Writing to Unwind

[the-river-of-light]

This is a piece created for @mommadon 's fanfiction The Bluffing Game, chapter 10. Created for the @miraculousfanworks March 2021 Artist/Writer collab event.

[ID: Ladybug and Chat Noir from Miraculous Ladybug doing partner yoga on a Parisian rooftop. The full moon is out. /end ID]

[mommadon]

Isn’t this beautiful?  Thank you so much, River! 

[mommadon]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 21/21 Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Luka Couffaine, Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, Kagami Tsurugi, Lê Chiến Kim, Nathalie Sancoeur, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug), Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug), Mylène Haprèle Additional Tags: Miraculous Ladybug Love Square, Sequel, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Action/Adventure, Angst, Fluff, Romance, Eventual Happy Ending Series: Part 2 of Adventurer + Unlocked Summary:

Ladybug and Chat Noir have retrieved the Peacock Miraculous and Adrien and Marinette are getting very close. Certainly, catching Hawkmoth will be a piece of cake, especially considering how weird he's being...

A season 5 headcanon sequel to Adventurer.

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April Kisses - Day 25

More April Kisses

21. A chaste kiss given to each other because they are in mixed company.

To think there was a time when he would have given and arm and a leg to meet Jagged Stone (well, maybe not his own arm, because he needed it to play guitar, but definitely a leg and maybe one of Juleka’s arms). 

Suffice it to say a lot had changed since then. Now Luka wanted to be just about anywhere that was not on the plush couch in Jagged’s suite at Le Grand Paris, listening to him wax poetic about his favorite young fashion designer.

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[son-neko-art]

Covid19 Meme by Son-Neko

[spacecadetsharky]

😺💕Cat Noir and the Cat Noirrettes💕😺

🛑🚨please do not repost👀🚨🛑

Idk if anyone would be interested, but I post these comics a few days earlier on my patreon before posting here. If you want to check that out my patreon is

patreon.com/SpaceCadetSharky,

I even changed and added a bunch of fun goals. Any support would be much appreciated ;-; 🙏💖

💌Also don’t forget to check out my Etsy shop  💌

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The Sky and the Sea

So have y’all a little fantasy AU Dragon!Luka loves Mermaid!Marinette. This is absolutely not what I intended to be working on but you know, sometimes you just gotta run with the inspiration when it comes. (is it cheating to post the fic on the same day as the SSS? probably, but I finished it and I have no self-control, so here you go!)

The storm was over. 

That was Luka’s first thought as he drifted towards wakefulness. He no longer felt the electric charge of lightning in the air, and when he opened his eyes, his sleeping chamber was a dim gray instead of pitch black. He listened, but heard nothing beyond the usual sea birds and average mountain winds.

Luka lifted his head and yawned, forked tongue lolling out between his razor fangs. He rolled and raised himself on all fours, gold clinking lightly as pieces stuck to his scales for a moment and then fell back to the pile. He shook himself and then stretched, adding a new set of gouges to those already scoring the floor as he flexed his talons. 

Keep reading

[mommadon]

Adventurer: Chapter 2

Say hi on Ao3!

Chapter Two

There were fourteen missed calls on Adrien’s phone when he finally dropped his transformation and dared to look. Two from Nathalie, one from his bodyguard, and eleven from Kagami.  He sighed. He was going to feel the consequence of his foray to the bakery.  Still, he didn’t feel bad about it, not one bit.  As he showered and climbed into bed, he couldn’t stop smiling. 

He figured he’d put out a few fires before bed, so he quickly texted Kagami:

Adrien: So sorry about today.  I swear I wasn’t trying to make fun of you.  Ended up trapped in one of Adventurer’s carts and had to walk home.  Can we talk tomorrow?

It was well after midnight, so he wasn’t surprised when she didn’t respond.  Still, he knew a big conversation was inevitable, and he’d have to make it face-to-face.  Ladybug’s words to him rung in his ears… you can’t be two people at the same time… so that begged the question: who did he really want to be?  Were Adrien and Chat Noir two different people?  He had never really thought that much about it.  He felt free as Chat Noir.  Adrien’s life was so controlled and intense.  But he liked himself as Adrien as well—he knew he was a good person, and that had to count for something.  

He shook his head to clear these way-too-deep-for-this-late thoughts, bid goodnight to Plagg, and postponed any further pondering for morning.

*

When Marinette came down the stairs for breakfast Sunday morning, her parents immediately knew something was off. Of course Marinette was smiling, of course she ate breakfast and made pleasant conversation.  But something was off.  

“Marinette, dear, are you sure everything is alright?” Sabine asked for the third time.  

Marinette rolled her eyes. “Yes, everything is just fine.  I think I’ll go for a walk though.”

“Do you want any company?”

“No, I just want some quiet time. Unless you need any help here?  I can certainly stay—”

“We’re fine, sweetheart,” Tom insisted.  “Why don’t you take your sketch book?”

“That’s a good idea,” she said, a bit absently.  A few minutes later, Marinette struck out on the streets of Paris, armed with her sketch book and pencil.  

She didn’t come home for hours. “Who should we call?”  Tom said, nervously pacing the bakery floor.  

“Oh Tom, there’s no need to panic. Our daughter is more than capable of getting home by herself, and she’s only been gone a few hours.  She said she needed some quiet time.  Give her space.  She knows we love her.” “But Sabine, are you sure she’s safe?”

“Of course.  She had a hard time yesterday with Adventurer,” Sabine consoled, stroking her husband’s broad shoulders.  “We know how much she cares for Luka.  It must have been torturous for her to see him akumatized, and then to have to go after him herself—she deserves a little bit of time to think through things—”

“That’s my fear,” Tom said, pacing again, “She’s now shown us she’ll fly straight into danger without even thinking…”

Sabine laughed a little.  “If you’re so worried, why don’t you call her and find out where she is.  She has her phone on her, you know.”

“No, no,” Tom said brusquely, accelerating his pacing, “I don’t want to invade her privacy.”

Sabine laughed harder this time. “Whatever you say, dear.  I’ll be in the office, preparing orders for next week.”

*

“Adrien!” He looked up at the sound of his name, but inwardly groaned when he saw the smiling face that had called it.  “Look!  Our photos were highlighted in Paris Teen Weekly!”  Lila stuffed a copy of the magazine in his face.  “How should we celebrate?  How about dinner tonight?  I know this adorable little bistro and ever since I saved his vanilla bean farm from being sold to hippopotamus hunters, the chef and I have been very close.”

“Uh—” Adrien could barely breathe, she was so close.  

“Excellent!” she squealed, squeezing his arm. “Give me your phone so I can—I mean you can make the reservation. I don’t like to take advantage of our friendship.” She talked so fast that he couldn’t quite make sense of what she had said.  All he knew is that she was digging her hands into his pockets looking for his phone, and he felt horribly uncomfortable.

“Hey Adrien,” a gentle voice said from behind, that brought both him and Lila up short.  Lila’s hands flew back to herself, and Adrien released a gasp of relief.  

“Marinette!” He said, prying away from Lila’s clutching fingers.  “Did you have a good weekend?”

She gave a little half smile and said, “Just fine, thanks.”  Adrien didn’t know why, but he wasn’t sure he believed her.  They started walking lazily toward the classroom. “I have something for you,” she said. She opened her backpack and pulled out three pink and white boxes of passionfruit macarons.  “I’m afraid they’re a day old.  Chat Noir and I made these for you on Saturday afternoon, but when Adventurer got akumatized, he forgot them.”

Adrien feigned surprise. “Chat Noir made those?  With you?”  

Marinette nodded.  “Yeah, he said he was having a rough day, so he spent a few hours in the bakery and my dad taught him how to make macarons.  He said he wanted to try passionfruit because you had recommended it once.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess I did do that, huh?  Well, thanks!  What’s Chat Noir like anyway?  Super cool?”

Marinette raised an eyebrow.  “I thought you two were friends.”

“Oh, oh yeah, of c-course we are.  He’s a nice guy.  I was just wondering what you thought.”

“It was fun,” Marinette responded with a much more convincing smile.  “Usually he’s pretty self-absorbed, but Saturday, he was…”

“Was what?”

But whatever Chat Noir was, Adrien didn’t find out, as the bell rang and Marinette’s eyebrows few to her hairline.  “Oh no! And I was actually on time today!”  She pressed the boxes of macarons into Adrien’s hands and bolted for her seat.  He chuckled to himself.  He couldn’t place his finger on it, but she was different today.  

*

“GIRL!” Alya hissed seconds after class dismissed for lunch.  “You talked to Adrien!  Without tripping over yourself!”

Marinette rolled her eyes.  “No, I didn’t… I just brought cookies to a friend.”

“Wait, don’t you like him anymore?”  Marinette stole a quick glance at the blonde still packing his things up at his desk.  He was talking to Nino.  Just then, he looked up and their eyes met.  One corner of his mouth lifted and his eyes softened.  Her stomach flipped and her pulse quickened.  

“Oh Alya, I don’t know--”  Alya laughed at the exchange, but Marinette held up a hand to her, “—but he’s in love with Kagami.  Kagami’s so cool, I just don’t compare.”

Alya shook her head.  “You’re unbelievable.  I mean, you’re… you know… and you still think you don’t compare.”

Marinette grabbed Alya’s wrist, “Shh!”

Alya just laughed lightly.  “I know, I know.  We talked about it.  I promise I’ll be good.”  But Marinette’s eyes still dropped and her shoulders sagged.  “Are you ok?”  Alya pressed.

“Oh, I’m fine,” Marinette said vaguely as the two walked out the door toward the locker room.  

“Do you want to get lunch with me?”

“Nah, I’m not super hungry, I think I’ll just go for a walk.  Get some quiet time, you know?”  

“Well, at least make sure you eat something.”

“Yeah,” Marinette said with a little shrug.  “Maybe I’ll do that.”  As Marinette strolled away, Alya’s eyebrows knit in concern.  Now the text she had received from Marinette’s mom on Sunday afternoon made more sense.  Alya pulled out her phone to re-read:

Sabine Cheng: Would you keep an eye on Marinette for me?  I don’t know what, but I think something’s up.

Alya: sure thing, Ms C.  

Now Alya added to the conversation:

Alya: I see what you mean, Ms C.  do u think this is about adventurer?

It took a few minutes to get a response, so Alya got some food at the cafeteria and sat at the table where Nino and Adrien were still talking.  She tuned them out.

Sabine Cheng: I don’t know.  Come to think of it, it started a few weeks ago.  

Alya wracked her brain.  A few weeks ago was that awful fight with Miracle Queen and Hawkmoth.  A few weeks ago was when Master Fu had left and Ladybug had been named the next guardian.  Alya tapped her fingernail on her teeth as she put it together.  Poor Marinette had been dealing with the weight of Paris on her shoulders.  

Alya: I think I know what it is.  Marinette has a lot of responsibility here at school. She’s stressed.

Sabine Cheng: hm. You are probably right.  Any ideas of how to help?

Alya: lemme think. I’ll get back to u

Sabine Cheng: Thanks dear

Adrien’s voice pulled her from her phone, “Alya, have you noticed anything strange about Marinette recently?”

*

“Dude, are you going to share those macarons, or do I have to steal one from you?” Nino asked as soon as the bell for lunch rang.  The room buzzed with the noise of scraping chairs and a dozen conversations breaking out.   He and Adrien stood and started packing up their things.  “They’ve been taunting me all morning!”

“Oh, sure, of course!” Adrien held out one of the boxes to Nino who took four greedily and stuffed one, whole, in his mouth.  “Oh man, these are the best.  Marinette sure can bake!”

Adrien carefully stowed the box back in his bag, then looked at Marinette. She was talking to a very animated Alya. Just then she turned her head and looked back at him.  They made eye contact and Adrien couldn’t hold back his smile.  The thought crossed his mind again that she looked different today, somehow.  “Yeah,” Adrien said, turning back to Nino and heading for the door.  “She sure can bake.  Have you noticed anything different about Marinette, though?”

“Marinette? Different?” Nino questioned through a second mouthful of macarons.  

“When she brought me the macarons, she seemed different.  And Saturday… I mean, last week sometime she just seemed… I can’t quite figure it out.”

Nino chuckled.  “She’s not different, she’s just dating Luka and so she finally can talk to you without tripping all over herself.”

“What?” Adrien scoffed.

“Yeah, she’s been hung up on you for so long, dude, that she could never talk to you.  But now that she’s dating Luka, she’s moved on.”

“Wait, what?”

“Oh come on dude, it’s not like it was that big of a secret…”  Nino backpedaled.  

“Marinette was… hung up on… and no, she’s not dating Luka.”  Adrien’s brain was buzzing.  

Nino’s hands flapped with the realization of his blunder.  “I mean, it wasn’t like really hung up, it was like, just kind of a thing and she just didn’t want to and Alya told me not to say anybody likes anybody and…  Hang on. She’s not dating Luka?  Says who?”

“Says her,” Adrien replied simply.

“When did she tell you she wasn’t dating Luka?”  

A year of covering Chat Noir’s tail came in handy sometimes.  “I got sucked up in one of those carts on Saturday with Adventurer.  I heard her tell him that she just wanted to be friends.”

Nino raised an eyebrow.  The boys finished collecting their lunches and sat down.  Alya was texting someone and sat with them.  Adrien was still processing what Nino had said.  He was reminded of something Marinette had confessed to him—or rather, to Chat Noir—on Saturday.  Someone she had hoped would be someone.  Hung up on him.  Was Marinette…

“Dude, don’t read into things,” Nino said, as if he could see the wheels turning in Adrien’s brain.  “Marinette is the same old Marinette we’ve always known and loved.”

“Yeah,” Adrien said and took a slow bite.  “Still, Alya, have you noticed anything strange about Marinette recently?”

Alya’s head snapped up from her phone.  “Ma-Marinette?  Strange? Uh, uh… why would you think there was anything strange about Marinette?”

Nino and Adrien both noticed the over-the-top response.  Adrien smirked, “So, you have noticed something’s up.”

But Alya had been steeling herself for this moment all weekend, ever since Marinette had brought her the fox miraculous and placed all Ladybug’s cards in her shaky hands.  Alya knew then that her friendship with Marinette had changed into a fully-fledged partnership, and now it had to include protecting this crucial secret at all costs.  “Ok, you’re right,” she responded smoothly.  “Marinette’s super busy and I think she’s feeling the stress of it all. I mean, between being class representative, designing yet another album cover for Jagged Stone, upcoming finals, and submitting dress designs to two major fashion houses around Paris, I think she could just use some cheering up.  Or helping hands.”  The two boys just sat and gawked.   “She’s really got all that going on?” Adrien whispered, aghast.

Alya just laughed and rolled her eyes.  “Oh you two, she’s always had that much going on.  Sometimes more.”

“But surely she’d just say no if it got to be too much,” Nino countered.  

Alya laughed harder still.  “Marinette? Say no?  Don’t you know her at all?”

The three of them laughed again, but again the wheels whirred in Adrien’s head. Alya was right—Marinette never said no. Marinette never turned anyone away, or asked for help, or thought about herself.  It was just so second nature for her; he’d never thought it might be burdensome. But wasn’t he one of the masses placing their emotional burdens on her petit shoulders?  Wasn’t she the one he’d instinctively gone to after that horrific half-hour in the archery range?  “So, Alya, do you have a plan?”

*

Marinette’s feet thumped soundlessly along the familiar pavement, taking her home. Her bones ached—a deep, permanent, throbbing reminder that everything was on her shoulders now.  There was no one she could talk to, no one to share the load with.  She missed Master Fu; she missed racing to his home to ask for help; she missed knowing that there was backup in case she failed, that there was someone out there who always knew what to do.  Her fingers instinctively lifted to her earlobe and felt the tiny black earrings there. They felt heavier than ever.  She breathed in deeply and kept walking.  She had briefly felt comfort in Luka’s calm, listening ear.  But now that escape was lost to her forever.  She remembered the comfort of the underwater hug with Chat Noir and then again two days ago, without her mask, moments before Adventurer got akumatized. She was grateful she’d told Alya her identity and had someone to talk to about things now, but she knew that she’d have to be incredibly careful—Hawkmoth knew Alya was a miraculous holder, and would undoubtedly be watching her every move, just as he had Chloe’s.  

Oh, Chloe.  She’d only come to school a handful of times in the last few weeks, and even then, she’d been totally aloof.  And then there was Lila, who was just the opposite—way too close, way too loud, and way too devious.  But Marinette was having a hard time feeling the drive to help them, as she knew she should. She was having a hard time feeling much of anything besides overwhelmed.  

Her hand pushed the bakery door open with a tinkle and she slumped in, letting her backpack slide from her shoulders.  

“Surprise!” a chorus yelled, making her jump, shriek, and throw her books everywhere.  Her parents were flanked by Nino, Alya, Kagami, Rose, Juleka, Mylene, Ivan, Alix, Max, Kim, and Adrien.  She smiled at all of them, taking an extra second to gaze into those vivid green eyes.

“What are you all doing here?” she gasped.

“We came to help you out,” Adrien responded for the group.  

“Yeah,” Rose piped, “You are always helping us out, and your mom said you’ve been super busy, so here we are, ready to work!”

“You are all so sweet, but I really don’t have that much work to do—”

“Nice try,” Alix teased.  “I’ll bet you my skates that there’s eight unfinished dresses upstairs on your sewing machine.”

“I’ll take that bet—I say nine,” Kim boomed, “and I’ll throw in my favorite pair of swim trunks that there’s forty dozen macarons she’s making for charity.”

Marinette smiled as her friends thumped upstairs to her bedroom, but she hung back a bit.  Her mother slipped an arm around her waist.  “Sweetheart, they really do care about you.  They wanted to help.  Put them to work?”

“Mom, I really don’t have that much going on right now, I swear,” Marinette promised. At least nothing anyone can help with, she thought.  

“Well, then at least take some treats upstairs and have a game night or something,” Sabine insisted, pressing a tray of quiches into Marinette’s grasping hands. She sighed and followed her friends to the back of the bakery and up the stairs.

But after the first flight, she heard two familiar voices talking in hushed tones. “I fail to see how me being here helps anything,” Kagami was hissing.  “She clearly doesn’t need me here, and it’s hardly a productive way to spend an evening.”

“She’s a friend, and friends do nice things for each other,” Adrien responded. Marinette slowed her pace so she would stay just behind the wall where they couldn’t see her.  

“You said you wanted me to come so we could hang out.  You just wanted me to come to be a workhorse for some other girl,” Kagami retorted with an edge of frustration in her voice.

“No, no, that’s not it at all.  I wanted to see you because… well, I just wanted—”

“You know, Adrien, for being the one who keeps asking me out, you sure don’t seem to know what you want at all.  I’ve made it perfectly clear what I want.  Do you want to be with me or not?”

“Kagami, of course I want to—” Adrien started, and then he was silent. Marinette couldn’t help herself. She took a step forward, rounded the corner…

And wished she hadn’t.  Adrien stood one step lower than Kagami.  Her hand was wrapped around the back of his head, her lips pressed against his.  A girl was kissing Adrien, here in her house, and it wasn’t Marinette.  Even though she had practiced through tears and fought the raging beast inside her heart for weeks and reminded herself over and over again that Adrien loved Kagami, watching them kiss was torture.  Her knees wobbled, her stomach sunk, and her heart leaped from her chest.  She silently retreated around the corner, taking deep breaths and forcing the tears to stay put in her eyes.  After a second, she steeled herself against the pain, plastered a smile to her face, and rounded the corner again, much louder this time.  Adrien and Kagami separated with a little sucking noise.  Marinette ignored them and marched straight upstairs with her tray of quiches.  

She paused outside the trap door to her bedroom for several minutes, trying to lower her heartbeat.  Finally, when she felt like she could adequately feign a cheerful mood, she pushed the trap door open and climbed into the crowded bedroom.

“Hey, guys, my mom sent up these quiches, but I’m afraid tonight’s not a good one for hanging out,” she said in a much-too-high voice.  “It’s probably best that you all… head…” Her friends all stood there, with sad little furrows in their eyebrows, looking at her.  Her bones ached again.  “Out to the movies!” she finished with a generic thumbs-up.  There was a shuffle and startup of several conversations at once.  But just then, the dreaded buzz of the news alert on her phone pulled her to reality. Alya and Max also pulled out their phones—they’d set up the AkumaAlert app as well, it seemed.  

“Oh no,” Rose gasped, looking over Alya’s shoulder.  “Looks like some kind of foodie gone bad.  Oh my, he just turned that kid into a bowl of salad!”  

Marinette scanned around her room at the faces all checking their phones for updates.  She was just starting to panic on how she would get out of this one with all her friends right there, when she locked eyes with Alya.  “Oh, Marinette, your parents said that they needed you to watch the store front for a few minutes while they put together the rest of the food. We’ll figure out a movie and head when you get back, okay?”

Marinette thanked Alya with her eyes and ran downstairs and out the door to the alleyway.  She didn’t even notice that Kagami was a block away by now, with her head sagging.

*

“I’ll take that bet—I say nine,” Kim boomed, “and I’ll throw in my favorite pair of swim trunks that there’s forty dozen macarons she’s making for charity.”

Adrien laughed and sighed in relief as he saw the smile wash over Marinette’s face. He turned and followed the rest of his friends upstairs.  “This was a great idea,” he whispered to Alya.  

She shook her head with a little smirk, “Yeah, it was, Adrien. Don’t try to give me any credit.  You’re the one who said we should stage an intervention.”  

He shrugged.  At the landing for the next flight of stairs, he felt a hand on his wrist and stopped. Kagami’s head was low, her hair covering her eyes.  “Adrien, we need to talk,” she said heavily.  

Oh great.  NOW she wants to talk. She hadn’t answered his calls for days, and he’d been hesitant to invite her to this intervention tonight, before remembering that she and Marinette were friends—and tonight was about Marinette, not about his comfort level.  “Look, Kagami, I think you’re a really amazing girl…” Adrien stammered.

“Do you have feelings for Marinette?”

“Wh-What?”

“Do you have feelings for Marinette?”

“C’mon,” he scoffed, shaking his head a bit.  “She’s struggling right now.” “Why did you ask me to come tonight?  You know how my mother feels about these kinds of things.”

“I knew you were friends, and I thought you could help her.”

“I fail to see how me being here helps anything,” Kagami hissed, taking a step up so she was a head taller than him.  It felt uncomfortably familiar, like when his father sneered at him down his nose.  “She clearly doesn’t need me here, and it’s hardly a productive way to spend an evening.”

“She’s a friend, and friends do nice things for each other,” Adrien responded, raising his voice slightly.  

“You said you wanted me to come so we could hang out.  You just wanted me to come to be a workhorse for some other girl.” Kagami’s eyes narrowed to dangerous slits.

“No, no, that’s not it at all.  I wanted to see you because… well, I just wanted—” he wasn’t sure where he was going with this.  All he knew was that he wanted out, away from this conversation.  

“You know, Adrien, for being the one who keeps asking me out, you sure don’t seem to know what you want at all.  I’ve made it perfectly clear what I want.  Do you want to be with me or not?”

“Kagami, of course I want to—”  Several things happened in rapid succession.  First, his phone buzzed, and Plagg tugged on the inside of his shirt—his sign that he really needed to take this call.  As he reached for his phone in his pocket, though, Kagami grabbed the back of his head and leaned in.  He was so surprised by the sudden motion that his brain stopped working.  She pressed her lips to his.  He noticed what her eyelashes looked like, what the color of her forehead was up close, even the scent of her hair.  The only thing he didn’t register was what it felt like to kiss her.  A small but persistent noise behind them startled him and he pulled back.  He turned just in time to see a tense-shouldered Marinette push past the two of them on the stairs with a fake, saccharine smile pasted to her face.  So, she’d seen that, had she?  His heart plummeted and he felt nauseous.  That was not how he planned on tonight going.  “Marinette!” He called softly, gently moving Kagami aside to follow the bouncing pigtails upstairs, but Kagami pressed a hand into his chest and glared.

“No, no you don’t, Adrien.”  Plagg tugged at the inside of his shirt more fervently now, and Adrien instinctively pulled out his phone.  

Lila had posted a picture of a romantic table for two on the front steps of a restaurant he didn’t recognize with the caption: Waiting for my bf—@ParisTeenWeekly superstar. #LuckiestGirlEver  The post had already gone viral, and by the looks of it, had drummed up quite the media presence.

“Lila…” he murmured under his breath.

“Lila?  First Marinette, now Lila?  How many girls are you stringing along, Adrien?” Kagami snapped.

“What? No, Kagami! You’ve got it all wrong! Lila asked me to dinner tonight—”

“A dinner with her, a date with me, an intervention here… you do know this is cruel, don’t you? I told you to pick a target.   Maybe I wasn’t clear.  Pick a target and then don’t switch.”  And in a move that was becoming increasingly familiar, she pushed past him, dropped her shoulders and head, and marched away.  

“Kagami,” he called, chasing after her.  “Please don’t do this again.  I don’t want to hurt you.  I never want to hurt a friend.”

She wheeled around on him.  “A friend? I kiss you and you call me a friend?”

“Isn’t that what a good relationship should be based on?  Friendship?”

She glared.  “We have so much—no, everything in common.  We are perfect for each other.  You will never find someone more compatible with you than me.”

So there it was.  Yet another girl who felt entitled to him, like he was some kind of prize.  “Kagami, I’m a heck of a lot more than just trophies and report cards,” he growled.  

She breathed deeply, clearly at a loss for words.  Her mouth moved up and down a bit before she spun on her heel and marched off again.  He didn’t follow her this time, but stood there in the doorway of the Dupain Bakery and watched as she shrunk into the distance.    

His phone buzzed again.  AkumaAlert, at the same little bistro Lila had posted about online.  Oh goodie, he groaned to himself.  Still, he looked forward to punching something.  “Plagg, Claws Out!”

*

Ladybug was nowhere to be found when he arrived on the scene.  “Adrien Agreste, I am Fooderator!  I’ll teach you to miss your dinner reservations!” the akuma was yelling.  He was shooting lasers out of his hands, which turned panicked Parisians into various bits of food.

“Hey Fooderator,” Chat Noir called, “hungry for this?” He extended his baton and spun it in a flash of metal, dissipating several blasts.  He used his baton as a shield while he scanned the area. It was worse than he feared from Lila’s post; it looked like half the paparazzi in Paris had come to glimpse Adrien Agreste with a girlfriend. It made his blood boil.  He charged Fooderator, landing several punches and a round-house kick.  Fooderator responded with a punch to his stomach and two more blows aimed for Chat Noir’s head, which he dodged easily.  

Just then the familiar zip of a yo-yo string made them both look up.  Chat Noir’s heart leapt to his throat.  She did a graceful backflip over his head, tucked into a swan dive, caught by her string at the last second, and dropped in a three-point landing.  “So, Chat Noir, what’s eating this guy?” she said, straightening up and walking toward him.  

He grinned.  How he loved it when she made puns with him.  They took a few steps back and yo-yo and baton alike whizzed as shields while they shared knowledge.  “I think he was looking forward to some major publicity.  Apparently some girl promised him that Adrien Agreste would come tonight—as her boyfriend.”

Ladybug’s eyes narrowed and she bared her teeth.  “Adrien Agreste was bringing his girlfriend here?”  

“No,” Chat Noir laughed, “the girl just made it out to look like that.” Chat was surprised at the way Ladybug’s face lit up when he said the word ‘no.’  

“Good,” she said, a smile teasing her lips.  “Though poor Fooderator; that would have been the moment of a lifetime, to have Adrien come to your restaurant.”  Oh man, Chat’s heart couldn’t stop leaping.  She was cracking jokes and saying his name, in one night.  “Any idea where the akuma might be?”

“Maybe his chef hat?” Chat Noir responded, noticing the tall black hat on Fooderator’s head.  They nodded once at each other, and then launched their attack.  Chat Noir raced to Fooderator head-on and Ladybug swung up and over his head before attacking from the rear.  They landed blow after blow.  They were making serious headway, and Chat started to think they might be able to get this one without needing their powers, when a bunch of flashes startled him from behind.  

“Chat Noir!” a sickly sweet voice called to him, “Smile for the camera!”  

“Lila!” Ladybug hissed, “This is not the right time!”  But the momentary distraction was enough for Fooderator to get the upper hand on Ladybug and fired a laser right at her.  

“No!” Chat yelled and threw himself in front of Ladybug.  The laser caught him in the stomach and he felt the energy drain from him.  Ladybug watched in horror as her dear partner transformed into a bowl of mussels, his baton still spinning in the air and transforming into a loaf of crusty bread, then falling with a little splash into the broth.

“You’ll pay for this,” Ladybug growled—not at Fooderator, but at Lila.  “Lucky Charm.”  It wasn’t a happy spin of her yo-yo; it was a warcry.  A pellet gun dropped in her hands, and with eyes still locked on Lila, she shot a round over her shoulder.  It caught the chef hat on Fooderator’s head and ripped it down the center.  The tiny akuma wriggled out.  Ladybug didn’t say a word, she just threw her yo-yo at it and released the white butterfly while marching straight at Lila, who was looking downright petrified. Ladybug growled “Miraculous Ladybug” and threw the pellet gun over her shoulder, not even caring to see the completion of the battle.  She thrust a finger in Lila’s face.  “How dare you distract my partner or me while we’re battling an akuma.  How dare you put all of Paris at greater risk.” If Ladybug was aware of the hundreds of cameras snapping pictures of this moment, she didn’t show it.  “We’re trying to protect millions of people, and you have the gall to take advantage of the moment for a selfie with Chat Noir? Don’t you know how important he is to Paris?  Without him, none of us would be here.  Don’t you know how important he is to me?”

Lila stammered, “I… I… just wanted to…”

“Just don’t, ok Lila?”  

A sick smile stole over her face. “I’m sorry, Ladybug, it’s just that I was so excited to see you both in action, I couldn’t help it.  You’re the best ever,” she sneered.

“Just think about it more carefully next time, alright?” Ladybug warned, trying to soften her face and hide the loathing.  Lila nodded and skipped off, giving the paparazzi a wink as she left.

Ladybug turned around to see Chat Noir and the dazed chef staring at her with slack jaws.  She tried to smile at them.  

“Whoa…” Chat sighed.  “That was… that was…”

“Chef!” she said to the poor akuma victim.  Her earrings beeped.  “I’m sorry you didn’t get your big moment in the spotlight.  I think the girl who said she was Adrien’s girlfriend was a bit confused.”  Her earrings beeped again.  “Chat, can you help him out tonight?”  Chat Noir nodded and they pounded fists.  “Bug out!” she cried before soaring off into the night.

The chef looked confused, but happy.  Chat Noir thought his heart might leap right out of his suit.  How important he is to me… And he fell again.  He couldn’t help it.  No matter how hard he tried to move past it, one small sentence, one small look, one tiny touch from her and he was right back to where he was the moment he met her. But it felt better this time—more like a partnership, more like a friend, more two-sided.  

“It’s too bad she couldn’t stay for dinner,” the chef murmured.  “I’ve got such a lovely meal prepared, since I was planning on feeding Adrien Agreste tonight.”

A sudden idea popped into Chat Noir’s head.  “Would you be willing to take in a stray cat instead?”

The chef’s face broke into a huge grin.  “Chat Noir?  Eating at my restaurant?  That’s even better than Adrien Agreste!”

“Great.  I’ve got something I need to do first, though, but I promise I’ll be right back, ok?”

The chef nodded, then raced back to his kitchen to make a few final arrangements.

*

Marinette made a show of stumping upstairs to her friends.  They were huddled around her room, eyes glued to their phones.  “Marinette!” Alya cried as she entered.  Everyone looked up.  “Did you see that akuma attack?”

“Yeah, crazy!” she responded.  

“I can’t believe Lila would distract Ladybug and Chat Noir like that,” Max said, with a shake of his head.

“Yeah, really not cool,” Ivan agreed.  

Marinette’s heart swelled to hear her friends recognize Lila’s manipulative and dangerous behavior.  Nino continued, “Yeah, good thing Ladybug was still able to capture the akuma.  She really is the greatest protector of all time.”

The achy bones returned full force.  

“Hey guys, if we want to make the evening show, we’d better go now,” Juleka said quietly.  Everyone looked up expectantly at Marinette, who sat gingerly on her bed.  How she hated always having to make the decisions.

“I’m kind of tired, and you guys can go without me,” she started.  Alya gave an I-told-you-so look to everyone in the room. “Come on, Marinette,” Mylene crooned, “let’s go have some fun.”  

But Marinette still couldn’t shake the feeling of weight on her shoulders.  She looked in the faces of her friends—grateful for each of them, but envious of their innocence.  None of them would truly understand, or could ever understand. There was only one person in all of Paris who knew just how heavy this life was, and he was nowhere to be—

There was a knock on the balcony skylight.  It made Rose squeak with surprise.  Everyone looked up at the ceiling.  Ivan was closest—he opened the latch and a pair of smiling green eyes, shrouded in a black mask, descended into the room, upside down.  “Hey guys, how’s it hanging?”

“Ch…ch… CHAT NOIR?”  Kim stammered.  “What are you doing here?”

He lowered himself into the room with one arm and landed softly on all fours. He smiled around at the gawking faces. “I got reservations at an amazing little bistro, and was wondering if I might steal my Purrincess away for an evening,” he said, strutting toward Marinette.  “If you’d like, of course.”  

She blushed as he took her hand and kissed it lightly.  “Oh you silly cat,” she said.  A brilliant peal of laughter escaped from her throat—something only he could elicit.  

Alya gave her a little shove.  “Go, Marinette, you deserve it.”

Marinette didn’t resist.  She gave Chat Noir her hand, but he took her waist.  Her friends watched in shock as Chat Noir walked to the skylight, lifted Marinette off her feet in a bridal-style carry, extended his baton, and launched the two of them into the fading evening sky.  

[mommadon]

Adventurer: Chapter 1 Part 2

Say hi on Ao3!

I had to split Chapter 1 into two parts because it was enormous.  I originally planned to write a one-shot, and that was what has become chapter 1.  You’ll probably notice that at the end of this chapter; you can leave it there and it works.  Mostly.  Sure, there’s a lot of loose ends, but it’s not unhappy.  But once I posted this on FF.net and people started saying that they’d love to see more, I wrote the rest.  So, here’s the rest of chapter 1!

The warmth from Chat Noir’s hug hadn’t left her shoulders when Marinette opened her purse to talk to Tikki. She knew who the supervillain was, and what he was angry about.  “Tikki! What should I do?  Luka’s been akumatized, and it’s all my fault!  I don’t know if I should talk to him as me or as Ladybug.”

Tikki looked at her with wide eyes, “Marinette, you know only Ladybug can stop an akuma.  Let’s get going!”

“I know,” Marinette said, racing to the window to see the roller coaster tracks zooming toward her home, “but my parents aren’t safe, and Luka needs to talk to Marinette.  He needs Marinette.”

“There will be time for that after he’s been deakumatized!  Chat Noir can’t hold him off forever!”

“Oh Tikki, what am I going to do about Chat Noir?  No matter what I do, he just can’t get over Ladybug!”

“Marinette!”

“He was so upset.  And so cute, helping in the bakery today, I can’t believe how sweet he was.”

“MARINETTE!” Tikki was screaming and pulling on Marinette’s earlobe.  

“Oh, right!” Marinette snapped to attention.  “Tikki, Spots on!”  She carefully swung behind the park so she would arrive from the opposite direction of her home.  The news footage hadn’t done justice to the situation.  Luka was riding in a flaming blue cart down the road, his hair wild and his eyes mimicking the same eerie blue flames as the cart.  From underneath the wheels of his cart issued snakes of roller coaster tracks, that reached into houses and carted off terrified citizens. He had nearly reached Marinette’s house.

“Marinette!” he called, in his deadly-calm voice, “I am Adventurer!  Come here!  Come have an adventure with me!”  

“Ladybug!” she heard Chat Noir’s voice exclaim.  She spotted him battling a piece of track just behind Luka.  The track was twisting and slashing at Chat, trying to pin him long enough for a cart to scoop him up.  “Get Marinette!  She’s in there!”

“I know!” she shouted back, carefully choosing her words.  She didn’t want Luka to go anywhere else; she wanted to keep the fight right here where she could contain the damage.  “I warned her to hide but she didn’t have time to leave!”  

“What?” Chat Noir screamed in an uncharacteristically frightened voice.  “You have to SAVE HER!”

Ladybug didn’t have time to process Chat Noir’s concern for her true self when Adventurer spun to face him—along with three more coaster tracks.  “Oh, of course you’d be worried about Marinette,” he spat.  “Since you two are so close.”

“Luka, I don’t know what you think you saw,” Chat tried to reason, “but I swear, Marinette and I are just friends.”  A roller coaster track slammed into his stomach and knocked him to the ground with a thud.  Another snaked around his leg and lifted him into the air.

Ladybug threw her yo-yo and swung into the fray.  She hit the track holding Chat Noir upside down and it dropped him.  She slid underneath him just in time to catch him.

“Thanks,” he muttered.  No My Lady. No cat puns.  Not even a smile, just like the last two weeks.  Her heart sank, but she shook her head and refocused.

“Adventurer, if you want Marinette, you’re going to have to go through me!” she yelled.  

“No,” Chat countered, “through us!” And he was back on his feet, fighting like a crazed man.  Ladybug had rarely seen him so determined.  They each had three or four railroad tracks sailing at them.  For every one they hacked back, two new grew, like the heads of a nasty metal hydra.  They couldn’t get past the tracks to get close to Adventurer, who was directing the flow of tracks from his cart with his hands on what looked like a steering device… like handlebars.

“Chat! I think the akuma is in his cart!  I think it’s his bike!” She yelled over the hubbub.  

“But how are we going to get there?  I can’t use my power because the tracks keep growing back!”  Chat was frantic.

“Let me think!” She yelled. She looked around, and no solution popped up.  She threw her yo-yo in the air and screamed, “Lucky Charm!”  A pink rose fell at Chat’s feet.  Ladybug took over battling his tracks as he picked up the flower delicately.  “What in the world?  It went to you,” she yelled.

“I think… I think we need Marinette,” he said quietly.  

The few moments of one-on-one fighting had given Adventurer the advantage.  A track flew from his feet toward the bakery, blasted through the front window, and a cart emerged seconds later, encapsulating Marinette’s terrified parents.  

“No!” Ladybug and Chat Noir screamed in tandem.  

Adventurer laughed menacingly. “So, you’re not home, are you, Marinette?  Ladybug must have been lying about you being there!”

Chat Noir shouted in jubilation at the revelation.  Adventurer’s cart turned around and zoomed off down the road, leaving a wake of destruction behind him.  Chat didn’t follow.  

“I need to find Marinette,” he growled, and launched himself toward the bakery.

“Chat, let’s think this through. Where do you think she would be?” Ladybug asked, trying to buy some time.  

“She was just there!”

“I know,” Ladybug countered, “but I saw her just before I got here, and I told her to hide.  It was that direction,” she pointed.  Chat didn’t wait for her.  He tore off like a shot, the way that Ladybug had swung in.

She flew to the balcony of her home, slid through the trap door while screaming “Spots off!”  Tikki was shaking.  Marinette cradled her gently and gave her one of the passionfruit macaroons still sitting on her desk.  “Oh Tikki, what do we do now?”

“Well, I would suggest going to see Master Fu—” “Perfect idea!” Marinette said, racing for the door, but Tikki flew in front of her face with her tiny arms held out.

“Marinette, stop!”  Her heels dug into the ground and she skidded to a halt.  

The gravity of the situation crashed on her and she sunk to her knees.  “Oh.” She said.  “I can’t go see Master Fu.”  

“Marinette, I think this might be time for Plan A.”

“Are you sure?” Marinette said with tears welling up again.  She and Tikki had made several contingency plans the night after Master Fu left. She didn’t think she would have to use them this soon.  

“Yes.  He always told you to choose an ally you could trust.  And you need to trust them more than ever, now that you’re the Master.”  

Marinette thought her heart was breaking.  She went to the wardrobe where she had hidden the gramophone she had retrieved from Master Fu’s home before he had left—he hadn’t understood what it was, and therefore raised no objection to her keeping it—and pressed in the keypad.  It swirled open, revealing the spotted miracle box. She took the key from her purse and inserted it into the lock.  No one gave her a pep-talk this time.  She still wasn’t sure this was the right course of action, but with Adventurer wreaking havoc on Paris and Chat Noir chasing her true self down, time wasn’t on her side. She grabbed the foxtail necklace, locked the box, and ran.

 Alya’s eyes didn’t dart from the screen as she dialed Marinette’s phone number for the fourth time in as many minutes.  “C’mon Marinette, pick up!” she yelled at the ringtone.  “Where is that girl?”  

“I’m right here, Alya,” Marinette’s voice said softly from behind her.  

“Marinette?  What are you doing visiting me?  There’s a supervillain after you!  I’ve been so worried!”

“I’m sorry about that,” Marinette said.  “It’s my fault.  I’m no good with boys.”

“Oh girl, you know that’s not true—” “But that’s not why I came to visit you,” Marinette interjected.  “I am so sorry it has to be this way.  I wanted to tell you differently.  I wanted it to be when it was all over and we could just be normal girls again.”

“What are you babbling on about?”

“Alya,” she said, pulling out a small brown box from her pocket, “I need your help.”

Of course Alya recognized the Miraculous immediately.  Her jaw fell. “How did you get that?”

Marinette just looked at her, shaking slightly, trying to form words.  “Alya… Alya…”  

But Alya knew.  It was as if she’d always known.  She threw her arms around her best friend.  “You amazing girl…Ladybug… all this time?”

Marinette nodded.  “Yes.”

“And that mean’s you’re the master now.”

“Yes.”

“But Hawk Moth knows I’m Rena Rouge—” Alya said.  Marinette thanked the heavens for her brilliant friend, who wasn’t going to dwell on the details or feel hurt that she’d been left out, but who would understand everything immediately and jump into action.  Tikki was right.  This was definitely the right person at the right time.  “I can’t exactly go out right now.”

“I know, that’s why I need you to not be seen.  I’ve got a plan.  Listen to me carefully…” “Lady, I trust you implicitly.”

 “Marinette!  Marinette?” Chat Noir called hopelessly into the deserted evening.  “Where are you?”

“Chat!”  His heart jumped as he heard her call his name, and turned to the sound, but when he saw Ladybug swinging toward him, his heart (much to his surprise) fell.  

“Oh, Ladybug, I thought you were… oh well, did you find Marinette?”

“Yes,” she said, with an edge of panic to her voice.  “She’s gone after Adventurer.  We’ve got to go help her!”  

“Where is he?”

“The Eiffel Tower. C’mon!”  

As they jumped over rooftops and ran at top speed, Chat asked, “Was she alright when you saw her?”

“She was fine—why so worried?” “She’s my friend.” “Just your friend?”

“Yeah, and I don’t want her to get hurt, okay?  Leave me alone about it!  It’s not like you’ve ever cared about my feelings!”

“Chat, that’s not fair. I’ve always cared about your feelings.”

“Yeah?  As soon as someone shows up who seems to like me you get all defensive and crazy.  Can’t I have friends too?”

“I am not defensive and crazy!”

“Well, I’m not asking you about your friends!” he growled.  She grabbed his tail and skidded to a halt.  “HEY!” he yelled, reeling back on her.

“Listen to me, Kitty.  You are the best partner and best friend I’ve ever had.  You mean everything to me.  I know I’ve broken your heart more times than either of us can count, and I keep telling you I am sorry about that.  I think that part of my life is over anyway,” she said, as tears slid underneath her mask and softly to the ground.  “The boy…he loves someone else.  So now I feel even worse that I hurt you over him. I wish I could take it all back, ok?  I am sorry!”

He didn’t know what to say or do. He sat there, mouth gaping like a fish while his stomach did summersaults.  

Ladybug thought about kissing him just to get him to snap out of it, but she knew that would be crossing a line. He had only recently stopped calling her ‘Bugaboo’ and asking her on dates every other minute.  For her to kiss him now would be salt on a very open wound.

“Now,” she said quietly, “We need to stop Adventurer.  If you want to talk, I will meet you later, after our Kwamis have had time to rest, on the rooftop where you made me dinner.  Alright?  Chat?”

He shook his head and his eyes sharpened.  She loved this about him—the way he would snap to attention when it was needed the most. They raced the rest of the way to the Eiffel tower in silence.  

Adventurer was there.  The roller coaster tracks swirled up the sides of the tower.  Hundreds of carts raced in, filled with victims.  The carts linked up and were growing into a huge rocket-shaped dome. “I think when there’s enough carts, it’s going to take off to the sun,” Chat Noir observed.  

“You’re right, Kitty,” Ladybug replied.  “But Adventurer doesn’t know that we’re on a roll,” she joked.  A tiny smile played at Chat Noir’s mouth.  “You know, we’ve really got this whole thing on track.  We’re about to coast to the finish line, y’know?”

“Meow,” he replied before skyrocketing into action.

“There’s my Kitty,” she muttered, before letting her yo-yo carry her toward the battle.

“Marinette!  Come on an adventure with me!” Adventurer was taunting from the middle of the Eiffel tower.  Chat Noir silently prowled around the perimeter of the tower, trying to spot a weakness.  Ladybug landed next to him so lightly that if it weren’t for his cat ears, he wouldn’t have noticed her.  

“Any ideas?” she whispered to him.

“You’re asking me for ideas?” he whispered back.  “You’re the Ladybug!”

“Yeah, and you’re holding the rose,” she whispered back.  He looked down.  He’d forgotten he was still clutching the Lucky Charm.  He looked around.  There was a shadow in the fading darkness, almost half a mile away, and hiding behind a tree.  Again, if it weren’t for his Miraculous eyes, he’d have no clue it was there.  But his heart did a backflip when he realized who it was.  

“Ok, you distract Adventurer. I need to go to her.”  Ladybug nodded at the plan and with a tiny zip, she was off.  

“Adventurer!  Give up!  I’ll never let you shoot these people into the sun!”  She flew at him like a goddess, her yo-yo a blur of strength. The metal snakes targeted her every limb.  She kicked, hacked, zipped, punched, back-flipped, and kicked again.  She inched her way toward Adventurer, whose hands were a flurry of activity as he controlled the metal tracks.  

“Just give me your Miraculous and I’ll let you go,” Adventurer leered.  “You’re not the one I want.”  

“Never!” Ladybug screamed and fought harder still.  

Meanwhile, Chat Noir stole silently through the gardens to the shadowed figure.  

“Marinette?” he whispered, “Is that you?”

No response.

“Marinette, you don’t have to do this, you know.” “I do, Chat.  It was my fault.  He needs to know I’m sorry.”

“I can tell him that you’re sorry. You don’t have to put yourself in danger for him.”

“Chat, thank you for your concern, but Luka needs to hear from me.  I know what to do.”  She stepped out from the shadows.  There was a hard look on her face.  He instinctively reached for her, but she pulled away before he touched her. “No, please, don’t stop me,” she said, holding up a hand.  

“I won’t stop you, but I will protect you.  That’s what friends are for.”  

“And we might need your cataclysm when the time comes,” she added.

“Now that I can do.  I await your signal, My Lady.”  The pet name slipped out before he could hold it back.  But she didn’t seem phased by it.  He charged forward, headfirst into twenty metal tracks attracted to the motion. His staff flew, slashing back tracks faster than they could regenerate.  He was making serious headway.  

Ladybug, on the other hand, was not.  The tracks were hitting hard, and she was losing energy.  The rocket of entombed victims began rattling as if preparing for launch.  She got caught on the left leg with a fierce blow, then a second on her back, and a third squarely in her chest.  

Chat’s ears were drawn to the piercing scream and he looked to see Ladybug hit a fourth time in the stomach and go flying backward.  It was as if time slowed down.  Marinette was feet behind him, sweet, kind Marinette who always listened to him. Alone, defenseless, brave Marinette. Ladybug was falling, flying backwards, defeated, broken, alone, defenseless, brave.  He was torn.

But Marinette screamed behind him, for the second time that night—“GO!” so he slammed his stick into the ground and extended it, hurtling himself toward Ladybug.  His arms wrapped around her waist a split second before impact, just enough time to twist his torso hard and place himself between her soft body and the cruel pavement.  Even with the suit, he was sure he’d cracked a rib.  

Ladybug was fighting to stay conscious, but she pushed herself up and away from Chat Noir.  He was gasping for breath after the hard impact.  “Chat Noir, no!  Are you alright?  C’mon Kitty, talk to me!”  Her hands flew down his arms and torso, similarly to how Kagami had checked the bow for flaws earlier that day.  “Oh, Chat, please be ok, you’ve got to be ok… I need you to be ok…” she whimpered.  

A deep rattling breath crossed his lips, and then a painful cough, and at last, he whispered, “I should have tried breaking a five-story-fall for you ages ago.”  A smile played at his lips.  

“Oh, Chat,” she sighed with feigned exasperation.  “Why would you… you didn’t have to—”

“I always will.”

She helped him to his feet. He was still a bit shaky, but recovering from the hit quickly, thanks to the magic of the miraculous.  He struck an offensive pose and started advancing Adventurer again.  His eyes were slits of malice.  But someone else was going to beat him to the punch.  He watched in horror as Marinette spoke and made her presence known. “Luka, you need to stop this.”  

“There is no Luka, only Adventurer!  Marinette, come take an adventure with me, I promise it will be exciting,” he growled. The snakelike metal tracks deserted Chat Noir and Ladybug and slithered toward Marinette.  But she didn’t flinch, she just kept walking toward him.  Her eyes were as intense and brilliant as laser beams.  He tried to match her gaze, but he couldn’t.  

“Please, Luka, please listen to me.  These people didn’t do anything to you.  I did. If you’re going to hurt anyone, hurt me.”  Chat Noir was transfixed by her.  “I didn’t mean to hurt you.  You’re a brilliant musician and an amazing friend.  I would never want that to change.”  

“But—all you want is adventure,” he said, trying to turn from her hypnotic eyes.  But he was enraptured, just like the boy behind the mask. Adrien had never heard Marinette speak like this—so bold, so strong.  She kept walking forward and raised a hand toward him.  She started singing.  It was so quiet that only Adventurer and Chat Noir could hear it. It was a lovely melody Chat had never heard before, but it made Adventurer’s twisting metal snakes stop in midair.  She kept walking, singing stronger now.  There were no words, just this gentle tune.  

The music finished.  Adventurer lowered his head in despair.  “I wrote that for you.  You weren’t supposed to turn it against me.”

“I’m not against you, Luka. I don’t want adventure.  I don’t want you to be any different than you are. I like you just the way you are. I like us the way we are.”  

“What if that’s not enough for me?” he said under his breath.  

“Then I don’t deserve you,” she said, flushing slightly.  

She hummed again.  The same tune.  Adventurer lowered his face.  She was inching closer and closer.  Her arms reached up.  Adventurer closed his eyes, and so briefly he would have missed it if he hadn’t been utterly in awe at this new, spellbinding Marinette, she looked at Chat Noir.  He knew what it meant, and he responded with the subtlest of motions.  But her eyes were closed as well, her body closer to Adventurer than before, her lips reaching forward to find his.  He let go of the handlebar controls to take Marinette in his arms.  As Luka took her face in his hands and their lips met, Chat Noir couldn’t control himself.  “NO!” He yelled.  Adventurer jumped at the sound, but simultaneously, Marinette disappeared in a wisp of smoke.

“What is this?” Adventurer roared, slashing his hands through the air where Marinette had been.  He reached for his controls, but he was too late.

“Cataclysm!”  Chat Noir’s claws tore through the cart.  A tiny black-and-purple butterfly beat its wings in a desperate attempt to escape the wreckage.  

“No more evil-doing for you,” Chat heard Ladybug recite as she had so many times before.  But he wasn’t paying attention any more.  He’d been duped by the mirage just as much as Luka had been.  He had been so transfixed with this unusual, powerful Marinette that he had fallen for it. He felt stupid, but still in awe.

“Chat Noir, is everything alright?”  Ladybug asked after she had released the purified butterfly.  

“What? Oh, yeah.  I just never saw Marinette act like that before. I didn’t realize it was a mirage. I didn’t know Rena was here.” Ladybug nodded a few times.  

“What makes you think it was a mirage?”

“Well, she disappeared—”

“Yes, but how do you know it wasn’t her words?  I asked Rena Rouge for help, yes, but she didn’t fabricate a thing.  Marinette was with us tonight, even though she used the protection of Mirage.”  Chat Noir was left stammering.   “Now, Chat, can I borrow that, please?” she asked, pointing to the pink rose he had tucked in his waistband before the fight began. He watched her take it from his hand and toss it high into the sky, crying, “Miraculous Ladybug!”  Chat noir watched as the sparkly ladybugs whizzed around Paris, healing the torn pavement, broken windows, and returning all the victims safely home.  It never ceased to amaze him.  

He took a satisfied breath, reached out his fist to his side, and said, “Pound it!” but Ladybug wasn’t there to return the fist-bump.  “M’Lady?” he called, looking around for her.  Luka was huddled in a heap under the Eiffel Tower with his bike askew beside him.  He was a mess.  Chat started toward him, but Marinette came running from the shadows and beat him.  

“Luka,” she was saying, “I really do like you just the way you are, and I really do like us the way we are.  I’m sorry if I broke your heart, but you deserve someone who can love you for everything you are.  And no matter how hard I try, I just… I just love someone else.  I’m so sorry, Luka, I’m so sorry for everything!”  

He looked up at her with tenderness and quiet hands.  “I know, Marinette.  I know you love him, and you probably always will.  I just want to be someone you can trust and be happy with.”

The two hugged.  “That’s exactly who you are to me, Luka.  I want you to be happy with me as well.  And the best way we can be happy together is as friends.”  

“I know.”  Chat Noir didn’t want to break the scene, but his ring was flashing.  

“Luka, do you need a ride home?” he asked, taking a step forward.  

He looked at his crumpled bike, and at Marinette, who nodded.  “Sure, I guess,” Luka responded.  

Chat pulled Luka tight against his Ladybug-healed-ribs and used his stick to effortlessly vault him into the sky.  “You know Marinette and I are just friends, right?” Chat said.

“Do you have lots of ‘just friends’ girls?”

“Well, superheroes don’t really get the chance to make lots of friends.”

“Chat Noir, I think you’d better watch out if you think you can be ‘just friends.’  Marinette is an incredible person.  You’ll be shocked.” “Shocked?” Chat scoffed.  “By what?  I already know she’s incredible.”

“Shocked at how fast you’ll fall in love with her.”  They arrived at the boat floating in the Seine.  Chat Noir set Luka on his feet, but it was Luka who patted Chat Noir’s shoulder. “Just don’t hurt her.”

Chat Noir tried to respond, but his ring gave another earnest beep, and all he could do was nod solemnly before running to the nearest quiet alley to whisper “Claws in.”

 As she sat there in the cool night air with nothing but the sounds of Paris to keep her company, Ladybug realized how lonely it must have been for Chat Noir when he had waited for her in the same place, many months prior.  She stood up and paced the length of the rooftop, spinning her yo-yo over and over. Why didn’t he come?  Was he going to come?  Maybe this was a good sign.  Maybe he didn’t need to talk out his feelings with her.  She hadn’t set a time, really.  

This was silly.  She didn’t need to sit up all night on the rooftop waiting for Chat Noir to visit her, even if she did offer to talk.  She threw her arm out and felt the yo-yo grab a distant pole.  She stood there, breathing, deciding, hoping, and was about to swing her way back home, when a voice behind her said, “Leaving so soon, M’Lady?”

“Oh!” she yelped, dropping her yo-yo and tripping on the string so she slipped down the slanted roof.  His strong arm scooped her up and pulled her back to the rooftop, like he did so frequently.  “Chat Noir!  You came!”

He took a deep breath and looked into her captivating blue eyes.  “I just didn’t want to leave you up here all night.  It doesn’t exactly feel good, you know?”

She nodded quietly and reeled her yo-yo back to her.  They sat down quietly.  “Chat Noir, I really don’t know how to tell you everything I feel, without telling you everything.”

“You know I’d be game for telling everything,” he offered hopefully.

“But with Hawkmoth still after our Miraculouses, that’s not safe.  We must protect our secret identities, above everything!  I had to make a tough decision today with Rena Rouge. You deserve to know that I did tell her who I am under the mask.”  He gasped at this revelation.  “But we talked, and she knows that, with this new revelation, and with Hawkmoth knowing her identity, that she will never be able to act as Rena Rouge in the open again.  That is the price of being a superhero.  That’s why we can’t share our personal lives with each other, ever—because we would have to give up our Miraculouses and Ladybug and Chat Noir forever. And… and… Oh Chat, if you went away, I would be heartbroken!”

He smiled and ruffled his hair. “I knew you’d miss this old cat. Admit it, you think I’m a-purr-ing!”

She laughed.  “A-purr-ing?  I think you’re out of pun practice!”  They laughed together for a moment, but then he got serious again.

“You’re right.  I’m out of practice.  And I can’t tell you why because it’s personal.”  

Ladybug looked into those masked green eyes and said quietly, “Is someone making you sad?”

“Not sad exactly, just not happy.”

She nodded.  “Chat Noir, you need happiness in your life.  It’s okay to want that.”

“But,” he spilled out before he could stop himself, “how do I tell her that?  She’s such a good friend and I don’t want to hurt her, but we’re just so different and I can’t even make her laugh and—” Ladybug pressed a finger to his lips.  

“Don’t tell me anything more,” she warned gently.  “But my advice, as a girl?  You can’t be two people.  You’ll go insane.  It’s one of the hardest parts of being a superhero.  We have to live two lives, but we can’t be two different people.”

“So you’re telling me that I need to let her go?”

“Only you can make that decision. But if you can’t be yourself around her, you’re not helping her or yourself.  And if she doesn’t accept you—all of you—then she really doesn’t deserve you.”

“What do I say to her then?”

Ladybug pondered that question for a second, then said, “Marinette did a pretty good job with Luka tonight, maybe you could say something like that.”

“Marinette?  Yeah, Marinette is awesome,” Chat Noir responded vaguely.

“Awesome, eh?” Ladybug teased with a raised eyebrow.  

“Oh don’t start that again,” Chat Noir said with an eyeroll, but a smile.  It felt so good to be laughing with Ladybug again.  “But Ladybug, since we’re being serious tonight, I have to tell you—I feel the same way.  About being heartbroken if you ever went away.”

They were quiet again.  She slipped her hand in his, then rested her head on his shoulder.  The touch was electric.  “Then let’s never go away.  Deal?”

“Deal, Bugaboo.”

[quickspinner]

500 Followers Special

Hi friends and welcome new peeps! So I’m getting close to 500 followers and I’d like to do something special to celebrate. Nothing major, just something to show I appreciate you all. So I’ve been giving some thought to it, and I’d like some input from you guys. (We all know I’m chronically wordy so I apologize for that in advance but I’ll try to keep this as simple as possible)

I’d like to get some suggestions from you guys and then, assuming I get more than just a couple, I’ll put up a poll to find out what people want to see most. If I hit 500 followers before the process is finished, I’ll post as soon as I’m done; if I haven’t quite gotten there yet, then I’ll post it when I do hit 500. 

So, this is one of those times where I’m opening up for prompts! Drop an idea in my ask box. If I just get two or three, I’ll try to do all of them; if I get a bunch then we’ll do the poll.  I’ll weed out any requests that I absolutely don’t want to do. Believe me if it’s not fun for me you wouldn’t like the end result anyway.

Okay, so guidelines (please pay attention to these, I love you but it drives me nuts when people don’t follow directions):

Please try to keep in mind my body of work and the type of thing I’m likely to do. Believe me if you come to me asking for something action packed with lots of battles I’ll do my best but we’re probably both going to be terribly disappointed with the results.

On that note, Lukanette or friendships only please; I don’t have anything against the other ships, but again, if you ask for something I’m not really into, it just wouldn’t be that good anyway. Or if someone desperately wants to request a Dragon Age prompt, my ships are Cullavellan, F!Hawke/Fenris; Surana/Alistair (is there a name for that? I’m so out of touch)

On a similar note, I can tell you right now I will not write: Character-bashing (honestly the word salt has become so broadly defined that it’s kind of worthless at this point), smut (I don’t mind writing sexy things but I will only imply, I absolutely will not describe or detail; think buildup and/or morning after, not the stuff in between; not judging anybody who does write it, I’m just a closet prude and there’s only so much I can handle before I burst into flames)

Try not to get too epic. I want to be able to deliver in a timely manner. No matter how much I love you, I can’t crank out a Game of Thrones novel in a week. 

Deadline for requests is end of day Monday, March 9, 2020 Where end of day is whenever I go to bed.

Okay asks are open! 

[kurachan-ya]

[mommadon]

Adventurer: Chapter 1, part  1

Hey all!  I’m dusting off this fic because I have an exciting announcement: a sequel is in the works.  I’m not quite ready to start posting the sequel because I want it to be *just right* before I do, but until then, I thought I would cross-post Adventurer here on Tumblr.  It has already been posted in its entirety on FF.net and AO3.

Before we begin, this story was going to be a one shot and end after chapter 1, but I got such a lovely response that I had to continue.  Now it’s 13 big chapters of excitement.  Like any fic, there’s plenty I cringe at now, but good authors must move forward.  This is a season 4 headcanon.  I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1

Adrien stretched his shoulders and back gently, then swiftly knocked an arrow.  A deep breath in, and a small motion from his fingertips, and the arrow whooshed to its mark with a thump.  Bullseye.  He fired two more.  He hadn’t had extensive archery practice, but he had been athletically talented even before his father’s intense training or his secret life as Chat Noir.  He continued emptying his quiver, making more shots than missing, and began feeling more relaxed.  As he retrieved his arrows, there was a rustle of activity from the direction of the front door. 

“The reservation is under ‘Agreste,’” she was saying firmly.  

“Oh, yes, target twelve,” the old clerk replied.  As soon as Kagami came around the desk and was in view of Adrien, he waved.  She walked quickly and stiffly toward him with a small smile on her face.  She carried an ornate case, painted burgundy with white and pink flowers and gold filigree.

“I didn’t think our appointment was until one,” she said tersely.

“Oh, I was a few minutes early and thought I’d set up,” he said.  “Do you need some help with your case?”

“No, I can manage just fine.” She opened the case and pulled out one of her bows.  She ran her fingers carefully over the length of it, checking for flaws.  Apparently, she didn’t find any, because she stepped into it, bent it to her will, strung it, then swung it over her shoulder and behind her back.  “Shall I teach you, then?”

“Uh…huh?” Adrien replied, not sure what she was talking about.

“Archery.  You said you weren’t an archer.  Shall I teach you?”  Something about the awkward smile and stiffness of her back made him want to burst out laughing.  But she was serious.  That’s when the idea struck him.  

“Oh, I was under the impression we were just going to hang out and have fun today,” he said, rubbing the base of his neck sheepishly.

“This is fun,” she replied mechanically with the same awkward smile.  What was just a thought immediately formed as a fully-fledged plan in Adrien’s mind. He would get her to laugh, if it was the last thing he did.

“Teach away, Sensei,” he joked with a little bow.  

She glared.  “Don’t call me that.  ‘Sensei’ is a term of deepest respect.”  

“Oh, sorry,” he backpedaled.

She launched into a history of archery, while demonstrating a few stretches that he copied mindlessly. “No, Adrien, like this,” she kept saying.  “You have the physique of an archer, but you are sloppy.”  

“Sorry,” he said again.  He was losing count on how many times he’d apologized.  

Eventually she let him pick up his bow.  “Now,” she instructed, “Tall back, straight elbow, eyes open, train your vision and your breath.”  She took one of her own long black arrows, knocked it, and let it fly.  She was a good shot, there was no doubt to that. If Adrien hadn’t been planning otherwise, they would have been evenly matched.  “Your turn,” she said, stepping back to give him space.  He reached for an arrow from his quiver and tossed it in the air, letting it spin a few times like a baton before catching it deftly. Kagami gasped.  “Adrien! We do not play with the arrows like toys!  These are deadly weapons,” she scolded.

“Sorry,” he said yet again, but he couldn’t help but smirk at the aghast look on her face.  He put the arrow on the string and held it as obnoxiously as he could with a closed fist.  He let the arrow slip away from the bow a few times.  

“No, Adrien, like this,” she said, with an edge to her voice, now.  She pressed one hand on his shoulder and the other into the small of his back and forced him to stand straight.  Then she reached around him and took his right hand in hers on the string, and guided his left with her hand.   He could feel her breath on his neck.  He turned his head to look at her and waggled his eyebrows.

“Is this better?” he said in a low, flirty voice.  

Her eyes were fixed straight ahead.  “Eyes forward,” she snapped.  This was harder than he’d expected.  He let the arrow go, purposefully pushing the string so that the arrow lacked enough power to make it to the target.  

“No, no, no!” she stammered, her voice raising in pitch and decibel with every word.  “You have no strength, no discipline, no form, and what’s more, you—what is so funny?” she growled, stamping her foot.  

“You’re kind of cute when you’re angry,” he said, trying to tame the smirk that had stolen across his face. “It reminds me of someone else I know.”

“Oh yes?” she said, still shrill, but slightly better.  “And who might that be?”

“No one,” Adrien responded quickly, “Just an acquaintance.”  Perhaps he’d answered too quickly, but she didn’t notice.  

“Well, try again.”  At her command he picked up an arrow and it soared to the left of the target.  “Again.” He shot it into the ground. “Again.” This one went too high.  “Again!”  He dropped his back elbow and made a little “pew!” sound when he let it go.  “AGAIN!” she shouted.

“I dunno, Kagami, I don’t think I’m cut out for archery.”

She glared at him again, pushed him aside, and pulled her own bow into position.  “You’re just not—” she let the first arrow go— “trying.” A second flew.  “You lack strength.”  A third met the target.  “You lack discipline.”  A fourth bullseye. “You lack focus.”  A fifth. “And most of all, you lack heart.” The sixth arrow slammed into the target and emptied her quiver.

“Wow, you’re really fantastic,” Adrien said, realizing that the clumsy-archer tactic was ticking her off more than flattering her.  He decided to try a new tactic in the get-Kagami-to-laugh-plan.  They walked to the target together to retrieve their arrows. Adrien picked his up off the floor and jumped to get the ones from the net behind the target.  “Do you want to go get some ice cream or something?”  

“No ice cream until you at least hit the target,” she said firmly.  “You will never improve if you quit before you even try.”  

He walked back to the other side of the range quietly, took his bow, and grinned wickedly at her.  “So, I just have to hit the target and we can go get ice cream?”

“We can go when you’ve gained some degree of focus,” she said with a little nod.

“Thank you, Sensei,” he bowed.

Now she glared in earnest. “I told you not to call me that! Do you have any respect for me or my heritage?”

“Kagami—I’m sorry,” he responded with slumped shoulders.

“No! You aren’t!  I’m not sure you are serious about archery at all!” she shouted.

“To be honest, I’m not.  I just wanted to spend time with you.”

She looked puzzled.  “Isn’t that what we’re doing?”

“Well, yes, but I wanted to have fun. That’s what a date is.  It’s having fun together.”

“This is fun,” she said for the second time.  He just rolled his eyes and picked up his bow and an arrow, which he fired toward the target.  He turned away from it before it even hit.

“There.  I hit the target.  Now can we go?”

She glared at his bullseye, and then at him. “You weren’t taking this seriously.  You were making fun of me.”

“No, Kagami, I was just—”

“You think this is a joke. You think I’m a joke.”

“No—” But it was too late. She turned her back to him, scooped up her case, and marched for the exit.  He called after her, chased her to her car, but it was no use.  This date was a bust.  He looked at his watch.  His father wasn’t expecting him home for a few more hours.  Apparently he had more faith in his son’s dating abilities than he should. Adrien tried to shoot another arrow or two, but he wasn’t feeling archery any more.  He retrieved his arrows, put them away in the locker, and slumped to the exit.  

Half a block later, he slipped down a quiet alley and Plagg emerged from his shirt pocket with a burst of laughter.  “Oh Adrien! Her face!  You just… Oh man!  Never in ten million years!! That was almost as good as a piece of camembert!”

“Shut up, Plagg,” Adrien bantered, but he couldn’t withhold his smile.  “It didn’t work.  I was just trying to make her laugh.”

“Kagami?  Laugh?  I think the world would self-destruct, even without my Cataclysm!”  The tiny cat’s words were supposed to comfort him, but Adrien realized they were true.  Kagami wasn’t a laughing sort of girl.  She wasn’t someone he could tease, flirt with, or joke with.  Mostly to get Plagg to stop laughing, Adrien punched the air and shouted, “Claws out!”

Within a second, he was flying over the rooftops of Paris.  He loved this world.  This is where he felt alive and free.  He didn’t think he was going anywhere in particular, but as he launched over the park, he realized his heart was guiding him to where he knew he would feel happy. He could smell it before he saw it. The cheerful little bakery felt more like home than anywhere else.  As he got closer, his cat ears picked up the peal of laughter from the open window below, where, undoubtedly, Marinette was helping her parents create those incredible smells.  Yearning desperately for some fun, and with his heart still in control, he knocked on the door.  

Tom was flabbergasted to see Chat Noir at his doorstep.  “Uh, Chat Noir?  Can I… Can I help you?”

Suddenly, the boy behind the mask realized that he’d just knocked on the baker’s door.  He blushed. “I’m sorry, Mr. Dupain, I was just in the neighborhood and smelled your delicious goods and was wondering… if maybe… I could just say hello or something…” He really should have thought this through.

But Tom Dupain was an amazing man. His face broke into a massive grin and his eyes lit up just like Marinette’s.  “Come in, young man!  We’re making macarons!”  In three seconds flat, Chat Noir went from standing on the front door step like a lost kitten to dressed in a flowery apron with a whisk and a bowl in his hands. Marinette and Sabine watched Tom bustle over his new pet with slack jaws.

“Chat Noir?” Marinette stammered, “What are you doing here?”

“Uh…”

“Nevermind that, this young man would like a lesson in making macarons, and it’s his lucky day!” Tom boomed with pride.

Sabine interjected, “Now Tom, did he actually tell you he wanted a macaron making lesson?”

Chat Noir just laughed, realizing what he wanted as he spoke it out loud, “Mrs. Cheng, I would love a lesson in making macarons.”  Inwardly, he recalled the disastrous date with Kagami, and felt a pang of regret that he was spending this afternoon without her, but he just wanted to be happy again.  In the ten seconds he’d spent in this place thus far, he was already far happier than the thirty-minute archery fiasco with Kagami.  Sabine smiled and nodded her approval.  Marinette was still too stunned to speak.

“Chat—can I call you Chat? Here, start separating these eggs. Sabine, dear, would you get us some more almond flour?  Are you ok with almonds?  We recently had a disastrous moment when one of our customers ate an almond macaron that was supposed to be coconut…”  Tom was talking non-stop.  It was just what the doctor ordered.  

“So what are you really doing here?” Marinette hissed to Chat, once she’d regained her composure.  Tom didn’t notice no one was paying attention to him.  Marinette was measuring ingredients and had a bit of flour on her cheek.  It was adorable.

“Like I said, I was in the neighborhood,” he laughed.  Marinette raised an eyebrow.  “Ok, I was just feeling a little low and this place… your family makes me happy.”

“Put your elbow into it!” Tom bellowed.  Chat dutifully amped up the speed of his whisking.  “So, Chat, what flavor should we make today?”

“Well,” he thought, scratching his chin, “I love passionfruit… I mean, my friend Adrien said Marinette made a passionfruit one once, but he never got to taste it.  Maybe we could make some, and I could swing a box by for him when we’re done?  I need to talk to him anyway.”  Even he had to compliment himself on his smooth coverup.  Marinette visibly tensed when he had said the word ‘Adrien.’

“Oh, that sounds lovely,” Sabine sighed.  “Marinette’s been trying to get a passionfruit macaron to Adrien for weeks.”  

Chat was surprised to see Marinette drop her eyes and blush furiously.  “No, we don’t have to do passionfruit,” she stammered, grinding her toe into the floor.  

“Young lady, Chat Noir is our guest, and he wants passionfruit, so passionfruit it is!” Tom announced, and Marinette tripped over nothing and the bowl of ingredients went flying.  Chat’s miraculous-enhanced reflexes jumped into action and he caught the bowl with one hand and scooped the ingredients mid-air. The room was silent.  Chat became hyper aware that everyone was staring at him, a whisk in one hand, a bowl full of rescued ingredients in the other, balancing on his toes, Marinette still grasping at air to hold her up, and everyone blinking—too stunned to move.  “Marinette,” Tom whispered, “I think we just found the cure to your clumsiness…”  As if rehearsed, the room erupted in to deafening laughter.  Marinette’s eyes watered.  Tom hugged his ribs.  Sabine giggled behind her hand, her cheeks pink.  Chat tossed his head back and roared in delight.  But deep down, his heart swelled.  This was what he had ached for. This was the world he wanted.

 “Are you sure you have to go?” Sabine asked as she packed up a third box of passionfruit macarons for Chat. “Would you like us to write a note to anyone to let them know where you were?”

“Yes Ma’am, I mean, no ma’am… I mean, yes I have to go.  No, I don’t need a note,” he responded, “and if I stay here any longer, I won’t fit into my cat suit!”  He jokingly tugged at his belt/tail waistband.  

“Well, thank you for coming, and you know you’re welcome any time,” she chortled.  

Chat looked at Marinette, who was genuinely smiling.  “Yeah,” she emphasized, “any time.”  He smiled back at her.  He couldn’t remember having this much fun with someone in a very long time.  

Just then the storefront entrance bell dinged and everyone looked up to see Luka Coffaine enter.  He and Marinette made quick eye contact, before she blushed and looked away.  It wasn’t the same kind of blush that Adrien had seen so frequently.  This was different.  Her smile faded.  Her shoulders dropped.  Her eyebrows knit together.  Her fists tensed.  Luka didn’t smile at Marinette; his face remained passive.  “Mr. Dupain,” he said formally, “I’m here for the first delivery.” Tom didn’t notice the interaction between the delivery boy and his daughter, but Chat did.  

“Yes, yes, Luka, of course,” Tom blustered, and began gathering boxes of chocolate croissants and delicate lace tarts.  

“Mrs. Cheng, I trust you are well? And Ma-Marinette?” he said stiffly, nodding to each one of them.  Then, Luka finally made eye contact with Chat Noir.  “Chat Noir? What are you doing here?”

Tom looked up abruptly from his busywork, “Oh, Luka, do you know our dear Chat?  He’s been here helping in the bakery this afternoon, isn’t that wonderful?”

Luka’s eyes were doing math. They bounced from Chat, to the boxes of passionfruit macarons, to Marinette (whose angry blush had gone an even deeper shade of pink), back to Chat, and back to Marinette. “He-Helping?  In the bakery?”

“Yes, why shouldn’t he help out in the bakery?  This young man has a fine palate, and has a talent for catching flying ingredients right out of the air!”  

“I see,” he said.  Finally, Marinette looked up at Luka.  Chat was surprised to see her eyes slightly red, as if she were holding back tears.  Luka kept his eyes fixed on Marinette, but asked Tom, “and was it an enjoyable afternoon? Full of excitement?”

“Oh yes,” Tom boomed, still oblivious of the cold air between Marinette (who was now shaking her head slowly) and Luka.  “Always an adventure with Chat Noir around!  He’s a regular riot!”  

“I suppose it would be. Well, I’ll get that order out, then,” he said quietly, taking the boxes and sliding out the door.  

“Luka!” Marinette called, making a motion for the door.  

Sabine gently grabbed her daughter’s hand and shook her head.  “Let him go, dear.  He still needs some time.”  As she let go of Marinette’s hand, Sabine made eye contact with Chat.  It was clear that Chat was much more in-tune with Marinette than Tom was.  “Sweetheart, why don’t you take Chat up to the balcony so he can head home his favorite way.  It’ll draw less attention than if he goes via the front door.”

Marinette, still flushed, took the boxes of passionfruit macarons and walked slowly to the stairs.  Chat followed her.  “Um, Marinette, what was that with you and Luka?” he whispered.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she tried, but he gave her a blazing look.  “Oh, alright.  Luka and I are friends.  Recently, we tried to be more than that.  He really wanted it.  I did too. I mean, I do too.  I don’t know… I guess I don’t know what I wanted at all. I wanted to love him.  But, when we were on a date, well, it was my own fault I know, but I just…”

Chat paused on the stairs and took her arm gently.  “Marinette, it’s ok, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s ok, and I love that I have a friend I can talk to about this.  Maybe you can tell me, as a guy, you know, what I should do.  It’s just that Luka is so… calm.  It’s one of the things that first drew me to him.  But we were on a date last night, and all he did was sit and play music.  It was sweet at first, but after an hour, I asked if we could go and do something new. I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. I probably shouldn’t have asked for something more exciting.  I feel so stupid.”  She buried her eyes in her hands.  

“You… asked him if he you could do something more exciting?” Chat echoed.  She nodded.  “And he got angry?”

“Not angry so much; Luka doesn’t get angry.  He doesn’t get defensive.  He doesn’t get much of any which way.  He’s just… calm.  He was disappointed and calm.”

“And you wanted something more?”

“Yeah, I suppose, I just thought maybe we could laugh, or go out on a walk, or to an amusement park, or something fun.  You know?”

“Yes.  I know.”  He knew exactly what she meant—about wanting to laugh, to have fun together with someone special.  

“I can’t believe I’ve done it again,” she muttered.  “I just can’t seem to make it work out with anybody.”  

“Again?”

She blushed the smiley-pink this time.  “Oh, it’s nothing.  Just, I blew it with a different guy recently.  Someone I had hoped would be someone.  Not that he knew.  I just couldn’t get past myself.  Has that ever happened to you?”

“Yes,” he admitted.  Now it was his turn to blush and look away, rubbing the back of his neck.  “But you already know how I feel about Ladybug, and how she feels about me.”  

“Feel?” Marinette raised an eyebrow.  So, she had noticed his choice of tense as well.  He surprised even himself.  He had been trying to bury those feelings for the past few weeks.  But when he said her name, the pain ripped through him, as hot as lava and as fresh as ever.  He hung his head.  He wasn’t sure he would ever get over her entirely, no matter how desperately he wanted to.  Marinette reached out to him with concern in her eyes, and Chat noticed how blue they were today.  She touched his arm gently, but he stepped forward and pulled her to him in a full embrace.  They hugged that way for a few seconds, sharing what words alone could never express.

Suddenly, they were ripped from the moment when Marinette’s phone and Chat Noir’s staff beeped simultaneously. They both instinctively checked their updates and saw the news footage of a blue-haired supervillain turning the streets of Paris into an enormous roller coaster.  Flaming blue carts scooped people up and trapped them inside, then hopped on the tracks and zoomed off while the blue-haired supervillain smiled smugly.  Chat realized with a pang in his stomach that the footage wasn’t from just any street, but the street they were on—just a block away from the Dupain Bakery.  Blue eyes met green.  They communicated the horror of the situation to each other wordlessly.  “Marin—” he began, but she shook her head, and simply said,

“Go.”

[picafard]

Any Lukanette blog I could follow here? Writers, artists or fans? I’d love to get more of them on my dash!

[airi-p4]

Hi! I’ve been wanting to make a post with this information for a while and you are giving me the best excuse to do it now. So here we go:

  Writers:

@quickspinner

@livrever

@mangoes-n-cream

@omnistruck

@verfound

   Artists:

@ladyfreya123

@lineith

@moonllshadow

@artwolfaja

@brickercupmasterx3

@lovelyrosebun

@zatanni

@x-aa

@leviatan-209

@kurachan-ya

@honeylillies

@uenieri

@katydoodles

@airi-p4 (that’s me!)

  Fans / Communities / reblogs / other:

@lukanette-month

@lukacouffaineappreciation

@luka–couffaine

@lukanette-love

@lukascafe

@lukanette-forever

@vipernette

@viperinoire

@mc-lukanette

I’m 100% sure I’m forgetting many people, so feel free to check reblogs on those blogs to find out about more of them. Tags should be useful too.

I highly recommend you to check @discoveringmiraculousartist  to find more artists (lukanette and Miraculous Ladybug in general). 

Hope this helps :)

[livrever]

Dont forget the @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers community!

And @discoveringmiraculouswriters is the writing equivalent of @discoveringmiraculousartist

A few other great writers are

@fenheart87

@freedom-shamrock

@semi-slaughtomatic

@bloody-writes

@missmalice202

@mommadon

@motherofwoofers

@justknitstuff

Who am I missing?

[quickspinner]

Thanks for the shoutout ❤️ this is an excellent list full of awesome people! Let me also add @mintaka14

[femestella]

[dandeliononfire]

Young women need to hear this. It’s OKAY!

[yyyyddmmsupremacy-deactivated20]

and young men

[queerkittyy]

^ that pressure has a lot of guys doing things they don’t want to do because they feel like they’re supposed to or there’s something wrong with them

[00jinx]

thank you. 

[mlweeklyprompts]

Hello!

Hi everyone, this is your mod @feminaexlux posting. Welcome to your weekly Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Chat Noir prompt!

We will be starting prompts in May 2020 and will post prompts every Friday (or try to!). Send in any suggestions!

Please take a look at the FAQ, but send us a message if you’re unsure about anything.

Feel free to tag this blog in any works inspired by the prompt, or use the tag #mlweeklyprompts-work if you’d like to have us take a look! We will reblog works that use the prompt & are salt-free.

Have a Miraculous time creating!

[mommadon]

Better when I’m with You: Day 5, Hands

Say hi on AO3

Thank you to @lukanette-month for the prompts and reblogs! 

Hands

“Ouch!” Marinette yelped as her finger flew to her mouth for a quick suck before returning to the needle and finishing whip stitching Luka’s shoulder piece into place.  “There,” she said, at last satisfied with the costume.  She stepped back to observe as he gave one last twirl.  “Yes, that’ll do, but try not to thrash around in it. I don’t have time to make it any more secure before you go on.”

He rolled his shoulder a bit, “Seems solid enough to me.”

“Oh, it’ll work well enough when you’re standing here rolling it gently, but I’ve seen the way you play.”

He smirked.  A backstage coordinator poked her head in the dressing room, “Kitty Section?  You’re on in ten.”

“Thanks!” Rose piped, bouncing on her toes.  Marinette raced over to her to adjust her mask and check over the last bits of her costume.

“Hm, Rose, is this too loose for you?  I can lace it up tighter in the back—” Marinette whirled behind her tiny pink friend and started adjusting the laces.  She pulled the chest piece tighter so it was snug and ready for stage, but upon releasing the laces, she grimaced.  

“Marinette, is that--?” Luka startled her; she hadn’t noticed that he was right behind her, even though he kept handing her scissors and her sewing supplies.  

Marinette tried to wipe the blood off the costume where it had smeared from her finger.  “Dang,” she moaned.  “Good thing it’s on the back, nobody will notice it…”

Luka tentatively took Marinette’s hands and inspected them.  She was bleeding from a pair of fingers that had taken the worst beating from all these last-minute adjustments.  Marinette tried to pull away from Luka, but he just smiled.

“Come here,” he asked, holding her bleeding fingers tenderly as he escorted her to where his guitar case lay open on a table.  “I’ve got the best salve…” He found the small bottle of a green-tinted cream, which he opened and started massaging into Marinette’s fingertips. “I never go anywhere without this amazing stuff,” he noted.  “Just one of Juleka’s many talents,” he added, making the salve all the more precious. It had a pleasant cooling effect and Marinette’s fingers already felt better.  

“Thanks, Luka,” was all she could manage, as he finished her left hand and moved to her right—even more bruised and battered than the first.  But, knowing that he had just moments before taking the stage, she interlaced her fingers with his and held up his hands for her own return inspection.  His fingertips had deep grooves where the strings had indented them, and his right palm was sporting a meaty gash from where his string had snapped and struck him earlier that day.  Marinette just sighed and took a fingerful of the lovely salve and reciprocated the soothing massage.  

“You know, we should probably both take better care of our hands,” he muttered.

She shrugged as she caressed each of his fingers, “I dunno, I kind of like this team effort.”

[mommadon]

Better When I’m with You: Day 3, Candy Hearts

Say hi on AO3

Happy Lukanette Month!  Thank you to @lukanette-month for the prompts.

Candy Hearts

“Lucky Charm!”

As a box of chalky American candy hearts fell in Ladybug’s hand, the other superheroes groaned.  “Seriously, more of those nasty things?” Rena Rouge whined.  “What are we supposed to do now?”

The whole of Paris had been blanketed in the disgusting hearts with tiny messages passing as ‘candy.’  This whole Akuma had been beyond weird. 

“I gotta side with Rena on this one,” Chat offered unhelpfully, “it seems pawfully strange to get more candy for a candy-themed Akuma.”

Ladybug sat there, staring at the box of candy, thumbing it over and over, totally perplexed.  At last,  Viperion’s steady voice hummed, “Can I see that box?”

Ladybug tossed it to him and he looked at it closer.  “Oh man,” he said with shock, as his eyebrows lifted his mask on his face, “Holy cow… but that’s impossible…”

“What?” Rena Rouge and Chat Noir cried in tandem.

“These are the real deal—” he flipped the box over and was surprised to see an ingredients label— “And they have the original flavors—”

“What are you talking about?” Carapace growled, wincing as the wall of candy hearts pounded harder on the shell-ter he was fighting to maintain.

“Pre-2010 Necco brand Sweethearts!  The originals!  This is a really rare find… Ladybug!  This is what the Akuma’s been begging for all this time—for the good ones!”

He returned the box to Ladybug, who started looking around frantically and then shared a knowing smile with Viperion.  “He’s angry because they weren’t selling his girlfriend’s favorite kind, and he’s been blanketing the city with inferior candy hearts… So maybe if we give him a box of his favorites, he’ll calm down… Viperion!  You’re a genius!”  Ladybug kissed him on the cheek (to which Chat had playfully pouted, “Hey!”), and nodded to Carapace who dropped the shield.  Viperion scooped her up and lifted her above the tidal wave of candy hearts that crashed down on them.  She was able to find a distant building sign on which to anchor her yo-yo before swinging off to take care of the akuma.

Less than a minute later, the team—scrambling to stay above the crushing flow of candy hearts, was suddenly rescued by a swarm of magical ladybugs.  Ladybug dropped in beside them and held out her fist for each of them pound.  They smiled together and Chat Noir quipped, “Never underestimate the peril of inferior candy hearts.” 

Viperion agreed with a grave nod and a wink at Ladybug.  Ladybug quietly filed that little tidbit of information away for another day.

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

“Marinette, you’ve got a package,” Tom Dupain boomed up the stairs.  She squealed from the room above and slid down the railings to save time. 

“I can’t believe it made it on time!” she trilled as her fumbling hands tore open the padded envelope all the way from the States.  “Oh, they’re perfect,” she crooned, looking over the box. 

Not able to wait another second, she pulled on her jacket and scarf and ran for the Liberty.  Three breathless moments later, Luka poked his head over the edge of the deck.

“Marinette?  What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!  Can I come up?”

Of course, he nodded and she climbed on board.  She tumbled into his arms and he steadied her briefly before escorting her into the much warmer cabin.  “Happy Valentine’s day, Luka!”

“But, Valentine’s day isn’t until tomorrow,” he responded hesitantly.

“I know,” she chimed, handing him the small box.

“What’s this?”

“I couldn’t wait.” 

He turned the box over and his eyes widened.  An excited smile split across his face, and Marinette's heart did a happy little leap that she'd managed to put it there.  “Hang on, these are…what… holy cow… How did you know?”

She smiled and shrugged, “Someone put a bug in my ear.”

[marinettemarch]

Marinette March 2020 is happening! Thank you all for being so patient! Who’s ready to love our precious protagonist! To participate, all you have to do is use the prompts listed above (or under the cut) to create art, fic, gifs, whatever your medium of creation is and use the hashtags #marinettemarch 2020 or #marinettelove 2020 and @ this blog. We will share all submissions to this blog during the event, and on May 1st we will resume general content reblogging. If you don’t finish on time, no worries! We will accept submissions throughout the year as they come in. 

This event is open to anyone in the fandom, but please keep in mind a few rules.

1. This event is to appreciate Marinette

Any character hate will be blocked. Read: ANY This event is not the place to vent your frustrations with other characters and especially not with Marinette. Please keep submissions salt-free and center them around Marinette.

2. Please keep ship content to a minimum unless otherwise suggested by a prompt

This month is about Marinette, not any one particular ship. You can have hints (i.e. her canon unrequited crush on Adrien or any other ship you might want to include, etc) but please keep the focus of your story on her. There will be ample opportunities later in the year to celebrate various ships involving her. This month was created to celebrate her character. 

3. NSFW is okay for some of our implied aged up prompts (or if you just want to do an entire aged up AU the whole month)

But please keep it aged up (she is canonically 14), put it under a read more, and tag it so that I can know as well. This event is for people of all ages, so please be respectful.

4. No salt

I repeat: NO SALT of any kind. Salt has its place in the fandom, but not in this event. This event is meant to be Marinette-positive and fun. Leave the salt at the door. You are free to make as much of it as you want in your own space, but not for this event. Salt submissions will not be reblogged. If you have any questions or concerns about whether your submission counts as salt, please message me here or on my ML blog @purrincess-chat

I want this event to be a fun way to create content for our beloved protagonist, free of other fandom drama. Feel free to interpret the prompts any way that you like, and most importantly: have fun! 

Prompts listed under cut:

Keep reading