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nobodyfamousposts · 4 years

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BURN THE WITCH! - Part 8

Finally! It is finished.

Also...warnings I guess for itchiness. And severe scratching due to itchiness.

Here goes:

Lila was prideful. Exceedingly so. But let it not be said she was too prideful to know when it was time to jump ship.

And the ship that was Paris was sinking fast.

All thanks to Ladybug, of course. Because “Little Miss Righteousness” just had to stick her nose into Lila’s business. How dare that insect make a fool out of her?

She would have had to leave soon anyway. While she could certainly come up with a new story to fool her classmates and explain away the previous unfortunate incident, it would still be difficult since they were starting to wise up and it would be harder to keep them under her thumb if she stayed much longer. While the akuma had been dealt with and everyone’s memories erased, Lila didn’t want to take any chances.

Then there was the matter with Hawk Moth. She had some suspicion of his identity—but that was all it was: suspicion. The evidence she had to go on was circumstantial at best. Unless she could find something to confirm it, it was useless. And even if she was right, there wasn’t much likelihood that she would be able to make use of it without proof.

She clenched her fists in growing rage at the reminder.

How dare he turn on her like that?!

There was something that grated at her knowing that she would be leaving things unfinished. That she would be letting him get away unscathed. She at least wanted to get some sort of payback for him leaving her to dry.

If there was any real justice in the world, she would get the chance to try and take his Miraculous for herself. Wouldn’t that be ironic? Especially after how he had cut ties with her.

But now he would expect her to try something. He may even try to take her out himself first. It was what Lila would do in his place.

No, it was better to cut her losses. She still had the an exemplary school record. She still had her position and experience as a model to take with her. She could just move somewhere new and start over. There was nothing worth staying in Paris for anyway. She was getting bored here.

Her decision had absolutely nothing to do with Ladybug’s threat though! Ladybug was clearly the one jealous of her! She wasn’t scared of that pathetic little bug! She was too much of a goody-goody to actually do anything to Lila herself! Ladybug was supposed to be held to a higher standard, after all! She was just bluffing! She wouldn’t actually do anything to her! So Lila had no reason to be scared! And she wasn’t!

It took a moment for Lila to realize her hand holding the phone was trembling. She bit back a curse and clutched the hand with the other to hide it and force the them to still. But when that didn’t work, she set the phone on speaker before putting it on its stand on the table.

Lila’s mother, bless her, was ignorant of this inner turmoil—or if she was aware, she simply attributed it to Lila’s claims. The woman was all too willing to blindly trust her precious daughter. All Lila had to do was use that and soon Paris and all its problems would be nothing but a bad memory.

She busied with drying her hair with a towel while regaling her mother with the tale of the latest attack—albeit a heavily edited version. Honestly though, wasn’t that stupid Cure of Ladybug’s supposed to fix everything to how it was before the attack? So shouldn’t she have been dry already? And back in her new designer clothes?

As it was, her fall in the Seine had left her hair a mess, and she barely had time to simply wash it properly, much less take the good long soak she really craved. She was fortunate enough that there had been time to return home and try to clean up at all. And especially to get rid of those clothes she had “borrowed“ from Marinette’s home. The last thing she needed was to be seen running around in that. Not that there was anything wrong with the clothes themselves, but questions would no doubt arise as to where she had gotten them or why she was wearing them. And the last thing she needed was for her mother and Marinette of all people to meet.

After a moment of consideration, she twisted the towel just enough to cause her pain. With a hiss and a gasp, it sounded quite like she had been crying. Enough to fool someone who was not physically there at any rate.

“I just miss Home. It’s been so long.” She said, ending with a sniffle that may have been partly exaggerated and may have been partly a sign of a cold coming on.

“But what about your friends? You just seemed to be getting so settled in Paris. You even have a boyfriend. From what you’ve been telling me, you two are awfully close. You have a difficult enough time seeing each other as it is. Won’t moving just make it worse?”

Geez, the woman was being annoyingly persistent today.

“We can write and video chat.” Lila replied easily. She could just “break it off” later. Maybe claim he’d been cheating on her. That was usually good for some sympathy points.

Her mother paused at that. “But long distance relationships are much more difficult. And I thought you liked it in Paris? You’ve been doing so well here. I hadn’t seen you so happy in a long time.”

Of course she’d been happy. She had people devoted to her every whim, fame and connections as a model, and a cushy front row seat to the downfall of that so-called hero.

Lila narrowly avoided clicking her tongue in irritation. Why did her mother have to be so parentally concerned now of all times?

“But Mom, I’m just worried about all of the akumas!” She said with exaggerated earnesty. “This last one was really dangerous! I could have been killed!” She bit her lip and hitched her breath, as if trying to hold back tears. Or hide her lack of them. It was a good thing her mother wasn’t there to see and possibly call her out on it.

Not that she would. She was such a good mother like that. Overly trusting and easily duped. How many teenagers could say they were so lucky?

“I’ve tried to make the best of Paris, but it’s just too much!” Lila cried.

“Oh, my poor dear!” Came her mothers’s voice over the phone. “I’m so sorry I didn’t realize how much this move has had an effect on you.”

In that instant, she knew she had good as won. From the safety of her home and with no one in direct sight, Lila allowed herself a smug grin of victory before schooling her expression back to that of the pitiful child she wanted the older woman to see her as. No one may have been there to see it, but as an avid actress of her skill level, it helped her to match her desired tone and inflection with an appropriate expression. She gasped loudly and grabbed the phone to bring it closer to her.

“But Mom, I know how important this job is to you! I don’t want to get in the way...”

“It’s all right, dear. I can contact your aunt and have you stay with her and your cousins until I can finish things here.”

That made her frown.

Lila’s aunt was...not ideal, as her cousins had been among the earlier victims of Lila’s manipulations. She dared say her aunt favored her over any of her children by the time she’d left them. And her cousins were wary of her to say the least after the way she had played them against each other and themselves. But that had been a couple of years ago and she couldn’t be sure they hadn’t caught on and solidified their relationships to better counter her.

Still, if Paris was any indication of how easily people could be fooled and turned against one another, she could probably manage it again.

“Lila?” Her mother called, drawing her attention back. “Are you all right?”

Lila played up the uncertainty. “I don’t know…I wouldn’t want to cause you or Auntie trouble…I can just stay here.” She looked down and to the side and spoke tonelessly, the picture of a dejected daughter. “I’m sure I can just try to put my fear aside and make the best of it…”

“Nonsense!” Her mother exclaimed. “You should never have to make yourself suffer like that!”

There was the sound of papers being shifted, followed by the clicking of a mouse. No doubt her mother was already looking into the procedure on how to transfer.

“I only want you to be safe and well, mi bella.” Her mother said, softly. “And if Paris isn’t the best fit for you, then I’ll discuss the matter with the Embassy and see about ending my assignment early.”

“But Mom, you don’t have to! I can manage, really!” She half-heartedly attempted. “The heroes are even starting to do a…half-way decent job.”

Her mother scoffed. “A job that they have been at for over a year and still can’t manage! It’s clearly not safe here if the city’s own heroes can’t even do their jobs properly.”

Hook.

“But let’s get you taken out of that school first.”

Line.

Lila smirked, unseen.

“Thank you, Mom.”

Sinker.

__________________

Another loss. And a worse one, even.

Witch Hunter had been ruthless and efficient. Perhaps one of his better creations to date. Her powers to know one’s sins and enthrall anyone who heard her announcements soon gained her the entirety of Paris under her sway—and by extension, his. That the powers specifically targeted one girl would have been a disadvantage had the girl in question not had such a…sordid history. That history fortunately gave plenty of opportunities to rally others to the cause, but as evidenced from the fight, it still had limitations.

If only Lila had some ounce of subtlety. Then even Ladybug would have been affected by Witch Hunter, and both Miraculous would have been willingly handed over to him if it meant getting rid of the girl in exchange. The key had been that Ladybug’s opinion of Lila had already been so low that no “reveal” of her misdeeds had been enough to enthrall her.

How curious. He had been aware of Lila’s grudge against Ladybug, but he hadn’t realized that the feelings were mutual. Just what had Lila done to make Ladybug despise her so?

He could hazard a guess, but not any that would lead him anywhere. Lila’s list of crimes was rather extensive. And despite the knowledge he had of her, even he couldn’t boast immunity to the rage.

So what had kept Ladybug from giving up on her?

Was it Ladybug’s Miraculous that protected her? Some sort of inner strength? Or was she already aware of his use of Lila? But even if she was aware, how would that be enough?

He had been able to keep his head, but some of the things he heard had been enough to turn his stomach and make him question his alliance with her. He had been accepting at first of her audacity in how she approached him on both sides of the mask, as she presented herself as useful and willing to aid him. And she had been useful, he would give her that. Her main concern was having others under her sway and she was willing to do anything to maintain it…even remove anyone who would become a threat to her.

He hadn’t lied when he told Lila she was of no more use to him. But that hadn’t been the entire truth. Given what he now realized, she was more of a threat than he had ever considered. He couldn’t put it past her to try to figure out his identity to take his Miraculous for herself.

He took a breath.

Perhaps...he needed to reconsider the girl’s position? On both sides of the mask.

“Sir? What should be done about Lila Rossi?” While the interruption from Nathalie was timely, it didn’t truly disrupt his current thought process.

It was a good question. She had been a willing ally and useful tool in manipulating people. He certainly had praise for her skills.

But...

Perhaps he should have been more cautious and try to question just how she obtained those skills?

As well as her intentions for the future. For himself and especially for his son.

How much did she know? Had she discovered him? Did she suspect? What plans did she have? And now that she had been revealed as a willing ally, what information could others get out of her that could lead back to him?

Lila Rossi was a threat. He could see that now.

But just how much of a risk was she? How much did he risk if she were allowed to remain free? It was clear Ladybug knew of their alliance, and she would be keeping an eye on the girl from here on out. What else could she gain from Lila if he didn’t remove her?

“Sir?”

He paused, considering for a moment.

Then came to a decision.

“Nothing.”

Nathalie started at that in surprise.

“Her contract with the company will be terminated, of course.” He stated, turning to go to his desk and prepare to sign the necessary paperwork. “The company will put out an official statement that we deny any knowledge of her history or dealings, and that we disavow her actions. Anything else is already held under a nondisclosure agreement she signed upon her hiring. Though we should prepare legal action if she attempts to retaliate.”

“But…what should be done about her assistance to you as Hawk Moth?” Nathalie asked.

He straightened.

“Nothing.” He repeated. And he did not like to repeat himself.

“Sir? Is that wise? She has been an accomplice.” She warned him with a frown. “What if she has learned who you are? She could become dangerous.”

He sighed.

“She is a loose thread. But to act on it at this point and try to remove her will only backfire. Ladybug will doubtless be keeping an eye on her from now on. We would risk more if we were caught trying to get rid of her.”

“But since you left her to Witch Hunter’s mercy, she may try to retaliate against you.”

Oh, of that he had little doubt. It was in her nature to turn on those who would not play by her rules.

He had little choice at that point. Witch Hunter and all of Paris were focused solely on seeing the girl punished. He had no way of knowing Ladybug wasn’t already part of the crowd by that time. His mistake was underestimating Ladybug’s will, but even then, would he really have responded differently?

Lila Rossi had lost her use as a tool, and with her antics had used up any good will he had towards her. She lacked the subtlety or even the good sense to simply limit the extent of her lies lest she be found out and face backlash. But much like Miss Bourgeois, she seemed inclined to push the limits of what she could get away with. And unfortunately, with superheroes and villains in Paris, the bounds of what she could normally get away with had increased drastically. Even worse was that she fully seemed to believe she ‘deserved’ the praise and attention simply for claiming things she had never done.

And given how one of her first actions was to buy a trinket to pass off as a false Miraculous and proclaim herself a hero, how long would it have taken for her to decide that she ‘deserved’ a Miraculous as well?

“It was only a matter of time before she set her sights too high. It would be better to cut her off now before she got any ideas about taking a Miraculous, even if it was my own.”

He couldn’t put it past her. Because as much as she despised Ladybug, how could such a girl be satisfied only with her destruction? If she did aid in Ladybug’s defeat, she’d likely just take the Ladybug Miraculous for herself at the first opportunity, and then Gabriel would be back at square one.

No, worse. Because Lila Rossi wouldn’t risk herself for others. It was highly likely she would run away with the Miraculous and then he would lose any chance of obtaining it in this lifetime.

…

Lila Rossi had her uses, but it was best to cut his losses with her now. And Witch Hunter had been the prime time to do so.

It would have been foolish of him to risk his hold over Witch Hunter just to spare Lila at that point. But there was no doubt that she will seek retribution for it. She was certainly spiteful enough, even when it would be to her own detriment.

Still…

“That girl has caused enough problems. We don’t need her interfering with our plans.“

Nathalie clutched her tablet, still worried. “But if she knows…if she tries to reveal you…”

“Lila Rossi is a liar.” He stated as he pulled up news footage of the latest akuma fight. “She is a liar and now people know it. Anything she thinks she knows, we can dismiss as a jilted teenager with delusions of grandeur and an unhealthy interest in my son.”

He paused for a moment, then leaned back in his chair to look to his assistant.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the tale of the ‘Boy Who Cried Wolf’?”

“I am familiar with it, yes.” She replied, albeit confused as to the sudden subject change. “But what does that have to do with this?”

“In the story, the boy is eaten. But his final claim is ultimately proven true, for all the good it does him.” He looked back to the footage, pausing it on Lila’s expression while she was on the pyre.

“But if we do not respond…if Hawk Moth does nothing to silence her, there is no ‘proof’ to her claims. People will suspect it to be another lie. Even moreso, that it’s merely an attempt to get back at me as her ‘former employer’. There will be no ‘wolf’ to validate her claims, even once she’s gone. So yes, we will leave Miss Rossi to her daily life. Let her say what she may think she knows.”

He smirked.

“She could scream it to the world and no one would believe her.”

__________________

It took a while for them to have their conversation and for Marinette to dry her tears. By the time she was able to reach some level of calm, it was almost time to return to school.

One would think that they would be allowed the rest of the day to recover from the akuma attack, but Paris as a whole and the school in particular seemed used to the frequent interruptions by this point. Though perhaps it was more of a testament to Ladybug’s efficiency in dealing with akumas.

…as well as the efficiency of the civilians to set up an entire festival on a spur of the moment. Perhaps she should recommend they try another one at some point? One that doesn’t involve lighting anyone on fire?

When she went downstairs, she found her parents in something of a state of worry. They looked up in surprise when she came down, but were relieved to see her.

“Marinette? When did you get home? I didn’t see you come in.” Tom said.

“A little while ago. We must have just missed each other.” Marinette replied quickly. Then frowned when she notice their expressions. “Is everything okay?”

“There was an akuma attack earlier and one of your schoolmates came here.” Sabine explained. “We had tried to help her and allowed her to change clothes here into something dry, but she took it upon herself to go into your room.”

Marinette’s eyes widened. “What?!”

“I don’t know what she was doing in there.” Sabine huffed, angrily. “When I caught her, she tried to claim she had gotten lost. Then your father had gotten a text message from Nadja about a ‘Witch’ and she took off running.”

Lila. There was no one else it could have been. Which meant she had probably done something to sabotage her.

Great. Just great.

They had checked her room and taken pictures of how she left it since they were uncertain of what she may have messed with. As it stood, they wanted to know if anything had been stolen and were questioning whether to call the police.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” Her father told her.

“We both are. She was soaked and we had wanted to give her some privacy while she changed.” Sabine shook her head. “I hadn’t thought she would go roaming around the house, much less sneak into your room.”

Tom rested a hand on Sabine’s shoulder. “We should follow up on this though. Maybe Roger will have some advice.”

Sabine nodded to him before turning to her daughter. “Will that be all right, dear?”

Marinette hesitated.

She would be lying if she said she wasn’t frustrated. With them. With the situation. All of it.

In their defense, they hadn’t realized it was Lila. And even if they had, they weren’t aware of just how horrible Lila truly was. Despite Marinette’s pleas of innocence during her expulsion, her parents hadn’t fully taken her word for it and even afterwards hadn’t quite believed that Lila was a chronic liar.

But there was a part of her—the part that was still full of indignant anger over the incident and would have formed the core of the Princess Justice akuma Hawk Moth had wanted her to be—that blamed them. If they had just listened to her back then. If they had simply heard her out. If they had believed her about Lila.

They should have known. They should have recognized Lila. They should have remembered what she had done before and at the very least thought to keep an eye on her just in case she tried anything like she had before.

…but Marinette didn’t have it in her to hold a grudge. Especially after what she had seen with Lila and her own grudge.

It wasn’t their fault, it was Lila’s. And while she was irritated with her parents for their negligence, she was willing to forgive them and keep her focus on the one who really deserved her ire.

So for now, she would try to move forward and do what she could.

“I’m not happy about it. But if anything can be done, I’d like to see if we could.”

Her parents agreed and offered reassurances that they would try to address the issue. They also promised her they would be more cautious in the future, which was nice fo them. They offered to let her stay home from school, but that was one thing she had to turn down.

Whatever Lila had done, Marinette probably wouldn’t know until Lila revealed it. It made her dread returning to school. But she couldn’t keep putting it off. If she went now, she could at least try to meet with the others and head off anything Lila could do.

So she made a quick rush to the kitchen to get a small lunch for herself and some cookies for Tikki. With her parents otherwise occupied, that meant that Tikki could come out of hiding and they could talk freely for a bit longer.

“Marinette, maybe you should take a break and stay home for the rest of the school day?” Tikki suggested. And wow, she was certainly taking this ‘be more supportive’ role to heart.

Something in Marinette warmed at that. And in any other circumstances, she would happily have taken Tikki’s advice.

“I’m fine, Tikki. Really.”

Tikki frowned, clearly not buying it. “But you’ve spent half of your day dealing with the crisis caused by Lila and then the akuma that was caused by that crisis, all while trying to keep Lila safe. Even when she was working against you.”

Yeah. There was that.

“You did a lot today. Both as Ladybug and Marinette.” Tikki continued. “No one would fault you if you let yourself recover.”

Marinette hesitated at that.

It was tempting. She was tired. And if she was being honest, she really just wanted to sleep and not deal with anything until tomorrow at least.

But…

She bit her lip.

For all that Tikki’s words made sense and clearly came from a place of concern for her, Marinette couldn’t help but be reminded of only a couple hours ago where Tikki had been trying to convince her to let Lila burn.

She knew that this was different. A matter of self care and health. But even though it’s something she’s wanted and something she appreciates hearing from her kwami, it still felt so strange now that she was experiencing it.

This was something she was going to have to get used to. And she would, she was sure. After all, Tikki was clearly trying for her. And Marinette wanted nothing more than to reciprocate—and also to just drop off into sweet blessed sleep…

However…

“I need to see this through.” She stated, resolutely.

She needed to get back to the school. Both for class and to check on her friends.

After all, even if her Miraculous Cure had fixed the damage caused from the akuma, that didn’t mean her friends were fine. And she still wanted to check in on Rose at the very least.

Tikki looked up at her sadly. Then she floated over and nuzzled Marinette’s cheek, showing her silent support.

It only took a few minutes to gather the rest of her things and make her way to the school.

Even if Tikki assured her that what happened wasn’t her fault, Marinette still felt the need to apologize to Rose for what had happened. Maybe they could still find some way to fix things.

She reached the school in minutes and had almost immediately run into one of her classmates.

Just not the one she had been expecting.

“Adrien?”

He spun to face her, appearing nervous. Even panicked.

“Oh, hey! Marinette! Hi! Hey, um…hey.” He finished, looking embarrassed. “How…are you?”

“I’m fine. Just…have a lot on my mind.” She shrugged. “Just…with Rose and the akuma and everything.”

“Good. That’s good. Well, not good-good about the akuma. But good that you’re okay. Um. Me too.” He looked away, clearly still nervous.

She frowned in concern. “Are you okay?”

“Fine! I’m fine! Just…y’know…got caught up in the akuma attack and was one of her minions for a while. But Ladybug saved me so we’re good.” He said with a not fully sincere smile.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” She hadn’t recalled seeing Adrien among the mob. But given how big it had gotten, she wouldn’t be surprised.

He hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“Marinette…one of the things Witch Hunter said…” He looked her in the eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me Lila had threatened you?”

She straightened in shock. “What?!”

He rubbed the back of his head, looking to the ground. “I’m sorry, it’s just…she said a lot of things Lila had done that I hadn’t known. Like…well…” The book. Her framing Adrien for insulting Nino. Her working with his father. “How she threatened you?”

“Oh.” She said, a bit blankly. Because what else could she say?

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He implored her. “I had said we were in this together, but…you didn’t tell me she did that.”

It was true. She hadn’t.

But…why hadn’t she?

“I…didn’t think it was a big deal?”

Why was she asking him instead of telling him?

“Not a big—Marinette, she threatened you!” His eyes widened in realization. “Her expelling you was part of her threat, wasn’t it?”

She flinched, but nodded.

“Just…why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped you! I would have done more!”

She waved her hands frantically, trying to console him. “It’s okay, Adrien! Really! You were only—it was just…”

A tap at her leg caught her attention. It came from her purse. A quick glance downward revealed Tikki looking up at her from the safety of the clutch she carried with her. The little kwami remained hidden to Adrien, fortunately, but visible to her. Tikki looked up at her with wide eyes and gave a smile and small nod of encouragement.

Why would she—?

Oh.

Oh, right.

“No.” She admitted. “It’s not okay.”

She had been spending months now convincing herself that things were okay when they weren’t. That she was okay when she wasn’t. And that if she at any point felt she wasn’t okay, it was a failing on her part.

That wasn’t a healthy way to live, as she was only just now starting to understand that.

“I don’t know if you realize this, but I’ve been listening to you on things because I look up to you. I took your advice because I trusted you and believed that you only had everyone’s best interest at heart.”

“But I did!” He insisted automatically before catching himself. “I mean, I thought I was...”

“I trusted you over my own intuition. I listened to you when you kept emphasizing the feelings of others over my own. Chloe was bad enough, but Lila too? Even if they were the ones who were horrible, it felt like I was expected to just...” She struggled for a moment to find the wording to accurately convey her feelings before simply shrugging. “Just deal with it.”

He winced. He hadn’t realized the impact he’d had.

“Because of that,” she continued, “whenever I started to have an issue, I brushed it off because I figured that if there was a problem with someone and something they were doing...well, it was just me, right? So I had to do the right thing. I had to be the bigger person. I had to be the ‘Everyday Ladybug’. Even when I didn’t feel like I could be.”

She took a breath.

“And that wasn’t fair to me.”

He looked up at her. Sad and worried and sympathetic all in one. “I never meant to make you feel like you didn’t matter. I just thought...”

“Chloe’s your friend so it makes sense that you’d want to defend her.” Marinette reasoned. “But Lila, too?” She wrung her hands. “They both did horrible things. They both hurt me...really badly. And it felt like you’ve cared more about their feelings than mine.”

“That’s not it!” He exclaimed as he jumped to his feet. “I just...I know they aren’t then nicest, but they’re struggling. It’s…harder for them than it is for you.“

“If they’re having a hard time, it’s because it’s entirely of their own making. Chloe has been bullying everyone for years, so it’s not our fault that we don’t want to continue to deal with that mistreatment. And Lila has been actively lying to everyone not to be like, but just so she can manipulate them. I get that you care, but your attempts to protect the people you see as ‘needing it’ has resulted in harm to other people who don’t deserve it. You aren’t just enabling them...you’re rewarding them.

“You said to take the highroad, but whatever the highroad is, I don’t think that’s it.”

He gaped at her, some combination of shocked and horrified.

“But I haven’t been encouraging any of this! I tried to help you! I made a deal with her so she would get you back into school.“

Well, that was something she hadn’t known. Although his sudden friendliness with Lila had been suspicious. As had the schools sudden change of heart about her expulsion. But she hadn’t realized the two had been related.

She was grateful to him. Truly. He had only done it for her.

However...

“I never asked you to.”

She wouldn’t have wanted it had she known.

“I never asked you to become Lila’s toy or put yourself in such a bad position for my sake. I only asked you to stand by me and support me.”

She had turned to him that day, wanting him—just someone who knew the truth to speak up in her defense.

To say she was innocent.

To admit that Lila had lied.

To just say she was believed. That she was worth believing in.

“And you didn’t.“

He stared at her. Long and hard. As if this had never occurred to him before. He seemed unable to speak for a full minute.

Until…

“I’m sorry.“

She jumped in surprise.

“I was a hypocrite. I knew she was lying but I convinced myself it wasn’t that bad. And even when I knew people were hurt, it didn’t matter until her lies hurt me.”

He gave a weak laugh.

“Witch Hunter…did you know? The way her power worked was that you only fell under her spell when she announced something Lila did that truly makes you angry.”

He covered his face. In resignation? In guilt?

“I only fell under Witch Hunter’s spell when she revealed Lila had been spying on me for my father. Not when I found out what she did to Rose. Not when I found out what she did to Nino. Not even when I found out what she did to you.” He shook his head. “It only mattered, really truly mattered when it affected me.”

He hung his head in shame.

“I’m a real jerk.”

The denial was automatic on her lips.

“You aren’t a jerk!” She insisted. “You were just—”

He gave a bitter laugh, cutting her off.

“I was so proud of myself that day. When I told you to take the highroad and not out Lila.”

He looked up at her smiling humorlessly.

“Do you know what it’s like to watch you? All the time, I see you doing the right thing. Standing up for people. Doing things to make people happy. Making things better.”

He sighed.

“It felt...it felt good being the one you would listen to and follow.” He admitted. “You were looking up to me and taking my advice. I was so proud of myself! I got to be the one who had solved the problem and made everything better!” He announced with a wave of his hands in an exaggerated fashion before slumping down.

“I’m such an idiot.”

She stared.

He…really admired her that much?

And at that time, he’d just been trying to impress her?

That…hadn’t been the inclination she had gotten at all. It had just felt that he was admonishing her at those times for not being the bigger person. Looking back, now that she was willing to admit it, it had felt like more expectations and double standards.

“I can’t say what you did was okay, because it wasn’t. Lila was able to hurt me. And now she’s hurt Rose and everyone else now because neither of us spoke up when we should have.”

She took a breath.

“But I think I get it. About wanting someone you care about to listen and look up to you. Because that was how I’ve felt about you.”

He jumped and looked up at her in surprise.

Because when it came down to it, hadn’t she been the same? Doing things that had hurt her or others because she had been so focused on Adrien and wanting him to think well of her?

Was it ironic that it was only now, after everything that had happened this day, that she could finally voice even a bit of the feelings she has for him?

They just weren’t the feelings she thought she’d ever be sharing…

But maybe, she thought as she felt Tikki’s comforting presence by her side, these were the ones she needed to?

“It hurts that even when I’m doing the right thing and you say you’re with me, it still feels like you’re not really on my side. Even—especially when I’ve let things get this far at your request.”

“I didn’t mean—I’m sorry—” He started, but he broke off as she raised a hand to stop him.

“I just...” She shook her head. “If we really are friends, I wish you would show it more. And...that you would stand up for me the way you do for them.”

He stared at her in shock. Perhaps a bit of horror as her words really got to him.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured. “I never meant to make you feel that way. I never wanted you to think I don’t care.”

He stood straight and held out his arms to her in clear indication of…something. But she was exhausted—both mentally and physically as it was and her mind was a bit slow to catch just what he was intending to do.

“I know you can handle things, Marinette. You’re strong. And brave. It’s why I know I can trust you when things get tough. But…that you can handle things doesn’t mean you should have to. It doesn’t mean you don’t need support.”

He smiled at her. And oh damn, that smile. It was like a miniature sun and she couldn’t help but stare even as her brain was yelling at her to look away.

The next thing she knew, she was in his arms and…oh…this must be how being held by the sun felt like…

“I want to be someone who you can count on to support you, Marinette.”

Oh. Okay. Nice. This was nice. More of this please. More of just all of this.

The hug must have lasted an eternity. An hour at least? Because it felt like forever until she was drawn out of the soothing feeling by a rumbling and a series of sounds that seemed to mean something…

Could she just…stay like this? For a day or two? Maybe the rest of her life? Tikki tried, bless her, but kwami arms just weren’t the same as human arms and the feeling of being wrapped up in sunshine was bliss.

Oh wait, he was talking more. She should probably be listening right now.

“—contract. Maybe I could talk to them? See what else they know of that could help?”

“Hmm?”

She was dazed and completely out of it, something Adrien seemed to pick up on as he released his hold (noo, don’t do that!) and backed away (noooooo) to arm’s length to look her over.

“Marinette? Are you okay?”

She blinked a few times as her mind reoriented to where she was.

And more specifically to who she was with.

“Oh! Right! Fine! You’re fine—I mean, I’M fine. Just…” She sighed, rubbing at one eye with the palm of her hand. “Just a…long day.”

Maybe she should have stayed home after all if just one hug could do that…

Adrien seemed to notice this and frowned in concern. He took in her state and apparently there was something about her appearance she had missed earlier because he seemed to get the same idea.

“Marinette, are you okay? If you’re tired, maybe you should go home and rest?”

She shook her head insistently. “No. I can’t.”

He rested a hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to push yourself. Remember? I’m going to support you. And I know everyone else would understand.”

She didn’t think they wouldn’t. But as much as she just wanted to sleep until tomorrow and skip the rest of this day, she wasn’t sure she would be able to relax at home if she didn’t know what was happening with her friends.

“If nothing else, I want to check up on Rose.” Seeing that he looked ready to argue, she rushed on. “I need this. Please.”

He hesitated. And she was worried he would push the issue, because she was sure that she would give in if he did. She just did not have the energy to argue at this point. Fortunately though, he seemed to understand as he took her arm in his.

“Okay. But I’ll be right here with you.”

Any other day, she would be a stammering mess if Adrien were to take her arm and walk with her like this.

Today, she was simply grateful.

__________________

It didn’t take them too long to find Rose. She was in the hallway talking with Alya. The two seemed deep in conversation that they didn’t notice the duo approach.

“Rose!” Marinette exclaimed, loosening her arm from Adrien’s hold and rushing to her friend. “Are you okay?”

The blonde looked up at her, tearful.

“I’m okay.” She murmured as she wiped at her eyes.

“But are you?” Alya broke in, asking Marinette. “Girl, I saw the footage!”

Marinette blinked.

“Footage?” She asked, and then started to back away at the expression on Alya’s face.

Alya could be headstrong, but she never really got angry. Upset, certainly. Annoyed, often. But even in the heights of Lila’s worst attempts to make Marinette look bad, Alya had never truly gotten angry—just righteous and in Marinette’s opinion that was admittedly a bit resentful at the time, acting a bit superior. Perhaps the only time she had ever seen her friend look truly angry was during Hero’s Day, and even then it took a hit from Dark Cupid and Hawk Moth’s control to get her there.

So seeing Alya looking ready to claw someone’s eyes out was…unsettling, to say the least.

Even Adrien apparently seemed to think so, as he moved up to Marinette and almost seemed to position himself slightly between them. “Alya? What happened?”

Despite Adrien’s attempt to act as a barrier, Marinette tried to reach out, concerned for her friend’s state. The way she was looking, Marinette half wondered if she wasn’t still affected by Witch Hunter. A quick glance to a worried Rose disproved that easily enough, but perhaps it was a remnant of her power the Cure missed? “Are you okay?”

“What do you mean am I okay? Are YOU okay?!” Alya shouted, pointing at Marinette. “Girl, I saw what what happened with you and Lila!”

Marinette jumped. Her mind immediately raced to her call out of Lila just a little over an hour ago. Did someone record her going off? Was there something that had revealed her as Ladybug? Had she messed up?!

“What?! No wait—it’s not what you—I didn’t mean—!”

Alya was pulling up her phone, and by the time she turned it so that Marinette and Adrien could see, the video already started playing. The video was recorded from someone within the akuma’s mob—not yet grown to the level of the city yet.

Marinette briefly recognized that the location in the video seemed familiar but hadn’t quite registered how when a sudden commotion caught the attention of the group. The person recording turned the camera sharply, which blurred and then focused on a fallen figure a short distance away.

“—conspirator helping the Witch! Someone grab her!”

…oh. That figure was her.

And the moment when Lila had betrayed her and tried to sacrifice her to the mob.

“Hey! That’s Marinette!” Came Alya’s voice from the phone, shortly followed by the exclamations from the crowd that Marinette already knew were coming because she had lived this and yet despite seeing it on record, she still struggled to believe it actually happened.

…the crowd leaving her alone part. Not the Lila betraying her part. THAT, she could believe no question.

“I can’t believe she would do that!” Alya exclaimed. The real Alya. The present one. Who was standing in front of her and not the one in the phone—who was almost disturbingly cheerful in how she was calling for Lila’s blood.

…to be honest, Marinette wasn’t sure whether that mob Alya or the furious one in front of her scared her more. Present Alya, for her part, was clearly NOT happy about the events.

Neither was Adrien, apparently, as he grabbed the phone from Alya and looked to be furious himself.

“Wait—Lila did WHAT?!” He demanded. And…wow, was this what Adrien had been like as part of the mob? She hadn’t known he could get that angry.

“She tried to throw Marinette to the mob!” Alya bit out.

“I can’t believe it!”

“How could she—?!”

“When Marinette had just been trying to help her!”

“That lousy little b—”

“WHY did she even think that was necessary?!”

“Is it too late to torch her and say the akuma did it?”

Marinette looked between the two, feeling that she should be saying something but honestly, just getting all the more overwhelmed.

A hand on her arm broke her attention away from the two and back to poor Rose, who looked almost to the point of tears again.

“I’m so sorry, Marinette! I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Oh Rose, you deserved better than this.

“No! You actually let me go.” She insisted, much to the blonde’s visible relief. “You were focused only on Lila. And aside from getting people to help you hunt her down, you didn’t do anything to anyone else.”

If anything, the people of Paris seemed pretty happy for the excuse.

…maybe she really needed to talk to the Mayor about having a fun festival to just let everyone blow off steam?

She could focus on that later though. She shook her head and returned her attention to Rose. The girl still looked nervous, but less worried at least. That was good.

Rose sniffled. “I didn’t know. I’ve just been scared to see what my akuma did.”

“No one was hurt in the end.” Marinette assured her. “Ladybug came and stopped it. Nobody was hurt.”

Because Rose never really wanted to hurt anyone, she was sure. Even if it was Lila.

At most, maybe Lila got a little smokey smell to her. And a lot wet. But she survived. And without burns.

Rose seemed to slump in relief. “I’m so glad.”

And this…this right here was why it was worth it. Because the difference in Rose’s posture and expression within a few seconds meant a situation she could feel move on from versus a guilt she would be carrying with her all her life.

“I can't believe I almost did that! What did I become!?" Rose cried.

“You were akumatized. You were rightfully enraged by someone you thought was a friend taking advantage of you. Honestly, the only reason I didn't join in is because nothing about her shocks me anymore.”

Despite the attempt at reassurance, the smaller girl drew in on herself more. She rubbed at her eyes to wipe away tears and merely nodded at Marinette’s words. Hearing, but not fully agreeing. Or maybe it was the reminder that Marinette had known and tried to reveal Lila sooner to no avail.

Of all people, Rose didn’t deserve this. None of the classmates did, but Rose had been particularly trusting and was affected the worst because of this.

She couldn’t help it. She hugged Rose. If Adrien’s hug earlier had been so nice for her, maybe this could help the smaller girl in turn.

Rose certainly seemed to appreciate it as she hugged back…quite strongly, actually. Marinette had known Rose had some upper body strength given how she had been able to carry Chloe during the Zombizu attack but wow. Rose was smaller than Adrien, but her hug was just as warm but more tight.

Marinette lost herself a bit in the comfort she was giving and receiving. She barely even noticed that Adrien and Alya were still talking. She was peripherally aware that it was happening, but once again had lost track of what they were actually saying.

She had checked on Rose and made sure she was doing…well even if not fully okay. Maybe this was a sign she should go home?

“LIAR!”

It seemed it wasn’t to be, however, as a sudden commotion caught her notice, dragging her attention to a gathering down the hall.

And suddenly, Marinette was wide awake.

__________________

“—trusted me. Ladybug knew I would never do such a thing! That’s how she was able to ward off Witch Hunter.”

Lila giggled.

“You could say that the ‘power of friendship’ saved the day!”

Of course she was lying through her teeth once again. Not that she needed to at this point, really. Her mother was firmly in her corner and Lila would be getting to leave Paris soon enough. But there was a part of her that wanted to see if she couldn’t convince them one more time.

While she may not have a chance of getting revenge on Hawk Moth, she at least wanted some victory to take with her when she left. After all, Lila was hardly one to simply let things go and let this end without a last hurrah. No, if anything, when the chips were down, she was used to going all in. And if she lost? Well, not like it mattered if she wasn’t there to pay afterwards.

This time would be no different.

Truthfully, the only reason she was at the school at all was so her mother could file the paperwork to transfer her out. She hadn’t really wanted to go, but she had needed to be there to run interference in case anyone attempted to approach her. It had been part of the reason she had insisted on going despite her “harrowing” experience. Her mother had insisted on starting the process to remove Lila from the school immediately. And while she was sure no one would recognize the woman if she arrived alone, Lila knew she had to be there to “lead” the discussion between her mother and the Principal, as well as protect her mother from hearing any untoward rumors that could taint her view of her loving and trusted daughter.

Lila hadn’t intended to be caught by her soon to be former classmates. The original plan had been to simply disappear from their lives and leave them with their guilt and uncertainty. It was part of the reason she had agreed to come with her mother to the school so soon, as she had expected that everyone should be in class by the time they arrived. But her mother had gotten out earlier than expected, and people were still milling about the school.

She had kept her head down and hoped that no one would notice her. But luck was not in her favor it seemed, as Bustier had been late for some unknown reason, so her students had chosen to hang out in the hallways instead of waiting in the classroom or simply calling it a day and going home early.

A minor hiccup. She was sure that they would be forced to leave once class started. She separated from her mother with the pretense of saying goodbye to all of her friends, in the actual intention of simply buying time until the teacher returned and called them away. Her mother and Damocles had even seemed eager for her to, reassuring her that they did not need her and ushering her out of the room, which was all the more in her favor she supposed.

And really, how could she resist one more opportunity to see them dance for her?

After this, she would be home free. Not like they could do anything to her across international borders even if they did try.

There was no risk to her at this point. So It was worth pushing to see just how far she could milk this.

And these were the best saps a girl could ask for.

The present classmates listened to her tale of woe. Though only a fraction of the crowd she would normally draw and not quite as eager as they used to, they were still listening to her patiently at least instead of simply blowing her off or calling her out. Which meant there was still a chance they would believe her.

A few of them actually seemed to be buying her story. And it had been one of her better tales, in her personal opinion. There were one or two that rolled their eyes—which, rude. A couple who seemed disinterested. But most of the rest seemed uncertain.

It was a shame Rose wasn’t there. Lila was sure that she would especially appreciate the performance. Though part of her was relieved, since she figured that the emotional girl would probably start crying if she had been.

Though there was also no Marinette either, which meant no one to counter her story as she had no doubt the little Miss Perfect would.

“You’re really saying that Marinette handed you off to the violent mob?”

That also meant she wasn’t there to defend herself either.

Lila hunched her shoulders and brought up a hand to her face in a nervous expression. “It’s not her fault. I’m sure it was because of the akuma. Even she wouldn’t turn on me like that just because she doesn’t like me…”

Cry her a river? She’d be seeing Marinette cry a river once she was done here. If she accomplished nothing else before she left, she would at least make sure Marinette Dupain-Cheng regretted talking to her like that.

“I’m sure she wouldn’t have done it if she was herself.” Mylene reached forward to comfort her but stopped a foot away and immediately decided to back off and keep her hands to herself. She coughed into her hand and looked away.

Lila frowned, scratching her head. What was that about?

She shook it off and kept to her plan. Play up the innocent act and leave them guessing until it was time to go. Whatever happened after that was their problem.

“I was so scared.” Lila whimpered. “Her expression at that time was…terrifying.”

Some more of the classmates looked sympathetic. Yet none of them approached her. Now that Lila noticed, there was a distinct space between her and the rest of the class. No one would come within five feet of her.

She hugged herself, looking the picture of wounded and helpless. “I was just lucky I was able to get away after she outted my hiding place to the mob.”

“LIAR!”

Everyone jumped to see a fuming Alya approach. A somewhat less visibly angry but still no doubt displeased Adrien was right behind her.

Both of them were focused completely on Lila.

Lila gasped, as if hurt. “What do you—”

“Can it.” Alya cut her off immediately, not even giving her a chance to spin some new lie. “You can’t be trusted, Lila. Or did you think we would forget about earlier?”

“That was a misunderstanding.” Lila explained, raising her hands in a peaceful gesture. “You weren’t here, but I had already told everyone what happened and why.”

“Oh really?” Alya asked, clearly disbelieving.

“She said that she was hit by an akuma before the attack today and only snapped out of it after Rose was akumatized.” Alix stated with a droll tone and an expression that said she didn’t believe it either.

Alya gave Lila a flat stare. “Do you actually expect us to believe that?”

“It’s the truth.” Lila rested a hand over her heart akin to an oath before curling her fingers and drawing in on herself as if pained. “I was horrified when I woke up and realized what had happened.”

“Then where is the money?” Alya demanded.

Lila resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Usually Alya would take her at her word, which was useful when others in turn trusted her for her reporting skills. It worked to her advantage when Alya believed her, but having those skills turned on her was a real pain.

“Hawk Moth must have taken it.” She suggested. It couldn’t be proven, of course, but it couldn’t be disproven either. And this group was particularly gullible and willing to believe the best in anyone regardless of common sense.

Except this time, apparently.

“If Hawk Moth needed money, we would be seeing akumas robbing banks, not stealing donations from teenagers for a fake charity.” Kim pointed out.

“He was probably being discreet.” Lila said hastily.

“Stealing money from a charity isn’t discreet!” Alya shouted, drawing even more attention much to Lila’s annoyance.

“Everyone already knows you lied and pocketed the money. The very least you could do is admit it.“ Adrien said, looking rather cross.

Of all the times for the doormat to actually try to stand up on his own, did it have to be now?

Lila gasped, looking hurt. Internally, she was annoyed more than anything. He was supposed to be passive. He’d never stood out like this before!

“But Adrien, you said we were friends, remember?”

It was a reminder of their “deal”. As well as a thinly veiled threat of what she would have free reign to do if that deal was broken. Not just to Marinette, but to him as well. After all, Adrien knew about Lila’s lies all along and did nothing. If he was going to out her here, she would be dragging him down with her.

“I said we were friends as long as you didn’t hurt anyone I care about!” Adrien corrected her. “And you have! You hurt Kagami. You hurt Marinette. And now you’ve hurt Rose!”

“Wait—dude! You knew?” Nino asked, looking hurt.

“I knew she was a liar.” Adrien admitted to everyone. He looked down in shame. “I didn’t want to say anything because I thought…” He paused before shrugging. “Well, I thought a lot of things that were wrong.”

“Dude.” Kim muttered.

Ivan gave Adrien a stern glare. “You owe Rose. Big time.”

“Marinette, too.” Alya added, gesturing to the pig-tailed girl who had approached the group alongside Rose.

“I know.” Adrien nodded and turned to the two, even going so far as to bow lowly from the waist. “And I’ll accept any punishment if it means you will all forgive me for not speaking up sooner.”

He knew better now. The absence of overt conflict doesn’t mean that the problem is solved. He had thought he was fixing problems, but really, he was only dealing with symptoms.

Rose looked uncertain. She stared at Adrien, biting her lip. She was snapped out of her thoughts by a touch to her shoulder. Looking up in surprise, she saw Marinette and remembered that the other girl had still been beside her. Even now, she was acting as a support.

Marinette patted her on the shoulder and smiled at her reassuringly. “It’s up to you.”

Rose looked back to Adrien.

He hadn’t been the one who did it. But he knew…if not that Lila was lying, then at least that she was a liar. He knew and he didn’t say anything. Which…well, wasn’t AS bad as Lila actually lying, but still bad.

She frowned.

“I want your endorsement on the charity.”

“Done.”

“And a cake for the class as an apology.”

“Just tell me what flavor.”

“And for you to take Marinette on a date to a fancy restaurant.”

“I’ll check my sched—wait, what?” He asked, standing up straight.

Marinette covered Rose’s mouth before she could repeat herself.

“Just the first two will be fine.” She said, flushing with embarrassment. Because really Rose?

Rose, for her part, gave her an annoyed look but didn’t fight her. Nor did she attempt to keep up the demand even after Marinette released her.

“Are you sure?” He asked, holding up a hand to her as if in offering. “After everything, a nice meal would be the least I could do.”

Then he smiled.

And suddenly, Marinette’s initial willpower just took a hit.

“It’ll be my treat.” He promised.

Marinette felt herself heat up at that. He hadn’t seemed to notice the ‘date’ part of Rose’s statement, but seemed rather stuck on the idea of getting a dinner together and Marinette knew she shouldn’t, but she didn’t want to say no either…

The classmates were all grinning or sending each other knowing looks. Alya was getting her phone out to record for blackmail future wedding material. Rose was beaming excitedly. They were all glad that some good was coming out of this.

Except, of course, for Lila.

Any cheerful atmosphere or chatter immediately died at the way Lila cleared her throat. Somehow, she just seemed to draw all attention to herself. The others looked to her in question. But Marinette, who knew Lila well enough to know she was plotting something, only felt dread.

“But is that really appropriate?” Lila asked, innocently. She rubbed at her arm. “After all, you wouldn’t want Adrien to be leading on Marinette the way he did me.”

The others stared. “What?”

Marinette paled.

Oh. Oh, this was going down a bad road, she could feel it.

Adrien glared. “I never led you on, Lila.”

Lila chuckled cheerfully. “Oh, I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, of course. But taking a girl out to a fancy dinner would…well…certainly imply things. Especially if the girl in question already is enamored with you.”

He blinked.

“What?”

“She holds feelings for you.”

A moment’s pause.

“You mean…as a friend?” He asked.

…seriously? Was he not getting it?

“She is clearly crushing on you.” Lila stated flatly.

Adrien stared.

“…What?”

Lila sighed in irritation. “Why else do you think she always freaks out around you? The stammering? The nervous giggling? The weird statements that don’t fit the context?”

Marinette pulled at her pigtails in frustration. Because of course. Of-freaking-course Lila would sink this low!

Adrien blinked, then rubbed his chin. “I thought it was because of the way I kept surprising her? Like approaching her from behind. Or appearing behind her locker right as she closes it.”

Nino squinted at his friend. “Which I’ve been meaning to ask, how do you even do that?”

“Not the point.” Lila cut in before turning back to Adrien. “Seriously, Adrien, didn’t you wonder why she had all those posters of you in her room?”

“Because she’s a fan. She even told me as much.” He stated.

Lila stared as Adrien beamed at his Very Good Friend. “And it’s kind of nice knowing that a fashion designer like Marinette likes what I do. And looks up to my father.” He snapped his fingers in realization. “Hey! Maybe I could see if you can’t meet my dad sometime!”

Marinette smiled uncertainly and just…sort of nodded. “That sounds nice.”

Because really, what else could she do at this point?

Lila gaped in growing outrage.

Was…was he just going to keep ignoring her? To focus on…THAT?

“What? No! Adrien, she is crushing on you! Like…obsessively!” Lila exclaimed.

Adrien seemed to be getting annoyed with Lila’s continued interruptions, given the look he threw her. “Lila, do you really have to keep making things up?”

“I’m not making this up!”

“Yeah,” Alix said sarcastically. “Just like the charity.”

“And Marinette leaving you to the akuma.” Alya added, still clearly angry about that.

“And everything else you’ve ever said.”

Lila growled. “But this is true! And I have proof!”

With a smirk, Lila held out her phone, showing the picture she had taken earlier of the schedule inside Marinette’s room.

“See? Marinette has your schedule on her calendar!” She exclaimed.

Adrien frowned at her, disapprovingly. “Are you seriously making things up now just to make Marinette look bad?”

Marinette winced.

He was really keeping his word and trying to support her. She knew in this moment that if she denied it, Adrien would believe her. And it may save face and protect her from any further humiliation.

As well as sticking it to Lila, which was always nice.

…But Marinette hated liars. And if there was one thing that this entire mess taught her, it was that great harm could come from lies. She didn’t want to give Lila any additional ammunition to use against her, but she knew it would only be worse if it got out later.

And she didn’t want to misuse Adrien’s trust in that way.

“Actually, I do have your schedule.” She admitted.

Adrien stopped in the middle of the lecture he was about to give Lila. He turned to her in surprise.

“What?”

“It’s just…you would mention certain activities or plans. Fencing. Tutoring. Lessons. And I would hear and add them to my calendar so I would be aware when it came to planning things.”

Silence.

Lila smirked in victory. So the goody-two shoes had a fault and was actually admitting to it for the entire class to see. Even Adrien’s protective best friend must be up in arms as he took Lila’s phone with the picture of the schedule to look it over.

Adrien, for his part, blinked as he registered the information.

“So you’ve kept track of all the events and scheduling I’ve told you about to add to your calendar?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

A longer pause. Marinette mentally kicked herself. Why hadn’t she just stayed home and avoided this mess?

Then he smiled. “That was nice of you.”

“What?” Marinette asked, stunned.

“What.” Lila less asked than stated. Shrieking even in her disbelief.

“Well, friends keep friends on their schedules.” Adrien said, nodding resolutely.

Lila stared, her eye twitching slightly.

But he paid her no mind, keeping his gaze on his very good friend.

"Can I see it?" He asked her.

Marinette blinked. "What?"

He was actually looking eager now. “That way I can fill in any gaps so we can choose better times to hang out!”

She flushed. This was not the direction she had expected this to go. And from Lila’s disgusted expression, neither had she.

Far be it from her to argue. Especially against Adrien’s hopeful puppy eyes.

"Okay."

“Great! I’ll come by your house later! Maybe we can play Mecha Strike while we’re at it.” He said with a smile that—gah, too bright! It would probably blind her if it didn’t make her heart explode.

Marinette blushed.

“Okay?” She agreed because really, what else could she do at this point?

"WHAT?!" Lila raged, her skin starting to turn red. "Why would you want to help her keep your schedule?! Isn't that creepy?!"

He turned to Lila at that with a frown. “But...she's my friend. I'm on her Personal Calendar with all the people she considers friends!" And she’d done this even before their talk today, so that meant she really did like him, right?

Lila rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Adrien! Who actually does that?"

Adrien shrugged. "Nino does."

A pause. Slowly, all eyes turned to Nino.

The cap-wearing teen realized the sudden attention he'd got and jumped back, waving his hands.

"Well, how else were we supposed to have hangouts with that schedule of his?" He defended before turning his attention to Marinette. “You’re missing his Chinese lessons by the way.”

Marinette turned to him in surprise. “What?”

“Yeah, also he has a photoshoot this weekend and in the middle of next week. And I see my schedule on there, too, but you don’t have my gig Friday.”

“Wait—you’re on her schedule, too?” Ivan asked, surprised.

“All of her friends are.” Nino confirmed.

Kim raised his hand. “Am I on there?”

“All of her friends are.” Nino repeated, and looked down at the picture of the calendar. “She has your swim meet for next Tuesday. And a plan to bring some of those tarts you like.”

“Sweet!” Kim exclaimed, giving a fist pump.

Nino nodded to Marinette before handing the phone back to Lila. “Plus Alya and I are having a date Sunday, not Saturday, so we won't need you to babysit. Might want to add that.”

Marinette blinked as she just…tried to register everything.

“Oh. Okay.”

Apparently, that was becoming her default word as she was still trying to process how any of this was happening.

Alya stared at her boyfriend.

“So wait, you have Adrien’s schedule, too?”

“Of course, I do! Hangouts are difficult enough, but we also need to know what times we can video chat.” Nino shrugged. “How else do you think I knew when his dad was leaving? And how to get past his bodyguard?”

Lila gaped. She couldn’t believe this!

Even the other classmates seemed unbothered. Did they really have no concept of boundaries?

…of course they didn’t. They were teenagers.

The fact that Lila herself had commonly infringed on Adrien’s boundaries in a physical way on a daily basis and most recently violated Marinette’s boundaries specifically to find this information to use against her in the first place seemed entirely lost on her.

“You’ve got to be kidding me? How are you okay with this? Are you seriously that stupid?” Lila demanded.

Adrien frowned at Lila, stepping in front of his friends. “Marinette and everyone else here are my friends. Of course, I care about them and would want them to know when I’m available—”

“You can’t possibly be that blind! MARINETTE. HAS. A. CRUSH. ON. YOU. She is so hopelessly in love with you that it’s pathetic!”

“Don’t talk about her like—”

“She has birthday and holiday gifts for you for YEARS!” Lila shouted. “HOW IS THAT NOT WEIRD?!”

The classmates blinked or jumped in surprise before all eyes turned to Marinette.

Why? Why was she Lila’s go-to target?

“I was just…I mean…” She stammered, looking down in shame and embarrassment.

The classmates seemed to be waiting for an answer. It seemed they were at least trying to give her the benefit of the doubt since it was LILA making the accusation, after all, and it was clear by this point that she was simply throwing out anything to make her look bad.

Hesitant, she looked up to see Adrien’s reaction.

And Adrien…oh god, he actually had tears in his eyes!

“Really? Is it true?”

Marinette jumped to try and explain.

“I—um—well—you see—”

His eyes widened. “I can’t believe it...”

“No wait! It’s not—”

Okay, yeah, she was a mess and had nothing.

“You felt so bad about missing my birthday that you’ve been making gifts for me ahead of time so you won’t miss it again!” He exclaimed, looking excited.

Which was okay, apparently, because Adrien had apparently drawn his own conclusions. As evidenced when he pulled her into a hug.

“You didn’t have to do all that, Marinette.” He said, giving her a squeeze. “I don’t hold it against you that you forgot my birthday. You didn’t know.”

A part of Marinette was screaming. Because oh, the irony. If only he knew…

Alya…out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Alya also looked like she desperately wanted to say something. Probably the truth about his scarf. Which now was a bad time to reveal.

“You have no reason to feel guilty for not getting me anything.” He told her, releasing her with a smile and patting her shoulders. “But I appreciate that you felt so strongly about it that you would try to get such a head start to make up for it. It means a lot that you care so much about me.”

Marinette…yeah, Marinette.exe has shut down.

“But that’s not...” Mylene started, only to pause for several seconds before frowning with a small wince. “Actually yeah, that does sound exactly like something Marinette would do.”

“Remember how she got Alya an interview with Ladybug after she accidentally deleted that video?” Kim chimed in.

Nino slapped his forehead. “Oh yeah! Alya went on and on about that for weeks!”

Alya—even Alya, her best friend, who knew full well about her crush and the gifts actually looked uncertain at the news. She bit her lip, looking back and forth between Adrien and Marinette in confusion and concern.

Because she remembered that Adrien’s father had somehow wound up with credit for Marinette’s gift to Adrien. She also remembered how Chloe had broken into Marinette’s locker and vandalized her gift to Bustier. Then there was the time Marinette made Adrien that hat but didn’t take credit for that either.

Marinette…just seemed to have bad luck when it came to giving people things, apparently.

So was it really any wonder that the girl would become that anxious over gift-giving? Or that Marinette, being Marinette, had gone so far as to prepare a multitude of gifts as backups in case something like her gift being stolen, lost, or vandalized happened again?

Alya...honestly didn’t know anymore. Maybe that was something she should try to help with more in the future.

Adrien for his part was simply basking in the glow of happiness that came with knowing how much his good friend Marinette cared about him. Nobody had the heart to argue with him. Nor did any of them even have an argument to make.

“Are you kidding? No one keeps that many gifts for one person in their closet! Can you possibly be that stupid?”

Except Lila, but after everything that had happened, no one was really feeling inclined to humor her.

“Since you’re bringing that up though, here’s a better question.” Alix cut in, giving Lila a glare. “How do you even know any of this?”

Lila drew back in surprise as she suddenly found herself the subject of glares from the rest of her classmates.

“I somehow doubt Marinette invited you into her room.” Alix continued.

“Her parents did!” Lila quickly explained, absently scratching at her wrist. “They invited me inside since the mob was after me.”

Okay, yeah no. Marinette’s brain had rebooted at that. There was no way she was going to let Lila implicate her parents.

“I already talked to my parents about what happened after I saw you wearing my clothes. They invited you into the bakery.” Marinette corrected angrily. “They did not invite you into my room.”

“It was an accident.” Lila claimed. “I had gotten lost, but once I realized where I was and what I was seeing, I just had to warn everyone—”

“‘What you were seeing’,” Marinette cut her off coldly, “should not have been seen unless you had been looking for them. I kept those gifts in my closet. The schedule was put away. The pictures were not visible from my trap door—which you should have realized right away would NOT lead you to any exit.”

Lila scratched at her neck. “Well, I hardly know anything about you since you keep me at arm’s length. Can you blame me for being a little curious?”

“YES.” Came the resounding echo from…well…nearly everyone. It was clear that nobody was buying anything Lila was trying to sell.

“You don’t try to ‘learn about someone’ by breaking into their room, recording what you find there, and sharing it with people!” Mylene ranted.

“It sounds like you’re trying to make Marinette look bad to distract us from your own actions.” Ivan said with a glare. “Because none this changes what you did.”

“You lied to us about the charity and EVERYTHING else you’ve ever said!” Alya exclaimed.

“Did you make up all those illnesses, too?” Kim asked, disappointed and disapproval evident in his voice.

“I bet you were the one who nearly caused Marinette to get expelled.” Alix hissed, leading more growls and angry muttering from the audience.

“No, I haven’t! It was just a misunderstanding!” Lila insisted.

“Was it?” Came a voice.

Everyone immediately silenced and all eyes turned to one person.

Rose stood tall. Or at least as tall as she could in such a situation. In truth, she was shaking. Her lip was trembling like she was trying not to cry. And she stared straight at Lila, almost as if she was gazing into her soul.

If it was anyone else, Lila might have been concerned.

But it was Rose. Poor simple Rose who always believed in everyone and would listen to anything she said without question.

It’d be easy enough to get back in her good graces.

And all it would take…

Lila sniffled, lowering her head. “I’m sorry.”

Everyone stared.

Marinette wanted to bang her head against something.

Lila rubbed at her eyes to give the illusion of tears. She even managed a couple of hiccups. “You were just all…all so amazing and I was scared about fitting in. I did embellish some things but I…I just wanted you all to like me.” She covered her face, effectively hiding her eyes.

“Things just spiraled out of control and before I knew it, I was trapped! I couldn’t be honest and I was so scared of what you all would think of me!” She sobbed out.

Disregarding, of course, the fact that she had just tried to throw Marinette under the bus—and not for the first time.

Lila looked up at the group, eyes watery though no actual tears have been shed. “I never meant to hurt anyone.” She whimpered. “I just admired you all so much! I’m so sorry!”

They hesitated. Of course they did. They were easily played by emotional appeals. All she’d ever had to do was fake pain or sadness and they would fall over themselves in response before any true logic or reason could set in.

And of course, Rose of all people stepped forward.

The small blonde rested a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes, with what had to be some form of reassurance on her lips.

Leave it to Rose to forgive any transgressions and be willing to start anew. She was always the first to offer reassurances. The first to believe in someone. The first to support a good cause. If anyone would understand and show sympathy, it would be her.

“I don’t believe you.”

That…was not it.

Rose stepped back from Lila, her nose scrunched in disgust. She backed away a good couple of feet. She even wiped her hands on her dress—or attempted to, until Mylene handed her some hand wipes. As if touching Lila had been filthy to her.

“Is even touching me that bad?” Lila asked, acting pitiful.

A long pause. Several of the classmates glanced between each other. They all seemed to want to say something, but couldn’t seem to bring themselves to.

“You stink.”

Except for Juleka, who was glaring at Lila.

Lila gaped.

“What?”

Did…she mean that literally or was she just being juvenile?

Kim actually pinched his nose. “Yeah, I wasn’t going to say anything, but you kind of reek.”

Lila clenched her fists, her anger growing and her skin starting to turn red. “How dare you?!”

"Like...you stink...and you stink. Figuratively and physically." Kim said, sounding nasally with his nose plugged.

“Kind of smells wet and musty.” Nino muttered.

“I was thinking it smelled more like a dumpster.” Mylene noted.

“It’s probably her soul.” Alix muttered, shooting Lila a dark glare.

Marinette gasped and spun on Lila. “Wait! Lila, didn’t you jump in the Seine earlier?”

Lila flushed, embarrassed at the reminder and the realization that her shower earlier had only done the bare minimum for her hair. “It wasn’t by choice!”

The other teens gave Lila disgusted looks.

“You…do know the Seine isn’t the cleanest, right?” Ivan asked.

“It wasn’t my fault!” Lila exclaimed. “It was that damn Ladybug who splashed me with water!”

Several of the classmates bristled at that and the insult to their city’s hero.

“She was putting the pyre out.” Alya countered, looking up the video on her phone. “Otherwise you would have been burned. And then you would have died. And none of this would even be up for discussion right now.”

“Really, you could show a little more appreciation for Ladybug rescuing you.” Adrien said, narrowing his eyes at Lila. “Even if she wasn’t your best friend.”

He knew she wasn’t. He had been there when Ladybug herself had confronted Lila on her lies, so of course he knew that they weren’t friends. Not that anyone else did. But the reminder of that particular lie and Ladybug’s recent threat brought out a level of fear within her that she hadn’t experienced before.

She could almost swear that she felt Ladybug’s gaze on her.

Lila silently fumed momentarily but forced herself to calm and steady her nerves.

Remember, she was still the one in control here. Not the school. Not these classmates. And certainly not Ladybug!

She closed her eyes and let out a breath.

Oh well. She gave it a try and it didn’t work. An annoyance, but ultimately, no real loss. She was still leaving. And they had nothing they could pin on her.

Rose was the one who collected the money. The school and teachers were the ones who hadn’t verified her paperwork. Gabriel had been the one to hire her to spy on his own son. Hawk Moth had been the one to use her. And Ladybug had been the one who didn’t protect her.

Really, wasn’t it their own fault?

“If that’s how you all feel, then I’ll just leave.” Lila said, looking away in a manner she was sure looked dejected. Such a look would normally lead people to feel some pity for her and some remorse for anything they had done.

Here though, it just made her look petulant.

None of the classmates were impressed. Several looked ready to argue. Maybe to even try to brave the stench around her and force her to stay and admit to her acts.

Except…

“The one thing I don’t understand though is why did you keep doing it? Why all the lies?” Rose asked.

“Yeah,” Alya agreed. “Looking back, your lies were all over the place and didn’t amount to much. Not until the fake charity scam, anyway, and you were bound to get caught. What was even the point of it all?”

What was the point? Was she serious? It was everything.

Lila rolled her eyes. “Oh please. Like any of you would have really cared about me if you hadn’t thought I had something you could use.”

They all just stared at her incredulously.

“Um…but we would have.”

Lila paused, blinking in confusion.

“What?”

Rose brought her hands up. “We would have liked you regardless, Lila! You didn’t have to lie!”

“And even if you do lie,” Mylene continued, “we still could have forgiven it and liked you anyway.”

“We may not have been happy about being lied to, but we could have understood. Maybe even helped.” Ivan stated, rubbing his head.

Marinette stepped forward. “I told you before Lila. We could be friends when you stopped lying.”

Lila stared at her. Was she serious?

That was…

Lila gaped at them all in disbelief. None of them argued. Many even nodded their heads in agreement.

She couldn’t believe it…

That was the dumbest thing she’d ever heard!

Who actually forgives people for things like that? Even little acts that seemed weird were often enough to turn people off. Even good qualities like leadership, prioritizing, and professionalism could be twisted and used against the person. This was supposed to be a world where any flaw should be enough to ruin someone and warrant raking them over the coals!

And these idiots were just…fine with it?

Honestly, it was no wonder she was able to get away with so much! These idiots were practically begging to be manipulated!

Lila forced tears to her eyes. “You would be willing to forgive me? Just like that?”

“Well, not now, no.” Adrien said, finally speaking up.

Lila stared. Because…this was Adrien. Adrien Agreste who was Paris’s Sunshine Child and seemingly incapable of holding a grudge. Or standing up for himself.

And…he was going to refuse to forgive her?

“I figured your initial claims about knowing famous celebrities was just to make people like you. We could have forgiven you for that.”

His eyes narrowed.

“But then you used your lies to hurt people. And in ways you had to go well out of the way to do.”

“What?! No, I didn’t—”

But he cut her off.

“You tried to get Marinette expelled. You stole from all of us and made Rose’s charity work into a criminal act. And while we’re at it…” He drawled, making Lila nervous. “Maybe we can discuss how you’ve been spying on me for my father?”

Lila tensed briefly before putting on a wounded expression.

“That was just the akuma making things up!”

“Yeah, I spoke with my father about that.” Adrien continued, sounding…particularly cold. “Oh, and by the way, you’re fired.”

“Fired?” Lila balked. She clenched her fists and her shoulders raised in growing ire. “What do you mean ‘fired’?!”

Adrien steepled his fingers together as if he was trying to think. “Um, how else can I say it? You’re being let go. Your department’s being downsized. You’re part of an outplacement. We’re going in a different direction. We’re not picking up your option. Take your pick. I’ve got more.”

She grit her teeth.

She’d known from her call with Nathalie earlier that they were firing her. Part of her had believed that it was simply due to Witch Hunter’s control. But if that was the case, they shouldn’t remember it now. Though it could be that they remember the initial claim from Witch Hunter that brought them under her influence, but even then, there wouldn’t be any proof.

No…this had to be intentional. Given her suspicions of Gabriel, she had considered that he would cut ties, but to do it like this? Through Adrien? In front of everyone?

Oh. She was going to make him pay.

Outside of Lila’s thoughts of revenge and misery, the classmates realized something about Adrien’s totally cool and not at all corny or referenced speech.

Kim stared. “Dude…did you really just…”

Nino held up a hand. “Let him have this.” He wiped away a fake tear. “I’m so proud.”

Muffled chuckling from others indicated that they all knew what he had been referencing.

Except for Marinette, who was looking around in confusion. Because sure, Adrien was being cool just then and it was kind of funny to see Lila get some comeuppance, but what was all the snickering for? “Wait…what was that about?”

Adrien spun on her in shock. “Wait—you’ve never seen Emperor’s New Groove?”

Marinette blinked, uncertain. “Um…no?”

He took her hands in his, looking so serious that this had to be a matter of grave importance. “We must rectify this immediately. Will you come watch the movie with me? Father is being unusually lenient about things to make up for everything with Lila that he’ll probably allow a hangout this weekend.” He smiled. “So would you like to binge watch movies together?”

Oh. Oh, Marinette thought she was over this. But clearly not as she felt her face flush and her heart leap into her throat. Her brain was short circuiting because this was…this was a date with Adrien? ANOTHER date with Adrien? THREE dates with Adrien? That she hadn’t even had to be the one to ask him for? Just what is life right now? Was this life? Was this a dream? Lila finally outted as a liar and Adrien agreeing to spend time with her…this felt like a dream.

At best, she was only able to nod. And Adrien’s smile in response was near blinding. She didn’t even notice the way their classmates grinned or gave each other high fives.

…or the way Lila was turning red in her growing ire.

Lila scratched angrily at her neck. Hard enough to leave marks.

Not only did he fire her, but now he was ignoring her and just flirting right in front of her?! It was bad enough she was revealed and chased around for the past few hours thanks to an akuma. Then betrayed by Hawk Moth. And then threatened by Ladybug. But this…this was just adding insult to injury by this point!

She wanted to say something—anything to break up this delightful little scene and wipe that happy look off their faces.

Sometimes, spite overcame reason.

“Oh please!” She shouted, drawing everyone’s gazes away from the cute scene and back to Lila where she was pointing at Adrien in anger. “The only reason he’s firing me is because I know he’s Hawk Moth!”

A long pause.

Alya looked at Adrien before turning back to Lila, eyebrow raised. “You mean Adrien?”

The blond in question paled and drew in on himself. It wasn’t true, but what if she brought up some ‘evidence’ like his tendency to disappear during akuma fights? Would anyone else believe her? Especially given how he’d messed up before and inadvertently helped Lila to create prime akuma material?

“Adrien isn’t Hawk Moth!” Marinette insisted, looking angry, and Adrien felt a combination of relief and admiration for the girl.

“Yeah!” Nino agreed, wrapping an arm around Adrien’s shoulders and holding out the other hand in front of them like he was trying to ward off Lila or perhaps her stench. “Don’t be talking about my boy like that!”

“Wow.” Kim muttered. “You’ve told some bad lies before but that takes the cake.”

“Shame on you, Lila!”

Lila reared back in shock at the direction this went. “What?! NO! I meant Gabriel Agreste is Hawk Moth!”

But people were just…rolling their eyes and looking away from her.

She held her hand to her chest in earnesty. Her other hand went to scratching her side, which kind of spoiled the effect. “He knows I’m a threat and he’s trying to discredit me!”

A long pause.

“You’ve already discredited yourself, Lila.”

“Yeah, it sounds like you’e just saying anything at this point.”

“She’s just mad that Mr. Agreste is letting her go.”

“After everything she did, I don’t blame him.”

“The guy os a jerk, but come on. Hawk Moth? Really?”

No one was even considering what she had to say now. If it wasn’t clear before, it was now.

Lila had lost any credibility.

Several of the classmates were gathered around Adrien, trying to support and comfort him over the accusations. She had a feeling that even if she had irrefutable evidence, they still wouldn’t believe it. Not now, anyway. It grated at her, but at this point, there was nothing she could do.

There was nothing she could do and she had just wasted her last trump card to no effect. And if it got back to Gabriel that she had accused him…

All the better to get out now then.

“Hey, wait!” Alix shouted as she noticed Lila trying to sneak away. “We’re not done here!”

Honestly, it was perfect timing that the teacher arrived to start class.

“All right, class! To your seats!” Bustier said, smiling nicely in her usual fashion.

And it looked like that would be the end of it. With Bustier back, there would be no further pressing of Lila. No retribution. No way to hold her accountable.

Alya for her part tried though. She raised her hand and called out insistently. “Wait! Ms. Bustier! Lila has been—”

Bustier shook her head. “I’m sorry, Alya, but it will have to wait. We’ve missed part of the school day as it is.” She paused and turned to Lila. “Oh, Lila! Your mother and the Principal are waiting for you in his office.”

Lila smiled politely. “Thank you. I’ll head right there.”

This was it then. A final meeting and she would be out of this school and out of Paris.

…though maybe after she takes a more thorough shower first, she thought to herself as she scratched at her neck.

Still, she couldn’t help but send one last smirk back at her now former classmates as she walked away. She hadn’t managed to pull them back under her sway, and she couldn’t say she had won.

But she could at least find some satisfaction in the growls and shouts of anger as she left them behind.

__________________

In the Principal’s office, the adults had a…rather interesting conversation of their own once Lila had departed.

“Good heavens! I didn’t know how much longer I could stand that smell.” Principal Damocles asked as he opened a window to try and freshen the air.

Amara Rossi took her seat in front of the desk, feeling a bit lightheaded herself. “Did something happen today? Science class? Chemicals, perhaps?”

“It could have been an akuma attack. We had one just earlier.” He replied.

Her eyes darkened. She was reminded of the constant prolonged akuma attacks that disrupt daily living and the inept superheroes who allowed them to persist. “I see. That will be one thing we will no longer have to worry about once we leave, at least.”

“Quite right.” He agreed kindly as he went to his files to pull out Lila’s paperwork. “I do hope that Lila’s new school will be better suited to accommodate all of her illnesses.”

Amara shook her head, uncertain of what she just heard. “I beg your pardon?”

“Of course we did try to adjust to Lila’s needs as we were made aware of them. Especially with her little…fibbing illness. But it was difficult without official documentation to clarify what she had and the best ways to address them. And we were never able to get clarification during her stay here.” He rested the paperwork on his desk and looked up to make eye contact with Mrs. Rossi. “We of course are not judging, but it would be prudent for you to make the appropriate arrangements prior to her arrival at her new school, wherever it may be.” He puffed up in pride. “And of course we will be more than happy to assist in sending over documentation as well—”

“No wait. Hold on.” Amara interrupted him. “What needs are you talking about?”

Needless to say, once Lila was out of the room, it didn’t take long for them to notice things weren’t adding up. And the conversation that followed ended up being…

“What tinnitus?”

Quite informative.

“What fall down the stairs?!”

With certain parties being made aware of things they hadn’t known previously.

“WHAT LYING DISEASE?!!”

By the end of it, both adults were in shock.

Damocles wiped his forehead with a handkerchief, clearly…unnerved to say the least. “I…erm…take it that some of these things might have been said…er…erroneously?”

Amara covered her face with her left hand, exasperated. “Unless my daughter has been under an akuma’s influence for the past several months the school has been closed.”

He frowned at that, unnerved. “On that note, I’ve been trying to reach out to you for some time about your daughter’s absences. Have you not gotten my calls?”

“I only received one or two. And Lila warned me not to answer because you were akumatized.” She paused in thought for a moment before lowering her hand and looking to the Principal. “Has the school been closed at all? Lila said you had been akumatized and that the school had been shut down, which was why she had to stay home for so long.”

Damocles blanched at that. “It was only the once! Well…twice actually, with the attempted mass akumatization during that one incident. But I assure you, madam, that the school was never closed. Certainly not for more than a day at any rate!”

She frowned, unsure. “But…the heroes…”

“Are quite adept at their job for youngsters!” Damocles hurriedly told her. “Akuma battles are normally finished within a couple of hours. Some have lasted overnight at most. There is only one to my knowledge that continued for a few days, but that was a rare exception and the damage was minimal.” Though the harm to Chloe’s mental state couldn’t be quantified.

“Oh…” She murmured. Wow. While Lila’s complaints had dampened her view of the city’s heroes, she had known her coworkers and the city at large seemed to admire them greatly. She regretted that she had never really listened to their gossip about them, but she was grateful she had never spoken up on what she had believed. Otherwise she would likely be a laughing stock at work.

He shook his head. “But no akuma has lasted for months, I assure you! In fact,” He said, reaching to his monitor and turning it so that they both could see the screen, “the Ladyblog should have all the facts about the akumas and our heroes!”

Amara observed the blog, curious. It was well made. Perhaps they could get the designer to help update the embassy site.

But on point, the blog listed news reports and updates. Hero sightings. Events. Akuma attacks. And in particular, the most recent attack…

“Wait!” She gasped. “Is that Lila?!”

From there, it had been a simple matter of reviewing the footage from the latest akuma attack.

Including the incident where Lila had shoved an innocent girl to the ground in front of the mob. (“That would be Marinette Dupain-Cheng. A bright student and the Class Representative. But…er…she and Lila haven’t quite seen eye to eye and there was an…incident a few weeks ago…”)

As well as a compiled list that had been taken of every claim made by the akuma—Witch Hunter? She was apparently a classmate of Lila’s. And according to the Ladyblog, she had been a victim of Lila’s lies, which had resulted in her akumatization and targeting of Lila. (“My word!”)

And worst of all, a video of Lila tied to a pyre and surrounded by a mob of people wanting her to burn. In and of itself, it was horrifying. Especially for any parent to see their child in such a state.

But for Lila…it was like she didn’t think it was real. Like she didn’t think she was in any actual danger. Or she thought this was a game.

And that, Amara found most terrifying.

“This is…” She muttered in shock. She couldn’t even begin to describe it. Her daughter, tied to a pole. About to be lit on fire. All because she had been lying this entire time? Not just lying, but stealing from her peers? Framing people? And she didn’t dare say it, but from some of her statements in the video and the akuma’s claims, it almost looked as if she had been working with a known terrorist!

She had known her daughter wasn’t perfect or innocent. But this much? To go this far? And for what? She couldn’t even begin to understand…

“Madam, I…think this is a most serious matter.” Damocles stated. He was trying to be delicate but…well, really. How can one approach this sort of thing delicately?

“I agree.” She stated, resolutely. “Lila has been playing everyone it seems. But now that we know, what should we do from here?”

Damocles stroked his beard as he thought. “I admit we have never had a situation this extreme before. But if you will permit, I believe there may be a way to approach this…”

The rest of their time was spent discussing the matter at length and coming to an agreement. Damocles admittedly had his failings, particularly when it came to stubborn and selfish students with access to parents in positions of authority and willingness to abuse that authority to get their way. But when he wasn’t having to work around such barriers and had parents who were actually working with him instead of obstructing the school regulations, it was substantially easier to make appropriate accommodations and plan accordingly.

Which is what Lila ended up walking in to once she was asked to return to the office.

“Is everything settled?” She asked sweetly, her expression belying her earlier anger. Honestly, her only concern was finishing this as quickly as possible and going home to shower. A good three or four times.

She forced herself to ignore the way the adults in the room turned their heads away from her with upturned noses. She took advantage of the moment and attempted to unobtrusively scratch under her arm. Honestly, this itching was only getting worse! How had she not noticed it earlier?

“Well, Lila.” Damocles coughed as he turned on a fan. “Your mother and I have been discussing things and we couldn’t help but notice a few discrepancies.”

Lila froze. She steeled her expression to hide her rising panic. Because no. Not here. Not after everything.

“Lila…” Her mother called, her tone harsh and warning of her slowly boiling anger. “You told me that the school had been closed. And here I come to find that not only had it still been open and running all this time, but that you had been excusing your absences with claims of trips around the world!”

Shit.

Why had she left them alone?!

“But there were akuma attacks!” She insisted. “And the school was closed!”

“Not for weeks at a time!” Her mother exclaimed, furious. “And what is all this I’m hearing about your actions since you got here? Lying to your teachers? Stealing from a charity? Getting another student expelled?!”

Here, Lila straightened. “She had been bullying me and I had only been trying to protect myself.”

“Then why did you claim a lying disease to have her brought back?” Damocles questioned.

Lila hugged herself to look sad and sympathetic—and also used the opportunity to scratch at her side again. “I was threatened.” She admitted morosely. “Adrien said—”

“Adrien? Adrien Agreste?” Her mother interrupted. “You mean the boy you said was your boyfriend?”

Lila hesitated for a moment before a plan came together and she nodded. “Yes. It was why I wanted us to leave Paris. He’s been harassing me, Mama.” She shuddered and hitched her breath as if in fear. “He threatened me if I didn’t take back the allegations. He’s been cheating on me with her, Mama!”

“Interesting. Very interesting.” Her mother said in a blithe manner that only made Lila more nervous. “Because according to this Ladyblog, it sounds like you were the one harassing him. As well as this Marinette girl, regardless of whether she is his girlfriend or not.”

Lila snapped up and gaped at her mother. The woman never bothered with the Ladyblog. Lila had been sure she hadn’t known it even existed!

“You can’t trust the Ladyblog! It’s just a teenager’s fan site! It’s nothing but lies!”

Her mother glared down at her. “Like this informative interview of you claiming to be Ladybug’s ‘bestie’?”

Lila paled.

“I was only trying to get people to like me and make friends.” She said, lowering her head in shame. Not that she had any, of course, but it paid to look the part at least. “I didn’t think anyone would see it.”

“Lila, the Ladyblog is extremely popular. It’s a central news source for anyone in Paris to know what the most recent update is regarding any akuma attack! Anyone would have seen it!” Damocles exclaimed.

“Even if it wasn’t,” Her mother continued. “You still shouldn’t have been claiming things like that! What if Hawk Moth saw it and thought it was true? What if he tried to kidnap or hurt you?”

She wasn’t worried about that. He wouldn’t have harmed her since she was working for him.

Well, Lila realized with a small wince. Not anymore.

“I didn’t think it was a big deal.” Lila said, looking away.

“Getting back on point.” Damocles interrupted. “There is the problem regarding all of the days you’ve missed. Your teacher was led to believe that you were out of town while you had informed your mother that the school was closed. This is a serious matter, young lady.”

There was no way to lie that she hadn’t done it now that both of them were aware and on to her. But she could still try to reframe things in her favor.

“I’m sorry. I had just needed a break for a while and I didn’t know how to tell you.” Lila spoke, tearfully. “It was just…all of the akuma attacks and everything with Adrien and the bullying…it was too much!”

She sobbed into her hands.

“I just couldn’t take it! I’m sorry!”

She continued her sobs for a good minute. Since she had her face covered and her head lowered, she couldn’t quite see how the adults in the room were responding. Sneaking a peak got her a glimpse at best lest she risk them seeing her.

Her mother looked drawn. The Principal seemed tired. Neither of them so much as tried to get closer to Lila to comfort her. Though that may very well have been due to the smell, and she cursed Witch Hunter and Ladybug both for causing the situation in the first place and for not fixing this with the Magical Cure as well.

Really, she thought hatefully. This was all their fault. Rose’s. The class’s. Hawk Moth’s. And especially Ladybug’s. She never would have ended up in this position if not for her!

“I’m sorry, Lila. If you were truly having such trouble, then you should have spoken to one of us about it and we may have been able to help you.” Damocles sighed. “I’m afraid there’s nothing else for it now. It’s already gone much too far for us to be able to overlook.”

Amara nodded, resigned. “I understand.”

Lila sniffled and raised her head.

“So I guess I’ll be expelled?” She asked with a mournful tone.

Okay. All right. So she would be sent to another school somewhere. A boarding school perhaps? Some sort of alternative or otherwise stricter school meant to “rehabilitate“ her, no doubt. She could handle this. It was still someplace new where no one would recognize her. It wouldn’t take too much before she could just start over. Within two months, no one there would even really know why she had transferred.

She could still make this work for her.

Damocles, however, looked at her in surprise.

“Expel you? What are you talking about? We don’t expel students for truancy.”

Lila froze.

“What?”

“You will be suspended for a time.” He continued. “Though I believe given the nature of your actions, it would be better for your suspension to be altered so you remain on campus and under constant supervision.”

Lila stared. She would swear she could hear cracks forming in her reality.

“And we will have to keep you in a separate classroom as well to remove any...distractions.”

Crack.

“Of course.“ her mother agreed. “I’ll be removing her computer and phone for the time being as well. Depending on how things go, we may have to dispose of them altogether.”

Lila felt her eye starting to twitch.

“This will be an opportunity for you to catch up on all the coursework you missed.”

Crack.

“And there will be a hearing as well.” Damocles continued.

Lila jumped to her feet and slammed her hand on the desk.

“But—but you expelled Marinette immediately without a hearing!”

Damocles appeared flustered at that. “My actions at that time were…admittedly hasty, especially considering that it turned out they were based on a lie...” He gave her a sharp look at that. “But given what appeared to be dangerous and escalating behavior at the time, I had only acted in a way to protect the other students in this institution.”

He clasped his hands. “But less school is not the appropriate answer for a student whose crime was skipping school. Especially in this case given that Lila may very well need to be held back a grade as it is.”

“What?!” Lila demanded.

He gave her a dry look, unimpressed with her reaction or the repeated interruptions. “Young lady, regardless of your reasons, you’ve missed months of your precious education. Surely you didn’t think you would be able to graduate alongside your classmates. At this point, you won’t be able to get the approval from the conseil de classe to move on to the next grade, much less be prepared for the brevet.”

Lila blinked. “The what?”

Her mother groaned and covered her face. “It’s the mandated test required in secondary school into get your diploma, Lila.”

Lila gaped, glancing back and forth between the two, as if expecting this to be a joke. “But…college in France is just scuola media! It’s middle school! How do they require a diploma?!”

“It’s a national requirement and certification of the knowledge and skills acquired.” Damocles explained, ignoring the way mother and daughter were reacting as he instead puffed out his chest and straightened his jacket. “And we here at Francois-Dupont are dedicated to our students and making the appropriate accommodations to help them succeed! Regardless of any…”

He paused, sending Lila a look. “Complications.”

Amara sighed but faced Damocles. “So what would you recommend?”

He brightened at that. “The best answer to get young Lila back on track would be an alternative remedial program in which she can remain in school and make up for what she missed in a setting where she can be more closely monitored to keep something like this from happening again.”

Remain here? In Dupont? With everyone aware of her lies?

“You can’t do this!” Lila shouted. But to no avail as the adults paid her no mind at this point.

“What about the fraud?” Her mother asked. “I believe she had solicited funds under false pretenses?”

“Oh, that is outside our jurisdiction.” Damocles answered, waving it off. “We can only deal in school and school-related matters. Fraud is a legal issue, so that will be going to the courts as a separate case. But on that note, I would recommend getting a lawyer.” He said, turning serious.

“Hopefully, that won’t be necessary.” Amara replied. “As we will be making arrangements with the students who started the charity and reimburse the funds Lila took.”

“WHAT?!”

“Returning everything you bought with the money to the stores you purchased them from should be a good place to start,” the woman continued, “assuming they will even accept the exchange once they know what you did. Which you will be telling them if they didn’t already know from that akuma.”

“But…but I don’t have them!” Lila exclaimed, suddenly realizing that she had worn Marinette’s clothes back home and left her designer items at the bakery.

“Then you will just have to find some other way to make up the lost funds.” Her mother stated, dismissively.

Lila stomped her foot, the picture of a child throwing a tantrum. “But that’s not fair!”

“You stole money from your classmates, Lila!” Her mother bit out sharply. “Giving back what you took is the very least you could do!”

“But I can’t pay it!” Lila yelled, scratching at her chin in fury.

“Then you can use your now copious amount of free time to take on some extra employment. Because you won’t be sitting around at home doing nothing or getting into more trouble while I’m not there. And you certainly won’t be going out with your friends—assuming you have any left after this mess.”

“But…where am I supposed to find employment?!”

Her mother looked through her tablet and pulled up a number of listings when she then handed to Damocles to print off. “There are always openings for extra hands. Odd jobs. A part time job. I don’t care if it’s something like washing dishes at a diner, you will be doing it. And whatever you earn is going to go to straight into the bank until you pay back every euro you took.”

Lila gasped. “I’m fourteen! That’s child labor!”

“That didn’t seem to be an issue when you were modeling for the Gabriel line without telling me.” Her mother countered, growing more furious.

Lila glared back, enraged and for once incapable of speech.

“Whatever you have to say, this is your own fault for stealing the money in the first place. And also using it when you knew it wasn’t yours!” The woman shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t even understand how you thought that was supposed to work.”

“We were supposed to be out of Paris already!” Lila muttered darkly.

Unfortunately for her, her mother heard her well enough. “Which I suspect was the real reason you suddenly wanted to leave, wasn’t it?”

Lila stayed silent. Merely sitting petulantly and scratching at her arm.

Her mother looked down at her daughter. She had never seen her like this before. And now that she knew what the girl had been up to, she wondered if she had been blind to the truth. And for how long.

She sighed.

“You dug yourself into this, Lila. And you won’t be running away from it. You are going to pay back what you took, no matter how long it takes. If this does end up going to court, you are going to agree to any deal they offer and you will make this right. And if you are very very lucky, they will accept your apology and your return of the money, and not pursue harsher charges. Because if they do, you will be accepting those charges and any consequences that come with them.”

Damocles coughed, daring to interrupt. “Am I to presume she will be losing her cellphone and laptop as well?”

“That would be a given.” Her mother replied. “Though at the rate this is going, I may very well sell those off as well to contribute to her debt.”

“What?!” Lila screeched. “But how am I supposed to do schoolwork then? Or keep in contact?”

“With pen and paper like everyone else. And you won’t need to worry about contacting anyone since you are going to be grounded for the foreseeable future.”

Lila groaned and sunk further into the office chair. She tried to keep her arms crossed, but couldn’t hold it for longer than a couple seconds before she felt the itchiness again and started scratching at her arms once more.

“And would you stop scratching yourself?”

“I can’t help it!” Lila cried, spilling real tears for once.

The lighting in the office was decent. Adequate to see by, but not quite enough to get a full detail of what they were looking at. In an attempt to help, Damocles turned on his desk lamp and moved it shine on Lila, putting her skin in much clearer display.

And particularly, the red and splotchy areas that were slowly spreading on her body.

“Good heavens!” Damocles shouted as he went to his phone to call the nurse. “That is an extensive rash, dear girl!”

Her mother grabbed her arm to look closer. “What did you do? Take a bath in the Seine?”

“I didn’t have a choice! I was being chased!” Lila exclaimed, attempting to pull her arm out of her mother’s hold so as to scratch more.

“That…would explain the smell.” Damocles noted before the receiver picked up and he quickly turned his attention to requesting the school nurse’s assistance.

“Did you at least wash it off? Didn’t you shower when you got home?” Her mother asked, exasperated as she had to keep hold of Lila’s arm to prevent her from scratching herself.

Lila hunched over. “No. I had to call you first.”

Her mother groaned in response, much to Lila’s irritation. She glared up at the woman who should be reassuring her own child in this hardship but instead was merely shaking her head at Lila like this was something she had simply brought upon herself!

How could she?! What sort of mother would be so cruel?

She barely paid any attention when the nurse entered the office with some ointment in hand. She only realized what they were doing when they started to slather the gel on her skin, which felt gross and humiliating. Made all the moreso with the way the nurse and her own mother couldn’t fight the looks of disgust at the smell that still covered her. Even Ladybug calling her out in front of Adrien hadn’t been so humiliating.

But it would get worse.

Damocles coughed. “We will resume this discussion another time. Madam, if you are willing, I can arrange a meeting with the students involved and allow you to discuss reparations in an informal…non-court setting.”

“If you please, that would be preferred. In the meantime, I will be taking Lila home so we can deal with all of…” She paused, waving her arms around and trying to think of the right words before simply shrugging with a sigh. “This.”

“Wait! I can’t go out there! Everyone will see me like this!”

It was perhaps out of some love as a mother, or just some small mercy that had Amara Rossi agree to take her daughter through a roundabout path out of the school. One that allowed Lila to take hallways that were less used and offered less visibility in and out of the classrooms.

And most importantly allowed her to avoid Bustier’s class.

After getting instructions from the school nurse regarding skin care to get rid of the rashes, Amara thanked both Damocles and the nurse before taking Lila outside. The two made it to the front of the school with few being there to witness Lila’s ‘walk of shame’ so to speak. It was probably more than Lila deserved, but her mother was hardly cruel. Tough when she had to be, certainly.

There was now just the final leg of the trip. Amara started down the steps of the school and made it to the bottom before she realized her daughter wasn’t following her.

“Lila!” She hissed. “Get down here!”

“But…” Lila hesitated, looking up and behind her to where Bustier’s class would have a perfect view of her exit.

“Now, Lila. Or do you still want to be out here when classes are over?”

Lila forced herself to move down the steps—both as quickly as possible to try and lessen the amount of time anyone had to see her and as carefully as possible to avoid anything touching the ointment on her skin.

“When we get home, the first thing you’ll be doing is taking a shower to clean yourself properly this time. We will be going through your room as well and taking back your laptop, your phone, and anything I even think you may have bought with that stolen money.”

Lila grumbled but didn’t argue.

“Yes, mother.”

At this point, she just prayed no one had seen her.

__________________

They saw her.

“Is that Lila?”

“It is! And her mom!”

“What’s that on Lila’s arms?”

“Oh. Wow.”

Bustier had stepped out of the room for what she said would be a minute while leaving the class with some assignment to do until she returned. Naturally, given the drama of the day, no one was really able to focus on the schoolwork. So instead, they took to quietly chatting with one another. Or in Alya’s case, nudging Marinette repeatedly as the girl tried to wrap her head around the prospect of having a date with Adrien.

No, THREE dates. Wait—were they dates? Like…date-dates?

Fortunately for her own peace of mind, her imagination was put on hold by the exclamations of those near the windows. Helpless to the draw of wanting to know what all the fuss is about, Marinette and the others on her side of the class joined those at the windows to see just what it was about Lila that had grabbed their attention.

And she had to say: Yikes.

“That has to be the worst rash I’ve ever seen.”

“Looks like that dip in the Seine did not agree with her.”

Marinette winced in sympathy.

As Ladybug, she had a few instances of having to make use of the Seine or the sewers as an exit, so she knew full well how nasty the water could be. The suit and resulting Cure would normally rid her of any of the water or contaminants or so Tikki said, but that didn’t stop Marinette from taking a good long shower afterwards. Or three. Just to feel clean afterwards, despite Tikki’s reassurance.

What happened this time?

She looked down to her purse, but the little clasp remained resolutely closed. Even when she tried to pull at it.

Tikki...what did you do?

“I feel kind of bad.” Rose murmured, resting a hand on the window. “She only jumped into the Seine because of me. Because I had everyone hunting her.”

“I don’t.” Alix replied. “You were only after her because of what she did.”

Nino nodded in agreement. “Yeah. And if the info on the Ladyblog regarding Lila’s crimes are any indication, she may have been doing it to help Hawk Moth.”

“We can’t prove that, though.” Ivan noted.

Rose hugged herself.

Marinette hugged her as well. “Whether or not Lila deserved it, it happened because of Hawk Moth. Not you. So please don’t blame yourself, Rose.”

Adrien came up next to them and rested a hand on Rose’s shoulder. “If we try to question who is truly at fault, we’ll be dragging this out forever. All we can do at this point is try to figure out where to go from here.”

“Hey, that’s right!” Mylene realized. “Rose, what are you going to do about the charity?”

Rose looked down. “I don’t know. It’s kind of pointless now since we don’t have the money anymore.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t try again.” Nino reassured her.

Adrien nodded in agreement. “Plus Alya and I were talking earlier. If you still have the ledger of the funds, you could try to bring up charges against Lila to get the money returned. My father has some attorneys our company frequently uses for any legal issues. I could see about getting one of them involved to find out how to proceed on this.”

“Dude, seriously? Is your dad cool with this?” Nino asked, completely taken aback that the man would do such a thing.

“It’s only the beginning of what he could do to make up for his part in this.” Adrien muttered.

Nino blinked at his friend and his…strangely dark expression. Then he grinned and slapped Adrien on the back. “Good for you, man!”

“But what about Lila though?” Ivan asked.

“Murder?” Juleka asked.

Which of course, none of them took seriously.

Right? Right.

“If Lila’s mom’s attitude is any indication, I don’t think Lila will be getting away with the theft.” Kim said, looking out the window in the direction the two ladies left. “She looked maaaaaaad.”

“She is angry from what I have heard.” Max said from his seat. He didn’t look up from his tablet and was the only one aside from Nathaniel to not move from his desk. “Apparently Lila had been lying to her mother and the school about why she’s been absent for months. And then with the theft on top of that, plus all of the other things revealed thanks to Witch Hunter, I believe there is a 97.3% chance that Lila will be grounded for the foreseeable future.”

“Wait. How do you know that?” Kim asked.

“Markov told me.”

“Oh.”

A pause.

“And…how does HE know tha—”

Max simply disregarded him and turned to Rose. “You should probably discuss the matter with Lila’s mother. It sounds like she is taking the issue seriously and would like to meet with you and work this out appropriately.”

“Oh. Okay. Thanks.” She said with a smile. Albeit a somewhat wary smile.

“So there may be a chance to get the money back then?” Ivan asked, hopefully.

“But wait—what about Prince Ali?” Alix realized.

This brought all eyes to Rose, who looked hurt at the reminder of her friend cutting off ties with her.

“Rose…” Marinette started.

She winced. “I…still have his email. I don’t know if he’ll talk to me, but…I can apologize. And I can try to make it right. I think…” She took a breath. “I think I understand now why he was so upset. He’s a Prince and must be used to a lot of people trying to use him.”

She hesitated, looking down.

“Lila was…probably that exact type of person. And she was able to use him through me—even if she didn’t know it.”

The others winced.

Yeah, it was probably a good thing they learned about Lila now before it got too serious. Who knows what would have happened if Lila had ever actually gotten to meet him? Or really any of the other celebrities they actually knew.

Rose bit her lip for a moment, then looked up. “I’ve been thinking…if I do get the money back…since the charity Lila had told us about doesn’t exist, we can’t donate the money as planned. I would like to give the funds to a charity with a similar purpose—I even found one that looks genuine and does a lot of good, but…” She frowned. “That’s still misleading to the people who originally donated.”

“So what will you do?”

“I have a log of everyone who donated since I had wanted everyone to get credit or some sort of ‘Thank You’ for helping. I can try to reach out to them and ask them what they want to do.” She brightened slightly. “Alya is also helping by putting a notice on the Ladyblog about what happened and what we’re doing so that anyone who did donate before can be alerted and know to contact me.“

Alya smiled. “It seems to be working so far. If anything, I’ve been more messages from people wanting to donate as well.

Mylene gasped in delight. “You may end up with even more funding for your charity, Rose.”

“Just as long as we make it clear it’s the real deal this time.” Alya agreed. “I posted the charity’s info on the website as well as some links to verification sites so people can check for themselves that it’s real. This way, we don’t run into the same problem we had with Lila or get accused of lying ourselves.”

Well, that was a relief. They had a plan and they were certainly taking this seriously.

“I’m glad for you, Rose.”

Rose smiled back. “Thank you. I know this doesn’t really fix everything, but it feels like the right thing to do.”

“Aww!”

The group hug that commenced was just what they all needed.

__________________

Tom and Sabine had quite the busy day. Especially with that girl who had come in earlier and snuck into Marinette’s room.

And the akuma. Though they were at least getting used to daily disruptions caused by those.

“I hope nothing came of it.” Sabine worried as she was finishing putting things away. “I’m sure she was doing something up in Marinette’s room.”

“I’m sure if anything happened, Marinette could handle it. And if she couldn’t, she would let us know.” Tom replied as he headed to the laundry room to put away their used aprons and towels.

There was silence for a bit.

Then…

“Honey?”

Sabine paused and turned towards her husband. “Yes, dear?”

“Did that girl ever come back with Marinette’s clothes?”

Confused, she started towards the laundry room where her husband was. “No, why?”

Tom turned to her, with some items in hand. “I think she left her things behind and the Miracle Ladybug Cure didn’t send them back.”

Sabine stared. “Oh my!” She reached forward. “These look practically brand new!”

“And expensive.” Tom added.

The two looked over the items before looking up at each other. With a nod, they seemed to come to the same conclusion.

“Early birthday gift for Mari!”

“We’ll take it to Roger.”

…not…so same conclusion, evidently.

Sabine gave Tom a flat look. Tom smiled embarrassedly and rubbed his head.

“Yes. We can take it to Rodger as part of the case.” He agreed, sheepishly.

Sabine sighed and shook her head.

“Though maybe we can discuss it with the school.” She mused. “Since that girl is a student there. And some of the things on the Ladyblog are a bit concerning…”

“Should we still press charges?” Tom asked, worried. “Let’s wait and speak with Roger tomorrow. And see what Marinette has to add.” Sabine said, taking the items from Tom and placing them in a safety box where they wouldn’t be mistaken as common items.

…or early birthday gifts.

__________________

Taking the Dragon Miraculous back to Fu was easy enough.

Apologizing for beaning him with a pot was less so.

“It is all right, Marinette. Really.” Fu assured her as he took the box back from her and restored the choker to it’s rightful place. “With the Miraculous Cure, I no longer have the injury.”

Marinette winced from her seat at the table. “Still, I feel really bad about it.”

He shook his head. “You did what you had to. The akuma’s influence was widespread by that point and the situation was dire.”

Especially since her kwami and the Guardian himself had both been affected as well.

He wouldn’t say he…approved with her methods. Or the headache it had caused him. But it had allowed her to defeat the akuma and restore things in the end. And truly, that was what mattered.

“It took a lot of strength from you today, Marinette. I am proud of what you accomplished.” He told her as he returned the Miracle Box to its hiding place.

“I just wish I could have helped Rose more.” She murmured.

“You did everything you could, Marinette!” Tikki insisted.

“It is difficult, but sometimes there is only so much that can be done, even with the aid of the Miraculous.” Fu returned to his seat at the table. “But I sense that is not the only thing on your mind today. Am I wrong?”

Marinette gasped. “Oh, Master! There’s something we’ve discovered today. Something really important!”

Tikki gasped. “That’s right!”

The two nodded to each other and spoke at the same time.

“Gabriel Agreste is Hawk Moth!”

“Adrien invited you to see a movie!”

Marinette froze, turning red at the reminder.

Tikki, for her part, blinked at Marinette in confusion.

“Wait…you mean what Lila said earlier?”

“That’s right.” Marinette said, turning her attention to Fu and away from any distractions of stupidly cute blond boys. “Earlier today, Lila tried to claim that Gabriel Agreste was Hawk Moth.”

Fu frowned. “Marinette, are you sure about this? Lila Rossi was Hawk Moth’s accomplice. As well as an unrepentant liar. This may be a lie as well.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. Lila tells lies if she thinks they’ll benefit her, but she’ll tell the truth if she thinks it could serve her more.”

Yeah, she knew that much from Lila’s attempt to sneak into her room and get dirt on her.

But more than that, Hawk Moth had betrayed Lila. After working with him all this time, someone she had…at least trusted she could use if not actually trusted had turned on her. And was even outright going to let the akuma kill her.

If Lila could be so spiteful for this long over Ladybug simply telling someone she had lied about knowing her, she couldn’t put it past the girl to not hold some grudge against Hawk Moth as well. And if she thought she knew who he was…

Well, if all else had failed her, there was no reason at that point not to try to reveal it.

“It would explain her connection to Gabriel Agreste as well.” Marinette reasoned. “He was a known recluse for a year before Adrien started school. He would keep Adrien from any events. Refused to let his friends come to visit him or for him to visit them. And wouldn’t even let Adrien have a birthday part.” She frowned, tapping her chin.

“So why would a man like that who is so protective of his son trust some random teenage girl with Adrien’s well being? Especially one he has never met who lied to his staff, forced her way into his home, manipulated his son into a photo op,” Not that she was bitter of course, “…and snuck into his personal office?”

Fu frowned, considering her words. “That is strange.”

“Exactly!” Marinette said, pushing closer to the table in earnest. “Even if she didn’t know he was Hawk Moth at the start, she still tried to get to him because of his control over Adrien. It was a connection she knew she could use, so it would benefit her. Which is Lila’s MO.” She said with a roll of her eyes.

She shook her head. “But this would explain why he would seemingly trust her. If he was Hawk Moth, that means he akumatized her before. Three times, even!”

Fu nodded. “The powers of the Butterfly would have let him know what she was like. If she was a willing assistant as Witch Hunter’s scroll proclaimed, he would have known.”

Tikki gasped. “It could also explain the mass akumatization when you had gotten expelled!”

Marinette gripped the table in growing anger. “They must have planned it! How else would he have known to have it ready?”

“Calm yourself, Marinette.” Fu reached out to place a hand over her own. “This is a good theory, but you don’t want to open yourself to an akuma. Especially not after everything that has already happened today.”

She wilted at that. “You’re right, Master. I’m sorry.”

“That is all right.” He assured her with a kind smile. “It is healthy to feel emotions, but you cannot let them overcome you.”

“But…” She hesitated. “Do you think I’m wrong?”

He paused for a moment, thinking it over as he took a sip of tea. “I had suspected once before that whomever had the Grimoire likely had both the missing Miraculous as well. After Gabriel Agreste had been akuamtized, I had wondered as you did whether it was simply coincidence.”

“Because the Butterfly user can’t akumatize himself, can he?” She asked.

He gestured to the tablet containing the translated Grimoire. “Normally, I would say not. But as you have learned, there are ways around any barrier. And as coincidences increase, at some point, we must ask how many coincidences are necessary before something is proven true.”

He smiled. “One such coincidence may be that he had the lost Grimoire. But another may be how convenient it was that he should be akumatized immediately when anyone may be suspecting him after its loss.”

She frowned, uncertain.

“Let us think on it for now, Marinette. And it will be best if we keep an eye on both Gabriel Agreste and Lila Rossi in the meantime.”

“Yes! Thank you, Master Fu!” She nodded before getting up and heading to the door.

“Goodbye, Master! Goodbye, Wayzz!” Tikki chimed before she flew into Marinette’s purse.

As Marinette walked down the street towards home with Tikki in tow, she continued to think over things. What she had learned. What Master Fu had told her. What she had experienced throughout the day.

“Oh!” She gasped as she realized something.

“What is it, Marinette?” Tikki asked from within the opening of the purse. They were mostly alone for the moment, so they could afford to speak if they did so quietly.

“Something I’d been meaning to ask you.” Marinette told her. “What happened with Lila today? The Cure normally fixes things to how they were before the akuma, so why was Lila covered in a full body rash?”

“The Cure sometimes acts in mysterious ways.” Tikki replied.

Marinette frowned. The answer was obviously vague. And Tikki’s refusal to meet her gaze indicated she knew more than she was letting on.

“Tikki…”

“Oh, look at the time! You should be getting home, Marinette!”

“TIKKI!”

__________________

Rose looked over her draft for what had to be the thirtieth time.

Excessive, maybe. But she wanted to make sure she was doing it right.

Ali,

I do not know if you will read this letter, or if it has even been permitted to reach you. At the very least, I am hoping for a chance to tell you from the bottom of my heart:

I am sorry.

While I had never meant to harm you, it doesn’t change the fact that you were harmed. And this harm could have been prevented had I been more cautious.

I could come up with any number of reasons as to why I chose to put my trust in the wrong person. The girl I had thought was promoting this charity was my friend. I wanted to believe the best in my friend. But that is no excuse.

If I truly had respect for you as a friend and as your station of Prince, I should have done my due diligence in ensuring the honesty of anyone I trusted. Especially before I tried to encourage you to trust them as well.

You were right. It was foolish of me.

From your perspective, it must have seemed as a sign that I did not take your friendship seriously. And I am deeply ashamed that I ever allowed that impression to anyone, but to you most of all.

If you choose not to forgive me, I understand. But I at least want you to know that I am going to make this right.

I am pursuing legal options against the girl in question. I do not know how much we will be able to see returned, but I fully intent to refund the donations to you and everyone else who had trusted me to do the right thing.

This may not fix anything. And you do not owe me anything from it. But I hope I can at least try to make up for my mistake and be the person you believed me capable of instead of the fool she turned me into.

Thank you for everything,

Rose

She took a breath.

Okay.

This was it then.

Any last words? Any final changes? Any regrets?

…no.

She shut her eyes and clicked ‘send’.

And finally exhaled. With the air, she breathed out all of her anxieties, fears, and doubts.

She had done what she could.

She was doing what she can.

That was…that was all anyone could expect of her.

All that she could expect of herself.

…

That didn’t make it not ache though.

But there was nothing for it now, she realized as she turned away from her computer to go to bed.

She wanted to fix things. Desperately so. But she couldn’t force Ali to accept her apology and forgive her anymore than she could force Lila to be honest.

Rose curled up under her covers and hugged her pillow close.

It was a small comfort. But one she was going to allow herself.

She hoped for the best. She always did.

But even if he didn’t…she would move forward and continue doing good. Just as he inspired her to.

She just…

A couple tears fell.

She had just wished he would be around to see it.

It would take another hour before she would fall asleep.

…

It would be another three hours before an email alert came up on her computer.

__________________

Ugh.

Lila fell onto her bed, huffing angrily.

This whole day sucked.

She was attacked by an akuma. Everyone turned on her. Hawk Moth was going to let her die. And even when everything was saved, everything was ruined.

Thanks, Rose. Thanks, Hawk Moth. Thanks, Ladybug.

And now she was stuck here in Paris and couldn’t even get away from any of it!

She groaned into her pillow. She couldn’t be too loud, though, as her mother was being annoyingly alert and “keeping an eye on her” now. The last thing she needed was to give her reason to suspect something was up and cause her to come barging into her room.

There was no escape this time. Not now that everyone knew.

She’d still have to deal with her class. Even worse, she’d have to see Adrien and Marinette making eyes at each other.

She’d still have to deal with the school. And now that they knew what she did, she wouldn’t be getting away with anything again.

She’d still have to deal with Hawk Moth, and his akumas would still be a risk for her, as well. She wouldn’t put it past him to try to take her out. What little power and control she had was gone now.

And worst of all…

…Ladybug.

That measly little bug and her damn threat against her. To follow her. To keep an eye on her. To be her…special friend.

Like she would really do that.

Lila turned over in her sheets, settling into her bed and getting comfortable.

Or trying, at least.

Something felt off. She just didn’t know what.

She glanced around her room. It was much more barren now since her mother had cleared out a lot of her belongings. Her laptop and cellphone were gone, as was the limited light they provided in the dark.

She huffed and turned over to face away from the door.

Half asleep, she glanced out the window.

Two glowing blue orbs were staring back.

She screamed.

__________________

A creak of a window opening and closing.

A giggle.

“Huh? Tikki? Zzat you?”

“I’m fine, Marinette. I was just checking on something.”

A yawn.

“What was it?”

Another giggle.

“Nothing important.”

Two blue eyes sent a glare out into the city.

“Nothing at all...”

#BURN THE WITCH!#witch hunter #ml fic #marinette dupain cheng #tikki #adrien agreste #rose lavillant #lila sucks

479 notes · View notes

let-them-read-fics · 3 years

Text

Ghostin'

Requested By @heyziggy: "Song prompt -- 'Ghostin' by Ariana Grande. Reader is dating Rosé and misses her lost lover."

Pairing: Rosé x Fem!Reader

Word Count: ~ 3,676

Warnings / Misc. -- Angst, Death, Crying, Some Cursing, Some Fluff, Happy Ending

Disclaimer: This writing is a work of fiction, and no disrespect is meant for those mentioned herein.

A/N: Did I write this between the hours of 1 and 8am? Yes, yes I did. Inspiration struck and I was able to crank this one out pretty quickly for you! I'm happy with it, and I really hope you guys enjoy it. Let me know what you think :)

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

There they are again. Those eyes that have haunted you for the past year, turning what little progress you've made to dust within a second. People say time heals all wounds, and yet that's never felt further from the truth than it does right now.

A rough tremble wracks through your body as you toss and turn, your limbs reaching out for someone that'll never be there again. She's calling out to you, her arms outstretched as she waits in vain. Your feet are rooted in their spot and no amount of effort possible can make them budge. Tears roll endlessly down your cheeks, a steady stream that feels all too real in the moment. As you scream out her name, you faintly hear your own being called; it's distant, but accompanied by a strong grip on your shoulders.

"...Y/N."

Upon jolting awake, your eyes open to find Rosé hovering over you, propping herself up on her elbow. A thin sheet of sweat has formed on your skin, and you attempt to ground yourself by looking up at her. Slowly but surely, her features overtake the ones still burning in your mind from the dream and you're able to breathe again. She brings a hand up to your cheek, brushing her cool fingers against it lovingly.

Despite the darkness, you can see the bags underneath her beautiful eyes. "I'm sorry, baby."

She simply shakes her head in response, whispering, "Shhh, it's okay. I'm here to take care of you."

In one motion, you pull her into your arms and bury your face in her neck. This isn't the first time this has happened, and you curse yourself for forcing her to grow accustomed to it. She tries to disguise how much it affects her too, but her efforts are always futile; you can read her like a book, knowing that every time that name falls from your lips in a hushed shout, her heart breaks a little more. She doesn't blame you for a second, but neither of you can deny the strain it puts on your relationship.

She adjusts the two of you so that you're laying against her as she soothingly rubs your back. Sweet words of affirmation are whispered into your ear, and the tears you've been holding back soon begin to fall. Some drop from her eyes as well, but she takes comfort in the fact that you're in her arms, allowing her to hold you. Most of the time you push her away, leaving yourself to suffer alone in some cruel form of self-punishment. But now, if only for tonight, you let yourself sink into her warm embrace.

----

1 Week Later -- The Anniversary

12 months ago, today. That's when your world shattered for the first time and everything fell apart. Your heart had been free of such pain until that fateful day, innocent and unaware that sadness like that even existed. That was the first time you ever truly questioned a higher power, baffled that any 'benevolent ruler' could steal such a bright light away from the world. Your first love -- the girl you once imagined spending forever with -- was killed in a hit and run, left to die alone on the pavement.

A majority of your youth belonged to her: the two of you grew up together, slowly falling until you had enough courage to make her yours. Countless memories were made, back when you had no idea how much they'd mean to you in the future. Life was fun with her: she made the mundane things interesting, and the adventures unforgettable. She was unashamedly herself, never stopping for a moment to give a damn about what anybody else thought of her. The two of you had each other, and that's all that really mattered. She was everything to you.

She was.

You still find her in the little things. Whether it be a commercial for her favorite cereal, a bottle of her signature perfume catching your eye as you shop, or even just a flash of her favorite color, you swear that she's still around. After spending so many years with her, it's nearly impossible to imagine her gone. She was so full of life and enthusiasm when her presence still graced the Earth that the thought of her being faded, that twinkle in her eye forever extinguished, seems like an insult to her legacy.

How are you supposed to move on from something like that? Rosé has been one of the only things keeping your head above water ever since she walked into your life, but a limit exists to what even she is capable of. After getting absolutely no closure, not even being able to see the perpetrator brought to justice, you're left to pick up the pieces. You've always been the type to deal with things on your own, finding it selfish to bring your loved ones down with the weight of your pain, but even you have to draw the line somewhere.

Perhaps that dream had been a sign -- some type of cosmic warning for what was soon to come -- because that line was crossed today.

Her family requested for you to return to your home town and celebrate her life with them. The invitation was extended to everyone she had touched before her life was taken, and even those who wished to show their support despite not having the privilege of knowing her personally. You agreed, and spent the day surrounded by people just as sad as you.

It was strange, at first; being back in the place you had so desperately tried to run from to escape the reality of what happened. But seeing all of them again reopened wounds that had never really gotten the chance to heal in the first place. Her parents' faces, so tired and troubled beneath the mask they attempted to put on, struck a chord within you. Her brother tried to be strong for them, you could tell -- but upon hearing his stifled sobs coming from upstairs, you could see how much it all still affected him. Your old friends were there as well, and their stories of your shared escapades only broke your heart more. It was a physical pain now, the once dull pinch giving way to a full blown ache. As you walked around her house, replaying all of your experiences with her, you felt empty again.

She meant so much to everyone she ever uttered a word to, and yet she was gone in the blink of an eye. You'd think that someone as incredible as her would get some sort of divine protection, if you will -- a blanket of defense against such a cruel fate. But life works in ways we don't understand, and we have to find a way to deal with that. You'd hoped returning here would help you on that quest, but you've come to learn that no one really has access to that elusive answer.

Though the day brought on the reunion of so many of you, it ended just as it had started: none of you any closer to closure. It would take time, no doubt, but you wished more than anything that the road to peace was a little shorter.

-----

Rosé

Sweet, incredible Rosé. She waltzed into your life two months after the incident. A breath of fresh air in every way, she brought light back into your life. She refused to stand by and watch as you slowly destroyed yourself, letting the walls crash down around you. She made everything secure again, successfully keeping you sane and grounded.

Falling in love with her was never something you saw coming. The emotions took their time in building up, every considerate thing she did for you adding to your list of reasons for loving her. It all accumulated until you couldn't hide it anymore, and even she could tell that she was getting through to you. Your fragile heart seemed to forget about its brokenness, because it soared at the mere sight of her.

The day she asked you to be her girlfriend was an emotional one, to say the least. You accepted without hesitation, but a nagging voice in the back of your mind suggested that being with Rosie was a treasonous act. Trying to move on felt wrong; your confused heart sent mixed signals, thinking it possible to wait for your ex's return.

But Rosie dealt with it perfectly -- better than you could have ever wished for. Not one time did she try to take your ex's place; she always respected your process and boundaries, and she never drew comparisons between your relationships. Rosé knew from the get-go that times would get rough, but she never shied away. Arguments happened, as they do with any couple, but she watched her tone and always took time to think before she spoke.

Constantly, she worked to get you to let her in. Sometimes -- rarely -- she succeeded. On the nights that you found yourself crying over her again, your heart aching like usual, Rosie was always next to you in an instant. She hated seeing you so distant and hard on yourself, and she vowed from the beginning that she would be a positive influence in your life.

------

The Birthday

2 weeks ago, Rosé had requested today off in order to be by your side. Your ex's birthday is today, and Rosé knows you'll need her more than you're willing to admit.

"Baby, wake up. Let's get some breakfast."

She rolls over to wake you with a kiss, only to find you already sitting up with tears in your eyes. She reaches up to wipe them away, but you dodge her hand before she can. That's what she can't stand. Having you push her away, effectively keeping her at arm's length, hurts her so much more than you know.

Although she's talented at reading you, truth be told Rosé has absolutely no idea how today will go. You've yet to experience a day like today -- your ex's birthday -- without her here, and even you don't know what'll happen. Your mood is capable of changing in a whipstitch, so you'll have to see how the day plays out.

"Y/N, please." Her eyes are pleading as you look at her again, and they rake over your sad features. Your bottom lip trembles as more tears threaten to overflow, and you sink your teeth into it to quiet yourself. Wordlessly, you do as she asks: you press your forehead against hers and let out a broken sigh as she strokes your arm. Her touch is comforting beyond belief, and you can't help but feel like you don't deserve it. Constantly putting her through the same shit makes you feel like a terrible person.

"You're too good to me."

She goes to shush you like always, but you don't drop it this time.

You gently scoot away from her, meeting her eyes as she mimics your actions and raises her head.

"I can see that it gets to you, Rose. I hate myself for hurting you… I just keep letting you down."

She's prepared to ease your fears from the start, not willing to get into an argument right now. "Stop, okay? I knew what I was signing up for when we started dating. I'm a big girl, Y/N. I can decide when I want to stay and when I want to go. I knew from the beginning that we would have these struggles, and none of it has made me change my mind about you."

Her words make your heart flutter, but you still have plenty on your mind to discuss with her.

"You deserve someone without so much baggage. I can't pretend like I'm not still affected by it."

"When have I ever asked you to do that?" She cocks her head to the side, quirking an eyebrow as she waits for you to respond.

"You don't have to, babe. Seeing what it does to you is confirmation enough." You shrug lightly, allowing your eyes to break away from hers for a moment as you gather up what other words you want to say.

"You'll never admit it, not to the full extent, anyway, but I know I'm hurting you. That's the last thing I want; you deserve to be with someone who makes you happy."

"Jagi, do you really think our relationship makes me unhappy? I'll admit that this isn't always easy, but no relationship is, and never once have I even thought of leaving. You seem to forget about yourself in all of this; your happiness is just as important as mine."

She chooses to ignore the self-deprecating scoff you let out at her last sentence, opting to just continue with her train of thought; convincing you to value yourself is a battle for another day.

"So please, let me in. I want us to get through this."

"I do too, baby. So so much. I just can't help but think you could find someone better. I'm a fucking charity case at this point." You drop your head now, avoiding eye contact at all costs. You know she'll be upset with you for thinking so lowly of yourself, but her disappointment almost certainly pales in comparison to the contempt you hold for yourself.

With a heavy, tired sigh, Rosé hooks two fingers underneath your chin and gently lifts your head. "Y/N, look at me. I don't know how to make it any clearer to you: you are the person I want to be with. I want you in my future, and in order to make that happen I'm more than willing to help you deal with your past. I know it's not simple; I know it's never going to be easy; but I want you. All the strings attached."

You blink at the sincerity behind her words, a bit taken aback that she's so steadfast in her decision to stay with you. You've spent so much time convincing yourself that she's only with you because she feels sorry for you that you were blind to the true extent of her love. It's consistent and unwavering, and you've never felt more valued than when you're with her. To her, you never were nor will you ever be a charity case; she loves you because you're imperfect; because you need her just as much as she needs you.

"Okay."

The simple word from you is more than enough to put Rosie at ease, and she doesn't even try to stop the smile that spreads across her cheeks as you pull her into your lap for a hug.

A light squeak from the bedsprings serves as the only sound in your room as you silently hold one another. She knows that 'okay' was your way of telling her you're ready to let her in.

"I love you." You whisper against her neck, allowing your lips to brush against her soft skin. Both of your collars are wet with tears following the emotional moment you just had, but neither of you care.

"I love you, too, baby." She returns, pressing a kiss to your temple.

After spending a moment just holding one another, communicating your emotions through light touches and kisses, you lift up onto your knees and lay her back onto the bed. She cups your cheeks, loving how they feel beneath her fingertips as you stare into her eyes. Your hands sit on either side of her torso to hold you up, keeping you in place as you smile down at her. Intimate moments like these hold a special place in her heart, and she can never get enough of them.

"I'm so afraid of losing you, Rosie. God, you have no idea how much the thought of it terrifies me." You shut your eyes now, willing away the images of a life without her.

For some reason she had never really considered that to be a cause for your unreachability before. Looking back now, it makes perfect sense; losing someone so close to you in such an unexpected way can definitely make you afraid of getting close to people again. What if you lose them, too?

"I can't predict the future, my love, but I can promise you that I'll spend the rest of my days on this Earth next to you. And I'll find you in whatever comes after, too; you're not getting away from me that easy."

The last sentence is playful, and you smirk at her lightheartedness. She knows just what to say to lighten the mood.

"You're the greatest." You say, leaning down to capture her full lips in a meaningful kiss. She hums into it, pulling you flush against her body as she flips you over.

"Oh really?" She teases, pressing feather-light kisses to your jaw. She can feel your heartbeat pick up, and she grins cockily at the effect she has on you.

"M-mhm." You mutter out with a slight stutter, tracing your hands down her body before letting them rest on her hips.

"Why don't you show me, then?" She's straddling you now, and she pulls away from your neck to gaze down into your darkening eyes.

Soon the room is filled with a high pitched squeal as you pounce, pushing her backwards until her back hits the mattress again.

"As you wish, princess." You say, giving her a little salute before kissing her again.

She smiles against your lips and lets out a joyous giggle at your antics.

-------

The Second Anniversary

"Are you ready, baby?" She asks, turning to look at you and gauge your reaction.

You let out a jagged breath, the air leaving your lungs a bit unevenly as you try to steady yourself.

With a nod, you exit the car and walk around to open Rosie's door. "Such a gentlewoman." She says, garnering a genuine smile from you. Her playful tone calms you, and you peck her lips in a sweet kiss.

"Come on, let's go inside."

At your words, she slips her hand into yours and the two of you begin your journey towards the house.

The rest of the day goes by better than you had ever imagined possible: Rosé joined conversations easily, and she offered plenty of comfort to everyone in need of it. Her presence is enough to lessen anyone's pain, but she truly showed her skills today.

Towards the end of the celebration, your ex's parents pulled you away from everyone else and into the hallway for a private word.

"We want you to come visit her, with us."

Your first instinct is to adamantly refuse, but the looks on their faces are enough to give you pause. No amount of time can make up for the loss they've had to endure, and you know they wouldn't have asked unless they really needed you there.

"Okay, we'll be there."

They pull you in for a hug, and Rosé tears up at the emotional moment. She sends you an understanding look once you eventually meet her gaze from across the room, and you give her a sad smile in return.

----

The Visit

"Hey, baby; it's us again. Everybody came by earlier and it was so nice."

"You would've loved it, baby girl. We all miss you so much."

They hold each other close as they take turns speaking to her, their voices a little stronger than you remember them being last year. Slowly but surely, they're learning to adjust to life without their daughter.

You turn your head to the side, burying your face in Rosé's hair to distract yourself from the sadness creeping in. You hadn't come back to the cemetery since her funeral, so even just standing there causes the memories to come flooding back. Rosie's grip on you is strong, and you thank her for that; without her you'd surely be a wreck by now.

A few minutes later, her parents step to the side and look over to you in a wordless request for you to say something.

"Hey, champ." You crouch down next to her tombstone, missing the way her parents smile at the old nickname you used to call each other.

"It's me. I hope you're happy up there… you deserve to be. You'd better save us some good seats." You tease, reaching up to dust some dirt off of the sleek surface of stone. The material is beginning to become rougher, you note to yourself.

"Thank you for taking such good care of Y/N. I owe you the world." Rosie smiles bittersweetly, resting her hand on your shoulder as she looks down at the picture on the tombstone.

Something -- some unmistakable force, a gut feeling -- tells you to look up. You listen to it, slowly raising your head until you can see the expanse of the cemetery in front of you. The evening sun is giving way to a breathtaking sunset, and the remaining golden rays filter in through the leaves of the tall trees overhead. A flash of brown hair catches your eye, and you almost gasp at what you see.

There she is.

Your ex -- well, more specifically, the ghost of her -- stands amidst the tree line that borders the property. She raises a hand up to wave at you, offering a peaceful smile as she glances between Rosie and you. You smile your own lopsided grin at her, and soon after, she fades away completely.

Inconspicuously, you look up at her parents. They have a knowing look on their face as you stand up and loop an arm around Rosé's waist, pulling her in close to rest your forehead against hers. She kisses your cheek before using her finger to poke the soft surface adorably.

"Ya know," her father starts, pulling your attention away from your girlfriend.

"She visits us too, sometimes." He finishes with a smile.

A content feeling settles within your chest at his words, and you let out a soft sigh.

She always was a sucker for happy endings.

267 notes · View notes

flowerwrites06 · 3 years

Text

blossoms and blood finale — jjk

Plot: Two lovers are ripped apart in the name of duty.

Pairing(s): Prince/King!Jungkook x Princess/Queen!OC (Name: Belle)

Rating: G | PG | M | R 18+

Type: Drabble | Oneshot | Two Parter | Series

Word Count: 5k

Genre: Royal | Angst | Smut

Tags & Warnings: violence, angst, explicit smut, blood

Authors Note: I know a couple of you wanted this so I hope you like!

Pungent scent of medicated potions lingered in the air of the Queens’ bedroom as it now transformed itself into a makeshift home clinic. The royal physician Taehyung sat on the edge of the bed while Jungkook lay on the soft surface, half conscious. White cloth pressed against the males’ forehead, sweat beads gathered around his temples. Every breath he took trembled as light whines emitted at each weak heave.

Belle stood near one of the pillars of her bed, concern twisting her features even though she tried her to keep her composure. As far as everyone was concerned, she still had an arranged marriage with Hoseok. So an air of calmness had to stretch across her face.

Taehyung hooked a fingers on the bandage, letting a light sigh as he did. A patch of red soak through the bandage already. “It’s a surface wound. They will heal in a week or two.” He turned to face the Queen, hands placed on his lap.

“Thank you, Taehyung.” Belle crossed her arms over her chest. Scrubbing sounds made her ears prick up. The maids spend most of the morning getting rid of the blood stains on the floor. “I expected to have enemies…” Her tone rung solemn.

“It’s the side effect of bringing a lot of people together. Powerful but often prone to differences.” Taehyung answered in a plain tone as he packed his things back into his satchel. A few glasses clinked inside of it while he hung it gently over his shoulder. “Let me know if there are any abnormal changes.”

Her eyes were still fixated on Jungkook. How his chest rose and fell, a film of sweat covering his body all the while his features contorting. Anything but a peaceful sleep. Quickly Belle met Taehyungs’ gaze and nodded. “Yes of course.”

The physician padded closer and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry yourself too much, Your Majesty. King Jungkook is known for surviving many battles. This is but a scratch.”

A scratch she should have received. Not him. Belle stayed silent and gave him a faint smile before he walked out of the room.

Minutes later, the maids also bowed down and excused themselves from her chambers as the room now had a faint flowery smell from the cleaning supplies. Apparently a few people had been concocting liquid that gave off a more pleasant smell after cleaning rather than the rancid one she remembered as a child.

Silence overcame the room as Belle was left to watch Jungkook struggling to keep still from the troubles in his weary mind. She knew the male had always been prone to dreadful nightmares considering the amount of battles he fought in from a young age. Fingers itched to comfort him. A more sensible part of her yelled not to dive too deep into this weakening state. But the part that wished she took the hit instead of him spoke a different story. She padded closer to the edge of the bed and sat down.

Pulling the wet cloth away from his forehead, Belle dipped it back into the basin of water placed on the nightstand. She lifted the heavy piece and squeezed out the excess before carefully resting it back on his warm head. Taehyung left the tray of simple tools over next to the bed. Grabbing another cloth the woman softly patted away the film of sweat on his bare torso.

She could still make out the faint traces of scars from previous battles. One stab wound right in the middle, the faint camel toned mark leftover. Scratch marks from a war tiger on his chest looking far less threatening than she recalled. Belle could still see how proud he looked having a mark of a glorious creature on his skin as if it were a sign of good luck. Then the newest addition. Bandaged and slightly soaking through with fresh blood.

Even to this day, Jungkook took a terrible wound somehow and still breathed. Taehyung wasn’t wrong in saying that he suffered far worse than this but the tug in her belly never changed. She still had to look at him in this manner. Breathing uneven and a pained expression across the features she loved so much.

Then Belle’s gaze caught something glimmering around Jungkooks’ neck. A plain silver necklace wrapped around his neck a little too tightly. Gently she pulled at the chain to fix it up and felt a larger object dangling from it just behind his jawline. Brows furrowed, Belle carefully brought the pendant back to the front of his chest and her heart skipped a few beats.

Breath caught in her throat as her shaking thumb brushed over the blossom design. It still shone so bright after all these years, capturing a simplistic beauty of a shy warriors’ gesture of love. Thick tears flooded at the brim of her eyes. The last time she saw this it had been drowning in a puddle of her mothers’ blood. Now as if a ghost of the past came back to haunt her, she had the ring in her hand. Reminding her of just that. It was the past.

Something she could never fix. The only she could fix was the future.

Belle looked over at Jungkooks’ half-conscious form, lips trembling. “You have to wake up for me.” She whispered, caressing his glowing cheek. “You have to be okay.” Tears trickled down her face as she leaned in and pressed a soft kiss at the corner of his lips.

The door clicked open. “Your Majesty?” Seokjins’ voice rung through the room.

Belle hurriedly wiped away the wetness from her cheeks and took a deep breath. Standing up from the bed, she clasped her fingers together, standing as professionally as she could. “Yes?”

Seokjin stood near the door, glancing over at Jungkooks’ form before looking at her again. “I have some important news.”

She looked over her shoulder for a moment checking if the male didn’t change in his demeanor. “Okay.” Belle addressed walking out of the room despite feeling utterly disquiet about leaving Jungkook alone.

Leaving a small crack in the door, Belle turned to face the Prince with as much as of a calm expression as she could muster. Although her eyes were still reddened and her posture a little deflated. “What kind of news?” She continued the conversation in a small voice so it would not echo too much against the walls of the hallway.

Seokjin glanced over his shoulder at the four guards now stationed near the Queens’ chambers. Their expression blank as per usual but they both knew their ears now stood sharper than ever for any strange sign. Facing Belle again, he spoke under his breath. “I started asking around about the incident and what might have allowed the assailant to get this far into your chambers.”

Curiosity piqued, she straightened up. “And?”

“A few servants…” He side glanced possibly at the guards once again. “They saw King Hoseok conversing with the guards and handing them a jug of something. The guards that were supposed to posted last night were found unconscious.”

Belle took a deep breath feeling a rush of heat burst through her body hearing that name. She wanted to be extremely shocked by the whole ordeal but admittedly Hoseok had been welcomed with open arms to cause whatever secret havoc he needed to. Of course he’d take it in a heartbeat. “Was the assailant one of his men?”

“Well, no...” Seokjin leaned on the wall beside him. “…he was one of ours.”

The Queen averted her gaze, hardly any shock spread across her features. “Not really ours, was he?” Not everyone could be elated about her taking over all those kingdoms. Last night now became a painful reminder of that notion.

Seokjin sighed. “There’s one other thing.” His voice rung lower. “While the scene was being investigated they found a potion spilled on the floor. I asked for them to get a sample.”

Belle could vaguely remember the assailant holding something over her but the events just after waking up replayed in a fuzzy manner. “What was it?”

“According to the potions master, it’s an elixir to get douse someone’s willpower. For a small amount of hours of course.” He lifted a shoulder.

“Long enough to sign any contract.”

“Or make any public announcement that he wants you to make.”

The more evidence came to light, the more Belle knew Hoseok was not a man of change if it meant he needed to change. It only became relevant when things were moving his way. Poor traits of a King but also fooled when turned around, she thought.

“Should we organize an arrest?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Not yet.”

Seokjins’ brows furrowed searching her expression. On a normal day, an execution or exile would have been organized at most but he noticed a rare glint in her eye. “What did you want to do?”

Belle met the Princes’ eyes. “King Hoseok isn’t fully aware of the aftermath, I’m assuming.”

“No he isn’t.”

“Perhaps we can deal with this situation on more familiar grounds to the Sun King.” Chin raised, the glint in her gaze became clearer now. A sense of mischief and manipulation for the traitor King. Any monarch with a strong will to do his bidding loved hearing things that benefit him somehow. Even if it was a bold-faced lie.

The Prince couldn’t help but have a tiny smile tug at his pillowy lips. “I’m sure that can arranged, Your Majesty.”

She nodded. “Good.”

Large mat laid out on the grounds of the royal garden, dark mahogany floor table placed in the middle as Queen Belle sat on one side and Sun King Hoseok on the other. Colorful rice cakes centering the two cups of auburn tinted tea, light wafts of steam still flowing up from it. The maid neatened up Belle’s dress train around her for comfort. Golden dress with meshed sleeves adorned in rich floral patterns and pink flowers around the borders of her straight neckline. Colours of the Queens’ dress contrasted beautifully amongst the pinks and purples of the garden and matched pleasantly with Hoseok sky blue ensemble.

From afar they may have looked like the perfect royal couple despite the light twinge of disgust at the back of Belle’s mind, knowing just what kind of a person she was betrothed to. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard. There was an attack in the palace last night.”

Hoseok had been taking a careful sip of tea when she spoke. He hummed in response, placing the tea back onto the table before nodding. “I did hear King Jungkook got injured. Has he been recovering well?” The man was talented in playing the saint. Every conqueror had to, after all, try to convince everyone that what they were doing was good hearted to prevent any revolution.

“He is. It’s a surface wound so he’ll be ready for trial.” Belle picked her cup, blowing onto it gently before taking a small sip only enough to disappear on her tongue and barely reach her throat.

“Trial?” His brows furrowed.

“Well a few servants saw him wandering around the hallways during the attack. It’s a classic move.” Belle took one of the smaller rice cakes and bit into it carefully.

Hoseok searched the Queens’ expression with an air of interest, leaves rustling a little against the day breeze. “You think maybe he tried to plant himself as an innocent bystander?” He stated rather than asked. Truthfully he never expected her to blame him so easily but it was understandable considering their dark history.

“Of course he did.” She placed the half bitten rice cake back on her plate. “Sending a servant to do his dirty work was already in poor taste as it were.”

The corner of his lip twitched as he tried to keep a neutral face while the Queen insulted his tactics. No, Jungkooks’ tactics. “That’s true.” Hoseok spoke through a slightly tightened jaw. “Usually professional assassins are chimed in for those situations.”

“Right.” Belle smiled. “If you ever think of assassinating me during our marriage, please do send your best.” She mused.

Hoseok let out an almost forced chuckle. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Anyway he’ll be held on trial as soon as he’s awake. Then that kingdom is as good as ours.” A bright grin graced the Queens’ features.

“I can see why you’re the most feared Queen in our land.” Hoseok chuckled.

“Are you afraid of me?”

“What fun is life without a little fear, yes?”

Belle hummed in agreement.

Candles lit to welcome the night. Another fresh bandage now wrapped around Jungkooks’ shoulder. Belle had a significant rush of relief watching the male breath in calm patterns with his face relaxed from any nightmare induced contorts. He looked relieved from pain. She stood near her vanity as one maid folded up some used clothes and stuffed them into the hamper.

Her hair now completely open from any pins, she could finally let the tightening headache pass from the release. Fluffing through the locks the Queen turned to smile at the maid as she bowed and walked out of the room with the hamper rested on her hip.

Once the door closed, Belle relaxed in the comforting silence of her bed chambers for the night as she sat on the empty side of her bed.

During the early years of her reign she remembered breaking down on the floor. When all the eyes were off her and the young Queen was left to her lonesome, dark thoughts and painful memories sunk right into her very core. It overwhelmed every vein and limb to a point where a maid sometimes found Belle sleeping on the floor. Namjoon caught her in that state more times that she would like to admit. He would immediately carry her back to bed without speaking of it again for her comfort.

Recalling that vulnerable version of herself in the past, Belle felt a slight twinge of accomplishment that she could sit in her chambers with pride. Not grief or heartbreak.

Except one thing had been left unresolved as of late. She turned to see Jungkook stirring, a long drawling sigh passing through his nose. Belle shifted closer as her hand caressed his forehead to help him relax. She pushed back his long locks watching him slowly flicker his eyes open.

Vision blurred as Jungkook finally stirred awake, the room slowly materializing around him. He relished in a familiar warm touch on his forehead causing a hum under his breath. When his gaze turned over to the side, he felt an immediate rush of comfort seeing Belle’s face. For so long the man had been dreaming of waking up to see her every morning only to find an empty space beside him.

Now every piece of his damaged body and mind calmed as if a long held wish came true. “You’re here.” Jungkook whispered in a rasp, clearing his dried throat.

Belle smiled before nodding. “I’m here.”

With a light grunt, the male tried to push himself up before a hot flash of pain caused him to drop down again. “Shit.” He hissed.

Belle placed a hand at back of his neck, helping him lift up gently before adjusting the pillows so he could sit up comfortably. His back now rested on against the soft headboard. She reached out to the nightstand and grabbed a cup of water.

Jungkooks’ eyes partially closed as his body tingled, getting used to the new position after lying down for who knows how long. A few seconds passed and he felt something cold touch his lips.

“It’s water.”

The word immediately caused his parched lips to part. Refreshing, cool liquid gracing his tongue and dampening his throat while the heaviness in his head slowly lightened. A light hum emitted from under Jungkook’s breath as he swallowed down the nourishment. Even as the cup emptied, he kept suckling on for more.

Pulling the cup away, she gave him a faint smile. “I’ll get some more.” Before Belle could climb out of the bed however Jungkook quickly used his good arm to hold onto hers.

“Stay. Please.” He let out a relaxed sigh, mind clearing in almost minutes.

The Queen looked at the male over her shoulder before nodding. She placed the cup back onto the nightstand and sat next to him, body facing him completely. “How’re you feeling?”

“Like I just got slashed on the chest with a sword.” Jungkook chuckled weakly. Licking his lips, his gaze fixated on the woman before memories of last night began sinking in. “Are you hurt?” Instinctively, he reached out to touch her hand. Thought of consequences seemed to bury itself somewhere deep under his weak state.

Belle shook her head with a reassuring smile. “Thanks to you.” She gulped down. “You didn’t have to do that though.”

“No one has to risk their life for someone.” His lips curled up. “But I’ll always want to for you.”

“That’s not comforting.” She frowned. “How did you think I was going to feel if you died protecting me?” Belle’s brows furrowed as the freshly lingering memories of last nights’ events now burst in harsh colours around them. She could almost still feel his blood between her fingers as it soaked through her robe.

“Belle…” He whispered, the grip on her hand tightening. “It’s what I do. I’m a soldier, remember?”

“You’re not just a solider and you know that.” Her voice cracked heavier at every word, eyes growing glossy. “You’re a King, all those people are looking up to you.” She nodded towards the door. “You can’t just come back to me after so long and then leave me alone again, it hurts.” Belle hung her head, swallowing the painful lump in her throat. She never thought after all these years, seeing Jungkook hurt brought her the same deep sorrow it always did. “The last thing I said to you was I don’t love you.”

Jungkook blinked slowly, lips twitching a little. “I know.” He whispered.

Belle let out a shaky sigh, eyes flickered up to meet his glossy gaze. “I-I didn’t mean—” She shook her head looking down at their hands connected. Caressing the top of his hand, she brought it up to her cheek. Warmth from his palm radiated to her skin.

He felt a rush of comfort touching her again. The distant broken visions of their past now hitting him like a bag of rocks to his chest. It’s been so long. Too long. How he survived without her touch for so many years. Unable to bear the distance, Jungkook leaned in, nose nudging on hers affectionately.

Heart raced out of her ribcages as her free hand came up to softly caress the side of his neck. Belle slid closer until their lips brushed. Thick heat tingled through her limbs feeling those familiar lips again.

As soon as their twin flesh touched, Jungkook took her bottom lip and suckled lightly. The faintest tinge of sweet berry still lingering on it intoxicating him further than he already was. A buzz swirled around his head. He wound his good arm around her waist, pulling her close against his body.

Hum emitting under her breath, Belle shifted as he held her, one leg swinging over so she straddled him. She felt his tongue slip through her teeth. Jaw slacked, she let him explore her mouth while her soft dress rode up, exposing her thighs.

Jungkooks’ hand snuck under the hem of her dress, nails grazing down the soft skin causing a tingle down Belle’s spine. Further and further he moved until he reached the swell of her ass. Instinctively, he kneaded the bouncy flesh.

Feeling the firm squeeze, Belle swayed her hips against his feeling something hardening between his legs. She felt the males’ grip tighten at every grind.

Jungkook broke the kiss moving his flushed lips down to her jawline. A flowery scent from the day lurked from the back of her ear as he nibbled on the lobe. His hands continued to push her dress up until the long skirt bunched at her waist. Her whole lower body now left exposed while she rubbed against his growing tent.

The more Belle grinded her bare core against the bulge, the more she could wetness soaking the thin fabric. Sloppy sounds slowly floating in the thickening air of long suppressed pleasure. A light moan croaked from her throat when she brushed onto a particular sensitive spot.

Pausing his small kisses, the male stared up at the beauty watching her features twist elegantly as she relished in the tiny waves of ecstasy passing through her. Jungkook could come undone just staring at that tiny smile appearing whenever Belle felt the right surge. Fingers dug into her hips, guiding them back and forth until his pants were practically drenched with both their arousals.

Belle met his hazy eyes, brushing their noses again before locking their lips into another heated kiss. Tongue almost immediately danced together as her hips grew relentless in its movements. She felt bundled area of heat collecting around her lower belly and shivering through her thighs causing a drawling hum to vibrate into the kiss. “I want you.” She mumbled breathily, their lips still barely connected.

Lightly groaning from the constricted heat around his crotch, Jungkook latched one of his hands off her hips and fumbled with his pants. He pushed it down far enough down to his knees before shifting it to his ankles and kicking it aside. His length now sprung free already twitching as if it could sense her heat.

She reached down and wrapped her fingers around the base of his cock, lightly squeezing.

Jungkook hissed lightly as his other hand scratched down her thigh. He pulled at the hem of her dress over her head and threw it to the side. Wrapping both his arms around her waist, he dipped down to suckle on one of her nipples.

Belle threw her head back relishing the light tickles of pleasure from his tongue flicking at her erect nubs. She looked down at him pressing wet kisses on the valley of her breasts before traveling up to her neck. Affectionately, her fingers brushed through his cold hair. Her hips jerked a little feeling his teeth sink into the sweet spot of her neck, sucking until it made her head spin around in circles.

Impatience slowly creeping in, Belle raised herself a little causing Jungkook to softly detach from her neck and watch her ministrations. She positioned her dripping heat at the tip of his length carefully sinking down. A burning tinge of pain and mix of pleasure concocted in the bubbling reactions of her body.

He couldn’t help the deep groan vibrating in his throat when he felt her snug walls wrapped firmly around his cock to the point of near suffocation. If she moved too quick, Jungkook could have embarrassingly spurted in seconds. Nails dented the skin of her hips as his dark orbs watched his Queen adjust to his size. His whole body shivered a little seeing himself disappeared completely inside her.

Belle could feel the tip of his cock shyly brushing against her sweet spot causing a thick waft of pleasure to shoot through her. The ache from her stretched walls subsided, drowning in her desperate need to feel him again. She began with slow thrusts, grinding up and down to let the tip tease her spot at every move. One hand cupped at the back of his neck while the other gripped at his inner thigh. Hair curled over her face as the heat curdled around her lower belly, exuding through her skin in a light film of sweat.

Jungkook admired her little movements in awe, eyes near pitch black from lust. The deep friction from the patterned swaying caused his breathing to lose all control. Sounds of her cunt getting drenched by the second, squelching a little as she ground their hips together. Looking down, he saw the skin of his cock glistening more and more as she moved.

She bent her knees, pressing her feet against the soft bed as Jungkook wrapped an arm around her waist. Writhing bodies now stuck together, Belle gripped onto one of the ridges of the headboard to keep some of her balance. With an almost dizzying ease she began bouncing up and down his length. The new position allowed for stronger pressure on that tingling spot inside her while her clit rubbed against Jungkooks’ lower belly.

Sweaty skin burned a little as it rubbed against each other thrust after thrust. Slapping sounds echoed across the sin scented room. Belle’s wavy hair bounced along with her, lips parted and eyes closed, practically drowning in the thickening pleasure.

“I missed you so much.” Jungkook breathed out before biting down her collarbone to suppress a much louder groan.

Belle let out a shaky whimper, the pressure of her orgasm hurdling and his words creating a deadly mixture of emotions to bubble inside her. Tears gathered at the corners of the womans’ eyes. “I missed you too.” Lips quivered slightly as she moved legs as her feet rested on his thighs. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she quickened her pace up and down his member.

Trembling breaths passed through Jungkooks’ lips as he caressed the swell of her ass, nibbling on her earlobe. He felt the coil in his lower belly tightening beyond his own control. Arousal splattered all over their thighs from the relentless thrusts.

In a harsh sudden wave, her limbs locked as the pleasure shot through her shaking body. Arms grabbing onto him for dear life. Belle kept on with her sloppy thrusts despite her hips jerking at every contact against her sensitive clit.

Her walls clenched around him so tightly, it made his own orgasm burst out of him. Ropes of cum filling the beauty up to the brim until he could feel more wetness dripping down to his thighs. Body twitched as they held onto each other, catching their breath and letting their hot bursts switch to a serene bliss.

Cleaning themselves up with a washcloth, the couple lay down peacefully next to each other. Belle’s head rested on his chest tracing the stab scar on his torso. As the swimming feeling in her mind began to settle down back to reality, she was reminded of the responsibilities that needed to be taken care of tomorrow. “I know who did it.” She broke the calm silence.

Jungkook stared down at the woman, fingers still absentmindedly brushing through her hair. “Dare I even ask?” Sarcasm oozed in every word hardly needing any explanation as to who might have wanted Belle harmed. He let out a small sigh. “What’re you going to do?”

“There’s a small plan. I’m not completely proud of it but he’s already into it.” Belle looked up to meet the males’ gaze. “Except I might need your help.”

His brows furrowed. “What kind of help?”

In the early hours of the morning as the greyish horizon sported a golden lining, Queen Belle’s council along with the Sun King and his guards gathered in the main throne room.

Belle adorned a slightly casual dress with soft tones of blue and green. She sat on her throne with a calm demeanor as per usual even in situations that welcomed a great deal of stress both politically and personally. Sun King stood on her right holding a small smile either by habit or he simply dove headfirst into her little play.

The council and guests then quietened down to a pin drop silence watching the Queen in anticipation. “This trial has been held to try the one responsible for organizing an attempt of assassination during peace holdings.” Belle announced.

Double doors opened with a light thud followed by armors from the guards clanging as they made their way in. Jungkook positioned at the center keeping one arm bent and hand placed on his torso. He walked and halted a little in front of Belle.

Hoseok watched him with that same smirk growing the tiniest bit. The sense of accomplishment exuded from him a little too clearly.

Though at the same time, Jungkooks’ lips curled into a faint smile as he bowed down keeping a fixated gaze on his Queen. The slight darkness in his eyes hinted what he was thinking about causing a slight tingle down her spine. Turning on his heel, the male stood over next to Seokjin casually.

Her light smirk then faded into a more professional expression. “King Hoseok…” Belle spoke calmly. “Please make your way to the center for your trial.”

The council once again turned deathly silent, eyes turning to the Sun King. This kingdom had been no stranger to having Kings or Queens standing for their crimes and being punished accordingly. Hoseok simply entangled himself into a long running tradition of intolerance for abusing power.

Belle noticed Hoseok trying to look around the room to see if anyone else was as confused as he was but his search failed in seconds.

Hoseok scoffed lightly, keeping a close eye on his men peeking through some members of the council. He noticed their hands tightly wound around the hilt of their swords. The action gave him a slight ounce of reassurance. Walking to the center of the throne room, a small smile played on the Sun Kings’ lips. “I assume there’s been some kind of misunderstanding.”

Belle shrugged briefly. “You tell me. Evidence came to light that you were conversing with the guards outside my door, providing them with a jug which they were then found unconscious with the next day.” She restated the information written out to her before this trial. The woman decided to keep the witnesses anonymous to prevent any bloodshed only to keep a secret.

“I was attempting to test your guards’ ability to stay at their post.” He explained with an expert sense of casual tone. “Clearly they failed.”

“Your diligence as the possible future King of this empire is appreciated.” Belle nodded in acknowledgement. “However the assailant was also found with a potion known to strip anyone of their willpower.” Her gaze narrowed. “Who might want me to lose my willpower? So close to our wedding.”

“The loss of your willpower can benefit anyone, Your Majesty.” Hoseok shook his head, struggling to keep his smile together.

“Yet conveniently this servant was last seen talking to you.” Belle smiled.

Hoseok stayed silent this time. All the explanations that seemed to be smoothly rushing through his mind now halted all of a sudden. Every piece of evidence now lay exposed in front of everyone to hear. The staggering grin on his face made it all too obvious that the all-powerful Sun King had been cornered.

She leaned in and rested her elbows on the table. “See this is the difference between you and me. You inherited your empire from your mother. I built mine.” Belle explained in a lower tone but it still echoed in everyones’ ears. “And I most certainly didn’t do it by being an inattentive fool.”

One of Hoseoks’ guards screamed sheathing his sword alerting all his other men to do the same but Belle merely gestured. All her soldiers overwhelmed the small crowd, choking and sounds of slashing swords echoing across the room. Armor clanged to the ground along with the unconscious bodies now filling them causing Belle’s council members to move to the side. Some of them murmured to themselves but otherwise used to the sight of proud citizens trying to protect their problematic Kings because of duty.

Hoseok glared at the Queen after seeing his men limp on the ground. The intention to keep a fake smile now completely dissipated. “Killing me will only heighten your enemy count.”

“Which is why I have no intention in killing you or those men. If you listen.” Lips curled up into a small smirk. “I don’t want war…but I also don’t tolerate kings who don’t quite understand who they’re dealing with. Though I understand my small and pretty demeanor may sway delusional fools into thinking too loosely.” Her brow raised. “You will ride back to your kingdoms and we’ll continue on as silent neighbors…or I can kill you right now and take your lands. It’s easy for me and your people either way.” She leaned back on the chair. “Your choice.”

Hoseok swallowed down, a ghost of a smirk tugging at his lips. “You’re good, Your Majesty.” He licked his teeth. Glancing around the room, the Sun King bowed down with a light bitter taste on his tongue as he did so. “I will take my leave. Let’s never meet again.”

“Lets.” Belle lightly scrunched her nose, a proud smile adorning her features as the Sun King finally walked away from her and Jungkooks’ life.

Belle and Jungkook stood at the main palace balcony watching the chariots of the Sun King ride out of their gates. Sun rose out from the mountains giving the kingdom a new refreshed golden glow to welcome the new day. When she saw the chariots finally disappear and the gates close with a piercing thud, she let out a deep sigh of relief.

“I’m starting to like this new side of you.” Jungkook leaned to her side, closer to her ear.

“When I’m threatening to kill people?” Belle chuckled lightly.

“Not exactly that but it’s exciting to look at.” He grinned, shoulders brushing against each other gently.

When the light chuckles between the couple died down, Jungkook hung his head in thought for a moment. “I’ll step down from my throne.” He muttered. “I might be good at protecting people but you’re better at protecting kingdoms.” He nodded towards the closed gates. Belle knew how to communicate in politics. To Kings and Queens. She made him realize how many sides of a person it takes to make a monarch.

“I suppose it doesn’t matter with you.” Belle shook her head, keeping her gaze on her people beginning their days. “You’re going to be King eventually anyway.”

Jungkook eyed the woman curiously, brows furrowed.

Belle met his confused gaze with an innocent expression. “Unless your previous offer isn’t on the table anymore.” She gave him a cheeky smirk.

A bright grin slowly faded across Jungkooks’ features as his heart burst into a fit of joy. He grabbed onto her hips, pressing her body close to his making her giggle lightly. “It always was.”

Belles’ eyes flickered down to his chest, the thing silver string glimmering on the sides of his neck.

Jungkook followed the womans’ gaze down immediately understanding what she was looking at. He reached behind his neck and unclasped the necklace. It coiled on his open palm as he pulled out the ring pendant.

Stuffing the chain into one of his pockets, he held one of her hands up and slid the piece onto her ring finger. Another beautiful burst of memory spread through him reliving this moment again after so many years. He brought her ringed hand to his lips, pressing a chaste kiss.

“This time, no more leaving.” Belle whispered, staring up at the male.

“No more.” Jungkook pressed his forehead against hers.

After what felt like an eternity of distance and dread, they could finally feel like their kingdoms were home again. Their own shared home just like they always wanted.

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#jungkook #thebtswritersclub #jungkook fanfic #jungkook imagines #bts fanfic #bts imagines #bts royal au #jungkook royal au

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fuckit-hero-of-trains · 3 years

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Alone Together 1 Year Anniversary

I’m a little bit late, but its officially been 1 year since I began writing Alone Together. It’s been a wild ride and honestly? I wouldn't be here without you guys. This project has really transformed my whole view on writing and with your help, has made me a more confident author and for that, I am so very very grateful. I love all you guys so much and hope this next year of writing has just as many twists and turns and emotional conversations as the last one!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish chapter 8 to celebrate. However, here is a preview of what’s to come in the next chapter!

There are sounds that Four has come to dread.

Some, Four resents for practical reasons: The sharp and resonant ting that white-hot metal sometimes makes as it enters the quench, as much felt in his gloved hands as heard over the hiss and spit of oil. It is the tinny sound of microcracks ringing into existence, fissures forming as the pressure of hot hammer hammer hammer hammer hot cold becomes too much for the worked steel.

It's a horrible little sound, really. Almost pathetic if it weren't so devastating.

Hours of work gone and shattered not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Other sounds Four dislikes for more personal, but no less rational reasons.

The ringing of Hyrule Castle’s clock tower still sets his teeth on edge even all these years later, his stomach dropping down to his boots as the sound of the third bell tolls through his bones.

Gale force winds clattering at the slats of his windows still causes him to flinch, though not hard.

He had conquered the wind before– twice before, if anyone was keeping count. Which he is– but he can't stop the knee jerk reaction to it regardless.

Voices dropping down to whispers as he turns a corner still causes him to collapse a little into himself. Forces him to make himself even smaller than he already is. Like if he just kept his head down and hood up, hunched his shoulders a little higher, walked a little faster, he could become unintrusive enough to not to cause a marked difference in the volume of Hyrule Town just by buying carrots.

...

Like he said. Rational reactions to… personal aversions.

But then there are sounds that part of Four knows with utmost certainty that he has no reason to fear. Childish little things that set his blood pumping, his lungs stuttering, his stomach plummeting. Dumb little irrational nothings that he knows, he knows, shouldnt have an effect on him.

And yet…

Well, that's just it, isn't it?

And yet, at night, when the coyotes send their giggling screams of joy to the moon, despite being surrounded by the walls of his house or by the sleeping bodies of his fellow heroes, Four feels ice drip into his blood and his stomach fill with stones, like he’s the helpless little thing being chased.

And yet, there is something in an echo that eats at him. That steals the breath from his lungs at just how lonely it sounds. Truly and utterly alone, with nothing better to do than parrot back words stolen from someone else’s throat.

And yet the clap of shattering glass feels like taking a stone to the head, wiping away all logical thought in a singular spike of pain. It makes him whirl around, desperately searching for the source of the noise. And only then, when he sees that it's a dropped teacup or an incident with a ball and a window… only then does his body and mind let itself uncurl.

And yet–

“Four.”

The smallest hero feels the flinch roll through his shoulders before he can stop it. It rolls through him despite himself. Despite knowing this was coming. Despite the fact that he had been preparing himself for it for days, knowing it was coming once they had enough time to rest after the battle with the Hinox.

In his hands, the whetstone he was carefully gliding across the Four Sword whines to an abrupt halt as he turns to address the older hero.

From above, Time sends him what Four suspects is supposed to be a placating smile but which looks most like an uncomfortable twitch of the lips.

Regardless, it doesn't help. It looks too… comforting for the conversation they're about to have. Too nice. Too soft. Something to lessen a blow before it’s even thrown.

Because it is going to be thrown.

“Would you help me gather some firewood?”

It’s framed as a question.

Four knows it isn’t one.

So he nods. Puts his whetstone back in his bag. Sheathes the Four Sword, takes comfort in it’s weight against his back when he straps it there. And then he takes Time’s outstretched hand, allowing the older to help him up.

Without another word, Time turns and begins to lead the way out of the clearing they’ve set up camp in and into the shade of the forest.

Four glances back at the others.

They look… Well, the smithy would never use the word peaceful to describe his fellow heroes. Hyrule is sat under the shade of a tree, eyes closed, shoulders relaxed, and breaths even as he meditates. Beside him, Legend holds a needle and thread poised to begin mending a tunic.

Or, at least, he would be if he weren’t pointing the needle threateningly at Wind, who dangles from the branches of the tree they’re sitting under, holding what looks to be a bottle of chu chu jelly over Hyrule’s head, smirking as he prepares to pull the cork.

A little farther away, Warriors and Sky seem to be engaged in a heated argument regarding birds of all things.

Both had been the most heavily injured after their fight against the Hinox– Sky had managed to dislocate both shoulders by desperately clinging to the Master Sword embedded in the beast’s forearm even when the monster viciously tried to dislodge him while Warriors had suffered a broken femur thanks to an entire tree being thrown at him, Hylia, Wild’s monsters were really something.

Thus, even after a round of potions and some of Hyrule’s rosie, crystalline magic, the two were sat up in their bedrolls, wrapped in restrictive bandaging and forbidden from helping set up camp, apparently leading to the two having nothing better to do than argue about whether or not cuccos were “a blight upon all of Hyrule,” as Warriors was emphatically arguing.

Beside the bickering heroes, Wild and Twilight are attending to dinner, the two chatting as they chop and toss vegetables into a pot of bubbling stew. It must be going fairly well– and it always does with Wild at the helm– because the mouthwatering smell of cooking onions, garlic, and celery permeates the clearing.

Wild glances up midway through a laugh, and locks eyes with Four. In a second, the humor falls off the other’s face, his eyes flicking quickly between the smithy and the retreating back of Time in question.

Need help? His eyes seem to ask.

And though the other had promised to be with him, to help him with this conversation when it happened, Four slowly and deliberately shakes his head.

Wild has helped him enough. Has helped him run through what he wants to say. What he needs to say. To defend himself. Or, at least, help Time understand his point of view.

And as much as he would love for Wild to be here, to see him use what the other had taught him… something tells the smithy he should do this alone.

Or, at least, as alone as he ever is.

So he flashes Wild a grin that he hopes is more placating than Time’s and turns back toward the forest. He takes a deep breath. Lets it fill his lungs to bursting. Lets it buoy him up. Lets it raise his shoulders from their hunch and straighten his spine.

Well this should be fun Don’t say that We’ve practiced for this Remain calm Here we go

He lets the breath rush out from between his lips in a woosh, forcing himself to relax. To calm his beating heart, the whirlpool of emotion in his stomach, the itch in his scalp, the urge in his lungs to breathe faster.

With hands more shaky than he’d like, Four adjusts his headband, tightening it to the edge of discomfort.

It’s irrational to be afraid of Time.

Four knows that.

And yet, as he squares his shoulders and strides into the dark after the older hero, Four can't help but feel the twinge of fear that nestles itself deep into his chest, watching, waiting, listening, for the perfect moment to go for the throat.

#Alone Together #lu alone together #lu four #lu time #they're gunna have #A Talk TM #OOF #happy 1 year guys #love all of you #gunna try to get to all the comments before I post the next chapter #which *hopefully* will come out next week #we'll see #thank you again for all the support #like actually you guys blow my mind #like #I didn't think anyone would like my ramblings #so thank you for everything #love you guys <3 #train writes

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thelastyetfabolousmidwestmadman · 4 years

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Dark Side Of The Rising Sun Part 1

Yo what’s up!

After the success of my previous post, I’ve decided to bring a follow up where I talk about the many dysfunctions and issues facing Japan that I’ve learned in my research. Detective Conan often shows the criminal justice system of Japan in a positive light while in reality it has many issues due to the culture.

Now let me make this clear: Japan has many great things about itself that should never be ignored. However, these are real flaws that have or need to be addressed with many Japanese also recognizing them as problems.

Now I had to split this into parts as this is rather ungainly to put it all at once. If you have any questions please ask and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Suicide

Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world with about 15.2 deaths per 100,000 people.

This is due to many factors such as Suicide not being considered a sin as well as historical connotations of it being a honorable way to go.

It is also considered a act of revenge, apology, and protest.

It is mostly caused today by factors such as unemployment, alienation and intense social pressure.

Japanese society is overall tolerant of Suicide but this is changing in recent times.

Another factor is the need for acceptance over individuality.

People with mental illness are often discriminated against, stopping potential help.

Internet Suicide Clubs where anonymous people make/plan suicide pacts and commit group suicide are a major issue.

If you kill yourself via Shinkansen, your family will be fined heavily. It is also the cause of half of the train delays and referred to as a human incident.

Tall buildings have mandatory suicide fences to prevent people from jumping off. When they succeed, they take off their shoes before hand.

It is common for suicidal people to take insurance policies and wait a year or two to go through with it so their families would be okay.

Ikka Shinju or family suicides are when the entire family kills themselves together due to Asian views of the family. When the parents kill their children before themselves, this is called Muri-Shinju or murder suicides.

Oyaku Shinju or parent-child suicide are where a single parent kill their children along with themselves.

Drownings, overdoses, hangings, and jumping off places are the most common form of suicide.

Judiciary

Traditionally, the judge is hated more then the lawyer is in the west as the Judge is often viewed as a symbol of the Japanese nobility judging the common man.

If you are sent to trial, you are certain to be convicted regardless of innocence due to the countries 99% conviction rate. (Really makes Eri’s work more awesome and badass doesn’t it?)

The Japanese supreme court is one of the most conservative in the world, rarely ruling against issues that are blatantly unconstitutional and anti human rights. As a result, one of the more positive proposals for amendments of the Constitution is the creation of a separate Constitutional Court.

If you are sent to death row, you will never be told in advance when you are going to die.

Culturally, once arrested the person is automatically considered guilty.

Police are often reluctant to overturn convictions as they insist that only guilty are arrested and convicted.

The law when a child is considered criminally responsible is 14.

Judges are often pressured into making convictions as their careers are negatively affected by a not guilty verdict.

Prosecutors are given the choice not to pursue a case regardless of sufficient evidence.

Prisoners in Japan, while somewhat treated better then much of the world due to it’s focus on rehabilitation instead of punishment, have to follow strict military style regulations from minor things such as being forced to fold the bed, or to wash your face to more draconian measures such being beaten if you don’t march or sit the wrong way.

In turn, many have inadequate access to medical care as they don’t have many options for their healthcare.

It can take months or years before you are tried, meaning that a right to a speedy trial is completely nonexistent.

“Periods of reflection” where inmates are forced to be handcuffed, gagged and placed in solitary, are often not recorded by the warden.

Foreigners are forced to speak and write in Japanese.

Drug Use

It is considered vastly socially unacceptable to do narcotics in Japan.

Most drug addicts are even considered to be not human.

If a celebrity is caught doing drugs, his career is automatically fucked and he is blacklisted from the industry, as well as erased from current projects.

The most commonly sold drug is methamphetamine. This started after World War II due to Meth being legal for soldiers to consume in order to stay up late on petrol as well as from occupying Americans. After the was, it became a huge epidemic for 12 years.

Marijuana use has risen among youth. Despite it having little danger as well as medicinal uses, it is widely considered evil, with the law having no tolerance.

Overall, Japan has little drug use compared to the rest of the world due to the cultural taboo and strict laws. However, there are signs that it is being vastly under counted,

Most illicit drugs are imported from Taiwan and South Korea due to it being near impossible to grow it natively but it is becoming increasingly hard to do so.

Drugs overdoses are criminally under diagnosed.

Epidemics often occur due to low periods of economic growth and recessions. (Examples include the postwar period, the 70′s, and the Lost Decade after the Bubble Economy burst in 1989)

It is common for your family or doctor to call the police once you admit there is a problem. Then you are forced to take a urine sample and if it tests positive you are immediately arrested.

A lot of doctors open pharmacies to add to their income. As a result, many oversubscribe prescription drugs.

Hypocritically, Alcoholism is completely tolerated and not treated as a addiction due to alcohol being considering purifying in Shinto, a cure, and Japan having a intense drinking culture.

Child Abuse

For the most part, physical child abuse is considered a private issue and often ignored. While things are slowly getting better, Japan still has a long way to go. (Imagine if Kogoro did what he did to Conan in the west. Child services would be on him like a fly swatter.)

Child services often return the children to their parents even if they say their abusing them as the counseling centers need the parents to admit to their abuse.

It is a complete myth that Japan’s age of consent is 13. That is only the lowest one could set it. Most prefectures are set at 16 or higher. In turn, child molestation of those under 12 is heavily punished. However while vaginal rape of children is illegal, basically just about everything else as long as it’s statutory is basically alright.

Enjo Kosai or compensated dating is the practice of Teenage Girls to go on dates with older men in exchange for money and gifts. While not necessarily always leading to prostitution is treated as such and the girls are often blamed if they are hurt in the process.

Child sex trafficking of migrants is a serious issue and they are often treated as criminals and sent home without counseling.

Adoption of children is rare and frowned upon so many of them have to gro up in centers.

Children of unmarried couples are discriminated against due to the violation of the traditional Ie system and do not have the same protections or privileges of married couples because of its Koseki system.

Men are not obligated to pay child support and it’s near impossible to get them to legally as they can simply hide their finances by not telling them. Plus only one person can be named on the custody sheet.

Child Pornography was effectively decriminalized until 2014. No seriously.

Sexual Harassment/Assault

Domestic violence victims are disabused from coming forward due to the idea of bringing shame to their family.

Stalking cases are rarely taken seriously by the police

OH THERE”S WAY MORE BUT THIS LIST IS DARK ENOUGH SO LET”S SAVE THIS FOR A LATER DATE.

Working Conditions

Idols are heavily exploited and forced to follow strict rules such as having no social life, banned from having a boyfriend, etc. This is because they are supposed to sell a image of innocence and be there exclusively for their fans.

Anime creators are often forced to work long hours with little pay. This has resulted in a slump in the industry with very few new hires so they are forced to rely on the older animators whose health may fail sooner rather then later.

Funds are rarely given to films with artistic intent or that are political in nature, resulting the film industry suffering compared to the more internationally regarded South Korea.

Police Corruption

Until recently, Japanese police would work with organized crime to lower crime. The only reason they stopped was not out of concern for the everyday citizen but because they were embarrassed by the Yakuza when they began to show up more publically.

The media is often laughably compliant to the police, with they rarely offering a critical lens.

Police have undue influence on the Pachiko industry, with many retired officers being hired as muscle and for advice.

It is quite common for officers to embezzle from their slush funds.

In a effort to cover up crime, police often refuse to investigate mysterious or suspicious deaths, preferring to label them as accidents or suicide.

Police are often anti migrant and sexist to a fault.

It is neigh impossible to get a wiretap going due to rigid privacy laws.

Even the police can’t fire weapons as you need approval to even loose your gun so many officers have never fired a bullet.

Government Incompetence/Corruption

Voter Apathy is super high, with many elections having hilariously low turnout.

Many politicians have Yakuza connections, with the gang members serving as bodyguards and canvassing for votes.

Votes in the countryside are worth two compared to urban ones.

A lot of politicians are completely out of touch and constantly have to resign for gaffes (racism, sexism, historical revisionism, etc.)

Political acts are based on group consensus so it can take a long time to get meaningful reform done.

Criticism and debate is ironically frowned upon, with open criticism within a party being effectively banned.

Cronyism is common. While for the most part Japanese politics is based on expertise, many politicians are awarded ministries based on their support for the leader.

The NHK (Japanese version of the BBC) is largely neutral and free but the current Japanese government can dictate what it is to focus on temporarily.

Press Clubs are often given exclusive access to interviews and information from the government, so they get biased preferential treatment.

Okay I guess the point of this list is to bring attention to these issues and expand the opportunities of where to go when it comes to dark DC fanfiction. Don’t worry, here’s a cute Conan to make you smile!

#detective conan #shinran #ran mouri #Sato Miwako #Takagi Wataru #Mouri Kogoro #Eri Kisaki #drug mention #alcohlism #police corruption #political corruption #child abuse #suicidal #midnight thoughts #japan #conan edogawa

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sophiemsmsmsmgallery · 3 years

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I’ll tell you who SOPHIE was - she provided me with the soundtrack to my existence.

SOPHIE - a futuristic goddess, an ingenious music producer, ethereal visionary, a trans icon.... just an icon generally speaking - tragically passed away at the age of 34 in Athens, Greece after falling off a rooftop whilst attempting to capture a picture of the full moon. Her gut wrenching death brought me to tears. This is the first time a famous person’s death has affected me so deeply. Her bold, hyperkinetic approach to producing musical art was so impeccable and refreshing considering so much of modern day’s music tends to sound incredibly predictable. Whilst alive, visionary SOPHIE generated a following of intensely adoring, dedicated fans. Honestly, don’t EVER mess with a SOPHIE fan. Trust me!

She worked with the biggest popstars, rappers, K Pop groups, rappers and upcoming artists but still remained so humble despite her enormous talent. However, she hadn’t reached household name status during her life. Sadly, many people only had heard of SOPHIE after her tragic and unexpected death. This motivated me to write a piece dedicated to this beautiful and timeless mastermind. I do acknowledge that its been exceptionally challenging to summarise how SOPHIE impacted my life onto only a few pieces of paper. However, its the least I can do. Therefore, I present to all of you my written tribute which shall focus on how her extraordinary music has featured during key moments of my lifetime and expanded my initially narrow knowledge of beauty, gender and identity like never before.

Let’s commence this written tribute by travelling back in time to when I had just turned 15. During that time period, my disposition was extremely introverted. In all honesty, like almost all teenagers suffering the displeasing side effects of bloody puberty, I was barely approachable. I adopted the entire persona of a full time punk kid wearing a thick leather jacket whilst applying extremely heavy kohl eyeliner and dying my hair jet black - which looked devastating. I would also scribble quotes associated with the punk ideology and act like some pretentious snob towards anything that was unrelated to punk, industrial or rap music. That was the most rebellion I exuded at the time (trying not to feel complete despair as much as possible for my former teenage self)

That captious mentality caused by teenage angst was erased the minute I listened to a snippet of the musical force of nature named ‘BIPP’ by SOPHIE on a Swiss MTV sponsored advert. The high pitched vocals singing ‘However you’re feeling, I can make you feel better’ provided by Marcella and overall catchy, hyperkinetic production mesmerised me like there’s no tomorrow. Nothing had captivated my imagination like the timeless ‘BIPP’ did so I typed aggressively and rapidly into the Google search engine straight away. I had to know who the mastermind lurking behind this masterpiece was. I had to know of the mastermind who provided me with this pivotal musical epiphany. Then the capitalised name ‘SOPHIE’ popped up right in front of my eyes.

After listening to ‘BIPP’ in its entirety on repeat, I instantly began to read up on SOPHIE and stumbled upon her 2013 interview on BBC Radio 1 with SOPHIE where she concealed her identity by having her 5 year old niece respond to the host’s questions instead of herself. At the time, I assumed Sophie had implemented a voice changer to project the voice of an infant. SOPHIE’s dry humoured response, namely ,,I’ve got a cough!’’ to the host’s bewilderment over the child sounding voice stood out for me. Earlier in her career, SOPHIE’s anonymity prompted much speculation in the music industry and press. I always perceived this bizarre, hysterical act of Sophie’s as a ‘two middle fingers up’ to our environment fuelled by mainstream culture, especially how so many people obsess over notable figure’s personal business and public image instead of their artistic accomplishments far too often. This has to be the ultimate moment my own curiosity for Sophie’s ingenious musical productivity became insatiable. Later on, I would await the 2015 McDonalds commercial anxiously to have my ears blessed with her gratifying track ,Lemonade’ over and over. The synthesised sounds that fizz like pop rocks. Nabihah’s crisp vocals which repeat ‘Candy boys, c - c - candy boys’. The overall ear worm appeal of the track. Flawless!

In the meantime, I discovered that Sophie happened to be a very well known affiliate of the divisive,unique PC Music label based in London, England. During the time period, I was - to be quite frank - not an avid bubblegum bass or hyper-pop listener in the slightest. I worshipped bands such as The Clash, Dead Kennedys, Rammstein,Tool, The KLF and additionally adored rap music ranging from N.W.A to Eminem. They totally divert from the hyperkinetic, exaggerated take on the pop genre embraced by the PC Music label. However, my teenage idols and SOPHIE objectively share something fundamental in common - Through their trailblazing musical output, they push every single barrier possible and deconstruct what constitutes as ,normal’ in modern day society. Even just after releasing her first full length album ‘Product’, SOPHIE embodied a bold form of rebellion against society’s conventionality and unforgiving temperament by incorporating lyrics alluding to a mostly genderless nature and sexual fetishes eg BDSM. As an extremely naive, self conscious teenager, all of this completely perplexed but intrigued me. Any glimpse of art connected with an attitude of non conformity resonated with me in practically seconds and continues to even at 22.

This longing for anything unorthodox traces back to my own childhood. To explain some details about my background, I grew up in a rather small, very conservative village in Switzerland from the age of 9. Even uttering anything LGBT related would illicit responses ranging from loud gasps to shocked faces at my high school. As a non Swiss resident, the educational setting demonstrated to be more than challenging at times. One incident that stands out to me especially is when a classmate ranted about his disapproval of non Swiss inhabitants receiving Swiss pass and then continued with yelling ‘All my family voted for the SVP kick all of (you fucking foreign scum) out!’.Just to clarify, the SVP is the largest party in Switzerland and leans very far right politically. As you can presume, I was utterly distraught by this disconcerting interaction and confess to losing any fragment of self confidence remaining in that moment. Luckily the Swiss MTV channel existed, which was far more on trend with the times and embraced marginalised communities. I will forever cherish Swiss MTV introducing me to SOPHIE’s impeccable, lawless music and being a form of escapism in my bedroom from the racist, homophobic climate prevailing in my village.

At the age of 17, Graduation finally arrived at the door which was an absolute relief. A few hours later, the celebration party took place in a secluded barn and my boyfriend immersed himself into the role as DJ for the night. Towards the end, he sneakily included Product era classics including ‘Vyzee’ and ‘Hard’. I could barely contain my excitement. We all almost choked on the horrendous party smoke, spilt our cheap beer on each other’s outfits and chanted ‘Shake it up and make it fizz!’ and ‘I get so hard.’ Ironically, I believe my Swiss colleagues didn’t exactly recognise the discernible sexual connotations exhibited throughout the song which causes me to giggle ever so slightly looking back. However, it felt liberating hearing SOPHIE’s fiercely electronic, transparent music and seeing my classmates enjoying it - especially as all you would hear on most music outlets there was either dreary Indie or Luka Haenni - the Swiss equivalent to Justin Bieber. That’s the most I’m able to recollect from that peculiar night - aside from a trampoline burning to the ground due to someone placing a candle on it. After all that jazz, a thrillingly new chapter for myself - and even for SOPHIE - would unfold.

At 17, I returned to my place of birth, England, and enrolled at Sixth Form in the South to complete my A Levels. I initially felt extremely elated to move back to England and finally entering the era of adulthood in my life. However, the atmosphere at Sixth Form and in the South of England seemed ... so unfamiliar to me which was heartbreaking. My mind had totally adjusted to a Swiss and my mind endured unsettling feelings of anxiety during the entire first year at British college. However, SOPHIE’s music once again presented itself as a form of therapy for me. She released the ethereal, stunning ballad ‘It’s Okay To Cry’ during this time period. After watching its music video and deciphering the lyrics I realised... Oh my goodness, SOPHIE just came out as a transgender woman! I recall being touched by the exquisite, idiosyncratic song featuring 80s style synthesised arrangements. SOPHIE’S bravery mesmerised me. I knew in that moment, Sophie would revolutionise the music industry, especially the habitat of music production dominated by cisgender, heterosexual men. She proved my initial predictions right - and on many occasions.

The day after SOPHIE released ‘Its Okay To Cry’, I overheard an energetic conversation carried out by a few of fellow openly gay and trans classmates who I’m still acquainted with to this day. They couldn’t contain their excitement about SOPHIE.

Despite the crippling anxiety having affected me so severely at that point, I intervened and expressed my admiration for everything SOPHIE. I felt blessed attending a sixth form alongside gay, non binary, trans classmates who took pride in their identity and sexuality. It put my mind at ease being surrounded in a more progressive environment compared to the intolerant ambience pervading my village in Switzerland. SOPHIE’s music had connected me with such a progressive, solicitous and just simply amazing group of friends. They agreed with me that SOPHIE’s courageous move will impact the music world in such a striking manner and encourage more LGBT people to pursue their goals no matter how extravagant, especially an acclaimed music producer igniting the music industry like SOPHIE. Then all of a sudden they mentioned the track ‘Yeah Right’ and how it blew their mind away due to SOPHIE’s ‘badass as hell instrumentals.’ With all the shame in the world, I confessed I hadn’t heard it yet. Their facial expressions conveyed so much disappointment. One of my classmates quickly plugged their Bluetooth speaker into his laptop and then pressed the play button. From a personal perspective, ‘Yeah Right’ featuring Vince Staples and Kendrick Lamar perfectly stands out to me despite SOPHIE’s extensive and majestic discography to her name.

I contemplate the masterpiece as a pivotal moment in rap music history. Even during 2017, Sophie began exhibiting red lipstick, latex gloves, tight clothing corresponding to a more feminine image which totally distances from the aggressively macho image attached to the rap industry. From the moment Vince Staples commences with his lyrically cutting verses to Kendrick Lamar proceeding with his gripping and more than memorable cameo - I realised that a 3 minute long but significant moment music history in general simply named ‘Yeah Right’, had occurred. Her production on the track astonishes me due to its avant grade and timeless edge. To me, it is a masterpiece that echoes the the extremely distant future of music. I reckon we’ll be dancing to ‘Yeah Right’ at the club in 2137. For 4 consecutive years, ‘Yeah Right’ has been reigning champion of most listened to song on my Spotify account and can express with all certainty... it’s my all time favourite song. In all honesty, it cured me of my severe feelings of apprehension and anxiety at Sixth Form.

After regaining my confidence and FINALLY passing the dreaded driving test - after failing three times in a row - the first song I blasted on my speakers in my cheap, run down car was ‘Yeah Right’ and rather fittingly, Sophie’s live version of the officially unreleased ‘Burn Rubber’ whilst driving to university I was about to attend. I genuinely cried all the lyrics to the song whilst driving on the mundane roads of Southern England and FINALLY felt like a free, independent adult. Even during brief chapters of my life such as passing my driving test, SOPHIE made a crucial and ravishing appearance.

The last three years of my life have played out in a rather turbulent style. Towards the middle of 2018, the year unravelled in a fashion that I certainly hadn’t anticipated. I’ll summarise it to the best of my ability even thought it is extremely difficult to. My longtime best friend, the closest person to me, sadly died to long term chronic illness. I couldn’t articulate my utter grief into words and sadly still struggle to this day. It was a sudden blow to the heart which couldn’t be paralleled to anything else I’ve felt in my short lifetime. A month prior to her untimely passing, SOPHIE had released her acclaimed, gallant debut album ‘Oil Of Every Person’s Un Insides.’ Although OOEPUI is a extravagant, historic work of art, I shall describe how the tracks ‘Is it Cold In the Water’ and ‘Faceshopping’ impacted me.

I perceive ‘Is It Cold In The Water? as a hauntingly riveting piece of music, with vocals sung Cecile Believe that send shivers down my spine. The lyrics ‘Earth shaking, I feel alone’ encapsulated on a personal level how I couldn’t envision an existence without my best friend by my side mocking my naturally deep, monotone voice, her showing me a piece of clothing she had just designed herself as she was an aspiring designer and hurting with laughter whilst impersonating certain celebrities. My raging anger against the world intensified. I placed my formerly devoted belief in a higher existence under the microscope - a belief system that I unfortunately haven’t revisited ever since. ,Is It cold in the water’ epitomises the dilemma and hardship of entering unknown depths without any inkling of what overcoming the ‘cold water’ and how its aftermath would materialise, metaphorically speaking. I realised I had to place my feet in the cold water in order to heal and adjust to coping with my best friend’s death despite how petrifying the concept as such seemed at the time.

And then there’s the outstanding ‘Faceshopping.’ I’ll confess... when I originally listened to this track, I was rather, dare I say, baffled afterwards. The experimentally electronic provided by Sophie galvanised me as usual. However, as a cisgender woman who has dated men right up to the present moment, I was initially under the very ill informed assumption that I couldn’t identify with a lot of the album’s content produced by an trans woman. That display of shambolic ignorance was quickly put to rest when I analysed the lyrics of ‘Faceshopping’ with an open eye. It clicked that the song could symbolise more than one meaning. It examines the age of the internet and the lengths modern day go to in order to pass as beautiful, especially in the name of personal branding. Furthermore, the powerful track demonstrates SOPHIE’s mesmerisingly fervent opposition against what traditional values regard as beauty which is unquestionably ingenious. I feel the lyric ‘My shop is the face I front’ denotes a person’s individual freedom of complementing their psychical appearance - whether through simply makeup or plastic surgery - and evolving their true gender identity shouldn’t be shunned. As someone who has been extremely self conscious about my appearance since the tender age of 12 caused by several factors eg bullying at school, ‘Faceshopping’ uplifted my spirits and enlightened me that no influence other than my personal self shall control how I beautify my own body.

Skipping to 2020, the world has been transformed to a severe extent due to the Coronavirus infecting and heartbreakingly taking millions of people’s lives. With this almost dystopian nightmare occurring, I felt extremely poorly - physically speaking - which had been affecting me since October of the same year. Ultimately I was rushed into hospital in December. After countless physical evaluations and days passing by whilst lying in a lonesome hospital bed, my doctor informed me that due to the severity of my current condition, the likelihood of permanent infertility is extremely high. The news put me into a state of shock. After my doctor left the room, the tears couldn’t stop streaming down my face. I had always envisioned raising my own children. Forgive me for the hyperbolic language but in that moment I felt defeated.

With the prospect of my womanhood being affected forever, I put my headphones to shut out the continuous ambulance sirens blaring outside. I pressed Shuffle Play on my SoundCloud and the first song that appeared was SOPHIE’s ‘Heav3n Suspended Livestream’ version of ‘My Forever’. Cecile Believe reiterating ‘Everbody’s got to own their body’ so ethereally, and the song as a whole proved to be therapeutic in the moment. After pressing the repeat button 20 times - at the very least - I had ANOTHER epiphany: no establishment should dictate what constitutes as femininity or womanhood. Even in the modern day society, childless people continue to be stigmatised, often branded as ‘selfish’ or ‘undesirable’ in many communities. I applaud the progress we’ve made in terms of tackling stereotypes associated with infertility. However, more work still needs to be carried out on this matter. Although it’s only my individual interpretation of the song given the circumstances of my poorly health at the time, the lyrics reassured me that everybody’s - without a doubt - GOT to own their body. Gosh that sounds so rhetorical!

After this pivotal awakening, I was rushed into surgery which lasted about two hours. The next day - feeling extremely lethargic - I woke up to the fantastic news that the doctors saved my physical health from infertility. I will always be so grateful for their treatment of me and my painful condition. Two weeks into recuperation post surgery, I had no choice but to exercise to boost my mental state caused by inactivity and to get my blood circulation going. As a lifelong, passionate dancer I conceptualised and performed a dance routine to SOPHIE’s club inspired, sublime ‘Take Me To Dubai’. - in front of my cracked bedroom mirror, ironically. Still, dancing again and no physical illness bringing me down felt like a individual rebirth. I was anticipating how 2021 would spell out for me - despite Covid 19 still permeating globally. 2021 finally arrived and not even a full month into the ‘glorious new year’, SOPHIE died.

I recall waking up to numerous messages and notifications capitalising the words: SOPHIE HAS DIED!’. In all honesty ... I froze. It didn’t register for about an hour. Afterwards, I couldn’t disguise the heartbreak and shock that SOPHIE was no longer with us - especially given the cause of her death. It’s been two weeks and I’ll acknowledge that I haven’t overcome the sentiment of anger and upset yet because of her untimely passing .The soundtrack to my existence is gone.

Whether SOPHIE’s musical stylings resonate with you or not, you can’t underestimate her fearless disposition and overwhelming talent. She inspired so many fans to embrace their true identity even when their environment was striving to silence them. She challenged our establishment’s shallow interpretation of beauty, gender and identity. Despite coming out as an trans woman and transphobia still being prevalent globally, SOPHIE didn’t let this form of prejudice stand in her way of achieving her dreams. Her revolutionary mark she left on the industry shall never be underemphasised by so many of us.

SOPHIE,

Thank you for everything. I will never ever forget you,

ROBS.

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manga-and-stuff · 4 years

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Interview with Makoto Yukimura, the Mangaka behind Vinland Saga

REALQ: What kind of child were you? Yukimura: I was a laid back kid, who took a very, very long time to come to a decision. I'd be late to dinner because I was thinking about something or other. Once, while I was alternately touching the right and left eyes of a snail, I became aware that night had fallen. I wondered why my group of friends were always in such a hurry. I would focus on something and lose the ability to tell if time was passing quickly or slowly.

REALQ: When did you first encounter manga? Yukimura: I was five-years-old and the manga was Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump. I remember thinking the cover art was cool. When I was little, I used to think that the cover art and the story inside were drawn by different people. [Laughs] But I watched the Dr. Slump anime before I read the manga. Later, someone told me that there was a manga that the anime was based on and I found the weekly magazine where it was serialized. In the beginning, I was dubious. I didn't see why there needed to be both a manga and an anime. Like, why do the same thing twice? How-ever, after I saw them both it made sense because each had its own idiosyncracies. REALQ: Did your parents say anything to you about reading manga? Yukimura: No, they never said anything. They came from a generation who said reading manga made you an idiot, but they didn't say any-thing. They didn't say anything when I told them at 16 that I wanted to draw manga, either.

REALQ: Was there anything that your parents, siblings, or people around you would say to you often?

Yukimura: There certainly must have been various things, but I don't remember because I was probably concentrating on something else at the time and didn't hear them. However, one thing I do remember is being told to watch out for cars. Like, at the very least, try not to die. [Laughs] Nevertheless, I really did get into a traffic accident. Once, on my way to the park to play with my friends, I ran out into the street and got hit on the side by a sedan. I rolled over the top of the car—the hood, wind-shield, top, rear window, then the trunk. Strangely, I wasn't seriously injured and played in the park afterwards. Actually, there was also another incident. My sister and I were riding together in a car. It was just the two of us and as we were going down a hill, a car suddenly appeared and we hit its side. I was sitting in the backseat and was launched forward like a catapult. My sister was so surprised she called out, "Mako, you're flying!" Strangely, I wasn't injured that time either, and we decided not to tell our mother. [Laughs] REALQ: Did your way of thinking change after the accident? Yukimura: I think that if it did change, I wasn't conscious of it. Despite being a near-death experience, it was a miracle I wasn't injured. My mother getting angry at me afterward was more frightening. [Laughs] In terms of my "way of thinking," I'm a little different. Like something in me is lacking. It's often the case that for some reason I don't fully comprehend a conversation even if I'm really trying to concentrate on what the other person is saying. What's the reason? If I'm honest about it, it's because I'll start thinking about something else, even if it's just for a moment. REALQ: Did you also have trouble paying attention during class at school? Yukimura: Yeah. Especially classes that didn't interest me. I continued to have this problem in high school, where I'd often be sitting in class and before I realized it, the bell would ring. However, my notebook would have stuff drawn in it...manga. REALQ: Didn't teachers or friends say anything?

Yukimura: In high school, I didn't have much of a social life, so nobody said anything. I went to reasonably academic schools [REALQ Editor's note: Yukimura graduated from Chuo University and Suginami High School] and my peers studied quite hard. The feeling that I was so different from most of the people around me had a big effect on me. I didn't fit in. I lived in my own world.

REALQ: Did student life give you anxiety? Yukimura: Anxiety was the only thing I really felt. In a way, isn't school a microcosm for society? Despite it being a microcosm, there's this feeling of being left behind. That made me really anxious and sad. But as a result of suffering in this way, I realized that society existed out-side of this microcosm—a kind of society that I had never experienced inside the microcosm of school.

REALQ :What lead you to have this epiphany? Yukimura: It occurred to me out of the blue one day when I was feeling totally devastated. I was 16. One autumn day after school I thought to myself, "I'll finish high school because if I don't, it will make my parents sad. But participating in a society reflected in this kind of microcosm will be impossible." It was just like that moment when a cup is filled to the brim with water and suddenly the surface tension breaks and it overflows. However, thinking this made me feel better. Until that point, the "ruler" for determining success since the first year of high school had been getting good grades, getting into a good college, and then finding a job with a good company. This ruler contained within it a system of values for how one should live their life. When I decided that this was not the ruler I wanted to use to measure my own life, things became a lot easier for me. I used to get burnt out worrying so much about getting decent enough grades that would allow me to get into university. Like, "please let me just graduate!" Realizing that there was another way to live was a lifesaver.

Of course, I think it made my parents nervous. In that era, there was still a deeply rooted notion that one's academic background was im-portant and working for a good company made you a good person. Back then, this was like saying, "Your child is the type of kid who won't find their way in the world." It was like throwing away the most important ruler and replacing it with a new ruler that was a little bent and covered with indecipherable markings. [Laughs] REALQ: Was there anyone from your high school days who had an influence on you? Yukimura: A teacher who taught classical literature. He was apparently a teacher with quite bizarre interpretations of the material. More than anything else, what left the greatest impression on me was when he used class time to talk about how wonderful Michael Ende was [REALQ Editor's note: a German writer of children's fiction]. He introduced me to The Never Ending Story. Once I knew about Michael Ende, he became an influence on me. It was the first book I knew of in which someone wrote a book because he had a sense of obligation and a goal in relation to society and the world. I thought that someone who wrote a book because he felt that it was something he had to do was a rather beautiful thing to wish for. REALQ: Next up... Yukimura discusses the connection between himself and Thorfinn Karlsefni, the protagonist of his Vinland Saga. Is there anything that makes you hesitate when you draw your manuscripts?

Yukimura: For characters, it's probably the hands. Hands take time to do well. The strength of a character's grip on a sword, for example. Male and female hands are hard to differentiate, too. Hands are the most expressive part of a character, after the face.

I've heard that you can tell a person's personality from their hands, so I always look at them. [Laughs] You can fake a facial expression, but your hands will show how hard you work or how hard you don't. If you show the character's life in their hands, you'll get a good result. REALQ: When did you start paying attention to how you drew hands? Yukimura: Since I was young. But I still find it difficult now. When I look at the work of other manga artists, sometimes the faces are well drawn, but the hands are not. To put it bluntly, if I were to choose among artists, I would choose them by how they draw their hands. REALQ: Is there anyone whose work you reference? Yukimura: I'm especially influenced by artists with high amounts of realism. When it comes to hands, it's gotta be Katsuhiro Otomo.

It's not just his hands, though. It's everything. [Laughs]

Also, the young, up-and-coming artists are all quite good. Their hands are pretty, but you can see the structure clearly as well. REALQ: Any thoughts on these hands? [While looking at Sigurd's hands in the manuscript] Yukimura: Yes. These hands are drawn fairly well. In Sigurd's case, de-spite the muscularity, his hands are not rough. That's because he has his underlings do the tough work. In Thorfinn's case, he has many small cuts, and there is more cracked and peeling skin.

REALQ: Are there any scenes in Vinland Saga strongly influenced by your own experience? Yukimura: When Thorfinn is on his knees, apologizing. [Laughs] The part where he says, "Please. I won't ask you to forgive me, but allow me to live a bit longer." I've been drawing manga for 20 years. There's always a shadow of guilt that hangs over me. I'm sorry for being so selfish. So, I feel I have to, at the very least, draw something that readers will love... I'm nothing without that. Thorfinn is a young viking from medieval Europe. Since his teens, he's pillaged, fought in wars, and done many other terrible things. His feelings change as he grows, and he starts to feel guilt for his past actions. The ghosts of those he killed appears in his dreams, and he is ravaged by nightmares. I am only here today because of the care of those around me. I am truly thankful. If anything about Thorfinn comes from my experiences, it has to be this. In his current state, the protagonist has no right to convict anyone else. No matter what kind of scoundrel he meets, Thorfinn always feels that he has done something worse in the past. I think it's good this way.

REALQ: Did you know from the beginning that Thorfinn would become the way he did? Yukimura: Yeah. The story began with the premise that the protagonist is fated to have done many terrible things. He goes from being the oppressor to being the oppressed, and in doing so, he learns many things and becomes an adult. He then departs, saying, "I will go to a new land beyond the sea and build a peaceful country." That is an escape from the values that dominated European society. They do not feel that it is bad to wage war and plunder other countries. And, although their opponents are human beings, they believe they have the right to make the weak into slaves and kill them if they need be. In the society of that time, such things were seen as good things. Thorfinn experiences—and hates—both. But he is powerless to change the system... So he decides to leave. There will be terrible bloodshed if he decides to change the world. So he leaves it to Canute. Because Canute has the power and the shorter path. "I am different," he says. "I will live in a different way." When I put it into words, it seems like a lot of what I think is reflected in my work. [Laughs]

REALQ: From your childhood experiences and your writing process, I get the feeling you are a perfectionist who doesn't com-promise when it comes to goals or ideals. Do the people around you feel the same way?

Yukimura: I think I am a perfectionist. In the past, my seniors and teachers would say, "If 100 points is amazing work and 0 points is nothing, it's easy to get to 80 points. However, each point beyond that is incredibly difficult. Past 90, it's so rough that you'll start spitting blood. And nobody gets to 100." I don't know if, by absolute standards, my work is at 80 points. But, for my own standards, I care a lot about each of those 1 or 2 points beyond 80. I care so much that others see the changes I make and say, "He pushed back the deadline for this? What's changed?" [Laughs] I've even rewritten an entire manuscript before. REALQ: Is it really rough when you have to throw out a whole manuscript? Yukimura: It's sad that to know the work won't produce results, but the worst possible thing for me is to feel regret afterwards. If I can choose to suffer for a brief moment as I draw, then I'll do it. The regrets afterward stay around much longer... REALQ: Are you happy about the reactions of your overseas readers? Yukimura: Yeah. It's encouraging to know they like my work. Especially when I heard some of them were reading Vinland Saga side-by-side with a dictionary. I forgot which language they were translating from and into, though. [Laughs]

REALQ: Let me change the subject: Advice from adults to children... Do you think it's important to emphasize the importance of having dreams? Should we tell kids to have dreams and tell them their dreams will come true? Yukimura: I used to think dreams were just desires. However, I was a good-for-nothing back then, so I think I was being resentful. [Laughs] At the very least, I don't think doing whatever you want to do is a beautiful thing. That's just you doing what you want to do. The truly beautiful things are helping others, volunteering, things like that... Finding a home for a stray dog, or doing things that no other person wants to do—that's beautiful. This includes me, but to do what you want to do is simply selfishness. I received my role in society, but I couldn't carry it out. I wasn't a modest enough person for that. I said such things because I thought I would do what I wanted to do no matter what other people said to me. It's the same for everyone, I think. Those who do what they want and succeed are simply the ones who ended up with a place in society. It's a miracle. After all, what some people want is to carry out meaningless terrorism... But it's the same thing. Both are "dreams." REALQ: If you could give an hour of advice to your younger self, what would you say? Yukimura: I'd say, reflexively, to be 3 times as careful of oncoming traffic. [Laughs] More seriously, I'd say, "You're worried that you're inferior to others. But don't worry." I'd tell myself that there isn't only one ruler to mea-sure yourself by. "Humans come in all sorts," I'd say. "There's not a single number line that we all stand on." Text by Shuta Miura

#Vinland Saga #Makoto Yukimura #behind the scenes #Interview #Manga and Stuff #Manga Cap #Manga #Art

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gaynoctgar · 4 years

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Prompto’s Brotherhood Arc is Fatphobic 2, Electric Boogaloo: Haley’s Back and She is Pissed

This essay is going to be an even deeper dive into the fatphobia that permeates Prompto’s character arc, and is going to handle the issue with more grace and nuance than I did the first time. This is also going to explore the effects the arc had on me as a player, and on other players who share my experiences. It is going to be very organized, long, and methodical (word count: ~5300). It’s a bit of a doozy, but it is something I feel it is very important. I have been wanting to elaborate on my previous Prompto essay for a long time, and for reasons I will detail below, I feel that I am ready to do this now.

Consider this a sequel to my earlier essay, and I will be referencing it throughout.

Stand back everyone; Haley’s about to get mean and personal.

Under the cut for safety and length, please avoid if the subject is triggering to you! Take care of yourselves!

Thank you all so, so much for hearing what I have to say.

TW: fatphobia, eating disorders (both in terms of Prompto and of the author)

Intro

All right everyone, buckle in. Last time I think I was a little bit too nice about this. Last time I think I let a little too much go. But I’m a full three years older now and I’ve seen a few more things. And now I think it’s time that I really just let loose and criticize the fuck out of Square for something they have consistently done wrong, and that is the way they have handled issues with weight in regards to one Prompto Argentum.

Many of you may know that Prompto is one of my favorite characters in anything ever. This very sideblog, in fact, used to be named for him (old url was promptoisbi). It’s because of this that I hate that he’s so consistently shit on by the narrative, but right now we are talking about the out-of-universe insidiousness of the fatphobia that completely permeates this story.

The first essay is right here but the TL;DR version of that is essentially “the way that Prompto’s weight loss in Brotherhood is portrayed as a moral and positive good and in fact necessary for him to be a protagonist is immensely fatphobic. Because the game refuses to problematize this, I am going to, and I’m going to contextualize that with my own experiences to help explain why this is so fucked.” At that time, I was recovering from long-term anorexia, and I think that permeated a lot of what I wrote. I don’t regret this, and I still think the essay is pretty solid. But I’m not a woman who won’t admit her own limitations, and one of mine at the time was that a lot of my fatphobia was internalized. Now that I am healing, now that I have talked to other people with experiences that mirror my own (notably @chubbyargentum), I think I am in a better place to articulate what upsets me.

The rest of the essay will be divided into six parts, themed as follows:

A redux of my central criticism in the first essay, that the narrative treats Prompto’s weight loss as a positive, moral good. In fact, it’s necessary for him to be seen as a protagonist.

Detailing that Prompto’s weight loss was directly motivated by another character, and this other character does not apologize to Prompto at all for his previous behavior. We are in fact supposed to believe that him saying what he said was a good thing.

Evidence that Prompto still legitimately has an eating disorder from his trauma. This goes unexamined by the story, and in fact seems to be actively encouraged by other characters, notably Ignis and Noct. This isn’t to bash the characters, but the way they are written.

Points 1 and 3 combined produce a genuinely triggering experience for players like me; this is where I detail some of my own history with weight and eating problems.

Anticipating pushback, I propose two alternative scenarios that avoid the problems outlined in parts 1-4: one where Prompto doesn’t lose weight, and one where he does but it’s handled a lot more sensitively.

A personal look at what (and who) actually motivated me to do a Part 2 to my essay.

Followed by a TL;DR conclusion if you want to jump right to the heart of things. I know this is a long essay, and I don’t apologize, but I do want to make it accessible to those who might have a harder time reading something so long.

Time to knock down these points, one by one:

Part 1: Equating Weight Loss to Morality

Prompto’s episode in Brotherhood, “Dogged Runner,” serves as our introduction both to Prompto as a character, and pulls double-duty to show us how he becomes involved in the life of a prince. Gladio and Ignis’ episodes did not have to do this double work because they are in Noct’s life by occupation, but Prompto, being a commoner, needs this introduction. Unfortunately, this episode is not twice as long to handle the double workload it gave itself, and the plot clearly suffers for it. For those who don’t remember, Prompto seems to be a child who more or less raises himself--a shy boy who is in the same grade as Noctis. He is quite obviously overweight, and the episode in fact chooses to focus the bulk of its attention on that rather than how he met Noctis (this will be explored in Part 2, below). This is what I take issue with.

Due to....an encounter, we’ll call it, with his royal classmate, Prompto becomes motivated to “improve himself to become someone worthy of a prince,” as described in Episode Prompto. Right off the bat, this description is implying that in order to be worthy of Noctis’ companionship--even independently of Noctis’ own actions, which will be problematized in the next section--he must be different than the way he is.

This...doesn’t make sense. We already saw that Prompto was a kind and generous soul, if rather shy. He took in “Tiny” of his own accord; he fixed her up and fed her and made sure she was healthy, solely out of the goodness of his heart. What else could this literal child need to “improve” about himself to make friends with Noctis? Well...the episode focuses on this in a way I would almost argue is objectifying. We see in excruciating detail how this literal child (I feel the need to mention again that Prompto is 12 years old and doesn’t seem to have consistent parents) approaches the world with a black-and-white mentality….that is, he seems to focus exclusively on eating salads and running an excessive amount (we’ll get to this more in Part 3). Further objectification occurs when we are shown repeatedly that a minor is taking “progress shots” of himself in his underwear.

A bit of a tangent, but the way that last one is drawn...y’all did remember Prompto was 14/15 at that time, right? Extra H points for Square, right there.

So yeah, once all of this happens, Prompto is finally deemed by the narrative to be acceptable enough to enter the life of a prince. Basically, if you’re fat, get a goddamn eating disorder and you can be a protagonist!

And I’m actually gonna take a second right now to address the more common, and generous, interpretation/criticism I am anticipating. I know what SE was trying to do here. They were trying to show us that Prompto’s “self-esteem” was the problem. That he needed to gain more confidence, and losing the weight didn’t actually solve that problem. I know this is the intent because the hotel scene exists. But...answer me this. Why is losing weight treated as an analogue for Prompto’s internal character growth? Why is losing weight an analogue for literally anything? If the issue was Prompto’s insecurity and shyness, there are a dozen other ways to show that. I can think of one right now: maybe have Noctis try to make friends and Prompto runs away because he gets nervous and tongue-tied and that’s the source of their lingering awkwardness. There you go, much better episode.

Part 2: Noctis is a dick

And I say this as a Noct stan. Y’all know I love him. With all my heart, I do. But...I don’t think he starts the game as a good person, in this respect at least. I do think he becomes one. And I think that his growth and maturation over the course of the game is absolutely a treat to watch.

I’m gonna immediately qualify this by saying I do not think Noct is a dick on purpose. Noctis is, in fact, unfailingly kind in most situations and this is one of his greater strengths. I just think he is just as much a victim of internalized fatphobia as Prompto is, despite not having the experience of being fat. I think two things contribute to this: biases that went unchecked by any of his caretakers, and genuine social difficulty brought about by his upbringing.

But now it’s time to get to….the incident. The reason these two know each other. After Prompto takes care of Pryna, she runs to deliver her letter to Noctis and eventually returns to Luna, as was her original mission. Luna, noticing Prompto’s name on a bandana tied around Pryna’s leg, tasks Gentiana to help her find this kind soul so she can thank him. Luna does, and Prompto receives a letter that soon becomes his prized possession. The princess operated on the assumption that Prompto and Noctis were friends, seeing as Prompto encountered Pryna, and asked that he remain “ever at [Noctis’] side.” Prompto takes these words to heart, and resolves to introduce himself to his royal classmate.

Here’s where the problems begin. We know that Prompto is shy because we have seen him before. He kinda kept to himself, away from the other kids, content to take his pictures. To Square’s credit, I was really expecting Prompto to be a target of bullying because of his weight and he wasn’t….yet. This actually makes his interaction with Noctis a lot worse, however. We all know what happens next: Prompto does try to introduce himself to the loner prince (who, by his own admission later, was also kinda shy), and he happens to trip. Noct goes to help him out because he’s kind at heart, and a confused Prompto thinks that Noctis means that he wants to see the camera. Noct is baffled and says something along the lines of “I meant you, dummy!” and goes to help Prompto up.

Honestly, end the scene here. They become friends because Noct is unexpectedly kind to someone he didn’t even know, and that sticks with Prompto, and they’re childhood best friends. Right? RIGHT?

If Square had had a modicum of decency, yes, this would have been how the scene closed. But then Noct had to open his fucking mouth. When trying to help Prompto up, he remarks that the poor boy is “heavy,” something that quickly and immediately impacts Prompto. Noct, also being 12, seems none the wiser and jovially heads off to meet Ignis. But Prompto? Prompto is….affected by this. He decides then and there that he has to not be heavy anymore if he wants to be Noct’s friend.

“But Haley!” I can hear y’all saying, “Isn’t it Prompto’s fault for internalizing a harmless comment in such a way? Why are you so angry at Noct because Prompto took it too seriously?” Or alternatively “Noctis was also a child, he didn’t mean it!!”

Well, it’s all about how the narrative treats the situation. I mentioned this before in Part 1, but the reason I’m mad at both Noctis and Square is because the narrative treats him as though he is in the right at all times. If the issue really was with Prompto as a character, then we wouldn’t have been shown his journey in such excruciating detail. We wouldn’t have been subjected to the downright harmful avenues he goes down in pursuit of this goal (see Part 3 for elaboration). We would have just seen Prompto trying to work on becoming more outgoing--maybe talking to his neighbors more often, for example.

One small scene in particular gets me here: we do see Noct return to the place where they met and he seems to be baffled by the fact that Prompto will not talk to him. We in fact know this to be the case because in the hotel scene, Noct explicitly says Prompto “should have said something sooner” in terms of starting their friendship. Now, this pisses me off for two reasons:

That this wasn’t addressed in Brotherhood itself. We see that Noct kinda wants to approach Prom again but doesn’t seem to know how. If we are assuming he messed up on accident, this would have been a great time for Ignis to tell him so, maybe motivate Noct to apologize.

That Prompto doesn’t immediately call Noct out for this line, or say something along the lines of “Well you kinda straight up insulted me when we first met.”

So, because neither of these scenarios is the case, I have to assume that Square wants us to think that Noct was correct to insult Prompto, and that him losing the weight is a good thing, in a narrative sense.

Finally, it’s straight up out-of-character for Noct to be this way. Not the misspeaking part, that is perfectly in-character. It’s the fact that this bias of his goes unchecked by Ignis or Gladio, and he is never made to apologize for hurting another person’s feelings. Part of growing up is realizing that sometimes your actions can hurt other people, even if you don’t intend for them to. The fact that the intent wasn’t there doesn’t mean the hurt wasn’t real. Since Square is so convinced that Noct needed to “mature” in this story...I am immensely disappointed that the opportunity wasn’t taken here for him to learn. And even more disappointed because I am pretty sure this is intentional. Every single one of Square’s fat characters is used as a side character or comic relief. In order for Prompto to be a protagonist, he had to lose weight, and to have Noctis--the central protagonist--be the character to directly motivate that is a slap in the face.

Part 3: Don’t Recover, Buddy!/ It’s actually good that you have “obesophobia”

So I know I put the trigger warning at the top of this, but I’m doing it again, because now I’m gonna talk about eating disorders. So this is your last chance to back out if that stuff is legitimately triggering, which I understand.

I’m gonna say it right now: Prompto has anorexia

[several people are typing…. .jpg]

I don’t think this is subtle, and I do think this is intentional, so let me break it down. Prompto exhibits a lot of the symptoms, and yes I am speaking from personal experience. He’s exhibited all of these from the moment Noct made that comment when they were kids, and, notably, only from that point on (hence why I wrote Part 2 the way that I did):

Prompto has an obsession with fixing meals. He’ll be the one that helps Ignis the most often. In Prompto’s case, this is a sign that he loves preparing the food, not so much partaking: classic hiding of symptoms. There is also the fact that most of the salads are his favorite meals, which yes, is a deliberate callback, but I don’t think it’s a good one.

Prompto runs a genuinely stupid amount. I think that exercise is well and good--I’m something of an exercise buff myself--but it’s the way that Prompto does it, to the point of exhaustion, that is a problem.

Despite being borderline underweight, Prompto legitimately still seems to think that he is still fat. This is supported by his reactions to multiple dialogues, which I’ll get to in a second, and the “obesophobia” thing on his character profile which….yeah I shouldn’t even have to explain that one. Prompto is legitimately afraid that he will gain weight--specifically, that he will be fat again.

The fact that according to that same profile, Prompto’s photography habit started when he took progress photos of himself!! So he’s also got some legit body dysmorphia going on.

These are the ones that are most obvious to me, anyway.

“Now okay, Haley,” y’all are furiously typing, “so what that Prompto has anorexia? That’s a relatable character flaw!”

Well….one, no it isn’t. A disorder of any kind is not a character flaw. I’d be willing to let that slide if the following were not also true: other characters seem to reinforce these behaviors of Prompto’s, and I am looking directly at Ignis and Noct. Let’s start with Ignis. I’m sure we have all gotten the random dialogue of

Prompto: All right, let’s hit up the Crow’s Nest! Ignis, for no fucking reason: If you wish to put on weight? Certainly. Prompto, defeated: Yeah, I know…

Every time I get this dialogue I want to yell and also want the option to kick Ignis out of the party. Also the fact that no one steps up on Prompto’s behalf (notably, you know, his goddamn best friend!!) is a bit of an Issue too. Another one involves Ignis, but I have only gotten it once, so I can’t remember it exactly, but Ignis says something to the effect that he can make “whatever [Prompto] wants” for dinner and Prompto says “Yeah, it’s the wanting that’s the problem.” That’s...that’s horrifying and y’all should be concerned for your friend.

To turn my attention back to Noct, objectively the most important person to Prompto, we need go no further than “Why is your face so fat?” in selfies.

This one legitimately made me mad. Prompto panics and retaliates with “What?? I’m not fat!!” (notably, he said “I” and not “my face,” which is a bit of a slip), and Noctis is supposed to be his best friend. I was somewhat okay with Noct being passive in the earlier incidents, because maybe he wanted to spare Prompto the group drama that would ensue, but Noct directly engaging in it actively pissed me off. I also want to say this isn’t me bashing on the characters in the slightest, I am simply calling attention to the way they are written. Because they are not called out by anyone else, because this behavior is treated as acceptable, I have to assume the narrative wants me to agree with them.

The only conclusion I can gather from this is that not only are the bros aware of Prompto’s disorder, but they actively encourage it. Which would only further Prompto’s assumption that they only will love and accept him if he looks a certain way. No wonder the poor kid was so freaked out about his barcode!

Part 4: This shit is triggering to players

The subtitle for this section should be “Haley talks about how deeply “Dogged Runner” affected her in a PTSD kind of way” because that’s what I’m going to be doing. Second trigger warning for eating disorders and weight talk, because that’s what this is gonna be. This also is not going to be nice. I have strong language for Square:

Here’s where I come clean about why this issue matters so fucking much to me, and why I am now freely and openly saying “fuck you” to Square every chance I get. When I first saw Brotherhood, I was at a stage in my life where I was not coping well with my body image. I had my first brush with anorexia in high school, but it was coming back because I was in a new place, and I felt like that was the only thing in my life that I could control. So I had been eating less and falling back into the habit, except...this time I had my support system. So I thought. I went into the anime wanting to learn more about the characters I had come to love, and I walked out of it thoroughly triggered and horrified that Square would stoop to such shoddy, lazy, and harmful storytelling.

I had...a moment, here. I won’t detail the breakdown too much but I was genuinely not okay. To see behaviors that I had ferociously clawed my way out of, and was violently resisting once more, portrayed not only as not unhealthy, but as desirable for people like me...it genuinely felt personal. And, I imagine I wasn’t the only player who felt that way. In fact, because I have talked to other people like me, I know this is the case.

Let me take you on a trip, for a moment. Humor me. Imagine you’re in your early 20s, and you’ve put a lot of ugly, horrible coping methods behind you. Imagine your best friend in the entire world, @nonbinary-recipehs, recommends this game they are playing, and you play it together and start to consume its media. Imagine the horror and dread that settles on the both of you watching this episode, which rings so similarly to the times you passed out from lack of food, from over-exercising, from over-straining yourself to be this idealized version of thinness. Imagine seeing that the outcome of this episode isn’t Prompto getting the support he needs from his friends, but that the narrative legitimizes his suffering. In fact, this brutal suffering and rapid loss of weight was necessary to justify this character’s relevance to the narrative! Imagine how that must make you feel. Maybe those coping methods that were so horrible actually weren’t. It worked for Prompto, maybe it’ll work for you!!

Perhaps that little thought experiment will help you understand what this whole situation can feel like to players like me, to people who have struggled with internalized fatphobia and with eating disorders, who have been called heavy, who have been made to feel as though their worth is in their thinness. Fuck you, Square. Fuck you for not having an ounce of consideration for how this might possibly look. Fuck you for not considering people like me as complete people. Fuck you for making me watch a character I love suffer, not to tragedy, but to an illness that could have been avoided if anyone had shown him even an ounce of respect or care or decency or decorum--

…

I did warn y’all I was angry, this time.

Part 5: Two Alternative Scenarios that would Avoid All This

“So Haley,” you’re saying, somehow having read past the rant in the previous section, “if Square did it so horribly, how would you have done it?”

That, my dear reader, is an excellent question. In fact, I’ve got two solutions, which I will explain and elaborate upon below:

The first is rather simple: Prompto doesn’t actually lose the weight and becomes a canonical fat character. Absolutely nothing else would change about the story or Prompto’s character except for the following:

Noctis would become curious as to why this new friend of his was avoiding him. He then has the opportunity to open up to Ignis or Gladio and reflect on what he said, and realize that he actually hurt Prompto’s feelings. This motivates him to apologize, and the two become Actual Childhood Friends.

Prompto just Has This Body Type Now and nobody says dick about it, that’s just the Way He Looks

You could explore internalized fatphobia I suppose but I don’t actually trust Square to do this sensitively. You know who I do trust? Liam ( @chubbyargentum ), who writes the Nighttime Sunshine AU and fic.

All of the previously mentioned fatphobic comments are completely removed because all the bros love and support him.

Prompto isn’t the comic relief because of his size, he just happens to be both. Yes, there is a difference, and no, I am not going to derail the essay by explaining that.

Prompto would still absolutely kick ass, take names, shoot people, love chocobos...all the shit he does in canon. But now, you have a character who didn’t have to be completely humiliated to get to this point. Now you just...have a guy who happens to be friends with the prince, because he is kind and caring.

But okay, let’s take another approach. Let’s say Prompto does still lose weight. How, then, do we accomplish this without being fatphobic or debasing Prompto’s character like canon did?

That leads me to solution 2: Prompto does lose weight, but it’s incidental. Let me explain what I mean here:

Let’s have a situation in which the apology does still happen as I outlined in the first solution. Childhood friends is a thing.

As such, Prompto becomes...increasingly curious at all the cool training Noct does.

Noct is….embarrassed about this, I think. Because Prompto doesn’t like Understand What It All Means...and they’re still pretty young. Noct doesn’t want him to understand.

But Prompto? He wants to be able to Do Cool Shit, especially if it means defending his best bro who also happens to be the prince. And he doesn’t want Noct to do any of this alone. He asks to train with Noct, no special treatment (except for like the fact that he legit can’t do magic).

Gladio...allows this, begrudgingly. Then, permanently, when he notices Noct tries harder as a result of showing off.

Prompto starts to learn how to take care of himself from Gladio, and from Ignis, who has...gathered that Prompto doesn’t exactly have parents, and becomes invested in helping him learn how to cook healthy meals for himself. Who knows? Maybe the healthy eating will rub off on Noct!

The result is that, over time, Prompto does lose some weight...and starts to bulk up as Puberty Happens. However. This is all incidental. Prompto never set out to lose weight because he hated himself or felt unworthy, like in canon. He set out to become strong and train with his best bro. This is absolutely critical.

With this solution, Prompto does lose weight, but doesn’t become the borderline underweight young man with an eating disorder we all know and love. Instead, he’s been brought up around healthier traditions, which makes him immensely more suited for the role of Crownsguard when that time comes. In fact, he might have entered it at age 18 just like Gladio and Ignis did, despite Noct’s protests. Another thing I like about this solution is that it shows how Prompto is friends with Ignis and Gladio; how those relationships developed independently of Noctis, and why these four really are the family unit the game wants me to think they are.

And with these two solutions, I believe I have laid out some much stronger backstories for our beloved boy that avoid all of the...unfortunate implications of his canon backstory. I only wish that Square had thought about their implications just a little bit more, and done Prompto some true justice.

Part 6: What motivated this essay, and the power of shared experience

This isn’t really a proper conclusion, that’ll be in TL;DR, but I would be remiss to not include what actually motivated me to write this massive essay, and also share it with all of you. The sharing part, I think, is super critical. When you inhabit marginalized identities, and in this case I specifically mean having a fat body, it can be...difficult to share and discuss your experiences. Harder, still, to be public about them, and to criticize media that perpetuates these harmful ideas. But here I am, doing that. Here’s why that is.

About a month ago, I met @chubbyargentum, who is called Liam. I was cruising through the promptis tag, as you do, and found his Nighttime Sunshine AU, and his blog is filled with excellent art for it as well. The premise of this AU, on its face, is very simple: it’s a story where Prompto and Noctis did not actually become friends in high school, and two very important things are different: Prompto is still fat, and Noctis is a closeted trans man. While I can’t speak to the trans experience, I can indeed speak to the experience of inhabiting a fat body. And this AU….spoke to me. I don’t want to spoil too much but there is a rather emotional scene that just...confronts everything I wanted Square to confront about this that they never did. He approaches the topic with so much sensitivity and nuance, something that is so rarely seen in fandom.

I’ve talked with Liam every day since, and my brain has consistently been enlarged. A lot of things I let slide before...felt so egregious to me that I had to say them. I’ve been confronting my own internalized prejudices towards certain kinds of bodies all the time, and I am learning every day. He’s become a very dear friend of mine, and I care deeply about him.

This also came at I guess you could say the “first climax” of my journey with weight loss, which I had never had success with despite the trauma I described in Part 4. I’ve lost...a significant amount of weight since March, and I think the reason I’ve had so much success is 1) the support of my friends (notably @nonbinary-recipehs, @pocket-prompto, and @chubbyargentum), and 2) not feeling like I hated myself anymore. I approached it as a journey to become more strong, not less fat. As I outlined in Part 4...Prompto’s Brotherhood episode and character backstory were and are legitimately triggering to me, and, I imagine, to many others. Liam had the confidence to put the content in the world that he wished to see, and this essay is helping me do the same.

Having other people who share your marginalized experiences and validate them...well, I’m sure many of you know. It’s a feeling like no other. And I’ve never really had this feeling explicitly about the experience of being fat until now. Now, I understand that my anger is in fact, righteous. And I am not afraid to say so. The power of shared experience motivated this essay and, in fact, everything that I do on this blog. I have come away from this AU with the bravery to say aloud what I have always known to be true.

So thank you, Liam. Thank you, big brain group. And thank you, readers, for listening to an experience that may or may not mirror your own, and for opening up your heart enough to hear the roughly 5000 words before this point. Thank you for making the effort to understand, and the effort to learn and grow.

TL;DR

I did promise to provide an easily digestible version of the…(checks word count) ~5000 words before this point, so here we go. The central thesis of this essay is something like “the way Prompto’s weight loss arc was portrayed in Brotherhood is horrendously fatphobic for a number of reasons.” I then broke it down into six major pieces: the first four being the fact that weight loss is treated as moral by the narrative, the uncharacteristically dickish actions of Noctis, the fact that Prompto’s disorder is encouraged by other characters, and the out-of-universe triggering effects the story has. In the fifth piece, I outlined two alternative scenarios: one where Prompto doesn’t lose weight at all and remains fat, and one where he does lose weight but healthily so and fleshes out his character. In the final piece, I explained the motivation behind writing this essay, namely interacting with other fat fans like @chubbyargentum. I explained all of these points in great detail, being careful to stress that my issue with this isn’t any of the individual characters, but the bias that motivates the writing.

So...what now? Well, I’m not really sure. But this was something I really had to put into the world. I think it is important and necessary to speak up and criticize media that harms you. And you know what? Final Fantasy XV is still my favorite game. It is because I love it so much that I was motivated to write this, and by sharing it, I hope to contribute to a greater discussion about fatphobia in gaming, and in life.

#final fantasy xv #ffxv #tw fatphobia #tw eating disorders #prompto argentum #please be respectful with this one #i feel like this is an unpopular opinion #but it is incredibly necessary that i say this #because it is something i believe #and because I don't want square to continue to get away with it #thank you for read #haley.exe #haley writes ffxv #haley has opinions #i'm preparing for so much hate

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yourcoolfriendwithallthecandy · 3 years

Text

Why So Jaded Chapter 7

FFN, AO3

Chapter 7

Violet woke up actually feeling happy as the imagery of her dream washed over her conscious memory which brought a small smile to her face. But then she heard a groan from Phillip and her smile vanished as she felt anger and rage start to build once again.

She got out of bed and went over to Phillip to see him stirring awake before she took the monitor off of him and put it back where it belonged before she came back and sat on the bed next to him as he went through is process of regaining consciousness before she called for room service for breakfast for herself and her team and knew that dealing with Phillip this morning would be especially bad as she weighed whether or not to wage war with him now or later as she decided that later would probably be best, when he wouldn’t be suffering through withdrawals again because Phillip had quite the history with cocaine especially and it had taken him getting clean as one of her terms for accepting to work for him. Because the chances of him relapsing had been so low and now they were especially high.

27 minutes.

He had done this in 27 minutes. After a year of keeping clean and all those promises of staying that way. All gone. In 27 minutes. That were sadly, the best 27 minutes of this whole trip for her. But it taught her to never let her guard down. And to not trust Phillip as far as she could kick him as she once again, made up her mind that she was never going to enjoy a romantic relationship with him. Never ever. And it was because of this shit right here.

Then Phillip cracked an eye open to see her sitting up in bed, her face was twisted into one of angry disgust but determination as his own memory of last night’s events before his all too brief high came back to him and he exhaled loudly with a wince before Violet turned and considered him.

“Good morning Mr. Sebastian.” Violet greeted coldly with a look that would freeze lava.

“Ok, on a scale of 1 being a funny haha ‘we’re gonna look back on this and laugh’ and ten being you’re gonna kill me and collect my inheritance, where are we?” Phillip asked with a grimace as he woke up.

“Oh a solid 8.5.” Violet answered.

“Fuck.” Phillip grunted before he sat up in bed and rested his back on the headboard next to her.

“Did you order breakfast yet? Can I at least get some coffee before you hand me my ass?” Phillip asked.

“I’m not going to hand you your ass Mr. Sebastian. It’s not my place as your handler to do such things. Now when you fully wake up and recover, I will recount last night’s events to you and explain to you exactly all the ways they crossed all the lines of propriety and decorum and then I’m going to absolutely insist that- that stunt you pulled last night was your big test. That Mr. Pine passed with flying colors and any further “testing” by you will result in my immediate termination of employment.” Violet answered.

“No. Please Violet. No. I’m sorry. Ok? I’m sorry, it was just a bad cheap joke. I will take whatever you want to throw at me if it’ll mean you don’t go back to pure asset and handler again. It can’t be that bad. Please. I will get down on my hands and knees and beg if I have to.” Phillip pleaded.

“No such measures will be taken. They are not acceptable terms.” Violet insisted before she heard the knock at the door and went and got it and brought in the breakfast cart and brought it over.

“What would you like for breakfast Mr. Sebastian?” Violet asked.

“Nooo...come on Violet. Just...come on, hit me with all of it, take it out on me. Look I admit, this was on me. I’m sorry. I know I broke my promise to you and I will make it up to you.” Phillip pleaded.

“No, last night was on me. I take full responsibility for the incident. Technically I should fire myself for the lapse in judgement. I’m just happy I won enough last night in the casino to pay for it in cash so I didn’t have to have any other evidence of last night, other than my memory and the cocaine in your body.” Violet answered as she dutifully fixed him a plate and handed it to him on a tray in his lap.

“So, what I need from you is confirmation that no other tests will be administered on Mr. Pine and that you will honor my agreement as set forth in the recording.” Violet offered.

“Of course. But Violet please, please tell me how to make this right.” Phillip begged.

“Mr. Sebastian, words can not fully describe the mortification I felt at seeing my own knock off image in the form of a prostitute and then to have said prostitute offered up to Mr. Pine on a silver platter, it was pure entrapment and you know it. But if that wasn’t enough, I also had to see the same thing in the form of my most cherished mentor. That completely humiliated me in addition to Mr. Pine. But for now, let’s leave him out of it. Let’s keep this with me. I wasn’t by your side for a whole 27 minutes. I had just enough time to go to the bar on the roof and get a drink and then I had to come right back down. I had Veronica inject you with Narcan. I had to scrub not only the room and you but I had to scrub the last 24 hours from two prostitutes to bury the evidence. Thankfully Patrice and Julie are trusted and vetted and were happy to just get paid off. They had to tie you to the bed to keep you from taking your own life again because you were convinced you were a Super yourself and could fly. You tried jumping off the balcony and those two “gifts” that you got Mr. Pine, tried to help you do it too. They also had to be forcibly restrained while getting scrubbed. Your stunt to catch Mr. Pine in a compromising situation, ended up compromising me and it blew up in my face and it illustrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that I have become way too lax in my job because you were in so much danger. And I broke my own promise to protect you and keep you out of harm’s way. And for that I’m sorry.” Violet specified, trying to keep her rage in check but her sadness was so palpable that Phillip felt remorse that it effectively backfired in spectacular fashion before she sat down in a nearby chair and got her own breakfast before Phillip’s security came and got the rest and took it out into the rest of the suite so Violet and Phillip could keep their privacy.

“So now I want to know why you did it. What were your reasons for it?” Violet pressed.

“I just...I wanted you to lose respect for him. I thought he would jump at the chance to relieve any frustrations he may have been having and if I can get him to relapse, he would be breaking his own contract trying to get drugs into SEB. And I wanted to see if he still harbored feelings for Natalia or had developed any for you.” Phillip confessed.

“Well, it backfired, spectacularly. Because the only one who lost respect is you- from me. Second, you’re the one who ended up relapsing. And you’re the one who broke your own contract with me about remaining clean, which technically, means I can now walk away from you and it turns our contract null and void and we are in Vegas at a tech expo, I could, in theory go to any number of your competitors and get the same job I have for them and there would be nothing you could do about it. And if anything this proved you wrong in every aspect you were trying to test. Because Mr. Pine reacted flawlessly. He stopped, he relied on his own security team which they are all thanking their lucky stars that they weren’t involved and he politely but firmly refused the gift and I should have sent that gift packing and been done with it. But instead, I was feeling spiteful because you were sulking and pouting like a toddler for whatever reasons you have for doing so- which pissed me off but it’s my job as your handler to coddle you and cater to you despite however I feel about it. And I let my own personal feelings cloud my judgement which was a very stupid and frankly rookie mistake. And you know me, I rarely let myself repeat the same mistake twice so this mistake will never be repeated.” Violet insisted firmly.

“So, how you can make up for this- is you are going to honor our agreement we made just as we were leaving, and agree that the stunt last night was your big perfect test for him and admit that he passed and then you are never going to test him again because guess what, I got him to admit it to my face that he looks at me as Mirage 2.0 which means that Objective Natalia has been a success and you’re going to approve weekly outings for him. And then what you’re going to do to make it up to me- is you are going to take the noncompete out of my contract and then you’re going to have to earn my trust and respect back piece by piece and inch by inch to get us back to where we were before this fiasco because while I want to write this off as a dirty trick gone wrong. My hurt and my mortification sting way too badly right now and my own ability to trust you took a big hit because I couldn’t trust you to honor your promise to me to never do drugs again because all it took was 27 minutes. In 27 minutes you have undone a year’s worth of trust building Phillip and I don’t know how long it will take you to earn it back because you know I'm a once bitten twice shy kind of person and I sincerely doubt it was worth it because the Narcan should have reversed it into your system. And my guard is back up and it’s going to take a lot from you to get it to come back down for you.” Violet decided, calmly but firmly and the more she talked, the more her anger dissipated but she still knew that Phillip was using his powers to ease the anger and the rage to push her to forgive him, and for that, her own resentment towards him just grew because the more he used his “secret” powers and the longer it took for him to admit it. The more she distrusted him as Violet and it just pushed her to stay in “Invisigirl” mode with him.

“That’s fair, I’m so sorry Violet. I never considered how this could backfire and I never would have done it if I thought, much less knew this would come back to you in any way. And I’m sorry and again, this is on me, I take full responsibility for this and please don’t let this become the thing that breaks us and losing your trust and your respect is worse than breaking any contract and if there’s anything else I can do to make it up to you, just say the word.” Phillip apologized. Which Violet appreciated.

“God damn it.” Violet huffed as she got up went over to the bed and got settled in next to him and figured she could give him an out to confess to more.

“Why is it almost impossible for me to stay mad at you?” Violet questioned which got Phillip to smile in relief.

“I don’t know, but I’m grateful for whatever it is.” Phillip assured her as he carefully wrapped his arm around her shoulders but grinned when she snuggled into his side as Violet could only feel disappointment that even though he didn’t have anything else to lose, he still wouldn’t admit the truth.

“So what’s the number now?” Phillip bravely inquired.

“A five.” Violet honestly answered.

“Ok, well let me know what I can do to lesson it to a one or two.” Phillip answered.

“Will do Phillip.” Violet answered which got him to grin because she was calling him by his name again.

Violet didn’t have to wait for long. Because once they got dressed and ready for the day and met back up at the Expo, Buddy called out to her.

“Ms. Parr?” Buddy called when she passed him as he walked away from his friends to talk with her one on one.

“Yes Mr. Pine?” Violet asked.

“Hey so my friends would really like to come and pay me a social visit at SEB, is there any way we could try to work something out?” Buddy asked hopefully, even though he had prepared himself for her to say no but Violet just smiled happily.

“Of course Mr. Pine, I’ll handle it personally, granted there will be some protocols that would need to be followed by you and your guests but yes, that can be arranged, simply give me the times and dates according to your knowledge and I’ll arrange it.” Violet answered.

“Really? Why?” Buddy asked before Violet stepped closer.

“To help you forget that the incident last night never occurred and if it would help everyone save face.” Violet answered. “You haven’t said anything to anyone about it have you?” Violet asked worriedly.

“Oh God no. No. No. Never, I’ll happily take that to my grave.” Buddy eagerly assured her.

“Then we have a deal.” Violet offered her hand for him to shake before he took and shook it firmly.

“See you at the announcement Mr. Pine.” Violet offered sweetly before she excused herself and went back to Phillip’s side.

“I found a way to make the situation last night right and a way that everyone can save face.” Violet murmured quietly to Phillip.

“I’m all ears.” Phillip eagerly answered.

“In exchange for Mr. Pine to completely forget about the incident last night and take what could possibly remain to his grave, which was my condition for his request after hearing it because Mr. Pine would never blackmail you because blackmailing you means blackmailing me and he could never bring himself to do that because of 2.0, but if we fulfill this request- we’re back where we were before we left to come here.” Violet began.

“What’s the request?” Phillip asked.

“Mr. Pine would like his friends to come and visit him socially, I warned him that there would be protocols that they would all have to adhere to, like no discussing business or revealing any confidential, proprietary information or property or projects, that kind of thing. And that they would have to be vetted and submit to safety measures.” Violet dictated.

“And that would bring my five to a one. If you’d agree to it.” Violet added as extra incentive.

“Done deal.” Phillip happily agreed, grateful it wasn’t any more worse than it was and if that’s all it would take to get them back to where they were before they left, he’d happily agree.

“And if it would take that one to a zero, I’d be willing to make it a regular thing.” Phillip offered. “Deal and done Phillip.” Violet cooed before Phillip snuck a quick kiss to her temple which got her to blush and smile bashfully and crinkle her nose at him for the PDA since they were surrounded by people but Phillip just beamed a cheesy smile of his own.

The announcement of the collaboration was received well and true to Violet’s predictions and intentions it garnered a lot of positive press for both of them.

“Mr. Sebastian, care to comment about the recent photos that came out showing you in a private moment in the hotel’s swimming pool with a close colleague, is there a romance blossoming between you? Is this the rumored girlfriend that we have seen by your side repeatedly for the last year?” A reporter asked before Violet did a quick search as she stood behind the scenes and found the pictures in a tabloid and sent them to Phillip’s own tablet in front of him that had all the press release announcements and talking points on it.

“No. As always, my personal life is personal and no business of yours or anyone else and I will not be taking any more questions on the topic.” Phillip said simply as Buddy looked up the pictures on his own tablet quickly and found them.

“Mr. Pine? Do you have any comment on…?”

“No I do not. And I would also appreciate it if this conference could get back on track.” Buddy insisted before he steered the conversation back to the technology and why they were there which Violet was grateful for.

Once the expo was over and they had gotten back, he was grateful Violet stayed and helped him settle back in.

“How often does that happen?” Buddy asked.

“How often does what happen?” Violet asked as she hung up his suits in his walk in closet for him.

“How often does your relationship with Phillip get questioned by the media?” Buddy specified.

“Every single time he speaks to the press.” Violet answered.

“Doesn’t Phillip care that every time the media gets your picture and knows your name because you are working for him under your name and not a pseudonym that- that puts you at risk of being found out?” Buddy questioned, feeling a surge of protectiveness.

“It was part of the contract that I work for him under my own name. Because he wanted to make sure that he was getting the real deal and the genuine article and "all of me" and 100% transparency and if anything ever happened to him, that I wouldn’t have any confusion trying collect payments as someone other than myself and my family because I’m actually in his will. Which works out, because it does make things a whole lot more simpler in real life instead of having to answer by a different name and identity. All I have to watch out for is not using my powers in front of people who don’t already know the truth but among Phillip’s closest friends, they all know who I am and who I really am and they know that I’m his own private personal Super who's on constant retainer and if they cross him, they deal with me which is all the deterrent I need to be for most of them and I’m not the only one in my position. More and more of the rich and famous have learned that they can just rent or buy their own Super, either on their own, which makes finding them in the first place difficult. Or they just go to the source- aka The Agency and get one from there because more and more The Agency has turned into "Rent-A-Center for Supers". And as long as Invisigirl isn’t caught with Phillip in any compromising situations, because all Invisigirl is- is a ghost anymore, and all anyone has ever seen of me as her is when I was a teenager in my old suit and not in my current super suit or any other super suit I've had since then, and I've had a lot of them. How you recognized me in my new suit, was a surprise, but one that I appreciate that you keep to yourself and don’t breathe a word to anyone, which is a protection in of itself. Most people just think I’m some other Super when and if they ever see me as her anymore, like Black Widow or Shadow or DejaVu or Mirror or any number of them, but those are usually the most popular. So, yes it’s a risk, but it’s also a hassle I don’t have to add to my already full plate. Besides, in two years, it won’t matter. And every rumor that springs up, only keeps Phillip in the spotlight that much longer, which is something I think he would die if he had to go without.” Violet appraised as she just continued to put his things away, neatly and orderly as Buddy just helped her, handing her his things and watching in awed adoration how wonderful it was to see her be so down to earth and domestic, being barefoot in his closet since her heels had been kicked off by the door and had him hoping and praying that while they were both at SEB that that wasn’t the only time he would ever enjoy this as the emerald necklace he had managed to get for her practically burned a hole in his pocket.

Nelson had gotten it for him because out of all the people that were on Buddy’s team, Buddy and Nelson got along the most and Nelson was secretly shipping his boss with Buddy because he had noticed the marked change in Violet whenever she was on “Buddy duty” and he liked how nice and sweet she was whenever she got to spend time with Buddy and it was Nelson who secretly suggested to Buddy to get her an emerald necklace after what had happened at the black jack table and Buddy had simply given Nelson the vast majority of his winnings to buy what Nelson would think she would like since Nelson knew Violet better than Buddy did and what Nelson had come back with- made Buddy so happy. It was on the small side, so it wasn’t gaudy or too flashy for Violet’s tastes, something she could wear everyday and feel special in without drawing too much attention by anyone but the very observant.

“Actually, with how little I get to see my parents now, even though we all live right here in Metroville and they only live across town, they usually use the tabloids to figure out where I am and what I’m up to.” Violet confessed as she was done and knew that if she spent any more time in Buddy’s closet, she was going to reorganize it to keep her hands busy so her mouth could run and she needed to stop talking before she let out any more secrets or possibly tell on herself even more and risk ruining the friendship she was enjoying with Buddy by wanting something more from him.

“You really are just an emerald, in too tight of a setting huh?” Buddy asked.

“Yeah, part of me wants to buy a loose emerald and keep it in my pocket and I can just pull it out and threaten to drop it to illustrate how close he is to destroying the one thing he “claims” is most important to him. But he just doesn’t...he doesn’t care enough to loosen the setting or back off enough to just give me breathing room. Where I don’t have to constantly filter everything I say or do because there’s always eyes and ears wherever I go.” Violet answered as she took up leaning against the opposite side of the door frame from his bedroom to his closet as once again, their body language mirrored each other.

“Is it worth it though?” Buddy asked.

“It has to be doesn’t it?” Violet returned but she didn't sound convinced.

“I don’t think it is. You shouldn’t put a price, even as one as high as the one you’ve named, on your sanity or integrity, because if you break, the world will lose one of the greatest gems it has and we’ll all be helpless in mourning it’s loss and if you ever find yourself teetering on the precipice, shatter this before you let yourself be shattered.” Buddy offered before he handed her the box which got Violet to frown in confusion at it before she took it and considered it thoughtfully.

Violet opened it and fought not to cry. It was such a small, simple but elegant and beautifully crafted necklace that was Edwardian in design. It was perfect. And the meaning behind it made it even that much more precious.

“Thank you Buddy.” Violet thanked him as she easily enveloped him in a tight hug that Buddy was all too happy to return and they just spent a blissfully long moment hugging each other and clinging to each other and Buddy didn’t let go until Violet did.

“Thank you, I needed the reminder. And the hug.” Violet confessed as she tried to blink away the glassiness in her eyes and it was Buddy who gave her a small, sad smile. Saying so much without needing to say anything and for that she was eternally grateful and Violet looked at him and realized that if she stayed another minute, she was liable to show him and tell him everything and she couldn’t let herself be that vulnerable, not yet anyway, and not when there were so many eyes and ears watching and listening.

“I should go, I have myself to unpack. Let me know when your friends want to come, and I’ll do what I can to make them feel welcome.” Violet offered before she excused herself from his bedroom.

“Good night Buddy, get some rest, you’ve earned it.” Violet offered over her shoulder as she did as Buddy followed her out.

“You too Violet.” Buddy mirrored. Damning himself for not being brave enough to say more.

Violet went straight to her car and drove home, the small box tightly in her fist as she wondered how he had managed to get this. Because Veronica hadn’t said anything about this, nothing about visiting a jewelry store or even a pawn shop when she had sent in her report on the flight home as part of her debriefing. She wondered if perhaps one of Buddy’s security detail had done this as she mentally tried to figure out who it was before the memory of Violet getting flustered by staring at Buddy chest and arms came to mind and how Nelson had reacted to her reaction.

Good on Nelson.

Once Violet got home she went and got into her spy gear and put the box into a compartment.

“Scan and report.” Violet demanded as she sat and waited for the box and it’s contents to be scanned and prayed that it wouldn’t find anything bad, like some malware or any kind of tracker that she couldn't detect herself and anxiously waited as she put her other things away before the device chirped at her and she smiled in relief when the only objects of the jewelry box, was a necklace, made out of diamonds, emeralds and platinum inside a cardboard and velvet box. That was it. Then she took it out and happily put it on herself and looked in the mirror and couldn’t stop smiling. She could wear this every day and be perfectly happy and feel special. It was such a small but powerful thing.

Meanwhile Phillip had watched the feed and frowned before he realized he needed to one up this gesture before he called the best jewelry store in town and had them open back up just for him so he could get the perfect set of emerald jewelry for Violet and then once he had made his purchase he then went back to SEB to get it “finished”.

Monday morning Violet put together her most flattering green outfit to match her new necklace and even did her hair in luscious curls again and did her makeup extra beautifully and practically strut into work.

“Good morning Phillip, hope you slept well, what do we have for Mr. Pine this morning?” Violet asked as she came into his office.

“Uh, nothing new, hey I got you something,” Phillip said as he presented her with a hard leather jewelry set case before Violet paused and looked at it and looked at him before her shoulders dropped and fixed him with a look.

“Really? You just up and decided to get me jewelry? Out of the blue?” Violet questioned wearily.

“Well, no not out of the blue. Look, what the psychic said struck a chord with me and I knew I couldn’t get you anything while we were out in Vegas because I wanted it to be a surprise so I waited until we came back and got it for you last night, it’s my way of making up for what I did to you over the weekend.”

“Phillip, jewelry is not gonna fix…oh my God!” Violet exclaimed when he opened it and Violet’s jaw and heart both dropped as she set both hands on his desk on either side of it and stared in disbelief at it. It couldn’t be real. Before she started to touch it but her own sensitive senses were telling her this was crawling with "bugs" and she subconsciously pulled her hand back.

“Oh I beg to differ.” Phillip smugly countered.

“And you’re already wearing the perfect outfit.” Phillip cooed as he came around to take the other necklace off but Violet side stepped him and out of reach.

“Phillip? How much did you spend on this?” Violet asked.

“It doesn’t matter, as long as you love it, that’s all that matters.” Phillip insisted.

“Yeah, no. Phillip, is this real?” Violet pressed.

“Yeah it’s a real necklace and bracelet and ring and earrings and everything.” Phillip confirmed.

“No, like, genuine, this isn’t costume jewelry or…” Violet began.

“Oh no, it’s the genuine article.” Phillip assured her before he pulled out the jewels from the case and showed her the providence letter under them in the case and Violet gasped when she saw the price and saw that it was down in writing that it belonged to her.

“Phillip, no, no I can’t accept this.” Violet tried to argue.

“But I thought you liked it?” Phillip questioned.

“No, I do, I love it, it’s beautiful, it is single handedly the most amazing jewelry I’ve ever seen in my life and I’m so profoundly flattered and honored but Phil, I need like six bodyguards if I’m going to wear it in public, this is- 'wear this with a gown on the red carpet or attend a gala' kind of necklace and otherwise keep it locked up in a safe to keep it from being stolen kind of necklace. It’s too much, I’m overwhelmed.” Violet tried to explain as she felt panic grip her chest and her stomach churn.

“No, no, Sweetheart, no, don’t be overwhelmed. You are the most precious, most amazing jewel in the universe and I wanted to make sure you knew that and I wanted to make sure you felt it in every fiber of your being. You’re practically a goddess, and this is my offering of worship.” Phillip cooed as he came around and hugged her from behind and Violet felt his powers push her anxiety down and pumped euphoria into her and she couldn’t help it she wracked a sob which alarmed Phillip who came around and hugged her from the front as he did all he could to calm her down and soothe her.

“I’m sorry it’s overwhelming. I'm not trying to force you to take it. If it’s too much too fast, and I’m coming on too strong just tell me.” Phillip realized.

“Phillip, it’s too much too fast and you’re coming on too strong. I’m flattered and honored, I really am but come on. I know you’re just making the biggest, and probably the most romantic gesture you can but you know how practical I am and you already know if it's romantic- that that puts us into too dangerous of territory. Take it back, get your money back. And if you still want to get me something emerald or whatever and something nice. Take what I’m currently wearing as your cue of the size and grandeur that I’m comfortable with. Something smaller, a bit more discrete. Something that I will feel comfortable wearing on special occasions or even every day or just on the days I want to feel extra special. OK? Can we compromise on this? Please? Or you can start off small and work your way up, like a good anal plug set.” Violet tried to tease through the last of her tears which got Phillip to chuckle.

“Ok, I got you. Loud and clear, let me go and try again.” Phillip offered.

“Thank you, but before you go, let me at least get a picture of it, like a keepsake.” Violet offered before she got a picture of it.

“Ok, now I gotta go back to my office and straighten up and Mr. Pine is probably wondering how late I slept in this morning.” Violet urged as she gave him a sweet kiss then took her tablet and went to her office and got her emergency makeup set out and went to her private bathroom and got straightened up.

“What the fuck are you doing Violet, you should have taken the jewels. Should have taken them and graciously accepted them. They were perfect and gorgeous and amazing, but no- your humility and self worth issues strike again to ruin all your good things.” Violet muttered to herself as she got her things and went down to Buddy’s floor.

“Good morning Mr. Pine, I apologize for the delay, Mr. Sebastian had an unexpected...uh...development.” Violet tried to excuse herself.

“Everything ok?” Buddy asked as he looked her over carefully because he could sense something was seriously wrong and off.

“Have you been crying?” Buddy breathed in a whisper and Violet could only nod as tears came flooding back to her eyes as the panic came back with a vengeance because Phillip's powers weren't there to suppress it.

“Excuse me, I need to use your restroom.” She excused herself as she dumped her things on his counter and quickly ran as fast as her pencil skirt would allow and went into his lab’s bathroom where she knew there was no cameras or listening devices and broke down again, sitting on the toilet seat cover and just wracked sob after sob as Buddy could only pace outside the bathroom because to see her upset was upsetting him and hearing her cry was torturing him worse than anything.

“Violet, please, please let me in, can you tell me what’s wrong?” Buddy pleaded through the door as he pressed his forehead to the door.

“It’s open.” Violet managed to say before Buddy slipped in and saw her sitting on the toilet, her makeup a mess and shaking and he was on his knees in front of her in an instant and curling as much of himself around her in a subconscious effort to protect her and shield her and comfort her as his hands ran down from her arms to her hands before she held onto both of his hands with both of hers so, so tight.

“Violet, what happened?” Buddy pressed, getting choked up and emotional himself as he started crying watching her cry because this was hurting him way worse than that jet turbine ever could.

“I can’t take much more of this.” Violet confessed before she, out of habit, put up a forcefield around them because if she didn’t tell him, tell someone safe, since he was the only safe person she had left, she was going to die.

“You gave me this beautiful, amazing, sentimental gift which I love and appreciate so much and I’m so flattered and honored that you would go through so much trouble that even when you’re locked up in here and there’s so many layers of security between you and the outside world and you go through all that trouble of smuggling it in here just to get it to me. And it means so much to me. And Phillip had the audacity to try and one up it, and he did so in about 12 hours. I came into work early, I tried to color coordinate with the necklace because I wanted you to see me in it and see that I appreciated it. And what did he do? He gifted me a 35 million dollar emerald jewelry set. The only thing this didn’t have was a fucking tiara, it had this huge gaudy necklace that would break my collar bones if I tried to put it on with emeralds as big as my eyeballs and diamonds even bigger than that and earrings that would pull my ears off my head and a ring that I would drown me if I tried to go swimming wearing it and a bracelet that would yank my arm out of my shoulder socket. And it was too much. It was so overwhelming and when I tried to refuse, he used his powers to push me to accept it and force euphoria into my head and push my feelings of discomfort out with it and he went on and on about how 'I’m this amazing jewel of the universe and how I’m a goddess and it was a gift of worship' and it was too much. He’s never forced his powers on me that strongly before and I panicked. And it took so much begging and pleading just for him to see that I would never feel comfortable ever wearing it without a full security detail of my own- for him to back off. And I just said everything and anything I could to get myself out of there and thank God I could come and see you. Part of me wants to move in here with you and only want to see Phillip twice a day or twice a year or twice a decade for that matter instead of the other way around. And now he’s on his way back to the jewelry store to get me something smaller.” Violet professed between hard, wracking sobs.

“And the worst part is, is because of my powers that I'm so incredibly sensitive to technology and anything and everything that runs on electricity or any kind of current and signals, even the human body or animals, I'm even sensitive to electromagnetism, I can tell when there’s cameras and listening devices especially. And that jewelry was practically crawling with them, and it feels like it's spiders, creepy crawly spiders, just crawling and infested with spiders and it made my skin crawl, they were embedded under every single big jewel into its socket so that whenever I wore it, wore all of it or just a piece of any of it- it would be just another tracking device, another way to keep me under the microscope.” Violet bawled.

“And I hate it and I hate how it’s like he plays dumb. It’s like he has no idea that I know. And I can’t confront him. I could and would lose my job and my head because every other Super who’s had this job, it was all the surveillance and counter-surveillance that pushed them to quit because they couldn’t take it. That’s the setting that’s too tight. Knowing that every single moment of every single day I'm being watched and recorded and anything and everything I say or do can and will be used against me, like I'm constantly under a superpowered microscope and constantly scrutinized and judged and it's like it's suffocating me and smothering me and I can't breathe. And if Phillip actually, honestly cared about me and loved me as much as he claims, wouldn’t he be honest about all of it? Wouldn’t he back off? Wouldn’t he admit to me and go ‘hey, I’m actually a Super like you and these are my powers’ and I have given him countless opportunities to come clean, to tell me, make him feel like he has nothing to lose and everything to gain by telling me and if he were to actually ask me if I want them used on me instead of being forced onto me. It would make all the difference in the world. Especially since they’re mind control and feeling control, it’s so invasive and it undoes me from the inside out.” Violet shuddered as Buddy felt like his heart just got ripped out of his chest and put back into a blender.

“He would, if he really wanted to love you, he would.” Buddy confirmed.

“And the sad part is, sometimes I like it, and am so grateful for it, like when I’m having panic attacks and breakdowns like I’m having right now, it’s nice to get extra help to calm down or when we’re having sex and he’s closer than I am but he want’s to be gentleman so he pushes me and gets in my head and gives me that extra push to get me to the finish line. But when it’s against my will and against my own genuine feelings, it's different. When I’m mad at him for fucking up or pissing me off by playing head games, he forces me to get over it and forgive him and get over it or he uses my strong emotions and flips them like a light switch so one minute I’m so mad at him I want to push him off this building and he flips it in a snap and suddenly I’m having the hottest sex of my life fucking his brains into oblivion while he does the same for me, like break up sex and makeup sex all rolled into one. And it feels awesome in the moment, like I’m having sex with God, like I’m perfectly high and relaxed and so into it and so far into the zone, it’s a different time zone, not even the same continent and it’s just pure bliss and then I get far enough away from him where his powers can’t reach me, then my real feelings come back and they come back with a vengeance and it's even worse after than it was before and I regret all of it and I feel sick and dirty and no better than a prostitute only it's not just my body that's being bought, it's my mind and soul too. And when he does drugs, it amplifies it and make it almost impossible to resist, even as a super and normal humans don't stand a chance. That’s why I had to scrub those hookers in Vegas, because they gave him coke and MDMA and he was so strong, one of them was practically a mindless drone. It’s why him doing drugs is one of my deal breakers because even I and the strongest Supers I know can’t resist him when he’s on them. No one can.” Violet choked out.

“Because he’s…!” Buddy began, before he growled dangerously because he wanted to scream but he couldn’t freak her out or scare her any more than she already was.

“Violet, he is raping you! Every time he pushes it and you don’t want it- that’s literally the definition of rape Violet. It doesn’t matter how awesome the sex is, if it’s unwanted, it’s rape. Period. It’s not sex any more because if he didn’t have his powers, you’d be able to resist him and kick his ass so hard, you’d break his fucking pelvis in. Like this is Jessica Jones and Purple Man level of fucked up shit.” Buddy pointed out doing his best to keep his voice down, even as hard as it was not to holler and scream all this at the top of his lungs.

“I know. But there’s nothing else I can do. And after, I just throw up, I throw up so much because I’m so sick of myself and that’s the only way I can look this good and still eat the way I do which is just one step away from an eating disorder. And I hate myself so much for it. And then when he gets me lavish gifts it’s like he’s buying me and buying my forgiveness with stuff, it’s expensive stuff but it just makes me feel so cheap. And no matter how much I try to explain it away and reason it away, it’s like dealing with an alcoholic, until they admit that they have a problem, they’re never going to see it. And I’ve been doing everything in my power to save all of this for my last day of work two years from now and hand him his ass in all the ways I want to and have been fantasizing about. And it’s like he’s trying so hard to turn me into a gold digging, materialistic, manipulative, dominatrix queen, and I hate it. Not to knock BDSM, there’s nothing wrong with it when it’s done safely, consensually and willingly by everyone involved but it’s just not for Violet. Invisigirl can do it all, no problem but Violet is very vanilla. But he’s my asset and I have to coddle and cater to him and do whatever it takes to get the job done, those are my unquestioning and unwavering orders. And I can’t find a replacement to save my life. Literally. And I’m stuck. I’m stuck in a setting that’s too tight and it's trying to carve itself into me, chipping away at me until I fit right.” Violet confided between hard sobs and Buddy never saw more red in his life. He wanted nothing more than to destroy Phillip. He wanted to blow up this building. He wanted Phillip’s head on a platter and then flambéed.

And all Buddy could do was cry while holding onto her hands as he knelt in front of her and tried to protectively curl his body around hers as much as he could and he felt so...helpless. He hated it.

“Violet you have to get away from this. You have to get out. Fuck contracts, fuck the money, you can have every red cent I have. I will find a way to get you wherever you want or need to go. You need to save yourself. Stop trying to save everyone, especially me when it’s you who needs the most saving. Alright, look, I’ll come clean. Cause keeping this from you has been killing me, and I’m so sorry but I’ve been having secret correspondence through my shipping labels sending coded messages to IRize and Zone and all my other companies because I’ve been trying to get all your medical data out of here and safe so that even if Phillip were to try to hold your meds over you to keep you with him, you would have another source, a safe and secure one and one that wouldn’t come with terms and conditions or strings of any kind. And the reason I was so nervous before I left was because my companies all offered to spring me free while we were in Vegas and I told them repeatedly not to, not until I could get you and your meds and everything pertaining to you- safe and secured. And I know I lied to you on Friday and I felt awful and I was so relieved when it was just the hookers at the room because I genuinely thought I would get to my room and find my own guys there to overtake the security and get me away. But I couldn’t do that to you because your trust and your friendship and these precious two months being with you mean more to me than my own freedom. I will stay here as long as I need to, I’ll stay here five, ten, twenty years if I have to and I’ll kiss the outside world goodbye if it means you can walk away free and live in it and heal from all the hurt that prick has done to you. Get out of here Violet. Go. If I can survive a jet turbine, I can survive anything and everything Phillip wants to throw at me, powers be damned.” Buddy confessed as he squeezed her hands so tight as his tears streamed down his face as Violet just stared in shock at him.

“Break the necklace Violet, break the necklace and throw it in his face, come clean and tell him that you know everything, expose him for what he really is, bring hell to his doorstep, give him the bird right before you vanish so he never can find you again. And I will do everything I can to dismantle his empire brick by brick if I have to if it means that you never have to deal with him ever again. He is abusing you. He’s beating you without ever having to throw a punch and that is the worst kind of abuse there is. Violet please. I can’t take this, it’s a miracle you’re still alive and sane. Violet you are cracking. How many more hits will it be before you shatter?” Buddy pleaded desperately.

"I don't know." Violet confessed as she cried a new wave of tears.

“Look, I’m good at fixing things but even this is beyond me. I will be whatever you need or want me to be. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it. I’ll do anything and everything if it means you’ll be ok. Please, Violet, please, please, please.” Buddy begged before he brought her hands up to his lips and kissed her knuckles, squeezing his eyes so tight and Violet was so moved because it was Buddy who genuinely cared for her. Even when he had so much to lose, he’d give what little he did have up for her and if he was exposing himself like this. He was being as honest and as transparent as he could be and Violet couldn’t be more grateful or more moved. Now that she knew that, she could help hide it even more.

“You won’t make it that long. The only reasons I’ve not said anything is because every single person who’s ever confronted him about his powers- is dead. And the reason they’re dead is because he plants something of a computer virus into their heads, into their minds and it drives them insane to the point they commit suicide, sometimes within days, sometimes within hours, sometimes within minutes. Minutes. Buddy, I’m terrified you are going to make it three years and a day. I’m so scared you’re going to leave this place and be within a five hundred foot radius of him so he can plant the bug in you. And then you’re going to go home and kill yourself because he’ll do the same thing to you. I’m afraid I’ll do the same thing because if he can’t have me, no one can because he’s so possessive and jealous and dangerous. He proved it with this necklace thing. You dared to give me anything, the smallest of things. Something tangible and he had to outdo it. And you’re not the only one who’s been in contact with others about this situation. I haven’t quit because as bad as all this abuse is, it’s still not as bad as losing you. I can’t lose you. You’re the one good thing in my life right now. And I don’t want him to use you against yourself by pushing you to take your own life or use you against me or me against you or me against me. Which is why I put a clause that in the event of your death, doesn’t matter how you die, everything you touch, all the royalties go back to your own companies. That’s why I’m pushing you to get your hands on everything you can design wise and putting your name and your mark and your seal on everything I can get my hands on. Yeah, you’ll lose percentages now, but if push comes to shove, at least everyone you employ will be ok and your second empire won’t fall like the first one did. This is why I haven’t had any romantic relationships while I’m here- is because Phillip has already torpedoed every attempt and sabotaged it. And it’s why I’m fighting myself so hard to not get closer to you because I don’t want him to sabotage us. He has me backed into a corner but the thing is, you’re behind me and I’m the only thing between you and him. And I’ll bear this and be your shield till my dying day because it has to stop somewhere. And it stops here, it stops with you and right this second, Jack is working on a way to expose Phillip’s powers and find a way to shield me and shield you from them and I’ll do all I can to at least protect your security guards at least so they don’t turn on you. Jack and Edna have been working on it for a year. All they need is time. Can we please, give them time. They’re so close. Just a little longer. Just endure this with me a little longer.” Violet confessed as she held onto his hands like they were a lifeline.

“For me? Can you do that for me?” Violet begged.

“Only for you. But the second it’s ready, we’re out of here.” Buddy insisted.

“I’ll spring you myself.” Violet finally smiled as her anxiety finally calmed down and she felt absolution and relief as it subsided as she let go of his hands to reach for the toilet paper to wipe up her streaking makeup before Buddy got up and some paper towels and got them wet with hot water in the sink before he handed them to her.

“Damn it, I really liked the way I did my makeup today too.” Violet tried to laugh as she just used it to wipe off all her makeup.

“You don’t need it, you’re beautiful no matter what and you could wear burlap and bring it into fashion, not that you care about that kind of thing.” Buddy assured her.

“Thanks. Jack tells me the same thing every time I see him.” Violet chuckled before she finally finished wiping it all off and throwing the now dirty, cooling paper towels in the trash before she happily pulled Buddy into a tight hug which he was more than ready to return. He had wanted to kiss her. But with the way Phillip used his powers in that aspect of her life, he knew if he tried to push any kind of romantic, intimate gestures now- it would not go over well and she would probably reject them and him. She was too gun-shy. If she wanted to be romantically intimate with him, she’d have to make the first move because he sure as hell wasn’t going to push it. She needed a friend and a confidant right now and that’s what he was going to be.

“Thank you so much, please, don’t breathe a word of this to anyone.” Violet pleaded.

“Only until we have an out.” Buddy compromised.

“Deal.” Violet huffed a laugh.

“Goodness you give the best hugs. I could hug you all day long if you let me.” Violet confessed with a halfhearted giggle as she nuzzled her face into the crux of his neck and shoulder absolutely relishing this because this hug was all she could ask for from a hug.

“Well you know where I am. Come and get one whenever you want.” Buddy offered as he wanted to kiss the crown of her head, but resisted. The poor girl just needed a platonic hug. He could give her that.

“Don’t offer anything you’re not fully prepared to be taken up on.” Violet playfully warned.

“I never do.” Buddy reassured her with a wry grin.

“I’d have to do it while I’m invisible though. I could give you three taps on the arm in warning before I do.” Violet urged.

“Yeah, about that, uh, because of your similar powers to Tali, she taught me how to find her even when she was invisible, because I can feel just about all the hairs on my body stand on end when you’re close enough to me.” Buddy confessed.

“Huh. Interesting. Well, again, three taps and then get to a bathroom because there’s no cameras or listening devices in them but there are some just outside of them. Cause otherwise to see you hug air will be suspicious.” Violet proposed.

“You got it.” Buddy readily agreed.

“And then, slowly but surely, if you could teach me the way you’re encoding the messages, I’ll try to learn it and if you’d be ok with me sending a few of my own so I can get something established with them too, just in case something goes sideways, to make safety nets and contingency plans and I’ll happily show you them so you know what I’m saying and telling them so we can coordinate.” Violet offered.

“Yeah, actually, the delivery guy, Jack Reacher- he’s my secret liaison to my other companies.” Buddy confessed with a wince but when Violet giggled he breathed out a breath of relief.

“Hiding in plain sight, I like it. That’ll make it easy, I can claim I need him to deliver stuff and mail stuff through him myself. Whatever I mail, will it still get delivered?” Violet asked.

“Yeah, it’s just the shipping labels that he intercepts but the packages themselves are benign.” Buddy assured her.

“Then I need to have some serious and very steady correspondence with The Agency about my replacement and their training then and nothing is more reliable than actual hard copy paper, a proper paper trail.” Violet insisted as she begrudgingly started to let go of him and regain some semblance of personal space.

“When my friends come to visit me, would you want to hang out with us?” Buddy asked.

“Would I be the only girl with a group of guys?” Violet asked.

“Nope, because I’m going to be extending the invitation to their wives and families.” Buddy revealed.

“Then yes, I’d love to come. Can I bring anything?” Violet asked hopefully.

“Just yourself.” Buddy answered with a subtle shake of his head.

“Wine it is then.” Violet giggled before she let down the forcefield.

“Thank you for helping me calm down. You really are a big, tall, pine tree that’s a refuge. At least for me.” Violet praised.

“And I’ll happily be that for you for as long as you want me to.” Buddy answered with a fond grin before she took another step and kissed his cheek sweetly that melted Buddy right where he stood.

“Thank you. Now, let’s get back to business before Phillip loses his goddamn mind not being able to see me for more than a minute.” Violet urged as she straightened up and left the bathroom before she made a pained sound because all the cameras and listening devices were turned up to the maximum level as she subconsciously held her stomach.

“Woah you ok?” Buddy asked.

“Yeah, just a wave of nausea because they’re turned up.” Violet answered as she managed to get to the counter and thankfully once she was able to move forward she could feel them start to turn down again.

“Ok, so um about your personal social visit, who exactly do you want to come?” Violet began before Buddy gave her the names of all his friends and their wives and their kids names and their phone numbers and email addresses and how to best get a hold of them which Violet dutifully got and notated.

“OK, I’ll get started on all of this. See you again this evening Mr. Pine, good luck with your projects.” Violet urged him as she went back to her office to do her makeup for the third time that day as she put in all the information into her computer before Phillip came back into her office.

“Hey, you changed your makeup again.” Phillip noticed.

“Yeah, I had to.” Violet answered as Phillip simply hummed in pretensive befuddlement.

“Were you able to watch what happened in Mr. Pine’s lab?” Violet asked after a beat.

“No, did something happen?” Phillip lied which caused Violet to clench her jaw.

“Well, Mr. Pine noticed that I was upset and when he asked me about it, I had a panic attack and ended up locking both of us into his bathroom and he was inside the bubble when I couldn’t help but put it up and it took all of Mr. Pine’s wits to get me calmed down and for me to feel safe enough to let down the forcefield.” Violet answered.

“What...why? I thought I was able to help with that before you left.” Phillip questioned.

“You did. But Phillip…” Violet started as she felt tears prick her eyes again.

“I’m just having a bad day. That’s all there is to it.” Violet insisted as she tried to refocus and keep her emotions in check.

“No, I don’t believe that. Come on Violet, you can tell me.” Phillip pleaded as he pushed his comfort onto her and she immediately bolted to get some space as she clutched her stomach again and figured now was as good as any to use this to her advantage.

“Phillip, something is wrong with me. I’m becoming paranoid and suicidal. Like when we were in Vegas and you did that coke and you thought you could fly and those hookers tried to help you- I had to fight so hard not to jump off the balcony myself. I don’t understand it, maybe it’s the pressure or something.” Violet said and saw Phillip’s eyes widen in horror just a little before he tried to school his expression again.

“But I feel like I’m being watched and listened to everywhere I go, even in my own apartment and it’s like I can sense little trackers in all my devices and they make me feel so much dread or listening devices- it’s like they ring in my ears and make me so nauseous. I’ve been trying so hard to keep this to myself because I know it sounds crazy and insane but Phillip, I’ve been battling this ever since I started working with you and it started off small at first, but the more I do this job and the closer I am to you and give into my feelings for you, the worse I feel and the worse it feels, I’m throwing up all the time and I can feel the enamel wear on my teeth and the psychic was right, I’m an emerald in a setting that’s too tight, I’m cracking under the pressure. And something about that jewelry you tried to give me this morning, it felt like it was just crawling in... spiders. It just makes me feel like everything is crawling with spiders and it makes my skin literally crawl like they’re climbing all over me. Like I get it that there’s cameras and listening devices here, for security, they have to be and I’ve gotten used to it, like seeing a spider web in the corner and pretending to ignore it as long as it doesn't come down or get close to you or like putting on an itchy sweater but you endure it because you’re at Grandma’s house but...I feel like I can never get away from them, that they’re all over everything I touch and it’s that- that makes what she said about the setting being too tight make so much sense, but I just couldn’t find the right words to tell you but I’ve been so scared of telling you because I didn’t want you to think you were in danger of a crazy person or doubt me that I couldn’t keep you safe or anything and for some reason when Buddy gave me this necklace, this is the first thing that I’ve been given that is spider free and the longer I wear it, the less the spiders crawl on me and I feel like you’re the center of the spider web for some reason and none of this makes sense but I have no idea how else to explain it. And I feel like if I keep pushing myself to be everything you need to be, I’ll break, I’ll shatter and never get put back together again. And the more I feel it, the more I feel, that even as much as you pay me- it’s not worth it . And my gut used to whisper things to me but all it does is scream at me anymore to save myself and just walk away and I just...I want to be in a space that’s spider free. And I want to hit every electronic around me with a hammer to squish the spiders. And I know this is crazy. And I feel like if I just kill myself, the spiders will just eat me and be done with it.” Violet managed to rant as she paced her office on the opposite side of the room as Phillip withdrew all of his powers from her and knew without the shadow of a doubt that this was all because of him. He was the one responsible for cracking her and he had thought he had taken out the suicide seed from her head but apparently not, the seed was sprouting on it's own or enough of it remained to do this to her. And that if he didn’t back off, she really was going to break beyond mending. He needed to fix this.

“And what’s even crazier- is I feel like Mr. Pine is just a big can of Raid. And the more I’m around him and closer to him I am, the farther away the spiders stay. And that’s why I’ve been wanting to do all the outings with him because at least when I’m with him, the spiders stay away. And he even invited me to stay as a friend for his social event and I totally want to but not when his place is crawling with spiders too. Phillip, I know this sounds crazy and if you want to commit me to an asylum, I’ll understand. I mean I’ll break out and disappear forever, but I would understand and forgive you.” Violet said as she let her shoulders drop in defeat and hugged herself as pure panic and a deep dreadful, foreboding fear gripped Phillip’s chest.

“Uh, then. Then you should do just that. I’m so sorry Violet, I’m so sorry, I wish you would have told me sooner. I never wanted…” Phillip began to cry but he did his best to keep his composure.

“You’re not crazy Violet. You’re just under too much pressure and I’ve put too much stress and pressure on you and I've asked too much of you and I am so, so, so sorry. You poor thing. You make so much sense right now. I get it, ok, um, I’m gonna do all I can to kill the spiders for you. Just...I’m approving everything for you and Mr. Pine, of course you should go, and don’t worry about going as Ms. Parr or Invisigirl. Just go as Violet. Go, have a great time, I’ll have your place searched and scrubbed to make sure it’s spider free or if you still think it has spiders, I’ll get you another apartment that’s spider free. I’ll get you new everything because if you feel it’s all infested with spiders, then they’re beyond saving. You are not crazy. You’re so strong and brave for trying to put up with all this. And while you’re there, I’ll turn off all the cameras and listening devices in the apartment side of the space, just in case that’s what’s giving you spider vibes. Because you deserve to have a nice evening with friends without feeling your skin crawl and get them like a case of wine or whatever as my gift for the occasion and just have a great time. Just keep Wednesday as your Raid day. And you know what, if Mr. Pine will host you or you want to host him and take him out- have the weekends too. have Raid weekends. And go out, like to the museums or whatever. Leave the security detail here. I trust you with Mr. Pine and I trust that if he makes a move, you’ll still do your job. It’s the least I can do.” Phillip generously offered before Violet practically ran into his arms and was so grateful when she felt that he didn’t use his powers at all.

“Thank you so much Phil, thank you for believing me and doing something about it. You have no idea how much that means to me.” Violet cried in relief into his chest as he held her.

“Of course. I’m always going to believe you. I need to protect you as much as you protect me. And if I have to kill a million spiders both real or otherwise, I’ll do it. You are the most important thing and the most precious jewel in the universe and I’m so sorry I couldn’t see that I was the one causing the cracks by putting so much pressure on you and asking too much of you. Thank you so much for telling me and identifying the problem. I’ll help as much as I can.” Phillip vowed.

“Thank you.” Violet thanked him before kissing him sweetly, wishing she could have kissed Buddy instead.

“Ok, let me go and call some exterminators and brainstorm to make a trap for any more.” Phillip offered before he left and went to the tech department and turned off all the cameras and listening devices in her apartment and her car and her phone and Violet simply grinned when she could tell they had been turned off as she took a moment to hold her phone between her hands and mentally searched for it and was still able to find it. It was still there, just dormant. Sleeping . Before she played with it, focused on the device and turned it back on and then back off again and smiled to herself that she was good enough to figure out how to do it and could now do it on demand.

Meanwhile the mole in security sent the message that Violet was aware of the bugs and that Phillip was going to go and exterminate her bug problem and to make sure that the only bugs he would find would be his own and within 30 minutes, Zone’s security team came back to Violet’s place and took out all of the piggy backs and covered up all the evidence that they were ever there to begin with and quickly left again.

#Why So Jaded #Why So Jaded Chapter 7 #Synlet #Buddy Pine #Bartholomew Pine #Violet Parr #Corporate espionage AU #Modern AU #Now #this is a proper love triangle #and some good ol fashioned intrigue #and conflicts of interest #and being emotionally torn between objectives #and a test of loyalties #bwahahaha

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