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inkskinned · 5 months

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in internet posts it is easy to cut them out of your life. they are hurting you! they aren't listening to you!

they held your hair back. they lent you lipstick. they held your hand at the train station and got you home safe. they rounded on your bully, got loud, said get fucked, spitting-mad in your defense.

they also cut the hair off again. told you that you should really think twice before wearing something like that. took you for granted. took your insecurities and threw them in your face again.

you know logically it should be easy. all the internet advice comments always read it will feel better. like an equation - if a person is rotten, you just remove them. you pull the tooth that's hurting.

but it was never a big flare-up moment. you don't live in a sitcom. they never tried to take your boyfriend or steal from your apartment. they showed up to birthdays and they wrote songs about you and bring you water without you asking. once you found out they carry an emergency inhaler for you, even though you haven't had an asthma attack in years - just in case.

where is the line? people fuck up. sometimes they fuck up badly. sometimes people have raw personalities, like a powerline, and being around them is dangerous. addicting. sometimes they can't help themselves, but you know they're trying. sometimes they are just rough-around-the-edges. sometimes they don't even realize how they sounded when they said that. sometimes it's just - you've both loved each other for so long now, the way this thing hurts goes back to the root.

and that's the fucked up part. you have pushed your fingers against the sweetheart of memory. things these days are electric, tense, harrowing. they didn't used to be. there were a lot of good days in there. sometimes you want to just close your eyes and say can this be over yet? do we still need to be fighting?

doing that would give up any chance you get of getting an apology, but you don't always know that you need an apology, you love them. once they flaked on your birthday party. once they told you to get over it, people are always dying. they also let you crash on their couch for a week after the breakup, handfeeding you when you were so sad you couldn't eat. they are also judgmental about everything, occasionally react to banal statements with an attitude that is weird and fiery. they also love you like a lighthouse sometimes, so strong they cut the storm like lightning.

but the problem is that you might be storm. you might be the thing that needs breaking. what if you are two forces who are desperately, horribly drawn to each other, shaped by the other person's passions, and both good for each other and bad in equal measure.

what if you're both just people, and you're no saint neither.

just cut them off! swallowing the saltwater, you catch yourself in the mirror. you've been shaking more than usual. there's an ache in you that is oblique, loud, impossible to soothe. is this what it looks like? when life is "easier"?

your mouth will always have a hole, is the thing, if you remove the tooth.

#spilled ink #warm up #writeblr #this is about someone specific but feel free to blorbo on main.#tbh this is familial for me so that is an element but it's also about childhood best friends #and probably about ur enemies to lovers blorbo #(but i want to specifically say if ur partner is like this. not necessarily a good partnership lol.)#(the dynamics at play in familial/friend relationships feel equally important and in some ways are HARDER to escape.#bc we can see that this is a potentially toxic romantic foundation.#but in family ? ...... it's toxic and it doesn't stop u from loving them. bc u always have.#and i think that makes it harder. by a lot. which is what this is referencing).#but genuinely and really truly forever feel free to tag ur potentially toxic enemies to lovers on this and all my poetry #here i'll do one for u - adora & catra :x

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 1 year

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The enemy of my enemy is ALSO my enemy, Part 5

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Jason quickly got into a sort of rhythm. Quickly got used to being around the group of four. He learned that Adrien took full advantage of the few cheat days his model lifestyle afforded him, and would gorge himself on every pastry he got his hands on, to the point where he often ended up getting sick. Learned that Marinette actually liked making outfits, but never gave any of her actually good designs to her boss, stating that Gabriel Agreste wouldn’t appreciate her genius anyways. That Plagg would randomly light random things on fire just so he could watch everyone panic. That Tikki created those things solely so he could do so without ruining anything actually important, that she chose things that would burn in interesting patterns or have colorful flames to make it into a show for everyone. Adrien liked to laze in windowsills. Marinette was impossible to wake up in the morning…

And, in turn, they got used to him. They learned he hated chocolate cake with a passion. Learned that he knew expensive fabrics from inexpensive ones from a glance, and that he knew how to make inexpensive ones look expensive. That he liked touching the flames to feel the strangeness that was something that was undeniably warm but felt like nothing at the same time. That he could rattle off chemicals and their properties off the top of his head. He had a tendency to hang upside down from the ceiling. He could be very annoying when he wished to be…

Which was how they made a discovery.

It was late at night. He’d taken to draping a wing over the pair of them as they slept. They couldn’t feel it, of course, but it relaxed him when he was able to see their heads poking out from beneath his wing, to see it tucked up to their chin like a normal blanket, all of the weariness of their expressions leaving while they drifted from one dream to the next. And he would spend the entire night reading the classics with Plagg and Tikki, because they had to do something while the humans slept.

An alarm blared.

Like a puppet on strings, Adrien sat up in one jerky motion, throwing everything off of him, his head jerking back and forth in search of the phone that was screaming at him about an akuma.

Jason pointed it out for him, and Adrien immediately turned to look, swiping the phone from the ground and starting to look over the information that had been gathered so far.

Which left everyone else to try and wake Marinette.

Plagg, Tikki, and Jason immediately set to their usual routine. Tikki procured a fog horn out of thin air. Plagg ripped the blankets, and Jason started mimicking her mom yelling for her to get up for school in hopes of triggering a latent fear response.

But it wasn’t working. Unsurprising, considering she had stayed up later than normal designing, but still… she needed to be up.

And Jason, in his infinite wisdom, had slapped her.

There was a beat of silence that followed.

Adrien’s head snapped over as realization hit him, and it was this that made Jason notice something:

The slap had made a sound.

Marinette sat up slowly, rubbing her cheek with a frown.

Jason looked at his hand for a moment, and then at her. He reached for her again and tried to touch her face, only to find his hand went right through her.

His eyebrows knit together for a moment.

And then his eyes caught on the soul that was hovering just next to her, an inch to the right of her real face.

The soul that always seemed to disappear while she was asleep.

… now that he thought about it, wasn’t it strange that he could drape his wing over the pair of them while they were asleep? How could he do so without exerting a crazy amount of effort to make sure his wing was always hovering just over them? Why had it always felt like he was… resting it on them?

He slowly reached out and pressed his finger to the tip of the soul’s nose.

Marinette and the soul blinked. She went cross-eyed for a moment, and he could see her still half-awake mind struggling to figure out why there was something touching her and yet his finger wasn’t even all that close.

And then both she and her soul jerked back, something akin to terror on both of their faces.

Strangely, they both moved to shove their hands behind themselves.

Adrien’s soul, however, had opted to reach for him, poking at his face in a way that seemed to be more like a test than anything. Jason could only stare. It was… strange. He’d never really bothered to touch the souls, to test what exactly their properties were. And, even if he had wanted to, why would he check to see whether he could touch them? He couldn’t touch anything else, why would souls be different?

Maybe because it was his supposed ‘domain’, as a sorter of the dead?

All he could do was theorize.

Not that he could bring himself to care that much about it at that moment, because he was being pulled in a hug.

A choked sound escaped him as he was enveloped in the soul’s arms, and he could only stay there, limp and motionless.

Slowly, he wrapped his arms and wings around him, burying his face in the crook of his neck.

He wondered, absently, how it must have looked to everyone else. He was hugging air, in their eyes.

He didn’t care.

After a couple of hesitant moments, Marinette’s soul reached out and gave his hair a quick ruffle before retreating.

He slowly drew back to give her a confused look, only to find her sitting on her hands.

Now he really must have looked confused, because Marinette gave a tiny laugh that held no real humor.

She looked down. “Sorry, I just… mom used to tell me all about how you couldn’t hold ghosts’ hands, because they’d drag you back to their ‘home’...”

Adrien’s soul stiffened just slightly, and then relaxed in a way that seemed like he was consciously telling himself to lighten up, before hugging Jason tighter.

“I know it’s dumb, but…” She gave an awkward kind of smile. “I mean, I can’t even fall asleep without making sure my hands are hidden. Sorry if I can’t really…” She waved a hand vaguely before grimacing and hiding it away once again.

Jason slowly drew an arm back, looking down at his hand for the second time that night.

He didn’t know if it was true… but… he kind of hoped so. That would mean that, if he found Hawkmoth, he could deal with the man. His two humans wouldn’t even have to risk themselves.

“So… I hate to break up the moment…” Tikki began. “But… akuma.”

“Oh fuck.”

Jason hummed as he watched the butterfly flutter off.

Adrien glanced over, running a hand through his shaggy blond hair. Jason thought the shaggy mess suited him far better than the gelled, perfectly maintained one his father made him do.

But that was neither here nor there.

“What’s up?”

Jason hummed again, a long, low note, watching the tiny insect disappear around a corner. “I’ve been thinking… the butterflies don’t always leave in the same direction, so Hawkmoth has to get them from somewhere, right?”

“Already checked out all of the butterfly gardens,” Marinette said, shrugging her shoulders. Or just rolling them. She’d taken a pretty harsh hit to the back during the fight, and even Tikki’s magic couldn’t quite shake off the feeling that things should hurt.

Jason grinned, though. “That makes it even easier, don’t you think? I mean, how many people are just buying a bunch of butterflies for no reason?”

Adrien yawned into his hand, and then jerked his head toward an alley that he and Marinette would be able to detransform in. “Eh. My dad gets them all the time. He uses them to honor my mom, I think he said.”

“Then he’s one of those people,” he shrugged. “I’ve still got a point, though. It’s not exactly normal to do that.”

“Tiny problem with that, Robin. We don’t know how to figure out who is buying a shit ton of butterflies.”

Jason’s grin turned sharp. “Well, what if I told you I have a lot of hacking experience?”

“Ugh, stop being a backseat typer,” Marinette groaned as Jason leaned over her shoulder to squint at her screen.

“Do you want this to work?” He said, dropping his chin onto the shoulder of her soul, which was currently filing its nails (don’t even ask him how that worked, he couldn’t tell you). Said soul didn’t even flinch, more than used to Jason’s clinginess at this point. As long as he didn’t get too close to their hands, which were just barely inching away from him, it didn’t seem to mind him. And he liked being able to actually touch things.

(Especially since those things were his friends, but don’t tell them that. They’d get a big head about it.)

She groaned. “But you’re so annoying,” she whined, no real heat in her words as her soul leaned her head against his.

“Learn how to code and I won’t have to correct you every other second.”

“At this point I’m going to do that purely to spite you.”

He snickered.

He sighed as Adrien curled in on himself. It had been… a particularly long photoshoot, with someone that he apparently did not like.

Jason looked at him for a long moment.

He took a seat next to him and, after stretching out his wing in a slow, exaggerated way that allowed Adrien plenty of time to lean away, he wrapped it around him, dragging the blond into his side.

Adrien sniffled.

“Your wing feels weird.”

Jason huffed a little.

“Do you want comfort or not?”

Adrien’s soul wrapped its arms around him.

They didn’t move for a long time.

“So… the reason you look so young is…” Plagg began, the normally lively kwami’s expression surprisingly soft.

Jason shrugged a little, his eyes never leaving the window. It was raining, heavy droplets beating against the glass, a steady pattern that made tiny shivers run up and down his spine.

After a couple of moments, Plagg sighed and looked down, quiet for a long moment, especially by the kwami’s standards.

Flames began to flicker in front of the kwami, and Jason snickered a little before reaching out and touching it.

It was nice to watch it dance along his finger tips. A reminder that fire couldn’t hurt him anymore.

If he murmured a thanks, then the word got lost in the crackle of flames and the quiet pitter-patter of raindrops.

Tikki tipped her head to the side thoughtfully. Surprisingly so, considering she was just eating a cookie. You would think it wasn’t really a thought-provoking thing…

Jason raised an eyebrow at her.

She smiled a little. “Hey, you can feel things, right?”

“Kinda…” he said carefully. It wasn’t quite feeling, because he wasn’t actually touching, but it was certainly something.

She nodded once to herself, though, as if the noncommittal answer meant something.

She floated up to his face and, before he could really react, shoved the cookie into the place where his mouth was.

It… tasted.

Not quite right, mind you, it was a muted flavor that was tinged with an ashiness that he would have thought was because the cookie had been burned if it weren’t for the fact that it was a perfect golden brown… but it was something.

He grinned at her and leaned into the cookie, pressing his nonexistent tongue against it.

It was… nice.

Jason absently flitted from place to place in Adrien’s house, glowering at Gabriel Agreste from the rafters as the man made his way through the mansion, a box cradled in his hands.

Why?

Because he sucked. Constantly making Adrien self-conscious about his looks, berating Marinette even when she followed his instructions perfectly, using his interns’ designs without coming up with any of his own but basking in all the praise regardless, forcing his own son into uncomfortable situations for the sake of bland photo shoots… the list went on, really, and Jason could make a powerpoint of all of the things he hated about the man, but no one wants to talk about how much they despise someone for quite that long, much less do they want to read a list that had well over a hundred bullet points.

Also, perhaps more importantly, even if Jason personally thought it was secondary, the man was suspicious.

He hadn’t missed that the man fit what they knew about Hawkmoth: a tall, white male, who lived in the richest area of town and bought a frankly concerning amount of butterflies.

But, really, if he was going to be a supervillain, shouldn’t he be trying to hide the fact that he was a terrible person? Literally at all?

Still, the man was suspicious. No innocent man walks like that.

Jason flitted after him, jumping from shadow to shadow.

And then, to his surprise and yet not at all, the man walked up to a painting of his deceased wife. And pressed his fingers to a few places.

The painting swung forward on an invisible hinge.

A kwami not that unlike Tikki and Plagg appeared at his shoulder, and Jason only just caught sight of the purple being before the painting swung shut behind them.

As if to confirm the theory, an akuma was spotted not even a few minutes later.

Jason looked at the pair of kwamis, his expression uncharacteristically serious. Marinette and Adrien were at work, it was just the three of them, sitting in the too-pink room.

“Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth,” he said, opting to cut to the chase. “I don’t want Adrien to know. If it all works out, I want you to take the miraculous off of Gabriel’s body while they’re looking away.”

He got two determined nods in response.

Maybe, even if Jason wasn’t a god like them, they still had a few things in common.

“Hey, guys…” he began carefully, his eyes never quite meeting theirs. “I’ve found Hawkmoth. I’m going to drag him down with me. I… don’t know if I’ll be able to come back after.”

The pair of humans went very still.

“Who…?” Adrien began.

Jason only shook his head, a watery smile on his face. “I’ll be back in a couple of years, okay? I’ll come look for you.”

“Not if we find you first,” Marinette said, her voice wavering just slightly.

He smiled. “Jason Todd.”

The pair gave him wide-eyed looks.

“Hm?” Adrien said, his tone so careful, as if he wasn’t quite sure he should believe it.

“That’s my name. Jason Todd.”

“Fucking lame-ass name,” Marinette mumbled.

He laughed wetly and opened his arms.

Their souls immediately found their places in them.

“Gabriel Agreste!” Jason chirped.

The man jerked around to look at him, his eyes wide. He rested a hand over his heart, and Jason was left wondering if it was a natural reaction to being scared or because his miraculous was there.

Not that it mattered.

Jason touched down on the ground in front of him, smiling a smile that was far too wide for his face. “Or, I guess I should say, Hawkmoth. Proper titles are important, after all.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

His already pasty face was draining of the little color it had and he began backing up, away from Jason.

“Cut the shit. Sir. I watched you disappear into your secret lair – tacky, by the way, villains use abandoned warehouses nowadays – and don’t think I’ve missed all of your interesting expenses. Like, really? A glass coffin? Doesn’t that just scream something suspicious is going on? That you’re not actually moving on? That you intend on preserving her, in some way or another?”

Gabriel stammered for a moment before standing up straighter. He still seemed short in comparison to the boy, whose wings were beginning to stretch behind him. The shadows themselves seemed to gather around him, enveloping the pair.

“What’re you…” The shadows were, in fact, actually moving, and Gabriel’s voice started shaking as the black tendrils started winding their way up his legs. “... going to do about it?”

“Help you move on,” he said breezily. “I mean, is there a better way to make you stop grieving over her than giving you something much worse to worry about?”

The man didn’t respond. His breathing was getting rapid, dangerously so. His back hit the wall, and he started sinking towards the ground, curling in on himself, his hand still clutching at his chest.

“You’ve made my job pretty difficult as of late,” he said, his expression falling into a mock pout for half a second before the smile won out again.

“I… I can make it up to you!” The man rushed to placate him.

“Oh, you will,” Jason promised.

He didn’t know how he knew it would work. Didn’t know why he was so sure of what he was doing. Didn’t know why he had managed to go months without dragging anyone ‘home’ with him but now had no problems finding his path back.

But did any of that matter?

No.

All that mattered was that he lunged forward and grabbed ahold of his soul’s hand.

The ground opened up at their feet.

The inky blackness swallowed them both whole.

They hit the ground.

Or, at least, Gabriel did. His body crunched when it hit the familiar tile of Lazarus Holdings. Jason had made sure to land with more grace – though he did opt to drop the last few feet, slamming his feet into the man’s back and forcing him even further into the floor.

A pair of clipped butterfly wings had sprouted on his back sometime during their descent, it had been too dark for him to see, but now they hung at an odd angle, bent unnaturally where Jason had landed on them.

The room had gone very quiet.

Jason snatched a file out of thin air.

Gabriel Agreste.

Died of a heart attack in Paris, France, at 16:20.

To be revived –.

He tossed the papers in a nearby shredder.

And then he turned to the room at large. Bucky and Melisande were still there, and they were looking at him like they had seen a ghost. Which was silly of them. Of course they had seen a ghost, nothing else would be down here, after all.

“There should be no more ladybugs.”

He stepped off the man and grabbed him by the back of his ugly candy cane suit, dragging him up onto shaky feet.

“And, I found us a new worker! I hope everyone gives him a very warm welcome, because he’s going to be around for a long time.”

#one more until we done #:D this was gonna be the end but then izzy and i evilled #now there is another chap to be done #enemy of my enemy #maribat #the enemy of my enemy is also my enemy #platonic jasonette #jason todd #red hood #ladybug #chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste

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