the next holders//mlb fanfiction

24//New Year's Day

The two civilians stare at each other, both unable to remember what happened. It's silent until El decides to ask what they both think.

"What happened?" El asks. Autumn shrugs, she has no idea either.

After a few more seconds of silence, El points at the fireworks, "It's New Year already." The tone of her voice is a question.

Autumn nods, unsure what else to do. "Did you ask me to celebrate it together?"

El wants to say no, knowing she wanted to hang out with Ladybug, not Autumn. But since she isn't sure what happened, she shrugs and responds with "Maybe.".

El thinks for a while. Since she's here with Autumn now, Ladybug probably called off their plans after all. If that's true, then it wouldn't hurt to spend New Year with Autumn. "But in case that answer is a no, let me ask you now: Do you want to spend New Year with me?"

Autumn smiles softly "Yes, I'd love to."

El starts to smile too, she grabs Autumn by her hand and starts running, causing Autumn to run with her. "Where are we going?" Autumn asks, all El answers is "Somewhere special."

When El stops running, Autumn finally has the chance to take a breath and look around. Even though it's been a long time since she's been here, she recognises it. It seems smaller now, but that's probably because she's grown bigger. It's the place Autumn and El used to run off to to celebrate New Year, it's a grass' field surrounded by abandoned buildings and there's a mossy and decayed picnic table in the middle of the field, yet it's all white because of the snow now. El runs to the table and sits down on top of it, not caring about the snow making her clothes wet. Autumn walks towards El and sits down on the bench, too, looking up to the sky.

Even though it's snowing, the sky can be seen clearly. The moon, the stars, the fireworks and the snow. You'd think it's impossible to see all of them at the same time, but they're seeing it right now.

"Remember how we used to try and catch the snow?" El asks, as one snowflake lands on her finger and melts immediately after that.

"Yeah, you told me all of them were different and I wanted to make sure myself." Autumn says, giggling. She remembers how disappointed they were when the snowflakes melted before they could tell the differences.

A cold breeze blows past them, causing Autumn to shiver. El notices and sits down next to her on the bench, she puts her arm around Autumn to try and get her warm. Autumn stiffens, butterflies forming in her stomach. She suddenly feels warm and comfortable. Autumn looks at El, El smiles back, Autumn starts smiling too and lays her head on El's shoulder.

They sit like that for a while, watching the fireworks while neither of them feels the urge to move. They're comfortable with each other and as time passes, they lay even closer to each other. They're both pretty tired, so they close their eyes while using each other as a pillow.

When they've almost dozed off into a sleep, they wake up by the sound of another loud firework. They jump up, shaken by the sound, and start laughing when they realise it's nothing dangerous. Autumn stares into El's eyes as they start tearing up because of her laughter. Autumn didn't realise how much she had fallen for El until this moment, she loves everything about her: her laughs, her smiles, her cries, her flaws, how her hair sometimes covers her eyes, how her right eye is a bit lighter of color than her left eye, she loves all of it, she loves all of her.

There were no thoughts at that moment. It was just Autumn, being unable to control herself, leaning closer to El and pressing her lips onto El's. El doesn't pull away, nor does she go along with it. She stands paralysed as her childhood friend's lips touch her own. She doesn't like Autumn the same way, probably. She might've thought of her like that a few years ago, but those feelings faded a long time ago. She didn't even think Autumn liked girls. Besides, El finally accepted the fact that she'd fallen for Ladybug, she can't love two different people. Yet, she doesn't mind Autumn kissing her like this. Why? Does this mean she's in love with Autumn, too? Does this mean her feelings for Ladybug aren't love?

El pulls away from the kiss, being too confused about her feelings to continue. She needs to get her feelings sorted out before starting something she isn't sure about. And without another word, she runs off. Once she finds a place without any people, she transforms and calls Ladybug, secretly hoping she's still awake and transformed.

Autumn watches as El runs off, she doesn't know how to feel, but she knows she messed everything up.

"Autumn?" Tikki tries to comfort her owner.

"It's fine, I misread signals and didn't think about my actions." Autumn pauses, trying to withhold herself from crying, while thinking about what to say and then continues "I need some time to think on my own. Tikki, spots on."

Ladybug swings over the rooftops and finds a random roof to sit down on. She watches the fireworks and snow in the air when she gets an incoming call from Lady Noire. She picks up the phone, although she's unsure why Lady Noire is still awake and transformed at this time.

"Hi." Ladybug greets Lady Noire.

"Hey big bug, I'm glad you're awake. Can I speak to you?" Lady Noire asks, it somewhat scares Ladybug how serious Lady Noire sounds.

"Sure, I'll send my location." Ladybug responds. It doesn't take long until Lady Noire arrives. Ladybug turns around to greet her partner when she notices Lady Noire's expression. She hasn't been crying, but her expression makes it clear she could break down any moment.

"What's wrong?" Ladybug says, walking up to Lady Noire, prepared to hug her if she indeed breaks down. She'll sort out her own thoughts and problems later.

"Can I try something? I'm not sure how you'll react though and I don't want to make things weird between us." Lady Noire asks, she hasn't made any eye contact since she's arrived.

"Sure, what do you want to try?" Ladybug asks stuttering, she's got no clue what's going on, but knows saying no would probably worsen Lady Noire's situation, whatever that is.

"Thanks, and I want to apologise in advance in case things do get weird after this." Lady Noire says, walking up to Ladybug. She doubts one last time if she wants to do this, afraid two friendships will be ruined today, but decides this is the only way for her to fully work her feelings out. So she inhales and exhales one last time before pressing her lips onto Ladybug's.