The Monopoly Incident

The Monopoly Incident, as it’s come to be called, happened while the gang was still in school together.

It’s some random summer evening during lycée.  Everybody’s been getting busier and busier, but they’ve managed to all be free on the same night in the middle of July, and Marinette’s parents give her permission to have basically their entire collège class over for games and snacks.  And then Alix brings Monopoly.

They have to form teams of two, because there aren’t enough game pieces, and also not enough money.  But then Nino races home and gets HIS copy of Monopoly.  It’s a different theme, Harry Potter or something so you can tell the money apart, and eventually they start using the extra money as thousand-dollar bills.

And then it’s just a free-for-all.

Alliances are made and broken.

Friendships are (not permanently) shattered.

Some kitchen plates are shattered.

Marinette and Alya start out on a team, but Marinette is making side deals with Adrien (who is Nino’s partner) and Nino and Alya give up on the under the table promises so they abandon their original partners to become a team instead.  DJWifi puts up a valiant effort, but eventually it becomes clear that Alix and Kim are going to sweep the floor.

(Rose and Juleka did hold out pretty well, because Rose is really good at negotiating payment plans, and Max and Nathanäel held up really well until they landed on Avenue des Champs-Élysées and Rue de la Paix one after the other.  Ivan and Mylène went bankrupt almost right away, and ended up in charge of the bank because no one wanted to steal from Ivan and no one could bring themselves to steal from Mylène.)

The last holdout against Alix and Kim dominating is Marinette and Adrien, who banded together and are actually kind of ruthless together?  Marinette demands payment with a smile but a firm backbone whenever someone lands on their properties, and Adrien stacks hotels like nobody’s business, deliberately moving around where they have their money sunk based on what people are likely to land on next.  They managed to turn Boulevarde de Belleville and Rue Lecourbe into profitable investments.  Plus it helps that they can literally not be intimidated by Alix and Kim, and that they have some sort of weird telepathy thing going on.

But by the time it gets down to just the two teams, everybody starts picking sides, Team Kim/Alix vs. Team Adrienette (Thank you, Alya), and THAT’S when the night goes sideways.

Things are said that can’t be unsaid, decisions are made that can’t be undone.

And when Tom and Sabine come back from their movie to find the living room in pieces and more than one teenager in tears, they’re forced to send everyone home with extra chocolates and cookies in their goody bags, and sincere apologies for everyone’s parents.

The thing is, they didn’t expect Marinette to throw a rager because they trust her, and that’s what it looks like she did when they walked into the living room.

Marinette has to explain that they were playing Monopoly.

She isn’t grounded in punishment, exactly, but she is kept so busy in the bakery that she doesn’t have time to see her friends.

And Alya, who was cohost of the party that ended in such a disaster, has to come bright and early the next morning to help put the house to rights.

Tom has to ban Monopoly from all future parties.

Adrien grounds himself in SHAME AND GUILT.

Marinette is forced to extract him from his room so Tom can throw an apron on him and put him to work rolling croissants and pulling muffins from the oven.

(This, incidentally, is how Adrien starts working at the bakery.)

Everyone was actually pretty damn lucky that the Monopoly Incident happened at Marinette’s parent’s place, because they had a parental buffer to smooth things over when the night was on the verge of ending in complete disaster.

They were not so lucky when, a few years later and a couple months into Weekly Game Night at Marinette and Adrien’s, Juleka walks in with her Special Edition of Risk.

(That is an Incident which will live in infamy forever.)

(Risk is now also banned from all future Game Nights.)

It’s awhile after that before they can play anything other than the more benign party games.

Secrets

Let’s rewind back to newly established Adrienette.

Consider: they want to keep their relationship on the downlow at first.  It’s new, it’s exciting, it’s changing how they interact as partners and they want to find their new rhythm before they invite everyone else’s opinions in on their relationship.

And trust me when I say that EVERYONE will have opinions on their relationship.

But once they get a handle on it, then it becomes a game of how long it takes their friends to notice.

It’s not like they’re keeping it a secret anymore, just that they’re not announcing that they’re together yet.

Post-reveal, they’ve gotten a lot friendlier, and their friends have gotten used to the new Adrien and Marinette with their teasing and inside jokes, that seem to read each other’s minds and always seem to fall into step beside each other.  It’s cool, it’s whatever, it’s just Adrien and Marinette being Adrien and Marinette.

But now you’ve got Marinette and Adrien keeping their pda on the downlow, but other than that they don’t actively TRY to pretend that they’re not dating.  And… no one notices.

They make bets with Tikki and Plagg for when everyone will start to catch on.

(Gabriel’s the one who notices first, which no one sees coming.)

Roommates

Let’s talk about established Adrienette living in their own apartment.

You’ve got Marinette interning at Gabriel’s company and working on getting a degree from an amazing fashion school.  Adrien’s working part-time at the bakery and has just enrolled in culinary school.  They’re both taking business classes to learn the ins and outs of running businesses, and they like to cross-compare notes from their different professors.  There are a lot of nights that find them sprawled across the couch, their textbooks and notes all over the coffee table.

But Adrien likes to experiment with food!  He’ll try a recipe 15 different ways before finding the perfect flavor combination, and for one of his next birthdays, Sabine and Marinette work on making him an empty recipe book to replace the print-outs and scribbled pieces of notebook paper he’d been using.

He doesn’t always let Marinette taste everything, but she’s gotten spoiled with how much he feeds her.  (The only reason they’re both still in great shape is because they’re spending their nights traipsing across the rooftops, keeping their city safe.)

Adrien works on cheesecake recipes that make both Tikki and Plagg happy.

Marinette makes tiny kwami accessories! Knit hands and sweaters for the winter, blankets and little cuddly nests for their bags and the basket in their bedroom that sits on the windowsill.

ALSO: established Adrienette feat. FEEDER ADRIEN (he gets it from Tom and Sabine) and kind-hearted Marinette and the big apartment…

That everybody crashes.

Alya and Nino spend a great deal of their free time there, anyway, since they both have keys.

But Marinette and Adrien’s apartment central to a lot of their friend’s places, so every weekend Adrien will whip up some casserole, everyone else will bring sides and desserts and drinks, and they’ll pile around the living room and talk and laugh and eat.  Sometimes they break out the video games, but then it ends up going into a death match between Marinette and Adrien, so it’s usually board games or party games instead.

Except Monopoly.

Never.  Again.

In-Laws and Inheritance

So my new favorite headcanon is that Marinette and Adrien inherit their respective in-laws’ family businesses.

(And on Adrien inheriting the bakery: so chemistry is applied physics, right? And you know what’s applied chemistry? FOOD SCIENCE. And Adrien is a foodie you cannot take this from me.)

So MARINETTE INHERITING GABRIEL’S COMPANY, and ADRIEN INHERITING THE BAKERY.

I was originally on the fence about Marinette striking it out on her own.  I kinda like her building her own label from scratch, but I also like Gabriel recognizing that she’s fucking awesome and making her his new protégée, and then just kind of stepping back and letting her do her own thing.  But Marinette is still 100% on Adrien’s side, she’s always on Adrien’s side.

But so you’ve got (secret) foodie Adrien learning how to cook from Tom and Sabine, and they give him the SECRET FAMILY RECIPES.  One birthday he gets a recipe book from the Dupain-Chengs and he starts crying when Tom hands it to him and says, “You’re family, it’s time you learned the family trade.”

Adrien and Gabriel have some long talks about this, of course.

It’s not always good talks.  At first Adrien would go over to Marinette’s practically boiling, but sooner than later, their arguments become less one-sided and more actual, honest conversations.  They talk about Mama Agreste a lot, and what losing her meant to both of them, and what she would’ve wanted, and what they want for their family.

They start having more good talks than bad talks, and Adrien stops feeling so guilty about the time he spends in the bakery kitchen, laughing with Tom and Sabine.  He’s lucky, he gets a second set of parents to love him.

But let’s talk about Marinette, Marinette who doesn’t take hand outs, who will work until her fingers bleed to create something she’s proud of.  She’s got a work ethic that puts Gabriel’s top designers to shame, and she’s got a creative vision that he recognizes all too well.

She might not want to build herself an empire, but she could, if she had the right guidance, and she’d be really, really good at it.

So Gabriel encourages Adrien to encourage Marinette to apply for an internship at his company, and the evening after Marinette receives the letter telling her she was accepted, she stomps over to the Agreste Mansion to complain because she thinks this is some form of favoritism.  She and Gabriel aren’t on the best of terms, even if he does approve of her relationship with Adrien, and she’s angry that this is some way he’s trying to win her over, that she was granted the internship because of what she means to Adrien, not because of what she can do.

She tells this to Adrien, but Gabriel intercepts them in the hallway and congratulates Marinette on her application.  It was truly one of the best in the pool, one of the best they’ve seen in years, and he sternly reminds her that though much of the fashion industry is steeped in nepotism and playing the game of who has the best connections, Gabriel refuses to run his company that way.  If Marinette wants to succeed in her internship, then she’d better work for it.

honestly this is perfection in every form

chat holding his hand over ladybug’s heart and going ‘mine’ flirty eyes and everything ladybug takes his hand and moves it off, replacing it with her own over her heart ‘mine’ puts his hand on his heart ‘yours’ and then grins as she brings her other hand to rest over his, and his other to rest over hers ‘Ours’

#*happy sighs* #wings you are the most beautiful glowing sun goddess ever #and this is so so lovely #THEY BELONG TOGETHER #pay no attention to the sobbing lea on the floor she’s just overcome with emotion (mademoisellecoccinelle

you know whats crazy i was straight up without understanding where this came from gonna put a leslie compliment gif on this and then guess what i discover in my searchins 

lemme just tell u on the list of things i was not ready for

[TUMBLR MOBILE AT MY RESPONSE BUT I’LL BE DAMNED IF I DON’T REAR MY HEAD FROM MY TRASHPIT im so sorry]

Despite how much Chat Noir’s life had changed over the past seven years, the Paris cityscape looks exactly the same. Perhaps it was a bit of the magic that coursed through the city, but more likely it was the stubbornness of the Parisians living there.

Speaking of stubborn Parisians, Ladybug has started speaking. He pulls his focus back in time to catch her last few words.

“-miss the view.”

The wistful rise of her voice is enough to fill in what he missed. Chat nods, understanding. It’s to be expected. He scoots a little closer and wraps an arm around her waist. 

“The Eiffel Tower isn’t going anywhere, My Lady. We can still come back.”

Ladybug wrinkles her nose in displeasure; it takes every ounce of self-control and the reminder that this is serious for Chat not to lean in and kiss it. 

“Yeah, as tourists,” she grumbles. 

This time he can’t help it. She looks so indignant at the thought that he laughs and plants his lips on the tip of her nose. As much as Ladybug tries to frown and squirm away, her giggles soon join his. 

“Come on, it’s about time that the Heroes of Paris got to see their own city without being attacked by wacky villains. Retirement might not be so bad after all,” Chat says.

It’s not what she wants to hear, but he know he has to say it, to keep saying it. Ladybug’s head droops and her hands twist in her lap. Her next words are soft.

“You don’t have to do this with me, Minou. I know how much being Chat means to you, how important it is in your life to be free, to help people.”

He’d be lying if he tried to deny that the thought hadn’t crossed his mind; he’d already begun mourning the loss of seven more years of Chat Noir. But it was worth it. It was what he wanted and more. 

“Don’t think you can get rid of me that easily. We’re a team, from now until forever. Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

“Adrien and Marinette,” she says, correcting him. 

“Forever,” Chat replies.

He shifts to face her. The glow of the city through the tower’s railing casts gentle shadows on her face, but it’s light enough to see her brow soften and her lips curve into the slightest smile. Although Chat knew he likely would never see Ladybug like this again, the city and the dark sky meeting in infinite probability behind her, he doubted he would ever forget this moment. Carefully, Chat reaches out to hay a gloved hand above her heart.

“Mine,” he says.

Stubborn Ladybug, faithful, unwavering: of course she would roll her eyes and tease him without ever meaning it. Just as carefully, she pulls his hand away and replaces it with hers, barely smothering her smile when she says, “Mine.”

Because no doubt Ladybug’s heart belonged to her. Chat just liked to think they shared joint custody. Affection swelling in his chest, Chat places his hand over his heart and says, “Yours.”

Even through the fabric of her suit, Chat can feel the shape of the slender ring adorning her left hand as she takes his hand in hers. With a beaming smile, she places their joined hands low on her stomach.

“Ours,” Chat breathes. 

F YOU THOUGHT I WAS DONE YOU GOT ANOTHER THING COMING · THERE’S ALWAYS THE ROUTE OF REGRET · WHERE SOMETIMES · JUST… · SOMETIMES · MARINETTE CATCHES ADRIEN STARING OUTSIDE AT NIGHT · HIS FOOT TWITCHING IN LIEU OF A TAIL · BUT HE TURNS BACK TO HER · AND HE IS /BEAMING · BUT SHE CAN’T SWALLOW THAT DOWN · NOT WITHOUT CARRYING GUILT THAT MAKES HER STUTTER IN A WAY SHE HASN’T SINCE LYCEE · SO WHAT… · WHAT IF · WHAT IF ONE DAY · AS ADRIEN’S SPRAWLED OVER THEIR COUCH PLAYING PEEKABOO WITH THEIR CHILD · (SHE STILL HAS TO MAKE SURE SHE’S AWAKE SOMETIMES) · (EVEN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS) · SHE COMES UP TO HIM SLOWLY · KNEELS BY HIM ·TAKES HIS HAND · AND PRESSES HER LIPS TO HIS KNUCKLES · AND ADRIEN LAUGHS AND IT LIGHTS UP THE /ROOM AND /ALL OF MARINETTE · AND HE… · HE FEELS HIS HAND IS HEAVIER SOMEHOW · AND SHE LOOKS UP AT HIM SHEEPISHLY AND SAYS ‘YOU GAVE ME A RING ONCE. IT SEEMS ONLY FAIR THAT I SHOULD GIVE YOU ONE TOO.’ · (via @everythingelsegoesherethen)

#THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE #@brettanomycroftwrites fic AND I AM DEAD #the adventures of mommybug and dad noir I FORGOT ABOUT OUR TAG LEA I’M OTL 

#TIKKI AND PLAGG WAKING UP #SO HAPPY #the babysitter takes care of the little one of course #I’M JUST #what else can i say my heart has burst open and spilled love and rainbows across the floor

OH

OH WAIT

GUESS WHO THEIR BABYSITTER ENDS UP BEING????

 BRO THOUGH HOW AMAZING WOULD THAT BE · IM SCREAMING A LIL BIT · THE ADVENTURES OF MOMMYBUG AND DADNOIR · CAN YOU IMAGINE IF MANON WAS LET IN ON THEIR SECRET THOUGH · O H M Y GOD SHE WOULD BE SO /THRILLED SO /DETERMINED THE B E S T · EVEN AS A TEEN SHE WOULD UNDERSTAND WHAT WAS AT STAKE ·PLEASE GOD · PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE 

MANON FOR BABYSITTER ALWAYS PLS AND THANK

BUT LET’S TALK ABOUT TIKKI AND PLAGG FOR A SECOND

( @brettanomycroft​ this is still kinda your fault, hope it’s okay to tag you in my nonsense)

Tikki and Plagg who have helped Marinette and Adrien protect the city for years.  Who have seen empires rise and fall, have seen the world tear itself apart and after every tragedy the good people, the best people, rising to the occasion to stitch it back together.  Who have never seen a Ladybug and Chat Noir quite like Marinette and Adrien.

Like I can’t even begin to unpack the YEARNING that Mari and Adrien would feel after turning in their Miraculous.  But what about Tikki and Plagg?  How many times have they done this, how often?  How many times were their wielders even given the chance to choose to retire?  How many Ladybugs and Chat Noirs gave their lives fighting the forces of evil?  How long have Tikki and Plagg dreamed of ways that things could have, would have, should have gone differently?

And this time, Ladybug and Chat Noir are turning in their Miraculous to raise a family?

Saying goodbye to a wielder hurts like nothing has ever hurt before.  A wielder is taught that the Miraculous forges a bond, and that is true.  But they can never understand just how tightly that bond goes.  It is a quantic entanglement between kwami and wielder, cellular and cosmic and ancient.  Marinette and Adrien will never know the extent to which their kwami give pieces of themselves to become Ladybug and Chat Noir, how for each wielder, Tikki and Plagg must give away fractions of their very soul.

Kwami don’t feel pain, not the way humans do.  But the loss of a wielder, the anguish of separation and goodbye, is the closest thing they have to excruciating.

Tikki knows how to prepare, knew the moment Marinette held the positive test in her hands that this would mark the beginning of the end.  She’s good at saying goodbye, by now.  She’s had the practice.

Kwami can’t cry, and so that last night, when Marinette and Adrien release their transformations for the last time, both of them sobbing too hard to stop, Tikki wonders if the tempest raging inside her is what she would be crying, if she could.  Plagg doesn’t say a word, his throat is too clogged with emotion, but even if he could, she thinks he would understand perfectly.

They always love their Ladybugs and Chat Noirs.  Each one is special, each one is unique, each one is brave and smart and selfless.

But Marinette and Adrien were pretty exceptional.

And when they fall asleep, their dreams are not filled with despair, with raging storms and every way that things could have gone wrong, or gone right.  This time, their dreams are peaceful.  For the first time, their sleep actually feels like rest.

Coda:

Plagg doesn’t believe in luck, not the way Tikki does.  He believes in fate, in destiny, that sometimes you get lucky, but sometimes some things are meant to happen, that they are always meant to find the Ladybugs and Chat Noirs that they do.  He believes that it’s not luck that brings them to their wielders, but that they are meant to find kindred spirits, an inevitability.

In every lifetime, in every universe, Ladybug will always have Tikki, and Chat Noir will always have Plagg.

It’s incorrect to say that Tikki and Plagg were made for each other.  They simply are, side by side, two halves of a whole, light and dark, yin and yang.  They will always be together, they will always have each other, and the sleep doesn’t feel so much like a separation as it does a respite.

For eons, nothing has compared to the feeling of reuniting with their other half.

But in all her years, Tikki has never known true joy until she wakes to stare into Marinette’s bright, blue eyes again.

She thinks, this must be what it feels like to come home.

adrien proposes to marinette with chat’s ring hands it over to the only one he’d trust with it smiles with a grin that puts /chat to shame and says ‘because you have all of me anyway my lady’

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU @mademoisellecoccinelle see these are quality tags/reaction to this

#YOU SAID #IN YOUR ORIGINAL POST YOUR TAGS SAID SHE BOOPS HIM AND GIVES HIM THE RING BACK for context I followed this up with pick any other ring kitten and the answer will be yes #BUT WHAT IF #WHAT IF SHE PULLS OFF AN EARRING AND DROPS IT IN HIS HANDS #'and /you/ have all of /me/' she says I'm coming to kick your ass lea :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

@mademoisellecoccinelle im laughing so fucking hard 

adrien finds out first 

and he starts /teasing marinette with it 

im screaming because she finally /gets it when she snaps and goes ’/what is going on adrien? why are you acting so like chat /different??’ and he goes ‘i don’t know my lady' 

takes her hand as he bends to kiss it and looks up from that position 

‘maybe I just

connected the dots?’

#ADRIEN FUCKING WOULD #adrien you dork #BUT MARINETTE JUST NARROWS HER EYES#AND SAYS 'YOU BETTER WATCH YOUR TONGUE BEFORE SOMEONE CATCHES IT KITTY #this kills the adrien #marinette is super smug because he goes SO PINK #that boy blushes like nobody's business #but then he straightens and says #'is that a threat or a promise?'#jokes on both of them #adrien's brain fritzes out when mari's does #because HE CAN'T BELIEVE HE WAS THAT SMOOTH #AND MARI IS INTERNALLY EXTERNALLY ETERNALLY SCREAMING #bc this dork is *her* dork #and he's putting the moves on her #AND IT'S WORKING (mademoisellecoccinelle)

@mademoisellecoccinelle yes but how cute would chat noir and ladybug snow angels be 

I need to lie down

I RAISE YOU LADYBUG AND CHAT NOIR SNOWMEN

can paris even get that much snow let alone the right kind of snow for snowman making

Also SNOWBALL FIGHTS TO THE DEATH.

But like:

Nobody’s surprised in the wintertime if there’s a pair of snow angels on the roof, or ones that appear the parks overnight, one with a set of ears and one with two sets of wings like a ladybug’s.  Or if they wake up to find elaborate snow battles taking place in public parks by a dozen staged snowmen.  Old foes and new, sometimes armies of akuma and sometimes their henchmen, with two snowmen standing in the center of it all, one with cat ears and one with pigtails.  Alya’s always excited to get pictures up on the Ladyblog, and no one will dare touch them during the day, preferring to let the snow sculptures stand until the sun melts them away.

But sometimes a park will be completely trampled in the morning by two pairs of footprints, one slim and narrow, the other boots that leave paw prints behind.  The snow is kicked up and scraped together in haphazard fortresses, and more often than not kids will flock to these scenes of battle and pick up the game, using the abandoned walls and wind breaks for their own fights to the death.  Sometimes if they’re lucky, two figures in black and red will join the fight, taking the lead of opposing teams and leading their troops with enthusiasm and ruthlessness.  No one is safe when Ladybug and Chat Noir are pitted against each other, but the only danger is of cold fingers and toes, and smiling so hard that cheeks go sore.

Winter in Paris used to be so dreary and dismal, but now it’s filled with laughter and light even when the sun has long been trapped behind the clouds, and it’s all thanks to two young heroes who refuse to let the weather get the best of them.

In step

For @everythingelsegoesherethen <3

Context: Volpina is in town and a certain black cat is feeling left out.

The moment Volpina bows out of patrol to turn in for the night, Chat Noir stops Ladybug with a hand to her shoulder.  “Maybe we should lay low for awhile,” he says quietly, as if anyone was awake at this hour to overhear them.  “We don’t want to get in her way.”

Ladybug is unimpressed, shrugging out of his grip as she continues.  “Chat, we have work to do.  Besides, she’s here to help us.”

Chat pouts, even as he falls into step beside Ladybug, and it’s the fact that he drops it so fast that keys her into the problem in the first place.

“What’s wrong, minou?” she asks, pulling them to a stop.

Chat huffs and doesn’t want to meet her eyes.

“Chat,” Ladybug says quickly, “if she’s making you uncomfortable, if you don’t think we can trust her, then we’ll stop.”  Then she goes a little pink and rushes on, “I was just so excited to meet someone like us, someone who’s been doing this longer than we have, and it was so nice to not have to make the plans for once, but you’re my partner, chaton, you come first, and—”

“Woah there, Buginette.  I never said I don’t trust her, I just—” He sighs, shoulder drooping.  He scuffs his boot on the roof tile and can’t meet her eyes.  “It’s stupid.”

“If it’s bothering you it’s not stupid.”

He grimaces and finally looks up at her.  “I got jealous.  I’ve never seen you get that excited before and I thought, I mean I wasn’t sure if you, you know, wanted to work with her instead.  I wouldn’t blame you, she’s amazing and clever and she’d better than—”

“I’m gonna stop you right there, Chat Noir.”

Chat blinks down at the hand Ladybug has pressed to his mouth, his green eyes going cross-eyed.  But when he looks at his Lady, she’s smiling at him, gentle and soft.  “Like I said, you are my partner, not Volpina.  Sure it’s nice to have her around, but she’s got a city to get back to eventually.  Paris is ours to protect, and she has Rome.  But even if she could stay here forever, she’s nothing compared to you.  You are the alley cat I know will always have my back, who always finds me when I need him.  You are the one who’s fought with me for months, not her.  I couldn’t do this without you, Chat.  Besides,” and she goes a little pink, stepping in closer and ducking her head, “a Ladybug must always have her Chat Noir.”

Chat’s sure his face is as red as Ladybug’s suit now.  Carefully, he pulls her hand away from his lips, cradling it to his chest instead.  “And you always will, My Lady.”

When she looks up at him, it’s like the sun crested over the horizon, the way her eyes light up.  “Good,” she murmurs, before popping up on her toes and brushing a kiss against his cheek, right next to the corner of his mouth.

Chat is so thunderstruck that he doesn’t react the first time Ladybug says his name.  It’s her giggle and the insistent tug on his hands that finally brings him back.  “C’mon, minou, time to get home.”

With a grin just as fierce as hers, he takes her hand and and then they’re off, running across their city side by side.

KinDLY FUCK OFF FOR THIS LEA

Imagine Person A of your OTP asking out Person B in a foreign language.

@mademoisellecoccinelle @starrycove @jessdoodlesthings adrien asks marinette in chinese

#I RAISE YOU #ADRIEN TELLING MARI HE LOVES HER #AND THEN I DOUBLE RAISE YOU#ONE OF THE FEW CHINESE PHRASES MARI KNOWS IS I LOVE YOU #her parents in the peanut gallery are already planning the wedding cake (mademoisellecoccinelle) do you think :))) this is :))) a fucking game :))))

@mademoisellecoccinelle so I was just moving along and minding my own business when suddenly the single /worst thing mommybug and dadnoir when hawkmoth hasn’t been defeated 

so a la incredibles hawkmoth kidnapping mommybug and dadnoir’s kid imagine their /fury I don’t know who he should be more scared of both both is good.gif

HOW COULD YOU DO THIS

and okay Gabriel is not hawkmoth in this scenario because i refuse to believe that Gabriel doesn’t adore his grandchildren to pieces and would not put his life on the line for them, okay

hawkmoth is some other twisted asshole who HATES LIFE AND BABY KITTENS (*winks* ya see what i did there?)

THE WRATH OF MOMMYBUG AND DAD NOIR, just imagine the blog post about this, Ladybug and Chat Noir storming into Alya’s apartment in the middle of the night like, “We need to make an announcement.”

And okay Ladybug and Chat Noir are supposed to be the good guys.  They’re not supposed to go dark, they’re not supposed to make the kinds of threats that they do in that video announcement.  (“If you so much as think about laying a finger on our child, Hawkmoth, we will destroy you.”)  But that is the furthest thing from Tikki’s or Plagg’s mind now.  They’re just as desperate to get the baby back as Marinette and Adrien.

IMAGINE THEM TEARING APART THE CITY TO FIND THEIR CHILD

IMAGINE HOW MUCH THE WHOLE CITY RISES TO HELP THEM

And not even the law enforcement, but civilians. The Ladyblog becomes a hotbed of intel and both Alya and Nino are camped out on her couch, sifting through it all.

There isn’t a single akuma because practically the entire damn city is focused on finding Hawkmoth.  At one point, someone sends a private message to Alya wondering if they need to worry about Chat Noir and Ladybug going off the deep end and getting akumatized, out of concern.  Alya tells them, “You don’t need to be worrying about Hawkmoth right now.  Hawkmoth should be worrying about us, and what Ladybug and Chat Noir will do to him when they find their child.”

And when the finally find him, the kid is perfectly fine.  Of course they are, because it was never about the kid, it was about luring their parents out into the open so Hawkmoth could destroy them.

But like, c’mon Hawkmoth, don’t you know what happens when you take the kid away from the superhero?  You’re not setting a trap for them, you’re setting a trap for yourself.  I mean, show a little genre savvy.  You’re going down.

And he does.

Once and for all, the city is cleansed of its akuma scourge for the last time.  The Dupain-Cheng-Agreste family is reunited, shaken and but in one piece, and all is well.

(It’s not the end of Ladybug and Chat Noir, but they do decide to step back a little bit.  They don’t need to be fighting evil supervillains anymore, not when there’s so many other ways to save their city, not when they have a family to keep safe first.)

//will smith presenting gif to the above bless flawless I love every bit of it, esp civilians stepping up like hot damn my jam

this is my aesthetic

love me some darkened heros //thumbs

I’ll just be here proposing to this paragraph nbd

#DONT THINK ABOUT MIRACULOUS BB FOLLOWING IN THEIR PARENTS FOOTSTEPS LEA DON'T DO IT well now you gotta write it

you know it would be their daughter that would do it too 

for some reason I can't picture their son being too into the superhero business (gotta rebel somehow right?) 

I swear to god we're in too deep soon they're gonna have names and faces and this is too much this is just t o o

@everythingelsegoesherethen @toriitorii

But have you considered surprise Adrienette babies?

It’s literally both their lucks coming into play.  Adrien’s because they weren’t, you know, trying to have a baby.  But it’s also Marinette’s because they’re ready for the baby when it comes.

(ALSO: Grandparents Tom and Sabine getting SO INVESTED.  And Grandpa Gabriel also getting SO INVESTED.  Alya and Nino getting SO INVESTED.  Marinette and Adrien have so much love coming at them from all angles it’s overwhelming.)

@starrycove

you know what i love i fucking love the idea of an older adrien being /just as devoted to marinette just as in awe of her basking in her presence and her light and reminding her of it every chance he gets I utterly adore their dynamic and their sparks now and I really want to see that continue on in their later years I want her to catch him looking at her and there are still little blitzes of Chat in his eyes and it brings the Ladybug out in hers whether they’re still kicking ass and taking names freeing akumatized citizens or not this is the first pairing that I have ever been invested in past they will they or won’t they stage I genuinely want to see them develop grow change into older teens and then adults by each other’s side I want to see how they push and support and help each other change through the good the bad the reveals and the ugly I want them to be each other’s biggest fans and number one source of support I want to see the holes and doubts that they have about themselves filled in by having someone by your side that you not only trust with your life but also with your heart  There is /so much to be explored with them and I want to see their full story for the first time I want to see what happens after a couple’s supposed happily ever after and that’s really special to me

This is so lovely i don’t even know what I can say.  OR, how about:

I want to see them build a family.

Not a family family, not right away, but I want to see them take those tentative first steps, with open eyes and open arms, into carving out a life for themselves.

Talk to me about how there’s always a fourth place set out at Sunday dinners at the Dupain-Cheng’s, how when Tom finds Adrien lounging in the living room, he no longer asks if Adrien is waiting for Marinette, how Sabine has started to set aside an extra croissant from the first batch every morning.  Talk to me about how Marinette walks freely through the doors of the Agreste mansion and greets the staff by name, how Gabriel doesn’t spend as much time locked away in his office, how there’s laughter filling the empty halls of the mansion again.

Talk to me how no one expected them to last this long, how they defied everyone’s expectations, even her parents’, especially his father’s.  Talk to me about how, five, ten years later, they’re MORE in love than they were when they were teenagers.

Talk to me about how they are an uncontested unit.  But it’s not that they’re always together so much that they’re always on each other’s side, that even and especially when they’re not together, they’re never to far from each other’s mind.  Adrien doesn’t have to worry about standing up to his father anymore, not when he knows, even without her needing to be there, that she will support him in whatever he does.  Marinette doesn’t succumb to her despair when her rivals tear into her out of jealousy, when she feels like she will never amount to anything, because she knows, with a deep-seated certainty, that there has never been a person who has believed in her more than him.

Talk to me about them continuing to protect their city, even after they defeat Hawkmoth and the impending akuma attacks are no longer dragging them into the spotlight.  Talk to me about how they start speaking out, because just because Hawkmoth is gone, that doesn’t mean the root causes of his destruction are.  People are still drowning in those dark emotions that Hawkmoth had once preyed on, are still feeling alone and desperate.  Talk to me about how Ladybug and Chat Noir start making appearances at fundraisers for orphanages and food drives, how they start volunteering at soup kitchens and visiting children in the hospital.

Talk to me about the rainy evening they find a box of kittens on a street corner, how they manage to find homes for every single one except the littlest one.  And maybe it’s hard to split the care of a little kitten across two different schedules and two different houses.  Talk to me about how they start looking into apartments because they’ve got to keep their family together.

#honorary dupain-cheng adrien agreste AH YES THE RETURN OF MY FAVORITE TAG #kitten dupain-cheng-agreste #IS NOW A THING aaaaaAAA AND A NEW FAVE THING TO LOVE BLESS

This is gonna be a behemoth I feel it in my bones.

@mademoisellecoccinelle listen it’s been a while and I’m still really worried because marinette has a crush on adrien sure but chat noir loves ladybug and I’m really worried for those kids

FIRST OF ALL, I am mesmerized by this gif.

SECOND OF ALL, i hate to say it but i think Marinette can’t fall in love with Adrien, nor *really*, until she learn’s he’s Chat Noir.

fIRST disney has some skills 

tWO I’m actually not debating that. You can’t love only one side of a coin alone. But I still worry ; A ; because I mean shit we already know that Adrien has low self esteem. What if Marinette joins him in the pity circle because he fell in love with /Ladybug and she’s just her- like I know Tikki talked to her about it but ; ;

COUNTER ARGUMENT

they both feel like crap, like, “you’re in love with this amazing person but that’s not ME”

And it’s like, a week or two of agonizing and feeling terrible and being out of sync, but eventually the kwami breakdown and are like JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER OKAY

(imagine they were on patrol or w/e and the kwami’s nope out of there and leave them on a roof to sort it out; it’s dark, the lights are twinkly, emotions are running high, that sort of thing)

and there are tears, because both of them, they don’t feel like ENOUGH

and Marinette’s like, “I’m just me, I’m not this brave amazing person, I’m not Ladybug.”

And Adrien physically startles with how strongly he reacts, like: “What are you talking about? You are kind and selfless and wonderful.  That’s not Ladybug that’s you, Marinette.”

Then he goes quiet and, “You’re amazing and you’ll only look at me when I’m wearing my father’s clothes.”

Marinette pushes into his space, frowning so hard, like: “I can hardly speak to Adrien.  I was–I was so obsessed with him I lost sleep over it.  Chat’s the one who I trust with my life, who I know will always, always have my back, who will always be on my side even if that means correcting me when I’m wrong.  Chat’s the one who makes me laugh when I’m scared, who catches me when I fall.  And I never–I couldn’t even–”

And maybe the tears flow a little too easily, because how blind was she, to have ignored this boy right next to her for so long?

She apologizes, again and again, and Adrien doesn’t even hesitate in pulling her into his arms.  And she buries into him, fisting her hands in the back of his jacket.

And there’s no “I love you” tonight.  There’s no kiss under the lights of the Eiffel Tower.  Their hearts are too raw, too vulnerable.  But there are fierce hugs and quiet, shaking admissions of, “You’re my best friend” and “I wouldn’t want to do this with anyone else but you,” and for now, that’s enough.

lol on the kwami's intervening. in that oh fuck kind of way counter counter offer Each of them gets /angry when the other starts slipping in their own sludge. Adrien starts /sparking when Marinette speaks badly of herself, and even recognizes some of Chloe's words making a reapparance. /Damnit. 

"Listen to me Marinette."

 And she barely registers his hold on her shoulders, her eyes coming up to train on his, reddened as they are. She sniffles as he continues. 

"You didn't pull Ladybug out of a hat. You didn't /become anyone else when you transformed. You were still you." 

He softens some, and his grip becomes less about trying to convince her of his words, and more about the depth of his feelings.

"And that's who I fell in love with." /////// Likewise, Marinette ends up defending Adrien from himself when his own smile breaks his heart, telling his Lady she fell in love with someone false. 

"Sure, yes, you definitely act different on patrol versus in school. That's a given. I do the same. But Adrien those are both sides of /you."

 And the tension drains from her shoulders. 

"We might have seen the other sides of each other's coins and we might have made this more complicated." 

And she looks up, and her smile is so damn /small, but it flares like the /sunlight she'd made him see. 

Had made him love.

"But we can figure this out. What problem have Chat Noir and Ladybug ever faced that they couldn't solve?" 

And her smile /bursts into a grin.

And he loves her then. 

God he loves her.

@kibberswrites @mademoisellecoccinelle listen its really late in my nonexistent sleep cycle and im p sure ive like insanely ripped off some post or fic i saw but i have some fucking vague memory of reading someone discussing how chat falls and the moment he hits the ground all the air rushes out of his lungs and he realizes the necessity of air so dearly as his lungs fail to bring it in and he understands so clearly at that moment that’s exactly what it would be like without her

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS HOW DARE YOU

(but imagine Ladybug she isn’t watching him, she’s fighting for them, for their city but she heard the thud, like a sack of flour hitting the ground and she  t u r n s and Chat is on the ground he’s on the ground and he’s not moving he’s not breathing and her heart                                s t o p s she doesn’t remember beating the villain or cleansing the akuma the next thing she knows she’s kneeling at his side clutching at his shoulders, dragging him into her lap his breathing is shallow but it’s there his heart is steady if weak under her hands but she can barely see him through the tears running rivers down her cheeks i almost lost you, she says her throat is so thick with tears she’s barely intelligible please don’t scare me like that, she begs, not again and this is when it hits her how much he means to her how bleak and terrible the world would be, without him in it she doesn’t want to live in a world like that she wants to be with him (is this what love is? she wonders. this yearning? this craving for the things that are standing right in front of me?) she didn’t even realize how tightly a vice had clenched around her heart because when his eyes flutter open when he blinks up at her and gives that famous crooked smile she can breathe easy can crush him into her arms and chide him for being so reckless because he’s here and he’s hers, if she’ll have him and maybe it’s time to admit that she’s finally ready to have him)

leA I’M GONNA DESTROY YOU #and when he drops his transformation later that day#she's not afraid#she's so so HAPPY#so she drops her transformation too#idk what this is#sometimes lea writes things#wings i hope you're happy F UC K OFF

you know what hurts me more than anything? I was debating making this into another post but my subconscious mind /knows I read this somewhere before so I can't but listen with every breath he takes with every time his fingers clasp hers to bring her hand to his lips with every step he takes in front of her to block her with every sly grin at her that shows just the right amount of teeth to get her damn heart to skip one beat just /one damnit Tikki it doesn't count every time he laughs so hard that tears stream down his mask every time he looks at her in a way that makes her heart flare out and spread warmth that feels like comfort for her /soul warmth that she wants to make a home in he's saying I'm yours take me love me do what you will I love you now imagine her having to make sense of not just the fact that her partner has not been joking around when he kept professing his love to her that he wasn't just a flirt just for you only for you and a flash of green eyes lifting up to catch nighttime Parisian light imagine her seeing his transformation fade and one sheepishly smiling Adrien Agreste standing in front of her imagine what her poor heart would do then

i really wish he’d use his staff as staff instead of a sword

One day (maybe post reveal), I want Ladybug to just snap and go like, “Okay Chat Noir, here’s the deal.  You use your staff like a damn sword and I’ve had it!” And she drags him by the scruff of his collar to their friendly neighborhood Shoulin Kung Fu school.  (They know a guy, either via Marinette’s mom or in some Kim-Possible-esque favor-y way.  Or maybe it’s a dojo so he can learn bōjutsu, take your pick.)

(Side note: imagine the realization on Marinette’s face post-reveal that Adrien was using the staff like a fencing foil.  Then she cuffs him over the head, because he’s ridiculous, and kisses him on the cheek, because he’s a cutie patootie.)

And Chat Noir is resistant at first because he can use his staff just fine, thankyouverymuch, and it’s not like he goes around telling Ladybug how to use her yoyo!!

But then they get there and Chat blows everyone away with his fluent Mandarin (Marinette is like oh shit how many white boys know better Chinese than I do), and like the second he realizes that using the staff is all about circles and angular momentum and physics, he’s just gone, he’s so into it.

But he still sometimes reverts to using it as a sword, sometimes without really meaning to during the heat of battle, but sometimes he does it just to get a rise out of Ladybug.  (She gets all grumpy and frustrated and she gets all up in his face and grumbles, “I know you know better.”)

(Bonus: Ladybug, while Chat Noir is practicing: So how fast do you have to spin it to get airborne? Chat: *his physics-loving heart breaking in two* Ladybug no

(The answer, of course, is quantically fast.))

@mademoisellecoccinelle

listen to me adrien agreste is going to take dupain-cheng as his last name when he marries marinette and you can pry this fact out of my cold dead lifeless hands

HONORARY DUPAIN-CHENG ADRIEN AGRESTE

(until it becomes official of course)

Adrien Dupain-Cheng-Agreste?

In France they don’t always change names tho, but tbqh that’s not gonna stop Adrien.  Everybody will be like ?? you sure?? And he’s all *SLAMS FIST ON THE TABLE* NO TAKE BACKS

Marinette blushes so hard she turns pink, but she’s smiling like an idiot so it doesn’t even matter.

NO TAKE BACKS I’M DEAD I’m also fond of the fact that Dupain-Cheng ends up first ah bliss