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rumblelibrary · 3 years

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I'm not sure if you have already done something like this before, and if you did, please let me know, I'd love to read it, BUT I was wondering if you could do a little thing, maybe with Sebastian Zöllner, where he is like totally behind on every fucking deadline, work is just piling up, he got into stress with his ex, the dishes are not done, he should go take out the trash, you know, everything is just piling up and he just cracks under the pressure, severely doubting his worth as a person. And his friend, the reader, gotta try their best to build him up again, telling him all the things they love about him, and it slowly turns into a love confession without them noticing.

Is this too elaborate, does that make sense for Seb? Idk. To me it does? Like he's always very...Seb around other people, but deep down I feel like he's always under this pressure to live up to his own and others expectations, wanting to be big and famous and perfect in a way.

I'm so sorry, brain go brrr.

Never Enough [Sebastian Zöllner x Reader]

Word Count: 4k Warnings: bad habits (heavy smoking and drinking), self deprecation, depression and some fluff in the end. A/N: I loved this prompt, I love to write Sebastian so thanks to you once more for giving me this opportunity

He should have probably realised something was wrong when the ashtray was vomiting cigarettes out from its dooming position beside the laptop.

He nervously used the left part of the one he just ended to scavenge some space and just pressed it along the others.

Or maybe when after another sip of the same cold coffee mixed with cheap gin he felt the walls of his stomach revolting and stirring against him, threatening a much bigger damage.

Or, again, when he felt like calling back Elke because he was so alone and he was hungry and tired, and she might hate him but he could pull some puppy eyes and maybe it would work. It usually did.

The truth was that he shouldn’t have taken up so many jobs, but the bank account was crying and he needed them, he needed the money.

But again: writing about the umpteenth girl- artist performing naked on a famous historic location?

Or do we have to talk about the way somebody splashed some colour here and there on a canvas saying it is the catharsis of his young mind against the social construct?

Please, may God spare him from the man calling himself landscape artist because he takes pictures of naked girls on a field.

Charged up with this amount of nothingness, he could just write and delete, write and delete, words count going quickly up to 400 only to go back at 0 in a snap of his fingers over the buttons, because he couldn’t just tear them down. He had to give them some hope, a glimpse of potential he couldn’t see and he wasn’t even aware it existed. Each of them disgusted him, but he was specifically asked to be entertaining and not a killer with his words.

So he kept swiping up videos and photos of these artists, trying to find one thing, one holy grail to get attached to and finally write one good optimistic line in the middle of the words he had to pull up to keep a moderate tone.

He rubbed his temple running over his hairline, which by the way was perfectly fine, before his hand reached down and he touched his t-shirt pulling on the neckline to gather some air, he was wearing his pyjama still, white stained shirt on blue tartan pants. He raised up the shirt and bowed his head down giving in a long inhale from the inside and just cringed to himself.

He looked around as he couldn’t stand up, if he did then he will get only more distracted and these articles needed to be ready for tomorrow.

He noticed the spray against the mosquitos on the floor, those little bastards always hiding under his desk to bite his ankles, he picked it up and sprayed it over himself like it was perfume hoping to ignore the need of a shower for few more hours.

His eyes scanned the small studio flat he was living now: the dishes sticking out of the sink, the noisy fridge buzzing. The one table that was also his work desk filled with used mugs, stained plates covered in cigarettes and leftovers, empty packages of his favourite brand discarded everywhere: from the bathroom up to the couch and to the small bed he owned. Damn, if he run out of cigarette it will be hard to ignore how he also run out of food.

The space was dark and gloomy, some of his stuff still packed up, the fake pop art panting of him and Elke staring at him reminding him of his other loss.

He didn’t touch the bed in days, he just slept on the seat or on the couch.

His attention was attracted by his phone buzzing.

He sat up straight as it was her, it was Elke.

Did she sense his discomfort?

“Elke” he picked up the call in a second.

“Wow, a quick answer, did you have your phone already in your hand or it happens just so late at night?”

Her sarcasm did’t go past him, but he just thought how long it was since he heard a human voice and not the recording of some idiot calling himself artist.

“No, I was thinking of you”

“Yes, sure, look I have sent you an email with the bills of the time you were here, the ones you have left to pay and it is only fair that you pay at least half of them”

“Sure” he just said it because he wanted to go past the point of money, he wanted her back. Maybe he could crush at her place, feel her hands through his hair, shower, sleep some good sleep and the articles will come around in few types “Elke, I was thinking we might…”

“I just called you for the bills”

“I know, but maybe we could have” his eyes darted at the top right of his laptop screen to see the time “a drink together?”

She huffed a laughter as he frowned lightly “I know you Seb, if it is money or sex what you’re looking for that door is closed and it has been for a long time”

“I know” he murmured as he let out a breathy sigh, a dooming sense of loneliness creeping over him like a giant spider ready to wrap him up and eat him “I just hoped…”

“Don’t hope Sebastian, you’re already an hopeless cause”

She hung up on him and he was left there, he kept that same pose with his phone against his ear. His eyes trailing once again over the empty page of his document on the screen, on the chaos surrounding him.

He nibbled on his bottom lip before running his tongue over the pained area.

He pushed the phone back down on the table with a tremble of his jaw and a shaky hand.

She was right.

What he did of his life anyway? He lost most of his occasions in life, he was now in his thirties and he concluded nothing of what he hoped to be, he failed in all the departments both as an artist and as a critic.

A jack of all trades is a master of none, and maybe only the first type of the famous quote could be applied to him.

He couldn’t even take the trash out or he couldn’t remember the last time he ate something that was vaguely resembling of fruits or vegetables. It is all good when you imagine yourself as a bohemian rooting against the world, when you convince yourself that’s only the proof you needed to know you are fighting well against a system of art that privileges banality and marketing over real artistic value and that, one day, all your struggles will be worth it.

Even Picasso was poor for a long time in Paris.

Damn, maybe to be in a situation like this in Paris would sound more romantic.

But the truth was: he never imagined to have to do it alone, that life would feel so overwhelming, that there wouldn’t be anything but extreme struggle, anger, loneliness and a terrible diet.

For a moment he wished to be a baby again, to be the bright boy he was and let mommy take care of his needs and his dirty shirt and empty stomach. He wished that maybe somebody noticed him before, that somebody saw his talent and helped him to pull it out instead of leaving him to do it on his own only to come late to every step.

And now it is too late, he is lost in the sea of terrible paid jobs and anguishing relationships, let’s not forget maybe he indeed had a receding hairline and he was doomed to get bold .

He squeezed his eyes as a soft sob took over his lip, hand running over his forehead as he pulled on his hair justifying his tears with some physical pain. He shook his head as he tried to gain back some composure, hand flung over to pick up his coffee mug and giving in a long gulp of the coffee, the same one he swore before to not touch again, only to almost choke on it, couching it out only to pick up the bottom hem of his shirt to clean his laptop screen.

He fucking hated to write on a computer, the old typewriters inspired him but that damn ink was too expensive now for his sore pockets.

He smirked to himself as he kept doing it, finding good excuses to call himself off any responsibility. But maybe Elke was right, well she surely was, she had two degrees, maybe he was really a lot cause. He frowned as he wiped slowly the screen with his already stained shirt, the wetness sticking then against his skin as soon as he let it go giving him another shiver.

He didn’t have even the strength to cry, he could only accept it was over.

The curse that he shouted out loud when he heard knocking at the door, smashing him out of his thought spiral, generated an immediate anger reaction from him.

“Fuck, shit, if it is the fucking neighbour, I swear I will kill her cat or that rat she has as cat, fucking hell”

He grumbled as he stood up moving across the table not caring about his state, he only wanted to crawl back into a ball and maybe nuzzle a bit somewhere.

When his death glare appeared after the door opened in a powerful swing his eyebrows lifted immediately finding you on the other side.

He blinked, one of those sleepy blinks where somebody closes his eyes and then opens them really wide to make sure it is not made up in their brain, that one.

His eyebrows furrowed as he stared at you

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

“You should wash your mouth with holy water Sebastian” you said shaking your head raising your arms to show him some paper bags “I am bringing food and body shower”

He shook his head “Are you calling me stinky?”

“I am” You quickly replied moving past him into his place ignoring his groan.

He stood by the door slowly closing it, he was sure that old bitch was looking through her peephole, only then he stared at you try to make your way into the filthy kitchen. He was really embarrassed about his antics, but surely this time he exceeded some record.

“I am speechless Seb, I helped you with the moving and this place seems to have taken over you” you said as you knew he was in some rut when he kept such a long phone silence.

He was usually always texting, sending memes or one sentence texts.

You cared about him, deeply, you knew he was full of flaws and little quirks, but that’s what made him special. Nevertheless, you were worried about the state of the place, how it showed the way he let himself get dragged through the days. So he observed you, better to say, your back, the way you moved around opening the window to let fresh air inside, turning on a lamp to make some light that wasn’t just the blue one of the screen. Pulling out commodities and food from your magic bags like some sort of Mary Poppins of struggling writers. How you poured soap in the dirty load of dishes and pans, the way you marched securely to his desk to pick up that filthy mug and you frowned just sniffing at it.

“Is that poison?”

“Rat poison” he corrected you.

You shook your head as you cleaned a glass and filled it with water and among the groceries you pulled out a banana.

“Have this now, it will help” you said and he took the glass with one hand and the banana with the other like his brain was shut down.

He stared at you as you leaned your head slightly on side, he went through bad times after the break up but you had never seen him in such a helpless state.

He was chaotic but he always loved to keep up his appearance, to give that handsome and damned kind of vibe.

“Sebastian” you called him as his eyes spaced out and now where back on you “Are you alright?”

He observed you, he stared at your face like he was trying to recognise you, truth it was he kept pushing himself to say yes, say yes, say it is all good, make a joke, a remark, keep it up. You don’t need his burden, you don’t need to hate him like Elke and others do.

Just say yes.

“No” he said as his lips trembled and you watched his ironic mask fall right in front of you as he looked away hiding his tears, real tears, not the ones he can play out whenever he needs.

Just as quickly as you gave him the banana and the water you took them off his hands afraid he might hurt himself by dropping the glass in particular.

"Seb" you called his attention as he sobbed moving like a bird trying to hide his face against his own shoulder.

You took his now empty hands dragging him toward the couch and kicking off the pile of dirty clothes and discarded books on top of it to make him sit down with you.

"Talk to me"

He didn't, the man that was never out of words, even in the times he should have been, was now silent as a tombstone staring away from you as you gave a gentle squeeze to his hands. It pained you to see him in such a state.

So weak, so helpless like a lost child.

"I can't help you if you don't talk"

Sebastian shook his head still staring at the wall.

"You can't help me"

"Is it about writing? I can proof read you, it will be a moment"

He shook his head again making, hair bouncing from side to side.

"No, it is not important if I write or not"

You frowned at that comment.

"What the hell?" you just blurted out "Seb you're a talented writer, you're passionate, funny, witty, why shouldn't it be important?"

He looked up at you shaking his head "I can't write, I can't put together two sentences"

Your eyes travelled onto his side profile, truth to be told he looked worn out but he was still handsome like only Sebastian Zöllner could be. He had that chaotic charm, even with a wrinkled suit he was fearless, strong, poignant. You couldn't avoid him, he owned every place he stepped in and you could feel his gaze run through your bloodstream.

When he asks a question, he meant it, it was a test run into your bones and you loved every second of it.

His lips tightened as he diverted his gaze finally to you. You knew his relationship with Elke was important, he cared about others even if he didn't show it daily like most people do.

"Is it Elke?"

"No, she was just right"

"About what?"

He gulped, his throat dry as he pulled his bottom lip in his mouth grinding his teeth over it like playing something through that gesture.

"About me"

"Breakups are always shit, don't you even.."

"No Y/N" he interrupted you, he was serious, maybe his voice trembled but he wasn't lying or playing some role "I am really a lost cause, I mean look at his place"

His hand waved around the small flat like a drunk orchestra director.

"It is pure trash, I haven't finished unpacking, I didn't have food until you came, I am unable to look after myself, to look after the people that I care about. I worked so hard to be an artist and then I became a critic and now I am so knee deep into my own shit that I have more debts than entries, more failures than successes, more haters than friends"

He gulped down, the waterline of his eyes dangerously red and he sniffled up as he let out a little weak whisper "I just wish I could disappear"

"No"

It came out of you like a lighting bolt, it surged out of you before you could even elaborate. Like an order. A command.

"Seb, you're now in a rough patch of life, but you have always worked hard and well as a writer"

"I am a writer because I failed as an artist"

"You're a writer because you know of what you're talking about, because you're able to see the difference between marketing and passion, between hard work and laziness, because you respect that profession and it makes you the best critic"

"I just want to destroy them all because I am envious, Elke always said I am fuelled by my own envy”

"I have read pieces of yours only encouraging the rightful and bringing down the real frauds"

He shook his head as he was just fixating on the wrong, on the flaws, on the problems.

You huffed cupping his cheeks to force him to look at your eyes.

"Look at me" you said not admitting replies "you are talented in what you do, you are one of the best in your field and you're not on some big magazine only because they know they will have to put up with your shit: with the fact you always meet the people, you look at art pieces in presence, you touch them, you research the colours, you scrutinise everything to the bone"

He took your hands hating to be held like that but he squeezed them in his owns.

"And yes, you're allergic to ironing clothes and washing dishes is your personal nightmare, and yes, you give out many temper tantrums and have a terribly dark sense of humour, you are a failure at time and money management, you love filthy rich stuff and smoke like your life depends on it"

He stared at you, he listened quietly as you knew him from so long and many people, Elke included, wondered what you gained from helping him or just being around him that much. He often teased his ex about being jealous of you and she always said that it was like being jealous of a mortgage.

"So you agree?"

"I agree to say you are flawed like all of us, that you are just the perfect balance to your writing, you're what you write. You're passionate, you give out the two hundred percent of what you can give, you are like this, you go all-in in everything you do, there's no compromise, no mid way, no foreseeable change of direction, you speed up into the darkness and don't look back. You are bold, you take risks, you let people hate you because you do not compromise with who is son of who or who is the director of what gallery, you judge people over their real qualities. Because you talk to them in their face, because you don't hide that yes, you want to be great, because you're handsome and charming and smart, nobody can outsmart you in your field, not even that idiot you hate that much"

"Golo Fucking Moser" he murmured

"Golo Fucking Moser" you repeated with a chuckle "you don't have anything to envy to him beside the bruises he probably has on his knees for bending down to anyone"

He chuckled at that comment.

"And also, you're more attractive, that pisses off Seb, it is unfair to the poor man”

He leaned his head on side as you wouldn't normally shower him in compliments, he had enough ego for that, but you had never seen him like this and you wished to never see him again in such a state.

"You find me attractive?"

"Well for sure you're an eye candy" you joked

"I mean it"

You rolled your eyes blushing a bit and huffing a chuckle "I do, alight? It is universal knowledge"

He looked at you as he still held your hands in his, his thumbs making soft shapes over the back of your hand.

"That I am attractive or that you find me attractive?"

You groaned looking away with an embarrassed giggle “okay, okay, I see you're back in yourself, let's eat now"

You moved to stand up but he didn't do the same remaining sat in his spot.

"Tell me"

"I pumped your self esteem enough, now let me go"

He chuckled softly, he never really thought you'd be interested. He usually shows off so many bad traits that he has to tone himself down and really try hard to attract someone. It is all an effort on his part to appear better or at least less quirky.

And then now look at you, appreciating even his shit show.

"Y/N" he murmured giving you a soft squeeze. You kept silent not daring now to meet his gaze. He bowed his head trying to reach for your eyes with his gaze and he looked up at you, a smile that wasn't provocative over his lips.

You pulled back yanking your wrists off his grip to move straight into the kitchen corner.

You begun pulling ut some fresh vegetables and bread, you also got some cheese knowing he loves it, wanting him to have a good dinner.

He followed you almost immediately and soon you found his arms grasping you once more in a hug, his chest pressed against your back, his forehead on your shoulder.

"Seb, you..."

"I know, I stink, just give me a moment" he said and you obliged him gently caressing his arms around you.

You hated to be in the friend zone, but you wouldn't be able to survive to lose him forever or to have him joke about it.

Now he was quiet, tender like a hurt pup.

"Thank you, you know you can count on me too, right? For anything” he said and you chuckled softly “I know, you’re my favourite avenger”

He nodded brushing his crisp beard against your cheek and after few minutes stuck in that hug he dropped a kiss on your neck "love you”

He pulled back giving you a smile as he picked the shower gel you left on the counter bringing it with himself to the bathroom with a soft hum.

You smiled a bit bitterly to yourself as you guessed it was meant in a friendly way, but today it was alright. You could endure it. Also that kiss, he always did it when he was drunk, at parties or in the taxi back home after a viewing. It was his cuddly way to say things without saying them, without rambling, and you appreciated that silent language.

Maybe now he was drunk over his own feelings.

Just like you.

Tagged @cazzyimagines @lieutenantn @handmaiden-of-mischief @thesunflowersutra @zemomybeloved @fictionlandslanddreams @charistory @greeneyedblondie44 @apparrio @hb8301 @whatawildone @rhymerhymerhyme @thehuiabird @lilith-blackrose @unbeatablecurlgirl @obsidianlaszlo @alindeluce @zemosimp05 @baronesszemo-blackwood @nocapesdahling @everythingbeginsineternity-blog @archangelproperty

#sebastian zöllner #sebastian zöllner x y/n #sebastian zollner x y/n #sebastian zollner x reader #sebastian zöllner x you #sebastian zöllner x reader #sebastian zöllner headcanon #sebastian zollner #daniel brühl #daniel bruhl #daniel bruehl #ich und kaminski #ich und Kaminski fanfiction #tw: depression #tw: self deprecation

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inkjackets · 3 years

Text

Love at First Sound

this is a piece i wrote way back for the @thedjwifizine, i just never got around to uploading it here until now! if you'd like to check out the full zine it can still be found HERE! Also check out this post to see the incredible art that goes with it done by @camilieroart. Enjoy ^^

‘No, no, no!’ Nino ripped his headphones off and turned off the audio. ‘None of these singers work.’ He put his head in his hands.

‘What about that Dominique girl?’ Adrien said, ‘Or Estelle! She was good.’

Nino ran his hands down his face and glanced at his friend. He loved Adrien, and would forever be grateful for his support. After all, if it hadn’t been for Adrien, Nino would never have shot to fame as he had. But the dude knew nothing about music.

‘Yeah, yeah, they’re all good,’ Nino said, slumping back in his chair. ‘But none of them are right .’

Adrien gave him an apologetic look. ‘Doesn’t your manager want this single done, like, by today?’

‘Ugh,’ Nino thumped his head on the desk and groaned. ‘Don’t remind me.’

Adrien patted him on the back. ‘I’m sure you’ll figure it out.’

Nino nodded and sat up. ‘Yeah.’ But when he took in all the various audio tapes that had been sent in he only felt overwhelmed and tired.

‘I’m gonna go for a walk,’ he said suddenly, ‘clear my head.’ He pushed his chair back and stood up in one swift motion, and ignored Adrien’s worried expression as he made his way out.

Nino stepped into the cool evening air and breathed. It was a beautiful night in Paris; the lights glistened on the Seine, tourists and Parisians alike laughed in the bars, and Nino smiled as he let his feet take him wherever, no direction in mind. Letting his thoughts drift amongst the lights and the stars.

Eventually he found himself on an unfamiliar street. It was quiet here, off the main road. The golden lights of the Eiffel Tower glimmered through the gaps in the buildings.

But a wave of heaviness swept over him when his phone started ringing. He stared dully at his manager’s name on the screen before looking up at the stars and slowly exhaling, bringing his gaze back down until it landed on a coffee shop. What he really needed was a good night’s sleep. But a coffee was the next best thing. He declined the phone call and headed in.

The door gave a welcoming tinkle as he stepped in, taking off his hat and headphones as he did so. It was a small café with a cute window seat and a couple of tables around the back. It was rustic and quaint. The sort of place that did proper coffee but wasn’t pretentious about it. It was empty but the atmosphere was warm, and the tension slowly leaked out of Nino as he made his way to the counter.

He went to ding the bell that had a little sign saying, ‘Ring for Service’ but a sound made him pause. A voice drifted from the back, low and sultry, singing a song he’d never heard but entranced him instantly.

Without thinking Nino slipped past the counter and went into the backroom, walking past fridges and shelves, following the siren’s melody to a little brightly lit staffroom at the side.

The first thing he saw when he peered through was a mass of dark red hair belonging to a girl cleaning the staffroom counters. She moved her hips and shoulders side to side in time with her words, and Nino stared as she sung, falling in love with her voice before he’d even seen her face, her hair glowing from the warm lights and her sound filling the space.

As her voice crescendoed, she gave her tea towel a flourish and spun on her heels. Her startled golden eyes met Nino’s. Her song cut off.

The girl recovered instantly, throwing the tea towel over her shoulder and placing her hands on her hips.

‘And how long have you been standing there, hmm?’

Nino stumbled back and blushed. ‘No, no, no,’ he stuttered, turning redder by the second. ‘I didn’t mean to—I just walked in!—I heard your voice and—’ He cut off as the girl threw her head back and laughed. ‘I, uh,’ he rubbed the back of his neck, ‘sorry.’

She snorted. ‘Apology accepted,’ she said in a way that made Nino question whether or not her words were sarcastic. But her grin was sincere, and Nino exhaled with relief. ‘I’m guessing you’d like a coffee?’ she then asked, striding past him. ‘Come on then,’ she gestured with a flick of her head. Nino sheepishly followed her back to the front.

‘What can I get you?’ she asked once Nino was on the correct side of the counter.

‘Uh, just a mocha, please.’

‘One mocha, coming right up.’

A companionable silence rose between them as she went about making his drink, the whirring of the machine was surprisingly soft, and the clinking of spoons was comforting. But as Nino watched her, all he could think of was her singing.

‘You have a lovely voice,’ he said before he could stop himself. The faintest of blushes rose on her cheeks. ‘Where did you learn to sing like that?’

‘Learn?’ The girl shook her head as she poured. ‘I just sing whatever calls to me and let loose.’

‘You’ve never had any formal training? But you’re incredible!’

She blinked. ‘Thank you.’ She glanced down at the finished mocha in her hands before handing it to Nino. ‘That’s big praise, coming from you.’ She met Nino’s gaze and held it.

The drink felt heavy in Nino’s hands. ‘What do you mean by…’ He trailed off. Her gaze remained unblinking. ‘Oh, you know who I am.’

‘My sister loves your music,’ she smiled, ‘plays you constantly. I’m not the biggest fan though,’ she said playfully and winked.

‘Oh really?’ Nino said, scoffing with mock offence. ‘Well, I’m not such a massive fan of your coffee.’

Her face lit up. ‘Hah! Oh I like you,’ she said. Heat rose in Nino’s cheeks. ‘There’s nothing worse than a celebrity who can’t take themselves seriously.’

‘I’ll drink to that,’ he said, taking a sip. ‘Thank you by the way, uh…’ he peered at her name badge, ‘Marinette.’

‘Ah, that’s uh, not my real name,’ she said sheepishly. Nino raised an eyebrow. ‘I don’t like strangers using my name like they know me! It feels weird.’

Nino grimaced and nodded. ‘That I can relate to, to be fair.’

The girl gave a soft smile. ‘My name’s Alya. Alya Césaire.’

Nino smiled back. He held out his hand. ‘It’s nice to meet you, Alya Césaire.’

‘Likewise, Nino Lahiffe.’

There was a beat of silence as they shook hands.

‘Please sing for me,’ Nino blurted out.

Alya’s eyebrows flew up. She pulled her hand back. ‘What?’

‘For my new single!’ he clarified. ‘I’ve got a new mix in the works and your voice would be perfect for it, honestly.’

‘Is that so?’ She thought about it a moment. ‘What do I get if I say yes?’

‘You’ll be paid, obviously. A flat rate session fee of about—’

‘A flat rate? Nah, nah, if this song makes it big I wanna reap the rewards. I want 80% of the royalties.’

Nino deadpanned. ‘You get ten. And that’s being generous!’

Alya laughed. ‘Fine, fine…fifteen?’

Nino rolled his eyes. ‘You drive a hard bargain Mademoiselle Césaire.’

‘Sweet.’ She grinned. ‘But that’s just the deal if I decide to sing for you,’ she said quickly, ‘I haven’t actually agreed to do that yet.’

Nino made an exasperated sound. Alya laughed.

‘Fine, fine. What will make you say yes?’ He looked around for inspiration. ‘What if I buy you a drink?’

Alya considered it a moment. ‘It wouldn’t hurt your prospects,’ she said.

‘Well go on then, make what you want and I’ll pay.’

Alya grinned. She set about making a drink.

‘All right,’ she said once she was finished. Nino pulled out his card. ‘Including your mocha, the total is thirteen euros forty-five.’

Nino froze. He looked Alya in the eye. ‘Thirteen… thirteen euros forty-five?’

Alya nodded. ‘Your mocha was three euros fifty, and mine,’ she gestured to her drink, ‘was nine euros ninety-five.’

Nino blinked and goggled at her drink; a giant monstrosity of cream and caramel and God knows what else. ‘TEN EUROS —?!’ he exclaimed.

‘Nine euros ninety-five.’

‘—THE HELL ARE YOU DRINKING?’

She grinned. ‘That’s for me to know, and you to pay for.’

Nino grumbled and placed his card on the chip reader. Alya’s smug grin widened as the machine gave a happy little ‘beep’ at the successful transaction.

‘You have to sing for me now,’ Nino muttered.

Alya took a giant slurp of her drink and put a finger to her chin in thought.

‘Please,’ Nino begged, ‘I’ve never heard anyone sing like you. I’ll do anything.’

Alya crossed her arms. ‘Anything, huh?’

Nino nodded. She quirked an eyebrow. And Nino regretted his words when she gave a jagged grin.

Thirty minutes later Nino had wiped down all the counters, cleaned the coffee machine, taken out the rubbish, and was currently mopping the floors, all while Alya lounged in a chair, her feet kicked up on a table, sipping away at her ridiculous coffee.

‘My manager didn’t even ask me to do a deep clean,’ she said as she scrolled through her phone, ‘but boy is she going to be happy with me in the morning.’

Nino stared at her. But then she winked at him and stuck out her tongue, and Nino’s heart pounded. Damn, this girl really had him wrapped around her finger. But then his phone buzzed in his pocket, bringing him back to reality.

Brodrien: Where are you?????

Nino slipped his phone back into his pocket with a long exhale and rested his head against the mop handle. He needed to go.

He stayed still for a moment, reluctant to move. And then just as he was about to pull himself upright, Alya started to sing.

She was still lounging back and scrolling in the same position as before, but the sound coming from her was indescribably beautiful; strong and moving, echoing off the tiles. Nino raised his head. She was singing one of his songs.

Alya’s gaze flicked to his as her song came to an end. She placed her phone and drink down, and swung herself upright.

‘You really do like my voice, huh.’ Nino nodded, speechless. Alya glanced away. ‘I knew I had a good voice, but hearing it from someone like you – an actual musician – makes it more real.’ She fell silent. ‘Thank you for the coffee and for helping me clean,’ she said. ‘I’ve had a fun evening. Can you give me twenty-four hours to think about your offer?’

Nino thought about the hounding messages he was gonna get from his manager.

‘You know what? Here.’ He pulled an audio tape and some lyrics from his pocket and shoved them in her hands. ‘Have a listen, see if you like the song, and— are you free tomorrow evening? Come to this address at seven pm.’ He whipped out a business card and handed it to her, holding her golden gaze. ‘I’ll be waiting.’

He slipped out the door before she could say another word.

~~~

Nino tapped away nervously as he waited, ignoring Adrien’s doubtful glances.

‘Are you sure she’s coming, bro?’ Adrien eventually asked.

Nino glanced at the clock. Twenty past seven.

‘She’ll be here,’ he said.

Adrien sighed. ‘I love you man, but you’ve really got to just pick—’

Nino shushed him with a wave of his hand and leapt to his feet as the door suddenly opened. Alya walked through with a friend in tow, and Nino forgot how to breathe. Dressed simply but stylishly with her hair down this time, Alya Césaire was gorgeous.

‘Sorry we’re late,’ she said. But Nino simply grinned. ‘I hope you don’t mind I brought my co-worker, Marinette, with me?’

‘Full disclosure, it’s completely my fault Alya’s late!’ Marinette said, waving her hands in distress. ‘I was restocking the coffee beans and the bag split on me and they went everywhere, ’ she wailed. ‘Into the drawers, under the cupboards, and I kept stepping on them…it took forever to clean up!’

There was a split second of silence. Adrien burst into laughter. Marinette turned bright red and chuckled.

‘Well, I’m glad you made it,’ Nino said, grinning.

Alya smiled back. ‘I listened to the song,’ she said, ‘It’s good, I like it.’

‘Really?’ Nino’s heart fluttered. ‘So, you’re sure you want to do this?’

‘Hmm, well…’ She posed in thought, and Nino slumped, exasperated. Alya threw her head back and laughed. ‘I’m just kidding, I’d love to sing it.’

Nino grinned.

It didn’t take long to show her the recording booth and how all the equipment worked. They played the audio though, and she had a quick practice. And when she was ready, they started to record; Alya started singing in earnest.

Adrien let out a low whistle.

‘Woah.’ Marinette’s eyes widened.

And Nino smiled. Each note she sung sent tingles running through him, and the way she felt the music filled him with warmth; her eyes were closed, head moving to the melody, hips swaying side to side. She opened her eyes and gazed at him, her golden eyes piercing. Nino’s heart pounded. God she was perfect.

The recording session ended too soon in Nino’s opinion. Alya had been the ideal candidate and it hadn’t taken long to get everything they needed.

‘Thank you again for agreeing to sing for me,’ Nino said as she picked up her bag.

‘Don’t thank me, just give me that fifteen percent and we’re good.’ She winked and Nino laughed.

They fell silent a moment. The tension built between them. Behind, Adrien and Marinette chatted into their silence.

‘Hey, would you be down for doing something together again?’ Nino said quickly. ‘You know, something like last night?’ He frowned. ‘But with maybe less cleaning.’

Alya laughed. ‘I’d love to,’ she said, and he flushed with warmth. ‘And I’ll buy the drinks this time,’ she said, grinning.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #djwifi #nino lahiffe #alya cesaire #mlb #ml fic #ml au #ml fluff #this is me trying to get back into writing fanfics #starting by uploading my old pieces i never uploaded aha #but yeah i hope you liked it #let me know if you did ^^#thanks for reading #love at first sound #my writing

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diamaker-moon · 3 years

Text

Moving Forward - Chapter 5

Chapter Five

First stake-out...

—————

She observes the young boy and hummed. She instructed Adrien to try and look around thinking that it might've been misplaced.

'I have a bad feeling about this. It's already bad that it's missing, but if my theory is right that it is in Ladybug's possession, we might be at a disadvantage.'

— previous chapter... —

Marinette was nervous. She doesn't know if she can pull it off.

She was currently crouching on a roof near the Agreste Mansion, waiting for any signal from the kwamis. She was already feeling a strain in her body due to wearing multiple miraculouses at once.

She was wearing the ladybug earrings, black cat ring, fox necklace, horse glasses, mouse pendant necklace. There was a slight change in the plan. She decided to do a stakeout in the middle of the night, that is why she also had a flashlight in hand.

If there are no open windows or any entrance to the atelier straight from the outside, she'll just create a portal. She was currently transformed as Multimouse. While the four kwamis searched around the mansion. After waiting a few minutes the four kwamis came back.

"Sorry bug, but all the windows are closed. And it can't be opened." Plagg said.

"But, the atelier is empty, Natalie is already sleeping and Gabriel as well. Their bedrooms are a bit far from the room." Tikki said.

Marinette thought about it. "Hey, Trixx. You think your illusions, can affect the security cameras inside the room if there is any?"

"Sure Kit. My powers are meant to be useful to you!" Trixx said.

Marinette nodded. She will need to divide into two, one to unify with Trixx for the illusion and another for Kaalki's teleportations.

"I hope this can work..." She mumbled before preparing to activate the mouse's special power.

"Multitude!" She activated the power and waited. She felt a slight change in her when she opened her eyes a copy of her is staring at her. She handed her the glasses.

"Mullo, Kaalki, unify!"

The gray, pink and black bodysuit was changed. The pink accents of her bodysuit were changed into a dark brown colour, while her mask was removed and the glasses act as her mask. Her ribbons in her Odango-style twin buns were changed from pink to dark brown. A horseshoe attached to the back.

"Mullo, Trixx, unify!"

He bodysuit turned into Multifox's look, all the pink accents on Multimouse become orange, and she has a white section on her chest similar as a result of the Fox miraculous influence. The pink section of her mask also becomes orange.

Multifox looked in the direction of the mansion, before grabbing the flute from her back and playing a song to activate the power. As short 'Mirage' and the illusions are up. The cameras will only see an empty room, and if the doors are opened they will see a dark empty room.

Multifox nodded to Multimare to open a portal.

"Voyage!"

She activated the power then a portal opened. They went through it to appear in the middle of the dark empty room.

"Mullo, Kaalki, divide." Multimare mumbled, releasing the Horse kwami. Multifox handed a small pouch that has food for the kwamis.

Multimouse is on guard duty, she needs to be on alert, while Multifox, Plagg and Tikki walk up to Mme Agreste's painting. Multifox pulls the painting to reveal a safe behind. She looked at Tikki who nodded before phasing through. Multifox flicked her flashlight 'on' once the safe's door opened.

She saw a picture of Mme Agreste, a book about Tibet, a ticket to Tibet, rolled-up pieces of old paper, and a shiny brooch, that is shaped like a peacock. The brooch has five segments. Its main colour is pale, light grayish blue-violet, while the crystals on the top of each segment are pink. The lower part has a silhouette body of a peacock as a single teardrop.

She had her jaw opened. Hawkmoth just leaves it here?! Wow... What a great keeper. She grabbed the brooch and clutched it in her left hand. Before grabbing the book about Tibet which only has words about their trip and nothing important.

She placed the book back, closed the safe then returned the painting back to normal. She then nodded to Multimouse, who immediately transformed back to Multimare, and opened a portal straight to her bedroom inside the dorm.

Kaalki was divided and handed a sugar cube to eat, before Multimouse and Multifox fused, leaving only Multifox.

"Mullo, divide."

Leaving her in a fox suit. She removed the illusion in M. Agreste's atelier before finally detransforming.

"Trixx, let's rest."

Finally leaving her in her pink athletic leggings and a cropped black shirt. She was still clutching the peacock miraculous in her left hand. She made sure she didn't leave anything. She had the pouch and the flashlight on the floor after getting dropped when Multimouse and Multifox fused back together.

She sat down on her desk chair with the disguised miracle box opened on the side of the table. The other kwamis flew towards her, while She was inspecting the miraculous.

"Tikki, I thought the Peacock Miraculous was broken?" Marinette asked while still inspecting the miraculous.

"Maybe Hawkmoth fixed it? He did have the Master Fu's tablet for a while..." Tikki reasoned out.

Since she basically stole the miraculous from Hawkmoth. She couldn't believe what was happening. One moment, she was alone fighting a magical terrorist that has two miraculouses that transforms themselves as Shadowmoth. Then suddenly, here she was, it was supposedly a stake-out only! Not a stealing stake-out! But... finders keeper, losers weepers!

Marinette sighed before attaching the brooch to her shirt and hoped for the best. the brooch changed into its new camouflage design, it was now rose gold in colour, from the five feather segments when it is charged to eight with pale pink crystals on the top of each segment, there was no design in the middle, leaving the brooch in a simple yet elegant look.

A dark blue ball of light popped out and swirled around her, after the light vanished a peacock-looking kwami appeared.

"Oooh! Hello! Huh?! Why do you have the other kwamis?! Who are you?!"

Some of the kwamis laughed at the new kwami's energetic personality, while Tikki and especially Plagg grumbled about how to keep the kwami in one place.

"Hello, Duusu," Marinette said then smiled at the confused kwami.

"I'm your Guardian, I have retrieved you from Shadowmoth's possession. I am sorry that I didn't get to retrieve Nooroo as well..." Marinette continued.

The peacock kwami gasped before nuzzling on the Guardian's cheek.

"Thank you! Oh if you could've seen him, his outfit was hideous! Poor, Nooroo! Please Guardian, save him as well!" Duusu exclaimed.

Marinette smiled, she removed the brooch to put it back in the Miracle Box. Duusu didn't get sucked into it since she had no intention to relinquish him, after placing it inside the designated area of the peacock miraculously, she opened the middle circle for the kwami once they want to return in the parallel universe inside the miracle box. She let the other kwamis talk to him, while she handles civilian duties.

She opened her website on her computer and replied to a few emails before responding to requested commissions.

Clara Nightingale is commissioning her for a set of four dresses that will be used for her brand new music video, that had a theme of stars, constellations, space etc.

It was a weird concept for her but decided to accept it, thinking it could be a challenge for her. She wrote a reply email then sent it to Clara before closing her computer and climbing up to her bed.

"I'm going to sleep, be careful okay? There's food in the other mini fridge for everyone, since someone's food is influencing the other's food." She said while giving a pointed stare at Plagg who had the audacity to look innocently at the young guardian.

"Goodnight, guys!" Marinette said in between her yawns.

A series of 'goodnights' was heard before Marinette finally drifted to sleep.

—————

"Is she asleep?"

"Yes, it's quite rare for her to catch sleep lately, I'm glad that this new change is giving her quite a good impact." Tikki said.

It was currently hard for Tikki's chosen. A Ladybug Miraculous holders are usually the leaders. Those personalities are needed to become a ladybug since they are the only ones who can purify an Akuma, cast a purifying spell, and with Tikki's creations of Lucky Charms, they needed to be a tactician and are aware of responsibilities.

She was proud of Marinette. Such a young child has a strong devotion to protecting the city while risking her life, but now the stakes are high for her. Hawkmoth is aware that the Ladybug heroine is the current Guardian of the Chinese Miracle Box.

If he manages to overthrow Ladybug he can gain access to the box, and the fact that her bug needed to repress her negative emotions down into the deepest voids of her soul after being targeted by countless akumas.

Tikki knew it was taking a toll on the young aspiring designer.

Being a superheroine that needs to battle akumas whenever and wherever is already hard enough. She needed excuses for her various disappearance every time there's an Akuma.

Having an emotional battle of trust and faiths between her and her former classmates, ever since the Liar appeared. It took everything in Tikki to not pop out of the designer's purse and chew the vixen herself.

Her series of achievements through various commissions by famous peoples in society.

And finally, this Guardianship that was handed to her during an unfortunate event. She lost her temporary heroes since their identities were exposed to Hawkmoth, the loss of her Mentor— Master Fu, and now the loss of her partner.

Tikki and even the other kwamis are curious about how she was still standing straight even though she was carrying a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders. The fate of Paris, France, the fate of the world, and the fate of everyone's reality by preventing Hawkmoth from achieving his goal, that can have a massive impact on reality due to how powerful miraculouses are.

"I am proud of your chosen, Tikki."

Wayzz said in a calm voice. "She took in the responsibility of being a heroine exchange for her time in her civilian life, and now, she chose to carry the heavy responsibility of a Guardian even though she can refuse it and pass it to someone else, leaving everything behind."

The other kwamis nodded at the wise turtle kwami's words. Tikki looked at them and smiled.

"I'm proud of my bug. She's a worthy ladybug and had shown how worthy she is despite her flaws. She made mistakes, but she chose to fix them. And now she's healing from the toxicity she had received in that place. Sleep well, Marinette..."

Chapter 4 — Moving Forward: Masterlist — Chapter 6

#miraculousladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #movingforward #AO3

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pink-bird-30 · 3 years

Text

Missing Moment

Okay, I've been sorta fed up with Titans not giving us these in between scenes where Kori and Dick interact and they find out things about each other. So I decided to write a missing moment that would have happened in 3x06.

(I don't think this story has spoilers, but I guess read at your own risk if you haven't seen 3x06)

You can find the full story here at my FF.Net

As always, happy reading!

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

It’d been a rough couple of days. Between Hank blowing up and Dawn leaving for Paris….things were not the same. Kori often finds herself in the kitchen cleaning whatever nonexistent dishes were in the sink, taking the time to focus on something she can control.

Kom was here, that was a new development. And Dick was not happy about that.

Kori scoffs as she tosses the soaked sponge back into the sink and grabs the blue dish rag on the counter, drying her hands. Deep in her thoughts, she missed the lithe steps coming from down the hall.

“Hey.” She jumps slightly, caught off guard at Dick’s sudden presence. She looks up at the black clock on the wall.

1AM.

She tosses the rag on the counter and brushes past him to the living area, not wanting to hear what he had to say to her about Kom. She has to deal with her shit and he has his to deal with, and by the looks of the time, she figures he may have “figured out” his issues with Barbara given the late hour, but she won’t let her mind drift there.

He sighs, “Kori-“

She turns, giving him a sharp look. Her green eyes slightly flash bright, “What? More judgements, Grayson?”

His thick brows furrow in confusion before relaxing in understanding, “Look, I was being-“

“A dick.” She cuts him off, a smile gracing her lips.

Dick rolls his eyes at the comment, nearly hearing it more than he’d care to admit. But he couldn’t help the laugh that leaves his chest.

How does she do that?

“Sure, whatever. I was rude and didn’t respect you when you told me something was going on and I’m sorry.”

Kori’s eye widen, “Wow, Dick Grayson is apologizing.”

He bashfully grins. “It’s known to happen on occasion.”

Kori arches her brow at him and shakes her head, causing her curls to flutter at her shoulders. She doesn’t miss how Dick looks at her, but she pushes that light feeling down.

Not yet.

He walks over to the fridge and pulls out two beers, “Here.” He slides one across the counter, she catches it gracefully and pops the cap with her thumb as she watches Dick reach for the bottle opener on the fridge.

They take their drinks to the living area and settle on the sofa. They didn’t speak for a few moments, just savoring the few silent beats near the raging fire. Kori noticed Gotham was a very cold place. Hardly any sun during the day and the night a deep shadow of darkness. No wonder no one goes out at night.

“When I first came to Wayne Manor, I tried every way I could to leave.” Dick started. His beer rolling between his hands, peeling at the red label. Kori noticed this as a nervous tick of Dick’s, always fiddling with his batons or scratching the back of his neck. Whatever he was going to say, it was in confidence to her.

“Being back her has been…” he takes a swing of his drink. “It’s been tough. I feel myself reverting back to who I was before I left. Back to the guy who goes off on his own and acts like-like”

“Like Batman.”

He looks over at her and nods, “Yeah.”

“You know you’re not him, right?”

“Hm.” He doesn’t seem to believe her.

Kori leans forward, her thigh brushing against his lightly, “Listen to me. You are not him. Okay? You’re Dick Grayson, leader of the Titans. Sure, you have your flaws-”

“Hey!” his face brightens up at the jab.

“But you’re you. No one can take that.” She sips at her beer and settles back against the couch. “Besides, I think you’d look ridiculous in the Bat-suit.”

Dick lets out a hearty laugh making Kori smile.

He should laugh more.

He stares at her for a moment, his dark eyes gazing at her. She knows that look, it takes her back to the last time they were alone like this.

But now isn’t the time.

She clears her throat, breaking his gaze to stare into the fire lighting the room.

“I’m sorry about your parents, Kor.” She wasn’t expecting him to bring it up, hell she hoped she could chug the rest of her beer before having to continue this conversation.

She shrugs her shoulders, “I don’t really know how I feel about it right now.” It was her turn to distract herself from the inevitable. She lets her long fingers tangle in her curls, wrapping and unwrapping them from her fingers. She hadn’t seen her parents for a few years now. And even if she had, she doesn’t remember. Her memories have come back randomly, but not completely. If anything, it makes her feel even worse. Not remembering the last time she saw them.

She first feels the couch dip next to her and then Dick’s warm, callous hand wrap around hers, pulling it free from her hair. He rests their clasped hands on his leg, his thumb running slowing over her knuckles.

“Hey,” he tilts his head slightly, giving her that typical soft Dick Grayson look. The same look he gave her when they decided to figure themselves out first before seeing what this could be. It breaks a small part of her, not meaning to, but a small tear falls down her cheek. Dick, being who he is, wipes it away without thought.

Kori takes a deep breath and close her eyes, letting herself feel comforted. Usually she’d just suck it up and be a tough bitch. But after a while…it builds up.

She lets her head rest on his shoulder, taking whatever comfort he’s offering.

“Dick?”

“Yeah?”

“Who were you before this, before Wayne Manor?” she feels his hand tighten in hers. She can feel him contemplating what to say. She didn’t expect him to tell her everything, but she would like to know him better.

“It’s-it’s complicated.” He sighs, the rush of air moving through him.

“Then uncomplicate it.”

He shakes his head grinning slightly, “You’re a pushy person, you know that?”

“Stop stalling, Grayson.” She looks up at him seeing his eyes brighten looking down at her and then looks towards the fire place. But then his eyes became clouded, like he was preparing for something horrible to happen.

“When I was a kid, my parents and I were part of the circus. Hayley’s Circus. We’d travel from city to city preforming all over…” his eyes glazed slightly, watching the fire intently. Kori lets her free hand settle on his heart, letting him know she’s there.

It was enough to help him keep going, “We were called ‘The Flying Graysons’. Our act was the main attraction because we wouldn’t use a safety net…” Dick takes another sip of his nearly empty beer and sets it on the side table.

“Our first night here, in Gotham, a mob boss named Tony Zucco threated Mr. Haly to hire protection while the circus was in town, but refused. Later on during our act…” Dick stops, needing a moment before continuing. “Zucco hired someone to tamper with the trapeze ropes, so when it came to my parents swinging towards me, they fell.”

“Oh, Dick…” Kori’s heart never felt so broken. She could feel Dick tighten his hand around hers, holding on to whatever life line he had here in the present, while working through his troubled past. She could feel his heartbeat fast under her hand. His face was impassive, solely focused on the light of the fire, but his body was reacting for him.

He seemed to come back to himself after a moment, closing his eyes and opening them again to peer down at her. “I was angry for a while after, but then Bruce showed me how to transform that anger into something else. But it took me a few years to realize he turned me into a weapon.”

Kori nods in understanding, not trusting her voice to say much.

“But after I left Gotham, went to Detroit to start over. I hadn’t changed much. I was still doing the same shit just in a different city. But when Rachel came along things changed. I felt myself change. I think I actually had hope things might get better again.

“And they were. Well, besides all the Trigon bullshit and Slade. I think things have been good.”

“Until you came back to Gotham.” Kori added. Dick nods in agreement.

“Yeah, before I came back here and fell back into old habits.”

“You mean going off on your own, finding old friends to fight with and getting shot at? Yeah, sounds about right.” She grins at him, lightening the mood.

“Yeah, that’s me.” His face changed again. Kori is surprised that someone that is well trained to be impassive, he shows all his emotions through his eyes.

“And you?” he asks. Kori looks at him questioningly. “What’s going on with you and Kom?”

Kori scoffs, “Trust me you do not want to know that mess.”

“Try me.”

She contemplates it for a moment, trying to figure out where to start.

“Well…um…” she huffs in frustration. “Listen, the relationship between me and Kom has always been strained. She always had issues following the rules and listening to our parents. It often led her to getting in trouble all the time. She’s my older sister and she always had to rebel.

“As for me, I followed the rules. I did what was expected of me and since I’m-“ Kori stops, realizing she was about to tell Dick she’s a princess, technically a “queen” of Tamaran. But she keeps it to herself.

“I’m just not sure her true intentions here, but I also couldn’t leave her down there with the scientists for the rest of her life. It wasn’t right.”

Dick nods in understanding, “What do you think she’s up to?”

“I have no idea, but I hope she’s changed.” Kori knew it was foolish to believe that, but part of her wants her sister to be better, to do better.

“For the team’s sake, I hope so too. We can’t have a possible threat living with us.” Kori rolls her eyes and untangles herself from Dick’s side, letting go of his hand in the process. She can already feel the cold feeling of loneliness creeping in already, but she shakes it off.

“I should head to bed.”

Dick runs his hand through his hair and stands up, “Shit—Kori, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-“

“Yes, you did. And you’re right. We have to be careful.”

She turns to leave the room, but not before glancing back one last time. “Thank you for telling me about your past.”

Dick grins in return, watching as Kori ascends up the stairs to her room.

Part of him wants to follow her, missing the warmth he knows she can provide. A warmth the deepest parts of himself remembers all too well. But he shakes himself from the thought and tips back his beer for one last sip before heading to bed.

#DC titans #fanfiction #dickkory #brenton thwaites #mame anna diop #dick grayson #koriand'r #somewhat spoilers?#starfire #nightwing

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 3 years

Text

A Miraculous TikTok Account

Part 9

First

Chat laid back in his bed but, for once, he wasn’t tired.

He was set to go on patrols that night, so he’d pretty much done everything he’d wanted for the day earlier. He’d gotten all his sleep, watched every video, finished his skin and hair care routines…

Only to find out that, hey, he didn't actually need to do that because Hawkmoth had chosen today to akumatize someone.

So patrols were out of the question. Hawkmoth had a recharge time of a few hours it seemed, but he usually didn’t do multiple akumas on the same day. They were always less powerful when he did too many in quick succession.

Well, at least he could go fight the akuma, right?

Wrong.

Because it was quickly brought to his attention that he actually couldn’t go, because the akuma was Mr. Pigeon and he quite famously had a bird allergy.

So the three women had all headed out (Carapace had stayed behind to finish an essay) and Chat had been left behind.

He scrolled through TikTok for a while. The app was definitely watching him, because almost all the content on his For You Page was animal videos…

Not that he minded.

But he could only handle so much cuteness at once, so that only worked for a few minutes.

Next, he went on Twitter to see what everyone was currently arguing about. That was bound to be entertaining…

Unfortunately, it seemed everyone in Paris was more concerned with the akuma than anything else at the moment. He didn’t need action shots of his housemates or to know more about Mr. Pigeon’s new plan to take the birds to space or whatever so he can… feed them? What?

The only other notable app on his phone was Instagram, but he wasn’t about to go on that. He was supposed to be in Tibet at some fancy private school, if people saw he was active he’d have to come up with answers to the millions of questions he’d inevitably get.

Now what…?

He pushed himself up to a sitting position with minimal groaning and attempted to run a hand down his face despite his mask.

Screw it. He was bored. He’d go bother Carapace.

He shuffled two doors down. He knocked twice…

There was a scrambling sound before he got a yell to come in.

When Chat actually did so, he found Carapace fastening his mask to his face. He was sitting at his desk, the area around him littered with crumpled pieces of paper.

“Salut?”

Chat batted away some with his feet as he made his way towards Carapace. “Salut. Chloe would kill you if she saw how much paper you’re wasting.”

“Paper is biodegradable, isn’t it?” Said Carapace with a slight grin.

“True.”

“... is there a reason you’re here?”

Chat didn’t answer, instead he slung himself over Carapace’s lap and laid there like a giant housecat. Which he pretty much was.

Carapace wasn’t even all that surprised.

All of the miraculous holders were well aware that the miraculous had side effects for them. They seemed to have attributed his constant need to be in contact with others as one of the side effects.

Chat knew that wasn’t the case, he was just Like That, but who was he to tell them they were wrong?

Carapace reached down and gave his hair a tiny ruffle and then went back to work.

Chat pulled out his phone again and started scrolling idly through Twitter for something to do (also he was kind of curious about the space pigeons now). The sound of Carapace’s pencil on the paper and his tiny sighs and curses were the only noises in the room for a while…

His eyes slid over the room. The bed looked untouched, there were a few empty energy drink cans strewn about, but other than that...

“So, wait, is homework literally all you do when you’re in here?”

“It’s all I have energy for outside of working out and patrols most days. Why?”

Chat rolled over to look up at him. “It’s just… you’re so…” He tried to think of a way to phrase it nicely, but when he couldn’t he settled for: “boring…?”

Carapace frowned a little. “And you’re so annoying!”

Chat flinched. As most people do when someone insults them.

His face softened and he groaned a little. “... sorry. That wasn’t… I’m just a little stressed out about school. This paper is due at midnight and I don’t know what to write.” He cracked a half smile and motioned to all the wads of paper. “As you might have been able to tell.”

He relaxed as well. “Yeah. I hear school is stressful.”

“You hear…?”

He hesitated. They were supposed to keep most things about their lives as civilians a secret, but… there was no way he could figure out who he was from this piece of information, so: “I was homeschooled.”

Carapace raised his eyebrows, thought about it, then nodded. “That makes sense.”

“Huh?”

“You have sheltered rich kid vibes.”

“... thanks?”

“No problem,” he responded easily. He set his pencil down and stretched as much as he could with someone still laying across his lap. “So. You had to have had a good education. Have any tips for my essay?”

Chat yawned and closed his eyes. “Depends. What’s the subject?”

“Film history.”

“... I don’t know anything about that, I don’t think, sorry. Ladybug or Rena might, ask them when they get back.”

Carapace laughed a little. “I don’t need information, if I did at least then I could just look it up, I just don’t know how to… write?”

He blinked his eyes open and then looked at him. “I can help if you just need to get your thoughts in order.”

“Really?” Said Carapace, his face lighting up.

Chat groaned a little as he stretched out. “Sure. Let me get a whiteboard.”

“We have paper…?” He said, watching his housemate get up and start walking out of the room.

“Shhhh, it’s for the aesthetic.”

Chat walked to the fridge and grabbed the whiteboard and markers from it.

He took a quick picture of the board so he could put everything back on it when he was done. Rena had apparently been doing some calculations on it. He remembered, vaguely, that she had mentioned calculating Hawkmoth’s height…

Holy crap. That’s tall. Sure, Hawkmoth was tall, but was he really THAT tall?

He shook his head slightly and erased, then returned to Carapace’s room. He smiled as he held them up for him to see.

“Tada.”

“So… what are we doing?”

“You --” Chat pointed a marker at him. “-- are going to talk about everything you know on the subject. I --” He pointed at himself. “-- am going to put everything in categories and we can go from there.”

Chat very quickly discovered why he was having so much trouble getting anything down. Carapace was… let’s call it ‘passionate’. The moment he started speaking his words tumbled out so quickly that Chat had had to scramble to pull the cap off of the marker so he could start sorting.

But, really, it always is nice to hear someone ramble about something they’re passionate about. Chat had to fight an urge to just watch and listen to Carapace as he talked about how ‘absolutely insane the textbook is for not going that much into eastern theater when there’s so much to talk about about kabuki theater alone --.’

Two hours and many struggles to fit so much information into such a compact space later, Carapace had run out of things to talk about.

“... is there a page limit?” Said Chat as he tossed over a water.

Carapace caught it without even really looking and took a few sips before speaking again: “Uh… yeah. Five pages max. That’s… my main problem.”

Chat looked at the board. What was on there alone was probably two pages in itself and that was just the general names of the topics…

He tipped his head from side to side and then circled a part of it. “Behold. That’s probably around four, and then you can do a bit of extra plus an introduction and conclusion.”

Carapace looked like he was going to cry.

“Are you… okay?”

He sniffled and wiped his eyes. “Where have you been all my life?”

“Uh… being homeschooled?”

“Oh. Right.”

Chat slung himself over Carapace’s lap again as he got to work. He scrolled through his phone for a while.

He jumped a little when he got a text. Still not used to that.

He opened the message.

Ladybug: We’ve washed off and changed clothes so your allergies won’t be irritated. Heading home now.

Kittychat: Thanks :D

He got left on read by three people, but that’s fine.

“They’re on their way back.”

Carapace grinned. “Wow, they beat Mr. Pigeon? Shocker!”

When Chat laughed a little, Carapace’s grin got a little more mischievous.

“Seriously, though, imagine losing to Mr. Pigeon. Couldn’t be me.”

“I am allERGIC --!”

He was cut off by Carapace’s laughter and, after a moment, he joined in.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence…

Then Chat got an idea. A small smirk made its way onto his face.

“You said that your account was going to be showing the world that we’re all normal people under the masks, right?”

“Among other things…?”

“Want to mess with the others and get some footage?”

“You complete me. C’mon.”

Carapace snatched his phone off his desk and they headed down to the living room to prepare.

~~~

Taglist

@nathleigh @mialuvscats @sassakitty @th1s-1s-my-aesthet1c @blueslushgueen @woe-is-me0

#a miraculous tiktok account #chat noir #adrien agreste #carapace #nino lahiffe #ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #queen bee #chloe bourgeois #rena rouge #alya cesaire #miraculous team #miraculous fic #ml fic #rewriting miraculous #chloenette #chlonette #adrino

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brookewritesyk · 3 years

Text

o n e

Warnings- Swearing

2016 Words

───── 𝐑𝐞𝐮𝐧𝐢𝗼𝐧 ─────

𝐈𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 since the Goodmans family last saw Charlie-Rose. Charlie was always a very pretty girl or female as Martin would say. Since a young age, she's had the aspiration to become an actress. Not because of the fame and wealth that came with it if she made it big, unlike most people.

You may be wondering who are the Goodmans? The Goodmans were a family of 4 and Jonny Goodman was her best friend up until near the end of high school when she had to move. Deep down Charlie knew she always felt something for Jonny that was more than just friendship. That explains why she is sitting in a taxi with nerves coursing through her.

She was going to see the Goodmans again.

───── 𝐀𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝗼𝗼𝐝𝗺𝐚𝐧'𝐬 𝐡𝗼𝐮𝐬𝐞 ─────

"For someone who doesn't stop going on about formula 1 your surprisingly shit at driving," Adam commented getting out of Jonny's car. "Like seriously no control of the vehicle."

"No control of the vehicle?" Jonny repeated offended. Then the car alarm went off and Adam gave Jonny the I-told-you-so look.

Whilst continuing bickering they walked towards their parents' front door and they noticed it was left open.

"Why is the door open?" Adam asked puzzled.

Not answering, Jonny went and fully opened the door to find Wilson, their neighbour's dog sitting on the carpet.

"Hello", Jim, the neighbour said slightly surprised whilst coming out of the bathroom and to see Adam and Jonny were there.

"Uhh hi Jim," Adam said but it sounded like a question as he was getting more confused.

"Jonny?" He asked unsurely and slightly tilting his head.

"I'm Adam," Adam replied getting annoyed.

"I'm Jonny.." The younger brother said dumbfoundedly.

"Why are you..." Adam trailed off.

"Hmm?" Jim mumbled trying to avoid answering the question.

"Nothing." Adam sighed knowing he wouldn't get an answer.

Cautiously, Jim went to pick up Wilson's lead and flinching while the brothers looked at each other confused and bewildered. Then Jim went through the boys to leave.

"Right.." Adam said whilst closing the door. "That wasn't strange."

Still confused, they went through the house to find their parents in the garage.

"Hi, mum." Jonny greeted blankly.

"Hi." The older brother sang.

"Hi boys," Jackie responded distractedly.

"What are you doing in the garage?" Jonny asked.

"We're having a clear-out," Jackie explained now looking at the boys.

"Don't you mean what's Jim doing in our loo?" Adam joked whilst smiling.

"Martin you do know the boys are here, say 'hello'," Jackie told Martin and not answering the question.

"What?" Martin asked pointing to his hearing aid then turned around and said: "Oh hello bambinos."

"No top tonight?" Jonny jokingly asked.

"He's boiling," Jackie said.

"I'm boiling," Martin said louder thinking that Jonny didn't hear Jackie,

"Well, you're going to have to put a top on soon as we have a guest coming." Jackie reminded Martin whilst pointing to his naked chest. Then they all went to the kitchen.

Both of the boys groaned they didn't like guests coming over on a Friday night. "Why didn't you tell us there was going to be a bloody guest!" Adam complained.

"Because it's a surprise!" Jackie explained excitedly.

"So who is it?" Jonny asked whilst opening the fridge getting the whipped cream and squirting it directly into his mouth.

"Stop eating cream, its an old family friend." Jackie hinted vaguely whilst smiling wickedly and started to stir the soup.

"Well, that wasn't vague," Adam smirked sarcastically and eating bread.

"So when is Lily coming?" Martin asked from coming downstairs finally having a shirt on.

"Lily?" Asked Adam and Jonny at the same time.

"Lily? No, its Charlie. Charlie-Rose Evans." Jackie reminded her husband annoyed.

"Wait, Charlie-Rose is coming here?" Jonny asked shocked and slightly blushing.

"Yes I got in touch with her on Tuesday and I invited her over for dinner," Jackie explained.

"The Charlie-Rose Evans is coming over, the one Pissface had a massive crush on?" Adam said excitedly knowing he could take the piss out of him for the night.

"Used too, in year 10 before she had to move to Paris," Jonny defended "Plus I've got a girlfriend, Allison."

"That's never been proved," Adam stated.

"You're just jealous that I have a girlfriend," Jonny argued.

"Yes, I'm jealous that you have a girlfriend which you share with another man." Adam sarcastically agreed.

"Simon is not her boyfriend!" Jonny huffed.

Then the door went.

"Oh my God, that will be her!" Jackie exclaimed whilst excitingly clapping her hands and rushing to the front door.

"Hello, Char- Oh hi Jim," Jackie said disappointed. "IT'S NOT CHARLIE EVERYONE, IT NOT CHARLIE!" Jackie loudly informed everyone and turning her head down the hall then turned her attention back to Jim who was trying to spray breath mints but played it off as glasses cleaner.

"Nice and shiny," Jim commented whilst fastly whipping his glasses with a cloth.

"Right, sorry Jim what do you need?" Jackie asked fake smiling.

"Yes I was wondering if you had any soy sauce, I ran out and need some for my ice-cream," Jim explained while trying to stroke Wilson but flinching away.

"Ok, Jonny!" Jackie called.

"What mum?" Jonny asked annoyed walking up behind his mum.

"Could you get the soy sauce from the cupboard?" Jackie asked disturbed.

"Sure." Jonny agreed yet confused so he went to the kitchen and grabbed the sauce and lazily gave it to Jim then went back in the living room.

Then the door went again.

"I swear to God if that's Jim-" Jackie muttered whilst opening the door again to realise it wasn't Jim it was Charlie-Rose. "Oh, hello love! Aww, it's been ages how are you and how was Paris?" She asked excitedly.

"Hi, Jackie I'm doing great! Paris was magnifique. In my apartment, I had a perfect view of the Effiel Tower but it's good to be back home." Charlie explained cheerfully.

"That sounds amazing." Jackie tutted happily and guided Charlie through to the living room. "Boys guess who's here!"

"The lady strangler?" Adam joked thinking it was Jim as he was focused on his phone.

"Horrible Adam! No look." Jackie insisted.

"Oh my-" Jonny breathed shocked.

Charlie had long flowing brunette hair and hazel eyes which complemented her perfect pale skin. She was wearing minimalistic makeup and an off-white leather jacket and a white dress with blue vines on it.

"Hi, Pusface." Charlie joked smiling.

"Great that's still stuck." Adam mumbled, "Hey Paris hows it been?"

"It's been going good and original nickname. Quick question do you write jingles now?" Charlie asked unsurely.

"Uhhh yeah how did you know?" Adam asked caught off guard.

"Right I thought it was one of yours as I heard one in a cafe in Paris." She explained.

"Wow, the shit composer made it all the way to Paris." Jonny joked "H-hi Charlie.." Greeted shyly by Jonny who forgot Charlie was actually there.

"Still haven't matured have we Pissface?" You teased going in for a hug.

"You know I haven't." Jonny laughed returning the hug.

Suddenly, Charlie-Rose started to kiss both of Jonny's cheeks which caused Jonny to blush furiously and Charlie pulled away and quickly said: "Oh my God I'm so sorry I forgot in Paris you-"

"Don't worry about it." Jonny comforted rubbing her arm.

Then Martin walked in, not wearing a top again.

"Martin," Jackie moaned.

"But Jackie, oh hello, Bambina!" Martin happily greeted and surprisingly hugged her.

"Who knew dad was capable of emotions," Adam said amused.

"Yeah who knew?" Jonny laughed.

"So how was Italy?" Martin asked pulling away and fiddling with his hearing aid.

"Italy?" Jackie asked.

"Italy?" Adam asked as well at the same time as his mum but louder.

"Yeah, she went to Italy didn't she?" Martin asked in clarification.

"Umm no I went to Paris, you know France," Charlie explained perplexed.

"Oh right," Martin said nodding.

"Sorry about that love, so how is the acting thing going?" Jackie asked intrigued whilst sitting down on the sofa along with everyone else.

"It's going well I've been in a few adverts here and there but still just looking for auditions," Charlie explained, happy and surprised that she remembered.

"Aww, little Charlie-Rose is a celebrity," Jackie said with pure excitement.

"Well not yet." Charlie joked while smirking.

"Charlie-Rose?" Martin said

"Yes?" She replied sweetly turning around to face him.

"Any males?" Martin asked.

"Males?" Charlie looked at Adam and Jonny confused.

"Have you been seeing a guy," Jackie explained rolling her eyes at Martin.

"Oh umm, not at the moment no." She said slightly sad.

"Are you a homosexual?" Martin asked.

"Dad!" Adam moaned.

"What? She's a pretty female if she hasn't got a male she must have a female." Martin logically explained

"No I-I'm not gay just haven't found the right guy yet," Charlie answered.

"If that's the case I could set you up with-" Jackie started to offer until Jonny protectively declared, "Mum set me and Adam up all you like with someone but not Charlie."

"Rather protective for someone who's got a girlfriend," Adam commented snidely. "Oh sorry, you don't as she doesn't exist." He corrected himself.

"Shut up Pusface, she does exist and she's amazing!" Jonny exclaimed a bit too defensively.

"Boys enough we have a bloody guest!" Jackie shouted at them "Sorry about them sweetie come through to dinner."

In the midst of it all, Charlie-Rose's heart sank at the idea of her best friend being with someone who wasn't her.

───── 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 ─────

"So where should I sit?" Charlie asked as Martin sat next to Jackie.

"Oh, you can sit next to Martin or Adam." Jackie offered using her knife to point to the empty seats.

"Ok great." She replied happily and sat next to Martin who was eating his roast.

"Jackie?" Martin said.

"Hmmm.." Jackie responded

"This is a lovely bit of squirrel." Martin calmly stated then bursts out in hysterics along with Jackie.

After calming down Jackie asked looking over at Jonny, "So are you going to tell me why she couldn't come tonight?"

"Hmmm?" Jonny asked back in response and carried on eating.

"Allison?" Jackie rolled her eyes getting frustrated.

"You know your pretend girlfriend." Adam mock informed Jonny.

"I'm not having the conversation with you right now," Jonny said looking at Jackie dead in the eye.

"Why not, has something happened?" Jackie whined disappointed.

"As I haven't seen Charlie in at least 5 years and I don't really want to talk about my girlfriend while she's here and make her uncomfortable," Jonny explained thoughtfully.

"Awww, Jonny-boo fine but only tonight." Jackie cooed

"Thank you!" Jonny sighed. "So what else did you get up into Paris?" Jonny asked trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.

"Well I went up the Eiffel Tower which was fun, did a Coco Channel advert and I went to the Louvre." Charlie listed.

"Is that the museum that takes like 3 days to see it all of it?" Marin asked.

"Yeah, it was long but definitely worth it." You told Martin.

───── 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝗺𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐮𝗺𝐛𝐥𝐞 ─────

"Crimble crumble!" Jackie said excitedly.

"That crumble looks dry, good thing we've got water." Jonny suspiciously commented.

"What?" Charlie asked confused but in response, Jonny just did the hush symbol at her and he repeated: "Nothing I'm just saying luckily we have water."

"Oh, I know what you have done!" Adam said pointing at him and took Jonny's glass and drank from it and quickly realised "You put salt in your cup!"

"Oh my god, you still do that!" Charlie said after recovering from her fit of laughter.

"Yep." They both said in unison but in different tones.

───── 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 ─────

Whilst walking out of the Goodman residence Jonny stopped and looked at Charlie and said: "I really missed you."

"I missed you too," Charlie-Rose replied.

Then Jonny went in to hug her and murmured in her ear "Please come over again next week."

Smiling she said "Of course"

#jonny goodman #friday night dinner #adam goodman #x reader #e4 #channel 4

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lia-jones · 3 years

Text

Growing Together - Chapter Twenty-Eight - The Proof Is In the Brownie

Author's note:

Hello beautiful people! It's been such a long time since I have posted, and I'm truly sorry for the no-show, but things ahve been hectic at work and I really couldn't get myself in the right headspace to write, but now we're hopefully rolling! I struggled a lot deciding whether I should write this chapter or not. It doesn't feel like my usual narrative, some of you will find it unusual, and still I had to get it out of my head. If you can, leave me a comment or an ask with your opinion!

So, without further ado, let's get to it!

“Oh God.” I croaked, looking around. “I think we took this thing way too far.”

Victor lifted his head from my shoulder, disheveled hair still covered with flour.

“You think?” He frowned. “We destroyed the kitchen.”

Feeding Instructions

“Andy, will you come here for a second?” I heard Victor call from the hallway.

“Yeah.” I stopped beside the aquarium, running my fingers through my wet hair.

“This is how much you give him.” He showed me a small plastic spoon with lobster pellet food. “Twice a day. Once in the morning, once in the evening. No more than that.”

Here we go.

“Are you also instructing me on how many times I should feed our son, or is it just the lobster?”

“You forget you fed him, and then you feed him more than necessary.” He dropped the food into the aquarium. “He’s getting fatter, his exoskeleton doesn’t even get a chance to harden.” He paused, staring at the aquarium. “Maybe I should make you a sheet to keep track of his feeding.”

“For the last time, Victor, I am not overfeeding the lobster! I am perfectly able to remember if I have fed him or not, I’m not senile.” I walked back to our room, starting to feel annoyed.

“This from the person who forgot her phone inside the refrigerator.” I heard him follow me.

“That is different, I was getting a yogurt for Owen and I was holding the phone...”

“I would buy you some memory supplements, but you’ll probably forget to take them.” He mocked me.

“You know, if you are so worried about the lobster, don’t go.” I turned to him. “Stay and feed him yourself.”

“You know I can’t do that. I need to make sure everything is running smoothly before the inauguration.” He held me by the waist.

“Right.” I leaned my head against his chest with a heavy sigh. ”And I need to stay behind to look after LCG and help Goldman if he needs me.”

“It’s only for two weeks.” He pressed his chin on top of my head. “Then you’ll meet me in Paris, and we can make up for the lost time.”

I wrapped my arms tightly around him, like somehow my embrace could force him to stay. Although traveling was a big part of Victor’s job, since we got Owen he used to avoid it as much as he could, and I got used to having him with us all the time. I knew LFG France was a big project that demanded a lot of his attention, especially during the first months, and he had no choice but to go, yet I still resented the fact that I would have to endure two weeks without his warmth, sleeping alone in a cold bed.

“In the meantime, will you please try not to kill our pet?” He broke our embrace, pecking me in the forehead. “Twice a day. No more, no less.”

“Oh, for the love of-”

“Nevermind, I’ll just ask Owen.”

And with that, my husband left me alone in our bedroom, probably to avoid the insults I was about to throw at him.

A Brownie a Day Keeps the Sadness Away

“You’re leaving tomorrow?” Owen poked his eggs. “But I have to go to school today, I won’t have any time to be with you before we leave.”

“We have tonight.” Victor smiled at his son.

“It’s no use, it’s not enough time.” The boy pouted. “And I’ll be too sad to enjoy it anyway.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at my five-year-old drama. Victor gave me a knowing look.

“Well, that being the case, I may as well return the tickets I bought to the Insectopia exhibition.” Victor spoke casually, his eyes on his phone.

Owen dropped his fork and looked at his father, his sweet brown eyes sparkling.

“We are going to see Insectopia today?”

Victor got up from the table calmly, retrieving an orange cardboard box from the fridge.

“We were, but since you are so depressed, you may not want to do it. I even bought your favorite brownies from Hungry Hippo, but I understand if you lost your appetite.”

“I can have brownies for breakfast?!?” Owen’s eyes opened so wide I thought they were going to pop out.

“Finish your eggs first.” Victor took three more plates from the cupboard, serving us all brownies. Owen took his fork again, eating his eggs in a rush.

“Done!” He announced after what felt like 10 seconds. “I want a brownie please!”

“God, Owen, did you even chew your food?!?” I looked at my son’s plate, surprised to see it empty. But I don’t think he even heard me, already busy cutting his brownie.

“Hmmm, these are sooo goood!” Owen closed his eyes as he took a bite of his brownie. “The best brownies ever, better than all other brownies! Not even Dad can make brownies this good!”

My husband’s face fell.

“My brownies are not this good?”

“No, these are so much better!” Owen replied with his mouth full of chocolate.

Victor gave me an inquisitive look. I sipped my coffee, pretending not to notice.

“Hmm.” He frowned, cutting a piece of his brownie with the fork and bringing it to his mouth. After a moment, his frown deepened. “They are. But how?”

Playing My Brownies Right

As usual, we drove Owen to school and headed to LFG Tower to work. On a regular day, Victor and I would spend our commute time talking about our daily affairs, clients we would meet, who would cook dinner or pick Owen up. But since it was his last day at home before he flew to Paris, all of that seemed irrelevant. The whole day just felt a bit sad for me.

“I wish you could take the day off for us to spend some time together. It’s been ages since we had some time for ourselves.”

“Some other time.” He sighed. “I need to get some last-minute affairs in order before I leave.”

“Can’t you take some time and have Goldman do it?” I complained. “You’ve been working non-stop.”

“I should take care of some things myself.”

“Funny, back when I was publishing my study, you were such a firm believer in delegating.” I squinted at him.

“Different situations.”

“Because I’m me and you’re you?”

There was a moment of silence, and I smiled thinking Victor was mulling over my astonishing comeback. Turns out, he wasn’t even listening.

“Do you think those brownies are better than mine?”

“That is your main concern right now!?”

“Well, are they?” He insisted.

“Ok, consider this a lesson of tough love.” I turned to him. “Yes, they are. Happy Hippo’s brownies are vastly superior to yours. And that’s ok. You don’t have to be good at everything. Someone can’t be good at everything.”

“I beg to differ.” He frowned, watching the road. “My whole life, I worked hard to achieve perfection, and I have reached it. I believe that with consistent effort and dedication, one can be good at anything.”

I stifled a laugh.

“Not brownies, though.”

“Don’t think I can’t tell you are mocking me.”

“Oh no, I’m going to lose brownie points.” I poked him.

“Will you back off?” He poked back. “I have plenty to do today, I don’t want to catch moronitis from you.”

“You know, if you were so good at everything, I’m sure you would have no trouble delegating your tasks to Goldman and spending the day with me.” I gave him a daring look. “In fact, I bet you can’t.”

“You bet?” He smiled mischievously at me. There was nothing Victor loved more than a good challenge. Unfortunately for him, I was well aware of that.

“Want to make it official?”

“It depends. What are the terms of this bet?”

“For today, until Owen arrives from school, if I dare you to do something, you’ll need to do it, and you need to do it perfectly. If I win, you’ll have to admit you are not good at everything. Also, you can’t nag me about anything for a whole month. Not about lobster food, not about the mess I make in the bathroom, nothing.”

“Fair enough. So if I win, you’ll have to always agree with what I say and act accordingly for a month. During that time, what I say goes, and you can’t go against it. And you will have to acknowledge my prowess as well.”

“I always have to agree? So I can never tell you that you’re wrong?” I frowned.

“Not for thirty days, you can’t.”

“Not even if you are talking your way into sleeping on the couch?”

“That won’t happen because you’ll always agree with me.” He smiled. “See? It’s a foolproof plan.”

“You have to win first.” I dared.

“I’m confident about my chances.” Keeping a cautious eye on the road, he pressed the screen of his phone. “And to show you I mean it, I will complete the first challenge.”

“You’re taking the day off?” I smiled, surprised to see my teasing work so well.

“I was already planning to, you idiot.” He pretended to be angry, although I could see him suppressing a smile. “I only had a short meeting to attend and then I would whisk you away from the office for some time for two. Sadly, you had to act childishly and ruin the surprise.”

Awww, soft Victor. I leaned against his bicep, my heart filled with love for this man. It almost made me feel bad for planning to make his day a living hell. Almost.

Put Your Mouth Where Your Brownie Is

“A supermarket? That’s your idea of time for two?”

“It’s been a while since we’ve had a quiet day at home, just the two of us.” Victor replied, filling our cart with several items. “And cooking together seems like a nice activity.”

“Well, since you’ll be gone for so long, I thought we could use some more…” I batted my eyelids at him. “... intimate time.”

“Fear not, I will not leave my wife unsatisfied.” He smiled.

That smile was enough to leave me a babbling horny mess. Get it together, Andrea.

It wasn’t until we stopped by the dairy fridge that I paid close attention to the contents of our cart: chocolate, sugar, flour, and a stick of unsalted butter Victor had just put there.

“We’re going to bake brownies.” My good mood was gone at that exact second. We were supposed to be taking time for us, how could he even think about brownies?

“We are going to try and recreate that recipe, perhaps even improve it.”

“Well, don’t use that butter then. Use this one instead.” I retrieved a stick of regular butter from the fridge.

“I will not use cheap butter to bake.” He put the salted butter in its original place. “It alters the consistency and flavor. It belongs on warm bread, not brownies.”

I could say I was disappointed that Victor was more concerned about his pride than the short time we had to be together before his trip. I could even say that it upset me how condescending he would sound sometimes, always telling me how to do things, like I was Owen’s age. All of these were true, but that wasn’t what was bothering me the most. Victor would leave soon, and we wouldn’t see each other for two weeks, and I knew I would be a needy insecure mess during the time he would be away, barely able to sleep on that giant bed by myself, missing his loving whispers in the morning, his huge sweaty body making love to me. To add insult to injury, this distance didn’t seem to affect Victor at all. He was cool as a cucumber, like this long trip away from his family was just another Tuesday.

I felt entitled to some pettiness.

“You know what? Forget about the old bet.” I took the stick of butter and placed it again in our cart. “Let’s make a new one. Same consequences, different challenge.”

“What do you have in mind?” He came closer, looking me in the eye.

“Simple.” I stared back defiantly. “The best brownie wins.”

All is Fair in Love and Brownies

The terms were pretty straightforward: we had fifteen minutes to prepare the batter, after which we would put both trays in the oven, simultaneously, and bake them for the exact same time. If we couldn’t decide on which brownie was the best, Owen would have the final say. The winner would have absolute power over the household for a month, and could not be defied during that time, unless in dire circumstances.

We placed the ingredients on the counter, along with the bowls and pans we would need. Victor started the timer on his phone.

“Ready?” He glanced at me.

“Let’s get this party started.” I smiled.

It was showtime.

Victor and I loved cooking together, but our cooking methods couldn’t be more different. I was more of a messy cooker, leaving eggshells on the counter, and flour everywhere, and most times my clothes would also become victims of my culinary endeavors, while Victor was methodical and clean, neatly arranging his ingredients on the counter, carefully measuring each one of them. Surprisingly, we worked pretty well together: Victor quickly embraced my spontaneous side and I obviously benefited immensely from his methodic one. Side by side, as competitors, not so much. That became clear when I grabbed the flour and placed it absentmindedly on the counter, the bag still open.

“Close the bag after you use it.” Victor paused his mixing to close the flour bag. “Clumsy as you are, you’ll spill flour all over the counter.”

“So what?” I shrugged, busy mixing my batter. “It’s just flour, we’ll clean it afterward.”

“Have you noticed how filthy your side of the counter is? How can you work in such chaos?” He scolded. “Eggshells everywhere, flour and sugar on the floor…” He wiped my forehead. “How did you even get flour on your face?”

And there he was again, talking to me like I was five. Oh boy.

“I’m sorry, is my mess making you uncomfortable?”

“Just stay on your side of the counter, I don’t want to get stains on my shirt.”

That was enough. If Victor was so adamant about treating me like a child, I would act like one.

“Oops!” I tilted the sugar jar over the counter, sugar spilling all over Victor’s side. “You are right, I can be really messy.”

“What’s the matter with you?” He quickly grabbed a cloth. “Are you trying to aggravate me on purpose?”

“Maybe I am.” I shrugged. “I mean, I’m sure a perfect man like you must be prepared to deal with all challenges life throws at him, including a messy wife.”

“A little sugar isn’t going to stop me, if that's what you think.” He gave me a smug look, returning to his work. “I’ll still win.”

“Is that so?” I paused my mixing, wondering what I could do to get him pissed.

“Easy now, don’t go doing things you might regret.” Victor raised an eyebrow at me, like he somehow had read my mind.

“I think my batter is ready. Tell me what you think.” I grabbed the spoon I was using to mix and whipped it towards Victor, a bunch of brownie batter landing on his neck and face. “Yummy, right?”

Victor paused, his eyes closed, taking a deep breath as he wiped the chocolate from his face. For a moment I thought he would just scream at me and storm away. I had something quite different.

“Not quite ready yet.” He took the flour bag and dumped it all over me. “It needs more flour."

“Are you sure?” I gave him a defying look, after wiping some of the flour off me. “Have another taste.”

And I did the unthinkable. I took my mixing bowl and poured it all over his shirt and pants.

“For the record,” Victor said after recovering from the initial shock, “you were the one who started this.”

I really can’t tell who threw what next, but the next thing I know is we were in full battle mode, ingredients flying everywhere. Victor got a clear advantage when he remembered he had some eggs close by. Thankfully, I was quick to react and managed to avoid being bombarded by opening the fridge door and hiding behind it. And that’s when I saw it. The can of whipped cream I had bought to garnish the other brownies, and that Victor had refused to use because food in a can is unacceptable. Well, I would put it to good use now. I emerged from behind my improvised shelter, shaking the can vigorously.

“Now, if you’re smart,” I pointed the nozzle at him, “you’ll admit defeat and walk away.”

“If you were smart”, he walked confidently towards me, “you’d know it takes a lot more than whipped cream for me to fold.” Before I could react, he grabbed both my wrists and made me twirl, holding my arms behind my back, the can forgotten on the floor. “Now admit defeat.” He whispered in my ear, from behind me.

“Oh, bite me.” I scoffed.

He didn’t waste a second. He took my earlobe in his mouth and bit it hard.

“Satisfied?”

I gave him a daring look.

“Harder.”

Bigger Brownies to Bake

My defiance was like a trigger in Victor’s mind. He didn’t give me any time to think or react, turning me effortlessly in his arms, his mouth taking mine in a passionate kiss. And just like that, our food fight turned into a steamy make-out session.

Yes, the kitchen was a mess, and Victor would be leaving soon, but none of the things that bothered us before seemed to matter at that moment, as we focused solely on each other and the way we felt, the world a blurry notion in the back of our minds. We simply gave in to our lust, kissing, touching, teasing, hands ripping clothes apart and throwing them on the ground. Victor was far from cold, despite popular belief, he was a very intense man, and loving him was just as intense. Every time we gave in to our feelings like this, it was like being swallowed by a gigantic yet pleasurable wave, only hoping we would come out whole in the end. We made love right then and there, on our kitchen island, too entranced to think of anything else. It was only when we came down from our high, landing in each other’s arms with a wide grin on our faces, that we minded the real world again.

“Oh God.” I croaked, looking around. “I think we took this thing way too far.”

Victor lifted his head from my shoulder, his hair covered with flour.

“You think?” He frowned. “We destroyed the kitchen.”

Our eyes met for a second before we both burst into laughter. Problems like a dirty kitchen seem so silly when we’re happy.

“Will you tell me why you have been so moody with me lately?” He pulled me closer to his chest.

“I haven’t…” I started defending myself, but gave up when I noticed him glaring at me. “I have been moody, yes, you are right.” I sighed. “I know this is stupid and you’ll probably make fun of me, but the idea of having you away for so long… it’s unsettling.”

“Idiot, it’s only for a few weeks.” He chuckled. “Before you know it, you’ll be taking the jet to meet me.”

“See? And that infuriates me too!” I pushed away from his arms. “Here I am, pouring my heart out, and you laugh! Like this is a joke, like there is no reason for me to be feeling that way, especially when it’s clear you won’t-”

He pressed his lips against mine, and as usual, my thoughts evaded me completely. His kiss was sweet and soothing, taking away all my anxiety. He took my face in his hands and broke the kiss to look into my eyes, his voice with a sweeter yet vulnerable tone now.

“You are usually so good at reading me.” He smiled. “How can you think I don’t care?”

His eyes were filled with such honesty that I began to question my reasoning as well. That man did nothing but love me, deeply, every day. How could I possibly question that? I watched as he lifted my wrist, holding the red ruby charm between these fingers.

“I carry your heart with me.” He whispered.

“I carry it in my heart.” I returned.

“I may not say much, but my word is biding. You never need to worry about these things, you have the answer to them already. Here.” He pointed at my bracelet. “Here.” He took my left hand, kissing my ring finger. “And hopefully, here.” His hand rested on my chest. “Even when this gets you in trouble.” He tapped my forehead with a smile. “I give all these reminders and still you forget? You are in dire need of those memory supplements.”

“Damn it.” I shook my head. “You won.”

“No, the terms were that the best brownie would win. We didn’t get to bake them.”

“You wanted to prove to me that you are perfect.” I wrapped my arms around his neck. “And you did. You are absolutely perfect. At least for me.”

“Well, that being the case…” He came closer, brushing his lips against mine. “I think we have a tie.”

The kitchen was pristine clean when Owen came from school, and our little adventure became our secret, a private joke we shared in our moments of intimacy. Another proof that, even in chaos and uncertainty, we would always find each other.

This project has been going for a year now (it started in February 2020) and it won't be over any time soon, so I would like to ask you, as much as possible, for your support, because we still have a very long way to go. So, if you enjoy the work, don't forget to comment and reblog. It gives it traction and enables other people to learn about it, and for me to get more excited about what I do.

#victor mldd #mlqc victor #love and producer fanfic #li zeyan #Growing Pains - Series #growingtogether #victor x oc

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letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked · 4 years

Text

Words On My Skin Chapter 30

Bucky Barnes X Reader (Soulmate AU)

A/N: I guess it takes a quarantine and deadly virus for me to start writing again, huh? LOL! TAGS WILL BE REBLOGGED ON THIS EVENTUALLY! I have like... a whole year of tag requests to sort through! So... Sorry LOL

Warnings: Be gentle... I’m rusty at writing lol

Main Masterlist // WOMS Masterlist

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

Y/n: I'm on my way back! Happy is driving me! I'll tell you the details when I get home! I got you a surprise! <3

Bucky: I'm in the room, doing paperwork. Steal one of Steve's granola bars for me, please and thank you and I love you.

Y/n: I'm not taking the fall again if he catches me!

Bucky: He's out with that one blonde chick we don't like.

Y/n: Ew. Why???

Bucky: Why do you think?

Y/n: Ew. She looks like she has crotch crickets. Plus she was a bitch to me last time she was here. I tried to be nice. I think she's in it for his fame... and the D.

Bucky: ...that's disgusting.

Y/n: I'm making him an appointment for an STD check.

Bucky: He's going to kill you.

Y/n: He'll thank me when his dick doesn't fall off

Bucky: He's going to make you do more cardio.

Y/n: ...Okay, yeah, I'll just let his dick fall off. LOL fuck cardio

Bucky: You seemed to enjoy last night's cardio. ;)

Y/n: That was more like naked yoga... with a happy ending! Totally different!

Bucky: We can do naked yoga anytime you want.

Y/n: I'll take naked yoga over cardio all day every day

Bucky: All day every day? ;)

Y/n: Shut up, fool. <3

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

Placing your phone back into your purse, you stared out the window, watching the busy streets blend into trees and snow. Stupid snow. You were lost in your own head, thinking about the meeting with your parents. Which had gone... surprisingly well.

Your mother was fairly civil to you - as well as the waitstaff - and your father actually had a serious conversation with you.

It was one of the weirdest days of your life... and you lived with a bunch of superheroes.

Seeing your parents like this, after so many years of loathing, arguing, controlling... You weren't sure where your relationship stood.

Though, it was nice to gain at least a little clarification and get everything out in the open.

They'd apologized for the way they treated you in your youth, as well as the way they treated Bucky. You'd apologized for all the shit you'd said to them before you'd moved away, as well as keeping them pushed away in your adult years. The excuses your mother had for acting like a controlling robot were just... sad. She talked about how your grandmother treated her the same - if not worse. She was the way she was because she wanted you to be better than her. No wonder you've never actually met your grandparents in person. Your mother hated her parents. Almost as much as you'd hated yours... until now.

Now... You just had sympathy. Not that it excused any of the behaviors over the years, but you understood now.

It seemed as if she'd convinced herself that the way that she raised you made you the positive person that you were, today. Which was true to some extent. It was recovering from the way you were raised that made you the person you were today. You may have been comfortable with money, but money wasn't everything behind closed doors. Money didn't solve the problems that you'd dealt with in your youth. In fact, it was living the stereotype of a rich family that had caused the majority of your problems. It was the cold, brash emotions modeled by your parents that made you want to be different. The controlled diets, the need to hide emotions and compartmentalize, the forced dating, the fights, the lying, the fake public image... it was dealing with those things after you'd escaped it that made you the person you are today.

Personal growth, and all that jazz.

After the emotional bit of the dinner, you'd actually enjoyed yourself. Your parents asked you about your job, the first day you met Bucky, college, your friends, and everything else they hadn't been a part of for the last decade or so.

They told you about their trip to Paris, where your mother had tripped over a crack in the pavement and they spent half the day in the emergency room so she could get stitches. They told you about how they got their entire office to donate a large sum of money to Bucky's charity that he had been running. They told you about the day that they realized that they needed a change of scenery from California.

It was almost... normal.

If you even knew what normal was.

"Y/n?" You heard Happy's muffled voice, followed by a light tapping on the cool window. He hadn't opened the car door, because your head was leaned against it. "You ready to rock and roll?"

"You're such a dad." You giggled, grabbing your purse and leftovers as he opened the door for you, "Speaking of dads, are you going to become Peter's step-"

"I DON'T-" He paused, taking a breath through his nose and blowing it out of his mouth, "I don't want to talk about that."

"Happy and Mae, sitting in a tree..." You sang, grinning as you skipped past him, "K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

"You're such a child." He rolled his eyes, slamming your door closed and walking to the driver's door.

"You love me, anyways." You pulled open the front door to the compound, leaving Happy to bring the car over to the garage.

You removed your coat the moment you stepped into the heated building, throwing it over your arm and hiding the bag of leftovers and Bucky's surprise. Glancing around, you saw the lobby was nearly empty, save for a few agents using the lobby to cut to the other wing.

Glancing over to the front desk, a grin spread over your face as you took in the sight in front of you.

Caleb was snoring loudly, mouth hanging open, head tipped back, and his feet up on the desk. The book you'd given him for his birthday was open, resting on his stomach like he had fallen asleep reading in his chair.

"FRIDAY, can you please do me a favor and record this please?" You whispered into your watch, sneaking over to the sleeping agent. "Send it to my tablet when it's done."

You were glad you wore flats instead of heels, so your shoes made no noise against the hard floors as you snuck behind the desk. You kept out of swinging distance, grabbing a clipboard off his desk and readying yourself for whatever happened.

"CALEB, WAKE UP!" You screamed loudly, slamming the clipboard repeatedly on the desk. "CALEB, THE SKY IS FALLING!"

He let out a loud shout, limbs flailing around, and chair tipping backwards. "I WASN'T SLEEPING." The obnoxious laugh you let out made his face scrunch up in confusion from the floor, "Y/n?" He glanced around, springing up gracefully and surveying the empty lobby before sending you a glare, "Rude."

You couldn't reply, leaning against the desk and tossing the clipboard in front of him, hysterical laughter echoing through the nearly-empty lobby. "I- You- Oh- Dying." You wheezed, trying to calm your laughter before you peed yourself, wiping the tears from under your eyes, "Oh my god."

"I'm glad my fear brings you such joy, you awful human being." Caleb grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his chair, "I hate you so much right now."

"I brought you dessert." You replied, finally able to pull your shit together, grabbing a box out of the big bag you were carrying. "It's chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake."

"I hate you less, now. You are forgiven." He lunged forward, a large smile on his face. "Gimme', gimme', gimme'."

You handed him the box, shaking your head and glancing at your watch, "I'm beat. I'm gunna' head up."

"Your soulmate is an asshole, by the way." Caleb informed you, mouth full of cheesecake, "He kept telling me he's going to get Claire an obscene amount of slime for Christmas." He glanced up at you with narrow eyes, "I'll hurt all of you if you get her slime, or anything else with loose glitter. My kitchen table is ruined."

"I cannot confirm nor deny that we got her slime for christmas." You shouted, jogging towards the elevator. "Love youuuuu."

"Fuck youuuuu." He sang back at you, as you disappeared from sight.

"My floor, please, FRIDAY." You requested as the doors to the elevator opened and you got in, "Is Bucky in his room?"

"Yes, Ma'am." FRIDAY replied.

Leaning against the wall, you inhaled deeply through your nose - trying to dispel any weird feelings in your gut. Ever since you'd left dinner with your parents, your shoulders felt lighter... but there was a sense of unease in your belly. You'd never expected in a million years that you'd actually have a relationship with your parents where they communicated with you in a semi-healthy way.

Was this real life?

Honestly, it felt like you were in a simulation or something.

Nothing felt normal anymore.

When the lift doors opened, a wave of delicious smells hit your nose - and you followed the scent to the kitchen, calling out, "Who's cooking delicious-smelling food?"

"That'd be me." Sam called, head in the fridge as he searched for something in the back, "Where the fuck did my strawberries go?"

"That'd be your not-so-little buddy Steve." You chuckled, watching as Sam glared at the fridge before moving back to the stove in a huff. It was actually Bucky, but you weren't about to snitch on your soulmate. "What are you making?"

"God dammit." He grumbled, stirring whatever was in the giant pot, "I'm getting a mini fridge in my room. This 'sharing' business is pissing me off."

"Sam. Food."

He turned to you with a grin, "Momma Wilson's famous lasagna soup."

"They make lasagna in soup form?" You frowned, walking over to the stove to inspect, confirming the fact that he had - indeed - made soup out of lasagna ingredients. It was confirmed by the broken-up lasagna noodles floating up to the surface, and the red sauce littered with spices. God, that smelled good... "Where'd your mom come up with this, and can I have the recipe?"

"Nope. Special made by only me." He shook his head, shooing you away with the spoon. "Go away. You already ate."

There goes getting the granola bar... Sam would totally snitch.

"Save me some for later?" You stuck out your lip in a pout, giving him your best innocent face.

He rolled his eyes, turning away from you and stirring his soup, "We'll see."

You giggled, turning away and walking towards the living quarters with a pep in your step, "I appreciate you."

"Yeah, yeah." You heard him grumble, "Since you do my paperwork..."

"And I do a fabulous job!" You called in sing-song, rounding the corner into the hallway and feeling giddy about bringing Bucky his surprise.

He'd been talking about how he'd been craving French Silk Pie, and you just so happened to spot a few slices left at the restaurant. The manager had recognized you from the photo of you and Bucky at the sushi restaurant and seeing you in that interview, and had offered to slip in a few extra slices of pie for next to nothing... so you'd taken a page from Bucky's book and tipped the staff an obscene amount.

Bucky was going to shit when he saw how many pieces of pie you were coming back with.

"FRIDAY can you unlock the door for me, please?" You called out quietly, listening to the door click as it unlocked. "Thank you." As you pushed open the door, you spotted your handsome soulmate sitting at his desk, sharpening a knife carefully. "You planning on murdering me with that, or what?"

"Ha-Ha. Very funny." He deadpanned, eyes trained on the knife as he examined it, "If I was going to murder you, stabbing you to death would be too messy."

"Comforting." You chuckled, shutting the door behind you and hanging your coat on the back of the door and laying the plastic bag full of food on his bed. You reached behind you to unzip your dress, heading over to his closet to grab a shirt to lounge around in. "I buy you a delicious treat, and you plot my murder."

"If it makes you feel better, I'm also looking at files for the new recruits." He replied, voice sounding really far away. "Jennings looks promising."

You frowned, pulling his shirt over your head. Trying to feel him out through the bond. He seemed... neutral. It was weird. Not upset, but also not happy. Peeking around the corner, trying to be sneaky, you watched him as he read through another recruit file flipping the knife around skillfully. He didn't look tense. He also didn't look like he was concentrating on the file, either.

"Why are you staring at me?" He asked suddenly, not turning around. His hair looked messy, like he'd been running his hand through it.

"Why are you being weird?" You asked, walking over to the bed and grabbing one of the small to-go boxes out of the bag. Setting it on his desk with a plastic fork, you leaned down and wrapped your arms around him from behind - resting your chin on his shoulder. "I got you french silk pie."

He turned his head, pressing a small kiss on your bare arm. "Thanks, sweetheart."

You didn't think you could frown any further, but you were wrong.

He was totally being weird.

"Okay, okay." You moved away from him, sitting on the edge of his bed and grabbing one of the pie slices. "What's wrong with you? What are you hiding from me? You're too... neutral."

"Nothing's wrong with me." He replied, not turning around. "I'm not hiding anything."

Bullshit!

"Lies." You sang out, digging into your piece of pie. "Can't bullshit a bullshitter. Especially when she's connected to you emotionally through a magical soulmate bond." You shoved a bite into your mouth, realizing that you'd grabbed one of the apple pie slices. A pang of annoyance nudged you in the chest, and you rolled your eyes, "You can be annoyed all you want, but that's not telling me what's up with you."

He sighed, leaning his head back for a moment, before spinning around in his chair and giving you a look of annoyance. "If I tell you, will you let up?"

"Maybe." You smirked, taking another bite of pie.

"I..." He looked down, picking at one of the plates in his hand - a nervous tick. "I talked to Tony, today."

Oh.

Oh shit.

You hoped it was a productive conversation. It had to have been, if Bucky wasn't upset. Then again, he was attempting to hide his feelings from you. Maybe it wasn't, and he didn't want to tell you?

You set your dessert down on the bed, leaning forward in interest, "And...?"

"He..." Bucky cleared his throat, not looking at you. "He wants to have us see Dr. Collins." He finally looked up at you, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Together."

You smiled, relief washing through you. This was good. If they saw Dr. Collins together, they might get to the root of their issues in a positive way that didn't include destroying the building... one can hope.

So why did Bucky look like someone pissed in his coffee?

"This is good, right?" You asked, confused. "Progress?"

"Yeah." He mumbled, looking back down at the dark, metal plates in his hand. "I guess."

"But...?"

"But-" His leg started bouncing up and down, and you could feel the nervous energy outside of the bond. "I'm a little... afraid about..." He sighed, shaking his head and closing his beautiful blue eyes, "I don't know. Doing all this-" He seemed to be struggling for the right words. "-opening up."

You nodded along as he paused, waiting for him to continue.

"What if... what if he still hates me in the end?" He rushed out, leg still bouncing. "I'm just... I'm so sick of people hating me for something I did when I was... him." He stood up, beginning to pace back and forth, and you had a feeling that he was about to explode. "I'm trying so hard. SO HARD. I..." He stopped, rubbing his hands over his face in frustration. "I just... I hate what he did. I hate this. I don't want to go through all of this just for Tony to still hate me in the end."

He sat back down in his chair, hand running through his growing hair and leaning his elbows on his knees, "I'm just... I don't like this nervous feeling. That's why I was trying to hide my feelings. Because... I don't want to feel them." He looks back up at you, blue eyes full of sadness that hurt your heart. "Sometimes I feel like it's easier being him. He doesn't feel anything, and I barely remember half the shit he did."

"Bucky..." You sighed, standing up and moving to sit on his lap, wrapping your arms around his middle and leaning the side of your head against his shoulder. "It's understandable that you don't want to feel the hard feelings. They suck ass." He snorted at your words, arms wrapping around you, but you kept going, "But you're human. Even if you're a supersoldier with some crazy serum running through your veins, you're human. Feelings make you human. Feelings make you Bucky, instead of him." You looked up at him, as his arms tightened around you. "I'm not going to pretend I'm Dr. Collins and say something irritatingly profound, but... I think you know exactly what Dr. Collins would say."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He sighed, pressing his face into the top of your head - warm breath sending a shiver down your spine. "He's annoying."

"He may be annoying, but he knows what's up." You chuckled, turning your head so you were looking into his icy eyes, "You know I love you, right?"

"Yeah, I know." He smiled, crinkles forming at the corners of his eyes, "I love you, too."

Shifting around, you moved so your arms were wrapped around his shoulders and your face was level with his, "I brought you french silk pie."

"You spoil me." He grinned, arms around your middle, "How'd your dinner with your parents go?"

You grimaced, rolling your eyes, "It was weird. It kind of feels like those two hours were a dream. I don't believe that my parents actually had a real conversation with me." He raised an eyebrow at you and you huffed out a sigh, "Yeah. Yeah. I'm happy. I'm glad that we can finally talk, but... it's just weird. I don't really know how to process it."

"Finally going to be one big, happy family, huh?" He laughed, poking you in the side. "Like The Brady Bunch?"

"First of all, when the hell did you have time to watch The Brady Bunch without me?" You narrowed your eyes at him, raising a brow in question, "Second of all, there's only three of us."

"I didn't watch it," He rolled his eyes, shaking his head at you before standing and setting you on the bed, turning around and grabbing his container of pie, "I read about it."

"STOP DOING THAT!!" You whined in annoyance, throwing a chunk of your apple pie at him. Oh my god, if he kept fucking doing that... "You need to actually watch these things! Stop reading the plot on Wikipedia! It's not the same!"

"I read faster than I watch!" He took a huge bite of his pie, crumbs falling onto the floor. "I can read the plot in a fourth of the time it would take to watch the whole thing." After another obnoxiously large bite of his pie, he set the container back on the desk, moving towards the bed, "If I try and catch up on all the shows and movies I missed over the last century, I'll be biologically ninety before I'm caught up."

As he moved the bag of containers to the floor, you held the slice of apple pie closer to your chest, "I'm not sharing my pie." You took another bite of the sweet pie, the taste of cinnamon on your tongue. He kept moving closer, and you turned your body away from him holding the pie away from him, "NO! You can't have my pie! You have your own!"

"If you don't put it on the nightstand it's going to be in the bed." He warned, an evil look in his eye. "I'm giving you three seconds."

You yelped, attempting to scarf down the obscenely large and sweet piece of pie as fast as you could.

"Three."

You scrambled away from him, but his arm wrapped around your middle as you continued to shovel the food in your face.

"Two."

"NO!!! I'm TRYING!" You giggled, tossing the fork onto the floor, but unable to reach the nightstand with the container full of whipped cream and a large chunk of pie still sticking in the container. You shrieked out a laugh as he tackled you into the bed, the slice of pie completely smearing all over your face and hair. "BUCKY!!"

"One."

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

Part 31 ...coming soon to a Tumblr near you.

660 notes · View notes

bts-trash-blog · 4 years

Text

Golden: Part2~ Shivers

Summary: Watercolor splashes, and yet all that splashed on your skin was ink, while his was gold. Cold and warm. Sweet and sour. Love and lust. Yet it made so much sense..sadly he couldn’t see it.

Pariing: Min Yoongi X Chubby Reader

Warnings: Angst, mentions of depression, inscrurites, smut and some mentions of past toxic relationships. Just poor Yoongi tbh.

AN: Want to know when I update? I have a tag list!

PREV ._. NEXT

Letting out a groan as the sound of pots and pans woke you up, looking over you see the bright number of 6:39am flashing making a louder groan pass your lips. Of course on your day off Hoseok wants to make breakfast at the buttcrack of dawn, the sun wasn’t even fully raised not even shining through the cracks of your blinds. Rolling out of bed, your eyes land on the discarded sweatshirt that you had probably ripped off in a sleep hased in the middle of the night. Grabbing it you throw it over yourself and make sure your shorts aren't riding up too high between your thick thighs, sighing you reach down and unplug your phone. You stumble slightly out of your bedroom and into the kitchen to see the brown hair boy moving around the kitchen, his eyes looking over to see you and gives you a soft smile.

“Morning ladybug.” His words made a huff as you opened the fridge door, grabbing a bottle of iced coffee. Cracking it open you take a huge gulp making Hoseok let out a soft laugh as he looks at you and place the fried egg onto a plate and hand it to you. Smiling slightly at him you moved to sit down at the table, the rice next to you as you grab a spoon full and shovel it into your mouth, manners way out of your thoughts as you see Hoseok sitting down next to you. “Ladybug, I hope you remember to have manners outside these walls.”

“Shut up.” You grumble making his laughter grow, as he started eating as the two of you sat in silence you heard your phone ding making you look to see Namjoon had messaged you. Opening up your phone you let out a small sigh, wishing you were able to figure your way out of the question he asked you. Though you found humor in the following message, making Hoseok look at you with a small smirk.

“Boyfriend?”

“Oh shut up you dick.” You grumble, making him snort as you move to open your messages.

Namjoon: Are you free today?

Namjoon: Jin and me with a friend are going to the new coffee shop a block away from ours

Y/n: Gotts spy out the competition I see

Namjoon: Of course, who's the best person to take with me? My best customers

Y/N: Who’s this other person?

Namjoon: My friend Yoongi, he’s at the shop almost as much as you. I'm honestly surprised you haven’t run into each other yet.

Y/n: Chill. Time and place see you then

Letting out a sigh you look to Hoseok who had a curious look in his eyes as you handed him your phone, taking him as you scroll through his instagram feed, as he scrolls through your messages with Namjoon. He nods his head as you watch him swipe out and move to an app, probably snap with the faces he started making.

“Streaks with Joy, Jimin, and Johnny have been sent.” You chuckle as you hand him back his phone, the like photo of EXO on screen making him huff as he exits out of his feed as you do the same. “So this Namjoon guy is who you and Minnie visited yesterday?”

“Yeah he runs the Kim Coffee Shop down the street from here, I’ve been going there for about a year. It's where I was going after school for my extended learning, remember on exotics.” He looks at you, his head tilted, reminding you of a literal dog, till his eyes widen.

“Oh that shit three months of you literally not sleeping.” Chuckling at his words you nod, your eyes turning down to your now empty plate, as you take one last spoon full of rice.

“It's the place I’d go to study after work, and before I came here to do my homework. It was a nice middle ground, where I could get distracted but still stay focused.” Nodding you get up and stretch, doing the rest of your Coffee, as you move to the kitchen with your dishes. “I call the bathroom first.” You said moving back down the hall to your bedroom to grab your change of clothes, and then leading to the bathroom. Finally getting ready for the day. Yet when you think about it, you can’t help the shivers rushing down your spin.

______________________________________________________________________

Letting out a breath as you walk down the street, your earbud hanging down as you stop at the corner of the street, your eyes casting side to side the dark cloud above you makes you adjust the hood above your head. You couldn’t help but slightly rush across the street , especially when Namjoon caught your eyes. He couldn’t help but smile brightly as he throws his arm over your shoulder and begins to walk beside you.

“So what's the plan?” You ask as he looks to the sky, his head tilting as he looks back down the ground. A dimpled smile hidden as he looks forward and lets out a breath of air.

“You believe in the red string of fate, right?” You couldn’t help but let out a snort, as you look at him, the look clearly making him realize how stupid of a question that as to ask you. “Ah yeah of course you do..well.. Anyway we are gonna meet Jin and Yoongi at the shop. Then we’re gonna see what type of stuff they have and if it's better than ours.” Nodding you look forward, his question still lingering in your thoughts as you clear your throat.

“What was with the questions Joon?” Sighing he looks at you and smiles, his arms falling off of your shoulders his hand moves to rest in yours as he swings your hands. Making you chuckle as he looks at the sky and smiles.

“Rainy days are always the best, aren't they?”

“Avoiding the topic isn’t gonna work...but yes, yes they are..most of the time when the weather is like this I just sit in my room with a book in hand..that or I sleep all day.” You chuckle as he giggles, his eyes shining as you felt the cold drop of rain against the top of your cheek as you look at Namjoon. “So what was that question for?”

“I just..I just have a feeling today...a feeling I had the day I met Jin...shivers...a bit of...annoyance even.” His words had you nodding as you rub your thumb on the back of his hand.

“I felt that too..I woke up not wanting to do anything..but then you messaged me and I was annyyed that you didn’t want to see me then..stupid I guess.” You said dropping his hand as you see Jin. He was wearing a large brown coat, matched with a black turtle e neck and skinny jeans. His hair was a bit of a mess, most lilly from the wind, his phone in hand as he looked up as Namjoon grabbed his hand, the fiery red plussing onto Jins skin as the baby pink pushed back onto Namjoon. A smile lifts on your lips as Jin's eyes catch your, and his smile seems to grow.

“Moon! Thank god you made it, Yoongi seems to be running late. He might not make it, he said he was up all night in the studio. He said this new label kids JK took up all his time.” Nodding you rock slightly on your heel as you look down to another store across the street, the coffee shop open for business and people rushing in and out.

“Looks a little plan.” You stated, the statement turned, it was filled with vines in the front, no wood cabin like feel, like theirs. It felt plain and simple, somewhere where maybe people would run to cause it looked like it wouldn’t be busy.

“That's what I said when I saw it the other day driving home, it's just too simple looking.” Jin grumbled as he moved to stand beside you, nodding as the three of you moved to cross the street, the wind whipping around you as you felt another cold drop of rain on the top of your head. Sighing as you step in, you see a few empty tables.

“Who’s at the shop?”

“My brother taehyung.” Namjoon said, his eyes scanning the menu, moving furrowed to order and from what you could tell for all of you. His eyes scanning the prices, much more expensive than his own. Sighing as he pays, you move to a table with Jin, as Namjoon moves to sit with you two he lets out a groan. “Your small black coffee was eight buck..six for a small black coffee I..I swear if it doesn’t taste good I will.” He cuts himself off with a deep breath, look you saw the baby pink splashing against his neck and his ear as Jin runs his fingers through his hair. “Sorry about that Y/n.” Nodding you look at them and couldn’t help the smile lift on your face, your phone buzzing.

Minni: I legit hate owners sometimes this women just fucking threw the paper work at me cause I said facts. That her dog was malnourished and there should be a change in diet. I almost THREW hands.

Y/n: Wait is it the lady with that brown mini poodle?

Minni: YES. the one where the nails were literally diggin into one of the pads last MONTH this dog needs a better home.

Y/n: I mean do you think she’d surrender him to the clinic?

Minni: Probably not, this woman seems to have her head shoved up her ass. I’ll try and see if I can get a surrender, ttyl.

“Who’s that?” Jin asked, making you look up as you clicked your phone off and slip it back into your coat packet.

“Jimin, he’s in the clinic today and the owner who we had issues with in the past came in. Nothing special.” He looks at you with a tilt to his head as all of a sudden Namjoon sets a cup in front of you.

“Why don’t I believe you.” He chuckled, making you huff as you smile, taking another look out the window, shiver rushing down your arms, making you shake your head slightly. “Cold?”

“I little, I guess.” You said as Namjoon huffed and sat back down next to Jin, your eyes landing on the extra cup next to yours.

“Took five minitutes to get four simple drinks, I would’ve had these out in three.” Chuckling you look to see a paper cup, with a black lid.Taking a smell you couldn’t help but frown, it smelt good. Namjoons eyes widen as you give him a look, his head shaking as he takes the cup and smells. “Just cause it smells nice does not mean it will taste good.” Sighing, you take the cups back and blow into the cup, slowly moving the lid to your lips as you take a sip. The warm bitter liquid filled your mouth, the perfect twing of sweetness made you hum as you frowned at Namjoon. “No. No….you’re our coffee demon. Stop.”

“It tastes okay.” You lied, it was amazing, though you didn’t like it that even sitting in even had paper cups, you liked the more home feel. “Plus I miss the mugs we get when we sit in.” Letting a shiver pass as you see a body moving past the glass window, and the door opening, your body feels warm then cold.

“Jin Hyung.” A voice calls making your eyes close, a shiver rushing down your spine at the tone, at the voice. He was on the slightly shorter side compared to the two men in front of you, he was also in pretty much all black, black jeans, leather jacket but his shirt was grey tone. He was in leather boots, and he had a snapback on a black mask covering his chin as he licked his lips as he looked at your table. You watch Jins head turn as a smile grows on his face, his head nodding the seat next to you. “Hey Namjoon.” His name made the upset man turn around as he followed the body of Yoongi as he moved to sit down next to you, heat filling the side of your body closest to him.

“Hi Yoongi hyung...I swear if ethier of you stop showing up at my shop I will murder you.” His words had you giggling as you looked at the black hair man. Shaking your head as he grabs the cup Namjoon handed him, taking a sip his eyes widen slightly making Namjoon groan. Both of you sighing as you open your mouth.

“You're closer to my place.” You and this Yoongi said at the same time, making Namjoon and Jin slightly jump as you look to the man next to you slightly and smile. Maghony..black coffee colored eyes stare at you, swirling with some emotions you wish, wish you could read.

“Y/n.” You said with a slight bow of your head, Yoongi nodded back as he cleared his throat and out stretched his hand.

“Yoongi.” placing your hand in it, your felt a zap, making you hiss as you look down at your hand, expecting for both of you to brush it off. But you froze as you looked to see ink like black splashed on your palm and wrapping around the top of your hand. Your eyes widen as warmth spreads through your body, looking to see a gold like color reflected off of his pale skin as he looks down at his hand. Lips parted in almost aw, as he moved his hand in front of his face. Then his eyes snapped to your own, the already faddin color making him reach forwards and touch your hand again. Watching the black ink color splash against your skin, as gold spread through his made him drop your hand in pained wince. His body moved quickly to remove himself from the table. “Fuck.” He whispered, his hand clutched to his chest as he turned to leave the shop, coffee cup spilt as Jin and Namjoon called after him.

Your body frozen as you watch the one person in this world, who was connected to you, who was supposed to accept you. Run away. Running away from you. Making insecurities rush through your veins, wanting to curl in on yourself into a ball as you blink your eyes rapidly, trying to hide the tears.

He left you in tears, body shivering to hold his hand again.

185 notes · View notes

hateswifi · 4 years

Text

Making Do (With What Life Give Us): Part 1

Asked to me by @abrx2002

For a Daminette what if She met the wayne family young. Dick tought gymnastics and Romanian, Jason taught street skills such and spanish, Tim taught detective skills and business tactics. By the time she met damian at like 12 she was an adorable badass. They later became food friends and started dating a bit before she was ladybug. Because she knew their secret and tikki was alright with it after knowing they were also heros. Later after the class betrayal damian shows up and salg is everywhere

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Marinette had been going to Gotham Academy on scholarship since before her mum had died. She made a lot of friends who helped her out in the long run. That was until CPS found a permanent home for her. Right now, she was missing her brothers, well her adopted brothers, dearly as she looked at the window. A family from Paris had adopted her and now she was on her way to a new life. She thought over her life up until this point and wondered how could she have lost it all so quickly?

Young Marinette, around the age of eight, had been running to class, when she ran into Dick Grayson, the sophomore class president.

“I’m so sorry,” Marinette said picking herself up off the ground, tears glistening in the corner of her eyes.

“It’s ok there is no need to cry,” he said, crouching down to the little girl’s height.

“Oh no! I’m going to be late! Mum is going to be angry!” Marinette said tears spring from her eyes.

“No come on I’ll walk you to class, and you won’t get in trouble ok?” He asks standing holding out his hand.

“You promise?” Marinette asks, grabbing his hand.

“I wouldn’t lie to you,” Dicks says leading her to class. When he led her to class he opened the door and greeted the teacher. “Sorry Miss, but Marinette here was helping me for a school promotion video that the class presidents are putting together.”

“Of course Richard. Marinette please take your seat,” the teacher responds as sweet as honey. Marinette does as the teacher says and takes her seat. She waves to Dick as he heads to his class.

When Marinette got home that day she drew a sparkly thank you card for Dick. The next day she was going to give it to Dick after school, but when the final bell had rung and she had left her class she was stopped by a couple of fifth-graders.

“Look at little miss clutz,” one of the boys, Samuel, said cornering her in the locker room.

“Oh, what’s that?” One of the other boys, Isaac, sneered snatching the card.

“Give that back!” Marinette screamed. “That’s not for you!”

“Leave her alone she didn't do anything to you,” a darker voice said entering the locker room. Marinette room the distraction from the new voice to stop on Samuel’s foot and grab the card.

“Come on guys, move! I’m not dealing with Jason!” Isaac said, grabbing Samuel by the arm and dragging him away.

“Are you ok, Pixie-Pop?” The voice from earlier, apparently Jason, asked coming around a corner.

“Ya,” she says looking at the ground. “But I was going to give this to Dick before I left, but I can’t.”

“Grayson?” Jason asks sitting on the ground leaning up against a locker across from her.

“Yes, how’d you know?” She asks sitting on the ground.

“He’s my brother,” Jason sighs. “Why’d you make him a card anyway?”

“He got me out of a tardy yesterday and didn’t yell at me when I ran into him,” Marinette explains. “Would you be able to give it to him?”

“Of course I promise I’ll give it to him, Pixie-Pop!” Jason said standing up as she held out her card.

“Thank you, Jason!” Marinette said, smiling before skipping away.

Jason leaves after grabbing his homework from his locker and heads to the car Alfred was driving. When he gets in the car Dick is already there. “Here you go,” Jason says, handing him the handmade card. “From a little Asian girl.”

“Marinette?” Dick asks taking the card.

“Ya I think so, how do you know her?” Jason asks, slouching.

“She’s a sweet little clumsy girl. She had the start of a panic attack when she realized she was going to be late,” Dick said, looking at the glittery card. Tim slid in the car next to his brothers.

“Who was going to be late?” Tim asks closing the door.

“A little girl Dick met and saved from a tardy,” Jason says.

“That makes sense, but how’d you meet this little girl?” Tim asks, buckling his seat belt.

"She was cornered by a group of fifth-graders," Jason explains nonchalantly looking out his window.

"She gets bullied," Tim asks.

"Apparently for clumsy nature," Jason responds.

"We could help her," Dick says.

"Ya and that would go over like a fart in church. Just think, hey little girl, we can teach you to fight if you get in this car and come to our house," Jason says sarcastically, looking Dick like he is dumb. Well, at least his suggestion was dumb.

"I guess so," Dick says, his usually bright smile turned to a frown. After that, the rest of the car ride was filled with a heavy silence.

When Marinette had gotten to her family apartment she called home from school, her mum laid on the couch surrounded by multiply empty bottles. She tries to quietly walk to her room, in hopes her mum wouldn't hear her enter late. "Nette, why are you home late?" the drunken woman asks, sitting up slowly. "It sounds like you're avoiding me, are you in trouble?"

"No mum, I just wanted to let you sleep," Marinette responds, trying to walk to her room faster.

"Are you sure, because it looks like you have a hole in your uniform," the woman says, now standing in front of her.

"I'm sorry mum, I tripped. I didn't mean to rip my tights," Marinette says, backing up slowly, almost curling in on herself.

"You're so clumsy! Do you know how much the goddamn uniforms cost?! No! because you're an ungrateful brat!" she screamed. She smacked Marinette across the face. "Get out! I don't want to see your face!"

"I'm sorry, mum! Please don't kick me out again! The hole is fine I can sew it!" Marinette pleaded, earning herself a kick.

"And risk us looking poor!? I don't think so now, get! out!" she says, throwing Marinette towards the door. She wished her dad had stuck around, maybe her mother wouldn't be like this. Her father, she doesn't know much about him, left a couple of weeks before Marinette was born. Her mum had resented Marinette since she had been born. The only family Marinette had in the world and her mum treated her like this.

Marinette was glad it was close to summer so she wouldn't freeze on the streets and she hoped that the Gotham Rogues or heroes wouldn't find her. She found a nice little alleyway and took out her pencil and homework and started doing her homework. As she completed the last of it, she finally let the tears slip down her cheeks and onto the paper. She fell asleep to the sounds of sirens and honking horns.

She woke up early the next morning to the sun shining down on her. Her stomach grumbled so she stood up and left the alley where she saw a grocery store just down the street with apples out front. She knew her mum would get in trouble if people knew how she slept outside last night or how she actually got those bruises. She walked by the grocery store and grabbed an apple and ran down the street toward school.

School that day was normal, she caught a glimpse of a black long-hair boy with blue eyes looking at her in the hall, he kinda looked like a grumpier Dick. After final bell, her teacher had pulled her aside to ask about her check and Marinette explained that a kid had hit hurt at the park after school. and the other bruises had been because she's clumsy. The teacher had given her a weary look and told her to head home.

"Mum, I'm home," Marinette says, opening the door. She had been home a bit earlier since she ran all the way home. Her mum was passed out at the table, bills under her head. Her mum works hard every night and when she came home in the mornings she was either high, drunk, very sore, or all of the above. She got paid a decent amount for her work, but most of it went to bills and alcohol. Marinette was going to the academy on scholarship. Today her mum was high, and probably wouldn't be aware of much until dinner. Marinette walked to the fridge to see if she could make anything for when her mum woke up. There were some green beans, carrots, and sauce in the fridge, and she knew she had rice in the cabinets. She was going to take some money and pick up some chicken to make a stir-fry. She had been cooking for a while or else she wouldn't eat because her mum was always too tired to cook.

After she grabbed some chicken and onions, she walked to the front to pay. This is a small, family-run business she goes to because the prices are usually better. "Sir, this morning I didn't have money on me and I took an apple. I'm sorry, but may I pay for that now," Marinette says. She is standing on her tiptoes trying to give the man the money.

The man, the father of the owner smiles softly. The poor girl was bruised on her face and bit on her arms. "Thank you for apologizing, but I'll pay for this. Please come back if you have a problem at home," the man says with a small, but warm smile.

"Mum tries her best. I just want her not to be angry when she wakes up," Marinette says, putting the five-dollar bill into the tip jar. "I'm sorry again about the apple, mum was too tired to cook last night. Thank you for everything."

"It was honorable for you to come back and try to pay for the apple, not many would," he says, waving to the girl as she leaves the store.

She makes the food and by the time it's done her mum is up and hungry. As she sat at the bottle filled table, her mum looked at the food. "Did you take my hard-earned money without my permission?" the woman asks stabbing a piece of chicken.

"I.. I just wanted you to be happy," Marinette said, a stray tear landing on her plate.

"I would be happy if you didn't take my money without my permission. Money doesn't grow on trees!" she screamed by now Marinette was eating a bit faster fearing the inevitable. "Go to your room, you're wasting too much food."

"Yes, sorry mum," Marinette says, sliding off the chair. She grabs her backpack off her chair and walks with her head down to her room. Her room is attached to the fire escape, so she sits looking over the city and does her homework. Her mum was home tonight, so she couldn't even go back out later and finish her dinner. After about an hour or so, the sound of splintering wood rang throughout the apartment. Around five minutes later she hears her mum's blood-curdling scream. Marinette, not wanting to get hurt, runs up the fire escape. She holds her breath as she hears heavy footsteps walk around the house, but no soon after she sees two black cars pull away.

She runs inside and sees her mum's body, bloody, on the floor. She runs over and pulls her mum's head onto her lap. She leans over her, hugging her while crying. "I'm so sorry, mum."

Her mum raises a bloody hand to her daughter's face. Her once beautiful dark brown hair, now blood-soaked. "Mari...nette, I... am sorry.... you will.... do great things one day. I... lo.. love you," she says before her bright blue eyes look off far into the distance and dim.

When the cops found her twenty minutes later, Marinette still sat there, rocking back and forth asking her mum to come back to her. "Excuse me, dear, we have to take her now," the nice cop-lady said, trying to pick up the now bloody girl.

"No please! She's all I have left. She didn't deserve this! She said she loved me! If she loved me she wouldn't have left like daddy! Please is she ok?" Marinette screamed, trying to hug her mum's corpse in hopes it was just a terrible nightmare.

"Dear, we're going to wait in the car, ok? The nice paramedics are going to do everything they can," she says, picking the girl, who should weigh more, up. She walked with the girl down the three flights of stairs. Outside there were some reporters along with a couple of the bat family including Nightwing, Red Hood, and the newest Robin. The two eldest birds paused, looking at the poor bloody bluenette.

"Is she hurt?" Nightwing asks, looking at the bruises.

"Besides some bruises from what looks like domestic abuse," the nice cop-lady answers the hero.

"No, mum was just tired! She would never hurt me on purpose! It was my fault, I shouldn't have tripped then she wouldn't have gotten angry," Marinette explains, grabbing Nightwing's hand. She cries while pleading. "She said she loves me! She didn't mean to hurt me!"

"It's ok," Nightwing says, leaning down to hug the girl. He rubs small circles into her back.

"Dear, it's time to go, were going to take you to the station before you go to the group home, ok?" the cop-lady says slowly.

"But what about mum? She's fine, right?" Marinette asks, breaking away from Nightwing.

"I'm sorry honey, she's gone. But don't you worry she loved you," the nice cop-lady explained.

"No... she's all I have left. She can't be gone! She left me!" Marinette screams, running away from everyone around her.

"We got a runner!" Robin says. "We'll go get her." The bat fam runs down the street after where they thought she went.

"Nightwing, you know her?" Batman asks, looking out for the girl. He sees her but doesn't say anything, wanting her to have some time and for him wanting answers.

"She's the little third grader that I helped get out a tardy," he explains, looking at the poor girl.

"The one you wanted to teach self-defense to?" Hood asks, getting ready to jump down there.

"Yes, that's the one," he explains.

"Can we foster her?" Robin asks, looking at Bruce.

"She has no one else," Hood pleads.

"She has blue eyes and black hair," Nightwing adds.

"We'll talk about it later," Bruce says, dropping down to where she sits. They grab her and head back to her apartment. She gets in the car quietly, her eyes blank and cheeks tear-stained, and bruised. After the cruiser pulled away and the reporters had left, the bat fam headed home.

"So can we have a little sister?" Dick asks, plopping down in the spinning chair in the Batcave.

"You didn't let us get sent to a group home, would you really let that sweet little get sent there?" Jason pleads

"I'll see what I can do," Bruce grumbles before leaving.

The next day during school, which Marinette didn't show up for, understandable, Bruce, Alfred, and the Wayne's lawyer head to the police department to pick up the poor girl. When they walk in everyone literally stops and stares. "Are you officer Kansinsky?" Bruce asks as he got to the back.

"Yes this is her, how may I help you?" she asks, shaking his hand.

"We're here about Marinette Jiayang. We would like to foster her until she can find a permanent home," Bruce says.

"Of course! Do you have the papers?" she says. "She had a rough night, right now she's sleeping on the couch in the commissioner's office. What made you want to help her?"

"Well, you see I actually love children. I have three, Dick, Jason, and Tim, they're adopted. They convinced me to take her in because they already help her at school and she deserves the same chance at life as my sons do," Bruce explains, holding out the papers.

"Ok well this seems to be in order, but you're not off the hook that easily. CPS may drop by unannounced, ya know to catch you as natural as possible. I'm going to go grab her," Officer Kansinsky explained. After a couple of minutes, she reappeared with a sleepy Marinette in her arms.

"Bye-bye nice cop-lady," Marinette says sleepily with a small wave.

"Bye-bye, Mari, I hope you enjoy your time with the Waynes," she said, kissing the sleepy girl's head. She then hands her to Bruce and he smiles softly. She had been through hell just like him and his sons, but he will try and make the most of her time with him and his family.

"Alfred, your newest grandchild," Bruce says, buckling her into her seat.

"Sir, you might have a problem," Alfred says, driving to the boy's school. "You need to pick her up a uniform, her uniform is too bloody to clean, and the work she missed from today."

"Ok, make sure the boys don't wake her up, she didn't sleep last night," Bruce explains, getting out of the cars and walks toward the entrance. When he gets to the front desk he says "I'm here to change guardianship, pick up a uniform, and work."

"Who's guardianship?" the receptionist says, pulling up the files on his computer.

"Marinette Jiayang, I'm her new guardian. I also need to buy her a new uniform. Am I able to do that here? Also, she wasn't in school today, how can I pick up her work?" Bruce asks.

"I'll call the teacher about the homework. What size do you need for Miss Marinette? Will her name be changed?" the receptionist asked.

"I don't know about the size, a small, maybe? The name change is up to her, but I don't think so," Bruce says.

The receptionist gets up and leaves. When he comes back a couple of minutes later with three uniforms. "These are covered by her scholarship," he explains, handing him the uniforms.

"Hello, I have Marinette's stuff. I'm a teacher aid," shes says, handing him the work. "There are also some cards and good wishes with the work. Will she be back tomorrow?"

"Thank you. I don't think she'll be back till Monday," Bruce says.

"Is she ok?" she asks.

"She's sleeping in the car right now, she was up all night," Bruce explains then turns to the receptionist. "Can I take my three sons out right now? I want them to meet their sister."

"Of course," he said, picking up a phone. "Richard Greyson, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake to the office please, you're dismissed." After the boys got to the office, they headed to the car. They were told to be quiet because Marinette was sleeping.

"Miss Marinette, it's time to head inside," Alfred said from the front. The rest sat frozen, not wanting to startle the poor girl. Marinette rubbed her eyes with a yawn.

"Where... where am I? Jason, Dick, is that you?" Marinette asks, oddly calm while looking around.

"Yes, it's us. We convinced our father to foster for you," Dick says with a smile.

"I'm hungry, I haven't had a full meal in a couple of days," she answers as Alfred opens the door for her to get out. "Mum got mad last night and said I couldn't finish dinner."

"What about the night before?" Bruce asks, holding out his hand for her to take.

"I had tripped and tore my tights. Mum got angry and told me to get out. I stole an apple the next morning after I finished my homework and fell asleep," Marinette explained as Alfred opened the door, her new adopted brothers following behind her.

"Did you sleep outside, but that's dangerous," he says.

"Yes, I slept in a quiet alley and woke up to the sun. When is dinner going to be?" Marinette asks, looking around the entrance.

"It could be within the hour, Miss Marinette. I'll show you to your room," Alfred said, taking Marinette's hand to lead her upstairs.

After the car pulled away and Marinette was out of sight, Dick exclaimed. "Can I teach her self-defense?"

"No! That's no fair! I want to teach her self-defense!" Jason whined.

"How about we see if she wants to learn first. Now, boys time for homework. I'm guessing Marinette will join you after," Bruce said walking to his office.

Around ten minutes later, Marinette appeared wearing one of Jason's shirts that could count as a dress. "Miss Marinette Master Bruce has informed me that we will get you clothes you can wear tomorrow morning along with all other essentials," Alfred said, pulling out a seat next to the rest of the boys.

"Will I be able to have anything from home?" Marinette asks, scooching to the edge of her chair so she could swing her legs.

"I'll talk to Master Bruce about it later. If it would make you more comfortable, I feel like I can arrange it," Alfred said, handing her a pencil. "Now do your work, Miss." He finished before walking away to prepare dinner.

"Thank you, guys! I probably would still be at the police station or put at a group home if you hadn’t talked to your dad," Marinette said with a sad smile.

"We were once in the same position," Tim said. "We haven't met yet, but my name is Tim and I’m your new brother."

"Hi! I'm Marinette!" she says, smiling before looking down at her page.

"How are you feeling Pixie-Pop? We heard what happened yesterday," Jason says.

"I'm tired and I miss mum, but before she went bye-bye she seemed happy," Marinette said with a sad smile.

Dinner came and Marinette ate three portions, she was malnourished. Alfred tried to warn her to slow down so she wouldn't throw up, she listened. She went to bed early.

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Sorry it took so long, I hope you enjoy. Three more parts coming out soon.

#marinette x batfam #marinette dupain cheng #batfam #maribat #ml salt fic #lila salt #marinette x damian #alya salt #damian x marinette #marinette deserves better #wifiwrites

499 notes · View notes

iamdunn · 3 years

Text

Miraculous Flash Forward: Adrien Graham De Vanily

A Miraculous Fan-fic

Written By

AJ Dunn

The Agreste brand was gone as Felix stepped in to take over his uncle’s company at the behest of Adrien. Having shed off the name of that villainous man Adrien took his mother’s maiden name. Graham de Vanily. It only felt right to have his cousin who was a Graham de Vanily take over the company. He had more, business sense than Adrien. Not to mention Adrien had some things to attend to that meant staying out of the public eye. He and Felix had been identical their entire lives. It was weird although their mothers were identical twins. Felix and Adrien had different fathers as well. Felix’s father had died and Adrien’s mother remained in a coma. They had found her after his father had been captured. The miraculous’ had been returned to Ladybug who now held the miracle box as its guardian.

Adrien looked down at his own miraculous. He often wondered if he should return it to her. The thought of returning to Paris hurt, but the thought of seeing her and the hurt he must have caused her. He couldn’t bear for her to hate him. So he stayed away. He had completed high school in London with his cousin then set off for horizons unknown after singing his cousin in as CEO of the former Agreste fashion brand. He could even stand in for Adrien as the new face. However, he didn’t have as much flair for modeling as Adrien did.

“So you’re just going to leave me with YOUR company?” Felix asked with a wry smile.

“Makes sense to me,” Adrien replied without looking at his cousin. It was hard enough to look in a mirror, worse to look at his identical cousin. Felix sighed.

“You can’t even look at me anymore Adrien,” Felix complained. “I know I have been… insufferable but this…” he held his hand up.

“I’m sorry Felix you’re right.” Adrien felt ashamed. “It’s just hard.” He darted his eyes up to meet his cousins. His green eyes shown brightly, his silky blond hair slicked back in the same formal style his father always wore. Even his black suit and white shirt were straight and proper. A black-tie adorning his neck... He looked like a mannequin without even so much as a wrinkle or hair out of place. Sure he wore far less color than his father, who was a fashion designer. Felix was more… of the businessman than interested in fashion. While he still had a keen eye for it, he preferred to stick with the basics for himself. It was his way of separating himself from Gabriel Agreste.

“So, you’re leaving then?” Felix asked coldly. He had gotten so used to having a “brother” living with him. It made for fun pranks right after Adrien moved in with him. They’d switch close. Adrien needed to laugh, he needed to make friends but it was hard for him having been sheltered for most of his life then yanked away from the only friends he ever knew.

“In the morning.” Adrien zipped up his suitcase and set it by his bedroom door. Felix stood by the bed holding his hands behind his back spinning the silver band on his finger. Adrien wore the twin ring on his opposite hand. Felix noticed Adrien never took off the other silver ring he had. “My flight leaves at 7.” He looked at his watch. It was nearly time for dinner. “We should go, Aunt Amelie will be waiting.”

“Indeed, we won’t want to make mother wait.” Felix left the room first closing the door behind him. Adrien flipped the lock on the door then went to his mini-fridge. Only a couple of pieces left. He thought.

“Plagg?” He asked the air. “You’re going to have to slack off on the stinky cheese for a while.” he could hear the groan coming from the mini closet to the side of his bed. He swung the door open looking in to see Plagg cuddled up on the Ladybug squishy pillow. “Hey that one is mine.” he snatched the squishy pillow and tossed it on the bed. Replacing it with a simple black round squishy pillow with a neon green pawprint in the middle. He had found them on Marinette’s website. She had designed them and Adrien couldn’t resist. Plagg pouted.

“This one isn’t as comfy as that one,” Plagg complained.

“I know you miss her, I miss Ladybug.” Adrien sat on the edge of the bed. “Maybe I should take you back.” he slouched forward placing his elbows on his knees.

“NO,” Plagg yelled. “I’m not leaving your side.”

“You might not have a choice Plagg.” he looked up at his little friend hovering only feet from his face. “Where I’m going, they don’t have stinky cheese,” Adrien smirked. Plagg looked shocked then crossed his arms and turned his head away.

“If you can walk away from Ladybug…” Plagg sighed, his arms dangling at his sides. “Then I can walk away from Camembert.” Plagg gulped his words. “As long as it’s not forever, you have to promise to go back.” Adrien chuckled.

“I will Plagg, I promise.” he stood up and headed for the door. “Let’s go eat.” Plag zipped into his shirt pocket as Adrien opened the door.

The airport was nearly empty. Adrien had chosen this time so he could escape London without cameras following him everywhere. He had done well to avoid being in the public eye for the past few years. It wouldn’t be good if everyone in Paris found out that Adrien Agreste was leaving for China. Heaven forbid Marinette to follow him. She did have a great uncle there and he had planned to visit Cheng Sifu’s restaurant as often as possible. He found his boarding gate and took a seat in the corner where he was less likely to be spotted or recognized. He pulled his hoodie down over his eyes as whisps of his blond hair dared to expose him. He brushed them back the picked up a magazine. Marinette’s face struck him as he read the excerpt about her new company. Her designs were becoming a global sensation as his friends from his former band Kitty Section took the top spots on the chart and even knocked Jagged Stone down a peg or two. Adrien smile thinking about how proud he must be that his kids Juleka and Luka are succeeding him. There was a picture of the band. Juleka and Luka look very much the same, Rose too. Adrien’s eyes narrowed on a silver wedding band on Luka’s hand and his heart sank. Did he and Marinette get married? He closed the magazine and tossed it to the side.

Boarding, call London to Shanghai now boarding.

Adrien stood by the window watching the sunset. He could feel Marinette standing next to him as he smiled. He looked over to her, but she wasn’t there. It was only a memory. One of his favorites.

Adrien stepped out of the taxi at the address on his booking slip. He had leased a condo. It was paid up for the three years he planned to be here. Thanks to his trust fund which, luckily had been protected from the scandal caused by Hawk Moths’ deeds. It had been created by his mother instead of his father. Not to mention the funds from his days as a model. He didn’t have to worry about money. The now Graham De Vanily fashion industry was co-owned now, secretly of course. He wanted to maintain the guise that Adrien had disappeared in case Ladybug did in fact figure out he was Cat Noir. He couldn’t face her, not yet.

Adrien marveled at the design of the building. It was very modern with the appearance of two bullet trains back to back. The walls were glass with a metal framework. The entrance was directly in the middle of the building. Adrien walked up to the door as bell boys scurried to his cab to grab his bags. He had taken off his hoodie so as to not look the part of a vagabond.

“I am Adrien Graham De Vanily, I am supposed to pick up my keys from you.” He spoke Mandarin very well thanks to his father’s insistence. It helped that Master Fu and Cheng Sifu applauded him for it. Otherwise, he might have forced himself to forget it all. The guard nodded handing him a packet of papers and the keys.

“Top floor, suite 1A.,” he told the busboys who hurried to the service elevator with his bags. “I just need you to sign a few papers here.” he slid the papers to Adrien over the counter then a pen. He signed them quickly. The guard pointed him to the resident elevators and he headed upstairs. The top floor was nearly empty as he walked down the hall to his condo. It would be his home for a while and while he had never lived on his own, he was used to being alone. He always had someone else to prepare his meals, and tend to the cleaning and daily maintenance of his home but now, he was on his own. It felt refreshing to not have to worry about close calls and coming up with excuses for the ripe smell of cheese all over everything.

He couldn’t really complain, he was a cat kwami after all at least it wasn’t fish he was obsessed with, he’d never get the smell of rotten fish out of anything. He put the key in the door and opened it. He opened a sliding door to the right exposing a coat closet with a hanger for bags. He hung the bag closing the front door flipping the lock and deadbolt.

“Hello,” he called there wasn’t a sound as he made his way into the living area. The room was lit with natural light exposing a room larger than the one he grew up in. The white marble carpeting was cushioned his steps as he inspected the seating. A black leather love seat with silver metal framing and two matching armchairs sat in a square around a glass table with the same silver metal for legs. There was a swirling black, tan, and gray rug under the table. The seating faced the wall opposite the window that covered the entire external wall. The daylight beamed in as he saw the entirety of Shanghai spread out for him to view. He walked to the break in the wall where sat two swinging glass doors leading to the balcony. He searched the area seeing rooftops laid out before him. He could easily leap between them and return to his room undetected.

Returning to the sitting room he could see the large TV mounted on the wall. The art decor matched the black & silver theme. He saw the steppes leading up to the loft above the television and made his way up. The walls weren’t lined with bookshelves as his old bedroom had a bed but there was a walk-in closet and a king-sized platform bed against the wall with a railing over looking the seating area. The black slick bedside tables matched the black slick headboard with a silver bar slicing them in half. The bed was made up with a black with silver and white ivy weave bedspread.

There was a bathroom to the far side of the unit next to a closed-off kitchen. The decal in the kitchen was white marble flooring with black marble countertops. Silver appliances finalized the theme. The bathroom might just have been bigger than the actual area of the bedroom as it comprised of a large standing shower and a jet stream tub. There counter held two sinks and medicine cabinets with another cabinet housing linens. Amelie had made all of the arrangements for the purchase and set up of the furnishing and linens, as well as the kitchen accessories. He opened the fridge.

“Ah,” he said. “Looks like I will be doing my own grocery shopping Plagg,” he said aloud. No response. “It’s safe to come out Plagg.” the Kwam flew slowly over to him. A grumble came from the tiny stomach as he stared in horror at the empty fridge.

“Are you trying to kill me?” Plagg groaned turning his back to Adrien crossing his arms.

“Guess we’ll have to go out to eat.” Adrien closed the fridge and turned around. “Cheng Sifu’s?”

“Fine.” he gruffed. “But we have to get some food before we come home.” he pointed demandingly at his owner. He was grateful to have one like Adrien, he couldn’t have imagined if Gabriel had found him and Tikki instead of Nuuroo and Duusuu. It would have been catastrophic.

They walked to the Metro and took to downtown. Adrien remembered the way to the restaurant from the last time he perused the city. He got off a few blocks from the restaurant and dipped into a mini-store. He couldn’t show up at Cheng Sifu’s empty-handed. He may have spoken Mandarin well, but he had no idea about cooking or ingredients. He looked over various ingredients then settled on a bushed of leafy greens and grabbed a small block of Manchego for Plagg to try. He paid then headed down the sidewalk with his bag. Stepping into the restaurant which was bustling with patrons, Adrien made his way to the kitchen.

“Cheng Sifu?” Adrien called to him in Mandarin. “I don’t know if you remember me…”

“Adrien. My Marinette’s boyfriend.” Cheng came around the preparation counter and greeted him. Adrien’s face froze as his cheeks tinted with red. Cheng wrapped him up in a tight hug though now he was slightly taller than Cheng. Cheng, who was taller than his niece Sabine, was still a rather short and plump man. He was one of the world’s greatest chefs, but despite having been told many times that Adrien and Marinette weren’t dating, he never believed that. “How is my Marinette?”

“I … I actually haven’t…” He scratched the back of his neck as Cheng lead him into the back of the kitchen where a table was set with two chairs. Ingredients were laid out. “I haven’t seen her in two years,” Adrien announced finally. Cheng looked up saddened and confused. “I had to move away, because of… my father.” he sat down setting the bag on the table. He pulled out the leafy greens offering them to Cheng hoping this would change the subject. “Would you please teach me how to cook?” Cheng’s eyes widened as he accepted the fateful food items.

They spend an hour preparing a meal with the ingredients Cheng had set out and the fateful ingredients Adrien had brought him. It had gotten late by the time the food was done so Cheng boxed some of it up so Adrien could take it home to eat.

“You come back tomorrow and we make something else.” Cheng waved to Adrien as he left the restaurant.

“Keep your promise.” Adrien reminded. He had asked Cheng to not tell anyone he was here until he was ready to go back. He promised to bring fateful food every day to learn how to cook. He wanted to impress Marinette when he went back. Adrien walked with his hands in his pockets, the bag with his food hung around his wrist. His hoodie pulled over his head as he snuck into an alleyway. He set the bag down.

“Plagg claws out.” He scooped up the bag and bound for the rooftop and slipped quietly through the shadows from one rood to another. He was on his way home when a sound caught his attention. He landed silently on the brick wall of a manor where a man was fighting off three assailants. The hand-to-hand combat of this martial art style was intriguing. He watched for a minute wondering if this man could handle himself or not. The three men seemed to be struggling as his efforts fought to subdue them. Cat Noir turned and was about to leave when he saw several more coming, this time with blades. Two of them with a saber or dao and one with a set of sai. He set his bag down without thinking another thought and dropped onto the backs of the three incoming assailants. Two of them hit the ground hard as the other tried to pull Cat off their backs. He side kicked the man in the chin sending him flying backward as he drove a single punch to the two now incapacitated assailants. The man fought off the others as they turned tail to run seeing can hovering over the unconscious bodies of their comrades. The man closed his palms together and gave a curt bow to Cat Noir in thanks. Cat returned making sure to bow lower in respect for the master.

“Your arrival here tonight must be fate,” he said. “May I know the name of my rescuer?”

“I am called Cat Noir.”

“Hei Mao.” You are welcome here anytime. I am Chao.”

“Can you teach me Chao Sifu?” Cat bowed again. The man nodded curtly. “You come at night, under the cover of darkness, and I shall teach you, Hei Mao.” He turned and headed into the building. It was a small temple-looking house with an ancient appearance. Bamboo stalks and sand with stones decored the yard. A few koi ponds in the corners. He led Hei Mao to the back training ground. It was larger than the front and completely hidden from anyone outside the walls. Large trees cast their shadows over it as large stones and other terrain provided adequate advantage points for sparring and battling.

“You meet me here after the sun goes down,” Chao said waving his hand around. “I can not start tonight. I must sit with the ancestors first.” He left Hei Mao. Mao returned to his bag and finished his trek back home. Ducking into an alley to transform back in the darkness so no one would see.

#miraculous fandom #miraculous chat noir #adrienette #miraculous world #heimao

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coccinelle-et-chaton · 3 years

Text

Chapter 6 of The Wall Between Us is up, fam

This is the one where shit hits the fan.

You can read from the start here or go below the cut for the entire chapter. Enjoy the tears >:)

Fic summary: Marinette is left to pick up the pieces after losing her chance with Adrien and having Master Fu give up his memories to protect the Miraculous Box. She struggles to find her ground as the new Guardian, and when it all becomes too much, finds unexpected support in Luka Couffaine. Simultaneously, Adrien is learning how to navigate his emotions and slowly begins to realize important truths about his feelings for Kagami, Marinette, and Ladybug. Will Marinette and Adrien be able to sort through their feelings and do what's best for the Miraculous team?

CHAPTER 6 If it weren’t for his reflexes and his sudden kick into survival mode, he would’ve gotten hit. Adrien tumbled down to the side just in time to evade an attack from Kagami’s Akuma. He ran as fast as he could, desperately looking for a place to hide. Seeing as the neighboring shops and alleyways were flooding with civilians who were witness to the Akuma, he had to settle for the crevice between two large vans to transform.

He swiftly opened the communication device on his baton and typed and S.O.S. message to Ladybug, as well as his plan to direct the Akuma to an empty field by the riverbank. She would know which one he meant. They made a point of leading all erratic Akumas to this spot. It was in an old industrial zone where immediate damage could be minimized.

Having wrote that, he snapped the baton, clicked it back into his belt and jumped back into action.

This one’s gonna give me nightmares, Chat Noir decided as he got a better look of the Akuma. It floated hauntingly slow, crying as it hit its victims. Its fixed crying expression got more accented every time it hit a new victim. It called itself “The Griever,” and its power was to hypnotize people and give them hallucinations of their most painful memories. Chat gulped as he merely missed one of the beam attacks. He felt the energy buzzing closely to his ear.

Don’t get hit, don’t get hit!

“Hey, you, Casper!” he shouted, claiming the Akuma’s attention and effectively preventing it from claiming new victims. “Aren’t you looking for this?” He flashed his ring at the monster.

The Griever growled and charged speedily at Chat, taking him by surprise.

“Ack!” He vaulted out of the way and started leading the Akuma to the riverbank. “Hurry up, Ladybug!” he pleaded to the winds.

-----

Unaware of the show Chat Noir was putting up for the rest of Paris to see, Luka and Marinette happily sat at a riverside park, sittung under a honey locust tree and quietly enjoying the afternoon nonethewiser to the mayhem a couple blocks west of them.

Luka’s head rested on Marinette’s lap. He sighed lazily at Marinette’s fingers, which combed softly through his hair.Marinette closed her eyes, gently placing her attention on the sound of the wind ruffling the feathery leaves of the honey locust and Luka’s steady breath.

The comfortable silence got abruptly interrupted by a sudden, constant string of wailing and crying. Both Luka and Marinette perked up as they witnessed the sight of Chat Noir frantically vaulting from rooftop to rooftop on the other side of the Seine, as a ghastly Akuma shrieked and charged after him.

The pair looked at the superhero with slightly hanging jaws and a moment of stupefaction.

“LADYBUG!” Chat Noir screamed to no one in particular, as he tried his best to outrun the Akuma.

Marinette suddenly jolted. “I, uh… I need to go to the restroom!” she said, quickly springing to her feet and rushing out of view before Luka could stop her. He couldn’t help but notice this was one of those circumstances where if he had just told her that he knew her secret, he could simply have said to not sweat it and that he’d wait for her on the Liberty.

Sadly, he hadn’t gotten around to gathering the necessary courage for that, so he was left to his luck, wondering how long it’d take for Marinette to come back.

“Ladybug, thank god!” Chat Noir exclaimed as Ladybug joined the site of the action. “Mind the beams,” he said. “If you get hit it will give you hallucinations of your worst memories. The Akuma is on the necklace.”

Ladybug made a face. “Yikes. Who hurt them?”

Chat knew the question was rhetorical, but he still felt guilty. He hoped it didn’t show.

“Lucky charm!”

“What in the world are we supposed to do with duct tape?” he complained, evidently frustrated.

For what it’s worth, Ladybug thought it was pretty straightforward.

“You distract it and I’ll charge at it. When it hits me, you destroy the necklace.”

“And the duct tape?”

“Summon your Cataclysm.”

After he did, she ripped a couple pieces and put one over Chat’s mouth and another on hers.

As she calculated, Ladybug got hit. Chat tried to focus on the task at hand instead of how much it pained him to see Ladybug cry. He managed to evade every hit from the Griever and used the fact it was ready to take Ladybug’s earrings to gingerly touch the necklace, suddenly reverting Kagami back to normal and with her, the rest of the grieving Parisians.

Ladybug released the Miraculous Cure, and everything was back to normal.

She was surprised to see Kagami on the sidewalk, still crying. It was rare for an Akuma victim to continue feeling the negative emotion that had landed them in trouble. In these cases, Chat and she stayed as long as they needed to calm down and reassure the victim.

“Hello, Kagami,” Ladybug said gently. “Can I sit with you?”

Kagami sniffed, not providing a particular answer.

“You want to talk about what’s making you so sad? Is there anything we can do to help?”

“M-my boyfriend broke up with me!” she cried. “He broke up with me even though I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Ladybug took a deep breath and gave Chat a look for some back up. She was used to dealing with Parisians in distress, but for once, she felt at a loss for words.

“I– We’re very sorry to hear that,” said Chat, softly.

Ladybug glared at him as if saying, Is that all you got?

“He-he said he doesn’t want to b-be with me because he-he doesn’t love me…”

Ladybug hissed in solidary pain. “It’s tough when people we really care about don’t–can’t feel the same we do.”

The words were as uncomfortable to her as they were for Chat. The topic was too close to the wounds in their own partnership.

“But,” she continued. “Uh… sometimes, these things happen for the best, even though we don’t realize them at first. I know it’s painful right now, but you’re a very strong girl, okay? And also, any boy you date should count himself lucky.”

Kagami sniffed, then nodded.

“Do you need us to take you anywhere?” Chat asked.

Kagami shook her head. “I… I need to be alone for a while. Thank you for rescuing me.”

She got up and left, giving the pair of superheroes no chance to insist on the offer.

“Well, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear back from her again soon,” said Ladybug.

“Yeah…”

“Anyway, I should go. My, uh… boyfriend is waiting for me,” Ladybug said.

“You got a boyfriend? Why hadn’t you told me?” Chat said surprised.

“Not now, Chat,” Ladybug said with a tired tone, sensing the drama that was about to bubble up. “We–.”

“That’s great, Ladybug!” he said, surprisingly genuine. The reaction caught Ladybug off guard. “I’m happy for you.”

Ladybug gave him a quizzical look. “Thanks…”

Their Miraculous beeped simultaneously and both let go a sigh, relieved to have an excuse to end the awkward interaction.

“Well, you can tell me more about him if you want next time we meet, Chat out!”

To say he practically scrambled to get out of the way was an understatement. Ladybug sighed, deciding not to stress about whether or not Chat Noir was actually happy for her or if he had just said that to save some face. It had been a pretty draining Akuma and at this point, she couldn’t find it in herself to care whether he’d make a fuzz out of this.

It was already dark when Marinette managed to go back to the picnic site, half expecting Luka to be gone by then. Imagine her guilty surprise when she found the poor boy still sitting on the same spot she left him.

“Hey!” Luka said happily.

“Luka! I’m so sorry, there was an Akuma and I got hit and–.”

“It’s okay,” he said with a chuckle. “You could’ve just texted me. But we can do that next time we get separated by an attack.”

“Right, hah,” Marinette agreed, then muttered to herself, “Why did I not think of that?”

------

The door groaned as Alya pushed it open, immediately greeted by a cold breeze and the smell of mold, dust, and old books.

The girls lingered at the door, unadmittedly a bit scared to enter. The small townhouse seemed like it hadn’t had inhabitants in a good while. Alya pointed her flashlight into the house; it had been a gloomy day in Paris and the weak, grey light did not do much for the interior other than make it look spookier.

“I thought Master Fu lived above his massage parlor,” Alya said, gathering courage to enter the house.

“He moved here after Hawkmoth found out he was the guardian,” Marinette said, tentatively stepping in. She reached for the light switch, finding that it rewarded her illuminating the small hall and revealing the layout of the house.

They stood at the beginning of a narrow hall which led to the kitchen. To the left, there was a door leading to a living and dining hall. Right of the hall were the wooden stairs that led to the upper floor. It was hardly decorated, but it was evident something had hung on the walls; the shadow of missing frames stained the otherwise creme-colored walls with a lighter shade.

“That’s super odd,” Alya said, also going in, closing the door behind herself. She did a quick sweep of the first floor, finding there was hardly any furniture: the kitchen had a plastic table with two chairs, a stove, and a small fridge which was unplugged. The living room was completely empty except for an old, wooden vitrine which displayed assorted utensils.

She turned on the tap on the kitchen sink, finding running water.

“Didn’t Master Fu leave almost a year ago?” Alya said, rejoining Marinette, who was inspecting the contents of the vitrine.

“Yes, why?”

“How come this house still has utilities, then?”

Marinette made a confused face.

“Somebody ought to be paying for them,” Alya explained.

“He left me a letter saying that I’d find everything I need here. Let’s check the upper floor.”

The stairs creaked as the girls climbed up to find a similar set up as they had found in the floor below: A narrow hall that led to a small bathroom and two rooms to the left of the hall.

They each found what Master Fu had meant: Each room was full to the brim with boxes upon boxes of books, documents, and all sorts of trinkets, no doubt related to his affairs as a Miraculous Guardian. Curious as she was, Alya got to work immediately, aggressively combing through each box and file, reading them thoroughly, and quickly developing a system to string the story together.

“You know, sometimes it amazes me that you never figured me out,” Marinette said with a bit of a smile as she lingered by the door. “I was winging it, at best. I’ll get onto the next room.”

Marinette took a bit longer to go through her boxes. She couldn’t help but be a bit overwhelmed sometimes, learning about Master Fu’s adventures or discovering some new piece of information about the Miraculous. It didn’t help that Alya would storm in excitedly every time she discovered something particularly interesting.

“Marinette!” she exclaimed incredulously from the other room, quickly rushing in holding a set of books. “Tell me you didn’t leave an entire grimoire set literally just chilling in this sketchy neighborhood for the good part of a year.”

Marinette widened her eyes, feeling her stomach drop and swearing under her breath. “Give ‘em to me,” she said. “I’ll take them.”

How was she supposed to know Fu had all this stuff lying around when he never got around actually telling her? Her resentment towards her mentor flared up but tried not to delve too long in it.

Hours passed, the girls making good progress on the boxes, when Alya came into Marinette’s room once again. “I found it,” she declared, holding a stack of papers. “It looks like he suspected he’d stop being the Guardian soon.” Alya placed her papers on a neat row in front of Marinette. “He left an automated billing account for the next five years and it looks like he owned this house. He left this sort of transposing document for you, but it comes into effect when you turn eighteen.”

Marinette felt her throat tangle in a knot. “Oh.”

“Do you need a moment?” Alya asked gently.

Marinette shook her head, swiftly wiping the tears that were pooling in her eyes. “No, please stay.”

The quiet was suddenly disturbed by Marinette’s buzzing phone. She muted it without looking at who had called.

“He meant for me to use this place,” Marinette said.

“It looks like it, yeah.”

Master Fu thought of everything, she thought, and brushed the cover of the book that she had been inspecting before Alya came in. It was a sort of instruction manual written by Fu, for her, that she hadn’t dare open yet. For the longest time she had thought Fu left her to her own devices, that he abandoned her to sort everything alone when in reality, he had left her a trail of hints. Memories and arrangements here and there that made Marinette feel as if he was still there, correcting her when she needed to, but also reminding her she was capable of doing this.

She sniffed, shook her head, and smiled. “Then in that case, we have a lot of work to do. Let’s get this place in order.”

------

Luka did not expect Marinette to be able to hang out with him that day. He didn’t need reminding that Marinette was a very busy person and he understood why. That didn’t mean he could help himself from feeling extremely disappointed when she didn’t even check her messages the entire day.

He had invited her to a picnic with his friends that came up spontaneously, but alas, she answered back around ten p.m., when he was already back.

“I’m so sorry, Luka!” she wrote, adding a sad emoticon.

“My parents hijacked me for the entire day, they have a big order to deliver tomorrow and they needed all hands on deck.”

Except he knew that wasn’t the truth. He had dropped by the bakery that day and her parents had told Luka Marinette left early that morning to help Alya with a project, but he suspected this had only been a cover for her to do something Ladybug-related.

“It’s okay, Mari. It wasn’t important or anything, just a picnic,” he wrote back, adding a smiling emoticon. “How was your day, though?”

Marinette only saw the first message, then responded to the second a good twenty minutes later.

“It was okay. Pretty boring, just making shortcakes the whole day. You?”

“It was okay, too. Just hung out with my friends.”

Marinette saw the message but replied nothing else.

She must be busy, Luka thought, forcing himself not to feel hurt. She’s just busy, she doesn’t mean to push you away.

And yet, he couldn’t help but to text her again. “Are we still on for the date on the weekend?”

He got a reply five minutes later. “Of course!” Marinette wrote with a beaming happy face. “I’m looking forward to it, I’m very excited.”

Luka smiled at the screen, excited to see she was typing again. “I have to go to bed now, though,” she added a yawning emoticon. “I’m completely dead. I’ll text you tomorrow!”

“Okay,” Luka wrote. “Good night!”

She didn’t see the last message. As he joined Juleka to watch T.V. he realized why: there had been an Akuma attack.

He sighed, for the first time ever feeling extremely irritated at the concept of Akumas.

-----

“Are we working on the hang out this weekend?” Alya asked casually as they took notes for one of Madame Bustier’s lessons. “I’m high-key super excited for it. I was thinking of using my allowance to make it look cute, you know?”

Marinette laughed. “You don’t have to do that, Alya.”

“I know,” she complained. “But it’s so cool that we can just chill there, I wanna make it cool.”

Marinette shook her head.

“At least let me buy some fairy lights and nice cushions.”

“If you must,” Marinette said, amused. “But I can’t work on it this weekend. I promised Luka I’d spend some time with him. I haven’t seen him this whole week,” she admitted guiltily as the bell rang marking the beginning of the weekend.

“Alright girl,” she said. “Tell me about how the date goes though!”

Marinette and Alya parted ways with Marinette hurrying to her house to get ready for her date with Luka, who had asked to meet in the ship.

She didn’t expect their date to be one of their regular hangouts at the ship, so she anticipated by wearing slightly nicer clothes than usual. Still, it took her by complete surprise when she arrived and found that Luka had set up a dinner table with a beautiful flower bouquet at the center. Not only that, but he had asked his mom to teach him how to bake a quiche for her.

“Oh my gosh, Luka!” she said, unable to fight off the blush that crept on her cheeks. “It’s so beautiful! You didn’t have to!”

He shrugged, blushing himself. “I thought to do something nice since we hadn’t seen each other in a while. Do you like it?”

“Yes!” she beamed as she took a seat.

It had not been ten minutes since Marinette arrived when some sort of commotion in the distance interrupted the quiet evening, no doubt because of an Akuma. Luka sighed, doing his best to hide his reaction. As he expected, Marinette excused herself to the bathroom, leaving him to eat dinner alone.

“Please let’s make this quick, Chat,” Ladybug said as she rushed into the scene to battle the Akuma that currently destroyed the eleventh Arrondisement.

“Caught you in a bad time, LB?” Chat Noir said with a bit of a smirk as he evaded the Akuma’s attacks.

“You have no idea,” Ladybug said with dread.

It was luckily one of the faster Akumas, and even though Ladybug’s train of thought was focused on rushing back to the Couffaine ship as fast as possible, Chat Noir’s unusual meek demeanor did not escape her attention. Suddenly, it dawned on her that they had been postponing their Guardian training sessions for almost a month now–with everything going on Marinette’s life, and also Chat Noir’s, she realized the last time she had seen him was for Kagami Tsurugi’s Akuma.

“Hey, you doing okay?” Ladybug said.

“Huh?”

“You seem a bit out of it.”

Chat Noir gave him a pressed smile and shrugged. “Nah, I’m fine… It’s okay, we’re about to detransform.”

“Chat…” Ladybug reached for his shoulder. “What is it?”

“It’s nothing important. I, uh, I broke up with my girlfriend last week.”

“Oh…” she said with a sad gasp. “Oh no, Chat. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he admitted with a pained smile. “I’m the one that broke it off, actually. But I still feel bad about it.”

Ladybug sighed and squeezed his shoulder. “Let’s recharge and we can talk about it.”

A macaron and a slice of cheese later, they reconvened in an indistinct rooftop, looking as the sun set, lighting up the Parisian landscape.

“So, what happened?”

“I just… I realized I don’t love her. I love someone else,” he said, looking down. “I couldn’t do that to her, lie to her like that.”

The silence that settled suddenly made him look up with panic. “It’s not you,” he hurried to say. “It wasn’t because of you. It’s this girl… This girl in my class. It just sucks in general,” he continued. “I– her… She’s with someone, this other girl. And apparently she had this huge crush on me before, but it went over my head because I’m an idiot and also because… well, because I was… Because I thought I was in love with you.”

She knew what he meant, and yet Ladybug couldn’t help but feel wounded by the way Chat Noir phrased it. She played it down, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

“Oh…” she finally mumbled, then cleared her throat. “Well, if it’s any use to you, I think you did the right thing, even if you can’t be with the other girl.”

“I know,” Chat admitted sadly. “It just sucks that I couldn’t see it before.”

Ladybug swallowed the knot in her throat. “It gets better,” she said. “Trust me, I speak from experience.”

Chat looked up at her with an intrigued expression.

“I, uh, I had something similar happen to me,” she confessed, a light blush creeping under the mask. “Except I was the one crushing on the guy and he started going out with this girl before I ever gathered the courage to tell him how I felt. I never did anything about it because I was too scared he would turn me down. It’s hard to be honest sometimes, but you did the right thing, Chat.”

“Thanks, Bug.”

The bells of a nearby church roared, announcing the passing of the hour, suddenly bringing Ladybug back into context.

“Shoot! I need to run, Chat.”

“It’s okay,” he said, reassuring her with a smile. “We can meet for Guardian training after the Wednesday patrol, if you’re not busy.”

“Okay,” she said.

“Ladybug,” said Chat, preventing from taking off. “For what it’s worth, I think you should still tell the guy how you feel. Like you say, it’s better to just be honest.”

She gave him half a smile. “Thanks, Chat,” she said, then quickly swinging out of the picture.

Back at the ship, Marinette’s nerves were in a wreck as she came out of the bathroom to rejoin Luka, desperately trying to figure out what could she possibly use an excuse.

“Everything alright?” Luka said as she rejoined the table.

“Yeah…” It was evident she was trying to come up with an excuse. “I, uh… Alya called me. She had a fight with Nino. Sorry I took so long.”

“No problem,” Luka said, with a sunny disposition. “Well, the food’s cold now, but I can reheat it if you give me a second.”

“Oh, it’s okay, you don’t have to do that.”

“It’s no problem, Mari.”

Luka went into the ship and resurfaced a few minutes later with the food. He took a second serving so that Marinette wouldn’t be eating alone.

“Are you okay, Mari?” Luka said, noticing how fidgety she was, shifting uncomfortably in her seat and looking away into the rooftop along the Seine.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine,” she said smiling. “The quiche’s delicious, by the way.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

A silence of the uncomfortable kind settled between them, Luka noticed, making him uncomfortable as well. “And, uh, what have you been up to this week?”

“Oh, you know, the usual,” Marinette replied. “Just school, the bakery, and uh…”

“The macaron mafia,” Luka said with a bit of a smirk.

“Yeah,” she piped.

“How is that going?”

“It’s okay,” Marinette replied, giving no further explanation.

Luka felt desperation and frustration at both of them slowly starting to creep inside him. He wanted to tell her more than anything that he knew, and that she didn’t have to keep lying to him, that he understood. But then, on the other hand, he was scared that she might leave. What if she just didn’t want him to know? He didn’t want to throw their relationship away just because he couldn’t get used to her double life.

The air between them got fortunately lighter when Juleka and Rose came back from their date in the city and joined them at the table. Judging by the way Marinette’s disposition changed when the girls arrived, he couldn’t help but be a little uneasy.

That night after Marinette left, Luka found it hard to sleep. He stared at the roof of his room in complete contemplation. He knew that the only way out of this situation was to be honest with her and to tell her what he knew.

In his defense, he tried. He did try. But as he quickly came to realize shortly after they started dating, Marinette had very little free time. Actually, the times that they had hung out before they got together, which were also not too many when one really counted, were as much time as she could ever spend with him. This resulted in him coming with date after date where his end goal would be to confess to her, to only be interrupted by Akumas.

And so, he found himself in the most recent of his failed attempts, taking cover yet again in an alley next to a trash container after an Akuma interrupted one of their dates. This time he made a point of keeping track of the time so that he could come out when Marinette was ready.

As luck would have it, he heard someone land somewhere along the alley after the battle seemed to be over. His heart raced, feeling opportunity beckon him to come out. This was as good a moment as any. It was better this way, to hell with a meticulously planned conversation.

Luka poked his head ready to call Ladybug’s attention, when he found Chat Noir with his back facing him, transforming into none other than Adrien Agreste.

He had the sense to crouch back into his hiding place before shock seized him.

After what felt like minutes, his phone went off with notification after notification. He picked it up, noticing it had been an hour since the Akuma ended. It was Marinette. She was worried.

His hands trembled as he replied to her messages. “Hey Mari. I got hit by the Akuma and I ended up on the other side of the city. My phone died and I had to go into a store to charge it, sorry.”

“That’s okay, are you okay? Where are you? I can meet you in a bit.”

“Don’t worry. It’s way too far, I’m in the first Arrondisement. I’m sorry to ditch you, but can we raincheck? I feel a bit woozy after the Akuma.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to meet you? I can take a cab and take you home.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m okay. I just need some fresh air and a nap.” He added a smiley face for good measure.

“Alright,” Marinette replied. “Take care. I’ll text you tomorrow.”

He waited to see if she’d keep writing before he turned his phone off. He hugged his knees and let out the sob he had been holding in for the past hour.

He had so many questions, all rushing and battling for his attention. Did either of them know? No, it didn’t make sense. Adrien would have never dated Kagami if he knew, and though he wanted to think Marinette would still be with him if she knew Adrien’s secret, Luka knew that was wishful thinking. It just didn’t make sense. Unless… Unless they knew and them dating other people was just a facade to protect their identities. But Marinette wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t–she was a good person. Right? Marinette wouldn’t lie to him. And yet, as of late, that’s all she did.

------

Ladybug had to admit, she was very impressed with Chat Noir. She didn’t know what came over him, but in the last few months it felt as if he had gone through some sort of metamorphosis. It was not to say that Chat Noir had lost that, well, that Chat Noir flare but there was something different about him. He was always punctual to their meetings, was level-headed in Akuma battles, and took his training seriously. He showed Ladybug the notebook he kept with all his notes from his Guardian lessons with her, and to her surprised, were neatly organized and jotted down with a clean handwriting she could swear she had seen somewhere. Not only he had been quick to pick up everything Ladybug had to teach him, but he went above and beyond to expand on her knowledge, and this also applied to their hunt for Hawkmoth.

“I have something for you,” he confessed one of such nights where he had been showing her his progress on his studies, much to Ladybug’s satisfaction.

“Oh?” she said, with an intrigued smile.

Chat Noir reached into the rucksack he usually brought to Guardian training and produced a pair of cellphones. “Burner phones,” he explained. “They don’t have cellular data; we can only send messages and call each other. I thought it would be useful if we can communicate whenever we need to.”

“Oh, Chat…” she said gingerly picking the unassuming little brick.

“Is it too much? I thought since you’re okay with the whole identity thing you might be okay with the phones, but if it’s too much you can just say the word and I–”

“Chaton, not so fast,” she said giggling. “It’s okay. I think it’s a great idea. I, uh… was just going to say I can’t really pay \a phone plan. I don’t have that big of an allowance.”

“That’s not a problem,” he said brightly. “I already took care of that. All you need to do is keep it charged. They run with prepaid cards, for more anonymity. I’ll get new ones when we run out of the credit they already have.”

“Chat, no. I really wouldn’t feel–”

“I insist. It’s really not a problem.”

Ladybug arched a teasing eyebrow. “Are you rich or something?”

Chat Noir smirked at her. “Maybe.”

“Is that a hint? Are you really rich? One of those obnoxiously posh kids? Oh no. This makes so much sense. You must be one of those insufferable private school guys. Are you like a real-life Bruce Wayne?”

“No,” he said, laughing. “Besides Bruce Wayne has no powers. I happen to have two.”

“Two?”

“The ring and my devilishly good looks.”

“Ugh,” Ladybug groaned, nonetheless laughing.

“Wait, that’s not all I wanted to tell you,” said Chat. “I, uh… was thinking.”

Ladybug’s stomach dropped with anxious anticipation. “About what.”

“I think… I mean, I’m not ready. But, uh, I just concluded that I thought you should know. I… I think I’m okay with us knowing each other’s identity. Eventually. Just… not now. Also, I–I think I’m ready to see this place you told me Master Fu left for us.”

Ladybug beamed with happiness, unable to help herself from pulling Chat Noir into a hug. “Chat that’s great!”

She hugged him, effectively causing him to blush and lose a bit of his focus. He gently pried her off him after he returned the hug.

“It’s not an identity reveal but–”

“You don’t have to justify yourself, Chat. It’s okay. I understand. When do you want to go to the hide-out?”

“I mean, if you have time right now…”

“Of course!”

Ladybug led Chat Noir to the neighborhood where the hide out was. In the dead of the night, there weren’t people out in the street.

“This is the neighborhood?” Chat said.

“Yes, why?” Ladybug said producing the key to the house from her yoyo.

“No reason. It’s just this is one of the sketchier neighborhoods. You know this map I’m working on that I told you about” he explained. “You get more regular crime here than Akuma-related.”

“My ”support group“ said the same,” Ladybug said as she opened the door. She picked up a flashlight Alya and her usually left by the door.

“There’s no light?”

“I don’t want to call attention with us wearing the transformations. You never know who might be watching.”

“Good point.” He walked around the house using his night vision to make out where everything was. “Maybe I can get a few furniture pieces for this place,” he commented. “Like a proper table and some chairs, and some kitchen utensils in case we ever need the kitchen.”

Ladybug was glad for the darkness because it made it easier to hide away her flustering. As much as she tried to deny it to herself, Chat always caught her attention when he took the lead. She shook her head and expertly pushed away the feeling, aided by the thought of her boyfriend. Don't you even dare, you thankless heathen, she thought to herself and focused back on Chat's ranting.

“Maybe we can also get a safe in case you keep anything valuable here. And we have to change this lock. I don’t trust the locks in old buildings, we need a smart one and security cameras and–”

“Minou,” she said chuckling. “You’re literally just like my friend. I appreciate you’re exited to contribute, but where in the hell are we going to get the money for a freaking security system?”

“Leave it to me,” he said. Ladybug didn’t need to properly see to know he had his shit-eating grin on.

“I– Of course, I forgot you’re a rich kid.”

Chat laughed. “Sorry, I got carried away. But still, don’t you worry, LB. If you need anything for this place, just let me know.”

They went to the upper floor, the main attraction at least as far as Ladybug was concerned. She was pretty proud of the progress that Alya and her had made so far. They had managed to buy a few second-hand shelves for all the documents Master Fu had left and had a library of sorts.

Chat Noir went through some of the volumes until something caught his attention. It was a scanned copy with some notes on it, perhaps something Master Fu had been working on, but it was decidedly something he had seen before and had never connected the dots for. Not at least until then.

It was a page describing the powers of the Peacock Miraculous, and as any good encyclopedia, it had a picture of a brooch. The same brooch he had found in his father’s safe with the book–the grimoire, Chat would later learn that’s what it was.

A cold shiver ran through his spine.

Mayura was Hawkmoth’s sidekick. Natalie was his father’s assistant.

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therealchoreanese · 5 years

Text

Ch. 1 - As Luck Would Have It

A/N: fanfic in progress inspired by @kceedraws‘s prompt & art about this lovely crossover ship, gonna put it up on ao3 soon hopefully

The penthouse was absolutely gorgeous. Wide windows that faced San Fransokyo’s bustling streets on the north wall, a balcony with a table and two chairs overlooking the bay on the opposite side. The tub in the restroom had twenty options of different flower-infused waters and whether or not you wanted bubbles, and the kitchen came with a fridge that could list recipes based on your taste, personal health, and whatever was inside it. Not to mention the flat-screen in the living room, or the marbled coffee table and fancy-looking leather couch, and the bedroom’s silk canopy bed and massive walk-in closet and -

“I can’t possibly accept, sir!” Marinette protested. “This is all too much. I’d be fine at the institute’s dorms, they’re cozy and with enough space for my designing-”

Gabriel Agreste tsked and waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t make a fuss. You’re here on my scholarship, and this is simply a benefit of it. Besides, a dorm is not inconspicuous enough for Ladybug activities. Here, you’ll have all the privacy you’ll need.”

“He’s got a point, Marinette,” Tikki agreed. “On-campus would be the worst place to transform, there are so many things that could go wrong and - oh, there’s even a little bed for me!”

Marinette sighed. If Tikki thought it well, then she definitely wasn’t getting out of it.

“One more thing,” Gabriel Agreste said. “Follow me, ma chère.”

Marinette fell in love the moment they stepped inside - it was a fashion designer’s dream come true. It was the least fanciest room in the entire penthouse, with only five blank mannequins and a worktable and empty racks where fabric rolls were supposed to be. But Marinette could make the space hers, fill it with life and love and all her ideas. And for a moment, she couldn’t speak.

So she threw her arms around Gabriel Agreste and squeezed him tight.

Mr. Agreste blinked rapidly, and he awkwardly patted her shoulder, but he seemed to understand. “Well, then. I’ll leave you to get settled. Keep me updated, yes? If you need anything, do not hesitate to ask.”

After Mr. Agreste left, Marinette fluttered around the suite, doing her best to make it feel like home. She taped pictures of her friends and family next to her bed, unpacked her things - even with three whole boxes of clothes and accessories, the closet still wasn’t full - and spent a weirdly unnecessary amount of time exploring the restroom amenities. She emerged from the tub hours later, the grime of the airplane washed away by a lavender bubble bath.

“You smell lovely, Marinette,” Tikki complimented. “You know, it really is so kind of Mr. Agreste to do this for us.”

“I know!” Marinette’s voice was muffled by her rummaging through the closet. “Who would have thought that one year after defeating him we’d be here - in America, on a scholarship in his name, and him being a Ladybug supporter. My supporter. It feels almost like a dream.”

“A dream in which Ladybug leaves Paris.” Tikki sighed wistfully. “I wonder how Adrien will do without us?”

“That silly kitty will be fine. He and Master Fu have the other Miraculouses to help them out. Besides,” Marinette added, “’Ladybug’ is looking forward to meeting San Frasokyo’s superhero team on a night patrol. When do you think we’ll get to see them?”

Tikki fixed Marinette with a stern glare. “Not until you’re settled in. You need to adjust to the time zone, and get ready for school, and make some friends who have your back before anything else. I can’t stand the idea of you getting hurt because you feel out of place.”

“Okay, okay.” Marinette wriggled on a jacket. “Done! Let’s go exploring then, Tikki, we can see what’s around. I want to find a good bakery as fast as possible.”

“Homesick already, Marinette?” Tikki teased.

Marinette glanced at the photos on the wall and smiled. “Something like that.”

A bell jingled as Marinette pushed the door open to the Lucky Cat Cafe. The large cat above the doorway had reminded her of home - her mother had a statue similar to it next to the cash register. There weren’t that many customers in today, it seemed; but Marinette’s attention was caught by a curious white balloon-looking thing holding a tray of buns. To her surprise, it waddled up to her, and - were those two black dots supposed to be eyes? - it spoke.

“Hello. I am Baymax. Would you care for a red bean bun?”

“Um, sure.” Marinette plucked a golden-brown pastry from the tray. “Thank you. Are you a waiter, or. . .?”

“I am Baymax,” the balloon repeated. “A personal healthcare companion. I am responsible for the wellbeing of patients assigned to me. Anyone who comes through that door is now my patient. You are my responsibility. Please, follow me.”

Baymax waddled towards an empty table and, with the pace of a snail, dragged out a chair. The scriiiiiiiitch made Marinette wince, but she sat when Baymax looked at her expectantly. It didn’t seem like it could smile, but Marinette thought she detected pride in its voice for successfully taking care of her. She had to admit, it was kind of cute.

“Please take your time to browse the menu. I must report that a new patient has arrived, but your order will be taken care of shortly.”

Baymax shuffled off, occasionally knocking around tables and chairs and a customer, and disappeared into the kitchen.

“That was so weird,” Tikki whispered. “Do you think all cafes are like that here?”

“I don’t know, but I thought it was funny,” Marinette said as she flipped through the menu. “What d’you want, Tikki? I’ll get it to-go for you.”

Tikki peered out of the bag. “Ooooh, those strawberry cookies look good!”

“Okay, cookies for you, and . . .” Marinette flicked through the pages. “Oolong tea to go with the red bean bun. Oh, just in time! Here he comes again.”

After Marinette had placed her order, she pulled out her sketchbook. It was a new one she’d bought just to celebrate her move to San Fransokyo, its pages crisp and creamy-white. The Lucky Cat Cafe, cute and colorful and beautifully quirky, seemed like the perfect place to start brainstorming new ideas. But she’d just barely touched pencil to paper when a voice called out, “Order for Marinette coming through!” followed by, “Shit, no, Mochi, bad cat - nononono SHIT!” then -

Whump.

CRASH!

Splshhhhh.

A middle-aged brunette poked her head from the kitchen, looking mildly concerned. “Everything okay, Hi - oh. I suppose not. What on earth happened?”

“Sorry, Aunt Cass.” A guy with unruly black hair in an apron looked up at Marinette, soaked in tea and mouth agape, and then at the tray, shattered teacup, and scattered cookies from where he lay sprawled on the floor. “Mochi happened. You okay, miss?”

“What?” Marinette blinked herself out of her shock. “Oh, yes. I’m fine. But your fall looked worse than - oh no, my sketchbook!”

The guy scrambled up and leaned across the table, wincing at the sight. All the pages were soaked and stained brown. Even after it dried, there was no way Marinette could use it.

“I am so, so sorry about that,” the guy apologized, abashed. “I’ll give you the money for it, no problem. And a fresh batch of those cookies to take with you, since I’m sure you’ll never come back here again. But, uh, would you like to have a change of clothes before you go? We’ve got t-shirts and stuff, totally free of charge, of course.”

Marinette held up a hand, trying to bite back a smile, her indignation and fury fading. She knew she should be angry that her sketchbook was ruined, but it was really sweet that the guy was trying so hard to make up for it. It was hard to stay mad at someone who looked so ashamed of himself.

“It’s fine,” she assured him. “You don’t have to pay me back. I’d appreciate the change of clothes, though. But I’ll pay for them - no, please, if you’re giving me the cookies for free, it’s the least I can do.”

The guy whistled. “Damn, I don’t think we’re ever going to get another customer as nice as you. Too bad you won’t be coming back after this.”

“Nothing could keep me away from those red bean buns.” This time, Marinette did smile. “They remind me so much of home.”

“I’ll let Aunt Cass know, then. She’ll definitely want to adopt you after hearing that.” The guy collected the tray and shards of ceramic, then motioned Marinette to follow him up a staircase behind the coffee bar. “Come on, I’ll get you the clothes. Baymax will take care of the cookies.”

“Are all cafes like that here?”

“Like what?”

“Do they all have balloon robots as waiters?”

The guy laughed. Okay, he was cute when he laughed. Pretty cute in general, actually, with warm brown eyes and bedhead hair and a crooked grin and dimples . . .

Which Marinette was not staring at. No way.

“Baymax really isn’t a waiter. He’s a healthcare companion. He just likes helping out from time to time.”

Marinette frowned. “But shouldn’t he be at a hospital or something like that?”

“It’s kind of a long story.” The guy shot her a smile that, to Marinette’s dismay, made her heart flutter. “But if you’re really set on coming back, we could swap next time you’re here. Mine for yours.”

“What makes you think I have a story?”

“That’s what I’m hoping to hear next time I see you.”

How was this bastard so smooth? Just minutes ago he’d been an apologetic, bumbling mess, but now Marinette was the one under the spotlight. Thank God for all that time spent with Chat Noir, or else her face would be as red as a strawberry right now.

“It’s a deal, then.” She stuck out her hand, and the guy shook it.

“Through here.” The guy ushered her into a bedroom, threw a set of clothes at her, and backed out quickly. “Just come down when you’re done. I’ve got to go soon, so I’ll probably be gone when you’re finished, but it was nice meeting you. Well, all circumstances considered. I’ll be waiting on that deal.”

And with one last crooked smile, he shut the door.

Tikki zipped out of her bag, giggling. “Well, he was certainly nice, hm? Not to mention good-looking.”

“Oh, hush,” Marinette scolded. “I barely know him. Besides, anyone that smooth with a stranger? He probably does it all the time. I am curious about Baymax, though. And like you said earlier, it’d be nice to have a friend around.”

“So you’re going to cash in on the deal?” Tikki wiggled her eyebrows. “The way he said it, it sounded awful lot like a date to me. Or, at least, he wanted a date.”

“All I want is a friend, Tikki,” Marinette said, exasperated. “I’ve dealt with enough love problems for the past few years. I don’t need them to follow me all the way to America.”

“Whatever you say, Marinette.” Tikki kept quiet until they exited the cafe, and Marinette was worried she’d somehow offended her Kwami when she piped up with:

“You have to admit, you really liked his dimples, didn’t you?”

“Tikki!”

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #big hero 6 #big hero six #baymax #hiro hamada #hironette #hiro x marinette #disney #idk what else to tag??#loooots of backstory went into this #i'm invested and i will see this fic to the end #adrien agreste #chat noir #ladybug

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yumenosakiimagines · 4 years

Text

Mémoire Antique

Authors note: Ahhhh Im so nervous about posting this! I re-read Human Comedy last night and I was really inspired for some reason, but I still struggle to create for myself, so I don’t think it’s as good as it could’ve been. It’s an angsty Shu x producer! reader drabble that got a bit lengthy XD As a lil warning, this does contain some spoilers to Valkyrie’s current situation so be aware of that when reading! They’re not a 100% accurate though lol. As always, please do let me know your thoughts!

It felt like my heart was about to jump out of my chest as I stared at the computer screen, looking past the little blue icon to check my reflection for the millionth time in the span of five minutes. Mika, sitting next to me in the small living room of the apartment he had recently just rented, let out a little chuckle.

“You look pretty as always, (y/n)-nee. Don’t worry about it.”

I was about to object to that when finally, after what felt like an eternity, Shu’s face appeared on the screen. He looked slightly confused, he was never good with technology after all; he was terrible at using his smartphone even, no matter how many times Mika-chin, Kiryuu-san or even myself tried teaching him. It was sort of charming, in his own weird way. How could such a capable and refined man be so bad at something so trivial?

“Oshi-san!” Mika exclaimed excitedly, eyes sparkling like a little kid. It was our first time calling him since he’d left for Paris, and just hearing Itsuki’s voice was enough for me to feel like crying. After producing for Valkyrie for a whole year, the summer spent without him had been one of the loneliest of my life. It had been hard for Mika as well; hell, he surely had it harder than myself. Starting with the new school year, he’d carry the weight of Shu’s legacy on his slim shoulders. From that moment on, it’d be his turn to nurture Valkyrie with all of his might, and my support as a back up. Shu had entrusted me with that; I’d have to watch over Mika, encouraging him to keep going, lending him my shoulder to rest if he was tired, helping him up if he fell. Without Itsuki there with us, who was supposed to do that for me, though? I didn’t know.

My relationship with Shu was… far from the typical idol/ producer bond. I never thought too deep into it, but in retrospective, we could’ve easily passed as lovers. It was never official, and we never put a label on whatever that was, but the kisses we shared quietly before performances, the words of encouragement murmured as we dried each other’s tears, or the way we’d hold each other in the solitude of the handicrafts club room after hours were undeniable.

“Kagehira, why don’t you bring (l/n) something to drink?”

“E-eh? Right now?”

“No, next week. Right now, of course.”

I nodded at Mika’s questioning look, and he was soon out through the door.

“You still can’t call me by my name in front of him.” I smiled, looking directly at him for the first time. Ah, it made my chest hurt. He looked nothing short of stunning, as usual. Even if I couldn’t say it out loud, my whole body, heart and soul ached for him.

His eyes looked softer, kinder than ever as he smiled back at me. It was a small and gentle smile that made him look like some sort of angel. But most importantly, he seemed happy.

“I’ve missed you, (y/n).” His voice was merely a murmur.

“I’ve missed you too, Shu. Are you having fun in Paris?”

“I am. It’s like the whole city breathes art. I can’t wait for Kagehira and you to see-”

He cut himself midsentence, clenching his jaw when he noticed his mistake. Ah, that’s right, for us mere mortals, Heaven was not a given.

“I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about, Shu. We’ll see each other again sooner or later.” I tried to assure him, but my voice ended up cracking halfway through.

“Don’t let Kagehira see you cry.” In typical Shu fashion, it sounded almost like an order when he said it, even though I knew it was just his awkward attempt at comforting me. I hummed to acknowledge his words, unsure of how my voice would come out. I knew it pained him to see me in such estate, and in the back of my mind, I felt incredibly guilty.

“H-how am I supposed to fill the hole you left behind, Shu? I can’t even hold a candle to you.” “Don’t say such foolish things. You’ve always been much more fitting for that role than me. You’re more of a human than I am. I spent so many years acting like the master of puppets when I’m nothing more than an empty shell… But I’m here to change that. And maybe when I find myself… we’ll be able to make an ‘us’.”

The tears that had been threatening to spill since Mika left overflowed my eyes and it was like a dam had burst. They kept coming despite my efforts to wipe them off my cheeks, seemingly never-ending. The thought of a formal relationship with Shu was both exciting and terrifying. “I don’t know what to do without you here. I feel so lost.” I confessed.

“I know how you feel. Missing each other, longing for each other’s warmth is not wrong. Don’t let it consume you; consume it instead and use it as fuel to create. Create beautiful works of art and help those who feel like you.”

“I’m sorry, I promised I wouldn’t cry but…” “Sorry it took so long! I still don’t really have anything on my fridge so I had to run to the convenience store.” Mika barged through the door, panting lightly with a grocery bag on his hands, shoes still on and all. “Eh? (Y/n)-nee? Are you crying?” “I’m just really happy, that’s it.” I did my best effort to smile. Well, it wasn’t completely a lie.

“Tch, your hair is a mess. Carry yourself with more dignity, Kagehira!”

“E-eek! Yes, Oshi-san!” Mika squealed, a faint blush tinting his pale cheeks. I was sure he was happy though, since he was suddenly reminded of happier days.

We chatted the afternoon away, talking until the golden rays of sunset started leaking through the blinds. If I closed my eyes, it almost felt like I had gone back in time to the months we’d spent together, to the peaceful afternoons in the atelier, the happiest moments of my youth. Part of me wished to stay in that frame, eternally frozen in a happy memory, almost like a painting. But, as Shu would say, conformity is an artist’s worst enemy, so I’d have to move forward. I’d have to learn, grow and cultivate myself to reach him. Someday, I’d stand next to him again, as an equal, and maybe even a partner this time. And he’d be waiting for me until then.

#shu itsuki #enstars #ensemble stars #ensemble stars x reader #ensemble stars imagine

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spidercakes · 5 years

Text

Starker AU in which all Peter’s friends are really confused about what his ‘new job’ is.

“I’ve got it,” Peter says, sparing his friends trying to figure out what the pizza bill will be split four ways. They all frown at him but he goes down to the first floor of the library anyway and pays for the pizza before he brings it back up. Mostly he’s just happy that they can study with food because nothing is worse than trying to balance equations on an empty stomach. Ned, Liz, and MJ frown when they see the boxes because they didn’t watch him order it online so they had no idea he just got them all their own pizzas. If nothing else they’ll have left overs for tomorrow.

“Dude, how the hell can you afford that?” Ned asks.

He can’t, technically, but Tony gave him access to all his accounts and Peter figures if he’s got access he might as well treat his friends. But he can’t tell them that because their relationship isn’t public and there’s like a million reasons why Tony might want to keep it that way and Peter likes the anonymity also so he hasn’t said anything. “Um. I got a new job,” he lies. Actually he quit his job because if he never has to work at McDonald’s again it’ll be too soon. And he’d been so frustrated with shitty customers and his asshole boss that he accidentally told him to mcfuck himself before just walking out. He’d felt instantly bad but also he’s never going back there. Like ever. And thanks to Tony he doesn’t need to.

“Where and are they hiring?” Liz asks, digging through the pizzas to find hers and snatching it. Ned and MJ take that as an invitation to do the same, leaving Peter’s in front of him.

“Oh um. Probably no where you want to work,” he says and changes the subject to their upcoming sociology quiz and they all groan. It’d been the only elective that they could all take together and they all hated it with a passion.

Ned watches as Peter all but flees the table at top speeds and yeah, none of them want to study but its still weird behavior. MJ squints as they all look at him, half turned towards the stacks blushing of all things as he talks to whoever on the phone. “Does he even answer the phone for May?” Liz asks and Ned shakes his head.

“Nope. He declines her calls and tells her to text.”

“So who the hell is that?” MJ asks and Ned’s thoughts exactly.

Liz slams her hand on the table, earning a bunch of looks from the people around them and wincing. “Sorry,” she says to no one in particular. “Guys!” she hisses at him and MJ. “He got a new job, suddenly seems flush with cash, is on the phone despite the fact that no one our age talks on the phone, works somewhere I wouldn’t want to. He’s totally a sugar baby!”

Ned and MJ look over at him giggling softly into the phone, cheeks still red and oh my god. “Oh my god he’s a fucking sugar baby. Do you think he sucks old man balls?” he asks, wrinkling his nose.

“Well, he’s on the phone and this dude must have a ton of cash because he’s paid for us to go out for like, the last two months. Boomer for sure,” MJ says.

Liz wrinkles her nose too. “You know what, better him than us,” she says, pulling a slice of pizza from the box and taking a bite. They nod in agreement as Peter comes back over looking weirdly happy considering being a sugar baby has to suck.

“I’ve got to go soon,” he says. “So we should probably make this quick.”

Ned gives him a gentle pat on the shoulder because he appreciates Peter taking one for the team. Peter looks confused, but they’ll let him tell them about being a sugar baby on his own terms.

Peter walks in the door and he’s so tired but Tony just got back from Malibu and he’s missed him so he agreed to go over anyway. Tony’s on the couch looking as tired as Peter feels but he reaches out for him anyway, pulling Peter into his lap so he’s straddling him. “Missed you,” Peter murmurs, wrapping his arms around Tony’s neck.

“Missed you too, baby,” he murmurs, hands settling on Peter’s hips as he leans in to kiss Peter. They stay there like that for a few minutes, kissing softly as Peter curls his fingers through Tony’s hair.

Tony pulls back after a moment, grinning. “By the way you’re such a college student. Do you actually spend money on things that aren’t pizza and clubbing?” he asks, dark eyes glittering in amusement.

“Ok first of all we go to pubs because we have taste, okay? And pizza is good. And filling. And its like a nice treat after a long day of studying or classes, leave me be. What’d you expect me to get, a sports car?” he asks and he’s joking but Tony shrugs.

“Kind of, yeah. But I guess with access to more money than you can fathom you end up addicted to Starbucks,” he says like Starbucks isn’t really expensive and a total treat to him normally.

“I like Starbucks,” he says in his own defense. “And the planet is dying, I’m not going to get a car when public transportation is fine,” he says.

“There are environmentally friendly options,” Tony points out and Peter wrinkles his nose.

“I swear to god if you mention Tesla like Elon Musk isn’t like that I will have to go through his Twitter feed to pull receipts on why he’s a shit bag who shouldn’t be supported,” he says and Tony laughs.

“Can’t say I care for Musk. Frankly I’m a little annoyed with people comparing us because first of all my name isn’t you know... fucking heinous. And also if I’m going to be compared to celebrities I always thought I was a bit more like Paris Hilton,” he says and Peter snorts.

“Totally misread but actually pretty nice and surprisingly passionate about the things you care about? Yeah, you guys are comparable,” he says.

“I meant that we’re hot but you know, that too,” Tony says. “But since you insist on mostly gorging yourself on pizza I took the liberty of making sure you’re taken care of and got you an apartment. Something closer to here and school so its less of a travel,” he murmurs.

Peter is grateful, really, but MJ, Liz, and Ned are about to be fucked for rent. “Um,” he says, unsure how to bring that up but Tony’s got a knowing look on his face.

“Want to go see it?” he asks and Peter doesn’t know how to back out so he just nods.

Peter almost shits when he sees the place because its fucking gorgeous but that’s more surprising is Liz, Ned, and MJ fighting over who gets the lemon chicken in the fridge. They all turn to face him and their eyes go wide, presumably, because Tony is standing there with his arm around Peter’s waist. “Um,” he says intelligently.

MJ drops the lemon chicken and Liz immediately snatches it off the ground, still safe in its container. Ned just looks stunned. “Your sugar daddy is Tony Stark?” he asks, voice going up.

He swears he can feel Tony’s anger even if he knows Tony isn’t showing it. “I didn’t tell them you were my sugar daddy! I don’t even know where they got that impression!” he says honestly.

Liz squints, “dude, you went from dirt poor and crying about money every other day to funding all our outings, buying us food all the time, and after like two months of avoiding giving us answers you told us you got a new job. It seemed pretty obvious that you’re a sugar baby. No judgement,” she throws out there.

“A job?” Tony asks and Peter lets out a squeak.

“You make money at jobs, I panicked!” he says in his defense.

“Why not just tell them the truth?” Tony asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I didn’t think you wanted to deal with the press and stuff and I get that so I kept it to myself,” Peter says and Tony frowns.

“So... you haven’t said anything because you thought I didn’t want people to know?” he asks.

Peter shrugs, “more or less and I get it, its okay. People will probably say some really nasty things and I can see why you wouldn’t want to-” his words are cut off as Tony draws him in for a kiss. He goes, making a surprised noise but happily leaning into it.

“Baby I thought you didn’t want people to know and I couldn’t figure out why. God, we’re dumb,” he mumbles.

“Does this mean we get to live here now? Because now that I have seen how rich people live I don’t want to go back,” Ned says, earning a snort from Liz. She’s the only one of them that grew up not dirt poor so this probably isn’t that big of a step up for her.

“Obviously. If Peter wasn’t paying his portion of the rent something tells me you wouldn’t be able to afford the place you had,” Tony says and Peter relaxes.

“Oh thank god! I didn’t want to be rude and say no to this place but I wasn’t about to screw my friends over either,” he says, realizing too late that there must have been a reason for them being here. Then he frowns, “wait, how did you guys get here?” he asks.

“Subway,” Ned tells him and MJ rolls her eyes.

“There was a note on the table from a T.S with this address and we assumed it was for you and we all wanted to see what being a sugar baby would get us so we decided to snoop and hope we didn’t find you fucking some old as tits boomer,” MJ says bluntly.

“Also if this was a job its a damn lie that I wouldn’t want a job where I get to sleep with Tony Stark,” Liz tells him.

“I’m so glad I don’t need to feel guilty for the free stuff,” Ned says, hand pressed to his chest. “I was wondering if maybe you decided fuck it and were maxing out a line of credit or something.”

Peter nods. “Hm. Makes sense. So now I’m sexiling all of you because I don’t want to have to worry about being quiet. Get you lemon chicken and go,” Peter tells them.

Ned wrinkles his nose. “Gross, dude.”

MJ snorts, “like you wouldn’t sleep with Tony Stark. Not like that’s a hardship. We might as well pack our shit at home,” she points out.

“Uh huh, whatever you guys need to do. Now out so I can get fucked through my mattress,” he says, grabbing Tony’s hand and dragging him off through the kitchen before he pauses. “Wait, where’s my room?” he asks and Tony laughs.

“Follow me, baby. Glad you liked it,” he murmurs as he pulls Peter along.

#tony stark x peter parker #starker #alternate universe #fanfiction

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