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cakejots · 4 years ago

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this is us trying, Chapter 3 - The Decision

In this AU, they don’t know each other outside of the suit. And in this AU, Ladybug and Chat Noir love each other. But in this AU, Chat doesn’t want their identities revealed.

Written for @ladynoirjuly 2021

notes: this is a coherent story based on all the prompts; each chapter contains at least 3 prompts

Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Ch 8 | Ch 9 | Ch 10

Read on AO3

8. Admiration

Ladybug shifted from her spot at the top of Notre Dame’s North Tower, awaiting Chat’s arrival. The time it took to get in contact with him again wasn’t very long, but it was longer than the intervals between their dates. She understood that he has his own life to live, and sometimes, their schedules just really couldn’t match up. But for this time, in particular, she couldn’t help but feel that he was avoiding her.

Was it really a coincidence that he got especially busy right after he left her alone on that rooftop? She didn’t know.

Even though Ladybug had arrived 15 minutes earlier, she had that irrational fear that he wouldn’t turn up. She knew Chat wasn't like that, he always keeps his word. But she couldn’t help it, the possibility that their relationship could take a turn for the worse frightened her.

Luckily, before her thoughts could spiral out of control, Chat landed a few metres away from her.

Relief flooded her chest as Chat slowly stood from his crouched position. She was about to run over and throw her arms around him when his words stopped her.

“I’m really sorry for what I’ve done that day.” Chat wasn’t at his full height, his body posture was humbled and he was rubbing his hands.

“What I did was horrible, and I’ve no excuse for the way I treated you that day.” He had his head lowered and his eyes glimpsed at her ever so often, to see if she was listening to him. “I understand if you want to walk away, I just hope you’ll forgive me.”

Her eyes harden, posture standing even taller than before. Ladybug eyed him. This was the second time he had talked about her leaving him.

“I’m not going to walk away, Chat.” Her eyes softened as he flinched from her sudden rush of words. “But I’ll be lying if I said that didn’t hurt. I just want to know why it happened.”

Tears filled his green eyes as he fixed them on hers. His face held a sombre expression, as though it physically hurt him to be saying those next words.

“My lady,” he pleaded with a voice thick of desperation. “Forgive me, I promise I’ll tell you one day. Just… I can’t— not now…”

Ladybug sighed.

“Please know that,” he quickly rushed to her and embraced her tightly. “I didn’t regret giving you that kiss! Never.”

Ladybug raised her arms and tightened her grip on him as he trembled.

“Thank you for your assurance, Chaton.” She pulled back and surveyed his face. “I’m aware that this is a bit insensitive, but could you wait here for 5 minutes? I’m just going to get some stuff.”

Chat grew uneasy. To be alone on a cool night? He was reasonably unsettled, especially after what had confronted him just moments ago. Ladybug said she wouldn’t walk away, but now she’s asking him to stay here? How could he not be worried?

“Just 5 minutes,” her fingers grazed his face. “I promise you’ll enjoy our date even more after I bring those things here.”

He should trust her. He knows he could trust her. After all, she had said she wouldn't leave. It happened once, it can happen again.

“We can call each other while I’m—“

“It’s okay, my lady.” He pulled back and smiled. “I’ll see you in 5 minutes.”

Ladybug wasn’t convinced that he’s okay, but she gave him a peck on the cheek to ease his doubts. “I’ll be back before you know it!”

And true to her words, she came back in 3 minutes, with two pillows, a thick blanket, and a laptop in her arms.

Chat eyed them quizzingly.

“We, are going to get comfortable and watch montages of ourselves!” She sat beside him, the Ladyblog web page now visible on her screen. “Looking at how awesome we were would give us that extra endorphins boost, don't you think?”

“We are still awesome now, what are you saying?” He wrapped the blanket around them.

She giggled. “We should do some parkour sometimes.”

Bundled up in blankets with their limbs tangled, they sat there watching the best moments they had while battling Akumas, fondness for themselves and for the other clear on their faces.

Ladybug has always been like this, trying to solve whatever issues that arise. It’s how they’ve won battle after battle. Even after the threat is gone, she’s still trying to salvage the situation, no matter how small it is in the grand scheme of things.

Chat was immensely grateful for what she had done tonight. The videos had really calmed his nerves and brought back all those euphoric memories he once had. The reason why he was doing this in the first place. The joy his lady had brought to him whenever he spent time with her. The love and admiration he felt for her as she stood up against Hawkmoth on their first day as superheroes, despite Ladybug believing that she wasn’t suited for her calling.

The love…

He tightened his hold around her.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, just mesmerised by how cool we are.”

How could he have forgotten? How miraculously amazing she was. No. She still is, up till this very day. Even after 6 years. Even after he denied her what she wanted most following Shadowmoth’s defeat. Even after what he’s done to their relationship. She never walked away from him, and is still trying to rectify the situation.

He wasn’t making it easy for her, even though it should’ve been after the final battle. It’s really unfair to her.

And yet, she’s still here, she still chose to stick with him.

This can’t go on.

He took hold of her hand and brought it to his lips. “You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

9. Cinema

“Come on, come on, come on, we’re gonna be late!” Chat hurriedly pushed her into the cinema, worried that they wouldn't make it to showtime.

“Wasn’t that 5-hour binge-watch enough?” Ladybug was obviously excited about the movie, but she couldn’t allow him the satisfaction so easily.

“Of course not! This is the sequel to the series!” He continued pushing as if there’s nothing entirely wrong with his behaviour.

“And we’re heading to a cinema now. Didn’t you say you wanted us to be as discreet as possible?” She raised her eyebrow despite Chat not being able to see her face.

“Yeah, but it’s the premiere today! We won’t be able to watch it on the laptop.” They stopped at the cinema hall entrance and Chat scanned his ticket for the seat number before he continued pushing. “Also, watching in a cinema after hours of watching from a smaller screen is just a different experience, no?”

They finally arrived at the row where their seats were, but he continued resting his hands on her shoulder, guiding her to her seat before finally letting her go. “Besides, Parisians won’t kick us out after the ‘patrol’ stun we pulled.”

She rolled her eyes. “I mean we did do our job when something happened.”

Although animated films are popular in France, this particular one didn’t attract as many audiences as those action-packed animated films, which was a blessing and a curse because they would be able to get away with minimal attention on them, but also so many people are missing out on this greatness.

“Anyway, do you think we’ll cry again?” She rubbed her tear-stained eyes, “I don’t think I’ve any liquid left in me for that.”

“Nonsense, there’s definitely more in you,” he cupped her cheeks to have a better look at her. “And you still look so pretty even after all that crying.”

“Oh, quite the sadist, aren’t you? Does my crying bring you joy?”

“Come on, Buguinette, you can’t deny it was phenomenal.”

“Yeah, you’re right. It is phenomenal. But couldn’t we spread it out even more? The watch time on that series I mean.”

“I… I won’t have time for the rest of the week,” his smile fell as his hands caressed her cheeks. “I’m really sorry.”

“No wonder you wanted to spend the whole day today,” she teased. “Well, no worries about it! I love spending time with you.”

He moved his hand to hers and placed a kiss on her knuckles. “Thank you, my lady.”

And that’s when the lights started dimming. They relaxed into their respective seats, but not without interlacing their hands together.

The movie, of course, had delivered what the series had set out to do. The cinema was filled with sniffles and sobs and Ladybug and Chat Noir were certainly not spared from the experience. They were tearing like they had been all afternoon, the only difference was that they weren’t able to hold the other as tightly as they would’ve liked due to the armrest in between them.

And they didn’t realise the importance of tissues until that night. They had to go to the toilet to clean their face and clear their noses before continuing with other plans they had had for the night.

10. Moonlight

As they left the establishment, they were surprised to see how the gleaming of the silver orb that hung in the sky rivalled that of The City of Light.

Chat proposed spending the rest of the night at the top of the Eiffel Tower, given that it has been a while since they were there. And immediately regretted that suggestion when he remembered that their last memories of the Eiffel Tower were of him expressing his wishes to hold off the reveal right after the final battle.

But Ladybug eagerly agreed and was already well on her way. He had no choice but to follow through.

When he arrived, he was awestruck by the moon. He has—

“—never seen the moon this big! Wow!” Ladybug proclaimed as she took in the moon in all its beauty.

She was captivated by the glamour of the moon, but to Chat, it seemed as though she was basking in the moonlight. Her suit gave off a shimmering red glow not often seen and her dark hair looked midnight blue under it. Her back was towards him, but as she turned around to move towards the spot next to him, he felt his own heartbeat quickened. The brilliance of her blue orbs awed him, they were of a pigment he had never seen before in her eyes.

“Wow indeed.”

They moved to sit side by side on the edge and took in the view of the moon and of the city. Did they really enjoy this view of the city weekly before? Has it always been this beautiful?

“You know,” Ladybug started, breaking the silence. “I’m really glad he chose what he did in the end.”

“Yeah, they finally got together.”

She peered upwards. “It wasn’t an easy journey, but I’m so satisfied with that ending. I’m sure everyone was crying tears of joy too.”

That animated series as a whole was about conveying your feelings to the ones you love. Which he did, a lot. He was never one to shy away from declaring his love for her. But why did everything change after the final battle? Why did he change after the final battle?

His heart must’ve been tired of what his brain was trying to reason about, and thus led him to pick this series to watch, and eventually the movie. All the answers were there.

He knew his lady well enough and was certain that she wouldn't walk away. She has proved that time and time again.

So what was preventing him from being with her, when he very much desired to have a happy ending with her as well?

In some ways, his current predicament was similar to Gilbert’s. He was afraid. He was afraid that she’ll abandon him after she found out who he really was, and what he’s done.

But…

Chat looked over to see Ladybug moonbathing and enjoying the light breeze. Was it too much to hope for a happy ending himself? He knew damn well how Violet felt throughout the whole ordeal of trying to get Gilbert back by her side. Did he really want his lady to end up that way eventually, when he had the ability to prevent that?

No. That’s too brutal. The world was already cruel to him. But if he could prevent that cruelty and enable her to witness how beautiful life can be, how pleasant she had made life for him, he’d do it.

“Chaton?”

Those eyes that looked at him as though he hung the stars in her sky. Those wide blue eyes that never gave up on him despite his failure to give her what she wanted most. Those worried, concerned eyes, so full of love.

He was choked up with emotions.

“I love you.”

Ladybug inhaled sharply and stared at him unblinking, unsure if she misheard those words.

She reached out to him slowly. “Can… Can you say that again?”

“I love you.” He took her hand and squeezed it, leaning in to press his warm lips against her cheek.

He pulled back to see tears in the corner of her eyes.

“My lady?”

She still stared at him as her tears started to trickle down her face.

His hands flew to her face. “My—”

Ladybug threw her arms around him with such vitality that they toppled over. “I love you too!”

He pulled her in to close any gaps between them, so very glad that she still felt the same despite all that has happened. She planted a heartwarming kiss on his cheek as Chat landed on his back.

They basked in each other’s warmth and presence. He stroked her hair and she melted into him, happy tears flowing as her kitty was starting to declare his love for her again, verbally.

“My lady, can we meet up again tomorrow?”

“I thought you said you were busy?” She giggled.

“I did,” he grinned. “But who said anything about meeting during the hours of the day?”

#ladynoirjuly2021 #ladynoirjuly #ladynoir #mesfics #miraculous ladybug #fanfic #mlb fanfic #ladybug #chat noir #alternate universe #light angst #fluff #hurt/comfort #this is us trying

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saemi-the-writer · 4 years ago

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What are your top 10 akumas? 🦋👿

Thanks for your ask! This is quite the challenge to pick, so I will establish some "rules" first:

Only akumas, no amoks or combination Akuma/Amok.

I am rating the akuma, not the whole episode! Which means: the akumas' designs, their power(s) and the fight they have mostly, not the reason the person was akumatized (that could be another top 10).

Very subjective opinion: do I like the design? Is it fun/entertaining to watch? Is this akuma a real threat or a joke?

Now here goes, fly, my pretty akumas, fly!

10. Dark Blade

As I mentioned it already, Dark Blade is an akuma I still enjoy a lot. Probably because I've always loved knights and a good swordfight. Otherwise, Dark Blade is quite a good menace, he knows how to lead his troops and has solid fencing skills. I really like how even his manner of speech gets even more mediaeval and that he has his own motto. The fight is fun to watch

9. Riposte

Swords again Her determination is chilling and her design is neat, I like how her sword has become an extension of her arm. I don't know what to add more, try having a furious ladygirl like that chasing after you and I guess you might have an idea that she's not to be messed with? Also, how she just cuts the sarcophage just proves she's not kidding.

8. Party crasher

I admit that I'm not a big fan of the look, but it fits his theme quite well and he does an excellent job! I mean, if it wasn't for Kim and the Monkey Miraculous, all the other heroes would have been doomed! For an akuma that was created on the spot for an emergency, it was far better than a lot of others. Tip of the hat for this guy.

7. Robostus

While I'm not a big fan of the trope "Machines/Computers/Robots turn against humanity", it can still be interesting and awesome if done well. And here it does quite a nice job, it is quite a good mix of funny and menacing. The fact that Robostus turned against Hawkmoth earns it bonus point, I like when minions turn against the big bad.

6. The Mime

"Be careful of the quiet one" don't you think? His power is really awesome, I mean, he can even create a car! And fighting against invisible weapons is really hard, I love how imprevisible he can be and his expressions in general. If he could mime more thing at once, he might have got closer to get the Miraculouses.

5. Dark Owl

It's a nice tribute to comics heroes like Batman, the design and gimmicks are spot on (pun intended) and he does a great job! The fight is really one of the best to watch and captivating.

4. Zombizou

Not a fan of zombies and yet!! I love the mix of cute, sweet and creepy plus threatening she looks! The way she moves and talks (at least in French, haven't watched other dubs for this episode) gives some shiver at how joyful she sounds! And while I always find it funny how the victims are all "Bisou! Bisou!", it gets spooky when imagining them as classical zombies. I think it hits it well how creepy forcing people to be affectionate and love-starved would turn out.

3. Volpina

Thought I would leave her out? Nope! Now this is a good foe! Volpina is ruthless, clever, vicious and vindicative, very good ingredients for a villain. And the way she uses her power are just... *claps*. This is the episode which got me thinking "Good thing she's an akuma and not a real miraculous wielder! If she can do that as an akuma, I'm afraid of what she would be/do with the real fox miraculous!" she's kinda OP in the end but anyway. Once you see past her illusions, she's less dangerous especially on her own, but as an ally or part of a villain team? On top!

2. Chat Blanc

Okay, as said above, I am not here to critisize the whole episode, etc. And as an akuma, honestly, I cannot put him lower! I was never hyped for the fan theories of Chat Blanc, I found them kind of meh at the time (not all of them though), however, I really like what they did for the official: blue eyes, chilly presence, the bordering insanity in his voice and movements, especially when he sees Ladybug after so many years all alone... MAN, I was all on board for some tragic, heart-wrenching battle and confrontation! Chat Blanc has a lot of tragic villain in him, I really wish it hadn't been wrapped up in only one episode. I grew up watching DBZ so don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of battles/fights that keep going on and on for 10-15 episodes, but there are fights that are worth to be lingered on. Chat Blanc is basically a Chat Noir without restrain and who loose his sanity, so it makes him incredibly dangerous just with that, but his power is also enhanced, no wonder it went to apocalypse! I wish the battle had been longer though, as said before, since not only could have it been even more emotional and amazing to watch, but it would also have add more (obvious) weight to Marinette's trauma and fear that is still present in season 4. That is the reason I can't put him 1st place, that and because he lacks a little spark that brings some excitment.

Honorable mentions: M. Pigeon, Evillustrator, Dark Cupid, Kwami Buster and Princess Fragrance. Some just missed the top 10!

1. Stormy Weather

I never got tired of her! I wish we had more akumas and fights like hers, she had it all! She is the reason why I got into ML in the first place, I still get excited and am impressed at the battle scene. She has presence, uses her power flawlessly and has a lot of rage in her, she is wonderful!! screw Stormy Weather 2.0 why wouldn't you show us that freaking volcano battle?!

#miraculous ladybug #akumas #Saemi's top ten lists #akuma top ten lists #best akumas #in my opinion

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bouwrites · 5 years ago

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Maribat March 2020 Prompt: Soulmate

Week 4, Day 2. This story has been previously posted in response to @theatreandcomicfreak‘s prompt here. I’ve done some minor editing to it, but if you’ve read that already, there’s no significant difference. I’m simply reposting the story in a better format to fit within the guidelines of this Maribat event, so that I can more easily link each story together as a group.

Maribat March 2020 Calendar.

Day 1: Sweetheart’s Dance, Day 3: Coffee Shop.

Ao3.

2133 words. Story under read-more.

Marinette has always been a princess. She likes the nickname. Likes being treated like one. Likes the meaning behind it. She’s not so unusual in that way. After all, how many young girls dream of being princesses? Even she can admit that the number of Disney movies alone Marinette has watched over and over again is a little ridiculous. And since her soulmark appeared, Marinette understandably never quite left behind the princess phase. After all, proudly curving on the back of her neck, almost hidden by her hairline, in clear script, is the word “Princess”. The thing her soulmate will call her. She’s not demanding or spoiled or anything like that, or she tries not to be, but that doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy feeling like a princess now and then.

She’s comfortable with her soulmark. It’s not the most uncommon thing, and her having a preference for more established nicknames means she knows from a young age that she’s bound to run into some confusion somewhere down the line. The whole, “are they or are they not?” thing that happens when people use nicknames for friends that just happens to align with their soulmark. She knows it’s coming, so she’s comfortable. Prepared.

She gets a little too comfortable, truth be told, but she learns to hold her tongue. Some people can be like Chat Noir, making up nicknames for everyone, their originality driving them through the cloud of the most common terms of endearment on soulmarks. Marinette is creative enough, and she used to do the same thing, but she learns better now. That leaves her in the other pool of people, who try not to use nicknames much at all, to avoid confusion.

Once you say something, there’s no taking it back. One affectionate “Chaton” and her crime-fighting partner thinks she’s the love of his life. But he never calls her “princess”. He never uses her mark-name. It doesn’t even occur to him to. Marinette takes this as proof that he’s not her soulmate after all, but whenever she tells him this, he just thinks up another nickname to call her.

It’s not frightening or even annoying so much as it is simply awkward. With an everyday friend, that may not be such a problem, but with her partner? They aren’t on the same wavelength, all because of a stupid mark-name. That’s dangerous.

Marinette learns to hold her tongue. Sure, a mistake in everyday life may not have such potentially severe consequences, but even so she’d rather avoid insistent men on her case in her civilian life if possible. Chat Noir is no problem, because Marinette trusts and likes him, but he does teach her a lesson on how some people may react to the wrong name. Nicknames, for her, end up reserved for only her closest friends, if that. The change isn’t as hard as she thinks.

Princess. Marinette can’t help the violent flinch that overcomes her at the name, but Chat Noir doesn’t seem to notice. He keeps going on showboating for her. Princess? Really? Is this a joke?

There’s no other explanation. It has to be some grand cosmic joke. The punchline to the greatest show on Earth. Because Marinette knows Chat Noir isn’t her soulmate. She knows he likes to make up nicknames, but never once has he called her “Princess”.

Marinette uncomfortably touches the mark on the back of her neck, disguising it as simply rubbing it awkwardly. The bold lines spelling out that word. Princess. What… Chat Noir calls her?

Marinette doesn’t have time to think about this. She has an akuma to take down, and with it targeting her as a civilian, she has to be at the top of her game. Chat Noir can wait, soulmate or not. At least for now.

It makes sense, to some extent. If Chat Noir has only not called her princess because his soulmate isn’t Ladybug but Marinette. But then what about him? She called him Chaton while and because he is Chat Noir. Marinette would never even think of calling someone that who isn’t moonlighting as a cat. But then, does that prove that they are soulmates? Or does it prove that they aren’t? Surely someone other than her will call him Chaton. It’s not exactly a hard place to reach, once they learn of his alter ego.

Yeah. Marinette thinks. It’s just a coincidence. Calling some damsel “princess” is just like him, anyway. It should be more surprising that he hasn’t until now. Marinette holds her hair up with one hand and a mirror with the other, examining the mark. Right?

“Tikki?” Marinette reaches one hand up into the air, idly grasping at nothing as her mind consumes her.

“What is it, Marinette?”

Marinette worries her lip, unsure if she can or should ask the question on the tip of her tongue. It takes a few stumbling attempts, but she ends up closing her eyes and asking what’s on her mind. “Why would I have a soulmate that I don’t love?”

Tikki is quiet for long enough that Marinette is tempted to sit up and look, but she refrains. She’s not sure she wants to see the expression on Tikki’s face.

“I just-” Marinette tries to explain. “Chat called me it. Princess. And I called him Chaton. That means we’re soulmates, right? But… I do- I don’t… I’m not sure I love him like that. He’s my best friend, of course, but… I just don’t see him as a… soulmate. Am I broken?”

“Oh, Marinette! No, no you’re not broken at all! Don’t you ever think that about yourself.”

“Bu-”

“No! I said, don’t! There’s nothing wrong with you. You don’t even know for sure that he is your soulmate, and even if he is, there’s nothing wrong with having a platonic soulmate! You don’t have to be in love to be soulmates!”

Marinette mulls over Tikki’s words. They echo in her head and roll in her mouth. “But… he loves me.”

“You’re both still so young, Marinette. Give it time! I’m sure things will become clear sooner or later.”

Now, Marinette does sit up. Tikki is smiling earnestly at her, the optimism and confidence in her eyes too infectious for Marinette to resist her own smile. “You really think so?”

“I know so!” Tikki says firmly. “Everything will be okay.”

The school trip is unexpected, in the sense that Marinette all but forgets about it. She knows she has a part in planning it, of course, and she does her part with aplomb, but all of that was set in stone so long ago that with everything else going on, from Hawk Moth to Chat being her maybe-soulmate, it totally slips her mind.

Not to mention how she almost doesn’t go at all. She has a city to protect now, after all. She can’t just go on vacation.

Master Fu solves that problem for her, though, and Marinette finds herself oddly relieved that Kaalki has such a convenient power. Time away from Hawk Moth, even if she is still on call, is just what the doctor ordered. Maybe, without all this outside pressure, she can sit down and figure everything out once and for all.

Plus, it should be fun. A visit to the Daily Planet with Alya in tow alone will make this trip to Metropolis more than worth it. That’s not even starting on all the other events, tours, and activities they have planned. It’s very exciting, and Marinette almost wishes she isn’t so distracted just so she can properly enjoy her classmate’s raving about everything they’re going to do in America.

She’s sure she’s missed some very entertaining discussions. Maybe Alya can catch me up?

“Woah, careful there, princess.”

Marinette freezes at the unexpected touch on her shoulders. She’s a hair away from taking this guy to the ground, but then the situation catches up with her and she barely stops herself.

Pole in the middle of the sidewalk? Threat. Cute guy who has just saved her from slamming face-first into that pole? Probably less so. Also, Princess?!

Marinette examines the guy warily. Black hair, unkempt like he’s just been through a wind tunnel, bright eyes furrowed with concern, muscular arms leading to hands that have still not removed themselves from her shoulders. She shrugs him off, never tearing her eyes from his. She knows how suspicious she must look, and the way he wilts under her stare makes her think she should probably tone it back a bit, but still.

She knows that mistakes happen. She knows Chat might be her soulmate. She knows the likelihood of it being some random passerby in America isn’t exactly in her favor. But he has to be sure. “Princess?” She echoes, more testily than she means.

The guy clears his throat awkwardly. “Ah, I- I’m sorry, I don’t know where that came from, I just- I saw you weren’t looking at the pole and I-”

“You what?” Marinette pushes him just for fun, because he’s so flustered, but she can’t help but smile. The bite leaves her voice, replaced with sarcasm. She hopes he can hear that it’s friendly. “Thought you’d save the princess? Eh, superman?” The boy flushes brilliantly, scratching at his neck as he looks to the ground. “I can take care of myself. A little pole isn’t going to hurt me.” She teases. “Thanks, though. You did save me this time.”

The boy chuckles awkwardly. “Ahaha, you’re welcome! Hey, uh, my name’s Jon! I… I’m not sure how to say this, I, uh…”

Now, Marinette knows mistakes happen, but she can also read a situation. The way his cheeks stay color as he bumbles through his introduction, the way he holds his neck a bit too reverent to be sheepish, the way his eyes go wide when she calls him “Superman”.

Jon takes a deep breath, apparently composing himself. “Sorry, I… that was super awkward. Um… You called me superman. That’s, uh…” He ducks down a bit, turning so that she can see the script on the back of his neck. “My mark-name. Also, weird, but, whatever. So, I was wondering if maybe princess was yours?”

Marinette chuckles and pulls her hair aside, turning so he can see her own mark. In the same exact place. Most soul-pairs have their marks in the same place, so that makes this seem more likely. Even still, Marinette has had false alarms before. This seems more legit than any so far, but…

But the way he lights up at the sight of the mark. That stops Marinette’s breath in her lungs. “It is!” Jon cheers. “I can’t believe it! It’s really you!”

Marinette calms her heart and tries to rid her face of the damn soft look she knows she has. “Maybe.” She says. “I’ve had a close call before. This looks legit, though, so… no promises, but maybe we can… I don’t know. Get coffee or something?”

“Yes! Yeah, sure! I’m- I am so down for that!” Jon grins from ear to ear. “Get to know each other, and then decide if we want to trust the mark-names or not?”

“Exactly.” Marinette says. “If you’re okay with that?”

“A hundred percent! I totally understand being cautious. Uh, here! Let me give you my number. You can let me know when you’re free? Unless… you are now?”

Marinette ducks her head to hide from the intensity of his gaze. It’s so… adoring. Not like Chat, not in the depths of love way, or the confident way he claims her as his. It’s in an optimistic way. In a hopeful, nervous way. It makes her chest flutter, and she can’t help but hope, too. “I’m actually in the city on a class trip. We’re having free time right now, so I’ve got, uh,” she checks her phone, “a couple hours.”

“Great! I know a good place to get coffee just around the corner. And, if you want, I could show you around a bit? I know the city pretty well.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

Jon guides her to the coffee shop, awkwardly drifting close but carefully keeping his hands off of her. It’s cute, watching him want to grab her hand or throw his arm over her shoulder, but Marinette appreciates that he doesn’t.

She can’t be sure from one conversation and a couple of mark-names, but Jon seems just as likely as Chat to be her soulmate. Is he? Is Chat? Marinette ducks away from his eyes again, brushing her hair behind her ear as that single glimpse makes her stomach somersault. It’s impossible to tell from this meeting alone, but if the feeling in her chest is telling her anything, it’s saying to give this a chance. Maybe that’s all she really needs.

#MaribatMarch2020 #Maribat #Maribat March #Event #Marijon #ML x DC #ML Fanfiction #Miraculous Ladybug #Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction #theatreandcomicfreak im not really sure its appropriate to @ you on this #but its either that or linking to you #and linking feels like #sneaky somehow

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ladylynse · 5 years ago

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Part 8 [FF | AO3] of Whirlwind: Jake should be used to ominous predictions by now. Randy should know better than to blindly follow McFist. Adrien should think twice before sneaking away. And Danny should’ve expected something like this when he got that phone call. (Secret Quartet crossover)

(previous | timeline post)

-|-

7:12 PM

Blood magic.

He hadn’t counted on being lucky enough to find someone with blood magic.

Fortunately, Gabriel didn’t need to recall his akuma to glean information from his champion. He still had all she had given him before she had shut him out. Whether she realized it or not, he had more than enough to discern her identity. He knew exactly what she’d been feeling. He knew precisely why she’d been feeling that way. And that meant that finding her name was as simple as having Nathalie check their records.

“The head caterer is Susan Long,” Nathalie reported at last. “She owns the company. I’m sending you all the information we have on her, but I’m afraid it’s very little.”

That was an understatement; the information was next to nothing. Even her business address was unlisted. Nathalie had told him of her reputation as a caterer, told him that she was in high demand and had handled large, premiere events before. Her food was always impeccable, and she came highly recommended. Still, while he could appreciate that a certain amount of secrecy was necessary in business, particularly where sensitive information was at hand, that didn’t mean he didn’t find this frustrating.

Given what he knew now, however, he didn’t find it unusual.

“Find out more,” Gabriel growled into his headset. “Pull every string you can. I don’t care what it costs in promises or favours.”

“Of course, sir.”

Gabriel knew perfectly well that he was taking Nathalie from other work, and he knew that the excuses she’d given regarding his current preoccupation wouldn’t be enough for long—this was his show, and he was expected to have input on what to do now that it had been ruined—but he wasn’t willing to lose this when it was within his grasp. The meetings to discuss the damage that had been done and setting the contingency plans in motion and even something as simple as crowd control— They didn’t need him for all of that. If they wouldn’t settle for his final word, they could be content with his input at the end, once they’d hashed out all the needless details that had mostly been written out before he’d stepped foot on this side of the ocean anyway. Really, Nathalie could make it so that it didn’t matter when he put in his appearance providing he did put one in. They would easily believe he had important work that demanded privacy, given how much money he’d had to sink into this venture.

It was going to pay off, though. Even if he couldn’t find another Miraculous, he could find power. This wasn’t something he’d trust to Audrey Bourgeois. He’d very pointedly not involved her in any of this and had planned for this trip to neatly coincide with a time when he knew she was elsewhere. She was too prone to go digging for secrets for his taste, especially when she thought she could benefit from the result. The last thing he needed was for her to discover how much power he already had, let alone that he had reason to suspect there was more to be found here.

“Master,” Nooroo said as Gabriel strode back to look out the window of his private suite, “we shouldn’t pursue this.”

“I don’t recall asking your opinion.”

“I’m sorry, Master, but I—”

“Be quiet, Nooroo.”

Gabriel didn’t want to hear Nooroo’s fears again. Vague, dire warnings meant nothing. He was willing to take risks for concrete rewards, to further his ultimate goal. This was why they had come. He needed something to tip the scales in his favour. Something Ladybug and Chat Noir would never expect and wouldn’t be able to counter.

Chat Noir’s appearance here would be much more unsettling if he thought for a moment the heroes actually suspected his identity, but he was certain it was nothing but unlucky coincidence.

Well, perhaps more unlucky for Chat Noir than for him.

He’d been trying to separate Ladybug and Chat Noir for ages. He was hardly blind to the opportunity of defeating Chat Noir now, in a foreign city where he didn’t have the support of the people or his knowledge of the Parisian streets to help him out. Where his only ally was some self-proclaimed ninja from another town as opposed to Ladybug, who knew how he fought and worked altogether too well with him. Success was a tantalizingly real possibility. If he could return to Paris with the Miraculous of the Black Cat….

He still needed the other information he’d requested, and Dracona couldn’t avoid giving it to him forever. But even if she might claim that she couldn’t provide any information about the phantom or the ninja because they didn’t call New York City home any more than Chat Noir did, she had agreed to tell him about those who did.

Even if she didn’t consider herself a hero, it was highly unlikely that she didn’t know any personally. She had magic. He knew how rare that was. And magic that she was born with? Magic that didn’t need to be stolen or harnessed?

She would be able to tell him so much, once he knew enough to nudge her past the point of silence.

Once their connection was re-established and he could talk to her again, if not control her.

If Nooroo’s magic didn’t pose enough of a threat to make her fear him, he could find more mundane ways to turn her to him.

He knew she had a son. Whatever she had felt in the moment that he had been able to akumatize her, he was sure she would still love him, care for him, even with those emotions amplified. She wouldn’t have been so upset if she didn’t. At the very least, the mix of emotions which had been at the forefront would have been different.

And if he could use her family against her, well, perhaps that would be enough to spark her memory. To remind her of whoever truly did seek to protect this city. And if it didn’t, well, he could experiment with harnessing blood magic as easily as he could search for a magical artefact to use in the fight against Ladybug and Chat Noir. As long as his akuma remained in her necklace, he’d still have ties to her, even if he couldn’t make her dance on command.

He could make sure anything was enough.

-|-

7:12 PM

“I don’t know what to do, Plagg,” Adrien admitted once they were back in his hotel room. Getting in hadn’t been as tricky as he’d expected; Nathalie was preoccupied, no doubt in conversation with his father and their contacts over the mess of the launch, and the Gorilla was busy listening to whatever the police were telling the security services. With the way things were going, he’d be lucky if he saw his father even once during the remainder of their trip. The bulk of the organizing might fall on Nathalie’s shoulders, but the ultimate decision-making still rested with Gabriel, and—

One thing at a time. The akuma was more pressing; until Adrien dealt with that, planning for anything else was irrelevant.

Plagg was currently trying to gorge himself on camembert. The concierge had procured an impressive supply to be sent to his room, and Adrien would have to leave him a large tip when he next saw him. As it was, Adrien was talking to Plagg as much out of a desire for advice as a need to slow the kwami down long enough for Adrien to pocket the rest of the cheese before it was completely devoured. “Should I trust these guys?”

Plagg swallowed and zipped over to the last wedge of cheese Adrien had left for him. He picked it up, but before he ate it, he looked at Adrien and asked, “Are you ready to fight Hawk Moth on your own?”

No. He wasn’t. Plagg knew that.

“Maybe I should call Ladybug. Maybe she knows of some way—”

“She doesn’t,” Plagg interrupted, “and even if she did, she’s asleep. If Hawk Moth’s here, no one’s getting akumatized in Paris.”

“Right.” Adrien glanced at the clock on the bedside table; it was past one in the morning in Paris right now. “But these guys…. I don’t know if I can do this. I mean…. It’s not that I didn’t think ghosts might be real or that a different magic than yours could exist. It’s more….” It was more that he couldn’t forget the feeling of falling. The terror that had flooded into him when he had realized he didn’t even have his staff to try to slow himself down. He’d been flung away numerous times in his fights with Ladybug, but this was different. She wasn’t here to watch his back. He couldn’t fight his way back to watch hers.

And there was no distant assurance that if something terrible did happen, something Plagg’s magic couldn’t prevent, Ladybug would be able to restore everything to the way it had been.

“It’s scary,” Plagg said frankly, “but it’s not the first time you’ve been scared.”

No, it wasn’t. But he was usually more terrified of losing Ladybug than he was of anything that might happen to him.

“I never expected that Hawk Moth would be here,” continued Plagg. “No one would. And the fact that you’re here at the same time is lucky. You know how he works and what he wants. You know—”

“He can’t have known that I’d be here,” Adrien interrupted, “which means that what he wants isn’t just my Miraculous. So is…is there a lost Miraculous or something? One that might be here?”

Plagg didn’t answer right away. “There is,” he finally said, “but it’s more likely that Hawk Moth is after something else. Finding a lost Miraculous would be a nearly impossible task, even for someone like Hawk Moth. Like I said before, there’s other magic at work here, and that shop we were in earlier was steeped in it. Rumours of that would be more substantial than anything about the Miraculous.”

“The dragons. You think he wants something they guard?” Adrien didn’t wait for Plagg to answer. “Then I can’t not work with them. I can’t risk Hawk Moth stealing and using something of theirs that I won’t know anything about—that you might not know anything about.” And Phantom had grabbed him after he’d glimpsed the first dragon, so his claim that he was friends with one was more likely truth than a lie. “I need them as much as they need me.”

“So call them. You don’t have to trust them with everything right away.”

That was true enough. Even if he did decide to trust them fully in the end, if only to make things easier, he certainly didn’t have to be the first one to spill all his secrets. Not that there was much they didn’t already know about him, assuming Phantom had talked to the others.

He definitely didn’t need to let them know where he was staying, though. He’d call them once he was back out, meet them somewhere that wasn’t quite the opposite direction of his actual hotel. He didn’t want to head too far away—he didn’t know when the dragon would return—but he didn’t want to pick a spot that would be too crowded if this was somehow a setup and he had to fight.

Then again, he might not have to pick the spot at all. “Plagg,” he whispered, “do you think you’d be able to find them? The dragon from the shop, at least?”

“Can I have more camembert first?”

“Once this is over. I promise.”

Plagg let out a long-suffering sigh but agreed. Adrien didn’t question his luck at the lack of wheedling, instead pulling his hood back up and waiting as Plagg zipped in to hide again. The first step was sneaking back out past Nathalie and the Gorilla. If they caught him and insisted he stay in his hotel room, sneaking out wouldn’t be the difficult part; it would be coming up with some reason that he wasn’t there when someone inevitably checked up on him.

But that would only be a problem if he got caught, and Adrien didn’t intend to get caught.

He cracked his door, listening as much as looking to make sure the coast was clear, and then he slipped into the hallway and headed for the stairwell, quiet as a cat.

-|-

7:16 PM

Rotwood ducked into another alley and ground his teeth. Insolent children! They should not treat him this way. He was their professor. And it wasn’t like he hunted Jake Long at every opportunity. Really, this time, it wouldn’t even be him. He would not be so foolish as to be caught on camera. (Rotwood knew this all too well; he had tried many, many times.) Would it really be so bad if Jake let him have this one moment? This one little tiny moment where he could shine?

Rotwood had already tried offering his expertise on the situation. Called up the local news station the moment he heard. He was still laughed off before he could even make it to the air. It wasn’t his fault Jake had given him a reputation that made it seem like he cried wolf when he didn’t.

How much of a laughingstock had he become that no one listened to him even when the magical creatures he had previously told them about turned up?

It was like no one was taking this seriously. No one except for those who already knew, of course. Why was there all this speculation that the dragon wasn’t real? Of course the dragon was real! Dragons were real! Just like ghosts! And a whole slew of other magical creatures most people hadn’t even imagined, let alone had the chance to meet.

Rotwood waited, hoping to hear the telltale shhhck of skateboard wheels on pavement.

It did not come.

How was he supposed to get closer to his goal—on foot, since some hooligans had let the air out of his tires, including his bicycle tires—when he couldn’t even shake a pair of high schoolers? It would be different if the traffic weren’t generally atrocious and the cab drivers, for some reason, didn’t remember him as ‘that crazy man from TV’. He did not deserve that reputation. Sure, he had made a few mistakes, everyone made mistakes, and maybe he had released some creatures he shouldn’t have in his quest to prove their existence, but it wasn’t like he was trying do that this time.

Really, Jake should thank him. He wasn’t meddling. He wasn’t meddling at all. He was merely trying to document. Would it not be better if someone like him did that, rather than someone Jake didn’t know at all? Certainly better him than someone like Brock, no?

He had tried yelling such arguments at Trixie and Spud, but they of course didn’t listen to a word he said.

He would have been much happier, however, if Trixie had not had a water gun with her. Or if Spud did not manage to play the most incessant earworms at full volume whenever he pulled out his phone to try to call anyone. Or—

“Yo, Rotwood, you ready to give up yet?”

It was, unfortunately, rather unprofessional to murder one’s students. He’d have to lose them. If he kept trying, he’d manage it eventually. He had to.

“Me and Spud, we can do this all night if we have to. But if you give up and go home now, your feet might not even hurt in the morning.”

The stitch in his side hadn’t had nearly enough time to go away, but there was nothing for it. He’d have to run again and hope that, this time, he was able to reach the edge of the crowd. They wouldn’t be able to use their skateboards in a crowd.

Of course, since they were on skateboards, it was increasingly unlikely that he’d make it to the crowd.

“Do we really have to go now?” a man’s voice whined, and Rotwood’s heart leapt when he realized how close it was. A distraction! He could use a distraction.

“Honey, there might not have been an official announcement yet, but the show won’t go on tonight, and I do intend to eat supper,” a woman answered. “It has been rather stressful. A three-course meal—”

The man groaned, and Rotwood moved before they got farther away. He jumped out from his hiding spot behind a dumpster and managed to get past Trixie and Spud, both of whom had quieted their own search while waiting for the couple to pass. They didn’t want witnesses. They didn’t want to explain themselves. Good. He would put himself in a position where they would have to do both if they continued to chase him.

“Excuse me!” he called out, waiving. They’d just passed the alleyway, and they kept walking. The nerve! He expected as much from New Yorkers, who didn’t even blink at things that should catch their attention, but tourists were supposed to be curious. “Yes, hello, behind you!”

They slowed, each of them glancing over their shoulders, but neither stopped.

Rotwood kept waving like a madman. He didn’t need to look over his shoulder to know he’d see two scowling teenagers. “Could you possibly give me some directions?”

“Oh, we don’t know the area,” the woman said with another quick glance back as she tightened her grip on the man’s arm. “I’m so sorry.”

“But you are dressed for that fashion show gala tonight, no?” He tried to remember the information that had been on the news. “The spring release?” What was the name? “Gabriel’s?”

The couple finally stopped, turning to him as he jogged up. The woman was looking at him with narrowed eyes. The man just looked exhausted.

Rotwood figured his best bet was to keep talking. “I heard what happened. Terrible. These magical creatures—” He broke off, remembering too late that telling the truth wouldn’t win him any favours. “They made a good show, those magical creatures?”

He hadn’t managed to keep the note of desperation out of his voice, but the man at least was looking him over with a more critical eye. “Marci,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wallet, “why don’t you go on and have dinner without me?”

For the first time, Rotwood noticed the man’s mechanical arm, and he had to make a conscious effort not to stare. He was well acquainted with those with prosthetic limbs, especially in his line of business which really wasn’t the safest, were you to actually find the magical creatures you were searching for, but most did not include features which looked disturbingly like brains. He pointedly raised his eyes to wait for Marci’s reaction. She kept a smile pasted on her face, but its edges were sharper than they should be.

“This isn’t a working vacation,” she said. “We should take our meals together.”

That didn’t stop the man from pressing several hundred-dollar bills into her hand. “I know. I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you, but this man needs help, and I do know the way.”

“No such thing as a free lunch, don’tcha know?” Marci murmured, but she tucked the money into her handbag. “You’ll answer your phone when I call.”

Even Rotwood knew that wasn’t a question.

“Of course, sugar plum,” the man cooed. “You can go and have a nice meal, and I’ll help, uh—”

“Professor Hans Rotwood.”

“—I’ll help Hans here.”

Rotwood knew pleading when he saw it. That was definitely pleading. If Marci said no, the man—presumably her husband—would acquiesce to her wishes. He could not afford for that to happen. Once they left, Ms. Carter and Mr. Spudinski would jump at the opportunity to overwhelm him, most likely quite literally, and he was still sore from his excursions last week trying to get a clear shot of a leprechaun. He didn’t need the added pain of hitting asphalt under the force of two teenaged bodies.

“That really would be most appreciated,” Rotwood added, not sure what he needed to say to sway Marci. “If there’s anything I could do in return….” He trailed off, unable to think of anything to offer someone who could so clearly not only afford to attend such a prestigious event but also to spend so much money on a single meal.

“We can talk about that,” the man said hurriedly.

The woman took a step closer to her husband, half turning away from Rotwood, and hissed words he heard but didn’t understand: “You know the Ninja we saw here can’t be the same one as back home.”

“He might have information,” the man answered in a too-loud whisper. “Please, you know how important this is.”

Marci sighed and stepped back. “Of course I do. If you’re so insistent that your work is more important than I am—”

“It’s not. This is just…. It’s…. You know what it is!”

Rotwood was convinced the argument was lost then and there, but Marci’s face softened and she leaned down to give her husband a quick kiss. “Yes, I do, so if you must do some work, then run along and do it quickly. You are not spoiling this for me.”

Rotwood was still trying to figure out how the man could have possibly gotten his way while the couple said their goodbyes, and it was a moment before he realized the man was staring at him. “Ah, my apologies,” he said. “You were saying?”

“Hannibal McFist,” the man said, offering his hand. As Rotwood shook it, McFist continued, “You said you’re a professor. You don’t have any colleagues at MSU, by any chance? Or attended it for one degree or another?”

MSU? Michigan State University? Rotwood hadn’t pegged McFist’s accent as being from that part of the country, and it certainly hadn’t been his wife’s, though in truth, he really wasn’t that good with accents, especially American ones. “No, my position is, ah, merely at a high school level these days, and my alma mater is in the old country.”

McFist grunted. “Had to ask. You look like the type who’d have been friends with Viceroy. If you didn’t annoy each other to death first.”

Rotwood didn’t ask. The important thing was that McFist was walking with him past the alley containing two teenagers who couldn’t stop him without making fools of themselves and giving away the game. He kept up the conversation instead, trying to get what information he could out of McFist without making it clear what he dearly wanted to know, as that would be the fastest way to find himself abandoned and once again at the mercy of merciless teenagers.

-|-

7:19 PM

Randy was pretty sure Jake was going to drive himself crazy. Or maybe that was just his sister doing it. She seemed nice enough, for a little kid, but she also made him happy that he was an only child. He was pretty sure her supposedly innocent needling was totally intentional.

Judging by Jake’s expression, he figured the same.

“Haley, I told you what’s going on,” Jake said, not attempting to keep the exasperation from his voice. “You know how bad this is, so just…stop. Please.”

Haley’s face transformed into what Randy was sure was a practiced pout. “I’m only trying to help.”

“Yo, stressing me out by pointing out all my failures isn’t helping.”

“Look,” Randy said slowly, figuring he should say something but speaking before he’d entirely decided what that should be, “when I was fighting the dragon, she wasn’t, um, trying to barbecue me. That’s probably a point in her favour. The Critic lady from earlier pulled a lot of shoob moves. She didn’t care if she fought dirty. If Chat Noir and I hadn’t had each other’s backs, she’d have wonked our cheese. But the dragon…. Danny said he thought she was testing me. Teasing out my attacks and strengths and stuff.”

“So?” Haley prompted.

Randy frowned at her. “So that’s more than what the other lady was doing when she got butterflied. She went straight to attack mode.”

“Yeah, but Mom’s had all the training, even if being a dragon skipped her generation,” Haley said. “She knows how to fight. She’s not going to throw strategy out the window, and learning what you can do before fighting you is smart.”

All the training…. No wonder she’d been so good at flying right off the bat. Randy had just assumed it was magic. Maybe it still was, but magic plus lessons made sense.

“So none of that’s from this Hawk Moth person,” Haley continued. “That’s just Mom. I mean, Jake’s not the best example of what we dragons can do, but he should have been able to give you some idea.”

Randy was really getting a good idea of why Jake had told him that Haley was a know-it-all.

“Oh, c’mon, you know I just met this guy tonight,” Jake interjected, gesturing at Randy.

“Yeah, him and this Chat Noir, only you messed that up, too, didn’t you?”

“Haley!”

“Why didn’t you ask me for help earlier?”

“Because you do stuff like this!” snapped Jake. “We both know you’re not perfect, and you’re not better than me at everything, so stop pretending you wouldn’t have made mistakes, too, if you were in my shoes.”

“But you knew this was going to be bad. Sara told you, and Kara said you’d have help.”

“She said from my friends, not my little sister.”

“Being friends doesn’t have to exclude me!”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Yo, you think I—?”

“Hope I’m not interrupting a vital family argument,” a voice said from behind them all.

Randy wasn’t the only one who jumped and spun in a circle before remembering to look up. The voice had come from behind and up. Sure enough, Chat Noir was perched on a pole that jutted out about five feet above their heads from the side of a building and into an alleyway. Randy squinted. That was the staff Chat Noir had fought with earlier. It could do that?

“How did you find us?” Jake asked, and Randy didn’t need to know him well to hear the panic in his voice. “I thought you were gonna call!”

Chat Noir dropped lightly to his feet, one hand reaching out to catch the staff as it fell. He didn’t even need to look at it to catch it, collapse it, and slide it in place on his back. Magic. It must be. Or a lot of practice.

“I have a friend with a good sense of smell,” he said.

“My smoke bombs do not stink that badly,” Randy insisted, forgetting for the moment that he wasn’t currently wearing his suit.

Chat Noir blinked. “Ninja?”

“Randy.” He pointed at the dragon siblings and said, “That’s Jake and Haley.” Jake shot Randy a glare but didn’t say anything, instead tapping his Fenton Phone and letting Danny know that Chat Noir had found them. Ignoring him, Randy continued, “Their mom’s the one who’s been butterflied.”

“Akumatized,” Chat Noir corrected. “And I know. I mean. I guessed. From what Phantom told me and, um….” He trailed off and must have abandoned that thought entirely, since he instead asked, “Where’s the akuma hiding?”

“Her necklace,” Randy said, happy enough to roll with the subject change because it was a pretty important subject change. Even with different names, what was happening to people didn’t seem terribly different than what he was used to dealing with. He knew it wasn’t the same, but the idea of it was similar enough to stanking that it made whatever Chat Noir must do on a regular basis easy for Randy to follow. “It’s still on her, even when she’s a dragon. It just…adjusted with her, I guess? It doesn’t look like she’s being strangled by it.”

Chat Noir was nodding. “Hawk Moth can cause pain to those who disobey him, but he wouldn’t hinder their transformation.”

“What about the person being transformed?” Haley asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Can they do something?”

“We’ve only ever seen Hawk Moth change people who agree to it,” Chat Noir said. Randy almost asked who we was and then remembered that the Critic had taunted him about not having his partner around. “And the transformation…. It’s not something they negotiate. That’s all Hawk Moth’s domain.”

Haley glanced back at Jake, who was still talking to Danny. “But…. My mom’s different.”

“She really…probably…is,” Randy offered. “Me, I just use something that’s magic. Maybe you do, too. These guys are…different.”

“I know,” Chat Noir said quietly as Jake rejoined their circle. “That’s…. That’s why I’m worried. Hawk Moth can’t have known I’d be here. He wants my Miraculous, but that’s not why he’s active. He’s looking for something. Maybe another Miraculous that was lost, maybe something else.”

Jake frowned. “Aren’t there only, like, seven of those?”

Chat Noir didn’t confirm that, and Randy wasn’t great at reading faces, but he was pretty sure that was a no. And that Chat Noir didn’t particularly appreciate Jake’s comment. Maybe he thought Jake was pretending to be an authority on the subject of these Miraculous things? Randy might not know much, but he knew Jake definitely wasn’t.

Or maybe it was just that these guys hadn’t exactly gotten off on the right foot, and that was something Randy could smooth over. “Point is, their mom getting akuma matated or whatever you said is bad, and we could really use your help to fix things.” He bit his lip, already feeling that Chat Noir wouldn’t appreciate his next suggestion, and added, “Even if you don’t wanna tell us your real name, you might wanna lose the suit. Just so we can, y’know, blend in with the crowd when we search. It’s not like we’d tell anyone your identity when we’re all trying to keep the same secret.”

“And I already know what you look like without your mask,” Jake added.

“So does your Phantom friend,” muttered Chat Noir, not quietly enough that he didn’t intend for them to hear it.

“That’s Danny,” Randy said. “He also gets the secret identity thing.”

Chat Noir frowned. “He’s a ghost.”

Randy shrugged. “Only some of the time.”

Haley spun to her brother. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she hissed, and he shushed her. Unsuccessfully. They started arguing again. Randy tuned them out, figuring Danny would show up sooner rather than later anyway, and he could settle things easily enough.

“You’ve gotta admit,” Randy said to Chat Noir, “that you’re not exactly inconspicuous in that getup.”

“I’m not exactly inconspicuous without it, either,” mumbled Chat Noir, though that made no sense to Randy. The Critic lady had said this was a foreign country for him, so it’s not like he’d actually know anyone here or that anyone would know him. Even if he was visiting relatives, chances were they didn’t know his secret, so there was nothing wrong with them seeing him without his mask. He’d be as thoroughly unremarkable to this crowd as Randy was. No one was going to look at him twice. But in that cat getup? After fighting earlier? Someone was bound to look again, even in a city this big.

“C’mon, the others already know what you look like. It’s just me, and I’m not from here, either. If that makes you feel any better. I mean, I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to get home when this is over, so….”

Chat Noir sighed and walked back toward the alley. Randy followed, more to get farther away from the squabbling siblings than anything else. “Claws in,” Randy heard Chat Noir whisper when he was out of easy sight, and the boy tugged the hood of his sweater farther forward before turning around.

Yup.

Unremarkable.

Randy didn’t even need to see his face out of shadow to know that much. “Got a name?” he asked.

Chat Noir hesitated.

Randy didn’t miss Chat Noir’s glance in the direction of Jake and Haley. Quick as it had been, Chat Noir’s continued silence spoke volumes for him. “Just tell me the name of your best friend for now,” Randy suggested, even though it wasn’t like any of them would be able to figure out Chat Noir’s identity from his first name alone even if they wanted to. “That way, you’ll remember what we’re calling you, and you can tell us your real name later if you want.”

Chat Noir smiled. It was small, but it was still a smile, so Randy figured that was a win. “Call me Nino.”

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#secret quartet #miraculous ladybug #adjl #rc9gn #danny phantom #my writing #ladylynse #snippets #crossover snippets #let's see who's still reading this fic #only 23 notes on my last chapter so it's definitely dropped off #(plus 11 reviews between two sites so not bad)#which is understandable because it's been a while

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sairenharia · 6 years ago

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Sentimonster Theory

My own thoughts on this theory brought up by the episode Ladybug. Spoilers ahead.

1. Validity Of The Idea.

First off, Ladybug introduces this idea of a sentient Sentimonster. Not something brought up before, albeit we’ve only seen a few Sentimonsters so far. We know very little about the Peacock Miraculous ourselves, but just what we’ve been shown and told. Such as we know it’s broken, though not necessarily how.

But Ladybug said her Sentimonster was her own being. Since the series is from her perspective and the Sentimonster agreed to act with her, we can take this as a truth to a certain extent. Which is honestly all sorts of messed up. In particular because we are introduced to this concept only a minute or two before this sentient girl is then erased from existence.

If this was a generally dark show with dark concepts in the vein of Rick and Morty, then maybe this could be a one off. But it’s NOT. This is a generally light hearted show that glossed over a girl just got grant freedom and then died and barely played with that idea. Really Ladybug should have been a two parter and that Amok should have been a hot potato so we could explore Sentibug’s mental state and ability to choose.

But wasted potential aside, a light hearted show does NOT bring up something that grim dark and NOT have a payoff. Which means one of two things.

There will be a sentient Amok arriving and they will be a thing for a while, possibly Felix, possibly someone else, and there will be some kind of witch hunt or stab in the heart.

Or there is already a Sentimonster present within the show and the pay off will be finding that out. No one makes a Chekov’s gun like that and not use it.

2. The Candidates.

Who could be a Sentimonster? Obviously only those close to the Agrestes. The Agrestes themselves, Nathalie, Gorilla being the obvious ones.

I’m disinclined to believe it’s Emilie because they say she disappeared. Not ‘gone’ which is what’s usually said when shows don’t want to say ‘dead,’ but disappear. Gone implies they know what happened. Disappear means they don’t. So I really think it’s her body in the basement. And the reason she’s in a coma is because she’s the one who made the Sentimonster.

Gorilla is the next one I find hard to believe if only because the Agreste’s are rich enough to just buy a man like that. He’s dedicated to his job, he’s a beast of a man, but he hasn’t done anything to warrant his worth in being put into a magic coma when money would do. And while a likeable guy on his own, we haven’t had enough focus on him to warrant the emotional payoff a sentient Sentimonster warrants. And personally, it puts a bad taste in my mouth making the mute person the secret inhuman being.

Gabriel certainly has the crazed focus that would be assumed of a Sentimonster. They are made with a purpose in mind, and if something unfortunate happened to the real Gabriel, then it makes sense Emilie would make him even at the cost of herself. But Gabriel would also be made by Emilie, and if she’s even half the saint Adrien paints her as, then it seems far more likely Emilie would be focused on him being back for her AND Adrien. Even if he struggled with the emotional, I doubt something like Riposte or Gorizilla would have happened with a Sentimonster Gabriel. Plus that would just be needlessly painful for Adrien because not only does he learn the man he thought was his father was the villain he’s been fighting for months, his dad is also probably dead. It’s like kicking a dog when he’s down.

Nathalie seems pretty likely if Emilie knew something was going to happen to her. Her job is to take care of Gabriel and Adrien and Nathalie does genuinely show care for both. She’s helped Adrien get what he wants, she will do anything Gabriel asks of her. For someone who seems to a not particularly passionate person, she loves two extremely socially inept people fiercely. If there was a guardian to be left behind by Emilie, Nathalie fits that criteria. The biggest question for this idea is the idea of an Amok being able to use the Peacock Miraculous itself. That seems like it shouldn’t work, but there’s nothing that says it can’t either. But even the Butterfly Miraculous has to be removed before it’s user can be Akumatized.

Then there’s Adrien. And oh boy, does a lot of things start lining up when looked at it like this.

3. The Narrative.

The thing about stories is things don’t have to be strictly in universe to reveal a truth of the story. That’s the fun of being an audience. We know Gabriel is Papillon because we’re the audience, so we see things the people in the story can’t. And the thing about Miraculous Ladybug as a narrative is there’s supposed to be a happy ending.

This is a show meant for kids. And while kids can handle dark things, Miraculous Ladybug is again, not that kind of show. The longer things go on, the less chance it seems like Adrien can have a happy ending, especially with the way they handle things between him and his father.

Adrien is getting closer to his father, but Gabriel is just diving further and further into his villainy. He keeps hurting people, he’s caused Adrien in particular some horrifying things from the times he’s died, to his three months as Aspik, to having him attack the love of his life. That sort of thing wears on a person and from Adrien actions in Gamer 2.0 and Partycrasher, both of which are after Viperion, Chat is certainly suffering from those three months. Finding out Gabriel did that to him is going to hit and it’s going to hit hard.

In particular for a point everyone has been talking about since we figured out it was Gabriel: he’s terrorized Paris to save his wife, while he treated his son like dirt. Gabriel is a man who seems intent to do anything and everything he can for love, much like Adrien does, but he also treats Adrien terribly. Their home situation is toxic at best, and abusive at worst.

Finding out the truth is going to break Adrien. More than that, with all Gabriel has done, and has treated his son, its hard to see how any end of this could allow enough room for Adrien to forgive Gabriel enough to be happy himself.

Unless, of course, the circumstances aren’t what they seem.

4. The Evidence.

Most evidence comes from what we, the audience, see, as well as some presumed things of Sentimonsters.

A. Cataclysm.

In Miraculer, Adrien gets hit with Cataclysm. Much to everyone’s surprised, he doesn’t turn to dust from something that’s turned harder things then flesh and blood to dust. We’ve seen it destroy indestructible items like the Bee Miraculous. We know Plagg killed the dinosaurs.

The first assumption is Adrien survived because he’s the Black Cat User, so he’s got some resistance to his own attack, or perhaps it’s because Miraculer was using the ability and thus it was a weaker version of it.

But here’s the thing. There’s that narrative thing again. Adrien got hurt. He got hurt real bad. We rarely see these kids hurt thanks to their supersuits, and here Adrien is, getting hit with his own death touch. This is something that, one it’s own, should have been an episode. This could have been great character development, they could have talked about the dangers of their job, or show a lot of Ladynoir, or how stubbornly stupid Chat is to fight like that.

But this wasn’t an episode about it. This was an episode about Chloe being Queen Bee, and meeting Mayura, and a five superhero team up, and a power stealer. All those things are episode worthy, so having Chat injured is odd. Especially since it wasn’t necessary where it was.

Miraculer had already established her threat levels, Ladybug had left to give the other Miraculous. She only finds out Chat is hurt when she’s handing off the Bee to him. If it was a matter of getting Chat to disengage, there’s many ways where Miraculer could have tossed him away as many Akuma have done. There is no reason to go that extreme. He certainly doesn’t need to be hurt for Mayura to have still grabbed the Bee like that, and struggling against two opponents is reasonable. There is no real narrative reason for him to be that hurt. The only point it MIGHT make sense is it meant Chloe really did have to go after Mayura herself.

But then it’d have made more sense to have him hurt on the rooftop. It would make the fight seem more high stakes because we don’t know how long it’d take, it makes everyone afraid, it’s dramatic! So why have him suffer half an episode like that?

Because the episode was overly full. It was to distract from what happened. There would be questions of why Chat is lasting this long, is this how it always is with people, or just him? Instead there’s the distraction of the new villainess, Ladybug needs to get the MIraculous, she needs to tell Chloe she can’t be Queen Bee. She has no time to wonder about Catacalysm, and Adrien doesn’t like dwelling on the unpleasant.

But we the audience see it. Adrien can take a Catacalysm and he can last a long time under the effects. And only one other thing has.

Reflekdoll, the Sentimonster Lady Noire used the power on. A thing made of pure magic. It was messed up, but it still functioned. It freaked out because it had no controller, but what if it could control itself? It may have done better, instead been dealing with it’s slowly breaking down body instead of wildly attacking everything.

Much like Adrien.

B. Adrien And Taking Charge.

Here’s the thing about Adrien taking charge: He’s terrible at it. We see it in Mister Bug, we see it in Viperion, we it in in Evillustrator. Adrien does not do well in that position. He gets too easily flustered and gets stuck in a tunnel vision or too emotional.

He’s great at second in charge! When he knows generally what he’s supposed to be doing, he’s great. He knows to protect, to teach, to comfort. He’s shown to be clever, a point actually made in Reflekta when he helps despite not having powers. Which makes it stand out even more when he struggles to do so in Reflekdoll. The difference being he’s no longer support, he’s the one whose supposed to be ‘in charge.’

He struggles as Mister Bug.

He uses Second Chance for Three Months because he can’t calm down, step back, and calmly watch things go down so he can gather information.

And all the way back in Season One, he has Marinette take away the stylus because he can focus on protecting her, but he couldn’t think of a good way to get the pen away, and he misses an obvious way out of the box.

We know Adrien is smart. We know he’s clever enough to keep up with Ladybug’s plans when she needs him to do something. But the moment he’s in charge, it’s like something in his brain just shorts out.

C. Adrien And Memories.

So something that has bugged me for ages is the fact he was not allowed out of the house until he got to go to school. He’s been locked up his whole life. Which made sense when I thought his mother disappeared years ago and his father became overprotective as a result. Then we learn his mother hasn’t even been gone a year by the time Christmas rolls around.

That changed a lot in regards to Emilie.

In Jackady, Chat’s outburst reminded Gabriel of Emilie. Which implies she was a woman who was at least somewhat of a spitfire. Someone Adrien saw as kind and who wanted him to be good. The person Adrien thinks about right before he almost destroyed the Christmas Tree and he stopped. Kind and willing to fight.

And still agreed to isolate Adrien.

And before she disappeared, Gabriel was supposedly less severe as he is now. Now this could be evidence that Gabriel is the Sentimonster, but with both Gabriel being at least a little more caring and a woman Adrien sees so highly, it’s weird they both agreed to raise him in basic isolation.

Not that I’m saying Emilie is anywhere near Gabriel’s level in canon, but Adrien is definitely looking at things with rose colored glasses. It’s not okay to raise a kid isolated from their peers like that. Especially a ray of sunshine like Adrien whose desperate for friends.

But at the Agreste parents very best, they were overprotective as hell.

We know Adrien is starting to realize his father is being unfair and overly harsh, we’ve seen him run away because of it, and he’s terrified of being locked up. He still sees Emilie as this saintly way though.

It may be because she made him. Of course he’d see her this way because she wouldn’t think there was anything wrong in wanting to protect him or she wouldn’t have gone to that extreme.

D. Adrien’s Demeanor.

Adrien is obedient. He’s a good boy who listens, and does as he’s told. Again, Adrien does not like to take charge. He rarely starts confrontation for his own sake, but he’s willing to step in for others. More so as Chat than Adrien, and Adrien is certainly more sneaky and subdue about it.

A Sentimonster is a being made to obey someone else. It’s not a giant leap to assume a sentient would still be highly inclined to obey, and more likely to stand up for others than themselves.

Then there’s Adrien’s more obsessive nature. Because let’s be fair. He’s obsessed with Ladybug. Most of the time it’s charming flirts of the safe nature, but he’s had times he’s let it distract him from the job, or made him sulk and pout. He can usually snap out of it to focus on the job, but it’s weird how he can go from one day handling his rejection with grace to the next handling it absolutely terribly. Like maybe he wants to accept it, but it’s hard to do so for a being whose usually focused on one person.

After all, Sentimonsters are protectors. Getting a little obsessed with who they’re made for makes sense.

E. Adrien’s rebellion.

It’s an interesting to note how Adrien rebels. He does things his father wouldn’t approve of, but usually goes the route of ‘what he doesn’t know won’t hurt me.’ If Adrien is told he can’t, he’ll go ‘but Chat wasn’t told he can’t.’ It’s rare we see Adrien disobey an actual direct order from Gabriel.

The only time that comes to mind as direct disobedience instead of just never asked or a technical loop hole was when he ran to school. You know. Right after he got Plagg and experienced chaos energy for the first time.

And yet, for the things Adrien deems truly important, he does try to bargain with his father. Like seeing his mother’s movie, or going to Marinette’s party, because these are important things to Adrien, and he wants his father to approve.

Oddly, when Adrien actually pleads and breaks the rules and shows how important a thing is to him, his father seems inclined to give it to him. Which I’ll get more into later.

F. Plagg, The Peacock Miraculous Was Right There, How Did You Miss It????

Listen, Plagg is a little gremlin who cares a lot more for people than he likes to show and it still seems weird he wouldn’t recognize a piece of jewelry he’s been in contact with for centuries when he could recognize the BOOK.

But that’s the thing, Plagg is a little gremlin who cares a lot. Who cares a lot about Adrien. Who, you know, he regularly fuses with and gives superpowers. There’s a good chance if Adrien is a Sentimonster, Plagg knows, and now he’s like ‘SHIT’ about the whole thing.

It’s likely Fu getting the Peacock Miraculous would spell the end of Adrien, so Plagg is hoping for an Alternate Solution to come up before he outs where the Peacock Miraculous is. He’s like millions of years old, he can be patient for a few years until he sees something, and the humans can take a little chaos in their life. Adrien’s HIS.

G. SYMBOLIC FORESHADOWING.

Gosh, copycat sure was a sculptor ‘in love’ with someone he couldn’t reach.

There sure is a lot of False Adriens and False Chats in the season where Mayura is a player between the wax statue of Adrien, Chat, and Adrien playing Chat’s Voice in the Ladybug Movie, and Lila pretended to be Chat and Adrien for a while in Chameleon.

Chat keeps being turned into a meat puppet by Gabriel an awful lot.

Reflekdoll got Catacalsymed by another Chat.

Miraculer sure was about Chloe’s friend trying to become another person for her love, while her other friend was living through something we never thought should be livable by a human.

Chat did think the Sentibug was a real person and choose her first.

Ladybug said Sentibug was too perfect to be human. While Gabriel and Marinette both call Adrien perfect. And Lila, and I think Chloe. Basically a lot of people call the boy perfect.

Thomas has a tendency to make tweets about ‘in universe’ views on the characters, thus when he said Chloe was a terrible person who would never have a MIraculous. And he sure calls Adrien perfect a lot himself.

H. Allergies.

Allergies are the immune system’s hypersensitive reaction to something. Worried about something being a threat even if it isn’t. And Adrien is allergic to feathers. A thing he may be made out of.

Maybe Sentimonsters don’t play well with feathers, maybe another feather can mess with theirs, I don’t know, but I find it very interesting one of his parents had a feather based superpower and he’s allergic to them and it feels like that should mean SOMETHING.

I. The Promise.

Gabriel talks to Emilie about a promise. A wish. A way to reverse a mistake. He never says he’ll bring her back or fix her, which is the obvious thing. He’s cryptic which means whatever he WANTS, it’s not as simple as saving her. He says it the way he does because we the audience aren’t meant to know yet.

5. The Wild Mass Guessing.

Because the rest was super coherent.

Two other points: A pure theory on Party Crashers. Gabriel is shocked at joy in his house, which could just be him realizing how many people were there, or an even more disturbing thought that he never expects joy from Adrien. OR it could be Gabriel can’t sense Adrien at all because he’s a Sentimonster, and neither Nathalie nor the Gorila are big on the joy spectrum;.

As for Chat Blanc, it could be Chat Blanc will be a seperate Sentimonster (and MORE foreshadowing????), or it’s because Plagg is also involved. Plagg is definitely a full entity, after all, and that may be enough to allow for an Akumatization.

BUT here is how I see things going down.

Adrien Agreste died, somehow or someway, probably preventable, and it was with his parents so it didn’t become news.

Emilie, unwilling to lose her son, decides to use the peacock. She may have sculpted something like Mayura did Ladybug and he’s got an Amok hidden around somewhere. Maybe Emilie used his body which is grim and also necromancy. It could be a lot of things.

But the Peacock is NOT the Miraculous of Creation. A Sentimonster is a temporary creation, a guardian, it’s not meant to be a longterm sentient being. Having a Sentimonster capable of some intelligent thought is understandable, because better guardian then, but it’s NOT meant to be a person.

Emilie pushes and this is what breaks the Peacock Miraculous. And this puts her into a coma because now she has to support Adrien’s existence with her own emotions and it’s too much of a burden for her to bear and remain conscious.

And Adrien the Sentimonster is born.

At first, he doesn’t have a lot in the way of emotions. This works out because now he’s supposed to be mourning his now disappeared mother and being blank is pretty understandable. He has the memories from his mother, maybe his father, he knows generally how he’s supposed to be, but he’s still figuring it out. Meanwhile he thinks it’s the depression because he doesn’t know he’s not real.

And Gabriel?

Gabriel lost his son, then his wife, and now he has This Thing in his home. Who thinks he’s his son and his wife almost lost her life for it and he has to. Deal with that. So he goes complete hardass because if he has to deal with it, then it would represent the Gabriel brand well. He models, he learns, he becomes the poster boy of a perfect son.

Adrien doesn’t understand why he’s being treated so coldly and he chalks it up to his father also being in pain at losing his mother. It makes sense.

Then Chloe demands to see Adrien and, well, telling Chloe no doesn’t work for long. And when Gabriel is ignoring Adrien, and Nathalie knows and is just being a professional, and the Gorilla is going about business as normal, Chloe just sees her depressed friend, and at some point there’s discussion of his wanting to go to school, to make friends, because Adrien is REAL. He’s a Sentimonster, but he’s REAL because that’s what Emilie wanted.

And real people crave love and affection eventually.

So Chloe gets him into school. And Adrien goes and passes his test with Fu. Because Adrien was always a kind and caring boy and a Sentimonster helps.

He’d forbidden.

And he meets Plagg and he’s magic and that feels right in the world.

And suddenly he’s not just Adrien. He’s Chat Noir. He has a purpose. He has people he can PROTECT and he is so eager to do so. He has powers he expects no hard limit to. He has a partner he has to work with.

He comes alive. There’s just been a pit of loss and need and yearning and suddenly he has that and more and moreover, he has a little bit of chaos on his side. Chaos that takes this order he’s been given.

And says no.

And Nathalie knows she has to tell Gabriel.

And he’s so, so very surprised. Because Adrien should not have been able to say no. And he thinks maybe, just maybe, Emilie did leave him a son after all.

So Gabriel let’s Adrien go to school.

Adrien’s birthday comes. Gabriel would always buy his son a gift. He can’t bear the thought of getting him a new fountain pen, a useful tool, a professional tool, because he’s still not sure he’s invested, so he puts the responsibility on Nathalie for the first time.

Jackady happens, Gabriel almost died, and all he could think about as he stepped away from the ledge was he almost left Adrien alone. And for the first time he hugs this boy who might be his son.

He destroys his office because it’s easy to pretend to be mad about this boy he might love and he hates he may make him lose his wife and perhaps his firstreal son. And yet the concern once he’s purified isn’t near the act he wishes it was.

Riposte becomes a test. Could he put the boy in danger. And he finds he hates himself more by the end of it then any other time.

Christmas, he decides to show a little care, maybe embrace this, and he’s terrified when he’s gone. Not enough to forget his wife and other child when an opportunity arises, but he finds himself wanting to make him happy when his friends show up.

Adrien starts asking for things. He pleads to hang out with his friends. He make arguments. He WANTS. He wants because he wants to be there for his friends, he makes a hand made gift because someone is important to him. These are not the actions of an obedient beast. Because that’s the thing, when Adrien begs, Gabriel gives in. And when Adrien wants to know more about Emilie, see her in other things, it shows someone whose view of her isn’t only her own self view.

He’s terrified when he thinks he might be Chat Noir. He has to be sure, he has to know NOW because he seems so very real and whether or not he is, he finds himself loving this Adrien and he doesn’t want him to be Chat Noir, and yet he does when he fall because the thought of him dying-

He even ponders giving up his wife for this boy. After he put him in danger. After he almost fell apart into glitter. He can’t bear to lose him too, he’s sure of it.

Adrien is growing. He’s learning to love others. He’s learning friendships. As Chat Noir, with chaos and purpose in his hands, he acts with abandon. He has love, he can protect, everything is clear.

But when Ladybug suffers and he’s unable to help, he just because more desperate and determined to save her next time. Even if it takes well over twenty thousand times and three months because that is his PURPOSE, so next time, he throws himself off the stage, and he won’t listen to Fu.

As Adrien, things are still confusing. Adrien wants to defend, but he also wants to be good for Gabriel, and making a scene is bad. Still, he sees Lila hurt people he loves, he cares about, so he decides to that being underhanded. If sincere earnestness doesn’t work like it does with Chloe, then he’ll make sure Lila knows if she won’t be his friend, then he’ll find a way to make her regret being his enemy. It’s not as direct as he likes, but he must be good for Gabriel to.

Gabriel is becoming more desperate by the day. He must save Emilie. He must save their son. And maybe this boy is their son? Maybe Adrien’s soul was there because they were so similar. He doesn’t know, all he knows is he needs the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous and once he has though, he can make everything RIGHT.

And there is the thing about happy endings.

As canon stands, Adrien is unlikely to get a happy ending. Because as the series progresses, he BONDS with his father. They seem to be getting closer, healing this rift that had been between them. If Adrien is to get out of this, he should be recognizing his unfair treatment, pulling away, getting farther to see how bad the situation is. Not getting closer. The closer he gets to Gabriel, the more it’ll hurt because how does he make peace with that? This man terrorized the city of Paris for his wife, while he barely gave his son the time of day.

And that’s if Gabriel doesn’t die using the Miraculous to save Emilie. Then Adrien will lose his father to get back his mother after his father didn’t even give him good memories to leave off of.

But the story changes if Adrien is a Sentimonster.

Because Adrien’s existence is draining Emilie. She can’t wake up while he exists. And Gabriel is a man who loves so fiercely and doesn’t want to love this boy, but DOES because how can he not? So like his son, so like his mother. So it becomes even more important to win, so Adrien will never know what his existence has cost Emilie, to make sure Adrien’s existence is never threatened by the loss of the Peacock.

Everything will hurt, but it’s not a man who choose a nearly lost wife while completely forsaking his son.

It’s a man whose nearly lost both and trying to save both.

And maybe, just maybe, the cost of stabilizing Adrien’s existence will be a cost he can bear instead of asking someone else to die.

#ml spoilers #sentimonster theory #adrien agreste #gabriel agreste #nathalie sancoeur #the gorilla #emilie agreste #miraculous ladybug

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tev-the-random · 5 years ago

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Je t’aime

(Another Miraculous One Shot, because yeah.)

Oh man, it’s been so long since I wrote so much, I’m happy! Anyways, enjoy the angsty Lukanette I thought about when I was wondering what tearjerker scenarios I could come up with.

Also on AO3!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That was supposed to be just another normal day.

Of course, the concept of a normal day in Paris was very different from other places. If you take into account the magical terrorist attacks that happened every twice a week – sometimes more, sometimes less. Usually more, because the universe is apparently an ascending comedian with quite the twisted sense of humour – and the (also magic) superheroes that swung around the city in an almost daily basis, Paris was pretty far from ever being normal. But honestly, you get used to it; you have to, unless you want the aforementioned magical terrorist to target you and your fear.

Sometimes people do fall victim to their own negative emotions, however. That’s when the akumas happen. That’s when Ladybug and Chat Noir enter the scene. They were the superheroes, the dynamic duo responsible for stopping super-villains, re-establishing peace across Paris and, occasionally, fixing some major security issues – crazy hero wannabes included. They were powerful, strong, invincible, miraculous…

And Luka was just a guy on a bike. So obviously, he chose to stay out of the way once the latest akuma decided to wreak havoc on the streets. A quick detour from the centre of things should keep him out of trouble, right? But then, the “quick detour” ended up becoming a gigantic detour as the fight of the day heated up, and he couldn’t keep much further away unless he left Paris. You see, battling six versions of the same akuma took a much larger area than battling just one. It’s only reasonable that Ladybug and Chat Noir used a lot of space to take on six versions each.

That sure was a harsh battle.

Luka was once magic too. He got to be magic a few times, actually. As Viperion, he had the ability to call for a Second Chance. A powerful ability, he might add; one that, albeit very useful, demanded its bearer to be wise. So even if circumstances might never allow him to become Viperion again, Luka felt honoured that Ladybug deemed him the right person for the job. He was glad he got to be a superhero.

But right now, he was just a guy on a bike. And there was only so much he could do to help – or rather, there was only so much he could do to not make matters worse, and not throwing himself in harm’s way without a miraculous felt like a great starter.

There was a loud “crash” sound in the distance, followed by the quake of the floor and the screams of people. The centre of Paris was engulfed by light and filled with smoke that spread to the outskirts of the city.

Luka was all but hoping Ladybug and Chat Noir were alright; he was all but praying his loved ones were alright.

The akuma’s name was Truth Digger. Whether it was a reporter desperate for a scoop or a person who had been lied to one too many times, Luka didn’t know. What he did know, however, was that the truth had many versions, and so did Truth Digger. And at the moment, all of those versions seemed set on uncovering people’s secrets, be it by stripping them of their disguises or by making them spill everything they previously kept to themselves; the akuma also seemed to have a knack for destroying things with what appeared to be a sword-like pencil – that wasn’t exactly the weirdest thing Parisians had seen so far, to be honest.

To fight an akuma worth twelve villains – unbeknownst to him, there were now sixteen of them – without ever being touched and having their identities revealed was a challenge Ladybug and Chat Noir hadn’t faced yet. It’s not that he didn’t believe in their saviours, but Luka had seen it before: Paris’ favourite superheroes, despite all of their might, were only human. They had feelings the young musician could translate into a more than a little chaotic melody.

Maybe they were invincible. But that didn’t mean they never felt the toll of it. So Luka wished the battle ended soon; if not for Parisians’ sake, then for their heroes’. And the universe had better keep its jokes to itself for another week, otherwise he’d be having a strongly worded conversation with it.

The blue-haired boy got off his bike and peered at his surroundings. He was in a more deserted part of the city now; there was nobody around except for him. Smoke and dust filled the air like a faint mist and the floor still rumbled from impacts far away. A flock of pigeons passed him by, trying to escape the noise, for even pigeons knew how to identify a threat. The wind made an eerie sound as it hit the dirty graffiti-filled walls, like it rehearsed to be the symphony of disaster.

Luka ignored the ominous atmosphere. He was fairly sure he would reach the Seine if he took a series of turns starting with the third street to the right. He would probably reach the Liberty before dusk and, if he dared be so hopeful, the akuma attack would also be over until then.

The boy was about to hop on his bicycle again and head off, but something made him stop. It wasn’t the tremors of the floor nor was it the pigeons or the wind. It sounded like footsteps. Very slow and dragging footsteps, accompanied by panting.

Despite his better judgement, Luka decided to put his bike aside and follow the noise before it died out in the distance. Of course, it could pretty much be a deadly trap – that was another thing you learned with time: you have to be careful with your surroundings, for even little butterflies held an unbelievable amount of danger in Paris –, but it could also be someone in need of help. Maybe he wasn’t a superhero right now, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t pay assistance if he could.

His own steps echoed along with the wind, and the boy hurried through the streets he barely knew how to navigate, his tuned ear guiding his way. Then he saw it: a short figure walked down an alleyway a few meters away. It stumbled about in a weak manner, each breath it took sounding extremely agonizing. It groaned in pain, and Luka quickened his pace as he heard a loud thud. He only stopped in his tracks once he looked at the path the stranger had walked on– it looked like sheet music written in red. Bloody footprints stained the floor; bloody hand marks stained the walls; there were splotches of blood here and there, and it all went on and on in what seemed to be an endless trail leading to wherever that person had come from. It looked like a horror movie scene.

A chill made its way up Luka’s back, and he was starting to doubt his ability to help out.

There in the alleyway, the person lied on the floor, bleeding out and quivering. The torn dark jacket went up and down slowly under the painful, deep breathing. Their pink jeans and once-white flowery shirt were stained red everywhere. Their dark hair was hanging loosely from two messy pigtails, and bluebell eyes struggled to stay open.

It hit him.

This wasn’t just a random horror movie Juleka put on to try and scare him. This was a nightmare. A true nightmare. It had to be a nightmare…

The floor seemed to have disappeared under Luka’s feet, yet somehow he managed to trip his way over to her. There was such a major tug in his heart he actually felt like someone had pulled it out of his chest and stepped on it. Had he noticed he stopped breathing, he’d be gasping desperately for air. How does one keep level-headed again? Is it possible for a human mouth to go this dry?

However Luka imagined his “normal day” would go, it surely never included a bleeding-to-death Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

‘Marinette!’ he called. His hands were shaking, yet he touched her shoulder with most delicacy ‘Marinette, do you hear me?’

She responded with a low groan. Or maybe it was actually a mumble and Luka’s usual mumble translator was just broken under the panic that filled his mind. In anyway, he turned her around so she’d face up.

‘Can you understand me? Are you awake?’ He tried to keep his voice as calm as possible. His hands immediately went to her sides to try and stop the bleeding; he soon found that she had already tried to take care of that. Despite it being soaked with blood, Luka recognized the beautifully patterned cotton scarf Juleka had on earlier that day. She did say she was going to give it back to Marinette at school.

Oh God, was Juleka ok?

‘Hey, Marinette! Talk to me!’ he called again, undoing the weak knot on her improvised bandages and tying it again more firmly. He could feel the deep, wide wound under it, and was quite sure skin and muscle were not the only things that were damaged.

‘Chat… Noir…’ Marinette murmured closing her eyes.

‘Hey! Marinette, look at me! Right, that’s right- keep your eyes open… What happened?’

While he waited for an answer, Luka reached for his phone to call for help. He could barely hide his horror and annoyance upon seeing that there was no signal at all – the absolute perks of destructive akumas doing their thing, he thought with sarcasm.

The building anxiety he felt did Luka no good when he got up and felt his legs falter under his weight. He left the alleyway, looked around down the dust-filled streets. There was no one in sight, and half the windows of every house were shut tight; the other half was wide open to completely empty places. Luka wouldn’t discard the possibility of the akuma having wiped out the area of its residents.

The blue-haired boy went back to the girl in pigtails. He unconsciously reached for a guitar he didn’t have on him in an attempt to calm himself. In the brief seconds of silence that followed, Marinette blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the blurry in her vision.

‘Luka…?’

‘Yeah,’ said Luka, relieved she was conscious enough to recognize people ‘Yeah, it’s me. Don’t worry, we’ll get you some help…’

He wasn’t so sure, and he could hear it in his own voice. Mixed thoughts of fear and coldness swirled in his mind like ink on water. All Luka had were his bicycle – his guitar was in its basket, although he wouldn’t remember that – and his phone with no signal while a devastating akuma battle went on not far from them. He couldn’t call for help, but he couldn’t just leave Marinette there, either; he couldn’t possibly balance her on his bicycle in the state she was and, despite considering himself strong enough to carry the girl, he would be too slow to take her anywhere before it was too late.

Meditation never prepared him for this! Oh God, what should he do?!

‘W-we’re going to get you help, we’ll- I will-‘

‘Luka,’ Marinette cried hoarsely, and the boy was startled at her firm tone ‘The akuma...’

She held his wrist – cold. Her fingers were horribly cold – and pulled it closer. Luka soon understood she was asking him to take whatever she had secured in her firmly closed hand. He held his palm open, and she dropped something on it.

Her earrings.

… Of course.

‘Don’t let them take it,’ Marinette said without taking her eyes off the jewels. Her breathing increased again, raspy against her throat. ‘Whatever you do, don’t let the akuma have it! Keep it safe, they can’t- you can’t let them-!’

‘I won’t,’ Luka reassured her, pointedly putting the pieces of jewellery inside the inner pocket of his jacket. ‘They’re safe with me, ok?’

‘Don’t let them even know you have it!’ she added as if his statement only worsened her worry ‘I-I don’t want them to hurt you!’

‘Marinette…’

‘They’ll be coming for the earrings, and then it’ll be the end! The end of everything!’ She winced at that ‘All because I couldn’t protect- I’m- they’ll finish me off and all I’ve ever done was-‘

‘Marinette,’ Luka intervened in a firm yet soothing tone. To keep that tone when he actually felt like yelling had to be a talent. ‘I promise I’ll keep your earrings safe. They are safe. You are safe.’

‘Am I…?’ Marinette’s voice went suddenly so quiet and yet so anxious, Luka felt another tug in his heart.

The more he looked at her, the more painful it felt. She was pale – not like paper or chalk, but rather in a very ghost-like manner, especially in contrast with the strong red tinge of blood streaming down her lips. There were bruises everywhere on her visible skin and a particularly bad-looking black mark under her right eye; there was a trail of dry blood going down her neck from her dilacerated ears – those earrings certainly weren’t taken off the way they should. Her eyes had lost their usual brightness; they looked tired, afraid… but there was still something in there that could only ever be found in Marinette’s eyes.

Really, was she safe?

Luka noticed that the designer girl still had his wrist in her increasingly weak grip.

He held her hand.

‘You are’ He put on the softest, most tranquilizing smile he could manage. ‘You’re safe and nobody will hurt you… see?’ He squeezed her hand gently ‘I’m here.’

Marinette watched him for a moment and opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, maybe force a smile or fake a soft giggle. She gave his hand a trembling squeeze in return.

‘I failed,’ she stated weakly.

‘No, you didn’t…’

‘I did. And I don’t want them to die because of that. I don’t want Chat to die because of that, I don’t want you to die because of that…’

Marinette’s eyes filled with tears. Luka was at a loss for words. He wished he could play her something to make her happy. But he couldn’t.

‘Luka…’ she choked ‘I don’t want to die…’

Marinette placed her free hand on her injured torso, seemingly ignorant of the pain that shot through her entire body; or perhaps too aware of it.

‘I don’t want to die! I don’t want to-!’

Keeping a soothing smile – a smile he was so used to keeping – seemed like a nearly impossible task. Maybe because he couldn’t bear seeing her distressed, maybe because he knew why she was saying that, despite how untrue he wanted it to be.

Luka lifted the girl up as delicately as he could and shifted so she would be laying on his lap, cradled in his arms, head against his chest and her hand on his.

‘I know. It’s alright, Marinette,’ he murmured ‘I’m here. I’m here with you. It's alright…’

Marinette didn’t sob. She didn’t have enough strength in her to do so. There was just the harsh breathing and the slow stream of tears. Something inside Luka completely shattered, and he felt tears well in his own eyes.

When was it that he last cried? Truly cried? He had a very faint memory of a day in the park, when he had fallen from a tree and broken his arm. He and Juleka were only kids back then, yet he remembered the tears only went on for a short while before he was smiling again; because, to Luka, his pain meant way less than seeing his sister panic for him. He knew Marinette was just the same.

‘I don’t want to go.’

‘You’re here right now, aren’t you? And I’m here with you. We’re both here, you see?’

She was simply the sweetest melody Luka had ever heard. She was the kind of person who would put others before herself and put herself in others’ place, even if it meant lowering her own volume.

She fumbled with her words and actions in a way that made for a very confusing set of notes, but she never meant anyone any harm.

She would try to do everything and a little more in order make the most of herself every day, which often sent her mental state for a worrisome crescendo. But she never backed down.

She was brave, but not fearless. And she was smart. And just. And funny. And kind. And sincere. She surely was a little miracle of her own, and there was so much she could still do…

The truth is that Marinette was powerful. She was strong. But she was not invincible.

Luka felt helpless. Hopeless. Death wasn’t something he was afraid of, neither were loneliness or silence. But his melody was fading away and the silence she left was the deadliest he’s ever heard.

And there was nothing he could do.

‘I love you,’ he whispered.

It was a simple thing, and one he was so sure of, he almost felt selfish for letting her know now. It sounded like something he’d played for her before, albeit not with those exact same lyrics; those simple three words that didn’t really mean much more than what he had already said.

Luka was bad with words. So he played. And with so many options to take, “I love you” was the song he decided to go with.

He didn’t really expect Marinette to make it a duet:

‘I love you, too.’

He locked his gaze in her bluebell eyes. She looked at him with sincerity, even if between the tears that were still lingering from her lashes.

He wanted to be happy. He really did. Because in normal circumstances, he would be so, so happy. But then again, it would have been so much better had she never said anything, if it meant he could see her well. Ups and downs and well. Away from him, if she wanted, but well.

If there was ever a moment Luka wished to use a Second Chance, that moment was right now. But if he had the chance to be magic once again, could he have stopped it all before things got out of hand? If she allowed him to have a miraculous again, could he have been of use? Ladybug was the true heroine, not him. He was just a guy in a nightmare.

He should be wiser than that, shouldn’t he? He should be better than that, shouldn’t he? He should have helped her out, shouldn’t he?

‘Luka?’

It was her whisper that brought him back. She still looked at him, her eyes going in and out of focus. There was still something in there that he could only ever find in Marinette’s eyes, and Luka was afraid he was going to be the last one to see it. It didn’t feel fair.

He breathed deeply and gave her a gentle smile. He was a professional at that, even if his smile was a bit quivering, a bit sad. It didn’t matter. With his free hand, he brushed her bangs out of the way and placed a tender kiss on her forehead.

‘You did really well, Marinette,’ he said.

Luka didn’t dare look at the girl anymore. He only held her and pressed her head against his chest, a soft hand on her hair. He could feel her smile for a second as her breathing quieted out and her grip on his hand became weaker, limp. As her melody came to a close.

It didn’t even get to be a full minute.

And Luka was left in the silence.

#Miraculous Ladybug #Luka Couffaine #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Lukanette #One-shot #Writing #Word Count: over 3000 #Warning: blood and character death #I hope you cried #(I'll go hide in the shame corner now)#(not because I straight out killed Marinette)#(but because of how cheesy it sounds to me)#(If I put this work on hold any longer I'll never publish it)#(I'll let you imagine what Luka did next)#(I know I sure did but I don't want to tell y'all)

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quicksilversquared · 5 years ago

Text

Lost Heart: Chapter 20

The Holiday Spirit

Magic can be a dangerous thing to play around with, particularly when that magic is tangled up in a curse. When Nathalie Sancoeur experiments with magic that she doesn’t fully understand, it sends her on a path to become Paris’ most dangerous supervillain and tips the balance between superheroes and supervillain.

But which way will the balance fall?

links in the reblog

Marinette honestly Could Not Wait until she got her free time back to herself.

She and Adrien had been meant to get together after school on Wednesday to hang out, after she finished with her visit as Ladybug with his mom and he finished up whatever he was doing, but by the time that she had finished talking with Mrs. Agreste (who wanted to take up her old mantel of Paon in the final battle, even though she was still recovering) and then visiting Master Fu with Chat Noir to update him on, well, everything, and then get a bit more training with defensive spells, it was time for dinner and Adrien wouldn't have been able to come over anyway.

It was a good thing that she wasn't having any trouble with the concepts that she was getting tested on, because she hadn't had that much time to study before it was time to go to bed so that she could get a decent amount of sleep before her next day of exams. Then it was time to get up again, go to school, push through a couple more exams and her group presentation with Adrien, run an errand for Master Fu at lunch (Duusu was still inhaling mountains of fruit, it seemed, and Mr. Agreste had sent another shipment that she then had to deliver to its actual destination, part by part, and then he had needed her to pick up a couple ingredients for another potion after that), go back to school, do one more test, remind everyone that the holiday party was the next day and please remember to sign up to bring treats if they hadn't before, and then she had to give Adrien another excuse about why she couldn't hang out after school before running off with Chat Noir to accompany Jade Turtle to the Tsurugi home.

She and Adrien had yet to talk about their accidental kiss and if it had meant anything. It hadn't been in front of anyone (at least not on purpose) to "prove" that they were actually dating, and hadn't been at all staged. Marinette was tempted to read into it, to think that maybe Adrien saw her as more than a friend after all, but it just wasn't the right time for that. The final confrontation was creeping closer and closer, and as soon as it was over, his father and Nathalie would both be taken to jail. He wouldn't have the additional surprise of getting his mom back at the same time- after all, he had known about her for a good chunk of the week now- but it was still a lot.

...she had really liked kissing Adrien. It hadn't been a long kiss, and she had still been giggly from his kissing attack, but it had been really sweet, and his nose kiss afterwards?

Adrien was too cute, he really was.

But now wasn't the time to think about that, when the two superheroes and Jade Turtle were transformed and approaching the Tsurugi house. Master Fu had called ahead and Madam Tsurugi knew they coming (and Kagami was still at school, so they didn't have to worry about her overhearing their conversation with her mother), but Ladybug still had to have her head in the game.

After all, they had a lot of questions for Madam Tsurugi. Some were about how the curse had interacted with her diminishing eyesight, of course- Jade Turtle was particularly interested in making sure that the curse hadn't kept spreading after her eyesight was entirely gone- but they also wanted to find out how she had ended up with the Miraculous in the first place, and also, well…

"Mrs. Agreste mentioned that you would have known about both the Peacock and the Butterfly being in her possession-"

"Emilie?" Madam Tsurugi sat bolt upright, clearly startled, and Ladybug frowned at Jade Turtle. Perhaps Madam Tsurugi had asked why they had come and it was a bit weird that she hadn't ever approached the superheroes to tell them about who Hawkmoth was, but there was no need for Jade Turtle to lead in with such an aggressive statement. "She's- is she awake? The last I heard, Mr. Agreste told me that she was getting worse!"

Jade Turtle smiled slightly, watching Madam Tsurugi carefully. "Yes, well, there has been an interesting turn of events lately. It might be difficult to explain everything that's happened, but in summary, Mrs. Agreste has been awakened, Mr. Agreste has surrendered to us but hasn't handed himself over publically yet, Ms. Sancoeur had been using Heart to transform with the Peacock, and now she's snatched the Butterfly and we have recovered the Peacock and removed the curse."

"Just like that, huh?" Madam Tsurugi asked, frowning. "Emilie and I tried so hard and didn't make a single dent in that curse. But I suppose we didn't have the knowledge to manage it." She sighed. "But yes, I did know that she had the Butterfly. And it didn't take a genius to figure out who had taken it."

"And you didn't tell anyone," Jade Turtle prompted. "Was there any particular reason why?"

Madam Tsurugi looked uncomfortable as she shifted in her seat. "Well, at first, I just wasn't in the country. My daughter and I have been in Japan for the past couple years, trying to get a blind fencing group established there. I didn't keep up with the news in Paris that much, because all I really cared about here was Emilie and my old fencing academy. Once we moved back to Paris, I heard enough about Hawkmoth to figure out that the Butterfly Miraculous was involved. I confronted Gabriel, but he told me about his plan to use the two main Miraculous to get a wish- a wish to change the timeline, for the curse to be removed from the Peacock before either Emilie or I used it."

"So your eyesight would not have deteriorated faster than normal," Jade Turtle filled in. "I see."

"I didn't tell anyone anything, as the akumas seemed annoying but largely harmless enough. I was a rather irritated when my own daughter was akumatized shortly after we arrived, of course, but Mr. Agreste claimed that he only got impressions of feelings when he akumatized people, not names." Madam Tsurugi sighed. "Shortly after that, I signed a contract with him. He promised to do his best not to akumatize Kagami or I, as well as ensure that his wish would remove the curse before I used it. In return, I would not tell anyone about his secret identity. I only realized after the fact that the contract was entirely for his benefit- it was not a steel-bound promise to not akumatize us, only that he would try to avoid it, and once the timeline was rewritten, the contract would vanish and I would have no memory of it. He could set the time that the curse would wear off to simply happen before Emilie took over, and I would never know the difference."

"But he had the contract to hold over your head, then," Chat Noir filled in, looking more interested now. "If you went to the police, he would get arrested, but he could get his revenge by showing the contract to the police and saying that you had known for a while and kept it secret because it would benefit you."

Madam Tsurugi nodded sharply. "Precisely. And I know exactly how publicized that would be. Our family honor would be destroyed."

Ladybug winced, thinking about what (admittedly little) she knew about Kagami and her family. Family honor was a pretty big thing, one that was Not To Be Messed With, and Mr. Agreste had taken full advantage of that to pinch off a threat at the roots.

Thank goodness Mr. Agreste hadn't been anywhere near as crafty of a supervillain as he was a businessman. They might have actually been in trouble then.

"Of course, it might have looked better for us had I simply ignored the possible repercussions and gone forward myself," Madam Tsurugi added. "Now, I've said nothing. I sat back and allowed a supervillain to run over the city, even after I knew that the attacks were getting more dangerous. I let my fear about the repercussions of reporting Gabriel and Nathalie silence me, and now public opinion will destroy me."

"If he bothers to pull out the contract," Jade Turtle told her. She scoffed.

"The police will find it. There were multiple copies, and I don't doubt that he scanned it and has copies on his computer as well." Madam Tsurugi sighed. "He won't think to destroy them. And I suppose I deserve it. I prioritized my desires over what the city needed, and that was an action unbenefitting to a former superhero. I can only hope that my punishment will be a reprimand and nothing worse."

"We can hope." Jade Turtle glanced towards the superheroes, then back at Madam Tsurugi. "That wasn't the only question we had. We have talked some with Mrs. Agreste about what the Peacock was being used for and why and where it came from, but she still tires easily and we don't want to risk being seen near the place that she's staying while the Purple Lady is still active. So we were wondering, well… about everything."

Madam Tsurugi nodded. Her shoulders relaxed slightly- clearly she had expected more of a scolding from them. "Yes, well, it is a odd story, and I might as well start from- from the very start. As I'm sure you know, I am a champion fencer. I trained from a young age and showed good promise- and this was coming from a champion family. Soon enough, I had my life's goal- to beat my uncle's record number of championships. He was legendary, and I wanted to be, too."

Ladybug listened, attentive. She could see where this was going, honestly. Losing eyesight on its own…well, that already had to be hard. With what was starting to sound like a lifelong goal to beat a legendary relative's record, a goal that extended family members were no doubt aware of…

"I was a champion, getting sponsorships so that it could be my job and I could focus all of my energy on training. And then I started losing my peripheral vision. I had needed a fair amount of correction prior to that, but black on the edges of my vision- that was new." Madam Tsurugi sighed, her shoulders slumping ever-so-slightly before she caught and corrected herself. "I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, which is genetic and progressive, tunnel vision closing in. I was crushed, but I wasn't going to let it slow me down. Fencing helmets do obscure vision and it's not as though we're really going to get attacked from the side."

Ladybug nodded. She could remember that, from her brief brush with fencing. Having the helmet had been pretty disorienting at first, since she was used to fighting with nothing obstructing her vision, but it was easy enough to work around when she only had to deal with attacks from the front.

Madam Tsurugi continued, emotion making her voice waver ever-so-slightly. "I kept winning despite the handicap, even when I was pregnant with Kagami. I gave birth to her between championships and gave myself no recovery time. The black was creeping inwards, and so I had to fight while I could. I moved to Paris after a number of years, because my trainer in Japan was doubtful about how long I would be able to fight with reduced vision and I had heard about a different trainer in Paris, one who had won championships but who also had trained blind fencers at his school before- not competitively, or at least not competitively at the level that I was at- but I figured that he might have some ideas for me to work with my decreasing vision."

"And that was when the portals started opening?" Jade Turtle inquired. Madam Tsurugi nodded.

"Correct. Shortly after I moved to Paris, the portal first opened."

Ladybug listened intently as Madam Tsurugi detailed how she had become the Royal Peafowl, getting the Miraculous and the associated book and scrolls from a Chinese friend of the family who knew that they were magic and had protective properties but hadn't known specifics. Shortly after moving, she had met Emilie, with her talent for languages and cryptograms and other word puzzles, and they started the slow process of deciphering the book, starting with a page that- thankfully- had pictures of the creatures that they had dubbed demons. They found a spell to make people forget about both the tear in the sky and the sentimonster, which perhaps was a little unnecessary but seemed like a good idea, to reduce public panic…and then realized that using the pin seemed to be speeding up the rate of Madam Tsurugi's tunnel vision.

Like, quite a bit. Her doctor had expressed concern, but at that point…well, the Royal Peafowl had become a duty, even if she was only needed a couple times per year.

They had stumbled across the idea of feeding the pin after that, completely by accident after Mrs. Agreste had set a banana down next to the pin and had watched as it immediately vanished by chunks. They tried that for a bit, and then Madam Tsurugi decided to pass the pin on to Emilie, since she didn't have any pre-existing conditions for the curse to latch on to. Using the pin had made her a little tired at first, even though she was feeding it as often as she could, but it didn't seem like anything to worry about. Emilie had largely hidden how the Miraculous had affected her after several years of use, which was made easier by distance- Madam Tsurugi had moved back to Japan after retiring from competition. The decision to end her competitive career had come after another eye condition had sprung up, taking the center of her vision and leaving her with only a fuzzy ring of vision between the black creeping in from the outside and the black spreading out from the middle. While she could still fence, it would not have been at the same level and she had wanted to go out on a high.

A high which, unfortunately, had come one title shy of tying with her uncle's record.

"I had started teaching fencing well prior to that, thankfully," Madam Tsurugi told them. "So even though I no longer had my sponsorships as a steady source of income, I did still have a job- and yes, I am still teaching now, even though all of my sight has gone. I can demonstrate moves, and we use blind fencing as a teaching tool, even with fully-sighted fencers. Since the helmets obscure some vision, we take that to the extreme to teach our fencers how to use other factors in their environment to tell them where their opponents are and where they're likely to move."

Chat Noir blinked in surprise. "I- I've never heard of that training technique before."

"I'm not surprised. It's not a common technique. Many people, I've found, underestimate the value of using training designed for blind fencers when they themselves can see." Madam Tsurugi's smile was thin. "Their loss."

"Indeed."

"At any rate, Emilie was looking for solutions for the problem, as she did not want to continue dealing with the threat forever," Madam Tsurugi continued, picking her story back up. "The tears were getting more frequent, we could tell that much. Emilie talked to my friend who had given me the Miraculous in the first place, and between the two of them, they managed to track down the Butterfly and buy it off of someone, maybe a month or two before her last battle. The idea was for her to learn how to use the Butterfly in place of the Peacock. We had suspected that, given the pictures in the book, there was something wrong with it. But Emilie learned about how the Butterfly worked right before it got shipped to her, and, well, she had concerns about sending a person- even a person with superpowers- up against the demons. It seemed like there was a very specific set of powers she would have to give her superhero, too, for them to be able to accomplish the same thing as her sentimonsters had."

Jade Turtle hummed in confirmation. "It would be harder to get the Butterfly's powers to be as effective as the Peacock's against that particular threat. It could be done, of course, but it would be hard."

"So Emilie didn't even try using the Butterfly, to the best of my knowledge, and instead focused on finishing her translation of a spell that would fix the tear for good." Madam Tsurugi sighed. "She had told me, of course. We were excited about it. She was going to give the brooch more food than ever to try to keep it from affecting her too much. The next thing I knew, I heard that she had fallen into a coma. One power use and two spells were too much of a power draw, and the demon appearances had gotten too close together. She hadn't had enough time to recover. I figured that she would recover soon enough, since the worst of the tiredness- to my knowledge- usually vanished pretty quickly. The fact that she didn't…"

"Ah, I might know what went wrong now," Jade Turtle said, a small smile on his face. "Mr. Agreste didn't know about the food for the pin. If he had, it's possible that she would have been out for a couple days before waking up again. Or perhaps not, it's impossible to tell how much exhaustion she was hiding."

Madam Tsurugi was frowning. "But why- why wouldn't she tell him about that? Emilie is smart, she would have known that something new like using two spells instead of one could be dangerous. And I wasn't in the city when that went down, of course, and I wasn't meant to come visit for months. I understand not telling everyone, but I had figured that Gabriel at least knew about the food! That he was trying that, at the very least!"

"Well, she's awake and well out of danger now," Jade Turtle soothed. "We were able to undo what the curse did to her, and she's recovering."

Madam Tsurugi leaned forward at that, suddenly intent. "You said- I hadn't caught it before, but you didn't just wake her up, you undid the effects of the curse? Would it be possible- I mean, I always knew that I was going to lose all of my vision and I've accepted that and have figured out how to keep teaching, but I had expected a bit more time with my vision before it went completely...and it's been several years since I've been able to see my daughter fence at all, and I've heard that she's made great progress. I know it's been years, but might it be possible to- to undo the curse's effects on me?"

Jade Turtle considered her, his expression softening. "Well, we can certainly try. But I must warn you- with the curse getting tangled up in a preexisting condition, that could make things more difficult. I don't know how it will respond to the cure. It may not help, it may return you to the vision you had before using the Peacock, it may end up where you would have been without the curse's interference, it might just fall somewhere in between." He paused for a moment, then spoke up again. "If you don't mind me asking, how far along should your blindness be, given the rate of progression prior to when you started using the Peacock Miraculous?"

Madam Tsurugi's brow furrowed as she thought, fingers tapping against her legs. "Approximately? It's hard to say, of course. Before I used the Peacock, my tunnel vision was about….so." She held up her hands, curved, to illustrate the boundaries of her vision.

Ladybug exchanged a glance with Chat Noir. Madam Tsurugi's hands were maybe a shoulder's width apart, held about the same distance out in front of her face. Thinking of fighting with that much peripheral vision gone…

It couldn't have been easy. And Madam Tsurugi had been fighting at a very competitive level even with her vision like that, and even for years past that. That was incredible.

"Now, if I remember correctly, I would be more like….so." Her hands moved closer, just wider than her face. "Or even narrower, I don't remember. And of course, it's hard to estimate when I can't, well, see, and of course that was only their best guess."

Chat Noir leaned forward, expression curious. "Was your vision like that, then, when you did your last championship? Just out of curiosity."

Madam Tsurugi managed a small smile, bringing her hands together a fraction more. "Like so, if I had to estimate, and even with the strongest correction available, what was left of my vision still wasn't clear- legally, even if I still got shapes and colors and could do without a cane in public- I was blind."

Ladybug and Chat Noir exchanged another look, and Ladybug was pretty sure that her jaw was on the floor. That- that was incredible. No matter how else she felt about Madam Tsurugi and her somewhat morally grey involvement in this whole mess, there was no denying that the woman was a serious role model, particularly when it came to not letting handicaps hold her back.

"That is quite impressive," Jade Turtle said, his smile clear in his voice. "You are quite the powerhouse to be reckoned with, that's for sure. And we'll certainly see what we can do about the curse's effects on you."

Madam Tsurugi inclined her head, the picture of steely composure. "I greatly appreciate it."

"Ladybug, Chat Noir, I thank you for your time and for accompanying an old man," Jade Turtle told them, smiling at the two superheroes. "It is much appreciated. You may take your leave now, and if you can spare the time, ma'am, I'd like to try a few spells to try to get a better picture of how the curse interacted with you."

Adrien and Marinette practiced their presentation for Madam Mendeleev's class one last time over a warm breakfast of quiche and freshly baked bread, spread with plenty of butter. They had it down pat now, their timing absolutely perfect and no delays as they tossed the presentation back and forth between the two of them.

They made a fantastic team, they really did.

"Last day before the holidays," Adrien said cheerfully as he tucked the thumb drive with the presentation on it into his bag. "One quiz, one presentation, and a whole lot of lazing about and talking about holidays plans. Fantastic."

"It'll be fun," Marinette agreed. She carefully placed the Yule log cake box into a bag and set it near the rest of her things by the door. "You absolutely went overboard with the number of chips you're bringing, I just want you to know that."

Adrien laughed. "I didn't buy them myself, you know. My father had the Gorilla get them for me, and he just asked what kinds of chips people liked. I gave him a short list of examples, and he, uh...decided to get them all. Or almost all, at least."

Marinette grinned. That was pretty funny, actually. She knew that there was a reason why she liked the Gorilla.

It didn't take long to bundle up and carry both food and party supplies across the street and to the school. Marinette set her cake box and Adrien's bag of chip bags into the large box behind Ms. Bustier's desk, placed the receipts for the party decorations in front of Ms. Bustier's computer, as their teacher had requested, and then started setting out the supplies for making their snowflakes and other decorations on the folding table that Ms. Bustier already had set up. Adrien helped, unpacking her bags and opening packages of construction paper so that it didn't take so long to set up. The result was pretty impressive, really, with four shades of blue paper, one white, one black, and a variety pack, plus a whole slew of glitter glue and a few skeins of wintery-colored yarn.

"I'm going to get markers, colored pencils, and scissors from the art room," Marinette told Adrien. She had asked the art teacher about borrowing the supplies as soon as she and Adrien had come up with their first few ideas for the party, and he had agreed right away. "Want to stay here and make sure that the food doesn't walk away? We had problems with that a couple years ago."

"Really? That's terrible!" Adrien planted himself in his usual seat, sitting up straight. "I'll guard the room."

Marinette nodded, then dashed out of the room and down the hallway. Mr. Ross would be there by now, and he would no doubt have the supplies ready. Then she could grab them, get them set out, and then write down what was going to go on- when they were going to actually eat the food, for one, and when they had to be cleaning up the art supplies- on the whiteboard.

Chloe had never done nearly as much for their holiday parties, but for most of the years when she was class president, they were too young for her to be put in charge of planning anything. Then, for the last year of her class president run, she had her butler plan and bring in everything. It had been a very nice party, to be fair, but it felt a little too formal for a school party.

"You're doing such a good job, Marinette!" Tikki told her, popping her head out of Marinette's purse. "The party should be a lot of fun!"

"I hope so," Marinette said, thinking about all of the rushing and frantic planning that had gone into pulling the party together. "I really, really hope so."

"Alix, Kim, stop using the glitter glue as face paint! That is not its intended use!"

The four of them exchanged amused looks as Ms. Bustier hurried up the classroom steps to try to regain order in the back of the room. The class was hard at work, most busy cutting snowflakes and making little snowmen. Ivan and Max were working together to hang up the silver garlands around the room and to zig-zag some of the yarn back and forth between the outer windows and the hallway windows so that people could hang their finished snowflakes up in the air instead of just on the windows and blackboards. Nathaniel had brought his window paints and, with both Ms. Bustier's and Mr. Damocles' permission, was painting a winter scene on the outermost window while chatting with Rose, Juleka, and Lila.

It looked very wintery and festive. Minus, of course, Alix and Kim and their "winter warrior paint", aka glitter glue smeared across their faces. Marinette wasn't sure that Kim had thought things all the way through when he had painted the glitter glue over his eyebrows. Something told her that he was going to have a bit of a painful time getting it out again.

"My sisters would have an absolute field day with all of these supplies," Alya said as she smeared some silver glitter along the edge of her snowflake. "They love glitter glue. They've got an entire shoebox each filled with the stuff." She grimaced. "They need to be heavily supervised with they use it, though, or they'll end up with it in their hair and all over their clothes."

Nino grinned. "She's still bitter about it because the last time she was babysitting, her sisters got into the glitter glue without permission and decorated their clothes. And because she hadn't been paying attention, she got to do all of the cleaning."

Alya scowled at him. "Okay, it wasn't entirely my fault that they got into the glitter glue. Nora put it away too low, so they could actually reach it. And I had to get that article done for the Ladyblog tracking how the akuma attacks were getting more dangerous. I should have been able to do that without worrying about them. It's not like I took the glitter glue down and then ignored them."

Marinette winced in sympathy. She could only imagine how difficult it would be to get glitter glue out of clothing. She had said before that Alya's family needed a locked arts and crafts chest, like she had had when she was younger (and still kept, to lock things away when Manon came over), but apparently nothing had come of that particular suggestion.

"So d'you think that your father will be better about the holidays this year?" Nino asked Adrien, changing the subject before Alya glared a hole in her bottle of glitter glue. "I think you said something about him being a little less of a recluse lately, right? So he might actually come out and celebrate with you on his own without you running off?"

Marinette paused mid-cut, glancing over at Adrien. She knew why Mr. Agreste was coming out more- with Nathalie's heart pretty much gone, he couldn't send her out, and he wanted to get a break from her and that had the side effect of him spending more time with Adrien- but Adrien didn't know that. He had to suspect that something was up, though, considering that suddenly he wasn't seeing Nathalie at all and his mom was back under really strange conditions. Adrien's face was carefully neutral, though, giving nothing away.

"It's hard to say with him," Adrien said at last. "I'm not going to get my hopes up about anything, that's for sure. And I'll not run off this year, I just- I just had to get out of the house last year."

Marinette slid a hand over, bumping it gently against Adrien's thigh in silent support. He flashed a smile over at her, curling his fingers around her hand and giving it a light squeeze.

He would have his mom this year, she knew at least that much (and Alya and Nino did not). However, he might not have his father. It would stink for him to have his father go to jail so close to Christmas, but if Duusu recovered by then and the Purple Lady attacked, they would take her down.

It would be lovely for Paris to have their supervillain taken care of before Christmas. It would be less lovely for Adrien.

At least he would have his mom. She had to focus on that.

"Well, if you gotta get out this year- seriously, just call one of us up," Nino told him, gesturing to himself, Alya, and Marinette. Then he grinned. "Though I suppose that I don't even need to guess who you're going to go to first- what do you bet, Alya, that Adrien would go to his girlfriend first, or little old us?"

"Well, there's only one person who can give Adrien Christmas kisses, and it's not me," Alya said, grinning widely. "Or you. So I'm going to guess that he's going to go for the Dupain-Cheng place first. By the way, guys, when were you planning on telling us that you've worked your way up to kissing, hmm? Or were you going to keep that secret, too?"

Marinette could only groan.

Their last day before break went by in a rush. The single test that they had went smoothly, the presentation that she gave with Adrien went off without a single hitch. They had lunch, one more class, and then their last gym class of the semester.

She could have done without the dodgeballs. It was a relief when the clock on the wall marked the class as half over and she, Alya, and Adrien could leave to set up the table of food. Nino opted to stay and keep playing, which was probably for the better as Mr. D'Argencourt looked less than pleased about the three of them leaving.

"Party time!" Alya trilled as they walked into Ms. Bustier's room. "Oh, man, look at all of that food. I hope no one ate too much at lunch, 'cause we're gonna need people to bring their appetites."

Ms. Bustier laughed from her spot at her desk. "I've already had to shut down the proposal of an eating contest between Alix and Kim, Alya, please don't encourage it. Leftovers are fine."

"And Alya, while you're over eying up the food, can you grab the tablecloth?" Marinette called. "That and the clips. Once the tablecloth is on and secured, we can set all of the food out."

Alya nodded, diving into the box of food. She came up seconds later with the plastic tablecloth. "More snowflakes! There's a distinct lack of red and green going on this year, I noticed."

"Yeah, well, not everyone celebrates Christmas." Marinette accepted the tablecloth and started unfolding it, tossing one side to Adrien so that he could help spread it over the table. "And I tried last year to keep our party from being specific to any particular holiday, but all it took was a little bit of red and green and a picture of a Christmas tree and all of a sudden everyone was calling it a Christmas party. So I wasn't going to give an inch on that this year."

"And it worked, I think," Adrien chimed in. "Everyone is calling it a holiday party. Or a winter holiday party. Or just a winter party."

Ms. Bustier was smiling. "That's very thoughtful of you, Marinette. I know several people in our class celebrate other holidays instead, and it's nice for them to feel fully included in the class celebration."

Marinette couldn't hide her pleased smile. It had maybe taken a bit of work to ensure that all of their activities would be fully winter instead of suggesting Christmas at all, but it had been worth it. Both Nathaniel and Sabrina had seemed very happy without all of the Christmas imagery hanging over them.

"Unfortunately, I don't think everyone who brought food quite got that memo," Alya called from where she was digging in the food box. "We have Christmas tree-shaped sugar cookies."

Marinette sighed. Those, she knew without even looking, were from Rose. Still, Rose had meant well. "At least it's just the one thing."

"And gingerbread men, too."

"To be fair, I don't think those can be considered strictly Christmas unless they're frosted like Santa," Adrien pointed out. He snagged the packet of tablecloth clips from where Alya tossed them, giving the tablecloth one last tug to straighten it before starting to clip it in place. "They're regular winter holiday cookies, just like the Yule Log cake."

Marinette laughed. "I'm starting to think that your definition of 'not specific to any holiday' is more based on what your stomach wants to eat."

Adrien's exaggerated pout in response made her laugh even harder.

Slowly, the table filled up. Bags of popcorn were combined into one large bowl, bags of chips were set up, platters of cookies were uncovered and arranged, and the punch bowl was brought out and filled up. Plates and silverware- proper ones instead of paper and plastic, thanks to Chloe and her father- were stacked at one end of the table, and cups for the punch went at the other end. The Yule log cake was the last to go out, sitting proudly at the end of the table. Shaved chocolate for the bark dusted the top and sides, and smooth chocolate frosting covered the cake itself.

It looked fantastic.

"I can't wait to eat that," Adrien said, arranging the last of the discarded packaging in the now-emptied food box before coming over to stand next to Marinette. He slung a casual arm over her shoulder and Marinette leaned into his side, relishing in his heat. It was perhaps a little chilly in the building and Adrien- well, Adrien was warm. He also had a very snuggly sweater on. "All of this looks delicious. And the classroom looks great, too."

"Yeah, people really did a good job with the snowflakes." Marinette glanced around, smiling at the snowflakes hanging from the yarn strung across the classroom. They were all sorts of sizes and colors, ranging from delicate and lacy (thank you, Rose and Mylène) to large, chunky, and haphazardly smeared with glitter (a la Kim). "And Nathaniel's snow scene looks great."

"It really does," Adrien agreed."Speaking of our classmates, I think people are coming up. I hear a distant rumbling of feet."

Sure enough, there was a chattering in the hallway that was slowly getting louder. The first of their classmates started coming in, Rose wielding a bag of party games that she had no doubt hidden in her locker as she trotted in at the head of the pack. There were a lot of excited faces in the group, especially as they caught sight of the spread of food. Alix and Kim still had glitter paint smeared across their faces as they came in (and Kim was missing a chunk of one eyebrow- based on the somewhat scrubbed appearance of the glitter glue around it, she suspected that he had tried getting the glitter off and failed), and several other people had pulled on holiday sweaters. People started serving up right away, excitedly opening the bags of chips and piling their plates high. Nino bypassed the line to set up the playlist that Marinette had asked him to make, the wintery music filling the room within seconds. Rose started singing along, and it wasn't long before several other people chimed in.

Looking around, Marinette couldn't help but be pleased at how the party had come together. Everyone seemed to be having fun, the classroom looked amazing, and it - well, it was well worth the last-minute hassle of putting things together. If she took a step back, ignored everything else going on in the other side of her life, and stayed entirely in the moment, well...

It was really starting to feel like the holidays.

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #Lost Heart #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste

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thebigpapilio · 6 years ago

Text

There For Too Long: A Sequel To “From An Earthworm”!

This is a sequel to From An Earthworm, which was based on the Secret Lovers AU of @gale-of-the-nomads.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19967920

If the curse of the Peafowl Miraculous or the heroes didn’t kill Nathalie, the guilt would finish the job.

She had put up with a lot for Gabriel, helping her unrequited love - Not a crush; Adrien’s friend Marinette has a crush. - seal her fate on never having a relationship with him.

Nathalie had her doubts of morality, but seeing Adrien transform into Chat Noir assured her that the reward really wasn’t worth the risk. She did care about him, no matter her job; the child deserved better.

Her excuse had always been that love requires sacrifice sometimes. This wasn’t love, and the sacrifice was too great. Hawkmoth had tried to sacrifice others for his love, and it finally struck Nathalie that she was just a means to an end, and if Hawkmoth needed her out of the picture, he could easily do so.

…but would he?

Nathalie shook her head and steeled herself. It was time to find out. Nathalie had always made good plans, even if Gabriel needed to affirm them. After calling for some paid vacation on the grounds of putting time in as Mayura from a different hiding point, she left the mansion for the first time in a long while that wasn’t strictly on business or akuma attacks.

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When Ladybug, Chat Noir & Hive, a mysterious heroine who had started appearing during akuma attacks with the mysterious creature “Melissa” backing her up, showed up to confront Mayura, they had been understandably surprised and suspicious when she explained herself and even made them an offer.

If they could heal her and the Miraculous and keep her involvement secret, they were free to have not only the brooch and both her and Hawkmoth’s identities but any other Miraculous paraphernalia they found.

While hesitant, they took her to the Guardian, who had transformed using the Turtle Miraculous in order to do the job away from his hideout. She didn’t commit him to memory, and only once she and the brooch had been fixed up did she remove it.

Chat was understandably saddened by the revelation, and the further reveal of Hawkmoth’s identity would be even worse on him, but lately, Nathalie had been more kind to the young boy.

She had been about to leave to keep up appearances when the Guardian stopped her. Turning around, she found the Peafowl on an extended hand.

“You are a good Peafowl, Madame Sancoeur,” he said, his voice solemn but hopeful, “and Duusu struggles with new wielders. If you truly wish to redeem yourself, please help us take down Hawkmoth.”

“Is there no one else? Why trust me?” Nathalie shouted, nearly threatening to tear up. She’d done a lot of bad things, albeit not as bad as Hawkmoth.

“I don’t trust you.”

Everyone turned to the Black Cat wielder in shock; Adrien had never sounded this cold, and the tone eerily reminded Nathalie of his father. Ladybug and the Guardian looked shocked at his cold tone, while Hive’s shades-wearing face merely became more somber and uncomfortable. His hand reared back for a second, and when Nathalie prepared to run from a Cataclysm-bearing cat, she only found a extended hand awaiting her. Looking at her soon-to-be-ex-boss’ son, she wondered if there were no glamour how fast Adrien would have been figured out.

“...but I’m willing to learn. You want me to trust you? Here’s your chance to earn it.”

She took the handshake, and only lasted a few seconds before she started crying.

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Hawkmoth was livid.

It was already plenty dangerous using the Peafowl Miraculous, but now he couldn’t even use it!

Nathalie was smart, but more negative emotion had come from Nathalie than folks to China for their New Year. Sensing someone’s emotions as a Moth wielder allowed you to learn their name and what was causing that strong emotion even before you sent out the power vessel to make a Champion.

And the heroes knew his identity, too. Fant-

KRRRRSSSHHHHHH!

Ladybug, Chat Noir, Carapace, Rena Rouge, Hive & Mayura burst through the giant, very expensive glass window. Mayura felt unhappy about fighting him, and Hawkmoth knew why. He kept her around only for two reasons. One was because she knew the truth behind the elder Agreste, and the other was minor - she’d been a family friend through Emilie, and she’d known Emilie was the previous Peafowl before Gabriel had.

Had his mind been properly in place - well, things would be a lot different. Let’s try that again.

Had he been focused and not distracted, he would have noticed that not only was Mayura’s skin less blue and more like Nathalie’s color but that Chat Noir felt even worse.

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The stare-down was tense. It’s sort of hard to describe things any further than that without being repetitive or cheesy, so…

“Nathalie, I am disappointed in you-” Hawkmoth began, only for Hive to interrupt.

“Save your anger for your cellmates, Gabriel. I’m sure they’ll have appropriate responses for you.” she hissed, her hands ready to rip off her mask and unleash her mysterious ally, which after Hive’s first conference had informed the world Melissa was called a “Persona.”

It was a wonder Adrien didn’t have a Persona, Hawkmoth thought to himself. Nathalie or Westin would have found out & informed him immediately.

…would they?

Ladybug and her allies old and new understood & accepted that Hawkmoth would not listen to reason, not even after they learned what his reasoning was. Hawkmoth picked this up, and without further ado, the battle began.

As the most recent target of his ire and weakest member, Hawkmoth targeted the Peafowl wielder first. She may have been healed, but she was not as battle-capable as him, so it was not long before he was holding her down, his unsheathed sword pointed to her neck and threats to Ladybug and Chat Noir made that if they didn’t hand over their Miraculouses and run he would turn her from a peahen into a headless chicken.

From under her boss, Mayura wanted to move, but it was clear that if she did she would be getting cut in a different way than had been planned when she decided to betray Hawkmoth.

It was at this moment of utter despair that she heard a voice. It didn’t sound like Hawkmoth, and it wouldn’t have been, due to the lack of space to establish a link and her desire to stop him. This was someone new.

“My apologies for being late…”

A splitting pain began to rampage upon her temple, stronger than any migraine her work had given her. Used to the headache, however, Mayura managed to keep quiet, not screaming out in pain as she assumed Hive had most likely done.

“You require a savior from a terrible ‘man,’ do you? I see… very well, then. We shall forge a contract.”

Mayura felt her mask change form, until it settled with a long, thin item running down her right cheek. It took a second to realize it was a chain not unlike the ones used for a monocle, but both of her eyes were covered. Then it clicked - she had a masquerade mask on!

“I am thou, thou art I… this monster has betrayed your trust and broken your heart among many others - you betrayed him back, so now it is time you broke him too!”

In one fluid, graceful motion, Mayura grabbed her new mask and yanked it off with all the might she could muster.

Hawkmoth jumped off his hostage like he’d been launched into space as blinding, blue flames once again erupted from a new Persona wielder.

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When the fire died down, a new figure stood behind Mayura.

What the rest of the room correctly assumed to be a she wore a sparkling mostly-blue dress, with ovoid shapes in vibrant colors of the rainbow patterned on. A royal headdress colored like a peacock’s tail - most likely the Peafowl Miraculous - rested upon her forehead, and a feathery boa was wrapped around her neck like a bandanna when not covering a bandit’s face.

Eyes closed until now, Mayura - or Value, as she would later rename herself - grinned a malicious grin that made even Hive secretly glad the malevolence behind that grin wasn’t directed at her.

“My, dear Persona,” Mayura laughed, words slow but self-assured and tone quiet but confident and clear, “you went all out, didn’t you? I suppose I’ll have to live up to your standards, then…”

Hawkmoth, who had been retreating closer and closer to the wall, jumped as he fully backed up into it when Mayura turned to him, a deadly smile plastered on her face as strongly as the robotic look she had once wore.

“Let the show begin, then...” and as she brandished her sharpened war fan, Hawkmoth gulped. Extending it out, she cried, “Take flight… Hera!”

And when Hera took flight, Hawkmoth and Gabriel had a crash landing.

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wintermoth · 7 years ago

Text

Silenced (Commission)

The following is a Ko-Fi commission for @anthonyswest who asked for a rewrite of the scene between Alya and Kasai in Chapter 63 of Guardians. I don’t technically have open commissions or set prices or anything but a ko-fi is a ko-fi so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I went a little above and beyond what you asked for, dude, but I doubt you’ll be disappointed ;3c

Obviously, SPOILERS for Guardians if you haven’t read it yet

Alya almost said no when Marinette invited her over.

This last week had been like being caught in a rough swell, something she had experienced more than once growing up in Martinique, up and down and up and down, being tossed to and fro, knocked under before she could make any headway towards shore, then heaved upwards a moment after. She thought about simply waiting below the swell, far enough down where the waves had no pull, for the surface offered no relief. But now her lungs screamed for air and as she rocketed towards the surface, she resolved to not let herself be tossed around once more.

She was tired of being treated like the enemy by those she had idolized and being pitied by her friends. She was tired of accepting their words at face value while doubts lurked within, unspoken, but festering. She needed answers and she needed them now.

So, she said yes.

And just like that, she had Marinette all alone. No classmates to overhear, parents busy in the bakery with their morning customers, no concerned boyfriends to intervene, just them alone, with no easy way out. Not if Marinette valued her as a friend at all. Maybe it was a little underhanded but, then, Marinette deserved it, didn't she?

Because Ladybug and Chat Noir had known. When they came to her room that night, they'd done so knowing exactly what they were looking for. They'd looked straight at her folder, they'd known about the flash drive, they'd asked for her digital backups, they'd known. Before that, they'd shown up to the studio with Sombra in tow, a clear indication that they'd anticipated needing to stop the interview.

Somehow, she'd gone from being someone they trusted and preferred over others in the city to someone to be treated with suspicion.

No one knew the full details of her research and she'd only ever spoken at length about her research and discoveries with four people. Her mother, Nino, Adrien, and Marinette. Her mother would never rat her out, nor did she have any connections to the heroes, same for Nino. She suspected Adrien might know them but Marinette, oh, she knew Marinette did. Of everyone who knew what she was doing, only Marinette had the necessary connections for this to have happened.

According to Ladybug and Chat Noir, Alya was digging into things she ought not to be. But how could they have known that before her interview even happened? Surely, they would know better than to have bought into the media hype of all their secrets being revealed unless, of course, they knew already that she had uncovered secrets and had begun to mistrust her because of it. And who could have clued them in, who could have told them about the folder and the flash drive, about her habit of meticulously back everything up, other than Marinette herself?

Alya wanted to believe that Marinette hadn't snitched. Maybe she'd been planning to surprise her with another interview the way she had once back in troisème but the heroes hadn't liked what she'd told them. That was the best-case scenario.

Worst case scenario? Marinette had been keeping tabs on her research for them this whole time and something she'd uncovered sent up red flags.

As much as Alya didn't want to, she suspected the truth was somewhere near the latter.

Because Marinette knew more than she let on. She'd never been a good actor and Alya had seen the insincerity in some of her reactions. But if she knew that much then why hadn't she tried to stop her? Warned her, maybe? Why did she have to…turn her back on her and run straight to them?

That thought swirled through her mind as she followed Marinette up to her balcony. She needed to water her plants or something. Perfect.

Except…she wasn't sure how to begin. How did one ask one's best friend if they were in league with the enemy without actually accusing them of anything?

Hah. 'The enemy.'

God, she wanted all of this to just end. She wanted normalcy again.

"Marinette…I need to ask you something."

Marinette looked over her shoulder, somehow the picture of innocence despite everything. And maybe she was innocent. Alya really hoped she was.

"And I need you to tell me the truth."

Doubt and uncertainty flickered across her face, a perfectly natural response, Alya reasoned. Marinette set the watering can down and turned to face her. "Okay…"

Alya took a deep breath. Yeah. Okay. No going back now. "Did you… did you tell them about my research?"

Silence followed in which Marinette stared at her, frustratingly unreadable. Then she cocked her head to the side. "Tell who?"

So, this was how they were going to do things. Alright then. Alya clenched her fists. "Ladybug and Chat Noir," she said stiffly. "I know you know them, even if you won't tell me how."

"Alya—"

"Don't even try to deny it!" Alya snapped and Marinette closed her mouth. "I know you know them. You got me that interview with Ladybug one time. Sometimes when I tell you things about them, you're not surprised." Panic flashed across her face for only a split second but to Alya it was more than enough evidence to confirm everything she'd suspected. "You act like you are, but you're not. And I've seen Chat Noir interact with you before—like he knew you."

Marinette licked her lips and ducked her head, removing her oh-so-treacherous face from Alya's sight. "You don't understand," she uttered softly and Alya wrinkled her nose.

"Yeah, that's what everyone keeps saying," she retorted.

Marinette shook her head. "I wasn't allowed to tell anyone. I—they said I had to keep it secret."

Despite the admission, Alya scoffed. Because why wouldn't they have demanded her silence? "Why am I not surprised?"

Though, really, with this new fact established, suddenly a lot of things from the last few years made sense. Marinette must have been a source of information for them for a while now. That would explain why she'd run off every time there was an akuma attack nearby. She must've been following their orders or carrying out some manner of task for them. And no wonder they'd chosen Alya over everyone else if Marinette was nearby to put in a good word?

…No, wait. She wasn't sure she liked the implications of that one.

Alya exhaled through her teeth. "Did they tell you about my interview? What they did?"

Marinette's head snapped and shook back and forth. "I haven't seen them in weeks. We're not even friends! We've just…" she paused, floundering for words, "…we've met," she finally settled on, lamely. "Sometimes they come over for snacks late at night."

"And did you tell them about my research?"

She was well and truly distressed now. "I—I don't think I did…why—?"

"They knew, Marinette!" Alya yelled, throwing her hands up in frustration. She had to have! There was no other way! "They knew about my research, the folder I kept it in, everything! They came in and knew exactly what they were looking for!"

"Came in?" Marinette yelped and, oh no, she looked genuinely alarmed. Did she not…? "What do you mean? What happened?"

Someone cleared their throat behind her and Alya whipped around with a shriek. Her first thought was that maybe Sabine had come to offer lunch or something but this was struck almost immediately because the woman in front of them was short and dark-haired but she was very much not Sabine Cheng. She wasn't even Chinese.

She was Kasai Neko, the Japanese Tigress who wielded the power of fire, and she…she had just overheard Alya grilling Marinette about…

Alya had never been this close to just her before. Among the others, she gave off the same Justice League vibe that the others did but, alone she… There was something powerful and dangerous emanating from her. She crouched on the ledge above the trap door, cutting off their escape. Her golden eyes glinted as they flicked between the girls. Then she slid off the ledge with all the grace of a tiger and slinked towards them.

"Oh my god," Alya breathed. They were fucked.

"Konnichiwa," the woman said solemnly then looked over Alya's shoulder. Alya was too afraid to follow her gaze but figured she must have been looking at Marinette. Did they know each other? What was happening, what—?

Kasai Neko lifted one clawed hand and an eerie magenta light ignited around it. She made a simple sweeping motion and uttered a single word in English. Marinette whimpered and Kasai rushed forward. Alya turned in time to see the woman catch her friend and gather her into her arms.

"What did you do?!" Alya demanded, ready to scream and shout if she had to

"I made her sleep," Kasai Neko explained in accented English after setting Marinette down in the lawn chair. She gave Alya a wry look over her shoulder. "Or would you rather I have left her awake and let her join you in the dangerous waters you now tread?"

Alya exhaled sharply. Damn that woman, she had her. And Alya…she'd been wrong. Whether Marinette had been the one to tell them or not mattered little now because it was clear that she hadn't been involved, nor was her ignorance of the last week or so faked. "What do you want?"

"I want to protect my people."

This again? Seriously, how many times was she going to have to tell them that she wasn't a threat! She was just…she was just one girl! An ordinary human with no powers or anything. Even if she started shouting what she knew from the rooftops, how many would believe her? It was all so fantastical that she herself doubted the validity of some of it.

"Look, I'm not a threat to—"

"Yes, you are, whether you acknowledge it or not." Kasai interrupted in a tone that left no room for argument, eyes narrowed, expression thunderous. Alya shut up. "The only reason we have not killed you is because Ladybug and Chat Noir have pleaded endlessly for your life." Kasai leaned towards her. "They are risking much on your behalf and one wrong word or move from you will ruin their efforts, and quite possibly their lives."

…

They…

What?

"I am here to make sure that doesn't happen." Kasai declared, straightening up, and Alya's eyes widened in horror. "You know what I'm capable of. I advise you not resist."

Alya skittered back but where was she to go? Her back hit the railing all too quickly. She was fenced in, trapped. Hadn't she thought this place perfect just a few minutes ago for the difficulty to escape? God, she'd fucked up. She'd fucked up. "Wh-what are you going to do?"

Kasai approached her slowly. Of course, she had all the time in the world. There was no way Alya could get away from her. She may have been nearly a whole head shorter but she was a warrior, a tiger, and Alya was nothing but a mouse in comparison. "I am going to be merciful and only cast a spell," the woman informed her and Alya did not like that proposition one bit.

"G-get away from me!" Alya stammered, terrified. Kasai raised her hand which was covered in that magenta light from before and Alya scrambled to get away from her. "Don't touch me!"

Kasai followed her. "Our secrets come with a price, one that all without the right to them have paid." She lunged forward, seizing Alya by the arm with her lightless hand. Claws pricked her skin and Alya stilled at the threat. "The price you will pay is less steep and you owe Ladybug and Chat Noir for that kindness."

The woman's glowing hand seized her other arm. Light began to spread from the point of contact, quickly encompassing Alya's entire body and she felt paralyzed. Whether it was Kasai's fault or from her own fear, she did not know.

"Speak of our secrets and you will speak no more," Kasai intoned with an eerie duality to her voice. Each word felt like a rock thrown against her heart. They pounded through her blood, against her temple, her throat, the tips of her fingers. They slid along her body like a vice, constricting at her neck. "Though your body will remain unharmed, your voice will never again take form. Your words will die ere they reach your lips and even the mightiest of your cries will never escape."

With that, Kasai Neko released her, the glow died, and she moved away.

Alya struggled not to faint. She felt…violated? Changed? Bound? She didn't have words for it. Something had been altered fundamentally. Added? Taken away? Something was different, wrong. Her eyes burned as Kasai asked her if she understood. Alya nodded. Yeah, she understood. She'd just been hexed or something and now everything was different.

"I will be clear: this is insurance for us and nothing more," Kasai Neko said almost casually in English. She paused a moment, then added, "Ladybug did not believe it necessary and she exercised every bit of her power and influence to get us to agree to such a light consequence should you invoke the Curse."

"Y-you call that light?!" Alya shrieked and glared at the elder Guardian. Her entire being felt wrong and this was light?!

"You are fortunate that Ladybug cares for your safety," was the hard retort. "Were it up to me, the Curse would have killed you as punishment."

The words hung in the air for a long minute and Alya struggled to reign in her anger. Exploding wouldn't help her situation any, might just get her killed. All of this because she'd uncovered things that weren't even really hidden? It was bullshit and it wasn't fair. She hadn't done anything wrong and they wanted her dead?

What are you? she thought and it was as if she was seeing Kasai Neko for the first time. Since the very first appearance of Ladybug and Chat Noir, Alya had known that she could never quite see their faces and that the details her mind managed to process would disappear when no longer in her line of sight. She'd nearly driven herself crazy trying to figure out why but eventually accepted things for what they were.

Short, slight, yet there were muscles under that suit of hers, a warrior's body. Light brown skin, black punk hair, a round nose, a slender face that belonged to a young woman who'd only seen a few decades, not someone who spoke like they'd seen dozens.

Everything about her solidified in Alya's mind. How had she never seen before? This…this…whatever this woman was, it wasn't right.

"You're no hero," Alya finally growled. "I don't know what you are…but it's not a hero."

"No, I am not," Kasai agreed. "I am a protector of human kind but I am certainly no hero. Be happy that Ladybug and Chat Noir endeavor to remain so."

There was something threatening about that and Alya swallowed nervously. What would happen if they became like her?

Kasai Neko shook her head. "Return home. Your friend will sleep for a time and wake with muddled memories. She will not even know you came."

The tigress turned to go but paused beside Marinette's slumbering form. "Poor little girl," she murmured. Then she was gone.

Alya wondered who she meant.

#ML Guardians AU #Moon has something to say #anthonyswest

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saemi-the-writer · 6 years ago

Note

Is Chloe getting a redemption in Miraculous team? Or are we getting a villain Chloe?

Oh dear, here goes another long answer! XD

In short: yes, Chloé gets a redemption. No, she doesn’t get the Bee miraculous.

For more detailsbased on canon episodes and (kinda) spoiler-free from the MT universe, keepreading^^

Chloé starts offquite the same as in canon, but her redemption arc starts quite earlier, beforeDespair Bear, and slowly but she does change.

Another change in her familysituation: Audrey Bourgeois does call her once in a while, but she doesn’t seta good example to her daughter and never really listens to her or tellsher “I miss you” or “I’ll take some tickets for you so you can visitme in New York on your next break”. Audrey only speaks about herself and/or howshe expects Chloé to be on the top, even advising her to use people as ladder.That and her father being a corrupted politician, you can tell she is not in avery healthy family environment.Little -but relevant- detail on how she feels about our main trio: she has a crush on is a huge fan of Ladybug, thinks Chat Noir is just aside-kick, and admired Pandora for a while, but after meeting up with herseveral times (when she was the target of an akuma), she ended up despisingher. (because Pandora openly calls her out on her bull**** and is very firmwith her)

Back on theredemption path: I’ve established a chronology for the canon akumas (not all ofthem yet, I’m not sure if I’m keeping them all) and here’s the order of the importantones (in Season 1):

· Antibug

· Evillustrator

· Rogercop

Antibug: he akuma “Invisible” isnot Sabrina here, but a housekeeper of the Hotel who is tired of Chloé’s shit attitude, though Chloé do snap at Sabrina severaltimes during this episode but they end up “making up” in the end quitesimilarly than in canon with Chloé offering a brooch or jewel to Sabrina.

Evillustrator: Sabrina starts rebellingagainst Chloé and then clings to Marinette (much to the latter’s discomfort).Chloé is furious and accuses Marinette of using Sabrina against her and tryingto destroy their “friendship” and tries to buy Sabrina back to her. Itdoesn’t work at once, even if Sabrina is tempted by the gift. Big difference inMT!Evillustrator: Sabrina does not tell Marinette she is “like Chloé” forthe two are together when akumatized Nathaniel invites her and when Chat Noirarrives to protects her; however, while Marinette was “rescued” from theEvillustrator, Chloé managed to reach Sabrina on the phone and won herfriendship back with some sweet promises and gifts. When Marinette sees Sabrinawearing a new hat and new clothes the following day, Sabrina seems a bit embarrassedbut Marinette openly tells her she is not judging her. “If Chloé is an important friend to you, then do not feel bad for going back toher. Just, please, take care of yourself.”The two leave each other on a quiet truce, with a small smile. Marinettedoesn’t understand Sabrina’s decision, but she respects it, while Sabrina willthen keep in mind how kind and respectful Marinette had been to her despiteeverything she did or helped Chloé do in the past, making a strong lastingimpression on her.

Rogercop: the breaking point ofSabrina and Chloé’s friendship. Sabrina is utterly shocked when Chloé beratesher dad and then does nothing when the Mayor fires/threatens him, sending himout. The poor turns to her “friend” and begs to do something, to convinceher father to change his mind, but Chloé just brushes her offbecause “findind the thief and her bracelet is way more important” andSabrina blurts out:“BUT IT’S MY DAD!! HIS JOB IS HIS LIFE! WHAT WILL BECOME OF US?!”For a moment, everyone stares at her in silence, then Chloé goes back to ignoreher and accusing Marinette. Of course, Tom steps in to defend Marinetteimmediately and confronts André, pointing him out how Chloé had bullied his daughterand made her cry more times than he could count. And when André retorts that his daughter is perfect and cannot beblamed for Marinette’s “failure at receiving criticism or being teased”,Tom clenches his fists then states coldly:“If your daughter is so perfect, then, how come she doesn’t even notice herfriend is crying?”Everyone turns to Sabrina once again and notice she is weeping. Some people-adults and students- rush to her side to comfort her while Chloé just rollsher eyes. Mlle Bustier demands that Chloé checks inside her bag one last timebefore they start looking around the classroom and then Rogercop barges in. Inthe end, they find the bracelet had been inside Chloé’s bag “all along”.

The day followingthe events of Rogercop, Sabrina goes to Chloé and demands she apologies only toget yelled at and belittled once again. After that, Sabrina becomes anakuma.I’m not sure for what kind of akuma yet, but in the end, when our trio of herostay a bit to make sure she’s alright, she asks them:

“Am I a bad personfor not wanting to forgive her? I… I don’t want to be friends with Chloéanymore.”

While Chat Noirand Ladybug glance at each other, Pandora quickly answers her that it istotally okay, and would even be healthier for her to make new and real friendsinstead of staying with Chloé. The next day, Sabrina gives Chloé a box full ofher “presents” back to her and changes seat, sitting next toNathaniel.

At first, Chloé issure it’s all just bluff and that she would come back to her crawling, asusual. But she doesn’t. And when she tries to taunt her by showing her theexpensive clothes/items she can get, Sabrina either ignores her or even comeswith good fast quips to shut her up. Sabrina ends up making new friends andbeing more integrated in the class (more details in a Sabrina post) while Chloéis treated like a pariah. She is isolated, and the loneliness becomes heaviereach day. Especially on the day the class perform a piece of theatre, she isstruck by her own isolation and how even Adrien has distanced himself from her,and even took Marinette’s side during the events of Kung Food.

She spends thewhole summer on her own, and when the back-to-school season arrives, she feelsnervous. The moment she steps inside the room, no one pays attention to her andshe hears how they all talk about their summer vacations, how they all spenttime together or are happy to see one another again, etc. She starts boiling inanger and makes a scene the moment Marinette walks in, because everyone beam at her. Mlle Bustier immediatelytakes action to calm her down. So Chloé decides to wait for the good moment.And we get to Despair Bear, where she sets the fire alarm on and manages tohave everyone but her clean the whole school. However, Adrien has finally hadit and gives her his ultimatum: “I can’t be friend with someone like you.”.And she feels crushed, her tears when she’s back in her room are lessmelodramatic, she is seriously crying and her butler can tell she is really hurt,and at loss.

The episode goeson quite the same except for the end. After Jean-Yves is de-akumatized, we havethe small exchange with Ladybug calling Chloé their “new sidekick” -whichdelights the latter- until Pandora waves her hand dismissively.

“She was barely helping usfixing her own mistakes for once. Do not flatter her too much, Ladybug, itmight go to her head.”

“Wha- why are you always somean to me?!” Chloé whipped around to face the adult heroine furiously,stomping her feet down.

“Aren’t you always mean? To everyone around you?” Pandora raised an unimpressedeyebrow at her. “You didn’t give me any reason to see you as anything more thana nuisance, your attitude has caused so many akumas I’ve almost lost count.”

“So she can tell how many?”Chat Noir whispered at Ladybug, the two young heroes leaning in each other’sdirection as they tried to be discreet.

“Well, now I changed! I amnice!” Chloé snapped back only to fume more when Pandora laughed drily at that.

“You, nice? Good one, missBourgeois. Acting barely decent does not make you nice, especially when onedoes it only under threat.” The mayor’s daughter straightened up, eyes wide andsilent. She had nothing to counter. “And for how long do you think you can keepon your masquerade? You didn’t even last one evening.”

“W-well, it was just my firsttry! From now on, I’ll be nice! You will never have to complain about me! Noone!!”

“Of course.” Pandora rolledher eyes, her arms still crossed on her chest. And yet, Ladybug could swear shesaw a little smile on her elder’s lips. For a second.

“I swear I will!” Chloé barked,her face all red. “I bet you there will never be any akuma after me aftertoday!!”

“Never say never.” Pandoraturned her back to the blonde girl and started to walk away. “And I’m notinterested in a bet already won.”

“I’ll show you, you- FEATHEREDVIPER!!”

Ladybug and Chat Noir bit backa laugh.

“Try and surprise me, then.”Pandora waved without looking at her before jumping away, landing on a buildingfurther.

The two other heroes tried theirbest not to laugh as Chloé kept on screaming at her, bouncing furiously andflapping her arms with clenched fists. They followed after Pandora, patting theirclassmate’s shoulder with a word of encouragement before going.

When Adrien andMarinette are back to the party, Chloé seemed calm yet determined. When shetalks to Adrien, she doesn’t make him “pinky swear” to stay friend, she saysconfidently that she is now ready to “take up the challenge”. Adrien is a bitunsure, but it makes him smile a bit. She doesn’t insult Marinette’s -or anyone’s-macaroons, although her comments cannot really be considered as “compliments”,but it still is a start.

As time passes, herattitude comes from decent to actually nice. She doesn’t make anyone upset andis not the reason of an akumatization, and is slowly becoming part of the classagain. However, Adrien is still her only friend, and they are not as close asbefore. Sometimes it frustrated her, sometimes she is just sad and wonders howshe can make some. Then, a day she goes to meet Adrien at his fencing lesson,she meets Kagami. Her feelings for this “fencing girl” are quite undetermined, fora while.

After that, therewill be her real arc, with family drama, but I’m not going into details for now*spoilers*. I’ll just say that y version of “Battle of Queens” will start with anakuma called “Nemesis”, where there will be a big revelation about theBourgeois; that will make Chloé feel completely lost and disoriented to thepoint where she is akumatized for the second time. I’m not sure if she will be QueenWasp -but more in a Volpina fashion, where Fiancé is just inspired by the powerof the bee miraculous and grants her similar powers because they kind of fitChloé- or a complete different akuma. Then, we’ll have Malediktator, only André’sakumatization is not due to another tantrum, but because the previous reveal isturning his life upside down:

· His position as the mayor is compromised, perhaps heeven lost it

· Chloé doesn’t want to live with him anymore because helets her do whatever she wants and buys her love instead of being there for heror give her real emotional support

The consequencesof his actions and the truth are too much for him to bear.

During the battleagainst Malediktator, Chloé helps by distracting him and pretending to be veryhappy with what he is doing, giving an opportunity for the heroes to get theakuma.

After her fatheris back to normal, she feels guilty and starts having second thoughts about adecision she wanted to take, but Ladybug and Chat Noir soothe her, explainingthat she doesn’t have to feel responsible for her parents’ misdeeds and thatshe is not selfish (this time) for putting her well-being first instead of herdad’s. Plus, for the first time, Pandora speaks gently to her and is supportivetoo. She encourages her to follow what both her heart and guts are telling her,and to take her own decisions even if it is a bit scary at first.

In the end, Chloéchanges school to start over. She goes to the same school as Kagami, which is aboarding school, quite strict and rigorous. Some week-ends and on some breaks,she goes back to her dad, the other time, she goes to——-*spoilers*——–. Adrien keeps contact with her and sees how she changes for the better, and heis pleasantly surprised to learn that Kagami and her became friends. When Marinette sees her after a while, she is a bit taken aback by the change,but is happy with it. While she and Chloé may not become friends, they are atleast on good terms, Cholé giving Marinette a sincere apology helped.

Chloé will becomethe kind of supporting character without having magical powers.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous team au #Chloé Bourgeois #MT Chloé Bourgeois #no spoilers here #ideas #headcanons #fix-it and rewriting #MT AU

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quicksilversquared · 7 years ago

Text

Nino and the Miraculous

What if Nino got a Miraculous other than the Turtle? What kind of things might he have gotten up to with the Fox, or the Peacock, or the Bee?

Three drabbles ft. Nino and different Miraculous.

(AO3) (FF.net)

Peacock

Nino didn't really dress up on a regular basis. Anything fancier than a t-shirt and jeans made him uncomfortable and just got in his way besides. He wasn't much for jewelry, either, just a few simple rubber-band bracelets.

So having a Miraculous that came with a ridiculously elaborate outfit was...discomfiting, to say the least.

"I keep asking my kwami to make it a bit simpler, but he insisted," Paon grumbled to Chat Noir as they scanned the city for the latest akuma. The akumatized woman had gone into hiding after only a couple minutes of battle, and Ladybug was out being as visible as possible while the two boys lay hidden, waiting for the akuma to reappear and go after Ladybug so they could attack and take him by surprise. Paon shifted, tugging on the sparky robe that spread out around him and trying to hide the most glittery bits. "He said that peacocks don't do simple. And then I transformed, and he had added even more detailing to the eyes at the bottom of my robe thing. And more glitter, of course."

Chat Noir snickered at that. "Are you sure that wasn't in response to you putting the pin on in a strange spot? I swear, you have your Miraculous somewhere different every time I see you."

Paon groaned and made a face. "Maybe. But that wasn't my fault, really. It's gotten too warm to wear a jacket, so I've been pinning my Miraculous to an undershirt instead, since there's no way I could get away with pinning it to my actual shirt. It worked okay, but then I had a slightly tighter shirt and if I didn't want the outline showing to everyone and anyone then I had to pin it on my stomach. And I forgot to move it before I transformed." When Chat Noir continued snickering, Paon scowled at him. "Okay, some of us weren't lucky enough to get a Miraculous that can stay on in the same place 24/7. I would love to have a bracelet or ring instead of a pin, but I didn't exactly get to choose."

"I know, I know," Chat Noir insisted, still looking far too amused at Paon's plight. "But you have to admit, it does look funny when where your cape thingy is pinned changes every single day. Like, one day it's pinned at your right shoulder, then on your left, then in the middle, then halfway down your side, then on your stomach like some kind of weird skirt..."

Paon groaned again and flopped back on the rooftop, now sorely regretting the fact that Chat Noir was no longer avoiding him since they had established that Paon didn't have any feathers in his costume and therefore Chat Noir wasn't allergic to him. He had been hurt initially when the famous cat superhero kept his distance, but if Chat Noir was just going to tease...

"I'm gonna ask my kwami to add feathers to this glittery mess if you don't stop laughing," Paon warned after another few seconds of listening to the snickering. "Proper feathers. And then we'll see how smug you are when you're sneezing every few seconds."

Chat Noir promptly fell silent.

(Apparently Duusu had heard Paon's threat to Chat Noir, because every time he transformed for the next week, a whole down comforter's worth of feathers flowing out under and past his robe-slash-cape. Chat Noir glared at him through four fights, and it wasn't until Ladybug scolded him for taking a joke too far that he talked to his kwami and Duusu only agreed to change the costume back after several large bags of sugar-coated jelly candies. It took a month more after that for Chat Noir to agree to get anywhere near Paon again.

And Nino never could get Duusu to dial back on the costume's dramatics. He did, however, wise up and stop complaining about it before he could get completely drowned in glitter.)

Fox

Nino was a bit bemused when he first found the fox-tail necklace in his room. It didn't see like the kind of jewelry that he would normally wear or get as a gift, but once Trixx popped up and explained things a bit (after Nino's screaming subsided, of course) it made more sense.

He hadn't been chosen to match the jewelry itself, but rather the powers that came with it. And if he thought about it, the necklace itself would be easy to keep secret. It wouldn't be hard to tuck the necklace into his shirt and hide it there when he wasn't transformed.

Besides, who cared about who the Miraculous itself looked like when the powers that came with is were so cool?

"So I can make illusions that act and sound just like the real thing?" Nino questioned Trixx once again. When the kwami nodded yet again, Nino grinned, excitement coursing through him.

Never mind generating random items and fixing-everything power. Never mind Cataclysm, even. Illusions of anything that could act just like whatever they were was so. much. cooler. It was like the cutting-edge holograms that XY used instead of performing live, except able to go whatever and say whatever- and speaking of XY, that gave him an idea.

A beautiful, fabulous idea.

"So I could make an illusion of Jagged Stone and make it look like he's playing live in my room?" Nino wanted to know. "Because, dude, that would be so. cool. My speakers are good and all, but nothing beats the real thing-"

"That is not the intended use of the Miraculous!" Trixx scolded. "You'll get yourself discovered that way! If anyone comes to investigate the noise and finds the Fox superhero sitting in your room-!"

"I could use an illusion to make myself look normal!" Nino protested, but he could already tell that Trixx made a good point. If anyone came in and touched any of the illusions and they went up in smoke like Trixx had said they were apt to do (and there was no way to deny that that wouldn't happen, not with a nosy little cousin that visited without warning, there would be no way for Nino to believably argue his way out. He would have to reserve use of his powers for battles, and battles alone.

(...well, okay, for battles and for late-night pranks, but only because even if Nino wasn't exactly much of a prankster, he just couldn't resist the opportunity.)

"Besides, one large, complicated illusion like that, and your transformation would wear off after five minutes and the illusion would go with it," Trixx finished, crushing Nino's dreams of personal hologram concerts with finality. "It's not worth it. But you say that there is technology these days that acts similarly to the Illusion? How does it work? That's so cool you can do it without magic!"

"I don't know, dude," Nino said, shrugging. "I'm not great at the science and electronics stuff like that. But I can ask one of my friends at school!" he added quickly when Trixx drooped in disappointment. "My friend Max would probably know, he's crazy smart about technology stuff. Whether or not either of us will be able to follow what he says I don't know, but I'll try."

Trixx considered Nino for a few more seconds. Then a toothy smile split his face.

"Great! You know, I think you'll do."

Bee

Nino didn't know how the designs for the various Miraculous were chosen. If he had been in charge, he would have chosen a bracelet, definitely, and a ring, and maybe an anklet, and he supposed that maybe earrings could work for both male and female holders, and a necklace might, too-

-but a comb?

Pollen seemed just as puzzled as Nino as to how he was expected to wear the Miraculous. Apparently most of her previous holders had been female.

"And the males holders all had long hair," Pollen grumbled, inspecting Nino's close-cut style. "It was a thing back then."

Nino raised an eyebrow as Pollen unsuccessfully tried to shove the comb into his hair. The tines scraped against his scalp briefly before coming loose again, sending the kwami and Miraculous tumbling through the air. "Men wore fancy combs like yours as well?"

"No- well, not normally," Pollen said, stabbing at his hair again. It wasn't any more successful than the first time. Nino hid a wince as the comb scraped against his scalp. "But my Chosens had lovely thick hair and would hide my comb in their hair. Some hid it in their beards. Can you grow a beard?"

"How old do I look?" Nino questioned, exasperated. "No, I can't grow a beard, it's impossible."

Pollen buzzed in frustration and flew a lap around his head. "Oh, I don't know what else to do! You could stick it under your hat, I guess, but that would come off too easily- and what if your hat blew off and someone saw it? Or what if you had to take off your hat inside? You're always adjusting it, it wouldn't be safe."

"I could stick it in my pocket," Nino offered, reaching out to take the comb. Pollen snatched it away, scowling. "Come on, there really aren't that many other options. My pockets are deep enough to handle it, and I always keep my phone in the other pocket."

"But then it'll look weird when you transform," Pollen complained. "Not that it would look any less funny if we just glued the comb to your head. And you would probably complain about it not feeling great then, too."

Nino cringed at the thought. "We are not gluing anything to my head. It would look weird under my hat, anyway. And I have to take my hat off on a regular basis, too." He considered the Miraculous again. "I'm going to have to have it in my pocket. We'll have to see how it looks when I transform, I guess." He moved to tuck the Miraculous in his pocket, tugging it away from Pollen. "We can at least try it this way."

"Wait, what's that?" Pollen asked as Nino's shirt hitched up to reveal his belt buckle. "That metal thing there, on your pants. With the leather."

"That's my belt," Nino said, puzzled. He tugged his shirt up a little more so Pollen could see it without diving under his shirt to investigate. Kwamis apparently had absolutely no sense of personal space. "I don't always wear it, but these pants are a little big and I wouldn't want them to start slipping or anything if I have to run from an akuma attack."

Pollen spun in circles, excited. "This is perfect! You can glue the Miraculous to your belt! It'll look a bit strange when you transform, but it'll be hidden by your shirt the rest of the time."

Nino glanced at the Miraculous, then at his plain belt buckle. "Really? You think that will work? I feel like that could get uncomfortable too, if I need to bend over or something."

Pollen level him with a steely look. "It's either getting attached to your belt or your head. Your choice."

"...I think I'll go with the belt."

-0-0-0-

Chat Noir circled his and Ladybug's new teammate, inspecting his outfit. It looked fairly standard for a superhero outfit...except for the comb held by a black-and-yellow strap at hip height.

"Interesting fashion choice," Chat Noir commented, grinning. "Starting a new trend?"

Bumblebee groaned. "There was literally nowhere else I could put it," he explained. "My hair is too short and Pollen wouldn't let me just stick the comb in my pocket. I'll deal with the funky look."

Ladybug looked like she was trying not to laugh. "You must have a pretty big belt buckle normally, then."

"Oh, you have no idea. My kwami seems pleased, though, so..." He shrugged. "I guess I'll wear long shirts until ol' Hawky gets defeated. Won't be a problem unless I hit a growth spurt or something."

Chat Noir laughed but finally quit his prowling to lean against a nearby chimney. "That's a funny superhero requirement. No growing allowed."

"Says the one who's shot up several centimeters in the past month alone, you beanpole." Ladybug's teasing tone held no malice. "I'm glad you found a solution, though," she added to Nino. "As unusual-looking as it may be. And Bumblebee?"

"Yeah?"

"Welcome to the team."

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #nino lahiffe #is this hella out of date? yes #do I care? no #it wasn't doing anyone any good sitting around in my drafts #Trixx #Duusu #Pollen

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