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flightfoot · 27 days ago

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How Alya's mistreated by the saltdom and the writers

I've written this for the @yall-hate-kids-tourney, but figured that I'd publish it on my own tumblr as well for an easy reference point for others who want to illustrate how badly Alya's been treated - mostly by the fandom, but she's been somewhat screwed over by the writing as well. I've written it so that even people who have never heard of Miraculous before can understand my problems with the way Alya's often depicted, and I will probably use this essay for that purpose repeatedly in the future. It's over 4500 words, so buckle up!

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The amount of hatred Alya gets in the fandom is absolutely insane. There are over 800 fics tagged with "Alya Cesaire Bashing", and that's just the ones that actually TAG it - many of them either use a a non-canonical tag or just take their demonization of her as canon. It's not just that a lot of fics bash her either, but that the fics that bash her are disproportionately popular. If you go through the "Miraculous Ladybug" tag on AO3 and sort by kudos, I'd say around a third of the top 500 most popular fics use this gross caricature of her in order to justify inflicting some sort of insane punishment on her, or at least replacing her with "better" friends and leaving her to wail in despair.

Basically, Alya is the best friend of the main character, Marinette. She's really into superheroes and aims to be a reporter someday, to the point that the first time a supervillain cropped up in the series, she immediately got out her bike and cycled after him so that she could be there when a superhero showed up to fight him (Lois Lane would be proud). She runs a blog called the "Ladyblog" which reports on what the superheroes are doing, and sometimes makes some fun videos, like about the most impressive feats of one of the superheroes.

More relevantly though, she acts as Marinette's support a lot of the time, often being the one to push her to confess her feelings to Adrien, to help her with plans she comes up with, to talk things out with if she's having trouble processing something, and trying to act as the voice of reason if Marinette's gotten to into her own head. It can sometimes head into Black Best Friend territory of having her mostly stick around to support her bestie, but she DOES get a decent amount of screentime and focus at least.

Then the first episode of season 3 aired, and the fandom went BALLISTIC.

This character, Lila, debuted back at the end of season 1 as being this attention-seeking liar who pretended that she knew a lot more famous people than she actually did, including being best friends with Ladybug. Alya, being a naive 14-year-old, believed her and put Lila's interview on her blog. Since Marinette IS Ladybug, she knew this was not true, though she was initially more freaked out about the possibility that Adrien (the boy she has a crush on) would find her supposedly amazing life to be entrancing and that Lila would steal Adrien away from her, to the point that she actively wanted to stop Lila and Adrien from spending time together to prevent Adrien from falling for her.

Fast-forward to Chameleon, the first episode of season 3, and Lila's back and lying some more, this time about having Tinnitus (which would mean that she needs to sit at the front of class, next to Adrien). The class has a whole seating rearrangement in order to accommodate the move, and because some of them just wanted to change seats. Since Marinette was late that day, she didn't get to give input, so she wound up sitting alone at the back of the class, instead of next to Alya like she usually did. She's upset by this, but can't prove that Lila doesn't actually have the disability (she doesn't even have evidence that Lila doesn't have hearing problems, it's just that her story of how she supposedly got the disability is suspect), so she puts up with it for the class period.

Then lunch time rolls around and Marinette tells Alya and Alya's boyfriend, Nino, that Lila's a lying liar who lies. Alya asks why Marinette hates her so much, since she barely knows Lila (this isn't the first time that Marinette's nitpicked at Lila's stories, but she's never actually managed to prove that Lila's lying, Lila's good at coming up with explanations for any hole Marinette exposes in her tales). Marinette tells her how, after Lila first arrived at school, she followed her and Adrien, eavesdropped on them, and then saw Ladybug show up and tear into Lila for not knowing her. (Presumably that's what she says, the episode skipped past her actual recounting of what she saw). Alya and Nino are more concerned with the fact that she stalked Lila and Adrien, with Alya also being skeptical that what she heard might have been out-of-context, given how common out-of-context eavesdropping is in fiction for causing issues, with Alya saying, "A good reporter always verifies her sources. Can you prove she doesn't actually know Ladybug?"

Since Marinette can't actually prove anything without revealing that she's Ladybug, she decides that the sane and reasonable thing to do is to throw a wadded up napkin at Lila while she's eating lunch, and when she catches it (Lila's pretending to have a sprained wrist), to loudly declare that she obviously doesn't have a sprained wrist. Lila quickly pretends that catching it did actually hurt, the classmates Lila was sitting with scold Marinette for hurting her, and then Marinette goes off to seethe in a bathroom, where Lila finds her and threatens to turn her friends against her if she continues trying to expose her lies.

Then at the end of the episode, Adrien goes to sit with Marinette at the back of the class to keep her company, the teacher thinks that Marinette ALSO has hearing issues so she's brought back to the front (and away from Adrien again), Lila pretends that her hearing has been fixed so she can sit at the back with Adrien, and Alya spots that Marinette looks miserable about sitting alone at the front, so she chooses to sit next to Marinette to keep her company and everyone ends up going back to their old places, except that Lila's sitting at the back of the class now.

And that's it. That is, for the most part, what kicked off the entire Alya hatred and demonization onslaught. While there ARE more things that happening in following episodes, they have a pretty small effect on the demonization Alya's put through, almost all of it is derived from Chameleon and hasn't changed much since then.

So for starters, in fanfics Alya is often made to ditch Marinette constantly to hang out with Lila instead. This never happens. She's often exasperated when Marinette starts talking about how Lila is awful and points out that she doesn't have proof of that, but she doesn't avoid Marinette, and the closest she ever comes to hanging out with Lila outside of class events is when she called Lila over to babysit hers and Nino's younger siblings when Marinette canceled at the last minute.

But most Alya-bashing fics don't just leave it there. Oh no. If you look through a bunch of the most popular Miraculous fics, you'll see Alya made out to be some sort of ringleader for the class in bullying Marinette, hitting her, pinching her, poisoning her, destroying her things, saying nasty, heinous things to her, the works, and inciting the rest of the class to do the same, sometimes to the point that even LILA is shocked at her cruelty. Usually in these cases, Chloe, who is canonically the class bully (and Marinette's bully in particular) is inexplicably Marinette's primary protector against the eeeeeevil Alya, becoming Marinette's best friend and support and basically taking on Alya's canon role and some of her personality traits, despite the fact that canonically, Chloe's as susceptible to Lila's lies as anyone else, and that in season 5 Chloe actually became Lila's partner in crime in trying to hurt Marinette in particular. (I don't like how Chloe's treated in canon, but that's a different story).

I've never even seen any justification given for why Alya's so frequently made to be outright violent or cruel towards Marinette, it's just widely accepted in fiction now, even with nothing pointing to her ever being malicious like that. There ARE other things Alya canonically does that I see her taken to task over though, but that fall apart when you examine them.

One of the biggest offenders is criticism towards Alya over how she handles babysitting. In Christmaster, Alya and Nino pick up Nino's little brother after Marinette babysits him for them while they're on a date, in Timetagger, Marinette's slated to babysit for them while they're on a date but cancels at the last minute, so they call Lila over instead, and then in Simple Man, Marinette books herself to babysit Alya's and Nino's younger siblings and the daughter of one's of her mom's friends, a little girl named Manon, all at the same time.

Alya receives heavy criticism for not paying Marinette for her babysitting, for having Marinette babysit for her secretly behind her parents' back without their knowledge, and for pressuring Marinette to babysit for her even though Marinette's so busy.

A few problems with this.

1. We see babysitting happen several times, sometimes with Alya helping Marinette with babysitting Manon and sometimes with Marinette just babysitting Manon without anyone else's involvement. At no point is payment brought up, and yet the absence of such a discussion is only ever used to demonize Alya.

2. There is no evidence that the babysitting Marinette does for Alya's sake is done behind her parents' back, the only thing pointing to that is a lack of Alya ever flat-out saying that she has her parents' permission to have Marinette babysit for her, but there's no evidence of sneaking around. MARINETTE, however, DOES canonically ditch her babysitting duties by having Alya babysit for her without the parent's knowledge. In Prime Queen, Marinette accidentally double books herself to do an interview as Ladybug at the same time that she's supposed to be babysitting Manon, so she calls Alya over to watch the interview with her, lies to her that she's just gonna go downstairs for a few minutes to talk with her parents and for Alya to please watch over Manon while she does that, and then leaves to do the interview while Alya watches over Manon the whole time. Nadja definitely didn't know that this happened, because she was surprised and worried when Alya and Manon called in during the interview with Marinette nowhere to be seen. In addition to this, in Simpleman, Marinette foists off all the children she's babysitting onto her grandpa against his will so that she can run off and help with Adrien's photoshoot after he calls her. The people demonizing Alya for supposedly having Marinette babysit for her secretly are not upset about the examples of Marinette canonically doing these things.

3. Of the three times that Marinette has, to date, been scheduled to babysit for Alya's sake (Christmaster, Timetagger, and Simpleman), for Christmaster she spent the next several hours after finishing with babysitting making Adrien's 50th birthday present (he's currently 14 years old), so I wouldn't say she was pressed for time, for Timetagger, she literally called Alya at the last minute to say she was too busy to babysit and Alya said it was no biggie and made other arrangements, and for Simpleman, Alya offered to cancel her date and take care of her younger siblings herself the instant she saw that Marinette was already babysitting Manon, and Marinette told her to go ahead and go on her date and that she'd look after her siblings.

So clearly, the people clutching their pearls about how horribly irresponsibly Alya is handling babysitting and how she's wronging Marinette in the process don't actually care about babysitting ethics here, because otherwise, Marinette would be getting the brunt of the hatred, not Alya. Despite this, I've seen a fair number of posts in the past tearing into Alya's babysitting for the reasons I already gave, and a bunch of fics that make it so that Alya pressures and guilt-trips Marinette into babysitting for her when she's struggling to keep up with all her work, only to have her parents find out and be horrified by how Alya's lied to them about who's been doing the babysitting and that Alya's been getting an increased allowance because of that, so they pay Marinette out of Alya's allowance and ground her, take away privileges, just have this be used as an excuse to punish Alya for supposedly wronging Marinette.

And then there's the subcategory of Alya demonization towards her for putting up Lila's interview on her blog without verifying that Lila was telling the truth. Admittedly, this was foolish, but she's 14. Retractions exist for a reason. And yet, fics frequently have her reputation be completely destroyed because she put up one interview that had a false statement by the interviewee in it, and sometimes even to be completely blacklisted from ever being a journalist in the future, things that are completely insane and would have even the most storied and well-respected of reporters be unable to ever get a job.

She also frequently gets demonized and bashed for "believing Lila over Marinette". My major issue with this: what she's specifically believing Lila over Marinette for is on the topic of "is Lila an awful person". I don't think it's unreasonable to have a higher standard of proof for believing that someone is an awful person than for believing that your friend might just have some biased interpretations. Alya thinks that Marinette doesn't like Lila mostly because Lila has hit on Adrien, Marinette's crush, before. This isn't unreasonable considering that Marinette's first reaction to Lila is to freak out about her stealing Adrien away, and that when this other girl, Kagami, started hanging out with Adrien, she freaked out about that too. Specifically, she called a meeting of all her female friends to try and stop Kagami and Adrien from going away together to London for the weekend in Backwarder, helped Chloe in trying to get Kagami covered in food at a fancy red carpet movie opening in order to drive her away and steal her seat next to Adrien for the movie, and when she and Kagami were paired up for a "friend-making game" where the goal was to locate where Adrien was in Paris and the prize was to spend time with him, she pretended to genuinely want to be Kagami's friend so she could sabotage both of them and prevent Kagami from spending time with Adrien. So it's not like the belief that Marinette might be unfairly biased against Lila because she's made moves on Adrien is an unfair assumption.

In addition to that, on the occasions when Lila HAS tried to frame Marinette for something, Alya hasn't believed it, or hasn't been shown to believe it at least. In Ladybug, Lila tries to frame Marinette for cheating on a test, for stealing a necklace from her, and for knocking her down the stairs. Despite the evidence Lila planted, Alya doesn't believe it and investigates to try and find out what really happened. She doesn't uncover any solid proof, but she still believes in Marinette. She doesn't believe that Marinette's assumption that Lila's behind this is necessarily correct, since Marinette's leaping to that without presenting proof, but she doesn't believe that Marinette's the culprit either. And in the two following cases when Marinette's framed, Alya never actually gets a chance to say what she believes after the accusation is made against Marinette.

Just... the amount of demonization towards Alya TO THIS DAY, often for things she NEVER EVEN FREAKING DID, is absolutely insane. Even over 5 years since Chameleon aired, fics with Alya being made into this malicious, awful bully so that Marinette can get some new friends to publicly denounce her, get her arrested, or otherwise be punished are frequently on the front page of the most recently updated fics on AO3, and are often some of the most popular ones. If you go to "Fandom-Specific plot" on Tvtropes, saltfics like these have multiple files going through all the common salt tropes. When looking through fics, I frequently search for Alya's name because she's often the first person to be unfairly demonized, so if she's safe, then everyone likely is.

I suspect that racism plays a major factor in this. It doesn't make sense that Alya's often painted as being a violent, malicious bully and leader in getting the rest of the class to physically hurt and terrorize Marinette, I haven't even seen analysis arguing that she'd do that... but it tracks with the "Black Brute" archetype. This becomes even more obvious with Chloe, who's white and canonically DOES do some of this stuff, taking on Alya's canon role and some of her personality traits in these sorts of stories.

Then there's the standard Alya's held to for how she handles her blog. It's way higher than anyone would hold real-world reporters to, much less 14-year-olds. But it makes sense if you factor racial bias into account, and how Alya, being Black, is going to be held to a higher standard than anyone else, and be punished more for failing to meet that standard.

For things like the babysitting double standard, it makes no sense if you're actually looking at the stated criticism, given that the same criticism isn't leveled at Marinette... but it makes perfect sense if you're going off the assumption that Alya, as Marinette's Black Best Friend, is supposed to solely function as her support and that she's simply fulfilling her duties by always being there for her when needed, including for babysitting, but that if Marinette ever attempts to repay in kind, then Alya's being unfair towards her because Alya's obligated to always support Marinette, but that relationship is supposed to be a one-way street. Alya is supposed to function as Marinette's support, never the other way around.

And as for the way Alya's demonized for asking for evidence before believing that Lila's lying, well... again, Alya's expected to act as Marinette's support, and her "failing" that in any way, even if it makes sense from her point of view, is viewed as a betrayal. She's supposed to be loyal to Marinette, and only to Marinette, not to think for herself or to have multiple other friends or values that she needs to weigh. And anything that she does to go against that "justifies" Marinette intentionally trying to hurt and punish her for failing to live up to her role.

In conclusion, the way Alya's treated by the salt side of the fandom is grossly unfair, often has little connection with anything she canonically did, and has some gross racist implications, and is likely at least partially spurred on by racism, especially with how common and popular it still is to this day.

Addendum: How Alya is screwed over by the writers.

While Alya is primarily screwed over by the fanbase, there are some aspects of the writing that exacerbate her ill treatment. In season 4, Marinette confesses her secret identity to Alya, letting her know that she is Ladybug. Despite now knowing why Marinette was so convinced that Lila wasn't friends with Ladybug, and that Lila's interview stating that she's best friends with Ladybug is a lie, the subject just... never comes up, even when Lila starts being important again. It's not that Alya's ignoring what Lila lying on those subjects means, it's more like the writers just completely forgot that Lila told those particular lies, since Marinette doesn't bring them up either. This creates an inconsistency with the fanbase, who really, really, REALLY haven't forgotten those lies.

There ARE ways to explain this - Lila lying about being friends with Ladybug in order to try to boost her reputation, especially when she's the new girl, isn't really all that heinous. Marinette lies a lot as well, even if you don't count lies told to protect her secret identity or other "necessary" lies, sometimes out of embarrassment, sometimes to to try and prevent someone's feelings from getting hurt, and sometimes because she thinks it's the fastest, easiest, or most certain way to get the outcome she wants. And yet, even though Marinette lies a lot, she's not ostracized for that since it's usually not for malicious reasons - foolish reasons at times, but rarely malicious. It would make sense that Lila too, wouldn't be thought too badly of for merely lying in an attempt to make friends.

None of that actually comes up though. Alya later, in Confrontation, states that, "Marinette, you know we'll always believe you. But every time you've accused Lila, there's been no evidence. And at worst, it was just a misunderstanding." Marinette doesn't say anything about the previous times Lila has been proven to lie, so it seems like either it was decided offscreen that the more understandable lies she's told don't matter, or that the writers just plain forgot about them.

There were other opportunities created by Alya knowing Marinette's identity that were ignored. Alya concludes that Adrien backing up Marinette's statement that Lila's bad news was just due to him wanting to defend his girlfriend. This is also a bit of a writing flaw, while wanting to back up his girlfriend's stance IS a decent reason for Adrien to be biased against Lila, this is Adrien we're talking about here. He's nice and understanding to a fault, and is known for giving people the benefit of the doubt and second chances. It makes far less sense to believe that he'd believe the worst of Lila, even if Marinette does, than it does for Marinette to be biased against Lila. That being said, Adrien wouldn't have been present for Lila's more indisputable threats and statements directed against Marinette, so he can't actually verify for sure whether or not there could've been some misunderstanding.

There WAS, however, someone who was always with Marinette, and who could actually back up Marinette's statements more definitively.

Tikki. She was present for every threat Lila made, for everything she ever claimed. While it's possible that both Tikki and Marinette may have misunderstood Lila in the same way, it's far less likely, especially since Tikki would have had different biases from Marinette. Tikki could be an important witness. Yet that never comes up, is never proposed, because that would end the plotline too quickly.

Alya was also screwed over in the immediate aftermath of Lila being exposed, though not by the writers per se? There was a short scene planned after Lila's exposed where Alya apologizes for not believing Marinette about Lila being a liar and generally an awful person, we've even got leaked footage of it, but it appears that it was cut somewhere between being written and voice acted, and the episode being aired.

All of this only really affects detailed arguments about how well (or poorly) Alya's story arc with Lila was handled, its affect on the actual fanfiction produced about Chameleon salt was minimal, I saw no change in its frequency, severity, or general handling of the characters with any season after season 3. I highly doubt that even the changes I suggested here would have done much to persuade the saltdom against Ron the Death Eatering Alya, especially since a lot of the hatred against her has so little to do with the show.

There IS some hatred thrown at Alya for non-Lila related reasons - well, reasons that aren't DIRECTLY Lila related, most of that hatred still stems from people hating her for Chameleon stuff and then retroactively justifying it by looking back at other things she did that irked them. The most common one (that actually has some sort of argument to it, not the "Alya's a horrible babysitter and is abusing her friendship with Marinette" nonsense I listed in the main essay) is that Alya's pushy about getting Marinette together with Adrien.

This is more a product of Alya's usual role in the story than anything. I mentioned in the main essay how Alya sometimes falls into "Black Best Friend" territory, and this is one of the biggest examples. One of her most common roles throughout the series is as the person who pushes Marinette to actually confess to Adrien, to hang out with him, to pursue her romantic desires even with her anxiety holding her back, and to be honest with herself during the times when she's trying to deny her feelings for him. She's Marinette's sounding board whenever she's having an anxiety spiral about... actually, just about anything, and acts as the voice of reason when Marinette gets in her own head too much.

Thus, Alya sets Marinette and Adrien to end up somewhere alone together, or tries to push her to talk to him, or to be honest during the times when she tries to "move on" from Adrien by denying that she still has feelings for him (which is blatantly untrue). She IS okay with Marinette dating someone else though, if she honestly seems to want to do that. She had no problem with her dating Luka, for instance. She DID protest Marinette's seemingly sudden interest in Chat Noir, but that was mostly because Marinette seemed to be grabbing at her new attraction as an attempt to run away from her feelings for Adrien, something that Tikki ALSO noted.

That's another thing - Alya's the character who's most frequently thrown into this role, but she's not the only one, nor even the most extreme one. A new character that was introduced for the Miraculous New York Special, Jess, observed how Adrien and Marinette acted around each other, and decided to try to get them to confess their love by faking a supervillain attack on them, with the supervillain kidnapping anyone that no one loves in order to compel Marinette to FINALLY confess to Adrien. (Alya thought it was stupid, but agreed to help since it might actually work). When Marinette, Adrien, Luka, and Kagami went out to the wax museum together, Luka intentionally locked Adrien and Marinette in a room together so that Marinette would stop running away and would be forced to talk to Adrien. Marinette is written in such a way that other characters are compelled to meddle in her lovelife, because otherwise she'll continue making her own extreme plans and pining away, but never actually confess her feelings.

So while Alya could be said to be "pushy" to an extent, it's mostly for Marinette's benefit. I would like if this was a less frequent role for Alya - I think it does her a disservice, since it locks her firmly into Marinette's orbit rather than emphasizing who Alya is as her own character. Most of the hatred towards Alya for this is tied up in "Die For Our Ship" being directed at Adrien though, with Adrien bashers hating that Alya's trying to set Marinette up with what they see as an inferior option. Ironically enough, while Alya's role in this situation is one of the primary examples in the show of her being treated by the writers as a "Black Best Friend" who exists to serve Marinette's character, it's actually one of the cases where I think racism is a pretty minor part of the hatred by the fanbase over it, since I think that's mostly motivated by hatred towards the Lovesquare.

In conclusion (again), there is an issue with the writers bending Alya's character in order to tell a particular story, particularly a Marinette-centered story, while ignoring how little sense that makes with what happened earlier on in the plotline, or how it centralizes Alya's role and character around Marinette in ways that exacerbate already existing writing patterns in media.

#alya cesaire #ml analysis #ml fandom salt #miraculous ladybug

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yolowritter · 8 months ago

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A Case of Ladybug Luck: Chapter 3

Hello there everyone, and welcome back to Hell! Listen, I've used up most of the good intro analogies in the actual fic, so that's all I got. But hey, I'm back with chapter 3 of ACOLL! Mind you we have 26 of these as of right now, so my blog has catching up to do! Anyway, I figured I'll give you guys the link for each one of these and a snippet, as before! Again, if anybody wants to ask questions/chat, comments and anon asks are always open!

As always, snippet is below the cutoff!

It was well past midnight, and Shadowmoth stood in his lair, waiting. Barely any moonlight lit up his lair, but he did not mind. The mood was quite perfect for the emotions he could feel. Yes! He’d known the opportunity would arise again! He was sure!

“Ahh…a soul broken beyond repair by betrayal and deception! A shattered friendship and a heart in torment! Fly away my little Akuma, and evilize Marinette Dupain Cheng! Let us give Princess Justice the justice she so craves!”

His insane laugher echoed through the lair, but not a sound escape into the outside world. Here, he was alone. Here, he was powerful. Here, he was a king! And soon, so very soon, his dear Emilie would be joining him! At long last!

He could sense Nooroo in the back of his head. Always preaching caution, warning, advising him to stop, just for a day. Duusu was faintly present also, but she was barely a whisper. He ignored them. The Kwami had never wanted him to use their powers, but even if it had been an evil cause he was working towards, what consequence could that possible have on him?

He’d taken the legal precautions, he almost never left his lair, his home. Ladybug and Chat Noir would never find him. The Grimoire, the two Miraculous were his. What was the consequence? Nothing more than Nooroo’s feeble attempt to protect himself, as if it would ever make a difference! As if! Nothing would stop him! Nothing could stop him! He was Hawkmoth, he was the scourge of Paris! He was… he was…

Who was he?

What was he?

What was happening to him?

Shadowmoth shook his head, sharply turning to the skyline. No matter. The Akuma edged ever closer; he could see it! Through the butterfly’s senses, he felt the world around him. Rain pouring down from the sky, slamming against his wings. Desperation, worry and despair from two souls who ran amok in the dead of night, searching. Pain. Heartbreaking, endless pain from his target.

There she is…

A vivid image entered his mind. Princess Justice, wet to the bone, standing on the railing of a bridge, the waters below bashing against the stone and nearly escaping to the streets. The turned suddenly, and looking directly at the Akuma. At him.

He heard her scream in fear, or maybe he felt her panic spike. The others were drawing closer. It was not or never. Thoughts were running through her head endlessly, creating a myriad of wonderful negativity that he would use to destroy Ladybug and Chat Noir!

Lila, she’s laughing at me. She- she’s won.

A-Adrien, I’m sorry!

Mama…

Papa…

Goodbye.

He saw her form begin to lean over, he heard the sound of shattered glass, he sensed her despair. His connection with the Akuma snapped. He couldn’t feel Princess Justice anymore. Ladybug wasn’t there. She couldn’t have reached the butterfly. Impossible. Then-

Then Princess Justice was dead.

Princess Justice was dead.

Dead.

Shadowmoth’s transformation fell, his mind too exhausted to keep up. Gabriel tried to lean on a cane that wasn’t there, and fell to his knees. The last thing he had felt…was fear. Absolute existential terror, at the mere idea that he would get to her. That he would make her fight her loved ones. That he would make her hurt them. He’d seen her jump.

He just killed someone.

#miraculous ladybug #a case of ladybug luck #ao3 fanfic #marinette dupain cheng #gabriel agreste #adrien agreste #marinette f*cking died #...again #miraculous fanfic #these are old chapters btw I promise I've gotten much better #but anyway #mental unhealth #in...excessive amounts #gabriel agreste is insane #and just killed the main character #wonderful!#now what?#depression I guess...#hope you enjoy

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writerofcrazydreams · 1 year ago

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Butterfly effect of the Reversal Salt AU

First thing first, I'm not bashing Adrien, Marinette, or anyone. However, the narrative is mostly from Lila's POV so, of course, she'd throw insults like candy, undermine everyone's worth (such as calling them by a superficial attribute instead of their names), and exaggerate their flaws.

On a related note. ML's characters are flawed. Marinette has creepy stalker tendencies, Chat Noir is a dogged nice guy, the class takes advantage of Marinette (even if unwittingly), and Mme. Bustier is an enabler for bullying. I'm not willing to overlook those flaws but seeing most of the characters are teenagers, I think they have room to grow and all of them deserve a chance for redemption. Yes, even Lila, loath as I am to say it. Most of the kids have also virtues worth of notice.

Secondly, this is a writing prompt. After reading too many Lila Salt Fics and a Lilanette one I stumbled upon by accident, my brain decided to wonder how would a Salt Fic be if Marinette and Adrien's roles were reversed.

For want of a nail (i.e., transferring six months later in the year), Lila has set her sights on budding fashion designer Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Because Marinette is infatuated by Adrien Agreste, Lila needs to get him out of the way. As a result, she plans on ostracizing him from the class and demonizing him so Marinette would lose interest. Lila's actions have some unexpected positive side effects. She's possessive, so everything Marinette does has to be to Lila's benefit which leads Lila to shame the classmates on how much they take Marinette for granted. Whether Lila successfully traps Marinette in an abusive romantic relationship it's up to whoever wants to continue this thing. More impactful is the fact Lila was never akumatized into Volpina or Chameleon, thus preventing Heroes' Day from happening. This means that Hawk Moth achieved the mass akumatization and discovered the temporary heroes' identities in another way or didn't do it at all. Another ripple effect is Lila getting a Miraculous by virtue of being on Ladybug's good side. I don't think Rena Rouge will be replaced, so no Volpina, but I'm betting she gets one of the Zodiac Miraculous or the Peacock if the heroes manage to retrieve it from Mayura.

In spite of a nail, Lila still eventually associates with Gabriel Agreste to manipulate his son into doing her bidding. And I can assure you she's still the cause of several akumas (the shaming part). She will still wrap Damoclès and Bustier around her little finger by claiming she's being bullied by a fellow student. Furthermore, it's still well in the realm of possibility Lila gets akumatized at some point. The girl' still has a penchant for holding petty grudges, so it's bound to happen. Maybe she does get turned into Volpina or Chameleon, but it will be later and in different circumstances. "The Collector" still happens more or less the same as Gabriel will akumatize himself to retrieve the Grimoire and get the heroes off of his trail, though there's the chance the middlewoman (Ladybug) is cut and Chat Noir gives the book directly to Master Fu, causing him to meet the guardian. Will that make Adrien a more responsible hero and prevent his tantrums from being locked out of the loop? It depends. If somehow Ladybug and Chat Noir go together, Ladybug will still be Fu's successor but Chat Noir will know more things from the get-go. If it's only him, either the guardian contacts Marinette later or starts training Adrien. Keep in mind, though, that his packed schedule won't allow him to visit Fu as frequently as Canon!Marinette could.

Whether she starts working for Hawk Moth is uncertain, though. It depends on your take on this prompt so nails don't have a say in this matter. Or not an obvious one, at least.

In the third place, this is a writing prompt and, as such, people have utter freedom to make of it what they want. Wanna bash the hell out of Adrien? Of Alya? Mme. Bustier? Chloé? Even Marinette? Go on. I think the kids can grow into better people, but if other writers disagree, have different stories in mind, or are simply salty over someone, I won't be the one to put limits to their creativity and desires. The same applies to whomever you choose to redeem. That's why I left it very ambiguous throughout the prompt on whether Chloé is working towards her Redemption or following her canonical Damnation. She defends Ladybug because she loves the heroine, she snickers when Alya has to change seats because she feels vindicated ("Origins" episode), and she stands for Adrien because he's her childhood friend. In the former case, both the vindication and the insults are little steps backward, especially considering Chloé knows how much Adrien fears conflict (he won't and doesn't defend himself that much).

Having said that, for all I respect freedom of speech, that doesn't mean I'll condone or agree with everything people write inspired on this prompt. Have fun, but it's not my responsibility if we end up with a "Dead Dove: Don't Eat" kind of fic, okay?

Fourth, here are some of my ideas about this Reversal Salt AU.

Lila's mother, here dubbed as Signora Rossi (Signora means Mrs. in Italian), is not an abusive parent but possibly a slightly neglectful one. That doesn't mean she's a bad person or that she loves her daughter any less. It just means she's caught up in a very demanding job either because she's ambitious and wants to succeed in her work field (which is fine) or because she's a single mother and thus is stretching herself thin to fulfill her daughter's physical and emotional needs. Or maybe she just wants to believe the best of her daughter and turns a blind eye to Lila's misdeeds. Despite that, she's caring and loving. I'm not keen on demonizing Signora Rossi because of these reasons but it is clear she ought to pay a little bit more attention to what her daughter is up to and is likely she for some reason failed to instill integrity in kid!Lila. An excellent take on this matter can be found in this fanfic: "A mother's love".

On the other hand, it's also entirely possible Lila was born a psychopath. I've been researching and some psychologists hold that a sociopath is made through trauma and a psychopath is born, but the result is the same anti-social tendencies. Though if you want to make her a sociopath and give her a traumatic past, go on. Canon!Lila not only scores high in psychopathy but also Machiavellism and Narcissism.

In regards to her other parent, I left their gender ambiguous because there are some fan theories that Lila has two mothers. Or it's maybe just an animation error, but I don't like to throw the chance out of the window. Now, in the case it wasn't a mistake, both mothers are what I described a paragraph ago but fanfiction exists to explore different scenarios anyway, so... Maybe this other parent influenced Lila to become who she is now.

About Adrien. As I said above, the kid does have some nasty flaws. What he does to Ladybug at the very least verges on sexual harassment and he's proven to be manipulative (throwing tantrums when rejected). In this AU, said flaws are at play as much as Marinette's flaws were in canon. She partially misused her powers out of jealousy (partially because she had a point in that Lila was making herself a target) and her reasons to eavesdrop on Lila and Adrien are definitely not pure. Here, it's her tendency to obsess over and idealize her crush what is going to be her downfall. I'm not victim-blaming, but abusers prey on their victim's weaknesses and those just happen to be Marinette's. And that's not counting how Marinette's yearn for control was aggravated since the "Chat Blanc" incident (it happens later, but the base is already there). Nonetheless, I'm of the idea that Lila opened Marinette's eyes a little when she attacked her crush on Adrien (like pointing out being a stalker is not healthy) and that's going to bite her in the ass later on. Marinette being a doormat to her friends is more tricky since Lila made it as to ensure Marinette will remain a doormat to her but not anyone else. It's workable when the time to heal comes.

By contrast, Adrien's doormat policies, pushiness, obliviousness, and social ineptitude are still going to be rocks in his path. He's now crossed at Lila for several reasons. The obvious is her "bad-mouthing" Chat Noir, but there's more. Up to this point, Lila has consistently stirred trouble in the classroom, menacing the peace he values so much. It's Lila's fault (or that's how he sees it) Marinette is "abandoning" her friends and being "mean" to them. His upbringing has left him rather unable to understand that kindness is not a synonym of "absolutely catering to someone's wishes" (as he often does with Chloé and always with his father) and that this behavior is not healthy. His obliviousness comes into play in regards to just how much Marinette means to him (platonically or romantically). Lila has been monopolizing Marinette all to herself even when the class hangs out as a group, which severely cuts the already scarce time the two interact. He's jealous without being aware of it. It doesn't help how touchy-feely Lila and Marinette are because it sometimes causes discomfort to the latter, which Adrien picks up and not only notices Lila's hypocrisy but also rubs him in the wrong way as it mirrors his behavior as Chat Noir. Now, don't get me wrong, the least he wanted was to cause a scene but couldn't help but glare and Lila capitalized on that.

What does Lila think of Ladybug? "Volpina" never happened and this Lila only intended on pursuing Adrien before discovering Marinette's promising career, so neither hates the other one nor harbors a grudge. In fact, I doubt this AU would last much if that were the case. I left open the possibility of Lila being the anti-Chloé (hates Ladybug, loves Marinette) with that part of suspecting Marinette is crushing on Ladybug (*laughs in Plagg*), but I have to note that the hatred cannot be mutual for this to work. Canon!Lila loathes Chat Noir and it's likely that will remain the same, just less vocal (Marinette admires Ladybug and has a way of contacting the heroine, so Lila won't bad-mouth Chat Noir in front of Ladybug).

What roles would Luka and Kagami play in this AU? Obviously, the love-dodecaedron has shifted. There are at least three people after Marinette/Ladybug's affections: Chat Noir, Luka, and Lila. And whoever you ship Marinette with. And, now, there are only two girls wanting to date Adrien/Chat Noir: Kagami and Marinette. Chloé is uncertain because it was stated at some point she wasn't in love with Adrien, she was just possessive for some reason (fanon says it was to protect him from fangirls and fanboys). One possible scenario in this AU is that Marinette's feelings towards Adrien fade for the most part (maybe they will resurge later or shift to return Chat Noir's), depending on how efficient you want to portray Lila. Getting back to the point, Luka still has a crush on Marinette as revealed in "Silencer" and Kagami on Adrien but the events of "Oni-chan" developed differently and it's as equally possible that she confessed her crush on him/was akumatized than it hasn't happened yet. If Lila somehow catches wind of Kagami's crush, she will set the two up to force Marinette to move on. She might even encourage Marinette and Kagami's friendship to bind Marinette to obey the girl code and support Kagami. If she learns of Luka's crush, then she'll either play the card that "he's too old for Marinette" (if we disregard the retcon) or try to exclude him from the class' activities. Taking more extreme measures will tip Marinette off of Lila's true nature. As I side note: I like this more than canon because I'm TIRED of watching four girls fighting over a guy.

How will Alya and Nino react? Without the jealousy component, what are the grounds to dismiss his warnings? Well, Adrien still takes the high road so he won't publicly confront Lila on her manipulations. He dreads conflict too much and if he finally does it, it will be too late — either Lilanette is official or everyone else believes so, therefore the class will be prone to believe Adrien is jealous. The lack of public accusations also rob Lila of one of her primary strategies: turn on the waterworks. Consequently, everything will be much more underhanded. Lila's association with Gabriel will result in Adrien spending far less time with his friends and maybe even pulling the same stunt of threatening them in the hopes of creating powerful akumas (again, "Chat Blanc" episode). But I digress, Lila will relentlessly target Alya and Adrien for supporting LadyNoir. Maybe Alya will learn her lesson but as Adrien already sees Lila in a bad light, he will take longer to budge or won't do it at all. Nino will try to change Adrien's opinion and that'll cause a gap between the two. Nino is very laidback, so he won't push as much but will be vulnerable to Lila's poisoning. Alya will remain Marinette's friend but butt heads with Lila as the latter tries to correct her occasional forcefulness. Marinette will intervene and either Alya regards Lila in a positive light because she did help Marinette (in a sense) or by holding onto her stubbornness will have a fallout with Lila and seek flaws on her. All in all, Alya and Nino's behavior are wildly variable. The only secure thing is that Lila is as capable as in canon of swaying them to her favor and making them unwittingly throw a friend under the bus, just in a different way.

I don't know if you've noticed but there's a theme about how holding onto flaws can sometimes yield positive results, often aided by virtues. In canon, it was how holding onto virtues can sometimes yield negative results, often exacerbated by flaws. Marinette's hatred of liars and loyalty to her friends are virtues but landed her on a bully's bad side and got isolated. Her jealousy and stalker tendencies (both flaws) didn't help matters at all. Meanwhile, Adrien's desire to see the best in everyone and give second chances are virtues but they made him act in the wrong way and fail to support a friend. His learned fear of conflict and submissiveness only made things worse. Lila has the virtue of being charming (for the wrong reasons, but still) and knowing her way with people which would turn her into a fine leader. Yet, she causes mayhem and destroys people's lives by using those virtues along with her fatal flaws — narcissism and vindictiveness.

In the Reversal Salt AU, however, most of the positive results stem from holding onto one's flaws. If Alya remains stubborn, she eventually learns Lila's nature aided by her reporter abilities and determination. If Marinette refuses to let go of her obsessiveness and refuses to think the worse of her friends, she forces Lila to ditch subtlety and thus expose herself. If Adrien continues walking the high road and keeps being nice, he provides Lila with far less ammunition against him. Nino has proved to be distrustful (dismissing Marinette in the Lila ordeal and believing Alya is two-timing him in "Rocketear") and if he does that here, he'll catch on to Lila's manipulations and even call her out given his outgoing nature.

This brief interpretation is merely a suggestion and, again, you are not obliged to use it as the central theme of your story. Personally, I'd use the whole "holding onto flaws gets better results" as a temptation in the characters' arcs whereas the "working on my flaws unwittingly aids the villain" as an angst-fuel when the characters learn of Lila's manipulations. One of the traits of an abusive relationship (romantic or otherwise) is how much the victim struggles to stop believing their abuser's words. Nobody is always wrong, so if my abuser was right about/helped me with this thing, would they be right about/had helped with this other one? Often, it comes down to finding a balance: you keep whatever good things you got from the relationship while discarding the harmful ones. Naturally, this is a lengthy, stressful process that Lila can very well exploit to blackmail her victims, make them second-guess themselves, or just make them miserable.

Last but not least, I want to comment on two Lila Salt Fics that depict similar ideas, although I only found them after crafting this AU. Little spoilers warning about them. The first is "Liar's New BFF" and delves into the idea of Lila being the anti-Chloé. After having her lies exposed at the end of "Volpina", she starts regarding the classmates as vermin and genuinely falls in love with Marinette because of her kindness. She then proceeds to create a riff between Marinette and them by pointing out how much they take advantage of her. In this case, Lila is partially redeemed and doesn't seem to hold a particular grudge against Adrien. The Reversal Salt AU can follow a similar path if you want to, but the idea is to not shy away from Lila's many shortcomings as a human being and how that would affect Marinette and Adrien in an alternate scenario.

The other is "Jerk in Sheep's Clothing", where Lila's spear counterpart, called Henri, acts pretty much as I described Reversal Salt!Lila. He gets infatuated by Marinette and after threatening Lila, makes a deal with her so it's easier for both to accomplish their goals (Lila: get Adrien and be popular, Henri: get Marinette all for himself). He exploits Marinette's broken trust in the classmates to bully them and get away with it, collaborates with Hawk Moth at some point, and even gets a Miraculous. The difference between them is that Reversal Salt!Lila doesn't have the benefit of Marinette being emotionally vulnerable due to Canon!Lila's bullying, nor her faith in her friends is weakened. This means this AU's Lila must resource to more deceptive tactics to get what she wants (she can't blatantly lie).

#reversal salt au #miraculous ladybug #lila rossi salt #canon divergent au

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themaribatpit · 3 years ago

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Saturday Challenge: Continue a Fic You Wrote for Jasonette July

Written by: The Maribat Pit @jasonette-july-event Prompt: Continue a fic you wrote for Jasonette July Rated: M (for violence and strong language)

Then Perish : Part 2

Marinette tossed the helmet aside, she glanced over at the desk and grabbed a letter opener. She tried to take several swipes at him, all of which he evaded with ease before grabbing her by the wrist. Marinette tried to drop the letter opener into her other hand but he caught it before she did. “Nice try, mind telling me why you’re so desperate to kill me?” he asked, Marinette could just about hear him smirking under the mask. Up close, she noticed that, in addition to his dark hair, there was a white streak of hair framing his face. His eyes were still covered by the domino mask as they looked down at her. “You killed my parents,” she growled. “So is that what this is all about…tell me, what makes you so sure that I did it?” he asked. “I saw you, I saw people begging for their lives just before you killed them.” she recalled, “I saw you standing over their dead bodies.” He pushed her back with very little effort, but before she could charge at him again, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun. He tossed it to her and she caught it, the cold metal felt heavy in her small hands. “If you are so certain that I’m the one who did it,” he said, “then let the punishment fit the crime.” Marinette looked down at the gun in her hands, she knew exactly what he was asking her to do. She took aim with the gun, her hands shook as she pointed it at the Red Hood. Her eyes were wide, her hands were shaking, she tried to steel herself. She tried to ignore the voice in her head telling her that something wasn’t right. It couldn’t be this easy, there had to be a catch, a struggle, something. She brought her other hand to the gun, trying to hold it steady. She hoped he couldn’t hear her heart hammering in her chest, she tried not to think about how frightened or nervous she was at that moment. Meanwhile the Red Hood remained calm, beckoning her to shoot him. “Come on I’m right, here, need me to draw a bullseye?” he taunted. Marinette squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the trigger, she heard a loud BANG, followed by silence. She slowly cracked open an eye to see her target. “You missed.” Red Hood remarked. Marinette tried to make another shot, but the gun went CLICK, it was empty. She looked down at the empty gun in her hand, before glaring up at the Red Hood.

“Look kid, you’re after the wrong guy. I’m not the one who killed your parents.” he explained.

Marinette eyed him suspiciously “More lies.” she scoffed as she glared at him.

“Fine, but the camera doesn't lie,” he walked over to the laptop on his desk and pushed a button. A projector screen appeared and began playing footage from a camera during that fateful shootout. Red Hood continued typing away, until he found the right camera to see the events unfold. “There, camera 5.” he finished typing and turned to watch the footage with her.

Marinette stared at the footage, her eyes widening in shock. She saw their final moments and it made her heart ache. She watched them go looking for her while she was helping other people as Ladybug. She wondered if she had left those people to die in Park Row, would her parents still be alive and well? She watched her parents run into some mobster with a gun, he tried to mug them. Her father tried using his large size to threaten the mobster, but he had a gun and her father didn't. Tom Dupain was then shot in the head, Sabine held his dead body begging for the mobster to spare her.

Upon hearing her mother’s cries of mercy, Marinette dropped the gun and fell to her knees. Her hands were balled into fists, trying to latch onto the carpeted floor beneath her. There were tears dripping down to her cheeks and clouding her vision. Even so, she could not bring herself to look away, she had to know who this man was. The man then shot Sabine in the head. He ran away, just as the Red Hood showed up on camera to inspect the unfortunate couple who walked past Park Row.

Marinette wailed as the video footage ended, “No more, please no more,” she cried. “<Mom, Dad, I’m so sorry.>” she cried to herself in French.

Jason watched the girl cry her heart out after watching her parents get murdered. He couldn’t blame her, no one could. He sat on his desk, as she continued crying. He brought up zoomed camera footage and a mugshot up on screen. Once he was done he stepped in front of her.

The Red Hood standing right in front of Marinette was enough to stop her from crying, she looked up. “You want the man who killed your parents?” he asked. Marinette could only nod. “Luca Angelo, known associate of the Falcone Crime Family.” he stepped aside and pointed to the mugshot. “Last spotted in the Falcone Slaughterhouse.”

“You want him? We’ll go together at sunrise.” he told her. Marinette stood up and nodded, wiping her tears on her sleeve. “All right Suzie’ll bring you back to your room, they’ll pick you up again later.” Marinette then left the room, escorted by Suzie Su.

Jason looked over at his window viewing the Gotham Skyline. “I know you’re there Batman, come on in, it's unlocked.” Batman emerged from the shadows.

"Isn't she the French girl that was in GCPD a few weeks ago?" Asked Batman, staring straight at Jason.

"Yup" said Red Hood, "Sent back to Paris, if I remember correctly. Came back to Gotham thinking I was the one to kill her parents." Red Hood shrugged and sat on his chair, feet resting on his desk.

“She could have killed you.” Batman pointed out. “It’s nice to know you care, Bruce.” Jason said sarcastically, “You saw what happened there, she couldn’t even get a scratch on me.” he explained. “Not without her powers anyway,” he thought. “She could have killed me...just like how I could have killed the Penguin.” Jason told him. Batman sighed, remembering how Jason explained that the Penguin didn’t really die the night that he shot him. One of these days, Jason was going to give him a heart attack with all the elaborate stunts that he pulled.

"Why are you two going to the Falcone Slaughterhouse?" Batman asked, as Jason poured himself a drink.

"Closure." Jason told him, "You and Dick should know how important closure is when you lose your parents."

"Luca Angelo is dead." Batman stated, "That gang war was unsanctioned by the Falcones, they killed him to appease you and the Maronis."

"You're right, but she'll need to learn that herself.” Jason nodded in agreement, taking a sip of his drink. “At that moment she’ll have to make a choice, whether or not she wants to find peace or let her vengeance spiral out of control?” “That’s quite a risk to take,” Batman pointed out, “what makes you so sure she won’t choose the latter?” His eyes fell on the helmet that lay discarded on the floor. “Call it a calculated risk,” he said “sometimes you just have to give people a chance.” Batman narrowed his eyes, Jason looked back at him over the rim of his glass as he took another sip.

"Fine," Batman relented. "but I'll be there to watch you two." “Say hi to Yo-Yo Girl for me, next time you see her.” Jason said nonchalantly, “She was a huge help getting people to safety that night.” “Yo-Yo Girl?” Batman asked, Jason looked up and cocked an eyebrow. “Sorry, thought she was one of yours,” he said, before finishing the last of his drink. Batman decided not to ask anything more about it, before he crept back into the shadows and vanished. That morning, Marinette opened the Miracle box and took out Tikki’s earrings. Tikki gave her a sad look, “Are you sure about this, Marinette?” she asked in a soft voice. “I saw the man who really killed my parents,” Marinette told her, “if I let him walk free, all this would have been for nothing.” Tikki sighed but had no choice but to comply. “Spots on” she said, she transformed into Ladybug, ready to face the real culprit. When she stepped out onto the rooftop, Red Hood was waiting for her. He turned to see the Yo-Yo Girl who was getting civilians to safety that night, it explained how she managed to avoid meeting her parents’ fate that night. Still, this should be interesting. “So you got a name or is it really just ‘Yo-Yo Girl’?” he asked. “Ladybug,” she told him, “let's get this over with.” she said. Red Hood grappled away and Ladybug followed with a very creative use of her yo-yo.

Later, Red Hood and Ladybug snuck into Falcone Slaughterhouse. The pungent smell of blood gave Ladybug the sinking feeling that livestock wasn’t the only meat that was cut up here. They quietly knocked out the guards as they made their way in. Red Hood pointed to the door with a sign above the said "Foreman". He then kicked the door down, and they quickly subdued the two guards in the room.

"What the fuck?!" cried the foreman as Ladybug ran up and bashed his head with an ashtray.

She wrapped the string of her yo-yo around the foreman's neck. "Where is Luca Angelo?!" she yelled.

"Rat-faced Luca? Motherfucker's already minced meat by now!" the foreman laughed.

"W-what?" Ladybug stuttered, “No, you’re lying!” she yelled. This had to be a trick, he was probably hiding somewhere, relishing in the memory of making her parents feel helpless. She would not be so easily defeated.

"Are ya deaf? He's dead." The foreman drew a gun from his pocket and pointed it at Ladybug. A shuriken then hit the gun, knocking it away from his hand.

Ladybug tightened her grip on the wire. As she was strangling the man her hands shook as rage consumed her. The man gasped and struggled for air, but she held it tight. “Please” he croaked, “have mercy.”

“Why should I show you any? My parents were shown none!” Ladybug growled, baring her teeth. She pulled the string tighter, as if she was garroting the man. She pictured how her parents had suffered, her mother’s cries for mercy echoed in her mind.

“Please...I..have..a..daughter.” The foreman barely managed to speak, he tried to paw at the wire with his hands but it wouldn’t budge. Ladybug paused, she looked at her reflection in the window. She had seen what she had become.

Shame and guilt filled her as the man became limp. She let go of her yo-yo, and released the man. She brought her hands to her mouth as she stumbled back in fear and guilt. What would Tikki, Alya and her parents feel if they knew she had blood on her hands? Her breathing became more rapid as panic set in.

Red Hood calmly walked over, placed two fingers on his neck. “He ain’t dead.” he commented. Ladybug ran, tears streaking down her cheeks. Red Hood didn’t follow, he knew she needed time alone to think. He hoped what she saw was enough to give her closure. He tried to be optimistic that Ladybug would not walk the path of vengeance, but he wasn’t known for his optimism. Roy would have known what to say to her, but thinking of Roy at all made his heart sink.

Ladybug ran, she had no clue where she was or where she was going, she just needed to be alone. She didn’t know how long or how far she had traveled, she just found a secluded rooftop. “Spots off” she muttered, Tikki didn’t say a word as she looked up at her. They sat on the edge of the roof, watching Gotham at night. They both sat in absolute silence, as Marinette came to terms with the tempest of thoughts, guilt and anger that stirred in her mind. She wondered if she could bring herself to use the Ladybug Miraculous again? If she could trust herself not to lash out at innocent people? A part of her began to question if she was even fit to be Guardian of the Miraculous?

“I almost killed an innocent man,” Marinette croaked, tears welled up in her eyes. “I don't know what to do Tikki, the man who killed Maman and Papa is already dead. It still hurts.” she cried harder.

Tikkie floated in front of Marinette’s face. Marinette didn’t even try to look at her through the sheen of tears in her eyes, “Marinette, I know, everyone needs time to grieve and move on.” Tikki told her, trying her best to comfort her.

“How, how can I move on? What should I do now? Go to Shanghai and live there?” Marinette asked.

“Maybe I can help,” came a voice from behind. Tikki zoomed straight to Marinette’s pocket and hid in there. The figure walked up to her and took a seat beside her on the edge of the roof.

The man wore a leather jacket, looked like he was a few years older than her, and he held a takeaway bag with him. She was about to ask who he was until she recognised that distinctive white streak of hair. Her eyes widened as he handed her the bag.

“Go on, dig in,” he said, pushing the bag towards her. She apprehensively took the bag from him until the scent of freshly baked bread hit her nose. “I had a friend make those for you, he’s an amazing chef and baker.” he told her, “Don’t eat his waffles though, they taste like paste.”

Marinette gave a small chuckle at his joke, “Thank you” she quietly said. She opened and tearfully ate the baked goods. They were just as good as her father’s baking.

“There’s not much left for you in Paris, and I know you don’t want to go to Shanghai. Why don’t you stay here in Gotham?” He asked.

Marinette paused to think, she had no plans on what to do after she had her revenge. She had just spiraled into obsession. He was right, she had nothing left in Paris, and Shanghai would be a struggle to start all over.

“I know you’re underage, why don’t I be your Guardian until you’re 18?” He suggested, “Then you can swing away and do whatever you want.” Jason thought she could do a lot worse for a Guardian, besides, Batman and Catwoman weren’t the only ones who were allowed to take orphans under their wing.

Marinette stayed quiet, thinking of her options. It was either Shanghai or Gotham. After a few minutes of contemplation, she nodded her head.

“Name’s Jason, Jason Todd.” He held out his hand.

Marinette shook his hand, “Marinette Dupain-Cheng, but I guess you already knew that.”

“You don't have to call me ‘Daddy’ unless you want to,” Jason Joked. Marinette wrinkled her nose and playfully shoved him away. For the first time since her parents died, she actually smiled. “I’m already a Guardian myself” she said, “but I always wanted an older brother.” “I have one, trust me it’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” he said. They sat in silence for a long moment, “so what’s the story with you and Ladybug?” he asked. “I helped one old guy across the street, and he decided that was a good enough reason to make me a superhero.” she explained, “I had to fight against a villain who was using people’s negative emotions to control them.” “Well, good thing he hasn’t found his way here, plenty of those going around in a city like this.” he said, trying to make her feel better. “How about you?” she asked, “Were you always this big bad crime lord?” She said the last part as if it was merely a facade or the stuff of legend. “My dad was sent to jail when I was a kid, my mom didn’t last that long after that,” he told her, “so I spent a few years living on the streets of Gotham.” “Was it always like this?” she asked, her childhood in Paris was already looking rosier by comparison. “Gotham? Almost certainly.” Jason told her, “When I was 13, I thought I’d be joining my old man in prison sooner or later, before I met the Bat himself.” Marinette’s eyes widened, she remembered hearing Alya gush about Batman and his various sidekicks over the years. “I thought he’d just beat me up for trying to steal the wheels off of the Batmobile, instead he gave me a hot meal and a place to call home.” he told her. “You’re looking at the second Robin,” he said. Judging by the sad smile he had on his face, Marinette could tell this story didn’t have a happy ending. “So, what happened?” she asked cautiously, he took a deep breath as he tried to find the words. On the one hand, the last thing he wanted, the last thing anyone needed, was this girl making the same stupid mistakes that he did. On the other hand, she had been through enough, it would have to be a story for another time. “That’s a story for another day,” he decided “but I promise you, one day I’ll tell it.” Marinette looked down at the city streets before her, it was a far cry from Paris, but maybe one day she would come to see it as home. Batman watched the two of them from a distance and smiled slightly. Maybe this girl would keep Jason from going too far down the treacherous path he was on, much like Tim had done all those years ago after he lost Jason. Only time will tell if that proved to be true, but for now he was pleased to see the two of them getting along. He grappled away, leaving the two of them to talk, laugh and joke with each other.

#jasonettejuly2021 #jasonette #ml x dc #maribat

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ririchanva · 3 years ago

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Summary: Marinette gains a new ally in a student from Japan, although he’s not what he seems. Lila makes her move, proving to Marinette that her threat is real. But what she didn’t count on, was that Marinette would have a few friends that has her back. Although they are the most unexpected people. When Lila pushes too far by getting Marinette and her friends expelled, there is a certain hero that lends a hand. But wait? BECOME STUDENTS OF U.A.?

░❇┊First┊❇ ░ ❇┊Next┊❇ ░ ❇┊Masterlist┊❇ ┊AO3 ┊❇░

Chapter 2: Permanent Heroes, Animaestro

A/n: Okay, since I’ve gotten a HUGE comment from both the old story and the new, I actually DID feel bad for the crap that Adrien went through in the original story, but he was eventually gonna be redeemed, learn a few lessons in and join the team. Just was going to go through some stuff along the way (it’s what I get for reading too many salt fics with Adrien being shat on doh!). But that’s no excuse. I almost wanted to place up the tag Adrien / Chat Salt in and go with the plan I had in my head but…I guess you’re right. SO IN FAIR WARNING, Adrien is going to be going through a tiny bit of shit (as Chat, not so much as Adrien himself) BUT he shall have some back up of his own like Marinette…Might include Nino, might not.

…But this mean that another character is gonna have a bad time.

Besides Lila, I mean.

…Whoops?

Anyways, things to know about this story:

For the My Hero Academia timeline, this is gonna take place at the very end of Season 3, which is the Shie Hassaikai Arc. I shall also follow the English Dub of the Miraculous show, meaning the kids are in high school like Deku and them. Not middle school / collége.

Most characters WILL be OOC. It’s just for the storyline to work, since this is an AU and all. It won’t be following both the Miraculous and My Hero lore. Sorry if that disappoints ya’ll.

Lila Bashing and Salt. Period. With some other salts for characters but I won’t be spoiling it. Everything happens for a reason.

Kwami swapping things. Not everyone will get the Miraculous as they did in the show. Sorry.

“Shopping? That’s our excuse?” Marinette asked as she sat in between Chloe and Sabrina, already telling the Driver the address to Master Fu’s place.

“What? It was a good basic excuse and no one would question it. Besides, what kind of excuses did you use whenever you had to transform into Ladybug?” Chloe asked before Marinette was opening her mouth, but then closed it with a defeated look, “Exactly,”

“So, we’re meeting with the Guardian of the Miraculous huh?” Sabrina asked with wide eyes, looking curious and also a bit nervous, “D-do you think we’re in trouble?”

Even Chloe looked slightly panicked but covered it up with a scoff, “Oh please, I’m sure he’s going to tell us that we’re going to have our Miraculouses. Of course I’ll be given Pollen and maybe the Master will give you something, Sabrina,”

“Y-You think so?” The ginger’s eyes widened as she fixed her glasses a bit.

“You won’t be as amazing as I am since I have been Queen Bee for a while…” Chloe trailed off for a moment before looking back at Marinette, “Why haven’t you been giving me a chance with being Queen Bee lately anyways? You’ve always trusted the Stupid Fox and Shellhead more than me…it’s been a while since Heroes’ day…”

“Er…”

Should she tell the truth?

Tikki peeked from the bag of Marinette’s as she gave a look, telling her that it has been a long time coming.

“I…I guess I wasn’t sure,” Marinette explained with a sigh, looking to see Chloe with a frown and Sabrina with a confused look, “Everyone knows you’re Queen Bee, Chloe. Especially Hawkmoth. Meaning that he could find ways to use your loved ones against you. Manipulate you into his clutches—“

“I would never fall for his tricks! I’m not an idiot, Dupain-Cheng!” The blonde argued, but Marinette raised a hand up.

“Hawkmoth is dangerous Chloe. There had been a few times even I have been almost Akumatized. May I remind you of what almost happened today?”

Chloe and Sabrina were quiet.

“There might be a chance you can never be Queen Bee again. Especially if there’s a chance that The Guardian knows that you guys know about me being Ladybug,” Marinette breathed out, softening a bit “I meant what I said that day, as Ladybug...you have the chance to change for the better. A-and I'm glad for it. I’ve seen you trying so hard these days it’s kinda surprising,” Although at times you tend to show off still as being Queen Bee, thus why I’m hesitating for asking help during fights, she would think solemnly.

“Y-Yes well…That was because Ladybug believes in me,” Chloe murmured as she looked to the side, almost embarrassed, “I’m pretty sure as yourself, Dupain-Cheng, you still think I’m awful—“

“Actually, I’ve noticed lately you haven’t been a total pain, complaining about something nor bullying anyone anymore,” The girl squeaked as Chloe growled, making Marinette laugh, “I just meant that there are moments that you do show that you are becoming a better person. Like how you don’t treat Sabrina as a servant that much anymore,”

Sabrina chirped, “She hasn’t asked me to do any of her homework like before! Only just help on the hard subjects. But er, I just realised that day when we were all working on a project together when Nathaniel was akumatized, was the reason you didn’t meet up with me because of being Ladybug?”

“Yeah…” Marinette laughed, remembering that day, “I still am sorry though for blowing you off without telling you,”

“If anything, I’m the one that should sorry for jumping the gun and thinking you’d be like the old Chloe and make me do all the work on the project,” Sabrina and Marinette laughed as Chloe shouted a ‘hey!’ in offense and they soon arrived at Master Fu’s place.

The three girls stepped out, Chloe then telling the Driver to take a drive around the city for a while until she called him. Once he left, the girls looked at each other for a moment, almost as if wondering what to expect when meeting the Guardian. Marinette soon lead the way slowly, her heart racing.

Of course she was feeling anxious of meeting Master Fu. This was sort of the kind of day she was dreading. When she was the one that got sloppy and someone found out her identity. She would’ve thought this was the kind of scenario she would have with Chat Noir, or even Alya.

This…this was ever more nerve-wracking.

Once they reached the door, Marinette was knocking on the door. The door opened and the short Chinese man was standing there, smiling kindly.

“Hello Marinette. And to you as well, Ms. Bourgeois, Ms. Raincomprix,”

Once the girls were ushered in, it was a surprise when Chloe was the one that spoke up first. Well, it wasn’t shocking that Chloe would voice her say first. But what was the biggest unbelievable thing to happen in front of both Marinette and Sabrina was that Chloe was going on her knees, head bowed.

“I know me being the Bee Heroine is a mistake. I know that I’m the last person to be a hero to anyone considering my…attitude,”

Sabrina wanted to step up but Marinette held her back, shaking her head as Chloe continued to talk in front of Master Fu.

“But,” The blonde raised her head up as she stared at the man with determination, “I won’t tell anyone Dupain-Cheng’s secret of Ladybug. She’s the only person for the job to save Paris. And probably keep that mangy cat of a sidekick in line too. So please don’t punish her because of me and Sabrina finding out who she is under the mask. If you’re going to punish someone…”

Chloe gulped as she then closed her eyes, her head bowed again.

“Then punish me. I’ll renounce myself from being Queen Bee forever as long as you keep Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug so she can defeat Hawkmoth once and for all….I-I just only ask…that I say my final goodbyes to Pollen. That’s all. I swear to all my Daddy’s money…”

Marinette couldn’t believe it. Was Chloe being serious right now? What has gotten into her?

Master Fu just smiled, as he reached out and patted Chloe’s head, making the girl look up in surprise.

“Such bold words from someone so young. It does surprise me,”

“So…I’m not gonna have my memories wiped or anything?” Chloe asked slowly, as Master Fu chuckled.

“Actually, I have only asked for you and Ms. Raincomprix because I believe Marinette would need some allies to help in balancing her life both as Marinette and in her time being Ladybug,”

Marinette’s jaws dropped. While Chloe and Sabrina looked at each other in surprise.

“M-Master?” She stuttered as she looked worried, “I-I thought that no one should be knowing about identities and all? I mean Chat Noir still doesn’t know—“

“He will come in due time. It is not his time to know everything just yet,” Fu almost said sagely but then sighed, looking to Marinette, “I know that I have…placed so much on you,”

“Master Fu…” The Ladybug holder softened, as Fu was raising his hand up.

"Marinette, I have come to realize that you have done so much as Ladybug," Fu started, guilt clouding his eyes, "So much sacrifice you have made for the greater good, I have robbed you of your normal life for the sake of saving Paris...and putting so much pressure and burden to someone as young as you. And...doing it on your own,"

Marinette listened, as Fu touched her arm with a solemn look.

"I have lived my life alone and not trusting anyone and look where that landed me. I will not make the same mistake with you, Marinette. Especially when you are cleaning up from my past mistakes," Fu smiled softly "At least we could have people you trust to be part of the secret and be heroes at your side,"

“But…” Marinette looked to Chloe and Sabrina, as Chloe was stepping up with starry eyes.

“You can count on me! I did say that I will do my best to take my second chance at being Queen Bee seriously!” She declared, placing a hand over her heart.

Sabrina smiled shyly, placing with her index fingers a bit as her eyes casted down, “I-I’ll do my best. I’m not like Chloe, who is amazing as Queen Bee, bu-but I shall help you in any way I can, Marinette. You’re probably one of the few people t-that told me to stand up to Chloe a-and be my own self. So,”

She finally looked up, her eyes fiery and looking just as determined as Chloe.

“I promise to keep your secret and help you as both Marinette and Ladybug!”

A hum came from Fu, stroking his beard as he looked at the girls.

Marinette, on the other hand, looked a bit unsure. This has to be a mistake. If she had her own choice of having someone or two know her identity, it would’ve been someone like Alya or even Chat.

She did promise that she would tell him of her identity when Hawkmoth was defeated.

Sighing, she looked back at Master Fu, “So…I cannot tell Chat Noir about this?”

Fu’s smile fell slightly, looking troubled, “I shall handle that, Marinette.”

Marinette had a bad feeling about that. But the Master knew best…right?

“So I can have Pollen permanently?” Chloe asked in excitement, but then looked embarrassed at how eager she sounded and coughed, “I-I mean, is it possible, Master?”

“About that. Considering a lot of people, including Hawkmoth, know of your identity…it would be difficult to have you hold Pollen and be Queen Bee for a while. Or ever. I do not want you to endanger any loved ones you have,” Fu explained as Chloe deflated, but he then smiled, “However, just because Queen Bee cannot be a hero anymore, does not mean that Chloe Bourgeois cannot be another hero…”

The rich blonde tilted her head as the Chinese man continued, walking to his table where his tablet was.

“Ms. Bourgeois, I have seen you change for the better, little by little. Learning from your mistakes, showing such maturity and strength. Something I couldn't accomplish when I was your age. Your time as a hero is not over,"

"So...what does this mean? I have to use another Miraculous?" Chloe frowned, "Sorry Master Fu, but I'm loyal to Pollen and Pollen alone!"

Master Fu chuckled softly, "I had a feeling you'd say that, Pollen sure is lucky to be loved so much by someone as loyal as you. Which is why I'm teaching you this," He showed his tablet and was scrolling through the printed Grimoire, "There's still a way to be the Bee Holder, but not be Queen Bee...but first..."

He looked to Sabrina, humming a bit.

“Y-Yes?” The glasses wearing girl asked, looking surprised as Fu smiled.

“We shall find a Miraculous that would suit you best as well…”

Marinette watched as Fu talked to the girls about the history of the Miraculous and what to expect as heroes helping Ladybug, but then remembered something.

“Master Fu? Do you know there’s a new Horse Hero running around?”

Chloe and Sabrina looked up, gaping at her while Fu had a cheeky look in his eyes.

“I do.”

Marinette felt a vein pop against her head for a moment, “Master…”

“I am sure he has explained himself?”

The girl sighed as she looked at the man, “Well kinda? I was told he was coming here soon—“

“There’s a new hero going around?!” Chloe was pushing in, staring at Marinette almost angrily, “What the heck!? And you didn’t tell me!”

“I only know of him today. Kirin, was his name…” Marinette said blankly.

Chloe huffed, folding her arms, “Well now, this is so unfair…”

“I have my reason of giving him the Horse Miraculous temporarily, but I am sure all will be explained as soon as he arrives,” Fu hummed, but then Marinette was concerned.

“Temporarily? Meaning he’s not gonna keep the Horse?”

Fu smiled, “He and Kaalki are not a perfect match like you and Tikki. I only gave him the Horse so he could assist you for the time being…”

“He said he got the Rabbit Miraculous but gave it back to you? Is that true?” Marinette asked as Fu nodded.

“He did. I was even surprised that he would willingly give up such a powerful Miraculous like that. But I am sure that he has his reasons. He and his mentor both have told me that they needed help from the Miraculous users,”

“He and his mentor? Why would they need help from us?” Marinette hummed, tapping her chin as she tried to think, but Fu shook his head.

“All will be answered in due time. But for now, let us focus on training,”

Chloe sighed, “Training huh? Is…is this going to involve sweating?” She asked, making Fu smile and making both Marinette and Sabrina giggle.

It was then that a window opened not far from them, and everyone looked to see Kirin jumping in coolly thanks to his portal.

Marinette paled, realising she wasn’t Ladybug at the moment but Kirin laughed a little, grinning knowingly.

“Don’t bother looking like that, I know you’re Ladybug. Just as I know that Chloe Bourgeois is Queen Bee…but I am surprised Sabrina Raincomprix is involved,” The horse hero hummed, as he then murmured a dismount under his breath as his transformation broke, and Marinette gasped.

“H-Hitoshi…? You’re the Horse hero?”

“For now. Master Fu must’ve told you I’m just temporarily borrowing the Horse,” The purple haired male shrugged, as Chloe was raging behind Marinette with Sabrina trying to calm her down.

“…I should’ve guessed. It was too coincidental that a new student came on the same day as a new hero,” The pigtailed girl folded her arms and looked at him, “I guess you’re going to explain yourself now?”

Hitoshi nodded as he then breathed out, “My name is Hitoshi Shinso, that much I didn’t lie about. I only came to Paris to help the Miraculous Heroes and ask for them in return,”

“So…you’re not really studying to have a good career?” Marinette asked slowly.

“Oh, that wasn’t a lie. I am studying to be a hero,” Shinso explained and grinned lazily as he fed a sugarcane to Kaalki, “Japan has a school for young heroes like myself. It’s called—”

“U.A. HIGH SCHOOL FOR HEROES! That’s awesome!” A voice called by the window and everyone also looked back to see Nino covering his mouth, eyes widen and looking sheepish, “W-whoops…”

Marinette screamed, looking back at a surprised but not really surprised Shinso, her fear turning to anger, “HE FOLLOWED YOU HERE!?”

“…I wasn’t aware he was following me,” Shinso averted his eyes, trying to look innocent but Marinette was already marching towards him and shaking him by the collar while screaming how irresponsible he was.

Nino was jumping in, going between them while waving his hands, “L-look, it wasn’t Hitoshi’s fault!”

Marinette turned her fury to Nino, the said DJ sweating in fear as he continued his explanation.

“H-hear me out, Nette! Actually, a-after hanging out and showing him around the city, he said his dad called and he needed to get back home. Worried that he might get lost or something, I followed him. Wasn’t expecting him to turn into a Miraculous Hero of all things and I ran after him through his portal thing and I…ended up here and kinda heard everything? Heh heh…” Nino was rubbing the back of his head but then felt himself sweat even more as not only was Marinette angry, but so were Chloe and Sabrina.

“You eavesdropped on us, AGAIN PEEPING LAHIFFE?!” Chloe huffed, “Maybe you’re just more than a pervert sneaking into girl bathrooms!”

“T-that wasn’t cool, Nino! It’s really not nice to be listening into conversations that supposed to be a HUGE secret!” Sabrina agreed with a disappointed frown, as Nino was paled.

“H-Hold on! I didn’t mean to! I just…I couldn’t stop listening and I know that’s bad but—“

Fu just watched in amusement while the two girls were berating the poor boy, then turned to Marinette, “Actually, this could be beneficial to us…”

Everyone just paused, as Marinette, Sabrina and Chloe looked comically confused while Hitoshi checked if Nino was okay, who was seeing his life flash before his eyes.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?! This big mouth here?” Chloe pointed to Nino as she scoffed, “He totally can’t keep a secret!” She continued to argue, as Nino felt himself get pissed.

“OH yeah!? I so can keep a secret! I mean, bet ya didn’t know I am Carapace and Alya is Rena Rouge!”

Everyone in the room was quiet, with Fu still smiling, Shinso facepalming, Sabrina gasping, Marinette groaning with an exasperated call of his name and Chloe twice as angry.

“CESAIRE IS THE FOX FACE?!” She screamed, and Nino looked like he sucked a lemon when he realised he outed himself and his girlfriend, “Dupain-Cheng, why did you make such poor choices in heroes, huh?!”

“It was my decision, and—“ Turning to Nino, she pointed at him, “I’m starting to have doubts of you having any Miraculous in the future,”

“Why don’t we explain everything to our new friend here?” Fu said calmly as he patted Marinette, smiling.

Marinette knew that she had to come clean, not just to Nino but to Chloe and Sabrina as well. And Shinso apparently, since he was here. And so, she ended up telling them how she met Tikki, being the hero she was today and about Chat Noir. Might as well let everything out, right? Considering that Fu already considered training both Chloe and Sabrina.

Once she was done, Nino looked understanding, and so did the other two girls. Shinso remained quiet.

"I-I still can't believe you trusted me to be Carapace, Nette. I…” Nino felt himself tear up as he then breathed out, fanning himself from crying right there and then, “I-I’m so touched dude! T-thank you, a-and I won’t tell your secret! I solemnly swear on my DJing skills and my dreams of being a movie director!”

Marinette looked unsure. Chloe had a point. Ever since they were toddlers, Nino had a bad habit of blabbing and can’t keep a secret to save his life. Not as bad as Ivan, but still.

Chloe stood there for a moment, coughing to get their attention.

Marinette looked up as Chloe stood with her arms folded and looking serious.

"I am no longer your fan…"

Marinette looked surprised at this, as Nino was about to say something but Chloe stopped her with a hand raised up.

"But…" She continued, as the blonde felt her face flushed as three pairs of eyes stared at her, "I-I want to try…and be friends,"

Shock was an understatement. Marinette was dumbfounded at first, Sabrina and Shinso being neutral about it and Nino was slowly grinning.

"...I knew deep down behind the Queen of Mean act, you were still the same girl back in Pre-K that wanted to play with me, Nette and Kim!" Nino chirped while poking at her, Chloe blushing brightly and then waving her arms up in the air.

"BUT DON'T THINK THIS CHANGES THINGS—" Chloe started as she was swatting at Nino, who was laughing jovially.

Marinette tilted her head, then smiled softly, "...I'd like that Chloe,"

And she meant it.

Maybe this was the sort of thing from Chloe she had been waiting for since middle school.

It almost felt like Kindergarten again.

Marinette looked towards Shinso and huffed, “Now it’s your turn to explain yourself,”

Shinso sighed, raising his hands up as he started his story. The only thing he told was he was joining an elite hero school and he was given a chance to join their course. His mentor was out at the moment scouting the city because he had his own mission to do and just mostly talked about how he was supposed to gather the Miraculous heroes before his mentor returned.

Once he was done telling all they needed to know, Nino grinned wide at Hitoshi, “So~ You’re training to be a hero in Japan huh? Like All Might and Endeavor?”

Wrinkling his nose for a moment, he nodded, “Er, in a way yes. My mentor figured that me recruiting the Heroes of Paris to come to our school would be beneficial—“

“Wait, wait, go to a hero school?” Marinette squeaked as she folded her arms, “Ladybug can’t leave Paris. Hawkmoth is still on the loose!”

“And that’s the deal,” Hitoshi stepped forward with a serious look, pointing at her, “Me and my mentor will help you take down Hawkmoth, and his new support, Mayura. In exchange, you give U.A. a chance,”

Nino was bouncing up and down, “T-that sounds so cool!”

Marinette raised a hand up for Nino to shush, as she narrowed her eyes, “Why would a hero school in Japan call for us now? I mean, we could’ve used real superheroes months ago when Hawkmoth first appeared,”

“Hawkmoth is an issue for the European government to deal with. They never want help from outsiders like America and Japan. So it’s why people like All Might and other top heroes couldn’t come and save you guys. Blame your high officials. You and Chat Noir are the exception because you guys are citizens here. And from what I hear, there’s not much heroes active in the European division. At least, that’s what my mentor told me,” Shinso finished off with a sigh, as Marinette hummed.

“…I don’t know. I think we’re good without going to some special school. No offence,” Marinette pursed her lips, “You wasted your time being here,”

“On the contrary,” Shinso smirked, “I like being here. It’s way more fun than in my school,”

Nino gasped as he then was punching Shinso’s arm, “How could you say that!? You’re so lucky to be in a school for future heroes man! What’s it like!? Ohhhh, you gotta tell me everything! Oh, oh! Wait ’til I tell Alya about all this—“

Marinette stopped him, “You can’t tell Alya about ANY of this!”

Nino’s eyes widened, his excitement deflating, “I…I can’t? But she’s—“

“No one is supposed to know I’m Ladybug or anything that Hitoshi has said. Everything here is to be kept Se-Cret! You can’t tell either about Chloe and Sabrina knowing about me or that they will be permanent holders, including yourself,”

“Wait, I get to keep Wyazz permanently?” Nino asked, his eyes shining as he didn’t catch the rest of it, and Marinette knew it with a sigh.

“Nino, focus!”

“Sorry!”

“Please, please, please, understand,” Marinette spoke seriously, placing a hand over Nino’s shoulder, “To protect the ones you love, you can’t tell anyone anything about ANY of this. Not even to Alya,”

“But…” Nino looked down, “A-alya and I never keep secrets from each other…”

“I’m sorry. If I couldn’t tell Chat Noir all this, then you’ll have to do the same…”

“What about Chloe? Her identity isn’t a secret!” Nino argued as Chloe huffed, flipping her hair.

“I’m been given a second chance, Lahiffe. Unlike you, I can keep a lid on my new status as a new hero and be trusted by Dupain—I mean, Marinette by taking this seriously. So yeah~”

Nino frowned deeply as he sighed, tipping his hat down and covering his eyes, “…Fine. Okay,”

“I’m so sorry Nino,” Marinette whispered softly, and Nino looked back up, smiling tightly.

“No worries dudette. You’re just being responsible is all. A-and I will keep a lid about you being Ladybug and everything else. I won’t break your trust, I promise,” He hugged Marinette tightly and breathed out, “I haven’t been a good friend lately, and we haven’t hung out as much either. But that’s all going to change!”

Nino leaned back, grinning happily.

“Especially since we’re heroes together!”

Marinette smiled, as she looked to Chloe, Sabrina and Shinso, her heart relaxed.

Maybe having some people knowing the secret and being a team permanently isn’t such a bad idea after all.

Tikki flew out from Marinette’s purse and smiled sweetly, “I’m glad you have such good friends here, Marinette~”

Nino’s eyes sparkled, as he then was rushing forward, “Dude! Are you Marinette’s kwami?”

"My name is Tikki, nice to meet you," The red spotted being chirped, as Nino was shooting out question after question like 'So how old are you really?' and 'How maybe Ladybugs has she gone through before Marinette?' and many others. Might as well know before his girlfriend does. It hurts him that he can’t tell Alya all this. This would go amazingly in her Ladyblog. But he did make a promise…

Tikki shyly floated up to Chloe, and waved, "It's nice to meet you again,"

Getting a good look at the creature, Chloe realized this looked like the doll she had picked up and had brought to Prince Ali of Achu. Boy, she felt so stupid.

"Likewise..." Chloe huffed, pouting a bit as Tikki giggled, knowing what Chloe was thinking.

“Now that we have settled matters,”

Everyone looked to Master Fu, who was holding his tablet with a smile.

“Perhaps now we could discuss the training plans for Chloe, Sabrina and our new friends Hitoshi-san and Nino here?”

“She’s scared of cats~ But powerless without this feline~”

“Huh? That is so not true! I’m not scared of cats!”

Marinette frowned as she looked at the tablet in front of her, Nino sitting behind her on the bed, leaning against her wall while Shinso was laying upside down next to her, his legs propped against the wall.

Nino chuckled, “Never heard of a Ladybug being afraid of cats in my life. Right, Wyazz?”

The green colored kwami hummed as he relaxed onto the boy’s lap, munching on a lettuce leaf, “In the centuries that I’ve existed? No?”

The trio were hanging out in Marinette’s room since they have the day off from training with Master Fu. It has been two weeks since their last meeting together and Fu had already planned out the schedules to train the teens individually. Outside from training, the five of them had also tried to bond together, just for the betterment of their teamwork in the future. Luckily, there haven’t been any akumas around as of late.

Today, Sabrina was with the Guardian to figure out which Miraculous would match with her, along with training both her physical body and her mentality. Chloe said she had plans today and couldn’t really join in hanging out with the other three.

Speaking of, Marinette didn’t think that she would actually tolerate Chloe of all people. Actually, no. That wasn’t the right word. It was actually more of the fact it was almost too easy how close they had become. They were no longer fighting or snapping at each other. It was like their last year of being enemies had vanished. Sabrina was always a nice person, so she and Marinette got along fine.

Shinso and Marinette still were good friends and seat buddies in class, even when Marinette was still suspicious of the purple haired teen still keeping secrets from them. But Shinso explained that one day he’ll open up when he’s ready.

Was this what Chat felt like when she kept secrets from him?

Thinking about the cat made Marinette still feel guilty that she hasn’t told him completely everything, but at least Master Fu had shown himself to Chat and has explained some things to him. So at least there was that.

The biggest change though was Nino and Marinette’s friendship.

When it was usually Nino always seen with either Adrien or Alya, lately Nino had always caught up with Marinette and walked her home, most of the time invited into the Dupain-Cheng home for dinner until he was called back home. It helps that they lived a building away from each other, so Marinette also visits the Lahiffe home other than babysitting Nino’s little brother, Chris.

Marinette did miss hanging out with Nino like this, it almost felt like they were little kids again. When did they drift apart anyways?

She remembered that she, Chloe and Nino had grown up together since Kindergarten, but somehow started drifting away at the end of the elementary years. And then Kim came along with others like Max, then Rose and then Juleka and Nathaniel. Then there was the start of Chloe being the Queen of Mean, and Nino fading into the background while Marinette got to be the target of bullying by Chloe and became a shy wallflower. This was before meeting Alya too.

Speaking of Alya…

“Does Alya know you’re here, Nino?”

Nino turned to look at the girl finishing up the trailer for the new Ladybug and Chat Noir animated movie, and hummed, “I did tell her that I’d be meeting up with friends. She said that it’s cool and that she’s meeting with Lila today for some girl time,”

“Aren’t you worried your girlfriend is hanging out with a pathological liar?” Hitoshi asked as he was throwing a bouncing ball to the ceiling and catching it, Kaalki watching in fascination.

The DJ sighed, “I tried telling her, but I think Alya either tunes me out and changes subject or she tells me that I’m being unfair. That I’m basically not giving Lila a chance since she’s a new girl. She even tried to play the guilty card of I’m sure you wouldn’t have treated me this way since I was a new girl too. Or when Adrien was also a new kid in class. If you could be nice to us, why not to Lila?”

Marinette patted Nino’s shoulder in sympathy.

“Besides, it’s sort of better this way. Now I won’t be half tempted in exploding to her that I’m keeping a huge secret like having a miraculous permanently and knowing her best friend is Ladybug…” Nino laughed loudly then sighed, thumping his head back against the wall, “It’s really hard keeping it all in, it feels like I’m keeping myself from barfing…Is…is this how you feel sometimes?”

Marinette was surprised when Nino looked at her sadly with guilt, and she looked sheepish, trying to assure him, “W-well…sometimes? B-But I try to just think of the positives. Like that I’m saving people everyday and that I inspire people. Like this movie,” She pointed to the screen showing the movie director of the movie talking in an interview about the movie.

Tikki floated up as she tilted her head, “You turned down an invitation to the premiere?”

“I’m a superhero, Tikki. Not a star~!” Marinette rolled her eyes up with a smile, then laughed, “It’s my job to protect the city and it’s people. Not sit around in a movie premiere,”

Hitoshi coughed for a moment, and Marinette narrowed her eyes when she thought she heard bullshit under his breath.

Tikki didn’t hear though and smiled, “Well said, Marinette!”

“Hey, isn’t that Adrien on screen? I didn’t know he voiced Chat Noir,” Nino pointed out and Marinette’s eyes bugged out as she glued herself to her tablet screen with a squeak.

“A-adrien?! ADRIEN IS GONNA BE THERE?!” Marinette yelled, then was crying into Nino’s lap as Wyazz moved out of the way, “Uhhhohhhnooooo, Ladybug should’ve totally said yes…”

Nino just patted her head in sympathy this time while the kwamis giggled, and Shinso just rolled his eyes.

Getting a bit hungry though, the trio where heading downstairs when they heard Mister Dupain talking to his wife.

“So! We’ve got six hundred macaroons, plus eighty hundred petit fours…not to mention the Ladybug and Chat Noir tier cakes,” The man sighed, looking at his checklist as Marinette walked passed them to get something from the fridge while the boys waited behind her.

Sabine Cheng also looked worried as she sipped her tea, “We should’ve hired someone to help serve all these guests for the premiere,”

Marinette’s ears perked as she looked over, “DO YOU MEAN the premiere of the Ladybug and Chat Noir animated movie?”

Tom Dupain was nodding his head as he was still writing down things, “Yes—“

Marinette was grinning from ear to ear as she then was waving her hands up and down in excitement, “Oh! Oh! Me! Me! Me~! I can totally help you out with that!—”

Marinette squawked when she almost dropped the plates and snacks in her hands, juggling it for a moment before Shinso was quick to catch her before falling, at the same time easily catching the things she almost dropped with one hand.

Both Marinette’s parents and Nino were in awe at how flexible and quick Shinso’s reflexes were.

The girl thanked Shinso, looking embarrassed as she straightened herself up and the boy carried the stuff instead.

“Y-You mean…as a…server?” Tom asked slowly as his daughter nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes!” Marinette took the stuff back from Shinso, placing some fruits onto the plate, “I’ll hand the macaroons for Adrien~!….I mean ahhahaaa—”

Marinette almost dropped the stuff again if not for Shinso being behind her and steadying her body from falling over again while quickly grabbing for the fruits that almost fell.

Nino was starting to think this might be his quirk that he talked about. Despite Shinso saying that he has a quirk that future heroes usually have, he never said what it was. Was Shinso’s quirk just being agile like a cat? Or have Spider-Man powers?

“I-I meant to everybody of course~!” Marinette laughed nervously and Shinso was shaking his head, “Of course not j-just to Adrien! Cause Adrien’s not the only one th-that likes macaroons~!”

Sabine watched them for a moment with a smile, but spoke in a teasing voice, “And the fact that Adrien is going to be there has nothing to do with it, of course~?”

“Not a thing~ Like~ Haha….Not in the slightest!” Marinette was batting her eyes prettily with a cute smile, swaying a bit, “I just want to help out my wonderful sweet parents who I love SOOOOO much~”

It was then the fruits, the snacks and the plates all fell over, and Shinso wasn’t quick enough to grab for them.

‘So much for being the next Spider-Man…’ Nino thought in dismay as he was quick to bend down and help Shinso pick the stuff up as Marinette giggled sheepishly.

Tom and Sabine looked at each other unsurely, and she got the picture.

“You don’t trust me…” The pigtailed girl sighed, her eyes saddened, bending down to help the boys clean up, “Then again, I’m such a klutz. Even I wouldn’t trust me…”

Nino looked at her for a moment before he stood up and spoke with a hand raised, “W-what if me and Hitoshi helped out too?”

Tom’s eyes widened and Sabine was surprised.

“You’d…want to help serve? With Marinette?” Sabine asked as Nino nodded.

“You seemed to have a lot on your plate and well, I know my man here is pretty quick on learning how to wait and stuff thanks to what you just witnessed~! And both he and I can keep an eye out on Marinette,” The DJ winked at Marinette and smiled, “Plus, she won’t be alone~! And we promise not to let her be distracted by Adrien!”

Tom was quick to say yes as Sabine smiled.

“That sounds like a good idea. At least you’d have friends around with you, Marinette,”

Marinette smiled in thanks to Nino, as she was reaching to hug him and then to a surprised Shinso, “Ohhhh this is going to be great. Thank you too!” She hugged her parents before dancing off and singing to herself while going upstairs, saying something about getting prepared before tripping on herself…again…

“This…is going to be interesting,” Shinso murmured as he looked to Nino, “You think we’ll be able to handle this?”

Nino laughed, bringing Shinso in a one armed hug, “C’mon~! What’s the worse that could happen?”

“This is too tight. It makes me look weird,”

“You look fine, dude! Marinette did pretty good on these waiter outfits for us,”

Shinso looked down at himself as he was adjusting the black tie on him, dressed as a fancy looking waiter in black and white, just as Nino was in the same attire only he forgone the hat.

“You look different without your hat,” The purple haired teen pointed out, making Nino smiled sheepishly.

“You think? Do I look cooler? I mean I know I grew my hair out a bit…” Nino looked around, trying to find a reflection to look at himself, as Shinso was shaking his head with an amused smile.

The two then walked over to where the Dupain-Cheng’s were, already catching Tom telling him some last minutes things before the event starts. Marinette was already dressed in a pretty waitress attire, almost making Nino do a double take while Shinso did admit she looked nice with her hair in a bun.

“You know if Alya wasn’t my girlfriend, I would’ve swooned,” Nino whispered in a joking manner, “I bet Adrien will fall for her for sure when he sees her~”

Shinso’s eyes flashed for a second, but he just sighed, “I doubt that,”

Nino looked at him with a raised brow, but then heard Marinette whine.

“Dad! Moooom! I’m totally ready! Trust me! I’ll be super duper careful!”

Nino walked over and smiled at the Dupain-Chengs, “Yeah, and we’ll be behind her one hundred percent!”

Tom and Sabine looked at each other for a moment and sighed, before Tom took the empty tray that Marinette was using for practice and gave her the real tray of macaroons. Smiling brightly, she soon turned to serve some guests the treats, and Nino and Shinso were about to follow…until Marinette tripped on her own feet and was starting to comically dance around trying not to let the tray fall. Shinso was quickly on the move to catch her while Nino just saluted to the worried looking Dupain-Chengs and caught up to them.

It took a while, but thankfully the boys managed to stop Marinette from bumping into people waiting for the premiere to start, made sure she wasn’t dropping any of the macaroons and not letting her fall over. Shinso was most of the time catching her easily, while Nino tended to lessen Marinette’s load, charmingly gave some of the treats to the guests while gussying up to any potential movie directors and other people in the biz. After all, this was his chance to learn a few things for his future career.

Shinso, on the other hand, was getting tired running around to prevent Marientte from causing a disaster. Sure, he was doing this because Nino had dragged him into this…but he genuinely did want to help Marinette’s parents. They were nice people, and they treated Shinso so well when he was first introduced to them. Sabine thought of the boy being so skinny and pale that she treated him to a lot of their goodies while Tom was asking some questions about his life, trying to get to know him. It was not in a pushy way either, which Shinso was thankful for. It was…natural. How caring and kind they could be.

It made Shinso think of his own family.

Marinette was honestly lucky to have loving parents like Tom and Sabine.

Speaking of the girl, she was getting another tray of macaroons to serve and Nino was letting out a relieved sound as he sat down, Shinso standing beside him.

“So far so good,” Nino panted as he gave a shaky thumbs up, “Man that girl is a typhoon. Thankfully we’re here to keep an eye out for her, huh? So far, she hasn’t dropped a single macaroon….”

Shinso looked up for a moment, then smirked a little, “Looks like that’s gonna change…”

“What do you…?” Nino looked up and he felt himself pale, “Oh no…”

Coming to the red carpet was Adrien freakin’ Agreste.

“Uh oh…” Nino gulped and whipped his head around to find Marinette, only to see her jaw-slacked and face beet red.

“She’s seen him,” Shinso chuckled as he glanced at Nino, “Our workload just doubled,”

“…Why did we agree to volunteer for free?” Nino grumbled but then stood up and was raising a fist to Shinso, “Looks like we’re up,”

Shinso bumped his fist to his and grinned, “This is almost as challenging than fighting in the Sports Festival,”

Nino snickered, “Dude, maybe even harder than beating up a bad guy!”

Nino and Shinso laughed but soon were alert when Marinette squeaked and was now moving around like the Road Runner, her head down on the ground looking for something. Nino and Shinso chased after her, not noticing Adrien’s smile fading and his waving hand drooping, disappointed at not being seen by them.

Adrien had waved to Marinette just a minute ago, but soon she started running off like her usual self. And to the blond model’s surprise, he noticed Nino and that new kid were here as well.

Ah well, maybe he could go over and talk to them after greeting everyone and a few more pictures.

‘They look like they’re having fun…’ Adrien thought with a strange ache-y feeling in his chest.

Nino blinked as Marinete was now on the floor, Shinso grabbing the tray from her as she started crawling away looking around like some dog sniffing for a bone.

“Lahiffe? Shinso?”

The two boy looked up to see Chloe folding her arms, then glancing back at Marinette frantically crawling under people’s legs while apologising.

“Mind explaining what you three are doing here?!” She hissed at the boys, narrowing her eyes and grabbing the front of their ties, “You’re totally embarrassing me here!”

“…So this was the “important event” that you’re attending today,” Nino huffed, “Man! You could’ve invited us, ya know?”

Nino glanced over to see Shinso following after Marinette once he placed the tray of macaroons on the table, and Nino knew that Marinette’s in good hands.

“And watch you three just now going around like baboons in the zoo playground?” Chloe sighed, “In case you didn’t notice, there are important figures here! A place to social with the biggest connection and further your status and I want to make a good impression since you know, I’m the Mayor’s daughter~?”

“Fair point. But it still would’ve been coo to know you were going to see the movie and invite a few pals~” Nino then glanced over to see Shinso helping Marinette up from the ground, the two talking as Marinette was showing something to him.

Chloe looked at the two as she hummed, leaning to Nino, “Soooooo~? Are they, like, a thing now or…?”

Nino snapped his eyes to her and laughed, “H-Her? And Hitoshi? Chlo, that’s…that’s crazy! Marinette likes—“ He covered his mouth, perking Chloe’s interests.

“She likes someone? Who?”

“I can’t tell you!”

Chloe raised a perfect brow with a look.

“…Really?”

“I’m not falling for that Chloe! I ain’t gonna spill! I’m not the same kid that has a big mouth anymore!” Nino whined but soon blinked when Chloe screamed, “W-what’s wrong?”

“Oh NO!” Chloe gasped.

“Not her!” Marinette whined at the same time, as Shinso blinked and looked where the girl was looking.

There, coming into the theatre was a middle aged blind Japanese woman in a kimono being escorted by a beautiful Japanese short haired girl also dressed in a red and black attire.

Shinso looked like he was going to faint right there and then.

Marinette turned to look at him, her jealousy placed on hold for now as it turned to concern, “Hitoshi, are you okay?”

Snapping out of his stupor, he turned to the girl and then smiled shakily, “Er, y-yeah…I’m fine…”

Nino and Chloe walked over to them as Chloe huffed a little, “I despise that girl!”

“Who is she anyways?” Nino asked as Shinso answered.

“Kagami Tsurugi. A famous fencer from Japan,” He spoke quietly as Nino looked at him.

“You know her personally?”

Shinso shook his head, “Not really,” But he kept staring at her.

It made both Nino and Marinette confused at his strange behaviour.

The four of them watched Adrien and Kagami chatted with each other happily, until Kagami looked over to them. Narrowing her eyes, she soon was reaching to hug Adrien’s arm, the blond looking confused but smiled nonetheless. The two walked away and both Marinette and Nino had to hold Chloe back from going after them with claws and all.

“Okay!” Chloe turned to the three and slammed her fist into her hand, “We need a plan!”

“W-what do you mean a plan?” Marinette asked in confusion as Chloe growled.

Soon the rich blonde was rushing around grabbing a paper from some man and stood next to Nino, “A plan! You know, a seat chart at the theatre!”

She looked down at the plan then gasped, showing it to the trio.

“I don’t believe this! Adrien and Kagami are going to be sitting next to each other while I am two rows behind! Utterly ridiculous!” Chloe folded her arms, tossing the paper away in a huff.

“Well we don’t have seats ourselves so sucks to suck, Chlo,” Nino stuck his tongue out as Chloe poked at his chest.

“I’ll get all three of you seats into the movie if you help me get Kagami away from Adrien!” She said with a smirk, as Marinette looked unsure.

“W-we can’t do that!” She protested, and the blonde moved close to her face.

“Remember what you told me once, Marinette? All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good guys do nothing,” Chloe then gestured to Kagami, “So today~! The evil is her! And the good guys are us!” She pointed to herself and Marinette.

Marinette bit her lower lip, “I-I’m not sure about this…”

Chloe sighed, “Fine. Keep being unsure. But tomorrow Adrien and Kagami would be on a plane to Japan!”

Nino and Shinso could see the gears turning in Marinette’s head.

Shinso sighed, “I don’t think that will happen,”

“What makes you so sure?” Chloe asked with her hands on her hips, facing the Japanese teen.

Shinso looked back at her and raised a brow, “Agreste doesn’t suit her,”

A lightbulb dinged in Nino’s head as he gasped, grabbing at Shinso’s shoulder and shaking him, “Duuuude, do you like Kagami?”

Shinso’s face morphed into shock, “W-what?” How did he get that conclusion?!

Marinette’s eyes sparkled as she then gasped, “You do??? Is that why she was looking over at us? And you were staring at her, oh my gosh!”

Shinso was swearing in Japanese as he shook his head, “N-no! Wait a minute—“

A cat like grin came onto Chloe’s face as she then was tapping her fingers together like a villainess, “Alright I have a new plan~ We should get Kagami to notice Shinso here and get her to fall for him~ So that way, Adrien will be free from her clutches~”

Shinso was paling now, waving to get their attention, “H-Hold on a moment—“

“Aw it would be real romantic if their eyes met and had a moment~! That single connection that made their hearts beat~! That would be so sweet!” Marinette sighed, but then shook her head and coughed, “F-for Kagami and Hitoshi! N-No way I was thinking of Adrien and me— I-I mean I just don't want Adrien to leave Paris that's all ahahaha—“

Shinso sighed, his face looking tired and knew Nino wasn’t going to listen to him as he had this look that said he was all for the plan. Something about ‘hooking up his bros with their ladies’ or something like that.

‘What’s the worse that could happen, my ass!’

The plan was a failure.

Shinso had to watch in slight fascination and tiredness as Chloe’s convoluted plan for Kagami to sit on some cake with gum stuck on her shoe so Shinso could rescue her while Marinette distracts Adrien blew up in Chloe’s face. Turned out, Marinette was gifting some passionfruit macaroon she made especially for him but somehow she ended up having it knocked out from her hand when Adrien turned frantically as his father’s assistant Nathalie was calling him, and she ended up crawling away to find the fallen macaroon. This ended up Nino trying to help her, but ended up tripping on the string when Chloe pulled to make the seat that Kagami was supposed to sit on move. Kagami ended up being called by her mother, thus the girl moved away from the spot she was supposed to be in and…well….

It ended up the Movie Director being akumatized.

“How did this even happen?!” Chloe screeched as she was pulling at her hair and Shinso looked at her.

“No time, we’re gonna have to help Marinette find a place to transform,”

Nino followed after them as he panted, “S-should we…?”

Shinso shook his head, “Marinette should handle this for now. Let’s just help the guests out of here and not get hurt,”

“Right!” Chloe nodded and soon she and the boys were heading off to make sure no one stayed inside the theatre and helped everyone get to safety.

Shinso managed to get a hiding place for Marinette to use, and continued on his duty. It wasn’t a good idea to have any other heroes out for now unless it was absolutely necessary. At least that’s what Master Fu said. Better not give Hawkmoth any ideas that there might be more permanent Miraculous holders out and about besides Ladybug and Chat Noir. So for now, Nino, Shinso, Sabrina and Chloe did their best to be heroes in their civilian lives by doing the little things like this.

Once the three were out, they looked up and saw that Chat Noir just arrived with Ladybug to fight with Animaestro.

“Cool. I guess we head to the Master’s place until things are over with?” Nino looked at the two, as Chloe was already calling for her car to pick them up.

“What about the movie?” Shinso asked as Chloe scoffed.

“So not worth it if Queen Bee didn’t make it to the cut,”

She then texted Marinette to meet up with them once she was done, deciding to just have a movie night of their own with Sabrina back at Chloe’s place.

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etherealxgenie · 4 years ago

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Why Lila is Marinette’s Own Fault || Miraculous Why?

(Before I begin, note that this is my opinion over the topic and am no way am bashing anyone’s love for the ship and/or character. I respect who and what you like, therefore expect the same courtesy. However, if this is something you cannot handle, please click the back button as this will be a heavily discussed topic. No flames allowed. Other than that, enjoy.)

So usually in the story, there’s always one or two mean girls who is out to get the main character for some kind of superior reasons to justify. And there’s no reason as to why they act this way just for the sake of being mean.

Like the Ashleys from “Recess”, who tend to pick on kids just for the fun of it sometimes or cause they’re popular.

Same can go for Libby from “Sabrina The Teenage Witch” who was out to get something for what she wants or just to be superior to the other kids in school.

For Miraculous, we already have that kind of character, Chloe Bourgeois, who is the daddy’s girl of the Mayor to get what she wants. And until we had some small character development in season two (which season 3 took it away!!), we had no reason feeling sorry for her and she was just for the convenient plot in the social life for Marinette in the series.

And then… there’s Lila.

Before I get into hand in this, let me note that Lila is not a good person at all in the show. She’s a liar, a manipulator and will do whatever she can to get what she wants. She breaks into homes, steals and molests pretty models. She’s been pretty shown to be just selfish without consequences and unless we get a background story of why she acts this way, she has no excuse. Especially when she teams up with hawkdaddy to now have permission to invade and spy on Adrien whenever she wants? Fuck that.

So in Volpina, Lila is introduced as this pathological liar to get attention in season one. She obviously goes for Adrien cause he’s the famous model after all. Reasonable considering as the new person looking for attention, you seek out the most popular/famous person in the school. That would Adrien.

Though considering with her connections, it would’ve been smarter to try and impress Marinette instead if Lila did her research before she came into the scene. But of course, new person so she wouldn’t know, but whatever.

And we can see Lila easily just says things just to get Adrien’s approval and such.

And so, Marinette follows them around (stalking? really?) because Tikki points out Lila has the book Adrien took from his father’s vault and threw it in the trash.

Now the SMART thing to do would’ve been to see how Adrien would handle the situation and wait for him to leave, if to acknowledge Adrien has a mind of his own and knows when to walk away (which he does). Or at the very least, try to distract them as Marinette while Tikki retrieved the book.

But… no. You transform into Ladybug to lash out at a girl PUBLICALLY, for anyone including Adrien to hear, just to embarrass her and call her out on her lying because she… “hates liars”.

Marinette, you fucking lie ALL the time! Most of those times to Adrien! And I’m not just talking about when in regard to being Ladybug, you hypocritical- (groans)

I can list plenty of episodes: Gamer, Aninmaestro, Ikari Gozen and hell, even Reverser counts! If she hadn’t lied about Marc’s book, Nathaniel wouldn’t have torn it! (sighs)

And before you all start jumping at me saying Lila got what she deserves, I only agree partially. Ladybug, as a public figure and heroine, practically the face of Paris, acted irrationally lashing out at a bystander because of lies which were or were not believable. Lila was broadcasting a post or making the news, she was trying (poorly) to impress a boy. Ladybug gave Lila the Regina George treatment.

Yeah, so you caused an akumatized situation and Lila hates your guts. Hell, I would hate you too. That’s like a celebrity jumping at an innocent bystander when they’re whispering to their friend about a rumor that only the two of them were talking about. You can’t jump to try and stop them and should just let it dispel on its own. At that point, Lila had no real power but you just influenced her.

And… oh boy did things get worse because of this.

Look season 3 was trash (except for moments in certain episodes) and I feel talking about the infamous ‘Chameleon’ physically hurts me but… yeah gotta point out a few things. The whole episode was unrealistic, and it was an obvious ploy to be sympathetic to Marinette with Lila back… but… you’re not fooling me.

So, Lila is still on her lying game, being able to fool the students and the staff?! Okay if you believe a student has so many disabilities without any paperwork proof, you can actually get fired for that for fraud. As someone who worked with education before, that’s just pure incompetence.

So yeah, Marinette comes to school seeing the seats changes to accommodate Lila and upright begins to plot to discredit her for her lies. UM… what happened to trying to start over with Lila after failing to do so the first time?

Oh, that’s right. She gets that way (at least partly) because Lila is sitting next to Adrien. I can understand if it was because they rearranged the seating without her say so but let’s face it. Lila sitting next to Adrien was her real trigger.

So since Marinette failed to acknowledge her mistake the first time, she spends all day trying to prove Lila is lying and in return the class is angry at her. Alya even comes to point out that Marinette is jealous of Lila.

And you know what? Alya is right.

Alya knows at least what Marinette is capable of doing so when it comes to Adrien and how far she’s willing to go. Remember that Alya is the one who encouraged her to break into his locker and steal his phone. So of course, she’s worried Marinette is gonna do something to the new girl.

I don’t blame Alya for doing one of the most competent things in the show: Warning Marinette to NOT go off the handle without proof and not make herself look bad in the process.

And because Marinette failed to do so… she made Lila her enemy AGAIN. It was bad enough you had her as your enemy as Ladybug, but now you get to deal with twice the drama!

Your own fucking fault, Marinette.

Also, the advice Adrien gave? I don’t blame for him for it and neither should you. Yes, his advice is not perfect, but with the options he has on his plate, its hard to do something otherwise.

For every encounter Adrien has had with Lila, it ended up with her being akumatized or a disaster no matter how he tried to handle her. We didn’t get to see how he would resolve in Volpina because of Ladybug’s intervention, but he would try at least in Chameleon and try to get her to see she didn’t need to lie and actually tried to befriend her. At this point, Lila was already triggered by Ladybug and Marinette so she just might have to take Adrien by force instead.

At that point, Adrien just wants to stay away and which he was trying to tell Marinette don’t interact with Lila or confront her cause there’s no way to do so at this point. Maybe he was trying to tell her to wait until her rumors got discredited, but he didn’t say it clear enough for her to understand.

And keep in mind, Adrien is a sheltered child with little to zero social skills taught to him by Nathalie and Gabriel. Hell, we don’t know how his childhood was really like even with Emelie around either and Adrien seems more like the pacifist unless he needs to absolutely step in. And he did by cleaning up Marinette’s mess in ‘Ladybug’. So now he’s gotta suffer being around Lila more because of Marinette making Lila her enemy.

But once again, this is bad writing as the writers of the show obviously forgot what it’s like to live in reality. In the real world, Lila would be immediately discredited without any proof the moment she came back. Not to mention, some of the class have their own connections and have more braincells proven in the previous episodes. Google search and such. A 5-year-old wouldn’t believe these lies in these times. Hey, I believe that because I once had a kid in kindergarten during my time as an afterschool art teacher look at one of my books I illustrated before and said they liked the ‘graphics’.

Kids are fucking smarter nowadays than you think.

The only reason anyone would believe Lila’s lies is if she’s magically influenced with some kind of ‘silver tongue’ spell or something and honestly? It looks like that’s the reason.

I dunno if Thomas Astruc or Zag is trying to insult the kids/adults or insult themselves to say Paris people aren’t that smart. If it’s the latter, you should see what you are doing because I don’t want to believe that because that’s disrespectful.

I know it seems I’m trying to stand up for Lila this portion, but I’m just looking things in a more realistic and logical way. Did Lila take things too far? Yes, waaaayyy too far and should be arrested for it since she works for Hawkmoth. But it could’ve been handled better and that makes Marinette at fault too.

Part of me wonders if she’s done this before because in Zombiezou, she also causes Chloe to ruin her gift for Ms. bustier. If Marinette didn’t antagonize Chloe in the locker in front of the class, maybe she wouldn’t have done anything. Again, I’m not saying Chloe was justified, but if that was the reason, yeah I can see her doing it for payback.

So to all those fics where I’m supposed to be ‘Boo-hoo’ for Marinette because of what Lila did? Fuck you guys because you need to dig deeper into the story to see both sides and not just make it a pity party where Marinette is the innocent victim.

It’s called “Cause and Effect”.

And considering she made Lila her enemy, Marinette is gonna get effected enough because that’s how karma works.

#ooc #the artist speaks #the artist opinion #miraculous ladybug #marinette salt #adrien sugar #alya sugar #lila salt #mainly facts really #but there is some parts where i'm salty #so be warned #tw: cursing #constructive critism welcome #flames will be deleted #i know the difference folks

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galahadwilder · 4 years ago

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Say It Later, Say It Now

I wrote this fic for the @luckycharmzine!

Marinette and Adrien are dating and happy. Marinette finds out Adrien is Chat Noir. Adrien finds out Marinette is Ladybug.

You’d think this would make things simpler. You’d be wrong.

Marinette falls back on her bed with a huff, arms splayed wide, and stares up through her skylight into the cloudless Paris sky. She takes a moment to imagine her comforter is a pink, fluffy cloud, that she’s lying in the sky somewhere drifting on the breeze, that her world hasn’t been turned upside down again and that the only thing she has to worry about is the sun on her face and the ground a thousand miles below.

Then she breathes in, remembers how his face looked into that same skylight just two nights before, and the moment is lost.

“He’s Chat Noir,” she murmurs to herself, throwing her arm over her eyes. “My boyfriend is Chat Noir.”

In retrospect, it makes perfect sense. Both boys have the same kind heart, the same terrible sense of humor, the same smile, the same sadness behind their eyes. Despite their superficial differences, deep down they are clearly the same. But if she hadn’t seen him destransform, she never would have guessed that polite, well-behaved Adrien was the same person as her boisterous and jovial partner.

She has no idea what emotion she’s feeling right now—is she happy? Scared? Angry? No way to tell—but it’s definitely intense. She feels her nails digging into her palm, her tendons pressing against the skin of her knuckles, and forces herself to take a deep breath, loosen her muscles.

Tikki peers down from her unhappy cookie-munching in her little nook above Marinette’s bed, alcove hidden from anyone entering from both below and above. “Marinette?” she says. “Are you… all right?”

Marinette turns onto her side, curls up into a fetal position, hugging her knees to her chest. “I… Tikki, I—I have no idea,” she murmurs, staring at a thread that’s poking out of her handmade pillowcase. She’s gonna have to fix that soon. “I mean, both guys I’m into being the same guy? And him falling for both of me?” She groans. “I know I’m Ladybug, but that’s stupid lucky.” She closes her eyes, chews on her lip. “It’s… too much.”

Marinette feels Tikki light on the pillow in front of her, and opens her eyes to see her Kwami hugging her nose with a bashful grin. “Stupid lucky is what I do,” Tikki says.

Marinette smiles, nuzzling into Tikki’s tummy. “Yeah,” she says. “Yeah it is.”

Tikki’s pats Marinette’s forehead with her paw. “Do you need me to turn off the lights?” she says.

Marinette nods.

There’s a moment of silence as Tikki flits off toward the door, and then the lights click off, bathing Marinette in blessed darkness. Immediately, her senses begin to calm, and her thoughts arrange.

Then she realizes something.

“Oh, no,” she breathes, rolling onto her back. “Tikki?” she says, her voice small.

Tikki flits into view over her, looking down at her with concern. “Marinette?”

Marinette stares up at her Kwami, her heart thrumming with fear. “He doesn’t know I’m Ladybug,” she says.

Tikki shakes her head. “No,” she says. “He doesn’t.”

Marinette winces. “I’m going to have to tell him.”

“Oh, cats. Oh, cats. Oh, CATS,” Adrien says, pacing a trench into the floor of his room. “I’m… I’m dating Ladybug.” He grinds the heels of his palms into his eyes. “How did I not see it?”

Plagg snorts into his Camembert. “Took you long enough.”

Adrien drops into his computer chair, presses his hand to his forehead and runs his fingers up and back through his shaggy hair. “Cats,” he hisses. He should’ve seen it. Ladybug and Marinette don’t just have the same fire, the same brilliant mind—every part of them is the same, right down to the way they scrunch their noses when they’re thinking. And yet, if he hadn’t seen her detransform… “What am I—” He chokes. “What am I even supposed to do?”

Plagg smirks without taking his eyes from his cheese. “Come on, Kitten,” he drawls. “You’ve been planning how to date Ladybug as long as I’ve known you. You talked my ear off every night for three years until I convinced you to go for Bakery Girl instead.”

Adrien chokes, wheels around toward his Kwami. “And you knew the whole time!” he yelps, jabbing a finger at the tiny cat. “You knew they were the same person!”

Plagg raises an eyebrow, tilting his head contemplatively. “Yes I did,” he says with a sly smile. “Gotta say, watching you moon over her twice was better than those KDramas Tikki loves so much.”

Adrien blinks, swiveling in his chair. “Is that where you go at night?”

Plagg shrugs. “Some nights, yeah.” He nibbles on his Camembert, before looking up at his wielder. “So,” he says, “how are you planning to tell her?”

Adrien stumbles backward and collapses into his computer chair. “Oh, cats,” he breathes, staring blankly at his computer screen. “I have to tell her.”

Marinette arrives early for school the next day. She’s rarely awake this early, but knowing what she needed to do had left her too jittery to sleep. She’s too nervous to sit, but too tired to pace, so she stands in place, her bag held over her knees, waiting for her boyfriend to arrive.

“You okay?” Tikki whispers from inside the backpack held between Marinette’s hands.

“Nope!” Marinette whispers back with a grin that she’s fairly certain doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She’s excited—her boyfriend is secretly also the boy she trusts more than anything else in the world. But on the other hand, she’s been hiding a huge part of her life from him for as long as she’s known him, and she has no idea if he’ll ever forgive her.

So she stands, waiting for her soulmate, her other half, the boy she loves, to arrive so she can spill his secret.

She’s so lost in her thoughts that she doesn’t even notice when he does. Adrien folds her into his arms, kissing the top of her head. “Morning—”

She shrieks, leaping backward, almost slamming her skull into his chin.

“—Myyyyy… rinette!” he says.

“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry!” Marinette yelps, trying to turn in his arms to comfort him.

He only laughs, holding her tight against his chest. “It’s fine!” he says brightly, kissing her head again. He presses his cheek to her scalp and nuzzles. “I knew the consequences when I snuck up on you.”

“You do love to do that,” she murmurs fondly. Just another bit of the cat in him that she should’ve seen. Then her eyes widen. “Hey,” Marinette says. “You didn’t call me Princess.”

Adrien’s arms stiffen around her. “Um,” he says, a tremble in his voice.

She bites her lip, forcing down a spike of annoyance at his father—she recognizes Gabriel’s hand in that tremble. She puts her backpack down on the steps and takes his hand. “It’s okay, Adrien” she says, soft. “You’re allowed to give me more than one pet name.”

He breathes out, relieved, all the tension gone from his body, and she realizes—she can’t tell him right now. Maybe later.

Yeah. Later’s good.

He’d almost called her “My Lady.” Oh, cats, that was not how he wanted her to find out.

He’s glad she sits behind him, because while he definitely can’t concentrate in class today, if she were in front of him—especially after that—he doesn’t think he’d be able to even pretend to be paying attention.

She seems clumsier than usual today. A lot of her more extreme pratfalls disappeared by around their third date, once he made it clear that he didn’t mind her word vomit and in fact found it kind of cute. But today, every time she meets his eyes, it seems like she’s halfway to the floor again, and he’s barely on his toes enough to catch her.

He can’t help feeling a little thrill, though, that he’s having this effect on Ladybug. One-year-ago-Adrien would be having a heart attack right now. As it is, everything’s a little too soft and warm with her for that.

“Adrien, I’m fine,” his Princess—his Lady—protests, burying her face in her hands.

“Not today you’re not,” he say with a smile and the Soft Eyes she loves so much. “Besides, I’m not gonna pass up a chance to be gallant.”

Marinette pouts, gesturing downwards to where his arms are holding her up, supporting both her shoulders and her knees. “Sure, but you don’t think carrying me all the way to the lunchroom is a little bit much?”

“Nope!” Adrien says.

He sees Nino and Alya ahead of them, synchronized mock-gagging at them, but he ignores them.

“Ugh, you are the worst,” she says, reaching up to scratch under his chin.

He purrs, smiling—

And then suddenly realizes that she doesn’t know he can do that.

Also, Marinette doesn’t scritch Adrien. Ladybug for Chat, sure, but… she doesn’t know it’s him. And she definitely wouldn’t reveal her identity like that if she did.

He swallows, barely taking a moment to realize that Marinette has gone as white as a sheet.

“Mari?” he says. “Are you okay?”

“Fffffine!” she shrieks, leaping out of his arms—or at least trying to. He’s supporting her too well, and her flats hook onto his elbow, and he barely has time to brace before they’re both sprawled across each other on the ground.

The entire hall comes to a halt, staring at them, as Marinette’s face gets steadily redder. Adrien realizes—his body weight is pressed on top of her, pinning her down, and she’s regressed today for some reason—she’s about to explode. He reaches out toward her—

“I’m sorry!” she shrieks, clapping her hands over her mouth. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m—are you—oh gosh I’m so sorry—”

It’s an utterly surreal moment, realizing that this girl, who has pitched him across entire city blocks without batting an eye, is having a panic attack over tripping him. It’s all he can do to roll of her, climb to his feet, and hold out a hand.

“It’s okay, Marinette,” he says, smiling gently. “I’m fine. You okay?”

Her pupils slowly begin to contract again as her breathing slows and she takes his hand. “I—I’m okay,” she says.

He pulls her up with a smile. “I love you,” he says. “I have to expect you to…” He waggles his eyebrows. “...sweep me off my feet every once in a while.”

She giggles, closing her eyes, and he realizes he can’t tell her now. Later, maybe.

Yeah. Later’s good.

Ladybug arrives for patrol in a bit of a funk. School was excruciating—she hasn’t been that clumsy in front of her boyfriend since the first time they kissed, she spent all day making a fool of herself and she couldn’t once get up the courage to tell him what she knew. She’s almost ashamed to be meeting him now, knowing his secret with him not knowing hers.

But as she lights onto the rooftop, she sees in his hunched posture that he seems not to have had the best day either. Which is… odd. He seemed fine when they left school?

“Everything okay?” she says, padding up behind him and sitting on the roof next to him, kicking her legs out into open air.

He turns to her with wide, sad eyes. “I—um,” he begins. “Girl troubles.”

Ladybug’s heart rate spikes. Girl troubles? He’s Adrien; there’s only one girl in his life. Troubles? Did he—did her clumsiness embarrass him? Did he finally decide she wasn’t good enough?

“Are you breaking up with me?” she whispers, hugging her stomach.

His head snaps around, his eyes wide. “Wait—” he gasps, his face bone-white. “My—Marinette, I’d never—” He bites his lip. “You know?”

Ladybug nods with a whimper. “I—I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

Suddenly his palms are on her cheeks, his forehead pressed to hers. “I love you, My Lady, My Princess, My—My Marinette,” he breathes in a rush. He smiles. “I’m here as long as you’ll have me.”

Relief floods her body as she realizes—he’s not leaving her. He’s staying. “Your—girl trouble,” she manages. “You found out?”

He closes his eyes and nods. “Saw you yesterday.”

She giggles, tears coming to her eyes. “Same.”

“Cats,�� he snorts. “We’re both idiots.”

“Yeah, but you’re my idiot,” she says, scratching his scalp, smiling as he begins to purr. “Always and forever.”

“I can live with that,” he whispers, raising her chin and meeting her lips with his.

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a-mirror-of-memories · 4 years ago

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Ml prompts (salt edition)

As I promised, this are just some of the plots for fics that I been thinking, a few for a while, others today or this week. Not all of them involve Lila, and even in those she’s not always the focus (Not all of them can be considered ‘salt’ exactly, while others can be labeled as ‘actions have consequences’).

In case anyone want to use them this are the rules (I can made them since this are my ideas):

First of all I want to be tagged for the original idea.

No OOC or bashing of any character (except Gabriel).

No Alya salt unless it’s minimum and only if she’s redeemed at the end. She already gets more than enough hate from the fandom.

Other than that, please refrain of using any of the tropes mentioned in this post:

Max has a crush on Lila, that’s why he keeps believing everything she says (I thought this long before the twitter comment; besides it says that Max’s asexual, not aromatic).

Kim wants to be supporting since she’s his best friend’ first love, even if he doesn’t believe all of her tales (he’s not ruining his chances to become an Olympic medalist following a training regimen that Lila insist ‘was created for my great uncle, a platinum medalist’).

Alix’s getting sick of Lila, if she wanted to hear some self-insert bad fanfic she would spend more time with her brother.

Juleka wants to believe Lila and follows her advices about 'how to be a good model’ until her family intervenes.

After getting several comments complaining of how the Ladyblog’s really unorganized, Alya finally decide to create a side blog (Miracutales) for all the fan-arts and fanfics links her followers keep sending her, and with Nora’s help she spends a whole afternoon fixing her blog. When Lila’s finally exposed the blogger freaks out until her sister comments “Wait, that interview? I send it to your fanfic blog ages ago”.

Lila going on and on to Mylene about a movie actor the other admires, how they’re 'like this’ and that 'I can introduce you to him, he thinks of me as his niece’. Meanwhile the rainbow haired girl’s just nodding with a forced smile while the Italian keep spewing bullshit about her favorite theater actress.

Nino barging into Marinette’s room dragging his little brother, saying that she needed to watch over him on his place since he has a date with Alya. Cue to Alya clearing her throat from the other side of the room, where they were working on a school project.

Lila stole Nathaniel’s sketchbook the day before an important meeting and hid it in Marinette’s locker. Ignoring almost the whole class insistence that she didn’t do it, that anyone could’ve put it in there since there’s no locks, he grabbed her own sketchbook from her bag and ripped it into pieces to everyone’s horror. Marc saw this and he’s akumatized; once it’s all over he still ends their partnership*

*Although cruel, I don’t believe that this is so out of character for Nathaniel. He already has proven to have serious anger issues in Reverser and Evilustrador (While I don’t hold him responsible for what he did under Gabriel’s control, comparing him to other akumas wanting to get revenge of Chloe it’s worrying how much pleasure he seemed to find while tormenting her).

Adrien keep blowing off plans to hang out with his friends to go away as Chat Noir, using the excuse that his father keep adding things to his schedule. One day after he canceled once again, saying that he has a last minute photo shoot, the boys are hanging out in the park where they cross with Vincent. He tells them that he’s the only photograph that Gabriel Agreste trust to work with his son, and that Mr. Agreste was away on a trip for the weekend so Adrien’s schedule was pretty much free until his father came back.

It’s election time again and the Mayor’s opposition has a new slogan: “If he can’t even control his daughter, how can we trust him to protect this city best interest?”

Someone as a joke proposed Xavier Ramier (Mr. Pidgeon) as Mayor. He won.

Felix GV returns and once again pretends to be his cousin. He’s dragged into a photo shoot with Lila; he may be a bastard who hates his uncle and he may be annoyed with Adrien but he still has standards.

With the end of the school year near Alya’s just relieved that since they’ll start Lycée they wouldn’t have to deal with Chloe and Bustier (with her fairytales for assignments) ever again. Until a conversation with Marinette.

“What do you mean we would have Bustier again next year? We’re done with Francoise Dupond! She was your teacher for five years in a row*?! That woman is an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER??!”

*Until Chat Blanc Marinette’s been in Chloe class for five years now, at least four of them with Bustier according to picture’s day. Their class’ in middle school a.k.a three years so…well, that explains a lot about her teaching methods.

Marinette decides to let go of her crush on Adrien (not bashing), and with Alya supporting her choice (even if she doesn’t totally agree with giving up) Rose becomes the new captain of the Adrienette ship; trying to get them together against her friend wishes.

After discovering Hawk Moth’s identity Marinette decides she’ll never be like him and toss aside her dream of be a famous fashion designer. She either finds a new dream or simply opens just a small store away from the spotlight, with sporadic commission for people she’s close to.

At last, I like to call this section’s “Responsible Adults (Are trying their best)”

Marinette doesn’t know every celebrity under the sun, only Jagged, Nadja and maybe Clara. Gina Dupain, world traveler extraordinary, however has a rare gift when it comes to meeting new people by chance without knowing who they are*.

(“I sat beside this guy once in a plane, he was such a charming young man. Here, there’s a pic” “Nonna that was *insert celebrity here*!” “Who?”)

*This in the only kind of celebrity insert I would aprove.

Surprise inspection from the French educational department (whatever it’s called), some heads are going to roll.

Officer Raincomprix at first was happy that Sabrina stopped hanging out with Chloe and made a real friend; then he realized that this girl was even worse than the Mayor’s daughter.

The school nurse accidentally cause an international affair after calling the Italian Embassy asking why the Ambassador’s daughter didn’t have the proper vaccines for all the travels she keep claiming to have made.

After seeing Nathalie faint in the middle of a car drive, a worried Gorilla brings her to the ER. While checking her vitals (she’s still unconscious) a nurse accidentally knocks her brooch out of her coat, and while putting it back a strange creature materialize in front of them.

“Any of you has Ladybug in speed dial?”

One of the Agreste servants (let’s be honest, how else would that place stay clean) discovers Hawk Moth secret lair.

“I don’t get paid enough for this”.

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unmaskedagain · 5 years ago

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Mean Queens

This was for a prompt I mentioned earlier today. I decided to test my hand at Loyal!Alya fic to see how it plays out. Hope you like it.

Marinette had officially been exiled to the back of the class and excommunicated. Lila and most of the class had been waiting for Marinette to arrive; each with cold looks on their faces. The bluenette had looked for Alya, hoping her bestie could tell her what was going on. But there was no sign of the glasses-wearing girl yet. So she had tried to catch Adrien’s eye but he had refused to make eye contact.

Then it all came out.

The class accused her of being a mean and horrible to Lila since the day the Italian girl came to class. Nino told her she’d become even worse of a bully than Chloe. Alix had called her a jealous bitch. Most of the class agreed. Even Sabrina who usually followed around the blonde Queen Bee now clung to the coattails of the newest golden ticket.

The end result? They weren’t going to be her friends anymore.

“Cool,” Marinette had shrugged and took her seat in the back.

Chloe got to class just as it happened, took one look around, snorted, and joined Marinette in back; claiming the left seat next to her. She knew the difference between diamonds and fools’ gold. And diamonds are a girls’ best friend.

Alya arrived not long after. She had been late on purpose. The entire weekend, the class minus two (Marinette and Chloe) had been firing messages back and forth in a group chat about Marinette. It had started Friday after school. Nearly everyone had bashed their once favorite bluenette while Alya had been the only one to defend her. Adrien just said he wanted to stay out of it. Things took a dark turn when Alix admitted and joked to tripping Marinette as revenge. Then Mylene admitting that spilling coffee all over Marinette’s sketchbook hadn’t been an accident. It got worse from there. However, they all claimed it was in defense of Lila. Alya was left stunned. Nothing Marinette could’ve done deserved any of what they did. How could she be so blind as to not see that the so-called “accidents” weren’t accidents at all.

No matter what Lila said, Alya just couldn’t believe Marinette was capable of such things. She had known the girl far too long. And honestly, she was a little surprised the kids who she knew had known Marinette since like pre-k and then suddenly they could think the worse of the so-called “Everyday Ladybug”.

To make it worse, the things they said about Marinette were terrible and just mean. The girl who had done so much for them deserved better. So Alya kept fighting for her friend, trying to convince her friends that something wasn’t right. Maybe Lila was a bit confused or something.

But they wouldn’t listen.

Then Alya thought maybe if she could get Marinette to realize how amazing Lila was then everything would be fine. She just needed to show Marinette proof.

…There was none.

There was literally no evidence backing up any of Lila’s stories. Not even the ones about her mom being an ambassador. The only real information about anything fantastic the Italian girl did came from the Ladyblog. And Alya had deleted that video within seconds upon the realization that Lila hadn’t been telling the truth.

Alya didn’t hesitate to create another group chat about trying to explain that maybe something was a bit fishy about Lila. She spent most of Saturday just trying to get them to listen to her. But she just got accused of being biased. Even Nino had blatantly told her that she was too close to Marinette to see what she was really like.

Was this how Marinette felt, she had found herself wondering.

“Can you prove she doesn’t actually know Ladybug?” The words tasted sour in Alya’s mouth. The more she thought about them, the worst the taste and feeling in her stomach got. Though she had remained silent the look Marinette had given Alya was like the bluenette was questioning her sanity. Or maybe her intelligence.

Because Alya was officially questioning both about herself.

Of course, Marinette could prove Lila didn’t know Ladybug! She was the one who originally helped Alya get her first big interview with the hero.

And when Alya realized (remembered) that, she also remembered that fact Marinette knew Jagged Stone very well and could easily dispute Lila’s cat and plane story. Her bestie also knew Clara Nightingale and managed to become friends with the superstar; there was no way Marinette wouldn’t ask the singer if she knew Lila Rossi. She probably already had. And the answer was probably no.

Alya pinched her nose to fight the urge to slap herself. The idea that Clara Nightingale stole Lila’s dance moves was obviously a ridiculous lie; one she had eaten up.

By Sunday morning, Lila had subtly hinted that her classmates’ chances of meeting all the celebrities she knew and the opportunities they stood a chance for were decreasing. Or as Lila texted:

No one wants to be associated with a bully. (sad emoji)

I’d hate it if people thought you were one too.

They’d never work with you then.

That was all it took for the class to agree to drop Marinette like a hot potato.

And that was the final nail in the coffin as far as Alya was concerned.

She was at Marinette less than half an hour later. Alya apologized for not believing Marinette about Lila. She had taken off her glasses when she began to cry. She handed her phone over, and let Marinette read the group texts. The hurt that flashed over the Asian’s girl face nearly broke Alya’s heart.

“You’re my best friend,” Alya had stated firmly. “I should’ve trusted you. I should’ve had your back. I’ll do better. I’ll be better.”

Marinette wiped tears from her face. “You had my back when it counted the most.” A cold look appeared on her face. “Tomorrow, we’ll find out who’s really my friend.”

Alya agreed but wanted to point out that friends didn’t do what they did. She couldn’t stop herself from remembering all the nasty words and mean jokes they made about her bestie. “Okay, but then we get revenge.”

“Nothing to mean.”

“No promises.”

Alya looked at the faces of the kids who she was once her friends; to be clear, they weren’t anymore. She couldn’t trust them. If they could turn on someone like as awesome Marinette for a few sickly sweet promises and false tears, then they’d drop Alya, who could admit to herself she wasn’t nearly as nice as the bluenette, in a hot second.

She didn’t bother saying good morning to them. Alya shook her head and promptly walked to the back of the class and sat in the right (in more ways than one) desk next to Marinette’s. To her credit, Alya didn’t blink twice at Chloe’s new chosen seat; as she far she was concerned Marinette needed all the friends she could get.

Alya crossed her arms and glared at the class. A cold fury filling her. Still, she gave her ex-friends, Nino (her soon to ex-boyfriend), Lila a small smile and a chuckle, “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

There would be hell to pay for they did her best friend. This wasn’t war. No, War meant the ingrates in her class actually stood a chance. They didn’t. It was Marinette, Alya, and Chloe versus everyone else. This was a war, it was an execution.

First thing first was they had to plan.

After school, the three girls met up at Marinette’s.

“No matter more being a doormat, Dupain… Marinette,” Chloe corrected at the last second.

Marinette frowned, “I’m not a doormat.”

“You kind of are girl,” Alya said, despite the part of herself that hated agreeing with Chloe. They were on the same side, she reminded herself, the same team. “You’re are constantly running around to help everyone. You’re constantly doing favors; handing out free custom design clothes, banners, food, the works. And they treat you like dirt. They’ve been treating you like dirt, and yet you still help. It’s not right. I never thought it was.”

At first, Alya hadn’t said anything because she was too new and didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. But she should’ve.

“It has to stop,” Alya continued. “They’re not your friends anymore; you don’t owe anyone anything. Even if they were; your designs are way too badass to be giving them away for free.”

Marinette nodded. She could agree to that

Chloe put a hand on her hip, “The three of us are the most formidable girls in class; possibly the entire school. Outside of class, most of the school loved Mariette; the artists, the geeks, the fashion club, bakers’ club. Thanks to the Ladyblog, Alya is the most known girl at school; people trust her because Ladybug trusts her. Me? I’m the richest girl in school and I throw the best parties; the elite follows me because they have no choice, and the popular because they don’t want to risk not getting an invite. As hot and as smart as we are, we are ruling that hellhole. You know what our problem is?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Marinette’s too nice. I’m too bossy. Alya’s too stubborn.”

It wasn’t the first time or the millionth that someone calls Alya stubborn. “We need to work as a unit; they come at one of us, they come at all of us. Lila isn’t done yet.”

“She lied her way to the top,” Marinette said. “As long as she thinks I’m any kind of threat to her, she won’t stop.

Chloe nodded, “Mostly because of the tops a long way from the bottom and it’s her social status, her reputation, everything she got since she came to school that’s on the line. The fall will kill her;”

“Then let’s make sure she takes our ex-friends with her,” Alya said darkly. “We got nowhere being nice and honest. Lets’ try mean and ruthless.”

Marinette wanted to protest but the texts from her so-called friends still tore at her. They had said so many hurtful things; about Marinette, her designs, her parents’ bakery. It was terrible. “What do you have in mind?”

Alya smirked, “We’re going full scorched earth.”

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

They let the class think they were safe; let the worry of any potential consequences slowly fade from their minds. It took weeks before their ex-friends would stop reading themselves for an attack whenever Chloe, Alya, or even Marinette entered the room. And during those weeks, the girls assembled their powerbases; slowly but surely, they took their rightful places at the top of the social hierarchy.

A few of the so-called Queen Bee of the school took afront of this and did their best to sabotage each other

But what none of the other social climbers expected was for the three to combine their forces. Marinette, Chloe, and Alya were cold and merciless in defense of their new positions; each one using their own unique still to remove or outright destroy their competition and anyone else that got in their way.

However, it was until Olivia Knight, the former most popular girl in school, popularity fell to just above the Goth kids that people finally got the message.

There were Three new queens in their school. Call them the Lannisters, Call them the Tyrells, or the Baratheons’; whatever However the message was the same. The Queens would do anything it took to keep their thrones.

Two months; nine parties, one school election, a dance (where Chloe was elected Queen) and joining seven clubs between them Marinette: Fashion and Art. Alya: Track and Comic Book Club. Chloe: Mathletes and Drama. Finally, all three joined the World Travels’ Club. That way they had a foot in with the nerds, jocks, the geeks, the loners, the goths, and (by way of throwing awesome parties) the popular kids. And Marinette, Chloe, and Alya were officially the most popular girls in school.

Marinette and Alya were surprised to learn the kids from Bustier’s class were lower on the overall school’s popularity scale than the creepy loner kid that hangs out behind the gym and smokes. They only really hung out with each other and seemed to have more problems than any other class in school. The main idea seemed to be that Bustier’s class was black hole no one ever managed to crawl out of until Alya, Chloe, and Marinette surfaced. Or a budding cult. Now that they had broken free, the three could see how they had gotten that idea.

When they were in class, it was like they were in their own world. They were all in high school now but most still acted as they did on their first days of middle school. It was like they refused to grow up, mature mentally and emotionally. Bustier never seemed to mind.

She was a hindrance. She blamed the victim and protected the bullies.

It was why Bustier had to go.

Getting Bustier fired was remarkable easy. A week’s work of videos of what life was life every day in her class, and she was gone.

A substitute didn’t come to replace her. No someone (Chloe) had leaned on Damocles hard to get the entire class split up until a permanent one could be found. Thus they were in for a hard lesson.

The first? Who really ruled the school?

The best part was for that ditch the girls were planning on leaving their ex-friends in, those morons brought the shovel themselves.

It took a few days for Bustier’s class to settled into their classes and schedule but once they did, they immediately tried to go back to their old ways.

The teachers shut down most of it; making it clear they would NOT be tolerating any crap.

Still, that didn’t stop everyone.

Bustier’s students, as they would be known by the students and teachers, yelled out they’re answered, frequently disrupted the class, argued loudly with each other.

Lila tried to spin her stories again but Marinette and Alya already spread the truth about how much of a liar she was so one bought anything she said. Most just ignored her. Lila didn’t like that. She thrived off attention. No attention meant Akumas. Unfortunately, this just caused Lila to look even more immature than she already did.

When Alix “accidentally” tripped Marinette. Marinette let herself fall, crash, and spill all her school supplies. Alix and Mylene snickered.

Aurore who had witnessed the event didn’t hesitate to call them out, drawing the attention of the other students. They saw Marinette on the floor, Alix and Mylene laughing and came to the correct conclusion. Marinette’s new friends rushed to help her, glaring viciously at the two girls while she did so.

Word spread quickly. And then Alya “accidentally” let it slip about the mean texts about Marinette. And then Chloe “accidentally” revealed all of the classes’ dirty little secrets; things that had only be known by Bustier’s students. Rumors flew.

It wasn’t long before most of the student body would rather be seen with the creepy loner smoker kid than with any of Bustier’s students.

No one realized just how true that statement was until Marinette announced yet another fantastic party. Chloe, Marinette, and Alya had become known for them.

…This party was different.

Usually, it was a mass invite; welcoming anyone and everyone.

This party was an invitation-only which was strange because it seemed like everyone in school was invited. Until they got to the party that Friday night and realized just who wasn’t.

Bustier’s students.

It was the worse sentence the Queen could’ve delivered to their ex-friends. It wasn’t just a drop on the popularity scale. It wasn’t social exile. The message was clear; Marinette, Chloe, and Alya would not tolerate their ex-friends whatsoever.

No one wanted to get on the girls’ bad side. No one would even consider risking it. No one wanted to be the next Olivia Knight. Olivia who never fully recovered her reputation or her social status; most of her old friends wouldn’t even speak to her anymore. They were not about to put their necks on the line for losers Bustier’s class.

They’d only lose their heads.

The (Demon) Queens of school decreed it, by next Monday, the students of Bustier’s class would be deleted.

And yet that still wouldn’t be enough for them.

As far as they were concerned they were only just getting started.

Move over Heathers, Plastics, the Queens have arrived.

#ml salt #ml fic #alya deserves better #class salt #a little bit of adrien salt #marinette dupain cheng

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marrys-dream-world · 3 years ago

Note

Hi! For the ask game: 17, 28, 37 :)

(I'm so sorry I took so long, there's no excuse but I promise I won't take that long again. I usually try to be fast with asks. Well, here it is.)

17. What’s your favorite AU?

Ahhhh, this was a hard question because I don’t really think about AUs a lot, canonverse really has everything I need. I think these days I like AUs where Adrien and Marinette are still Ladybug and Chat Noir, but haven’t met as civilians. I adore the Love Square, but fanworks where this is depicted are so fun. Especially post-Hawkmoth defeat, since Marinette would have to work through the fact that Adrien is Hawkmoth’s son. I love that. Kinda like The Bakery Enemies AU or this fic.

I also began to enjoy, more recently, universe fusions with other shows I like (I’m lowkey planning a fic around this Bleach AU and I have the vague foundations of a My Hero Academia AU). Ah, and AUs where the main duo has different miraculous or it’s not even them (maybe because I think about permanent miraculous holders Pigella and Tigress Pourpree a little too much for someone that doesn’t want any permanent hero other than LB and CN).

28. What’s your favorite scene?

Nothing has ever beaten the punch that The Umbrella Scene gave back in 2016. The music lives in my mind rent-free (as I type this I can hear the piano playing), Adrien opening up for what was maybe the first time was welcome back then and would be welcome now too, actually. Their dialogue was so sweet, the umbrella closing down on her, their laughter, Tikki and Plagg’s teasing. Adrinette invented love.

By this point, the only scene that could possibly steal this spot is Adrien and Marinette having a conversation post-reveal where they can be honest with each other.

37. How do you feel about Lukanette?

You asked this on purpose, you knew I’m always down to rant about Lukanette. I was thinking that my problem with this ship is that it’s really boring, like Luka was until season 4 and then it hit me: maybe I’m projecting my feeling for Luka into Lukanette? I couldn’t remember many moments about them (they all ended up a mashed pile of Luka stringing him guitar with a “you feel like this”). There must be a reason people like them so much! So I googled “Lukanette scenes” and watched this ten-minute video (and read the comments bashing Adrien, thanks ML youtube) and… Nothing.

I was right, Lukanette is boring. Sure, part is because I don’t really care about Luka. His character was all about Marinette from his introduction to his akumatizations, it was obvious he was introduced just to be the love interest. Not even Juleka’s older brother, but Marinette’s love interest (until recently in, like, Crocoduel and Wishmaker). It’s a far cry from Kagami, whose first episode set her up as a character outside of Adrien and the following episodes made sure the audience and Marinette knew that. Sure, sometimes she fell back into the role of love interest and that was fine, I had Kagami moments outside of that where I felt like I understood her as a person. I didn’t have that with Luka at all.

Also, I just think his interactions with Marinette just don’t do anything for me at all. There’s no chemistry there, in my opinion (maybe just the Lies’ scene in the movie, I liked that). I don’t like how Luka is set up as a cardboard cut-out of the perfect boyfriend, he’s always assuring her that he’ll always be there for her and that he doesn’t care if she gets with Adrien instead of him, which is just plain weird to me. He was presented as a love interest right away and his friendship with Marinette isn’t developed at all, so him encouraging her to be with another guy strikes me as Luka not caring all that much.

In contrast, we have Kagami (I know this isn’t about her, but she is my beloved and the comparisons are relevant here). She says she likes Adrien and that she’s going after him, she won’t hesitate. Even after her and Marinette become friends and are after the same boy, they don’t fight about it and that’s cool. However, when Kagami tells Marinette she shouldn’t hesitate or Adrien will be out of her grasp, it feels organic because not only is Marinette her friend, but she believes Adrien is in love with her. She isn’t going to sit around, though, she wants Adrien and she’s not going to talk him into being with another girl. It feels real and way more genuine. Even when she says she’ll wait for Adrien, she’s clear about what she wants:

Kagami (in Frozer): The day you realize you’ve got the wrong target, I’ll be here. (She kisses his cheek)

(Just wanted to add that yeah, Luka and Kagami have different personalities and that I don’t mind him not being assertive. It’s just that in the context, it’s iffy and not charming at all.)

I’m not gonna say the writing for Kagami is perfect, far from it, but it’s much better than Luka’s, which makes her and Adrigami interesting elements to the story. It used to baffle me that Kagami got hate while Luka was loved by a large amount of fans, but it’s just that she got a personality, flaws and all, and Luka didn’t. It’s much easier to hate the character you can’t project on (I’m not saying it’s just that, of course, there’s always other stuff). Adrien and Kagami were on friendly terms first, so when we got them as a love interest, it felt organic. Luka was introduced as a love interest and stayed there.

On Marinette’s side, there isn’t much to say. He was always playing second fiddle to Adrien in her heart and even he knew that. It’s hard to want her to be with Luka when she’s so hung up on someone else.

(Here's the post if anyone wants to ask and/or play.)

#lukanette salt #luka salt #sorry lu/ka sweetie it had to be done #ask game #marry answers #miraculous ladybug #kagami tsurugi

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flightfoot · 5 months ago

Note

do you know of lila take down fics that don't bash the children?

Hm, I'm assuming you mean ones that are still focused around Lila being a schoolyard bully? I generally stay away from those nowadays, instead opting to just read the fics where everyone's aged up and she's presented as more of a supervillain (those tend to not bash anyone else), but I do still have some recs for you!

Not Quite Right by @ladynoirfanao3

When Marinette wakes up one morning, she can’t help but feel that something is just a little bit… off. No one else around her seems to feel the same, however, and she is forced to shake off the strange feelings. It proves to be more difficult than she imagined, especially when an akuma attack leaves her feeling helpless as she watches Chat Noir and Ladybug arrive on scene.

---

In Pursuit Of The Uneatable by @nemaliwrites

Who do you trust when your own reflection becomes a stranger? In a Paris where Lila weaves tales that blind the city, Marinette stands accused, isolated. Her parents' trust is shattered, her friends distant, and in battle, illusions blur the line between ally and enemy. As the shadows and uncertainty threaten to close in, Marinette finds herself turning to the last person who claims to be on her side: a boy in a white mask who calls himself a fox hunter.

---

Hold Me By Both Hands by @angelofthequeers

“I know he said never to take you back,” Plagg mutters. “But he’d change his tune if he knew.” He looks Adrien straight in the eye and, more serious than Adrien’s ever seen him before, says, “There’s someone you gotta meet. He’s been looking for that book for ages.” How differently might the events of season 2 have gone if Adrien had also known of Master Fu from the start?

---

Accidents Are Also Miracles by @liiinerle

After some turbulent days that end with five people knowing her secret identity as Ladybug, Marinette loses faith in her ability to keep herself hidden. Wracked with doubts and insecurities, she pleads with Alya to take over as Scarabella, and tries to disconnect from heroing altogether. Along the way, she starts to date Kagami. Hard as she tries, though, she can't stop worrying - especially not once Monarch takes a particular, and personal, interest in her. At the same time, Alya tries to adjust to her new role while she works to uncover who Monarch really is, and makes some realisations about her own wishes. Kagami struggles against a controlling and abusive parent, and a girlfriend who seems bent on destroying herself - with or without Monarch's involvement. And in the meantime, Alix keeps popping her head back in with offers to help (because cool though time travel is, she misses hanging out in her own time).

---

Side Effects Include: Empathy by Word_Devourer

Adrien develops touch-based empathy from using a Miraculous as long as he has. This can only go well.

---

The Investigation by @11jj11

Adrien and Marinette are finally dating-- which is what Alya has always wanted... but yet this sudden transformation in their relationship overnight? Things aren't adding up. They are suddenly so much closer than they ever have been before, Adrien is apparently a flirt, Marinette is no longer a stuttering mess, and not to mention the nicknames that came out of no where. Alya is happy for her friends, but she knows there's something more going on, and the reporter in her is going to get to the bottom of it.

---

best (fake) smile by Reiaji

After Gabriel arranges for Lila to be his date at Paris Fashion Week, Adrien rights a wrong as best he knows how: with a little bit of sweetness, a little bit of subtlety, and a lot of social media magic.

#ask #ml fanfic recs #miraculous ladybug #lila rossi #lila rossi's lies are exposed

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p-artsypants · 4 years ago

Text

I’ll Handle This (8)

I’ve always wanted to write a sleepover/truth or dare fic, but I never could come up with a plot. This is my wish fulfillment.

Ao3 | FF.net

—

In Which Nino is Sus

“So what does one do at the beginning of a sleepover?” Asked Plagg. “Is it like it is in the movies?”

“Some things are similar,” Alya provided, digging through her duffel. “First, one must change into their pajamas.” She held up an oversized t-shirt and red flannel pants.

“Oh! I get it!” Plagg undid his button.

“What are you doing?” Asked Nino, looking meaningfully to the girls in the room.

“Changing?” And Plagg dropped his pants in one fluid motion.

Alya saw it coming and turned away with a laugh.

But Marinette caught an eyeful (as much as Adrien in boxer briefs could be considered an eyeful) before she too turned away with an ‘eep!’

“I change in front of people all the time,” Plagg explained. “As a model that is. Not my fault you’re all shy. I’ve got underwear on.”

“Well if Sunshine isn’t ashamed, then I’m not going to make a big deal out of it.” Alya stopped shielding her face, though she didn’t look directly at him.

Plagg peeled his shirts off next, eliciting another squeal from Marinette.

“I, for one, will be changing in the bathroom,” said Alya, PJs in hand.

Plagg bent over and ruffled through his bag, derrière within smacking distance to Marinette.

“I-I-I’ll join you,” said Marinette, scrambling to get her PJs.

Alya was already halfway out the door. “Wait your turn, M.”

And Marinette was forced to wait as Adrien stepped those long, beautifully toned legs into a pair of...oh, Ladybug spot patterned pants. Then he slipped on a shirt covering those perfect, sculpted abs.

The shirt was red, and had words sharpied onto it, but it wasn’t until he got it on and smoothed it out that she could read what it said.

“Ladybug’s sexiest fan.”

She laughed. Not a laugh of, ‘oh, that’s funny’ but a laugh of ‘why me God?’

“Your turn, M!” Alya sang, coming into the room. Her eyes landed on Adrien. “Where did you get that shirt?? I need one!”

Plagg puffed out his chest. “Sorry Alya, this is a one of a kind piece! I made it myself!”

“It’s really good for being hand drawn!”

“Thanks!” He beamed.

From his bag, Adrien had to wonder when Plagg had the time to make such a thing.

Marinette excused herself to change, and immediately Alya and Nino whirled on him. “What was that??”

“What was what?”

“That strip tease! What the heck?!”

“Oh that? Well, when you have a bod like mine, you gotta flaunt it on occasion.”

“Sure Dude,” Nino raised a brow. “But like, we just talked last week about how you were having self confidence issues. Why the change?”

Plagg had forgotten about that conversation. Granted, he had tried not to listen to it, since it wasn’t a conversation for him...

“Well, you know how it is when you’re around people you trust.”

“You’ve got the hots for Marinette!” Alya blurted.

Plagg played bashful. “Well...maybe a little...”

She squealed in excitement, clapping her hands together. “Oh em gee! I’ve been waiting for this day for forever! You have to ask her out! She’ll say yes, I promise!”

“Oh, I know about her crush.” Plagg explained, “I just wanted to...encourage her to confess herself.”

Alya and Nino both went wide-eyed. “You knew? Since when?”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Nino asked, slightly hurt. “I thought I was your wingman.”

“It’s a recent thing.” At least for Adrien it was. “I haven’t really had to think things through. I’m just...having fun and flirting.” He quirked a smile. “I am flirting, right? I’m not coming off like a creep, right?”

“Oh no no,” Alya insisted. “You’re a natural! How did you find out?”

Plagg twirled a lock of hair close to his scalp. “I have my ways.”

Nino narrowed his eyes, the action going unnoticed by Plagg.

Marinette returned, wearing pink shorts and an oversized sweatshirt.

From Adrien’s point of view, she looked adorable, and he wished he could just pull her into a hug and snuggle up with her...maybe press a kiss to her temple.

“There you are, Princess. We missed you!” Plagg chirped.

Marinette blushed. “I was gone for like a minute.”

“Oh but it felt so much longer! Nino and Alya were making out the whole time! It was torture!”

“We did not!” Alya barked. “Don’t you lie to my girl!”

“Don’t listen to her,” Plagg insisted. “She was sucking the soul out of him.”

Alya gasped in mock horror. “You keep your vulgar rebellion away from my innocent baby!”

Plagg wrapped his arms around Marinette, pulling her towards him. “On the contrary, I think I’ll pull Marinette with me into the depths of my depravity!”

“Nooo!” Alya cried. “What horrors do you plan to subject her to?”

“Well, I know I can’t convince her to dress like me.”

“Over my dead body,” Marinette agreed, her face red hot.

“But perhaps she will sneak out of her house like me?” He leaned in closer to her ear and purred. “We can stay out all night doing who knows what?”

Marinette gave a full body shiver, wriggling away from him. “Uh, you don’t—I’m not very good at—surely they’ll notice—“

Plagg smiled to himself. God it was so funny seeing her so flustered.

“Alright,” said Alya, pulling him away. “Give her a break before she combusts.”

Nino watched with narrowed eyes, but they softened before Plagg could notice.

“So? What’s next on the agenda?” Asked Plagg, still in great spirits.

“Since this is a first sleepover for Adrien,” began Alya, with bravado, “I have an assemblage of traditional sleepover games. Including,” she slammed down a box. “Truth or dare.”

Nino and Marinette both moaned.

Plagg sat a little straighter at the reaction. “Oh, a game that causes suffering. Do tell!”

“You’ve never heard of truth or dare?” Asked Nino.

Plagg shook his head. “Never been to a sleepover, remember?”

“Yeah, but you’ve at least had to hear about it in movies or books, right?”

Plagg shrugged. “Maybe I just don’t remember. What are the rules?”

“Simple,” explained Alya. “On your turn, you get to pick between truth or dare. Dare is an action you must do, and truth is a confession you have to make. Once you do it, you get to come up with the next person’s truth or dare.”

“Oh yes, this sounds familiar now. What is the box for?”

“Suggestions.” She opened the lid to reveal two sets of cards. “I’m sure we can all come up with two or three really good truths or dares, but these are in case we run out.”

“Passes?” Asked Marinette.

“Everyone gets one pass.”

Plagg had to keep that in mind. While this game could be really fun and he could lie his way through most of it, he had the potential of ruining his master plan.

But these kids wouldn’t try to oust Adrien’s brand new crush on the same night they learned about it.

Right?

Alya set a bottle sideways on the floor.

“What’s that?” Plagg asked.

“Since we can��t play ‘Spin the Bottle’, we’ll use it as a player picker.”

“What’s ‘Spin the Bottle’?”

“A kissing game.” Marinette provided. “You spin the bottle, and whoever it lands on, you kiss.”

“Sounds spicy, but not a good game for just the four of us if you two are dating...” Plagg gestured between Alya and Nino.

“Now you get it!”

“So who goes first?”

“I’ll go, because I suggested the game.” Alya sang, spinning the bottle.

Plagg glanced at Marinette, who had her fingers crossed. Obviously hoping that she wouldn’t face Alya’s wrath.

The bottle slowed to a stop pointing at Nino.

“Narts…”

“Alright babe, Truth…or Dare?”

“Dare I guess.”

“Perfect! I dare you to shave your legs.”

“What!” Nino cried.

Plagg barked out a laugh. “Oh she got you good!”

“I’m not going to shave my legs!”

“You have to, it’s a dare.” Alya protested.

“Fine, I’ll do it later.”

“Nope. Right now, Mister. Hop to it!”

Nino groaned in defeat before rising to his feet. “Fine, I’m going.”

“Do you need help?”

“I know how to shave!” And Nino stormed off to the bathroom.

“That was a pretty extreme dare for our first round.” Said Marinette. “How are we going to beat it?”

“Oh the hair will grow back, and he never wears shorts. I could have dared him to shave his head. I’m sure there will be more amazing opportunities!” Alya sang.

“So, are we waiting for him before we keep going?” Asked Plagg.

“Might as well, don’t want him to feel left out.”

“So these dares...how extreme is extreme?” Plagg asked, curling his legs up underneath him.

Alya and Marinette shared a look, entertained on Alya’s end, and fear on Marinette’s.

“Well, we all have one pass...” mused Alya.

“Nothing physically detrimental or permanent!” Marinette objected. “Like a tattoo or piercing or something!”

“Pft, that leaves a whole lot of open space.”

“And nothing traumatic or emotionally detrimental.”

Plagg flapped his lips like a horse. “Now you’re being a party pooper.”

“Oh!” Said Alya with a snap. “Lila said you guys had a photoshoot yesterday, but she didn’t tell me anything else. She usually tells me all about it! What happened?”

Plagg chuckled. “Oh nothing in particular. I was just telling her about Magic.”

Alya groaned. “Oh don’t even get started on it. Ever since Nath introduced it to you guys, Nino won’t shut up about it! It’s ‘Blue Black’ this, and ‘tarmogoyf’ that. I’m glad you guys are all bonding, I am, I’m just so lost!”

“So you talked to Lila about that card game?” Marinette probed.

“Yeah, basically the whole time.” He sent her a wink on the sly. “I can’t imagine that would have given her a bad experience. I thought she was my friend...” he played sad.

Thankfully, Alya bought it. “Aww, Sunshine, maybe something else happened when you weren’t there. Don’t take it too harshly.”

“NINO MICHELE LAHIFFE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY RAZOR!?”

“IT'S FOR A DARE MOM! I’LL CLEAN UP AFTERWARDS!”

“THERE IS BLOOD ALL OVER THE TUB! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”

“I’M SHAVING MY LEGS! I HAVE HAIRY ANKLES!”

“GIVE ME THAT! I’LL SHOW YOU HOW TO DO IT!”

“MOOOOM I KNOW HOW TO SHAVE!!”

The three teens in the room sprawled on the floor, gasping for air and desperate not to laugh too loud.

Alya had tears in her eyes. “Oh my god he’s going to kill me.”

“We’ll plan a beautiful funeral for you.” Marinette teased.

Eventually, Nino rejoined the group, hiking his pants up so his legs were visible. “Ba-BAM!”

Alya dragged a hand up his calf. “Damn babe, you clean up nice!”

“Don’t get used to it.”

“Now you know my struggle.” She sassed back.

“Al, I never gave you a hard time about unshaved legs. If you can put up with mine, I can certainly put up with yours.”

Plagg turned to Marinette. “It’s certainly fascinating what couples will argue about, Hmm?”

“Uh, y-yeah. It’s funny...”

“Alright Nino, your turn to spin the bottle.” Alya gestured.

Nino cracked his knuckles. “Don’t mind if I do!” And he gave it a whirl.

It landed on Marinette.

“Truth or Dare?”

“Umm...truth?”

Nino smiled fiendishly, a smile that was uncharacteristic for him. “Okay. What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve done to get your crush to notice you?”

Marinette gasped in horror. “NINO!”

“You could pass.”

“And then for the rest of the game I live in terror that I’m going to get something worse? No.”

Plagg leaned in closer, head in his hands, trying and failing not to look extremely curious. “Soo?”

“So what?”

“What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve done to get your crush to notice you?”

Her face colored brightly, all the way up to the tips of her ears.

“We’re all friends here, M.” Assured Alya. “And you don’t have to say who it is.”

Finally, Marinette exhaled slowly and admitted, “there’s been a lot. And I’m not sure if I can pick just one above the others...but the least incriminating would be the voicemail.”

Alya chuckled. “Ah, the voicemail.”

Marinette covered her eyes with both hands, but continued. “It was normal at first. I rambled a little bit through it, stammered it out…just asked him if he wanted to go to the movies, and then…instead of hanging up like a normal, sane person. I threw my phone, while it was still recording. I then proceeded to say a bunch of stuff to Alya, like ‘I couldn’t have just said ‘blah blah blah’ and the phone recorded the whole thing.”

“And he didn’t say anything about it?” Asked Nino.

“It gets better,” Alya smirked.

“No…because he never heard it…I stole his phone and deleted it.”

“YOU STOLE HIS PHONE?!” Plagg shouted. He was 1) Shocked that such an occurrence happened around him. He was pretty diligent around Adrien’s belongings. God knows the amount of times Lila had tried to rifle through his bag. And 2) Shocked and delighted that Marinette had the guts to do something so radical. “That’s amazing, Marinette!”

“It’s not amazing!” Marinette lamented. “I’m a phone thief!”

“She stole mine too,” smiled Alya. “She’s a scoundrel.”

“I am! I am a scoundrel!”

“So what did the voicemail say?” Asked Plagg, much too invested in this story.

Marinette blushed even brighter, pulling her shoulders up to her ears. “You can’t ask that! You have to wait your turn!”

“Oh clever. I see. Well then, I’ll hold on to that for now.” He chuckled. “It’s your turn to spin the bottle.”

Marinette relaxed slightly, thrilled that she had made it through the question with minor embarrassment (and her secret crush unaware, as far as she knew.) She spun the bottle with gusto.

It landed on Plagg.

“Oh boy.” Plagg winced.

“Ha! Truth or dare?”

“Hmm…I’ll do a dare.”

“I dare you to call Principle Damocles, pretending to be your father.”

“Oh my god yes!” Cheered Alya. “Anyone have his number?”

“I do, for student council purposes. Best not use my phone then.”

Plagg took out Adrien’s phone, unlocking it, and handed it over to Marinette.

She dialed the number. “All you have to do is start the call.”

“What should I say?”

“Don’t get anyone in trouble.” Marinette warned.

“Oh, and don’t give him a reason to call back and follow up.”

“Okay…I got an idea.” He hit the call button.

After a few heart pounding seconds, he answered. “Hello, Principle Damocles here!”

“Yes, quite, this is Gabriel Agreste.” Plagg said, in his perfectly flawless impersonation.

The other three in the room had to hold their breath to avoid laughing out loud.

“Ah, Mr. Agreste! To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I assure you, monsieur, this conversation will not be a pleasure. Do you think you’re a good administrator?”

“I uh…”

“No stammering, I hate stammering!”

“Yes! I think I’m very accomplished!”

“My son came home with a cold today.” Plagg narrowed his eyes, putting anger in his voice.

“Oh well…I’m very sorry to hear that, sir. But after all, this is a school with many children, they’re bound to pass colds along.”

“How is your sanitation? Do you regularly clean tables and desks?”

“I-well, not usually the desks. The floors, yes, and the bathrooms…”

“And the air system? Do you keep good air flow?”

“The courtyard is open air, so yes, there should be—“

“Is your heater running?”

“It should be! It’s March after all!”

“Well then, you better go catch it.” And he hung up.

As soon as he pulled the phone away, all three of his friends were on the floor, crying with laughter.

“OH MY GOD! THAT WAS THE BEST!”

“Flawless setup, flawless execution.” Alya giggled.

Marinette rubbed the tears from her cheeks. “Man, your impersonation of your dad is spot on.”

“I have a lot of practice.” Plagg shrugged. Plagg’s impression in his own body was pretty good, but combined with Adrien’s vocal chords, it was just too good. Almost too much power.

The game continued onward. With the dares becoming even more crazy. Nino ingested a random concoction of sauces Alya had brewed in the kitchen, while Alya displayed her acting prowess in pretending to be a baby being born. The truths were pretty good, as Nino had confessed to having a secret Gumby fetish, and Marinette had to admit that she had accidentally peed her pants at a water park last summer.

Then Alya spun the bottle, only for it to land on Plagg.

“Dare.”

Alya grinned manically, and Marinette felt a chill creep down her spine. Alya had a tendency to go too far, and this would be one of those times where she tried to help Marinette out.

“Adrien Agreste…I dare you…to kiss…Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Plagg had seen it coming a mile away. It was so predictable. And yet he had been considering what to do. He still had a pass. Kissing humans, while he was human or not, was not up there on his list of things he enjoyed.

Oh, what the hell. It wasn’t his body!

Marinette’s mouth dropped open in shock. “You can’t make him do that! Adrien, you can pass! I won’t be offend—“

Then she was laying on her back, with Adrien’s wonderful, perfect frame pressing her against the floor. His lips were on hers, full, and absent of any hesitation.

Someone wolf-whistled.

Before she could even think of how to respond, he clamored off of her, and sat up. “That good enough for you?”

“Damn, I wish you had warned me so I could have got a picture!”

“No way! What happens at Nino’s stays at Nino’s!”

“You good down there, girl?”

Marinette let out a string of consonants.

“You broke her,” Nino mused.

“Worth it.” He slyly gazed back to his overnight bag, where Adrien was hiding for the evening. Only his eyes, glowing green slits, full of anger were visible.

Plagg just smirked, and then winked.

—

Marinette and Alya left at 9. Marinette because she had to ‘wake up early’ and Alya because she wanted to ‘get homework done’. Plagg saw it for what it really was. They were going to gossip about his little stunt for a while.

“Wanna play UMS?” Nino asked, once the girls had left.

“You know it!”

Nino gestured him forward, letting him lead the way to Nino’s bedroom.

But upon entering the bedroom, Plagg heard the door close, heard a bang, felt an extreme pain in his head, and then blacked out.

—

When he awoke, the room was dark.

He was sitting in a chair, Nino’s computer chair, with his hands and feet bound with duct tape.

The pain in his head swelled again, as a bright light was flashed in his face.

“Uh, what the hell?” He grouched.

“Are you okay dude?” Nino asked, with sympathy.

“Besides the concussion? Just peachy.”

Nino sighed in relief. “Oh good.” Then his voice took on an edge he had never heard before. “Now, who are you, and what have you done with the real Adrien?”

Plagg blinked once, twice. “Pardon?”

“You heard me. Where is my best friend?”

“I...don’t know what you mean? I’m just me, Nino?”

“Oh no no no,” anger creeped into his voice. “You may have everyone fooled, but I know better! Marinette thinks you’re having a crisis, Alya says the fame and fortune have gone to your head, but I know Adrien! And I know that you aren’t him!”

Still slightly shocked, Plagg had to ask, “what makes you say that?”

“Evidence A: you’ve been wearing sunglasses to hide your weird cat-pupils. And I know they aren’t colored contacts, because Adrien lamented to me that he couldn’t wear colored contacts with his astigmatism!”

Plagg blinked again. “Shit dude, got me there.”

“Evidence B: at dinner, Marinette offered an array of macrons, and instead of your hard and true first choice of passion fruit, you went with pumpkin spice! You never went for the passion fruit!”

“I just...wanted to be adventurous?”

“Evidence C: the kiss.”

“Of course.”

“Even if Adrien was head over heels madly in love with Marinette, he is far too meek to kiss her like you did tonight.”

“Facts.”

“So, I’ll ask you one more time. Who are you, and where’s the real Adrien?”

Plagg considered this for a moment, but only a moment before answering. “Yeah, you got me. I’m not Adrien.”

Nino pumped his fist in victory. “I knew it! I told the girls but they didn’t believe me!”

“Adrien’s in my overnight bag.”

Before Nino could check himself, Adrien came spiraling out to reprimand him. “Plagg! You can’t just give away our situation like that! What happened to secrecy? Secret identities?!”

Plagg shrugged. “He obviously had me figured out. Mortals are particularly stubborn when they know a truth.”

Adrien didn’t argue anymore as he was scooped out of the air and crushed to Nino’s chest. “Dude! I’ve been so worried!”

“I’m okay. A little traumatized, but okay.” Adrien squeaked out.

Nino held him in his hands. “What happened? Why are you—hey, you’re a Kwami!”

“The Black Cat Kwami,” Plagg clarified.

“So that means...you’re Chat Noir!”

“Yep. And now you’re the only other human that knows.”

“I figured Carapace could keep the secret.” Plagg hummed. “Wayzz certainly trusts him enough.”

“But Hawkmoth knows who Carapace is...or was...”

“And he hasn’t bothered me since,” Nino offered. “I don’t think he cares?”

“See? Everything is copacetic. Now unbind me mortal, or face the consequences.”

“What consequences?” Asked Adrien with a laugh. “You’re in my body. You can’t do anything!”

“I can still cast my lip chapping spell.”

There was a brief knock at the door before Mrs. Lahiffe entered. It was enough time for Nino to hide Adrien in his hands.

“Alright boys, dad has to wake up early tomorrow, so make sure to keep it down!”

“MOOOOM! I’m in the middle of an interrogation!”

“Well, interrogate quietly, honey.” And she closed the door.

“Okay, one of you, explain what the heck is going on?”

Adrien held his tail. “It’s my fault. I pissed Plagg off and he punished me.”

“Sounds an awful lot like his fault, dude.”

Plagg scoffed. “Fine, I’ll take responsibility for this amazing master plan! Adrien was complaining about his unrequited love life, his poor relationship with his father, and Lila’s constant sexual harassment. So I told him that could fix it all if he agreed to it.”

“And the solution was to...swap bodies?”

“I didn’t know!” Adrien defended. “I thought...well I don’t know what I thought. He just said he would fix it. I guess I didn’t imagine it would be this...”

“In my defense...” started Plagg, “it is really fun to mess with Adrien.”

Nino mostly ignored him. “So what has to happen to get you to switch back?”

“Well, we have to get Marinette to confess to me, making our crushes mutual.”

“Ah, I see.” Nino said sagely. “That makes sense. What else?”

“I have to get Lila to leave me alone. Like, permanently.”

“I guess I didn’t realize she was that much of a problem. I know you mentioned that she was harassing you...”

“That’s not even the half of it. Marinette told me, Chat Noir me, that Lila has been actively threatening her.”

Nino frowned. “Threatening her with what?”

“Taking all of her friends and me away from her. I got Lila to lay off by allowing her to model with me, but since Plagg and I swapped bodies, she’s threatened to go back on our deal. If Plagg can get her to drop the whole thing, that would be ideal. But to fulfill the contract, he has to get her to leave me alone.”

“And she’s been falling for it, hook, line, and sinker.” Said Plagg, with pride.

“What did you do?”

“I just explained Magic: The Gathering to her.”

“...and? I mean, I know it’s a game that’s pretty hard to visualize in your head.”

“I explained it badly, and gave her no chance to talk. For about four hours.”

“Oh! So you’re annoying her?”

“He’s annoying everyone.” Adrien clarified.

“That’s how I got to school today. Gabriel put the house on lockdown and I serenaded him until he let me out.”

“You were serious about that?” Nino chuckled.

“Naturally!”

“Wait, so the last thing is your dad?”

“Yeah, Plagg has to fix our relationship.”

“WOOF! That’s a tall order! Well, I better get used to having a Kwami as a best friend.”

“Oh come on, Nino!” Plagg groaned, “have some faith in me, dude.”

“Dude, I have all the faith in you. But I also know Adrien’s tyrant of a father. Unless you do brain surgery, you aren’t changing his mind.”

Plagg seemed to consider this. “Hmm, brain surgery...”

“No, NO!” Adrien reprimanded.

“I’m just kidding. I know it’s going to be tough, but I know a thing or two about manipulation and lust for control. Gabriel is cracking. It’s more and more evident every time I push him. And once he cracks, he’ll listen.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Asked Nino.

“Yes, but not right now. I have a great use for you soon, Nino Lahiffe.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Adrien reprimanded. “It’s freaky.”

“Oooo someone’s still bitter about not getting to kiss his crush~!”

“I’M NOT BITTER!” Adrien yowled.

“Bitter like an old grapefruit! I got to kiss pigtails and you’re grumpy!”

“SHUT UP!”

“Are you guys always like this?” Nino asked.

“Sometimes, when Plagg is being annoying.”

“Which is often. I am a creature of mischief and chaos.”

“Which explains a lot…” Nino murmured.

“Hey, are you going to teach me to play UMS or not?!”

#miraculous #ml #miraculous ladybug #plagg #adrien #adrien agreste #adrienette #marinette dupain cheng #body swap #fanfiction #I'll handle this

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enternalempires · 4 years ago

Text

A Surprise Visit

This is a Lukanette fic, with majority of fluff and a lil hurt. Hope you enjoy! Haven’t figured out how to use links yet but my Ao3 username is the same!

“Did you know,” Marinette said, twisting an ebony and silver ring around on her finger. It was one of Luka’s and she rarely, if ever, took it off. When he went off to college and moved to Lyon, a mere two hour train ride from Paris, he gave her a couple pieces of his jewelry, his favorite hoodie, a Jagged Stone t-shirt, and a promise of returning. “That I miss you?”

“Yeah, Melody, I know.” The Musician’s voice was clearly wistful despite. “I miss you too, more than you can imagine.”

“I think I can imagine it well enough,” She whispered back.

They were on a call, speakerphone allowing them to lay back on their separate balconies and star-gaze. The black spaces between the stars seems farther apart than usual, the moon more alone than before.

The distance felt longer than it was.

The days went by so slow, each hour lacking something and each night dragging on and missing a vital piece needed for good sleep. That wasn’t a piece, however, but a person— Luka. She wanted him closer, close enough to hold and laugh with and see that dopey smile he always had around her and blush at his sly comments and cheek-nuzzles after he kisses her forehead.

She misses the boy that, for the last couple of years, had become her best friend.

Alya was… supportive and an amazing friend but she just didn’t understand.

Luka did, though.

Whenever she needed someone to listen without judgement or without trying to solve her problems for her— to just listen, he was there. And when the musician needed someone to talk to him, to distract him from his thoughts and whatever was making his mind a too-heavy place to be, she was there for him.

He was her shoulder to cry on and who made her laugh and she was the same, holding him when his heart ached in his chest with memories it couldn’t forget.

They were each other’s rocks in an otherwise chaotic, always shifting tsunami of a life.

Marinette fully supported Luka following his dreams and going to college and getting a degree that will push him along and better his musical career— she just wished it didn’t hurt so much to be away from him.

She had half a school year left before her time in Lycee would be up and she’d be, coincidentally, going to the same university as him. It didn’t seem to come quick enough, though.

They were both busy. Luka had gigs with his new band called the Silver-hearts of Serpents, practice, and extracurricular activities and she had to work on her designs for anyone who commissioned MDC— the name on her website— and they both had schoolwork and classes to attend to so that meant little to no time to catch up with each other during the day.

Thankful for being in the time zone, they tried to make it work and usually called before going to bed and when they woke up and texted in between classes or things that kept them on a constantly shifting schedule.

But it wasn’t the same as just being able to go across town and curl up into their favorite person’s arms and just sleep the weight of the day’s events away. It wasn’t the same as laughing when stranded in a heavy downpour because neither of them checked if it was going to rain. It wasn’t the same as chasing Andre’s Sweetheart Icecream around for half the day just to drop it from tripping over themselves seconds later even though neither of them believed in the magic behind it.

It just wasn’t the same.

It wasn’t fair either, Marinette decided, that the boy I fell in love with and who genuinely likes me back has to be so far away.

But she didn’t tell him that— not when she knew it would make Luka feel even guiltier for leaving. They were each other’s greatest support system and they always would be, and he didn’t like being gone when she was handling so much.

That so much being Alya unable to understand that Marinette simply didn’t like Adrien anymore— her falling for Luka and falling for him hard; falling for him in a way that felt deeper and closer than anything she ever did for her former crush— and still creating schemes to get them together, to the point where it was getting dangerous and rather ridiculous.

She had homework, exams coming up, commissions, hours needed to help her parent’s in the bakery, other hours dedicated to helping friends, and being Ladybug and the burden that came with the earrings (not that, to her knowledge, Luka knew about).

To top that off, she dealt with a lot more frustrating people at Lycee than she did at Dupont, including belligerent teenage boys who don’t understand the word no or respect boundaries.

So she really missed him.

So much so that it left her heart aching.

Only a couple months, she reminded herself. It would only be a couple more months till the summer. Till they would be at the same University (and sharing the same apartment— it’s less expensive and they always used to joke that they’d make great roommates with how often they spent over at the other’s place).

“Melody,” Luka said, voice deeper than before but just as smooth. “Did you fall asleep on me?”

“No,” Marinette yawned, covering her mouth with a small squeak as she curled up and turned towards her phone, squinting at the bright screen that showed his contact picture— dopey smile and all. “I just got lost in thought, sorry.”

“It’s okay, baby.” He reassured and she felt her mouth tug up into a warm smile. She loved when he called her that or his other pet names for her, it made her feel special. “But you sound tired and I know you have a test tomorrow morning, you should go to bed.”

“But Luka,” She whined. “I want to talk with you more. I really missed you today and, and I have more things that I want to tell you.”

“Come on, my Melody,” He coaxed and she pouted. He knew she’d do what he wanted when he used that stupid, attractive, comforting voice. It simply wasn’t fair. “Both of us are free tomorrow afternoon, remember? You’re only going to watch Kitty Section practice then going home and I only have my own practice to attend to. I’m sure we’ll be able to talk after.” Then his voice got softer. “I’ll always be here for you and I’ll always listen to what you have to say, but I don’t want to keep you up when that risks your grades and, more importantly, your health.”

“I hate it when you’re right,” Marinette grumbles, groggily getting up and moving over to her hatch where she easily slipped into her bed and snuggled under the covers. “Can you at least talk to me until I fall asleep?”

“Of course, beautiful.” Luka agreed, making a sleepy blush to climb her cheeks. “Anything in particular?”

“Just about things that make you happy.”

“Well, I know this one girl and she’s the most incredible person I ever met. She had amazing blue eyes and is a very talented fashion designer. Her smiles, man, her smiles make me melt and—”

“Luka,” Marinette giggles. “Not about me.”

“But you make me the happiest,” He protests.

“Sap,” She smiles, eyes closing as she laughs quietly one more time, head sinking into her pillow. “Can you… can you sing me something?”

“Mhm,” Luka hums and it’s not long before she’s falling asleep to the sound of her song, of the one he made for her.

That night she dreamt of two tattooed arms holding her and teal dyed, messy hair falling in front of aqua-blue eyes and woke up alone with tears staining her pillow— Tikki offered her a warm smile and a pat on the cheek but it didn’t seem to help the cold, lonely feeling in her chest.

* * *

The day had not been kind to Marinette.

She woke up with a headache, didn’t have enough time for a proper meal but remembered to grab a granola bar after Luka texted her and reminded her to eat, got a pretty bad bruise on her wrist from getting it slammed in a closing door, tripped multiple times, and managed to ruin her lecture’s notes with her coffee.

On the brightside she kept Luka’s hoodie clean— as today she decided to wear it over a simple white t-shirt and paired it with a black skater skirt, lace stockings, and combat books— and managed to not face-plant into anything by the time school ended and she was allowed to pack her things and start the walk to the boathouse to watch Kitty Section preform.

Since Luka was in college and lived too far away they had to find a new guitarist, just like Luka had to find new members to form a band.

Luckily Juleka mentioned Marc, Nathaniel’s boyfriend and the writer to his artist, played the guitar and was really good at it so within no time they were back to practicing and finding a new dynamic for the group.

Luka got lucky with some of his old friends and formed his new band which was just as good, if not better, than his old one but that was only due to a lot of extra practice and more opportunities to grow.

Axel was the band’s bassist, Bash was the drummer, Tyra was the back-up vocalist and keyboardist, and Luka was the guitarist, lead vocalist, and leader.

Marinette couldn’t wait until she could see them perform live. Luka had sent her videos and recordings of their music and songs or just of him singing or playing guitar but she knew first hand that nothing compared to seeing it in person.

And she knew that, either way, his band would be amazing.

“Marinette!” A soft voice called from behind her, making the young bluenette startle and turn slightly on the sidewalk to see who was calling her. It was Rose, a sweet smile on her lips and she tugs her girlfriend along.

As soon as her and Juleka catch up, Marinette tilts her head to the dark-haired girl’s silent greeting and drifts to the side so the couple wouldn’t have to awkwardly get out of the way.

“You’re watching us practice, right?” Rose asks. There’s an energetic bounce in her step that Marinette can’t help but to be suspicious of, and the slight smirk on Juleka’s lips don’t help.

“Yeah,” Marinette says, adjusting her purse to be in front of her as a group of obvious tourists cater to the side and almost crash into her, not wanting Tikki to get tossed around. “Do you know what you guys are playing yet? I heard Ivan mention something about revamping one of your original songs.”

“Oo!” The blonde giggles, wide eyes excited as she starts to rant about the different things her and Ivan were brainstorming earlier to improve their old work.

Her girlfriend nodded and added a couple quiet things here and there while Marinette listened, pilotely following along with the conversation and her mind strayed to Luka and thinking about what he was up to.

No doubt working on his own songs, hanging out with his band mates as they practice.

“Mylene is coming too,” Rose tells her and Marinette blinks back into reality, narrowly dodging a man skating with a yelped out apology. “So even if you won’t be alone, you’ll have company!”

“Uh,” She pauses, racking her brain to know if she missed something in the conversation. “Who’s going to watch the practice other than Mylene? Is Nate coming to support Marc?”

“Nate?” Her friend paused her skipping to let out an excited squeal. “Oh, you don’t know! Well—”

Juleka suddenly spun her girlfriend into her arms and pulled her into a kiss, causing Marinette to step away awkwardly but not retreat. Paris was a welcoming city and full of diverse and accepting people but there would always be that one jerk who had a problem with people loving other people and finding a problem if they happened to be the same gender— so she would keep a look out just in case someone wanted to cause a problem.

When the pair of girlfriends broke away a couple seconds later, Rose seemed too flustered to continue or even remember what she was saying and the bluenette laughed at how smug the blonde’s girlfriend looked.

A couple minutes went by filled with light banter between the couple and an amused Marinette refusing to join a side before the three of them got to the docs and made their way onto the boathouse.

“The rest of the band will be here soon and I want to be here when they do to ask Marc something,” Juleka says, a smirk just visible under the half of her face hidden by hair. “Can you do me a favor and grab me an extra sweater from Luka’s side of the room, Marinette? I started to keep some of my things in there when he left.”

“Uh, sure?” The bluenette nods, frowning slightly. “But didn’t he say not to—”

“Oh!” Rose suddenly bursts, whipping around to face her girlfriend. “That’s clever! You—”

And then they start kissing again and that’s Marinette’s cue to go.

She passes Anarka on the haul and gives her a friendly wave that the older woman returns with a wide smirk that she now knows her daughter inherited and quickly went below deck and crossed over to where Luka’s room was.

She grips her elbows with both hands, rocking on the balls of her feet with every step as she paces down the hallway, trying to hype herself up enough to actually go into his room.

It would be so… strange.

She was never in there without him being there before and it would be full of his things but the most important ones gone— the wall of guitar picks packed up and now put up in his apartment’s living room from what she saw from the video he sent, the little trinkets gone from the desk now bare, and his bed only having a bare mattress and the walls without postures or any pictures.

She doesn’t know how it would feel but she knows that it won’t be good, she knows it will make the empty ache in her heart stretch all the wider.

But now she’s in front of Luka’s door and she doesn’t have a choice.

Marinette took a deep breath and turned the hatch on the door, the metal giving a slight creak to it as she awkwardly used her bodyweight to open it, grumbling to herself as it hung heavily halfway open— not noticing the group of three that were holding their breath at her entry from the middle of the room— and one of the sleeves that were way too big for her got caught in one of the crooks on the edge.

“Aw,” Her brows furrowed and she pouted as she tried to tug the sleeve free, but of course the world was against her and she somehow made it worse. “Mr. Sleeve, I’ve had a really bad day, can you please just— ahah! Thank you!”

Freeing herself from the door, Marinette pulled the sleeves over her hands for better control of the jacket and twisted around to begin the search for Juleka’s sweater when she met a pair of vivid brown eyes— eyes she definitely wasn’t prepared for.

“Eek!” Squeaking and startled, the young heroine takes a stumbling step back and ends up falling onto her butt, skirt thankfully in place and with her wide, blue eyes traitorously filling with water.

“Oh my God, she fell!”

“Shit, Bash, you scared her!”

“Aw, that’s a cute skirt. Do you think she’d tell me where she got it?”

Came the voices of the three strangers that were now all focused on her, eyes pinned onto the girl that fell as she stared right back, a slow race of tears from the day’s stress finally snapping trailing down her cheeks.

“W-Who are you guys?” Marinette stammered out, mind reeling and anxiety having already taken hold of her even before she noticed the trio, just noticing the sting in her palms and the burning heat of the ripped open skin. “You, you shouldn’t be in here, this is a p-private room!”

“I’m Bash Vulcan,” The guy with vivid brown eyes— and the one who scared her— had slicked back blonde hair, a thick black sweatshirt, ripped skinny jeans with converse, and a shit-eating grin on his face as he offered her a hand up.

She refused and just remained on the floor, not trusting her legs to keep her up if she stood at the moment. Feeling extraordinarily pathetic, Marinette just couldn’t focus on anything besides her pounding heart. She defeated Akumas on a weekly basis but couldn’t handle a couple strangers?

It made her feel so weak.

And those stupid tears were still falling.

“Sorry this asshole scared you, he didn’t mean to. I’m Axel, by the way. Axel Jupiter?” The one who swore and reprimanded Bash gave her a sympathetic smile that she barely registered and waved at her, his light brown hair flopping in front of his face from where it reached his shoulders. He had a punk style to him— and he said his name like it was supposed to mean something.

Maybe it was.

Maybe on a good day or with a slightly calmer heart Marinettte would’ve placed who they are but she just came up blank. Blank and panicking.

The only girl in the Trio had a pixie cut that was a pastel green and a nose ring and anyone with eyes could tell that her style was gothic anad that she simply didn’t give a shit by the tilted smirk of her lips— that only deepened as she pointed to Marinette’s skirt and asked, “Where’d ya get it, girly? I’m Tyra Bellona, I guess since these idiots gave their last name too.”

Tyra. Axel. Bash.

They’re in Luka’s boathouse. They’re in Luka’s room. They’re in Luka’s band.

The Band.

Luka.

“L-Luka?” Marinette sniffled, wiping away her tears as she sat up and winced at the way her palms stung, the broken skin and forming scabs still tender. “Why are you guys here without Luka?” She asked, using the hatch’s edge to pull herself into a standing position.

It was Bash’s turn to look suspicious and he stepped closer and pointed his finger at her, eyebrows raised, “Everyone was supposed to know why and where. So who are you, huh? Whatcha doin’ here? Are you some crazy fangirl that snuck on board?”

“What?” The young heroine swiped at her tears again, voice slightly croaky as she took a shaky step back. “N-no! I’m not a fangirl! I was getting a sweatshirt for Juleka and—”

“I smell lies! What’s your name? Don’t lie. I can smell them. I can.”

“Man,” Axel throws something at the back of Bash’s head, making his bandmate back up. “Leave the girl alone, you prick. Look at her jacket? Look familiar?”

Tyra and Bash looked her up and down, the gothic chick laughing after a second before she shoves the latter in the shoulder with a cocky look playing on her features, “Just wait until Couffaine finds out you made his girl cry, Vulcan. I can’t wait to see him flip his shit.”

“Wait,” Marinette drew the attention back to herself. “Luka is here?”

“Aw, he didn’t tell her,” Bash snickered making Axel hit his gut before gesturing to the other door that leads back to the deck but on Juleka’s side, and explaining how Luka snuck up there thinking that ‘his melody’ wasn’t there yet and wanting to make sure that his demon of a sister didn’t get too smug and spill the beans.

Marinette tiredly, but with excitement running through her veins, dashed back through the hatch door— being quickly followed by the bandmates, because who would want to miss the drama?— and ran all the way up to the deck.

Anarka laughed whole-heartedly as she passed and yelled out, “Go get ‘em, lass!” that had her blushing up to her ears but she was simply too happy to care.

Luka was here! In hugging distance!

And the jerk didn’t even tell her!

She saw Luka sitting on the couch, his guitar next to him and his leg bouncing with nervous energy. He ran his hand through his hair and tugged, an anxious look on his face as he talks to Rose about something, eyes closed as he grumbled.

Which was perfect because he didn’t even see Marinette and didn’t get the choice until she was throwing herself on top of him, legs on either side of his and knees tucked into his hips as she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face into his neck.

“Oomph!” Luka let out a loud breath, eyes flying open at the abrupt weight settled onto his person but then softening as he saw the girl in his lap, his arms coming around her and holding her to him just as tight— his nose nudging the top of her head as he took in her scent of chocolate cookies and vanilla. “Melody?”

Rose was squealing somewhere in the background while Juleka and Bash snickered, Axel cooing at them while Tyra complained about the disgusting gooey-ness but all of that lended into the background.

All that mattered was the two of them— the fact that they were here, in the same space, breathing each other in, holding onto the other as tightly as they could.

All that mattered was them.

Not Juleka’s scheming falling into place, not Rose’s excited chatter or how smug his mom had been or how horrible the day had been leading up to this point. Just her and just him.

“No,” Marinette mumbled, flexing her arms around him as she fully relaxed into him. “You don’t get to talk. You might forget to tell me something very, very important. Like, I don’t know, coming back to Paris?”

“I’m sorry, baby.” Luka nuzzled his hand against her hip, rubbing his thumb in circles as he mumbled into her hair. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“I missed you,” She replied, forgiveness in her tone. “But let me be prepared next time.”

“I will,” He kissed her forehead, putting the tiniest amount of space between them. “And you know I missed you too, right?”

She shook her head.

“Liar,” Luka tapped his fingers on her sides and dug them in a bit, tickling her and making Marinette giggle loudly as she still refused to move away from him. “You just gonna stay there, baby?”

“Mhm,” The young heroine hummed, placing a light kiss onto the edge of his jaw.

“Did you meet everyone already?” He asked. “Assuming that’s how you found out I was here— seeing them, I mean?”

“She met us,” Tyra cut in, a cackle in her voice that doesn’t go unnoticed. “Vulcan made her cry and scared her, she fell down and hurt her hands I think.”

“He also then got all up in your girl’s face and accused her of being a crazy fangirl.” Axel oh-so-helpfully replied.

“Traitors!”

“Bash.”

“Oh, fuck.” The aforementioned boy squeaks out at Luka’s growl. “Dude, I am so sorry, I didn’t know she was—”

“We’ll talk later about it,” Luka brushed him off— which, coming from a Couffaine, is never good as they are people who like to be blunt and solve issues as soon as possible. To delay it means that, well, you screwed up majorly. “Melody, let me see your hands.”

“No.” Marinette grumbles, earning laughs from Tyra and his sister, who the guitarist quickly flips off. “I’m comfortable and it’s just scraped and I missed you.”

“Good luck getting her off in the next hour,” Juleka said, her hair pushed out of her face so when the young heroine peeked out from his neck she could see a sly smile spreading across her features. “Marinette’s been whining about not seeing you for weeks and she’s as stubborn as they come.”

Marinette flips her off, too.

“Aw!” Rose giggles, bouncing on her toes. “You’re becoming a real Boat Kid, Mari! They’re all adorably crass like that!”

“Says you, Rose,” She shot back. “I’ve known you for years and you’ve always sworn like a sailor so it was no surprise to me that you started dating one.” This got laughs from Axel and Luka, the latter’s chuckles she could feel in her own chest.

“Hey,” Juleka said, wrapping an arm around her girlfriend. “Leave my Manic Unicorn alone, it’s cute that her favorite word is fuck.”

“I watched your Manic Unicorn swear out a teacher when we were seven.”

“I genuinely would’ve paid to see that.”

“Oh!” Rose squealed, a soft expression on her face. “I remember that, she was so rude! Mrs. Palanchi never did anything about the girls who bullied Mari. It made me cry.”

“Aw, it’s okay. Marinette can’t get bothered by them now,” Juleka patted her head and blew a raspberry onto her cheek that had her girlfriend’s sullen expression go all giddy again.

After knowing Rose for so many years, she knew the blondie was a walking mood-whiplash, so she wasn’t really surprised.

“Wait, wait,” Azel held up a hand, drawing attention as his eyebrows pinched together. “Your girl’s name is Marinette? I thought it was Melody!”

“Nope,” The young heroine says. “It’s Marinette, you can call me Mari though. Rockstar here just calls me Melody.”

“Well then it’s nice to meet you, Marinette.” Axel did a playful bow, reminding her of a different boy in black. “This prick was always shy about the details even when he could go on and on for literal hours about you. Where’d you meet?”

“Erm…”

What was an appropriate way to say ‘his room because I was having a breakdown over a different guy that I was in love with and we sort of just clicked from there after he teased me about my stutter’?

“Jules had her over to watch the band practice,” Luka, thankfully, cut in— probably having felt her body tense slightly. “We became friends after that and just got closer since then.”

Not as close as she wanted, as she’d rather be a girlfriend than best friend but this was Luka and she’d take as much as him as she could and love it until she didn’t know how to anymore.

“When did you guys start dating?” Tyra asks, popping the gum that she just put into her mouth. “Couple years, right?”

Luka’s silent for a painfully long second before informing, “We’re not dating.”

Someone Marinette doesn’t see who but would take a wild guess that it’s Bash as he starts choking on the water he had been trying to swallow and the other two bandmates start protesting their confusion.

Sometimes she questioned if Luka still liked her— but Marinette had her fair share in experiencing unrequited feelings and she knows that this is not what that looks like— and it’s times like these that she hopes against hope that he likes her as much as she likes him because she fell and she fell hard and she can’t be the only one who fell.

Not again, not this time.

Not with him.

The next hour passes by in a breeze. Mylene and Ivan show up with Marc and soon Kitty Section is practicing, the other band handing out advice and compliments where they’re earned and Anarka drifting off to an unknown place to let the teenagers ‘cause mayhem as they please’.

Ivan and Mylene left early for a double date they had been planning with Alya and Nino and somehow they managed to convince Marc to drag Nate along so it was a group date.

Eventually everyone settled down into a circle around eight at night, having eaten and caught up or got to know each other better.

Marinette learned that Tyra was a little snarky but overall entertaining in the way she so passionately hated everything but loved to mess with Bash— Bash himself was a bit of an idiot but a goofball and it made him loveable enough to forgive the scabs on her palms (Luka didn’t agree with this). Axel was Luka’s best friend and he was a generally sane person but he was fiercely competitive and loved to cause arguments.

It was the most fun the young heroine had in a while and the boy she loved was by her side, so what could go wrong?

“Let’s play Truth or Dare,” Rose giggled, turning to Juleka with wide, puppy-dog eyes. “Oh, please! Can we?”

And like the lovesick fool Jules was she gave in.

Marinette knew something was either going to go wrong or horribly embarrassing from her by the wicked gleam in the purple haired girl’s eyes and, not even five minutes later (and after Bash was dared to drink hotdog juice), Luka got a dare.

Do Seven Minutes in Heaven with ‘his Melody’.

Stupid Juleka.

But also thank you Juleka.

Which— after making sure it was okay with her— he agreed to so it was safe to say all her nerves were on fire. And it absolutely didn’t help that Tyra snarkingly called out, “If you start bumping uglies, put on a sock on the door.” after them.

“One of these days,” Luka sighed out as he closed his bedroom door behind them. “I’m really going to kill my sister.”

“I’ll help,” Marinette giggled at her, though her face was still a burning red at what Tyra had insinuated— which they, of course, wouldn’t be doing.

“So,” He said and her smile widened at his semi-awkward tone, her hands bracing herself against the hatch as she watched the musician sit on his bed, twisting the bracelet on his wrist. “What now?”

She wouldn’t say it was entertaining watching Luka be so nervous but it definitely wasn’t something she saw very often so it definitely was amusing in some sense of the word. Usually she was the awkward one who didn’t know what to do with herself, not him.

“What?” She raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know how to play?”

Luka gave her a flat look, “I’m in University now. Of course I know how to play seven minutes in heaven.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Baby…” He sighed. “Don’t get me wrong, because I do want to kiss you, I just— I don’t think… fuck, this is why I have my guitar.” He grumbled. “Words are not my thing.”

“That’s okay,” Marinette smiles at him, tugging his jacket’s sleeves down further her arms. “I mean, you’ve seen my stammering. We’ll just not be good with words together.”

“Together?” Luka questions, a slight quirk to his lips as his head tilted, teal hair obscuring his eyes.

“Mhm,” She nods. “Together. You and me.”

“I like the sound of that,” He smirks back at her, reaching slightly to tug her forward, the young heroine now standing between his legs. “You asked if I knew how to play— it’s my turn for the question. Want me to teach you how?”

“And you say you’re not good with words,” She sasses, a giggle falling from her mouth as Luka rolls his eyes and takes her chin into his hand, dragging her face down so they are eye-level, both of their eyes closing, and kisses her.

It’s not a heated kiss, not one that had Marinette’s heart racing but… it was one that made something slot into place in her mind, like something was missing before but finally found its way home.

As his mouth moved against hers, she leaned into his touch, hands fluttering through his hair and tugging as the strands, his own moving to cup the back of her neck and to the side of her jaw, angling her head for better access.

The emotions spilled out between them; the love they kept tucked into their sleeves, the joy, the passion and overwhelming amount of just… feeling safe and comfortable with each other.

It was by no means a kiss without soul.

Luka would go back to his university and she’d be stuck here for another month, their lives were so different and they were busy. Marinette had the responsibilities with the Miraculous and he had his band and they both had classes and a future neither could write out a solid plan for no matter how hard they tried.

So maybe it wasn’t the best timing, maybe it wasn’t the best situation or the best reason to kiss or the best way they could have gotten together, by a surprise visit nonetheless— but they were together.

And, at the end of the day, that’s all that matters, isn’t it?

#lukanette fic #lukanette #luka couffaine #band #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #viperion #fanfic #lukanette prompt #surprise visit #hurt/comfort #fluff #angst

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kittyanonymity · 5 years ago

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Marinette is the daughter of Wonder Woman X Superman

Hey have this!!!! I was inspired by @eve-valution and their wonderful art!

Also like.... It’s really just an excuse for Mari to be ridiculously overpowered tbh; plus.... the aesthetic of this tiny adorable girl accidentally breaking things all the time, and getting super flustered over it. >.> It’s cute, ok? lol

Honestly, my original plan for this was Daminette, and this version is; but I might also make some adjustments for a Timinette version (I love them, they’re adorkable together ok)? I haven’t decided yet. ALSO this is just a basic outline; not the fic itself. I haven’t started the fic yet. Feel free to ask things though!! ALSO THIS AU IS CLASS FRIENDLY!!!

~ DAMINETTE VERSION~

So in the latest DC animated movies, they’ve been pushing Diana/Clark pretty heavily while implying that despite Clark’s attraction to Diana, he’s still in love with Lois; this is seen pretty obviously when Diana and Clark go on a date, and Lois shows up. Clark immediately puts space between him and Diana and honestly, it’s a little telling. (this is all in stark contrast to the Justice League cartoon from the 90’s/early 2000’s, where Diana and Bruce ((Wonder Woman and Batman)) were shipped pretty heavily) Talk about baby’s first OTP, am I right? XD

ANYWAY THE POINT IS THIS.

Lois and Clark are together, like they’re getting married. (somewhere in the world, Damian is turning one; this is relevant later.) One night, Superman has a ‘moment of weakness’, and him and Wonder woman bang. BOOM! Pregnant.

Diana is rightfully upset, as Clark immediately tells her this was a mistake, they never should’ve done that. He goes back to Lois, and they don’t speak outside of the Watchtower anymore. Diana does not tell him when she finds out she’s pregnant. She goes to Bruce, tells him she’ll be out of commission for up to 3 years.

Bruce is rightfully concerned, but Diana doesn’t tell him what’s wrong. He assures her she can leave; they’ll keep it together out here while she rests in Themyscira. She feels bad for not telling him, but resolves to do it later. Home she goes, to see her mom and the rest of the Amazons!

Her mother is disgusted by Clark’s conduct, but Diana has always wanted to have a child. They know it will be a daughter: it always is, Hippolyta says conspiratorially. The pregnancy is interesting, and many of the Amazons are startled at how quickly their princess can finish her projects. Hippolyta watches on in concern; her daughter has become startlingly creative during these months, and as a previous Ladybug that can mean only one thing.

Tikki will be back in the family soon.

Hippolyta says nothing about this to Diana, not wanting to alarm her daughter.

When Marinette is born with dark hair, and blue eyes there is no surprise. Diana stares at her daughter as if she is the most beautiful thing to have ever existed, and to her, she is. Marinette spends 3 years on Themyscira, learning from her mother, grandmother, and all of her many sisters. She’s an excitable child, with a penchant for marking walls with whatever she can draw. She grasps language easily, and much quicker than anyone would think possible.

But Diana has a duty. She must return to the outside world to assist the league. She thinks of the outside world, how it has taught her, hurt her, but ultimately made her stronger; and she knows that she wants Marinette to have all of that and more. So she contacts an old friend in Paris.

Sabine had left Themyscira many years prior, once Diana had cleared the way for the other Amazons to venture out. She’d fallen in love with a baker, and though the 2 couldn’t have children of their own, they were excellent people. People Diana knew she could entrust Marinette with. Sabine agreed after they discussed it extensively.

Diana would come see Marinette regularly once she was 10, giving the girl some years to mature, and come to terms with her mother’s identity. Diana assured Sabine she’d send any and all support requested, along with letters and gifts for Marinette as she grew. Diana hated to leave her daughter, but seeing as she would constantly be in danger once again, she couldn’t bear to put Marinette through that. Diana tells Sabine who Marinette’s father is, so they can be ready.

Sabine threatens to cut his dick off, which Diana laughs at. Diana and Marinette live with Sabine and Tom for a year, letting Marinette get to know and love them; and then Diana tells Marinette she has to go, the world needs her.

And Marinette just nods, giving her mother a smile.

“I know mommy.”

Good byes and I love you’s are exchanged, and after many tears, Diana finally manages to tear herself away, and she leaves. There is a hole in her heart the size of the Earth, but Diana has a job to do.

This is the world where Marinette lives now too, and she must do all she can to keep her daughter’s world safe.

Clark and Lois get married while Diana is away, and Jonathan is born; he’s only a year younger than Marinette, and 2 years younger than Damian like in canon. Clark is curious as to where Diana disappeared to, asking around, but the only one who knows is Bruce. And when Clark asks, Bruce simply shrugs.

“She told me she’d be gone for a few years. I didn’t press her for details. Everyone needs a break, Superman.”

Clark didn’t like it; he was worried. For her to disappear so abruptly… Surely she hadn’t truly loved him? Clark hates himself as he thinks about it, regret permeating him. He does his best to not think about it.

At least until Diana shows back up, 4 years later, and a little more jaded than she used to be. Bruce welcomes her back with a small smile, and a nod. Diana doesn’t even look at Clark.

And for Clark, it’s enough to just know that she’s safe. He doesn’t blame her for hating him; he kinda hates him too.

Literally none of the League know about Marinette; Diana doesn’t tell fucking anyone.

Miraculous canon happens as normal, only difference is that Lila is fucking gone after the Volpina incident. She’s gone after that, no return, nothing. I hate that girl, and honestly, I just wanna write something where Marinette’s friends love her, without the class drama. I can’t forgive the Miraculous writers for doing that to the students. Chat is still pretty pushy in his pursuit of Ladybug, but not in an exaggerated way. However, it does still cause some eventual complications that he needs to learn and grow from. Minimum bashing should be involved, and it will be centered around pointing out the toxic things he does, and him correcting those behaviors. Adrien is my boi and I love him.

ANYWAY.

When Marinette is 10, Diana shows up to see her. Marinette has known that Sabine wasn’t her real mother; Mari still calls Sabine Maman though cause like… the woman raised her, duh. Marinette loves Diana, even though she doesn’t remember what her mother looks like. Diana always remembers her birthday, and all of the holidays; Marinette has saved every letter, and gift her mother has ever sent her. She doesn’t realize her mother is Wonder Woman yet. Well, at least until she shows up on her 10th birthday. Marinette recognizes her as the heroine instantly, but says nothing; she’s seen movies, she knows secret identities are important!

Over the years, Sabine has kept Diana informed on the progression of Marinette’s… abilities. Look, the girl is a split between the Amazonian princess, and a Kryptonian. God only knows what she’ll be able to do. So far, Marinette has displayed signs of super strength and speed, and most recently flight; she’s got the enhanced senses as well, and she carries ear plugs with her when they go out. Diana is happy to know though, that Marinette has a strong sense of right and wrong. She owes Sabine a great debt of gratitude, and knows she’ll never be able to thank the woman enough for raising their (because yeah, Marinette is theirs now) daughter.

(Marinette goes to school, excited to tell everyone about her 2 mommies and her daddy. Despite Diana not being romantically involved with them…. Yet???? Maybe????? HMMMM)

After Marinette turns 10, Diana makes a point to visit every spring for her daughter’s birthday, and to check in on things. The day of Marinette’s 14th birthday, Diana steps off of the plane, and on her way to the Dupain-Cheng bakery, she witnesses her first akuma. Preparing to step in, Diana freezes when Ladybug and Chat Noir appear on the scene.

Diana recognizes Marinette on sight, and the spots are familiar. She remembers her mother, the stories of Tikki, and the adventures they had, the evils they stopped. She remembers how anxious her mother was during her pregnancy, when Diana could not stop drawing, writing, whatever she could be doing.

Marinette is a pure soul of creation, born of Tikki’s essence, and she is Diana’s daughter, an Amazon, and half kryptonian.

Diana watches her daughter fight, hands clenched at her sides. The Amazon in her demanding she see this through, watch her daughter be the fierce warrior she is meant to be; the mother in her is clawing at her throat, preventing her from speaking with the force of her panic.

And Marinette is an excellent fighter. Diana recognizes many of the moves she used to practice while they were still on the island, and they’ve been refined, polished, and put on display to show the world. It had to be Sabine’s handiwork, teaching her this. Did Sabine know she was Ladybug? No, she would’ve told Diana first thing.

Diana does not intervene, watching Ladybug win, and undo the damage.

Once the akuma is dealt with, Diana follows her daughter as she swings away and finds a quiet place to de-transform.

“My little light, you have exactly 2 minutes to tell me what is going on.”

Marinette jumps a mile, whipping around to see her mother, and then Tikki is smiling, hugging Diana’s cheek.

“Diana! It’s been too long!” Diana gives the kwami a smile.

“Hello, Tikki, mother misses you.”

Marinette is dumbfounded.

Diana explains everything, about how she knows, and why; tells her about Hippolyta, and her connection to the Miraculous. It was the most exciting and stressful birthday yet.

Diana starts making more regular trips to Paris to assist her daughter when she needs the extra help; since Diana is generally fairly good at keeping her emotions in check, it works out. Marinette works extra hard to make sure she keeps her extra abilities in check.

She uses her powers in small subtle ways; using her flight to get a better distance out of a yo-yo swing, but doing it in a way where it’s unnoticeable to the standard eye. Or using her x ray vision to avoid people she doesn’t want to see. She lets herself be clumsy, and careless with her movements in her daily life, making sure none of her friends can ever make the connection between her and Ladybug later on; before Ladybug, she’s clumsy so she doesn’t draw attention to her powers. The only one who knows she has powers is Nino.

It’s hard to explain to your childhood friend why you’re flying after all; he had been there the first time she’d accidentally used this new power. OOPS

All abilities/side effects Mari has:

-Super strength

-super senses (hearing, sight, smell, etc ((is taste usually included in this???? hm)))

-Enhanced vision (x-ray, thermal)

-Flight

-Super speed (bout as fast as Superman if she tries hard enough)

-Ladybug luck

-Martial arts/various fighting styles

-Amazon swordfighting & archery

Side effects:

-Sluggish in Winter thanks to Ladybug things; will hibernate if she gets too cold

-Has bursts of creative energy that keep her up far longer than she should be; usually crashes afterwards; these will stop as she gets older, and gets a better handle on her Ladybug powers.

-Gets sick easily during the cold months

-Kryptonite hurts her, obviously; she gets a wicked migraine, and nausea; usually her vision gets bad too.

Marinette’s personality doesn’t change all that much, really. She’s still undeniably kind, and selfless, always going out of the way for her friends. She’s a bit more vocal about her sense of justice, not putting up with bullies. Chloe gets her redemption a bit early because of this. Marinette is also not afraid to just absolutely throw down and brawl if you’re being a violent asshole. Like, damn. She is tiny, but she will miss you up.

ANYWHO.

With Diana making frequent trips to Paris, it catches Bruce’s eye, and he of course gets suspicious. The French government has been keeping the situation with the Akumas under wraps for about 3 years now, no news escaping the country. Marinette is currently 16, Diana has been helping her deal with hard to handle akumas for 2 years; Damian is 17, and Jon is 15.

So when Bruce looks into Diana’s activity in Paris, he’s startled to find little to nothing about Wonder Woman. An article briefly mentions something called an ‘akuma’ but then there’s no further mention. Instead he finds records of Diana Prince shacking up with a married couple and their daughter.

When Bruce finds a picture of Diana standing with the Dupain-Chengs, his breath leaves him. She is staring at the girl in the picture with such a proud adoring gaze, and he would have to be blind to miss the resemblance. The girl’s age lines up with when Diana left, and Bruce remembers how unusually concerned Clark had been about her location.

He’s the world’s greatest detective, and the pieces are too easy to put together.

SO Bruce Wayne does what Bruce Wayne always does.

Finds a way to get information.

He invites Francois-Dupont to his yearly student seminar, meant to help students get a jump start on their careers. They must prove why they deserve to attend, like all the schools invited, in the form of an essay, accompanied by a video of their school.

Mlle. Bustier’s class is selected as the class to make the video representing the school; Marinette and Alya volunteer to head the project with audio assistance from Nino, while Adrien offers to help with the budget. The class comes together to offer some kind of assistance or another, even Chloe, who goes out of her way to help the class plan. Marinette writes the basic video out, how it should look, what it should say.

But they need a narrator.

The class unanimously votes for Marinette.

“You know us better than anyone, Nette. It’s gotta be you.”

“Everyone knows you here, Mari; you’re the sweetest girl in the school.”

“A WELCOME VIDEO!”

It’s Alya who shouts it, grinning at the class.

“It’ll be a welcome video with Marinette showing a ‘new kid’ around!”

Marinette’s gotta admit, it’s genius; the class agrees, and planning begins in earnest now that they have a better idea for it.

All of their carefully laid plans fall to pieces when their high end camera breaks the day they need to film. Everyone is shouting, stress is high, and Rose is crying. Marinette knows she needs to do something before an akuma shows up, but then she hears a yelp, and she looks over to see a first year stumble back as Kim knocks into her. Marinette’s there in an instant, steadying the girl on her feet, and giving her a smile.

“Are you ok?”

She’s unaware of Adrien watching her with a fond smile, while he elbows Alya; Alya stops yelling at Chloe long enough to look over, and quickly take her phone out, and press record. The classes attention immediately shifts, the tension all but disappearing.

The first year nods hesitantly.

“Y-yes I’m ok. It’s just my first day here, a-and I’m…” The dark haired girl bit her lip, looking at the floor, “I’m really scared.” Marinette frowned for a moment before she smiled, and took the girls’ hand.

“I’m Marinette, what’s your name?” The girl sniffled, rubbing at her eyes.

“My name’s Bridgette.” Marinette nodded, her smile growing.

“It’s nice to meet you. Sorry about my friend Kim over there. He gets a little excitable sometimes.” Bridgette offered her a smile.

“It’s ok. It looked interesting so I wanted to get closer, but I wasn’t paying much attention.” Her eyes fell, and she looked off to the side, but Marinette gripped her hand gently, causing her to look up.

“I can show you around the school if you like. Everyone here is really nice, I promise. We look after each other the best we can, and you can always ask one of us for help.” Marinette gestures to her classmates, who offer Bridgette encouraging smiles. It’d been awhile since they’d seen Marinette work her particular brand of magic. Bridgette’s smile grew, and she finally nodded.

“I’d really appreciate that, Marinette thank you.” Marinette simply waved her off.

“It’s fine! We’ll make it fun!” She turned to her class, missing Alya hiding behind Adrien, still recording.

“I’ll be back in a bit guys. Come find me when you get the camera replaced.”

The camera panned around Adrien’s back as Marinette turned away, and began leading Bridgette further into the school. Alya hurried to catch up, the class following shortly after.

Marinette showed the young girl all around the building, from her homeroom class, and to each individual classroom so the girl would never be lost. And she talked to her, learning that Bridgette had just recently moved there from Italy, escaping her old school and the torment she’d endured there. It burned Marinette to know that someone had been so cruel to such a sweet girl, but Bridgette assured her it was fine since she wasn’t there anymore. Marinette in turn, assured her that no one at Dupont would ever treat her so cruelly. And if anyone did happen to do so, she should come find her immediately.

Bridgette laughed, flushing pink.

“Thanks, Mari!” Bridgette’s gaze grew wistful, “It’s been awhile since I’ve laughed with a friend.”

And Marinette was resplendent in her joy, pulling the girl into a gentle hug.

“We’ll look out for you, Bridgette. You can count on us.” The girl returned the embrace, nodding. After a moment, the two girls pulled back, and Bridgette smiled.

“Thanks for caring, Mari.” Marinette shrugged, giving her a smile.

“You’re worth it, Bridgette, remember that.” She nodded her head towards a classroom, “But you should probably get to class now. I think you’re really late. I’ll have a talk with Mr. Beaumont about why right after my class and I finish this project, ok? Just tell him Marinette will explain, and he should understand.” Bridgette nodded, thanking her again, before kissing her cheek, and heading to her classroom. Marinette watched her go with a smile, and sighed, before turning to head back to her class.

Only to promptly freeze at the sight of them behind her, grinning in glee, Alya at the front, phone held high.

Marinette flushed bright red.

“Guys, what’re you doing?” Alya clicked end on the recording and grinned at her best friend.

“Getting our video of course!”

Marinette was certain she was going to die. Or combust on the spot. God, what if she actually did though, and it was just another damn power to worry about???

Needless to say, she’s embarrassed. But once the class reviews the video, they find it to be perfect. They were able to stay close enough to hear Bridgette’s and Marinette’s conversation, and hear Marinette explaining things to her. Nino took the audio and boosted it in certain parts, and making sure to edit out any personal information the girls discussed during the tour.

The video coupled with the 15 page essay Marinette submits secures their spot in the seminar.

Meanwhile, when Diana hears Marinette gushing about their school being invited to the annual Wayne Seminar, she is immediately suspicious. She finds Bruce within the day, appearing in the Batcave with no preamble; Bruce is waiting for her.

He offers her a drink. And Diana sighs, because he definitely already knows; so she accepts his drink, and they sit.

And they talk.

He asks why she didn’t tell him, he would’ve helped her. And Diana laughs, and it’s surprisingly good natured.

“Bruce, you would’ve killed him back then. Don’t think I don’t know how much you two hated each other back then.” She sighed, “You idiots were finally about to be friends, and if I’d told you what he’d said, what we’d done…” She snorted, “I was quite sure you would’ve killed him.” Bruce didn’t deny her accusations, nor did he accept them.

“What’s she like?” And Bruce watched Diana’s whole body relax, a small smile on her face as she swirled the liquor in her glass.

“She is the best thing that has ever existed for me in this world. She’s my little light, and I will see that this world is safe for her.” Bruce thought of his sons, his daughters, and he nodded.

“And her powers?” Diana’s grin grew broad, and she raised her fist.

“She is strong, Bruce. The strongest.” Again, Bruce nodded, having a drink from his glass as Diana stared him down, “If you hurt her while she is in your care, Bruce, we will have problems. You know this?” Bruce sat his glass down, reaching for the bottle to refill his cup.

“I know, Diana. My intentions are purely curious, I promise you.” He smiled, a small upturn of his lips, “She was the star of their video, you know.”

He shows her the video the class submitted, edited to include the class singing the praises of their class president as an intro, before it cut to some footage taken on a cell phone. It followed Marinette around as she guided a younger student around the school, offering advice, and going out of her way to help the girl. The footage ended with the girl’s blushing face before it cut to an outro featuring the Journalist of the class, Alya Cesaire. Alya had said that since Marinette was writing the essay, she knew her friend wouldn’t include her own good deeds, and since Alya was in charge of the video, she’d take care of it here.

And Diana watched her daughter’s best friend proudly declare Marinette’s achievements, and her aspirations; the good she’d done, and the bad she’d prevented, or outright ended.

Bruce pretended not to notice Diana’s tears.

OOF I DID NOT MEAN TO WRITE THAT MUCH OF THAT WOW

Ok so anyway, trip to Gotham gets secured cause of all that. Master Fu will send Kaalki with Marinette as an assured countermeasure against akumas, and Diana promises she will stay in Paris while Marinette is in Gotham. This assures Marinette that between her mom, Viperion, and Ryuuko they could hold their own until she could get there.

To Gotham! YAY!

They land mid afternoon, check into the hotel, and fucking sleep. That’s it.

Next day, they have a guided tour of the Gotham Natural History museum, which is super dope, and everyone is excited; except for Chloe, because even redeemed she’s kind of a brat. I love her. Marinette meets Tim first in this one. Tim is at the Museum because as CEO of Wayne Enterprises he is donating something to the museum. They bump into each other, and she knocks him down.

Tim is kind of stunned cause this tiny pixie like girl just knocked right into him and didn’t even budge, holy shit. And Marinette is stumbling over her words as she apologizes, and helps Tim up, and wow, that is one hell of a grip for someone that size, what the fUCK. Tim is properly dismayed, but waves off her concern good naturedly, saying he shouldn’t have been standing in the middle of the hallway like an idiot; Marinette flushes brighter, insisting she should’ve been paying more attention.

And then Jason shows up, cause like damn Tim, what the hell is taking you so long?

Looks at Marinette.

Hey isn’t she a bit young for you, Drake?

(in another timeline this would probably be a fun Timinette AU, I won’t lie. hmmmmmmm…..)

Tim rolls his eyes at Jason’s antics, offering Marinette a grimace.

‘Sorry about him, he’s deplorable. Again I’m sorry for running into you’

Marinette laughs it off, shaking her head

‘I’m so sorry for knocking you down. I’ll make sure to pay more attention.’

Tim and Jason leave, Jason offering her a wide grin and a little wave; Marinette just shakes her head in amusement, and catches up with the class.

MEANWHILE, SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE MUSEUM

Damian and Jon are hanging out; Jon has decided to come and pester him since his school, Metropolis Prep, is also invited to the seminar, and Damian likes his friend, he really does, but *god* he is suffering right now. Jon is making comments left and right, and Damian is about to lose it.

‘Ooh, am I making you mad, Wayne?’

Damian glares at his friend.

‘Stop talking. My head is killing me, and I am *this* close to killing *you*.’

Jon just laughs, and Damian rolls his eyes.

After awhile of wandering around, looking at things, they go get some lunch in the cafeteria. There’s a large group of French students taking up one of the tables, one dark haired girl standing while the others are sitting; there’s a map and a notebook spread out in front of her. Damian watches as she smiles at her classmates, writing things in the notebook, while marking things on the map.

‘Oh, that’s cool!’

Damian looks at Jon, ‘What?’ Jon grins.

‘They’re planning on what they want to see while in Gotham.’

‘How do you know?’ Jon rolls his eyes as they get some food.

‘Damian. I have super powers, idiot.’ Damian snorts.

‘Doesn’t explain your incompetence though.’

Both boys miss the wide eyed stare Marinette is giving Jon from her table.

She hadn’t MEANT to hear him, but when you can hear pretty much everything, eavesdropping is inevitable; doesn’t mean she has to like it though.

Also, wow that boy looks so much like her?? How weird.

She and the class finish planning other places they’d like to go, while Marinette turns the list of locations into Miss Bustier for her to review. They had a basic schedule set up, but their teacher had allowed them to see Gotham for what it was before finalizing things.

After lunch, their tour resumes, and Jon and Damian find themselves along the same path as Marinette’s class. They’ve moved past some of the older cultural items, and are entering the room of heroes and villains. Wax replicas of Batman, all of the Robins’, Black Bat, Batgirl, and various big name villains line the walls. Damian was on edge the entire time, not quite listening to Jon’s rambling.

And well OF COURSE something goes wrong, because you can’t have the Dupont kids go anywhere with no problems.

Two Face steps down from where his figure used to be, unloading his gun into the ceiling. He thinks he’ll have an easy time taking this French class hostage.

He is not prepared for these kids.

Alix and Kim tag team a couple of his henchmen with support from Max who has outfitted Markov with some new tech as well. Juleka (who has been tapped for the Lion Miraculous before) and Rose (who’s used the Mouse) take one down, while Ivan smashes two more henchmen together, shielding Mylene. Alya takes the knees out another one while Nino comes across his jaw with a hard left cross. Nathaniel is in front of Sabrina, shielding her when Chloe comes down hard on the henchman in front of them.

Adrien and Marinette go for Two Face, each of them a bit surprised at how the other moved.

And Damian is shocked stupid, watching this French class absolutely decimate one of Gotham’s finest rogues.

Meanwhile Jon is stuck staring at the duo. Between looking at the cute blonde boy, or the dark haired girl who is *WAY* stronger than she looks; especially if she can throw Two Face around one handed, damn.

And Marinette is more concerned with keeping her friends safe than hiding her abilities, and she probably moves too fast, and uses too much strength; her classmates buy her excuse of her extra martial arts classes outside of class.

Damian however does not.

And then the police show up, shocked to find this group of criminals subdued by a group of foreign teenagers.

The second Damian is out of the museum, losing Jon for a moment in the chaos, he calls his father.

“Why didn’t you tell me there was a meta among that French class you invited?”

Damian can practically his father shrug.

“It’s not my business to tell, Damian. Just talk to her.”

He growled as his father ended the call; the man knew something, he knew it.

And thus begins the chronicles of Damian trying to figure out WTH is going on with Marinette; which leads to friendship. Damnit.

This is where the typical getting to know you Daminette stuff will happen.. Including dates, and identity reveals.

The biggest conflict of this is honestly dealing with Superman when he finds out. Marinette has known who her father was since she was 10 years old, when she learned her mother’s identity; but Diana didn’t officially tell her until her 14th birthday, after the akuma incident.

“No more secrets, little light; I will tell you everything.” Diana had said; and she had.

Marinette is glad to have Tom, because wow her real father sounds like a dickhead.

When she officially meets Jon (Damian introduces them), she immediately realizes ‘well fuck, I have a little brother???? And he’s best friends with the boy I have a crush on, shit.’

Anyway, Superman finds out Diana had a daughter, their daughter, after the trip to Gotham concludes, and he immediately heads for Paris as Superman. He finds Diana as Wonder Woman talking to a young girl in Red with black spots, but Superman is set on speaking to Diana as he lands, and starts striding up to her.

“We need to talk.” Diana stares at him dispassionately as he walks up.

“I have nothing to say to you. Leave.”

Clark reaches out for Diana’s hand, only to have his wrist grabbed by the girl in red; who is glaring up at him fiercely. Wow her grip is tight…

“If you touch my mother, I will decimate you.”

And Clark is reeling, because holy shit, this is his daughter; his and Diana’s blood. And Clark just looks at Diana, conflicted.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Diana?” Diana shrugged.

“Telling you would not have changed the outcome. I have always wanted a child, and she is everything I need of this world. Why would I tell you?”

“Because she’s my blood too! She’s kryptonian!” And the girl growls, and then she is hovering in front of his face, blocking his view of Diana. Her eyes are a blazing blue behind her mask, and Clark realizes: she can fly.

“I may share your blood, Superman, but I am not Kryptonian; I am an Amazon. I am Ladybug. And I will not listen to you berate my mother for her choices. She told you to leave, and I can assure you, I won’t be as nice when I demand your absence.”

And Clark is just. Stunned. Because yeah, that was definitely an Amazonian level threat she just gave him; but he’s Superman, and yeah, she’s his daughter, but how strong could she be? Should he push the matter?

Clark watches as other heroes slowly appear behind the girl; One clad in orange, one in green; A fox and turtle respectively. Then there’s the one in black, green eyes narrowed at him; a feral cat, it looks like. Then there’s the one in yellow and rusty orange, a snarl marring her lips; a Bee?? Or a Hornet?? The final two are teal and red, a boy and a girl; a snake, and a… dragon?

What has his daughter been up to in Paris?

Grief swells within him, and he sighs.

“Ok, I’ll-”

Ladybug screams.

“Hello Superman, I am Hawkmoth.”

And that’ll be the final fight of this fic I think! They’ll beat akumatized Superman (batfam Zetas in to help, and so does Jon and Connor), and then Clark leads them to Hawkmoth’s base, and Gabriel is dealt with, along with Nathalie. Marinette and Adrien will both do university in America, with Adrien learning under Bruce about business along with Damian (the 2 become surprisingly good friends after a point), and Marinette accepted Audrey’s internship while she goes to school in New York. She frequently pops over to the manor to see the Batfam.

I’m gonna work on the Timinette version of this next; that ship is so adorkable and I *LOVE* it

There may also end up being a Jasonette version?? I haven’t decided yet tbh

#maribat #daminette #mlb x dc #WonderSuper AU #that'll be the tag for this #will I actually write it??#WHO KNOWS!#NOT *ME*!#:D #¯\_(ツ)_/¯#this AU isn't entirely Superman friendly #but it IS class friendly!!! :D #here have this!

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