

‘Our usual place?’ Aziraphale wrote.

‘Sure. Wherever you want, angel.’

‘Temptation accomplished.’

Crowley, who usually tried very hard to keep his reputation as a sleek bastard among his colleagues, couldn’t help but smile.

~~~

The prospect of seeing Aziraphale was way too distracting for Crowley to get any real work done for the rest of the morning. It had been a while since they’d met properly. It had only been polite nods in the corridors or annoying small talk in the elevator in the last few days, apart from the blasted meeting with their insufferable supervisors. Usually they met once a week for lunch, but both of them had been busy recently, and Crowley rarely had time for more than a sandwich scarfed down in the break room.

Crowley let out a sigh of relief when it was finally lunchtime and hurried to grab his jacket to get out of the building. Their usual place was a tiny restaurant a few streets over, so hidden between the large chain restaurants that they didn’t have to worry about running into their bosses or colleagues in there. Crowley had passed it two times a day for months on his way to work, but he had never even noticed it until Aziraphale had suggested it as their secret lunch spot, gushing over the delectable pho.

Aziraphale was already there when he entered, occupying a small table in one corner that shielded them from the view of the few other patrons. He was focused on the menu, reading glasses perched on his nose, but immediately looked up as Crowley approached. His lips curled into a smile so bright that it made Crowley’s head swim. Looking at Aziraphale’s smile was like staring into the sun, sometimes, filling him with such a warmth that Crowley feared he would burn one day.

“There you are, my dear,” Aziraphale said. “I was afraid Beelzebub would have pulled you into yet another meeting.”

Crowley snorted, sprawling into the chair opposite from Aziraphale and blushing faintly as his eyes seemed to follow every movement of Crowley’s too long limbs. “No, thankfully not. I think they had enough after that spat with Gabriel to deal with any more idiots today, including me.”

“You’re hardly an idiot,” Aziraphale tutted.

Crowley let out a sigh, letting his head loll back. “I must be, working in that hellhole,” he muttered.

From behind the menu, Aziraphale gave him another disapproving look. “Now you’re just being dramatic.”

“I’m dramatic?! When it’s Gabriel and Beelzebub who have declared themselves mortal enemies, even though they work for the same bloody company?”

“Well…” Aziraphale tilted his head, considering.

“Really, angel, how could I not be dramatic in response to that? This whole thing is ridiculous. We’re hiding that we’re going for lunch together, for Heaven’s sake!”

“You do have a point, my dear, but-”

“It’s not even against the company policies!” Crowley continued, too agitated to stop himself. “I mean, we’re friends, it’s not that we’re da-” Crowley managed to snap his mouth shut before any more words could tumble out.

Dating, that’s what he’d been about to say, but he couldn’t bring these words over his lips. It was a train of thought Crowley very much did not want to follow, because it only ended in the conclusion that he definitely did want to date Aziraphale. Wanted to hold his hand and wrap his arms around his middle and maybe kiss his pretty pink lips-

Aziraphale cleared his throat, pulling Crowley out of his thoughts before he could get to even more dangerous territories. A faint blush coloured Aziraphale’s cheeks. “Well,” he started, his voice a little wobbly. “I agree that it can be… inconvenient. But it’s probably better this way, for now. Can you imagine Gabriel’s mocking if he ever finds out?”

It stung a little, Aziraphale’s words. That meeting him was inconvenient. That being with Crowley was actually something worth mocking, and that Aziraphale cared enough about the wanker’s opinion to hide it. The hurt must have shown on his face, despite the glasses still obscuring his eyes, because Aziraphale’s face fell. He reached for Crowley’s hand on the table, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“I didn’t mean it like that. And every bit of inconvenience is more than worth it, my dear, if I get to spend time with you,” Aziraphale reassured him with a such a soft smile that it made Crowley’s eyes sting.

“Thanks,” Crowley managed to croak out, distracted by the gentle brush of Aziraphale’s thumb on the back of his hand. They had never touched before, not properly, intentionally like this. Aziraphale’s skin was warm and soft against his own. The caress sent a shiver down his spine, right to his toes, and Crowley let out a shuddering breath. Christ, if he was already this affected by such a small touch, what a wreck must he be when Aziraphale got his hands on him properly?

Crowley shook his head, banishing the thought before it could get him into any more trouble. Suddenly too shaken to bear the gentle touch any longer, he snatched his hand away and grabbed the menu so quickly he nearly knocked over his glass of water.

“D’you already know what you want to eat?” he started babbling, eyes wandering over the menu without taking in any of the information. “The dumplings were good last time, yeah?”

He felt Aziraphale’s piercing gaze on him, and for a second Crowley thought he wouldn’t get away with the sudden change of topic. But then Aziraphale pulled his hand back, leaned back in his chair and interlaced his fingers on top of his belly.

“I was thinking more of the cao lau this time,” he hummed.

Crowley let out a breath. “Sounds good,” he croaked.

The conversation flowed easily, as it always did with Aziraphale, once they’d ordered their lunch and steered away from any dangerous topics. Crowley relaxed as the meal went on, his nerves soothed by Aziraphale’s quick wit and humour, all the things that had drawn him to the other man ever since they’d gotten to know each other properly. It had taken just another argument between Gabriel and Beelzebub for that, a petty fight that forced them both to work late one evening, scrambling to overhaul a project just days before the deadline. They had quickly realized that they got things done quicker if they worked together, and also discovered that they genuinely liked each other’s company.

Ever since there had been hushed conversations, secret lunches, and occasionally, when Crowley was very, very lucky, a few drinks after a long day at work in Aziraphale’s cosy living room, where Crowley would lounge on the couch and Aziraphale would sit in the armchair, both of them surrounded by too many books to count.

Crowley didn’t even remember when exactly he’d fallen in love with Aziraphale. Maybe he had been right from the beginning, and every word, every look from Aziraphale over the past few months had just pushed him one step closer to damnation. It didn’t help that sometimes, Aziraphale would look at him just so, or say things that would make hope bloom in Crowley’s chest, both sweet and suffocating.

“We could, ah… maybe go for dinner on Friday after work? How do you feel about sushi?” Aziraphale said at the end of their meal, just when he was about to leave - a few minutes before Crowley, of course, because surely Hell would freeze over if they walked into work together for once. “It’s going to be a busy week, and I suppose we could both use a little treat by then?”

Crowley stared at him for a long moment before his useless brain finally comprehended Aziraphale’s words. His stomach swooped, because while they were used to going for lunch during their breaks, dinner was new and brought so many new possibilities that it made Crowley’s head swim. “Sure. Sounds good, angel,” he finally managed to get out, and Aziraphale beamed at him like Crowley had hung the stars.

“Wonderful,” Aziraphale cood, patting Crowley’s hand one more time before he got up. “I’ll look forward to seeing you, my dear.”

~~~

As it turned out, they did not see each other on Friday. Crowley had finally managed to read the news that afternoon, scrolling through the headlines with growing anxiety, but he was an optimist at the core and still didn’t expect the turn of events crashing down on him in the following week. London wasn’t as safe as he thought, and neither was the rest of the world. On Wednesday, all restaurants closed for the foreseeable future, including Aziraphale’s favourite sushi bar. On Thursday, chaos and panic broke loose as a co-worker from another floor that Crowley barely knew tested positive and half the workforce was put into quarantine. On Friday, instead of meeting up with Aziraphale after work, Crowley was officially and indefinitely banished to working from home. He spent the day in his uncomfortable designer chair in his too dark living room, staring at the wall as he tried to wrap his head around the situation and wondered what he had done to deserve things going so very wrong just another time.

#good omens #good omens fic #ineffable husbands #ineffable husbands fic #crowley x aziraphale #my fic #my fic: better with you #welp I'm a bit nervous about this #because of the topic and because it's my first GO multichapter and my first GO AU #honestly I did not expect to write a lockdown AU #but I needed some self indulgent hurt/comfort #to cope with all this #so here we are

19 notes · View notes

ladylynse · 4 years

Text

Part 7 [FF | AO3] of Whirlwind: Jake should be used to ominous predictions by now. Randy should know better than to blindly follow McFist. Adrien should think twice before sneaking away. And Danny should’ve expected something like this when he got that phone call. (Secret Quartet crossover)

(previous | timeline post)

-|-

6:48 PM

Susan leaned against the rough brick of the building behind her, trying and failing to stop trembling.

She could still hear his voice in her head, screaming at her, commanding her, and she wasn’t convinced everything was imagined.

This all felt real enough, now that she was back on the ground, but while she’d been in the air….

She sucked in another deep breath and held it, trying to calm the rapid beating of her heart. It was hard to hear anything above the blood pounding in her ears except the phantom voice in her head. She was on the ground again, she was herself again, but she wasn’t…. She couldn’t….

Susan pried the fingers of her right hand off her necklace. She’d been clutching it so tightly that angry red lines were carved into her palm. Part of her wanted to throw the necklace away and see if that broke his hold over her, but she couldn’t make her hands move, not even to simply touch the clasp.

What had she done?

She’d been angry. She’d been foolish. And now…. Now, she might endanger her family. That was the deal she’d made. She hadn’t…. She hadn’t been thinking. She knew better than to dabble in magic like this. There was no fix for the way she was, the fact that she didn’t have the powers that the rest of her family did, but—

But for a moment, when she’d realized it could be given to her, she’d wanted it more than anything else.

She should have never agreed.

How could she have agreed when her own son was the American Dragon? He was undeniably one of the heroes of the NYC. She couldn’t just ignore that fact. She couldn’t talk her way around it, like she had with Danny Phantom and the new Ninja hero. And she didn’t need to know who Chat Noir was to know that she shouldn’t have agreed to steal anything from him, either. It was easy to see all of that now, but in the moment when he’d asked her—

It hadn’t seemed like refusal would be a better option. It hadn’t seemed like an option at all. There had only been agreement. That she’d been able to argue as much as she had, to use his magic to unleash her birthright, her bloodright, when it should have remained forever locked away—

It shouldn’t have been something to consider.

She’d come to terms with being powerless.

She was happy.

So why had she—?

Susan reached up and fisted the hair on top of her head, trying to silence the last vestiges of Hawk Moth’s voice. She could still feel his anger—at her, at Chat Noir, at Phantom and the Ninja. He didn’t know about Jake yet, but subtle was one thing her son was not. The American Dragon would be here soon enough, ready to fight her, as he should. It was his duty to protect the magical creatures of this country, to keep their secret—

“What have I done?” Susan whispered. She knew how prestigious this event had been. She knew there would be cameras, that everything that had happened would be plastered on the evening’s news and the morning paper unless they could find a way to contain it. This wouldn’t be one voice that was easily dismissed, no seemingly wild claim made by a man who had cried wolf before.

She’d offered Rotwood the proof he so dearly wanted that dragons were very much real, and Phantom being back in the city would merely give him another opportunity to prove the existence of ghosts.

She had to get away. She had to leave. She couldn’t stay here. That would put Jake in danger. That would put all of them in danger.

Distance might break the bond she’d forged with Hawk Moth. She had to try. She had to…to….

Her feet wouldn’t move.

They wouldn’t be fast enough, anyway. She wanted to fly, to feel the wind beneath her wings again, to feel what she’d been missing out on for so long, to keep putting all those lessons from childhood into practice, all those long hours of helping Jake and Haley and—

“No,” moaned Susan, closing her eyes and sliding down the wall so that she could curl into a ball. No one was around, no one had been there to see her change back, but it felt like the eyes of the world were on her. Staring. Demanding. Trying to call Dracona back out.

She couldn’t fight off Hawk Moth forever.

It was easier when she was like this, when she wasn’t transformed. It was…quieter. But she was still tied to him. She could almost feel the strings that bound her to him, the way he was ready to have her dance like a marionette, and she didn’t know how to cut herself free.

Susan wanted to scream, but all that came out was a sob.

-|-

6:59 PM

Adrien wasn’t having much luck. Well, no one had recognized him and started to gush over Adrien Agreste, which was a plus, but the Gabriel brand wasn’t as well known over here, and he kept his hood up. He was more likely to be spotted by Nathalie or the Gorilla than by a random fan. The fact that he wasn’t—so far, at least—was lucky.

The fact that he couldn’t hear anything definitive about the dragon was not.

As far as he could tell, it had soared overhead, rounded a corner, and never come back. Adrien had made his way towards that corner—it was the same building where he’d last seen the dragon—but while some people seemed to be waiting expectantly for the dragon to come back, most thought the show was over.

Because that’s all people thought this was.

A show.

Evidently, news of the regular attacks in Paris had not reached the media here—at least not in a form that anyone believed.

Adrien stayed well away from any authority figures, not wanting to give anyone reason to look at him twice. If the dragon came back, or if anything else interesting came up, he’d know soon enough. Most shouts might not be coherent above the general babble of the crowd, but he knew how word could spread.

Eventually, reluctant though he was to leave the relative safety of the crowds, he widened his search. While some people were still coming and crowding as close to the police tape as they could, others were trickling away. He trailed behind some people leaving who had only ever been curious bystanders, judging by their casual dress, and tried to look for the dragon without making it obvious that he was looking for anything.

“Stop,” Plagg finally whispered into his ear, catching something Adrien could not. “I can feel something.”

Adrien couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but he stepped off to the side and pulled out his phone. He held it up to his ear and said, “There’s nothing here.”

“You just don’t know what you’re looking for.”

He was looking for signs of a dragon, and those were conspicuously absent. No claw marks in the pavement, no one screaming or even running away from something, no glint of light off a fallen scale…. Not that he’d necessarily see anything on that front. It was dusk. Sooner rather than later, the streetlights would flick on, regardless of the light pollution that gave the clouds above a soft orangey glow.

Adrien was better off paying attention to Plagg’s nose—or whatever sense the kwami was using—than to his eyes.

“There’s someone here,” Plagg continued. “Nearby. And someone else, too, from that shop. Maybe a few of them. Higher up, maybe. It’s hard to tell. They’re farther away.” There was a pause. “There’s also a pizza place down the street, if you could get me some cheese—”

“I promise I’ll go back to the hotel after this,” Adrien interrupted. Though he wouldn’t mind getting something to eat, he doubted he had enough money on him for a slice of pizza. “Then we can both eat supper. Nathalie will have arranged something for me.”

He didn’t add that Nathalie must have noticed he was gone by now. His father wouldn’t have, being busy as he was, but Nathalie and the Gorilla—

Someone knocked into him, mumbled sorry, and kept walking. With Plagg’s claws suddenly digging into his neck, Adrien turned to get a better look at the retreating woman. He hadn’t been paying enough attention to recognize her as she’d walked by, but she wasn’t wearing a coat despite the rapidly cooling air, and he recognized her uniform. “She’s from the catering company.”

He expected Plagg to ask him to follow her to try to get some cheese. Instead, Plagg hissed, “Be careful.”

“But she’s from the catering company.” He shoved his phone back into his pocket, paused just long enough to confirm that the woman had walked out of a now-empty alley, and started to tail her.

“That’s no reason to follow her.”

It was…odd of Plagg to point that out. Plagg took more risks than Adrien would ever dare, and this was hardly foolhardy. If she happened to notice him, he could let her know who he was and ask after her well-being, pretend that he wanted—

“Stop it,” Plagg tried again, and Adrien hissed through his teeth as Plagg dug in his claws again. “You shouldn’t— Stop. This is a bad idea. We shouldn’t get mixed up in this.”

“We’re already mixed up in this,” Adrien murmured, “whether you like it or not. Hawk Moth is—”

“This isn’t just about Hawk Moth! That woman…. She’s…she’s with the dragons. And the others are close. I know they are. I can feel them. They aren’t…. Adrien, let her go.”

Adrien sighed, stopped to lean against a lamppost, and pulled out his phone just as the woman glanced over her shoulder at him. He kept his head down and she turned away, but he still couldn’t remember seeing her.

And she didn’t look remotely dragon-ish.

“The thing about dragons,” Plagg continued quietly, thankfully retracting his claws now that Adrien had stopped, “is that you can’t ordinarily pick them out of a crowd.”

“Plagg, they’re dragons.”

“And the thing that dragons don’t want humans to know is that they can also look like ordinary people.”

“What?”

“I don’t…. I didn’t want to get you into trouble by telling you this, but you need to know. I think that woman is a dragon. Something…something about her makes my fur stand up. And her allies are going to look just as human.”

“Wait, so those people in that electronics shop…?”

“I’d bet my last wheel of camembert on it.”

Perfect. Another thing Plagg didn’t do lightly. “So the dragon we saw might not even be an akuma. This might not be Hawk Moth after all. The Critic’s akuma—”

“I don’t know. The dragons…. They wouldn’t want this to happen. It’s too public. Something’s wrong. And, no, I don’t know how the Ninja fits into it.”

“What about the phantom?”

“I’m a good guy, I swear.”

Adrien jumped away from the voice, ducking as he did so, but even once he’d found his feet again and looked up and around, he couldn’t see anything. Plagg fell silent, though Adrien could still feel his claws digging into his neck. How had Phantom found him? How could he have known to come back here? To even look here, blocks from where he’d snatched Adrien away the first time?

And how had he managed to find Adrien, be so confident that he had found him, to talk to him when he wasn’t transformed?

It wasn’t comforting to know that Plagg couldn’t give him advance warning, either. Adrien doubted he’d have kept silent if he’d sensed Phantom’s presence. Plagg had said they all smelled different—or felt different, whatever he really meant, since Adrien wasn’t sure—but what if Phantom’s different had only ever been an absence? An absence Plagg couldn’t notice unless he was looking for it?

“Look, I’m sorry, really. Please don’t run or scream or anything.”

The voice was still coming from the direction of the lamppost, near where Adrien had been standing seconds before, and there was still no one in sight.

Phantom’s a ghost, Plagg had said. And Adrien knew Phantom could become invisible—that’s how he’d gotten the jump on him in the first place—but it was still unnerving. At least when he and Ladybug had fought Vanisher, she couldn’t fly or move through solid objects.

“I’m not going to hurt you, I swear.”

“I can’t even see you,” Adrien said quietly, “so why should I trust a word you say to me now?” He would’ve liked to feign ignorance, to pretend he had no idea what Phantom was talking about, but it was far too late for that. He’d reacted, getting ready to fight instead of just run, and he had no idea how long Phantom had been there, listening to him and Plagg, before deciding to jump in and join the conversation.

“I don’t expect you to trust me right away.” The voice was closer to him now. Quieter. “I just…. I don’t know where the cameras are here. I don’t want to be the one to give the rest of the world undeniable proof that ghosts exist, since my friend says no one believes the stories that come out of my hometown and he’d like to keep it that way. That’s why I’m staying invisible. Unless you want to duck into the alley, and then I can crouch behind the dumpster or something.”

Like he was going to let Phantom lure him into the alley—especially if Plagg was right about the lady from before being a dragon.

“C’mon, Chat Noir,” Phantom said, dropping his voice so much that Adrien could barely hear it above the traffic, “just hear me out, please. I screwed up. I’m sorry. I…. I shouldn’t have attacked you. My friend, he, um, knows about your ring, and what it lets you do. He panicked when he saw you. He’d gotten this prophecy from a couple of oracles and…. It’s a long story. Just, we messed up. We need to fix this. And we need your help. The Ninja says you seem to know what’s going on when it comes to these butterflies.”

“You know the Ninja?”

“Um. Kinda. Not well. We’ve only just met. I’m not from here. Neither is he, so he doesn’t know my friend, either.”

Adrien didn’t need Plagg to stick a single warning claw into his neck to know that he had to watch what he asked and how he asked it. “Who is your friend?” He already knew the answer. Plagg already knew the answer. But they needed to know what Phantom was going to tell them.

“He’s the American Dragon. Not, uh, the dragon that’s been terrorizing people, I promise. He wants to stop that. We both do. We’re just not sure how. The Ninja…. He said he saw what happened. The butterfly that caused her to change into a dragon.”

“He knows where the akuma’s hiding.” That was a relief. It would save Adrien precious time if he didn’t have to search for it and risk guessing incorrectly. It might still take him long enough to get it, of course, but—

“That’s what you call them? Akumas?”

“That’s how Hawk Moth changes people.” Even if Phantom wasn’t on his side, telling him that much wouldn’t put Adrien in any more danger than he was already. Whether or not Phantom was working with Hawk Moth and pretending otherwise, he already knew Adrien’s identity, and that was the more pressing issue. He already knew Adrien’s Miraculous was his ring, too. If he decided to steal it, Adrien wasn’t sure he could stop him.

“Will you help us stop him? Please? Call a truce for now, even if you don’t trust us more than you have to?”

He wanted to say no. He wanted to throw Phantom’s apology back in his face, to say that it wasn’t that simple to come back from practically trying to kill someone.

But he’d rather have Phantom as an ally than as an enemy, and it sounded like the Ninja was willing to work with him. Not that Adrien really knew the Ninja well enough to be trusting his judgement like this, but Ladybug wasn’t here, and Adrien could use the help.

Besides, from what Adrien now knew, Hawk Moth likely had recalled the Critic’s akuma and transferred its power to this one. Adrien wasn’t wholly sure if Hawk Moth could have a dormant akuma and an active one at the same time—Ladybug had never let another akuma go free without cleansing it—but he doubted the akuma would be as powerful as this one seemed to be if Hawk Moth was capable of that.

“I want to meet your friends before I agree to anything,” Adrien said, and Plagg let out a loud sigh.

“Then I want some camembert first. I’m hungry.”

Adrien didn’t need to see Phantom to guess his reaction; he wouldn’t have heard Plagg speak before unless he had been listening in on the conversation for a while. Adrien fixed a small smile on his face, though it was arguably more of a smirk than something suitably apologetic. “Yes, I should get some camembert for Plagg first.”

“That’s your…cat, right?”

“One of my best friends.” Adrien wasn’t about to explain what a kwami was to a ghost, especially one he didn’t completely trust.

“Right. Okay. Um. If you’ll let me, I’ll help you get it. I can make you invisible and intangible, too, as long as I’m touching you. That’ll probably be faster, especially with these crowds. We can even fly to wherever it is and then catch up with the Am Drag and the Ninja.”

Adrien frowned. “So in other words, trust you completely?”

“Oh. Right.” There was a pause, and then he felt an invisible hand pressing something into his own. “This is a Fenton Phone. It’ll let us communicate. Please actually wear it and, um, try not to break it. Then, when you’ve fed your cat, we can meet up and figure this out. Please?”

“I’ll call you when I’m ready,” Adrien said, curling his fingers around the strange earpiece. “If you want me to trust you, then you can trust me to do that and not try to follow me. Deal?”

“Deal,” Phantom agreed, but he didn’t sound happy about it. That was fine; Adrien didn’t particularly care if he was happy about it. He cared that Phantom didn’t learn more about him than he already had until he was ready to reciprocate.

Of course, Adrien wouldn’t know right away if Phantom stuck to their deal, not if Plagg couldn’t necessarily tell him, but he had to take risks if he was going to beat Hawk Moth this time, and this was a small enough place to start.

-|-

7:05 PM

“Yeah, that’s her,” Randy said as he passed Jake’s cell phone back to him. “That’s even the necklace she was wearing.”

Great.

Jake would’ve liked, just this once, for this all to be a big misunderstanding. For the new dragon to be someone else, as opposed to someone who knew everything about real dragons and therefore had more knowledge about how they flew than anyone who didn’t have a job or hobby related to flight. (Before he’d ever met Rotwood, he might’ve worried about people who actually believed in dragons, but he was fairly sure that no one who believed in dragons knew anything about them, at least not if they were reading the same books as Rotwood. He had far more reason to worry about ornithologists or biologists with niche interests or someone who otherwise devoted a lot of time to studying flying dinosaurs and the like.)

At least meeting up with Randy hadn’t been any trouble. He could look on the bright side, right? Just because that was the only bright side, didn’t mean he should ignore it entirely.

“I need to warn the others.” He didn’t know how he was going to break this news. His mom knew how important maintaining secrecy was for the magical world. He didn’t know what would have made her flaunt the existence of magic—the existence of dragons—so flagrantly. When she didn’t even want to tell his dad….

“Need help? If you show me more pictures, I can help you look for them in the crowd.”

Jake shook his head. “Nah, I can just phone Fu, and he’ll pass it on. Just….”

“It’s hard?” Randy guessed. Jake blinked, and Randy nodded. “Yeah, I know what it’s like to have someone you care about be stanked. It sucks.”

Jake frowned. He wasn’t sure what exactly stanked was, but— “That’s not what this is.”

“It’s pretty close. Except the dragon lady hasn’t tried to cause chaos, which is a point in your mom’s favour.”

Right. There was that, too. Chat Noir might not be the bad guy Jake had thought he was, but it was hard to misinterpret beware of the butterflies. And while exposure of the magical world, of the existence of dragons, was bad, it was not as bad as it arguably could be. There wasn’t mass panic and people getting hurt in the rush to get away. More reporters weren’t arriving by the minute to report on this story. No one—that he’d heard, at least—was doing what Rotwood would’ve done and loudly proclaimed that they had all seen a real, live dragon.

That was…odd.

Particularly for something that had warranted a prophecy from the twins and which apparently required outside help.

And, clearly, telling more people the truth about dragons.

At least Randy had taken it well. And he had some magical artefacts on him that he was clearly supposed to have. Jake was sure that would help his case when all of this was over and he got another earful from Gramps. He was definitely going to need to check out Norrisville in the future, though.

“Just…gimme a minute, okay?” Randy nodded, so Jake flipped his phone back open and dialled Fu’s number as he walked a short distance away. It didn’t really matter—there were too many people around for this conversation to be private—but pretending gave some semblance of comfort right now. The upside was, no one else who overheard it would understand enough for it to be dangerous.

“What’s going on, kid?”

“It’s Mom.” Jake didn’t know how to sugarcoat it. He didn’t know if he should. “The…the dragon on the news.”

He expected anything from denial to a joke to a demand for clarification, but he got silence instead.

“You still there?”

“Hold on a sec.” There was shuffling and static, the indistinct murmur of Fu’s voice, a roar of wind, and then, “We’ve got you on speaker. You wanna repeat that?”

“It’s Mom,” he said again. He knew Haley would have met up with the others by now, and he could imagine her reaction more easily than G’s; she’d be all wide eyes and slightly open-mouthed, might even gasp in denial, but Gramps wouldn’t react so openly. He’d go still, pressing his lips together and thinking hard before parting them.

“The magic skipped her generation,” Haley whispered. Jake could barely hear her. He might not have made it out if he hadn’t known she might say that. At least her saying it at all meant they were hunkered down safely on their end. They could speak more freely than he could.

“I know, but…. I got confirmation, okay? My…friend. Randy. He saw the whole thing. It was a butterfly.”

Silence on the other end of the line again. He wondered if he could have prevented this if he’d been able to be more specific when he’d talked to her earlier. If he’d had a chance to properly warn her, to tell her about Sara’s prophecy and the butterflies and not just about Chat Noir, would she still have been targeted? Had she even been targeted, or was it just random chance that she’d—?

Random would be better.

A target meant this Hawk Moth person Randy had told him about knew she was special. Knew about her connections to the dragons and to magic, if not that she’d been born into the magical world. Of course, even if Hawk Moth hadn’t known all that, there was no guarantee they still didn’t know all that, and—

“How do we stop her?”

“We need her necklace. That’s where it landed. But we’ll need to find her first. I don’t know where she is. I haven’t seen her, and the dragon’s gone.”

“I’ll call my contacts,” Fu said, “and put out the word to avoid this stretch of town.”

“Tell them to avoid Mom, too. Just in case. I…. She might not be thinking clearly.” If she was thinking clearly, she wouldn’t have done any of this. “Trixie and Spud are going to try to stop Rotwood, but he was coming here, too, and….” And did that really matter now? Now that there was footage from multiple news stations showing a dragon? The fact that some people thought it was a planned stunt was great, but not everyone was going to buy that. “I don’t know what to do.”

“You must continue to be cautious, young dragon,” Gramps said. “Haley and Fu will meet with you and your friends. I will continue to search for Susan on my own. Let me know whatever else you are able to discover immediately.”

“You trust your new friends, kid?” Fu asked.

“I….” They hadn’t questioned the fact that he’d mentioned Randy and not Danny, but clearly they hadn’t missed it. “Yeah. Randy’s cool. It’ll be fine. It’s just….” There were too many people around for Fu to talk freely if he came here. “You should stay with Gramps. All of you. It’s too crowded here.”

“I’m not staying behind,” Haley said immediately. “I can help. Let me help. No one’s going to suspect me! I’m too cute and innocent-looking.” There was a slight pause, but before he could spit out a denial, she added, “Please. This is Mom. I…I need to do this, Jake.”

How was he supposed to refuse her that?

“Fine.” He was going to regret this. He could regret it later. “Meet me at—” Jake broke off and looked around. Which was the least crowded place nearby? He gave her the street corner and then added, “But you should really stay with G, Fu. You’re gonna be a lot more help to us if you can be yourself.” Fu’s sense of smell wasn’t great, whatever he pretended, and having to act like a dog all night would be torturous for him. “Please?”

“Copy that. I’ll run interference and do what I can behind the scenes. But if you need anything, you call, capiche? I’ve been working on my bark. You don’t need to bench me for that.”

“Thanks, Fu. You guys take care of yourselves. Gramps—”

“You are the American Dragon, young one. I will not always question your judgement.”

Right. He’d just question it most of the time. Namely, whenever he assumed Jake was making the wrong call. “One more thing. The kid who came into the shop today? With the ring? He’s called Chat Noir. And he’s not working with this Hawk Moth person. The one with the butterflies. He’s on our side. Or he will be, if we can convince him we’re really supposed to be on his. I haven’t talked to him yet, but I trust that my friends made the right call on this. So if you see him, help out, okay? We were wrong. He’s not the bad guy.”

Jake heard some low muttering in Chinese that would have been a lot worse if Gramps hadn’t just said that he wasn’t always going to question Jake’s judgement.

“And this probably doesn’t matter too much considering the circumstances, but Danny kinda told Randy our family secret.”

Now there was yelling.

More consequences to deal with later.

“Yo, I’ve gotta split. I’ll see you when you get here, Haley!” He flipped his phone closed, silencing the thundering curses in a language he still barely understood. He tapped the Fenton Phone Randy had given him earlier as he walked back towards Randy and said, “Hey, Phantom, you got anything?”

“I found our cat friend. Gave him a Fenton Phone. Not sure if he’s wearing yet. He’ll call us when he’s ready to meet up.” There was a pause. “I promised not to follow him.”

“So you’re following him?”

“I thought about it,” Danny admitted, “but we need him, so no. Trust is a two-way street, and we really need to earn it.”

“Good call. I checked in with the others. Haley’s gonna join us. Haven’t heard from Trixie or Spud yet, so they’re probably still busy with Rotwood.”

“Think they’ll need help?”

“They’ll shout if they do. Until then, we’ve got bigger fish to fry. You heading back now or still scouting?”

“I’ll keep searching till we hear from Chat Noir.”

“Just be careful, Phantom. We don’t know what else this Hawk Moth has up their sleeve.”

Danny said something—acknowledgement or agreement—before signing off, and Jake reached Randy again and filled him in. He knew he was lucky to have friends helping with him with this. He knew he was lucky, even if it didn’t really seem like it right now, that Sara had given him the warnings she could. He knew he was very lucky that Chat Noir was even considering helping them after what they’d done.

But even if they found his mom and figured out a way to help her, even if Randy and Chat Noir swore not to say anything about the truth about dragons, he didn’t know how to fix the very obvious exposure of the magical world to everyone else. Even if people didn’t believe it right away, when it came out that this wasn’t a stunt…. They couldn’t just mindwipe the entire crowd and destroy everyone’s footage. There wasn’t an easy way to fix this.

He wasn’t even sure if it was something that could be fixed.

Protecting the magical world was one of the main things he was supposed to do, and he’d failed spectacularly.

The Dragon Council would take his powers away after this for sure, and Haley would be stuck with the responsibilities of the American Dragon whether or not she was ready, and—

And he didn’t know what the Dragon Council would do to his friends.

Or to everyone else who’d seen proof of magical creatures and now believed in them.

He’d never been told what happened when a dragon messed up this badly. He wasn’t even sure if anyone else ever had. All he knew was that, if he couldn’t fix this and the Dragon Council had to step in, the measures would be…extreme. It made his gut twist just thinking about it. If he couldn’t figure out how to contain this and it kept spiralling out of control—

He had to figure out how to fix this.

He had to.

For everyone else’s sake, not just his own.

(see more fics | next)

#secret quartet #adjl #miraculous ladybug #danny phantom #rc9gn #fanfiction #crossover #sq fanfiction #my writing #ladylynse #snippets #crossover snippet

26 notes · View notes

depressedkakashihatake · 4 years

Note

112: “ Why are you bleeding? ” + kakagai

It’s a bit long so i’ve put it under a read more line for once XD

but also if you want to go to the AO3 page it is right Here

Gai’s foot collided with his forearm, sending a wave of pain radiating through his bones. He wasn’t sure when exactly Gai had started to get strong enough to make him regret blocking his attacks instead of trying to dodge them, but he made a mental note to change up his fighting style during their spares.

After all, Minato-Sensei wouldn’t be happy if he showed up for training already injured.

“You’re holding back,” Gai accused, annoyance written on his face “You’re not supposed to hold back.”

“I’m not holding back,” Kakashi objected, though he knew that was technically a lie. He was holding back, but not for the reason Gai thought. Gai had proven over the years that he could more than handle their sparring matches.

Even when he lost he still kept his spirits up, and even when Kakashi managed to do a significant amount of damage to him he always healed up and came back looking for another spar.

No, Kakashi was holding back for a much different reason.

The pain in his lower abdomen had been unbearable since that morning, making it difficult to move at his usual speed. Sometimes, the pain would get so bad that movement of any type felt damn need impossible.

Thankfully, when he had brought up his pain in private to Minato-Sensei during their early morning training, the older man was kind enough to find him some medicine that would help ease the pain.

The panty liners that came with them had been a little unexpected, but his sensei hadn’t been wrong when he said they would help keep him comfortable. The blood soaked boxers he had found himself wearing before hand had been far from what he would define as comfortable after all.

“Kakashi…” He diverted his eyes, unsure of how to explain himself as Gai took a step closer to him.

It was awkward, having Gai standing directly in front of him. Examining his face as if it held all the secrets to what was going on.

“C…Can we just do something else today?” He asked, embarrassed by the fact that fighting was turning out to be too hard for him to do today.

He was good at fighting.

The best in his age group.

Why did this weird ‘period’ thing that Minato-Sensei had Kushina talk to him about have to affect his ability to fight? “Oh,” A look of confusion crossed over Gai’s face “O…ok.”

There was a hint of sadness in his voice. A sound that made Kakashi feel horrible for making this request.

Still, he knew it was the right thing to do. Gai deserved a spar when they were both at one hundred percent.

That was not Kakashi today.

“I’ll make it up to you.” He promised, a little embarrassed by his need to make Gai feel better. Usually people’s emotions weren’t a concern for him.

Gai was different though.

He always had been for some reason.

“Well, I look forward to our next spar then,” Gai beamed with his usual bright smile. “What would you like to do instead?”

Kakashi was about to answer when a sharp pain radiated through his lower abdomen, forcing him to double over into himself and wrap his arms around the affected area.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the feeling of something gushing from his privates only made matters worse. Especially when he felt what he could only assume was either urine or blood running down his leg.

This was officially the worst day ever.

“Rival,” He looked up, terrified when he saw a look of worry on Gai’s face. “Why are you bleeding? Did I…I don’t think I hurt you…”

Following Gai’s line of sight, Kakashi felt the blood draining out of his face when he saw what the other boy was talking about.

There, at the top of his left leg bandage was a bright red stain. Blood that had managed to escape the confines of his boxers and make its way down his leg.

This was worse than just a bad day now.

This was officially embarrassing.

He needed to get home ASAP, before it got worse.

“Lunch,” he blurted out randomly “T…tomorrow. We can go to lunch wherever you want to make it up to you.”

The worry didn’t leave Gai’s face “Do you need a doctor Rival? I can take you…”

“No,” he shook his head violently “No, I just need to go home.”

The worry faded away, replaced instead by a soft smile.

“Do you promise lunch Tomorrow?” Gai asked “And that you’re alright?”

“I promise,” He nodded his head “Lunch on me, and I’m…Alright. I will be alright at least.”

Gai seemed to contemplate this for a moment before nodding “Tomorrow then.” He smiled brightly.

With everything settled, Kakashi made his escape down the path and back towards home, thankful that Gai was being so understanding.

He was definitely going to have to make it up to him tomorrow.

Hopefully he’d feel a lot less like death then.

#Kakagai #Trans Kakashi Hatake #Kakashi Hatake #Might Gai #Kid Kakashi Hatake #Kid Might Gai

18 notes · View notes

angelofthequeers · 4 years

Text

Hold Me By Both Hands: Chapter 40

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

@smolplantmum tagged as requested :)

Chapter 39 | Chapter 41 | AO3 link

“So,” Master Fu says after their afternoon lesson. “I trust the kwami swap has been enlightening?”

“It really has,” Misterbug says. “Now I get the stress that milady’s always dealing with.”

“And I get that bugaboy here really doesn’t have it that easy,” Lady Noire says. “I never really appreciated all the times he took hits for me until I had to do it for him. Not that I approve of it!” she adds, wagging her finger at Misterbug, who just grins back at her.

“I must admit, it was a good idea to temporarily switch your Miraculouses,” Master Fu says. “Even though it was out of necessity, it allowed you to better understand each other’s powers, in case you need to switch again in the future. And this understanding will even help you in your usual roles.”

“That’s a fair point,” Misterbug says. “So, uh, milady…should we switch back now? How’s your arm?”

Lady Noire flexes her left arm with only a faint grimace. “Good enough. The clown costume’s not bad but…I do miss Tikki and my Lucky Charm.”

“And I miss seeing you in spots,” Misterbug grins. When Lady Noire gives him a flat look, he adds, “And I guess I miss Plagg too.”

“Just shut your eyes, lovebug,” Lady Noire says. Misterbug obeys, and then he and Lady Noire detransform together and start fumbling to take off their Miraculouses.

“Let me!” A little warm thing brushes against Adrien’s cheek and then the remaining silver stud slips out of his ear. He holds out the other earring for Tikki to take. “Goodbye, A – Misterbug!”

“Bye, Tikki,” Adrien says. “It was really cool to be with you for the past few weeks.”

Tikki giggles. A moment later, the sound of Marinette laughing and cooing reaches Adrien’s ears but before he can lose himself in that sound, something small is dropped into his palm and then a soft, purring thing nuzzles against his cheek.

“Plagg!” Adrien slips his ring on and then hugs Plagg against him. “It’s good to have you back.”

“You’re more important to me than her cheese pastries,” Plagg says, which is pretty much a declaration of eternal love from the sourpuss kwami.

“Tikki, spots on!” Marinette says. Adrien gives Plagg one last hug.

“Plagg, claws out!” he says. When he opens his eyes after transforming, he’s greeted by the sight of a softly smiling Ladybug, with her Lady Noire outfit adapted to her Ladybug look; her cropped qipao top is still black but with red lining now, her suit and gloves are red with black spots, her belt is gone but her yo-yo is strung around her waist in its place, and her dark hair is back in its signature pigtails with long red ribbons. The only thing that remains the same is her knee-high black boots, minus the green trim of Lady Noire and with red soles instead of green.

“Kitty?” Ladybug waves a hand in front of his face. “Anyone home?”

“Y-Yeah,” Chat Noir blurts out. “Um! Miraculous! You’re miraculous!”

Ladybug just snorts and reaches out to ruffle his hair.

“I have some news for you two,” Master Fu says. “I’ve finally concluded that to repair the Peacock, the dormant sentimonster that is leeching off its energy must be destroyed. Therefore, I must return to Tibet and find the sentimonster, then use the Peacock to retrieve the amok.”

“But the Peacock’s damaged!” Ladybug says in alarm. “Won’t it hurt you?”

“After one use? Not irreparably,” Master Fu says. “The alternative would be to take the Ladybug and purify the amok, but since the sentimonster is…well, a Miraculous devourer, that would not be a wise idea. I will use the Horse Miraculous to travel to Tibet, then to open a portal when I return so that Ladybug can use her cure to fix the damage caused by the sentimonster.”

“What exactly is it?” Chat Noir says. Master Fu clears his throat and looks away.

“A story for another day. I just felt that I should give you ample warning. I plan to leave tomorrow.”

“Well…good luck, Master,” Ladybug says and bends down to hug their elderly mentor. “If anyone can fix their devastating mistake of decades ago, it’s you.”

Chat Noir snorts behind his hand.

“Thank you, Ladybug,” Master Fu says with twitching lips. “I appreciate your faith in me.”

“You’re distracted.”

“Huh? No!” Chat Noir nearly trips off the rooftop. Ryuuko gives him a thoroughly unimpressed look, sharply angled by the night lights of Paris around and below them.

“You’ve been spaced out all patrol,” she says. “Which means you’re thinking about something else. I have eyes, you know.”

“I’m fine,” Chat Noir says, but if he can’t even convince himself then there’s no way in hell that he’ll be able to convince Ryuuko, especially with her sharp-eyed observance. “Really. I’ve just…got a problem I’m trying to deal with.”

“Then go and deal with it,” Ryuuko says. “We’ve been patrolling for an hour and nothing’s happened. And if there’s an akuma attack, everyone will know about it.”

“But –”

“Just go! I can’t stand to see you sulking like this.”

“Fine, okay,” Chat Noir grumbles. “What are you, my therapist?”

Ryuuko just raises an eyebrow. Chat Noir snorts, then bounds away before she can scold him again, because it seems like giving her the safety of a mask brings out the spark in her majorly.

What a mess. Ever since the Desperada thing, all he’s been able to think about is Luka. And thank god for Marinette’s patience and her own crush on Luka, because otherwise she’d probably have kicked him to the kerb ages ago.

Then again, if he doesn’t get this sorted right now, she just might. Not because of the crush, but because the longer he leaves it, the more it’s going to fester.

Luka’s out on the deck of the houseboat when Chat Noir gets there and perches on the concrete wall next to the boat. The sweet notes from Luka’s guitar drift through the night air and surround Chat Noir like the warmest blanket on the coldest winter night and for a moment, he’s tempted to leave, to not rock the boat and find another way to sort it out, but then Luka looks up as if he psychically knows that Chat Noir’s there.

“Hey, Chat,” Luka says with a soft smile that punches Chat Noir right in the gut. “There’s no akuma, is there?”

“Uh, n-no,” Chat Noir croaks. His tongue darts out to moisten his dry lips but it’s no use. Not when Luka’s looking at him like…that. “I, uh…actually just wanted to talk.”

“Hm.” Luka sets his guitar down and then crosses the plank from the boat to the concrete bank. Chat Noir jumps down to meet him, and they end up sitting on the edge of the river, dangling their legs over the pitch-black water speckled with orange lights. A tsunami. That’s what Luka is. Even now, he’s not setting Chat Noir’s insides on fire like Marinette does, but all he has to do is smile and Chat Noir’s just…drowning, helpless to resist against the quiet force.

“Are you okay?” Luka says. “I didn’t think that superheroes made a habit of visiting random civilians.”

“Oh, that’s what got me into this mess in the first place,” Chat Noir says, scratching the back of his neck. “You’d think I’d have learned. But I just can’t stay away from pretty people.” His eyes widen. “Shit –”

“Does Marinette know you’re here?” Luka says with a small frown. “I know she’s dating you as well as Adrien.”

“She doesn’t know about this specific visit,” Chat Noir says. “It was kind of spur-of-the-moment. But she knows I’ve been meaning to come and talk to you. She knows about, uh…you know. This. And I’m not actually dating Adrien. Marinette’s just dating both of us.”

“Huh.” The suspicion fades from Luka’s face. “I’m polyamorous too, you know.”

Chat Noir blinks. “J-Just like that? You just – Christ, and it took us ages to wrap our heads around it.”

Luka laughs. It’s quiet, gentle, like a warm hug, and Chat Noir would quite happily lean into it and never let go if he could.

“But, um.” Chat Noir looks down at the rippling river, trying to figure out exactly how to put his tumultuous thoughts into understandable words. “I, uh…can I talk? Without any interruptions? It was hard enough confessing to Marinette and Ladybug, and Marinette was my first partner and they’re girls. I don’t know how my father would react if he knew.”

“Of course,” Luka says. “You have my undivided attention.”

“Okay. Thanks. Um…” Chat Noir starts fiddling with the black ring on his finger, rocking ever so slightly on the spot. “So…yeah, I like you. And someone else too. But the problem is, you’re not like Marinette and Ladybug. They know me as Chat Noir. You’ve only spoken to Chat Noir a few times. So, that’s one problem, because I don’t know how you or this other person feel there. And if you did like my civilian self, well, I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet. Not just the father thing but, you know…mixing my identities. Attracting way more attention than when I’m like this. I don’t want to have to lie to three people with two identities, but you’re really cute and the way you play music and just…and Marinette likes you and this other person as well, but she won’t do anything about those crushes while I don’t, because she’s all noble and, “I don’t want to hurt you being happy with them when you can’t” and honestly, I don’t deserve her and I don’t know why she even likes me in the first place, and…ugh, I’m such a mess.”

Luka thankfully says nothing as Chat Noir groans and covers his face and tries to process the verbal flood that had just gushed out of his mouth.

“For the record, I do happen to like you,” Luka finally says. “Both in and out of the mask…Adrien.”

Chat Noir freezes. His mouth works, opening and closing, trying to find the words that just won’t come, while Luka just sits there with a small smile.

“H-How?” Chat Noir finally says hoarsely.

“Your heart song,” Luka says. “It’s the same as Adrien’s. Just…louder, less restrained, you know? I haven’t been able to get it out of my head.”

“Whoa…you’re amazing…”

“And I saw you jump out of our hiding place as Misterbug when I was distracting Desperada,” Luka adds with a little smirk. “It just confirmed my suspicions. If you’d really taken Adrien somewhere safe, you wouldn’t have emerged from the exact same place he was originally hiding.”

“Great,” Chat Noir groans. “Ladybug’s going to kill me.”

“I can keep a secret,” Luka says. “But yes, that does mean that I like you, Chat Noir. I like seeing you like this. You’re not…more yourself or any less Adrien, but you’re freer, if that makes sense? And it’s amazing.”

Heat floods to Chat Noir’s face, and he lets out a little, embarrassing mewl and looks back down at the Seine. How the heck is he supposed to deal with this? His other crush likes him back, knows him, and honestly, taking a dip in the river below is looking more and more like an appealing option right now, even though he’s not exactly sure why he wants to escape when this is going…perfectly.

“Sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable,” Luka says when Chat Noir still says nothing. Chat Noir shakes his head.

“Don’t. Don’t apologise for that,” he murmurs. “I just…wasn’t prepared for it to go well. I think I’m still in the “anticipate rejection” mindset.”

“Maybe you should go home, then,” Luka says. “Work past that mindset. There’s no rush.” He slides his hand over, ever so cautiously, and rests it on a black-gloved hand, and Chat Noir’s brain spontaneously combusts and melts out of his ears at the contact. It’s just like when Marinette and Kagami touch him but also nothing like those touches, and how is it possible to love multiple people like this, similar but different?

“That’s probably a good idea,” he finally manages to say. “I think my head’s going to explode.”

Luka digs his nails into Chat Noir’s hand, then takes his hand away entirely and gracefully climbs to his feet. Chat Noir can’t help but flush when Luka holds out a hand to help him up, like he’s a damsel or something, but where other boys less secure in their masculinity might have felt degraded, it just makes him feel so loved and cared for.

“Goodnight, Chat Noir.” Luka leans in and brushes a kiss against Chat Noir’s cheek, then whispers, “Goodnight, Adrien,” and backs away with a soft smile, and Chat Noir’s about two seconds from throwing himself headfirst into the river because how is he supposed to handle this?

“Uh – guh –”

“And for the record?” Luka says. “I happen to like Marinette too. She’s an extraordinary girl. I’d be honoured to date both of you if you decide that’s what you want.” With that, he heads back for the houseboat, leaving a black cat disaster behind to try and recover at least a few brain cells before leaving to sort through everything that had just happened.

[11:01 pm] direct messages

Chat Noir: milady?

[11:23 pm] direct messages

Chat Noir: nvm

Ladybug: huhyesimhere

Ladybug: sorry, fell asleep

Chat Noir: oh

Chat Noir: don’t worry about it then

Chat Noir: go to sleep princess

Ladybug: nononoooo

Ladybug: I’m awake now

Ladybug: how was patrol?

Chat Noir: uh well

Chat Noir: pretty distracted

Chat Noir: ryu told me to basically fuck off and deal with myself

Ladybug: oh no :(

Ladybug: what’s wrong?

Chat Noir: i may

Chat Noir: have

Chat Noir: confessed to luka

Ladybug: !!!!!!!

Ladybug: HOW DID IT GO

Chat Noir: um

Chat Noir: good news or bad news?

Ladybug: shit

Ladybug: did he reject you???

Ladybug: bad news first

Chat Noir: he knows my identity

Ladybug: hOW

Ladybug: YOU CAN’T TELL

Chat Noir: I DIDN’T

Chat Noir: he heard my heart song

Chat Noir: said it was the same as my civilian one

Ladybug: shit

Ladybug: he probably knows who I am too then

Chat Noir: you’re not mad?

Ladybug: I want to be

Ladybug: but it’s not your fault

Ladybug: you didn’t let it slip or give some really obvious hint

Ladybug: and I mean

Ladybug: you figured me out from a hurt arm, so

Ladybug: what’s the good news?

Chat Noir: he uh

Chat Noir: likes me

Chat Noir: and wants to date me

Ladybug: !!!!!!!

Ladybug: THAT’S GREAT

Chat Noir: and you

Chat Noir: he’s polyam too

Chat Noir: “i happen to like marinette too. she’s an extraordinary girl”

Chat Noir: his exact words when i said you liked him

Chat Noir: …………

Chat Noir: milady?

Chat Noir: ladybug?

Chat Noir: marinette?

Ladybug: ASDFLSKDFJ

Chat Noir: ah

Chat Noir: well we’re not together yet or anything

Chat Noir: he said to sort my head out first

Chat Noir: and i wanted to talk to you anyway

Ladybug: thanks

Ladybug: tikki’s laughing at me :(

Chat Noir: least she’s not like plagg

Chat Noir: he just loudly shrieks about camembert whenev i try to talk to him about “mushy stuff”

Ladybug: -_-

Chat Noir: you know what this means though

Ladybug: what?

Chat Noir: you have to talk to kagami :)

Chat Noir: ladybug? you there?

Ladybug: Hi, Chat Noir! It’s Tikki!

Chat Noir: oh hey tikki

Chat Noir: i didn’t kill her did i?

Ladybug: No! She’s just screaming into her pillow right now.

Chat Noir: ah

Chat Noir: i’ll leave you to it

Chat Noir: night tikki

Chat Noir: night bugaboo <3

“i happen to like marinette too. she’s an extraordinary girl”

“you have to talk to kagami :)”

Those are the words that have been replaying in Marinette’s mind since her conversation with Chat Noir last night, to the point where Alya’s given up on trying to get through to her and has instead been taking proper notes for later sharing like the amazing friend she is. Although those notes will come with a price, so Marinette’s not entirely sure just how angelic Alya truly is.

She has to do this. If Chat could confess to his crush for both himself and her, she can confess to her third crush. It’s not that hard. No way is she letting Chat Noir best her.

But it’s Kagami. Luka’s so chill but Kagami…how is Marinette supposed to know if Kagami likes her or not? Or even wants to date her? What if Kagami’s interested in Adrien but not Marinette? Of course Marinette wouldn’t stand in the way of Adrien and Kagami dating but even considering the rejection…

“You should talk to her after fencing practice today,” Tikki says at lunchtime, when Marinette’s fled for the bathroom to have two minutes of peace from the sensory overload that’s clashing with her frying brain.

“Are you crazy?” Marinette hisses. “Talk to her? No!”

“If Chat Noir could talk to Luka, you can talk to Kagami,” Tikki says.

“But –!”

“No buts, Marinette!” Tikki hovers in front of Marinette’s face with crossed arms and a scowl. “You have to talk to her, or you’ll be stuck in this awkward limbo forever! Remember when you were crushing on Adrien? Do you really want that to happen again?”

“But…what if she says no?” Marinette sags over the bathroom sink. “She could utterly reject me! That’s why I didn’t ask Adrien out!”

“That’s just a part of life,” Tikki says. “Everyone gets rejected at some point. But you can’t sit back and let that fear control you! What if Kagami does like you but you don’t take that chance?”

“I…I know…”

Still, that anxiety gnaws away at her gut all day, until school’s over and fencing practice for Adrien is about to start and okay, Marinette can just go along and watch him, no big deal. She’ll be there and if the right moment pops up to talk to Kagami? So be it.

The fact that she might purposely dodge that right moment is something that Marinette deliberately ignores.

“Hey, Marinette!”

“Wah!” Marinette squawks and nearly falls off her seat. Adrien’s standing in front of her with a bright smile, his fencing helmet clutched under his arm, and he’s accompanied by Kagami, who’s grimacing as she tries to fix her short hair after a sweaty session of fencing. Yeah. Sweaty. Dear lord, how had Marinette ever thought she was straight before Clara Nightingale came along?

“I thought you came to watch us fence,” Adrien teases. “But you were off in another world entirely.”

“Adrien,” Kagami chides. “Don’t make fun of Marinette.”

“Um! Yeah! Just thought in deep – uh, deep in thought!” Marinette babbles. Adrien gives her a knowing little smirk.

“Marinette, how about you talk to Kagami for a bit?” Adrien says. “I need to freshen up before I get changed.”

No. No. That devil. Marinette is most definitely going to strangle her damn boyfriend for daring to do this to her.

“So…” Kagami says rather awkwardly. “How has everything been?”

“Um! Great!” Marinette says quickly. Kagami gives her an awkward smile that’s all teeth.

“That’s fantastic.”

They sit in awkward silence for a few moments, until Kagami shakes her head and turns to Marinette.

“Enough with the small talk,” she says. “Adrien told me that you’ve got something important to talk to me about.”

Marinette’s insides freeze over. Okay, Adrien’s definitely getting it when Marinette gets her hands on him, and then she’s damn well going to throw him off the Eiffel Tower next time he’s transformed!

“Did I…do something wrong?” Kagami says when Marinette is silent for a tad too long. “I apologise if I did. I’d just like to know so that I can fix –”

“No! No, you didn’t do anything wrong!” Marinette says. “I’m just thinking of the best way to murder Adrien for plotting this, is all.”

“Plotting what?”

“Getting me to talk to you.”

Kagami tilts her head with a frown. “I don’t understand. We’re friends, aren’t we? Why would Adrien have to plot to get you to have a conversation with me?”

“Ugh. Okay, so I’m gonna be a total disaster about this…” Marinette looks down at her clasped hands, where she’s idly digging her nails into her fingers, and she takes a deep breath. “I, um…remember that conversation we had on the boat? About liking two people at the same time?”

“Chat Noir and Luka, right?” Kagami says. “And then you made your choice in both Adrien and Chat Noir. I’m happy for you, Marinette.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing,” Marinette says. “Adrien likes Luka. And so do I. And Luka likes us both.”

“And you’re stressed over the possibility of having three relationships?” Kagami says. “But what does that have to do with me?”

“I’m not stressing over two – uh, three relationships.” Marinette swallows, although this does nothing to alleviate the dryness of her throat, and then she forces out, “I’m stressing over…four.”

“Four? Adrien, Chat Noir, Luka, and…oh.”

“Yeah,” Marinette says with a hysterical little laugh. “It’s not like I intended it, but…you know.”

“You like me romantically. And Adrien, Chat Noir, and Luka.”

“…Yeah.”

“Hm.” A small smile crosses Kagami’s lips. “Thank you for telling me. Even if Adrien did tell me before our fencing practice when he told me of his feelings for me.”

“He what?” Marinette shrieks. “You knew – and you just – you made me –”

“Confess for yourself? Yes. I wanted you to have the courage to tell me. And I have to admit…I like you and Adrien too, Marinette.”

“Oh. Oh.” Something jittery explodes deep in Marinette’s core. “Oh my god. Do you! You do! Wow. Sorry, I’m just a mess.”

“Don’t apologise,” Kagami says. “But I’m not sure this is the right time.”

This time, the shivers that wrack Marinette’s body are of an entirely different nature. “O-Oh. I, um – it’s okay – I wasn’t even expecting you to like me back –”

“You misunderstand me.” Kagami reaches over to take one of Marinette’s hands with her white-gloved one, and it takes every bit of Marinette’s willpower to not jerk away as warmth pools in her hand and shoots down to her belly. “I do want a relationship with you, Marinette. Very much. And with Adrien. But I want to be sure that you, Adrien, and Chat Noir are properly secure in your relationship before you pursue more.”

“What do you mean? We’ve all agreed that it’s okay.”

“Have you discussed boundaries? What you’ll do if one of you does end up having a moment of jealousy? Whether you’ll be okay with pursuing relationships with more people than just me and Luka, and whether Ladybug and Chat Noir will be okay with the change in relationship dynamic?”

“Oh…I didn’t even think about that…”

Kagami smiles again. “What you have with Adrien and Chat Noir really is special. I’d love to have something like that, and I’m sure Luka would too, but you have to be certain that what’s already there is secure and you’re all completely on the same page. Otherwise, none of the relationships will work.”

“Wow. Thanks, Kagami. That makes sense.” Cautiously, Marinette squeezes Kagami’s hand, and she can’t hold back the giggle that escapes when Kagami squeezes it back. “How are you so wise?”

Kagami shrugs. “I guess I had to grow up fast. I’ve always been mature for my age. That’s one reason why I’ve never really had any friends. It’s…hard to relate to other children when you find it easier to talk to adults instead.”

“Well, now you’ve got me and Adrien and all our friends,” Marinette declares. Kagami smiles and ducks her head, her cheeks flushing pink. “And I’ll talk to Adrien and Chat tomorrow and tell them what you said.”

“Good. Because Adrien and I found an amazing little Japanese restaurant the other week, and I can’t wait to take you there.”

And that’s the story of why Marinette is a deceased mess when Adrien finally returns and finds her slumped against Kagami with a face as red as a tomato, while Kagami smiles and pats her on the hand.

“She’ll be fine,” Kagami says. “She just needs a few moments.”

Marinette just groans loudly in response to that.

#miraculous ladybug #ml fic #aotq fic #aotq: hold me #marinette dupain-cheng #adrien agreste #luka couffaine #kagami tsurugi #master fu #adrinette #adrienette #lukadrien #lukanette #kagaminette #adrigami #adrimi #lukadrigaminette #rip to both mari and adrien #bye kwami swap

42 notes · View notes

faintblueivy · 5 years

Text

Seasons we’ve seen together - yukimachi fanfiction

A/N: So after slaving over a week for this I've finally completed it! I'm so glad!

Before we start, let me scream - SPOILERS!

Summary - Finding eachother and falling in love was not something they thought was possible for them. But as the seasons passed by, it became easier. Yuki and Machi - and few moments of them being together.

Ao3 link

Didn't think that I'll fall for another OTP, but guess what? I'm here with something new for these two idiots in love. This is my first time writing for Fruits Basket fandom and I desperately hope that I've done them justice. Hope you all enjoy it!

Word Count - 4k

Genre - Fluff, nothing else ;)

Seasons we've seen together

Spring

The first time she meets him, spring is in full bloom.

It was her second day of high school and the beautiful and pink cherry blossoms were raining down. The gentle wift of sweetness lingering in the air was a reminder of the new season. And also for new beginnings like everyone said.

Walking down the unfamiliar hallways with a sheaf of papers in her arms, Machi feels oddly aware of every eye that follows her movement. The halls are bustling with seniors and she wonders why was it a good idea for the staff room to be built on the second year's floor. She didn't want to admit it but a part of her was wishing to catch a glimpse of her idiotic older brother. In a sea of nothing but strangers, Machi longs to find comfort of seeing someone familiar. She sighs inwardly. She had never imagined to see a day where she would want to see Kakeru voluntarily.

"Excuse me?"

Name of the devil- wait, the voice was softer than her brother's upbeat screech.

She whirls around and comes face to face with 'the prince'. The rumoured senior who had been proclaimed as the most beautiful boy of the school. She had seen him first through the windows, surrounded by people smiling gently, as the girls around her talked about how perfect and charming he looked.

The prince with a lonely smile.

But now close up from here, she could see how mussed his hair was and the tie he wore looked crooked. Prince? Was she sure he was one?

"Yes?"

"Ah, I think you dropped this."

He extends a few papers in her direction which might have spiralled down to the floor when she was busy grappling with her thoughts.

She is able to mumble out a 'thank you' as he places the papers on the top. She waits for him to leave but he doesn't. Instead, he gives her that carefully calculated smile that she had seen a day ago directed at someone else and asks, "Do you need some help?"

"Could you please let me know the way to staff room?"

She replies him with another question of her own, her observant eyes noticing how he eyed the large bundle of papers in her arms.

"Sure. Just take right turn the next aisle you see. You'll see the plaque hanging right in front."

"Thank you."

She gives him a small bow, mindful of the stuff she was carrying. He gives her a nod and a genuine smile and weirdly enough, a part of her is relieved to see that he could smile like that. Before they could part appropriately, he is approached by a group of giggling and squealing girls who were gushing about how they were absolutely sure that he would ace the tests. Machi didn't know him that good but even still she could see how uncomfortably overwhelmed he looked at the moment. Giving him one last glance Machi went on her way, sure that he'd forget her in an hour or two. After all, why would the prince surrounded by people remember someone like her.

But she couldn't have been more wrong.

Summer

If he was honest, then Yuki didn't think he was enjoying being the student council president. Apart from the stress that the curse caused, he couldn't hold the energy that the student council exudated together. From Kakeru's unbound enthusiasm to Nao's complaining and Kimi's shallowness - everything would tire him out to the bones at the end of everyday. These people drove him mad with their eccentricness and unrestrained behaviour. Not that he should complain...but still.

Except for the newly appointed school treasurer who, at the moment, has been quietly following him around.

Kuragi Machi.

He tilts his head back slightly to steal a glance at the girl who had never once lifted her head from the papers she was invested in. Even accompanying him on the patrol today was Kimi's job. Not hers. But somehow Kimi had pushed the chore to the younger girl.

"Kuragi-san? Where do we go next?"

He questions, a pathetic attempt to start a conversation once again after countless failures.

"The sports club."

She replies monotonously, eyes never once leaving the list. He nods in acknowledgement, inwardly grimacing at another defeat.

It didn't matter, he had the entire list memorized but he couldn't help but notice how different this girl behaved. She had perfect grades, good records, perfect attendance and was highly efficient in her work. But despite how much rowdy the student council office got, she would still finish her work on time and even have enough energy to make up for the slack of others. Yuki cannot explain it in words but her behaviour unnerved him for some reason. The scene of their first meeting is still fresh in his mind. He still didn't know what had caused her to be on her knees back then, with files, papers and the entire room torn all around her. What was that Kakeru knew but he didn't.

And if he has to admit, he wants to know her better. Something about her empty eyes spoke volumes to him. He wonders why nobody else could see what he did in her. It causes a sense of discomfort in him knowing that this person was hiding her true self behind that perfect doll like persona.

"President, we're here." Her voice stops his train of thoughts, startling him for a second.

"Ah, yes. Of course."

He gives her an apologetic smile realising that he had been so occupied with his thoughts that he might have missed the gate to the outside had she not pointed it out.

The sports club building was situated near the playgrounds and fields, at a distance from the main campus. They had to walk around the football field to reach on the other side.

Yuki inhales a breath of fresh air, the sun shining strongly above their heads. It decides that it feels good. He gives a smile to his companion but she returns the look with a blank face and Yuki inwardly laughs.

It was no surprise that class 1 C was having their sports period at the moment. He had the entire time table in his head. He knew that. What shocked him was the way he was hounded on by the junior girls the second he stepped on the field.

"Yuki Senpai!"

"Senpai!"

"Sohma senpai!"

He jumps away from the girls, careful at dodging any physical affection they fling on him. His anxiousness rises as they push their way through each other, fighting, arguing and calling each other's names.

"Watch out!"

Somebody yells and Yuki feels his senses go on high alert. The first thing he notices is a football hurtling straight at them. Without thinking much, he immediately steps forward, swinging his leg out with enough force to deflect the ball on the other side. Thankfully, everyone is safe and unharmed.

"Yuki Senpai! You're a hero!"

The girls start screaming even before he is sure he had saved them all. The second he puts his foot down, he realises he had sprained it. Badly. He instantly bites his lip to not wince in pain.

"Yuki Senpai, you're really such a good hearted prince!" Someone sings from the crowd, and those words make something twist in his gut.

"I'm not..." Yuki blurts out, softly enough that the girls do not hear.

He watches the chaos for a few more minutes, trying to pacify them but with no luck. The pain in his foot growing much worse with the ticking of the clock.

"Excuse me, President. We must leave. Sports club council is waiting for us."

A familiar voice from his side delivers and he thanks Kuragi-san a million times for saving him inside his head. Apologising and leaving as soon as he could, he feels as if he could finally take a breath again after escaping the gaggle of girls. He is careful to hide his limp, deciding to deal with it only after he had reached home.

They were seated in the sports club council room to talk about the investments and renovation that the club required. But even before they could begin the meeting with the sport council's president, someone rushed in a flurry to report something immediate to the guy.

"Ah, apologies! President! Looks like I'll have to deal with the mess these idiots have made again! Will it be okay if I return back in five minutes?" He asks with a grimacing smile.

"Absolutely. Don't worry about it Nakamura-san. Please go ahead." Yuki returns it with an sympathizing one and giving a nod.

The boy is about to walk out of the room when she, who rarely ever speaks, calls out loudly.

"Nakamura-san. If you don't mind, may I use the first aid kit here?" She gestures to the kit that was kept above one of the cabinets.

"Definitely. Feel free to use it." He nods in agreement before running out of the room. The boy is barely out of the room when she speaks again, this time directed at him.

"President. Please remove your shoes."

Yuki sits their gobsmacked as she is busy rummaging through to kit, pulling out pain relieving spray and creams.

He was so sure that he had hidden his pain well. Nobody else had noticed. Then how did she? Was he that easy to read? But then again, people see him as a perfect prince. Should a perfect prince be injured and feel pain? He was sure that the answer would definitely be a 'No'. He is startled again when she kneels in front of him with the medical supplies.

What she told him next was something nobody had ever said. Something he had desperately needed to told. But he never thought that it would be from her. The person he wanted to help and to save. But nonetheless, it made him feel warm inside. And it was something he could never forget.

"You are not a Prince. You are in pain and you could have said something sooner. President, please remember that."

Rains

The stack of papers seems never ending. His pen glides over the paper fluently, extra care being taken to make sure that no mistakes occur. The door to the room is open, wind wafting in softly, carrying the scent of petrichor with it.

The sound of rain hitting the window panes was overpowering the silence of the room. Yuki is not worried, because most of the noise causing elements of the student council were currently absent.

Kimi was out on a date with one of her new boyfriends. Nao had left earlier to prepare for an upcoming test. And Kakeru, worried about the incoming weather and torrential rains had left to pick up his girlfriend from her school, obviously entrusting his precious sister's well being in Yun-Yun's hands. Though he did not forget to warn Yuki to not do anything perverted to his sister which had unsurprisingly earned him a harsh bonk on the head.

His gaze darts toward the only other occupant of the room. Machi is busy scribbling on a notepad, working with numbers, her diligence for her work being reflected by her immense concentration. Yuki feels a little guilty though. She might have left earlier had he not asked her to calculate and summarise the expenses of the sports club for the last three months. But she never complained. The thing is she never did.

Unable to tear his gaze away from her, he admits how much he adores the way she subtly bites her lip when something doesn't add up. He likes how her brows shoot up when she finds the error in her calculations. He has no idea how long he's been sitting there simply taking her features in. And if he was honest, he is thankful to Kakeru for arranging their seats in a way that allowed him to stare at her without much suspicion.

A part of him feels wrong... watching her like this, when his heart thrums the way it does. She's...so unaware of him and his growing fondness for her but so incredibly conscious of the mess he is and his demons. He had always wondered if there was someone who could see past his lonely smile. And now, the person of his dreams was sitting right in front of him, barely a few feet away.

The sound of the rain becomes louder as the lights flicker off, startling her. The room falls into a colour of grey and darkness as she looks around with slightly visible panic on her face, only for her dark brown eyes to meet his grey ones. He is definitely amused when, even in the dim light, he can see a hint of redness of her cheeks. And she might have noticed it too, he knows when she turns her head to a side, willing her long bangs to hide it. Even though her cuteness is too much for him, her stubborn behaviour is something he has surpassed. So, in the premise of opening the window of the room, on her right, he stalks near her desk, loving how the red of her cheeks grows even brighter. His hands mechanically open the latch of the window, his attention is still directed at her. Of course, that is his fault when a violent spray of water rushes in and makes him sputter like an idiot.

"President?"

He notes how she sounds alarmed and his form tenses when she appears beside him, closer than they normally are. But Machi has never been the one to invade people's personal space and she probably had none of Tohru's natural clumsiness. He swipes the water on his lashes by the sleeve of his shirt when a white handkerchief enters his field of vision.

Machi extends the small article in his direction with wide worried eyes.

"Are you all right?"

He takes the offered cloth with a thankful smile and wipes his face. He's unexpectedly thrown off guard when her scent hits his senses. It was soft, so unlike Kimi's perfume which was strong enough to make them all cringe at it's fruity flavour. He could not put a finger at what this smell feels like though. And he was sure that trying to inhale it with a breath would definitely...freak Machi out. And he wants to believe that he is not a pervert.

"Thank you, Machi."

He expresses his gratitude, eyes brimming with something he can hardly hold. She nods and comes to stand beside him on the window, not minding the stray water droplets that hit her. Yuki notices how her eyes soften.

"Does Machi like rain?"

He questions, his gaze travelling to the cloudy sky above, watching the descent of the drizzle.

She hums in agreement and whispers, "Rain - messes up everything. Causes disorder and troubles in our mundane routine. But yet, it breathes life into everything around us. We can't survive without it, can we? And I think it's beautiful."

The faint smile that graces her lips is something that Yuki might have missed had he not been paying as much attention to her as he did. Machi is the only girl beside Tohru, whose simple upward quirk of lips could make his heart swell with immense affection. Maybe it was how rare this smile seemed that Yuki desperately wished to etch this moment in the back of his mind, to preserve and hold it close forever like a precious gem.

He had known that she was special for a while now, but now, he accepted that he yearned to see that smile for as long as possible.

Autumn

The red leaves dance around her as she trudges through the roads to her apartment. The sun is about to set, the sky painted in hues of red, gold and pink. She jumps when a wildly whirling leaf smacks her right in the face, her fingers immediately latching on it.

The leaf looked...pretty. Red, with more yellow splotches on the left side than the right and a few brown spots of decay. It reminds her of the leaf she still had in her bag, tucked safely in one of her notebooks. Suddenly, a strong wind blows and the leaf escapes her fingers in the direction of the path she had just walked away from. And probably due to her stupid fascination with red coloured maple leaves, she instinctively runs to follow it when a hand snatches it out of air in one swift motion.

She is left dumbfounded. The president of her school is standing right in front of her, her leaf pinched carefully between his long fingers.

"Were you looking for this?"

He steps closer to her, offering the leaf as if he was offering a rose, smiling softly. She grasps the stalk of the leaf and holds it close to her chest.

"What are you doing here?"

"Why? Is there a rule that I am not allowed in this part of the city?" He teases her, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

Before she can retort, he smiles and says, "Please come with me."

Moving past her he heads for a certain destination and a part of her feels indignant that he's sure she'll follow him. Funnily enough, another part of her conscience chides her, reminding that he wouldn't come all the way just to annoy her. He is not like that. Then again, she shouldn't underestimate him.

He leads them to a nearby park and gestures for her to sit down on a bench, beside him. Machi flushes slightly but settles beside him anyway.

"Actually," he speaks rummaging through his backpack, "I came here to return this back to you." Pulling out a file, he hands it over to her. And she immediately notes it to be her assignment file.

"I thought I dropped it in my bag." She mumbles, quite astonished that she had carelessly left it behind.

Yuki's chuckle pulls her out of her thoughts.

"It wasn't you!" He laughs. "It was Kakeru! That idiot pulled your bag apart when you were out with Kimi for a pencil he couldn't find. And then forgot to rearrange it and put this file back. And I noticed it only after you had left."

"That idiot…" Machi hisses, but then looks at Yuki. "President, why did you-"

"Don't worry about it! I'm glad that I caught up to you."

He gives her such a smile that it knocks the breath out of her lungs. He looks almost a figment of her imagination, smiling like that, with red leaves falling over them. So beautiful. So impossible. But yet, here he was, sitting beside her as if she was someone who should be cherished.

"Has Machi eaten the dango of that shop here?"

His words startle her, she jerks her gaze away from him to the shop across the street he was pointing at.

"No." She answers timidly.

"Come on then! Let's have some!" He stands up, excited, offering her his hand and Machi feels her heart thudding in her ears. The red creeps on her face and she scolds herself for letting him overwhelm her with his exuberance every single time.

A few minutes later, they are on the bench again, biting onto the soft and delicious dango and Machi has to admit that it tastes good. She steals a glance at her companion who is already chewing on his third stick, eyes focused on the scenery around them.

"President?"

"Hmm?"

"You didn't have to come all the way here to deliver that assignment."

He looks at her, a questioning expression on his face as he chews on the last bite.

"Actually, that assignment was already graded."

What continues her statement is a long stretch of silence as Yuki sits there with his mouth hung open.

"You mean-"

"Yes, the assignment was already graded. You...wasted your time by coming here." She says, softly, averting her gaze.

"Machi." He calls out, chiding her gently.

She stares at her shoes unable to meet his eyes because she did occupy his time unnecessarily. She wonders if he was minding it now. She wants to run away and hide in some hole when he leans closer to her, his lips a few inches away from her ear.

"Machi, I did not waste my time. I was here because I wanted to be. In Fact, I'm glad I got to share and eat dango with you."

His genuine but firm words, his fond smile and the transparent look in his eyes was too staggering for her. It was so incredibly hard to accept that he was here out of his own free will. Not because he was forced to. Not because he felt obligated too. But because he wanted to be here. Because he didn't mind spending time with her. A strange warmth pooled inside her chest, spreading through her bones, making her tingle all over.

He simply chuckles and bids her farewell, loving how her face was the brightest red he had ever seen.

Winter

When the morning sun rays penetrate the minute gap between the curtains of his room, Yuki wakes up. He blinks, eyes full of golden light and dark brown hair over his nose and lips. Even his sleep deprived senses are honed enough to detect her presence beside him and it leaves him with a comforting warmth.

He gently swipes her hair off his face, grey eyes coming to rest on soft sleeping face. Her head is resting in the crook of his arm and her arm was draped over his torso. Her leg is over his, bare and soft. She is dressed in a pair of small pajamas and his red shirt. He knows he was leaner in comparison to a lot of other men, but still his clothes were too big for her. Though he loves seeing her in them. The shirt is quite large for her small frame, sliding off on from one shoulder, exposing her soft and pale skin to him.

A sudden cold sensation of chill makes him shiver and he immediately drags the blankets up to cover both of them. His arms slide over her waist, pulling her close to him and nuzzling her neck and side of cheek. Sometimes, having her beside him feels like a dream that he's terrified of waking up from. Both of them have had struggled against their own demons, found love and support in each other and the few kind people around them. As time passes by, things change and people do too.

Like how he loves mornings now.

For as long as he can remember, he has never been a morning person. But having Machi nestled against him, watching the sun rays fall on her eyelashes, illuminating her in a golden ethereal glow filled him with a sense of contentment that nothing else did. That moment of satisfaction, that feeling of his heart beating in his chest in synchrony to hers was something he craved so deeply that any morning he got to witness it made him feel blessed.

But he knows he's not the only one to have started loving something he never had before because of Machi. She had confessed to him as well, how winters - which she dreaded before became something she held close to her heart thanks to the promise he had made years back.

Yuki leans over and gently brushes his lips on her forehead and a small moan escapes her mouth.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty."

He calls her affectionately, knowing that he was going to receive a smack for that later. She blinks, frowning at him and then burying her face into his chest again.

"Machi. Wake up." He pokes his nose on her cheek and she immediately swatts him away. He chuckles and slowly slides away from her, out of the bed. The air is so cold and crisp that he resists the urge to crawl back into the blankets and into Machi's arms again with everything he had. Sauntering over to the window, he pulls the curtains apart and gasps dramatically.

"It's snowing! Machi, wake up!"

He runs to the bed, disheveling the blankets and adoring the angry noises his wife was making. Finally pulling the last blanket off her, he makes a few more attempts to get her out of the bed with no success. He sighs and takes a moment to appreciate her small form and his eyes coming to rest on the milky stretch of white skin of her exposed shoulder, and a devilish idea lights up his brain. He quickly leans over and playfully nips her bare shoulder.

"Yuki!"

Machi squeals, thrashing her arm out to strike him but he's agile enough to dodge it efficiently.

"Try harder Machi. You won't have me like that." He smirks, making sure that she notices the way he's all over her.

Okay, fine. He is a pervert. But only when it comes to her.

The next few minutes are nothing but a scarlet faced Machi chasing him around the house in nothing but pajamas in freezing winters.

Yuki knows, if someone ever asks him to define love, all he would ever say that it's the feeling you get when you witness all the seasons passing, but falling in love and finding something precious to appreciate in each of them because you have that person - the love of your life - by your side.

That is what love is.

A/N: Yuki and Machi through the different seasons. I really wanted to write something special for them. And I'm glad I did! Gooooshhhh I can't wait to see Machi and Kakeru in the new anime! We're slowly edging towards their appearance! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Btw, please do tell me your thoughts for this story! Thank you for reading!

#yukimachi #yuchi #yuki x machi #Yuki Sohma #yuki souma #yuki #machi kuragi #yumachi #machi #Fruits Basket #fruits basket spoilers #fruits basket 2019

72 notes · View notes

lilyvandersteen · 4 years

Text

Out of the Blue: Chapter 7

Cover art: @redheadgleek

Beta extraordinaire: @hkvoyage

Links: AO3, FF.net

Author’s Note:

Yep, exactly what it says on the tin. Someone's got it out for Kurt and Blaine...

Chapter 7: Sabotage

“When I consider,” she added, in a yet more agitated voice, ‘that I might have prevented it! – I who knew what he was.”

(An excerpt from Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The morning of the shoot, Blaine was up even earlier than usual, and arrived at the location even before his brother. A good thing, too, seeing as it was pure chaos, and he needed to solve quite a few problems and tell everyone where to set up their stuff and how the décor was supposed to look.

By the time Cooper arrived, the set looked as it should, and Coop nodded approvingly.

“Are Kurt and the others here yet?”

Blaine shook his head. “Still early.”

“Then go make yourself pretty now. Reena’s just arrived. She can do your hair and make-up first.”

When Reena had worked her magic, Blaine wriggled into the tight jeans he’d be wearing for the commercial and then walked around the warehouse helping out where needed while he was waiting for Kurt.

Kurt was supposed to be there at eight, but stepped into the warehouse at a quarter to, gaping at the hustle and bustle and seeming very much out of his depth.

Blaine hastened towards him, and tugged him along to Kyle and Reena, feeling in the best of spirits, especially when he saw Kurt give him a thorough once-over, with a glint in his eye that proved he liked what he saw.

His mood plummeted when Kurt, once again, made it all about Cooper. Ugh.

Kurt seemed to realise he’d said something wrong, but his bumbling apology made matters worse rather than better, and Blaine gritted his teeth and told himself not to lose his temper.

Cooper came to smooth things over, at usual, but Blaine wasn’t in the mood to humour him, and left Kurt in Kyle’s capable hands as soon as he’d told him what Kurt’s look was supposed to be.

He turned back, though, when Kurt hesitantly asked if there were changing rooms, and there was a loud scoff.

Chandler! Oh, I might have known the little weasel would make trouble… He had better not mess with Kurt!

Chandler was a new hire, fresh from Parsons. He helped Kyle, mostly, but also assisted Reena if she had too much on her plate.

When he’d first started working for the Anderson firm, in June, he’d followed Cooper around like a yapping dog, forever gushing. Two days later, he’d asked Cooper out, and had seemed miffed when he was let down gently.

After that, Chandler had zeroed in on Blaine as the next best thing, and had started his spiel with him. Blaine wasn’t any more interested than Cooper had been, so he tried as hard as he could to avoid Chandler, and if he couldn’t, he pretended not to hear or not to understand his innuendoes and invitations.

Chandler proved persistent, though, and never gave up, so in the end, Blaine had to tell him plainly that he was wasting his time.

Ever since, Chandler had walked around the sets with a face like thunder, doing as little as he could get away with and slyly instigating fights between models or giving them wrong clothes on purpose. Blaine had started documenting every misstep Chandler made. He wanted the guy out, but Coop refused to fire him without solid proof of misbehavior. “We can’t afford to lose an employee! We’re run off our feet as it is! Also, he’s the kind of guy who’d sue us for firing him, you just know it.”

So Blaine bided his time and built his case bit by bit, without Chandler being the wiser.

Now, the guy seemed to have zeroed in on Kurt. Maybe because Blaine had greeted him with so much enthusiasm?

Whatever the reason, Blaine would watch him like a hawk. No-one would harm Kurt. Not while Blaine was around.

Absently, he stopped Kurt from falling when he tripped over the pants he was putting on, and then sent him to Reena while he helped Kyle unbox the hats. Chandler was supposed to do that, but had disappeared.

It wasn’t until Blaine was introducing Kurt to Mandy and the other handlers that he saw Chandler again, skulking around the horses with a smirk on his face.

Blaine sent him back to Kyle at once, and hoped that the misgivings he felt would prove to be an overreaction.

When he saw the saddle slide off Kurt’s horse when he tried to mount it, he knew that his hunch had been correct. Chandler was targeting him. Sabotaging him.

Blaine maneuvered his own horse closer to Kurt’s, and sighed in relief when the next half hour, nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Just as he was lulled into complacency, though, he saw Chandler pop up again in his line of vision, and he was holding… Was that a sparkler? The guy was mad!!

Blaine rode in Chandler’s direction, hoping to wrestle the sparkler from him before it went off.

Too late! Chandler threw it in front of Kurt, and it exploded with a flash and a bang, spooking the horses, especially Kurt’s.

Thankfully, Kurt was a good enough rider to keep the animal under control and to stop it from trampling anything or anyone.

Blaine was livid, though. He signaled to Jason from Security to follow him, and chased Chandler, who was now running away.

Blaine blocked Chandler from leaving the warehouse and had Jason take him into custody until Cooper would deal with him.

Then he had to go back and smile and sing and pretend to have a nice evening out with friends. With the rage that simmered inside of him, it was hard pretending everything was fine, and Blaine found himself slipping towards the end, glaring at Puck when he belittled Kurt.

As soon as Kurt and his friends were gone, Blaine confronted his brother, showing them the footage of Chandler throwing the sparkler. It had all been caught on camera, and was all the proof they needed to get rid of this psychopath.

“Don’t you dare put your head in the sand again! This guy is dangerous, and we need to get rid of him!”

Cooper nodded, his mouth a thin line. “You’re right. Kurt could have been hurt or killed. My future brother-in-law!”

Blaine quirked an eyebrow at his brother, but he seemed completely serious.

“Consider him gone, squirt. I’ll fire him and sue him for damage.”

“What damage? Nothing was destroyed. Kurt is an excellent horseman.”

“We know that. But Chandler doesn’t, and neither will his counsel. We’ll give the money to Kurt, as grievance compensation.”

K&B

It took nine months until they heard from Kurt again.

Blaine had done his utmost to get rid of the crush that would never go anywhere, seeing as Kurt preferred Cooper.

Still, when Coop waved a wedding invitation at him and sing-songed, “Look what your Kurt sent us!”, Blaine felt his heart skip a beat, and he snatched the card out of Cooper’s hands.

“My, my, someone’s eager!”

Blaine paid no attention to his brother’s teasing and focused on the wedding information.

The people getting married this time were Mercedes and Sam. That last name rang a bell. That was the blond cowboy from the jeans commercial, and probably also the Jaws guy that proposed at the Halloween party.

The venue was a church in Ohio.

“Ohio?”

Cooper grinned. “Yep, they’re originally from Ohio, like us. Lima. That’s about two hours from Westerville.”

“You’re going all the way to Ohio to attend a wedding? Of two people you don’t know?”

Coop looked offended. “Hey! I do know them! Just because you’re unsociable and taciturn doesn’t mean I am! They were at Brittany and Santana’s wedding, and then at the Halloween party too. I danced with Mercedes and talked about modelling with Sam. Booked him for several ads, and talked to him at the shoot each time. So there.”

Blaine shrugged. “Okay. Yeah, I’ve talked to Sam too. We’ve done quite a few ad campaigns together by now. He’s into Star Wars, like me. Gave me some great recs for FinnPoe fanfic. He’s nice, I guess. A very laid-back guy. Never makes a fuss about anything.”

“So put it in your Outlook calendar. We’re going to Ohio next month!”

“Yay.”

“You could sound a little more enthusiastic, you know.”

Blaine rolled his eyes, and then jumped up with his arms in the air. “Yaaay!!”

Cooper beamed. “That’s more like it. Any suggestions as to what I should buy them? It’s a pretty boring wedding registry list this time around.”

K&B

Blaine suppressed a sigh and pretended to sip his wine. As soon as the Anderson brothers had arrived home for the weekend, their mother had arranged for the whole family to go out to dinner, and surprise, surprise, when they entered the restaurant, a business partner of their father just happened to be there with his wife and daughters, and invited the Andersons to come sit with them.

Clearly, Pam Anderson hadn’t given up on matchmaking. Not that it would ever work. Cooper was charming, but slithered out of any attempt the girl made to score his phone number or a date. And Blaine, well, he was gay, no matter how deep in denial his parents seemed to be about that. So the girl sitting across from him was out of luck. He did try to be friendly and sociable, though. After all, his mother’s scheming wasn’t the girl’s fault.

His father became more boisterous and talkative after a few glasses of wine. The endless stream of words that came out of his mouth made Blaine despair of ever getting out of there. He’d been working long hours all week, and was exhausted and cranky. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep.

Cooper had bags under his eyes too, but he smiled and talked as if he was having the time of his life. Sometimes, Blaine envied Cooper’s easy manners.

The more exuberant their father got, the more he gesticulated, until at one point, he knocked Blaine’s glass over. It was still full, and the wine soaked and stained Blaine’s shirt and pants.

Blaine grimaced and excused himself from the table. When he turned around the corner, he bumped into someone, and started apologizing until he noticed exactly who it was. Chandler!

“What are you doing here?” he hissed.

“Is anything the matter?” a cool voice said.

Blaine looked at the newcomer, and froze when he saw it was Kurt. Chandler smiled at Kurt and slid his arm through the crook of his elbow. What? Were they dating?

“Nothing’s the matter, sweetie,” Chandler purred, patting Kurt’s arm and smirking at Blaine.

Kurt quirked an eyebrow, and then took in the stains on Blaine’s clothes. “Oh dear, you need to get those stains out stat before they dry in and become even harder to get out. Pour some really hot water on the stains and they should disappear. I hope the restrooms here have hot water on tap.”

Blaine hated that Kurt had to see him like this, and hurried away with a quick “Bye!” thrown over his shoulder.

The restroom, of course, only had cold water, so he had to go back to his table with the stains still there, shivering because his shirt and crotch were so cold and wet.

Cooper took one look at him, got up and announced that he would drive Blaine home, waving off their parents’ protests and glibly excusing himself to their father’s business partner and family.

“Thanks for giving me an out!” Coop said when they were in his rental car. “I was getting bored.”

“Same. Hey, you know who I ran into while going to the bathroom?”

“Kurt, right? I saw him a few tables over, with Sam and Mercedes and their family. Probably the rehearsal dinner.”

Blaine scowled. “Not just him. He was with Chandler, of all people.”

“Chandler? As in the guy I fired and sued?”

“Yep. They seemed pretty cosy.”

“Wait. What? You think they’re dating?”

“Looks like it. Do you think Chandler’s plotting something else? To get back at the lot of us? Should I warn Kurt?”

Cooper whistled long and slow. “It’s possible. But I don’t think Kurt will believe you. It’s your word against Chandler’s, and you’ve been too rash with your accusations before.”

Blaine clenched his jaw. Yes, that was true. But he was scared for Kurt, and anyone else Chandler might target. “Do we still have that private investigator following Chandler around and documenting his every move?”

“Yep. You said to keep tabs on him for at least a year. Because you thought he’d try and retaliate.”

Blaine raked a hand through his curls, and winced when his fingers were instantly coated in hair gel. “I have a really bad feeling about this. I’m going to get in touch with the P.I. to see what Chandler’s been up to lately.”

Coop shrugged. “Go ahead, squirt.”

The phone call to the PI, and the pictures and videos the man e-mailed to him, made Blaine even more uneasy.

Chandler had moved to Ohio after he’d been fired, and was now living with his parents again. He’d found a job in a wedding dress store, and had done nothing interesting until the day Kurt and his friend had turned up at the store. The PI told Blaine that they’d come out of the store without the woman trying on any dresses, and the video he’d taken showed Kurt looking displeased, and telling his friend that Chandler didn’t have a clue what would look good on her. The rest of the conversation was even more enlightening. Apparently, Kurt had briefly dated Chandler in high school. Was that why Chandler bore him a grudge? Because things hadn’t worked out then? If so, why were they dating again now?

After Kurt and his friend had left the store, Chandler had quit his job, just like that, and had started stalking Kurt, following him around whenever Kurt was in Ohio to help his friends prepare their wedding. Chandler had also orchestrated “chance meetings” with Kurt at all the important places: the bakery for the wedding cake, the flower shop for the church decoration, the venue for the reception and dinner. Not at the church, but the PI had spotted him there, too.

“He’s forever snooping around without making it seem so,” said the PI. “If he weren’t such a fucker, I’d employ him. He’d be good at this job.”

Blaine shuddered at the thought of Chandler as a PI. That would lead to blackmail, for sure.

“He’s been back at the bakery, the flower shop and the restaurant several times. Under several pretexts, and dressed up differently, so as not to be recognized.”

So far, Chandler hadn’t done anything harmful, though. That was the PI’s conclusion.

“I’m sure he’s planning something,” Blaine told him. “And it won’t be pretty. The wedding is tomorrow, so I need you to hang on to Chandler like a barnacle. Maybe contact a colleague so that you can shadow him around the clock. I wouldn’t put it past him to try something tonight.”

“Around the clock? That’ll cost you!”

“I can afford it, trust me.”

“All right, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Call me the minute he steps out of line, understood?”

“Will do.”

#bbb2020 #blaine big bang 2020 #klaine fanfiction #my fic #out of the blue

4 notes · View notes

thesaltyoceanwaves · 5 years

Text

Bewitched - from “Nice Guy Adrien the Musical” AU

AU is by @lenoreofraven

Ao3

Warning now that this fic (as is the AU it’s based in) isn’t exactly Adrien-friendly, so if you don’t like that, I’d ignore this.

Also, I chose to pretty much ignore everything in s3 after Chameleon, but Dragonbug will still be here.

“Your blackened intentions are so obvious. I’m not so innocent anymore. Why did you change? Unforgettable. You are really a bad, bad boy.” - Reason to Become a Witch, NS Yoon-G

-~-~-~

As of late, Marinette has begun to see the irony in her inheriting powers based on being lucky. Not that she never had any doubts concerning the Ladybug Miraculous, but considering the events of the past few weeks, she’s not sure how anyone could connect her to the concept of good fortune.

First, there had been Lila. Lila, who promised on her very first day back to make Marinette’s friends and classmates turn against her. At the time, Marinette didn’t take her threats too seriously. She didn’t have time for Lila’s petty little drama and ambitions for popularity, and yet she had to keep a sharp eye in case she tried pulling a fast one on Marinette’s friends.

That day came when Lila had to give her mythology report. The girl begged and begged Ms. Bustier to allow her to choose something from Italian mythology, under the excuse that she was “sharing her culture” with the rest of the class. From the way she smirked, Marinette instantly knew she had ulterior motives.

“Il Malocchio,” she said, making her voice tremble, “Or the evil eye. It’s said that anyone who is swallowed by envy will receive a glare of judgment from higher forces and be cursed.”

Of course, Marinette knows that this isn’t true. She wasn’t 100% caught up on her Italian mythology, but her grandmother taught her that the “cursed” one was the subject of envy, not the one suffering from it.

One glance over at Adrien reminds her to take the high road. And so she suffers in silence.

“And the way to tell if someone has been cursed is…” her eyes fall on Marinette and she gawks. “Oh. My. It seems our class president has had an awful encounter with misfortune.”

She snorts. “And how can you tell?”

“Well, I happen to be related to Professor. Occhiodestro, an incredibly respected expert on mythology and witchcraft in Italy. He had me study in his seminar at age ten, and learn how to study people’s auras. And according to my reading, Marinette, yours has been infected with a black eye, the sign of Malocchio.”

Of course her classmates were quick to start gossiping. Even Alya shot her a concerned glance.

“Thankfully, the means of breaking the curse are easy,” Lila explains, “The first step is admitting to your source of envy. So Marinette, tell us, who is it that you envy?”

“I’m not envious of anyone,” Marinette spits, “If anything, I’m annoyed you’re dragging me into your presentation to make an example of me, especially without my consent.”

Lila, of course, was not satisfied with this answer. She pouted and cried, making the class study Marinette with raised eyebrows. Just like when Lila first returned. Only Adrien offered an apologetic smile.

But that wasn’t the end of it. When the class wasn’t looking, Lila went out of her way to arrange for “pranks” to make it seem like Marinette was actually cursed. Tripping more often. Water spilling from above and drenching her. Interfering with girl group activities and rearranging the plans at the last second, making it seem like Marinette “forgot” and then forging evidence that Lila did sent the text to her and Marinette should have received it.

Looking back on it though, all of that was to be expected from Lila. She’s not even sure why she’s disappointed.

But then there was Alya. Story-chasing, stubborn as hell Alya. The same reporter who preached “fact-checking” only to give Lila a pass because her stories were so amazing and gave her another chance to be close with Ladybug. It wasn’t enough that Alya already knew Ladybug, got an interview with Ladybug and even worked with Ladybug. No, she had to continue posting interview after interview with Lila gushing about her “best friend” with no inkling of self-awareness of what she was doing.

And of course, once Lila’s pranks started becoming relentless, Alya started entertaining the possibility that Marinette really was cursed.

“Ha, maybe that’s why you still can’t confess to Adrien! I’m sure if you just broke the curse like Lila said, everything would be better!”

That comment annoyed her for many reasons. But one was for a reason that, while obvious on the surface, came to be for different reasons.

She tried desperately hard to fight back the tears in her eyes as she walked away from Master Fu’s. The conversation had been long and hard, but it was time for her to take a real break from being Ladybug. If her trip to China made her realize anything, it was how much more refreshed and light she felt when she wasn’t in constant contact with Chat Noir. And she hated that realization because it used to be the opposite. But lately…

Turning into the park near her house, Marinette is cut off with the sudden arrival of the cat hero, plopping down behind her. She doesn’t have to look to know that his face is glowing with a proud smirk.

“Princess! Wow, your hair looks so beautiful down!” he reaches forward to touch her shoulder, and she instantly shudders, especially as he gestures to turn her around, “The only thing that could be more beautiful is… you’re crying?”

Great. No, this is it. It’s finally time to put an end to this. Sniffling, she rubs away the rest of her tears, and stares him straight in the eye.

“M’lady, what’s the matter? Who did this to you?”

“You did,” she says, her voice somehow even. “You made me upset.”

His face falters, and he crosses his arms over his chest. “What are you talking about? I’ve done everything I could to make you happy. I’ve been the perfect gentleman! If anything,” he pouts, “ You’re the one who’s upset me. Why can’t you see how ridiculous you’re being? I mean, I love you and you love me . Why do you have to continue to insist on pushing me away?”

Because, she thought bitterly, you’re my third strike out.

He wasn’t even supposed to know about her feelings, but of course, Liar Rossi struck yet again. Part of her plan included getting Marinette to spill out her feelings for Adrien by accident, having him secretly listen in on it the whole time. It led to an awkward conversation afterward where he basically rejected her. It sucked at the time, but she accepted it and was ready to move on. The Chameleon incident had already somewhat soured her feelings toward him anyway, so perhaps this was for the best.

But then the reveal happened. A reveal that wasn’t supposed to happen and a reveal that left her caught entirely off guard. It was so much for her to process, and she wanted to sit down as she reconciled the actions of the two personas.

His eyes lit up when he realized it was her, and she had no doubt in her mind that he wasn’t weighing the same thoughts as her. His feelings were reciprocated! So of course, when he went to ask her out again , he was truly confident that she wouldn’t say no again! They could finally become Paris’ Power Couple, both in and out of the costume.

Weeks ago, she never would have thought of turning Adrien down.

“Well, since there’s no secrets between the two of us anymore, I think we can finally make it official, don’t you think?”

“I don’t think so.”

The pause that settles over them is the most awkward experience she’s ever had around him. More awkward than her stuttering, more awkward than her fumbling over her words, and even more awkward than her trying to avoid his line of sight as she innocently went about her business.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard you right,” he laughs, “What did you say?”

“I said , I don’t think we should date.”

“But… you like me.”

She’s slow to respond to this. “I do.”

“So then what’s the problem?”

“The problem is that this all happening so fast.” She frowns. How can he be so calm about all of this? “Now knowing that you were Chat Noir the entire time, it puts a lot of your actions and behaviors toward me in a new light. And because of that, I need some time to think.”

“What is there to think about? We’re in love!”

“Everything!” she exclaims, trying to bite back hot tears. Damn, why did she have to get so caught up like this now? Tikki stares at her with her own tearful eyes, silently begging her to calm down. “W-Whether or not this relationship is right for me, what’s healthy for me… You knew about Lila, all the lies she told and yet never did a thing about it. In fact, you told me to do nothing and insisted that it wasn’t hurting anyone! All the while, she targeted me specifically and threatened me in the bathroom!”

“But-”

“Or how about how you treated me after I rejected you, multiple times ? I only had to do that because you felt like your feelings were more important than mine and you couldn’t let it go after the first time! You even sulked during akuma attacks, like when the entire city was frozen over!”

“But-”

“And I know you’ve flirted with multiple girls, like Rena Rouge and me before you found out who I was. Which, if that’s who you want to be, whatever. But I don’t want a boyfriend that leads other people on, even as a joke.”

“Marinette…”

She turns her back to him, lowering her head. “I don’t hate you. I still really like and care about you. And I know you have good in your heart. You’ve proven multiple times that you’re worthy of the cat miraculous. But that doesn’t make you perfect for me. Sorry Adrien, but I think we’re better off just as friends for now.”

Those hot tears come back in full force, and now she’s hissing through her teeth. “ I rejected you! Multiple times! I told you that I don’t want to be your girlfriend, Adrien!”

“You don’t have to keep saying that!” he yells back, grasping her by her shoulders, “I know you only think that because of them ! You just can’t see it, because you’re afraid to love-”

“No!” she cries, pushing him away, “It’s because I wasn’t interested in you! It’s because I thought you and I weren’t going to work!” Her fingers curl inward and god she doesn’t think she’s ever shook as much as she is right now. Even with all the years of Chloe bullying her or all the crap Lila’s been tossing her way lately, she’s never felt such rage. “We’re not even dating, and yet look at what you’ve done! I lost Alya and I lost my desire to ever see you!”

“Don’t blame this on Alya,” he harrumphs, “She’s only acting that way because you refuse to see reason. I’ve given you so many chances to see the truth, but you’re only refusing to because you’re bored of me or because you’re too lazy.”

Lazy? Her? How can he stand there and proclaim his love to her and then go on to say such awful, untruthful things about her? The worst part is that she knows he’ll just expect her to forgive him, or better yet, have her apologize for how wrong she was for just not putting in the effort for them.

The only thing stopping her at this point from cursing his name and telling him to go straight to hell is the fact that she could be targeted for an akuma. If only Tikki were here to back her up.

When she finally manages to recompose herself, even just a little, she makes sure her glare is hard and that he sees it. “Stop being so damn selfish. I stopped hanging out with you because you made me uncomfortable. I had no clue what you’d be willing to do and that made me feel unsafe.”

He returns her glare, only to falter. Following his gaze, she realizes what he’s so horrified of now.

“Y-Your earrings…” he gasps, “Don’t tell me… H-Hawkmoth-”

“No. They’re safe. You’ll be meeting the new wielder, whoever they are, soon.”

His jaw drops at this, and she has to admit, part of her feels really bad about all of it. It’s not as if she wanted everything to get to this point. “You’re leaving me?”

If it hadn’t already, her heart would have broken into pieces.

But she’s done pitying him.

“I’m not yours to keep.”

A moment ago, he was on the verge of tears. It seems he managed to successfully swallow them down though, because now he starts laughing. “So you got bored of being a hero too, huh? God, how selfish can you be? You’re gonna leave Paris in danger because of a couple of bad days or a silly miscommunication? And after everything I’ve done for you...”

All of what he says she knows is just projection. None of it is true. But maybe, she hopes, that by him saying all that, getting it off his chest, he’ll finally stop and leave. Finally, she can be done with this and move on.

He sighs, planting his hand on her shoulder yet again. “It’s okay. I know it’s just a phase. But we’re going to get through it-”

She lets out a hard screech. “This isn’t a phase !” Taking a moment to wipe away her new tears, she sighs before she begins again. “I did this because I thought you’d leave me alone.”

“Bugaboo, you know I could never leave you alone. I’m practically your knight in shining armor. The yang to to your yin. We complete each other.”

“Chat, please-”

“No! Not until you tell me why you did it and you apologize for making me feel this way!”

“What other choice did I have? You broke up one of the most important friendships I’ve ever had, you kept getting in the way of relationships I was trying to build with other people, you keep messaging me from new accounts whenever I block you… what do I have to apologize for? I’m so done with apologizing for things that aren’t my fault!”

“You have to apologize because you made me do those things!” he sniffled, actually sniffled. “I only wanted to treat you like the princess that you were, and make you feel safe.”

“I didn’t need you to make me feel safe. I needed you to listen to and respect me.”

“And I didn’t need that from you?”

“I think that’s quite enough of your obstinance, Chat Noir.”

Relief overtakes Marinette as she realizes who that voice belongs to. The new red superhero drops down, standing in front of Marinette and regarding Chat Noir with a hard stare. Judging from the features of the suit, she’s decided to take both Tikki and Longg for this confrontation, even if it’s overkill.

“An imposter Dragonbug,” he hisses, “What are you doing here?”

“First off, you will refer to me as Ryukōun,” she fires back, “Second, I’m here by request of the Master to protect her.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that. She’s purrr-fectly safe with me.”

“Correction, I’m here to protect her from you. And if you insist on continuing to act the way you are,” she takes a step forward, getting right in his face, “I’ll have no choice but to protect Plagg from you as well.”

“You dare threaten me?” he hisses, “I earned my claws! You’re nothing but a rookie hero that had to use two kwamis to stand a chance against me!”

“I don’t need a kwami to stand up to you,” she retorts, “And I’ll have you know between the time you started harassing her and me intervening, I fought off four akumas targeting her because of the stress you’re causing her.” She backs off, placing a hand on Marinette’s shoulder and studying her expression. As a calm overcomes her, Ryukōun smiles briefly. Returning her attention back to Chat Noir, however, her frown is back in full force. “This is your last warning, cat.”

Huffing, he raises an eyebrow, “How do I know you’re not an akuma?”

“Because the only one hurting anyone here right now is you.”

No experience in the past few weeks had been as terrifying as seeing Chat’s face contort with such rage as he lunges for Ryukōun. Gasping as he launches himself towards them, she doesn’t have enough time to jump out of the way. Thankfully, the new dragon-bug hero shoves her out of the line of fire. She finds herself frozen on the ground, watching the fight as it breaks out.

“Marinette, get going!” Ryukōun shouts.

Her first instinct is to run toward her house, but she knows that if things go wrong, Chat Noir will only show up there and refuse to leave. And she doesn’t want to imagine just what he’d do at that point.

Where can she go? Where can she be safe? She runs and runs, trying to think of solutions. Tikki once said that figuring out solutions to your problems would keep her from being akumatized, and she’s well aware that she’s pushing her luck at this point.

But what solution does she have at this point? And really, hadn’t her luck ran out by now?

She stops in an alley, huffing and puffing and shaking. Staring down at the ribbons that used to carry her pigtails, she only barely manages to catch a glimpse of the purple butterfly as it possesses her.

“Bewitched. I am Hawkmoth. For too long, you have been cursed with responsibility and cursed with unfair expectations. Too many cruel and nasty people have trampled your heart, taking advantage of your kindness, even heroes like Chat Noir. But I can give you the power to curse them back, force them to see the error of their ways. And all I ask in return is for Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculouses. What do you say? Do we have a deal?”

It’s selfish that she would even consider this option. Hawkmoth has hurt countless people at this point, even if the damage was mostly reversed.

Even now, being offered what it is she should want, Marinette finds herself cursed with bad luck. Perhaps Lila hadn’t been entirely lying this entire time.

She can’t help but laugh. He doesn’t realize it, but Hawkmoth is going to pay. All of them will pay. Lila for her manipulations. Alya for her disloyalty. Adrien for his false and ugly heart.

She doesn’t utter a single word as she allows for the akuma to take over.

The process is simultaneously terrifying and liberating. Like a snake, she sheds her previous skin of nervousness, exhaustion and ire. And now, she embraces her new power, and the previous feelings of resentment and bitterness she was previously forced to swallow down. She always had to be the good guy and not let her feelings get the best of her? Well, whoever thought that would pay the price for expecting such a thing from her!

Damn, what a weight she had been carrying. She smiles, for what feels the first time after long, hellish weeks.

“Hawkmoth, if I may give you a suggestion? Allow me the rest of the evening to plan my attack. By tomorrow morning, Chat Noir will no longer have his miraculous.”

“That sounds promising. And tell me, what about Ladybug?”

She smirks. “She’s not going to be a problem.”

Adrien finds himself simultaneously dragging himself to school and also being too excited to get there and confirm that Marinette is alright. Last night’s confrontation wasn’t supposed to end with her disappearing into the night, and him spending all of that time looking everywhere desperately for her. Even when he tried checking her bedroom, there was no sign of her anywhere.

The school yard is full of students laughing and chatting without a care in the world. A group of his own classmates, the girls mostly, crowd over Lila, no doubt telling them about her wonderful trip to Nova Scotia she’s going on next week. They practically fawn over every word, and he can’t help but kick himself. If he had done something about Lila all those weeks ago, would Marinette be at his side now?

He doesn’t bother to hide the dirty glare he shoots them all. How can they all be so carefree and innocent, while he has to deal with the toil of a stubborn love? Why couldn’t their relationship be as simple and Ivan and Mylene’s, who currently sit at a bench, cuddling and watching videos on their phone?

Looking to the left of them, he spots Nino and Alya standing off from each other, deep in conversation. The couple may not have been in the best spot right now, but at least they had each other. He’d do anything to trade spots with them right now, if it meant he got to call Marinette his girlfriend.

Dragging himself over to them, he barely manages to mutter a ‘good morning.’ The two of them exchange concerned glances with each other.

“Dude, you look like hell,” Nino comments, “Didn’t sleep well last night?”

“I had a fight with Marinette,” he answers abruptly.

“Oh, Adrien,” Alya sighs, “I’m sorry about that. I don’t know what’s gotten into Marinette lately. I’m sure she’ll come around.”

He shoots a smile at the journalist, not sure that it’s convincing. Still, how exactly can he explain to her that Marinette ended up running away the previous evening because of that damn Ryukōun?

Nino, on the other hand, doesn’t seem so sympathetic.

“You’re still going on about this?” Nino asks, crossing his arms over his chest. “Dude, I think you’ve crossed some serious lines. You’re not just scaring Marinette anymore. You’re scaring me too, man.”

“Come on, man,” Adrien laughs, patting his shoulder, “You and Alya know what it’s like to be crazy mad in love, right?”

“Neither one of us have ever done the sort of shit you’ve done,” Nino argues, “We’ve always respected each other’s boundaries. Dude, if this is what you’re willing to do just courting her, what are you going to do once you start dating her?”

He doesn’t have to say anything for Nino for him to understand that what he just said was a mistake. Adrien didn’t think he had it in him, but he’s sure he just emulated a dirty look befitting of his father.

“Are you accusing me of something Nino? Because you’re my friend, and I would hope for better from you.”

“It’s because I’m your friend that I’m saying all this.”

A silence falls between the two of them, and for once, Adrien isn’t sure what to say. Why, he asks himself, can’t people just let these kind of things go? Why is it that everywhere he goes, someone always finds something to criticize him for? All of them are just like his father, trying to keep him under their control. He just never would have expected this sort of behavior from his own best friend.

What sort of friend would do that, especially a friend that hated his father?

Shrieks from the girls’ group interrupt them before they can exchange any more words. He looks up at the top of the building and wishes he hadn’t.

“I hope you all had a good morning,” a raspy, and yet familiar voice snickered, “Because it’ll be the last time any of you know good fortune.”

Oh no.

Descending from above the school ground and at the top of the stairs, is none other than Marinette. He ought to be relieved to see his lady love recovered, but seeing her now, his heart sinks.

The most notable aspect of her outfit is the complete starkness of it - there is no trace of color to it, just black and white. The only color that pops out to him are her bluebell eyes, which have now taken an icy tone.

The next thing he notices are all the spiked accessories. A choker, two rings on one hand, three on the other. There’s also the dozens of chunky bracelets on her one wrist. Even the witch hat atop her head has spikes at the base of the cone.

Her top is a white button up shirt with a camisole underneath. One of the sleeves is rolled up to her elbow, threatening to drop, while the other hangs freely at her wrist. The hem is curved at the bottom, and hangs freely over her black biker shorts, cut off just a bit over the knee. Underneath the shorts are a pair of black and white striped leggings. To finish it all off, she dons a shiny pair of black military boots, taking powerful, marching steps down the stairs.

With all eyes on her, her face breaks into a grin. A wicked grin that he’s only ever seen in his nightmares, and it’s enough to break his heart. Who could have done such a thing to his lady, his princess?

“M-Marinette?” he barely manages to say.

Her smile disappears, replaced only with a hard glare. No, this can’t be his Marinette!. His Princess, his Lady was too smart, too strong, too good to be tainted by that Hawkmoth! Oh, if only that Ryukōun hadn’t gotten in his way! Strong, protective arms would have been wrapped around his lady, gentle fingers ready to shed away her tears, and his lips, always ready to bless her with thousands of kisses, silencing her fears with a gentle whisper.

And despite this information, he can’t help but tremble under the gaze of his possessed love.

“I am not Marinette. I am Bewitched,” she says, “And to those who cursed me…” her gaze falls upon Lila, then back to him, and that wicked smirk of hers returns, “Well, allow me to return the favor.”

#miraculous ladybug #ml salt #ml salt fic #nice guy adrien #nice guy adrien au #nice guy adrien the musical #alya salt #adrien salt #akumanette #akumatized marinette #chameleon salt

119 notes · View notes

snowfall-fanfictions · 4 years

Text

Beware the Frozen Heart Ch. 7- The Princess

Ao3 link

FF.net link

Eryn tries a different approach to Elsa’s assassination.

One last chapter before the year ends. Happy New Year!

“Your Majesty, is everything alright?”

Kai’s question caused Elsa to quickly shoot up in her chair. Everyone in the room was staring at her: her financial advisor, her military advisor, Kai, even Anna and Olaf looked on in concern. The young queen quickly recomposed herself as she rearranged the loose pieces of parchment on her desk.

“Of course,” Elsa said in a dignified tone, “Now, uh, where were we?”

“We were actually just about to wrap up our meeting for the day,” Kai announced, “Unless there was something you wished to discuss further?”

“I think we’ve covered everything for today.”

“Very well, your majesty.” With that, the advisors began shuffling out of Elsa’s office one by one, chatting with each other in indiscernible tones. As the last person left the room, Elsa began reorganizing her desk, placing the large amount of papers in somewhat neat stacks. When she looked up again, she saw Anna and Olaf in front of her desk, a worried expression overtaking their faces.

“Elsa are you sure everything’s alright?” The redhead asked, “You seem out of it today.”

“I’m fine, Anna,” Elsa replied slightly annoyed, “What makes you think something’s wrong?”

“You kinda looked distracted during the meeting today. I understand that this job is stressful and you have ,like, a bajillion things on your mind, but that’s why you have me and Olaf to help and-”

“Anna, it’s fine! Really.”

“It didn’t look fine to me,” Olaf butted in, “It’s funny, you kinda had that look on your face when Anna thinks about Kristoff and you started to pay attention more whenever Derrik’s name was mentioned and-” the snowman let out a loud gasp, “I THINK I KNOW WHAT IT IS!” Olaf lifted his head up to Anna’s ear and began whispering something indecipherable towards the princess. Anna’s face lit up like a candle as the snowman continued talking.

“Ohhhh,” Anna said after Olaf finished talking, “Is that what’s going on?” Elsa cocked an eyebrow at her sister and Olaf. “What? What’s going on?”

“Are you and Derrik… ya know?”

“Are me and Derrik wha-?” Elsa’s face turned a deep red. “Oh. Uh- well- d-don’t be ridiculous!”

“How romantic!” Anna declared as she overdramatically swooned, “Falling in love with the mysterious stranger that saved your life, fantasizing about being swept away in his muscular arms, imagining the feeling of his lips pressed against y-“

“Anna, it’s not like that! Our relationship is strictly professional!” “Looked a little more than ‘professional’ in the tailor shop the other day.” “He just tripped, that’s all. Besides, I’m really not interested.” Elsa then returned to reorganizing her desk.

“Very well…” Anna grunted as she turned around. A devilish idea came to her. “Oh, hey Derrik!”

“HUH, WHA-?” Elsa exclaimed as she jumped in her chair.

Anna turned around and cocked an eyebrow at her sister, giggling. “‘Not interested’ huh?”

The queen’s face turned bright red. “T-that doesn’t prove anything.” Elsa quickly broke eye contact with Anna as she focused on Olaf, who was currently sliding around the room like a figure skater. Looking down, she noticed that the floor was covered in a thin layer of ice. The redness in her face deepened.

“Elsa-woah!” Anna quickly raced around Elsa’s desk, cautious as to not slip on the newly formed ice as she embraced her sister. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of! I’m really happy for you!”

“It’s not like that at all, Anna,” Elsa murmured, “I don’t have time to think about stuff like that…”

“Well when you do,” Anna said with a slight pout, “Don’t be afraid to talk to me about it.” Elsa gave a faint smile as she embraced the princess. “I appreciate the support,” she laughed.

“You’ll always have me,” Anna released Elsa from her arms, “Now, how about we go down to the market and get some fresh air?”

Elsa let out a sigh. “I can’t, I’ve got one last meeting today in a few minutes.”

“Oh, that’s ok, I can just wai-”

“No, no. You don’t have to wait for me.”

“Are you sure? Because I don’t mind waiting.” “Positive. Though, if you can get me some smoked salmon I’d appreciate it.”

“Sure thing C’mon Olaf!” Anna slid carefully towards the door. With a flick of her hand, Elsa dissolved the ice covering the floor.

“Oh, and make sure to take Derrik with you! We can’t be too careful.”

The snowman and the princess exchanged looks. “We will!” the two said in unison as they shut the door.

As soon as the door was shut, Elsa slammed her head on her desk. So what if she was thinking about Derrik during the meeting? It’s not her fault that he was so kind and charming and- Elsa watched as snowflakes fell from the ceiling. Elsa groaned. It was official: She had feelings for Derrik. The idea of romance frightened the young queen, partially because it seemed like a waste of time, and partially because she never really felt worthy of love. Ever since the Great Freeze two years ago, her paranoia surrounding her powers only spiked. Now that she had Anna back in her life and the people loved her, things were better, but she wasn’t sure how romantic feelings would affect her. At the same time, seeing how happy Anna and Kristoff were together made her long for love like that. She shook the idea from her head. Her duty was to Arendelle first and foremost, especially nowadays.

Anything else had to either come later or never at all.

XXXXXX

Eyrn furiously scribbled onto the piece of parchment. Over the past few days, he had been making careful observations of the castle’s inner workings; every guard patrol, every hallway, and every hypothetical escape route. His contacts were steadily supplying him with the necessary equipment to pull it all off. All of the pieces were finally coming together for the greatest assassination in history. The fame, the prestige, all of it was soon to be his. All he needed was a few more things and-

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

“GODDAMMIT!” Eryn blurted as he hurried to hide the damning schematic. He couldn’t afford to be discovered now, not when he was so close! He lifted his mattress and shoved the parchment underneath. Eryn then rushed over to the door and flung it open. On the other side was the princess and the snowman, both beaming at him.

“Good afternoon, your highness and ,uh, Olaf,” Eryn said as he bowed, trying not to sound annoyed.

“Oh, you can just call me Anna,” the princess said, “Elsa wanted me to bring you along while we go down to the market.”

“And I get to come along, too!” The snowman butted in.

Eryn smirked at their replies. Perfect he thought. “As you wish your hi- I mean, Anna.”

“LAST ONE TO THE MARKET EATS YELLOW SNOW!” Olaf shouted as he bolted down the hall. Anna quickly dashed after him as Eryn followed suit.

“For fuck’s sake!” he growled.

XXXXXX

If there was one thing that Eryn hated more than anything it was crowds. The noise, the confusion, the multiple pairs of eyes, it all screamed hell to him. Now that he was with the princess of Arendelle, almost all of those eyes were on him. At the moment, Anna and Olaf were perusing one of the fishmongers’ stalls while he leaned against one of the support beams of the overhang. His contempt for people grew as each person passed by the princess, congratulating her on her upcoming marriage, asking her how the queen was, et cetera. It amazed him how one woman could be such a social butterfly. As he was alone with his thoughts, the dagger decided to interrupt.

We should make our move now, go see what you can find out from the princess.

I will… once she’s away from the stall.

Don’t tell me the ‘legendary’ Eryn Odrikson is afraid of people.

It’s more of the fact that people can and will eavesdrop on our conversation.

I will use the shadows to secure your conversation, just hurry and get the information we need.

Very well…

Eryn turned his gaze over to the fishmonger’s stall, where Anna was currently paying for a pound of smoked salmon. “Thanks again, Bjӧrn!” she chirped. Eryn sauntered over to her as she turned around.

“Where to next, Anna?” Eryn asked.

“This way! Come on, Olaf!” The princess then kept a steady (and, thankfully for Eryn, slow) pace. Eryn could feel the blade’s magic encase them as the world around them began to sound fuzzy.

“Ssooo, Anna,” Eryn began, “The queen has been talking about your upcoming marriage quite often. How is that going?”

Eryn soon realized how much of a mistake that was. Anna spent the next half hour gushing about how her fiance, Kristoff or something, was amazing, her first engagement that didn’t go so well, and every minute detail that they had planned out for the ceremony. Eryn had begun to check out of the princess’s long and drawn out story when she said, “I mean I appreciate Elsa’s help in this, but with her duties as queen and now I found out she has a crush on y- oop! Probably shouldn’t say that…”

Eryn perked up at the princess’s slip of the tongue. “The queen has fallen for someone?” He asked.

“Uhhhh, maybe? She’s… a little defensive about it…”

“Why can’t we say she likes Derrik?” Olaf asked absentmindedly.

“Olaf!” the princess scolded. Eryn’s eyes grew wide and felt his face heat up and his heart beat faster.

“O-Oh,” he stammered, “I, uh, don’t know what to say…”

“Does that mean you like her too?” Olaf asked.

“Uhhhh… ” “Olaf, don’t put people on the spot like that!” Anna said, “Now c’mon, we need to get back to the castle, it’s getting late.”

The three of them made the trek back to the castle without another word.

Later That Evening...

HAHAHAHAHA! This is perfect!

Eryn was busy cleaning his fresh wound on his hand as he discussed the potent information with the dagger.

You’re telling me! I should take up gambling with all this luck I’ve got!

If this goes well, you could just own a casino with all the money you’ll have!

Regardless, what should the next move be?

Gauge how valid the princess’s claims are. If the queen is truly in love with you, it will make our job even easier.

How so?

Love is an easy emotion to exploit. It causes fools to drop their guard and become predictable. It is when she is at her most vulnerable that we will strike. Hmmm… I sense that something about this feels… wrong to you…

I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Your thoughts… is that remorse I sense?

Of course not!

Don’t let your human thoughts get in the way of this, Odrikson…

You worry too much! It’ll be fine!

#frozen fanfiction #disney frozen #OC #queen elsa #princess anna #olaf #kristoff #Eryn Odrikson #blood tw #gore tw #mature #duke of weselton #hans #fanfiction #assassination

2 notes · View notes