#My take is that Gabriel finding out Adrien's identity is the real issue in both these cases

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Why did Felix hide from LB and CN in S5?

My dear anon, I wish I could provide you with an explanation full of such profound wisdom and clarity that you would speak my name with reverence for years to come. Alas, I cannot because, when viewed as a complete whole, Felix's season five actions make absolutely no sense from any perspective other than, "Well, if he acted logically, then the season would be over in about five episode or, at the very least, Adrien would have learned the truth which would lead to an identity reveal and we can't have that!"

To explain, let's quickly go over the various assumptions one might have made as season five went on and why they all fall flat by the end of the season:

At the start of the season, Felix's hiding away made some sense if you assumed that he was hiding from his uncle. This was a logical assumption since Gabriel should have viewed Felix as a massive threat that must be eliminated. After all, Felix was clearly no fan of Gabriel's and Felix also knew everything one would need to know in order to bring about Gabriel's downfall. None of that actually panned out - Gabriel basically ignored the Felix issue for the entire season in favor of being the world's most obnoxious Adrigami shipper and Felix, well, we're about to get into that- but it was initially a valid assumption.

Continuing along the logical path from our ultimately erroneous fear-of-Gabriel assumption, one might think that a person who was terrified of Gabriel would go straight to Gabriel's enemies for protection. However there was an argument to be made that Felix feared Ladybug and Chat Noir's wrath just as much as he feared his uncle. This was also a fair assumption. Felix had just betrayed them plus, in those early episode, most of us assumed that Felix was going to refuse to make sentimonsters of his own, so he'd have no protection if Ladybug and Chat Noir immediately went on the attack. These assumptions all proved false in the end, but they were all reasonable when the season started.

Another initially valid assumption was the assumption that Felix's ego mania and self-serving world view meant that he only trusted himself to take down Gabriel. After all, past seasons had shown Felix to be clever, resourceful, and deeply devoted to his mother, so it made sense that he'd be working on some brilliant plan to bring his uncle's downfall and restore his aunt if only for love of his mother. You could even add an assumption he even wanted to keep everything quiet for sake of the family image or just a simple desire for personal privacy.

These assumptions and all of the others stopped holding water after Emotion. In that episode, Felix was shown to be fine making sentimonster, fine outing his own secret identity to the world, and fine confronting his uncle directly without a real plan for stopping him long term. The closest thing to a grand plan that we get in Emotion is Felix demanding Ladybug give him her miraculous:

Argos: Ladybug! Good. Now we just need to wait for Cat Noir and you'll both give me your Miraculous! Ladybug: (livid) So that's it then?! You're working for Monarch! You're the reason why I lost the other Miraculous in the first place! And why he took them!! You gave them to him without any regard for the consequences it might have with the people of Paris! Argos: True, except I work for no one.  I only helped Monarch cause it served my plans! I needed the Peacock Miraculous and today I need yours and Cat Noir's so I can make my wish!

But if this was his master plan, then why did he do the Red Moon thing? That took Gabriel by surprise, but it didn't knowingly do the same for Ladybug or Chat Noir. Without knowing their identities, there's no way for Felix to reliably find them during the Red Moon incident since he's snapping everyone he sees out of existence, making it somewhat likely that he'd accidentally snap the very people that he's looking for. You can't even go the snap-everyone-and-look-through-what-remains-to-find-the-miraculous route because he snaps the person and all of their accessories, too. Otherwise he could have snapped Gabriel and gotten all the miraculouses back in one go, then grabbed the Ladybug miraculous as a fun little bonus.

In other words, everything about the Red Moon plan was focused around making a big, flashy entrance for Agros and little else. It's not even focused on stopping Gabriel since Felix doesn't seem to have planned to snap everyone away long term or at least I think that's what's going on here?

Kagami: Happy? When there's no one left?? Adrien: How can I be happy without my friends, without my father, without the girl I love?! Argos: You really think I'm that evil? (goes to open the trash bin where he hid Marinette...) Ta-da! (...only to find it empty; Adrien and Kagami peek inside, too) Huh? That's weird. (snaps his fingers in hopes of bringing back Marinette) Huh?! I don't understand! (backs away from the trash bin) She should come back! (continues to snap his fingers) Something's wrong! I can usually bring back whoever I want, but it's like she's nowhere! Like she's completely gone! (apologetically) I'm sorry, Adrien! Kagami: Sorry? You're sorry?!?! Adrien: You're not even in control of your own power! Don't you realize what you've done? Bring everyone back! NOW!!! Argos: Okay, okay, alright. I never meant to hurt you two...

Well that was anticlimactic....

Note how Felix doesn't take this opportunity to explain the danger his fellow sentimonsters are in before bringing back the people holding their remote controls? And what about his mother? Did he snap away his mother, too? And did he initially plan to perma snap everyone or not? If not, then what was the goal here?

This episode is confusing and could even be argued as a single, giant plot hole because it reads like a mental breakdown episode, but it's also a meticulously planned attack that was hinted at all the way back in Multiplication. So which was it? What was the master plan here? What's going on? Did the writers seriously do all that Felix stuff back in season four without fully thinking through how to make that work in season five?

After the mess that is Emotion, Felix basically gives up on whatever he was supposedly doing in Emotion. There's no master plan to stop Gabriel or make the world-changing wish or anything interesting. Instead, Felix is just there to be Kagami's Adrien replacement. Much like Adrien, Felix has no motive beyond "date the pretty girl and do whatever she asks of me." I guess it's a family trait.

One would think that this would lead to Felix making some interesting new plan to stop Tomoe or even joining forces with Ladybug and Chat Noir since he knows that Tomoe is in on whatever Gabriel is doing (Kagami wouldn't exist otherwise), but that's not what happens. We don't even get Felix going full senti's only because Adrien is left in the dark, a fact that doesn't seem to bother Felix or Kagami. They're too busy being in love to actually do anything to back the nonsense claim that they care about Adrien, but it's hard to blame them when it is so glaringly not their fault.

Letting these two have the sort of active role that would make sense for their characters would ruin the story the writers are trying to tell. We'd probably never get that whole "girl power" Bug Noire thing the show wanted to end the season with because Gabriel would have been stopped way sooner. It would also mean that Adrien knows things and the show can't allow that to happen even if it makes everyone involved look like massive tools. Let this be a reminder to you that you have to let your characters shape the path your story takes. If a character knowing X ruins plot Y, then you can't have both.

In summary, Felix's actions initially made some sense depending on your point of view, but as soon as he became a real part of season five, his character stopped making any sense. The reason for this seems obvious to me: you cannot write Felix logically while also actively including him in the show, keeping Adrien in the dark, keeping Gabriel a threat, and keeping Felix from flat out winning because the peacock is so ridiculously over powered. They wrote themselves into a corner and dumbed Felix down to get around the fact the same way Alya got dumbed down to make the Lila stuff work and Nathalie got dumbed down to make Gabriel's plot work. These writers aren't consistent at writing things like lore or characters, but they are incredibly consistent at the type of bad writing they have to fall back on. Expect to see more of these issues in the future.

[foxwitchaine]

Which is your most hated character in Miraculous Ladybug?

I wouldn't say hate so much as strongly dislike, as it takes a lot for me to outright loathe a fictional character. More often than not, I have better things to spend my energy on than hating a fictional character.

But if I were to answer that, five take the top spot:

1.) Lila Rossi

I know. Surprising, isn't it. Well, it's all fun and games until you actually meet one in real life. And it's frustrating as hell getting those with the wool over their eyes to listen until it's too late. I have to emphasize that it wasn't originally part of the plan to redeem her in the early drafts. It was thanks to Rafe that I even considered doing a Lila redemption.

Lila had a lot of potential in the early seasons. Of course, that was before she was turned into a one-dimensional villain with little in the way of making her interesting. It says something that I got the feeling the showrunners were trying to make her hateable without actually putting in the effort while reading the Chameleon transcripts. (I had to stop reading to settle my blood pressure)

All in all, Lila is just a symptom of a bigger underlying issue regarding the show's writing. I personally think she has a very nice design, but it looks better in 2D than 3D.

2.) Gabriel Agreste

He's a severely underwhelming main villain. At the start, he had potential. But as the series drags on, it's become painfully clear that the showrunners don't actually know how to make a compelling main villain. He was surprisingly much more intimidating and better-designed in the pilot PV.

Gabriel also lacks the charisma you would find with iconic main villains such as Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, the rogues gallery in the first Powerpuff Girls, Batman's rogues gallery, and so on. I could make a whole post about how to write Gabriel better, but I don't feel like resurrecting a dead horse.

3.) Adrien Agreste

The poster boy for wasted potential. When Rafe and I first started watching Miraculous Ladybug, Season 2 hadn't been released yet. He was nice, if a bit bland. Could have used some flavorblasting in both design and personality (he's a fashion model, for crying out loud. Where's his fabulous wardrobe?)

And then all the red flags in Seasons 3-5 started popping up.

As it stands, he's nothing more than a plot device to humiliate poor Marinette. And a mouthpiece for the writers' very skewed morality. We weren't going to redeem him at first, but then it occurred to me a fantastic way to strike a devastating blow against Gabriel. I won't say anything more since they're spoilers.

4.) Alya Césaire

Ohhhh boy. Where do I even begin with this one? Disregarding the racism allegations towards the writers regarding her character, Alya is just an awful best friend, plain and simple. While it's true that she's a go-getter who isn't afraid to go for what she wants, that same trait has pretty much been solidified into a toxic trait courtesy of her refusal to question Lila later in the show. Even after Marinette broke down in front of her and confessed her secret identity in Gang of Secrets.

I will forever hate that episode just for how entitled everyone was about Marinette's secrets.

When Rafe and I were brainstorming who to use as our civilian antagonist to fill in for Lila, it was rather telling that Alya was among our first choices. It wasn't our intention for her to fall as hard as she did in The Wolves in the Woods, but honestly? It was inevitable.

5.) Caline Bustier

She's a non-authority figure who coddles the troublemakers in her class. I'm restraining myself at the moment because I've had teachers just like her in real life. Who look good on paper and are the sweetest people on the outside. But their inability to discipline a class regardless of behavior does a lot more damage in the long run than many would care to admit.

Bustier is a character who I could have grown to understand if the writers handled her better. The biggest brat of the school is the daughter of the city mayor. That right there is a beautiful setup for interesting conflict. We could have gotten a plot where we had a good, caring teacher trapped in a terrible situation by her superiors. Which is unfortunately something that can and does happen in real life. Instead, we got an airhead who can't for the life of her understand this simple thing called nuance.

I find it very telling the fandom prefers Mendeleiev over her.

Honorable Mentions:

Principal Damocles: Too much of a spineless noncharacter to really care about

Tom and Sabine: I try to understand the parents' side of things given parenting is far from an easy task

Bustier's class: A mixed bag here, since I don't think they're necessarily bad kids

Mayor Bourgeois: Again, another mixed bag here since he's another spineless "parent"

Zoé Lee: Too much of a blank slate to have an opinion on

Félix Fathom: What kind of a name is that?

Master Fu: He was done so dirty in his backstory

Chloé Bourgeois: Another with wasted potential

[princess-of-the-corner]

Kinda curious now, what are your thoughts on Adrichat asking Maribug out instead of coming clean about figuring out her identity. I searched on your blog but if you've talked about it before the search function won't bring it up

I kinda wish we would have gotten something like that in the show properly. At the very least it would make their issues in S4 less one sided

It's.... complicated.

While I don't think I've made a post about it, I think I addressed it decently both through my writing of their romance in Lady Luck(where Adrien is the only one with a secret identity in the first place and Mari is in love with Chat), and through that one idea I had for a 'toxic ladrien dating' thing.

I understand Adrien's hesitance to tell Marinette that he knows her identity. I do 100% think he should have told her! But LB was always the much more hesitant one when it came to the identities, and she's rejected 'Chat' many times in favor of 'Adrien'.

Not only is he worried that she's going to have a huge panic and maybe try to get them to stop being partners because of the danger, but he fears that she might like him better as 'Adrien' than 'Chat'. (not in a 'true selves' way, but both are a persona and the real Adrien is a mix. Would she like the real Adrien though?)

Bonus points for the fact that while he's sure of his own feelings, she might take this revelation in a similar way of him loving 'Ladybug' and not 'Marinette'.

So he's hesitant to tell her, but very much in love with her, so he goes for the romance. And is probably trying to figure out a good way to tell her, but he hesitates. And the longer he hesitates, the harder it gets to tell her.

Adrien has also grown up in a household where, if he wants to have any sort of happiness, then a lot of times it's an 'ask forgiveness rather than permission' type of situation. Not justified either, but again a reason.

I still do think this is a bit sketchy, as he should have told her. Both so she knows and they're on equal ground, but also so that she's aware of the new layer of danger. That was a Bad Move™.

Now, my main problem with the hypothetical presented in Chat Blanc, of Adrien knowing Mari is Ladybug and dating her without telling her he knows and that he's Chat.

Is that there's a lot of room for potential manipulation.

We don't get to see where this goes! Because their dates in Chat Blanc are all just a montage of 'everything's perfect until Gabriel decides to be a big old bag of dicks'.

But there's a lot of things that he could do. Maybe it's something small and innocent, like Chat knows that Maribug had a bad day so Adrien shows up at the perfect time to give comfort. Maybe Ladybug spies a dress in the window she adores and the next day Adrien buys it for Marinette.

And that doesn't seem too bad. But there are things that she would vent to a friend like Chat rather than Adrien. Sometimes about Adrien. What happens when they have a fight, as all couples do, and she asks Chat for advice? Would he try to abstain knowing that he's biased, or would he tell her that her boyfriend is right and that she should feel bad for not listening to him?

Now, again: We never get to see this in the show. We never grapple with it. But it could have been interesting if we did, and that I'd have more of a 'hey that's FUCKED' stance on. Ofc Adrien can step back, learn from it, and fix it. But I think Marinette would have a right to be hurt.

Which is another thing that Chat Blanc didn't show us: Marinette's reaction to finding out how long he's known her identity.

I think she should have had every right to be mad at him. To yell and scream and call him out on that move. Maybe even break up with him and hell possibly even step back for a minute and let Scarabella handle things for a while because this has thrown off their whole partnership.

Ultimately he'd apologize, admit it was kinda fucked, promise to do better, and she'd forgive him and they'd start dating again on equal terms this time.

[ohwell-reblogs]

it's funny you would say that because I left cinema feeling like if I didn't know the show I could find it cute and somewhat enjoy it despite how cliché it is, but as somebody who likes the show I was severely disappointed.

The movie gives us nothing. It just takes away, and it takes a lot, to a point of being at most loosely inspired by the seasons 1-3 arc, and by that I mean mashing a bit of origins but worse with an alternative timeline to Chat Blanc that redeems Gabriel instead, and a few smaller references to some episodes if you squint, like taking Mime's design and making him an actual criminal.

They change Sabine's eyes from gray to as blue as Marinette's.

They frame Tom's slight overprotectiveness as being a cringe dad who treats her like she's 6 and she's annoyed with him. They have Marinette tell him off.

They remove Master Fu's choice of the heroes. He doesn't even meet Adrien in this??? And acts crazy in front of Mari, making a scene in public?? When he was so subtle in the show???

Broke my heart when they made Tikki & Plagg dislike each other. Needed to remember that in my canon he calls her sugar cube and everything is alright. This isn't real, this doesn't mean anything to me. The fart jokes didn't happen. This can't hurt me.

Why don't they listen to or respect Master Fu at all? Who knows! They're both ooc but especially Tikki, I really thought she's going to be more reasonable and listen, any moment and she'll be rolling eyes at Plagg misbehaving. And she can force a transformation without Marinette saying the phrase? Bullshit.

Why is the miraculous of the butterfly framed as having a specifically evil power that's stronger than any other except the main two combined when we know that's bs? No answer!

Nooru poking out of Hawkmoth's chest when he's transformed is just a device to fit in their dialogue at all, but it's still on my shit list, this isn't supposed to happen!

None of the magic works like it's supposed to and there's no explanation for that! None! Lucky Charm doesn't exist because fuck you. She can only repair damages with the power of love after the final battle, sucks to be Notre-Dame getting destroyed in the first one, I guess.

And they just beat the shit out of the villains until the akuma leaves. There is no finding where the akuma is, not a scene where Ladybug could impress Chat with something more than reluctantly saving him, because they don't show off her planning abilities once. No, here her yoyo is the smart one, with a mind of its own, tugging her along.

We're at the day of origins but for some reason Sabrina has her characterization of much later and lies to Chloe to protect Marinette. Girl's one trait at the time should be loyal, how do you fuck that up.

Instead of being playful and flirty, Chat Noir is being actually arrogant. Maybe Ladybug also getting eyeliner made him insecure in his position. This is where I say they don't even look better to me, ig. Somehow with miniscule, not very noticeable differences they straightwashed them, enhanced boy & girl. Especially the boy, since there was a lot of princess to remove, not much of our Adrien left.

He tells Gabriel off on his own. No rescuing. No princess. He says Ladybug saved his heart, but has nothing in the movie to show for it. She only saved him literally. From a train. And they randomly go on a date where in the show she stood him up, making it look like they're very much in love, just to reel it back and have her go back to script and say there's someone else despite the fact that what we've seen makes it look like she's lying to convince herself to stick to the plan of pursuing Adrien. And we don't get an explanation, the movie never goes into the identity issue, or Marinette's trust issues, just doesn't give a reason why ladynoir shouldn't date at all, it doesn't happen because they planned for adrinette end game, that's it.

I don't have time to be upset we got no marichat or ladrien, because actually, thank god I didn't have to see them mess that up too. Marinette is instantly into Adrien, before he helps her up, creeping on him as she would at the peak of her crazed era just because she saw a pretty boy, something my Mari would never do. She never gets to have a phase of distrusting him because of association with Chloe, because the movie doesn't have the time to get into the topic of Chloe either. She gets just enough screen time to also have an interaction with an ooc Marinette. You know, when Mari is mean to her, criticizing her hair and we're supposed to take it in the same spirit as the season 5 clapback. Except, even more stupidly, we get to see Chloe proven right because Marinette gets rejected by Adrien. Which makes sense, because they have nothing established here and he was visibly sad & tired when she asked him out without getting concerned about his wellbeing like our Marinette would. There's a brief compilation to show how she got more confident in her normal life over the time working as Ladybug, but not them becoming friends, nothing of Adrien admiring Marinette for being "the everyday Ladybug", nothing of Marinette seeing kindness in Adrien.

There is just Marinette's crush on Adrien because of word of god, and few awkward interactions. He ends up accepting her feeling in the end, because he found out she's ladybug. And they don't show the kiss, because the movie doesn't know what audience it wants to have, having made it seem like it wants to be a big boy superhero movie from the early marketing and the fact that this is what Astruc seemed to have always wanted, through trying to have teen humour & romance focus that made my 11 y.o. sister cringe and be reluctant to go with me, to end up with a final product that woobiefied all of the conflict, all of the akumatized villains are adults they don't personally know and we're not supposed to sympathize with them, that'd be too nuanced, no, they're criminals or fat men who can't handle rejection (hm.), it's the power of love that fixes all, the courage Marinette needs is something she can find in herself via singing, no extra steps needed,

season 5 shown us a deeper look into her trauma and an actual panic attack, so the movie could show us using more of her escapism for her to get more brave, the only issue she has as we know, being afraid of confrontation, this is such a bad reading of her, there is so much more we could get out of that escapism, but they refused to show her as the planner she is, her sense of responsibility, need of control and then being crushed by the weight of the duty she puts on herself, the self-isolating tendencies, the way she internalized everything Chloe has said about her and identifies with every failure while not noticing the good others see in her and the way she just doesn't trust and won't take the fall head first the way Chat Noir has many times without hesitation, not a word of any of that, all she needs is courage to fight and get the boy, and she does so without a hitch.

I also find the choice of soundtrack for Chat Noir falling in love in bad taste, they play the song twice and it doesn't fit the mood even for a second. First time it gets a few uncomfortable laughs out of people, but a second time it's just fucked up, like yeah, they want to get another laugh because he's moping when she's fighting for her dear life, but why the fuck are you playing the famous horny music? Why did you choose this song for a children's movie in which you refuse to show a kiss at all? And in the show there were scenes where Chat Noir grinned and even wiggled his eyebrows, like when they got trapped in a bubble, but him falling for her because she reached out for him is so not fitting of the mood this audio sets, and neither is his heartbreak.

And finally there's Hawkmoth almost killing them, having akumatized himself in an act of desperation but not like in the show, in a fucked up way that wouldn't work in the show, discovers their identities and backs off when he finds out Chat Noir is his son, he's suddenly sorry for everything and wants to be a dad, it doesn't even make sense in the context of the movie since we had Adrien say he lost his dad too, to his face earlier, making it clear that he was just as neglectful, and all of his actions prior to that were as, if not more, deranged and desperate. And Adrien flips like a switch as well, yeah he hated his dad before, but now that he knows he committed atrocities he kinda wants to hug it out.

Lastly, Nathalie for some reason wants to continue his legacy after he gave up, picking up peacock after Ladybug took away the butterfly. Nobody asked her to. No one knows why she would do that. It is ooc for her. (She doesn't have a personality in the movie, but like. Her dedication to Gabriel doesn't get exposition either. And even if it did, or there's an assumption that we know why would she do that when he gave up.)

We are promised a continuation despite the fact that the (anti-climatic, and pulled out of the ass for no reason) identity reveal & getting together happened. I wish it doesn't come. They need to stop. Never make a movie again. It was dogshit. Worst movie I've ever seen. I haven't seen many, but that means my standards are kinda low, actually and I was still let down. I saw it on July 11th and I am still mad. Saw Barbie this week, an actually good movie, got even more mad at how bad the miraculous movie was, how do you even get this bad? All of it was rushed, kept brief to stuff as much as they can together, not stopping to go in depth about anything, and they sure didn't say this was going to be a musical, but they spend half of the movie singing and it's the better half, despite the fact that characters leave reality and are alone on simplified backgrounds when they do. I am also pretty sure most of the characters from their class weren't even given voices. Alex cheers in the crowd at the end, Luka maybe mumbles something when Marinette crashes into him in a hallway in the beginning, but only Chloe, Alya and Nino have actual lines (+Sabrina says a few words, I think). I don't think Kagami even showed up, unless she was in one of the crowds.

All of it was like a bad fanfic somebody wrote after getting frustrated with Chat Blanc episode without looking up anything for reference, thinking only of having fluffy itemized ship ending and not giving a shit about anything else. I genuinely want to forget I saw it.

i do just have to say though.................... i feel like people who really really loved the movie's portrayals of the characters are adding aspects of the show characters onto them? you know what i mean? like i see people say that adrien and marinette were more likeable in the movie than the show, when movie adrien didn't perform a single act of kindness in the entire 2 hours despite kindness being a core trait of adrien in the show? marinette was normal and not particularly weird at all and just kind of a generic protagonist? were adrien and marinette actually more interesting in the movie than the show, or are you just cherrypicking the aspects of them you like the from the show and putting them on the movie characters to make your favorite amalgamation?

marinette fell for adrien not because he showed vulnerability and forgiveness and kindness and opened his heart up to her.... but because he awkwardly tried to help her up after being kind of weirded out by her? so like i guess she thought he was hot and that was basically it? chat noir fell for ladybug not because she was strong and confident and showed determination in the face of fear... but because she begrudgingly helped him up in the middle of a battle? so like i guess he thought she was hot and that was basically it? they fell for each other over just the bare minimum interactions? most of their relationship was a montage? like, did the movie do the work to convince you of lovesquare's romantic potential, or did you go into the movie already shipping them because the show had already convinced you?

thats totally a valid way to enjoy the movie ftr! i'm just saying.... idk it's weird to see people praising the movie for being "better" when i feel like a lot of the enjoyment of the movie actually hinges on watching the show as context for their characters. and i guess im just a cringe slow-burn enjoyer but i find it weird that people are using "faster" as a synonym for "better"

[is-nino-actually-luka]

I have literally no clue what Ephemeral is about but I think the situation is funny

[fearlessinger]

The long Chat Blanc analysis nobody some people asked for (blame them)

There is one thing about Chat Blanc that I think we can all agree on: it should have been longer. It had to cover so much ground in 20 minutes, it did everything at breakneck speed and as a result it's hard to interpret beyond, well, the obvious. It was clearly meant to be a cautionary tale of sorts. But in what way?

Let me make it clear from the start: there's no doubt that the fault lies entirely at Gabriel's feet, and the infamous line "it’s our love that destroyed the world" is bullshit (imo very IC bullshit on Adrien's part, but still bullshit). But the question remains: of all the events that transpired, what was the real catalyst of the disaster? Is there anything that Adrien or Marinette could have done to avert it? There are a lot of possible answers and, for the moment, they can all be successfully argued for.

I do, however, have an interpretation I lean toward, and the special only reinforced my feelings on it.

I’m pretty confident that neither an identity reveal nor Marinette and Adrien dating, in and of themselves, would necessarily lead to Chat Blanc. I’d argue not even Gabriel finding out first would or should necessarily lead to Chat Blanc.

I think the key variable is Adrien and Marinette’s overall maturity and ability to effectively communicate. Something that if they were a normal couple of teenagers with normal teenage problems, would be a non issue. They’d simply grow up together and get better at it with time. Unfortunately, their lives are the furthest thing from normal, and right now, even without secret identities in the way, even together, Adrien and Marinette aren’t strong enough to withstand what happened in the climax of Chat Blanc.

The thing is, their heart/brain dynamic works really well most of the time, but it’s also deeply unbalanced in its current form. It’s not the fact that Adrien mostly plays support, it’s that he doesn’t trust himself to also be able to take charge, to make the right choices, and is terrified of admitting he also needs support.

Adrien never asks for help. He has moments of weakness in which he finds himself acting extremely needy and clingy with the people around him, but those moments never last long and he always catches himself before anyone else can. He kinda projects his father a little bit on every other person in his life (and especially on Ladybug, whom he admires and looks up to) and lives in constant fear that if he lets his needs show he will be deemed a disappointement and a burden. So he always makes sure to get over anything that hurts him or upsets him super quickly, and then tell a joke about how great he is and how lucky Ladybug is to have him, so she has no doubt he is fine, definitely not a burden, definitely ready to help HER, because that’s what he does, that’s all he’s good for really. He’s Ladybug’s helper. Her second. Her rock. And rocks don’t have problems of their own. See Ladybug? I��m fine! I’m useful! I’m worth keeping around.

And Ladybug… she never really doubts him. She buys his ‘I am always fine, full of confidence and secure in our relationship, there is no war in Ba Sing Se’ façade with little to no hesitation. How could she not? He’s a consummate actor after all, and she doesn’t know him enough outside the mask yet either, to be able to realize how bad his home life really is and the toll it takes on him.

Marinette is the half of their team that makes the big, hard choices and even the smaller, less crucial ones most of the time. She’s set all the boundaries in their relationship, and he respects them. He wouldn’t confess his struggles to her even if he wanted to, because the door that leads to their lives outside the mask is one that she’s expressly asked him to keep closed. He won’t open it without her permission, and she has no idea how badly he needs to. She relies on him to always follow her and have her back, but she’s terrified to admit -both to him and to herself- how much she depends on him, how far she’d be willing to go to keep him at her side.

This was the situation at the time of Chat Blanc. It should be noted that it is not quite the situation we have at the end of the special anymore. Things have already started changing for the better.

But this was the situation at the time of Chat Blanc. And Adrien and Marinette’s relationship in that episode follows this pattern to a t. Adrien does all the work to bring them together, to keep them together. Marinette is the indisputed leader of their team, but Adrien’s always the one who takes risks, who takes the lead in matters of the heart. Marinette… lets him. And when Gabriel gives her his ultimatum, she doesn’t fight for Adrien. In fact she… almost gives him up without even consulting him. Like she does again at the end of the season, when she chooses Kagami for him before he can do it himself. Like she almost does again in the special, when she can’t bring herself to tell him that she wants him to stay even as he is all but asking her to.

Now to be clear, I don’t think Marinette means to take the choice away from Adrien. It’s obvious it doesn’t even occur to her that choosing for him without his consent or knowledge is what she is effectively doing in those instances. She’s just a scared kid trying to protect her vulnerable heart. She doesn’t dare hope that things might turn out ok. Hope is not her thing. That’s Chat’s department. It’s Adrien’s. He’s the one who believes in things, in people, even when nobody else will. He’s the one who believes in love even against all evidence. He’s the one who believes in her. He’s an idealist. She is a realist. She has to be. She can’t afford not to be prepared for the possibility of failure. And sometimes, she concentrates on that possibility so much that failure is all she can see. In that case, the only option that she has left is to control the fall. Maybe it’ll hurt less if she’s the one drawing the trajectory. Surely it won’t hurt Adrien. Not much, at least. She loves him far more than he loves her, after all. And as for Chat… well, she’s used to having his consent implicitly, as a baseline.

For his part, Adrien doesn’t question this either. He’s sure he loves Marinette far more than she loves him, so of course he can’t expect her to fight for him. It’s been ingrained in him that acceptance and love are something he has to constantly earn and be able to prove he deserves. If Marinette doesn’t have faith in him, then it just means he’ll have to try harder.

Clearly, they both have some unhealthy patterns of behavior that they are used to, and that it will take some work to get rid of. This is not a bad thing, it’s just life. They both have a lot of growing up to do still.

But in Chat Blanc they don’t have the luxury of time, and so they arrive to the final confrontation with Hawkmoth completely unprepared in all the ways that matter.

Adrien is abruptly forced in the position of being the one who has to make the final choice. It’s a choice only he can make, a choice that Marinette absolutely cannot make for him. It’s also a choice that he can’t possibly hope to ever make with his heart. He needs to be able to keep a cool head, to look at the problem logically, and he needs Marinette to be his rock this time, his anchor, to give him security like he usually does for her, and they both have no idea how. In her desperation to control the rapidly escalating situation, Marinette tries to tell him what to do, because that’s what she always does, but it’s the exact opposite of what he needs in that moment. In his desperation not to betray his heart, violently pulling him in two completely incompatible directions, he tears himself and the world apart.

[ilikekidsshows]

Hey, I was wondering if you could talk more about what you thought about the conflict that happened between Ladybug and Chat Noir in the new york special?

Certainly. Mainly, it’s the same issue we saw in ‘Glaciator’ but manifesting in a different way: these two tend to misunderstand the relationship between them because of their personal experiences and expectations, which tend to naturally be in conflict because of the very different pasts the two characters have. I also think the conflict was two-sided and only one side of the issue at hand was solved. We had Cat Noir’s dishonesty and Ladybug’s inability to act as a comforter, with only the former being solved.

Since it's the one that gets resolved and it's more straightforward, let's start with Cat Noir's side. He's the child of a strict, emotionally abusive father and we've repeatedly seen that he projects his relationship with his father into his relationship with Ladybug, and here it happens again. Gabriel would not let Adrien do what he doesn't allow and we've seen what he does when Adrien disappoints him: punishes him severely.

Strict parents don’t raise obedient children, they raise children who lie well. And Adrien had more of a motive to be deceitful than most. This special was the first time Ladybug gave him responsibility over something. If he said he couldn’t do it, would she ever trust him with anything again? Or, would she simply tell him to suck it up and do as he’s told, forcing Adrien to choose between her and his father in their demands of him? And Plagg, who I will point out, has been actively more helpful in season three, actually helped Adrien come up with a plan that, to their reasonable expectations, would not have led to anyone being hurt or disappointed, so Adrien obviously saw that simply not letting Ladybug know that he wouldn’t be physically present in Paris would work out. Adrien even was responsible about it; he kept himself actively informed of the situation in Paris up until he was made to put his phone away. And then things went to hell in a handbasket at the worst possible moment.

However, here comes the fault in Adrien’s reasoning, which was very reasonable to him and his implied-to-be equally abused Kwami: Ladybug is nothing like Gabriel. Marinette would have heard him out and they’d have come up with a plan together to deal with the situation, as long as Cat Noir got a hold of her soon enough for them to meet up and make a plan. We don’t really know what the time frame is between Adrien finding out and the departure of the plane to New York, but, considering Plagg stopped Adrien from contacting Ladybug, and no time constraint was mentioned, they’d have had plenty of time.

This is the beginning and end of Adrien’s half of the conflict. After this point, he’s merely reacting to what he thinks are clear signals from Ladybug. He tries to help with the villain the best he can, while Ladybug keeps distracting him by berating him in the middle of the fight, finally breaking his will to fight entirely by declaring she can’t trust him anymore, one of the nightmare scenarios I mentioned earlier. Add to that the villain using his power to harm Uncanny, he was convinced that Ladybug would be better off with any other partner. When Ladybug didn’t refute his assessment that he was a failure and no good hero, he decided he was right and abandoned his ring. However, when Uncanny revealed to him that Ladybug did, in fact, still need him specifically as her partner, he came back, deciding that it didn’t matter if he was a worthless failure as long as Ladybug would find a use for him anyway. Adrien repeatedly describes himself negatively in comparison to others, his self esteem is awful, but that wasn’t really a matter being handled in the special.

When Cat Noir made it to Ladybug and was instantly welcomed back, he apologised for not being honest and Ladybug signalled her forgiveness with a fistbump. This gesture signalled to Adrien that he could trust Ladybug and that Ladybug trusted him back, that the things she’d said in anger were just that. This showed Adrien in a blatant way that Ladybug was nothing like Gabriel, who would have lorded Adrien’s failure over him and punished him, instead of accepting his assurance that he’ll do better next time. This was an important lesson to Adrien, because he needs to be as honest with Ladybug as their secret identities allow because they’re a team and can’t go doing things independently when it affects them both. Adrien’s experiences in the special are ones that will specifically help him overcome his character flaw of being too distructful of others’ intentions when it comes to Ladybug.

Then comes Marinette’s side, and this one is more complex. While how badly she was distracted in that fight and how badly she distracted Cat Noir was an issue in and of itself, it wasn’t the thing on her part that escalated the conflict. It was merely what set up her state of mind. What escalated the conflict were the things she said in anger that she didn’t take back while Cat Noir was clearly falling apart. Marinette was understandably upset by what happened in Paris, but she made a very big mistake with how she handled that: she focused only on herself. Marinette needed comfort because she couldn’t heal Paris, but Cat Noir needed comfort because they could do nothing to help Paris, he’d just temporarily killed someone and he felt like a failure as a partner. But, when Cat Noir didn’t instantly move to assure her that she was fine, Marinette turned her back on him and walked away. She wanted space, because Marinette usually finds a quiet corner to think when she’s dealing with something, but Adrien saw that as a rejection. And when Cat Noir voiced all these things going on in his mind, she was silent, making him feel like she was condemning him, seeing him as worthlessly as he did. So he decided to leave her so that she could find a better partner.

Marinette also has her own misconceptions about her and Cat Noir’s relationship. This is another thing I noticed in ‘Glaciator’: Marinette doesn’t think Cat Noir is an actual human being with real human emotions and problems. She got better about it after ‘Glaciator’, like accepting his feelings for her as genuine, but she still doesn’t understand that Cat Noir can get hurt emotionally and might need a bit of support every once in a while. In fact, in ‘Timetagger’, she blatantly shuts him down when he’s looking for affirmation, claiming he “already knows he’s the best”, when Adrien actually has very poor self esteem. I mentioned in another comment that Marinette sees Cat Noir as a fae-like being, someone who only goofs around and supports her, and is never touched by worldly things like pain and sadness. The only threat to him are the supervillains they face. Every time one of them has shown a need for comfort, it’s been Ladybug, and Cat Noir has always been the one to comfort her. They’re stuck in these roles, and Marinette doesn’t know how to break out of them when Cat Noir is the one needing comfort and support. To drive this aspect of the conflict home, this is the direct reverse of the situation in ‘Miracle Queen’. In ‘Miracle Queen’, Marinette makes a mistake with real consequences, gets Fu’s identity revealed to Hawk Moth which led to his capture, but Cat Noir overlooks that to support her instead. In the special, Cat Noir’s mistake causes property damage in Paris that they can’t undo, but Marinette can’t overlook it to support her partner through his mistake.

Here’s the thing: Marinette has a good life. She has a supportive family and supportive friends. This gives her a solid foundation as a superhero and it means she’s used to people picking her up when she falls down. It’s not just her relationship with Cat Noir that’s characterized by the idea that support just shows up when she needs it. Heck, at the end of ‘Love Hunter’, Luka seemingly magically appears for the sole purpose of giving Marinette some comfort. However, we’ve seen some hints, mostly in ‘Weredad’, that at least her dad wants to overly protect her. We don’t know how well Marinette would actually take Adrien rejecting her, but, considering how miserable she was repeatedly in season two over just not getting to see him, I suspect not well, and her dad was convinced she’d go as far as being easily shattered by that. Children need to feel small disappointments to be able to handle the actual hurdles they’ll face later in life. The way Marinette becomes an anxious mess over failing at something reminds me of myself as a teenager, and I was a very shielded child. My mom pampered me, not by much, but enough that I had to learn to pick myself and others up at a later age. And I feel that’s a lesson Marinette needs to learn as well.

We saw from what Marinette said to Uncanny that she didn’t think Cat Noir’s mistake was irreparable. She didn’t mean the gestures I described earlier as how Adrien saw them. She didn’t mean to turn her back on him to reject him and she didn’t mean her silence to be read as her agreeing that he was a bad partner. But she never once considered that she might be sending Cat Noir these signals, even as Cat Noir told her how he felt about himself in relation to her. Instead of supporting her partner by saying anything to refute his self-disparaging comments, or even sharing their pain together, Marinette remains silent, experiencing her own pain alone and leaving Cat Noir with his. Marinette is a good leader, but she’s not a good partner, because she lacks the ability to support Cat Noir. This isn’t her fault, it’s a character flaw like Adrien’s distrust of others to consider his well being in any scenario. However, it’s one that’s harder to fix than Adrien’s, because Adrien’s flaw is one of perception, so he just needs to see contrary evidence to learn better. Marinette’s issue is that she lacks important skills for comforting someone: spotting a need and responding to it. I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen Marinette actively comfort anyone during the entire series. It’s very likely she’s never had to do so before the moment with Cat Noir in this special.

This is why Adrien leaving her was so important to Marinette’s future growth as a partner specifically. Technically Marinette needed it to happen. Marinette had to learn that you can’t expect someone to be there indefinitely if you never let them know you want them there, and she had to learn that Cat Noir needs her to reciprocate the supportive relationship between them instead of only enjoying the benefits of her partner’s almost unwavering support. An unequal relationship will not last. If you just keep someone around for their comfort, they’ll leave you once they have none left to give. If you just keep someone around for their good days, they’ll leave you once their bad days come. But in this special we saw Marinette taking the first steps towards realizing her partner’s humanity, ergo, fixing the part of the issue that’s in her perception: she was still thinking about him when she was Marinette. I noted in ‘Glaciator’ that Marinette usually stops thinking about Cat Noir once she’s Marinette again, which is part of that whole “seeing him as otherworldly” thing. Breaking out of that mindset is as important as it is for Adrien to break out of the “everyone would turn on me if I didn’t please them 24/7” one.

Basically: the conflict was resolved, but it showed where development still needs to happen.

[toujoursmiraculous]

Thoughts and Reaction to SENTIBUBBLER

For the past month, every day my sister greeted me with "Sentibubbler!" Sometimes multiple times a day. So this episode was a very anticipated one. The trailer spoiled that the opening scene was a dream, so I wasn't expecting to be surprised or anything like that. HAHA BOY WAS I WRONG But first, this dream points out several things she's worried about and she's going to have to address because they're seriously stressing her out. Likely in the order of occurrence in the episode is how we'll see it addressed. (In chronological order because let's be real, broadcasting companies don't seem to care much about what episodes we get when, so we'll likely see them happen out of this order) - Alya and Trixx being able to keep the secret and be trustworthy. (Which seems to be taken care of in this episode) - Nino finding out she's Ladybug. Nino's close with Alya, so tbh it's probably just a matter of time before he finds out on his own, or they break down and decide to tell him. - Chloe's issue with the Miraculous and Ladybug's rule that has only applied to Chloe so far. - And Chat Blanc. It seems Chat Blanc becoming akumatized again is a bigger fear to her than all the rest, based on her reaction, being horrified and backing up to the point she knocks stuff off the table. It also shows that she's thinking about how her and Chat Noir in this other timeline were in fact together and thinking about what the reason for it is. She believed that it was them being together knowing their secret identities, and their love did it. So here in this dream, well everyone knows right, so what's keeping them from being together now? Interesting thought to have for someone who claims she doesn't love him. ;) Tikki squeaks when bounced. Good to know lol But poor thing was asleep. LOL the Lochness Monster is Trixx's doing, huh? It's like every major event in history happened because of a Kwami. What else are we going to learn xD Marinette being freaked out by the tarantula. The biggest spider I've ever seen in my house is a Giant Crab Spider. Freaked me out so much too. Poor thing was terrified though so I let it go outside. xD Are Alya's parents going to be like Marinette's parents and just shrug when their daughter says things they don't understand and let it go. Because in their situation, those are the best parents to have. Except Adrien's, who isn't around....oof moving on. And here is the start of Nino feeling left out... DX Anyone that knows me knows I adore him, so this is going to begin to get really painful for me. ;-; TRIXX IS JUST SO STINKING CUTE And then suddenly with the phone ringing and empty room with a villain on the other line threatening the lives of her friends and family, did I feel like I entered one of my Taiwanese dramas instead of Miraculous Ladybug. And I love it! I had no idea how Alya was going to deal with Shadow Moth's call, instructions, and Sentibubbler in the room, I was at the edge of my seat. Older seasons it was so much easier to have a good general idea anyway of what was going to happen, but now you get caught by surprise much more. Alya is so brilliant, there's honestly nobody better for Marinette to have told first. I love Chat Noir so much and for emotional reasons, I wanted him to know first. But it's so easy for one or both to be unable to transform or do their job, they need at least one other on the outside they can trust. Alya is certainly that someone. I do think Nino knowing and Adrien finding out will make them the strongest though. But of course, not without its consequences. There is no perfect solution. I also want to point out too. When Marinette was trying to decide what to do, she thought of ways that would cause significant trouble, or worse. Transforming in front of everyone and going back in time to erase that. Nothing she thought of to get herself out of the situation was a good idea. Chat Noir didn't want to listen to Rena Rouge and was going to blow her plan up. Her wording wasn't great, and she should've said it differently so he'd be more likely to listen. But

both Ladybug and Chat Noir were going to do things that would cause serious damage and consequences. Rena Rouge was the one that helped make things go smoothly. But also yikes the fact that Chat Noir got so angry and hurt about being left out (it didn't even have anything to do with Ladybug, so that's going to be a misunderstanding that adds up and comes back later ooof) that he destroyed a chimney with his baton. o.o But his "Oh well Miraculous Ladybug will fix it anyway so I can't feel too bad" xD Everything lately about these episodes just screams "Chat Noir and Nino are going to have to know, at least some details, and soon." either that or both of them walk away because they can't put up with it anymore. And I'm pretty sure we're not getting the latter! Chat Noir being told by Marinette to stay where he is. Chat: BUT WHYYYY x.x Marinette: Rena Rouge created a Ladybug illusion to trick Sentibubbler, who is a Sentimonster. If you go there, you might ruin her entire plan! Chat: ... and you know this how? That's really sus, Marinette... Marinette just goes all casual Chat-like as she explains and he just doesn't even question anything anymore lololol Alya being super smart and getting Shadow Moth away from her while she still keeps the Miraculous. Hahahaha what if all the rest do that too, that'll be so great. x3 Chat, explains what's going on and what he has to do. Marinette: Good idea! :D Chat: Relax. The real Ladybug will save her and together we will save you. Marinette: We're already saving them, Kitty. We already are... Me: AHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MY HEART ;-; The only real physical damage done to Paris that day was when the Agreste's decided to vent their anger out on innocent buildings. Marinette being as Ladybug to Chat Noir as she can be while Marinette's the one with him trapped in a bubble. x33 I love how he uses Cataclysm, gets trapped in the bubble again, and Marinette just blinks at him like "Oh Kitty...:c" In S1, Marinette would've rolled her eyes and shook her head lol Ladybug transforming in a bubble right next to Chat Noir and he knows absolutely nothing :D I'd be so nervous even with that illusion if it were me. Chat Noir: NOBODY CAN MUTE ME Shadow Moth: Wanna bet? THAT ACTION SHOT OF PEGABUG TAKING THE COFFEE CUP FROM HAWK MOTHS IS ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITES Her hair is so pretty and her smug look is just so perfect!! Chat Noir saving Nino <3 Ladybug and Rena Rouge's hug <3 Seriously loving these friend moments. But they make me nervous about what's to come. "Hey, I thought today would be the end of Chat Noir." Oh dear. Please don't have him thinking like this still. What's it going to take for this poor boy to understand he's irreplaceable and she cares so much about him? At this point I think him knowing her feelings for him and some of the truth, but not all of it, would be what it'd take. Okay, the scenes after the end card now are tripping me up. Such creepy, dramatic music with a getting angrier all the time Gabriel. Scary. Thanks to spoilers from TFOU, this scene here, hints at the finale episode for sure. And that was the episode! I really enjoyed this one, I love how it's really getting the ball rolling on some problems that later on will need to be fixed, to then have them come back happier and stronger than before. We just need to live through it first lol.

[adrinoir]

Who will be the next Hawk Moth?

Alright, well there’s a lot of different theories on who will be “the next Hawk Moth”. So I wanted to do a break down on some possibilities (warning: this analysis is REALLY long lol)

Lila

I feel like Lila is very likely to be the next one. She already has a leg up in working with Gabriel (despite not knowing he’s Hawk Moth).

Even though Hawk Moth hasn’t reached his goal of getting Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculouses, he’s made good progress. With Lila’s help, he’s gotten PRETTY damn close to getting them since she has that deep hatred of Ladybug. Without her, he wouldn’t have had his invasion of scarlet moths possessing Paris.

Additionally, Lila is pretty full of herself and does just about everything for her own benefit. She could easily grow a bigger hatred towards Ladybug and find out about the benefits of their miraculouses to have her own wish granted.

It’s really difficult to see her as a redeemable character since she has yet to show any redeemable qualities. But, hey, maybe there will be a plot twist where she’ll change her ways.

Chloe

As much as I’d LOVE to see Chloe develop into a better person since we see she is the way she is, I don’t have too much faith in Thomas Astruc’s writing.

Thomas initially started Chloe off as the annoying and conceited bully, then she started seeing the error of her ways, and finally...she was pulled back to square one.

It’s obvious that Chloe is pretty strong. She knows Hawk Moth is evil and has fought off an akuma even when she was super angry with Ladybug. However, Hawk Moth IS a rather powerful man and was able to akumatize Chloe on many occasions. She became his most successful akumatized victim as Miracle Queen. I feel like the fandom doesn’t talk enough about how Chloe managed to get almost ALL the miraculous holders to reveal their identities. (Don’t come for Hawk Moth in saying he hasn’t made a lot of progress - he HAS.)

The main issue with Chloe is that she can easily be manipulated into doing things for Hawk Moth because she has that disliking for Ladybug, deep down. She doesn’t want to hate Ladybug but obviously it’s been tough since she won’t let Chloe have her bee miraculous, and being Queen Bee is very important to her. Chloe wants to be powerful and heroic to feel good about herself since her mom doesn’t see her as something special (which is awful, I feel so bad for Chloe, honestly.)

Even though the likelihood is there, I really don’t want Chloe to become the next Hawk Moth. In season 4, it’d be nice to see some of her character development come back, and hopefully her and her mom build a stronger relationship now that Audrey has decided to stay in Paris with the family. Thomas Astruc needs to make Chloe better but KEEP it that way. She’s shown redeemable qualities and we know why she acts the way that she does. There’s a ridiculous amount of potential for her to be a wonderful, well-rounded character instead of just the evil bully Thomas makes her out to be.

Felix

So far, we’ve only seen Felix in one episode, but we already have a good idea of what he’s like. He’s very manipulative as a form of coping with his father’s death.

Felix already has a bit of a vendetta against Gabriel for keeping Emilie’s family heirlooms, and managed to steal them from Gabriel. He also wasn’t very nice to Adrien in pretending to be him and attempting to hurt his friendships. All of those things Felix did just prove he’d make a *good* villain.

My theory is that he’ll come back for at least one more episode, since he took the wedding rings that were very precious to Gabriel. However, it’s kind of strange to me that Felix hasn’t even been mentioned since his debut episode. So, we will see if this devilish boy makes a comeback.

Adrien

People have had this theory a while back, but it’s just incredibly unlikely at this point.

Adrien cares deeply about his mom and wants her back, of course. However, we see in Cat Blanc that he tried to cataclysm his own father for what he’s done. He was so hurt by his father’s motives, he triggered the end of the world.

There could potentially be an episode where Adrien hears his father out and tries the butterfly miraculous out for himself, but Bunnyx would come out of her burrow and shut that shit down.

OR, we know Gabriel is an awful father and he could somehow manipulate his own son to take his spot as Hawk Moth. (But again, Bunnyx could easily shut this down, too.)

Adrien loves being Cat Noir; he’s shown to be the Cat Noir in the future. He has an extremely good heart. So they’ve pretty much denied Adrien becoming the new Hawk Moth, at this point.

Luka

I think this is the most interesting idea I’ve seen on who the next Hawk Moth will be. (I recommend watching Cat Blanc x Princess Justice’s YouTube video analysis on this. It’s really good! I mention some of her points in here.)

Luka is almost too nice of a character. He cares a lot about other people and just sort of lets Marinette take advantage of his kindness, which is really sad, BUT there could easily be a motive we don’t know behind that, or he’s secretly bothered by it deep down.

There’s that theory that Luka knows Marinette is Ladybug. He could be trying to get closer to her to take the miraculous from her since he might know the power the ladybug and black cat miraculous hold.

Or, like I mentioned before, if Luka is bothered deep down by Marinette’s romantic feelings for Adrien, there could be something that happens that pushes him over the edge. We’ve even seen that Luka makes a terrifying villain as Silencer. He was super manipulative and had a lot of good tactics. Ladybug and Cat Noir DID in fact have a really hard time fighting him. Luka is also not the type of person to get angry like that, but Hawk Moth needs STRONG emotion to feed off of. So, considering how powerful of a villain Luka was, there’s clearly some anger boiling within him.

We also don’t have that much of a backstory to work off of. We’re slowly learning more, but think about it, for instance, we don’t know who his father is. Some people have theorized it’s Jagged Stone but we’re REALLY not sure. So, maybe it’s a motive of his to find his father.

Thomas Astruc made Luka a very likable character, enough so to get most of the fandom to actually like the Lukanette ship. Luka could have been made purposely likable so that the fandom won’t believe that he will be the next villain.

Another good point Cat Blanc x Princess Justice had made was that Miraculous World made a tweet that Miraculous will be introducing a new villain in season 4 - but it’s a character we already know. Lila and Felix are already known BUT they’re also already well-established villains....

Kagami

If Luka is a possibility, so is Kagami. Half the fandom thinks Kagami is great, the other half thinks she’s awful.

Kagami is shown to have a very strong personality (that sometimes comes off as a bit threatening). She’s very blunt about everything, very uptight, doesn’t beat around the bush. Those three characteristics are similar to Gabriel, HOWEVER Kagami has a caring soul and she really wants to be good to Adrien and Marinette.

So, it’s possible, but unlikely and definitely hard to pinpoint what intentions she could possibly have of becoming a villain. Maybe her mother pinches a certain nerve, or she can’t understand why Adrien doesn’t love her.

Additionally, Thomas Astruc doesn’t cut Adrien a lot of slack, let’s be real here. Adrien’s father is already Hawk Moth, he could switch it to his “girlfriend” being Hawk Moth.

Alya

So, I have a bit of an interesting theory on this since I haven’t really seen anyone else mention anything about Alya potentially becoming bad.

Despite Alya/Rena Rouge having a strong bond and trust with Ladybug, there’s that possibility she still wants to unveil who Ladybug really is - she still runs The Ladyblog, after all. And of course, unveiling Ladybug’s identity is extremely dangerous. She even posted the museum exhibit to her blog in Feast, which she didn’t realize was dangerous. It shows that she might slip and reveal something that she shouldn’t have.

Or, maybe Alya manages to lose Ladybug’s trust. Something monumental could happen. There’s already that bit of danger surrounding Ladybug and Rena Rouge since they’re such close friends in real life and know nearly everything about each other.

Hawk Moth also now knows that Alya is Rena, and could do something to push her to reveal something on The Ladyblog, therefore turning her into a villain.

Also, Alya already knows SO much of the Ladybug lore. She’s dedicated so much time to researching the lore behind the miraculouses. Also pretty dangerous and suspicious.

Nino

Like Alya, there’s a chance Nino also loses Ladybug and/or Cat Noir’s trust. When Nino first got his miraculous, he wasn’t very good at acting like a different person in his superhero persona. He could easily slip and reveal an something he isn’t supposed to.

He is the least likely possibility, but not completely impossible.

Tom or Sabine

I put these two in the same excerpt because they have about the same amount of likeliness to be the next Hawk Moth (or maybe one is Hawk Moth and the other is Mayura 👀)

Tom and Sabine are both super sweet, but also, we don’t know a whole lot about them. Since Gabriel - father of sweet cinnamon roll hero Cat Noir - is Hawk Moth, who’s to say superhero Ladybug’s own parents couldn’t become evil? It’d create a super interesting dynamic in the plot because it’s like how would Marinette react if one of her parents was Hawk Moth?

I have a stronger theory that Tom and Sabine used to be the old Ladybug and Cat Noir, but still. Don’t put it past Thomas Astruc to trick us somehow.

How would Gabriel fail (or lose his miraculous)?

One last thing I’d also like to analyze relating to this is this question.

Does Gabriel NOT end up ever getting Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculouses? Let’s look over some possibilities:

1) One of the villains he creates or senti-monsters Nathalie creates becomes too powerful and doesn’t give him the miraculouses once they’re captured.

2) He gives up and realizes all he needs is his dearest son Adrien.

3) He gets sickly and can’t fight anymore and passes on his miraculous for someone else to do the job.

4) Simplest answer: His miraculous is stolen.

[lovesquareshippingtrash]

Season 4 reaction

So I’ve just watched season 4. Like, all of it in one day. I decided to wait until I could get all episodes in English before watching any of it.

So let’s talk about it! Spoilers for the whole season below the cut, naturally.

So a big part of why I didn’t start watching was because of spoilers I had seen that sounded like the show was doing stuff I didn’t want to see until I could see the resolution. Stuff like Marinette telling Alya. As well as just any parts of the relationships with Kagami and Luka.

The majority of the season was a breath of fresh air, frankly. It felt like all of the nonsense excuses from the first few seasons to justify the bizarre continuity were finally gone, as episode after episode kept having an impact on what came next. There were arcs and everything! The way the subplots flowed together, with everything involving Alya acting as Marinette’s support flowing really well. Gabriel recognising the connection between Ladybug and Rena Rouge (which he would have caught onto even if Alya hadn’t given SentiNino his Miraculous, because Optigami would have fused with her Miraculous instead, and gone back with her, revealing that she kept her Miraculous), going into Hawk Moth targeting her and Alya taking on the Rena Furtive role, leading into Nino growing suspicious, and then Nino revealing his and Alya’s secret identities to Adrien, which... disappointingly lead nowhere. Like, with all of Adrien’s bitterness over Team Miraculous and being left out of the loop, he never even mentioned to Ladybug that he knew? I mean, I get that it’s Adrien who found out, but he could have covered that. I guess Adrien is just better at keeping the secrets ignoring Ephemeral. The Luka/Jagged subplot was also super fun, and again, flowed really well episode to episode in the early parts of the season in particular.

Episodes: I knew Truth and Lies were going to be connected, the titles alone made that clear, but the overlapping time frame was a fun touch. Especially as it meant we got an episode that followed Adrien’s perspective pretty much the whole time. Felt a little like Gabriel ran out of ideas for akumatising Kagami though. Like, he gave Luka a truth exposing power, and then finding Kagami in very much the same position immediately after he just... lets her freeze anyone who has ever lied? Kinda weak sauce.

Cat Noir making the plan to fend of Truth was so good to see, and hearing Ladybug express what she likes about Cat Noir was heartwarming.

But I’m glad the relationships were ended, to be honest. I’m not gonna salt on them or whatever, but this blog is titled Love Square Shipping Trash. If you came here hoping to see positive takes on alternate Marinette & Adrien ships, that’s on you. It’s hard to tell how much of this was the writers wanting to differentiate the root problems in the relationships, how much is misogyny that the show has real issues with, and how much is just my own reading, but the relationships felt super unhealthy for Luka and Adrien. Luka just being completely okay with Marinette being unable to get over Adrien... that’s not healthy for him. Having him as a supportive friend is better. When she broke up with him, he finished spoke to help her through it, but it would have been far better for him if he’d ended it, saying that he still has feelings, and would love to try again some day, but not whilst she both can’t talk to him and more importantly can’t get over Adrien.

And then there’s either Adrien not feeling comfortable enough to act natural around Kagami, or else Kagami interpreting Adrien’s behaviour as unnatural. Either way, not great. It was better that she was the one to end things, but I’d have preferred it if it were simply her recognising that Adrien wasn’t comfortable in the relationship, and not holding that against him.

Then Gang of Secrets followed up on this! Marinette is clearly stressed, understandably, and I think it’s reasonable that a stressed teenager could lash out like that without meaning to. Sometimes you just need a little space.

Now, Alya being allowed to become Rena Rouge again - and later other past team members returning. I guess I misunderstood the season 3 finale, because I thought their identities were exposed to the general public, but I guess just to Gabriel and Nathalie? Like, Chloé didn’t remember and Adrien didn’t realise... I guess?? Which is whatever, and I suppose that’s why Chloé wasn’t arrested for aiding a terrorist without any external influence. But the issue with Chloé becoming Queen Bee was never about her identity being known publicly, it was about Hawk Moth being able to target her family as a result. In Miraculer, Chloé became the first person to fully reject Hawk Moth because of her loyalty to Ladybug, but even that wasn’t enough to let her back on the team. In Heart Hunter, Chloé’s parents were already akumatised, and she wasn’t emotionally compromised, she was ready to support Ladybug. But she was denied. Yet in this season, everyone else gets to keep going - even when Hawk Moth blatantly targets them based on their personal lives! And okay, Alya handled it, largely because she already had her Miraculous and Gabriel didn’t know that, but he could have then started targeting all of the others?? But it’s fine, just let them all stay involved, nbd. The hypocrisy of it to justify making Chloé more awful than ever before because Astruc decided the character who went through more character growth and redemption than any other was incapable of change is aggravating.

Marinette wanting to help Kagami and Adrien so much in Mr Pigeon 72 was adorable, even if it was clearly what she really wanted for herself, and she just needed to listen to Kagami.

Psycomedian felt like a much older episode, like early season 2, in a good way. Marinette trying to win Adrien through laughter - not knowing that she was already the best at making him laugh - was precious. I’m very happy that they talked it out at the end and she got to realise that he found her naturally funny. Also, angy Ladybug was incredible, and it made me SO happy that Cat Noir was able to take the lead, and came up with a brilliant plan himself. It was a much simpler, standalone episode, but it did what it needed to do in a delightful way. Oh, and the show FINALLY acknowledging through Rose - BEST character to do it with - that not only is friendship a step, but that’s REALLY FREAKING IMPORTANT to be friends with someone with whom you want to pursue a long term relationship felt SO cathartic. And man, they’re all but outright stating that Rose and Juleka are in a relationship now, huh? MORE PLEASE.

So Furious Fu... like, Su-Han was a jerk about it, but he was absolutely right. It was entirely unreasonable to put all the pressure and responsibility he did on two children. Making them heroes was bad enough, making Marinette Guardian was so much worse. It’s kind of annoying that the show would bring it up, though, because it removes some suspension of disbelief. Plenty of media, particularly children’s of family media, puts the kids in charge for whatever reason. When it’s a fate/destiny deal, the adults can absolutely question it and say the kids shouldn’t, but they have to be the ones to save the day. Here, though, it could have been anyone, and we suspend the disbelief that it wouldn’t be adults because everyone just accepts that this is fine for kids. Having an authority figure regarding the powers point out how messed up this is pulls the audience out in a way that can’t then just be ignored. But uh, hey, maybe instead of just skulking all season you could actually BE USEFUL and try to stop Shadow Moth? Like, if he’s supposed to be watching the heroes at all times, maybe when Gabriel is out publicly during Sentibubbler Sun Han could show up, neutralise him, and reclaim the stolen Miraculous! Blah.

Next up is the Zoé arc. It would have been so easy for her to say to her family at the end that she was only pretending to be nice to pull the long con. I’m glad they didn’t though, there are more than enough double-crossing characters. I love that André stood up for her and helped her out though! I hope that Zoé can continue to help him stand up to Chloé and Audrey. They’ve got a great dynamic, and it’s SO good for the show to have the step-parent be the positive influence like this. Glad to see Adrien finally follow up on what he said to Chloé in Despair Bear, even if it’s a full two seasons later.

Gabriel Agreste was such a strong episode. There was so much going on at that party! Marinette & Chloé’s deal was the weakest part for sure - and it’s insane that Chloé has now gone full blown supervillain in her public life. Although it being some bizarre masquerade ball, but with everyone only getting a mask on arrival, and then otherwise dressed like it’s a freaking funeral... very weird energy.

The focus episodes introducing new heroes were great. I particularly enjoyed Guiltrip. First, the focused highlight of the whole class banding together and comforting Juleka such that she isn’t akumatised, and doing this repeatedly throughout the episode - and the season - is wonderful. Second, excellent twist to have Reflekta IMMEDIATELY surrender to her guilt. She doesn’t blame anyone but herself, so it’s great that she doesn’t just rage against her friends blindly. And then Rose - ROSE. Absolute light. I love that the episode does good character work justifying her acting more childish than the others in a very real way. I love that she just wants her friends to treat her the same. Marinette initially leading the battle stations when Rose sneezes, then later yanking her cushion back, was excellent. And the fact that Ladybug and Cat Noir really couldn’t keep going without that absolutely beacon of positivity was perfect. I love that, as Ladybug said, there was no big battle to save the day. The only thing missing was to FINALLY let Rose and Juleka kiss. But, I mean, the show still hasn’t even shown Alya and Nino kiss, so what are the odds of that, really.

My main thought on Glaciator 2 is just that it’s nice that Cat Noir is trying to be more respectful of Ladybug’s feelings, and that they have the conversation about boundaries, that she actually enjoys the playful banter and even him calling her “my lady” is fine. Having the conversation is so healthy! We need that so much more, even if it has to take place during an action scene to fit it in.

Hack-San was a little frustrating. Cat Noir’s concerns were entirely justified. I was pleased to see that, in Ladybug’s absence and with a pretty cocky new partner, he was immediately ready to take the lead and be the serious hero, showing that he’s always capable of that, but that he knows he and Ladybug work better with one person taking the lead, and it makes more sense when it’s her Lucky Charm that needs to be used. Really, Alya should have just explained that she was Rena Rouge - since Hawk Moth wouldn’t hear that - and he would probably have been fine much quicker. Alya telling Marinette to talk to Cat Noir was VERY good, and I’m glad they talked. Cat Noir forgiving Ladybug was nice, although he’s not entirely right to say she did nothing wrong - she DOES need a way to let him know about situations like this, so that he doesn’t have to fear that her Miraculous was stolen, or that the new hero is a villain.

Wishmaker was a delight. Alec FINALLY getting to grow and stop being so awful, stop getting people akumatised all the time. Luka’s advice to Marinette and Adrien should have just been we are FOURTEEN, y’all need to chill, people double your age still don’t know what to do with their lives. Luka learning both heroes’ identity’s is wild, and it’s so strange that nothing has been done with that. It’ll obviously pay off later, but still. Feels bad for Luka, now knowing what Marinette’s secret was, but being unable to say anything. Also, most importantly, Crocojagged was just wonderful. So contended and chill.

Simpleman was just plain fun, especially with the heroes and even Shadow Moth affected. Running through the streets screaming to fight him, and he’s just like “I will stay hidden!”, very fun.

Qilin, like Psycomedian, felt like a much earlier episode, but in not such a great way. It felt like it was doing the season 1 thing of introducing us to a character through a focus episode - except this is season 4, we know who Sabine is. The ticket collector was absolutely insane, like, aside from going way too hard about all of this, does he seriously not know where he lives? He has to realise that just bullying this woman is going to make her a target. Another reason it felt like season 1. Apparently he was also racially profiling her?? I think that must have largely been removed from the dub. So many of the scenes felt uncomfortable to watch, and it seems like the only thing this episode added to the show overall was an akumatised form for Sabine for the following episode.

Tikki’s whole deal in Dearest Family was just weird. Seems like rounding Tikki up could have been solved by Marinette renouncing her, though, forcing her back into the earrings. Also, like, it seems like they were trying to present various nuanced perspectives, except that Sabine was very clearly in the right? She wanted to talk it through with Marinette.

Ephemeral... why are we just doing Cat Blanc again? It felt like a MUCH weaker version of that episode, and with none of the characters remembering anything from the other timeline, we don’t gain anything from this - Cat Blanc has contributed to the show by showing that Marinette is still traumatised from the event. Like, it’s interesting to see the perspective of Marinette learning Adrien’s identity first, and how different that is for her - I have to assume this was addressed here because by the time of the actual reveal her relationship will have grown with both boys such that she knows all sides better and can more easily see that they’re the same.

Luka’s whole role made no sense. Instead of the convoluted plan, he just had to tell Ladybug that he already knew who Cat Noir was and could tell the Su Han himself. Then when he’s sent into find the kwamis, he points out that Second Chance can only go back 5 minutes, and Sass is just like yeah but not for me, I can just risk tearing the timeline apart, when Fluff is RIGHT THERE. Luka should have just used Fluff for safer time travel. Like, this was literally the solution when they set up this same problem a season ago. Fluff could have ALSO helped deal with the Su Han situation, by just leaving a note that Bunnyx needed to come back to that moment and tell Su Han herself, since she knows their identities in the future.

When I first heard that Cat Noir would be giving up his Miraculous in Kuro Neko, based on the little spoilers I’d heard about the season, I assumed I would be entirely on his side in the moment. But... no, not really. He didn’t actually bring up any of the points from the season where he justifiably felt left out, like Scarabella, or Alya & Nino. He just pouted that Ladybug didn’t need him, when she was clearly busy retrieving the other Miraculouses instead of waiting FIVE MINUTES for her to finish that, at which point they could probably talk - all because HE didn’t turn up for a fight that she ABSOLUTELY wanted him at, and he knows that she tried to contact him. The idea that he’s “just another holder” now doesn’t hold water since she still won’t let him reveal his identity, which puts him in a very different position to the rest. It’s just odd that the past few seasons, starting back in Syren, have built up Cat Noir’s justification for feeling left out, but when it culminates in this episode, none of that is used, and instead he’s just being petulant. The episode also SHOULD have ended with Ladybug filling Cat Noir on some details that he’s missed, like Cat Blanc, and, frankly, filling him in about Rena Furtive, but of course that would mean missing out in finale drama.

Penalteam... happened. The episodes this season that introduced each new hero were solid, so it’s a let down to just have these all crammed in here. Also weird was calling in Kagami and Luka when they weren’t involved or anything. They had enough for a full team without them. Major eyeroll at Alya and Alix being the first ones captured, since they couldn’t be given their Miraculouses without more questions. But now more than ever, we’re supposed to believe that these kids can’t figure out that their group happens to include someone with the exact body type of each of their classmates who ran to hide? It was a nice touch though, following Kuro Neko, for Ladybug to be ready to battle with just herself and Cat Noir, until he said that they might want help on this one - and then her bringing in an extra THIRTEEN people to help, essentially saying she felt that to adequately make up for him, she needed that many more people involved. I was right with Chloé at the end though, asking what Lila’s name is. When was the last time she had a line of dialogue??

And now the finale... Honestly, my only thoughts on Risk are just the same as back in Chameleon. Marinette told the table that Adrien had directly said he didn’t want to go, and should have also pointed out how obviously miserable Adrien looked in the video. Everyone was projecting themselves onto Adrien - Kim saying everyone wants to be a model, Nino assuming Adrien would want to go on the trip like he hasn’t made it clear time after time he wants to be a normal kid and be with his friends. But Alya still insisting that Marinette is just jealous of Lila is just the worst of it all, and has to be why they didn’t use Lila throughout the season - because if she had been involved in any previous episode, then maybe Alya would have stopped to think for a second that maybe LADYBUG knew more about the person who had claimed to be LADYBUG’S BEST FRIEND. The season was set up to exclude a major character just to have a weak justification for Alya being against Marinette in this scene. The worst part is they could have addressed this far more logically by just not having Alya there - they could have given any old reason for her absence, or even none at all - there was no reason given for Rose and Kim to be hanging out without their closer friends in the scene.

Then in Strike Back... the plan to find the akumatised object... was for Marinette to fuse three Miraculouses to go get Adrien, travel back in time, and for Adrien... to throw a ball. None of that even needed her to use the Ladybug Miraculous, if it’s a concern about using too many powers she could have dropped that one. And she didn’t get Adrien, she didn’t need to use the Horse either. The given reason for recruiting Adrien is that he wasn’t affected by Risk. But he doesn’t make any decisions in the plan anyway, so Ladybug didn’t avoid any risks by including him. I get that she’s still affected by Risk, but the fact is that every other risk we saw taken made... some level of sense. Okay, the kid’s parents letting him go was a bit odd, but that's small scale, and they weren’t actively aware of the situation. Ladybug, at that time, was thinking carefully about what risks were involved, and trying to avoid them... but ends up taking a way bigger risk that didn’t make any sense for her to even consider.

The final moments... the INSTANT she realised that Félix had tricked her she should have dropped her transformation. Adrien learning her identity is a FAR better solution than letting anything get taken from her, and it was reasonable to assume he’d look away anyway. Then her yoyo gets taken - AGAIN her immediate response should be to detransform. There is no reason whatsoever that her yoyo shouldn’t dematerialise when she’s no longer Ladybug. It felt contrived for the drama and the following season’s set up.

Finally... got to address SentiAdrien. The theory that Adrien has, in fact, always been a sentimonster. I don’t like the idea, it’s never sat right with me, even if I can’t quite explain why. But the season makes it abundantly clear that that is what’s happening. Same is true of Félix. The Amok is in Gabriel’s ring, and/or Emilie’s ring... maybe one each? It’s a little unclear. But throughout the season, whenever Adrien is about to defy Gabriel, he fiddles with his ring and Gabriel instantly meekly obeys. Most notably in Ephemeral - Adrien was absolutely going to fight akumatisation off entirely, if Gabriel couldn’t force him to accept. In Kuro Neko, he placidly remained in place at the press conference instead of making an excuse to leave because of a direct order to stay there. In Risk, the moment Gabriel gives Nathalie his ring, Adrien stops listening to Gabriel, but Nathalie is able to order him around. The season has made it clear - it’s just weird that previous seasons don’t hold up. In Cat Blanc, he knew that was Adrien. There is no reason he couldn’t have used the Amok to entirely control him, as he does with Ephemeral. It honestly feels like the found a fan theory online and just incorporated it into the show.

To sum up the season as a whole, it started off incredibly strong, with numerous interesting interwoven plot threads and really good character development - the potential to easily be the best season, not close. Even aspects that I didn’t personally care for, such as Marinette’s relationship with Luka, Adrien’s with Kagami, and Alya learning Ladybug’s identity, were really solid plot points that built the season up well. The season was let down by a couple of stand alone episodes, but those are no big deal - and then royally messed up with a convoluted finale that just didn’t hold up to what had previously been established, for the sake of establishing the following season. Overall, it’s still probably the strongest season of the show, but its flaws are far from negligible.

[alexiessan]

Never alone - Chapter Twenty One - Soulmate AU

AO3

Previous - Here - Next

Master List

Monday came too quickly in Marinette’s opinion. She wished they were still on vacation back in Gotham, where she didn’t have to worry about anything. Not Hawkmoth, not school, not the pressure of the Baccalauréat at the end of the day, not her applications to universities. She had really liked it when all she could focus on was Damian, her family and herself.

As time passed, Marinette grew more and more anxious. She had gotten used to seeing Damian every day, to get kisses, hugs, and affection every day, and after spending most of their relationship apart, she didn’t want for him to go away. At the beginning of May, he would go back to Gotham to spend the last month of the school year in his school and pass the exams that would allow him to graduate.

Hawkmoth shouldn’t be a problem anymore by this time, too.

They haven’t talked about their future after high school yet, and that’s a conversation that they needed to have, but somehow, she wasn’t scared of the future. Knowing his identity, she could use Kaalki to visit him sometimes, and while being away from him made her heart ache, she knew they could handle it.

Her hand squeezed Damian’s a little harder as they were in front of the school, not wanting to go inside just yet despite the cold. Damian squeezed back and leaned in to kiss her forehead.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked, touching his forehead with hers.

“Just thinking that May would come way too fast,” she admitted, not willing to lie to him.

Putting an arm around his waist, she pulled him closer to her and he followed willingly. Standing on her tiptoes, she kissed his neck once, twice, before kissing his lips.

He was the one to break the kiss, and the Eurasian girl followed him for another kiss, not willing to end their embrace just yet, but his chuckle made her open her eyes. Damian pulled her even closer to him, hugging her tightly and she reciprocated eagerly.

“I’ve given some thoughts about that, and we’ll talk about it, just not yet,” he said, kissing the crown of her head. “You don’t have to worry about it, though. Let’s just focus on the pest problem for now.”

She laughed at how he chose to call the Hawkmoth issue. It was fitting, she thought.

Detaching herself from him — not completely though, she loved being in his arms too much — she looked around, standing on her tiptoes sometimes to get a better view.

She saw Nino and Alya arriving, hand in hand, the reporter having one of her usual bright smiles on while the bespectacled boy looked like he swallowed something sour. The fashion designer felt a pang of sadness at the sight, knowing that it was probably one of the last time that she would see the couple together like this.

Averting her eyes, she looked around some more.

“Who are you looking for?” her boyfriend asked, his hand coming inside her scarf to settle on the back of her neck, stroking it sightly.

It made her want to bury herself into him and forget about school for today.

“I’m looking for Adrien.”

Even though she couldn’t see his face, she could guess the scowl on his face. The fingers on her neck slightly twitched, making her know his disliking of the aforementioned person.

“Worried about him?” he mumbled.

She sighed. “He’s in denial right now. And an Adrien in denial isn’t a good thing.”

She remembered when Chat Noir, before he realized that his behavior toward her as her superhero persona was not right, would be in denial every time she rejected him. So much so that she thought him delusional at the time, so it was worrisome to see him in that state of mind yet again.

And Damian knew that since she had told him a long time ago.

“I just hope that it won’t blow up in our faces,” she mumbled, giving up on finding him among the people arriving.

Taking Damian’s hand in hers, she tugged at it, and together, they made their way inside.

“Do you think he could turn against us?” he asked, frowning at the possibility.

Marinette sighed again, frowning. She was sighing a lot today.

“I want to say no. I want to say that he would never do that, that he would fight with us, but…” she bit her bottom lip, only stopping when Damian’s thumb stroked it to make her stop. “But, even though Gabriel Agreste is the worst father either, Adrien has so much hope that one day he would pay attention to him. That he would be a real father.” She looked at her soulmate, interlinking their fingers together. “That hope and his love for his mother doesn’t look good for us.”

She fell silent for a few seconds, before continuing. “But Chat Noir has been my partner for years. He always had my back. So, forgive me, but I have hope that he won’t, even if you don’t.”

He squeezed her hand in response. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

“And me having hope could get me hurt, I know,” she answered, smiling sadly.

They arrived in class just in time, and as Marinette took her seat next to Claude, the professor came in, not waiting for any of his students to settle to announce:

“For the next month, you’re going to work on a presentation about a hot topic,” he grinned at them, “it will be in a team of two, and no, you’re not choosing your partners.”

He took a box with little sheets of paper inside.

“When I call your names, come here and pick a paper. It will be your theme to choose your hot topic from.”

Marinette ended up on a team with Chloé while Damian, the lucky bastard, ended up with Claude.

Yet, somehow, for the rest of the day, she was in a better mood than in the morning.

She had shoved the whole Adrien issue aside, choosing to wait until she saw Chat Noir again on a patrol — hoping he would show up — to confront him about his reaction to Hawkmoth’s identity.

They were yet to confirm it, but they were ninety percent sure that Gabriel Agreste and Hawkmoth were one.

Chloe has been pleasant to talk to when she went to her about their projects, confirming that she was, indeed, doing what she could to be a better person. They had decided to meet later in the week to decide their topics and to be over with it as soon as possible so they wouldn’t get overwhelmed when the deadline was close.

Right now, the dark-haired girl thought as she pushed her finished homework aside on her desk, she just wanted some time with her boyfriend.

Joining him on her chair after seeing he was done with his work too, she didn’t hesitate and climbed on his laps, smirking at him.

He smirked in return before kissing her deeply, his hands roaming her body.

Quickly, they were both shirtless and would have gone farther if it weren’t for her trap door opening with a bang.

“Marinette, you won’t believe it!”

Alya froze when she saw the scene in front of her, and Marinette couldn’t blame her. They must have been a sight, Damian shirtless with the blue-eyed girl in her bra, sitting on his laps, and clearly red in the face.

It didn’t take a genius to understand what they were doing. Or, rather, what they were going to do.

Quickly covering themselves, they separated from each other. As the designer made her way to her best friend, the youngest Wayne placed a cushion on his laps, sending a glare to the unwelcome guest.

“What’s wrong?” Marinette asked, though she already knew what happened when she saw the tears falling from the journalist’s eyes.

And just like that, she was crying a river.

“Nino and I broke up. He found his soulmate.”

Hugging her as she cried, she mouthed a “sorry” to Damian, knowing he must be as frustrated as her about the interruption.

He nodded, letting her know that while he was not happy about the situation, he understood. He didn’t say anything as Alya cried in her arms, and even offered her the blanket next to him when she brought her to the chair.

After a moment, the reporter finally stopped crying, and eyed Damian, frowning at him.

“Does he have to be here?” she asked rudely.

Both Damian and Marinette scowled at that, but the Eurasian girl was the first to react.

“Hey, now. You never made Nino leave when I had to talk to you and I never asked you to,” the designer scolded, crossing her arms in front of her.

Was it petty to throw Alya’s behavior when she was in a relationship in her face? Yeah, probably.

“Yeah, but I don’t want it to hear what I want to say.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow at that.

“I know you enough by now. When something happens, you don’t want to talk about it right away,” she opened her arms. “But I’ll hug you.”

Alya didn’t say anything else about Damian, but she threw herself in the arms of her best friend.

Adrien was staring at his unfinished homework in front of him. He has been unable to concentrate at school the whole day.

Hell, he even came in late, for the first time in years.

He hoped that his father didn’t know about that, he didn’t want to be pulled out of school so close to the end of High School.

The conversation from the night before was replaying in his head again and again.

How could they believe that his father could be Hawkmoth? Ladybug has suspected him once before, but they had crossed him out of their list.

Why was she so willing to suspect him again? Was it because of her soulmate and his brother?

Had she always been so willing to toss him aside like that? To not take his feelings into consideration at all?

Adrien shook his head, trying to clear his head.

Not any of this was true.

He just wanted to put the blame on someone else.

He didn’t want his father to be the man that has been terrorizing Paris for years, now. It has nothing to do with Ladybug or the two vigilantes from Gotham.

Adrien was still bitter that Ladybug and he were not soulmates, his feelings for her remained, even if it has been a couple of years since she revealed to him that she had meant her soulmate.

He has been so envious of the guy who got to be her soulmate.

Did Robin even know how lucky he was?

But his bitterness was not good. It was scary even, how quick he was to put the blame on them for what was going wrong.

Them thinking that his father was Hawkmoth had nothing to do with him, he reasoned. They weren’t out to get him, to toss him away. They were just collecting all the facts, and those facts led to Gabriel Agreste.

His father.

He knew his father wasn’t the best father out there. He was cold, never present, and very strict. But he was still his father. He was the only family he had left.

What would happen if his father was really Hawkmoth?

He would end up all alone.

Adrien put his head in his hands, frustrated. He wanted to scream.

If his father was really Hawkmoth, and if he was doing all that for his mother, what would Adrien do?

He wanted to see his mother again. He really did. But at what price? The consequences of a wish could be great, saving a life could mean thousands of others could be lost.

His mother would never want that.

But, his mother…

Adrien, at this moment, couldn’t help but remember her. How her smile could brighten the room she was in. How her touch was so warm and comforting. How she would stay by his side when he was sick, stroking his hair and forehead as she sang him to sleep.

How, when she was still there, his father would let himself smile, sometimes.

He was so confused.

What was he supposed to do?

For a few seconds, his brain shut down. His eyes were unseeing and it was just silent. He couldn’t hear anything anymore.

Then, suddenly, he stood up.

“I don’t like that look, kid. What are you thinking about?”

Looking at Plagg, Adrien smiled, stroking him a little.

“I need to know. I need to know if Father is really who the others think he is.”

He couldn’t voice it yet.

“What…” he swallowed, “what do you think, Plagg?”

The Kwami sighed.

“I wouldn’t get my hope up, kid. Your father always disappoints you.”

The model nodded, toying with his ring. “Just… Just to be safe, I’ll let my miraculous here, alright? If… If he’s really… Well, I don’t want him to notice the miraculous.”

Plagg stared at him, nodding. “Be careful.”

The walk to his father’s office seemed to last en eternity for the young Agreste. Looking around, he couldn’t help but take in the sight of his home.

Has it always been this cold?

His fingers twitched, not used to be bare. He knew he was right to leave Plagg behind, but the Kwamii’s comfort would be welcome at the moment.

Finally, he arrived before the large door, his knocking resonated in the too empty house.

“Enter,” said the cold voice of his father.

There he was. Gabriel Agreste stood in front of his computer, barely glancing at his son.

“What is it, Adrien? I’m busy. Shouldn’t you be working on your homework? If you have so much free time on your hands, you should be practicing your piano.”

The blond boy could feel his heart beating in his ribcage. This moment, right now, could change his life forever.

Taking a deep breath, the green-eyed boy looked at his father, resolved.

“Father, are you Hawkmoth?” he asked, not beating around the bush.

Gabriel scowled. “I don’t know what you’re-”

The youngest in the room cut him. “You’re not as subtle as you think you are, father. Now, please, for once in my life, tell me the truth.”

Gabriel’s face hardened, and Adrien feared for the worst. But then, the man turned around, hands behind his back.

“It’s time I show you something, Adrien.”

Tag List:

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[shmowlwrites]

(LATE) NaNoWriMo Day 4

Daminette pls. But going off the “Wonder Woman’s mother was a Ladybug” thing. Sister/mentor/(personal favorite) treating Marinette like her mom. Whatever you like.

Okay so this turned out as a general “found family” kind of thing and Daminette doesn’t happen until later. Adrien is a decent human being in this because I’m so tired of writing and reading salt that I’m just going to leave the readers to assume Adrien actually had character growth in the show and stopped being a pushy, petty, sacrificial child. 

Anyway, this thing was 2340 words so buckle in babes!

Diana Prince perhaps should have been aware of the Hawkmoth problem, seeing as she was an employee of the Louvre. But do not blame her, she would have known the problem her city was going through if she hadn’t been on leave to deal with the other side of the world’s problems. 

It was a year before she finally got to return. A year that had so much happen within it. She finally learned of the Hawkmoth issue when Hal was complaining about this reoccurring video about “Miraculous” that also managed to delete itself. If he got to watch it as soon as it appeared, he could only get halfway through before it disappeared again. He couldn’t trace it to the city it came from. Ladybug and Chat Noir never said where they were from before the video deleted itself. But he was also complaining about the Miraculous. What were they? What did they do? Ladybug and Chat Noir only said they held those Miraculous.

Diana knew. Diana nearly threw a fit at the knowledge that the miraculi were active again, somewhere in the world, and she never knew.

On her first day back at the Louvre, her boss filled her in on everything that had happened and she wanted to strangle this “Hawkmoth” and “Mayura.”

Representing the Justice League, Diana, as Wonder Woman, managed to find Ladybug and Chat Noir while they were out on a patrol. Ladybug was stiffly polite and Chat Noir was acting like a puppy getting adopted. Several meetings later, Diana learned that Ladybug didn’t know how to respond to the daughter of a previous holder. 

In her meetings with them, Diana could only keep thinking of one thing: whoever their previous mentor was, they sucked. Ladybug and Chat Noir didn’t know much about their powers. They didn’t know the history of their Miraculous. They didn’t know how to properly fight and had been winging their battles since day 1. 

Diana found herself connecting to the two strongly. Ladybug was like the little sister she never had. Chat Noir was like a son who melted in any show of affection - which strangely also included compliments on growth. 

“I think what you two need is to get out of the city and learn how to fight from someone who has taught kids how to protect themselves quickly,” Diana found herself saying during a break in a training session. 

“But what if Hawkmoth sends out an Akuma while we’re gone?” Ladybug fretted.

“You have the horse miraculous, yes?” Diana nodded to the egg box. 

“Oh… you want me to take that with us?” Ladybug’s brow furrowed even more.

“Of course! Right now, I’d say nowhere is safer for the miraculous than with you. The temple is still regrowing, they won’t know what to do with your box while it is still incomplete. But, if you are so anxious about leaving Paris, I might be able to convince my friend and one of his sons to come here instead.”

“Really?” Chat Noir perked.

Diana gave him an easy smile. “I’m sure he’d be happy to.”

“For us?” Ladybug asked.

“You two are like my family by now,” Diana held out her hands. “And my friend will do anything for family.”

Bruce and Damian Wayne were in Paris by the end of the week. 16-year-old Damian was still a brat, but he was still a growing teenage boy forgetting old customs and learning about the real world. Bruce thought getting him around other young superheroes might help- he was horrendous at socializing with civilians due to still believing he was superior. 

That was a horrible mistake, Robin’s first act was to insult everything about Ladybug and Chat Noir. After a good long lecture from both Bruce and Diana, Robin apologized to both… in a way that left them more confused than accepting of him. 

A week later, Bruce tried the “let’s have a civilian day” card. Ladybug nearly threw a fit.

“We aren’t supposed to know each other’s identities!” She recited.

“Why not?” Robin scrunched his face. “I know all of-”

“You’re Gotham’s superheroes,” Chat sighed. “You don’t deal with a magical emotional terrorist. Ladybug and I are not immune to Akumas, we aren’t immune to strong emotions. What if one of us gets Akumatized and we know the other’s identity? We could tell Hawkmoth. We could succeed in taking the other’s Miraculous. And then what? He wins. We have to stay secret until Hawkmoth is gone.” He said it with practice, the concept having been drilled into his mind by Ladybug during their earlier days. 

“I’m sorry, Batman and Robin, we would like to, but please understand that for the safety of Paris, we literally cannot,” Ladybug gave a sad smile. 

They were there for another week before Robin, after pinning Ladybug with the end of his katana, suggested just hacking CTV cameras to track Akumas.

“It might work,” Chat grinned, before getting a light punch to the stomach and a “constant vigilance!” from Batman. 

“I surrender,” Ladybug told Robin before pushing Robin’s katana away and pushing herself into a sitting position. “It might. But I don’t have high hopes- kwami can’t even be seen on camera. What’s to say the effects of a Miraculous can’t either?”

“But,” Chat was buzzing, “you’re Cure always does! We’ve seen it on the news enough times.”

Ladybug pursed her lips. “I don’t know the first thing about hacking.”

“Good thing we do,” Robin cracked a grin.

“Do you normally find such joy in illegal activities?”

“Are you kidding me?” Chat’s voice was shrill and Ladybug had turned to Diana with wide eyes.

“Is it true?”

“We didn’t tamper with the footage besides getting it, if that’s what you’re asking,” Robin shrugged.

“But- but-” Chat sputtered, his cat pupils in fearful slits and tears glossing his eyes.

“Chat?” Ladybug softly called.

“That’s,” Chat’s bottom lip trembled and he looked between Ladybug and Diana. “That’s my house. Hawkmoth can’t be my dad- he can’t be!” Chat shook his head in denial. 

Ladybug paused in trying to comfort Chat, now realizing the boy before her was Adrien, the boy that used to be her crush. She was unsure on how to continue.

“Chat,” Diana spoke, moving forward to slowly place her hands on his shoulders. “Whether or not your father is Hawkmoth, somebody is sending out Akumas from your house. Since this is personal now, do you want to go with us? We’ll understand if you don’t.”

Chat blinked several times and looked between each person in his company. “I- I’ll go. You’ll need my help to get inside anyway.”

And so, in the middle of the next almost harmless Akuma attack, Adrien stayed in his room rather than go out. He popped open his window. Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and Ladybug swung inside and they began their journey through the house. Adrien led them to Gabriel’s study and faced the portrait of his mother. 

“There’s a safe behind the portrait. It’s where I found the grimoire. And now that I think about it, the peacock miraculous was in there too. I didn’t think much about it at the time,” Adrien rubbed his arms. Wonder Woman reached out and he grabbed her fingers in comfort.

“What’s done is done, do you think the portrait could also lead to where Hawkmoth is?” Batman asked.

“I think?” Adrien scrunched his face.

Robin walked up to the portrait, running his fingers around it. “There certainly are buttons on this, under the guise of being mosaic pieces.”

Adrien stepped up to it, fitting his fingers onto the supposed buttons, and before anyone could protest, he pressed them. The floor below them opened up and the elevator began to descend. They quickly fitted themselves into the tiny space.

Gabriel was standing in the middle of a garden, before something brightly white.

“Father?” Adrien’s voice was hardly audible but Gabriel Agreste still whipped around and saw the group of five. 

“Adrien!” He barked, unsure of who to call. “My son…”

“Father, no,” Adrien moaned, backing away. “How could you!”

“Adrien, I’ve been doing this for us! I’m bringing Emilie back. Don’t you want to see your mother again?” Gabriel stepped aside, tilting his head towards the coffin. 

“I would, but not this way,” Adrien shook his head, looking away from his father and the coffin. “I’ve grieved and moved on. Mom is dead and you shouldn’t be trying to change that!”

Gabriel frowned and narrowed his eyes. “Fine then. Nooroo, Dark Wings, Rise!”

 He called his Akuma back and sent another one, to whom they didn’t know. But what they were trying to do was get the brooch back. Gabriel, Hawkmoth, had almost lost from the shock of seeing his son transform into one of his own enemies, Chat Noir. 

Mayura joined, but Robin was quick to bring her down when she had doubled over from the sickness her Miraculous was causing her. Volpina made another return, hindering a good portion of the entire operation. Chat Noir had accidentally cataclysm-ed the entire platform, sending everyone down. There, in the dark and in the knee-high water, they continued the battle. Hawkmoth’s cane was shattered and he hid behind Volpina and her illusions. 

Volpina held up a good fight, but her mistake was physically attacking Ladybug. That had cemented her as the real Volpina.

“Finally,” Volpina screeched, hands on Ladybug’s earrings. “Finally! You little bug will finally be gone!”

She had gotten one earring out before Robin had sent a flying kick towards her, and the two of them began wrestling in the water. Ladybug was slowly disappearing, and the familiar form of Marinette was coming out of the suit. 

“Tikki, Spots off! Where’s my other earring?” The two of them began hunting the earring.

Chat Noir’s timer was finally up, and he returned into Adrien and was kicked away by his own father. “Plagg!” 

Diana finally managed to shove Hawkmoth’s face under the water and rip the brooch off and left Gabriel to find Marinette. Batman held the struggling Gabriel by his arms.

“What’s her Akuma?” Robin called, having learned the same trick.

“It should be her necklace! Don’t destroy it, we need Ladybug to purify it!” Adrien responded, finally finding Plagg and giving him a soggy slice of cheese. His night vision back, he dove under and plucked the earring from the ground and pushed it into Marinette’s hand. 

“Tikki, spots on!” Marinette called and Ladybug shot at Volpina and ripped the necklace off of her. The familiar sound of the Akuma’s wings managed to be heard over the infuriated screeches of Lila and the struggling grunts of Gabriel. Ladybug caught and released the Akuma. 

Emilie’s coffin was found in perfect condition after the Cure was cast. Gabriel and Lila were given to the police. Afterward, Adrien and Marinette were standing in front of it. 

“Do you think perhaps she isn't actually dead?” Adrien asked, reaching out to touch the coffin while Diana came walking up behind them.

“A misused Miraculous can be damaged, and a damaged Miraculous will injure anyone who uses it,” Diana explained, taking her circlet off. 

“I had thought Nathalie was sick with the same thing as Mom, they both started coughing before it began to actually start crippling them. I wonder why she was using the Peacock, then,” Adrien trembled.

“The temple might be able to help,” Marinette suggested. “They are the ones who know everything about the Miraculous. And, now we finally have the whole box.”

“You might be right, sister,” Diana placed a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. “But don’t put all your faith in them. They might not be able to bring her back.”

“If-” Adrien began, his voice trembling. “If they don’t, where am I going to go?”

Diana offered her hand again and he squeezed her fingers. “If you want, I would take you.”

“You would?” Adrien raised his eyebrows.

“Of course,” Diana grinned. “Marinette is like the little sister I never had. You, you are like a son to me. Marinette has her family and has grown with guidance. You… when I came, you were like what I imagine Bruce feels when he found his sons. Someone who needed guidance. Someone who needed an adult there who cared.”

Adrien looked on the verge of tears.

Emilie truly was dead, when they gave her to the temple. Adrien changed his last name to Prince and stayed with Diana. Marinette let him keep Plagg, but changed Tikki for a zodiac, taking Mullo. She didn’t want both the black cat and the ladybug active at the same time anymore. 

Diana stayed around in the bakery while not on Justice League business or at the Louvre, and got to know Tom and Sabine quite well. Marinette and her relationship strengthened, and Marinette quite liked to tease Adrien at school by calling him “her nephew.” Nobody really knew why. 

As they grew older, Adrien and Marinette kept in touch in their civilian lives and stayed as partners in the superhero world. But, Adrien never re-entered Marinette’s love life. No, he got his kicks out of returning Marinette’s teasing here. 

Damian Wayne and Marinette had gotten to know each other in the month he and Bruce had been in Paris. Marinette had a delivery to them, and then continued having deliveries. That was on Bruce’s part and him trying to set Damian up. Well, it worked, and the two fell into an awkward “I like you” stage after the downfall of Hawkmoth. When Marinette graduated, she had gone to Gotham University so she could be closer to Damian and they really did start dating then.

Adrien got his kicks from this. Whenever Diana came for a visit, Adrien was with her and always asked how Damian was treating his aunt. There were normally angry, muttered snide remarks in Cantonese from Marinette and smug replies in Mandarin from Adrien. 

Life was as peaceful as the life of a superhero could be for our young, found family.

[quicksilversquared]

X Marks the Spot

Several months after Hawkmoth's defeat and the reveal of his identity, Ladybug is ready to reveal her identity to her superhero partner. She doesn't want to spring the reveal on him, though, or force it when Chat Noir isn't ready, so naturally, she makes it into a game.

Or, to be more accurate, a treasure hunt, with her identity waiting at the end.

links in the reblog

It had been four months since life in Paris had been flipped upside down.

That, Marinette thought, was perhaps a bit of a dramatic way to put it, even in her own head, but that was what it had felt like. The final battle had happened on a sunny spring day, Mr. Agreste was revealed as Hawkmoth and Nathalie Sancoeur as Mayura, and the akuma battles had finally, finally drawn to an end.

It should have been a happy moment for Ladybug and Chat Noir. They were finally fully victorious, and would no longer have to deal with akumas disrupting their day-to-day lives. The threat was gone, and they could semi-retire, spending their time helping people out when they wanted to instead of being called into battle whenever Hawkmoth decided to interrupt their days.

But their supervillains were Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur, and even if her partner hadn't been Adrien- and that particular revelation had come out mid-battle- Ladybug would have felt devastated. Sure, Adrien's relationship with his father had been steadily breaking down over the years, as he found new support in his friends and their families, but it was still his father. The betrayal still hurt.

It had hurt him enough that Cat Noir- Adrien- hadn't wanted to know who she was. He had already had enough shocks for one day, he had told Ladybug with his face buried in her shoulder, curled together out of sight of the cheering citizens in the streets. Another identity reveal, another shock, even if it was a good one...well, he wasn't ready yet. It would be overwhelming.

Ladybug had respected that. Even months down the road, despite all of the healing progress that he had made, they hadn't broached the subject again.

But she wanted to. Adrien had been turning to Marinette more and more to hang out- whether he was subconsciously seeking her out because she was Ladybug or just because he found her presence more comforting than other people's, Marinette didn't know- and she just wanted to be able to support his full self, no secrets between them.

She wasn't going to pressure him, though. Adrien needed every part of his support network, and if she pushed for a reveal sooner than he was willing, he might stop coming over so often.

"I think that he might do better with more lead-up to the reveal," Plagg offered one afternoon, after she had found him lounging on her balcony. Apparently Adrien had fencing and Plagg didn't feel like hanging out in a stinky gym bag. Marinette made a mental note to offer to show Adrien how to wash it the next time he came over. "Like, if you just walk up one evening and say, 'hey, we both know who you are, but lemme drop my transformation real fast', that wouldn't give him any time to prepare, but if he had several days leading up to it…"

Marinette considered that as she plucked dead leaves off of a couple of her plants. "So, like, if I asked if he would be ready and then said, like, okay, now just wait a couple of days? That just seems odd. I mean, I understand the waiting period's purpose!" she added hastily. "It makes sense, so that he can have a couple days to tell me if he's still not feeling ready and so it doesn't feel like it's just being sprung on him. But just being straightforward about it- I don't know, that set-up just seems strange."

Plagg groaned. "Oh, no, are we gonna have to deal with another convoluted plan? No, why can't you be straightforward?"

"Because that just comes off weird, that's why." Marinette was already brainstorming, her mind whirring. "I'll figure something out soon."

"Ugh, fancy plans," Plagg muttered, but dropped it. Instead, he turned one grumpy green eye on Marinette. "And what's with all of the plants up here? My sunning spot is all shady! Get rid of them!"

Marinette yelped as Plagg made to move towards the newest of her beloved flower planters. "Don't you dare! Tikki, come tell Plagg to keep his paws off!"

  It didn't take long for Marinette to come up with the perfect- or maybe she should say the purr-fect- plan.

She had played with the idea of asking Chat Noir to lunch, which would mean inviting him one day, giving him several days to adjust to the idea, and then hopefully having him be ready the day of their lunch. That idea was pretty much discarded right away- while it would get rid of the awkward issue of her promising a reveal in several days' time without any occasion to go along with it, it ran a chance of Adrien somehow missing that it was going to be a reveal and then being taken by surprise. It also took the timeline out of his hands, since their lunch date would have to be set. Even if she had him set the date initially, what if he got cold feet and backed out last minute?

No, what she wanted was something that would allow Chat Noir to be able to have complete control over the timing, to be able to change his mind and pause if he needed to. Something that would be flexible and wouldn't leave him feeling obligated to rush his recovery.

She came up with a treasure hunt.

Making it a game would hopefully put her partner more at ease, and after the past few months that he had had- Marinette was still annoyed that Ladybug had had to step in to the degree that she had to get the police to stop interrogating him as Adrien, and she had had to do the same to get the press to back off- a game would (hopefully) be just the thing.

Now she just had to come up with the clues.

"Obviously I want to be upfront that there will be an identity reveal at the end," Marinette told Tikki as she worried over a blank piece of paper. "And I want to choose places that other people won't be able to go. I don't want someone finding one of Chat Noir's clues and trying to follow the trail themselves."

"And I think you should number the clues as a countdown, too!" Tikki chirped. "That way, Chat Noir knows how close to the end he is and that won't come up as a surprise."

"Ooh, good idea." Marinette wrote that down. "Okay, so- hmm. I was thinking about our favorite spot on the Eiffel Tower as a possible place, because no civilian can get to it, but we meet there at the end of patrol most of the time! Unless I hid it- and then that would just frustrate him when he's trying to find it- he would just see it right away."

"It could be one of the first clues," Tikki suggested. "Like, you could tell him at the start of patrol about the game and the first clue being at the end. It would be a nice, easy start."

Marinette wrote that down. It was a good idea.

Together with Tikki, she came up with a list of possible places to hide her clues. She wanted to start at the Eiffel Tower and end at her balcony- that way, she wouldn't end up waiting somewhere else on a night when Chat Noir wasn't going to show up, because she knew that he would feel guilty about that. Andre's ice-cream cart made the list- she was sure that he would agree to holding onto a clue, and the frequency with which Andre moved would add in a little bit of difficulty for Chat Noir- as did a very specific bell on top of a nearby church. Then there were other favorites of theirs, both places that they had found for hunkering down during akuma fights and shops that they had visited on patrol and loved. Her own family's bakery made the list- earlier on, so that her grand finale wouldn't be spoiled- and a particular chocolatier's shop, where they had bought hot chocolate on a regular basis during winter patrols and hang-outs.

It ended up maybe being a slightly longer list than she had expected, but knowing her partner, he wouldn't mind. If he was getting frustrated, she could always adjust later on and cut out some of the steps.

"I want to leave little gifts at each one, I think," Marinette mused as she looked over the list. "Or at least at some of them, it wouldn't be practical for all of them. I could pre-buy treats at several places, maybe. I mean, that would limit when Chat Noir can go to that place, because he would have to actually go during business hours, but he shouldn't be up all night anyway."

Tikki giggled. "I think he'll enjoy that!"

"I hope so. I want it to be fun for him." Marinette considered her list, her lips twitching up. "Wouldn't it be funny if I were the one manning the counter when he comes into the bakery?"

Tikki giggled more. "Oh, that would be funny! I bet Chat Noir would say the same once he finds out that it's you. Maybe you should try to do that! You can follow where he is in your treasure hunt and then volunteer to work the counter."

"That only works if he goes directly from one spot to another, though. He might have other stuff to do, or want to pause in between." She could probably still do it, though, just by putting Chat Noir alerts on her phone and also keeping an eye on Adrien's schedule. Smiling at the thought of his reaction- he was definitely going to call her cheeky for that, she knew her partner well enough to know that- Marinette quickly brainstormed up another couple gifts that she could give to her cat, non-perishable things that would be easy enough to hide.

This was going to be fun.

  Chat Noir was super excited about the idea of a reveal. Like, surprisingly so.

Like, to the point where Ladybug wondered if maybe he was ready to just learn her identity now and if the game was, instead of a buffer and something fun, just making Chat Noir work to learn her identity when that wasn't the point at all.

"You know, if you're ready to know, I could just-"

"Nuh-uh-uh, I know what you're going to say and you are not just going to tell me!" Chat Noir cut Ladybug off mid-sentence, wriggling a scolding finger at her. "I have been promised a game, and I will not be deprived of my hunt, thank-you-very-much."

"Okay, okay, it was just an offer!" Ladybug protested, laughing. "If you want to play, then we can do that."

Chat Noir pumped a fist in the air triumphantly, and she laughed even harder.

"So do I get my first clue now?" he asked eagerly, practically bouncing in place. "So I can start right away?"

Ladybug grinned. His enthusiasm was contagious, it really was. "You'll find your first clue-"

"Ooh, I have to find the first clue!"

"Shush, I have to tell you!" Ladybug protested, laughing. "You'll find it at the end of patrol- and no cheating and taking shortcuts either!" she added when Chat Noir moved to take off right away. "I know patrol is mostly for fun, but-"

"You didn't say no speedruns!"

Ladybug tried to sigh, but it came out as a giggle instead as her partner took off like a rocket, a spring in his step as he raced off without waiting for any more information. She was glad to see him so cheery about the game. Even with Plagg's assurance that he was ready to find out her identity, part of her had been worried that he wasn't ready yet or wanted to be able to broach the topic on his own time. That clearly wasn't the case.

"Silly cat," Ladybug murmured fondly, taking off on her own route a little faster than normal. "If you were so eager to know, you could have just asked."

It didn't take long at all to finish, and soon enough Ladybug was headed for the Eiffel Tower. Oddly enough, she couldn't see Chat Noir there yet.

….had he already found his first clue and taken off to find the next one?

Before Ladybug could swing herself up to their spot, Chat Noir barreled in like he had been shot out of a cannon. When he saw Ladybug, he smiled sheepishly.

"I forgot to ask where we were ending patrol today, so I got paranoid that I might go to the wrong place and went and checked the other spots first," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "Because they were on the way."

"See, that's what you get for being an impatient kitty," Ladybug teased. "If you had waited a few more seconds, I would have told you."

"Where's the fun in that?" Chat Noir was already moving again, peering behind beams and clambering all around. "Do I have to search the entire Eiffel Tower- aha! Nope, I found it!"

Ladybug smothered another laugh. He really did look like a cat, scrambling around on all fours like that, but she wasn't going to tease him about that. He might try to stop, and it amused her too much for her to risk that.

"Names and dreams, locks of love; Sometimes I can be a sentimental bug," Chat Noir read off the paper. "Aww, bugaboo, I knew you didn't mind that nickname as much as you always pretend to!"

Ladybug tried not to wince. She had tried, but...poems were not a strength of hers. After a bit of deliberation and discussion with Tikki, she had ended up just going with the clues that she had come up with, even if some of the clues weren't nearly as clever as she had hoped they would be.

"I'm pretty sure I know what you're going for," Chat Noir announced after another moment of thought, clearly delighted. "That's easy! See ya, bugaboo!"

Then, with a quick kiss to her cheek and another bounce, he was gone.

"Well, now I'm glad that the first few can all be done whenever," Ladybug commented to thin air, grinning when she spotted her partner's silhouette bounding over the skyline. "He's not going to get any sleep tonight, the dork."

She watched for another minute, tracking Chat Noir's progress on her yo-yo- it hadn't taken him long at all to get to Pont des Arts, clearly he wasn't tired from patrol in the least- before heading back to her house. Ladybug touched down lightly, detransforming and checking on all of her plants before heading inside.

Today had been a success. And hopefully before long, she would be coming back inside with her partner by her side.

  The next day dawned early and bright, and Marinette woke up to several messages on her phone from Chat Noir, consisting entirely of him pouting about having to wait until businesses opened to continue his hunt.

"Well, he's certainly eager," Tikki said with a giggle, peering over Marinette's shoulder to read the messages. "I mean, I bet having the pause for him to adjust to the idea of having a reveal is helpful, even if he doesn't realize it, but I don't think that we're going to have any trouble with him getting cold feet about finding out last-minute."

Marinette nodded in agreement, shooting back a silly response before exiting out of her messaging app- one that she and Chat Noir had found that encrypted the other person's number so that they didn't have to risk a reveal or deal with the expense or hassle of burner phones- and searching the Chat Noir hashtag to see if he was up yet.

As it turned out, he was.

"He's going to end up at the bakery soon," Marinette commented, pushing herself out of bed and trotting down to the main part of her bedroom to get dressed. "And then- oh, gosh, I did end up with a lot of clues, didn't I? I was only planning on twelve, and I think I ended up with twice as many."

Tikki giggled. "Well, I don't think Chat Noir will complain! He really seemed to like the idea of a hunt!"

Marinette could only smile and shake her head in amusement as she pulled out an outfit. It was a cute grey and pink dress, designed after her Multimouse outfit, and was sort of an inside joke between her- well, civilian her- and Chat Noir. Paired with a necklace that resembled the Mouse Miraculous more than a little and- after a short deliberation, because she didn't want to tease him too much- a single bun instead of double buns, she was sure to get at least a little reaction out of him.

If not now, then later, for sure. The number of cat hunting mouse jokes was sure to be off the charts.

"Oh, that's a cute outfit," Mrs. Cheng commented as soon as Marinette got downstairs, tying her apron around her waist as she entered the bakery. "Are you taking over the front counter for me?"

Marinette grinned and nodded, sliding into her mom's spot and glancing around the shop to gauge how they were doing. It was decently busy, enough that the register was getting a semi-continuous stream of people but not so busy that they were overwhelmed or anything.

"Don't forget, Chat Noir might come by today and pick up Ladybug's surprise for him," Mrs. Cheng reminded Marinette. "It's not a for-sure thing, and we don't know when he might come by, but…"

Marinette hastily muffled another giggle. Oh, she definitely wasn't going to forget. After all, she was the one to set it up, even if she had been wearing her spots at the time. "Of course, Maman."

"Great." With a smile, Mrs. Cheng fully stepped back from the counter, going back to her small decorating station and picking up her work from where she had left off. Marinette watched her for a few seconds, marveling at the lovely frosting flowers taking shape under her mom's fingers, before turning her attention back to the customers browsing in the shop.

One hour flew by, then two. Marinette checked her phone to track her partner when she could, but apparently Adrien had been called back to his normal life for the time being with a private fencing lesson. She could imagine the little pout on his face at the realization that he had to step away from his game for even a short while, the hunt momentarily sidetracked.

Ah, well. He would appreciate his treats more if he didn't eat them all at once and give himself a stomachache.

At hour three and a half, Chat Noir bounced through the door, tail flicking eagerly as he came in. He managed to contain himself to pause long enough to say hi to a couple little kids before making a beeline for the counter and Marinette.

"I like that outfit, Marinette!" he told her, lips twitching upwards as he took in the Mouse-esque details. "It's very cute on you. Uh, did Ladybug leave something for me here?"

"Thank you," Marinette said right away, grinning up at him. "And as a matter of fact, yes, she did!"

Reaching under the counter, Marinette pulled out the pre-arranged box with all of her partner's favorites- passion fruit macarons, pain au chocolat, and an assortment of cookies- and Ladybug's next hint on top, folded over and taped down.

"Ooh, she spoils me," Chat Noir said happily, peering in the box. "Thank you, Marinette!"

"Happy hunting!"

Chat Noir paused on his way back towards the door, glancing over his shoulder. His brow furrowed slightly, no doubt puzzled at her wording, and then he shrugged it off, waving at her before heading out of the bakery.

Marinette muffled a giggle. Oh, he was going to be kicking himself later about missing that clue.

And it was going to be hilarious.

  Chat Noir showed up to patrol the next evening ten minutes late, but apparently he had been trying to get in one last clue before coming because the business was going to be closing for the evening before they finished patrol.

"I couldn't get much searching done today because I had stuff going on in my normal life, but I wanted to make some progress," he told Ladybug. "And if I didn't get that clue, then I wouldn't have been able to get anything done until tomorrow."

Ladybug was grinning. "It sounds like you're enjoying the treasure hunt."

"Plagg was grumbling about it being 'unnecessarily complicated'," Chat Noir told her with a laugh. He gave her a fond look. "I think it's fun, though. And I love all of the little presents along the way."

"I thought you might." Ladybug leaned against him gently, enjoying his warmth as they looked out over the city. It was a quiet night for sure, and they could probably take it easy. After all, Chat Noir had spent the last couple days dashing back and forth across the city whenever he could.

He was probably sleeping well, if nothing else.

"I might have gotten a little too into the whole coming up with clues thing," Ladybug admitted after a minute. "I hadn't intended for there to be so many of them, but I just started coming up with places and then couldn't narrow things down."

"No, no, it's fun! I like it this way. It's more of a proper hunt."

"Are you sure?"

Chat Noir grinned. "Paw-sitive. I haven't had so much fun in ages. It's nice to have something to force me out and about again during the day. I've... well, I've maybe been hiding inside a little more than I should have. And even if it isn't as, y'know, my civilian self, it's still a step in the right direction."

Ladybug smiled. She had to admit that she had noticed that as Marinette, but she...well, she didn't want to push Adrien. The amount of betrayal and loss that Adrien had gone through, and when he had been so well-known by the public even before Hawkmoth's identity had come out...well, it was hard to fully comprehend how he must be feeling, and being in the public eye wasn't exactly helping. Add in the fact that there were all sorts of conflicted, tangled feelings there between father and son, years of neglect and longing for love and betrayal and frustration and- and-

Well, it was probably no small wonder that Adrien tended not to go out a lot as himself unless he had photoshoots or other scheduled activities. He had been doing a lot better- summer always brought new news to brush away the old, tired headlines that had kept running over and over during the cooler months- but he hadn't returned to his previous self yet, not quite. When the two of them hung out, it was usually in Marinette's room or in her family's living room, getting Adrien out of his room but not where other people could approach him or he could overhear their whispers.

(One of these days, Marinette was actually going to square up with one of the more obnoxious whisperers. Maybe it would get her a reputation, but that was fine. If people were scared of her, maybe they would think twice about their dumb gossiping.)

This time, they had a more relaxed patrol, choosing to run together instead of splitting apart. It wasn't as though they needed to be surveying the city, after all. It was mostly just an excuse for them to hang out and be generally visible so that Paris wouldn't worry but criminals might think twice about trying anything. As they bounced along, Chat Noir recounted all of his treasure hunt adventures, including the time he had somewhat accidentally recruited an entire army of children to help him search a park for one of his clues. He had ended up being the one to find it- after all, Ladybug hadn't wanted civilians to be able to accidentally stumble on her hints- and having the kids "help" had actually just resulted in him taking more time to find the hidden hint, but it had been pretty cute.

(Ladybug had actually seen pictures of that, and it had been hilariously adorable. The kids had probably been seven at most, and had taken the job Very Seriously. Every park bench and large stone in the part had been dutifully inspected, top and bottom, as well as every tree, every trash can…)

"I didn't tell them what was going to be at the end of my treasure hunt," Chat Noir assured her, vaulting over a street with a fancy flip and landing with all the grace of an actual cat. "Just that it was a game we were playing. But because you were involved, they all thought it was the coolest thing ever."

"You know that everyone thinks that you're just as cool," Ladybug protested. "They just wanted to hang out with you, you know that!"

Chat Noir's answering smile was bright.

  Marinette had stayed glued to the Chat Noir hashtag for practically the entire day, trying to figure out if her partner would be getting to her last clue tonight. He was on a roll for sure, but she had thrown in a couple more difficult clues in the final stretch and those might slow him down. And then if he saw her last spot early….

Well, it would be pretty hard for him to miss.

"He's headed for the last one, Marinette!" Tikki told her as soon as she came upstairs after dinner. "Unless Adrien has something going on tonight, he's going to be coming here."

Marinette grinned, scooping up a few last-minute supplies and heading up to her balcony. "I guess we better get everything ready, then. I bet a kitty-cat is going to come sniffing around after sundown."

Up on her balcony, Marinette's table had been decked out with a tablecloth, fastened down securely so that even the strongest gust of wind couldn't send it flying. Two plates sat in the middle, the forks and a knife to cut the cake she had baked for them were lined up neatly, and two chairs were pulled up to the table. Up above, several strands of fairy lights had been carefully hung, criss-crossing in what would clearly show up as an X from above.

It was something that Chat Noir would easily be able to see, from the top of his extended baton. It had taken Ladybug several attempts to fling herself into the air for long enough to make sure that the lights were neatly hung enough that there was no mistaking what shape the lights made.

A fitting end to a treasure hunt, if she did say so herself.

"Hopefully everything goes smoothly tonight," Marinette told Tikki, adding two kwami-sized plates on top of the normal ones and carefully getting the Swiss roll that she had made settled next to that. Plagg might whine and complain about having cake instead of cheese, but she had seen him happily eat cake before, too, even if he denied doing such a thing afterwards. Besides, she had used cream cheese frosting in the cake. "But the forecast looks good, Chat Noir is definitely excited about the reveal now, Maman and Papa are going to bed soon so there won't be any interruptions…"

"You might make Chat Noir sick with the amount of sugar you've been feeding him over the past couple of days," Tikki teased, but she didn't sound very serious as she followed Marinette around her balcony, helping her snip off dying flower blossoms and dead leaves. "Or maybe that's why he's been practically bouncing off of the walls lately!"

"It is nice to see him feeling more normal again," Marinette said, choosing to ignore the first part of Tikki's comment. That was an exaggeration about the sugar, really- there were things that didn't have to be eaten right away, and then a couple of the treats she had gotten for him were savory, not sweet.

(Besides, Marinette knew full well that Adrien had shared at least a couple things from the bakery with Nino. It wasn't as though he was stuffing himself.)

As the sun set and dusk fell, Marinette finished sweeping her balcony and looked around to make sure that everything was in place. Then she popped downstairs, changed into a red-and-black dress that she had made for the occasion, and returned to the balcony with a sketchbook to kill some time. As she did, she flipped on the lights.

Everything was ready. Now, all she had to do was wait for Chat Noir.

  One final clue for my best friend

How else do all treasure hunts end?

When darkness falls

X marks the spot

I'll wait for you there

Without the dots

This was quite possibly the vaguest clue yet, Adrien mused to himself as he waited (im)patiently for- well, for darkness to fall. The sun was getting close to the horizon now and he was tempted to just head out and see if he could get a head start on puzzling out Ladybug's final clue, but something told him that it probably wouldn't do much good.

If Ladybug said- well, strongly implied- that he would have to wait until dark, that probably meant that she wouldn't go to whatever spot she was referring to until then. He would have to be a good cat and wait until dark. He could manage it.

"X marks the spot," Adrien mused again, holding the card up to the light in case there were any clues he had missed. He had heard of spies hiding messages in normal letters by putting pin holes in certain letters to spell something out, but he had no such luck. Apparently that was all the clue he was getting.

….had Ladybug originally hidden a map of Paris or something with the clue? But then why wait until after dark? Why couldn't they meet up during the day? Except that did mean that Ladybug only had to be in her spot for a certain window of time, instead of all day, but she could have specified meeting between certain hours instead.

Maybe the darkness was a clue. Or maybe it just lent itself to clue form more easily than, say, saying three to five.

"You could always wait until dark and think about it then instead of pacing a rut into your carpet," Plagg suggested. Adrien shot him a Look.

"But I don't even have any ideas about where I should start! Like, 'x marks the spot'- are there any pirate areas around here? Oh! D'you think she means the Couffaine boat? But why would she be there? Plagg, am I overthinking this?"

"Yes."

"You're biased, though." Adrien glanced out the window again. Darker, but probably not quite dark enough to really qualify as proper darkness. "I just don't want to be going out without any leads. Like, what does she want me to do, wander around in the streets until I stumble on her? She wouldn't do that. All of the other spots were places that we've been to before together, so I want to think that there's just some obvious place that I'm missing."

Plagg let out a long-suffering sigh. "You could always call up Ladybug and ask for another hint if you go out tonight and can't find her. That's an option. It's not like she's hiding until you find her."

"Aww, but that would be like admitting defeat, though!" Adrien tried (and failed) not to pout. He glanced out the window one more time. It was about as dark as it ever got with all of the light pollution in Paris. "I think we're ready. Plagg-"

"Are you really going to go meet Ladybug in that old, ratty t-shirt?"

Adrien glanced down at himself and yelped. Sure enough, he was just dressed in the first thing that he had grabbed that morning. It was a perfectly fine everyday outfit, but he was going to be meeting Ladybug detransformed tonight. He had to at least put in a little effort. And his hair was a mess because he had been running his hands through it, and he should really brush his teeth, maybe-

Ten minutes later, Adrien had freshened up and transformed, slipping through his window and up to the mansion's roof. He still hadn't made any progress on figuring out Ladybug's clue, so he was just going to go out and prowl the city, looking for anything that- well. Anything that looked like an x, he supposed, or maybe something pirate-themed. Maybe.

He wasn't sure, honestly.

Five minutes in, Chat Noir was still at a bit of a loss. He had been wandering more or less aimlessly across rooftops, trying to see if something would jog his mind, but nothing had. He had tracked down the Couffaine houseboat, just in case, but the occupants weren't acting as though anything was out of the ordinary. He dithered for a minute, then poled back towards his house to mull over it some more. Halfway there, he decided that the best way to inspire himself- the best way to just happen to spot whatever place Ladybug was thinking of with her clue- was probably way up high.

Thankfully, he had an extending baton that could do just the trick. He shot up, up, up, into the night sky, and Paris spread out beneath him. Lights twinkled along roads, in buildings, over the river. Some restaurants had twinkle lights that were criss-crossing in what could maybe be considered an X shape, so maybe he should go investi-

No. There. Glowing bright, too clean and distinct to be anything else, was an X for him to see. It was oddly close to his house, all things considered, but Chat Noir didn't even pause to consider the implications of that as he tipped his baton towards the lights. He slowed his fall with a helicopter spin of his baton, eyes locked on his target. Right before he landed, he realized exactly where he was going with a jolt of excitement and glee.

It was Marinette's balcony, on top of the Dupain-Cheng bakery. And under the lights, very prettily made up and wearing a dress that was definitely Ladybug-inspired, sat Marinette, paging through a fashion magazine.

He wasn't even surprised, really. There had been times that he had wondered about Marinette and Ladybug over the years, but there had always been some convenient excuse about why she had been in that spot, or why she couldn't possibly be Ladybug. He hadn't pushed- after all, their secret identities were secret for a reason, even from each other- but he had tucked the thought away in the back of his mind, to be considered again at a way later time.

And now was that time, and he was so, so excited. He absolutely adored Marinette, and to have his two favorite girls be one….

It was incredible. How was he so lucky?

"Marinette!" Chat Noir exclaimed as he landed in a controlled tumble, popping to his feet at once and practically tackling Marinette backwards in a hug. She let out a small yep, clearly not having seen him coming. "Fancy seeing you here- no, wait, that could have come out smoother, uh…"

Marinette giggled from her spot in his arms, and he rather belatedly realized that, as far as greetings went, his was maybe a little exuberant. Trying (and failing) for a sheepish grin- it was hard, he was just far too excited- he rightened both his partner and her chair. "Hi, Chaton. I see you found your way all right."

"I was a little confused at first," he admitted, because he might as well admit to it now rather than have Plagg admit it for him later on, since his kwami would make a huge deal out of it. "But as soon as I was up in the sky…" He trailed off. Marinette probably already knew that, because she had planned it. And if she had planned it, she had no doubt tested it first to make sure that things would work the way she wanted them to. That was just the way Marinette worked. So he decided to drop that particular subject in favor of another, but what to say…

He wasn't normally this tongue-tied around his partner, but now he was stumbling over his words and scrambling to act smooth, like a collège boy trying to impress his crush with a good first impression.

Except they were partners, not just meeting, and his collège days...well, he was older than that now, and in theory wiser, too, but clearly his ability to interact with incredible girls hadn't quite grown with the rest of him.

"Was your hunt fun?" Marinette asked, and oh, she was smug when his head shot up, the words jogging something in his brain from only a few days prior- Marinette, at the bakery counter, dressed up rather like Multimouse.

Mouse. Cat and mouse. Hunting.

She must think herself so clever. She wasn't wrong.

"My Lady, you were teasing me!" Chat Noir complained, ignoring the second chair that had clearly been left out for him in favor of scooping Marinette into his lap and sitting in her chair instead. "With that mouse outfit- very cute, by the way, nice nod to your own mouse suit- and that comment!"

Marinette looked even more smug, like the cat that had caught a canary. Clearly she knew exactly what she was doing to him and had planned it all out in the first place. "I thought it was funny."

"And just sending me to the bakery in the first place, and being at the counter…" Oh, she was being a sly little bug. She had specifically placed herself where he would see her- and where he would see her and think nothing of it, just a normal everyday encounter that she had actually engineered entirely herself. He tapped her nose. "Smugbug."

Marinette laughed at that. "I knew you'd find it funny. Do you want to detransform, or are you good hanging out like that?"

"If I detransform, we have to deal with Plagg," Chat Noir told her, burying his face in her hair. "Can we just stay like this for a little while longer? I want to enjoy having you to myself without any snarky kwami comments."

"Of course." Marinette shuffled around in his lap to snuggle closer to him, and Chat Noir happily helped her wriggle her way around so that they were facing each other. She beamed up at him, and his heart skipped a beat. Seriously, how was he so lucky as to have the eye of the most incredible girl in Paris? "I'm glad you came, Adrien."

Chat Noir could only smile back, hopelessly enamored. "Me, too."

  The very next day, the two of them stepped out onto the street hand-in-hand, exchanging soft looks as they wandered through Paris together. Adrien hadn't ended up going home at all the previous night, instead staying with Marinette and chatting until Tikki had begged to see Plagg again, then releasing his transformation and staying out even longer. They had eaten their cake around midnight before going inside and crashing in Marinette's bed.

Getting to wake up with her next to him… well, it was definitely something that Adrien could get used to. Getting ready with her, having breakfast together, teasing each other and working together to wash up their dishes….

Adrien was in heaven.

The last few months had been tough, there was no denying that. There had been far more public attention than he had wanted as he tried to adjust to his father and Nathalie's betrayal, and being interrogated so much by the police as a possible collaborating suspect had been really hard on him mentally (especially before Ladybug had stepped in like a furious avenging angel and got them to back off, and he had fallen a bit more). But now, things were settling down and he was moving on.

There would be bumps in the road, he knew, and times when people would decide to judge him based on what his father had done. It wouldn't all be smooth sailing. Nothing in life ever was, but, well, he was going to have his Lady- his Marinette- by his side.

With the two of them working together… well, they could achieve anything.

He couldn't be happier.

[rosethornewrites]

Fic: Pocketful of Starlight

Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Sabine Cheng/Tom Dupain, Master Fu/Marianne Lenoir

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Tikki, Wayzz, Pollen, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug's Parents, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Master Fu, Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, Chloé Bourgeois, Max Kanté, Lê Chiến Kim, Luka Couffaine, Anarka Couffaine, Juleka Couffaine, Rose Lavillant, Marianne Lenoir, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Lila Rossi, Caline Bustier, Kagami Tsurugi, André Glacier

Tags: Mental Health Issues, Anxiety, Therapy, Trauma, Regret, Lila Rossi salt, what the fuck am i doing?, Moving On, Angst, Feels, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Needs a Hug, Guilt, Grief, Loss, Implied Relationships, Heroes & Heroines, Introspection

Summary: In the wake of the defeat of Miracle Queen, Marinette has to take time for everyone else. But eventually she has to take time for herself. Written before the release of Felix and Chat Blanc.

Note: The therapy technique is real, and is one I’ve been introduced to as a way of dealing with trauma, triggers, and anxiety. It just seemed like something Fu would teach Marinette, as it relies on the idea of the body’s meridian points, which are used in Chinese medicine.

AO3 link

This is part 2 of the Catch a Falling Star series | Part 1

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Marinette didn’t have the luxury of dealing with her feelings right away after Chloé stormed off following the defeat of Miracle Queen. As the new Guardian of the Miraculous, there was a long list of things she must accomplish before then.

On the top of that list was the former Master Fu, who now knew himself as M. Chen. The only person Miraculous Cure didn’t send away was Chat, and so she had him recharge to keep an eye on their former master, while she stowed the Miracle Box in her room and went to the locker with a distraught Wayzz.

Unsurprisingly, the note had all the information she needed: contact information for his beloved Marianne and the address where she could find his belongings. The locker also had items meant to pass to her, including a flash drive of information on the book and other things she would need to know as Guardian. He had been thorough.

Marianne seemed both sad and glad to hear the news—Fu had apparently told her long before that this would be his fate in the end. She agreed to be on the next train to fetch him.

She was relieved Chat knew Marinette had been Multimouse, so when she showed up with a fake ‘note from Ladybug,’ he’d passed responsibility to her civilian self with a smile, telling her he knew Fu would be in good hands.

Marinette ignored the buzzing of her phone as texts came in, and focused on getting M. Chen to his belongings and packed, then over to the train station. Even there, watching the train slowly shrink into the distance as Master Fu was taken to safety, she still didn’t have time.

No, she had text messages from Alya, who was distraught over the memories of what she had been forced to do under the control of Miracle Queen, and was rightly convinced that, with her identity blown, she’d no longer be able to take up the mantle of Rena Rouge. She was able to feign surprise and complimented her on being such a good hero. Her sympathy hasn’t been feigned.

In truth, it felt good to have Alya come to her instead of Lila, who she’d seemed to lose trust in after the expulsion. Things weren’t completely mended between them, and might never be. But she could be a shoulder for Alya to cry on, a sympathetic ear.

Then she had her responsibilities to the kwamis to keep her engaged, something she had put above school. To accomplish this, she had finally confessed her recent near-Akumazations to her parents and told them everything about Lila’s lies and manipulations, and that as there was no proof there was little she could do about them. She told them of going and learning meditative techniques and coping mechanisms on her own. Finally, telling them that the Miracle Queen Akuma, which had hit her friend circle quite hard, had caused her a lot of stress. Marinette had requested, quietly, that she be permitted to take a few mental health days. None of it was a lie.

She wished she had confided in them about it before; they had immediately swept her into a family hug and thanked her for her honesty and trust in them.

“So many people your age bottle it all up,” Maman had said. “But you recognized it and looked for solutions. I’m proud of you, my dear. You’ve become such a mature young woman.”

There had been tears in Papa’s eyes. “We’ll let M. Damocles know we’re keeping you home a few days. Perhaps they will be more willing to investigate this girl if it’s having such an impact on you.”

They’d even asked if she wanted to see a therapist, if she needed more help. She’d thanked them and declined, and their love strengthened her for the tasks she had to complete. Marinette could hardly believe she had been nervous to tell them what was going on. Her parents, who had always supported her.

Her first task involved building a puzzle box large enough to hold the Miracle Box, disguised as a small table for beside her bedroom chaise. That had taken the better part of a day, once she had it sketched and bought the materials. She had treated it as art therapy, even making a home-made wood stain with all natural ingredients to turn the table a deep rose color.

Marinette had time during this project to get to know each of the kwamis individually, taking notes on food preferences in the cases she didn’t know so she could be sure to have some on hand—when enlisting temporary heroes in the future, she planned to include some of the kwami’s preferred recharging food with the miraculous. There had been times recharges were needed but difficult in the heat of battle, and that would make it smoother. Thankfully, dried foods were acceptable to them in a pinch.

While building the puzzle box table she’d sewn the Miracle Box into a throw pillow temporarily, which wound up being a good thing when Chat stopped by midway through the project to ask about Master Fu’s journey. She’d received a call from Marianne when they arrived at their destination, but that was as Ladybug. So she instead let him know what Marinette knew—that he’d been safely escorted to the train, and she’d watched him leave.

When he asked how she had avoided being stung and controlled, she told him she’d seen the wasps and locked herself in the bakery freezer, and Ladybug had let her out when she’d come to enlist her help.

“I was lucky,” she told him.

“I’m glad you stayed safe, Princess. I heard you’ve been absent from school, so I worried.”

“I’m taking a few mental health days, that’s all. Thank you for checking in on me, kitty.”

They chatted a bit more before she went downstairs for leftover pastries for him to enjoy on the rest of patrol, sending him off with the bag of goodies.

Chat had been stopping by regularly since the night she’d cried in his arms, and she had to admit it was nice to have a friendship with him as herself. He’d recently insisted they take a selfie together for her wall, and it had joined a few including Kagami and Luka, as well as some of Alya and Nino that she had put back up.

And then, of course, there was Wayzz. The poor kwami had just lost a holder of over a century, and his loneliness was palpable. Marinette had worked to comfort him as best she could. She knew she could only do so much, but she had put together a comfortable little nest for him and wore the Turtle miraculous along with the Ladybug so he could be out for the transition.

After everything was done, all of her responsibilities, she was finally able to let herself fully deal with everything that had happened, in such quick succession, and all that had changed and been lost.

She finished restuffing and sewing shut the pillow that had once housed the Miracle Box, then laid it out in the middle of her bedroom, seating herself in the relaxed pseudo-lotus position Master Fu had taught her, paying attention to her breathing, heartbeat, the feel of the pillow beneath her, the air around her.

Part of the training she had done with him had included dealing with emotions via meditation, a safer way that would help her avoid Akumazation. Lila’s actions had made it clear she needed help, so after the night Chat had comforted her on the roof, she had confided in the now-former Guardian about the stressors in her life. He had immediately insisted she learn this technique. While it wasn’t always helpful in the moment, if surprises shook her, she had found it was great for helping her process her feelings later so they wouldn’t build up and bury her.

It also helped that both Tikki and Wayzz were there to let her know if she was in danger—and she had shut her room up to impede Akuma for an added sense of security.

The memory of her first meditative session was bittersweet now, as she remembered Master Fu helping her find her happy place, a moment in time wherein she was content and safe on her own. For her, it was the memory of diving off the Eiffel Tower as Ladybug, plummeting by choice with the wind in her face, then snapping the yoyo to swing just above the ground, the experience one of exhilaration and pure happiness.

She went there first, letting herself be in that moment, with the self-confidence it gave her, before going back to one of the things she needed to process.

One of… Really, Fu represented multiple things she had to process. His confidence that she was ready wasn’t one Marinette shared. The number of mistakes she had made, particularly the ones that had led to the loss of Master Fu, haunted her.

She focused again on her breathing, her senses, before tackling the mistakes. Upon discovering Mayura following her, she had failed to consider whether Hawkmoth was also in play, assuming that losing the stolen Peacock holder had been enough. She had approached Master Fu as Ladybug, continuing even after he hinted that she’d made a mistake; perhaps she could have played it off and returned as Marinette.

Marinette let herself feel the shame and guilt associated with that, the feeling of inadequacy and impostor syndrome that plagued her so often.

The next ritual had been ingrained in her over the past few months.

“Even though I made a mistake, I deeply and completely accept myself. Even though I fear I will continue to make mistakes, I deeply and completely accept myself.”

She softly repeated the mantra, going through the emotional freedom tapping sequence she had learned as she allowed herself to feel the emotions swirling through her, seeking the root.

Fear. The root was fear.

“Even though I’m afraid my mistakes will hurt people…”

She continued the process, gently tapping the points Master Fu had led her through until the emotions started to ease, appropriately processed as the result of the trauma that had occurred.

“Even though I know I will make more mistakes…”

She worked toward acceptance of the inevitable. Tikki and Fu had told her mistakes were inevitable; she was only human, and humans weren’t perfect. The important thing, Fu told her, was learning from mistakes through processing them.

“You and Chat Noir fixed my biggest mistake, Marinette. The one that haunted me for well over a century. I learned much from my mistake, as you will with yours.”

Marinette assessed the emotion; it wasn’t totally gone, but it was at a manageable level, something that she could keep from overwhelming her.

The reality was, Master Fu had talked with her about retiring. He had known this would happen to him, that his memories of the Miraculous and his time as Guardian would disappear. He had trusted Marinette as Ladybug to be the next Guardian, to take over the job he had started at such a young age nearly two centuries ago, the job he had been forced into by his own mistake that had only recently been rectified.

Additionally, Hawkmoth could have seen through an attempt to play it off, and with him following her without her knowledge, Marinette’s detransformation could have left her identity known to the enemy, putting her and everyone she loved in grave danger. Perhaps it had been the luck Ladybug was known for, saving her in a situation wherein only one of them could be saved, in effect ensuring the Miracle Box would continue to be protected beyond Fu.

On an intellectual level, Marinette was struck by a collège memory of Mme. Bustier teaching them the hero’s journey style of story building and literary analysis. As much as she loathed the idea of following some sort of fated narrative arc, in class they had discussed how this occasionally translated to the real world. The mentor figure, often a wise elder, would disappear when it was time for the hero to continue alone, when nothing more could be taught.

“Even though I fear I don’t control my own destiny…”

This fear was distinctly of the future. Instead of tapping the meridian points, she shifted to applying a gentle, sustained pressure against each to ease the anxiety that wrapped around her like a cold fog, repeating her mantra until it dissipated in the warmth of hope.

She let herself return to the exhilaration of purposeful freefall from the Tower for a bit, letting that strengthen her as she turned to the related issue…

Fu had not told her she would lose her memories of the Miraculous when it became her turn to retire, that these wonderful memories, even the one that served as her anchor, would be swept away like a sandcastle at high tide. She would forget Chat Noir, forget all the conversations she’d had and would continue up to that point to have with Tikki, forget the very thing that had given her the self-confidence to stand up to Chloé and ultimately put herself out into the world that had once terrified her more fully, to take risks…

Oh, she would miss Tikki when it came time… or maybe she wouldn’t. And that was almost more terrifying.

“Even though I’m afraid of eventually losing my memories…”

The way she had become Multimouse upon losing Tikki to Kwamibuster—the way she had overcome that. Yes, it was another Miraculous that had allowed her to overcome, but she had figured it out.

“Even though I’m afraid I’ll be lost without these memories…”

After a while, three or four rounds of processing and evaluating, the fear had eased enough for her to move on.

She could feel the tears on her cheeks; that had been scary the first few times with Fu, when she’d been afraid the tears would bring Hawkmoth to her, but he had assured her it was part of the process, that it was natural when she allowed herself to experience the emotions fully. She could do this in safety if she used her anchor.

Marinette returned to her anchor memory, allowing herself to swim toward the surface of the meditative state enough to ask Tikki if there was any danger.

“I haven’t sensed an Akuma, Marinette. You can keep going, unless you need a break?”

That brought a smile to her face, and a surge of affection for her empathetic kwami. She knew the memories would be taken, but the emotions wouldn’t leave. She had seen that first-hand when M. Chen had seen Marianne and the memory of loving her had emerged so strongly that he’d stumbled.

“Wayzz?” Marinette couldn’t contain her curiosity.

“Yes, Master?”

“Just Marinette, please.” She knew the kwami chafed a bit at the informality, but she would treat them as her equals, not anything less.

“Ah… of course, Marinette. Did you have a question?”

“You hid behind me when Fu came to, after he named me Guardian. Would he have remembered if he had seen you?”

Wayzz is silent for a bit, and she can almost hear him thinking. “It’s possible. Regardless, he asked me to let him forget, to let him retire fully. At the Temple, the retired would reside among the uninitiated, as tradition.”

Marinette nodded. That made sense, and she would keep it in mind as a possible way to overcome if she wanted to at that point in her life. She had a lifetime to decide.

“Thank you, Wayzz.”

She let herself ease back into full meditation, to her anchor memory, the unbridled joy.

Three other points of emotional turmoil needed resolving. Two of them were highly related, which drew her to them. The fallout from Chloé’s voluntary stint as Miracle Queen was twofold: first, it had robbed Ladybug of all her temporary heroes, as all were now known to Hawkmoth and Mayura. She refused to put them and their families and friends in danger by continuing to approach them; nor would she put the kwami in a position to potentially be captured by a psychopath.

Even with her decision, she wasn’t sure that Hawkmoth wouldn’t monitor them anyway, or do worse. There was the potential of hostage situations. Marinette just hoped this was just her castastrophizing and not something that would happen. She did, however, need to be prepared if it did, and that would mean sharing that concern with Chat Noir. Hopefully he would be able to watch over some of them outside the mask, just as she would.

“Even though I fear the temporary holders could be in danger…”

Alya and Nino, two people she loved dearly despite their flaws, just as they did her; she had meditated extensively on their friendships with Fu after her near-Akumazation during Lila’s stunt at school that had left her temporarily expelled.

Kim, who she knew only casually, but whose exuberance was a mirror of Xuppu’s, a kwami he was suited for but would never hold again.

Max, a boy who had built his own best friend and formed new relationships alongside Markov, and who had fought so nobly to save his mother and friends.

Luka, who could hear the music of her heart and had told her it was beautiful, who had wielded the Snake like a pro. His family—Anarka, Juleka, and Rose, who was basically his sister in law—would be in danger.

And her newest friend, Kagami, for whom she had ultimately given up Adrien—who would also be in danger—and who seemed destined to hold the Dragon, though that was beyond reach now.

The only remedy was impossible in the war Hawkmoth had started: to never again give out Miraculous and cultivate allies. Ultimately, recalcitrance in that direction could hand the man holding Paris hostage victory.

Her allies would have to change. Marinette would need to visit each of them personally as Ladybug to thank them for their service and officially retire them. She couldn’t predict what Hawkmoth might do with the knowledge of their identities, but she could be proactive. They would get the contact information for her yoyo… or perhaps she could commission Max to create panic buttons with GPS, something for the six of them to carry at all times for security, which could alert herself and Chat if they were triggered.

Master Fu had been delighted upon learning that processing her emotions in this way led to reasoned planning.

“Your creativity is ingrained in you, Marinette. You truly are the perfect Ladybug. And you will be the ideal Guardian, as well.”

She returned to her anchor, lingering there a bit longer than before. The last two would be more difficult.

Chloé. Queen Bee. Miracle Queen.

Marinette had held onto the hope that she could help Chloé, both as herself and Ladybug. She could see there was good in the blonde, just buried under behaviors she’d learned and adopted to survive the trauma of abandonment.

She hadn’t seen it—not for the longest time, and certainly not when Chloé had been bullying her.

No, it had come later, in moments. Seeing Chloé grieve giving up Pollen each time she had to return the Bee Miraculous; seeing the flash of pure hurt that had quickly been covered with rage at Audrey choosing Marinette, a stranger, to be with her rather than her own daughter. Moments of joy or simple contentment.

Chloé was a scarred soul who had armored her vulnerability with cruel words and a pretense of superiority. Anything that threatened that superiority, however false it was, became a target, her fear and trauma allowing no less.

But she’d had potential to be better, Marinette had thought. Unlike Lila, whose very countenance showed no indication of anything but cruelty, Chloé could be rehabilitated.

For a while it seemed it could work—Chloé working for the greater good. But it wasn’t enough for her; she’d wanted more, on her timetable.

Or perhaps Marinette had mistaken a lust for power and prestige for a desire for connection to something greater. Maybe it had been her own hubris, feeling she could reach someone so damaged.

Oh, she had hoped. She could just imagine the force for good Chloé could become, if only she could be reached, could be healed.

Marinette wished it were otherwise, but Pollen had tearfully told her of the order of silence, how the holder Pollen had shared her hopes for had turned abusive, had turned a partnership into a slavery.

“Even though I failed to help Chloé…”

This set took longer, more repetition, more tapping, and it felt as though her breath was being sucked away as she processed the grief she felt at a possible future destroyed.

She could only carry so much; those she helped had to want it, had to try, had to trust. She knew how hard that was for Chloé, but she also knew her own limits, the things she could not do. Perhaps, with professional help, the girl could be reached. Marinette didn’t have those tools.

It wasn’t entirely Chloé’s fault, either. Her fears and insecurities and traumas had made her susceptible to the machinations of Hawkmoth’s evil. A man who would Akumatized a toddler would have no qualms tearing open a teenager’s scars and manipulating them for his own personal gain. He’d long ago proved his depravity.

Even now, she didn’t hate Chloé.

Marinette hadn’t paid attention to the news since sending off M. Chen, so she didn’t know what the Paris authorities intended to do regarding the Miracle Queen debacle. But perhaps she could help Chloé Bourgeois in one last way, as Ladybug. She could request not leniency but access to mental health care, could testify that she knew Chloé has potential, if only given the tools to heal.

The pain had faded to an acceptable level, and she jumped off the Eiffel Tower again, sweeping toward the ground with the wind and gravity in her face, the sun kissing her cheeks.

Her last task: Adrien.

She had loved him so intensely and so long, the boy Alya had nicknamed Sunshine. He had been her sun, and she’d been the moth drawn to him. Marinette had spent the last several weeks reflecting on her obsession with him, recognizing it finally for what it was. She had acted only marginally different with him than Chat Noir did with Ladybug.

She had resolved to let him go, after Chat’s visit, for good. She’d been headed there anyway, taking the pictures down and drawing away. Chat’s visit had helped her find the strength.

And then something had shifted. When she was able to return to school, Adrien had apologized for failing to see Lila had targeted her, was hurting her, until it was too late.

“I know doesn’t excuse abandoning you, Marinette, but I hope I can make it up to you.”

What had once been the fire of obsession, doused to coals, smoldered still, a slow warmth that didn’t threaten to consume her anymore.

A few days later, Adrien loudly told Lila to stop touching him, that it made him uncomfortable, in front of Mme. Bustier.

Lila turned on the waterworks, trying to claim it was a way of showing affection in Italy, and Adrien hadn’t given an inch.

“Here in France, it’s sexual harassment,” he’d said. “And I’m tired of asking you to stop.”

“Are you okay, Adrien?” Marinette had asked after Lila stomped back to her seat. “I know it’s not always easy to stand up for yourself.”

“I’m okay.” His smile had warmed her heart, and he’d stepped forward to embrace her. “Thanks for asking, Marinette.”

Then Lila had snarkily asked Mme. Bustier why Marinette wasn’t getting in trouble for sexual harassment. The continued tantrum had earned her detention, during which she was to complete a sexual harassment seminar, “since you clearly don’t know what it is.”

It had been glorious.

The memory brought a smile to her face. She had thought then that perhaps it wasn’t over after all.

But when it came to choosing which flavor combination she, Kagami, and Adrien should get from André, the two of them looking at her so trustingly after having included her in their antics at the hotel and subsequent escape…

Marinette had let go of her love for Adrien.

She had chosen friendship.

She had chosen Kagami’s happiness, and let go the embers in her heart.

They still glowed there, but she made the decision to let them fade.

“Even though I’ve lost my first love…”

She was surprised to discover that the pain she expected to find was only a dull ache, not the intense loss she had expected. As though letting go and crying it out with Chat had allowed her to process the worst of it with the help of a friend.

Music moved through her, a tune she knew she’d heard just recently, but couldn’t place.

Marinette halfway done with the first round of meditative tapping when she felt the touch on the back of her neck. The warning signal she and Tikki had decided upon.

She pulled on her anchor, diving into the sunlight and wind and letting the joy and confidence overtake her, then opened her eyes.

The Akuma had come through the vent, and was gently fluttering, hovering as though waiting for her negativity to return. Hawkmoth had been strangely inactive in the days following Miracle Queen’s defeat.

Marinette let the joy of being Ladybug flow through her, and smiled at the butterfly. Even though she’d only been sitting for perhaps an hour or two, she felt as though she had aged a decade. But she was Ladybug, and Ladybug would prevail.

“I will not be your marionette, Hawkmoth. You will not prey on my traumas to soothe your own.” She stood, moving toward the trapdoor that led to the roof, calm and poised. “Perhaps you should try therapy instead of sadism.”

After opening it, she turned back. She had no idea if Hawkmoth could hear or see her through the Akuma. It hovered, as though staring at her.

“You are not welcome here, little butterfly. Come back when you’re not evil.”

After a pause, the Akuma fluttered up and out of the sunroof, into the blue sky.

“I hope you don’t victimize someone else,” she called after it, and then shut the trapdoor decisively.

Tikki and Wayzz zoomed around her, taking their places on her shoulders as she unmuted her phone, waiting for an Akuma alert.

[nobodyfamousposts]

Miraculous Kwami Swap

I’ve seen it done before where circumstances result in a different pair of heroes in Origins, but I’ve yet to see it fully expanded on just how wide-ranging the effects would be.

Imagine we have Alya and Nino get the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous.

For one, it would be better on principle because of the idea behind this change is that the perspective and focus would ultimately be more spread out among the characters rather than central on two. This is in part because neither Alya or Nino would have the direct tie to the central plot other than by being chosen as the heroes. This means no tie to the villain or to the guardian.

Furthermore, there would be much different dynamics—not only with each other, but with their families and civilian lives. Marinette and Adrien had it easy in a sense as each of them was an only child. Compare that with Nino, who has a younger brother and Alya, who has two younger sisters to watch out for as well as one older one who is rather dead-set on protecting her from the akumas she has to go out and fight.

On the plus side, this means Nino wouldn’t need Marinette’s help to beat Nora at arm wrestling. On the other plus side, Nora would strike me as the type to catch on to Alya’s secret and try to help her…through training her to fight.

Alya: I can never use my arms again!

On the same note, this means very different positions for Alya and Nino as the Ladybug and Black Cat.

Alya was shown to be very big on the idea of superheroes in Origins, so she would be pretty psyched about being one, in a manner rather similar to Adrien. She’d have to learn that the life of a superhero is actually much more difficult than expected with secrets and juggling responsibilities—something she may “know” about from comics, but not something she would understand until she actually has to live it—much like in Sapotis where she initially said she’d tell Marinette her identity at the start of the episode only to back out of doing so by the end.

She’s also pretty reckless in canon, meaning that any instances of Chat!Nino rescuing her would be more of a response to her not fully thinking things through than him needlessly jumping in the way. This would allow for more growth potential for Alya as she is forced to take a serious look at her actions and possible consequences.

There would also be more difficulty with the Lucky Charm. Alya isn’t shown to be one for thinking things through, and that is something the Ladybug position would require and force her to do. This ultimately forces Alya to slow down and consider things before acting—both in regards to jumping to conclusions, but also in leaping before she looks. There’s also the bonus that this would result in Chat!Nino being able to step in to help direct her at points and allow him more of a role and say in battles.

On the other end, Nino is shown to be laid back in canon, but he is shown to be pretty good at thinking on his feet and planning things out. Even as an akuma, it took quite a bit of planning and set up to arrange Adrien’s birthday party. There’s also the other party from Party Crasher where Nino plotted out everything from what excuses to give the girls to how to get into the mansion. Sure, it was a horrible plan for various reasons, but it was a well plotted out one. His level of planning actually seemed to be about on par with Marinette though without the universe as a whole working against him most of the time.

Nino would admittedly do well with the Ladybug Miraculous. He’s smart, he’s a quick thinker, and he’s good at planning. But he’s not quite so good with leadership. We saw during Horrificator how he was acting—changing the script without telling everyone or consulting Alya when it was HER script, being harsh on Mylene, replacing her too quickly without considering her feelings. These were things the show didn’t call him out for, but they were still issues that should have been noted and addressed.

Nino is noted to be more of a follower, perhaps even codependent to a degree. In two separate instances, he pretty much gave up once Alya was down even though he could have continued and helped the heroes turn things around. First during Zombizou when Alya was kissed by the zombies in the elevator, he chose to stay behind with her and let himself be kissed once she was converted. It was sweet, sure, but there was no real reason for that if he knew Ladybug could restore things and that he could help her do so and save Alya. The second time was during Heroes Day when Alya was hit by the hate arrow and akumatized, he was so dismayed by it that he let himself be taken down as well. Ignoring again that this wasn’t the end and there was something he could do. Furthermore, whatever decisions he made or sides he chose to take seemed mostly dependent on other people and what they wanted from him at the time rather than using his own judgement.

A cat should be able to stand and act alone when needed, and that’s something he could gain from the Black Cat miraculous. Not to mention that there’s also the matter of the kwamis and how these pairings would interact.

Of the possible options for human and kwami teams, the most gain and interesting interactions seems to be with Alya and Tikki and with Nino and Plagg. Tikki would be encouraging Alya’s better traits but also helping to rein her in when she jumps to conclusions or acts without thinking. She’d also push Alya to consider how other people feel. Plagg, on the other hand, is particularly ornery and would be the one encouraging Nino to act rather than sit back, even if the “acts” he’s encouraging would be less than particularly noble. I’d also see Plagg having less concerns about acting out and Nino having to act more as the responsible one and trying to keep Plagg in line. Since he doesn’t have to worry about Nino being locked up and isolated the way commonly threatened with Adrien, Plagg would have less reason to need to behave. And since Nino likely couldn’t afford massive amounts of Camembert, he’d have less incentive to behave either.

This would also change the dynamic of the love square. Alya would probably consider her partner as a love interest since they’re both heroes and partners and that’s generally how it goes in the comics. It’s not about putting him on a pedestal, it’s about falling into expectations and it would be another aspect of heroism that Alya would need a lesson on. Furthermore, Nino still starts out with the crush on Marinette.

So we’d have Alya and Nino juggling their hero duties, school, families, and friendships. But what about those friendships?

Adrien is still the son of the big bad, but he doesn’t know it. Furthermore, he knows nothing about the Miraculous either. Being Chat Noir had no real impact on a number of aspects of his civilian life, so he would still have the initial circumstances of his first day of school, would still be friends with Chloe, would still be accused of putting gum on Marinette’s seat, and would still end up making things right with her by the end of the day. So he’s still friends with Nino an is still the center of a lot of people’s affections: Marinette, Chloe, Lila, and Wayhem.

Without Chat Noir, Adrien wouldn’t have an outlet for all the energy and freedom-seeking, so we’d be seeing a more vocal and dare I say rebellious version of Adrien than the one we get in canon. So not only would we have more Adrien and Gabriel interaction and conflict, but that also means Adrien manages to have more free time to hang out with his friends.

Ultimately, when the main duo are allowed to start asking others for help, Adrien would be high on Nino’s list. Nino would give Adrien the fox because of the illusion that Adrien tends to maintain. He knows that Adrien hides himself behind a mask and so would give him a chance to show his true self. The fact that it would be later revealed that Adrien is the son of their arch enemy would hit them pretty hard. Especially if things happen that result in Adrien switching sides to help his father.

Also, since Adrien isn’t Chat, that means he never inspired or got a front row seat to Ladybug’s speech and never fell for her. So no love square. That means he’s able to explore possible feelings for any of the people interested in him. In particular, Marinette.

Now that she’s brought up, what role does Marinette play in this? Imagine if she gets drawn into the whole thing by accident?

Given Alya’s nature, she strikes me as a proactive hero—to the point where she would be trying to seek out Hawk Moth in her downtime. So she starts going over possible suspects, looking for clues to where the akuma are coming from, what all Hawk Moth would need for his lair, etc. And one of the people on the list is none other than Adrien Agreste.

Think about it! Monsters start attacking only after he first starts showing up. Their class have almost all been turned into akumas by this point. It’s like Hawk Moth is targeting them specifically. And Adrien is never around during an akuma fight (because he’s hiding like any sensible person)! And Adrien is one of the few people in class who hasn’t been akumatized! it can’t be coincidence!

So Alya pulls Marinette into her scheme to check out the Agreste mansion for clues. And they would find nothing since as it turns out, Adrien actually is innocent.

Except Nooroo in this version of events isn’t nearly as passive as his canon counterpart. The heroes are struggling and Gabriel is even more of an ass to his son and to Nooroo himself. Needless to say, he’s somewhat spiteful and feeling particularly passive aggressive.

So when a random school friend of Adrien’s just happens to visit (read: scope out the mansion for clues), Nooroo uses butterfly effect—which he IS the master and creator of thank you very much—to get the Peacock Miraculous into her bag in hopes that she can help in some way. Inform the heroes, get the Miraculous to Fu somehow, help Dusuu, just something more than the Peacock Miraculous staying trapped in the safe where Gabriel can use it.

So Marinette gets home unknowingly carrying a magical item in her bag. Later on, she discovers she now has a strange broach. And an even stranger creature attached.

Marinette: AH! IT’S A GIANT BIRD! A MOUSE! A-A BIRD-MOUSE!

Marinette is still pretty smart. She would figure out at some point that Alya is the Ladybug hero and want to help. But the Miraculous is damage and using it would cause her harm. So Marinette tries to avoid using the Peacock Miraculous while also trying to either find the Guardian or figure out some way to fix the broken magical artifact…to…some limited success.

Ultimately, Marinette is trying to help in her own way, but with the volatile situation, she tries to avoid transforming unless the heroes really need her to. Unfortunately, given the difficulty Alya and Nino are having as the heroes, as well as the changes with Adrien that are forcing Gabriel to push matters more quickly, Marinette ends up having to transform and help out on several occasions. And as she does, she gets weaker as the damaged Miraculous is taking its toll on her.

So let’s review:

We have Ladybug!Alya. Quick to action and struggling with thinking things through, with a Miraculous and kwami that are pushing her to become more of a leader and plan things out.

Black Cat!Nino. A follower and possible codependent, with a Miraculous and kwami that are prone to trouble and pushing him to act.

Fox!Adrien. More rebellious and passive aggressive. With a super villain father and much less inclined to simply sit by and let people hang on him or infringe upon him.

Peacock!Marinette. More shy but less anxious or overwhelmed due to not having the responsibility of Ladybug. Still creative and intelligent, enough to know who at least one of the superheroes is, and by pure happenstance ends up with the Peacock Miraculous.

This can only go well!

[ecofinisher]

A new partnership 44 and last chapter

Chapter 44

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26109937/chapters/70992534

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13681547/44/A-new-partnership

https://www.wattpad.com/1015101708-a-new-partnership-moving-on

Inside of the hospital in the patient room, Adrien stood along with Nino in front of the bed where his mother lied still in a comatose state. Adrien held his hand over his mother's hand, which lied on the mattress, and watched his mother with a sad face at her status.

„Oh mother, all this time you were under our house. All these months I thought you were dead or gone....Father should have said me something or even Nathalie, not just keep it a secret as if what he was doing was a great thing,"

Nino watched Adrien glance at the mother lost for more words, then he placed his hand on the boy's shoulder to comfort him.

„It's not easy to talk to someone who's not here," Nino commented, then someone knocked on the door and Nino left his friend to open the door, afterward Alya Césaire got into the room embracing the boyfriend which smiled at the girl's affection. Alya walked along with Nino to Adrien, which stood by his mother, then Alya held her arms out for the blonde to hug her.

„I'm sorry for what you have been going through," Said Alya earning a nod from Adrien. „What will be about you now with your father now gone?"

„As long as my mother is here I will be in London with Aunt Amelie as I was before. Tonight she will arrive to look for me and her. She will also see if it is possible to relocate her to a Londoner hospital. So we're able to visit her," Adrien said looking back at his mother then caressed her on the cheek. „So we're able to see her often and hope she will wake up from the coma,"

„Have you thought about if she doesn't? Or worse, she's declared for death?" Questioned the girl making Adrien shrug his shoulders.

„Nope, but I will proceed that there's a 50/50% chance for anything of this to happen. I've heard of cases where such thing happened after ten years or more,"

„Yeah, but remember if you need someone to talk about it, we're here. We may not know exactly how to talk with you about this, but we're able to listen," Offered Alya earning a nod from Adrien, then he looked up at his mother,

At the school, fewer students were around due to the afterschool activities in the classrooms and Luka was together with Marinette, Marc, and Ivan watching a group of girls act along with Myléne Hapréle and Lila Rossi.

„We fought hard to get here sir. If you just treat us like trash there's no way you're going to find people who are as worth as us!" Lila announced looking at Mireille Caquette, which wore a fake mustache.

„Well Mrs. Tak I will see, what I can do," Mireille said, then the girls turned around to the audience bowing down making the group, that attended the play to applaud.

„Wow, Marc you were right. Acting really suits Lila as well," Marinette commented looking at Marc, which held the camera of his smartphone at the group.

„Yeah, I'm quite surprised at how quickly she learned to improve herself during the times she was here. She's the one who learned it quicker as the ones who are longer here," Ivan mentioned earning a nod from Marc.

Lila sat along with Myléne between Marc and Ivan, then Marinette gave Lila a thumb up making her smile.

„I didn't expect to see you here," Lila mentioned. „Did I any good?"

„You did great. You really should in future stay in this area if you enjoy it," Marinette commented making Lila smile.

„Thanks. You're kind of cool when getting to know you better,"

„I feel the same about you. Mostly the real you," Said the blue-haired girl earning a smile from the brunette girl, then Luka waved at Lila to get her attention.

„Hey since you're fond of acting, I've been thinking about asking you to play in a music video for a music of my band. You get to play the secondary character, which is a girl, which has two boys interested in her. A nice, shy boy and an overly confident one. Only the girl and the shy boy aren't taken yet. If you're interested, you could take part in it,"

„This sounds like a good idea Luka. I will think about your offer,"

„Great take your time and report it to me when you're sure about it," Luka replied earning a nod from Lila.

Onyx stood in the patient room in front of Nathalie Sancoeur looking at the woman drinking a drink with a powder listening to the superhero, which spoke to her.

„You've been doing all that, because of love?" Onyx questioned bewildered at the story of the woman. „But you know if this all had worked out in the end he would have chosen his wife over you?"

„Yes. I know it was wrong, but we assumed it would end up well for our side, but.....you heroes kept leading and leading the situation. Even now as it seemed we had a bigger chance it still......it still wasn't worth it. I never meant to hurt anyone with it. I just wanted to help Gabriel get his wife back"

„Yes, I see. You know you cannot really get out of this issue here. You still acted negligently and will need to face justice after you're free from here. No one's going to expect you to know the exact whereabouts of Gabriel or his further plans, but if you assume your guilt and show you regret you may have a shorter stay in jail,"

„I will do what is right....Onyx I don't really know how I should say this, but....I'm grateful that you've risked your own life to save me, giving me the chance to improve myself,"

„Don't mention it," Responded Onyx back, then made his way out of the patient room passing by a security agent, which stood there in front of Nathalie's room. „I'm done," Onyx said earning a nod from the man and the boy made his way along the corridor, then stopped in front of a foreign patient room and glanced into it to spot Hydra standing in front of the bed of Nathaniel shaking his hand. Onyx got into the room approaching the boy's bed, then placed his hands on the board on the end of the bed.

„Hey how are you doing?" Onyx questioned watching the redhead glance at the raven-haired superhero.

„I'm better now," Nathaniel answered. „I heard Nathalie and Gabriel were behind all these schemes of Hawk Moth. Is that right?"

„Yes it seems so," Onyx added in response to the redhead. „Soon as Adrien found out about it he tried to find us to inform and he helped us with your miraculous again to defeat the few akumas. Hawk Moth managed to escape in the end as we fought him inside his hideout.....You know the fight could have worked out better if we had more space and acknowledge about it,"

„We will catch him next time then. We all know at least Gabriel Agreste is behind all this and we caught Nathalie. It will be easier for us to deal with him in the future....hopefully, it will,"

„I know what you mean Nathaniel. For now Paris will be safe for a while until Gabriel decides to try out his akumas. The other question will be how will we figure it out when he's in a different hideout,"

„You're right," Recited the dragon miraculous holder.

„Hey now that you two are here, what is that reunion all about which Ladybug had set on the day I leave the hospital?" Questioned the redhead patient.

„I think she wanted to ask us all if we wanted to show each other our identities and further talk about how we are going to move on after we lost Hawk Moth," Onyx responded.

„Well half of the team already know my identity. It sort of would be fair for me to know you too," Nathaniel pointed out making Hydra chuckle.

„You're right or to be aware of civilian life situations that could ruin or relationships with certain persons," Hydra added walking at Onyx, which sank his head a little tragic remembering the moments he needed to lie to the friend about his identity.

„You know I'm happier now to know I don't have to lie to you about our superhero duties," Onyx enunciated watching Hydra place her hands around his arm to gaze up at the boy.

„You did that for a good reason. Don't blame yourself for performing your duty correctly," Hydra reminded the boy, which nodded and embraced the girl to peck her on the forehead.

„Please get out of here, if you wanna make out," Nathaniel ordered feeling abashed from seeing the two in his room, which began to laugh at his comment.

A few weeks later Marinette was in her bedroom fiddling around her treasure chest she had in her room with beside her Tikki sitting on top of the miraculous box.

„Are you sure you don't want to wait for the boys to help you out?" Tikki asked watching the girl have her arms in the box trying to screw something inside it, then she groaned as she had let fall down a small wooden board into the box with its one edge to the ground and the one corner was attached with a screw into the wall of the chest.

„Are you kidding me?" Marinette complained picking out a few screws, then she held the board up in the middle of it, then pointed at the nails for Tikki to take them and she flew into the box again, then gave them to Marinette to place it into the holes of the hinge. Behind her, the door got opened up and Luka looked up, followed by his friend Jin, which checked the bedroom out and both boys got into the room, then Luka went down on his knees to greet Marinette.

„Hey Marinette," Luka greeted shrieking Marinette, which jumped afterward she sighed in relief to see her crush Luka there.

„Oh hey Luka. Sorry, I was distracted," Marinette droned, then watched Luka stare into the box and hold the board up for the girl.

„Here I help you," Luka offered making Marinette smile, which watched Tikki hold a screw against the hole so Marinette could screw in the bolt.

„Are you okay with it or do you need a third hand?" Jin asked making Marinette shake her head.

„For now it's fine Jin, thank you," Marinette responded then Jin sat down behind them and noticed under the table of Marinette several wrapped up presents making him curious then he took out a pack to see it. Marinette watched Luka take out another hinge to place it inside the chest and Marinette shrieked as she noticed Jin holding one of the presents Marinette's past self wanted to give Adrien to his birthday in the future. „Jin! Get your hands off it! They're not yours!" Complained Marinette turning red.

„Oh really?" Jin asked looking at Marinette. „It said for the most handsome boy. I thought it was for me," Jin joked making Marinette fake a laugh.

„Very funny Jin," Marinette quipped then Plagg reunited with Tikki to look at the box they're working on.

„Don't worry, Babyface knows he's not the prettiest one in this city," Plagg mentioned making Jin chuckle.

„You're saying that because of the way I decided to leave my hair, right?" Questioned the Chinese boy.

„No not really," Plagg responded.

„Are you sure no one won't recognize you with that hair?" Luka asked holding his hand inside the chest so Marinette could screw the bolts into the box.

„I don't think this will happen that easy," Jin responded putting the gift back.

„Don't worry Luka. Adrien already got dressed once as Cat Noir, yet no one figured out he and Cat Noir were the same person," Assured the cat kwami, making Luka shrug his shoulders.

„I think we almost got it, Luka," Marinette stated earning a nod from the boy, then Plagg flew around the bedroom of Marinette landing on the desk of the girl, where she had a plate of cookies and he took one to eat. Behind the keyboard of the computer, he spotted a key attached to a keyring, making the kwami left his right eyebrow and he took it out to check it.

„You have kept Master's keys?" Plagg asked watching Marinette hit her head on the open door of the chest, followed by Luka caressing her on the head making her smile and she got up to meet the kwami.

„Yes I did," Marinette responded. „He gave it to me after he lost his memory and.....yeah,"

„Yeah...." Plagg stated neutral, then Jin got up to look at the key while Luka placed his arm around Marinette to comfort her.

„We saved Paris on that day and weeks ago we saved Nino and discovered Hawk Moth's true identity. It won't take more time until we get his miraculous back," Luka said to Marinette, which nodded.

„We brought back Adrien's mother. She's in coma and all, but who knows with the time she might come back and we will be able to know more about what happened," Jin added then Plagg dropped the keys on Jin's hands, which looked at them. „What sort of keys are they? They resemble the ones they have for lockers,"

„Why would he walk around with a locker key?" Luka asked making Marinette widen her eyes and approach Jin to see the keys.

„I think they must be from a locker," Marinette said watching Jin hold the key up by its ring.

„Probably from the train station," Jin mentioned watching Marinette grab it. Marinette looked at it to encounter a number on it and she realized that the keys Master Fu left was to help her out in the future.

„Jin, Plagg you're are geniuses," Marinette complimented making Jin smile while Plagg frowned at Marinette's words.

„Hey, I'm the one who found it," Plagg objected. „The only thing Jin found was one of your future presents for Adrien Agreste,"

„Can you all please stop picking on my past behavior?" Marinette asked. „It's hard to not think about that every time I see these presents,"

„It would be a good thing to get rid of them," Jin suggested. „Or give them to someone else," Jin suggested picking up a flat gift making him look bewildered. „What the heck is in here?"

„A vinyl record of the mighty king of rock," Marinette commented grabbing the present away from Jin. „One of my dad's favorite singer, which Adrien apparently seemed to like too according to Nino,"

„Okay," Jin responded looking at the rest of the presents, then Marinette picked out one present with the number 2 and gave it to Jin.

„I've bought this at the jewelry store down at the park. Your bracelet here says I love you. If you want, you can give it to Yi or exchange it at the jewelry store," Marinette offered making Jin nod.

„I think she might like it," Jin mentioned „Thank you,"

„No problem and now excuse me, we have to finish the box before we leave," Marinette announced and took the last board to install in along with Luka inside the chest while Jin sat there watching the two work.

Adrien stood holding his baggage waiting along with his Aunt, Amelie to catch their bus on the outside of the train station of the English capital. Adrien gazed down at the ground neutrally, then his aunt placed his arm on his chin and moved his face at her to check his mood, then Adrien rolled his eyes away from the woman.

„It was a quite shock for you to know what had been going on in your house the entire time am I right darling?" Amelie asked making Adrien nod.

„This all could have been different if I just had searched for the facts why my father was always absent in my life and wanted me so bad to give him the miraculouses instead. He wanted all that to bring mom back home, but......Ladybug said it wouldn't be a good idea to do so,"

„I know what you mean. Now forget what happened back there. Try to focus on today and your future. Your mother is now here with us in the hospital. Who knows maybe when life allows us, we may be able to talk to your mother again,"

„Or even not. I.....I even feel that knowing mom is in a coma feels way worse than knowing she's dead or vanished,"

„That is terrible my darling, but don't quit visiting your mother the many days you promised. Haven't you heard of people from coma reacting to the voices of their loved ones? I'm pretty sure there is at least a chance of 50% for your mother to react to your voice," Amelie comforted the boy which nodded. A red double-decker stopped in front of them to let several people out with their baggage, then Amelie entered into the bus along with the blonde boy, then moved along the corridor, and at the end of the corridor, a trio of students jumped up excited at the sight of the two blondes.

„Welcome back, Adrien!" The trio shouted surprising Adrien, which wasn't expecting to see his English schoolmates.

„Aja, Felix, William? What are you doing here?" Adrien asked and William got closer to the blonde placing his hand on the boy's shoulder.

„We heard what happened back in Paris and wanted to make sure you feel good," William told earning a nod from Felix.

„I always knew your dad was a jerk, but.....If I have to be honest him being Hawk Moth was the last thing I would expect. I know this doesn't make you feel better, but I thought you could need to listen about this from more people,"

„It's fine Felix, thank you," Adrien responded sharing a hug with his cousin. Adrien moved on to Aja, then grabbed her hands giving her a little smile. „Hey," Adrien spoke quietly.

„Hey Adrien, I'm really sorry to hear about what happened in your home city. You can always talk to me when you need to. If you need someone to be with you in the hospital around your mother, when you don't feel well in going alone. I want you to know that,"

„Thanks Aja," Adrien responded, then received a peck on his cheek and saw the trio sat down on the back, afterward Adrien sat along with his aunt on a row in front of the students waiting for the rest of the passengers to take sit inside the bus before it left for downtown.

„As we grow old, we realize life doesn't always give us all the gifts we hoped it would. I would have loved to tell you all this in person, Marinette, but if you're reading this, it means I've already lost my memory. But you mustn't be scared, and you mustn't be sad. As I was telling you at the beginning of this letter, experiencing loss is a part of life, but it doesn't define it. Because what really matters isn't whether you win or lose. It's the ability to accept changes in ourselves. It's accepting that even if life doesn't always give us the gifts we're hoping for, the real gift is the life itself. You're not alone in this, there's Cat Noir and every other member. I feel that you fear your responsibility now as the new guardian. I can comprehend it. Take advice from your friends, accept their help whenever you need it. I know that soon or later you'll be able to master this situation and get back Hawk Moth's miraculous. I believe in you with all my heart,"

Marinette arrived along with Master Fu in front of a train with the destination Genève Airport. Wang Fu took one look at his flight ticket, which had the destination of the Nepalese capital and he gazed up at the blue-haired girl, which smiled at the man.

„Well.....I guess this is it," Marinette spoke earning a nod from the man. From the train a elderly woman in a brown jacket left making the senior stare at her in awe, making the woman smile enchanted and she let Wang take his hands looking down at the eyes of the shorter man.

„Hehe....It's incredible. I only met you and my heart is beating crazy as If I have known you for ages," Wang Fu said earning a nod from Marinette.

„You should always trust your heart," The woman spoke making the senior smile, then Marinette approached the couple and showed them a box filled with macaroons colored in various colors making the senior smile.

„This is for your trip, sir," Marinette explained giving it to the man.

„Thank you, young lady. I will never forget you," The man said making Marinette smile sad, then watched the couple enter into the train and the three waved at each other, afterward, the couple disappeared into the train and Marinette turned her back around sighing sadly at the goodbye, then watched the train puff beginning to tax slowly out of the station. Marinette walked off, then Tikki flew out of the girl's purse and patted the girl on the shoulder comforting the teenager.

„Don't worry Marinette. Ms. Lenoir knows where to go with him. He will be safe," Tikki explained earning a nod from the blue-haired girl.

„Life goes on. Whether you chose to move on and take a chance into the unknown. Or stay back locked in the past thinking of what could have been. Life is like a book and you're the author. You may have every little detail of your life planned, but as the story goes you notice many things moving differently than what you have planned. You believe to not like it at first, but soon you figure out it works out well,"

Jin and Yi stood together looking at André the ice maker making for the two an ice, while waiting Yi gazed back at Marinette, which stood there in queue with Luka.

„That's a fact. Where did you get that quote from?" Luka asked, then Marinette pointed down at Marc, which stood in the middle of several classmates of Marinette's class. „Okay,"

„There you go you two. Dark chocolate with coffee and strawberry for the young man and dark chocolate with peanut butter and blueberry for the little lady," André said handing the two his ice, then they walked together to the stairs waiting for Marinette and Luka, which were the last ones.

„Why didn't Kagami come?" Jin asked making Yi shrug her shoulders.

„Kendo practice," Yi responded. „But she promised she would somehow get here on her own,"

„Okay, that's good," Jin said, then stove his hand into the pocket of his pants, then took out two bracelets and showed them to Yi. „Yi I'd like to ask you personally.....would you be interested to be more than just friends?" Yi chuckled at Jin's comment making him grin a little embarrassed at the question, then Yi spoke to him again.

„You're meaning it?"

„Well, I thought about asking you if you would be okay if....I was your boyfriend and you the girlfriend," Jin stated showing Yi the bracelets with the love message. „You don't have to answer now. You have time,"

„You kidding? I would love to be your girlfriend," Yi answered making Jin smile, then he took the red bracelet and placed it around Yi's hand. Jin then put the blue one on his pulse and showed Yi a half-circle on his bracelet and Yi saw on hers that she had hers too, therefore allowed Jin to attach his circle on hers.

„Now people will know we belong to each other," Jin mentioned making Yi smile enchanted at the boyfriend and went on her tiptoes to kiss him on his lips.

Luka and Marinette walked downstairs along with the Chinese descendant childhood friends and walked beside the canal of Saint-Martin and all sat down in pairs. Jin and Yi sat between Nino with Alya and vice versa to them Luka took the place together with Marinette, which looked at Jin, that gave her a smile.

„Thanks for everything you've done at the beginning of our.....other life," Marinette mentioned earning a smile from Jin, then she looked at Luka, which was adjusting his guitar, that lied next to him while on his other hand he had his ice cream.

„Were you before at the train station?" Luka asked earning a nod from the girl.

„I went to see Master Fu one last time before he would leave Paris. I'm still scared of what future awaits me as a guardian, but with you two and the rest of the team around I feel safer than I did before,"

„Jin and I will always help you out no matter what, Marinette. You're never alone," Luka promised seeing Marinette lie her head on his shoulder, then rolled her eyes down at his guitar.

„Will you play something?" Marinette questioned, then Luka looked at the other couples and friends eating and he gazed back at Marinette.

„What exactly?" Luka asked making Marinette shrug her shoulders.

„Anything you want," Marinette said earning a nod from Luka, which handed the ice cream out to Marinette, so he could pick up his guitar, while he adjusted it he observed in the middle of the circle Nathaniel which had his crutches lying behind him and he held his legs down at the canal and his left pant was folded back revealing his injured leg with a metal fixture on the outside, which he had to keep for a few more weeks. He sat between Marc and Lila laughing about something, then Nathaniel raised his ice cream in the air and the two friends leaned their ice on Nathaniel's doing a similar pose to the musketeers and after they removed their ice Nathaniel's ice cream dropped down only leaving a big, green ball on his wafer making him wide his eyes in surprise and the two friends got embarrassed at their little accident.

Nino and Alya were sharing Nino's smartphone listening with one pair of earplugs to music. Besides the two were Kim and Ondine eating ice and joking with each other, next to them Alix and Max were alone eating their own ice colored after themselves. Max lifted up his smartphone to check a message, then showed it to Alix causing her to laugh. Nino also took out his smartphone to see a message he received and he began to laugh as he saw a photo of Adrien pretending to be a guard at the palace in London with a strange mimic on his face and he showed it to Luka and Marinette which began to laugh at the image.

„Too bad Adrien can't be here with us," Luka mentioned. „But with the sort of father he had, he is at least safe for now," Luka mentioned earning a nod from Marinette, which smiled watching Nino put his phone back and she looked at Onyx's alter ego Jin, which smiled lovely at his girlfriend, then placed his hand under her chin and leaned his forehead on hers. Marinette smiled glad about the boy's happiness and she wrapped her arms around Luka's, which smiled at the girl and began to play on his guitar.

Marinette smiled listening to the boy playing the melody of a country song, then Luka smiled watching Marinette close her eyes as he continued to play the song. The sporty couple and the artistic trio watched Luka playing the guitar, agreeing to enjoy the talent of the raven-haired teen. The guitarist plucked on the strings, making Marinette chuckle and close her eyes to enjoy the music just like the cat-themed superhero's alter ego was doing, then Yi noticed it and leaned her head under his chin making Jin smile and lie it over her. Luka continued performing the Melodia, then observed Marinette getting lost into the music, then he leaned his mouth near Marinette's ear to whisper making her wide her eyes turning red at his words, then she moved her face to the boy, which was smiling at the girl and Marinette nodded turning redder than before, then she pecked the boy on the cheek which continued playing the song for everyone around them.

Inside a garage building in another part of Paris, a vehicle with a garage license was parked on the spot for electric cars, afterward, a rented family van appeared and parked beside it, then opened its window from the driver side and so did the other vehicle on the other side of the car. Inside the white vehicle sat the fashion designer Gabriel Agreste and on the other side of the vehicle sat a brunette woman with a tan skin complexion.

„I've heard in the news. You're the monster, that has been terrorizing everyone including my daughter" The woman argued earning a nod from the blonde.

„I know your daughter well. She was really unstable after her first akumatization," Gabriel spoke. „Mostly after this time she always was alone at home. No one could try to help her out of this situation only one person,"

„How could you do that to such a young girl?" Mrs. Rossi asked. „And everyone else in this place?"

„Your daughter was after her akumatization really frustrated what happened to her before with Ladybug. Forgiving Ladybug's indelicate behavior never was an option to her and I wanted to make sure it would never get to that and used every thing I could to pull her strings hopefully making it to create a bigger chaos to Paris, which worked well,"

„You're lucky you were able to escape from the superheroes' hands. Otherwise you would be under the earth right now!"

„Wow I've always heard Italians women were really temperamental. Now I see where Lila has got it from,"

„I'm warning you, if you put a finger on my daughter again with or without the miraculous I will personally take care of you life!" Warned Mrs. Rossi making Gabriel laugh.

„I like you. What do you think of we making a deal," Gabriel offered. „I leave your daughter for good and you help me get the miraculouses of Ladybug and Onyx. When I really need someone to use the peacock miraculous this is where I was thinking about adding you to. If we manage to get the miraculouses, I will leave you and your daughter, Lila, for good and I will use the miraculouses to bring back my lovely wife back from her coma,"

„Your wife?" Mrs. Rossi asked earning a nod from the man. „That works?"

„Yes, but it's not as easy as it sounds. There's a price for it I'll have to pay. But that will be with me," Gabriel explained watching Mrs. Rossi look down at the steering wheel. „Do we have a deal or do you want to think about it?" Gabriel questioned watching Mrs. Rossi think about it.

„And you will leave us in peace?" Mrs. Rossi questioned again earning a nod from Gabriel, which held his hand out to the woman. Mrs. Rossi frowned and put her hand out to shake the hand of the man. „You can count on me, Mr. Agreste" Affirmed the mother of Lila making Gabriel smile.

„Wish you a pleasant evening," Gabriel wished turning the engine of the family van on and left the diplomat back, which placed her hand on her face in regret at the step she had just done.

„Don't worry, it's all for your daughter's safety," Mrs. Rossi commented putting the engine on to leave the parking spot too heading to the outside of the garage.

The End.

FINALLY! I'm not sure if this took longer than Super Nathan 1 or 2 did or if I'm just feeling like it was a long way to go here. Well, when I worked on this fic I feel like I was taking it ten times more serious than usual, mostly when it came to trying to work on character redemption in here. Seriously the NYC special killed my brain at some points of the movies while others were alright. Serious the writers should stop or sink Marinette's creepy behavior. Yeah, she's in love and all that, but I don't think any girl in real life acts THAT weird. (Well this now refering to other awkward moments) But well I know many others that didn't like her behavior improved her in fanon better than the writers and I tried to do the same to her here. The idea was something else, but now as I had Jin to use the cat miraculous I thought he should be to Ladybug like an older brother to help her grow and understand that some issues that in canon she never gets called out for have a reason to be called out. Rest in peace English....Sorry for the last sentence...

Okay as you see I left an open ending, which means later at some point I will make a sequel. What else it will be about remains unknown for now. It will also be the last one for now as when I wrote this crossover I wasn't expecting it to be well, usually crossovers I don't tend to be that good, but hey if this one went well I can jump and make a Snow Queen & Miraculous crossover with a more awkwardly ridiculous lovesquare xD I mean the idea is hilarious, but if I can manage the logic in it is the other question.

Upcoming fics you wonder? I'm thinking about part 4 of the Adventures of Super Nathan, but I don't have a lot of ideas for the plot. We'll see soon, what it will be.Thanks for sticking with me in this fic. I really adored working on this crossover and exploring the relationship between the characters from both fandoms. Feel free to leave a comment, kudos or anything.See ya around!