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It’s been three weeks and two days since the reveal, and Marinette has come up with a perfect solution for the horde of Adrien’s fans currently chasing them: fake dating! But as soon as she introduces her parents to her new “boyfriend,” her plan falls to pieces. Rated G, 3,500 words.

***

Adrien skidded around another corner, Marinette at his heels. He couldn’t imagine how she was still smiling as they ran, but she was, broad and bright, like they were racing across the rooftops to the nearest landmark, instead of running from a horde of his frothing fangirls. Their shrieks and screams echoed in his ears.

Marinette’s hair whipped behind her. The wind caught her laughter. Their arms pumped in unison.

And a stitch pounded painfully in his side. Even with the conditioning of basketball, fencing, and superheroing, he was getting winded. Shouldn’t the fans be tired by now? How were they keeping up?

This was the second time he’d been chased down like this. And just like last time, Marinette was with him.

They’d revealed their identities three weeks and two days ago, and she’d been glued to his side ever since. Mostly, it’d been great, though he wished he hadn’t dragged her into this, even though she didn’t seem to mind.

With a shout and a gleeful smile, Marinette knocked over a trash can as she ran, spilling garbage across the sidewalk behind them.

“Litter-ing, my lady?”

Her groan turned into a gasp for breath.

“It’ll slow them down,” she puffed out a few seconds later.

He wanted to tell her that it was a brilliant plan, sure to secure their safe escape, but he bit his tongue. It had been three weeks and two days since he had last flirted with her. Ladybug had always made it clear that she didn’t return his feelings, and Marinette was so far out of his league. He’d just push her away if he tried again. And much more than their personal relationship was at stake now. So instead he said, “Good idea. Got any others?”

“Sure. Get a girlfriend.”

Adrien tripped on a gash in the pavement but caught himself before crashing face-first into the street. “W-what?”

“You don’t understand” : [Part 1-1] , [Part 1-2] , [Part 2-1] , [Part 2-2], [Part 3-1] , [Part 3-2: here] ,  [Part 4-1: work in progress]

Part 3 is finally finished! Thank you for your patience and support, it means a lot to me!

If your dialog feels flat, rewrite the scene pretending the characters cannot at any cost say exactly what they mean. No one says “I’m mad” but they can say it in 100 other ways.

Wrote a chapter but you dislike it? Rewrite it again from memory. That way you’re only remembering the main parts and can fill in extra details. My teacher who was a playwright literally writes every single script twice because of this.

Don’t overuse metaphors, or they lose their potency. Limit yourself.

Slides from the first half of today’s lecture on Coloring Comics-A little review of color theory and then some talk about how mood=color!

https://gum.co/taCDc

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Includes capital letters but not numbers yet.