#and staring at the results like huh…what’s miraculous ladybug doing here…

[vinelark]

It's not just you! They borked my bookmarks too :(((

MAN. thankfully there’s a fix! but wow…poor tim, not even ao3 lets him stick to one identity

[bat-in-the-machine]

The new chapter of Miraculous World Tour: Gotham is up! Originally, it was going to be all fight but then I was like "do I really want to describe what twenty different people are doing in this akuma battle or do I want to get the fuck on with the real plot?" and I decided to get on with the real plot. Preview after the cut as usual!

-snip-

"What was that about death earlier?" Kate asked, frowning.

"Viperion has the power of Second Chance," Alex said. "Basically, he starts a time loop and keeps resetting it until the team makes it through. Absolutely vital when one of the team members is solely responsible for the successful resolution of the fight. Since Ladybug by nature of her powers cannot be expendable, Viperion's role is to ensure that she doesn't fall, and if she does, to reset the fight until they find a way where she doesn't. Based on the stats he gave, you were on the eighth time loop and the previous seven resulted in four cases where Ladybug and Chat Noir were suborned by the akuma's power and three where one or both of them died."

"And they've been doing this how long?"

"Going on six years now," Jones said. "Wonder Woman has been keeping the Justice League out, but DEO has been monitoring the situation since Ladybug teamed up with the United Heroez in New York a few years ago. Plus there was the attack of the Miraculized last year, during the battle that led to the defeat of the original Papillon."

Kate shivered. "I wondered where those freaks came from," she said. "Were they worldwide?"

"Almost. They predominantly attacked places where Ladybug or Chat Noir had been seen in the past, however: New York, Paris, and Shanghai particularly."

"You can add Rio de Janeiro to that list," Kate said. "I saw a group of them fighting some guys in red robes on the beach there before the robed guys disappeared into a..." She trailed off as the security camera footage she was watching Ladybug console the akumatized victim on showed circle made of pure white light appear in midair beside the two. "...into a portal just like that one."

"Ah," Jones said. "Bunnyx. She's a member of the team, but she's not seen in the field often. Her power allows her to access everywhere in space and time, possibly even alternate timelines. She usually only shows up when things are especially dire."

"What is she doing there?" Alex said, trying to zoom in on the image. Unfortunately, the camera was already at its highest fidelity, so all she got was a pixelated blob. Whatever it was, it was pink and metallic. The akuma victim took it reverently, staring at it for a moment, then immediately tackled the rabbit heroine in a hug.

"All right, so what do you want me to do?" Kate said.

"You just did it," Jones said. "Bunnyx showed up here before the attack and asked me to have you come in and provide assistance over comms to her team."

"And you just believed her?"

"She let him read her mind," Alex said.

"I still have a headache," Jones grumbled. "She has so much information in there."

"All of time and space, huh?"

Jones eyed the bottle of headache medicine bitterly. "They do not make a pill that eases the pain of too much information being processed too quickly. Never read the mind of a demigod if you can help it, Kate."

"I'll uh..." Kate frowned. "I'll try to remember that?"

"In the meantime, the Paris team is likely to be regrouping in Gotham to celebrate their victory and unwind, and I imagine you'll be welcome to join them."

"Wait, in Gotham?"

[folk-ever-lore]

isekai

Bridgette groaned as she hit the ground. This akuma was taking everything out of her and Chat Noir. It’s powers were like something out of a comic book, perhaps something that one of the Gotham Rogues would have out of the DC comic books.

Bridgette - Ladybug - looked at her partner. “We can’t do this without a bit of luck, can we?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “We definitely can’t do this without a lucky charm. I’m betting on a knife this time, M’Lady, you’ve had a spoon and a fork after all.”

“Haha,” she laughed sarcastically. ���Very funny. LUCKY CHARM!”

A swirling portal of red and black opened up above them, forming from the miraculous ladybugs.

“Huh? That’s weird. I don’t think anything like that has happened before." Chat Noir said right before two figures, two people , fell to the ground in front of them.

***

Jason and Marinette were on patrol for the night - or rather Red Hood and Ladybird, two of Gotham's many vigilantes were. It wasn’t odd for them to be patrolling together, in fact they almost always patrolled together. The only times they didn’t was when one of them was either injured or needed elsewhere for the night. When they’d first started dating patrolling together it had been a bit weird, but now Gotham was used to seeing their resident ex-crime lord and one of Gotham’s rare Batman accepted metas patrolling together.

They’d just finished stopping a robbery when a red and black swirling circle opened up beneath them. A portal maybe?

They fell through it, falling onto a sidewalk a moment later.

This clearly wasn’t Gotham. The sun was out for starters. Marinette looked around as she stood up to see if there was anything recognisable in the nearby area. Was that the Eiffel Tower? And who were those strange people dressed up like animals?

“What the fuck was that?” Jason asked rather pointedly.

Marinette stared at CatBoy and SpotsGirl, “And who the fuck are they? Paris doesn’t have superheroes.”

CatBoy huffed, “Well obviously Paris does have superheroes. We’re right here. Ladybug and Chat Noir at your service.”

Jason ignored the young ‘supers’, “Are we sure this is actually Paris? It’s too bright, even for the City of Light, and it feels more cartoonish than usual.”

“I noticed that too. The whole place feels off.” Marinette confirmed for her boyfriend partner. “Want me to take a quick fly around to get a better idea of this not-Paris place?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Marinette shot up into the air to survey the area, leaving Jason alone to entertain the kids.

CatBoy - Chat Noir - spoke up, “Who are you? Who’s that?”

“Red Hood. She’s Ladybird.” He said gruffly.

SpotsGirl, he refused to call her Ladybug, snorted, “What? Like the characters from the comics?”

What comics, he mentally asked himself. “No. Like the ex-crime lord and Superman’s daughter.”

“Yeah, as I said,” SpotsGirl laughed, “like the DC comics. Jason Todd and Marinette Kent right?”

“How do yo-”

“Don’t worry,” said SpotsGirl with a reassuring tone to her voice. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of by naming your hero personas after some fictional superheroes. After all, RedBird is like my OTP.”

Marinette floated down from above after finishing her assessment of the city. “Kid, neither me or Hood over there are fictional. We’re real life vigilantes from Gotham.” She spoke gently, taking time to take care of the young girl’s thoughts and feelings.

SpotsGirl shook her head furiously, “Gotham isn’t real. It’s a fictional city in the DCEU. I can prove it, let me google it.”

When the young girl showed the results to the couple they couldn’t believe their eyes. “What the actual fuck?” Jason muttered. “Is this some sort of alternative universe?”

Marinette shrugged, “That would explain a lot of what I saw. This version of Paris still gives off major cartoon vibes.”

Jason groaned, “Just our luck. We go to a universe where our home doesn’t exist.”

“We don’t exist here,” Marinette blanked as the realisation came to her. “We’re fictional here. Ain’t that right kiddo?”

When they got no response they turned to look for the young superheroes. “Where are they?” Jason muttered, “The little shits tell us we aren’t real here only to disappear?”

Marinette shrugged in return, “Well apparently they are the local superheroes around here, maybe they had a villain to fight.”

“I suppose that’s fair,” he replied.

“Want me to fly us to them?”

“If you’re up for it.”

“Seriously Hood?” She lamented, “We got sent to a different universe, I’m not injured.”

“OK then.”

And that was that. It didn’t take them long to find the kids.

As Marinette touched down on the floor Jason couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Turns out they did have to go off to fight a villain.”

“Yeah,” she said, “but WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?” Marinette gestured to the villain of the day. “And why do they look like a mix between Ivy and the Joker?”

SpotsGirl, who must have noticed the yelling, had made her way over to the Gotham duo. “That’s cause the villain is based on Ivy, Hawky really isn’t the most creative. He’s used one of the same akumas over one hundred times now.”

Jason shrugged, “To be fair to this Hawky, most of the villains in Gotham don’t change their shit up much either.”

“That still doesn’t explain why it kinda looks like the Joker,” Marinette stated.

“Oh, right,” SpotsGirl nodded. “Hawky is either colorblind or makes every akuma ugly in the hopes that it’ll damage our eyes enough that he can steal our miraculous.”

“Honestly, valid. One time when Ladybird was insulting Riddler he just admitted that the green was an attempt to blind us.”

Marinette frowned. It couldn’t be. Could it? “Hey Hood, aren’t the miraculous the names of the weird Green Lantern rings like jewellery in the show Dick watches with Mar’i?”

Jason blinked at her for a few seconds, “Huh. I think you’re right.”

“So we’re fictional here? But in our world SpotsGirl and CatBoy are the fictional ones? You gotta be shitting me.”

“Could you stop calling us that?” SpotsGirl Ladybug asked politely as she fought off one of Joker!Ivy’s plants.

Marinette winced, “Yeah, sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,” Ladybug waved them off. “But some help with the akuma would be nice, if possible.”

“Sure.”

***

“So let me get this straight-” Marinette started before she was cut off.

Jason snorted, “You can’t do anything straight.”

“Well neither can you,” she stuck her tongue out at him. “You’d just broken up with Roy when we met.”

“Yeah, well you had a crush on Cass when we met.”

“Yet I still ended up with you,” she retorted. “Anyway, let me run this bi you, this dude has the butterfly miraculous and he uses it to turn ordinary civilians who are feeling negative emotions into mind controlled supervillains?”

Chat Noir nodded, “Yep, unfortunately. It’s very annoying. The whole city has been held as emotional hostages for years.”

“Years?” Ladybug nodded at Red Hood’s words. “Damn. That’s gonna seriously damage people’s development.”

“It already has,” Ladybug informed the vigilantes, “that’s why we were hoping you could help us for however long you’re trapped here. As we saw earlier you clearly won’t go back with a miraculous cure like all other lucky charms do.”

Marinette and Jason shared a quick glance before agreeing. “Maybe the magic will send us home after he’s been defeated.”

“Hopefully,” Jason agreed with his girlfriend. “But what can you tell us about akumas?”

“We haven’t watched many episodes of your show. Mar’i prefers watching them with Dick.” Marinette states casually.

Ladybug nods, “There’s been many types of akumas in the past. It'd be impossible to name them all, but the Ladyblog should have videos from nearly all of them on.”

It may take all night, maybe more, but Ladybug and Chat Noir start their run down on akumas.

“What do you mean a mime sliced the Eiffel Tower in half?” Marinette demanded, “That's fucking crazy."

“Some pigeon guy was akumatized how many times?” Jason asked.

Chat Noir shrugged, “Honestly, I’m not too sure. I gave up counting after one hundred.”

“You gotta be shitting me.”

“Nope.”

“Santa? Was a villain? Now that just sounds like some sort of crazy cartoon bullshit to me.”

“Well according to you this is a cartoon,” Ladybug huffed.

“I refuse to acknowledge that someone here also weaponized nightmares,” Jason muttered under his breath.

“Also?” Chat Noir inquired.

Marinette nodded sadly, “Scarecrow is a bitch.”

“He definitely was in the comics,” agreed Ladybug, in a cheeky attempt to get back at them for the cartoon comment from earlier.

***

Marinette and Jason had been in Paris for a couple months. Unless there was a major akuma attack they mainly worked behind the scenes in order to figure out how Hawkmoth was. It was helpful to have Marinette fly after the de-evilized butterflies. What that meant was that they were pretty close to having definitely proof on Hawkmoth’s identity.

Which was why it was rather concerning when Bridgette got sick. How were they meant to defeat the supervillain, who they were pretty damn sure was Gabriel Agreste, without their Ladybug?

Adrien was at school when the akuma alert went off which meant he had to find some sort of excuse to get away. But Marinette and Jason had been taking care of a sick Bridgette who was in no state to fight.

“Take them,” Bridgette pulled the earrings from her ears and handed them to Marinette. “You look enough like me to pass as me. Hawky won’t know a thing.”

Marinette gasped, “But they’re yours. I can’t just use them.”

“Yes you can,” the sick girl insisted. “There has to be a Ladybug in order to reverse the damage, and I can’t fight like this. Please Marinette. You have to.”

Marinette groaned, “Just until you’re better. Okay?”

“Okay.”

When she transformed, Marinette’s first course of action was to head towards the akuma attack, because she totally hadn’t missed being in a fight since she’d come to this weird, cartoonish world.

As she ran along rooftops she used her yoyo to message Chat Noir. She figured just sending hi it's ladybird today would be enough. He’d get the message and no one would be able to figure out what it meant.

When Ladybird dropped down, in a suit identical to Ladybug’s, she couldn’t help but grimace at the akuma. “What the FUCK is that color scheme?” She yelled at Reflekta.

The pink clad supervillain stared at the fill in superhero. “Who are you and what have you done with Ladybug?”

Ladybird smirked, “I’m Hawkmoth’s downfall. Who are you?”

Reflekta looked down at Ladybird, “I’m-”

“Well I’m cunning, ultra charming Chat Noir.”

Ladybird snorted, “Sure, kitty, keep telling yourself that.”

“Hey,” he squealed. “I’m charming.”

“Sure.” She nodded over towards Reflekta, “Come on. We have an akuma to defeat.”

***

By the time Bridgette was better they’d got definite proof of Hawkmoth’s identify.

“Sorry Adrien,” Marinette cringed as they met on the Eiffel Tower. “It’s definitely him.”

The boy sighed, “We already knew it was. Now we can stop him.”

“Together?” Bridgette asked tentatively.

“Together,” they all echoed.

***

CRASH!

Ladybird crashed through Hawkmoth’s window, Red Hood in her arms with his guns out. While Ladybug and Chat Noir were fighting against Mr. Pigeon again they were weakening the actual enemy.

“Hi Hawky,” she grinned. “Or should I call you Gabe if that’s easier for you?”

“Who are you?” The supervillain demanded, withdrawing the sword from his cane as he spoke.

“I’m the person who replaced Ladybug the day your akuma asked about Ladybug being replaced, and this is Red Ho-” Marinette glanced down at his sword, “What the fuck, that’s hilarious. That’s like one of those pathetic fencing swords.”

Hawkmoth frowned, “It’s a noble sport.”

Jason laughed as he took a few warming shots, each getting closer to the villain’s head. “Sure it is.” None of the shots before had been intended to hit - when Jason aimed towards the villain’s left leg, he gracefully moved out the way just in time and brought his surprisingly sharp baby sword down on Jason’s arm with a carve to his arch. Blood dripped from Jason’s arm to the floor.

It was all Marinette and her super hearing could hear. Drip, drip, drip. Drip, drip. Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip. Drip. Drip, drip, drip. Although she theoretically knew that Jason had endured much worse, hell he’d even died, that didn't stop her from worrying about him.

Ladybird's eyes glowed red as she glared at him. She desperately wanted to ‘accidentally’ burn some of his face as she delayed for time to give the final duo of their group of four a chance to arrive. “Give me one good reason as to why I shouldn’t burn your face off right now,” she demanded.

“Because if you kill me all the bombs I have set up in here will go off killing you too,” he informed them with a look of great pride in his face.

Jason snorted, “Been there, done that. Minus ten out of ten, would not recommend dying.”

Marinette ignored her boyfriend’s terrible sense of humour and smirked, “We got Adrien to disable those ages ago. He was more than happy to comply.”

“He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t betray me like that.”

“Actually,” Chat Noir started as he and Ladybug descended from the elevator, “I would definitely betray you.”

“You? What?” Hawkmoth asked, clearly rather confused and frozen in shock. “Adrien?”

“That’s me,” the cat dressed superhero replied as he landed right in front of his father. “I’ll be taking those, thank you very much,” he said as he snatched the remaining miraculous from the man in front.

“For something I’ve been waiting for the past couple of years, that was rather anticlimactic,” Ladybug stated with a hint of laughter, enriching her voice.

“Speak for yourself,” Jason huffed with a slight grin on his face. “But a little healing cure would be rather nice around now. Don’t you think?”

“Course,” Bridgette replied unsteadily as she threw her lucky charm into the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!”

***

Five months. It had been five months since Hawkmoth had been defeated and sent to jail. It had been five months since villains had stopped terrorising Paris on a near daily basis. It had been five months since Bridgette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Lahiffe (formerly Agreste) had said goodbye as their friends flowed red and were transported back to their own dimension.

Although Adrien hadn’t formerly been allowed to read comics, he and his girlfriend Bridgette had been binge reading all the DC comics together. The Red Hood or Ladybird issues were their favourites. But it wasn’t until the latest Ladybird comic came out that they had spotted a small Easter Egg in the background. At the end of the issue Red Hood and Ladybird had clearly retired to their apartment after stopping one of the Joker’s more nefarious plots and they were watching TV.

Or more specifically, they were watching a TV show about Bridgette and Adrien (more Ladybug and Chat Noir but who cares). As they saw themselves in the image, the couple couldn’t help but smile. Their friends remembered them.

[altariaas]

your face all made up (living on a screen) 

Adrien knows, to some degree, that it’s the important things that are the most important to say out loud, but it would help to know that someone’s actually listening. It would also help if things would stop breaking every time he acknowledged his emotions, too. 

i’ve taken a total of three steps into this fandom but sure, let’s skip to season 4 and fall face-first into the Angst™, as it goes. I just think Adrien should get a little raw powers of destruction sneaking out of control in his daily life. as a treat. Post-Rocketear so lots of spoilers etc.

Adrien walks home from the fight against Nino’s akuma with a raging headache, a developing case of massive anxiety, and a purpling bruise the size of a basketball on his shin.

The last one isn’t actually from the akuma. Those injuries got neatly miraculoused away, along with Nino’s heartbroken betrayal. No, the bruise is from Adrien’s incredibly stupid attempt to funnel his tornado of emotions into something concrete by kicking the front gate, only to completely miss and slam his shin into the solid steel rungs instead, sending him stumbling back in a pained fit of trying to think up creative curse words that won’t result in his father murdering him if he overhears.

Metaphorically, of course. Father’s not a murderer, except when it comes to the slow death of Adrien’s social life.

Though he really…can’t entirely blame that on Father, either.

And there comes the developing case of anxiety. Adrien swallows, a feeble attempt to banish the souring feeling in his stomach and the aching tightness in his chest. He wraps his arms around himself, staring up at the mansion and fighting the increasing urge to run. The inside of his cheek stings as he chews at it, already abused from how hard he’d bitten there earlier when Nino had started making…observations. Accusations. Wildly misdirected statements that definitely aren’t any insight to how Nino truly feels about what might be the truest version of Adrien’s slowly splintering self, if he’s going to be dramatic about it.

Overly passionate, Father’s voice echoes hollowly somewhere in the back of his head. Prone to fits of drama, just like his mother.

Spinning abruptly on his heel, Adrien beats a steady path away from the mansion gates and toward…somewhere. Somewhere that won’t make that developing case of anxiety worse, and where no one can witness his fits of drama.

The urge to send the front camera a rude gesture in farewell is violently stifled as Adrien keeps his arms wrapped tightly around himself, like the action will keep everything in neat and perfect and safe from view. He feels more than hears Plagg rustle curiously in his front pocket, but Adrien ignores the action, keeping his eyes fixed ahead.

Then the sharp reminder of how it felt when Ladybug ignored him in favor of Rena Rouge comes back and bites him solidly in the guilty part of his feelings, so Adrien pats his front pocket reassuringly.

“Just taking the long way home,” he murmurs.

Plagg’s eyes are calculating, almost greener than usual as they stare at him, and Adrien feels uncomfortably perceived. Not in the cold, bug-under-a-microscope way he feels sometimes when Father looks at him, but a hot kind of uncomfortable, the way he feels when someone looks right past the Adrien Agreste mask and sees—

What? What do they see? An awkward boy stumbling back against a wall because he never learned what his real self was supposed to look like? Hollow flirting and annoying with a capital a?

Fits of drama, Adrien reminds himself. He shouldn’t take it so close to heart. Not when Nino looked so devastated, so heartbroken. Not when Ladybug’s been giving him uncomfortably clear signs that Nino might’ve been right.

“If you say so, kid,” Plagg finally replies. “But I better get that camembert sooner than later.”

A half-smile tugs at Adrien’s mouth. “Sure, Plagg.”

At least Plagg still wants him around, masks and all. It’s a small comfort, but Adrien clings to it, his arms tightening around himself. Sure, things didn’t go…wonderfully, today, but it’s not all so bad. He got slammed into a van a couple of times, and maybe a couple of busted ribs, but that’s nothing, comparatively. And sure, Father’s finding more flaws in him to coldly evaluate than usual, and Nathalie’s growing paler and sicker by the day, and Ladybug’s either freezing him out bit by bit or starting to forget about him entirely and he isn’t sure which is worse, and his schedule is slipping further and further from manageable by the day and Nino dislikes a side of him so much it sent him straight into an akuma and—

“—kid, stop!”

Adrien’s thoughts cut off abruptly as his foot catches, his sense of balance going horizontal as he stumbles, and proceeds to nearly slam the rest of him face-first into the concrete. Plagg’s sharp warning echoes in his ears as he rights himself with a panicked yelp, hopping once while frantically hoping no one was around to see — whatever that was.

“Kid,” Plagg starts, but he doesn’t finish. He’s left the front pocket, his eyes bright green as he stares at him.

Adrien blinks, shaking the slight sense of vertigo off. “Sorry, sorry, I—”

Huh. What did he do? Rubbing the back of his head, Adrien glances at the street he stumbled over. He frowns.

The culprit is a jagged, snaking tear in the concrete, half a meter deep and the length of Adrien’s arm. He stares at the spiderwebbing cracks that branch out of it, fine grains of crushed concrete already scattering in the slight wind.

Weird, he thinks. He doesn’t remember fighting Nino this far down the street. Lucky Charm should’ve fixed that, even if he did.

“Adrien,” Plagg says, and there’s an uncharacteristically cautious edge in his voice. “What was that?”

Adrien cups a hand around Plagg, running a finger over his head in apology as he draws him out of view again. “Lost in thought, I guess,” he says, ducking his head. “Sorry.”

Plagg doesn’t reply, still staring at him with a look Adrien can’t quite identify. He feels oddly disoriented, like he actually did fall and hit his head, and now it’s spinning in retaliation. Across the street in front of him, the stoplight flickers — red, then orange, then red again. It flickers out entirely, before snapping back to a bright, acidic green. Adrien rubs his eyes.

“Let’s…let’s go home,” Plagg finally says, tucking himself back in Adrien’s shirt pocket. He doesn’t entirely meet Adrien’s eyes as he does, but he curls up against his chest, solid and warm, and it’s almost enough to banish the ache that lies beneath.

“Okay,” he says, softly. “Home, then.”

————

There’s a memory Adrien has, from when he was younger. It’s one he holds tightly to his chest, tattered and frayed as it is.

He was much smaller than he is now — barely six years-old, maybe, and small enough to hide behind the large statues his mother would put funny hats on to make his father laugh. She’d done just that earlier, standing tiptoed on the staircase as she’d slipped a terrible orange bowler hat on the pretty lady Nathalie said was from Greece. Adrien had giggled behind his fingers and his father had laughed, an unfamiliar sound that’s faded in memory now, but a bright and real one nonetheless.

It had been a good day, until mother had come down with a cold during dinner and Adrien had jolted out of sleep from a nightmare about giant, ugly orange hats that snatched up his mother with their ribbon-like fingers and took her away from him forever.

He’d sprinted through the house like the horrible hat monsters from his dream were on his heels, slipping in his socks up to the cracked door of his father’s study.

He hadn’t needed to knock, then, or even schedule a meeting. He’d slid through the doorway and barreled into his father, only to be caught by strong arms and swept into his father’s lap, warm and safe from any monsters that dared to follow him here.

“I’m worried about your mother, too,” his father had said. “But it’s just a cold, you see? Nothing to go slipping and falling down the stairs about.”

He’d received nothing but a sniffle in response.

“Alright.” Fingers had pinched around his nose as his father sighed. “How about we read a story then, until you’re not so frightened? Just you and me.”

The book they’d started that night was about a prince and a planet and a rose, and Adrien still remembers the sound his father’s voice made as it resonated where Adrien’s cheek pressed against his chest, his arms holding tight and warm around him, like nothing bad could slip in from outside and hurt him.

It’s a favorite memory of his, one Adrien finds springing back to mind whenever Father gives him a smile, half-formed and distanced as they are.

Lately, though, it’s a memory that stings to think about. It makes it harder to look Father in the eye, for some reason.

————

“And like, I really can’t say this enough, but I’m so sorry.”

“I told you, Nino, it’s fi—”

“No seriously, dude, I’m really sorry, I—”

“Nino.”

His friend finally jerks out from his puddle of miserable apologies, and Adrien gives him a weary smile. “It’s fine. You didn’t hurt me.”

“I dragged you into the boiler room then got akumatized,” Nino says, distressed. “That’s worse than like, the plot of eight different horror movies.”

“Your head was shaped like a giant blue tear, it wasn’t that scary,” Adrien assures him.

“I am ninety percent sure I remember shoving you to the floor,” Nino moans, not reassured in the least.

Part of Adrien’s mind, the part that sounds a little too much like a spurned cat whom hell hath no fury, or however the saying goes, wants to pipe up with the fact that getting shoved to the floor was five-star treatment compared to what Nino (akuma, Nino’s akuma, that’s important) had proceeded to do to him afterwards.

The bus-slamming thing had hurt.

Not as much as hurting Nino would’ve, though.

So instead, Adrien gives Nino the kindest smile he can, lays a gentle hand on his arm, and says, “As if the akuma gave you the biceps to pull that off.”

“Hey,” Nino knocks their shoulders together, his guilt ridden expression easing just a bit as he gives him a half-hearted grin. “I’m ripped, bro.”

It takes Adrien a moment to reply, too busy fighting the overwhelmingly — traitor — urge to follow the warmth of contact with Nino like a starving animal. He doesn’t need to fight for too long — his brain throws everyone thinks you’re a joke at him just in time for Adrien to hunch his shoulders in and give Nino an awkward little grin of his own.

Maybe his brain’s a traitor too, though, because he doesn’t remember Nino even saying that about Chat Noir.

He thinks.

Hopes.

Actually, his brain can go sit in a corner if it’s going to keep throwing stuff like this at him. Shaking anything and everything knowledge-wise that belongs to Chat Noir from his mind, Adrien turns his attention back to the scribbled game of hangman they’ve been playing on the corner of Nino’s history notes. Group projects are supposed to be fun, anyways, especially with Nino.

“Uh, c,” he guesses.

Nino adds a single c to the blank letter spaces. Adrien squints at the paper, his mouth downturning at the suspiciously familiar arrangement he has so far.

_adia_t, ca_ef_ee, d_ea_y

“Nino,” he says, carefully.

Nino smirks. “Mm-hm.”

“If this has anything to do with perfume ads—”

“Uh-huh?”

“Then I hate you.”

Nino cackles, scribbling in the rest of the rest of the accursed phrase as Max loudly hushes him. Adrien rolls his eyes and huffs, but he’s unable to stop the small smile of amusement. It quickly fades as his words to Nino echo with an uncomfortable emphasis in his head.

You’re being stupid, he tells himself. Adrien pushes away the nagging feeling. Nino knows he’s not serious. He knows Adrien doesn’t actually hate him. Just like Adrien knows Nino didn’t mean it, when he said all that stuff about Chat Noir.

His fingers tighten around his pencil. He’s not supposed to be thinking about that. Nino apologized, to Chat Noir himself, and just because Adrien can’t get the sting out, it doesn’t mean that Nino meant anything genuine by it.

Overly dramatic, Adrien reminds himself. Way too emotional.

The ache in his chest makes itself known again with a pang, and Adrien bites the inside of his cheek, glancing at Nino from the corners of his eyes.

Maybe he should tell Nino he cares about him, just to be sure. The words form in his mind, only to catch abruptly in his throat, thick and cloying. He thinks of how thoughtlessly he’s been able to tell Father he loves him. Thinks of how easy it’s always been to tell Ladybug how much she means to him.

He thinks of how neither of them seem to like meeting him in the eyes, lately.

He swallows the words, opting to smile brightly at Nino instead. It’s probably for the best. Nino’s always been better at picking up on people’s feelings, anyways, and he doesn’t need the kind of nagging assurance Adrien does. And it’s not like Adrien’s had much luck telling people he loves them, lately. Actually, if you look at his track record, he probably hasn’t…had any luck at all.

Adrien shakes his head, shoving the coldness creeping into his chest as far to the corner of his mind as he can, and sketches out enough blank spaces on the paper to spell fake mustaches are the new sexy.

If he can still make Nino laugh, it’s fine. He wouldn’t be laughing if he thought Adrien was annoying and obnoxious.

So see? It’s fine.

————

Adrien thinks about elastics, sometimes. The stretchy, rubber kind that Mme Thurston uses to pull back the longer locks of his hair while she’s doing his makeup, tying it up in a neat little explosion on top of his head that makes him look like a blond weed. She makes it look easy, twisting the little bands around and around, until they’re tight enough to hold his hair in place.

(Adrien’s hair is always easy, of course. Chat Noir’s hair, on the other hand, would probably give Mme Thurston nightmares. Mainly because Adrien has a fun little habit of shaking his head side to side until it’s an unrecognizable blond disaster, but that’s not particularly relevant.)

(Ladybug doesn’t even need to use elastics, opting for the soft strands of ribbon that hold her pigtails in perfect place.)

Adrien doesn’t normally use elastic bands either, but he likes the way they feel when he’s nervous, stretching and rubbery, then snapping perfectly back into place, like he’d never twisted them all out of proportion at all. The way he can hook his fingers in both ends and pull and pull and pull, but they never quite snap.

Felix has a fun trick with those, when they do photoshoots together.

(When they used to.)

He’ll press a little elastic against Adrien’s arm and pull the end back, just far enough, then let it snap back into place, stinging little red marks when it slaps against skin.

“Stop it,” Adrien scowls at him, but the expression wavers. Playful isn’t a word he uses along with Felix very often, but photoshoots are always more entertaining with him, at least. Or they were, until his mother disappears, and family photoshoots grind to an utter and complete halt forever—

—just for now, his father says, until something changes, until that something happens, until that metaphorical other foot that’s always hanging over Adrien’s head finally stomps its way back to earth and demolishes him in the process—

Felix replies by stretching another elastic between his fingers, shooting it toward him this time like a little slingshot. Adrien snags it out of the air, slotting it between his own fingers to fire back. It misses by a miserable meter and a half, because at the time this conversation takes place, he and Ladybug haven’t stayed up all night practicing their aim by trying to hit the left ear of Le Stryge on Notre-Dame.

Felix snorts, snatching the elastic from the floor, and makes a show of placing the band back against Adrien’s wrist. He pulls it back with a meaningful look, like an exasperated teacher. “It’s the bounce back that hurts,” he tells him. “Not the stretching part. When it snaps back to place—” He demonstrates by releasing the band, and Adrien flinches at the tiny sting. “—that’s the part that hurts.”

Four years later, having up close and personally experienced what a shattered ribcage stabbing into your lungs feels like, Adrien wants to correct Felix on tiny little elastic bands and what actually hurts, but the point, he guesses, is that he still remembers what it felt like.

He still thinks about those elastics sometimes, and how far they can be pulled until they snap back into place. How the little rubber band can make it so far, get so close to breaking, only to snap right back to where it started.

(Chat Noir doesn’t use elastics, either.)

————

For all that Adrien will stand by stuffing the worst of his emotions into a box and never thinking about them ever as a perfectly reasonable way to go about handling things —and whatever Plagg says doesn’t count, he’s a kwami who compares emotions to cheese — Adrien really does believe in communication as key.

Living it out is just. Another thing entirely.

But Adrien’s lived his life with a cold mansion’s worth of words left unsaid, so on principle, he really does believe that if something’s important, you should say it. Maybe nobody will really listen to you, or take you seriously, but at least you’ll have said it, and maybe at some point they’ll remember you said it, and it’ll mean something to them.

But maybe that’s what stopping him this time — he just can’t decide if it’s the idea of not being listened to that scares him, or the idea of actually being heard that’s worse.

It’s not like he wants to tell Ladybug he’s upset. It’s not like he even wants to be upset.

It doesn’t change the fact that he is, kind of, a little bit, (a lot) — but again, on principle, Adrien just — he doesn’t like being upset. It’s all uncomfortable and hot and it sits on his chest like a rock, weighing heavier and heavier until he learns to get over it.

It’s only worse when he tries to say something about it, because that never works. Maybe it’s a really sucky side effect of being homeschooled for most of his life, but every time Adrien opens his mouth to tell someone he’s upset with them and here’s why, it always backfires spectacularly. There’s a weird moment where something happens and the other person says their part, and suddenly Adrien’s complaints sound so stupid he wants to crawl in a hole and hide. There’s a dizzying one-eighty and Adrien’s suddenly the one in the wrong, and the other person’s upset at him, and now he’s got to apologize before he makes it worse than he already has.

And granted, most of those other people are just Father (or Father’s tinny voice through the phone), but he’s already enough to beat the lesson in.

Metaphorically, of course. Always — always metaphorically. Adrien’s never doubted otherwise.

“Maybe I’m just that bad at arguing,” he mutters, swiping darkly at his phone screen.

“I dunno,” Nino says, his voice consoling. “I mean, you were pretty good at it when you argued me into watching that one anime the other night.”

Adrien rolls his eyes. “I wasn’t upset with you about that.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Nino winks at him. “Unless your voice going all high-pitched about why Sailor Moon is the peak of animation is your default setting.”

“I wasn’t upset with you, though,” Adrien shakes his head, cutting him off. “I’m never upset with you.”

And he isn’t, really. Not even when Nino tells him, in an admittedly roundabout way, that he’s annoying and irritating and has loose and shady moral commitment to love and all its forms (or something like that).

He means, it stings, but only in the way Felix’s little rubber band snaps do. Not enough to justify picking an argument with Nino. Not to justify upsetting him, and possibly losing the one friend who’s stuck by him through the worst and actually shares stuff with him these days.

Adrien bites down on the inside of his cheek. If he’s not careful with the way his train of thought’s been steering itself lately, he’s going to accidentally show Ladybug how upset he is, and that’s—

Well, the fallout of that will hurt a lot worse than a little elastic band snap.

A lot worse than it already does, so. Back in your corner, resentful thoughts.

“Uh-huh.” There’s a quiet edge of suspicion in Nino’s voice, and Adrien stiffens, suddenly feeling horribly seen. The look Nino’s pinned on him doesn’t help at all, searching and curious and—

Concerned? Upset? Angry?

Adrien doesn’t know. He thinks it’s concern, but he’s also been thinking Ladybug’s been amused with him when she’s apparently just been annoyed, so who knows, really—

Shut up, Adrien tells his subconscious furiously. Shut up, shut up, shut up.

“It’s okay, if you are,” Nino says hesitantly, perhaps having picked up on whatever storm of emotions are slipping through Adrien’s schooled expression. “Upset, I mean. At your old man or me. It’s better to talk to people upfront, y’know? Otherwise…”

Nino’s expression twists in guilt, and Adrien’s lungs feel a little like they’re shriveling up and dying. Or maybe that’s just his chest on the whole, collapsing in on itself and taking Adrien’s ability to breath right with it.

He isn’t upset. He’s not. He doesn’t need to talk to anyone upfront about it, because there’s nothing to talk about in the first place. He’s not going to be overly dramatic about this too, he’s not. He’s just— it’s just—

Is it personal? Was it something he did, that made Ladybug trust everyone else but him? Did he slip up at some point and he just — he can’t remember? She’d told him, she’d promised they were fine after New York, but maybe she’d changed her mind without telling him and decided he needed to figure out on his own where he messed up if he was ever going to be worthy of her trust agai—

“I’ll be — I’ve gotta — restroom,” Adrien stammers, shooting up from his seat and all but sprinting for the doors.

“Wait, Adrien—!”

Nino’s panicked call is lost as Adrien flies down the hall, slipping down the stairs to the bathrooms on the first floor where he’s less likely to be found. He doesn’t feel like he’s going to cry, or anything so humiliating, but there’s an awful crushing sensation in his chest that makes him think he might do something he’ll regret. Or say something, any of the raging thoughts that bang off the insides of his skull with hurt. Something he won’t be able to take back.

Adrien wavers, planting both hands on the edge of the sink and staring at the white porcelain. His breathing sounds odd in the echo of the bathroom, wavering and off-beat. His vision swims traitorously, so he glares up at the mirror instead, only to falter as he catches sight of his reflection.

He looks…not great. Pale skin and bloodshot eyes in the way that’s likely to make Nathalie call a doctor on him. Which would be just fantastically ironic, considering she’s the one who needs a doctor, even if she’s never going to admit it and keep lying to him. Just like Ladybug, all careful smiles and words chosen with forced, casual caution, staring at him with eyes that are a million other places except actually seeing him.

Stop, he tells himself furiously, squeezing his eyes shut. Stop. Ladybug is not Father. Ladybug is Ladybug, his best friend and partner and he trusts her, he trusts her to have her reasons for not telling him. He has to trust her. He does trust her, he—

A sharp cracking sound tears Adrien from his thoughts, and he snaps his head up to find seven of his own disjointed faces staring back at him. He blinks, and suddenly the faces are clinking to the floor, broken fragments of the mirror scattering around his shoes.

His first thought, apart from a bizarre sense of not being entirely in his body, is a well-timed curse word.

Instead, what he gets out is, “Seven years bad luck,” muttered, almost absently, beneath his breath.

Typical. He wonders if moonlighting as a black cat-themed superhero that leans heavily into exaggerated acrobatics counts as crossing one. Like he needs more bad luck, right now.

What he actually needs, is…

Is…

He needs an escape.

From everything, it feels like, but for now, Adrien will settle for an escape from the school bathroom with all the mirrors that just broke.

…somehow.

————

For all that he throws fits of drama about it, the thing is, Adrien has escaped.

He’s made it out of the house, to school. He’s learned physics and grammar and math that Nathalie taught him six months ago, and he’s learned how to play hangman and cut class and tell your friend’s fortune with folded paper. He’s made friends, real friends, and he’s learned how to muffle loud giggles on the phone at night and what kinds of snack food Nino likes and doesn’t like. He’s learned how to pick up on a whole slew of emotions other than disappointment and apathy and mildly reserved approval, and he’s learned how to tell when other people are hurting.

(He’s learned how to tell how he’s hurting, but he’s unlearned that one faster.)

He’s learned the words it takes to voice that Father isn’t always right, learned how to curl his fingers tight enough into his palms that they don’t shake so much anymore, and he’s learned how to stretch like a rubber band against people’s anger, bending without breaking.

(He’s also learned about the perks of night vision and bone density and six different ways to trip someone up with the leather belt you’ve got tied around your waist like a tail, but he can’t credit school for those.)

And he thinks — he thinks he’s come so far, he’s learned so much, he’s so much stronger now—

Then his father’s eyes soften just enough to resemble the eyes of the man who held him close and told him how much he loved him, loves him, who stayed up all night reading Adrien’s favorite book to him and whose lap was the safest, warmest place in the world, and Adrien—

Hates himself. Hates himself as he snaps right back into place, right back into the Adrien who crumbles at Father’s slightest snap of tone. Hates himself so much it stings.  

Because it’s so much easier to do that, than it is to hate his father.

————

Adrien doesn’t particularly want to go to the photoshoot after school, especially not now that mirrors are literally breaking at the sight of his face, but — and here’s the fits of drama again — like everything else Father’s deigned to want, he doesn’t have much of a choice.

Technically, though, Adrien fantasizes as he fixes his eyes upward so the makeup artist can do her best to hide the darkening circles beneath them (“—really, dear, do you sleep at all these days—”), he could give himself a choice. He could make it fun, too, striking the perfect pose before transforming into Chat Noir right smack in front of the entire studio crew, and then Father would have something truly inspired to review that evening. A perfect snapshot of Adrien cataclysm-ing his merry way out of the studio and out into the gloriously free outside, that’s what.

Except then Adrien would have way too many choices to make, and even less all at once. The identity thing, being one. How to avoid Ladybug murdering him and dancing atop his grave, for another. Not that he thinks Ladybug is capable of murdering anyone, of course—

(—no, that’s solely reserved for him and his powers alone—)

—but he can imagine she’d be angry, were he to stage a reveal that way.

Were he to stage a reveal at all, Adrien thinks sourly, blinking until the stiff feeling of the makeup beneath his eyes fades. His makeup artist’s had to use the thick kind today, the extra-strength stuff that’s going to take forever to wash off. He stifles the urge to swipe at it, trying to relax into the feeling instead. Makeup is familiar, consistent. Sure, it’s technically another lie, but it’s one Adrien’s at least aware of. Makeup, he can see through. He can put it on and take it off himself, exercising some tiny semblance of control over what’s being hidden from the world.

Everything else, though…

“Carefree, my boy, carefree,” Vincent implores, his eyebrows furrowing as Adrien snaps himself back to the present. “You look as if you’re being drowned in mud, not soaring above the clouds.”

Adrien’s cheeks puff up as he blows his breath out, short and frustrated. At least Vincent is every bit as prone to fits of drama as he is, he reminds himself. It’s better to be stuck with someone passionate than someone as open as a brick wall, even if it is just Vincent antagonizing him with a camera again.

“Sorry,” he offers, giving him a weak grin. “I’ll get it this time, promise.”

Vincent doesn’t look entirely convinced, but he rambles about lighting and angles instead of scolding Adrien, which he can’t help but be grateful for. It allows Adrien a moment to let the smile drop, staring at the ground instead of the brightening lights around him.

He toes sullenly at the smooth linoleum of the floor, the solid black of Father’s logo glaring back at him from the side of his sneaker. Maybe he should just get more sleep. Maybe all the ugly tangled emotions in his chest are just residual buildup from being overtired, that’s all. Ladybug mentioned the stress getting to her a little while back, her own eyes bloodshot and exhausted. Adrien’s brilliant solution had been to take her to the movies, which had gone just as brilliantly as every other time he’s tried something like that, which is not very well at all. He’d been worried about her, though, even before she’d thrown him from a roof on accident. Ladybug carries so much on her shoulders, and strong as they are, Adrien knows what it’s like to be strung so tightly that even the slightest extra weight feels like it’ll snap you. He sees the same weight in his own eyes, now, even blinded by the studio lights.

His stomach twists. Ladybug’s eyes aren’t half as bloodshot lately. There’s an easiness to her that wasn’t there before, a lightening of tension, and yes, Adrien’s happy she’s feeling better, he’s nothing but glad that she isn’t so exhausted and worn, but…

But she’d trusted him before, even when she was strung her tightest. And now that there’s relief in her eyes, now that he’s taking a backseat and Ladybug adds more allies to their roster by the day, allies that she knows but he doesn't, allies that Alya and Nino probably know too, just like everything else, now that—

Was he the problem? Was it his fault, that Ladybug’s eyes turned shadowed and her movements wavered? He’s tried, he’s tried to be a rock for her, to be something constant and consistent as Adrien himself wants, but the horrible feeling that he’s not enough is now warring with the awful feeling that he’s the problem in the first place, because — why else? Why else would she shut him out like this? Why else would she decide he’s untrustworthy, after all this time, why—

The lights against his vision suddenly flare painfully bright, so bright Adrien’s forced to stagger back.

Vincent jolts away with a cry, waving his hand frantically as the camera sparks and sputters. Echoed cries of surprise ring throughout the studio as the overhead lights flicker wildly, turning the studio into a frightening mockery of a particularly bad nightclub.  

Adrien stumbles again, alarm coursing through his veins like a cold burst of water, and he darts for the intern nearby, who’s fallen over in her scramble to back away from the strobing lights. She’s just taken his hand when the lights go dark, plunging the studio into blackness. Before anyone can react beyond a frightened shriek, the lights snap back on, bright and steady as if nothing’s happened.

Adrien slowly pulls the intern to her feet, staring at the blazing lights as his vision swims, blinking against the sudden onslaught of dark spots in his eyes.

“Is it an akuma?” the intern asks, her eyes wild with fear. “Should we — should we evacuate?”

Adrenaline shoots through Adrien’s veins, his head whipping back and forth as he searches for a spark of purple, for the familiar edge of butterfly’s wings. But there’s nothing out of place, save the sputtering camera Vincent’s fretting over. There’s no sign of garish transformation, no following explosions, no loudly proclaimed demands for miraculous. In fact, if Adrien hadn’t seen it himself, it would appear as if nothing’s ever happened at all.

“It could’ve been the power lines,” someone suggests. “This place is pretty old, you know.”

“With Agreste’s standards?” someone else mutters. “I doubt it.”

“The camera is broken. Unsalvageable,” Vincent announces over the outbreak of murmurs. To his credit, he barely sounds shaken. “It must have been a power failure, or a blown fuse, I suppose. Nothing we can help.”

Vincent’s word is all the rest of the crew needs, and before Adrien can clamber up to inspect the lights himself, he’s being ushered from the studio, another intern furiously muttering about how she refuses to be fired for losing a model to “subpar building inspections” or something along those lines.

Adrien, who is already anticipating Father’s reaction himself, can’t blame her for bailing the moment he’s in the Gorilla’s hands.

————

Adrien is six years and three months old when his father finally finishes reading Le Petite Prince to him, and he comes the closest he ever has to throwing a fit at the ending.

He doesn’t actually throw a fit, of course, because then his father might not read to him ever again. That they finished this book together is already more precious as anything Adrien’s ever owned, and he won’t ruin that with his dramatics.

“Not all stories have the happy endings you want, Adrien,” his father tells him. Adrien feels his arms tighten around his shoulders, where he sits snugly in his father’s lap. “Sometimes you must make the most of what you have.”

Even at a young age, Adrien knows that he has quite a lot. The knowledge only grows as he does, just how much he has from his last name alone. His room alone could rival some people’s homes, Adrien has no right to want for anything.

And yet.

Sometimes, Adrien thinks back to the deep timbre of his father’s voice as he reads about yellow snakes and desert flowers and feels a stinging sense of loss so sharply it takes his breath away.

Other times, though, Adrien thinks about his father choosing to read a story about a boy who could only return home by letting a snake poison him, and wonders what that says about their relationship.

It’s not even Father’s icy tone that hurts anymore, really, Adrien thinks, as he picks at his dinner. Not that he’s likely to hear that tone tonight. Father’s locked himself firmly in his office again, and even Nathalie is nowhere to be seen. It’s quiet enough that Adrien’s gotten away with heating up the cheapest dinner they have in the house, and scouring enough cheese for Plagg that he won’t be complaining for a month.

Well, a day, maybe. Plagg’s a special kind of greedy.

But it’s painstakingly clear that Adrien will be dining alone, tonight. There hasn’t even been a single message fro Nathalie, informing him of all the lessons he’s been falling short in lately. Adrien twists his fork in his hand, setting it down with a weary sigh as dark spots flicker before his eyes again.

At least there won’t be anyone to lecture him, he tells himself, tapping absently on the table. The smooth wood looks immaculate beneath his fingers, the edge of his pinky still a bruised purple from the other evening, when Adrien misjudged the distance from the rooftop to his own window.  

Father won’t be able to lecture him about that, either, so it’s a good thing, really. It’s a good thing, that no one will be saying anything to him about the studio mishap earlier, or the darker than usual circles beneath his eyes, or he way he’s been showing up late more often than not to everything. Not about his slipping grades, or the way he keeps forgetting to hide his glare when photoshoots run longer than they’re supposed to.

It’s a good thing, Adrien tells himself, as his fingers clench around the table’s edge. It’s a good thing that he’s alone tonight. Being alone and unseen is much better than the alternative. It’s a good thing, that he can stew in whatever ugly emotions keep threatening to rise to the surface all by himself, where he won’t risk hurting anyone else with them. He can’t mess anything up if no one’s there to see it, so really, it’s a good thing, it’s—

It hits him, all-encompassing and overwhelming all at once.

Unwanted, thick and horrible and choking, the sensation of being traded out and traded off and stepped over, left behind and left out and laughed at in vicious whispers, closed doors and closed expressions and locking him out, like bars sliding down from the ceiling and cutting him off, trapped in place like an animal in the zoo, entertaining for a heartbeat than easily moved past for something better, unwanted and untrusted and alone, alone, alone again—

Adrien buckles and something howls in his ears, his hands burning as his fingers crunch through wood and his vision whites out.

For a heartbeat, Adrien isn’t Adrien — he’s the swelling of flames as fire catches light, he’s the pull of the undertow as it rips across the shore, he’s the blazing burst of lightning against metal, he’s on the edge of a cliff and stepping off—

And then he’s Adrien again, small and shaking and breathing in large, heaving gasps, trying desperately not to throw up all over the table.

“—drien, kid, Adrien, please!”

Adrien tears his hands from the table as if it’s shocked him. Black flecks drift from his fingers as they tremble, and Plagg splits into three as he flits in front of him, six pairs of green eyes staring at him in blazing concern.

“Plagg?” He barely recognizes his own voice, and his throat feels like sandpaper.

“Breathe,” Plagg orders as his image solidifies back to one, more serious than Adrien can remember him sounding. “You gotta breathe, Adrien.”

He does, in stuttering, shaky gasps, because Adrien will do anything Plagg asks him to. He’ll light himself on fire if he wanted, because Plagg is all he’s got.

Plagg is here, and that means more to Adrien than anything else could.

“Breathing,” he finally croaks out. “I’m — breathing, see? S’all good.”

It is most certainly not all good, because Adrien still feels like he got thrown off a building and into a blender, but Plagg almost looks frightened, looking from Adrien to the table to Adrien again, and—

Adrien freezes. The table. The stupidly, enormous, ridiculously expensive, lonely table his family’s supposed to use. The table he definitely, most certainly felt crunch under his hands.

Adrien follows Plagg’s gaze downwards, and suddenly feels like he’s going to throw up again.

“Oh,” he whispers.

Ice coats the inside of his chest, cold and creeping. The sidewalk. The mirrors, the studio camera, and now this.

“Adrien.” Plagg sounds so very serious.

He could explain most of it away. It’d be — it would be easy.

But this?

Adrien stares at the half-decayed table, ashes still flaking from the sides in a way that’s horribly distinctive of his cataclysm. A spiderwebbed path of smoldering destruction, all tracing back to where his fingers had been white-knuckled at the table’s edge.

Something snaps in the chandelier above him, cracking once and fizzling off into sparks.

It feels like something’s snapped in Adrien’s head. Maybe he’s lost it. Maybe he’s finally gone off the edge, and that — that can be his excuse, when Father asks him what, exactly, he did to the table. He can tell Father they’ve both lost it, they’ve both gone mad, and wouldn’t mom think this was all so funny—

A sound like a sob rips itself from his chest, before Adrien can strangle it into submission. He can’t lose it now. He can’t break down, he has to — he has to come up with a way to explain this, he has to find an escape, or Father’s going to be so angry, and so cold, and…and…

Adrien goes still. Like ice, numb and calming, he realizes he doesn’t have to worry about excuses. He doesn’t have to worry about any of that at all. No one’s coming. Not to check on him. The silence of the house is overpowering, the tiny patter of the vaporized table bits as they land on the floor almost thunderous.

“Adrien,” Plagg repeats, softer this time. “I need you to look at me.”

Slowly, he lifts his head, meeting Plagg’s bright green eyes with his own. Something in Plagg’s expression goes tight, a myriad of emotions flickering in his eyes before he schools them back into careful calm.

“Oh, kid.” Plagg’s voice is gentle. It still sounds like a lament.

Adrien tears his gaze away, swallowing. His fingers, still shaking, curl into unsteady fists. They feel odd, almost scalded. Adrien ignores it.

He can hide the table, he tells himself. He can fix the chandelier. No one will notice. He can hide this.

He’s Adrien Agreste.

He can deal with a couple of cracks in his facade.

[diamaker-moon]

Moving Forward - Chapter 5

Chapter Five

First stake-out...

—————

She observes the young boy and hummed. She instructed Adrien to try and look around thinking that it might've been misplaced.

'I have a bad feeling about this. It's already bad that it's missing, but if my theory is right that it is in Ladybug's possession, we might be at a disadvantage.'

— previous chapter... —

Marinette was nervous. She doesn't know if she can pull it off.

She was currently crouching on a roof near the Agreste Mansion, waiting for any signal from the kwamis. She was already feeling a strain in her body due to wearing multiple miraculouses at once.

She was wearing the ladybug earrings, black cat ring, fox necklace, horse glasses, mouse pendant necklace. There was a slight change in the plan. She decided to do a stakeout in the middle of the night, that is why she also had a flashlight in hand.

If there are no open windows or any entrance to the atelier straight from the outside, she'll just create a portal. She was currently transformed as Multimouse. While the four kwamis searched around the mansion. After waiting a few minutes the four kwamis came back.

"Sorry bug, but all the windows are closed. And it can't be opened." Plagg said.

"But, the atelier is empty, Natalie is already sleeping and Gabriel as well. Their bedrooms are a bit far from the room." Tikki said.

Marinette thought about it. "Hey, Trixx. You think your illusions, can affect the security cameras inside the room if there is any?"

"Sure Kit. My powers are meant to be useful to you!" Trixx said.

Marinette nodded. She will need to divide into two, one to unify with Trixx for the illusion and another for Kaalki's teleportations.

"I hope this can work..." She mumbled before preparing to activate the mouse's special power.

"Multitude!" She activated the power and waited. She felt a slight change in her when she opened her eyes a copy of her is staring at her. She handed her the glasses.

"Mullo, Kaalki, unify!" 

The gray, pink and black bodysuit was changed. The pink accents of her bodysuit were changed into a dark brown colour, while her mask was removed and the glasses act as her mask. Her ribbons in her Odango-style twin buns were changed from pink to dark brown. A horseshoe attached to the back.

"Mullo, Trixx, unify!"

He bodysuit turned into Multifox's look, all the pink accents on Multimouse become orange, and she has a white section on her chest similar as a result of the Fox miraculous influence. The pink section of her mask also becomes orange.

Multifox looked in the direction of the mansion, before grabbing the flute from her back and playing a song to activate the power. As short 'Mirage' and the illusions are up. The cameras will only see an empty room, and if the doors are opened they will see a dark empty room.

Multifox nodded to Multimare to open a portal.

"Voyage!"

She activated the power then a portal opened. They went through it to appear in the middle of the dark empty room.

"Mullo, Kaalki, divide." Multimare mumbled, releasing the Horse kwami. Multifox handed a small pouch that has food for the kwamis.

Multimouse is on guard duty, she needs to be on alert, while Multifox, Plagg and Tikki walk up to Mme Agreste's painting. Multifox pulls the painting to reveal a safe behind. She looked at Tikki who nodded before phasing through. Multifox flicked her flashlight 'on' once the safe's door opened.

She saw a picture of Mme Agreste, a book about Tibet, a ticket to Tibet, rolled-up pieces of old paper, and a shiny brooch, that is shaped like a peacock. The brooch has five segments. Its main colour is pale, light grayish blue-violet, while the crystals on the top of each segment are pink. The lower part has a silhouette body of a peacock as a single teardrop.

She had her jaw opened. Hawkmoth just leaves it here?! Wow... What a great keeper. She grabbed the brooch and clutched it in her left hand. Before grabbing the book about Tibet which only has words about their trip and nothing important.

She placed the book back, closed the safe then returned the painting back to normal. She then nodded to Multimouse, who immediately transformed back to Multimare, and opened a portal straight to her bedroom inside the dorm.

Kaalki was divided and handed a sugar cube to eat, before Multimouse and Multifox fused, leaving only Multifox.

"Mullo, divide."

Leaving her in a fox suit. She removed the illusion in M. Agreste's atelier before finally detransforming.

"Trixx, let's rest."

Finally leaving her in her pink athletic leggings and a cropped black shirt. She was still clutching the peacock miraculous in her left hand. She made sure she didn't leave anything. She had the pouch and the flashlight on the floor after getting dropped when Multimouse and Multifox fused back together.

She sat down on her desk chair with the disguised miracle box opened on the side of the table. The other kwamis flew towards her, while She was inspecting the miraculous.

"Tikki, I thought the Peacock Miraculous was broken?" Marinette asked while still inspecting the miraculous.

"Maybe Hawkmoth fixed it? He did have the Master Fu's tablet for a while..." Tikki reasoned out.

Since she basically stole the miraculous from Hawkmoth. She couldn't believe what was happening. One moment, she was alone fighting a magical terrorist that has two miraculouses that transforms themselves as Shadowmoth. Then suddenly, here she was, it was supposedly a stake-out only! Not a stealing stake-out! But... finders keeper, losers weepers!

Marinette sighed before attaching the brooch to her shirt and hoped for the best. the brooch changed into its new camouflage design, it was now rose gold in colour, from the five feather segments when it is charged to eight with pale pink crystals on the top of each segment, there was no design in the middle, leaving the brooch in a simple yet elegant look.

A dark blue ball of light popped out and swirled around her, after the light vanished a peacock-looking kwami appeared.

"Oooh! Hello! Huh?! Why do you have the other kwamis?! Who are you?!"

Some of the kwamis laughed at the new kwami's energetic personality, while Tikki and especially Plagg grumbled about how to keep the kwami in one place.

"Hello, Duusu," Marinette said then smiled at the confused kwami.

"I'm your Guardian, I have retrieved you from Shadowmoth's possession. I am sorry that I didn't get to retrieve Nooroo as well..." Marinette continued.

The peacock kwami gasped before nuzzling on the Guardian's cheek.

"Thank you! Oh if you could've seen him, his outfit was hideous! Poor, Nooroo! Please Guardian, save him as well!" Duusu exclaimed.

Marinette smiled, she removed the brooch to put it back in the Miracle Box. Duusu didn't get sucked into it since she had no intention to relinquish him, after placing it inside the designated area of the peacock miraculously, she opened the middle circle for the kwami once they want to return in the parallel universe inside the miracle box. She let the other kwamis talk to him, while she handles civilian duties.

She opened her website on her computer and replied to a few emails before responding to requested commissions.

Clara Nightingale is commissioning her for a set of four dresses that will be used for her brand new music video, that had a theme of stars, constellations, space etc.

It was a weird concept for her but decided to accept it, thinking it could be a challenge for her. She wrote a reply email then sent it to Clara before closing her computer and climbing up to her bed.

"I'm going to sleep, be careful okay? There's food in the other mini fridge for everyone, since someone's food is influencing the other's food." She said while giving a pointed stare at Plagg who had the audacity to look innocently at the young guardian.

"Goodnight, guys!" Marinette said in between her yawns.

A series of 'goodnights' was heard before Marinette finally drifted to sleep.

—————

"Is she asleep?"

"Yes, it's quite rare for her to catch sleep lately, I'm glad that this new change is giving her quite a good impact." Tikki said.

It was currently hard for Tikki's chosen. A Ladybug Miraculous holders are usually the leaders. Those personalities are needed to become a ladybug since they are the only ones who can purify an Akuma, cast a purifying spell, and with Tikki's creations of Lucky Charms, they needed to be a tactician and are aware of responsibilities.

She was proud of Marinette. Such a young child has a strong devotion to protecting the city while risking her life, but now the stakes are high for her. Hawkmoth is aware that the Ladybug heroine is the current Guardian of the Chinese Miracle Box.

If he manages to overthrow Ladybug he can gain access to the box, and the fact that her bug needed to repress her negative emotions down into the deepest voids of her soul after being targeted by countless akumas.

Tikki knew it was taking a toll on the young aspiring designer.

Being a superheroine that needs to battle akumas whenever and wherever is already hard enough. She needed excuses for her various disappearance every time there's an Akuma.

Having an emotional battle of trust and faiths between her and her former classmates, ever since the Liar appeared. It took everything in Tikki to not pop out of the designer's purse and chew the vixen herself.

Her series of achievements through various commissions by famous peoples in society.

And finally, this Guardianship that was handed to her during an unfortunate event. She lost her temporary heroes since their identities were exposed to Hawkmoth, the loss of her Mentor— Master Fu, and now the loss of her partner.

Tikki and even the other kwamis are curious about how she was still standing straight even though she was carrying a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders. The fate of Paris, France, the fate of the world, and the fate of everyone's reality by preventing Hawkmoth from achieving his goal, that can have a massive impact on reality due to how powerful miraculouses are.

"I am proud of your chosen, Tikki."

Wayzz said in a calm voice. "She took in the responsibility of being a heroine exchange for her time in her civilian life, and now, she chose to carry the heavy responsibility of a Guardian even though she can refuse it and pass it to someone else, leaving everything behind."

The other kwamis nodded at the wise turtle kwami's words. Tikki looked at them and smiled.

"I'm proud of my bug. She's a worthy ladybug and had shown how worthy she is despite her flaws. She made mistakes, but she chose to fix them. And now she's healing from the toxicity she had received in that place. Sleep well, Marinette..."

Chapter 4 — Moving Forward: Masterlist — Chapter 6

[their-destinys-writer]

Miraculous Ladybug Writer Zine: Once Upon a Season

Yes, yes, this is suuuuper late. But I still want to share it. This is a Lukanette fic I wrote for the @mlwriterzine last year. For this zine, I had the honor of being one of its mods, same as one of its writers. This one was especially special to me, because it’s a zine fully dedicated to writers, which is extremely rare, and the final result was astonishing. Huge thanks to @emzurl for making it possible.

The Start of a Song

“I can’t believe we’re here!” Rose squealed, watching the crowds enter past the security fences. “I’ve never been so close to the stage!”

“I know,” Juleka responded in her low, raspy voice. “Totally rad.”

Rose let out another squeal, grabbing her girlfriend’s hand and dragging her inside. Although there were plenty of bands playing during the Summer Music Festival, there was no artist more exciting than Jagged Stone. To which Kitty Section got tickets for in advance.

“Don’t go too far!” Luka called out, but the two girls were already out of earshot. He sighed, as a hand landed on his arm.

“I’ll help keep an eye for them,” Marinette said next to him.

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep an eye out, too,” Mylène said, coming up the other side with Ivan. “I think it’s a little late to be right in front of the stage.”

“We’ll still be pretty close,” Marinette shrugged. “C’mon, we should get close before it fills up!”

A hand wrapped around Luka’s wrist, as she dragged him towards the crowd. Meanwhile, Luka looked at their surroundings, and couldn’t help but notice something.

“Is it just me, or are there a lot of couples in this concert?” Marinette said nervously next to him.

“Huh, I hadn’t noticed,” Luka responded, as nonchalantly as possible, pretending he hadn’t just noticed the exact same thing. “I do see a lot of people, though. Anyone of us could easily get lost. Speaking of …”

He craned his neck in search of his sister, luckily finding her mere meters away. For the third time that day he reminded himself to not get too distracted by the girl still holding his wrist. As grateful as he was that the other two couples encouraged a romantic relationship between them, Luka would never want to put Marinette in an uncomfortable situation. Especially when he still didn’t know where she stood on that notion.

Instead, he tried his best to make sure his sister didn’t wander off, like he heavily suspected she would try.

“Are you okay?” Marinette asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “Just making sure nobody gets lost.”

“That’s gonna be hard, Ivan and Mylène already said they’re going to the movies after this.”

Luka frowned, turning to her. “When did they decide that?”

“They told me just before you and Juleka arrived. They didn’t tell you?”

“Uh, no.”

It’s a setup, Luka instantly thought. It wouldn’t be the first time they tried leaving them alone in hopes that something would happen. However, he knew better. As much as he wished something would happen, at this point, he was starting to lose hope.

The music started, and the crowd screamed. While everyone else was concentrating on the stage, Luka couldn’t help but divert his eyes to Marinette, with her arms raised as she cheered. A smile curved his lips as the image of happiness brought joy to him. With one last wistful sigh, he turned to the stage and started cheering himself.

Jagged Stone walked into the stage, joining his bandmates with a guitar solo. The screams were louder, and the crowd started pushing to the front, every fan hoping to be closer to the rockstar. Luka tried looking at Juleka’s way again, but his vision was cut by several screaming fans. 

An elbow hit his back. He turned just in time to watch a large, tall man about to push Marinette out of the way. On instinct, he grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Wah!” Marinette squawked, as she was pulled into Luka’s chest.

“Sorry,” he said, with an apologetic grin. “I figured you’d prefer being pulled than pushed towards me by that guy.”

Marinette glanced at the man now standing where she had been two seconds before.

“Oh,” she breathed, her cheeks acquiring a light shade of pink. “Thanks, Luka.”

A light caress down his chest sent shivers up his spine. Luka swallowed a large gulp before grabbing her shoulders again and turning her in the direction of the stage.

“Wouldn’t want you to miss the show,” he said.

Marinette’s attention was quickly diverted to Jagged Stone, while Luka attempted to get his cool back. While he had never been secretive about his feelings for her, something about this day felt different to him. He shook his head, in an attempt to send away the thought. He had already learned keeping hopes too high could lead to unnecessary disappointment.

And yet, he couldn’t stop looking at her.

Luka continued looking at Marinette on her toes, craning her neck as far as she could above the heads in the crowd. As amusing as it was, the young man couldn’t help but feel bad. He tapped her shoulder, catching her attention, and made a gesture of holding something over his shoulders.

“Are you sure?” Marinette asked.

“I can take it,” Luka shrugged, kneeling down. “Come on, you’ll see better.”

Although she hesitated for a moment, she quickly agreed when the crowd cheered over something she didn’t get to see. As Luka rose back to his feet, he stumbled momentarily, prompting a squawk from Marinette while she wrapped her arms around his head. Luka couldn’t help but laugh, almost losing his balance again.

“I’m gonna fall!” Marinette cried dramatically.

“I got you,” Luka assured, holding tight to her legs. “See, you’re okay. Everything’s okay.”

The young woman’s arms relaxed as she let out a sigh of relief. After several minutes, Marinette seemed to have forgotten her previous fear and gained comfort from her position on his shoulders. Unfortunately for Luka, the part of him that was not internally giddy for being so close to the girl of his dreams was regretting his decision.

Thick droplets of sweat started running down his forehead and back with the added weight, plus the scorching summer heat. Yet, he was resolute in keeping his stance. The concert was only one hour, after all.

* * *

The crowd let out its last scream as the lights turned on around them, signaling the end of the concert. Although Luka had gotten used to the weight already, it didn’t stop him from almost letting out a whine of relief when Marinette was back on the ground.

“That was awesome!” she squealed, as she made a twirl to look at him. “I’ve never had such an awesome view to—Woah, Luka, are you okay?”

“Yeah, why?” he panted.

“You’re sweating like crazy.”

Luka swiped a hand over his forehead. “Huh, look at that.” He pulled his hair back, in hopes to refresh his forehead. “Nothing a cold drink won’t fix. Right, Marinette? Marinette?”

She seemed to not hear him, her eyes trained on something above his eyes.

“Marinette?” he called again, loud enough to catch her attention.

“Ah! Sorry!” she squeaked. “Yeah, you’re hot—I mean, it’s hot! It’s very hot, something cold sounds great. Yeah, totally. We probably gotta move, where are the others?” Marinette asked, scanning the crowd.

“Dunno,” Luka muttered, searching for his phone. On the screen appeared a text message from his sister. In it, he read: 

Juleka: 

Sorry, we lost you in the crowd. Gonna go for some ice cream with Rose. Thank me later! ;)

He gulped. “They left already.”

“Without us?”

“They went on their own date, I guess.”

“O-Oh,” Marinette stammered. “I see … So, what are you going to do?”

“I—” He had been about to say he was going home. But it still felt much too early to do so. And he didn’t feel like spending the rest of the afternoon alone. “I think I will go for a walk.”

“Ah, I see.”

There was silence. Probably caused by Marinette’s usual indecision about saying what she wanted. Something Luka could already sense and decided to do the work for her.

“Marinette, would you like—”

“Can I join you?” she asked at the same time as him.

Luka blinked, this being the first time she barely hesitated to take the initiative with him. With a soft smile, he responded: “I would very much like that.”

* * *

After several hours and one stop for iced coffee, Luka and Marinette were walking by the edge of the Seine, lost in a melody of joyous laughter.

“Wait, you didn’t!” Luka exclaimed.

“I swear I was the only one who saw it,” Marinette laughed.

“And here I thought I was so sneaky, too.”

“Well, to be fair, I did make the costumes. I think it’s a given I would notice when there’s a piece missing.”

“It’s a good thing that show was not recorded,” Luka chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “Wouldn’t want us going viral over a wardrobe malfunction instead of the music.”

“I don’t think it would’ve been so bad if it had,” Marinette responded in a sing-song tone. “Even if that had happened, it could’ve helped boost your popularity as a band. Especially with such a cute guitarist.”

Luka’s eyes widened, dead staring at her. Marinette seemed to have noticed what she said one second too late, for her cheeks turned dark red instantly. Lips pressed together, as if trying to stop them from saying something else they were forbidden from. Luka did his best to still his heart, pushing all hope aside. Just in case.

“Thank you?” he said, attempting to sound as cool as possible. And slightly failing.

“U-uh, you’re welcome?” Marinette said, just as awkwardly. “I-I mean, not that that’s all I think of you. You’re than more such—I mean, you’re so much more than that. You’re a great friend. Notthatyoucanonlybeafriend. I mean.” She took a deep breath. “I meant to say that you’re a great guy, more than looks.”

“That means a lot coming from you, Marinette,” Luka chuckled. “You don’t have to try to fix what you say with me. I know what you mean.”

“See what I mean?!” Marinette burst. “With you, I don’t have to try to explain myself. You just … You just get me! It’s so comfortable with you. And nice. And wonderful. And…”

She went silent. Again, holding back. Despite the words already spoken.

Luka placed his hands in his pockets. “You know,” he said, with a light smile, “anything you want to say, you can say it. No matter what it is, you know I’ll always listen.”

“I know,” Marinette whispered. “Some things are just hard to say.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I too think you’re an extraordinary person. But you already know that.”

“I do.” She placed a hand on his forearm, softly pulling it. It took Luka a minute to realize she was attempting to take his hand out of his pocket. He obliged as discreetly as possible. When the hand was fully out, she entwined her fingers between his.

Luka’s heart drummed louder, wondering if this was a sweet dream, or if it was as real as it felt.

“I really do,” Marinette said, looking directly into his eyes. She opened and closed her mouth several times. “I-I … I, um, I wanted to, uh, I wanted to say—”

Luka placed a finger over her lips. “You don’t have to say it. If you don’t feel comfortable with it, you don’t have to say it.”

“I want to,” she insisted. “I know you always know what I mean. But … Luka, I like you. As more than a friend.”

The air trapped itself inside his lungs. His heart was about to burst out of his ribcage. A celebratory melody rang out in his mind. He then understood why she wanted to say it: hearing the words made a world of difference. It felt different than simply suspecting. It made it real. It reminded him why he had been so forward in the first place, when he had the chance.

The hand that was still trapped in his pocket slid out, landing on her cheek. Luka couldn’t contain the excitement the words brought. He could feel a wide grin paint his face, but he didn’t care if it made him like a goofball.

“You have no idea how happy those words make me,” he said, letting out a shuddered breath and leaning to her lips.

There was a clatter on a nearby car, snapping them both out of the bubble they had built between themselves. Turning to the source of the sound, they found Rose scrambling to grab her phone that landed on the hood of a car where she seemed to have been hiding behind. Next to Rose were Juleka, Ivan, and Mylène unsuccessfully trying to take cover.

“Oh gosh,” Marinette whined, covering her face.

Luka chuckled. “You guys are not very good with the sneaking and spying.”

“I was so close,” Rose lamented, as Juleka gave her girlfriend a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

“Sorry!” Mylène waved a hand towards them. “We didn’t mean to interrupt you guys!”

“This is so embarrassing,” Marinette’s muffled voice said.

Luka looked between their friends and Marinette. He smiled and asked, “D’you wanna run?”

Marinette raised her head, with her lips in the shape of an ‘o.’ Without a second thought, she eagerly nodded. Luka grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the nearby bridge to run across it. Meanwhile, the rest of Kitty Section yelled at them to return. 

“Where are we going?!” she panted.

“Wherever!” he responded, letting out a laugh. Marinette laughed too, just as eager to explore whatever it was that they had just started.

[liquid-luck-00]

Connections 6

Chapter 6

this is based on @thepeacetea daminette soulmate au

Masterlist *** First *** Previous *** Next

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Grandfather hated soulmates and the entire league shared that sentiment. His Mother was glad for the fact that he did not have any soul mark. That was good he wasn’t tied to anyone; he didn’t have to worry about it. It wasn’t until he was six that something changed, and he was thankful that he was alone in his room when it happened. A thought fluttered through his mind alone he instantly recognized was not his own.

An invisible bond. My soulmate will be affected by the *********** magic that affects me. They are my other half; I have to protect them.

“Tt” Damian allowed to be stated aloud. Protect me huh, as if! That was when it occurred to him I have a soulmate.

Damian bolted up and sat straight. If I have a soulmate and I just heard their thoughts. Well if this was their thoughts. Do they know mine. Damian was beginning to become infuriated with this new piece of knowledge, what struck him as odd was the fact that he felt like something was missing in the thought. It was as if that last piece could help him understand this peculiar event. In that moment, his mother came into his room.

“Damian it is time to go” His mother snapped him out of his thoughts, and he pushed this into the back of his mind. He followed his mother, and this was simply filled away in his mind under things that were useless or frustrating.

---

It wasn’t until three years later would his bond would infuriate him again. As far as he knew nothing was out of the ordinary. No one batted and eye when he already knew how to handle guns, they simply praised him for being a natural and he himself did not think of it either.

But then he had to get ready for the Lazarus Ritual. His mother came to retrieve him and then everything changed. He remembered walking behind his mother blinked and he was sitting in a large room. In his lap was a book filled with drawings. Wait what the Hell was he wearing. He looked at his hands and his skin was lighter, he was wearing a wait is this a skirt. Then he looked up and saw this thing. It was this little red blob with a black spot on its forehead between clear blue eyes. That was when he began to scowl.

The question left his lips before he could process anymore “Maza ank (What are you)?” he practically spat continuing still “Ayn anna (Where am I)?” the blob seemed to only stare in shock.

The little thing looked at him and then smiled. Why would it smile. “I’m Tikki and it is nice to meet you, soulmate to my chosen” it seemed to choose its words carefully, wait why did it respond in English. But it answered half of my question he was about to respond but this Tikki spoke again “As to where you are, I am not at liberty to say.”

He decided to shift to English as this creature seemed to speak it “What is the meaning of this soulmate to your chosen rubbish?”

“just as it sounds you are the soulmate of my chosen. You being here is a result of your bond.” He scowled and stared at the blob and it sighed. “You have an invisible bond but because your other half is my chosen you both have a bond different than anyone else’s on the planet.” He began to scowl harder if that was even possible. “this bond will only continue to grow but know that what one learns the other knows as well. I am assuming it is because of you that my chosen knows how to fight.”

This pulled at Damian’s interest they know how to fight because of me then what do I know because of them. He looked at the blob again and decided to ask “does your chosen know how to handle firearms, before today?” he half hoped he was wrong because if they did his soulmate may just be as dangerous as him if not more if this creature was anything to go off of.

It was quiet and then it nodded “yes my chosen has known how to handle firearms for years now.”

Shit. Well at least I know that they can handle themselves.

“I believe our time has come to an end. Until we meet once again soulmate of my chosen.” It spoke as he blinked and then he was standing on a balcony cliff overlooking the Lazarus pit as they took his grandfather out to his chambers. He dimly remembered his mother calling him and leaving him in his quarters. Then the memory of the ritual surfaced. It was odd he was watching it but it felt detached from himself almost like a video recording, there was no feeling just the ritual and the proceedings but he felt nothing from it.

---

Mari was going through her sketchbook talking about what she was planning for her dad, she blinked and she was walking behind a woman, her aura was deadly so she schooled her emotions and presented a blank face almost bored and then they exited the dark halls into an outcrop balcony of sorts overlooking a large cavern with a pool of bubbling acid green water on the other side.

She scanned the cave and then she noticed several people dressed in all black surrounding another man. From her vantage she saw a cruel face that was surrounded by black and white hair and beard. His eyes were the same acid green as the water and the aura around him as well. He wore a regal robe in a deep crimson accentuated by black and gold designs.

The cruel mad began to speak and she understood it as being Arabic.

“All here are to bear witness to the revitalization of the Demon Head. By the power of the Lazurus Pit…” more was said and then Marinette watched as the man took the robe off and stepped into the Pit. He completely submerged and the water glowed a sickly green and then he remerged. He put on the robe and continued to speak.

Mari knew that what she just witnessed was an abuse of the magic in the water, and she forced herself to remain impassive. She knew that everyone in the room would turn on her if she showed any emotion that would betray her. And then it hit her she knew no one and was talking with Tikki sitting in the parlor of Wayne Manor so how did she end up here. She watched as the man with cruel eyes left and she blinked again and then she saw Tikki staring at her expectantly, and she simply shook her head, Tikki looked sad and then Alfred came in.  

“Miss Mari” he tried to get her attention kneeling next to her on the couch, but she simply stared straight forwards. Everyone came into the room trying to find out why Alfred sounded frazzled.

Then she looked up and stared at Jason, she finally found her voice and asked “J… Jay… Jay-Jay why are… why are you covered in chaos magic” everyone was staring at her so she tried asking another way. “Why are you covered in magic from the Lazarus Pit?” everyone looked scared and now Mari was confused as well.

“How do you know that name, Mari?” Tikki asked her, breaking the silence.

“I” she didn’t know how to explain what just happened to her “I just heard it, I saw it, it was it was like a ritual”

“Tikki is this normal for a miraculous holder” Bruce asked looking at Tikki hoping for an answer

Tikki simply shook her head “No it isn’t. seeing the Lazarus arura is for a Ladybug, but this knowledge is not normal…” then she stopped ad gave Mari a knowing and sad smile. “Mari do you think?” Tikki didn’t have to finish the question for Mari to understand.

As Tikki asked her everything seemed to fall into place she was close to crying from fear or joy she didn’t know. “it might be, it’s the most logical.”

“What does this incur exactly?” Alfred spoke from kneeling beside Marinette.

“Her soulmate” Tikki said and that left everyone quiet once again. “Mari knows how to fight, that much you know but what you don’t is that she has never had any type of training. The same goes for several languages she has never studied, she can read a person’s body language without any difficulty, and now this.” Everyone was staring at her now almost like they knew something that she didn’t and that scared her.

Bruce kneeled down and pulled Mari into a hug. And whispered in her ear quiet enough so no one else heard but her “I’ll explain but for now it is okay to cry if your scared something must have happened for this to affect you so much”

Her eyes widened in surprise before she began to cry, and Bruce took her in his arms and together with Tikki left the parlor to her room.

---

Once they were in Mari’s room Bruce wrapped her in a blanket and sat next to her on the bed when the door opened. There stood Jason in front and right behind him were Dick and Tim, further in the hallway was probably Alfred. Bruce glared at them and they closed the door and heard several pairs of feet leave.

Bruce sighed and shared a look with Tikki before he spoke “Pixie do you know what the Lazarus Pit is?”

She shook her head no “not completely, no.”

“What do you know?” this time Tikki spoke.

“I could tell it was filled with magic. It was a pool of bubbling acid green water.”

“you said it was like a ritual can you explain” Bruce tried to keep his voice level. He had hoped to never have to explain this to Mari, Mari looked down into her lap and Tikki flew into her sights.

“He said it was a Revitalization Ritual. Something about a Demon”

He was surprised when Tikki started to speak. “The Lazarus Pit was created by a wish combining the miraculous of the Ladybug and the Black cat. The Ladybug magic allows anyone touched by the water to be revived, healed, and extends their life. It was created by the first wish. However, the Black cat’s magic breaks the soul of the person it touches, thus making them quick to anger and dangerous there is only one exception, but it is more of a rumor as it has never happened.”

Bruce asked without thinking “Can you heal someone from the pit after they come back?” If this is true we can help Jason.

“It is possible, but it would only be stated in the grimoire, and it was lost along with the peacock and Butterfly miraculous” Bruce couldn’t help the small frown but it was soon replaced by shock as little Mari hugged him.

“We will help Jay-Jay with or without magic” Bruce let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and hugged Mari.

“I know” he then looked at the girl and he now continued. “The Pit is controlled by a group called the League of Assassins and the Demon you heard of is a man by the name of Ra’s al Ghul.”

Mari looked pensive “Tall, cruel acid green eyes with black and white hair and beard” she stated as if recalling something.

Bruce just looked at her shocked “yes” he couldn’t believe this how did sweet little Mari meet such a man. “How. How do you know him?”

“I saw him during the ritual” this just brought up more questions, but all his questions died on his lips as he saw Tikki rise.

“Mari you swapped with your soulmate today” she stated it as a fact as if she knew and was confirming it. Mari nodded her head, and Tikki sighed. “I spoke with them while you were swapped it happened right before Alfred came into the room. They were direct and to the point, and I don’t think they knew that they even had a soulmate until today.”

This was news but then again knowing Ra’s despises weakness any assassin in training under him would as well. It also figures if it is an invisible bond, they are so rare that there is very little known how they interact with the soul. In this moment he knew that he would protect the little pixie in front of him wrapped up in a blanket, and he knew that her ‘Brothers’ would protect her as well.

Next

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[miraculousluvbug]

WINGLESS | Ch. 6

***New to Wingless? Start at Chapter 1!

CH. SUMMARY: After learning Hawk Moth's identity, Lila inserts herself into Gabriel's inner circle so she can destroy Ladybug-- er, get Ladybug's earrings. Ha-ha-ha. Ha.

Lila toed the cement beneath her as she restlessly awaited the assistant’s arrival. Gabriel had used an earpiece to communicate to her, Lila assumed. But the waiting was painfully awkward. Neither party made any attempt to fill the silence. The absurdity of the situation sat on their chests like an overweight feline unwilling to move.

As the sun dipped out of golden hour, the mansion shrouded the garden in shadow. Lila squinted her eyes to try and make out the details of Adrien’s mother’s statue, but the effort was fruitless. Wouldn’t a billionaire have, like, lamps or something? Maybe he didn’t have lamps because he hardly left the walls of his office.

Lila’s lips twitched into a smirk, but she quickly smothered it.

There was a sudden scuffling of shoes against the garden stones from behind Lila. She observed wordlessly from the corner of her eye as the looming and brooding Gabriel Agreste flew to the assistant’s side at an inhuman speed and held his arms out to support her silently, his fingers never quite making contact with the body he seemed desperate to protect.

Huh. A weakness. Hawk Moth had a weakness.

Lila filed that tidbit away should she need it for later.

“You were quite cryptic over the phone, sir,” the assistant started.

“I suppose I was, Nathalie. What needed to be said was . . . not phone appropriate.”

“Sir?”

Knowing Gabriel was Hawk Moth seemed to have tipped a domino in Lila’s brain. It was like there was a blanket over her eyes and it had been ripped away. On several occasions, a blue-skinned bird lady aided and abetted Hawk Moth. Lila had wondered who would possibly be close enough to the villain to be looped into his plans.

The connection was easy to make.

Lila folded her arms across her chest and cocked her head to the side, looking Nathalie up and down. When she had finagled her way into the Agreste mansion with a despicable limited edition Ladybug figurine, discovering the identities of Paris’s most wanted duo was not only low on her list of possibilities; it was nowhere near the friggin’ list.

But Dio was it the single most delectable turn of events.

“Let me guess. You were Mayura.”

Nathalie, who had been wholly oblivious to Lila’s presence, sucked in a breath, head spinning to meet the eyes of Adrien’s conniving classmate. Nathalie opened her mouth, probably to protest Lila’s statement, but the words died on her tongue. The only sounds came from the crickets chirping into the encroaching night air.

“She knows,” Gabriel explained.

“She . . . she knows?” Nathalie repeated.

Gabriel nodded. Nathalie’s gaze fell to the grass sprouting in between the garden stones. As the trio stood, the occasional butterfly fluttered around Gabriel like they knew they were kindred.

“You don’t need to be worried about . . . What’s the phrase?” Lila rested a finger on her chin. “Ah, right. Me spilling the fagioli. I don’t know the French word.”

“Beans,” Nathalie supplied.

“You know Italian?” he asked. Then softly to himself, “My Emilie knew Italian.”

Nathalie ducked her head at Gabriel’s attention before straightening her posture and jutting out her chin. If Lila hadn’t seen the woman shuffle over to this spot as if she were going to faint any moment, she might have never known there was anything amiss.

“So you . . . what? Want to be an ally?”

“Multilingual and smart,” Lila teased.

Something dark flickered in Nathalie’s eyes. Much darker than Lila would have ever given her credit for. “You’d do better to watch your tone with me, Mademoiselle Rossi.” She spat Lila’s name like one might an unforeseen chunk of raw garlic.

Ah, so this was how Nathalie wanted to play this. Lila’s fingers tingled in anticipation. She was a flexible actress, best known for her improv skills and dedication to her roles. If a performance was what the assistant wanted, then Lila was eager to put on a show.

“Why, Mademoiselle Nathalie--” Lila started, turning her back on the pair.

“Sancoeur.”

Lila rolled her eyes but proceeded to pump her tone full of sickeningly sweet syrup. “Right. Mademoiselle Sancoeur, it would be my pleasure to get the Ladybug Miraculous for Monsieur Agreste.”

“And Chat Noir’s.”

Lila plastered a fake smile on her face and turned on her heel. “Hm?”

Nathalie arched an eyebrow, unimpressed. “You loathe Ladybug, don’t you, Mademoiselle Rossi?”

“That’s no secret.”

“You want more than to take her Miraculous.”

It wasn’t a question. Lila held eye contact with Nathalie, unflinching. Eventually, she spoke. “I want to humiliate her. Like she humiliated me,” Lila growled. I want to destroy her.

The assistant chose not to expand on this statement, but Lila could tell she sensed a much more sinister motivation. She must have been weighing the pros and cons, her mind running a mile a minute to predict what including Lila might entail. Lila had to agree: she was a wildcard. Her loyalties teetered like a see-saw, ever-changing to suit her needs. She knew this. And Nathalie knew this.

Lila’s eyes bore into Nathalie’s, challenging her to refuse.

“I admit,” Nathalie began after a beat of consideration, removing her tablet from the crook of her arm, “you might make a valuable asset.”

Gabriel, who had been quietly observing the interaction between his assistant and the girl, folded his arms behind his back. “Yes, even now, while I’m untransformed, your contempt for the bug is palpable.”

“She’s a cockroach,” Lila sneered, her lips upturned in a grimace and her hand clenched tightly into a fist.

Lila’s enthusiasm amused Gabriel greatly. His shoulders shook as he chuckled, but the sound was hollow. “That is something we agree on. No matter how many times I pursue her, she manages to outsmart me.”

Lila bit her tongue. She wanted to say It’s easy to outsmart a man whose password is “password,” but she didn’t. She honestly deserved an award for that caliber of commitment.

“While you are very clever, you’ve been playing an elementary partita, Monsieur Agreste.”

Gabriel’s eyes hesitantly shifted to Nathalie.

“Game, match, etcetera,” she clarified. Ironically, a meager little ladybird flitted to Gabriel’s shoulders then. He scrunched his nose at it.

“And though it’s been a rousing game of tag--” Lila paused purposefully as Gabriel, without breaking eye contact, lifted a palm and allowed the dotted beetle to crawl onto his fingers before proceeding to wordlessly pass it to Nathalie. Lila cleared her throat. “I’m here to up the stakes.”

With her mouth set into a thin line, Nathalie bent over and shook her finger until the thing lost its grip and fell to the concrete. In the process, her shirt rode up to reveal a compelling pale scar the length of a thumb running up her side. Lila arched an eyebrow. Nathalie hastily covered it.

“What exactly are you implying, Mademoiselle Rossi?”

Gabriel peered at Lila over the bridge of his nose, daring her to challenge his legacy as Hawk Moth.

But Lila was not an expert manipulator for nothing. She knew how to read people, and, more importantly, she knew how to please them.

She knew how to play them.

“You’re a proper gentleman, Monsieur.”

Flattery. She would begin with flattery.

With one hand, she twirled one of her pigtails. Men and boys alike often found intelligent girls not only intimidating but emasculating. She wasn’t sure if Gabriel would take too kindly to a sixteen year old picking at all the holes in his plans, holding a magnifying glass to his inadequacies.

But she always loved creating fire with glass as a child.

She particularly enjoyed setting unsuspecting ants aflame.

“Getting your hands dirty is beneath you. There’s no doubt your plans are always cunning.”

She nearly gagged at the sound of those words leaving her throat as she slowly approached the designer and his assistant, calculating each step before taking it. No, she really didn’t believe his plans were cunning. It seemed like he akumatized anyone, chucking strategy to the wind. Imbecille.

“Your akumas, they’re always dressed so well--” it took a colossal amount of willpower for Lila not to look away then, a classic sign of lying “--and their powers are always a genius play on words--” double gag “--but unless you’re willing to play in the mud . . .”

Crunch.

The young vixen made a spectacle of rotating her toes back and forth as she squashed the ladybug the duo had so gingerly set on the stone. She relished in the sensation of a dainty beetle beneath her boot, imagining in vivid detail that it was the heroine’s skull instead.

When she lifted her foot, the two adults barely spared a glance at the result. Lila smirked.

“I’m willing to make a mess, sir,” Lila asserted, peering up at Gabriel through her bangs. She twirled and danced on the balls of her feet. “I would be a brilliant addition! I’ve wanted to wipe that smile off Ladybug’s face since I met her.”

For the first time since the beginning of their conversation, Gabriel’s lips tilted into a smile. He looked . . . almost proud. Lila lapped it up like a woman lost in the desert being given a bottle cap of water.

“Your family is from Italy, Lila?”

Lila tilted her head, confused by the abrupt detour in conversation. “. . . Yes.”

“How would you feel about an impromptu family visit?”

Nathalie’s eyes widened. She whipped her head around to stare down her boss so fast she was nearly overcome by dizziness. “You can’t really want--”

Gabriel held up a hand, instantly silencing his assistant. She searched his eyes for any remnants of humanity. Was there any left? Did it slip through her fingers on her watch? Gabriel couldn’t possibly want-- They were children, for God’s sakes!

But like an avalanche, his mask crumbled, and swept away with it was any morsel of decency.

“I do want, Nathalie. I’ve grown bored of this back-and-forth business with those two meddling infants. They hold onto those Miraculous so firmly, as if they could possibly know, possibly fathom--”

He didn’t finish his statement, closing his eyes and rolling his neck. Lila delighted in Gabriel’s sudden slip of conduct as his shoulders hunched all the way to his ears and he grinded his teeth. She hadn’t pictured him to be capable of such an erupting volcano of emotion. She often wondered if he was capable of emotion at all.

“Hand me the tablet, Nathalie.”

Nathalie gripped the tablet until her fingers turned white, but the resolve she saw in Gabriel loosened her own. Grudgingly, she passed him the device.

“There are some items I’d like you to procure for me, items that I surmise you’ll be quite pleased to have in your arsenal.”

Whatever these items were, they seemed to have Nathalie on the edge of her seat.

It was suddenly imperative that Lila find out what could have ruffled Mayura’s pretty feathers.

“Sir, you won’t be disappointed.”

Gabriel eyed Lila a moment before affirming, “I don’t believe I will.”

The final remnants of the golden hour neglected the garden, blanketing its visitors in a foreboding shadow like it was them and then it was the rest of the world. Perhaps this is why they missed the piercing green eyes surveying the trio scrupulously from a neighboring building.

So jealousy was a green-eyed monster.

No one mentioned it also wore black leather.

-----

I hope you're enjoying my little fic as much as I'm enjoying writing it! 🥰 There's still so much to uncover in this story so buckle up. Follow me for updates and check out my Instagram where I post art!

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[black-streak]

Little Pistol - Daisy

Chapter 1

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I'm trying to keep this in line with her canon personality to an extent here. Determined, focused, conniving and scheming. A little obsessive. But also needs to give herself a little pep talk to go through with things. Let me know how I'm doing?

Btw, title is by Brand New.

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~---~

Convincing a miniaturized pocket god that your intentions are sound came surprisingly easy to her.

That could be in part due to all the prior planning. Considering every possible argument the goddess could come up with and creating contingencies to match. Really though, taking out Tikki's own advice and laying it out as a perfect reasoning quieted her down quite nicely. Not that Tikki agreed with her, but the logic was too sound to push back on and the little bug never expected Marinette to come up with such thoughts without getting emotional. It just wasn't the way the girl was as far as Tikki was concerned. So it could only be taken at face value without the usual accusations of her being overdramatic.

It was an early Saturday when she voiced her thoughts.

"Hey Tikki?"

"Yes, Marinette?" the red bug looked up from her perch.

"Our biggest priority is to stop akumas and find Hawkmoth, correct?"

"Of course. You know that," she dismissed.

"So is it reasonable to say that Chat has been a hinderance to our duty?"

"How do you mean?"

"He distracts me or sits out on important battles. Threatens to quit if details that don't pertain to our purpose are withheld. He refuses to remain professional in the face of an attack."

"Well yes, he has been rather unhelpful lately, but then again, you are teenagers. It's to be expected, I suppose. Though I do wish he'd be a bit more focused," she easily agreed.

Marinette bit back a victorious smile and kept her expression closed off but for the determined, calculating expression she saved for important moments. Like now.

"In that case, it would be a good idea to make him focus any way I can. To make it easier. To hurry along the hunt for Hawkmoth."

Tikki's expression became weary as she stared at her welder, taken off guard by the open statement, "I don't know, Marinette...What did you have in mind?"

"Nothing yet, but I think I'm going to start brainstorming some ideas. Maybe do a little research. Something needs to change though," she emphasized, staring down her kwami with a hopeful, prodding look until she hesitantly nodded her agreement.

With the god's blessing, she turned to her tablet, pulling up everything she could on different heroes and their methods. Down the rabbit hole she fell.

… 

Some thirteen hours had passed and she felt the strain of her eyes and the bright burn to her retinas for the effort of her work. She refused to believe that no inspiration would come from this effort, though she'd moved on from conventional heroes and into a more sketchy territory by now, having been let down by the uptight views of others who'd obviously never been harassed or neglected by their partner and therefore wouldn't understand her need for a more, let's say, gray solution.

She'd seen the ideals of Superman and the Lanterns and the generalized view of both the Teen Titans and Justice League alike. Many worked with partners, many had betrayals or interpersonal problems. The solution they always took was for one or both parties to leave the team and travel to opposite sides of their country. Or world. Or separate worlds. Either way, avoidance was key. That didn't really work for her though. She had to stay in close contact with her partner while not truly working together. Remain civil within the same city limits. Fight side by side even. And it's not like she could just leave her responsibility here or allow Chat to go unchecked with a miraculous on his own. 

Then she stumbled upon Batman's history. The infamous bat had many a partner or sidekick with their own rough history and seemed to be operating with them regularly still. His solution to a lost or dead partner seemed to be a steady stream of replacements. Unfortunately, unlike a vigilante suit, a miraculous has to resonate with the wearer and no one she knew and trusted would fit the black cat. So she was stuck with the one.

Still though, Batman apparently had a falling out with his first Robin who became Nightwing. Those two were seen together regularly now so something must have happened to fix their issues. Gods, she was so lucky the internet seemed to stalk these people hardcore enough to have so much information on them so readily available. However, looking deeper, the resulting theories and knowledge did not bode well for her. It seems Nightwing had been in much the same state as her and with zero apologies from the Bat, had forgiven the man and resumed operations as usual. Well she was done with forgiving and forgetting. She wanted a real solution, not just rolling over and letting Chat do as he pleased! 

Alright, so Batman was the Chat Noir to the Robin's Ladybug. Maybe the others fared better?

Nope, second one died.

Current one seems to be a literal feral child out to bleed Gotham dry. Not sure how that helped, though maybe she could go just psycho enough to force Chat to be the responsible one? No, he'd just try and quit again.

Huh.

There was a third and fourth one apparently? Between the murder baby and the dead one. What happened to them?

The fourth was a blonde girl with a short stint. Seems she just moved departments since many speculated she might be a batgirl or working with a few others in the city. Not much more.

But what about the other one?

The third Robin, who worked with the Teen Titans for a stint. Who worked many years under the Bat, who gave away the title to the blonde only to return after and disappear once more with the coming of the blood toddler. What happened? Where'd he go?

…

Thousands had apparently asked the same question themselves. All signs seemed to point towards a betrayal. Something went wrong. The first resigned, the second died, the third just seemed to drop off the face of the planet. Did Batman kick him out? Replace him? For child's play, sword addition? She couldn't be sure, but it seemed the most likely guess. Much more believable than alien kidnapping or a quest for a dead man or his predecessor coming to life to end him.

But what after that? 

Surely, Marinette could've stopped there. Obviously, this wasn't the same as her situation, but she couldn't help but be so very intrigued. She watched videos of the boy in his Robin suit (much more practical than the first two if you asked her, though still slightly shameful) fighting and flying across rooftops and working with his team. He was so. So. Efficient. So clean. Ruthless when he decided to be. Calculated. Everything she ever wanted to be. 

He was amazing.

And then he disappeared.

Where did he go, that perfect Robin. How could anyone ever think the position needed an upgrade when the perfect bird was already there? It made no sense. And then she found him. Hunting through the rogues and heroes and inbetweens of Gotham, hidden in his own layerings of cover stories and identities. Her new aspiration of what a hero should be, mixed into the Anti-heroes of the city.

The vigilante of the more morally ambiguous variety, manipulating the world to the way he saw fit, using whatever method he wished. And the way he seemed to bend the city to his whim, well it matched quite well with how she wished her own city would be. She found her solution. Now it was showtime.

…

"Are you ready to apologize, m'lady?" Chat dropped down at her side, the akuma of the week tied up below them. It was a relatively easy battle, with no need for special abilities for once.

"Whatever for, Chatton?" Marinette asked, already tensing at the response she knew she'd receive. She hated when he tried to coerce her into apologizing for things that aren't her fault.

"For your neglect of your kitten, obviously."

"I don't have a kitten," she stated plainly.

"What? You wound me, to disown me so abruptly," he put a clawed hand to his chest, offense and hurt in spades marking his features.

"I can't disown what I never adopted," she went along with the analogy so he wouldn't complain about her ruining his fun again. The last thing she needed was his whining.

He perked up with this, "Well we can draw up some adoption papers right now if you wish? I'd love to be yours," he smarmed, leaning into her space further. 

This was it. Time to turn the tables. To make this work in her favor. She just needed to play it right, the way her Robin did. By manipulating the enemy into doing her bidding. She could do this.

"That's just it, though. I don't believe you would," she frowned, letting her eyes soften the way she'd seen Lila do so often. Might as well learn something from the girl.

"What? I would," he insisted, eyebrows furrowing.

"See you say that, but where's the proof? You've done nothing but pester and punish me over these weeks. You say you love me, but then watch me get hurt by akumas and make me fight all alone and threaten to leave me. That's not the actions of a loving partner. It feels like you hate me."

That had him panicking.

"No no, I don't hate you, you're my sun and my moon. My everything. Surely you know your worth in my life. I only did those things to show you how much you hurt me." He attempted to reason with her.

"See, but I've never intentionally hurt you. And always apologized to you when I realized I had. Whereas you just admitted to causing me distress as a form of punishment. It seems to me that I'm far more attached to you than you are to me and I'm just not willing to hurt myself by getting involved with someone who so obviously dislikes me."

"I- no- that's not- I love you! I didn't mean to do that, I shouldn't have. Please believe me? I love you, Ladybug," he begged, ears dropping and body tensed in fear.

"I'm sorry, but until I see some proof, I can't do that," she shook her head before taking off home without a backward glance, leaving the cat to his misery.

…

That night, Tikki went straight to bed and refused to speak to her for the next two days.

[sd1970x]

Marinette, work in progress - Ch4 - BlueCollar

Read also on AO3: here first chapter | previous chapter | next chapter

Marinette took the short path home as she hopped, still transformed, towards her balcony. No sooner than reaching her room, she thrust herself into her bed and her face into her pillow.

“Spots off.”

The suit dissolved and Tikki emerged, hovering about. She was quick to pick up on Marinette’s distress.

“Marinette, is everything okay?”

Marinette turned her head towards Tikki, peeking just a tad out.

"No.” She tersely replied, then turned away again. “I’m not fit to be a superheroine.”

“What? Why would you say that?” Tikki shuddered.

“Why? because I’m not even a real girl and I nearly failed because of that!”

Tikki just stared back, wordlessly.Marinette slowly rose up and sat upright at her bed.

“If being a girl is so much better for me… why wasn’t I just born one? Maybe I should just accept my fate. I can’t win this one.”

Marinette tried to look away as Tikki hovered in front of her, denying her the option to end the conversation just yet.

“Maybe fate has crossed your path with the miraculous because of that? Because your burning desire to be a girl means something?”

Marinette looked back, contemplating Tikki’s words.

“All it means is that I’m a wannabe and that I’ll end up embarrassing everyone who believes in me. Like Alya and Mylene.”

Marinette recalled the conversation back at school lunch. Alya and Mylene sure seemed to think very highly of her.

“They sure don’t seem to think that way, and they should know a thing or two about girl power.”

That much was true, even Marinette had to admit it.

I don’t know Alya and Mylene that much and yet they’ve both already managed to impress me, Alya for standing up to Chloe and Mylene for standing up for what counts in this city. Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to brush off their instincts, and take their trust as affirmation.

“What is it that makes you think you’re a boy, Marinette?”

Marinette’s mind screeched to a halt.

I might not be a true-born girl… but I’m not a boy either. What the hell am I, again?

“I… I don’t know anymore.” she whispered and Tikki smiled.

Marinette flared up her computer and started looking at some of her designs. She followed by reading some of her hidden computer diary entries.

The more she looked at her designs, the more she read into her diary entries, the muddier the answer in her mind became.

Maybe these tell the story of what I am better than everything else? What is it that makes a design “a girl’s design”? Or a story “a boy’s story”?

Before she noticed it, it was time for dinner, followed by shower and bedtime.

---

It was the last thing Marinette thought would happen to her. Chloe was the first to point at her and explode into mocking laughter, interrupting the morning’s lesson.

“Look at Marin! What’s Gay-boy doing with pink trousers in class?”

Instinctively she tried to cup her breasts, but they weren’t there anymore.

Oh no… the magic… it… dissipated? But… how? Why?

Soon enough, most of the class burst into laughter. She braved a look at herself and her heart sank.

She was back in her boy-suit, the one she thought she had discarded already. The sensation of body hair that she did not miss, back to haunt her.

Everyone laughed at her. Even her teacher! Caline bustier, otherwise a fair and decent teacher, joining up with class, pointing at her.

No. No no no. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening!

She tried to scream, but only muffled sounds came about. She tried to run away, but she felt like her muscles betrayed her. The sounds of laughter echoed around her, piercing her soul.

“Gay-Boy! Gay-Boy in pink!”

She decided she must gather her energy and leave class, but felt herself jerked upwards instead.

Into a seating position, in her bed, covered in cold sweat and panting heavily.

“Are you okay, Marinette?” Tikki flew by, worried.

“It was a nightmare.” she blurted out.

A most vivid one, that’s bound to come to life as soon as the magic dissipates.

Marinette woke up early that day, still exhausted from the night. The sight of herself in the mirror did quite a bit to cheer her up.

It’s not a dream after all. Maybe if I hold onto it, it won’t slip from my grip.

She combed and tied her hair neatly, brushed her teeth and went downstairs to have her breakfast.

“At least you won’t be late today, honey.” Her mom smiled at her.

Having a properly-paced, non-rushed breakfast also proved helpful for her mood. She walked towards school, hoping that the new day would bring relief from yesterday’s battle and that awful night.

---

Mylene was one of the first to enter class, picking up the aptitude test results from the teacher’s desk.

While she feared many things, math wasn’t one of them. The good grades were sure to make her parents happy and perhaps more lenient in letting her go out on more activities like she had wanted.

Then again, someone next to her was clearly unhappy about their test results.

Ivan seemed to be very happy to see her come over, but immediately switched his looks back to his test results and gloominess was quick to take hold.

“What’s the matter, Ivan?”

Ivan paused before spitting it out.

“I… barely passed it. I was this close to flunking it. I’m no good at maths.”

Chloe kept filing her nails as she overheard their conversation.

“Oh, don’t you worry about it, there would still be plenty of higher education options available for people like you.” she commented.

Ivan looked at her, dumbfounded, while Mylene eyed Chloe suspiciously.

What’s she planning? Is it a rare moment of kindness, or a ploy to make things worse?

“ Ecole-de-imbecile , of course. You’ll eke out a meager living hauling boxes for people like me who will run daddy’s hotel.”

And to think I believed it could be the first for even a split of a second.

Ivan grit his teeth and looked like he was about to respond, then looked at his test results again.

“... Up until you become totally useless, at which point you’ll probably find yourself homeless in the streets, your wife dumping you, if you ever had one in the first place. Guess that’s too bad.”

“Chloe, you’re the meanest! Ivan is-” Mylene tried to protest but Chloe was quick to shut her down.

“-a loser, and the world doesn’t need losers in it. Sorry, that’s just how it is.”

Ivan clenched his fist and ran off to the locker room. Mylene looked at Chloe accusingly for a brief moment, only to refocus her attention on following up on Ivan.

---

Light intruded upon Hawk Moth’s domain as his senses picked up on a victim of choice.

“Fear of the future. Fear of who you may become. Uncertainty. Go forth, my precious akuma, let his self-doubt seal the fate for Ladybug and Chat Noir!”

---

Marinette was walking through the corridor, looking at her aptitude test report card, when Ivan nearly bumped into her. She dodged it at the last moment and was quite surprised when Ivan said nothing.

He is usually very nice and polite, despite his brutish looks. That’s not like him not to apologize.

Something must have happened. This doesn’t look good.

Before she had much time to dwell on it, Mylene came about, looking around.

“Marinette, have you seen Ivan?”

“Yeah, he went that way.” She said as she pointed out the direction. “Has anything happened?”

“I’m tempted to just say ‘Chloe happened’”, Mylene replied, “but she’s outdone even herself.

She told Ivan his test results set him for a life of failure.”

“How mean!”

Mylene nodded.

“He deserves so much better than that.”

With that, she rushed forwards to search for Ivan, leaving Marinette behind with more than one thing to think about.

Does this one test really set up our fate for the future?

Of course not! I mean, I’m sure Ivan can change it!

Are we the masters of our own fate, or has it been written for us?

Then again…

She looked at her hands and imaginary boy hands were superimposed on them.

Is my fate in my own hands?

---

The butterfly easily homed on the sobbing student in the locker room, landing on a decorative pin he was wearing.

“ BlueCollar , I am Hawk Moth. Your fate has been rewritten, your destiny now changed. You shall lead a revolution.”

---

Marinette was just leaving class as a confrontation outside on the street drew her attention. It was Chloe and her dad, the mayor, arguing with a figure that seemed like a large and sturdy construction worker.

“Shouldn’t you be doing your job?” Chloe yelled at the figure. “Daddy, tell him!”

“How insolent. I don’t report to you. I’m BlueCollar and I report to Hawk Moth.”

Chloe and the mayor shuddered at these words and tried to back away slowly, but BlueCollar wouldn’t stop.

“Maybe you two will finally do something useful for the people of Paris!” BlueCollar went on and a blue streak of energy engulfed the two of them.

Chloe found herself donning a sanitation worker’s uniform and holding a broom. In a moment, magical compulsion forced her to start cleaning the street, much to BlueCollar’s satisfaction.

Marinette was quick to hide in a nearby alley.

“We’re needed. Time to transform! Tikki, spots on!”

Marinette emerged from the alley, with Chat Noir arriving at the scene at the exact same time.

“Please, Ladybug, Chat Noir, save us from this fate!” Chloe managed to say before BlueCollar’s magical compulsion forced her to tend to her work again.

Marinette barely managed to stifle her giggle.

Isn’t that some poetic justice out there. A taste of your own medicine, Chloe. Maybe a few hours of work would do you good.

Marinette and Chat Noir both hopped on to a higher ground to make plans. Then again, one of them had plans the other probably did not think of.

“So. BlueCollar’s power is making people work for him. We must avoid his strike at all costs.” Marinette remarked.

“We have more than enough work without his powers employing us. But would you like to go for coffee once our work is done?”

Marinette froze in place as she tried to digest his words.

“Huh? Are you… asking me out?”

He flashed a grin.

“Well, all work and no play is a major hassle. I’m a playful cat, try me”

He can’t be serious. My god, what’s wrong with him?

“A playful cat.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And your game is... prowling about, hunting down a superheroine for a superhero.”

“Yep.”

“Swooping someone, from partner to lover. Oh, such brag rights! A game with a prize!”

“I don’t see why not. If you’re into it...” he smiled.

My god. He really knows no limit.

Marinette poked him in his chest.

“Do I look like I’m some prize to be won, partner?”

His smile faded in an instant.

“We save Paris together. Save your romantic aspirations for someone else.”

She then pointed his head towards BlueCollar as he went towards the city hall. “Does this look like a game to you? No? Then this should be your focus.”

Both Marinette and Chat Noir darted down to confront BlueCollar, avoiding his zaps successfully but making little headway.

Chat Noir managed to strike him with his baton, only to feel the recoil as he proved far too sturdy to be impacted. Marinette fared pretty much the same, as he simply flung her away with her own yo-yo.

Making things worse, they were quickly approached by a league of BlueCollar’s supporting workers, armed with whatever they were using for their jobs.

“Looks like we need some pest control.” One of them remarked as he eyed Marinette.

“And a feral cat problem to handle.” another added, looking at Chat Noir.

“Hate to disappoint. I’m fully domesticated. Cataclysm!” Chat Noir called it as he touched the ground, creating a chasm and allowing both Marinette and him to escape to safety.

“Well, we don’t have much time, do we?” Chat remarked and Marinette nodded in agreement.

“It’s time for my thing, then. Lucky charm!” she called it, cupping her hands to grab a falling...

״Miner’s helmet? What am I going to do with that?״

She briefly flicked its headlight on, then flicked it off.

“Okay, Chat, here’s the plan…”

---

BlueCollar kept roaming the streets, until something caught his eye. It was an open manhole in the middle of the road, with an electricity cable running into it.

Clearly, someone was doing maintenance work in a negligent and extremely unsafe manner. No markings whatsoever, no signs to ward off pedestrians and no one to call should help be required.

As BlueCollar approached the manhole, Chat Noir jumped downwards from a nearby building and landed forcefully on his back. BlueCollar fell forwards and upside down, finding himself jammed into the hole, unable to move.

The hole was dark as night, although in a moment he was blinded by what seemed to be a flashlight. A short while afterwards, he managed to see it for what it was - Ladybug wearing a miner’s helmet.

“This site does employ some workplace safety” she commented as she walked slowly towards him. He could only watch as she removed his collar and broke it in two, releasing the akuma.

“No more evildoing for you, little akuma. Time to de-evilize!” she called it, as she whipped her yo-yo and whisked it away.

“Miraculous… Ladybug!”

As she flung the helmet upwards, it burst into a stream of Ladybugs, releasing all those bound to work by BlueCollar’s powers, including Chloe and her father.

---

“Pound it!” Ladybug offered her hand for a fistbump, and Adrien’s was quick to respond in like.

“You’re not mad at me, are you?” he offered cautiously.

“It was a close call” she replied, her face showing little emotion, but she quickly softened. “But you do make a great partner. Respect my limits and it will stay that way.”

She followed by a short-lived smile, then hopped away and disappeared.

Adrien’s eyes followed her wake until she was gone from his sight. He breathed in relief, then sighed.

“I guess it’s just partners then. Even if I…”

Even if I want it to be more than that.

I’ve met the girl of my dreams… and I nearly ruined everything.

Is there any way I can get her to see me as more than that? Or are we fated to remain no more than partners?

---

A now de-akumatized Ivan made his way back to class, where Mylene was quick to warmly greet him.

“I’m sorry, Ivan. It’s just one test! And if you want, I’d love to help you with maths.”

“You would? That’s… that’s so wonderful!” Ivan beamed at her words, his joy clear to everyone around. Yet Mylene had more to say.

“But for your own good, you really shouldn’t let Chloe get to you! You’re the kindest person I know and that’s worth so much more.”

“I usually don’t… it’s just that… well…”

Ivan was blushing furiously now as he picked his words.

“I had plans to confess to a girl today and then Chloe just sapped all my confidence.”

“Oh? Who would that be? I-If you don’t mind me asking...”

There was a short pause before Ivan managed to say it.

“It’s you.”

“I was hoping you would say that.” She replied, a wide grin to her face. A moment later, she hugged him tight and his blush deepened by two shades.

“Aww, these two are meant to be together!” Rose said as she dug herself into Juleka’s arm.

---

Marinette smiled as Ivan and Mylene hugged each other, some of their elation sweeping her as well.

Maybe some of our fate lies in the hands of others who love us, that’s not so bad too now is it?

What does fate have in for me?

I seriously hope it’s more of an ‘Adrien’ direction than a ‘Chat Noir’ one!

Chat’s a good partner… and that’s where the line gets drawn.

But Adrien… He’s something special. I got to see a glimpse of a soul so pure.

It’s time for me to take fate into my own hands, and I will.

A girl’s fate.

[milknette]

day 08 - secret dating

you secret's safe and no one, has to know i’m your getaway.

tumblr month: @auyeahaugust

links: ao3 | ff.net

IT happens gradually, then all at once.

First, it starts with Mylene and Ivan. Wholesome. And, Alya and Nino. Perfect. Then, Juleka and Rose. Adorable.

But afterwards, it somehow extends further; to people outside of their class. Nathaniel and Marc. Kim and Ondine. Sabrina and some boy in another class. Even Chloé had gotten a girlfriend over the summer, with Kagami finally accepting her after months of the former's wooing.

By the time they all return to class, Marinette, to her complete surprise (and in some parts, horror), finds that the apparent theme for their return to class is romance— and as far as everyone else is concerned, she's the exception.

(Except that Marinette's not. Not really— though she can't exactly yell that truth into the sky or anything.)

Instead, she huffs, braves through the lovey-dovey atmosphere, and takes a seat.

Only for Alya to rush right beside her, Nino in tow, to completely rub it in her face.

"Someone looks a little sour today," she smirks, eyes bright with amusement. "Not liking being back to school?"

"I just don't understand what happened to everyone after the break!" Marinette complains, waving her hands around in evident confusion. "What made everyone so weird!?"

"Love," Alya shrugs, saying it almost too simply. "Everyone spent their respective summer together, and dating just came as the most natural step." She turns to Marinette, shaking her head. "And if anything, you're the weird one here! Girl, you're the only single one left."

Well, she begged to differ.

Marinette shakes her head, then points at a pair at the other side of the room. "What about Max and Alix? They aren't dating anyone either!"

Alya rolls her eyes. "They're not interested in dating, remember?" She points out. "It's their choice to be single. You're single because you have no choice."

"That's not true, I—!"

"You…?"

Marinette pauses mid-sentence, and after an evident battle with herself, finally heaves a sigh of defeat. "Nothing," she finally grumbles, looking down.

God, the whole superhero-secret-identity thing was increasingly becoming a pain to deal with.

And the whole  superhero-dating-superhero  thing made it all  that much  more complicated.

"So I'm right," Alya decides to settle their conversation, crossing her arms over her chest. Marinette can't protest, and she only nods, though her expression shows anything but agreement.

"Fine," Marinette exhales, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. "But it's not that easy to find someone to date! I'm busy, and I don't really know anyone else my age outside of here," she gestures at the school. "And as you said, they're all taken. So I guess I'll just have to wait!"

She hopes that's enough to get Alya off her case.

Her best friend did take more kindly to reasoning and logic rather than a straightforward I don't want to date (because I have a boyfriend), after all.

But to her soon-to-be-realized horror, Marinette's statement does the complete opposite.

Alya shares a glance with her boyfriend, who smiles and nods. "Glad that's the only reason you're not out dating!"

"... why?"

She slides a paper through the desk. The glaring letters, couples coupon!, instill in Marinette a feeling of dread she never felt even in previous battles with Hawkmoth and the akumas.

This can't be real.

"Because that means you can't say no," she grins.

This is a joke.

"Tomorrow afternoon, at the café we visited last weekend," she continues.

This is a misunderstanding.

"Nino's friend will meet you there."

This isn't what she thinks it'll be, of course.

"Have fun on your blind date!"

Damn it, Alya.

.

.

Ladybug stops outside Adrien's room, and knocks on the window.

He's barely awake when he walks over, but the sleep almost fades away immediately as they lock eyes. Instead, he beams and runs toward the window, unlocking it so she can enter.

"What are you doing, Milady?" He asks, eyes sparkling. "I thought we weren't patrolling tonight?"

"We need to talk," she instead says.

Adrien panics. "Wait," he begins to flounder. "If this is because you're disappointed that I'm me— that I'm Adrien Agreste, I promise that I can be better, please don't take my Miraculous, or even worse, break up with me, milady, I love you so, so, much and…"

"What? No," Ladybug's quick to shake her head. "I'm not breaking up with you."

She can almost hear the relieved exhale that escapes his mouth. "Oh, phew! That would've been a catastrophe…"

Ladybug feels a smile form on her face. "So, losing me is even worse than losing your Miraculous, huh?"

He's flustered. "I mean— I do take my job seriously! And I love being Chat Noir. It's just that… I can't lose you, either." Adrien walks toward her, then presses a kiss to her knuckles. "Milady, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

She flushes red, then looks away. "Same to you."

Adrien beams, then sits down, gesturing for her to sit next to him. "So what did you want to talk about?"

It's hard to decide what to say. So she decides to tell it to him straight.

"I'm going on a date with someone else tomorrow."

It's a terrible idea.

He panics, again. "Wait, so you're not breaking up with me, so… you want an open relationship?" Adrien looks almost scandalized. "I'm not sure how I feel about sharing you with anyone else…"

"No!" Ladybug interrupts, shaking her head vehemently. "It's just… for my civilian identity. My friend wants me to go on a blind date, and she can't know that about you, so…," She sighs, then looks down at her lap. "I had no choice, I'm sorry."

Ladybug's surprised when his hands come to hold her own. "Hey, as long as you know you're meowne," he smiles. "And I'm yours— I don't see a problem with it."

She's about to thank him, when he suddenly continues. "You know, this wouldn't be an issue if you just told me who you were…"

"You know I can't do that."

"But you know my true identity!" Adrien argues, gesturing to himself. "I don't understand why I can't know yours."

"I know because I'm the Guardian," Ladybug tries to reason with him. "That's the reason I know everyone else who holds it—"

"But I'm not like them." Adrien finally argues, sighing as the words leave his mouth. "We got our Miraculous together. We were partners, before we became a team of superheroes. I was here for you, with you, since the beginning. And… I thought you trusted me."

The last part comes almost as a whisper, but she can hear it loud and clear. Ladybug takes a deep breath and shifts, staring him in the eye. "I do trust you," she attempts to explain. "It's just… complicated."

"What is?!"

"I don't want you to be disappointed with me!" Ladybug finally shouts, shrinking back as her statement hangs in the air.

Adrien's at a loss for words, and before he can even attempt to respond, Ladybug tears her hands away and stands. When he gets his bearings, she's already one foot outside the window.

"I'm sorry," she only says. "I think I just… I just need to process everything." Ladybug smiles, though it's evidently conflicted. "I'll see you soon, Chat."

Then, without another word, she leaves.

.

.

Marinette paces in front of the cafe, thumbs twiddling together in apparent nervousness.

Her mind's full. She can't concentrate on the impending date at all— her conversation with Adrien, with Chat Noir, still as fresh in her memory, replaying in her mind as if it were a bad omen.

She yawns, a direct result of a dire lack of sleep. Marinette spent the majority of the night speaking with Tikki, seeking her advice on the matter; and her only response was, "listen to your heart".

Marinette knows what her heart says. What her heart yearns for.

She just doesn't know if she has the strength to say it.

When a stranger calls her, it takes three times for him to say her name until she notices.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

That was probably her date, then.

Holding back the intense need to snap at him, Marinette takes a deep breath. She smiles, then turns toward him.

"Yes, that's me. You're Nino's friend, the—?"

She pauses.

Everything seems to slow down and fade away. The world stills. Her mind stops.

All she can see is him.

"I— uh," Adrien scratches his head. "Yeah, that's me. Sorry, I had no idea this was a date, Nino just told me I was meeting a friend until a few minutes ago, and…," he flounders.

Now that was familiar.

"I'm just in love with someone else, so I don't think I can go through with this, I'm so sorry I made you come all this way—"

"You always did apologize too much."

Adrien looks up, evidently confused. "I'm sorry, have we met before…?"

"So you love me, but you can't recognize me at all, huh?"

"No way…"

Marinette smiles, and it's a mix of nervousness and excitement and fear and love and everything else all at once. "Hi, kitty," she begins. "I hope this isn't too disappointing, but…"

She can't say another word, because suddenly she's being scooped up and carried as Adrien holds her in his arms. He's beaming, and his eyes are almost overflowing with joy.

Marinette feels her heart full. When he sets her down, his hands never leave her waist.

"Milady," he breathes, burying his nose into her neck. "I love you— so much."

"My chaton," Marinette replies, full of care. Full of joy. Full of admiration and awe that this was truly happening. That the fates had worked completely in their favor.

"I love you too."

[pandawritespoorly]

IFD 2020

Author’s Note: Here's something for IFD 2020. A commenter on With Time said I should write something when I brought it up. I wrote it quick and I haven't really reread it so I hope you enjoy!

Summary: An Akuma attack brings Ladybug and Chat Noir to the... AO3 Work Search page?

This akuma was… slightly different. It had only one goal: show Ladybug and Chat Noir ‘all their fans’.

Whatever that meant.

It only went after them. If a stray projectile went towards a civilian, then it would disappear before they were hit.

Inevitably, they were hit, appearing in an empty room that reminded Chat of pixelator. There was a large screen in front of them, a little taller than the teens. A gray rectangle with several search bars took up most of it. Being the nerds they were, they both recognized it.

“Hey, that’s the AO3 work search page!” Chat says first.

“Yeah…” Ladybug approaches cautiously. She puts her hand out, touching the screen and trying to scroll. Sure enough, the page moves, and they both watch as she goes through the page.

The ‘Fandoms’ bar is filled in, and the way it’s grayed out makes them guess they can’t change it.

“‘Miraculous Ladybug’?” Ladybug reads. “I know people write fanfics about us, but isn’t under like ‘Miraculous Heroes’ or something?”

“It’s actually, ‘Heroes of Paris’,” Chat corrects. Ladybug raises an eyebrow, and he blushes a little. “It’s not like I go above the T rating!”

Ladybug’s face goes red. “Oh, Kwami, I hadn’t even thought of that.” She hurriedly selects the ‘General Audiences’ rating. “Let’s think of the children.”

Chat nods, hitting ‘No Archive Warnings Apply’ and ‘Gen’ for her.

“I’m assuming the akuma just wants us to read some fanfics right?”

“Probably.” Chat shrugs. At the ‘Characters’ bar, Chat types in her name quickly using a keyboard that appears on the screen.

He’s focused on the keyboard, and doesn’t notice how Ladybug stares in shock at the suggested names.

“H-How?”

“You good, Bug?” Chat glances back at his partner, whose mouth is hanging open in surprise.

She doesn’t respond. He glances at the screen and sees the results.

“Oh.”

 Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug)

Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug)

Ladybug

Master Fu (Miraculous Ladybug)

Wayzz (Miraculous Ladybug)

Nooroo (Miraculous Ladybug)

 It went on for a few more lines, but Chat didn’t read all of it. He and Ladybug just stare for a few quiet moments.

“E-Even if they f-figured out… my identity… the Kwamis, and Master Fu….” Ladybug manages, doing her best to stay calm. “Do they know yours?”

“Do you want to know?”

She laughs, a hysterical edge to her voice. “I-I mean, why not?! At this point does secrecy even matter?! This-”

Chat cuts her off, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Maybe you should sit down.” She nods, sitting on the ground of their empty white whatever-this-is.

Typing in his hero name, Chat sees that, yes, his identity is right there.

 Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir

 “S-so. Adrien, huh?” Ladybug (Marinette), asks, oddly calm.

“Yep.”

“Maybe we should talk a-about this l-later.”

He nods, and she finally approaches the screen again. She hesitates, then types in the first word she thinks of into a different bar.

 Akuma Attack

Akuma Possession

Akumatized Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir

Akumatized Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Original Akuma

Akumatized Main Character(s)

Akuma Battle

 “Oh gosh, people want to see us akumatized? That would be a disaster!” Ladybug exclaims.

“Makes for a good story, I guess.” Chat types in a new word.

 Plagg Is So Done (Miraculous Ladybug)

Plagg is a Little Shit (Miraculous Ladybug)

Protective Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug)

Supportive Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug)

Plagg Cares (Miraculous Ladybug)

Plagg Appreciation Week

Plagg Being Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug)

Plagg Is a Troll (Miraculous Ladybug)

Parent Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug)

Cheesy Enough For Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug)

Poor Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug)

Plagg Swears (Miraculous Ladybug)

Plagg Loves Cheese (Miraculous Ladybug)

Unhelpful Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug)

Plagg Swears (Miraculous Ladybug)

Minor Plagg/Tikki

Plagg Ships It (Miraculous Ladybug)

 “Yeah, that sounds about right,” Chat grumbles.

Ladybug laughs. “Are two of them really about cheese?”

“I’m surprised it’s only two. I smell like camembert 24/7 for only two tags.”

“I think he sounds like a sweetheart.”

“Of course you do.”

She rolls her eyes, typing in her own Kwami’s name. A lot are similar to Plagg’s, but there are a few notable ones.

 Cat Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug)

Human Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug)

Cats Plagg and Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug)

Dog Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug)

 “I’m sorry what?” Ladybug frowns. “Do they not know she’s a ladybug?”

“They’re probably for AUs.”

She frowns, still not convinced. Chat decides to leave her to her gumbling, and types something else. Eventually they’re both distracted by looking through the tags for both of their best friends.

“What’s with them both being matchmakers? I’ve never noticed either of them getting any couple together?” Chat questions.

Ladybug coughs, choking on air. He looks at her in concern and she waves him off, recovering and hurriedly typing in her parent’s names.

“‘Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain Know’? Know what, that I’m Ladybug?”

“I guess so?”

“Well I don’t think that they actually know. I hope.” Ladybug crosses her arms.

Chat looks slightly panicked. “Oh you don’t think my Father knows, do you?” He’s already typing it in.

 Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste

 He stares blankly, frozen.

“No.”

Looking to comfort him, Ladybug scans the suggestions quickly. “Well, hey, look this one says he isn’t Hawkmoth!”

They both know it’s weak, especially given that just about every tag lists him as the villain they’d been fighting with this whole time.

Chat hasn’t moved, and Ladybug goes to the ‘Character’ bar, looking to get some final clarification.

 Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth

 “No,” Chat whispers, shaking.

“Oh, Kitty. I’m so sorry.” Ladybug turns to him, worried.

“It’s n-not y-your fault.”

She opens up her arms, and he collapses into the hug.

She’s still holding him when the white fades away, and they’re back in Paris as if no time has passed.

Ladybug gently extracts herself from Chat, whispering for him to just take a moment to rest, and faces the akuma.

“Find anything interesting?” It chirps, looking far too proud of itself.

She doesn’t respond. This is the akuma that forced her partner to find out the worst possible thing in an awful way.

It’s going down.

---

Author’s Note: Wow, today is not a good day for Adriens written by me, huh? Maybe I can post something else soon that's fluffier. Just need to get that ending worked out.

[unreachablevoice]

Moving In Is What Started It All

Summary:

With Marinette’s parents being away with work, she is left in the care of one of their supposedly family friend; who just so happened to be someone who she has always been idolizing. And throw in the fact that she is having a hard time with friendships experiencing hardships, bridges being burned, and secrets unraveling and her parents unintentionally (plus being clueless with their daughter’s suffering) throwing their daughter in a pit of misery.

Note:

This fanfic will not contain Miraculous. Though, This does still contain the concept and some of the episodes of the show just cut out the parts of Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Previous | Masterlist | AO3

Chapter 8 |Chloé Redemption Arc? (kinda?)|

Adrien's POV

"What are you talking about?" Marinette asks with a chuckle. God, the audacity! I mean, it's obvious that she's just laughing as an attempt to hide her nervousness! What is it that she can't seem to tell me? Does she not trust me?

I reach for her hand. Maybe to comfort her, to comfort me, or both? I'm not sure, all I know is that I want to hold her close. I'm okay even if it's just her hand. I just need to feel some warmth. Her warmth to be precise.

"Last night, you--" I say but am immediately interrupted by the swinging of the kitchen door open, which reveals a newly woken up Nathalie looking at both of us. I didn't even have the chance to hold her hand, my hand is just up here with no place to go!

"Oh," Nathalie exclaims as her eyes caught sight of the dishes that are currently being held at a pause in the sink, widening just a smidge. "It seems that you've already finished with your breakfast, I take it you just need to fix yourselves up and we'll be heading to school now?" she looks at both of us with a bit of confusion in her eyes. I guess the pose that Marinette and I are in right now is a bit weird, all awkward and else.

"And don't worry about the dishes, I'll just call for the housekeepers to finish them for you," Nathalie adds with a small and professional smile, a hand stretched out to the door to usher us out. Like an usherette.

I nod to Nathalie's request but Marinette looks a bit uncertain...? Why though?

"B-But I don't want to be a burden—!"

Ah, so that's why... Really... she's so nice that it kind of hurts.

"It's okay, Miss Marinette." Nathalie smiles at her (a smile that reaches her eyes this time), trying to ease her worry. Well, that's a first. Nathalie rarely smiles like that. She'd usually smile with no feelings, all cold and business-like, nothing more and nothing less (well maybe sometimes her forced smiles would look like a bit of a grimace).

Before she ushers both of Marinette and me to the door and calls some of our housekeepers to finish cleaning the dishes that Marinette left behind and to finish cleaning the kitchen (which I was previously doing, mind you, and I admit... I was NOT doing such a good job at it), I first grab Marinette's arm to make her look at me.

"Let's talk later?" I ask her, my voice pleading and a bit desperate and unsure if she'd want that. I mean, I am kind of putting her in a tight spot and forcing her to talk about something that's obviously making her uncomfortable but... I really want to know what had bothered her so much last night. A downcast look spread through her face and she looked down and away from me, but nodded nonetheless.

I don't want to force her but it really is bothering me too. Whatever it is that's the source of her discomfort, I want to at least make her feel as though she can lean on me; if I can't somehow help her with whatever situation she is in.

Arriving in my room (in to which Nathalie was pushing me to by the way, and I think she also did the same to Marinette), I stood there for a second. Honestly, I kind of wanted to stay and talk with Marinette first before going to school but... Nathalie gave us no room for argument.

I give out a long sigh as I prep myself for school.

Staring at myself in the mirror, I see that all my worrying is taking a toll on me. My face is as white as a sheet and my eyes look like they're ready to pop out of my socket anytime soon; the dark bags under them didn't help either (though they weren't that noticeable unless you look at them closely. Plus, nothing a few brushes of concealer can't fix).

God, I feel like dying.

I felt a twinge of pain in my chest as Marinette's face from last night flashes through my mind. She looked worried—no scratch that. She looked scared. I wonder what made her feel that way...

A sudden knock on the door snaps me out of my trance.

"Are you ready, Adrien?" Nathalie asks from behind it.

Though in actuality: no (and god, am I so stressed), I don't want to keep them waiting so I hurriedly finished and swiftly took my satchel from my bed, opening the door wide enough to see Nathalie fiddling something with her tablet and Marinette waiting for me with a small smile gracing her delicate features.

"Yup, let's go." I smile as I close the door behind me and join them in their step downstairs.

◎◎◎ ◎◎◎ ◎◎◎

The car ride was silent—well, for me anyway. Marinette was discussing with Nathalie some terms about what she'd like to do while she stays with us—mostly about how she won't sit idly and not do anything and not be of some help, at all—and Nathalie compromised with her by leaving the task of making our breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner with her (with occasional help from us of course).

Judging by how she animatedly talks with Nathalie, the negative(???) mood she was formerly in was now gone. Plus, making her come with us to school via car-ride was a bit of a hassle enough since she kept on insisting for her to walls to school instead (Pft–! As if I'd allow that!).

Dropping us off at the entrance, Nathalie looks at us out the window then at her tablet; informing us how I have a small photoshoot session at lunch and that they will come to pick us up at that time.

"Thanks, Nathalie. Thanks, G.", the former nods and Gorilla opens down his window to look at us and grunts.

I wait for them to drive away and get taken aback as they crack a small smile and wave meekly. Although, I'm pretty sure it's not directed at me.

I look down at my left and see Marinette waving at them with a warm, bright smile knitted on her face; whispering a shy "goodbye", loud enough that only us three would be able to hear, as she watches the retreating figure of the car slowly disappear.

Oh god, she's so sweet and so cute! And being able to charm Nathalie and Gorilla with her grace in only a few seconds is proof of that. Not that I ever doubted Marinette's people-pleasing talent for even a second.

I hold my arm out to her and smile, "Shall we?" I ask, in to which Marinette beams in return and hooks her arm to my extended one; humming in affirmation.

We trod the steps up towards the school and went to our classroom. Since it was still pretty early (quarter to 7 being the time),  there were only a few students that are loitering around the hallway. Some were talking with their friends about... a redhead? Someone dancing and singing? Performing on a stage? What?

I snap out of my thoughts when I noticed that we have arrived at our classroom and Marinette had already guided me to my seat and is seated on hers. Merde, I really am a handful at times, huh?

I wince as I think about how Marinette would someday get tired of me and think badly of me and she'll never want to be my friend anymore! Then I'll be forever alone with no family and--

"Adrien?"

I snap my head towards the voice that called out to me and see a familiar bespectacled brunette standing at the foot of my table with her hand holding at the strap of her sling bag and the other at her phone (as usual). An amused and questioning look written on her face.

Alya? When did she arrive?

"Morning...?" she asks as the corner of her lips quirks up in amusement.

"Uh, hi, yeah, I--" I stammer as I embarrassingly look for words and stumble with my vocabulary. I must've been paying too much attention to my inner dilemma instead of my surroundings too long to result in Alya making fun of me like that! Ughhhh!

The said brunette snickers at my word-stumbling and looks away somewhere behind me, surprise and excitement immediately lacing her tanned features. She suddenly bolts away and my gaze follows her direction, her mouth curves up in a teasing smile as she slips in her seat next to Marinette and looks at her.

"Girl, you're pretty early today! A sudden change of heart, maybe~?" Alya sings and pokes Marinette's sides teasingly. The girl in question just laughs at her and shakes her head, neither denying nor confirming the question.

Mon Dieu, how can someone's laugh be that melodious? Her giggles fill the room like little trinkets of bells, sweetly producing a little jingle that makes the butterflies in my stomach flutter. Arghhhh, she's just so cuteeeee!!

"Yo! Morning, dudes and dudettes!" Nino comes in the classroom and waves at us, which is gladly returned with the same enthusiasm.

Nino moves to his seat next to me and looks above us, to the girls, and his face is immediately written in shock (the good kind though).

"Dudette!" he looks at Marinette and his shocked expression is immediately replaced by an amused grin, "Well, you're early. Any special occasion?"

Alya snickers at her boyfriend's harmless and teasing jab to her best friend and is followed by some of the people—including me—that were already there (and I somehow didn't notice when we came in).

"Yeah, it did surprise me when our Little Blueberry here was early—for once." Alix joins in on our little banter and ruffles Marinette's hair. "Even more so when she came in with Adrien," she continues with a smirk and wiggling of her eyebrows, implying something.

Marinette's cheeks redden and she sputters incoherent responses, her hands frantically waving.

"What?!" Alya shouts (in a good way) and shakes Marinette, "What did she mean by that, guuurrlll??!" she whines, feeling a bit betrayed, I think? I don't know why though.

"Stop shaking her Césaire, she looks like she's going to puke." a voice suddenly says in front of us.

Turning towards where the voice came from, lo and behold one Chloé Bourgeois stood there with her hands on her hips and a booming voice that spoke with confidence.

"Well, good morning to you too," Alya responds in a monotone voice and a raise of her eyebrow as if she was asking what and why the blonde was there.

Chloé scoffs and flips her high ponytailed hair to the side, a condescending look on her face.

"I need to talk to Dupa–I mean, Marinette... so move Césaire!" Chloé huffs and glares at the brunette who just looks too stunned to move, even if the look that Chloé was giving can make one shrink.

Since when did Chloé start calling Marinette by her first name? I thought they were still in last-name basis?

The mayor's daughter just rolls her eyes and pushes—more like shoves—Alya aside. I think she did that just to keep a distance between Alya and Marinette? For, I guess, a little privacy? Even if it was just a little space. Alya looked at her incredulously, like how she couldn't believe or she didn't like how Chloé pushed her away from her best friend.

"Hey!" the brunette shouts and shoves Chloé back as soon as the mayor's daughter tried to so much as utter a word, making her fall down on the floor and stare at her, shock and rage evident in both of their eyes. Each competing with who knows what.

Chloé abruptly stands up and stares down at Alya, her eyes in a crazed look and filled with fury. She looks like she wants to rip Alya a new one, "You bit--"

"Guys!" Marinette interjects at the two.

Thank god! I thought a fight between the two bullheaded girls would occur again. That wouldn't be good, I'm sure even the classroom wouldn't be able to handle it and collapse on itself.

"It's okay," she looks at both girls, assuring them with her hands up, like how you'd approach or tame a rabid animal. Which worked (I think?) since Marinette does have that soothing vibe around her. Although Alya still looked a bit furious and ready to pounce on the blonde, Chloé was a bit tamer and had held herself back and ended up just glaring at the bespectacled reporter in front of her and dusting off at her clothes.

Huh... never thought Chloé would be the more docile one.

"Alya," Marinette warns her best friend and immediately the said girl tenses up and looks away, almost ashamed. Marinette sighs and rubs her temples to soothe her upcoming headache, I think. Well, the two are quite a force to be reckoned with so they are also quite the handful.

The classroom grew silent, everyone (I didn't even notice that everyone had already arrived) was watching the scene that the blonde and reporter had started; even some of the students from the other class had stopped for a second in front of the classroom just to watch the (possible) fight that will ensue. The air had a tense atmosphere to it, so thick that you'd hold your breath because it felt quite suffocating.

I mean, I know I look like I'm being a bit dramatic ("well, you kind of ar—OW!") but it's true. Especially if the impending fight is between two of the most headstrong and resolute people in our class and the last fight between them ended up destroying multiple desks—including mine.

Marinette sighs and looks over at Chloé and gestures her to move closer, and which she did. "What is it Chloé?" she asks as an exasperated look takes over her face that screams: I am so done with these two.

Suddenly, a pink hue dusts her cheeks and she turns away. What...? Chloé fumbles for words and it took her a few seconds before she whispers a comprehensible reply. Seriously, WHAT?

"T-Thanks for, um, c-coming over yesterday." she looks down and scratches the back of her head, too embarrassed to even look at Marinette. A scowl is clearly shown on her reddish face yet gratitude and happiness(?) is seen in her eyes. Again, WH--

"What?!" Sabrina shouts at her seat and looks at Marinette and Chloé, then back and forth. "What do you mean 'coming over'? Chloé??????" her voice a bit strained and a questioning look on her face.

Chloé scoffs and looks away with a crossed look, her face becoming even redder, "Pft–! It means nothing! T-That's what," she responds and crosses her arms in front of her.

"But you said you weren't free tomorrow? That's why you said I couldn't come to hang out yesterday, remember??" she asks once more, feeling a bit betrayed. And didn't Chloé dislike Marinette? I mean, she had always tormented Marinette whenever she could so what happened?

Chloé just huffs and still refuses to look her (or anyone actually) in the eyes, face still a bit cherry–colored from embarrassment.

"I guess she didn't want to tell you....?" Marinette cuts in to gently lay the news down to Sabrina, her voice was gentle yet also a bit questioning (I don't know the reason why though) to not make Chloé's lack—best friend feel derided.

"Bu-But! But why?" she asks and looks at the blonde with a pleading and pitiful look, her bottom lip jutted out (I think she did that to make Chloé feel guilty—which kind of didn't work, to be honest).

"Sabrina," Marinette calls her to make the said girl's focus be on her. "Just because you're friends, doesn't mean Chloé has to tell you everything. She can choose what she wants to tell you and what she doesn't. Friends can keep secrets from each other, even those that are the closest." her voice soft and in a schooling, motherly tone.

Sabrina's face first held uncertainty but then slowly morphed into an understanding look. "You're right," she nods and looks down at her lap, "But hearing about it still would've felt nice."

"Maybe you can." Marinette smiles, a sweet and comforting one. "Chloé just must've forgotten to tell you about it, maybe ask her later." she assures Sabrina. Her voice mellow and soft as though she's speaking to a child (in a good way of course).

Sabrina opens her mouth and was about to say something when--

"Sabrina's right!" a sickly sweet—yet obviously forced, and disgusting enough to make me gag—voice had said from the door. Everyone follows the voice and sees Lila with a disgustingly fake concerned face as she pouts. Gross.

She looks at everyone's faces first and basks in the given attention before forwarding in front of Sabrina.

Okay, so this is the last one in my drafts so yeah... this’ll be the ending of ummm MIIWSIA (even though this is unfinished yeah sorry about that) but like as I said here I will be umm rewriting it so yeah don’t be sad *pats your head and gives you a hug* 

[shmowlwrites]

Yellow Carnations Chapter 5

Ao3 Chapter 4 Chapter 6

Classes reached winter break and Marinette was thriving. 

Her new friends were always there, always including her, an assurance she adored. It helped that since it was a boarding school, she didn’t have to worry about little favors she couldn’t say no to. Like, babysitting. The good news was that each of her friends were only children, with Allen having two cousins that were like brothers to him. Thank God. Chat Noir was… a hard person to talk to. It had taken a long night of not doing a patrol to convince him that her blog was alright. He agreed, eventually, but he refused to get his baton tracked. She respected that. After that, though, he was stiff. The only good thing, it seemed, to have come out of their relationship now was that Chat Noir was no longer flirting with her. That meant Akumas were defeated faster and Chat was away from her faster. It hurt, but Ladybug could only hope that that Chat would get over it.

Winter break was finally here, and Marinette promised to ask her parents if her new friends could come over. However, her first order of business was Master Fu.

Walking down the familiar road, Tikki was perched on her shoulder, hiding behind a curtain of Marinette’s hair. She found the massage parlor and let herself in. There seemed to be quiet talking inside the massage room, so Marinette hung back, not wanting to disrupt Master Fu if he had a client. She saw Wayzz poking his head through the wall after a few minutes. His eyes widened before he flew over to her. “What’re you doing here?” He asked calmly, curious. “I was just hoping to talk to Master Fu,” Marinette softly answered. “Was he talking to you or a client?” Wayzz hummed before answering. “A client. I’ll find a way to tell him you’re here, he needs to wrap up this session anyway.” Wayzz flew back through the wall. A few minutes later, while Marinette was going through a pamphlet, she heard an eerily familiar voice. “Marinette?” God, his voice saying her name used to make her melt, but now she was frozen like a deer in headlights. She looked at him through her hair. Adrien stood there, shock on his features. Features she used to gush over. “Hello,” she softly greeted him. Folding the pamphlet to give her something to do in the awkward silence, Marinette reeled in her emotions in a Felix-like manner. “What- what are you doing here?” He asked, a more accusatory way than Wayzz. Marinette tucked the pamphlet back into its slot and stood up. She quirked an eyebrow, an emotionless expression mirroring the master of poker faces, Felix, upon her face. “Obviously to get a massage, what else would I be doing a massage parlor? Have tea?” The words seemed to cut into Adrien as he gaped at her. Marinette wanted to not feel the satisfaction at the sight. Here was the boy that hurt her beyond repair, gaping at the result of her growing up. She didn’t wait for a reply, only pacing past him and walking inside the room and sliding the door shut. “My, what tense energy,” Fu mused. Marinette sighed and plopped on a chair. “After an entire semester of having better friends and being distant from them, you’d think I would’ve gotten over them. Seeing Adrien was like peeling the bandaid off because I thought the wound was healed but in reality, it wasn’t,” Marinette groaned and laid her head on the table. Fu hummed before speaking carefully. “Have you tried releasing your emotions? Talking to them? Maybe not even physically, just say how you feel and let those emotions go? Or have you been bottling them up?” Marinette blinked, raising her head just enough to look at Master Fu. She… hadn’t thought about that. Now that she reflected on it, Marinette realized exactly how still emotionally attached to her old friends she was. How upset she was with herself for cutting off a tie to Alya. She had wanted to come in to talk more about the Miraculouses, but this may be the better thing to do today. “I’ll go make some tea,” Master Fu told her before getting up and leaving her alone with Wayzz and Tikki. Marinette pulled herself up, sitting back in her chair and looking at the empty one opposite of her. She tried to imagine her classmates in that chair. Her mind conjured up Rose, and the little blonde was awkwardly sitting across from her. Leaning onto her elbows, Marinette began to think of everything she held against Rose. There wasn’t a lot, but there were a few things. As she began to talk, Wayzz and Tikki left with each other, giving the girl some peace to sort herself out. After Rose was Juleka. After Juleka was Nathaniel. After Nathaniel was Mylene. After Mylene was Ivan. After Ivan was Alix. After Alix was Kim. After Kim was Max. Then Sabrina. Chloe. Marinette could’ve gone off forever about Chloe, but found herself only talking a little bit. It confused her how okay she was with Chloe until she found herself realizing why. Chloe was bad, but Chloe had been getting better. She didn’t know if Chloe was still the same or had fully grown up. She did know, from her parents, that the girl came into the bakery every day and left tips when she left. Chloe wouldn’t step foot into the bakery unless she had to follow her father inside, so that was an interesting development Marinette was happy to hear about. After Chloe came Nino. Nino got a wild talking to, as Marinette cried through telling him about how he and Alya always left her behind, how Nino, her childhood friend, never seemed to have had time for her, how he seemed more into being Alya’s boyfriend than a friend. It came down to Nino having flimsy attachments to his friends. After Marinette wiped her tears away and Nino had faded, Marinette inhaled sharply. She was preparing herself for the next one when Master Fu came in. “Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt you. I think that you’ll enjoy having tea right about now,” He apologized, offering the cup between his fingers like a peace offering. Marinette giggled and met him at the door, taking the cup. She relished how warm it was. “Thank you. Thank you so much, Master Fu,” Marinette sighed. “You’ve done a lot for us and… I don’t think I’d of become the person I am today if I hadn’t run into you.” Fu was surprised to hear the confession, but he smiled anyway. “Your welcome Marinette. But I thank you as well, for your confidence and your kindness. You’re a good person, Marinette. Having those earrings and Tikki are just a bonus.”

After her break from fake talking to her old classmates, Marinette was back at her seat, her cup refilled with hot tea. Adrien was surprisingly the first person to show up. Marinette stared at the chair for a minute, collecting her thoughts. With a deep inhale, Marinette began. “Adrien, I honestly had the biggest crush on you for the longest time. Now that I look back on it, it was pretty problematic. I don’t even know if it was truly a crush, but rather a fit of deep infatuation. I guess I didn’t know how to crush, you were, after all, my first.” Marinette fiddled with her fingers and the mug handle. “I feel… I feel like that affected what I’d do for you. I felt you needed to be happy, no matter what. I was always apologizing to you, I was sacrificing myself for you… I wonder if you are proud of me.” Marinette let out a dry laugh. “After all… I took the high road. Lila never got akumatized and everyone is still wrapped around her stupid little finger. What did it cost? My dignity. Crying during lunch breaks. Getting text after text from your classmates about how I need to apologize to Lila, how I’m not deserving of Lila, of how much of a monster I am. The high road is great.” Marinette croaked, pausing to shakily take a drink. “I understand why you think nonconfrontation is best. But, not all problems can be solved by letting them be. Lila is a prime example. Chloe is a prime example. She’s only been getting better because Ladybug had been holding the Bee Miraculous over her head if she didn’t shape up.” Marinette sighed, turning her eyes to her cup. “I’m sorry. I guess the two of us against Lila has turned into no one against Lila, huh? I mean,” she gave a bitter laugh, “you never were going to stand beside me. It was just words to keep me quiet. And staying quiet… Staying quiet meant that I couldn’t feel. Staying quiet meant that everything stayed locked up. Staying quiet meant that I was almost akumatized four times. Adrien, you will never hear this, but I hate you for this.” Marinette felt her nose begin to tingle and watched as her eyes watered, but she knew. She knew that deep down, under the whispers of love for the boy, she harbored resentment. “I hate you. God, I hate you!” She cried out to no one. “I can’t believe I loved you!” She sobbed, glaring at the empty chair, the apparition of Adrien gone by now, Marinette was just crying to herself now. Marinette let herself cry over her feelings. She had one more classmate… one more ex-friend. Alya. The redhead didn’t even wait for Marinette to be ready, her mind conjuring up the girl before Marinette could look up. Why was it so easy to think of Alya? She’s been your friend for almost three years, whispered her mind. All the more reason to feel hurt. “Alya.” Marinette breathed. Her mind went blank as she thought of everything that had happened since Chameleon. Ten days of Lila as an Akuma, ten days of Lila ruining Marinette’s relationships with everyone, ten days that Marinette couldn’t get back, ten days that no one ignored. “Alya, you were my best friend.” Marinette numbly began, not knowing where to begin. “Nothing could separate us. At least, I thought so. Lila came along and you completely forget about being a journalist of truth and immediately began yellow journalism. You took the words of one person, and never checked to see if they were right. You took the words of someone so religiously, that you couldn’t see the obvious holes. You chalked me pointing out things wrong with Lila as me being jealous. I wasn’t jealous. I liked Adrien, but I couldn’t stand the thought of anyone actually falling within her claws like that. “And Alya, in dismissing me as jealous, you forgot that I myself had done incredible things as well, and didn’t like being put on the spot for them. You… you actually dismissed me in general. Lila came and suddenly there was this new person who told everyone that she had done and seen incredible things. I was shoved to the back burner, like a project that would be touched upon when needed, but it would not be given the attention it deserved. And then, Lila claimed she had tinnitus, despite it never being in her records, despite Jagged Stone never owning a cat, despite the fact that Jagged Stone had had Fang as his only pet as long as Lila was alive. Suddenly, the class was rearranged and I was shoved to the back, my input ignored. My feelings; assumed. That hurt, Alya. Once Chameleon was defeated, I stayed back there. The class went back to how it was, but Nino was in my seat, Lila in his. I was forgotten in the back. “I was only remembered when Lila had something bad to say about me. I was remembered when you decided that anything I had “said” in the period Chameleon was an Akuma, anything someone said I had supposedly said, you decided that it was all true. You remembered my phone number. You made everyone remember my phone number. You all quietly bullied me, avoiding trouble while my phone got spammed with words horrible enough to make me wonder if I should give up. Disappear. “You all got your wish. I disappeared. Never to be seen at Francis Dupont again. Alya, if you wonder why I would up and go without saying goodbye, if you wonder why I would abandon her friends, if you still somehow, miraculously think I was your friend… all you have to do is look back on your behavior. “You didn’t have time for me, and this was before Lila came back. You decided that I was a good babysitter, always asking me to look after your younger sisters while you and Nino went on dates. You even got Nino to make me look after his brother. You knew I couldn’t say no. You took advantage of me. And when Lila came back? Even less time. Class-time was devoted to listening to Lila. After school time was devoted to Lila or dates. You only texted me, before Chameleon, to tell me when to babysit the siblings or to check the Ladyblog. I was suddenly only a follower and a babysitter in your eyes. “After Chameleon, Lila was your babysitter, so I thought you’d have time for me. But no. I was starting to get hateful texts, I was being glared at, I was being shoved away, tucked in the back like a bad memory. “Alya, I can’t wait for the day you see Lila for what she really is. I don’t expect you to come crawling back, but if you do, I won’t forgive you. These were the choices you made on your own. You had your chance when I was telling you it was wrong. I was dismissed. I was told to take the high road. And look at me now!” Marinette gave a bitter laugh. “I’m happy. Without you. My new friends don’t take advantage of me. My new friends don’t tell me to babysit for them. My new friends don’t chalk my feelings up to jealousy. Alya, I wondered how I felt about you, wondered what would I do for my ex-best friend. And suddenly, speaking what came to mind has made me come to the same conclusion as doing this with Adrien did. I thought of you as a friend. But I can’t help but hate you now. And It’s a weight off my chest to say so.” Marinette ended in a whisper.

It felt wrong to the girl to say she hated somebody. It felt wrong to feel this kind of malice towards somebody. But it felt right to admit it. Marinette sighed, flopping against the back of her chair. Alya looked disappointed, like Marinette’s mind was going to make her argue back, but Alya disappeared before her mouth could open.

Marinette looked around the room before startling as she saw Wayzz, Tikki, Trixx, and Pollen watching her. Trixx was peeking out from Marinette’s discarded bag, with something in front of them that was being hidden by Tikki and Pollen floating in front of it. “Alya… really did that?” Trixx asked, voice shaking at the thought of their wielder acting so. “I’m sorry… but yes.” Marinette looked away with a defeated sigh. “... I’m sorry one of my kits have been so misguided,” Trixx murmured.

The atmosphere of the room was heavy, as a black paw pressed a button for the second time.

[pyrewriter]

That Night

On a night like any other in the city of Paris Chat Noir stands alone on the ledge of a roof finishing another of his nightly patrols thinking about the last thing he heard his lady say.  

"How long has it been since she said that 'Chat I'm going to have to leave Paris for a while' that's what Milady said at least but it's been almost a month now and she still isn't back yet. Plagg, Claws In". He chuckled "Adrien Agreste, known Paris wide as the son and model of Gabriel Agreste and known as Chat Noir by no one but himself and his cheese loving Kwami" he turned to Plagg tossing him a slice of Camembert.

"Oh come on kid, it's been nearly a month since the last Akuma and you're still out here every night pulling double shifts to protect a sleeping city lets call it early tonight and get some well deserved sleep". Plagg was right though he didn't really mind the extra patrols considering that Paris had been unusually quiet but Adrien was willing to take any excuse he could find to get out of his house. When Plagg finished his cheese he transformed into Chat Noir once more and was about to start heading toward his house but just as he did an Akuma fluttered past him before phasing through the roof into the building below. He peered over the ledge looking for where it could have gone, his eyes widening as he heard a voice coming from an open window. 

Inside the building the Akuma had already found its target on their knees sobbing quietly holding a toy cap gun stylized to look like a cowboy’s revolver. The sobbing young man was unaware of the Akuma that had entered the room until it reached the cap gun and a voice flooded his head. "You have had some one most dear to you stolen away and now you have the power to take what's dearest to others. In return you must get me the Miraculous of Chat Noir and Ladybug".    

"Yes Papillon Wild Willy West will not disappoint" Chat was only able to watch as what he presumed to be a mourning brother was transformed into a wild west cowboy. Wild Willy turned to see Chat Noir staring at him in the window "Well aint this a pleasant surprise" he yelled before throwing a stick of dynamite through the window at the peeping cat. Chat dodged letting it hit fall but quickly dove for the stick before it blew, throwing it into the air as high as he could from a lying position. Wild Willy stuck his head out the window when Chat dove and was met with the stick of dynamite flying past him. The resulting explosion shattered glass, shook roof tiles, and left both Chat and Willy shell-shocked despite having braised themselves. Chat’s ears were ringing, his vision was blurry and shifting, he struggled to breath, the concussion wave had hit him the worst and he was in no condition to walk, let alone fight. 

Willy was a little shaky, his ears were ringing and he had a few cuts from the shattered glass but he was otherwise fine, he got to his feet and stumbled over to the window. He tried to see how Chat had fared but the looming smoke and dust was too thick for him to see the street, not wanting to push his luck with a multi story drop. Figuring that Chat was probably in the same if not a worse situation Willy chose to use the stairs to get to the roof and make his escape. Chat was still on the street slowly regaining the ability to breathe properly, when he was able he grabbed his staff and used it to vault himself onto the roofs.  

Unfortunately for Chat in his impaired state he misjudged the distance and he over shot sending him crashing into a set of chimneys the force of the impact dislocated his shoulder. Willy had reached the roofs on the opposite side shortly after, both saw each other and could tell neither were in any condition to fight. Shakily Willy raised his gun taking aim at the injured Chat laying helpless half buried in rubble from broken chimneys taking potshots as he escaped. Chat had only made his condition worse, he couldn't breath again and his vision had gone red. Most of Willy's shots missed sparking with a ricochet but a few managed to graze him with some cutting deeper than others. He couldn't move and Wild Willy was getting away and with no options left Chat used the power of his Miraculous. 

"CATACLYSM" at his touch the ruble that was holding him down crumbled and decayed into dust but he was in an even worse position now than he was after the explosion. *BEEP BEEP* "Damn it" he spat "Plagg, Claws In" the pain suddenly compounded all at once as the magic that partly protected him wore off. Adrien let out a howl of pain and anger as the pieces of shrapnel and debris that had embedded themselves in his skin made themselves known. A simple brush off was sufficient for most but some needed to be pulled out though nothing caused anything more than minor bleeding and flesh wounds. Plagg watched in silence "You ok there bud you're being awfully quiet over there" 

"huh-oh yeah yeah I'm fine just a little surprised that's all" Adrien looked at him with an expression of concern mixed with twinges of pain. "Oh no I should be giving you that look, you're the one who's all jacked up right now" there was real concern in Plaggs voice and Adrien could hear it.

With a smile Adrien replied "Plagg, I'll be fine really" he reached into his pocket pulling out an unopened tin of Camembert "Here, I'm going to work you pretty hard tonight so you've earned it". Plagg's eyes were sparkling and his mouth was watering but he stopped himself from immediately devouring the stinky goodness before him.

"Wait what do you mean 'going' to be working me?" he asked with a suspicious look.

A smirk crossed Adrien's face"Well we can't exactly let Wild Willy West run around Paris while I lick my wounds now can we". 

As Plagg slowly began to savor his Camembert he shook his head "Adrien, you need a hospital not another round with that cowboy".  

Adrien scoffed "And what am I supposed to say when my body guard shows up or my dad's secretary shows up 'sorry I snuck out in the middle of the night, I just wanted to go for a walk when an akumatized cowboy threw a stick of dynamite'". He got to his feet ramming his shoulder against what was left of the chimneys twice "Yeah I'm sure that will go over well" on the third try his shoulder realigned and the rest of the chimneys crumbled. 

"If Ladybug or any of the other team members were here they-" Plagg tried to argue but Adrien cut him off

Adrien's hands were in the air and his voice was raised"Well Ladybug isn't here and I don't know who any of the other heros are ,only Ladybug does, and even if I did, I don't know how or where she gets the other Miraculous from". He stepped back not realizing that he had taken a step forward then sighed "You're right I should but right now you and me are the only thing standing between him and Paris. I won't confront him I promise but I at least want to know where he's going then when we're done I'll go get checked out". Plagg was taken aback at the suddenness of Adriens anger but he could understand it and was genuinely sad that he couldn't tell him about the guardian not yet.  

With a sigh of his own this time Plagg agreed "Alright fine but only watch and then you’re getting checked out, deal". With a nod and a smile Adrien agreed to the arrangement. A few short moments later Plagg finished his cheese and Adrien condition had gotten to a point that he could tail Wild Willy.

"PLAGG, CLAWS OUT" Chat was back but he wasn't for a fight let alone a shoot out but if he was going to tail Willy he'd have to find him first. Chat started by heading in the same direction he saw Willy heading.  

In the meantime Willy had also recovered from his shell shock and was deliberating what kind of trap he would set for Chat Noir. He was hiding in the underground maintenance tunnels that connected the Paris subway system like a labyrinth which made an ambush a no brainer decision but that wasn't Wild Willy's way. As Willy wandered the tunnels Chat swept the surface for any sign of the cowboy despite searching the entire city. Eventually Willy stumbled across an abandoned train car storage and repair station with a few cars still in mostly one piece. 

Wild Willy smiled devilishly "hehehee I think this'll do just fine" he stepped into one of the older cars whose wood was rotting and falling off. Within a few minutes he had created a small campsite complete with fire and a cooking pot he had found in an old dining car. "Hoooo boy now I've got myself a place to wait". Just as he finished his sentence a voice popped into his head.

"Can you hear me, what are you doing? Chat Noir was vulnerable and alone why didn't you take his Miraculous! You fool now he will definitely have Ladybug with him" Willy shook his head as he listened.

"Listen hear partner, I don't know where you been but last I saw him neither of us were in a condition to be fighten with each other. And even if that some 'Ladybug' does come with him "           

Back on the surface Chat was beginning to lose his patience "Aaaghh where could he be he couldn't have just disappeared" then a thought ran through his head "He couldn't have been stripped of his Akuma has he?". Chat shook his head quickly dismissing the thought "No Hawk Moth isn't one to waste a villain" He rubbed his chin thinking of where Wild Willy could be. After a minute or two Chat came to the realization that there was only one place Willy could have gone and he was less than excited to follow him down there.

Chat ran to the nearest underground subway entrance, a stripe of pain shooting up his arm reminded him that he was only tracking him. Once in the tunnels he searched for any signs of the cowboy but once again it seemed like Chat was going to come up empty. That's what it was seeming to be at least, until a faint sound of crackling came from a maintenance tunnel that branched off from the main train tunnel. The sound would have been too quiet for someone with normal hearing to notice but Chat Noir has cat enhanced hearing.  

With a claw he made two marks ,one on the outside and inside of the tunnel, and headed deeper following the faint crackle of a fire somewhere inside that labyrinth. The dimness of the old guide lights illuminated the nearly pitch black tunnels, the air was stagnant and a thick dusty fog filled it. Even with his ability to see in the dark visibility was so low chat could barely see a few feet in front of him but he pressed further marking every turn he made, every tunnel he entered. As he pressed on the sound became louder and louder and eventually he could smell the smoke and began following that scent.  

Following nothing but the sound of a crackling fire and the smell of smoke through the labyrinth Chat saw a small flickering orange glow emanating from the tunnel entrance ahead. He approached with caution not knowing what kind of trap his opponent had set if any, as he crept closer to the entrance Chat could see that the room he was entering opened up significantly. Willy was still sound asleep with his hat covering his face and gun in hand, Chat was weary of waking him up but if he could subdue him while he was asleep then he could wait for Ladybug.  

The problem was finding something to subdue him with Chat hadn't planned on having the opportunity to catch him without a fight. He cast his gaze around the large chamber filled with train cars scattered about in various states of decay. Moving to the closest one he began rummaging through the dust covered trunks looking for anything he could use to tie up Willy. Finding nothing he used the roof access hatch to exit the car but felt something pull at his leg as he took a step. A bundle of steel rails swung down impacting Chat with tremendous force sending into a wall with a meaty thud, he had no time to react as the air was forced from his lungs.  

The rails broke free of their bindings flying into and destroying the car Chat had just fallen onto ,mercifully, he wasn't buried or paralyzed but he wasn't knocked unconscious either. The commotion shook Willy awake who brought his gun up ready for a fight but he wasn't sure if his deadfall trap had worked. Chat's vision was ,for the third time that night, blurry but it cleared much quicker than it had the last time and he was already getting to his feet. A cloud of dust was between them blocking the others view, Willy looked around frantically anticipating an attack from somewhere while Chat shakily got to his feet using his staff as support. As the dust slowly settled Willy saw a figure with glowing green eyes through the cloud in front of him and aimed for center mass.  

Chat saw Willy standing on the other side of the cloud with his gun pointed right at him, Willy fired twice aiming for non-vitals. Both shots hit their mark piercing the leaving holes where they pierced the cloud "Give up yer Miraculous and I'll take you to a doctor myself" he yelled taking aim for Chats head next. Chat spat blood clenching his teeth so hard it hurt but he wasn't going to hand over Plagg.  

With a deep breath "Hah I'm not handing you anything, you cow licker" Chat took a stance while extending his staff behind him holding his wounds and readying for a last ditch effort of a swing.

Pulling the hammer to half cocked "Those your final words partner?" Willy asked.

"Nope, these are: MAXIMUM EFFORT!" Chat yelled letting go of his wounds and bit down swinging his staff full force at Willy's head, instinctively Willy flinched causing his shot to go wild. The shot hit Chat in the face knocking off his own aim causing the swing to hit Willy's shooting hand sending the gun sliding across the floor. Willy gripped his hand in pain as the bones had mostly shattered from the force of Chats strike. Chat was still standing but leaning back and to one side his ears wrung, he could only see in crimson, his ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton.

Chat slowly rotated his body to bend forward glaring at his opponent, Willy stared in horror as what he had just done was illuminated by the light of his fire as the dust settled. Remnant pieces of flesh were all that remained of what was once the left side of Chat Noirs face, his teeth clearly visible, the bullet caught between them, blood flowing from the wound. The bullet dropped as Chat let out a deep exhale the ping of the bullet bouncing off the rubble shook Willy from his stupor and he began to take jerky stumbling steps back still holding his hand.  

Chat reached out with his free hand ,the other was clutching his staff and wounds, Willy stumbled back and fell. He pissed his pants looking for where his weapon had slid to once he saw it he scrambled to his feet desperately trying to get away. Once up he ran for his gun and sprinted down the same tunnel Chat had entered from. As much as Chat wanted to he couldn't chase Wild Willy he was losing too much blood too quickly, he needed a hospital now.  

Slowly he began to head toward the exit that led to the tunnels he had marked but as he passed the fire he noticed a bottle next to the fire. Fighting through the pain he limped over to the bottle, it was unopened the label read "Quality Whiskey, 1987, 70 proof" without a second thought he opened it. Half spilling out of the open side of his mouth downed a gulp of the hard liquor welcoming the burn as it went down, almost immediately the pain began to dull. His crimson vision had faded slightly and was beginning to return to normal but it was still difficult to see or hear getting to the surface was going to be difficult.

With another gulp and clenched teeth Chat began to shamble out of the tunnels using his staff as a cane in one hand and a bottle in the other. After what felt like an eternity and a third of his bottle later he was out of the underground and as fate would have it near a hospital. He hesitated staring at the giant glowing sign he couldn't just go inside but he didn't have time to be indecisive. Just then someone dressed in a nurses outfit walked out the front door possibly finishing up her shift, he needed to get her attention "Hey-AAGH!" he yelled in pain. Her head shot up in surprise, it took her a moment to spot him in the darkness when she did she gasped in horror. 

"OH MY GOD" she rushed over to him "WE NEED TO GET YOU INSIDE" she moved to assist him with his walking.

"NO-AGH! no" he protested adding "I need-I need to keep my identity a secret" he coughed violently, spitting up blood.

"You've been shot and I don't even know what happened to your face you need a doctor" she countered. He knew she was right but he couldn't risk his identity.

"Set me down in the over there-nngh" he motioned to the alley just to the right of the front entrance.

"NO-no you're delusional" she said with concern in her voice.

"Please-" He looked her in the eye with a pleading expression.

 After a pregnant pause "F-fine" she let him down slowly setting just around the corner near the door. His arms fell limp but he kept hold of the bottle it was the only thing that had kept him conscious and relatively numb

She stammered "W-wait here I-I'll go get help just-just don't move" she was about to run off but Chat's voice stopped her

"If you really want to help-agh get me some long tweezers, bandages, and pain killer a lot of them". She nodded and ran. He could only hope she would listen to him, chuckling to himself he thought "Never thought I'd be asking some unfortunate nurse for enough pain killers to tranq a horse in a back alley of a hospital". He raised the bottle to eye level swirling the liquid "But I guess even black cats can have a stroke of luck from time to time". Not even a minute later the nurse returned with everything he asked for and more, he was more than thankful.

"I-is there anything else I can do to help?" she asked, handing the medical supplies to Chat. As they made the trade off he thought for a moment. Then he spoke in as kind of tone as he could manage, which ended up sounding more apologetic than thankful.

"Y-nngh yeah could you help me patch myself up, digging out a bullet is easier when you're not the one who got shot agh" he looked to see the nurses response but was surprised to see her crying.  

"Of course" then reaching down offering him a leather strip saying "to bite down on, you'll need it" he let go of his bottle taking the strip placing it in his exposed teeth and nodded. Both began to tend to his wounds without another word as Chat unzipped his suit with only the occasional grunt breaking the silence. One of the two bullets that hit his abdomen went through but the other buried itself too deep for the tweezers to reach so Chat used a claw to cut a hole for the nurse to reach deeper.  

They had finished bandaging his grazes and bullet wounds and were cutting away the hanging flesh from his mouth when *BEEP BEEP* his time was almost up. The sound caught the attention of the nurse who gave him a concerned look. He motioned for her to go and she hesitantly complied.  

"Plagg Claws In"

Next Chapter   Chapter Guide

[vgckwb]

ML: Are They Worthy? Chapter 53: Walk Unafraid/Horrificator (Side B)

Later that night, Cat agreed to go to the hospital. Between the fall and the akumatization, it couldn’t hurt to check if everything is alright. “Alright, we should have the results back soon” a nurse said. “If what you said it true, we need to look into any strenuous damage taken over time.”

“Thank you, nurse” Mrs. Bruel said. The nurse left.

Mr. Bruel stood up. “Well, since this could take a while, and it is a school night, I think I should take Ivan home.”

“Sounds like a plan dear” Mrs. Bruel said.

“Come along now, Ivan” Mr. Bruel said.

“Wait!” Ivan called. Out. The rest of the family’s interest piqued. “Seeing as you found out something about Cat that only I knew, I figured I should return the favor, and tell you smething that, until today, only she knew.”

“Ivan, you don’t have to” Cat said.

“No” Ivan said. “I need to.”

“What is it, Ivan?” Mrs. Bruel asked.

Ivan took a breath and said “Mom. Dad. I’m bi.”

The Bruel parents stared at their child. “I see” Mr. Bruel said.

“Don’t hurt him!” Cat cried out.

“Why would we do that?” Mr. Bruel asked.

Cat looked at her father. Just as she was surprised about how accepting he was about her being a daredevil, she was surprised to see him accept Ivan for his sexual orientation. “I-I always thought you were stricter than you are.”

“Cather-er-Cat” Mr. Bruel said. “While it is true that your mother and I am more…”

“Uptight?” Cat said.

“...Sophisticated,” Mr. Bruel finished, “doesn’t mean we don’t love you.”

“Of course we love you” Mrs. Bruel said.

“So, you’re not mad?” Ivan said.

“Of course not” Mr. Bruel said. “I’m proud of you.” He gave Ivan a hug. Once the hug was finished, he said, “Maybe we could work on being less...uptight. We don’t want you to be afraid to come to us with anything.”

Ivan smiled. “I’d like that.”

“Now come on” Mr. Bruel said. “We should head out. See you both later.”

“Bye” Mrs. Bruel said.

“Seeya” Cat said. The two Bruel men walked out.

Meanwhile, Marinette’s group left the dining establishment they went to. “Well, all things considered, tonight was fun” Alya said.

“I had a good time” Marinette said.

“Well, we should get going” Juleka said.

“Yeah, we have a big day tomorrow,” Rose said.

“Right, the parade” Nathaniel said. “Seeya!” He and Alix walked off.

“Bye” Kagami said, walking a different way.

“I’m heading out too” Mylene said, walking a different way.

“Ashe, you live close by where I live, right?” Rose asked.

“Uh, I think so?” Ashe said.

“Good! Then we can go home together!” Rose said. “Seeya!’

“Uh, seeya” Ashe said, being taken by the hand.

“We should go too” Luka said. “Bye.”

“Bye” Juleka said. The two left.

“Well, it’s just the three of us” Alya said. “What’s on your mind, Ladybug?”

Marinette sighed. “You can read me like a book… Oxenfree said something to me as I was collecting his miraculous. He said that there’ll come a point where everyone has to know everyone.” Marinette sighed. “I know he’s right. I KNOW he’s right. I just don’t know when to tell everyone. Or how. I barely had the courage to tell the two of you.”

“Girl, it’s OK” Alya said. “You don’t have to worry about all of that alone anymore.”

Marinette looked at her. “But, I’m Ladybug. I know that sounds self-centered, and I guess it is, but I was the first one to know about Master Fu, I am the only one who can purify akumas, even Cat Noir kind of acknowledged me as the leader when it was just the two of us. I just feel like if something goes wrong, it’ll be all my fault.”

“Marinette, get a hold of yourself” TIkki said. “Yes, all of that is true, but you have to remember, you were chosen to be Ladybug. If Master Fu AND the holder of the wolf miraculous believe in you, then you know that you’ll do just fine.”

Marinette smiled. “I know TIkki. I’m just worried. What if Hawk Moth grows so strong that we have to be heroes 24/7? What if we have to lose ourselves in the roles we play for the city? I don’t want to put anyone in that position.”

“But you get to be?” Alya said, taking a more serious tone.

“Alya…” Nino said, concerned.

“I’ve got this” Alya said. “Marinette. You talk about how you don’t want to cause a problem for everyone else. Yet you don’t mind doing it to yourself. Like being Ladybug is better than being Marinette. But guess what girl? Marinette is just as important as Ladybug! You can’t keep doing this to yourself!”

“Alya’s right” Trixx said. “Besides, anyone willing to be a hero knows the risks. They wouldn’t do it if they didn’t think they could handle it!”

“Also, Judgement Wolf and Beyyo have passed everyone you’ve chosen thus far” Wayzz said, jumping in. “Everyone has your back on this.”

Marinette smiled. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry” Nino said. “It’s understandable to think like that.”

“But you don’t need to carry that burden anymore” Alya said. “We’re here.”

Marinette started crying. “Thank you Alya” she said, hugging her best friend.

Meanwhile, Alix and Nathaniel were walking home. “So, why didn’t you invite Marc?” Alix asked.

Nathaniel was surprised. “Well, I didn’t know if he would be into that kind of thing…”

“You feel confident about this relationship?” Alix asked.

“Of course!” Nathaniel said defensively. “I think…”

“I think you two are cute together” Alix said. “What’s troubling you?”

Nathaniel thought about it. “Marc is at 110% at whatever he does. I like him, and dating him has been great, but I kind of wish he would slow down a little, and not jump to so many conclusions. I’ve talked to him about this when it comes to writing, but still…”

Alix put a hand on his shoulder. “Give it time. He’s just nervous, like you. He’s just expressing it by going a bit too fast. While you? You’re going a bit slow.” Nathaniel smiled. “I think it’s cute. You two balance each other out.”

“Thanks Alix” Nathaniel said. “Maybe things’ll feel better tomorrow.”

“I hope so” Alix said.

Meanwhile, as Rose and Ashe were walking, Ashe asked “So, did you want to talk to me about something?”

“Hm?” Rose said. “Oh, of course. I just wanted to get to know you better personally.”

Ashe was confused. “We just spent a few hours at that restaurant. Did that not count?”

Rose shook her head. “I want to get to know you one on one.”

“I see…” Ashe said.

“Mainly, I just want to make sure you’re a good fit for the family,” Rose said. “I’ve known Juleka and Luka for a long time, and I’m going out with Juleka now. I feel like part of the family, and I’m a bit overprotective of that family, you know what I mean?”

Ashe giggled. “Sure.”

“Don’t worry, you’re doing well so far,” Rose said.

“Thank you for that” Ashe said. “What do you want to know?”

“Mainly, I want to know why you felt like you needed to run away,” Rose said. “I can’t bare the thought of someone running out on Juleka, especially if she lets them in her heart.”

Ashe smiled. She started to laugh. “I’m sorry. That is so sincere of you. I just love it. Ahem. Anyway, to explain.” Her expression saddened. “Back at my old school, I didn’t have a lot of friends. I was always ‘that weird kid’ to most people. I had a few friends though, and we started a band together. However, they found a new bassist and kicked me out. I told them that I could play a multitude of instruments, but they weren’t interested. They said we’d still be friends, but we spent less time together because of the band. I felt lonely. I couldn’t find the time to talk to my dad about it, since he’s been away a lot recently touring with his band, and mom left. I just couldn’t think of anything to do. I needed to do something drastic, and then the opportunity came to go with my dad to Versailles, and, well, you know the rest…”

Rose was tearing up. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s OK” Ashe said. “I get it. I kind of wish I had friends like you.”

Rose hugged Ashe. “You do now,” she said.

Ash was surprised, but hugged Rose back. “Thanks. Should we get going?”

“Sure” Rose said. They finished their hug and continued walking. “By the way, does your mom always call you ‘Ashley’?”

“Not always, but she’s allowed to” Ashe said. “My parents are the only ones who can call me that. I insist everyone else calls me ‘Ashe’.”

“OK Ashe” Rose said.

Meanwhile, with the Couffaine siblings, Luka asked “Why do you suppose Rose dragged Ashe off like that?”

“Probably to protect us” Juleka said.

“Huh?” Luka said.

“Never mind. I’ll explain later” Juleka said. “Right now, I wanna talk about dinner.”

“What about?” Luka asked.

“Don’t pretend I didn’t notice” Juleka said. “You and Kagami were clicking like nobody's business.”

“Me and Kagami?” Luka said. “Now you’re just being ridiculous.”

“Suit yourself” Juleka said. “Just know if you two end up married, I will say ‘I was right’ during my speech.”

“What makes you think you’ll get a turn to speak?” Luka asked.

Juleka gasped. She shoved her brother and said “Jerk.”

Luka laughed. “But you are kind of right. Kagami seems great. Although, we just met.”

“That didn’t stop you from falling for Marinette” Juleka pointed out.

Luka smiled. “I guess you’re right. Although, this wasn’t instant, like that was.”

“Well, you always tell me the slowest melodies are often the sweetest” Juleka said.

Luka’s smile widened. “I should stop teaching you things.”

“OK. I’ll just go to the internet” Juleka said. Luka rolled his eyes.

Kagami was walking by herself. Marinette’s friends seem nice. I should ask to hang out with them more often. Maybe we can hang out when Adrien is free. I mean that platonically! Adrien is dating Marinette, and they are good together! Whatever. It’s not like I can’t get a date. Heck that Travis boy wants to date me. Maybe I can ask him out? Or what about that Luka guy from tonight? He seems nice. Maybe I should just focus on hanging it with friends more. This dating stuff is confusing, and the first time I pursued someone, I ended up failing.

Mylene was walking home as well. She sent Ivan a text. “Hey Ivan. I hope Cat is doing alright. Just wanted to check in. I’m doing fine after what happened today. You must be worried.”

A few minutes, she got a text back. “Cat seems to be doing alright. I’ll know for sure tomorrow. You don’t have to be sorry about worrying me during akuma attacks. That just seems to be a facet of life at this point. I wish it wasn’t, but what can we do? I’m glad you’re doing alright though. Can’t wait to see you again.”

Mylene texted back “Me either.”

While all that was happening, Adrien and Vlad arrived at Master Fu’s. “Master! We’re here to deliver the miraculous!” Adrien said. “Master?”

“He’s not here” Hao-yu said. “He’s busy.”

“Actually, I just finished” Master Fu said, walking in.

“Welcome back” Hao-yu said. “What were you up to?”

“That is a discussion for a different time” Master Fu said. “For now, let’s return the miraculous to the box.” Vlad and Adrien handed the miraculous over to Master Fu and Hao-yu, who put them back in the box. “Thank you. Now, tell me what bothers you, Vlad?”

Vlad was surprised. “You need to stop doing that,” he said. “You’re right. I met with Hawk Moth yesterday. He was wondering about a broken miraculous.”

Master Fu’s face turned serious. “Is his broken?”

“No. The peacock is broke” Vlad said.

“I see” Master Fu said. “We need to get it back immediately. Lest Mayura falls ill and perishes.” everyone else’s face turned pale.

“As much as I would like to, I don’t think Hawk Moth will let that happen” Vlad said. “He is interested in fixing it though. He doesn’t want Mayura to use it too much…”

Master Fu turned stern. “See if you can’t work something out the next time you meet.”

“Very well” Vlad said. “But tonight, I have some business I need to take care of. Later.” He left.

“I don’t think we can get far if Hawk Moth and Master Fu are unwilling to meet” Beyoo said, once they were out the door.

“Yeah, but that’s why we need to figure out how to get them to meet” Vlad said.

“‘We?’” Beyyo said.

“Well, I guess mostly me” Vlad said. “But you could chime in with ideas before the meeting. Either way, that’s not what we need to focus on at the moment.”

Beyyo sighed. “You’re right. Just transform.”

“Beyyo! Fangs Sharpen!” Vlad transformed into Judgement Wolf. He made his way across Paris to the Bruel household. He found Ivan’s room and snuck in. “Wolf Mist!”

It was the day after Ivan turned into Stoneheart. He felt bothered by every remark made by everyone about it. How could such a thing happen? I know my emotions can get the better of me, but this is something else. Although, to be fair, I don’t think anyone could have known about a person who could make supervillains. GAH! This is so stupid. He walked off to the locker room.

Marinette walked up to Ivan. “You know, you should tell Mylene how you feel,” she said.

“I...don’t know what you’re talking about” Ivan huffed back.

“Come on, I saw the way you look at her. No! No negative emotions, Ivan” Marinette said. “What I mean is, be positive. I'm sure Mylène has feelings for you too. Go talk to her.”

Ivan looked at her. “I’m no good with words anyway,” he said.

“But...who needs words?” Marinette said, cheerfully. “You could draw her a picture, send her flowers…”

“I could...write her a song?” Ivan suggested.

“That’s a great idea!” Marinette said. “What girl wouldn't want a love song written especially for her? Go for it, Ivan, and, uh–, stay positive.” Ivan ran off, excited.

Meanwhile, Mylene was heading to class. Chloe then started making fun of her. “So, giant, massive, supervillains are coming to Paris. Are you scared?”

“Lay off, Chloe,” she said. “Just because it happened yesterday, doesn’t mean it’ll happen constantly.”

“Oh, but it will” Chloe said. “You don’t think this is a one and done thing, do you? Maybe you should move. It’ll be easier, and you won’t get scared as much.”

Mylene was worried that Chloe was right. “I need to go,” she said. She rushed to the bathroom.

“Yeah, run!” Chloe said. “Run like the coward you are!”

She sat in the stall. I’m not a coward she thought to herself. But Ivan was kind of scary yesterday. No. That’s just the monster version of him! Ivan’s usually very sweet, and kind. I have nothing to worry about. She walked out of the bathroom, and was confronted by Ivan. “Ahh! Ivan, you scared me.”

“I made this for you” Ivan said. He started playing loud music and screaming. Mylene couldn’t make it out. She didn’t know what to do, so she ran.

“I was hoping to make Stoneheart a second time,” Hawk Moth said, “but the opportunity for another villain just arose. I’m not one to miss out on that. Fly away, my little akuma, and evilize her!”

“Maybe Chloe’s right” Mylene said. “Maybe I should just leave.”

The akuma fused with Mylene’s flower. “Horrificator. I am Hawk Moth. Afraid things will get too scary for you? Well, you can make things scary for everyone else! In return, I just need Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculous.”

“Yes Hawk Moth” Mylene said. She was transformed into Horrificator.

Ivan was walking to class. “I should have known,” he said. “Mylene doesn’t like me.” Horrificator jumped in front of him. Ivan seemed confused. “Mylene?” Horrifictor roared at him and picked him up.

Ms. Bustier was calling attendance. “Bruel, Ivan?” No one answered. Everyone was looking around. “I guess he’s not here.”

“NO!” Marinette shouted. “I mean, I know he’s here. I can go look for him.”

“Alright, Marinette, but come back in five minutes” Ms. Bustier said.

“Thanks Ms. Bustier!” Marinette said. She left the class. “Ivan?! Ivan?! Where’d you run off to?” Marinette saw some pink slime and some crumpled paper. She looked at the paper. “This must be Ivan’s song. But that means…”cShe rushed back to the class. “Ms. Bustier, I think something happened!”

The class began to murmur. “Calm down everyone!” Ms. Bustier said. “Marinette, what’s going on?”

“I found this next to some pink slime” Marinette said, showing her the crumpled paper. “I think it belonged to Ivan.”

“So, where did the pink slime come from then?” Adrien asked.

“Probably from Ivan as well” Chloe remarked. “Maybe he turned into another creature.”

Horrificator was outside the window, with Ivan in her hand. She growled at Chloe laughing at Ivan’s expense. “It’s OK” Ivan said. “I did this to you. I deserve it.”

Horrificator was shocked. She then got angry, and leapt through the window and roared at everyone! Everyone screamed. Horrificator picked up Chloe. “Let me go!” she said. “Ivan!”

“It’s not me” Ivan said.

Chloe was surprised. “But then who is it?” Horrificator roared at her. She left the class room and jumped out of school. She began walking to the Eiffel Tower. “How could you let this happen?” Chloe asked.

“I’m sorry” Ivan said.

Chloe was confused. What’s this about?” she asked. Ivan looked up. “The girl you like turned into this monster, and all you can do is mope?! You’re pathetic. Utterly pathetic.”

Ivan knew Chloe was right. “You’re right Chloe” van said. “Thanks.”

“Whatever” Chloe said.

Horrificator began climbing the Eiffel Tower. Mayor Bourgeois shouted through a megaphone “I demand my daughter’s safe return!”

“Daddy!” Chloe called. Horrificator looked at Chloe and then threw her. “Help! I promise I'll be nice to everyone, say please and thank you all-” Ladybug caught her. “I didn't promise.”

“What?” Ladybug said.

“My princess” Mayor Bourgeois said. The two hugged.

“So, that’s one hostage out of the way” Cat Noir said.

“One more to go” Ladybug replied. “Lucky Charm! A microphone?”

“You have a sweet voice” Cat Noir said. “Maybe singing to it will help.”

Ladybug saw Ivan in Horrificator’s hand, and Ivan’s phone in his hand. “Wait! That’s it!”

“What is?” Cat Noir asked.

“This girl named Marinette gave me this” Ladybug said, taking the lyrics out. “She said that that boy wrote this for her.”

“How sweet” Cat Noir said. “Would that work on you?”

“Focus Kitty” Ladybug said. “Maybe if we can get him to sing it, Horrificator can calm down. Cat Noir, see if you can’t get his phone.”

“Good idea” Cat Noir said. He leapt into action. He extended his stick to meet Ivan. “Mind if I borrow this?” He said, taking the phone and pressed play on the song.

Ladybug made her way up and held the mic and the lyrics in front of Ivan. “Go on” she said. Ivan gulped. He started shouting his lyrics again, which only caused Horrificator to roar back at them.

Cat Noir almost fell, but he found his balance. “That wasn’t what I was expecting.”

“I’m sorry” Ivan said. “I scared her by doing that earlier. It’s why she’s like this now.”

Ladybug looked at Ivan. “Well, why don’t you try singing it gentler?” she asked. “Maybe she’ll appreciate it.”

Ivan looked at Horrificator. “Fine. Let’s go again.” Cat Noir restarted the music. Ivan closed his eyes and opened them on his cue. Suddenly, in a smooth baritone, he sang

“Mylene, be serene.

Don’t be so mean.

If you could love me, that would be keen.

Mylene, be kind

I hope you don’t mind

But you’re the girl for who I have pined.

Mylene be true,

Don’t get so blue

Because the girl I love is you!”

Horrificator started to shrink at the sweetness of Ivan’s song. “His lyrics leave a lot to be desired” Cat Noir said.

“Well, they seem to be working, so I wouldn’t complain if I were you” Ladybug said. As Horrificator got smaller, Ladybug saw the flower pop out. “I bet that’s where the akuma is! Cat Noir, prepare to catch Ivan!”

“You got it!” Cat Noir said.

Ladybug swung over and took the flower, tearing it.  “No more evildoing for you, little akuma. Time to de-evilize! Gotcha! Bye bye, little butterfly. Miraculous Ladybug!” The ladybug fixed all of the damage caused by Horrificator.

Horrificator turned back into Mylene and started falling. Ladybug dove and caught her. Ivan began falling as well, and Cat Noir caught him. They both landed safely and let go of Mylene and Ivan. “You may have spoiled my fun today” Hawk Moth said. “But fear not, I WILL return!”

“Sorry Mylene” Ivan said.

Mylene took Ivan’s arm. “It’s OK,” she said.

Ladybug gave the lyrics to Mylene and said “I think you two have things to talk about. Hm?”

Mlyene looked them over and said “Wow, it's really beautiful. It's a shame you can't hear them when you scream. I mean, when you sing.”

Ivan glanced away “It was scary, wasn't it. Is that why you left? I'm sorry, I'll be gentle.” Mylene hugged Ivan. “I can sing it to you again in my actual singing voice if you want.”

“You have an actual singing voice?” Mylene said.

“Yeah” Ivan replied. “But I don’t break it out too often. I find it embarrassing.”

“Then, why did you break it out at all?” Mylene asked.

“Because for you,” Ivan said, “I would do anything.” Mylene blushed.

“Oh, they're so made for each other” Ladybug said.

Cat Noir chimed in with “Like us two.”

“Come on Mylene. Let’s head back to school” Ivan said. Suddenly, the world around him turned into a white void.

“You passed” Judgement Wolf said.

“Judgement Wolf” Ivan said. “So, this was my test.”

“Yes” Judgement Wolf informed him. “By the way, you have such a lovely singing voice. You should share that with more people.” Ivan was about to say something, but Judgement Wolf said “I know, you find it embarrassing, but you really shouldn’t.”

“I wasn’t going to say that” Ivan said. “I think I’ll give it a try more often. I don’t want to take away Rose’s spot as the singer of Kitty Section, but I want to do some more singing.”

“Interesting” Judgement Wolf said. “What prompted this?”

Ivan looked away. “I’ve always pretended to be brave. But now I feel brave. I want to do more things I’m scared of.”

Judgement Wolf chuckled. “You’ll make an excellent hero” he said. “I’ll be sure to let Beyyo find you and tell you what he thinks. Goodnight.” Judgement Wolf left.

Meanwhile, Marinette made her way to her room and slumped on her bed. She got out her phone and texted Adrien “Hey, can we go out Saturday?”

“Sure. What’s up?” Adrien responded.

“I just want to have a good time” Marinette texted back. “The stress of everything that’s been happening recently has been killing me.”

“Well we don’t want that” Adrien texted back. “I’ll see you Saturday then. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight” Marinettte texted back. She let go of her phone and fell asleep.