Summary: As their friends announce their engagement, Adrien asks Marinette to fake date him. His plan is to eventually ask out the girl of his dreams, though Marinette's too oblivious to realise he's talking about her. AU.
Rating: Explicit.
(adrien's seduction tactics are questionable.)
a smutty commission for the lovely @brinja!!! ψ(`∇´)ψ
one-shot
“My confidence is high right now, but one stutter and it'll plummet again,” Adrien replied, brushing his hair out of his face. “What if I panic? Or—or what if we're just talking and I get the wrong idea and try and... hold her hand?”
She glanced down to where he was holding hers.
“Not like this!” he spluttered, taking his hand back.
“You go with the flow,” Marinette said, snatching it back and linking their fingers together. Gazing into his eyes, she explained, “You pay attention to her responses to see if it's okay.”
He swallowed. “How do I know?”
“Well, you could ask,” she replied. “Consent is sexy.”
“Ask?”
“Ask,” she confirmed with a nod. “You can handle that, right?”
He didn't hesitate. “No.”
“Try it,” she suggested, giving his hand a little squeeze. “Ask me.”
His eyes grew wide.
She smiled.
“Do you—would you kiss me?” Adrien questioned.
Marinette leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “I'd suggest phrasing it differently.”
He made a choked noise.
“Words are better,” she teased.
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Bad Newts: Amphibians are in Serious Trouble
My colleagues and I have just had a paper published in Nature, based on our efforts to assess almost all amphibian species for the IUCN Red Lists. The major takeaway messages:
It is a bad time to be an amphibian
Two fifths of all amphibians are threatened with extinction.
Salamanders are the most threatened group; three fifths of all salamanders are threatened with extinction!
Climate change is a major driver of amphibian declines globally
Habitat loss, especially due to agriculture, is a problem for the vast majority of amphibians
Chytrid pandemics have caused and continue to cause catastrophic declines of both salamanders and frogs
Protected areas and careful management are working as strategies! They are actively improving the outlook of some species
As many as 222 amphibian species may have gone extinct in recent times; of those, 185 are suspected extinct but not yet confirmed.
Our paper is Open Access, you can read it here!
Photo of Atelopus hoogmoedi by Jaime Culebras, used with permission
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