#uh-oh.

“Come in, come in!” beckoned Puma King.  “We simply must show you around our headquarters.”

As the five heroes entered through the side door, Ladybug stared up at the small and unusual building.  “Your headquarters is in an oversized totem pole, in the middle of a city park?” she boggled.

“Cool, huh?” Komodo grinned.  “We needed somewhere out of the way to meet, and this was... um...”

“Well, it wasn’t any of our dorm rooms,” shrugged Hunting Hawk.  “And no roommates to contend with.”

“I get that,” said Chat, “but how did it get here?  Who built it?  Don’t park maintenance staff get underfoot?”

“Huh.  I never... really thought about that before,” puzzled Komodo.  “But now that it’s in my head, I can’t stop thinking about it!”

“Oh, wow!  Sorry about that,” Chat apologized.

~----~

“This is the main room -- my room,” beamed Puma King.  “Our Picture Player is in here -- a supercomputer, with which we can monitor all of the city!  We’ve watched many of your own adventures on this.” 

“Would you like to see our vehicles?” asked Komodo.  “We’ve got three stored away.  Puma has a sports car for fast land travel, Hawk has a mini-jet for aerial missions, and my submersible can stay underwater for hours at a time!”

“Really?” Chat marveled.  “Yeah, I... would like to see those!  We don’t have anything like that.”

“Come on, then.  We’ll show you around,” grinned Hunting Hawk.  In a voice pitched for only Komodo to hear, she added, “and give Puma and the lady some privacy.”

Chat’s ears twitched, but he said nothing.

~----~

“The building can even launch into outer space, in an emergency where that’s required.”  Puma King radiated confidence as he smiled at Ladybug.  “Have you ever imagined anything like that?” 

“Actually...” Ladybug replied, “Chat and I were headed there once.  The day that the Startrain engineer got Akumatized.  We were well on our way if we hadn’t stopped that villain.”

“Have you ever been... kissed in outer space?”

Her eyes widening, Ladybug stepped back slightly as Puma King leaned towards her.  “No... and it’s not really on my bucket list, either,” she insisted.  

“I’m certain that once my partners and I have our own Miraculous... we could try that out sometime.  Some quiet night, just you and me.  We could climb up to the stars... and become a different kind of partners.”

“WHOA!” exclaimed Ladybug, backpedaling faster.  “Hold it right there!  For one thing, I have a partner.”

“You told me he wasn’t that kind of partner.”

“No... but he means the world to me, regardless.  If he hasn’t made me reconsider... I don’t even know you, buster!  And we haven’t even talked yet about the Miraculous.”

Puma King made to speak, then held back as Chat Noir reentered the room, followed by Komodo and Hunting Hawk.  

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” Ladybug and Chat said to each other, simultaneously.

~----~

“There is something really strange going on around here,” Chat insisted in a hushed voice.

“I’ll say!  This whole thing has been nothing but surreal,” confirmed Ladybug.  “Strange new heroes out of nowhere...”

“With a headquarters in a public place that we’d never come across before...” said Chat.

“And all kinds of gadgets and gizmos and vehicles.  Who’s paying for all of this?” Ladybug continued.

“And why is all the furniture sized for small children?” Chat wondered.

“And why does Puma King keep trying to kiss me?”

Chat stopped in mid-thought, then spun around.  “That is a very good question,” he snarled in Puma’s direction.

The three older heroes lined up in a row.  “Hmmph,” Puma King sighed.  “This could have been so much easier if you’d just gone with the flow.  We wanted to get in good with you, get whatever information we could as fellow heroes... perhaps a brief but torrid romance with the lady.  Or with both of you.”

“Both?” Chat frowned.  

Hunting Hawk winked at him and blew him a kiss, but said nothing else.

“I think you’d better explain to us just what is going on here,” Ladybug declared, her hands on her hips.  

“No, I don’t think so,” Komodo ventured.  “It might be easier...”

Energy signatures, crackling purple butterflies, appeared abruptly across each of their faces.

“Fathers, hmm? When this is all over, mine will be...

“He used me to murder my mother and attempted to kill me at the same time.”

Ogrim! He's very dear to me. I don't think about him often, but he's very special. I don't believe I've ever put how I feel about him into words.

I can't say I love his boss fight—learning the Desolate Dive cheese kind of took the fun out of it for me—but it was so enjoyable the first time I encountered him. Until later on in the game, I had trouble letting myself enjoy the boss fights and would instead get really ticked off if I didn't beat a boss right away, but I just loved Dung Defender's boss fight because he seems so delighted to fight with you! He's having so much fun reliving his glory days. It's wonderful.

It's always a pleasure to see him whenever I do the Pantheons in Godhome. He's not an enemy—he is a friend. A welcome visitor before I get beaten to death by the other bosses.

Sitting together in the archive/ Dan Heng’s room late into the night, until the whole Express is dark and silent and the only light source is your booklights and the only sounds your quiet breathing and the periodic soft swish of a page being turned. Maybe you’re sitting next to each other on some chairs, or on the bed.

The next morning when March unceremoniously pounds on the door and shouts for you lazy cows (affectionate) to wake up, you both jolt awake and find yourselves both in the same positions as the night before, books still lying open in your hands. You must’ve both fallen asleep. (Even better if your head has fallen onto his shoulder and then his onto yours so you’re both subconsciously leaning into each other upon waking, before quickly moving apart when you wake up and doing anything but acknowledging it…)

Also, I like to imagine that his earrings work as earphones as well, so quite often he’s playing music when people are trying to talk to him and either unintentionally or intentionally ignoring them, depending on who they are, or one might find him humming under his breath to a song when organising files in the catalogue. You’re the only person he shares his earphones with, and as you listen to more music while sharing them, he finds your music taste slowly slipping into his own…

-🎻 anon

i can imagine the most lovely sort of slow burn with dan heng... or at the very least, a beautiful subtle romance. the kind where people are aware that the two of you are friendly, but they kind of have to squint to see the romantic gestures. (unless you openly kiss his cheek in front of people. you don't do it often, so it always comes as a surprise.)

when march wakes the two of you up, you're at the point in your relationship where the two of you separately acknowledge your feelings for one another, so occurrences like this are enough to send your heart aflutter.

It was hidden under layers of dressing and blankets.