#Thankfully for Paris! Because they would have CRUSHED IT as villains | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

marauderundercover · 3 years ago

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Taking Chances Chapter Seven: Trying for Normal (Gifts)

AO3

“You can not honestly tell me you are thinking of announcing that girl as your daughter.” Damian says, his scowl deeper than Dick had seen it in a while.

“‘That girl’ has a name, Little D. Plus she’s your sister.” Dick says, resisting the urge to nudge him. They had gotten to the point where a small nudge wasn’t a death sentence, but Damian was on edge. And a small nudge would probably not be appreciated.

“I do not care what her name is, Grayson. Since coming to Gotham she has been involved in two separate Rogue attacks. She is suspicious at best, and a nuisance at worst.” He replies, crossing his arms.

“Enough, Damian. Marinette is not a nuisance. She simply has bad luck.” Bruce says, obviously trying to defend his daughter.

“And poor self-preservation skills. Talking back to the Joker? Snarking the Riddler? For an individual with no combat training, she gets much too involved in attacks. It is idiotic.” Damian argues, shaking his head.

“It might have something to do with the Paris situation. She said she’s been at attacks before, so she must have some experience with villains. And from what I read on the Ladyblog, none of the damage in Paris lasts. She just may not realize how dangerous it is for her to do here what she would do in Paris. We just need to warn her, or, at least remind her, that Gotham is a dangerous place.” Dick says, thinking back to her reaction to the Riddler and the Joker. She was definitely more tense with the Joker, despite the fact that both villains had arrived with armed goons. Maybe she thought the Riddler was less likely to kill someone, not true. Or maybe she- Dick frowns as he remembers a key difference between the attacks.

“I just realized something.” He says with a frown.

“Care to share with the rest of the room, Dickiebird?” Jason asks, strolling in and flopping onto a chair.

“She was more tense at the attack with the Joker, she seemed to understand that it was a dangerous situation. Sure, she talked back to him, but she didn’t try to fight back or anything. But at the attack with the Riddler, he wasn’t even targeting her at first. He was targeting the boy she’d been talking to. And she was more reckless, and then she fought back. She fought well, but it was still super dangerous.” Dick rambles, pacing as he explains the predicament.

“Is there a point to this? I feel like I walked in at the wrong time.” Jason calls out from his chair, feet propped up on the table in front of him.

“My point, Jay, is that Marinette has a crush.” Dick says, shuddering at the word like it’s something disgusting. (It is, his sister is too young for crushes and boyfriends).

“Is that why she ran off with him right after the attack?” Jason asks with a smirk. Dick feels his eyes practically shoot out of his head.

“She what!?” He yells, running over to the Batcomputer to look at the security footage from the wax museum. Spots that were targeted frequently, like the wax museum, had their security footage directly linked to the Batcave. Just in case of an emergency or in case an attack happened and they needed an extra set of eyes.

“I’m sure she didn’t do anything that you wouldn’t do.” Jason teases, and Dick pales.

“Shut up, Jason!” He moans, his typing turning frantic as he scrolls through the day’s footage. He stops when he gets to the moments after the battle. When the phones of the French students had all gone off. Frowning, he watches as his sister runs up to the boy and grabs his hand, leaning in and whispering to each other before the two run out of the room. Towards the bathrooms. Oh hell no. Dick scrolls forwards, frowning when they don’t come out in five minutes. Or ten minutes. Huffing, he switches to the cameras aimed at the exits. Surely one of the cameras had to catch the pair leaving the museum. He rewinds it and watches, but...there’s nothing. They don’t leave the bathrooms and they don’t leave the museum. For the rest of the day.

“Has anyone been in contact with her since the attack?” Bruce asks from right beside him, making him jump out of his seat with a yelp.

“I don’t even have her number.” Dick says, resisting the urge to glare at his adoptive father. He might’ve had Marinette’s number had Bruce actually acted like he wanted her to be there for dinner the other day. Instead, he practically ignored her and she left. And now she was missing. Definitely missing, because she never came out of the bathroom at the museum.

“Hello, Marinette? Yes, I apologize for calling so suddenly. I was- yes. Yes, I did hear about the attack….yes, that was part of the reason I was calling. I was wondering if you would like to come to dinner at the manor. You could bring your friend, Adrien Agreste, I believe was his name. Of course. Yes. Oh no, I’ll send a car. No, no I assure you it- Marinette please. Taxis aren’t always safe after dark. Thank you. Yes, I- we’ll see you then. Goodbye.” Bruce hangs up, and Dick looks at him, raising an eyebrow.

“Just gonna suddenly invite her and her boy toy to dinner, B? What’re you gonna do, interrogate them?” He asks frowning.

“That’s the second time that Marinette has ran off after that alarm. I’ve seen videos of the situation in Paris and I’m concerned. Now go upstairs and act normal. I want all of you on your best behaviors at dinner. Damian, better than best please. No weapons.” Bruce directs before leaving the room, presumably to ask Alfred to pick up Marinette. Dick sighs and looks at his brothers.

“Well this isn’t going to be a disaster or anything.” He says. --- “Tikki this is going to be a disaster!” Marinette whines, throwing herself face first onto the bed. She tries to ignore Tikki’s amused giggle. This was not funny. This was dinner with her family that she hadn’t made a great impression on the first time. And Adrien was invited, and she wasn’t sure where the two stood but she was sure that if Dick was at dinner, he would just push Adrien farther away from her.

“I could practically hear your suffering from Adrien’s room, pigtails.” Plagg says, making Marinette sit up and glare at the Kwami.

“Are you just here to mock me?” She asks, pouting. He snorts.

“No, I’m here to tell you the kid’s on his way over here. I told him you were panicking and he practically ran out his door.” Plagg says with a chuckle. Rapid knocking on the door makes him laugh more before dropping onto the bed next to Tikki. Marinette sighs, rolling off the bed and pulling the door open, jumping forward in time to catch Adrien before he completely falls to the ground.

“Are you okay? Plagg said you were panicking, did something happen?” He asks quickly, looking her up and down. Marinette blinks, slightly taken aback by his sudden concern. It was nice, but still a lot all at once. Shaking her head, she gestures for him to come in and shuts the door behind him. Walking back over to the bed, she once again face plants and groans.

“She’s nervous because Mr. Wayne invited the two of you to dinner.” Tikki chirps, giggling when Marinette lifts her head up enough to glare at her.

“Traitor.” She says, dropping her head back down.

“If you don’t want me to go with Marinette, I won’t.” Adrien says. Marinette immediately jumps up, shaking her head rapidly.

“No, no that’s not what I meant. I just- I’m nervous about actually sitting through a dinner with them. And I’m pretty sure Dick will try and sit between us and glare at you like he did at the museum.” She admits, cursing the way her cheeks heat up. Adrien raises an eyebrow.

“He was glaring at me?” He asks, utter confusion on his face. Marinette groans, dropping her head into her hands.

“Sometimes your obliviousness is cute-”

“You think I’m cute!”

“But right now, it’s kinda making me want to scream into my pillow.” Marinette admits, giving him her signature “not amused” look. A look she usually saves for when Chat Noir is making a pun.

“Wait, why wouldn’t Dick like me?” Adrien asks, thankfully stuck on that now instead of the fact that she thinks he’s cute.

“Um, maybe because we were holding hands? Did you really not notice how he kept standing in between us the entire time we were at the museum?” Marinette asks, suddenly unsure if she’d imagined the whole thing.

“Oh no, I did. I just didn’t think it meant he didn’t like me. I’ve never really dealt with siblings before. I mean, I’ve met Nino’s little brother but...that’s about it.” Adrien says, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. Marinette sighs, grinning softly.

“I don’t really have a lot of experience either, so maybe I was just imagining things.” She admits. Adrien’s shoulders instantly relax and she smiles. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

“So, did you want me to come with?” He asks after a moment of silence. Marinette nods, agreeing immediately.

“Please. I don’t think I can go back there alone, not yet anyway.”

“Of course, Mari. Now, what’re you wearing?” --- The ride to Wayne Manor wasn’t as quiet as her first, with Adrien making quiet jokes and saying things to try and help keep Marinette out of her head. She was thankful that he had come with, because she was definitely going to need the emotional support to get through dinner. The car stops and Marinette sucks in a deep breath. Smoothing out her skirt nervously, Marinette glances at the small, neatly wrapped package sitting between her and Adrien. It was something she had started back when she first found out she was adopted. And that her parents didn’t know her bio dad. A scrapbook with copies of everything important from her life: baby pictures, school pictures, birth announcement, report cards, clippings from newspapers where she had won or placed in contests, pictures of her early designs and recent designs, pictures of certificates and trophies from various competitions and activities. Basically a road map of her life to be given to her bio dad so that he could get to know her. She’d written her name on the front page, with the words “daughter of Bruce Wayne and Bridgette Le” underneath. A sort of amendment to her birth announcement which listed her as the daughter of Tom and Sabine Dupain Cheng. And while she definitely was their daughter, she also wanted Mr. Wayne to know that she wanted to be his daughter too. Not just by blood, which isn’t the important part. No, she wanted to get to know him and for him to get to know her. Pushing down the intruding thoughts insisting that it was too soon and that he didn’t want her in the first place, she opens the car door and steps out, clutching the package to her chest like a safety blanket.

“Would you like me to take that for you, Miss Marinette?” Alfred asks, glancing at the package.

“Oh, no thank you Alfred. It’s for my da- er, um, Mr. Wayne. I can hang onto it.” She says with a bright smile. She could do this. Sure, it didn’t go great the last time she was here. And she was pretty sure Mr. Wayne’s youngest son could kill her and wanted to kill her. But it was fine. Everything is fine. Walking through the front door, her shoulders relax slightly when she sees Dick is the only one standing there waiting for them.

“Marinette! He cheers, rushing forward and picking her up in a hug. As in, legitimately picking her up. Okay then.

“Good to see you too.” She says, trying not to show that he’s literally suffocating her with the hug.

“Good to see you again, Dick!” Adrien says cheerfully. Marinette feels Dick tense before setting her down, his smile less bright as he looks at Adrien.

“And you. Adrien, right?” He asks, sticking his hand out for a handshake.

“Yup!” Adrien says cheerfully. Marinette watches cautiously, noticing that Dick seems to be squeezing a little too hard….and then Adrien appears to match his strength, if the look on Dick’s face is anything to go by. Marinette coughs to hide a snort, her face heating up as both boys turn to look at her.

“Uh, is it just you and Mr. Wayne tonight?” Marinette asks, choosing to ignore their awkward handshake.

“Nope! It’s me and Bruce and Alfred, of course, and Jay and Tim and Damian and Cass. Steph’s not in town and Babs is having dinner with her dad.” Dick says, and Marinette’s eyes widen. There were a lot more people in her bio dad’s family than she thought. She knew about the boys, but she hadn’t seen anything about Cass, Steph or ‘Babs’.

“I didn’t realize I had sisters too.” She says instead of voicing her insecurities. Before she only had the boys to measure up against, now she had three girls too?

“Well, the only official sister is Cass. Steph used to date Tim and she just kinda stuck around. She’s practically family at this point. And Babs and I used to date, but again, she stuck around after and now she’s practically family.” Dick explains with a grin and a shrug. Cause having your exes around isn’t awkward. Or, maybe it isn’t. She doesn’t have any exes to compare it to. Just as she starts to get lost in her thoughts, she feels Adrien brush against her gently. Reminding her that he’s there, for her, giving her the strength she needs to follow Dick into the living room. Where everyone else was sitting. Oh boy.

“Marinette, so glad you could join us. And Mr. Agreste, nice to see you again.” Bruce says, standing from his spot and moving to shake Adrien’s hand.

“You as well, M. Wayne. And please, call me Adrien. Mr. Agreste is my father.” He says, and Marinette can just barely see his wince. His father always had been his least favorite subject, no matter how much or how little they spoke of him.

“Thanks for inviting us.” Marinette says, moving the package so that she’s no longer clutching it like a lifeline. Holding it out to Mr. Wayne, she laughs at his confused face. “It’s a present.” She adds.

“Oh, well, thank you.” He says, his face unreadable. Marinette shifts her weight, glancing between him and the package, waiting for him to open it. Or properly introduce her to the rest of the family. Either option would work at this point. Glancing at Dick, she sighs in relief when he claps. At least someone was going to make the first move.

“Right, so I don’t think you got the chance to meet Jason and Damian properly when you were here the other day.” Dick says, tugging her around a still frozen Bruce in front of the two boys from the other day.

“No, I didn’t. Hi, I’m Marinette.” She says, smiling and holding out a hand to Damian first. He tuts and turns away, making Marinette’s smile fall slightly before she turns to Jason. Jason grins and shakes her hand.

“Welcome to the family, kid.” He says, before whistling. “You didn’t get B’s height, that’s for sure.” He teases, Marinette snorts, her smile turning into a teasing smirk.

“Hey, don’t count me out for my height. Ever heard the phrase, small but mighty?” She asks, crossing her arms. Jason snorts, reaching out and messing up her hair.

“Whatever you say, Pixie Pop.” He replies. She rolls her eyes and turns to the other two siblings she hadn’t met.

“Hi, you must be Tim and Cass.” She says, smiling at both of them. Tim nods, his hand twitching towards his pocket. Marinette tries not to laugh, having seen Max do the same thing when he had to socialize for any amount of time. The boy was always far more comfortable with his phone in his hand, even if he wasn’t actually looking at it. Cass smiles, and Marinette notices her hands moving. “Sorry, could you repeat that, I wasn’t watching closely.” She says. Cass’ smile widens and she nods before starting over.

“Welcome to family. Nice to meet you.” Cass signs, making Marinette beam.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” She says, eyes widening when she realizes she left Adrien alone with a frozen Mr. Wayne. Whirling around, she moved back to Adrien and tugged him forward, rolling her eyes at his surprised yelp. Honestly, he should expect this by now.

“Geeze, Princess. Give a man a warning.” He says, adjusting his shirt that she’d accidentally messed up.

“Sorry k- Adrien. Sorry. Anyway, uh, everyone this is my friend Adrien Agreste. Adrien this is Jason, Damian, Tim, Cass and you already know Dick.” Marinette introduces, gesturing to each of her new siblings. Adrien shoots a wide smile, not quite his model smile but also not quite a real one.

“Nice to meet you all.” He says.

“Marinette, I apologize. Did you want me to open this now?” Mr. Wayne asks suddenly. She turns and raises an eyebrow at his unreadable expression and the way he holds onto the present like he doesn’t know what to expect. Which is fair, considering they’d only met in person the day before.

“Oh, um, if you want to. It’s nothing big.” She says, watching nervously as he nods and unwraps it. His eyebrows twitch together as he looks at the book, obviously not yet understanding.

“Open it, B.” Dick whispers, clearly understanding the gift more than their father. Mr. Wayne nods and opens it, his unreadable expression falling into one that she...still can’t read. But it’s not emotionless anymore. As he flips through the book, a small smile creeps its way onto his face and Marinette almost cheers. That’s the most sincere look she’d ever seen on the man.

“Did you put all this together?” He asks, glancing up from the book to look at her. Marinette nods.

“When I found out I was adopted, I wanted to have something to give my bio dad. So that even if he didn’t want to see me in person, he could get to know me. When I found out you’re my, um, dad, I added some personal touches.” She says.

“And I can keep this?” He asks, and Marinette’s shocked that he sounds almost scared. As if he thinks she’ll say no and take everything back. She smiles.

“Of course. My Maman and Papa already have those pictures. These are all yours.” She says.

“Thank you, Marinette. I- This is an amazing gift.” He says. Marinette’s smile widens and her shoulders sag in relief. Maybe tonight wouldn’t be a disaster after all.

Tag list: @maribat-bdbwm @vixen-uchiha @stainedglassm @liquid-luck-00 @jayjayspixiepop @jjmjjktth @mizzy-pop @trippingovermyfeet @queenz-z @thepaceperson @iloontjeboontje @waiting247 @laurcad123 @toodaloo-kangaroo @ritacrow-blog @deathssilentapproach-blog @kittenmywaythrulife @imarivers8 @when-no-wings-do-broomsticks

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 4 years ago

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IOTA Reviews: Miraculous World: New York - United HeroeZ

So... with the recent announcement that Seasons 4 and 5 of Miraculous Ladybug will air on Disney+, with one episode set to air around March 27th (and it's out of order because of course it is), I figured I would try something new with this blog.

While I'm sure Astruc will be more active while the new season is airing, I figured I'd take a stab at reviewing new episodes of Miraculous Ladybug when they come out, as I already have a Disney+ account that I only really use to watch Star Wars and other Disney Channel cartoons I've never seen before. Well, that and the gloriousness that is Mech-X4.

And I was thinking that since a certain special is already available on Disney+, I'll review it now. Consider it my, uh...

279 Follower Special. Yeah, that’s it.

Miraculous World: New York – United Heroez is the first in a series of Miraculous Ladybug specials with the premise of having our heroes travel around the world. Because I guess that's what you do with your show when you run out of ideas for things your characters can do. Just ask Ash Ketchum and Thomas the Tank Engine.

The special is somewhat polarizing among the fandom, with some loving it, and some hating it. If you've seen some of my earlier posts, you probably already know how I feel about this.

Anyway, let's take a look at Miraculous World: New York – United Heroez

We start off with a logo letting us know this is going to be the start of a series of specials called Miraculous World.

Yeah, I'm sure that'll be remembered among other great cinematic universes like the Dark Universe and Ghost Corps.

In all seriousness, this is actually a pretty decent opening. It has some nice visuals that inform the audience of the globetrotting gimmick seen in the special, and the orchestral cover of the Miraculous Ladybug theme sounds pretty badass.

The special truly starts off in the middle of an Akuma fight, where we see that Mr. Pigeon is taking inspiration from Startrain's plan to escape to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism... SPACE! Apparently, this is the 51st time that Ladybug and Cat Noir have fought him, which makes you wonder if Hawkmoth is either running out of ideas, or if he just wants to see how insane Mr. Pigeon's plans can get for the hell of it.

Ladybug and Cat Noir transform into their new space forms that they've obviously had for a while, given Alya's familiarity with their names... even though those forms probably would have been useful when they were fighting Startrain. And this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of things this special retcons.

We get a few interactions between Ladybug and Cat Noir to give new viewers an idea of what the Love Square dynamic is like, with Cat Noir fawning over Ladybug after she leaves, and Marinette gushing over a new poster Adrien is in. I'll get back to this later,

After that, we see a brief clip from a student film teaching the audience about the real life friendship between George Washington and Marquis de Lafayette (the latter actually becoming one of Washington's close advisors during the Revolutionary War), and how it lead to the completely made up, “French American Friendship week”, which is basically an excuse for Marinette and Adrien's class to go to New York for a week.

Their teacher, Ms. Bustier isn't going with them because she's having a baby (God help us if the writers resort to pregnancy jokes next season), so the only other teacher in the school, Ms. Mendeleiev, will be supervising the class instead.

Adrien isn't able to go to New York because his father won't let him, and even he lampshades how predictable this is. But as soon as Lila suggests spending time with Adrien, Marinette immediately declares she will try to get Adrien to come on the trip with everyone, because he's her friend... and then Alya mocks her for saying that in the very next scene.

And here is the first problem with this special: The way Marinette's crush on Adrien is portrayed.

We're supposed to see Marinette as being in denial about her feelings for Adrien, but when you think about how Season 3 ended with Marinette realizing Adrien and Kagami (who will make an appearance in this special later on) are happy together, it makes sense that she wants to do this. She wants to move on from her crush on Adrien and try to be friends with him.

Unfortunately, her “best friend” Alya isn't willing to let her move on, which is extremely hypocritical when you remember how often she teased her for her behavior around Adrien, to the point where her other “friends” made bets about Marinette's hesitance to confess to him (Cat Blanc). Does she even know about Adrien and Kagami?

And throughout this special, rather than acknowledge Marinette's decision to move on, she constantly teases Marinette about how she still has feelings for Adrien, instead of simply leaving her alone. She reaches salt fic levels of unlikable in this special.

It doesn't help that Marinette's anxiety around Adrien is cranked up to twelve in this special, with her constantly stammering, or fidgeting around to the point where she struggles to get through a door. Twice. And as always, this behavior is only going to be played for laughs, because the showrunners are running out of ways to make Marinette suffer for comedy. And it only gets worse from here.

While watching a news report about a necklace and sabre George Washington had given to him by Lafyette, Nathalie, bedridden from the events of the season finale, tells Gabriel that the necklace in question is actually a lost Miraculous.

And as soon as Marinette arrives, Gabriel tells her that he's going to let Adrien go on the trip. His reason?

Gabriel: Letting Adrien go to New York will be simpler than hiding my absence here from him. Besides, this will allow me to continue keeping an eye on him.

Yeah, he seriously thinks it's a good idea to send his son to the same place he's planning to attack as part of one of his plans. At least you could make the argument that whenever Adrien is endangered during an Akuma attack, he's simply caught in the crossfire because he's in the wrong place at the wrong time, like with “Style Queen”. Here, Gabriel is intentionally letting Adrien go to New York, while claiming that he will be able to monitor him while he plots to attack the city. This is like if Grand Moff Tarkin let his son go to Alderaan for vacation. And again, it only gets worse from here.

Though Gabriel waits a day to tell Adrien he's going to New York, because of he did, we wouldn't get any scenes of Adrien moping around about how much his life sucks. Well, that and a scene of him and Kagami, where the latter kisses him. This is Kagami's only scene in the special, and she isn't mentioned again after this.

As Ladybug, Marinette tells Cat Noir she's going away for a few days and trusts him to guard Paris as long as he alerts her of an Akuma or Sentimonster. What will happen to the Miracle Box Marinette inherited from Former Master In Name Only Fu is never explained.

To Adrien's credit, it's Plagg that convinces him to go on the trip even though Ladybug trusted him, and even then, it takes a little bit to convince Adrien, showing he still takes his job seriously, with him coming up with a plan in case an Akuma attacks. It's not perfect, but it's something. That all goes to hell later on, though.

We then see Gabriel once again talking to Emilie's corpse about his plan.

Gabriel: Blah, blah, blah, Emilie. Blah, blah, blah, blah, I'll get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous this time for sure. Blah, blah, blah, blah, I'm such a good father and sympathetic villain.

Oh, sorry. That's how I hear most of his monologues to Emilie these days. My bad.

The next scene features something I bet you've never seen before, Marinette being late for something. Thankfully, Luka gives her a ride to help her catch up, hoping that the trip will “give her some clarity”, most likely referring to her conflicting emotions. Marinette then kisses Luka goodbye and gets on the bus. This is Luka's only scene in the special, and he isn't mentioned again after this.

On the plane, it turns out that Adrien is conveniently sitting next to Marinette, prompting Alya to tease Marinette yet again while making this face.

Alya: (smirking and talking in a very smug tone of voice) Awesome, Marinette! Go and sit next to your “friend”! So you two can enjoy a nice flight together! A very long flight.

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Alya continues to relentlessly tease Marinette and makes fun of her crush for no real reason, suggesting Marinette get off the plane because “New York is the most romantic city in the world after Paris”. And this gives her a goddamn panic attack where she frantically tries to run off the plane. Remember kids, if someone has some kind of anxiety or social awkwardness, it's perfectly fine to tease and make fun of their behavior, and even exploit it for your own amusement.

And after some unfunny hilarious slapstick involving Marinette on the plane, Alya continues her streak of treating Marinette like her plaything.

Nino: If only this trip could help Adrien finally come out of his shell.

Alya: And if only it could help Marinette be more honest with herself and clearer about her feelings!

Nino: Operation New York?

Alya: Operation New York!

Nino: Let's help them loosen up!

Alya: After all, isn't the United States the land of the free?

Well, the only thing you actually got right about America is forcing others to do things they don't want to do. Just ask the Native Americans.

It's scenes like this why Alya is portrayed so negatively in salt fics. And this happens throughout the special. Now, while I'm not really a drinker, I'm guessing there's at least one person reading this post right now who is. So I have a little idea for a game. Every time Alya acts like a terrible friend to Marinette, take a shot. I'd just have a donor ready in case one of your kidneys gives up on you.

After an admittedly nice scene of Adrien thanking Marinette for convincing his father to let him come (undercut by Marinette creepily commenting on Adrien's cologne as they hug), another problem with this special rears its ugly head, as a man with oddly-colored skin arrives on one of the plane's wings.

Alya: Oh, no! That's Techno-Pirate, the supervillain who steals technology!

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Yeah. This is happening. The special is just casually introducing this new supervillain, Techno-Pirate as well as some other superheroes, neither of which had any buildup before, not even a throwaway line They're just here now.

So some of the American superheroes are to save the day, now, I guess. Majestia, the Superman knockoff, helps steer the plane back into position, her robotic daughter, Uncanny Valley, helps fix the plane's broken wing, while Knightowl and Sparrow, the Batman and Robin knockoffs, deal with Techno-Pirate. And everyone just treats this like a regular occurrence.

Marinette: Wow! That all happened so fast! I didn't have time to transform or help out!

Adrien: Good thing the American superheroes were here. I couldn't have transformed here. I'm supposed to be in Paris!

Plagg: Relax, Adrien! Let the local superheroes handle their own problems.

I have so many problems with this plot development. Just how common is the knowledge that there are other superheroes besides Ladybug and Cat Noir in other countries? How have they never been mentioned until now? Why is everyone just accepting the fact that there are other superheroes?

I get that these characters weren't conceived around the time the show started, but the way they're just thrown into the story is just so confusing and does so many things to hurt the narrative instead of helping it. In other episodes, Majestia and Knightowl were only seen in comic books, and Ladybug and Cat Noir were seen as the only heroes in the world because the world itself was fairly down to earth, barring some more advanced technology (the police's weapons in “Origins”, Hawkmoth's lair, Max's robot, Markov, the space dumpsters in “Reverser”, and the AI in Startrain).

The fact that New York is apparently filled with all kinds of superheroes for very mundane things like directing traffic and selling hot dogs just makes the Miraculous seem less important. If there was more work done to better integrate them into the story, like maybe making them an American secret or something, it could have worked. To quote a character voiced by Jason Lee...

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And the sad thing was that Power Rangers was able to pull something like this off far better in 1995. During the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Master Vile had successfully reversed the Earth's rotation, turning the Power Rangers into children (yes, it runs on Superman logic, just go with it). Because of this, the Rangers are unable to morph, with the villains free to attack the city. In response, Zordon sends out a distress call to another team of Power Rangers from the planet Aquitar.

Now I know what you're thinking. If Zordon had the ability to contact another team of Power Rangers for help, why did it take him so long to do so? The episode immediately answers the question by pointing out that Aquitar is a planet made entirely of water, so it's incredibly dangerous for them to head to a planet like Earth, making their intervention a last resort. And even after they come, a major plot thread is finding ways to keep the Alien Rangers hydrated, which only gets worse when the Alien Rangers' enemy, Hydro Hog, arrives to drain Earth's water while teaming up with the main villains.

The integration of the Alien Rangers into the story generally feels natural, and there is a clear explanation as to why they haven't joined the battle until now, and even then, still place some hurdles for them to overcome. Here, the special just wants the audience to immediately accept the fact that there are hundreds of superheroes in New York.

So as Marinette and Adrien's class arrives in New York, we see Sparrow watching over them, referring to them as “the little croissants”. That's another thing the special gets right about America: casually making racist comments.

Uncanny Valley's civilian form, Aeon, sees Marinette and Adrien, and, of course, she says that they're “made for each other”. If only the writers actually bothered to give us evidence of that fact that everyone loves to say for some reason. Though we do get the only instance of sanity regarding the Love Square in this special, where Sparrow's civilian form, Jess, calls out Aeon for thinking of getting them together.

Aeon: Those two are made for each other.

Jess: Seriously, Aeon? Not again!

Aeon: But I am programmed to help people, Jess!

Jess: Just stop meddling with people's private lives!

Also, I had already mentioned the unfortunate implications of Aeon being programmed to “help people” in an earlier post, but I still want to reiterate that I don't think any of that was intentional at all, and I definitely don't think a single writer on this show is actually racist. Everyone got that? Okay, moving on.

Jess and Aeon are assigned to watch over the Parisian students while they sneak out to a party on the rooftop of the hotel they're staying at, where they meet another superhero, Hot Dog Dan. He gives random people magical hot dogs that give them temporary superpowers. Marinette and Adrien share one, and they both start flying before Adrien offers to slow dance with Marinette.

Okay... It's clear they they're trying to reference an earlier episode, “Despair Bear”, by having Marinette and Adrien dance to the same song they danced to in that episode. The problem is that the context isn't right.

Adrien is dating Kagami, and he's offering to do this... why? What makes him so interested in Marinette all of a sudden? I get that he doesn't realize Marinette has feelings for him, but if someone says they only see you as a friend, do you offer to slow dance with them? Especially if their reaction to your offer is recoiling in fear?

I'm sorry, writers, but you can't try to recreate some of the magic you had in earlier episodes with Adrienette when you have clearly established Lukanette and Adrigami as official relationships at the moment. And don't give me any of that “that's not the point of the special” crap. The season finale showed Marinette and Adrien getting together with Luka and Kagami respectively, so it's natural that a lot of people were looking forward to seeing how they worked as couples. I'll get back to this point later on.

Meanwhile, Gabriel has made his way to New York, and decides to akumatize the arrested Techno-Pirate into Technolizer, asking him to steal Lafyette's sabre from the museum instead of the necklace.

Back to the museum, Alya and Nino decide to send Marinette and Adrien into a room alone where they're locked in and attacked by the supervillain Solutide...'s hologram, which was all part of Jess and Aeon's plan. In a city where there is a superhero and supervillain on every street. They seriously planned on giving Marinette and Adrien a near-death experience to get them to realize their love for each other.

That's... pretty fucking demented.

What if Marinette and Adrien did something reckless in their attempt to escape? They could have seriously gotten hurt. Hell, what if the scare gave either of them a heart attack? And let's say either of them found out what the plan was (which would be pretty easy, given “Solitude” is a hologram). Do you think either of them would be happy with Alya and Nino, even if they confessed their love for each other? And none of them even think to apologize for what they did, and this scene is never mentioned again. To quote a certain internet reviewer. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!?

Though to be fair, the scene before was the only scene where Alya gets to use a brain cell in this special by pointing how wrong that plan is... for a second before she goes along with it. So close, Alya. So close...

So after Adrien gets a news report revealing that Robustus is attacking Paris (even though Markov is with them in New York), while Marinette isn't contacted by Cat Noir. The situation only gets worse when Technolizer attacks, getting the sabre in the process.

Sparrow and Uncanny Valley try to fight him off, but are quickly overwhelmed, with some of the latter's technology getting stolen by Technolizer. Marinette and Adrien transform and help out the two heroes, naturally being confused by the other's presence.

But while the four heroes chase after Technolizer, Hawkmoth shows competence for once and steals the necklace in the process, while revealing that the Robustus attacking Paris was actually a Sentimonster created by Mayura.

During the fight, rather than focusing on stopping the already dangerous supervillain powered up by Hawkmoth, Ladybug decides to trash talk Cat Noir instead. I get that she's angry at him for not following through on his promise, but can't she wait until after the fight?

Ladybug: (mockigly) “Just go and rest easy! Yeah, leave Paris with me!”

Cat Noir: I-I didn't know I was going to leave! It was a last-minute decision, that's all!

Ladybug: Do you realize that because of you, there's no one in Paris to protect the city?! Why didn't you tell me that you were leaving?!

Cat Noir: I was afraid you'd get angry!

Ladybug: And you were right, because as you can see, I AM angry!

To quote our recently inaugurated president, will you shut up, man? People say I'm too harsh on Cat Noir for the way he acted during episodes like “Syren”, but this is basically the same thing. Ladybug is prioritizing her own feelings over stopping Technolizer. Yes, she has a right to be angry at Cat Noir, but all she has to do is wait until after the battle to chew him out.

And during the battle, Ladybug outright says she can't trust Cat Noir anymore, making the latter flinch, so Technolizer throws him into Uncanny Valley with his Cataclysm activated, killing her.

In her anger, Majestia punches Technolizer through several buildings before Hawkmoth recalls the Akuma inside him before helping the villain get away. Ladybug casts her Miraculous Ladybug, fixing Uncanny Valley, but that's not enough. Knightowl is pissed, and orders Ladybug and Cat Noir to hand over their Miraculous, not listening to why they're so important, so the two run away.

To make things worse, the two find out about Hawkmoth's plan, and Ladybug explains she can only use Miraculous Ladybug to fix damage caused by a specific villain, and since the Sentimonster is gone, she can't do anything.

In his grief, Cat Noir admits that everything that happened is his fault, so he renounces Plagg and hands over his Miraculous to Ladybug before running away.

So... this scene.

This. Scene.

Where. Do I. Begin?

First of all, this is what causes Ladybug to lose trust in Cat Noir? Not the multiple times he disobeyed her orders because of his own personal feelings? Not the constant flirting and unwanted advances even though she's made it clear she doesn't see him that way? Not the time he trusted an evil doppelganger of Ladybug over the real one? It's this? Cat Noir leaving Paris alone while a Sentimonster attacked?

Okay, let's say that Cat Noir decided to stay in Paris after all. What was he supposed to do when Robustus attacked around the same time as Technolizer? What was Ladybug supposed to do when she found out about Robustus in Paris? Was she supposed to abandon New York and head back there or focus on helping the American heroes?

Second, who does Knightowl think she (yeah, she's a woman, I'll get to that in a bit) is ordering Ladybug and Cat Noir to hand over their Miraculous? What authority does she hold over them? Why should they listen to her? Why can't they simply explain why their Miraculous are so important, and that they can't give them up? Why doesn't Ladybug just explain that she's now the Guardian of the Miraculous? In fact, why does Majestia go along with the order? Ladybug still saved her daughter's life! If anything, she should be sticking up for the two.

There's actually a Superman comic where Captain Marvel storms a police station to interrogate a criminal who killed his best friend so he can find out who hired him. Though he comes close to doing it, Captain Marvel ultimately doesn't kill the criminal's boss, but still flies over to Mount Everest to grieve his friend's death.

Enter Superman, planning to call out Captain Marvel, but instead, he sees him crying. He explains that the boy killed was his best friend before revealing his identity as Billy Batson. Superman's response?

He goes to the wizard Shazam and demands to know why he did this to Billy, furious that a child was forced to go through stuff like that. While Shazam can't take back the powers he gave Billy, he encourages Superman to reach out to Billy, leading to him revealing his identity as Clark Kent to the kid.

I'm not saying that Majestia or Knightowl should have called out Master Fu or ask who made Ladybug the Guardian (as awesome as that would have been), but the point I am trying to make is in that comic, Superman made the effort to understand what Billy had been through, and understood what happened. Majestia and Knightowl made no effort to do anything like that. In fact, they never even knew Hawkmoth existed, which I call bullcrap on, given that he once MOVED THE PLANET AWAY FROM ITS ORBIT. Were you all asleep that day? Why didn't you do anything to help Ladybug and Cat Noir fight Hawkmoth? Were you expecting them to just fight this magical terrorist on their own? They don't have the same support system the American heroes have, and they could really use the help.

And third, Cat Noir. Yeah, just because I'm calling out Ladybug doesn't mean Cat Noir isn't taking any heat either. Again, I have to ask, this is what makes him give up? Keep in mind, when he was Aspik in “Desperada” and saw Ladybug get captured by an Akuma, he reversed time 25,913 times to try and save her before he threw in the towel. At the same time, he was willing to quit in “Syren” because he claimed Ladybug didn't trust him. The level of Adrien's willingness to keep going is incredibly inconsistent, and this doesn't really help his reputation as a character.

And then there's the fact that he's bailing on Ladybug when things are at their absolute worst. Yes, Marinette also briefly gave up in “Origins”, but that was after her first battle, and she was overwhelmed by her screw-up endangering countless lives in Paris in addition to being a nervous wreck even before she got her Miraculous. But here's the difference: She took responsibility. She realized people were in danger, so she jumped into action to save Alya and Cat Noir. Even then, she acknowledged her failure and felt unsure of herself, with Cat Noir helping to reassure her, showing the emotional support their partnership has.

Adrien, who has been a superhero for months, and has faced some pretty stressful situations, as soon as things head south, he immediately gives up and leaves Ladybug to fend for herself while two separate cities are in danger. And he knows that she has no other allies, because Master Fu ran away at the end of the last season, and Miracle Queen exposed the identities of the other temporary heroes. She has nobody to go to for help. He doesn't even show Ladybug her civilian form to apologize, just so he can't get any flak in his regular life. He just gives Ladybug his ring, and literally runs away.

A wise man once said “With great power, there must also come great responsibility.” Adrien has shown no responsibility at ALL in this special, barring the one moment I mentioned earlier.

It's nothing more than a forced emotional moment that has no buildup. This is basically the same with basically every time Miraculous Ladybug tries to be emotional. The writers think that despite never really having any tension or character arcs in their story, they can just have their characters cry out of nowhere, and suddenly, it's a deep moment? That's not how writing works, idiots!

Back at the hotel, Jess and Aeon are getting chewed out by their mothers (Who are the civilian identities of Majestia and Knightowl), and have a conversation about being superheroes... less than a few feet away from the French students. Though at least Barbara, the civilian form of Knightowl (again, I'll get to that later) calls out Aeon and Jess for their stupid “fake supervillain plan”, so there's that I guess.

So we cut to a press conference where the President of the United States, Camilla Hombee (An anagram of Michelle Obama's name, because Astruc has made it clear what his political views are) advises everyone to stay inside while Techno-Pirate is still an active threat. Why does this seem so familiar? And then she... transforms into a superhero too.

Oh, for the love of-- THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS A SUPERHERO?! The person in charge of the country and relations with foreign nations is a superhero too?! If she's the president, why didn't she do anything to stop Hawkmoth?! I get that America doesn't really care about news from other countries outside of America, but you would think that the frickin president, WHO IS A SUPERHERO, would at least acknowledge the existence of a supervillain in Paris as a threat!

GOD, this is stupid! And it only gets worse...

Gabriel sends a car to pick up Adrien, realizing the city was too dangerous (I still don't get the point of sending him here in the first place), causing him to tearfully say that he “wouldn't have minded being stuck here a little longer with a friend like her” before leaving. And then Alya...

Alya: What is wrong with you, Marinette?! Couldn't you see that he was just waiting for you to tell him to stay?!

Marinette: What-? But I...? He...? He made his choice. What did you expect me to do?

Alya: It doesn't matter what I expected you to do! Who's Adrien to you?! A friend or more than a friend?! There will never be a better time to be clear with yourself, Marinette! Do you want him to leave or do you want him to stay?!

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NO. You do not have the right to say ANY of that! It doesn't matter what YOU expected Marinette to do? This whole special, you've been teasing her about her feelings for Adrien, and forcing her into uncomfortable situations with him all because you want your OTP to be a thing. And now you're saying Marinette had a choice the whole time? Marinette expected herself to get over Adrien and start to see him as a friend, AND YOU WOULDN'T LET HER DO THAT! For three seasons, Alya has made fun of Marinette's crush on Adrien, while at the same time, has constantly pushed her into situations where she was clearly uncomfortable around him to the point where she discouraged Marinette for trying to move on in a previous episode (Frozer). And then in this special, she trapped them in a room with a fake supervillain (which is this world's equivalent to pretending to be a terrorist) just to get them to confess their feelings for each other. AND THE WHOLE TIME, IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE MARINETTE'S CHOICE???

If Obilvio didn't make me stop caring about Alya, this was the moment that actually me despise her.

And the worst part? The narrative frames her as being right. This is somehow enough for Marinette to run out in the pouring rain while a supervillain is lose in New York, with nobody even trying to stop her, to chase after Adrien's car, where she tearfully confesses that she still loves him after the car gets away.

What is the point of this exactly? We already knew Marinette liked Adrien last season, her nonexistent character arc was learning to get over him, and now she's supposed to learn she's still interested in him? What about Luka? Are we just going to ignore Luka? What about the fact that Kagami is already in a relationship with Adrien? None of these questions are never explained.

Gabriel finds the lost Miraculous, the Eagle Miraculous, which represents Freedom, and gives it to Techno-Pirate, turning him into Miraclonizer. Using the Eagle Miraculous' power, Liberation, he can undo any mental boundaries someone has, but since he's using it for evil, it basically drives several heroes crazy without their own moral codes. And while I claimed it was an original power in one of my earlier posts, the more I think about it, Liberation is really just a different version of Reverser's airplanes. All they did was just phrase the explanation a different way.

So despite being a city full of superheroes, Miraclonizer manages to drive every hero crazy in a matter of minutes, with the exception of Jess and Aeon. So do none of the other heroes have sidekicks? Is there not even a Young Justice or Teen Titans-esque team in this city? I'm just saying, if they have a hot dog superhero, there should be at least more than two sidekicks in New York.

Aeon goes to search out Ladybug and Cat Noir, and because of some technobabble stuff, Aeon can easily figure out their identities. Again, this was something I already talked about in an earlier post, so I won't harp on this scene. It's a dumb retcon in a special full of dumb retcons, what else can I say?

So Aeon goes to find Adrien on his private plane to give him back his Miraculous... even though wouldn't it make more sense for Aeon to use it instead to save time? I didn't mention this, but right before this scene, Majestia was pushing the moon towards the Earth. Time is kind of the essence here. It also would have saved us more of Adrien's whining.

Uncanny Valley: Cat Noir, New York and Ladybug need you!

Adrien: (looks at where his ring used to be) I'm no longer Cat Noir.

Uncanny Valley: To err is human, apparently!

Adrien: My mistakes are unforgivable. I couldn't bear to see the disappointment in her eyes.

“i'M sO tOrTuReD. fEeL bAd FoR mE, dAmNiT!”

Cut it out with Angstdrien Depreste already, writers. It's gotten old.

And despite making a big deal about how much he failed Ladybug, he immediately jumps back into action as soon as he hears a recording of Ladybug saying she needs him. I know it's supposed to be a heartwarming thing by showing him wanting to support his lady, but to me, it just comes off more like he needed an ego boost. He was fulling willing to let Ladybug save the day on her own, but as soon as he heard how important he is to Ladybug, he's more than willing to become Cat Noir again. Because it's not like he could regret his decision to abandon his partner, and realize it isn't too late to make up for his mistake, right? That would imply Adrien is motivated by anything other than his feelings for Ladybug. Then there's the fact that as soon as Cat Noir returns, Ladybug instantly forgives him, despite saying earlier that she didn't trust him. It's almost like that whole debacle was only there to eat up about fifteen minutes of the special's runtime.

Hawkmoth issues an ultimatum to Ladybug and Cat Noir. Miraclonizer is ready to fire a nuclear missile (though the dub calls it a rocket, let's be honest, it's not), fully intending to start World War III unless Ladybug and Cat Noir give up. He's seriously willing to risk making The Day After a reality all for his wife. But remember, you're still supposed to feel bad for this literal war criminal.

Ladybug, Cat Noir, Aeon, and Sparrow manage to get to Miraclonizer's hideout, the Statue of Liberty, and take back the Eagle Miraculous, with Sparrow taking it and transforming into Eagle.

And then there's the design of the new hero's suit. While I'm glad it isn't another skintight jumpsuit, and the wings are a nice touch, people have raised some questions regarding Eagle's design, and how it feels like the animators really want to remind the audience that Jess is Native American. I mean, it looks like what Zack Morris wore in that one episode of Saved by the Bell barring the headdress.

And this might be because I'm a history major, and I just brushed up on this subject in class last semester, but I'm a little uncomfortable with the fact that someone actually thought it was a good idea to give the Native American girl the Miraculous of the Eagle, the symbol of America which represents Freedom. I don't want to go too into detail about this, but, uh... let's just say if you know about the history of the relationship between the Native Americans and the colonists, you'll get why this raises a couple of red flags.

Does this mean I think the showrunners are racist? No, it was an honest, albeit questionable mistake. Do I think this is the worst Native American representation on TV. Oh, hell no. Chakotay from Star Trek: Voyager was a walking amalgam of every Native American stereotype in the book, and was featured in an episode that said, with a straight face, mind you, that Native Americans used to be backwards savages, so a group of white aliens genetically altered them so not only could they survive the Earth's harsh weather, but so they would become more creative, leading to the birth of Native American culture. I apologize to any Native American human being who had the misfortune of learning about that for the first time. But over all, Jess is far from the bottom of the barrel of poor Native American representation.

So Jess uses her powers to calm every superhero down, while Ladybug and Cat Noir de-evilize Technolizer. And of course, Hawkmoth assumes that since there are other lost Miraculous, “they will be his”. Maybe focus on getting the two Miraculous you originally set out to get first, buddy.

So Knightowl and Majestia apologize for their behavior, and we learn that apparently Knightowl and Sparrow have been around for at least since the Wild West, and that the Knighowl and Majestia we've been following have been keeping up the illusion that the original duo are still alive for several generations.

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Was this special written in the 1950's? Why make a big deal out of this? Why is it so important that Knightowl and Sparrow both have a Y chromosome? The president is a woman and a superhero, the strongest superhero on Earth is a woman, and you were just saved by a female superhero all the way from Paris. I don't think people will be afraid of getting cooties from this Knightowl. Hell, we live in a world where if you don't like a female superhero, people automatically hate you. Just ask the people who didn't like Captain Marvel.

We see that Alya still learned nothing, as she continues to tease Marinete for daring to call Adrien her “friend”, as our special mercifully ends with the class sending a picture of a banner to Adrien to show their support... but not before a brief scene where a Guardian tries to take Eagle's Miraculous, before she makes him instantly pull a 180 as soon as she suggests he help to “create a new generation of heroes together”.

I'm guessing this is meant to be yet another tie-in to yet another Miraculous side project that will go absolutely nowhere. You might as well have had Nick Fury, oh, I'm sorry, Mick Flurry, recruit Eagle and Uncanny Valley for the ZAG Initiative.

But it doesn't matter, because the special's over, and once again, I never have to think about it ever again.

So... what else can I say that I haven't already said. This special sucks.

While the animation is honestly some of the best to come out of ZAG, and the action can get pretty good at times, it honestly doesn't really mean much when the story surrounding it is just so abysmal. Basically the only thing I liked about the Season 3 finale was the idea that the status quo was shifting in terms of Marinette's feelings for Adrien, and this special just ruined this interesting idea by the end faster than you can say “the series finale of Quantum Leap”.

Alya is at her most unlikable here with everything she does in this special. Almost everything she says to Marinette is either some catty comment or making fun of her trying to get over Adrien. Because God forbid she actually try to grow as a person and not let her life revolve around a cute boy. It's stuff like this that I genuinely wonder why Marinette even bothers to stay friends with her when all she does is tease her and force her out of her comfort zone. And according to co-director Wilfried “Winny” Pain, Alya is meant to be like Jiminy Cricket to Marinette's Pinocchio. I don't know which version of Pinocchio he read as a kid, but clearly, it's not the version we're mostly familiar with.

I'm still glad they didn't have Cat Noir revert back into his Ladybug-simping self we all knew and loathed in Season 3, but that doesn't mean he's still enjoyable in this special. The angsting about how sad Adrien's life is stopped being interesting years ago, and it's only done as a way to get the audience to care about him, but it comes off more like the writers are holding the audience at gunpoint and demanding they sympathize with him for bailing on the world when they need him the most.

I thought Aeon was a pretty likable character. Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for socially awkward robot characters like Data or Penny. I just wish we got to know her more, and why exactly her mother felt the need to play God by create her instead of just adopting like what Olympia and Barbara presumably did with Jess.

As a matter of fact, despite being played up as a big deal, there's still a lot about the American heroes that we don't really know about. How were the “United Heroes” formed in the first place? How did Majestia get her powers? What exactly is the origin of Knightowl and Sparrow? Why are all the American heroes so open about their identities to the point where the President's identity as a superhero is so well-known she can casually transform on TV? Hell, Ladybug and Cat Noir barely even interact with any of the heroes, and that includes Uncanny Valley and Sparrow/Eagle.

Generally, the special feels very rushed at times, with a lot of ideas not really being utilized. According to Astruc, there was actually a lot of things cut from the special, including a deleted subplot with Chloe and Ms. Mendeleiev. Although, given Astruc's track record, I don't think it would have been a good one given Chloe is involved.

This leads into a personal theory I have regarding this special, that I want everyone reading this to take it with a huge grain of salt. As much as he claims that he can't change anything he's already written, I personally believe that Thomas Astruc rewrote part of this special so Adrienette could get more focus to renew interest in the ship.

Hear me out on this. During Season 3, there were a lot more shipping debates between Adrienette shippers and Lukanette shippers, with the latter gaining more traction that season. It was also the season where other ships like Felinette, Kagaminette, and even Maribat became more prominent. And all of these ships were featured in post-Chameleon salt fics bashing Astruc's sunshine child, Adrien.

So, given how Astruc already dedicated an entire episode to bashing Felix fans, why wouldn't he use something like the New York special to convince the shippers to have more faith in the Love Square? After all, aren't Adrien and Marinette made for each other? Astruc has already said so on his Twitter.

Unfortunately, right now, I like to describe the Love Square as “Shrodinger's Relationship”. While the show can claim that Adrien and Marinette would make a great couple, they simultaneously show no real chemestry happening between the two in favor of Love Square shenanigans. And yes, I'm actually thinking of talking about the Love Square in a future analysis post.

And then there's the fact that Astruc himself said that everything that happened in this special is going to lead into the events of Season 4. What do I have to say about that?

Bring it.

I already talk about Miraculous Ladybug itself on this blog almost as much as I talk about its creator, and since I have a Disney+ account, I might as well subject myself to everything Season 4 has to offer. I've already seen one of my favorite shows go to hell, so why don't I chronicle another one of my favorite shows going to hell as well?

So yeah, as soon as a new episode is officially released on Disney+, expect a review from your boy IOTA.

I survived Season 3, so let's see if the number 4 is as unlucky as some countries say it is.

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mental-dilemma · 4 years ago

Text

A Quick Meeting Part 4?

Damian’s an exchange student in Paris taking it easy until an Akuma attacks and he gets to meet ladybug. -----------------------------------------

Ok before everyone starts pancking: I am Emu-Lumberjack I just decided to create a Sideblog for all my writing so that way those who follow me exclusively for that don’t have to deal with the chaos that is my main blog

also I’m sorry it’s taken so long to post this but just between school and work and school and just general exhaustion it’s been hard for me to write.

and as always all credit to the Au goes to @ozmav

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pt. 2

pt. 3

“I don’t suppose I could bribe you to drop the matter.” Damian said sitting down in Tim’s office. He and Ladybug were situated next to each other while Tim was on the other side of the desk.

“Nope.” He turned to Ladybug, “I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself, making sure Damian didn’t disappear and all that. Anyway I’m Tim Drake, Co-Ceo of Wayne enterprises and Damians older brother.”

Ladybug turned to Damian and quietly said, “So does everyone in your family constantly talk like they’re trying to impress a victorian lord?” Damian snorted. Tim, unable to hear what she just said, looked to the two agape.

“At least I have a reason.” Damian responded, this time loudly enough for his elder brother to hear. “Anyway Tim is in CEO mode right now, which is pretty rare. Usually he’s a bumbling zombie dependent on coffee to function. In fact I remember one time when Dick took the last cup he----”

“I’d suggest stopping right there or I’ll tell her about the batcow incident.” Tim interrupted.

“Did you just say batcow? Because I understand each of those words separately.” Ladybug said, and even though her mask still concealed half her face Damian could tell she was really confused.

“Don’t ask. Just don’t.” Damian said quietly.

“Anyway. I never caught your name and considering the fact that your in a mask I assume you’re a hero. Which is surprising because none of us knew Paris had heroes.” Tim cut the two of them off before more could be said.

“Yes that’s becoming a common theme I’m finding,” Marinette began. “My name is Ladybug in the mask. I have a partner, Chat Noir, but he’s currently indisposed, something about paint in his hair.” Damian stifled a laugh as Marinette continued, “We have been operating out of Paris for the last few years, early on we tried contacting the Justice league but Green Lantern told us not to prank call him.”

“Oh did he now.” Tim said, leaning his head forward.

“Yes he did. Thankfully my power allows me to reverse all damage done during a fight. Including any lives lost or monuments destroyed.”

“That sounds like a very useful power. I'm sure that the heroes of Gotham would love to work with you.” There was a twinkle in his eye that Damian knew meant Tim was concocting some scheme. He was about to jump in, but Marinette got there first.

“Yes I’m sure you would but the issue is we currently have our hands full here although from what Damian told me you guys sound much more fun to work with. At least the villains have better costumes.”

Tim noting her wording turned to Damian, “Did you tell her the family secret? You know what Alfred will do if he finds out.”

Damian smirked “I’m not an idiot Drake this was all her. She could rival you for deductive reasoning.” Marinette just sat there looking innocent.

“Well that explains why the two of you were sneaking around together, Ladybug should I assume Damian knows your identity as well?”

“Yep.”

“Well this is going to be a nightmare. But this just means I can formally invite you to Gotham at least. Ha just leave it to the Ice Prince to leak the identity on his first civilian trip abroad.” Tim leaned his head back, closing his eyes.

“Actually it was you guys who tipped me off.”

Tim suddenly opened his eyes and looked her straight in the eyes. “Come again.”

“Well it was the fact that no one had spied Robin around Batman while Damian was in France. Then the fact that you were patrolling rather than him tipped me off that Robin might be on a vacation..” Tim just face palmed.

“Of course that would happen, how did we not see it coming.” He muttered to himself. “Wait, that begs another question: how did you two meet.”

Damian blushed and before Ladybug could respond he said “not important, there was an akuma. Now do you need anything else.”

“Actually yeah. Ladybug you mentioned the video you sent to Green Lantern, well Batman found it and wanted us to investigate. He didn’t know Green Lantern had seen it or otherwise he’d be on his way back to Ooa healing from a scolding from Alfred. Dick and Jason wanted to come but Bruce needed someone he could send discreetly and who better than the Co-CEO of Wayne industries who could just be checking up on the Paris branch.” Ladybug was impressed by the scheming having Dick Greyson or Jason Todd come in would stir up villain or media activity but Tim the third son wouldn’t.

“Well if you want we can meet up with my partner later and you can formulate a list of questions. Plus it seems you and Damian have some catching up to do.”

“There was a reason I came to Paris Ladybug. Being forced to talk to Tim was not one of them.” Damian made to leave only for a yoyo to catch his leg. Ladybug smirked at him. “Maybe a five minute chat couldn’t hurt anyone. Family reunion and all that.”

“Great then as long as everyones in agreement I can set up a time with chat later this evening for all of us to talk things through and get a strategy in place.”

“Are you sure about this having the league involved is going to cause a lot of chaos and even more dangerous villains could target Paris.”

“Tim I have dealt with so much crap the last couple of years that at this point I will take Darkseid over Lila…… Oh crap. We forgot about Lila.” Marinette looked at Damian who was coming to the same realization she was. He called out Lila in the bakery, and outed himself as a Wayne.

“Do I want to know?” Tim said rubbing his temples. He did not miss highschool.

“Lets just say school tomorrow’s going to be interesting, and I think we’re going to have to put the meeting on hold till after it. Ladybug and I are going to need to deal with school tomorrow, and caffeine isn’t gonna cut it.” Damian said.

“Then again if we aren’t lucid tomorrow might not be so bad….” Marinette began

“Do not even finish that, you even more than me need sleep. Between fashion, school and heroing you function off an hour.”

“You.. have a point. I’ll brief Chat on the situation on my way home. In the meantime I’ll leave you too to the brotherly bonding I’m sure you need.” she pulled her yoyo from her pocket, “See you tomorrow Damian, and whatever plan you hatch up make sure nit doesn’t include killing anyone.”

“Goodnight Ma--- Ladybug. And no promises.” The boy caught himself before revealing Ladybug's identity. She gave him the look of ‘don’t fuck up my secret identity bird boy’ before jumping out the window to run from rooftop to rooftop.

“So. how long have you had a crush on her.” Tim pulled Damians attention, and Damian was sudden;y very glad he had said nothing about not killing his brother.

--------------------------------------

“Do you think they’ll actually help this time?” Chat’s voice rang over the phone, Marinette had stopped behind one of the chimneys to talk to him in private.

“I don’t know, at least now they are actually considering it rather than just brushing us off as children.” Marinette was tired but they needed to have this chat now, there wouldn’t be any chance to in class tomorrow.

“Yeah, just don’t get your hopes up. They left us to fend for ourselves for 3 years and are only doing this now because of Damian if you didn’t know him then none of this would’ve happened.

“Ok but why does that matter that it’s Damian? They could’ve been doing it because of Jon too.”

“Oh please, you're more dense than our class sometimes. Jon would’ve noted it then forgotten to tell someone, but Damian told Batman right away. Why do you think he did that?”

“Chat I am too tired for this.” Marinette could feel Adrien facepalming through the phone.

“Oh I am not spelling this out for you, this time you get to figure it out yourself.”

“Fine. but next time you need help on your calc homework don’t come running to me.” Marinette hung up on him and made her way home. The parisian streets were nice and quiet for her, no akuma meant maybe another hour of sleep.

Once she was out of the suit she let Tikki rest and got right to work on the new piece she was making for Jagged, he wanted to somehow have the score of his newest piece sewn onto the pants for his next concert, and she had to brainstorm.

Twenty minutes went by.

Then an hour.

Then two.

Finally she put up her pencil and put on her pajamas, as she was falling asleep Adriens words kept replaying in her head, and the meaning slammed into her like a truck. Pulling out her phone she sent one message.

Oh fuck off

tag list: @clumsy-owl-4178 @pawsitivelymiraculous @yuulxd @smolplantmum @inarachi02 @notmycupoftea26 @laurcad123 @unknownvsworld @jeminiikrystal @megawhitleycalderonpaganus

#The dilemma writes #Maribat #damian wayne x marinette dupain cheng #Damianette #Damientte #Chat noir #Kwamii #fics #fanfic #myfic #damian x marinette #platonic ladynoir #platonic adrienette

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saturn-j16 · 4 years ago

Text

My Thoughts on Miraculous World: New York...

Long time no see everyone! Wow it’s finally here. Fans of miraculous have been waiting for this movie for a while and even more so since the end of season three a while back. To be honest, I didn’t know it was getting released and I only found out because I saw someone post about it on social media. Then I proceeded to freak out thinking I had missed the hype of it by weeks or even months and that everyone would have already moved on. But thankfully I saw it was aired on Sept 25th. So then I sat down to watch it!

As always it will be split in sections so read what you want :)

--------------------------------------------

Storyline - The storyline was pretty good! While everything was wrapped up in the end, the story and ending did feel a bit rushed but that’s understandable for a TV movie special thats only one hour. Another thing is that the story is a little crowded. What I mean by that is this special introduces a new location, lots of new characters and designs, and still builds on the main cast. The audience has to absorb so much information in 60 minutes and there wasn’t a lot of time to process what happened in the previous scenes. That being said, the good part is that it wasn’t really predicable. I didn’t know what to expect when the movie first started and about a third of the way though I realized it was just like a long version of regular miraculous episode. You know, Mari crushing on Adrien, the villains come, and then everything is back to normal. But there were definitely parts where I didn’t know what would happen and I was eager to find out what happens next. It also got kinda deep as the special gets closer to the final battle but I’ll go more in depth with that further down.

Ladybug and Chat Noir - I had no problems with how they were presented in the special! I think the conflict was well planned. You can look at the conflict from both ways and understand what LB and CN are feeling and why. Ladybug was worried about leaving Paris in danger and feels somewhat betrayed when she finds out her most trusted ally didn’t stick to his promise. Meanwhile, Chat Noir was struggling with his hero life and personal life which is something we mostly see Mari dealing with. He finally gets to be free for once as Adrien Agreste but also has duties to LB and Paris and hates that he has to leave and let LB down. He feels like he failed as a hero and even renounces his miraculous. It was really interesting! Lastly, for LB and CN we finally get to see more power ups with the Astro powers but we never get a good look of them because they’re barely on screen. I was super excited to see them but hopefully we’ll see it again later up close.

Jess and Aeon - I love these two new characters! We see not one but two new people of color! They also have great personalties that match each other really well. As superheroes they’re pretty cool and they each stand out in their own unique way! The last thing was that I had trouble remembering their names as I don’t remember them properly introducing themselves and they’re were so many new names and faces I just couldn’t remember. They probably did introduce themselves but maybe it wasn’t as noticeable with lots of other things going on. But I love them!

Alya and Nino - Alya and Nino were pretty cute in this movie! I’ve had some problems with Alya’s character in season 3 but she really pulled through in this special when she had her moment with Marinette and was completely honest with her. Also side note, Nino and Adrien’s BFF moment where Nino held Adrien’s face to show him the big city on the bus was so freaking cute!

Adrienette - We get so much Adrienette screen time in this movie! Finally they have some character development in their relationship. What I’m about to say is going to be kind of confusing but hear me out. I feel like Mari and Adrien are on the same level in this movie. Like sure Mari still gets flustered and some of her more “Adrien Fan Girl” traits come out but at least she can talk to him. And with Adrien he’s definitely letting go of his “perfect model” personality a little bit and is being more of a young teen with Mari. Basically they’re just two goofballs for most of the first half of the movie and are finally getting to the same page with each other. So cute!

The second big conflict scene > Adrienette - This is where the special actually got deep. Miraculous is pretty lighthearted for the most part but the Adrienette car scene was just on a whole different level. I actually got really sad when Adrien first renounced his miraculous and then left NYC feeling totally defeated. And then we have Alya’s important scene where she did an amazing job telling Marinette that it’s time to be honest with herself about her feelings for Adrien. And when Mari finally come back to her senses it’s too late. And just the way she desperately tried to chase after that car and not lose another friend just hit different.

The Diversity - Up until now, Miraculous has been decent with including not just racial diversity but also LGBTQ+ diversity... *cough* still waiting for Julerose to be confirmed canon even though they practically are at this point *cough*. However, that complete changed in this movie with the superhero mom couple with two racially diverse daughters one even being an android which is awesome! And even more so with the new Eagle Miraculous being tied with Native American Culture!

Final Thoughts - I thought this was a really good movie and I definitely loved watching it! We got new characters, character development for our main heroes, diversity, and a whole new location. It had lots of twists and turns and kept me wanting to find out what happens. I wish it was a little longer so we could fit in some smaller things like the new power up suits and more interaction with friends but it flowed nicely for the most part. I will definitely be watching again!

---------------------------------------------

Thanks for reading! Whether it was only a few sections or the whole thing! I really did like this movie! I haven’t really been active in this fandom or been on tumblr recently as I decided I wanted to watch more animes that have been sitting on my to-watch list for ages now. Hopefully now that this movie is out I’ll be more active again. And I’ll definitely be back for season 4. See you soon! :)

#miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #ml #mlb #ml new york #ml new york special #ml new york spoilers #ladybug #chat noir #miraculous fandom

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gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights · 4 years ago

Link

Rating: T

Summary: Marinette needs a model to finish her figure drawing portfolio. If drawing Chat Noir will distract him from asking why she refuses to ask Adrien, then she'll make it work. (It's not like his suit leaves much to the imagination, anyway.)

Word Count: 4729 | Chapter 1/2

Notes: See AO3 for notes. tldr: the main genre is humor and despite what you may think, there are no sexy times

XXX

“This is terrible!” Marinette flopped face-first onto her bed and wailed into her pillow. “I’m going to fail figure drawing, and get kicked out of the design major, and never get an internship and starve trying to get commissions and I won’t be able to afford cookies for you which means you’ll have to find a new chosen and Chat Noir will hate me and—”

“Marinette, breathe!” Tikki ordered, lightly smacking the part of her cheek that wasn’t buried in her pillow. “You’re catastrophizing again! None of that is going to happen.”

On a conscious level, Marinette knew that. But that didn’t particularly matter right now when her mind was racing and the final due date for her portfolio was days away and there was no way for her to catch up now.

The figure drawing lab was closed for the models to prepare for their finals. This wouldn’t be a problem, except she had missed too many classes due to akuma attacks to finish the pieces she needed. All she had were five out of fifteen finished drawings and six loose sketches, hastily abandoned while she made increasingly awful excuses to go transform. “I need to go water my plant” had been the most recent. It was a miracle Professor Carbonneau hadn’t kicked her from the class already, considering how coveted the seats were.

But it didn’t matter if she was technically in the class if she couldn’t draw enough live models to pass.

“It’s hopeless, Tikki. There’s no way they’ll let me retake this class. I barely got a spot in the first place.”

“It’s not hopeless,” her kwami said more softly. “You’re Ladybug. You’re luckier than that. And you’ve worked too hard to fail now. I know you’re stressed, but you can’t give up!”

She rolled over onto her back, shoulder brushing a drawing that had slid down the wall and gotten lodged in the crack next to her bed. She pulled it out only to crumple it and toss it towards her trash can. Even the better designs she’d hung from a wire with tiny clothespins felt more like mockery than inspiration right now.

“If I wasn’t Ladybug, I wouldn’t have had to miss so much class in the first place.” She sighed.

“I know, Marinette.” Tikki patted her shoulder consolingly. “I wish it didn’t have to be so hard on you. You give everything you have into both being Ladybug and creating your art. You shouldn’t have to give up one for the other.”

In a way, it felt like she already had. She’d never abandon Paris, no matter how frequently fighting Hawkmoth’s villains cut into her classes. But could she really abandon her dreams of becoming a designer either?

“You’re right, Tikki. I’ll… figure something out.” She smiled and rubbed Tikki to her cheek. “I can look up reference pictures online, I guess. The details won’t be as good as drawing from life, especially for the size of paper I have to use, but it’ll have to work.”

“I could always model for you!” Tikki joked, flashing a few poses she’d surely seen from the Agreste magazines Marinette used to have plastered everywhere. She figured she’d look weird enough to her flatmates from her odd sleeping habits and patrol times without adding photos of her old crush into the mix.

“Thanks for the offer, Tikki.” Marinette giggled at the kwami’s attempt to look flirty. “But I think this course is meant to teach human anatomy.”

“I bet one of your other friends would model for you if they knew how important this was,” she insisted. “What about Adrien?”

“No!” Marinette smacked her fist to her forehead to try to dislodge the image of Adrien shirtless and posing for her that came unbidden. “I can’t ask him! I’m trying to actually get art done, not drool all over the carpet.”

“I haven’t seen you drool in a while. Not over him, anyway.” Tikki smiled knowingly, and Marinette glared.

“I do not drool over Chat Noir either.”

“I never said anything about him.”

She groaned, flopping back and wishing the mattress would just swallow her up already. She didn’t drool over Chat. He’d gotten over his crush on Ladybug before they came to university. Unlike her, apparently, he knew how to move on.

Not that it mattered, because she didn’t have time for a boyfriend! She was stressed enough as it was!

She took a few deep breaths and pulled herself back to the matter at hand: finishing her portfolio. She wouldn’t dare ask Adrien to model for her, even if there was a slim chance he’d actually do it. They were finally comfortable as friends, and while she was used to staring at nearly-nude models in class, she didn’t trust herself to not make things weird again if she had to stare at him in his underwear for hours.

Though unfortunately, he was probably the only one of her friends used to sitting and being stared at for hours. Maybe it would be worth it…?

“Nope, nope, not doing it.” She shut her eyes again. She hadn’t been able to confess to Adrien in the past four years. There was no way she could risk revealing her crush in such an embarrassing way, even to save her final grade.

...Granted, she’d done worse. He’d gotten her constipation pills and she hadn’t given up.

“What are you not doing?”

“ACK!”

Marinette bolted upright, nearly toppling off of her bed at the voice from the window. For a moment it had sounded like Adrien himself, summoned by her thoughts. Thankfully, it was just the blond boy who was a more regular visitor to her fifth-story window.

“Chat!” She whirled to scowl at him through the windowscreen. “Don’t you know it’s rude to eavesdrop?”

How long had he been there? Had he heard Tikki? Had he heard her not-confess to drooling about him?

“You left the window open.” He shrugged from his perch on the outer ledge.

She had left the window open because she needed some fresh air to keep from suffocating under the pressure of her deadlines. Sure, usually the open window meant Chat was welcome in, but…

Actually, maybe Chat Noir was exactly who she needed right now.

“I guess I did.” She sighed before prying off the screen to let him in.

He slipped over the sill, bowed, and produced a pink rose from behind his ear.

“For your hospitality.”

She laughed and tucked it in the vase on her desk, replacing the wilting flower he’d brought her last week. She was lucky her roommates weren’t as nosy as Alya, or she’d never hear the end of it.

“You know, if you’d really wanted to get me something, you could’ve brought the rabbit miraculous.” She leaned back against her creaking desk as he took his usual spot on the cushion in the corner of the room.

It was a joke, but as she said it, the idea sounded tempting. Alix wouldn’t mind parting with Fluff for a day while she patched her portfolio back together, would she? If she weren’t worried about causing some kind of temporal paradox, she would’ve done it.

“Rabbit? Sorry, someone else has already hopped on that one.” He grinned, crossing his legs beneath him. “You don’t feel like squeaking by with the mouse again?”

She stifled a laugh. “You’re terrible.”

“But you’re smiling.” Only he could look so smug about it. She always frowned just to prove him wrong. But she did feel better already, the way she always did around him. “So what’s up? I didn’t come to my favorite civilian’s house just to drop a few amazing puns.”

“Awful puns.”

He waved her off. “Anyway, I just wanted to see how you were doing, with finals coming up and everything. Akuma attacks always spike around now, you know.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” She rubbed her temples.

“Don’t worry, though. Ladybug and I have special patrol routes this finals week. We’ll take care of any akumas faster than you can say ‘thank you Chat, you’re the best superhero ever’.”

Despite everything, she laughed. The daily patrols would be just one more stress placed on her, but it was necessary after Finalizer destroyed the entire university last semester. But Chat was surely dealing with the same thing, and he’d still taken the time out of his studying to come make sure she was alright.

“Thank you Chat, you’re the best superhero ever,” she said with a teasing grin. She didn’t expect the blush that spilled out from under his mask.

“I-I guess I am pretty great.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“And I guess bragging about yourself is supposed to scare off akumas, huh?”

“Yeah, I mean—hey!” He pouted, sending her giggling again.

“Sorry, sorry.” She joined him on the ground by the cushion. “You are great. I wasn’t expecting you, but I’m really glad you came.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s just… been a long day.” She sighed. “I missed my last class today, and now I don’t know how I’m going to finish my portfolio for my final.”

“Are you feeling okay?” He reached out to press his palm over her forehead, as if he’d be able to feel anything through his glove. “I’ve heard people get sick around finals week, too. Do you want soup? I can bring back some soup—or juice maybe? What do you like when you’re sick?”

“Stop, Chat, I’m not sick.” Though her face probably warmed enough at his concern to pass as a fever. “I just missed class because… um—I stayed up too late studying and accidentally fell asleep!”

“Oh.” He pulled back his hand and nodded sagely. “That makes sense.”

She held in a sigh of relief. “Anyway, I need to finish at least four more figure drawings before… three days from now? Which wouldn’t be a problem except I need a live model and it’s not normal for friends to strip down to draw each other.”

He shrugged. “Doesn’t sound that weird to me.”

She pointedly did not imagine him stripping down in front of her. ...Not entirely, anyway.

“Yeah, well, unless you want to model for me—”

“I will.” He grinned before pink tinged his cheeks. “Um, or I would. I don’t think I can take off my suit without revealing my identity.”

“You—take off—” She made some noise that vaguely approximated a keyboard smash. Not because of the thought of seeing him shirtless! But he really trusted her that much, even as a civilian?

“Sorry, forget I offered. It was stupid.” He suddenly looked even more embarrassed than her, which was saying something.

“No, no! I—I really appreciate it, Chat Noir.” She squeezed his arm and smiled gently. “I would never ask you to detransform for me, but it means a lot that you even thought about it. Really.”

“You know you’re one of my best friends, Marinette. Of course I would. Besides, I’m used to—nevermind.” He ruffled the hair at the back of his neck. “Anyway, I’d gladly model for you if I could. But hey, don’t you have a friend who’s literally a model? Why don’t you ask him?”

Her eyes widened at the sudden subject change. “A-Adrien? NO! I—I mean I can’t, I—” She groaned and dropped her head in her hands. It was bad enough for Tikki to tease her, but if Chat Noir found out about her maybe-not-so-old crush? She would never hear the end of it.

“Why not?” His head tilted, his brow creasing beneath his mask. “He is your friend, right?”

“Yes.” She sighed. Just a friend, who would probably not enjoy her ogling him half-naked. Which wasn’t the point! She was just trying to pass her class, not stare at boys!

Maybe she should ask Alya at this rate. She was ride-or-die enough to do it. But Alya had a worse finals schedule than any of her friends, with all the journalism papers she’d put off while chasing akumas for the Ladyblog. Nino, then? No, he had several music scores to finish composing.

Adrien probably had as much work as the rest of them, with his math and physics classes. It wouldn’t make sense to ask him.

“Then I don’t see what the big deal is,” Chat said. “I’m sure he’d love to model for you.”

“He’s probably busy,” she said, which was true. “And besides, modeling for figure drawing is completely different from clothes modeling. You have to hold poses much longer, and some of them are weird, and you have to, you know, wear a lot less clothes.”

Her face burned. She was stupid to even bring it up; she was just digging herself an even deeper hole.

“I think you underestimate how long photoshoots take,” he quipped back, and she raised an eyebrow.

“How would you know, anyway?”

“I-I wouldn’t! I just think, all things considered, he’s your best choice. I’m just trying to suggest what’s best for your grade, as a good, supportive friend should do.”

“Uh-huh.” She frowned. It did seem a bit odd how insistent he was on this. Had he guessed her not-so-secret-crush after all? “It doesn’t matter, because it’s not going to happen.”

“But—”

“Nope,” she cut him off, shoving him a little to make room for herself on the cushion. He scooted to let her smush in next to him. “I’d sooner draw you suited up.”

“...Would that work?”

She glanced at his chest, which was about at her eye level with the way she was slouched against him. She never really thought about it before—really, she hadn’t—but the suit didn’t leave too much to the imagination. If she used Chat as a model and just fudged a few parts, would anyone really be able to tell? It would definitely be easier to get the proportions right than it would be drawing from a screen, especially for the quick gestures that were supposed to comprise a third of her portfolio.

And if it distracted him from asking about Adrien, well, that was just a bonus.

“You know what? I think it would.” She grinned and scrambled up to get her drawing board, which she’d dropped against her desk as soon as she’d gotten home, too exhausted to store it properly. Part of the giant pad of newsprint was coming off of its clips, and she adjusted it before propping it up against the foot of her bed. It was even less comfortable than the benches in the drawing lab, but it would do.

“You—really?” He beamed.

“Of course, silly cat. I might not be able to use you for the detailed figures, but need gesture drawings too. Your suit is tight enough that—nevermind.” She flushed again. This was such a bad idea.

But it would work. If she could be professional with Chat Noir while fighting akumas, then surely she could be as professional as she was with the paid figure drawing models.

She expected him to tease her over that last comment, but he just sprung up and started striking ridiculous poses.

“So, how do you want me?” He flexed, and she snorted.

“Not like that. These are warm-up gestures, so let’s have you do a few that you can hold for at least thirty seconds. They can be standing or sitting or using props, it doesn’t matter.”

“Props, huh?” He tapped his chin before reaching behind his back for his baton. It wasn’t like it was unusual for models to pose with staves in class, but she still had a feeling she was going to regret giving Chat Noir that permission.

Two seconds later when he had an arm and a leg wrapped around his baton, she knew she regretted it.

“How’s this?” He asked, flashing a toothy grin.

“Chat.” She glared, and he laughed before stopping his joking attempt at pole dancing.

“Sorry, sorry.” His grin was unrepentant, but he rested the baton behind his shoulders instead. “Better?”

She shook her head while letting out a little laugh. He was just such a dork.

“Sure, that’ll work.”

She fished her conté sticks out of her pencil case, set a thirty second timer on her phone, and swore that she wouldn’t make this awkward.

She looked up to find him pursing his lips in a kissy face.

Aaaand she promptly burst out laughing.

“If you’re going to make that face, I’ll have to ask someone else to model for me.”

“Nooooo! I’ll be good, I promise!”

True to his word, he schooled his face into a neutral expression. His charcoal-lidded eyes peered up through golden bangs.

She forgot to breathe for a few seconds.

“Marinette? Is this better?”

“Uh—y-yeah! That’s great, just hold that until the timer goes off, then switch poses.”

She pressed the start button and brought her conté to the paper before she could get lost in his eyes again.

From there, it was much easier. She was used to staying professional during her figure drawing classes, and all she was doing was capturing his form, not the bright green shade of his irises. Not that the sharp curves of his shoulderblades and defined calves couldn’t be distracting too. But the timer helped with that; she couldn’t lose focus when her warm-ups each lasted thirty seconds.

“How do you draw so fast?” He asked after shifting to pose where he knelt close to her sketchpad.

Her face colored in embarrassment. It was much harder to draw someone when they could watch you. Gesture drawings weren’t particularly interesting to the untrained eye; he probably thought she was wasting his time drawing glorified stick figures.

“Woah,” he breathed.

“Stay still,” she said before he could learn farther into her space.

“Sorry.” He snapped back into position. “It’s just your drawings—I don’t know much about art, but they just. They look like they’re moving.”

“You can tell?” She smiled hopefully, briefly forgetting about the timer. “That’s the point of gestures. It’s to warm up and get the form on paper without getting lost in details. It’s not what I draw the most, since I’m taking this class to prepare to draw my fashion designs, but I’ve enjoyed it a lot.”

“It really shows. And you can do this even though you missed so many classes?”

“Er—well I do practice outside of class as much as I can. It wasn’t easy.” She’d nearly snapped her conté sticks from frustration those first few weeks. Professor Carbonneau was pretty lenient with her students, but that didn’t stop her from comparing her drawings to all of the studio art majors who had clearly been practicing for much longer. She knew her art still wasn’t the top of the class, but as long as she could pass with a grade high enough to stay in her major, she would be grateful.

The timer buzzed, reminding them both to get back to work.

“Let’s move it up to a minute this time,” she said.

“Whatever the Princess wishes.” Chat Noir bowed, holding the pose for her to draw.

She laughed and went back to putting him down in black and white.

Tension leaked out of her as she swept her conté in long arcs, soft shadows, sharp edges. Somehow Chat Noir was a much better model than she’d expected. He barely twitched under her scrutinizing gaze. Every once in a while he cracked a joke that set her line shaking, and she had to force herself to glare at him.

It was normal. It was fun. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

At least, that was what she thought until they finally got to the fifteen-minute pieces.

Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes of staring at her partner lounging on the cushion like a real model. Taking down the contours of his legs and side and maybe-occasionally just staring at his chest.

If he noticed, he was at least kind enough not to comment.

She swallowed, glanced at the timer, and kept drawing. This one would be for her portfolio; she couldn’t afford to get too distracted. Not that she should find him distracting in the first place.

“Let’s take a break. You’ve been at this for a while,” she said when the timer finally went off. She folded the cover back over her sketchpad and set it aside.

“You’re the one who’s been drawing. All I had to do was sit there.” He shrugged.

“That must not be easy to do for so long, though. In our class, the models get breaks every thirty minutes.”

“Really?” His eyes widened. “That must be nice.”

“We can’t have anyone falling asleep on us,” she joked, standing and holding out a hand to help him to his feet. “Come on, I’ll order us a pizza. It’s the least I can do after everything you’ve done for me.”

His cheeks pinked below his mask. “It’s nothing, really. I’m a pro at sitting and looking pretty.”

She rolled her eyes, but unfortunately couldn’t argue with that.

XXX

“So,” Chat Noir said before swallowing a mouthful of pineapple pizza, “did you get enough drawings for your class?”

“Not quite.” Marinette sighed, running her fingers over the edge of the paper plate in her lap. “I still need a few thirty-minute pieces. I don’t want to keep you here all night, though.”

“You know cats like to stay up late, Princess.” He winked. “But in this case, I do actually have a study session early tomorrow. What if I came back tomorrow afternoon?”

“Hmm… I guess that could work.” She took a bite of her pizza. “I didn’t want too many drawings of the same model, but I don’t have many other options. And you are really good at this. I just wish I could...”

“Could what?”

“I could really use someone who doesn’t wear a full body suit for the longer poses.” She sighed. “Your suit’s too shiny for me to pass it off as skin, and I can’t make up the shading from scratch. My professor will know.”

“There’s always Adrien,” he said with a smirk.

Marinette had half a mind to throw her pizza at him. “Why won’t you let that go?”

“Because I know for a fact he would love to help you out.” He shook his crust at her.

Her face flushed at the word love. She thought she was better than this by now!

“Really? And how can you be sure?”

“Because I—uh—because…” He glanced back and forth before shoving the pizza crust into his mouth.

“Come on, spit it out, Chat—no not literally!” she exclaimed when he frantically spat the crust back onto his plate.

He sheepishly grinned and put the slobbery food back in his mouth. She smacked her forehead, probably getting pizza grease there.

“You’re gross, you know that?”

He swallowed. How he didn’t choke on the crust, she didn’t know.

“But you love me anyway.”

“Keep dreaming, kitty.” She managed to get it out without so much as a stutter, despite the heat remaining in her cheeks. Whatever feelings she did or didn’t have for Chat, it wasn’t like she could act on them. Not when they couldn’t know each other’s identities, and not when she still couldn’t get over Adrien.

Not when he’d already gotten over her.

“Anyway, what were you trying to tell me?” She asked before she could dwell on that.

“Oh. Uh.” This time he didn’t have any more food to use as a distraction. His eyes darted back and forth before he sighed. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but… IthinkAdrienhasacrushonyou.”

Marinette felt her brain cells fizzle out at trying to process that sentence. She had to have misheard, hadn’t she? “Come again?”

“Adrien,” he said more clearly, “has a crush on you.”

Was she dreaming? She was dreaming. She had to be.

“And how would you know that?” She asked, her voice a little higher than normal.

He crossed his arms. “A cat never reveals his secrets. And besides, even if I’m wrong—which I’m not—he’d still help you because you’re his friend, and he cares about you. So I really think you should ask him, or else I’ll use my superheroly powers to get him to model for you myself.”

“You wouldn’t.” Her eyes narrowed, though her heart was beating out of her chest. Adrien? Having a crush on her? It wasn’t like they’d seen each other too often this semester, with both of them being busy with their classes. Why would he like her now?

At first she thought he was going to argue, but then he seemed to deflate. “Fine. I’m sorry for being so pushy, I just… you really don’t like him, do you? Did something happen?”

Why did he seem so hurt by that? “N-no! I mean, I do like him, I like him a-a lot actually, and—you can not tell him this,” she threatened with a finger near his nose.

He went cross eyed trying to look at it, but nodded.

She dropped her hand. This was stupid. If Chat knew about her crush… she’d worried about him teasing her, but really, he was her friend. Her best friend. She had to keep enough secrets from him because of her identity. It would feel good to at least be able to share one.

“I’ve had a crush on Adrien forever, Chat,” she finally admitted. “That’s why I didn’t want to ask him to be my model. I don’t want to get distracted. I need my drawings to be the best they can, and I especially don’t need him catching me ogling him.”

Her face burned. It was one thing to share secrets, but maybe she didn’t need to share that much.

He laughed. Was her crush really that funny? He almost sounded surprised though, like there was any chance she wouldn’t fall for a sweet, caring, kind friend who also happened to be unfairly attractive. Maybe he was only surprised because he thought puns and roses were the way to a girl’s heart.

(His way had worked too, though, hadn’t it?)

“So you want to ogle him.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“Yes—no—shut up!” She shoved him, and he collapsed laughing on the carpet.

“I’m hurt, Marinette. And here I thought you wanted to ogle me.”

“I hate you,” she said through her fingers as she contemplated ways to erase this conversation from existence. Could a Lucky Charm do that? “I can’t believe I ever thought I liked you.”

“Ouch. And here I thought your dad’s punches hurt. Whoever made up that ‘sticks and stones’ saying was a liar.”

It took her a moment to realize he was referring to the time her papa was akumatized. Of course he wouldn’t expect that she actually liked him now.

That was for the best though. She wasn’t supposed to admit that, not as Marinette, especially not when she’d just learned Adrien (probably) had a crush on her. She could hardly go out with Adrien when Chat Noir snuck in her window a few times a week, could she?

It hurt too much to think of letting her strange more-than-friendship with her partner go.

“So, you think there’s time for one more drawing?” he asked, brushing his hands off on his suit.

“If you’re still up for it.” She couldn’t turn down the opportunity, even if she was even more afraid of giving her feelings away now. Besides, if he thought she only liked Adrien, he wouldn’t notice her acting weird. Right?

“Of course. Can’t deny you the opportunity to capture all this.” He flexed his arms in a few different poses.

“You know, I was going to thank you, but now I think that might go to your head.” She laughed.

“Ah, it’s too late for that.” He grinned. “You’ve already inflated my ego beyond repair.”

She didn’t see how, but he was already holding his pose, one hand on his hip, the other arm flexing up near his head. His legs were braced in a slight squat that would probably hurt to hold for too long, but left her with an all-too-good view of his quads.

She set her timer for thirty minutes and hoped that she could keep her secrets to herself a little longer.

#marichat #miraculous ladybug #fic tag #marinette dupain cheng #chat noir #tali writes #charcoal lines #humor

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adragonhoardingstories · 5 years ago

Text

Daminette Soulmate AU Headcannons (3)

Damian was not worried. He was just going to introduce his literal soulmate to his friends and allies to the superhero community. That was the whole reason for this brunch.

It was just that Marinette should have been here already but he hadn't heard a word from her.

Ya Amar, where are you? Jon is getting rather impatient for my surprise.

Sorry Habibi. She seemed out of breath. Emergency. Final battle. Paris. Damian didn't usually get scared, it had been trained out of him, but…

It's being covered live. She added for his benefit and that was all that he needed to bolt downstairs.

"Out of my way." He snapped at Superman, pushing past him and making a bee line to the room with the giant television.

Jason and his friends were there. He snatched the remote out of Roy's hand just as he was about to hand it to his daughter and changed the channel.

Normally he would get shit for this and normally he knew better than to behave like this around a kid but he felt like his behavior right then was justified.

He ignored his father who had stormed in after him demanding he apologize to Kal-El as well as Roy insulting him.

Thankfully, Jason seemed to understand that something was wrong, he just turned his attention to the T.V. and just in time for him to find the right channel.

"-been raging for over five hours. It has been the longest duration of time for which Hawkmoth has been sighted. It seems like our heroes are fully determined not to let him get away this time."

His father had shut up, finally understanding his behavior. He placed a hand on Damian's shoulder and another on Jason's, "She'll be alright."

"We're aware of that." Damian snapped as the room started filling in with other heroes.

"We don't need you to tell us that." Jason was as tense as he was.

"I'll fly to...Paris isn't it, and help." Clark said.

Damian clenched his knuckles.

"The fuck you will!" Jason growled. "Sit your ass down and don't move."

"You will only hinder her work. No outside help until she requests it or don't you think we'd have been there already."

Both Jason and Damian loathed the fact that they couldn't be there fighting by her side but she had forbade it and as much as he hated it, her reasoning was sound.

"But we can't-"

"Kal-El," His father thankfully spoke up. "Shut up before my sons make you. I've approved this. She'll be fine, I'll explain later." More people were filling into the room, curious if what they were hearing.

The camera panned to the different heroes. "There has once again been a mass akumatization and the the battle seemed to reach a decisive point. Draka, Viperion and Queen Bee have successfully held off Hawkmoth, Mayura and Volpina as Ladybug purifies the akumatized civilians and now Lady Noir is back in the fight."

The camera shows as the teams flawless change their position so that Hawkmoth is left for Ladybug, Mayura being taken care of by Vespa and Draka and Volpina by Viperion.

However, Volpina as always did not play fair. Somehow, all three ended up away from the fight with her while Hawkmoth found a partner in Mayura against Lady.

It was impressive, the way she shifted her fighting styles and even her alter egos, going from Lady Bug to Lady Noir in a matter of seconds to counteract their attacks. She kept up wonderfully well for having two such skilled adversaries.

But they had been fighting for hours and it was very clear to Damian that the Kwamis wouldn't be able to keep doing this.

He was so glad at that moment that there was a bunch of superheroes in his house. If needed be, Marinette would get the whole Super community as backup if she asked.

However, she was still outnumbered and soon she found herself in a dead end with both Hawkmoth and Mayura caging her.

"That's it." Jason cursed. "We're going."

Damian wanted to agree with him but he felt her determination, her decisiveness and he smirked.

"No wait." He pushed his brother back to sit. Jason turned to look at him like he was crazy which soon turned into confusion as he saw his expression. He knew Jason still had some trouble adjusting with their bond.

"She has a plan." He confided. "She has them right where she wants them."

Jason stared at him for a few more seconds before he turned back to the screen.

"Give me your Miraculous and I won't hurt you." So predictable. Damian almost rolled his eyes.

His soulmate slowly raised her hands up, trying to seem as a non-threat, which is why they were taken by surprise when she extended her baton so that it slammed into Mayura's stomach.

Immediately after she vaulted over her fallen villian, letting her transformation roll off. She rolled on the ground, to hide her face and brought a hood and a mask that hid her mouth and nose up.

"Is that your league uniform?" Jason asked Damian.

"It's based off of it." He replied. "She liked it so she made one for herself in parallel with my new one."

"So you have a fancy costume, doesn't mean you can beat me now. It reduces your chances actually."

Even through the mask Damian could see her annoyance.

Mayura charged at her. She was clearly the smarter one of the two villains, her doom came with the fact that she listened to Hawkmoth.

Marinette seemed to see that too because she whipped out a gun.

"Did you give her the gun?" Damian asked amused.

"Of course, I did." Jason seemed smug that she was actually using it.

Before the villians could react, she made a perfect shot, aiming at Hawkmoth's Miraculous.

Of course, a normal weapon wouldn't hurt a transformed hero, where their skin was covered but momentum was more than enough to make his butterfly brooch fall, letting the transformation off and revealing Gabriel Agreste to the world.

Before he could do anything else Marinette threw a bola at him, incapacitating him. It was rather funny seeing him wriggle around like a worm.

"I gave her the bola too." Jason informed the room. No one was surprised.

That left Mayura. She leapt in front of Gabriel, intending to take him away but Marinette threw something, once again with terrifying precision that ended up with the peacock Miraculous pinned to the wall and one unveiled and frozen Natalie Sancoeur.

The camera panned to the object and showed it as a batarang.

"I gave her that one." His father informed them, he didn't need to look over to know that he was smirking or that the other occupants of the room were staring at them in total confusion.

Meanwhile, Marinette had already recovered both of the Miraculous.

"How-" Natalie asked as Marinette walked to her. She didn't seem interested in fighting anymore, she seemed too shaken up.

Marinette simply smirked, not that it was visible to anyone. "The sincerest compliments from the Batfam." Then she decked Natalie knocking her unconscious, right in time for the other heroes to land on the roof.

Dick and Stephanie whooped and Tim and Cass laughed. Damian hadn't noticed when they came in.

"Good job." Draka said, throwing Volpina down.

"Likewise." She stepped back and out the gun back in it's holster on her thigh.

"Spots on."

Ladybug crouched next to Volpina, and took her necklace and crushed it, a dark butterfly coming out of it.

She made quick work of purifying it, leaving Lila Rossi there.

The heroes each grabbed a villain and made the way to the police as Ladybug summoned her lucky charm to fix the city.

She had a smile on her face and Damian could feel how at peace she was in that moment as she followed her teammates to the police.

The camera went closer to her. "Ladybug." The voice that was reporting and that he had tuned out, called out.

"Hawkmoth has finally been defeated, how are you feeling?"

"Definitely relieved." She smiled before Turing serious. "But it's not over yet, Gabriel Agreste and Natalie Sancoeur will pay for their crimes."

"And what do you think of Paris' Golden Child, Adrien Agreste involvement in this affair?"

"Well now that they have been defeated, I can say this. Adrien Agreste is a hero. Our victory today has been possible because of him. After finding out who his father is, he came to me and together we decided on the safest course of action which was to send him away incognito." An outraged what could be heard in the background. "He will be returning to Paris shortly and will have a press conference to clarify everything. I ask of everyone in Paris to not judge a son for the sins of his father. Adrien is a hero in his own right and has suffered enough through this debacle."

"That is some shocking news. I understand that you have to deal with the police now, I won't hold you for much longer. We've noticed that you've used a batarang in your fight if I'm not wrong, and you mentioned the Batfam. Is there anything you'd like to say to them?"

"I suppose." Ladybug laughed, then she turned to the camera and winked. "Sorry for missing brunch. I'll be there as soon as I finish dealing with this."

"Damian." His father said and the whole room which consisted of almost all the heroes in the world turned to look at them. "Tell her to invite her teammates as well, I think they deserve a celebration."

Damian nodded his eyes turning blue, on the screen they could see Ladybug's eyes turning a familiar shade of green.

"Uh, are you alright?" The reporter asked. "Your eyes turned...green."

She smiled reassuringly. "Nothing to worry about, that was just my soulmate."

"What did he say?" A voice asked and the three other heroes were seen coming back into the frame.

Ladybug smiled that one smile that promise chaos.

"Oh this is going to be good." Tim had become an admirer of her schemes. "That's the smile she gives before she's about to wreck havoc."

"Oh, not much" she said innocently, "Just that you've all been invited to brunch."

All three of them froze, while the red clad heroine looked like she was having the time of her life.

"The brunch you were supposed to be at right now?" Viperion asked.

"With the entirety of the Justice League, Young Justice, Teen Titans, the Outlaws and basically every other hero in the world." Draka continue.

"Uh huh." She smirked.

"I don't know what to wear." Vespa muttered. She seemed...in shock.

There was an enraged yell heard and Ladybug sighed. "Alright, break time is over. Let's go."

"B-but-" Vespa muttered. It was so different from the confident, sassy hero Paris knew.

"You can take something of mine." Ladybug said. "That goes for both of you as well. Now shall we get to work, or else we'll never be finished in time."

They all turned to her for orders. "Viperion, Draka you are guard duty, I also need you question them all they know about Emilie's Agreste situation."

It was clear to everyone in the room that while she was talking to her team, she was fully aware of the camera still recording her and made sure to phrase her orders in a way that the people watching would have an idea of what was going to happen next.

"I am heading to Agreste mansion to contact Adrien and find Emilie and after talking to them both I'll be reviewing the crimes Gabriel, Natalie and Lila are being charged with."

The other heroes were pleasantly surprised at how professional and organized she seemed.

"Vespa, you are going to talking to the Mayor and the police, submitting all the evidence we have against them and liasing with the Italian Embassy about Miss Rossi. Send them the evidence we have of her willing working with Hawkmoth. Also, get her parents before you do anything, because she is ultimately still a minor."

The heroes dispersed and the reporter started giving a rundown of everything that had happened, was happening and would happen.

Meanwhile, in Wayne Manor, Barry asked the question every other non-Batfam member was asking themselves.

"Okay so who the hell are they and how did we not know of them before?"

@persephonebutkore @hypnosharkrebeldreamer @satans-favorite-homo @mystery-5-5

@abrx2002 @clumsy-owl-4178 @daminett4life @18-fandoms-unite-08 @bluerosette23 @dawnwave16 @imanerddealwith @heldtogetherbysafetypins

@st0rmy-w1th1n @northernbluetongue @chez-pezeater @thebananathatwrites @black-streak

@ghostcryptid @zerotosiki @krispydefendorpolice @dur55

@weird-pale-blonde-person @casual-darkness @maude-zarella

@sonif50 @zalladane @dast218

I tried to get everyone in the tag list, sorry if I missed someone

#maribat #daminette #soulmate au #final battle #badass Marinette Dupain Cheng

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bouwrites · 5 years ago

Text

Even Heroes Have the Right to Dream: Chapter 4

You took for granted all the times I never let you down.

First, Previous, Next. Ao3.

Story under read-more.

“Jon? Can I bother you for a second?”

Jon looks up from his assignment to Marinette. Honestly, it’s a bit of a relief to take a break from it. “Sure.” He says. “What do you need?”

“I’m planning to call Alya, soon. You know who she is, right?”

“Your best friend, right? Through a lot of grade school, I think you said. Is she the one that wants to be a reporter?”

“Yeah. She’s been bugging me to meet you, recently, so I was just wondering if you’d pop in to say hi for a bit.”

Jon smiles. “I get to meet your Paris friends? Cool. I’m down. You calling her now?”

“If you’re not busy.”

He shrugs. “I’ve got some homework, but I need to take a break anyway. I’m good.”

“Awesome!” Marinette chirps, taking out her phone. “Uh, fair warning, though, your parents are sort of her journalism idols, so she might be a little weird.”

Jon laughs. It’s not everyday someone outside Metropolis knows his parents well enough to bother connecting him to them, but the ones that do are all journalists, so Alya knowing makes sense. “And she hasn’t wanted to meet me before now?”

Marinette ducks her head nervously. “I… may have not told her your last name.”

“Pfft. Really, Marinette? Is she pissed with you for keeping that secret from her?”

“Oh, absolutely. In my defense, I didn’t know until almost the end of the semester! You told me your parents are journalists, but I don’t know names like Alya does. And she does talk about Lois Lane a lot, but I didn’t know your mom’s name. I just assumed it’d be Kent. I would have told her sooner if I realized.”

Jon shrugs. “That’s fair. Journalists aren’t really big names unless they’re, like, T.V. anchors. Can’t blame you for not knowing.”

Marinette snorts. “Tell that to Alya. Anyway, I’ll call her. Get ready, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She hits the call button, and nearly immediately another girl’s voice is coming from the speakers. “Marinette! Is he there?!”

Marinette rolls her eyes. “Yes, Alya, he’s here.” She pushes Jon towards the couch and sits down next to him where they can sit comfortably close enough together for the camera to pick up the both of them. “See? Meet Jon, my roommate.”

“You’re Jonathan Kent!!!” Alya shrieks. She lets out a long string of something in French before taking a deep breath. “Marinette, I cannot believe you! You’ve been living with Jonathan Kent for months and you didn’t tell me?!”

“I didn’t know his parents were the people you’re always going on about! I told you as soon as I did!”

“Mari.” Alya draws out the last vowel in a long whine. “Lois Lane is my hero! How did you forget?!”

“Uh, because her name is Lane? I’ve never met Jon’s parents. I didn’t know his mom’s name. I just knew his is Kent.”

“And how many times have I talked about Clark Kent?!”

Marinette covers her face. “That I just forgot. To be fair, what are the odds that my roommate’s parents are your heroes? It just never occurred to me.”

Alya laughs boisterously. “Good point, girl. I guess I can’t be too mad at you, since you are finally introducing me.”

“Aha. Speaking of.” Jon says. “Nice to meet you. Marinette’s told me a lot about you.”

“Hi! Oh my god. Have you seen my blog?” Alya flinches. “Wait,” she says to herself. “Can I just ask if he’s read my blog?” She shakes her head. “Will you read my blog? If I can get feedback from the Jonathan Kent, I’ll be that much closer to being the best reporter I can be.”

“Alya!” Marinette chastises. “Jon is very busy with University. He doesn’t have time to review your blog for you.”

“It doesn’t have to be right away!” Alya protests. “He can do it when he gets to it!”

Jon clears his throat. “I, uh, also don’t speak French, so…” Alya curses. Jon thinks. It’s in French, but it sounds like a curse. He laughs. “I’m flattered, but I’m not sure I can help you much. I’m not a journalist yet myself, anyway.”

“But you are studying it, aren’t you?” Alya asks.

Jon rubs his neck. “Well… no. I’m still undeclared. To be honest, I’m not really sure what I want to do, yet.” He sighs. “And am quickly running out of time to figure it out.”

He feels Marinette’s comforting touch on his shoulder. “You’ll figure it out.” She says.

“Yeah, maybe.” He shakes his head, looking back to Alya. “Anyway, you have a blog? It’s about the superheroes there, right? Ladybug and Black Cat?”

“Chat Noir.” Marinette corrects him. “Ladybug’s name is in English, Chat Noir’s sounds so weird translated.”

Jon laughs. “What’s weird about Black Cat? I’m pretty sure there’s like, four different cat burglars going by variations of that exact name. At least.”

“Exactly. French, Chat Noir, is a hero. Black Cat is a villain name.”

Jon rolls his eyes. “Fine, fine. Chat Noir. I haven’t heard much on them lately. Not since the big news when they beat their bad guy.”

“They’re still around.” Alya says. “They’re doing more conventional heroism now. Or, at least, Chat Noir is. Ladybug hasn’t been seen for some time.”

Jon frowns. That’s news to him, but then since he’s off-duty he’s fallen out of touch with the most recent hero news. His dad has been respectfully keeping that stuff out of their talks, thankfully. It’s none of his business, anyway. “Huh. Hope she’s okay.”

“We think she is.” Alya says. “Chat won’t give us much, but apparently it was her decision.”

That’s relatable. “Ah. Cool. Good for her.”

Both Marinette and Alya give him strange looks. He shifts awkwardly under their stares. “I hear Superboy is off-duty, though.” Alya says. “Your parents are the number one source for super news. Would you happen to know what happened to him?”

Jon shrugs. “Can’t say. Mom and Dad usually don’t share details of articles with me, so I don’t know any more than they’ve made public.”

“You’re not worried about one of your superheroes just vanishing all of a sudden? The Justice League says he’s just taking leave, but don’t you think it’s a bit odd?” Alya asks. “It’s been months since anyone’s seen him.”

Good. Jon thinks. He laughs, but the sound rings bitter to him. “Why should I be worried? He’s Superboy. I’m sure he’s fine. The same could be said for your Ladybug, and you don’t seem worried.”

“Oh, I’m worried.” Alya says pointedly. Jon isn’t quite sure what the emphasis is for, but… talk about superheroes is normal, superhero business is none of his. Whatever Alya’s hinting at isn’t his concern. Ladybug is probably fine, if Chat Noir says so. “But I know the situation with Ladybug better than I do Superboy.”

“Funny, I’m the other way around. I guess there’s nothing to worry about, after all.”

Alya hums. “Maybe. I hope not.”

Marinette shifts the conversation to a lighter topic, to Jon’s relief, but something inside him stays unsettled. He doesn’t like worrying everyone, but he’s not in charge of the PR. The League is surely just trying to maintain some control over the situation, implying that he’s on some temporary break and not gone indefinitely, or maybe they just… don’t believe that he’s serious about this.

He can… he can buy that. The son of the boy scout in blue giving up heroics? Laughable. A Kryptonian living on Earth like he’s just a guy and not some god among men? Why would he lower himself that way? Because I am just a guy. Jon thinks bitterly.

The League does a lot of good in the world, and Jon respects them for that, but they just don’t understand having power and not wanting to use it. To refrain from using it makes sense to them. To hold back from using all his power is exactly what they want him to do. But they just can’t even imagine not wanting to use power that they have.

To be fair, there was a time that Jon thought the same way. His powers are a part of him, so why shouldn’t he use them? Now, when he finally has some semblance of peace, when he’s living his own life with ordinary people in an ordinary way… going back terrifies him. He’d rather lose his powers entirely than go back to using them to fight all the time.

He still feels guilty that his powers can be used to fight for good. He can, so he has to. That’s what his dad says. But… he doesn’t want to fight again. It doesn’t matter if he’s fighting for good if he’s still fighting. He’s tired, and he wants to live this ordinary life he’s found.

Super-hearing sucks. Jon decides this at God-knows-O’clock in the morning when he wakes up to the distinct and unfortunately familiar sound of glass being cut. By one of Damian’s Goddamned toys.

Damian, you motherf-

His thoughts are interrupted when he tunes in to the sound more and hears ragged, uneven breathing and the pitter-patter of liquid hitting hardwood.

Hell.

Jon throws himself out of bed and floats over the ground to make no noise – the last thing he wants to do is wake up Marinette – to go see what the damage is.

He enters the living room and there, naturally, is Damian. In his hero costume. Bleeding on Jon’s furniture. And there’s a hole in the window. There go our deposits. Sorry, Marinette. “I hate you so much.” Jon hisses.

“I’ll fix the window.” Damian snaps. “Just help me with this.” He’s holding his thigh tightly, trying to keep pressure on two different areas.

“Did you get… shot and stabbed? In the same leg?”

“I do not need your judgement, Kent. I need your supplies.”

Jon sighs and flies over to the bathroom to retrieve the first-aid kit. Luckily, Damian is more than capable of stitching himself back together, because right now Jon is doing his absolute darndest to not crush his friend instead of simply keeping pressure on him. As Damian focuses on the blade wound, Jon keeps pressure on the bullet wound, gritting his teeth all the while.

And while Damian focuses on his bullet wound, Jon gets the lovely job of cleaning up all the blood before Marinette sees it. Goddamnit, Damian.

Damian huffs. “There. Now suit up, I’ll need your assistance to finish this mission with my leg the way it is.”

Jon wrings out the towel he’s absolutely going to have to throw away now into the sink. “No.” He says. “I’m retired. Find someone else.”

Damian scoffs. “You’re clearly not busy. With you there it won’t take long, we simply need to-”

“I said no, Damian!” Jon throws the towel at him. At least Damian has the decency to start cleaning up the rest of his mess himself now that he’s not busy staying alive. “I’m not Superboy anymore. There are plenty of heroes who can help you. Call one of them.”

“Jon. Seriously.” He deadpans. “Stop trying to make this difficult. It will be simple. You’ll be back before sunrise; it won’t be any bother at all. Now come on.”

“What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand? I’m. Not. A. Hero. Anymore. It’s bad enough you’re breaking into my home. I’m not getting dragged onto another stupid mission with you because you can’t understand what off-duty means.”

“What is wrong with you? I came here because I was bleeding out!”

“And now you’re patched up.” Jon bites. “So, bye!”

“You’ve taken a long enough break. While you act like a child, people’s lives could be in danger.” Damian growls. “Stop whining and suit up. I need your help.”

Jon’s gut screams at him. It sinks sharpened fangs into his flesh and tears and rips and revels, because Jon knows Damian is right. People are out there right now who need help. Help he can provide. It is beyond selfish of him to refuse for such childish reasons like he’s tired or stressed or shaking with barely suppressed terror at the very idea of putting the cape back on.

Before Damian shows up in his apartment, Jon doubts he’s a good person. Maybe he was once, maybe he was just acting in some facsimile of one in his dad’s shadow, but now? Now Jon is certain. He’s a failure. A disappointment. A blot, marring that almighty “S” everyone cherishes so dearly. Because even now, even as Damian, who has dragged him out on so many missions before, comes to him crippled and bleeding, asking for his help to save innocents, Jon can’t bring himself to go with his old friend. He begs to, he yearns to, but he can’t. Something cold and pale and stony holds him back and solidifies his… resolve seems too positive a word for it. It isn’t strength at the core of his refusal. It’s fear, pure and simple. “Find someone else.” Jon says. “You’re the one overstaying your welcome. If lives are in danger, you’d save them faster if you called in backup from heroes who are actually working.”

“How can you sit idly-”

Because I’m not the person you think I am. “Because I’m not a hero!” Because I’m not strong enough. “You’re the one ignoring procedure! It’s been made crystal clear that I’m not an active hero, anymore!” Jon fears Damian can see how his tightly clenched fists shake at his side. Damian is certainly too observant to miss such an obvious tell. Pathetic. “Superboy is retired! Don’t assume I’ll drop everything I’ve been doing to run out the moment you decide I should!”

“Jon! Superboy is needed! Will you just ignore the call of duty?”

Don’t ask me that. Please. “I will! That’s not my job anymore!”

“Then why did you help me?”

Jon sputters. Because you’re my friend. Because you could die. Because… I’m selfish and I can’t distance myself enough from you to stop. “Because you were bleeding on my floors. I don’t know what you’re doing, and I don’t care.” This much, at least, is honest. Jon doesn’t necessarily not care at all, but he cares far less than he should. And he does desperately wish to not know. “I’m done with that life. I’m finally starting to feel-”

“I don’t care what kind of tantrum your leave has been about.” Damian says. “You’re needed now, so come on!”

Stop pushing. There’s a tightness in Jon’s chest, restricting his breath, stronger than any chains. If you don’t, I don’t know what… “Are you just incapable of listening?!”

“…Jon? Wha-”

Thunk.

Everything falls into deathly silence as all three people in the room absorb what just happened. Marinette, in her nightgown, sleepy and disoriented from being woken up by the yelling, is standing there in the entranceway, wide alert now, looking between Jon, Damian, the window, Damian’s bandaged leg, the bloody towel on the coffee table, and the batarang firmly rooted in the wall an inch from her head.

Damian just threw a batarang at Marinette. At Marinette.

“Never mind.” Marinette says coldly. Jon’s heart turns to ice at the frigid tone. It doesn’t belong in her voice. “I don’t want to know.” She turns away, like Jon is up at such a dumb hour eating ice cream instead of fighting with a hero standing in front of a man-sized hole in their window.

When Jon hears the click of her door closing, he rounds on Damian. Self-pity, self-loathing, doubt, all of it leave his heart in an instant. All he feels now is anger. Something fiery consumes him and he sees red. “Get the hell out of my home.”

“I-”

“How fucking dare you! You break into my house, demand my help when I’ve already made it clear you shouldn’t call me for that, and you attack my roommate?! Do you realize what you’ve just done?!”

“She has remarkable reflexes.” Damian says.

“Get the hell out of my house!”

Damian clears his throat awkwardly. In a calmer state of mind, Jon will later remember this is a sign of Damian’s embarrassment, but at the moment he doesn’t care to think twice about the gesture. “Yes… of course. You clearly have damage control to do here, with your identity possibly compromised to a civilian. I’ll find someone unoccupied to assist with my mission.”

Jon just gapes at him. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

Damian picks up the circle of glass and hangs outside the window for a moment to fix it back in place and seal it before he takes off.

The window looks good as new, but there’s a bloody rag on Jon’s coffee table and… the damage is done. Oh, God. He sighs, picking up the towel again and throwing it in the sink. Now what?

He has no idea how much Marinette heard, if anything, but even just seeing Damian here in his hero costume is dangerous. She’ll wonder how he knows Damian, why Damian came here.

All this, coming to New York, all this work in college, his entire life right now, is to get away from heroism. In one night, Damian breaks in and uproots all of it. Months of building up his life here, and now he’s in the deep end of the hero nonsense again. Great. Just great.

Maybe… maybe it’s salvageable. Maybe it’s okay. Maybe… there’s only one way to find out. He has to start damage control as soon as he can. God, I’m tired.

He spends another few minutes wringing the blood out of the towel. It’s as good as it’s going to get, but he thinks he’ll still probably buy a new one tomorrow. Then, with a heavy sigh, Jon trods over to Marinette’s door.

He raps gently on the wood. “Marinette?”

“I don’t want to know, Jon!” Marinette’s icy voice cuts into him. This… isn’t the reaction he expects. Especially with Alya as her best friend, he expects her to be asking him for all the details. He expects it’ll change everything, and he hates that it will, but he certainly doesn’t expect that all the kindness and warmth, all the friendliness and cheer, will vanish just like that.

He knows the batarang must have scared her. He deserves her anger, her confusion, her fear. That, he understands. But this? Cold fury, something deep, something hurt, like betrayal. A wall of ice built between them in an instant. He doesn’t understand, he can’t understand, but it hurts him regardless, to hear her voice that way. To hear the pain in her voice. “Marinette? At least let me explain.”

“I said I don’t want to know!” The door swings open, giving Jon a clear view of Marinette’s clenched jaw and white knuckles and her deadly glare. “I don’t care why he was here. I don’t care how you know him. I don’t want to know. Whatever your business is with heroes, I don’t want anything to do with it. Understand? Leave me out of it.”

She slams the door in his face.

Jon has never heard her sound that way before. It’s frightening, but mostly it makes him feel like his world is falling apart. Months of his life, all the normal he’s managed to find, gone. Just like that. With the slam of a door.

Now what?

Marinette won’t talk to him. Jon fixes the hole in the wall and snaps the batarang that caused it in half with his bare hands. He hides the pieces away in his closet where he doesn’t have to look at them. There’s a new towel in their kitchen. At any glance, the apartment is back to normal.

But Marinette won’t talk to him. She treats him like the plague. She comes home late, going straight to her room when she does. If she sticks around in the morning long enough to make coffee or tea, she makes her own cup and leaves. The few times she’s home for dinner, she cooks just for herself and eats in her room.

Life is… normal. He’s still going to class, he’s still living here in New York, his apartment is back to normal. But it doesn’t feel like normal. It feels like hell. It feels like everything he tried to run away from when he left the hero life behind him is kicking him square in the butt over and over again. Every time Marinette’s gaze sweeps over him and continues like he’s not even there, every quiet, quiet evening in when she’s not in the apartment and he doesn’t know if she’s out getting dinner or working late in the library, or… or anything.

It’s almost like she isn’t even there anymore.

Jon leaves a post-it note in the entranceway, right inside the door, before the hallway turns. It says to take off his shoes. He’s not sure if he’s trying to get her attention somehow or if he just misses her getting on his case about it. It works, though. He replaces his shoes with the indoor ones Marinette got for him early on. She doesn’t comment on it.

He can’t focus anymore. When he sits down to study, he just feels this dread hang over him. When he’s in class he just feels out of place. Like he doesn’t belong. It’s frustrating, and it pisses him off, and that only makes it harder to focus on his work.

He tries. He tries so hard. He’s doing everything he can, but he can’t sit still and let that overhanging pain consume him. He can’t stop to look at his notes, because if he does it’ll catch up with him and he can’t handle that. He feels like he’s always on the move, searching for something to do, something to distract him, but at the same time he can feel himself stagnating and it makes him feel dirty and gross and he hates it and he scrubs himself so thoroughly every day but the filth he feels never goes away.

Even being a hero was better than this. But then he listens for that tell-tale shriek he’s been shutting out for so many months and he’s not sure it’s not coming from him because the thought of flying to the rescue, of punching some thief and getting involved in something that’s none of his business makes him nauseous. It makes his heart race and he can’t breathe, and he aches all over, wondering what’s wrong with him.

A small, sensible part of him says, “You were ten. Of course, you’re messed up, now.”

A more cynical part says, “Damian was younger. He’s not having a panic attack because some lady is getting her purse stolen.”

Surprisingly, it’s that same cynical part of him that helpfully counters itself. “Sure, he’s still a hero, but do you really want to call Damian okay?”

Yeah, that’s fair.

This is all his fault, anyway.

Diligently, like clockwork, he works on the schedule that he built over his first semester. He goes to class, and when he gets home, he writes down all his assignments on the whiteboard over his desk. Marinette’s idea. It’s the only reason he made it through the transition to college from high school.

Now, though, he just stares at the assignments there in black ink and stares and stares and wills himself to do them but doesn’t ever actually move. He hates it so much. He’s never been just unable to do things before, but now the farthest he ever gets is pulling the paper out, then all he can do is stare at it until his mind wanders and he ends up clicking through websites like a tiger pacing it’s cage at the zoo. Always moving, always going back and forth, but never doing anything.

When he gets his midterm scores back, Jon decides he can’t do this anymore. If he keeps going at this rate, he’ll lose what grip he does still have on his grades and he won’t have a choice but to go home and back to… back to Superboy.

He can’t go back to Superboy. Whatever else this reprieve of duty has done to him, he just can’t handle that anymore. He knows what he needs. He had a taste of it. Just a tiny, tiny, prototype of it, but he had it. That normalcy. That feeling like he knows what he’s doing, that he’s okay, and that things will work out. He had it and he lost it. And he doesn’t know how to get it back.

“Mom?”

He hears his mom’s gentle sigh over the phone. That familiar, knowing sigh she does when she knows she’s gearing up for something big. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

Jon explains the situation to her. No details spared. He tells her about Damian showing up, about Marinette seeing him, about her avoiding him and his slipping grades, and about how much going back to being Superboy terrifies him. He tells her how frustrated he is because he had, for just a moment, exactly what he wanted right in his hands and Damian came and knocked it to the floor and shattered it. He tells her how angry he is with Damian. With himself. With how he’s afraid what his dad will think of him if he’s so weak he can’t even save himself, much less be a hero worthy of being the son of Superman. He tells her how alone and stagnant he feels, how evil he feels for turning down Damian in the first place, and he begs her for help.

It’s a long, long, mostly one-sided conversation, punctuated by long periods of nothing but crying, but he tells her everything because he doesn’t have any other route to take.

“Sweetie, if you can’t be Superboy, then you can’t be Superboy.” His mom says. “Your dad and I do feel differently about it, but you remember what he said when you first talked to him about this? Good people help because they can. Honey, you can’t. And that’s okay. Not doing something you can’t do doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you normal.” And now he’s crying again. “He won’t be upset with you if you don’t go back to being a hero. He just wants you to be happy, same as I do. And it takes a lot more strength to admit when we can’t do something than to kill ourselves trying anyway. I’m proud of you. And he is, too.

“And I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you about Marinette. If she doesn’t want to be around you, then… there’s not much you can do but keep trying to be happy without her. I know she’s your friend, but… there’s only so much you can do. If she’s really against it, you might have to say goodbye.”

“I don’t want to.” Jon chokes out. “Mom, she’s my normal.”

“You found normal once. You can do it again.”

Jon frantically scrubs at his eyes, trying to stop the tears. “I… S’pose.” The thought doesn’t make him feel better, but it does make sense.

“And I think you should talk to Damian.”

“I don’t want to see him.” Jon growls.

“Jon, he’s your friend, too. You both woke up Marinette. It was wrong of him to ask you to help with his mission, but don’t blame him for what isn’t entirely his fault.”

There’s a spike in Jon’s heart, and it’s twisted because he knows she’s right.

“Don’t lose two friends over this, Jon.”

God, she’s right. Jon has to go talk to him. He doesn’t want to, but… he has to. Knowing Damian, he probably doesn’t fully understand why Jon’s even mad at him, so he has to. To at least give Damian a chance to understand.

Even if a part of him says good riddance, and that he’s better off without Damian always there to drag him back into the world of heroes.

Alfred answers the door of the manor and barely looks him up and down before telling Jon that Damian is in the batcave. Jon trudges past the old butler, following old paths through the manor he’d memorized a lifetime ago.

Damian catches sight of him the moment he enters and nods his acknowledgement. Jon notes that Tim is here, but he can’t bring himself to care.

It feels weird, walking into the batcave in an old flannel and worn-out jeans. It’s weird to not even have his suit underneath. This place feels so deeply entrenched with Jon’s memory of heroism that he feels out of place as he is. Underdressed, in a way.

“You should be talking to your father about returning to duty.” Damian says. “Hiding here won’t help.”

“I’m not returning to duty.” Jon says tiredly. “I’m here to talk to you.”

Damian pauses. He’s not expressive, per se, but Jon knows him too well. He knows Damian is embarrassed about the incident. Perhaps even… guilty? Jon’s too tired to think too much about it. “Ah. Right. Speak, then.”

Jon takes a deep breath to stamp down on the rage that bubbles up at Damian’s dismissive tone. Like he didn’t do anything wrong. Like he didn’t come by uninvited and… “You ruined my life.” Jon says quietly. “Do you understand that?”

Damian frowns at him. “There’s no need to get dramatic. This Marinette girl may have heard a bit too much, but she’s only one person. This can be solved easily.”

Jon groans. “That’s not what I’m talking about!” He pauses to breathe some more. He refuses to cry in the batcave. Especially not in front of Damian. “I’m not Superboy anymore. I’m not a hero anymore. I quit for a reason, Damian. I quit because I wanted… I just wanted one thing. I wanted something that could make me feel… okay. I can’t be Superboy, because I- because I…” More deep breaths. Stay calm. “Because I’m not okay. And I went to New York, to college, because I thought I could find something normal. I thought I could- I could be me and not have to fight all the time. And I did! I was happy! I felt safe, and I felt like I could- like I could- I felt like things would be okay.

“And then you came in. Now Marinette won’t talk to me. I’m all alone and I’m only getting worse, but every time I think about going back to being Superboy I panic because I can’t- I can’t fight like that again. I just… physically… I…” He sighs and focuses on his breathing again. “I thought I could be happy. But now that’s ruined.”

Jon notes that Damian stops looking at him somewhere along the line, but all he hears is Damian’s flippant retort. “You’ll get over her. Just because you love this girl doesn’t mean her not liking you is the end of the world.”

That’s where Jon sees red. He stalks up and grabs Damian by the collar, half-surprised that Damian lets him, but not hesitating to lift Damian into the air. “Don’t talk about her like that! You don’t understand anything! Don’t trivialize this like that! It’s not about love, Damian! I’m not in love with her! She was my normal! She was- She was…” Jon chokes on his own words and drops Damian so he can turn away and focus on keeping his tears from slipping free. “You don’t get it. I don’t know why I came here. I’m just going to- I’m going to go.”

“Wait, Jon.” Jon stops, turning back to look at Damian. Damian sighs, though it comes out as more of a huff. “I’m sorry.” He says. “I… I didn’t know why you quit, and I assumed… I shouldn’t have, and I apologize.”

It’s not much, but it’s an apology. It doesn’t fix anything, but it does make Jon feel just a little less broken. “Thanks.” Jon says quietly. “I’m sorry, too. I was yelling, too. It’s not entirely your fault she woke up.”

Damian just nods stiffly in acknowledgement, still refusing to meet Jon’s eye. “Would you… like help reconciling with Marinette? Perhaps if I-”

“God, no. For Christ’s sake, please don’t even step foot in New York.” Jon says it more biting than he means, but that doesn’t seem to bother Damian much. “Marinette doesn’t want anything to do with heroes. Quite frankly, I don’t disagree. If you come in trying to fix everything, it’ll only get worse.”

“…I understand. If you do need my assistance, I will be available for you.”

Jon stares at him for a while, wondering how he feels about that. He’s still resentful, a bit, but Damian is trying. He’s a far cry from that bratty thirteen-year-old that dragged little ten-year-old Jon around on wacky, life-threatening adventures. Jon supposes he’s pretty different now himself, too.

“Thanks, Damian. I appreciate that.”

-------=-------

Tag List: @moonystars14 @pawsitivelymiraculous @magic-miraculous @vixen-uchiha @buticaaba @bigpicklebananatree @lozzybowe @moonlightstar64 @amayakans <3

#miraculous ladybug fanfiction #ml x dc #ml fanfiction #maribat #marijon #ehhtrtd

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nitholites · 5 years ago

Text

Daminette Soulmate AU

Inspired by this post by @thepeacetea. Thank you for making an AU with so much Badass!Marinette possibilities. We. Stan. Epic. Marinette. I took a few creative liberties by changing how soulmates work a little bit, I hope no one minds too much. If people want more of this, I'll see what I can do. But, if this inspires anyone to write or add onto this- I personally highly encourage it! Seeing the works of art people can make from one thing are always inspiring to me. I'd love to see what, if anything, comes from this.

That's enough from me- time for the fic!

Marinette sighed, letting her mind wander back. She remembered knowing several languages before she hit double digits, her body reacting to surprise by calming her mind, spinning around, assessing the situation, and figuring the easiest way to... disable whomever startled her. It took a surprising amount of self control to act like a normal kid, which made her wonder.

Who the heck was her soulmate?

She had to have one- not because she wanted one but because of all the skills she couldn't explain having any other way. She remembered asking her parents about soulmates, and getting a few answers. Soulmates weren't common- actually being extremely rare. The bond was usually the same, though. A kind of skill share.

The more your soulmate used a skill or integrated it into their life, the more normal the skill felt to you, becoming habit over time. Which is why Marinette always knew the exits, shadows, hidden corners, number of people in a room with her, direction, and how to... disable anyone at any given time.

Her footsteps were always silent, and she kept to the shadows of the room by habit. Several times, she accidentally sneaked up on her parents or friends when she thought she wasn't being sneaky at all. She was surprisingly talented at gymnastics, and the sport was relaxing to her, so she continued it all through school.

When she became Ladybug, she could only make a mental note to thank her soulmate profusely for knowing so many self-defense styles and aggressive fighting.

At first, Chat had a major crush on her, but after showing him he wasn't her soulmate (by yelling at him in every language she knew [which were about 5 he didn't]), he had to accept the facts.

Life went on, and soon Lila was brought into the picture. Adrien didn't help, and the class soon left Marinette behind, bullying her and excluding her. But still, Marinette continued to do the best she could as the class representative.

Two years after she became Ladybug, Marinette won her class a trip to Gotham to tour the city and learn more about the American school system. They'd stay for the remainder of the school year (about two months) and would have the chance to intern under several high-class businesses, industries, and names. Rumor had it that whoever earned the right to would work with the Waynes during the summer for their internship, a huge boost to the lucky winner's resume.

Marinette organised everything for the trip- the hotel, activities, tours, school, etc- nearly without help (if you counted Tikki and Luka- two of Marinette's last friends and people who didn't even go to her school!).

The plane ride to Gotham wasn't very interesting. Marinette sat in the back alone while Lila and her lackeys gossipped and lied (both knowingly and unknowingly) about this and that. Every so often, Marinette would hear something about a Dimitri Wayne?

She inwardly scoffed, wondering if Lila meant the only blood Wayne child. Marinette had done quite a bit of research into Gotham, it's heroes vigilantes, villains, and important figures. 99% of Lila's claims about the Waynes could be disproven by a simple Google search, yet...

Marinette sighed, watching the sheep flock to the wolf.

There's nothing I can do for those who swallow such obvious lies.

They reached Gotham around 9pm, going straight to the hotel and getting their rooms. Marinette, predictably, was alone. She was thankful for that, though, because then she could leave and go Ladybug-ing whenever she felt she needed to.

Of course, Marinette knew the rough locations of everything she'd visit, but... it would be handy, seeing Gotham from the air and in person.

"What do you think, Tikki? Should Ladybug say hello to Gotham?"

"Not Ladybug, per-say. What if Hawkmoth figured out we weren't in Paris?"

Marinette nodded at the flying Kwami, hovering right in front of her face. "A change in identities, then. Think you can whip up something I'd like?"

Tikki nodded with a smile, thinking for a moment before shooting her Chosen a thumbs up. "Tikki, spots on!"

Before she left, she took a look at herself in the mirror, smiling at the new outfit.

Her hair, once midnight black/blue, was red with black stripes, gathered up into a bun at the top of her head with a black ribbon tying it together and the ends sticking up to form antenna-like things. Her bangs, once swept to the side now framed her face, the left side red and the right black. The ends brushed her chin, but never seemed to get in her way. Her mask was black like the rest of her outfit, red decal swirling intricately across the fabric. Red accents outlined where her gloves, boots, and sleeves were against a black background. Instead of the skin tight onesie, her outfit was split into four parts- the top, bottoms, gloves, and boots. Her top took a different style, looking more like a Chinese or Japanese kimono top, the bell sleeves covering her palms and loose. Red swirled around the top in descrete roses, red lining the hems. Her gloves were red, black roses stitched into the fabric on the back. Her pants were black and only reached her mid-calf, red roses stitched near the cutoff. Her ankle boots were plain black, the three-inch heel not inhibiting her in any way shape or form (thankfully) and her yo-yo was still strapped to her hip, but harder to see. On her back was a staff like Chat Noir's, but black and with spots indicating the button.

She tapped her chin, humming in thought. "I suppose I'll need a new name for Gotham." She shrugged, deciding to think about it later. She easily opened the window and hopped out, getting used to using the staff almost immediately as she vaulted over the roofs near the hotel, quickly gaining distance.

Nightwing frowned, eyes tracking the strange red and black figure who was easily taking down thugs twice their size. Seems like a new vigilante's in town, he thought, bringing a hand up to his comm. "Has anyone seen a new vigilante around?"

"No one's reported anything, why?"

He slid farther back into the shadows of the ally way he was crouched in, watching as the- what he could now tell- woman glanced around the small area. "I may have found one. See if you can find anything on her, Oracle. We'd better figure out if she's friend or foe before jumping in."

"Copy that. For now, track her."

"Way ahead of you," he said, silently jumping after her when she used some kind of baton to leap over the closest building.

Marinette paused, stopping on the roof. Her tail seemed more interested in finding out who she was than kidnapping or attacking her, as they would have done so an hour ago when she let them close. She knew she couldn't allow that- no matter who was tailing her. She pulled her yo-yo off her hip, keeping her tail carefully behind her even as they slowly and stealthy approached. They sounded male, if the heavier steps meant anything.

With practiced ease, she opened the weapon, reaching into the glowing pink and pulling out the Fox Miraculous. She had long since started putting the Box of Miracles in her yo-yo when she transformed, careful to keep the Miraculi out of Hawkmoth's hands. She slipped the necklace on, nodding once at Trixx. She held out her hands as she said, "Trixx, Tikki, unify."

Orange replaced the red in her costume, an orange glow surrounding her for a second. No more red was found on the heroine, the dark color replaced by a dark orange and the staff replaced with a flute on her back. She turned on her heel towards her tail, a carefully blank look on her face. "Come out," she demanded, suppressing her surprise when Nightwing appeared.

Neither spoke for a moment, eyeing each other and mentally figuring each other's strengths and weaknesses. "Why were you following me," she asked, keeping her spine straight.

"The better question is, why are you here? Gotham has more than enough protectors."

"I won't be here for long. The League has made it's decision loud and clear, and I won't 'waste your time with pranks'," she angrly spit out, heavy quotations in her sentence. She watched as mild confusion spread on the bird's face, but felt only a slight ping of regret, her emotions having watered down and muted over the years of fighting Hawkmoth. Ladybug couldn't be compromised, after all.

"What are you talking about?"

"Ask those receiving requests for help about a French heroine named Ladybug," she said, pulling the flute off her back. She played an ancient tune that flew into her fingers, removed the instrument from her lips, and fired the glowing orange ball towards the ground, shouting, "Mirage," as she did so. Orange smoke filled the area, a million masked heroines going in all directions and tricking the sensors in Nightwing's mask as she went back to her room, only staying awake long enough to feed the Kwamis and fall into her bed.

Red Robin frowned as he and Oracle looked through the footage from earlier, replaying it over and over. "Magic?"

"Has to be," he said, his brows furrowing as he scanned the footage once more. "There's no holographic projectors, and she didn't seem to know about the hidden cameras on him."

Oracle hummed, fingers flying away. "Any luck finding sources for the so-called heroine in France?"

Tim had been looking ever since the girl mentioned heroes in the country, only finding the Ladyblog. He didn't count it as credible, what with the obvious CGI. "No. Just a fake source," he said, sighing. "Maybe we should look through the League records. See if we can find anything."

"Way ahead of you," Barbara said, hitting the final key decisivly. "Four clips, one response."

"Play them."

A girl in a red and black spotted mask looked into the camera, the Eiffel Tower in the background. In accented English, she spoke. "Hello. My name is Ladybug, and I'm a new hero for Paris. My city is being terrorized by a villain who preys on any powerful, negative emotions he can find using the power of the Butterfly. I haven't been a hero long- today marks the full week. But I know we need help. My partner and I don't know what we're doing yet, and I can only drag us through battles so often until we run out of steam." Her blue eyes softened, hope and uncertainty in them.

"Please. If you get this- send help. Preferably someone with detective abilities and a good handle on their emotions so we can find Hawkmoth faster. I don't want to think of what damage Paris would go under if we had to fight an Akumatized member of the League..." She sighed, giving the camera a hopeful smile. "Bug out."

The next was in the middle of the day, giant bubbles floating in the air. The camera zoomed in on one, seeing adults trapped. The angle shifted to the streets, where kids were running rampant without supervision. "I don't know if I can fix the damage they'll do," the same voice called from out of the shot. "My Cure only works with very specific damages- and I don't think this counts. Please- the longer this goes on, the more powerful Hawkmoth becomes." Her voice held so much hope, it was nearly painful. "Ladybug out."

The next was again in the middle of the day, but this time, the streets were flooded. Only a few hundred people could be seen safe on roofs, and Ladybug did a full sweep of the city on camera before landing beside a blond hero in a black cat costume. "Syren is the most deadly Akuma we've seen so far," the heroine- Ladybug- said somberly. "I don't know what this will do to my people's mental health. It's already been months since Hawkmoth started his reign, but the changes may be permanent. Even a week after he started, I could see the changes in my people. They're more... empty. Like shells of the people they once were, scared to feel anything for the threat of Hawkmoth and harming their loved ones. I only pray my power continues to erase the memories of all those who become Akumatized, dead, or under the victim's control. My people are traumatized enough already. If anyone sees this, please.... send help."

The final clip showed a furious Ladybug staring into the camera, fires raging behind her. "It's been over a year since I first asked for your help. After so long, I thought I had accepted that no help was coming. But understand- you're leaving the fate of the world in a few teenagers hands! We can't keep going on like this- we'll burn out and Hawkmoth will win! Look at what Hawkmoth caused this time!" She turned the camera slowly, gathering the flaming city of love on screen. Craters filled the streets, no building over a story was intact. Bodies littered the streets- some charred and some bleeding. The Eiffel Tower was in pieces, crushing more people. Flames wracked the once-beautiful city, ash blocking the sun. "He will only get stronger, as will the Akuma he creates. But we won't without guidance and training! And no one on Team Miraculous has any kind of detective training- we aren't getting any closer to the source of the problem! And if Hawkmoth defeats both Chat Noir and I, the entire world may be doomed, depending on his wish." The camera was set down, Ladybug walking in front of it with a spotted object- something looking like a frying pan- in her hand. She threw it up, shouting "Miraculous Ladybug," as she did so. Millions of pink dots swarmed the city, fixing all damages and bringing people back to life wherever they touched. She swung down to a boy with black hair tipped blue, camera on his face, yet it was blurred to protect his identity. "Sir, tell me about this attack. I'm sorry to bring it up so soon, but the League cannot ignore an innocent's cry for help."

When he spoke, his voice went through a some kind of modifier. "Okay, Ladybug... Well, my sister and I were walking home from school. We had band practice later today- I guess that's cancelled. Anyway, we were minding our own business when Inferna came. I tried protecting my sister, but..." He took a deep breath. "She was too fast. My sister burned alive right in front of me, and I couldn't do anything."

"I'm sorry," Ladybug said, a hand coming to lay on the boy's shoulder. "I'm sorry we didn't stop her in time. That you had to see this. That you have to remember. If I could wipe that memory from you, I would, but..." A heavy sigh came from behind the camera. "Thank you for sharing." The process repeated with a couple more people- some young some old, and some who died during the experience. All were traumatized from this Akuma, and previous, yet they had hope. At the end, Ladybug turned the camera on herself, face stern. "I know this may not seem possible to you. I know this may look like editing, and that this may be a waste of time. But if you think that, spend a weekend in Paris. See for yourself what we've become. Ladybug out."

The only thing left was a letter from the League. It amounted to, "Don't send in prank calls anymore. You're taking away from those who need it."

Tim and Barbara were furious. But this issue needed care.

It was time to call the Batman.

Bruce's brows drew closer and closer as the clips played, his anger obvious when the letter was shown. But, unsurprisingly, his reaction was the most subdued of those in the room.

Anger freely rolled off of Jason, Dick, Barbara, Damian, and even Alfred. Tim had already started to get his feelings under control as his fingers flew across the keyboard, his face reflecting his concentration. "I don't recognize the signature on the letter," Bruce stated. Which was strange, because he kept tabs on everyone who worked for the League. Just in case.

"You're not the only one," Tim said, keeping his eyes on the screen in front of him. "I can't find this guy anywhere. I'm starting to think he doesn't exist, but..."

"That would mean the League has someone who's either working with Hawkmoth- who seems to be the one attacking Paris- or someone who doesn't want the situation to be known," Dick said, crossing his arms. "Neither situation is good."

"So what can we do about it?" All eyes turned to Damian until he explained. "She said Hawkmoth was using the people's emotions against them. Members of the League aren't exactly the most emotionally strong, and a lot of them use negative emotions to strengthen themselves in battle."

"You're uncharacteristically angry about this," Bruce observed, watching as his youngest didn't react to his statement outside of raising an eyebrow. This wasn't the first time Damian reacted differently than expected. Bursts of outrage or annoyance at specific groups of people, almost muted emotions, nearly inhumane emotional recovery. At first, Bruce hoped the Wayne was simply getting a better control on his emotions, but after a while of observing... He realized that wasn't the case. "What's going on, Damian?"

The teen hesitated, the expression he usually made when he scolded himself appearing on his face. "What's your view on soulmates?"

Bruce blinked, having categorized that specific response as less than likely. "I think if you have one, you should be able to decide to seek them out or not. To have the option of creating a life with them if you so chose. Damian, is your soulmate in trouble?"

"My first language, as you know, is Arabic. But my second is French- if you can call it a second. The language simply appeared in my head the same time I was learning Arabic as a baby, according to my caretakers. I'd switch between the two without thought as a child," Damian explained. "While I was learning other languages, the same thing happened to Mandarin. When I had a pastry for the first time after I moved in with you, I could instantly tell what ingredients the chef used, how much, and what adding more or less of certain ingredient would do to the final product. With all this, I've deduced my soulmate is a French-Chinese baker," Damian revealed. "Now, with this information about Paris..."

"You think your soulmate is in danger," Dick accurately guessed. "Damn, that must be infuriating."

"How many times have they died when help from the League could have saved them," Damian wondered. "How many times have we let them down?"

"You have to remember, Baby Bird- your soulmate gets your skills, too," Tim called, still clacking away. "Whoever they are, they'd put up one hell of a fight if anyone tried attacking."

"I'm aware, Drake. But that doesn't mean they're invincible to drowning and getting crushed."

"Why do you think they're in Paris, specifically," Dick asked.

"It takes effort to feel negative emotions now," the youngest Wayne said. "All of you know I don't have the longest temper. But when I'm not thinking about it, my negative emotions just... dissapere. All of them."

"If what Ladybug said was true, and their terrorist uses emotions to take control of the person, that's likely what the people have taken to to avoid being controlled," Dick hummed, frowns appearing on everyone's faces.

"For now, let's inform the rest of the League," Bruce decided, walking to the computer. "Let's see if anyone has an idea of what's going on."

Alfred, meanwhile, frowned. If the Ladybug is in play... the world is at stake.

Marinette never had good luck in her day to day life. She guessed all her good luck was spent as Ladybug, and she needed a luck balance or something. Which is how she chose the one outlet in the entire hotel that didn't work. Her phone died during the night, so she woke up late, the clock on the bedstand reading 8:17 am. The bus was set to leave at 8, but she wouldn't be surprised if Lila had convinced them to leave earlier. It was only thanks to the Kwamis that she got up that early, but she still missed the bus. She scrambled to get ready, sprinting out of the hotel after five minutes. She found a nearby allyway, ducking into it and letting Tikki fly out of her jacket. "We gotta hurry. Tikki, spots on!"

Damian scowled, pinching the bridge of his nose as the group in front of him scrambled to find their missing student. "Didn't you call roll," he asked in French, being the translator and main guide for Wayne Enterprises.

"Well, yes, but... I swear Marinette was with us!"

He was starting not to like the teacher too much. Or the gaggle of girls gossiping about how the missing student just wanted attention. "You realize Gotham has the highest crime rates in the US, correct?" At the teacher's shaky nod, he continued, his scowl deepening. "Then why on Earth would you allow one of your students to go missing?!"

He was about to rant more when the doors slid open, a girl with pigtails running through and out of breath. "I'm here," she gasped, her hands resting on her knees.

"Marinette! There you are."

The bluest eyes Damian had ever seen (a high honer considering his father and Grayson) looked up, holding regret. "Sorry, Madame. My phone died, so the alarm didn't go off. It won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't. We're going to have to hurry through this to stay on schedule."

"Now hold on," Damian growled, steeping between the teacher and her students. "You were just saying that she was in the bus this morning. Now you're saying it's her fault you didn't check the bus properly before leaving?"

The woman paled as surprise grew in the girl's eyes. "It's alright now," she said, standing and catching her breath. "I'm here and safe, and we're already behind. Let's just leave this in the past and go on with the tour."

"You don't seem to understand the danger you could have been in, miss...?"

"Marinette."

"Marinette. Any one of Gotham's rouges could have picked you up, or a common thief or mugger could have cornered you. Especially if you were alone."

"I'm aware," she calmly responded. "That would have been their mistake. There's a reason few Akuma come after me anymore."

"Oh, yeah," a dark boy with a red cap said. "I keep forgetting your crazy soulmate, dudette."

"Soulmate," the dark girl with glasses asked, looking to the boy in confusion. "Marinette doesn't have a soulmate. She would have told me."

Marinette sighed through her nose, seemingly gathering herself. "Alya, I don't like talking about my soulmate. I don't know what they're comfortable sharing about their skills, so I try not to talk about it."

Damian's respect for the small girl shot through the roof. "Yeah, but the dudette was awesome against playground bullies," the boy said, gathering attention. "Kim, you remember?" A tall boy nodded, a grin on his face.

"It was really cool to watch this tiny little girl in pigtails completely destroy them," he commented. "Dunno how she did it to this day, but there were always two things Marinette's never stood for. Liars and bullies."

"Then how come she is one," the glasses girl from earlier asked, her brows furrowing. "Something doesn't add up."

"Maybe she changed," a girl with sasauge hair said. "People do that."

All of a sudden, the atmosphere changed, interest becoming hostility. "Guys, let's just do this," Marinette said, looking tired. She grabbed the extra pass in the tub and plopped it around her neck.

Lunch couldn't come soon enough for Marinette and Damian. The former because she forgot to grab breakfast, and the latter so he could talk to his family about Marinette's treatment within the class. He heard everything said about her during the tour, and his anger at the class only grew. Usually, he wouldn't care and just be annoyed at the gossip, but even he could see how kind she was. Several times, she interacted with the staff the others ignored, seeing if she could help them carry something or open doors or pick up something they dropped. She was fluent in English, too, and more often than not whatever language the employee spoke first. Which was odd, since WE prided itself on its diverse hiring and multicultural assistance, meaning most people wouldn't be able to converse in so many languages.

She spoke in well over 10 languages- all ones Damian was fluent in, as well.

What a coincidence.

Word about the French angel spread fast through the building, as Damian heard whispers following his steps. At one point, a group of employees came up to him to ask about the French girl, wondering if the rumors were true.

Most of them were, but he was on a mission so he didn't spend much (if any) time dealing with the people. When he found an empty meeting room without anything booked for the next hour, he called one of the best people he knew to get to the bottom of this, as much as he hated admitting it.

"Hello?"

"Drake. I need a favor."

Lunch went by without major incident- besides Lila claiming a 'Dimitri Wayne' was her soulmate and childhood friend.

Marinette inwardly scoffed, knowing that Damian had been living with his mother until he turned double digits, and that he spent a year or two getting used to Gotham before ever announcing his existence to the world. Even then, no one is even completely sure what he looks like, let alone his friends, and those who actually knew him would be sworn to secrecy by the Waynes. Again, though, she realized how little power she had to change her classmates' views on the Italian and her tall tales. Marinette's instincts told her of someone approaching from behind, and she whirled around on her heel without much thought, pausing as she saw the tour guide walking up to the group. "Okay, lunch's over! Let's get this show on the road, hm?"

Her class quickly gathered around the tall man, ready to continue the tour. Marinette, like usual, was in the back of the group, sketchbook out and pencil flying across the page.

"You're very skilled at drawing."

She didn't jump or whirl around, having heard the approaching footsteps and slight muttering a while ago. "Thank you, but I still have a long way to go." She quickly wrapped up the rough sketch, then closed the book, sending a bright smile at the boy. "And thank you for speaking in my defence this morning."

"Think nothing of it." The teen waved his hand dissmissively, eyes trailing back to the front for a moment.

"Still. My name's Marinette, by the way. Marinette Dupen-Cheng."

"Damian," he said, nodding. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise!" She smiled once again, her shoulders a little more lifted than what they were before. "So, how long have you worked at WE?"

They talked amongst themselves for the remainder of the tour, Damian pointing out and explaining more than the guide for most of the tour. And when there wasn't anything educational to talk about, they spoke a little of themselves, getting to know the person beside them a little better. Damian also asked more about the situation in Paris, earning a sad look from the girl beside him and quite a bit of new information. All too soon, though, the tour ended. Over the course of their conversations, Damian learned that that morning wasn't the first time Marinette had been left behind, and quickly deduced that it wouldn't be the last with the children called her classmates. So, when the time to part came, he offered an alternative course of action.

"Gotham can be a beautiful city. Why don't I show you a few inspiring scenic places?" Marinette blinked at the teen, but smiled.

"Let me ask Madame real quick- I'm sure she won't mind too much."

#maribat #daminette #damian wayne #bruce wayne #class salt #lila salt #lila gets exposed #miraculous marinette #marinette dupen chang #mlb x dc #uncle jagged #alfred pennyworth #penny rolling #tim drake #jason todd #dick grayson

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starshine583 · 5 years ago

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Close Calls

(Surprise, surprise! You all asked for a part 6! lol This one is shorter but here you go anyway)

Surprise Guests (this was part 5)

Damian stashed away his grappling hook, glancing around the alley he landed in.

“You better hope no one saw you like that.”

He rolled his eyes, turning to face his older adopted brother, Dick. “I don’t remember asking you to keep tabs on me.”

“Damian.” Bruce cut in from behind Dick with a stern tone. “I told you to lay low while we were here.”

Damian crossed his arms. “Wasn’t our whole purpose for coming here supposed to be investigating Hawkmoth for the League?”

“Yes, but as far as they know, we’re here for a special banquet.”

“A banquet that you ditched, by the way.” Dick spoke up, none too pleased about the stunt.

Damian smirked anyway. No regrets. Sneaking off with Marinette had been more fun than he expected. After finding her so panicked in the VIP room, he was pleasantly surprised to see how confident she was during their walk. She didn’t even flinch when the building nearly crushed-

“Crap!” He almost yelled, already taking out his grappling hook again. How could he forget about them splitting up? What if she was still hiding? Or looking for him?

The gun was taken out of his hands before he could shoot it properly.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Dick asked, holding the gun above his head.

Damian glared at him, sharply stating, “It’s none of your business.”

Dick held it higher when Damian reached for it, and he was extremely close to taking it by force. He needed to get back to Marinette and make sure she was okay. If she got hurt in a villain attack because he asked her to show him around Paris-

“It’s that pigtails girl, isn’t it? I thought I saw someone else when you were sneaking past those statues.” His brother mused.

Damian growled, about ready to break Dick’s legs or just go on foot, when Bruce stepped in again.

“You can’t go, Damian. You’ve already blown our cover. We need to get back to the hotel before someone starts to suspect something."

His fists clenched at his side. So he can’t even go check on her as Damian? "It’s our job to protect the innocent. The heroes here didn’t even know she was caught in the middle of battle!”

He ignores Dick’s smug look from guessing correctly.

Bruce narrowed his eyes. “Our job is to finish this mission and make sure the threat of Hawkmoth’s villains will stay in Paris. We already know Ladybug’s power can fix the damage of the attacks.” A twitch of a smile crossed his lips. "Your girlfriend will be fine.“

A scarlet blush spread over Damian’s cheeks, thankfully hidden by the mask. "She’s not-”

“ Yeah, whatever. Put these on so we can go.” Dick interrupted, throwing him the outfit that Marinette gave him. They must have found it in the car. Damian thought he would ask about where they came from, but the look on Dick’s face proved that he already had an idea of what the answer would be.

He glowered at the two as he left to go find a secluded place to change. He’s going to have to send an apology note with the servant he sends for the other clothes. Stupid hero responsibilities.

“So,” Bruce began once Damian returned, “if you’re expecting no punishment, then I’m assuming the trip was productive. Did you find out anything else?”

“Apparently, the butterflies disappear once Hawkmoth ‘isn’t transformed’. That’s why they let the butterflies go. Ladybug uses her weapon to ‘purify’ the butterflies to stop them from multiplying.”

“Do you think that’s what happened on Hero’s Day? They forgot to purify an akuma?” Dick thought aloud, looking to Bruce.

The man hummed. “Not likely. All of those villains were different. The news feed from the first fight two years ago showed the multiplication of the same villain.”

Damian nodded. As informative as the media was, it never gave a direct explanation on how the heroes’ powers work or why Hawkmoth was after them specifically. That’s why the Justice League sent them here, to get more answers and keep a lid on the situation.

“We’re going to need to talk with one of the civilians.” Bruce decided, turning to Damian. “How much do you think that girl knows?”

A smirk crept onto his lips. “Plenty.”

She’d have all the knowledge they needed if it meant he could go check on her.

Bruce and Dick exchanged looks, probably reading his thoughts.

Nevertheless, Bruce nodded. “Alright. We’ll go back to the hotel room for today. Tomorrow, you can go work on that while Dick and I ‘check’ on the places we’re funding with the mayor.”

Not exactly what Damian was hoping for, but he’d take it. Tomorrow it is.

Tag List: @thebookwormfairy @unholykrow @constancetruggle @vixen-uchiha @derpingrainbow @kceedraws @graduatedmelon @starry-bi-sky @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @sweatyruinsstudentbored @go-n-ef @tinybrie @resignedcatservant @never-neverland @captainmac6 @drama-queen-supreme @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @roseinbloom02 @grimmhallow31 @zazzlejazzle @crazylittlemunchkin @iggy-of-fans @origamieater @kiara-rose-blackthorn @spicybelladonna @redscarlet95

#Daminette #Damian Wayne #Marinette #Gotham AU

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marimeetsmischief · 5 years ago

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the Safety of a Mask - Chapter One

read on Ao3

summary: Two years ago, Ladybug and Chat Noir faced off against Hawkmoth for the last time. Two years ago, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste were forced to give up their miraculous in the months after the final battle. They never got the chance to tell each other who they were, or have any kind of life together. Two years ago, everything just... stopped.

Marinette has been locked in grief for two years and no one even knows what happened to Adrien. The betrayal of his father, Nathalie, the permanent loss of his mother, Plagg and his Ladybug, he had every reason to grieve.

But now Paris is faced by a new villain, with an all-new Miraculous, and all anyone wants to know is...

Where are Ladybug and Chat Noir?

A tiny set of pink lips parted widely, a soft and sweet yawn escaping them. As she always was this early in the morning, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was exhausted. Even with years of filled up schedules and even a double life for a while, she had never quite adjusted to the lack of sleep. Now, even though she was twenty years old, she was still just as exhausted by it as she had always been. It was hard for her to find much energy anymore, or inspiration or creativity of any kind. It wasn’t exactly hard to pinpoint the moment those things had left her either. But, as much as she wished otherwise, there was nothing she could do about it anymore.

She took a moment to stretch, yawning again before letting her arms fall at her sides, hitting her hand on a macaron display in the process. The little wire tower wobbled for a moment as she froze in place, praying for some kind of good luck to keep it from falling, but it was pointless. Her luck had left her two years ago, she knew that much. The tower shuddered one last time, and as it started to settle, one of the legs happened to shake right off the edge of the counter, toppling the whole thing over and covering Marinette in the pastel cookies.

“Figures,” she muttered hollowly, dusting them off of her and sighing helplessly. It was a good thing that her and her parents had learned to be prepared for this kind of thing. She picked up the macarons carefully, and arranging them haphazardly with the tray of croissants she had overcooked slightly this morning when she had fallen asleep in the kitchen. Because of her frequent mishaps, they had decided to have a little section that was aptly named the “Marinette Special,” which was just a teasing way of saying pastries and cookies that were half off because of some accident or another. At least this way, the thought had been, they don’t completely lose out on money. And sure enough, people didn’t mind buying dented macarons or crunchy pastries since Tom Dupain’s recipes were still the best around. After she’d set those up on the discount tray, she disappeared into the back, grabbing a replacement tray of macarons to arrange on the wire tower.

Coming back into earshot of the front door, she head the little bell jingle and whispers of the tiniest voice leaking into the kitchen. Practically throwing down the tray, Marinette dashed out of the kitchen, looking around wildly for the source of the voice, trying desperately to spot what she was so sure had to be the little red kwami. When her eyes landed on a little girl in the arms of her mother, she tried her best not to be surprised. After all this time, she wasn’t sure what she expected.

—-

Two Years Before

“Master, please, you can’t,” Marinette pleaded tearily, holding the red kwami to her chest and slowly backing away from the Guardian she had trusted so wholeheartedly.

“Marinette, I would not ask for this if I was unsure. The powers of the Miraculous will be needed elsewhere, and I cannot make another mistake with them.” Wang Fu’s words were solemn, the whole speech dripping with sadness at the heartbreak he had to inflict on a girl he cared deeply for. Marinette and Tikki were both in tears, not sure how they could ever say goodbye to each other. Fu had already collected the black cat Miraculous, having hoped it would be the easier of the two, but Plagg had put up much more of a fight than he ever had before. After having to fight through that interaction, the poor old man was tired, and thoroughly broken.

“Oh Marinette, I’ll never be gone from you,” Tikki said softly, pain in her voice as she floated up, kissing the tip of her chosen’s nose. “You’ll always be my Ladybug, Marinette. And we’ll be together again soon, I just know it,” she added, trying to show some kind of smile and bravery. Marinette could do nothing but sob once more and wipe her eyes, nodding. With shaking hands, she slowly took the familiar earrings off, holding them out to Master Fu and dropping them into his hands. The sudden coldness on her earlobes broke her heart more than she thought it would. She closed her eyes and turned away, crying softly as the door opened and shut with a very final sounding click. “Tikki, I renounce you,” she mumbled, barely audible at all. Her shoulders heaved with body racking sobs, feeling the warmth of her friend leave her once and for all, like all the light in the world had gone out.

——

Marinette quickly shook her head, forcing the memory from her mind and trying to focus on the customer in the bakery, taking a moment to comprehend that both the girl and her mother were frantically pointing at something behind her. As soon as she was alerted to it, her nose recognized the smell of smoke and she whirled around, rushing into the kitchen.

“NO! No no no no no,” she muttered angrily, flinging the door of the oven open, and grabbing for the tray. In her rush, she had forgotten that her hands were bare, and screeched rather loudly. By now, the smell of smoke and the scream of pain had alerted her father to some kind of crisis and his heavy steps sounded on the stairs, rushing down them to find the problem. When he got down the stairs, he was greeted with the sight of his poor daughter on her knees in tears, clutching her hand carefully with a tray of blackened cookies next to her. Upon seeing him, she cried even more, trying to make her way onto her feet without using her hand somehow.

“Papa, I’m so sorry, I spaced out and-“ he quickly cut Marinette off and pulled her into a crushing hug, petting her head carefully.

“Shush now, sweetheart, you hurt yourself, please don’t apologize.” Tom knew his daughter had always been clumsy and a little odd, maybe even rough around the edges, but she had been so much worse in the last year especially. She had never burned her hand this badly before, and it broke his heart to see her apologizing to him when she was the one hurting. He pulled away, helping to lift her onto her feet and finally met her teary eyes with the softest look only a concerned parent could hold. “It’s okay, Marinette, I’ll handle this, and you go to the hospital to get that hand checked out, okay?”

At first she wanted to protest, trying to muster the strength to play off the burns and convince him that she was okay. When she looked into his eyes, she knew that there was no fooling him though, and just nodded dejectedly. She started up the stairs, tearing up again as she climbed them. She made a beeline for her room, ignoring her mother’s attempts to talk to her, concern laden in her voice. She grabbed her purse, and pulled her apron off, forgetting for a moment about her burned hand only to cry out when she used it to grasp the rough fabric. She descended from her room, stopping at the top of the stairs into the bakery when she heard her parents talking.

“Tom, I can’t stand seeing her like this,” Sabine sighed tiredly. Even though she couldn’t see her mother’s face, Marinette could hear the tears starting to creep into her voice.

“I know, honey, but I don’t know what else to do. You know as well as I do, nothing we’ve tried has worked. She doesn’t talk to anyone, she doesn’t go out, she doesn’t even sketch designs anymore!” Her father’s voice was shaky, pain present in every wobbly syllable. Tom Dupain was always the steady one, the rock in the great storm of life. At least, that’s what Marinette thought of him. But because of her, he was hurting, she thought.

“Well maybe we could give her a break from the bakery. Or even get her out of Paris, send her on a trip with her grandmother? We have to try something.”

Deep down, she knew that it was only said out of worry. She knew her parents loved her dearly, even with all the accidents and vacantness she had held lately. But when she heard those words, the only thing her brain could process was that they wanted to get rid of her. And in her mind, they were right to. She had fallen apart after everything that had happened, and she honestly wasn’t sure how she would ever be okay again.

Somehow, Marinette held back the overflow of tears that was gathering at her eyes, keeping the floodgates up long enough to run down the rest of the stairs, out the door and halfway down the block before letting it all out.

——

To be entirely honest, Marinette had no idea how she had managed to make it all the way to the hospital. That had to be some kind of miracle, of course, given her track record. She had been in a daze for the whole walk there, vaguely knowing where she was going, but not much more than that. Thankfully, she had found the hospital somehow and headed for the first set of doors she saw, too many tears in her eyes to bother reading the signs around her. The automatic doors whooshed open in front of her, and she stepped into the chilly air and hugged her shoulders tightly. She hadn’t anticipated this level of air conditioning, dressed in just a pink tee shirt and black skinny jeans. Marinette awkwardly approached the front desk, finally realizing that she probably wasn’t at the right entrance, but not sure how else to get there but ask directions.

“Uh, erm, hi, I’m looking for the emergency room?” she asked, her voice hesitant and soft as she stumbled over the words. At first, the woman at the front desk seemed annoyed, slapping her magazine closed with a loud sigh. However, as soon as she noticed Marinette’s tear stained face and red eyes, her gaze softened and she took pity on the girl.

“It’s a little confusing to find it from here, give me a second and I’ll call someone to escort you, alright?” she said, trying to be as comforting as possible with her tone. Then, she picked up a walkie talkie off of her desk and pushed the call button and began to talk into it. Marinette at this point had nodded and looked around her, trying to find some sign of where she was. The inside of the room was stark white and bare, bright fluorescent lights that could have given her a headache. She’d always hated the way hospitals were cold like this, even though she knew it had to do with cleanliness. Finally, someone showed up and the nurse at the desk motioned for her to follow him out the door she had come in, which she quickly did. Or rather, tried to, almost instantly crashing into a tall man dressed in designer looking clothing. She fell to the floor, toppling backwards slightly with a squeak. Quickly shaking her head to clear the confusion and disoriented feeling from her limbs, she scrambled up, muttering high pitched apologies as she rushed to follow the orderly. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at the person she had knocked into, confusing herself when she thought that they looked a little familiar. As she hurried out the door, she didn’t notice the blonde head of hair shake in disbelief, or the bright green eyes widen in recognition. She definitely didn’t hear the person softly mumble her name as they watched her speedwalk to keep up with the orderly’s longer legs. What she did notice, however, was the lettering over the doorway that read “St. Bernadette Psychiatric Institute.”

What a place to mix up with the ER, she thought to herself, shaking her head. I’m lucky she didn’t see my excessive crying as a danger and have me committed. She shuddered at that thought, not even remembering that the man she had run into had seemed familiar in the slightest. Noticing that her guide was already a few paces ahead of her, she tried to stop thinking entirely, picking up her pace in order to not lose sight of him. By the time they had reached the emergency wing, she was thoroughly winded, and thanked him profusely between panted breaths before heading for the correct set of doors.

——

After about four hours of waiting and talking to doctors and nurses, Marinette left the hospital with her hand carefully bandaged, a prescription for a topical salve that would help it heal, and instructions to change the bandage every day. With all the time she had had to think and figure her mind out, she felt a little soothed, though not enough to be completely relaxed. She had no idea how she was going to talk to her parents after she had left the house in such an emotional state. It was even harder to think about telling them that she had heard their conversation about sending her away. She wasn’t sure why she was so opposed to the idea, but something in her was screaming at her that she had to remain in Paris. It wasn’t like she really had anything there for her at the moment. She wasn’t taking any classes, didn’t have any internships, and she couldn’t even remember the last time she had even spoken to someone that could be considered a friend. In fact, if she really thought about it, she hadn’t really spoken to anyone after she had taken her final exams at Françoise-Dupont. If she was in a better state of mind, maybe that would bother her more, but as it was, she wasn’t really sure how she felt about it.

Losing Tikki when she hadn’t expected it had taken a lot away from her. It was almost as if all the progress she had made while being Ladybug was heavily reverted, and she ended up even worse than she had been when she took on the mask. Her creativity had plummeted, her clumsiness skyrocketed, and even her luck got worse. Of course, if she had lived a normal life, it would have just been labeled as depression. But she wasn’t exactly normal, and she knew that. There were times when she almost wished she had never even become Ladybug in the first place. After growing so used to having Tikki and her powers, Marinette had grown to feel kind of useless without them. In her mind, her classmates had probably been relieved when she drifted away from them and eventually just vanished from their lives. It wasn’t like she could remember how much they had tried to stop her anyways, the last months of her time in school flashing by like a meaningless blur. But that was two years ago. Was two years a long time to go without really having friends? Did it really matter, in the long run? After all, no one had made any recent attempts to reach out, so she had to be right about her absence being some kind of relief… right?

“Oh, it doesn’t matter,” she groaned out loud, picking up her pace as she walked back to the bakery. She wanted to get back already and have this awful conversation with her parents, not even caring what the outcome would be anymore. Even if her gut told her to remain in Paris, she didn’t see why she had to listen to it, especially since she had reminded herself once again that she had nothing to keep her here. Maybe if she went with her grandma, she could find another source of inspiration, or anything at all to keep her going, and get her off of the train towards lifelessness she was stuck on. It was a hard decision to think about, the idea of leaving the place she had been raised, even if only for a month or two. By the time she had made it to the bakery, she was thoroughly confused and conflicted, having twisted her mind up with every pro, con, and what if scenario.

“Mama, Papa, I’m back!” she called out to the empty bakery, looking around. Apparently they had closed for the lunch break already, so she popped upstairs and found them sitting at the table, a sandwich already prepared for her. That little gesture put a smile on her face and she greeted them both with love, kissing their cheeks softly.

“Marinette, sweetie, how’s your hand?” her mom asked her immediately, standing up to check on her and make sure she was okay. She just shrugged it off, chuckling in a way that was a little less forced than normal.

“It’s alright, they said the burn was only a second degree, so there might be some blistering but I’ll be okay. I picked up the prescription salve they gave me on the way back.” She sat down at the table with them, trying to figure out how to eat the sandwich with only one hand before her mother stopped her, laughing and shaking her head.

“Here, here, let me cut it into small pieces,” she said, standing up and grabbing a knife, cutting the sandwich into eighths that were small enough to be picked up with only one of Marinette’s dainty hands. “Do you want anything to drink, sweetheart?” she asked after she had cut the lunch up, moving to the fridge. “There’s still some lemonade left from yesterday’s lunch, if you want that.”

“That’s perfect, mama, thank you,” she said softly, becoming increasingly worried by the careful way they were treating her. They had always been fairly gentle with her, but this porcelain doll treatment was even more worrying than normal. She hurried to swallow the bite of sandwich she had taken, wanting to talk before they got the chance to say whatever they were clearly worried about bringing up. “Listen, I know I haven’t… been exactly myself for a while, and I’m sorry it’s worried you so much. With everything that happened at the end of my last year of school, I think I got a little confused with what I wanted and who I wanted to be.”

She paused, pursing her lips and wrinkling her eyebrows in thought as she searched for the right words. It was hard to understand what she wanted to say, even for her. Did she want to stay or go? Should she even bring up that she had heard their conversation? Would that just cause more problems, or should she just approach it head on like she always had so much trouble doing. So many years of carefully crafted and elaborate plans, sometimes she thought she had forgotten how to just be direct, even with herself or her parents.

“Please don’t send me away,” she finally admitted abruptly, looking down at her plate as she willed the tears not to fall. She gritted her teeth and steeled herself, trying to appear to be steady, even just for her parents' sake. “I understand why you think that might be a good idea for me, but here, with you, is where I belong.”

Her parents were definitely shocked by her sudden eloquence. It definitely wasn’t what they expected from their daughter. They couldn’t help but be proud of her for it though, and nodded, glad that she had managed to tell them how she felt about it all. None of them could really phrase any of the intense emotions in the room, so they settled for exchanging a set of loving and understanding looks before settling in to finish the lunch in silence. Thankfully, it wasn’t awkward, and the silence didn’t last the whole way through. After about ten minutes of quiet chewing, Marinette dropped an entire slice of tomato on her lap, groaning exasperatedly before meeting her parents eyes, all three of them bursting into cheerful and amicable laughter. A little bit of tried and true Marinette brand clumsiness had been exactly what they needed to get back to normal, and the meal continued with a series of teasing bread related puns from her father and amused giggling from her mother, punctuated by the odd groan or grumble from Marinette. This was who they had always been, after all. For all their messes and worries, the Dupain-Chengs were possibly the least dysfunctional family in Paris, and that would never change.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug fanfic #ml fanfic #tsoam #the safety of a mask #my writing #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #ladybug #chat noir #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir

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miraculous786 · 5 years ago

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Akumatized!Adrien: Simulacrum > Part Five

Masterlist

It had been an hour, and there was still no sign of Ladybug or Chat Noir. None of them had appeared, not even any extra heroes like Queen Bee or Carapace.

I sprinted towards my home, jumping past the River Seine and Eiffel Tower. Though I wanted to admire the sunset, it was more important to talk to Marinette. I'm guessing that she should be awake by now.

Thankfully, Hawk Moth seemed to be understanding, but it was really strange. I mean, when I'd offered to look for the miraculous before he was quite startled, and instead of shouting at me to cause a problem to lure Ladybug and Chat Noir earlier, he allowed me to do whatever I pleased.

Maybe he pitied me? I wasn't sure.

~*~*~

I groaned, lifting my head up off of the pillow beneath my head. Wait, pillow?

I shot up, taking in my surroundings. The room, which I assumed was a bedroom, was enormous compared to mine, with a computer with several monitors, a basket ball hoop on the wall, and lots of room to walk.

Was this Adrien's room? Why did he bring me here?

Was it to get revenge on me for lying about the scarf? I hoped not. I don't know how I'd deal with being hurt by my crush.

Speaking of which, I needed to transform in order to break his akumatized object and save him.

"Tikki?" I asked, my voice echoing in the spacious room.

Immediately, a blur of red shot into my face and nuzzled my cheek.

"Marinette!" a squeaky voice cheered. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

I giggled, her warmth tickling my skin. "Yeah, me too! How did you find me?"

"Well, Plagg was going to warn you, but since you came to school early he couldn't. So, after you were kidnapped by Adrien I went to find him, and he told me what happened," my kwami explained.

"Why, what did happen?" I questioned, confused. "And why would you go to Plagg when Adrien was akumatized?"

A black blur shot out from a bookcase, and landed on my blanket-covered lap.

"It's because it would be hard to get an akuma when Chat has been akumatized," Plagg stated in a bored voice.

"Wait- how has Chat Noir been akumatized when Adrien ha-" My eyes widened. No way.

"ADRIEN IS CHAT NOIR?" I screeched, jumping off of the bed, causing Plagg to fall onto the ground.

"Ouch! What was that for?" Plagg scolded. "And yes, he is. Gosh, it only took over a year to find out.”

I didn't speak for a minute, processing what I'd heard. I felt like all of my brain cells had been fried, and my voice didn't work.

"M-Marinette?" Tikki's voice said wearily.

"Just give her another minute," Plagg assured.

They couldn't be the same person, they're too different! Adrien is mature and sweet, while Chat is humorous and cocky. Besides, they don't even look similar. Chat's hair is messy and blonde, and Adrien's is blonde and done well.

Then again, they both are the same height and build, and have the same, beautiful green eyes, and...

I had rejected my crush the whole time? The boy I've been pursuing for over a year was pursuing me! Yet, I still rejected Chat for Adrien, the same person! Gosh, when I change him back, we're going to have to talk.

"Tikki, I think it's time to safe my kitty!" I exclaimed, fists clenched.

"Tikki, spots-" I cut myself off when I noticed a figure leaping in the Paris skyline, heading towards the room I was in. Quickly, I yelled, "You two, hide!"

They both did so, and I scrambled to the bed, pulling the covers over me and pretending that I was asleep.

After a minute of waiting with my eyes closed, I heard the sound of scuffling, and soon a strong gust of wind blew into the room, making me shiver. Oh, great.

A shadow appeared above me, and I squinted one of my eyes open to be met with a porcelain face, with black streaks coming from the eyes.

We stared at each other for a while, before a pair of muscular arms lifted me from the bed, gently. Simulacrum walked over to the white couch facing his window and eased me onto it, laying me so that my back was leaning against the armrest, my legs stretched out on the rest of the couch.

He closed the window he had entered from and locked it, before sitting on the opposite end of the couch, turned to me. Even though Adrien, or Chat Noir, was akumatized, I wasn't particularly afraid. He was my partner, well, as Ladybug, so I was sure he wouldn't hurt me.

"H-Hey..." I greeted nervously, trying to avoid direct eye contact with him.

"Hello," his monotone voice said. "How are you feeling, Mari?"

I blushed at the nickname, but then remembered the situation I was currently in.

"I've been better, but I guess I'm doing okay."

He seemed satisfied with my answer, and scooted a bit closer to me on the couch. Instead of moving away from him, I took my legs off of the couch, and sat right beside him.

He was taken aback my sudden movement, but soon his stoic expression returned.

"So...why did you bring me to your house, uh..." I trailed off on purpose, acting as if I didn't know his villain name.

"Simulacrum," he provided. "And I brought you here to talk, and to thank you."

"For what?" I questioned, knowing that I probably sounded like an oblivious idiot.

I watched as he unwrapped the scarf from around his neck, and held it in his palms. Then, he moved so that our shoulders were brushing against each other, and showed me my signature stitched into the gift I gave him.

"Oh, I didn't know you found out," I lied.

"Why didn't you tell me, Mari?" His voice was strangely calm and sincere, with no hint of aggression or annoyance.

"Well, I-I umm..." I struggled for an answer. Should I tell him about my crush on him? Should I lie?

"Just tell me the truth, Marinette," he said, placing his hand on my shoulder. "I promised you wouldn't get hurt, remember?"

Taking a deep breath, I racked my brain for answers, and just settled on telling the truth, just with a few details left out. That wasn't lying, right?

"I-I just saw how happy you were when you thought your father made the scarf," I explained. "I didn't want to ruin it for you."

There was an awkward silence between us, and I used it to my advantage. "Was there any other reason for you to bring me here?"

After a few seconds, Simulacrum turned to me, and reached his arms out. Then, he leaned forward and embraced me, with his head on top of mine. My body became stiff, surprised by the gesture, but I soon returned it, wrapping my arms around him.

"Thank you so much, Marinette." Though his voice was robotic and indifferent, I still detected sincerity in it as he squeezed me tighter.

"U-Uh, no problem," I assured, pink dusting my cheeks. He pulled back slowly, and I did too.

"I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but..." I took a deep breath. "What I did wasn't something that big, so why was it so significant to you?"

To my relief, he wasn't at all annoyed with my question, and answered, "Well, you know how my father is. How he's cold, and how he barely gives me any freedom. The gift you gave me made me so happy, and knowing now that you sacrificed time and effort to make it, just made me realise how unfair it was for Nathalie to lie about it."

"Nathalie? Your father's assistant?"

"Yeah. She lied because she forgot to get me something." He looked into my eyes. "Someone who spends most of their time in my house forgot my birthday, but you..."

Simulacrum placed a finger below my chin and lifted it up. "...You didn't...and I feel so ecstatic, because someone who stutters around me, and someone who I have never done something entirely huge for cares about me."

A smile appeared on his lips. "You're like family to me."

My heart skipped a beat. I never realised how much a birthday gift would mean to him, and how hurt he was when he learnt that his assistant had lied.

"Wait, your father didn't get you anything?" I asked, shock laced in my voice.

"Yeah... he's been distant ever since my mother disappeared..." His expression seemed downcast, and so I wound my arms around his body again and brought him closer. Immediately, he hugged me back, burying his face into my hair. It tickled, but I didn't want to ruin the moment.

All of a sudden, I could feel that the top of my head was damp, and then I heard a few sniffles. It took me a moment to register that he was crying. Crying in front of me.

Someone who was always the epitome of perfection. Someone who always joked around. Someone who had managed to be happy even though their mother vanished. Someone who flirted around at any opportunity. Was crying.

Hesitantly, I reached my hand up to his blonde locks, and started to stroke them. I felt him tense beneath me, before leaning in to my touch. I carried on smoothing his hair in a soothing manner, as I allowed him to hold me even tighter. It was as if I was an anchor, that he desperately wanted to hang on to.

"I want you to know how important you are to me, Marinette," I heard him say, his voice muffled in my locks.

I moved back slowly, letting him know that it was only to hear what he was going to say.

Simulacrum's mouth was turned into a frown, but his skin was still white and smooth.

"My mother was amazing," he started, tearing his gaze from me to the floor. "But, when she left...I realised how I had taken her for granted. After she went, my only family seemingly disappeared too, since my father was never around me anymore."

I placed my hand on his cheek, and made it so that he was facing me. Looking into his forest green eyes, I urged, "Carry on."

"I never thought I'd find someone like my mother, but here I am. With you."

My jaw dropped open in surprise, yet he still carried on.

"You are exactly like my mother. She was kind, caring, compassionate, and always made time for others. She saw good in everyone, just like you do in Chloe. I want you to know that you are my family, and that you mean everything to me." His voice started to become more and more commanding as he spoke, "I won't let you go, and I will make sure that whatever happened to my mother, won't happen to you."

Soon, he was pushing me into his chest while gripping me tight, making it hard for my to breathe.

"S-Simulacrum? C-Can you l-let go?" I said, trying to get free.

He noticed my struggling and released me, which left us staring at each other.

"W-Wow..." I awed. "I-I never knew how important I was to you."

His lips formed into a smile, as he said, "I'm sorry, but I need you to stay here so I can make sure you don't disappear."

"Disappear?"

"Yeah," he replied. "I can't have another family member leave me."

"Oh, Adrien," I called. "I will never leave you, I promise."

His eyes widened. "Promise?"

"Promise."

We hugged again, this time both of us almost suffocating the other. When I pulled away, I looked to my right to see the sun slowly setting.

He noticed too, and we watched as the sky darkened and stars started to form, together. Neither of us spoke, as we didn't want to ruin the comfortable silence.

Five minutes later, the only light was the stars and crescent moon illuminating Adrien's room. It bathed me in a midnight glow, and when I turned to Simulacrum to ask him what to do next, I saw a purple outline around his face.

"Yes, Hawk Moth," he agreed, before it disappeared into thin air.

"I'm sorry Marinette, but I need to go and get the miraculous off of two pests," he said in a bitter tone.

"Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

"Well, yes, and Rena Rouge and Carapace."

"How, though? Do you know their identities?" I questioned, thinking over how he could have found out.

"No, but Hawk Moth just told me how they were spotted nearby the Eiffel Tower, so he assumed Ladybug must be there too."

I nodded in agreement, to avoid any suspicion that I knew she wasn't.

"I have to go, but don't worry," Simulacrum assured, standing up. "When I come back, we'll continue on with this whole 'family talk'."

With that, he unlocked the bedroom window and leaped off into the night, leaving me alone.

#marinette dupain cheng #ladynoir #mlb au #chat noir #marichat #miraculous #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #miraculous ladybug #akumatized adrien #ml ladybug #ladybug #ladrien #adrienette #adrien agreste #adrien x marinette #rena rouge #carapace #hawk moth #akumatized chat noir

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gale-gentlepenguin · 6 years ago

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ML: Scarlet Lady au: Real Hero

(Based off of @zoe-oneesama Kwami swap au)

People were running for cover, there was panic in the streets of Paris. Another Akumatized villain was running amok.

“Look out!”

A black haired teen turned to see a car flying right at her. There was no way she could dodge it. She closed her eyes and covered her face hoping that maybe the car would miss.

She felt a force pushing her out of the way. She opened her eyes to see a blond Cat themed superhero push her out of the way. She landed on the ground watching as the car smashed into the cat hero.

“Chat noir!” The teen girl screamed in horror. She got up ran to the smashed car to see what happened to the black cat hero.

Fortunately, the cat hero pushed the smashed car off of him. He looked a bit banged up but he was okay. The girl felt such relief.

“You...you’re okay!” She exclaimed with relief.

Chat noir looked at the girl, he realized it was his crush from school. His coffee bringing cutie, Marinette. He took a second to calm himself before responding.

“Just a mild car crash. I hope the person has insurance.” Chat noir commented. He mentally slapped himself for saying such a lame joke.

To his surprise, she giggled a bit.

“More importantly, are you okay?” Chat noir asked with concern.

“Your fine,,, I mean fine me... I mean I am fine.” Marinette stammered, she felt her face turn red. She has never stuttered like this before. Perhaps she was star struck, not often someone is saved by a hero of Paris.

Chat noir touched her head to check for a concussion. Thankfully she didn't have any bumps on her head. Chat sighed with relief and smiled at her.

“I guess you were a bit rattled from the incident. Don't worry, just make sure you get to safety.” Chat noir stated.

“R-Right. Thank you.” She blushed as she bowed her head in thanks as she ran off to go find shelter.

Chat noir felt revitalized despite getting smacked by a car. He saved his crush from getting hurt. Thinking about that, he needed to give that Akuma a piece of his mind.

_______________________________________________________________________

“I am telling you Alya, it isnt fair at all how the media treats Chat noir!” Marinette exclaimed.

The two were sitting in class as they were waiting for class to start.

“It does seem hard to believe that he would be just a klutzy sidekick if he was able to save you like that.” The reddish brown haired blogger said as she was looking over the recent article talking about the akuma attack. “He never actually talks to the press, or does interviews at all.”

“Because he is out there trying his best to fight the bad guys and protect civilians. Look at the photos, Chat noir always looks like he was fist fighting a cyclone while Scarlet Lady is untouched.” Marinette stated as she pointed at one of the two photos the press actually managed to capture.

The bespectacled teen look closely at the photos, none of the photos taken were actions shots, just one of them facing the akuma, and the other of the aftermath of the fight.

“Huh, that is peculiar. Well it could be that maybe Chat tripped into the attacks or...” Alya stopped talking when she saw Marinette’s surprisingly scary expression. “Protecting civilians with his life.”

“Exactly. If you ask me, Chat noir is the True Hero of Paris.” Marinette stated confidently.

Meanwhile a sleeping blond teen who had his head resting on his arms covered his face and blushed.

(Tell me what you guys think? Enjoy the Marichat? Like the reason how Marinette first met Chat noir face to face? Do you want more?)

#ml #scarlet lady #scarlet lady au #ml au #marichat #adrienette #chat noir #marinette dupen chang #marinette #alya cesaire #miraculous ladybug au #miraculous ladybug #fic #ficlet #fluffy

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p-artsypants · 5 years ago

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Longest Night (6)

The day started out sucky to begin with. Her crush ousted to the class and Adrien. Lila taking pride in exacting her revenge.

But by the time patrol was over, a young man was dead, and Ladybug’s identity was at risk. Lila was the least of her concerns.

Good thing Adrien was taking it all like a champ.

Ao3 | FF.net

Warning: This chapter contains public humiliation. I will continue to mark the chapters that contain torture if you wish to skip them. Adrien gets his arm dislocated, but that’s the worst of the violence. I would recommend reading this one for plot at least.

—

Ladybug woke up, thankfully still transformed, in a dark room. Her hands were bound behind her back and a gag was in her mouth. Her vision was blurry in the low light, and she couldn’t quite parse two thoughts together. Did she have a concussion? She had hit her head, right? That’s why it hurt so bad?

She tried to make some noise, but it just came out as a muffled moan.

A similar sound came from behind her, and she felt something move against her hand. Chat Noir, she supposed. She hoped. She was with him last…probably. At least, last she remembered.

A harsh light flicked on in her eyes, and she winced against it.

“Well well well, looks like you two finally decided to wake up. Good thing too, or you would have missed all the fun.” It was a woman speaking, an Akuma? But they had just been fighting one! A huge, wrecking ball Akuma. Did Hawkmoth change tactics mid fight? Why couldn’t she remember what happened?

“Don’t worry, you take all the time you need to catch up. After all, GHB tends to wipe some memories.”

GHB? Wasn’t that a date rape drug? Had they been ambushed?

Another voice spoke. “We’re all set ma’am.”

“Wonderful, everyone in positions.”

Ladybug’s chair was turned around to face her partner. He looked just like her, bound and gagged. Confusion clouded his eyes, along with concern.

“Good evening Paris.” The woman was speaking, her back to them. “Please excuse me for interrupting whatever pointless drivel you were consumed with. My name is Salo. I’m not an akuma, but you’ll soon wish I was. I have succeeded where all the others have failed.” She stepped back to show Ladybug and Chat Noir, bound and gagged.

Now Ladybug could get a good look at her. Red hair tied up in a bun, black leather suit, and reflective sunglasses. She looked physically fit, but there was no notable expression on her face. Slight wrinkles around her lips, so she was older. Maybe in her forties?

There was a hand gun at her hip.

“I have captured the so called heroes of Paris. In ten minutes, I will be revealing their identities on ‘make ladybug suffer dot com.’ Be sure to tune in, you won’t want to miss it.”

“Transmission ended.” Called the man’s voice again.

The light dimmed, and Ladybug could see a little better. The room was small and bare, save for several cameras, screens, lights and wires. The only furniture were the chairs they were currently occupying, a table behind the mysterious woman, and a table in the corner with computer monitors. There were no windows, and the only door was heavy iron. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all cement. In short, no escape.

“Starting to remember things yet?” This ‘Salo’ woman asked.

Ladybug just stared her down, anger in her eyes.

Salo and another man ripped off the duct tape over their mouths, and pulled out the gags.

“Who are you?” Was Ladybug’s curt reply.

Salo smiled and prepared to answer, but she was interrupted by Chat’s shout of, “Catacly—!” But the woman stuck her fingers down his throat, gagging him mid-word. He heaved, coughing up some fluid.

“Oh shush kitty kitty, we can’t have you leaving now, can we? Now that we have so much planned.” She nodded her head to the man standing nearby.

He was huge, just about the same size as the Gorilla, and he took hold of Chat’s arm. With a yank and a sickening crack, Chat cried out in pain as his was arm was ripped out of socket.

“Chat!”

Salo smiled, “to answer your question, my name is not important, but you can call me Salo.”

“What do you want?”

The woman grabbed her face, squeezing her cheeks hard. “What do I want? I want to destroy you, Ladybug.” She said her name with venom. “You’ve had it too good for too long. You’re the hero of Paris, the idol! You can do no wrong! But you’ve gotten cocky. Started working outside your job. Superheroes take down super villains. You should have stuck to those silly akumas.” She let her face go, smiling with untapped anger. “But you didn’t.”

“Our job is to keep Paris safe, whether it’s from akumas or petty thieves.”

Salo slapped her cheek, right over her bullet wound, making white flash under her eyelids, and her ears ring.

“You’re cute, Ladybug. Real cute. I thought you were fun. A Parisian idol, our very own Mickey Mouse. So did my Ed. You were bright and flashy, a wonderful distraction for the media. But you crossed a line, little insect. And now all of Paris, all of France, is going to watch you pay.”

Ladybug swallowed, obviously nervous. There had to be a way out, but in the dark room and Chat’s Cataclysm out of commission, things were beginning to look bleak.

“What did I do?”

The corner of Salo’s mouth twitched. “Let me jog your memory.”

The screen behind her lit up, and Nadja Chamack appeared with a news ticker underneath. “Don’t be bemused, it’s just the News. Ladybug and Chat Noir have done it again, with the capture of an elusive criminal. Top of the ‘Most Wanted’ lists in six countries, a Monsieur Edward Savauge. Ladybug and Chat Noir had an altercation with Savauge at the docks last night around 12am, resulting in the death of a young man identified as 25 year old Charles Exavier. Police arrived at the scene to find Savauge bound in Ladybug’s yo-yo, several bodyguards unconscious, surrounded by illegal firearms, and the body of Exavier on the ground. Savauge was taken and charged with murder and illegal firearm possession. He has also been wanted for drug trafficking, illegal gambling, human trafficking, and 19 counts of murder. Edward Savauge was the boss of a Camorra crime syndicate. Ladybug and Chat Noir were unavailable for comment.” The recording ended there, and the woman shut off the TV.

“He was my lover. A wonderfully powerful man...but because of you, he’s in hot water. If he goes to prison, I’ll never see him again...so you will never see your family, friends, or your beloved fans again.”

Ladybug’s eyes were blown wide, horrified. This was why she hadn’t wanted anyone to find out their identities, in case someone went out for revenge.

“500,000 users are streaming the site, including three users at the TVi News Station.” Another man stated from a computer in the corner.

“Excellent.” Salo smiled. “Time?”

“T minus one minute.”

“You hear that? One minute until I reveal your name to the whole world. I’ll let you have that minute to escape. Go ahead, go.”

Frantic, Ladybug wriggled against her bindings. Come on! She was supposed to be stronger in the suit. But pull as she did, she was only making her wrists hurt, and the ropes to tighten.

She glanced over to Chat to see what he was doing. His shoulder looked lumpy and unnatural. He was biting back tears as he tried to wriggle too, though one arm was not moving. She realized it was the arm with his ring.

“Time’s up! Aw, you two do want to have fun! You stayed!”

Furious, Ladybug spit at the woman. “You won’t get away with this!”

“Oh, but I already have.” Salo tapped her on the nose. “You see, the Ladyblog really is an amazing resource! Every video of you two ever shot was on there. Theories and facts, all the information we needed was on there. I studied it carefully. All you had to do was show up for an akuma, and we took care of the rest. Though, I should probably thank that hulk, since he did the hard part for us. Seems like you’re not so lucky after all.”

Ladybug’s lip trembled.

“We have over a million users online,” spoke the man from the computer again.

“Then let’s begin.” Her voice was cold and merciless. “Let’s start with Mr. Noir, shall we? Your ring, sir!” She reached for it.

“Cataclysm!” He shouted, finally activating his power. He couldn’t move his arm, but it would give him a few minutes of protection.

“Oh you think you’re so smug.” Salo smirked. “But you see, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.” She snapped her fingers, and the large man standing by touched Chat’s hand with a metal pole. The metal rusted and turned to dust. Chat’s hand was useless once again.

She took hold of the ring between her fingers.

“Please,” whispered Chat. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Of course I don’t, pussy cat. But it’s my great joy that I get too.” Slowly, deliberately, she pulled his ring off his finger, watching as his transformation fell away in a flurry of green light.

Ladybug looked in horror as her long time crush and good friend Adrien Agreste sat in front of her, still bound and in immense pain without his suit.

Salo leaned on his bad shoulder, making him cry out in pain. “Well well well. A famous model and a superhero! How intriguing! Adrien Agreste…I bet your father would pay a pretty penny to have you home safe and sound, don’t you think?” She dragged her fingers over his cheek.

Adrien was in tears. Not outright sobbing, but a few drops rolling off his chin. Whether it was the pain from his shoulder, or facing the reality that his freedom had just literally been stripped away, he wasn’t sure himself.

Salo scoffed. “What a baby.” She smacked his face just hard enough to sting. Then she stood and walked over to Ladybug. “Your turn, missy.”

Ladybug struggled, not willing to go without a fight. She thrashed in her chair, kicked her legs, and frantically shook her head, so Salo had put her into a choke hold. She fought for breath and cried out with a choking gasp.

The earrings were plucked from her ears and sad little Marinette Dupain-Cheng remained. Adrien stared at her, a gasp bursting from his lips.

She didn’t dare look at him.

“And who the heck are you?” Salo snorted. “We lucked out with Mr. Whiskers, but who knew Ladybug was just a nobody?” She leaned in closer. “Oh wait, I recognize you…yeah, you’re a friend of the Ladyblogger, in some of her videos. Mmmm….Marinette, right? Yeah. How sad! You’d think the person most dedicated to finding out Ladybug’s identity would have seen her sitting in front of her! You must either be too pathetic in your real life, or totally unimportant to the Ladyblogger.”

Marinette sat still and quiet, not willing to let the words of this vile woman get to her. She just stared at Adrien, apologizing with her eyes, and begging him not to hate her. He stared back with fear and desperation.

Marinette pushed her fear aside, and summoned Ladybug’s courage. “Alright, you’ve taken our Miraculous, and now everyone knows who we are. Can we go now?”

Salo slapped her cheek and sent her sprawling on the floor, the chair pressing awkwardly on her arm. “Didn’t you hear me? You’re never getting out of here. You’ll never see daylight again. I intend to keep you here and torture you over and over. One day, you won’t even know your own name anymore, but you’ll beg me for death!”

This couldn’t be happening. There was just no way.

She was roughly yanked off the ground, the chair settling back on the floor.

“Let’s see, first thing first is to get you into uniform.”

Uniform? Thought Marinette, with fear.

Her bindings were cut, and she was forced to her feet. She rubbed her wrists carefully. There were several men standing around, watching, plus Salo had a gun. She didn’t know if it was loaded, but she wouldn’t take that chance.

“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t.” Said Salo. “Now strip.”

Marinette was keenly aware of the camera pointed at her, and the spot light on her, forbidding any hiding. With trembling hands, she took off her jacket, purse, and shoes.

Salo crouched and picked up her purse. “Let’s see, just as I thought.” She took out her phone, looking at the screen. “18 missed calls? My my someone is worried about their baby.” Then she dropped the phone and smashed it under her heel. “Not to worry. We’ll let mommy know how much fun your having.”

She then went over to Adrien and frisked him, finding his phone. “2 missed calls. Hmm, I wonder who’s more loved?” She smashed his phone as well. The remnants of both were collected and tossed in a bucket of water, just to make sure all the circuitry was fried.

Salo gestured Marinette onward.

She then took off her shirt and pants, standing alone, trembling in her underwear.

“Well?” Said Salo. “The rest of it too.”

So Marinette unhooked her bra and shimmied out of her panties, standing completely naked in front of all of Paris. And her crush.

Adrien wasn’t looking at her, keeping his eyes politely on her toes.

“Oh what a gentleman!” Salo laughed, noticing. She grabbed his chin and forced him to look up. “But I know where you really want to look. You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”

Adrien couldn’t help it, he glanced her up and down, and then met her eyes. “…I’m sorry.”

“Did I say you could talk, pussy cat?”

He shook his head, immediately snapping to obedience.

“Aw, he already knows how to behave so well. This will be so fun!”

Marinette continued to stand there, trying in vain to cross her legs or wrap her arms around her chest. It was doing little good.

Salo gestured to someone in the room, and without warning, a bucket of cold water dropped over her head, soaking her through. “Ugh!” She yelped, in shock.

Next, Adrien was forced to his feet too, and also freed of his bindings, but his arm just hung limply at his side.

“He might need some help, Ladybug. So why don’t you help him.” Salo shoved her forward, as she tripped into his chest.

Any other day, she’d be blushing madly and apologizing. But right now, she just wanted to hug him and hide in his embrace.

“Tick tock, you two.”

It became apparent that any movement caused Adrien pain, as she helped ease his arm out of his over shirt. His t-shirt followed, but with a lot more fumbling and wincing.

She had to undo his belt and unbutton his jeans, which was painfully awkward and uncomfortable for both of them. Especially with the snickers and wolf whistles from the shadows.

Then they were both naked, in front of Paris.

“Wow, the suit really holds everything in, doesn’t it, Adrien?” Salo laughed, looking between his legs.

He was in too much pain to be embarrassed.

But just like with Marinette, a bucket of cold water drenched him. He tensed up, wincing all the while.

“Here,” Salo spoke, dropping a folded cloth into Marinette’s hands. “Your uniform.”

Holding it up, she found it was just a hospital gown. And a short one at that.

She quickly put it on, tying it as tightly as she could in the back. As long as she didn’t have to raise her hands, she would be covered.

“Now Mr. Whiskers.” Salo gave her another gown, to help Adrien into.

She bunched up the sleeve to make it easier, and eased his hand into the sleeve, his other going in just fine. She pulled it up to drape over his shoulders and then stepped to go behind him.

“Uh uh uh…” Salo stopped her, “you can tie him from in front.”

Marinette obeyed, reaching her arms around him and tying the strings tightly. She pressed against his chest, though she tried not too.

“My lady,” he whispered oh so quietly. “It’ll be alright.”

She felt awful. She should be the one reassuring him. Wordlessly, she cupped his cheek and wiped his tears away.

The gown was short on him too, just barely keeping him covered.

Salo grabbed Marinette’s arm and yanked her back. “Alright, that’s enough. I’ve got some new jewelry for you, since I took your old ones.”

Marinette’s eyes widened. “Where did you put our miraculous? What did you do with them?”

Salo smiled, “Oh, you didn’t notice? Why, they’re right here.”

There was a small safe on a table behind her. The lid was open, and Salo held it up to show the ring and earrings sitting dormant inside. Then she closed the lid and flipped the combination. “I don’t worry showing you this. Because there’s no way you’ll be able get them. But I’d love to see you try.”

Marinette clenched her fist, looking at the safe, the door, and the gun.

She had never felt so absolutely hopeless.

Salo picked something up from the table next to the safe, and came towards Marinette. “Alright bug, I’d stay still unless you want to get pinched.”

She clamped on two wrist restraints, and then one to her neck, all connected with chains.

Then she did the same with Adrien, even clamping his bad arm.

“Now aren’t you two just precious? All gussied up for your first day of camp! Smile for the camera! Let your parents know how much fun you’re having!”

The camera swung in close to them, capturing their expressions of absolute humiliation and horror.

“I said, smile!” She pinched the underside of their arms, causing them both to wince, which they both tried to turn into a smile.

“Alright, now let’s take you to your bunks. We have a really nice set up for our new campers. You’ll just love it!”

They were both led from the room, chains rattling with each step.

Marinette paid attention to the direction of the hallways. Although, the walls were bare and grimy. It was unbelievably dark too.

Finally, they came to their ‘cabin’. A room without a door, but two large metal ducts. The kind used in buildings for Air Conditioning, but they looked old and rusty. Crude doors had been sawed out of them, and chains welded to them.

“Take your pick.” Salo giggled. “There’s just enough room in there to sit.”

Marinette took the one on the right, but Adrien just stood at the door.

“Well, go on.” Salo pushed him forward.

Marinette watched with growing concern as each step he took was slow and shaky. He looked absolutely terrified. Finally, he took his place on the left, and turned to face the door.

The doors closed, but little slots opened in the middle, big enough to fit their wrists through.

“Arms up.” Salo demanded.

Through the slot, their chains were removed, though the shackles remained. Then, the slot closed and several padlocks clicked into place outside.

“Get some sleep you two. Tomorrow we have a day chocked full of activities.”

Several footsteps led away and then, silence.

Marinette grit her teeth. “Tikki can you—“

Tikki wasn’t there. For the first time in three years, Tikki wasn’t there. She was all alone.

Well, almost.

“Kitty?” She asked softly.

“I’m here.” He answered, his voice broken.

“I...I’m going to figure a way out of this. I promise.”

He didn’t respond.

“Chat?”

“I’m...I’m sorry...” He was crying, and hyperventilating. “I…I don’t like being locked up.”

“Oh Kitty…”

“If only I had cataclysmed the wrecking ball, or—or arrived at the docks earlier—“

“Chat.”

“I could have—Maybe we—“

“Adrien.” She rested a hand on the cold metal of the cage. “This isn’t your fault.”

“But...I promised to protect you. And I failed.”

“Don’t do this to yourself. I need you right now, okay?”

He was quiet, and then finally agreed. “Okay.”

“How’s your arm?”

“I’m...getting used to it.”

“Can you pop it back in?”

“I don’t know how. I’ve never dislocated anything before.”

“Me neither.” She sighed. Slowly, and ever so carefully she sat on the ground, leaning against the metal walls. It was pitch black, she couldn’t even see her own hand in front of her face. She reached forward, finding the door to the cage. The metal felt pretty thin, and if she was lucky, it would have some give. The door was several inches from the floor, leaving a gap large enough to reach her arm out. She grabbed hold of the edge, and trying to force it out, but she wasn’t prepared for the sharp edge and cut herself.

She hissed in pain.

“Marinette?”

It was at that moment that she was struck with the realization that this was Adrien talking to her, and that he was Chat Noir, and that he knew who she was. Perhaps it was shock or adrenaline, but it didn’t click until just this moment.

“Are you okay?” He asked, still sniffling.

“I just…yeah…be careful with the edges of the door, it’s sharp.”

“Yeah, I cut myself just sitting down. There’s an edge along the wall.”

“Oh…” She settled down then, not really knowing what to do.

Ladybug was out of ideas.

“My lady?”

“Y-Yeah?”

“Would...would you still think I was super cool even if I said I was scared?”

She managed a single laugh. “I’m…I’m terrified.” She admitted. “Chat, we…we failed. Everyone knows who we are.”

“Yeah…”

“My family…your dad…Alya and Nino…they all know. And they’re all in danger…and th-there’s nothing—“ She choked out a sob. “There’s nothing we can do.”

Adrien didn’t respond but she could hear him sniffling.

“I don’t know…what are we going to do?” The last part was barely a whisper.

“Salo said she thought my dad might pay a hefty price to get me out. Money hasn’t ever been an object to my father, so...I’m sure he’d pay your ransom too.” There was a piece of doubt deep in his soul that wondered if he would. Gabriel Agreste was a good man. Sometimes.

“No.” Marinette shook her head. “I can’t allow that to happen. These people are dangerous. If your father gives them money, how many more people will die? What other crimes will they commit? We can’t…no matter how scary it is…we can’t let them win…”

It was a beat before Adrien agreed. “…yeah. I guess all our hard work goes away then.”

She leaned her head back, the metal groaning as she did so.

“You know…” He spoke, taking a massive sigh. “We’ve spent the last three years saving Paris. I think…I think Paris can protect our loved ones for us.” She could hear him moving, the metal groaning as he pushed against it. “Can you reach under the door, towards me?”

She scooted down too, laying on the ground on her side, and as she reached under the door, she found a warm hand, with strong fingers that quickly wrapped around her own.

“My lady….my beautiful lady…”

“Kitty cat…”

“We’ll find a way out. Together.”

“Partners?”

“Partners.”

#miraculous ladybug #ml #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #adrienette #ladynoir #fanfiction #longest night

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worddevdealswithml · 5 years ago

Text

Side-Effects Include:Empathy

He looked back at Marinette. It was strange to think that the only reason he knew was because she’d been forced to take on a villain solo. She’d risked her life, and yet, this was the effect of the fight that couldn’t be undone.

He realized he was staring, though she didn’t seem to be looking at him right now, and, blushing slightly, he turned to face front again.

Chapter 12:

The atmosphere in the class was quiet, the next day, and Adrien couldn’t blame them. Sure, they’d had a day to process things, but it was a lot to process. More to the point, despite the attention leveled on her, Lila had… Well, they said she’d gone missing. Where, how, nobody seemed to really know. A couple people had suggested that what she’d said about her parents being diplomats was true, and she’d caught a plane out early. Her mother had, at least; a surprise vacation to Italy. Suspicious. Or, then again, maybe Hawkmoth shown up to save his most reliable weapon. There were a few ideas… Some of the ideas were grim, but Adrien had to believe that those at least weren’t true. Just rumors.

Rumors that, more to the point, there was no use dwelling on.

After all, Lila couldn’t work with Hawkmoth without risking her anonymity, even if she was still in the country. At this point, she was reduced to simple human malice, and that at least had to be better than Volpina.

Adrien drummed his fingers on his desk, waiting for his train of thought to find a good place to stop, so he could finally leave the mess behind.

She was gone, or good as.

And her last gift had been…

He realized he was staring, though she didn’t seem to be looking at him right now, and, blushing slightly, he turned to face front again.

He sat in front of Ladybug in class. He fought supervillains with Marinette. Until yesterday, both statements would have been surreal, even absurd. Today… They still were, honestly.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t imagine Marinette and Ladybug being the same person; even if he hadn’t felt it, seen it, he’d have said he could see the similarities. For that matter, he had said it. ‘Our everyday Ladybug,’ he’d called her. In retrospect, that must have been truly surreal for her.

But… Marinette, his classmate, the girl who passed the time between classes by idly doodling beautiful designs in her sketchbook, swinging across Paris? Throwing him across rooftops for a laugh? The idea alone left him a bit lightheaded.

And, on the other hand, Ladybug, the unbreakable, unstoppable superhero, secretly being Marinette, one of the most human people he knew? Had he come up with the idea, he’d have condemned it as wishful thinking.

And if, at some point, he’d combined the ideas with the thought that maybe she didn’t have a crush on Chat Noir, but she did on Adrien, then… He’d have thrown the whole idea out as too good to be true.

Except, it was true.

So… Now what?

Of course, there was nothing stopping him from asking Marinette out. Of course, he could do that, but then…

Weeks, months, years later, the two of them would surely reveal their identities to each other, at least when Hawkmoth was defeated. And then what would he say? ‘I’ve known who you are for years, without telling you.’ Yeah. Right.

What would she think?

Well… What would he think? Suppose Ladybug asked him out tonight, as Chat Noir, and he didn’t know what he knew. If, in the distant future, it turned out that she’d asked him out after finding out he was secretly Adrien, would that be… A betrayal?

The problem was, though, that the two situations were different. He could see Marinette being Ladybug, now that he knew it, but, if he told Nino, for example, that he was Chat Noir, it would sound like a joke. Chat Noir and Adrien were practically different people!

Not… Not actually different, obviously, it wasn’t like Chat Noir took him over, like some kind of alternate personality; it was still him, but the point was that when he was being Chat Noir, he didn’t have to be Adrien, so he wasn’t.

He’d found out that Ladybug was Marinette, and it had left him elated, but what about Marinette finding out that Adrien Agreste was secretly Chat Noir? If their positions had been reversed, would Adrien gain anything, in her eyes, from being Chat Noir? Would… Would being Chat Noir ruin how she felt about Adrien?

But then… She trusted him, implicitly. Despite everything he was technically capable of, despite the fact that he could see directly into her heart… In a strange way, that was just as good as what he felt from Marinette.

So maybe it wouldn’t ruin it, but she at least deserved some warning, or else-

“You selling tickets?”

He blinked, and looked over at Nino, who shrugged, packing his supplies away (another class Adrien had almost entirely missed).

“I dunno, man, that emotional roller coaster you’re on looks pretty exciting.”

“I—” he started, before almost coughing a laugh, “Yeah…”

“Personally, my favorite part was the bit where you were just sort of smiling into the distance for a while; what was that about?”

“Ahh…” the sound trailed on, and Adrien gave him a sort of… unnerved ‘please don’t ask me about that’ look.

Nino shrugged. “Well, if you want to talk about it, dude, just let me know.”

“Thanks. Yeah, I uh… I’ll keep it in mind,” he said, even though there was no possible way he could tell Nino.

A few seconds passed.

“So,” said Adrien, mentally pulling himself together, “after everything that happened yesterday, I never even thought to ask about the necklaces you and Alya got.”

Nino let out a breath. “Yeah… Yesterday was crazy, dude. I mean, you know that, obviously.” He shook his head, and reached up to his neck. “Check it out.”

Adrien blinked. “Huh.”

“Yeah, Alya thought it’d be funny if we switched them.”

“So I guess she’s wearing the turtle one?”

“Yup.”

“Wait, but isn’t the turtle Miraculous a bracelet? Didn’t you say matching necklaces?”

“I mean, yeah, but a matched necklace and bracelet doesn’t work quite as well.”

“Yeah… I suppose it doesn’t.” Internally, Adrien felt there was something he’d just missed, but… He shrugged it off, wondering what they’d do for him and Ladybug. Would they stick with the original, or change them to be the same? After all, both the ring and the earrings were iconic. Surely all of Paris had to know exactly what Hawkmoth wanted.

Marinette hadn’t been at her best, per se; she’d said something about Chat Noir visiting, which Alya had pounced on, of course, and by the end of it, she was about half convinced that of her and Chat Noir, one of them at least liked the other, if not both.

Marinette had denied it (more or less accurately, since he didn’t know she was Ladybug) but having her poke at it helped Marinette, and probably Alya too, for that matter, forget about yesterday, so on average, she was pretty sure it came out to a net gain.

Yesterday.

It felt like it was so long ago.

Personally, Marinette would have felt much more comfortable if it was long ago.

But, for now, it was yesterday, and it felt like there was a light fog over everything.

A fog that, in a strange twist meant that she didn’t even notice Adrien sitting on one of the benches between the lockers.

“Hey Marinette!” he said, cheerily, as she approached.

“Ah! Hi! Adrien!” she said, grasping frantically for her composure. Grabbing hold of the one thing she could find, she managed to respond more adequately. “You, seem to be in a pretty good mood.”

Adrien smiled, and Marinette suddenly understood what ‘beaming’ was; the room seemed brighter for it.

“Of course I am, I just saw you!”

Marinette let out a strangled noise, face rapidly approaching the shade of a strawberry. “Oh,” she squeaked, at least an octave higher than her normal voice. “Th- thank you!”

He laughed, lightly, and Marinette wasn’t sure if the room really was getting brighter, or if her consciousness was just fading.

“Aw, come on Marinette,” he said, standing up, pulling his bag around, “you shouldn’t thank me.”

“O- Oh?”

“No!” he lightly pressed a hand onto her shoulder. “Telling the truth isn’t anything special. It’s just something we’re all supposed to do.”

“Aahh~” she managed, as he slipped past her, and out the door.

The encounter couldn’t have taken more than half a minute.

Marinette thankfully managed to land on the bench, and tried to breathe.

She really hoped nobody was about to come in.

It was almost unfair.

All of it, was almost unfair.

The first unfair thing, was that she could laugh off just about anything Chat Noir said, but had been utterly annihilated by just a few words from Adrien. He could have been doing it this way the whole time!

The second unfair thing was to her; in truth, it probably classified as taking advantage of her… Well, except for the fact that she was definitely dying of happiness, rather than anything negative.

The third unfair thing was how obscenely adorable she was when she was flustered. Maybe he was getting her flustered, but there was no denying that her reaction, the sound she’d made as he’d walked past her, the raw, untempered emotional deluge he’d felt when he’d touched her shoulder, the shade of red her face had been…

He’d need to lie down when he got home.

He’d need to lie down, and breathe.

Frankly, she’d probably need to as well, but she’d be handling that part for herself.

Actually…

He could probably arrange to be at her house, as Adrien, in time to help her with that part.

Oh god.

Cuddling with Marinette.

He didn’t know what exactly that would do to him, but he was pretty sure he wanted to find out.

He might die, but he’d die happy.

But he couldn’t do that, yet.

Because the fourth unfair thing was that he had to wait.

Specifically, he had to wait one more night.

Because he needed to tell Marinette what he knew, before he could do anything in good conscience, events of a few minutes ago notwithstanding.

This might be the longest night of his life.

#ML #Miraculous Ladybug #ML Fanfic #Miraculous Fanfic #Adrienette #marinette dupain cheng #Adrien Agreste #Nino lahiffe #Side Effects Include: Empathy

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