9. How do you feel about this WIP? Is it frustrating? Fun? Strange?
I have complicated feelings about Juleka vs. the Forces of the Universe. I absolutely adore writing it, it's such a fun story to write and it's so different from anything I had written before, so it's also been amazing for helping me grow as a writer. But I also used to feel quite frustrated with it in some ways, especially when it started gaining popularity. I started writing it on a whim and the first few chapters were just me messing around, before I began settling into an actual plan for it. It was frustrating to me that something that I wasn't putting all that much planning into at that stage was gaining a lot more traction than some of my other stories that I was putting a lot more energy into. I've come to terms with the fact that salt fics seem to be more popular. Now that only frustration I feel with it is the usual frustration I get when things aren't cooperating with me.
But I definitely still feel a lot of imposter syndrome with this story, and it can be incredibly stressful sometimes, especially as we get closer to the end. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I never thought this story would get so popular. And while I always try to write for myself, I'm scared people will end up being disappointed with the last few chapters. I'm trying really hard to just let myself ave fun with the process of finishing the story, but overcoming those fears has definitely been a struggle.
I'm also very stressed about it right now because I really want to get it updated but I just haven't had the time/energy to edit the next chapter yet
12. How did you come up with this fic? Where were you/what were you doing when you thought of it?
So it was actually spurred by the Andre scene from Chords and Courtship. When Regency!Jules was snarking about Andre, I got the mental image of modern Jules snarking about Andre. Then that left me wondering why Jules would be snarking about Andre, and I sat down and wrote the first chapter of Juleka vs. in about 15-20 minutes, spent about 5 minutes editing, and then I posted. The rest is history 😂
Ok so I had this kinda bittersweet one DONE, right, and everything was FINE…
“It’s only two days.”
The words were directed at her, but he said it like he was trying to convince himself only two days wasn’t that big of a deal, too. Her arms tightened around him, and she turned her head to rest it on his shoulder. His hoodie was bunched up over his coat, and somehow the scent of his aftershave was stronger there. She snuggled closer and pressed her nose to the fabric.
“I’ve been gone two months before.”
Two months was Before, though. Before that night on the upper deck. Before the wine Alya had stolen from her mom’s private stash had made her bolder. Before she knew he tasted like peppermint and marshmallows.
(…he didn’t always, but he’d been chewing gum and they’d been toasting marshmallows over the hotplate Juleka had smuggled in and…the first one – the first many – had tasted like peppermint and marshmallows.)
“I’ll be back before you know it.”
Except she already knew it. She already missed him, and he wasn’t even gone yet.
“It’s just two days.”
She lifted her head from his shoulder, and he pushed out a slow breath as their eyes met. His hand was suddenly on the back of her head, the arm around her middle pulling her closer as he guided her head back to his shoulder. He tucked his face against her neck, and she shivered as he pressed a kiss above her racing pulse.
“Two days.”
“…too long,” she finally mumbled, and he chuckled at the near whine in her voice. His fingers tangled in her short hair, and her hands fisted against his back, bunching the fabric of his coat up. “I knew you were leaving. I know you’ll come back.”
“We’re both planning on kinda…global lives,” he said. She nodded, not lifting her head. She was fine where she was – she was fine with him missing his cab, and staying there forever, and…
“We have to get used to this,” she sighed. She chewed her lip for a moment, and he hummed as he pulled her lip from her teeth with his thumb. “…still sucks, though.”
“Really sucks,” he sighed, kissing her forehead. She whined again, and he shrugged a little to nudge her head. She didn’t move away, though. “Hey. Look at me.”
She did, and he leaned in to kiss her. She smiled a little when he pulled back, staying close enough to lean his forehead on hers.
“That’s not looking,” she teased. She hated how watery her voice sounded.
“Ok, kiss me, then,” he chuckled. She hummed as she did, her heart skipping a beat when he nipped at her lip before running his tongue along the bite. The next thing she knew, his tongue was in her mouth and she was tasting peppermint again. “Two days, Mari.”
“I know,” she panted. He groaned as he kissed her again – and he would have kept kissing her, if Dingo hadn’t started shouting from the cab behind them, leaning over the front seat to slam his hand against the horn. Luka dipped her back and raised his middle finger in the direction of the cab, and she giggled against his lips. “G-go. Hurry back.”
“Fast as I can,” he murmured, stealing one last kiss. He groaned and dropped his head to her shoulder as Dingo blew the horn again. “All right, asshole, I’m coming!”
…until last night, when she hit me with THIS: “Not all women want diamonds. Some just want a cute farmhouse on fifty acres. With a wraparound porch, that’s overlooking a pasture of wildflowers.” And honestly. Her hug was already DONE, but it was screaming FARM, and…Idk your birthday’s next week so happy early extra birthday hug? 😂
“Do you like it?”
She leaned back against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her middle, hugging her close. He bent down, resting his chin on her shoulder, and she smiled as she reached up to thread her fingers through his hair. He hadn’t tied it back yet, and some of the longer strands were tickling her cheek.
“I love it,” she said, her voice as soft as his had been. He turned his head to kiss her cheek, but she turned her own to steal a kiss from his lips instead. He held her closer and deepened the kiss, and when they parted she sighed and laid her head back on his shoulder. “It’s perfect, Lu.”
He had been working hard on the garden since they’d moved out to the farm the previous spring. It had been too late to start a proper one back then, and they’d been so busy with the move and settling in and starting up the center that they just…there hadn’t been time. But Luka had been working the land whenever he got a chance: marking out a large plot, dividing it into sections, showing her pictures of various flowers off the internet, squirreling away seed packets, keeping the kids (the Twins) away from the little starts…and now it was ready. Her own little flower garden, complete with a little gazebo she could spend the mornings sketching in (that he hadn’t quite built himself, but had insisted on helping with as best he could).
…you know. Once she was done wrangling the kids and assuming her morning coffee hadn’t already gone cold after its third spin in the microwave.
She was really looking forward to that. Someday. Probably when Clara was out of diapers.
But the flowers were in bloom now, and that patch of the backyard was awash with color, and it left her fingers itching for her sketchbook. She scratched against his scalp, and he hummed as he kissed her temple. He rested his head against her own, and her eyes closed as a contented smile curled her lips.
“Go on,” he whispered, kissing her forehead again. “I’ll bring you out some tea in a minute.”
“The kids won’t be home for another hour yet. Clara and Dewey are still sleeping. Join me?” she asked, looking up at him from under her lashes. He kissed her again, sighing as he leaned his forehead on hers. She knew she could get him to agree to anything when she looked at him like that…
“I wish I could,” he said. “I still have to finish up that paperwork from Daffy’s stay.”
She wrinkled her nose at the reminder of the Duck From Hell that had spent the better part of the past month with them, but she didn’t comment.
“That table’s big enough for two,” she wheedled. “You can bring your paperwork out there. Finish it up in the warm sunshine.”
“You and I both know if I go out there with you that paperwork is never getting done,” he chuckled. He kissed her forehead as she pouted up at him.
“Later, then?” she asked. “Once the kids are in bed? Moonlit gardens are just as lovely, and I need to thank you for such a lovely gift.”
He leaned his head back against hers, and she shivered as his warm breath ghosted along her ear. He kissed her temple again before whispering, “It’s a date.”
"a surprise kiss just because the other couldn’t stop thinking about it"
Please 😁
Thanks for the ask, quick! 😊
“So there’s this one, which is a sturdier material, but it’s not very flexible, and there’s this one which flows better, but it’s not quite the right color, and besides it’ll need constant repair… I don't know... What do you think?”
Marinette turned and found Luka focused more on her than on the materials she’d been debating between. He was smiling, his eyes crinkling warmly at the edges, as he just looked at her. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear nervously, feeling a blush start to rise to her cheeks. It didn't matter how long they'd been dating, that look of his always made her heart feel fluttery.
Before she could ask him why he was staring, he leaned down and tipped her chin up to press a light kiss to her lips, then lingered to press his forehead against hers as he pulled away. His thumb traced her bottom lip gently.
Prompt # 11. Whispering “I love you” between kisses
Marinette was sitting at the kitchen table of their home. The one that she’d spent all day yesterday moving her stuff into. It wasn’t like she had a ton of stuff to move, she’d been practically living with Luka for the past year and a half, and a good deal of her stuff was already there, but now it was official. She’d graduated university, had a job as a junior designer for a mid-sized design house, and was living with her boyfriend.
Her father had made several little jokes as he had helped her move in, gently ribbing the couple about taking the next steps, but Marinette had stopped that with a quiet word to her mother. Now she found herself sitting at what used to be Luka’s kitchen table, but was now theirs. She loved Luka, and had done for many years. They’d experienced all their firsts together, and she couldn’t help but smile as she thought back on their time together.
So many people had told them that first loves never lasted, that just because they were serious when they were young, didn’t mean that they would stay together as they grew older. They’d been together for seven years, and while it hadn’t always been smooth, they were both too stubborn to let go of one another, and with a little bit of tenacity, and a lot of honesty and communication, they had made it through.
They both had dreams, big ones and small ones. Some had been realized like that horrible, lonely year that Luka had gone on tour with Jagged Stone, and realized he would much rather play to intimate gatherings of a few hundred than sold-out stadiums filled with thousands. He had written so much music on that trip, it had just poured out of him, and Jagged had bought a few of his songs on the spot, showing several more off to friends in the music business, who, in turn, had also bought the rights to his music.
The past two years he had spent in the studio, writing and playing. He had performed at several music festivals around France, and one sold-out show in Switzerland, but mostly he’d written songs for other people to sing, and was gaining a reputation as being a talented young songwriter. Draining the rest of her coffee, she looked around their kitchen. It wasn’t like this was the first time that she’d spent the night, but it was her first night truly living here, and she wanted to make the morning special.
Marinette set to making brioche for breakfast, as it was one of Luka’s favorites. She took the prepared dough out of the refrigerator, setting it to rise on the top of the stove, and pulled out extra butter and apricot preserves. She spent her time waiting for the bread to proof with her sketchbook open in front of her, working on a project she had been thinking about for a while.
Luka emerged from the bedroom, clad only in a pair of pajama pants, running a hand through his unkempt hair, just as Marinette was pulling the brioche out of the oven. He crossed through their tiny living room to watch her from the edge of the kitchen, having learned long ago to stay out of her way unless she gave him a task to do.
She looked at him, smile brilliant, eyes shining, love pouring from her. Stepping close to him, Marinette reached up to cup his cheek offering him a peck and a cup of coffee. “Good morning, Sleepyhead. Did you get your song down? What time did you come to bed last night?”
A look of surprise flitted across Luka’s face, but Marinette smoothed her hand across his forehead, a smirk playing at her lips. “Oh, don’t worry. I remember you coming to bed, I just wasn’t paying attention to the clock.”
His face relaxed into a playful grin, softening as he looked at the breakfast Marinette had put together for him. Setting down his coffee cup on the nearest flat surface, Luka stepped closer to her, grabbing her around the waist and lifting her to perch on the edge of the counter, bringing their faces closer to level with each other. Stepping between her knees, he slid his arms around her waist, cradling her to him, as he leaned in angling his head to kiss her, stopping just before their lips met, still seeking permission after all their years together.
Marinette moved the rest of the way, capturing his lips with hers, sucking his bottom lip into her mouth before taking a little nip and soothing it with her tongue. He gasped against her mouth, whispering “I love you, Marinette” to her before his lips were on hers again.
He broke the kiss, and his lips moved to her cheek, her jaw, her neck, but she stilled him with a hand on his cheek. When his eyes met hers, she whispered, “I love you, too, Luka.” Words that were often spoken between them, but never lost their potency; they never became just words, but were always loaded with meaning. She brought her lips back to his, carding her fingers through his hair, nails dragging against his scalp in a way that had him moaning into her mouth.
This time Marinette was the one who pulled back, her forehead resting against his, as she looked into the depths of his ocean blue eyes. “I love you.” Her voice little more than an exhalation against his lips. Luka lifted her easily off the counter, and clung to her as he made to take her back to the bedroom with him.
Laughing, Marinette pushed against him. “Luka Couffaine, put me down. I got up early to make you breakfast, and you are going to sit there and enjoy it.”
Luka just grinned at her, setting her down on her feet before heading over to the top of the refrigerator where he’d set his coffee, and dropped into his chair at the table with a smirk and a salute. He unwisely took a bite of the brioche, thinking he’d won when Marinette’s mouth twisted into a smirk of its own.
“Eat up,” she winked at him. “You’re going to need that energy later.”
Luka choked on air as Marinette stood, wearing only his shirt, and refilled her own coffee cup. She walked back by the table, dropping a kiss on the top of his head before taking the seat next to him and reaching for her own slice.
“So…” she asked, innocently spreading preserves on her brioche. “Just how many rooms does this apartment have?”
“Hi,” Luka grinned as the Skype call finally connected and Marinette’s image came on the screen, flopped on her belly on her hotel room bed, kicking her feet behind her. “It’s so good to see your face,” he breathed, leaning on his elbows at his small table. “God I miss you. You doing okay?”
“I’m...yeah, I’m okay,” Marinette smiled back with less confidence than he would have liked. “I mean, as long as I’m working, it’s okay, it’s a lot, but I’m managing. But...this part is hard. When I’m just stuck in a hotel room by myself.”
“I get that,” Luka said sympathetically. It was one of many reasons he felt he wasn’t suited for life on the road. He got melancholy when he was away from the people he loved for too long. “You don’t have to stay in by yourself. I’m sure some of your coworkers would be willing to show you the town.”
Marinette shrugged slightly, picking at the bedspread. “Some of them would, but...I don’t know, I don’t feel like I can trust them? Not like I trust you and Adrien or Alya or Nino...some of them resent that I have this position so young, I can tell. Maybe someday, but now...”
Luka nodded. “Your instincts are always good, you should trust them. I’m sorry it means you have to be alone though.”
“Well.” Marinette leaned her chin on her fist and gave him an adorable little grin. “I’m not alone anymore. Even if I can’t kiss a computer screen.”
“Definitely a flaw in the technology,” Luka grinned. “I miss your kisses. Don’t you have a Miraculous way to fix that? Because it’s been days and I gotta tell you—”
“Don’t tell me,” Marinette interrupted, giggling. “I might be tempted. It never works out, using the Miraculous for personal reasons.” She rolled her eyes. “Lame, but true. Otherwise I would totally get Kaalki to zap me over so I could kiss you stupid.”
“I get stupid just thinking about you, babe,” he told her, voice lowering. “And if you came to see me I’d want to keep you here all night.”
“Luka!” Marinette put her hands over her face. “Not the voice! Do you want me to have to go to bed all frustrated?”
“No, baby, I want you to be absolutely satisfied every time you’re in bed,” Luka told her, only half teasing. “And I definitely want to be the one you’re thinking of while you’re there.”
Marinette gave him a slow smile. “Oh you are.”
Luka’s face exploded in color and he sat up and slapped his hand over it a split second too late. Marinette began to laugh.
“Ohh, he can dish it out but he can’t take it,” Marinette teased, shifting her shoulder slightly.
“It’s not my fault you grew up and got stupid hot,” Luka grinned, peeking between his fingers. “Don’t think I don’t know you’re flashing that tattoo on me on purpose. Totally unfair, by the way, since I have to stop looking at you and half strip to flash mine.”
“Shame,” Marinette sighed, shifting and propping herself up on her elbow so her tattoo was more prominently in the frame. “I’d love to see it again.” Luka let his hand fall and bit his lip at her expression when something else apparently occurred to her. “That is the only one you have, right?”
Luka couldn’t have stopped the wicked grin spreading across his face if he tried.
“Lukaaaaa,” Marinette groaned, dropping her face to the bed.
“Ask me again when you get home,” he said, leaning back on his elbows as his voice went velvety-low again.
Marinette moaned into the bed, and then sat up, tossing her hair out of her face briskly. “So I hear you’re hanging out with Adrien a lot.”
“Ugh, mood killer, babe,” Luka laughed, sitting back in his chair.
“That was the point, you tease.”
Really Luka was slightly relieved at the lightening mood. They’d both been indulging in increasingly...charged flirting lately that had anticipation and excitement sparking along his nerves, but with her so far away it was definitely a special kind of torture and a guy could only take so much.
Wrenching his mind out of the gutter and back to her question, Luka sighed and leaned his chin on one hand thoughtfully. “Adrien is...Adrien. I don’t know, it’s...been kind of weird? I mean he’s come over a couple times and we jammed and it was fun, and we had lunch once, and he came to one of my gigs—”
“Yeah, I heard about that one,” Marinette giggled. “I hear he nearly got mobbed.”
Luka rolled his eyes. “If he’d told me he was coming I would have gotten him into the VIP section and he might have been able to come without being almost sexually assaulted.”
“I’m never letting him live that down,” Marinette giggled. “Going to the club like his half-naked body isn’t plastered over half the billboards in Paris.” At Luka’s quirked eyebrow, she raised her own. “What? Nothing actually happened so I can still tease him.” She dissolved into giggles again. “You should have heard him when he called me to complain about it. He felt deeply put-upon but not traumatized, I promise.”
“Anyway,” Luka said, shaking his head, “All of that should be great. I mean, I like Adrien well enough, when he’s not being a passive-aggressive little shit or a purposely-obnoxious black cat. He’s cool enough if a little...I don’t know, naive? I mean, I want to be positive that this is a sign he’s getting okay with this,” he gestured between himself and Marinette. “But at the same time I feel like he’s hanging around me almost as a proxy for you. Not in like, a gross way, just...I don’t know. Like he’s just hoping to hear stuff about you.”
Marinette frowned. “But he texts me all the time, why would he need to hear about me from you?”
Luka shrugged, tracing the wood grain on the table.
“What is it?” Marinette asked, folding her arms and putting her chin down on them.
Luka sighed. “It’s not anything specific, just...just a feeling. I just...I don’t think Adrien’s very honest with himself?” He hesitated, fingers twitching with the urge to grab his guitar. Feelings were such murky things and words were so...specific, and yet often so inaccurate. “I don’t know how to put this...sometimes being around him feels like being at a performance.”
Marinette cocked her head at him, waiting for him to go on. Luka tapped his fingers on the table as he thought. “It feels like he’s playing a role, like he’s forgotten that he can be his own person and just...do things spontaneously. And right now, whatever role he’s playing means that he needs to tell himself that he’s okay with us, with letting you go.”
“But you don’t think he is,” Marinette said softly.
Luka shook his head slowly. “I don’t think he is. And he may not even know himself that he’s not. He’s pretty repressed.”
“You can say that five or six more times. Less so when he’s Chat, but...”
Luka cracked a smile. “But even that’s a role he plays. It’s one he wrote himself, so it’s maybe more honest than the others, but…” Luka shook his head. “I don’t know, like I said, this is all just a feeling I have, I might be way off base and everything is cool. I mean you know him a lot better than I do.”
“I trust your intuition though,” Marinette said seriously, raising up on her elbows. “If you think something’s going on, you’re probably right. And you’re not wrong about playing a role; I don’t know if Adrien even knows how to be himself anymore after everything he’s been through.”
Luka shook his head slowly, eyes cast down thoughtfully. “He needs help, Marinette, I hope you realize that. More help than just you, I mean. The kind of stuff he’s been through is enough to mess up anyone.” He lifted his eyes to look at her. “Honestly, you could probably use help too. I mean I know you’ve had a lot more support than he has and you seem like you’re coping, but...you’ve been through a lot. You know I’m here for you, but I’m not a therapist.”
“Aren’t you?” Marinette teased, but her smile was crooked. “You always seem to have all the answers.”
Luka snorted. “Not even close. And I didn’t get this way by myself, either. I had help when I needed it, and I’ve been practicing meditation and mindfulness for a long time. Maybe I’m a little more honest with myself than most people at this point, but that doesn’t mean I have all the answers. And, even if I was a therapist,” he added gently. “I couldn’t be yours. Not and be your boyfriend, too.”
Marinette looked down.
“Just...think about it,” Luka told her, leaning forward onto the table again. “You know I love you, and believe me I have no complaints about the way things are between us, I just...I think it would help you.”
Marinette said nothing for a moment, but then a smile grew on her face until Luka felt nearly blinded by it. “You love me?” she said in a tone of quiet awe.
Luka blinked and froze for an instant as he replayed his words in his mind. “That, um, wasn’t how I meant to tell you,” he said slowly, feeling stupid. He smiled. “But, yeah...I do. Absolutely. I love you so much, Marinette, and as happy as I am for you to be chasing your dream, I can’t wait for you to come home.”
May I present, the Four Horsemen/Writers of the Fanfic-Apocalypse:
@quickspinner
@livrever
@kryptored
And my humble self
I swear, that 100 page ML sideffects centric collab we did was fantastic
Not to mention the Lukanette fluff collab I'm sensing is in the works (I'm working on a part, lemme know if its gonna happen my fellow chaotic riders writers XD)
I’m sorry but some Lukanette content creators’ (who’ve been shitty to me) interpretations of their precious beloved Luka deserves to have his dick cut off because he’s so awful and rude to others in their terrible fanon.
