#have i told you lately how much he fucking loves alix???

[wolfisheart]

alix @sacraementals said, " i like it when you're nearby. "

fourteen months in stockton had been an uncomfortable amount of time to think about the state of his life. when he'd originally prospected with the sons it'd been more about the concept of family than the money or even the guns. the way they loved and protected one another was something he severely missed from the mc he'd grown up around back in albuquerque. and though they were never anything close to one percent they were a close knit family all the same.

something had shifted in the soa dynamic, though. even after he and jax had been stabbed for russian retaliation, hale couldn't put his finger on it. well, tecnically, jax was the target. hale had gone off the deep end and tried to prove a point.

either way.

it hit him like a truck while sitting on the counter in the florists shop, watching alix work. that sense of family hadn't been quite the same after donna's death. from there, a wedge had been shoved in between jax and opie. clay felt like he had one foot out the door and the other in his bank account. everyone else was so fuckin' confused about what was going on that they were running around like chickens.

soft words hit his ears. since coming home he'd refused to leave alix's side. whatever had stopped him from diving all in to whatever they were? was beat out of him in prison. between belfast and stockton hale was tired of running from her. from them.

" i like being nearby, babe. love it, actually. " he slides off the counter to close the distance between them. once close enough, hale drops to his knees so he can press his cheek against alix's abdomen. arms create a loose circle around her waist, pulling her in close like a hug. " i hope you know i'm done running from this. all the time we lost? i want to be near you as often as possible. "

[gaysindistress]

When Night Comes - eight

Summary: Who would win in a staring contest? New York’s resident mob boss and master of the side eye Bucky Barnes or the daycare teacher who really wants to go home and smoke?

pairing: Mob!Bucky Barnes x reader

warnings: mob!Bucky, cursing, the feels, angst, mentions of past abuse (Alix is a terrible person)

word count: 4k

seven | masterlist

Tag list: @vickie5446 @cakesandtom  @buckybarnessimpp @hidden-treasures21​ @unaxv​ @mal-adaptive-dreams @elizacusi-blog

a/n: We’re jumping between 3 or 4 different scenes here so strap in and get ready. 

disclaimer: credits to original creator/poster of image/gif. found on Google/Pinterest

The first thing that flashes through her mind when she wakes up is Yelena with the kiss quickly following suit. Pulling the covers over her head, she creates a bubble to ignore the world around her. What the actual fuck did she get herself into? 

She isn’t allowed much peace when her phone goes off. Jessica made sure that she had her own ringtone almost immediately after they met, claiming that she was just that special when it was really because she wanted to make sure Sunny always answered her calls. 

“Hey girl hey!” She cheers through the speaker phone. 

“What?” 

“Ouch, what crawled up your ass and died?” “It’s been a long night. What’s up?” Jessica stays silent for a few seconds, debating whether or not to reveal her secret, “Well remember how I said that I wasn’t going to get back with Peter?” “I swear to god if the next thing you say is ‘surprise, we’re back together’, I’ll literally lose my shit.”

“Ye have little faith. No I didn’t get back with Peter but you also didn’t let me finish. I’m going out with one of Yelena’s friends Friday and I would love if you could help me get ready for it.”

“Who is it?”

“You don’t know them.”

“No shit,” Sunny says while pushing the blankets off so she can breath fresh air, “What’s their name?”

“Natasha.” “Oh a girl? I thought you didn’t like girls.”

Shuffling is heard from the other side, no doubt as a result of Jessica flopping onto her stomach on her bed, “I said I wished that I was so I figured why not give it a try? What’s the worst that can happen?”

“You lead her on and she gets hurt.”

“I would never do such a thing. I’m always honest about my feelings even if it hurts a person which reminds me, why is Yelena sulking?” “I’m going to need more info than that,” she huffs when the woman in question appears on her fire escape. 

“She’s been such a downer lately and I have a sneaking suspicion it has something to do with Mr. Sexy.”

“Why would I know the answer to that?”

“Because you’re like all she talks about.”

Sunny glances over at Yelena who is leaning against the window now, examining her nails and pretending that she can’t hear their conversation. 

“That’s interesting but no I don’t know and I have to go. Bye, love you.”

Jessica sputters in confusion at her quick hang up but manages to sneak in a “love you too bitch”. 

“I’m not sulking.” 

“I didn’t say that,” Sunny says, pulling her blanket back over her shoulders, “why are you here?”

“Ouch,” Yelena fakes being offended and drops herself onto the bed next to her, “You aren’t even a little bit excited to see me?”

“I didn’t mean it like that… It's been a long few days.”

“Want to talk about it?”

She shrugs her shoulders and lets out a long sigh, “Not really. You still haven’t told me why you’re here.”

“Checking on you, making sure you haven’t committed any crimes.”

“You’ll be the first person I call if I get arrested.”

“I’m honored that you’d call me before Bucky.”

“Well he would probably lose it on the entire police station so…”

“You could’ve just said “Yes Yelena. I would call you first because I like you a lot more than that douche bag.” I would’ve taken that.”

“Yes Yelena I would call you first because I like you WAY more than that man.”

Yelena’s face goes blank as she says, “Were you thinking about me when you kissed him?”

Jessica groans as someone pounds on her apartment door. The smell of wet dog invades her living room as the pounding grows louder and the person responsible grows less patient. 

“Jessica open the fucking door!”

“What are you doing? Are you trying to get the cops called?” she hisses at Alix who is soaking wet from the heavy rainfall outside. Alix goes to reprimand her for speaking to her pack leader that way but Jessica yanks her inside. 

“Stay here. I don’t want water and wet dog all over everything,” she tells Alix as she disappears to find towels and extra clothes. 

The sound of wet clothes dropping onto her floor comes from the living room and as she walks back in, she finds Alix in just her tank top and underwear, her jeans and zip up on the ground around her. 

“Give me that,” she demands, snatching the towel out of Jessica’s hands and starts to dry off her body and braids, “What do you have on the Strigoi?”

“Nothing like I told you last night. Y/N isn’t saying anything and I can’t get close enough to anyone else.”

“What about Peter?”

“Ghosted me.”

Alix raises one eyebrow, “What did you do?”

“Why do you assume I did something?” “Because you always do.”

Jessica wrinkles her nose at the insult, “I may have slapped a girl he was kissing.”

Alix stops wringing out her braids and closes her eyes while taking a deep breath, “Your only job is to keep tabs on Bucky and his group. How the fuck did you manage to mess that up?”

“No no you said to watch Y/N and to TRY and keep tabs on the others. I am doing my job just not the side tasks.” A growl rings through the small apartment, “So help me God, Jessica. The more you act out, the more likely your cover is going to be blown. Speaking of which, who knows about you?” “Peter and Yelena obviously but Y/N doesn’t.”

“Has anyone brought it up?” “Peter did but only to ask if it’s true that I turn into a wolf every full moon. I don’t think Yelena cares and Bucky or Steve don’t come in enough to notice.”

“We both know that Yelena cares but is just waiting to see what happens. What about Peggy?”

Jessica shrugs, “I don’t answer the door so I’m assuming not.”

Alix rolls her eyes before tossing the towel back at Jessica and brushes past her to raid her closet for dry clothes. 

“How close are you to going through with the plan?” she calls out. 

Jessica hums for a second, thinking about her progress, “It’s going to take longer than I thought. Y/N isn’t telling me anything so I can’t tell what’s going on with Bucky or Yelena.”

“But she’s close enough to them though?”

“Kinda. Juliette, that dumbass, had a meeting with him and Steve at the restaurant that we were at and she saw, assumed they were a couple, and dipped. She did go out with Yelena but I don’t think she’s going to give him the time of day again.”

Alix comes back out wearing some of Sunny’s clothes that she had left behind during late nights. She takes a seat on the couch, fully leaning back into the plush cushions, “I don’t really care who she gets close to as long as it’s one of them. All we need is an opening to take out the Rogers and Bucky so we can get her back to Fresno where she belongs.”

“Do you really think that’s going to work?” Alix’s eyes flash gold like they usually do when she’s angry, “Of course it is. She belongs to me. Taking out those bloodsuckers, who mind you have been trying to kill me for years, is just a welcomed side effect of bringing her home.”

Jessica rolls her eyes while taking her phone out to scroll aimlessly on tiktok. 

“Did you send the text that I asked?”

“Yes.”

Sunny goes still under her blanket and feels Yelena watching her every move, awaiting her answer. 

“How did you know?” “Aside from the fact that I can smell him everywhere, especially on you, a little birdy told me.”

“I’m sorry.”

Yelena scoffs and shakes her head in disbelief, “I should’ve known better honestly. He always does this.”

Sunny pushes off her blanket and sits up, “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean for it to happen, it just did.” “I don’t want to hear it. It happened and you can’t take it back,” Yelena sighs as she stands and puts distance between them, “I hate to do this but I feel like I don’t have a choice; him or me.”

“You obviously.”

“See I don’t believe you.”

“I promise, it’s you. Whatever I need to do to prove that it’s you, I’ll do it”

Yelena backs away as Sunny stands and tries to get closer. They give each other hurt looks as the other continues to damage the relationship. 

“I don’t believe you or trust him for that matter. Nothing could make me believe that Bucky wouldn’t try and pull something. I won’t be put through that. I’m sorry but I’ll get Bucky to find someone else to watch over you,” Yelena says over her shoulder before slipping back out the window and leaving Sunny fuming.

She wants to scream at the top of her lungs but she can’t risk her neighbors calling the cops so she settles for screaming into her pillow. Her phone distracts her and she’s scrambling to answer it but freezes when she sees that it’s Bucky. 

“Bucky what the fuck?” she growls into her phone. 

“Well hello gorgeous, how are you?”

“Fuck off what did you do?”

“You’re going to have to be more specific, what are you talking about?” “You told Yelena that we kissed.”

“No I definitely did not.” “Don’t lie to me.”

“I swear draga, I’m not lying. I haven’t talked to her since yesterday but she’s supposed to be meeting with me in,” he pauses, “half an hour. I’ll talk to her then, but I promise I wouldn’t have told her without first calling you.”

“Give me your phone.”

“I was just starting to actually like Y/N, did I really need to do that?” Jessica groans as she tosses her phone over to Alix. 

“I don’t care what you want to do” Alix mumbles while reading the messages between Jessica and Yelena, “Good job. Any internal conflict we can cause amongst their ranks, the better.”

She hands back the phone as she asks the question that’s been on her mind for hours, “Did she look like she enjoyed it?”

“It’s not like I had a front row seat. I was on the fire escape, how do you expect me to know that?” “I don’t remember asking for any attitude or did you forget who you’re talking to?”

Jessica lets out an over dramatic sigh, “No I didn’t. I’m sorry for giving you attitude.”

Alix smiles to herself at Jessica’s submission, “Good girl.”

Jessica bites her tongue to keep from saying something that will get her kicked out of the pack or worse, given how moody Alix has been lately. 

“I think she was high and you know how the saying goes.”

“Come on,” Alix says unimpressed with Jessica’s read of the situation.

“What? It wouldn’t be a saying if it wasn’t true.” “Drunk actions are sober thoughts? Don’t even try and convince me that her being high was the only reason why she kissed him. She kissed him because she wanted to.” “Alix I really don’t think she has any interest in him.”

Alix growls her warning to stop talking before it gets worse and reclines further into the couch. Regardless of what Sunny may have been feeling when she kissed Bucky, she still did it and that’s far worse of a betrayal to Alix than anything else. During their relationship, Alix had to constantly remind Sunny that she was hers even when that meant leaving bruises and marks.  Sometimes the physical reminders of her place were the only thing Alix to get to work. On numerous occasions, they were the only thing that kept Sunny from leaving the house and kept her out of trouble. 

“Just do what I ask and don’t question me. I am your leader, Jessica, and I’m done with reminding you.”

Jessica scoffs and takes her phone back, “You’re done? I’m the one who’s had to slum it with humans and Strigoi for the last few years.” “And you do it because I told you to. Quit with the complaining. I don’t want to hear it anymore.”

“Or what? You’ll send me back to California and then what? You’ll have no one here who is as close to Y/N as I am and you’ll be back at square one or even worse since I’m sure she’s going to find out that you’re here soon enough.”

Within seconds, Alix is off of the couch and has Jessica pinned against a wall, “What did you just say?” “I’m your only shot at getting her back.”

Alix’s hand comes up to grip Jessica’s neck and squeezes hard enough that she starts to gasp for air.

“I don’t need you for anything,” she growls with a deep anger, “I could care less about what happens to you so there is nothing stopping me from exposing who you are to Y/N or the Strigoi and leaving you to fend for yourself. Barnes and Rogers won’t like knowing that an rival spy has been working with that filthy demon spawn of theirs. Do you really want to test me right now?”

With the hand clasped tightly on her throat, she can’t say anything but barely nods and whimpers, something that Alix finds great pleasure in. 

“Good,” she loosens her grip just enough for Jessica to get the air she desperately needs, “Don’t fucking do that again or I won’t be so nice.”

Yelena and Bucky sit across from each other, both waiting for the other to speak first. When she arrived, she made an effort to not say a single word and to maintain her stoic face no matter how piercing his gaze may be. She figured based on his matching behavior that Sunny had called him to tell him that their kiss was no longer a secret. Steve had given them questioning looks when she came in but left nonetheless even if he was concerned for either of their safeties. 

“You know.”

Yelena scoffs, shaking her head as she glances around the room, “Obviously.” “Good then we can be adults about this.”

“Says the one who pouted and threw a tantrum when he found out that we went on a date.”

“I didn’t do either of those things.”

She settles her eyes on him for the first time since she sat down, “So what do you call dragging her into your office and then going to her apartment?” “The first thing is called a conversation and the second is called being a gentleman. I was checking on her.”

“With your tongue down her throat.”

“You did the same thing. I’d say you were throwing a tantrum by bringing her to MY club and kissing her 10 feet away from me.”

“She willingly went out with you, I can’t say the same about you. Also, why did you text me off of a burner?”

Bucky’s brows furrow in confusion, “I didn’t.”

She takes her phone out to show him the text that informed her of the kiss, “Yes you did.”

Bucky takes his own out to prove that he never sent her that text; she kissed me.

“Why would I text you from a burner phone?”

Before Yelena can say anything smart back, the door to his office bursts open. A fuming Steve throws the door open and all but slams his phone down on the table. 

“Jessica knows Alix.”

On it is an old picture of Jessica hugging Alix, both smiling like little kids.

Yelena squints at the image, “Where did you get this?” “Peggy found it. I’m not sure where but she just sent it to me. We need to get Sunny to a safe house immediately.”

They look to Bucky who is already half way out of the door. The one person he trusted outside of his people has proven to be the most dangerous person he could imagine. 

[sasuhinasno1fan]

A wish for a different life- Adrien AUGreste Day 9

Very short and I’m very tired. Adrien curses a lot here and yells at Lila, so heads up.

Mother

“For the love of god, if you don’t want me to hit you, say it correctly!”

“Don’t be so pastay.” Kim smirked, seeming to ignore the red growing on Adrien’s face. He laughed to himself until a swift kick was delivered to his shin.

“1, it’s pronounced nyow-kee. 2, I’m the pun master and that wasn’t even fucking good!”

“You kicked me!” Kim yelled, hopping dangerously on the stairs, glaring at Alix who fell off her own chair with laughing so hard.

“You asked for it!”

“Ok Adrien,” Nino said putting his hands on the blonde shoulders, “we promise we won’t mispronounce Italian dishes anymore. Or make jokes about pasta or how your words sound the same.”

“So do yours!”

“Alright everyone,” Mml Bustier walked in and everyone headed to their seats, “before I invite your parents inside, let’s go over a few rules so we don’t have to same issues as last time.” She gave a look to Chloe, who look embarrassed as she turned up her nose. “Firstly, let’s make sure all our things are in our bags, shall we?”

“you accuse someone one time.” Chloe complained.”

“You got my dad fired. And Akumatized.” Sabrina mentioned.

“I apologized! And I got my dad too as well.”

Adrien leaned over to Nino. “Do I wanna know what happened?”

“Technically Chloe pinned it on Marinette because she singled her out,” Nino started.

“She insulted my dad’s food!”

“But Chloe lost a bracelet and Agent Roger wouldn’t arrest Marinette without evidence so the Mayor fired him. He got akumatized, it was a whole thing.”

“Never a dull moment in the Miracuclass.”

Adrien ignored most of what Mml. Bustier was saying. Parent Day was hit or miss with his parents, usually miss. Dinner was usually replaced with it and any private performances of whatever Adrien had on display. While his mom had promised to try harder to be more involved, the recent string of meetings couldn’t be missed. She’d promised she’d try her hardest to get out of some of them, but his mom had been spearheading a lot of things so he wasn’t surprised when she told him that morning she couldn’t. he didn’t mind, it was just going to be parents explaining their jobs and then watching their kids show off their best school work. And besides, he wasn’t the only one who’s parent couldn’t come. Max’s mom had been called in since she was the only one who was trained to run the newest underwater train. Alix wasn’t sure if her brother or father would be the one coming, both having busy schedules. Rose said her mom had been given a massive order and was understaffed. Lila, well it would be headline if her father ever left the house.

His dad had called to tell him he’d be passing by Paris for a few meetings of his own before getting back to Italy, so he’d have a chance to see him, but for today, it was a miss day for his parents.

“Mr. Rossi, if you could please put your phone away.” Mml. Bustier asked as she opened the door and waved parents inside. “Welcome parents and guardians. Thank you all so much for taking time out to see what your children have been doing and allowing us time to hear about yourselves. We’ll start with the parents first. Would anyone like to go first?”

“Oh, excuse me!” Adrien’s head rose at a very familiar voice. He watched his mother squeeze her way to the front, her bun slouching and hair slipping out as she took deep breaths. “I hope I’m not late. I’m Viola Rossi, I’m-”

“Mama!” Adrien shot out of his seat and launched himself at his mother. He was glad she was in flats as opposed to her usual heels because he definitely would have knocked her down.

“Oh, easy! I’m Adrien’s mother.”

“I thought you were in meetings all day.”

“with the mayor mostly and he was coming here, so he rescheduled. I didn’t find out until I got to the embassy.”

“Adrien, perhaps your mother would like to go first?” Mml. Bustier asked.

Adrien didn’t answer, dragging his mother to where his teacher stood and then plastering himself onto her, not letting go. He didn’t care that he seemed to act like a child, as his mom had yet to stop holding on to him as well. He’d been fully ready to just see his mother tonight and he knew his mom could have put in more meetings with the cancelled ones. But no, she rushed over here so she could be with him. She’d been so busy and even with lunch dates, he missed her like crazy.

“Buongiorno everyone. Like I said before, my name is Viola Rossi. I’m Adrien’s mother and a diplomate for the country of Italy.”

“She’s working with other countries to give assistance for akuma attacks.” Adrien cut in.

“Thank you caro. Many countries were worried about what would happen if Hawkmoth attacked and came here to get more information as well as offer assistance. We’ve been talking with your mayor on a number of possible solutions from giving everyone more accurate information about the attacks, how to get your heroes to the scene faster as well as options if the magic they have fails in any way, such as what happens if the Reset can’t fix the damages.”

“she was hand picked for this assignment because of her natural way with people. She actually stopped two arguing politicians and stopped a hero in New York from attacking a civilian. The civilian totally deserved it though.”

“he just justice after, he got save by that hero so he had no choice but to be kind. And the politicians weren’t that big a deal.”

“Is moving to different countries really cool?” Mylene asked.

“experiencing things is but the jet lag I could do without. And the moving around for Adrien but I hear he’s been having a great time with you all.” His mother said, pushing his bangs from his face.

“He’s been the coolest. Especially in expressing his opinion.” Alix said, looking at Kim and trying to not laugh again.

His mother gave him a look and he flashed her an innocent one.

“Italian tempers must be real.”

“Let’s focus please.” Mml. Bustier said, “would you like to tell us what goes into being a diplomate?”

“there are the technical things of course, but it truly comes down to the heart of it. There are going to be times where people from your country are going to need help and need someone to listen. We’re there to try and offer that as best we can, even something as simple as getting them a passport to go home. It can be hard, not just from work at the embassy but in your personal life. I’ve learned that being open with your family about how they feel with long hours and moving could be a massive help to your life and even your mental health.”

There was a loud bang and Lila stood up, glaring down at the two of them.

“Don’t make me fucking laugh. The heart of it? You don’t have a fucking heart. All that matters to you is work, doesn’t matter what anyone goes through as a result.”

“the fuck is wrong with you!” Adrien ripped away from his mother, ignoring the warnings and calls from the adults. He wasn’t going to let Lila do this, ruin this. “I told you to keep my mother’s name out of your mouth before. don’t for a second think that just because your daddy is rich, that I won’t hit you if you keep insulting my family. I could fucking care less if your so sad that your father stays locked up in your house and that your life is so horrible. Maybe if you had an ounce of kindness in your body, I’d actually care. But you don’t. in fact, you don’t care about anyone but yourself. Just because your life is so fucking miserable that anyone’s happiness pisses you off doesn’t give you permission to make everyone else just as miserable as you. grow the fuck up! Maybe if you actually talked to your father instead of taking it out on everyone around you, you’d actually be pleasant to be around.”

“Adrien Agata Rossi, get down here right now!”

With one last glare to Lila, who still looked angry and a bit hurt, he went to his mother, who parted the rest of the parents like the red sea as she took him out of the classroom, scolding him, but he didn’t care. Where did Lila get off talking to his mom like that, to him like that? His mother wasn’t like all the other diplomate parents he met, always working, barely home. His mom tried, so hard when she got busy like that. The fact that she was here now was proof of that. His parents could have taken offence to him telling them they should divorce, but they took it stride. It did mean more work and missing his parents more but they tried so hard to be there. His lunches usually now consisted of him going to see his mom because she asked if he’d be ok spending his lunch with her. Their day dates were so looked forward to and he never felt unsure of the love she had for him.

“Adrien, are you listening? I can’t believe you did that. I’m very disappointed in you.”

“Did you hear what she said?” Adrien snapped back.

“Yes, I did. Trust me, I’ll be getting in contact with her father about her behaviour but still. You’ve dealt with spoilt girls before at your other schools, what did we learn was the best thing to do?”

He let out a huff and muttered, gaze on the ground, “ignore them.”

“Exactly. What they say about me is irrelevant. I don’t care what a child like her has to say about me. I’ll be concerned if her father is mistreating her but how she chooses to react isn’t something I care about. She’s an angry girl and they’re just words.”

“But you should have heard what she said before. it was my first day of class and she snapped and said you don’t love me. I’ve never done anything to her.” He finally looked up, taking in his mother, who’s frown dropped.

“Then it seems like she’s the one who has issues. I still want you to apologise to her, just for yelling at her in front of everyone.” She said, as Adrien opened his mouth to complain. “We’ll deal with her behaviour with the headmaster.”

The fight seemed to leave Adrien’s body. “Ok.”

Viola pressed a kiss to her son’s cheek. “but thank you for defending me caro.”

He put his arms around his mother again, squeezing tight. “Thank you for coming. I know you must have had other meeting you could have done.”

“I could of, but I wanted to actually be here for the first Parent’s Day in France. Though it was starting to sound like you could give my entire presentation for me.”

“I could try. Viola Rossi, divorced mother of 15-year-old son and the coolest diplomate in Italy. Don’t tell dad I said that.”

[goggles-mcgee]

Too Late: Alya & Nino (commission for miner249er)

Fourth chapter of @miner249er ‘s commission

Chapter Summary: The truth is harsh. Teens are harsher.

Previous Work

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Truth.

As an aspiring journalist it was something Alya strived for. It was the most important thing she could give the people who followed her so diligently. She thought she had been giving them that. She had been so good about giving them the truth, her truth, and Ladybug’s truth in the past, she foolheartedly believed she was continuing to do so despite taking shortcuts later on in the road. Why didn’t she fact check herself? Why did she throw that very thing in Marinette’s face? What kind of reporter was she? What kind of friend was she? The answers were all around her and yet she still wasn’t ready to face them head on. There was still that voice in her head that was telling her that this was all Lila Rossi’s fault. 

But is it? Alya thought as her and Nino ate together at her house, the TV on in the background. At first it had been on the news but Alya was done with the news for a long while, all it had been was coverage of The Protector and Nino had immediately taken the remote and changed it to cartoons. This was hitting him hard, harder than Alya had expected if she was being honest. When they found out Ladybug and Chat Noir had, in fact, not defeated The Protector and instead the akuma, that Marinette had gone missing, it hit the class hard. Hard because they learned the truth about Lila in that time and that had been rough to work through. Then they had to come to the realization that they believed Lila over Marinette, the sweet, kind, selfless girl that had all at one point been friends with. 

Then the lies got to them. It poisoned them. That’s what Alya had written on her blog anyways. They were victims of a silver-tongue and they had paid the price, one they had not been prepared to pay for. Their friend was missing, had been missing and they couldn’t do anything. Alya had been searching through as many local papers and news around the world for any clues if Marinette had possibly gone to those places. Everything was coming up empty. She had even made a separate website along with Max all about Marinette and what had happened, she left ways to reach her and her classmates in case anyone had any info. Nino said they should have added Tom and Sabine’s information as well but Alya was too scared to ask them if they would be okay with it, last time they had all been at the bakery the tension had been palpable. 

They weren’t banned like Nathaniel had worried they would be but every time they went in with their families, because that was the only time they went in there, it was always awkward. Tom and Sabine were much too nice to ban them even if they felt like they deserved it. How did everything go so wrong? Even school wasn’t as fun as it had been. Walking into their classroom was like taking a walk of shame, people from other classes, even teachers just stared at them. Some even glared. Then there were the whispers, Dieu the whispers, they followed them everywhere not just school, but they were the most prominent there. Her, Nino, and their classmates would find notes in their lockers, none were really threatening but they tore at her heart all the same. Things like, ‘You’re the reason she’s gone,’ or, ‘Are you guys proud of yourselves now?’ ‘Were the lies worth it?’ ‘You traded in a gem for fool’s gold.’ ‘What a reporter you turned out to be.’

All the notes hurt. That was the truth. That last one? She had found it in her locker this morning and it burned. Alya had been bullied before, she never liked to think about it, who would? But she was and she had to acknowledge it because she had told herself she would never allow herself to be bullied again, and most importantly, she would never turn into a bully. Wrong. She was wrong, and it wasn’t the first time she had been made aware of this since everything happened. Since everything changed. It was a blessing that Nino and her were still together, he never partook in the “tough love” the class had been giving Marinette before she...before she had been akumatized. Sure he didn’t stop them, and that was bad, but he didn’t go out of his way to not invite her to things until she stopped being “jealous” and started acting like the bigger person. Nino wasn’t the one who ignored her text messages, which now that Alya read them, were pretty telling that her friend had been hurting and she had only made that worse. 

“What are you thinking about babe?”

Alya looked up from her half eaten bowl of soup to see Nino gazing at her in concern. “Marinette.”

“Oh…” He breathed out as he put his spoon down and looked down at the table before placing one of his hands on hers and giving her a small smile. “Everything will be okay Alya. Someone will find her and then she’ll be back home.”

Empty words. Empty words fed to him too much from adults who didn’t have any updates on anything. “You don’t believe that. And even if she did...who's to say she would even want to talk to us!? What’s to say that anything would be better? We would still be seen as the bad guys! We will still all have to eat lunch at our houses or the park just to avoid the stares and the whispers and the tossed trash our way and the “accidentally” spilled drinks!”

Alya had never understood just how much their class had been living in its own little world. Not to say they were completely unattached to the rest of the school, Alix, Nathaniel, Rose, Chloe, and Sabrina were in the art club (the art teacher and the rest of the club had made a mural of Marinette without notifying them or asking for their help. Everyone is encouraged to leave notes about Marinette on the mural. The art room even has a chair decorated in honor of Marinette that no one else can use. That was announced very pointedly Alix later shared.), Rose was in the scrapbooking club (no one asked to use her materials anymore like they used to), and Max was in the gaming club which Marinette had helped him set up (people weren’t showing up lately.) They weren’t kicked out, but they were reminded of Marinette all the time,it was like everyone’s way of punishing them. It had never occurred to any of them how popular Marinette was.

So popular that the whole school seemed to hate them. Even Mlle Mendeleiev seemed to be harsher than normal and that was really saying something, it would seem like she had a soft spot for Marinette. In their class everyone avoided Marinette’s seats in class, Alya had to step up as class representative but the silver lining was that Nino had stepped up to be her deputy. Though another negative was the fact Nino had stopped making his music and taking DJ gigs. At first he hadn’t said anything to her or their friends, Alya found out because of Chris actually, but then her and Adrien confronted him and he broke down. He cried and he didn’t stop for a long time, but when he had calmed enough to talk he pulled out old pictures of him and Marinette, told them stories about how they had grown up together. It had made the pit in Alya’s stomach grow, she had just been thinking about her and how much she blamed herself and how much she missed her best friend, she hadn’t even thought how this was affecting Nino.

“I...I need to believe it Alya. I need to. Because if I don’t I will break apart. Mari...Marinette and I were best friends in l'école primaire. I never thought she would ever not be a part of my life. Then the whole Lila thing happened and I turned into a coward again, like I had with Chloe! No, worse than a coward! I don’t even know what I would call myself but I know I can’t call myself her friend.” His voice rose the more he spoke and near the end it cracked. 

“Nino…”

“No. I know that’s the truth! And I know, I know that things at school have been rough. Hell, they’ve been awful, everyone sees us as these villains in some trashy young teen novel when all we’ve done is make a mistake! Yes. It was a big mistake but it was a mistake nonetheless but we’re...we’re kids dammit. We’re just kids.” Alya felt tears race down her cheeks as she saw her boyfriend break yet again, his cheeks wet with his tears, his voice choked with his guilt. 

“I know. I just...I just want her back. I want everything back. I don’t know how many times we have to apologize to the school, but they’re not even the ones that need to hear the apologies! The one we need to have hear us isn’t here and…” Alya could feel herself breaking but she tried to hold on. Nino needed her to be strong. Her class needed her to be strong. Her family needed her to be strong.

“I can’t take the stares! Or, or hear Rose’s cries that she tries to hide from us. Mylene hasn’t been eating and I know she thinks we don’t notice and Adrien, god Adrien. I’m trying to hold it together because my bro is falling apart at the seams! First Marinette gets...gets fucking akumatized, then his dad and Nathalie get taken to the hospital from some supposedly random attack but it’s pretty obvious it was Mar-the akuma’s doing, his mom freaking pops out of nowhere but of course that can’t just be a good thing because everyone has to talk about how his dad and Nathalie were probably Hawkmoth and Mayura! And I’m over here trying not to think too much about all that because it makes actually too much sense, but then we find out that Marinette was most likely Ladybug! LADYBUG!” He lamented, not bothering to hide the fact he was crying, more like sobbing. It just made Alya cry more.

“I...I wanted the truth for so long, but not like this. Not like this. I...I know this makes me sound like the worst person on the planet but I kind of wish stupid Gabriel Agreste wasn’t Hawkmoth because then I could be akumatized and maybe I could be some kind of time-travelling akuma and we could go back and fix everything and school wouldn’t be hell and the twins wouldn’t act like they had to walk on eggshells around me all the time and my dad wouldn’t look like he’s always so disappointed in me and my mom wouldn’t look at my with only pity in her eyes and Nora would talk to me and Marinette would be back!” Alya sobbed out. At this point her and Nino had moved from their seats to the kitchen floor and were huddled together hugging each other for comfort. 

The two just sat there soaking up whatever comfort they could and dreaded the time that passed. For each minute that passed, was a minute that brought them closer to having to go back to school. Alya didn’t know if she had the strength to go back and deal with everything, she didn’t know if Nino could handle it either, but she knew her mother would be by any minute to give them a lift back to school. If there was a way she could just finish school online, Alya was willing to do it, but her father wouldn’t ever allow it. He had put his foot down, Otis Césaire was mad, then he was disappointed and he thought it only fair that Alya face her peers and continue on at Françoise Dupont. It didn’t feel fair, it didn’t feel fair at all, it felt like punishment. Hadn’t she been punished enough? Even in sleep she wasn’t safe, all she dreamed of was Lila and her making her act like a puppet. She would see puppet her do all these things to Marinette and she would wake up in sweat and tears.

“Okay I’m here, I hope you two are ready to head ba-” Alya looked up to see her mom standing there staring at her and Nino, her mouth agape. “Oh Alya...Nino...How about I call the school and tell them you’re not feeling good? And I’ll call your parents Nino.”

Alya was going to respond, she really was, but when she opened her mouth nothing came out but a choked off cry and nod. Nino nodded as well as he took in a shaky breath. “Th-Thanks, Mme C.”

“Nino, you know I told you to call me Marlena. Now you two go rest in Alya’s room while I make those calls. Then maybe I can get the rest of the day off and-” 

“No manman. Things...things are already bad enough, don’t make it worse by not going back to work. I don’t...I don’t want to be the reason why you get fired.” Alya mumbled as she and Nino got up off the floor.

“Oh...Oh my little one, that won’t happen. And if it did, not because of you. Never. Don’t you think that.” Alya’s mother breathed out as she pulled her daughter into a hug before taking her daughter’s face in her hands and doing her best to wipe her tears. 

“Papa and Nora would! Nora still won’t talk to me and Papa only looks at me like he’s disappointed he ever had me!” Alya cried out before she could stop the words from coming out. Her mind completely forgot that Nino was standing right beside her until she felt him hold her hand and give it a squeeze. 

“Your Papa is just being stubborn, but you listen to me, he could never ever be disappointed in having you. You are our daughter. You made a mistake yes, but I know you know you made a mistake and that you are sorry. Your Papa will realize that. He just needs time. And Nora...she just needs time too. I just think she doesn’t know how to handle everything and that she’s mad that she couldn’t protect you sweetie. She’s always been the protective older sister, and this was something she couldn’t protect you from herself. They’ll come around. I’m sure.” 

“If you’re sure manman…”

“I am. Now you kids go relax. I’m going to take the rest of the day off and go to the store for dinner ingredients, I’ll be back soon. I know things are hard my little Melusine but they won’t always be like this.” With a kiss to her forehead and a swift hug to Nino, Alya’s mom left the two teens in the family apartment.

At first they just stood there in silence and sniffles, but Nino made the move to put their plates in the sink and rinse them out while Alya gathered their schoolwork back into their bookbags. Then they  made their way to Alya’s room and kicked off their shoes before sitting on the bed. Nino nudged Alya who looked at him in confusion until she saw him give her a crooked smile and open his arms which she fell easily into. She took off her glasses and placed them on her bedside table while she felt more than saw Nino take off his cap. For a while they just sat there in the quiet of the moment and Alya was content to do just that, to just have a moment of peace, but she slowly pushed away and reached for her remote to turn on the TV and quickly pulled up Netflix. Her mom wanted them to relax so why not fry their brains with some television. 

“Anything in particular you want to watch?” She asked as she settled back against Nino.

“As long as it has nothing to do with school or superheroes...I’m good.” Nino responded with a hollow chuckle. 

“I’m glad we don’t have to go back too…” She murmured, “Should we...tell the others?”

“Probably. But if I’m being honest I don’t really feel like talking to them and them asking how we are and if we’re okay when they know we’re not. I just. I don’t think I could handle that. Not today.” 

“I get it. Sometimes I feel like everyone else even blames me for what happened. Like... Like it was my responsibility to not fall for the lies and to warn them. Like my word would have made a difference! Mari...Marinette’s didn’t so why would mine?” Alya huffed as she scrolled through all the movie and show choices and tried her best not to cry again. 

“If they blame you then they need to blame me too and blame the people in the mirror. We all fell for the lies. Sure you’re the budding reporter, but the blame could just as easily be pushed onto Max who is so smart he created a living AI. But we have no one to be mad at but ourselves and we can only do that for so long.” Nino sighed as he held her closer and kissed her temple. Alya relished in the warmth of it all. 

“When did you get so wise?” Alya teased softly.

“When I decided to rewatch Star Wars. But no seriously. If anyone in class bothers you please tell me because we should be sticking together not at each other’s throats.” Nino stuck out one hand and Alya slid her hand into his.

“Cross my heart and hope to die. I will. And you’re right, we do need each other, especially now, especially at that school.”

“Especially at that school, yeah.” He laughed out. “We’re going to get through this. I don’t know how, but, we are and we’re going to do it together.”

Alya smiled wryly before she looked up at Nino and it slipped into a real small smile. “Together.” She agreed softly.

Last Chapter                             Next Chapter

l'école primaire - elementaryschool

manman - Haitian Creole for Mother

[unmaskedagain]

Marinette’s Special guest

           Marinette still smiled brilliantly. She hadn’t lost her excited energy since she walked into the class that morning and wouldn’t tell anyone what was going on. She just said it was a surprise. And all her friends in the class knew that there was nothing like a Marinette surprise. And Marinette was practically vibrating in her seat, so it had to be a good one, right?

           Alya spent most of the morning poking and prodding her bestie for the scoop. Kim promised Marinette unlimited piggyback rides if only told him. (Something to lord over Alix’s head.) Max offered to update her website design. Everyone offered different bribes to Marinette just so the Bluenette would let them in on the secret. But she wouldn’t budge, not even Adrien giving her his most charming smile and big puppy dog eyes affected her. Or Bustier trying to force the Bluenette to be a better role model by not keeping secrets. She had barely been able to maintain control of the class since the day began, and Marinette came, not that she had much success most other days.

           Lila raged inwardly at the attention the brat was getting. No matter what she did, loudly whimpering over the sprain in her wrist, or how many tales she told about the many celebrities she knew, it would garner the class’s attention for a few minutes before their focus would be back on Marinette. It wasn’t fair.

           The lunch came and went. The kids came back to class enthusiastically, thinking of what surprise Marinette could have for them. Then they noticed that their favorite Bluenette, their everyday Ladybug had yet to arrive. She wasn’t just a few minutes late after the bell. But nearly an hour. Alya pulled out her phone, pointedly ignoring Bustier, who meekly asked her to put it away, and called her best friend. “GIRL, where are you? What do you mean you got an excuse? Is this about the surprise? Seriously?” The class listened eagerly. “Wait! I’ll put you on speaker,” Alya said. “Okay, we’re all ears!”

           Marinette had finally cracked, mostly because she couldn’t hold it in anymore. This had been the best day ever, and she knew her friends would be thrilled too. “My cousins back in town. We went out for lunch. We’re at school now and headed to class now. They can’t wait to see you all again!  See you in five.” And with that, she happily hung up the phone. Unaware of the havoc she just unleashed.

           The class sat in silence. No one moving. No one was making a sound. Not even Lila was curious about why her morons were acting so strangely. Slowly horrified looks appeared on the students' faces.

“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” Kim screamed, picked up Max in his arms, and shot for the door. And just like that, everyone was running, pushing and shoving to making their escape. Some went for the door. Some went for the window. Crawling over each other in a heated battle to get out before…. They came.

           After Kim (and Max) escaped, Bustier blocked the rest from leaving. She attempted to calm her students, standing in front of the door, refusing to budge. “I know we’re all excited for our visitor, but there’s no need for such a ruckus. Everyone should return to their seats, and we’ll greet them in an orderly manner.”

           Everyone paused what they were doing and just looked at their teacher. It was the first time Bustier got a mass “Are you stupid” look. And then went back to what they were doing.

           The kinder kids in class, Nathaniel and Adrien, begged their teacher to move away from the door. They were running out of time. Alix cursed her out. Chloe threatened to have her fired.

“No,” Bustier crossed her arms for once refusing to give in to her students. “This is ridiculous. I am your teacher. I demand that you list-” She didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence because she hadn’t seen the punch coming.

           Sabrina, the small, glasses-wearing redhead, coldcocked the teacher, earning surprised looks from everyone in the class, apart from Chloe, who snorted at them, “What you thought I only kept her around because she did my homework?”

Sabrina stepped over her teacher’s fallen body, swung opened the door, “Come with me if you want to live,” Sabrina yelled and led the charge of fleeing students.

           Alya hadn’t hesitated to jump out of the window. She didn’t care if she got hurt or hit her head and ended up in a coma. It was better than the alternative as far as she was concerned. She loved Marinette with all her heart, but she couldn’t do it. Not again. Never again. When Alya landed outside, she booked it. However, she didn’t head home. (Marinette would look for her there). Instead, she fled with no direction mind. She never thought about the friends she left behind. (She could make new ones.). She only spared a thought for her boyfriend. Nino was strong. He’d make it, she thought. And if not…. Luka was cute. Nino would want her to move on.

Rose, with a strength no one realized she was capable up, stacked a few desks together, and climbed out of the vents. Then came back when she realized Juleka never followed but was on the floor balled up on the floor having a panic attack. She refused to leave her best friend behind and tried to get the Goth to snap out of it before it was too late. Eventually, after a well-earned slap from Rose, the two fled through the vents rather than risk running into Marinette in the hall.

Rose was a good friend. Unlike Nino, who blatantly pushed Adrien off his chair and onto the floor, jumped over his friend and fled out of the classroom, all while yelling, “Sorry, every man for themselves, bro.” Adrien had pouted but quickly followed his friend and the others out the door.

Mylene gave her boyfriend a solemn look. She had hurt her foot just last week and couldn’t walk with crutches. They both knew there was no way she could get out time, “Go,” She ordered Ivan. “Save yourself.”

“I won’t leave you behind,” Ivan shook his head, tears burning in his eyes. “Together or not at all.” He promised and used helped her up and allowed her to lean on them as they slowly made their escape.

           Eventually, only Lila and a knocked out Bustier remained in the classroom. Lila was stunned at what she had seen. She looked around the classroom before finally exclaiming, “What. The. Fuck.” However, Lila only allowed herself that moment of surprise before she chose to wisely vacate through the window. She didn’t know what was wrong, but she wasn’t stupid enough to stick around to try and find out. Lila would ask questions after she ran for her life.            Marinette arrived at the classroom seconds later with a bright smile on her face that quickly turned into a frown, “Why does this always happen?” Her cousin(s?) shrugged.

...

You guys can add on if you like and DECIDE your yourselves who’s Marinette cousin/cousins that are visiting. And why the reactions?

 @virgil-is-a-cutie

[ilovebeing-weird]

We work so well

Jason, her soulmate, he was cute. Totally different from her, but yet Marinette loved him. He moved to Paris to start anew. A bee. A FUCKING BEE. Weird, she knows. 

You like New York City in the daytime

I like New York City in the nighttime

You say you like sleeping with the air off

I don't, I need it on. 

He liked Paris in the morning, damn morning people, he liked when all the bakeries were open and he could just go and buy anything to eat. Marinette liked Paris at night, the lights illuminated the city. She liked the view of the Eiffel tower from her window. All covered in lights. That was the moment it actually looked like the city of lights. She loved taking strolls at night. 

Jason always clogged his nose if the air conditioner was on, but Marinette couldn't bear the heat. 

You like the light coming through the windows

I sleep late, so I just keep 'em all closed

You ignore the music on the radio

I don't, I sing along

Jason was an early riser, woke up with the first ray of sun. He liked soaking the sunlight. Marinette, she liked sleeping in. Don't wake her up till 1 in the evening. If you did, you'll get a few bruises for sure. Hey, she sleeps at 4 in the morning, don't blame her for wanting to sleep in. 

Jason never paid any attention to the songs playing in the background from the radio. He just ignored them and kept doing his work. Marinette wouldn't ever just let the songs play by and not sing with them. She would sometimes even drag Jason in her sing along party, he would just chuckle at her child like antics. But he loved it, Marinette knew that. 

I don't ask for you to change, baby, no, no, no

And you don't ask for me to change

Tell me how we're not alike

But we work so well and we don't even know why

Funny how the stars crossed right

You can call it fire and ice

'Cause we work so well and we don't even know why

But we work so well and we don't even know why

We don't even know why, no, no

We don't even know why, no, no, no

No, no, no, no

We like it in the daytime

We like it in the end of time

No, no, no, no

We like it in the daytime

We like it in the end of time

Even though they were complete opposites, they worked well together. Marinette was scared that it wouldn't work because of their differences, but it did. Looks like they were soulmates for a reason. They were opposite like fire and ice, but they completed each other. 

Cold outside and you're just in a T-shirt

I have cold blood even in a sweater

You start your night sippin' by the Kilo

Jason never felt that cold, effects of the Lazarus and all. Even if it was snowing, Jason would just stay in a t-shirt. Marinette felt cold really easily, even though she wore a lot of layers. Well, at least she got to snuggle with her personal heater. That man basically radiated heat. And he was way taller and bigger than her, so he just curled around her and warmed her up. 

I don't, I know you know

Jason did have some bad habits though, he liked to drink, saying that it helped to deal with his trauma, Marinette understood that. After everything he has been through. Jason told her all of that during their second meeting, the best part was that he was trying to get rid of that habit. Once in a while was okay, she liked to drink sometimes too. But too much can harm him; she didn't like the idea of him getting hurt. Physically or mentally. 

I don't ask for you to change, baby, no, no, no

And you don't ask for me to change

Tell me how we're not alike

But we work so well and we don't even know why

Funny how the stars crossed right

'Cause we work so well and we don't even know why

You can call it fire and ice

But we work so well and we don't even know why

We don't even know why, no, no (no, no, no)

We don't even know why, no, no, no

Somehow, we end up on the same side

And you wouldn't think that we'd be alright

Even our eyes are different colors, but we see fine

Somehow, we end up on the same side (up on the same side)

And you wouldn't think that we'd be alright

(Think that we'd be alright)

Even our eyes are different colors, but we see fine

Looking in his different but beautiful eyes, she knew that he was the man that she wanted to spend her whole life with. His eyes comforted her. His eyes were a weird color, a mixture of green and blue, but they looked beautiful on him, matching his weird but adorable white hair tuft.

(Oh) Tell me how we're not alike

But we work so well and we don't even know why

('Cause we work so well and we don't even know why, why)

Funny how the stars crossed right

'Cause we work so well and we don't even know why

(But we don't even know why)

You can call it fire and ice

But we work so well and we don't even know why

('Cause we work so well and we don't even know why, why)

We don't even know why, no, no

We don't even know why, no, no, no

No, no, no, no

We like it in the daytime (Oh)

We like it in the end of time (We don't even know why)

No, no, no, no

We like it in the daytime

We like it in the nighttime

It must be some magic that helped her to meet that angel of a person. Even though he pretended that he was really tough he was a big softie on the inside. He was handsome inside out. He was…..just everything Marinette wanted. A big literature nerd even though he would deny it to everyone till the day he died. It felt nice that he only showed this side of himself to her. Only she could his soft side, only she could cuddle him like that, only she could kiss him, she was the only one that he says "I love you" to. 

He was the only one she wanted to marry.

She'll do it, she'll do it. Yes, no more hiding it now. Marinette took out the ring she's been hiding for weeks now and went to Jason.

"Babe." Marinette poked Jason's side

"Hm, what happened Pix?" Jason looked down from where he was washing the dishes.

"Let's go for a walk." Jason chuckled at his girlfriend's impulsiveness. Oh, how much he loved her, she was just made for him. His soulmate, his girlfriend, and hopefully wife soon.

"Sure, let me just complete this first." 

"Okay! But do it soon." 

----------- 

Walking through Paris, Marinette and Jason reached the Eiffel Tower. 

"Jason, I love you." Jason snapped his attention at her. 

"I love you too bae." That's all Marinette needed to continue

"There's no one I would want to spend my life with. You're the best boyfriend in the world. You're just perfect. I love you so much, so…." She got down on one knee "Will you marry me?" 

Jason nodded his head 'yes' rapidly. "Yes! Yes! YES!" Jason picked her up and kissed her. "Damn, Pix, I don't know that I would have the courage to propose to you." 

"One more thing, put me down first though." Carefully Jason put her down

Marinette smirked mischievously, "Ya like Jazz?" 

Jason looked at her for a few moments and groaned, "why did you have to ruin the moment?" 

"Hey! I made the moment. And don't forget you said this to me on our first meeting." Marinette rolled her sleeves up to show her soulmark, 'Ya like Jazz?' inscripted in yellow on her forearm.

"How can I forget? You never let me. I know it was a mistake, but I panicked okay? You're way too beautiful." Any reply Marinette would have given got lost as Jason looked lovingly at her. Marinette just kissed him again. 

"Yeah, yeah, we get it you're in love, no need to show the whole Paris." Alix said coming towards them with Chloé.

The couple blushed deeply. 

"So, what's new?" Chloé asked 

"I proposed." Marinette mumbled

"You did what?" The other girls asked with shock

"I proposed to Jason." Marinette said a little louder this time.

"Without telling us?" 

"Sorry?"

"Listen, jazz guy. Hurt her and you're dead." Alix looked threatingly at him. 

"Okay. Well, there's another piece of news." Jason took a deep breath before dropping the bomb. "Bruce found me." 

[algernoninwonderland]

Hi! Thoughts on kwamibuster?

It's bad. It's really bad. Like, really really bad.

So, Kwami Buster. This one's very much not good.

I didn't like it then, I don't like it now.

The good

Plagg and Tikki bickering is sort of funny.

Kim. What a dumbass. He’s probably a flat-earther. I love how stupid he is.

Alix looks mortified by her brother. She’s perfect.

Monsieur Banane, Banananoir’s backstory starts here and it’s glorious. Banananoir parkour is kind of fun, I guess. Very late 2000s internet humour.

Multimouse is cute with the glasses.

Marinette’s strategy is clever, for this show. Sort of. If you don’t think about it for too long.

That’s it. That’s all I have to say about this episode that is nice.

The bad

The storyboarding is weak. The directing is weak. There are very few interesting shots. The action doesn't flow very well.

Kwami Buster isn't fun, her power isn't made to be all that interesting. She's just there.

If you like paying close attention to details, you’ll hate this one. Plagg eats the reblochon, right? No he doesn't. The cheese is a flat image, not a 3DCG model, therefore someone has to crop it via Photoshop to suggest that Plagg’s eating it. Doesn't work, it looks awful. Mme Bustier is holding a history book although this is meant to be a French literature class (you can see it clearly for five good seconds). And that's like the two first minutes of the episode. This show doesn’t seem to have enough props, and it’s surprising considering that each episode has a new lucky charm.

As always, poorly-written dialogue is poorly written. They sure use “scientist” a lot in this episode.

Chat Noir and Ladybug arguing is very abrupt. They meet up and they look ready to fight and all, and thirty seconds later, they start arguing.

Hideous rendering is hideous.

Poorly-timed animation is poorly timed.

Underwhelming design for Multimouse is underwhelming.

The kwamis are terrifying.

The ugly

The whole secret identity business is stupid and it’s wasting my time. It’s not exciting, it’s not fun, it’s just boring. Wasn’t it like season 1-2 stuff? The threat of Fu taking the Miraculouses away doesn’t scare anyone, and especially not the audience. They replaced that with Hawk Moth in season 4 and it works much better.

The possibility of the love square discovering each other’s identity doesn’t work as they hardly spend any time together in this episode. It’s a failure. There’s no suspense, there’s nothing.

The whole Multimouse conundrum and wearing multiple Miraculouses at once, using multiple powers at once while using your special ability should basically fry you alive, based on what the show has told us. But apparently Marinette has a high count of midichlorians or something, so she just… Does it? She winces once and then that’s it she can just do it. “She’s truly special” or so the show tells us. Wasn’t she meant to be a normal girl with a normal life or something along those lines?

I get that she’s supposed to be strong and an inspirational figure for young viewers, but introducing a difficulty and having your hero overcome it not twenty seconds after it’s been introduced with no explanation as to how it's done doesn’t show us that Marinette is strong, it shows that the writing is cheap.

Vore and shrinking in one episode? Really? Fuck off.

Remember when Illusion could only create a convincing image of one specific thing? The writers don't. Marinette must be hella good at working with Trixx, because hot damn is this a complex one, way beyond any other illusion we’ve seen so far.

Remember when using one Miraculous' special ability meant you'd de-transform soon after? The writers don't. Marinette does whatever she wants because she's a special special girl who already has everything figured out. How? She's a special special girl. Why? The writers couldn't be bothered to find anything better.

Adrichat isn’t clever for mixing collège and maternelle, the writers just think you’re stupid enough to think this is a good solution to the episode’s conflict. It isn’t. They just dumbed everyone down.

It’s a bad, charmless, unfunny episode. It’s a slog outside of Kim, Alix and Banananoir, and I felt like I was wasting my time watching it. There's nothing of value there. This episode could have easily not happened and it wouldn't have made a single difference.

[mushroommushy]

Siblings part 2

———————————————————————

When Luka walked past his sisters room, he heard her humming a light song, writing down something on a sheet of paper. “Writing a love song for your sweet Princess, hm?” He chuckled, watching her. Juleka huffed in annoyance, throwing a pillow at his face. “You gonna romance Bunnix and dip her anytime soon?” She retorted. Luka sneezed lightly, pulling the pillow down from his face. “Hey! She might not be ready yet!” Juleka snorted, “Sureee. And you’re not ready to preform tonight either I suppose?” She added on, watching as Luka crossed his arms. “Of course I am! You’re the one making new songs up!” Juleka smirked, “You think I didn’t see the Ladyblog post about you serenading her? It was rather cute.”

Luka fumbled, struggling to find the words that could be used to hide his crush on his partner from his sister. “She’s just a friend?” He knew that it most certainly was not true. Bunnix was possibly the furthest thing he had from a friend. Unfortunately, Juleka wasn’t buying it either. “Luka, that has to be the biggest lie you’ve ever told me, and you barely lie.” Luka huffed, turning away to try and walk out with his ears red. “Oh no you don’t you bastard! You don’t get to walk in and make fun of me for my crush and then leave when I make fun of you for yours! Get your ass back here!”

Luka yelped as he was tackled, “You’re so heavy what the hell!” Juleka grinned, “Surprise, muscle weight bastard! You don’t go into the fights as much and I gain the muscle you don’t have!” Luka huffed, “My power isn’t offensive!” He argued. “Exactly! Which is why you still look like a twink!” Her brother immediately gaped like a fish, offended. “Excuse me, I am not a twink! Alix’s brother is the only twink we really know!” Juleka burst out into hysterical laughter. “How would you know?! She’s only mentioned he was!” Luka huffed, “I’ve met him! I’ve been visiting her lately.” Juleka paused momentarily. “Wait, really? I thought you liked Bunnix? Do you like Alix too?” Luka ducked his head, silent until the pieces clicked in her head. “OH.”

“Huh..that actually makes sense. Alix makes a really good super hero. But I am surprised that she acts so different. But she’s you’re type, huh?” Luka sighed quietly, leaning against the wall. “Yeah. Even better, she’s not pining after someone else the whole time.” His sister frowned slightly. “Don’t get me wrong I’m still friends with Mari but..that was not fair to you. You were putting effort into the relationship and she wasn’t, constantly running off and dreaming about Adrien. Even when you were right there!” Luka sighed. “Yeah, it hurt a lot actually. But I try my best not to be bitter about it.” Juleka pat him on the shoulder. “See, that’s what a like about you. But on a lighter note, have you had any moments with Bunnix?”

Luka chuckled. “That concert when she was doing my paint?? I’ve never wanted to kiss someone that badly in my entire life. Thank god I hadn’t had any of that wine or I actually might of.” Juleka snickered. “You looked like you were screaming internally. I’m pretty sure she would’ve kissed back if you did.” Luka sighed, “I wouldn’t have wanted her to be uncomfortable. That was too early in our friendship for me to be that forward.” Juleka stared at him, her face flat. “Once again, whatever the fuck your relationship with her is, it is most certainly not friendship. Friends with benefits is the closest way I can put that.” Luka stuttered nervously, “Juleka!” His sister smirked, “What, have you thought about her like that?” The guitarist shook his head. “Absolutely not! I’ve just been thinking about holding her hand!” Juleka saw an opportunity and took it. “I bet you also think about calling her by her real name, you slut.”

To be fair she was asking for that slap.

[astranne]

Life is a bitch, but Marinette is the bigger one

This Oneshot is inspired by @leolupus who requested this idea to @virgil-is-a-cutie. I wrote this on the phone and didn’t really correct it (heh, shame on me). I know it’s short, but maybe I’m writing a second part. Or if someone want’s to take a swing, feel free! But tag me, I love such ideasss

I’m also tagging the fews who commented about the idea.

@unmaskedagain @sabrina414 @kris-pines04 @valeks-princess @resting-confused-bitchface @iamablinkmarvelarmy

The second part would be probably about Lila and some Alya salt? Idk... I have many other works. They first need to be finished

...

Marinette wanted to throw herself of the Eifel Tower. It wasn’t because she was bored, heck no! She did much better stuff, when she‘s bored. But after this shitty day, she just wanted to sleep. Forever.

Let‘s start in the morning. A new school year, a new start. She put her hair in boxer braids, just because it looked amazing with her new leather jacket and the sunglasses her Nona gifted her a few weeks ago. She wore red and black today, combined her sporty but rocky outfit with a golden necklace.

It was a good morning, she sleept more than three hours, but still finished another project of hers. She wasn’t late, well, she was, but not that late. But it wasn’t entirely her fault. And old man was almost runned over by a car. She helped him, not because she cared, she didn’t want to come in a mess. Her teacher, Mme. Bustier just sighed, when Marinette walked in the middle of the lesson in the room. Normally she would protest and punish her student, but Marinette was on the top of class and doesn’t listen to authorities. At all.

Marinette nodded at Chloé, fist bumped Alix and Kim, who grinned at her. She sat besides her best friend, Alix and ignored Bustier‘s request to sit next to the new girl.

“Well, that‘s just rude.“ Chloé scoffed at the redhead love child of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.

“That‘s Dupain-Cheng for you. Don‘t piss her off, you‘ll reget it.“

“Geez, I feel the love there, Barbie girl.“ The blonde rolled her eyes, but tried to hide her smirk. She would never admit it, but the two were friends. Somehow.

“Marinette, we talked about this-“ The said girl just snorted and waved her off.

“Yeah, yeah. I need to be more respectful bla bla bla, I need to be in time, some more bla bla. I still don‘t care. Just 'cause we talked about some shit, doesn’t mean I’ll do it.“ Marinette smirked at her teacher, who just sighed and continued with her lesson.

—-

“Yo, Mariposa. What‘s up with Barbie?“ Marinette leaned against a wall, her wall, her place. Everybody in the school knew, that this was her spot. From there she could see nearly everything. Like Chloé‘s pissed and somehow sad face. Rose stopped walking, Juleka besides her and went to Marinette.

“Hey Marinette! I think Chloé waited for a friend, but he didn‘t come. It‘s so sad!“ Rose got tears in her eyes, while Juleka mumbled something.

“Ah, yeah. Totally forgot 'bout this. Thanks, Mariposa. Rock zombie, take care of the Rose fairy.“ Marinette didn‘t wait for an answer and stalked towards Chloé. While she never met this Adrien Agreste, she knew enough. His father was an asshole, a big one and Chloé hated him wholeheartedly. Even her mother, the big bad bat of the fashion world seemed to reget to make him famous. One day, she will punch Gabriel Agreste in his face. Just because. And his desings weren’t even that good.

“Barbie, we need to talk. Now.“ Marinette took of her sunglasses and stared at her friend.

“Yes. Sabrina, wait here!“ The two girls walked back to where Marinette came from, to the wall. And as everybody knew, that this was her spot, they also knew, that this was now a private conversation. If you tried to listen, you’ll die.

“Spill the tea, sissy.“ Chloé sighed and crossed her arms, while Marinette began to munch some blueberries.

“Adrikins should‘ve come to school, but he just wrote me. He will spend another year in homeschooling! Do you belive that? Maybe I can convice Daddy to do something....“

“Big Agreste is such a bitch. You want me to slap him?“ The blonde snorted, she knew Marinethe would do that.

“While I would absolutely enjoy this, Dupain-Cheng, just like many others, it doesn’t solve the problem.“ Marinette hummed in agreement. Gabriel Agreste was powerful, but she also had connections. Big problem, she was still a 'kid', Big Agreste would totally blame this on her.

“I could talk with B, ya know. Timboy would love to blackmail someone. Maybe Lucifer could take out his katana, if you want.“

“I still have no idea, how you became friends with the fucking Wayne‘s, Dupain-Cheng.“

“Well, Barbie, this goin‘ to be my secret. Forever“, grinned Marinette.

...

“You want me o to a magical girl transformation and fight against big rocky rebel Thor?” The fairy, Tikki, nodded

Marinette snorted. “Yeah, not happening.“

“What? But-“

“We’re not having this discussion right now, lil’ bug. But I promise you, I’m no hero material.”

“But your friend is in danger, whole Paris is in danger-”

„Listen here, little fairy. I‘m doing this only one time and then you take me to this Guardian dude. I definitely need to talk with him about his choices.“ Tikki nodded and becan to explain everything.

...

Marinette, in her Ladybug suit, wanted to kill this Hawkmoth dude. Seriously, Hawkmoth? Couldn‘t he pick a better name like her? She named herself Lady Red, because fucking shit no- what was this costume? And the choice of the weapon? She really needed to talk with this Guardian. And then Chat Noir. Oh boy- who gave him the power of destruction? When he started to flirt with her, she almost snapped. Well, she did, but it didn’t help.

When she finally defeated Stoneheart, she will totally make a new nickname for rebel Thor now, she walked to a reporter and his camera man.

„Listen, you creepy Hawkmoth dude. I have no idea, why you doing this shit, but I know some heroes and I‘m definitely calling Red Hood to beat some sense in you. And B-man, ya know, the scary big bat of Gotham. He will totally find out who you are and send you to Arkham... because what the fuck? You use a kid for your plans? Are you dumb?“

...

When she finally talked with the Guardian, who was the old man in the morning, she really wanted to kill herself now. She talked with Damian, who panicked (he tries to denying it), just like all her other friends, who didn‘t life in Paris. Alix was sitting in her room, when she came back and told her, she choose a badass name.

“How did you know?” Alix snorted and looked amused. 

“I know how you talk, Mari. I’m pretty sure, Chloé knows too. So, no surprise there.”

She really wanted to sleep now.

...

It took Marinette a week to defeat Hawkmoth, who was revealed as Gabriel Agreste. She had some help, but the Big dumb Agreste didn’t even really try to hide his villian persona. Really, butterflies in the logo? Buying all the butterflies farms in Paris? And all the shit for his almost dead wife. It turned out, the peacock miraculous just needed to be fixed, which was easy for the Guardian, who she named old turtle. 

It also turned out, that Adrien Agreste was chosen as the wielder of the Cat Miraculous, but wasn’t a true holder, not like her. Old turtle took the ring back, but let her keep Tikki and the earrings. She started to patrol in Paris, trained with the Batfam and went on some missions with the Young Justice or the Titans. 

Her life became more chaotic, but did she care? Nah, not really.

[ronoken]

Fic Snippit

So, I read tow lovely comments this week and saw someone was kind enough to give me a shout out on Tumblr. So... A quick epilouge piece?

A quick epilouge piece! Comment on this, dammit.

*** 

In the really, really far future... 

Caline M. Bourgeois, age 13, stood in the wings of the Francois Dupont auditorium and wrung her hands as the act in front of her finished up. Olive was twirling the crap out of that baton and the blacklight admittedly looked awesome, but she was winding down and that meant Caline was next.

‘Fuck,’ she thought to herself.

She was in a white dress with some (but not too much) frill, accented with two bows holding her sandy blonde hair back in a ponytail. One bow was red, the other yellow. She didn’t want two bows, but her mother insisted this was the best way to keep the peace.

Caline glanced into the audience from where she was hiding, and sure enough, the whole Goddamn family was there. Grandpa, all three Grammas, dad with his phone ready to go, Aunt Emilie, Aunt Camille…

And an empty seat.

Caline frowned and felt her stomach start to knot up. Olive was bowing as the audience politely clapped. Behind her, two stagehands were wheeling out the beat-up school piano for Caline’s performance.

“She didn’t come,” Caline said.

She felt something rustle in the frills on her shoulder.

“Aw shucks, girly,” a voice with a thick, southern drawl said. “Y’all just need ta have some faith. Yer mama may be a bit flighty, but that dere woman ain’t one ta miss her own kin’s recital. No ma’am. She’ll be here. Y’all see.”

Caline smiled and patted the tiny lump hiding in her frills. “Thanks, Ziggy. But,” She looked again at the empty chair. “She’s not here.”

Ziggy popped his head out and patted Caline on the shoulder. “She will be. Jus’ give her time.”

“But I’m going on now!” Caline said, slightly panicked. Out on stage, Ms. Beauréal was going on ad nauseam about how hard the students had worked for the talent show this year, and how excited she was to introduce the next performer. “Ziggy, what do I do?”

“Ya get out there and ya play fer everyone, of course. Yall gonna let yer dad and yer grammas and grampa down?”

Caline bit her lip. Of course the whole family was there. Of course dad was recording. Of course this had to happen today.

“She knew this was important to me, Ziggs. She knew.” Caline muttered as she walked on stage. From the audience, she heard two voices cheering for her.

“Go Caline!” The first one cheered.

“You’re gonna do great! Gramma loves you!” The second one chimed in.

“I love you more!” The first voice said.

“I love you most!” The second one screamed.

There were sounds of a scuffle. Caline ignored them and turned to face the audience. Her eyes drifted to the empty chair…

And sitting there was a woman with short, light brown hair and glasses. She had her phone out to film, and she was waving.

Caline’s eyes went wide. “Mom?” She asked under her breath.

Beside her mom, Caline’s father looked practically spooked. At least one of her Grandmas was frowning and had her arms crossed while her Grandpa was busy laughing into his shoulder. He was doing his best to cover it with a cough.

Caline smiled.

“Toldja,” her shoulder whispered.

***

Out in the audience, Caline’s mom grinned as she watched her daughter being playing Nocturne No. 2 by Chopin. Caline had worked for two months with her Grandpa on the piece, and the dedication had paid off.

It didn’t hurt that Adrien was a good teacher.

“Where were you?” Marinette quietly hissed beside her daughter.

“Work,” Gina whispered back. Her eyes never left Caline as she played.

“You were almost late,” Marinette growled. “How can you of all people be late?”

“But I wasn’t,” Gina rebuffed. “And she saw me. You think I’d miss today?”

Gina didn’t have to turn her head to see the glare her mother was shooting her. She could feel it.

Gina felt a hand squeeze her shoulder. She glanced back to see Aunt Chloé smiling at her. “Ignore your mother. She’s just mad because she lost a bet.”

At that, Gina did look to her mother. “You bet I wouldn’t be here?”

Marinette blushed and crossed her arms. She turned her attention to her granddaughter on stage. “When they closed the doors, I might have been overly upset.”

Gina nudged her. “Hey, it’s me.”

“I know,” Marinette sighed.

“Shh!” Sabrina shushed them both from behind. “I’m trying to enjoy my granddaughter’s performance!”

They shut up.

Caline had barely finished up when Marinette and Chloé both rocketed to their feet, cheering and applauding wildly. Caline visibly recoiled on stage from the outpouring she was receiving from her grandmothers, but she was still smiling. Mainly because beside Gramma Marinette, her mother was also standing and applauding louder than everyone else put together. She was cheering and whistling and making a scene, and Caline was 100% loving it.

Afterwards, once the other nineteen acts were done (Aurore refused to cut any students that wanted to be on stage. Something about it not being right to deny a student their moment in the spotlight), The family group headed out for a walk by the Seine to grab some dinner and gush about the performance. All three grandmothers had argued over where to eat, but André settled things quickly by loudly asking Caline what she wanted.

So, chilidogs it was.

“Hey,” Gina said as she took a large bite. “You did great up there, sweetie. I am so, so proud of you, you don’t even know.”

Caline blushed and grinned. “Thanks. Um, hey. So, like, where were you? I didn’t think you were coming.” Her eyes drifted to Gina’s green blouse. “Um, there’s some blood on your collar.”

Gina’s smile fell a bit. “Work was a bit much tonight. Sorry about that, but I was doing my best to make sure of things. I, um, I panicked and got the time slightly wrong. Otherwise I would have been in my seat sooner. Sorry.”

Marinette’s eyebrow went up at that. “What things, exactly? Is everything okay?”

Gina nodded. “Everything is fine. Nothing interrupted the recital, and nothing is going to interrupt our dinner. We all get a nice, normal, uneventful evening to ourselves.”

Marinette was the first to catch on. “How many times did you have to go back?” She asked.

“Seven,” Gina fired right back. “It took me over four hours to figure everything out. There were gonna be two akumas tonight, and don’t get me started on the werewolf.”

“Werewolf?” Caline asked.

“There wolf,” Gina quickly replied. “Seriously, how does Aunt Alix do this?”

The group went quiet.

Gina quickly read the room. “Sorry. I know that’s a sore… Look, I know it’s weird, but I’ve honestly seen more of her since she died than I ever did before. It’s nuts in the Burrow. She was super active with monitoring time. In fact, I’m pretty sure she lived in there. Like, right before I got to the school, I ran into her.”

Adrien bit his hip. “Is she okay? Was she okay? Geez, I don’t know what the best wording is for this.”

“She was good. She was in her PJ’s and brushing her teeth. I think she’d been sleeping in a side portal again. Oh,” Gina turned to Marinette. “She also told me to tell you not to worry about your appointment next week and that it’s just a clump of fat cells. You’re okay.”

Chloé laughed a little while Marinette blushed and smirked. “That sounds like her,” the bluenette said. “But did you have to say that in front of everyone?”

Gina shrugged. “You wanna drag me for my punctuality in front of my daughter again?”

Marinette glanced at her daughter. “Touché.”

“I’m just glad you came,” Caline said. “It meant so much.”

Gina smiled and kissed her daughter on the head. “I know, sweetie.” She glanced to her husband and smiled. “I wouldn’t miss tonight for the world.”

***

Later that night, after Caline had been put to bed, Gina snuck out to the patio for a moment and slipped into a waiting portal.

“Sup, kiddo.” Alix called out from the center of the Burrow. She was transformed and kicked back in a recliner. Even though her hair had long since gone from pink to red to silver, she looked as feisty as ever. She was slurping down a smoothie and swiping through floating ovals, each showing a different moment in time. “You make it on time?”

“Would you please explain to me how the wall clock in the center of time itself is six minutes slow?” Gina huffed. She gestured to a clock floating in the void. “Seriously! I was almost late!”

“But you weren’t,” Alix pointed out. “Look, changing it means going all the way over there and taking it down and fiddling with it, and that’s just a lot of work. I’ve just gotten used to the difference, you know? And if I did it now, then that would completely mess me up going forward. I mean, I’d look at it and be off by six minutes. Screw that.” She slurped her drink.

Gina shook her head and sighed. “You were more tolerable before you died.”

“Which time?” Alix asked with a grin. “Thank you again, by the way. You’re really not supposed to redo things that often, but I do prefer being alive to dead, so no complaints.”

Gina smirked as she stood beside her favorite aunt and watched the portals with her.

“Thanks for your help tonight,” Alix said casually.

“It’s my job,” Gina replied. “You know I won’t say no.”

Alix glanced to her. “You ever get upset that I, um, that you got drafted into all this?”

Gina didn’t answer for a moment. She crossed her arms and settled in place as she thought.

“I used to think being Ladybug was the hardest of our jobs,” Gina said. She glanced to Alix. “I was so wrong.”

“Well, regardless? I’m proud of you, Gina. I always have been.” She considered Gina for a moment. “Hey, I’ve got tonight, okay? Go spend some time with your family.”

“Oh, did you see the recital?” Gina asked.

Alix smiled and swiped the portal in front of her. An image of Caline appeared as she sat at the piano. “You think I’d miss it?”

Gina smiled at her aunt and patted her on the shoulder. “Try not to stay up too late, okay?” She leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Love you, Aunt Alix. Please get some rest. Please?”

“Psssh,” Alix said as she waved her off. “Get out of here. I’ll give you a holler if anything pops up. Promise.”

Gina smiled and turned to leave. Someday, she’d have to tell this version of Alix that her version, the one that had… That wasn’t here anymore, preferred electric blue slushies, not cherry. Still, it was sweet of her to keep popping in and pretending.

Gina wasn’t sure what timeline this Alix was even from, but it didn’t matter. They were all her Aunt, after all.

Gina stopped at the entrance to her portal and glanced back to the woman who was casually kicked back in the recliner, a familiar ghost that if Gina squinted, was enough to help her to forget for a while.

“Good night, Bunnyx,” Gina called out.

“G’night, Time Bandit,” Alix called back. She toasted her with the half-finished slushie.

Smiling, Gina slipped through the portal, and back to home.

[tired-college-student-writing]

Tim’s Secret Weapon Pt. 5

I’ve been slightly obsessed with @ozmav​ ‘s Damian Wayne/Marinette Dupain-Cheng pairing as of late, and just saw a post that has inspired me more than anything else has in months, so I felt the need to write it

Summary- Tim has always seen the numbers floating above people’s heads, been able to perceive their threat levels with a single glance. After being a hero for so long he thought he was desensitized to seeing high numbers above people’s heads until Damian brings a new friend home. Part 1 Part 4 Part 5 (HERE) Part 6 _______________________________________________________________________ Dick got a look on his face. 

A pinched sort of look that made it look like he was thinking something over intently.

It was a look that filled all of the Bats and anyone that knew him from his Robin days with a sense of dread.

“Dick…” Jason drew out slightly, “What are you thinking?” 

“I’m going to do a thing,” He replied almost offhandedly, “Since she hasn’t seen us yet.” 

“Don’t-” Damian didn’t even finish since Dick had already disappeared, causing Tim to bury his head in his hands. 

“God that’s annoying,” The other three found themselves groaning in unison, their own inside joke even as found his path almost instantly.

The eldest son snuck through the crowd of teens unnoticed, surprisingly. Most would think that one would notice the thirty-year-old right outside the secondary school, but he easily weaved through the crowds and worked his way behind the baker’s daughter. 

Marinette was too involved in his conversation with the blond to notice Dick grinning mischievously at her from behind the half wall she was leaning against. 

In a swift move, the acrobat grabbed her and lifted her onto his left shoulder in one fell swoop, earning a high pitched squeal from the girl as he spun in a circle perched on the half wall and drawing almost all of the attention of the whole courtyard.

“Hello, Mari!” He greeted casually as if her hands weren’t twisted into his hair in her shock. 

She blinked down at him, taking a few seconds to register what was happening before her face morphed into fond irritation, “Seriously, Richard?” 

The blond, Neon Green 15, she had been talking to was staring in between them as if he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be concerned or bemused. 

“Ummmm… What’s going on?” the buff boy, White 12, from nearby asked, hand raised slightly. 

Marinette glanced around and groaned as she realized that her entire class was staring at her up on top of Dick’s shoulders. 

“Everyone, this is Dick” Marinette introduced, “He’s a family friend of sorts. Dick these are my classmates.” 

“Nice to meet you,” Dick greeted waving a hand happily with Marinette still balance on one shoulder. 

“Should have known Mari was skanky enough to get with a guy twice our age.”  The Batfam stiffened and turned to look at the origin of the voice. It was the girl Tim pointed out earlier as being dangerous, Copper 9, a wide smirk on her face as her posse snickered. None of them had to turn to feel the bloodlust boiling off of Damian, not that they would deny the red tinge to their vision. Marinette had wilted in a millisecond. 

“Told you that was a bad idea, Grayson,” Damian snapped as the other three walked over much calmer than they were feeling. 

Marinette lit back up at their appearance and started poking Dick’s cheek.

“Put me down. Put me down. Put me down. Put me down. Put me down.” 

“Okay, Okay!” He laughed as he lifted her off his shoulder and passed him easily to Jason. 

Jason grinned, holding her on his hip, “Hey Marigold,” 

“Jay!” She giggled giving him a hug, “Not the brother I wanted, and don’t hand me to Tim cause he looks like he hasn’t slept this week and I don’t want to be dropped.” 

Jason clutched his chest, “That’s so mean, sunshine! Though you’re right about Tim.”    

“Rude,” Tim grumbled, but couldn’t stop the grin that came to his face, “but hug the devil spawn before he tries to rip our arms off.” 

Damian glared at him, but as soon as  Marinette wrapped her arms around his neck he softened, placing a kiss on her hair, “Missed you, Habibiti,” 

“Missed you too, Dames,” She giggled, excitement bubbling, "What are you guys even doing here? I know you don't like to travel too much." 

Jason cut in, "Bruce was inspecting the Paris branch, so we just decided to tag along." 

"Oh, Bruce is here too? I'll have to make some of those strawberry cream macaroons he likes."  

“Brothers? Wow, that’s a new low,” 

“Who the fuck are you?” Jason finally snapped, glancing over at Copper 9. 

“Who are you?” one of the other girls standing with her, an obnoxious orange 5 twisting over her, asked, phone pointed at them,  “Cause showing up to a high school isn’t exactly a good look for post-college graduates, mister.” 

“Well going from oldest to youngest, He’s Dick, as Mari already said, I’m Jason, that’s Tim, and the twerp that’s snuggling up to Marigold is Damian, her boyfriend.”  

“We’re brothers,” Dick added, as the group around the two girls looked stunned while many of the others perked up. 

“This the guy you’ve been telling us about huh?” The tiny pink-haired girl, Icy Blue 13, comments, giving Damian a considering look. 

Buff White 12,  next to her smirked at them, “You do go for the lookers, huh, Nette?” 

A red-haired boy, a lavender 4, laughed softly, “I thought he’d be taller,”

“Since when do you have a boyfriend?!” Orange 5 yelped, causing Mari to roll her eyes as she finally pulled away from the youngest Wayne. 

“I’ve been telling you, Alya,” Marinette snapped making the boys blink. There was actual venom in her voice, ice pointily aimed at the other teen. Marinette never had real heat in her words, not even with the Rogues, “I started dating him a year ago, but you didn’t believe me.” 

“Two soon,” Damian piped in, looking smug at the flabbergasted group. 

“But you’re into Adrian!” 

The blond boy, Adrian, Neon Green 15, frowned, “She and I are just friends. She’s been trying to get me with my crush for the last six months? Why on earth would you think she had a crush on me?” 

Marinette shrugged, “I mean I did, but I got over it around your fourteenth birthday.” 

“Wait,” the boy got a look of realization on his face, “Is that why you always stuttered around me?!” 

“Oh my god!” Icy Blue 13 cried, “You can’t tell me you’re seriously that dense!” 

“Homeschooled Alix!” He snapped back, “I was homeschooled by a recluse!” 

“But if she’s not in love with Adrian,” The pixie cut blonde, Buttercup Yellow 3, questioned trembling slightly, “ Why has she been so mean to Lila?” 

“Perhaps,” the nerdy boy, Nerdy White 12, pushing up his glasses, “Marinette’s feeling towards Lila has something to do with the fact that Lila’s claim of having a disease that causes her to do or say things she does not mean to can only be labeled as Compulsive Lying and yet half of the class believes every story that she tells and gets upset at anyone that dares to question her.” 

“Shut it, Max,” Alya growled, “This has nothing to-” 

“Utterly ridiculous,” The blonde girl, Canary Yellow 14 over her head, cut in without looking up from her phone, “You can’t seriously tell me this has nothing to do with Dupain-Cheng questioning Rossi’s idiotic stories.”

“No one cares about your opinion, Chloe,” Lila purred with an ugly scowl, “Or is it Chealse? I can’t keep up since your mother never seems to get it right.” 

“Yeah, no,” Chloe continued, “That insult is like a year and a half too late, and I don’t have to do anything but ask questions.” 

“What are you playing at, Bourgeois?” 

Chloe looked up from her phone, eyes going to the group surrounding Lila, “At lunch, Lila was talking about her new boyfriend, right? Who feels like reminding everyone of who that was?” 

The ginger girl, Tan 4, piped up, “She’s been dating Damian Wayne for the last month! They met at a conference for her nonprofit in Achu.”  

Tim couldn’t stop the snort that escaped from him as Damian’s face twisted into disgust. Marinette’s hand covered her mouth to cover her smile but Dick and Jason didn’t even try to stop their laughter from shaking their frames. 

“Of all the fucking people!” Jason wheezed, “You pick him!” 

“Hey! Don’t laugh it’s romantic!” Canary Yellow 3 cried, tears pricking her eyes. 

“Isn’t it Rose?” Lila cooed, eyes narrowed at the laughing group, “Dami-bear is such a sweet man.” 

Chloe hummed, eyes sparkling, “I bet he is, but I have another question.” 

“What?” 

Instead of answering Alya’s question, she turned to the group that was laughing even harder, Dick and Jason were only standing from clutching to each other as they repeated, ‘Dami-bear’ over and over again. 

“Do you boys happen to still have your passports on you?” 

Tim held up a single finger as he tried desperately to regain his breath. 

“What are you playing at, Chloe?” Alya snapped after a tense moment. 

“Her point,” Damian growled, and suddenly Tim had a giggling Marinette leaning against his shoulder as the younger man stalked over “Is that I’ve never been to Achu.” 

He thrust his passport into her camera lens. 

Damian Wayne standing out from the page in stark clarity. 

"Oh that note," Tim piped in, smirking slightly as he watched her nine wavier in place as if ready to flick down. Oh, how her tower of lies was crumbling, "using the Wayne to further yourself or claiming that one of us is cheating on anyone can be considered Defamation so I would suggest that you retract any statements you've made before we're forced to talk to our lawyers." 

They didn't stick around to see the effect the pronouncement beyond the sickly color Lila turned as her whole posse turned to stare at her in disbelief. Alya looked panicked as the boys grabbed Marinette, who was practically vibrating with nervous energy and herded her towards their car. 

Alfred raised an eyebrow, "Did you enjoy yourselves, sirs?"  

"You know it!" Dick laughed, as they snapped their seatbelts. 

"I hope they didn't cause too much trouble, Miss. Marinette." 

"Hello Alfred," She greeted lightly even as her shoulders pulled up next to her ear, "It's nice to see you, and don't worry, they fixed a problem for me."

Tim wanted to ask, and he could see his brothers did as well, but Marinette shook her head. 

"Can we go to where you're staying? I think my classmates are going to break out of their stupor soon and I don't want to face them yet." 

Alfred's eyes were hard in the rearview mirror, but his voice was as level as ever, "Of course, Miss Marinette. Master Bruce actually would like to meet you at the hotel we're staying at." 

"Let's not keep him waiting then,”

______________________________________________________________________ 

Telling Marinette they knew she was Ladybug could have gone in a lot of different ways, they were aware of this, and had planned for a multitude of them to try and ensure an easier time of getting the girl used to the fact that they knew and were in fact Superheros too. 

What they weren’t expecting was for Marinette to pale the second Damian spoke the words, “We know you’re Ladybug,” and flip the platter of sweets into his face, effectively cutting him off before sprinting to the window screaming, “Spots on!” 

They were not expecting a bright pink light to overtake her, nearly blinding them. 

Tim was not counting on the fact that he could see her number through the blinding light as it faded to pure white as the numbers climbed higher and higher, vanishing once they reached 99, the light fading in the next millisecond to reveal Ladybug in all her glory. 

They were not expecting her to open the 80th-floor window of their hotel suite and throw herself out of it, yo-yo catching the next building and flinging her away faster than humanly possible. 

“Well,” Jason drawled, eyeing the carnage, “That went well.”

_______________________________________________________________________

Taglist: @vixen-uchiha @iggy-of-fans @mewwitch @roseinbloom02 @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @mochinek0 @royalchaoticfangirl @09shell-sea09 @mystery-5-5 @derpingrainbow @aloha-posts-stuff @hauntedfreakdeputyhero @maribat-archive @blue-peach14 @kae690 @zazzlejazzle @vincentvangoose @be-happy-every-day-please @xxmadamjinxx @celestiacq @peculiarlylostdreamer @dani-ari @melicmusicmagic @themcclan @nyctamaximoff @nataladriana9 @drama-queen-supreme @miraculousbelladonna @urbanpineapplefarmer @graduatedmelon @lexysama @hecate-hallow @ki117h3dr4g0n @vinerlover @interobanginyourmom @bluefiredemon @imanerddealwith @tinybrie @clumsy-owl-4178 @shizukiryuu @whogavemeaninternet @schrodingers25 @lunar-wolf-warrior @urbanpineapplefarmer @xxmadamjinxx @crazylittlemunchkin @littleredrobinhoodlum​ @rougemme​ @dur55​ @phantommeow12 @kand-roo​ @silvergold-swirl​ @officiallyathiana​ @completelypeccable​ @redhoodsdoll​ @nataladriana9​ @mariae2900​ @northernbluetongue​ 

[currentfandomkick]

Why Marinette Hates Tim

Marinette blames Tim next summer for all that happened. Why? He cursed her with a vague theory. And Max and her Both know give her a clue and she has to follow it to solve the puzzle—a fatal flaw for her, Puzzler, Hero Stalker (Tim), Riddler and her father, Professor Strange (even if he is using an alias and supposedly dead as far as legal documents go).

Hero Staker Tim swore he’d become Robin if the current one left. It was a joke between them, she thought. Then he vanished the next summer, the first one where there wasnt any Robin mentioned anywhere. It was eery.

Then, then Timothy Drake, heir to some company-who looks a lot like her Hero Stalker—is a Wayne. And there’s a new Robin. This... deeply bothers Marinette. Why? New Robin seeks her out and talks a lot like Hero Stalker. And has a too similar movement pattern and tells.

And wasnt Hero Stalker Tim from a rich but high on neglient at best family? Didnt that happen to Timothy Drake before ending up as a Wayne?

Her that puzzle peice was central to figuring this out and goddamnit. Frost, who hates gossip, told her to just look up the rich families with kids Hero Stalker’s age and see who looked like him and to leave from to his lab and antidotes already.

Frost accidently gave her the vital method to see if Hero Stalker was that dumb to be become Robin after Robin the Second (Jason) was brutally murdered. The answer was yes.

And now Marinette had a crisis. She knew Batman’s identity was Bruce Wayne. How? Tim calls Bruce his dad. New Robin slipped and called him dad. And Tim is New Robin since Tim is Hero Stalker and no one else came close to looking like Hero Stalker from the data pool which involved more hacking than she ever thought she would do.

Marinette, a child, figured out who Batman was by age 9 becuase his new Robin/former Stalker was too obviously himself. She is embarrassed on his behalf, and honestly debates asking Riddler to separate him and Bats in a non-lethal puzzle trap just to lecture him. Becuase what the fuck Hero Stalker! If she can figure it out, then everyone else can too! Probably(?) likely. Either way its bad!

She doesnt though... Riddler puts together she’s concerned for the new Robin, traps Bats in a different puzzle maze from Robin, who is stuck with a grounded Marinette. Why was she grounded, easy. She got caught returning stolen jewlry on camera. It was punishment for failing basic stealth—always take out any witness.

And instead of pointing out she knows who Bats is, she tells him to work on a different persona since ‘i made you weeks ago. Its pretending to be someone you’re not completely is all. I have to do that around Maman and Papa all the time, and whenever i go out with anyone really. Up your secret identity game already!’

Riddler is busy with Bats and didnt do cameras. Why? “Im not redesiging a perfectly good grounding maze every time. They take time and i dint always have it. Its time economics Batman. I dont know what our lovely Princess said or did to your Robin. He’s fine though, see? No major injuries.”

Tim relized Marinette knew Hero Stalker was batman’s new Robin. This meant one thing—he could still help her and the RKC now! Why? He knew even if they made him out, they want to help people and never be like their parents, duh. And if they added to his budding information network with incredibly accurate information so long as he didnt rat them out to Batman, its fine.

Afterall, Pixie Pop wants to help poeple and is working the rouges into vigilantes to help more than hurt, and is doing a great job of it for the most part. So if Pixie Pop is Princess who’s the maybe kryptonian and her powers align with that theory, so what? Superman has an heir already and a bio!son too, apparently. Lois didnt tell him since they werent together then and yeah. So really, Superman didnt need another kid, and Pixie Pop didnt want another dad—“i have Papa and Father and now four of my friends’ dads in Paris called dibs on partial custody. I have more dads than i need for a quartet. That is far too many dads and i refuse to get another one!”

Then Marinette is talking to Alix and finds out about an old director at the Lourve her dad knew, Diana Prince. Marinette was working on a Wonder Woman inspired outfit, and knew her history of Wonder Woman thank you. Its just...

Wonder Woman appeared just after Miss Prince Left. And from the videos Alix sent of her new hero, she was terrifyingly similar to Wonder Woman. Not only did they look alike and have the same hair style preference, it was the same face if she did facial recognition with Markov, her robot son with Max. Then there was gait, generao stances and how she interacted with men and women so differently as both people and damnit. Same person.

She curses Hero Staker Tim for this. She now has to hide two hero identities. Why her?

The third was debatably Ivy and Harley’s fault, but defiantely still Tim’s. Why? He was the one that got her hooked on Barry Allen’s cases, and pointing out that he didnt see meta as bad or evil but as people who can be good or be civilians peacefully. That, she needed that with how much vitrol she had to swallow about her powers indirectly from everywhere but her school and some parts of Gotham.

In her defense, she is a nerd here. A nerd. So realizing the The Flash is also the forensics guy from Central City that she kinda follows on all her social medias, watches the cases of unfold, and knows has a reputation for being late a lot like her but is still well liked. So she may fangirl about his cases with Hero Stalker erm. Tim now, still.

And if one day she managed to pout at her father enough to get him to agree to let her go with Harley and Ivy to Central City for a few days to see the meta museum they just opened up (technically the Flash Museum, but Marinette didn’t care. It was focused on metas not being horrible and that meant a lot to her scared, meta closeted butt).

And then her favorite forensic investigator, The Barry Allen, shows up? Best day ever. He’s nice! And concerned about how much of his cases she knows. Its not her fault this time though! Hero Stalker—Tim—sent her a case of his that went cold and she liked his science and yeah. New hero added to her listpersonal heroes list.

Harley isn’t even mad, just amused as Marinette fangirls over someone that isnt her and Barry has no clue how to respond as a tiny child know him as Barry Allen and thinks he’s awesome? Why?? He is happy but so confused and Iris is dying until Marinette cites cases that she shouldnt know about and tiny child why, how, when and where did you get that information!

The only answer is a friend likes cold cases and has no qualms hacking to find interesting ones, if he’s stumped then Marinette (Jill Smith mr. allen sir!) gets to try. And she is good at it since she can ask an officer in France (officer Raincomprix) about logistical things, common error margins and then puzzle it all out herself from there.

Somewhere she mentions absently that her mom doesnt like her science-y side since her dad was a bad person and liked science but she still likes learning and helping, even if the family buisness is food and service and they want her to either take over or become a designer. She’s thinking maybe for people woth disabilites so she can do more mental work and toy with hiw things bend and move and such.

Iris and Barry are ConcernedTM and debating how to get custody, or get her away from her mom or both. Probably both—no science allowed for a clear science obssessed kid is a red flag for bith of them that somethinf is very wrong. Harley and Ivy wave it off as “trust us, her mom aint budging.”

then the Flash is needed because of some gorilla—Marinette was more focused on an outfit on display and muttering over aerodynamics and friction. Barry is Concerned (smart kid, likes helping, potentially a league ally?) before he bolts, determined to get more on her when he returns and possibly see if he can get cps involved.

Marinette only notices that her hero moving so fast and oh god she did it again damnit! That was superspeed. And only one speedster had similiar measurements, the Flash.

She cant even tell Hero Stalker now because he’s Robin and the Justice League would Flip if they knew she knew 3 of their hero’s identities. She just hit her head and said “i did it again!” Harley pats her head while Marinette burrows into her because why is she a danger to the Justice League and secret identities! She doesnt want to be or to know damnit!

Tim sneezes in the distance and wonders who’s talking about him behind his back this time. He messages batgirl about this bad feeling he has and she laughs it off as the boy developing Batman’s paranoia.

Her Fourth solve was Green Arrow. It was an accident! She swears. She just saw oliver queen with a bow and arrow in a video shooting. and noticed he had a very distinct and familiar style to someone but not who. Then compared it to various archers as her brain was nagging. Then saw a green arrow video and cursed herself again then Tim five more times.

She sent a message to Rose asking why she’s a danger to all secret identities. Rose tells her it is her curse for being too damn smart and not leaving things alone.

Marinette tries reallly hard not to figure out the next one. But really, it should have been an earlier solve and she’s mad at herself for missing it for so long, even if it was more aviodance than denial.

Admittedly this one should have been an earlier solve, but she was very little when she found out about the surgery and everything and it was uncomfortable damnit! So she did what any reasonable child would. Ignore it. Then she went over the file to see if maybe she could possibly target parts of the kyptonian DNA in her to weaken it. And saw who the intended donor was, Clark Kent, a reporter that has impossible luck with big hero scoops, is never injured or rescued, and never been sick. He also looks like... one quick photoshop of his glasses onto superman with a clothing change and she sees her usual disguise technique on goddamn superman. She is overwhelmed with this as ‘oh god superman will kidnap me if he finds out!’ And hides from him whenever he’s in the region—be it France or Gotham.

Her friends think its hilarious, Marinette feels sick from it. She doesnt like this and is genuinely scared for her life and family’s safety now. And we all know how nervous marinettes are.

If at one point batman tried to talk to her on patrol and somewhat suceeded. As in, she spoke beofre bolting.

“I didnt figure out who boyscout and amazon and boltbrain and arrowhead are! Or you and the batfam! Bye!!!!” Yes, clearly Marinette can lie very well.

Batman sees through it and feels sick. He forces a league meeting asap and fills them in.

“this kid put five of our identities together and cant even lie. We need to recruit them.”

“Batman, is this that kid KF mentioned to me?”

Batman nodded. Flash sighed. “Okay. We are on a manhunt for a kid kyptonian that is terrified of all of us, very smart, and may have an active gotham villain as a parent. And somehow knows me and—wait. bats, do you have any pics of your rogues in civilian clothing? I need to test a theory...”

A few minutes later and “oh my god that little kid i met as a civilian figured me out!”

A few days later Flash finds her by acccident as a civilian kid in broad daylight on her own in Central. He doesnt show he knows she knows, And finds out she’s waiting for her babysitter to finish a class.

Flash just asks about a case he put together as Barry Allen that she might know about and...

“Uh, mr. Flash? Why are you asking me? The lead florensics was Barry Allen.”

He tries insulting Barry Allen—he’s late and sloppy and—

only for Marinette to defend him to the death. “He’s late because he stays up late working on other cases. Appearances and organizational skills arent what matters with his expertise mr. flash! He even foghts for metas to have their circumstances and powers impact on them considered dueing sentencing!”

Flash is very touched and shocked. only then he manages to get out of her that where she lives (france) being meta is a life sentence to “a living zombie And jail-time for being born a lot, even if it is t in normal prisons. And you know what? Mr. Allen stated so many times that you need to contextualize powers and abilities and intent in his testimonies for meta cases. Back home youre put in prison for defending yourself...” she tugs at her sleeve here.

“Maman screamed at me when she found out a few kids were getting stalked and i helped out and someone got it on tape. Not becuase my powers showed or anything—father made a treatment so they dont, well, they stay off when i use them and follow all the behavior and environmental rules so they cant put me in one of the centers. But she, she’s stills cared someone will try to check me for abilities back in France, and that she’ll lose me. She doesnt always realize i have them until things like that happen...”

Flash is desperately trying not to adopt her. Wally would love a little sister, and Superman has enoguh kids, Bats does too. he is oreventing arrow form having another one as she’s powered and that isnt a good when working with Green Arrow unless the meta is his girlfriend. And the girl loves science—come on!

batman, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman and Superman heard the Feance bit over comms and suddenly it hit them that the kid could be in danger for existing and that an entire country villified being meta to an extreme. That the girl is in hiding and probably using an alias constantly. Batman mentally adopted her ages ago and is now in Worried Dad mode like Flash and apparently Superman was falling into it too. Wonder Woman is in righteous rage mode and ready to fight france herself if she has to—no imprisoning metas for being metas!

Flash decided to be direct since he knew she trusted him as Mr. Allen and knows he’s Flash.“So, am i allowed to know which powers you have?”

Marinette shook her head, visbily distressed and floating skightly. “If, if they ever find out i cant. I cant risk Maman and Papa and Father. I dont know everything but Father only started being a good person after the, the incident where he had to go into witness protection. Maman is dead as far as a lot of people are concerned, or she never existed. Papa doesnt know about any of it. I cant. I cant risk what they worked for by being outted.”

Flash is very concerned. “Thats a lot of pressure to put in yourself, especially at your age.”

marinette didnt make eye contact then. “I have to. If i dont people can connect dots and dashes and blips. Father says its easy for him too and that possibilities are just what we’re both hardwired for but. But i shouldn’t catch as many as i do—my teachers keep saying i need to dial it back and stop catching on so fast and blurting it all out but, i just...” marientte is visibly drowning under the pressure to act not-meta and keep her family safe.

“Sounds like youre a real smart kid.”

“Smart kids dont get caught.” She meant herself with her jewlry returns, Flash thought she meant the JL, and tried to redirect the conversation.

If the JL was out then...

“If you cant tell me, can you at least tell me you have someone to talk to about these things?”

“Auntie Quinn and Rose. Rose doesnt like you guys though.”

Flash laughed a little at that. “Alright, fair enough. Who made her mad? Was it arrow?”

“Batman.” Marinette frowning as she said the enxt bit. “Something about her being given to someone that should never be allowed bear children? She rants a lot so i cant always keep up.”

Batman internally bangs his head against a table. Outwardly, he says “Ivy’s daughter, rose. That girl, she’s the Princess.”

The assemebled winced. They all pushed for Rose to be sent toback to her mother, Ivy, since they didnt trust her with any available mentor and Ivy was usually a low ranking Gotham eco-terrorist pacified by wayne gardens and green initiatives. Apprently Rose has a lot of sway over the Princess too.

Marinette changes the conversation while. Waiting for her babysitter, Ghoul, to leave class. She needs a distraction from her situation that the Flash was willing to give her.

“Can i look at the case again? Something doesnt add up... there! See? Its close to the Speedsters that leave marks at those angles but only if they really mess with the speed force and the spacetime continuum! But theres no evidence of that, its a lightning meta, Possibly using it to teleport since no one came in or out on camera. Its a slight angle and all but...”

Flash decides Marinette will join the Justice League one day or so help him! He also decides to target france’s anti-meta policies and possibly kidnap Marinette.

The League isnt letting him. But he has a fan of Barry Allen who is handling Gotham’s criminals and beign given slack by them... albeit also raised by in-part. But the girl has a strong moral compass that is a lot like most of League’s so.

He’s fighting Bats for custody on principle. His fangirl, he has dibs!

Dont know why it ended up with Flash becoming a ‘Marinette is my daughter now’ person but why not? Wally would like her as a sister, probably.

Marinette blames all of this and the future consequences on Tim. She hates her vanishing freind for this.

[weebiewrites]

Are You Sure We’re Talking About The Same Person? Chap. 5

AO3

Previous  —  Next

The stares directed at Marinette when she walked into the classroom were so intense that they threatened to turn the hot latte in her hand ice cold. Marinette had never seen the class so quiet, even when she walked in 20-something minutes late. Marinette was perfectly on time today, miraculously. She had, once again, slept through her alarm -- and even through her mother’s warnings. However, as if the universe had perfectly aligned in favor of non-tardiness, she somehow made it across every crosswalk just before the lights turned red.

Maybe the stares were because everyone was shocked to see her there early?

Not knowing what else to do, Marinette bared her teeth in an awkward smile and waved at the room.

Most of her classmates looked away just as awkwardly. Chloe didn't. Her stare turned from one of shock to disgust, which was a much more familiar reaction for her.

After realizing she had been standing in the doorway for an uncomfortable amount of time, Marinette figured she should make her way to her seat. Unfortunately, she subsequently realized that doing so meant she would have to walk by Adrien. Adrien, who loved her and didn't know it. Adrien, who had no idea that she had kissed him the night before.

Marinette froze, her face flushing. Tikki, as if she had anticipated this, immediately nudged her from inside her purse. Right. They had talked about this. Multiple times over. She had prepared for this. She had no reason to be nervous. Nothing she did as Marinette would change his feelings for her, so she had every reason to be confident in herself. She had promised herself and Tikki that she would act like a totally normal person around Adrien, starting today.

So, Marinette steeled herself, walked- no, strut her way over to Adrien's desk, and smiled at him.

"Good morning, Adrien!" She said, looking straight into his eyes, which looked a bit bewildered. No stutter. She heard a few gasps from various parts of the room. Probably from her friends who were proud of her for finally talking to him without tripping all over herself. "How are you today?"

Silence.

Adrien stared at her, and, despite how tempted she was to look away, she maintained eye contact. Normal people could keep eye contact, even with their crush.

"I-" Adrien started. He glanced around for a moment, before abruptly slamming his head on the desk and keeping it there.

"Oh…" Marinette started. That was a little bit weird, but she couldn't say that she had never felt the same way early in the morning. She let out a small giggle. "Well, I hope you feel better." She said, still smiling at him, though she knew he couldn't see it. Feeling quite proud of herself, she strode up to her desk and plopped herself down on her chair.

"Holy shit," Alix muttered quietly from behind her.

A strange tension hung in the room for a few moments, only partially dissipating when Ms. Bustier cleared her throat and began class. Marinette couldn’t help but to feel a little embarrassed that a 2 second conversation would cause her classmates to be so bewildered, though, she supposed she couldn’t blame them. Just yesterday, she couldn’t even say "hi" to Adrien without stuttering up a storm. Figuring Alya would be immensely proud of her, Marinette turned to face her, a smug grin on her face. She was met with pure bafflement.

“What the hell was that ?” Alya whispered between gritted teeth.

“I know, that was pretty great, right?” Marinette beamed.

“Wh-” Alya started. She was clearly at a loss for words. Marinette felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment wash over her. The two of them had worked for months to get her to this point. Of course, Alya didn’t know that it took Adrien confessing his love to her to get her there...

“Girl, we need to talk.” Alya hissed, leaning in closer. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you wha-”

Marinette was interrupted by Adrien abruptly jumping out of his seat, hand raised.

“Ms. Bustier!” He said urgently. “I need to go to the bathroom.” Ms. Bustier didn’t even have a chance to answer before Adrien turned around, marched to the side of Marinette’s desk, and grabbed her by the arm.

“I need to take Marinette with me so that I...” He started, looking around nervously. “Don’t… get lost...”  With that, Adrien pulled Marinette out of her seat and started dragging her towards the classroom door.

“Wait-!” Marinette shouted, more in surprise than in protest.

“I think the fuck not!” Alya yelled, standing up and slamming her hands on the desk. Marinette instinctively cringed, and Adrien stopped in tracks, looking back at Alya with wide and terrified eyes. From her tone and language, Alya was suddenly in full-fledged “Protect Marinette” mode.

“Actually, Ms. Bustier,” Alya stalked towards the two with scary speed. She yanked Marinette’s other arm, pulling her away from Adrien, who stood frozen like a deer in headlights. She glared at him with an animal-like furiosity, and he flinched away. “Me and Marinette aren’t feeling too well, we’re gonna go to the nurse.” She said as she towed Marinette into the hallway.

“Alya! What’re you- Ow! You’re hurting my arm! Slow down!” Marinette’s protests fell onto deaf ears as Alya led her further into the hallway, nearly pulling her arm out of socket in the process. When they were nearly halfway to the commons, Marinette finally planted her feet and pulled away. “What’s going on?” She spat, louder than she intended to.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out!” Alya spat back. “What did he do to you? I swear I’ll kill him, just tell me what he did!” Marinette blinked.

“Huh? Who?”

“Adrien!” Alya said, gesturing back towards their classroom. “Clearly, he screwed up enough to make you of all people get over him and rub it in his face in front of the whole class! Somehow, something happened between you two since yesterday and I need to know what!” Marinette paled.

“N- Nothing happened! I swear!” She said, rather unconvincingly. She felt her cheeks betraying her. Alya stared at her flatly as she wildly tried to defend herself. “I had a totally normal night! After we got off facetime I finished my homework and I went straight to bed and this morning I-” Marinette paused for a moment. “Wait.” She said, suddenly processing Alya’s full sentence. “I’m not over Adrien. Who told you that?”

“You did, when you waltzed into the classroom this morning and had a normal conversation with him!” Alya pointed an accusatory finger in her face. Marinette reached up and slowly moved Alya’s finger down to meet her gaze.

“I don’t get it. Didn’t you want me to be able to have a normal conversation with him? Isn’t that a good thing?” Alya pursed her lips. With a wrinkled face, she studied Marinette, looking her up and down. Marinette shrinked under the scrutiny. She felt as if she had done something wrong, but she had no idea what it was.

“Oh my God.” Alya suddenly said, her face softening. “You didn’t actually say no, did you?”

“What?”

“Obviously something happened yesterday.” Marinette opened her mouth to protest, but Alya put a finger to her lips. “Don’t deny it, you’re a bad liar, and I can read you like a book.” Marinette stiffened. Technically, something did happen between Marinette and Adrien -- something amazing -- but no one else would know that, not even Adrien himself. It would jeopardize her identity if anyone found out.

“But,” Alya continued. “Clearly, one of- or actually, probably both of you guys, being the adorably oblivious idiots you are, misunderstood each other. So…” Alya grabbed Marinette by the shoulders, and turned her around, back towards their class. “We just gotta get this sorted out!” Alya pushed her forwards, leading her down the hallway. Marinette dug her heels in to stop her.

“Wait, Alya,” She said, turning back to face her. “I’m honestly really confused. What are you even talking about?”

“See, this is what I’m saying! You’re both clueless!” Alya shook her head and chuckled. “Honestly, who knows what really happened at this point, but Adrien said he asked you out and you said no.”

Wait, what?

Marinette nearly stumbled and fell over, despite the fact that she wasn’t even walking.

“I should have known something was up, because there’s no way you would ever reject Adrien.” Alya continued, unaware of Marinette’s sudden dilemma.

“He said… he asked me out?” Marinette was whispering, for some reason.

“Yeah, and-”

“Marinette ?”

“That’s, what I just said…”

It was true. Adrien did ask out Marinette, but not as Marinette. He had asked out Ladybug. He didn't know that Marinette was Ladybug. Why would he tell everyone he had asked out Marinette? He wouldn’t lie about something like that. It was impossible. It didn’t make sense. Unless…

Did Adrien know that Marinette was Ladybug? The thought was both terrifying and exhilarating, and it was the only explanation Marinette could come up with. If he knew, that meant he knew he was confessing to Marinette, and not just Ladybug! Which also meant that Adrien was asking Marinette out as Marinette. She had (kind of) turned him down as Ladybug for his safety, but as Marinette, she had no reason to! And yet, he must have believed she was turning him down as both Ladybug and Marinette! Yes, everything made sense to her. She just had to-

“Anyways, we have to go fix this, cause everyone is kind of up in arms about it.”

Marinette was suddenly snapped out of her muses.

“Everyone?” She hissed. Alya chuckled nervously.

“I may have accidentally overheard Adrien and Nino talking about it and gotten a little too loud in my disbelief…”

Marinette felt her eye twitching. That would explain the strange stares she had received when she walked in that morning, and the disproportionate bewilderment when she struck up a conversation with him. Everyone thought that Adrien had asked Marinette out, and that she had said no. Which, she had just learned, was kind of true. But still.

“But it’s okay! This is all one big miscommunication! We’ll clear it up no problem.” Alya gave Marinette a pat on the back, urging her forward. Of course. A miscommunication. Not nearly as bad as a misunderstanding. Those were much harder to deal with. But Marinette could handle a miscommunication.

Marinette was practically prancing as they made their way back towards the classroom. Of course, she would have to handle this subtly, so as not to reveal to much to her classmates, particularly to Alya, who was sharp as a pin. But, all she had to do was assure Adrien that she hadn't rejected him to appease everyone. He would probably be confused, but she could explain the details to him later.

Just as they were approaching the classroom door, some sort of explosion sounded from inside. Marinette instinctively grabbed Alya, pulling her away. Pink smoke billowed out from under the door, just moments before it burst open.

Adrien sprinted out of the room, dragging Nino behind him.

“It’s an Akuma! Run!”

[unmaskedagain]

Marinette Vs Santa: The Rematch

Seven people requested a continuation of the Part 1 and I just gave in. I hope you like. I’m not big on writing sequels. So please let me know if its good.

When the news broke that billionaire Bruce Wayne’s daughter Marinette was dating the Roy, the son of billionaire Oliver Queen, it was like the world paused.

It was bigger than Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Bigger than the royal wedding; both of them.

Bigger than the twilight love affair.

The Angel Marinette, the newfound princess of Gotham, dating the wayward Bad boy Roy, the prince of Star City.

Roy was handsome, really smart, funny, had a kickass attitude, played guitar and soccer, and loved animals; at least that’s what Jason told her Because Marinette had never met the guy.

People were betting on when they’d get married, have kids, what they’d name them…

And Marinette doesn’t even know the guy. I never had a single conversation with him.

Now Jason wanted her to… What?

“Come on!” Jason begged. “Just let him take you to the ball.”

           Marinette sat at her desk, with arms cross, glaring furiously at her brother, as she contemplated murder. “No.”

           Jason tossed his hands up in the air, “He’s really great. You’d like him.”

“I don’t care if reveals he’s actually Tom Holland ala Hannah Montana style,” Marinette growled. “No.”

“He’s in a bind,” Jason pleaded with his sister, giving her the biggest puppy dog eyes, he could muster. “His dad’s been giving him a lot of grief lately about him going to college and taking over the company one day and the bad press he’s been getting. Once Roy said he was taking Wayne’s princess to the ball, it stopped.”

“Why did he even say it?” Marinette yelled.

“He’s a moron!” Jason yelled back. “But he’s my best friend. He’s rich. He’s handsome. He comes from a great family. He’s strong. Gotta nice bad boy thing going on. A motorcycle. Sorta mysterious. How could you not want to date him?”

Marinette chuckled, “Maybe because I’m starting to think you might be.” She eyed him. “If this you two using me as a beard or whatever, cool. But Bruce Wayne and Oliver queen both been seen with Male lovers, I don’t think they’d mind…”

Jason glared at her, “I’m not dating Roy. Redheaded dudes are a little creepy.”

“Are they now?” Yeah, Marinette thought, really selling.

           Jason pinched his nose, “Didn’t you ever wanna be Cinderella? Go to the ball with the Prince? Roy is that prince. The only one above him would be an actual prince. I thought all little girls did? Can you do it, please? For me?”

           That’s when Marinette remembered the first time she saw Disney’s Cinderella. She had been six. It was Christmas. She had fallen instantly in love with the movie, the dress, the songs, the prince so much so that she talked about being Cinderella to her parents. Her dad just laughed and told her to write Santa. Ask him to make you Cinderella.

           And so six-year-old Marinette did.

           And now nearly ten years later, staring at her brother, she now knew… Santa had a hit list. It was the only explanation. Santa was gunning for her. Seeing what it took to break her. Finally, get her on the naughty list. Be careful what you wish for after all.

“I want to meet him,” Marinette said slowly with a defeated sigh.

“Yes!” Jason cheered. “I know the Cinderella thing would work.”

           Marinette glared, “You know I know at actual prince right? Prince Ali.”

“No! Wait! We can talk about this!”

“Kidding.”

“Thank god,” Jason sighed in relief. “Oh, you can’t tell Bruce its fake.”

           Marinette closed her, counted to ten, and stopped herself from screaming the only thing on her mind: FUCK SANTA.

           The Tsurugi house had been tense since Kagami returned from school. Her grandparents had expressed their approval of her befriend Wayne’s youngest daughter. Kagami’s mother had been pleased that they would be receiving an invitation to the Wayne New Year’s ball.

           They had been waiting all day for the invite to come. Both mother and daughter anxiously doing all they could to avoid waiting by the door.

           When the doorbell rang, Kagami had to force herself not to run for it.

Discipline, she thought, control.

           Her mother’s assistant announced, “Miss Wayne is here, Lady Kagami.”

           Yes, she was. Marinette Dupain-Cheng-Wayne curtsied gracefully, “Mrs. Tsurugi. Kagami. I hope you are well this evening.”

           Light, polite, took place after that. Her mother almost smiled in approval at Marinette.

           When Marinette finally handed the invitation over, “I do hope you can attend,” She said. “I apologize for the short notice.”

           Mrs. Tsurugi bowed. “It would be an honor to attend.”

“We look forward to it,” Kagami added.

“I… admit I have always wanted to go the Wayne’s Ball,” The older woman admitted the barest hint of a smile on her face. “One thing off my Christmas list, I suppose.”

           At this, Marinette beamed, a vindictive pleasure coursed through. Yes, she wanted to his, Kiss my ass, Santa.

           Going to Chloe’s was… interesting for Marinette. She hadn’ t even had the chance to knock on the penthouse door before Chloe had ripped it opened.

“Mama,” She called. “Marinette’s here.”

           That was all the signal needed, for Audrey Bourguis to throw opened both doors of her office, “Ahh Marinette. How lovely to see you, darling.”

           If Marinette had been a little meaner, she would have admitted that the scene was felt oddly similar to what it was like to see the stepsisters in Cinderella get the invitations to the ball. Chloe had been her bully, and she hadn’t changed all that much.

“Thank you for having me,” Marinette said easily. She presented the invitation. “I hope you can go,” She told Chloe and her mother honestly. “I could use more friends there.”

           Chloe’s eyes softened despite the look of the annoyance on her face, “Of course we’re going.”

“Agreed,” Audrey said. “Everyone who is anyone is going. And we are most definitely anyone. The question is what are we wearing? Classic ball gown. Or a modern princess. What are you wearing? Everyone wants to know.”

“Roy Queen on her arm,” Chloe giggled.

           Audrey smiled, her first real smile of the day, “Now that is quite the handsome accessory, bravo.”

           They discussed fashion choices and who is supposed to be wearing who. All while Marinette dodged every attempt from Audrey to design her dress for the ball. And the older woman had been determined.

           It was a harrowing experience. If Chloe hadn’t been her new best friend, Marinette would’ve given in to the desire to rip back the invite and tear it shreds.

           As she was living, Audrey said, “I was always dreamed about it; the Wayne New Years’ ball,” It was said with a lovingness and dreamy voice that neither Chloe or Marinette had ever heard her use before. “When I was a little girl, I would watch every year and just dream about it. I envied and critiqued over dresses. When I was really little, I used to ask Santa to go every year. I’d even design my own dress; every year. Its why I got into fashion. I was a little girl who dreamed about her own ball gown.”

Marinette would leave the penthouse, walk outside where her driver waited, and before she got into the car, she stared at the Christmas decorations. At the robotic Santa waving, and whisper lowly, “We’ll call this a tie.”

But the fight wasn’t over.

           Luka had no idea what to do with the invitation. Neither did his mother. Sure, they had heard about the Wayne ball but Juleka had Rose whispering in her ear so she made sure that her brother accepted.

“This is a favor to me,” Marinette pleaded. “Father will pay for the trip, for the expenses. Luka is my friend, and I would like him there. With you all of course.”

           Juleka begged her mother, “Please! Rose said this a once in a lifetime experience.”

           Luka eyed his sister but shrugged, “I’m in. What are friends for? He is your brother Tim single?”

What did you just say to me, punk? Marinette nearly snapped. She knew, of course, that Luka always had a celebrity crush on Tim Drake-Wayne. He even put jokingly put a kiss under the mistletoe with Tim Drake on his shopping list. But it was different now that Tim was her brother. Marinette needed her friends on her side; her family was insane. And she swore if Luka spent the entire Ball mooning over Tim, she was going to fly to the North Pole and shove her foot right up Santa’s…

“I won’t know anyone,” Anarka finally said interrupting Marinette’s thought. “It’ll be all boring people listening to classical music.”

“Oh!” Marinette straightened up. “Jagged Stone will be there,” She said brightly.

           The glare she got from Luka’s mother could’ve been weaponized.

           Marinette left their house feeling a bit shook.

“Ho! Ho! Ho!” She heard and saw Santa impersonator walking on the street.

           Marinette’s eyes narrowed. A less person would’ve just taken him out, she knew. But Paparazzi was everywhere, and for once that was the only thing stopping her. Not being nice or polite.

No, Marinette raged inwardly, that time was over.

           Instead, she shot him a glare, “Score one for you.”

           The next day at school was even worse than the day before… Paparazzi wise.

“Marinette! Marinetti,” A lady from seventeen magazines yelled. “What was your first date like with Roy? Was it Romanic? Did you kiss him? Is he a good kisser?”

           Marinette ignored them all as her father walked her into school again; this time with Tim and Cassandra.

“Bruce! What do you think of your daughter dating someone two years older than her?” Bruce stiffened.

“How long have you been dating the Queen heir?”

“Have you had sex yet?”

“What is he wearing the ball?”

           The questions went on and on.

           Marinette got to class and all but collapsed in her seat with a huff. This was too much. Her papa had assured her it would calm down soon.

“It will get better,” Kagami assured.

           Chloe patted her back comfortingly, “Paparazzi are so invasive.”

           Alix snorted, “What do you know about it.”

“Her mother is Style Queen,” Marinette answered before Chloe could. “One of the leading faces in fashion today; she can make or break a designer; start trends and end them. Everyone knows her name. Her face. She is the Devil’s Wears Prada: Miranda Presley of our world. Chloe was born with paparazzi wanting to know if her diaper was designer.”

           Her classmates were shocked at her defense of the blonde.

“And for the record,” Chloe said sounding pleased. “They were.”

“What’s it like dating Roy Queen,” Rose asked excitedly, ignoring the tenseness of the room like she was always doing. “He’s so dreamy. Did you know I have him on my bedroom wall?”

           Yes, Marinette did know. She helped decorate.

“Like a dream come true,” Marinette said with a forced smile.

Because like the most dreams, some crazy person made it up, She thought. Jason. Jason made it up.

“Do you think you’ll get married,” Mylene asked giving heart eyes to Ivan who blushed.

           Marinette was about to answer when she noticed Alya’s phone was out, and she looked way to interested what Marinette was saying.

“I didn’t give permission for an interview,” She said. “Or for permission to have my conversation recorded as is required by law.”

“You never minded before,” Alya pointed out. “This could be huge for my blog.”

           Marinette rolled her eyes, “No one knew I was a Wayne before. I have to be careful now.”

“Someone who knows you should give an inside scoop,” The glasses-wearing girl said. “Let people know what you’re really like, what you’re really thinking. We can do an interview right now!”

“Class is about to start,” Chloe sneered.

           Kagami glared, “Delete it or hear from our lawyers.”

           Adrien stood up, “Don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh.” Some of the other students nodded. “She doesn’t mean it harm.”

“I don’t care what she meant,” Marinette snapped. “I will not have private conversations on display for the world to hear. It's an invasion.” She told him and looked back at her once best friend. “Delete the recording from your phone.”

           Alya crossed her arms, a petulant look appeared on her face, “I already posted it on my blog,” She said smugly. “Too late now.”

“Delete it,” Kagami and Chloe chimed together.

           Alya stood her ground and sent them a look similar to what Rena Rouge sent Akumas, “No! It’s my private property,” She snapped, and she sent a smirk at Marinette. “You can’t make me.”

“Are you sure about that?” Marinette asked. “It’s your last chance.”

“This is my blog,” Alya said.

“Then prepare to see it burn.”

           All Marinette wanted for Christmas last year was for Chat Noir to leave her alone and for Alya to wake up, stop listening to Lila and reporting false news about Ladybug.

           Before the bell rang for lunch, Alya’s screech could be heard for miles. The Ladyblog was gone. Her mom had deleted it. Well not deleted the website but deleted everything on it. It had been an accident. Alya’s mom had been desperate to delete the interview of Marinette as quickly as possible. After realized what she had done, she quickly went to school to talk with her daughter.

“Why?” Alya had demanded in tears.

“Why?” Her mother shouted back. “Do you even know what you’ve done? What could happen to you? To your family?”

Her parents were furious. They had gotten a cease and desist Bruce Wayne’s lawyers, a notice that the Ladyblog was being sued for invasion privacy. Officer Raincomprix had shown up to let the know Alya was being hit with criminal charges; it was illegal to record a private conversation without permission for public use; even more so if it involved a minor.

Four hours. It took four hours for the Ladyblog to go up in flames.

The akuma had not been pleasant to deal with. But surprisingly, it wasn’t Alya. It was her mother; scared to death that her daughter had pissed off one of the richest family’s in the world and might have destroyed her own.

           Alya left school early that day, and wouldn’t come back for the rest of the week.

           Marinette counted that a win in the “Fuck Santa” Category. She could get her own freaking Christmas presents.

           Marinette had been sitting with Kagami and Chloe, enjoying lunch in the cafeteria when suddenly all the noise stopped. A needle dropping would be heard.

“Babe,” A voice shouted.

           Every hair on Marinette’ s body froze. What were the chances that an overly loud voice that sounded so familiar, so like how Roy Queen sounded in every video she ever saw of him, wasn’t actually Roy Queen?

No. It couldn’t be, she thought, Not even Santa’s that cruel.

           She glanced behind her and tried not to groan. It was Roy Queen alright. Red hair, handsome face, smug ‘kick me in the teeth’ smile. He was gorgeous. The exact type she’d been into. He had a bouquet of red roses and what looked to be expensive chocolates.

           That was when suddenly she remembered how much she wished for the same scenario. For her boyfriend, imaginary at the time, to surprise during school just because. When she was eleven, it was a Christmas wish on a star. (all her friends had boyfriends at the time; even if they only last two weeks at most.)

Another point for Jolly Saint Nick, she thought glumly.

           An arm went around her shoulder, “Miss Me,” Roy smirked as he pulled her into a hug.

           Marinette hugged him back tightly, a pleasant grin on her face, masking her true feelings, “I’m going to kill you,” She whispered. She kissed him softly on the cheek. “And I’m not even going to make it look like an accident.”

           She wasn’t entirely sure if she was talking to him or Santa Clause; maybe both.

           The smile was on Roy’s face as he pulled away, “You are definitely Jason’s sister.” He looked her up and down. “So… want to ditch school?”

           Marinette sighed, “Fuck Santa.”

           She didn’t care who heard now.

           Marinette did not skip school. Roy did pick her up from school, on a motorcycle. The pictures were being recycled on the news.

           All three of her parents were furious. Marinette had barely managed to get out of being grounded.

Santa would not beat her. She would not end up on the fat guy’s naughty list. Unless the reason was that she was standing over his cold, dead corpse.

“Okay,” Marinette said as she paced her bedroom. “I’m losing it.”

“You’re fine,” Tikki promised. “This time year gets to everyone. It will get better.”

“He’s persecuting me,” The bluenette.

           Tikki sighed at her chosen’s antics, “Santa is not after you.”

           Suddenly, there was a loud crash. Her bedroom door swung open, Tim rushed in looking a mess and beyond frazzled, “Tell me you can sing?” He shouted. “Doesn’t matter. I told everyone that you’re singing at the ball. It’s gonna be great.” And then he ran from the room.

           It went silent.

“Coward!” She yelled after him        

Marinette recalled her desire, her wish to finally overcome her shyness, her stage fright. She recalled the time fainted during a choir rehearsal for the Christmas pageant. She had been eight-years-old and vowed to never sing publicly.

“…Maybe Santa is out to get you,” Tikki said bluntly who knew all about Marinette’s fear of singing.

           Tim suddenly ran back in the room, “You’re having dinner with Roy and his parents tomorrow.” He said. “And Dad wants you to meet the Justice League. Have fun.” And he was gone.

“Fuck. Santa!” She screamed.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Lady Luck AU: Lila.

So, for those who don’t remember, the Lady Luck AU is where Chloé is given the Ladybug Miraculous instead of Marinette, and this kicks off her ‘try to be better’ thing, especially with Adrien and Tikki (And Plagg, sort of) encouraging her.

So of course things are different with the Lila situation. Partly because Chloé is less likely to back down from Lila, partly because more people know about Chloé being Lady Luck, and therefore believe her. Let’s go through this episode by episode:

Volpina

Characters who know that Chloé is Lady Luck: Adrien, Marinette(learns this in the AU’s version of Antibug), and Alix(technically she only suspects it, but is quiet about it.). Marinette and Alix don’t know about Adrien being Chat though.

Lila shows up like usual, claiming to be bffs with Lady Luck.

Chloé honestly doesn’t care much about Lila at first. After all, if it becomes a problem Lady Luck can show up and clear it up.

Marinette is suspicious af and a good person so she wants to figure out what’s up with Lila and get her to stop

Adrien is still the ‘her lies aren’t hurting anyone(yet) so I’ll just let it go’ guy.

Alix is unsure what to do as she is only suspicious and doesn’t have proof either way and doesn’t really come into play here.

Adrien still took the Book Of Miraculous Bullshittery from his dad’s office. He asks Chloé to meet him in the library to talk about it.

They start discussing the book, and Tikki recognizes it and is like ‘We need to take this to The Guardian right away!’.

Before they discuss more of that, Lila shows up. She is heavily flirting with Adrien like usual, saying how she’s ‘bffs with Lady Luck’. Chloé’s just sitting there like “Get a load of this guy!”, but is getting more suspicious of Lila’s intentions

While Lila doesn’t steal the book, as Chloé knows it’s important and keeps an eye on it, she does see enough of it to get an idea.

Lila gets Adrien to agree to meet her in the park, and they both leave.

Chloé finds out that Marinette was behind a bookshelf eavesdropping on them and is just as suspicious about Lila.

They agree that Mari should follow Lila to the park while Chloé deals with the Book.

Lila does her usual deal of trying to convince Adrien that she’s a Fox Hero, but he’s actually the one to call her out on it.

He does make a half-truth and says he knows she’s lying because “Ladyluck was looking for you to discuss the false interview you gave’.

Lila is still pissed at Lady Luck for calling her out and becomes Volpina.

Chloé is on the way to Master Fu’s place when both Adrien and Marinette message her about what Lila did. Needless to say Chloé is fucking pissed. She also gets the alert about Volpina and decides to investigate that, putting the book thing on hold.

Both Lady Luck and Chat Noir are suspicious of Volpina being a Hero, considering Lila just tried that shit and might be an Akuma. Lady Luck decides to mess with her a little and also test her.

She does the ‘oh of course you’re a new hero! Btw us heroes don’t have secret identites with eachother, just civillians. Isn’t that right Richard?’ Chat plays along with a ‘of course Solaris!” (Bonus points if you know what those names are referencing). Volpina asks them to detransform, since they’re revealing identies and all. Lady Luck says ‘oh it won’t matter if we do! We’re total nobodies and wouldn’t really be recognizable. In a city this big I doubt we’d even pass each other by chance!’.

They ask more questions, making up things. Like, Lady Luck: “So what was your Trial like?” Volpina: “Trial?” Lady Luck: “Your Trial to be a hero of course! The whole ‘magic pocket dimension to prove your worthiness to wield a Miraculous?” Volpina: “Oh, right, that! Totally aced it. Pretty easy if you ask me!”.

When they call her out on it, Volpina goes to Plan B: convincing Adrien she’s really a Hero.

This whole thing goes pretty much the same. Chat goes back to his room to try and talk her down and/or trick her that way.

Volpina then heads out to the Eiffel Tower and dangles a fake Adrien off it.

Lady Luck knows that Adrien is fake because Chat is next to her, but it sounds real enough that she falters for a moment. Still they get through and defeat her.

Lady Luck does not apologize to Lila at all. In fact she might make at least a snarky comment at her.

Both Chloé and Adrien bring the Book to Master Fu.

Chameleon

Characters who know about Chloé being Lady Luck at this point: Adrien, Marinette, Alix(hasn’t had it outright confirmed, but is 99% sure), Sabrina(Learned when she became Abielle), and Mylene (learned when she became Turtledove).

Due to the events of the Queen’s Battle Trilogy, Chloé has been spending a lot of time at Marinette’s house. On these mornings she ends up being just as late as Marinette.

This is one of those mornings. They both assume the rearrangement is for Mari to sit by Adrien, but everyone’s like ‘nah we moved Mari to the back because Lila needs to sit in front’.

Chloé calls them out on that. “I would’ve expected you to send me to the back since you all hate me. But sending her to the back?” they’re all like ‘well you would’ve thrown a bitchfit so...” and she’s like ‘Didn’t stop you chucklefucks last time!’.

They call her out on some of her lies so far, with Chloé ignoring Miss Bustier trying to mediate the situation.

Alya accuses them of being jealous of Lila being near Adrien and both Chloé and Marinette are like ‘what the fuck are you talking about?’. She clarifies that they’re being mean to Lila because of their crushes on Adrien. Both deny that they have a crush on him.

Alya’s like ‘sorry to out your crush Mari but come on you can’t just attack someone because you’re jealous’.

Marinette replies that she does not, in fact, have a crush on Adrien. Alya counters with previous events trying to set them up, and Mari calls her out on the fact that those were Alya’s ideas.

Alya then says ‘okay, but you’ve told me how the guy you like is blonde with green eyes and is a dork that likes puns!’ Marinette answers with ‘That may be, but it’s not Adrien.’.

She also says that it’s not that she doesn’t like Adrien. She’s just in love with someone else and even says ‘maybe if I didn’t fall for him… you know?”.

Adrien is DYING because the guy she’s in love with is Chat Noir. Because Marichat is Canon by this point. The class thinks he’s dying because Mari just ‘shot him down’.

Marinette also points out that if she’s going to be a jerk to everyone who likes Adrien, then why isn’t she a jerk to Chloé over her supposed crush? No, her and Chloé are actually friends now and in fact literally just came from a sleepover.

Alya is real surprised by this, because she hadn’t noticed Chloé being a better person, and had no clue she and Mari were friends. Especially not to the point of sleepovers on schoolnights.

The class then addresses Chloé’s jealousy, bringing up the fact that she’s all over him all the time and used to go on about loving him. She’s just like “Yeah, it was the only way to keep his fangirls from harassing me but idk if you noticed but I’ve been trying to set him up with his dream girl?’.

She then goes on with ‘speaking of harassment though, let’s focus back on Lila and how my dislike of her is not just because she lies but because she tried to manipulate Adrien into dating her!’.

Adrien is encouraged to confess the stuff that happened in Volpina, how Lila claimed to have the Fox Miraculous in an attempt to make him like her.

Lila’s lie to cover for this? Claiming she wasn’t lying, she really is the Fox Hero! She only told Adrien because she wanted to impress him, but it totally wasn’t a lie!

Everyone goes ‘but you look nothing like Fennette!’. She ‘explains’ that her power is Illusion so obvs she looks different.

Adrien points out that Lady Luck told him directly that she wasn’t her friend. Lila says ‘She was the one lying. See, she has a crush on you and was kinda upset that I was interested in you. We had a bit of a fight but it’s fine now!’.

Chloé then asks about Volpina, since that was the first ‘Fox Hero’ to appear. Lila answers ‘oh, well, I was originally Volpina. But some people thought I was an Akuma so I decided to remake my Hero Persona!’.

Chloé then says ‘Well now I definitly don’t want you anywhere near Adrien, considering Volpina was the one who broke into his bedroom and kidnapped him to the top of the Eiffel Tower!’.

Oh boy. Lila manages to cover that with a ‘Okay, so that part was a half-truth. I was Akumatized, but Lady Luck begged me not to tell people about that because she doesn’t want people to worry that Heroes might get Akumatized.’

Marinette then gets her round of ‘fuck you’ by asking about the fact that Fennette and Chat Noir are dating. If Lila is Fennette then obvs she’s dating Chat so why is she going after Adrien? Lila says ‘oh, that romance is fake. See, Chat’s actually gay and wanted me to cover for him. But he’s decided recently to come out so I can tell you guys and clear that up!’. (Adrien is still DYING)

By the end of all this, Miss Bustier finally reins in the class and says ‘look. While I believe there are a lot of misunderstandings here, I also understand that these events have caused some of you to be a bit uncomfortable. If some of you would like to rearrange your seats, lets do it now.”

The seat rearrangement ends up with basically a split between the class.

Chloé’s side includes Adrien, Marinette, Sabrina, Alix, Mylene and Ivan.

Ivan is a bit confused over why Mylene believes Chloé, but he’s already guessed that she’s Turtledove. So she would know whether Lila is being honest or not. He also begins to suspect Chloé might be Lady Luck because of this(He later gets confirmation in Oblivio, as well as confirmation on the other Heroes).

Everyone else is on Lila’s side. Although there’s also a split there.

Alya, Kim and Max all 100% believe that Lila is telling the truth and Chloé’s just being a jerk like usual, and Mari’s jealous.

Nino, Rose, Juleka and Nathaniel are a little different. While they think Lila might be honest and all, they don’t think this is just about drama. That said they are defending her.

Lunch continues the split, with the Hero Group and Lila’s fanclub

Chloé purposely goes to the bathroom and waits for Lila to follow her because tbh she know the old bullying tricks.

Lila tries the ‘we got off on the wrong foot how about we be friends?’ thing, and Chloé tells her to fuck right off.

Lila tries the different approach, of ‘we could rule the school together!’, and Chloé again tells her to fuck right off.

She then goes with the ‘I’ll make all your friends turn against you then!’ thing. And Chloé laughs in her face saying ‘bitch they already hate me! You can’t do shit!’.

After Lila leaves, Chloé does get upset at the potential of that threat. Because while she’s used to everyone hating her, she’s been making progress over the last year and the idea of everyone hating her for things she didn’t actually do is terrifying

She almost gets Aumatized, but reminds herself that she has people on her side for once. Her closest friends know that Lila is a trick ass bitch, and wouldn’t fall for anything Lila says.

The rest of Chameleon happens pretty much the same, up to the ending.

Adrien suggests the ‘take the high road’ option, but Chloé’s like ‘yeah, sit back and let her do what she’s doing. Worked out great for me!’. And he’s like ‘okay, you have a point...’.

The seating situation isn’t fixed, it’s still split.

While Marinette does try to remain friends with Alya, she isn’t dropping the Lila thing any time soon. It causes some problems later on. Basically they’re still friends unless Lila comes up in conversation, and Mari refuses to hang out if Lila is there.

Oni-Chan

Some of this is still the same.

Adrien is still kinda naive about how bad Lila is, and agrees to help tutor her in an attempt to make peace.

Chloé advises him against it, considering all she’s done before.

Adrien’s like ‘look, let’s give her a chance. I mean, you changed for the better so maybe if we try she will too?’.

She has to give him that, but she makes him agree to do the tutoring somewhere public and with a group.

He sticks to that, convincing his father to let him stay over lunch to tutor her in the cafeteria. So how does Lila end up in his room? She lies her way in.

After Adrien goes home, Lila shows up and tells Nathalie she’s here to tutor Adrien since he misses class so much.

Nathalie believes it because of the previous schedule change with the lunch session, and lets her in.

Adrien is definitely very upset to have her in his room all of a sudden

He tries to play nice but she does the kiss selfie thing and he snaps

He storms downstairs and… I don’t want to say he yells at Nathalie because he’s sweet and he understands that Lila tricked her

But he very forcefully says ‘Whatever she told you was a lie. You should not have let her in. I do not want her anywhere near me.”

He storms back to his room before Gabriel can come yell at Nathalie, and Lila is escorted out by The Gorilla.

When Gabriel asks Nathalie about the incident, she admits to what happened and tells him what Adrien said about Lila.

Kagami is still Akumatized into Oni-Chan. But the fight goes differently.

First of all, Kagami isn’t Akumatized due to being jealous of the picture. She’s Akumatized because Adrien has mentioned Lila before and he sees how uncomfortable and low-key furious he is in the selfie. Adrien is her friend and she would’ve gone after Lila even without Hawkmoth’s help.

Secondly, Fennette, Abielle, and Turtledove are permanent heroes, so they’re all fighting her. When Lila tries to do the ‘oh no I’m injured can someone get me out of here?’ act, it’s either Abielle or Turtledove helping her.

The last part of this episode deals with the Marinette/Adrien subplot.

So, I mentioned in other posts about this AU that Marinette loves Chat Noir, and Adrien loves Marinette. At this point in the story Chat and Fennette are dating, but while he knows who she is, she doesn’t know who he is.

After this whole incident, Chloé makes the decision that Marinette has to know now.

The Kwami and Master Fu are kind of against this, but so far the lack of identity shenanigans between heroes has been helpful.

She feels that they should know because then Marinette can date Adrien and have an excuse to keep Lila off of him/perhaps she might quit if he’s ‘off the market’.

The reveal goes about as expected.

Adrien goes home and Gabriel asks him about what happened with Lila.

He tells the truth, that Lila is a classmate that has lied and manipulated before. He tried giving her a chance to be kinder, but she crossed several lines by lying her way into the house and forcing a kiss on him.

Tbh, Gabriel is very disgusted by Lila’s actions. While he thinks that she might be useful to ‘Hawkmoth’, he decides to keep her away from Adrien as much as possible.

Adrien also comes clean about his actual love interest, Marinette. Gabriel’s just like ‘hey out of all the friends you’ve made at school she’s like the only one I actually super approve of so go for it!’.

He does warn them that Mari would face some backlash from it, since she’s aiming to be a designer. People might say she’s with Adrien just to get ahead in the industry. Gabriel, having met Marinette and dealt with her sense of Justice before, knows that she isn’t doing that and absolutely doesn’t need to.

When Adrien and Marinette show up at school the next day and are being all couple-y, Alya kinda calls Marinette out on the ‘what happened to you not having a crush on Adrien’?

Mari kinda plays it off with ‘well I guess I have a type. I didn’t really realize how much I liked him until you pointed that out!’.

Lila tries to play the victim with ‘oh no you’re totally seducing him just to spite me!’.

Adrien snaps and is like ‘oh, btw, you’re officially banned from my house after your little stunt yesterday’.

They mostly leave her alone after that, but Chloé makes one last comment: “My mother would love you.” (like ¾ of the class physically recoils at that).

Mirculer

Lila kinda doesn’t actually play much of a part in this because of major plot changes. I mean, the whole AU involves Chloé having a Miraculous in the first place, so Lila can’t mess with her over that, and none of the other Heroes had a mental breakdown and revealed their identity to all of Paris, so she can’t mess with any of them.

I might change this if I can, but given what I have planned it’s unlikely.

Ladybug/Lady Luck

I’m only going to address the ‘Lila frame jobs’ thing here, and there’s a few changes in the how and who.

First of all, this has nothing to do with Hawkmoth since Gabriel actually likes both Marinette and Chloé. He does take advantage of the fallout, but he doesn’t cause it. This is all Lila.

Secondly, Lila focuses more on Chloé. While she hates both Chloé and Marinette, Chloé is the easier target due to the history of bullying, while people would probably be suspicious of sweet little Marinette being mean. Sure they believed it before, but since Marinette already ‘won’ Adrien, she has no reason to be jealous!

The whole chapter is Chloé playing into Lila’s lies just enough to disprove them.

Framed for cheating on a test?

Tbh someone suggested Tikki seeing the answer sheet being planted and sneaks it back onto Miss Bustier’s desk and I might snag that idea.

Barring that though, Chloé points out the weirdness of it. Like, why would she still have the answer sheet instead of throwing it away and not getting caught?

Furthermore, while she’s never cheated on a test before, Miss Bustier tends to grade homework during tests, and doesn’t notice when Chloé finishes a test and pulls out her phone for an online shopping spree. Why not just look up the answers on her phone instead of taking the risk of being caught stealing the answer sheet?

Chloé also plays up the dramatics of ‘Here I am, trying to be a nice person. But someone still holds such a grudge that they’d plant evidence as revenge! Or just to give everyone else a reason to believe I’m not trying!”.

Accused of pushing Lila down the stairs?

Instead of saying ‘uh, she just walked down and started screaming?’, Chloé plays along a bit.

“Oh no, I didn’t push her! She tripped and fell. I understand why she assumed she was pushed though, as we do have some animosity, but I don’t want her harmed! In all my years here when have I ever gone with a physical assault? Perhaps we should check the security cameras to be sure?”

Lila realizes that would show her walking down and decides to agree that she ‘hastily assumed because of their fighting’.

Oh no! Someone stole Lila’s necklace, an heirloom from her grandmother! And what’s this? It’s in Chloé’s locker!

Chloé just calmly says ‘that isn’t your grandmother’s necklace.’. Lila insists it is, and the teachers start to believe her act.

Chloé just says ‘That’s a necklace from the Agreste Collection. I bought it last year. I found it again when cleaning out my closet and was going to see if one of my friends wanted it since it’s out of season now. Actually, Marinette has one too.”

Obvs the necklace is actually Lila’s, but Chloé is playing it cool since she recognized it immediately. Marinette just shows off her Miraculous, which looks similar enough to the necklace to fool everyone else.

Lila says ‘okay but this one is mine!’. Chloé points out ‘That necklace can’t be yours since you said your necklace was an heirloom from your grandmother. I’m sure it’s around here somewhere. Hey, maybe it was stolen! Last year a small magic creature stole my bracelet and I accused some people until Lady Luck found it. Perhaps the same happened to you!’.

I’m debating about this being the moment where Lila gets exposed for lying and trying to frame her and all, with that being the event to trigger all the negative emotion with betrayal and/or righteous anger.

Either way I’m def making Miss Bustier handle things better here because 1. she deserves better too and 2. that instagram pic made me want her to replace Chloé’s mom so hell yeah.

Also I now I said I was just focusing on the Lila plot but you can bet your sweet ass that Senitmonster!Lady Luck is sticking around entirely because of my feelings over that episode of W.I.T.C.H.

[angelofthequeers]

Hold Me By Both Hands: Chapter 29

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

Chapter 28 | Chapter 30 | AO3 link

“– rinette! Marinette!”

“Hmm?” Marinette is forcibly yanked out of her thoughts by Alya’s snapping fingers in front of her face.

“Finally!” Alya says. “You didn’t hear a word of my rant about Mr Alternative News blogger. Man, wherever you were just now, you gotta take me there too.”

“I wasn’t anywhere. I was just…thinking.” About her date with Chat Noir. But Alya doesn’t need to know that.

“Mhm. If you say so.”

“It looked like you were halfway across the solar system!” Lila says. Why she’s here, Marinette has no clue, but either Rose or Juleka or Alix or Mylène had invited her along to their Saturday hangout at the Louvre, and it’s not like Marinette and Alya can refuse to include her without getting labelled raging bitches.

“I really am fine,” Marinette says. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately.”

“Like your crush on Chat Noir,” Alix teases. Marinette’s cheeks start to boil.

“What? No!” Had someone seen them on their date? No, of course not, the girls already know she’s crushing on Chat Noir.

“That’s so cute!” Rose says.

“If you two get together, tell me!” Mylène says with a mischievous smile. “I want to be sure I win a bet against Ivan, since our Adrienette one was a bust.”

“Mylène! You cheater!” Juleka says. Mylène’s cheeks pinken.

“What?” she says. “I just…have inside information.”

“I hate you all,” Marinette mutters. “And even if I did get together with him – which is not happening –” Lies, but necessary. “– why would I tell anyone? He’s a superhero. I’m a civilian. Hawkmoth would love that.”

“True, true.” Alya raises her hand, like she’s going to clutch at her chest, but then aborts that movement and lowers her hand. Marinette resists the urge to smirk, since she’s not supposed to know that Alya is Rena Rouge and wearing the Miraculous under her shirt.

“You and Chat Noir would make the cutest couple!” Lila coos. “It sucks that I wasn’t here for the Adrienette hype!”

“Does everyone call us that?” Marinette throws her hands in the air. “What are we, fictional characters?”

Before anyone can reply, Rose and Juleka scream. The reason for this becomes apparent when they try to jump away from each other but can’t due to literally being attached at the hip, with Rose’s pink dress melting into Juleka’s black one.

“What the –?” Marinette leaps away from them, immediately scanning her surroundings for any sign of the perpetrator. “Akuma!”

“Where?” Lila immediately leaps behind Alya.

“Alya Césaire!” An orange blur soars off a building and lands in front of Alya. “You think the Ladyblogger can compete with Faux News?”

“Faux – wait, Lars?” Alya’s eyes bulge. “Lars Vos? The Alternative News dipshit?”

The orange man – Faux News – snarls at Alya. He’s…a fox. Or, to be more accurate, a guy in a fox costume, just like Rena Rouge. Unlike Rena Rouge, however, his orange suit is skin-tight, with a white torso and white down his inner upper arms and thighs. He also has short, chunky black gloves and boots, an orange and white bushy tail that looks like it sprouts out of the back of his suit, thick black rings around his grey eyes, and short fox ears poking out of his pale blond hair. Also unlike a Fox superhero is the lack of flute on his back and, instead of a Miraculous around his neck, there’s a little black cravat like a high collar. It’s like someone had tried to create a Fox wielder but left out just enough that it feels…wrong.

“You think you’re the best just because your little blog’s so popular?” Faux News growls.

“Uh, no,” Alya says. “I think I’m the best because unlike you, I actually get my own footage. I don’t jack it from someone else and then whine that it’s shitty quality.”

“At least I don’t harass people for the fun of it!” Faux News says.

“Harass you? How? All I did was leave a comment asking you to shut the fuck up and stop taking jabs at me for actually doing my job! And at least I post the truth!”

“What the heck did you do to Rose and Juleka?” Marinette demands. Oh, how she wishes she could get away to transform, but she’s right next to Alya and Faux News will most definitely notice her trying to slip away.

“I guess they’re just such good soulmates that they’re joined at the hip,” Faux News shrugs.

“You’re twisting reality!” Lila gasps. “Faux News! Alternative News!”

Faux News’ grin is more like a shark’s than a fox’s. “Exactly. Whatever I say is true! And I think that little girls such as yourself should be seen and not heard.”

Lila opens her mouth to say something else…but no sound escapes her. Her eyes widen and she once again tries to speak but again, she can’t. While Faux News is distracted by Lila’s predicament, Marinette grabs Alya by the hand and hightails it the hell out of there before he can remember that they exist.

“Marinette!” Alya tries to yank herself free. “You can’t – I need to –”

“Césaire!” Faux News bellows. Marinette ducks into the first store she encounters.

“Go and hide!” she hisses to Alya. “I’ll go and see if I can find Ladybug and Chat Noir!”

“But what if he gets you?” Alya says, grabbing her upper arms.

“It’s not me he’s after,” Marinette says. “I’ll be fine! Just go and hide!”

Alya bites her lip and her eyes flick down to her own chest for a split second. Then she nods and pushes Marinette away before weaving through the racks of clothes in the direction of the changing rooms. Reassured that her best friend is now able to transform and is therefore safe from Faux News’ hunt for Alya Césaire, Marinette barrels out of the store and down an alleyway to transform.

“Tikki, spots on!”

.

“Chat Noir! Down here!”

At the sound of his name, Chat Noir automatically leaps off the rooftop to the street below. Ladybug’s waving at him from inside a store, and he takes a quick look around before sprinting inside.

“What the hell kind of an akuma is this?” Chat Noir says as Ladybug shuts the door behind him and beckons him further into the store, away from the windows. “Some guy was barking up a tree! Literally! And a woman tried to talk my ear off about how climate change wasn’t real!”

Ladybug snorts. “His name’s Faux News and he can warp reality. He attached R – uh, two girls at the hip because they were “soulmates” and he took another’s voice because “little girls should be seen and not heard”.”

Chat Noir wrinkles his nose. Ick. One of those people.

“It’s my fault.” Rena Rouge emerges from one of the changing rooms. “He’s this Alternative News blogger who I told off for not telling the truth.”

“And for taking cheap shots at you,” Ladybug says.

“Yeah but –”

“Hey. We talked about this when I found you in here, remember? You’re not responsible for his akumatisation. Hawkmoth is. And if he hadn’t been targeting you and your blog, you wouldn’t have attacked him.”

“I still might have,” Rena Rouge says. “If he reckons he’s a “real journalist”, he can’t go around telling lies. I mean, saying that you hate cats? All we need is for one person to grab that lie and blow it up, especially because he had no sources!”

“I don’t think that’s the point right now,” Chat Noir says. “How powerful is Faux News? Can he just take our Miraculouses with his powers by making it the truth?”

Ladybug purses her lips. “I’m not sure. And I’m kind of hesitant about finding out. But we can’t just sit in here forever.”

“He might not be able to just will them to him like that,” Rena Rouge says. “Otherwise, Hawkmoth would’ve made an akuma like that ages ago. Every akuma you’ve faced with control over something has had to brainwash you, but they still didn’t figure out who you were or get you to reveal yourselves. Like Dark Cupid, remember? He totally could’ve made Chat Noir take the ring off. But he didn’t.”

“Hmm,” Ladybug says. “You know…I think you’re on to something. Wait here.” She ducks into the changing room and there’s a bright flash of pink light as she detransforms. Chat Noir and Rena Rouge exchange awkward grins as Ladybug talks to her kwami in a hushed voice, both very much aware that all they’d have to do is slam the door open to see who’s behind the red and black spotted mask, and then Ladybug’s once again transformed and is pulling the stall door open.

“Tikki says that part of the Miraculous magic means that we can’t compel each other to give them up,” Ladybug says. “If we get immobilised or brainwashed into standing still or whatever and they physically take them off us, sure. But an akuma can’t force us to take them off ourselves or to reveal our identities if we’re transformed. The only one of us who could directly affect a Miraculous is Chat Noir with his Cataclysm, but then it’d take my Miraculous Ladybug to fix it. And Tikki says that the Butterfly can akumatise a Miraculous, but it still can’t make that person reveal themselves unless they want to. Hawkmoth’s kwami must have told him all this because Rena Rouge is right: he would’ve made an akuma like this one ages ago if that worked.”

“That also means that you can’t just Lucky Charm Hawkmoth’s Miraculous straight off him,” Rena Rouge says. “Aww, man. But that’s a relief, knowing that Faux News can’t make us give our Miraculouses to him.”

“And we also can’t be exposed through, say, mind-reading akumas,” Ladybug says. “Although there’s nothing stopping a brainwashing akuma from forcing us to physically out ourselves by, you know, outright saying who everyone else is or ordering all Miraculous holders to come to them, which is why I’m so insistent that Chat Noir and I don’t reveal our identities. It would be bad if Hawkmoth learned who Rena Rouge was, yeah, but figuring out me or Chat Noir would be a disaster.”

“My life would be over if Hawkmoth knew who I was.” Chat Noir closes his fingers around his ring, as though this is enough to shield it from Hawkmoth’s greed. “Now that I’ve had this taste of freedom…”

“Well, Hawkmoth won’t figure out who any of us are,” Ladybug says firmly. She rests a hand on his shoulder and squeezes, and soft warmth seems to radiate from her hand through Chat Noir’s suit. “Anyway, come on. We have to stop Faux News!”

To find Faux News, all they have to do is follow the trail of sheer chaos throughout the city, from a group of floating men shouting about defying the laws of gravity, to a child who’s screaming and running away from a life-size, nightmarish teddy bear.

“This is sick,” Ladybug growls once Chat Noir’s torn the bear apart with his claws and Rena Rouge is comforting the little girl. “He can make anything a reality and he does that?”

“I told you he was an arse,” Rena Rouge says. She pats the girl on the head and directs her to hide in the nearest building, then turns to Ladybug and Chat Noir with her arms crossed. “I just didn’t know he was this much of one.”

“Ladybug! Chat Noir! Over here!”

Chat Noir whirls around, raising his staff. The speaker is a middle-aged man who’s got his phone trained on them and a wicked gleam in his eye.

“That’s it!” the man says. “Only the best footage for Faux News!”

“Uh, excuse me?” Rena Rouge says. “Faux – uh, Alternative News is shit. Everyone knows the Ladyblog –”

“Ladyblog? What’s the Ladyblog?” the man says. Rena Rouge’s eyes widen.

“No,” she breathes. She yanks her flute off her back and swipes to extend a little screen out of the end, just like with Chat Noir’s baton. “Are you fucking kidding me? That son of a bitch – all that work –”

“What happened?” Ladybug says. A fuming Rena Rouge thrusts her flute out at them to show her search results for the Ladyblog…which is nothing. Well, there’s technically one result, but when Chat Noir taps it, it brings up an extremely poor-quality webpage with one pixelated, clearly amateur video. In contrast, when Rena Rouge takes her flute back to search for Faux News and shows Ladybug and Chat Noir again, they’re taken to a crisp, professional webpage with scores of posts and videos and comments.

“That – he stole my work!” Rena Rouge’s eyes fill with tears. Thankfully, the man nearby doesn’t hear, or it would be bye-bye Rena Rouge and her secret identity. “All that effort – I’ve put so much work in – and he just – he just spoke a few fancy words and now I’m the amateur knock-off! He even stole my superhero look!”

“Hey.” Ladybug grabs Rena Rouge by the biceps and squeezes gently. “We’ll take care of it, okay? We’ll defeat Faux News and the Ladyblog will go back to normal.”

“What milady said,” Chat Noir agrees. “Like we’re gonna let some ugly Rena knock-off win. Hawkmoth deserves our Miraculouses if we lose to this guy.”

Rena Rouge snorts and wipes her eyes, even though her mask conceals any traces of tears. “Thanks, guys. I just…god, I can’t stand people who steal others’ work.”

“You hear that?” Chat Noir calls at the recording man. “Faux News is going down like the fake he is!”

The man’s jovial smile darkens into a horrific scowl. Before any of them can react, he’s scurrying off down the street and around the corner.

“Well,” Ladybug says. “I can’t say that was the smartest move, but at least now we can find Faux News, assuming that guy’s gone to tattle. Let’s go!”

Faux News does turn out to be in the next street over, with the tattletale man next to him and at least a hundred other people who don’t seem to be affected just yet. Of course, ‘don’t seem to be’ isn’t the same as ‘aren’t’, as they demonstrate moments later by turning around and staring straight at the superheroes like one many-headed, many-limbed being.

“Don’t worry!” Chat Noir puffs himself up. Time to show Faux News who’s boss! “We’ll save you –”

“It’s them! The criminals!” A woman points at Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Rena Rouge. “They’re trying to destroy the mighty Faux News and Hawkmoth!”

“Ah,” Rena Rouge says. “When we figured out that he could bend reality, we should have suspected he’d do this.”

“Go and spread the word, my loyal fans!” Faux News announces, and half of the crowd around him starts to scatter in all directions. “I bestow the gift of gospel upon you all!”

“Gospel?” Chat Noir scoffs. “This guy’s pretty up himself.”

“Uh, yeah,” Rena Rouge says. “It’s not like I just told you that before.”

Ladybug frowns. “He’s making them go and twist reality to make others believe that we’re the bad guys? Does that mean that he can only directly affect his surroundings, and he has to imbue his minions with the power to twist the truth for others?”

“What about the Ladyblog thing, then?” Rena Rouge says.

“With a phone or something connected to the internet, it’d technically be in his surroundings,” Ladybug says slowly. “We have to keep him occupied to limit the damage!”

“That’s something we can definitely do, milady,” Chat Noir grins, then hefts his baton and shakes it to its full length. “Hey, Rena, wanna legally beat the shit out of this guy and not get in any trouble for it?”

“Chat!” Ladybug protests, but even she doesn’t say anything when Rena Rouge’s eyes start to gleam rather terrifyingly.

“For truth and justice!” Rena Rouge bellows and charges at Faux News, flute ready to strike. She’s met with a wall of brainwashed bystanders forming a shield around Faux News, but this doesn’t curb her enthusiasm one bit.

“Hey, that should be our catchphrase!” Chat Noir says. Ladybug rolls her eyes while simultaneously taking out two minions at once with a flick of her yo-yo.

“We are not having a catchphrase, you silly cat!” she says.

“Aww but why not?” Chat Noir throws his staff at a minion creeping up on Ladybug, then deftly dodges one behind him, kicks her to the ground by her back, and rolls under another minion’s outstretched arms to retrieve his weapon.

“There’s too many of them!” Ladybug says. “And Rena’s too angry to focus on a proper Mirage!”

“You no-good fake!” Rena Rouge shrieks in the background, inadvertently confirming Ladybug’s assessment. “Stop hiding behind your little fans and face me like a proper fox!”

“Rena, take a chill pill!” Chat Noir calls. Naturally, he’s ignored. “Okay, uh, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to let her take this one?”

“We should’ve made her sit it out,” Ladybug agrees while elbowing a young man in the solar plexus and dropping him like a sack of bricks. “Too personal. I think I’ll have to…Lucky Charm!” A little red and black candle falls into her hands.

“We’re gonna throw him a party?” Chat Noir says as he ducks to let two minions slam into each other in their haste to grab him.

“No…I can’t see what to use it for…” Ladybug frowns and turns on the spot, while Chat Noir covers her from the advancing minions and Rena Rouge continues to wreak havoc in her attempt to get to Faux News.

“Maybe you can smoke signal for help,” Chat Noir jokes. Ladybug’s eyes widen.

“Of course! I mean, it’s not ideal…I’d prefer not to throw them into a battle with no training…but we need a shield!”

“Rock, paper, scissors to see who goes?” Chat Noir says. Ladybug shakes her head.

“Not necessary. I trust you to pick the right ally. I need to stay here and keep Faux News from getting away and turning all of Paris against us…and keep an eye on Rena Rouge. It wouldn’t be a problem if she wasn’t so angry at this guy.”

Chat Noir winces when Rena Rouge bashes someone across the head with her flute. “Totally with you there, milady. I’ll be back. Try not to miss me too much!”

“Finally, a break from you!” Ladybug calls at him as he bounds away. He flips her off over his shoulder with a cheerful little smirk, then leaps up to a rooftop and turns his sights in the direction of Master Fu’s place.