#where adrien is caught between three 'people':

[wisteriasymphony]

claudrien au where claudia died soon after meeting adrichat and it's that trite shit where adrien makes up an entire romance with this "cool" dead girl in his dead to cope with his own loneliness and. uh. gabriel/emilie parallels

[mochinek0]

Daminette December 2022: 21-Green

Marinette never expected her life to change so much due to one color: green.

Her first crush, Adrien Agreste, had light green eyes. The first time she truly spoke to him, they were filled with honesty. His eyes seemed to carry so much wonder and joy. Over time, they were clouded with uncertainty. There came a point where he averted his eyes away from her. Those green eyes she had loved, were now the eyes of a coward.

Lila Rossi was the net person with green eyes and would become her enemy. Lila's eyes were conniving and sharp. Her eyes seemed to shift between yellow-green and dark, when she was angry. Lila was a liar, who tried to ruin her life.

The last pair of green eyes that changed her life belonged to the love of her life, Damian Wayne. Damian had made her life so much better. She had been at her lowest, when he found her. He understood her artistic needs, when she was anxious, and how to calm her down. Damian and his family were her biggest supporters, after her own family.

"Please, welcome the Waynes!" the announcer cried out.

Marinette smiled and gripped her husband's arm, as they took the stage with the rest of the family. She kept a smile on her face, as she caught Lila's eyes from across the room. They were dark green; green with envy. She could see the hatred in her eyes. She spotted Adrien's eyes filled with shock and worry.

"I think we'll need a bigger stage soon." Bruce quipped, as he took the mic, "Some of you may know my family, but not everyone does. Let me introduce my sons: Richard Grayson-Wayne, Jason Todd-Wayne, Timothy Drake-Wayne, and Damian Wayne."

The boys waved.

"Many of you do not know the girl at the end. That is Marinette Wayne, my daughter-in-law and Damian's wife."

Marinette smiled as people clapped. Bruce was quick to had over the mic.

"Thank you, Bruce." she smiled, "We are so happy you are all here, today, to help us donate to the children! Every dollar you donate will help us bring a smile to a child's face. Not every parent can be there for them, twenty-four seven, and we want to help those families. They have bills, work, other children to look after. A sick child should never feel that they are a hinderance to their family. Many of you have already donated and we are very thankful. Prince Ali of the Kingdom of Achu is here tonight! We are most grateful to his generous donation through his charity for pediatric hospitals. I, personally, will be shutting down comissions to make clothes for the children in the hospital. The Wayne Foundation will also be donating a million dollars to the hospital, directly, to create a whole ward dedicated for pediatrics."

The crowd began to clap and cheer. As the number of donations began to skyrocket, the Waynes left the stage to mingle.

"Mrs. Wayne." Gabriel spoke, introducing his presence, as well as Adrien and Lila's.

"Ah, Mr. Agreste." Mari smiled, "I thought I spotted Adrien and....your model."

Gabriel cleared his throat, knowing her distaste for Lila.

"Are you still mad at me, Marinette?" Lila questioned, "I promise I'm not the same person I was back in college."

"Yes." He stated, ignoring his muse, "I'm shocked to hear you will be closing your comissions though."

Marinette smiled, "Aside for creating clothes for the sick children at the hospital, I want to create the perfect nursey for our child."

Adrien's jaw dropped, "You're pregnant?"

"Oh, did that news not reach Paris?" Mari asked, "It's been known for almost three months."

"You're so thin!" Lila shrieked, "You must see my doctor. You're practically killing your own child."

"My wife is perfectly healthy, you deranged pig." Damian growled.

"Damian!" Marinette called out, "It's okay. I'm sure you remember me telling you about Lila. She was the disabled model, who didn't know how to control her own mouth."

Lila snapped her mouth shut.

Marinette smiled, "I told my husband all about you disability, Lila. Don't worry, even my parents told him how much they appreciated Gabriel for that reason. I don't know how many times I heard them tell customers about the girl with the lying disease and how Gabriel was an inspiration for having you model for his brand. Myself and Rose already warned Prince Ali, so you don't have to worry about him. We made sure he wouldn't sue you for your false claims about working with him on an environmental project. I also made sure Jagged Stone wouldn't sue you either. I'd be careful who you speak to tonight, though. This is Gotham and if you speak to the wrong person, well, they might call GCPD on you. I'd hate for them to mistake you as someone in dire need and you end up in Arkham Asylum. You might find yourself at the mercy of the rouges. I'd hate if that happened and I could have stopped it."

"Marinete, you're scaring her." Adrien interrupted.

"Adrien." Marinette growled, "I'm only telling her what she needs to hear. If something were to happen to her under your father's watch, imagine the hit to the brand. Many people don't know she's disabled! Not to mention, she's an adult. She can't call her mother to get her out of the asylum, only the doctors can decide when she is fit to leave."

Lila kept her mouth shut and her head down.

"And you can't do anything?" Adrien asked.

"No." Damian sneered, "Are asking my pregnant wife to put herself in harm's way around the mentally ill? If you and your father cannot control your girlfriend, then take her back to the hotel until your scheduled flight. Angel, let us return to the manor. You don't need to stress yourself out tonight. You have already said what was needed."

"Mr. Agreste, you can always call Wayne Enterprise and they will patch you through to me to continue our conversation." Marinette declared.

"Of course, Mrs. Wayne." Gabriel stated, "I apologize for my guest. Her words were unnecessary and have caused you stress. I'll make sure Ms. Rossi returns swiftly to the hotel, on your good fortune."

Marinette nodded and was guided away to the rest of the Waynes. Gabriel watched as Marinette hugged her new family and left the hall.

"Ms. Rossi." he spoke.

"Yes, Mr. Agreste?" she questioned.

"I believe I stated for you to return to the hotel." he growled.

"But-" Lila countered.

"I will personally be speaking to Prince Ali and Mr. Stone about your disability. They will decide whether I should keep you as a model. I require perfection and from what I hear, you are far from perfect." Mr. Agreste sneered.

"I was a child!" Lila shouted.

"Then, lie and live in Arkham Asylum for the rest of your life." Gabriel declared, "Adrien, you will stay by my side. I don't want you associating with Ms. Rossi, until further notice."

"Yes, Father." Adrien spoke.

Marinette relaxed in the car as Damian drove them back to the manor.

"Habibiti, forget the words of the insufferable wench." Damian stated, "You handled her beautifully."

Marinette sighed and closed her eyes.

"I will prepare peppermint tea once we are inside. You should disrobe and get comfortable in the sleepwear your mother sent you. We can lay in bed and watch that show you prefer; the one with sewing and challenges." he continued to speak.

As Marinette relaxed, she felt herself drifting off to sleep. Only one thing was on her mind, as she rubbed her stomach.

'I hope you have your father's eyes.'

TAG LIST: @maribat-calendar-events @animeweebgirl @a-star-with-a-human-name @meme991001 @vixen-uchiha @abrx2002 @alysrose-starchild @fandom-trapped-03 @dood-space @moonlightstar64 @saltymiraculer @marveldcedits20 @09shell-sea09 @icerosecrystal @animegirlweeb @insane-fangirl-of-everything @blueblossombliss @nickristus-dreamer @megawhitleycalderonpaganus

[princess-of-the-corner]

Fic Snip! Miraculous Ladybug but …, Marinette is Hawkmoth?

Meanwhile, Lila Rossi takes a step back from this gaggle of idiots, to personally examine the facts for herself with the full power of a professional gaslighting, gatekeeping girlboss! Cesaire’s brainrot muse be infectious, because…she’s actually making some sense for once. Now, Lila knows exactly how to spin a story in order to drive the narrative directly into the nearest semi-truck, but Alya seemed to be going a hundred miles over the speed limit and about to hit a bullseye! Her theory was that Dupain Cheng might actually be that annoying pest Ladybug, because they looked, sounded and acted the same, not to mention they’d never been seen together. Hawkmoth was clearly Gabriel Agreste, because only a blood-addled crazy fashion designer would ever be caught dead as responsible for these criminal offenses against his whole profession! But…

Then again, Gabriel was already a shitty father who hired her to spy on his son because he couldn’t bother to do it himself. The man was so clearly in his second wine glass by 7:00am every single day, and seemed to be suffering in a bigger midlife crisis than her own three mothers! So…he probably didn’t have time to bully a whole city by throwing magic butterflies at people who had a bad day. Heck, he was probably too busy crying over his dead wife to even entertain the idea of therapy, no matter how lovely getting to dramatically torture people all day sounded to Lila’s ears! No, he couldn’t be Hawkmoth. That would just be a lazy writing decision, especially since Adrien was about as likely to figure it out as he was to realize his love for Marinette.

And with her prime identity theories out of the way, Alya’s speculations just about threw Lila for a loop. …maybe picking the local terrorist as her bullying victim was a bad idea after all… But! She could still fix this! The only difference between them was that Marinette had clearly succeeded at the game Lila was playing, to the point where she was playing 5D Chess with Multiverse Travel while the Italian girl was stuck on the checkers board! All she had to do now was tell her that she knew and was willing to help…and then Marinette would reveal her true evil nature, and transform in a brilliant array of purple lights, and pull Lila close by hooking her cane around the other girl’s neck, and Akumatize her back into Volpina; and they would become partners, and rule the world with three dogs and a pet Tasmanian Devil named-

Lila. HONEY. You might have some problems.

[aidanchaser]

Boulangérella: The Epilogue

Table of Contents Read on Ao3 Prologue

Three and a half years after the defeat of Hawk Moth and the crowning of a new king, the kingdom was once again in celebration. Their king was in the midst of preparations for his wedding.

Delegations arrived from all over the world, including Empress Kagami Tsurugi of the Bright Islands of the East and her consort, Queen Chloé Bourgeois, who had finally gotten her wish to become queen, just of a different kingdom than she had originally planned.

Flowers filled the streets, decorating the palace and shop windows. People instigated eager and thorough discussions with their friends about who King Adrien might be marrying. He certainly hadn’t courted anyone publicly. Some speculated that this mystery woman might be Lila Rossi, and though no one had seen her in over three years, hadn’t King Adrien spent the most time with her of all the women who had vied for his hand at his twenty-first birthday?

Some wondered if the return of Empress Tsurugi and Lady Bourgeois meant that one of them might marry King Adrien for a political alliance, rather than a romantic one. Others still suggested a mystery princess would arrive to seal an engagement arranged across letters and leagues, but there was one rumor that persisted above all the others.

King Adrien would marry Ladybug. It explained why there had been no public courtship and why no woman had been seen coming and going from the palace regularly. Yes, rumors of Ladybug traveling had spread, but she was magical. Surely she could travel between forests as easily as any fay.

The rumor persisted so strongly that the eastern gate became the most decorated gate in the entire city. People hung flowers and ribbons in red and white. Crowds gathered daily, increasing in number as the wedding date drew closer, all hoping to catch a glimpse of Ladybug entering the city.

No one, however, so much as whispered to each other when, the day before the wedding, an old cart rolled through the decorated gate, bearing a young man in a red cap and blue tunic, sitting beside a woman in an orange dress. No one blinked as a horse bearing a hooded young rider and a dark-haired young woman trod along behind them.

And, in defense of the crowd’s ignorance, the cart and the horse did not head toward the palace, at least not right away. Instead, they turned off the main road to stop at a nearby boulangerie and patisserie, where they spent several long, joyful hours, before eventually making their way up to the castle.

The sun rose early on the day of the wedding. It was the longest day of the year, a rather auspicious choice for a wedding, since celebrations could extend well into the evening.

King Adrien woke with the sunrise; his chest ached with the old, familiar wound of grief and loneliness. He stared up at the gilded canopy, watched the way it caught the light, and spared himself the briefest moment of self-pity. He had returned here of his own free will and finally succumbed to the duty he’d been groomed for his entire life. He’d had his adventure, and was ready to take this next step. Still, he missed the life that he was leaving behind.

Though he had to admit, it wasn’t the sleeping rough or in cramped inns that he would miss from his travels. Mostly, he just missed waking up with someone next to him.

But at least it was only one night alone. Tomorrow night, he would have company.

At breakfast, the company he was so looking forward to wasn’t there. She had to attend a fitting before the wedding. King Adrien did not need to be fitted for his wedding regalia, for even after three months apart, he and his cousin still had identical measurements.

“You’re welcome,” Félix said as Adrien sat down to breakfast.

Adrien raised an eyebrow. “Thank you?”

“‘Thank you, dear cousin, for running the kingdom and planning my wedding for me.’” Félix rolled his eyes.

“I’ll thank you for planning the wedding, and sure, running the kingdom, but we both know you enjoyed all of that, and the parts you didn’t enjoy you passed off to your mother.”

Félix shrugged.

“If you’re really tired of it,” Adrien said around a mouthful of fresh fruit—they were going to have to do something about Adrien’s relaxed manners, Félix thought bitterly—“you could always take a break and travel like I did.”

Félix glowered at Adrien across the table. He hadn’t left this castle in over three years, and they both knew very well why. He didn’t even bother to dignify Adrien’s offer with a response.

Adrien pressed on anyway. “I’ve learned a lot about fay deals, traveling with Ladybug and the Guardian, and I don’t think your bargain is about keeping you trapped here.”

Félix could not contain his irritation anymore. “No?” he snapped. “So you’re going to enlighten me about my own curses?”

But Adrien ignored his cousin’s stiff exterior, as he had for most of their lives. “I think it’s about you learning to trust someone.”

Félix went silent once more, but it was no longer out of disdain for his cousin’s naïveté. He, too, had been turning over the idea of trusting someone. He had even tried it, once. He had given the ring to his mother and asked her to stay at the palace while he went to discuss a contract for building new aqueducts. He’d hardly made it thirty feet from the palace gates before his chest had grown so tight that he thought it might cave in on his heart.

He had not needed Duusu to lay out for him the finer points of their deal. If Félix was going to leave, he could not take the ring with him, nor could he leave it behind. He had to take the risk of trusting all that he was to someone at his side. If it was power he wanted, he could have it as long as he remained in the castle. If it was freedom he wanted, it would come at the cost of complete vulnerability.

While Félix trusted his mother, if he wanted to take his own three-year sojourn, she was not the company that would allow him to truly feel free. If he was honest with himself, his first choice was Adrien, but they could not both wander and leave their kingdom without a king.

Félix would have to find someone outside of his family to trust, and maybe someday he would, but right now it was not an option, nor even a priority. Seeing Adrien married and managing the shared duty of king between them was more important.

After breakfast, Adrien’s morning was full of last minute decisions about decor set up, floral arrangements, and ceremony details that Adrien was more than happy to answer. Only two servants remarked that His Majesty seemed much more thrilled about the wedding celebration today than he had in the past few weeks; the rest had the courtesy to say nothing.

Despite his excitement, there was one thing Adrien had to do that he knew was necessary, but he was not particularly thrilled about.

He found Marinette after breakfast, still getting fitted for her gown.

He knocked once and pushed the door open without waiting for her say-so. “Marinette, I—”

“Get out!” she shrieked, and threw the only projectile in reach—a pin cushion—at his head.

“I’ve seen you in less—”

She slammed the door closed and nearly took his nose off. “You can’t see your bride on the day of the wedding, Adrien!”

“I think that’s only for an arranged marriage that you don’t want me to back out of,” he said to the closed door. “Do you think I’m going to back out?”

“No—but—it’s unlucky!”

Luck was not something they were particularly hurting for, but it was also something that he and Marinette took seriously, given the magical exchanges they had made.

“There’s just something I need to do today,” he said, “and I’d like my partner with me while I do it.”

There was a moment of silence from the thick oak door. Then a quiet, “Give me a minute.”

Adrien waited patiently while Marinette shed her fine dress and returned to her everyday wear. He didn’t know why she was so insistent he not see her in her gown. He’d been there when she had designed it—he had helped her design it—before she had sent the designs to Master Fu. It had taken Alya, Adrien, and Nino together to convince Marinette that working on her wedding gown while also working on her own clients’ projects would have overwhelmed her, but they had managed it, eventually.

Marinette only opened the door just enough to slip out, and would not give Adrien even a glimpse of what was inside.

“Master Fu and Juleka said we only have an hour while he makes alterations,” she told him. “He also asked me to remind you that we were supposed to be back last week, not yesterday.”

“You say that like I’m the one who made Rena sneak through that warlord’s camp with me, like I made her challenge me to see who could steal his gold first, or as if I made the sudden storm appear, and made her swim across the river while I released all the horses, and made her get so sick just so we would have to stay in town for a few extra days.”

“You should have let her release the horses! She can literally hide herself with magic. You just like taking the extra risk.”

“But then I would have gotten sick swimming across the river.”

“You never get sick!”

“I have been sick!”

“I don’t think an emotional crisis counts.”

But Marinette and Adrien reached the throne room, she stopped teasing him. She understood suddenly where they were going and why he had been so insistent on bringing her. As he pushed the double doors open, she slid her hand into his.

The throne room was largely as she remembered it. The grand white pillars, the gilded throne, the glass window that looked out to the gardens beyond—all of it as it was before Chat Blanc had leveled it. The only difference was the new set of portraits that hung on either side of the throne, near the doors that led to the two towers. Marinette could not restrain a soft gasp as she took them in.

One portrait was of Queen Emilie, dressed in gold and wearing the royal crown. Her smile was both gentle and coy as she surveyed all who entered the room with green eyes that glimmered in the morning light. Marinette remembered it well from the old office behind the throne room, but it seemed to have been touched up and restored since she had last seen it.

Beside Queen Emilie was a portrait of Adrien, also dressed in gold. Marinette was sure it was Adrien, even though she’d never seen him in the full regalia of his station, and it wasn’t just the green eyes that gave it away. There was something both soft and mischievous about his expression, and there was something casual rather than stately in his posture as he leaned on the royal scepter like it was a cane—or a baton.

On the other side of the throne room was a portrait of Duchess Amelie in silver that mirrored her sister’s. Instead of a crown of gold, she wore a crown of blue flaxen flowers, common in their use but she made them appear stately. And beside Duchess Amelie hung a portrait of Félix—also in a king’s full regalia. Where the gems draped across King Adrien’s chest were emerald green, Félix’s were brilliant blue, like the feathers of a peacock. His silver eyes betrayed only the slightest amusement, softening what might have otherwise been a stern expression.

Marinette squeezed Adrien’s hand, aware of the effect these portraits might have on him, and he smiled gratefully, but facing the portrait of his mother—and of himself as king—wasn’t the difficult thing that he had come to do.

He approached the door behind the throne room. Marinette turned her head to get one last glimpse of the portrait of King Adrien.

“Your cousin did a wonderful job,” she said.

“He’s quite talented.”

“I think he even snuck Plagg in there.”

Adrien glanced back and caught sight of a pair of green eyes, hidden near his feet, and the faint outline of a black cat.

“Cheeky,” he said, but he didn’t quite laugh as he opened the door to the the king’s hidden office.

Though the original portrait of Queen Emilie had been moved, the desk and the clock remained, and the papers were much more orderly than the last time Adrien had been in here. He didn’t think it would stay neat if he was taking over for his cousin, or rather, more accurately, they would be sharing the work—and sharing it publicly. Félix’s self-portrait in the regalia of a king had not been a snide commentary about the work he had been doing secretly; it was part of their plan to rule together in the fashion that worked for the two of them.

Adrien fumbled for the catch that revealed the hidden passage, his fingers betraying his anxiety about what he was about to do. But it did have to be done. He wished, like Marinette, that they had been able to return a week ago, and that he wouldn’t have to mar his wedding day with this.

But it couldn’t be helped, and he wouldn’t want to do it after today any more than he wanted to do it today.

He swallowed down his fear and led Marinette up the staircase. They said nothing as they climbed. There was nothing she could say to him to make it easier. Besides, all he had wanted was her at his side.

When they reached the top of the tower, the archway that had once led to Hawk Moth’s hidden chambers was now fitted with a grid of iron bars and a heavy lock. Behind the archway was a plain but sturdy bed, neatly made and prepared with piles of fur on its edges for the colder winter nights. There was a desk and even a small library of books on the other side of the room, and at the desk sat the woman Adrien had come to see.

Nathalie Sancouer looked up from her book and stared at the two of them in surprise.

“I thought those footsteps were too early to be my lunch. I must say, I’m surprised to see you.”

“I…” Adrien fumbled for words. He had always meant to come here before leaving, but it had seemed far too overwhelming at the time. “I know you didn’t… I know you’re not the one who—” He thought—or perhaps he had simply hoped—that it would be easier to say what needed to be said after three years away, but it wasn’t.

Marinette gave his hand another squeeze.

“I’m not the one who killed your father,” Nathalie finished for him. “I assumed you must know, otherwise I think I would have been separated from my head rather than hidden away in a tower to live out whatever years I have left.”

Something about her even, unflappable tone made Adrien a little braver. It reminded him of the steadiness she had always maintained while he was growing up. Despite what she had done to hurt his family, she had also been a reliable support for them throughout their grief and turmoil. “I know why you said you did it—at least, Félix told me why he thinks you said it was you.”

“We all have sins, Adrien,” she said. “Myself, your father, your mother, your aunt, your cousin—even you and your friend there. Mistakes and grievances are a guarantee in life; the privilege of absolution is not. I took it where I saw it.”

Anger was not an emotion that Adrien was especially familiar with, but it reared its head suddenly as Nathalie described her sentence as appropriate recompense for her actions. There was nothing that could set right what she had done, how she had hurt him and Félix and even Félix’s parents. There was nothing, either, that could set right what Adrien’s father had done. Adrien was even, in some ways, angry with his aunt, who had taken his father from him, who had meted out her own justice and deprived Adrien of any sort of restoration or even an opportunity for an apology from his father.

And Adrien, who had spent the last three years traveling the world with friends who were studying all there was to know about magical bargains and equitable trades saw no logic to this trade. To say that her suffering was some sort of acceptable trade because she had incurred suffering in others was absurd. There was nothing gained by it on either side.

What he truly wanted was an apology. That prostration and admittance of guilt, that ownership of what she had done to him was far more of a sacrifice than isolation and imprisonment. He didn’t think an apology would heal the old wound in his chest, but it wouldn’t make it worse, certainly.

“I don’t think a lifetime in prison absolves you of anything that you did,” Adrien said, biting off his anger with each word. “If even half of what Félix told me is true, I’m not sure locking yourself away in a tower makes any of it better, even if it did spare Aunt Amelie some indignity. But your execution would not absolve you, either.”

He dropped his eyes to the ring embossed with vines that he wore around his left ring finger. His anger was not why he had come to see Nathalie, and it wasn’t helpful here. It was a much more noble sentiment that had driven him to the top of this tower.

“I came because, despite what you did to hurt Félix and me, you also did a lot for us both. I appreciate what you did do, and I—I wanted to introduce you properly to Marinette, since we’re getting married today.”

Nathalie had always done her best to avoid being a mother to Adrien, for she had never wanted him to think she was replacing what he had lost. Yet despite her best efforts, here she was, standing in for both of his parents. She was no fool; she knew he was only here because he didn’t have a mother and father to introduce his wife to. She had known the princes since they were infants, and she knew their desires just as well. Adrien had always wanted love and appreciation. He’d been born from his mother’s desire for a family and her desire to make her husband happy. Adrien was going to cling to family and affection wherever he could, even in the woman who had aided his father in his villainous schemes.

To indulge him in this foolishness would be wrong, she thought. It would be no more appropriate to treat him with such familiarity and affection now than it would have been after his mother had passed. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him just how ridiculous this behavior was, but she hesitated, because in the end, he was right.

Her imprisonment did not absolve her of what she had done, and if she pushed Adrien away now, it was only to add to her own punishment.

She wanted a bargain. She would trade her freedom in exchange for forgiveness for all the terrible things that she had done. But in the end, that wasn’t how this worked. In the end, there was no punishment that would make up for what she had done. So instead of seeking to hurt her, Adrien had brought his wife to her. It was not absolution, and it never would be, but giving Adrien this shred of affection, this barest simulacrum of a family, might be the closest to restoration either of them could ever strive for.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mademoiselle,” Nathalie said, and inclined her head an a polite bow.

It was not much later that Adrien and Marinette retreated back down the stairs. He did not feel the weight lift from his shoulders until the hidden door was safely closed behind them. He leaned back against the wall and let out a long, slow breath.

“You were very brave,” Marinette said.

He smiled, but kept his eyes closed. “Thank you. I’m glad you were there. I didn’t think I could have faced her alone.”

“You’ll never have to.” She kissed his cheek, then frowned when he still wouldn’t open his eyes. “Are you really all right?”

“Yes.”

“Won’t you look at me?”

“Isn’t that unlucky?”

Marinette swatted his chest playfully, and left him alone with a dramatic huff.

They didn’t see each other for the rest of the day, not until she walked down the aisle in her brilliant red, white, and gold gown, embroidered with lilies and ladybugs alike along the skirts and the bodice.

Some said surely she must be Ladybug. Others said the design was only a reference to Ladybug’s famous blessing on King Adrien’s reign and that, lovely as the bride was, Ladybug surely wasn’t something as common as a baker’s daughter.

But if the people of the kingdom had any concerns about their king marrying low, no one bothered to share them. Marinette was charming and the people were easily charmed by her. As the formal ceremonies transitioned into the evening celebration, all of the guests were eager to talk to her and get to know her.

But she wasn’t interested in talking to anyone other than Adrien. As the music began, she pulled him away from his cousin and onto the center of the dance floor.

They’d shared a number of dances together during their years traveling, but none in a formal ballroom like this. They were wearing more formal clothing than either had ever worn together—even more than their one dance as Ladybug and Prince Adrien. Neither, however, was nervous, not as long as they were together.

Adrien bowed to open the dance. Despite the heavy crown he now wore, his grin was still that of the impish thief.

Marinette curtsied, all of her own shyness and Ladybug’s grace bundled up in her chest. She only faltered slightly as the dance began.

It was as if there was nothing else beyond the two of them when they were together like this. The crowds, the glittering chandelier, the finery, and even their friends and family melted away. They were only Marinette and Adrien, and they would be for the rest of their lives. No matter what came their way, they would face it as partners.

And they lived happily ever after.

[the-delta-42]

Your Royal Highness - Chapter 1

Your Royal Highness

Chapter 1

Marinette subtly scanned the room, Nino had already scouted it out and informed her that everything was safe. As usual. She spotted Kim sitting with Max and Alix, laughing at something, probably the latest attempt Lila made to get back in his favour.

Marinette thought back to the incident that caused Lila’s empire to collapse. She claimed to be dating the Prince of Elysium, a small country that lay between Asia and The Americas. It was one of three countries that had kept its boarders closed for the latter half of the millennium, the other two were Eden and Babylon. Marinette had seen theories, a couple by Alya, that Eden, Babylon and Elysium were named because they were the Countries that had proof that God existed. Marinette internally snorted at the cover story.

A flicker of light caught Marinette’s eye, her eyes zeroed in on the source. Immediately jumping into action, Marinette ambled her way towards Kim, picking up a metal tray on her way. Marinette got five feet away from Kim, before she ‘tripped on something’. The tray went flying, just as a small pellet hit the flat side of the tray.

“Marinette?” Said Alix, looking over at the pigtailed girl, “Are you alright?”

Marinette remained face down, before she said, “I’m glad my lunch wasn’t on that.”

Marinette felt a pair of hand grab her arms, looking up, she came face to face with Nino.

“You really need to watch where you’re going, dudette.” Said Nino, keeping his question in his eyes. ‘Where?’

Marinette’s eyes flickered to the roof outside the window. Nino frowned, before subtly glancing in the direction.

“We have our project to work on.” Said Nino, making Kim’s shoulders slump.

“Now?” Whined Kim, as Marinette grabbed his bicep.

“Yes, now.” Said Marinette, pretending to be too weak to haul Kim to his feet.

“Dude,” Said Nino, folding his arms, “the last time we had a project together, you didn’t do anything, and we nearly failed.”

“That was last week!” Exclaimed Kim, as Marinette let out small grunts in an effort to hide her laughter.

“Yeah, that’s why we have this project,” Scolded Nino, “Mendeleiev is having us redo it so that everyone participates.”

Kim groaned and got to his feet, “Fine.” He pouted.

As soon as the three were outside the cafeteria, Marinette whirled around.

“Nino, you keep the prince safe,” Commanded Marinette, her mind going into captain mode, “I’m going to investigate where that shot came from.”

“Wait, so there isn’t a project?” Asked Kim, looking affronted.

Marinette and Nino stared at him.

“Elysium is in for a bad ride.” Commented Marinette, before spinning on her heel and marching off.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Demanded Kim, as Nino carefully herded him away.

“Probably another one of the ‘inside jokes’ she has.” Said Nino, completely oblivious to the three people hiding around the corner.

Alya and Adrien gaped at each other. Marinette had just made a sarcastic, boarder-line snide remark about another country and had walked off. Then Marinette had called Kim a Prince. A. Prince.

“But she has a point,” Said Nino, looking down at the tray in his hands, flipping it over as he spoke, “someone tried to take a shot at you and, quite frankly, I don’t want to be on the receiving end of the Queen’s wrath because the two bodyguards she had watching her son couldn’t do their jobs.”

“What is that?” Asked Kim, looking at it closely.

“I don’t know, but knowing Marinette, we’ll find out soon.” Said Nino, before grabbing Kim’s shoulder and walking him away.

Kagami poked her head around the corner.

“Okay, they’re gone.” Said the Japanese girl, allowing Adrien and Alya to release the breath they had been holding.

YRH

Marinette hauled herself up the fire escape for the building. Granted, she could’ve just transformed and used her yoyo, but she felt like pushing herself today. She carefully looked across the roof, before hauling herself onto it. The equipment for taking the shot was scattered around haphazardly, as if whoever fired the shot was in a panic to get away. Marinette walked towards the rifle and crouched to pick it up.

A cold blade was pressed against her neck.

“Dead.” Said the Marksman, before putting the sword away, “I honestly thought you were going to do well today.”

Marinette scowled, before standing up to face her brother, “I did, you’re just a pessimist.”

“Really?” Questioned Michael, his arms folding, “I didn’t see you scout around the perimeter of the area before heading up here.”

Marinette froze, before swearing.

“Hm, fuck indeed.” Said Michael, as he started to gather up the equipment, “Don’t worry, Nino’s not out of the woods yet. Maria has a special test prepared for him.”

Marinette remained quiet, before looking around the roof top, “If I’d scouted around the block, the sniper could get away.”

Michael sigh and turned to face his sister, “Little one, a great leap forwards often requires two steps back. You need to examine the situation before jumping to conclusions, what if where was a second assassin waiting for you to turn up?”

Marinette scowled and glared at her feet.

“Plus,” Said Michael, “if you can get above them, they won’t see or hear you coming.”

Marinette snorted.

RYH

Nino kept ducking his head down the aisles of bookcases, looking for the Librarian, or anyone else for that matter, and finding no one.

“Typical, the one time we need a crowded place, all the intellectuals go on a sabbatical.” Muttered Nino, before a hand grabbed his shoulder and shoved into a bookcase.

Nino looked up at his attacker, they were wearing a black balaclava, hiding their features. Nino quickly rolled over and jumped to his feet, before swinging his leg out, kicking his assailant in the side. Another assailant grabbed Nino and slammed him against the wall, before a cold barrel of a gun was pressed to Kim’s head.

“One more move and his brains will decorate the floor.” Said the Gunman, making Nino stand down.

There was a tense silence, before the Gunman holstered their gun and pulled the balaclava off.

“Nino, did you forget the actual techniques you were taught for a situation like this?” Demanded a woman with green eyes, tanned skin and red hair.

“…Nooooo.” Nino trailed off, before looking away, “I take it the sniper thing was Marinette’s test.”

“Yes.” Said the woman curtly, before hauling Kim to his feet, “I can only hope her test went better than yours.”

“Sorry, Maman.” Said Nino, scratching the back of his neck.

“Keeping them here has made them complacent.” Said Michael, striding into the library.

Marinette was red in the face, while her gaze was firmly on a spot on the floor.

“Let me guess,” Said Nino’s mother, “She didn’t scout around before heading to the roof?”

“Got it in one.” Said Michael, leaning against a bookshelf, “Now, what’s this I hear about a failed assignment because a certain Prince didn’t pull his weight?”

Marinette let out an undignified snort as Kim went red. Michael suddenly tensed, spun around and launched a knife towards the door, the blade embedding itself in the wood of the door.

“All of you, come out!” Commanded Michael, as Adrien, Kagami and Alya slowly shuffled into sight.

“Guys?” Asked Marinette, looking at the three, “w-what are you doing here?”

“Little one, they’ve been following us since we entered the building.” Said Michael, stalking towards, “Who are you and what are your intentions?”

“They’re our classmates,” Said Nino, getting a reprimanding look form his mother, “Sorry.”

“Great.” Grumbled Michael, “Loose ends, just what we need.”

“Kim’s a prince?” Asked Alya, disbelievingly.

“Current heir to Elysium, yes.” Answered Maria, before looking at Michael, “You do realise that we have to take them to be debriefed, right?”

“Did you tell anyone about what you’ve found?” Asked Michael, giving the three a cold, calculating glare.

“Our lips are sealed.” Rushed Adrien, “Um, what do you mean ‘debriefed’?”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve got to be somewhere soon and-” Adrien was cut off by Maria.

“That’ll have to wait.” She flicked her wrist and three darts shot out and hit the three students, rendering them unconscious.

Michael, Marinette and Nino stared at the unconscious teenagers.

“Maria,” Said Michael, “my leg’s busted, remember? I can’t carry them.”

“They can.” Maria gestured towards Marinette and Nino, “It can make up for the sloppy work they’ve done.”

YRH

Skye frowned at the man sitting at the desk. The Mentor had found that mayor of Paris had links to the enemy and that he was possibly one of them. She silently made her way behind him and gently resting the palm of her hand on the back of the chair, before she flicked her wrist and a short blade pierced the back of Andre’s chair and went into his back, piercing his left lung and nicking a major artery.

“What?” Rasped Andre, as Skye appeared in his vision, “You…”

“Reposez en paix.” Murmured Skye, as she went through his pockets, smirking when she found a data stick and a disk. She looked down and spotted a hard drive plugged into the computer. She unplugged it and stuffed it, the data stick and the disk into her jacket pocket.

“You did great!” Came Rafael’s voice in her ear, making her jump.

“Christ, Raf!” Gasped Skye, “Don’t do that!”

“Sorry, you’re going to need to get rid of your wig and jacket,” Said Raf, “There should be a uniform closet near Bourgeois’ Office.”

“That staff id that you made should work, right?”

“Of course it will.” Said Raf, “Mike and Maria are collecting our two novices and Cal and Toby are dealing with the other two targets.”

YRH

Toby silently groaned as he hung from the ledge, he was thankful for the tree hiding him from sight, the Bourgeois woman was with Tsurugi, with a cd player playing violin music in the room next to theirs. He peeked over the edge and saw Bourgeois was facing away from him, and with Tsurugi being blind, it gave him the opportunity to leap out at them.

“Claudette’s not worthy of our order.” Were Bourgeois’ last words, as Toby rammed his fist into the back of her neck and slammed a vase over Tsurugi’s head. The two women dropped to the ground, unconscious.

He quickly rummaged through their pockets, and Bourgeois’ bag, but found nothing.

“Fuck.” Muttered Toby, glancing around the room, “Where is it?”

Unfortunately Toby didn’t have the time to rummage around the room, as two burly men charged into the room, making Toby run and jump out of the window he entered in.

[jennagrinsoverml]

Hey, I love your recs sm thank you for them :) I was wondering if you could rec some fics where Marinette tells Chat Noir the boy she loves is Adrien or that he (as Chat finds out)? I don’t really care how it happens but i just want a scene where Marinette as herself tells Chat that Adrien is the boy she loves or something like that. Thank youu <3

Anon, you have NO IDEA of the rabbit hole you sent me down. So first I thought of one specific fic and was going to rec it and a few others and call it a day. But then I had trouble finding the other fics I was thinking of. And then I went on a reading spree. And, anon, these fics are SO GOOD! I loved answering this request 💖 (And thank you! I love that people enjoy my recs 😊😊😊)

Jealousy by @sariahsue

"If it weren't for that other guy, do you think you would have fallen for me?" "Please, chaton," Marinette said. "Don't do this to yourself." "I just want to know." Softly she said, "It would have been so easy."

One-shot. This is the fic I thought of right away. It’s a half-reveal fic where Chat knows Ladybug’s identity, but she doesn’t know his, and he’s obviously very interested in the identity of the boy she loves. And then she tells him and his reaction is eeeeeeveryyyyythinggggggg. I love this fic!

Crushed by @p-artsypants​

Stuck under a collapsed building together, Chat Noir and Marinette have a heart to heart.

One-shot. Another Ladybug half-reveal, but this time they’re trapped together. It’s a pretty rough situation, but the way they open up to each other is really beautiful. And, of course, in opening up, Marinette reveals to Chat that she’s in love with Adrien. This one gives me allll the feelings!

Loopholes by @gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights

Chat Noir doesn't get why Ladybug gets to be the best-behaved kid in the world. 

She isn't.  She's too good at finding loopholes.

(Marichat identity reveal fic, set after the episode Christmaster)

One-shot. This fic does feature an identity reveal, but Marinette telling Chat the identity of the boy she loves comes before any of that! They’re ADORABLE and so in character, and I loved Marinette being both embarrassed and embarrassing, and of course the identity reveal was perfect.

The Perks of Anonymity by SydelleRein

Fed up with her inability to string two coherent sentences together in front of a certain schoolmate, Marinette confides in Chat Noir.

Multi-chapter. Like many marichat fics, this one assumes an existing friendship between Marinette and Chat. And when Adrien takes advantage of that friendship to try to figure out why Marinette’s so uncomfortable with Adrien (does she secretly hate him?) she confides in him about her crush. Their characterizations are amazing, and Chatdrien’s reaction to the crush is even better, and there’s an eventual reveal, which is fantastic.

Banter by @sariahsue

Ladybug expected Chat Noir to try to get closer to her once he discovered she was Marinette. That was what all the Ladynoir fanfiction she'd ever read had prepared her for. What she didn't expect: Tips on how to ask Adrien out, support for her crush on another boy, and whatever other crazy things were happening right now.

"Pay attention, M'Lady. You're breathing all wrong again."

Three-part series. Another half reveal. We don’t actually see Marinette tell Chat she’s in love with Adrien as the focus here is all on the aftermath, but omg it’s so, so good and I love it so much! In case you haven’t yet, I highly recommend @sariahsue’s fics. So many of them have Marinette admitting her feelings, but I limited myself to just the two here.

One Life, One World by @komorebirei​

“So, beads, huh? For… a lucky charm?” Chat guessed.

Marinette nodded. “Two, for my friends.”

Her dispirited tone caught Chat’s attention. Marinette was usually more cheerful—but then again, it was past midnight, and she must be tired.

“There’s a secret in the design,” Marinette said with a faint smile that Chat thought looked a little forced.

One-shot. Marinette’s trying to get over Adrien now that he and Kagami are together. But when she says as much to Chat, his reaction gives away more than he intended. I love that this one has a different tone than the others, but it’s still really sweet. (This one is also unusual in that at no time does Adrien learn that Marinette is Ladybug.)

Smile & write: 31 & 32 by @emsylcatac​

Collection of short stories from a game on Tumblr in which people sent me their last five emojis with two characters. Sometimes contains a bit of love, some fun, lots of dumb, and overall a bit of everything.

Lastest updates: Chapter 32: Part 2 of Chapter 31: Marinette & Chat Noir. Chat Noir knows Marinette's identity and is wondering when she'll be brave enough to ask her not-so-secret crush out. He also wants to tell her his identity, too.

Two-shot, part of a collection. Another half reveal starting immediately after Chat learns that Adrien is the boy, and dealing with Marinette telling him the hearts all around his pictures were reversed spades. This one is funny, but also so soft, and the reveal is super cute.

tell me you love me (pls, i beg u). by @theanxiouscupcake​

Adrien’s patience was hanging by a thread. Wearing thin, rapidly dissipating, dissolving, the way his father claimed teeth dissolved in aerated drinks, take your pick. He loved the girl, he really did. But as he watched her stutter a little before she let her head fall on her desk with a wince-worthy thump, before she asked for his physics homework going off their (very, very well-rehearsed) script again. All he wanted to do was take her by the shoulders and shake her while screaming, “Tell me you love me, I beg you. I can’t stand waiting around this way!”

And then maybe kiss the hell out of her.

Hell, he wanted to kiss the hell out of her right now, but he couldn’t because there was The Bet™ that he now felt, in hindsight, was stupid. Not that he would ever admit that to Plagg or to his Princess, of course.

One-shot. Pre-reveal but after Adrien’s fallen for Marinette. This one is after Chat’s learned that Adrien is the boy Marinette loves, but Marinette and Chat have entered into a bet: Chat can’t ask out the girl he’s in love with until Marinette confesses her feelings to the boy she loves. It’s exactly as ridiculous as it sounds with all kinds of mutual pining.

[auspicious-lilana]

Two Cats, One Heart (Chat Noir x Reader)

Summary: Y/n Ross and Adrian Agreste are childhood best friends, they’ve been through thick and thin, including losing their mom, and dad. Since then Y/n's mom made her live with Adrian at his mansion and forever leaving her life. Watch as their lives Change as they become the new heroes of Paris alongside Ladybug and see how Romance sprouts between the two models. 

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

here's the long-awaited (and overdue) chapter! Enjoy! 

"Yes, I'm busy. I was right in the middle of something very important. What do you want?" Gabriel spoke on his phone as he was standing by a painting of his wife, holding the book containing records of the miraculous holders.

Adrian and Y/n who were about to head out overheard the phone call and decided to snoop on the man, watching him as he placed the book in a safe. 

" What?! This is unacceptable! The sample garment doesn't match at all! All you had to do was follow a pattern. . . Imbeciles! What am I supposed to do? The show is in three days!" He closed the painting, noticing it was one of Adrien's mom. " No, don't use him, he's completely useless. Call my assistant, She'll give you some other names." 

"He hides stuff behind the painting of mom?" Adrian whispered to Y/n. As his father left the room, their Kawamis peeked out to watch with them. 

"I love dirty secrets!" Plagg exclaimed as they walked over to the painting. 

"Right?" Alpha nodded. "adds spice to life." Adrien opened the painting to see the safe that was hidden behind it. 

"Ooh! Go on! Open it! Open it!" The two kawamis urged on. 

" I can't do it. My dad wouldn't like me going through his stuff. Besides, I don't even know the code, and my fencing class is about to start." 

"Not to mention how much trouble we'll be in if we got caught." Y/n agreed. 

"You're such a party pooper," Plagg said as the two phased through the safe door. 

"Plagg/Alpha, No!" The teens exclaimed. 

" My, my, what have we got here?" Plagg's muffled voice was heard. 

"A book on Tibet, an old flyer from a hotel, a load of junk," Alpha was heard after. 

"Come on! Where's the good stuff?" The safe door was cracked open as the two glanced at each other before opening it to see the two kawamis looking through a paper before knocking over a book, Adrien quickly catching it as they looked at the cover.

"I've seen this book somewhere before," Plagg said. "But who cares? I'm famished! I need Camembert!" 

"Why is my dad keeping this locked in a safe?" Adrien questioned, flipping through before stopping at a page with Hawkmoth on it. "Hawkmoth? What's this monster doing in a book about superheroes?" 

"We aren't sure if it's the Kawami's fault for the user's evildoings though," Y/n said. 

"Cheese!" Plagg interrupted. "Didn't you hear me?" The two gasped at the sounds of footsteps and Adrian stuffed the book in his bag as Y/n closed the picture just as Natalie and their bodyguard entered the room. 

"Adrien? Y/n? You're going to be late." Natalie scolded. 

"We were. . . looking for my homework." Adrien nervously chuckled, Y/n quickly nodding with the lie. 

"Gosh, I keep telling you to stop misplacing it so much." Y/n laughed along. 

***

"Can you believe Lila knows Prince Ali?" Rose exclaimed, Marinette passing by at Juleka and her conversation before looking at Chloé make her next tantrum as she passed her. 

"Why did Jagged Stone write a song about Lila when he could've written about me?" She grumbled, walking off with Sabrina trailing behind her with both their things in her arms. 

Nino soon passed by her talking to a few people from class, "Lila knows all of the Hollywood directors. She promised she'd mention me to Steven Basielberg himself!" 

"Lila?" Marinette asked, after catching up with Alya. 

"Yeah, she just started at our school." Alya pointed to Lila, who was on the second floor with Adrian. "She even gave me an exclusive interview for the Ladybug 'cause Ladybug saved her life once! Watch!" She showed Marinette the video of Lila in her blog. 

"She also said she's been friends with Lady Wolf too," Maya said, overhearing them and joining their side. "She offered to try and get an interview of Lady Wolf for me, how cool is she?" 

"Why is she with Adrien alone? I thought Y/n usually walks with him to class?" Marinette questioned. 

"Y/n was just with me, she had to go to talk with her biology teacher before class." 

Alya and Maya soon walked off to talk about some future collaboration as Marinette stood in suspicion, watching Adrien and Lila go in somewhere alone. 

"What's going on? I mean has this Lila girl hypnotized everyone or something? What if she's trying to steal Y/n's boyfriend now!" 

Marinette ran after the two to be led inside the library to see Adrian sitting alone at a table as she headed behind a nearby bookshelf. 

"Where is she?" She mumbled. Adrien took the book from his dad's safe out of his bag and Tikki gasps and left Marinette's purse. 

"Marinette, Adrien's book! I need to get a closer look at it." 

"Why are you so concerned about his book?" Marinette stopped talking to see Lila head to the table. "Hide, Tikki!" Tikki flew over to a bookcase right next to Adrian. 

"Now were can get going on our history homework. it's so much more fun doing it together, don't you think?" Lila noticed Adrien's book and grabs it under the book he was using to hide it. "What's that?" 

"Uh, nothing! Just stories about superheroes." Lila then put her hand on Adrien's. 

"I love superheroes!" 

Marinette gasps, "I knew it, she is trying to steal Y/n's boyfriend—   " She accidentally bumped into a book cart, pushing it by accident. Tikki watches Lila as she flips through the book turning to the page on Lady Wolf. 

"Lady Wolf!" 

"She's amazing." Adrien smiled, thinking back to their last date night.

"A girl doesn't need to wear a costume to be amazing, you know." She said, scooting her seat closer to Adrien who broke out of his daydreams from the sudden uncomfortable feelings. 

"Uh, I don't know—I mean, I— " 

"So you got a little soft spot for the wolf, huh?" 

"Me? I mean she's great, but no-no-no." 

"You know I happen to be very close friends with Lady Wolf." 

"Really?" Adrien asked, slightly confused. He'd have to ask Y/n about this later. 

"We can chat about it if you want. Not here though. Why don't we meet up at the park after school and I'll tell you everything." 

Adrian soon got an alert on his phone, "I gotta go! I've got a lesson in 58 seconds." Amid his rush, Lila caused him to drop his bag. 

"So the park?" Lila asked, pushing the book on superheroes away from Adrien's bag with her foot. 

"Uh, Sure!" He ran out before another word could be said as Lila picked up the book, opening it to a page on a fox-related heroine. 

"A vixen superheroine? Hmmm, interesting. . . " She left the library with a scheme in mind. 

"Marinette!" Tikki ran back to her. 

"I know. I gotta talk to Adrien before he meets up with Lila in the park. He has to know that she's a total thief." 

"No! You can't say anything to Adrien. I need a chance to check out the book first. If it's the one I think it is we have to get out hands on it!" 

"I don't get it? Exactly why would we need it?" 

"I'll explain to you once I know for sure. Please, we mustn't let Lila out of our sight."

***

"Lady Wolf and me?"  Lila grinned, Marinette watching the latest video on the Wolf Blog Maya hosts. "We're like this." 

"I bet she's lying about that."  Marinette huffed, "Does Lady Wolf even know about this?"  

"Lady Wolf know about what?"  Marinette let out an 'ah!' and jumped to the side frightened by the sudden arrival of her dear friend Y/n who was peeking over her shoulder.  

"Y/n! hey!"  

"Well. . .?"  

"What's Lady Wolf got to know?"  

"You haven't seen the video yet?"  

"Video? Oh, you mean Maya's blog. I saw the notification but I hadn't seen it yet."  Marinette handed over her phone to Y/n, playing back 10 seconds. ". . .wow."  

"She's been lying all over the place!"  Marinette let out her fusterations. "Do you actually  think she's like this?"  Marinette crossed her fingers. "With Lady Wolf?"  

{Y/n's POV} 

I haven't even met this girl as Y/n. How would Lady Wolf know her? This I gotta investigate. Marinette started looking back nervously as I glanced, realizing she must be following her. 

"oh wow I'm real late, I uh, gotta go."  Marinette sheepishly smiled pointing forward. "See you tomorrow!"  

"Wai- " She ran off before I could stop. I sighed as Alpha peeked out from my bag. 

"Didn't know you had a new BFF. Who's gonna tell Ladybug you're already cheating on her?" 

"Oh, hush. Nobody's cheating. What I'm more curious about, is why she wants to lie about this?"  

"Humans do things for popularity. That's something that hasn't changed about humans for centuries. Like that one time in the 9th century in Europe, there was this one criminal who had- " I stuffed a brownie in his tiny mouth before he can go on a long 2-hour rant about who knows what. 

"Let's just go find a place to transform."  I ran to the nearby park and went straight toward the portable bathrooms. 

"Oh c'mon, isn't this a tad dramatic? I mean there isn't even an Akuma. This is just an abuse of pow- " 

"Alpha tails out!" 

I peeked out the door in case anyone was there before sprinting out and climbing up a nearby building and bringing out my baton. If I could remember  Marinette was headed to the park, so that girl must be here too. The top of my baton slid open to reveal a screen as I used the telescoping feature to zoom in and look around the small park to see Adrien walking toward the girl. What's he doing there? I looked closer at the girl to see her through away- isn't that the miraculous book? They chatted for a while before she showed a necklace that looked awfully like the one that one superheroine had in the book. Does she plan to fake an identity? Or. . .is that real? 

Not much longer Ladybug swooped in, surprising me further. Whatever Ladybug went on about left Lila in tears before Ladybug left. I closed my baton and leaped after her. 

"Ladybug!" I called out, making her stop in confusion. 

"Lady Wolf? What are you doing out here?- Did you come out because of that blog video?" 

"Yeah, but you seemed to have handled it, a bit harshly too,"  

"I don't put up with lies." Ladybug frowned. 

"Yeah but, you left her crying. I don't think she deserved to be stomped on like that. You could have gone softer. After all. Aren't we supposed to preserve positivity in Paris? With Hawkmoth out there, a broken heart is dangerous." 

". . You're right."  Ladybug sighed. "I have to go now. See you next time." 

"Try to soften things up next time you have a run-in,"  I suggested as she swung off. I watched her before turning around to head home myself. Right before I could reach my room a meteor suddenly came in, closing in. "A meteor!?"  I exclaimed. Quickly made my way towards it only to see a flash of orange go by, a girl grabbing the meteor and sending it back out of the atmosphere. What strength. . . 

"I am Volpina!" The girl in a fox suit proclaimed out to the crowd. "The only superhero Paris needs!" 

"Volpina?" Ladybug questioned, landing next to me. 

"Looks like we've got a new partner."  Chat said, dropping on my other side. 

"Don't you think it's weird this superhero just appeared out of nowhere?"  

"Well, at least she got the job done." 

"I could have easily stopped that meteorite myself." Ladybug crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at Chat. 

"Volpina is giving me very. . . odd vibes. She doesn't seem like a team player either." 

"Hey, guys." Volpina suddenly intruded, standing before us. "Glad you dropped in. I need a hand. Come on."  She suddenly ran ahead, the three of us exchanging confused looks before following after her. Only to lead us to a shock. 

"I can't believe it." Chat Noir stared amazed. "It's Hawkmoth, in the flesh." 

"He never shows up. Something big is going on." Ladybug said. 

"We can take him down, but it'll take all of us."  Volpina encouraged. This whole thing seems a bit rushed to me. a meteorite suddenly almost crashes, Hawkmoth is standing right there! Something tells me this little fox has something to do with it. "We better make the most of our individual talents."  

"Count on us." Chat nodded, I love him. I do. But he's too trusting. 

"Very nice to meet you, Chat Noir." Volpina suddenly got close to him, ticking me. "Cool outfit."  

"Why thanks." Chat rubbed his head bashfully. "You too." 

"Why thanks, you too."  I quietly mocked under my breath, Ladybug gagging in response. 

"First the meteorite, now Hawkmoth appearing." Ladybug listed out. "Both on the same day? Isn't that unusual?" 

"That's what I was thinking."  I agreed. 

"Why would you say that?" Volpina chortled. 

"I was asking my partners." 

"I'm finding you unusual today, everything okay?" Chat Noir asked. 

"I don't know kitty." I stepped by Ladybug's side. "Everything seems a little suspicious." Especially how that girl should be akumatized, she was crying. Hawkmoth wouldn't give up that prime chance.

"I'm fine." Ladybug reassured, before going up on Volpina. "Say Volpina, what's your miraculous?" 

"My necklace,"  Volpina answered. 

"What power does it give you?" 

"Flight and super-strength." Volpina looked over our shoulder and gasped. "He's getting away!"  Volpina flew after Hawkmoth, us catching up to see him on top of the Mayor's mansion. "Ladybug go left. Chat Noir goes right. Lady Wolf keep an eye on Hawkmoth from here, I'll come from behind." 

"No! I'll go right." Ladybug corrected. "Chat Noir and Lady Wolf from behind, and you. . . go left." 

"Fine." Volpina smiled. "No difference to me." 

"Good." Volpina leaped off to engage from the left. 

"Can you chill out?" Chat asked. "She's one of us." He left, I offered an apologetic smile before following after him. We snuck up from the right only for him not to be there. "Where did he go?" 

"There,"  I whispered, pointing to the building across from where he was. 

"I'll take him."  Chat extended his baton to go after him. 

"Wait- ugh."  I jumped after him, both of us chasing Hawkmoth. Suddenly Ladybug rang us, and we both answered into a three-way facetime. 

"Is Volpina with you guys?"  Ladybug asked. 

"No, we can't find Hawkmoth either."  Chat answered. 

"Forget him, he was never there in the first place."

"What? But we saw him?" 

"Unless it was an illusion,"  I answered. "It makes sense. The meteorite starts crashing, miss hero swoops in, and then suddenly Hawkmoth shows his face? It's too good to be true."  

"That's right. Volpina creates illusions. The Hawkmoth you saw wasn't real." 

"What are you saying?" Chat Noir looked confused. 

"She's not a real superhero, she was akumatised by Hawkmoth." We both clarified at the same time.  

"I don't get it. Why?" 

"I think it's my fault." Ladybug looked away guilty. "I humiliated her in front of a guy she liked."  

"Lila?"  

"Like?"  I raised an eyebrow, side glancing at Chat Noir who swung his arm as if trying to express he could explain. 

"She is going to his house." Ladybug cut in. "I'll send the address, meet me there."  

"You got it." Chat said as I nodded. 

"So you were spending time with a girl who likes you?" I questioned as we started heading over to the Agreste Mansion. 

"I swear I didn't know! I mean yeah I thought it was a bit weird she was getting a little close and stuff- " 

"A bit?" 

"Okay, a lot. but you know I only have eyes for you."  I sighed, I can't blame him. He's too trusting after all. 

"I'll overlook it, this time." 

We jumped into the open window in Adrien's bathroom as he changed back. 

"Wouldn't Chat Noir be more useful in this situation?" Plagg questioned. 

"If Volpina's got a thing for me, I can make her see sense."  He reasoned. 

"What, you going to do true love kiss or something," I mumbled. 

"Aw, jealous?"  Adrien started petting my ears, my tail starting to swag before I swat his hand, embarrassed. "I'm just gonna try to talk her out of it, nothing past that. Promise." 

"You really think you can take down Volpina without your powers?" Plagg doubted, "Without me?"  

"Hide, Plagg. She's coming." Adrien opened his unbuttoned shirt to let Plagg hide inside. "You too, mon chéri." I felt my cheeks start to warm at the nickname before going to hide in the bathroom to overhear and come out if I had to. 

"Adrien!" Volpina exclaimed. 

"Hey,"  Adrien awkwardly waved. "Who are you?"

"Do you remember this necklace?" Volpina lifted the pendant. I didn't know how to tell you the truth but at least this way you can see for yourself that I'm not lying. I am a superhero." 

"Lila!?" Adrien faked his surprise. 

"You can call me Volpina." 

"I'm sorry about the scene in the park earlier. Ladybug's jealous because she's not as powerful as me."  I continued to listen before my baton started to ring from my waist I hastily went to answer it before it gave me away. I moved far from the door. 

"Yeah?" I whispered. 

"Where's Chat? He's not answering?"  

"Oh um. I don't know. He disappeared on me. He'll show up soon probably." 

"Well, I'm going in the Agreste Mansion and Volpina is in here, get here now." 

"Well, actually I'm already- " Ladybug already cut off before I heard her voice in the room. 

"See what I mean?" Volpina glared. "She's jealous of me, of you, of us!" I irked at the obvious flirtation in her words. Doesn't she know he's taken? I left through the bathroom window and circled to the open window to join Ladybug. "But this time you won't ruin our date, Ladybug. And neither are you, Lady Wolf!" 

"Excuse me but it wasn't really a date. . ."  Adrien tried to correct, noticing my visible annoyance. Adrian got more nervous when Volpina turned to him. "I mean what I meant was you know I have a girlfriend and not a cheater, no need to get angry we all have miscommunications right?" Adrien finished his nervous rambles trying to keep her from pointing her staff at him. 

"Excuse us," Ladybug interrupted. "We need a chat with Super-Liar."  With Volpina distracted Adrien ran into the bathroom. "You! Stop thinking your illusions are reality!" 

"Being a homewrecker is frowned upon you know?"  I retorted. Ladybug swung her yoyo at her as Volpina jumped out of the way, sliding down Adrian's skateboard ramp. 

"Sorry, I'm late." Chat was heard behind us as he jumped in. "I had trouble finding the place." Volpina played her flute before making multiple illusions of herself. Ladybug swung her yoyo to realize they were all fake. 

"Illusions." Chat awed, seeing it first hand. 

"Chat Noir, she's taken, Adrian!" Ladybug pointed to the window. 

"That's an illusion too." Chat and I said. 

"How are you so sure?"  

"Uh, My feline sixth sense." Chat made up. "It's legendary."  

"Canine instinct, we're emotionally intelligent. Can sniff out a lie from a mile."  

"Really? You don't say."  Ladybug threw sarcasm as she opened the bathroom door. "Adrian's gone!" Ladybug rushed out as Chat sagged his shoulders with a defeated look. 

"I'm not gonna try to get outta this." 

"At least I believe you." I comforted, patting his back before going to follow after Ladybug. We found Volpina on top of the Eiffel tower, holding 'Adrien' with one hand, ready to let him fall to his doom. 

"Give me your Miraculous now, or I will."  Volpina swung up around as 'Adrien' yelled out of fright. 

"I thought you loved him!" Ladybug questioned. 

"Not as much as seeing you three defeated. No hard feelings, right?" 

"You're bluffing." Chat shouted. "It's another illusion."  

"You wanna bet on that?"  Volpina slowly let go of two fingers as Ladybug shouted, 

"NO!"  

It almost felt like an over-dramatic soap drama with how fake everything was. Not to mention the comedic point that the Adrien she thinks she has is right here as Chat Noir. And yet Ladybug was the only one agonizing over this whole ordeal. 

"Don't do it!" I shouted, stopping her before she can take off her miraculous. Chat threw his baton, making the illusion of Adrien disappear. 

"There she is!" Ladybug pointed. We climbed up to the top of the tower after her as she blew her flute, making more illusions of herself. "Lucky Charm!" A chocolate ice lolly fell into her hands, she unwrapped it wincing at the brightness of the silver inner wrap. "I've got an idea to take down Volpina."  

"With a chocolate ice lolly?" 

"Trust me." Ladybug said, she nodded at Chat. 

"Cataclysm!"  He shouted, jumping up to touch some parts of the metal tower as Ladybug lifted the wrapper open for one of the Volpina to wince, enough time to trap her in the deteriorated metal pieces. 

"Trapped, like a fox." Ladybug taunted as I grabbed the pendant from Volpina. 

"The honors?" I held it out for her. 

"Thank you."  She took it and smashed it on the ground. "Your days are over, Akuma." I stepped back to watch Ladybug open the yoyo to do her thing with a grin. "Time to de-evilise!" She captured the Akuma. "Gotcha! Bye-bye, little butterfly." We watched the pure butterfly fly away. "Miraculous Ladybug!"  Everything turned back to how it was before. 

I gestured towards the recovered Lila, letting Ladybug take the hint as she nodded. 

"Lila?" She called out. 

"Ladybug?"  

"I totally overreacted." Ladybug kneeled, touching Lila's shoulder. "And never should have spoken to you like that, I'm sorry." 

"Forget it Ladybug, you were right. We'll never be friends."  Lila shoved her hand away and picked up the repaired pendant, leaving. 

"Ouch."  Chat frowned.

"There's one problem we still have to solve." Ladybug said. "Where's Adrien?"  

"Ehh, everything's been put back to normal, so he must be back at home!" Chat tried to explain. 

"I should check to make sure!"  

"Uh no!"  I stepped in. "You both are about to change back soon, I still have time. I'll check on him and let you know."  I offered. 

". . . Okay." Ladybug sighed as her earring gave a warning beep. "I trust you."  She swung off in a different direction as the two relaxed. 

"Let's get home before you change back."  I said, "Hate to have to carry you home."  

"I don't know, I might like that." 

"And smell like rotting cheese? Please."  I extended my baton to leap off the tower, heading home. 

"It's not me, it's Plagg!" 

*** {Third POV}*** 

"I'm not going to be returning this, am I?" Marinette sighed, the book opened on her lap as Tikki looked through it. 

"I'm really sorry, Marinette. But its information is invaluable."  Tikki apologized. 

"Information? But it's all written in code."  

"Someone's been looking for it for a long time. He knows how to decipher the codes." 

"So what exactly is so special about this book?"  

"It contains all the secrets of the Miraculous powers. Sacred, and extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. He needs it back." 

"I don't get it, Tikki. Tell me what's going on. Who is he?" 

"The Great Guardian. And I think the time has come for you to finally meet him."  

***

"Did you take my father's book, Plagg?" Adrien turned to Plagg who was enjoying the mountain of cheese on the coach. While Adrien on the other hand was dumping out his bag. 

"Of course not."  

"If he finds out it's missing, we'll have a lot worse than Hawkmoth to deal with."  

"I'm sure we'll find it,"  Y/n reassured, helping him look around. Mostly because they'd both be in trouble. They did break in together after all. She was about to keep searching before it hit her. "Wait, I think Lila threw it in the trash back at the park." 

"Really?" 

"Yeah."  

"How do you know for sure?"

"Miss girly was getting all jealous about your date and decided to spy on you from afar!" Alpha replied from the armchair as he gobbled down another brownie. 

"I was not spying! I was just. . . concerned."  

"Let's just hope it's still there."  Adrien groaned.

***

Marinette stood at a door nervously, holding the book tightly to her chest before opening the door to see an old man, wearing a red Hawaiian shirt, a man she recognized to be the one she helped all that time ago.

"Hello, Ladybug."   

A/n: 

and that concludes the first season of the show! This one took some time for me to bring out due to unforeseen circumstances. But I haven't given up on you all yet! You must have noticed I skipped episodes here and there. I plan to cut off parts that aren't important to the main plot of this book. 

Now that the main couple is together. They have new problems to face. I have been coming up with plans and such, and I'm excited to introduce Luka and build into the other superheroes that appear in the future seasons. 

What would be your favorite moment thus far and why? How do you all feel about Alpha? And what are something you look forward to in this book? I love hearing from you all. 

TAGLIST: (crossed out if the tag wasn't working, please let me know.)

@laic2299 , @oddobbessionbutotay

[soulmate-game]

Daughter of wonderwoman au where marinette finds out her mother is actually Diana and somehow it ends up with her meeting/being introduced to the batfam maybe because she has super strength and is seen yeeting some bad guys who tried to mug her... Or something.

“... you are running from your problems, Mari,” Adrien’s exasperated voice reminded his best friend. Again. She ignored him, and he threw his hands up in exasperation. “Look, you don’t have to do anything about it! Nobody would hold it against you if you decided to just, ignore that you found anything out at all. But you need to actually think about what we just found out and decide whether or not you’re gonna do anything—“ he side-stepped a piece of trash that went flying in his direction. “—or if you’re gonna move on and pretend nothing happened.”

“Isn’t that what I’m doing?” Marinette shot back, pushing her bangs out of her face and tying her hair back with one hand.

“No, you’re currently hiding away in Gotham to avoid your parents while you beat up every random group of idiots who thinks you’re an easy mark,” he retorted. Another wannabe kidnapper went flying in his direction, making him sigh and side step again. She had thrown that one with only her one free hand, showing just how upset she was. “You’re ignoring everything in your life, which is not what we meant we said you should get a little space.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Marinette dropkicked the last criminal into unconsciousness before stepping back and putting her hands on her hips. She looked over at the now seven passed out men in the alleyway, and the one very frustrated ex-model pinching the bride of his nose. “I think I’m coping just fine.”

“It’s better than being forced to suppress all of your emotions, sure,” Adrien reluctantly agreed. “But not by much. Your angry rampage through Gotham has already attracted more attention,” he raised his hand to point at a nearby rooftop. Several shadows lurked there, looming over the building’s edge. “Which, might I add, is exactly why I told you not to come to Gotham.”

“You’re the one who followed me here,” she shot back before turning to the shadowy figures above them. “Go ahead and come down! But it was self defense, and you can’t arrest or beat me up for defending myself!”

The first figure to drop down straightened your just as quickly, revealing the imposing figure of none other than Batman himself. The little white eyes on his cowl seemed to narrow on their own as he looked down at her.

“That might be true, but I’m sure you know my policy on metas in my city,” he grumbled back at her. He wasn’t necessarily threatening, but he definitely wasn’t welcoming either. With all of his limbs hidden behind the cocoon that was his cape, Marinette would never be able to predict his next move if he did decide to fight. Not that she seemed particularly worried about that as she crossed her arms over her chest and met his glare evenly.

“Oh, do you own this city now? I wasn’t given the memo,” she retorted. “And considering I didn’t even know I was a meta until last week? I think I deserve a little slack. I’m angry and if people think the tiny little girl in pink is an easy kidnapping target, then it’s their fault for making themselves into the perfect practice dummies for me to try out my newly discovered strength on.”

Adrien saw the eyes on Batman’s mask narrow even further. Marinette wasn’t exactly at her most charismatic at the moment, and Adrien didn’t wanna get the both of them into a bad relationship with the experienced superhero who always seemed to know things he shouldn’t know. So he stepped up quickly, getting in between Marinette and the Bat and holding his hands up in a placating gesture.

“Okay, Monsieur Batman,” Adrien started slowly, making sure his posture was impeccable and his smile bright. “She’s telling the truth, even if she’s not... the most tactful about it right now. She just found out some very concerning things about her origin and Gotham is the best place for her to hide from her problems and let loose a little pent up aggression. But— well,” he grimaced. “We didn’t intend to run into you guys, but maybe it’s a good thing we did.”

“How so?” Batman was clearly still incredibly suspicious of the both of them and wasn’t giving an inch. So Marinette rolled her eyes (she was still very moody) and leaned around Adrien so she could get a good look at the monochromatic hero.

“I thank my lucky spots that we ran into you, Batman!” She said monotonously. “Me and Adrien are paw-sitively excited at this opportunity.”

Batman. Froze.

Not only were those two lines the very first lines ever spoken to him by two foreign heroes a few years ago (with a few key words changed to protect identities), but they had become their code phrase for whenever they made calls to one another outside of their costumes. All at once it seemed to hit him— the golden hair and bright green eyes on the boy, the blue-black hair and normally super-focused bluebell eyes on the girl that were currently sporting very uncharacteristic frustration. Their heights. Their builds. All of this info flowed through his mind and compared to the information stored in his memory, and it only took the span of two seconds for everything to click.

Suddenly Batman was at full attention, back straight instead of looming over them and eyebrows clearly raised high under his cowl.

He knew Chat Noir and Ladybug would never take a random vacation to Gotham. Ladybug herself had nearly waxed poetic about how much the city depressed her just from the pictures she saw online. If she had willingly come to visit, it was more than to just blow off some steam.

“Batcave?” He asked, earning a relieved look from Adrien and a moody silence from Marinette.

“Please,” Adrien agreed. “You can probably help us, actually.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Marinette leaned back in the metal debriefing chair, legs up on the table and looking for all the world as the picture of pure teenage rebellion and angst. Coincidentally, Red Hood was in the exact same position in the chair next to her.

Batman and all of his other bats and birds were in the cave with the two off-duty Parisian heroes. Everyone except Adrien and Marinette still had their masks on, since the two Parisians were still not privy to their identities. Yet.

To be fair, the bats hadn’t known the identities of the two miraculous users either before today.

“Cha Noir,” Batman started, only to get a head shake from the blond boy.

“Just call me Adrien. Chat’s out of the bag—“ he ignored the groans at the pun and soldiered on, “—so might as well use my real name.”

Batman nodded. “Adrien, then,” he amended. “Why are you and Ladybug really in Gotham?”

Adrien sighed. “I wasn’t lying, before. Marinette,” he gestured to his hero partner. “Just found out some distressing family news. Since HawkMoth is gone, she doesn’t need to repress her negative emotions anymore. But she also didn’t want to be around her parents while she processed everything. I told her to choose any other city— really, I begged— but she insisted on coming to Gotham.”

“The never ending cloud cover and constant rain seem thematic,” she finally spoke up, reaching into her big over-the-shoulder bag and pulling out a large envelope. She threw it to Batman, making the thin package slice through the air like a knife. To nobody’s surprise the seasoned hero easily caught the projectile between two fingers. He looked at the envelope and back to Marinette, silent questions floating in the air between them. Marinette decided to answer at her own pace.

“That’s what we found out. You see, one of my friends is a huge science nerd. A genius. And he wanted to compare DNA samples between us to see if there were any genetic components that determined a person’s suitability towards certain Miraculous or other magical artifacts over others. It was supposed to just be a fun side project that he didn’t expect any breakthroughs on. He mostly just wanted to satisfy his own curiosity. But instead of finding out if our DNA was linked to the miraculous, he found out that my parents are not biologically my parents.”

“Hence the whole just finding out that you’re a meta thing, right?” Nightwing spoke up, fully invested in the story. “Did they never say you were adopted before?”

“It’s not in the system,” she replied easily. “My parents have all the documentation to prove that I’m their biological child, except I’m not. When I confronted them about it, they caved and admitted that they had adopted me in secret and covered it up. Apparently a friend of theirs was involved in something illegal, and,” she waved at the envelope that Batman was now opening. “The details of what we were able to dig up are in there. The summary is this; their friend was part of a secret, illegal experimentation to create clones that could defeat the Justice League—“ the air seemed to get sucked out of the room as soon as those words left Marinette’s mouth. Everyone seemed to know exactly what she was talking about. “—a group called CADMUS. They made me, as apparently one of their early attempts. But I didn’t exhibit any of the powers they were looking for, or any meta traits at all, and my body refused to mature at the rate they wanted. They had no use for a seemingly normal human baby that they managed to clone, so they were preparing to kill me and start over. That’s when my parent’s friend stole me, not wanting to kill an infant, and begged my parents to take me in and pretend I was theirs. Low and behold, it turns out that my DNA just needed a very specific series of emotions to unlock it’s latent abilities.”

“Those emotions being..?” Red hood trailed off, earning a wolfish smile from Marinette.

“Intense anger, betrayal, and confused frustration closely followed by the desire to punch other people’s faces in.”

“That last one is just an assumption,” Adrien chimed in. “And maybe not accurate. But the first three, our scientist friend was able to confirm. The rapid experience of a lot of negative but action-oriented emotions released whatever had been holding back the powers in her DNA from expressing themselves,” he had switched to French so that he could explain everything exactly as Max had told it to them, but he knew all of them were fluent anyway so it was fine. They nodded along, processing the information.

The crinkling of paper drew everyone’s attention back to Batman, who had been flipping through the detailed break down of everything they had found about Marinette’s situation and how she was made by CADMUS.

“Uh,” Red Robin nervously spoke up. “What’s up, Batman?”

“Your genetic donors...” Batman breathed, getting a wink and finger guns from Marinette.

“Yup. Isn’t that just the most fucked up thing you’ve ever seen? They were clearly trying to make someone who could destroy the world.”

“That makes me nervous,” Nightwing admitted, getting up and going to get a look at the papers himself. “It can’t be that ba—“

When even Nightwing was left agape, everyone else who wasn’t in on it found themselves squirming.

“Just tell the rest of us, already!” Robin demanded after the silence stretched just a bit too long.

“The unknowing genetic donors that CADMUS used to make me,” Marinette spoke up, still with her legs up on the table. “Are a very mad-scientist’s-wet-dream combination of Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, and Wonder Woman.”

“We don’t even know why they added Bruce Wayne’s DNA,” Adrien admitted. “Although our scientist friend thinks it’s because of physique. His hypothesis is that, in order to support the genes of Wonder Woman, they had to add male genetics that could support the production of a very high muscle mass and would lean towards easy development of a very athletic body. Lex might be evil-scientist smart, but he’s a string bean. But if he added the DNA of another multi millionaire who just so happens to maintain a ridiculously fit body without putting any obvious work into it,” Adrien shrugged. “Then maybe the clone would be able to support Wonder Woman’s genetics and that of two human donors without falling apart.”

“So I’m ‘the clone’ now, huh?” Marinette snarked, earning an exasperated eye roll from her friend.

Batman just stared at the both of them for a moment. He walked away without a word, and came back with a fresh needle and a box. He placed it on the debriefing table.

“Can I do a paternity test myself?” He asked, his voice suspiciously less gruff than normal. “I trust the both of you, but I rather be safe than sorry with something like this.”

The both of them just stared at him in confusion. They traded a glance, and finally Marinette shrugged and moved to sit in her chair properly. Her shirt was already short sleeved, so she just held her arm out so Batman could easily get a blood sample.

“Sure, why not. But do you just have Lex Luthor or Bruce Wayne’s DNA sitting around to compare, or—“ she shut up when she watched Batman take off his glove and roll his own sleeve up. Realization slowly sunk in as he asked Nightwing to take a blood sample from him.

“Holy shit,” she breathed, eyes wide. “You’re— and Luthor doesn’t know— holy shit this is even worse than I thought,” Marinette rambled, not even noticing as Red Hood moved forward and took a small blood sample from her.

Adrien put a hand over his face and just laughed for a moment hysterically. “Oh my god,” he looked over at Marinette. “You could take over the world.”

“I have the blood of Batman AND Wonder Woman on MY side,” Marinette joked back, also hysterical.

When the bat’s high tech equipment was able to come back with a positive result only a few minutes later, Marinette and Adrien had to sit on the floor and just let it all sink in. Which Batman did not at all help by immediately unmasking himself and trying to make a proper introduction.

“I wanna go beat up random thugs again,” Marinette whined, pulling at her hair. “I’ll put on a mask, whatever, but just please let me punch people. I need to punch people right now.”

[verymuchimmortalcat]

It's Not Impossible, It's Just Hard

Bio Dad Bruce Wayne Month Day 4: Father- Daughter Bonding and Day 29: Baking ao3 @maribat-bdbwm

Marinette was on a mission.

She was going to teach her dad how to bake. Yes, the rest of her family had told her she was attempting the impossible. But he couldn’t possibly be that bad. Plus, she had managed to teach three sheltered rich kids how to bake. Sure, her attempt to teach Jagged had failed miserably but three out four was pretty good.

It had taken her a month to convince Alfred to let her use the kitchen. He had in the end let her use the kitchen if she ensured everything stayed in one piece and nothing caught in fire.

Marinette genuinely didn’t think he’d mess up that badly. She’d picked a slightly lengthier recipe, but it allowed more room for mistakes. She’d been making it ever since her maman and papa would let her help in the bakery, and it tended to taste good even if she messed up slightly.

Bruce looks resigned as she drags him to the kitchen. Jason and Steph (one of the few people still allowed in the kitchen) are leaving the kitchen with bowls of popcorn and snacks when Marinette enters the room with Bruce. Marinette doesn’t put it beneath Tim to stream the footage from the security cameras for them to watch. The two of them wish Marinette luck, Steph saying, “the good luck your miraculous brings definitely won’t be enough.”

She hands her father an apron and knows her siblings are laughing as he struggles to put it on.

“How on earth do you manage to wear the bat suit every day?”

“That’s much easier.”

“It’s an apron,” she says disbelievingly. Maybe her siblings had a point, not that it was going to stop her.

Looking at him she asks him to get bowls, she doesn’t expect him to know where to find anything else. When she returns with all the ingredients and measuring cups and spoons (normally in the bakery they go by weight but Marinette learnt how to use cup measure so she could make a smaller batch whenever she felt like it), her father’s still looking around the kitchen for bowls. Sighing she grabs the bowls and sets them on the counter with the other things.

Handing him the measuring cups and oil, she says, “measure out half a cup of oil and then one-third of water and pour them in the same bowl. And yes, I’m aware they do not mix.”

Measuring liquids is easier than measuring solids, they require a steady hand but Marinette’s sure that won’t be a problem.

Thankfully he doesn’t mess that up, and she decides to trust him and hands him the vanilla extract. She watches as he carefully pours the required amount and then smells the extract and deciding it smells good tastes it. Marinette doesn’t stop him; she’s too busy wondering what Tim or Babs would accept as bribe to get her the footage of his reaction. His face is a strange mix of disgust and surprise, and Marinette doubles over in laughter.

When she looks up, he’s drinking water straight from the jug (Alfred would not be happy) and she starts laughing again. He looks annoyed when she finally finishes laughing.

“You didn’t stop me.”

“It’s a rite of passage B.” She’s not lying exactly, she’s done it, she’s watched Adrien, Chloé and Kagami do it, she’s just not sure if it’s universal.

He huffs, “what next?”

Handing him the dry ingredients and the measurements required she tells to put it in another bowl while she separates the eggs. Measuring things and mixing them are simple, separating eggs? Not so much. Her goal today has steadily decreased since they entered the kitchen, all she’s aiming for now is something edible.

She hears the sound of the blender starting and her father coughing. She doesn’t want to turn around, she knows very well what the sight she’s going to be met with is. She sighs, might as well get this over with.

Her father’s standing in shock, flour and cocoa powder on the counter and his face and hair. Marinette is torn between crying and laughing. She laughs, “B, did you think the blender would work like a whisk?”

He blinks at her, “no?”

“Ok. We can fix this,” she mutters.

Speaking more loudly, she says, “leave that aside. Take another bowl and measure everything again and this time use a whisk.”

Once she’s ensured he’s done everything as she’s said, she hands him the bowl with the yolks, and the sugar.

“Measure two thirds of a cup of sugar and then mix the sugar and the yolks, you can use the blender this time.”

Marinette releases the breath she’s been holding in when he doesn’t mess up. She smiles at him and he smiles back.

Handing him the oil and water mixture from earlier she tells him to mix it into the yolks and sugar. Once he’s done with that, he looks at her and asks, “what’s next?”

“Mix the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients.”

When he turns to look at her for the next step she says, “now we start on the hardest part of the cake and arguably the most important. The meringue mixture.”

She’s not sure how this is going to go. She could always just do it herself and call it a day but she’s here to teach him to bake and Marinette Cheng- Wayne does not give up.

“Aren’t those cookies?”

Marinette could cry with joy. “You know something!”

“I’m not that bad,” he grumbles.

She looks at him with an expression of clear disbelief.

He mutters something and then sighs and says, “cookies in cake?”

“So, you’re, surprisingly, not wrong. But the mixture itself is egg whites with cream of tartar or just an acidic thing and sugar. It’s also not the easiest thing to make. So, you have to listen to everything I say and follow it exactly.”

He nods, “So essentially it’s denaturation of the egg albumin?”

“Wrong person to ask B. But we can look into it later. Just follow my instructions for now.”

“Ok, first wash the whisk attachment of the blender. Run it under water and then wipe it dry. There cannot be a single drop of water on it.”

While he does that, she adds the cream of tartar to the egg whites herself. When he comes back, she stands right next to him as he blends the eggs. Once it forms soft peaks, she slowly adds in the remaining one third a cup of sugar until it reaches stiff peaks and tells him to stop immediately. She’s not messing up their mostly successful cake by something as simple as over mixing. Not that over mixing was a simple problem but given that everyone else is probably shocked they haven’t burned the house to the ground yet, it could definitely be classified as simple.

The next part Marinette doesn’t trust Bruce with, He made the meringue, yes. But she’s not sure if he will be able to not deflate the mixture. He stands awkwardly next to her as she expertly folds in the chocolate mixture into the egg whites.

“That doesn’t look like a large enough cake for everyone to eat,” he says as she pours it into the tin.

“It took me a month to convince Alfred to let us use the kitchen. You’re currently covered in flour and cocoa powder. Would you really like to make a larger cake?” she says grinning at him, already knowing his answer.

“No.”

She puts the cake in the preheated oven and turns to face him.

“Now-”

“We put the cake in the oven, how are we not done yet?”

“We’re going to make frosting, don’t worry it’s by far the easiest thing.”

“So, nothing can go wrong?”

“I never said that.”

Marinette tries not to laugh, apparently the easiest way to defeat Batman is to leave him in a kitchen.

She hands him a bar of chocolate and a knife, she doesn’t trust him to know where anything is kept, “Make sure you don’t cut your fingers.”

“I’m not a child.”

Marinette ignores him and hums as she makes the whipped cream.

Once she’s done, she looks over at what her dad’s doing. And for what feels like the hundredth time since the two of them started she bursts out laughing.

“What?” he asks sounding defensive, “I’ve cut the chocolate properly.”

He’s cut the chocolate into nearly equal tiny squares. Chocolate that’s just going to be melted so they can make ganache.

“We’re going to melt the chocolate, the way you cut it, frankly, doesn’t matter.”

“It’ll melt faster.”

“Doesn’t make this any less funny.”

“Hm.”

She grabs the cream and butter and dumps it into a saucepan and puts it on the stove.

“Can you keep an eye on this and switch the stove off when it starts bubbling. I’m going to check on the cake.”

Making sure the cake’s done Marinette takes it out and leaves it to cool and returns to check on her father before he messes up. The rest is smooth sailing, to the disappointment of her siblings.

Marinette grins in victory when they finish. Other than the occasional mishap nothing went wrong! The kitchen is one piece and the cake looks good and should taste amazing. She feels powerful enough to fight god and win.

When the cake is served along with dinner everyone has doubtful look son their face but they eat it anyways. She breaks into laughter at their shocked expressions. Tim is mumbling under his breath about how she probably remade the cake or that Bruce was actually secretly really good at cooking, which prompts Steph to smack him on the head and Cass informs him, “Your boyfriend is supposed to be the one with the conspiracy theories. Not you.”

Tim sticks his tongue out at her. Dick brings up one of Bernard’s weirder conspiracy theories and dinner derails into a conversation about weird conspiracy theories. Alfred looks unfazed as he watches them argue. Before he slips out he tells, “Thank you Miss Marinette for not destroying the kitchen.”

She grins, “Do you think I could get Alfred cookies for keeping the kitchen in one piece.”

She spots the flash of amusement in his eyes when he says, “Maybe if you fix your sleep schedule first.”

She groans as he exits with a chuckle. She may have taught Bruce Wayne to bake but fixing her sleep schedule? That was impossible.

[mochegato]

Even the Losers

Chapter 18

Chapter 1     Chapter 17

Mari waved up at Nightwing before turning toward the café.  He grinned and waved back.  No sense of embarrassment at getting caught like Red Robin had the day before.  She didn’t know enough about him to know if it was because he wasn’t hiding, Red Robin had given him a warning that she knew someone would be there, or because he had no sense of embarrassment, or most likely, a combination of all of those.

Adrien looked up and grinned too.  “What time did he take over?”

Marinette shrugged and cut through the café’s outdoor seating.  “Later than yesterday.  When did Dick leave?  It was some time after that.”

Adrien looked at him for a moment and shook his head. He looked back at Marinette before the memory of sleep deprived Marinette hit him.  He grimaced.  It was hit or miss whether she would be funny, emotional, or a danger to herself. If Batman was the same… “I really hope Batman doesn’t have a day job because with all the all-nighters he’s pulling, he would have to be a zombie at work.”

Marinette giggled at the idea.  “Can you imagine Batman with a day job?  What do you think he does?  Like, could you imagine him as a kindergarten teacher?”  Marinette’s giggles grew into full blown laughter. She finally was able to gasp out, “Batman complimenting some little kid’s rainbow and assuring them that making the entire rainbow the same color was extremely creative and beautiful.  Or trying to guess what animal they drew.”

Adrien laughed and patted her arm to get her to stop.  “Wait, wait. Batman crouching next to a toddler and explaining for the eighth time in the last three minutes that Pete the Cat is in fact a cat, not a dog before patting them on the head and walking away to scream into a nap mat.”

Marinette Laughed hard enough she almost missed the door handle.  She jumped when Adrien suddenly grabbed her arm.  She turned to him wide eyed but she immediately relaxed.  He was bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement.  “No, no, no.  A PA to some… NO, to M. Wayne!  Batman as M. Wayne’s PA.  Oh my God, can you imagine?”

Marinette giggled and shook her head at him, pushing through the door.  Well, that would certainly explain why the bats seemed so close to the Waynes.  She spotted Duke and waved.  He jumped up and waved them over.  “Hey, Duke.  I hope you don’t mind that I brought Adrien.”

“Not at all,” Duke gave them both a hug.  He looked toward the bathroom with a smile. “Good to see you again, man.  I hope you don’t mind that Cass and I both brought someones too.”  Cass and Stephanie were walking toward them with a red headed woman in a wheelchair. Duke leaned toward them and lowered his voice so the women approaching couldn’t hear him.  “Brought is a really liberal term for what happened.  I am so sorry.  I knew we shouldn’t have mentioned meeting with you in front of Stephanie.”

“Hey Cass,” Marinette called out.  She and Adrien waved at her.  “Good to see you again, Stephanie.”

Cass waved back and nodded with a wide smile. “Marinette!” Stephanie chirped. “I’d say what a coincidence we ran into you guys here…”

“But that would be a lie,” Barbara finished for her. “Hi,” she held out her hand for them, “I’m Barbara.”

Marinette smiled and stepped forward to shake her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.  I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Well yeah we crashed,” Stephanie rolled her eyes and dropped into a seat across from Marinette.  She sent a playful glare toward Duke.  “You guys have been keeping her all to yourselves all week.  It’s our turn to hang out with her again.  Not to mention I wanted to catch up with the woman who fed the Riddler’s own balls to him for everyone to see.”

“And we wanted to see how you’re doing after it,” Barbara added with a chastising look to Stephanie.  She turned to side eye Duke.  “We tried to check with the boys but they were less than helpful.”

Marinette shrugged and leaned back slightly, not enough for anyone else in the café to notice but everyone else at the table picked up on it.  “I’m fine. It wasn’t bad.  More embarrassed he caught me in the first place.”

Stephanie waved her off.  “Please,” she scoffed.  “He had to knock out like an entire block just to get you.  That’s better than some of the bats.”

“Well, you look like you’re healing well,” Barbara nodded with a supportive smile.

Marinette smiled as naturally as she could and tried to control how much she was shifting in her seat.  She really, really hated talking about the whole thing with not only people who didn’t know she had been a superhero, but with the Waynes after that dinner, so that was two strikes against discussing this right now.

She’d been able to joke about it and moan about how contrived the whole setup with Alya and Nino.  They’d laughed all night about the audacity.  Not only had he thought he could stump her with a question about Chat Noir, he thought he would win against her in a game that relied on luck or rather bad luck not striking.  It was almost enough to make her forget the way the dinner had ended.  It was exactly what she had needed.  But she couldn’t do that here.

“Yeah,” she chuckled anxiously.  “My cheek seems to be doing well.  I’m hoping I can cover it with makeup by next week.”

“How’s your shoulder?” Duke asked motioning toward the shoulder she’d rammed into the doorframe when she was running away.

Marinette blinked at him a few times before she quirked her head to the side, her face scrunching in confusion.  “How did you know about that?”

She could see the rest of the table tense up, Adrien included but for the same reason as her, confusion on how he’d known. She had no idea why the rest were tensing up.  Duke chuckled awkwardly, sending looks over to the women at the table.  “He’s covering for me,” Barbara finally spoke up.

“Why is… what is he covering up for?” Marinette asked cautiously.

“My father is the police commissioner,” she said quietly.  “I may have snuck a look at the police report… slightly illegally… and read about your injuries.”

Marinette shook her head.  “But, I didn’t tell them about that.”

“No,” Barbara acknowledged, “but Signal did.”

Marinette nodded, trying to process that information. “Huh,” was all she managed to eke out. Her mind raced trying to figure out what to say next.  She was saved from trying to figure out how to move the conversation along by the waiter. The topic seemed to fade away naturally as everyone put in their order.

As soon as the waiter left, Duke clapped his hands with a bright smile.  “So, Steph, you said again.  I take it you guys have met before?”

“At the gala,” Adrien nodded.  “Only briefly though.  We,” he motioned between him and Stephanie, “spoke for a little bit, but Marinette only spoke with her for a few seconds.”

Stephanie grimaced at the reminder.  “Yeah… not exactly the ideal meeting.”

Marinette waved her off.  “Not your fault.  Don’t worry about it.”  She sent her a sincere smile.

“No,” Stephanie agreed.  “It’s Bruce’s.”

Cass pulled out a credit card with a wicked grin. “On Bruce.”

Barbara nodded.  “Exactly.  Therefore, this lunch is on Bruce.  Maybe we should go shopping after this too?”  She raised an eyebrow at Marinette.

Marinette giggled and shook her head.  “No, thank you.  That’s okay.  I’m good.”

Stephanie’s eyes lit up.  She leaned closer to Marinette like she was sharing a secret. “Speaking of the gala, how did you get tickets to the gala anyway?  We never figured it out.”  Barbara groaned lightly and smacked her on the shoulder.  They had just changed the subject.  Marinette probably did not want to talk about the gala, where they raved about their family and the newest member, which was not her and did not did not include her.

Instead of freezing up or withdrawing, like Barbara worried she would, Marinette started laughing.  Her eyes were sparkling with mirth.  She leaned closer to them over the table and lowered her voice. “I pimped out my friend,” she confided with a smirk.

The rest of the table froze until Adrien groaned and Stephanie and Duke started laughing loud enough to draw disapproving looks from neighboring tables.  Cass raised an eyebrow, but her lips were quirked up in amusement.  “Say that again,” Barbara prompted.

Marinette shrugged and took a sip of her drink.  “I don’t know if it counts as pimping if he did it willingly.  He was willing to do it for Max.”

“Oh my God, Marinette.”  Adrien ran his hand over his face in exasperation.

“What exactly was he willing to do?” Barbara’s voice was now less amused and more wary.

“That was the worst possible way to say it,” Adrien groaned.

“You know, maybe I don’t want to know the answer to that…” Barbara hedged.  She leaned away from Marinette cautiously.

Marinette laughed at Adrien’s frustration and bumped his shoulder with hers.  “I offered up a date with Luka Coffaine to Audrey Bourgeois’ PA in exchange for the tickets she turned down,” she explained.

There was absolute silence for a few seconds until Stephanie broke the silence.  “You know Luka Coffaine?” she yelled.  

Everyone in the café turned slowly to look at them. Marinette’s eyes widened and looked around at them.  She gave them an awkward smile and a wave before turning back to the table.  Before she could chastise Stephanie, Cass was already on top of it.  She pointed sternly around the restaurant and back at Stephanie.  Stephanie nodded guiltily.  “Yeah, yeah.  Sorry.” She turned back to Marinette excitedly. “I just…” she lowered her voice and leaned closer to Marinette.  “You know Luka Coffaine?”

Marinette rolled her eyes at her excitement.  It was always so bizarre to see people’s reaction to Luka.  It was Luka. Just Luka.  Calm, reserved, laidback Luka.  The hysteria around his name just never seemed to fit.  “Yeah, I mean, we dated for a while so… yeah.”

“You dated Luka Coffaine!” Stephanie yelled again, receiving glares from everyone at the table.  Marinette shrunk down in her chair and gave a strained, apologetic smile to the rest of the café.  Cass slapped Stephanie’s shoulder and shook her head.  Stephanie waved her off and focused back on Marinette.  “Yeah, yeah.  Discretion.  Whatever. She dated Luka freaking Coffaine,” Stephanie insisted, motioning to Marinette.

“You dated Tim Drake,” Duke pointed out.

Stephanie snorted.  “That’s just Tim.  He’s just a big dork.  She dated…”

“Yeah we got it,” Barbara cut her off.

“Really, so is Luka,” Adrien shrugged.  “Probably more so, just about music.”  Marinette cocked her head to the side in thought for a few seconds before nodding in agreement.  He really was.

“Holy shit.  Did he introduce you to his dad?”  Stephanie was bouncing in her seat at the idea and the potential for an inside scoop on Jagged Stone.

“No,” Marinette answered.  She smiled internally at the way all their faces, except for Adrien’s fell, just a bit, almost imperceptibly, as if trying to hide their disappointment.  “I already knew him.”

“You know Jagged Stone?” Stephanie yelled. Marinette cringed as she sent the other patrons another apologetic smile.

Duke leaned over closer to her so he could whisper in her ear, though his voice intentionally carried across the table. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this anymore.”

“No!” Stephanie screeched, before catching what she did and settling down, a mask of composure settling on her face.  “I’m fine now.  I just needed to get that out.  I’m calm.” She stared at them for a few seconds before almost lunging across the table.  Adrien deftly moved his and Marinette’s drinks before she knocked them over in her zeal.  “Please tell me more.”

Marinette’s eyes widened and she started laughing.  “You realize you’re basically a daughter to the richest man in the world.  If you wanted to meet Jagged Stone, you could.”

Cass shook her head.  “Different.”

Barbara nodded.  “She’s right it is different.  You dated his son.  That’s a different type of knowing someone.”

“So you met Luka through Jagged?” Stephanie pressed.

Marinette suddenly looked uncomfortable.  She was not really excited to talk about their family dynamic and secrets.  It was a little too close to her own and she really, really wanted to move past that, not dwell on it more.  “No… I met Luka through my friend Juleka, his sister.  We went to school together for ages.  They’re both some of my best friends.”

“And she introduced you to Jagged?” Duke asked curiously.  He could tell something was off about this based on the way Marinette responded, but he wasn’t sure what.

“No… um…” she stuttered.  “I met Jagged through a school project.  Designed some sunglasses for him and we’ve been close ever since.”  Adrien grabbed her hand and squeezed it under the table

Stephanie looked between the two of them and plastered on a bright smile.  “So what I’m hearing is you can hook us up with some tickets next time he comes into town.”

Marinette laughed lightly.  “Either one of us could, yes.”

“Or for Clara Nightengale,” Adrien added in. “She loves Marinette, too.  She wanted her in one of her videos.”

“She wanted you in it too,” Marinette reminded him.

“No,” he corrected her, “Gabriel got me into it. She just had to deal with it.  She didn’t choose me.  She chose you.  She worked to get you in the video.”

Marinette opened her mouth to refute that but snapped it shut quickly as the words resonated in her head.  She meant more because Clara chose her.  He was thrust on Clara.  But it didn’t mean he was unwanted.  She looked down at her food and took a bite, trying to cover her sudden inability to breathe.  Trying to give herself time to process.  She needed to pack that away for later when she could properly unpack that statement, deconstruct it, and then finally reconstruct it in some skewed, perverted version of the original situation.

Adrien immediately froze seeing her reaction. He opened his mouth to say something but Marinette squeezed his hand under the table before he could, a silent message they could talk about it later, when they were alone, or at least not with an audience comprised of Waynes.

“So how did you meet Mons…” she stuttered.  It felt strange to call him M. Wayne when everyone else at the table was calling him Bruce.  Should she call him Bruce too?  Like they did.  Like Dick did?  Or B, like Jason did?  “…M. Wayne?” she finally settled on.

Duke grimaced.  They had a cover story, but was he really going to give Bruce’s daughter the cover story?  The truth involved Batman.  But Bruce hadn’t told her about that part of their lives yet, and even if he had told her, he certainly hadn’t told Adrien.  “It’s a long story…”

Marinette smiled encouragingly at him.  “We have time.” She saw him falter and felt her own smile falter.  She took note of the way the women had frozen up as well.  God, what was she doing?  M. Wayne had said how they met.  Why was she bringing that up now?  What was she thinking?  Even if he was okay discussing that trauma, he probably didn’t want to open up about it with a stranger.  

“You don’t have to tell me,” she assured him.  “It’s… it’s fine.”  She looked around desperately for something else to talk about, a change of topic to make the conversation not so awkward.  “You graduate from school next year, right?”  Duke blinked a few times before he let out a breath and nodded.  She let out a breath as well when the rest of the table seemed to relax at her question.  “Do you have plans for after you graduate?  Are you going to take a gap year or go to university or get a job?”

“I haven’t really decided yet.  Go to Gotham University, I guess,” he shrugged.

Marinette smiled disarmingly at him.  “You don’t have to decide now.  You have time.”

The waiter interrupted Marinette’s response with their food.  They gave their thanks and started eating.  “So what have you missed the most while you’ve been here?” Barbara asked.

“My parents’ cooking definitely,” Marinette grinned as she looked at her food. It didn’t look bad, but compared to her parents’ cooking… well not much compared.  “And the atmosphere.  Gotham is…” she looked around them as she thought of an unoffensive way to end that sentence.

“Dreary as Hell,” Stephanie finished for her.  “Yeah, we know.”

“I swear you guys have more gargoyles than we do though, which is just strange to me,” Adrien added.  “We were supposed to have the market cornered on gothic architecture.”

“Oh, you still do.  We just took the most depressing, dismal, gloomy, nightmare inducing parts and ran with it,” Duke grinned.  “But I would like to see Paris sometime.  Go see the Eiffel Tower… and jump off it.”

Barbara, Stephanie, and Cass all groaned at him.  Barbara gave him a stern look and pointed a warning finger in his face. “Not during the day.”

Duke laughed at her.  “Well I’m not going to do it at night.”

“Do it at sunrise,” Marinette advised.  “Less gendarmerie around then and if you angle it correctly, you get the most gorgeous view of the sunrise.”

“Bring sunglasses if you jump that way though.  I didn’t and I saw spots for hours.  Oh, and stretch first too,” Adrien added.  “You’re going to have to parkour for quite a while to try to ditch the GN.”

The rest of the table stared at them, jaws dropped in shock.  There was absolute silence at the table except for the sounds of Marinette sipping her drink and Adrien chewing his food. “You’ve…” Duke started almost too in awe to be able to finish the sentence.  “You’ve jumped off the Eiffel Tower?”

Marinette nodded and motioned between the two of them.  “Both of us have.  Both during an akuma attack and not.  Not was much preferable to during.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” Stephanie asked slowly.  She was like 90% positive it was but during akuma attacks, who knew what was legal anymore and Hell, maybe they had days where they gave exceptions. Stranger things have happened.

Marinette speared a bit of food and pointed it at her.  “Only if you get caught.”  She popped the food in her mouth with a triumphant grin.

Barbara blinked at her a few times and shook her head because dear God, there was another one.  She was going to fit right in.  No wonder she and Duke got along so well.  Both creative, smart, kind, thrill seeking, dumbasses.  “I’m pretty sure that’s not how that works,” she deadpanned.

Adrien shrugged and took a sip of his drink.  “I don’t know.  We didn’t get arrested, so I’m pretty sure it is.”

Duke and Stephanie started laughing hysterically.  They looked over at Cass with raised eyebrows when they settled down. Cass stared intently at Marinette and Adrien for a few seconds, staring into them like she was reading their souls. Marinette and Adrien looked at each other with identical unsure looks and subconsciously leaned back at the same time, shuffling in their seats.  Cass stared at them for just a few more seconds before she nodded.

“Holy shit,” Duke muttered in awe.  “You were telling the truth.”

Marinette looked back over at Adrien for an explanation he clearly didn’t have, judging by the blank look on his face before looking back at Duke.  “Uh… yeah?”

“What just happened?” Adrien asked tentatively.

“Sorry about that,” Barbara sent them a disarming smile.  “Cass is kind of like a human lie detector.  She is exceptionally good at telling if someone is lying.  She just confirmed that you two were not.”

Marinette blinked at Barbara a few times before turning to Cass and blinking at her.  “Huh… good to know,” she nodded slowly.  Her eyes stayed on Cass but it was clear her mind was running a mile a minute behind them.  After a few seconds she spoke up again.  “Can you tell the lies people tell themselves too?”

Cass quirked her head to the side and studied Marinette for a moment and shook her head.  “Have to know.”

Marinette nodded and silently took a bite of her food. “Well, that has to come in handy,” Adrien chirped.  “Remind me to take you with me when I meet people.”

Marinette could feel eyes boring into her.  She looked back over at Cass and raised a curious eyebrow at her.  “Hero,” she finally said.

Marinette coughed for a second and looked back at her with her most convincing blank look.  “I’m sorry.  What?”

Cass nodded toward Marinette.  “Eiffel Tower.”

Marinette chuckled disarmingly and shook her head. “You think I’m a lot more honorable than I am.  You think it’s more likely that I was a hero than that I knowingly, intentionally, purposefully violated the law for fun.”  She leaned closer to Cass with a smirk.  “But I can assure you, I regularly did.”

The others at the table looked to Cass.  She quirked her head to the side and gave a small smile before nodding.  “Truth.”  Cass pointed to herself.  “Next time.”

Marinette grinned and nodded excitedly. “Absolutely.”

Duke cleared his throat.  “And Duke,” Cass added.

Marinette chuckled.  “Of course.  We can make a New Kids Club event out of it.”

“And me!” Stephanie chirped.

Barbara sighed and turned to Adrien.  “Dick said you had a job interview yesterday.  How did it go?”

Marinette beamed at Adrien as he responded. Adrien’s face lit up.  “It went well I think.  I think I’d really enjoy working there!  I met the department chair and other professors.  It looks like a really supportive department and University, very research oriented.”

“Where is it?” Duke asked between bites.

“Metropolis,” Adrien answered, his fondness he’d already developed for the city bleeding into his tone.

“Oooh, Conner lives there.  If you’re still deciding if you want to live there or if you need a tour guide, or recommendations on where to eat, he’d be more than happy to help,” Stephanie offered.

Marinette’s smile turned into a pointed smirk and Adrien groaned quietly.  “Conner, did you say?”

Stephanie looked between them, her brow furrowing in confusion.  “Yeah?”

“That wouldn’t happen to be Tim’s single friend would it?”  Her eyes never left Adrien as she asked, her smirk somehow getting even sharper.

Adrien groaned even louder when he looked over and saw Cass’ smile matched Marinette’s and Duke and Stephanie both had devious, familiar looking glints in their eyes.  This was clearly payback for all his attempts to set Marinette and Chloe up with different people.  “Why yes, yes it is.  How about that,” Duke grinned.

Cass pulled out her phone and moved her finger around the screen for a second then finally looked up with an innocent looking smile.  Adrien groaned and dropped his head into his hands.  “I’m not even in this family.  Why am I being punished?”

Barbara laughed and popped a bit of food in her mouth. “That’s funny.  You think just because there’s no paperwork, you haven’t been adopted already.  I made that mistake at first too.”

Chapter 19

Tags:

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[miraculouscontent]

I know that you said that it was an one shot, but I really love the idea of marinette stay in Paris with Luka and kagami and avoid all the NY drama! If you can, can you share more of it? Even if just a few little ideas it would be great! (I love your ideas!)

(the one-shot this anon is referring to)

Aw, thank you so much!

And sure, after some thought, I did really want to write a little more with them!

—————

While throwing away their now juice-less cups, Marinette made the realization of how different things seemed with Luka and Kagami. She had already experienced hanging out with both of them separately, but she'd never imagined having both of them with her at once. It wasn't as if she'd always dismissed or despised the idea, but the only time they'd interacted as a group had been with Adrien around, which had probably soured the whole thing and thus involuntarily caused her to never think about it.

With her friends, everything was typically high-energy. Juleka and Mylene weren't very involved in creating such an atmosphere, but Marinette herself, Rose, Alya, and kept things energized. It wasn't a bad thing in general, but it made Marinette wonder if maybe surrounding herself with people who only encouraged her excitable habits wasn't a good thing.

Meanwhile, Luka and Kagami were completely different, both from her and her friends. Neither were particularly loud - though both could be when they wanted to - and they weren't really the kind to tease or mess with her either. Luka wasn't quiet in the way Juleka was, just seeming to absorb the world around him, whereas Kagami only spoke when she felt that there was something of value to say. Marinette had worried briefly that she might've been too different from the both of them, or that she'd overwhelm them due to speaking up the most, but instead, there was a sense of balance. Luka smiled or chuckled reassuringly whenever she caught herself rambling, whereas Kagami would cut in with her own views that were often direct but nevertheless good in their intentions. Perhaps her personality rubbed off on them in a way she couldn't fully understand?

Still, it was nice.

As the three were deciding what to do next, Marinette's phone suddenly went off. Marinette looked at her purse and pulled out her phone, half-expecting a text from one of her classmates about her missing the bus, but it was actually a notification about where Andre the ice cream man was.

Kagami glanced over after noticing the look on Marinette's face. "You want to get ice cream?"

Marinette frowned, Kagami's voice reminding her of the day the two of them had gone for ice cream with Adrien. She still remembered talking to Andre, hoping beyond hope that maybe the man wouldn't make them pick between the three different flavors. His words still stung a little, not because of Adrien, but because of what the words meant.

"Too many flavors mixed together may throw off the delicate balance."

It implied that one of them would always be the third wheel if they were together, no matter what, and it was a hollow feeling that she'd only recently started to accept.

"Marinette?"

Feeling a comforting hand on her shoulder, she looked over and noted Luka offering her a concerned expression. It grounded her, serving as a reminders that things were different now and that Adrien wasn't there which, in a strange way, brought her an immense sense of comfort.

"I'm fine," she assured. Turning her attention back to her phone, she deleted the notification and then made sure that she wouldn't be getting another one. "Ice cream sounds good, if you want it too, but... I think I've got a better idea than Andre's."

Luka and Kagami exchanged curious glances.

—————

"Here's to Neapolitan ice cream!" Marinette declared dramatically, raising her spoon up with flair before shoving it and the ice cream on it right into her mouth.

Luka snorted in amusement while Kagami gave an acknowledging nod, probably remembering the exact phrase from Andre that Marinette had recalled earlier.

They'd picked up the carton of ice cream on the way to Marinette's place, with Marinette insisting on paying in order to spoil them, and while they seemed confused on the specifics of her insistence, they gave in soon enough. Marinette could understand why she'd be the expected person to be comforted, but giving to others made her happy on its own and she felt they deserved it. After all, Luka had tried his hardest to catch up to the bus and Kagami was still dealing with Adrien wanting to leave for New York despite her being in Paris.

They'd ultimately decided on splitting the entire carton between the three of them, with each of them getting a majority of the one of the flavors and then the rest of that flavor going to the other two. Marinette had gone with chocolate, Kagami had gone with vanilla, and Luka had gone with strawberry. It might've seemed like a weird choice to go with since they'd just had orange juice, but it hadn't been much and it wasn't exactly a "treat."

Marinette may have considered suggesting ice skating instead if her first thought of it wasn't her slipping and bringing Luka and Kagami down to the ice with her. Ice cream was the safer alternative to "cold fun."

"Luka," she called thoughtfully, taking another bite before asking, "you're not feeling sore or anything, are you?"

He met her gaze, smiling at the concern but waving his hand dismissively. "I'm alright, Marinette. I'm used to biking around for hours because of my job, so it wasn't a big deal."

Kagami halted, spoon halfway in her mouth while her brows rose noticeably. She finished the scoop, then turned to look at Luka. "You have a job?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I deliver pizza." He grinned, clearly amused by her reaction. "Are you surprised?"

Kagami's expression didn't shift, but Marinette had known her long enough to see that she was embarrassed. "Oh, no. It's... I don't have one."

"There's nothing wrong with that." Luka shrugged. "I just have the time to do it."

"Mm." Kagami looked back at her ice cream, poking at the surface with her spoon. "I suppose it would be too difficult with my fencing lessons."

Marinette giggled sheepishly, happy to join in on the conversation. "I probably wouldn't be able to either. There's all my fashion work with my website, and then there's the unexpected babysitting, the bakery, and I'm also the class representative." She hurriedly added an, "I know it doesn't sound like much, but I'm bad at planning," when she felt that it seemed like such little things. She was Ladybug and the new guardian too, of course, but she couldn't be blurting that out, so she could only hope that it didn't seem like she was whining over nothing.

She averted her gaze, scooping up a self-conscious bite of her ice cream and shoving it into her mouth. She was partway through savoring it when she realized that neither Luka nor Kagami had responded to her. Daring a look back, she saw them staring at her with varying gazes.

Kagami seemed stunned, commenting, "That is... well, much, actually," referring to what Marinette had just tried to brush off.

Was it? Marinette had never really thought about it. In fact, she distinctly remembered back in the day where people might've thought she was just scatterbrained and didn't really do anything. Back when she was hesitant to be class representative and claimed that she was busy, Alya had asked her with a hint of snark what she was busy with, like she expected her to have a free schedule.

Even beyond her role of Ladybug at the time, she still had random babysitting to do and still frequently worked on her fashion projects. Thinking back, it stung just a little.

As Marinette glanced at Luka, she at first felt that the amount of sympathy he was directing at her was excessive, but then she remembered how she had cried in front of him to the point where he'd dropped his bike and guitar in order to comfort her. She blushed, both in shame and from the memory of him holding her so closely.

"Ah—well—it's okay!" she said hurriedly, "Anyway, forget about me! This day is about... um, this ice cream, and ice cream doesn't have problems that you should worry about!"

She nearly gave herself brainfreeze from how quickly she scooped up and ate the next bite, but figured it'd be worth it if they dropped the subject.

It wasn't worth it.

"You should be more careful," Kagami commented critically, an edge to her voice that Marinette knew wasn't meant to be anger at her. "You're my friend, so don't overwork yourself."

Marinette grinned nervously, still trying to lighten the mood. "A-are you saying it'd be alright to overwork myself if I wasn't your friend?"

Kagami's gaze didn't waver, and Marinette slowly tried to sink into her seat.

Luka set his spoon down on the bowl, then chimed in, "I don't know anything about fashion, Marinette, but if you ever need any help with anything—"

Kagami clicked her own spoon against her bowl to interrupt him, as if she felt personally slighted that he'd gotten to say it first. "We're here for you."

Luka nodded to confirm.

"Oh." Marinette blushed deeper, touched by the gesture from both of them. She thought about trying to reassure them again, but their gazes were firm and showed no room for argument, so she settled for a soft, "Thanks."

They resumed eating their ice cream from there, the topic officially concluded. Though the atmosphere felt noticeably different, Marinette was surprised to realize that it wasn't exactly in a bad way. She feared that she'd ruined the mood, but instead felt like she was supported, with Kagami and Luka looking satisfied with their choice in offering help to her.

It was like she was Ladybug, and they were the partners standing at her side, each with their own form of support. It made her smile, allowing her to happily eat away at her ice cream without thinking about anything stressful.

The idea of going to New York was suddenly very unappetizing in comparison to having ice cream with Luka and Kagami.

—————

All things considered, Ladybug wasn't concerned about telling Chat Noir that her plans had changed and she wasn't going anywhere after all. She imagined that Chat would be overjoyed and wouldn't even ask questions about it, just happy to have her back. She found his affection eyeroll-worthy, but he was still her teammate, so she just steeled herself up for whatever ramble he was about to give her.

However, as she waited near the top of the Eiffel Tower, sitting on the guardrail and looking around for Chat Noir, she realized that she couldn't even see him. Checking the time on her yoyo, she confirmed that it was indeed time for their usual patrol, but Chat Noir was completely absent. Even though it was nighttime, which made the black cat's suit blend in with the sky, he still had the blond hair and light skin that should've made him noticeable.

Ladybug got up and paced around the area a few times, constantly peeking down at the city as she wondered if maybe she just wasn't looking in the right spot. When she still saw nothing, she concluded that Chat Noir must just be running late and she'd simply have to wait a little longer. Things happened, after all, she knew that better than anyone, so she began idling on her yoyo, searching for something to keep her occupied while she waited.

They were a team. While their identities had to remain a secret, Chat Noir had always hated it and prioritized openness in their relationship, so he would've told her if something had come up. He was also active in going on patrols, always seeming eager to join her for their runs across the rooftops, and given that he didn't even know that she'd still be in Paris, patrols were even more crucial.

He never showed up.

[princessjaqulinechess1031]

The Suit

Description: Marinette makes Damian a suit.

Characters: Damian Wayne, Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Inspired by a request by @mickylikesstuff . It’s a little different than what you originally sent, but I hope you like it!

Marinette leaned back against Damian’s chest; her knees pulled up as a balancing board for her sketchbook. Damian was sitting peacefully, watching her design with his chin buried in the top of her hair. Marinette sent a quick line down the silhouette body to mimic the lines of a part of suit pants, and Damian hummed.

“Who are you designing a suit for?” Damian asked. “Adrien?”

“No, ma moitié.” She turned her neck to smile up at him, pencil still brought to the paper. “For you.”

“For me?” he asked incredulously. “I don’t need a suit.”

Marinette rolled her eyes and turned back to her drawing. Damian Wayne, though she loved him, had no fashion sense. Black turtlenecks and jeans could only go so far. They had their time and place, but every day? That was just too much.

“Trust me, you do.”

Damian curled his arms around her shoulders in a loose embrace and rested his head back on the top of hers.

“Pennyworth already made sure I have a substantial amount,” Damian said easily. Marinette shook her head and kept sketching.

“I know Monsieur Pennyworth already did,” Marinette said. “But wouldn’t you rather have one from your girlfriend? Who just so happens to be a world-renowned fashion designer?”

Marinette had been the chief designer for the Agreste label for nearly two years now. Adrien had been rather helpless in that regard and quickly left the responsibilities of that to her while he handled the more financial aspects of the business his father left to him. Sales had gone up by 300% in those two years, and people were always begging her on her Instagram for more information on upcoming lines.

Damian grumbled under his breath. “I guess.”

That was about as enthusiastic about this that Marinette was going to get out of her loving boyfriend, so she decided to take the win.

“But Marinette, do you really have time to add another suit?” Damian asked. “Don’t you have the Summer Line to finish first?”

“I am an expert multi-tasker,” Marinette said. “Besides, it’s one suit. It won’t be that much trouble.”

*******

“Ow! That hurt!”

Marinette rolled her eyes at her boyfriend’s proclamation and kept sewing the leg of the pant. Damian stood in the center of the model stand, halfway between pouting and bored.

“It was a little poke of a needle,” Marinette said, not looking up to face him. “I’ve seen you be handed worse by much worse.”

Damian grumbled under his breath. “It’s more of the principle of the thing.”

Marinette smiled to herself but let her boyfriend’s point go. Damian had the fashion sense of an old man (black turtlenecks? Really?), and so when Marinette roped him into at least letting her make him a fashionable suit, he was none too enthusiastic. But Damian also wanted to be a supportive boyfriend, so he at least let her do it even if he complained the whole way through.

“Oh hush, ma moitié,” Marinette said. “You’re going to look fantastic.”

“A little cocky in your abilities, are we?”

Marinette raised a brow and reached the bottom hem of the pants.

“I am a professional designer,” Marinette said. “Of course, it will be fantastic. And is ‘Mr. I am the best Robin’ just get on me about being cocky?”

Damian colored crimson and turned away, caught in his own hypocrisy. Marinette laughed and finished the hem on the left side of the pants.

“You said this wouldn’t take that long,” Damian said.

“I also said that I was a normal Parisian girl for years,” Marinette countered. “I lied. Now stop, you’re not getting out of this.”

Damian groaned and threw his head back to the sky. “Why, oh, why?”

Marinette stood up and smiled at him, placing a soft kiss on his nose.

“Because you love me,” Marinette said. “Now, I just have to finish this one pant leg and then you can see how you look!” She dropped down to finish the hem of the right leg. “You’re going to love it.”

Marinette knew Damian wouldn’t do this for just anyone. Maybe Dick could convince him to stay still for a couple minutes, but only Marinette could keep him in one spot for hours. Damian was as stubborn and restless as they came, convincing him to do anything he didn’t want to do would take an act of congress.

Or a smile from Marinette.

“And finished!” Marinette said, putting the needle in the holder on her wrist. She pulled her bun out of it’s hold, and her hair cascaded down her shoulders. Damian stepped off of the model stand and reluctantly went to the mirror, where he stared at himself in surprise.

It was a soft gray suit with clean lines and a matching soft blue tie. The buttons were a dark navy blue that accented his green eyes. On the lapels were the outlines of three birds in flight, with a fourth one looking up from the opposite lapel, watching them while spreading his own wings to take off. It was a bit ostentatious, but Marinette felt that it worked with the soft gray given that all were outlined and colored in with black.

Marinette stepped up beside him, looking at him unsurely.

“Do you like it?” Marinette asked. Damian blinked and looked down at her, his shocked expression slowly working its way out into a smile.

“I love it,” Damian said softly. Marinette grinned up at him.

“I’m glad you do,” Marinette said. Marinette was happy that he did. Damian liked so few things, she was glad he liked something she had made for him.

“I love the bird details,” Damian said, and Marinette smiled to herself. The birds had been what she thought tipped it into something he liked or didn’t like. She just thought with him being Robin, it would be a nice touch referencing birds and flight. It was a simple design, but it helped make the suit stand out against others.

“Thank you,” Marinette said. “I had plans to include it on a shirt for you as well.” Marinette looked up at him with pleading eyes. “If you want the shirt.”

Damian smiled. “I’d love the shirt. And anything else.”

[nobodyfamousposts]

New York Special Salt: Confrontation

So....kind of had a thought on whether certain parties would respond poorly to discovering the stunt Alya and Nino pulled.

Salt to follow. Don’t like salt or characters being called out, don’t read below the cut:

"Wait. Wait. Wait." Adrien held up a hand to get their attention while cradling his head with the other. He couldn't believe this. He didn't want to believe this.

But he couldn't ignore it, he realized, as he lowered his hand and gave Alya and Nino a glare.

"Did you seriously lock us in a room with a fake supervillain just to see us make out?”

Nino floundered. Alya, however, went on the defensive.

"We were just giving you two a little alone time."

Neither Adrien nor Marinette looked happy with that response.

"I'm seeing someone!" Adrien exclaimed.

"I'm trying to move on from him!" Marinette cried.

Adrien balked at that. "Wait, you like me?"

"You're seeing someone!" Marinette repeated. "I couldn't just get in the way of that! I like you and Kagami is my friend!"

"At least someone cared about that." Adrien said, shooting Alya and Nino a dirty look.

“Nino, what the hell? You know I’m dating Kagami.”

The DJ winced. “I know. I just thought…well, you and Marinette have a lot in common.” He rubbed the back of his head. “And it’d be easier to double-date if it was the four of us and—”

Adrien glared, looking startlingly similar to his father.

“Alya made me do it!” Nino exclaimed, pointing to his girlfriend.

Alya turned on him in outrage. “Nino!”

This only made him turn on her, a full rant on his lips.

“Adrien!” Marinette started, moving in front of him and getting his attention. “It’s my fault! I like you and they knew that and they were just trying to help me—”

She was cut off at the abrupt way he turned to her and his intense stare.

“A…Adrien?”

“Marinette.” He stated, taking her hands in his own and smiling so sincerely at her.

“You are the kindest, most warm-hearted and honest person I know. It's what I've always admired about you. You apologize and try to make up for even the slightest of mistakes. You take full blame for things that aren’t completely your fault. You constantly help and defend people in need. You easily forgive others when they wrong you and try to help them regardless.” 

In an instant, the warm sincere smile was gone. “I am asking you, for once: Don’t.”

“But—but it’s my fault—”

“Did you ask them to do this? Was this a plan you were in any way part of?” He questioned her.

“Well, to be fair I have made some pretty convoluted plans in the past—”

“Marinette.”

Her name was sharp on his tongue. Brokering no argument. Demanding a simple answer.

She winced.

“No.” She mumbled, a mix of bitterly for the truth and guiltily for the lack of defense for her friends.

“Then for once, let me stand up for you.”

…well.

…What could she say to that?

She allowed Adrien to gently push her behind him as he squared off with Alya and Nino.

“You lured us into a room with no idea what was going on. You trapped us there and had us think we were in danger. You created a villain that made us believe no one loves us—which even with the fact that we weren’t ‘technically’ in danger, was a rather cruel thing to do.” He spat out, sounding especially hurt.

All three of those present winced.

“What part of any of this seemed like a good idea?” He demanded.

“We were just trying to give her a chance—”

“Did you even ask her? Or me? At what point did either of us tell you that being forced into an anxiety-inducing and potentially life-threatening situation was on our to-do list for this trip?”

“But it wasn’t life-threatening! Neither of you were hurt!” Alya pointed out.

Like that excused it. Like that made this any better.

“You didn’t know we wouldn’t be, Alya! We didn’t know what was going on! We could have hurt ourselves trying to escape!” He countered, practically seething at this point. “What were you thinking?!”

Alya narrowed her eyes and steeled her resolve.

“Marinette was going to give up on you before either of you had a chance to see if it would work! I had to help!”

The pigtailed girl covered her face with her hands. “I was trying to move on, I promise!”

“And you couldn’t try talking?!” He shouted back at Alya. “You couldn’t just TELL ME?!”

“Chill out, man. Marinette tried.” Nino spoke up, trying to defend.

“I didn’t mean for this—” Marinette cried. “I just wanted a good trip as friends!”

Alya rolled her eyes. “Marinette tried many times, but she always flaked out at the end, so I just tried to set up a stage she couldn’t run from at the last minute—”

“Then why didn’t YOU just tell me yourselves if it was that damned important?”

Suddenly, everything went quiet. Marinette looked up, tearful.

Nino backed up, warily.

Alya…actually looked a bit pale.

Adrien was shaking at this point, but forcing himself to remain steady.

“You both knew Marinette liked me. Fine. Sure. Apparently she was having trouble telling me this. That’s okay. You knew she felt this way and was having trouble telling me. I get that.”

He glared.

“What I don’t get is why it was necessary to go THIS far instead of just TELLING me what was going on yourselves?!”

“Marinette didn’t want to—”

“But she wanted to be stuck with me on a plane to the point of a panic attack? She wanted to be shoved in a room with me? She wanted to feel threatened with a supervillain attack on top of the anxiety of being pushed to confess to me? If she couldn’t tell me and you two weren’t going to tell me, then WHY BOTHER WITH THIS AT ALL?! What was all of THIS supposed to accomplish that simply telling me yourselves wouldn’t?”

“We…” Alya hesitated. “I was just trying to help.”

“If you wanted to help, you would LISTEN to your best friend when she tells you what she wants!” Adrien shouted, gesturing to Marinette. “She just said she wanted to move on! She wanted to NOT have to confess! She wanted to just try and be friends! And yeah, I’m shocked and a little frustrated that I never caught on to any of her feelings before now, but that’s because I’m a teenage boy who is new to feelings and I didn’t know about hers!”

He glared at Alya.

“What’s your excuse?”

Silence.

It took a moment for Adrien to force himself to calm.

“I’m in a relationship. I do not want to cheat on Kagami. Marinette doesn’t want to disrupt what we have. Forcing us into a locked room together to force her to confess when she’s not ready and doesn’t want to would not result in any sort of happy or healthy relationship between us due to those factors. Which you both should have known.” He said, shooting another glare at them.

“But—”

“I’m still new to how friendship works. But this…this isn’t how a friend acts. You don’t push a friend into a position they’re not comfortable with. You don’t discourage them from doing what’s healthier for them. And you don’t keep setting them up to fail.”

Alya gaped. “I…I don’t want her to fail!”

“You aren’t helping her to succeed.” He pointed out. “And if you truly think that forcing these situations neither of us are comfortable with is supposed to be necessary, then maybe you should rethink why this is really so important to you.”

Adrien took Marinette’s hand in his and started leading her to the door.

If the situation were different, maybe Marinette would have felt her heart flutter. But as it stood, she could barely tell over the way it was pounding in her ears from the anxiety and stress of this whole situation.

“I’m going to take Marinette. And we’re going to talk about where we stand as friends.” He shot a final glare at the other two.

“Maybe you should consider the same.”

The door slammed shut behind him.

[winterandwords]

📖 [short fiction] CODE

📝 notes

Audience age Adult

Genre Experimental/science fiction

Length 2094 words

An agent training to transport secrets in a hidden partition of their mind struggles to hold their life together when their mission tangles with memories of loss, blurring the line between reality and a surreal inner world.

☕ If you enjoy this story and would like to buy me a coffee, you can do that here

📸 Header images, edited and displayed under license, by Adrien Converse on Unsplash and Markus Spiske on Unsplash

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

PART ONE

Shelves stretch from floor to vaulted ceiling, far into the distance in every direction. At first, I thought they held books or narrow boxes, but it’s nothing so solid. Shafts of light, perhaps, or points of holographic convergence. There’s meant to be a system. I’m meant to recognise it.

I push the light switch and nothing changes. Off, on, off again, but the sourceless glow persists. That means something.

The screen is in my hand. I don’t remember picking it up and I don’t know where it came from. I type the numbers, but they aren’t numbers. It doesn’t work like that here.

Footsteps come from everywhere and nowhere and you.

You. “I can’t find what I’m looking for. Can you help me?”

“Yes.” The lie floats golden from my mouth and bursts above my head. “But you need to tell me what it is.”

“That’s the thing.” Your eyes shift green blue grey brown. “I don’t remember. I’m not sure I ever knew.”

“Is it the code?”

“What code?”

“I don’t know.” I hurl the screen at the shelves and it shatters in slow motion, crystalline dust caught in a sunbeam.

You trail your fingertips through the hovering shards. “But you’re supposed to know, aren’t you? You’re supposed to tell me.”

I take a step towards you and you take a step back, leaning into the shelves, an endless library of weightless truth. I whisper against your lips, “I don’t think I’m supposed to tell anyone,” and a dark, clawing loss twists through my ribs when I kiss you.

You pull away and reach out to touch my face, breath ragged, your thumb pressing into my lip. “Very good.”

I bow my head in the presence of praise. There’s a patch on the floor where the grid shows through. I cover it with my foot and you look the other way.

PART TWO

Sirens tumble through the streets six storeys below and I pour another shot of whiskey I promised you I wouldn’t drink. The streetlights don’t reach this high and the stars don’t sink this low. Silence burns my throat again like all my pointless words before and I would give what’s left of my pitiful soul for just one more minute with you.

Palms pushed against my eyes fire miniature explosions into a spectrum of galaxies. Regrets swell like dying stars, and I’m sorry. I didn’t know or I didn’t think or I forgot or I didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean to. And I will only ever drown in excuses and my own selfish mistakes.

They’ll come and get me for work tomorrow and I’ll clothe myself in a convincing impression of sobriety. They should test me. They used to, but they let it slide and no-one talks about it. They know I’d fail almost every time now and if they document that they can’t justify keeping me on, no matter how useful I am or how much money they’ve thrown at this already. So they keep it all quiet and nothing is wasted. Except me.

I swallow a handful of pills I promised you I’d quit taking and let the chemicals pull me into sleep, through the dark hollow at the back of my mind where other people’s secrets live. The window is open and lazy currents of air swell into curtains I don’t even bother to close anymore. One of my hands drops from the edge of the couch and I hear my knuckles hitting the wooden floor, but I don’t feel anything. I don’t feel anything.

PART THREE

The shelves roll out from the centre of my chest and my back arches in sympathy. I gasp for a breath I don’t need and shove the light switch away. The screen floats above my hand and I close my fingers around it, crushing it to nothing.

You appear in front of me. No footsteps this time. “I can’t find what I’m looking for. Can you help me?”

“You’re looking for the code.”

“Am I?”

“Yes. You’re looking for it and I have it, but I can’t tell you what it is. It’s locked away. I have to keep it safe.”

You fall back, arms folded across your chest, and float at an angle that defies gravity. “Maybe I can find it myself if you show me where to look.”

I kneel beside you and trace the curve of your spine with a shaking hand. “I can’t do that.”

You grip my collar and we drift and spin, a hazy vortex of stretching shadow. “You’re lying to me again.”

“I’m not. They made it so I can’t tell you.” A tear floats from my eye.

You catch it on your tongue like a snowflake. “But it’s in you. It’s in your head.”

“I know, but so much is in my head and I can’t see any of it. It’s what I signed up for.”

You undo two buttons on my shirt and slide one side off my shoulder. Your breath touches the scars there like ice and electricity. “Does that still feel good?”

I try to reply, but the words come out as numbers.

“Tell me,” you breathe against my history of torn flesh.

“No.” The shelves shudder and collapse and bury you. A distant electronic chirp measures my heartbeat and my fists clench by my sides. Bright light burns my eyes open.

“Very good,” says the person in the mask. It doesn’t feel the same as when you said it. “Your compartmentalisation is excellent. We still need to work on your control, but we’ve made a lot of progress.”

I blink heavily and try to speak, but my voice congeals into a lump I can’t swallow past.

The person in the mask helps me to sit up and hands me a paper cup filled with water. “Here, this will make your throat feel better. Small sips. And don’t try to talk yet. Give yourself time.”

PART FOUR

They’re keeping me here tonight. Officially, I’m staying voluntarily for the benefit of the assignment, but really, they’re keeping me here. They let me out for a smoke, though. They probably shouldn’t have, but they did. How much is my body even worth to them if they look away while I destroy it? Is there an equation for that? A point up to which they’ll accept my self-destructive compulsions, but if I go beyond it, they’ll take away my cigarettes and my drink and my medication to guarantee a certain level of return on investment?

There’s a gap in the towering concrete wall where an equally unscalable fence allows me to look at the sea, to hear the waves crashing, to breathe the salt air and let it fight the tar for space in my lungs. Today, everything is grey, distinct only by degrees of motion and texture. Perhaps it’s grey all the time. I don’t come out here very often. Maybe I used to. I’m not sure.

There’s a glitch, an overlay in the part of my brain that still belongs to me, a jittering flash of us on a beach. Not this beach. It might have been years ago, but I can’t tell how much time has passed since anything anymore. The water and sand flicker and fade. Our laughter echoes. The sun goes out. I stop breathing. A machine screams.

I wake to the smell of smouldering skin when my cigarette melts through my clothes. There’s no pain. There should be, but there isn’t. Dusk is gathering and someone is watching me from a window somewhere. I can’t see them, but I can feel them. Being observed has a very specific emotional resonance, and I’m learning to isolate it more effectively between the layers of everything else. Someone here told me it’s important that I know how to do that.

PART FIVE

I open my hands like a book, and the shelves spread in a concertina between my palms.

I blink, and the light switch vanishes into a point of darkness.

I shake my head, and the screen dissolves with a crackle and hiss in front of me.

I can’t see you or hear you, but I can feel you. Somewhere. Not physically, but. But.

I close my hands, and they swallow the shelves. This is an action I can choose now.

And you. You. Around me. Inside me.

I gather silence and will it towards you. A void. An answer aching with absence. Finally, I give you nothing. I have nothing to give.

A voice that isn’t yours asks, “What’s the code?”

My own words spiral like a thorned vine from my chest and my tongue bleeds a response. “There is no code.”

And the light in my eyes and my clenched fists and the green line of my heartbeat and the person in the mask and the paper cup and every secret swallowed and every meaning lost.

PART SIX

Dawn breaks and so do I. I don’t know if I slept or not. The last thing I remember was staring down an empty bottle like it was the barrel of a gun, which it may as well have been. My head hurts, but not enough. I’ve given up counting pills, but I haven’t given up taking them.

There’s a photograph of us lying next to me, fractured glass and our faces back when I remembered how to smile. I used to taunt you for printing them, framing them, putting them on display when this was still a home we shared. I told you we weren’t going to forget what we looked like and you told me that wasn’t the point. I get it now. I get it.

This is one of the pictures I gave them when they asked for material to construct my primary trigger stimulus. This picture and a hundred others, videos, stories. I gave them my memories of you, of us, and I wished, pleaded, for an exorcism. I knew the version they made of you wouldn’t be real, that I would eventually have to push it aside. That was the goal. Reject the stimulus.

But still, it would give me some time with something that looked like you, sounded like you, felt like you. Then I could learn to reduce you to nothing and leave you behind. This time it would be on my terms and, god help me, I thought it would heal me.

Now you’re no more than a digital construct, stored on a server deep underground, and there are only two moments left in my life that matter to anyone other than me.

PART SEVEN

The plane speeds down the runway, and it’s been three hours since (one) they looked inside my head to confirm the presence of secrets I can’t see. In nine hours, I will arrive at a destination defined only by coordinates. Some mirror-image version of them in a facility just like theirs will (two) open my mind and leave me empty.

The anticipation of freedom tastes hollow and anchorless in the moment the wheels lift off the ground. My breath is cradled in the hands of science and magic, and our last night together slips through my fingers again.

We fought, as we did more and more often, over everything and nothing. I drank too much, smoked too much, swallowed pills by the handful and swept barren platitudes towards you across the land mines and razor wire tangles of your completely justified resentment.

You grabbed my shoulders, pressing into the place where a bullet had missed its target a year before. It’s the last time I remember anything feeling as much as it should have. You begged me to turn down the assignment, and I promised it would be the last one. The thing is, I was telling the truth that time and now you’re never going to know.

When you slammed the door, a photograph fell from the wall and the glass in the frame cracked. Sleep found me watching it from deep within a sedative haze under the gathering weight of relentless humidity.

I awoke drenched in sour sweat and shame the next morning when the police arrived. The tide had gone out beyond the pier at sunrise and they’d found your car nestled in the silt with your body still at the wheel.

Now I stare out the window at the clouds below and see them as heaven and rolling water. The recycled air in the cabin tastes stale and the jet engines roar and I am a broken clock.

[the-witches-you-couldnt-burn]

History’s Masks

What’s this two fics back-to-back? Must be the spooky season getting to me

Prompt: capes/masks

Ao3

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Everybody wore a mask. Yes, this was a masquerade ball but that wasn’t her point. Nobles in the French royal court wore masks in their daily lives and many other associates kept a facade also. Without the coverings, people could be seen for who they truly are; but that was too taboo.

Marinette never cared for the social nuances one had to follow at a royal ball. The only reason she came was to view all of the immaculate dresses and suits. Eighteenth-century fashion had been changing so quickly recently, she had to keep up with the trends if she ever wanted to become a successful seamstress. The frills of tulle and the weight of satin, gold-set jewels as buttons of suits. Outfits of blues, reds, purples and more; all could be found at this ball. Her dress was a starlight silver, corset waist and short off the shoulder sleeves, her mask dazzled in the light. It was her best work so far, if she must come to a royal ball with influential individuals she must make a statement.

What was the point of coming here for anything else?

She stood a little ways away from her parents; who were talking with King Gabriel about catering the next three nights of the ball. Normally in this situation, she would converse with Prince Adrien, but it seems he had already been swept away by a different dame or maybe he was with the visiting royalty. Marinette sighed, no one from her entourage batted an eye at her.

“Care for a dance?” The bluenette looked over to find a dangerously attractive man with a striking white streak parting his hair. Arching a brow at his smile, she saw his hand was outstretched and waiting. Hesitantly she placed her hand in his.

He guided her onto the floor. Marinette’s eyes widened as he lead her around, spinning her until breathless. She felt her lips quip into a small smile as the instruments informed their movements.

His hands trailed up her sides, she leaned her head back as he dipped her. Marinette had met him less than a moment ago, yet they danced like they had known each other for years.

He leaned in, placing light kisses on her alabaster skin. She didn’t know why she let him do something so intimate but she was broken from her thought by his facial hair tickling her neck, she laughed. The looks they both sent were more than just a look to a dance partner.

“I realise I don’t even know your name, Sir.” She caught her breath from her laughter. He saw her eyes twinkle in a similar fashion to her sparkling silver dress. Through his red mask, she thought she saw his eyes darken before he spun her again.

Smirking as he said, “I don’t know yours either.” His French is thick with accent.

Neither notice the circle of nobles that had gathered, nor the shocked stares from her parents and the rulers.

His fingers grasped at her cinched waist and sent shocks down her spine, she remembered his lips from moments before and shivered. Whatever this was neither were wanting it to stop.

But it did.

The music died down until the final note was played and silence befell the room. Her dance partner pulled her into him by the waist, causing you to look up at him. Their chests rose with each straining breath, and the silence between was parted by a whisper; “My name’s Jason.”

He was blinded by her smile, she giggled when she responded in kind with her name. “Marinette,” He rolled her name over his tongue as if he had never heard anything like it before, “Beautiful.”

His name was exotic to her also. It sounded British but his accent was strange.

A blush rose on her cheeks and she shyly looked down, where she noticed that his outfit was different from all the rest. It was mainly black but held a foreign red bat crest on his right breast and war medallions on his left. She had never seen anything like it. ‘Strange.’ Before she dive deeper into it, the silence was once again broken by clapping.

Her hand was still held by him. Jason’s lips pressed against her skin once more. She looked around a saw shocked faces looking back at her and the spectacle they’ve made. But why was it a spectacle?

Realisation struck her as they parted, a potential reason as to why the shocked faces stayed. She was with the visiting Crown Prince. And apparently, he had his own Gothamite way of dealing with royal social nuances.

Swiping the red liquid over her lips she completed her makeup painted face. Marinette leaned back to shimmy the zipper closed. Tonight was the second night of the Wayne Gala’s Christmas to New Year’s celebration and she had to look her best. Her shift dress was a dark blue that matched her hair and had embroidery of grey bats fluttering up the slit of her leg. Jason watched from the door frame, a small smile illustrated on his face.

“Need help?” He chuffed to himself, already pushing his back off the wooden frame.

Trying once again but failing, she whined. Why did her dress have to get stuck tonight of all nights?

“Thanks, that would be helpful.” He stepped behind her, carefully pushing blue locks of hair over her shoulders. Blue eyes locked on to his, before closing to relish in this intimate moment of domesticity. Their lives as superheroes kept them busy, and she wasn’t even going to touch on their civilian lives; small moments like these meant everything to her.

Her eyes snapped open and widened when she felt the direction the zipper was heading.

“Upwards you jerk!” She swiftly placed a hand on her lower back, trying to prevent the dress from opening more, his fingers brushed against hers. He laughed moving even closer as he switched directions. When the zipper hit the top he leaned down, placing his lips on her nape, nuzzling his nose into her apple blossom scented hair.

“Wanted to see if I could get away with it” he mumbled into her neck. Rolling her shoulders Marinette laughed, it was a pathetic effort to get him off but he only moved closer, kissing up her skin until reaching her blushed cheek.

“You’re a dork, you know that right?” She scrunched her face as he kissed the tip of her nose.

“Then it’s a good thing you love me and my dorkiness.” His hand lifted her chin up until he placed a light kiss upon her hairline, before kissing her plump lips. His hands glided over her bare shoulders.

He reached down and grabbed the mask on the vanity, he perched the mask on the bridge of her nose. “Now we better go before we’re late,” he whispered. Marinette blinked before playfully scowling at him.

“We would have already if someone had zipped me up correctly the first time.” Amusement present in her tone, she slapped a wrist into his gut. He didn’t flinch, only wrapped a hand around her waist and pulled her close; wrinkling the navy blue fabric of her slinky dress.

“Just foreshadowing for later.” He smirked, fingers circling at her hips.

Walking away he put on his mask. Sighing, she looked back into the mirror. Blue eyes framed by black lashes framed by a blue mask framed by almost black hair. Life was a sequence and held multiple different timelines.

She wondered, did she always have to wear a mask? But for now the twenty-first century needed her, so the mask stays on.

[walks-the-ages]

Fics to write:

1) BIG FINISH AHDIO SCRIPT I KEEP FORGETTING ITS DUE ON FHE 30TH I missed the deadline :'(

2) Marinette punches Adrien in the face oneshot

3) " oh my god, Uncle Gabriel is an axe murderer, quick Adrien!!! Meet me at the train station!!! Don't go home!!!!!" AU where Felix completely destroys the plot by reacting like an actual person would to finding their dead aunt in their uncle's fancy cryochamber shrine basement thing.

4) chapter 4-5 of Plural Marinette AU (the extra, where Future Marinette and Past Marinette both physically exist in the time stream as completely separate people)

5) Time Traveling OP Gwen torchwood fic (the replacer) + S1 Gwen wakes up in the future surrounded by loving, understanding friends and family and so many things are done to try and figure out who took Gwen's memories this time because Eve hasn't senses any other Mnemosinea in the area... And then Rhys, thinking about His Gwen calls Gwen's phone.... And she answers. From 2008. Talk about a long distance relationship, huh? Lots of dynamics between the future and past versions of each other as they try to sort out their lives and relationships again as Future!Gwen storms ahead "fixing" her new timeline and Past!Gwen has to get caught up on everything she's missed!

6) Time Traveling OP Marinette fic

7) Adrien has one (1) competent bone in his body for once and damn it, he's going to go to hell, but at least this time it's for a good cause (S4 finale AU where we don't break the fucking world building laws to make the shitty writing work, and Adrien makes a snap decision to save the day, and actually gets character development)

8) Danny falls asleep in class, and stops breathing from ghost instinct. Dash is sitting right behind him having a silent attack of horror the longer class goes on.

9) "like you" DP vivisection fic inspired by Evanescence song of the same title.

10) the "Danny's been posessing himself without realizing it ever since "what you want" AU which is pretty much practically a plural!AU and they eventually realize they can separate into two bodies with a LOT of work involved but then it's too quiet in their head :/

11) hm. I have a dragon! Marinette fic floating somewhere still. Don't remember what the plot was, but my dragon miraculous is much cooler than canon lol. Someone just needs to give Marinette a sword.

12) the adventures of Dr. Caroline Brook, and her companions John Smith and Winifred Mott as they fight the Mega Corporation that bought out the Library to turn it into a for-profit "educational" exhibit on the horrors that happened there.... Using real living "clones" as their main attraction...

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13) Bleach x ML fic for that old Adrien salt prompt I submitted because *New Bleach in three months!!!!!!*