A/N: I’m actually going to do a two-fer. One for each eye ball, hee, hee. Seriously though, everything I’ve written in 2019 I’ve either posted or have already shown in a sneak peek and I don’t want to repeat. So! Here are two things I’ve worked a bit on in 2019, I’ve never put anywhere. -Rhuben
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir
This excerpt was set during/after the episode “Dark Cupid,” and the fic would have been called “Birds of a Feather.” I have an OC for the show named Brielle Dumont; superhero name is Birdsong, and her partner is named Keet.
Chloé gasped. Her dad! His campaign! There was no way he’d be voted Mayor again if this image got out. He had an image to uphold. She had an image to uphold. It could all be taken away in just one second. Pushing herself up to her knees, she pressed her hands to her cheeks. Think, Chloé, think. How can you get out of this?
Her ponytail swung around her shoulder—shiny and split-end free, of course—as she turned towards the mass of pillows in the circular alcove in the corner of her room where a sigh was heard. Planting her hands on her hips, Chloé sniffed. “What,” she asked, her voice taking on a high pitched tone, “may I ask, is worthy of that response, Brielle?”
“I’ve told you a thousand times, Chloé, Sabrina won’t release that picture.”
Chloé crossed the plush, pristine, white carpet of her room to the alcove where her best friend, Brielle Durant, sat cross legged in the center of the pillows. “How do you know that?” she asked. Peeking up at Chloé over the top of the sketch pad in her lap, Brielle carefully slid her pencil into the spiral holding the paper together. “Sabrina was so…different! I don’t even know if she deleted the picture.”
She gasped in horror and started to pace. “What if she didn’t?” she asked. “What if she still has the picture?” Her blue eyes widened. “What if she sends it to Adrien?!”
Chloé scoffed, putting her hand in the air to silence Brielle. “Uh, hel-looo,” she said, lifting an eyebrow. “She drew all over the picture Adrien signed for me, re-mem-ber?”
“How could I forget?” Brielle asked with a smile, lifting her eyebrows.
“So, if she could do something like that, how do we know she won’t send that picture?” Chloé asked. She stomped her foot into the carpet and pouted. “I loved that picture. He signed it just for me.” And it got those pathetic girls to stay away from Adrien.
“Gee, I wish with how much time you’ve spent worry about this, you would’ve given Kim a second thought before sending that picture of him,” Brielle commented, her voice dry. Chloé rolled her eyes, shooting her friend an annoyed look before dropping down onto the pillows next to her.
“What if everyone laughs at me, Bri?” she asked quietly, mouth pressed partially into the pillow. She grabbed onto a rounded red and black spotted pillow and hugged it to her chest. “What if they don’t stop making fun of me?”
This fic is/was tentatively called “Go Big or Go Home.” It follows Lauren Mitchell (name to be changed) and her best friend Skye Simms as they compete with each other to get the last spot on the SSX circuit.
“So you knew about the SSX offer and you didn’t tell me?”
Skye Simms brushed her short red hair out of her face before setting her shopping bags down to the linoleum floor of the local mall. She shrugged her shoulders as she lowered herself into a plastic chair. “You were going to find out eventually anyway, mate, what’s the big deal?” she asked, rolling her green eyes. “The point is, chick, that both you and I got approached. How cool is that?”
She leaned back in her chair and winked at her friend, her lips parting into a wide grin. “It’s such a thrill. I mean…snowboarding? Come on! How many times in your life do you get suggested to try a new sport just because of something you do in the off season?” She set the legs of her chair back down onto the floor and slapped the table with the palms of her hands. “I mean I just surf when I can’t ski. Wow. This is amazing.”
“Skiiiiiim,” Lauren said with a frown, tilting her head to the side. “You’ve known for three weeks.”
“I got approached right after my last competition. You can’t be aggro at me,” Skye said, widening her green eyes. “It’s the SSX Circuit and they’re taking a gander at us! Who would I be to ruin a surprise like that?” She lifted her hands and wiggled her fingers, a spark of amusement appearing in her eye as she sang, “Surpriiiiise.”
“They should just go with you, Skim, I mean you’ve been skiing since before I met you,” Lauren said with a shake of her head. “You know what it’s like to go careening down a mountainside covered in ice.” She paused for a moment. “The mountain, not you.”
“You know as well as I do, Lo, that slamming into the water at any given angle could feel like face planting on the bloody concrete,” Skye reminded her. Lauren made a face at Skye’s nickname for her. Just as well, Skye hated being called Skim.
“It’s snow; you’ll have a better cushion.” Skye gave a proud smile, sitting up straighter in her seat. “Besides, they’re considering skiing for me, anyway.” She sniffed, tilting her chin up slightly in mock arrogance. “And why shouldn’t they? Seems like the blokes have been tossing around the idea of adding skiers to the SSX circuit for a little while now.”
“That’s cool,” Lauren replied, drumming her knuckles on the table top before getting to her feet. “You want to split a cinnamon pretzel or plain?” Skye lifted her eyebrows and Lauren let out a short laugh. “Of course; how could I have forgotten?” She bopped herself on the head with the heel of her palm. “With all those shoes you’ve been carrying around all day, you need the extra boost of energy. Cinnamon it is.”
Skye was well on her way to try and achieve a goal of having 365 pairs of shoes; one for each day. Now reaching 298 pairs of shoes, she inched closer and closer to the goal—as weird as Lauren thought it was. Skye would wear the same pair of socks, let alone shoes, for days during a lucky streak.
“Never tempt the fates of luck,” she would chirp whenever she was questioned on the topic, “she can be a nasty bitch, eh?”
“Hey, its’ hard carrying shoes,” Skye said as she leaned back in her chair, putting her hands up defensively. She rolled up her shirt sleeve and flexed her muscles, her bicep bulging underneath her skin to show off her strength. “Check out these guns. Impressive, yeah?”
Lauren reached out a hand and squeezed at the muscle with her index finger and thumb before letting out a whistle through puckered lips. “What a workout,” she commented, earning a loud laugh from her best friend. “Maybe I should subscribe to this gym membership.”
