#lbsc october minifics 2023

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 10: Full Moon (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

Continuing from Ch8-9. Let's see if I can stay caught up. 😂

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch10: Full Moon

“That won’t work, you know.”

Marinette jumped at the voice, and that was probably the proof of his words right there.  She tried to scowl at Luka, but she found her face didn’t want to cooperate.  She turned away instead, tipping her head back against the chair she had brought up to the roof a few hours ago and glaring at the moon.

It had no right to be so pretty, she thought as she took another long drink from the bottle in her hand.  The world wasn’t pretty.  It didn’t deserve pretty things like that full moon above her when it had such ugliness inside.

“At least share,” Luka sighed as he dropped to the roof beside her, plucking the bottle from her fingers and taking a swig.

“No one invited you,” she bit, snatching the bottle back.  Luka coughed as some of the alcohol went down the wrong pipe, and she smirked as she tipped the bottle back.  The lip was wet from…well, his lips.  Gross.  “I only share with people I invite.  This was a solo party.”

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s bad form to drink alone?” he asked, taking the bottle back.  She glared at him, and he lifted an unimpressed eyebrow in turn.

…she probably looked like a grumpy kitten to him.  He was condescending like that.  The asshole.

“Stop checking up on me,” she said, turning away with a huff and slumping back in her chair.  She pulled the blanket she’d brought up tighter around her shoulders.  It was an indulgence she had gotten with her first post-death paycheck: a thick, pink, Sherpa-lined throw that was sinfully soft and kept her entirely too warm.

She loved it.

“I’m not…” he started.  She shot him a Look, and he sighed as he leaned back on his hands and looked up at the moon.  She tried to ignore the way it lit up his eyes, making them shimmer in its soft glow.  “Ok.  Fine.  I’m checking up on you.  But I’m checking up on you because I wanted to, not because Mendeleiev is making me.”

…huh.  That was new.

“…why?” she asked, glancing over at him.

“Because she’s a bitch and dealt you a shitty hand,” he said.  His fingers tapped at the roof, and when he glanced over at her he offered her a small smile.  “…and I missed you.  And when Fred told me what happened, I started to worry.”

“Softie,” she chided, and he sighed as he looked back up at the moon.

“I’m afraid you might be right,” he said.  He was still smiling.  “Tell the others and I’ll kill you.”

“Isn’t that going to be a little hard?” she asked, nudging his knee with her foot.  “We’re already dead, Luka.”

“I’m pretty determined,” he said casually.  “I’ll find a way.  Even if it’s locking you in my closet until I finally get my own lights.”

“Asshole,” she giggled.  A comfortable silence settled between them, where they just watched the moon and pretended they could see the stars beyond the city lights.  It was nice, she couldn’t help but think.  She was finding Luka was nice.  Or, at the least, he wasn’t as prickly as she had initially thought.

She was starting to drift off, the exhaustion of the past few days meeting the quiet comfort Luka’s presence offered to lull her towards the sleep she desperately needed.  She might have missed his question, if he hadn’t nudged his knee back against her foot.  Her lips twitched with a smile as she looked at the roof before her, where their limbs were barely touching.  Where they were stretched out like the old friends they might have been another lifetime ago, had she been born a few years sooner or he had been born a few years later and they had both lived past the brief spark of twenty-something.

“He would have liked you,” Juleka had said.

She was starting to think she would have liked him, too.  Back before he was dead.

“Are you ok?” he asked, his voice soft in the quiet night.

She blinked tired eyes at the moon and thought of Abby Rousseau, the little girl who had been senselessly snuffed out even sooner than they had been.  She thought of the undead man beside her and the quiet comfort his presence brought.  Of Fred, downstairs, worrying over her like the papa he was because he couldn’t worry over his own little girl anymore and she no longer had a papa to worry about her, either.  Of Théo and even fucking Mendeleiev, their merry little band of reapers slipping through life on the periphery.  They didn’t have much anymore, but at least they still had each other.

She supposed that had to count for something.

It had to be enough.

“…no,” she answered.  Her hand slipped out of the blanket and reached for his, and she smiled when he threaded his fingers through hers and squeezed.  “But I think I will be.  Thanks, Luka.”

“Any time, Marinette.”

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #lbsc october minifics 2023 #to feel alive again #ml fic #ver fic #dlm lukanette au #dead like me au #this is what we call progress #reapers can't get drunk #mason tries his damnedest but their metabolism is too high #if anyone needed the lore behind him saying that won't work #I don't think I actually stated that here 😂

[lovebugs-and-snakecharmers]

LBSC Minific Challenge October 2023

Welcome to the LBSC Minific Challenge! This challenge will begin October 1, 2023, but we're posting the information now so that if you want to start thinking (or writing) now, you can.

Write a Lukanette minific of 50, 100, 250 words, or do a piece of Lukanette art work (we’re thinking in the spirit of inktober, but whatever feels appropriate to you), and tag us in your finished work. We’ll reblog it on the LBSC blog and you can add AO3 works to our AO3 minific collection. 

We’ve collected a few prompt lists from around the internet you can use, but feel free to make or choose your own, or mix and match as you choose!

Fictober 2023 Prompts

Angstober 2023 Prompts

Flufftober 2023 Prompts (1)

Flufftober 2023 Prompts (2)

Dystober 2023 Prompts

As always, you can do as few or as many as you like, in whatever order you like, and here’s a little reminder of our attitude towards rules (tldr; do what inspires you, even if it breaks the rules)

You can join our LBSC Events discord server for encouragement and ideas (but this is totally optional in both directions - you don’t have to join to participate in the challenge, and you don’t have to participate in the challenge to join the server; you can join just for lukanette socializing, news on lbsc events, and general cheerleading), and if you have any questions you can leave a message in our ask box!

NSFW prompt fills are permitted as long as all characters are of age and it is appropriately tagged.

#lbsc minific challenge #event: october 2023 minific challenge

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 25: Doll (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch25: Doll

“You make dolls?” he asked, his eyebrows lifting.

“Made,” she corrected, then paused as she considered.  “Well.  I guess I still could.  Technically.  The knowledge is still there.  Crafting tends to be a little outside my budget these days, though.”

She was fingering the hem of the sweater as she said it, giving him a Look he did well to ignore.  He always did that, every time she tried to bring up how much work or money something like the sweater would cost.  Every time she tried to bring up repaying him.

“Why do you think I have so many jobs?” he teased, and she rolled her eyes.  She actually hadn’t seen him working that many jobs.  He was out and about most of the day – she knew that much – but she thought that was all just…dogs.  Unless he considered each dog he walked an individual ‘job’?  “Anyway, that’s cool.  Think you could make something for Bach?”

“…Luka, no,” she said, shaking her head.  At his confused expression, she gestured to the giant dog in front of them.  “He’d just chew it up!  Dog dolls -  toys – are made to be destroyed.  My dolls are made to be loved.”

“Ok, then,” he said, stopping as Bach paused to sniff a bench and consider if he was ready to go to the bathroom yet or not.  “Can you make me a doll?”

“You?” she asked.  He nodded.

“A Bach doll,” he said.  He grinned at her.  “You can use that super chunky yarn for his fur.  The type that looks like ropes?”

“Why do you want a Bach doll?” she asked, frowning.  “He’s big enough, Luka.  It’s not like you’re gonna lose him.”

“Dogs don’t do so well, when they lose people,” he said.  “People don’t do so well, when they lose dogs, but dogs take it harder, I think.  You’re their whole world, and then you’re gone.”

“You’re not going anywhere, Luka,” she said, reaching for his hand.  He squeezed it, smiling softly at her.  “You’ve only been dead ten years.  No way you’ve met your quota yet.”

“I’m not, but I’m just his buddy.  I’m not his maman,” he said.  Marinette looked back at the dog to see he had finally decided to do his business.  His back was turned towards them.  She glanced back at Luka to see he was watching Bach with a pensive stare, too.  Like there was something he was holding back from her.  “I just…have a feeling.  And maybe I want something of him to keep with me.”

“Luka?” she asked, squeezing his hand.  He didn’t respond as he fished a cleanup bag out of his pocket.  She watched as he knelt by Bach, scratching at his ears.  She swallowed and nodded.  “Yeah, I can…I can make you something.”

“Thanks, Marinette,” he said, his tone distracted, and she nodded.

“No problem.”

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #lukanette #lukanette endgame #endgame lukanette #bach the dog #ml fic #ver fic #lbsc october minifics 2023 #to feel alive again #dead like me au #dlm lukanette au

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 23: Library (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch23: Library

“I thought you said we were going to the library?” Marinette asked, pulling her coat tighter against the chill.  It was a heavy wool swing coat, a deep purple with black buttons, that Luka had offered her a few days ago.  He had gotten strangely quiet when she asked where he’d found it, so she hadn’t pressed the issue.  When Bach had given a low woof and started snuffling her when she put it on – then whining as he pushed his big head into her – she had had a pretty good idea.

But it was warm, and nicer than anything she’d been able to find lately at the thrift stores, and it was getting colder.  The undead couldn’t afford to complain when nice things literally fell in their laps.

“Juleka used to say cemeteries were like libraries for the dead,” Luka said, tugging on Bach’s leash when he tried to pull.  Bach looked back at him, and Luka gave him a stern look that just made Marinette giggle.  He looked back at her with a grin.  “The only difference is the caretakers tend to frown upon checking things out of graveyards.”

“That sounds like her,” Marinette laughed, shaking her head.  “She could be so morbid sometimes.”

“Did you ever get to see her at Halloween?” he asked, grinning.  Marinette shook her head.

“She didn’t go to the company party last year,” she said.  “I was hoping I could convince her to come this year – maybe make her a nice witch costume – but…you know.”

He hummed, and they continued along the rows of graves in silence for a bit.  Marinette let her eyes wander as they walked, taking in the rows of headstones.  Some were more decorated than others, with fresh flower in vases or nestled against the stones.  She had never really spent much time in cemeteries before her death.  They had always felt…lonely to her.  Creepy.  She supposed that was the point, for the living.  Now she was noticing they held a kind of beauty, in their own way.  A…

Something crashed off to the side, and she turned her head to see a gang of gravelings hanging off an angel statue a few rows over.  The angel had been holding something, and the rubble from whatever it had been now lay at its feet.  They were cackling, minding their own business, until one caught her staring at them.  It slapped the back of its hand against another’s arm, and all three of them looked up to glare at the reapers walking by.

Luka shouted beside her, and she jumped.  She looked back at him in time to see he was pulling a face at the gravelings, trying to scare them off.  She…wasn’t that brave around them yet.  They still creeped her the hell out, honestly.  But Luka…she glanced back in time to see one of the gravelings swing around the angel’s arm, hopping up onto a wing.  It stuck its butt out towards Luka, wiggling it and slapping the sides before it hopped off with a cackle.  Its friends scurried after it, and the graveyard was silent again.

“Annoying little fuckers,” Luka scowled, turning back to the path ahead.  He fished a cigarette out of his pocket and tried to light it, his thumb flicking uselessly at his lighter as his hands shook.  He seemed…more rattled than usual.  More rattled than she’d ever seen him, honestly.  Like seeing the gravelings had actually spooked him.  She reached out and touched his arm, and he jumped as he dropped the unlit cigarette.

“…are you ok?” she asked, squeezing his arm gently.  He swallowed thickly, his eyes darting back to the statue, and he nodded.

She didn’t really believe him.

“Y-yeah,” he said, stuffing the lighter back in his pocket and taking her hand instead.  He squeezed it and pulled her after him, continuing their path along the graves.  “I’m always ok.”

“Luka…” she started, but he just shook his head.

“C’mon,” he said.  “They buried his maman yesterday, and I wanted to give him a chance to say goodbye before we head to the library.  We still have some time, right?”

Her reap wasn’t scheduled for another two hours.  They’d be fine.

“Yeah,” she said, squeezing his hand.  She just hoped he would be.

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #gravelings #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #ml fic #ver fic #lbsc october minifics 2023 #to feel alive again #dlm lukanette au #dead like me au #gravelings are obnoxious little shits #I love them

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 3: Hidden (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Day 3: Hidden

“Thank you.  Have a nice day.”

The soft voice floated out the glass door as it opened, barely audible over the jingle of the bell.  Marinette pulled her hood lower over her face, as stupid as that was.  She knew the basics: she had been given a brand new undead body to spend her afterlife in, one that was invulnerable to petty things like sickness or mortal wounds one might sustain on the job.  While other reapers would look at her and still see…well, her, the living saw the same face she now saw when she stared in a mirror: Emma, a plain girl with a plain face and plain clothes that plainly faded into the background.  Her new body had been designed to disappear, to exist on the periphery.

…Fred said it got easier, seeing past the glamor.  Seeing the real you under the façade.  It just took time.  Practice.

Marinette wasn’t sure she wanted to see the real her anymore.

Her hand slipped from the edge of her hood, moving inside and up to the back of her head.  She couldn’t feel the wound that had killed her – it was long gone, burnt to ashes in a cemetery a few blocks away with the rest of her old body – but she sometimes wondered if she could still see it.  If she looked hard enough.

She wasn’t brave enough to look that hard these days.

She glanced up, peeking out from the hood casting her face into shadow, when the bell jingled again and her mother’s familiar voice drifted out of the boulangerie.  Hollow eyes flicked over from the customer who had just entered the shop to the girl lurking by the door, and Marinette found herself holding her breath.  Hoping her maman would look hard enough.  Praying she would see what she wasn’t meant to see anymore, hidden in plain sight.  If she just looked…

“…Marinette?”

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #sabine cheng #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #lbsc october minifics 2023 #lovebugs-and-snakecharmers #ml fic #ver fic #to feel alive again #day 3: hidden #luka's there #blink and you miss him #dead like me au #dlm lukanette au

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 19: Space Ghost (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

...anyone up for some casual flirting? 👀

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch19: Space Ghost

“Do you think there are reapers in space?”

Mendeleiev looked up at Marinette’s question, her eyebrows lifting above her glasses.  Luka snorted and looked at her, but the apathetic derision the head reaper had grown so accustomed to was missing from the kid’s face.  He looked…amused.  She would almost say smitten, but she liked to think she knew Luka better than that.

“What?” he asked, shaking his head.  Marinette looked up from her ice cream – that weird dot stuff they’d started making a few years ago, which the mayor had bought special for the announcement of the city’s new space program.

“Well, people die in space, right?” Marinette asked, tapping her cup with her spoon.  “Not like…rocket explosions.  People actually die on missions.  It’s in the movies.”

“…there’s a lot of shit in space movies that doesn’t actually happen, Marinette,” Luka said, rolling his eyes.  He poked her side, making her giggle, and Mendeleiev’s eyebrows rose even higher.  “Ex-ter-min-ate.”

“Dork,” Marinette giggled.  He scoffed.

“I am not,” he huffed.  “I was in a band, Marinette.  A rising rock star.  I was cool.”

“Jules assured me you were a total loser,” she giggled, bumping her shoulder against his arm.  “And I’ve seen your Netflix queue.  Dork.”

“You’re so cruel,” Luka lamented, his voice dry.  “See if I ever invite you over for movie night again.”

“I invited myself the last couple times,” Marinette snorted.  Mendeleiev dropped the pamphlet she’d been flipping through when Luka dropped an arm across Marinette’s shoulders and tugged her against his side.

“See if I let you in next time, then,” he sighed dramatically.  He glanced down at her, grinning.  “Or ask you back.”

“…they’ve gotten chummy,” Théo grumbled beside her.  Mendeleiev was too surprised by whatever the hell was going on with her other two reapers to jump at his sudden appearance.  “I don’t like it.  Don’t we have some rule about…fraternizing?”

“…you were trying to fraternize with her just this morning,” Mendeleiev said, glancing at him.  Théo snorted and bent to pick up her pamphlet.  She took it back robotically.

“I’m harmless, though,” he said.  “We both know nothing will actually come of my attempts at fraternizing.”

Mendeleiev hummed.  She watched as Marinette rested her head against Luka’s shoulder and he didn’t shove her off.

“Luka’s a lot more harmless than you could ever hope to be, Théo,” Fred said as he walked up to them.  He handed Mendeleiev a coffee.  Théo pouted until he handed him an ice cream cup.  “He’s a better person than you.”

“Now that’s uncalled for,” Théo sniffed.  “I’m a delight.”

“You’re a menace,” Fred sighed, sipping his own coffee.  “Let them be.  This is the first time in years I’ve seen Luka actually smile.  Shouldn’t we all grab at happiness, wherever this cruel world chooses to give it?”

“I still don’t like it,” Théo huffed.  His head perked up when a voice in the crowd called for a Frank Hawkins to get back here.  “Well, duty calls!”

He slipped off into the crowd, and Fred sighed as he shook his head.  Mendeleiev was still watching Luka and Marinette, who had finished their reaps and were sticking to the outer edge of the crowd, talking.  Marinette was still leaning against Luka’s side.

“What does happen to reaps in space, anyway?” Fred asked after a moment.  Mendeleiev shrugged.  “She has a point.  I’m sure someone’s died on a mission before.”

Mendeleiev had a few theories, mostly involving souls getting popped before the missions left orbit, but she was too busy watching her reapers to tell Fred that.  She was also a woman of science, and until she had empirical proof…

“Beats me,” she said, sipping her coffee.  “I’ll let you know when we have one.”

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #ms. mendeleiev #mendeleiev #theo barbot #fred haprele #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #ml fic #ver fic #lbsc october minifics 2023 #to feel alive again #dlm lukanette au #dead like me au #you have no idea how hard it was not making space ghost jokes #you're lucky all you got was a dalek reference #enjoy the flirting #next few days are pain 👀

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 16: Two-Headed (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch16: Two-Headed

Luka was being weird.

Marinette frowned as she stared at the sweater she’d just washed, her thumb rubbing at some of the stitching absently.  He was usually weird, she noted, but he’d just been…weirder lately.  Not his usual grumpy self.  It was like…invasion of the body snatchers, or something.

Grumpy Luka had been snatched away, and this…weird Luka had been left in his place.

He was just…weird!  She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.  It wasn’t that he was suddenly kind: for all his gruff exterior, Luka had always been kind.  At least…to her.  To most people.  Not usually to Théo, but Théo liked to antagonize him.  Even if he was an ass about his kindness, he was still kind. There was just…something softer about it lately.  He still snapped at Théo, and he spoke to Mendeleiev with his usual indifference.  He was still…not rude, not really, but there was this way he treated people.  Like he just was how he was and expected the rest of the world to deal with it.

She had called him a grumpy puppy.

He just…wasn’t so grumpy anymore.

He was grumpy, not…snappy.

She sighed and folded the sweater, holding it close for a moment as she stared at the piles of half-folded laundry on her bed.

She would say she liked it, except…there were still times when he’d pull back.  When he seemed to realize he was being weird and doubled down on being an ass to compensate for it.  She wasn’t sure she liked that.  Sometimes she felt like it gave her whiplash.  She wished he would just make up his mind.  She –

“Marinette?”

She jumped at the voice.

Speak of the devil, she thought as she looked up to see Luka standing in her doorway.  His hand was raised to the door, and she realized belatedly that he had knocked –she just hadn’t noticed.

“L-Luka!” she said, dropping the sweater onto her bed.  She turned to him, smiling.  “What are you doing here?”

“Got an out of town reap,” he said, holding up a post-it and smiling at her.  “Well.  Half an hour out.  It’s a botanical garden, though, and I thought…you like flowers, right?”

“It’s October,” she laughed, walking over to him.  “Most flowers aren’t exactly blooming anymore.  But yes, I like flowers.”

“…it’s a nice day out,” he said, shrugging.  “Should be a nice ride.  If…you’re interested?”

…the grumpiness was gone.  In its place was left someone Marinette would almost call bashful, his head hung low and peeking up at her with hopeful eyes and…were his cheeks pink?

She thought of the Luka she had first met, who had dumped her on Mendeleiev without a second thought and stalked off into the night, grumbling the whole time about fresh blood and inconveniences.  She saw no trace of that asshole in the boy smiling down at her now.

“…ok,” she said, turning back to grab her sweater.  When she had tugged it over her head and turned back to him, there was a glimmer in his eyes she couldn’t quite place.  One that made her smile, until he caught her staring back at him and turned away with a cough, shoving a hand through his hair.

“Right!  Ok, best get going.  This fucker’s not gonna reap himself,” he said, heading towards the door.  Marinette frowned as he hurried off, confused.  Then again…

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #ml fic #ver fic #lbsc october minifics 2023 #to feel alive again #dlm lukanette au #dead like me au #super loose interpretation of the theme here #but I'm trying to build up to something tomorrow #we'll see

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 31: Trick or Treat (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch31: Trick or Treat

“Mendeleiev had no right to send you there,” Luka bit.  She jumped when he slammed the fridge shut, the bottles in the door rattling from the force.

“She’s our boss,” she mumbled from where she was curled up on his couch.  “Head reaper.  I’m pretty sure that gives her every right.”

“Not there, Marinette.  Not tonight,” he said.  He came back out and handed her a bottle – sparkling water, the cherry flavored one she liked so much, she was relieved to see.  Drinking here – drinking with Luka, drinking after bad days, drinking anything stronger than sparkling water – tended to be…dangerous.  He sat down across from her when she took it, popping the lid on his own drink.  She almost smiled when she saw it was lemonade.  “Tomorrow’s Halloween.  Do you have any idea what happens on Halloween?”

“…kids go trick-or-treating, get hopped up on sugar, and terrorize their parents?” she guessed.  He choked on his drink, and she hid her smile with her knees.  “Sorry.”

“Yes, but no,” he laughed, shaking his head.  He put his drink down and turned to her, frowning.  “You show your face, Mari.  Your real face.”

She froze as his words sunk in.

“…my parents were at that party,” she whispered, and he nodded.

“They could have recognized you,” he said.  He sighed and reached for her, holding out his hand as he used the other to scrub at his eyes.  “Never mind the fucking haunted house.  I’m going to have words with her.”

“…I don’t understand why, though,” she said, shaking her head numbly.  “What’s…what’s so special about Halloween?  It’s just some stupid American craze.  Why does my face show?”

“It’s not just a ‘stupid American craze’, Marinette,” he said.  He wiggled his fingers at her again, and instead of taking his hand she put her drink on the table and threw herself at him, crawling into his lap.  He froze for a moment, but then he was wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.  Whatever this…whatever was between them, she was too tired to fight it tonight, and she found herself snuggling closer.  “It has deep roots.  Ancient roots.  In the Celtic festivals of Samhain.  Death gets a little closer to the living, and the veil thins just a bit more.”

“You sound like one of those crazy New Age people,” she mumbled into his chest.  His hand was absently combing through one of her pigtails, and he smiled as he gave it a gentle tug.

“Says the grim reaper,” he chuckled.  “I don’t know, Mari.  Some reapers say it’s just an old wives’ tale.  Most of us don’t seek out the people we knew to test it – or most of us can’t.  Fred…Fred did, though.  By accident.  Bumped into his daughter a few years back.  She…it didn’t end well.  Mylène fainted and hit her head on a bench.  Had to get checked out for trauma.”

“That’s horrible.  I think I prefer trick or treating,” Marinette said.  He hummed.  After a moment, she scrunched her hand in his shirt and turned to press her face against him.  He froze as she snuggled against him.  “Thank you.  For…for being there tonight.  For getting me out.”

“I hate that you were even put in that situation,” he grumbled, holding her closer.  “It was cruel.”

“But you were there, and it was…it was better,” she said.  Her fist tightened on his shirt, and she swallowed against the lump in her throat.  “…it’s always better.  With you.”

He sat up a bit, curling around her and holding her tighter.  Closer.  For a moment, she thought she felt his lips against her shoulder – against the bit of skin her collar revealed.  But…she had to be imagining that.

Right?

“I’ll always be there, Mari,” he whispered, and her heart stuttered in her chest.  She wondered at how quickly it could beat – how dizzy it could make her – when she was supposed to be dead.  When living things like beating hearts were supposed to be beyond her.  How Luka could make her feel like none of that mattered.

Like…like she could be alive again.

“Always.”

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #ml fic #ver fic #lbsc october minifics 2023 #to feel alive again #dlm lukanette au #dead like me au #it's ovar! #and somehow I tied it all together? #ha ha look at me acting like I had a plan #finger guns #give them a couple months and an impalement and they'll get to smoochies #who am i kidding that impalement is like two weeks from this isn't it #zero to sixty couffaine #😂😂😂

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 17: Garden (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch17: Garden

Luka had been right: it was a nice day for a ride.  Still, Marinette had been surprised when he led her outside to where his motorbike was parked.  She hadn’t even known he owned a bike, but really this was the first time she’d known any of them to go on a reap that wasn’t…well, immediately within the city.  Most places they needed to go could be reached by walking or taking the metro.

She’d had a scooter, when she was alive.  Her Nonna had gotten it for her for her sixteenth birthday, and she had kept it in pristine condition.  It wasn’t quite the same as riding on the back of her Nonna’s bike, but for Marinette’s purposes – getting around in the city – it had been perfect.

Riding with Luka had felt like riding with her Nonna again, except she had never found herself pressing closer to her Nonna’s back, or tucking her face against the back of her neck to sniff at her hair, or…

Marinette was starting to think she might be developing a little crush.

…when he took a bend too fast, tipping the bike too close to the pavement for her comfort, and she screamed and clung to him even tighter and he just laughed…she realized she definitely had developed a crush.

And it wasn’t exactly little.

“You ok?” he asked, still chuckling as he pulled into a parking space at the gardens.  He pulled his helmet off and looked back at her, and her breath caught in her throat as she saw the way he was grinning at her.  “Didn’t scare you too bad, did I?”

“…you’re a madman, Luka,” she said, tightening her arms around his waist.  His smile softened, and her heart stuttered in her chest when he dropped a hand to rest over hers.  His thumb slipped under the sleeve of her coat to brush against her wrist absently.

“Couffaine,” he said, as if that should explain everything.  Thinking back on some of Juleka’s stories about her family, she supposed it did.  He squeezed her hand and turned back to the gardens, nodding as he checked the clock on the tower above the entrance.  “We’ve got about half an hour before K. Truscott is supposed to go.  Let me try to find him, and then the rest of the day is yours.  Your reap was for this morning, right?  So we don’t need to head back right away?”

“…yeah,” she said.  He looked back over his shoulder and smiled at her, tapping a finger against her hands.

“So…shall we go?  Or did I scare you so bad your legs forgot how to work?” he teased.  She sucked in a breath – she definitely did not squeak – and scrambled off the bike, spluttering apologies as she tried to remove the helmet.  It felt stuck, though, and the more she fought with it the worse it got.  She stopped when she felt his hands batting hers away, his warm chuckle making her face burn.  “Easy, easy.”  When the helmet was off and she could see him without the visor, his smile softened.  “Better?”

“We…we should go find Truscott,” she said, swallowing thickly.  “That…that fucker’s not gonna reap himself, right?”

He was laughing again as he reached for her hand, nodding as he lead her away from the bike and towards the gardens.

It was maybe a little too late when Marinette realized, listening to his laugh and wondering at how his hand felt in hers, that she might be in trouble.

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #ml fic #ver fic #lbsc october minifics 2023 #dead like me au #dlm lukanette au #to feel alive again #dun dun duuuuuuunl #who fell first who fell harder #luka: i'm fucked #mari: i might be in trouble #they're idiots your honor

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 28: Rotting (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

I…kinda had this planned before things happened.  Slightly regretting this plotline now but determined to see it through.  I’m apologizing in advance.  I hate myself a little.

(…yeah I’m…forgive me if I don’t proof/edit this one, guys.  I couldn’t finish it without breaking down and I can’t read through it.)

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch28: Rotting

Bach snapping at Marinette was just the beginning.  Or, maybe, it was the continuation.

Because Luka loved Bach, but he couldn’t deny that something had been off with the dog ever since his owner had passed.  Ever since he was supposed to pass.

The little shit – the kid that was supposed to reap Bach, that Luka had technically stolen him from – had warned him.  You know what happens if I don’t.  And Luka did, but…Luka had chosen to ignore him anyway.  Because it had been a bad day.  Because he was sick of losing.  Because, just once, Luka wanted to choose life instead of the constant death that surrounded his undead existence.  Because Bach was special, and if anyone could defy the odds or fate or Death or whatever you wanted to call it…

But Bach was the gentlest soul Luka had ever met.

Bach never snapped at anyone – even when he’d been a young pup who couldn’t hear and should have snapped at things he felt threatened by.

Luka knew what it meant.

Luka didn’t like it.

Luka didn’t want it.

But Luka was powerless to stop it.

“I tried to warn you,” the brat said.  Luka kept his eyes on the fluffy head on his lap, his mouth twisting as he continued to run his hand along Bach’s fur.  He’d almost look like he was sleeping, if you didn’t know any better.

But Luka was a reaper.

Luka always knew better.

“…just take him and go, you asshole,” he said gruffly.  The kid walked over and bent down, scratching by Bach’s hind legs.  The dog gave a shiver, and then he slumped against Luka.

It was too easy to pretend Bach was fine.

Luka was so sick of pretending.

He heard a great woof, and he looked up to find Bach’s spirit standing with his back to him, his tail wagging as, across the cemetery, shimmering lights appeared.  If Luka squinted just right, he could almost pretend he could see Quick waiting on the other side.

“Bach!  C’mere, boy!” he thought he heard her call, and Bach gave another great, happy woof before bounding off towards the lights, his tail wagging all the while.

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #bach the dog #ml fic #ver fic #lbsc october minifics 2023 #to feel alive again #dlm lukanette au #dead like me au #pet death #dog death #the dog dies #I'm regretting this plotline #sorry quick #sorry bach #good boys

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 27: Forest (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

...I actually have a WIP that says what happens to Dingo in the DLM AU, but it's been festering for Reasons.  I should go back and try to finish it up.  I think y'all would like what becomes of him.  😂

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch27: Forest

“So…” she started, picking up a jigsaw piece and studying the edges before putting it back down.

“So…?” Luka asked, tapping the piece he’d been contemplating for the past few minutes against the table.  He glanced up from the puzzle of a forest cabin they were trying to put together.  He caught her eye and quirked a brow at her.  She looked back at the puzzle and snapped the piece in her hand into place.

“…why did Théo want you to help him with a séance, anyway?” she asked.  He sighed and tossed the piece in his hand back into the pile.  He took another handful and started sorting out darker green pieces.

“Friend’s mom died,” he said absently.  “Théo thought he could use me for information.”

“…you have friends?” she teased.  He looked up, a frown on his face.

“Hey,” he said, faking a pout.  At least…she was pretty sure he was faking.  “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“I meant besides me?” she teased, sticking her tongue out.  He chuckled and snapped another piece into place.

“Fair.  Friend from before,” he said.  “I haven’t spoken to him in ten years, but…doesn’t mean I’m going to torment him now.”

“Told you you were a softie,” she said with a giggle.  She reached over by her chair, sinking her hand into Bach’s fluff for a scratch.  “Isn’t he, Ba-agh!”

She jerked back, and Luka jumped up as Bach rounded on her, snapping at her hand.  He sunk away from her, snarling, as she crawled up into her chair, her hand clutched to her chest.  Bach gave a final, defensive bark before darting back towards Luka’s bedroom.  She looked up at Luka, shaking.

“…are you all right?” he asked, and she swallowed thickly before nodding.  She wasn’t honestly sure if she was, though.

She wasn’t sure Bach was, either.

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #bach the dog #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #ml fic #ver fic #lbsc october minifics 2023 #to feel alive again #dead like me au #dlm lukanette au #whistling innocently #whistling dixie

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 26: Séance (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

Daisy, Daisy Adair, for those unfamiliar with the show, is a reaper who comes in to replace my favorite another reaper about six episodes into S1.  She’s the self-proclaimed Queen of the Blow Job and uses that bluster to mask a lot of negative self-feelings.  She’s beautifully tragic, once you get past the “I miss Betty and don’t like you” of her.

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch26: Séance

“No.”

“But –”

“No.”

Marinette paused, Luka’s front door open barely a crack, and listened to the irritated voices inside.  Well.  Luka sounded irritated.  The other voice – Théo, she was pretty sure – just sounded annoyed.  Whiney.

“Luka, friend -” Théo tried again, just for Luka to cut him off with  a harsh we’re not friends, “– be reasonable!”

“I am being reasonable,” Luka huffed.  Théo tutted.

“All right, be adventurous then!” he cried.  Luka snorted.  She heard movement closer to the door and bit her lip before taking a nervous step back.  She needed to knock.  She needed to –

“I made a friend and saved a dog from the accident that was supposed to kill him,” Luka snorted, his voice closer.  “Now I have a graveling infestation and a shedding problem.  I think I’ve been adventurous enough this year.”

Marinette paused again, her hand raised to knock.  A graveling infestation?  What was Luka talking about?

“Don’t do it for you, then – do it for me,” Théo wheedled.  “I need money, Luka!”

“Then get a fucking job,” Luka bit.

“That’s what I’m trying to do!” Théo cried.  There was a rattling slam on the other side – like Luka had just slammed the fridge door closed.

“A legitimate job, dumbass,” he spat.

“It is legitimate!  Daisy said she does this all the time!” Théo said.  “One hundred percent foolproof!  Grieving families will shell out hundreds for a message from beyond – and you knew the beyond personally!”

“…Daisy?” Luka asked, sounding incredulous.  “That’s your ‘foolproof source’?  Théo, that girl was –”

“A genius, I know,” Théo said, and Luka scoffed.

“I was going to say slut, but apparently that’s too insensitive these days,” he said.

“You only say that because you never took her up on her offer,” Théo snorted, and Marinette found herself pausing again.  “She was quite talented, my friend.  Might have loosened your tight ass up for once.”

“…we’re not friends, and my ass is just fine,” Luka bit.  “And I call her a slut because of her…’offer’.  Jesus Christ, Théo, don’t you remember the shit she caused the month she was here?  Mendeleiev was a nightmare for months after she left.  Do not instigate anything.”

“I’m not instigating – I’m – whoa!” Théo yelped, and the next thing Marinette knew the door was being thrown open and Bach was jumping on her with a deep, excited woof.  She fell back, her butt hitting the carpeted floor, then fell back again as Bach crawled on top of her, snuffling and woofing at her as he tried to lick her face.

“Bach, Bach, easy!” she laughed, even though she knew the poor guy couldn’t hear her.  She looked up, panting, once she finally got him to step back and saw Luka grinning down at her.

“You are a sight for sore eyes,” he said, hooking a hand under Bach’s collar to tug him back and extending another to help her up.  Théo was at his side before she could say anything, a slimier grin on his face.

“Marinette!  What a surprise.  Come here often, pet?” he asked, and she pursed her lips as he leaned towards her.  When she didn’t answer, he sighed and turned towards Luka.  “Think about it?  I’m willing to do an even split.  Fifty-fifty.”

“I’m not faking a séance with you, Barbot, and if you dare even try I will tell Mendeleiev,” Luka said, no room for debate in his voice.  Marinette’s eyebrows rose in shock.  “Especially if you try it with that family.  Have some respect for the dead, you ass.”

Théo just rolled his eyes, nodded towards Marinette, and strolled down the hall, whistling.  Marinette looked back at Luka, frowning.

“…séance?” she asked, and he groaned as he ushered her inside.

“Don’t ask,”’ he sighed.  “Théo’s an idiot.  Your company is much preferred.”

She smiled as he closed the door behind her, and he froze when she leaned up to kiss his cheek.

“Your company’s preferred, too,” she said, humming happily as she took Bach from him and headed towards the kitchen.  When she glanced back at him, he was still standing by the door, a dumbstruck smile on his face.

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #theo barbot #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #ml fic #ver fic #lbsc october minifics 2023 #to feel alive again #dlm lukanette au #dead like me au #as soon as daisy found out luka was jagged's son you know she was on him like stink on skunk #luka wanted nothing to do with her #he just wanted to be left alone #her and theo were probably fuckbuddies the entire time she was in paris

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 15: Pattern (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch15: Pattern

As a general rule, reapers don’t sleep well.  It’s a bit psychological, with the baggage from their unlife hanging around and fucking with their heads, and maybe a bit biological, too.  Like how their metabolisms were amped up to make it difficult to get drunk.  For whatever reason, most reapers were used to surviving on only a few hours of sleep a night if that.

Marinette had been surviving on even less lately, though.  If Luka had to guess.  So when they were halfway through the pizza and twenty minutes into Tangled, it shouldn’t have surprised him to look down and find Marinette’s face tucked against his neck, fast asleep.

…it surprised him a bit more to blink his eyes open to early morning sunlight streaming through the blinds the next day.  He didn’t remember falling asleep.  He was pretty sure Tangled had been over and he’d started the next movie in the queue.  He couldn’t remember what that movie was, though.  He definitely didn’t remember sliding down the couch or Marinette crawling on top of him.

She was still fast asleep.  Judging from the light outside, they’d have to get up soon.  They still had to meet the others for breakfast.  A quick check of his phone showed they had maybe an hour and a half to get there.  He turned back to her and wondered if he should wake her now or just…try to get up without disturbing her.  He could get a shower.  Let her sleep.

She mumbled something incoherent, and her fingers twisted in his shirt.  She turned her face away from the sun, and his breath caught as he noticed the way the light caught in her hair.  Her bedhead was nowhere near as bad as his own, but there were still enough flyway strands to create a sort of squiggly halo around her head.  He only noticed how he was touching her – drawing absent little patterns on the warm skin of her arm – when he lifted his hand to smooth her hair down.  She turned towards him, mumbling in her sleep.  Her breath was too warm against his neck, but it made him shiver all the same.

It was in that moment, in the quiet stillness of the early dawn with Marinette sound asleep on his chest, that Luka realized he was well and truly fucked.

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #lbsc october minifics 2023 #ml fic #ver fic #to feel alive again #dead like me au #dlm lukanette au #sleepy snuggles #uh oh boy grew a heart #he caught feelings #it's ok lulu you were steamrolling down this path anyway #always are #🖤

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 14: Mushroom (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

For a brief moment – like the teeny tiniest of moments – I was considering the logistics of  getting Mason to France and really having fun with ‘mushrooms’.  It would have been very easy, actually, but…I couldn’t do that to Luka.  I already stuck him with Dingo.  😂

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch14: Mushroom

“…I’m hungry,” Marinette said about halfway through the second movie.  They had both agreed horror was…probably not the best option, and they had abandoned the DVDs to find something on a streaming service.  He hadn’t really complained when she’d pulled up Finding Nemo.  She hadn’t really crawled off of him yet, either, though her head was now resting on his shoulder instead of hiding in his chest.  She hadn’t said anything about it yet, though, so he wasn’t going to, either.  She peeked up at him, and he tried not to notice the way she was biting on her lip.  “Are you hungry?”

“I could eat,” he said.  “You brought popcorn, right?”

“I’m hungry,” she said.  “For food, not snacks.  Want a pizza?  I’ll buy.”

His nose wrinkled.

“I’m not a big fan of pizza,” he said.  Her eyebrows rose.

“Seriously?  Everybody loves pizza,” she said.  He chuckled and tugged on a pigtail.  He wasn’t sure when his arm had moved around her shoulders, or when he’d started playing with her hair, but she hadn’t asked him to stop, so…

“I used to deliver pizzas,” he said.  “When I was a kid.  It was a lifetime ago, and I actually loved that job, but it turned me off pizza for life.”

“My papa used to make the best pizzas,” she said, sighing.  “He grew his own toppings and everything.  There was one summer he went a bit crazy and grew like fifteen different types of mushrooms.  I don’t think I ate mushrooms for a year after that, but it was a pretty good pizza.”

“…ew,” Luka said, his nose wrinkling again.  “I hate mushrooms.”

“Seriously?” she laughed, and he shrugged.

“They grow in shit,” he said.  She laughed harder.

“Most things do,” she said.  “It’s called fertilizer and it’s really good for plants.”

“It’s called bacteria and it stinks,” he said.  She rolled her eyes and pushed away from him.  He tried to tell himself he didn’t miss her weight and warmth against him.

“Ok, then, monsieur,” she said, lifting her arms above her head in a stretch.  “What would you have me order, then?”

“…your ma’s Chinese, right?” he asked.  She nodded, but she looked confused.  “Any good Chinese places you won’t be personally offended by?”

She snorted and reached for her phone, pulling up a delivery app.

“Only if you order the crab Rangoon,” she snorted, looking up from phone.  “That’s not Chinese, Luka.”

“Ok, ok,” he laughed, stretching himself before pushing himself up from the couch.  “I need to hit the bathroom.  Order what you want.  Just, please, no mushrooms if you get pizza.”

He was down the hall and about to close the door on the bathroom when she called after him, and he almost smiled at the teasing note in her voice.

“Ok, no mushrooms – how do you feel about bananas?”

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #lbsc october minifics 2023 #ml fic #ver fic #to feel alive again #dlm lukanette au #dead like me au #the other option was mason got himself suuuuuper fucked up at an airport reap #fell into a baggage cart and somehow ended up in storage #flew all the way to france and desperately sought out the nearest head reaper he could find #who happens to be philece #he stays with luka for a few days until george can come collect him #look this fic was about to take a whole new turn I'm not even joking 😂 #some au of an au that totally happened #mason mason mason

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 9: Funeral (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

Death isn't fair. It's just death. (Continuing from Ch8: Under the Bed.)

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Ch9: Funeral

Luka glanced up as the door opened.  An older couple walked in, shaking off the chill of the morning before heading towards a table on the other side of the café.  He watched the door for a moment longer before looking back to his half-eaten eggs.  They were cold now, anyway – as was the small plate of bacon he had ordered for…

“I told you she wasn’t coming,” Fred sighed, tucking his paper under his arm and draining his coffee.  Luka looked up as he stood, a frown on his face.

“What?” he asked.  Fred gave him a sympathetic smile that didn’t entirely sit right with him before clapping a hand on his shoulder.

“Give her time,” he said.  “She had…she’ll be fine.”

“She better be back tomorrow,” Mendeleiev sniffed.  She held a post-it out to Fred.  “Give this to her for me.  It’s for this evening, so she has plenty of time to get her shit together.”

“Philece,” Fred said, a note of warning in his voice, but Mendeleiev raised her eyes and cocked an unimpressed eyebrow over her black glasses.

“She’s had more than enough time,” Mendeleiev said.  “She needs to get back to work.”

“It’s been three days,” Fred said.  Luka’s brow furrowed, his eyes darting between the two.

“It’s part of the job,” Mendeleiev countered.  “Kid’s gotta toughen up.”

“…what did you do?” Luka asked, his eyes narrowed at their ‘boss’.  Mendeleiev sipped her coffee, ignoring him.  “Damn it, Mendeleiev.  What the hell did you do?”

“I did what I always do,” she snapped, looking up at him.  “I gave her an assignment.”

Luka thought back to the last time he had seen Marinette, that morning Mendeleiev had asked her to stay.  To talk.  She had caught up with him a few minutes later, but she had been vague about their conversation.  He had gotten the impression that wasn’t so much because Mendeleiev had done something as it was Marinette just hadn’t understood Mendeleiev’s…advice?  He wasn’t even sure.  Marinette wouldn’t tell him what Mendeleiev had wanted to say to her.

They’d parted ways as he’d headed towards work and she’d headed towards her reap.

She hadn’t been at breakfast the next day, and Fred had been quiet about why.  Fred was always quiet, but he’d been uncharacteristically so that day.

She hadn’t been to breakfast since, but no one had commented about her absence.  Luka had just assumed she’d had a few early morning reaps.  He hadn’t thought something had actually been wrong.

“The funeral’s today, Philece,” Fred said, putting the post-it back on the table.  “Don’t do this.”

“…you’re shitting me,” Mendeleiev said, her eyes snapping up to him.  She looked furious.  “She’s going?”

“Of course she’s going,” Fred said, as if anything less was absurd.  “She’s the best of all of us, Philece.  You knew that when you sent her in.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Mendeleiev sighed, rubbing her temples.  “That absolute fucking idiot…”

“I’ll talk to her when she gets home,” Fred said.  “Just…one more day.  She has to feel this, Philece.  You can give her one more day.”

Mendeleiev stood, grabbed her planner and puzzle book, and glared at Fred.

“She better be here tomorrow, Frederik,” she said.  “Even if you have to drag her here by those ridiculous little pigtails of hers.  Fucking moron.”

Luka watched as she stalked out of the café, muttering darkly under her breath the entire time.  When the door slammed behind her, rattling the plate glass in its frame, he turned back to Fred.

“…what did she do?” he asked, his brow still furrowed.  Fred sighed and picked up the post-it, tucking it into his paper.  “Fred.”

“She had Marinette reap a kid,” Fred said.  Luka frowned, not understanding.  That was nothing new: kids were ridiculously accident-prone, and they were External Influences, after all.  It wasn’t the first kid she’d reaped, and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last.  Seeing his  confusion, Fred tipped his head towards him.  “Homicide, Luka.  The father got drunk and beat the girl to death.  And Marinette had to sit back and let it happen.”

“…fuck,” Luka breathed, his eyes closing as he hung his head.  He opened them a moment later to see the untouched bacon on the table.  He suddenly wasn’t very hungry anymore, either.  “Fuck.”

“Philece is right, of course,” Fred sighed, reaching up to adjust his hat.  Luka cracked an eye open and stared at him, and he held up a hand in defense.  “But so is Marinette.  Philece has been dead longer than all of us, Luka.  I think…it’s easy to desensitize yourself to these things.  I think we have to, in order to keep our sanity.  When you feel like they do.”

“Mendeleiev doesn’t have half the heart Marinette does, Fred, and you damn well know it,” Luka snorted.  Fred gave him a bittersweet smile.

“You forget, Luka,” he said.  “Philece was a teacher once.  A caretaker.  I’m sure she cried over her first child, too.”

Luka knew he was right.  Luka knew there had been a human, once, under Mendeleiev’s layers and layers of armor.  He had never known that person, though.  Mendeleiev had been a bitch since the moment he met her, and it was hard thinking of someone like Philece Mendeleiev as having compassion towards…well, anyone.

…but Luka also remembered his first kid.  His first few years of this unlife.  Before he’d learned the only way to survive death was to close yourself off from the harder truths of the world.

He remembered crying over P. Monroe, Champs- Élysées, E.T.D. 1436.

It wasn’t always so black and white, this unlife of theirs.

“Is she ok?” he finally asked, looking up at Fred.  The older reaper smiled sadly, shaking his head.

“Would you be?” he asked, and Luka looked back to his unfinished breakfast.  Away from that pitying look in Fred’s eyes.  “Give her time, Luka.  She’ll be fine.”

…for her sake, Luka almost hoped she wouldn’t.

#miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #fred haprele #ms. mendeleiev #mendeleiev #marinette dupain-cheng #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #lbsc october minifics 2023 #ml fic #ver fic #to feel alive again #tw: child death #dead like me au #dlm lukanette au

[verfound]

MINIFIC: Oct. 23: Day 2: Many (MLB, Lukanette, DLM AU)

Continuing from Day 1 (Autumn).

For @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers October Minific Challenge 2023.

Read on Ao3

To Feel Alive Again: Day 2: Many

“Can you knock it off?”

Marinette jumped as a tupperware container – one she had left outside Luka’s door earlier that morning – was dropped onto the table in front of her.  She looked up at him, feigned innocence on her face, and he scowled.

“Knock it off,” he said, shoving Théo over to make room in the booth for himself.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, picking at the ribbed cuffs of the sweater she hadn’t taken off since she’d found it on her bed.  That had been a few weeks ago.

“Bullshit,” he said, his eyes narrowing at her.  “It’s too much, Marinette.  I know how much eggs and butter cost.  It’s too much.”

“Says the guy who…” she started, but he cocked an eyebrow at her and she turned back to the window, frowning.  Beside her, Fred hid his smirk behind his coffee cup.  Besides Fred’s little slip up that Luka had been the one to drop the sweater off, they had never actually talked about it.  He had never owned up to making it, and she had never pressed.  Besides a random comment that it looked nice on her the first day she’d worn it to breakfast, he’d mostly ignored its existence.  “…whatever.  Can’t even let a girl say thank you.  Butthead.”

“…you can call me an asshole,” he said.  She whipped her head around, her mouth opening in protest, but then she saw he was smirking – and stealing her bacon.  He glanced up at her, his smirk disappearing as he leveled her with a pointed look.  “As long as you stop leaving baked goods outside my door.  My neighbors are starting to get suspicious.”

“This was too much, Luka,” she said, her fingers picking at the neck of her sweater.  He filched a piece of cantaloupe from Théo’s plate.

“You didn’t like the coat,” he said, shrugging.  “Do you like that?”

“I love it,” she whispered, her hand fisting in the material.  She swallowed around the lump in her throat and offered him a hesitant smile.  “Asshole.”

“Good,” he said.  Mendeleiev slapped his hand away when he went for one of her strawberries.  He looked up at Marinette with an equally hesitant smile.  “Than it wasn’t too much.”

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