thanks for the tag @gentil-minou, i hope you don't regret it 😂
“Did we not make it?”
Adrien responded with a gentle smile, the type that would normally send her heart fluttering, but there was something… off about it. Maybe it was just the way he looked with the snake miraculous: he was as handsome as ever, of course, but the yellowed sclera and thick black liner gave him a sharp, almost inhuman look.
Before she could dwell on it more, Adrien spoke. “Not that time, but that’s what second chance is for, right? I think I’m starting to get the hang of it now.”
Ladybug felt a proud grin creep across her face. She knew Adrien was the perfect choice for a hero. Adrien’s own smile widened to match her own, and, in combination with those yellow eyes, she was absurdly reminded of Chat Noir.
Where is that cat, anyway?
“We haven’t figured out what to do with your lucky charm yet,” Adrien continued, his face shifting into something more serious. “That’s probably why we didn’t succeed before. Do you think you could figure it out before we leave the sewers this time?”
Ladybug frowned down at the saddle on her arm. She had no idea what to do with it, which wasn’t unusual for a lucky charm — Ladybug rarely knew what they were for until the moment to use them came. Of course, Adrien probably didn’t know that. Even Alya, who probably knew more about Ladybug than any other civilian, had taken a bit of time to adjust when working with her as Rena Rouge.
She looked back at Adrien, intending to explain as much, only for her train of thought to be immediately derailed by the hope sparkling in his eyes.
Ladybug opened her mouth to speak, then shut it again. What had she been planning to say again?
Adrien was smiling at her, waiting for an answer. He was always so patient.
She couldn’t let him down.
She had to think of something. Sure, she normally couldn’t plan ahead, but she normally didn’t have Adrien Agreste by her side, looking at her with so much faith, like she wasn’t just a hero, like she was his hero.
Her eyes darted around the sewers, hoping to see something, anything, that made her brain light up, but the voice in her head kept chanting Adrien, Adrien, Adrien, in a way that made it hard to think.
He was the light in the room, he was what made her brain ping, he was the focus that her eyes kept converging on, over and over.
Adrien, wide-eyed and eager in his little snakesuit, looking at her like she’d hung the moon and was going to hang a second one again any second. Who looked a little odd but no less handsome with his inhuman eyes and snakeskin cap over his head.
His unfairly well-shaped head. It was frankly absurd how symmetrical his skull was. Marinette had always admired Adrien’s perfectly styled hair, and while she hadn’t given much thought to what lay beneath, she was now realizing she’d assumed that underneath his perfectly styled tresses, Adrien, like ordinary humans, had some sort of imperfection —some side of his head too flat, or uneven, or even with a bump—but no, his head was the perfect shape. She supposed that he could still have a mole or something under his snakeskin cap, but at this point, she doubted it. He was just that perfect.
“Ladybug?” he prompted, and she realized she’d been staring for an inappropriate amount of time.
“Oh, um,” she bit her lip, “I was just…” thinking about how pretty your skull is, she managed to avoid saying, narrowly dodging the possibility of convincing Adrien that Ladybug was completely unhinged.
Which she absolutely was, judging by what she did end up saying.
“Thinking about riding you!” she blurted, far too loud, and felt her face immediately start heating up.
At least it’s slightly less macabre sounding than admiring his skull.
“W-what?” Adrien’s face looked as red as hers felt.
“With the lucky charm!” Her voice was still too loud. “Because it’s a saddle! Which is for riding things! I mean! Animals! Not that you’re an animal, well, you are, because humans are animals, but you don’t normally ride them with saddles, and now that I’m saying this out loud it sounds even worse, please forget I said anything.”
Maybe she could convince him to use second chance so she could forget this entire exchange. He’d still remember, but Adrien was too polite to bring it up again, so she could live on in ignorance.
She was just about to ask him to do just that, when suddenly, the most magical sound she’d ever heard started echoing through the tunnel: Adrien’s laughter. It was the sound of lightning, of petrichor, of falling in love.
“You can ride me anytime you like, Ladybug,” Adrien said, looking almost… excited? Eager?
Ladybug squeaked.
“How do you want me?” He asked, bouncing on his heels. “Should I get on my hands and knees?”
“Eeeeeee,” she managed in response, her ability to form words having completely vacated the building.
Adrien cocked his head, undoubtedly concerned by her unintentional impression of the sound of an oven beeping but too polite to say anything.
“I guess that was a silly idea,” he admitted, bringing his hand up to scratch the back of his perfectly shaped head. “I’ll just turn and face the wall, and you can saddle me up from behind.”
With great effort, Ladybug produced words: “Right! Yes! Okay!” It was only three words, and they all meant the same thing, but they came out of her mouth and she pronounced them correctly. Given the situation, she’d consider that a victory.
“We’re going to make an awesome team,” he said, sweet and earnest, as she cinched the saddle around his waist.
“Awesome,” she agreed, and mounted him.
I’m so glad Chat Noir isn’t here to see this, was her last thought before they ran into Desperada and she vanished from existence.
Ok firstly i want to thank @ladyofthenoodle for helping me with the @project-25913 account, I APPRECIATE YOU SO MUCH, and thank you for already queueing up posts u are the best
Ok so onto Project 25913, a few weeks ago i posted about wanting to write a one shot for every single one of aspiks 25913 time resets in desperada, but i figured out that it would take me um...far too long. hehe. But when i posted it people suggested that we could turn it into a project and if enough people joined in, MAYBE as a group we could actually get 25913 one shots, so...here we are!
There arent really many rules, its just a fun project, as long as you don't write anything nsfw/sexual (remember this takes part within the desperada episode so that isn't appropriate for the context). It isnt at all required that you WRITE the scenario, if you'd like to make a poem, or a comic, or a song, anything, go ahead :) as long as it illustrates a specific time reset then it works.
If you're writing a one shot and you're posting it on ao3, please add it to the project 25913 collection ! and if you're posting any submissions for the project on tumblr, please tag it with #project25913 and/or tag @project-25913 so we can queue up a reblog of your post over on that account, as that is where we will keep track of every single time reset. (I'll be going through and tagging each post with a number starting with #1 so you can easily tell how many scenarios we have so far).
And for ao3 submissions that haven't been posted to tumblr, i'll also queue up a post linking to each one so that we can keep track of them too :D
FINALLY, if you want to submit something anonymously to the project (or you dont have an ao3 or a tumblr) , submissions are open on the @project-25913 account! if its written, ladyofthenoodle will post it to their ao3 too, but if not then we'll just post it on the tumblr account :D
I think thats it? Definitely go check out all of the one shots so far, they're so gooood ;w; And anyone who wants to join us in this silly lil egg boy project, be my guest, maybe one day we'll get to 25913 ! (THANK YOU AGAIN @ladyofthenoodle BTW U ARE THE BEST)
The first couple dozen chances Adrien had been full of enthusiasm and energy.
The first couple of thousand chances, Adrien had been all grim determination.
Minutes turned into hours turned into days turned into weeks.
Somewhere in the middle he broke down in sheer frustration.
He did it again every couple hundred chances for another two, maybe three, thousand more.
The last ten thousand chances had been a dull grey slog, the only thing clear about them the count that glowed reproachfully in five meter tall neon in the back of his mind.
It had been at least five thousand chances since they had come anywhere close to defeating Desperada.
Every single chance before now Adrien had reset immediately.
This time he just hid.
This time Adrien ducked back into the sewers.
This time he sat slumped against the wall and stared at his hands as each reset paraded mockingly passed his mind's eye. The ashen taste of failure was familiar in his mouth. He snorted as he recognized the flavor as the undertone of a thousand meals spent waiting for a father who never came.
He was such a disappointment.
He raised his head to see Plagg floating silent in front of him. Just watching. The kwami’s eyes, and mouth, and whiskers drooping in that way he had when Adrien was sad and there were no words that could make it better. Plagg lifted a small paw to lay it gently on Adrien’s forehead.
Adrien took a deep breath, then blew it out loudly as he collapsed back against the wall. One corner of his lips lifted slightly.
He knew what to do now.
Adrien sat up straight, closed his eyes, and brought his right hand slowly to his left wrist.
“Second chance.”
The words fell from his mouth like lead weights and the familiar flash was followed by the familiar words for the last lime
“We now have five minutes. Within this time range, you can go back in time as many times as you want –”
Aspik let out a sigh. Ladybug blinked. “Is something wrong?”
He tried to give her a comforting smile. It came out strained. “Just a little tired, that’s all.”
“How many tries has it been?” she asked, a hint of worry in her voice.
“Fifty-four,” he told her, and oh how that stung. He’d been hoping to impress her as Adrien, to save the day in such a spectacular, awe-inspiring way that she’d instantly fall for him.
Instead, he’d gotten her captured fifty-four times.
He never thought he’d hate the sound of a trumpet so much.
“Maybe you should take a break,” His Lady suggested, frowning. “You must’ve been at this for hours.”
He grimaced. “Probably about three hours, yeah. Some attempts… well… let’s just say I was forced to abort early.”
She put her hand on his, giving him a smile that made his heart flutter. “All the more reason to rest.”
“Are you sure?”
She shrugged. “It’s been fifty-four resets already, I don’t think one more will hurt.”
He nodded, relaxing against the sewer wall. If he couldn’t impress her, maybe he could at least spend a little more time with her. “Alright.” He hesitated a moment. “I know you can’t talk about your life, what with your secret identity, but… would you be okay if I talked about mine?” Normally he couldn’t even hint at what he’d been up to, what was going on in his life, for fear of giving away his secret identity. Now? Now he could share with the love of his life freely. She might not know it was her partner, but at least she knew he was Adrien.
“Sure!” She settled in next to him.
“I don’t have much experience with friendship,” he told her, letting out a sigh. “I- I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up - just Chloe. I didn’t get to see a lot of kids my age until I started school. I didn’t have a second friend until-” until I met you after my first attempt at getting into Francois-Dupont. “Until Nino reached out to me. And I- I think I’m missing something.”
She tilted her head to the side. “But you’re perfect- I mean, you’re perfectly good at making friends! You’re not perfect, I mean you’re great, I- I mean- ugh!”
He chuckled. “You remind me of Marinette. She sometimes mixes up her words too.” His face fell, as he let out a deep sigh. “She’s the one I wanted to talk about.”
“Huh?” Ladybug asked. She sounded strangely nervous.
“Jagged came to the Couffaine houseboat today, asking for a guitarist. Marinette proposed that I help. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to back up Jagged Stone, he’s my favorite rock star! But…” he rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t think I’m the best person for the job, and her boyfriend was right there with his guitar-”
“Boyfriend?!” Ladybug squeaked.
He looked down and off to the side. “Yeah, Luka. The boy I was hiding in the locker room with.”
“He’s not her boyfriend! He’s just a boy who is a friend. She- she likes someone else.” she protested.
“But they went on a date before?” he asked. “And when Kagami mentioned that Luka was her boyfriend, she didn’t counter it.”
“Maybe she was just startled and nervous because her main crush was there?” Ladybug suggested. For some reason, she seemed to be blushing.
He hummed for a second, thinking. Finally he shook his head. “I don’t think so. There wasn’t anywhere there I think she’d have a crush on, unless… maybe Alya? They’re really close. I know she and Nino are a couple, but- but that doesn’t stop the heart from wanting.” He knew that from experience.
Nino’d told him before how Alya had stood up for Marinette on the first day of class, only minutes after first arriving at the new school, taking the first step in befriending her. It’d been one of the things that’d inspired him to reach out to Adrien so quickly, in fact. And one of the reasons he’d fallen in love with Alya later on (Adrien was well-versed in Alya’s stunning qualities. Nino made sure that no one in his friend circle could ever forget them).
“I- I don’t think she has a crush on Alya,” Ladybug said. Her voice wavered slightly.
Hmm… Come to think of it, Ladybug had always gone out of her way to give Alya more attention than most other journalists or civilians, even giving her the first official Miraculous Wielder interview…
She’d told him before about a boy she loved, but… what if that’d been a ruse? So he didn’t suspect that she was in love with a girl instead? Or maybe, she just hadn’t come to terms with her feelings for the reporter yet, especially since she was taken. Maybe- maybe she and Marinette were in an unrequited love triangle with Alya, pining away fruitlessly.
Luckily, Adrien knew something about Alya and Nino that Ladybug did not.
“You know,” he said slowly. “If you want, I can set up some more meetings between you, Marinette, Alya, and Nino. Nino’s talked about potentially being interested in a polycule before, and how his girlfriend has been thinking of inviting someone to join their relationship, if they find someone they both like.”
“I- Uh-” her eyes darted to his wrist as it started beeping, her cheeks tinged pink. “Oh look at the time, you’d better reset!”
He glanced at his wrist, grimacing. Only a minute left. Sighing, he nodded, before plastering on a smile. “Alright. Time to give it another go!”
He flicked his wrist, feeling a little more refreshed after the short break. Just a few more attempts, and he’d definitely succeed. Then he could dig into this polycule idea more. Come to think of it, Nino’d mentioned how good Chat’s butt looked in black leather before… hmm…
------
(A/N)
So I had not originally intended for this to be an OT4 promotion fic, but here we go. Screw it, Alya, Nino, Marinette, and Adrien should all date.
Honestly in canon, I think Marinette and Alya might have small crushes on each other, but Marinette's more attracted to Luka and Adrien, and Alya's more attracted to Nino, so it hasn't gone anywhere. Like on the Kinsey scale, I think Marinette's a 1.5.
Alya, meanwhile, was shocked when she discovered that she was really attracted to Nino, because she always just assumed she was a straight-up lesbian, and hadn't realized that she COULD be attracted to guys before that moment XD
I have some ideas that i think would be simple and funny but I dont have an account to post them with.
I was wondering how your or really any other authors would feel about posting things that others have ghostwritten, or like a submission kind of deal??
Not really sure what I'm getting at, just a weird patchwork question
i think that‘d be a great idea, especially if want to get that many fics! i wonder if it’d be worth it for someone to make a sideblog for this purpose that people could submit to? i would not mind publishing any submissions but tumblr doesn’t make it obvious in reblogs whether something is a submission or not so i wonder if a dedicated blog would be better?
i‘m gonna go ahead and tag @tvailu on this since the whole thing was their idea originally, maybe they have some thoughts!
I’ve maybe written it? Idk it’s a one shot so I didn’t think too much about it… sorry if it doenst live up to your expectations!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/34809109
OMG YESS! i love this its so sad omg...i want to give him a hug ;____; i feel like a LOT of the scenarios would've been like this, especially the later ones,, THANK YOUUU I LOVE IT SO MUCH
