Aftermath Ch 9 - A Life Worth Sharing

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

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Chapter 9 - A Life Worth Sharing

Ladybug dove off the building. Her stomach dropped in a way that had become familiar long ago. She laughed in exhilaration as the string of her yo-yo swung her back up with the wind whipping her hair around her face.

A shadow passed overhead, accompanied by a familiar joyous whoop. 

She laughed again, and shot off her yo-yo towards a beam of the Eiffel Tower. She pulled herself up to the platform. He was there waiting. 

He stood taller than her, even draped casually over the end of his staff. His feline eyes sparkled from behind his mask as he turned a boyish grin in her direction.

Her heart leapt and she forgot how to breathe. 

It had been so long. 

“Same as yesterday, m’lady?” 

Her throat lodged closed. She could only nod. She had missed him, looked for him around corners and in the shadows for years. And here he was before her, like no time had passed. 

He launched himself upwards, and she followed him, her laughter echoing his own. She would follow him anywhere. 

If only he had left her a trail of breadcrumbs. 

Celebrity Status - Ch 11: Don't Cry

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

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This chapter was written for @ladrienjune Day 22: Fragile. One scene gave me some grief, so I'm again late. But I'm super excited to bring this update to you! I had a lot of fun with it.

Chapter 11: Don't Cry

Marinette read through her handwritten note only to immediately crush it into a ball. It said too much. If anyone ever read it, they’d know Adrien was the perfect hostage for Ladybug. She couldn’t commit any of that to paper. 

But she couldn’t visit him either. The scandal itself proved that even when they thought they were alone someone might see. And anyone seeing her coming and going from the mansion at all, and his window in particular would be just as incriminating as a love letter.

Her throat clogged closed as the tears took over again. She didn’t know how many times she had fallen to pieces. She had lost count. It wasn’t fair that she couldn’t even break up with him properly! The world had to steal that from her as well? 

But she had to tell him something . She grabbed another piece of paper, ignoring the tears running down her cheeks. 

…

A Miraculous Reveal - Rings True

Post Season Five - Angst w/ a very happy ending

Summary: Ladybug hits send on her text to Chat Noir, telling him who Monarch is. She tells Adrien a very different story. Adrien doesn't know what to make of it, but he thinks he deserves the truth. Thanks to @coffeebanana, @wackus-bonkus-maximus, and @nemaliwrites for the beta read. This hits just a bit harder because of your input.

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A Miraculous Reveal - Rings True

I figured out who Monarch is. He’s Gabriel Agreste. Meet me at the Agreste Mansion . 

Chat Noir stares at the text and then glances up once again at the imposing statue erected in his father’s honor. Because his father apparently sacrificed himself to help Ladybug defeat Monarch. 

He shivers in the winter morning air. 

Both of those realities can’t be true. 

Love Remains - Ch 8

Written for @thelibraryloser‘s birthday, which was way back in July! But I'm making steady progress again! Woot!

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

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Chapter 8

Still forty-three days since Marinette lost her memory.

“I have something to say.” 

Both her maman and papa froze in their tasks of cleaning up the bakery, and turned to her. 

She shifted from one foot to the other, her fingers tightening around the strap of her purse. 

“I know you’re both sad that I lost my memories, and that in a way that the daughter you knew is gone. And I respect that and understand that—“

“Marinette,” her maman interjected. 

“No wait! It’s just, I love you both so much, and I don’t want to disappoint you, but I’m going to stop feeling guilty about the fact that I’m not her. I don’t need my memories to come back, and I hope you can love me as I am now.” 

Kisses in the Rain: Chapter 3 - Ladynoir - Out of Time

Written for @ladynoirjuly​ - Day 24 - Out of Time

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Chapter 1 - Adrinette - Kiss in the Rain

Chapter 2 - Ladrien - Goodbye Kiss

Chapter 3 - Ladynoir - Out of Time

The onslaught of miraculized robots is endless. For every one they manage to throw off, another three portals open to spill out more to fight.

She’s not sure how they ended up in the sky fighting on a cloud. And it’s bad. She knows it’s too much. She’s exhausted and she knows he is too. It’s only a matter of time before they’re overwhelmed.

She feels no fear at the conclusion. In fact, she finds herself smiling with Chat Noir at her back, grateful that if this is the end, he is here with her.

“I love you,” she shouts, and she can barely hear herself over the gales of wind whipping around them. But she knows he can hear her.

“I know.” She can hear the smile in his voice, she’s picturing it in her mind as she presses against his back facing the onslaught.

“You do? Since when?”

“Since our dream.”

Of course he hadn’t believed her attempts at misdirection after the fact. He had gone along with it because she wanted him to.

Because he always followed her lead in all things. She loved him so much.

“I wanted to say it out loud. In case, in case–”

In case they didn’t make it.

A Miraculous Reveal - Representation

Spoilers for Representation (5x24) Link to Ao3

...

Chat Noir swings wildly at the akuma who is his father. Adrien is almost glad Ladybug has yet to show up. He doesn’t have a plan, he almost doesn’t want to fix this one. It just feels good to lash out, to hurt this man and send him crashing to the ground, for every blow to make solid contact against the man who seems bent on stealing every good thing in his life. 

As Chat Noir, he doesn’t have to listen to his father. He can resist, he can fight. He can cataclysm anything that stands in his way as many times as he needs to! 

He can do all the things he can’t do as Adrien. 

Why can’t he fight as Adrien?!

No Regrets

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There were akumas, and then there were akumas that haunted Marinette’s dreams for years after the fact. And it wasn’t the ones where she almost lost her miraculous that gave her nightmares. It was the ones that stole her partner from her that had her bolting awake, gasping for air.

The times when he became a mindless soldier, or faded from existence in her arms.

Those instances were unfortunately becoming more common because something had shifted in the last year of Shadowmoth’s attacks. The man was clearly becoming more desperate – his akumas more violent and brutal.

The memory of the first time her partner took a fatal hit and didn’t fade from existence had fueled her nightmares for months. She had held his lifeless form in her arms. His chest was still, his cheeks were cold, and his green eyes - still open - were lifeless and dull.

She hadn’t been able to move from his side, hadn’t been able to think or fight. Only her team had saved her and Paris that day. She had been inconsolable afterwards. It had taken hours for a revived Chat Noir to calm her down.

It took almost as long for Chat Noir to soothe her from her nightmares each time she relived the event in her dreams.

That day had been terrible - the worst day of her life up to that point.

Today was somehow worse.

Not Part of the Plan: Ch 2 - The Most Supportive Boyfriend

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 |

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Chapter 2: The Most Supportive Boyfriend

Going to school the next day was hard. She felt self-conscious just saying good-bye to her papa on the way out the door. She hadn’t told him yet, and her maman had promised she would be able to tell him herself when she was ready.

If the way he squeezed her in his hug good-bye or the fact that he had prepared her favorite chouquettes to take to school were anything to go by, he was clearly worried. But he also asked no questions. She really did have the best parents in the whole world.

Her hand fell to her abdomen. There was the potential for a life there. One that would make her a mother. It was an absurd thought at this point in her life. She didn’t think she would do half as well at raising a child as her own parents.

Not Part of the Plan: Ch 1 - A Mother’s Strength

Chapters: 1 | 2

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Chapter 1: A Mother’s Strength

 Marinette watched the numbers click up on her phone one second at a time, trying to push down her anxiety. Her period was late, but there were lots of possible explanations for that. One, she was far more physically active than anyone else she knew, and that could wreak havoc on a girl’s cycle. And two, she, as a part time teenage superhero, held a lot more stress than your average person, which she knew could have similar effects.

 The timer reached two minutes and she finally let herself turn around to the flat white pregnancy test sitting on the bathroom sink.

 There were two lines.

 She stared at them, uncomprehending. The very air around her seemed to cave in on her making it hard to breathe.

 It wasn’t possible! They had been super careful. They had both known that they couldn’t have a baby. They were seventeen! They were superheroes who got thrown into buildings on a regular basis.  She had started the pill two weeks after they had become intimate. And he had used a condom every time she asked him to when she had forgotten to take a dose.

 This couldn’t be happening!

 She had only taken the test to rule it out. She hadn’t actually thought she could be pregnant. It had to be wrong!

 She ripped open the second test in the box. Surely it would say something different.

 It didn’t.

 She was pregnant.

Confessions to a Statue - Ch 2

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3

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Chapter 2

Marinette went rigid in the seat next to him – making her own impression of a wax statue, Adrien surmised. He would have missed it entirely had he not been watching for it. Her anxiety around him had become so obvious, he wondered how he could have been oblivious for so long.

She twisted around in her seat to watch their two best friends retreating forms as they abandoned Adrien and Marinette for their own “lunch date”, before turning back to him with a fragile smile. He beamed back at her, hoping to put her at ease while he internally cursed Alya’s brute-like attempts at matchmaking.

He knew that the aspiring journalist meant well, but she was not actually helping. She had left Marinette alone with him for what had to be the fifth time in as many days. And the poor girl was unraveling on the edges, and trying so hard not to show it.

“So, uh, you are the party… I mean… are you excited about doing Nino! I mean going to Nino’s! Oh god!” Her face fell into her hands. “I thought I was getting better.”

He smiled. Thank god, he didn’t laugh. He had always thought her tendency to mix up words cute, but now that he knew the reason was that she had feelings for him, it was even more endearing. And she was so much easier to understand and read now. That wasn’t the problem.

“Marinette,” Adrien interrupted, cutting off her garbled attempts at a sentence, with a hand on her shoulder.

The problem was he was second guessing every action he took and every word he said. Was putting a hand on her shoulder to calm her down just a kind gesture? Or was it straying into leading her on territory? His tone of voice; was it too friendly when he tried to reassure her that he wasn’t going to bite her? Or was it too firm and direct, giving away that he knew why she was struggling?

Confessions to a Statue - Ch 1

Chapters: 1 | 2

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Chapter 1

Adrien watched the doors close behind Marinette as she literally fled his presence. He wanted to go after her, but he was trapped in place by the mold setting in around his hand. He wasn’t entirely certain his company would be welcome anyway.

Nino insisted that Marinette didn't hate him, but watching her freak out and run the second they were alone together suggested otherwise. And it seemed to him the more the topic came up, that Nino wasn't being totally honest about Marinette either. Though he couldn’t fathom why his best friend would lie about this.