“Sorry I’m late Ames,” Sonic said guiltily as he dropped onto the couch beside her. “I got a little caught up with some bots and stuff on the way over. You know how it is.”
“I do, and it’s fine. I’m just glad you made it,” Amy replied, offering up a kind smile.
“Did I miss much?” Sonic said, nodding towards the movie that was currently playing across the screen. He squinted at it as he tried to place what was going on. “What are we watching again?”
“It’s some old silent movie about dancing I think. I’m not too sure but the dances are really good. You haven’t missed too much.”
“Alright, sounds cool,” Sonic said, shuffling on the couch to get more comfortable as he turned to flash her a smile. Amy responded in kind but that look on his face was so magnetic that she couldn’t tear her gaze away. Not until she’d taken a good look at him.
Forget the movie.
With Sonic’s windswept quills and bold green eyes, Amy could have dreamily stared at him all night. Perhaps she would she thought, biting her lip as the hint of a sigh escaped her. The sound was loud enough for the boy to pick up and he turned to look at her.
The way I want Adrien to develop a crush on Marinette in canon, or at least realise that he has a mega crush on Marinette, is for him to find out about the future she had planned for the two of them.
Let’s say Marinette has a special sketchbook. This sketchbook is filled with drawings of their future house, of Adrien as an adult in multiple occupational settings, of Marinette and Adrien’s wedding, and most importantly, their future children.
Let’s say Marinette had accidentally brought this sketchbook to school instead of her regular one. Let’s say she accidentally dropped this sketchbook while rushing out of school to help go meet Mme. Chamack to go babysit Manon.
Let’s say Adrien was nearby and picked up the sketchbook.
He wasn’t able to call out to her before she ran off, so he kept it, deciding to give it back to her tomorrow. He gets into his car and is driven home.
Of course, though, he’s a cat, curious through and through. It wouldn’t hurt to take a peek, right? Besides, Marinette’s such an excellent designer, maybe he could put in a good word to his father.
He didn’t expect to see the wedding dress on the first page, a self-portrait of her in an intricate bun and gorgeous white lace. It’s mesmerizing. It makes him excited, already imagining her at her wedding, her giddy smile as she stands before her future groom.
He turns the page. His cheeks burn.
The future groom is apparently him.
There he is, in a sunny, shiny beige suit and a wide, toothy grin. His hair is messy and his tie’s a bit loose, and it surprises him how specific she was in those details. That she wasn’t expecting him to be perfect. That she didn’t want him to be perfect.
His heart thuds loudly in his chest, and he turns the page.
It’s him in a lab coat, standing beside some complex piece of machinery that Marinette had definitely searched references to. Beside him is the single word “Physicist.”
He turns the page again.
It’s him in a simple suit, wearing a tacky tie, standing in front of a chalk board and talking to a group. Beside this drawing, the word “Professor” is written.
Once again, he turns the page.
It’s him in his fencing uniform, standing on top of a podium. In one hand, he is holding a shiny medal that’s wrapped against his neck, grinning right beside it. In the other hand, he holds his foil, his helmet tucked under his arm. “Fencer.” He didn’t need to read the word to guess that one.
He turns at least fifteen pages, each one of him in a different occupation, something related to one of his hobbies or likes, even things he’s only ever had a casual interest in. He nearly laughed at the sight of him as an ice dancer. He won’t lie, he did like ice skating, but really?
It’s the last one that leaves him in near tears.
It’s him laying casually on a couch, two little boys tucked under each of his arms, and one little girl curled up against the center of his chest. All four of the people in the picture are fast asleep in front of a TV. “Stay-At-Home Dad” was written next to this drawing.
He chokes down his sob. The driver looks at him through the review mirror in concern, and sees the wide smile across the boy’s face. Happy tears, then.
The next page shows the three children together. He smiles wider at the sight of their last names.
Hugo Dupain-Cheng-Agreste
Louis Dupain-Cheng-Agreste
His eyes land on the girl’s name, and his heart stops.
Emilie “Emma” Dupain-Cheng-Agreste.
He stares, and stares, and stares. Then he closes the sketchbook, and brings it close to his chest, almost scared of the idea of letting it go. He looks out the window and sees the mansion. They’ve apparently been here for quite some time.
He scurries to his room, locks the door, and doesn’t come out until he’s memorized every single page of the sketchbook. Damn the consequences.
He eats dinner that night in a trance. Gabriel even comes down to eat with him, informed by a worried Nathalie of his son’s strange behaviour. Adrien barely acknowledges his presence, too occupied with his thoughts, smiling as though he were floating peacefully on a cloud. Nothing anyone says gets through to him.
He imagines his life with Marinette. Her in a pretty, professional bun and shy, loving smiles, dressed up as she’s about to go to her office as a head designer. Him in casual, comfy clothing as he makes breakfast for their family of five, kissing the cheeks of his three children and the lips of his wife. He’d help the kids get dressed, brush their teeth, and take them to school. Take care of their hamster at home, because they most certainly will have a hamster, he guarantees it. He’ll bring a home cooked lunch directly to his wife’s work, and she’d drop everything to take a lunch break with him because that’s the kind of person she is— attentive… loving…
Beautiful, his mind supplies. Her smile, her personality, her work. All of it absolutely gorgeous. He doesn’t even pretend to disagree. Marinette had planned this whole life around him. She knows what she wants. Her position as a fashion designer won’t change, nor will her future wedding dress. But she left his role in her life so open. Every option is catered around what he’d possibly want in the future. All the occupations he could choose from, their children’s names, where they’d live, who would take whose last name, etc, etc.
He buries his face into his pillow and giddily kicks his feet, his thoughts once again remembering Emilie “Emma” Dupain-Cheng-Agreste. She wants to name their future daughter after his mom.
He cries himself to sleep that night, but unlike every other time, it’s tears of happiness.
He wakes up the next day with a single mission on his mind.
I,,, damn I guess I’ll write a little bit of it then because I rEALLY WANT TO ANYWAYS SO—
Adrien slams the car door behind him, closes his eyes, and takes in a deep breath. He can feel the outline of Marinette’s sketchbook through his bag, pressed against his thigh. He can visualize every intricately drawn picture in his mind, having spent hours last night memorizing every page, every word.
He opens his eyes and smiles.
Marinette’s not here yet. It’s not a surprise, she’s usually late. Thats fine. In fact, it gives him time to enact his plan.
His eyes locks on Alya, standing at the steps and conversing— ah, wait, scratch that— flirting, with Nino. He makes a beeline towards the two, much too focused on his current mission to really care whether he interrupts them or not.
After all, his and Marinette’s future is on the line here.
“Hey, Alya. Sorry, can I talk to you for a sec? It’s super important.”
The Ladyblogger raises an eyebrow, clearly not impressed with his interruption. She nods anyways, kissing Nino’s cheek goodbye, and lets Adrien drag her into the locker rooms.
“Alright, Sunshine, what’s so important that you had to speak to me in private?”
Alya raises a skeptical eyebrow once again as he glances around at their surroundings. No Chloé or Lila, good. The only person who could plausibly be obnoxious or nosy would be Kim, but he seems to be too busy grinning down at his phone— probably texting Ondine.
Alya’s eyebrow arches even higher as Adrien reaches into his bag, angling his body to hide the sketchbook from the entryway’s view.
At the sight of the familiar book, the forbidden sketchbook that Marinette usually keeps locked away similarly to her diary, Alya’s jaw drops.
“Oh, fuck.”
Quickly, she snatches the book out of the boy’s hands, clutching it to her chest.
“How the hell did you get this, Agreste?!” She hisses, keeping her voice low as to not attract attention. “What, did you sneak into Marinette’s room or something?! Dude!”
“What? No! No, she, uh,” Adrien pauses, his cheeks going pink at the sight of the sketchbook, momentarily distracted. He shakes his head and tunes back into the present. “She dropped it on the school steps yesterday. She left before I could give it back to her.”
Alya doesn’t seem totally convinced, and he doesn’t entirely blame her, especially after the Diary Incident featuring Sabrina and the trap box.
“Did you look at what’s inside?”
This time, his cheeks go flush with shame. Still, he can’t help the besotted smile that stretches wide across his face at the reminder.
Three kids and a hamster.
Stay-At-Home Dad.
Emilie “Emma” Dupain-Cheng Agreste.
He’s snapped back into reality at the sound of surprised laughter. Alya looks positively delighted, for some reason, despite the fact that he basically just admitted to snooping with the use of his face.
“Oh, god, you’re just as bad as her!”
At this rate, he’s going to turn into a tomato.
“I, that, whuh,” he splutters. “I’m not bad! There’s nothing bad! Wait, what? I mean— Oh, forget it! Alya, quit laughing already, I need you to do something for me! Please?”
Dutifully, she stops laughing, but her grin goes nowhere. There’s a terrifying glint in her eyes, which would normally speak bad news if he were Chat Noir at the moment. Thankfully, he isn’t.
“Name it, Sunshine. I’ve been waiting for this for way too long.”
He briefly wonders just how long, exactly, Marinette’s been fantasizing about their future. He quickly brushes away the thought before he falls victim to another daydream.
“I need you to hand that back to Marinette and tell her you found it this morning under the locker room benches.”
Alya’s previously excited expression morphs into confusion, with a flicker of anger.
“Excuse me?”
What she doesn’t say is, “You better not pretend as if nothing’s changed and string Marinette along, you dick.” The implications are still there, and wisely noted.
He flashes a downright devious smirk, which catches his companion completely by surprise. He takes one more look at their surroundings, Lila and Chloé still nowhere to be seen. He leans in a little and whispers.
“Well, it’s more fun to flirt with my future wife if she doesn’t have any way to see it coming, right?”
He turns and casually walks over to his locker, leaving Alya gobsmacked.
As Adrien finally leaves the room, Alya’s elation begins to set in. Quickly, she reaches for her phone and deletes as many old akuma videos as she can.
She’s going to need that storage space in the very, very near future.
Felix pasted back and forth thinking about what to do next. Poor Marinette was so emotional drain that she finally fell asleep and His and her parents were talking about what to do next.
Felix bit down the bubbling rage inside him, he wouldn’t be much help as an akuma right now but oh boy was she angry.
The anger was quickly gone when the doorbell rang. His parents had ordered pizza for them as no one really wanted to cook after all the stress.
Felix ran to the door as the doorbell kept ringing.
“So did you get the t-“ Felix started before finally meeting a pair of green eyes. His indifferent soon turned to rage.
“Hey cos, long time no see” Adrian said sheepishly.
“Not nearly long enough” Felix sneered our at the boy. Who flinched big regained his confidence and walk up to Felix.
“Look I need to see Marinette so please move” Adrian said trying to get Felix out of he way.
Oh if Felix wasn’t angry before he was now. Felix shoved him out the door before slamming it behind him, leaving Felix and Adrian all alone.
“Hey I need to see Marinette”
“And you won’t be seeing her now leave” Felix said with hatred in his eyes.
“Look Felix what happened with Marinette was a misunderstanding” Adrian tried.
“Not from where I sit”
“Look she over reacted. She did that with Lila and now she doing it now. Please I need to see her”
“So you can talk her out of it?”
“Yes, it work out last time so I-“ Adrian didn’t get the chance to finished as a fist collided with his nose. Adrian held his blood nose looking up at his cousin.
“Feli-“
“SHUT UP” Felix yelled, warning Adrian’s silents.
“Now listen Alice, and listen good. I am sick and tried of your cowardly ways. Call it kindness or being the better person, you just avoiding a BEEPING problem and it doesn’t make it go away. You want to be BEEPING coward going ahead you spineless worm but do not bring me or Marinette down because we dare to have a spine. It will be my job to stop stuff one day, I can’t afford to go be the spineless wimp you are. And Alice because your so spineless you don’t deserve Marinette, you don’t deserve her presence, you don’t deserve her kindness, Hell you don’t even deserve to breath her same area.
You don’t deserve her, just like how you and your crook of a father didn’t deserve my aunt”
Felix was now breath heavily trying to keep his anger down now, looking at Adrian shock face was enough to bring it down. Using his normal monotone voice his left his final hit.
“As A child I was your friend. As I grew up I saw all the terrible flaws you and your father both ignore. Make no mistake Alice I hate you”
He said his final he turned and opened the door before closing it. Adrian’s lock outside and now stunned. Felix held his breath lost in thought.
“Why do you call me Alice, Felix?” A young Adrain asked.
“Alice is curious just like you are Adrian” Felix replies smoothly.
“Will be friends forever right Felix?” Adrian ask with a smile earning one from Felix too.
“Of course Alice”
Felix was now sitting on the ground, back to the front door, fighting back tears.
It would be hard on her because duty vs desire. But it leads to Ladrien so if you’re pro-Ladrien then it’s the best solution/rejection but if you’re anti-Ladrien then deception fics happen.
But can I throw out some worse ones?
- Rejecting Marinette because after her constantly trying to out Lila, Adrien just doesn’t see her as a good person
- Rejecting Marinette because he thinks she is merely confused after being rejected by Chat Noir
- Rejecting Marinette because Gabriel won’t allow it to happen so she knows the feelings are returned but will never be anything
- Rejecting her because she’s too late, Kagami asked him out that morning and they’re now dating
- Mum zoned (it has happened in at least 1 manga I read) or sister zoned showing Adrien could never think of her in a romantic way. For some reason that hurts me
- He accepts during an akuma attack, but afterwards says no because it wouldn’t be fair on her as he loves someone else
- Rejecting Marinette before she can confess because Lila spilled just how obsessed Marinette is and Adrien says it’s sort of creepy. Marinette overhears.
- Adrien is akumatised and says it because his akumatisation is truth, he can’t remember it so continues on as he always does while Marinette knows how he really feels
- Chloe in an argument outs Marinette’s crush and Adrien tells her to not be ridiculous as Marinette would never love him like that, they are only friends
- Nathalie rejects her on Adrien’s behalf because he doesn’t have the courage, desire, or other reason to do it personally
apex-primus
I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help myself.
-
“I like you, Adrien!” Marinette squeezed her eyes shut. “I-I like you! Like, a lot!”
A second passed. Then, another.
Marinette peeked open one eye and found her crush staring at her. He looked stunned. Shocked. Confounded. His eyes were far away, as if he were staring a thousand-yards ahead.
They stood in an empty classroom. The rest of the class had already left for the day. She had only stayed to gather the parts of a project she’d presented. Adrien had stayed to help.
Suddenly, he blinked and refocused on her. “M-Marinette… I….” He closed his mouth and swallowed. “I… I don’t know what to say-”
“You don’t need to say anything!” She bit her tongue and glimpsed Adrien stepping back. “I-I mean, you say don’t any right thing-” She closed her mouth and turned redder than her supersuit.
Adrien’s eyes were wide and he looked paler. Sweat dripped down his brow and the sunshine glow that usually wreathed his head had dimmed.
He looked afraid.
Marinette took a deep breath and fought down her nerves with tooth and nail.
“I… You don’t… J-Just have dinner with me.” She tightened her hands into fists. “Or watch a movie. Or… Or just hang out with me… I… I just want a chance.”
He stared at her, then looked away.
Her heart cracked. Her breath hitched. A whisper in the back of her head told her to run now so she couldn’t face the possibility of a rejection.
“I… I’m really sorry, Marinette.”
Her eyes widened and she felt her heart plummet.
“You’re really nice and sweet, but…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I… I just don’t feel the same way.”
Heart heart struck the pit of her stomach, shattering like glass. Her ears were ringing as her pounding heart slowed. The adrenaline left her blood. The courage left her chest. She felt hollow. Empty.
She bowed her head. “Oh….”
“It’s not because you’re not pretty!” She felt a hand on her shoulder and winced. It stayed. “You’re really… cute, and I’m not blind to that… But….”
She felt herself tremble and willed herself to stop. She failed, though, but did her best to suppress the heartache that was taking over her body.
“But?” She asked, voice on the verge of cracking.
“I… I don’t like the way you’ve been treating Lila.”
She stilled. The heartache that invaded every part of her being and made it all hurt vanished. Suddenly, revulsion took its place. Hate and anger and fury unprecedented, all those dark emotions she warned herself from feeling surfaced.
Looking up, she met Adrien’s eyes and questioned in a quiet voice, “What?”
Rage swam beneath the surface of her stunned mask. He didn’t seem to notice as he looked away awkwardly.
“I thought we agreed that outing her would do more harm than good.”
She grit her teeth. He was wrong. And right.
Earlier in the week, Lila had boasted about her time in Germany, helping out at her family’s bakery. It’d started harmless at first. However, as the lies piled up—like they usually did—she started claiming they were the better than any bakery in Germany. In Europe. In the world.
They were better than her parents’ bakery.
She remembered the taunt. She remembered the stares and the whispering. She remembered Lila backtracking, excusing herself for the “unnecessarily rude” remark.
She’d tried Dupain-Cheng macarons before. They were a little stale.
She’d had some Dupain-Cheng croissants, but they’d been hard.
She’d ordered some dumplings, but they’d ripped open the moment she picked them up.
Lila probably had more “constructive criticism” lined up, but she’d snapped back before she could go farther. In the blink of an eye, she was demanding proof. Receipts. Dates. Titles of the food. Anything that could disprove her claims.
Adrien had tried playing mediator, but he’d just played right into Lila’s ploy.
Marinette leveled a glare at the ground. “She was crossing a line.”
“And it’s okay for you to cross one too?”
A part of her knew he was right. The rest of her wanted to say yes.
She closed her eyes and breathed in. “She was making fun of my family’s patisserie.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
“But doing nothing does?”
Her voice carried throughout the empty classroom. She was breathing heavily. A fire was burning in the pit of her stomach where the shattered pieces if her heart lay.
Adrien took a step forward, hand still on her shoulder. “Marinette, if we expose her we could get her akumatized. If we just… let her keep going, she’ll inevitably get caught.”
Maybe. She might. But, she hadn’t yet.
It’d been over two months since she’d returned to Collège Françoise Dupont, and everyone was still wrapped around her finger.
“What if you’re wrong?” She looked up at him, meeting his gaze. “What if she doesn’t get caught? What if she keeps lying and no one finds out?”
Her voice was trembling with the strain of suppressing her frustration. If Adrien noticed, he seemed to interpret it as fear, because suddenly, he was touching her hand and holding it in his own.
Her heart might have fluttered if it wasn’t turning to ash.
“Marinette, don’t worry,” he said with a smile that shined like the sun. “We’re in this together, remember? Even if she doesn’t get caught, her lies won’t hurt anyone.”
Her breath hitched. She stared a thousand-yards ahead.
Lila wasn’t hurting anyone.
She wasn’t hurting Adrien.
She wasn’t hurting Alya.
She wasn’t hurting Nino.
Or Kim.
Or Max.
Or Alix, Rose, Juleka, Ivan, Mylène, Nathaniel, Sabrina, or even Chloé.
She wasn’t hurting anyone.
So why did Marinette feel like someone had punched her in the gut?
“I need to go.”
She picked his hand off of her shoulder and stepped past him. He was still processing her reaction by the time she reached the door. Before she could walk out of it, though, he was running after her.
“W-Wait!” He grabbed her wrist and she struggled to escape. “Marinette, stop! What are you doing?”
“Leaving!” she snapped. “Now let go!”
“No!” He tightened his grip. “I need you to promise me that you won’t go after Lila anymore first.”
She stared at him in disbelief.
“Are you serious?” She shook her head before jerking her arm. “Let go, Adrien!”
“Just promise me-”
“No!” She pushed against him and ripped her arm away. “Lila has done nothing but lie since she got here! She doesn’t care about anyone but herself, regardless of the consequences. One of these days, she’s going to hurt our friends, and you don’t care!”
Adrien stared at her before he took on a disbelieving face too. “Of course, I care!” He threw an arm out. “But if we go after her she’ll become more dangerous! If we out her, she could become akumatized! Do you care about that?”
She opened her mouth, but closed it. Yet, she couldn’t stay quiet. Not anymore.
“Yes.” She never broke eye contact with him. “I am.” She took a deep breath. “Maybe then people will see her for who she is.”
Adrien stared at her, mouth agape. He closed it a second later and bore a heartbroken face briefly. Then, he closed his eyes and breathed in. “I can’t believe you, Marinette.”
She watched him with opened eyes, rounded like dinner plates.
He crossed his arms and raised his chin, shooting her a condescending look down past his nose. “You’re just another bully.”
Her hand flew before she could stop herself.
The next thing she knew, Adrien was a few steps back, holding his cheek. She stood over him, hand up and palm stinging.
He stared at her with wide, tear-brimming eyes. She stared back with the same expression, save for the lurking wrath that blazed around her wet eyes.
Silence reigned between them for an eternity before she turned and walked away.
I’m not crying. You’re all crying. Crying thinking about how Lila could have overheard so is planning to twist the blade, Alya agreeing with Adrien when Marinette goes to her for comfort, Marinette then also having to fight off akumatisation so shutting off her feelings…
Sly skillfully used his master thief techniques to scale over telephone wires and use his trusty hook cane to swing himself down and then balance with fancy footwork across it.
His tail flicked as he dipped down then, two feet perfectly on their tip-toes as he squat and overheard some no-good crooks talking about their boss’s latest fleet.
“He’s got that Sly boy now!” One man said, “Reeaally clobbered him back at the Sand ruins! Heh-heh. You should have seen his face when the boss gripped his girlfriend’s little head and dragged her back to the camp!”
Sly’s mouth twitched.
“Slllyy…” warned a very strategical turtle friend of his, Bentley.
“Yeah… I know.” he twirled his cane around, getting back up.
“I know you what you want to do .. but should you do it is the real question.” Bentley advised through his communicator. “Best to lay low and sneak around a bit more. Pick up some clues on where he’s stashed Carmelita. Stick to the plan and-”
“No, I meant, I know the answer. And you’re probably not going to like it.”
“…!?!?!? Sly! No! You’ll blow your-!!”
Before Bentley could finish, Sly dropped down and began to clobber the two guards, taking them out as he hooked one around the next and smashed his head against the grimy, wet cement wall of the hideout.
“Why you-!” A big one started stomping his feet down, riling himself up. Seemed to be a rhinoceros and his friend a gorilla.
“Heh, tough guy, huh? Word of advice-” Sly confidently swung his staff over his shoulders and let his hands drape down in front of it.
The Rhino charged but he just stepped to the side, as smoothly and slowly as he pleased too, and then let the cane bounce off his shoulders to hook one of the Rhino’s feet and trip him up.
“Wo-woah-woah-ahhhhhHHHH!!!” he went tumbling and stumbling into a trash cane, getting locked in it’s small confines and hobbled the thing around as he tried to get out.
“…Don’t talk about someone behind their back.” Sly smirked, before looking up with his eyes slightly rolling at the scolding coming from his mic.
“I know, I know. I told you I knew, didn’t I?”
“I should have known! Ohhhh… Slllyyy… you’re making me anxious!” Sly pictured his friend gripping his head, his mouth strained out to an open frown where he tried desperately to make sure his teeth didn’t clatter.
“Don’t worry, buddy. I’m almost certain he’s keeping her in the confines of that shed.” Sly looked to the door beside him, a single light above it. “I need to move.” he suddenly narrowed his eyes and crept to the door.
“Sly, be careful! I’m getting weird signals on the inside!”
“…Shh… I think this thing is…” he reached for the handle, before suddenly hearing something like electrocution from inside.
He stood upright and hung his mouth open a moment, “Murray!”
Suddenly, with what sounded like excruciating pain, the door shook and Sly quickly leaped away, seeing his friend barge through the wall and obliterating the door.
Sly covered his head before turning around, seeing his friend fighting off electrical wires all entangling him, electrocuting him.
“AHHHH!!!” he cried out, trying to break free but they were designed to grip it’s Vitim the more he struggled. And because of Murray’s fierce, brute strength, the act of removing them through force alone would prove suicidal.
“Hang on!” Sly leaped to his feet, watching his friend’s arms that were struggling to break free, holding themselves up at an angle, now fell down as Murray began to faint from trying to hard to resist and endure the electrical shocks.
“Sly! These aren’t normal wires! Cut them with your cane!”
Sly had to slice and dice them, but as he did so, Murray would rear up and toss to and fro, making it harder and harder to avoid hurting his friend.
The wires were finally cut through by Sly’s precise locating and having to step around Murray when he would leap up, trying to shake himself off the pain and start racing around; If he accidentally tackled Sly, it hurt like heck to be electrocuted AND bulldozed down when trying to help your best buddy…
At last, Murray could speak, laying down on the ground with small whines and sniffles from the pain, he felt burnt. Steam came off his wrestler’s mask and Sly lovingly licked a finger and squeezed one fire out to put an end to his suffering.
“You okay?” He asked.
“Oh… you know…” Murray rolled his head around a moment, almost attempting to faint again. “When you fall into a trap… you tend to get shocked.”
Sly smiled, seeing Murray would be alright.
“The plan didn’t go so well then, did it?” Sly tried to say that tenderly, kneeling down by his large friend.
He smiled back at him, tilting his head, “Not quite. No fault of Bentley though. But I think that King Ko guy is expecting our every move.” he said that with some sign of caution. “Before the plan got kinda tangled up… I took out a guy who was carrying Carmelita’s gun.”
Sly’s eyes widened as he looked to Murray’s hand, and saw what he had been gripping onto.
He slowly reached and pried it from his burnt hands.
He flinched an eye at having to do so, but Murray only let out a “Owww..!” before whimpering and knowing it had to be done.
“Bentley’s coming buddy.” He held the gun close to him, getting up. “I won’t let him get away with this.”
“King Ko. The Koala with a Mafia. Know especially for his dealings in cash robberies and political affairs.. he runs too many cities already, posing as a just and clean mayor. Obsessed with gaining more power, you don’t want to call this man small, cute, and cuddly. He’s everything of a snake on the inside! Be careful sly… he’s dangerous.” Bentley informed him, after searching some stuff up from picking Murray up.
By now, Sly was already above in the vents, taking out and pick-pocketing for information before-
“Attention all you worthless ingrates!” A business man’s like voice came on, but with venom in every line… “The girl isn’t cooperating… so we’re having a bit of a… entertaining alternative… if you want to watch the show, it’s corridor three, section A’s elevator to the third floor. BUT WATCH FOR THAT ANNOYING RACCOON!”
Sly sneered, “I love a good show!” he took off at breakneck speeds…
Climbing the wires of the elevator, he was able to make it to their little ‘performance’ of sorts.
King Ko was hovering on a box-seat with some men around him, wearing a black suit and adjusting his expensive sleeves. “I want this pretty, simple, and clean. No blood, you got that?” he instructed, as Sly turned to peek through the slits and noticed something orange dangling from a chained string attached to the ceiling.
Carmelita struggled, “You’ll never get away with this! I actually thought about voting you back into office! You spineless, worthless, blood-sucking-!!” she kicked and squirmed, before slightly letting a shriek out as she felt the chain she was wrapped around break lose from three steel locks above her.
“Ahh… help!!” she shouted out, realizing the more she fought, the worse it got.
“Heh. Stubborn girl. Bad for business.” he lit a lighter and then put on some sunglasses. “Alright, burn any evidence. I want her and the hunk of junk blazing.”
Below her was a pile of immense evidences against him. By burning the documents and other articles, he could fully remain untouchable.
He puffed his chest hair out a little more, then his coat. “Alright. Let’s get a tan, shall we boys?”
Sly expertly creeped around on the ceiling, unhooking her from the three chains as the fire distracted the other men.
But Carmelita felt the drops and would shriek, alerting others of his presence as they tried to shoot him down, but by then, he had already gotten the chain low enough.
“Sly!” she called out, seeing him as gun fire flew around them.
Because he had to free her, he had to get her closer to the fire, there was no other way.
He leaped onto the chain and swung it, trying to get momentum before gripping the chain with one hand and spinning down to her.
“Miss me?”
“You’re next, Cooper!”
“I feel you may be a little heated from the situation right now, let me remedy that. although, I’ve always considered you a fiery personality.” He flirted, a little, starting to untangle her from the chain, before he realized…
“Heh, they call it the hot, Latino blood.” she joked back, before looking away and feeling the heat really getting to her too, “Phew… I can barely breathed.”
She didn’t know.
His hands hesistated…
“Carmelita.” he spoke directly, his eyes never leaving the chains.
“What?”
She went to look down but his hand quickly side-winded her and pulled her face up to look directly at him.
“….Find Bentley and Murray. They’re on the corner of the street by the powerplant… I never meant to put you in this situation…”
“W-what? Sly, what are you talking about-”
He suddenly kissed her, right before the bullets distracted him again and he ripped the chain from her flesh.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
She fell, but he hooked her shoulder with his cane and threw her away from the fire.
King Ko was a sick, twisted physco, and Sly was hit by a bullet and clung to the low chain, heating up and making it difficult to hang on.
“Sly!” Carmelita gripped her stomach, having not realized what they did to her, but having felt it was just the pain from the squeezing chains.
She looked around before seeing Sly struggle to climb up, also having an injury on his back, towards his dominant shoulder.
He let himself go except for one hand to grip at the bullet wound, before King Ko started laughing, “Two jokes for one punch line. I like it. Take them down.”
Carmelita, getting to her knees and using one hand to support her, shook her head, “NO! Sly, listen to me! I’m not leaving without you!”
He opened a squinted eye, exhaustion and the burning in his hand taking a toll.
“Trust me! You have to help me help you!” she looked so desperate, and for a moment, he could see what her heart was saying…
Thinking fast, he swung himself and the chain forward, throwing her the gun. “Save yourself, Carmelita… I knew in the end, I’d die trying to steal you.” He admitted his confession with every bit of tender truth he had left in him, but the second Carmelita saw her gun, she picked it up and began firing at every thing in her sight.
Personally finding cover and fighting through the torn skin on her stomach, she continued to fire and take expert aim, even through the heat wave that was making her sweaty and vision blurry.
“Now.. you.” she limped over to King Ko, having watched each man fall with every fire of her gun.
“What… what’s happening!? This is impossible! Is it because I’m short!? Is that is!? I.. hehe, Carm. Baby… I’m too cute to die…” he whimpered the last part and slowly moved to his knees, begging for his life as his hands came up to beg for mercy.
In a matter of seconds, melted handcuffs that were still able to unhook themselves were slung around his hands, before Carmelita looked breathed hard and looked to the chain.
“SLY!”
He was gone, the chain hung solemnly as the flames continued…
“Cooper!” she swung her head around. “NO!”
Seeing something shadowed in the fire she ran to try and fight the flames.
“You can’t leave me, you idiot! You can’t just-! Dang it, Sly! You were mine to catch! Mine to arrest! You… you can’t die, Sly… I … Sly, I…” she fell to her knees by the flames, tears verging before-
A charming, impressed whistle.
“Whoo… you make my confession look like chopped liver.” He was leaning against a wall behind her, and slowly moved to help her come up on his good shoulder, something to lean on.
“You’re fire frenzy helped give me cover to escape. I would have been roasted ‘coon without you.”
She was embarrassed, insulting him on the whole way out…
But they ended up sleeping in the back of the van, her head on his bandaged shoulder… his head on the top of hers…
The words rolled around Adrien’s mind as he took his time setting up candles for the evening. They agreed to meet here, on the Eiffel Tower, just like they used to do. It had been Marinette’s idea when she brought up how much she missed being Ladybug.
And Adrien had to admit he didn’t realize how much he missed being Chat Noir until he transformed and began running through the city.
He’d bring up the possibility of doing this again, of having this become their bonding time just like it used to be when they “patrolled” the city.
Just as he lit the last candle, Ladybug swung in. Chat straightened, standing tall in pride at his work of setting up candles and flowers everywhere on this little spot high above everywhere else.
She looked over the scene, her eyes wide as she took it in. “Oh, kitty,” Ladybug whined, her eyes soft as she crossed her hands over her chest. “You didn’t have to do this.”
His heart swelled. “For my lady, anything. Do you like it?”
#19, Forceful Kiss. (I’m not taking it so much as a forceful kiss as I am a forced kiss:)
“Alright then Ames! Let’s bust up some bandits!” The cocky hedgehog smirked, cracking his knuckles and rearing back to take off running. But instead of jetting off, like he had planned, he found himself gagging as he ran against Amy’s firm grip on the back of his bandana. He stopped and fell to the ground, coughing up a storm as Amy shook her head at him.
“Nuh-uh Sonic, we’re doing this one my way. We’re not just gonna go charging into a Bandit packed trap this time. We’re in a new town, they don’t know us yet, so now is the perfect opportunity to be calculated.”
“Calculated?” Sonic scoffed, getting up and dusting himself off, rubbing his poor neck. “What good will being ‘calculated’ do?” He shot her a glare for good measure.
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