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unhitches-similes · 1 year

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Miraculous Fic: Reassurances

I wanted to do a little something in honor of @ladrienjune since it's going on, but my brain is also still kinda stuck on my BFF Swap + Reverse Crush AU. So, here's something that IS by definition Ladrien, but the dynamic's a bit different because, well, reverse lovesquare.

Anyhow, enough of me. Please enjoy the story!

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Summary: Adrien wasn’t expecting to find Ladybug outside his house looking for all the world like she’d been carrying the world on her shoulders and somehow dropped it.

Notes: AU Season 1, Best Friend Swap + Reverse Lovesquare

Dialogue Prompt – "It's nothing, I'm just tired." Ladrien June Prompt – 5. Just Friends

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Read on Ao3

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Adrien was pacing around his room as he talked on the phone with his best friend. (His best friend! He was still growing used to the idea, even though Alya often pointed out that they’d already been friends even before going to school together.) His constant movement had more to do with excess energy than any sort of discontent.

The blond was just walking across the cushions of his sofa when movement outside his windows caught his attention. It was hard to see in the dark with his ordinary human vision, and it went by quickly, but Adrien could have sworn he had just seen…

No. They’d just fought an akuma earlier that day, surely there wasn’t another one already? If there was, Alya probably would have been one of the first to know – she kept track of such things – and definitely would have said something rather than continuing her thorough breakdown of the latest battle fought by the United Heroez. But why else would Ladybug be out at this hour?

“Alya, I’ll have to call you back,” Adrien interrupted.

“What? No,” Alya protested. “I was just getting to the best part!”

“I know, but later, okay? I’ve got to do something real quick.”

“Fine, but if you don’t call back soon, I can’t promise I won’t spam you with text messages.”

“I’d expect nothing less.”

Disconnecting the call, Adrien slid the phone into his pocket before bounding over to his windows, trying to see if he could spot (ha!) Ladybug in the darkness. “Plagg, did you see anything?”

The teen turned around when the kwami gave no response. Plagg was sprawled on his back on the bed, in a cheese coma, no doubt. Repressing a sigh, Adrien jogged over to grab the sleepy kwami and slip him into a pocket.

Poking his head out his bedroom door, he glanced both ways before stepping out into the hall. It wouldn’t do for Nathalie or his father to see him sneaking outside the house late at night, even if he wasn’t planning on going far. (Nevermind that he did so all the time as Chat Noir. This situation was different.)

Adrien looked around as he quietly exited through a side door. Whatever he thought he’d seen had appeared to be moving in this direction. Who was he kidding, though? Even if he had seen Ladybug and she had gone by his house, why would she still be nearby? He would have had better luck finding whatever or whoever it was as Chat Noir.

Just as he was about to give up the search and head back inside, he heard a muffled sound from the other side of the wall. Hurrying over to the nearest gate, he took a moment to disable the security on it. Honestly, his father needed to be a little less predictable with his security codes. Adrien then stepped out onto the sidewalk, moving cautiously towards where he thought he heard the sound.

There! Tucked between a shrub and a burnt out streetlight, back against the stone wall and knees folded against her chest was Ladybug, spots only just discernible in the darkness. She seemed so… small, just then. Adrien wasn’t sure what exactly he had been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t to find his partner outside his house looking for all the world like she’d been carrying the world on her shoulders and somehow dropped it.

“Ladybug?” Adrien said softly.

The girl startled, eyes wide with alarm as she looked up at him, before relaxing again a moment later. “Oh, um, hi,” she responded, false cheer in her tone, her hands raising to swipe quickly beneath both eyes before resting atop her knees. “It’s Adrien, right? Shouldn’t you be at home?”

“You’re outside my house.” Adrien gestured to the structure behind her.

“Your house?” Ladybug echoed, turning her head as though to look and getting a face full of shrubbery for her trouble. (Adrien resisted the urge to laugh at the adorable look of consternation that passed over her features.) She raised to her feet and moved away from the wall to actually get a glimpse of the so-called ‘house’ in question. “Gosh, I’m sorry. I guess I must not have been paying attention to where I was going. I didn’t mean to disturb anyone.”

“No, you aren’t bothering me or anything. I just thought I saw something go past my window and came to investigate,” he assured her.

Her blue eyes turned back to him and even in the muted light of the moon, even behind her mask, they appeared red-rimmed and puffy. Like she’d been crying. The idea made Adrien’s stomach churn uncomfortably.

“If you’re sure…” said Ladybug.

“Absolutely.”

It was interesting talking to her this way, as Adrien. She always seemed so flustered around him when he was Chat. He always wished she could just talk to him the way he saw her talk to other people. He still wasn’t sure what he’d done to make her so uncomfortable around him and the times he’d tried to ask only seemed to make it worse.

“Well, I guess I should probably get going,” she announced. “You really should get back inside. It’s probably not very safe to be wandering around outside without shoes.”

Adrien glanced down to find that he was, in fact, only wearing socks. He looked back up quickly as she drew her yoyo from her hip. “No, wait!”

She blinked back at him in surprise. “Did you need something?”

“No! I mean, yes - that is,” Adrien silently berated himself as he tried to put his thoughts into coherent order. “I just… Are you okay?”

Because that was really the crux of the matter, wasn’t it? It was late at night and his partner, a girl he liked to think of as his friend, was alone and crying. And he couldn’t think of a reason why. Sure, the fight with the akuma had gone a little sideways at the start, but they had won, in the end. Everything had been fixed, hadn’t it?

“It’s nothing, I’m just tired,” she told him. She was wearing a camera-smile. Adrien could tell. He had a few of his own.

He was going to just leave it be. He should just leave it be. It wasn’t his business. Nonetheless, despite his intentions, he still blurted out, “You weren’t crying just now?”

Ladybug drew in a sharp breath, shooting him a stricken look. She looked ready to cry again and Adrien could just kick himself. Why did he have to open his big mouth? She could only just hold a conversation with his alter-ego; why would she want to talk to him as Adrien about whatever was upsetting her?

“I…” Ladybug began, expression crumpling and shoulders sagging in a way Adrien just hated to see in someone he already admired. “It’s just—”

She let out a hiccuping breath, visibly trying to fight it back only to have it be followed by another. A high-pitched sound of distress emerged then, her hand raising too slowly to properly muffle it. And then, much to Adrien’s own alarm, it was as though a dam had broken and the words and tears seemed to spill out of her.

“Everything went wrong today! At home and school, and – and then with the akuma, I made like a dozen different mistakes. I made a complete idiot of myself in front of my partner. Again. And my best friend is mad at me because I broke a promise and I can’t even explain why. It has been th-the worst day ever and now I’m just dumping all my problems on you and you don’t even know me. I must be the worst Ladybug tha—”

“Whoa – hey, I-I’m sure that’s not true!” Adrien cut in, his hands fluttering uselessly in the air between them. “You’re an awesome Ladybug! So awesome my best friend spends all her free time doing a blog about you! Have you seen it? It’s called the Ladyblog and if you haven’t visited it, you totally should! There’s a whole section just for people to leave notes to let you know how much they appreciate you and what you do. I mean, it’s for you and Chat Noir both, but you’re a team, right? Chat Noir couldn’t do what he does without you.”

His partner was staring at him again, the moonlight catching her features in a sort of melancholy relief. The sobs that had been wracking her slight frame had quieted, perhaps in surprise at his rather wordy and impassioned interjection, although tears still trickled down her face.

Hesitating just a moment, Adrien reached out to put a hand on Ladybug’s shoulder, giving a reassuring squeeze when she didn’t flinch or pull away. “You had a bad day,” he told her, “that doesn’t mean you’re a bad person or that you aren’t good at what you do. Everyone has off days and everyone makes mistakes.

“You are a good Ladybug,” Adrien asserted, trying to put all of his certainty into the words, “Paris is lucky to have you.”

Ladybug let out another sob and for a split second Adrien was afraid he had said something wrong before she crashed against him, arms going around his waist as she buried her face in his chest. The boy returned the embrace, pressing his cheek against the top of her head and making reassuring noises the way Alya did when she comforted one of her sisters.

They stood there for a moment, Adrien rubbing a hand soothingly along Ladybug’s back. Part of him wanted to ask what she’d meant when she said she’d made an idiot of herself in front of him, but of course, Ladybug didn’t know he was also Chat Noir. He wished once more that she’d been less adamant about keeping their identities a secret. Maybe then there’d be some better way for him to help her. Maybe she wouldn’t be so flustered around Chat if she knew he was just Adrien beneath the mask. Nonetheless, it was obvious he’d have to do something to encourage her more the next time they were both in costume.

“Thanks,” Ladybug finally said, stepping away from him. Her hands brushed over her cheeks again and she was mostly back to the Ladybug the city had come to know. “And sorry for crying all over you.”

“It’s fine. I’m glad to help,” he told her.

She gifted him a smile – a real one, this time – and something about the expression seemed so familiar. “You’re sweet. Who would have known the boy whose face is all over Paris would be such a sweetheart?”

A blush rose to his face unbidden and Adrien scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, well, who’d think Ladybug would tease someone she just met?” he countered with a small grin. Her laughter rang through the air before she leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek.

“Thank you, Adrien.”

“Anytime.”

She turned to leave again and Adrien reached out to put a hand on her arm to delay her departure.

“I mean it, Ladybug,” he told her. “Anytime you need a friend, you know where to find me.”

“I’ll remember that.” She smiled softly and then she was gone, leaving him alone on the sidewalk. As Adrien turned to go back inside, his phone in his pocket started to vibrate with a series of rapid-fire texts. Right on cue.

Pulling his phone out as he went back inside, Adrien hoped that Ladybug would be okay. He also hoped that one day, he’d be able to have a conversation with her as Chat Noir without feeling like he was stressing her out. (He would, but it wouldn’t be for some time yet.)

He nearly got caught heading back to his room. Alya had sent him a meme that made him burst out laughing.

~*~

End.

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floccinaucinihilipilificationa · 7 months

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#good omens #´hello friends!! how are you!!#I hope you're doing well! ( ´ ▽ ` )#I have a big cough but otherwise I am good! It's nothign bad I am just very slimey #usually I am not a cough person I am not sure where this is coming from #most of the time I just get a stuffy nose #has my nose gotten stronger #but there are good news too I have already found a VERY good chestnut to put into my pocket this autumn!! its very small! (❁´▽`❁)#it's been a very warm autumn in Germany so far so it has not really felt like fall yet #but yesterday it was all rainy and stormy and I had two new books and it was the best day possible to have a slimey cough (:#and now I feel SO much autumn I am close to buying a set of window colors #I do not know what I would to with the window colors I just have this strong urge in me to buy a window color set #the last time I did a window color was at the birtday of a class mate I think she turned 9 and I made a deer #but for some reason we did this craft 5 minutes before we all had to leave so we had to carry our window color deer home wet #unfortunatly for the deer and me I fell down the stairs of her house and smeared the deer all over me and i screamed the entire drive home #which wasn't very long but it probably felt very long for the mother who had a screaming child covered in window color deer inside her car

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wyvernity · 2 months

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been thinking about the sinnohtrio lately......plus misc other stuff

also, casual ko-fi drop!! get something in this sketchy style starting at $10 woop woop

#finally decided to do a commission test run u_u #pokemon #trainer lyra #trainer kris #trainer dawn #trainer lucas #rival barry #rival silver #ayalumi #hisuian zorua #luxio #timeskip tag #rkgk #anyway it's sinnoh time !!!#still figuring out their designs and lore but this works for now #god's specialest little guys & their very normal bestfriend who they would kill/die for. up to interpretation who is killing/dying #dawn is the platinum protag who meets giratina and becomes champion #distortion world affected her way more than compared to cynthia and cyrus since she's still a developing kid. but hey cool ghost hair!#4-5 yrs later lucas gets blasted to hisui..lost his memory for the three years he's there and when arceus sends him back he's just like Man #the entire time barry is CHILLING PLAYING HAVING FUN #and forever worried abt his friends ): dawn & lucas are soo nonchalant about what happened to them it's a bit concerning to everyone else #design comments umm the only thing that matters is that they still have their og scarves 👍#and i guesss these are spring/summer outfits. winter dawn gets leggings and big coat ok. she already has too much yin energy #btw i use the cleanse tag as the direct opposition to the spell tag even tho that's probably not a real thing LOL)#oh yea barry wears the tower master ribbon 24/7. tower tycoon in training and won't shut up about it (i love him)#character dynamics i will talk abt that in another post if i feel like it... these days i just want to go replay pla aughh

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newttxt · 7 months

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i cannot believe i made it to gear 5 without being spoiled,,

#one piece #luffy #gear 5 spoilers #wano spoilers #u h. so i hear ppl dont rly tag for this anymore but the sheer JOY I FELT seeing this as a surprise… i dont wanna ruin that for anyone else #to be fair. i just muted every one piece word i could AND only looked at things friends sent me #so maybe its impossible to avoid spoilers without just going offline like i have #WHATEVER. whatever. its for my peace of mind #anyway. the way my jaw hung open for like 5 episodes straight #i said a couple days earlier ‘how will oda make the end of this fight actually satisfying?’ and bree screenshotted it to show me later #yeah id never have predicted this but it SURE WAS SATISFYING

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chickenoptyrx · 7 months

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....I just wanted to draw gators :T at this point these 2 are more 'a representation of my last 2 brain cells' then they are actual characters 😅

#im living vicariously through the cartoon guys #because i want to A. pick up gator (strong man style)#and B. ..pick up gator (hug)#ok but so i recently found out an area where i take stupid little walks for my stupid little mental health #has! GATORS!! (potentially. theres signs.)#and this is great cause seeing gators would def heal me as a person #but ok so when i look for hiking places i always look north cause the terrains more hilly #but now im lookin south more cause turns out i AM in fact far enough south to see gators!!#and yeah looks like theres a handful of nature reserves w hiking trails the same distance away as the little mountain trails i go to #its flatter and the trails are less extensive so ill hafta see if i think its worth it #but then too theres a really big black water swamp that.. further away then i wanna drive..#but also i drove 5 hrs once just to go to mammoth cave as a day trip so.. we'll see..#my friend says he wont go w me tho :T he'll just report me missing #this has been a tag ramble about my sudden outset intrest in seeing a gator #my bullshit #lol barely but still #also- i told myself not to over do it drawin the scales or coloring it #and as you can see i dont listen to myself ever #lol they look outta place but idc i got to draw 2 of my favorite characters and also ALLIGATORS :U #living the dream rn

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thatgamingkid45 · 8 months

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“People think the Nether is where hell is, but hell is a fucking beach”

dedicated to everyone who tore up a beach to find the goddamn treasure chest.

#Minecraft #drawing #art #ink #digital art #procreate #title credits to my best friend #lmao #we spent so long on an old server #just trying to find the damn treasure chest #hence the quote #hell is a fucking beach #inktober #inktober 2023 #day 5 #map

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fluffyfangirl · 1 year

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Byler Week Day 5 - Secret Identities

Dedicated to my dear sister @carobelli! Thank you for feeding me the most hilarious ideas to draw and never complaining when I send you drawing updates every half an hour or so 💖

#bylerweek2023 #Day 5 Secret Identities #Will Byers #Mike Wheeler #Byler #Miraculous Ladybug AU #because Mike as Chat Noir makes absolute sense in my head #and Will is a street artist and El as his twin is a designer #Plus blind Max as Mikes best friend ofc #I kinda fell in love with the AU and I already have some more sketches and even character sheets #i just won't post as much because my days off are over and today's my first day back work #FluffyFangirlArt

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bamsara · 9 months

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It's the kind of exhaustion where I just tried to slide my card in my car's gas filler hole instead of the pump to pay for gas and stood there for 10 seconds wondering why it's not working

#hello hi sorry i havent been active last few days very much #i spent the last 5-6 days with friend in hospital and now im going BACK to the hospital #because another friend just had gallbladder surgery as well and she has a blood borne infection now #so i repacked tbe hospital bag and i have decaf coffee ok gang roll out (talking to the gang in my mind aka me)#sara shush

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irafuwas · 10 months

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im about to end this man's entire career

#malleus draconia #twst #twisted wonderland #was not expecting this to get so much traction on twitter i made it in like 5 minutes sgjkdfg #their friendship name is malletouille by the way #mal talks to remy like he would any other person and remy just stare at him with those big ol bug eyes #mal didn't want to accept remy's help at first because of his pride #but he was really struggling in master chef and he relented after he accidentally exploded an egg for the 50th time when trying to crack it #with remy's help mal passed master chef with flying colors and they remain good friends to this day #fun fact remy is canonically one of the strongest beings in existence because as long as his host as hair he can control them completely #(remy ratatouille solos malleus draconia)

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hammity-hammer · 10 months

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steve harrington realizing that he’s got no purpose if he’s not protecting the people he loves from outer-dimensional beings, and has a minor (read: major) spiral about it post-vecna & the party fixing everything. he’s just a regular ole 20 something with no purpose— his friends are all in school, except eddie, who managed to pick up an apprenticeship as an electrician; putting all of that wire knowledge to use (just not in cars, he hasn’t hotwired one since 1986 and he’d like to keep it that way si vous plais) and making the rich houses have even cooler guts than they deserve.

the kids end up graduating (their first tries) and heading as one little pack to the same school (don’t ask me which, i’m a college drop out) and steve, eddie, and rob end up staying just outside of indy. rob finished school early, because of course she did, and she found that she may have a knack for hanging around high schoolers, so why not teach them how to become polyglots like she is?

steve still doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing— he bartends at a little club in the gayborhood, because they went there so often that the bartenders just kind of pushed him into it, and don’t get him wrong— mixing drinks and flirting all night is super fun, but it also… is kind of depressing? even if he gets to be around people like him and see them happy— he knows that a lot of alcohol and drugs causes that happiness and he wants so badly for his people to be out and proud and not murdered for it. but he can’t do that,, so he does the next best thing.

he talks with one of the regulars, andy, who owns a little tattoo shop on the corner, and andy invites him to come check it out. so he does the next day he’s free, and holy fucking christ. tattoos aren’t his thing— at least not on himself, but on other people they’re gorgeous. and they’re painful, but you’re turning the pain into art and you get to live with it in your skin and look at it and think about the fact that you’re here and you made it and you fucking survived. and people purposefully put scars into their bodies? and not in the i-battled-literal-other-dimensional-beings-and-won kind of way, or the i-battled-my-personal-demons-and-won kind of way, which both are things he’s dealt with so fucking intimately— but in the i-will-decorate-this-flesh-prison-and-make-it-a-castle kind of way, and that’s fucking beautiful. queer people taking their bodies and making them into art with ink and hot metal and needles and the love that they have for each other and the passion and the fucking spite at the world that keeps them going and making their presences KNOWN.

and maybe he gets some piercings while he’s there— it’s fascinating and feels so weird and freeing when the needle punctures his flesh and the jewelry goes in— and now he’s got a shiny little ring hanging through his earlobe; his nostril; his lip.

he learns that piercings take time and effort and care and that he has to treat himself with love to be able to heal— and that he is deserving of that love and care and dedication, especially from himself.

he keeps going back, maybe not always to get stabbed, but to watch others have it done. to see how different people’s anatomy takes different piercings, how he can’t have a piercing through his cheeks because he bites them too much when he’s anxious, but the girl that just left got both of hers done and they looked good. they fit her face, like little shiny dimples.

eventually, the piercer, killie, asks steve when he’s going to help them with their needles and their piercings— and he doesn’t know how to react because he hadn’t even thought about it and yet… maybe he could help other people fall in love with themselves and their bodies and help turn them into art one day

maybe he could be a pretty boy with his scars and his metal and his missing chunks and his polos and his jeans and his sneakers.

#steve harrington #i just love him your honor #steve as a piercer would be so cute #piercer!steve #im obsessed with this and sent ro a 5 minute long voice memo today talking about him #because he is near and dear to myheart #as someone that got into piercing to help other people feel beautiful #i think that he would love this #and i absolutely think that he wouldnt know what the fuck to do post vecna #and get jealous that everyone else has a thing #and he doesnt have one #because all of his things were always things he shared #and this is one thing that he shares— but not with his friends #just with the people that own the lives that he’s changing #one stabbing at a time #also queer people in the 80s are the reason we even have the modern day piercing industry and i owe them my life #and the piercer’s name is inspired by the person that pierced my lobes when i was five #and my mom indeed has dimple piercings #so those are my little art inspired by life or whatever moments

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kirby-the-gorb · 1 year

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#kirby #daily kirby #my art #digital #hal laboratory #nintendo #it was a hard day today.#sometimes you just gotta cry for an hour about requiring significant assistance to do basic stuff that you don't actually have help with rn!#(my wife is working 6 12s at a job we had to move across the country for)#(which means 1 she is *exhausted* at *all* times and struggling to even meet her own needs)#(and 2 our other partner and all our family and friends are. multiple days away by car. so they can't come help.)#it's getting hard to even stick leftovers in the microwave for myself but no one else is able to cook for me.#it sucks.#(we're moving again in june because this was a 1-year position from the beginning)#(and the idea is for our other partner to move in with us which will help a lot)#(plus my wife should be switching to a reliably 5-day week at that time)#(but we don't know where we're going for another month and a half.)#(so we can't really do any groundwork or anything to make that happen.)#(and having zero agency other than sitting and waiting and getting worse alone Really Sucks!)#I guess this is a bit of a secret part two to yesterday's meducation lol #favorites

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goldfishontheceiling · 2 months

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guys wake up new nowen AU just dropped /hj

doordash AU

picture this:

march 25th. Owen and his girlfriend Izzy decide to order some good old doordash because why not, and the dasher rings the doorbell, drops off the food, and is about to get into the car when-

GASP

IS THAT NOAH?! OWEN'S CHILDHOOD FRIEND WHO MOVED AWAY!? AT HIS DOORSTEP?!

(ramshackle pilot refrence teehee, GO WATCH IT ITS ON YOUTUBE I LOVE IT)

anyway, Eva grabs the food, Owen stops the dasher/Noah from leaving and asks if it's really him, Noah says some sarcastic remark about how "no, i'm just a stranger with the exact same name, exact same hair, and exact same childhood best friend from 10 years ago," they reunite. but now Noah has to go do another order, so they exchange numbers and Izzy makes a group chat titled "team e-scope."

(nobody questions the group chat name because it's Izzy, she winks at the 4th wall /j)

and all the sudden, Owen starts ordering doordash more, and keeps asking for a certain employee. at this point Owen knows Noah's schedule better then Noah does because he wants to see his little buddy!

but what's this? this is a nowen AU? so why are Owen and Izzy still together?

WELL NOT ANYMORE *hits ozzy with the break up beam*

and during that period of time, between Izzy breaking up with him and his desire to be closer with his childhood best friend, Owen develops a litttttle crush. just a little.

and at the same time, Noah realizes just how much he loves Owen. his smile, his warmth, both physical and personality, the way his touch was slowly helping Noah out of the cold touch starved house he locked himself in. and the more he thinks about it, the emptier his apartment feels.

and Noah develops a littttttle crush. just a little.

they're both scared to love again. Owen doesn't want to build walls, but the other part of him wants that extra protection, even if the construction hurts more then not having them does. Noah doesn't want Owen to put walls up, because he knows from experience (how's Emma doing now?) it's not worth it. he doesn't want to lose him the same way he almost lost himself (does Owen wonder if Izzy's moved on by now the same way Noah wondered?)

but it's okay, because they're working on taking walls down together, one brick at a time.

but right now it's march 25th, so Owen's just going to plan another doordash order. he just reunited with his Noah! surely he works tomorrow too, right?

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