#winters verse

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How did Rose & Juleka meet in Winters Verse??

...I don't know.

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FIC: "Scales are for Adornment" (MLB; Lukanette; LBSC Lukanette Month 2024; Winters)

@lovebugs-and-snakecharmers is doing a Lukanette Month for September 2024, and we all just kinda tossed some prompts in the disco to compile a list?  We ended up with 71 prompts, so I decided I’d roll some dice to pick a prompt, do a twenty minute (ish, bc we all know sometimes they run away from me) sprint, and try to get some short fics out this month?

(...how many days are we into this before these two popped up? 😂 Thank Bloody. She's been sharing some WIP art that got me itching. 🖤)

Read on Ao3

Prompt 33: Scales

There was a soft noise, a tinkling like chimes, barely perceptible on the far edges of his awareness.  It was just enough to be distracting.  Just enough to draw him from the warmth and softness and comfort of sleep.

…just enough to make him aware of how empty his arms – their nest – was.

A giggle floated on the breeze, making him twist and reach for his missing mate.  She wasn’t where she was supposed to be.  The bedding beside him was painfully empty.  Cold.  The chimes sounded again, and his brow furrowed.

His eyes felt too heavy as he struggled to open them, which…wasn’t fair.  It wasn’t even winter.  It was still early in the spring, and he supposed close enough to the end of his brumation that the lethargy was expected, but it was still…frustrating.

Hadn’t he spent enough time sleeping over the winter?

Wasn’t it time for him to be awake?  Up and about and enjoying his new mate?

She was at the kitchen table when he finally hauled himself out of the nest and to her side.  Scattered around her on the top were…pebbles?  No.  They were…he rubbed his eyes, squinting at the familiar teal shapes glinting in the afternoon light.

“I don’t recall you sleeping this much last summer,” she said, distracting him from the objects on the table.  She had turned towards him on the bench, her arms wrapping around his middle.  Her fingers danced along the line where scales met skin at his back, scratching lightly – and gods, did that feel good…

“I don’t, not u…usually,” he said around a yawn.  “I think ssssomeone’s worn me out.”

“Hey!” she laughed, leaning back to glare at him.  It was half-hearted at best, and there was a grin dancing on the corners of her mouth he longed to kiss away.  “You can’t possibly blame me when you’re the one who always starts it!”

“I do not recall sssstarting it lasssst night,” he hummed, dipping to kiss her.  He sighed as her nails scratched along his scales, but then he winced when a nail caught and…tugged.  She pulled away in surprise, her eyebrows lifting as she held up…oh.  “Ah.  Sssso that’sssss what’sss happening.”

“Luka?” she asked, looking up at him.  She laid the scale on the table, and he realized that’s why the things were so familiar.  And gods, how much had he been shedding that she had that many to…just what was she doing with his old scales, anyway?

“Why do you…what are my sssscales doing on the table, love?” he asked, picking up one of the older ones.  He had never paid much attention to them, once they were gone.  They were just something to clear out of the bedding when his new skin came in.  But it appeared Marinette had been collecting them – had amassed quite the collection, from the looks of it – and they were…hard.  Almost like stones, or the shells his sister used to collect along the seaside.

“They’re beautiful, don’t you think?” she asked, smiling as the scale he was holding caught the light and gleamed.  He looked at her, amused.  He had never thought so, but he had never been a particularly vain snake.  Unlike his father.  “I just…there’s so many of them.  I thought…I don’t know.  They were too pretty to just toss away.”

“I probably shhhould have warned you,” he said.  “I shhhed, in the sssspring.  It’ssss…you might ssssee it as a ssssummer cold?  It’ssss natural, and I confesssss I’d barely thought of it thissss year.  With…everything.”

“…if I wasn’t so worried about you saying you’re getting sick, I’d have words for you for that,” she said, frowning.  He sank onto his coils beside her and pulled her into another kiss.  She frowned as she pulled back.  “No.  No distractions.  You’re getting sick?”

“I will be fine, love,” he said.  “Jusssst…a little groggy.  Ssssore.  Really itchy.  It only lasssstssss a few days, and when it’ssss over I have a nicccce, shhhiny new sssskin.”

She hummed, unconvinced, but he just kissed her again.

“Now, tell me,” he said.  “What are you planning to do with my sssscales?”

“I’m not sure yet,” she said, looking back at the table.  She grinned at him.  “Let’s call it a surprise, shall we?”

He rolled his eyes before he decided she’d maybe had enough time with her little project.  He scooped her up and pulled her back against him, and she laughed until he bent her back with another kiss.  She always said nothing helped a creative block like a little distraction, after all, and he was quickly becoming her favorite distraction…

. : .

The next week was…unpleasant, at best.  Excruciating at worst.

He had perhaps downplayed how bad his yearly shedding could be – though that was perhaps just another stupid snake thing he had never fully considered warning his witch mate about.  The worst had been the day she’d come home from the market to find him passed out – and barely breathing – in the nest.  He had been fine, of course – his body just…slowed, a bit, as his skin shed.

(…then of course had been the actual skin, which…)

(…ok.  He owed her.  Big time.)

(…the way she had spent most of that first night just…running her hand over his new scales had been heaven, though.  If he was a cat he probably would have spent the whole damn night purring.)

(…he did, however, feel terrible that the intimacy had been caused not because she’d wanted to touch him but more because he’d scared her – terrified her, nearly caused her poor heart to give out on her, you awful snake – so.)

Still.

It was behind them now, and she’d be better prepared next year (“…oh my gods you do this every spring.”), and it was too glorious a day to be concerned with how awful the past week had been.  The sun was high in the sky, and he had an entire tail of fresh, shiny scales eager to soak up its warmth.

“Are you not joining me, love?” she called from the riverbank below.  He tipped his head back onto the rocks, smiling lazily at her.

“Perhapssss…” he paused, clearing his throat as she grinned at him.  “Perhaps you could join me up here?”

“Tempting,” she said, reaching behind her to undo the laces of her dress, “but I worked so hard on my new swimsuit…I was hoping to show it off today.”

“You don’t need a swimsuit, love,” he said, turning to frown at her.  “You’re jusssst fine without…”

And then her dress fell to her ankles.

And he saw exactly what she had been so busy with over the last week while he’d been busy writhing in itchy agony.

Or…rather what use she had decided to put his old scales to.

Her swimsuit.

If it could even be called that!

He had seen her swim clothes the previous summer – had seen what her friend Mylène considered ‘swimwear’!  That…those…the skimpy garments barely covering her bits were underthings at best.  And barely, at that!

(“It’ssss called lingerie, you dumbassssss,” a sardonic voice that sounded suspiciously like his sister hissed in his head.)

…not that he was complaining!  It was…it was…a bra and panties.  That yes, kept her covered, but it could hardly be considered decent.  By human standards, at least.  Rose would probably…

…it was probably best they didn’t tell Rose about this one.  She’d demand one for herself in Juleka’s scales, probably, and he…did not want to think about that.  Eugh.

On Marinette, though…

His old scales had been woven together, and they shone like polished shells in the sunlight.  She was beautiful.  She was always beautiful, but there was something about seeing her wearing his scales like that that sparked something almost primal in him.  He wanted…he needed to…he ached for…

“Luka?” she called, frowning, and he realized with a start that he had been silent – gobsmacked – just a moment too long.

…that start also made him slip, his hands sliding along the slick rocks and losing their balance.  He tumbled tail over head with a mighty splash into the river, and he was barely aware of Marinette screaming after him as he plunged below the surface.  When he finally regained himself, pushing himself up from the bottom of the river to swim towards the surface and breaking through with a strangled gasp, Marinette was waiting for him.

“Luka!” she cried, slipping her hands along his sides and under his armpits to hoist him up.  They bobbed there, Luka watching her with wide, startled eyes, and Marinette staring back with panic in her own, and he blinked slowly as he tried to process what in the seven hells had just happened.  “Gods, are you all right?  What just happened?  What was that?”

“I…” he started, but he trailed off because he honestly didn’t know.  One minute he had been staring at her, wearing his…and then his eyes dropped, his gaze focusing on the breasts bobbing in the water beneath him.  On the teal scales shimmering along their edges, hugging them and holding them up as perfectly as…

“Luk…” she started as he bent his head to her chest, her voice cutting off in a soft gasp as his nose skimmed along the edge of a cup.  His hand found her side, moving slowly up until it was holding the breast he was nuzzling – and then he pushed it up as he grazed his fangs along the soft, wet skin available to him.  His fangs caught on the edge of the his scales, and he hissed softly as a breathy giggle left her.  “I…I take it you like it?”

“That…is an undersssstatement,” he sighed, nuzzling her chest.  “How…when did you…?”

“I am very talented with a needle and thread,” she said, reaching up to brush her fingers through his hair, “and you have been very sleepy lately.”

“Did I truly shhhed thissss much?” he asked, glancing up at her.  She hummed, arching her back to push her chest closer to his mouth.  His other hand slipped along her back, reaching up to toy with the ties holding the top together.  He was torn, though, between his desire for more of her skin and the sight of his scales gleaming against that skin.

“I’ve been collecting them for a while,” she said.  “Honestly, Luka.  The nest is littered with them.”

“Ssssorry,” he chuckled, nipping at the mark above her heart.  The skin was starting to scar over, what with how often he bit her there.  He felt he should feel guilty about that, and yet…

It was the same as that part of him that thrilled at seeing her new underthings.  Swimwear.  A little primal voice that hissed mine.

“You are not,” she giggled, nipping at his ear.  He hissed when she licked it, smiling.  “So.  You love it, then?”

“I love you,” he sighed, lifting her slightly to give him more access.  She hummed, the sound cutting off in a gasp as his claws lightly scratched along her back.  As he settled his face between her breasts and took a moment to just…be.  To breathe her in.  Bask in the fact that she was there and his and…

“So…so who’s starting this one?” she giggled breathlessly when he turned his head to run his tongue along the inside of a breast.  He glanced up at her, grinning as he tugged on the tie and slipped the cup just a little lower.  Just enough for her nipple to slip out – just enough to flick his tongue against it with a hiss.

“You,” he insisted, cupping her ass and pulling her against him to grind up.  She slipped along his wet scales, her legs scrabbling to lock around him, but from her gasp he knew she had felt the point he was attempting to make.  “Looking like thissss, little mousssse…looking the way you always do…it is always you.”

She wasn’t sure when he had spun them, when he had pressed her back up against the rocks – when his tail had wrapped around her middle to hoist her up – but his mouth was working its way down, nibbling along her ribs and towards her stomach while her hands twisted in his hair.  Her head tipped back, her mouth dropping open as his fangs grazed along her skin.

“In…incorrigible,” she breathed, sighing as his fingers toyed with the waistband of her bottoms.

“For you?” he hummed, glancing up at her with a slow, satisfied smile.  “Always.”

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FIC: Sit a Spell (MLB; Lukanette; Winters)

Characters/Pairings: Naga!Luka Couffaine, Witch!Marinette Dupain-Cheng; Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Rating: General Audiences

Summary: Marinette comes home to find her new housemate sitting outside.  Luka’s just glad to see his mate safely home.

Author’s Notes/Warnings: Set during their first autumn, shortly after Luka’s moved in.  Early in his brumation, before he’s sleeping all the time.  Winters is kind of my comfort series?  I have actual stories and plot planned out for this ‘verse, but every now and then I just need to come back and do something short and fluffy for my own sanity.

“Sit a Spell”

“What are you doing out here?”

Luka looked up and smiled when he saw his little witch – his mate – walking up the path to her…their little cottage.  The tip of his tail flicked almost subconsciously, a sign of his pleasure at seeing her safely home, and she grinned when she noticed it.

“Aren’t you cold?” she asked once she was closer, her eyes glancing down at his bare chest.  He noticed the way they lingered – her gazes had been lingering more and more lately – and his tail swished again.  Her cheeks were pink when her eyes lifted back to his own.

The pinking wasn’t new, not for a while now, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it.  There was a little thrill that raced through him every time he saw that lovely color fill her cheeks.  He’d found himself wondering lately how far he could make that blush go, and how lovely it might look…

…but those were thoughts for later, when the cold wasn’t creeping in and his body wasn’t so damnably slow.

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FIC: Spring is for the Day They Met (MLB; Lukanette; Winters)

@rengokuswifeysblog Pssssst remember when you asked about a first meeting fic??? 👀

Characters/Pairings: Naga!Luka Couffaine, Witch!Marinette Dupain-Cheng; Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Rating: Teen and Up

Summary: Luka wasn’t used to seeing humans this far into his forest.  He’s not used to seeing witches this far into his forest.  He’s not sure he’s going to like it.  (Marinette, on the other hand, is just fascinated by the fact that a snake is the ward of her new home.  That was definitely something her superiors could have mentioned before sending her here.)

Author’s Notes/Warnings: Ages back, Bloody had this idea about Naga!Lu being fascinated with Marinette’s human feet.  It made me think of the meeting scene in Disney’s Tarzan, and then I got all twisted up in first meetings and feet and could not for the life of me make any progress with the fic.  I went through so many drafts with this, and then I realized if I focused more on the meeting and not on the feet the fic actually came together quite nicely?  So.  Here’s the fic formerly known as “Human Feet”?  Now with 95% more meet cute and 75% less feet jokes. 😂

“Spring is for the Day They Met”

It was a glorious spring day, but then again, all of them had been glorious so far.  After an entire winter of not-so-nice days cooped up in his cave, hiding away from the cold and the snow, the sun shining high above him through the clearing in the leafy canopy of the trees was a welcome sight.  Even the breeze, still cool in the early spring, was a much welcome change from the bitter chill of winter.  The ice had completely thawed from the river below him, and his rocks were once again prime basking space.

Even better, spring was still early, and most of the Forest’s inhabitants had yet to realize he was once again up and about.  If they had had any need for him, those needs had not yet been serious enough to bother seeking him out.  He was free to sprawl out on his rocks, soaking up as much sun as he could in an attempt to recover from a too-long winter.

Yes, spring had once again come to the Forest, and life was…

A resounding slap echoed across the water, followed by the raucous bark of heckling laughter.  More laughter bubbled up in chittering cackles as water splashed and rough, croaky voices squabbled.  He dropped his head back onto the rock, hanging it upside-down to stare across the river to the opposite bank.

It would be perfect, he couldn’t help but think, if those damned kappas would relocate.

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Are you going to write a fic about Luka and Marinette's first meeting in the Wntersverse?

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Six Some Sentences Sunday: 01.15.23

I was really hoping I'd get this finished today, but maybe tomorrow...?

“…he said you’re gonna eat me,” she mumbled when he pulled away.  A strange sound, somewhere between a hiss and a laugh and something choked, escaped him, and she rolled her eyes as she shoved at him and flopped onto the cushions of their nest.  “See?  Stupid.”

“Why would he….?” Luka started, but then his eyebrows rose even higher as he blinked at her.  “You ssssaid village gosssssip.  Do they…do they all think you’re in danger here?”

She looked away from him, but there was no denying the flush on her cheeks, even in the dark.

“…maybe,” she mumbled.  “They…they all implied that the Snakefolk eat people, so…so obviously you’re going to eat me.  Ridiculous, right?  The Snakefolk don’t eat…Luka, stop laughing!”

“Apologies, love,” he said, shaking his head.  “It’sss jussst…you’re right.  He’s an idiot.”

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'hugging while straddling the partner' please and thank you

…oops, (early) Winters strikes again…

“Luka!”

The naga raised his head at the shout, but before he could properly get his bearings a dark little blur was slamming into his chest with enough force to knock him off balance.  He landed back in the grass by the riverbank with an oof, his arms automatically coming up to protect the little witch who was nuzzling her cheek against his chest from the fall.  She didn’t seem phased by it at all, too preoccupied with wrapping her limbs around him in a crushing hug.

“Hello to you, too,” he chuckled, a hand rubbing along her back as she finally settled with a sigh.

“You were gone forever,” she said, squeezing him tight.

“I was gone less than three days,” he said, though he couldn’t deny it had certainly felt longer.  He loved his family dearly, he did, but the Solstice celebration just…it hadn’t felt the same this year.  Not when it had meant three whole days away from his new friend – and it had only been three days because he had left early, much to his mother’s annoyance.  She looked up at him, propping her chin on his sternum and scrunching her face as she stuck her tongue out at him, and he idly wondered if perhaps she could join him next Solstice.  He could just imagine it, flowers in her hair as she danced under the bright summer sun…

“Which is three whole days longer than you’ve ever been gone before,” she said.  She laid her head back on his chest and sighed.  “I missed you, you silly snake.”

“…I misssssed you, too,” he murmured softly, bending to bump his forehead against her own.  “It was good to see my family again, but that is not my home anymore.”

“So don’t go away again,” she said, fisting her hands against his back as she tried to pull him closer.  He chuckled and bent nearer, until his breath on her ear made her shiver.

“But if I do not go away, how can I bring you back presentssss?” he whispered, and just like that she was jolting up.  She sat back on his tail, her hands bracing against his stomach for balance, and he was momentarily…stunned.  Dazed.  The excited smile she blinded him with was dizzying enough, but her hands on him…the way her knees pressed into his sides, her weight sitting comfortably on his…

She was talking – he was vaguely aware of her talking – but for the life of him he couldn’t tell you what she’d said.  It was too much.  She was…

“…Luka?” she called, tilting her head to the side.  The collar on her dress was low, and her hair was tied back in a low bun, and the way the sun shone warm and bright on the soft skin of her neck…  “What did you bring me?”

…my heart, he thought, his hand stilling on her calf.  I think you kept it here with you when I left…

He blinked when she called his name again, shaking his head as a breathy chuckle escape him.

“A ssssarong,” he said, his thumb brushing her knee absently.  Her eyes widened as she gave an excited little wiggle that was absolute torture.  “Like my kind wear during our fesssstivals.  My ssssisssster made it.  It’ssss…”  he paused, clearing his throat as his hissing grew worse.  Marinette giggled and settled back against his chest, folding her arms over him and resting her chin on them.  He wasn’t sure if that was better or worse: at least she was no longer…the pressure of her weight over his…she was no longer as distracting as…his arms lifted to wrap around her, holding her close.  He took a long, steadying breath to try and compose himself (it was getting har…increasingly more difficult with every day spent around the enticing little witch).  “It’s back at my cave.  I was going to bring it to dinner.”

“We could go get it now,” she said.  He chuckled and rubbed her back.

“In a bit,” he said, relaxing back against the grass.  “Thissss is niccce.”

“I missed you, too, Luka,” she giggled.  He smiled as she snuggled closer.  “Silly snake.”

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Six Sentence Sunday: 01.08.22

She shot the women one last scolding look before she left.

“Kim is sweet, but he’s an idiot,” she said.  She paused before walking out the door.  “And for the record, the Forest Snake isn’t my housemate.  He’s my mate.”

Their indignant gasps echoing behind her as the door closed were more than a little satisfying.