18 Works by MsCoffeebear
Listing Works
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encordés (French, mountaineering, plural): roped together; tied to a partner on the same rope, so that if one of you falls, the other can hold the line.
Gustave is an experienced climber. When a route in the French Alps goes wrong, he expects broken bones and weeks of gruesome recovery. What he does not expect is, instead, to fall, slowly and catastrophically, for the unfairly attractive mountain rescuer who keeps visiting his hospital room.
But Verso carries his own scars, and Gustave has learned the hard way that being wanted means hiding the parts of himself that are broken, and that leaving first hurts less than being left behind.
This is a story about concussed flirting, scars and second chances, about being seen completely — and two stubborn idiots learning that the rope works in both directions.
(Complete; updates twice weekly)
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Proper Conduct by MsCoffeebear, Shin_PM
Fandoms: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game)
21 Jul 2026
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1905. The Orient Express cuts through Europe, a world of velvet and steam where propriety reigns supreme.
Verso Dessendre, bored aristocrat and gifted painter, has found exactly one interesting thing about this interminable journey: the train's director, Gustave Virlogeux, whose stern authority and devastating competence make Verso want to misbehave.
Gustave has managed difficult passengers for fifteen years. He knows precisely what to do with one who is asking so desperately to be put in his place.
It's only a matter of time before Gustave's patience for Verso's pretenses runs out. And when it does, Verso learns that some lessons are best taught in private — or as private as a moving train allows.
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Whispers of the Divine by MsCoffeebear, SilhouettedBowTie
Fandoms: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game)
10 Jul 2026
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Gustave has served Clea, Goddess of Art and Discipline, for years. He was her dutiful priest, perfect devotee, her chosen champion. When he lost his arm in her trial, she did not restore it. Perfection, she taught him, is found in endurance. In discipline through suffering.
Gustave learned to believe her. Learned to live with incompleteness.
But then something notices him.
Verso, nameless God of Dreams and Desires, has watched his sister's perfect little priest far too long. And he's decided that Clea's most faithful servant would look so much better ruined. In dreams, Verso offers what Clea never would: wholeness. Gustave's arm returns: living onyx veined with gold, beautiful and impossible and wrong.
Night by night, the corruption spreads. And Verso himself, beautiful, terrible, too much, learns to wear a shape that Gustave can bear to touch.
Some Gods are kind. Some Gods are cruel. And some only want to prove that even perfection has a breaking point. But what happens to a God who set out to take, and finds himself wanting to be chosen instead?
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Thermal Conductivity by MsCoffeebear for theartsypumpkin (Kuroaloeart)
Fandoms: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game)
07 Jun 2026
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thermal conductivity (n.) — the rate at which heat passes through a material; the tendency of two bodies in contact to trade warmth until they settle at the same temperature.
Verso saved Gustave's life at the Stonewave Cliffs and still won't admit why (not even to himself). Now it's freezing, Gustave is too stubborn to say he's cold, and Verso has been quietly, hopelessly gone for him for longer than he'll ever confess.
Or: there was only one blanket.
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Sotto Voce by MsCoffeebear for Shin_PM
Fandoms: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game)
07 Jun 2026
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Belle Époque Paris, 1913. Verso Dessendre is very good at being wanted. It is, in fact, the only thing the world has ever been willing to pay a ruined aristocrat for, and he has made his peace with that.
Then Gustave Virlogeux — celebrated conductor of the Opéra, one hand of flesh and one of steel, immovable as a closed door — catches him breaking into the rehearsal hall to play a piano in the dark. Instead of calling the gendarmes, he offers Verso a real chance and an honest wage, and commits the truly unforgivable sin of refusing to be charmed.
This is a story about a maestro who won't play along, a brat who won't behave, and a grand piano that did not consent to any of this. It is also, underneath all that, a story about being wanted for the whole of yourself — scars, ruin, and all — by someone who refuses to let you sell the one true thing you've got.
Or: a maestro who conducts in bed exactly as he does on the podium, a pianist whose every seduction technique fails spectacularly and repeatedly (until it doesn't), and one grand piano that did not survive the experience.
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My Chroma in Your Veins by MsCoffeebear
Fandoms: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game)
24 May 2026
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“Mark me,” Verso demanded against Gustave’s mouth. “I want to feel it tomorrow.”
Gustave’s eyes flashed. Then his mouth was on Verso’s throat, teeth scraping, biting, and the sharp pain made Verso gasp.
Gustave’s nails raked down Verso’s back, scratching hard enough to draw blood. Marking him, like he wanted . Claiming him.
And Verso loved the violence. Loved the proof that this was real, that Gustave wanted him enough to leave marks.The Fracture Zone is where people are sent to die.
Painters and Writers, enemies for five hundred years, embark on expeditions to reach the Monolith. None survive—until Expedition 33.
Gustave Virlogeux has lost almost everything, and his grief has turned to rage.
Verso Dessendre is already dead inside. The perfect weapon, buried so deep under control he can't remember what feeling looks like.
They've been circling each other for years: enemies on the battlefield, strangers in the dark.
Until one desperate choice binds them in forbidden magic, and suddenly they can't hide anymore.
They'll learn that some connections are stronger than hatred, and that some enemies were never meant to be enemies at all. -
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The Pride & Prejudice AU you didn't know you needed // Arranged marriage to love // Slow burn
"Why?" Verso asked, his pale eyes fixed on Gustave's face with unsettling intensity.
"Why sacrifice yourself for her?"
The question caught Gustave off guard. He opened his mouth, closed it again, searching for the right words.
"Because she is my sister," he said simply. "And I would do anything for her."In Belle Époque France, an old promise binds two families. When the promised bride refuses, her brother steps forward instead, binding himself to a man shaped by pride and expectation.
Gustave Virlogeux is practical, dependable, and entirely unremarkable — or so he has always believed. Verso Dessendre is composed, untouchable, and dangerously perceptive.
Their engagement is duty. Their courtship is stolen glances, careful distance, and the maddening warmth of a hand that lingers a moment too long.But what begins as obligation unfolds into a slow reckoning with everything they cannot say; until what was never supposed to be real becomes the only thing that is.
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Heated Rivalry meets Free! in this slow-burn swimming romance with messy feelings, competitive angst, and two idiots who take a decade to figure out they're in love.
They stared at each other. The anger had shifted into something else, something charged and dangerous that made Gustave's heart hammer for reasons that had nothing to do with the fight.
"I hate you," Gustave said. It came out wrong—not angry, almost desperate.
"I hate you too," Verso said, and his eyes were dark, intense, fixed on Gustave's face.Gustave Augustin has spent his entire swimming career finishing second to Verso Dessendre. At 18, they finally meet at French Nationals. The rivalry is instant. The attraction is unwanted. The hookup is inevitable.
The nine-year toxic situationship? That's where it gets complicated.
Because they have rules: just physical, no feelings, no one can know. They follow them religiously—until they can't anymore.Now they are forced to choose: keep hiding, or risk everything.
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En Apesanteur by MsCoffeebear, Shin_PM
Fandoms: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game)
12 Apr 2026
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Gustave Virlogeux, lead engineer for a luxury watch manufacturer, has spent two years decidedly not staring at head designer Verso Dessendre's ponytail. He has been very professional about this. He has never once thought about yanking that ridiculous ribbon loose and finding out just how that infuriating voice sounds while begging for more.
Verso Dessendre, on the other hand, has spent two years definitely not thinking about Gustave Virlogeux's capable hands. He has been extremely composed. He has absolutely no opinion on what those oil-stained fingers might feel like wrapped around his cock, and he only got a hard-on at work twice. A week.
When they both sign up for the same anonymous hookup app in order to blow off some steam and match with a stranger who is devastatingly, inconveniently perfect — well. At least it's not a workplace romance.
Right?
(Getting stuck in an elevator has nothing to do with it.)
Series
- Part 1 of Horny, but horny together
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Masquerade (Compatible Fractures) by MsCoffeebear
Fandoms: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game)
24 Jan 2026
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In Lumière, soul bonds are not gifts - they are obligations.
Verso Dessendre has spent years perfecting the art of staying untouched. Once a prodigy, now a soldier, he's learned that wanting anything is dangerous. His hands are scarred. His reputation is carefully constructed. And he has no intention of letting anyone close enough to see what lies beneath.
Gustave Virlogeux is the Academy's most reliable engineer - the one who fixes what the system breaks, who never asks for anything for himself. His prosthetic arm glows with borrowed Chroma. He's useful. Essential. Alone.
When destiny pairs them together, neither is prepared for what their connection will cost—or what it might save. As Lumière's bond ceremony approaches, they—along with Verso's sister Alicia and Gustave's ward Maelle - will discover that the system they trusted might be more fragile than anyone realized.
A story about two people learning that sometimes the most broken things fit together in ways nothing whole ever could.
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The first words your soulmate says to you appear on your skin. And they only appear once—everybody knows that.
So when Verso Dessendre walks into Gustave's garage with a vintage car that needs restoring and eyes that hold eight years of secrets, and Gustave's wrist burns with new words - eight years after his soulmate abandoned him - he knows something is wrong.
Apparently, the universe isn't done with them yet.
This is a story about sacrifice and second chances, about the lies we tell to protect the ones we love, and about fighting for happiness even when the world says you don't deserve it.
Some love stories get a second chance. Some get second words. -
Where the Light Lingers by MsCoffeebear for theartsypumpkin (Kuroaloeart)
Fandoms: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game)
10 Jan 2026
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When Gustave Virlogeux agrees to teach a Painter’s daughter the art of writing, he does not expect to be drawn into the orbit of her brother.
What begins as simple proximity becomes choice - tender, deliberate, and impossible to keep private - as tensions rise between Painters and Writers alike.
A story of quiet love, growing courage, and what it means to choose something knowing it may not last.
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Verso Dessendre needs a fake boyfriend for his family's annual Christmas trip to the Alps.
Gustave Rénier—his childhood crush and the man he hasn't seen in ten years—needs a reason to say yes to something reckless for once in his carefully organized life.
What starts as a week of pretense in a snow-covered chalet becomes something neither of them expected: late-night conversations, stolen touches, and the slow realization that some things were never fake to begin with.
Seven days. One bed. Two people who've been wanting each other for far too long.
Sometimes the best love stories start with a lie.
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All the Things I Never Said by MsCoffeebear
Fandoms: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game)
21 Dec 2025
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It starts with music. A darkened practice room. Pale blue eyes and long fingers dancing across piano keys.
Gustave knows he’s in trouble from the first moment he sees Verso play.
Their love unfolds in stolen moments: behind practice room doors, in empty dorm rooms, anywhere they can be themselves without the weight of expectations. Verso can’t let his family know. Can’t afford the distraction. But he also can’t seem to let Gustave go.
A story about taking it slower - and all the things you wish you’d said sooner.
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After the events of the club, Yuffie finds a new disturbance thrown her way. With an ominous letter threatening the life of Godo Kisaragi’s daughter, Yuffie and Vincent find themselves once again in an arrangement that neither of them has foreseen. Can they continue their little game in the chaos that ensues?
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Wherein Yuffie has a challenge to win and Vincent turns from prey to predator in record time. What else are dark nooks and crannies here for, pray tell? Also - of course Tifa planned this. What did you expect?
"And as Tifa found her outside in the little courtyard a few minutes later, all that she could say was 'Tifa, I think I was beaten at my own game', to which the brunette could only smile. 'I figured'." -
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"Although I don’t know who would even be interested in something like that I’m quite willing to share a piece of my life with you."
A story about Light and L growing up together and experiencing all sorts of things that just happen along the way. Told from L's POV.
Beware of some serious fluff and smexiness incoming! -
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“You don’t even know what you’re doing to me, you bastard!”, he mumbled. “Before you came into my life I was always best at everything, but now it’s a constant struggle and it’s vexing but exciting at the same time and every time I see your face I just want to-“
High School AU where Light is not used to someone being on par with him and L fully exploiting that fact. The whole story of geniuses being dorks.