Dec 16, 2017
It was so fun to be participating in the @mlsecretsanta this year as well! Even though it’s a busy time of year, I clumsily managed to finish~
Happy holidays, @axl-otl, I hope you can try to like this ahaha
seen from United States
seen from Iraq
seen from United States
seen from Iraq
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Ukraine
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Germany
It was so fun to be participating in the @mlsecretsanta this year as well! Even though it’s a busy time of year, I clumsily managed to finish~
Happy holidays, @axl-otl, I hope you can try to like this ahaha
Lucky Swap
A very very late @mlsecretsanta gift for @teddy529. You had a pretty open-ended request, so I went with a temporary kwami swap!
The day began simply enough. An afternoon wandering around the streets of Paris with Alya by her side and a little money to spend on something to reward herself for her much improved attendance record at school. They even managed to find one of many small shops with a collection of Ladybug and Chat Noir merchandise, primarily intended to appeal to tourists and younger fans. Alya, however, was immediately taken by some of the earrings on display.
“Marinette, look! This one’s perfect for you!” The pink ladybug earrings were exactly the style Marinette typically wore, but Marinette shook her head.
“No, that’s okay. I already have the perfect pair.” She picked up a plastic ring that looked similar to Chat Noir’s. “I really love what I’m wearing.”
“Tell me about it.” Alya rolled her eyes. “I’ve never seen you wear anything else.”
“They were a gift from someone really important.” Marinette chuckled as she set the ring aside.
“Yeah, so you keep saying.” Alya waved the earrings in front of her. “You could at least try these on, though.”
“But I’m not going to buy them,” Marinette insisted.
“Why not? You can like a pair of earrings and still have some variety.” Alya frowned.
Marinette hesitated, caught between her duty to keep her earrings safe and the simple desire to indulge in trying on something new after months of wearing the same accessory every day. Besides, they’d just defeated an akuma last night, and Hawkmoth was probably still sulking over his latest defeat. Surely, she could take the chance to remove her miraculous for a little bit.
Unfortunately for her, the universe seemed to have some different thoughts on the subject. Almost as soon as she’d taken them off and tucked them into her purse, she was interrupted by the sound of shouting outside the small shop. Alya dragged her to the street before Marinette even had the chance to snap her purse shut, and they both stared up at the sight of an akumatized man on stilts, kicking over carts and stomping on cars that didn’t move out of the way fast enough.
So much for a day off.
Alya pulled out her phone, intent on following the enemy to the inevitable battle, and Marinette ran the opposite direction, searching for a safe place to transform. Once she was far enough, she ducked into a quiet alcove and dug around in her purse for her earrings. “Tikki, I’m sorry. I just thought…” She froze when she realized her purse was frighteningly empty of her kwami. “Tikki?” She emptied her purse onto the ground, brushing aside half-used makeup, a travel sewing kit, and her phone to find that her earrings were also gone.
Panic built in her chest, and she took a few deep breaths to calm herself down before packing her things back in her purse and standing. The earrings must have fallen out, and Tikki probably stayed with them to keep them safe. She just had to go find them both. No need to worry.
She peeked out into the street, looking for anyone who might see her, then she ran back along the path she’d taken earlier, hoping for some sign of her kwami. Thankfully, a flash of red along the side of the road caught her eye, and Marinette followed it into a small alley.
An alley, that unfortunately wasn’t quite as empty as Marinette would have liked. She spotted Tikki only seconds before she saw Chat Noir watching her from the other end of the alley.
“Chat Noir! Ummm…” She chuckled. “I thought I saw a...a cat run in here, but-” She glanced down at Tikki. “I...guess this isn’t a cat?”
He stepped closer and knelt beside Tikki. “Are you Ladybug’s kwami?”
Tikki nodded, sneaking a glance at Marinette. Neither of them were sure of how to handle the situation, but both of them knew they needed to keep Marinette’s identity safe.
Chat Noir glanced up at Marinette. “I’ll take care of her until we find Ladybug.” He scooped up Tikki before Marinette could protest and leapt onto the nearby rooftop. He called down to her. “You should find somewhere safe before the akuma gets here.”
Marinette nodded. “I will!” She couldn’t exactly stop him, and Tikki couldn’t really say that she’d already found Ladybug without revealing that Marinette was Ladybug. Instead, she watched helplessly as her partner ran off with her earrings and her kwami and cursed her rotten luck.
She groaned and dropped her head back against the wall with a soft thump. “Now what am I supposed to do?” she murmured to herself.
An abandoned motorcycle just outside the alley sparked an idea. After all, she’d managed to sneak into Le Grand Paris with a disguise before. Maybe, just maybe, she could fool Chat Noir with one. She snagged the helmet off the motorcycle and found a rain poncho at a nearby abandoned shop, dropping a few coins on the counter to cover the cost. She quickly tugged it on and pulled on the helmet before she ran down the street, hoping no one would see her.
Her peripheral vision was a bit impaired by the helmet, and she couldn’t hear as well as she liked, but she managed to make her way to the tall akuma without incident. She could only hope Alya would somehow fail to capture evidence of her gaudy disguise, although Marinette knew the chances of that were pretty slim.
She scanned the scene, looking for Chat Noir. He hadn’t attacked yet. Maybe Tikki had reminded him he couldn’t capture the akuma without her. She frowned, finally looking up to see if he was on a rooftop nearby or-
A flash of red was her only warning before she was suddenly picked up and dropped onto a building across the street.
“You shouldn’t be out here! This akuma’s dangerous!”
Marinette turned and her jaw dropped at the sight of her partner, no longer in his typical outfit as Chat Noir, but instead in her typical spotted outfit, wielding her yo-yo and wearing her mask. “Chat Noir?” she asked, eyes wide.
“Wait.” He stepped closer, and she ducked her head to prevent him from seeing her face through the visor of her helmet. “Ladybug?”
“Yeah.” She nodded and held out a hand. “Can I have my miraculous back, kitty?”
The akuma loomed over them in an instant, and both of them turned to look up at it. “No time!” he shouted, tugging off the ring he wore over her suit and pressing it into her palm. “We can trade after!”
“Wait! Do you even know what you’re doing?” she shouted after him as he swung off.
He flashed her a grin before striking at the villain’s legs to give her time to hide. A black blur flew past her and hid in the shadows of the far corner of the roof.
Marinette groaned again. “This cat is going to be the death of me.” She ran off towards the corner and looked down at what could only be Chat Noir’s kwami. “If I take off my helmet, will you tell him who I am?”
He shook his head. “No way. It’s his job to figure that out.”
“Okay.” She tugged off her helmet and knelt in front of him. Before she could ask him what she needed to say to transform, he began to laugh, nearly doubled over in midair. “What’s so funny?” She scowled and jammed the ring on her finger, barely registering how it shrank to fit her.
“Nothing,” he managed between chuckles.
“Do you know me?” she asked, frowning.
“We’ve met when my Chat Noir was watching over you during your date with that artist kid.”
“It wasn’t a date,” she grumbled.
A boom coupled with Chat Noir’s distant shout as he was undoubtedly flung somewhere brought her back to the present situation.
“What do I say to transform?” she asked. “And what’s your name?”
“It’s Plagg.” He grinned. “And you say, ‘claws out’.”
“Alright.” She stood. “Plagg! Claws out!”
Seconds later, she was dressed in her partner’s suit, already missing her yo-yo as she pulled out his baton. She ran to the edge and jumped down onto the ground below. Chat Noir had managed to clear the area of onlookers while he dodged attacks and tried to trip up the tall villain with his yo-yo. Alya was still recording, but Marinette could see he was keeping an eye out to make sure she stayed safe.
Marinette raced to his side. “Any idea where the akuma is?”
He glanced over at her. “Not yet. I…” His voice trailed off as he caught sight of her appearance. “Have I mentioned you look great in black, milady?”
She rolled her eyes, but the wink he sent her way did coax a small smile out of her. “You look pretty good in spots, too.” She looked around for anything that could help even the odds against the akumatized enemy, all business now that the flirting was out of the way. “Okay, if I cataclysm the ground under one of his feet, I can knock him off balance while you use lucky charm.”
He nodded and shouted the familiar phrase while she shouted, “Cataclysm!” Energy buzzed under her skin, humming just over the surface of her gloves. She grinned and ran at the villain, swiping the ground under his foot to send him tumbling down onto his side.
Chat Noir was already wrapping his yo-yo around the akumatized villain and tugging him down to the ground. Marinette held him still while her partner wielded his lucky charm, a spotted seam ripper, to remove a dark purple patch from the man’s shirt. Chat Noir jumped back and ripped it in two. Marinette grinned and watched the black butterfly soar up before Chat Noir caught and cleansed it.
He sent her another wink before tossing the seam ripper up in the air, shouting, “Miraculous Ladybug!”
Marinette settled back on her heels as buildings were restored and the man reverted back to his normal appearance.
“Ladybug!” Alya ran up to them. “Did you two trade miraculouses?”
She straightened and sent Alya a calm smile, already prepared to lie her way out of the situation. “We thought it would be good for us to understand each other’s powers just in case. We just swapped temporarily.” She chuckled and slung an arm over Chat Noir’s shoulders. “He makes a good Ladybug, don’t you think?”
He beamed at her praise, easily playing along. “Thanks, bugaboo.”
“Bugaboo?” Alya asked softly.
“We really should be going.” Marinette tugged out her baton as her miraculous beeped. “Come on, Ladybug.”
He chuckled and swooped off, leaving her to follow him as they raced to another part of the city. She carefully counted the number of beeps while they looked for a safe place to detransform. When their last warning sounded, she indicated an empty alley and dropped down to the ground. He followed, landing beside her.
“So, how-”
She quickly grabbed him and turned so their backs were touching. “Okay. Here’s the plan. We detransform, trade, and then you leave. After five minutes, I’ll leave, and you have to be out of the area.”
She could feel him nod behind her. “Okay.”
The alley lit up with twin pink and green flashes of light as their transformations simultaneously fell. Marinette grinned when Tikki flew in front of her, “Thank goodness you’re okay!”
Tikki nuzzled her cheek. “I’m glad you’re okay, too.”
A hand snaked back, awkwardly holding her earrings out to her.
She quickly grabbed them and removed his ring. “How did you wear these anyway?” She pressed the ring into his palm.
He chuckled. “Are you asking if my ears are pierced?”
“I guess your curiosity rubbed off on me, kitty,” she teased back, putting in her earrings.
“Tikki said it wouldn’t be a problem.” He shrugged, the flex of his shoulder against her back alerting her to the action. “They were clip-ons when I put them on.”
“I guess that makes sense. I think your ring shrank down to fit me,” Marinette murmured.
“The miraculous shifts to fit the user,” Tikki explained. “I’ve had male Ladybugs before.”
“Really?” Chat Noir asked.
“We should probably talk about this later,” Marinette said, gently nudging him forward with her elbow. “Remember. Five minutes.”
“Five minutes. Don’t worry.” He walked away, his receding footsteps echoing softly in the alley.
Marinette pulled out her phone to check the time. After starting a timer, she set the phone aside and tugged off the plastic poncho she was still wearing. The helmet she’d borrowed was still on top of the rooftop where she’d transformed. She made a mental note to pick that up later and try to return it.
“Hey! Pick up your phone!” She jumped as Alya’s voice rang out from her phone. The screen abruptly changed from the native clock app to an incoming call. “Marinette, pick up your phone!” Marinette bitterly regretted allowing Alya to record her own custom ringtone. The sound of her best friend’s shouting was loud enough to be heard from the main road. She could only hope Chat Noir had managed to put enough distance between them that he hadn’t heard it.
Marinette scrambled to pick up her phone. “H-hey! Alya! What’s-”
“Marinette! Where are you? You won’t believe what happened! Ladybug and Chat Noir swapped their miraculouses! It was amazing!”
Marinette chuckled and leaned back against the wall. “You’re kidding!” She checked the time again. Four more minutes. “I think I’m near that cafe where we had lunch on Tuesday. I got a little turned around running from that akuma.”
“Okay, meet me at your place. You have to see this!”
“Okay! I’ll see you soon!” Marinette grinned and hung up. Two more minutes. “Three minutes is probably long enough. Don’t you think, Tikki?”
Tikki smiled. “I think so.”
Marinette ran out of the alley and hurried down the street. She quickly scanned through her missed texts from Alya as she went. Midway through the fifth “Marinette, seriously, I cannot believe you’re missing this!”, she collided with someone else and nearly knocked them over.
Thankfully, she managed to catch herself and grabbed onto the other person in the process. “I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking where I-” She looked up to see the latest victim of her legendary clumsiness and gasped when she saw Adrien looking down at her. “A-A-Adrien!” She grinned awkwardly, acutely aware of her hand, wrapped around his bicep to steady him.
He smiled. “Hey, Marinette.”
“I, um… Sorry. I was looking at my phone, and-”
“It’s okay.” He chuckled. “It’s, uh, funny running into you, actually.”
“Really?” she asked, finally releasing his arm and stepping back.
“Yeah. I was kind of thinking it might be nice to stop by your parents’ bakery.”
“Oh! That’s a-actually where I’m going right now!”
“Mind if I join you?” he asked, looking more nervous than she’d ever seen him before.
“Sure! It’s, um, right this way.”
He nodded and followed her.
In the end, he spent a few hours with her and Alya, feasting on croissants and watching Alya’s footage of Ladybug and Chat Noir’s latest fight several times over. Adrien had nearly as many theories about Ladybug as Alya, some of which impressed Marinette. Even better, she could have sworn she caught him blushing when he started talking about how wonderful Ladybug was. If Adrien already liked Ladybug, it was only a matter of time before he’d like Marinette, too. After all, they were the same person, and she spent much more time with him as Marinette than she did as Ladybug.
Once Adrien and Alya left for the evening, Marinette finally had the chance to properly apologize to Tikki. “I promise I won’t take them off again.”
“Marinette, it’s okay. Everything worked out.” Tikki smiled. “Besides, it was nice to meet Chat Noir.”
“Do you think he heard my phone? Does he know who I am?” Marinette asked, part of her still concerned.
Tikki giggled. “I don’t think so.”
Marinette flopped back onto her bed and sighed. “You know, Plagg laughed when he saw who I was.”
“Did he?” Tikki asked, despite the fact that she didn’t sound at all surprised.
“Do Chat Noir and I know each other?”
Tikki paused, then she flew over to look down at Marinette. “You know it wouldn’t be fair for me to answer that.”
“Yeah, I know.” She sighed. “I just wonder sometimes.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure you two will find out someday.”
Marinette frowned. “Is that safe?”
Tikki settled beside her. “We’ll see.”
Marinette turned on her side and curled around Tikki. “I’m glad you’re safe. I was really worried when I couldn’t find you.”
Tikki smiled. “I am, too. Get some rest, Marinette. It’s been a long day.”
“It was.” She yawned and nodded. “But I got to see Adrien.”
“Yes. He seemed very happy to see you, too.”
“You think so?” Marinette asked, already half-asleep.
“I’m sure he was.”
hey, @twindoodle, i’m your backup secret santa for the @mlsecretsanta this year!
i was stalling kind of hard over what you might like, but then found that ‘adrien actin like chat’ was a Thing that you might enjoy, so here. i hope adrien figuring things out is up your alley :D
your art is heckin adorable and it was an honor to do this for you ♥ happy (very belated) holidays!
I WANT @mirthaculous‘S POWERS HOLY SHIT and also thank her so much she f i n i s h e d this at 6am, that’s how much cleaning up this required hj hfjhg dgdjhfkjh j gljg bvmgkljh //laysonface ;; ♥♥♥♥
summary: In which Adrien learns how to flirt and Marinette screams internally, externally, and eternally.
Being friends with Adrien Agreste throughout all of lycée was... kind of fascinating, honestly.
He changed so much.
One upon a time Marinette had fallen in love with him because he was kind, and he was good, and he stood up against inequality when he saw it --- which was a rare thing, at least in Marinette's experience. Those qualities had never gone away, but the longer she knew him, the more different they began to look.
In good ways.
Very good ways.
(The longer she knew him, the less she knew how to tell him that, so her crush remained embarrassingly large and embarrassingly impotent.
She... she was working on it.)
But the point was, being sort-of friends with Adrien throughout the whole of lycée was interesting because she got to see the slow progress of Adrien gaining confidence.
When he'd first started coming to school, he was shy.
Very shy.
It hadn't been something she'd realized at the time, but looking back, he'd faded into the background unless he was called out. He never spoke out against anyone without being extremely pressed, and even then only Chloé was able to push his buttons that bad. The only person he'd initiated contact with was Nino.
It had emphasized how polite he was, how selflessly kind he was, but it also kept him at an arm's length from just about everyone. Marinette's picture of him was pieced through the lens of her crush, the little moments where he was kind and understanding and gentle, and through the copious number of modelling ads that moved from her favorite magazines to her walls.
He played piano and basketball, he fenced, he volunteered at animal shelters, and... that was all she knew. For the whole first year of lycée she was able to recite his schedule off the top of her head at any given moment, but she hadn't known how he felt about any of them.
It was funny to think about now, but she'd spent all her time learning everything she could about him... and in the end, knew absolutely nothing about him.
Thankfully, that started to change by the end of seconde year, and she was pretty sure she had Nino to thank for it. It was Nino being his usual self, complete with careful care and omnipresent Friendship, that had slowly brought Adrien out of his shell.
Marinette hadn't noticed the start of the change, still too busy worshipping the pictures on her walls to see it happening. But sometimes he would stop and talk to her when he hadn't before, or stand close enough to Alya to get tugged into her strike range for physical affection, or speak up in a class discussion with a quiet joke instead of his normal attentive seriousness.
Their second year, in première, did more for him. In première he had friends.
This also took Marinette a while to notice, but he could sometimes be seen brushing Juleka's hair in the halls during their shared free period, or spending at least an hour in the library with Max every week nerding out over video games, or being fairly tight texting buddies with Alya.
Première was also the year that Marinette learned how to string together a complete, coherent sentence in front of him. That was the year they had their first real two-sided dialogue involving a mutual exchange of information --- and her first real, true glimpse at who Adrien was under all that polite shyness.
He was sweet. He was kind. He was enthusiastic and dorky and had a sense of humor that she was almost contractually obligated to roll her eyes at.
That was about the point where Marinette's crush went from 'mildly obsessive' to 'actually debilitating.'
It was made even more debilitating by the fact that Adrien truly, honestly seemed to enjoy her company.
She would walk into the classroom where her friends were having a debate, and catching sight of her was all it would take to turn Adrien's frown upside down. He laughed at all her jokes, even the terrible ones. He hugged her after his fencing tournaments and called her after school to talk about the most random, stupid things that came to mind, like he was just looking for an excuse to talk to her.
Eventually she knew enough about him to fill a textbook, and every new thing she learned just made her crush harder to bear.
Sure, she could string together a sentence in front of him now, but at what cost?
(This was made even worse by the fact that première was also the year that Chat had toned down his showing off.
She'd already been having trouble ignoring the tiny little crush she'd developed on her cute, loyal partner, only to discover that said crush got several times bigger and harder to ignore when his outrageous flirting was replaced by open, crystal-clear, heart-on-his-sleeve honesty.
It was a lot easier to brush off a casual, winking, "Ah, the sparks between us must have shorted the elevator out," than it was to brush off a dazed, awed, "You're the most amazing person I've ever met."
All of this meant that Marinette was caught between a crush that was getting more casually affectionate all the time, and a suitor that was getting decidedly less casual --- and yet no less respectful or trustworthy --- all the time.
Long story short, Marinette spent much of her première year screaming into her pillow.)
And then came year three: Terminale.
And during terminale, Adrien somehow, somewhere, learned how to flirt.
Marinette wanted a refund.
Oh, it had started subtle enough: little innuendo-laced comments that he didn't go out of his way to avoid, innocent touches when they talked, watching her out of the corners of his eyes and not looking away when she caught him. Little things that managed to imply that he wouldn't really mind if she wanted to kiss him.
Given that Marinette had very much wanted to kiss him for a good two and a half years by that point, it was just enough of a not-invitation to make her go out of her mind.
He doesn't mean it, became her daily mantra. He doesn't mean it, he doesn't mean it, he doesn't mean it, he doesn't mean it, he doesn't mean it, he doesn't mean it, he doesn't---
(Chat, on the other hand, definitely did mean it, and had no problem with making that perfectly clear at any given opportunity --- without ever actually pushing her boundaries.
You see what Marinette's problem was here, right?)
And then, as Marinette spectacularly failed to reject him, it. Got. Worse.
Kisses on the back of her hand, jokes about dating, jokes about kissing --- Adrien wouldn't make the jokes himself, but the little smirk on his face when someone implied that they were doing things was just as bad, if not much, much worse.
There was more innocent touching, more slightly-less-innocent touching (arms under her thighs on the few occasions when he picked her up, hugs that lasted a little too long, hands idly rested on her waist when she stood next to him...), and a general lack of shame about touching her all around.
Marinette, frustrated beyond belief (in many more ways than one), hadn't been sure if she was in heaven or in hell.
Then, somehow, it got worse.
Because, you know, of course it did.
Now Adrien stretched if he caught her staring, always with an unbearably cocky little grin that she wanted to smack off, kiss off, and sit on by turns. Marinette discovered first-hand that no, Adrien actually making the dirty jokes was infinitely, infinitely worse than simply not denying them. He kissed her cheek and complimented her appearance and smiled at her when he thought she wasn't looking --- only to smile wider when he found she was looking back.
Hell. It was definitely hell that she was in.
(And all of this was chased by deep midnight conversations with Chat; by races across rooftops that ended in slow-dancing on the top of the Eiffel Tower to the sound of their own humming; by Chat actually swooning into her arms when she kissed his cheek; by Chat dropping hints about his civilian identity, practically begging her to figure it out once she'd implied that she wouldn't mind knowing; by Chat kissing her knuckles while his eyes offered a promise he didn't have to voice...
Marinette was in trouble.
Marinette was in major trouble.)
The final straw came somewhere around finals season, when everyone was preparing for their baccalauréats.
She and Adrien were studying together with Nino and Alya in the library study rooms, as friends do --- and Marinette, exhausted right past the point of being able to focus, was starting to derail every question they tackled.
Alya, hoping to threaten Marinette back into focusing on the material, pulled the straw out of her smuggled latte and waved it in Marinette's face. "I swear, if you take us off course one more time..."
Then one her feints swung a little wide, and Marinette found herself thwacked across the cheek with a whipped-cream-laden straw.
"Hey!"
"Oh, whoops," Alya laughed, incorrigible, looking over the study-material-covered table for napkins. "You gotta dodge, girl!"
"I didn't think you'd actually hit me!" Marinette whined, hand only hovering by her cheek because a life spent in a bakery meant that she was practically hardwired to never touch her face when food was involved.
Across the table, Adrien looked pointedly up at the ceiling, incidentally doing nothing to hide his grin.
"Oh you hush," Marinette grumbled, folding her hands on the table and submitting to her fate of whipped cream showcase.
Adrien looked down from the ceiling, expression softening the moment he laid his eyes on her, just as it always did lately.
Marinette, just as she always did lately, felt her heart stammer to a stop, cheeks heating at a furious pace.
(She really wanted that refund.)
The corner of his mouth quirked kindly, and Marinette watched it in blank fascination.
He'd always been unbearably pretty, but there was a saying about how a soul could make a body beautiful, and Marinette was of the firm opinion that Adrien's could've made any body beautiful.
That was the thought floating around in her head when Adrien leaned out of his seat and reached across the table, and it distracted her so much that she didn't realize what he was going to do until he was already in the process of doing it.
Fingers on her cheek, Adrien dragged them through the sugary mess --- warm, rough fencing callouses on her sensitive skin and a soft smile on his face.
Marinette couldn't do anything but stare and burn.
He withdrew his hand, studying the cream on his fingers for a moment before opening his mouth and---
Marinette's hand shot out entirely of its own accord and wrapped around his wrist, halting it halfway across the table.
In that moment, Marinette was absolutely sure that he was about to lick his fingers clean, and that if he did, it would be the one thing she couldn't survive.
It wouldn't be a big thing, it wouldn't be the worst thing --- heck, it wouldn't even be a notable thing in the long run of truly mind-blowing things he'd said and done to her over the past year --- but she was tired. She was unfocused. She was distracted and frustrated and just last night Chat had dropped yet another hint as to who he was, and...
And Marinette was starting to suspect.
And if her suspicions were correct, then she really wouldn't be able to take that.
She just wouldn't.
So, of course, her solution to the issue was to drag Adrien's hand back over and lick his fingers clean herself.
Logic.
She got as far as tasting the salt of his skin beneath the sweet, creamy flavour before she realized that she'd made a very big mistake.
Mouth watering, she glanced up to find all traces of Adrien's smile gone, wiped clean by naked shock.
She considered for a second, and then gave his fingers a gentle, experimental suck.
Adrien's pupils visibly dilated, his jaw going slack.
If he asked, she planned to protest that his fingers were already there, and what else was she supposed to do with things in her mouth, really?
He didn't ask.
Marinette, emboldened, swirled her tongue around the digits in a motion just this side of too-suggestive to be excused as an attempt to get all of the cream, heat tingling low in the pit of her stomach.
(She'd had fantasies, okay?)
A low, pressurized noise escaped Adrien, slightly more than a wheeze but distinctly less than a groan, and it took all of Marinette's reservations and threw them bodily from the nearest tenth-story window.
She let her eyes slide shut and went after every trace of whipped cream with a vengeance.
(A sweet, seductive, suggestive vengeance, but a vengeance all the same.)
(Fantasies. She'd had them.)
When she opened her eyes back up, she found Adrien staring at her, flushed from hairline to collar with still more of the blush peeking out from the sleeves of his t-shirt. She was pretty sure he'd stopped breathing altogether. The moment their eyes met, his mouth shut with a click, his adam's apple bobbing with an audible gulp.
Marinette, in a show of spectacular self-control, did not attempt to clamber over the table.
Rather, in a show of a spectacular lack of self-control, she pulled his hand out of her mouth with a combined purr and suck, smirking as soon as his fingers were free.
Impulse had her licking her lips, hunger settling low in her belly at the taste of salt and glee spiking in her veins as he tracked the motion. Impulse also had her smirking a little wider as she purred, "Thanks for the treat, mon minou."
If it wasn't him, it would just be a pet name. If it was him, she'd know.)
His entire face went lust-slack, lips numbly forming, Ladybu---
"Um. Do we need to leave the room?"
Marinette and Adrien leapt about a foot in the air as one.
(It was him, it was him, it was h i m---)
Alya and Nino were also acting as one, staring hard and quirking their eyebrows in eerie sync.
"Uhh," said Marinette.
(---it was him, it was him, it was him---)
Adrien wrenched his hand out her grip, yelping, "Nope! Nope, we're--- we're f-fine---... We... We're... Um."
"I mean," said Alya, eyebrow game still going strong, "if you need us to leave so you can clear out that UST, it might help."
(It was him.)
"Nnn..." Adrien started.
"Well, I mean," said Marinette, cutting him off and glancing at him pointedly, because never let it be said that she hesitated once she knew what she wanted.
She didn't think she'd ever seen Adrien shut up so fast.
Alya looked from Marinette to Adrien and then to Nino, who raised his eyebrows back at her, then pushed herself up.
Marinette blinked. She hadn't expected to be listened to.
"Well then," Alya said over the scrape of Nino's chair as he followed her. "I'm getting another latte. Let us know when you can focus on test prep again."
"Um," said Adrien.
"Right," said Marinette.
They left.
To her credit, she waited until the door had clicked shut behind them before actually climbing over the table.
(It took her a while to get around to it, occupied as she was by Adrien's eager mouth and eager hands, but somewhere in the middle of all of it she managed to accuse, "You found me. When?"
"It's been a year, slowpoke."
"Oh my god, Chat."
He just laughed --- laughed and laughed and laughed until she captured his mouth and proved how very potent her crush could be, and let him prove to her just how much confidence he'd gained.
She was still in major trouble, but she couldn't say she wanted that refund anymore.)
a very belated happy holidays to @judiejodia from your @mlsecretsanta!!! sorry for the wait, but i really love the beauxbatons au! i hope you had a happy holidays and you have a great new year~
The Perils of Fake-Dating a Superheroine (Nathanael/Queen Bee!Chloe)
@casual-voodoo
@mlsecretsanta
Nothing had brought more peril or bother to Nathanael’s life than the day Hawkmoth got it in his head that he was dating Queen Bee.
It had started with a chance rescue, the black and yellow heroine scooping him up as he fell from the claws of an Akuma that dangled him over the Seine. And at the time, it had been thrilling; to be scooped up by Paris’ latest heroine and whisked away over the rooftops away from danger. There wasn’t a teenager in Paris that hadn’t idly fantasized about being rescued by one of the four superheroes that saved their city on a regular basis.
Then the kidnappings started.
“This is so fucking cliché, dude.”
The one plus side to being used as a human chess piece in Hawkmoth’s game was the fact that Nathanael now knew Nino better than he ever had before. Volpina’s boyfriend sighed through his nose, head resting against the conjured railroad track as the phantom steam engine rocketed closer and closer to the two figures bound back to back.
“I mean this is some genuine Snidely Whiplash bullshit,” Nino grumbled, trying to wriggle free of the thick, coiled rope that bound him and Nathanael to the track. “Like, I don’t know if we need to call Ladybug or the fucking Dover Boys at this point, you know?”
“I know,” Nathanael said, watching the opera cloaked akuma cackle and rub his hands together a few yards away. “No one has an appreciation for the classics more than me, but that doesn’t mean you have to rip them off.”
“I…I beg your pardon?!” Vaudevillain screeched, pulling a nearby level and grinding the train to a screeching halt. Dust shook down from the tunnel roof as the akuma rolled the boys off the track, planting a boot on Nino’s chest. “There is nothing cliché about my performance villainy! If anything, I’m subverting the traditional damsel-in-distress narrative by pursuing Volpina and Queen Bee’s boy toys.”
“I’m not her boy-toy,” Nathanael mumbled into the dirt floor.
“Wow, you’re such a progressive murderer,” Nino snorted, rolling his eyes as the boys were rolled back onto the railroad track. “You want a BAFTA for this?”
“Ideally, yes,” Vaudevillain sighed, rolling the train back on its tracks. “Sadly, performance crime is tragically underappreciated in this city.”
“Maybe the next boys you murder will net you a seat at Cannes,” Nathanael snorted, leaning his head back to talk to Nino. “Hey, did you finish the science homework?”
“Just got to do the lab writeup,” Nino shrugged. “Why, you want to look at it?”
“Just to double check,” Nathanael said, kicking his feet back and forth. “Gotta bring my science grade up or my dad is gonna disinherit me.”
“Dude, don’t you have a B+?”
“Might as well be an F according to Dr. Kuntzberg.”
“Rough, man,” Nino clucked. “Yeah, I’ll email you the report when we get-”
“AHEM,” Vaudevillain cleared his throat, tapping his bootheel against the rail. “I’m sorry, aren’t you two supposed to be pleading for your lives or something?!”
“Is that what you want?” Nino asked.
“I would appreciate a little begging, yes.”
“Or what?” Nathanael snorted. “You’ll kill us?”
“Well…well, obviously I’m going to kill you anyway,” Vaudevillain said, taking his top hat off and running a hand through his greasy black hair. “But this is sort of my first big performance villainy piece and I was expecting more…pleading? I mean-”
The akuma gestured to the menacing freight engine puffing steam and waiting on his command to crush the boys tied to the track.
“Shouldn’t you be terrified or something?!” Vaudevillain spluttered.
Nino and Nathanael glanced at the demonic looking train with a small shrug and a half-hearted “eh.”
“This isn’t our first hostage situation,” Nino said.
“And as thematic as this whole “silent movie star” gimmick is, you’re not exactly the most terrifying akuma to hold us captive,” Nathanael sniffed, rubbing his back up and down on the railing to scratch an itch.
“Yeah, remember Deathman?” Nino said.
“Now there was an akuma,” Nathanael said. “Raised hoards of flaming phantom skeletons to fight Chat Noir and Queen Bee.”
“Or Sharkfist?”
“Literal hands made out of sharks.”
“Monkey Kong?”
“Still can’t eat a bananas.”
“The point we’re trying to make, Charlie Chaplain, is that this isn’t our first rodeo,” Nino said. “I don’t know if you thought you were being original kidnapping Volpina and Queen Bee’s boy toys-”
“I am not her boy-toy,” Nathanael muttered.
“Okay, dude, what the hell is up with that?” Nino asked, craning his neck over his shoulder. “This is literally the eighth time you’ve been personally singled out and kidnapped by some akuma looking to get at Bee.”
“Yes, I just assumed the pair of you were together like the tall boy and the fox girl,” Vaudevillain said, leaning on the lever.
“Guilty,” Nino shrugged with a lopsided grin.
“Not like I could very well kidnap Ladybug or Chat Noir,” Vaudevillain continued. “So…I-I mean naturally I need to use someone as bait so-”
“Look, I appreciate the sentiment and commitment to supervillain clichés,” Nathanael sighed, trying in vain to blow his bangs out of his face. “But you’ve been gravely misinformed about my boy-toy status, especially with regards to-”
SMASH
“Right on time,” Nathanael said, watching a streak of black and yellow collide with the akuma at full speed.
“Have you been telling people we’re dating?”
This was the question that greeted Nathanael as he closed the door to his bedroom and saw a pair of perturbed blue eyes glaring at him from the edge of his bed.
“How did you…” Nathanael sighed, dropping his backpack in a chair as he sat down at his desk. “You know what, never mind; I don’t want to know.”
“I didn’t break in,” Queen Bee sniffed. “You just didn’t lock it properly.”
“Clearly I need to put up a bug zapper too,” Nathanael said, spinning around in his chair to look the superhero in the eye. “Can I help you?”
“Have you been telling people we’re dating?” Queen Bee repeated, arms crossing and foot tapping against the side of the bed. “That stupid 20’s movie akuma today said something about you being my boy-toy while I was closing a door on his head.”
“Wasn’t my doing,” Nathanael sighed, shrugging helplessly. “Hawkmoth must’ve got it in his stupidly dressed head that we were a thing after you saved me from Clock-twerk back in March.”
“So, wait, I save your ginger-ass from getting plastered on the sidewalk and somehow Hawkmoth got it in his head that we’re-” Queen Bee gestured back and forth between them with her finger.
“Why do you think I’ve been kidnapped eight times in four weeks?” Nathanael said.
“Because you’re a bright red, slow moving target?”
“Because Hawkmoth knows he can’t use Chat or Ladybug as leverage, so he goes after me and Volpina’s boyfriend,” Nathanael sighed.
“Oh…well, that’s annoying,” Queen Bee huffed.
“Thank you.”
“I meant for me,” Queen Bee clarified. “Can’t you just…you know…stop?”
“Stop what?”
“Stop getting kidnapped or whatever,” Queen Bee said, wrinkling her nose. “Every time you do, I have to save you and it’s getting really annoying.”
Nathanael blinked, squinting at Queen Bee for a long second before turning back to his desk. “Right…I’ll just…try not to be abducted from now on.”
“Good.”
“I was being sarcas-” Nathanael turned around to see Queen Bee gone and his skylight open above his bed.
“Yeah…definitely need a better lock,” Nathanael said, reaching up tugging the skylight closed.
“What was the one thing I asked you to do?”
Nathanael chewed the inside of his lip as he dangled upside down from a thick mess of spiderweb.
“My hero,” Nathanael said flatly. “My personal savior and messiah, please deliver me from cruel cruel bond-oomph!”
The top ripped from Queen Bee’s hand, severing the string in a single cut and sending Nathanael tumbling to the ground in a heap.
“One job,” Queen Bee said, holding her finger up. “You had one job and that was not to get kidnapped.”
“Sorry I’m such an apparently vulnerable target,” Nathanael sighed, brushing his shirt off.
“Well you’re clearly doing something wrong,” Queen Bee huffed, tapping her foot against the ground. “Have you considered moving?”
“Yeah, let me just call my Dad and tell him I want to move to Belgium because a supervillain in a cheap purple suit thinks I’m dating one of his nemeses,” Nathanael said, picking a loose strand of sticky thread off his shirt.
“Belgium probably doesn’t have spider themed hussies kidnapping people’s boyfriends,” Queen Bee said. “Just sayin’”
“I’m not your boy-”
“I know you’re not my boyfriend!” Queen Bee snapped. “But she still thinks you are, which means she thinks she can kidnap my boyfriend whenever she wants to!”
“That’s…insulting?” Nathanael said.
“It is to me!” Queen Bee said with a dark scowl. “Like, who the hell does she think she is, kidnapping my not-boyfriend like I’m not gonna do anything about it?!”
“You’re really taking this personally, aren’t you?”
“Of course I am!”
“We’re…not dating though.”
“That’s not the point!” Queen Bee snapped, jetting off in the direction of the eight-legged akuma who had Ladybug in her jaws.
“…isn’t it?” Nathanael asked.
“…sooooooooo what’s up with you and Bee?” Chat Noir asked as Queen Bee kicked an akuma off a bridge into the Seine.
“We’re not dating,” Nathanael sighed as Chat carried him away from the action.
“Are you suuuuuuu-”
“WE’RE-”
“-NOT DATING!”
“Okay, okay!” Volpina said, holding her hands up. “Fine, fine, sorry I asked.”
“You can see how we might get that impression,” Ladybug said, raising her hands placatingly as Queen Bee sulked on the corner of the rooftop. “And he is a sweet guy…f-from what I’ve heard, I mean.”
This was getting badly out of hand. It was one thing for her worst enemy to think that she had a thing for Nathanael; the worst Hawkmoth could do was kill him. But once her partners had caught the smell of romantic blood in the water, they started to circle like hungry sharks.
“You should have seen his face when you saved him from the last akuma,” Chat snickered. “Soooooo red.”
Chat leaned out of the way of the top Queen Been whipped at his head with a sharp laugh.
“They’re staring at me,” Nathanael mumbled, raising his menu to block the curious patrons glances.
“Please; they’re not staring at you,” Queen Bee snorted, offering a magnanimous wave to the rubbernecking restaurant patrons. “And if they do, it’s because you’re here on a date with me.”
“Date…right,” Nathanael sighed.
“Don’t look so disappointed,” Queen Bee said. “I’m sure there’s hundreds of guys who would lie, cheat, and steal for a chance to go on a date with me.”
“I thought we were supposed to be an unhappy couple,” Nathanael said.
“We are,” Queen Bee clarified, glancing around the restaurant surreptitiously. “But save it for when that busybody from the Ladyblog shows up.”
“How do you know Alya is going to-”
“Her mom’s the head chef here,” Queen Bee said with a smirk. “And she does her homework at the table in the corner every day. So just pretend to talk to me until she gets here and then I can dump you publicly.”
“Why can’t I be the one to dump you again?” Nathanael asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Because no one would believe that you would actually throw away a chance to date me,” Queen Bee scoffed.
“They would if they knew what it entailed,” Nathanael muttered.
“Don’t look so glum,” Queen Bee chided. “Do you know how much your dating credit is going to increase after this? I mean, granted, you’re not going to trade up or anything, but the fact that everyone thought we were dating is going to pique some interest.”
“Honestly, I’m only doing this so Hawkmoth stops snatching me off the street every other day,” Nathanael grumbled, taking a sip of his water. “I’d like to go through a week without getting abducted by the minions of a man who chooses to dress like a butterfly.”
“Oh god, right?” Queen Bee snorted. “The guy looks like a refugee from Candyland’s Comicon.”
“He looks like a luchador attending junior prom,” Nathanael added. “Or if someone drew a humanized version of Grimace from the McDonald cartoons.”
Nathanael couldn’t help the smile tugging at the corner of his lips as Queen Bee covered her mouth to keep from spraying water all over the table.
It was hard to get to know someone when they couldn’t really tell you anything incriminating about them, but over the course of the night, and despite their best intentions, the pair learned a little more about each other.
He learned that she loved her father, but wished he had more time for her.
She learned that he didn’t want to tell his dad that he had no interest in going into medical school.
He learned that, despite her haughty exterior, she could be one of the crassest people he had ever met.
She learned that he was nowhere nearly as milquetoast as she had assumed he was.
And very soon, it was closing time. Alya hadn’t showed all night, and as the distant clock struck midnight, Nathanael’s feet touched down on the roof of his house.
“Thanks for the lift,” Nathanael said, brushing his shirt off as Queen Bee hovered behind him.
“I don’t know where blog-girl was today,” Queen Bee huffed, folding her arms. “Kinda spoils the whole ‘public break up’ thing, doesn’t it?”
“Nothing we can do,” Nathanael shrugged. “Just have to try again.”
“I guess,” Queen Bee huffed, eyeing Nathanael curiously. “What are you gonna do in the mean time?”
“I guess I’m gonna have to try not to get kidnapped,” Nathanael said with a sheepish smile.
Queen Bee rolled her eyes, mostly to avoid lingering on the bangs she had had the urge to brush out of his face for blocks. “Yeah, well, see that you do. I might not be able to save you next time.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” Nathanael said, glancing back as he popped his bedroom hatch open. “Queen Bee wouldn’t dare let Hawkmoth get his hands on her boy-toy.”
His teasing tone, and casual wave over his shoulder let her know he wasn’t serious, which led to a strange wash of disappointment that Chloe didn’t quite know what to do with. She hovered above his roof for a long moment before taking off, twirling in midair and streaking down the block as fast as her wings would carry her.
“This is your fault.”
Alya blinked, opening her eyes to see a black and yellow clad figure hovering over her bed and glaring down at her.
“W…what the-” Alya mumbled, glancing around in a half-woken daze.
“You were supposed to be a the restaurant today, so you could see me break up with Nathanael, but because you weren’t for some stupid reason, I went on a stupid date with his stupid pretty face, and now, instead of breaking up with him, I now actually have to entertain the idea of actually dating him!” Queen Bee hissed out in one, long breath. “So thanks Alya!”
“Wh…what did I do?” Alya mumbled as Queen Bee turned around and zipped out the window. For a moment, she worried it had been some strange sleep-paralysis induced hallucination, until Queen Bee flitted back in, glanced around the room for a moment, and then knocked over a cup full of pencils in an act of pure spite.
“It is way too early for this,” Alya grumbled, burrowing back under her comforters.
AN: Happy (Belated) Christmas! I was your backup Secret Santa! Sorry this is tardy and hope this fills your ChloNath needs!
Happy to Be
This is my @mlsecretsanta gift to @slowdragon25! Sorry you had to wait so long, but I hope you enjoy it! ^^
Summary: Adrien and a sleepy Marinette think about how far they’ve come as they and their relationship continue to change.
AO3 | WC: 3.2k
“...inette? Marinette!” a voice called, snapping the girl awake. She sat up quickly, suddenly alert, and looked around until her eyes landed on the one who had called for her. Her heart fluttered to see Adrien giving her a concerned look, and despite her best efforts, she couldn’t stop herself from blushing just a tiny bit.
Really, she tried to get over her feelings for Adrien. He never seemed to return them, and if Marinette were to be honest, he’d become quite the open book when it came to his emotions. As such, Marinette could tell when he was happy, sad, lonely, angry, confused, and, on the not-so-rare occasion that Ladybug was mentioned, in love. He had certainly never looked at her the way he did Ladybug. And yet, though she thought it was fruitless, her heart continued to skip a beat everytime she saw him.
He said her name again, and she realized she’d gotten lost in her thoughts. Trying to focus, she gave her head a little shake and yawned before responding, “Yeah? What’s up?” Even though it’s been gone for awhile, she was still proud to have rid herself of the embarrassing stutter she had developed solely around Adrien.
“You, uh… how late did you stay up last night, Mar? You’ve been zoned out all morning, including right now.”
“If you’re counting until I fell asleep before class started… then I was up until class started.”
Giving her a disapproving look, he sighed and stood up, gesturing for her to do the same. “C’mon, it’s lunch and we’re gonna go nap in your room.” He said it without even asking to come to her home, and she realized how comfortable he had grown around her and the others. He knew he was always welcome in the bakery, and as she had become better friends with him, they developed a relationship that made the other feel at ease enough to declare things like napping together or doing the other’s hair. She almost didn’t realize he started talking again, and had to force herself to focus on what he said. “Nino and Alya are on a quick date, Chlo’s going shopping, and Lila’s running an errand for her dad, so it’s just you and I. Nathalie packed me those protein shake packets you like for some reason. Personally, I think they’re gross, but not everyone can have as complex a pallet as I have.”
Marinette snorted, and he gave her an affronted look. “Adrien, I have seen you eat a plate of cookies that fell on the floor because you were going to cry if we threw them away. You just don’t like the protein shakes because you’ve had them too often.”
“Mari, trust me on this. They are super gross,” he said in a serious tone. His body language gave him away though, because he was shaking from the laughter he was trying to hold in.
“Know what else is super gross?” she asked. When he shrugged, she continued, “Us still being inside of the school when we could be walking back to my place for naps.”
A grin stretched over Adrien’s face, and after sweeping a bow to Marinette as she walked out the door, he said, “As my princess demands, we shall travel to the finest bakery in all the lands. If she so wishes, we can ride in the most comfortable seats, or walk down the paths paved with the hopes someone of my princess’s stature would someday take pity and step upon them.”
With a roll of her eyes, and with a tired smile, Marinette shoved at Adrien’s shoulder. She was far too used to his antics by now, and although her cheeks grew pink, she knew he was joking around. She made one comment about Chat Noir calling her ‘Princess’ one time, and suddenly everyone was calling her it. It just so happened that Adrien grew too fond of the nickname, and used it at every opportunity he could. The fact that he said she was his princess did not go unnoticed by anyone, but Marinette never made comment on it. “You dork. Walking is fine, but I can’t guarantee you won’t end up carrying me part of the way. I’m about ready to fall asleep standing.”
“Then we’ll be on our way!” he proclaimed, skipping out in front of her, a definite spring in his step. “Kinda sucks the bakery isn’t right next door now, huh?”
“Yeah, but it’s also nice. I enjoy the walk and being able to go elsewhere for lunch. Don’t get me wrong, Maman and Papa are great cooks, but I like mixing it up every once in awhile. You know, like you should have done with the protein shakes,” she said with a smirk.
“Marinette! I thought we were on the same si- woah, watch out there!” he exclaimed, grabbing her by the shoulders and steering her away from the trash can she was about to run into. She yawned again, and he sighed. “Alright, I don’t think you’ll make it to your place like this,” he said, and kneeled down. “A princess shouldn’t dirty her shoes anyways, so c’mon, I’ll give you a ride.”
“Slow down there, Sunshine, I can walk. I was just distracted by our riveting conversation,” she said, voice dry and dripping with sarcasm towards the end. Adrien smiled and shook his head at her, and when she wouldn’t get on his back, he took the matter into his own hands by scooping her into his arms. She squealed at suddenly being lifted into the air, and slapped his chest as she told him to let her down.
“Sorry, no can do, my princess. If I let you have your way, you’ll sleepwalk into the street or walk right off a bridge and into the river! What kind of prince would I be if I didn’t see you home safely for our more-than-weekly nap?”
Marinette stuck her tongue out at him, but stopped struggling to get down. She didn’t really have the energy to fight back, and really, being in Adrien’s arms wasn’t so bad. Okay, she thought, it’s not bad at all, it’s actually really, really nice. Not that I would ever tell him that.
Adrien tilted his head in confusion. “Never tell who what?”
He was looking down at her, and she scowled a bit. If she weren’t so tired, then she probably wouldn’t have accidentally spoken. “Nothing to nobody,” she stated, avoiding eye contact. It wasn’t that hard to do, considering her eyelids were drooping and she could barely hold her head up to look at Adrien.
He eyed her for a moment before dropping the matter. He repositioned her in his arms slightly before speaking again, changing the subject completely. He always knew when she didn’t want to talk about or share something, which she was incredibly thankful for. “Hey, do you remember when we first met? You didn’t even want to talk to me, but look how far we’ve come! We take naps, we’re all touchy and clingy-”
“You’re touchy and clingy.”
“Shut up, no I’m not. Your hand is literally on my chest right now, and whilst I do not mind, you cannot possibly say you’re not touchy when I’ve caught you in the act,” he said smugly. Marinette quickly dropped her hand, face heating up. “Anyways, we like, go out all the time, and you actually like talking to me. I have to admit, that last bit is my favorite.” He smiled down at her, and she could practically feel the tension in her body melt away as she returned it with one of her own.
While he carried her along, he continued to chat about whatever came to mind, and Marinette’s responses became slow, short, and just a tiny bit slurred from sleep. Eventually, they stopped all together, and Adrien was left with her snoring softly in his arms. The soft gaze he gave her while she snoozed was one he tried not to let her see. Because, unlike how easy it was for Marinette to read him, Marinette was… complex. She was so bursting with emotion that sometimes it was hard to tell just what she was feeling, probably because there was no way to pinpoint a single emotion when so many passed over her at once. He wasn’t sure how she felt about him, and she’d never disclosed to him who she liked. Alya and Nino refused to tell him, saying it was Marinette’s business, and he respected that. Still, that didn’t mean he wasn’t curious. And it most certainly didn’t mean that he couldn’t wish that he was her crush.
Making sure he wouldn’t be jostling her too much, he walked carefully and quickly until he arrived at the Dupain-Cheng’s bakery. When he passed by their old school, he slowed a fraction, remembering the moment Marinette had forgiven him, the moment he’d finally made a real friend. He remembered the way the rain pounded down and how the sound of it almost disappeared when Marinette had reached for his umbrella. But, most of all, he remembered how she was the one that managed to make him laugh, really and truly laugh, for the first time since his mother had gone. He didn’t realized his pace has slowed to a halt, lost as he was in the memories that took place in that very same area.
There was the day he ran out of class to keep others from seeing his tears, and Marinette had run out to comfort him because she knew something was wrong. There was the time they, Nino, and Alya sat on the steps eating croissants and macarons, laughing at everything and nothing. There was the moment when Chloe had stood out there, yelling until she broke down in apologies, expecting rejection but receiving Marinette’s kindness instead. And, he remembered fondly, there was the last day of collège, when hugs were exchanged and everyone parted their ways, but with the promise to keep in contact. He’d been very afraid of losing his friends, but Marinette had managed to assure him by calling him as soon as he stepped into the car that had come for him.
It was with a sigh that Adrien’s memories faded into the present, and with them, his feet started to move again. They carried him to the side entrance of their home, one they’d given him his very own key to, and he opened the door like it was second nature to him. He was halfway up the stairs when he turned around and popped his head into the kitchen.
“We’re home!” he called out, feeling the rightness of calling their house what he did. When Tom and Sabine called back their hellos and love, he closed the door and headed up the two sets of stairs and into Marinette’s room. He adjusted her carefully as he climbed up to her bed, settling her down with the utmost care. He brushed the hair from her face and pulled a blanket over her before sighing contentedly and laying back.
Taking in her room always left him feeling nostalgic, proud of his friend, and a little sad. The nostalgia came from her pink walls and the way her sewing supplies were strewn about. The pride came from seeing how much she’d grown as a person just by looking at what’s changed over the years. And the sadness came from knowing that, one day, he would no longer be running over after school to take naps and lose against her in Mecha Strike. He’d meant what he said early, when he called out to his parents that they were home. Marinette’s room was so lived in, and it was filled with everything that made it hers, as well as a few touches that made it theirs- hers, Alya’s, Nino’s, and his. There were a bunch of news articles written by Alya plastered over the walls, a steady stream of Nino’s newest mixes emanating from her computer as well as stacks of CDs he’d lent her piled on her desk, and there were silly things decorating a lot of the spaces in her room that Adrien had bought, claiming they all reminded him of her. He almost missed it, but his gaze landed on beanie he had tried to make for her. He wasn’t skilled in knitting or crocheting, but he had tried his best and poured his heart into making it for her. While he knew Marinette wasn’t cruel and loved the effort he put in for her, he’d honestly expected her to throw it away after a year or so. It warmed his heart to know she’d kept it, and he couldn’t help the affection for her that bubbled to the surface.
As his eyes continued to sweep across her room, they landed on her wall of photos. Some were taken of benches or trees or gates, and some were blurry with the people in them laughing or blocking their faces. He recognized ones that he had taken and sent to her, his heart beating rapidly as his smile grew. There were pictures of all of them as a group, when they hung out casually or when he’d invited them all to a charity gala his father had hosted and they were all dressed formally. Selfies could also be found among the pictures, and he noted with pleasure that many of them were of her and him, faces squished together or their limbs tangled in a silly way. He could see the pink of her cheeks, even from her bed, as well as the humor that shone in her eyes and the love that radiated from her expressions and body language. He loved those pictures.
His favorite ones, though, were the candid pictures Marinette herself had taken. They weren’t all happy ones, but they were little windows into very real moments of her friends’ lives. His two favorites in particular were ones of him. One he could recognize was from the end of his first year of school, where he sat in the park and thought about everything. In it, he looked sad and lonely. He remembered Marinette had approached him and made him feel not so alone. She must have taken the picture first. In his other favorite, he sat in the same spot, laughing with a lot of their classmates and friends over the years. He recalls it was from just a few weeks ago, and that Marinette had come late. She’d seen how much everything had changed, he supposed, and wanted to capture the moment. To see how he’d grown out of his shell and into the person and friend he wanted to be brought tears to his eyes, and he did nothing to stop them from falling like he might have back when the first picture was taken.
Marinette moved a tiny bit, but he paid the movement no mind. It wasn’t until he felt her fingers wipe away a tear that had slid to his chin that he realized she was awake. He turned to her, beaming at the sleepy girl who smiled back at him just as dazzlingly.
“You okay?” she whispered, adjusting the blanket to cover him as well.
“Yeah, I’m just thinking about everything. The pictures on your wall, the ways your room’s changed since I first came over. Hanging out as a group, learning how to open up. Our friends. Me, you... us.”
She blinked up at him, her brows furrowing a tiny bit. He watched her as her expression changed from sleepy confusion to very awake wonder.
“Hey, Adrien?”
“Yes, my princess?”
“Do you know how you look when we talk about Ladybug?” she asked, searching his face.
He flushed and looked away guiltily. “Um… I’ve never seen it, but you guys have teased me and tried to describe so… sort of?”
“You, um… I woke up while you were looking around. While you looked, it kind of looked like, maybe, you had the same look of affection on your face? Your eyes were so warm and your smile was so tender, and I just… can I ask why?”
Adrien took a deep breath, and looked around the room once more before settling on her. He almost wanted to lie, despite the fact he knew she hated lies. He didn’t want to tell her how he felt, or that he felt to be in love with both her and Ladybug. He didn’t want to make them awkward. But, looking at her just then, he knew he couldn’t keep the truth from her any longer.
“The reason is… the reason is because you… you make me feel like I’m the world when all I’ve ever thought to be was a face for the rest of the world to look at. You taught me what a home really is, and how to find one for myself. You touched my life for a moment and it started to get better. You made me laugh when I didn’t think I ever could again, and you left with me a warmth that has spread to every inch of my being from the first time your fingers brushed mine when I gave you that malfunctioning umbrella. I looked that way because I am so completely in love with your kindness and understanding and stubbornness and confidence, so completely in love with you.” His heart and soul poured into what he spoke, and while he was afraid of what possible repercussions there may be, he felt like he finally made the right choice.
Marinette was silent for a minute, and then two before she managed to say, “You wanted to know the person I liked, yeah?”
“I… yes. Yes I did,” he said. His voice shook a tiny bit, but by the look on his face, she could see the hesitant confidence that filled him. Confidence, she had decided long ago, looked very nice on him.
“It was you- is you. You’re kind of an open book, but you never looked at me like… you know. And I didn’t want you to feel burdened or make things awkward by confessing. I was really, very content with being your friend-”
“Best friend,” he interrupted.
She chuckled and amended her statement. “Best friend. But there’s always been the argument of whether content was happy and if happy was content, and I guess what I’m trying to say is… right now, after hearing what you’ve said, being content is nowhere close to the joy that can come of risks and changes. And, um, I want you to know that ‘like’ is a very large understatement in regards to how I feel about you.”
He shook with laughter at that, and when she started to laugh too, he pulled her into a hug. His heart did a flip when she hugged him back.
When they finally parted from the hug, neither could stop the goofy smiles from their faces, and soon Adrien pulled his phone out to take a picture of them both.
Taking a look at the photo, Marinette said, “Can you send that to me? I’d really like for it to go on the wall… and for it to be my phone’s background, if that’s okay?”
“It’s more than okay, Mari,” he told her. Aside from her own confession to him, hearing that she’d like to put the photo he took of them together up on her wall was the greatest thing to hear.
He hoped they’d be taking many more in the future. In their future.
Sooo, my @mlsecretsanta gift for @un-petit-papillon was done in two parts, but I kinda forgot my hard disk drive in the office for the holidays so she could only get the first one. And here is the second part! I hope you like it <3 <3 <3 and sorry again for the delay!
[Miraculous Ladybug]: We All Have Our Things
It’s not Christmas anymore, but, screw it! Merry Christmas @fajitasvanitas . I was your Secret Santa for @mlsecretsanta ! Hope you don’t mind me whipping up some platonic OT4 fluff for you (first time writing them to be honest, so I hope I did alright!) Hope you enjoyed your holidays :)
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Link to Archive of Our Own: [AO3]
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Title: We All Have Our Things
Summary: Nino walked around the table, pulled Adrien’s hand, and sat him down at the table. “Don’t even mention it, bro. Now come on, Adrien, eat up. Full day today. Lots to do.”
Adrien frowned. “Oh wait, we’re still doing all that?”
“If by all that you mean glamming the hell out for your birthday party tonight, then yes, we’re still doing that.”
Aged-up AU where the ot4 all platonically live together
We All Have Our Things
Adrien was actually a terribly deep sleeper. When he was younger, his father actually had to get him a special alarm clock that would blare loud enough to wake him in the mornings for school. He’d kept it all these years until Alya told him to throw it out because she said, word for word, “it sounds like a baby dolphin dying inside of a damn blast furnace!” Which basically meant that Adrien had to schedule all of his college classes after noon so that he’d be able to get up in time for them.
However, Marinette recently managed to find an almost universally effective way of getting him up: her baking.
The going theory, started by Nino, was that it was his body overcompensating for all the sugar he wasn’t allowed to have back when he was a model. Either way, the first thing he realized when he woke up that morning was the smell of fresh croissants with cinnamon and raspberry filling. He blinked his eyes groggily and was met with the sight of Marinette sitting on the edge of his bed, wafting the steam of fresh croissants towards his face.
“You know,” Marinette said, deciding to pluck a croissant up and take a bite. “I have to test this with other baked goods. Would you be willing to subject yourself to experiments involving palmiers?”
Adrien snorted and rubbed his eyes. “Haha, very funny. Ugh, what time is it?”
“Ten in the morning. Nino and I have been up since like eight, and Alya only got up ten minutes before you did. So come on!” She slapped his thigh a few times. “Up, up, up, I have something to show you in the kitchen.”
Adrien groaned and kicked his feet petulantly. “It’s Saturday, Mari, come on!”
“Get. Up.”
It took her shoving all of his blankets into the hallway and threatening to eat the entire plate of croissants by herself for Adrien to pull himself out of bed and head over to the bathroom, pouting the entire way. Marinette smiled sweetly, handed him his toothbrush, and told him she’d be waiting for him in the kitchen. He could hear her turning the radio on and singing from down the hall while he brushed his teeth and fiddled around with his bedhead.
Adrien’s father bought him his own apartment once he got into university and expressed an interest in living on his own. It was a ridiculously ostentatious gift that Adrien didn’t really need, but he knew it would be cruel to refuse something so generous. The only problem was that the place was simply too big — too much space, too many extra rooms, and not enough company. So he asked Nino, Marinette, and Alya to move in with him. Having your friends under the same roof with you was way more appealing than living on your own.
He supposed he really underestimated how desensitized he was to opulence because it took a while to convince them that yes this was happening — “No, there’s no rent it’s paid off,” “Yeah father just...bought it for me,” “No you don’t have to pay me back, seriously, just tell me when you can move in” — but after a year and a half it was by far the best decision the four of them could’ve ever made. Always nice to know that your major support system was waiting at home for you at the end of the day, ready to let you cuddle and vent. He was currently trying to recommend it to everyone he knew.
When he had finished freshening up, he stopped short in the doorway of the kitchen and blinked at the sight of full plates of croissants, muffins, eggs, and fruits covering every inch of the table. The coffee machine was brewing in the background while Nino and Marinette stood behind the table, hunched together with huge smiles on their faces. “Happy Birthday!!”
Adrien gaped at the food, shook his head, and rubbed his eyes again. “Is this real?”
“Very real. Nino even cooked the eggs himself.”
“Turns out,” he smiled victoriously. “I’m not as hopeless as Alya, so point for me.”
Alya shouted from the living room. “Shut up, you jerk, I heard that!”
Adrien struggled for a few more seconds to find the words he wanted to say. “I….guys, you….wow, thanks I mean….this is too sweet, I don’t — ”
Nino walked around the table, pulled Adrien’s hand, and sat him down at the table. “Don’t even mention it, bro. Now come on, Adrien, eat up. Full day today. Lots to do.”
Adrien frowned. “Oh wait, we’re still doing all that?”
“If by all that you mean glamming the hell out for your birthday party tonight, then yes, we’re still doing that.”
Marinette kissed him on the cheek while Nino leaned over to kiss the top of his head. “Come on, stuff your face,” Marinette urged. “Once you eat we’re gonna go.”
Adrien peeked his head around to the living room and saw Alya arched over one of the arms of the couch, her head hanging a few inches off the ground and her chest pushed towards the ceiling. “Um, Al? You want anything?”
“In a sec, just….let me lay here.”
He snorted and accepted the coffee that Nino poured for him. “I told you your back was going to hurt in the morning.”
“What happened?” Marinette asked.
“I fell asleep in Adrien’s bed last night because we were binge watching this anime he wanted me to see. I was all curled up against the headrest and I woke up sore.”
“Oh my God,” Nino groaned. “Is this the ice skating one?”
“Shut up, dude!” Adrien exclaimed. “It was beautiful and it made me cry. Don’t get me started on the animation”
Alya laughed. “It….was actually really good, I’m not going to lie. The opening song is stuck in my effing head though.”
Marinette snorted as she flipped through the arts section of the newspaper. “Nerds.”
“This coming from the girl who has the DVR clogged with reruns of Project Runway Season 2,” Adrien teased.
“I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet!”
“You’ve seen that season five times .”
“Oh, fight me!”
“Okay, but can you guys not actually fight this time?” Nino warned. “Your little wrestling match yesterday had the landlord calling us to make sure the ceiling didn’t cave in.”
Marinette pointed at Adrien. “He called my skills into question!”
“I said you were short ,” Adrien sighed. “That was a statement of fact, not a criticism of your talent. You are wonderful, we’ve been through this.”
“You’re just mad because you bet on Adrien and he lost, Nino!” Alya laughed.
“Shut up,” he grumbled. “Alright, seriously dudes! 24th Birthday Bash! Who’s got the itinerary?”
Marinette gestured to the living room. “That would be Alya.”
“Babe, get your butt over here.”
“My back still hurts!”
Adrien got up from his seat. “I got her.”
He walked over to the couch, easily picked her up bridal style, and carried her over to the kitchen, laughing at her crossed arms and annoyed expression. Adrien planted her down on the chair right next to him and pushed a plate of eggs in front of her. “Eat. And read the schedule.”
She grabbed a fork, stuffed her mouthful with eggs, and pulled out her phone. “Alright, Adrien Agreste 24th Birthday Extravaganza. Mani Pedis at eleven. Haircuts at one. Lunch at three. Alcohol run at five. Back here to get ready at five thirty. Leave by eight. Go crazy at the nightclub until like four, and stumble our way home. Easy.”
“We’re still doing mani pedis?” Nino asked.
“Um, hell yeah we are,” Adrien piped up.
“Agreed, that is non negotiable. Beatrice and Michele are already expecting us,” Marinette said.
Alya shrugged. “I offered to do everyone’s nails, but okay.”
Adrien lifted a finger. “This isn’t just getting your nails done, Alya, it’s an experience .”
Nino raised his hands. “Okay fine, we can have our collective experience . My hair is looking like shit so we have to do haircuts. Birthday boy picks lunch spot and alcohol for the evening?”
“Sounds good to me,” Marinette said. “We’re definitely going to need the two and a half hours to get ready. We were late to my own birthday party because Nino couldn’t pick a freaking tie.”
“I was the DJ , babe,” Nino insisted with a hand on his forehead. “Everyone was gonna be looking at me, I needed to look amazing for your big day, and I did, so all was well.”
Alya chortled through a mouthful of food. “Oh man, thank god we’re going to a club this time. Imagine him getting his equipment together last minute? We’d never get there.”
“Low-key offended and high-key ignoring you. Anyway! You two hurry up and get ready. We’re leaving in half an hour.”
Adrien reached over the table and tapped Alya on the arm. “You wanna watch the last episode again over breakfast?”
Alya jumped up and ran back to Adrien’s room. “I’ll get the laptop.”
It took Marinette locking Adrien’s laptop in her room to get them to stop staring at the screen long enough to actually get them out of the house in time. Much to Alya and Nino’s surprise, Marinette and Adrien were apparently regulars, and the four of them being fifteen minutes late to their appointment didn’t seem to have caused any problems. If anything, two nice young women — the Beatrice and Michele that Marinette had mentioned earlier — already had four chairs empty four them with two other beauticians ready to take care of them all at once.
Nino had one foot soaking and one foot currently in the grip of the beautician who was gently kneading her fingers into the sole of his foot. He gaped at the sight, and turned to the rest of the group. “Dude, what the hell, they give you foot massages?”
Marinette looked up from her phone and stared at Nino. “...duh? That’s half the point. You get a foot soak, they cut your cuticles, shave your calluses, foot and leg massage, exfoliating wrap, buff and file, and color of your choice. And that’s just the pedicure.”
Nino gaped at her and turned to his left towards Adrien. “We barely paid anything for this!”
“Uh, yeah, because Marinette and I aren’t stupid,” Adrien explained. “Saturdays are Couples Discount Days. We do this like every other week.”
“Why didn’t we know this?” Alya asked.
“I asked you to come get a pedicure with me and you didn’t want to,” Marinette accused. “So I took Adrien instead. Besides, you guys always make fun of us for ranting about video games at home, so this is the perfect time to do it.”
Adrien nudged Nino. “And after Marinette took me, I asked you if you wanted to come with me, and you always came up with an excuse. So congratulations. You played yourself.”
“This is ridiculous!” Nino exclaimed. “You guys were keeping this huge secret, and I wasn’t informed of it. Massages! You guys hid massages from me.”
“Nino, you’re the only one who didn’t know they massage you during pedicures,” Alya said.
“You said you didn’t want to come!”
“Because I just do them at home by myself! Didn’t see the point of coming over here and paying for it, but apparently this was bonding time that I didn’t know about.”
One of the workers tapped Adrien’s ankle. “Color, sir?”
Adrien hummed and held his hand up. “A slate color would be nice. Match the blazer I’m wearing.”
“I’ll take a wine color,” Marinette told the beautician working on her. “Some black decals maybe? Whatever you think will look nice.”
Alya blinked. “Um….I guess purple then. Plum.”
“Wait, does that mean I have to pick a color too?” Nino asked.
“Of course” Adrien said. “I would match the bow tie you’re gonna wear.”
“Um...alright, uh….dark blue I guess?”
Nino’s beautician smiled at him. “Very nice choice.”
“Wait a minute!” Alya said suddenly. “Is this why the two of you have ridiculously smooth feet? We were all cuddling on the couch the other day and I was freaking out over how soft they were.”
“I’m telling you, Alya,” Marinette teased. “Come to spa day. Adrien and I leave it on the calendar.”
“God no wonder you guys are gone for hours at a time on Saturdays,” Nino snorted. “Can’t believe you guys have your own thing. Why weren’t we included in the thing?”
“We. Invited. You.”
“Yeah, but had you said it was going to be a thing , I would’ve come.”
“That makes no sense,” Adrien said. “What’s the difference between hanging out and having a thing ?”
“ Things are habitual and important to the week,” Alya pointed out. “We have to be more communicative about these things.”
Marinette and Adrien groaned. “You were both invited!!” they both insisted. Adrien pulled out his phone. “I’m sending a reminder to the group chat. And I’m circling it on the calendar.”
“Okay, wait, what other things do we not know about?” Nino asked. “This is important to the group dynamic.”
“I’m still not even sure what you mean by thing ,” Marinette grumbled.
Alya snapped her fingers. “Oh wait, Mari, we do have a thing. Make-Up Run Mondays.”
“Oh yeah,” Marinette remembered. “Remind me, I need to pick up a palette on the upcoming one.”
Adrien paused. “Wait a minute….Alya and Marinette have a thing?”
Nino clapped his hands to emphasize each word. “Why. Were. We. Not. Invited?”
Marinette furrowed her brows. “We….didn’t think you’d want to come?”
“We’re practically family!” Nino said, arms wide open, nearly smacking Adrien in the face. “We have to do these things as a group.”
Alya rolled her eyes. “Fine. You’re invited to Make-Up Run Mondays. But! You guys have to actually buy something.”
Nino scoffed. “Non issue. Adrien introduced me to the wonders of concealer.”
Adrien nodded wisely. “Good for breakouts.”
Nino sat up straight in his chair, his eyes widening. “Holy shit, I just got an idea.”
“Oh no,” Alya muttered.
He turned to the girls and asked, “Are you guys good at contouring?”
Marinette looked at Alya and they both shrugged. “Decently so. Why?”
Nino tapped Adrien on the arm. “Dude. Just had the best idea. Brace yourself.”
Alya rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe we had to go out and buy makeup for the two of you.”
Nino had his eyes shut, and blindly reached over to pinch Alya in the arm. “You said it yourself. Our skin tones don’t match.”
Marinette poked Nino in the nose and passed a brush over his cheekbones. “Stop moving or it’s going to look messed up. Look at Adrien. Staying perfectly still while Alya works.”
Adrien gave a thumbs up. “Ex-model.”
“Show off.” Nino wrinkled his nose when Marinette ran a different brush down the bridge of his nose. “Wait, what are you doing now?”
Marinette pulled Nino’s chair closer to her. “I did concealer, light powder foundation, and contoured a bit. Now I’m highlighting.”
“This sounds like it’s gonna make me look sexy.”
Alya snorted. “I thought you said your haircut was gonna make you look sexy.”
Nino reached up and slid a hand along the side of his head. “You are correct, mademoiselle.”
Marinette laughed. “Is this going to become a regular thing now? I can’t be doing your makeup every morning, you know.”
“I mean,” Adrien began. “I could give it a shot. I’m no makeup artist, but I picked up a few things from photo shoots.”
“Bro, you’re telling me you can do my makeup?”
“Not as good as Mari or Alya, but I think so.”
“See this is why I love you, man. I think we just made a thing for ourselves.”
Alya tapped Adrien’s cheek with the end of her brush when he started laughing. “No. We’re not starting this again. We killed this at lunch. It’s dead.”
Marinette chuckled, closed her palette, and turned Nino’s head from side to side. “Unfortunately we don’t have the time to honor your eyeshadow requests, but otherwise you’re all done.”
“Yup,” Alya said, slipping all of her brushes back into her makeup bag. “All good here too.”
Nino stood up from the kitchen chair he was sitting in and reached out blindly for Adrien. “Wait, dude, are your eyes closed?”
Adrien nodded. “Yeah, they are.”
“Okay. We’re gonna look at each other on three alright. I wanna be blown away.”
Adrien reached out so that both his hands were resting on Nino’s shoulders and they were standing face to face. “Alright,” he chuckled. “Three. Two. One.”
Marinette and Alya leaned against the kitchen counter and looked on in amusement as Adrien and Nino both opened their eyes at the same time and started laughing uncontrollably at the sight. They both turned their jaws side to side and were beaming more than the two girls had ever remembered seeing them. Adrien squeezed Nino’s upper arms. “Nino….you look hot.”
“No lie?” Nino grinned.
“Yeah man, that contour is working for you.”
Nino stepped back excitedly and struck a pose. “Oh wait, catch me from the side.” He stroked his jaw. “Hot?”
“Definitely hot.”
“I mean, look at you, you have a jawline for days.”
Adrien looked in the reflection of the steel fridge. “Oh man Alya, I look totally different.”
“Oh my god, we are going to look so good rolling into your birthday party. This was such a good idea.”
“Waitwaitwait, I want a selfie. This is going on Instagram.”
“We have to do that model pout you always used to do in shoots!”
Marinette shook her head and grabbed her coat from the back of the chair it was hanging on. “Well. I guess they’re having a moment.”
“I’d leave them be,” Alya said. “Give them their ten minutes and then we can go. They’re excited.”
“Make-Up Run Mondays are going to be a journey from here on out.”
“I dunno. Nino really liked how his manicure came out. Quadruple Spa Day is gonna be a journey.”
Marinette put her hands on her waist. “I need to start sending invites for these things…”
“Hey,” Alya shrugged. “Our Sunshine Prince is happy, so that’s all that matters.”
“That’s true,” Marinette smiled.
Nino and Adrien came over and planted kisses on both girls’ cheeks. “You ladies are miracle workers,” Adrien grinned. “Thank you.”
“We’re well aware,” Alya smirked. “Alright, loves, let’s get moving. We’re behind schedule.”
Nino pulled on his jacket and started swiping around on his phone. “Oh crap, gotta pull out the Get Pumped playlist.”
Adrien rolled his eyes. “God, that’s so dorky.”
“This has been scientifically tested to get you up and excited, my darling boy,” Alya said. “Nino and I constructed it precisely for this reason.”
Marinette raised her hand. “I was the test subject. It’s not too bad, you’ll like it.”
Adrien grabbed his keys and gently shoved his friends out the front door as he locked the apartment behind him. “Fine, but I’m not driving.”