First, I'm SO sorry this took so long! The chapters I have to read and write essays on for history class keep getting longer, and, if possible, more boring. Also, I was trying to write a platonic ship and...it's gonna be fairly long. Longer than the norm, I can tell. I finally abandoned it FOR NOW to write this, which is shorter and therefore out sooner.
Anyway, if you checked my profile you already knew about the Homework Hiatus. But now it's Christmas break, which means no homework! I *thought* it would also mean lots of reading/writing fanfiction, and working on my novel. Instead, it means lots of coughing, gallons of peppermint tea, and lots of sleep. I thought being sick would mean being in bed and on my phone, meaning lots of writing and updates, but then my body threw in some vertigo. That made it a little harder to write. But I *coughing fit* ...I emerge victorious. Ish.
...I got this out, okay!?
Yes. The ship name here sucks. But I decided I would combine first names for the ship names for every fic in this series. Marose is better than, say, Rosemarc or Marcrose or Rarc or something. (Those make me think of rosemary, macramé, and that cute sound my cat makes, respectively.) Also, "Marose" sounds kind of like "my Rose", doesn't it?
Ship credit: retroGrape.
MAROSE
Fluttery, airheaded, chatterbox Rose.
Quiet, steady, calm Marc.
They balanced each other out nicely.
Juleka and Nathaniel had seen the looks- and the ice cream.
The only ones who couldn't tell were Rose and Marc.
Juleka and Nathaniel tried gently pushing them together when Juleka asked Rose to come with her to pick Nathaniel up. From the studio where he was, completely by coincidence, working with Marc on their graphic novel.
(Juleka hadn't thought any couple could be more oblivious than Adrienette. Nathaniel said Marose were giving them a run for their money. Juleka gave her boyfriend a Strange Look. Nathaniel shrugged and said it sounded like "My Rose", which was wordplay Marc, being a writer, would enjoy. And anyways, it was better than Rarc. Juleka had to agree.)
(Then something occurred to Juleka, and she asked if ship names should be referred to as two people. Nathaniel pointed out that they were two people. Juleka said it was only one name. Nathaniel threw up his hands and declared that he was an artist, not a writer. He shouldn't be expected to know all the grammar details. Juleka suspected that sentence wasn't grammatically correct either, but she kissed him anyway.)
(That ended the conversation.)
"I don't get it," Rose told Marc.
Marc did not answer. Rose was worried that meant he didn't like her. She didn't like people not liking her.
Since Marc didn't ask get what, Rose continued her thought. "Why Jules and Nathaniel keep leaving us alone together. Juleka doesn't normally do things like that. I don't get it."
Marc rolled his eyes. He'd read this trick, or similar ones, in a thousand books. Clearly, Nath didn't know that, or he'd have tried something more subtle. This would never work. It only ever worked when the couple didn't know what their friends were doing.
(Which was all the time, because fictional people never read books.)
...Besides, even if Marc didn't already know what Nath and his girlfriend were up to, he'd hoped Nath would have more faith in him than that! This was the…
Marc opened his notebook, scanning for his tally marks and adding another. It was the twentieth time.
(Plus, Nath had illustrated a Ladynoir scene exactly like this -that Marc had written- just last week.)
(...Nope, Marc was now positive that his friend thought he was an absolute dunce. Where did he think Marc's inspiration there came from? 'Write what you know', and all that.)
"...Why aren't you talking to me?" came Rose's voice. "Are you deaf? Can you even hear me?"
...and now she was talking into his ear, oh god help him.
"I know your secret," Rose told Marinette when she came to unlock the classroom.
Marinette giggled nervously. "What secret? I don't have any secrets? What's a secret?"
"You like Marc, and you want me to ask him out for you!" Rose proclaimed triumphantly.
Marc froze.
Marinette laughed. "Oh, that, haha, no, not true, you know I love Adrien."
Marc grinned, the look of someone with blackmail material. Marinette noticed.
"M-Marc, what are you looking at me like that for…"
"Tell me what the hell is up with everybody in our class. Tell me why they have gone insane, or I will tell Adrien."
Marinette never stopped to think that maybe this would be a relatively painless way of telling Adrien about her crush. "JulekaandNathanielthinkyoutwoareperfectforeachotherandaretryingtosetyouupandropedtherestofusgirlsintoit!" she blurted.
Rose tapped her chin. "Huh. That explains it."
Marc stared, bewildered. "Really? That's it?" He began to laugh.
Marinette peeked at him. "You're not mad?"
Marc laughed. "I mean, I thought there was more, because that is just so clichéd and I thought Nath was better than that, but no, I'm not mad. Not at you. Not about shutting me and Rose up together over and over. I'm mad at Nathaniel for thinking I'm that stupid!"
"Well, it didn't work," Rose said.
"Mm-hm," said Marinette.
Rose's cheeks darkened. "It didn't!"
Marc sighed.
"Are you sure?" asked Marinette. "Juleka really wanted it to work…"
Marc glanced at Rose. "Hey, Rose, do you want to go on a date?"
Rose looked very confused, but nodded.
Marc looked back at Marinette. "There. Now you can tell Juleka it worked."
So she did, and everybody thought it was over.
Everybody except Marc and Rose.
The first question Marc asked Rose when they were eating was, "So. How do you think we should get back at them?"
Rose stared at him.
"For locking us in a room. I vote that we lock each couple in a room, in the most awkward way we can manage."
Rose began to grin.
"Rose!" Juleka cried. "Rose, let us out!"
Rose just watched as the dog (Burmese mountain dog) gave Juleka an enormous kiss. Nathaniel gagged.
"This is terrible," Alya groaned. "Someone else will get my scoop!"
"And LB gave someone else our Miraculous because she couldn't find us," Nino whispered.
(Neither Rose nor Marc heard that part, of course. They just knew that Rena Rouge and Carapace had been temporarily replaced by a pixie-cut-blonde fox named Vixen and a dark-haired turtle named Snapper.)
Marinette groaned, banging her head on the wall uselessly.
"This window's locked too," Adrien called.
"I really need to go to the bathroom!" Marinette shot a sideways glance out the window, which had a perfect view of the blue-skinned man bellowing "Bring me your Miraculous!"
"You might not have a choice," Tikki whispered to Marinette.
"Don't you want Pigtails to know you're Chat Noir?" Plagg teased.
"No!" both holders hissed in unconscious unison.
They were different in many ways, but Marc and Rose shared a sense of humor, it seemed.
Similar senses of humor such as, say, a shared love of practical jokes, are not a solid foundation for a relationship. Not according to some.
Rose and Marc would tell you anything can be a solid foundation. Their proof? Their own relationship, which lasted a solid thirty years before Marc disappeared on a book tour and Rose tried to convince Ladybug to loan her the Dog Miraculous...but that's another story.
Yes, Rose and Marc balanced each other out very nicely.
Very nicely indeed, in-very-deed.
How was it? Everyone in character?