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alienqueeenrando · 2 years

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Class Trip Gone...Right?

I do not own Miraculous or Marvel. All rights go to the owners.

Lila salt, bustier salt, Lila exposed, kinda class sugar, avengers

No one POV

Lila’s lies have officially infiltrated the class. Marinette had been kicked out of her position as a class rep and replaced by Lila. The only ones who stuck by Mari were; Alya, Nino, Juleka, Rose, and Adrien. Kagami and Luka were also on Mari's side but were out of the country for the summer(Kagami at japan for a family event and Luka was traveling with Jagged as his apprentice). The others never bullied Marinette per se but just ignored them and sometimes made comments about her and her friends.

Mari POV

I missed my friends but without my class rep duties, I had more time to design. Our summer trip was coming up and I wasn't sure what we were doing, especially since Lila spent months lying to the class about knowing the avengers. A couple of months ago, I heard about a writing competition that Stark industries were holding. The winner got an all-expense paid trip for their whole class to New York. Of course, this was all before I was fired as the class representative. “ Now as you all know, next week is our summer field trip and we will be going to New York” Miss Bustier interrupted my thoughts. Miss Bustier used to be my favorite teacher until I finally understood the difference between nice and good. “ one person in our class won a competition hosted by Tony Stark himself, we will be given an all-expense paid trip to new york as well and a tour of Stark industries and the Avengers tower”. My jaw dropped. “I won” I whispered too low for anyone to hear.

Lila POV

The Avengers huh? “I did it, I won” I stated and the sheep all praised me. “ yes I wanted us all to meet uncle Tony and the other Avengers, So i called them and got them to give us this trip,” I said in my most innocent voice . They all fell for it. I saw maribrat and her loser friends roll their eyes and the class glared at them for hurting poor, innocent; Lila. “ well thank you, Lila, I think this will be a most amazing vacation” Bustier praised. Getting Bustier as my teacher was a stroke of luck. She never stopped me from telling my tales and even punished anyone who tried to expose me. It was perfect. As long as buster and Damocles don’t do their jobs and keep my little “lying disease” a secret, I’m golden. All year since I became a class rep, all our fundraisers fell flat and we never met our goal, so this was a lucky break. I just had so many charities and fancy events to go to that the class tried to take over for me but they were terrible, Honestly I thought being class rep meant I was finally queen but it’s much harder than I thought. But no problem, next year when elections are due again, I’ll just break out the crocodile tears and convince someone else to take my place.

Bustier POV This trip will be so much fun. To be honest, since Lila became a class rep, I was afraid that her disabilities and illnesses would hinder her but the class come together to help her, well all except Marinette and her friends. Ever since Lila came into the class, Marinette has been a terrible example for the class. I am so disappointed in her. I do hope that this trip will give everyone a chance to reconcile, maybe a change of scenery will help end all this drama. While to rest of the class was talking about the trip and getting excited at the chance to meet the Avengers, I was daydreaming about being swept off my feet by Thor or Steve Rogers.

No one POV

The bell rang and everyone left for the weekend. “Remember class, we leave for new york early Monday morning,” Bustier told the class. As the students left Marinetts friends couldn’t help but worry that Lila would ruin the trip for them but decided to not let Rossi's lies disrupt their vacation. “The Avengers surely won’t let Lila get away with her lies would they, I mean they won’t be fooled right?” asked Rose worried “of course not” reassured Alya “let's just ignore her and do our best to enjoy ourselves” “definitely dudette” agreed Nino. As the students packed and planned, Lila schemed. She hoped that the Avengers would be nice enough to just let her lie but she knew better. She would be careful and lie only out of earshot and only tell tales of other celebrities. If she played her cards right she might even be able to charm her way into a job at Stark Industries.

Marinette POV

Monday came and the class was getting ready to hop on a plane to new york. Lila wasted no time spinning her stories, how she helped the Avengers and that Thor himself begged her to go to Asgard with him and he and Tony considered Lila to be family. The sheep fawned over her. I and my friends did my best to ignore her but her screeching voice gave me a headache.” So are you not mad that Lila took credit for your submission dudette?” asked Nino “not really, I just want to relax and enjoy our vacation” I replied. “ at least after next week, we can get away from the drama” juleka whispered trying to see the best of our situation. As we were boarding, Lila just had to start with the poor flight attendant. “I need a first-class seat, my tinnitus is so bad from saving Jaggeds cat that any other seat will make my ear hurt so bad” Lila whined. The flight attendant didn’t believe her and tried to explain the plane was fully booked. Lila cried her crocodile tears. In the end, we almost missed our flight and Bustier promised to file a complaint and let Lila take her seat that was closer to the front of the plane. The flight was long but after hours of Lila’s lies, we made it to New York City.

Lila’s POV

We were met with two interns for Stark industries, whose names I didn't care to remember(Ned and MJ). We were escorted to two shuttles that were to be our rides for the remainder of our trip. I tried to woo the interns by promising to talk to “uncle Tony” about giving them permanent jobs but they just smiled and ignored me. Rude, do they not know who I am? We eventually made it to the Stark tower and were told the rules of our trip.

Marinette POV

We were told that we had a few rules, we had to follow, such as; Staying in a group, listening to the interns, and don’t go anywhere without permission. We were given level 2 passes, the same as the interns, giving us access to basic areas of the facility. We walked around for a bit and were greeted by the other Avengers. Miss Bustier tried, key word tried, to flirt with Steve Rogers(who looked quite uncomfortable) instead of paying attention to her students. Ladybug luck hasn’t been much help lately with Lila but I hoped that would change soon. “Do you think anything out of lier-la’s mouth is even half true, ever,” joked Adrien, we all laughed. “So do you think Tony Stark could talk to us about our idea for energy efficiency: asked Iven. I didn’t know if Stark heard but if he did, He didn’t let it show. “ of course, I told you I'd talk to him for you” replied Lila in a surprisingly quiet tone. Lila kept on her tales for a while, completely ignoring Ned and MJ who were trying to show us around Stark tower. MJ eventually called her out and told her to pay attention. Lila cried her fake tears and Kim and Alix yelled at her to stop being rude. Bustier(ever the attentive teacher) stepped in and told Ned and MJ to be nice and that being rude is not the way to get someone to listen. Ned rolled his eyes and just kept going with the tour. Everyone in the tower tried to ignore Lila but the final nail in the coffin was when Lila said something along the lines of "Tony and the other Avengers loves me and even asked to join but had to turn them down because of my disabilities". Finally, Pepper Potts overheard and stormed right over. "enough of the lies, I don't want to get lawyers involved since you are just a child but one more word about the Avengers and I will not hesitate to sue you" Pepper demanded. I couldn't believe my ears. This is so great.

No one POV

Lila tried to cry, hoping to gain sympathy and maybe get the Avengers to play nice to spare her feelings but to no avail. They all glared at her. Kim tried to defend the liar and intimidate Pepper into taking back what she said but she refused to back down and even threatened to send him right back to Paris. He backed down right away. Bustier came and tried to calm the situation down but also shut up when faced with a complaint being filed about her "lack of control of her students" to the french school board. In the end, Lila was sent back to Paris and there was an investigation began about bustier and Damocles covering up Lila's stories. The rest of the trip was a success and the class apologized to Marinette and the others and they forgave them.

#bustier salt #lila salt #the avengers #class salt

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aflproduction · 4 years

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Marinette: jagged stone has a crocodile

Alya:your just jealous where’s your proof he never had a cat huh?

Marinette calls jagged

Marinette:hey jagged have you ever had a cat

Jagged:nope Iv had fang for the past 20 years

Hangs up

Alya:you paid him to say that

Mari:fuck this crap I give up you win lila I’m done

#class salt #lila exposed #lila salt

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ultrakart · 3 years

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crocs

I forget the name of this episode but I know it’s a crocodile pun. Anyway live reactions go.

-Alya doesn’t have her purse for carrying Trixx. Is this episode before Optigami?

-Portuguese dub Gabriel my beloved

-”How weird”, Shadow Moth says when Luka calms down. Yes, it is very strange that people don’t get mad at something and stay that way perpetually. Right. :p

-Wait nobody told these kids that Jagged is the dad of Luka and Juleka

-”What could be worse than not being loved by your own father?” A swing and a miss, Gabriel

-That animation of Shadow Moth affectionally rubbing his cane to his face is SO funny to me

-OH NO THE AUDIO CUT OUT. The site I’m using seems to be glitched...

-Brb gotta restart my computer idk if this will help...

-K that fixed it

-Oh ok, more reused assets. :/

-Shadow Moth getting bored of his own creations XD

-The miraculous of influence huh?

-Ooooh. Loving the asymmetry on Purple Tigress

-Also that’s a new one! If an akuma enters an object that simultaneously breaks, then the object has to be repaired before the akuma can be freed

-Purple Tigress has the power to... punch things really hard?

-Or....... does she have the power to influence things SO hard that she can punch things super hard

-Then again the power is called “collision”. So like, what else can it be used for

-I’m confused! :D

Ok so how is Shadow Moth not scared out of his pants that one of the miraculous grants the ability of a FALCON PUNCH. Can probably uproot the entire mansion with one good hit ya kno.

Overall another cute episode! And nice to see Jagged making a real effort to hang out with his kids, even if Anarka didn’t trust him.

#ml #miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #ml s4 spoilers #ml season 4 #crocoduel

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theofficialadyblog · 3 years

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🎶WHEN YOU WISH ON WISHMAKER🎶

A career's expo was held today for students who weren't sure about what they wanted to be when they grew up. I didn't go 'cause I was/am pretty sure about what I want to be when I grew up: a journalist. At the expo, there weren't just students, there was also the team of the "You've got to be kidding me" show. You know, the show that literally made fun of people's jobs and passions. Yeah, they were there. After getting roasted(?) by Andre Glacier and Luka Couffaine (an aspiring stringed instrument maker), the host Alec turned to Jean Whatever His Last Name Is (a wig maker) to again, make fun of his job, saying that wigs were just "disguises". After being educated on how revealing wigs actually are, Alec had a mental breakdown about how he's wasted his life on making fun of other people's dreams when he should've fulfilled his own. He then got akumatized into Wishmaker, a villain who could make people live their childhood dream, as well as good taste in fashion cause look at him, he's gorgeous.

At first, the "villain" wasn't really doing anything bad 'cause you know, he's fulfilling people's childhood dreams which reminded me of how the butterfly miraculous is actually supposed to be used for good. Makes you think huh? But as they say, 'Be careful what you wish for' cause very quickly chaos ensued. This one person turned into a killer robot and started to shoot everyone with lasers (some messed up childhood dream aye buddy?), Jagged stone literally turned into a crocodile adkfakldsklfaf and this one lady turned into a rainbow puking cloud (I wish I was making this up lol). Ladybug, Chat Noir and Viperion quickly turned up on the scene to defeat Wishmaker. On the way to get a few pics of the fight, I got shot by Wishmaker and turned into my childhood dream...FRICKING MAJESTIA HELL YEAH. HANDS DOWN BEST VILLAIN EVER IDC.

I know this is unethical buuuut...I decided to you know fulfil my childhood dream

I pretty much became the ultimate girlfriend :D

I picked Nino up (literally, like I carried him with my bare hands), and flew across Paris and pretty much had the coolest date ever

[don't worry, he knew I was actually Alya]

YOUR GIRLFRIEND COULD NEVER >:D

and then as we were gonna kiss on the Eifel Tower, the Miraculous Ladybugs turned me back :(

ily ladybug but I just wanna kiss my boyfriend on the Eifel Tower as Majestia. Is that too much to ask :(

JKJKJK...unless

Anyways, Ladybug and Chat Noir were actually never hit, which is probably really unlikely. So my theory is that what if they were actually hit and Viperion just used Second Chance to turn time back?

And what if Viperion actually found out their secret identities?

Who knows?

But knowing the type of guy Viperion is, we probably will never find out so we can only keep guessing.

In other news, Alec has actually started a whole new show called 'Live Your Childhood Dream' where he helps people live their childhood dream, no matter how bizarre they are.

So um, catch me on that show where I turn into Majestia again✌

🐱‍👤🐞✨Stay Connected✨🐞🐱‍👤

#wishmaker #akuma report #akumatization report #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #majestia #ladybug #chat noir #cat noir #viperion #another life with parisian superheroes

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kisilinramblings · 3 years

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Vérité / Truth translation

Marinette’s phone conversation with Luka

------

Marinette : What a surprise, Luka. Hi!

Luka : Hi. Thanks for the pictures.

Marinette : What do you mean “thanks”?

Luka : For the picutres of your room and... and of Adrien.

Marinette : My room! Yes! Huh... I... There are pictures of Adrien because... Haha! I’ve selected a series of picture of fashion for my blog and I need your advice because I know you have good taste, Adrien.

Luka : My name is Luka.

Marinette : Yes, yes, yes, of course, Adrien-- er, I mean Luka! You are Luka, obviously! Because you are you a-and I am, well, me! Marinette. *laughs* I am sorry, it’s just that... I’ve wronged you-- er, I mean, I got it wrong.

Luka : No problem, Marinette. Everything is fine. On another note, are you ready?

Marinette : ...Ready for what?

Luka : We have a date.

Sabine (climbing the stairs) : Marinette, Luka is waiting for you!

Marinette : OK! Great, I’m coming down right now!

(She hurries to hide the Kwamis and the box)

Marinette : And please be quiet. Hide Tikki.

(Marinette opens her trap door)

Sabine : Wasn’t your date with Luka yesterday?

Marinette : Oh no! I completely forgot about yesterday!

Luka : That’s why we have post-poned it to today. It’s the last session. We cannot miss it.

Marinette : Ah yes, of course! It would be so disappointing if we missed this... This thing we are going to see together during the session.

Tom : I can’t believe they have released it again. It was so dumb 15 years ago and I’m sure it didn’t get better!

Sabine : Dear, it was his first film. Think about your first baguette. It was far from being a masterpiece.

Luka : Yes, the movie is a bit stupid, but Marinette and I are so fan of him that we have swear to watch it together.

Marinette : I got it! We’re going to see Coeur de Crocodile (Crocodile Heart), the first movie of Jagged Stone!

Luka : Why? Did you forget?

Marinette : Of course not! And it’s not like I had other emergencies to deal with. So, come on, let’s go!

#miraculous ladybug #ml season 4 #ml s4 spoilers #ml spoilers #vérité #truth #ml s4ep1 #please no salt if you are replying to this #I'm only translating not judging ^^;

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trashogram · 4 years

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Smut I’ll probably never finish; we’ll call it practice: Killer Croc/Reader

Edit: Warnings for painful sex, slight gore/blood, and violence

I didn’t expect people outside of those who humor me on this blog to actually read this, but I appreciate everyone who did! I’m putting up a few warnings by request if anyone else is interested.

“You really meant it, huh?” He asked.

The guttural voice gave you shivers, up and down your spine. Your legs tightened around his waist, bare skin rubbing over the scaly texture assuredly.

“Yes.” You confirmed, knowing that you had to choose your words carefully, otherwise you’d offend him. At least, that was how you thought you would react if you were a killer crocodile man getting a taste of intimacy after God knows how long.

Your slight movements actually managed to push him forward slightly, more out of surprise than your own strength. Again, you weren’t some super-strong mutant, able to lift cars and topple buildings.

He grunted, leaning down until his upper body was atop yours and his enormous hands were on either of you. He stared down at you with yellow eyes that mezmerised; they were unnatural looking and yet still so human - full of little flickers of emotions. The lust was obvious and it made the heat between your thighs that much more intense, but Croc was also questioning. His hesitance shouldn’t have surprised you, but you found yourself melting just a little at the fact that he was waiting for you to change your mind.

Your hand rose, reaching out toward his chest and sliding up from his pectorals all the way to his jaw. He was scaly from head to toe, but there were parts of him that were softer than others. His neck was strangely fragile, like the underbelly of a reptile rather than their hide.

“Can I kiss you?” You whispered, swallowing at the way his brow arched.

“Kiss?” He said, tone slightly incredulous. “You wanna… kiss me…?”

“Oh, do you not want… do you not like them?” The statement didn’t take into account that Croc had possibly never been kissed in his entire life, and you’d put it like that on purpose. He didn’t exude any kind of touchy-feely behavior to suggest he’d been given the chance to decide if he liked physical touch like that at all.

His mouth closed, teeth hidden behind a set jaw. “If it’s what you want, lady. Go for it.”

You smiled softly, and raised yourself up just enough to be within kissing distance. Your lips puckered and you pressed them against his straight as a line mouth, noting that this area was hard but not rough. There was give to it, reminding you more of human flesh as his lips parted slightly.

You moaned, accepting the quick draw and release of his breath into you. You could feel his coarse chest against yours, and the heart inside beating quickly as he let himself relax. He groaned into your mouth finally, humming as if he were tasting something particularly delicious while you coaxed his tongue into your mouth.

You pressed your forehead against his before breaking away for air, letting him know without explicitly saying it that you just needed to breathe and weren’t trying to escape. Not that you could from underneath him.

Croc panted with you. “You sure you ain’t never killed a man before? Probably could, if you kissed ‘em like that.”

You closed your eyes and laughed, feeling lightheaded. Your fingers stroked over his cheek and along his jawline as you felt his grip around you tighten up. He squeezed you, carefully but with purpose, holding you firmly.

+++

Leaning down, you kissed the criminal again while balancing yourself with your hands pressed down over his ribcage. Pushing the hair away from your face before rising again, you reached back and easily found his cock and aligned yourself with it.

You inhaled slowly, determination strengthening your resolve as you continued to sink down onto him. The head was fully inside, but you were still far and away from taking all of his length.

He growled, claws tensed around your waist. It was enough to make you brace yourself with a hand on his forearm.

You grunted. “Tell me how it feels, big guy. Please. I wanna know.”

The sweet request took a while to get through to his brain, but Killer Croc eventually came back to reality. His eyes were glazed over, but you could still see your reflection. You were the only thing in his world.

“‘S like heaven.” He murmured.

The praise made you blush. Your stomach unclenched as a new sense of confidence flooded your senses, and you went back to working your way down so that he could have more. It was very much work, even as the crocodilian man helped by taking some of your weight. He held you up when you needed to pause, though it became evident that he’d started shaking.

You dragged one hand from his abdomen to your center, circling your clit. It sent a jolt of electricity through your body, reminding you to let yourself feel this experience.

Your walls clenched around Croc, and you whimpered. It was completely drowned out as the beast under you snarled at the sudden vice. You jerked back as his hips moved upward in a shallow thrust and suddenly you were there. Your ass was seated firmly on his hips.

He was in bliss, head tossed back against the cell floor. “Ahh, that’s … uuugh, real good.”

You giggled affirmatively, allowing yourself a moment to bask in the triumph of taking all of him. You felt beyond full, stretched to a limit many women couldn’t likely accommodate lest they risk injuring themselves.

You were nice and durable, though. Even as you pressed back down on his chest for leverage and began to lift yourself halfway up again. You looked down between your legs and saw how shiny the base of his cock was already, then lowered back down. Again, and then again.

The wetness was a blessing. You were sliding up and down within a minute, unending fullness that kept you walking the line between pleasure and pain.

You cried out as Killer Croc made another attempt at thrusting. It was still slight, but there was no way for it to go unnoticed. He continued to growl, letting one claw grip onto your thigh while the other left you entirely to dig into the floor.

It was so easy to get overwhelmed, and yet the noises you made seemed to egg him on. He got into a disjointed rhythm, really trying to fuck you in earnest.

He was too big. The thrusts felt like being shivved in the pelvis while he hit the farthest he could go inside of you. Yet, you couldn’t do more than squeal and shriek as you bounced violently.

The nails on your thigh dug in and pierced your flesh. You covered your mouth to muffle a scream at the pain, but Croc took advantage. He pulled you forward, squeezing you to him and thrusting faster.

The danger of this getting out of hand had been reached and you felt dizzy and helpless. You couldn’t focus on any one thing whether it be the blood sliding down your leg or the stab of him against your cervix. You sobbed, eternally grateful for your bodily resilience as you were split apart.

This wasn’t going to kill you, even if it felt exactly like that.

“Fuck! I’m, ugh!” His words were punctuated with fast, shallow thrusts. Howling out, he completely immobilized you and buried himself to the hilt before you realized that he’d cum.

Heat filled you, stinging as it joined the static sensation of hurt and tingling inside. You could barely feel the rest of your body, only noting that the base of your spine felt like it was being shocked.

Croc’s relief sounded like a combination of deep growl and a nasal grunting. His hold on you went lax as soon as he had emptied everything inside you.

—-

The sound was distant, faraway thunder that still shook the ground beneath. It was simultaneously comforting and bizarre feeling the earth beneath you giving and taking. Not to mention the strange texture - inconsistently smooth until your arms lowered over its slope and you touched a much harder surface underneath.

Were you lying in some kind of plateau? Or a strange rock that was smooth at its peak and jagged at the base?

Eyelids fluttering, you squinted. There was harsh, ugly light above you, casting a glare against the thick glass before your eyes. It was a wall of glass, thicker than the thickest plaster wall you could find in an apartment in the Narrows.

You connected the dots then, and your head rose with a bit of effort so that you could confirm that you were still laying on Killer Croc.

Yes, he was still there and still breathing. And so were you.

Thank god.

Your lower half felt numb, except for the thick object still lodged inside of you. You grimaced a bit trying to pick yourself up with the added weight of his arms still embracing you, but his softening cock eventually slipped out of you.

The cum was thick and white, no different from a completely human man’s. The feel of it dripping out of your core was just as satisfying while you struggled to catch your breath.

You were quivering when you felt Croc’s arms drag over your back, pleasantly scraping over your soft skin as he kept your body atop his own securely. He clearly didn’t give a shit about being covered in your combined fluids.

#killer croc #waylon jones #killer croc x reader #for funsies i guess #btas

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shewhorises-tjyj · 4 years

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Felinette day 2 call out

Felix’s POV

His mother had forced him to go live with his cousin, ugh, so here he was, the entrance of his cousin’s house. Uncle was standing at the top of the stairs……again, seriously why does he always stand there. it’s like he just has a statue of himself at the top of the stairs that can talk.

“Felix, I trust you had a great flight I’m sure you would like to sleep of the jetlag but before that we have to set some ground rules.”

“first of all, I have enrolled you to Adrien’s school and I have made special arrangements for you to be in his class.”

Ugh, of course how could he ever forget, no running we have a reputation to uphold, photoshoots, fencing, Chinese- wait what?

“other than that, the other rules are the same: no running around we have a reputation to uphold……………”

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???! I have to go to his school and his class and look at his face? AND I’m miles ahead of all of them in everything!”

Obviously, he would never shout out loud like that so he stuck to his thoughts instead.

Tuning back into reality, Gabriel was done repeating the rules he had remembered by heart and dismissed him.

-The next day-

Adrien was already ready and pointing at the door, “hey Fe, ready to go?” with a noise of confirmation they left the house.

-------------------------cue long drive to school with a hyperactive cousin-----------------------------

“Good morning students” shouted (well not really shouted but he was standing next to her okay?) The teacher with red hair to which Felix winced at. “Today we have a new student joining us! And I’m sure you’ve all heard by now Lila’s home from her trip to Achu and she is back in school with us again.” he noticed something or rather someone who wasn’t here before, an Italian looking girl with chestnut hair that was tied up into what looked like three sausages and huge bangs at the front, with an olive skin tone and emerald green eyes that looked at him then at Adrien and had a look of confusion on her face. BUT! She then proceeded to IGNORE HIM. HIM! HE WAS A FREAKING INTERNATIONAL MODEL AND ACTOR AND THAT CAGNA IGNORED HIM! But whatever from the way she looked at his cousin she was probably a gold digging harpy. And his suspicions were correct when she greeted everyone.

“hi everyone,” she said in a fake sounding voice.

“Hi Lila!” the class sounded back. Lila? That’s her name?

“Oh~ a seat in the front row! You all remembered my hearing issues! You’re such sweethearts all of you~” “Mwuah!”

He inwardly cringed

“You have a hearing problem, Lila?”

‘hmm?’

“yes, I suffer from tinnitus. A constant ringing in my left ear. I’ve had it ever since the sound of an airplane engine burst my ear drums on the runway when I was saving Jagged Stone’s lost kitten.”

He had to admit her voice sounded genuine like it actually happened and he might have never found out she was lying if one, he was not an actor and could see the difference between genuine and fake faces and two, if her lies weren’t a load of bull. LIKE, COME ON! Which airline would let an UNDERAGE GIRL WHO’S UNAUTHORISED, ON THE RUNWAY? That airline would have closed down long ago if they couldn’t keep people from running on to the runway for reasons unknown.

The worst part is, yes there’s a worse part, his classmates seemed to believe the story she just pulled out of her ass. Well at least there was one student who doubted her.

“isn’t Jagged Stone’s pet a crocodile?”

“Now it is, yes. He had a kitten until he found out he was allergic to it.”

Deciding that everyone here was way too dumb and he didn’t want to lose any brain cells so he decided stop whatever quarrel was definitely going to go on.

Faking a cough, everyone seemed like they just remembered he was there. Even the teacher. If he were living in a comic or a cartoon there probably would’ve been one of those red crosses on his head.

“Right. Class, this is our new classmate, Felix Graham De Vanily.”

Hi’s, welcomes and clapping were heard around the room.

‘Could I just not have come?’

“Now Felix you and Marinette can sit in the back together. Also, as class president, Marinette can you show Felix around the school?”

“sigh, yes miss Bustier.”

When both of them sat down she started to introduce herself, “Hi, I’m Marinette. We can start the tour at lunch today and if you have any questions about the curriculum just ask me or anyone in the class.”

She said with a sad and tired smile.

…It looked… sincere…

Going with a simple nod they both turned their attention to the front.

After the tour he stayed back at the locker room near one of the corners. It was easy to blend into the shadows now that the people in Paris didn’t know him. despite being an international model (and sometimes actor) his face wasn’t well known as Adrien in France.

To that, he was thankful for.

Sticking to the shadows to read his book not five minutes in the girl- Marinette was it? Came back, and into the bathroom next to the locker room along with the sausage haired girl right on her heel.

“Marinette? Are you crying?”

“No, I’m not.”

“I can sense that you don’t like me but I don’t understand why, we barely know each other.

Don’t tell me it’s because of this new seating arrangement in class. It is! Of course, you were jealous because I’m sitting next to Adrien because you would have given anything to sit there yourself. You know what? It’s really not worth fighting a for a boy, you and I could be friends and who knows? I might even be able to help you with Adrien.”

Oh? Crush on my cousin? But it seemed like she was just cast into the back without her input despite all the others getting to sit at the place they wanted to.

“ugh. You and I will only be friends the day you stopped lying, Lila.”

So she knows she’s lying?

“I can’t prove it but I know for a fact you don’t have tinnitus, that your wrist is just fine, but you don’t know prince Ali cause’ you’ve never even set foot in Achu, and despite what you got Alya to write on her Ladyblog Ladybug has never saved your life.”

The first one definitely correct and so is the second one possibly, the third one might be a bt of a stretch and the fourth one, who the heck is Ladybug?

“I only tell people what they want to hear.”

“it’s called lying!”

“There’s nothing you can do about it anyway. People can’t resist when they hear what they like to hear. If you don’t want to be my friend, fine. But soon you won’t have any friends left at all and trust me, I’ll make sure you never get close to Adrien in class or anywhere. You’ve been a little less dumb than the others so I’ll give you one last chance: you are either with me or against me. You don’t have to answear right away I’ll give you the end of class today.”

Ok, first of all, were people supposed to hear that cause’ they were loud and secondly, what the heck school was he enrolled in??

The sausage haired girl walked smugly out of the bathroom.

“Hey Lila.”

“Adrien! We’ll have to figure out when you’re gonna help me catch up on all the schoolwork I missed. I also heard you play piano, my uncle’s a great pianist ‘Stroke Burrow Check’ she wanted to teach me when I was little but I had to stop playing because of arthritis. But when my wrist gets better, I’d love for you to give me some lessons.”

Didn’t sausage hair say uncle? why’d it change to ‘she’?

“Lila, I’m perfectly fine being friends with you and I’ll gladly help you catch up on your schoolwork but…please don’t lie to me like you did last time with Ladybug.”

Ah, his cousin knew she was lying. Wonder why he won’t step up for his classmate… unless it he never changed…

“Ladybugs the liar!”

“I’m not judging you, Lila but instead of making friends, you’re gonna turn everyone against you. You can tell me if there’s something bothering you. I can help. But you need to bee honest with me.”

“Are you trying to be some superhero lecturing me just like Ladybug did. Well, thanks but no thanks. Ugh.”

And with that the door slammed shut.

“I’m still here if you need catching up with your schoolwork.”

…is that a black glowing butterfly?...

…and did someone run out of the bathroom wearing a ladybug onesie?

“Hey!”

Snapping his head to the front he saw sausage girl pushing Adrien back a little.

“Adrien, I wanted to apologize for what just happened I’ve thought about it and you’re right I want us to be friends so I’ll never tell another lie again will you make peace with me?”

Then, she kissed Adrien on the cheek and… morphed into him?! what hellish nightmare place did his mother send him to?!

*insert falling to the floor sound* “Whoops! I lied.” *SLAM* huh. Sucks to be him it must be uncomfortable in there

“If this is an enchanted sleep what could possibly wake him up? Oh no, not an enchanted kiss. Please. Mmm nobody will ever know.”

Raspy low voice…can’t be a student

“Plagg? What happened? And what are you doing?”

“o-oh me? Nothing! I-I uh- Your friend Lila put you to sleep with an evil kiss. You should be more careful picking your friends!”

…it’s coming from the locker Adrien was in… should I go see what’s happening?... Nah not my problem

“Lila must have been re-akumatized! Quick! Plagg! Claws out!”

…The locker just glowed green...and someone in a cat costume just ran out… what the hell does Adrien do in his spare time? I have so many questions… you know what? I’ve seen weirder.

“Of course Ladybug saved my life. She never misses an opportunity to rescue her best friend.”

“Did your tinnitus give you vertigo when you went up the Eiffel Tower?”

“Oh no! Ladybug knows me so well that she brought me an ear plug to stick in my right ear!”

Again with someone named Ladybug…

“Grr.”

Hmm?

“Right ear? did she say right ear? This morning she said the ringing was in her left ear!

She’s not wrong… sausage hair did say the tinnitus was in her left ear this morning…

I’ve got her this time.”

Nice, things are finally getting interesting (oh Felix, if only you knew)

“Are you going to tell everyone?”

“Of course I am. Lila is-

“-A liar. Yes, I know. But do you really think exposing her will make things better?”

Did he just ruin the most interesting part of his day? Bitch. Try again.

“And who’s to say not exposing her will make things better?”

“But if you humiliate her, she’ll just be hurt more making a bad guy suffer has never turned them into a good guy-

“And has letting a so called bad guy do whatever they wanted ever make them a good guy?”

(“Ladybug and I are like two peas in a pod.”)

“Take for example, Bourgeois. Heard she’s the resident school bully. Has she ever changed?”

“She’s better-

“Wasn’t talking to you, Adrien. Has she treated anyone in your class out of the supposed kindness in her heart?”

“Well no but-

“There is no but. It just proves that even if you let the ‘bad guy’ do whatever they want they won’t become a ‘good guy’ also if you keep letting Bourgeois do whatever she wants your going to lose all your friends. I may not have friends but even I know that much. Think about it, how many times has Adrien stood up for you or any of your classmates when Bourgeois were bullying you and your classmates vs the times Adrien has stood up for Bourgeois for bullying you.”

“I-he uh, he stood up for the whole school when Chloe pulled the fire alarm and- uh”

“That’s just one time. Face it, Adrien stands up for bullies far more times than when he stood up for his friends.”

“That’s not true! I apologised-

“You apologised but did you stand up or defend your friends?”

Okay, so half of it might be about my grudge on him but it was true! Surprisingly, Adrien didn’t approach him for the rest of the day.

-The next day-

His seatmate, Marinette, sat down next to him, “Thank you. I never noticed I had always put Adrien up on a pedestal like he could not do any wrong. I never noticed that Adrien had some very questionable flaws.”

“Mm.”

And then she smiled at him.

His heart skipped a beat, the smile was sweet and sincere… and he found that she was rather likable.

@felinettenovember

#Felinette #Felinette November #Day 2: Call Out #There's Adrien salt #If you dislike Adrien salt you probably shoudn't read #hahahah. It's 10 pm right now #I should sleep #I can't fall asleep in class again #felinettenovember #felinette month 2020 #adrien salt

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starkeristheendgame · 5 years

Note

Soulmate AU where Peter's soul words are like, "How you doin'" and Tony's words are "Not interested". Peter's in a bar and Tony walks up to him and says "How you doin'" and Peter throws back his shot of whiskey and just says, "Not interested," and then it just clicks at the same time for both of them. Peter looks at Tony and Tony looks at him and Peter says, "Well, maybe I am interested."

I received a second ask which is I think the beginning of this one, so I’m going to answer the two as this post and pray I’m not shorting someone!

Set around the A1 era but Peter is a spritely young lad seasoned with his powers and sick of soulmates and Tony is a thirty-something superhero equally unimpressed by the whole shtick. I hope I did this justice!

TW: Daddy kink | Grinding | Dynamic imbalance | Undernegotiated but consensual kink

Tony Stark was a man who had everything. Who had always had everything. A luxurious home, more money than he knew what to do with, expensive cars, expensive girls. A family name worth the Earth. All he had to do was speak his name or snap his fingers and people would bend over backwards to please him.

Which made his soul-mark all the more utterly infuriating

Not interested.

It was written in an inelegant scrawl, the r lopsided and the N curled on the tips. It lay like a brand on the inside of his bicep, taunting him every time he looked at it. And he looked at it often, especially as he grew up and got better looking; especially when people begun to play at being his soulmate in the desperate hope he would fall for them.

He had all that, and presumably, his soulmate had not even a spark of interest in him. It had gnawed at him like a starving wolf throughout his teens, wary of anyone who opened their mouth in his direction. And when he became an attractive, wealthy older man, and when he became an attractive superhero to boot. Iron Man. Someone wasn’t even remotely interested in Iron Man.

Steve had given him an amused and sort of smug look when Tony had revealed the white mark on a drunken team bonding night. No doubt the man knew how such a line would mess with Tony. Tony only wished he could give the man the same shit, but Steve’s soul-mark was a dark black, the colour it turned to when you met your soulmate. One James “Bucky” Barnes, who was so sickeningly in love with Steve that it often warranted fake gagging until they toned down the puppy eyes and kissing.

Being Iron Man didn’t exactly help the whole soulmate thing, either. Not that the soulmate issue wasn’t a smooth sea to begin with. They were a bit of a shit-luck-dip, really. You could be born in the entire wrong lifetime. You could be ninety by the time your soulmate is born. You could meet your soulmate in just enough time to watch them wither away.

Soul-marks were a pale, lifted white until you met your soulmate and spoke their words. Then, it would burn and slowly darken to black to signify you’d met The One.

At cresting thirty-two, Tony knew his soulmate was alive. Somewhere. The other delightful thing about soulmates is the Universe didn’t exactly plop you down in the same house. The majority of people died having never met their soulmate. Tony knew his soulmate was alive because he had a mark. Those too late got the job of watching their soul-mark fade from their skin.

And there Tony’s sat, pink-white and mocking him with every passing day.

Not interested.

It’s what he wished he could say, when his phone rang with Director Fury’s number and the sky begun to rain aliens. Looking up at the giant alien-crocodile-snake thing, all he wanted to do was throw in the armour and become a sheep herder or something.

Half of New York has been unceremoniously remodelled by the time Loki is a wheezing half-corpse two foot down in his kitchenette floor, and Schwarma turns out to be vaguely disappointing.

All in all, he needs a whiskey. And a strong one. In an unfortunate trend that seems to be set on denying him all his wants - The Tower is officially on lockdown while SHIELD begins the frantic clean-up attempt. This apparently extends to even him, the man who’s name is literally emblazoned across the building.

Or, was.

Looking up at it now, all that remains is a slightly jagged A.

Huh. He has to remodel now anyway; maybe a logo change might not be so bad. But that can wait, because between the aliens and Steve fucking Rogers and the aliens, a strong whiskey was the only solution. So Tony tucked his hands into the pockets of his slacks and turned on his heel, picking way along the rubble-littered streets. Still deserted, now that SHIELD had taken over.

Some four blocks down, a SHIELD agent comes striding past, clutching a tiny Yorkie to his chest. The Agent side-eyed him as they passed each other, as though unsure if he should be letting an Avenger just stroll away, but Tony waved a hand at him. “Double the animal rescue efforts and put my name on the bill. If you happen to find a particularly vicious dog - Or even a cat, really, do be sure to stuff it in Captain America’s mailbox” he hummed, whistling cheerfully as he continued on.

The first bar he came across was a total dud, half-caved in and void of any signs of life. Unperturbed, Tony continued onwards and soon found a second, only slightly scathed. Entering the building it became clear he was not the only one who had settled on the notion of a stiff drink.

Sat at the bar, was a smaller male, with a mess of dark curls and a flannel overshirt that had been torn open, bloodied at one side. Skinny jeans once black were now a brown-grey with dust. The guy didn’t turn around the check him out, just knocked back a shot and poured another from the bottle at his side. Next to that was an empty tumbler, with what looked to be a $20 inside.

Tony gave a soft huff, but he supposed that for once, he didn’t exactly have a choice in going somewhere else. So he smoothed down his hair and sauntered up to the bar, leaning one elbow against the murky wood. A glimpse of the guys face nearly had him sliding straight off it in surprise.

A little battered or not, Bar Guy was attractive. He had a little button nose and a sharp jaw contradicted by slightly round cheeks. From the side his lashes seemed endless. A little disarmed but not deterred, Tony flashed a wry grin and in best Joey Tribbiani accent, greeted him with “Hey. How you doin’?”

And he honestly wasn’t flirting. At least, not with any real intent. Pepper often said that Tony would flirt with a potted plant if he thought it would gain him anything; and he supposed she wasn’t wrong. Bar Guy stiffened a little, shoulders hunching, and he poured a generous slug of whiskey into his glass before he knocked it back with a grimace, not even looking at Tony.

“Not interested” the boy replied blandly, though not cruelly, turning away from Tony to slide off his stool. Tony opened his mouth to crack a joke, or make a witty remark, but he never got that far. His arm begun to tingle, and then it burned slightly, and his gasp was mirrored by the guy opposite, who staggered and clutched at his thigh.

The burn abated back to a tingle, and then to nothing, as though it had never happened. Tony didn’t need to check his arm to know that the mark would be a deep, semi-sheen black.

The guy whipped around, and his already wide eyes went near cartoon comical when he realised exactly who was stood opposite him; exactly who the Universe had plucked out of a hat for him. Tony could only offer a wry, grim smile in response. He felt sick. He wanted to run away. This was it. God, he couldn’t do this.

“Mr. Stark” the boy honest to god squeaked, and it was enough to have Tony’s mouth curving with a little more sincerity. The boy straightened, gaze sweeping him without an ounce of subtlety, and then he coughed. “Okay. Uh. Maybe a little interested” the boy murmured, one hand reaching up to rub at the back of his neck.

“Only a little?” Tony asked, but it was teasing as he slid into a stool, took a $20 from his pocket and added it to the tumbler before he took the whiskey and the boy’s glass, pouring himself two fingers. What a story. He saved the world from aliens, flew a nuke into space and found his soulmate on the hunt for whiskey.

“So. Aliens” he huffed, knocking back his drink. The boy slid back onto the stool besides him and took the glass and bottle, knocking back a shot of his own.

“Aliens” he agreed sombrely.

An hour later and Tony learned his soulmate was called Peter Parker and he loved strawberries but was allergic to almonds and he went to community college because he couldn’t afford MIT and he stared at Tony’s mouth for the entire time he spoke. Peter asked to see his soul-mark, shy and a little tipsy from the half-bottle he’d sumped, and Tony unbuttoned his shirt enough to wriggle around, presenting the inside of his bicep to Peter, who leaned forwards like he was honest to god going to lick it.

“Now yours” he managed, after Peter’s eyes had trailed it (and his chest) for the ninth time. Peter blinked up at him, slow and half-cocked, before he nodded slowly, sliding off the stool to knuckle his belt. He squirmed his jeans down taut, milky thighs that Tony wanted to bite, before hopping effortlessly onto the bar, spreading his thighs enough that Tony could see his own messy scripture down the inside of his right thigh.

Tony shifted off his stool, leaning forwards and between Peter’s legs as much as his bunched up jeans would allow, staring at it. He loved it as much as he ached over it; because how cruel was it, to throw him at a boy like this? He leaned closer though, breathed hot air over it and was absolutely aware of the way Peter’s boxers lifted a fraction.

“Tony” the boy croaked, voice strangled as his hand fell to Tony’s shoulder. Tony was leaning closer, closer, until he could press a firm kiss over the dark ink. He didn’t know why, he just…Wanted to. Wanted to drink in the way Peter’s breath hitched and his hips jerked. Tony pulled back.

They’d just met. Hell, the kid might even have a partner waiting for him at home. Soulmates were never the end all of your life. Howard and Maria had never been soulmates but they’d lived and loved together until Howard had driven his Bughatti into a tree in the dark of a winter night.

Peter’s whimper had him glancing up, taking in blown pupils and flushed cheeks. The boy bit his lip before heaving a breath, fingers digging into Tony’s shoulder. “Fuck. You’re - You’re so hot. You can’t do that. You can’t make me want you like that” the boy mumbled, head shaking even as he tugged Tony closer.

And, well. Tony had never been the golden boy. Rules were meant to be broken.

Peter tasted like wet and whiskey and something a little sweet, like he’d been eating candy. His hands fell to Peter’s hips, digging into the skin above the waistline of his boxers as he kissed him, licked into his mouth and swallowed a muffled moan. Peter’s arms wrapped around his shoulders and neck, drawing him closer until Tony couldn’t go any further because Peter’s tangled legs stopped him.

“Fucking Hell” the boy grunted, leaving Tony long enough to kick off his sneakers and to simply shed his jeans, right there on a bartop in the middle of Manhattan. Tony cursed as slender, long legs spread for him, until their half-hard cocks squeezed together and punched a whine from both of them. Peter was the first to grind forwards, sloppy and without finesse as they kissed again, a slick slide of tongue that ended in a help as Tony bit down on Peter’s bottom lip, dragging him closer by the waist.

“If you - If you stop now I’ll kill you” Peter panted against his mouth, rocking forwards against Tony’s Gucci slacks. Tony couldn’t resist a cruel smirk, drawing his head back to gaze down at the debauched boy.

“I thought you said you weren’t interested?” He asked, arching a brow. The demeanour slipped when Peter drove a hand between them, grasping Tony’s cock through his trousers and squeezing enough to have his hips stuttering forwards. “Daddy doesn’t like to be teased” he growled, surging forwards to cup Peter’s jaw, to kiss him bruisingly as one hand went to the boys wrist, coaxing him into stroking Tony through the fabric.

Peter mewled beneath him, fingers curling and stroking around the shape of him as he rut forwards against his own forearm, nipping at Tony’s tongue gently. “Anything, fuck. Just - Don’t stop. Don’t stop Daddy, please. Please don’t stop” he begged, brainless except for the pleasure. It was a look Tony liked; a lot.

Tony pushed Peter’s arm aside and grasped him by the asscheeks, hauling him against his hips as he ground forwards, fingers dipping between those plump cheeks and straining the fabric to brush against the rose of muscle between them. Peter moaned blatantly into his mouth, hips jerking forwards. “Please” the boy begged again, grinding against him with desperation.

Tony obliged, kissing him with renewed effort and keeping their cocks flush together through their fabrics, a heavy grind that lasted only minutes before Peter was crying out, arching into his body as he came with a half-scream of “Daddy!”

His thighs squeezing Tony’s hips and their cocks squeezed tight together pushed Tony over the edge, cum flooding his silk boxers as he muffled his own pleasure into Peter’s shoulder. Fuck. They’d just done that. Right there.

He begun to laugh. Against his chest Peter made a questioning sound, hands petting at his shoulders.

“So,” Tony drawled, lifting his head to gaze into Peter’s eyes with amusement. “Are we leaving that bit out of the ‘how we met story?”

Peter smacked his shoulder with the empty whiskey bottle.

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quickspinner · 5 years

Text

Man’s Best Fang

This wasn’t what I intended to be working on last night, but then @verfound had to go and do this and here we are.

He should have know it wouldn’t be that simple. He should have known, because it was Jagged, and despite being an international rock star, a pioneer in his field, and, apparently, Luka’s biological father, when it came to getting his way, Jagged Stone was twelve fucking years old and absolutely not above glossing over some things if it meant he got what he wanted. And apparently what he wanted today was Luka and Fang out of the hotel suite.

Take Fang for a walk, mate. Nah, it’ll be fine, he loves you! Penny ordered some macarons for ‘im for afterward, so take your time, wink wink.

Jagged rambled something about inspiration but Luka was pretty sure he was getting kicked out so that Jagged could make out with Penny, which was gross on so many levels, especially now that he knew Jagged was his dad and had apparently once done things like that with Luka’s mother and—

That train of thought had led to Luka giving in so that he could flee the scene of those very uncomfortable thoughts, but of course walking Fang wasn’t as simple as Jagged made it out to be. Of course.

And now Luka was stuck wrestling an 800 pound crocodile in the lobby of Paris’ fanciest hotel, all because Fang decided to throw a hissy fit (Luka had recently learned that crocodiles could, in fact, hiss) during his morning walk because the carpet had snagged one of his claws, and Fang, it turned out, was kind of a wuss.

Luka was far from a weakling to begin with, growing up working on the boat, which always needed repair in some tight and uncomfortable corner. After months of tagging around as a roadie and occasional backup guitarist to bond with his wanna-be father, lifting sound equipment and setting up stages and wedging himself into improbable positions to hook up sound equipment, he was probably in the best shape he’d ever been. So he was almost, sort of, holding his own against the thrashing crocodile, pressing his weight down on Fang and trying to get the dumb beast to hold still, damnit. He managed to get astride Fang’s neck and get a hand on either side of his massive jaws to hold them shut all while trying to reassure the hotel patrons that the situation was under control.

“Now, you big baby,” he growled, lifting Fang’s muzzle up and back to keep him from thrashing. “Hold—” He glanced up at the small crowd that had gathered—and promptly forgot about them as his gaze locked on the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. She blinked big blue eyes with long lashes and her cheeks pinked and he suddenly felt like Fang had kicked him in the gut. “Still,” he finished breathlessly.

Unfortunately, Fang sensed his distraction, jerked his muzzle free, and with a wild thrash and half-spin that required more energy than Luka had ever seen the lethargic creature use, he threw Luka off.

The crowd scattered out of his way as he tumbled across the floor towards them, except for the blue-eyed girl in the pink dress, who didn’t move. Luka rolled to a stop at her feet on his back, and for a moment they stared at each other

“Hi,” Luka panted, and a giddy grin spread over his face.

“Are you all right?” she asked anxiously, crouching down beside him and brushing his shaggy bangs out of his eyes. It shouldn’t have been possible for his heart to beat any harder considering he’d just been wrestling a crocodile four or five times his size, but it sure did its best as she stared into his eyes. It took longer than it should have to register that she was checking him for a concussion.

“Yeah,” he gasped. “Yeah, I’m good.”

She frowned and held up her index finger. “Follow my finger.”

“I’ll follow you anywhere,” he said, eyes tracking that delicate finger automatically. She blushed and lowered her hand to her lap, where it curled automatically around the pink bakery box in her lap.

Luka blinked. “Wait, are those macarons?”

“Um, yes?” Blue eyes blinked back at him. “I’m supposed to be delivering them to Jagged Stone.”

“Oh, thank fuck,” Luka groaned, rolling over. “I work for him. Sort of. Can I have one of those please?” He got to his feet and pulled off his hoodie, tossing it to one side. It was one of the only articles of clothing he owned that wasn’t ripped and he wanted to keep it that way. Those big eyes got even bigger, roving over his shoulders and arms for a moment before she fumbled the box open and offered him a cookie.

He grinned, holding up the macaron between them. “Thanks, uh—”

“Oh,” her eyes widened again. “I’m, uh, m-my name’s Ma-Ma-Marinette.”

“Hello Ma-Ma-Marinette,” he chuckled, thoroughly charmed, “I’m Luka, and I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”

A small hand caught his arm as he turned away and he looked back in surprise. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” she asked him anxiously, looking between him and Fang with concern. Marinette didn’t look frightened of the crocodile, but she looked up at him with a worried expression that had Luka ready to melt into a puddle at her feet. She was too sweet.

“Don’t worry,” he reassured her. “He looks scary, but he’s basically a big baby throwing a temper tantrum. I’ll be fine.” He winked at her and faced Fang with renewed purpose.

“Fang,” he called, waving the macaron in the crocodile’s field of vision. “Hey, boy, fancy a snack? Who’s a good croc? Fangy want a treat?”

Fang’s massive head followed him, and the crocodile’s jaws gaped wide.

“That’s it, Fang,” Luka coaxed. “You want the treat? Let’s have a trick. Down, Fang.”

The crocodile flopped on his belly obediently. “Good boy, Fang!” Luka praised. “Now, stay...just hold still a bit…”

Fang’s head turned as Luka held out the macaron at arm’s length, trying to reach Fang’s caught claw while keeping his attention on the macaron.

It didn’t work; Fang lunged for the treat, forcing Luka to jump back, and pulled hard on his trapped and probably now sore paw. Fang chomped the cookie, which Luka had dropped in his surprise, and then made what should have been an angry bellow but was really more like a big whine as he began to thrash. Luka spared a moment of grudging admiration for whoever had made this damn carpet. Fang’s claws were filed religiously so he wouldn’t be slicing through it anytime soon, but you’d think he’d have managed to break free by now.

But then again, he was kind of an overgrown pampered poodle instead of the apex predator he should have been.

“Aw, c’mon, you big baby!” Luka groaned, throwing his weight back on the grumpy animal to stop his thrashing before he hurt himself. “Would you just hold fucking still for two seconds—” There was a flash of pink at the corner of his eye and he looked quickly to find Marinette at his elbow. She shoved another macaron into his hand, and Luka quickly leaned over Fang to wave it in front of the croc’s face. “Hey Fang, you want another?” he called, and the massive head swung away from his caught claw in pursuit of the macaron. That was great, for the moment, but Luka couldn’t figure out any way to tempt Fang with the macaron and get his claw loose at the same time.

Suddenly there was a weight against his leg, and Luka looked back in surprise just in time to see the girl of his dreams grab Fang’s foreleg and force it down until there was some small amount of slack in the loose threads that had trapped him. Then she reached over with her other hand and did something Luka couldn’t see.

Just like that, Fang was free, and Luka, bent over nearly in half and hanging off the side of a crocodile, lost his heart completely. The love of his life sat up and her unfairly perfect lips curved in a triumphant smile as she brushed blue-black bangs out of her eyes. He stared as she tucked the seam ripper that had been in her hand back in her purse, and cooly tossed Fang another cookie.

He entertained a brief fantasy of grabbing her gorgeous face and kissing her stupid right then and there, but it seemed a Jagged kind of thing to do, which meant it was probably a bad idea. Instead he slithered off of Fang’s back and sat next to her on the carpet.

“So, uh,” he said, still rather winded but giving her the most charming grin he could muster under the circumstances. “Thanks for the assist.”

She giggled. “My pleasure.”

“Well, Ma-Ma-Marinette,” Luka said, turning slightly so his back was resting against the now-docile crocodile and drawing up one knee to prop his arm across it. “Will you marry me?”

She burst into bright laughter that touched his musical soul, and he longed for his guitar. “Too soon, huh?” Luka sighed dramatically. “How about dinner, then? I promise I’ll leave Fang at home. Whoa!” He nearly fell backwards as Fang abruptly moved away from him, swinging around to nose the box of treats and then—and then the fucker turned and put his head in Marinette’s lap, blinking up at her ever so innocently.

Marinette giggled and reached for the box, plucking out a macaron and droppinging it into Fang’s mouth. She patted the crocodile’s head as he munched happily. “Aw, you’re just a puppy dog with scales, aren’t you?” she cooed, and Luka had never in his life believed he would be jealous of a fucking lizard, but here he was. Then Marinette looked up at Luka and smiled and blushed and he was ready to kiss Fang himself for giving him the chance to meet her. “Um, dinner sounds good,” Marinette said shyly, shoulders hunching slightly. “What did you have in mind?”

Luka could only hope the grin that was spreading across his face wasn’t as dopey as it felt.

Luka drifted back into Jagged’s suite wearing that same dopey grin and a dreamy look in his eyes, Fang waddling along contentedly at his side.

Penny frowned as he wandered past her. “Luka, everything okay?”

“Fantastic,” Luka replied, grin widening. “Can’t talk right now, Penny, I need my guitar.”

He went into his room, Fang still waddling along with him. A few minutes later the sound of Luka’s guitar drifted through the suite.

His door was still open, so Penny peaked in to see Luka on the floor, leaning back against Fang, strumming as he stared into nothing with that dreamy look on his face. Fang’s tail thumped lightly in time with the melody.

Penny turned and whisper-yelled for Jagged. She waved him over. “Do you think he’s okay?” she asked, nodding toward Luka’s room.

Jagged listened for a minute, and then began to cackle. “Aw, leave him be, Penny,” he chortled, clapping a hand on her shoulder. “Boy’s got it bad. Let him work it out for a bit and then we’ll find out who the little lady is.” Jagged rubbed his hands gleefully. “It’s about time he found a muse. I told you Fang was a chick magnet. He was good before, he’s gonna be brilliant now. Every great musician needs inspiration, right love?” He chucked Penny under the chin and she blushed.

#fang is the best man at the wedding #i am lukanette trash i admit it #lukanette #quickspins #meet-cute #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #miraculous ladybug #ml fics #miraculousladybug #i'll never not know you

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flightfoot · 4 years

Text

Divergent Points: ML Salt - Marinette vs. Saltinette: Chameleon Edition

AO3/FFN

------------------

Marinette struggled against her copy’s grip, finally forcing her way free - but it was too late.

Instead of a grassy park they stood in a black void, seemingly floating on nothing.

Her heart stopped.

If they weren’t with her-!

“What did you DO to them?!”

‘Marinette’ stared back coldly. “Why do you care so much? It took Adrien literally seeing that you were Ladybug for him to figure out that he supposedly ‘loved’ you. He let Lila and Chloe get away with their actions instead of exposing Lila and controlling Chloe. Alya had the nerve - the NERVE! - to say that we might be jealous of Lila. And she said to check her sources BUT DIDN’T DO SO HERSELF. And Nino - well, he specifically hasn’t done much, but the whole class - except Adrien I guess, but that makes him not exposing Lila even WORSE - fell under Lila’s spell including him, and he didn’t stop the rest of the class from treating you like crap!”

...Huh?

What the hell?

Most of it was just a bad spin on what’d happened, but some of that was entirely false.

“What do you mean about Alya checking sources? And Nino and Alya didn’t fall in line with Lila! Not after she came back to class at least.”

Her copy snorted. “Oh right. You’re not from that universe, so you wouldn’t know.”

“That universe?”

Did she mean one of these manufactured worlds?

“The universe you come from is an offshoot, a reflection, of the Source universe. It separated off when your friends learned each other’s secret identities and has been steadily diverging ever since. In the Source universe, Lila’s return went a little differently.”

She conjured up a screen, showing Marinette arriving late in school one day to find the seating arrangement changed, but…

This wasn’t right.

“Why did so many people move?”

‘Marinette’ put a hand to her lips. “You’ll see.”

Marinette looked at Alya questioningly. “At the back? Why? What's going on?”

Nino leaned over, answering her. “Well since she's got a hearing issue, there's no way she can sit at the back of the class, right? Which means she needed a place up in the front.”

Which was when Alya took over, “So to make it work Ivan sat next to Mylene, Nate sat next to Alix, besides she came up with the idea of moving Nino here, so now we get to spend more time together.”

No wonder Alya’d agreed to it; it gave everyone what they wanted seemingly, besides possibly Marinette. Being at the back of the class wasn’t the end of the world by any means, but not getting to be with her friends would’ve sucked.

“You see?” ‘Marinette’ hissed. “They didn’t care. So long as everyone got to spend time with their partners or friends, you being left alone didn’t matter. She didn’t even seem to consider your feelings, just assuming you’d be okay with it!”

Well… she wasn’t totally wrong. But-

“Someone would’ve had to sit alone.”

“But why did it have to be YOU?”

She sighed. It didn’t have to be her. It could’ve been anyone with the way so much of the classroom had been reshuffled. But everyone else had at least conceivably had the chance to provide input, while she-

“Because I was the one who was late. Everything needed to be reshuffled by the time Lila arrived so she’d have a place to sit.

Would I have preferred if someone had volunteered to give up their seat with their friend instead? Yes. But they have as much right to sit with the people they want as I do.”

‘Marinette’ growled at her. “This is US we’re talking about though! Not THEM!”

Seriously?

“What difference does that make?”

“We deserve better!”

She waved her hand, causing the scene to continue playing. “Maybe the rest of this will persuade you of their horribleness, of their utter irredeemability.”

“Who is this ‘she’?” Marinette asked.

Just then Ms. Bustier entered the classroom, a familiar - and unwelcome - figure behind her.

“Good morning, students. I'm sure you've all heard by now, but Lila's home from her trip to Achu and she's back in school with us again.”

“Yippee,” Marinette muttered.

“Hi everyone!” Lila waved at the rest of the class.

“Hi Lila!” the class greeted her back.

“Oh, a seat in the front row! You all remembered my hearing issue! You're such sweethearts, all of you.”

“Those gullible IDIOTS actually believed her!” ‘Marinette’ seethed. “No paperwork. No questioning of her needs. She just says she has a hearing issue and everyone rushes to accommodate her. They should’ve demanded to see documentation before making you move! Should have viewed any request with suspicion and treated her like the LYING FRAUD SHE IS!”

Ok now THAT was a step too far. She could see being incensed at the time, knowing she was almost certainly faking it, but from an outside perspective?

“Demanding proof of a disability in order to justify such a small accommodation? I know she was faking, but… they didn’t. What if she HAD been telling the truth?”

“But she wasn’t!”

“They didn’t know that.”

“Well they should have!”

“Would you demand every student have paperwork on the first day back to class?”

“Just for Lila.”

“That’s not how this works.”

‘Marinette’ glared at her, playing the video again.

“You have a hearing problem, Lila?” Marinette asked suspiciously, arms crossed.

“Yes, I suffer from tinnitus, a constant ringing in my left ear. I've had it ever since the sound of an airplane engine burst my eardrum on the runaway when I was saving Jagged Stone's lost kitten.”

“Isn’t Jagged Stone’s pet a crocodile?”

“Now it is, yes. But he had a kitten until he found out he was allergic to it.”

Lila turned towards Adrien. “The best part is, since you're such an excellent student, Adrien, you'll be able to help me catch up with all the schoolwork I missed while I was traveling with my parents. Would you do that for me?”

Ugh. She hated the subtle manipulation Lila used on Adrien there. Just ‘assuming’ he’d help her, acting like it was a given, and only then ‘asking’? Not leaving much room for him to say no.

Her lies were mediocre, but her manipulation worked.

“Sure, Lila”, Adrien agreed.

Marinette turned to Miss Bustier. “Miss Bustier, why do I have to sit in the back now?”

“Do you have any trouble hearing or seeing, Marinette?”

“Uh, I… I…”

She winced. It must’ve sucked being put on the spot like that. But she had a point.

“You see! Even Miss Bustier’s targeting you!”

“She had to send someone to the back,” Marinette pointed out tiredly. “And they probably wouldn’t have been happy about it either.”

Adrien stood up. “My eyesight and hearing are good. I'll sit in the back of the class and you two can sit up front. I don't mind.”

She perked up. Seriously? Adrien would willingly volunteer to separate from his friends, from some of the little time he had with them, just in order to help her?

Her heart warmed at the thought. She’d never ask Adrien to do that, wouldn’t want to be responsible for decreasing what little opportunity he had to spend time with his friends, but it was still sweet.

“No!” Marinette and Lila both shouted.

Adrien looked at them, seeming taken aback.

Ah. So he hadn’t picked up on the true cause of their conflict. His solution would’ve worked fine if the cause of their disagreement was really about seating position. But it wasn’t.

It was about who got to sit near Adrien, and in her own case, near Alya as well.

Lila looked down sadly. “My return is causing so much trouble, maybe I should have just stayed on the other side of the world. If Marinette has an issue too, then I should be the one to go and sit in the back. It's okay.”

Really laying it on thick huh? But if she hadn’t known about Lila’s penchant for lying already, she would’ve thought she was sincere.

The class glaring at her after Lila’s sad statement hurt, but she could see why they did. Making a fellow classmate feel bad for no apparent reason wasn’t looked well upon. It must’ve seemed pretty odd to her classmates that she’d be so adamant about this; from what they knew of her, it didn’t fit.

The on-screen Marinette started some damage control.

“I don't actually have any trouble seeing or hearing. I mean…”

“Good, so there's no problem then. You sit here, Lila, Adrien, you stay where you are and, Marinette, you sit in the back row.”

Marinette trudged to her new seat, away from her friends.

“They ABANDONED you! Abandoned us! Isolated us! All for that snake Lila. They cared more about making sure that this new girl wasn’t going to be at a disadvantage because of a supposed disability than about our feelings! How DARE they!”

“...that really doesn’t sound so flattering out loud you know.”

‘Marinette’ growled at her. “Oh that’s not the end of it. Just look at what happened at lunch! Alya wasn’t the one going after Lila in the Source universe; YOU were, and without backup!”

A group of Marinette’s classmates gathered around Lila, bringing her food.

“That’s for you Lila!”

“Thank you, you’re so sweet!”

“Here’s your appetizer Lila!”

“And I’ve got your main course!”

“I’ll fetch your dessert!”

Lila looked around at everyone bringing her food. “I’m sorry I can’t carry my own tray. It’s almost impossible with this sprained wrist.”

Marinette rolled her eyes. Well so far it was pretty much the same as in her own universe. She was glad her classmates were so kind and helpful to someone supposedly in need, but it was really grating to see Lila take advantage of them like that.

Kim reached between herself and Alya for some food. “Sorry,”

Marinette looked at Alya and Nino. “Lila's totally lying. She made up that whole tinnitus story just so she could sit next to Adrien, and her sprained wrist's completely bogus, too.”

Alya just seemed confused. “I don't get it, Marinette. You barely know Lila. Why all the hate?”

Funny to see Alya defending Lila considering she hated her more than anyone in their own universe, but with her not knowing Lila was a liar? It made sense. It really looked like she was out to get Lila for no apparent reason.

“Fine, I'll tell you everything.” Marinetted dragged Alya and Nino to a separate table, away from the others. “You remember Lila when she first came to school right after the summer break? She was only here for one day and then she left on that 'round-the-world trip. Everyone was captivated by her. Something just felt off to me. So I followed her.”

...Oooh.

Well THAT certainly wasn’t going to convince them she was on the up-and-up with her motives.

She’d had better reasons for following them in reality of course, with needing to retrieve the Miraculous Grimoire and with Lila lying about her personally, saying she was friends with Ladybug, but leaving out those details?

It really did sound like she was out to get Lila for reasons that weren’t all that rational.

And with Lila flirting with Adrien and Alya already knowing that she could go a little overboard regarding him…

Somehow she didn’t think this would end with Alya and Nino agreeing with her.

“What?!” Alya and Nino replied, shocked.

“She lies with every breath!”

Nino frowned. “Wait. You eavesdropped on Lila and Adrien? That's not cool.”

Alya took a more analytical approach. “A good reporter always verifies her sources. Can you prove she doesn't actually know Ladybug?”

She winced. Following someone and eavesdropping on them in order to dig up dirt on them based on no actual evidence? Definitely didn’t sound great.

At least Alya was still willing to listen so long as she could provide evidence to back up her assertion. She didn’t dismiss her claims out of hand.

Unfortunately she couldn’t give that evidence, not right then at least.

Though she could always appear as Ladybug and tell Alya what went down between her and Lila. Maybe use the excuse that she happened by the bakery and Marinette told her everything? Wouldn’t be the first time she’d used her civilian identity to set up a meeting between her superhero identity and Alya.

‘Marinette’ turned to her, grinning triumphantly. “See? SEE?! She insisted on us providing evidence, on verifying our sources, but didn’t do that with Lila when she posted her interview before! She’s a hypocrite and a bad reporter by her own admission.”

That was a little much. Yes Alya should have checked before posting that interview and what she was saying here didn’t match up to her actions before, but that went too far.

“Alya just got a little carried away that time. It happens, especially with wanting it to be true so badly.”

“But she’s a HYPOCRITE! And she used that hypocrisy against US! How can you be okay with being friends with her?!”

“She only asked to make sure my statement - or well, that Marinette’s statement I guess - was based on facts and not an assumption. You seriously think it’s worth breaking a friendship over?”

“I think it’s worth destroying all her relationships and future prospects over. Seriously, what reporter insists on checking sources and then doesn’t check with her own source?! She should be exiled from the industry forever, her reputation in tatters, harassed nonstop on the streets and on the web and she’d DESERVE IT!”

“...She’s fourteen. Also what planet are you living on and do all reporters there adhere to that standard? Because that’s definitely not true of all news organizations here. Retractions exist for a reason.”

“And every adult in her life can see her for the fraud she is and get her arrested for her violent and cruel actions toward us!”

“When does THAT happen?!”

“Right here! She asked to check our sources! She didn’t believe us without question!”

“And that means she’s violent?!”

“It means that she’s a horrible, abusive enough person that she might as well be!”

...Where did this thought progression even come from. Like, seriously.

Marinette stuttered, not sure how to answer Alya’s question without exposing her identity. “Well I–uh… I… I… Okay! You want proof she's lying?” She balled up a nearby napkin. “Hey Lila! You forgot your napkin!” and threw it at her.

Lila caught it with her ‘sprained’ hand.

Marinette pointed at Lila and loudly declared “Ha, ha! See that? It's obvious she doesn't have a sprained wrist.”

The class gasped, turning to look at Lila in dismay.

Lila promptly dropped the napkin, clutching her hand. “Uh, ow! Once when I was in India, I witnessed someone getting their eye gouged out by the corner of a napkin. If I hadn't caught it, this napkin could've injured Max. I didn't have a choice. Ow!”

Well that had to be the stupidest lie she’d told yet. Max was even wearing glasses, it couldn’t have gotten to his eyes even if that WAS true!

“See?! That proved conclusively that Lila was lying, and they STILL ate up her lies!”

She tried to think of a nice way to phrase this. “That was… definitely dumb, but… well even without that excuse, it wouldn’t prove much. She said her wrist was sprained, not paralyzed, her being able to move it is normal, and catching something thrown at you is just a reflex.”

“But they had the gall to get upset at us afterwards!”

Max looked at Lila in awe. “Lila, you saved my eye! You sacrificed yourself for me.”

“Why wouldn't I, Max? Ouch. You're my friend.”

Sabrina spoke up. “We'll take you to the nurse's office.”

Mylene looked over towards Marinette. “Are you proud of yourself?”

Kim took over. “Lila's in even more pain now, all because of you.”

But Lila spoke up, supposedly in Marinette’s defense. “No, no, don't blame Marinette. She was just trying to give me a napkin. Right, Marinette?”

Marinette just stomped away, gritting her teeth and growling.

“See? SEE?! They turned on us!”

She grimaced. “Yeah, but-”

“YES!” ‘Marinette’ shouted triumphantly. “They’re terrible people just waiting for an opportunity to pounce, to mob us at the slightest sign of noncompliance, to shame us for merely trying to get to the TRUTH! We’ve been with them longer, we’ve helped them so much, and they’d dare take LILA’S side?! They should know that if I do something to hurt someone, OBVIOUSLY they deserve it.”

She did not sound like this. The way her counterpart onscreen acted made sense in the heat of the moment with already being riled up from Lila’s previous actions, but with what her classmates had been privy to?

No.

They were guilty of being gullible, that much was true.

But with what they saw of her feud with Lila?

She wouldn’t be happy either if she saw someone, even a friend she knew well who was usually kind and compassionate, targeting a new girl who said they had disabilities.

Attempting to publicly ‘expose’ such a girl for supposedly faking them as well as for lying about other things to make herself seem more impressive? If she wasn’t doing it in a blatantly harmful way? Would seem like overkill, like it would have a lot more potential to cause more harm than it would prevent, even if the accuser was right.

Maybe she would’ve approached differently, taking aside the accuser if they were a friend of hers. Ask them more about what was really going on since that behavior wouldn’t fit what she knew of them.

Which looking at it, was pretty much what Alya actually did regarding her beef with Lila; asking her why she hated Lila so much if she barely knew her.

She just couldn’t give Alya a good answer without exposing her secret identity.

Alya and Nino at least didn’t join in with the scolding afterwards. Probably too shocked at what went down. It must’ve been really confusing from their perspective, seeing her lash out like that at someone who from all appearances seemed conciliatory.

“It would’ve been nice for me if they’d backed me up. If they’d just known I had to have a good reason, even if I couldn’t prove it.

But it’s not something I’d expect. I’m not infallible, and I wouldn’t want them to target someone on my behalf on just my word that they were bad without backing it up. What if I was the new girl and someone did the same thing to me? Someone who’d been there longer, who was better established, who was popular and even friendly with most other people?”

‘Marinette’ scoffed. “Then a bunch of your new classmates would perceive your inherent worth and crush that bully like the insect they were! Our skill, our strength shines through and while some fools might not perceive it or try to control us for their own sakes, enough of them would see what a shining star we are that they’d fall all over themselves to hang on our every word!”

Yeesh. She really didn’t have much sense of outside perspectives, huh?

Or humility.

Or the world outside herself as a whole.

“You know you sound a lot like Chloe?”

“Good! Chloe can see our REAL worth.”

Maybe that was why her doppelganger liked Chloe so much. They shared a similar attitude.

“You know none of this is convincing me that everyone else’s treatment in those other worlds is remotely justified, right?

‘Marinette’ glared. “I don’t know why not. This is bad enough. But if you really want to see more… well. Lila threatened you in the bathroom in this universe, and unlike in yours, it was JUST us by ourselves. An akuma even threatened us, but we managed to ward it away.

More importantly for this though, Adrien tried to talk to Lila.”

Adrien ran into Lila. “Hey Lila.”

Lila immediately started jabbering at him. “Adrien, we'll have to figure when you're gonna help me catch up on all the schoolwork I missed. I also heard you play piano, my uncle's the great pianist Chuch Boroughchuck. He wanted to teach me when I was little, but I had to stop playing because of arthritis. But when my wrist gets better, I'd love for you to give me some lessons.”

Marinette’s eyes rolled so hard she was surprised they didn’t fall out of the back of her head. That might’ve worked with everyone else, but Adrien knew for a fact that the whole ‘pretending to be related to famous and influential people’ thing was a trick she pulled to lure people in. And she KNEW he knew that. And yet she still thought it’d work? Points for confidence she guessed.

Adrien was having none of it, though he wasn’t being confrontational about it either. “Lila, I'm perfectly happy being friends with you, and I'll gladly help you catch on your schoolwork, but please don't lie to me like you did last time with Ladybug.”

“Ladybug’s the liar.”

“I'm not judging you, Lila, but instead of making friends you're going to turn everyone against you. You can tell me if there's something bothering you. I can help. But you need to be honest with me.”

She smiled. It wouldn’t work with Lila - whatever her issues were, they were too deep for just reaching out a hand in kindness and understanding to work, there needed to be something more - but she admired that he tried. His kindness and understanding, his willingness to reach out were part of the reason she’d fallen in love with him after all.

The first day she met him - well, met him as a civilian - she’d jumped to conclusions and accused him of something he didn’t do, not letting him explain. But still, he didn’t get upset at her. He just caught up with her later, explaining as sincerely as he could that he didn’t do it, even showing a vulnerable piece of himself to her, telling her how he’d never had friends before, how new it was to him.

In that moment when she’d caught a glimpse of his heart, he’d captured her own.

Lila didn’t take it well. “Are you trying to be some superhero lecturing me just like Ladybug did? Well thanks, but no thanks. Ugh.” She stormed off.

Adrien called after her. “I'm still here if you need help catching up with your schoolwork!”

“Ugh! He was NICE to her. He should’ve called her out for her stunts, for her persecution of us. He should’ve torn her to shreds!”

“Did he even realize she was targeting us? He only saw that bit at the beginning with the seat rearrangement and with how surprised he looked when offering to move to the back instead didn’t work, I don’t think he figured out the true cause of conflict.”

“He should have at least been filled with righteous fury about her lies, same as us! But he lets her get away with them instead!”

She frowned. “Let her get away with them? He asked her not to lie anymore and encouraged her not to.”

“But he didn’t publicly tear her down and expose her in front of everyone!”

“He’s not that sort of person, especially when he doesn’t even know she’s intentionally malicious. It sounds like he honestly just thinks she needs friends.”

‘Marinette’ muttered a bit and fast-forwarded.

The class gathered around Lila again, listening to her tales.

“Of course Ladybug saved my life. She never misses an opportunity to rescue her best friends.”

“Didn't your tinnitus give you vertigo when you went up the Eiffel Tower?” Max asked her inquiringly.

At least Max was asking questions.

“Oh no. Ladybug knows me so well that she brought me an earplug to stick in my right ear.”

Watching from several meters away, Marinette perked up “Right ear?! Did she say right ear?! This morning she said that the ringing was in her left ear! I've got her this time!”

Same as what went down in her own universe then, except she said it instead of Alya.

And judging by Adrien’s expression, his response was likely to be similar.

“Are you going to tell everyone?”

Yep. She figured as much.

Marinette seemed baffled. “'Course I am. Lila is—”

“A liar. Yes, I know. But do you really think exposing her will make things better? If you humiliate her, she'll just be hurt more. Making a bad guy suffer has never turned them into a good guy.”

Not that different from her own universe, but there, she could say his way of thinking was understandable but flawed, considering what he went through with his father. It was just flawed in trying to apply that same mindset to the Lila situation.

Here, she wasn’t sure she could even say it was flawed from what he knew of the situation. He didn’t know she was an active threat, and while she’d told some tall tales and taken advantage of people’s kindness, inconveniencing them, she hadn’t actively, obviously hurt someone that he’d be aware of. In her own universe she'd been afraid of Lila making outlandish promises that hurt people greatly when they fell through, but that never actually came to fruition. She made up stories for prestige, but not much more than that. They were keeping an eye on that situation though, or at least, Alya and Nino were.

Lila continued spinning her lies. “Ladybug and I are like two peas in a pod!”

“So we just stand by and let her lie?”

“As long as you and I both know the truth, does it really matter?”

Marinette turned back to look at Lila and smiled, expression softening. “You're right, maybe it's not such a big deal.”

‘Marinette’ paused the video, her face stormy. “He sided with HER, with just letting her bully and terrorize and even STOPPED US FROM STOPPING HER! HE WAS ACTUALLY OKAY WITH LETTING HER CONTINUE HURTING US AND THE PEOPLE AROUND HER! HE’S THE REASON SHE’S ALLOWED TO RUN FREE! HE HAS THE TOOLS TO STOP HER AND DIDN’T DO IT AND DIDN’T EVEN STEP OUT OF THE WAY AND LET US TRY TO PUBLICLY HUMILIATE AND SHAME HER AGAIN! HIS NEGLIGENCE MAKES HIM RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THE HARM SHE COULD CAUSE!”

“I don’t think pointing out the inconsistency with the tinnitus would’ve worked considering how she’s deflected and explained every other inconsistency. It’d probably just made us look bad like in the lunchroom. Plus… well, he still just thinks we’re upset because she’s a liar. He doesn’t know she threatened us. He doesn’t know she’s dangerous.”

She frowned to herself. “And that second bit… what’re you talking about? I mean, I guess maybe if he recounted his first run-in with Lila and my going off on her, MAYBE that’d make people think twice about trusting her, but… that doesn’t mean he’s responsible for what she does. He’s not her keeper. He barely even knows her.”

“BUT HE COULD’VE WEAKENED HER INFLUENCE! HE COULD’VE TOLD EVERYONE THAT LADYBUG WASN’T HER FRIEND AND THAT SHE’S A LIAR!”

Well he could’ve, but-

“And because he didn’t, it makes HIM responsible for everything she does after that, for everything she MIGHT do!”

“...So let me get this straight. Because he didn’t expose her as lying about being Ladybug’s best friend, that means he’s responsible for what she does?”

“Exactly!”

“That still would’ve been a ‘he said, she said’ situation, though with both Adrien and I saying the same thing, I GUESS it would’ve lent more weight to it, but… it still wouldn’t prove we were right, and she could’ve said we misunderstood. We’d both know that was BS, but it’s not like we could prove it.

Plus, if we’re talking about people who had the potential to expose Lila by calling her out on her Ladybug lie, do you know who could’ve ALSO done that? Me. Which I did back when I first met her. It didn’t go well. But I could still do it AGAIN, just transforming later and telling everyone that I’d heard she was lying about my being her friend, and incontrovertibly prove that she’s a fraud. Adrien doing it by talking about what I said would just give her room to wiggle out of it. Ultimately if I really wanted and needed to disprove that she’s my friend, I’M the best one to do that, not Adrien.”

“But it’s his job, it’s EVERYONE’S job to be thinking only of our needs and wants and desires at all points in time, to help and support us and just know that anything we want to do is right no matter what! HE JUST ABANDONED US AND LEFT US OUT TO DRYYYYYY!”

“...Really?”

“Yes!”

Somehow she doubted it.

Also, WOW was her doppelganger narcissistic. Don’t get her wrong, she needed love and support and to be listened to as much as anyone, but the world didn’t revolve around her.

That was fine. She had plenty of people who cared about her. Her parents. Her friends. Her partner. If they knew she needed it, they were there for her. She may not be literally their only consideration in life, but she was high up on their priority lists.

Everyone filed into the classroom, Marinette taking her new seat at the back of the class.

Adrien gazed up at her, giving her a fond, loving smile.

Oh.

Oh she was gonna die.

That LOOK, that SMILE…

He may not have known she was Ladybug. May not have known he loved her romantically.

But with that look? His heart always knew.

He walked up the stairs over to Marinette, who was still in the back row.

“Good for you for taking the high road, Marinette. Hey, it's pretty cool back here.”

He sat down next to her, Marinette grinning at him and giggling.

“Oh he’s congratulating us on taking the HIGH ROAD, after he EMOTIONALLY BLACKMAILED US INTO IT?! THAT SELF-RIGHTEOUS PRICK! Oh no, I won’t go HIGH. Let’s see how low and dirty I can go. Turnabout’s fair play, and with how awful, how mean, how malicious and cruel everyone was to us, EVERYTHING IS FAIR PLAY.”

...Had her copy watched the same thing play out that she did?

Seriously, what the hell?

Or maybe she just wanted to hurt everyone else so badly she didn’t care how flimsy the justification was.

Whatever.

Turning back to the screen, she had to smile.

In her universe Alya’d arranged it so she and Adrien would sit next to each other.

Here? Adrien just decided that he wouldn’t leave her alone on his own. That he wanted to be with her, to keep her company, to make sure she wasn’t isolated.

She might’ve refused his offer to move before, but that hadn’t stopped him from trying to find some way to make the situation better for her, to keep her from being lonely and isolated like he was for so long.

The teacher called several students names, including Marinette’s, but she was so zoned out from her fantasies and anxieties about her and Adrien getting to spend more time together she didn’t notice.

Eventually, Adrien got her attention.

“Marinette, Miss Bustier's called your name three times already.”

“Oh…” she grinned anxiously, giving out a nervous giggle.

“Looks like you have trouble hearing after all, Marinette. Why don't you come sit up here in the front row next to Lila?” Miss Bustier told her.

So the reason Miss Bustier moved the seats definitely had to do with accessibility then; if a student had trouble hearing, she wanted them closer to help with that even if they hadn’t expressed that need. She was serious in the beginning then when asking her whether she had trouble hearing, it wasn’t some sort of gotcha but a sincere question, and one that prompted her to rethink the seating arrangement when it appeared she did in fact need to be closer to the front of the classroom.

Sucked for that Marinette though, getting to be right next to Adrien and then having it ripped away a minute later.

Marinette trudged dejectedly to the front of the class.

Before she could make it there, Lila raised her hand. “Miss Bustier, this is incredible. My tinnitus, I don't feel it anymore. It's gone. it's a miracle. It must be Ladybug's doing, I can sit in the back now.”

“That is so STUPID! Miss Bustier should be fired and the rest of the class should be ashamed of themselves for believing something as dumb as that.”

“...Lila’s told some dumb lies, but that isn’t one of them. They don’t know exactly how Ladybug’s magic works. Heck, even I don’t know everything about it. It’s not totally crazy to think that after purifying her, it might’ve cured her tinnitus as well.”

Marinette sat in the front, staring down sadly.

Alya put up her hand. “Excuse me, Miss Bustier, can I go and sit next to Marinette? Nino and I can't stop chatting it up.”

Miss Bustier nodded.

Alya slipped into the seat next to Marinette. “You didn't think I'd let my BFF sit all by herself, did you?”

“BUT SHE DID! FOR! AN! ENTIRE! CLASS! SESSION!”

“I think she realized between how upset I was at the cafeteria and my body language as I walked down to the front that this was REALLY getting to me. She may not have thought about it when the seats were first rearranged.”

Her heart warmed. Alya tended to have a one-track mind, to go full steam ahead and not fully realize the consequences.

But if she realized there was a problem, that someone was hurting and needed help? She’d change course.

Alya had defended her against Chloe on her first day of school, knowing nothing but that she needed help, needed comfort, needed support.

And here she was again, doing what she could to give her that support as best she knew how.

Adrien put up his hand. “Excuse me Miss Bustier, can I move, too, please? I'd like to sit next to Nino again.” She smiled, affirming that he could.

Adrien stood up and walked to the front. “Sorry Lila, he's my best friend.”

That started a chain reaction, with everyone asking for their old seats back and the class going back to how it was - except for Lila, who stayed in the back.

The screen turned black.

“So everything went back to the way it was at the end?”

‘Marinette’ glared at her. “Yes, but everything everyone else did was so AWFUL, so UNFORGIVABLE that it doesn’t matter. THE SEATS MAY BE BACK TO NORMAL, BUT MY PAIN LIVES ON!”

Eyes narrowing, her double marched over to her, getting up in her face. “I don’t get it. Why don’t you share my hatred of them? My disdain? You saw what they did.”

She just sighed.

“Looking at it, that day wasn’t great for that version of me. It would’ve hurt, knowing I had a good reason to dislike Lila, even to hate her, and everyone else just seeing me lashing out at her for no good reason, not knowing that she’d targeted me on purpose. Especially with Lila’s threat and dealing with that alone. I can see why that version of me would be so frustrated with her, especially having to watch her lie, KNOWING she’s lying, with only Adrien knowing about it!

It would’ve been stressful. But at the end of the day? Adrien tried to make things easier. Alya asked to change seats since she saw I needed the company. And no one held any of that against me - well, besides Lila I’m guessing.

Maybe some things could’ve been better. But I’m not unhappy with how things turned out - especially since my friends supported me in their own ways, even if it didn’t involve lashing out against a threat that they didn’t even KNOW was a real threat.”

She felt a weird sense of peace. This whole time part of her had been nagging and nagging, wondering what could possibly have pushed this being over the edge, what could have caused her to hate Alya, to hate Adrien, to hate so many other people she cared about in her life. To want to hurt and warp them to persuade others to hate them as well. Wondered whether it was the sort of event that could have warped herself even remotely like her doppelganger was.

Seeing the events she pointed to as the reasons to hate them? Knowing what justifications she used?

She would not, could not become like this false self. This facade built from self-righteousness, arrogance, and complete self-centeredness.

She wouldn’t pretend that she didn’t possess any of those qualities at all - most people had some, that was healthy to an extent.

But she’d never go as far, have them be as unchecked as in her doppelganger.

Her friends had already seen that, had believed it in full.

And she did as well.

“If this is your trump card? It’s not going to work. Show me as many other scenes as you like. Try to tell me I should hate and despise my friends, should want to hurt them as much as you want.

I will NEVER be like you.

So either we can do this again and again, over and over, as many times as it takes for you to give up.

Or you can let me and my friends go.”

Her imposter gave her a hard look. It didn’t do much to intimidate her. Basically the only facial expressions she seemed to have were ‘anger and disgust, mostly related to supposedly being wronged somehow’ and ‘joy over getting to see other people hurt’, so she’d rather the former than the latter.

She held her gaze for what could’ve been two minutes or two hours, time stretching out between them.

At last, ‘Marinette’ shook her head. “You’re making a mistake. They’ll hurt you. Try to break you. Won’t give you what you deserve.”

“It’s not about what I ‘deserve’. It’s about what I need.

Maybe our relationships will get messy. Maybe we’ll have fights. Maybe we’ll make mistakes and get hurt.

But that’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Because they’re worth fighting for.”

‘Marinette’ raised her hand, not breaking eye contact.

And snapped her fingers.

The world exploded.

Went black.

And then there was nothing at all.

-----------------------------

(A/N) It was really important to me that even with Saltinette being the villain here, that she NOT be harmed. It'd feel too much like taking my frustration out on Marinette herself. Though I DID consider having Marinette punch Saltinette as an "affirmation of self" sort of thing, but decided against it.

But uh... yeah. Really breaking down Chameleon salt, when looking at the episode that spawned it, most of it doesn't really hold up very well. The whole "Adrien's responsible for Lila getting away with her lies" thing especially bothers me, since well. Marinette's far better able to take her down for her lies about her friendship with well, herself, and with easily being able to come up with excuses for why she's interfering, with saying that it's dangerous for a civilian to claim affiliation with her. Never really understood why she DIDN'T take Alya aside and tell her that at least, besides "plot convenience".

Most of Marinette's actions during Chameleon make sense considering what she knows at the time, and even her more overzealous actions are understandable with how ticked off she is (and for good reason). But to an outside observer who doesn't know everything she does? Not so much.

#divergent points #ml fanfic #Miraculous ladybug #ml fandom salt #fandom salt #marinette dupain cheng

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miracalicethebookgirl · 4 years

Text

The Phony and the Famous Pt. 4

AO3

Pt 1. Pt 2. Pt 3.

Summary: Lila spreads lies about being famous with worldwide connections to increase her local popularity. She’s confident that Marinette will never be able to prove otherwise. What she, and even Marinette herself, don’t realize is that Marinette won’t have to do any of that to come out on top. - A story in which everything Lila lies about, Marinette turns into reality for herself, usually unknowingly (our girl is quite the lucky one, after all).

“During our world travels, my diplomat parents have helped me convince the leaders of several nations to agree to reduce world pollution. And I’m very optimistic that the prince will jump on board.”

Season 2, “Catalyst (Heroes’ Day - Part 1)”

...

“So,” Otis Césaire began, “let me get this straight.” He steepled his fingers together and pointed them to the teens before him. “Le Parc des Félins, the zoological park for wild cats, reached out to the two of you about hosting a fundraiser.”

“Actually, they reached out to just me. Y’know, being the cat hero and all. But then I reached out to Marinette because I thought it’d be great publicity since she saved Jagged Stone’s crocodile last week. She was trending for several days!”

Otis stared at Chat Noir, who kept grinning expectantly.

Marinette awkwardly smiled from beside him.

“Does Alya know you’re here?” he asked.

Her smile turned into a grimace. “Not yet. I figured we’d get official approval from you—since you work at the Parc Zoologique de Paris—and the zoologists from the Parc des Félins first. Alya gets a bit excitable when it comes to the heroes and I didn’t want her to make any false announcements on her blog by accident.”

Otis chuckled. “That sounds like my daughter alright. Okay, I’ll bite. Sounds like an interesting endeavor for both parks but why are the two of you planning this instead of an actual marketing person from Parc des Félins? Or any sort of event planner?”

“Hey now, Mari’s done event planning before!” Chat Noir admonished the man. “Besides, you're never too young to become a philanthropist.”

Marinette rolled her eyes. “What he means to say is, the fundraiser is going to be our own little project even though the Park des Félins reached out to him first. They were reaching out to see if Chat would want to do something like this. But he’s being overzealous about it and wanted to organize something right away. He came to me saying he wanted my input since I’m such an ‘animal lover sensation’ right now but I know he just needed someone who actually knew how to put an event together.”

“Give your partner some credit, Mari. You wound me.”

Before Marinette could reply and probably send the teens off on a tangent, Otis cleared his throat to bring their attention back.

“I’m all for it. But,” he added before the two could thank him, “where will the funds for hosting this event come from? This zoo has no budget set aside for something as spontaneous as this.”

“I wasn’t kidding when I was talking about philanthropy,” Chat quipped. He pulled out a sleek black, gold-engraved checkbook from the pocket of his suit. “Gimme the numbers and I’ll jot them down.”

Otis gave a scandalized look while Marinette gawked at him.

“What are you doing?!” She snatched the checkbook out of his hands and attempted to cram it back into his pocket. “You’ll go revealing your identity that way, you stupid cat!”

Chat burst out laughing.

“Relax, relax! This is just a little pocket notebook.” He took the “checkbook” back and flipped through the pages to show them that it was merely filled with blank white paper. “I’m not that careless. You seem a little stressed these days, Marinette. I thought a prank would cheer you up.”

Rather than laugh, Marinette just put her face in her hands and groaned. “Not. Funny.”

Otis just shook his head at their antics and nudged them back on track with a smile.

By the end of the hour, agreements were made, plans were tweaked and contact info was exchanged. It amused Otis how serious the teens looked when they each shook his hand, trying to come across as formal and businesslike.

“Come by for dinner tonight,” Otis offered to Marinette. “I’m sure Alya and the twins would love to hear about this straight from the person planning it. Ah, and you’re invited as well, Chat Noir, if you’re free.” He added the last part hastily when the hero had a badly hidden hopeful look on his face. Otis wasn’t sure what Ladybug and Chat Noir did outside of akuma-fighting hours but he should have extended the invitation regardless.

From the way those artificial(?) ears perked up, it was the right choice.

“I’d love to!”

Marinette rolled her eyes fondly and accepted as well.

…

“Marinette! Marinette! Hide us or we’ll turn into Sapotis!”

Otis looked up from his issue of National Geographic to see Ella and Etta run behind Marinette as soon as the girl entered the apartment. Alya came running out of the twins’ room with an evil laugh.

“Bwahaha! You won’t be able to become Sapotis because Lady Wifi will freeze naughty little children first!”

“Nooooo!” the little girls laughed. They ran to the living room and over to the couch where they leaped onto Otis.

“Save us, Daddy!” Ella cried, giggling all the while.

“We need Animan’s powers to defeat Lady Wifi!” Etta added.

“I’ll do my best. After all, panthers are super fast!” Otis ensued in a game of keep-away with Alya and the twins while Marinette walked to the kitchen to greet Marlena. Nora also emerged from her room at all the voices, knowing that it meant dinnertime was near.

Once all the girls calmed down, Otis took his place at the dining table and turned to Marinette once everyone was seated. “Is our other guest not coming over after all?”

Alya looked to her friend. “Huh? You didn’t tell me you were bringing someone.”

“It was supposed to be a surprise. He’s coming separately but I guess he’s a little late.” Marinette shrugged. “I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

As if waiting for that cue, there was a rapping on the balcony’s glass door. They all turned to see—

“Chat Noir?!”

Alya practically tripped over herself trying to run to the door and open it hastily. “What are you doing here?” She reached into her pocket for her phone in what Otis recognized by now to be her reaction when either hero was even mentioned.

Chat stood in the doorway and lifted a hand to the back of his head. “Well, your dad invited me to dinner and I hope I’m still welcome?” he answered sheepishly, an odd thing to see coming from the normally boisterous and confident boy.

Alya just gaped at him, so Marinette walked over and grabbed his arm, pulling him inside and seating him right next to her. “Of course you are! C’mon, Al, let’s introduce him to everyone.”

That shook the other girl out of her daze. “I can’t believe I’m about to have dinner with Chat Noir. The only thing that could make this better is if Ladybug were here!”

Otis thought Marinette looked rather uncomfortable when she laughed at that. He brushed that thought away however so he could calm Alya down.

Everyone managed to settle down again, so he began to explain the fundraiser proposal that Chat Noir and Marinette had presented to him and how he received approval from the Parc Zoologique’s director. The teens chimed in every so often between their hearty bites of food to add little details or answer the dozens of questions Ella and Etta kept throwing at them.

“Alya, what did I say about phones at the table?” Marlena scolded.

Alya pouted but put her phone away. “Sorry, Mom. But you can’t blame me for wanting to get video proof of Chat Noir at my dinner table.”

Swallowing down some food, Chat Noir piped up. “You can take all the videos or photos you want later. I’ll be happy to tell you more about the fundraiser with my princess here.”

Alya raised an eyebrow at Marinette, who looked like she was trying to melt into her chair. “‘Princess,’ huh?”

“Don’t spoil my dinner with your gross flirting, Mr. Whiskers.”

“Nora,” Marlena lightly admonished.

“It’s Anansi, Mom. Anansi. ”

“If Nora is Anansi then we’re Sapotis!”

“Sapotis!”

The table talk quickly devolved into several side conversations happening over each other, something Otis came to expect every evening. From the way Marinette argued with Alya about something, it seemed the girl had become used to it as well despite coming from a much smaller household.

When he looked beside him to the cat hero however, he was surprised to see the boy looking rapidly at everyone else at the table, as if wondering which conversation to follow.

“Not used to big family dinners, eh?” Otis asked him.

Chat Noir looked a bit relieved to finally have his attention focused somewhere. “Uh, no, not really. I usually eat my meals alone.”

Hearing that, Otis felt sad for the boy. He put a hand on his shoulder, hoping he could say something to cheer him up. “I bet dinners like this with your friends are quite special then.”

Chat Noir managed a small smile. “Yeah,” he whispered. Otis didn’t miss the glance towards the girl sitting beside the hero. “They really are.”

Hiding a knowing smile, Otis left it at that and joined in on the different conversations. He and Marinette managed to coax Chat Noir into talking more as well, and dinner ended on a high note.

After everyone grabbed a plate of mille-feuille that Marinette brought over from the bakery, Nora, the twins and Marlena all left to do their own things so Otis and the rest of the teens could talk more about the fundraiser.

Alya brought her phone out triumphantly, now that they all sat on the living room couches, and faced the camera to the other three.

“Let’s just get right to it. I can edit an intro into the video later.”

And so Alya asked her questions and Chat Noir and Marinette took turns answering, much of which was already said during dinner but Alya continued to play up her surprise every now and then. Otis only spoke when prompted since he wasn’t really used to being formal on camera.

“So whose idea was the fundraiser anyway?” Alya asked, winding down the interview and putting her phone away. She had enough content to satisfy her audience and expressed that she wanted to continue chatting more casually.

“Everything is Chat’s idea,” Marinette quickly responded.

Chat Noir tutted. “True, but I put you in charge, Mari. Honestly, I don’t think I could do any of this without you.”

While Marinette spluttered and a blush crept on her face, Otis jokingly said, “Oh, so I guess the actual zoologists are just chopped liver, eh Chat Noir?” Which just got the hero falling over himself as well trying to correct himself. Alya just cackled loudly at the other two making a mess of themselves.

Shaking his head fondly at all of them, Otis stood up and assured Chat Noir that it was all in jest. Otis then bid them all a good night as he had to wake up early for work the next day, and told Marinette and Chat Noir that he looked forward to working with them.

They were good kids. And Otis would do his best to make this fundraiser the greatest event the zoos have ever put together.

…

Otis wasn’t sure where everything went wrong.

For the past few weeks, Marinette, Chat Noir and the small teams from the Parc Zoologique and the Parc des Félins worked tirelessly but flawlessly together to make sure this fundraiser was a success.

Grants were approved by the city and the director of the Parc Zoologique signed off on the necessary documents to give them permission to host the event on zoo grounds. Caterers were hired, including Marinette’s own parents, so delicious food was guaranteed. Invitations went out to zoo patrons through written letters and emails and promoted through the news and all forms of social media. Marinette had gotten hold of a band—Kitty Section—to provide some ambience or to take song requests from guests. Even Chat Noir got Ladybug to agree to make a brief appearance and photo op, which was sure to rouse much interest from the greater population of Paris. (Apparently it was difficult to persuade Ladybug to attend any sort of public event for any length of time.)

Within a week, the tickets were sold out and the waitlist was a mile long.

Marinette had acted quickly and requested to speak with the zoo director. Next Otis heard, the director announced that the fundraiser location would expand to encompass the entire zoo from what was initially just their biggest pavilion. Temporary barriers would be erected between the walkways and the habitats so the animals’ evening routines were not interrupted. Mobile food carts from all over Paris were invited to sign up for a spot in the zoo to run their businesses in addition to the zoo’s permanent food carts and restaurants so the massive influx of guests wouldn’t go hungry.

One after another, issues were resolved with a swiftness that Otis never thought he would see coming from a young teenager. And with such ingenious solutions too.

By the day of the fundraiser, everyone was talking about it. Adrien Agreste, a local celebrity—and his daughter’s classmate—had been signal boosting the event through Instagram, even committing to his own attendance. According to Alya, this apparently drove his fans crazy about getting tickets themselves. Add them to fans of Chat Noir and fans of wildlife conservation, and suddenly you were a loser if you were going to be one of the few in Paris who wouldn’t even tune in to the live streaming of the event if you couldn’t be there personally (Alya’s words, not his).

With such a large scale event, Otis expected there to be some hiccups along the way and steeled himself for when those problems arose.

And yet.

He couldn’t help but feel more and more disheartened when the problems kept piling up one after another.

It started with the live stream. When the time came for the stream to begin, it was discovered that some cameras weren’t working even though they had double checked them earlier in the day during the zoo’s hours of operation. The several camera feeds with technical difficulties were spread to the far corners of the zoo and with only two IT people, the issue would not be resolved for quite some time.

Thankfully, Marinette found a solution almost immediately by calling over a classmate of hers—Max, who was a technological genius. With Chat Noir’s superhuman capabilities, Max and the IT people were able to swiftly examine all the troublesome cameras and fix them within minutes.

Next, a handful of volunteers that were supposed to check in with a zoo employee failed to show. The employee had come running to Marinette and Otis in a panic because some of their planned events were suddenly understaffed. Everything was already scheduled to start, so Marinette rounded up many of her classmates and delegated them equally to each portion of the zoo that needed help. They obeyed with no fuss so Marinette was able to speak to the frazzled employee one on one. Together they determined that the volunteers had all confirmed their time a week before and had been emailed the directions on how to find the zoo employee.

Marinette suggested the employee check his phone to see if any of the volunteers contacted him and he was surprised to find that many people had gotten lost on their way into the zoo. Otis followed as they backtracked the directions from the email and discovered that some signs specifically made for the volunteers had gone missing. Chat Noir had joined them by then and was able to raise himself up above the zoo with his staff and easily spot the gaggle of lost volunteers.

Of course the problems didn’t end there. An item from the auction had been knocked into a pot of chili. The rhinos began rampaging in their habitat. Kitty Section had somehow misplaced half of their wires and cords.

Otis was surprised an akuma hadn’t also appeared yet. He had to hand it to the amazing team they had. If a problem didn’t have an immediate and obvious solution, Marinette was quick to produce a plan of action and no one argued with her.

But he could see how the stress was beginning to weigh her down, how her reassuring smile became more strained by the minute. One look at Chat Noir showed that he was no different but not once did he hesitate to follow Marinette’s commands.

It shamed Otis to see that the hero had to treat the fundraiser like a draining battle than the fun event that it was supposed to be.

At some point, Alya took her father aside.

“I think I know who’s behind all of this.”

“Behind…? Surely these problems are just really bad coincidences. Who would want to sabotage a fundraiser?”

Alya’s eyes were spitting fire. “Lila.”

“Who is Lila?”

Crossing her arms, Alya tried to explain as fast as she could.

“She’s a girl in our class who has this habit of lying to make others look bad and make herself look amazing. She has it out for Marinette because she was the first one to call her out. She managed to get Marinette temporarily expelled a while back!”

Alya ran a hand down her face aggravatedly.

“I never even realized what a lying snake she was until recently, when she tried to claim that this fundraiser was all her idea and that Marinette had been stealing all the credit. Anyway, I’ve spotted her around some suspicious spots today and I’d bet five of my blogs that she’s the one causing this mess.”

Otis frowned and rubbed his beard. “What a nasty person. Well, the best we can really do about her now is to catch her trying something else and then escorting her off the premises. After all, this is merely conjecture right now. I’m not outright dismissing your claims,” he quickly added when he saw his daughter about to argue. “But we have to go about this sensibly and right now, our priority is to keep the fundraiser going as smoothly as we can. If we run into this Lila girl, we can keep an eye on her to try and prevent other mishaps.”

Alya begrudgingly agreed to do as her father said. Though she eagerly accepted the task of spreading a warning about Lila to the rest of the zoo’s employees and volunteers.

After that, there were suspiciously no more incidents. In fact, they managed to reach their $500,000 goal through in-person donations alone, thanks in large part to Adrien Agreste’s generous $250,000 donation on behalf of his father. Many fans followed the model’s lead and nearly matched it. Then when Ladybug finally showed up, online donations skyrocketed.

Leaving Ladybug and Chat Noir to the masses, Otis took the opportunity to look for Marinette so he could personally share the good news with her. She had gone above and beyond for a month straight and deserved to know ASAP that her hard work paid off, especially with how rocky the day started.

On his way to the main pavilion however, Otis heard strange metallic clanking coming from the other side of one of the barriers. He noted that the sound was coming from the panther enclosure, which was a great cause for concern.

Rounding the barrier, Otis was shocked to see a teenage girl—who matched the description his daughter had given him—attempting to unlatch the gate that separated the enclosure to the main walkways where visitors usually stood.

“Hey!” he yelled sharply, causing the girl to jolt. “What are you doing?”

He ran over and slammed a hand on the gate, doing a quick examination to ensure that it would remain shut.

Otis spun back to face the girl. Lila, he recalled, was her name.

“Well? Are you going to explain yourself?” he demanded. “You could have endangered not just yourself, but everyone else in this zoo. Not even from the panther itself, but from the massive panic this could have caused.”

He didn’t expect the girl to collapse to her knees and begin bawling her eyes out.

“It was all Marinette’s idea!” she cried, covering her face with her hands. “She’s blackmailing me and she said she’d expose all of my secrets if I didn’t let the animals out! Please, I didn’t know what else to do!”

This made Otis furious. How dare this—this unrepentant liar accuse such a genuine and hard-working girl of such nonsense?

“Come with me,” he said, though it was without any compassion. “If Marinette is really blackmailing you, then you can tell the whole story to the police.”

Lila’s eyes widened and she stuttered something out about Marinette corrupting the law before she got up and ran for it.

“Hey!”

Otis gave chase but as soon as they rounded the barrier, he lost her in the crowd.

Just great.

By then, Otis’s stress levels had reached an all-time high, he thought he was going to have an aneurysm.

But all of that faded away and only anger remained when a certain voice echoed in his head.

“Animan, too many humans are ignorant to the majestic power of the wild and try to use it for their own selfish gains. I’m going to give you a little extra power this time around to show people what it’s like to be a mere animal and how it feels to be so low on the food chain. In return, you will capture me Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous!”

“Yes, Hawkmoth.”

…

When Otis was back to full awareness, he found himself sitting on the ground in the middle of the pavilion and being hugged by his daughter.

Meters away, he saw Marinette being scooped up in her own embrace by…not exactly Chat Noir…uh, what was his name again? Oh! Mister Bug!

Mister Bug set Marinette back down on the ground but he didn’t let her go.

“When I saw a hawk dive in and pick a hamster up off the ground I thought it was you! I couldn’t be sure but now you’re here and you’re okay…” he trailed off into quiet muttering. Marinette simply hugged him back.

“Dad, are you okay?”

Otis blinked and looked down at Alya, who had pulled back and looked at him in concern.

“Oh, yes, I’m quite fine. Thanks to Ladybu—er, Mister Bug and I’m guessing Lady Noire? I just hope people weren’t too badly hurt.”

Alya patted her dad’s shoulder. “Lady Noire never showed up but everyone’s as fine as they can be. Animan had the same powers from last time but also turned half of the fundraiser guests into tiny mammals. Thankfully no one got eaten.”

Otis breathed a sigh of relief.

Turning into a small animal was bad enough. No one needed the trauma of being eaten alive.

“Are you alright?”

Otis and Alya looked up at the red hero. Marinette stood beside him. Seeing them like that, Otis felt a little deja vu and thought the image wasn’t very strange at all. Like they fit together. He shook his head. Maybe Tom was getting in his head. He vaguely remembered one time when the man ranted to him about how Chat Noir broke his daughter’s heart but that they would have made an adorable couple if it had worked out.

When Otis realized the teens were waiting for an answer, he stood and responded, “Never been better. This old man’s still got a lotta kick in him. How else will I keep up with the monkeys and lions?”

Marinette and Mister Bug sighed in relief while Alya chuckled.

“Well, now that that’s over with, we can get back to the fundraiser if people still want to be here.” Marinette looked around at all the guests who were wandering around finding family and friends—a typical post-akuma sight.

“Why don’t you check what people are saying online?” Mister Bug suggested. He stepped away. “Meanwhile, I’ve gotta find Ladybug and give her Miraculous back.”

As soon as he left, Marinette shuffled her feet. “Oh, phew! That was a wild battle!” she exclaimed. “I suddenly really have to pee!” And off she ran.

“Does she act like that often?”

Alya pulled out her phone and did as Mister Bug said. “Run off while shouting some weird excuse? Yeah, it’s like a daily ritual.”

Thinking it best to ignore it, Otis looked around at the milling guests while Alya relayed online reactions to him. Apparently, more people had tuned in to the live stream during the akuma attack to watch the action in real time and had begun donating again after the defeat. Many expressed the hope that the fundraiser continued, and by the look of things at the zoo, Otis believed that it wouldn’t be much trouble to continue where everything left off.

Minutes later, Marinette and Chat Noir both came running back and Otis shared his thoughts.

“Are you sure?” Marinette asked. “Something made you upset enough to get akumatized and we don’t want you to be forced to feel that way again. We’ve far surpassed our fundraising goal so we can end the night here.”

Otis shook his head. “I’m positive. There’s no reason to shut everything down now when everyone is still eager to see what else we have in store. Besides, the event should run smoothly all the way to the end as long as we find that lying brat and keep her off the premises.”

The other three looked surprised.

“Lila? You ran into her?” Alya asked, looking ready to run off and find the girl herself.

“Heh.”

They all looked to Chat Noir and he gave them a mischievous grin.

“I don’t think we’ll be having any more problems with her today.”

“What do you mean, Chat?”

“Well, Princess, near the end of the battle I spotted a certain opossum getting flung into the penguin habitat. Perhaps we should check there for suspicious characters and get en-closure.”

The girls eyed each other for a moment before they sped off in the direction of the penguins.

Otis chuckled and followed at a more leisure pace, checking in with employees along the way with Chat Noir.

Fifteen minutes later and a soaking wet Lila Rossi was being escorted to a medical tent to change into dry clothes and then warm up for the rest of the evening under the watchful eye of a nurse. Meanwhile the fundraiser festivities continued.

…

The next day, it was announced to all of Paris that Marinette and Chat Noir’s joint zoo fundraiser raised over $5 million because the majority of the city’s population had donated. The most notable donors were the Agreste family, the Tsurugi family, Jagged Stone and the Bourgeois family, with their donations totalling just a little over $2 million alone.

#MariNature trended for a whole week.

To Marinette’s (and Adrien’s) embarrassment, #marichat and #maribug were still being used a month later.

#ml fic #miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #chat noir #otis cesaire #alya cesaire #lila rossi #marichat #maribug #zoos #wildlife conservation #the phony and the famous

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pandawritespoorly · 4 years

Text

A Shy ‘Sparrow’: Chapter 4 - Changes

@starpony999

Author’s Note: Eyy, it's been a while hasn't it? Well here I am! With a new chapter too! I've written more for this story, and I'm getting a better idea of how long it'll be, so I might change the chapter count to a rough estimate once I've posted this.

Chapter Summary: The side effects of a broken miraculous are beginning to catch up with Marinette.

First | Previous | ???

A month since Alya posted that picture, and things aren’t going well. The amount of attacks has almost doubled, and Marinette can’t help but feel that Hawkmoth is targeting her.

If he is, it’s working, because she’s been getting worse, fast.

Alya now shows up at the bakery to walk with her to school each day, because no one wants her to faint in the middle of the street. If Alya is absent, then Adrien or Nino will come to get her.

Her parents have been sending her to a doctor for a while now. She was prescribed something a week ago, and it’ll be starting to take effect properly around… today, actually.

She and Alya arrive at school together as usual. What isn’t usual is that for whatever reason, the school’s population is buzzing in excitement about some girl who transferred in.

“Well, she sounds interesting…” Alya remarks, unsure. The stories seem off somehow.

Marinette hums. She’s not sure about this new girl either.

Her classmates are gathered around a desk in the front. Not tightly, just all facing that way and closer than they normally would be.

“...my sprained wrist hasn’t healed properly, because- Oh! Maybe I shouldn’t tell you. Well, I guess you all seem pretty trustworthy,” the girl looks around carefully. She’s dressed in a gray romper with an orange jacket. Her hair is tied into two ponytails in the front. They resemble sausages more than anything.

It’s certainly a… unique look.

“See, I’m actually Sparrow! Chat and I are dating- Oops! We didn’t want that to be public ye-”

“I don’t believe you,” Marinette cuts in. Another wave of dizziness passes over her, and she clutches at Alya gently, swaying.

Crocodile tears come to the girl’s eyes, “H-how c-c-could you say th-that? I work so much for th-this c-c-city, and this i-i-is the th-thanks I get?” Marinette collapses, falling to the floor. Her classmates gasp, and several rush to help her.

“Oh, so now she’s pretending t-to be sick so that y-you’ll all believe her-” New Girl sneers.

Everyone falls silent, processing what the new girl said.

“What,” Adrien snarls. She pales, but attempts to continue.

“W-well, she c-c-clearly is jealous, and is tr-trying to discredit me, and is looking for sympathy p-points by pretending to-”

“Oh, shut it!” Alya snaps, “Mari has been sick for weeks. I have to walk her to school everyday so that she doesn’t collapse in the street, and just because she didn’t believe your frankly outlandish tall tales, you’re saying that she’s faking it?”

“W-well no-”

“Really? Because that’s what it sounded like to me,” Adrien growls.

“I sh-should go. Jag-”

“Just leave.” Nino glares, “You aren’t welcome here.”

The girl makes her escape, and the class turns their full attention on their favorite pigtailed designer.

Max is muttering medical statistics to Rose and Juleka who are doing their best to revive her. Soon enough, she stirs, putting a hand to her head and groaning.

Both girls hug her, and Max sighs in relief.

“Maybe you should head home, Mari…” Alya hugs her.

“No, I’ll just go to the nurse first, if I need to go home, I’ll call Maman or Papa.” Marinette suggests, “You shouldn’t miss class.”

“Alright…”

After everyone wishes her well and she makes her way to the nurse. Of course, then she hears the sounds of an attack.

No break for her, huh?

Hurrying out the door of the school, she ducks into an alley to transform.

“Duusu, Spread My Feathers!”

Instead of the usual warm calming feeling of magic washing over her, it feels like searing fire. Every bone feels like it’s splintering and her muscles tense. She’s stumbling, but that is barely registered amidst the tidal wave of pain she is drowning in. She coughs, choking on nothing as her throat struggles to function.

Her back hits a wall, and she slides to the ground, falling until she’s nothing but a limp body on the ground, spasming occasionally.

She needs to detransform. She needs to detransform right this second.

Just thinking takes immense effort, so talking is out of the question. She’s relieved when she registers the sound of beeping from far, far away.

A voice echoes around her, something blue flying around above her, mumbling about medication.

“Wha’?” Nothing is coming into focus, but at least the pain is fading, even if she feels sore and utterly exhausted,

“I- I didn’t want to say anything, because it wasn’t completely certain to happen, but often, magic doesn’t mix well with medicine…” the blue thing chirps.

Kwami, she can barely understand French words, let alone identify… anything.

“Wha’?” Everything is swimming again, she still can’t move properly.

The blue thing rushes towards her - hiding, she thinks - as something dark lands in the alley.

“Good Kwami, what happened to you Ma- Miss?”

The dark thing crouches near her, and she does her best to repeat the blue thing’s - Duusu’s - words.

“...medzz...bad..reacshhun…” she manages.

“You had a bad reaction to your medication.” He - Chat Noir - repeats, looking for clarification.

She nods almost imperceptibly, trying to move upright but instead finds that her arms give out and she returns to the ground.

“I can take you home.” Almost as an afterthought, he adds, “Uh, where do you live?”

Marinette does her best to mumble ‘bakery’ and hopes she gets the message across properly. She’s entirely spent.

Chat Noir picks her up as gently as possible, and hurries to get her home without jostling her too much. He hands her off to her parents, doing his best to explain what she’d told him.

They nod, and her Papa takes her to bed while Maman calls the doctor. It doesn’t take long for her to give in to the exhaustion, falling into a restless sleep.

She wakes up a few hours later, feeling weak and tired.

“Duusu?” She croaks. The Kwami immediately flies up to her, looking relieved that she’s awake.

“Marinette! How are you feeling?” She’s uncharacteristically uncomposed, flitting around distractedly looking over her holder.

“Just… really tired. My head hurts, I’m kind of sore…?” She holds her head, staring off in space until something occurs to her. “The akuma! I can’t leave Chat alone!”

She stands quickly trying to get to her balcony, only to fall back onto her bed, feeling shaky.

“Marinette, that was hours ago. You aren’t well.”

“What happened?” She can’t really remember anything past transforming.

“It- I’m sorry. The miraculous uses some of your energy to transform, usually it wouldn’t be noticable, but… it’s broken. It’s trying to use your energy to heal itself, but that’s not going to work. The medication blocked that, but by transforming, you forcibly went against that… so it didn’t end well. My last chosen-” Duusu’s voice cracks, and she tears up, “Oh, Emilie, my poor little peachick…”

She shakes herself out of her mind after a moment, “Since you are younger, there was a chance that the medication wouldn’t have done anything, maybe even help, so I didn’t want to worry you…”

Marinette sighs. “It’s alright Duusu, it’s not your fault the brooch is cracked. Though, maybe I should be trying to fix it. How can I do that?”

Duusu pauses to think. This girl has proven to be very capable, and is certainly responsible. She’s ready to know about the Guardian.

“There’s a Guardian of the miraculous. They are responsible for taking care of and protecting the miraculouses. He is in Paris, that much I am sure of. He is the one who gave Chat Noir his miraculous, and he is in possession of Tikki. Together, they would be able to fix it.”

“Great!” Marinette cheers, “So just tell Chat I need to see the guardian?”

“...no. The Guardian is meant to stay a secret and it’s possible that Chat does not even know of their existence. If you were to out them, it would not look good for you. If Chat does know, he’s probably doing his best to protect him as well, given Hawkmoth’s goal. Telling him that you have to meet with the Guardian and Tikki? It wouldn’t be a good look.”

“Especially after I missed an attack…”

Duusu nods regretfully.

“Can I make sentimonsters for searching? To try and track him down?”

“I suppose. Depending on which Kwami they are the holder of it may not be as effective, but there’s no way of telling.”

---

The peahen heroine is transformed, out on patrol. Her sentimonster already healed the minimal damage from the attack. She’d rested enough earlier that she feels comfortable making another.

Touching another amok to her brooch, she allows the sentimonster to take shape. A dark crow forms in front of her, waiting for instruction.

She holds her hands out to let it rest. “Find the Guardian. Find Tikki. That’s all. Do your best,” she whispers, kissing its forehead and letting it fly away.

A Cat hero in the shadows hears the words and frowns.

That’s not right.

---

Author’s Note: Crows are predators to turtles, you know.

Did I come up with some magical nonsense as to why Marinette can't use medication for the sake of angst? Yes. Yes I did.

This story might be moving faster than you were expecting, but I never intended for it to be as long as With Time. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

Stay safe, and have a wonderful day and night! ☀️🌙

#miraculous ladybug #fanfic #a shy 'sparrow'#marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #Nino lahiffe #lila rossi #hurt marinette dupain cheng #peacock miraculous #peacock!marinette #duusu #side effects of broken miraculous #fainting #i don't usually tag people in updates #but they're the reason i posted today #i had been putting it off #but they were so nice

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into-september · 4 years

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Another thing you can thank my youtube algorithms for:

- Chloé’s akumatised parents, here supposedly symbolising romantic love, are the most toxic relationship I’ve seen in children’s media. I suppose it goes along with the topic of Marinette sabotaging her own love life, with the conclusion that love hurts? I guess?

- There are not enough jokes about Jagged being married to his crocodile

- Chloé claims to love no-one and her mother disagrees because Chloé loves herself. Which is indisputably true, but by this point it’s also been thoroughly proven that Chloé loves her parents, loves Adrien, cares about Sabrina and until this point, cared very much indeed about Ladybug.

- Marinette, André the ice cream man is trying to make you all buy double servings. It’s not that deep. (also German is the only language where he hasn’t been 210% obnoxious, probably because they ditched the accent)

- That SAID I don’t know what to make out of the fact that he’s got the inverse power of Hawkmoth. Where Hawkmoth preys on negative emotions, the creepy ice cream man has some kind of sixth sense for romantic love, or at least did back in “Glaciator”. In “Glaciator” it was also very specific that it was romantic, so the Marinette-Kagami matchmaking here is uh, something, huh.

#miraculous ladybug #let's watch cartoons #mlb meta

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ominousunflower · 4 years

Text

Crazy Composed: Chapter 1

Written for Day 1 (Eye Contact) of @luxyweek

Fic summary: Luka Couffaine is known for his saint-like composure, but five seconds with Xavier-Yves Roth is enough to make him completely lose his cool. And yet, after the two meet again at Le Grand Paris, they somehow find themselves spending more time together—which either means that something is going on between them, or Luka Couffaine has officially gone crazy. (According to his friends, it’s a bit of both.)

Rating: T Word count: 4545

___________________________________

“Thanks for staying to help,” Marinette murmurs to Luka, as she picks up a macaron with a pair of tongs and sets it on a businessman's plate. “I know you only came to the hotel to make a delivery.”

“It’s fine,” Luka says. Pouring another glass of punch, he smiles awkwardly at the businessman, then sets the glass alongside a dozen others. “You needed help, so I’m happy to be here.”

Normally, Luka would stay as far away from a catering event as possible. These sorts of things are always crowded and cramped, loud with chattering, and he tends to prefer quieter, emptier spaces. But the moment he’d walked into the hotel and seen Marinette off to the side wearing a half-smile-half-grimace, he’d resolved to stay and make her job easier.

So far, nothing too bad has happened. From what Marinette has told him, it’s some sort of business conference, which would explain why everyone is wearing suits and ties. Luka feels woefully underdressed in his hoodie and sneakers, but Marinette has assured him that no one will notice what he’s wearing underneath the apron.

The calm shatters when a familiar magenta-haired woman rushes up to the table, slipping between two people in line.

“Oh, Marinette,” Penny says. “Thank goodness. I thought I saw you down here earlier.”

“Penny!” Marinette says, eyes wide. “Um, what is it? Does Jagged need something?”

“There was a meeting earlier with some music folks. Somehow, Jagged and XY ended up in the same room, and…” Penny sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Well, Bob Roth is in another meeting, and neither one of them are listening to me. I assume since you’ve dealt with both of them before…?”

Marinette offers Penny a strained smile. “Say no more! I’ll see what I can do.” She glances at Luka. “Do you want to come? I know you’re a fan of Jagged, but…”

But you got akumatized the last time you spoke to Xavier-Yves Roth and his father. That’s probably what Marinette is too nice to say out loud.

Luka clenches his jaw. “I’ll come with you. Maybe the sight of my face will remind XY to watch himself.” Belatedly, he remembers that Penny is still standing there. He clears his throat. “I’m not going to cause any trouble, I promise.”

Penny just smiles. “I’m sure you two can handle them. Oh, and here—give me that apron, Marinette. I’ll take over while you deal with the problem upstairs.”

Marinette slips off the apron and passes it over to Penny. “What floor?”

“Fourth,” Penny says. “Room 412.”

“Got it.”

Marinette takes off at a sprint toward the elevators, leaving Luka to throw his apron on the table and follow her. They stick to the perimeter of the room, avoiding the crowds of people milling around the center.

“You don’t have to help, you know,” Marinette says, as they wait for the elevator. “I know you and XY aren’t on great terms.”

Luka folds his arms across his chest. He’s used to people thinking that he’s calm and collected, so he doesn’t appreciate the implication that he can’t handle a confrontation with someone who has two letters for a name.

Well, technically it’s just a stage name, but still. How does no one else see how stupid it is?

“I’m fine,” Luka assures her. “I know I didn’t handle things well last time. But I’ve learned from that mistake—I won’t let the Roths get under my skin.”

The elevator dings, and he and Marinette step inside.

Silence falls between them. Now, of all times, Luka is reminded of the fact that Marinette never really responded to his confession. He hasn’t exactly retracted it, and she hasn’t explicitly rejected it, so where do they stand, exactly?

While he’s sure that he still has a crush on her, anyone with half a brain can see that she and Adrien are a perfect match. (Of course, anyone with half a brain could also see that the two of them are probably Ladybug and Chat Noir, so maybe the people of Paris just aren’t that smart.) Luka has a feeling that any romance he starts with Marinette will ultimately lead to her realizing that Adrien is the one for her, and he’s not too interested in being a relationship catalyst.

But Luka is also someone who says what he means, so he’s not going to take back a confession that’s still technically true. Unfortunately, that has resulted in the current awkward silence, where Luka can feel the anxiety rolling off Marinette in waves. No doubt she’s worried that he’ll try to make a move.

Should he say something? No, because what if she’s not thinking that? Then he’ll just seem weird and anxious.

Luka sighs to himself. He wishes that people were easier to understand. Do they really think that his musical talent makes up for the fact that other human beings are a mystery to him? It’s a good cover, he supposes: being able to play a few bars based on a person’s aura, in a smooth way that makes them think he understands them. Why, yes, fellow human, I completely understand you! Listen to this G-major chord! I heard it in your heart.

It’s not a lie, though—Luka does understand emotions. He just doesn’t understand the thoughts that come with them.

Fortunately, Luka’s musings fill up the time it takes to get to Room 412, sparing him from any awkward exchanges with Marinette.

“Yeah, Fang!” an accented voice—unmistakably Jagged Stone’s—yells. “You want this cell phone? Been a while since you had some crunchy technology, huh?”

“Give it back!” another voice whines. Luka rolls his eyes. There’s no question that’s Xavier-Yves Roth.

Marinette glances at Luka, then knocks on the door.

“Why should I give it back?” Jagged snaps. “You were going to post a picture of me with the caption Ragged Stone. I’m not a has-been! I’m rock-‘n-roll!”

Luka sighs. “Is he always like this?”

“Pretty much,” Marinette says. Her foot taps rapidly against the carpeted floor, and she knocks again. “Uh, Jagged! It’s Marinette Dupain—”

The door flies open, and Luka’s sort-of-idol Jagged Stone is standing on the other side, signature guitar slung over his shoulder. “Marinette!” he says, his accent butchering the r in her name. He grabs her shoulder and shoots her a finger gun. “Great! I’m so glad you’re here. Deux-letters here is trying to harass me with his Instagram or whatever. Do me a favor and keep an eye on him? I’m all fired up now, so I need to get a drink or something.”

“Um.” Marinette leans around Jagged and peers inside. “You didn’t actually feed XY’s cell phone to Fang, did you?”

“Nah. I’ve got it right here. I only destroy my property, you know? I’m not a vandal.” Jagged pulls the phone from his pocket and drops it into Marinette’s hand. Then his eyes fall on Luka. “Oh, hey! You’re Marinette’s guitar friend. Luka, right? Sorry for arguing with your mom that one time. You’ve got talent. We should work together sometime! Any friend of Marinette’s is a friend of mine.”

He pats Luka on the shoulder, then squeezes between him and Marinette. Grabbing his guitar, he starts playing it as he walks toward the elevator, filling the hallway with the sound of rock ‘n roll.

Luka stares after him, slightly dazed. “Did he just say he wanted to work with me sometime?”

“He did!” Marinette says. “And he’ll keep his promise, too. Jagged is a good guy.” She purses her lips and puffs out a breath. “But we’ve got a bigger problem.”

“Right,” Luka says, sighing. “Babysitting XY?”

“And Fang,” Marinette says. “Jagged left him here, and I doubt he and XY get along.”

Grimacing, Luka looks through the doorway at Jagged’s pet crocodile. Fang is lounging on a sofa, yellow eyes fixed on XY, who’s draped across an armchair on the other side of the coffee table. XY looks every bit as infuriating as Luka remembers; his lazy pose makes Luka’s fists clench involuntarily.

“Stupid crocodile,” XY says, pouting. He grabs a pillow from behind his back and chucks it at Fang.

Fang growls and catches the pillow in his mouth, his large teeth instantly ripping it to shreds. Soon, all that’s left is a few shreds of fabric and stuffing that have fluttered to the ground.

Luka glares at XY. “Why would you throw something at a crocodile?”

XY shrugs. “It’s just a dumb lizard. Hey, are you room service? I want something to eat.”

Luka deeply inhales through his nose, calling on years of meditation to keep himself calm. “No, I…” He trails off as Fang crawls off the couch and starts plodding toward XY. “Uh.”

Marinette presses XY’s phone into Luka’s hand and rushes forward. “Fang!” she says, in the high-pitched way a person might talk to a puppy. “Hey, there! Who’s a good crocodile?”

Bizarrely, Fang stops and almost seems to smile at her. The song “Never Smile at a Crocodile” plays in Luka’s head, and even though he trusts Marinette to handle things, he can’t help but be slightly concerned.

Marinette pats her thighs and beckons Fang toward her, then starts backing toward a door off to the side. “Fang, do you want a bath? Some nice water? I bet that would feel nice. Why don’t we get you in the bath while we wait for Jagged?”

Apparently bath and Jagged are two of the words Fang knows, because he changes course and walks after Marinette to the bathroom.

“That was unbelievably stupid,” Luka tells XY.

“What do you mean?” XY says, waving a hand as he stares at the carpet. He doesn’t even have the decency to make eye contact with Luka when they’re talking. “Your girlfriend’s got it handled. I figured she would.”

“She’s not my—never mind. I’m not talking to you. It will just make me angry.”

Luka folds his arms across his chest and scans the room, waiting for Marinette to finish drawing Fang’s bath. He can hear the sound of running water echoing from the bathroom, though the noise isn’t as soothing as it could be when he knows it’s for a crocodile bath.

“How am I making you angry?” XY asks. “I’m just sitting here.”

It’s the WAY you’re sitting, Luka almost says, before he realizes how dumb that sounds. Instead, he just shrugs and stares at what little he can see of the bathroom through the open door. All he can make out is Marinette’s shoe and a giant crocodile tail, but it’s better than looking at XY’s face.

“Hey, can I have my phone?” XY asks.

“Why are you asking me?” Luka snaps.

“Because you’re holding it?”

Luka glances down at his hand, where sure enough, he is holding the phone Marinette gave him. The case is covered in some sort of obnoxious bling that makes Luka’s eyes burn. “Oh. Sorry.” Luka crosses over to XY’s chair and holds out the phone. “Here.”

XY grabs it from his hand without looking at him. “Thanks.”

Immediately, XY’s phone starts beeping, and a second later, an alarm tone goes off on Luka’s own cell phone. He digs it out of his pocket and sighs.

“What was that?” Marinette asks, running out of the bathroom with water dripping from her hands.

“Akuma alert,” Luka says flatly.

If his suspicions are correct, he knows exactly how this is about to go.

Marinette squeaks. “I, um—have to—macarons! Penny has no idea how to hold the macarons, and I…need to…go teach her.” She sprints across the room and pauses in the doorway, shifting from one foot to the other. “I’m really sorry, Luka. I hate to leave you two—”

“Go ahead,” Luka says, trying not to sound too resigned. “I know the…uh, macarons are important.”

With a nod, Marinette runs into the hallway and pulls the door shut behind her.

Luka wanders across the room to glance out the ornate hotel window. From this spot on the fourth floor, he can see part of the Place des Vosgues, along with some familiar houses and stores.

As he looks outside, though, he can feel eyes on him. It’s hard to describe—similar to when he senses a person’s mood—but someone is definitely staring at him.

Praying that it is not a hungry crocodile, he slowly turns around.

XY’s blue eyes are fixed on him, staring out from beneath his ridiculous blond hair. His brow is creased ever so slightly, almost with an expression of trepidation. But, well, why would XY be afraid of Luka? Luka’s the one whose career could be ended in an instant by XY’s capricious father. Luka doesn’t have the power to do anything to XY.

Luka stares back, hoping that XY gets the message. Don’t mess with me or my friends.

XY nods slowly and goes back to fiddling with his phone.

Luka’s fingers itch for his guitar, but of course, he didn’t bring it with him, since he thought this would be a quick delivery stop. Mirroring XY, he pulls out his own phone and pulls up his contacts. Surely there’s someone he can text to pass the time…

Adrien Agreste’s name stares back at him from the top of the list. Luka considers it—Adrien is pretty fun to talk to, and would definitely sympathize with Luka’s current plight—but then he realizes that if Adrien is Chat Noir, he’s probably busy fighting the akuma right now.

XY clears his throat. “Uh, you play bass?”

Luka scrolls further through his contacts, because surely XY isn’t talking to him. But when he glances up, XY’s eyes are fixed on him again.

“Me?” Luka says. “I play guitar.”

“Right,” XY says. “That’s the one with six strings.”

Luka barely resists rolling his eyes. “Yeah.”

XY doesn’t respond, so Luka goes back to his phone. He pulls up the Ladyblog and skims it for updates: apparently the akuma is some sort of food-themed monster stomping throughout the city, and Ladybug has yet to summon her Lucky Charm. Based on past data, Alya has projected the battle to last twenty minutes, and advises civilians to stay inside to avoid being trampled.

Really, though, wouldn’t it be better outside? XY isn’t outside. Luka will gladly risk getting crushed by an angry hamburger man if it means escaping this awkwardness.

“And you, uh,” XY says. “You’re in that cat band?”

Luka sighs, keeping his eyes on his phone. “Kitty Section, yeah.”

He braces himself for some taunt about the name—which Luka will fiercely defend, because cats are excellent, thank you very much—but instead XY just says, “Oh, that rings a bell.”

“It should,” Luka says, gritting his teeth, “since we’re the band you and your father stole from.”

“Stole is kind of harsh,” XY says. “I prefer inspired by.”

Luka glares at him. “Is that a joke?”

XY shrugs.

“Have you ever had an original musical thought?” Luka asks, before he can stop himself.

To his frustration, XY gives another shrug. “Eh. Everything’s unoriginal, you know?”

Technically, that’s true, and Luka would agree if the phrase was coming from an actual artist. But it’s coming from XY. Scowling, Luka says, “There’s a difference between unoriginal and plagiarized, you know.”

In Luka’s head and in front of his bathroom mirror, he’s played out this scenario dozens of times, and in those imaginary conversations, he has said much more insulting things to XY. Of course, Luka would never actually say any of those cruel things…but XY is testing his patience.

When he thinks about it, though, XY hasn’t done anything wildly offensive today, except make very unwanted small talk. And that’s infuriating in its own way. Luka wishes he would do something bad, so that his irritation felt more justified.

“Yeah, sorry,” XY says. “I didn’t realize that was illegal.”

“It’s not the illegal part that bothers me,” Luka says. He wonders if he should even bother trying to explain what’s actually wrong. “It’s that my friends and I worked hard on that song, and Marinette worked hard on those costumes, and your father threatened us and undermined our work. But it makes sense that legality is all you two are concerned about. After all, you can’t make as much money if your father is in jail.”

He bites down on his tongue the moment the words are out. Does XY just bring out the worst in Luka? Or does Luka have less self-control than he thought?

“I mean, yeah, we wouldn’t want to get sued,” XY says. He’s now tossing a TV remote up and down, catching it with one hand. He won’t meet Luka’s eyes, which might be for the better; if he did, he’d see Luka’s brief moment of guilt over snapping at him. “Besides, coming up with stuff is hard.”

“So you understand why we were upset,” Luka says slowly.

What, exactly, did he do to deserve this conversation? Is it the fact that he’s flirted with both Marinette and Adrien? Is the universe somehow blaming him for keeping those two apart? Because, if so, that’s wildly unfair. Marinette and Adrien could be the last two people on earth, and they’d still find a way to be oblivious about their feelings for each other.

“You could have been flattered,” XY says. “We thought your stuff was good enough to steal—um, borrow. Or…yeah.”

“Do you even hear yourself?” Luka asks in disbelief.

Maybe XY is wearing noise-cancelling earbuds that Luka can’t see. Maybe that’s how he manages to be so utterly tone-deaf.

“Yeah,” XY says. “Why? Am I talking too loud?”

Luka sighs. “You’re surrounded by music. You perform all the time. You must be able to come up with something on your own.”

Distantly, he thinks maybe he should give up on this conversation. He’s wasting his energy on XY. There are some people who just don’t get it, and this wouldn’t be the first time Luka has exhausted himself for a lost cause. (For instance: trying to convince his mother that maybe some laws are worth following for the public good, and that it might be a bad idea to install actual cannons on the Liberty.)

“Maybe,” XY says with another shrug. Luka thinks his shoulders must be pretty toned from all the shrugging he does. “But why bother, you know? The computers write lyrics and tunes that people like. Guaranteed success. Seems stupid to write my own stuff.”

If success was all that mattered when it came to music, maybe—and for XY and his father, that’s probably the case.

Luka’s curiosity gets the best of him, and he asks, “Have you ever tried to write your own songs?”

“Yeah, once.”

Luka frowns. Is this the set-up for a joke? Is there a punchline? XY doesn’t seem clever enough to set up a joke, given that Ragged Stone was the best insult he could come up with.

XY stops tossing the remote and holds it in his hand, fiddling with the buttons. “When I was eleven, I wrote a few songs and showed them to my dad.” Luka almost asks, Then why didn’t you keep doing that? but XY answers him in the next breath. “He said they were garbage. And I mean, he’d know, right? He’s, like, a music genius.”

Luka has doubts about how much of a music genius Bob Roth is, but he supposes it makes sense that eleven year-old XY would think that. Even now, XY probably conflates success and money with ingenuity.

But Luka’s mind is hung up on one word, blaring in his ears on repeat: GARBAGE.

Luka doesn’t want to have sympathy for XY. Sometimes, people are just rude and nasty, and they don’t deserve Luka’s pity. Unbidden, though, his brain is conjuring up a scene: a little blond kid with less-ridiculous hair, wide-eyed and hopeful, showing his father his songs—only to be told that they’re horrible.

Maybe that’s not how it went down. Maybe XY didn’t care about the rejection. But Luka has a feeling that, deep under XY’s blaisé exterior, he still remembers the pain of being told that his creations were worthless.

Damn it. Now Luka has sympathy for XY.

“That’s ridiculous,” Luka says. He tells himself that he’s just angry on behalf of a fellow musician—because technically, XY is a fellow musician. “I can only imagine if my mom told me that my songs were garbage when I was eleven. I mean, they probably weren’t that good, but—”

“Your songs?” XY interrupts. Luka’s sympathy ebbs, replaced by the irritation he feels every time XY opens his mouth. Luka shouldn’t have mentioned his own music; now XY is going to criticize it, and of course his opinion doesn’t mean anything, but Luka will still be annoyed. “Nah, I don’t believe that. Your music’s good.”

It’s certainly not the most glowing compliment Luka has ever received, and it’s delivered with a shrug—and yet, Luka finds his cheeks warming slightly at the comment. Maybe because he never expected XY to actually compliment someone besides himself.

“Have you…heard my music?” Luka asks.

“Just the one song you played on that broadcast. The one we tried to…” XY trails off, and Luka stares at the side of his head, silently demanding him to finish the sentence. “You know.” Frowning, XY tosses the TV remote onto the sofa where Fang was previously sitting. “At least my dad thought your music was good enough to use.”

Luka winces. “I’m sorry.”

The moment the words leave his mouth, he can’t believe he said them. Did he just tell XY that he feels sorry for him?

“Don’t be sorry that you’re good,” XY says. “He knows talent when he sees it, right?”

“But that’s—that’s stupid,” Luka says, taking a step toward the couch. XY doesn’t look up at him. “Your father should have encouraged your music, or helped you to make it better. He shouldn’t have just—” He growls. “I’m not a big fan of him, so of course I’m not surprised, but that’s still unfair.”

XY tilts his head toward Luka, though he still doesn’t quite make eye contact. “So you’re a fan of me, then?”

“No,” Luka says flatly.

XY nods, seeming unbothered. “Anyway, that’s cool. No one’s ever gotten mad for me. Well, my dad yells at people to make them do things for me, I guess. Does that count?”

Luka resists the urge to facepalm. The way XY says such spoiled things so casually—is this how Adrien feels, dealing with Chloé all the time? Then again, Adrien and Chloé are friends, and Luka and XY certainly aren’t.

Although, if Adrien can be friends with Chloé, does that mean Luka could befriend someone like…?

No. Luka refuses to consider it. He’s not getting involved with someone this rude and high-maintenance. People might think Luka has the patience of a saint, but in fact, he does not. And why would he take XY under his wing, after he and his father tried to screw over Kitty Section? XY’s personal issues aren’t Luka’s problem, and it’s certainly not his responsibility to nurture XY’s creative side.

Xavier-Yves Roth is young, Luka’s conscience says. Of course he makes mistakes. His brain isn’t fully developed yet.

Neither is mine, Luka thinks back. Which is probably why I’m even considering something this stupid.

“You know,” Luka says slowly. “If you…did write another song, and wanted to run it by someone…”

XY is silent for a moment, and then he finally looks up at Luka with a quizzical expression. “You? You’ve never sold albums or topped a chart. You wouldn’t have any useful feedback.”

Ah. Yes. This is why Luka wasn’t going to get involved with XY. Luka sympathized with XY for having his father tell him his offerings were worthless—and then XY turned around and said the same insensitive thing to Luka.

So what if Luka hasn’t topped the charts with an album full of banal, soulless songs? At least he makes music he’s passionate about.

It occurs to Luka that XY isn’t looking at him with scorn in his eyes. He just looks confused, which means he doesn’t even realize that what he just said was insulting.

Since Luka is feeling charitable—and XY’s words are meaningless—he decides to shrug off the comment. “I’m not interested in songs that sell,” Luka says. “I was just offering a second set of ears.”

“Oh.” XY blinks. “I don’t really see what’s in it for me…but, yeah, I guess it could be good practice for you. You know, learning how to work with someone in the industry.”

This is not worth it, Luka thinks. You will gain nothing from helping him.

Be a charitable person, his conscience insists. Do something good without expecting anything in return.

Luka snorts to himself. He’s already helped Ladybug and Chat Noir save Paris several times as Viperion. Isn’t that enough charity for the year?

“What’s so funny?” XY asks.

“Nothing,” Luka says. “I was thinking of something else. I’ll…keep your offer in mind.”

“Sure,” XY says, going back to his phone. “I’m not usually this generous, so, you know—it’s a special offer. I bet a lot of people would be jealous.”

Luka sighs. XY might not know much about music, but he’s certainly talented at infuriating people.

Before Luka manages to think of a response that doesn’t involve scathing sarcasm, there’s a loud knock on the door.

“Luka? XY? It’s Marinette!”

Luka rushes over to the door, checking his phone as he does. According to the Ladyblog, the akuma was defeated about a minute ago.

He opens the door and Marinette runs inside, panting. “Sorry, the, uh—the…”

“Macarons,” Luka supplies.

“Right! Yes,” Marinette says. “But then I got distracted, and, uh—there was an akuma, did you hear? Crazy! I mean, not crazy, because Paris has had a lot of akumas, but, you know…”

“I’m glad you’re back,” Luka says.

Marinette nods, then leans forward and whispers, “How was XY?”

Luka shrugs. “About what you’d expect.”

That feels a bit disingenuous, though. Because XY isn’t quite what Luka expected. Yes, his attitude is infuriating, and he oozes upper-class shallowness—but Luka’s starting to realize that there might be a reason that XY acts the way he does.

Not that Luka intends to stick around long enough to find out.

XY groans and stands. “I guess that lame rock star isn’t coming back for his dumb lizard. You two can watch him. I’m going downstairs to get food or something.”

He crosses the room and brushes past Luka and Marinette without a word. His eyes meet Luka’s as he leaves—and there it is, again, that look of almost wariness.

Then he shrugs and leaves, and Luka and Marinette are alone with a crocodile in a bathtub.

“Thanks for not feeding him to the crocodile,” Marinette says.

“Yeah, well.” Luka shrugs. “I didn’t want to give my favorite rock star’s pet indigestion.”

A second later, they hear a grunt and a crack, followed by a tidal-wave splash; and for the moment, at least, Luka’s thoughts of Xavier-Yves Roth are forgotten.

#luxy #luxyweek2k20 #ml fic #ml fanfiction #luka couffaine #xy roth #xavier-yves roth #miraculous ladybug #my fic

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