#the first one alya looks so happy with nino’s cap and nino just looks so flustered- the couple goals here are strong!

[crescent14]

Decisions and Dreams

Hey there! I realize it has been a while since I last posted anything, but here is another chapter to my continuation story. Enjoy!

AO3

Why was it sooo hard to make a decision? It shouldn't be so difficult; it would bring her one step closer to following her dream. Saying "Yes" should have been a no-brainer, right?

Wrong. Marinette was sprawled on her chaise with brochures and pictures scattered all across her floor. They were all of the different fashion schools she had gotten and accepted into, all sending her countless emails to decide before the end of summer. But with the new curriculum at Francois Dupont, she could not only get a similar education in a familiar school but also stay with her friends a little longer. However, the fashion-centered atmosphere granted at the other schools was just too prestigious to pass up.

The fact that she wanted to stay close to her friends made one decision easy- to remain in Paris. Now just to decide which school in Paris to attend- Francois or ESMOD? Her parents told her to follow her dreams and join one of the best fashion colleges in the country, but she wasn't sure how her friends would react to her leaving. Tikki kept trying to reassure her that they would be happy to take this next step in her life, and besides, they could always hang out after school. She had a point, but she felt like she needed another opinion. Someone who she trusted to be 100% honest no matter what.

The first person that came to her mind was Chat Noir, but after how they had left their last conversation, she didn't feel too comfortable with asking him something so personal and asking him as Ladybug was too close a hint to her identity- something she wanted to think about another day.

Adrien and Alya would probably react less to her leaving Francois, so they were also out, leaving the most unlikely choice-Nino.

Granted they knew each other since école, but they only got to be as close as they were right now because of Alya and Adrien, which made him the perfect candidate to talk to. She was thinking about how to phrase her words and explain her dilemma as she waited for the DJ to come to the café she was currently waiting in while sipping an iced tea. She looked up every time the bell chimed, buzzing with nervous energy at the oncoming conversation. The wait ended when she spotted the very noticeable red cap.

"Hey M!", Nino greeted her as he walked to her table and sat down.

"Hey Nino, thanks for coming. Would you like to get something to drink?", she greeted, slightly disappointed when he turned down her offer, hoping it would give her more time to compose herself. Well, times up!

"I was surprised to get your call", Nino said, pulling her out of her spiralling thoughts, "Are we waiting for Alya and Adrien to get here as well?", he asked looking towards the outside of the café to try as see if he could find any of their friends.

"No, they don't know we're here. I wanted to talk to you alone actually.", Marinette stated while biting her lower lip.

"Really?", he asked confused, before a panicked look overtook his face. "Is everything ok? Is Alya-?"

"She's fine Nino!", Marinette interrupted before his thoughts could take him down a very dark road. "I need your help. Advice would be a better word."

"Sure, what's up?", he asked relieved it wasn't something terrible.

"I'm thinking of leaving Francois Dupont. I got into ESMOD and have been thinking of joining, but I don't want Adrien and Alya to feel like I abandoned them or anything. Especially when we all promised to go to Francois with Adrien for at least another year while he tries to figure out what he wants to do in life.", she stated as tears stung the corners of her eyes.

"Hey, it's ok.", Nino tried to calm her down as he touched her hand on the table. "I would like to say they'd be happy for you if you decide to follow your dreams, but I've been facing the same dilemma myself. I'm also scared those two would react in the worst possible way, but there's no real way to find out other than to rip the bandage off, is there?"

She nodded her head, turned her hand on the table and held his hand, giving it a firm squeeze to let him know he wasn't alone.

"Tell you what. How about we call them to the park and break the news to the two of them together? May help reduce the shock a bit if they find out now anyway.", Marinette suggested, though she was terrified by how her bestie and boyfriend would react to this news.

"That's not a bad idea!", Nino explained sounding a little hopeful. "Could also help us deal with any negative reaction those two might get. You text Alya, I'll text Adrien?", he asked while fishing his phone out of his pocket.

She nodded in agreement while taking out her phone.

Adrien never wanted to get out of the house more than right that moment. His mother had gotten back into the acting business and decided to let him do whatever he pleased, with some obvious restraints that required he still follow the law, of course. This freedom also extended to the extracurriculars his father forced him to do, he was given the choice to drop and keep whichever activities he wanted. Which is exactly what he was doing at the moment.

Adrien decided to make a list of all the activities and extracurriculars his father had forced him to take so he could think about each one of them long and hard before dropping or keeping them. But each one of the listed activities reminded him of one particular bluenette, the same one that showed up every time he closed his eyes. He opened his phone to see the background. He kept his lock screen as the selfie of him and Nino taken his first week of school, but he changed his background picture from one of Ladybug mid-swing to one of Marinette. It was a pic he had secretly taken of her during their last lunch break at school. She was softly smiling at a comment

Alya made and he just snapped the pic without anyone at the table noticing, and it turned out so great he decided he wanted to see it every time he opened his phone.

The sound of a grumbling stomach that was Plagg sleeping in a pile of empty cheese tins pulled him out of his daydreams to focus on the task at hand, only for his thoughts to drift back to his girlfriend once again.

Mandarin- he needs to keep revising if he wants to keep helping Marinette learn it as well

Fencing- made him think of Kagami and how he let her down; but then he remembered how it was a talk over the phone and a trip to the wax museum after the fencing class that made Adrien truly accept how he felt about Marinette. Not to mention it helps him practice techniques for when he needs to help protect Paris.

Piano- his thoughts flooded back to the song he wrote for her, slaving over the piano for hours trying to get every chord and word perfect

Modelling- granted he quit when his father forced him, but Marinette was starting to build an online brand for herself, and he was all the more ready to help.

Turns out everything his father forced him into brought him that much closer to the girl of his dreams. But they also took him away from her. Besides modelling for her, the other activities only left him with very little spare time to hang out with her. So, something from the list had to go, and with Monarch gone, there was not much need for him to be Chat Noir for a while.

Ladybug suggested they keep their miraculous till they can get the Butterfly back from wherever it was (hopefully not in the hands of another terrorist), so he still had to deal with a cheese kwami for the foreseeable future.

Anyway, he finally decided what he was going to quit- fencing. And yes, the decision felt good.

He was just about to call Marinette and tell her the good news when his phone chimed with a text from Nino:

Hey, are you free? Can we meet at the park near the bakery for a bit? Marinette and Alya are joining us.

He was immediately excited to go meet his friends. Although Nino's text made him feel anxious about what his friend could want to talk about too. Regardless, he texted back:

Hey man. Yeah, will be there in 5

He told Nathalie where he was going before heading out of the big doors. His bodyguard was ready to drive him, and he got in. He hated having to be driven around, but the sooner he got there, the more time he'd get to spend with his friends- and that thought made everything better. He expected to find only Nino in the park, waiting for him and the girls, but was surprised to see Marinette already there, before realizing how close the park was to her family's bakery and mentally face-palmed himself. They looked like they were in deep conversation about something, and their nervous body language did nothing to assuage Adrien's feeling of dread. What was going on?

He walked up to them and noticed they stopped talking the moment they saw him and faked smiles. What was that about? He smiled back to not show his inner thoughts as Marinette walked over and hugged him while Nino fist-bumped him.

"We're still waiting for Alya to come. Then we'll talk.", Nino stated nonchalantly, as Marinette let him go.

[luv-esabella]

Ahhh!! I love this so much 🥰🌻✨

My submission for the @thedjwifizine which I had the honor of joining!  There’s a ton of wonderful submissions for you all to look through, totally free! You can download it from one of the links here!! 

[lady-charinette]

Following this amazing post:

FML TUMBLR DELETED MY LONG POST TIME TO TYPE AGAIN

@ghostlyhamburger My friend you're awesome, beautiful, talented, smart- thanks for the tag!! Also: I'm so In LOVE with this AU!!

Chloe as Gaston absolutely fucks, who else would sing an entire song about themselves and how great they are (No one _ like Chloe fits to a "T")

Instead of Theo being Gaston, he's one of the trio of men who fawn over and worship Chloe (like those three women in the primary colors fawning over Gaston)

Lefou is definitely Sabrina, what I also think fits this really well is the small, few moments where Lefou feels remorse for Gaston's actions that hurt Belle but he still remains loyal to Gaston

Marinette will wreck half the castle bc who the fuck has ugly antique furniture who can talk as roommates. Chip (maybe the blue haired boy from Sandboy) slowly befriends her after he sees Marinette show remorse for accidentally killing his mom "She was a beautiful teapot." "Yes she was."

Lumiere being Alya slaps, Cogsworth is either Nino or Alix/ Bunnyx (get it? Time, clock?)

If Nino isn't Cogsworth then he is definitely the Featherduster who dramatically and gracefully dances with Alya, she accidentally burns off some of his feathers and he wears his signature cap from the show to hide how bald he became. At least he still has feathers to dust furniture with.

The wardrobe is either Juleka or Rose OR BOTH: listen, they dress Marinette in the most beautiful dresses and gowns, in colors of pink, purple and black bc it fits with her colors

Just bc Marinette is a XXL sized bug doesn't mean she doesn't rock skirts and ballroom gowns Marinette designed and had sewn some of her clothes herself, turns out her little stick arms are perfect for precision work

The first time Adrien sees Marinette she has her back to him and he think she's some lost princess or kidnapped by the beast of the castle, she wears a cowl so he can't see her features. When Marinette dramatically turns around and all he sees is a 6ft bug with twitching antennas and huge blue eyes Adrien screams the damsel in distress scream and faints

Marinette may not have the ferocious roar of the Beast, but her twitching antennas and wiggling ladybug wings definitely look menacing to Adrien behind bars when she throws him in the cell

Marinette would've been more than happy to burn Gabriel alive but Adrien has too good a heart and offers himself in his father's stead. It doesn't surprise Marinette when no answer came from Gabriel, no gold to be paid for Adrien's freedom or a mob sent to kill her. Marinette lies when Adrien asks if she heard news of his father, she willingly paints herself the villain. It's easier to see the contempt for her in his green eyes than the devastating sadness if he heard his father didn't care at all.

Marinette will absolutely eat Gabriel alive, she may not be a man eating bug but damn it if she won't force her diet to change if it means getting the man away from Adrien

In a surprising twist of events, wolves are absolutely terrified of a 6ft tall ladybug with bustling wings who bears her twitchy antennas ferociously at them

The first time Adrien and Marinette grow closer was when he complimented her wings and how beautiful they looked and how soulful her big eyes were (Marinette wasn't used to hearing this, after all who would call a bug beautiful by any means? She wasn't beautiful like the butterflies visiting her blooming garden)

Marinette is pleasantly surprised to learn Adrien can cook, how can a human be so handsome and pretty and cook so well? The residents of the castle didn't starve for the first time since 100 years

Chloe's first offense against Marinette was her calling Adrien's new attire hideous (Marinette designed that herself), her second one was calling Marinette's roommates lifeless, ugly furniture, nobody called her roommates ugly except Marinette!

Marinette @ Chloe:"They have more life in them than you ever will, despite sucking the souls out of whoever you kiss." Chloe:" :0" (insert shocked pikachu face)

After turning human Marinette still has the antennas on top of her head and Adrien finds them adorable. Marinette is glad she still has them bc she would feel incomplete without that part of her (the Bug Life is the Thug Life)

[nobodyfamousposts]

My-Crack-ulous: Aku-Maid

In which I am a horrible person...

No seriously. Don’t read this.

For @mermain123, for bringing up the cursed image that started this mess in the first place.

Mermain: i said i was suffering

Mermain: i didn't want you to make the internet suffer

Me: That sounds like the internet’s problem.

Also for @bloody-writes. You know why...   ; )

_________________________

Hawk Moth was a supervillain who had been terrorizing Paris for the better part of two years.

But no one could really argue that not all of his ideas have been good. Or well thought out. Or in any way sensible even.

Like the time he akumatized a baby.

Or the time he akumatized a girl to transform people into exact replicas of herself.

Or the fact he keeps akumatizing Mr. Ramier for going on 29 times at this point…

Or the other time he akumatized a baby…

Times that he destroyed Paris. Times that he nearly destroyed the world. Times that he gave people powers that were completely contradictory to the goals of getting the Miraculous he was after by erasing the heroes from existence or transforming them in ways that made the Miraculous inaccessible.

But none of his akumatizations had ever gotten him as much hate, caused as much misery, were were ultimately as pointless as this most recent incident.

Aku-maid.

It was known the instant she was akumatized. As soon as she was transformed, a wave of power enveloped the city. And within that wave, half of the people of Paris were transformed as well. 

…the male half.

Her power was to transform all the men of Paris. She didn’t even have a weapon or attack that did it, it just happened almost instantaneously. All men suddenly found themselves changed.

Or rather, their outfits…

“Ah!”

“What the hell—!?”

“I can’t get it off!”

One by one, every male in Paris suddenly found themselves in a much different state of attire. What had just been a normal day full of various styles and appearances had all suddenly become very…frilly.

“WHY AM I A MAID?!”

Much as implied her namesake, the akuma’s power involved transforming whatever any man was wearing into some variation of a maid outfit.

Every man.

All over Paris.

From Andre Bourgeois, who has refused to leave his office to make an official statement…

“ANDRE!” Audrey shouted, banging on the door. “Get out here this instant!”

“But, honey, I can’t be seen like this!”

To Roger Raincomprix, who has tried to continue his normal duties despite the…change of uniform…

“Stop in the name of the law!” Roger shouted, reaching into his pockets in an automatic reaction to try to get his handcuffs. While the dress he was wearing did still have pockets, the only item they procured was a cleaning rag, which was notably less threatening as the suspect in question stared for a moment before deciding to take off.

“HEY!”

And yes, even to…

“I’m a Macrophage!” Adrien gushed happily as he lifted his lengthy skirt to give a twirl.

…even to Adrien Agreste, who was apparently the only one to find anything pleasant about the current crisis.

Nino stared.

“Dude. Seriously?”

“I’ve always wanted to cosplay!”

Nino, having been long-since exposed to his friend’s deep love for anime in its many forms, at least knew what a Macrophage was. But even so, he couldn’t help but feel there was something odd about the way Adrien took to the long pale dress and cap.

Kim rested a hand on Nino’s shoulder. “Just let the guy enjoy this.”

“At least somebody is.” Nathaniel muttered bitterly as he tried to hide as behind his sketchbook. It was a futile attempt, of course, as he at most only covered his face, leaving the red dress, white apron with pockets, and knee-high boots on full display.

“I don’t understand how he can.” Max complained. He tugged at his own skirt in vain, looking at Adrien’s ankle-length ensemble enviously. The skirt was much shorter than he would have liked—reaching a couple inches above his thigh and almost seemed to be defying gravity to stay that way despite his attempts to get it to either flatten or otherwise lower. “I question the design choices.”

“But you look just like Misaki from Maid Sama! And Nathaniel looks like Lizbeth!” Adrien insisted. “It’s totally a cosplay!”

Max just stared incredulously. He was wearing a black dress with puffy sleeves that tapered off just shy of his elbow, white apron, a cap, and thigh-high black stockings and knee-high boots, it seemed Adrien did have a point.

Max, in all fairness, didn’t particularly care in favor of the problems that came with suddenly finding himself in a short dress, heels, and a corset.

“I just can’t peg where Kim or Nino’s outfits are from.” He continued, studying the outfits in question contemplatively. “But give me a little time! It’ll come to me!”

The boys had been having an afternoon hangout session in the park. No girls. No teachers. No Gabriel Agreste or bodyguards to whisk certain teen models away. It was supposed to be a normal non-drama-filled day.

…which was naturally when it became something less than normal and certainly more than drama-filled.

“I think I get why girls complain about this sort of thing now.” Kim said, looking at his shoes. “These heels are kind of uncomfortable…”

“Are you sure it’s the heels and not the flippers?” Nino asked, annoyed.

Sure enough, Kim was wearing flipper-heels. They were black and also had black ankle straps with a little bow on each. This strange footwear did seem to go with Kim’s talent in swimming, which was also emphasized by the ruffle maid swimsuit they matched with.

“Nah, it’s definitely the heels.” Kim insisted.

So this was what their all-boys’ afternoon had come to.

Kim was wobbling on unsteady heels.

Nathaniel groaned and kept his ever reddening face covered.

Max was questioning where they could procure jackets. Long jackets.

Adrien was giggling to himself and asking if they could do a full Cells at Work group cosplay.

And Nino paled, suddenly realizing something.

"Guys. Guys, we have to hide!"

"Why?" Kim asked. "It's annoying, but this akuma doesn't seem really dangerous."

"No, you don't get it!" Nino hissed. "If Alya catches us, we will NEVER live this down!"

Nathaniel looked over the edge of his sketchbook. “Alya wouldn’t actually post pictures of us to the Ladyblog, would she?”

A long pause followed.

The boys paled.

Except for Adrien, who turned to them with a gasp of excitement. “Do you think she would? We could do a group picture!”

All the other boys paled even more, looking downright ill.

And immediately took off running.

Or at least as well as they could with heels. None of them made it very far without tripping, stumbling, or simply struggling to stay upright as they still tried to move away from the area as quickly as the heels would allow.

“But what’s wrong with—?”

“JUST RUN, ADRIEN!”

“Who thought maid outfits with high heels was a good idea?! How can anyone be expected to clean in these things?

“I will never draw high heels on a super heroine again.”

“I can’t breathe! Who created corsets?! What objective does this achieve besides crushing one’s lungs?”

Nino groaned, still running. “I hope Hawk Moth is suffering as much as we are!”

_____________________

If Nino Lahiffe had the ability to break the fourth wall and peer into the events happening outside of his immediate vicinity, he would be happy to find this was actually the case.

And he would laugh.

Oh, how he would laugh.

“Sir…?”

“Don’t.” Came the dark growl from a very unhappy supervillain. “Don’t say anything, Nathalie..."

This was an akuma that impacted every male in Paris. Every male.

…even to Hawk Moth, himself.

“Why did this happen?”

It would appear that even Hawk Moth was not immune to Aku-Maid’s power as he had been similarly transformed. And unfortunately, due to the change, he could no longer access his Miraculous. The Butterfly broach had disappeared, having been transformed along with his outfit.

And his outfit had…actually left much to be desired.

Which was truthfully just a nice way of saying it was ugly.

Really, really ugly.

Normally the picture of stoicism, Nathalie had to pretend to cough to avoid reacting.

“Can’t you order the akuma to undo it?” She eventually was able to ask.

He lowered his head and closed his eyes in concentration. “No. It’s no good. I’ve lost the link!”

His eyes widened and he clutched his chest in a panic.

“Where is the Miraculous?!” Hawk Moth demanded, trying—and failing to pull at the tasteless dress. But as others across the city had already discovered, the clothes were magic and would not be removed or displaced. Not even the frock or the cap he now wore.

“Sir, you were transformed when you changed. It looks like the Butterfly Miraculous was transformed along with you.”

He froze, eyes widening in horror. “But that’s—”

He grasped at the empty place on his chest. Where once had been his lapel and pin now only had ruffles and a leathery texture. His mask remained in place, though it was now fully black except for the openings around his eyes and mouth, which were bordered with a lighter grey color. The material and outfit overall had a shine to it that could be found on any wetsuit.

To put it nicely: he looked atrocious.

To put it bluntly: he looked like some sort of BDSM role-player with a maid kink.

So it was fortunate, perhaps, that no one else in Paris would have to be subject to the sight.

Except Nathalie. Who was probably going to have nightmares.

Or a coronary from the laughter she was trying to hold back.

It was admittedly a bit hard to tell.

But it seemed she was handling the situation a bit better than Hawk Moth, despite the fact that the man was currently unable to see himself or the full extent of the monstrosity he now wore.

…this was probably for the best. Given the man’s fashion sense, there was really no telling whether he would be horrified or inspired, and nobody would want to find out.

“I can’t contact the akuma! And I can’t call it back!”

He moaned, covering his…already covered face with his hands. “I’ll never be taken seriously again!”

Nathalie resolutely held back from pointing out he was barely being taken seriously now.

“It’s…not that bad?” She tried. Not very well, but she tried.

Hawk Moth clutched his head in horror. “Unless Ladybug and Chat Noir can stop this akuma, we’re doomed!”

“Sir, it’s just an akuma that puts men in maid outfits. It’s really not that bad.”

“DOOOOOOMED!!!”

__________________________

The akuma, for her part, was unaware of her benefactor’s misery, too busy enjoying the abject misery of everyone else around her.

Nobody knew just what had set the girl off to get her akumatized in the first place. Her comments about men being “the eye-candy now” suggested an argument. The maid outfits involved suggested what the topic of the argument had been regarding.

To be honest, nobody had actually realized she was the akuma responsible. She did appear fairly normal by akuma terms, dressed in a seemingly authentic Victorian era dress more befitting as an authentic Lady’s Maid compared the frillier, lacier varieties that the men around her had suddenly found themselves in. What would normally have gotten her a few odds looks was mostly ignored in the face of the sudden change. Few even took notice of her dark purple skin or black hair. Or the fan in her hand.

“THAT’S RIGHT! SEE HOW YOU LIKE BEING OBJECTIFIED!”

The yelling…was a bit harder to miss.

It was the first thing that drew the attention of the three girls settled at the cafe.

The second thing was the various cries of horror as several of the men around them suddenly discovered their state of dress transformed into…well…dresses. Of a variety that made the little cafe appear more like a maid cafe than anything.

The third thing was the appearance of a familiar face running down the road, holding up his long white dress to make running easier as he looked for a place to hide.

Marinette stared.

“ADRIEN?!”

Adrien Agreste was running around in a long white and pale cream Victorian-era dress and cap, looking like Cinderella running from the ball. Except a maid.

A quick glance to her companions showed that both Alya and Kagami were similarly staring in befuddlement, so this was neither her imagination or a fever dream.

“Adrien? What’s going on?” Alya asked for everyone.

“It’s an akuma!” He replied, quickly. “She’s putting everybody into cosplay!”

“…cosplay?”

“Yeah!”

“…everybody?”

He paused, glancing around. “Well…all the guys, I think?”

Marinette stared.

“…Just that?” Alya asked, thankfully taking over while Marinette’s brain started to become aware that this WAS Adrien she was talking to. “She’s not doing anything else besides putting guys into…‘cosplays’?”

He blinked in confusion. “I…think so?”

“She isn’t…I don’t know…commanding you or anything?”

“Well, she hasn’t yet. Which, really, isn’t so bad for an akuma if you think about it.” He said with a frown before he noticed the strange look on Kagami’s face. “Kagami, are you okay?”

Kagami made a strangled sound.

“Marinette?”

Marinette pretended to choke on a drink from an empty glass to avoid speaking.

“Can I add to your order?” The waiter came by, seeming unconcerned by the ruckus or the act that he was now wearing a rather cutesy maid outfit the likes of which would be seen in a maid cafe in Japan.

“You don’t seem put off by this.” Alya pointed out, noting his relatively unfazed attitude compared to the panicking of the other men around them…or the gushing from Adrien.

The waiter took it in stride.

“It’s okay.” He replied blankly. “I’m already dead inside.”

“Oh.”

He turned to Kagami. “Do you need anything else, Miss?”

Kagami was still staring at Adrien, blushing furiously.

“I think I have a problem.”

“You mean a kink?”

“A. Problem.” She spoke through gritted teeth.

“Story of my life.” The waiter replied as he refilled her glass of water, either unaware or uncaring of the specific nature of her trouble.

Alya gasped in sudden realization. “Wait! If this is happening here then…” She turned to Adrien. “Where were Nino and the boys?” He blinked, curious. “Oh, they decided to head home. Why?”

An almost sinister smirk formed on Alya’s face. One that would have anyone it was directed at cowering in fear. And strong enough to be felt from several blocks away.

Unbeknownst to them, Nino felt that smirk like a trail of cold fingers down his back, and promptly threw himself into his room and slammed the door shut behind him.

As if she sensed this, Alya slammed several bills on the table and dashed out the door.

“GOTTA GO!”

Realizing an akuma was about, Marinette was right on her heels. She found a nearby alleyway and immediately prepared to transform and face this latest threat.

“Oh my god. OH MY GOD.” She broke down, letting out the laughter she’d been trying so hard to hold in. “He’s a dork! The boy I’m crushing on is a complete DORK who is in to cosplaying! He thinks maid outfits are COSPLAY!”

…or she would be.

“And here I’ve been driving myself nuts with anxiety over just asking him out and he doesn’t even—”

Any minute now…

“Marinette!” Tikki hissed. “You need to stop the akuma!”

“Can’t I just take a picture first?”

“MARINETTE!”

“Oh fine…”

_____________________

Luka didn’t realize anything had happened. He felt a bit off balanced for a moment, and a bit colder, but attributed that to being on the Liberty. So he simply shifted his stance to be a bit more steady and continued playing. It wasn’t until the drum stopped that he realized something was actually wrong.

The look of shock from Mylene and the following shriek from Ivan cemented it.

He spun around, not sure what could have elicited such a cry from his fellow bandmate. And at first, he couldn’t really tell what had happened. Ivan was crouched behind the drum set, covering his face with his hands and trembling in what appeared to be mortification.

Then he noticed the mobcap on Ivan’s head, which he was pretty sure hadn’t been there before. And Ivan’s shirt seemed distinctly…fluffier and frillier than he remembered seeing a few minutes ago. He tried to move closer to offer help, only for his own balance to be off. And when he looked down…

Oh.

The dress was new.

As were the stockings.

And the notably thinner and sleeker heels on his boots.

He hummed to himself, considering the change.

“Akuma?” Juleka asked him.

“Most likely.” He replied.

Mylene had rushed up to their practice stage and to Ivan’s side, even as he moaned for her to not look at him. The poor guy was completely red in embarrassment. Seeing how upset he was, the other three had backed away, leaving Mylene to try to help her boyfriend.

“Luka, are you okay?” Rose asked worriedly, trying to respect Ivan’s need for space while also checking in on their other effected bandmate.

“I’m fine. It was just a surprise at first.” He replied.

It wasn’t every day that you suddenly found yourself in a maid outfit, after all. It was a simple outfit. White off the shoulder puffy sleeves with black frills. A black tube skirt. White apron. And…he reached to his neck where a weight was, feeling a choker.

Huh…

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Honestly, he could be in worse.

Rose seemed surprised at that. “Really? Even with those shoes?”

He looked down at the shoes in question. The boots were his style—surprisingly, given it was an akuma. The higher heels were definitely different from his norm, and clearly what Rose was referring to. In any other circumstances, she would be right.

But...

Luka smiled, shifting his stance and resting a hand on his hip. “Well, someone had to teach Jules to walk in heels. And I couldn’t show her if I didn’t know how myself.

Juleka huffed. “Don’t say that like you didn’t enjoy playing dress up.”

Luka merely curtsied, not only showing off more of his slightly ripped and punk-looking fishnet stockings, but almost proudly displaying his ability to move fluently in heels.

Rose appropriately “oo-ed” and “aah-ed” at his display. Juleka merely shook her head and smiled. Ivan was still recovering from his panic attack and had resolutely refused to come out from behind the drums, despite Mylene’s reassurances.

“So it has to be an akuma, right?” Rose asked.

“If it is, I want a picture or two, at least.” Juleka muttered as she admired Luka’s outfit, mumbling about commissioning Marinette to recreate it in her size. She hadn’t known maids could come in this style.

Mylene nodded from her place at Ivan’s side. “Though it seems rather fortunate if this is all the akuma is doing.”

“We don’t know if that is it, though.” Luka warned. “For all we know, there could be some other ability she has if she catches us. It would probably be safer if we hid out inside until this is over.”

The others agreed. And Anarka, bless her soul, actually came up with a large blanket for Ivan to wrap himself in to preserve his dignity. Then she and Mylene helped the taller teen to safely relocate to inside. Much like Luka, Ivan’s shoes had changed, but he was substantially less able to maneuver in them. And no amount of effort or force on his part could seem to separate the heels from his feet.

Once he and the others were inside, Luka moved to follow. He hesitated, however, at the sound of something landing behind him.

“Viperion? We’ll need your help.”

He turned to see Ladybug standing tall. And was that perhaps a hint of blush on her face?

Oh. 

A shame.

It looked like Juleka wouldn’t be getting her pictures, after all...

_____________________

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

He shuddered, backing away from the door as far as possible.

“Ninoooooo…”

It was a fight for survival.

“C’mon, Nino. Just open the door.”

The survival of his dignity, but still!

He’d lost track of the others and immediately rushed home and to the safety of his room. His room, which he could lock and hide away in until this all blew over.

“I have a key!” Came Chris’s voice. “Somewhere…”

“Give it and I won’t take any pictures of you.”

“Deal!”

His room, which his traitorous little brother was willing to allow the enemy entry into.

Under any normal circumstances, he wouldn’t be this desperate. But if Alya caught him like this…

Black dress. Puffy at the shoulder, sleeves that extended to his wrists and were bound by white cuffs. A white smock tied back with a white ribbon. White bow at the neck and white frills along the bottom of the dress?

Oh yeah…Alya would never let this go…

He knew he shouldn’t have gotten into all those anime Adrien pushed him into! So what if the maids were cute? And sure, he’d admit he's had a thought or two of Alya in such attire...

But how was he supposed to know Alya had such thoughts as well? And in the complete opposite direction! Clearly this was the akuma’s magic punishing him!

Nino looked to his window.

It would be a long fall, but it was his only escape.

But would the broken legs be worth it when Alya would soon figure out what he did and be able to catch up to him easily?

Maybe he could try to climb up instead…but in these heels? It was suicide!

“Fufufu!”

…screw it. 

He opened up his window, only to meet a new pair of eyes.

Ladybug stared in surprise from her place at his windowsill, a certain box in hand.

“…hi?”

“Oh thank god!” He exclaimed. He took her by her shoulders, half leaning out and half pulling her in. “Alya’s insisting on taking pictures! Please tell me you have my Miraculous with you!”

“Actually, about that—”

“I don’t care! I’ll do anything! Just please—SAVE ME!”

Ladybug looked back behind her to a distant rooftop and the other allies she’d left behind.

The sound of a key jingling could be heard and Nino stared up at her, pleadingly.

Well, she could never resist the eyes…

By the time they’d gotten the door open, the room was empty.

Nino was gone.

_____________________

Six heroes stood assembled.

Ladybug.

Chat Noir.

Carapace.

Viperion.

King Monkey.

Pegasus.

Six heroes.

Five of whom were male.

And…still wearing some semblance of feminine maid-like outfits.

Ladybug wasn’t sure if she should be impressed or worried.

“What the hell?! I thought the Miraculous were supposed to change us into our hero suits?” Nino groused.

Contrary to his hopes and expectations, using the Miraculous had not transformed him into his normal Carapace look, but had rather simply given him a different outfit. The dress itself was green and had a turtle shell pattern, while the apron and waist belts were a brown color. The bowknot around his neck was a dark green and a brown to match the apron. He wore stockings. And to his very limited relief, his shoes were flats instead of heels.

“Well, at least this skirt is longer.” Pegasus said, now wearing a dark brown blouse and bicycle skirt. The skirt went to just above his ankles, for which he was grateful. But this seemed to be countered by the increase of height to his heels.

Plus no corset. The outfit was still fit tightly and not very comfortable, but at least he could breathe now.

“Though I believe we’re getting away from maid-wear now.” Chat said, conversationally.

Pegasus gave him a flat look. “I’m not complaining.”

If Chat had witnessed his earlier ensemble, surely he would understand.

King Monkey, for his part, seemed somewhat appeased with his Miraculous suit. It was a notably more Eastern style of dress, appearing more like robes worn by palace servants. He wore a light brown waistcoat with wide sleeves over a blouse and a wrap-around skirt. It looked heavy, but Kim seemed to have no trouble with it. Maybe it was made of a lighter material…?

And Viperion’s dress was different in style as well. Whereas his maid outfit as Luka had been more punk, this was more sleek. Wearing a green sleeveless dress and white smock, as well as what appeared to be a green corset. The dress had a slit at the sides, giving more maneuverability for his legs…as well as more show, given the appearance of a garter belt and stockings. His shoes were high heeled but including a beautiful snake design that wrapped around his ankles. To finish it off, rather than remain bare, his arms were covered in what appeared to be loose green sleeves that started at his elbows and extended to his wrists.

…maybe a picture or two wouldn’t hurt? Or three? Because the amount of details on these outfits were amazing and she was just brimming with ideas now…

Ladybug broke out of her musings when someone tugged on her shoulder to get her attention.

It was Chat. Chat who, much like the other heroes, as dressed in a fantastical outfit. Though a maid outfit, it was definitely more cat-themed with a giant paw-like gloves covering his hands, a paw print on his apron, and bow and bell on his tail which rang as he shifted.

What material was that made of, anyway? She kind of wanted to give it a feel and see if she could find something to compare it to. Maybe a quick sketch?

Oh. Right.

Akuma.

Maybe if she was lucky, they could finish this quickly so she could rush back home and take notes while she still had the ideas bouncing in her brain.

…maybe someone would have gotten pictures by then…?

“Ladybug?” Chat whispered, snapping her back to reality.

“Yes?”

Chat frowned in concern. “Is the Guardian okay with this?”

Ladybug froze.

“PSST! Ladybug!” Came a voice from a nearby rooftop, drawing her attention.

“Master Fu?”

“Ladybug! Here’s the Miracle Box. Take as many allies as you can and resolve this as soon as possible!”

“Master? Are…you hiding in a box?”

“No questions! Just go!”

“…he’s fine.”

Chat seemed uncertain, but decided not to pry.

“Let’s just split up and find the akuma.” Ladybug said. “But don’t engage until we’re all together!”

With that, the six split into three groups, with Chat and Carapace going one way and King Monkey and Pegasus going another, leaving Ladybug and Viperion searching together with the former trying not to get caught stealing peeks at the latter.

“Is something wrong?” He asked with a smile.

…trying. The key word was trying not to get caught.

“No! Nothing!” She replied quickly. “I’m just…surprised that you can still move so quickly in those heels.”

“I’ve had practice.” He explained, still smiling. He even lifted one leg behind him, managing to stand perfectly balanced even on one leg in heels.

“I…see.”

Part of her wanted very much to laugh. It was the same part that had found this entire day ridiculous. The other part of her was her inner artist at work and really wanted to make a few sketches inspired from the presented outfits. Like Viperion’s sleeves…and those shoes with a snake coil wrapping around the ankle…

“Ladybug!”

Gaah! Focus!

She turned towards the shout to find King Monkey and Pegasus stumbling towards her.

Her fingers twitched. She ignored it.

“We found the akuma.” King Monkey reported. “She doesn’t seem to be doing anything. Just…kind or roaming around.”

“And laughing.” Pegasus added bitterly. “She appears to be doing a lot of that.”

“How’s THAT for ‘doll them up’?” Came a shout from street level. “HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, HUH?!”

As if on cue…

Ladybug and the others peeked over the edge of the roof.

“Has she displayed any other powers?” She asked.

“No.” Pegasus replied. “From what we could see, her power has already been activated to…obvious effect.” He hesitated, resolutely avoiding mentioning his new outfit or the indignity he’d already suffered. “She has only been laughing. And tripping the occasional person while searching for someone in particular—possibly the one responsible for her ire.”

Ladybug nodded. “At least she’s distracted and doesn’t know we’re here. We just need a plan of attack before we try to fight her.”

“No problem!” King Monkey said with a grin as he reached for his weapon. “We can just do a head on attack with our weapons and—”

They stared.

In place of his staff was a broom. A normal cleaning broom.

They sent cautious glances to each other before they checked their own inventory.

Said inventory consisted of a broom, a bucket, and a feather duster.

“I believe that constitutes as a problem.” Pegasus stated worriedly.

“That’s no fair!” King Monkey exclaimed. “Adrien was able to summon a machete!”

Ladybug blanched at that. “A what?!”

Pegasus pushed up his glasses. “I believe it’s a component of his…‘cosplay’?”

“Pfft!” Ladybug covered her mouth with her hand.

“Ladybug?”

“I-it’s nothing!” She replied hurriedly.

Viperion raised his eyebrow at her but didn’t comment.

King Monkey at least seemed to take it in stride.

“Now we just need a plan for attack!”

“With what?!” Pegasus questioned, waving the feather duster in frustration. “Our weapons don’t work!”

“More like our weapons aren’t actually weapons.” Viperion said, considering his bucket.

“I could smack her.” King Monkey offered, holding up his broom. “Maybe your feather duster has dust on it and could make her sneeze?”

Pegasus gave him a flat look.

“I think the broom is the best weapon we have right now.”

“Don’t knock a bucket!” King Monkey commanded, resolutely. “I got one stick on my head one time and it took hours to get it off! Buckets are evil, man!”

Pegasus sighed and rubbed his head. “It concerns me that you’re the second person I know whom that has happened to.”

Ladybug coughed, discretely trying to draw attention off that particular subject lest identities be at risk. “Anyway, I think I have a plan...”

______________________

To be honest, it wasn’t that difficult of an akuma. Especially not with six of them teaming up against it.

Akumaid truly see to have no ability other than the initial one of transforming what any male in Paris was wearing into something embarrassing...unless you were Adrien, apparently. Aside from that, she showed no other power—neither over the clothes themselves or the people wearing them. Well, she wasn’t controlling any of the victims or shrinking the clothing to choke them at any rate...which if you think about it, was rather lame for an akuma in the power department.

The only real disadvantage in battle came in the difficulty the boys had moving freely in their current outfits. And the afore noted lack of proper weaponry.

Their advantage of surprising was ruined by Chat’s bell ringing before they could ambush her, and both Carapace and Pegasus losing balance with their heels and falling over. King Monkey’s outfit, while longer, also meant more fabric to flap about and resist his movements regardless of how light it may have been, so he wasn’t able to get a hit in fast enough before the akuma turned on him and knocked him away.

Chat was able to get a hit in though.

With his…Kitty Wand…

“THIS IS MAGICAL PUNISHMENT!” He shouted as he smacked the akuma over the head.

“Chat. Chat no. Chat why?”

And Ladybug had hopelessly lost her composure by this point and was laughing. Just laughing. Laughing so hard she was crying actual tears as she smacked her own thigh in her struggle to breathe. Viperion was trying to help her stay standing, keeping an arm around her to support her as she half leaned and half chuckled tears into his chest.

“What’s going on? Does the akuma have some power over Ladybug, too?” King Monkey asked.

…

Viperion sighed.

“Sure. Something to that effect.”

Ladybug wheezed.

“LADYBUG!”

“Lu-haha-lucky haha-charm!”

It said something when her own Lucky Charm magicked up a paper bag. With Ladybug still victim to her fit of giggles, Viperion simply put the bag over her face and had her try to breathe.

“A paper bag doesn’t help with out of control laughing.” Pegasus noted as he forced himself to his feet.

“Do you want to try to figure out the Lucky Charm?” Viperion bit out in annoyance, Ladybug still shaking in his arms.

Pegasus coughed and backed away. “No, thank you.”

Ladybug let out another giggle.

“All right, enough! I’ll stop her!” Carapace shouted, reaching for his back. “With my…serving plate.”

His shield.

His precious shield was gone.

“…Carapace?” Ladybug asked.

The newly rendered Turtle Maid sighed and simply threw the plate as he had his shield, not expecting much.

…the plate slice flew through the air at a surprising speed, but missed the akuma entirely. Instead, it sailed past her, hitting a light post.

Ladybug had expected it to bounce, but instead there was a sound of shredding metal as the serving plate actually tore through the lamp post and into the concrete itself.

The lamp post, now detached, tilted and fell over—conveniently on top of the akuma before she had the time to realize what was happening and move out of the way.

SLAM!

It fell on top of her and she hit the ground.

“Huzzah?” Kim asked.

“Well…that’s one way to defeat an akuma.” Pegasus marveled.

“Great. Now can we fix this already?” Carapace asked impatiently. If they took too much longer, someone was bound to catch them.

That someone would probably be Alya.

And that was the last thing he wanted at this point.

“But I kind of wanted to make a sketch at least…” Ladybug muttered to herself, holding the paper bag Charm to her chest.

“LADYBUG!”

She waved her hands insistently. “I’m on it!”

But she could dream…

“MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”

It was with some disappointment that the Miraculous Cure wiped away the outfits of the other heroes, returning them to their original costumes.

“OH THANK GOD!”

“That was…horrible…”

“Corsets were invented as a torture method, I swear…”

“Shieldy!” Carapace exclaimed, hugging the shield in relief. “Never leave me again!”

“You okay now, Ladybug?” Chat asked her in worry.

“I’m fine.” She said, even though she wasn’t really. She felt like she’d missed a chance, even if it was for the greater good. But it would have been an abuse of her power to be taking pictures of the guys in that state and she already felt bad enough for breaking down laughing in the middle of the fight.

In that moment, however, the loveliness of ladybugs that made up the Cure returned from their task of restoring Paris to flow over Ladybug herself before vanishing, leaving her holding an envelope in their wake. Curious, she opened the envelope…

She gasped.

Inside were a multitude of photos of the other heroes. From different angles. In different positions. All of them in their new outfits.

Ladybug bit the inside of her cheek to keep from responding and drawing attention to herself.

…Thank you, Tikki.

Best. Kwami. Ever. “Ladybug…” Carapace said in growing wariness. “What is that?”

“Nothing!”

“Ladybug. That better not be what I think it is…”

She shoved the photos back in the envelope.

“It’s nothing at all!”

“Why don’t I believe you?”

Noticing the stand off, the others approached as well.

“It was just something I was missing, yeah.”

“Then let us see it.”

“Can’t.” She replied, clutching the envelope to her chest. “It’s…Ladybug stuff.”

“Hand it over. Right now!”

"NOOO! THESE ARE FOR THE FUTURE OF FASHIOOOON!”

“GIVE US THE PHOTOS!”

“Wait—did she get any of all of us in a group cosplay pic?”

“NOT NOW, CHAT!”

Unfortunately, that small distraction was all she needed to get away.

Viperion, the only one having been pretty nonchalant this whole time, simply watched her leave and the others shout after her.

“…isn’t she going to take our Miraculous back?”

_________________________

Angela sighed, already dreading what was to come.

It was a humiliating end to an already humiliating week as the former akuma victim had been forced to return to her job to go over the updates for the new Ladybug game with the rest of her team.

Said updates were apparently to include maid outfits for the female heroes thanks to one particular coworker who had decided to work on maid outfits for the female heroes instead of the level he was assigned. It had been part of the reason she had been angry enough to be akumatized.

The fact that he was insistent on shoving his maid fetish into the game for no good reason other than having them be eye candy was the other part.

The images in question that he insisted on bringing featured the three female super heroes of the city: Ladybug, Rena Rouge, and Queen Bee.

But not as anyone had ever seen them.

Instead of their usual hero suits, the three girls were portrayed in sultry, even provocative poses. And most notably, all three were wearing some mockery of a French Maid outfit…as what would be believed by Americans, no less.

They might as well have been the initial sketches of pinup posters.

“You can’t still be serious!”

“Hey, I’m not the one who got akumatized just because I was jealous that someone else had a good idea.” He said bitingly and giving her a pointed look, perhaps still a bit bitter of the aforementioned experience that her akumatization had caused.

“It’s not a good idea, John.” Angela countered. “There was no reason to have the girls be running in maid outfits.”

He shrugged. “We could just say an akuma did it. After all, we did just get an akuma who did exactly that.” He said, giving her another look.

She clenched her fists and was about to retort when their team lead entered the room.

The meeting commenced and she’d been forced to bite her tongue. Each of the team members went over their progress and updates for their contribution to the game. Level design. Enemies. Testing.

And then came his grand achievement. Instead of the level he was assigned, he gave scantily clad designs for three of the eight known heroes.

What effort.

“I was thinking we really need to include something to make our game stand out, so I made some extra skins for the heroes.” He bragged, sending her a smug look. “The appeal would sell plenty of copies.”

“Or the controversy.” Angela muttered back before turning to the team lead and hoping that the man leading their group had more empathy…or sense.

The team lead looked over the designs with an analyzing gaze. Tiffeny, despite the initial impression his name would give, was a rather buff man who took no shit. But was also a guy. Who liked guy things. But did those things include young women in maid costumes?

After a moment, Tiffeny dropped the pictures on the table and looked at John incredulously. “You know, if you were going to base skins off recent events, you could at least have been authentic.”

John stared. “What?”

“It was the guys who were affected by Akumaid. Not the girls. If we’re going to do maids, we need to keep it true to life, just like the rest of the designs we’ve included. We talked about this when we started this project.”

“But it’s what the audience wants!” John argued.

“Do you know who comprises the majority of our audience?” Tiffeny asked. “Girls. Girls, gay guys, and those who are exploring their interests. Guys in the outfits would sell leagues more than the girls.” He started ticking his fingers “It’s different. It’s original. And it’s based in actual events. People would love it.”

“But…they’ll love this!”

“Man, if people wanted to see sexy girls in skimpy clothing, they’d play literally any other game! Or watch porn.” Tiffeny explained. “But what game do you know of has had guys in maid outfits?”

“Well...”

“Exactly. We want to stand out. And we even have recent events as justification. So if you’re going to be wasting time you should be spending on level-making to put people in maid skins, then get those male heroes some maid costumes.”

“But that’s not fair!” John exclaimed.

Tiffeny paused at that. “Hmm…you’re right.”

With that, he turned to her. “You’re good at designing. Make some butler outfits for the girls. Something dashing to serve as a counter for the guys.”

Angela blinked in surprise for a moment before smiling.

“Sure thing!”

“You know…” one of the other workers noted. “While we’re on the subject, I WAS thinking of some medieval armor designs for the girls and princess dresses for the guys.”

“Hey yeah! Like a light green for Viperion!”

“Maybe teal might be better?”

“Ooo! How about…”

Soon enough, everyone seemed to be invested in the new plan.

Everyone that is, except John.

“Lovely!” Tiffeny said cheerfully. “Plan it out and bring the concepts to me later.”

With a new task in hand and John’s pouting to forever be a memory to hold onto, it seemed her day was looking up…

_________________________

“That was some akuma battle.” Marinette said as she slid into her seat next to Alya.

The reporter, however, only looked annoyed. “Ladybug had apparently called all the male heroes and I completely missed it!” She groaned and leaned back in her seat, bemoaning the lost opportunity.

If she’d hadn’t been so focused on tracking Nino for the purpose of collecting blackmail ensuring his safety, she would have been able to catch all of the male heroes in their maid outfits.

Marinette smiled. “You know…I may have a connection…”

Alya gasped.

“No.”

Marinette giggled and slid over her phone with a picture showing.

“NO WAY!” She cried out before staring up at Marinette in shock. “Girl, you have to send me these!”

“Wait—you have what now?” Nino had arrived, initially hopeful that he had avoided the worst of that day only to have those hopes immediately dashed upon arriving to see the two girls sharing what could only have been one thing…

“I have pictures of the heroes in their new outfits.” Marinette replied cheerfully as she swiped through her phone. “Oh look, Nino! You’re in here, too!”

“WHAT?! NO!” He shouted, rushing forward.

Marinette quickly grabbed back her phone and hid it in her pocket with an overly sweet and not at all innocent grin.

“Mari, come on, no! Don’t do this to me!” He begged.

“Don’t do this to ME!” Alya cut in. “You can’t just show me that and take it away! That’s just not fair!”

“Don’t worry.” Marinette assured them. “It’s going where all my blackmail material goes.”

“Wait what?”

“Since when do you have blackmail material?”

“Since somebody started a game of ‘let’s take pictures of Marinette while she’s asleep and post them online’.” Marinette replied dryly.

Nino groaned. “Come on! I said I was sorry!”

“And now I can be just as sorry.” She replied blithely.

Which was to say: not sorry at all.

“Come on! Alya made me do it!”

“It was just in fun! Marinette! Please!”

“Do you want me to beg? Cry? I’ll cry.”

“I’ll pay you! Pretty please! At least the heroes if nothing else!”

“Oh no you don’t!”

“My blog NEEDS this!”

Marinette smiled at the minor chaos she had caused as the normally happy couple bickered with each other.

Sweet sweet music.

“Hey, Marinette!”

And speaking of sweet…

She turned to look up at a certain blond-haired model as he arrived at his own desk. Though he seemed to be a bit distracted by the arguing couple.

“Hey, Adrien!” She greeted, for once with no stutter to speak of.

“Hey, um…are they okay?” He asked, gesturing to the two.

“Oh, they’re fine.” She said, waving them off. “Just…a bit excited over the recent akuma.”

At that, Adrien brightened. “Wasn’t it awesome?”

She nodded, trying to keep her laughter inside.

“You…ah…enjoyed yourself then?”

Adrien shrugged, looking a bit sheepish. “Well, it’s not often I get to dress up in a way that’s ‘silly’. Or in anything that isn’t promoting Father’s brand. And I’ve never gotten to cosplay. So it was…really fun.”

Oh. Ouch. Okay, that one kind of hurt. The poor Sunshine Child…

“You know…” Marinette said, leaning over her desk and smiling at him. “I’ve seen a bit of that one anime you mentioned.”

“Cells at Work?” He asked, brightening up.

She nodded. “Mmhmm. I could make you a jacket based off the lead Red Blood Cell. And if you like, I can keep it so you can wear it whenever we hang out.”

He gasped. “Really?”

“Sure! Maybe you can come over sometime so we can try a fitting. We could even play Mecha Strike.”

Adrien beamed. “That sounds great! Thanks, Marinette!”

She waved him off and went back to full sitting in her seat.

Alya and Nino both became distracted from their arguing by the miracle they had just witnessed.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng had just spoken to Adrien Agreste…and not a stutter to be heard!

“What the heck, girl?” Alya whispered, sliding into her seat beside her friend. “Since when could you do THAT and why haven’t you done it sooner? I could swear I saw hearts in his eyes!”

Marinette shrugged, grinning sheepishly. “After seeing Adrien Agreste in a maid dress, I kind of wondered why I was so scared of talking to him to begin with.”

Alya laughed. “Well, at least something good came out of this, then.”

“You know...more good WOULD come out of this if I had pics of those heroes..." 

“Really, Alya?”

“You’re pretty much the only one who managed to get any shots of the male heroes!” Alya exclaimed. “Seriously, how?!”

Marinette giggled.

“Just lucky, I guess.”

________________________

OMAKE 1:

Knock! Knock!

“Felix?” His mother called on the other side of the locked and barricaded door. “Will you be coming out?”

“That depends. Do you have a camera?”

A pause. Which was all the answer he needed.

“Then no.”

OMAKE 2:

Fortunately, in the midst of their searching, the team had managed to find the akuma and her primary target, getting between the two.

“So what happened?” Ladybug asked him.

John gripped his skirt, nervously. “She’s my coworker in developing a new video game and she didn’t like my input.”

“What set her off?”

The guy rolled his eyes. “She’s one of those types who wants to take the fun out of video games.”

“What?” Ladybug blinked.

“Okay, so I wanted to put some maid costumes in the game! It was just for fun! Besides, it would have added a bit of pizazz! Something for the players to enjoy!”

“You could just try making a good game.” Pegasus pointed out. “If you have to rely on a cheap gimmick to get buyers, it may not be a good product.”

"I'm sorry, really! I mean, sure, I'm still going to put it in the game, because who wouldn't want hot maids, but still! That doesn't mean I deserve this!"

The akuma raised her fist and shouted at him. “THEY ARE HEROES, DAMMIT! THEY DESERVE BETTER THAN MAID SKINS JUST BECAUSE THEY’RE GIRLS!”

Ladybug blanched. “Wait…is the game about me?”

Pegasus coughed and looked away. “There have been…rumors, yes.”

Viperion tilted his head. “That seems like a double standard though…since we’re the ones in maid outfits...”

“Not the point, Viperion!”

Ladybug frowned.

“I don’t think I want to help now.”

“Ladybug!”

[mintaka14]

This is a bit of something that got in my way while I was working on the ML ballet AU. Turns out I still have a grain or two of Lila salt in me. Quickspinner’s Out of Your League (from the All That Remains collection) needs the credit for a bit of backstory that I had in mind here. And yes, this is Lukanette. Always.

Lila wasn’t above using her mother’s sense of guilt to her own advantage. She also had no problem with feeding that guilt. A few sighs and teary comments when her mother (yet again) had to cancel on Lila to deal with something at the embassy, or a subtle reminder about all the times Lila had been left on her own in their apartment was all grist to the mill, and Lila had to admit that it had paid off in a big way this time.

Her mother had pulled every string and favour at her disposal for Lila’s birthday party, and Jagged Stone himself was going to be putting in an appearance. Lila was jubilant.

She watched the ballroom at the embassy – how her mother had managed that one Lila didn’t know, and honestly didn’t care – filling up with her classmates and everyone she’d ever met, and she allowed herself a satisfied smile.

Of course, Marinette wasn’t there. Lila had had an enjoyable month of it, tormenting the goody-two-shoes over it, and the beautiful part was that no one had even caught a hint of what she was really doing. She hadn’t been so crass as to leave Marinette out of the party invitations, oh no! She had handed the girl a gilt-edged invite with her most charming, and insincere, smile as she made a point of telling Marinette how much she hoped that Marinette would be there. Their classmates had eaten it up with a spoon, falling all over Lila to tell her how generous and forgiving she was, given the way Marinette had been so hostile to her, and all the while Lila had smiled sweetly and watched Marinette twist in the trap.

If Marinette begged off the party, she was the bad guy for refusing Lila’s olive branch. If Marinette came, then Lila won, and she would get to watch Marinette swallow her pride and suffer all night, or crack and create drama. Either way, it was all good, and Lila had had fun making little digs and comments about the party in front of Marinette for the weeks leading up to it.

As Lila accepted everyone’s tributes and praise, greeting each new arrival with becoming diffidence and subtly trying to gauge the worth of each gift that they piled on the table at the entrance, she came to the conclusion that Marinette had decided not to put in an appearance. Her smile grew wider.

“Lila!” Alya had arrived, and swept her into a hug, surveying the ballroom, and the tables of food, with an impressed eye. Behind her, Nino grinned and bobbed his head in greeting. “Amazing party, girl. And I can’t believe you got Jagged Stone to come!”

Lila gave her a modest smile. “It’s all about who you know, and Jagged was more than happy to come when he heard it was for my birthday.” She looked around as if searching for something, and made her eyes wide and hopeful. “Did… did Marinette come with you?”

Alya shifted uncomfortably. “Er… Marinette couldn’t make it. But she asked me to wish you a happy birthday.”

Oh, no, she didn’t, Lila thought, suppressing the smirk that pulled at the corners of her mouth. Alya, you liar.

She forced her face into a sorrowful pout with just the right touch of hurt. “It’s okay. It would have been nice if we could put aside whatever this grudge is that Marinette has against me just for once, but I guess not…”

Alya and Nino smiled awkwardly. And then her mother touched her arm, a harried expression on her face as she drew Lila away out of earshot for a moment.

“Lila, sweetheart, there’s some bad news,” her mother said anxiously, and Lila felt her smile slip a little. “We’ve just had word that Jagged Stone had to cancel at the last minute.”

“What do you mean, Jagged Stone cancelled?” Lila almost shrieked. A few heads turned towards them, and Lila brought herself back under control before they could overhear. “Mama, you need to fix this. Get him back!”

“Sweetheart, I can’t. His agent said it was unavoidable, and they’re paying the late cancellation fine in the contract. At this late notice I can’t get anyone else to come instead.”

Lila let her eyes fill with tears – she’d practised tearing up in front of her mirror, but in this case the tears were very real.

“Mama,” she insisted, and the harried lines on her mother’s face deepened.

“You’ll still have a lovely party,” her mother said weakly. “The food is wonderful, and you still have the DJ for entertainment.”

“But I told everyone that Jagged Stone was coming!”

“I’m so sorry, darling.” Her head turned towards the doorway, where an aide was waving a phone at her. “I have to go take this call.”

The moment that her mother had turned away, Lila’s mouth pinched with anger and frustration, and she barely stopped herself from stamping her foot.

“Hey girl, is everything okay?”

She heard Alya’s voice call out to her, and she smoothed out her face, spinning around with artificial enthusiasm. Several of their classmates were clustered behind Alya, and she turned a smile on them as well.

“So,” Alya continued, “we’re all really excited! When’s Jagged getting here?”

Lila gave a moue of only slightly exaggerated disappointment.

“Can you believe it?” she sighed, one hand fluttering up to her chest. “Jagged had to cancel. It was last minute, and I’m so worried it’s because that awful throat condition of his has flared up again.” Her hand went to her mouth. “Oh no! You can’t tell anyone about it, no one is supposed to know, but that was why he couldn’t do the zoom call with the class last month like he’d promised.”

There was a ripple of sympathy and concern through her classmates, but then Alix made a sceptical noise at the back of the group.

“Throat condition? But you said it was sunspot interference with the internet connection.”

“No, I was trying to keep his throat problems secret-“

“It was Clara Nightingale you said had a serious throat condition, and that was why she had to cancel helping out with the charity auction like she’d told you,” Alix interrupted.

“No, that was Jagged-“

“If recall accurately,” Max spoke up, “and I do, Clara Nightingale had the throat condition. I could have Markov replay the conversation,” he added helpfully, and Lila spun around in dismay.

“No, that’s not-“

“There have been a lot of cancellations,” Alix said in growing suspicion. Lila could see the faces around her registering confusion, and there was a growing murmur as her classmates tallied things up. She had to stop this before they came to the realisation that…

“What about that interview you promised me with Ladybug?” Alya was asking her, her voice sharp. “The one that got cancelled because of an akuma, except I could never find anything about that akuma, and you never rescheduled. And that meeting that Nino was supposed to have with that director?”

Nino wasn’t saying anything, his face hidden by his cap as he stared at the floor. The muttering was growing louder now as more people were working things out and the number of promises mounted up.

“Oh my god,” Juleka mumbled behind the fall of her streaked black and purple hair. “He was right.”

“Who?” Rose asked, but Alix was talking again before Juleka could answer.

“You didn’t need to fib about Jagged Stone being here to get us to come to your party, Lila,” Alix said as the expressions turned to disgust and disbelief.

“But I didn’t!” Lila protested, and for once she had been telling the truth. “I swear, Jagged really was coming. You have to believe me!”

“I said it was a bit hinky that Jagged Stone would have agreed to play a teenage party like this,” Alix told the group around her.

“I’m not lying!” Lila insisted, her voice growing shrill as the expressions turned to disgust and disbelief. “He did a signing for Chloe.”

“Yeah, well, that’s Chloe, and the mayor himself roped him into that.”

“But my mother works for the embassy! And I saved his kitten!”

Again, Alix snorted, and Alya had her arms folded now, frowning.

“You know, I couldn’t find anything about that online, or about Jagged even having a kitten. The more I think about it, the more I wonder why I believed that in the first place.”

“You believed Marinette,” she couldn’t help the slight snarl at that name, “when she said she designed stuff for Jagged and he came to her house.”

“But she didn’t say that,” Nino pointed out. “We saw all of that for ourselves. But now I think about it, I haven’t seen anything that proves you’ve even met him.”

“But I have! He really was coming, and he was going to sing Happy Birthday to me! He just had to cancel.”

“Sure, Lila.”

After all the stories Lila had spun, and the lies and embellishments, how could it be the truth that they refused to believe? The group drifted away from her while Lila stared after them in open-mouthed shock. She was left in a spreading circle of isolation at her own party.

The only person who acknowledged her existence was the tall boy with the blue hair over near the buffet table. Lila frowned, trying to work out where she knew him from. He was older than her class, and the ripped jeans and scruffy hoodie were out of place among the smartly dressed guests, but he looked familiar, and what was he doing at her party anyway? He raised the vol au vent in his hand in an unsmiling salute.

Lila made her way over to him.

“Now, where do I know you from?” she asked with an attempt at coyness, in spite of the fury still seething through her at her classmates’ revolt. His expression didn’t change.

“We’ve met before. I’m Juleka’s brother, Luka.”

Juleka’s brother. Marinette. She had a sudden memory of the steps outside the school and an older boy with blue hair and a guitar slung over his back, coolly warning her about what would happen if she messed with Marinette or his sister. Her eyes narrowed.

He said, “I just wanted to say Happy Birthday, and I’m sorry to hear that Jagged fell through on you.”

“Jagged?” Lila sucked in a breath at that. “What do you know about Jagged Stone?”

“You underestimated Marinette,” the blue-haired boy said calmly. “It’s all about who you know, isn’t that what you said, Lila? It’s all about connections. Except Marinette’s are real.”

She let out a smothered shriek.

“Marinette did this! How could she-“

Luka was shaking his head. “Marinette didn’t do a thing. She’s been trying so hard to take the high road, and she’s not vindictive. I did warn you, though, what would happen if you threatened someone I care about again – just because I don’t want to play your kind of games doesn’t mean I can’t or won’t.”

“Then you turned them all against me! You-“

“I didn't even need to do that,” Luka said, and gave her an infuriatingly composed smile. “In the end, all I really needed to do was tell my dear old dad how you treated his favourite designer. I didn’t even have to bend the truth to do it, and the music just played from there.”

Lila’s mouth fell open. “Jagged Stone… is your father?!”

“Surprised the hell out of me, too,” Luka muttered, and finished the pastry he was holding. He dusted the crumbs off his hands.

“Connections,” Luka said, and shoved himself away from the table. “I have them too, and I’m more than willing to use them for Marinette’s sake. Thank you for the lovely party.”

He gave her a little wave and walked away, leaving her standing there in the ruins of her reputation.

[hauntedbythefanficsofmypast]

Masterlist

Multiverse

It took some time but everyone slowly awoke each one told the same thing.

“Explanations will be dealt when everyone is awake.”

Some whined while others simply nodded finding the person they were closest to for comfort. Tom and Sabine took a seat closer to their daughter but did not crowd around her. Both content with her spot between Luka and Adrien. Juleka and Rose woke at the same time, and for a short while thought they were simply enjoying another sleepover. Until Luka tickled Juleka under her chin gently, Juleka let out a soft squeal curling closer to Rose to escape her brother. She glared at her brother, eyes softening when she saw Marinette sleeping with her head on his thigh.

“What’s going on?” Juleka asked softly, not letting go of Rose who was shaking as she looked around the room.

“We don’t really know yet, but we’re all safe. And our...captors I guess, their songs are long but they show we can trust them.” Adrien leaned over from his place sitting besides Gorilla’s chair.

“We’re just trying to stay positive Juleka, Rose. Nino and I keep joking that we’re all having one big movie night.” Nino grinned from his spot beside Alya who was currently typing out their entire experience into her phone. Lila sat on her other side looking around warily but smiling to keep up appearances. Juleka gave Adrien a gentle smile as her and Rose sat up. Juleka took her chance to look around and blinked in slight shock as Jagged and Penny walked over to them.

“Hey there Little Rockstars! Mind if Penny and I join you guys? We only know the Rockin’ Dupain-Chengs, and unfortunately the Bourgeois!” Penny slapped his arm gently, glancing over and sighing in relief that the family didn’t hear them.

“A little lower Jagged, they own the hotel we currently reside at.” Jagged looked at her like a kicked puppy before grinning mischievously and leaning closer to the group.

“Just between us, I’d rather live in the zoo than anywhere near the Bourgeois. Their daughter was constantly trying to invite herself into my room when we first came.” Penny slapped his arm a couple times with her notebook causing the group to laugh softly.

“Give her some credit.” Penny glanced at said girl as she made Jagged sit down. “Since the Queen Bee incident she has been...better?” Adrien frowned softly looking at his old friend about to protest until Gorilla put a hand on his shoulder squeezing it gently. Adrien glanced up at him before sighing softly and nodding.

“Chloe can be a good person, she really can. She just...she changed when her mom left.” Jagged was silent as he stared at the boy before looking over at Chloe who was trying to get her mother’s attention. A soft ‘oh’ leaving him as he watched them, his gaze turning sad as he remembered problems with his own family. Jagged coughed into his hand wanting to change the topic as he kicked out his legs crossing them at the knees.

“Well who else are we waiting to wake up?” He asked looking over to Adrien with a gentle smile. His tone calmer than usual as Penny settled near him. Adrien returned the smile glancing down at Marinette.

“Just Marinette and Kim, although I think Alix is ready to smack Kim awake at this point.”

“I am!”

Alix announced loudly from her spot beside Nathaniel. Laughter rang through the room from their classmates and Jagged. Only Luka noticed when Marinette woke up and had to hold back laughter at the disgruntled glare crossing her still sleep filled face. Luka smiled when their eyes met tilting his head to the side.

“Hello Melody.” He said softly, helping her sit up as she rubbed her eyes. “Now we are just waiting on Kim.” he said to Jagged and a second later a loud slap rang through the room. Kim jerked awake holding his right cheek as he glared up at Alix. It only took seconds for the two to be rolling around wrestling on the floor.

The man stood up walking to the front of the room. He waited for a few seconds before deciding to say something.

“Silence.”

He said booking no room for argument and the room went silent with all eyes on the man. He nodded looking over them all.

“I have brought you here today to show you not just what your lives could be, but what your lives are in other universes. I am doing this because one of you is very close to setting themselves on a path for death, and if they die your universe will follow.” He looked at all of them before continuing on.

“Depending on how you act will determine who will remember this in full. Identities will be exposed, you will see happy and sad Universes. Time outside this room is frozen, food and drink will be provided. I will let you know when it’s over. Now, would you like to start?” Adrien hesitantly raised his hand looking at the man.

“So you aren’t going to hurt us?” The man gave a gentle smile, his gaze softening.

“No, I am here to save you.”

Jagged looked around the room before deciding to speak up.

“Fine, let's get this show rockin’ an’ rollin’..”

The man nodded before returning to his seat, the tv turning on.

Searching…

Searching…

Searching…

Found.

Loading...

Multi-Mouse: A Different Ladybug

Marinette is shown running through the school heading towards the janitor's closet, loud bangs and crashes heard in the background as she rips the door open practically throwing herself inside.

“Oh is Marinette hiding from an Akuma attack. I hope she stays safe!” Rose gasped huddling closer to Juleka, covering her mouth as she glanced at Marinette. Assuring herself her friend was still there, Marinette gave her a gentle smile before turning back to the screen.

Marinette pressed her back against the door as she looked around the closet making sure she was alone. “Alright Mullo let’s go! Bridgette is half way across Paris right now on a field trip. We need to distract the Akuma until she and Chat arrive. Mullo flew out of her purse grinning at her as he circled her head.

“You know what to say Marinette!”

Marinette grinned, grabbing the pendent and raising her head confidently.

“Mullo! Let’s get Squeaky!”

Everyone watched her transformation amazed, except for Gabriel who glared at the screen turning to look at the Marinette in the room with them. Nathalie glanced at her boss before looking back at the screen.

“Time to get to work!” Muti-Mouse said, running out of the closet and making her way towards the Akuma in the quart yard. Said Akuma looked like a Gargoyle with glowing red eyes and long sharp talons. Every time it hit someone with its talons they turned to stone. Mutli-Mouse watched from a distance before using her rope, wrapping it around one of the talons and yanking back hard, stopping them from swiping at civilians caught in the way. “Now, attacking civilians that's pathetic. But then again everything Hawkmoth does is pathetic so I shouldn’t expect much.” She pulled her rope back grinning as it made the Akuma stumble. Multi-Mouse’s grin grew as the purple outline of a butterfly appeared. She launched herself back performing a backhand spring dodging a swipe.

“Multi-Mouse! You disgusting vermin! You will hand your Miraculous over to me this instant, or I will turn you into a beautiful statue too!” Marinette hummed tapping her chin as she rocked back and forth on her feet almost playfully.

“How about, no.” She said grinning and shaking her hand in a jazz hands fashion. Laughter rang from the building across from her, and the supposed camera on them moved showing Ladybug.

“A different Ladybug? So that means this Ladybug isn’t our own, interesting and look at her costume! Mari isn’t that a cheongsam? It looks amazing!” Alya exclaimed, bouncing in her seat before turning to her bestie for confirmation. Marinette froze as all eyes were on her, she gave them all a shaky smile glancing at her mom before nodding her head.

“Yes it is Alya. It’s very common in China that Ladybug must be really in touch with her heritage! It is very beautiful and if I’m looking correctly, it looks to be made of something similar to Kevlar. The same with her leggings underneath.” Marinette smiled as she took in the heroine of that Universe wondering if she could convince Tikki to change her own outfit to something similar.

This Ladybug wore a red and black spotted Cheongsam with two slits along the side ending at her hips. Giving her plenty of range to move, underneath she had leggings that dipped into red combat boots with black laces. Her mask and yo-yo remained the same but her hair was pulled into a long fishtail braid that ended just past her knee cap.

Though one thought plagued Marinette’s mind as she looked at this Ladybug, who was she?

“I agree with her. You’ll never get our Miraculous!” Ladybug said as she began to spin her yo-yo dropping into a defensive stance.

“My name is Sculptor, and you better remember it because I will be the one taking those earrings from you!” Ladybug smirked as Sculptor launched himself at her. She threw her yo-yo out wrapping it around his outstretched wrist and pulled hard using her foot to pivot. She circled around twice then yanked her yo-yo back sending the Akuma flying towards Multi-Mouse. Who in return wrapped her rope around his waist yanking him to her faster delivering a hard punch to his face causing both to yelp in pain. Multi-Mouse was quick to jump back holding her injured hand to her chest as Sculptor recovered faster than her, nearly catching her with his talons.

“No, no, no!” Alya said fast as she grabbed Marinette’s ankle cementing the fact that her Marinette was with her not facing the Akuma. Marinette reached out grabbing Alya’s hand, squeezing it.

“Breathe Alya, remember that’s not me out there. That’s not me.”

“Ya, not you.” Alya said, keeping her eyes on Marinette’s before turning back to the screen. Marinette let out a relieved sigh before turning to look at her parents giving them a reassuring smile.

“Multi-Mouse!” Ladybug cried out her yo-yo spinning as she got ready to save one of her partners. She stopped herself as Chat Noir dropped down, wrapping an arm around Multi-Mouse’s waist using his baton to launch them to the same rooftop. “Well now we know he is actually made of stone.” Ladybug said as the three hid around the corner. Multi-Mouse gave her an ‘oh really’ look as she tenderly touched her hand. “Let me see.” Ladybug said, taking her hand gently before turning to Chat. “Please distract him for a bit, I need to make sure her fingers aren’t broken.” Chat nodded standing up straight as he twirled his baton.

“On it my Lady, Princess.” He nodded to both before throwing himself back into the Sculptor’s line of sight. Ladybug turned back carefully, touching Multi-Mouse's hand while watching her reactions. After a few moments she stopped nodding with a smile.

“It is hurt but not broken, be careful with it. The Miraculous cure will heal it enough that it’ll bruise slightly. Ready to get back out there?” Ladybug questioned, causing Multi-Mouse to grin. She stood up peaking around the corner watching. Hat dodge Sculptor’s every swipe.

“I am but we need a plan and fast. I believe the Akuma is in his necklace, it looks hand crafted.” Ladybug peeked around the corner, eyes zeroing in on the necklace before both of them pulled back out of sight. “We need to get the necklace off him without being hit with his talons. The question is how?” She turned to Ladybug one hand cupping her chin as she thought. “I think it’s time for you lucky charm. Ladybug spun her yo-yo nodding with a grin.

“I think you’re right, Lucky Charm!” Ladybug cried out groaning when a small statue landed in her arms. “A statue? Really?” Multi-Mouse giggled softly covering her mouth as the two heroines leaned out of their cover again. Ladybug was silent as her eyes shifted from blue to a swirl of red and black, darting back and forth rapidly. “Alright Multi-Mouse, here’s the plan. I am going to leave the statue with you and take over distraction from Chat. You are going to take the statue and make your way to the basketball hoop. Chat will meet you there, give him the statue and tell him to get ready to use Cataclysm. Make sure to stress that he is to not use it on the statue but is going to make Sculptor think he is. I want you to use Multitude and be ready on the flag poles. I am going to hook my yo-yo around both so that you have a platformish surface to get to him. All of you must use your ropes and wrap them around the necklace. Once it is off him Chat will throw the statue to me and use his staff to land on my yo-yo string besides you. He will use cataclysm on the necklace, so either climb on him or cancel Multitude. Understand?” Ladybug said after her eyes returned to her normal blue. Multi-Mouse nodded as she thought the plan through. She grabbed the statue giving Ladybug a bright smile before making her way to the basketball hoop. Ladybug was quick to jump down, taking Chat’s place. “Go to the basketball hoop.” She said and Chat set off for the hoop causing her to smirk. After a few moments Chat’s voice rang out, catching their attention.

“Man I bet this would look cat-astrophic if my hand just grazed it.” He moved his charges up hand towards the statue causing Sculptor to roar in anger. Ladybug uses the moment to wrap around the flag poles grinning as mini Multi-Mouses run across her string rope in hand. Sculptor used his wings to launch himself at Chat, not even noticing when Multi-Mouse ripped the necklace from him.

“Now!” Ladybug cried out bracing herself to catch the statue. Chat grinned, throwing it to her using his staff to propel him to the rope, immediately grabbing the necklace in his powered up hand. Multi-Mouse canceled Multitude wrapping an arm around Chat shoulder. Chat used his staff to get them to the ground as Ladybug pulled her yo-yo back swinging it up to catch the butterfly.

“It’s always amazing to see Ladybug hatch a plan. Even if it isn’t our Ladybug, she is just as amazing as ours is.” Adrien said with practical stars in his eyes, not noticing the slight blush on Marinette’s face, or the snort that left Fu as he looked between the two. “I wonder if we know this other Ladybug? Also it’s so cool that Marinette is a hero in that universe! She’s already out everyday Ladybug, and there she is their literal Multi-Mouse!” Marinette blushed even more not meeting anyone’s eyes and Adrien rambled on. “If only she could be Multi-Mouse in our universe too, she’d be amazing. Her and Ladybug working together I’m sure they’d defeat Hawkmoth in no time.” Alya grinned looking at Marinette, then Adrien decided to join in on the Marinette hype band wagon.

“I know right! Marinette would be the best hero!” Marinette sent Alya a slightly glare as she waved her hands frantically.

“Enough, enough, enough! Let’s-ah-let’s just get back to the...show? Episode??? Universe?? Agh, let’s just call these episodes, this is so confusing.”

“See ya later little butterfly.” She said softly before grabbing the statue. Spinning twice, throwing it into the air after the second spin. Ladybugs spread across the city fixing everything. Ladybug turned to her two partners with a grin on her face as she held out her fist.

“Pound it!” They cried out together soon after Chat’s ring beeped causing him to blanche slightly before giving the two a grin.

“Well my two favorite ladies, that is my que to go. Patrol tonight?” He asked as he pulled Multi-Mouse into a side hug doing the same to Ladybug. The two nodded, voicing their conformation waving as he jumped away.

“Five on both our classes being canceled.” Ladybug said a mischievous look on her face as she gazed down on the shorter hero, who rolled her eyes as the two began leaping across rooftops. “Oh come on Multi, you used to love placing bets with me.” Ladybug pouted as the two landed on the bakeries balcony glancing around before dropping transformation.

“That was when you didn’t try and get me in sucker's bets Bridgette.” Marinette said with a grin as the masks disappeared, she pulled her cousin down through the trap door both landing on her bed with a bounce causing giggles to glow through the room. Soon two Kwami were flying around them tiredly.

“Mari, my pretty pretty Mari. Give. Me. CRACKERS!” The mouse Kwami squeaked out grabbing the front of her bangs tugging, causing the girls and Tikki to giggle.

“Alright alright, Papa probably has food ready for us, Kwami included.” Marinette said, standing up and pulling Bridgette with her.

“Food, food, food!” Bridgette said excitedly, pumping her arms up and down.

“Well, it seems our niece is still as excitable as ever. Oh I miss her.” Sabine said softly leaning against Tom’s side resting her hand on his chest looking at her niece and daughter lovingly. “We should have her spend the summer with us again since she had to leave early last summer.”

The two girls slid down the ladder surprisingly gracefully as they walked to the kitchen teasing and pushing each other.

“Girls…” Sabine said hands on her waist as she eyed the two with a disappointed look. The two simply grinned at her with mischief in their eyes. Sabine’s frown cracked as she walked over to them brushing their hair down. “No training tonight relax I know school has been tough this week. You both did amazing in the fight, Chat as well. Speaking of Chat he has patrol tonight, yes?” Marinette nodded as she sat down at the breakfast table offering Mullo a cracker. “Good good, make sure to leave his box on the balcony for him.” Sabine said, placing the box in the middle of the table.

“I’ll make sure it’s there Auntie, you know he is obsessed with the family pastries.” Bridgette snorted as she bit into a chocolate croissant. She chewed softly waiting till she swallowed to speak again. “Besides thanks to that stupid diet of his, poor kitten isn’t getting the proper amount of calories. Honestly if he followed it he’d be a skeleton!”

“Speaking of my favorite kitty, we have the plan set in motion! Nino, Alya, Chloe, Sabrina, Bridgette, even Jagged Stone, and I all have the proof needed compiled! Sooo Rien is going to start Operation Rebellion!” Sabine hummed amused as she checked on the roast she was making. She shared a look with her niece before looking back at her daughter. “Starting with, unfortunately, his hair, I will miss it’s beautiful sunny blondeness but he will look amazing with bubblegum pink!” Marinette said with a gentle smile, her eyes shining. “I also convinced him to at least wear the cheesy shirts that I make him. After ya know, promising to let him have an actual say in what he wears.” Sabine snorted softly, shaking her head as Marinette gushed on about her Kitty. She turned to Bridgette tapping her wrist as they made eye contact. Bridgette gasped as she stood up quickly looking at the clock.

“Oh no! I’m going to be late if I don’t leave now! I can’t miss practice again! Dimitria will have my head!” Bridgette grabbed her bag running out the door barely giving Tikki time to hide in her pocket. Marinette and Sabine laughed before Marinette went over to the window, opening it and leaning out carefully. She watched Bridgette exit the bakery and start running down the street.

“Have a good practice, Brid!”

“Alright so in this universe Mari’s cousin is Ladybug.” Alya said as she finished typing, placing her phone on Nino’s thigh. “Obviously she’s not our Ladybug as the title screen said. So does that mean someone else related to Marinette is?” Sabine gave Alya a soft slightly pity filled look before turning her gaze back to her daughter. Marinette shoulders were slumped, relief shining in her eyes. Sabine knew why, after all her daughter was never good at keeping secrets from her. Or masking her fighting style and it was her mother who taught her after all.

“Ladybug isn’t someone related to Marinette in our world.” Lila interjected as her confidence slowly came back, if she played her cards right they’d sink even further into her snake pit. “I would know after all, she’s my best friend.” Sabine’s eyes narrowed as she stared at this girl, tightening her grip on Tom’s arm as she realized who it was. Guilt settling in her stomach for not taking her baby girl's side fully in the whole debacle with Rossi and Dramocles.

“Oh I can’t believe we forgot that!” Rose said, looking apologetically at her not moving from her spot against Juleka. “It must be weird for Lila to not see her bestie as Ladybug.” Lila nodded, pulling out crocodile tears as she looked back at the screen showing Marinette’s smiling face. She had to quickly stamp down her anger before wiping her eyes gently.

“I’m more worried about why my friend isn’t Ladybug. After all, she is the only one truly compatible with the Ladybug Miraculous. On top of Marinette’s cousin not being a true holder she is damaging the Miraculous the more she uses it.” Lila sniffled, hiding her face in her hands. Marinette glared down at a corner pillow forcing herself not to say anything, she startled when Luka’s hand intertwined with her and Adrien’s arm wrapped around her shoulder. Her face bright red in slight embarrassment not even noticing the two boys giving each other dirty looks over her head. Gabriel coughed gaining the rooms’ attention before gesturing back to the screen.

“I think we should continue with the next episode…” He said ignoring the few glares he was reviving. Soon the tv was black again, the words appearing once again.

Searching…

Searching...

[quijotine]

Cookie Gifts

based on this prompt 

You could always tell when Marinette Dupain-Cheng liked you. She wasn't the type to tell it to you straight to your face, but if Marinette considered you a friend, it was obvious. She'd compliment your outfit, or help you out with an assignment you didn't understand, she'd encourage you to pursue your passions, she'd cheer for you when you did, she'd stand up for you and show you how to do it for yourself, and most of all, she would always find little gifts to give you. Almost always crafted by her own hands. 

Take Alya, for example, who had multiple friendship bracelets, jewelry, drawings, mittens, and all kinds of cute little trinkets Marinette always found the time to confection for her. Or Nino, whom she customized a cap for and always brought him freshly baked pain au chocolat, knowing that those were his favorite. Or to an extent, even Adrien, who cherished the lucky charm she had gifted him and perhaps was the most aware of Marinette's adorable tendency to create things for her friends, even though he had received the least amount of gifts. As Adrien, that is. Chat Noir was a different story. 

Chat Noir had developed the questionable habit of paying Marinette a few visits here and there when it was his turn to patrol alone. He knew Ladybug would probably scold him for interacting with civilians like this, but in his defense, it was almost as if Marinette was trying to lure him into visiting him. 

Ever since that first time he visited her, craving some company to lighten his broken heart, he had developed a certain curiosity. At least that's what he liked to call it. Plagg wouldn't agree. 

Much in the way as in that first time, the second time he dropped by, he did not find Marinette sadly looking at the sky but he did manage to startle her nonetheless. He had found her watering her plants and after a quick, blushing exchange, Marinette pulled his tail before he took off, snipped a blooming red tulip, and stuck her hand out to him. 

"For you," she said, a rosy blush lightly pigmenting her cheeks. 

Chat, unable to help his own flustered reaction at such a sweet gesture, gingerly took the flower, gave her a shy smile, and fled. 

The next time this happened, she told him to wait and quickly disappeared into her house resurfacing a few minutes later with a cellophane bag full of tiny pistachio-green macaroons. The third time, she had knitted mittens for him. The fourth, she had given him a "lucky charm" made of green and black beads, teasing him that it ought to repel all the bad luck he had, being a black cat and all. 

"I didn't know the princess liked to pun," Chat said, trying to sound suave but being altogether too flustered and endeared to do it with any success. 

And so this was how Chat Noir--Adrien-- began his proud collection of Marinette's little presents. He had to admit there was a certain satisfaction to knowing he would probably pass Alya soon if he kept visiting Marinette as much as he did. He was especially proud of the fact he didn't have one but two lucky charms. How many do you have, Alya? That's what I thought, he'd always think happily to himself when he admired his pair of lucky charms side by side.

But then something curious started happening, something that worried Chat. 

Ladybug started doing the same. 

She didn't knit fluffy gloves or brought him garden flowers, but she took to the habit of bringing him pastries when they patrolled together. Chat Noir thought to himself one of two things was happening here: Either Ladybug was trying to pull a Pavlov conditioning on him, or she had found out about his visits with Marinette and was somehow jealous of her. 

It didn't matter how many times he thanked her and reassured her she didn't need to feed him every time she saw him, Ladybug would always shrug and say, "Just a little treat, for being such a great partner." 

He supposed he was paying for the rose-giving karma of his past in tasty carbohydrates. To her benefit, though, if Ladybug brought him gifts to get his attention the way Marinette had captured it, she never showed her disappointment at his thankful, yet carefully demure reactions. It was more than what could be said of his disappointment at how terrible he was at getting Marinette's attention in his civilian persona. 

Marinette, while being everyone's darling, had always seemed on edge when she talked to him. He had never brought himself to find an explanation, much less when one day, unprompted, Marinette stopped acting so nervous around him. Suddenly she was just as confident, and sassy, and playful as with the rest of her friends. And while Adrien was absolutely thrilled about this, it also meant that he had stopped receiving that extra Marinette attention he had seemed to take for granted until then. 

"I'll bring cookies for everyone tomorrow," she told Alya one indistinct day as the school day was coming to a close. 

"Ohh, what flavor? You know I love those soft ones, right? The ones with the chocolate chips?"

Marinette laughed. "I'll make sure to make a batch of those, but I was thinking more about doing frosted ones."

"You're bringing cookies tomorrow?" Nino said, excited and turning around his seat to face the girls. Adrien seized the opportunity to do the same. 

"Yup. Anything in particular you want?"

"Not really," said Nino. "All the stuff you bring from the bakery is literally the best."

"You're so thoughtful, Marinette," Adrien said, trying his best to hide his blush as he spoke. "But isn't it a lot of work?"

"Not really," Marinette said with a friendly smile. "I'm very used to making them, I help my parents all the time."

"Oh, yeah, heh... Forgot about that," he replied, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck. "I've never made cookies so I have no idea what it's like."

"Really? Never?" 

Adrien shook his head. 

Marinette tapped her lips with her index finger. "I suppose... if you want to learn you could help me out. If you have time, that is."

"Yes!" Adrien said immediately, not even bothering to check whether he had anything booked for the afternoon. Either way, unless it was a photo shoot, he was more than willing to ditch his activities in favor of spending the afternoon with Marinette. 

Once at the bakery, wearing an apron and all, Marinette carefully prepared the dough for the first batch of cookies, showing Adrien the proportions he needed to use to prepare the second batch. Thankfully she was a patient teacher and was able to help him even when he messed up his first attempt. Once he got the hang of it, they developed a system where Marinette prepared the dough, Adrien molded it and cut it into shape in the trays, and Marinette put them in the oven. 

He discovered Marinette was not necessarily the chatterbox she usually was when her hands were busy. Instead, she slipped into a concentrated silence, with her tongue slightly poking out the right corner of her mouth and occasionally humming to the songs she played on her phone. 

Adrien had to take monumental efforts not to be distracted by how adorable she looked. 

When they moved to the process of frosting the cookies, he distinctly noticed how she prevented him from putting a particular batch with the rest of them. Even more intriguing, while Adrien was busy decorating, Marinette took particular attention to the batch she had separated. 

"Those look nicer," Adrien pointed out, interrupting Marinette's concentration, and noticing with a bit of envy how she had masterfully decorated her batch with tiny frosting cats.

"They're for a friend," she explained but added nothing more as she went back to work. 

Oh, what Adrien would have given to know who those cookies were for! His heart skipped a bit after indulging in a selfish, yet delightful thought. Maybe they're for Chat Noir! He thought excitedly, making a point of visiting her that night. Imagine his surprise, however, when his time for patrolling came around and found Marinette was already asleep when he passed by her balcony. 

Feeling a bit defeated and even more curious than before, he resigned to complete his route and vault back home. 

Maybe the cookies were for someone else? Someone at school? No, they were not, he realized feeling more relieved than he wanted to admit the next morning when Marinette came into school carrying the box of cookies. He inconspicuously snuck a glance at the box to see if he could spot them, or if Marinette carried a second, smaller box, but his enterprise was fruitless.

He eventually shook away the thought, berating himself for wanting to intrude in Marinette's privacy and forcing himself to let go of the subject, as tempting as it was to keep imagining who those damn cookies were for. 

The topic had all but vanished by the time he met Ladybug for patrol when the silly cookies made it to the front of his attention again. 

Wrapped in the usual cellophane bag, Ladybug beamed at him and stuck out her hand. "For you," she said, offering him the cat-themed cookies. 

Chat Noir took them feeling how his heart demanded to be let out of his chest if only to proclaim how impossibly happy he was. 

"Thank you, my lady," he said, using the nickname he had been careful not to call her anymore, aware of the fact his face was possibly blushing redder than Ladybug's suit. 

[lifeexperience]

MariBat March 2021 - Death

Masterlist - Previous

*

Adrien didn’t understand why he got so many notifications in five minutes when he finally finished his morning routin. There were some from his close friends and many more from his classmates. And a lot more from his social media accounts.

What?

He almost opened one of them when Nathalie called out to him. He looked at the time and grabbed his things, took Plagg in his bag and went to the car as per usual. It was Friday and a day with a chemistry test and a fencing practice. He completely forgot about the notifications until later.

It was after the first period when he again met Nino and Alya, unfortunately Marinette was in another English course because of her advanced level. It's funny how the girl could speak really well English, but a disaster in her own mother language. So the three were lucky enough to be in the same course with Madam Bustier.

“Sunshine, you got my text?” Alya threw the question at him eagerly as she stepped up next to him with a pleased smile.

Adrien frowned, then remembered the morning and nodded. “Yes, I got, but I didn’t have time to read yet.”

“What dude? You didn’t know yet?” Nino asked with widening eyes.

“About what?” He turned to his best friend on his other side.

The couple looked at each other through him before they faced the blonde boy again. Alya opened her mouth first. “Lila was confirmed as Bruce Wayne’s daughter.” she whispered as quietly as she could do with the excitement in her voice.

“She what?” Adrien froze up in the middle of the hallways. And if the curious glances told him enough a lot of students heard his yell which was louder than he thought.

Nino with an understanding grin shook his head as he adjusted his well-worn red cap. “Bruce Wayne himself came from Gotham to Chloé’s hotel yesterday. It was in the news.”

“And he confirmed it?” Adrien was skeptical. It was one thing to lie about something, it was entirely another thing to read more in coincidences. “What Lila said about it?”

“That’s it!” Alya showed her phone with her chat. “She texted me about it. She wants to meet him so she didn’t come to school today.” She skipped a few meters in her happy state, however Adrien knew better. Lila was skipping school again to create a believable alibi to the others.

“So Bruce Wayne didn’t confirm it with any legal or authorized level?” he asked again to be sure. If this mess got to Gotham, and he was sure that’s why the richest man was here, then he had to inform Nathalie about it. If she already didn’t know it. Of course. So if she knew about it, then the Gabriel Brand already was working on to clear their name up. And if he followed up this logic he would not see Lila at any future photoshoots.

And there was another thing, Bruce Wayne. He didn’t know much about the man and his family, but he knew his father hated the American with all his mind. If he remembered correctly then his father forbidden his mother to meet Wayne. And they never attended any Wayne Gala too.

“Not yet, but it's a matter of time.” the brunette sang happily. “How cool it is we know that many talented people, Nino!”

“Yepp!” the DJ agreed. “Marinette, Adrien, Luka, Lila… Sometimes I think we are just kids next to them, not their friends.” he laughed naturally as they all sat down at their assigned desks.

Adrien smiled at his friend's banter, but his momentary good humor was replaced with a newer frown. He didn’t know what Lila was playing but it would be a big whiplash for her if the truth was revealed.

And if he wanted to be honest he didn’t want to be killed with Marinette along in the crossfire.

*

@maribatmarch-2k21

Next

[tsuki-chibi]

Adrien AUG-reste Day 10 - Sunshine

This story is part 5 of a series: a sequel to my Marinette March, Adrinette April, Marichat May, Ladrien June, and Ladynoir July stories; I highly recommend reading those first.

You can also read this story on AO3: Petrichor

---

When they got to Alya’s apartment, Adrien was surprised to see that Alya wasn’t alone. Or maybe he should’ve been expecting it. Either way, as soon as Nino caught sight of him, Nino practically shoved Alya out of the way, rushed over, and wrapped Adrien up in a big hug.

Over Nino’s shoulder, Adrien saw Marinette and Alya exchanging smiles. Then they went off into Alya’s bedroom and shut the door behind them.

“Are you okay?” Nino asked, still hugging Adrien so hard that it hurt. But it was the good kind of hurt, because it meant that someone else cared, and Adrien quickly hugged him back. He’d been a bit worried that Nino might be upset or mad at him, but once again it seemed like Adrien had underestimated his friends.

“I’ve been better,” he admitted.

“That’s what I thought. I could go into a whole rant about your asshole dad right now, but I’m sure that’s not what you need to hear so I’ll refrain,” Nino said, and Adrien smiled a little.

“I promise that when I’m in the mood to hear a lot of creative cursing in regards to my dad, you and Alya will be the first ones I find,” he said.

Nino chuckled as he let go and stepped back, straightening his cap. “You better. Seriously though, is there anything I can do?”

“I wish there was,” Adrien said. If only it were that simple.

“Do you need a place to stay? You could crash in my room if you need to,” Nino said.

“Thanks, but I’m okay. I’m staying with Marinette and her parents. Chloé said I could stay at the hotel too if I needed to,” Adrien told him.

As much as he appreciated the offer, he knew he wouldn’t ever take Nino up on it. The Lahiffe’s lived in a small three-bedroom apartment. Nino had his own room, but it wasn’t very big and Adrien knew that it would be a very cramped space with two people trying to live inside.

Besides that, he didn’t know Nino’s parents nearly as well as he knew Tom and Sabine. He was sure that Nino’s parents were very nice people, but Marinette’s parents were just so welcoming. Sabine had already hugged him half a dozen times today. He already found himself looking forward to returning to the bakery when she would hug him again.

“Well, if you need it, the offer’s always open,” Nino said, patting Adrien’s shoulder. “Though I can’t say I blame you. Living above that bakery would be pretty amazing.”

Adrien smiled. “It is nice being able to fall asleep smelling cookies.”

“And it has nothing at all do with the fact that you live with Marinette, right?” Nino winked at him. Adrien looked away, cheeks flushing. He stared at a patch of sunshine like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.

There was a pause.

Then Nino said, “Wait. Does it?”

“No,” Adrien said, maybe a bit too quickly. “I mean, even if it did, it doesn’t matter. Now isn’t really the right time for that.”

“Why isn’t it?” Nino said. He ducked around until he caught Adrien’s eye again.

“Because… you know… I just discovered that my father is a supervillain,” Adrien mumbled. He didn’t want to go into the rest of it right now.

But he did want to tell Nino, he realized.

Alya knew, and he wanted Nino to know too.

After they’d returned the miraculous back to the alternate universes, and after he’d talked to Marinette, he was going to tell Nino everything. About being Chat Noir, about being held captive by his own father, about his mother – he was going to tell it all.

“Dude. I don’t really know how to say this, but…” Nino hesitated for a second before he squared his shoulders. “Look, life doesn’t stop just because your dad is a complete dick. He’s kept you under his shadow for years. If Marinette would make you happy… then Adrien, you deserve all the happiness in the world. Don’t hold yourself back from that just because the timing of it all could be better, if it’s what you want. Is it?”

“I…” Adrien trailed off.

Because of it was.

It was all he’d wanted since the day he met Ladybug.

Finding out that Marinette was Ladybug had only intensified those feelings. It was like the final puzzle piece had clicked into place, allowing him to fully identify his conflicting feelings. She was everything he wanted, with or without the mask.

But he didn’t know what Marinette felt.

“You should talk to her,” Nino said.

“You think?” Adrien said hesitantly.

Nino just grinned. “I guarantee you it’s a conversation that will go well.”

[secondcoolestusername]

A black cat’s bad luck Ch. 3

Alya was getting worried.

Hell, ever since she arrived in Paris, she was worried! In her old life, she was considered a little abnormal, which was apparently what you were when you were a tad bit obsessed with superheroes. But hey, everyone had their own hobbies, how about they minded their own business?

Naturally, it brought her an immense amount of joy when the first friend she made didn’t look at her weird the moment she quoted a fictional character. Marinette seemed like the total opposite of Alya, but that didn’t stop her from immediately liking her from the beginning. And then, Alya found out that superheroes exist in Paris? Hell yeah!

From then on, Alya was the proud creator and manager of the ladyblog. She was the number one provider of upclose videos of Ladybug fighting or whatever she would do and provided. Alya was open minded.

But, as if nothing could only be good in her life, Marinette… Marinette got sadder. Just a few hours after knowing her. That’s one of the things that worried her. Alya didn’t know her long enough to know which one was her regular self, so she didn’t say anything, but she couldn’t let her friend feel down.

So, she hung out with her, which seemed to help. Alya didn’t leave her side whenever she could. They were always seen together. It was so bad that Alya hoped Marinette didn’t think that she was annoying. Sometimes, when Alya felt that Marinette was in a good friendly mood, she would bring Nino along because the more the merrier, right?

Nino and she didn’t interact at the beginning, but she knew what being alone felt like, and one look at him told her that’s what he was. Alone. Everyone in class was already in their own groups, leaving Nino in the front row with his right seat empty where Chloe’s ‘friend’ would have been seated if he had bothered to come to school, which he hadn’t.

He always wore those headphones and Alya wondered if it was because he didn’t care about the others or if it was because he cared too much about the fact that no one talked to him and he didn’t want to look like he cared.

Once, when Marinette ran late, Alya sat down beside Nino who threw her a confused glance. She smiled and cupped her hands on her ears, making a motion of taking off invisible headphones. He compromised by sliding one side of it behind his ear.

“Hey, if you don’t mind me asking, what are you listening to?”

Nino blinked in surprise, before his cheeks darkened. “Oh you know, some music.”

Alya nodded. “Like normal stuff or mash-ups?” She thought about the Pitch Perfect movie.

Nino scratched his cheek. “I guess mash-ups? But more DJ style.”

“Yours?” Alya questioned jokingly. At Nino’s embarrassed silence, she raised her eyebrows. “Woah really? That’s awesome!”

Nino blinked at her. After a moment of hesitation, he took off his headphones, which left him with a weird hair spike, and handed them to Alya, “Uh, you-- you wanna hear?”

Alya was touched at the fact that he trusted her with something that looked like he was passionate about. From this moment, they were friends.

At the beginning, Alya tried to divide her time between her two friends, but it was harder than it looked like. So, she introduced them. She figured that they each needed another friend too, not that Alya wasn’t enough of a friend.

Of course, they were cautious at first, overly polite, like all friends of friends were with each other, but they were becoming more and more comfortable with each other’s presence. Marinette seemed to have more difficulty adjusting to having a bigger circle of friends.

But, in an act of friendship, she had designed and created a new cap for Nino, which was similar to his old one, except it was more sturdy and it was embroidered with a small vinyl disk on the front. Nino was quite pleased with it. In return, he created a couple of songs for Marinette that he thought she would like. Sometimes, when Alya came into her friend’s room, the songs would be lowly playing in the background. Alya was happy with this progress.

When she wasn’t hanging out with Marinette and Nino, she ran the ladyblog, always watching the news in case there was an akuma attack and she would need to quickly get on scene to film the ladybug hero.

Ever since Chat Noir’s disappearance, Ladybug had been fighting alone. It slowly chipped at her strength. And everyone could see that, even Hawkmoth. Even though Ladybug gained in superhero experience, the duration of the fights got longer, like Hawkmoth’s strength was feeding off Ladybug’s tiredness. Nonetheless, she was always so ferocious, badass and agile. For the longest time, Alya was sure that she didn’t need Chat Noir’s help.

And now, she was getting worried.

This akuma victim, Sketcher, mercilessly gave blow after blow, which Ladybug parried, but each attack left her more drained than the last.

From what Alya could see, his magic weapons could grow big when he took them from his pencil case at his belt and when he was done with one, he would put it in the large quiver at his back, for easy access. A large eraser and a huge pair of scissors were already resting at his back. Their size didn’t slow his quick movements.

The retractable pen in his hands seemed to be pushing out an invisible force at its mouth whenever Sketcher wanted to, something that was hard for Ladybug to anticipate. Alya wasn’t as clever as Ladybug, but even she could see that she would need a hand to be able to take his pencil case.

She didn’t narrate the fight, not wanting to distract them, and feeling the tension in the air.

In a quick escape, Ladybug got far enough to summon her Lucky Charm.

As a phonograph fell from the air, it left her in a vulnerable position and Alya could only scream “Watch out!” before Sketcher sent a protractor with enough force to send her crashing into a building. It came back to him like a large boomerang.

He turned toward Alya. She stayed stuck in place, the hand holding her phone started to tremble. From the corner of her eye, a red figure emerged from the rubble, jumped and disappeared behind buildings. Suddenly, she could only focus back as he flung the unorthodox boomerang toward her.

Something crashed into her from the side as the protractor whizzed past above her. She was still disoriented when her hand was grabbed and pulled, forcing her to stand. “Stay low!” A voice ordered. She did and they ran.

They were either very fast runners or Sketcher decided to pursue the most interesting opponent between Ladybug, and Alya and her savior.

Nino gasped for air while holding onto the alleyway’s wall. “Are you crazy? You were so close to them! And you didn’t react when that thing was about to hit you at the speed of light!”

He used his cap to cool down. His glasses were fogging up. She peeked at her unscathed phone, panting. In the commotion, the recording somehow stopped.

She pocketed her phone and started to giggle, still thinking about her near death experience. Nino had recklessly saved her. She wanted to scold him for putting himself in danger. Alya glanced at Nino’s disheveled state behind her own foggy glasses. The cool and composed Nino that she knew was so different from this one, it only made her laugh harder.

Nino shook her head. “You need help, woman.”

“She’s not the only one who needs help,” a small voice croaked out from ahead of them.

They jumped, immediately on alert, but automatically relaxed at the sight of bright red. Ladybug tightly smiled at them. She was heavily leaning on her left leg.

Showing vulnerability in front of civilians? It must be bad, Alya thought.

“What do you mean?” Nino blurted out.

Ladybug took a breath. “Ever since Ch-- Chat Noir turned tail, I had to fight the akumas by myself. Hawkmoth must know that I’m nearing my limit, so he sends stronger akumas more often.” She faltered. “I now realize that I can’t fight by myself anymore if I want to protect Paris. Therefore, I need help.”

She had a fierce look on her face, a wild contrast between her defeated state.

Nino asked, “How?” At the same time, Alya went with, “Why us?”

Ladybug only threw her a sad smile. Her hands went to her back and they each came back with an identical hexagonal box. “Here are the fox and the turtle miraculous, which respectively grants the power of illusion and protection. I trust that you will only use it for good and keep the secret between you two.”

“No one else can know?” Nino mused quietly.

Alya glanced at him. Nino was patting his cap, a pained expression was painted on his face. She stared at the boxes with a wave of guilt. All her life she idolized superheroes. A few months ago, she would’ve jumped at the opportunity of finally being extraordinary. She thought that being one was an unreachable dream. But all she could think about now, was that she was starting a new chapter in her life, and she couldn’t tell her best friend about it. She could see that Nino was also thinking about Marinette being excluded from their adventures.

Ladybug noticed the unenthusiastic look on their face, and got a sympathetic look on her face. “I know the feeling of wanting to confide in closed ones, but it’s important. The masks protect us and them.”

At this, they nodded. Even if they only knew Marinette for a few months, they would gladly protect her from any harm. They opened their boxes, and a mix of green and orange light illuminated them.

A.N.: If you read that far and I peaked your interest, find me on ao3!

[kasienda]

The Five Minute Adventures of Snake Noir: Ch 8 - Confrontation

Chapter 1: I Want It To Be You

Chapter 2: Best Friends

Chapter 3: Best Laid Plans

Chapter 4: A Thank You

Chapter 5: Unwanted Revelations

Chapter 6: Miraculous Abuse

Chapter 7: Five Minute Adventures of Ananta

Chapter 8: Confrontation

Adrien started at the sudden thud on his bedroom floor. He looked up. Ananta was breathing heavily and his expression was solemn. His best friend definitely didn’t look like he was just there to continue his day of goofing off and having a ridiculous time. 

“What’s wrong?” Adrien asked. 

“Your old man is a serious piece of work!”

“Did you punch him?” Adrien asked. 

Nino threw his hands up. “No! And I definitely should have! I have serious regrets! He fucking shattered my knee cap and tried to take the snake!“

Adrien dropped his stylus, and turned his full attention towards his guest. “Umm… maybe you should start from the beginning.” 

Read on Ao3

Nino sighed, and let himself flop backwards onto Adrien’s bed. 

“I was just continuing to live out my reckless fantasies. I just confronted him! I yelled at him about how awful of a father he was, and the bastard barely reacted!” Nino complained. “Then I told him you were Chat Noir, and it was like he flipped a switch.” 

“You told him I was Chat Noir?” Adrien asked, his voice small. 

“It never happened now! You don’t need to worry.”

Adrien shook his head. “I wasn’t… Uh… I mean, how did he react?” Adrien asked softly, his throat had dropped into his gut.

Nino wasn’t even looking at him - his friend was staring at the ceiling, fidgeting in clear agitation. “He went scary silent! He called Nathalie in. Apparently, they’ve suspected you were Chat Noir before, and thought they had ruled it out during Gorizilla.”

“Did he say anything else?” Adrien asked.

“Umm… he said barely anything the whole time I was there. I was the one talking. I told him how amazing you are, and how much of a jerk he is, but he didn’t react.” 

“He said nothing else?” Adrien asked again, gripping the side of his chair, trying to disguise the urgency with which he needed to know.  

“He mostly just said his parenting choices were none of my business. But… he did say something melodramatic like, ‘my own son, this entire time,’” Nino said, dropping his voice into his lower register in a mock impersonation of Adrien’s father. “Like you being a superhero was a personal affront to him!” 

“He was disappointed then?” Adrien asked. 

Nino bolted into a sitting position, his expression horrified as he finally caught Adrien’s train of thought. “Dude! I’m sorry! I didn’t think! I didn’t even consider that! Of course it would matter to you what he thought of your dual identity. I definitely didn’t mean to hit you with all this like a train. I’m so sorry!” 

“It’s…” Adrien trailed off. It wasn’t exactly okay, but Adrien wanted it to be okay. He definitely knew Nino hadn’t been trying to hurt him, but Nino had also known that Adrien was avoiding talking to his father with the snake. “It doesn’t matter,” Adrien said instead. “Just… tell me what he thought of the whole thing.”

“I… I don’t know, dude. He was definitely super creepy. But… I think he was holding back everything he was thinking. I don’t know what he thinks. Do you want me to go in there and try and find out?” 

Adrien shook his head rapidly. “No… it’s better if we keep your knees intact, and make sure he doesn’t have access to the snake. Maybe, you shouldn’t be here at all.” 

“Dude, are you okay?” 

“He really attacked you?” 

Nino nodded. “When my miraculous beeped its first warning, he looked right at it and then lunged forward. And dude! He was super capable! He knew exactly how and where to strike to incapacitate me.” 

“Did he know who you were?” Adrien asked softly. 

Nino winced. “Yeah, he figured it out. It probably wasn’t hard based on what I was screaming at him.” 

Adrien wilted.

“It’s okay!” Nino insisted. “I reset. I’m fine.” 

Adrien disagreed. It wasn’t okay that his father was willing to attack a miraculous holder, but especially wasn’t okay that his father was willing to attack his friends. 

What would motivate him to do that? 

“He actually tried to take your miraculous?”

“Dude! He almost nabbed it. If it hadn’t been for yesterday where I had so much practice hitting that reset without thought, he might’ve been successful.”

Adrien fell quiet, but his mind was whirling, and he wasn’t happy with where it was going, but he couldn’t not consider it.

“Dude, what are you thinking?”

“Nino, what if my father is Hawkmoth?” Adrien was amazed at how steady his voice was. Maybe it was because he had heard it before. Or maybe, it was just starting to make too much sense.

“Dude! That’s a big leap. The guy is awful and honestly, I wouldn’t be that surprised, but surely there are other explanations for him being a jerk and a good fighter?”

“Ladybug suspected him once before. She had actual evidence.”

Nino’s eyes widened. “Shit.”

“Yeah,” Adrien said on an exhale.

“What was the evidence?” Nino asked quietly.

Adrien shook his head. “I don’t know. I got really defensive and snapped at her. And then he was akumatized, and she crossed him off the suspect list. I never thought about it. I didn’t want to think about it.”

Nino nodded. “Understandable. But what does he get out of being Hawkmoth? He already has pretty much everything!”

“To bring back maman.”

And it fit. The second the words were out of his mouth, Adrien wanted to throw up. He could see it. His father was used to getting what he wanted either through intimidation or money, but bringing back his mother was something he was denied. Instead of accepting that, grieving and moving on like a normal person, would his father have turned to magic?

“Nathalie would have to be in on it,” he thought out loud. Maybe that’s why she had been so horrified by his identity and insistent that she and his father couldn’t know his.

“I’m going to need the snake back, Nino,” Adrien announced, his voice monotone, but steady.

“What are you going to do?” Nino asked. 

“I’m going to find out for sure if my father is Hawkmoth,” Adrien said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Will you be okay, alone? Shouldn’t we call Ladybug, maybe bring in some reinforcements?”

Adrien shook his head. “Time loops are easier when you don’t have to explain everything you’ve learned to a team...” he trailed off, considering. “And honestly, I… I would prefer to know first. If we’re right, I will tell her. But I’ll set the time loop outside the mansion. If he makes any kind of move, I will reset immediately. It’ll be fine.”

“But… will you be? If it turns out that he is?” 

“I… I don’t know. But it’s like you said, Nino. I have to know.”

“I’ll be here.”

“No,” Adrien disagreed.

“No? Dude! If you’re right about all of this, I don’t want you here in this mansion alone!” 

Adrien shook his head. “Honestly, I don’t want to face this alone either, but… if Ladybug has taught me anything, it’s that we have to be smart about this. If you almost lost the snake… I might lose it, too. I might get captured or incapicated or worse. I need someone to know, who’s not here! If you don’t see me by tomorrow, you go straight to Alya with our suspicions, okay?”

Nino looked so torn, but in the end he nodded. “Okay. But can I give you the snake back after I’ve gone back home?”

“What? You don’t want to be carried over the threshold bridal style by your superhero crush?” Adrien teased, but if Nino’s somber face was anything to go by, the joke fell flat. 

“I don’t want you to be tired right before you go and confront your father.” 

… 

Adrien took one slow deep breath with his eyes closed. Then he activated the snake and launched himself through the open window in his father’s office.

“You are trespassing on private property. I demand that you leave,” Gabriel barked instantly, rising to his feet at Snake Noir’s intrusion. 

“Is that anyway to greet your friendly neighborhood superhero?” Snake Noir joked the way Adrien Agreste never would. 

“You are a teenager in possession of a power you do not understand. Using a miraculous that you just randomly found is hardly an accomplishment worthy of respect. Especially if you are using it to break into private residences.”

“I would think not having lost once to Hawkmoth, and having personally saved you on two separate occasions would be its own resume,” Adrien countered.

“Or perhaps, if you had given it up to him in that very first encounter, the city would already be free of his influence and I never would have needed rescue.”

“Are you seriously suggesting I should have handed over the power of destruction to a terrorist.” 

“Yes.” 

“You’re a real piece of work,” Adrien snapped. 

Gabriel picked up his phone. No doubt to call the authorities.

Adrien reset with a sigh.

“You are trespassing on private property. I demand that you leave.” 

“Actually, I happen to live here.”

Gabriel froze, his grey eyes rising to Snake Noir’s masked eyes.

“Adrien?”

“I realize you likely don’t approve.” 

“Of my son gallivanting around the city in that ridiculous cat suit while putting his life in mortal peril?” Gabriel barked. “No, I don’t approve.”

“And here I was hoping that some part of you would be proud of me,” Adrien admitted softly. 

“Adrien, I forbid you from continuing as a superhero. It is far too dangerous.”

“You’re not going to remember this conversation in three minutes, father. You’re not in a position to make demands.”

Gabriel held out his hand. “Give me your ring and I will take care of it.”

Adrien backed away, knowing if what Nino had said was true, his father was more than capable of an effective strike. “I’m not going to give you my miraculous. Not either of them.” 

“Then what did you want to tell me?”

“I’ve come to ask if you’re Hawkmoth.” 

“You would accuse me? Your own father? Of being a domestic terrorist?”

“Would you cut it out and just answer the question?”

“Watch your tone!” 

“You’re worried about my tone?!”

“I see no reason to entertain your insolence and disrespect with a response.”

Adrien’s gut twisted. It wasn’t a denial. But it wasn’t a confirmation either. His father was not acting like an innocent man. And while Adrien was more convinced than ever that he was onto something, he wasn’t leaving until he was absolutely sure one way or the other.

“Father, I’m sorry.” He wasn’t actually sorry, but Adrien knew that an apology was often one of the only tools he had to calm his raging father. “I just… Ladybug suspected you. And I had to prove her wrong. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

His father’s face gave away nothing. There was no change in his expression or posture. 

“I’m just worried about you, Adrien,” his father said. “You’re a child. You shouldn’t be risking yourself. This isn’t your fight. Nor your responsibility.” 

“It’s not that big of a risk,” Adrien countered. “Ladybug always brings me back.” Adrien watched his father’s face carefully. 

And sure enough, his lips pressed together into a thin line. 

“You don’t have a say,” Adrien pressed further.

“I’m your father!” Gabriel insisted. 

“That doesn’t mean you get to make every decision about my life!” Adrien shouted back. He knew that he’d never have had the gall to say that if his father was going to remember his defiance, but it felt freeing to say. Maybe Nino had been right and he should have confronted his father with the snake weeks ago. 

“You are still a child! Until you’re an adult, it is my right to see to your safety and affairs.”

Adrien bristled at his father’s choice of words. His right?! Didn’t he mean responsibility?

But that was just it. His father probably didn’t see caring for him as a responsibility. Nathalie saw to his affairs, and his bodyguard saw to his safety. What did his father ever do other than try to control him? 

“I haven’t been a child since mother left! And I think I finally understand why she did! To get away from you controlling every part of her life!”

“How dare you?!”

“How dare I?” Adrien repeated. “You’re the one that drove her away!” 

Gabriel shoved his computer monitor off his desk. It fell to the ground with a shattered crash. Then Gabriel flipped the desk itself. 

Adrien took a step back, every muscle tense and ready to spring into retreat. He had never seen his father lose control like this. 

Gabriel stalked forward, over the debris, his breath suddenly heaving in his chest. 

“Get out of my house!” he screamed, spit droplets flying from his mouth.

Adrien didn’t need to be told twice. He reset. 

He stood once again on the mansion’s tiled roof. The sun was shining, the sky a perfect blue. Birds chirped in the garden and a car drove past the outer gates. 

There was no evidence that he and his father had been screaming at each other seconds prior. 

Because they hadn’t been. 

He drew in a shaky breath and sat down, burying his head in his hands and knees. The event now only existed as a figment in Adrien’s memory. 

His father hadn’t just lost control. He hadn’t just kicked Adrien out of his childhood home. 

And yet his hands were trembling and his heartbeat was roaring in his ears. 

Adrien was more convinced than ever that his father was the villain Ladybug had suspected he was. But what would get his father to come clean? Just asking hadn’t worked. Challenging his authority always made things worse. As apparently did direct confrontations.

Adrien stood up.

He knew what he had to say. 

He reset, and then dove back down into his father’s office for the fourth time. 

“You are trespassing on private property. I demand that you leave.” 

“Hello father,” Adrien greeted formally. 

Gabriel’s eyes widened, focused on his transformed suit. “Adrien?” 

“I’ve come to apologize to you. I’ve been fighting as Chat Noir this entire time to protect Paris. But that was before I realized what Hawkmoth was fighting for.”

Adrien could already see the anticipation gleaming in his father’s eyes as he leaned eagerly forward. 

“And what is Shadowmoth fighting for?” Gabriel asked. 

Did he seriously just correct the villain’s name to Shadowmoth? 

“You’re fighting to bring back mom,” Adrien told him. “And I want to help you. Ladybug…” and he had beat back a sob for even uttering these words. “Ladybug… she trusts me. I can… I can get you the miraculous of creation and I already have destruction,” he said, holding up his hand putting the ring on display.

“And you are willing to support Shadowmoth against the partner you’ve fought beside and defended for two years?”

“Family should come first, don’t you think?” Adrien said. 

His father was silent, considering him stoically. 

“I would do anything for Maman,” Adrien whispered. “To hear her voice again? To see her smile? Wouldn’t you?” It was what his father would have said to him had the identity reveal had played out in the reverse direction.

Gabriel smiled as he rose to his feet. “I should have trusted you with this ages ago, Adrien. I am sorry. I doubted you. I wasn’t certain that you had the stomach to do what needed to be done. To think, you were the key to victory the entire time. I should have had more faith.”

Adrien’s whole world shattered at the unequivocal confirmation. And yet, he remained standing, his eyes were dry, and his hands remained steady. Some part of him wondered at his ability to take the revelation without flinching. He knew if he had learned this a year ago, he would be a puddle on the floor balling,  barely able to function. 

But a lot had changed in the last year. A lot had changed in just the last few weeks. Adrien suddenly had a lot of practice at dealing with world-ending revelations and the accompanying grief. A lot of practice at saying good-bye to people that he loved.

“I miss her so much,” Adrien said, his voice cracking. And this time he did nothing to suppress the tears that wanted to fall. Because in this much, he was being honest. He missed her. 

So much.

His father came around the desk, and swept Adrien up in a hug. For one weak moment, Adrien allowed himself to melt into the awkward embrace. 

And then, the snake miraculous beeped, and his father jerked away violently, his eyes blazing with unbridled rage.

“You’re in a time loop?!” his father roared. 

Adrien didn’t give him another second to react. 

He reset. And he was back on the mansion’s rooftop. He dropped like a lead weight to the roof tiles. 

He had just done something he had never done before. 

He had earned his father’s admiration and respect.

His love.

The tears came fast and hard, and Adrien just let himself heave and sob because he knew he couldn’t keep his father’s love. 

It came at a price Adrien was unwilling to pay.

And now, given what he knew he had to do, he knew without any doubt he would never have his father’s love.

Not for the rest of his life. 

…

It only took two more loops to stop crying. And then his experience as a superhero who always had to act, to strike, to make decisions in life or death situations took over. Because he was a professional with a job to do.

But before that, he would give his father a chance to surrender. Adrien knew that his father wouldn’t take it, but he had to try anyway if only for his own peace of mind years from this moment. 

“You are trespassing on private property. I demand that you leave.” 

God, Adrien was really getting sick of that line. 

“Gabriel Agreste, hand over the butterfly and peacock miraculouses without a fight, and I won’t tell a soul who you are.”

Adrien held out his hand, hoping with every fiber of his being that his father would just surrender. 

Gabriel glared at him, but didn’t say anything for several seconds. Was his father considering his escape options? Or was he actually considering surrendering the miraculouses? 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he eventually said stoically.

Snake Noir snorted. “This is my ninth loop. I’ve already confirmed you’re Hawkmoth. If you give it up, you can continue to live your life of privilege with your family. The city never need know who you are.” 

“That’s quite the generous offer coming from you,” Gabriel said. 

Gabriel was wrong. It was a selfish offer. Please father, please just take it. 

Snake Noir glanced at the portrait of his mother that hung behind Gabriel “You’re not the only one who has lost someone you know.”

Gabriel launched to his feet, snarling. “What do you know of loss?”

“I lost my mother about three years ago, and I think I’m about to lose my father,” Adrien confessed calmly.

His father froze, his eyes widened. “Adrien?”

“Please father, give it up,” Adrien entreated. “Give it up and we can be a family.” 

“Adrien, we can be a family. A whole and complete family with your mother here with us again. Please, just help me. With Chat Noir on our side, our victory is certain.”

Adrien squeezed his eyes shut against his father’s pleas.

“I will forgive all the years you fought against me. Join me now, and we can bring her back.”

“We can’t,” Adrien sobbed.

“We can,” his father insisted. “The ladybug and black cat will grant any wish.” 

“The cost is too high.”

Gabriel snarled at him. “How can you be against me?! I did this all for you!” 

“For me?! Are you serious, right now?! This was always for yourself!”

“For both of us!” 

Adrien shook his head in agitation. 

“I don’t want to hurt you, Adrien,” his father said, his voice contained an actual note of desperation. 

Adrien’s eyes shot to his father’s and considered him. 

His father might now want to hurt him. But he would. If that’s what it took. 

Hot tears spilled down his face. 

“So be it, father.” 

“Adrien!”

Adrien didn’t give him the chance to say anything else. 

… 

On his next loop, he came through the front doors rather than through the window. His focus was on Nathalie. 

If his father deserved a chance, so did she. And he was far less certain what she would choose. 

Nathalie jumped to her feet instantly at his unexpected presence. 

“Don’t stand on my account,” he told her. “I know you still haven’t been feeling well.” 

“What can I do for you, M. Noir?” she said with as much dignity and professionalism as ever. Like his presence wasn’t abnormal at all. 

“Where does he keep it, Nathalie?” he asked. 

“Where does who keep what?” she asked, but it was clear to him that she was stalling when she glanced toward the doors to his father’s office. 

“My father?” he clarified, following her gaze. “Where does he keep the butterfly miraculous?” 

She stared at him, her expression almost unchanged except her pupils had dilated. It was good to know some things were capable of throwing Nathalie off her unshakeable foundation - that she was human.

She pushed the glasses up her nose. “I wouldn’t presume to know who your father is.” 

“Nathalie, you’ve already figured out that I’m Adrien, and you’ve clearly known about him for far longer if you were using the peacock.”

She flinched.

He walked right up to her, his eyes looking down at her. 

When had he grown taller than Nathalie? 

“I’m not going to tell you anything,” she said. 

His chest tightened painfully. He knew he had no claim to Nathalie’s affections, but he didn’t want to lose her, too. “Nathalie, please. Help me end this somewhat peacefully before one of us winds up killing the other. Please!” 

“He’s doing this to bring your mother back,” she confessed. 

He nodded. “Yeah, I got that. But I think maman might’ve had a good reason to leave. He has no right to force her back to a life she clearly didn’t want.” 

Nathalie shook her head. “She didn’t leave. She’s still here. She’s just in a magically induced coma.” 

He lost the ability to breathe. 

His mother was here? The whole time? They had let him believe she was gone, that she had left him? Or that she had died? When she was here the whole time?! 

His grip tightened around his baton, and his eyes burned.  

“Did either of you ever consider telling me?” he choked out. 

“He tried once, but you gave him your blessing to move on, and he decided you weren’t dedicated enough.”

He shook his head. Of course he did. “I gave him my blessing to move on with you,” he snapped back. 

She glanced past him and adjusted her glasses. “Be that as it may,” she said softly. 

“I don’t understand you. You’re willing to die for him?”

She turned back to him, her eyes suddenly intense. “For all of you! To heal your family!” 

He took a step back. He wasn’t certain he wanted to be a part of this family. 

“So you won’t help me?” he concluded. 

“I won’t betray your father, Adrien. I can’t. I hate that it was you that we were fighting. And I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too, Nathalie.”

He reset the snake.

… 

It only took thirteen loops to figure out how to get to the super secret supervillain lair underneath the mansion.

And there she was, preserved perfectly. She was exactly as he remembered - beautiful and soft. She could have just been sleeping if she hadn’t been lying in a glass coffin like some fairy tale princess waiting for a kiss of true love.

“Hi maman,” he whispered, his claws tracing out the curve of her face on the glass. “It’s… good to see you,” he managed before his throat lodged itself closed. He leaned his forehead against the smooth surface and he shook as silent sobs overtook him. 

He fought to gain his breath back under control. He had so much he wanted to say to her. “So much has changed since you left us,” he whispered. “I wish I could tell you about all of it. 

“I’ve missed you so much,” he sobbed. 

“How did you get down here?!”

Adrien whirled, and found himself face to face with Shadowmoth. 

“It wasn’t hard,” Snake Noir said, before pointing to the window. “That’s a very big window.”

“What are you doing down here?” the villain demanded.

“Saying good-bye to my mother,” Adrien said. 

Whatever his father had expected him to say that was not it. He literally stopped in his tracks, his eyes going wide as if Adrien had just struck him. Which in a way, he supposed he had. “Adrien?” 

“Yes father?”

THe older man smiled. He actually smiled. “This is perfect.” 

Adrien had never disagreed with his father more in his life. This was about as far from perfect as they could get. 

“You can help me,” he was saying. “Help your mother. You have what we need! And I’m sure if Ladybug knows it’s for your mother, she’ll be willing to help as well.”

Snake Noir shook his head, tears trailing over his mask. “We can’t revive her,” he whispered. 

“We can!”

“The price is too high.” 

“I will pay any price!” his father screamed. 

“And that’s exactly why you can’t revive her! Did you know there was another timeline out there? One where you akumatized me! And the whole fucking world was destroyed! Is that a price you’re willing to pay?”

“If you help me, there would be no reason to akumatize you.” 

“I can’t believe you! There’s no way I can convince you to give it up, is there?”

Gabriel ignored him, stalking closer. “Give me your miraculous!” 

“I won’t!” 

“This isn’t your battle to fight!” Gabriel snarled. “You are a child!” 

“I stopped being a child the day mother disappeared! Because you disappeared the same day she did! I thought…” Adrien broke off momentarily overwhelmed with his tears. “I thought you were grieving! Turns out you were terrorizing the whole city!”

“For you!” 

“That’s a load of bull shit!” Adrien screamed back.  

Shadowmoth surged forward, snarling. And Adrien had run out of walkway. “Is your mother not worth it? You would betray me? Betray your own mother? For what? Some girl you barely even know?”

Adrien laughed bitterly. At this point he knew Marinette far better than either of his parents. If only she knew that.

“You would make me choose between two women that I love?!” Adrien countered. 

“It shouldn’t be that hard. There are millions of women for you to fall in love with. You only have one mother.” 

“I could say the same to you,” Adrien said. “You could fall in love again. You only have one son.” 

Shadowmoth lunged forward, striking with his cane. Adrien parried the blow with his staff, and dodged to the side. “Maman wouldn’t want you to do this!” he yelled.

His father laughed. “This was her plan!”

Adrien stumbled, and lost his form. Shadowmoth struck again through the lapse in his defenses. 

Snake Noir took the strike to the shoulder, and fell backwards. “Then she doesn’t deserve to be revived!”

Gabriel sneered. “I failed in raising you.”

“You didn’t raise me at all! And I’m likely better for it!”

Shadowmoth struck downwards, but Adrien just flicked the snake miraculous before the cane could make contact again, and he was back on the mansion’s tiled roof overlooking his mother’s gardens. 

“Sass, scales rest.” The snake slipped away, but he was still Chat Noir. He vaulted blindly away needing to be anywhere else.

Once he had put half a mile between himself and his former home, he collapsed to the ground, and pulled open the communicator. 

“M’lady, I figured out who Shadowmoth is. And I took the liberty of doing some reconnaissance with the snake.” He swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. “And I-I… have a plan. Let’s meet on your balcony; I’ll be there in thirty minutes. Please invite Rena and Carapace. And don’t worry about costumes. I already know who all of you are and I think both the others know who you are, too. See you soon, princess.”

He ended the call, buried his head into his knees, curled up, and cried. 

…

Chapter 9: Family

[p-artsypants]

The Ghost of Smokey Joe (6)

St. James Infirmary

Adrien Agreste was acting bizarre. Before she can get the truth out of him, Marinette finds herself as the sole heir to the Gabriel brand and the mansion, following the murder-suicide of both Adrien and Gabriel Agreste. The mystery continues as Tikki explains that Adrien was Chat Noir...but if Adrien is six feet under, why is Chat Noir still running around?

Relationships:

Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe

Characters:

Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, Nathalie Sancoeur, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth

Additional Tags:

Temporary Character Death, Murder Mystery, off screen murder, Ghosts, Supernatural - Freeform, Haunting, Horror, Psychological Thriller, Eventual Happy Ending, I promise, Song fic, Halloween Flavored, Identity Reveal, Aged Up, Canon Universe, Mabel Voice: He's Resting, SPOOOKKKYYYYYY

Ao3 | FF.net

--

The night of the visitation, it rained. Like a kick to the gut, a painful reminder of what it was like to fall in love…now was only a soothing presence to losing love. 

The old umbrella in her hand didn’t help either. It was his. Adrien’s. The very same he gave her that day over ten years ago. 

Marinette had agonized over what to wear for too long. It was a wake, so black, right? She had this outfit picked out and everything. A sharp blazer over her little black cocktail dress, with black pumps. Even though it was a wake, it was a wake for her boss, one of the most influential fashion moguls in the world, and she would be taking his place. She had to look her best. 

But then, she changed her mind. It was a social event, yes, and she would be in the public eye and representing the brand, true! 

But it felt gross. 

The cocktail dress was too sexy for a wake, and wearing that much black made her look goth. 

It just wasn’t right. 

Then she saw the dress. A rose pink, knee length dress that flared out as it went down. It had little black polka dots on it. 

And it was Adrien’s favorite. He said so every time she wore it. 

Too peppy for a wake. Too casual, too fun and flirty. But a black cardigan over it, and she felt perfect. 

She could almost hear his voice as she posed in the mirror. 

“I love that dress on you. You look so cute, Marinette.” 

It made tears spring to her eyes. 

So no makeup then. Because she knew she would be crying a lot more tonight. 

“Don’t forget to pack tissues,” Tikki reminded, helpfully.

“Right, thank you, Tikki.” She tucked the little package in her purse. 

With one last pass of the brush through her hair, she was ready. 

So now she stood outside of the manor, the gate open. 

Well folks, I'm goin' down to St. James Infirmary

See my little baby there

She's stretched out on a long, white table

Well she looks so good, so cold, so fair

The paparazzi stood nearby with their cameras, ready to swoop in like vultures. 

She must have paused for too long, because they descended on her quickly, shoving mics in her face and asking questions. 

Didn’t they know why she was here? Didn’t they know what she was going through?

An arm reached around her shoulders and started leading her forward. “Alright everyone, that’s enough! Can’t you see she’s not in the mood?” Her rescuer shouted. 

The reporters didn’t pass through the gate, as that would have been trespassing. So thankfully, the crowd was left behind as they moved forward. 

“Thank you,” she said to the unfamiliar man. 

“Of course, Miss Dupain-Cheng.” He nodded. 

“You know me?”

“I know of you. Head intern to Gabriel Agreste himself, if I’m not mistaken. I’m from Harper’s Bazaar.” 

“Oh...a reporter.”

“Yes, but I really was just here as a guest to pay my respects. I’ve interviewed both Gabriel and Adrien a few times.”

“I see.”

He led her into the house.

Let her go, let her go, God bless her,

Wherever she may be,

She will search this wide world over,

But she'll never find another sweet man like me.

She was early, as Nathalie had instructed. No other guests were here. Just funeral staff, some family, and two steel caskets.

Two steel closed caskets.

Might make retrieving Adrien’s ring a bit of a problem, but not seeing his face…cold, motionless, and waxy would keep her somewhat sane. 

The man walked with her right up to the casket, the one with Adrien’s picture next to it.

“It’s a shame. That much skill, the absolute genius spread between the two of them. The world as a whole will never be the same.” 

“Yeah.” 

“Any idea what’s going to happen next? Not that this is an interview, I’m just curious.” 

She shrugged, “well, I’ve been offered the position, and everyone wants me to take it...but it’s so…”

“Overwhelming?”

“Yes.” She rested her hand on the casket. “I wish I could have a moment alone with him.” 

“Let me see what I can do.” He smiled, then he called louder, to the room. “The lady would like a few minutes alone, if possible.” 

“Is she family?” A staff member asked. 

“This is Madam Dupain-Cheng, she’s the successor to Gabriel’s empire. She’s practically family!” 

There was no arguing with that, and the group of staff members filed out into the adjacent dining room. 

“Thank you,” Marinette called to the man, still not getting his name.

“Don’t worry about it darling.” And he followed them out.

Marinette glanced around the room, just to make sure she was alone. “Tikki?”

“I’m here!” 

“I need you to keep watch.” The casket had two doors, one on top that would have been open if this was a regular visitation, and one over the legs. She slid the flower arrangement on top over to the bottom section and ran her hand over the edge. She pulled up slightly, and as she feared, it was sealed. 

“It’s locked,” she lamented. 

“Let me try!” Tikki zipped around the casket, and a moment later, it clicked and the cap opened ever so slightly. 

Marinette took a deep breath as her fingers curled under the lip.

“What are you waiting for?” 

“Just…I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to see what he looks like. I don’t want to…” but she put her reservations on hold, and pushed the lid up. 

She choked out a startled gasp. “Oh no…” 

Now, when I die, bury me in my straight-leg britches,

Put on a box-back coat and a stetson hat,

Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain,

So you can let all the boys know I died standing pat.

Instead of the mangled body of her true love, there was only a pile of sandbags. 

Tikki, also horrified, went over to Gabriel’s casket and phased inside. Then she popped out, “this one is the same!” 

Marinette closed the lid and moved the flowers back into place, her mind moving at a mile a minute. Vaguely, she heard the click of the casket as Tikki put it to rights. 

Marinette was panicking, but quickly calmed herself down. This didn’t mean anything malicious, not yet. Maybe they were cremated and the family wanted to keep it a secret. Or because there’s no graveside service, their bodies had already been buried.

Who was she kidding, something was definitely going on. 

A mystery that was just aching to be solved, but her first priority was to retrieve Adrien’s ring. 

“--A moment alone!” A voice shouted from the dining room.

Marinette whirled around in time to see Felix storming towards her. Did he know? Was she caught?

He brushed past her, “move.” And went directly to the casket, grabbing the lip like she had. 

“Please sir! You’ll damage the casket!” One of the funeral home staff rushed and grasped Felix by the shoulder. “It’s shut and locked, it can’t be opened again.”

“I didn’t get to say goodbye!” Felix snarled. “Look at him!” He pointed at the photo on display next to the casket. “He has my face! I deserve to see him one last time!” 

“Sir...he doesn’t look like that anymore. It would be very disturbing to see his remains.” 

Disturbing indeed, considering Adrien wasn’t in there at all.

Amelie was quick to join the group and she consoled her son. “We talked about this. You knew it was going to be a closed casket.” 

“They said the family had time alone. I just...wanted to say goodbye, face to face.” He shook his head and scowled. “He deserved that, at least.” 

Marinette made herself small, feeling like an intruder in this family crisis. But Amelie still saw her and brought her in for a hug.

“How are you holding up, dear?” She asked, pulling away slightly. 

“I’m…I’ve been better.” 

“Of course, I’m so sorry for your loss.” 

Marinette had met Amelie and Felix more than a few times working at Gabriel. As the years went on, they came to visit more and more often. Amelie was always insistent that she call her ‘Aunt Amelie’ like Adrien. It felt weird to break the habit now. 

“Isn’t pink a little too festive for the occasion?” Felix bit. The red from anger in his cheeks had faded. Now he just sounded bitter. 

It was Adrien’s voice…but not. It was a shame Felix sounded so much like him. 

He looked just like him too, minus the slicked back hair and glasses. 

“Adrien really loved this dress,” Marinette whispered. “I know it’s not—I just—“ 

His face softened slightly, relieved that she had Adrien in mind, and not fashion. “Sounds fine to me.”

Even after the disastrous first encounter they had, Felix and Marinette never became friends. He and Adrien certainly got along, or at least appeared to, but Felix and Marinette were only ever cordial. 

It was a wake, after all. He should be nice. He gave her a small smile, one that looked eerily similar to Adrien’s.

Before she could stop herself, she was hugging him. 

He didn’t smell like Adrien at all. He smelled like clean cat litter and laundry detergent, not spicy cologne and the smallest hint of cheese. Belatedly, she realized the cheese smell was probably Plagg’s doing. 

“Uh…” He said awkwardly, before sighing and patting her on the back. 

“I’m sorry,” she pulled away. “Even though…” she trailed off with a blush, embarrassed with what she had done. “You just look like him.” 

“I know,” he shrugged. “I worried about coming. I’m prepared for people to see me and burst into tears. Or hug me, like you did. I get it. As much as I would like otherwise, I’m willing to tolerate it for today.” 

“That’s kind of you.” 

His face softened further. “You loved him, didn’t you?” 

Amelie gasped. “Felix! You can’t just ask things like that!” 

“It’s okay,” Marinette assured, hugging herself. “You’re right. I was—am. I still love him, even though he’s gone.” 

“And…you know what happened?” 

She nodded. “It sucks. And I really wish I could allow one terrible action to wipe everything away…but I knew him. These last two weeks he wasn’t himself. He was cruel to me in a way I had never seen. It just…it wasn’t Adrien.” 

Felix gave her a critical look. “I always assumed my cousin couldn’t hurt a fly. It’s…bizarre, what happened.” 

“It’s not public knowledge,” Amelie reminded. “And it should stay that way.” 

“Who are we protecting by lying about it? The ‘Brand’? The family? Adrien himself?” 

“What are they saying, anyway?” Asked Marinette. 

“They’re saying both Adrien and Gabriel died from an in-home accident.”

“Vague,” said Felix. “Suspicious.” 

“But better than ‘unknown causes’ at least,” said Marinette.  “Maybe it’s selfish, but I want Adrien to be remembered for all the good he did…” As Chat Noir, her brain added, “and not the demons he faced in the end.” 

“Still, I can’t help but wonder what made him snap,” he mused, looking at Marinette. “Do you have any idea what may have caused it?” 

Her mind went back to two weeks, when he had asked her to dinner. He was nervous, and told her he had something to tell her. 

And then that phone call a few nights ago. What had he said? Something about the basement?

“I’m…not sure. I’d have to think about it.” 

“Perhaps you two could consider this mystery another day? Not during the visitation?” Amelie urged. 

“Sorry mom, you’re right.” He glanced back at Marinette. “If you have anything on this, I’d love to hear it. I care deeply for Adrien, and honestly, I’m highly suspicious of these circumstances.” 

Amelie huffed. “Darling, you heard Nathalie, what she saw, what the police found, it’s pretty cut and dry…” 

“People don’t just murder their father’s for no reason! Especially with supposedly flawless mental health!” 

The room grew quiet, as Felix’s outburst was louder than intended. Thankfully, guests had yet to arrive. 

“Sorry. This whole thing…I’ve had enough of death in this lifetime.” He cleared his throat. “I need some water.” 

When he left, Amelie squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t let Felix get to you. It’s just hard for him. He has so much in common with Adrien, it’s a little scary for him.” 

Oh. That made sense. Fear he’d snap too? 

“It was sudden for everyone. We’re all going through it.” 

“They said you were having a moment alone with Adrien. I'll let you get back to it.” She squeezed her shoulder and left her in peace.

So now Marinette was left to wonder what she could possibly do. Where to even start? She didn’t need anymore time with an empty casket. 

An' give me six crap shooting pall bearers,

Let a chorus girl sing me a song.

Put a red hot jazz band at the top of my head

So we can raise Hallelujah as we go along.

There were a few more guests now, but it was still a little early. She saw a man in a suit arranging flowers. He had a name tag on his lapel. 

As casual as she could, she snuck over to him. “Excuse me, are you the funeral director by chance?”

“Oh? Yes I am. Bill Hunkerson, at your service. How can I help?” 

She had to phrase this very carefully, to not be suspicious. “I’m a very close friend of Adrien’s. He was wearing a silver ring when he died. It doesn’t actually belong to him, and I was wondering if I could have it back.” 

The man turned pale, but plastered on a smile. “Well, he’s probably wearing it now. Unfortunately, after we close the casket, we can’t open it again.” 

She knew that was a big fat lie. And Marinette hated liars. 

She lowered her voice. “Well, since his body isn’t actually in the casket, it shouldn’t be that hard, should it?” 

The man stared at her, wide eyed, no longer smiling. “How did you—“ He frowned. “Look miss, I’m just doing what I’m paid for. I don’t know anything. That ring is probably gone forever, and I’d stop this search now.” He straightened his tie and bowed his head slightly. “If you’ll excuse me.” 

Marinette opened her purse when she was alone. “I don’t know about you, Tikki, but I’ve got a bunch of red flags and alarm bells going off inside my head.” 

“This isn’t good! We need to get that ring!” 

“We need to find out what happened to Adrien’s body!” 

“Yes, of course, that too!”

Marinette gnawed at the inside of her cheek. “Hey, no offense to Plagg, but wouldn’t he know to bring the ring back to me? If he can’t remove it, then wouldn’t he come tell me about it?”

Tikki’s eyes widened. “You’re right! If he died under normal circumstances, yes…but if he was transformed when he died…”

“Then what?”

“Plagg probably would be forced back into the ring. That’s probably why he didn’t come!” 

“Now I’m even more worried and confused.” Marinette crossed her arms. “What if Adrien isn’t actually dead?” 

“What do you mean?”

“What if…he ran away? And Gabriel made it out like he died? What if Gabriel’s still alive too?” 

“It’s a theory, but I don’t know how well it will hold water.” 

She studied the room again, trying not to draw attention to herself. She was supposed to be grieving after all. 

Felix sat in the chairs over by the stairs, his back to the growing crowd. 

Even if they didn’t really get along, two skeptics working together would be better than each on their own. 

“Do you mind if I join you?” She asked. 

“I suppose not.” He sighed. 

Marinette sat in the chair next to him, and sat quietly for a moment, trying to decide how to proceed. She didn��t want to reveal her whole hand, but maybe playing a few cards would be to her advantage. 

Felix beat her to it. He let out a weak chuckle. “I hate this family.” 

What an awful thing to say at wake. “Why’s that?” She asked calmly. 

“They die too quickly. It sounds so awful, I know. But it’s just my mother and I now. Grandparents are long gone, then my Aunt Emilie, then my father, and now them. It sucks and I’m sick of stupid funerals.” 

“It must be hard. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well...I’m a pro at it now.” He was resting his cheek on his hand, and was staring at the corner of a wall, just pointedly avoiding eye contact. Still, she could see he had red in his eyes. Though she chose to ignore it. Felix seemed to be the type to hide his tears. 

“You know...the last time I talked to Adrien, he told me to check the basement.” 

This piqued Felix’s curiosity enough for him to look at her. “Basement? What basement?”

“I suppose here, but I haven’t had the chance to, since you know…all this going on.” 

“That doesn’t make any sense. I used to come to this house all the time. It doesn’t have a basement.” 

“So…maybe at the company?”

“Could be. I wouldn’t know.” 

“Okay, I just wondered...since you were family…” 

He growled. “Yeah, some family.” 

“Do you...want to talk about it?” She offered, really hoping he would take the bait. 

He chuckled again, no humor in his tone. “Might as well, no one around left to hide things from.” He leaned back in the chair. “Gabriel is...was a very private person. I tried to love him, since he was my uncle, but he did a very good job at keeping us at a distance. Adrien was the opposite. We talked often, even when his mom and my dad died and things got rough. Sometimes, it didn’t feel like we were welcomed here. But Adrien so wanted a connection. I could feel it in his hugs when we visited. He was starving, Marinette.” 

Marinette willed herself not to start crying.  

“Mom and I were told by Nathalie that Adrien and Gabriel were caught in a murder-suicide, as enacted by Adrien, early in the morning on the 23rd.”

“Did she tell you where the murder-suicide happened?”   

“Nope, just that it happened in this house. As the only living relatives, she asked if we could come and help with the funeral arrangements.”

“Were you involved in all of it?”

“I thought mom and I did all of it together, but there was one thing that Nathalie insisted on and wouldn’t budge.” 

“What’s that?” 

“Gabriel is going to be interred in the Agreste family mausoleum, but Adrien…” he sighed with disgust. “As punishment, he’s getting an unmarked grave.” 

“What!?”  

“That was the compromise. The truth about the murder-suicide, which I am believing less and less, would be withheld from the public as long as Adrien was…effectively erased from the family line.” 

She couldn’t help the tears that burst forth. “But that’s not fair! He didn’t do anything wrong! He couldn’t’ve!”

“Yeah kid, I know. I agree.” He scowled. “It makes me sick. I hate it. Adrien was suffering in life, and now he’s going to suffer in death.” 

“You don’t think he did it?”

“Do you?”

She shook her head. “I can’t. I know what’s been said, and what people saw...but it just can’t be true.” And she had evidence to prove it, in the form of that empty casket.

“You won’t mention I said any of this to my mom, right? She’s also having a hard time, but she tells me I’m in denial.” 

“I won’t say a word.”  

Folks, now that you have heard my story,

Say, boy, hand me another shot of that booze;

If anyone should ask you,

Tell 'em I've got those St. James Infirmary blues.

--

I’m not sure about next week’s update. I’m going camping and I don't know what the wifi will be like. Fingers crossed!

[justcourttee]

Death By A Thousand Cuts- One Shot

“Just let go Adrien!”

Marinette threw his hands down as hard as she could, her body trembling as she backed a few steps away from the blonde.

“Marinette, I need you to understand-”

“No!” Her voice was shaking as the tears kept falling at a blinding rate. “I don’t need to understand anything Adrien. If you think Lila is what’s best for you, then you need to leave right now and never come back.”

“Marinette-” He took a step forward only to feel a stinging pain spread across his cheek.

“Leave Agreste. I never want to see you again.”

His hand reached up to touch the warm handprint as he watched as she ran into the night. He didn’t bother to follow. He knew she would understand one day, and eventually she would come back, but for now, he had to stick to the mission.

Get the peacock brooch from Lila Rossi.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nino’s eyes flew open at the sound of the banging on his apartment door. Looking over, his alarm read 6:00a.m. meaning only one person could be awake at such an annoying time. Dragging his feet across the floor, Nino’s hand rested on the doorknob, counting to three before flinging it open.

“Adrien. My dude. Why are you here at such an unholy time?”

Adrien didn’t even bother to respond as he shoved a coffee cup into Nino’s open hand, pushing his way into the apartment.

With a great sigh, Nino inhaled the scent of dark roast before shutting the door.

“Do you know what today is Nino?”

“Uh, Tuesday?”

“Wrong, well technically right, but wrong context. Today my good friend, is the day I have recovered the last missing Miraculous.”

Adrien waited for a moment as the realization sank in on Nino’s face. Setting down his coffee, Nino rushed in to hug his friend.

“Dude! That means you’re free! Have you broken up with her yet?”

Nino pulled back as Adrien nodded, a smile practically breaking his face.

“I left her a note on the kitchen counter, my suitcases are in my car and I made an immediate beeline for your apartment.”

The two men rejoiced for a few minutes, finally glad to be rid of Lila’s tyranny. Slowly though, the unanswered question filtered into the room, dampening their good mood.

“Have you called Mari yet?”

A pained expression crossed Adrien’s face as his hand unconsciously reached up to rub the back of his neck.

“It’s been two years Nino, she didn’t understand at first, do you really think she’ll understand now?”

Nino opened his mouth ready to argue with his best friend that Marinette loved him and he couldn’t imagine her not wanting him back if he just explained it to her. But the look in Adrien’s eyes stopped him in his tracks. He already knew what he wanted to do, he just wanted Nino to confirm it in case it all went sideways.

“I think,” he began, his voice holding a level of uncertainty, “I think you should see her in person. You can’t make someone understand sincerity over a phone call.”

Adrien nodded, his smile reappearing as he reached out to clap Nino’s arm.

“I was hoping you would say that. So, could you be ready in thirty minutes?”

Nino’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Dude, you do realize that Marinette isn’t in Paris anymore right?”

“I know, that’s why you’ll need to pack a bag. My plane is prepped and ready. It’s time to bring my lady back home.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Alright, so her last post to her Snap was a little coffee shop about twenty minutes ago. It’s a long shot, but that’s where we should start.”

“How far away is it?”

Adrien straightened his collar for the hundredth time since they had landed, the flower bag crumbling under his tight grip.

“About two miles from here. Are you sure you’re ready for this dude? What if you don’t like what you find?”

“What do you mean?”

Nino fiddled with his ball cap as he debated how he wanted to approach the situation. If he told him what Alya had said, he could be crushed. But if Adrien stumbled across it before he could say anything, well, he wasn’t sure how he would react.

“Alya said she was talking to somebody, a boy from here actually. They could be more than friends-”

He couldn’t even finish his sentence as a laughter bubbled from Adrien. It started out soft, but soon grew to be louder, more hysterical. Nino reached forward to put a hand on his shoulder only to be shrugged off in his fit.

“There’s no way Mari moved on so quickly. We loved each other Nino! She loved me for so many years before as well. You can’t just throw all that away, she wouldn’t!”

Nino wanted to say something, but he didn’t know if he could reach through this level of delusion.

“I’m just saying dude, two years is a long time to expect someone to pine over you. Especially after you broke her heart.”

Before Adrien could respond, a bell cut through the air as a couple stepped out, their laughter warming the brisk night air. He caught a glimpse of her face, relaxed, happy and totally enamored with the man whose arm she clutched so tightly.

Without a second thought, Adrien rushed forward, pulling the girl harshly from the man’s arm and into his own.

“Marinette! I’ve missed you so much!”

She struggled in his arms, attempting to pull back, but his grip was too tight. Moving his hands to her face, he pulled her up to meet his lips, crashing into them as he hungrily drank up the missing two years they had been apart.

“Unhand her you buffoon.”

Adrien felt two hands grip his shoulders, throwing him into the nearest wall. The man raised one fist as Adrien braced for a punch that never came. He peeked open one eye to see his lady holding the man’s arm back, trying to talk him down from his tantrum.

Slowly he sank down the wall as the man stepped backwards, his piercing eyes drilling holes into him. Marinette offered him a shy hand, her smile weak as she helped him back to his feet.

“My lady, I thought it would never end, but I finished the mission. I left Lila to come be with you!”

Marinette reached down to pick up the crumbled flowers, a slight hesitation crossing her face as she turned to face him.

“Adrien what are you talking about? You broke up with me years ago.”

“Two years to be exact. I only did it so that I could trick Lila into trusting me. She had the peacock Miraculous. It was necessary!”

“Necessary?”

His eyes glazed as he opened his arms, ready for her to run into them and away from the scary man. He wasn’t prepared for her hand to dart out, the contact with his face feeling as though a thousand volts traveled throughout his body.

“You broke up with me, over a mission?” The tears welled up in her eyes as her face turned a crimson shade of red.

Tentatively he reached up to touch the forming hand print, the same place she hit two years ago.

“Marinette, you have to understand-”

“No, you have to understand Adrien. My heart, my hips, my body, my love. Trying to find a part of me that you didn't touch, that you didn’t taint. My time, my spirit, my trust. Trying to find a part of me that you didn’t break. Trying to find something, anything I could give to Damian.”

The man, no, Damian came to stand by her side, his hand resting on her shoulder as her tears poured down, hot and angry, all of it directed at him. Adrien tried to open his mouth, deny any wrong, but she wasn’t finished.

“You said it was a great love, one for the ages, but when I gave you everything, believing you truly felt what you said.” she choked, allowing herself to be pulled into Damian’s side, her tears soaking his shirt.

“Marinette, I’m so sorry. The mission-”

“Shouldn’t have been your priority. But that was your loss Agreste.” Damian stared down at him, daring him to contradict, but Adrien couldn’t. His eyes were still glued to his lady, the realization of how badly the mission had hurt her finally settling in.

“But-”

Damian silenced him with one motion of his hand as he yanked Adrien to his feet, the fury radiating off of him in waves.

“I can only explain it to you. I can’t understand it for you. Now get lost Agreste, I’m helping her find herself again, something you made her lose. She’s a strong, intelligent, cunning, beautiful woman and you lost her. Don’t ever come to Gotham City again looking to hurt her.”

He dropped the blonde like a sack of rocks, not bothering to look back to see if he landed okay. Adrien watched as he gathered Marinette into her arms, leading her away from the coffee shop, away from him.

“Adrien, are you okay?”

Nino took a step forward, worry dripping from his voice as he helped his friend to his feet. Adrien watched their retreating figures, his heart falling further in his chest at every step they took. With a deep sigh, he leaned down to pick up the flowers Marinette had dropped, the petals smashed and broken. Not even bothering to attempt to save them, he shoved them in the nearest trash bin, his eyes threatening to spill.

“Adrien?”

He met Nino’s eyes, forcing a smile to his face as he threw his arm around his shoulders.

“I’ll be alright, it’s just a thousand cuts.”

Permanent Tag List:

@damianette-is-life @ash-amg @rebecarojas07

[lils-of-the-valley]

Better late than never! I've been avoiding social media since it came out because I didn't have time to watch it until now. Here are my thoughts and reactions while watching Mr. Pigeon 72! Also, disclaimer, I watch the French dub, so if there's a difference between that and the English version, well, oops?

Alya just watching Maribug looking like a mad scientist as she rambles is a mood

Poor Mr. Pigeon. He just loves his birds

Do Tom and Sabine not question the explosions from their daughter's room? Also how many times has this happened before?

There's something beautiful about Alya calling LB Marinette

I love Alya if yall didn't already know that! She's Mari's common sense when she spirals and I love that in a friend. Because I'm Mari and my best friend is my Alya

Alya, bb, how are you so wise? "When I'm fixated on a thing and I think of nothing else, that's when I find myself stuck. You know what you need right now? A break!"

Mari is so stubborn, baby, please, take a break

So she said it was a science project

Idk Tom, if my kid was blowing things up, I might want to check

"Life isn't waiting until the storm has passed; it's learning to dance in the rain" Alya's grandmother is quite the wise woman. I see where she gets it from

Mari, baby, it's not something to be taken literally.....

Wait, Trixx and Alya together 🥺🥺

Alya, you sly fox

KAGAMINETTE????

Ok, I know Mari is repressing her feelings because she feels like she can't be with anyone, but baby girl is growing up. I know she still loves him and all, but she also knows that with how she's acting, she won't get anywhere with it

Mari is so sweet and such a good friend to Kagami

And Alya is an amazing friend I love her so so much

MARI'S OUTFIT AAAAHHHHH

Oh, those are pjs. Still cute

Mari has no shame when it comes to her friends

Mari is trying so hard to do the right thing for Kagami, trying to make her happy, but she's forgetting to listen

Plagg is Adrien's Alya (or Chat Noir's Alya, because Nino can't do it, not yet)

I just want to know how Adrien got a hold of a duffle bag of cheese and managed to sneak it in, like, doesn't that smell?

Ok, but what's Bob Roth's job, seriously?

What can Adrien not do, seriously?

What the fuck this Mari type? That's not french, that's... Idk what language that is

Wait, is Adrien only allergic to pigeons? I thought it was all birds

Mari owns Dora's backpack's cousin, the duffle bag

What's the use of the bathing caps if your hair is out (I am aware that for aesthetics, hair is necessary. No shade to Aspik, but)

Mari, I think you're projecting onto Kagami, trying to live through her because you can't be with him

Ok, but the girls are actually adorable, even if Mari is going a little overboard here

ouch, Adrien....

THE BIRD! NO!!!

Why am I surprised that Bob Roth's name is Robert? Bob is a nickname for Robert

I hate Hawkmoth (Shadowmoth?) and Bob Roth so so much

Oh no, Kitty noir...

RENA TIMEEEEEE

Oh, that's how they communicate through the flute

Alya controlling the fake Ladybug and Chat Noir is like he writing a fanfic of her own, but live

Rando civilians that look nothing like Kitty and Buginette, nice touch Alya

I hate Hawkmoth so much.....

Bug is just.... NEW OUTFIT????? OH I LOVE

And a safety charm!!

Also, is Mr. Ramier just really tall or is Mari tiny? Because he's like 1.5x her height and at age 14, she's not growing for much longer.....

Kagami saying the real things to Mari. Calling her out for her projecting. I kinda wanna see Kagami tag-teaming with Alya to put sense through Mari's head when she's spiraling

IS THAT IN THE RAIN????

REVERSE RAIN SCENE!!! OH ITS SO CUTE!!!

ADRIEN WHAT WAS THAT LOOK?? Also, is Adrien getting clumsy a sign that he's falling for Mari? And Mari being able to talk to him is a sign of her maturing!

And she's talking Alya's advice literally with the dancing in the rain thing!

FINAL THOUGHTS! As usual, I loved this episode! The Alya/Mari dynamic was amazing and I hope we get to see the girls working together some more! And I love Alya's firmness with Mari, it's what she needs. Also more Kagami/Mari moments! Kagami is also firm with Mari and I'd love to see her integrated in the girl squad, or at least become friends with Alya, so they can get through to Mari together. Adrien was cute this episode but I'm really curious about the clumsy moment of his. We know that the first rain scene is the moment Mari fell, so is this reversed one the moment Adrien falls? Oh! I cant wait for more!!!!!

[janaikam]

My second to last commission for the @mlbforblm drive. This one was a pool request by @chatnoirinette for a djwifi date with marichat/ladrien. Because I’m marichat trash I decided to make this one with djwifi and marichat. I hope you all enjoy!

Thank you @marikittynoir for betareading!

Summary: Walking back home one night, Alya spots Marinette letting Chat Noir into her room. Alya and Nino accidentally uncover a bit more than expected when confronting their friend about the situation.

X

“Nino, I’m fine. This isn’t the first time I’ve walked back home alone.” Alya held her phone close to her ear as she glanced from side to side, watching for cars before crossing the sidewalk.

She was passing by her old college, Francois Dupont, which meant she had only a ten-minute walk left until she got home safe and sound.

Unfortunately, Nino wasn’t having any of that.

“Yeah, you do, but normally you’re walking in the daylight not the middle of the night!” Nino exclaimed on the other end. She could just imagine him pacing in his room, worrying about her. Nino was super sweet and she loved that he cared so much, but times, like this, it could be really annoying.

“I didn’t mean to stay so long at the library on purpose, but hey, at least I didn’t stay until dawn again! Plus this time I called you,” Alya pointed out.

The library Alya had just come from was this new 24 hour one that opened up. They had regular library hours, but if you wanted to stay behind and do your own research they let you pay for a membership. Alya had jumped on the opportunity as soon as she heard that they had a whole section on superheroes. There had been many times when she either stayed at the library all night or fallen asleep and Nora had to come pick her up because it got too late.

Tonight she really tried to leave at a decent time. She had even set an alarm, but that darn snooze button would be the death of her. She had been doing some research on past Ladybug miraculous users for the Ladyblog, and by her probably 10th time pressing snooze, she had noticed a bunch of college-aged students glaring at her. She had packed up everything really quickly and exited the building before checking the time on her phone. It had been 11:00 P.M.

“Do I have to start coming with you to make sure this stops happening?”

Alya rolled her eyes as she stopped at the crosswalk not too far from the Dupain-Cheng bakery. The bakery lights were off, but she could see Marinette’s bedroom light still on. Hmm. Maybe she could throw pebbles at her window like a little Romeo. But then Marinette would convince her to stay the night and she couldn’t afford to do that.

“No, dad. I’m fine. In fact, I’m about to pass by Marineee…” Alya trailed off, staring blankly at Marinette’s balcony.

Alya watched as Chat Noir landed on top of the balcony. He knocked twice before Marinette’s head poked out of the trapdoor and she kissed him on the cheek before moving so Chat could enter her room.

“Alya?! Are you there? What’s wrong?” Nino’s panicked voice interrupted Alya’s racing thoughts.

Alya gulped as the crosswalk light turned green, but she didn’t move an inch too scared that she might unravel what she just witnessed.

“Nino, I think Marinette is dating Chat Noir.”

                                                           XXX

No one could ever say Nino never supported Alya.

Alya wanted to be the power duo at Just Dance? He broke out his best dancing shoes and helped her climb to the top.

Alya wanted to chase akumas? Nino was there by her side, making sure she didn’t kill herself in the process.

Alya wanted to be a superhero? Nino was Rena Rouge’s number one fan and everyone knew it.

Alya wanted to help track down Hawkmoth? Well, Nino was more than happy to give the old fart a piece of his mind.

But when Alya suggested her best friend was dating the cat-themed superhero of Paris? Well, that was just a little too hard for him to believe.

Ignoring the fact that Marinette has a giant crush on his best friend, Chat Noir just wasn’t her type. Marinette never seemed to be interested in the boastful arrogant types. At least from what he remembered about her. But then again he could be wrong about her. Heck, he could even be wrong about Chat Noir. Yet none of that even began to explain why the two of them would be spending time with each other that they would start to even date.

It just made 0 sense.

“Nnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooo,” Alya drawled. “I know what I saw. Marinette kissed Chat Noir and then proceeded to let him into her room!”

“Maybe it isn’t what you think it is?” Nino suggested hopefully.

“What am I supposed to think, Nino!? That my best friend is just sneaking a boy in a leather-looking magical catsuit into her room in the middle of the night for the heck of it?”

Nino shrugged. “They could just be friends who are hanging out? Chat Noir doesn’t always have to parade around as Paris’ superhero. He’s probably just a normal everyday person and Marinette decided to help him feel normal. I mean Marinette is super nice about those things.”

“But the kiss! The Kiss, Nino!”

“Uhh...maybe they’re friendly? I mean we’re French. We kiss in greeting.”

Alya gave Nino a deadpanned look.

“What else am I supposed to say? There are so many other logical explanations for why Marinette would kiss Chat Noir as he snuck into her bedroom.” Nino paused for a second. “Okay, that sounded really bad as I said it, but c’mon Alya. You really think Marinette would start dating Chat Noir?”

Alya tapped a pen on his cap. “That’s what I’m going to find out!”

Nino groaned, knowing Alya she’d devise some crazy scheme to get Marinette to confess that she was dating Chat Noir.

“Alya, please, don’t do anything stupid,” he begged.

“Stupid? Who me?” Alya blinked innocently as she walked towards the door. “Relax, I’ve got it all figured out.”

Alya winked at him as she exited the apartment.

Hopefully, Marinette has better luck than me convincing her.

                                                          XXX

“On your left!” Adrien shouted as he moved his cat-themed character across the Marshmallow Marsh.

Thanks to Adrien, Nino just narrowly avoided a sugar bomb. Maneuvering around the sticky mess left in its wake, Nino was able to catch up to Adrien’s character as they reached the end of the marsh and the end of the level.

Candy Chompers was one of Adrien and Nino’s favorite games ever since they discovered it two months ago. They had been enamored by the sugary sweet world and all the characters and adventures that came with it.

It was really a nice change from the games that guys their age played. Less violence and gore. More cute adorable animals wanting to save their world from being overrun by the evil Candy Lord.

As the next level loaded, Nino felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket. He shifted his position on Adrien’s couch so he could reach the phone.

Nino groaned as he read the text from Alya. So Marinette failed at her job yesterday.

Adrien glanced at Nino. “Everything okay?”

“No.” Nino paused the game, running his hand through his hair. “Apparently, Marinette and Chat Noir are dating and it seems Alya is making us go on a double date Saturday.”

“Wait, Alya found out Marinette and Chat Noir are dating?” Adrien asked, almost fearful.

“Yeah, crazy right?” Nino set his controller on the arm of the couch. “I always thought you two would get together.”

“Heh, yeah, Marinette and I. Definitely won’t happen now. Cause she’s with Chat. Hehe.”

Nino raised his eyebrows. Adrien was acting weirder than usual. And that was saying a lot, considering he always had the lamest excuses when akumas happened. Nino never really questioned the excuses though. Whatever he was doing when they occurred was Adrien’s business.

“So you’re going on a double date with Chat Noir?”

Nino nodded.

“Awesome. Great. Amazing.”

Before Nino could ask about Adrien’s weird response, Adrien unpaused the game, forcing Nino to refocus on the level ahead.

Adrien’s behavior was weird, but maybe he just had more feelings for Marinette than Nino thought. Man, he really shouldn’t have mentioned the double date in front of Adrien. Poor dude.

                                                          XXX

“I still don’t see why you had to invite them over for a date,” Nino said, watching Alya pull out her famous chicken casserole from the oven. The smell of the dish alone was enough to get Nino’s mouth watering.

Placing the hot dish on the stove, Alya turned towards Nino. “I needed to see if this little kitty is good enough for our Mari.”

“Alya. He’s a superhero. You’ve had interviews with him. How can you say he’s not good enough for Nette?”

There was the sound of voices coming from Alya’s front door, so Nino moved to go open it. From what he could tell the two people outside of it were arguing.

“For all we know, Chat Noir could just be keeping up appearances. Knowing the entirety of Paris is watching, he could have just put on this fake personality, and underneath he’s just this ugly troll, trying to hurt our precious Marinette.”

Nino rolled his eyes at his girlfriend’s antics.

“Why are you dressed like that?” One of the voices in the hallway said. Kind sounded like Marinette if he really focused on the voice.

“I thought that this was appropriate.” Wow, that sounded a lot like Adrien. “Especially considering they think that—”

The voices stopped as soon as Nino opened the apartment door.

Huh, so it was Marinette’s voice he heard, but definitely not Adrien’s.

Marinette and Chat Noir looked like little kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Both of them looked extremely stiff as they stood next to each other right outside the apartment door.

“Oh, you’re here!” Nino jumped at Alya’s sudden appearance behind him. “Nino, don’t make them stay out there all night.”

“Yeah, c’mon in!” Nino moved aside to let the couple in.

“You came at a perfect time, I just took out the food. I’ll bring it out in just a second!” Alya said, walking back into the kitchen.

“Okay, Alya. We’ll be at the dining table,” Marinette responded, leading Chat over to the table in the dining room.

Nino wasn’t sure if it was just him, but Marinette seemed extremely tense like she was a mouse stuck in a field of mouse traps.

There was an awkward pause at the table once the three sat down. Neither of the couple in front of Nino seemed very eager to strike up a conversation. Probably just nerves.

Considering the circumstances, Nino figured that they never really expected to go on a double date ever, so now being on one was likely very weird.

“Uh, so, Chat, what do you like to do for fun?” Nino asked.

“Oh, you know. Everyday teenage boy things. Play video games, flex in the mirror, save princesses. Normal everyday activities. Hehe.”

“What games do you play?”

“I play a bit of Ultimate Mecha Strike III and Cand—OW!”

Nino watched confused as Chat Noir brought his foot up to his face and cradled it. Marinette didn’t seem at all concerned by her boyfriend’s antics. Instead, she was glancing back towards the kitchen where Alya was adding some finishing touches on her casserole.

“Oh, so you and Marinette must’ve bonded over your love for UMS3. She’s like the queen of that game. I still have yet to meet someone who could beat her at it.”

Chat Noir scoffed. “I’ve beat Little Miss Constipation Girl here at UMS3 multiple times.”

Of all the names to call Marinette, that had to be the weirdest one ever. He definitely had to ask about that later. As far as he knew , the only people who knew about the constipation incident were him, Alya, the girls, and Adrien. Well Nino only knew because Adrien had told him about his trip to London and Alya filled him in on some minor details after the fact.

Marinette either blushed in embarrassment at the nickname or at the fact that she wasn’t an unbeatable mastermind at UMS3. “You only won both times because you cheated by distracting me!”

“A true champion knows not to get distracted by the tiniest of things.” Chat had a smug smirk on his face as he watched Marinette turn as red as a tomato.

“Why you mangy little all-”

“Dinner is served!” Alya announced, interrupting Marinette.

Whatever the incident was surrounding UMS3, Nino was definitely never going to bring that up again for fear of his life or Chat’s life.

“So what were you guys talking about?” Alya asked, taking the seat beside Nino.

“Nothing much. Wow, babe this looks amazing. Let’s dig in!” Nino exclaimed, quickly grabbing a serving of the casserole.

Chat and Marinette followed suit while Alya gave Nino a look that read, ‘What the heck is going on?’. Instead of answering the exact question she was thinking, Nino turned towards his plate and started filling his mouth with food.

Alya shook her head at his antics, grabbing her own portion.

The next few minutes were spent in a comfortable silence as everyone dug into the food.

Alya really out did herself this time. Maybe Marinette should sneak around with superheroes more often if this is how Alya ends up cooking.

“You’re a hungry little cat aren’t you?” Alya asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.

Looking up, Nino saw Chat with his claw (paw?) on the spoon for the casserole dish.

“Sorry, I didn’t get to eat a whole lot today and this is really good food, Ms. Ladyblogger.”

Nino, along with Alya and Marinette, looked at Chat concerned. Of all people, Nino would’ve thought a superhero would eat enough to stay healthy. Superheroes like Chat and Ladybug were always out there running around stopping akumas. Not eating enough food? That was practically a death wish.

“Nino, could you go get the leftover coleslaw from our lunch earlier. I think Chat needs it more than Ella and Etta.”

Nino immediately complied, more than eager to help out the poor boy who consistently saved Paris.

“No, you don’t have to!” Chat started shaking his hands, trying to stop Nino.

“Dude, we have a model friend who doesn’t eat enough as it is and I always make him eat some of my leftovers. As far as I know you’re not a model, but you save Paris like everyday so a healthy diet is a must.” Nino pushed the bowl of coleslaw into Chat’s arms. “Here, take as much as you want.”

“Oh, um, thanks. I’m not really sure what to say.” Chat blushed.

“You don’t say anything. Just eat.” Marinette grabbed the coleslaw from Chat’s hands and filled his plate with a nice serving. Alya did similar and picked up the casserole dish, piling even more food onto his plate.

“Oh, okay then.” Chat picked up his fork and stared at his plate now full of food.

“I don’t see a lot of eating going on there.” Marinette had her hands on her hips, watching Chat to make sure he would eat. Chat clearly didn’t want to test Marinette on the topic of food, so he complied by eating the food in front of him.

“I think I finally get it. Marinette is dating Chat to make sure that he would be eating enough!” Alya shouted after a few minutes watching the two.

“Wait what you think I’m dating Chat!?” “That’s exactly the reason!”

Marinette and Chat blurted at the same time.

Nino furrowed his eyebrows at Marinette’s statement. That didn’t make a lot of sense considering they were currently on a double date.

“Wait, what do you mean you and Chat aren’t dating?” Apparently, Alya also picked up on Marinette’s statement.

“Um, well you see Chat is here, umm, filling in for Adrien because you mentioned how you saw me with my boyfriend and I’m dating Adrien hehe.” Marinette smiled unconvincingly.

“So you’re not dating Chat Noir?”

Marinette shook her head. “I’m not...did you think I was?”

“Uh, yeah! I saw him sneak into your room one night and you kissed him on the cheek!”

Marinette glanced at Chat. “Oh, uh, you saw that? Chat and I just hang out sometimes. Giving each other cheek kisses and all.”

Alya blinked while Nino grinned at the explanation. It was practically the same explanation he had given Alya when this whole thing started.

“Oh. Then that means you’re dating Adrien?”

Marinette nodded.

“And Chat filled in because Adrien couldn’t make it?”

Marinette nodded again.

“Uh, I have a question.” Nino felt the entire table’s eyes on him as he spoke. “Why did Chat volunteer if you and Adrien were keeping your relationship a secret? Why not just say Adrien couldn’t come instead of outing your secret to three people?”

“Adrien and I are bad at keeping secrets?” Marinette said more so as a question.

“Clearly.” Alya sighed. Nino could tell she was just as confused as he was.

There was just something about her story that didn’t add up. It was really bugging him, but he couldn’t place his finger on it.

Unless it was…

“Hey, Nette, did you ever tell Chat about the prescription incident?”

“No, why?”

That was it. That was what didn’t make sense. “Why did Chat call you ‘Little Miss Constipation Girl’ earlier?”

“Uhh…”

“There was another constipation incident!”

Alya gave the pair a look of disbelief. “As much as I could believe Marinette had some separate constipation incident. I feel like your actions suggest otherwise.”

“I mean it’s not like there’s anything ba—Oh my gosh, Chat’s Adrien.” The answer just hit Nino like a bullet train. How could he have been so blind. Adrien was the only dude who even knew about that stupid constipation incident. And then his actions lined up almost perfectly with how Chat acted. Even his reaction at the dinner invite. He was probably completely confused on who he was supposed to show up as.

“How could I have been so blind!” Alya exclaimed next to him.

“I guess we let the Chat out of the bag, huh?” Chat whispered to Marinette.

“No, you did!”

“Nah, it was a team effort.”

[alexiessan]

Never alone - Chapter Eighteen - Soulmate AU

AO3

Previous - Here - Next

Master List

Marinette was at Kim’s house with her two childhood friends the day after Christmas. They exchanged gifts like they did every year — new headphones for Nino and a sports watch for Kim — and played video games while drinking hot chocolate and eating Mrs. Lê Chien’s famous gingerbread.

She was in the middle of beating Kim at UMSIII when she noticed that Nino seemed down. He wasn’t as happy as usual and was withdrawing from them a little.

She decided to ask him after the game was over.

“You ok there?”

Nino looked up at her and Kim looked at his friend too, frowning at the DJ.

“Yeah, you’ve been acting weird the whole time.”

The bespectacled boy sighed, fidgeting a little.

“I hate that I can’t hide anything from you guys.”

He played with his cap, a nervous tic he had ever since he started wearing caps.

“Something happened. Something huge, and I don’t know what to do.”

Kim and Marinette were silent, waiting for Nino to find the courage to tell them what he needed to.

The fashion designer had an idea about what happened, though.

“I… I met my soulmate,” he said. “You know how my soulbond is that I get things that my soulmate lost? And vice versa? Well, a while back, I lost my favorite cap, and the other day, I saw a girl wearing it.”

She heard Kim silently gasp next to her.

“So I went to her and asked how she got it and she told me that her soulmate lost it. When I told her it was mine, she was a bit skeptical, so I told her about things I got from her and… Yeah. She’s my soulmate. Her name is Léa.”

They were silent after that, not knowing if they should congratulate him or not. They knew that Nino loved Alya, but a soulmate changed everything.

“Is it romantic or platonic?”

Their friend looked at them, his eyes so sad it broke Marinette’s heart.

“Romantic,” he answered.

The fashion designer hugged him close to her.

“Have you told Alya yet?”

She felt him shake his head no. Releasing him, he said:

“I thought that I would wait until we got back to school to tell her. I… I have a lot to think of, and I love Alya with all my heart, so I don’t want to end things on a bad note. So yeah, I need to think very carefully about the way I’ll tell her.”

Nino looked at her then, almost pleading.

“Can you not tell her, please?”

The Eurasian girl smiled sadly at him.

“You know I won’t. It’s not my business to tell.”

She took his hand, squeezing it a little.

“I know you’ll do your best to not hurt her too much. And, you know, I think Alya saw it coming. She’s been having a bad feeling for a while now.”

“Yeah, I know, she told me.”

Kim patted his back.

“I’m sure the two of you will still be friends after that.”

Nino let out a strangled laugh, tears coming out of his eyes.

“I hope so.”

Marinette didn’t realize that she has missed Gotham until the plane landed. While Paris was a beautiful city full of art and history, she was born there and has seen everything.

Gotham was different. There was so much she hadn’t seen there, so much she had yet to learn about this city.

Unfortunately, she wouldn’t be there long enough to visit much, but there would always be next time!

It took a long time to find her suitcase and people around her were eager to get out of the airport and were pushing her out of the way, so she decided to let them get their luggage first so she wouldn’t have to deal with them.

Rude, really, but she could understand how they wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

Suitcase retrieved, Marinette looked for Damian, as he promised that he would pick her up. She smiled as she saw him, a sign with her name on it. He was next to a man in his sixties-seventies and recognized him instantly even if she’s never met him. It was Alfred Pennyworth, the man that was a grandfather for the Wayne boys in everything but blood.

She hugged Damian, kissing his cheek in greetings, and turned to Alfred.

“Hello, mister. I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

She extended her hand and he took it, shaking it.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Miss Dupain-Cheng. I’m Alfred Pennyworth. You may call me by my name.”

“Alright, please, call me Marinette too!” She smiled at him.

She felt Damian take her suitcase from her.

“Is it all you have?” He asked.

“Yeah, I packed lightly,” she said.

He took her hand, leading her to the exit.

“Come on, Jason has been exciting to finally meet you. He wouldn’t shut up about it.”

“You’re shorter than I think you would be.”

Jason — or Red Hood, as she had known him under his alias until now — has always been teasing her during her video calls with Robin, and she always gave back as much as she got, but she wasn’t expecting him to tease her about her height.

She knew she was short, alright? She wasn’t the shortest, but she wasn’t tall either, and, yeah, standing next to Jason, she felt ridiculous.

No, really, anyone would laugh at them if they saw them standing next to each other. She could only imagine Alix standing next to Jason, it would be even more ridiculous.

“Excuse me? I can’t hear you from all the way down there.”

She heard Tim laugh somewhere behind Jason, but she couldn’t see him. Really, the second son of the Wayne family was huge.

Jason laughed at her, ruffling her hair.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, munchkin.”

“Ha. Ha. Nicknames about my size, don’t you have anything original?”

She smiled, though, not offended at all. She always got those kinds of nicknames from Kim, anyway. The guy was way too tall for his own good too.

Speaking of tall people — or tall and huge things in general — the dog that was running toward her was huge too. And it wasn’t stopping.

Before she could understand was happening, she was on her butt on the floor, a huge Great Dane licking her face.

“Titus!”

The designer laughed.

“Now, I like this kind of welcome.”

She petted the dog for a bit before getting up with Jason’s help. She greeted Dick with a smile and started a conversation with Tim, happy to see him after almost two years.

They spent the whole afternoon talking, and she did her best to fight the sleep, being jet-lagged. She wanted to wait until after dinner to sleep though, she was having such a good time with Damian and his brothers.

She met Bruce at said dinner since he had an emergency at Wayne Enterprises.

“It’s good to properly meet you, Marinette.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Mister Wayne. Thank you for sending help in Paris.”

“Of course, we couldn’t just let it happen.”

Dinner was pleasant, and she learned more about Damian while observing his family. Dick was obviously the more outgoing among them, and seeing as Bruce didn’t express himself much, she could see how Damian struggled with his emotions.

The food was delicious, Alfred was a great cook and Marinette couldn’t remember eating a better meal in her life.

She would never tell that to her parents, though. But they were still the best when it came to dessert and baked goods.

It was the next day, lying in bed next to Damian trying to sleep that she decided to confront him.

Just like Nino a few days ago, Damian was acting weird and anxious, to the point that she could feel it from him, making her unable to fall asleep.

“What’s wrong?”

He looked at her then, and she could guess the frown on his face. Whatever it was that he was thinking about, it was not good.

“I have something to tell you.”

She moved, choosing to sit so she could face him instead of lying down.

“Okay. Should I be worried?”

“It’s not about us, per se, it’s about me. About things that I haven’t tell you yet.”

She relaxed a little, relieved that it wasn’t about their relationship.

“Okay,” she breathed. “I’m listening. Take your time.”

She heard him move and suddenly, there was light coming from the lamp on his bedside table. Good, it was less awkward now that she could properly see him.

“It’s about my past. I never told you about my mother, right?”

She shook her head no.

“I’ve been living with her until I was ten. Then I was living with my father and I’ve only seen her once since moving in with my father.”

He paused, looking for the right words.

“My mother is not a good person. Neither was my grandfather or anyone I knew back then. I wasn’t a good person either. Can’t say I’m a good person now, though.”

She opened her mouth to protest but he stopped her.

“Don’t  misunderstand. I’m a much better person than I was back then, but I’m not quite there yet. But I will be.”

She thought that he was already there but didn’t see it yet. She hoped he would see it soon.

“My mother and grandfather raised me… trained me to do things… bad things. Really bad things. And I never thought twice about it. I did everything they asked of me, and I didn’t see anything wrong with it. It was normal for me.”

Damian didn’t say the words, but she had a good idea of what the bad things were. She felt cold suddenly and had to take a deep breath.

“The things I did…”

“Ssssh.” She interrupted him. “I know. I don’t want to hear it.”

He looked hurt at her words and she cursed herself. She took his hand, squeezing it.

“Hey, hey. That’s not what I meant. It’s just, sometimes, you don’t need to hear some things. I think I know what you’ve done, and I don’t need to hear more. I just need to know one thing, though.”

He nodded, the hurt was gone now, and she knew that he understood what she meant.

“Those bad things… Do you still do them now?”

“No, my father made sure I wouldn’t anymore.”

“Okay,” she breathed. “You don’t do it anymore. But do you want to?”

“No!” He exclaimed. “No, I don’t want anymore.”

“That’s all I needed to know.”

She kissed him, then, so he could understand that she didn’t think of him any differently.

“Are you feeling better now that it’s off your chest,” she asked.

“Yeah, I do.”

He kissed her, softly, and gave her face and neck a lot of kisses.

“I…” he took a deep breath then, as if what he was about to say caused him physical pain. “I love you.”

Marinette swore that she felt her heart stop at those words. Those three words she’s been dreaming of hearing for months now. She was so happy she could cry.

Damian’s face fell, and she realized that she was taking too long to answer. She gave him the brightest smile that she could and stroke his cheek lovingly.

“I love you so much,” she whispered.

She didn’t know who leaned in first, but their lips met in a passionate kiss. He pulled her closer to him, their chest touching, and his hand took untied her hair from the ponytail they were in.

Her hands were moving up and down his torso, and soon, his shirt was on the floor instead of his person. Her shirt soon followed and when Damian pulled away, she almost whimpered.

“Wait, wait, wait,” he panted. “Are you sure you want to go there?”

She pulled him to her, kissing him once more but he broke the kiss once again.

“No, I’ll need your verbal consent, here.”

She smiled, appreciating his concern.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

And this time, when she pulled him to her, he didn’t resist.

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