#i should just compile them and do a little. photoshoot with all of them

[commander-gloryforge]

u guys dont even know how many of my ocs are based on kpop songs....

[riddles-n-games]

TIG Drabble #4-Avery and Jameson

A/N: Hey guys, this story is inspired by the additional photoshoot compilations I found from a little while back. Oh, and enjoy the little surprise at the end.

Breath in.

"Okay, Heiress. Take your stance. Good. Lemme just..." He placed his hands on her waist and adjusted her posture then went around to straighten her back.

One foot in front, one foot back. Equidistant, both facing forward. Make sure they are perfectly aligned in parallel.

Square the shoulders. Tuck in the chin.

"Relax your shoulders." He tapped her shoulder blades until he felt her drop them. She forgot to stop tensing. That was one thing Nash had told her time and time again but she just kept forgetting. It was hard not to. Every time she came here, every time she held a gun, it reminded her of then.

The shooting in the Black Wood, the airplane bomb, Sheffield Grayson... Whenever she heard something near the fireplace when she was alone, her body would freeze or tense. It was clear she developed a trigger reflex. She also avoided the passages. And the nightmares; she hated to be alone at night. She stowed away in Libby's room and if she was feeling bolder, she stayed with Jameson.

It was hard navigating a new relationship while fighting for your sanity and mental stability. But Jameson was supportive through it all and it didn't take her long before she confessed the real truth behind his mother's charges. She'd never seen him more serious or angry than that moment. It was why they were here now.

While Nash and Oren were training her to shoot, Jameson insisted being the one when they weren't available and also started teaching her martial arts and kickboxing. He was rigorous and passionate; she knew he'd been deeply affected. But he was trying and that was enough for her.

Being with Jameson was enough.

"Ok, I know Nash said you were still having some trouble with holding it so I got you one that I used to practice with. It’s a bit smaller too so it should be easier to hold.” He handed her the gun and she turned it over in her hands, taking in every inch, the rust, the scratches and the little dents. He had to have used it a long time. "It's a Col-"

"Colt Python, '95 model." Jameson's brows raised in surprise. Avery shrugged. "I may have been doing a little bit of research since Nash got me started."

"Uh-huh. Well then, you can tell me what kind of pistol that is once we’re done.” Avery turned to the table, locking in on the black glock that was on the edge. She was feeling wary just looking at it but she couldn’t deny the curiosity creeping in. “Now, show me your locked and loaded pose.”

She glanced at him through the safety glasses and pushed them back up before focusing on the target in front of her. Deep breaths. Roll back your shoulders. Your arms should be eye level and most importantly, remember that the gun is an extension of you.

As she was about to pull the trigger, her hands went clammy and started shaking. She tried to wipe away the sweat on her pants. The tremors weren't going away but Avery ignored that and refocused on the target, gripping the revolver tighter than before. She tried tensing her index finger against the trigger but it only started to react and trembled as if it had a mind of its own.

Soon enough, her well-positioned aim was wobbling around the center of the bullseye and the harder she held the gun, the sweatier the handle and looser her hold. She huffed frustratedly and she swiped furiously against her pant leg again. That was when a warm hand wrapped around hers and she looked up, startled, to see Jameson standing beside her. "Allow me."

He didn't make a move until she nodded and gently slid his hand to her wrist then brought his other hand around the handle. His fingers overlapped hers. A little up and to the right, he fixed her aim and with that, her breathing slowed. The tension started to lift.

"Just like that. You're doing great, Heiress," he murmured just as he pressed a kiss to her cheek. She smiled briefly but focused on their entwined hands. He steadied her. The shaking subsided; Jameson must have noticed because he gave her a reassuring squeeze then retracted his hand from hers.

He took hold of her free hand and placed it on the handle where his was previously. As soon as she had a comfortable hold, he let go and slowly unwrapped his other hand from her wrist. Avery looked at him and he nodded at her. "You can do this. I'm right here, Avery."

She nodded back at him and then faced the target again, inhaling sharply and holding her breath. This time her aim was poised and steady. Her finger pulled the trigger.

Breath out.

Bonus:

[vasito-de-leche]

Hi! If request still open, could you do a romantic hcs for Click from reverse 1999 please?

;R1999 CLICK - Relationship Headcanons

Compilation of headcanons about Click in a romantic relationship.

I haven't thought much abt Click but hmmm - now I'm kinda intrigued after looking through his voicelines and story! ty for the ask, nonnie!

Fandom led me to believe Click was just the a sad and wet little shy introvert victim of the horrors but now I'm willing to say that there's a little more nuance to that - his behaviour is muted and calm, but many of his voicelines point towards a very daring and fearless personality.

One of them states how he was never even afraid of landmines in the first place, and we also have to take into account the fact that his job requires a lot of courage. He also has no problem prioritizing a picture, regardless of what people might think or say - or the trouble he could get into.

In the context of romance, Click is quite a breeze of fresh air - despite having little to no experience in relationships, he's naturally curious and straightforward in his own muted, calm way. Very inquisitive when it comes to learning the ropes, finding out more hidden facets of his partner and also learning about his own. There's no ulterior motives, no ungodly amount of emotional baggage - Click is very genuine and direct.

I do think he'd be pretty dense when it comes to people flirting with him, with compliments and subtle pick-up lines flying right over his head. Click is very insightful when it comes to photography, always taking beautiful shots that just display all the beauty that surrounds him - but he's still somewhat oblivious to certain things, especially if they're related to romance. Don't take it personally if all you get is a simple thanks after showering him in compliments!

On the subject of Click realizing he has a crush.

As a photographer, he focuses on the small details - and so, it would take a long time for him to notice the big picture.

Why is his portfolio full of things that remind him of you? He doesn't understand why he keeps freezing up whenever he talks to you. Normally, he'd have no trouble asking people for a photoshoot, why can't he bring himself to ask you all of a sudden?

But as soon as Click realizes he has a crush, he's quick to act on his feelings and confront you directly - photography has taught him to never let any sensational moments pass. No matter where you are or what you're doing, you'll find Click right beside you, having manifested out of thin air, insisting that he has something important to tell you. He feels like you should know what he's feeling, and so he tells you right away.

It's not necessarily a proper confession in his eyes, at least he didn't confess with the intention of getting you to date him or find out what you feel in return - it's more so the polite thing to do, both for himself and for you, the object of his affections. This is also as far as he's planned. The moment those words leave his mouth, Click would simply bid you a good day and float away because he's just done with his business, there's no point in keeping you from going about your day.

It's up to you to confront him right away or wait a few days - either way, you'll be met with an extremely surprised and somewhat flustered Click, who wasn't expecting an answer in the first place. He'll be somewhat timid during the first few months, but once he settles in the relationship you can expect him to be even more direct, interrupting conversations you have with people because he just really wants you to hang out with him and so on.

He loves when you look for him from across the room. He just loves knowing you're looking at him.

Because of his status as a ghost and his former job during the war, Click is used to blending in with the background to the point where it's become quite the habit - it's easy to forget he's in the room and he makes his presence as small as possible, as it allows him more freedom to roam and capture small, fleeting moments.

I wouldn't say that he's desperate to be seen or noticed, quite the contrary! His voicelines express that he feels much better now that he can just float around, be a fly and the wall, etc.

But he's always been the one observing others, not the one being observed - Click is not used to receiving this unique type of attention and affection, to be on the other side of the camera.

He stammers and grows extremely flustered when he realizes that you've taken pictures of him, as if he doesn't have an album full of candid pictures he's taken of you. When he notices the way you search for him among the crowd, when your face lights up once you see him - he's so relieved he can levitate because otherwise his legs would've given out. It's no mystery that Click experiences the world through the lenses of his camera, this is how he can express himself - so knowing that his partner is looking at him with the same amount of love, adoration and attention to detail is enough to turn Click into a a smitten mess.

It takes him a long, long time to get used to simply laying down with you to rest (he doesn't need to rest the same way you do, but he still makes the effort of keeping you company if you want it) because of the possibility of meeting your gaze - so sleepy and comfortable, looking at him like he means the world to you. He knows exactly what's going through your head and the way you see him, because it's the same for him when it comes to you.

To no one's surprise, Click loves to take pictures of you.

This is a given, so I'll talk about it from a slightly different angle instead of rambling about things everyone and their dog already know.

As a ghost, the way he interacts with the physical world is extremely limited, which can be both a blessing and a curse - he can pass through walls and fly really high to get the best angles, food and water are no longer an issue, he doesn't experience life the same way everyone does and he knows this. Click, out of all supernatural entities, has adapted the best to this current state of being, but there are times when he just... forgets.

It only hits him once his hand passes right through yours, and you find yourself shivering and surprised, scolding him for trying to tease you when all he wanted was to hold your hand. When you need so many blankets just to lay down with him because he's so damn cold, an empty, lifeless void next to you, sucking up all the warmth.

And this is when Click realizes that he was content with being a ghost because he had never wanted anything in life - now that he does, it's a little jarring. There are many, many things Click wishes he could do, but he can't.

So he settles for what he knows: capturing every single moment you two spend together. He can't hold you in his arms nor feel the way you kiss his cheek, but he can still have tangible, solid proof of the love you two share in the form of pictures.

I imagine Click has many beautiful pictures of you, but the ones he loves the most are those that show all the fun he has when he's with you - this one is blurry, but he knows that's you laughing and trying to reach out for his camera to get him to stop with his antics. That one has an awful composition, but he knows that this is a picture of the first time you attempted to hug him by surprise and fell flat on your face. Another one is just an accidental picture you took of yourself, the flash blinding your eyes in the funniest expression he's ever seen.

You've made him promise time and time again to never let anyone else see such embarrassing pictures, and Click has given you his word - only because these stupid, little moments mean so much to him and he doesn't want to share them with anyone else.

[skz-sage]

skz + sage 5star moments (maknae line)

a/n: my apolo cheese for being absent. i do really want to continue writing for sage! i have so many ideas. as always, any requests are welcome! please leave them in my ask box :) if i get enough love i MIGHT do lalalala era version

jisung

jisung and sage do a vlog together so sages little series where she posts vlogs every few weeks. this days guest was jisung. every time you put these two together it’s absolute mayhem. literally in every video with jisung and sage they’re giggling, screaming laughing, it’s always happy-going with them. in this vlog it shows them going to practice, the convenience store and to the park. one of the highlights in this vlog is sage and jisung walking into the store and sage says “it’s on me, get whatever.” you can immediately see the sparkle in jisung’s eyes eyes. in subtitles she put “princess peter han~”. you can tell sage was getting worried the more and more jisung added things to the basket. she waited a little more to say “hey! i’m not made of money!” she scolded him. which made him laugh. you could tell he was doing it to mess with her. it didn’t matter because at the end they had a romantic picnic at the park with their snacks.

felix

this moment consist of felix and sage getting their makeup done next to each other. they were the last two to have their makeup done. because sage is a girl, her makeup takes a little longer than the rest of the boys. felix has this cute thing where when they’re getting their makeup done next to each other, felix will stay behind and talk sages ear off. sage took a time-lapse type of video, recording felix just talking, doing nothing just annoying miju. all she really did was nod and make small replies. it’s not that she didn’t like felix doing this, it just who sage is. she could be so interested in what you’re saying but she’ll give half-assed replies. minho gets on her ass a lot for it. she later posted onto her personal instagram the video and pictures she took of him next to her. she captioned it “yongbok? more like yongboring 😒”

seungmin

for this specific part of the mv, sage had to act surprised. for an odd reason it took sage a while to get it right. of course, seungmin found it soooo amusing. just from him staring at him with a grin, she could tell exactly what was going on in his head. this would go in a compilation of “seungmin staring at sage for 30 minutes”. oh he was evil, but she loved him. the camera man will go over to seungmin and he’s laugh to the camera, mocking sage’s attempts to act shocked. “she’s endearing.. but a little stupid.” this made stays be like “HUH?? JESUS HES SO MEAN TO HER”, but no this is just how sage and seungmin joke around. they’re brutal towards each other. later on when it was seungmin on camera and sage watching, she shook her head and sighed. “he’s really pretty, stay. but he’s horrible towards me. you should always love me more.” she joked with a straight face towards the camera.

jeongin

in the 5star concept pics, jeongin and sage were paired together. the visuals they gave were astronauts, intergalactic, out of the world. it had the members talking out it for weeks. went from “she’s so gorgeous!” to “miju where did the years go? you’re all grown up!” which she hears often… it drives her crazy. in the dressing room, jeongin left behind an expensive silver necklace. with a note from jeongin saying “for miju~ ♡”. of course jeongin checked with staff to make sure she can wear it during the photoshoot. of course she gave her best visuals in the photoshoot, as she always does. after the shoot her and jeongin went out to restaurant and sage still had the necklace on. later jeongin would post on his instagram a picture of his kiss-stained cheek and the culprit? son miju.

[eirenical]

Hey, MLCB fandom. We've been bombarded with some amazing photoshoots today, and I've been losing my entire mind over them all day, so GUESS WHAT. You all get to suffer with me.

For reference, the photoshoots and edits that inspired this post: [Cheng Yi in white] [BTS video of Cheng Yi in white, starring the photographer arm that sent this whole thing down a difanghua path instead of just a fanghua path] [@difeisheng 's edit/compilation of Cheng Yi and Zeng Shunxi's parallel photoshoots] [@la-muerta's edit of the photographer arm that made that vision a reality]

I don't have extensive context for all of this, but Di Feisheng, Fang Duobing, and Li LIanhua have gone to an event of some kind.  Maybe it's Di Feisheng' gallery opening.  Maybe it's Fang Duobing unveiling a new invention at a huge conference.  It doesn't matter.  What matters is that they all go, and they all have to get dressed up, and the event lasts all evening and long into the night and they don't make it home until well after dawn.

They get home and Fang Duobing has been in these clothes for far too long now and he desperately needs to get out of them and shower off the excitement of the night.  There's too much of a buzz under his skin and he's been talking everyone's ears off the entire ride home and he's losing patience with himself, so surely the others must be losing patience with him as well.  He needs a chance to let the buzz of energy die down a little bit before he irritates the others past the point of being able to deal with it, so he heads off to the giant bathroom to do just that.

Li Lianhua is quiet.  Mellow.  He didn't get drunk, per se, but he's somewhere in the slightly buzzed vicinity; enough that he's floppy and tired and half in love with the world and just wants to be petted and held, something he'd gotten plenty of on the drive home, but he still wants more.

(If pushed, he might admit that he doesn't handle crowds well, that he hasn't done since his days as a child prodigy fell far behind him.  Crowds do nothing but intimidate him now, bring back memories he'd rather leave far in the past, but he wants to support his partners, even if he has to blur the world a little to get through doing it.)

Di Feisheng has been rigidly well-behaved and contained all night and remains so even after they get home.  He has his own childhood traumas and handles crowds as well as Li Lianhua does.  He doesn't appreciate being touched by strangers, even accidentally, but crowds are a necessity in his line of work, sometimes, and there's nothing to be done for it. Now that he's home, he should be able to relax, but he can't.  He won't be able to until the hypervigilance fades.  So, he doesn't really want to be alone, but his choices… he could join Fang Duobing, let that inane chatter wash over him along with the water from a hot shower, to take the edge off his nerves.  But he doesn't want to be naked right now, doesn't want to be that vulnerable until his he's no longer twitching at every errant sound. So he stays with Li Lianhua.  To make sure he doesn't do something stupid while impaired.  It wouldn't be the first time.

But Li Lianhua is just... wandering around the room.  He's wandering around the room and slowly undoing the buttons at his cuffs… his neck… all the way down his chest to reveal the half-sheer singlet underneath.  He's wandering the room, undoing his clothes and gently touching things like it's the first time he's ever seen them, in spite of having lived in this room already for nearly three years.

And something about that soft wonder on his face relaxes something in Di Feisheng, finally releases him from the coil of tension he's been wound around all night.  So he does what he always does when a moment means something more than it should.  He pulls out his camera and begins taking pictures.

Li Lianhua notices, of course, and his gentle meanderings start to become a little bit of a performance.  Not a true dance, he hasn't done that in years, not since—  Di Feisheng cuts off the thought before he can dwell on it for too long.  They'd both lost too much in the accident that had ended Li Xiangyi's career and turned Di Feisheng into a fugitive for a decade.  Tonight isn't about them.  It isn't about that.  It was about their Xiaobao's accomplishments, about realizing the dream they'd helped him bring to fruition together.  And right now, it's about Li Lianhua, and a dance that isn't a dance.  Here in this room is the one place Li Lianhua allows a spectre of his former self to rise, allows himself to enjoy being noticed, being watched.  Because it's them.  Because he enjoys when the two of them watch him, focus on him, blocking out everything else but the safety of the space they've carved out here together.

And so, Di Feisheng takes picture after picture: Li Lianhua at the window, staring out into the garden, Li Lianhua in the hallway, hand settled gracefully on the railing as though at a barre, Li Lianhua in bed, rolling around and rumpling up the sheets, half asleep already the moment he's supine among the blankets and pillows. 

And he sends each one of those pictures to Fang Duobing.

Even Li Lianhua manages to take one very shaky selfie of himself sprawled in their bed, rumpled and bleary-eyed and barely awake.  Di Feisheng sends that one, too.

It isn't more than a minute later when Fang Duobing comes sprinting down the hall, clad in nothing but his boxers, wet hair half in his face, as droplets of water drip down his chest.  He's holding his phone in front of himself like a talisman, eyes narrowed accusingly at Di Feisheng.

Di Feisheng simply smiles and slides onto the bed to pull Li Lianhua into his arms for a kiss.  By the time it's over, Li Lianhua is draped half in his lap and whimpering, pulling at the sleeves of his shirt as he tries to peel it off and mold himself around Di Feisheng's body at the same time.

Di Feishing looks back up… and smiles wider.  "I didn't want to you miss the show."

Moments later, he has a armful of very wet Fang Doubing toppling them all over into the blankets.

It's undignified.  It's clumsy.  It's ridiculous in so many ways—more giggling fits of laughter than moans of pleasure.  And Di Feisheng wouldn't trade it for anything.

[dairy-farmer]

Once when Tim was a baby he blew a kiss to the papparazzi goodbye on his mother's arms as she carried them to the limo home.

It ended up trending for literal weeks, and his parents decided to make him model a few things. Cute things, usually. There was one where his shirt was messily unbuttoned, hair a fluffed up mess. There was one where he sat on a kitchen counter leg's spread the way a baby can never keep their legs closed, he's wearing a pair of brown overrals with no shirt underneath. One with a flower crown, one in a suit and tie, one on his daddy's lap. Things like that.

Anyway, tim comes across a gif of him as a chubby cheeked cute little baby blowing a kiss to cameras and...well, he's a teen ceo with a bit of spare time. He redoes every piece of the photoshoot he sees. At first he thinks people find it cute. He's trending again, he expected maybe a few days. But days turned to weeks. And weeks turned to months.

He opens his social media account to see he's STILL trending because of those photos. Him on Bruce's lap, dressed up all pretty. Him with messy hair and an unbuttoned shirt, no scars seen on his clean unhairy chest. The one that's trending the most is him blowing a kiss to the camera, an added wink to make it look cuter.

Before he could scroll to the countless of people still thirsting over him, Tam snatches his phone and tells him to focus on his paperwork. He tells himself he'd check them out later again but he forgets and he never sees basically the whole world thirsting for him

STOP THIS IS THE CUTEST THING IVE EVER READ!!!!!!!!!!😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭!!!!! i've always had a headcanon that tim was a cute baby, like a really really cute baby. the kind of baby that you see and can't help but think 'wow you should be on tv!' and his parents were the type to get him professionally photographed. like tim could be the gerber baby!

and baby timmy is so plump and charming with his little rosy nose and cheeks. he'd 100% have been put on catalogs for children's clothes, been on local commercials. maybe he would've even had a nonspeaking role on a tv show that ran for a single season. timmy wouldn't have been a BIG star but he'd have certainly been recognized enough. tim essentially went viral before the internet or modern forms of virality were around!!

of course by the time he's a teenager he's just one of a million gifs uploaded and popularly used. he shows up on video compilations of 'don't kids just do the darndest things?' alongside dozens of other children doing tooth-rottingly cute antics. and his wikipedia page which only knows him as one of bruce wayne's adopted children and the current ceo of WE makes no mention about it.

i imagine no one among the bats even knows its him because ??? he doesn't mention it???? it was years ago for him and he was just a baby. he barely even remembers it and it's not like it was relevant information to know. even though some of the lingering effects are present in his life. tim inherited a condo in new york from his parents that he stays in overnight occasionally when he's in the city. he knows it was purchased using money from his brief stint in show business. he also knows there's an investment portfolio for which he gets monthly letters in the mail for since the state had protections in the form of child entertainment laws. about 20% of every job tim did as a kid was set aside for him by his parents. it was the same in california the other 'show business town'. of the country they had jackie coogan's law and new jersey had mary dahl's.

so tim stumbles on this very old gif that's sort of grainy in the way internet footage that's been copied and reposted over and over again always is but he recognizes it because tim's parents used to make him 'kiss the crowd' every year at the office christmas party. he remembers how embarrassed he'd be to do it but he'd power through because his mom would get this joyful blush and an ecstatic smile on her face that wasn't from the champagne.

tim still has the original footage somewhere in a box along with other pieces of memorabilia because his mom had been his biggest fan. he'd always be so embarrassed about it. he'd actively avoided bringing friends over when his parents were home because he knew she'd show him his baby photos. some parents brought out the soccer trophies or the newspaper clipping from the spelling bee. tim's mom brought out pictures of him as a chubby baby laughing sweetly at a camera.

it's out of nowhere that he sees the clip he hasn't seen or thought of in almost a decade. he's just scrolling through social media and sees some interesting beef between two people erupt and clicks on it just to be nosy. it's at the very end that the gif shows up.

apparently, the gif of tim as a baby is used as a kind of sassy 'that's all folks!' finishing line a la porky pig. a bit of searching and tim finds thousands upon thousands of people who've used it. the gif is recognizable but not as famous as the one of michael jackson eating popcorn or of a generic white man blinking in surprise.

it's really just a pleasant surprise that serves as a quick laugh.

tim doesn't really have much thought behind it when he shares it with tam and a few other staff members at lunch the next day. small talk is a necessity in corporate life that not even tim can escape from and he was really just looking to entertain his circle of work friends.

they're confused for a bit and tim can see it in their faces that they're not sure why he's showing them some of the funnier uses of the gif.

"that's me when i was a baby!" he tells them.

tim's in a PR meeting by the end of the day. they're absolutely salivating at this opportunity because apparently, photos taken 10 years apart is the internet's newest and biggest fad. people recreating family photos, vacation images, and touching scenes.

it's cute, it's heartwarming, and it's family-friendly! WE has been working to rebrand itself under tim's command. bruce's playboy image has apparently held back the company's progress according to some economists so the board has tasked the company with improving into a more...wholesome image.

tim's baby photos are apparently the prime way to do that and honestly...tim really likes the idea. corporate stuff aside.

tim hasn't thought back to his childhood in a long time. much of it was overshadowed by that one bad day at the circus which was actually...approximately around the time tim stopped baby modeling.

it'd be hard to do with a child that kept bursting out into tears at the slightest memory of that night. plus his parents had started getting busier at that time too.

still. it's nice to have relics of a bygone era.

pr wants to curate it, pull in professional photographers, get an entire set up but tim shoots it down. he wants it to be a personal project. something he posts online himself and not under the flag of WE.

there's some reluctance but ultimatly tim has the upperhand. he's the one with the photos afterall.

it takes a few weeks. it takes time to gather up props and outfits as well as scout out the locations. plus tim is doing this during his free time which means it takes a little longer.

tim manages to wrangle bruce into one of them. showing him the ripped-out page from a bridal magazine where tim's dad had ended up being a model too. mostly because tim kept getting fussy on the original model's lap and asking for his dad. tim had been wearing a poofy little floer girl dress and holding a basket with scattered petals on both him and his dad's lap. his dad was mid-laugh and dressed in a sharp black tux that looked like one bruce had in his closet.

tim takes a lot of photos that week. one where he's in a thin tanktop and little shorts with flour and batter on his hands while seated on a kitchen island. an ad for a mixing bowl that claimed that purchasers could look forward to 'less mess!'.

there's tim at a botanical garden, laying on the daises like a little fairy. it's an image still printed on the back of the 'welcome!' pamphlet for the gotham garden society.

tim in fishing gear with overall and naked as the day he was born underneath. tim needs to use the straps to strategically cover his nipples because he's grown since he was a kid.

tim in some formal wear thought that ends up being less exciting than others.

bruce is a collecter of vintage cars so tim has the perfect prop to use to recreate the old 'wish you were here!' gotham postcard which featured a baby him dolled up all pretty and changing a tire.

they're cute. tim looks at the photos with fondness. plus once he'd told bruce he'd needed help bruce had gone through each photo, looking at it and letting a soft smile at each one.

"you were a cute baby." bruce tells him when tim shifted in his lap. the flower girl dress was white and poofy and the closest tim could find was a wedding dress he managed to rent for a hundred bucks.

all tim was missing was a veil on his head. bruce wrapped a tighter arm around tim's small waist, tugging him closer and letting tim sprinkle flower petals onto his chest and their lap.

it was a nice picture. alfred even asked for a printed copy and kept it framed alongside other family pictures on the mantlepiece.

they're nice photos. cute too.

tim even remakes the original kiss, even throwing in a wink at the end.

tim doesn't think much about them when he posts them followed by a short caption of 'the more things change the more they stay the same.'

it's sentimental, tim is sure it'll fit right in on the train of people also doing it.

he's right. he does.

he also trends on the front page of nearly every social media site for a week. then two. then three.

tim's not big on the internet. so he mostly checks out even though everytime he goes out there are seemingly more papparazzi out than normal.

tim makes a joke at dinner about the reaction being bigger than he expected over a simple gift and they all just stare at him.

tam keeps saying he's the new 'white boy of the month' and it'll blow over eventually.

but it doesn't.

tim checks in one day and sees that his notification counter has just stopped and there is a constant stream of messages getting sent to his inbox.

tim is about to open it, curious to see what others were saying-

when it gets plucked out of his hand.

it's tam reminding him to finish his work for the day and tim puts a pin on his curiosity. he'll explore it later.

but he doesn't.

he already fulfilled what he set out to do and so long as the reactions weren't bad he was fine.

so he never checks and so he doesn't see people losing their minds over tim's thin taktop and how you can just barely see the outline of his pink nipples.

how when he's seated in bruce's lap there's so much more heat and tension present. tim is so small and its emphasized by how much bigger and broader bruce is compared to him.

tim's garden pictures where he's wearing delicately laced daisies into a crown- it emphasizes the gentle slope of his jaw, the his cute button nose, and his full pink lips that make him look like something to be ravished in the flowers.

tim was an absolute treasure of a baby that blossomed into a gorgeous boy with the sweetest eyes and the most fuckable mouth in existence.

the way those pink lips were so wonderfully plush as they blew kisses out. people zoomed in on every part of tim. his pretty mouth, his perky tits, soft bottom, and the obscene spread of his legs-

people send him messages begging for more, others demanding he sends them photos of his tits and pretty cunt that they knew he was hiding.

but tim never sees them. even when he does eventually get back online.

mainly because his father and brothers would go through his phone and make sure every single message was destroyed while ensuring the more...brave messages were silenced.

while tim may not have seen the fall out of his little photoshoot.

they most certainly did.

[books-and-catears]

Avatar of Chaos:

Setting the Stage (4)

Taglist: @tanspostsblog @kurisu55 @your-highness-lev @attackonhoseok @justeclem44

<- Chap 3 // Chap 5 ->

"Diavolo? Lucifer? You there?"

Your voice alarmed Barbatos. He saw you peeking into the council room with an innocent smile on your face. How many terrible intentions did that smile hide...?

"Ah MC is here! Come on in!" Diavolo called cheerily, patting the seat next to him. Lucifer also gave you a warm smile.

"Look I got a perfect score in Seductive Speechcraft!" You held up your graded report, waving it around as you entered.

Barbatos' eyes followed you cautiously. You gave his shoulder a little squeeze and bent down to whisper to him. "Don't worry. I won't hurt your precious master. I promised didn't I?"

You say that right after showing your score in speechcraft? Is this a warning or a taunt?

"Congratulations, MC. That makes you the only other person to get the perfect score in speechcraft." Lucifer says, nodding approvingly.

"Oh? Who was the first one?" You asked, tilted your head to the side.

"Lucifer, of course!" Diavolo gestured with gusto towards an blushing Lucifer who tried to stop him from embarrassing him further.

"Can you also tell if someone is using it on you?" You prodded further. Barbatos was puzzled by this line of questioning.

"Indeed. I can always tell. One must be cautious around enchanted persuasion. In fact," Lucifer half-smiled as he reached for some paper next to you, "You should be careful yourself."

Only you knew how much strength it took to not start laughing in his face. Pride indeed. What a suitable sin for his over inflated ego.

"Thank you, Lucifer. I'll keep that in mind." You smiled as you arranged your share of accounts to compile. "Oh! I almost forgot! I have an idea for the annual school play!"

"Finally! Thank you, MC." Diavolo looked relieved. "I asked the brothers for advice too but they came up with rather strange concepts of live heists, cosplay rom-com, lingerie photoshoot and competitive eating and sleeping."

"Each one of them is getting more ridiculous day by day." Lucifer pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just last night Satan suggested we do some musical from the human world called 'Cats'. I was appalled by the movie he showed me."

You stifled a laugh. "Well they always do suggest whatever they like most. But I hope my suggestion won't be too much."

"Oh please, MC. You're the only sensible in that mad house. Please go ahead. Even your worst idea will be twenty times more reasonable than theirs." Lucifer urged.

You glanced at Barbatos. And he finally looked away from you. From here on, he wasn't supposed to interfere.

"I take it from the smile on your face, they loved the idea." Solomon waited for you by the R.A.D gates.

You nodded. "Diavolo already sent the itinerary to the school newspaper club to set the word. Its as good as done."

"Well then what's next?"

"Ah the next task is easier. You have to keep me busy for the next two weeks."

Solomon furrowed his brow. "Busy? How?"

"Call me out for some plan or the other. Going shopping or flower picking for your potions? Ask me to come along. Read about a new spell you liked? Ask to teach me. And on weekends you can suggest sleepovers."

"I have to keep you away from them don't I? You want to stay out of their house. Well then you must be prepared to save me from the brothers' anger."

You fiddled your fingers as if you were holding strings. Strings that hold and make the puppets dance. "What else are these pacts for?"

"I still can't believe you managed to convince Barbatos to keep your secret. What hold do you have on him?"

You shrugged as you walked on. "I didn't threaten him per se. I guess he noticed he couldn't find anymore versions of me he could replace me with."

"Why wouldn't he able to- wait you couldn't possibly break all the-" Solomon couldn't even comprehend such a thing.

"I could actually. I broke the links to every alternate timeline where Belphie didn't kill me. So the only versions of me he'll find are already six feet under. Isn't it hilarious?!"

You chuckled and skipped in glee, clapping your hands together like a child getting excited about their first ever road trip.

[stormblessed95]

The hickey is trending on twt (once again)

The moment is really loud and there is absolutely no heterosexual explanation, but the highlight for me is seokjin's reaction.

His poker face before it breaks into a huge "istg these gAys" lmaooooo

He was like "what in the world...???" the whole time. His reaction is PRICELESS.

I think sometimes the member's reactions to jikookery tell more about the two than jikook themselves.

Seokjin either ignores them or put the biggest "aww" smile on his face. Yoongi and Tae either ignores them or get DISGUSTED lmao. Hoseok and Namjoon are either with a really worried look on their faces or with a big ass smile.

I am completely here for it! HAIAHSIAHSIAJSOAJA

Please make a compilation of their reactions!

Lol. Idk about all of that, but here is my post over the whole hickey deal

And other posts that I think are what you are looking for. Jikook and Big Hit:

Jikook & Their Staff:

Members Teasing Jikook:

Members reactions to jikook:

Yoongi Supporting Jikook (this one needs some updating though I think):

Jin Supporting Jikook:

Hobi Supporting Jikook:

Namjoon Keeping an eye on Jikook. I've said it before, but I'll say it again though. I need to do another post more about how namjoon supports them, indivually and together. Because the way jkkrs portray him as their police force and never talks about any other aspect of their trio dynamics or any other thing about it. Drives me insane. Because it's not as dramatic as jkkrs make it sound, nor is it nearly as often, nor is it even the most prominent way he interacts with the two of them. Same with Hobi too. His relationship with jikook is WAY more than just their biggest cheerleader. Conversations for another post though. Adding it to my list of posts to make for sure.

But that's on me as well for not talking about that more here. I will. I also don't have one specifically about Tae supporting Jikook yet either or solely his reactions, but I touch on it a little bit in my vminkook dynamics post. So I should do a post at some point too. And I dont think any of them ever really have reactions of disgust. But I'm pretty sure that this mostly covers what you were looking for. Hope these posts help a bit!

[livebloggingmydescentintomadness]

the cockles masterlist, part 5

split in six for link limit reasons

WARNING: this post glitches and crashes on mobile. it’s recommended you view this on your desktop, or at least on your mobile browser rather than the app. if my desktop theme is hard on your eyes, try an extension such as Just Read or Reader View to customize the layout and colors.

if you’re still having troule viewing, or if you don’t want to have to switch between the five posts, here’s all of the links compiled into a google doc.

welcome to the cockles masterpost, a labor of love/insomniac hyperfixation.

i recently wrote this cockles manifesto, but after it got a lot of notes and i kept adding more links to it, i decided i should just go through my 8 years of archives and compile all the cockles posts in a much more accessible and navigable way. after everything with the series finale and destielgate, i figured we could use some happiness, and it turns out there are a lot of people who’ve never heard the cockles gospel.

important disclaimer: yes, i do think that jensen and misha have a private romantic/sexual relationship, but no i do not, in any way, think that they have ever cheated on their wives. we think they are polyamorous, which is a real and valid thing, and misha is openly poly. some people love more than one person, and that’s okay. their families are close and we love and support all of them.

second important disclaimer: despite the amount of innuendo below, this is not about fantasizing about two hot guys fucking. cockles is about the joy of witnessing two people who love each other and make each other happy and are disgustingly cute together. we’re not fetishizing, we’re just appreciating what they publicly share with us.

third important disclaimer: because some of y’all don’t know, the cardinal rule of cockles is that we don’t talk to cockles about cockles. DO NOT leave any comments on their social media accounts implying anything. not even green and blue hearts. they know that we know, but it’s on us not to make it weird. if we’re too obvious and say too much, they might start sharing less. don’t say anything.

for the sake of my sanity, these are in no particular order.

last updated: 3/8/23

🐚 denotes new content

part 1  (That’s Suspicious, mishananigans)

part 2 (#pray4jensen, gag reel hijinks, some posts i’ve written about cockles and rps)

part 3 (know your cockles history, the intimacy)

part 4  (the glory of jibcon)

part 6 (jibcon continued, just for cute continued)

just for cute:

adorable photo ops: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 

14 minutes of cockles

gently bullying each other (sdcc)

bowtie adjusting

“who said it” game | gifs | “sunglasses inside” gifs

bickering

knock knock | gifs

“how are you?” compilation

that time they showed up wearing the same suit

cute whispering and giggling

jensen asked misha to autograph his sign

stuck in the space pants together

pop sugar ‘14 beautiful moments from jensen ackles and misha collins’s friendship’

“dapper as always”

checking each other out on the red carpet

“i think he’s doing great.”

mouthing each other’s punchlines

pouring champagne in misha’s mouth

“do a little show for us” | video

“i’m trying not to say that our characters are having sex.”

smiling at each other

misha in a dress/jensen in lederhosen

will smith posing each other

when you can love someone who wears crystal deodorant in the summer, you’re really in love

“who doesn’t love freckles?”

cute halloween photoshoot

checking each other out on stage (poor jared)

thinking about each other

that time a journalist put hearts over red carpet footage of them

the acetaminophen argument | video 

cw green rectangles photoshoot

the thumbs vs hearts video

gishwhes video together | more | video

“can you tell us a story about the real misha and jensen?” “NOPE”

jensen helping misha remember his story

“misha’s on top for a reason”

bitch better have my money video: jensen raining money on misha

“i blame you, misha collins... for this and generally everything else.”

curtis armstrong casting jensen and misha in a moonlighting reboot

heart & arrow autograph

“we love each other”

“that’s the part that’s too gay for you?”

“crossing streams” shoulder boop

buttcrack/”mish”

the cockles shells photo op

jensen just... hands misha his chewed gum and misha just... takes it

photo op with jensen’s hand inside misha’s jacket | another one

that time misha tried to sneak up but jensen could see him in the monitor

high-fiving when destiel won a TCA for best tv chemistry

shoving each other

the conga line

misha: “shut up.” jensen: *goes to cry on someone’s shoulder*

how misha dresses himself vs how misha dresses when jensen arrives | another time | misha’s style before and after

cute trainer sergei au

“he’s just weird. he doesn’t have any idea of a personal space.”

competing for the deeper voice | “unknowingly got into some sort of vocal competition”

fangirling and shirt swapping

somebody help jared

jensen sensually mouthing bottles in the episode misha directed | smiling at each other while misha directed

favorite cockles moments, including a gishwhes clue of “cockles” - update: it was misha’s MOM who wrote that clue

jensen and misha clowning while jared is busy with a fan

misha saluting and jensen being like 👀

texting each other during the stacey abrams panel | extra

collections of happy moments

danneel: “aw, look at mish... he’s so cute. i love him.” jensen: “who doesn’t?”

jen and mish using the asl sign for “squirrel” as jensen’s name

misha: “we really are old fucks”

j2m civics video

jensen making misha laugh

“angels in general”

the time jensen “iced” misha, sneakily handing him a smirnoff ice so that misha would have to chug it on his knees (which he did backstage, sadly)

misha leaning on jensen’s shoulder in spn tshirt campaign video

report that misha has said jensen comes over to “fix stuff” around his house

cute cross-eyed photo

jensen films misha in his trailer, misha leans his head on jensen’s shoulder

54 minute long cockles compilation video

checking each other out at paley fest

tag for everything re: 2021 gish zoom call

“crazy eyes” “crazy mouth”

misha: “aren’t you nervous up here?” jensen: “now that you’re here.”

selfie in the impala

top 10 most romantic cockles moments

cute pic of misha, danneel, and jensen at christmas

ew photoshoot champagne shenanigans | really cute ew shoot pic

patting each other’s legs at paley fest

someone says to misha “here’s your softie” in describing a picture of jensen

13x06 bts photo sitting VERY close

making each other laugh compilation

embracing at the final spn sdcc panel

hand size comparison 👀

cute bts photos

the skittles photo op + explanation

an employee claims misha and jensen came in to a spa together

bumping their microphones together

misha pulling jensen’s chair out for him

two times they thought about touching each other then chickened out

photo op recreating jensen’s pic of reading misha’s poetry book

claim that misha leaned in to fake kiss jensen during denvercon photo ops + followup

all the touches from the denvercon panel

adorable video comparing denvercon to an old jibcon moment

really cute photos and photo ops from denvercon: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

tv guide posted about their “cockles scrapbook”  

misha drew a penis in jensen’s mouth 🤷‍♀️  

really cute pictures/gifs from the 2010 100th episode party  

@cooloddball‘s extensive list of favorite cockles stories/comments  

story of fan gifting misha some very embarrassing promo photos of jensen; when they tell jensen to ask misha about “some... pictures he has,” jensen looks visibly terrified  

all of the cute (and clingy) photo ops from charcon, nov 6-7 2021  

photo op where jensen pushed misha down onto his knees 🤯  

the fuckin’ adorable photo ops from nolacon ‘21 

collection of early days cuteness 

the suggestive snowman sweater that they both wore 

all the cute photo ops from nashcon ‘21 

the furry photo op

jensen told podcaster to ask misha about roadfood

all the adorable photo ops from vegascon ‘22

misha signed a photo over jensen’s crotch...  

misha’s jensen impression photo op

et halloween photoshoot outtakes (ft. misha’s split pants) | more outtakes

a bunch of cute photo ops

all the times jensen ackles has slapped misha collins’ ass: a masterlist 

“eye fuck” photo op

jensen commenting on misha’s livestream, desperate for attention

messy staring, jensen pretends to kick misha’s ass

when you smile because you made him smile when he’s sad

fanvid: what is a soulmate?

“of fucking course he chose that where i’m a twink”

standing on top of each other at the cw upfronts: x, x, x

a collection of misha draping himself on jensen’s shoulder

cutest njcon ‘22 op

cutest denvercon ‘22 op

cutest phxcon ‘22 op

cutest kccon ‘22 op  

and lastly... please, nobody tweet this at misha (or any other cast member), but misha, if you do see this... please don’t tweet it either. thank you.

[moonlit-imagines]

Photoshoot

Jonathan Byers x reader

warnings:

a/n: for @johnnyshellby !!!! happy holidays QUEEN!!!! hope you enjoy your day, best wishes to you!!! love you so much and cant wait to start 2021 with you as my friend!!! 😘✨

prompt:

You agreed to it because you rarely, if ever, spent any time with Jonathan nowadays. The world spun too fast for either of you to keep up with it, but this day would be yours. Just you and him doing something that would forever be remembered with photographs.

“Wait, y/n, freeze right there!” Jonathan exclaimed out of nowhere, holding up his camera as you complied. “Okay, you’re good.” He nodded after snapping a few pictures.

“Any keepers?” You asked while strolling near.

“Yeah, all of them.” He smiled up at you while fiddling with the camera strap that he attached backwards. “You look amazing today. You always do, actually.”

“Think so?” You accepted his compliment as your cheeks warmed up, letting it go to your head a good bit. “Got any ideas in mind? Should I stand near the trees? Maybe find a flower or something?” All great suggestions, but Jonathan had something else in mind.

“Actually,” Jonathan started while situated his equipment, “would you mind laying in the grass for me? I think you’d look pretty sweet in a shot from above.” You thought about it for a moment and decided to go for it, kneeling on the ground and falling back into the Earth. Jonathan reached near you to clean up and set the scene, moving a twig or two and fanning out your hair a bit more, you looked to and away from the camera, closed your eyes, tried it all. “Okay, now hold it...” You looked ethereal, Jonathan let go of his camera just to observe you for a moment more. “This might just be the best shoot I’ve ever done.” He told you, prompting you to crawl back to your feet.

“Thanks, Johnny.” You turned around and pointed to the natural debris stuck to your back. “A little help here?”

“Yeah! Not a problem.” You felt him carefully swipe the leaves and dirt from your clothes before he rubbed his hands together. “You’re good now, let’s keep going.”

“I missed this.” You admitted while walking ahead and doing your own thing, letting Jonathan’s expert eye find the perfect frame and pose to capture.

“Miss what?” He inquired while hiding behind his camera.

“Us.” You said. “Just us.” Your answer still seemed to confuse him, he had to poke his head out from behind his lifeline. “Like, hanging out? Listening to music, mock photoshoots, baking for your mom, just the simple stuff.” Jonathan stayed silent for a moment, eyes flickering to your surroundings.

“I do, too.” He answered as simply as he possibly could, but when your expression flipped to confusion, he had to revise his previous statement. “I mean, yeah, we should do this more often. We should hang out more.”

“I was just about to say.” You smiled at him so softly that he just had to snap a picture.

“I could do this all day...” Jonathan had a twinkle in his eyes as he watched you, but when you covered your face to laugh, it only gave him another chance for a stunning shot. “Oh, damn...” He muttered to himself, flicking open his camera cartridge.

“What’s wrong?” You tilted your head, a pose that he regretted that he couldn’t capture.

“I, uh,” he rustled through his camera bag, “shit. I’m out of film. There’s some more at my house if you wanna head over there, maybe I coulf make us lunch?” Jonathan offered, peering up to you.

“For sure! That sounds nice, is Will there? I haven’t seen the kid in ages.” You sounded excited to see his family, it was like they’d always be apart of you.

“Yeah! His friends are over doing a Star Wars watch party, hope they don’t bother you too much.” He fished his keys out of his pocket and pointed to his car, starting the walk back with you a few steps behind.

“You’ve got nothing to worry about.” You assured, skipping on by so carelessly and free.

“Hey, don’t do anything photo-worthy! I don’t wanna miss out on and good shots!” He called out as you ran ahead and reached the car. “There you go! You’re doing it anyways!”

“Sorry, Johnny! I can’t help it!” You defended while leaning against his car, such a sight to behold. He unlocked the passenger door for you, letting you slip into your seat and straighten out. “Should I pick some tunes?”

“Be my guest.” You flipped through his compilation of cassettes and plucked out his signature playlist, starting with his favorite song by The Clash. You adjusted the tape while he started the car and popped it in, letting it begin. “Nice choice.”

“Why, thank you.” You tapped your feet to the beat of the song and leaned over to Jonathan’s shoulder, taking a quick rest after having the spotlight on you for the day. He tried to hide his joy, but was so overwhelmed by the way you looked in the rearview mirror. That would’ve been a beautiful picture, maybe he’ll be able to take it one day.

taglist: @locke-writes // @queenofthehairharrington // @ripoffadora // @lotsoffandomrecs // @wolfish-willow // @captainshazamerica // @ravenmoore14 // @thisetaernallove // @thereagles // @imaginesbymk // @randomawesomeperson102 // @spideyandtheboys // @ghost-bich //

[kim-bobbae]

54. “I made reservations.”

I miss him so much and I hope he’s resting up, I just want to take care of him and be his comfort person TT

“To be really honest, I have no idea what he’s busy with until I see a recording or photoshoot of his on my schedule, and then I’m summoned to do his hair and makeup,” You laughed. “At this point I think it’s a relief he renewed his contract with AOMG instead of signing with H1GHR, don’t you think?” 

“I’m right, he really is the dad that’s never home,” Wonjae chuckled, tugging lower on his beanie. 

You were in the car on the way back to the AOMG headquarters after Wonjae’s photoshoot where Pumkin had dropped by in support since it was his first ever solo shoot for W magazine when the topic of Jay came about as you guys discussed the responses received from the interview they had done that was uploaded just a few days ago. With how busy Jay had been and how rare it was to see him around at the AOMG headquarters, their questions on what he had been up to very naturally fell on you because who else would know better if not for his girlfriend, right? 

Wrong. You had absolutely no idea either. 

Yes, there was the H1GHR compilation – you knew that much – but so did everyone else. The fact that you didn’t know much more than that surprised them, to say the least. 

“Do you want me to nag at him a little and drop him a hint or two? I could do that,” Pumkin offered. 

“Oh please no, I don’t think he’ll be too pleased if he finds out I’m whining about him to you guys behind his back.” 

“Not exactly, we’re the ones asking you about him,” Wonjae rebutted. 

“Yeah, when was the last time you guys went on a date?” Pumkin asked. “Don’t count the ones where you guys order delivery from the office or his studio, those aren’t counted.” 

“Why not? Those are dates…” 

“I see where the problem lies now,” Wonjae snickered. 

“C’mon, you guys are making this a bigger deal than it actually is,” You remarked. “We’ve been dating for years now, we’re past that.” 

A few days passed since then with nothing really out of the ordinary except for a dinner with your friends that you’ve managed to fit into your schedule after clearing an important deadline. With a couple of music releases coming up, you were attending meetings with different artists, talking to them about their ideas and concepts, proposing hairstyles, make up and clothing that would be suitable for their music videos and teaser images. 

While the job did sound manageable, the very act of browsing endless collections of the latest fashion releases was extremely time consuming, and squeezing in a short conversation or two with Jay via text message was, in fact, pretty much the norm these days with the both of you being so busy. Not that you minded – you just got used to it. 

And so did he. 

You understood though, really. You understood that he was a busy man and while you were important to him, he simply could not afford to put you in the center of his world. But he tried, and he did all he could to show you that. Yet, with that workaholic nature of his and all the people he had to put on for, work would always be his priority. 

It was just hard facing up to it last week when you tried your luck at getting some affection by cuddling up to him while he was reviewing some tracks during the ten minute window that the both of you were left alone in the studio – you couldn’t help it, it’s been a whole month (!!!) – only to earn a ‘I’m working, babe’ in a tone you don’t usually appreciate. He apologized, of course, realizing that he had hurt your feelings from the way you retreated quietly to another room, but it did enough to keep you from attempting it again for the remainder of the week. 

“Dinner tonight?” 

A message notification flashed across your screen. It was Jay. 

You didn’t think much of it though and readily agreed to it. For a split second, you wondered if Pumkin had a part to play in this and the smirk on his face as the receptionist walked in to the office towards you with a bouquet of roses in hand only confirmed your suspicions. 

“Looks like someone sent you flowers,” She said, handing it to you. 

Now Jay wasn’t really one who’d be into these flashy, romantic gestures, especially in front of his employees, and the number of heads that turned towards your direction with knowing smiles on their faces made you understand exactly why. 

Take a longer lunch break to get ready if you need to, I’ll be at the office at 7pm to pick you up.

You raised a brow at the formalities as you read the message on the card. Having been together for years, being on the receiving end of this somewhat grand gesture all of a sudden needed some getting use to again but with everyone’s attention on you and the extremely elaborate bouquet, you quickly set is aside, an embarrassed smile the best you could muster in response to their reactions before you got back to work. 

Consumed by your pile of work, you had completely lost track of time since then but it wasn’t hard to tell that it was already 7pm from the way your colleagues peeped curiously from behind their desk dividers, stifling their excited giggles and from their reaction you could already guess that Jay was here. It wasn’t every day that they could catch a glimpse of their boss’s love life, after all. 

“Ready to go?” He asked, and what ensued was a moment of confusion the second you turned around to face him. 

He was all cleaned up in a black tee shirt and dress pants, hair styled back and you were pretty sure those were some new shoes from his two hundred deep sneaker collection while there you were, in a pair of skinny jeans and oversized sweater and it was obvious that you guys weren’t dressed for the same occasion. 

You hesitated, “…last minute schedule to attend to?”

“No…I’m taking you for dinner?” He mused, gesturing to the flowers. “I made reservations.” 

“Yeah but…you didn’t tell me that I had to get dressed up,” You replied sheepishly. 

“I did,” He laughed. “You just didn’t take me seriously.” 

“You said ‘if you need to’,” You argued in a hush whisper. “Plus, the last time you picked me up we had tacos at the diner just down the street.” 

For a while he stared at you, and so did everyone else and in all honesty, it was getting slightly embarrassing by now. Thankfully, Jay caught on your discomfort from the way you played with your fingers and bit on your lips as you waited for his reply. 

“It’s okay, we’ll sort this out,” He reassured in a soft voice, grabbing the bouquet in one hand and yours in the other. “Let’s go.” 

“Where are we going…?” You asked once the both of you were in the car. 

The fact that one of his managers wasn’t driving you guys and that he was instead driving his Bentley for the first time in ages did explain something about what he had planned but for now, everything about this made you nervous. This was so unlike him – excluding the first year of your relationship, that is. 

“We’re going to your favorite Italian restaurant,” He explained. “But I guess we should drop by your place to get you dressed up first, huh?” 

“Sorry about that,” You murmured, and he couldn’t help but titter at the way you stared down at your outfit with a sigh. 

You wasted no time and tossed your bag aside upon reaching home, making a beeline towards your wardrobe and immediately started sieving through your dresses. Despite the rough start, you had to admit that this was rather exciting. Heck, you couldn’t even remember the last time the both of you had a proper date night and the fact that he had taken the time to plan this amidst his schedule? Damn you were about to dress the hell up. 

You hastily put on the dress that you had picked out, a fairly new one from the few that you had saved up for rare occasions like these, then scurried to the living room where Jay was waiting. 

However, the sight of Jay burying his face in his hands looking absolutely worn had you somewhat stopping in your tracks. 

He was seated on the couch, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his lap as he squinted at his cracked phone screen. His brows furrowed as he tapped away at what sounded like a new message notification, then brought his phone up to his ears as he listened to what probably was a demo of one of the tracks off the album. Sure, he was dressed up, absolutely stunning, but how stressed he looked was definitely not a good look on him and at this point you weren’t sure how you’d feel about dinner if his mind was going to be miles away, back in his studio. 

“Wow,” He beamed upon noticing you then set his phone aside as he stood up. “You look beautiful.” 

“I could say the same for you, too.” 

“You okay?” He asked, cocking his head upon noticing that you seemed to be distracted in thought. 

“Yeah, of course.” 

“Come here, let me help you with that,” He smiled, noticing that the back of your dress was unzipped. 

But as he placed his hand on the zipper, you reached around to tug on his fingers, then turned around to face him. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“Why don’t…we just have dinner at home today?” You suggested, observing his reaction carefully. 

“Why the sudden change of mind...?” 

“I don’t know,” You sighed. “I mean, you seem really caught up with work, and I love that you took the time to plan a date, but I’m not sure if I can sit through that pretending that I am not seeing for myself how exhausted you are.” 

“No, no it’s fine,” He insisted. “I’m taking the night off to spend it with you.” 

The both of you glanced at his phone as it beeped again and then back at each other, and you could almost tell how he was already itching to respond to it. 

“I’ll cook us dinner, and we can postpone this date until after the album is released,” You told him. 

He looked at you, not quite sure if he was allowed to give in to you, especially after the little episode in his studio last week that had also been due to his work. 

“I’m not mad, I promise,” You giggled, reading him like a book. “Let’s stay in tonight.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“Yeah, go get your MacBook from the car and carry on with your work while I cook but all I ask for though...” You started. “Is for your undivided attention after that. I’ll cook a stew if it gives you more time.” 

He exhaled deeply, taking a step towards you and pulled you in for a long embrace, “How do you always manage to make me feel better even though I’m the one who screwed up?” 

“You didn’t screw up,” You said, wrapping your arms around his broad frame. “You tried, and I appreciate that.” 

“That makes me feel worse...” He replied, cupping your face and stroking your left cheek with his thumb.

You leaned into his touch, smiling, “It’s no big deal, this is just one of your busy phases. Once the album’s released, I’ll have my boyfriend back. Easy.” 

“I’ll make up for it, alright? I promise,” He said, then leaned in to kiss you sweetly. 

“Seems like the only way to get kisses nowadays is to let you work, huh?” You taunted. 

“Baby…” He whined, the littlest pout creeping to his lips. “Let’s not go back there.” 

“I was kidding,” You sniggered. “Now give me another one to shut me up.”

[satoruvt]

the color of you - blue (6)

ITS HERE. I HOPE I DID WELL. PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT AKDSHKFJSDH

pairing → keigo takami x reader

word count → 3213

summary → you’re not really dating, so you can’t really be in love with him... right?

song inspo → hell of flying by jeremy zucker, cassette by demian, a lil of bugbear by chloe moriondo

this chapter → y/n comes to conclusions, keigo’s a dork, tension, a fight, crying.

part one | part two | part three | part four | part five | part six | part seven

So it’s been… strange.

Or rather, it hasn’t been strange at all, which makes everything even more strange, somehow. You feel like things should be so much different, but they’re not. You reached a wild conclusion that threw you for a fucking loop, made you sit in your kitchen at Angel Cakes and contemplate what the hell you were going to do about anything that would ever occur to you from here on out. Sometimes you almost ask Keigo how things haven’t changed at all, since you’ve decided that you like him, but then you have to stop yourself from saying anything because, oh, right, you haven’t told him.

You don’t plan to, either.

It’d just mess everything up, wouldn’t it? To say “hey, I know we’ve been fake dating for like two and a half months now but I’m kind of liking the idea of really dating you”? Kinda fucked. Not to mention, from a professional stance, what if it ruins your guys’ chemistry when you’re being watched by the entire world? If someone finds out that the whole thing is fake - regardless of your feelings - it means Keigo’s public image and your entire life at the bakery. Everything would go to shit, and after it’s burned down, you doubt you’d even have Keigo.

So you’re not telling him. You’re in love with one of your closest friends, who you are also fake dating, who is also the Number Two hero in the country, and you’re not telling him how you feel. Yes. Okay.

You’ve had a lot of time to reflect about your own feelings, because after Keigo left to fight that villain the other day (and after you managed to get off the ground and clean up) you were sure it was a heat-of-the-moment thing. Yeah, he looked pretty, and there was something dreamy and domestic about laughing and throwing baking ingredients at each other, so maybe your heart just got confused. 

But you’d called him to ask if he was okay (instead of a usual text) and he’d picked up the phone and laughed and your heart had not done that before. Not with Keigo, not on the phone, and not like that. And usually his pet names amused you, but he’d called you “sweetheart” over the phone and his voice was tired and drawled a bit. It made you dizzy. You said goodbye pretty soon after that.

You’re barely walking up the stairs of your apartment complex when your phone buzzes in your pocket. Butterflies (and moths, a few) erupt in your stomach when you read the name, and then immediately die when you read the text itself.

keigo baby 🐦

Do u want to have a playdate with me 👉👈 I could come over if ur mom says its okay

Why him? You think to yourself, swallowing the vomit in your throat and fishing your keys out of your bag to unlock your door. You text back when you get inside, throwing your belongings on the nearest surface.

y/n

don’t ever talk to me again

keigo baby 🐦

Is that a yes??

y/n

….fine, but if u ever use those emojis again i’ll break up with u. legally 

keigo baby 🐦

baby no!!!!

You throw your phone down onto your sofa before flopping over it, letting yourself sink into the cushions for a moment. It takes no more than ten minutes for Keigo to be at your door, letting himself in without so much as a knock. You know that it’s technically your doing, since you didn’t lock it when you came in, but you still whine at him about it, and he mocks you jokingly.

It seems he either senses your tiredness or didn’t have anything in mind to do anyways, because all Keigo does is lift your legs up from where they’re sprawled out on the couch and sits down in their place, letting them flop back onto his lap. He adjusts so his wings aren’t smashed against the back of the couch (or, at least, not as much). You move your feet off of his lap.

You’ve come to really appreciate days like this, where you simply bask in his company and he does yours. As much as Keigo is nonchalant about his lifestyle, you know it’s exhausting for him to do what he does every single day, and then to have to talk to people (fans, reporters, anyone). He doesn’t need to say anything for you to know. And, well, if you can give him a moment of comfort -

God, no, stop thinking like that. You can’t afford to think like that right now. 

The two of you talk, occasionally sharing posts from social media and laughing at dumb little cat videos (there was one that was five whole minutes of one of the guys from that k-pop band being compared to cat pictures and it’s the most wholesome thing you’ve ever seen to date). Before you know it, it’s been a few hours, the sun just fully covered by the distant mountains. The sky cools down in purple and blue hues, dressing up for the night to come. You and Keigo are laughing over old vines, and in your mind you think that it really couldn’t be that bad for this to be every night instead of just… some nights.

At the end of the compilation Keigo groans out a lingering laugh, stretching his legs out as best he can without hitting your coffee table. You stand up, feeling the need to move around as well, and walk towards your kitchen for a drink. Keigo stands after you but doesn’t move, letting his wings flex and stretch from being contained for so long. You get a glass of water, lift it to your lips just as Keigo lifts his arms above his head and holy fucking shit, his stomach -

Tummy! the tiny voice in your head squeals, but the hornier one screams at the top of its lungs ABS and honestly you don’t know what the fuck to do and neither does your body so you choke on your water. Keigo startles, eyes wide, and with a mumbled “holy shit” makes his way over to you as you cough and sputter over your sink.

It takes a minute, but you eventually come back, eyes watery and face red for multiple reasons. You take a deep breath and Keigo rubs your back, eyeing you, which only makes the entire situation worse.

“Jesus, are you okay?” He asks, and you nod, but you can’t look at him.

“Yeah, uh,” you clear your throat, blinking a few times. “Just… went down the wrong pipe, I guess.”

Fuck.

-

You barely recover from seeing a sliver of Keigo’s stomach, and the memory haunts you for days. You attempt at willing it out of your brain, try to tell yourself that you just didn’t see it at all, but your heart is strong as hell and refuses to let your head forget it. You think about it multiple times a day. You think about it for at least twenty minutes each time. You think about it until Keigo texts you a little less than a week after it happened.

Your phone buzzes on the counter in the kitchen and you finish up your bread dough, putting it into a bowl gently and setting a timer to let it prove. Once your hands are effectively clean, you open the message, letting yourself scoff.

keigo baby 🐦

Just finished a photoshoot, could really use a donut right now :/

Attached to his message is a picture of himself, and honestly, he looks really fucking good. It takes pretty much everything in you not to collapse and die. God.

You look up a picture of a donut on Google - they sold out today, and you are not going to make one just for Keigo - and send it to him. For my hardworking fake boyfriend, you send with it. Mostly to emphasize fake for both of you. Yourself especially.

keigo baby 🐦

Fake??? :( sweetheart, u hurt me

Your mind stops working when you read his text, so you leave him on read.

-

The next time you see Keigo in person is when you’re contemplating whether or not you should keep… hanging out with him.

The contract only has a little over a month left, so it’s not as if it’d be that hard to deal with… besides, it’d be easier on the both of you when this whole thing inevitably ends. You don’t see yourself being able to be around him without thinking about kissing him over and over. Not now, at least. You hope it changes. You hope it’s a weird phase or something. 

Keigo texts you and invites - demands - you over (his excuse is that with the hero conference coming up soon many of the smaller heroes are taking care of villains and giving him more time off) and honestly, if you’re really gonna try to stop talking to him as much, this could be your goodbye or whatever. Also, he mentioned wine, and you need to get drunk. Like, “give me an entire bottle so I can cope with the idea of falling for you because I know that you don’t feel the same and I am simply trying to ride out the rest of this “relationship” so I don’t ruin our dynamic and chemistry while we’re being watched by literally the entire world” drunk.

Yeah. It’s been a rough few weeks.

Every time you go to Keigo’s apartment it reminds you of just how broke you are, but you suppose the apartment itself is fitting. It’s definitely modern, but it holds the clutter of Keigo’s personality - blankets strung everywhere, LED lights, a poster of Endeavor hung up in his closet (but you’re sworn to secrecy about that, you pinky promised). When you knock on his door he doesn’t answer, and it’s a good minute and a half before you get a text that says “it’s open, come in” and you sigh, because again, why him?

He’s sitting on the couch, and when he sees you he smiles like he didn’t just refuse to open the door because he’s too lazy. “Well, if it isn’t the love of my life,” he says, and for a second you can fool yourself into believing it’s genuine.

“I’m just here for the wine, dude,” you tease, and he mocks offense at your words.

“Ouch. Mid-relationship rejection.”

Nonetheless, Keigo gets the wine himself (selective little shit) and two glasses, pours each of you one. It isn’t long before you’ve had at least three glasses but no more than five, and you’re maybe, perhaps, a little drunk. 

Keigo is, too, so you’re not really alone, but he’s talking about something Endeavor did like he’s the greatest hero in the world. It makes you smile, just a bit, but then again, you’re usually sentimental when you’re drunk, so maybe it’s just that. Or maybe it’s because you like him. It doesn’t really matter now.

“Hey, Kei,” you murmur when he’s done with his story. He hums, takes another sip out of his glass. “What happens when this is over?”

You look at your feet, scrunching up your toes inside your socks so you have something to look at. Then your eyes move up more, to the top of his coffee table, and then finally they land on him, and he looks gorgeous. He always does.

Keigo blinks once, twice, then shrugs, goes back to his wine. “Dunno. I hope we’re still friends, though,” he says.

“Friends? You want to be friends?”

You’re drunk. You should go to sleep, or go home, or something. Talking is not something you should be doing.

“What?” Keigo asks, but more like he didn’t hear you rather than he didn’t understand, so you take your chance, even through your hazed mind.

“Nothing,” you say, swirling the wine in your glass. “Forget about it.”

And it seems like he does, because when you wake up on his couch the next morning with a killer headache and he stumbles out of his room with a groan he doesn’t mention anything about it even when he talks about everything else.

-

Keigo texts you a few days later, a picture of him posing with another wine bottle. 

keigo baby 🐦

round 2??

The picture is cute. He’s smiling, all lips and curves and blonde hair and tan skin. He’s dressed in sweats, you can see, but he still looks like a model. It makes your heart sink and fly at the same time.

y/n

can’t, sorry. have to stay late at angel cakes. i’ll see u at the hero conference tho

He doesn’t text you for a while after that.

-

The conference comes quick, and before you know it you’re in another hotel suite, getting makeup done. It doesn’t take as much dressing up - your dress is shorter this time, less formal, your makeup less extravagant. You don’t feel nervous, not like last time, but you don’t necessarily feel comfortable either. Your makeup artist is different this time.

It takes a considerably less amount of time for you to get ready, and you stare at yourself in the mirror before it’s time to go. Your dress is beautiful - blue, royal, deep and light at the same time and gorgeous. Simple, too, nothing too out there. When you step out of the hotel room you notice Keigo’s still in his hero costume, but you suppose he has to be. You don’t match with him like you did last time.

There’s no banter, no teasing, no compliments. The ride to the venue is quiet. Keigo sends you a look at one point - a “tell me what’s wrong” look - but you only shrug, offer him the best smile you can, which apparently isn’t convincing, because he frowns when he sees it. You wish he wouldn’t frown so much.

The conference is short, but maybe you’re just distracted. An usher walks you to your seat at a VIP table and it seems like you sit down and then it ends. You clap for Keigo, smile like you’re endlessly proud of him - and you are, even if it doesn’t show that well tonight - and watch him make a scene becuase that’s what he does. He winks at you at one point during the night, while he’s talking into the microphone, and you know it’s for the publicity. The conference ends significantly earlier than the awards show, however, so you don’t have to stay in the suite for the night. 

The ride back to the suite seems shorter than the ride to the venue and it takes you maybe twenty minutes to wipe the makeup off of your face and take off your dress. You walk across the hall to Keigo’s room, knock on the door. He answers.

“Okay, I’m gonna head out, I’m feelin’ kinda tired,” you tell him with a small smile. “Just wanted to say bye.”

“Let me walk you home,” he says instead, and your brain yells at you no!

“No, it’s fine, Kei -”

“Please. I want to.”

He’s never said that before, and a part of you knows you wouldn’t be able to say no to him even if he hadn’t, so you nod and let him follow you out of the hotel and to your apartment. The walk is silent and it makes you feel uneasy but you can’t really do anything about it, not with what you’re trying to do, so nothing happens until you reach your apartment.

You know where this is going, even if you don’t want to, so you take a deep breath, hold the door open for him so Keigo can come inside. He looks at you weirdly for a moment but then enters your apartment, standing in the junction of your entryway and living room like he’s uncomfortable. You let him, then walk to the kitchen for something to drink.

“What’s wrong with you?” You ask, eyeing him suspiciously.

Keigo scoffs. “Shouldn’t that be my line?”

You know he noticed - it’s impossible not to, but you didn’t think… you didn’t think he’d call you out on it. Your pause is evident, but you pretend like it didn’t happen at all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you say.

“Yeah? Wanna rethink that, sweetheart?”

The almost-malice in his tone when he says your usual pet name startles you, and when you look up at Keigo it seems like it startled him, too, doe-eyed and looking at you. You shake your head, walking out of the kitchen and into the living room behind him to throw your things down, try to pass the message to him that this is not good. “You’re wrong,” you say.

“I’m not - I’m not wrong, Y/N,” he says, turning around to look at you. “Every time I see you it seems like you’re pushing me away, like you’re not here, and I don’t know if I did something, but I -” he pauses, runs a gloved hand over his face and you want to tell him that it’s not his fault, but that would lead to you telling him everything, and you can’t. “I miss you.”

His voice is broken. When you speak again, your voice sounds like his, but somehow worse. Smaller. “You’re wrong,” you insist. You know he’s not.

“I’m not,” he pushes back. “I’d like to think that in the months we’ve been -”

He stops himself, and you take your opportunity. “That we’ve been what? Dating? We’re not dating, Keigo, we both signed a fucking contract to benefit your public image! This is nothing!”

You have no idea what you’re doing. It’s not nothing. It will never be nothing.

“You think this is nothing?”

“Look me in the eye and tell me that you know for sure we’ll still be friends when this is over.”

He can’t, and he won’t. You’re trying really hard not to cry, but it hurts to fight with him like this, and it hurts that you think you’re falling in love with him, and it hurts that if you tell him it’ll ruin everything and it hurts, so a few tears slip out anyways.

“Y/N,” Keigo says, and his voice is so soft. You want to melt into him, but you shy away when he reaches for you. “Please just tell me -”

“I can’t do this anymore,” you choke out. “I can’t - I’m - I’m calling it. I’ll send my lawyer if you need anything but I just…”

You can’t even look at him. Has he always been so far away?

“Get out, Keigo.”

It sounds so cold, so unfamiliar, coming from your mouth and you half expect another person to have said it entirely. This isn’t you, this isn’t how you and Keigo act, this isn’t… this isn’t it. There’s a pause, like he’s waiting for something, but then you hear him sigh - practically feel him deflate, and then he walks out of your apartment, door shutting quietly behind him.

It’s so quiet when he’s gone.

You take a deep breath, walk back to your bedroom, curl into yourself on the bed, and cry in the blue light of the sky left behind by the sun.

[quicksilversquared]

Pants on Fire

Ladybug AU/ After Lila decides that Adrien's implied threat has no teeth and decides not to walk back on her claims about Marinette, Marinette stays expelled. But she has absolutely no intention to let things stay that way.

Soon enough, Lila will wish that she had taken Adrien's easy way out.

links in the reblog

Across the street, the school bell rang, and the last of the Françoise Dupont students cleared off of the sidewalk and into the building. From her balcony, Marinette could see her old classmates in their homeroom, gradually making their way to their desks. Lila was still sitting in the back, but Marinette didn't doubt that before long, she would have taken over Marinette's old seat.

Day three of her expulsion from Dupont, and Marinette was (rightfully) no less bitter about it now than she had been three days ago.

Seriously, how was it fair that she got expelled without any sort of investigation? How was it legal? How had her teachers and principal even believed that Marinette would do anything like what Lila had claimed?

Did Lila have secret brain-draining superpowers that no one had found out about yet? That was the only thing that she could think of.

"At least Adrien tried to get Lila to come clean," Tikki offered as her Chosen clambered down from her balcony and headed for her desk. "I mean, I know it didn't work because Lila is too stubborn, but..."

"At least he tried," Marinette finished. She was really grateful for that, honestly. When Adrien had stopped over to check in on her the previous day, he had sounded super frustrated. Apparently Lila had somehow gotten herself invited to his photoshoots and he had confronted her then, trying to bargain the appearance of his friendship to get Lila to walk back her claims about Marinette. At the time, Lila had seemed to agree, but she hadn't followed through afterwards.

Count Marinette not surprised. If Lila walked back on any of her claims, well, that meant that all of her other claims would be questioned, and she would not want to open that door. Even if that meant irritating Adrien.

"And at least someone at Dupont knows that it was Lila's fault," Marinette added with a sigh. Not that it did anything, really, since no one would listen to Adrien, but it was still nice. "And at least he's planning on coming over again and talking to my parents today, so that they aren't just going on my word that I didn't actually do any of the stuff Lila accused me of. But that doesn't get me un-expelled."

"Well, if you can't do anything about it, maybe we should just brush it off and move on," Tikki suggested. "Mulling over it isn't going to help, and if an akuma comes again-"

Marinette hid her scowl and reached for her remote, flipping her monitor from computer screen to TV to drown out the rest of Tikki's words. She knew that it wasn't a good thing that an akuma had actually managed to get as far as corrupting her purse, even if Marinette had still had enough control at the time to start taking her earrings out so that Tikki could fly away with them. Tikki didn't have to keep reminding her that getting akumatized wouldn't be good. Marinette knew that.

(Marinette was this close to going to Master Fu without Tikki and talking to him about her kwami's constant scolding. Marinette knew that her duties as Ladybug were important, but what about the girl under Ladybug's mask? Didn't her feelings matter, too? What was she supposed to do, take a train out to the countryside so that she was out of Hawkmoth's range and only let her emotions out there? Be an emotionless robot until Hawkmoth was defeated? No thank you.)

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news!" Nadja Chamack was saying on-screen, beaming into the camera as Marinette pulled up her first lesson of the day on her tablet. "In today's news, we have extended coverage from the most recent akuma battle, updates from the mayor on proposed new recycling initiatives, and much, much more!"

Madam Chamack chatted on as Marinette started reading through her first class's lesson, determined to at least stay on top of her studies and not let herself fall behind. The online school she had gotten herself enrolled in for the time being was flexible enough that if she got a little behind schedule because of an akuma attack it wouldn't be too big of an issue, but there was no point starting off on the wrong foot.

Besides, if she could work ahead, then she could maybe have some more free time to try to make some progress on tracking down Hawkmoth. That would be making the most out of her situation, at least, and then she would be in a better position to focus on improving her designs and sewing techniques so that she could start developing a portfolio while she was in lycée.

Tikki finally settled down across the room, fiddling with some of Marinette's extra thread and beads while Marinette worked her way through the day's Literature lesson, then Math and Civics and Chemistry. The TV kept playing in the background, muted only when Marinette needed to listen to a video for her schoolwork on her tablet.

"Morning classes done ahead of schedule," Marinette said cheerfully as soon as she finished her last electron drawing. "And homework for them finished at the same time, not that there was much homework to do to start with. Time for a break, I think."

"It is almost time for lunch," Tikki agreed, flying over to join her. "You wouldn't be getting out for another half-hour at Dupont, but you've been working hard! And normally, you would have breaks between classes."

"Mm-hmm." Marinette glanced back up at her computer monitor to glance at the time, then did a double-take when she saw the screen. "Hey, I remember hearing something about this before! Tikki, can you turn up the volume?"

"-the continued fallout from the plagiarism scandal at Paris's famed university for the arts," Madam Chamack said onscreen as Tikki bumped the volume. "Another professor has been linked to the scam, which came to light after a student discovered the plagiarism. After the faculty member that she brought her concerns to didn't do anything about the issue, the student, who wishes to remain unidentified, did her own digging and found enough evidence to go straight to the police."

Marinette froze, eyes fixed on the screen as Madam Chamack kept talking, telling her viewers the timeline of what had been discovered so far. There was a lot, with faculty members at the university trying to sweep the problem under the rug all because of some rich donors who wanted to keep the flow of ideas coming to them. Three attempts from the student to let professors and administrators know that it was happening had all been swept aside with empty assurances and nothing had happened.

No one had expected the stubborn student, armed with facts and evidence to the point where she could directly get the police involved.

And Marinette's brain went aha.

There was plenty of evidence out there that Lila was lying, if only people bothered to look. The looking had been the issue at school, with everyone just taking Lila at her word instead of actually looking for themselves. Marinette didn't doubt that Lila had taken at least some steps to cover her steps- forging her mother's signature, probably, and giving incorrect email addresses that would divert to any emails to her mother to a mimic email that Lila could control- but that didn't mean that they just had to take that at face value!

But if Marinette compiled a whole pile of evidence, then- well, Marinette wasn't going to kid herself into saying that that would solve everything, either. Knowing the discipline that was given at her school, Lila would probably get a tap on the hand as punishment, and everything would get swept under the rug. But if Marinette got evidence, and then went to the proper authorities so that Ms. Buster and Mr. Damocles were forced to act, well...

That might be the exact thing she needed.

  Adrien wasn't sure what to expect when he headed over to the Dupain-Cheng bakery after school. He had waited until most of the other students had cleared off before leaving, so that Lila wouldn't see him going over and try to mess things up even more, then ducked into the bakery itself.

He had told the Gorilla that he was studying at the school for a couple hours, so hopefully he wouldn't be interrupted.

"Good afternoon, Adrien," Mrs. Cheng greeted him. She didn't sound as upbeat as she usually did, which wasn't much of a surprise considering that Marinette's expulsion was still fresh. "What can I get for you today?"

"I wanted to talk to you, actually," Adrien told her, glancing around the bakery. The collège student rush had passed, and now there was only a businessman perusing the shelves of baked goods. "About what happened earlier this week-"

Mrs. Cheng's shoulders stiffened, and her smile became a bit more wooden. "I appreciate the concern, Adrien, but-"

"Lila's a liar," Adrien blurted before she could wave him out of the bakery. "She's been making up stories left and right about knowing all these famous people ever since she arrived in Paris, and she's had it out for Marinette from the start because Marinette never fell for her lies."

Mrs. Cheng blinked at him, clearly perplexed. "Are you sure that Lila is making up her stories? Alya dropped by for a couple minutes yesterday and she seemed certain that Marinette was just jealous."

Adrien only just barely resisted the urge to snort. Marinette, jealous? Marinette was possibly the most connected person in their class, if he didn't count the connections that he and Chloe had just because of who their parents were. She designed things for Jagged Stone on at least a semi-regular basis, and Clara Nightingale knew her and liked her, and his father had complimented Marinette's designs. "I'm positive, Mrs. Cheng. Lila claimed to be Ladybug's best friend right after she first arrived in Paris, and I was there when Ladybug confronted Lila about lying. And Lila claimed that she once saved Jagged Stone's kitten on an airplane tarmac and so he's a huge fan of hers, and Marinette knows Jagged Stone. She knows that Jagged never had a kitten. And if Lila was making that up, the probability of everything else being a lie, too..."

Mrs. Cheng's expression turned pensive.

"Besides, the pendant that Lila claimed was her grandmother's is actually from my father's latest jewelry line," Adrien added. "It's a replica of the Fox Miraculous, and she bought it shortly after she arrived in Paris. And Lila claimed to have injured her ankle from falling down the stairs, but as soon as there isn't any attention on her, she's walking just fine. And the foot that she's 'favoring' keeps switching."

"And the teachers didn't notice that, or investigate?" Mrs. Cheng asked, the doubt in her voice finally starting to vanish. "It's what they're meant to do, surely."

Adrien could only shrug. He wasn't sure why Marinette's expulsion had been rushed, unless... "Lila told us that her mom's an Italian diplomat. They might have just not wanted to cause an incident."

Mrs. Cheng muttered something under her breath that Adrien didn't entirely catch, but it sounded rather like "I'll show them an incident."

...if Mrs. Cheng was going to storm over to the school to throw hands with Mr. Damocles, Adrien wanted to be there.

"Thank you for letting me know, Adrien," Mrs. Cheng finally said after a couple of seconds had passed. "I didn't want to doubt Marinette, because the accusations didn't sound like her, but I was putting too much faith in the teachers, it seems. That, and the fact that Alya seems to like Lila... well, that was a bit confusing."

Adrien nodded. He could understand that.

"You can go up to see Marinette, if you want," Mrs. Cheng added after another pause. "I mean, if she's working on her schoolwork then don't disturb her, but I'm sure she would enjoy seeing you otherwise."

"Thank you, Mrs. Cheng."

"And here, have a cookie on your way up, I know these are your favorite."

Adrien lit up as he accepted the treat. "Thank you, Mrs. Cheng!"

That mission accomplished, Adrien headed up the stairs with a bounce in his step. It seemed like Mrs. Cheng had believed him, which would hopefully help repair any strain that had appeared in the relationship between Marinette and her parents. He wasn't sure if Marinette's parents would be able to get through to Mr. Damocles any better than he had- Adrien had tried talking to their principal again today between classes, only to get immediately brushed off- but it was at least a step in the right direction.

Even with a fresh cookie to munch on, it didn't take Adrien long to reach the Dupain-Cheng living room. Marinette's trap door was propped partway open, so he headed, up, keeping his steps quiet in case she was still trying to study. Up above, he could hear Marinette's voice, a low murmur as though she were absentmindedly talking to herself.

"Okay, so either Lila was lying about her mom being an ambassador, or the pictures that she showed us of her with her mom were photoshopped," Marinette was musing aloud when Adrien popped his head in her room behind her, going completely unnoticed. She was sitting in front of the computer, intently focused on something onscreen. It didn't sound like schoolwork, though, so Adrien slipped through her open trapdoor and into her room. "Which would make sense, if she didn't want us recognizing her mom out on the street and saying anything about all of her lies, but how good would she have to be at Photoshop, really?"

"This doesn't sound like schoolwork," Adrien teased, making Marinette yelp and startle before spinning to face him. "Your mom said not to disturb you if you were still doing your lessons, but is it safe to say you've finished?"

"Finished and then some," Marinette agreed, waving him over. "Right now, I'm finding evidence."

Adrien bounced up, at her side in a moment, instantly curious. "Evidence? That Lila's lying, I'm guessing, just based on what I just overheard."

"Exactly." Marinette waved at her screen. "And right now, what I'm finding is that Mrs. Rossi isn't an ambassador. Not unless she has a different last name than Lila and isn't the same person that Lila showed us in her photos."

"I- what?" Adrien leaned over, scanning the computer screen. Marinette let him, scrolling down to let him see the rest of the page, which was apparently from the Italian Embassy's site and showed all of their top staff. Sure enough, there was no sign of the woman whose picture Lila had shown them of her mom. "That's just- wow. Uh, do any of them have, like, personal descriptions at all? You know, like get-to-know-me pages?"

Marinette shook her head. "I've already checked. They're all very professional, no personal information in sight. Which doesn't surprise me, really. I mean, if there are people out there who might have a bone to pick with the embassy for some reason, you don't want too much personal information online."

Adrien opened his mouth, then closed it. He hadn't thought of that. He also didn't understand why someone might have an issue with an ambassador to the point of wanting to target their family, but if Marinette thought that that might be an issue, then he would believe her.

"So that's a dead end for the time being," Marinette told him. "Which is fine, really, because I got a job description of what ambassadors do, which isn't what Lila has been telling people, and then this is evidence that either she's lied about her mom being an ambassador, or she's lying about what her mom looks like-"

"Or she's lying about which country her mom is ambassador for," Adrien finished. He shrugged when she gave him a dubious look. "I mean, it's possible! Then the teachers wouldn't know which embassy to contact."

"I guess. I hadn't thought of that."

"D'you think it's enough to make Mr. Damocles undo your suspension?" Adrien asked, stepping back to snag Marinette's extra chair and pulling it over to sit next to her. "Because I mean, it feels a little mean to say it, but... he sometimes doesn't seem the sharpest? And I just worry that he might try to say that Lila's other lies don't matter, just because of what they 'found' in your bag and locker."

Marinette ducked her head, clearly trying to hide a giggle. Adrien was glad that he could amuse her, at least. "I'm not planning on going over with just a little evidence. Lila could probably lie her way out of that. I want to find a ton of evidence and actually get other authorities involved. Like, Lila definitely was skipping class without permission, and there are such things as truancy officers."

...this was starting to sound serious. Like, really serious.

"That seems like a lot of work that you shouldn't have to do, Marinette," Adrien pointed out, suddenly worried for his friend. He knew that Marinette had a tendency to overwork herself, and with all of the additional stress of getting expelled, that didn't seem like a good idea. "Are you sure-"

"That I want to spend time on it? Definitely," Marinette finished. "I'm not sitting by and letting Lila get away with expelling me. It'll go on my permanent school record- getting expelled, and the cheating and the stairs and the stealing from another student. Once I get to lycée and go back to a traditional school, the teachers won't trust me at all." Her expression became determined. "So if the adults won't step up and help, then I'll make it so that they can't not help."

...Adrien hadn't thought of that before. Being expelled from the school that Marinette had gone to for years and from classmates that she had known for even longer was bad enough on its own. But the effects didn't just stop there, and that had to suck. Like, a lot.

(Adrien was going to ask Plagg to destroy Lila's homework, he really was. Maybe it was petty, but in comparison to what Lila had done? It was nothing.)

"Ooh, yeah, I didn't think about that." Adrien scooted closer, glancing at her for permission before snagging her notebook to look at her list of lies. There... well, there were a lot of them. He had kind of tuned Lila out after a point, so to be honest, he didn't remember all of them. One of the topmost bullet points caught his eye, though, and Adrien frowned in confusion. "You're trying to disprove her being abroad using her Skyping? How is that meant to work?"

Marinette grinned, perking up and snagging her tablet from next to the computer. "Yeah, I took pictures of her when she was Skyping us, and they're clear enough to make out the background behind her." She tapped a couple spots on her screen, then turned it to face Adrien. Sure enough, there was an entire folder of pictures of Lila Skyping them from a whole bunch of different places. "Aside from the fact that she definitely wouldn't get enough Internet to get be able to call us from the street- or good enough cell service to get that clear of a photo- there's no people or cars in the background. Of very main streets. Ever."

Adrien's jaw dropped, and he stared at her in admiration. He had suspected that Lila wasn't telling the full truth, of course, but he had mostly thought that she was lying about who she was meeting, not necessarily where she was. But Marinette was absolutely right. "Wow, Marinette. I didn't- I didn't even think of that! You're brilliant. So what was she in front of, then? Posters?"

Marinette nodded. "I think so. I did a little bit of searching at the time, and if she had used a greenscreen, then she would have risked a little distorted halo showing up around her. Either way, she had to get the picture from the backdrop somewhere, and I want to find it. How I'll do that I don't know, exactly, but I'll figure it out."

"Brilliant." Adrien gave her another admiring glance before turning his attention back to her list. Marinette was a lot like Ladybug, really. She noticed details that no one else did, and could pick out when things were even a little out of place. It was a talent for sure, and one that Adrien honestly wished he had.

But he didn't, so he would have to content himself with helping out the most fantastic girls in his life in whatever ways he could.

Which, at the moment, could very well be using his connections.

"I actually have Prince Ali's contact information," Adrien commented as he noticed one specific bullet point on the list. Lila had told several stories about being in contact with Prince Ali and organizing charities and events with him. Connections with an actual prince was a undeniable attention-getter, so her fascination with him was no real surprise. "We've not been in contact that often, but my father had him and his assistant over while they were in Paris. There was an idea that there might be some collaboration or publicity with Gabriel that fell through, but, well..." Adrien shrugged, bashful. "Neither of us had that many friends at that time, so we exchanged numbers. I can text him and ask about Lila's claims and if he has any suggestions for sites to look at to back up his claims." He flashed a smile at Marinette. "Because I bet we don't just want word-of-mouth, right? Since emails can be modified or faked."

Marinette looked thrilled. "Right! And I'm so glad you have a way to contact Prince Ali, because I figured- well, I figured that those lies would be the most difficult ones to disprove, since Achu seems to keep him fairly sheltered from the media and not that much information about his life gets out."

"They do, but I'm pretty sure that Prince Ali does have some official pages with information on his projects." Adrien pulled out his phone, shooting a quick text to Prince Ali before tucking it back in his pocket and turning his full attention back to Marinette. He had the better part of an hour left before the Gorilla would come looking for him, and he wanted to use that time to help Marinette as much as he could. "Okay. What else do you have on your list?"

  Things were coming together faster than Marinette had expected, she had to admit. Only days after she started collecting evidence, her parents' last lingering doubts about the validity of any of the claims against her had vanished, they had told Madam Chamack and she was preparing a story to break once Marinette said the word, and on top of that, they now had a lawyer who had listened to Marinette's detailing of everything that had happened at school. They were preparing a lawsuit against the school, because absolutely none of the required procedures for expulsion had been followed.

Like, literally none. The accusations had been flimsy and all coming from one other student, and they hadn't been investigated at all. There had been no consideration of how likely the accusations were given Marinette's stellar history, and no calling in Lila's mother to discuss the accusations. There was absolutely no sense of any procedure being followed, and considering how much behavior from Chloe the school had let slide before, well...

The favoritism there was astounding, and they couldn't let it stand.

Marinette smiled at the reminder of that meeting as she navigated her way though her online school's portal. It was really nice to have so much support from adults, after months and months and months at school where people hadn't listened to her about Lila, hadn't done anything about Chloe, had told her that really, it isn't as big of a problem as you're making it out to be.

It was a big problem, and people weren't addressing it correctly, and that was going to be fixed. It was unfortunate that it had gotten to the point where lawsuits had to get involved, but things couldn't just be allowed to continue as they were.

And this time, it wasn't entirely up to Marinette to end it. The adults would take care of all of the legal stuff, and if Marinette decided that she was tired of dealing with the situation entirely, then that didn't mean that Lila would get away with things.

Which was nice to know, even if Marinette had no intention of excusing herself from the whole thing. Lila had made life exceedingly difficult for Marinette; now, Marinette wanted to look Lila in the eye while grinding all of her lies into the ground.

...maybe she shouldn't be so focused on revenge when she was a superhero, but honestly, Lila had it coming.

Smiling to herself, Marinette clicked a couple few more times before reaching her target page. It loaded quickly, the title of her class and her current unit at the top of the page, with a little bar below it showing where she was compared to where she was meant to be.

Marinette had started slightly behind schedule- Dupont had apparently fallen behind the national standards schedule, probably because of akuma attacks interrupting their days- and now she had caught up in most subjects and already had started edging ahead in a couple classes, including this particular one.

Civics. Unit: Foreign Relations

Unit project: Create a product- a poster, a paper, or a film- on a country of your choice, documenting their relationship with France, current and historical. Exact requirements, due dates, and minimum lengths detailed below.

It wasn't a mistake that Marinette had pushed herself to get ahead in this particular class. She had looked ahead and seen this particular project coming up and, well, filming some interviews at the Italian Embassy sounded like it would fit the bill perfectly.

"Do you really think that that's necessary at this point, Marinette?" Tikki asked from where she was perched on Marinette's sewing machine. "I mean, you have enough evidence to prove that Lila has hardly been truthful and shouldn't be trusted, and even if she tries to wriggle her way out of it, it's not going to work. Not with a truancy officer alerted and on her trail. Once an accusation has been filed, they will investigate it until they're satisfied. It's going to take more than a couple fake tears and excuses for them to drop it."

"Honestly, this bit is mostly because I'm still curious." Marinette sat back in her chair, scanning over the project guidelines. "Like, I know that Lila needed a backstory that would make it plausible that she could have met a bunch of famous people and be traveling all of the time, but why the Italian Embassy? Was that picture really of her mom? I just- I want to nose around a little. Besides, more evidence is always a good thing, and it doubles as a school assignment, too!"

"A school assignment that isn't due for weeks," Tikki pointed out. "You know what your mom told you, about not burning yourself out by overworking!"

Marinette shrugged, even as she made a few notes about things that she would have to do before filming- looking up some basic history about France-Italian relations, reaching out to a couple ambassadors to see if she could interview them, and seeing if she could check out some decent video camera and microphone equipment from the library were on the top of her list, along with coming up with questions that would hit all of the needed points plus a couple extra. "I mean, I think I'll be fine, especially because, well, I don't think I'm going to get invited to any get-togethers with the girls this week. Alya seemed pretty ticked with me when she left yesterday. So I'll have a lot of free time, probably."

Tikki made a face at that. "I suppose. But you still have Adrien coming over every day! It's not like you aren't speaking to any of your old classmates."

Marinette ducked her head, unable to hide her smile. Adrien had been spending a lot of time with her, and every afternoon they spent together made it that much easier for her to speak to him and see the time as hanging out as friends, not as a potential lead-up to a date. She could enjoy their time together fully, instead of being strung out and on edge.

It didn't take long for Marinette to get fully back into her schoolwork, continuing her slow edging forward ahead of the schedule. Despite her kwami's (and her mother's) worries, she really wasn't overworking herself. Pushing herself, maybe, but really, all Marinette was doing was putting her best foot forward and going at her own pace. It was just that her own pace was fast.

It was just that in class, they always had to slow down when someone didn't understand what was going on, which- well, in some classes, it could be pretty often. Then there were disruptions from people asking questions (or making comments about the famous people they had "met" that were somehow meant to be relevant to whatever they were doing) or having arguments, and the time spent handing out and collecting papers. There were breaks between classes, and even some classes where they ended up with extra, wasted time at the end of their class when they finished something early and didn't have enough time to start something new. That added up to a lot of time, it turned out, and with someone who was properly motivated, getting ahead in classes was a piece of cake.

Marinette was properly motivated. So motivated, in fact, that she completely missed Adrien calling her name from downstairs before coming up into her room, hair in disarray with sweat after his fencing lesson and backpack slung haphazardly over his shoulder.

"That doesn't look familiar. You must have passed us, then."

Marinette yelped, startling and whipping around. Adrien just looked amused at her reaction, pulling up his usual chair next to her. "Am I right?"

"Yeah, I'm working ahead," Marinette admitted, glancing back at her screen. "It gives me something to do. And when the curriculum was made, I think they factored in some interruptions during class, and I don't really have that. I mean, we had a meeting with a lawyer today, but that was kind of over lunch anyway so I didn't fall behind."

Adrien blinked, puzzled. "A lawyer?"

"My mom was talking to Madam Chamack, because they're friends, and she said that it would be the best idea," Marinette told him. "It'll get my expulsion cleared for sure, and will address some of the ongoing problems at the school."

A flash of uncertainty crossed Adrien's face and he started worrying at his lip. "So Ms. Bustier and Mr. Damocles will be getting in trouble, too, not just Lila?"

She had suspected that Adrien might have trouble with that. Marinette had too, because she had known Ms. Bustier for years now and for the most part, had enjoyed her as a teacher. But, well, it was impossible to ignore all of the serious missteps that Ms. Bustier had made. "Yeah. But if it was just Lila getting in trouble, then what happens down the road if another liar shows up, or just another bully in general, and they just keep doing the same thing where there aren't any punishments? I could handle it, but I couldn't always, and, well..."

"And not everyone is as resilient and brave as you," Adrien finished, the uncertainly on his face starting to ebb away. "And not everyone is as willing as you to stand up and fight, or help classmates. I know if it was me that Lila had targeted, I- well, I might try protesting, but I don't think it would go very far. I would end up homeschooled again for sure, and never get to go back to public school again."

"I think the rest of us would protest, and I would definitely go after Lila just like I am now," Marinette assured him. "But for kids in the future who might not have that- well, I don't want injustice to go unchecked. I'm not going to be surprised if someone gets akumatized over this, but better one or two people now than a whole slew of people in the future."

Adrien nodded, letting out a slow breath. "Yeah. Yeah, I can understand that. It makes sense, I was just surprised." He worried his lip, then perked up. "Oh, I meant to tell you right away- I think that Madam Mendeleev has caught on that Lila isn't telling the truth, because she isn't being as lenient with Lila as she used to be. She's not giving any accommodations whenever Lila tries to claim that she needs them because of some condition or another, and she's told Lila off about story time in her classroom."

Marinette giggled. "Oh, I would love to see that. I bet Lila is pretty mad about that."

"She's whined plenty, but I don't think that it's going to do much. Not if she doesn't have a doctor's note to back all of her 'conditions' up, and not when Madam Mendeleev has actually had students with some of the conditions that Lila has claimed before." Adrien grinned. "The look on Lila's face at that- oh, you should have been there. Al- some of the other classmates were scandalized that she was questioning a medical condition, and there was a whole thing- actually, I can see how you're getting so far ahead of us," Adrien interrupted himself with a snort. "Ten minutes of class, gone, just because of, uh, people pulling up sources on accommodating disabilities and trying to talk over Madam Mendeleev until they got sent to the office."

"Why do I get the feeling that you were referring to Alya?" Marinette asked with a sigh and a roll of her eyes. "Now she decides to go for her sources. She won't even entertain the idea of looking up sources for Lila's claims or for some of the stuff she posts on the Ladyblog, but the moment that someone questions Lila..."

Adrien quirked an eyebrow at her. "Should- should I ask?"

"Alya came over yesterday to update me on her 'investigation' and I commented on the fact that she wasn't even looking at Lila as a possibility even though she was the one leveling all of the accusations, and she got really ticked at me," Marinette told him. "She said something about making accusations without any evidence and being obsessed with Lila and then stormed out."

Adrien spluttered. "She- you- she accused you of making accusations without evidence? But you have a literal pile of evidence right over there- it's not hidden or anything! Like, it's super-obvious! How did she miss that?"

Marinette could only shrug. "You know Alya. When she gets focused on one thing, she just turns oblivious to everything else."

"That's frustrating." Adrien reached over to squeeze her hand comfortingly, flashing her a small smile. "I'm sure she'll be kicking herself once everything comes out."

"Yeah, especially because of the latest interview I got." Marinette reached forward, picking up the flash drive sitting next to her computer and waving it at him. "I got a brief interview with Ladybug, and she confirmed that the first time she heard of Lila was when she saw the video on the Ladyblog, and that she saw Lila throw away your father's book, and that she was in Paris on Heroes' Day, and that she's maliciously interfered with akuma battles before."

"Ooh, nice," Adrien said appreciatively. "That must have been hard to get, but that'll be good. And also a good way to point out to Alya that she literally didn't check anything."

Marinette could only smile. Actually, once she had gotten things set up, it had been quite easy to get the video. All she had really needed to do was record herself asking the questions, pitching her voice a little higher than usual, and then play them back while Ladybug answered the questions, doing her best to make it sound like she hadn't practiced already and pitching her voice slightly downwards.

The Miraculous would protect her identity no matter what, but there was no point in risking someone noticing that her voice and Ladybug's were incredibly similar.

"Are you almost done with evidence-collecting, do you think?" Adrien asked Marinette, giving the flash drive one last look before turning his attention to Marinette. "I mean, the sooner you break the news, the sooner you can come back."

Marinette winced. This was the news that she hadn't been looking forward to breaking. "Actually, I, uh..."

Adrien practically wilted. "You're not coming back?"

"My parents are really furious at the school," Marinette admitted. "We've been talking a lot, and I maybe hadn't told them everything that had been happening at school over the past few years with bullying and discipline, and- well, they said that unless there were significant changes, they don't want me going back. I'll be rejoining everyone in lycée," she added quickly before Adrien slouched straight off of his chair. "Which isn't that far off, really, in the grand scheme of things. And I can hang out with the class whenever, and if you want to come over like you are now, or over lunch..."

"So it's not like we won't be seeing you at all," Adrien finished, scooting closer to her. "I was worried about that."

Marinette flashed a smile at him. She was going to miss hanging out with people between classes, but sacrifices had to be made if she wanted to fully capitalize on her temporary homeschooling and it wouldn't be forever. "Right. I'll be right across the street, available to hang out. It's not the end of the word."

"And it gives me a reason to look forward to lycée," Adrien added on. He glanced at her computer screen, which still had her online school portal up. "And I was right, wasn't I? About you being ahead of Dupont now?"

"It wasn't hard," Marinette admitted. "You guys are behind, and when I work at my own speed, I can cover more than a day's work. So that's another reason it wouldn't really make sense for me to go back, because I'll be so far ahead. And it's probably going to be another week at least, because all of the legal stuff takes some time to put together and file."

Adrien nodded, still looking a bit let down. Clearly he had been hoping that Marinette would be returning to school soon, and as much as that made Marinette's heart race, she couldn't change her plans. "Right."

"But enough depressing stuff," Marinette decided, shutting her notebook and closing the school website before grinning up at Adrien. "Wanna play Mecha Strike?"

"That sounds perfect."

  Marinette headed up the steps of the Italian Embassy, a spring in her steps. It hadn't taken long to set up an appointment to interview an ambassador and a couple other staff members at the embassy, and they were more than willing to spend a few minutes with her. She had promised not to take up too much of their time- after all, they had important work to do- and now she was arriving early, just to make sure that something like a delayed bus wouldn't make her late.

Not that she would have allowed a delayed bus to make her late. After all, Ladybug could cross Paris faster than any bus could, so if it had come to that, she would have just transformed and raced across the rooftops. It wouldn't be ideal- she didn't want Chat Noir to see her out and about and interrupt his school day because he thought that there was an akuma- but the option was still there.

"So I'm meeting with Ambassador Bianchi in ten minutes and Monsieur Moretti after that," Marinette told Tikki as she mounted the last few steps and headed for the door. "I tested all of the equipment last night, so that I know how it works and that it works. I checked to make sure that all of my previous footage was off, so I have plenty of space. Tikki, am I forgetting anything?"

"No, I don't think so!" Tikki chirped, sticking her head out of Marinette's purse briefly before vanishing back inside. "You're all set, Marinette!"

Giving a determined nod, Marinette pulled open the door, stepping inside the embassy. A cheerful lady at the welcome desk gave her directions to the ambassador's office, and Marinette strode as confidently as she could down the hallway and up the stairs to the second floor. There were more than a couple people wandering down the halls chatting in Italian, and Marinette caught flashes of conversations as she passed them.

It wasn't hard to find the ambassador's office- the embassy had good signage, she would give them that- and Marinette stepped in the open door, coming to a stop in front of Ambassador Bianchi's secretary's desk, where a oddly familiar woman sat.

Lila's mother. And it definitely was Lila's mother because behind her, pinned to a very full corkboard, was a picture of Lila and her mom together with an older couple.

Well. Maybe Lila had been lying about her mother being an ambassador or in any sort of top diplomatic position, but she was at least at the Italian Embassy.

"Ah, you must be Ambassador Bianchi's eleven o'clock appointment," Mrs. Rossi said, giving Marinette a friendly smile. "She said something about a student project?"

"Yes, I'm on my Foreign Relations unit right now and we're supposed to do a project on France's relationship with another country. My Nonna is Italian, so..." Marinette shrugged. It wasn't an entire lie. Even if Lila hadn't been in the picture, Marinette probably would have picked Italy to research. That, or China. "I decided to learn a bit more about the country that side of the family is from."

"How lovely!" Mrs. Rossi exclaimed. She smiled at Marinette. "Now, if you want to take a seat over there to wait, the ambassador will be about five minutes."

"Okay," Marinette said automatically, then paused. Maybe she already had all of the evidence she needed to get Lila in very deep trouble, but she couldn't deny that she was really curious about Lila's mom and what exactly was going on there. "Or, actually- if you're busy or don't want to, that's fine, but could I maybe interview you about what you do at the embassy as well?"

Mrs. Rossi perked up. "Oh, I think I can spare a few minutes for that! I never really get asked about what I do," she confided as Marinette quickly pulled out her camera and attached the microphone to it. "Which I can understand, because everybody always talks about the ambassadors and the ministers and they get the spotlight, but there's plenty of staff behind the scene who make the entire place run smoothly. There's a lot of work involved- I work overtime most days, but that's also because I'm still getting used to this job."

Marinette nodded as she checked both mic and camera to make sure that they were running. "When I was reading up on what an embassy does, it certainly sounded complicated! It's not a huge surprise that there are people behind the scenes making sure that everything gets done."

"It might surprise you how many people that information does surprise." Mrs. Rossi considered Marinette again, pausing. Marinette tried to not stiffen up. Had Mrs. Rossi realized who she was? "Forgive me for prying, but I'm curious- shouldn't you be at school right now? Did they give you a pass so that you could do the interviews?"

Marinette shook her head, feeling herself starting to relax. Maybe Lila had decided that her mom might be suspicious or decide to move her to another school if she reported any problems- real or imaginary- to her and so hadn't mentioned Marinette at all. "I'm being homeschooled at the moment- or, rather, I'm enrolled in an online school for the rest of collège."

"Oh, that's quite nice," Mrs. Rossi commented, perking up. "And smart, considering the akuma attacks here in Paris! My daughter's collège was closed for several months because of akuma attacks there- or maybe it was just one akuma who was taking forever to defeat, I don't remember- and I do worry about how that's going to impact her education. I'd have her switch schools, but I worry that other schools would have the same problem and the one she's at is quite highly rated." She sighed. "And Lila seems to have made quite a few friends there, and she's gotten a boyfriend, so I don't want to make her switch and I hadn't had the time to look into other options anyway."

...okay, this was interesting. It also answered the question of how Lila's mom hadn't noticed her skipping school for months on end, but Marinette was really wondering how busy Mrs. Rossi was if she hadn't even looked into Lila's claims. One simple Google search, and she would have found out that no such long-term akuma existed.

She also had questions about the boyfriend claim. Something told Marinette that Lila had probably claimed that she was dating Adrien, who was likely to be less than happy about that claim.

"Huh, I hadn't heard any news about any collèges being closed because of akuma," Marinette said instead of questioning anything, shrugging one shoulder. "Odd. But getting back on track..." She made a show of getting the camera properly lined up, then peered over the top. "Can you tell me what you do here at the embassy?"

  Marinette was prepared.

Over the past couple of weeks, with Adrien's help and a bit of an assist from her family's lawyer, she had debunked pretty much all of Lila's lies. She had printed out pages of evidence and compiled video clips from the interviews she had done on flash drives. The lawsuits- both against the school and against Lila specifically- had just been filed, and Madam Chamack would be breaking the story that morning, while Marinette went in to confront Ms. Bustier and Lila.

Everything was ready, all of her evidence packed into her bag the previous evening, and Marinette was doing breathing exercises while waiting to head into the school. Her family's lawyer, several members of the school board, a substitute teacher, and a truancy officer were all waiting downstairs in the bakery, and would be accompanying her over.

A ding from her phone caught Marinette's attention, and she pulled it out of her purse. On-screen, there was a message from Adrien.

Looking forward to seeing you! You'll do great :)

Smiling, Marinette tapped out a quick reply before sending it and heading downstairs. Nerves were really building in her stomach now, but she pushed them back down. She had faced akumas and supervillains before. This would be a piece of cake.

"The bell has rung," Madam Rochefort commented, glancing up from her tablet. "Let's head over in five, to give people time to settle down."

Ms. Boutin flashed a grin at Madam Rochefort. "It's so odd, seeing you deliberately planning to make a scene during classes. Normally you're all about pulling teachers aside before or after school."

"They decided to make the accusations and expulsion a public spectacle, so I'm not going to grant them the privilege of resolving their problems in private." Madam Rochefort smiled at Marinette. "And I certainly couldn't deny Miss Dupain-Cheng here the satisfaction of throwing all of her evidence in her class's face."

Marinette smiled at that. She had been a little worried with all of the officials that had gotten involved that she wouldn't be able to carry out her (admittedly somewhat petty) plan, but they had been willing to accommodate her.

Five minutes later, they were marching over to the school. Ms. Boutin knocked on the large doors sharply, then stepped back to wait for an answer. Seconds later, Mr. Haprèle opened the doors, annoyed look giving way to confusion.

"Good morning, we're from the school board," Madam Rochefort announced, ushering Marinette in ahead of her and flashing her ID at . "We've come to speak to a couple of the teachers and your principal."

Mr. Haprèle nodded, stepping to the side to let them in even as the confused look stayed on his face. Marinette led the way up to Ms. Bustier's classroom, excitement mounting in every step.

She could do this. Everything was labeled so there was no chance of her messing anything up. There was no need to go into detail for anything if she didn't want to. For once, other people could exert some actual effort and look at the evidence she had helpfully gathered for them instead of her having to explain each and every piece.

"Go get 'em," Ms. Boutin told Marinette, patting her arm. "And we're right here, waiting for our cue. They won't be able to ignore you this time."

Nodding, Marinette put on her Ladybug face, then turned towards the door. With one last deep breath, she shoved open the door, sending it flying open and drawing every student's eye to her as she strode into the classroom, confidence in every step.

"Marinette!" Ms. Bustier exclaimed, rising from her desk at the front. There was a frown on her face. "What are you doing here? You've been expelled, you're not allowed on school property, especially during school hours-"

Marinette's fierce expression cut her off. "Actually, I'm here to contest my expulsion. I think you'll find that none of the requirements for expulsion were even met. Additionally-" Marinette started digging in her bag, a frown flashing across her face as she realized that it might be a bit difficult to pull things out of her bag.

"I can hold your bag, Marinette!" Adrien offered at once, sliding out of his seat and coming up front to join her, taking her bag and flashing her an encouraging smile. You've got this.

"Thank you, Adrien." Marinette returned his smile, then returned to her earlier intensity. "As I was saying- no procedure was followed. The decision to expel me was entirely based on claims made by a lying, thieving, completely untrustworthy liar."

Lila gasped theatrically from her seat, which- surprise, surprise- was now next to Alya, in Marinette's old spot. "You're still trying to call me a liar? Just because you're jealous-"

Marinette cut her off, pulling the first stack of packets out of her bag while staring Lila down. "Evidence that Lila was lying about saving Jagged Stone's cat and knowing him at all. Almost all of which is public information, if anyone had bothered to look." She slammed the first packet down on Ms. Bustier's desk. "That she was lying about knowing Prince Ali." Another slam. "And that literally all of her supposed involvement in charity work and other organizations is a lie, as are all of the other connections that she claimed to have and that I'm not even going to dignify naming."

This slam was even louder. There were several flinches around the room. Lila was starting to look a little less confident, her eyes darting towards Ms. Bustier.

"And, most importantly." Marinette's eyes flashed back to Ms. Bustier, who was looking very taken aback. "Which the teachers here really should have looked into properly, instead of just blindly believing Lila. She was lying about being out of Paris at all and was using posters as her background when she called us, which should have been obvious to anyone with eyes, because there were exactly zero pedestrians or cars behind her. I found all of the posters she used with a very simple reverse photo search."

There were gasps at that, and Ms. Bustier pressed a hand to her chest, looking over at Lila.

"Additionally, as if the posters weren't enough, I have interviews with both Ladybug and Mrs. Rossi that confirm that Lila was in Paris for the entirety of the time that she claimed to be traveling." Marinette reached in the bag one more time, pulling out her flash drive. Lila had gone pale at that, and oh, it was so satisfying. "Those were both very interesting, actually. Ladybug told me that the first time she had ever heard of Lila was when she saw the Ladyblog video where Lila was claiming to be her best friend, and that Lila has hated her for calling her out of the lies. Additionally, Lila has deliberately gotten in the way of the superheroes during akuma battles in order to sabotage them, and she was in Paris on Heroes' Day as Volpina, who made the illusions of Ladybug and Chat Noir fighting."

There were gasps at that. Marinette was not done.

"And on top of that, Ladybug saw Lila throwing a book into the trash- a book that Lila stole from Adrien." Marinette's eyes narrowed at Lila, whose mouth was opening and closing wordlessly. "Because she had gotten what she wanted out of it, also known as the fake Fox Miraculous that she had just bought from a Gabriel shop."

"Which, I might add, she tried to pass off as the real Fox Miraculous right away," Adrien chimed in from next to her. "And that necklace was the same one that she said was from her grandmother and she claimed that Marinette stole."

"And, if that isn't enough, Mrs. Rossi thought that Lila was staying home because the school was closed due to an extended akuma attack," Marinette finished, a smirk flashing across her face at the look of pure panic that flashed across Lila's face. Clearly she had thought that Marinette was bluffing about meeting her mother."Because Lila told her that the principal was akumatized and therefore the school was closed." Against her better judgment, Marinette's eyes flashed towards Alya for a moment. "How's that for research and evidence, hmmm?"

"I- no-" Lila attempted, clearly scrambling to pull herself together. "That is- a misrepresentation of what- Marinette is just making things up, she's just jealous and bitter that I didn't let her bully me-"

"I have video evidence, Lila," Marinette told her, using her best cold, no-nonsense, I-am-a-superhero-and-you-WILL-listen-to-me voice. She could see several people shrink back, intimidated. "And an entire pile of evidence to disprove your other lies. And..." She reached into her bag for her final folder, opening it up and pulling out another packet before striding over to Lila and slapping it down on the desk in front of her. "A lawsuit against you, for slander with malicious intent."

"But Lila can't get in trouble with the law," Max protested from the back of the room. "She has diplomatic immunity because of her mother."

Marinette smirked at that. Lila was really wilting now. "Top diplomats might get diplomatic immunity for their families, sure. But the secretary for the ambassador certainly doesn't get immunity for her family."

There were gasps at that.

"Additionally, diplomatic immunity can be waived by the family member or the home country even if it did apply," Mr. Bernard announced, stepping into the classroom. "Which we have seen before, and if it had applied in this case, I'm sure we would see it again."

"Who are you?" Ms. Bustier asked, stepping forward. "This all seems like a lot of disruption, we are a school-"

"I am a truancy officer, and Ms. Rossi here is in quite a bit of trouble. Skipping multiple months of school is definitely grounds for punishment, particularly when I suspect that she forged her mother's signature on the school leave forms." Mr. Bernard flashed a doubtful look at Ms. Bustier. "If, of course, there was even an attempt at following procedure in that case."

Ms. Bustier flushed. "We- we were told it was a very last-minute trip, and that Mrs. Rossi was quite busy, and we wanted to be accommodating, so we waited until after the return to really push for ..."

"Procedure is not optional. It is there for a reason, to keep things like this from happening." Mr. Bernard did not look impressed, but he jerked his chin at Lila. "Ms. Rossi. Your mother has been contacted and is on her way. Collect your things at once."

Lila glanced around frantically, rather like a cornered rabbit, but all of her classmates were glaring at her. Slowly, she gathered up her things, picking up the lawsuit notice last, and then headed out after Mr. Bernard, dragging her feet the entire way.

There was a pause.

"It- well, it seems as though I owe you an apology, Marinette," Ms. Bustier finally said, sinking back into her seat. "I should have looked into things more thoroughly instead of letting them slide. I'll get your expulsion wiped off of your record at once, and you can return right away."

"Actually, I won't be returning to Francois-Dupont," Marinette informed her, ignoring the gasps from the class in favor of fishing out the last of her forms and setting it on Ms. Bustier's desk. "My parents don't think that the environment here is conducive to my learning experience, and they don't trust that there will be enough change in the remainder of the year to satisfy them."

Ms. Bustier reached across the desk for the form at once, her eyes going wide as she took in the top page. It was another lawsuit, this one against the school for not following proper procedure for expulsion and for failing to protect their students from a bully.

Marinette had been a little unsure about the last bit, but the school board had pointed out that, had any of the teachers looked into things, Mr. Bourgeois didn't actually have the power to punish the school for properly disciplining Chloe, and even if they couldn't be bothered to look that much up, they at the very least could have separated Chloe and Marinette into different homerooms instead of placing them together for so many years in a row. It wouldn't have been possible to place them in different classrooms every year- after all, Chloe bullied everyone- but getting a break every other year shouldn't have been too much to expect.

Having adults standing up to Chloe instead of leaving students to do that themselves shouldn't have been too much to expect, either.

"I'll be rejoining the class for lycée, but not before," Marinette added, because she could hear Rose starting to sniffle. "And I can hang out with you guys whenever, but my parents aren't at all happy with the administration here."

Rose managed a small smile when Marinette glanced her way, nodding in understanding.

"Speaking of people being unhappy with the administration, we need to speak to you, Ms. Bustier," Madam Rochefort announced, sticking her head through the door. She stepped aside to let the substitute teacher who they had brought in. "We'll go to Mr. Damocles' office, if you could."

Ms. Bustier nodded, even paler as she followed Madam Rochefort out. Marinette took that as her cue to leave as well, tucking her empty folder back into her bag and taking it back from Adrien. He was smiling at her, proud and a little sad at the same time.

"We'll miss seeing you during class," Adrien murmured in her ear as he slid Marinette's bag over her head, arranging it at her side before pressing a quick kiss to the side of her head. "But I know I'll visit as often as I can. For both the company and the food."

"Our door is always open for you," Marinette promised, trying not to flush and probably failing. Adrien was too cute for her blood pressure sometimes. "And you have my number, too. If you want to come over during lunch, too, you can."

Adrien perked up at that as he escorted her to the door. "I might end up never leaving if you keep inviting me over, just so you know."

Marinette giggled. As though she would actually ever complain about that. "We'll make up a bed for you."

"Very tempting." Adrien smiled at her, then glanced back into the classroom. The substitute teacher was looking back at him. "I have to go, but see you later?"

"Of course." With a final wave, Marinette stepped back, watching Adrien head back into the classroom before turning herself and heading back out of the school. She was by herself now, the school board members and lawyer and truancy officer all busy, but that didn't matter. She had done what she had come to school to do. The expulsion would be wiped from Marinette's record, and the faculty at Dupont would be given the help and training they needed to be far better teachers for the next set of students to come through and all of the students after them, too. On top of that, Lila had been taken down, her following gone and her reputation in shatters. With any luck, she would be removed from Paris entirely in order to keep her from getting akumatized again.

Hopefully her next set of teachers would be given a heads-up about Lila's tendency to make up stories so that no one else would have to go through the same thing that Marinette just had.

Humming to herself, Marinette paused at the crosswalk, waiting for the light to change. She had taken down one schoolyard bully and made life in Paris just that little bit better for everyone.

And now that that was over... well, now that she had more free time, she could turn her attention to a much bigger target. Hawkmoth had better beware, because before long, Ladybug was going to be on his case.

[ohnobjyx]

you answer about celebrities being prudent with dating got me curious as western boys in bands, especially in the rock/alternative/rap scene, seem to have a reputation for dating/sleeping around a lot, do asian idols just not date/sleep around a lot or are they just better at hiding it because they are expected to?

Hi, anon! I’m slowly working through all the asks, but I remembered yours when I was watching this week hotpot episode from SDoC S3 (I’m wondering if I should write a post compiling all the candies, but I have so many asks pending).

To start with the answer, let’s put the disclaimer first: I don’t know celebrities, I’m a simple fan just like all of us. Whatever they do in their private life it’s their own thing, and I just simply try to place an objective view of their situation here.

Just a clarification: when we talk about idol or celebrity, I’m talking about those that are pretty successful in the industry (with their number of fans ranking in the millions). These are the tip of the iceberg in the industry however. The bulk of them have less fans, but are also less subjected to scrutiny by the public.

1. First of all they are prudent because it isn’t widely accepted as “good” that people date/sleep around a lot, especially among the older generations. However, many young people also feel that it’s unacceptable, and their opinions may vary from “they must be very promiscuous or they flicker a lot” to “if they haven’t been able to keep a relationship for long, there must be a problem with this person”.

2. We’ve already talked about the fact that celebrities are expected to uphold a clear and good moral example for their fans. They’ll be heavily criticized if they do things that aren’t socially approved, and it’ll impact negatively on their work prospects. So, I suppose that in the case any celebrity did date/sleep around, they’d have to be masters at hiding their “affairs”.

Let’s just imagine how a male idol’s gf fans (the type of fans that fantasize being their idol’s gf) would react if their idol publicly dated around with many girls. I don’t think that would end well.

3. Like I said at the beginning, I’m going to talk about those idols and celebrities that have more success in the industry.

So, when we talk about dating/sleeping around, there’s something that we can’t ignore: time.

I don’t know about the workload of the boy bands (especially, as you said, in the rock/alternative/rap scene) but the workload of an Asian idol is terrifying.

Let me show you a few examples:

a. Even before he debuted in the boy band, dd spent almost everyday hours dancing, no free weekends and barely vacations, since he was 13 and entered the company. As a child, he got myocarditis when he was learning to dance. As soon as he got discharged, he went back to dancing, and spent his summer vacations (just a month in China, btw, August) dancing from 1 pm to 9 pm everyday, to recover the lost ground (this really was a test for his love for dancing, but just imagine it: he could do 8 hours a day just because he liked it, how many hours would he pull when pressed by the company?)

b. To anyone unfamiliar with Asian culture, the Lunar New Year’s Eve is the most important celebration in Asian culture, a night when family gathers together to celebrate the arrival of the new year. Asian idols usually are full of work, even that same night, so they almost never spend the New Year’s Eve with their families. A famed actress (in her fifties), once said in a program: “my father died last year... and one of the things I regret the most is that I haven’t spent a single New Year’s Eve with him in the last 20 years”.

c. In 2015, a year after his debut with Uniq, dd posted on w/ibo: “Just another year that I can’t be with my parents on New Year’s Eve... just a little sad” (and from what I know, he hadn’t spent a single New Year’s Eve at home since his debut).

d. I don’t know if any of you are familiar with Running Man, another c-variety show that’s very popular in China (I recommended it, btw). They did a night-life special last year, and when the director announced the theme (that they’d start filming by 4 pm and continue through the night), the host were like “just that?”:

“Then like our usual jobs”, “I can stay awake longer than an owl”, “I’m also good at spending all-nighters”.

One of them actually said: it seems that they don’t really get what an actor’s job is... everyone say how many days and nights have you gone by without sleeping in you busiest times? Angelababy (that’s her stage name, yes): “When I was a model... I really spent  three days and three nights   without a single moment of sleep.” Li Chen: “Before I came here to film yesterday, I spent 4 days filming night scenes for my drama, so 4 nights without sleep.”

Song Yuqi: “If we count sleeping an hour a day... I went a full week without a full night of sleep. Yesterday was the longest I’ve been sleeping in the last month”.

Their attitude is what surprises me the most, to be honest... It’s like, “of course we would spend a whole night awake, no problem!”

e. One of the previous hosts from this show once said that from his daughter’s birth to her first birthday the amount of time he spent with her totalled to three months.

4. I actually remembered your ask yesterday when I was watching the hotpot episode because of this:

The hosts mentioned getting back at their hotels after filming at 6 am (I think they had been filming the episode during the day and most of the night, and wanted to film a part of the dance using the first daylight). Actually, dd was talking about ZYX making noise in his room practicing dance moves at 6 am (wtf dude, you just pulled an all-nighter, please sleep).

There was a stalker photo of dd taken at 3 am when dd was coming out of the filming site for SDoC S3, one of the other day (just imagine it: you’re leaving the workplace, after a hard day of work, and instead of getting into the car peacefully you have to escape from these people). 

This kind of workload is insane. When they aren’t filming, they are travelling to filming sites, filming tv shows episodes, filming commercials, doing interviews, photoshoots, practicing whatever show is coming up next, reading scripts, and a long list of things they do. Almost without a single moment to rest.

I remember an interview of another actor, in which he said that if he had a free moment in his schedule or a free day, he spent it sleeping and talking with his family.

I’m not saying that with this kind of schedule keeping a relationship is absolutely impossible, but it resembles greatly a long distance relationship, no matter where your home actually is. So dating around a lot is quite of... difficult? (at least in my opinion). And about sleeping around... maybe it’s just me, but if I had a free night with their workload... I’d pass out as soon as I was in my room, and that’s all the sleeping I can envision.

(Btw, this kind of work pace is a trend in China. I've been told that it’s actually common to have surgeons doing 36-hour shifts... here I was thinking that 24h shifts were outrageous).

5. However, it’s not impossible. It wasn’t so long ago that a scandal got out about an actor who was married and with an adult son AND still had time to keep a mistress.

I hope I haven’t rambled too much, anon, and that you find my answer useful!

Edit (thanks to @gremlin-02!): “you're missing the part about propaganda. chinese idols have to hold up "chinese culture/good morals/examples of good citizens" they are not gonna be promoting a play boy idol since it "corrupts" the family values and state system.”

You are absolutely right, and it’s also a point that supports the second part of this post. We tend to forget about it, but the national propaganda has shaped the country from its core. Without it, the country would be very different today. Not better or worse, just... different, since propaganda, for all its bad reputation, has played a large part in their economic growth and their position in the world economy today.

[cheri-translates]

🍒Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for a phone call which has not been released in English servers!🍒

It also makes reference to Gavin’s Private Photoshoot Date. So don’t proceed if you haven’t read it and/or want to avoid spoilers!

Or you can simply enjoy his gentle heart-melting Chinese dub without understanding what’s going on ;)

Gavin: You were busy till late again today?

MC: I have no choice... there’s always a bunch of things to do after a program. It’d be fine after I get through this phase!

Gavin: Do you have any plans after that?

MC: Maybe... or maybe not...

Gavin: Why do you say it like that?

MC: Because there are so many things I want to do with you, and I can’t decide which one should come first. How about this - you make the decision this time! You’re not allowed to say that you’re going along with whatever I want!

Gavin: Okay. Give me some options and I’ll pick.

MC: I shall begin then! [clears throat] May I ask Mr Gavin whether he would prefer to do something more exhilarating? Or something more peaceful?

Gavin: Is there a difference between the two?

MC: The more exhilarating option would be an adventure, a challenge. The more peaceful one would be something like watching a movie, going shopping, things like that.

Gavin: I’ll pick the exhilarating option then.

MC: Okay! ...then what would like to try? The list I compiled has the newly opened escape room, live-shooting, rock climbing...

Gavin: Escape room then.

MC: Eh? You’ve made your decision so quickly?

Gavin: Mm. Actually, the other things are not much of a challenge to me.

MC: Hahaha... even if that’s the case, I won’t admit defeat!

Gavin: ...You want to do something else?

MC: Not really. It’s just that the escape room has a high level of difficulty. Apparently it involves a chase. I’m a little worried that I'd get caught...

Gavin: That wouldn’t happen. I’ll pull you along while we run.

MC: Mm! It’s a promise! Come to think of it, if we are doing something exhilarating, I should buy a suitable pair of sports shoes.

Gavin: Sure, I’ll go with you. This weekend?

MC: Sounds good! I also wanted to go shopping. This way, no matter what option we choose, we would have done them once.

Gavin: Not just once. All those activities in your list, we’ll do them all one by one.

📷

Second phone call: here

[onemistresstorulethemall]

Hold that pose

Word count: 2074

Nsfw, F!Mc

He had an open door policy for you, so you didn't bother to knock. You barged into Asmo's room with a pout on your face.

"Please help me! None of your brothers could take a good picture if their life depended on it!", you whined, attracting the attention of the Avatar of Lust.

Fortunately, you didn't catch him doing anything explicit. The last thing you wanted was to enter his room and see him in action.

"Oh, darling, you came to the right demon~", his tone was sweet, but his smile was giving off his true nature.

"I knew I could count on you! Thank you, Asmo! You're the best!", you threw your hands around his neck and pulled him into a tight hug.

"Now, now, what are we shooting for?", he cheerfully asked.

You explained to him how you had a business social media account on which you haven't posted on for about a week. You needed some good pictures to post, but unfortunately you didn't have any as all your time was occupied by chores and tasks.

"How exciting, y/n! You should have told me earlier. I can help you take the best pictures ever!"

You had already done your make up and refused to let Asmo wipe it off and do it all over again because "it didn't suit your face properly", however you let him have his way with your hair. The Avatar of Lust styled your h/c hair in a way which made you look like a supermodel.

You had a cropped flannel shirt on with a lacy bralette underneath and a checkered mini skirt on the bottom. Moreover, you had fishnet stockings suspended by garter belt.

"Where do you want to take the photos, honey?~", the demon asked.

"Getting dolled up made me tired. How about we take them here, in your room? It's a nice enough background, I'd say. I mean...your room is stunning.", you flashed him a genuine smile.

"You shouldn't expect any less from me. Such a beautiful demon can only have an appropriate room, don't you think?"

You nodded and looked around the room thinking about where to take the pictures and poses you could do.

Soon enough you had your back against a flower decorated wall and Asmo was giving you advice on where to place your hands so the picture looks better.

"Just like that, baby. Hold that pose for me!", he exclaimed.

You froze into place, wanting to get the perfect shot. After he announced that he got it, you sighed in relief.

"Let's take a break, Asmo. This is wearing me out..."

He nodded and let the phone down as he sat himself of the bed. You crashed next to him, making your hair messy and making your shirt fall off of one of your shoulders. You rose your head up to face him and on his face you could read shock. In an instant he grabbed his phone again and shot a quick picture of you.

"What are you doing, Asmo? I told you I'd like to take a break."

"I can't help it, love, you're too photogenic.", he paused for a second and looked like he was intensely thinking about something, "What if you lost the shirt and the skirt?"

"I don't think I have the audience for that.", you joked.

"Not for your page, sugar. For fun. Let me take pictures of you so I can cherish these moments. What do you think, hmm?"

For Asmodeus nudity was as natural as breathing. He would never make you feel uncomfortable, on the contrary, being around Asmo gave you confidence. So, you agreed. You unbuttoned your shirt and slipped out of the skirt, remaining only in your lacy f/c underwear set plus your stockings and garter belt.

"You're mesmerizing, y/n...", the demon praised you.

You buried your face into your hands to hide the fact that you were so flustered.

"I don't know if I can do this, Asmo...", you said muffled into your hands.

"I have just the thing for you, dear!", you felt him get off the bed.

Surprised by hearing something pop, you got up and turned your gaze into that direction only to see the Avatar of Lust pouring what looked like alcohol into crystal glasses.

He drank his liquor like a shot and came towards you holding the other glass. He gently grabbed your chin and opened your mouth using his thumb before pressing the glass against your lips. He slowly tilted it, making you swallow its contents.

"Here, this should boost your confidence.", he said in a low tone.

At least now you could blame the red colour of your cheeks on the alcohol. After that, you became a lot more lively, posing and goofing around, feeling like Asmodeus' personal model.

As you were using a chair as a prop, putting one of your legs on it to accentuate the curve of your butt, one of the straps of the bralette fell off of your shoulder.

"You're doing amazing, darling~", he almost purred at you.

You poured yourself another glass of what looked and tased similar to rosé wine. Asmo followed your example and drank another glass himself.

"Have you ever done a nude photoshoot?", he suddenly asked.

You shook your head in denial.

"Would you consider making this your first?", he got closer to you and placed a kiss on your shoulder.

"Could I ever say no to you?", it came out more like a moan and less like a question.

He laughed before helping you out of the thin fabrics of clothing covering your body.

"My, my, someone has been enjoying this~", he smirked as he looked at your soaked underwear.

You didn't even realize that you had gotten so wet. But fortunately, his mocks didn't last long as he was more interested in immortalizing the moment. On his bed drinking liquor, sitting in front of his vanity mirror putting on lipstick, next to a window holding a bottle of perfume, the photos were elegant, tasteful and fun to shoot. But even so, eventually you got tired and crashed onto the demon's bed.

He sat next to you, trailing his slender fingers gently up and down your spine, tickling you.

"You're so beautiful, y/n... It saddens me when I catch you being insecure. Look at you... No, I'm serious, get up and look in the mirror!", the Avatar of Luat rarely ordered you around so you compiled and did as he asked.

You stood in front of the mirror with Asmodeus behind you. He caressed your arms and kissed your shoulders, moving upwards towards your neck. You closed your eyes, but immediately after you felt his hand cupping one of your cheeks.

"Open your eyes, darling~", he whispered previously to taking your ear lobe into his mouth.

You obliged and faced your reflection which showed how you were melting under his touch. Slowly but surely his hands lowered down to your chest, playing with your breasts, teasing your already hardened nipples.

"Ah, Asmo~", you moaned.

When you realized how loud your voice was, you covered your mouth with one hand, but the demon was fast to grab your hand and take it off of your mouth. He grabbed both of your hands and held them in place at your back using one of his.

"Let them hear you, darling~", he paused to kiss your neck, "Let them hear how good I make you feel."

Asmo's free hand went lower and found its way to your core. The moment his skillful fingers made contact with your sensitive nub, lustful cries escaped your mouth, although you tried your best to contain yourself.

"Such a good girl~", he cooed.

You had to admit you looked hot, with a full face of make up on, your hair messy but still styled, slightly bended forward as the demon behind you was having his way with you.

"Hold this pose for me, won't you darling?", he demanded as he left your side for a brief moment.

When he came back you heard a click and felt something soft on your wrists. He cuffed you with pink fluffy handcuffs and threw a pillow on the floor. The demon kneeled on the pillow and positioned himself between your legs.

"Keep looking in the mirror. If you stop, I stop. Understood?", he asked with a sterner voice than usual.

"Yes, sir", you affirmed.

In an instant the demon began exploring your womanhood as you had your eyes locked on the mirror. You almost couldn't recognize yourself. One of the most beautiful beings in the three realms was kneeling between your legs offering you pleasure. Nothing in the world made you feel more beautiful, confident and sexy.

"Fuck yeah, Asmo. Ah, right there!", you moaned.

One of his long fingers entered you and made you scream as he was sucking on your sensitive spot.

"I need another one in. Please, put another finger in me, Asmo. I, uh fuck, I fucking need it!", you begged.

Your prayers here heard and soon enough another finger found its way inside you.

"Please don't stop. Please, I'm gonna cum soon."

The words that left your mouth motivated the embodiment of lust and had him pleasure you more passionately than before. You didn't even think it was possible, but soon you found yourself losing your mind as you climaxed all over your lover's mouth. You dropped to your knees, unable to stand up anymore.

"Oh, my dear, don't doze off just yet, I'm not done having my way with you", Asmodeus said as he stood up and slipped out of his clothes.

The demon gently lifted your head and instead of his member, at first, his fingers coated in your juices entered your mouth. You sucked on them hungrily, tasting yourself on his fingers. You tasted good.

After you sucked his fingers clean, he pulled them out and replaced them with his lengthy cock which you eagerly sucked on as if your life depended on it. Asmo delicately pulled your hair into a messy ponytail held together by his right hand and guided your head up and down his member.

He was looking into the mirror the whole time and you weren't sure if he was looking at himself or rather at the way you were sucking him off with your hands cuffed to your back.

"You're taking my cock so we'll, y/n. It really suits you, you know? This look... My cock inside your pretty little mouth~"

You moaned against his cock and it only made the demon hungrier. So hungry, in fact, that he pulled out of your mouth with a pop, causing saliva to drop down your chin onto your chest.

"Stand up, sweetheart. You're going for a ride!"

You did as instructed and soon enough you found yourself bent over the dressing table, inches away from the mirror, with your legs spread wide while lust himself was easing his way into your core.

"Ah, Asmo~ You're fucking huge!", it was all you were able to say as the Avatar of Lust giggled.

With every thrust your boobs bounced as you weren't making contact with the dressing table. The demon was holding your cuffed hands so you hanged over the table bent forward as your eyes rolled back into your head.

"Harder, please", you begged with a whine.

"Your wish is my command, sugar~", his pace became rougher than before.

Nothing ever felt as good as Asmodeus was making you feel right in that second. Nothing could ever come close to rivaling that level of pleasure, it was undescribable. In no time you found yourself cumming all over his cock as you were screaming his name so loud you could swear it was audible even from the other realms.

He pulled out from you and you dropped to the floor, your knees landing on the pillow. While kneeling, you lifted your head to face Asmodeus as he rubbed his member inches away from your face. You stuck your tongue out and awaited your meal.

"Come on, Asmo. Give it to me~", you purred previously to having his load all over your face.

"Hold that pose for me, baby. I need to get the camera!", he smirked at you.

You couldn't move even if you wanted to. Your legs were jelly and your hands were cuffed.