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soc_puppet) wrote2021-04-05 12:44 am
soc_puppet) wrote2021-04-05 12:44 am
Entry tags:
Fic snippet
[Opening stuff here just needs more setup that explains how Marinette didn't get away before she was Truth Beam'd, etc.]
The giant eye's beam hits her, and Marinette is frozen in place. "Tell me the truth," Verity-Luka commands, and he throws a light into her chest; the magic gleams across her lips, ready to illuminate what she would rather hide. "What is your secret?"
The secret they were just talking about, the one truth she can never share with him, fights its way to her lips, and she fights back against it. She cannot allow herself to reveal her secret identity; she will not allow it! With her most dangerous secret trapped behind her teeth, a different one worms its way free: "I always feel like I'm cheating when I'm with you!" flies forth, surprising her as much as it seems to surprise Luka. "Whenever I'm with you, a part of me is always thinking of Adrien," her mouth continues without her, revealing something she had tried to keep as much from herself as anyone else. "But whenever I get to spend time alone with him, I start to think of you! And sometimes when I'm with one of you or both of you, I start to think of Kagami! Not just innocent things like hanging out, but hugging and kissing and being together! But I know I can only pick one, and they—"
At that moment, the floating eye above her squeezes closed; freed from its paralyzing influence, Marinette's head snaps to the left, drawn by the movement there and away from Luka's still shocked expression (and surely it will be disappointed at any moment now; surely he never could have meant that he was okay with her still loving Adrien, because who could be okay with that?) to where Cat Noir has extended his baton like a billiards cue to deflect the eye. "Run, Marinette!" Cat shouts. Marinette's first steps are stumbling, but she falls quickly into a running gait as she escapes to a discreet alleyway. There she catches her breath, heart hammering in her throat, cheeks burning with exertion and shame.
"Marinette, are you okay?" Tikki asks, her tiny voice ringing with concern.
Marinette coughs and wipes traces of water away from her eyes. "No," she says, "I don't think so. But I don't have time to not be okay; Paris needs Ladybug. Tikki, spots on!" Marinette allows the transformation to wash away guilt and shame, leans into her identity as Ladybug to distance herself from Marinette's problems. She has a job to do.
-----
[Something something something. Then, after the fight, after the akuma has been purified and Paris set back the way it was, Marinette tracks down Luka.] "I told you this before, but we were both under outside influence. It's important for me to tell you this now, when it's my choice and when you can remember it and decide how you feel about it. I only hope... Well. If worse comes to worst, Ladybug probably isn't too far away yet, and she's always managed to set Paris right before, even if there's no way she can set us right after this." Or along those lines. [Side note, she knows Cat Noir is near-by; she told him that she talked to Marinette, and Marinette has some potentially bad news to deliver to Luka, so if he could be prepared...]
In any case, Marinette still can't tell Luka her most dangerous truth, but she thinks this one may be just as important, for all she tried to escape it before today. She's ready to face the consequences of telling him.
Luka, of course, already knows that Marinette loves Adrien, is still fine with it. He's a little bit surprised by the Kagami thing, but it does put one or two of Juleka's comments into context. He doesn't mind if she loves them, even if they somehow work something out and start dating—as long as she she loves him, too. [Possibly some metaphor here about how her melody has lots of notes that harmonize really well?]
Marinette rushes forward and kisses him, finally, finally! Of course she loves him, she says when she pulls back, "of course I do." And then it's his turn to kiss her, and the music under the bridge swirls around them in time with the beating of their hearts.
They work out something after that; mostly they agree on shorter dates, and when Luka looks up polyamory on the internet, prints out information at the library to share with Marinette, she wraps herself in his arms and cries, so relieved at last to know that she's not alone, not broken or irredeemable, that she can build a happy future with people she loves and who love her in return.
[That's roughly how it goes; gotta do that sleep thing again, but hopefully I'll work out more over the next few days or so.]
The giant eye's beam hits her, and Marinette is frozen in place. "Tell me the truth," Verity-Luka commands, and he throws a light into her chest; the magic gleams across her lips, ready to illuminate what she would rather hide. "What is your secret?"
The secret they were just talking about, the one truth she can never share with him, fights its way to her lips, and she fights back against it. She cannot allow herself to reveal her secret identity; she will not allow it! With her most dangerous secret trapped behind her teeth, a different one worms its way free: "I always feel like I'm cheating when I'm with you!" flies forth, surprising her as much as it seems to surprise Luka. "Whenever I'm with you, a part of me is always thinking of Adrien," her mouth continues without her, revealing something she had tried to keep as much from herself as anyone else. "But whenever I get to spend time alone with him, I start to think of you! And sometimes when I'm with one of you or both of you, I start to think of Kagami! Not just innocent things like hanging out, but hugging and kissing and being together! But I know I can only pick one, and they—"
At that moment, the floating eye above her squeezes closed; freed from its paralyzing influence, Marinette's head snaps to the left, drawn by the movement there and away from Luka's still shocked expression (and surely it will be disappointed at any moment now; surely he never could have meant that he was okay with her still loving Adrien, because who could be okay with that?) to where Cat Noir has extended his baton like a billiards cue to deflect the eye. "Run, Marinette!" Cat shouts. Marinette's first steps are stumbling, but she falls quickly into a running gait as she escapes to a discreet alleyway. There she catches her breath, heart hammering in her throat, cheeks burning with exertion and shame.
"Marinette, are you okay?" Tikki asks, her tiny voice ringing with concern.
Marinette coughs and wipes traces of water away from her eyes. "No," she says, "I don't think so. But I don't have time to not be okay; Paris needs Ladybug. Tikki, spots on!" Marinette allows the transformation to wash away guilt and shame, leans into her identity as Ladybug to distance herself from Marinette's problems. She has a job to do.
-----
[Something something something. Then, after the fight, after the akuma has been purified and Paris set back the way it was, Marinette tracks down Luka.] "I told you this before, but we were both under outside influence. It's important for me to tell you this now, when it's my choice and when you can remember it and decide how you feel about it. I only hope... Well. If worse comes to worst, Ladybug probably isn't too far away yet, and she's always managed to set Paris right before, even if there's no way she can set us right after this." Or along those lines. [Side note, she knows Cat Noir is near-by; she told him that she talked to Marinette, and Marinette has some potentially bad news to deliver to Luka, so if he could be prepared...]
In any case, Marinette still can't tell Luka her most dangerous truth, but she thinks this one may be just as important, for all she tried to escape it before today. She's ready to face the consequences of telling him.
Luka, of course, already knows that Marinette loves Adrien, is still fine with it. He's a little bit surprised by the Kagami thing, but it does put one or two of Juleka's comments into context. He doesn't mind if she loves them, even if they somehow work something out and start dating—as long as she she loves him, too. [Possibly some metaphor here about how her melody has lots of notes that harmonize really well?]
Marinette rushes forward and kisses him, finally, finally! Of course she loves him, she says when she pulls back, "of course I do." And then it's his turn to kiss her, and the music under the bridge swirls around them in time with the beating of their hearts.
They work out something after that; mostly they agree on shorter dates, and when Luka looks up polyamory on the internet, prints out information at the library to share with Marinette, she wraps herself in his arms and cries, so relieved at last to know that she's not alone, not broken or irredeemable, that she can build a happy future with people she loves and who love her in return.
[That's roughly how it goes; gotta do that sleep thing again, but hopefully I'll work out more over the next few days or so.]
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I have one proposed edit:
"[…] think of Kagami or Alya! […]"
optional extension 1: she knows she can only pick one, and she can't pick Alya because Nino
optional extension 2, supposing (a) she knows about Adrigami and (b1) so does everyone else (b2) so do Gabriel and Tomoe, and no one present is untrustworthy enough to tell a gossip rag, except Hawkmoth (who probably wouldn't see any advantage in that anyway) (b3) she's been sworn to secrecy about Adrigami, or she isn't supposed to know they're dating either, and it's more important to her to protect Ladybug's secrets than Adrien's or Kagami's, she's very sorry: she knows she can only pick one, and she can't pick either Adrien or Kagami because the other one
of course if the polycule you're thinking is only the four you mentioned, then by all means ignore me
no subject
Anyway, I'm not saying that Alyanette is definitely a no for this universe, but if Marinette is interested in Alya romantically, she's got it buried even deeper than her budding polyam feels.
Her motivation for deciding to date Luka of the three was a good chunk because Adrien and Kagami were also interested in each other; they won't end up sad or alone if she dates someone else. Luka, as far as she knows, is only interested in her, and she's interested in him as well, even if she's also interested in at least two more people. She really, desperately wants it to work, and is hoping that seeing Adrien and Kagami happy together as well as being with Luka will help settle her heart on just one person: The person she chose, rather than the ones she gave up. It's not working as well as she'd like!
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I'm here for this.
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