So, I'm back on my 'Chloé is doing poorly' theorizing again. New info had me rethinking based on what we know, and I expanded it back to Marinette (Which is always important when poking canon)
So why do I think it is a front and she us doing badly? Because that makes her situation the another hammer to hit Marinette with about the lie.
'See, someone can put up a front and everything can look fine on the surface but behind the scenes they're miserable and their life/wellbeing is falling apart.'
Utilizing Chloé as a 'lesson' for Marinette and tying it to the main Adrinette drama of the season is exactly what canon would do. The only caveat is it would make Chloé look less bad, which is something Thomas is not usually on board with.
She shouldn’t really be worried—not with Callum following close behind, wing spell at the ready—and yet…
Rayla peers over the ledge they’ve sat at, breath shaking despite herself.
“Alright, Mr. Mage,” she starts, steeling herself, sucking in a gulp of air, and swiveling around to him, hands held out in fists. “Work your magic.”
Callum snickers—as expected—as he strokes the back of the hand he takes—not as expected—and her breath catches again, seeing his face all lit up like that, feeling his warm fingertips on her skin...
Face hot, she watches his thumb trace her knuckles, watches her fist open at his bidding, watches him slip one loose band onto her wrist, watches him cinch the knot tight, watches him weave his fingers around hers…and then pause there a moment.
He’s serious, pensive and frowning, when she tears herself away from their entangled hands…and then, like he’s thought better of it, he loosens the wing-bracelet a little, slipping a couple of fingers between her sleeve and the smooth, enchanted fabric. “How’s that?”
“Tighter is better, I think.” She pulls at the knot again herself, then rolls her wrist around in circles, testing the motion. His head is obviously already where hers is—her wrist binding had been Sky magic too, after all—so she smiles at him, unbothered by that part of all this. “Sure these things aren’t just decorative?”
Callum smiles back, and she knows he remembers that fib of hers too.
“You have nothing to worry about,” he assures her, answering what she hadn’t quite said. He takes her other hand, then—the one she’d told that fib about—and lifts it to his lips first: one kiss to her knuckles, a second across the back of her hand, a third lingering against her sleeve. She makes sure it’s silent when she sighs, but she bites her lip, mesmerized all over again. “I’ll do the spell, and then—poof! Wings!”
“Poof?” Rayla questions, adjusting this second band to be tight as the other, raising an eyebrow at the dramatic, dorky little finger-wiggles Callum had dropped her hands for. “I don’t know if I trust poof.”
“Oh, but ting is good enough for you, Miss Moonshadow Powers?” he teases, leaning in with a grin, and she scoffs back, looking skeptically again at the clouds beneath them.
“I think going invisible’s a little different than jumping off cliffs, hoping to sprout wings and fly, but—”
It’s a gentle touch, his fingertips on her face just firm enough to insist that she turn to him, to make her eyes meet his.
“You trust me, though,” he says, steady, thumb settled at her chin, voice warm and low.
“I love you,” she half gasps, nodding and near speechless, watching his lips part and his eyes shut and—
Callum cradles her close while he kisses her, his hand cupping her cheek…and she can’t keep this sigh silent. It’s just…so sweet having this back after so long. She lets him pulls her close, lets herself collapse into it, lets herself breathe him in…lets him comfort her.
“—and trust you, yeah,” she finishes with the last puff of air he leaves her with.
They both let out a choked giggle, both red-faced and beaming.
“I love you too,” Callum says, staring at her so tenderly, so fondly that she can hear her heartbeat in her ears. “Ready?”
Her hand still on his elbow, she tugs him in again, kissing him hard and feverishly sure…and he’s the one humming against her lips this time, though they’re both breathless and starry-eyed once they part.
buck/eddie | very minor eddie/omc | 279K | WIP | AO3
It’s not the first time a man has ever looked at Eddie a certain way. It’s not the first time a man has ever hit on him or asked him out. It happens every so often. Not a lot. Once every six months or so? If he had to put a number to it?
But maybe it’s the first time Eddie’s actually considered saying yes.
He’s in a much better place than he was a year ago, and he’s never actually dated that many people. He met Shannon when he was nineteen and high school relationships didn’t really count, and he was technically married until not quite four years ago. And there was only one huge, sad mistake since then.
So, Eddie could say yes.
He could go on a date with this beautiful, nice man. That is a thing he can do. And maybe it would be good. Maybe it would explain a lot of things he’s always wondered about but never put into practice.
~~~
Eddie dates a man for the first time, Buck is completely Fine(tm) and not at all having a breakdown, and the way to love and happiness is not easy but they find it anyway.
I was thinking about Soren and dragons and how much I love that they reversed the classical 'knight slays the dragon' trope and have him constantly befriend dragons. And then I remembered that Karim is trying to heal Sol Regem (a dragon whose defining character trait is that he hates humans), so he presumably will have a larger role in s6. It's a random idea and kind of a stretch, but could they be setting up a reconciliation between the sunfire elves and humans by having Soren befriend Sol Regem?
soooo excited to find out what is going on in the world where buck isn’t a firefighter. what’s he doing instead? where’s the rest of the 118? do they know each other? how’s his relationship with maddie? with his parents? if he doesn’t know the firefam, will he meet them? questions over questions
i’m not a claaravos shipper or anything but dialogue (she will be a valuable asset) + other things in the past and the way s6 is headed has got me wondering if aaravos will have a similar dynamic with claudia as he did with viren? like, welp the dad’s dead, time to move on to the daughter seems like fitting asshole behavior 😭 that or they will just be besties idk
just thinking about the fact that Terry will probably make Claudia a prosthetic, and knowing him he'll put flowers on it and make it all pretty for her
