#Alfrinette

[ali-annals]

clover blooms in the fields/spring breaks loose, time is near

Pairing: Alfred Pennyworth x Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Rating: G

TW: implied/discussed character death(s), this is an old work and thus not my best :/

WC: 0.5k

A/N: I've seen people calling this ship Alfrinette, but I prefer my moniker 'NetteWorth'. This is my attempt to sway others into using it as well :p For rare pair advocate @velveteenshadow Merry Christmas, Carmine! <3

She knew being a True Guardian made her different. 

How different, she did not realize at first.

She defeated Hawkmoth, saved Paris, publicly retired. She met a true holder and trained her court precisely.

She fell in love, but knew she could not have him yet, for one day she realized that she hadn’t visibly aged at all, her eyes glowed when she accessed her powers, and she was radiating light. Growing things flourished in her presence and unlucky, destroyed things were reversed.

Her true love got a job away from her Court, raising a child. That was okay–her civilian self existed no more, and she had all the time in the world to wait. She would watch from afar.

He grieved his employers’ deaths, then attempted to raise their son to the best of his ability. He watched him grow into a good man, driven for justice. He supervised his nightly jaunts and was not truly surprised when he was made a pseudo-grandfather. He helped raise four good young men and three wonderful young women, watching protectively as they joined his son on their night jobs. He took care of them in any way he could, remembering how his love had done that for her dearest ones.

He grieved for his grandson and granddaughter and rejoiced when they came back home. And finally, one day…one day he woke up to see his love, just like he remembered. He blinked and walked toward her. 

“Marinette?”

He hadn’t said her name in decades, yet she gave him the same beautiful smile. They were surrounded by a lush, vibrant oasis, crystalline streams flowing and friendly animals playing about their feet. Sunshine dappled in through leaves and the entire area exuded peace and creation. 

His reflection in the pool was the one he’d had when he first met her. Colourful birds strutted behind him in fan formation. She took his hand in hers and smiled again. 

“My love, we are together at last. How have you been, Alfred? I’ve been keeping an eye on you since you left, but tell me everything, just the same.”

He smiled at her. “I thought I could feel your presence around me often…particularly when it was especially tough. You were by me when Master Jason died, were you not?”

“I was. I know how special he was to you, so I took him when the warehouse exploded. He stayed with me for a while, staying in peace. He told me about you. I could tell how much he and your other dear ones loved you.”

She paused at the waterfall, holding his hands in hers. “I had to return him, however. I am pleased he has seemed to find peace after experiencing its counterpart.”

“I am pleased with how well he–and all of them–have turned out,” he admitted. “This garden looks familiar. I knew my thumb wasn’t that green.”

She laughed happily. “I may have helped your pet garden projects along a bit.” “I took up gardening to feel closer to you, you know,” he admitted. “I missed you terribly.”

“I missed you, too.” She squeezed his hand. “It took us long enough to reunite; let us postpone our melancholy.”

He squeezed back, turning in a new direction. “A marvelous decision. Let us explore among the green while we catch up.”

“Lets.”

[ms-starflower]

Maribat Rare Pairs — Day 9 — Falling like the leaves

@maribat-october-rarepairs

Guys, guess what??? This is another angsty story!! BUT this one has a hopeful ending!!! And is not as sad as today's Spook-tober!! Yay!!

Also, if you saw my post yesterday, it’s the promised crack ship!

Well, it’s a crack ship for me, at least, mostly because of how super weird it was for me to write them. But, surprisingly, I was kinda super inspired?? This is the longest thing I wrote for maribat rare pairs month and spook-tober to date, with a little over 2k words??

But it is still a weird ship, and I’ve never seen it before, so... (Although, seriously, if someone knows of another story with this ship, please share with me, I would love to see what someone else would write for them.)

Anyway, end of the suspence, it’s *jazz hands*: Alfred x Marinette!

Contexte for the story here; It’s totally AU, forget almost everything you know about MLB canon guys. Here Marinette became Master Fu’s apprentice, after her parents death (she was like, idk, eight?? nine??). He took her in and trained her because she showed compatibility with the miraculouses.

I know there was something about how Master Fu became the last Guardian in Miraculous canon (???) but I don’t feel like looking it up, so, whatever. Also, for reference, there is like, around three years of difference between them.

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

Marinette was barely eighteen when she met Alfred for the first time.

He saved her from the people that killed her Master, letting her be the sole Guardian of the Miraculous, even though she never completed her training. He saved her without even knowing about the Miraculous, without ever asking for something in return.

She was lost, alone, and with a task bigger than her in her future. When he died, Fu left her the Miraculous to protect, but he also made her promise to correct his mistakes and found the lost Miraculouses.

She should have disappeared as soon as it was safe to do so, Master Fu had always said that the best way to protect the Miracle Box was to live in complete solitude, hiding from the world unless they had to show themselves. But it hadn’t worked, and now Fu was dead.

She didn’t know why Alfred asked her to come back to England with him, but she knew that she accepted because she didn’t want to be alone.

The trust between them had been nearly instantaneous. She couldn’t explain why, and the Kwamii refused to say anything about it when she asked them, even though they had looked at her with a knowing look.

When she was eighteen, and finally able to use the Miraculous at their fullest, the Kwamii all agreed that they needed to be used again, even if only discreetly. She knew what sort of work Alfred did for his country, it wasn’t hard to understand, and decided to help him.

She told him about the magic jewelry she was tasked to protect, and about the mission her Master left her. They both agreed to keep her help a secret from his superior, and she gave him the Black Cat, herself downing the Ladybug.

They made a formidable team, and Marinette hadn’t felt this useful for the world around her ever. She knew that his work wasn’t all pretty, of course. Alfred still kept her out of some of his missions, but she trusted him and never judged him for the decisions he had to make.

Falling for him hadn’t been instantaneous. It happened slowly, delicately, like leaves falling from trees in the chill breeze of autumn. And, one day, she touched down and realized that she fell and that there was no way up.

She kept silent, not even knowing if he would love her that way. But from the moment where she acknowledged her feelings, they only grew. Soon, she knew she would never love someone as much as she loved him.

She was twenty-three when she saw him for the last time.

The job started typically, for that sort of job. They were sent into enemy territory to evacuate an ally. Well, Alfred really, people didn’t know about her. At least they weren’t supposed to.

Somehow, they knew to expect them both and that they would have the Miraculous. Marinette would never know how it happened, just that it did. The only thing that saved them was the fact that they didn’t know about the Miraculouses’ power beyond the Black Cat’s and the Ladybug’s. They didn’t know to keep them separated, or even what was giving them their powers.

She used Kaalki’s Miraculous to teleport them out, directly to their appartement, and started to pack immediately.

“Marinette,” Alfred had said softly, and she turned toward him to see that he hadn’t moved but had dropped the transformation.

She did the same, dropping both Tikki’s and Kaalki’s. The three Kwamii looked between the two of them, a sad expression taking over Plagg’s face before they all floated in the next room to give them privacy.

“You’re not coming with me,” she said with a rueful smile.

“I want to,” he told her, stepping forward and putting his hand on her cheek. She closed her eyes, leaning into the contact. “But I can’t, not before completing this mission.”

“Why?” She asked him with a frown, opening her eyes back to look at him. “They sold us. Someone at your agency learnt about me and the Miraculous and betrayed us, betrayed you. Why would you finish this mission when it was so clearly designed as a trap?”

“Because,” he started slowly, leaning his forehead on hers. “The people that designed this mission obviously did so knowing it was one I couldn’t abandon.”

“What is so important in this mission,” she asked, swallowing back the ‘more important than me, us’, she wanted to ask. His features softened, his second hand coming up to her other cheek, and she knew he saw the question in her eyes.

“The man I was sent to save,” he started, his tone resigned.

“The American?” She asked, lifting her hands to cover his. He nodded slightly, careful to not disturb their position.

“He saved my life more times than I can count. More than that, he is a dear friend,” he told her, not moving his gaze from her eyes, before adding softly. “His wife is expecting, and I can’t sacrifice this family’s happiness for my own.”

“I—” She started, but there was nothing she could say, she wouldn’t either, if the roles were reversed. Alfred smiled softly at her, using his thumbs to wipe tears she hadn’t realized were falling. She closed her eyes, and left her despair talking for her. “I can save him with you. We can go back to save him together, and then we could leave together. Start a new life.”

“They will be waiting for that,” he told her, jerking his head back to shake it. “The only reason we could get out was because they didn’t know about Voyage, they would be prepared for it now. They will not expect me to come alone.”

“I can’t leave you, Alfred,” she said desperately, grabbing his jacket in her fists. “I love you.”

“I was hoping that it would happen in other circonstances,” he said softly, before leaning in to kiss her lips tenderly. It tasted bittersweet. “But I love you too. And that’s why I can’t ask you to come with me.”

“You’re not asking. I— I know I can help.”

“Your mission is more important, Marinette,” he said sadly, pushing back a strand of her hair. “This mission, your mission, it’s so important for you not because it was your Master’s, it’s so important because you love the kwamii like your family. You would give everything to protect them, I can’t put them in danger, and you know that you can’t either.”

She closed her eyes, letting her hands fall back at her side, knowing that he was right. Protecting the Kwamii that were with her and finding the lost ones were more important than her or her happiness.

“I can’t wait for you here, this place won’t be safe for much longer.”

“I know,” he said with a sorrowful expression.

“Maybe we— We can meet after—”

“No,” he interrupted her, his head shaking. “I can’t know where you will be, if I’m caught, I want to be sure you and the Kwamii will be safe. I couldn’t live with myself if I was the one to put you in danger.”

“What are you going to do, after? you’re not going back to work for them, right?”

“Don’t worry about me, I will find something,” he told her with a smile, and she couldn’t help but smile back.

“I wish we had more time,” she whispered to him, putting her hands in his hair.

“I wish I could tell you how much I love you,” he whispered back, putting his hand around her waist.

“Promise me to live,” she told him, looking him in the eyes. “Promise me to get out of there alive, and then, to live. To let yourself find happiness. I want you to let yourself be happy again, to let yourself live. Because when I find the Miraculous, and get Nooro and Duusu back, I will find you. No matter how long it takes me.”

“I don’t expect anything else from you, darling,” he told her softly, cupping her cheek.

“Promise,” she said again, she needed to hear him say it.

“I promise,” he whispered, eyes closed.

Opening a portal to let him go back there was the hardest thing Marinette ever did, knowing that there was a chance she was sending him to his death, no matter what he promised.

She was gone from the place they had shared for almost six years a couple of hours later, not letting a trace of her presence behind her.

Years passed too quickly and too slowly, after that. She dedicated the grand majority of her time to her mission, looking for Nooro and Duusu. She scoured the world, made contact in the magic community, and kept eyes on the black market.

Still, when she found a lead on Nooro, it was by accident. She was in Paris to talk with one of her contacts when the Kwamii told her they felt Nooro’s energy, and that it was corrupted.

The use of the Miraculous, for as long as she had used it in her youth, had slowed her aging considerably (and she often thought that it probably did the same to Alfred, if he survived). But even then, she wasn’t young anymore, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to be the Ladybug again.

She knew, from her old Master, that children were typically chosen to wield the Miraculous, but she refused to bring children into her war.

Still, finding people compatible with the Kwamii of Creation and Destruction wasn’t easy, and she could only find two promising young adults, Bridgette and Felix, both compatible with the Ladybug and the Black Cat respectively. They were still young, Bridgette was nineteen and into her first year of college while Felix was eighteen and finishing high school, but the only other options were a thirteen years old boy and a fifteen years old girl.

She gave them the choice to refuse, but wasn’t surprised when they accepted. Marinette did everything in her power to help them as much as she could; giving them training, a safe place to hide from the world when their emotions became too much, and a friend with whom to talk. And she used every last one of her contact, every favor anyone owed her, and every resource at her disposal to find Hawkmoth.

It took them three more years to defeat him, but when they did she could reclam back the Butterfly and the Peacock. And her mission was complete. Marinette felt so free, for a time she didn’t know what to do with herself.

She was lying. She had known what she was going to do the second the lost Miraculous were in the Miracle Box.

She left some time to Bridgette and Felix to say goodbye to Tikki and Plagg, promising them that the Miraculous would be there for them if they decided to go back to heroisme, when they finished college.

Then she packed her things and left for Gotham.

She didn’t know how she felt, when she rang Wayne Manor’s bell. Nervous wasn’t the right word, she had waited for this moment for too long to be nervous. It felt right. Freeing.

A young man opened the door, and Marinette recognized Tim Wayne-Drake. She smiled serenely at him, moving her braid back over her shoulder.

“Um, hello,” he started slowly, looking at her curiously. Probably wondering how she got here despite their security. He probably wasn't to guess that it was with Kaalki's help. “Can I help you?”

“Well, yes, I would like to talk with Alfred Pennyworth,” she told him with a smile, making him blink in surprise. “Could you be a dear and tell him that an old friend is here to see him?”

“An… old friend?”

“Yes,” she said matter-of-factly, before leaning forward and whispering conspirationaly, like she was sharing a secret. “The old cat also wants to see him, Stinky Sock doesn't say it, but he really missed Alfred.”

“The… old cat,” he repeated, blinking at her like her words weren’t registering. They probably weren’t, but before she could say anything, another voice cut in.

“Marinette,” Alfred said with a soft smile from behind Timothy. “I was waiting for you.”

“Alfred,” she said, her lips curling into a bright smile. “I told you I would find you.”

“Holy Batman, I feel so lost right now,” Timothy muttered under his breath, looking between the two of them.

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

I know that the popular maribat headcanon for Alfred is to have been a Peacock holder, because it's Alfred, but people change when they grow older and I found it fun to have him be a Cat when he was still young and a little bit stupid (Not much it's still Alfred).

Also, the thirteen years old compatible is totally Adrien, and the fifteen years old is Aurore Beauréale, because I found her really Ladybugesque in the few memory I have of season 1 (I could totally be wrong tho, it was a while ago).