#RIGHT NEXT TO MARINETTE’S HOUSE

[wackus-bonkus-maximus]

Even now, with his father lost to the universe, and not even a body to bury, Gabriel was still here. He was in his room, in all the belongings his money had bought, in all the clothes that bore his brand. He was in the Miraculous on Adrien’s hand, the twin rings hanging from a chain he could never remove, in all the words Ladybug refused to tell Chat Noir. And he was in the statue in the Place des Vosges, immortalized in gold, looking out at the city with serene contemplation, but never down at Adrien. Never again. “He was Monarque,” Adrien spoke into the darkness. Maybe Plagg could hear, maybe not. His Kwami was always good about knowing just what Adrien wanted him to know. “My father was Monarque.” His words hung hollow in the silence, their weight somehow growing heavier on Adrien’s chest as he spoke. The voice didn’t answer, keeping silent long enough for Adrien to wonder, once more, if he really had imagined it. Then it was there again, as close and clear as though its speaker was in the room with him. You’re Chat Noir, it told him firmly. Cataclysm his statue.

moonie i'm obsessed.

[cardiac-agreste]

After working with other, extremely dedicated mods on this event, I'm so STOKED to share a preview of my work for @mlbigbang2024! This year, I'm taking "courtroom drama" out for a spin, in a manner of speaking. A Twelve Angry Holders, if you will. I will begin publishing it Jan 15!

Synopsis

In The Demon Takes Two Chairs, thanks to a shift in allegiance by Nathalie Sancoeur, Ladybug's team of holders has just defeated Hawkmoth. Now they must decide what to do with Mayura, who is being held prisoner by Bunnyx in her time burrow.

But a tense standoff between Gabriel and Argos revealed that Adrien is a sentimonster.

Ladybug feels overwhelmed by all her allies’ differing opinions. She sets out to convince them that Adrien Agreste’s only remaining quasi-family should be shown leniency.

As the team (very) vigorously debates Mme Sancoeur’s fate, old wounds and grievances are re-opened.

Perhaps most painful of all is that she hasn’t seen Chat Noir in days.

The other members of my team are artists @zambiv and @supergirl9130, and @uptoolateart, who is my beta reader.

Preview

Bedsprings shifted, and Rena finally scanned the rest of the room. Ladybug sat at the edge of Adrien’s bed, destruction spiraling out around her on the ground. Had she thrown a tantrum? There were books from Adrien’s second-floor library everywhere, ripped to shreds; his desk was upturned, monitors shattered; there were cracks in the walls from what must have been Tikki-powered punches.

Her friend and hero was hunched over like a solitary cypress tree, roots clinging desperately to the cliffside, bowed over the years into submission by ceaseless oceanic gusts. Its bark weathered and pale, its leaves disheveled and grasping for any stray light peeking through the storm clouds.

Ladybug held something small in her hands, passing it from one to the other.

Rena inhaled swiftly at the sight, and muscles in her chest fluttered in anticipation of whatever support her best friend would need. As she walked to the bed, she recognized it as Adrien: The Lego, one of Gabriel’s less-inspired marketing ploys. Her friend was being so gentle with it even though it had previously been the subject of two wide-ranging tirades. Marinette was taking the news worse than Alya had expected.

“Girl, let’s sneak in and put that on the floor in Lila’s house. Then she’ll step on it and hurt her foot.”

Threatening Lila with pain usually teased a smile out of Marinette no matter how down in the dumps she was, but not this time. This wasn’t good. Rena went and sat down beside Ladybug, shoulder to shoulder, willing her body heat to envelope her friend. “Hey…”

“Why would he do this to Adrien?” she whispered.

If Rena hadn’t been right next to her, she wouldn’t have heard it. She put her arm on her friend’s back and began rubbing softly. “What do you mean?”

“Adrien told his father he didn’t want to be a model anymore, and Gabriel retaliated by creating an AR version that anyone could manipulate. Do you think there were restrictions placed on the AI? What if some horny pervert had used it to make deep fakes? Do you think Gabriel even cared?

“And then there’s this. It’s cheap, mass-produced, plastic, and can be manipulated by a child. How could he think this was a good idea? How did Adrien feel about it? It’s like all Gabriel did was focused on controlling him…”

Ladybug shot to her feet and growled, hurling the toy across the room. “There’s a mini-fridge full of fucking camembert over there! I think I’d know if he liked camembert!”

Her voice reverberated in the room, and then near-silent but for some rustling around the corner near the skate ramps. The force of the throw had probably blown a few loose book pages around.

“No!” She sprinted across the room and retrieved the toy, stroking it and clutching it to her chest like a poultice intended to heal a broken heart, leaning over so her forehead pressed against the wall.

“Adrien…” She turned to Rena and asked, “Do you think he already knew? That he’s a…” Her eyes were brimming with a hope that was already being stabbed in the back. It seemed like Ladybug couldn’t even say it out loud. 

Without pausing, she answered her own question. “Of course he didn’t. This is Gabriel we’re talking about. If Adrien didn’t know his father was Hawkmoth, he wouldn’t have known this.

“And what am I going to do about Nathalie? This is…it’s too much for me.” Ladybug stumbled beforefalling to her knees, breath becoming ragged as her chin dipped to her chest.Her hands pressed to her temples, as if to wring the anxiety from her mind. “I can’t… how do I do that alone?”

Rena’s eyes burned as her friend fell apart before her. The revelation that Adrien was a sentimonster had hit her hard, too. But Rena was furious at someone else.

Why hadn’t Felix ever told Adrien the truth? Why hadn’t he told anyone that Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth? That bastard had toyed with Ladybug’s emotions, stole all the Miraculous, and set Paris on a collision course with Armageddon.

She clenched her fists. Everything in this room looked like a pressure release valve. Why not throw that chair through the window? Why not torch this place? It was likely Adrien would never want to be here once they found him and told him the truth. Because she, Nino, and Marinette weren’t Felix. Adrien was their brother.

Rena Rouge walked over to Ladybug and knelt beside her. “You’re right. This is too big for Ladybug alone. But Ladybug isn’t alone. She has me. And she has Pigella. And she has Purple Tigress. And Polymouse. Carapace is ride or die. She’s got her whole secret garden of flowers here.” She lowered her voice and looked around conspiratorially. “Though I’m not sure Nino would like being compared to a flower.”

This elicited a giggle from her friend.

[marinettesaltprompts]

Hi! So, I’ve been writing a few bits of Marinette salt, some involving my OCs in Mendeleieve’s class calling her (And sometimes Bustier, Damocles) out, and season 5 really helped with that. Finally, it’s good for someone 😅

Anyway, this prompt centers around the class discovering Marinette’s stalker-like tendencies when it comes to Adrien thanks to a certain redhead. Nathaniel and Marinette were assigned to work on a group project together and went to work at Marinette’s house… In her room. While pulling out his supplies, Nathaniel dropped his pencil, and it rolled under Marinette’s bed, where he found numerous photos of Adrien that don’t look like they were taken from a magazine. He finds more, and more until he comes across a spreadsheet of some elaborate plan to get a date with Adrien and finally… The schedule. His friend is a stalker. Before Marinette can return, he takes pictures, hides everything he found and gathers up his belongings with the excuse he has a family emergency at home. Really, he just needs to get out of there.

The next day at school, Nathaniel drags Marc somewhere private and tells him what he saw, and of course, Marc tells his classmates. They’re horrified by the photos on Nathaniel’s phone and set out to confront Marinette right in the middle of class for what she’s done. Adrien is disturbed, Bustier is taking Marinette’s side and berating the class for exposing something so private, the Girl Squad (Sans Alix) is a little torn, and the rest are on Adrien’s side because they weren’t aware that Marinette was doing these things. And all the while, Mendeleiv’s class is calling Marinette out. The ending is up to you, maybe someone gets Akumatized, I don’t know.

(Honestly, this is just word vomit and I’m not really sure about this)

For a supposed "word vomit" prompt, it feels really thought out! I love how you chose to utilise Nathaniel (at least in regards to how Miraculous keep pushing him more and more to the sidelines each season) and I appreciate how open ended you left the idea in case someone gets inspired by your post!

Thank you for sharing your prompt! Hope this blog will inspire you with more ideas to come up with!

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I will forever hold the opinion that Chat Blanc should’ve been a nightmare, hallucination, or otherwise hypothetical/not real scenario rather than a real event.

I can get behind something happening that causes a rift between Ladybug and Chat Noir, these kind of character plots can be interesting if done right, but they never should’ve given a legitimate reason that Adrien shouldn’t wield the power of Destruction or that Ladybug can’t actually trust him with information (or at all). Because the potential of Chat Noir actually becoming Blanc because he knows her identity (while not the full reason, that’s the big one to Ladybug) makes him way too big of a risk to keep on the team, and therefore almost justifies her distancing him (narratively at least, I don’t actually think that was the right move, even in this context, kinda like how she didn’t tell Chloe she couldn’t be Queen Bee anymore right away).

I will never get why the writers are so intent on making one of their main heroes seem unfit for the job. If he’s not fit for it, then he never should’ve been a hero in the first place! And yet that’s somehow not the story they’re trying to tell here? Oh, he is a good fit for the Miraculous? Then stop trying to make him incompetent or dangerous!!!

I actually don't mind Chat Blanc being a thing. I even have an ideal version of it that I'd love to see play out with pretty visuals for all the big dramatic scenes.

The idea that Chat Noir can be akumatized doesn't make him a bad hero because the message should be that everyone is capable of being akumatized. Rena Rouge, Queen Bee, and Carapace were all akumatized during the season two final, but they kept their roles on the team. I have no problem with that. Marinette has almost been akumatized multiple times and she never considered giving up her miraculous, nor should she. Everyone is going to have dark moments. It's not some massive failing.

The problems with Chat Blanc are:

The way time travel is used, making Bunnyx god

Adrien being able to lose while Marinette is there, which should never happen in a power of love show

The fact that the writers are using Chat Blanc to argue that Adrien can't be trusted with the truth

The fact that the writers present Chat Blanc as Marinette's failing/an identity reveal problem

I think the first two issues are self explanatory, so let's focus on the final two as they're insane writing choices.

Adrien learning the truth during a fight with his father is a great setup for him being akumatized! I don't have any issues with it. Remove Marinette from the scene and Adrien going full Chat Blanc is fine by me! The problem is that this isn't being presented as a warning that Adrien needs to learn the truth outside of the final battle (reasonable and what I thought this episode was doing at first). It's being presented as an argument that Adrien can never be told the truth because he's just too weak and unstable to handle the truth (asinine). If that's really what they're going for, and it does seem to be, then Adrien is completely unqualified to be a hero.

Similarly, past Marinette being the one to stop Chat Blanc doesn't bother me. The problem is that adult Bunnyx does nothing to contradict Marinette's conclusion that this means that Chat Noir can never be told the truth. That's not the right takeaway here, but Bunnyx doesn't contradict it. She actually goes so far as to throw Alya under the bus. Rude, Alix! Rude. And really weird since Marinette will willingly tell Alya her secret identity within a few episodes, which Alix should know? Alix's knowledge of the future is really confusing.

Bunnyx: Do you know how Cat Noir found out about your secret identity? Ladybug: I think so. When I went into Adrien's house as Ladybug, he probably saw me. He figured out that Ladybug is Marinette because of the note written on the gift. But I'm not sure what happened next. Bunnyx: He probably told his friend Nino, who told Alya, who wrote about it on the Ladyblog. Ladybug: Mm.. They would never do that. But Adrien probably told someone, who told someone else, and so on, until it was all over the news! The best-kept secrets are the ones you never share.

That final line from Ladybug should have been met with Bunnyx saying something like,

"There are times when it's good to share a secret! This just happened to not be one of those times, but this outcome isn't guaranteed. It's just what happened in this specific scenario. Another time, not sharing could lead us here. Don't let fear of the future keep you from doing what logic says is right."

Something, anything, to imply that Marinette wasn't at fault and that secrets are complex things. Instead we get yet another wacky implication that an identity reveal will destroy Ladybug and Chat Noir, so they have to keep their secrets or give up their miraculous. Yay!

All that being said, my ideal Chat Blanc would not work in canon's padded-to-shit writing, so I do agree that it was a bad call. Chat Blanc only makes sense if the end goal is plot progression. Instead, it's used for plot stagnation and I hate it!

[goggles-mcgee]

Haunted Blessings

This is a ml x dc x dp idea!

Marinette had been fighting an akuma when it happened. It was this little girl named Charlotte who got akumatized because her parents had been ignoring her requests. A friend and party-goer who was at her birthday party explained that 'Lottie' was sad because her parents were too busy to hang out with her and when her special day came, they ignored her wishes. She had wanted a princess themed party with a hired Fairy Godmother that she had seen posters of. Charlotte had apparently taken several of the flyers to put around her house so her parents wouldn't forget what she wanted. They had said they would hire the Fairy Godmother, but the day of the party came, and instead of a Fairy Godmother, Charlotte got a clown...and not a good one either. The clown who was currently stuck in a cage looked like someone bought a cheap clown costume and thought that was that. He didn't even have makeup on.

Charlotte got so upset, and when she had asked her parents why the Fairy Godmother wasn't there, her parents had sheepishly apologized and said the Fairy Godmother was too busy to come to the party. Arnie, Lottie's best friend, said that was a lie because he heard her mom talking to his about how they forgot to hire the Fairy Godmother, and the clown was all they could get last minute. Thus, Charlotte became her own Fairy Godmother. That was her akuma name and theme.

She granted 'wishes', but it was really what she thought people needed. If she hit you with her pixie dust, she could see your wants and needs, apparently. Her parents wanted, no needed, to be by her side and dote on her. That's why they became a king and queen who followed her everywhere. Marinette had been doing her best not to get hit, but Chat hadn't listened to her small plan to distract the akuma while she went back to her house to get some Miraculi that could help and instead he had nearly got them both hit.

Marinette was tired. She had just wanted to hang out with Luka for the day and just have a nice lazy day where she did nothing but lay on the closest surface and lazily existed while Luka played his guitar. But nooooooooo. So there she was trying to escape so she could go grab Vipe-ard (Luka with a new look and name), Honeycomb (Bee! Aurore), and Mossflower ( Mouse! Mireille). They needed help, bad, and her intuition had been screaming that they needed the help of the Snake, Bee, and Mouse. She thought Chat had been covering her, but he got wacked. Who knows how far and all Marinette could do was stare in disbelief and horror as she got hit but the pixie dust.

The akuma cheered but then got quiet and just looked at her for a very long time. Hawkmoth seemed to be trying to talk to Fairy Godmother, but she ignored him. The akuma flew down to her, her eyes filled with tears and said, "You've done so much for us. You're hurting yourself to protect us, and I...I made it worse. I know what you need so I'll help! I'm a good helper!"

Marinette tried to argue or anything, but she was stuck frozen by the power of the pixie dust. She could hear Chat yelling her name before she felt magic gathering at her feet. Before she fell through the now open portal she heard Fairy Godmother one more time.

"You need a break. And help! I'm sending you on a vacation!"

The next thing she knew, she was landing on a roof hard.

♡___♡___♡___♡

Danny would like to state for the record that as much as people liked to think, he knew what he was doing. The fact of the matter was he didn't. I mean, sure, sometimes he did actually know, but when it came to his ghostly powers, everyone and he included were in the dark. There were so many that developed and grew and evolved. Jazz ended up making him a detailed coded list. Now, for the most part, he knew how to use his powers and control them, but some were just so new ans he was just so busy that his newer powers took him by surprise when they acted up.

Case in point being right now. As he was fighting with Walker in the zone because of some shenanigans, he had zoned out when Walker had monologued. Danny had just been trying to free the wrongly imprisoned Infinite Beings from Walker's prison, and apparently, that was a crime, so here he was fighting when he should have been studying again. At some point, Ellie had arrived, and as much as he loved her, because he loved her so much, his Fraid instincts tended to take over if she was near a fight. He needed to protect his little sister-daughter-cousin.

It was a common thing, according to Frostbite. Danny, being the older of the Fraidmates, meant his protective instincts went a little wild when anyone he considered Fraid was in danger or something he perceived to be danger. But since he was a baby ghost still (lame), his instincts weren't easy to work around and talk sense into so he would become one-track minded.

So, really, it wasn't his fault! It was his dumb baby instincts that caused his portal powers to kick in and open a random portal to who knows where and fly like a bat out of hell to get Ellie and himself away from the danger. His portal spit them out thankfully somewhere loaded with ambient ecto, but they hit a roof hard. Not enough to break through, but enough to hurt a little. Both Halfa's groaned in unison, but it was a third groan that made them freeze.

Whilst he still had a hold on Ellie, as she was not fond of his Baby Instincts kicking in, really disliked how clingy he got. She was fine with his usual hugs. She even ought them out sometimes. But his instincts triggered her own set of Baby Instincts, and she hated it. But there was a little window of time where she would just accept it because of her Instincts and wouldn't just kick herself away, so with that in mind, Danny pulled them into a sitting position to look at presumably the only other person on the roof with them.

It was a girl! Probably around his age! She kind of gave off Liminal vibes, but like really really Baby vibes. Like newborn Liminal vibes.

Aaaaaaand his core and instincts have decided she was his responsibility because the next thing he knew, she joined in the cuddle pile courtesy of his levitation.

Great. Just great!

....Why was she dressed like a giant Ladybug?

♡___♡___♡___♡

Maybe the world was laughing at him, but Bruce had been having a relatively quiet night patrol wise. It was just him and Dick tonight, and that always left him in a somewhat nostalgic daze. He was still aware, he was always aware, but it was like his mind had been giving him a break. Most of his kids weren't going to be in the Manor for a while, missions, school trips, or just little forced vacations had them away for a time. So, while the night had been nostalgic, it had also been a touch lonely. Dick had a way of filling up any space he was in but his eldest son could only fill so much.

Bruce loved the chaos that had become his home and life because of his children. Not having them there left him feeling wrong-footed. He missed them.

Maybe it was how he wished to himself that they were home, if only to help make it still feel like home.

Maybe it was the way the carefully patrolled Crime Alley since Jason was on a forced vacation/road trip with Roy, Arsenal and Bizarro.

Maybe it was the way doing so had him reliving his meeting with his brilliant yet jaded second son.

Whatever it was, Bruce and Dick had seen two separate portals open on top of an abandoned apartment complex that was going to be condemned and rebuilt per Red Hood's plans and orders.

There was no hesitation between him and Dick as they both grappled onto the roof. Whatever danger they had been expecting, it wasn't three teens huddled together near the locked door of the roof. All three looked at the two local vigilantes in surprise and open fear. They looked to be in rough shape, and two were 98% metas. The 2% went out to whatever other possibility they could be.

The boy hissed at them and somehow wrapped his arms tighter around the two girls.

Bruce could hear Dick trying not to giggle which made him sigh.

Really...only in Gotham huh?

[carpisuns]

Summary: “Marinette. My bestie. My platonic soulmate. You are a kleptomaniac.”

In which Marinette is forced to confront her habit of thievery

Word count: 2k

Rating: G

A/N: Written for the pre-reveal, pre-relationship section of the @adrinettezine!

Marinette, Kleptomaniac

“Girl. You can’t be serious.”

“What?” Marinette asked defensively. She attempted to shield the open trunk from view, but this appeared to have no effect on Alya.

“All this junk is stuff you’ve taken from Adrien?”

“It’s not junk!” Marinette said. “They’re my treasures. My Adrien treasures.”

“Right. Your stolen treasures.”

Alya was giving her the “Bestie, this is simply not it” look—pursed lips, arched brows, arms folded in a very judgmental way that Marinette did not like.

“I didn’t— they’re not stolen,” she said. “They were gifts. Like… this! He gave it to me on the first day we met.”

Marinette pulled the black umbrella from the depths of the trunk. She ran a finger over the curved handle, remembering how Adrien’s hand had brushed hers, and couldn’t stop a dreamy little sigh from escaping her lips.

“Uh-huh. And what about this?” Alya wrinkled her nose as she held up a sock, pinching the cuff between her fingers. “You’re telling me Adrien gave you this as a gift?”

Marinette looked down, blushing. “Some of the gifts were… unintentional.”

“Where did you even get this? Did you sneak into his house and raid his laundry basket?”

“Of course not.” Marinette snatched the sock away. “It just fell out of his locker after fencing class one day. And I just, you know, happened to be passing by. And I figured— ”

“— ‘hey, Adrien probably left this stinky sock just for me! Because he saw me creeping around his locker and he was like, “Aw, there goes my Very Good Friend Marinette. I know how much she loves sweaty socks and other soiled clothing items. Maybe next time I’ll leave her my dirty underwear.”’”

Marinette’s face burned. “Alya!” she hissed. “You can’t talk about people’s… you-know-what.”

“Why? Because now you’re thinking of his cute little tushie?” Alya grinned. “Wonder if he’s a boxers guy or a briefs guy. Maybe you should ask him. When you return his stinky sock.”

Marinette opened her mouth, but she really couldn’t form a coherent thought once Adrien’s butt had entered the equation. She stared down at the sock instead.

“It’s not stinky,” she said finally. “I washed it.”

(At first she had decided that she wasn’t going to wash it, because how could she eliminate Adrien’s natural scent, which came from his own perfect skin? But it turned out that even Adrien’s perfect skin had working sweat glands, and soon she had no choice but to put the sock in the wash and douse the remaining contents of the treasure trunk in his new fragrance, Pure.)

“Oh my gosh. Is this… ?” Alya turned over a small box in her hands. “The constipation meds? Really? I thought you were going to burn them after how embarrassed you were about the whole thing.”

“Yeah, but— he got them for me!” Marinette said. “That’s kind of like a gift, right?”

“You have a very strange concept of gift giving.”

“Whatever.”

“What else do you have in here?” Alya started pulling item after item from the trunk—the jacket Adrien had left at her house after a group study session, the crumpled love note he had thrown in the trash on Valentine’s Day, a manga box set he had lent her after her enthusiastic response to his summary of Fruits Basket.

Alya inspected a small drawstring pouch. “What— ”

“No!” Marinette lunged for the pouch, but Alya had already opened it and peered inside.

“Marinette,” she said, “is this hair? Like, actual human hair?”

“It’s not real! I mean, it is real, but— ”

“What did you do? Just pluck it right off his head?”

Marinette bit her lip.

“Oh my gosh, you just plucked it right off his head.”

Marinette let out a huff. “Well, in my defense, I thought he was a wax statue at the time.”

Alya closed her eyes and let out a sigh, the way Papa did when she dropped a plate of pastries for the third time in one day. Marinette squirmed.

“Marinette. My bestie. My platonic soulmate. You are a kleptomaniac.”

“I am not!”

“Girl, listen to me.” Alya put her hands on Marinette’s shoulders. “You know I love you, right?”

Her lips slid into a pout. “Right.”

“You know that I think you are good and wonderful and smart and hot and totally worthy of any person you want to date, right?”

“Right.”

“And you know that I am the number one Adrinette shipper, right?”

“Right.”

Alya straightened. “Well, I regret to inform you that this is officially an intervention. No more stealing from Adrien Agreste.”

“But— ”

Alya held up a hand. “Nope. Everything in this treasure box has to be something Adrien actually gave you. On purpose. We’re gonna go through it right now, and anything that you shouldn’t have, you’re going to give back. You’re supposed to be stealing his heart, not his stuff. Okay?”

Marinette’s shoulders slumped. “Okay.”

It took them nearly an hour to go through the box (mostly because Alya insisted on hearing the backstory of every item). Finally, the trunk was empty, and the items were sorted into two piles—a “keep” pile and a “give back to Adrien” pile.

The “keep” pile was relatively small—the umbrella, her lucky charm, the empty constipation pill box, and various wrappers and scraps of paper that Alya deemed unworthy of returning, because “this is literally a piece of trash, Marinette.”

But the “back to Adrien” pile—well, that one was much bigger.

“I can’t give all this back!” Marinette wailed, draping herself dramatically over the edge of the chaise.

“We talked about this,” Alya said. “It’s not right for you to keep what was never given to you.”

“No, I mean, how am I supposed to give all of this back to him? It’s so much.” She tugged at her pigtails. “He’s gonna think I’m some sort of freak, or creep, or— ”

“— kleptomaniac?”

Marinette groaned, burying her face in her hands.

“Relax.” Alya slung an arm around her shoulder. “We’ll come up with a plan for you to return them one by one. We’ll keep it casual. He’ll never know about the junk hoard.”

Marinette shot her a glare.

“Treasure box,” Alya corrected. “Okay, so which of these items was stol— acquired most recently?”

Marinette looked over the pile. “Um, the pen.”

“Right. That’s the one he dropped in Mendeleiev’s class yesterday and it conveniently rolled directly under your chair.”

“It did!”

“Okay, okay.” Alya picked up the pen and handed it to Marinette. “Tomorrow morning, you walk up to him and say, ‘Hey, Adrien, is this yours? I think you dropped it.’ Say it with me.”

“Hey, Adrien, is this yours? I think you dropped it.”

“Good.” Alya grinned. “Let Operation Kleptomaniac commence.”

Marinette crouched behind the stairs with Alya, watching Adrien and Nino across the courtyard.

“Girl, get that out of your mouth,” Alya said. “It’s not even yours.”

Marinette jolted, slipping the pen out from between her teeth. She inspected the cap. There were a few telltale scratches and dents in it, but maybe that was because Adrien had the same bad pen-chewing habit that she did.

A blush crept over her face. If Adrien had chewed on this pen too, then her lips had touched the same spot as his. An indirect kiss, just like the one she had not-exactly-shared with him a few weeks ago at the movies when he accidentally took a sip of her drink. Alya had almost thrown away that straw, but after an impassioned speech from Marinette about the preservation of cherished memories (and the trace amounts of Adrien’s cellular tissue that come with them), Alya had sighed and agreed that she could keep it.

“What are we still waiting for? It’s time.” Alya yanked Marinette out from behind the stairs and dragged her toward Adrien and Nino. Marinette tried to tug away, but she tripped and tumbled forward.

She braced for impact, but it never came. Instead, she was met with something warm and soft that smelled just like her treasure box—clean linen and citrus.

“Whoa,” Adrien said. “You okay, Marinette?”

Her eyes snapped open, and she jumped out of his arms. “Yar! I mean, yeah! I’m— it’s— it’s all grood. Good.” A too-wide grin stretched across her face, her neck growing hot under her collar.

Adrien smiled. She fixed her gaze on his nose to avoid his unfairly beautiful eyes. Unfortunately, his nose was just as beautiful, and it was even closer to his lips, which made her heart hammer like that weird construction-themed akuma from last week (Bob le Builder, a name which she found both tacky and lazy, but which Chat Noir loved, of course).

“Um,” she said intelligently. What was she supposed to tell him again? Her mind had melted into goo. It was probably spilling out of her ears at this point. Oh no—what if Adrien saw her disgusting brain goo??

Alya was miming something behind Adrien’s back. Paper? Writing?

Oh. Right.

Marinette lifted the pen and let the well-rehearsed words spill out. “Adrien, is this yours? I think I’m in love with you.”

She froze. Adrien’s eyebrows shot up, perfect lips forming a tiny o of surprise. Behind him, Alya slapped her hand to her forehead.

“It!” Marinette blurted, much too loudly. “The pen. That’s what I’m in love with. It’s like a pencil, but more darker and, um, smeary-er. I mean, it has such a great… writing— smooth— ink… ness. W-where did you get it?”

Adrien blinked. Then a laugh bubbled out of him.

“It’s just a pen, Marinette. If you like it that much, you can keep it.”

“R-really?”

“Of course! I’ve got a bunch more.” He smiled warmly, sending a golden shimmer all the way down to her toes.

“Well, how about a trade? You can have one of mine!” She shrugged off her backpack and pulled out her pack of pink gel pens. “Um, unless you don’t like pink?”

“How could I not like pink? It’s your signature color.” He grinned, taking one of the pens. “Thanks! And, by the way, you might want to disinfect that other pen. I have kind of a bad habit of chewing on the cap. Sorry. Would you rather have a new one? I’d be happy to—”

“No!” she said quickly. “No, that’s fine. Thanks.”

“Okay, then. See you in class!” Adrien waved, and then she watched him walk away with Nino, slipping the gel pen in his pocket.

“Well, that was… interesting,” Alya said. “But I guess it was technically a success. Nice work, klepto.”

Marinette smiled down at the pen in her hand.

Maybe Operation Kleptomaniac wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Adrien sat in his desk chair, rolling the pink gel pen between his fingers.

“Man, that Pigtails is so weird,” Plagg commented through a mouthful of cheese.

“She’s not weird,” Adrien said. “She’s just… ”

He paused. He didn’t quite have the words for what Marinette was. Smart, definitely. Kind. Funny. Passionate. Brave. Talented. A good person. A good friend.

“… she’s Marinette,” he finished.

Adrien pulled open his desk drawer and took out a little box. Inside were various items he’d collected since he started school. An old CD from Nino. A sparkly invitation to Rose’s birthday party. A spoon from an ice cream cone he’d shared with Kagami. The wrapper from the piece of gum Alya had offered him on his second day. The ticket stubs from the movies he’d seen with Marinette last month.

Now that he thought of it, most of the things in the box came from Marinette. There were ribbons from bags of homemade pastries, knicknacks she’d made for all her friends, a dozen handwritten notes (always signed “Your friend, Marinette”).

“I don’t get why you keep all this stuff,” Plagg said. “It’s just a bunch of junk.”

Adrien carefully placed the pink gel pen in the box, between his Kitty Section mask and the pair of fake glasses “Marino” had left behind.

“They’re not junk.” He smiled. “They’re treasures.”

[purrincess-chat]

Random Adrinette dating headcanons (post s5)

Adrien likes watching Marinette play RPGs. He lays next to her and just watches in awe of her skills

When new Pokemon games are announced, they each get different versions so they can trade version exclusives

They have a stardew valley co-op file where they're married, and Adrien insists on sleeping in the same bed. He skips the cutscenes with the other single villagers bc he would never be unfaithful to his wife.

They take afternoon naps together bc they're both so tired all the time from school and all of their many responsibilities *cough cough*

Double dates with Felix and Kagami get really awkward bc they both know her identity, and she has to beg them to not talk about it so openly around Adrien bc he doesn't know. Felix thinks she should just tell him, but Marinette made Kagami pinky swear, and you don't break pinky swears. It's in the rules of friendship.

Dinners with Marinette's family. They already have the wedding planned. Tom has written Adrien into the will.

Tiny kisses on the nose, chin, forehead, hands, fingers. Their friends thought their problems would be solved if they just kissed, but now they won't stop and somehow they're too disgustingly cute.

Marinette absent-mindedly runs her fingers through Adrien's hair when she's spaced out. It relaxes him too much though, and sometimes when she checks back in, he's fallen asleep.

They fall asleep on face time all the time. It's how Adrien knows Marinette talks in her sleep.

Adrien insists on taking lots of pictures together and hanging them up on her wall. He's also started a collection on his wall.

Marinette usually can't finish her lunch and always leaves a few bites, so Adrien gets into a habit of finishing her food for her.

Marinette teaches Adrien how to make pancakes the right way. He cries the first time he eats them bc his father's were so bad 😭

Marinette makes a little cloth doll of herself for Adrien to keep at his house, so he always has her even when they're apart. He sleeps with it on his pillow every night.

They know the combinations to each others lockers, and sometimes they trade textbooks and leave each other little messages on stickynotes when they trade back.

They write each other sappy poems, then read them to each other. Alya and Nino thought it was cute at first, but now they just put in headphones to drown them out.

The gym coach had to learn the hard way to always put them on the same team for dodgeball bc if it ever gets down to the two of them, they will both forfeit the game and no one wins.

[the-knight-of-the-stars]

One of these days I'll finish writting the fanfic of this tiny Trans Reversed-Love Square Miraculous Ladybug AU that has been eating my brain:

— Adrien Agreste is Kitty Noir. Reclusive homeschooled rich supermodel by day, Paris superheroine by night.

—Adrien thinks of Kitty as just a persona he can play with, like a videogame avatar. ('It tootally doesn't mean anything that Kitty feels right, and like home, and like freedom, what are you talkikg about guys?' )

—Kitty is Ladybug's partner in fighting agains crime. Kitty brings the 'there's always time for a joke' vibe to the superhero work that Ladybug pretends not to appreciate.

—One night, Kitty is saved from an akumatized villain attack by a civilian named Marinette, and is heartstruck by her kindness and bravery. (Ladybug was busy that night, if you can believe it.)

—Kitty visits her at her balcony the next night, and Marinette tells her about feeling lonely at school. Kitty knows loneliness, and their night meetings at the balcony become a common ocurrence.

—They become friends. One night, Kitty flirts. Marinette responds (Because tonight she is just a normal girl with a normal life, why wouldn't she?) And Kitty well, she is kind. Her jokes aren't cruel, and she listens to her.

—And Kitty likes the way light hits her hair, and how clumsy and determined she is. Is this what having a friend is like? Wishing time would stop so she could keep lisening to Marinette?

—And ups! Kitty is getting close, and moving in circles around Marinette and Marinette feels safe. Kitty is kind of funny. And Marinette realizes she wants some funny in her life.

—Kitty leans. Marinette kisses her. She is not sure why she did that. Oh! Marinette retreats, but Paris at night makes Kitty's green eyes shine like stained glass. Wait, does she like girls? Does she like this girl?

—Kitty kisses her again, and Kitty is in heaven. Alone. Alone is a far away word. For a second the whole world feels like home. But stop.

—Kitty (or Adrien?) pulls away. 'Because this isn't right' 'Because you are just my fan, you don't know me.'

'Because Kitty isn't real... right?'

—Kitty leaves. Is not ethical, it can't be. They both agree. Just friends. 'Sometimes, I'll catch a glipse of you in the moonlight.'

—Marinette, see, now she was a problem. Ladybug can't be in love with her partner, no way. Is not right, is too distracting. And they have people to save!

—So Ladybug pretends everything is ok. 'Kitty, we have to be focused at all times' she tells her, trying to ignore how pretty her smile is.

—But duty is first, Paris is counting on them. Even if Kitty calling her 'My Lady' keeps her awake at night. 'All girls fantasize about their friends like that, right?'

—Adrien sits on his bed, and thinks about what would happen if he could be Kitty all the time. If Kitty is just a character, just a game, why did it felt so good, so real, to kiss Marinette?

—Marinette liked Kitty, and Kitty wasn't even trying. 'You are so beautiful, you know that, right?' She had said one night, laughing, after Kitty had make her dance. So spontaneous, she had blushed after.

—He was allowed to like that thought, right? Kitty was beautiful. He (she?) was beautiful. 'Am I, beautiful?' How much of Kitty is acting, and how much of her is true?

—Kitty doesn't visit often now. Marinette overthinks. 'She moved on, of course she did, why wouldn't she, I said it was ok, why doesn't it feel ok?'

—One day, Ladybug "accidentally" sees Kitty sneak into the Agreste Mansion. Oh! So she really meet someone else. 'She used to sneak into my house like that' And she meet no other than golden boy Adrien Agreste. Supermodel Adrien Agreste. Rich and Misterious Adrien Agreste.

—Of course, I mean, this Adrien guy is kinda cute. And Kitty is cute. Match made in heaven right? Is non of her buisness anyways.

—But Adrien is a little too misterious, right? He doesn't even go to school! And what was that Alya told her the other day? Oh! He is friends with Chloe?? Too suspicious...

—Is ok, she is just worried about Kitty. They are partners, gals, Marinette just wants to make sure Kitty's boy is the right one. 'What does she sees in him anyways?'

—Adrien meets Marinette one day, at a gala, she designed a hat for him! She is wonderful, and Adrien wants to say hi, but she keeps avoiding him. 'Is just the nerves for the event, she toootally didn't roll her eyes at me.'

—Adrien meets Nino. He is great. He tells him about school, and Adrien dreams about how cool it would be to go to school. He asks his dad, and he actually considers it?

Nino supports him, even Chloe vouches for him. Father says yes, he can go to school!.

—Adrien arrives at his first day, and oh! There is Marinette! How great is this!

—Marinette raises her head, and oh! There is Adrien Agreste! How great is this?

[arisu-artnfics]

“A trip to Paris” 6

Notes: 

Chapter: 6/12 Previous Next (First). Versión en Español

Also on:     A03 || FF || DeviantArt || Facebook.

Chapter 6: “Introducing akumas”

Marinette shook off her embarrassment, there would be time to freak out about that later, right now, she had a job to do.

“Oh, no!” Marinette cried, checking her phone. “There is an akuma close by!” She turned to her new friends–or, rather, temporary friends… she knew they were just here on holidays. “You should stay here, it will be safe.”

“Safe from what? What’s an akuma?” asked Jazz. She didn’t remember reading anything about that, and she had done a lot of research before coming. 

“Oh, um, well an akuma is a person…” Marinette began. Danny raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t planned to have to explain this today, and she was doing a poor job of it. “Well, a possessed person—” 

“Wait, you mean like overshadowed?” Sam asked what all three Amity Parkers were thinking. She didn’t think his ghost sense had gone off, but they couldn’t be too careful. 

“Over– what?” asked Marinette, confused, this was not an English word she knew. She shook her head, “No, I don’t think so… it’s more like control by, as if someone else brainwashed them.” Then she remembered that “possessed” could mean something totally different to them than it did to her.

“That’s horrible,” Jazz commented with a sympathetic look. Knowing that it was done by one human to another made it worse in her book.

“It is, that’s why it is better to stay inside, and let Ladybug and Chat Noir do their job. They will defeat it, don’t worry!” said Marinette. Her smile was a bit too wide, stretched thin. Ladybug would save the day, but first she needed to leave and transform into Ladybug. She just had to figure out how to slip away from them. 

“Marinette is right,” said Sabine. “Our store safety policy includes customers in these cases of emergencies. Please stay inside of the store.” Her accent was stronger than Marinette’s but they could understand her English well enough. 

“Okay... ” said Danny hesitantly. He didn’t think that he could do much against an akuma. As far as he knew they were just people, mind controlled people but still people, as wrong as that sounded. And although it may be killing him inside to know more about it so he could at least try to help, with Jazz and Sam and even the Parisians so close by, he wasn’t about to go ghost.  

“Good,” said Tom, nodding approvingly. He never liked when Alya went to record the battles and he liked it even less when his daughter took the risk too. Although normally Marinette was trying to stop Alya. 

Another explosion shook the bakery. The pastries bounced in their displays and some of them piled up at the edge of the containers. Things were falling off shelves, everything was out of place. Everyone in the bakery ran for cover, and Marinette took the opportunity to escape and 'hide' in the house rather than the store. 

She didn't lose any more time, quickly transforming into Ladybug and swinging out through a window. With the help of her trusty yo–yo she made her way to the roof. Once there, she spotted Chat Noir, who was already watching the villain and trying to understand the situation.

Meanwhile, inside the bakery, Danny was trying to see what was going on from a window since the attack wasn’t that far away. Sam stood next to him, a gentle hand on his shoulder to keep him calm. Even though he didn't even know if he could do something against an “akuma,” he was sure there was still some way he could help. 

Jazz was watching her little brother from further in the store, she could tell that he was itching to get out there and help, that was just his nature. She knew her little brother, if things got bad enough, he would try his best to help, even if that meant breaking his promise. 

The fight had gotten even closer to the bakery and that wasn't helping Danny’s stress, he knew he could try to help, but didn't want to break his promise or expose himself.

Then when nobody was expecting it, the battle was over. As fast as it had started, it ended. 

As soon as Ladybug found Chat Noir, he told her what he’d seen and she knew exactly what to do. The akuma was a demolition contractor who got fired for unsafe practices. His boss said he was using too many explosions, but he had a plan, it wasn't his fault that the higher ups didn't like it. He was throwing bombs all over the city, destroying lots of buildings, when Ladybug and Chat Noir found him. Using their awesome teamwork, the pair of heroes quickly found the akuma hidden in a remote detonator and put a stop to his rampage. Then Ladybug launched her miraculous cure and everything went back to normal.

Back in the bakery, Tom and Sabine were smiling at the foreigners’ shocked faces. They had become so used to akuma attacks that it was almost normal to them. It was nice to be reminded of how magical it all really was.

Danny, Sam, and Jazz were more than a little surprised when everything suddenly went back as good as new, the fallen pastries were back on the shelves, toppled chairs were set to rights, and they could see previously damaged buildings from the window with not a scratch on them. It was like the akuma had never even happened. 

It wasn't long until Marinette was back downstairs and she was just as amused by their shock as her parents. The three Parisians explained to their guests that it was always like that for them. An akuma would destroy almost everything in their way, and then Ladybug with her Miraculous Magic would restore it all. Good as new! 

Danny silently wished that was something he could do back home, maybe then people wouldn’t blame him for all the property damage. 

It was at that moment that someone's stomach growled and the Amity Park kids suddenly realised how hungry they were.

“Wow, is it really that late?” Danny wondered aloud. He checked the time on his phone; even without a local service provider, the time was still correct.

“You're always thinking with your stomach, aren’t you?” said Sam. She laughed and gave him a teasing smile. Even though she was also hungry, she wasn’t going to admit it. The hours had really flown by. 

“Let’s go and find something to eat, it’s about time for lunch,” Jazz suggested. She looked around at the Dupain–Cheng family, “Marinette, thank you for all the tips,” she held up the notebook where she’d written everything down, “and thank you, Sabine and Tom, for letting us stay here during the akuma attack. We’ve never seen anything like that before!”

“You are very welcome!” replied Marinette with a big smile. She was happy to know that everything was coming up good for the foreigners. 

“Glad to know that our daughter has helped you kids that much! Have fun in your holidays and please come back!” said Sabine, she wrapped an arm around her husband and the two smiled proudly at the kids.

“We will!” said Jazz, grinning back. It was a nice place, and they could come back for sweets any time during their stay. 

And so, just like that, Jazz, Danny, and Sam waved goodbye to their new friends and headed out into the Parisian sunshine once again. They had passed by some stores and restaurants earlier and Marinette had told them where they could have lunch at a very good price. The restaurant that they ended up going to wasn't the cheapest that they saw, but at least it was on budget for the day. 

Just when they were finishing lunch, their Fenton Phones rang. It was Jack and Maddie calling to check on them because they had learned about the akuma attack. They knew the kids could handle themselves in dangerous situations, but they still worried. Plus, their curiosity was piqued. 

Once the adults finished peppering them with questions, the kids took turns telling them about what happened, Danny explained that no, he didn’t use his powers, and no, he had no clue what that was, and yes, they were all good. Then Jazz took over the story and explained how and why they ended up hiding in a bakery of all places. Sam completed the explanation, saying that it seems to be like magic of some kind, at least that’s what the Parisians believed.   

Jack and Maddie were glad to hear that the kids were okay and hadn’t gotten into any serious trouble. It was enough of a pain dealing with insurance back home, they really didn’t want to do it here. As far as the possibility of magic, the scientific side of them wanted to deny its existence, but they couldn’t explain what would fix all the damage that easily. 

Danny confessed his wish that they had a magic fix back home, and to that, everyone agreed. Then he suggested that maybe next time another akuma attack happens, he could just observe from a closer distance than today.

That made everyone ask if he was planning to transform, to which he responded yes, but just that. No other powers, except maybe invisibility. It would be a stealth mission, reconnaissance. He didn’t want people to give himself away or cause people to panic even more. 

They all talked it over and decided that maybe, just maybe, it would be okay, just this once. So they could see exactly what was going on here. The rest promised to stay far away. The local heroes seemed more than capable of dealing with those akumas, after all. They had just witnessed that practically firsthand, or learned on the local news – even though Jack and Maddie couldn't understand what the reporter was saying, they could guess, and then a quick check online using the hotel wifi confirmed their observations. 

With their plan in relation to akumas now made, the three teens continued exploring the city. Then, later, they met the rest of Team Phantom –except for Tucker, Valerie, and Dani, of course– back at the hotel to relax and try to call home. It was weird to think about how many hours difference there was –damn time zones– and knowing they would need to wait until late afternoon or evening before they could talk to anyone back in Amity. Thankfully, Mr. Gray answered after just a few rings and they were able to check in with him, easing some of their anxiety. 

The two girls were doing all right, Danny talked with Dani and asked her how she was doing and if she'd had any ghostly problems. Dani told him that he was worrying way too much and he should just relax– he was on holidays and that far away for a reason. 

Then when they spoke with Valerie, she told Sam and Danny that she had heard the mayor was planning a little ‘meeting’ overseas. They pressed her for more details, and she said that Tucker was obviously planning a trip to Paris himself. He had used his power as mayor, in one way or another to make it happen. The public had been hounding the local government for more information about Amity Park, and until now, Tucker had declined a press tour. Recently though, rumours had spread that he'd accepted an invitation from the mayor of Paris. What an incredibly well-planned coincidence! The two teens laughed at their best friend’s antics, but couldn’t be happier. Only Tucker would manage to plan a special meeting halfway across the world just to come hang out with them. 

Jack and Maddie weren't too happy with his idea, but couldn’t really say much knowing that the old mayor did much worse than that. Tucker was also still a kid, and he wasn’t going to be mayor forever. The next elections were coming up soon and would decide the next mayor, after all. 

Hearing news from Amity lent some normalcy to their routine and they talked for quite a while, before saying goodbye. Even though they had only been gone a day, there was already a lot to tell each other.

While the kids were talking, Maddie and Jack looked up local attractions and found that a science exposition was being held not far from their hotel and would be opening the next day. Danny and Jazz expressed their surprise when they learned it wasn’t some sort of ghost convention, to which their parents sheepishly confessed that it was related to ghost studies… in a way. After all, people all over the world were talking about ghosts and learning about them now. 

Of course, the elder Fentons weren’t about to miss the opportunity to talk about ghosts with a whole new city of people that hadn’t already heard all of their theories. They did agree that they were going to just listen to the presentations and such though, even though they weren’t sure how much of it they would understand, it likely being in French and all. 

Just as his parents promised to try to keep a low profile at the convention, Danny once again promised to keep Phantom's presence in Paris a secret, even while invisibly spying on the local heroes. He hadn't really been around other heroes and he was curious about their powers. They were all very intrigued by what they could learn from them and considering that maybe they could use the knowledge later on, it was worth the risk. The others were calling it spying because that was basically what it was, even though Danny refused to call it that. 

Once all were in agreement as to how they would conduct themselves while gathering information during their stay they decided to get back in the vacation mindset. Jack and Maddie prepared themselves for their science exposition, while the kids planned their next outing. The Eiffel Tower was one of the most popular tourist attractions in Paris after all and it was high time they went to check it out. Thanks to Marinette’s help, they, or, more specifically, Jazz, were able to quickly look through the bus schedule and find the best time to visit when it wouldn’t be as crowded. Once Jazz had fully planned out their day, from how and when to get to the Eiffel Tower and then what to do afterwards, she called it a night.

After Jazz went to bed, Danny and Sam decided to look into getting their phones on the Paris cellular network. They couldn't keep using the Fenton Phones for all of their communication. Sam took the lead in setting that up, since she had experience doing that sort of thing before, but Danny was the one to suggest that they still used the Fenton Phones to communicate with Amity Park, since it would be cheaper than international roaming. In no time at all, Sam managed to help Danny and the rest of the Fenton family to get a temporary local line. Jack and Maddie were very grateful to Sam for helping them with that, since they had been putting it off for “later.” Using the Fenton Phones had been working for them so far, so they might have never gotten around to it.

And so, with a very productive first day in Paris under their belts, they called it a night. It was getting late after all. 

Over the next few days, Jack and Maddie enjoyed their convention, if nothing else, at least they learned the French word for “ghost,” and the kids took turns choosing which tourist attraction to visit. They would only be there for two weeks, so everyone wanted to make the most of their time in the City of Lights. In addition to the most popular locations, they also found some quieter places frequented by the locals that they all could enjoy. Before they knew it, the day for Tucker to join them was just around the corner.   

“So,” Jazz commented, “Tucker finally said that the official reason he’s coming is for him to supposedly speak at a bunch of conferences about the ghosts from Amity.”  

The kids were sitting at the park that afternoon, just enjoying the beautiful day.  

“Yeah. We finally managed to get ahold of him, and it’s like Valerie said, he was supposed to do an online, long distance conference… thing. But you know Tuck, he managed to change it so that he could come to Paris personally.” Danny shrugged. “Although, I also think that he mentioned once that he had a few different cities around the world trying to book him. So, why, Paris? Who knows. Probably just because we’re here.” he shrugged again.

“Why am I not surprised? You guys have always been good at playing the system, haven’t you?” said Jazz. She, like the rest, had suspected that to be the case, but hearing Danny say it out loud just confirmed it. At least Tucker wasn’t really abusing his power… that much. They had invited him, after all.

“Well, it’s Tuck, what do you expect?” said Sam with a shrug. She wasn't going to deny the obvious.

“Valerie and Dani said he’s arriving tomorrow, right?” asked Jazz. They had managed to talk with the girls back home the day before; but it was more Danny asking about Amity and confirming the lack of ghosts than anything else. She hoped, for Danny’s sake, that things stayed okay over there. 

“And I believe that he is staying in the same hotel as us, it seems like the ‘Grand Paris’ always receives important people… ” Danny added, recalling the details of his friend's travel plans. Even though, now that he thought about it, Tucker probably shouldn’t have shared those details with anybody other than his parents, who were coming too. It could potentially be a security risk.

“Yeah, he’s staying in the presidential suite, or whatever it’s called,” continued Sam. She had been the one to confirm the information, but didn’t care enough to remember the name of the room. The rooms had numbers, after all, and that was the important part.

“So I’m guessing you two will want to see him as soon as he gets here, right? The three of you will probably want to catch up tomorrow...” said Jazz. She already knew that Danny and Sam would jump at that opportunity to spend time with their best friend. Even though she was with them and they were having a good time, she still felt a bit awkward, a bit like an outsider.

“Probably…” Danny hummed, half listening. He was watching a group of children playing in the distance and listening to the pigeons coo. He was very much enjoying the holidays so far. As he should.  

“Hey Jazz, you know even though we don’t mind your company, you could go do your own things, too,” said Sam. “You don’t need to stay with us.” She didn’t mind the other girl, but she also knew that Jazz would probably like to do some other normal teen stuff, without her little brother and his girlfriend tagging along. Like maybe check some of the local universities or something, even though she would never want to study that far from Amity. Honestly, Sam was starting to feel a bit odd being around Jazz when they weren’t battling some kind of danger.   

“Oh no, it’s all right! I have the key card for the room, so we all need to stick together… ” replied Jazz. She was the oldest and therefore the one entrusted to keep track of their copy of it. She knew that Sam didn’t mean anything by it, but none of them were dumb enough to miss the awkward feeling between them. 

“Yeah, but you know I don’t necessarily need a key...” said Danny, obviously pointing out his ghostly abilities. He was still oblivious to the mounting tension around him. 

“True, but remember: no powers, little bro. Plus mom and dad trusted me to look after you two, and even though you don’t need it, that doesn’t mean I should just leave you guys! What if you got lost? Or went to the wrong room?” Jazz pointed out. With their limited communication here, getting lost wasn't something to play around with. That thought made her feel better about being there for them, even when they didn’t necessarily need her. 

“All right, all right...” Danny raised his hands in surrender. He had finally noticed how stressful the situation was becoming. “We are going to stick together, and no powers, means no powers...” He sighed. He might actually be starting to miss the ghost attacks.

“Well, with our luck another akuma will attack soon, and you can go spy on the heroes,” Sam teased.

They had found the blog run by Marinette’s friend Alya. The 'Ladyblog' had an English translation on it and explained that akuma attacks were completely random, usually varying between two to three per week, but sometimes as frequently as two in one day, although that was very rare. So, in other words, they happened when you least expected it.  

“Hey! I thought it was just ‘observing from a closer distance…’” 

Jazz and Sam both gave him looks that said ‘not even you believe that.’  

He sighed. “Fine, spying it is… ” he paused, “Let’s hope I don’t get in trouble for that…” he murmured. Even though he knew it was spying from the start, he didn’t want to say it like that, in case it was illegal or something. And he didn’t even know if he would understand anything. 

“So, what time is Tucker supposed to get to the hotel again? I can’t remember what Valerie said, since you guys, or well, you, little brother, were hogging the Fenton Phones the whole time and I had to ask you about it later on…” said Jazz, with a twinge of annoyance, reminding him about his worrying over the phone about whether Amity was doing okay or not. 

If they were going to do something tomorrow to meet up with Tucker and his family, it was best to plan ahead. And Jazz needed all of the information in order to do that planning.

“Well, his flight should land at around 5 p.m. He did a lot of complaining about how he was going to be spending a whole entire day on a plane. He may be a tech genius, but seriously, he didn’t get that if he leaves Illinois at midnight that’s 7 a.m here, then when you add the ten hours flying… ‘voilà’ you get to Paris at 5 p.m.” explained Sam. They had something similar happen to them when they flew over, although it wasn’t as bad because they arrived around 11 p.m. and then slept through the night. 

“If I remember correctly, even you were confused about the time zones when we were travelling...” Danny teased her with a playful grin and Sam just glared at him in return. After all, that Monday night was hard for all of them. 

“Well, if it helps, none of us had experienced crossing so many time zones like that before...” Jazz paused, “That means that Tucker would get to the hotel at around 6 p.m.” she commented, getting them back on the topic of planning for the next day. 

“Yep,” said Danny, pronouncing the ‘p’ more strongly than needed, “so he should be free around six-thirty or seven tomorrow afternoon,” he finished with a nod. He was excited that he and Sam would get to hang out with their friend after such a long time. They had only been in Paris a week, but even before that, it had been hard to see him because of his mayoral duties. Actual ones, unlike this trip… Mostly it was fixing problems that Vlad left. 

“Okay, so let’s just say seven, to be on the safe side, that’s when we should be looking for him,” said Sam. She would never admit it, but she had missed her friend; she was really thankful to have him in her life. After all, the three of them were the original trio, the original team Phantom.  

“Sounds like a plan!” said Jazz and wrote it all down in her notebook that she was still carrying around.

Danny and Sam just rolled their eyes. Sometimes it seemed like Jazz was being a bit extra, but they knew she always had good intentions. And even though they would never tell her, they knew they were going to miss her when she went to Amity Park University in the fall. 

The three teens fell into a peaceful silence, each lost in their own thoughts. 

Danny was actually really enjoying his time in Paris. He never thought that travelling like this would help so much, but with Sam next to him so close their shoulders brushed, and Jazz at his other side, near enough for a teasing elbow to the ribs, he felt the tension slowly melting away.

Sam slipped her hand into Danny’s and gave it a gentle squeeze. She was so glad to see him actually relaxed for once, and she was enjoying every second she got to spend with him. A breeze blew through the park, rustling the leaves on the trees, and she took a deep breath of the sweet summer air. 

Jazz was quite pleased with how everything was going so far. She mentally ran through their itinerary again, they only had a little time here and she wanted to make the most of it. Although, she supposed, always thinking of what they were going to do next was probably not the best way to enjoy the moment, was it? She shook herself out of her thoughts and instead watched the way the dappled sunlight danced across the ground at her feet.

“Well, now that we know when Tuck is getting here,” Danny began, breaking the silence, “and we’ve changed our plans for the weekend to include him–” 

A sleek black car had pulled up at the park, causing some commotion when a bodyguard stepped out of it.

“Okay...” said Sam, noticing what distracted Danny. 

Jazz finished writing down some more ideas for what they could do tomorrow, making sure to account for how they were going to ‘just say hi’ to Tuck. Then she glanced up from her notebook and saw what Danny and Sam were looking at. “Is he supposed to be a teen celebrity or something?” she asked. It did look a bit like it was out of a movie, in a way. 

“I don’t know, it just looked like something was about to happen, with the way those people were acting. I didn’t expect it to just be some guy, I thought for a second that maybe an akuma was coming or something,” Danny explained. After all, they were expecting an akuma to happen sooner or later. 

“I thought the same thing,” said Sam, “but that blonde guy doesn’t seem like an akuma, does he?” She watched the way he was being shielded by his bodyguard. He didn’t seem like much of a threat.

“Oh!” exclaimed Danny, after seeing the guy a bit better the closer he got. “I think I know him!”  

“What?” asked Jazz and Sam, equally confused. They had never seen him before in their lives.

“Well, all right, all right. I don’t, you know, know him know him… but I’ve seen him. In ads. I think.” said Danny, trying to remember where exactly he had seen the ad, or if he knew what it was about.

“In ads, you said...” Jazz hummed thoughtfully, trying to remember what advertisements they had seen around the area.

“I mean, I guess… I don’t remember exactly where, and now that I think about it, I’m not even sure what it was for. I mean, how could I know, it was probably in French!” Danny said with a shrug. There were plenty of signs with people on them, both here and back home. Normally it was because of publicity, someone trying to sell goods or services, or worse, according to him, it was politics.  

“That makes sense,” Sam allowed. 

“He seems to be very popular… well, at least among the girls,” commented Jazz. She had been watching the crowd and noticed that most of the people that were now gathered at the park seemed to be teenage girls.

“Well, I guess, that’s our cue to go. Look, they’ve got a photographer over there now,  they probably came here to work… ” said Sam, unimpressed. What else would a famous teen do if not work in one way or another? It was either that or just be ‘annoying’ in her book.  

“Alright, let’s go,” Danny stood up from their bench. “I’m here to rest, not work!” Well… unless you counted the “definitely-not-spying” he would be doing on the local heroes. 

“Hey, isn’t that Marinette?” Jazz pointed out a familiar set of pigtails in the middle of the crowd of what they could only assume were fans.

Sam followed Jazz’s line of sight and found their new friend talking animatedly with another girl. “Yeah, I think so...” When she turned back, she noticed how Jazz seemed like she was ready to go ask Marinette for some more Parisian advice.

“Uhh, Jazz, I don’t think we need to bother her and her friend right now...” said Danny, picking up on the same thing Sam had. Knowing his sister, she would try to get as much information out of Marinette as possible, even though they didn’t need it, they were planning to spend time with Tucker tomorrow, after all. 

“Hey, just because I’m gathering my stuff and especially the notebook doesn’t mean… ” she trailed off when Danny and Sam both raised a sceptical eyebrow at her. “Okay, okay… fine. So maybe I thought we could ask her a few more questions… ” She sighed. It wouldn’t be that bad to get ideas of what else to do, right?

“Let’s just go,” Danny groaned. He stood up and stretched his back. It felt nice after sitting for a while. 

“I’m right behind you,” said Sam. She would have been happy to stay there and admire the sunset, it was getting late and would be going down before much longer, but the idea had lost its appeal when so many people showed up.

“Fine” grumbled Jazz, outnumbered and defeated. She finished packing up the last of their things in a small bag.

And so the three of them began making their way back to the hotel. They would probably go up to the roof and enjoy some time at the pool while continuing to plan what they would do with Tucker once he arrived. However, as soon as they started walking, a huge flock of pigeons zoomed past them, flying in formation. A scream went up from the crowd of fans, many of them running for cover.

“Uh, that’s weird, right?” Danny asked. “Like, I’m no bird expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s not normal.” To be continued :D :D

[verfound]

FIC: "Of Kwamis, Soulmates, and Idiots" ch2 (MLB; Lukanette)

Notes: I was struggling with this one, guys. If I had just sat on the initial prompt it probably all could have gone up in one go, but after that month I was a little (lot) burnt out and kept building this up as more than it had to be? I kept thinking there needed to be some kind of big Plot & Substance, but sometimes you just need a little bit of shits and giggles, right? Anyway. I think it’s as done as it’s gonna get, at least for now. 🖤

Marinette had hated to leave practice, but to be fair…it wasn’t actually her band practicing. She could barely play a handful of notes on the flute, and she highly doubted a group as rock-n-roll as Kitty Section would be interested in having something as dorky as a flute in their band. So when her maman had texted her asking if she could come home early — along with an apology, but they had an unexpected rush, her papa was busy with a big order for the next day, and they could really use the help — well…it just seemed obvious.

She hadn’t missed the way Luka’s eyes had followed her as she grabbed her bag and rushed off with a harried excuse, but that was just Luka being Luka. He was kind like that. Still, she was sure Tikki would give her plenty of grief over it later.

Tikki was also kind like that.

Her bag had been left unattended and almost forgotten in the back of the house once she had gotten home. She had tossed it by the door that led up to their family flat as soon as she had run in, only sparing enough thought to make sure it was safely out of the way before grabbing her apron and moving to help her papa fill macarons.

[aspiringwriter1111]

I'm just thinking about if Adrien got the ladybug miraculous instead of the cat, because we were totally robbed of fluffy Tikki and Adrien.

Like, imagine she sees his life, completely taken aback, "Is this... All you want????"

And Adrien answers, "As long as my dad's happy, and we have our monthly scheduled breakfast, everything's okay."

"But you could have better than 'okay'????"

She explains to him that he's allowed to want things outside of the bubble his father puts him in, and that it's normal to want more, even if your life is "Perfect".

How she's lived for so long, and with all the things she's seen over history (wars, famine, violence, injustice, etc.) there's been many times when she's felt like nothing could be made better.

But the wanting of better things was important.

Being the kwami of creation, she explains that a big part of her is wanting. You can't CREATE, unless you WANT.

Which is somewhat new to Adrien because he doesn't really allow himself to want. If he wanted, there's a good chance he couldn't have it, because, he realizes, what he really wants is connection.

But, gosh, she makes it sound so... easy???

Adrien starts to realize that maybe what he wants, ISN'T what he has.

"Is it, really that easy, to have what you want?"

And she's like, "Yup. 🐞👍"

And you know how Tikki is such a good life coach/encouragement expert?? You can't tell me Adrien wouldn't soak it up like a sponge.

All the support he never had, is suddenly there. All the faith that she has, in his decisions and what he wants.

Like, the freedom from that??? The comfort??? The connection he's been longing for???

We all know what speaks to Adrien is people listening to him. Like, actually SEEING and HEARING him for who he wants to be.

(In the OG series, his connection to Marinette is partially based on it. She was the only person who saw what he ACTUALLY wanted, and wanted it for him too.)

And Tikki, being the kwami of creation, would love nothing more than for her holder to create. To see him grow and blossom into what he WANTS to be.

And the guilt that held him back starts to melt away.

In place of it grows curiosity!! The seeking of what he wants, which is something he's never done before!! It's all so new and exciting.

+ We get Adrien comforted by Tikki.

Imagine him, sad and alone, and then this tiny little thing squishing into his face, "You can do it Adrien!! I believe in you! It's okay!!"

And maybe his father doesn't change (He probably wouldn't smh-) but he kind of doesn't have to anymore? He says Adrien can't go to his friend's party.

So Adrien brings the party to him, hosting it in their foyer. Or he video chats them, with his disco ball on, and his music up so high his dad can hear it from his lair.

And this happens over, and over again, with everything.

His father gives out, because he knows whatever he takes away, Adrien just makes it over again, and WHY IS HE SO DARN DETERMINED NOW?!? HE WAS NEVER LIKE THIS BEFORE?!???!

So he starts to just let him do what he wants, because if he keeps him locked up, the "annoyance" is right in his house, messing with his plans.

In school, Adrien would probably join the debate team (Being seen and heard), and start going with Mylene and Ivan to their protests. Being the son of a famous fashion designer only adds to the causes they fight for, (Also, being seen and heard).

First day of school he immediately goes towards Nino, now knowing what he wants.

With a firm, "I'd like to be friends with you." Instead of a, "Chloe is my only friend, I have to stay with her."

He sees Chloe putting gum on the bench next to them, and immediately cuts contact with her (Blocked).

He's trying to take the gum off before the people who sit there show up, doing his best, because he doesn't want them to even know what happened at all.

And this girl taps him on the shoulder, and asks "What are you doing?"

And he goes, "Taking the gum off."

"You don't have to do that?" She says, setting her bag down, "I can just move over."

The girl was Marinette.

"I know you!" He says, standing up, "Your family runs the bakery around the corner!"

She snapped her fingers, "You always order the big assortment boxes of macarons!"

It's an instant friendship.

And Adrien silently thanks Tikki in his head for refusing to eat anything other than the Dupain-Chengs' macarons.

Circling back to Tikki and Adrien fluff,

IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES!!

Cuddling, Squishing, Supporting!! A friend who believes in him!

The physical affection he never got!!

She thinks he's so SWEET, and she leaves him notes of encouragement everywhere!!

Giving him a pieces of her macarons, and him bringing her around to all the best patisseries?!!??

Asking Marinette to make a tiny bed for her?!!!!?

TINY PAJAMAS-

You can't tell me he wouldn't. You can't.

[soulmate-game]

Work burned me out, middle management positions are draining. What was supposed to be an angsty oneshot is now… yeah I’m continuing it. Not a full series, just a two-parter… hopefully.

Edit: I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK THIS CLUSTERFUCK OF AN EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER IS, but BUCKLE IN BECAUSE IT PROBABLY DOESN’T PASS SAFETY REGULATIONS! HOOOOO BOY

Part 1

—*—*—*—*—*

“…” she stared at the being in front of her, face frighteningly blank. Next to her, Bruce fidgeted.

“I’m not going anywhere, so you either gotta learn to love me real quick or get lost quicker,” the child snarked from where he was sitting upside-down on the bat computer chair. “And don’t call me Richard, my name’s Dick.”

“I don’t remember you working with a fetus, Batman,” Marinette slowly drawled, emphasizing the vigilante’s name despite none of the three of them being suited up. Dick shot up with a cry of indignation.

“I am not a fetus! I’m fifteen! I’ve been Robin since I was twelve!”

“Nope,” Marinette countered, unmoved. “I started out as Ladybug when I was twelve, and I was never as small as you,” she blatantly lied. Dick was already taller than her, which wasn’t much of an achievement considering that she was five-foot-one-inch tall. “You are six years old, tops.”

Dick let out an almost inhuman screech of complaint. Even as he rambled on angrily about how wrong she was, Marinette only nodded as if he proved her right about something.

“That was a good squawk though. Definitely a birdie.”

It took another twenty minutes before Dick ran off to tell on Marinette to Alfred, giving her and Bruce some alone time. With which she used to whirl to him and immediately hiss in equal parts fury and worry;

“Please tell me he wasn’t—“

“The timeline is gone,” Bruce reminded her, bracing her by putting both his hands on her shoulders. “He doesn’t remember.”

“Still!”

He let out such a heavy sigh that he seemed to deflate with it, his dark circles growing more pronounced.

“He wasn’t supposed to be,” he admitted softly. “When he turned sixteen, last time, I allowed him to form his own team of teen heroes. Supervised from afar by myself of course, not that they knew that. I had given them the order to stay back and guard their city, but they disobeyed me and snuck onto the battlefield anyway.”

Marinette rubbed at her temples, nodding. “Teenagers have a habit of doing that. This time around, can we ask Bunnyx to supervise them? She has all the energy of a teenager, so she’ll fit in, but the maturity of someone trusted to guard all the timelines.”

Bruce paused, thinking of what little he knew of the pastel rabbit themed hero, and then reluctantly nodded. “That… might be for the best. And giving them more opportunities to train with…” he hummed, hand on his chin. “I might actually change things up, in that case. Instead of jumping to put teens on their own in a tower, the old Justice League headquarters is more protected. And if we started with the ‘sidekicks’,” he gave very purposeful air quotes, “of other Leaguers, it would create a better support system than letting teenagers run around with… really, not enough regulation.”

“Gotta love hindsight,” Marinette agreed with a nod. “The whole teenagers by themselves thing only worked for my team because we were overly traumatized and each saw different apocalypses before we turned sixteen. Bunnyx could fix them herself back then, but still.”

“Best to do better by the new generation,” Bruce agreed with her unspoken statement. “I can still put that old team together again when they’re older, support their development elsewhere in the meantime.”

“Oh, and now that we’re done on that topic,” Marinette snapped her fingers before pointing to the staircase that Dick had disappeared up. “He’s going to make my life a living hell, isn’t he?”

Bruce groaned, offering her a lopsided grimace of apology. “He’s a menace,” he agreed. “He’s scared away any woman I’ve brought to the house, even though most of them are completely platonic. I have to make the press believe the whole playboy thing somehow, and inviting my friends over to chat is the easiest way to do so without breaking hearts for real. Dick hasn’t caught on yet,” Bruce rubbed his forehead. “His antics to scare away Selina Kyle are legendary already, and she’s sapphic. She couldn’t be attracted to me if I was the last man on earth.”

“Could have fooled me,” Marinette teased, suddenly impish. “She’s catwoman, isn’t she?”

Bruce narrowed his eyes, saying only: “Chat Noir. Year one.”

It was Marinette’s turn to grimace. “Point taken. But in my defense, he took way too long to realize he’s gay and watched too much anime at the time.”

Bruce let out one of his unfairly charming chuckles, changing position so that his arm was around her shoulders and pulling her to his side. She fit there surprisingly well, for someone almost half his size. She leaned into him, and the both just soaked in the comfort of one another for a long moment.

“You know,” Bruce started for a while. “If you want to stay in Gotham, we can make you another alter ego so that you don’t accidentally lure Shadow Moth here. Tell that fox of yours to make it seem like you’re in Paris and take some of the weight off of your shoulders for a change. Blackmail Constantine into charming some jars to keep the butterflies in until you can purify them.”

“Hmmm.” She closed her eyes. “Ladybird sounds nice. Fits with the bird thing that Robin has going for him.”

Bruce laughed. “That’ll really annoy him,” he warned, amused. Marinette’s close-eyed smile was pure mischief.

“That’s the whole point. I’m not letting a fetus win against me, bat-boy.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Marinette wasn’t speaking to Bunnyx. Bruce didn’t know what they had said to one another, but he could guess it had to do with Jason.

With his baby, who he just buried. The boy Marinette had thought of a son ever since he first brought him home. She had even smoothed things over between Dick and Jason, which he had considered nothing short of a miracle at the time.

But that miracle was nowhere to be seen now, with Marinette every bit as despondent next to him as he was. He wanted to be angry with her, he did, but he couldn’t. He had seen her blow up at Bunnyx, seen her try to hold her status as Grand Guardian over the bunny holder.

Bunnyx had simply said that she wouldn’t answer to Ladybug until after the grief passed then, and ran away into her burrow.

“Is this the payment?” He heard her whisper, her voice hoarse and broken. “For the do-over? We passed the old timeline. We took down Shadow Moth. Is this the price?” Tears dripped down her face silently, she didn’t seem to notice them. “Was I not a good enough mother? Should I—“ she stopped herself, shaking her head. He didn’t ask what she was about to say. Maybe he should have.

—*—*—*—*—*

Tim was great. He was too much like Marinette at times, which made Bruce’s chest ache, but he was a great Robin. A great son. His experience with Marinette proved priceless when it came to helping curb Tim’s overworking habits and caffeine addiction.

But not even Tim could find where Marinette had disappeared to, even with his detective skills surpassing Bruce’s already.

Tim was the first son of his that didn’t get to grow up with Marinette at all.

—*—*—*—*—*

“It’s fine, Baobei,” she whispered, stepping to the side. Behind her was the waterfall that hid the tunnel to the Batcave. “He’s not the one to blame. He did his best, even now he’s doing his best.”

“Then why does—“

“Because other people need him, and he has too big of a heart to turn them away,” her mouth tilted a little, smile lopsided and sad. “Timothy didn’t replace you. He just forced Bruce to live again. Bruce didn’t kill Joker, because he didn’t want to taint another child with the sight of murder.”

“And you?” The voice was dark, deadly, gruff. Older, and yet… so achingly familiar. She smiled at him again, soft and sad and… proud.

“I don’t have one,” she lied. She had tried, tried so hard. Bruce had gotten in her way first, and then the very same desire to not taint more children with the image of death.

But her baby needed a scapegoat, and she was willing to throw herself on the fire for him.

“That’s why it’s fine,” she repeated. “If this is what you want. Just, please. Let it end with me.”

This time, Marinette made sure she had the Time miraculous safely in her pocket. Nobody would interfere with this.

The bullet sent her into the flow of the waterfall, red flowing behind her like the carpet she used to walk down with Bruce whenever she released a new collection. She felt no regret as she closed her eyes and fell.

—*—*—*—*—*

The shot hadn’t been fatal. Red Hood might have been mad with Pit Rage, but his fondness for his only true mother figure was ever present. He simply wanted to see if she was serious about taking that shot.

His regret was immediate when she didn’t even try to dodge. The bullet had only grazed her shoulder, but she didn’t seem to notice that. She had been so ready to die— to let him kill her— that she had passed out before hitting the water. He dragged her to the Batcave, knowing he had a lot to answer for.

Bruce wished he could have found her sooner, found both of them sooner. But at least they were back.

—*—*—*—*—*

“… I mean,” she rocked on her heels. “You are growing a bit old for Robin…”

Tim glared at her, not appreciating the insight.

“Bruce is stuck in the timestream, and you aren’t doing a thing about it. I don’t hold your opinion very highly right now,” he snipped back. She snorted, glancing away.

As if that little stunt to “kill Batman” could ever fool her. She’d been there for the real thing, thanks, she could spot a fake a mile away. “He’s got Bunnyx going to find him. She owes me big time, let her do the heavy lifting for a change.”

“How many years have you held that grudge?” Barbara asked, eyebrows raised as she wheeled herself towards the bat computer. “Even Jason thinks you should have let it go by now.”

Marinette scoffed at the exact same time as a certain someone tutted next to her, making them look for a moment like a perfect pair.

Crossed arms, a scoff, annoyed glare? If a DNA test hadn’t already proven otherwise, they might have thought Damian was hers.

“Fetuses don’t get to judge me,” was her only argument before she turned on her heel and walked away.

“I am not a fetus! Lady Marinette, I am ten years old!”

—*—*—*—*—*

Bonus:

Jason was curled up around Marinette, despite being told numerous times not to crowd her on the med-bay bed. He argued that he shot her, so he gets to nurse her back to health.

Did she use her blood, tainted by years of use of the Ladybug, to purify his pit madness? Yes. Had he figured that out yet? Nope.

“Love you, Mom,” he murmured in his sleep. Marinette, who had been awake for about an hour already, smiled to herself.

“Love you, Baobei.”

[sariahsue]

Wherefore Art Thou My(stery) Lady

When a failed attempt to let Chat Noir down easy ends with Ladybug learning his name, she does what any lovesick teenager would do: teases him mercilessly. Ch 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 Ch 4 Ch 5 Ch 6

Chapter Seven (Final)

Adrien – Good morning. I love you.

After sending that message first thing every morning for a week, Adrien knew better than to expect an answer for another hour, probably two because it was a Saturday. No school to look forward to, but he did have a group brunch date. Nino and Alya had organized it and invited Adrien and Marinette along, and Adrien was left to wonder if that had been part of a plan to set the two of them up. 

He took his time showering and getting ready. He knew it was silly, but he wanted to make sure he looked his best.

By the time he got back, Ladybug had sent him a text. 

My Lady – Love you too. ❤️ Figure me out yet? Adrien – Actually, maybe.  My Lady – Really?! Adrien – It's still just a theory, but I know how I'm going to test it later.  My Lady – I look forward to it!

If he was right, she would. It involved a lot of sappy staring at Marinette. 

Brunch wasn’t for another half hour, but he told Nathalie and the Gorilla to drop him off earlier than he needed to be there. It was something he often did, a way to get as much time out of the house as possible. They hadn't caught on yet. (Or if they had, they'd never said anything about it.)

The place they had chosen was small, but Alya swore they had the best pancakes this side of the Alps. Adrien planned on having everything with way too much syrup. 

He found a good seat near the center of the room and texted Ladybug while he waited. Was she getting ready to come to the same spot? If she was, she gave no indication that she'd be seeing him later, just asked what his plans were for the day, as if she honestly had no idea. He leaned back in his chair as he waited for the others. 

Waiters passed with steaming plates of eggs and croissants and coffee. People bustled in and out around him, saying good morning to friends, enjoying the weekend. Adrien hardly noticed any of them until one of them yanked the back of his chair, almost pulling him down. 

“You gotta be careful, dude. You could fall if you lean too far.”

Chairs scraped on the hardwood floors as Nino and Alya took the seats opposite him. It made sense that they would sit together, but was part of the reason to force Marinette to take the seat next to him?

“Lean over a little bit in that chair, Nino.” Adrien reached across the table to grab his hat, but Nino jerked out of the way. “Just so I know how far back I can go. That's all. I promise I won't knock you over.”

“You know, for some reason, I don't really trust you.”

“Marinette says she's coming.” Alya looked up from her phone.

“Did she sleep in or something?” Adrien asked. Knowing when she woke up would help him decide if he was right, though at this point he couldn't imagine how he could be wrong.

“No, she told me she's been awake for a while.”

One hour, he guessed, based on when she had started texting him back. He drummed his fingers, waiting for her to arrive. He needed to see Marinette. Once he saw her, he was sure he would be able to tell for certain. 

Their server came a few minutes later, taking orders. Alya placed for Marinette after getting an assurance over text that she’d be there soon.

“She’s really excited about this,” Alya continued. “Like, texting me nonstop about it since she got up.”

“My condolences,” Nino said.

“Did she say what got her so excited?” Adrien asked. 

“No,” Alya said, eyeing him. “Why? You think you know?”

Adrien just shrugged, pretending to look down to check his phone, though it was really to hide his face. Ladybug hadn’t sent him anything in ages, and the agonizing wait until he knew who she was was even more unbearable now that he had hope it was almost over. 

Marinette came in, pulling out the seat next to his and scooting in until, probably on purpose, her knee brushed his.

“Good morning!” she said, face shining with excitement. She didn't look directly at him, letting him study her profile. The style of her hair was just right. Her freckles were the same. The curve of her lips. (He’d know those lips anywhere.) And he could see the corner of one blue eye. Exactly the right shade.

Marinette glanced over and caught him looking. The corner of her eye crinkled in amusement, then looked down as she slipped her phone into her coat pocket, her hand lingering out of view.

Adrien’s phone pinged with an incoming message. He looked at it reflexively as Marinette pulled her phone out again and laid it face up on the table in front of her.

“What's that, Adrien?” she asked. “Another text from your mysterious girlfriend?”

It was another picture of him, sent by Ladybug, taken just seconds ago. He whipped around while Nino and Alya laughed at him. People were coming in and out of the doorway, but no one that looked like her. He kept looking anyway because it kept him from looking at Marinette. It had been a picture of him and his friends at the table. Marinette had been sitting next to him when the picture had been sent. Ladybug couldn't have been her. 

He'd been so certain... He'd been hoping it was her. He'd had such a streak of luck lately that he'd actually believed that he’d been fortunate enough to be partnered with Marinette. For a moment, he’d been able to believe that the two best girls he knew were one, and she loved him. Disappointment tasted terrible.

Ladybug probably wasn't going to be in the shot, but he held up his phone and took a picture anyway. He glumly turned back to the table and sent it. 

Marinette's phone buzzed enthusiastically, and she swept it out of sight before Adrien could get a good look at it. All he caught was a glimpse of a room, filled with people and tables and an empty doorway. 

“What?” Marinette asked when he turned to look at her. Alya and Nino both waited quietly for once, eyes flicking back and forth between the two of them.

Pulling the picture Ladybug had just sent, Adrien looked over it carefully. He was sitting with his friends, but only two of them. Marinette's seat was still empty. The picture had been taken before she'd sat down. And really, there were hundreds of places to eat brunch in Paris. What were the chances Ladybug just happened to be going to the same one as him this morning?

Found you.

Adrien stared Marinette down. She stared back with the same practiced innocence Ladybug had given him a week ago when they'd first talked about the texting. There was no way they weren't the same person. Her mouth quirked the same way. Her eyes twinkled, whether in civilian clothes or in a red-spotted suit. 

She was right. It was so obvious now that he knew what - who - he was looking at. 

Marinette stayed silent through his whole examination, not raising a question until he pulled away and opened his texting app.

“What are you doing?” she asked. Her phone was face down on her lap.

Adrien – Hi 

The buzz that Marinette's phone gave was much quieter, but he was still able to pick it out over the din of the crowd. 

She clenched her hand around it but didn't look away from him. 

Adrien – I Adrien – Love Adrien – You Adrien – My Adrien – Lady

With each message he sent, Marinette's phone buzzed again. The neutral look on her face started to crack. 

“Aren't you going to answer those?”

“No.”

“Why not?” he asked, grinning. “They could be important. Could be from your boyfriend or something.”

“Seeing as I don't have a boyfriend, Adrien,” she put extra emphasis on his name, making sure he knew it was his fault that she didn't, “that would be kind of impossible.” She pressed the phone into her leg to muffle the vibrations.

“Maybe we can fix that?”

He held up his phone right to her face and snapped a picture. 

Another photo message flashed across her screen, and Adrien could see how it lit up the cloth around it. 

“Admit it,” he said. “I figured you out, My Lady.”

“You did, Kitten. Good job.” Marinette held out her phone to him. The screen was full of a picture of her face. Sender: Future Husband. 

Nino was offering his congratulations. Alya was sighing dramatically and saying “finally!” over and over, but Adrien had all but tuned them out. Marinette was Ladybug. He knew who she was. 

And he still couldn’t kiss her. Not the way he wanted to with their friends watching. 

Instead, he grabbed her hand and slowly turned it palm down, placing a long, slow kiss on the back, a promise of things to come.

When he looked up, Marinette’s cheeks were tinged with pink, but she quirked her eyes with a questioning look. That’s it? she silently asked.

He winked at her, and her blush deepened. “Later,” he mouthed. 

---

“I have one question about all of this,” Adrien asked as they walked down the street. “What was the obvious hint that I missed? I know I talked to you a few times that day, and I can't figure out what it was. The offer of help?”

Nino and Alya had completely ditched them the moment brunch was over. Alya said normally they’d make up some excuse to manipulate them into being alone together. She’d paused dramatically to look at their intertwined hands before claiming she didn’t think she’d be needing schemes anymore, then told them to take advantage of the alone time. Adrien had promised her he would, all while Marinette sputtered in embarrassment.

“I made a cat pun,” she said. “A terrible, awful, bad cat pun. And I am ashamed.”

“What was it?”

“No way! I am not saying it again!” Her emphatic arm movements were hampered by his grip on her hand, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“Marinette.” He slowed, and pulled on her arm until she stood facing him. They’d started their relationship hidden from everyone, with secrets and texts and masks coming between them. Now they were in public, where anyone could see them. “Can I kiss you?”

“I think I’ve waited long enough,” she said, tilting her head and closing her eyes.

“You?”

Her eyes snapped back open, though her head remained at the perfect kissing angle. “Yes, me. I didn’t think it was going to take you that long. I was dying!”

He took a step back, grinning. “I’m not sure if I want to kiss you now after all. Middle of the sidewalk’s probably not the best place for–”

Marinette pulled him down and planted her mouth on his, and his teasing argument died. Adrien felt like he was melting, being molded into a shape that fit her better. 

She pulled away too quickly, resting her forehead against his. People walked around them, just two regular teenagers kissing in public.

“Technically,” he said after catching his breath, “I think that was just you kissing me again.”

“You were kissing me back. It counts.”

“No.” He let go of her waist to cup her face. “This is me kissing you.” And he lowered himself to meet her.

The End

---

Tag list: @eclipsesmoonshine14 @maribugette @delectablycoolscientist @mlbigbang

If you’ve stuck around for the whole thing, thank you! If you’re interested, I’ve got over 70 other Miraculous stories of varying lengths for you to check out. And I’ve got a bunch more planned. Next up is a one-shot featuring half-reveal, pre-relationship Ladynoir, and an akuma whose power is to throw them into fanfiction tropes. Super fun! Plus a project that’s going to feature a lot of love square kisses! (Okay, well, actually two future projects fit that description, haha!) I hope you stick around! Thanks for reading and for all the comments!

I don't think I ever directly linked the artwork that goes along with this story, so here they are! Cover Ch 5 scene

[mc-lukanette]

Marinette sighed, adding a newly crumbled paper to the amount surrounding her as she got a new sheet to write on. Best-laid plans and all, but she genuinely thought that she'd have something put together by now.

Luka was supposed to come by and she wanted - no, needed - it done by then. Her parents already knew, so familiar with Luka that he was just welcomed right into the house whenever he came over, no questions asked.

They were proud of her for so easily taking initiative as opposed to certain past endeavors, but she could do without the uncertainty that came from the humiliating memories those endeavors caused her.

She hummed, her leg bouncing as she tapped the blunt end of her pencil on her new piece of paper. Setting the page down in front of her, she started to write again, trying for a different tone this time.

She still wasn't satisfied.

As she was working, the door creaked behind her. She sighed, figuring that it must've been one of her parents checking on her; they always enjoyed meddling when it came to her love life and they hadn't come so far.

"Can you be too formal in a love letter?" she asked as she straightened up. Throwing her arms up, she explained, "I want it to sound serious, but Luka's not a formal kind of guy. I'm trying to confess, not ask him to join a business meeting!"

She got silence in response and mentally groaned. If they were going to interrupt, the least they could do is help!

Setting her pencil down, Marinette grasped the top of the backrest and twisted to look towards the door, prepared to tell them just that. Her mouth opened to speak, but stopped short when she realized who was actually standing there.

It was Luka, his eyes wide and a pink blush having bloomed across his face. Within the next second, Marinette's face mirrored his, horror striking at what must've just happened.

She turned back, eyes scanning her surroundings that she'd been ignoring until now. Seeing the blatant sunset outside the window, her hands fumbled to grab her phone and turn the screen on.

The time staring back at her told her as much: that she'd spent far longer on her love letter (attempt at a love letter) than intended. Just as the panic started to form, she heard footsteps approach and looked up to see Luka standing nearby.

"I...I can explain!" She stood up with the paper in hand, crumpling it between her palms. "We—we really were supposed to hang out! I was going to greet you at the door! It's just that I wanted to put this—" She spun on her heel to throw the paper amongst the others. "—in your bag or something as a surprise, but I couldn't find the words and then you came in and I thought you were someone else and I asked what I did, and now—!"

She stopped short, her blush spreading all the way up to her ears when it hit her that she'd just excused not coming down to greet him instead of accidentally confessing. She'd embarrassed herself before on such matters, but not like that.

As she stood there, waiting for the inevitable laugh that was about to echo throughout the room, Luka suddenly said, "It's perfect."

Marinette paused, noting that his laugh sounded vaguely like a sentence, then glanced over her shoulder at him. He wasn't laughing, only standing there while looking wholly serious.

"W-what? What was?" She gestured at the papers surrounding her. "My crumbling technique?"

"Your confession." He smiled, taking the few steps necessary to close the distance between them. "It was perfect."

In all of her knowledge of teenage slang, she couldn't recall an instance where 'it's perfect' actually meant 'that was the worst thing I've ever seen.' Furthermore, Luka had never lied to her, which led to only one conclusion.

She faced him, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. "You mean it?"

He nodded. "I don't care how it sounds." Reaching a hand out to her, he added, "The feelings you put in are all the same."

"Oh." She swallowed, still absorbing that she'd just stood there, blurted out a confession in the middle of all of her failed love letters, and he'd just accepted all of it. Even when she took his silent offer and let him have her hand, it didn't quite feel real.

Luka, turning his attention to the mess scattered around the room, knelt down to grab one of the balled-up pages on the floor with his free hand. Standing back up, he presented it to her, asking, "Can I still read them?"

"Those?" She snapped out of her daze enough to respond. Waving an arm at what was future garbage in her mind, she reminded him, "These are all my failures!"

He shrugged, unbothered. "I want to see what my girlfriend wrote for me."

"But why would you—" She perked up, losing her train of thought entirely. "Girlfriend?"

He grinned, not responding verbally but his entire expression saying 'yes'.

Eventually, he'd managed to convince her, both of them collecting the papers before sitting on the couch together. Snuggled up against Luka's side while he uncrumpled paper after paper, she determined that her attempts must not've been failures after all.

Especially because each of them brought a new smile to his face.

[starwarsmum]

HMB Word Darts Entry 3! A follow on from An Unfortunate Meeting

Marinette was sitting at her breakfast nook in her apartment and wishing she was still in bed. She had stayed up far too late working on a commission but had promised to be awake for a coffee date with Alya that morning. So she had set a million alarms and forced herself out of her bed.

In spite of her waking up on time and skipping a shower, she was still pressed for time. She flew into the coffee shop, wheezing an apology as she dropped into the seat opposite one of her best friends. Alya had the nerve to laugh at her for being late and Marinette pouted at her.

“Girl, I don't understand how you can be late every time,” Alya laughed, shaking her head even as someone brought their regular coffee order over with a plate of cookies. “Anyway, care to explain why I got a notification that you were in the American news last month?”

“Because there were animals being mistreated?” Marinette replied innocently. When Alya gave her an unamused look, she threw her hands up in exasperation. “I don't know, okay? All I did was team up with an activist in the states who turned out to have a little more power to his name.”

“Yeah, that's another thing; since when do you know Damian Wayne? I can't believe you collaborated with him to take down a LexCorp laboratory!” Alya semi-shrieked in awe. “Like, girl, when you get into something, you properly get into something. What's your next activist plan, and can I be the one to break the story?”

“Als, I don't go out looking for horrendously treated animals, I just deal with them if I come across it,” Marinette replied, shaking her head before downing half of her coffee. “And I met Damian through my friend Conner, whose little brother is best friends with Damian.” 

“Wait, you're telling me you also met Jonathan Kent?!” Marinette shushed her friend, flapping her hands in a ‘be quiet’ gesture. “Did you meet Clark and Lois too? How could you not tell me any of this?”

“Um, I told you I was going to stay at the Kent's house? I'm pretty sure I told you that I was staying with my friend, Conner Kent and his family. And why do you care who their parents are?”

“Um, because they are literally my heroes? The most important journalists to ever walk this earth and a power couple to rival all others? They are everything I aspire to be, and you didn't even mention that you knew them!”

“Okay, I'm sorry,” Marinette said, holding out the plate of cookies to her as a peace offering. “Anyway, it wasn't a big thing, I was an afterthought in that article and you know it. If Damian hadn't been involved it would have blown over and no newspaper would have touched the story.”

“Fine, but if you keep me out of the loop of another story, we are having words,” Alya said severely. “Besides, that's not why I asked you to meet up today! I was talking to one of the guys in the office - he's pretty cute - and it turns out his parents also bake. I know you kind of haven't been on a date in a while but I showed him your picture and he was very interested in getting to know you. So, can I give him your number?”

“Oh, um, well, the thing is-”

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you have been out of the dating game for too long and I refuse to let it slide any longer,” Alya interrupted, frowning at her best friend. “I think your last real relationship was with Adrien, and that was well over two years ago. Why are you so against giving anyone I suggest a chance?”

“It's not like I don't want to give them a chance, Alya,” Marinette said, frustrated and annoyed. “And I have given people you suggest a chance before. But I'm tired of trying out whatever guy you decide suits me. Why can't I just wait to meet the right guy at the right time?”

“You're right,” Alya said, sounding subdued. “I'm sorry, Mari, I just know how much of a romantic you are and I want you to be happy. But I promise, this guy is really nice and he’s easy on the eyes too! Not much taller than you, blond and a pair of beautiful blue eyes.”

“Thanks, but no thanks, Als. I've been thinking a lot about heading stateside and my friends there said they would happily put me up for a while, so I could get my feet under me.” Marinette's phone buzzed at an incoming message and she glanced down and smiled when she saw it was from Damian. Their- friendship?- had really taken off, chatting regularly and discussing anything and everything.

“Wow, that's a big move,” Alya mused. She took a sip of her coffee before setting it down. “Think you'll team up with Gotham's Ice Prince for another newsworthy escapade?” 

“I don't know how many times I have to tell you that I don't plan these things,” Marinette said fondly. “Besides, I'm sure Damian's busy running the animal charities division at Wayne Enterprises.”

“Marinette, I was obviously joking,” Alya said, sounding exasperated. At Marinette's confused look, she elaborated. “Look, whatever fluke made him friendly enough to get through a takedown of a LexCorp lab isn't likely to happen again. Everyone knows that Damian Wayne has a shitty attitude and generally dislikes people. His temper is legendary.”

“Oh, yeah, well, believe it or not, I think his temper tantrums are kind of cute,” Marinette said jokingly, blushing. Alya rolled her eyes over the rim of her coffee mug.

“Haha, sure, the girl who got the biggest crush I've ever seen on a guy because he gave her an umbrella in a freaking storm is now head over heels for a guy who routinely calls women who try to speak to him ‘harlots’. He's got a pretty face but he's nasty.”

“...you know, he's really not that bad,” Marinette hedged, wincing at the disbelieving look Alya shot her. “Okay, in my defence, I thought he was a jerk too but everyone's always telling me I jump to conclusions too quickly when meeting people. And after I actually spent some time with him…”

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, tell me you're not pining after Gotham's most notorious jerk,” Alya pleaded, gripping her mug tightly. “You do realise that he's famous for not dating and eviscerates anyone who approaches him romantically, right?”

“I haven't even said anything,” Marinette protested, although she couldn't look her friend in the eye. Alya groaned and removed her glasses so that she could pinch the bridge of her nose more easily. Marinette sniffed. “You could have a little faith that I could charm him.”

“I think you just like falling for the least attainable guys,” Alya sighed, shooting Marinette a sympathetic - but frustrated - glance. “But this time I think you're shooting a little too high. Not that that's ever stopped you before and you won't consider anyone else in the meantime. I'll just have to tell Pierre that you're planning to leave Paris.”

“I mean, you wouldn't be in this position if you weren't trying to pimp me out to your work friends,” Marinette said in a wounded voice. “And just so you know, Damian and I get along fine. We met poorly but after that we've been chatting pretty regularly.”

“Whatever you say,” Alya said before moving the conversation along. Marinette let out a breath of relief and pushed away thoughts of the American vigilante.

Part 3

[ggomos-maribat]

4 | about the Paris Mademoiselle

Part 4 of Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Dead | Masterlist

After hearing out Adrien's suggestion on where to have a meal, Tim and Jason ended up in the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

Might as well check out where she lived, right? Tim looked around the homey place as the overhead bell chimed behind them. It was small, simple: glass cases enclosing an assortment of doughnuts, croissants, danishes, eclairs, cookies, pies, and even single-tiered cakes. There was a tip jar next to the register labeled with a cute scribble, positioned next to a statuette of the Eiffel. Warm scents wafted from the kitchen at the back, and Tim could even pick up the faint smell of caffeine from the coffee-making station.

He and Jason took their seats near the register, allowing Tim to peer at the picture frames hung up on the wall. Though most of the photos were mundane, one stood out at the center: a picture of Marinette standing behind the counter, dressed in an apron and a bright grin.

"You're still not allowed to drink coffee," Jason said suddenly.

"I wasn't going to." He rolled his eyes.

From looking around, there didn't seem to be too many 'hints' of Marinette around aside from the photos.  The place seemed moderately busy, with a short-haired woman—Sabine Cheng perhaps?—manning the register.

Tim lined up behind two women pointing at the pastries. The blonde one wearing a blue dress pointed at the glass. "Hey, those pink macarons! Weren't they her favorite?"

The other woman, cropped pixie cut, elbowed her companion, hissing, "Rory!"

Then, she turned to Sabine Cheng, "I'm really sorry, Mrs. Cheng."

"It's quite alright, dears." There was a fond sparkle on the eyes of the older woman. "You're right, those macarons were her favorite."

Tim and Jason shared a look. 'Her' . . . did that mean Marinette? Quickly, he took his phone out to make a quick profile search—the two customers turned out to be former students of Francois Dupont, but not part of Marinette's class: Mireille Caquet and Aurore Beauréal. Both were based outside of Paris but still within Europe, and seemed to be back in the city for a brief visit.

"We'll take those macarons, Mrs. Cheng." Aurore smiled apologetically. "And two coffees, please."

"Of course. It's on the house, girls."

Mireille paused from reaching for her wallet. "No, you don't have to!"

"I insist. You're only here for a few days, yes? Consider it a welcome back home."

After the girls politely extended their thanks, Tim ordered lunch for himself and Jason, whilst paying close attention to the macaron selection. Pink strawberry macarons, huh? He thought. That does suit her.

He lent Jason his phone for him to take a look at his brief research about the two women. "They knew her, I think." Tim stole a glance at the next table. "Not very close, but she helped them out during their reporter gigs."

"There's nothing out of place around here," Jason commented as he idly read over the profiles.

"One camera pointing at the front door, and one at the back door. There are barely any blind spots, but if she did slip past surveillance, the streets on the way to bridge should've caught her at least." Tim's expression twisted.

"Tampering?"

"Doubt it. It doesn't look edited." Tim shrugged. "I asked Babs to be sure and she says so."

He took out the small wrinkled list from his pocket and cleanly crossed out Adrien's name. Can we ask those two women? It didn't feel right interrogating them out of the blue, especially when they were in Marinette's family bakery, with her mother close by. Still, it was an opportunity for them.

Jason even looked like he was ready to ask.

"Jay, come on, we have to think this through."

"Dickie would ask if he were here."

"Dick's a smooth-talker. We're not."

Jason tilted his head. "We have Adrien's excuse."

"Er, hello? It's still bad timing."

"Fine. Let's just go over what we have then."

"She was bullied, even though the school records said otherwise; she was involved in multiple extracurriculars; and according to both her friend and parents, she wasn't acting odd before her death," Tim listed off from the top of his head.

"If she wanted to expose Lilia, then . . . isn't that a motive?"

How much of that conflict could've elevated into murder? Tim couldn't piece it together. He didn't want to rule out everything else just because Lilia Ross was so easy to accuse. "Tricky part is that Lilia actually has an alibi that time."

Jason's eyebrows raised. "What?"

"Two years ago, she was just starting things out with her brand and during the week Marinette died, she was on another part of France, having product meetings with her suppliers." And that alibi was airtight.

"Okay, fine, let's back up. The rest of the class was on Lila's side. Is it possible that it was any of them?" Jason suggested.

"They don't exactly have alibis, but I can't track down where exactly each of them were on that day either." Tim glanced at the other table, where Sabine Cheng served the girls their orders, plus free croissants as well. "And going back to the details of it, could they have pulled off something as—er—clean of evidence as that?"

"A lot of them are rich kids, you know."

"Fine, then say we suspect someone else in their class, do you really think any of them would have the heart to do . . . that to their classmate?"

"Who else could've had a vendetta against her?

One name occurred in Tim's mind, a flash of dark purple and gentle wings. He hesitated a little before saying, "Hawkmoth."

"Hawkmoth?"

"That's the only one I can think of, okay!" Tim shifted in his seat, and then lowered his voice. "Apart from Adrien, Marinette had been the only one to never have been akumatized in their class. That kind of strength to resist akumas is something Hawkmoth would prey on."

"I think you overlooked one problem here, Timbers." Jason looked unimpressed. "Hawkmoth was defeated five months before she died. Ladybug herself said that his Miraculous was taken from him."

"I don't know, maybe he's still a powerful person behind the mask. Or like, it was an accomplice."

It was tricky that Hawkmoth's real identity wasn't ever revealed despite his defeat. It caused quite an uproar within Paris, but Ladybug was set on that decision. As for the reason, all Tim could think of is that the heroes were trying to avoid backlash on whoever was close to the 'real' Hawkmoth.

"You're saying he was fixated on this one girl he can't akumatize?" asked Jason.

"Are you saying that your theory is more likely?" Tim retorted back.

"I'm saying we need so much more evidence to figure this thing out."

Tim sighed audibly. It was true that they were fully basing their guesses on speculations. If they could dig a little bit deeper, they should find a clue that leads to the truth.

"Monsieurs."

Tim stiffened all over in just a span of a second. Were we too loud? When he looked up, both Aurore and Mireille were standing by their table. He quickly checked if Sabine Cheng had heard anything, but she seemed preoccupied with the pastries, fortunately.

"Were you talking about . . ." Aurore whispered. "Marinette?"

"No," Tim lamely replied.

Mireille crossed her arms. "You were. We heard. What is going on?"

"There has been an anonymous request to reopen the investigation," Jason lied smoothly, eyes flickering over to the counter. "But you must understand that her parents are not to be involved."

"What is the reason for this 'reopening'?"

Before Tim or Jason could say anything, Aurore spoke: "Lila. It's Lilia Ross, isn't it?"

"We're not on her side, if that's what you're thinking," said Tim hastily. "Maybe there's something you know?"

Both girls looked at each other, as if sharing a silent conversation. Then, Mireille answered morosely, "We wish we knew more. We couldn't pry into it because she closed herself off from us—even Marc Anciel, one of our common friends."

"Did you know what Lilia Ross did to her?"

"We saw what she did," Aurore said bitterly. "Poor Mari couldn't even catch a break; she was never herself anymore."

"We could've done more," Mireille mumbled. "We tried looking for more information about her death but . . . there's nothing. We even asked Monsieur Raincomprix—that's the father of one of our schoolmates, he was part of the investigation team—and he never said a word."

Aurore nodded, "No one from the police disclosed it."

"Why did they leave the case?" Tim asked. "Did her parents ask . . .?"

Yet again, the two shared a look before Aurore said, "There was someone who asked for the investigation to be closed. Her parents had no choice but to consent to it."

"There was someone pulling the strings from behind?" Jason frowned.

Mireille pinched the bridge of her nose. "Looked like it. That's the only thing we know." She heaved out a sigh. "Actually . . . there is one person who might know or has the means to find out. We can't approach them because, well, it is simply too awkward but maybe the two of you will have more luck. She actually flew over from New York yesterday."

"Who?" Tim leaned in.

"The editor-in-chief of Paris Mademoiselle, Chloe Bourgeois."

***

"What's CEO Timothy Drake-Wayne doing investigating the death of a French teenager?"

Tim internally winced, not anticipating that Chloe Bourgeois had recognized him. The blonde had surprisingly let them into her office (which was also surprisingly extremely messy) next to Le Grand Paris Hotel. Their encounter reminded Tim of a principal's confrontation with students—Chloe's eyes were unwaveringly cold towards them.

"He's just tagging along for my case." Jason brandished a fake ID, naming himself as a private consultant. "We're here at an anonymous request to re-investigate the incident. We want to ask you about Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

"Who requested it?"

"We can't say—"

"Was it Adrien?"

Jason shook his head calmly. "We can't disclose any details."

Chloe sighed in exasperation. Like with Adrien, the exhaustion behind her face but she hid it more loosely. Even deeper than that, Tim saw fatigue, restlessness, jetlag, a hint of sadness.

"She was my classmate," Chloe began. "Well, I think she should be more than that to me. I've known her since kindergarten. She was always top of the class, all smiles, kind to a fault, so much of a klutz, habitually late . . ." She paused. "I was just her bully."

She has that deep faraway gaze. If there was anyone who didn't bother to hide the hurt from losing Marinette, it was her. Chloe Bourgeois. "I've known her since kindergarten but we were never friends. It's my petty jealousy's fault, I don't know. Even if I mocked her so many times, she always fought back in some way. She had such a sharp tongue. She despised me as much as I despised her.

"Did you know she had a crush on Adrien? I bet you didn't. It was embarrassingly massive that she'd trip all over the place. I'd pick on her about it." She fiddled with a button on her blazer. "The crush mellowed out over time but—but everything about her mellowed out so much. I don't know why I did anything but I asked my Dad how she died. No matter how much I begged, he said 'his hands were tied'. Believe me, my father always gave anything I asked.

"You won't believe how devastated everyone was when she was gone. My dad cried. Hell, my mother shed a tear. Andre the ice cream man cried. Nadja Chamack broke down on live TV. Everyone outside our class cried. Her friends who abandoned her had the audacity to fucking cry. It was like the whole city was grieving. You know why? Because Hawkmoth was already gone at that time. Everyone thought it was finally our time to heal but nooo, they didn't see how much it took a toll on those who barely kept it together the whole time.

"Marinette was never akumatized. She's been targeted by so many akumas, had so much done to her but I never once saw her break. Not even close. Of course she wasn't fucking okay enduring all of that. Of course I had to be the idiot who never tried to apologize to her," Chloe spat out. "There. There's my statement."

Tim felt so pinned down by her gaze. The irony . . . it was Chloe who talked more about her than Adrien.

Jason cleared his throat. "There's one more thing. Lilia Ross—"

"Lila?" She sneered. "No, don't get me started on her. You should be smarter than believing that stupid act she puts on."

"Did her transfer . . . change Marinette somehow?"

"Uh, yeah! She practically lost all her friends," she scoffed. "I'd say everything was going downhill at about Quatriéme, but steeply when Lila showed up."

"Why? What was in Quatriéme?"

Chloe raised a judgmental eyebrow.

"When Hawkmoth first showed up," Tim mumbled. "Did you collect other evidence aside from asking your father? Didn't you ever want to know why?"

"It's useless. I have other things taking up my time right now." But in Chloe's eyes, Tim could clearly see that she wanted to know. Desperately.

"Besides," Chloe added, "My dad's not mayor anymore. I can't exactly pull any strings."

"Do you know anyone else we can ask?" Jason questioned.

"Not really." Her voice turned soft. "I'm not in close contact with anyone anymore. But there's something I've been wondering about myself, and maybe you can look into it."

Chloe reached up to rub her shoulder. "Those rumors online about Lila. They turned up out of the blue, didn't they? Now, who's exactly behind all of that?"

Taglist: @hammalammadamdam @toodaloo-kangaroo @missmadwoman @afanofmanyships @atomicherringpersonjudge-blog @wheredostarsgowhenyoudie