This is an open letter to all people reading fan fiction. Whether you stroll AO3 for your favorite tags, have been on ff.net since the Before Times or read on tumblr or any of the other wonderful alternatives.
What gives?
Wonderful and passionate authors are writing thousands upon thousands of words dedicated to your favorite (and usually not canon) couples, characters and series. Writers are spending hours and hours working on chapters, battling writer blocks, revising, sending works off to beta readers, second round of revision and then post their chapters. And after? After all that work?
Most twiddle their thumbs waiting for reviews that won't come.
They post more chapters hoping that it just needs to pick up a bit. A few reviews drop in here and there. The story definitely gets read judging by the amount of views and likes... And finally the author loses interest.
And stops updating.
What gives?
Why have we stopped reviewing? Why have we stopped saying even a simple "thank you!" after reading a chapter? @birkastan2018 writes frigging essays (❤) but do you have any idea how happy an author becomes just seeing a new review pop up? Just a thank you, or some words of encouragement or even a keyboard smash. Instead, most writers face crickets.
Review every chapter. Just send two words if you're intimidated: "thank you!"
If not, write down your thoughts. A sentence you thought was beautiful. An idea of how you think the story might progress. Fangirling/boying as your fave pulls off his/her shirt. Anything.
Doing nothing is killing fandom. Saying nothing ensures authors will stop updating an a fandom slowly dies off. Stimulate your writers. Be enthusiastic and witness how a fandom will thrive even when the series it's based on is long over.
Reblogging this for the quarantine times. We're all at home and wanting to read new content but a part of it means also readers need to continue giving feedback to writers.
Everyone is struggling with anxiety and stress now and it's intense outputting chapters that get little to no response. Help eachother.
This is my first comic ever and Lukanette has been my new obsession, so here you go! Please DO NOT REPOST, but reblog and tag me, I’ll leave a like and follow you.
There were some situations that could only be put into perspective by venting to your best friend. Having a boy basically state his interest in you in a romantic capacity definitely qualified as one of those situations.
“Alya,” Marinette whined, looking at her best friend sitting on her couch. “What do I do?”
Ever since Luka’s confession two days ago, Marinette had been debating what her next move would be. She really really liked spending time with him, but she didn’t want to chance messing up the comfortable friendship they had developed.
“Girl, what do you want to do?” It was killing Alya to keep her mouth shut about Viperion’s true identity, but she agreed with Nino that this was something that their friend had to work out on her own. However, that didn’t mean that she couldn’t give her BFF a little nudge in the right direction. “What would you do if it were, say, Adrien confessing his love to you?”
She was appalled at that idea. “Adrien? Alya, you know I don’t like him like that anymore.” She shook her head in disgust. “No, even if Adrien were to tell me right now that he was in love with me and wanted to be with me, I’d tell him that we’d just have to stay friends”
“Okay, so it’s not the fact that someone likes you, it’s the fact that it’s Luka who likes you, correct?”
She stopped in her tracks and stared at her chestnut-haired friend. She hadn’t thought about it that way before. Maybe she wasn’t scared of being in a relationship, maybe she was scared of being in a relationship with Luka specifically. “Why does that scare me so much?” she asked anxiously.
“Girl, you’re scared because you’re already invested in your relationship with him.” She stood up and walked over to grab her friend’s hand, pulling her back to sit with her so she could focus on their conversation and not her pacing. “Even though you guys aren’t romantically involved yet and he said ‘no pressure’, you’re still worried that if you try to be with him and it doesn’t work out, it’ll destroy whatever it is you guys have now.”
“You’re right. It’s not worth it. I don’t want to lose him.”
Seeing the determination on her friend’s face, Alya realized that she needed to try a different tactic before Marinette sabotaged any sort of romantic involvement before it even began. “Let’s look at this from a different perspective. How would you react if it were Viperion saying that he wanted to be with you. Would you react any differently?”
She knew that she had to tread lightly. She didn’t want to reveal everything too soon. She was a little worried about using Marinette’s crush on her clanmate against her, but really, the girl was just so dense at times. Sometimes you just had to come right out and smack her across the face with something to make her acknowledge it.
“Viperion? What does he have anything to do with this?”
Alya growled, frustrated at her own decision to keep her mouth shut. “It’s a hypothetical question. Purely hypothetical. I asked, ‘what if’ to make you think about if you would behave differently.”
Marinette pondered that question for a few seconds. Would she react differently if it were Viperion? She did really like talking to their reptilian clanmate and she looked forward to playing with him whenever she got a chance to get online. Plus, he had an easygoing nature that made it really easy to open up to him. There were times that she wanted to ask him if they could meet up in real life, but she was comfortable with that degree of separation between them. Crossing that line would make him real, a flesh and blood person instead of a voice behind her screen.
If Viperion expressed an interest in meeting her and cultivating their friendship into something more, would she be so quick to shoot him down and play it safe?
“Honestly? I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t know the real Viperion, only what he shares with me online. Just like he doesn’t know the real me. We only know what we tell each other.”
Alya chuckled softly. “That’s true of any relationship we have with another person. It’s up to you how much you share with the other person. Just because you don’t know what Viperion’s face looks like doesn’t mean you don’t know what his heart looks like.”
She looked at her friend in shock. “Wow, Alya. That was kinda deep.”
“What can I say?” she retorted with an exaggerated hair flip, “I have my moments.”
They both started giggling and the absurdity of Alya’s statement. After a few moments, Marinette took a deep breath and continued talking. “To be honest, I think if it were Viperion who had confessed his love to me, I think I would give him a shot.”
“Really? So what makes Viperion different than Luka?”
“I don’t know. I’m just so comfortable around Viperion. We can laugh and joke around and there’s no expectation there for anything else. When I’m with Luka, I can be myself around him, but there’s still that, I don’t know… pressure? I can’t really describe it.”
Deciding that she’s pushed her friend far enough for one day, Alya changed the subject. “So have you seen Luka since Saturday? Has he been stopping by the bakery like he used to?”
Marinette shook her head. “I think he’s giving me space. He invited me to see him perform next Saturday, though.”
“Oh my god, you have to go!” she shrieked. “Nino and I will go with you if it’ll make you feel better.”
“Would you?” she looked relieved. “I was going to ask Adrien if he wanted to come too. Get him out of his house for a night, ya know?”
Alya’s nose crinkled as she scowled at her friend. “Really? You think bringing Adrien to go see Luka play is really a good idea?”
Marinette’s brows furrowed in response. “Of course. Why wouldn’t it be a good idea? He’s one of my best friends!”
She sighed at the naïve girl’s utter lack of awareness. “If you think it’s a good idea, then go ahead and invite him, girl. It’s your funeral.”
-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-
To Marinette, she thought of the evolution of her relationship with Adrien Agreste as a marker to indicate how much she had grown up and matured over the years. If someone had told her that she would be able to personally invite him out to join her – and their friends – to a club to watch a band perform without stuttering or making an absolute fool of herself, she would have called that person a liar. When they had been teenagers, there had been something about him that had made her brain short circuit in the most embarrassing of ways.
In a way, she was flabbergasted that the blond boy had never caught on to the way she had felt about him back then. In her mind, her obsession with him had been so painfully obvious to literally everyone except Adrien himself. Maybe he was just that oblivious. Or maybe he had been aware and was ignoring her affection for him in order to avoid a painfully awkward rejection.
It was something that she had wondered about many, many times over the years, but as her attraction for him had waned, she’d decided to just leave it alone and put it behind her.
Once she had moved on and made the conscious decision to be Adrien’s friend rather than just another fangirl, they had grown even closer than she had ever imagined. She was aware of the constant pressure he was placed under from his father and she had become a sort of safe haven for him to turn to when the stress of living up to his father’s expectations while pursuing his own dream became too much. If she were to be honest with herself, she was honored that she was the person he turned to when he just needed a break from reality.
However, recently she had begun to wonder if he had an ulterior motive for seeking out her company.
Over the past few months, she’d begun to notice that he’d been making more and more excuses to spend time with her, even if it meant squeezing in time between his university classes to drop into the bakery to snag a few pastries before returning to campus across the city. Surely there were other places much closer to his university where he could eat his lunch.
But Marinette never questioned him. She never brought up the lingering glances she caught him giving her. She never confronted him about the casual way he would invade her personal space, even if it was in a platonic way. She was hesitant to rattle the status quo they had been living in for so long, especially if her intuition was wrong. God, that would be embarrassing for him, as well as her.
A trickle of unease ran down her spine when she saw the way Adrien’s grin lit up his face when he noticed her approach in front of the club where Luka’s band would be performing that night. The sparkle in his eyes was something that she chose to ignore. After all, she was here at the invitation of another man.
‘Oh crap,’ she thought to herself. ‘Now I understand what Alya meant.’ She really hoped her utterly brilliant idea of inviting Adrien to watch Luka’s performance would not end up blowing up in her face.
As she and Adrien made small talk while waiting for the other half of their group to arrive, Marinette sent up a silent plea to whoever was listening that nothing bad happened tonight.
-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-
Once inside the club – turns out it really does help expedite the process when a member of the band gives the bouncer your name in anticipation of your arrival – Marinette and her friends looked around for a good spot to watch the show from. Even though they had gotten there an hour before Luka was supposed to hit the stage, the club was packed.
As she looked around the crowded club, Marinette was impressed. She’d been here before with Alya a few times to unwind after a rough day and it had never been this busy. It was standing room only and the mass of bodies crowding in front of the stage was already nearly impenetrable. Apparently, the band Luka was playing with tonight was more popular than he had led her to believe.
Just when she and her friends had resigned themselves to watching the show from the back of the room, a ripple of movement through the crowd caught her attention. The volume of chatter rose over the pre-recorded music being pumped through the speakers, easily becoming audible over the pounding base that made it feel like her ribs were vibrating with the reverberation.
She strained her eyes in a futile attempt to see what had caused the commotion, but she was too short to see over the heads of so many people.
When Nino nudged her arm with his elbow, she glanced at him in question, but he was too busy waving to someone in the crowd. Just then, Luka himself broke through the sea of bodies and the rift he had opened with his passing closed behind him.
He grinned at the four of them and yelled over the music to be heard. “I’m glad you guys could make it! I wasn’t expecting it to be this crowded tonight.”
Marinette couldn’t help but notice the way that Adrien shifted on his feet to inch just a little closer to her. Luckily, Luka didn’t notice the subtle movement due to his attention being focused solely on her. Thankfully, Nino kept the conversation going as he made the necessary introductions, even though she was pretty sure that Luka had met Alya and Adrien before.
They decided to brave the bar in an attempt to get something to drink. Luka stuck to water since he would be playing later and he wanted to have a clear head for the show. The other four, however, ordered bottles of beer to wet their parched throats. The temperature in the club was already becoming oppressive simply from the heat of so many bodies pressed together in one place.
Marinette couldn’t prevent the way her cheeks flushed whenever Luka bent over to yell something into her ear. The music was loud enough to invite the intrusion into her personal space, but she was certain that the hand he placed on the small of her back was unnecessary. Welcome, but unnecessary.
While Luka and Marinette stood off to the side and attempted to carry on a conversation in the loud club, Nino and Alya were keeping a careful eye on how their other friend was reacting to the interaction. He wasn’t taking it very well if the way he was scowling as he quickly drained his bottle was any indication. They tried to get Adrien’s attention away from the couple talking next to the bar, but even as he half heartedly listened to them talk, his eyes never once strayed from their dark-haired companion. Or the hand pressing gently on her back.
Alya and Nino grew more concerned as Adrien ordered and three more bottles of beer and emptied them before Luka motioned to them for them to follow him. Adrien tipped his head back to drain his last bottle and slammed it on the bar before following their group.
Using the dense crowd as a flimsy and utterly transparent excuse, Luka grabbed Marinette’s hand and led her through the crowd to get closer to the stage. With her free hand, she grabbed Alya by the arm, who grabbed onto Nino with her own spare hand. Nino, in turn, snagged the last reluctant member of their party and weaved their way up to the front of the crowd.
When they were in the front, right in the middle of the stage, Luka leaned in one last time. “I’ve got to go finish setting up. We’ll be starting soon, but I wanted to make sure you had the best seat in the house for this.”
Marinette’s heart fluttered. He really was so sweet, sacrificing time he should have spent preparing for the concert to make sure that she was taken care of. She shooed him playfully and he gave her arm one last squeeze before making his way backstage.
They didn’t have to wait long before the house lights dimmed and the spotlights illuminated the stage. The roar of the crowd was deafening when Luka and he other members of the band stepped on stage.
If she thought he was cute under normal circumstances, the moment he stepped on stage, her jaw – and her IQ – dropped. He was wearing simple clothes, nothing fancy since he wasn’t a full-time member of the band and didn’t want to attract too much attention away from the main members: ripped jeans and a shredded black t-shirt with a pair of Converse sneakers on his feet. But the moment he pinned her with his eyes, Marinette’s brain ceased to function. He had heavily outlined his ocean-blue eyes with eyeliner and the way he looked at her did things to her insides that she didn’t want to acknowledge. He was freaking hot.
Marinette joined in and cheered for Luka; she hadn’t learned what the band was called, so she just screamed his name when the vocalist, a tall, slender girl with wild, jet-black hair introduced each member of the band.
The way he winked at her as he slung the strap of his guitar over his shoulder made her mouth go dry. Seriously, it should be illegal for someone to look that good holding a guitar.
From the moment the band started playing the first song, Marinette was mesmerized. Hearing Luka play at her parent’s bakery and in her room had shown her that he had talent, but seeing him on stage, playing with a full band, gave her a whole new appreciation for his skill. The way his fingers danced over the strings of his instrument was a thing of beauty to behold and the way he moved so confidently around the stage told her that this was who Luka truly was.
Gone was the quiet boy who liked to tease her and who she had always considered a bit of a flirt. This boy – no, this man – was sex incarnate. He knew exactly what he was doing with his fingers on his instrument and the dexterity he displayed (as well as the heated way he looked down at her from the stage) made her think about what else he could do with those nimble fingers.
She shook her head to get rid of those intrusive thoughts. She looked up just in time to see him wink at her and smirk knowingly. It was like he knew exactly what she had been thinking about.
The band continued playing, sending the crowd into an absolute frenzy. People around her were dancing and jumping and screaming and Marinette was loving every second of it.
Until she felt someone drape their arms around her shoulders, holding her in an unwelcome embrace from behind.
She turned her head to see Adrien grinning at her from mere inches away. In all their time together, as casual as their physical interactions had been, he’d never been so bold when touching her. It was something she truly respected about him as a person; he knew where the line was. Until now.
She looked to her other side to see if she could get Alya’s help, but her friend was too wrapped up in the energy of the crowd to notice her predicament. She reached up and grabbed Adrien’s wrists, aiming to gently pry his arms away from her, but he only took that as an invitation to cuddle her closer.
She looked up to the stage with a panicked expression. Sure enough, Luka had noticed what was going on. He walked across the stage, never missing a beat, and crouched down to where she was standing. He locked eyes with Adrien and growled, “Let her go. Now.”
The singer’s vocals were loud enough that nobody around them realized what was happening. To the casual observer, he was just interacting with the crowd. But to Marinette’s immense relief, Luka’s actions had caused not only Adrien to release his hold of her shoulders but had also attracted Alya and Nino’s attention to the drama that was unfolding between their two other friends.
Thankfully, once that situation had been diffused, the rest of the concert had gone off without a hitch, but Adrien’s actions made it abundantly clear to Marinette that she would be having a serious discussion with her friend about boundaries and personal space.
-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-
As the club emptied out after the show, Marinette and company were waiting by the bar for Luka to make another appearance. After a few short minutes, he walked up, reached behind the bar to snag a bottle of water that was waiting for him, and drained half of it before he turned to them.
“So, what did you think of the show?”
Marinette beamed at him. She didn’t think her smile could stretch any further across her face. “Luka, you were amazing! How are you not famous by now?”
He chuckled at her enthusiastic reaction. “I don’t want to be famous. I like my peaceful life.” He shrugged his shoulders and took another sip of his water. “I just want to play my music and live in peace.”
While Nino and Alya exclaimed over how good the show was, Marinette could feel the daggers that Adrien was staring at Luka. As time passed and his gaze turned darker and darker, she had had enough.
Just as she was about to confront him about his attitude, Luka reached out and place his hand on her shoulder. “I hate to do this, but I’ve got to help them break the equipment down. Do you think I can stop by your place when I’m done?”
Pulling her phone out of her purse, she checked the time. It was only 10:30pm, so she nodded and told him she’d be waiting for him in the bakery.
With a final thanks to everyone for coming to see him perform, Luka strode off to join the band and clear the stage of equipment.
When they all left the club, Alya and Nino were hesitant to leave Marinette and Adrien alone, especially considering Adrien’s erratic behavior earlier and his questionable sobriety. But Marinette told them not to worry and sent them on their way, giving Alya a pointed stare that managed to convey that she was going to be having a very serious conversation with Adrien about what had transpired that night.
So it was with a little concern – and a promise to text when Marinette made it home safely – that Nino and Alya made their way home, watching as Marinette and Adrien walked in the opposite direction towards the DuPain-Cheng bakery.
-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-
Chapter 19 (Coming Soon!)
*This chapter gave me soo much trouble. The first half I just absolutely hated, but I absolutely flew through the second half. I've been wanting to write Luka's concert for like, ever and personally, I love how it came out. And while I wasn't planning on Adrien acting like a possessive jerk initially, I think it kinda fit. So, I'm sorry if he seems OOC, but I love it and that's all that matters haha. BTW, this is the longest chapter I’ve written so far, by nearly 1,000 words! Yay for progress and longer chapters!
I'd like to apologize for it taking me so freaking long to get this out. Now that I'm not dying of the flu anymore, I'm working so much more, picking up all sorts of shifts to cover for the people who can't work now because they don't have childcare and the kids here are still out of school. I count myself extremely fortunate that I'm still able to work (I'm a home healthcare provider), so I'm not taking that for granted.
Special thanks as always for those who have reblogged, liked, and replied to this story of mine. It sincerely touches me that you like this utter trash that I'm creating and I couldn't be happier. I'm always so excited to see what you guys have to say about the new chapters and I so look forward to your feedback. I love you guys so much!
The next chapter will be exciting for me to write. Marinette confronts Adrien with his stupid behavior and Luka sees something he shouldn't.
Artwork commissioned by me from the infinitely talented Abigel.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
ItaSaku (Post Uchiha Massacre) AU: Climbing through the ranks of Konoha, Sakura finds herself with the invitation to join ANBU and a chance to learn from one of the most renowned and legendary ninja in the world. Despite her efforts to grow stronger however, she finds the world isn't as black and white as it looks and that some truths are easier to hide than others.
Rated: Fiction M - English - Romance/Adventure - Sakura H., Itachi U. - Chapters: 20 - Words: 155,128 - COMPLETE
Snippet:
They turned a corner and came face to face with a tall, stone gate that led to the Uchiha district. In the years since the horrible tragedy that took place within those walls, the place had become run-down as its owner had decided to move elsewhere, not being able to live with the memories that haunted him ever since that day. It had become Konoha's black sheep—all three Hokage that had been active since the massacre couldn't find it in their hearts to tear down the district, nor would they ever get permission. And so it had stayed exactly how it was found, a relic of that past.
"Did you see Uchiha?" two boys who were headed in the opposite direction whispered. "He's going to be at the ceremony! Can you believe it? He's one of the best shinobi around!"
Naruto huffed at that and Sakura laughed as she grabbed the collar of his vest and dragged him with her. "Come on Mister Jealousy, we're going to be late for our own ceremony."
AUTHOR NOTES:
Recently, I've gotten a lot of questions from people asking where to start with my older works. As some of you know, I began writing ItaSaku when there was none available except for two or three other fics. While the Metamorphosis trilogy is undoubtedly one of the most popular works I've written, it's also horribly outdated (note that I wrote it while Deidara had just made his very first appearance in the manga!) as are Twilight and Memento.
So here I am, humbly recommending Equinox. It was written in 2013, in a period where I struggled with soul-crushing loneliness and searched for a way to deal with it. Equinox was born from that and to this day remains my personal favorite work. Fanfiction users know it pretty well but seeing as I uploaded it to AO3 in two days, most people there might have missed it. ❤🌸
So what does it have?
Post-massacre AU.
A story that spans a decade.
ANBU Sakura who grows throughout the story and becomes even more important to Konoha and their team mates.
Shikamaru. Shikamaru. Shikamaru.
Multiple Hokages.
Akatsuki, of course, but perhaps not like you'd expect.
A tale of redemption, growth and acceptance.
Twists and turns at every corner that pulled the rug out under most people, including myself.
So, now that we're all quarantined, why don't you give it a try? Stay safe. ❤
Marinette didn’t have to wait for long on Saturday for Luka to show up. Apparently, he was just as excited to see her as she was to see him. In fact, she had barely gotten dressed for the day before she heard her mom call up, informing her that she had a visitor.
In a way, she was glad for his unexpected arrival. It left her very little time to work herself up into a panic at seeing him once again. She still wasn’t quite sure where she stood with the musician and their date had done very little to clarify the situation. All she knew at the moment was that she had a job to do, and by god, she was going do it.
Upon hearing his footsteps on the stairs to her room, she ran her hand over her hair one last time and waited for his arrival. When his head popped up through her trap door, a grin found its way onto her face without her knowledge when she spotted his ever-present guitar strapped onto his back.
“Hi, Luka,” she greeted. “I’m glad you could make it on such short notice. I know how much this means to you, so I wanted you to see the finished product as soon as possible.”
She fidgeted nervously in front of the dress form that she had covered with a white sheet. She knew that she was prolonging his anticipation, but she wanted to see the look on his face when he finally saw the creation that he had found himself so focused on. It was a point of pride for Marinette, and she was nothing if not dramatic.
As for Luka, he could hardly contain his excitement, but his face betrayed none of the eagerness he felt. He knew that under that sheet was the outfit that had started his obsession, the inspiration for the song that still played – unfinished – in his mind. Perhaps today would finally be the day that he learned how the melody concluded.
With his eyes riveted on the sheet behind her, he barely heard her ask if he was ready. Slowly, unblinking, he nodded his head.
With a flourish, she ripped the sheet off the form and revealed her creation.
Luka shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching out. It was everything he had hoped for and more. For a moment, his mind went silent. All he could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat as he stared at what Marinette had made for him with her own two hands.
She watched him stand there and stare at her design for a few moments before she began to worry. Had she messed something up? Was something not right? As his silence stretched out, her concern grew.
“Luka? Are you-“
“You’re amazing.” He interrupted her with a breathy whisper.
Ok, now she was confused. “What?”
He ripped his gaze away from the dress form and stared intently at her. “You’re amazing, Marinette. You’ve taken something that you’d only imagined on paper and breathed life into it. You’ve managed to make a physical manifestation of your creativity and I’m blown away by your talent.” He carefully slipped his guitar case off his back and set it against her polka-dotted chaise lounge, then he slowly approached her to fully inspect her design. He couldn’t wait to put it on!
“I’m actually surprised at how quickly this went together,” she admitted. When he shifted his focus from the clothes to her face, she felt her face start to flush at the intensity of his gaze.
“Why is that?”
“Usually, I second guess my design choices when it comes time to put it together, but when I was working on this for you, it just went right together. Something this complicated tends to take me a few tries to get it perfect, but this time, everything just fell right into place.” She smiled at him and ran a hand down the supple leather of the jacket. “It felt like it was meant to be made for you and couldn’t wait to be finished.” She giggled a little at her own silliness, but then swallowed thickly at the expression on his face.
“Maybe because it was meant for me,” he mused.
The atmosphere between them was becoming a little too heavy for Marinette’s comfort, so she decided to change the subject. “Well, all I need is to do a final fitting and then it’s done. Do you want to put it on for me so we can get it finished?”
There was nothing Luka wanted more than to put that outfit on, but he held himself in check. He wasn’t used to feeling so strongly about things outside of music, but there was just something about this design, this outfit, this girl that made him feel with such intensity. He needed to take a step back before he scared the poor girl, something he wanted to avoid at all costs.
After she carefully removed the garments from the form, she handed them to Luka and pointed to a screen in the corner of her room. “You can get changed over there, if you don’t mind.”
While he changed his clothes, it took all of Marinette’s will power to not peek at the screen. She pressed her hands to her warm cheeks as she listened to the rustle of cloth against skin as he took his clothes off. To distract herself, she walked away to check her phone.
Not surprisingly, there was a message from Alya.
Alya: Hey gurl! Let me know how it goes with Mr. hottie!
Marinette: He’s getting naked in my room rn! Omg!
Alya: Dang Mari, workin fast aren’t ya??
Marinette: … it’s not like that! He’s doing a fitting! Get your mind out of the gutter!
Alya: well he’s definitely already fit 😉
Marinette: ALYA! Not helping!
With an irritated huff, she shoved her phone into her back pocket and went to go check on Luka.
And stopped in her tracks when he came out from behind the screen.
The white tee that she had screen printed with a stylized snake was shredded at the bottom, giving her glimpses of his toned stomach. The leather jacket stretched comfortably across his broad shoulders and the sleeves hit perfectly at his wrists. The ripped black skinny jeans fit his muscular legs like a second skin, proving that Alya had been absolutely correct: he was FIT.
Seeing her jaw drop made Luka chuckle self-consciously. Hearing his amusement seemed to snap her out of her daze and she shook her head to clear her mind from the inappropriate thoughts that had begun circling. “So how does it fit? Anything too tight or too loose?”
“No, it’s perfect.” He ran his hand down the teal plaid lapel of the jacket before doing a flirty twirl. “How do I look?”
“Hot.” Marinette’s eyes widened and she slapped a hand over her mouth before she could vomit anything else even more embarrassing.
Luka grinned at her unintentional confession. “Do you have a mirror? It’s not very often that I get to see myself looking ‘hot’.”
With a groan, she gestured to the full length mirror standing against the wall and then continued to cover her face in shame.
When Luka saw his reflection, he was shocked at the difference that clothes could make. He looked like something straight off of an album cover. As he turned an looked at himself, the music came crashing back into his brain.
He stumbled across the room in his haste to get to his guitar.
“Wha-“ Marinette lowered her hands and watched as Luka frantically unzipped his guitar case and sat down with the instrument in his lap. “Are you al-“
“Shh.” He felt bad hushing her, but he needed to get the music out before he forgot it. His fingers flew over the strings as the melody that had begun months ago when he first met her came to life.
Marinette was stunned. She’d heard him play his music many times before in the bakery, but never like this. This was like his soul was being laid bare for her to hear. She’d never heard anything so beautiful in her entire life. She never wanted it to end.
It was obvious to her that he was no longer aware of her presence in the room and she stayed rooted where she stood. She was afraid that any distraction would cause him to falter and stop his song.
When he finished his song, he opened his eyes to see Marinette wipe at her cheeks. His song had moved her to tears.
A little embarrassed at his behavior, he set his guitar aside and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry about shushing you. I had to get that out of my system.”
She watched as he tried to come down from his musical high. “Was that the song? The one I inspired in you?”
“Yeah.” He zipped his guitar back in its case and avoided looking at her. “I told you that you’d be the first person to hear it, after all.”
“Wow, Luka,” she breathed. “You’re the amazing one here. I can’t believe you just played that. It’s like I could hear the sound of your soul or something. It was beautiful.”
He glanced up at saw the admiration shining on her face. “I just played what you make me feel. That’s all.”
Her jaw dropped. She didn’t know what to say to that. If what she just heard was how she made him feel, then that was the most beautiful confession of love she’d ever heard of.
“Urk-“ She choked on her words. She had no clue how to respond to him, but she felt like she had to say something.
“Marinette,” Luka caught her attention, “you don’t have to say anything. I’m not putting any pressure on you. I feel what I feel and I don’t expect anything from you in return. If you just want to hang out and be friends, that’s fine with me. I just like being around you and I like the way I feel when I’m with you.” He reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder. “But if you can see me in that way,” he slid his hand down her arm and laced his fingers with hers, “I think we’d make something beautiful together.”
Well, at least now she knew where she stood with him. But Marinette wasn’t sure if she was ready to be with him like that. She wanted to just focus on her career, but after his heartfelt confession, she didn’t want to disappoint him either.
He could see by the look on her face that she was conflicted and not sure what to say to him. “Hey, don’t stress about it.” He tried to reassure her. “I meant what I said. If you want to just be friends, I’m fine with that. I’m not trying to push you into anything you don’t want to do. I’m responsible for the way I feel, not you.”
And with a final squeeze to her fingers, he let go of her hand and walked behind the screen to change back into his own clothes.
She released a shuddering breath. ‘Oh boy’ she thought.
“By the way,” came Luka’s voice from behind the screen, “do you have plans for next Saturday?”
“Next Saturday? No, I don’t think so. Why?”
He came out from behind the screen and handed her the clothes. “I was just wondering if you’d like to come to a show on Saturday. I’ll be playing, but you can bring some friends if you want.”
She looked up at him and clutched the clothes he’d handed her to her chest. “You want me to come see you perform?”
He smiled down at her. “I’ve seen what you can do.” He gestured to the bundle in her arms. “I want you to see what I can do.”
She nodded and smiled at him. “I’d like that.”
He grabbed his guitar and slung it over his shoulder. “I’ll text you the details. I’ll see you soon, Marinette.”
Watching as he walked toward the trap door, she called out to him before he left. “I’ll let you know when I’m done with the final touches.”
He turned to look at her before he descended the stairs. “I’ll be waiting.”
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Across the city, Alya Cesare had cornered her boyfriend and was interrogating him on his suspicious behavior.
“Okay, Nino. What’s your deal?” she asked, her hands planted firmly on her hips as she stared down at him as he tried in vain to scoot away from her off the couch. “The last couple of times we’ve played with everyone, you’ve been acting strange, like you know something that we don’t. So spill!”
“It’s nothing, babe, really.” He shifted his eyes away from his girlfriend’s piercing glare. “Really, it’s not my place to tell.”
“Aha!” She’d caught him now. “So you do know something.”
He cursed under his breath, knowing that there was no way for him to get out of this conversation now. His girlfriend was like a dog with a bone when she smelled secrets. He mentally apologized to Luka for throwing him under the bus.
“You know Luka?” he asked.
“Juleka’s brother? Yeah, he’s the one Marinette had a date with the other night. What about him?”
“He’s actually been looking for Marinette for a long time.”
Her head tilted as she narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend. Just what was he trying to say? “What do you mean ‘looking for her’?”
He sighed, and then relayed the story he’d heard from Luka about the first time he and Marinette had run into each other, and Luka’s search for the mystery designer.
“If you knew that, then why am I just now hearing about this?” she demanded. They were talking about her best friend after all.
“It wasn’t my place to say anything. He told me about Marinette not knowing that I knew who she was.”
“I’m confused. How could he not know that you know Marinette? Everyone knows that you, me, Marinette, and Adrien are best friends.”
“You’ve never actually met Luka before Marinette’s fashion show, at least not IRL.”
“What do you mean, ‘not IRL’?” She was getting frustrated with her boyfriend’s vague answers. “Do I know him elsewhere?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “He’s Viperion.”
Her mouth gaped. “Are you telling me, that the boy that we’ve been playing online with for months, the guy that Marinette is low-key crushing on for weeks, the guy that was gushing about his date the other night with this amazing girl, that guys is LUKA?!”
He looked smug as his girlfriend paced around their living room and ranted. “Now you understand why I thought the whole thing is hilarious.”
She stopped in her tracks and gaped at Nino, the pieces all falling into place. “Oh my god. Adrien was encouraging Luka to go out with Marinette! She was getting jealous of herself when Luka was talking about their date! Oh man, that is priceless!”
They both began howling with laughter, in disbelief at the ridiculous situations their friend always finds herself in.
“You realize that she’s going to just die when she realizes the truth.” Alya sat next to Nino on their mustard yellow couch. “Should we tell her? End her suffering?”
They stared at each other for a moment before laughing again, agreeing that it was way too much fun to watch their friends torture themselves instead.
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Chapter 18
*Thank you all for your patience. I’m finally feeling better again (don’t worry, I didn’t have the Corona virus, just the garden variety flu) so I’m finally able to get some writing done. I’m planning on wrapping up this story in like, 3-4 more chapters, so I can move on to the next story.
Bad Habits of Beginning Writers
Creating Writing Habits
Prewriting 101
Returning to Old Works
Setting Up Your Space
Starting Again (if you’ve stopped)
Where to Start
Writing the Beginning
Writing What You Don’t Know
5 Truths About Being A Writer
Career as a Writer
Making Money
Writing for a Living
Characters:
Character Building
Character Quirks
Non-Binary Characters
Religious Characters
Writing A Hero
Writing Non-Humans
Writing Women
5 Ways to Name Your Character
5 More Ways to Name Your Character
7 Steps to Character Creation
Dialogue:
Dialogue
Improving Dialogue: Eliminate Exposition
FanFiction
Fanfiction 101
NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo
Tips & Tricks for NaNoWriMo
3 Tips for NaNo
Planning & Outlines
How to Start Outlining
Is My Idea Good Enough?
Research
Should you Outline?
7 Things to Do Before You Start
Plot:
Details
Fight Scenes
Sequels
Sex Scenes
Sexual Assault in Literature
Story Arcs
Poetry
Editing Poetry
Reading Poetry
5 Quick Poetry Tips
Publishing:
Choosing a Title
Rejection Letters
Social Media
When and Where to Publish
Romance:
LGB Relationships
Romantic Subplots
Writing a Romance Novel
Setting:
Description
When Setting Really Matters
World Building:
Creating Another Species
Creating World Maps
World Building 101
World Building 201
Other
Editing
Making Time to Write
Point Of View
Prologues
Why I Write
Writers Block
Writing with Sound
5 Signs You Treat Your Reader Like an Idiot
The night after her date with Luka, Marinette turned on her game console to meet up with her friends online. She hadn’t been able to get ahold of Alya yet to tell her about her date because the reporter had been working on a story, so she had been forced to wait until their standing Friday night gaming night to give her best friend the details.
When she finally loaded in, she was pleased to see that Rena Rouge was already logged on.
“It’s about time, girl,” Rena reprimanded. “Now, spill! Leave nothing out!”
She started her tale with how she had made her graceful entrance: by falling down the stairs. Rena howled with laughter at how true to form that was for her and asked how Luka had responded to her clumsiness. Her friend cooed at how sweet he’d been to check to make sure she wasn’t hurt.
As she continued to give a play by play of the events of the previous night, she trailed off when a notification popped up onscreen: CHAT NOIR is online.
It felt weird to talk about her date with Adrien listening. It wasn’t like she still had romantic feelings for her friend, but it still just didn’t feel right.
“C’mon, girl, don’t clam up on me now! What happened next? Where did he take you?”
“What are you talking about?” Chat Noir asked, curious about what the girls had been talking about that had made Ladybug stop talking as soon as he’d come online.
“Ladybug was telling me about her date!” Rena gushed.
“Her what?” he yelled.
Marinette winced. “Easy there, kitty. Keep the volume down please. I’d like to keep my hearing if you don’t mind.”
As he sullenly mumbled an apology, another notification popped up onscreen. Her heart skipped a beat before she read what it read. CARAPACE is online. Oh, it’s just Nino.
“Hey guys, what’s goin’ on?”
Rena chuckled at her boyfriend’s cheerful greeting. “Oh, nothing much. Ladybug was just telling us all about her hot date.”
He chortled at that information. “Ooooh,” he teased. “Do tell.”
‘God, this is embarrassing,’ she thought. “Okay, fine. Just be quiet and let me talk.”
As she told the others the events of her date, Ryuuko and Pegasus popped up online as well, eagerly joining the conversation, much to Marinette’s chagrin.
Chat Noir’s silence ended when she began describing her confrontation with Lila. He began spitting indignantly at the nonsense the liar had spewed. She giggled when he vowed to track her down and make her regret saying such offensive things to her. She spent the next few minutes talking her feline friend down from his rage until she could continue with her story.
When she finally finished, she had to move her headset away from her ear as Rena’s piercing squeal made her ears ring.
“So, have you talked to him today?” Rena asked, excited.
“No, he must have been busy because he didn’t stop by the bakery at all today.”
The fact that he hadn’t shown up for the first time in a week made Marinette’s stomach knot uncomfortably. Had he decided that he didn’t want to go out with her again and was avoiding her? Did something happen to him and now he was in the hospital, hurt? Her overactive imagination was not her friend in situations like these.
“Statistics say that if he doesn’t call you after the first 24 hours of your first date, there is only a miniscule 12% chance that he will ask you out again.” Her eyes narrowed as Pegasus’s extremely unhelpful addition did little to make her feel better about the whole situation.
“Not helpful, Pegasus,” Rena said.
“Ladybug, you should be the one to make the first move and contact him instead. Show him that you are a strong, confident woman that will not be trifled with.” Ryuuko could definitely take the girl-power idea a bit far, but she had a point. There was no reason why she should
“I have to text him tomorrow about something anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“Yo, Chat, you’re being suspiciously quiet about this whole thing. Don’t you have any advice for Ladybug?” Carapace’s voice just dripped with sarcasm. “You know, as a friend?”
“I just think that it’s kind of a jerk move to not call her after taking her out,” he growled. “If he was really into her, he would have at least texted her to say that he had a great time or something.”
Marinette’s insecurities reared their ugly heads once more; his reasoning echoed her own doubts. “You think so, Chat?”
“Yeah,” he said. “You’re worth putting in the effort, don’t you think?”
“Nah, bro.” Carapace chimed in. “Maybe he’s just got something going on today and hasn’t had the time. I’m sure he’ll call or text you as soon as he’s got a minute.”
Nino’s reassurance silenced the insidious voices in Marinette’s mind. “Thanks, Carapace. That makes me feel better.”
They continued to play when Marinette noticed that it was almost 9:00pm.
“Hey, has anyone heard from Viperion? It’s not like him to be so late on a raid night.”
Carapace chuckled. “Yeah, he texted me earlier. He got called in for a gig and he’ll be on later.”
Marinette was surprised. She’d figured out that Viperion was a musician, but she didn’t know that he was talented enough to be performing professionally. She wondered if she’d heard his music before and didn’t know it.
“Oh, is that how you met Viperion?” Chat asked. “You never actually told us how you met him.”
While Carapace explained to the others how he’d met Viperion while he was DJ-ing at a party for a Roth Records party, the topic of their discussion signed on.
“Well, speak of the devil,” Carapace cheerfully greeted. “How was the show, bro?”
Marinette smiled as she listened to Viperion talk about his performance. She was curious about what he played, but she did her best to keep her curiosity at bay.
“Oh,” Carapace interrupted, “how was your date last night?”
Marinette nearly dropped her controller. Wait, what? Viperion went on a date last night? Who goes out on a date on a Thursday night? Well, she’s just gone on one yesterday, but that’s beside the point.
“It was great.” His voice was soft with emotion. “I took her to this place I’d been wanting to check out for a while. And she’s so easy to talk to, once she got past her nerves.”
As he continued to describe his evening out with his “mystery girl”, Marinette couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Here she was, pining over some guy who couldn’t be bothered to even text her after their own date, and Viperion was gushing about how “amazing” and “wonderful” his date had been. It just wasn’t fair.
Not noticing how quiet that Ladybug had become, the others continued to grill Viperion for details.
Carapace, on the other hand, was snickering hysterically under his breath, eventually getting his girlfriend’s attention. “Babe, what the hell? Care to share what you seem to find so funny?”
Swallowing his laughter, he tried to avoid the subject, but he found himself caught in his girlfriend’s wrath. “We’re gonna have a conversation about this later,” she promised him.
Not wanting to hear any more about Viperion’s date, Ladybug changed the subject and they continued to play together for the next few hours, finally distracting Marinette from her own wallowing.
After she’d logged off and shut down her console, she looked at her phone for the first time in hours. She was surprised to see her notification light blinking.
It was from Luka!
Luka: Hey, I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to talk to you before now. I had a great time last night and wanted to know if you’d be interested in hanging out again sometime soon.
Her heartbeat drummed in her ears. How could she have not heard her phone chime? Upon further investigation, she noticed the symbol in her notification bar that indicated that she’d put her phone on “Do not disturb” mode while she had been playing.
Oh man, hopefully her lack of response didn’t make Luka think she wasn’t interested in hanging out with him again. She really liked spending time with the musician. Once she got out of her own head, he was easy to talk to and there was something about him that made her creative juices start flowing.
As a matter of fact, her work on “his” outfit had gone surprisingly well. Usually, she’d run into a few snags when working on a project, but thus far, it’d been smooth sailing, which gave her a perfect excuse to spend time with him.
Glancing at the time, she wondered if it was too late to text him back. But she didn’t want him to think that she was ignoring him or something. Gathering her courage, she decided to go for it. If nothing else, he’d get it in the morning when he woke up.
Marinette: Sorry, just got your text. I’d like that. BTW, if you can make time, your outfit is almost done. Just needs fitting. Let me know when works for you.
She put her phone down and started getting ready for bed. When she heard her phone vibrate, she lunged across the room to grab it, nearly tripping over her discarded clothes in her haste.
Luka: np. I’ve got time tomorrow if that works for you.
With a giddy little dance, she texted back that she’d see him tomorrow then and went to bed, completely forgetting her hurt feelings from earlier.
-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-xXx-
Chapter 17
*First of all, I’d like to thank everyone for your patience and encouragement. It means a lot to me. Unfortunately, just when my private life got situated to where I could get some work done, I get sick (and no, it’s not corona virus lol, it’s a chest cold, but it’s still super inconvenient.) but luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it), with all the hysteria surrounding the Corona virus outbreak, my daughter’s school has been cancelled for the next two weeks, so I will not be working as well since my job is such that allows me to take time off when my daughter doesn’t have school. So, I’m hoping to get some serious writing done in the next few days.
Also, I’d like to apologize for the short length of this chapter. It’s been bugging me for the last few days and just didn’t want to flow right. maybe it’s the cold medicine hazing my brain, but i’ve decided to just post it and move on. so i’m sorry if it sucks lol
as always, thanks for everyone who likes and reblogs my stories. Your support means the world to me.
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