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bucketsofmonsters · 1 year

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The Witch’s Apprentice - Part 4

cw: demon summoning, prolonged isolation, more tags will be added as the story continues

male demon x afab reader

Word count: 4k

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

You woke up wrapped in Lucien’s arms, his tail coiled up your leg.

You couldn’t get up if you wanted to. Not only were you trapped by a cuddly demon, your exhaustion was overtaking you. Your limbs felt like they were made of lead and your brain was attempting to lull you right back to sleep. You were convinced you could sleep here forever if you allowed yourself to.

Which was exactly why you needed to get up. This place was dangerous, you couldn’t let yourself get too comfortable and completely succumb to it.

As you started to rise, the demons arms around you tightened, pulling you closer to him.

“Lucien,” you tried to call out but your face was smashed into his chest and instead it came out as an incomprehensible mumble.

It was still enough to wake him, his grip on you loosening as he came to.

You slipped out of his grasp, although his tail followed you to your new position standing beside him, curling right back up your leg.

He looked up at you with a smile. “What are you doing up so early?”

“How long did I sleep?”

“Not long. Maybe fifteen hours.”

Your eyes widened. “Fifteen hours?”

“Relax, you needed the sleep. I wouldn’t have let you sleep forever, I only do that to the annoying ones.”

“Glad to know I was in such safe hands,” you said with a roll of your eyes and a playful smile.

You looked back at him expecting to see that same wry smile as always on his face but instead his face had gone stony, his eyes darkening.

“You have a decision to make,” he said, all the teasing gone from his voice as he rose to his feet, towering above you.

His black eyes bored into you, asking you to make a choice about something, what it was you weren’t sure.

“I don’t understand,” you said, searching for clues in his face but it looked nothing other than weathered and exhausted.

“I’m being summoned. Time plays differently here but I can only stretch away from it for so long. So, what will it be?”

It didn’t feel like much of a decision at all.

“Well, that means I’m going back. Of course I’m going back, what else would I do?”

“You could go somewhere else.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere. Anywhere but there.” His voice was low and breathy, almost sounding as if he was pleading with you.

“She’s my friend. That’s my home.”

“It’s your prison. You're free now, you’re out and you’re asking to go back.” His voice increased in volume as he spoke, hints of anger tinging his words.

“Just because it is your prison does not mean it is mine. I want to go home.”

Creases formed between his brows and you couldn’t tell if they were from worry or anger. “And if I won’t take you?”

You reeled back at the suggestion, a bolt of fear running through you.

You tried desperately to put more force behind your words, needing him to listen to you. “Take me back. Now.”

In the back of your mind you were terrified that he'd leave you, that the unthinkable would happen and you’d be locked away from Eden forever.

He wasn’t surprised by your response. You could tell that much. If anything he looked overcome with dread,

“Don’t say I didn’t try.”

His hand wrapped around your arm and suddenly you too could feel a distant tug pulling at the both of you.

Without the adrenaline running through you this time, you got to actually see the change happen. The room around you faded away slowly, like a mirage you’d gotten a little too close to.

For a second you were nowhere. You didn’t even see black, just true nothing in all directions. Your stomach flipped and you leaned closer to Lucien, part of you terrified of being trapped in this void.

And then everything faded back in and you were confronted with a familiar face.

The second Eden laid eyes on you she grabbed your arm and yanked you out of the circle. You looked back apologetically at Lucien, the treatment feeling absurd after everything he’d done for you.

Lucien’s gaze had hardened once more as he looked down at your witch.

Eden’s focus wasn’t on him at all. Her eyes raked over your body, nails digging into the skin of your arm, like she was afraid you might slip away. Or maybe like she was afraid you might step back once more, back over the line she'd just pulled you from.

“Are you hurt?” she asked frantically. “Did he hurt you?”

When she finally spoke, her voice was shaky and guilt pierced through you. You’d been off fucking around with your new favorite demon and she’s been panicking. You wondered how long she’d been like this, what she thought had happened to you.

You pushed past her iron grip, throwing yourself towards her, arms wrapping tightly around her midsection. You buried your head in her neck, her familiar scent bringing waves of comfort to you.

Her arms hesitantly wrapped gently around you but you could tell she was still looking up at him.

As soon as your embrace loosened she pulled you behind her, putting herself between you and Lucien. Ultimately it was a futile gesture, he couldn’t reach either of you out here, but it seemed almost instinctive. She just wanted to put a barrier between the two of you and as much as you’d grown to trust Lucien, it made your heart swell. It awoke some unquenchable instinct, to throw yourself into danger to see if she’d come running.

But there were more important things to attend to. You glanced around at the undamaged cabin, looking exactly as you’d left it. The only change was the new summoning circle beside the old one you’d broken.

“You’re alright?” you asked. “They didn’t hurt you.”

Now that she had established that you were safe, she seemed uninterested in engaging with you. The question was ignored in favor of turning toward Lucian.

“You’re a despicable man,” she said with a sneer. “What did you even gain? They’ve done nothing to you.”

“You don’t understand,” you insisted, trying to get through to her. “He saved me.”

She regarded him with no less disdain at your declaration of what he’d done for you.

You butted in once more, refusing to back down, not this time. “He didn’t do anything wrong, I owe him my life.”

Eden snapped, her head turning towards you as she stopped ignoring you. “We cannot do this right now, not in front of him.”

“When else? You said all he wanted was to hurt us and he saved me, how is that not substantial to you.”

“He did not save you,” she shouted.

You drew back at her harsh words. “What? No, he did. I don’t know what happened here but…”

“How many times have I warned you about demon trickery? This is exactly why I wanted to be there, why you two never should have been alone. How long did it take before he managed to make you break the circle.”

“He didn’t make me do anything, he protected me!”

“There was no threat. This was all a mistake, I never should have shown you all of this, you’re not built for it. Trusting you with it was a mistake, I’ve gone soft on you.”

“You’re wrong,” you insisted, eyes flicking to Lucien looking for help. He stared back silently, watching you from the sidelines.

“Am I? Then why was there no one here when I returned?” Eden asked. “Why did this dangerous threat do nothing to the cabin? What explanation do you have other than what is right in front of you, what you refuse to see because your heart is bigger than your head.”

“To what end?” you insisted, refusing to back down on the issue. You were not the fool here. There were gaps in what happened, sure, but her story was not flawless either. “He’s done nothing to me. He created a ploy to what, keep me safe and bring me back unscathed?”

She scoffed. “I don’t pretend to understand the machinations of demons. But neither, frankly, do you. At least one of us understands that.”

“You’re wrong.” It didn’t make sense, it was based on nothing but faux ideas of monsters and you wouldn’t stand for it. Not when he’d just saved your life.

Lucien chose that moment to butt in. “She’s really not.”

Eden looked up at Lucien with wide eyes, seemingly wondering how things had gone so badly that she was on the same side as a demon.

Both turned against you, despite everything.

When Eden turned back to you she looked a little sick, less confident than you’d ever seen her before. “You’ve done so poorly you turned a demon honest. I would be impressed if I weren’t so disappointed.”

“It doesn’t make sense. He was kind, he didn’t hurt me.”

“All in service of some greater plan, I’m sure. You’ve heard it from his own mouth now, surely you don’t need any more hand-holding. The truth is right in front of you.”

“But then why would he tell me?” Your eyes flicked up towards the demon, the one you’d put all of your trust in for days. “Why would you…” You trailed off, dread pooling in your gut, a sickening bile of betrayal bubbling up inside of you.

Lucien refused to meet your gaze, his face stony and unreadable. You wouldn’t have noticed so much if it hadn’t been such a shift from what he’d begun to show you.

But maybe those emotions were fake too, another performance he was putting on. Another trick you were too stupid to see through.

You’d been wrong, dangerously wrong. You couldn’t trust your judgment anymore, never should have in the first place, it seemed.

Eden seemed to take your silence as acceptance, quickly sending Lucien away,

The second he disappeared she turned to you, some of that manic energy from when you’d first returned appearing back in her face. It seemed she’d been hiding it from him, keeping it just under the surface.

Both of them seemed so good at their faux emotions, Eden’s confidence, Lucien's performance as your rescuer. Maybe this was a skill you were supposed to have, maybe you were the odd one out.

Eden’s hands gripped your shoulders, fingernails digging into your skin once more, clinging to you like a lifeline.

“What did he say to you, how badly did he get through to you? He’ll try to lead you astray, to put you in harm's path. He’s a liar, you can’t believe him.”

“He didn’t say anything, he was just… nice.” And he had been. You couldn’t see the signs of this scheme that they both seemed so convinced were obvious.

You could tell Eden didn’t believe you. She rarely did even before all of this, you knew it would be a long long time before she ever did again.

The pressure of her nails subsided, leaving a dull ache of pain where their imprints remained on your skin.

She pulled you along a familiar hall and you didn’t put up a fight, still caught up in trying to make sense of everything.

You barely realized what was happening until she was guiding you to sit on your bed, pushing your hair away from your face and looking down at you with sad eyes.

“This wasn’t your fault,” she said. “I should’ve known not to let you near all this.

The reassuring graze of her fingers against your cheek faded and you heard the lock on your door click.

“It will stay this way until you show a sense of self-preservation, alright?” she called through the door. “I will permit a lot of things but I will not allow you to hurt yourself.”

You collapsed back onto the bed with a sigh and heard her walk away, not waiting for an answer.

With nothing better to do with your time, you ran through it in your head over and over and over again. Hours passed and you just lay there, turning the events over in your mind.

The signs they’d both pointed to didn’t track, they didn't lead to anything. You couldn’t combine them to a point where they would make sense. If this was a trick, why had he told you the truth when you’d been so convinced? If it was to harm you or Eden why did he keep you safe in his home and bring you back here? You might not have been the best bargaining chip but you would be a good piece of leverage against her and instead here you were, locked back in your room, where you are no longer useful to him.

None of it made sense.

Right up until you stopped thinking about him as Eden’s type of demon, an unthinking force of evil trying to do as much damage as possible.

Because there wasn’t any other perspective you could see. He didn’t hurt you because he didn’t want to. He didn’t hurt you because he saw someone who was scared and alone and couldn’t help himself, just like Eden had done when she found you all alone in the woods all those years ago. He didn’t hurt you because, as much as he might protest, some part of him cared.

And, once more, he wouldn’t hurt you.

You were betting your life on it.

You didn’t have the materials for a summoning circle in your room but it didn’t matter. All you needed to be able to do was get him in here, you didn’t need protection from him.

Honestly, you didn’t want the protection. You were convinced that the warding gave him something to hide behind. As long as he was locked in there, he could claim that he was a monster, that he would hurt you given the chance.

Take that away and you’d find out what he would really do, one way or another.

The summoning spell wasn’t long. All you needed to get him here were the words, everything else was to keep you safe or to keep him bound.

The second he saw you, his eyes widened. You could practically see the gears turning in his head as you smiled softly up at him, giving him a little wave.

He did not wave in return.

His gaze dropped slowly to the floor, staring blankly as the seconds ticked by. He seemed baffled by the blank floor beneath him, trying to comprehend what could possibly be happening as you waited patiently for him to react.

Finally, his gaze rose to meet yours once more.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked.

“Nice to see you too.”

“Genuinely, what is wrong with you? It's not a rhetorical question, I would love an answer.”

You shrugged. “I’m not sure. You should ask my witch, she’s got some theories.”

“You’re going to get yourself killed,” he insisted and you couldn’t help but think that he and Eden might actually get along if it weren’t for the fact he was a demon. They seemed to have a lot of similar ideas.

“Well, nothing has happened yet. Do you intend on killing me?”

“I could do anything to you, you couldn’t stop me.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

The longer this went on, the more relaxed you became. This man had no intention of hurting you, that much was more than clear.

“I should kill you right now,” he said with a growl, one that you didn’t even have it in you to pretend you found frightening. The both of you had long since passed that point.

“Why?”

“Because I’m a demon. That’s what we do.”

“And yet here we are and I remain unharmed. So it seems demons are more complicated than that. Either that or you’re a shitty demon.”

He couldn’t seem to fight back a smile at that. “Yeah, well you’re a shitty witch.”

“I’m not a witch. A witch-in-training at most, although something tells me the training is not going to happen again for a very long time.”

“My bad,” he said, and you could almost detect a hint of sheepishness in his tone.

“I know how you can make it up to me,” you said leaning forwards towards him from your seat on the bed.

His head cocked to the side. “And how is that?”

“Tell me why you did it.”

He groaned. “You and your why’s. I’m not telling you anything.”

“Fine,” you said, “I’ll give it a shot then. Do you know what I think? I think you never imagined I’d break that warding. You were just trying to scare me or prove some point about me or whatever and then I broke the warding and you didn’t know what to do. I think I ruined your little plan and when confronted with someone who was scared and who trusted you, you helped them. Who wouldn’t?”

“Cute little story you’ve spun yourself.”

You shrugged. “It’s what I would’ve done.”

“You would’ve created a commotion to scare the shit out of a witch-in-training?”

“No, but testing someone? Trying to prove the very worst? Seeing when push comes to shove, what will people do? That’s not demon scheming.”

“Yes it is.”

“It’s really not. Seems more insecure than anything.”

That got a real hearty laugh out of him. “Oh, does it now?”

“At least that’s what my witch says when I do it. Do little tests and push at things to see if she trusts me. I mean, I’ve never made her fear for her life but she’s never trapped me and made me do anything so I think we have different levels of frustration.”

“She doesn’t believe in you,” he observed and you wondered if he was just now coming to understand that.

You rolled your eyes. “Who would?”

The question hung in the air and you could feel him waiting, wondering if he should answer it.

You took the choice away from him, asking a question of your own in return. “When was the last time a human trusted you?”

“A long, long time ago, little one. Not to say I haven’t earned my reputation.”

“I don’t know. You seem pretty trustworthy to me.”

“You’d be surprised.” He looked down at the bare floor below him once more. “You know, there’s nothing stopping me anymore. I could take you away, let you leave this place.”

That caught you by surprise. “What? No, I… I can’t”

“Why? Because of the woods? I could take you right past them. There’s no way you’ve never wanted to leave. Come on, I could even take you back after, you don’t have to be imprisoned here.”

“This is my home,” you insisted.

“What the fuck has she done to you? You could leave, right now, go anywhere. I’m offering you the world, one trip, no fees, no fine print. I never do that, you’d be a fool to refuse it.”

“She hasn’t done anything to me. She just wants to keep me safe.” At the end of the day, it always came back to this with the two of you, Eden forever being the wedge between you.

“The little warden has you playing good little prisoner. I’m honestly impressed. And they call me manipulative.”

“Stop it. I know she’s wronged you but-”

“But? There is not but. She is a monster and you’re trapped in her web just as much as I am.”

“She is a good person.”

“Maybe you’re too far gone. I don’t know if I can help you.”

“I don’t need help,” you said.

He opened his mouth to insist you did or tell you once more how much of a monster your savior was but you dismissed him before he had the chance.

Without the warding, he could have stayed. He could have clung to this plane easily but he let you push him away and once more you were locked alone in your room.

It took a long time to fall asleep. Your conversation with Lucien kept swimming around and around in your head.

Eventually, exhaustion got the better of you and your room faded away to another familiar place.

It hadn’t even been a full day since you’d left and Lucien’s room was just as vivid as when you’d been standing in it.

He was there too, looking down at you with that hungry look he’d gotten in his eyes on occasion, when he thought you weren’t looking.

“I’m glad you came back,” he said, walking over towards you, his hand moving under your chin, forcing you to look up at him. “It gets boring around here without you, I could always use a sweet little thing to play with.”

Your face warmed and you managed to stutter out, “I… uh…”

You heard a chuckle from behind you and dream Lucien dissipated in a puff of smoke as you stiffened.

You whipped around to see Lucien again, a notably more real one, leaning against the wall. “Pity. I wanted to see what happened next.

Your face burned, glad dream Lucien left before he could do anything particularly embarrassing.

You folded your arms with a huff. “Are you just going to invade all of my dreams now?”

“Maybe. If they’re all as fun as this one was gearing up to be then you can sign me up.”

You clamored for a retort but came up empty, ending up just sputtering and then staring at him all while feeling as if your cheeks might melt and your heart might beat its way right out of your chest.

He chucked again. “Relax. It’s sweet. Next time I’ll try and come in later, you could use some stress relief.”

You might actually spontaneously combust. “Please say you came for some reason other than to embarrass me,” you pleaded.

He shrugged. “Just came to talk. Embarrassing you was an unexpected bonus.”

Next time you saw him in the non-dream world you were going to throw something at him.

“Talk about what?” you asked, desperately trying to change the topic.

“We ended on bad terms earlier.”

Oh. That. You’d almost prefer he keep on humiliating you.

“Did you come to apologize?” you asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.

But nothing could ever be simple with him.

“You know,” he said, “there’s lots of different reactions demons have when humans summon them, trap them, make them do their bidding, all that nasty business. Some get violent, some get tricky, some have given up and are just filled with despair, following along until they’re finally free. There’s no right reaction to this sort of thing, not really. But there’s one kind that we all hate, the real traitors. Because sometimes there is no fighting back, no despair. Sometimes they just happily fall in line. It’s certainly safer that way, I can’t fault anyone for listening, but to do it happily? And sometimes, eventually, they don’t even need to be forced. They just go along with it, anything for their little masters.”

“I don’t understand.”

“No, I didn’t think you would. I won’t push too hard, you’re clearly not ready for that, but you witch is a very, very bad person.”

“She just doesn’t understand you. I’ll make her understand.”

“At least you're going to try. That’s something.” He spoke with a halfhearted smile, his mind clearly elsewhere. You wished more than anything you could read him, that you could understand what was going on in his head.

“Of course I am. And she will understand, I’ll make her see that you’re not a threat, that she shouldn't be summoning you.”

The sadness written across his face was clear, with hunched shoulders and a furrowed brow betraying him as he stared down at you.

Finally, after staring intently at you, contemplating something as he mulled over your words, he said,“Thyme.”

“Excuse me?”

“You didn’t have enough thyme. That’s how I can get in here. Most witches use way more than necessary just in case but you tried to make it exact and it fucked you over.”

“Oh. I didn’t want to use more of my witch’s stash than I had to.”

“One of these days someone crueler than me is going to come along and that mindset is going to get you hurt.”

“I’ve been fine so far. Why did you tell me, if I fix it you can’t get into my head anymore.”

He shrugged. “Figure it out.”

“Is it an apology or another trick”

“What do you think,” he asked with a smile. He enjoyed this, giving you little pieces of information and seeing what you’d do with them.

“An apology,” you decided.

“Your witch would call that foolish,” he informed you, as if you weren’t already intimately familiar with the idea.

“She already calls me foolish, might as well trust my instincts if it’s going to happen anyways.”

“I don’t know what I’ve done to make you think I’m so good-intentioned.”

You laughed. “Yeah, because you’ve been so cruel to me”

“I tricked you,” he reminded you, as if it had just slipped your mind.

“And then you took care of me when I proved you wrong.”

“An outlier. You caught me off guard.”

“How?”

“Because you fell for my trick.”

“Oh, is that so? Maybe your expectations of me were too high. Do you think me foolish now too?”

“Maybe. I’m not entirely sure what to think of you.”

The room snapped out of existence as you woke with a jolt at Eden banging at your door, some food having already been slipped underneath it. You considered asking her to bring you more thyme but thought better of it. You didn’t think you’d be needing it anytime soon.

#terato #demon x reader #demon x human #monster bf #monster boyfriend #monster x human #monster x reader #demon #the witch's apprentice #Sorry I was on a sort of unplanned hiatus for a bit guys #I am back now #also would you believe me if I told you I didn't see the garden of eden metaphor in this until someone pointed it out to me #incredible things our subconscious can do #Especially when you were raised catholic lmao #I was having issues writing this so I went with the tried and true write it like a script #and then add dialogue tags and description until it works lol

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peachcitt · 7 years

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back from the dead at last with chapter 27!! did ya miss me? @gigiree @luvclick @megatraven

holy hot dang it’s been a hot minute hasn’t it? i stopped updating mid-marching season which was like in october so like lemme just say. im sorry. since then school has kicked me in the ass with a bunch stress regarding the future and i was like. well. gotta spend my time not writing oops and here we are. in the ripe of march in a new year

i gotta say this chapter is relatively normal and i considered making it a monster of a chapter to make up for the time i’ve been gone but then that would just ruin the rhythm of the lengths of chapters and stuff and also i reached a good end so like?? bear with me i know you all probably thought i abandoned this but!! i love it!! i just can’t wait until we get to the juicy bits of angst that will be happening i promise

but anyway hi hello i’m back and i’m not gonna go on an unplanned five month hiatus ever again

Read from the beginning/where it’s originally posted here

Story description: They say curiosity killed the cat. But it can do a whole lot more than that. [In which Marinette falls into an unfamiliar place with strange inhabitants]

Chapter description: Marinette and Chat take a breather at Nathaneal’s house. There’s a lot of art involved because Nathaneal is a ghost with talent.

Rated: T (because there’s some violence that may not be suited for some audiences... injuries from the last chapter and scab mentions in this chapter btw)

“Oh,” Nathaneal said, seeming to drift away a little. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“Wait!” Marinette called, forgetting for a moment that she had an extra hole in her body as she broke away from Chat. Immediately after leaving his support, the both of them collapsed, sending a wave of water to flick gently at Nathaneal’s feet, which floated an inch or so above the surface.

“I just keep making it worse,” Nathaneal whimpered, wincing a little. “I just thought I heard your voice, but…” He trailed off, looking back in the direction he came. “I should probably just go.”

“Please don’t,” Marinette said, trying her best to stand. “You didn’t do anything wrong; I promise.” Nathaneal was the first real friend Marinette had made in the Underground, and she wasn’t eager to see him leave so soon again.

Nathaneal chewed on his lip, looking away from Marinette and seeming to notice Chat for the first time. “Oh, hey, Chat. I didn’t know you were here.”

“Glad to know my presence isn’t as domineering as I thought it was,” Chat grunted, clutching his side and offering a grimace to Marinette when she shot a glare back at him. “What, so you’re allowed to make snide comments when you’re near death, but I’m not?”

“No one’s near death, idiot,” she hissed. “And I don’t do that.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

Blood loss was making Marinette a bit dizzy, which she figured was probably not good. Nathaneal cocked his head at her, noting the way she glared down at the water in an attempt to regain a bit of focus. “Are you two injured?” he asked after a moment, looking over at Chat, who was also looking a bit dazed.

“Only a little bit,” Marinette said, finally gaining enough focus and strength to stand and help Chat struggle to his feet. “We’ll be fine if we get some rest and food, though.”

“Well…” Nathaneal looked back in the direction he came once more. “Maybe I could help with that.”

As it turns out, Nathaneal lived in a somewhat slouching house in Waterfall. He led Chat and Marinette, still leaning heavily on one another, to his house, careful to float slowly so that the both of them could keep up.

“Nino called and said that the two of you would be passing through,” Nathaneal rambled, patting his pockets for the key to his front door. Marinette wondered why he needed a key when he was a ghost. “I figured I should keep an eye out, but I didn’t notice you guys were already here.” He pulled out a ghostly key and stuck it into the keyhole. It didn’t seem to do anything. The door creaked open.

“I’m a ghost, so any food I have probably won’t help you guys,” he said, shrugging a little. He floated into his house, leading them to a living room-like area with what seemed to be two over-stuffed dog beds in the place of a couch. There was no coffee table. “But I can offer you a place to rest.”

“This is wonderful, Nathaneal,” Marinette said, somewhat collapsing on one of the dog beds and dragging Chat along with her. “Thank you.”

Chat let out a soft groan, looking down at the hole in his side and glancing at the amount of blood that had coated his glove. “I’m sorry if we stain anything,” he said weakly, trying for a smile.

“I-I could go to one of the shops and get you guys some proper akuma food,” Nathaneal offered, glancing worriedly between the two.

“We have some,” Marinette said, shifting her weight more to her uninjured leg and pulling out her yo-yo. “But thank you.”

He didn’t seem satisfied until Chat and Marinette had split a bicicle in half and eaten their respective pieces. The burning pain on Marinette’s leg dulled to an ache, and she saw that the hole that had looked in on bare muscle and torn skin had healed to a large, but less scary looking, scab. She looked over at Chat, and saw that the same was true for him, except his scab didn’t look as fully healed as Marinette’s. She frowned.

Nathaneal seemed to be placated for the moment, though, so he drifted away from them. “Now that you aren’t in danger of becoming, well, something like me, I think I should leave you alone to rest,” he said somewhat timidly. Though he seemed to be gaining confidence in himself and how he spoke the longer they stayed in his house.

He drifted up the stairs before either Marinette or Chat could say anything else.

Marinette turned to Chat. “Why isn’t yours healed like mine?” she asked, pouncing on him the moment Nathaneal was out of sight.

“Seems like my initial wound was worse,” he said, pulling a handkerchief out of one of his many zipper pockets and wiping his bloodied hands off. “But it doesn’t matter. It feels fine.”

“Liar,” Marinette said. Chat gave a little shrug. “I’ve got a unicicle left and that Nice Cream that Stormy gave us back in Snowdin,” she said, rooting around in her Miraculous.

Chat shook his head firmly. “Save that for yourself. One solid cat nap and I’ll be good as new,” he said, putting his hands over Marinette’s and making her close the storage compartment. “No good to waste that kind of stuff on me.”

“It’s not wasting if I want to do it.”

Chat gave her a look, and she put the Miraculous away with a sigh. “Fine. But the next time we have the opportunity to stop for food, I’m getting something specifically for you.”

“Looking forward to it,” Chat replied easily, though he gave a little wince when he flopped back on the fluffy dog bed, turning on the side that wasn’t injured. “Speaking of naps,” he said, his eyes seeming to close of their own will. “It seems like this cat could use one.”

“Don’t sleep with one eye open,” Marinette warned.

“Ha, very funny,” he murmured, the last word drifting off a little as he let himself fall asleep.

Marinette wondered how anyone could fall asleep that quickly.

She was feeling a bit tired herself, but she wasn’t about to lay down and immediately pass out like Chat had. And she was never one to look forward to the dreams she would inevitably have.

So instead she got up from the dog bed and wandered around Nathaneal’s house, only giving a slight moment’s thought to wonder if it was considered rude to do so. That didn’t stop her, though.

Her leg throbbed dully every time she had to take a step, but she ignored the slight pain and examined some artwork that had been hung up on Nathaneal’s walls. There were portraits and landscapes, all with a sort of whimsical but edged style to them. Marinette liked it.

Aside from the dog beds and artwork, there was really nothing else in the living room. The floor was clean and polished red wood, as if no one had stepped on it before. What with the fact that Nathaneal was a ghost, that was certainly a possibility.

A glance into the connecting doorway that lead to the kitchen told her that the kitchen was also bare like the living room was. There was more artwork on the walls, seeming to center around food, but the stove and countertops were wiped clean and gave off a sort of shining quality. The fridge was covered in drawings done in crayon that didn’t match the style of the other pieces, and Marinette assumed they were kids’ drawings.

“Nino introduced me to this daycare in the capitol,” Nathaneal said from behind her, and Marinette squeaked, jumping a little and letting out a small whine as a bit more weight fell on her injured leg. “Oh, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, his voice soft and timid.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Marinette said, turning around and shifting her weight onto her uninjured leg.

Nathaneal’s gaze flicked down at the scab on the side of her thigh. “That doesn’t look good.”

“Oh, it’s not,” she replied without thinking.

His shoulders drew up, and he chewed on his bottom lip, floating into the kitchen and grasping the handle to the fridge. His hand seemed to grow more opaque at the contact to the solid object as he pulled the fridge door open.

“I must have some sort of regular food from one of Nino’s or Chat’s visits,” Nathaneal muttered, taking out several ghostly sandwiches and a few of what looked like sparkly cans of motor oil. Marinette chose not to ask.

Nathaneal’s feet rose a couple more feet into the air as he dug deeper into the fridge, his body now horizontal. “I’ve got” – he pulled himself out of the fridge, still seeming to lay sideways in midair – “I’ve got a chocolate bar.”

“Um.” Marinette took the chocolate bar. It was wrapped in sparkly pink foil and only had the initials CB on it. It also seemed to be half-eaten. “Thank you.”

Marinette decided to save it for Chat.

---

Chat dreamed he was fighting the dummy with Marinette again. Except at this point, he knew that his dreams weren’t dreams anymore but his mind catching him up on what he missed when a Jump occurred.

He really hated that this was happening again.

Marinette was being her normal stubborn self, refusing to heal up when Chat told her to. His chin was smarting from the burn of a magic attack that he had just managed to block, but he was more concerned with how Marinette’s arm seemed to be falling apart.

“You need to heal up,” he said, but Marinette refused.

The fight continued, and Chat was so absorbed in trying to defend himself that he didn’t notice that Marinette had gotten hurt again until the dummy pointed it out.

“You have three holes in your body!” it yelled, and Chat finally turned to her, a million emotions running through him all at once as he saw the way she was barely able to stand up straight. “What kind of monster are you?”

She let out a little breath, easing her weight more to one side than the other and clutching her injured arm to her chest. “Um. The determined kind?”

“Doesn’t matter,” the dummy had said, and Marinette cast a glance at Chat, giving him a searching look. “This just means I have to work harder to end you.”

“Please don’t,” she said, tearing her gaze away from Chat to look at the dummy. Chat could feel the dread pool in his gut.

“Heal up!” he called to her, knowing how this would end. He could feel it in the air, in the way Marinette was already having trouble focusing on what was in front of her.

“Please don’t yell at me,” she near whimpered.

The dummy said something to Chat, but he wasn’t listening, trying in vain to figure out a way to get them both out alive. Missiles zoomed its way toward him, but he just twirled his baton and the missiles collided with the metal instead of his skin. He thought he heard a scream that sounded like a mix of his name and absolute despair and something fall into the water, but the explosions from the missiles had blinded him temporarily.

When he was able to see again, Marinette’s SOUL was completely defenseless as a missile launched toward it.

“Marinette!” he yelled.

He watched her SOUL explode.

---

“What were you saying about that daycare?” Marinette asked, keep her voice low as they walked through the living room to get to the stairs that led to Nathaneal’s room.

“Oh.” He cast a small glance to Chat, who was curled up on one of the dog beds with a slightly troubled expression on his face. “Um, yeah, Nino introduced me to a daycare in the capitol,” he repeated, seeming to try and get his thoughts in order.

The staircase led up to only one room, and that was presumably Nathaneal’s. More artwork littered the walls, but it seemed to be more personal. There were a whole lot more portraits.

Nathaneal gestured to a pile of pillows in the corner of the room, and Marinette gratefully sank down into a sitting position, thankful to get some stress off her leg. Nathaneal perched carefully on one of the only pieces of furniture in the room: a rolly chair by a long and cluttered wooden desk.

“I was visiting the capitol for one of my annual follow up therapy sessions.” He said this casually, and at Marinette’s confused stare, his cheeks became more opaque, like he was blushing. “All akumas have to go through them.”

“Because of the…?” Marinette’s question remained unfinished, but Nathaneal nodded anyway.

“Anyway, at that time Nino was still stationed within the capitol, and we ended up talking a little bit.” Nathaneal touched a toe to the floor and twirled the chair back and forth idly. “I said I liked to draw a lot, and he told me about a daycare that was low on staff. Said they’d probably need someone to step in and teach all the kids some arts and crafts.”

Marinette tried to imagine Nathaneal around a bunch of kids, all demanding attention. It was a little bit funny.

“I didn’t want to at first, but one of my friends convinced me to do it.” He did a full rotation on his chair. “She said I didn’t get out enough. So, I took the job. And for some reason the kids liked to give me their drawings when I praised them, so I decided to hang them up on the fridge.”

“There were a lot of drawings,” Marinette said, remembering how the surface of the fridge could hardly be seen underneath the masses of paper. “You must praise them a lot.”

Nathaneal’s cheeks again seemed to grow opaque. He did two full rotations on his chair. “I like all the drawings they do. And it’s only natural to praise a kid’s hard work.” He shrugged, moving the chair back and forth again. “I go a couple of times a week since I’m only a part-timer, and I show the kids some painting and drawing techniques and then they give me their art.”

“That seems fun.”

A small smile pulled at his lips and it seemed to tug his whole body into a something that let out a pulse of happiness. “It is.”

The quiet that descended over them was something comfortable and warm, and Marinette took the time to gaze at the portraits on the walls. Without getting up, of course.

There was one of Nino, bubble wand in hand, his headphones flipped out and music notes and bubbles surrounding him as he laughed to some joke. Next to his was one of Chat, head resting lazily on his hand as he stared straight out the portrait, his smile hinting that he knew something that Marinette didn’t.

Marinette recognized one of Rose, the shopkeeper from Snowdin, standing with a girl she didn’t recognize. Next to that one was one of Ali, Rose’s friend who owned the Inn in Snowdin. There was also a portrait of Ivan and Mylene, the two akumas responsible for Marinette’s first death experience. She didn’t really blame them or hold any grudges towards them, though. Under normal circumstances, Marinette thought they may seem like fun people to hang out with.

There were many more of people Marinette didn’t recognize, but she still enjoyed looking over Nathaneal’s rendering of them. One in particular caught her eye, and something caught in her throat.

It was a portrait of a man in a black and purple tux standing next to a woman in a red bodysuit wearing a red domino mask. Marinette surged to her feet, her eyes fixed to the portrait. The woman and the man seemed to be happy, their arms wrapped around each other, but Marinette couldn’t care less about the man. It was the woman who had caught her attention.

She turned to Nathaneal, something inside her making her breathless. “In this portrait, who is-”

“Marinette!” Chat stood at the entrance to Nathaneal’s room, the top of the stairs, a look of desperation on his face. He seemed to relax as he saw her though, his whole body seeming to let out a breath. “God, I don’t even know what I was thinking when I woke up and you weren’t there,” he muttered, taking her hand.

She couldn’t help but notice that he guided her gently away from the portrait she had been so fascinated with.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Marinette said, her eyes still drawn to that portrait. For the first time, she noticed that the portrait next to the one with the man and the woman was one of Tikki. Suddenly Marinette’s heart was heavy. She no longer wanted to look at those portraits.

“Hey, Chat,” Nathaneal said, twirling idly on his chair. “We were just sitting and thinking about how much we felt like garbage.” Marinette stared at him. He seemed to blush. “Or at least that’s what I was doing.”

“Did you sleep well?” Marinette asked, sitting down on the cushions again and pulling Chat down with her.

His eyes scanned her face, and he took her hand, squeezing it a little. Marinette understood that he meant that no, he did not sleep well at all. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at his side. There was no sign of any sort of injury, nor proof that there ever had been one. The leather of his suit looked completely without blemish.

“Have you been working on any new portraits lately?” he asked Nathaneal instead of giving a verbal response to Marinette’s question. She pursed her lips, but said nothing.

Nathaneal turned to his desk, sifting through the clutter of CDs, paper, and general art utensils and picked up a thick sheet of paper. The piece looked near finished, the portrait taking on a soft sort of quality because of the water colors and the way the girl’s expression was portrayed.

“Is that…?” Chat trailed off, looking between Marinette and the beautiful girl on the paper. Nathaneal nodded, his entire body seeming to grow more solid as if he was blushing all over.

“That’s me?” Marinette asked, leaning closer and scrunching her nose up. The girl was far too beautiful to resemble Marinette at all. “It can’t be.”

“Of course it is,” Chat said, taking the paper from Nathaneal and showing it to her so that she’d get a closer look. “It’s the spitting image.”

“I try not to glorify anything,” Nathaneal piped up, his cheeks very opaque.

Marinette wasn’t convinced.

The girl in the portrait did in fact resemble her, sure, but she was wearing the clothes that Marinette had fallen in when she first came to the Underground. It didn’t seem like those clothes really fit the current Marinette anymore. In both a physical way and a metaphorical way. Not to mention that the girl looked happy, her hand reaching for the person on the other side of the portrait. If the girl in the portrait really was Marinette, she had no idea she could make an expression so content.

“It’s from when I first saw you. Back in the Ruins,” Nathaneal said, getting up from his chair and taking the portrait. “Now that I’ve seen you again, I don’t think it matches you well enough,” he said, chewing at the inside of his cheek and giving the portrait a scrutinizing look.

Chat was staring at Marinette, as if trying to see the girl in the portrait in her. Marinette wondered if he could see it.

“You seem different now,” Nathaneal said, almost as if to himself. “Not bad different. Just more…” He paused, holding the portrait up and looking between it and Marinette. “More like you know where you want to go.”

He opened a drawer in his desk, revealing a bunch of unfinished portraits. Marinette got a glimpse of one of a neon-colored robot girl. She also thought she caught a glimpse of one of Chat in a lab coat, but she couldn’t be sure.

Setting the unfinished portrait of Marinette in with the other unfinished ones, Nathaneal turned back to his desk and sifted through the miscellaneous items to find a blank canvas. “I’ll start another one,” he said to no one in particular.

“You haven’t rested,” Chat whispered when it was clear Nathaneal wasn’t interested in conversation anymore.

“I wasn’t tired,” Marinette whispered back. “And where did your injury go? Don’t think I haven’t noticed,” she said, noticing the indignant look on his face. “I even saved a chocolate bar for you.”

She pulled out the half-eaten chocolate bar in the shimmery pink wrapping paper. Chat made a face.

“Were you the one that ate the other half of it?” he asked, taking the chocolate bar gingerly and peeling away the paper. It looked like flakes of glitter were actually inside the chocolate.

“Nope.”

He set aside the chocolate bar. “Then forgive me for not trusting an already dodgy brand of chocolate.” He seemed to make a face at the initials ‘CB’ on the wrapping paper.

“You didn’t answer my question though,” Marinette said, choosing to ignore Chat’s strange reaction to the chocolate bar.

Chat placed a hand on his once injured side, almost self-consciously. “I’m an akuma, Marinette. I heal differently with magic attacks and all that.” He pressed down softly on where the wound would’ve been and winced. “It still hurts, but there’s no wound. Soon enough the pain will go away.”

Marinette had no reason to not believe him, but she still found herself unsure. She didn’t ask any more questions, though.

Somehow Chat ended up next to her among the pillows, his arm wrapped around her shoulders and pulling her close to his side. Nathaneal had snapped out of his art trance long enough to put a CD into an old beat up CD player, and soft electronic music with no real lyrics or choruses started to play.

“You need to rest,” Chat murmured into her hair, and at the sound of his words, Marinette realized just how much her eyelids were drooping.

“I don’t want to dream,” she whispered, her voice slurring just the slightest. Her eyes drifted to where the portrait of Tikki was. And where the portrait of the man and the woman was.

Chat rubbed her shoulder soothingly, the evenness of his breath lulling her closer to sleep. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

The statement almost seemed like a jab at her for leaving him alone while he had been sleeping. But the tone of his voice didn’t suggest any hard feelings, and she fell asleep to the steady rhythm of his breathing and the music drifting from Nathaneal’s CD player.

#miraculous tale #miraculous tale fic #yooooooooooooooooooo #im real sorry that i've been away for so long it was sorta an accident? forgive me #just had my spring break so i was able to lounge and relax for a solid week so im pretty okay rn #but like #idk why i was so stressed for a while? it just kinda happened and i waslike hahah what the fi ck #but now i don't have to worry about late night band rehearsal #(note: this is a lie. im lying straight to your faces. concert season is a bitch with practices almost every day of my life)#but the point is that im back from the dead #i can't wait until this universe's mettaton is revealed because i puT SO MANY REFERENCES TO THEM IN THIS CHAPTER GOT DANG #honestly i can't wait until all the back story is revealed because im sooooooo antsy to spill everything but im like no.#you and gigi made a P L A N #nothing can be revealed until all goes to shit and then gets fixed again #also i had to reread literally everything from the beginning because?? jesus christ i couldn't remember what style i had written this in #i hope this chapter isn't different from the others style wise but i think idid a pretty good job #also i had spring break online math hw but i don't wannnaaaaaa #im already behind on it and i haven't done shit since spring break started rip me #other than rewatch black butler and catch up to book of circus and boOK OF MURDER WHICH BYTHE WAY IS MY FAVORITE ARC #like i really like book of circus but that arc is just a whole bunchof SAD like it ends SAD and im SAD #and SNAKE is my love #but i loved book of murder in the manga and i was bit iffy on the arc being put into two movie-like episodes with no op #kinda sad i wanted a sick ass op with murder #BUT I STILL LOVED IT BECAUSE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #just the whole concept of book of murder is so!!!! to me #also VOLTRON IS GREAT I LOVE MY SPACE BOYFRIEND LANCE #also if you're into yuri on ice youshould read this fic called until my feet bleed and my heart aches bECAUSE #HOT DAMN WHATA WORK OF ART #I ASPIRE TO CREATE SUCH A MASTERPIECE #thecompanion fic comes out soon and guess who's excited!!!!!!! me!!!!!!!!

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