5 Books to Read If You're Writing a Memoir Part. 4: A Promise of Salt (1/3)
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If I had to point to the most under-rated book I know of, it would be A Promise of Salt by Lorie Miseck.
CW: I’ll be referring to an act of extreme violence.
A Promise of Salt is a book I assign every time I teach Creative Nonfiction. It’s the sort of book that students will remark to me about years after they’ve taken my class. “I loved that book” is the common refrain.
That’s not to say it’s…
Requests: 19 for Adrian aggrest? and 3 for chat noir?
Word Count: 1,379
Pairing: Adrien Agreste x Reader, Chat Noir x Reader
Warnings: Little bit of blood, but not gory, also major fluff :)
Prompts: #3: “Stay with me” , #19 : “I think I’m in love with you, and that scares the crap out of me”
A/N: Yes I know, I have a bunch of requests I haven’t gotten to, and I haven’t written in a LONG TIME. But man school has been shit and I am just in the mood for some Chat Noir haha :)
“And remember honey, please leave the balcony doors closed.” My mom reminded me, placing a gentle kiss on the top of my head. “The temperature is dropping, they are calling for snow, apparently.”
“Good night, mom.” I smiled, her returning the gesture before closing my door. I quickly changed into my pyjamas in the bathroom down the hall before returning to my bedroom. I made sure to turn my music down, trading the speakers for my headphones as I quietly worked on my homework at my desk.
It wasn’t until a pause between songs when I heard a light tapping on the balcony door. I took off my headphones, setting them on the desk. I rushed over and opened the door, opposing my mother’s instructions.
“Chat, it’s pretty late, don’t you think?” I asked him teasingly. But his lack of response made me worry. I pulled his arm, bringing him into my room, and closing the door behind him. His wince at my actions made me grow worried. “Chat?” I asked him. His balance began to slip, and I luckily caught him first.
“Sorry, mon petite.” He apologized, his voice raspy, evident of pain.
“Chat, what happened?” I asked as I dug through my closet. Looking for the first aid kit I got when I did my babysitting course a couple years back.
This was normal. When the kitty would get a little beating, he would come to me to get cleaned up, but it never got this bad. When I returned to him, he was sitting up. He had unzipped his cat suit so his bare chest was out in the open.
“A fight a little outside of Paris.” He spoke shortly, wincing as I cleaned his cuts.
“Is Ladybug alright?” I asked Chat, my words quiet, careful not to wake my parents.
“I took the hit for her, she luckily walked away just fine. I gotta protect m’Lady.” He chuckled before wincing again. I sighed at his words as I finished cleaning the larger cut on his abdomen. I pulled out a roll of gauze, wrapping it around his torso snugly.
“Chat, I know it’s your job, but please try and not get yourself killed.” I shook my head sadly. I hated seeing him like this. It killed me.
Almost a year ago, I somehow was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Chat had pulled me out of a sticky situation with an akuma. I probably would have gotten killed in the streets of Paris. But after it was all dealt with, Chat Noir walked me home. Him claiming that he was making sure I was going to be alright. Ever since he would stop by after every battle and would tell me all about it. I would tell him about my day at school. We would vent together, we would laugh together, and we would tease each other. Plus, if he was hurt, I would be his little nurse.
“You don’t have to worry about me, mon petite.” He smirked as he zipped back up his cat suit.
“I don’t want you going out with a cut that big.” I told him as I grabbed extra blankets from my bedroom closet. “You’re staying here tonight.” I told him as I set up the little couch in my room for me to sleep on.
“Yes ma’am.” He saluted, before looking over at me, his smirk falling. “You don’t wanna sleep with me?” He asked teasingly. I walked over to him and sat down on the bed beside him.
“Chat Noir, are you asking me to sleep with you?” I asked, pulling out the innuendos that he tried pulling on me. “Sorry Chat, but you’ll have to take me out to dinner first.”
“That could be arranged, mon petite.” He shot me a wink. I let out a small laugh, shaking my head as I stood up, ready to return to my bed. But before I could step away, a gloved hand took mine. I turned around to meet the green eyes of Chat’s. “Stay with me.” He smiled, but it was a lot softer than what I was used to. “It’s freezing out there, and those shorts wont keep you warm.”
“You drive a hard bargain, Chat.” I smiled down at him. “Just this one time, now scoot over.” His smile lit up and I pulled myself under the covers. The Chat pulled me up against his front, in a position that some would consider spooning. I reached up and turned off my lamp, leaving us in darkness.
“Thank you, mon petite.” He muttered into my hair.
“Chat, are you purring?”
~~~
The sun shown through my windows, making me join the world of wakefulness. I picked up my phone from the nightstand reading a text from my parents. My mom saying that her and my dad were going out for the day. I sighed, grateful that they wouldn’t be around to see that one of the heroes of Paris were in my bed. I turned around in Chat’s arms. But the sight that shocked me, made me fall out of the covers and onto the cold floor.
Who the hell?
What the hell??
How the hell???
I’m pretty sure when I fell asleep I was with Chat.
But then why was Adrien Agreste in my bed?
Wait a minute.
I grabbed the nearest throw pillow and hit it down in the face of the boy in my bed. The one who just so happened to be the cute boy in my classes. Adrian rolled over from the contact of the soft pillow, setting it beside him.
“Bonjour, mon petite.” He spoke out, his morning voice sending my stomach into a cartwheel session.
“Want some waffles, Adrien?” I asked. His green eyes immediately shot open.
“So when exactly were you going to tell me?” I asked Adrien as he ran the towel through his damp blonde hair. He had taken a shower, to get the last of the dirt and blood off of him after last night’s events. Plus he had decided it might be best to change his bandages. He was now left in his jeans and a white tank top. I started to clean the dishes as another set of waffles were in the works.
“I mean, I was going to tell you eventually.” He sighed, setting the towel down, hanging over the back of a chair. “But the whole point of it is not to tell anyone.”
“I get that, but we have known each other for almost a year now - I mean as Chat. But as Adrien, a little longer.” I sighed, drying my hands. I took a deep breath and swallowed the selfishness I was expressing. “I understand where you are coming from, Adrien.”
“Thank you.” He smiled at me. I turned around, grabbing out plates and cutlery. Then walking over to flip the waffle machine. I then felt arms snake around my torso. Adrien’s new scent of my favourite body wash filled my nose as he pulled me back against his front. I tried to contain my giggles, but failed miserably.
“You smell like me, Adrien.”
“Is that such a bad thing?” He asked me playfully as he set his chin down on my shoulder. “I think I’m in love with you, y/n, and that scares the crap out of me.”
“Why would that scare you?” I asked, trying to hold back the flush in my cheeks.
“Because I was never really sure what love was, since my mom left.” He shook his head, sadly. I took the spatula, and opened the waffle machine, setting the baked good on a plate. I quickly turned off the machine and turned around in Adrien’s arms. I cupped his cheeks and gave him a shy smile.
“I would be honoured to be the one to help you feel loved.” His eyes then lit up and his hands on my waist pushed me into him. I softly pressed my lips against his, my stomach spinning in circles again. My mouth greeted with a minty taste from our freshly brushed teeth. All worries between the two of us melted away in that moment.
Also, the waffles were definitely forgotten about as they grew cold.
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Today was the final project I'm going to write about on my blog: Alphabetti Soup! Due to actors not being available on Saturday we had to meet at 1pm and rehearse the piece very quickly before doors opened at 4pm for the show which made the day very hectic.
To start off the day we united the end of the text very quickly that the actors hadn't finished doing on Friday (they met while I was observing Cyrano); it was nice to apply similar methodology to a text as Katie Mitchell had described in The Director's Craft too - we gave names to each event and discovered the intentions of characters throughout the piece. I only wish we had more rehearsal time to do this kind of text excavation thoroughly and in finer detail. Following this we worked on getting the piece up on its feet. Due to the lack of time to rehearse I made my focus on getting the actors to run the piece as many times as possible to make them comfortable with lines and to reduce the risk of any slip-ups during the show. I offered rehearsal notes where I felt necessary, for example there was a moment in the piece where the two of them had to hug which was very clunky and didn't look great so we spent a little bit of time running that section over. I also asked Stevie and Gary about their understanding of certain words and sections of the text that seemed iffy during runs, and if understanding was lacking in those parts then we ironed them out or played around with line delivery until we found something that felt more natural. Due to Lee doing tech for the evening I spent most of the afternoon leading the rehearsals which was nice, Lee also told me he offered a good appraisal of my work to Ali (the Artistic Director) afterwards which is great news!
Overall I think the final performance was fairly strong but I do wish I'd had more time to run this piece and to work on it as Going Cold is a really lovely script. I suppose time restraints can often be a problem in the professional world and that is something I'm going to have to learn to work around. I think following Lorne's advice and being precise with altering lines that didn't flow and movements that didn't look natural today helped move the piece along substantially to where it eventually ended up but of course there was certainly room for improvement, particularly at the start of the piece and also in ensuring Stevie and Gary's acting styles were more similar (as Gary is quite an animated performer due to his background in Children's Storytelling).
(Gary Cordingley and Stevie Devlin during our tech run)
This afternoon I met with Lee to discuss Going Cold. We discussed the process we plan on carrying out for the weekend; the general idea is that we're going to focus getting it up on its feet as the actors have only just received script to learn lines. I'm also going to prepare some character development exercises if we end up rehearsing all day on Saturday, but I'm not sure that this is going to happen yet due to scheduling. Lee and I have agree to play rehearsal times by ear depending upon actor availability. Lee told me that Stevie Devlin will be playing the role of Eve, and that potentially Gary Cordingley will be playing Harry. I look forward to working with these performers as I have never met them before!
Today I was meant to meet with Lee Rosher at Alphabetti to discuss Going Cold, however Lee unfortunately had to cancel the meeting due to illness. We have rearranged to meet this coming Monday (2nd March) between 3:30 & 4pm!
