#Nathalie is not off the hook for me either | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

olivia-anderson-fanfic · 4 years

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Another one?!, Part 1

She pulled Hawkmoth’s pin from his costume and breathed a sigh of relief when he detransformed.

“Huh, so it was Gabriel the whole time? That almost makes too much sense,” she murmured.

“What’s that supposed to mean--?!”

She punched him in the face and couldn’t help but smile as his nose cracked beneath her fist. Except, maybe, she’d been a little harsh on him because he was now knocked out cold.

Oh well. He’d been the source of about half of her stress for the past three and a half years. He deserved more.

Marinette allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief and close her eyes.

Had she not been afraid he would grab the pin from her when he inevitably woke up before she did, she would have passed out then and there. They’d been fighting for days straight and she was exhausted.

But there was still a bit more to do. She pushed herself to her feet and looked around.

They were on the bridge where Andre’s ice cream cart usually was, though it was hard to tell. The area around her was still aflame from when an akumatized Ryuko had decided that it was time for Paris to burn to the ground. She wiped her sweaty forehead and looked down at Gabriel. She needed to get him to safety... but was there still a place the fire hadn’t touched?

She didn’t know. She needed to find out.

She tied him up with her yoyo and picked him up, carrying him under her arm as she ran through the streets of Paris.

Hopefully, she’d spot her partner on the way.

A few minutes later she spotted Adrien sitting on a rooftop. She wanted to yell at him to get down, because all the flames were making the buildings structurally unsound, but then she saw his face.

Something was wrong.

He looked at her and, if possible, his shoulders managed to slump even more.

She bit her lip and glanced at Gabriel. She decided that she could leave him alone for a few minutes. He was tied up, there was no way he’d be able to get away before they noticed.

Besides, she had his miraculous. What was he gonna do? Be a bad parent at her?

She dropped him in a relatively safe place and then climbed up the building.

“Hey, what’s up?” She asked, taking a seat beside him.

He motioned behind himself and she cringed a little bit when she found Nathalie. The woman was barely conscious. Her face was puffy and bruises were starting to form.

“So, it was Gabriel and Nathalie all along,” she mumbled.

“Yep,” he whispered, his grip tightening on his baton. “I have no family left. They’re all dead or sucky.”

“You have me.”

“That’s different.”

Marinette didn’t say anything. He wasn’t wrong. Instead, she gently pulled him down until he was resting his head in her lap. Her fingers combed through his hair.

And then she paused. She mulled over the first thing he’d said...

“Wait, your mom is dead?” She blurted. Then she pulled her hands from his hair and covered her face. “Sorry, that was stupid. I meant to say that I just thought she was missing, I was just surprised, that was a terrible way to phrase that, oh my kwami --.”

Adrien was laughing, though.

She couldn’t help but smile despite her embarrassment.

And then she was giggling, too.

Sure, it was generally not what you would laugh over, but their brains were so fried from lack of sleep and the amount of revelations they’d had in the past few days that everything was absolutely hilarious. The building could have collapsed underneath them and they would have found it in themselves to laugh.

But, eventually, they sobered. Mainly because the adrenaline had finally started to die down and laughing is extremely painful when you have broken ribs or a ruptured diaphragm.

Adrien sighed lightly, then winced.

“But… yeah. Apparently that was what Hawkmoth’s wish was going to be. He wanted to raise my mom from the dead.”

Marinette looked down at him and wasn’t surprised to see tears spilling over the front of his mask. She didn’t say anything about it, though, opting to just run her fingers through his hair again.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I know,” Marinette mumbled. “I’m still sorry you have to go through this.”

He slowly pushed himself up. “We should fix everything.”

He offered her a hand to get to her feet and she cringed lightly as she forced herself to put weight on her definitely sprained ankle.

“Right. I think I left my Lucky Charm…” She paused, racking her brain, then nodded to herself. “It should be back by the school.”

They looked at Nathalie and Gabriel. Both of them were passed out due to their injuries (and probably the smoke, the heroes were lucky they’d thought to get filtration systems in their masks but everyone else...).

“Should we… leave them?” He said slowly.

They were pretty far away from the school and they were injured. The idea of lugging the two the whole way there was…

She hopped down -- FUCK, there was that sprained ankle again -- and slowly untied Gabriel. Adrien must have figured out what she was planning, because he brought Nathalie down with him. She tied them to a mostly safe lamppost.

With that mostly dealt with, her boyfriend hooked his arm around her and they started the slow walk back to the school.

They kept their gazes up. They told themselves that they didn’t see all the bodies in the streets. Didn’t see the way they clutched their throats with pained expressions etched on their faces for the rest of time. Didn’t see the way their clothes were singed or completely burned off in places. Didn’t see the way their skin was littered with burns or scuffed where they had fallen while trying to escape.

It was harder to ignore the deafening silence that surrounded them. The only thing to be heard was the crackling of fires and the occasional sound of a building collapsing. The first few days had been filled with screaming but now...

She heard a squeak under her foot and stopped, glancing down.

It was a stuffed bear. Its arm was still smoldering.

Adrien gave her a gentle tug. She wiped her eyes and continued walking.

But when they got there…

“Please tell me that your Lucky Charm wasn’t flammable.”

Marinette pursed her lips tightly as she watched the flames stretch ever-higher. Of course the school had gone down quickly, it was filled with papers. Still, it surprised her to find it like that.

And then she processed his words. And her face drained of color behind her mask. Because she remembered what her lucky charm was. It had been a bag of flour. Pretty much the most flammable thing to exist.

Which meant that she couldn’t cast the miraculous cure.

Which meant that everything they’d just seen was going to have to stay that way. All those people were...

She leaned into Adrien heavily and buried her face in his shoulder. She felt him stiffen beside her and then he slowly turned into her and wrapped her in a hug. Neither of them said anything as he nuzzled his face in her hair. Neither of them acknowledged the fact that tears were dripping onto her head or that the front of his suit was getting wet.

“What do we do?”

Because there had to be something. There was no way they could just let these people die. There had to be some sort of loophole, had to be some sort of way to fix it.

Clawed hands dug into her. “I don’t know…”

Marinette finally hugged him back.

“I have an idea. I hate it but it's…”

“What is it?”

“We use the wish.”

He pulled away quickly. “What? Mari, no, we can’t.”

“So, what, we just let them all die?!”

“We…” He paused. “We can’t just bring them back to life. You know how it is, the world will balance out. A bunch of other people will die instead.”

She threw her hands up in frustration and then instantly regretted it as pain flared in her chest. She hugged herself and sent him a glare.

“I know that! But it’s not like we can just let the entirety of Paris die!”

He shook his head slightly. “It’s the same amount of people dead. It doesn’t matter if it’s people you care about versus people you don’t know, we can’t just --.”

“Shut up! You’re only able to say that because everyone you care about is evil or dead!”

Adrien flinched. Hard.

She looked away. Shit. Why had she said that? He was being fair, what she’d said was totally uncalled for. She bit her lip.

“I’m sorry. That was rude of me. This isn’t your fault and I’m lashing out at you and that’s not fair. I just… I can’t let them die, Adrien. They were all counting on us, and I let them down… I shouldn’t have brought your family into it...”

He nodded slightly. She wished she could see his face behind his mask… or maybe she didn’t. Because she could see his eyes, and they were so hurt…

And then she came to a realization.

“Wait, wait, Adrien, your mom.”

“Yes, I get it. My mom is dead,” he said bitterly.

She winced, then shook her head. “Not that. Well, yes, that, actually. What if we make it so she never died? If she never died then Hawkmoth wouldn’t have existed and no one would have died. We need to try it.”

“And if a lot of random people drop dead because of us?”

“They already have!” She realized she was yelling and dropped her voice back down to a calmer tone as she continued: “Either we get lucky and only one person has to die to bring everyone back or another two million drop dead somewhere else.”

He gripped his baton tightly and then shook his head slowly.

“Mari…”

“Please. It’s our best bet.”

He reluctantly pulled the ring from his finger. She took off her earrings.

The kwamis looked at each other in alarm.

But the humans weren’t seeing any other options.

She felt the ring drop into her hand and winced. She and Adrien met eyes and she slowly leaned up, pressing a short kiss to his lips.

“Dontcha trust me, Chaton?”

He gave a halfhearted grin. “Usually, M’lady. Make sure to add that we remember everything, I am definitely not going through that love square stuff again.”

She nodded slightly, biting her lip.

“See you on the other side.”

She made the wish.

He flinched and shielded his eyes from the bright light that emanated from the ring and earrings. By the time he was able to open his eyes again, he found himself sitting at his piano.

Adrien sighed. Wow, he could actually sigh again without hurting. Was this what breathing normally was like? He touched his no longer broken ribs. Man, he was never going to take those for granted again.

Well, at least that was good. Everything else around him was awful.

He was apparently in the middle of piano lessons… in the middle of a school day. Which meant that, in this reality, he had never attended public school.

Sure, he no longer really had friends there outside of Marinette due to Lila, but at least he had had Marinette. He scrolled through his phone contacts and sighed again. He had a whopping four numbers saved: Chloe Bourgeois, Kagami Tsurugi, Gabriel Agreste, and…

Emilie Agreste.

It worked. He didn’t really know why he was surprised. He wouldn’t be there right now if it hadn’t, it should have been obvious, but it hadn’t really sunk in yet. His mother was alive. She was present. He could see her right now if he wanted.

But he couldn’t yet. Mainly because he knew that the moment that he saw her he would likely break down, and he didn’t know how he would explain that.

Besides that, he hadn’t seen his mother in nearly four years. What was he supposed to say to her? Could he really go up to her and act like he’d spoken to her just yesterday?

His phone buzzed in his hand and he raised an eyebrow at the unknown number. He shrugged to himself and answered the call, pressing it to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Chaton!” Said Marinette brightly.

He raised his eyebrows. “How do you still have my number? We haven’t met in this dimension.”

“I have it memorized.”

“Of course you do,” he murmured. Then he paused. “Wait a minute… aren’t you supposed to be in school right now?”

“Nope, Lila got me expelled again.”

“Again?! How do they keep falling for that?”

“I dunno. Seems like this one is permanent, though. I’m in online school now.”

He sighed and closed his eyes. “The hell? Do you know what changed?”

“No clue. Tikki and Plagg dunno either… or they just don’t wanna tell me because they’re still mad. I dunno.”

“I guess we’ll find out if the entire world gets wiped out by a plague or if we hit World War III in the next few days.”

Marinette gave a tiny laugh, though he could tell it wasn’t real.

Adrien opened his mouth to ask if they should spend some time looking into it… but then his door opened.

Emilie.

His breath caught in his throat. He was sure he looked stupid, his mouth hanging half-open as he stared at his mother, but he couldn’t care less. His eyes searched her face, comparing it to the last time he had seen her. There were a few more lines, her eyes were a little more tired, but it was undoubtedly his mother.

“Adrien?” Emilie and Marinette said at the same time, their voices laced with worry. Of course they were worried, he had been completely silent for over a minute.

He looked at the ceiling and blinked a few times to get rid of the tears threatening to spill over. Probably another reason they were concerned.

When he was sure that he could keep his voice steady, he spoke: “Sorry, I was just thinking.”

He knew she didn’t really believe him, the tiny frown on her lips made that obvious, but she wasn’t questioning him. Thank kwami. He didn’t even know how he could play that off.

“Are you done practicing for the day?” She asked.

“No, I just stopped to talk to my friend.” He brought his phone back to his ear. “I’ll call you back later. Love you.”

“Love you, too, Adrien,” she murmured.

The line went dead. He dropped his phone into his lap.

“Friend?” Emilie teased with a knowing smile. He felt a blush rise to his cheeks. “Chloe or Kagami?”

“Marinette. She’s…” He scrambled for a believable place he could have met her. “... I met her at her parent’s bakery and we really hit it off.”

His mother took a seat next to him. “Would you like to talk about her?”

“Uh… maybe later.” He said, despite intending to avoid the subject for as long as he could possibly get away with it. Not only was he scared of getting his story wrong if he talked too much about her but the idea of talking to his recently un-deaded mom about girls was just a bit uncomfortable.

“Alright… want to play piano together?”

“Of course.”

They opted for Chopsticks. Even if they could pull off almost any piece without a hitch, they didn’t really want to. It’s a lot of effort. Sometimes the basics are exactly what you need.

And, when they finished, they heard clapping.

Adrien flinched and looked around.

It was Gabriel Agreste. He leaned in the doorframe, clapping semi-sarcastically (after all, Chopsticks isn’t exactly to their normal standard), but he looked so… happy.

Adrien almost didn’t know what to do. When was the last time he’d seen his father like that? A smiling face, relaxed posture, and even casual clothes… was this even the same guy? It was hard to imagine this man could ever be Hawkmoth.

Emilie grinned and gave a sarcastic bow. “Thank you, my love. We tried very hard.”

His parents looked at him as if expecting something. But Adrien didn’t really know what to say. How do you interact with people you haven’t known in years?

“Are you alright?” Asked Gabriel, his eyebrows furrowed in concern.

Adrien couldn’t take it anymore. He pushed himself to his feet. “I need some air. Can I take my bodyguard out to a bakery?”

“I suppose... but what’s wrong?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” he said, then fought back a wince. Well, at least it wouldn’t find it weird. They’d just think he was going through an angsty teen phase.

He grabbed his phone and wallet and gave a wave as he slipped out the door.

Adrien got into the car and leaned back in the seat. He mumbled the address to Marinette’s bakery and then typed out a message to his girlfriend to warn her that he was coming over.

He stared out the window as they cruised through the streets. He’d always hated being driven places, it always gave him a lot of time to think. His bodyguard wasn’t exactly the most verbally inclined person. He was always left alone with his thoughts. He hoped that he’d get to Marinette’s place soon, because he felt like he was going to go insane.

One thing. One thing had changed, and suddenly his life was the best it had ever been. Sure, in this world he didn’t go to school, but that was fine. It was apparently plausible that he would have met Marinette anyways, and at least then he wouldn’t have had to worry about Lila or find out Chloe was a horrible person.

Speaking of terrible people, his dad was, inexplicably, a decent father again. He cared about him and made jokes, it was like seeing an entirely different person. He couldn’t take it. He’d been so close to having this for the past four years of his life and yet...

The bakery came into view. He sighed in relief. Thank kwami. A distraction.

The first thing she’d done when she’d fully understood how her new life was going (hint: not well) was call Adrien. This was mainly so he’d have her phone number but also because she’d been a little scared that maybe the person who had died instead of his mother was him.

That would be one bitch of a butterfly effect.

She looked at the butterfly miraculous still in her hand. Pun not intended.

But, anyways, he was fine. She was happy to hear his voice, even if he sounded a little anxious.

Then he’d hung up. Marinette had heard a woman’s voice over the line, so she assumed that his mother had appeared (she doubted he’d hang up if it was just Nathalie).

So this wish had worked…

Great?

She looked at the pair of kwamis hovering by her. They were giving… disapproving looks, to say the least.

Marinette huffed a little. “What, was I supposed to let everyone die?”

“It will balance out,” said Tikki with a sigh as she settled into her normal spot on her shoulder.

“Well, could you at least tell me how?”

Plagg shrugged. “We don’t know. We don’t have any control over it, either.”

She sighed and pulled out her computer. Fine. She would just have to search the web. Surely, it would be something big. Either a bunch of people would have died that hadn’t before or someone important would either be dead or alive when they shouldn’t be.

So, she scoured the internet for things that had happened over the past four years.

But there wasn’t anything.

Sure, it wasn’t like she paid a lot of attention to news when she was twelve, but as far as she could remember everything seemed alright. There hadn’t been any major genocides, no major nuclear incidents, not even an out of place politician (she thought, though that one was harder for her to confirm).

She bit her lip and looked around until she found her bulletin board.

In the last dimension it had been covered with posters of Adrien but now it was empty. Huh. She supposed that made sense. She’d fallen for Adrien because he was kind and, from what she could tell, no one had been kind to this Marinette for quite some time.

She decided not to think about it too much. She could tell that her future was going to be depressing, she was going to avoid that for as long as possible.

Besides, she’d found the perfect distraction!

Marinette hummed to herself as she printed off headlines from all over the world (or, at least, translated versions of them) and started tacking them up. She put special emphasis on the ones that had to do with the past few days or the day that Emilie went missing by connecting them all with pink yarn.

And then the trapdoor was flung open.

She screamed and practically threw the bulletin board in an attempt to hide it (because she surely looked like a crazy person, or at the least a very invested conspiracy theorist).

She whipped around and then relaxed. Adrien.

“Oh, Chaton, hi,” she said, resting a hand over her heart as if that would calm it somehow. “Didn’t know you were coming.”

“I sent a text.”

She frowned and walked to where her phone sat on her desk, glancing it over and finding that, yes, he actually had texted her.

“Sorry, I was a bit distracted.”

He glanced at her bulletin board and raised his eyebrows slightly. “Seems like it.” He slowly climbed through the trapdoor the rest of the way and closed it behind himself.

Plagg floated over to him and dropped the cat miraculous into his hand. He didn’t even seem to think about it as he slipped it onto his finger.

They sent their kwamis out to recharge.

Marinette slowly pulled her bulletin board out again, propping it up against the bed.

“Anything seem off to you?” She asked, taking a seat by him on the floor.

His eyes flicked over the headlines for a bit, head tilting to the side as he thought. And then he sighed and shook his head. “I’m pretty sure that’s all right.”

“Me too. What are the chances that the whole consequences thing was a lie so we wouldn’t use the wish and get infinite power or whatever?”

Adrien gave a humorless laugh. “That sounds like something Master Fu would do but I don’t think Plagg or Tikki would do that. I don’t think they can even lie to us.”

They stared at the board in silence for a few more minutes.

“My dad is a good person in this reality,” said Adrien, his voice soft. “I was so… I was so close to having a normal family.”

She hesitated, unsure what to say to her boyfriend. She rested her head on his shoulder. His head rested on top of hers.

“At least you can enjoy him being nice now?” She tried weakly.

“Not really. It feels almost wrong now. He doesn’t feel like my dad, he feels like some random guy who happens to look like him. And, with my mom, I just don’t know how I’m supposed to talk with her. What do I say? What does she know? I don’t know her at all but she knows me so well and it’s weird --.” He cut himself off with a sigh. “Sorry, I just… I have a lot of emotions right now.”

“It’s okay, I’ll vent when you’re done. Make it fair,” she half-joked.

He gave her a halfhearted grin, his hand finding hers. “I’m pretty much done. If I kept going I probably just would have repeated myself. What’s wrong with new you?”

“Uh… mostly the fact that Lila got me expelled, apparently permanently because I’m in online classes and seem to have been for a while, and that I have about fifteen blocked numbers and two contacts. Not a good ratio to have.”

His thumb rubbed circles in the back of her hand she couldn’t help but relax a little.

“Guess we’re now we’re both homeschooled idiots with decent parents now. We can start a club.”

She laughed. “Remind me why I’m in love with you.”

“I’m hilarious, devilishly handsome, good with kids --.”

He was cut off by a kiss. She ran her free hand through his hair and he wrapped an arm around her waist.

They stayed like that for a while. It had been a long few days and they were perfectly happy to just relax together like this, even if it was only for a moment.

But, eventually, she pulled away. He rested his forehead against hers as they caught their breath.

He broke into a cheeky grin. “Is that how you’re always going to shut me up? Because I have so many more good attributes that I can list off. We could do this for hours --.”

She kissed him again, though this time they were both laughing a bit too much to take it seriously.

Did they know, somewhere, that avoiding their problems like this wasn’t doing them any good? Sure, but that didn’t mean that they were going to stop.

Adrien sat on a park bench, staring at where the statue of Ladybug and Chat Noir used to sit.

He wondered, vaguely, what that artist was doing now. Did they still do art? What were their subjects?

It was always weird to think about all the lives they had affected but he’d found himself thinking about it far more often now that they were practically nameless.

Alya still had a blog dedicated to vigilantes, though it was for ones all over the world and the style was different. Lila lied about how she’d known the Waynes before they’d died instead of how she knew Ladybug and Chat Noir. The usual debates about which Parisian hero was cooler were replaced by talk of gameshow contestants.

He’d never done heroism for that kind of reason, he’d had enough fame as Adrien Agreste to satisfy him for this life and the next, but it almost like all the work he’d done as Chat Noir had been useless.

Maybe because, technically, it was now. If Hawkmoth had gotten the ladybug and cat miraculi first day the world would have likely been the exact same as it was for him now. Three and a half years of work, and all of it could have been avoided.

He felt someone sit down beside him on the bench and he sent his girlfriend a tiny smile.

“You came,” he chirped, wrapping his arms around her tightly and pulling her into him.

She laughed. “Yeah, obviously, you would have never let it go if I didn’t,” she joked, wrapping her arms around him as well.

Their smiles slipped a little as their eyes fell on the blank spot where their statue had been.

“I miss being a hero,” he breathed.

She didn’t say anything for a long time, and he was starting to wonder if she’d even heard, but then she mumbled her answer: “Me too. It feels like something’s missing.”

He nodded his agreement, though he got the feeling that they were talking about it in different contexts.

“It’s weird. I used to hate being a hero but, now that I’m not anymore, it’s almost like there’s nothing to do. It’s just not the same.”

Yep. They were thinking different things. He didn’t mind, though. What does the reasoning matter when they were both feeling the same?

So, he’d laughed quietly and gave her a theory he had for her problem: “I think we messed up our adrenal glands. Nothing is dangerous enough for us to really get that high, so everything feels weird.”

“Well…” She began, a smug grin on her face.

He rolled his eyes. “Nothing legal gets nearly dangerous enough,” he corrected himself.

She laughed a little and rested her head against his chest. He rubbed tiny circles into her back.

“We could still be heroes, you know…”

He raised his eyebrows a little bit. “Sorry?”

“I mean… who says we have to stop?”

“The fact that there’s no supervillains for us to fight here.”

She gave him a tiny shrug. “Then we don’t do it here.”

He fought the urge to facepalm. Of course. How had he not thought of that before? There were plenty of supervillains and there was absolutely no way that all of them already had heroes to face off against.

(And, on top of that, they were kind of avoiding their problems. It was much easier to do that when all your problems were in a different city.)

“Have you ever heard of Gotham? It’s got a lot of crime and pretty much no one protecting it.”

He tipped his head back against the back of the bench and tried not to laugh.

They had both come to an understanding back when they’d started that they would be protectors of Paris for as long as Hawkmoth ruled, then it would be over. They had thought they might remain friends but all superhero business was definitely coming to an end.

Oh, how plans had changed.

She must have taken his silence for hesitance, because she quickly backtracked: “We have two years before we can move out anyways, so we have a lot of time to decide --.”

“I’d love to, M’lady.”

She stared at him with wide eyes. “Really?”

He grinned and pressed a kiss to her nose. “Is that even a question? Fighting crime with you until we grow old? Sounds like a dream, honestly.”

Her face reddened to the shade of her costume.

“Oh… good.”

“Good,” he agreed.

They laid back on the bench together and smiled as they imagined what they could be doing in two short years.

They were, in fact, two very long years.

It turns out that avoiding people is very hard. Especially when they live in your house (Adrien) or when they purposefully drop by every few days to gloat (Marinette).

It was a testament to their patience that they didn’t just grab their stuff and move out a few weeks in.

But, if they had done that, they probably wouldn’t have gotten the same rush of relief that they’d had when they stepped out of the cab -- Gotham didn’t have a direct airport, it was too easy for criminals -- and seen Gotham for the first time.

They were free.

Marinette hummed to herself as she helped grab some bags from the trunk and then looked around with Adrien.

They’d purposefully chosen to get out in the middle of the city to gauge how bad it was, and it was somehow even worse than they’d thought it’d be. Someone was selling drugs like they were hotdogs, yelling ‘coke’ at the top of his lungs. An old lady had pulled a gun on an actual hotdog vendor. A cop was taking a bribe to turn the other way so some kids could hotwire a car.

They broke into wide grins.

“We have some work to do,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow at their bags. Her face dropped into a pout.

“Fiiiine, we’ll unpack first.”

He laughed and waved her along.

They smiled as they stepped into their new house.

Gabriel had tried to buy them an entire manor as a wedding present but they’d managed to talk him down to a normal house. It was in a decent neighborhood (by Gotham standards), it had a room for them and a guest room, it had an island counter in the kitchen. That was basically they’d all cared about.

Well, that and…

He carefully peeled up a few floorboards underneath their bed and she dropped the miraculous box inside. Thank kwami they’d thought ahead enough to get laminate flooring, they didn’t know what they would have done to hide it if they’d gotten hardwood or marble.

And then they’d gotten to work setting up the house. Most of the furniture was already there, but they still had to unpack their belongings.

Adrien… was not really allowed to do much of the unpacking. He’d wanted to help, but Marinette was very particular about both kitchen equipment and clothes. Sure, she definitely understood different folding methods and their effects and would likely be the only one using the kitchen, but he still wanted to do something. Unfortunately, those were really the only two things that needed being done.

He’d settled for watching her do things from a windowsill and giving occasional encouragement.

She was done within two hours.

He grinned. “Y’know, I miss France.”

“Already?”

“Yeah, Gotham has no sunny windows to sit in. It’s depressing.”

She pressed her lips together tightly to hide a smile. “That’s so sad. I feel awful for you.”

“I know!” He said, stretching out. “Ready to go, M’lady?”

“Well, yes, but we need to talk personas.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Personas? What about them?”

“No one knows who we are here. This is our one chance to change our personas.”

Adrien hesitated. Change their personas? The idea of it was foreign to him. Chat Noir had always been his way of expressing himself without worrying about how it would hurt him and his father’s reputations. Chat was such a big part of him, getting rid of him would be insane.

But he knew better than anyone that Ladybug was just an idealized version of Marinette.

While Chat had been great for his mental health because he had an outlet for all his feelings, Ladybug had had the opposite effect for Marinette because it made her feel inferior.

He smiled encouragingly. “I’m keeping mine the same, but if you want to change yours that’s perfectly fine.”

She nodded and bit her lip. “Hey, Tikki!”

Tikki popped her head out of the kitchen and then slowly came around, their paws behind their back as they tried to hide the macaroon she’d stolen with her body. “Yes, Marinette?”

Marinette looked like she was going to ask about the macaroon, because it was really easy to see, but then she apparently decided against it. “Can I change my outfit?”

“No, sorry.”

She pouted. “That’s stupid. Can I at least have a more practical weapon than a yoyo?”

“No, everything is set, sorry.”

Marinette groaned. “That’s it. I’m stealing a pipe from the street and using that.”

Adrien laughed, hopping down from the windowsill.

Tikki looked like she was going to argue, but Marinette transformed before she could.

“You’re totally going to get a lecture for that later.”

She clicked her tongue and rested her hands on her hips. “Not if I never get out of the suit.”

He rolled his eyes. “Smart, I see no problems with that plan. Plagg, claws out.”

“Nooooooo,” complained the kwami as he zipped into Adrien’s ring. The cheese he was holding dropped onto the floor at his feet.

They stared at it for a second, then Adrien shrugged. “Problem for later?”

“Definitely.”

The partners sent each other excited smiles as they slipped out a window.

For the record, they did try and do things the ‘ethical’ way originally.

Approximately three months. That was all that it took for them to break their no-killing rule.

Of course, they hadn’t really wanted to kill anyone. But…

Marinette stared at the body at her feet.

She tightened her grip on the bloody cane in her hand.

She was disgusted with herself… because she didn’t feel any guilt at all.

It had been necessary, it was very obvious that he wasn’t going to be serving any hard time. After the second time they had caught him she had researched him and found that he was an assassin that worked for the mob. He would always be bailed out.

The police were corrupt. She knew that. It was pretty much the only consistent thing in this world, but this was way worse than she was used to. They wouldn’t just openly let someone out because a mobster told them to, it would always be discreet bribery of the jury or judge.

No wonder the city was having such a hard time. This would be more work than they’d been expecting...

Adrien’s sigh brought her back to reality.

He held up his hand to use Cataclysm, but she grabbed his arm and held him back.

“No. I have an idea.”

He frowned, raising his eyebrows.

“Can you go to the craft store and get some spray paint? Red, black, and green. Please?”

The next day the mob found their assassin’s body stuck to the outside of one of their bars. On the door they found the words ‘We’re cleaning up the city’ in green and, underneath that, the words ‘Sorry about the mess, service workers’ in red. It was signed with a graffitied ladybug and black cat.

A few days later, the entire staff was found dead.

The lucky ones had found their deaths quick, either beheaded by a yoyo string or shot with a gun stolen off another staff member.

Others had no bodies at all. All that remained of them were piles of dust.

The mob boss’s body had been found in the center of it all, broken and bloody. He’d had the most painful death, it seemed. He’d been beaten to death with what forensics had later identified as a cane and a staff.

But, while the police were concentrating on the massacre that the Parisians had left behind, the criminals had focused on the words that had been left on the building.

The green was the more basic of the two, a simple ‘We told you we were going to, you should have prepared’.

In red, though, was what was later dubbed the Crime Tier List. Here, they had detailed how they would punish different crimes. At the bottom was ‘Juvie’ which had only listed ‘Kids’. At the top was ‘Murder’ which had included, most notably, ‘Serial Killers’ and ‘Mobsters’.

Needless to say, people were a little bit more hesitant to commit crimes.

They didn’t stop. Obviously. It was Gotham.

But they did start doing things more discreetly. You could no longer find cops accepting bribes on the street or muggings out in the open or drug vendors yelling about their wares.

Instead, Gotham leaned in to a different part of its underworld, focusing more on organized crime.

Marinette and Adrien grinned at the blurry photos of their personas found in an alleyway, giving a reward for information. If they were already putting out a hit on them then the higher ups must be at least a little concerned about what they might do to them.

Good. They should be concerned.

The police tried to capture them one time.

They actually succeeded in capturing Marinette.

And then quickly realized their mistake.

She hadn’t been concerned as a gun was pressed to her back. Sure, the gun would definitely kill her. She wasn’t completely invulnerable, and her patented Ladybug Luck could only do so much when a glock was pressed to her skin. Still…

She handed over the woman that she had caught hotwiring a car and dropped the photo evidence she’d collected on the nearest desk.

“You’re under arrest for murder,” said the officer behind her.

She hummed lightly to tell him she understood (Miranda Rights and all) and let him cuff her.

And then she’d let them throw her in the holding cell.

Really, her nonchalance should have been a red flag for them. If a person you’re arresting isn’t concerned about getting caught, then you should run. Shit’s gonna go down.

She had sent up an alert to her husband with her yoyo and taken a seat in the cell. There were other people there. A good amount had actually been brought in by her or Chat Noir. But none of them dared to come near her.

An hour in, every light in the police station had flickered.

Marinette grinned widely and pushed herself to her feet. “Sounds like my cue to leave. You guys should leave, too, I doubt he’ll be happy.”

“What do you --?”

The lights went out.

She pulled on her arms until she had managed to snap her cuffs. There was a tiny yelp from nearby at the sound of the chain breaking, she didn’t pay it any mind. She rubbed her irritated wrists and walked to the bars.

Marinette leaned towards where she knew the lock was. It really was unfortunate that she was going to probably be letting out the other criminals but, really, the police should have expected this. Besides, this was a lesson. They shouldn’t have tried to capture her, nor should they attempt it again in the future.

A person screamed and she glanced up.

In the doorway was a pair of glowing green eyes.

“Hey, Chaton, don’t kill them! We dunno if any of them are nice, but on the off chance that there is, like, one here we wouldn’t want to get rid of them…”

“Alright, M’lady!” He said. “But I’m still going to beat them up a bit.”

“Sounds good!” She chirped, straightening.

His eyes dimmed slowly until the room was completely dark once more.

She kicked the cell door open and couldn’t help but laugh at the wheeze of the nearby security guard getting flattened by the metal. Really, they should have expected that the door would come off. They deserved to get hit by it if they hadn’t moved.

She hummed lightly as she leaned over the security guard and she pulled the baton from his belt. She weighed it in her hands. Not as good as her cane but it would have to do.

She listened to Adrien working his way through the policemen towards her. He had the advantage. In the dark it would be stupid to use their guns, they’d be more likely to hit their comrades if they hit anyone at all. He could just take them down one by one with them swinging blindly at him.

Wait, no. Lights were flickering on. Handheld, just normal flashlights. It seemed that there were a few smart people. Not smart enough, though, because they had just announced their locations to the second person in the room that was out to get them.

She got to work as well. She carefully slipped around and started taking out everyone who had thought to get out a flashlight. They started flicking off quickly once the police came to realize that she was targeting them.

She felt a hand tap her shoulder and she whipped around, her baton swinging, only to have someone catch her arm.

Green eyes flickered with light in front of her and she relaxed.

“Chaton,” she greeted, her voice soft so no one could hear her.

He pressed a short kiss to her lips. “M’lady.”

She felt him scoop her up in his arms and clicked her tongue, but she still wrapped her arms around his neck. She buried her face in his shoulder as he ran through the precinct. Occasionally, she’d feel his body jerk as he kicked out at someone in their way, but otherwise it was a pretty smooth ride.

And then the precinct was quiet outside of panicked breathing and people groaning in pain.

The lights flickered back on a few minutes later.

They were gone.

They tried not to seem too interested when their personas were brought up.

They had a lot of practice in this, but they were more concerned about their images this time around. This was for many reasons, but the main ones were that they were now both using their own personality for their personas and that their new personas were less stereotypically heroic.

They had made sure to remain approachable. If they found someone walking home alone while on patrol they would hop down and offer to walk them the rest of the way. They smiled and waved and gave autographs and kissed babies...

But they were also killing people. Consistently. More often than not the people they were helping would be able to spot dark red stains on their suits or weapons.

So, when they had attended a function for the Gotham elites and he had heard their personas come up nearby, he couldn’t help but listen in a bit more.

Adrien tilted his head slightly towards the conversation as he sipped at his cranberry juice.

“... don’t you think Ladybug and Chat Noir are being a bit harsh?”

He winced internally. He didn’t know what he’d expected.

“I get wanting to clean up the city, but you can’t do that if the streets are full of blood.”

“Right? They’re killing people. What if those people ended up becoming better at some point? Now they never will…”

Adrien couldn’t bring himself to listen anymore, instead looking around aimlessly as he thought.

Of course the elite of Gotham would say that, they almost always benefited from the crime that occurred in the city.

Still, they had some points...

He spotted his wife a few tables away, uncomfortably bunching her dress in her hands as she talked with another woman, and pushed the thoughts from his mind.

He’d been doing that a lot recently…

Whatever.

Adrien made his way over slowly and stopped a short distance away. After all, the woman clearly didn’t mean any harm. Marinette had just been more… let’s call it ‘hesitant’ when it came to making new friends ever since Lila had taken all her old ones away.

“Wow, your dress is gorgeous! Did you really make it yourself?”

Marinette nodded slightly, biting her lip. “Yep... I have a company and everything…”

“A company at your age? That’s so cool!”

“Yep… I do commissions if you’d like one...” she said in a tone that very much said ‘please say no’.

“I’d love one, can I have your card?”

Marinette nodded and started digging through her purse. He saw her send a look at him out of the corner of her eyes, a ‘please help’, and he sighed to himself.

He downed his cranberry juice until there was just a few more drops of the red liquid left and then stumbled over to his wife. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, beaming.

She clicked her tongue lightly as if exasperated and looked at him. “Yes?”

“Want t’go ‘ome?” He slurred.

She gave the woman an apologetic look. “I really should get him home. I’m sorry.”

“That’s fine,” said the stranger. They sighed. “I do hope I’ll be seeing you next year?”

“Maybe. I’ll see,” she said, then she hooked her arm around him. “Right, let’s get you home…”

They waited until she had half-carried him over a block away to break the act. They kept their arms around each other but he was no longer leaning on her.

She tightened her grip on him slightly. “Sorry you had to leave early.”

He shook his head. “It’s fine. They sucked, anyways.”

“Really?”

“Yeah…”

They trailed off, lost in their thoughts as they walked through the streets of Gotham.

He was the one to break the silence: “M’lady?”

She hummed to tell him she was listening.

“What if…” He sighed. “What if the thing the wish changed was us? I mean, we’re killing people because of it. That would be the kind of irony you expect from things like this…”

She hesitated, the slight frown on her face unreadable.

And then she giggled.

“What do you mean that we’re killing people because Emilie is back? I’d still have been bored if we had been in the old timeline, so I at least would have still been doing this...”

“I doubt it. Because, in that timeline, you’d already failed one city.” He felt her flinch and sighed. “Sorry… but… I don’t think you would have been able to bring yourself to do this, risking another city and everything, if you hadn’t been able to get them back.”

She was quiet but he could feel the tenseness of her shoulders underneath him.

“And I wouldn’t have done this if I hadn’t felt like all our work in Paris was useless.”

She still said nothing, only taking out her keys and unlocking the door for them. They stepped inside and dropped onto the couch as a pair…

“And if Emilie hadn’t been brought back we wouldn’t have been as isolated.

He felt her curl into his side and snake her arm over his chest. He drew her in closer.

“This is the way it has to be,” she murmured.

Who was she trying to convince? Him? Or herself?

“Besides…” she added. “The system is broken. Fixing it will take a long time, but we can’t just let people get off in the meantime.”

He sighed and buried his face in her hair.

“You’re probably right, M’lady…”

“Always am, Chaton.”

~~~

I call this one ‘I only get two angst chapters I’m making the most of it goddamnit’

Taglist

@i-am-ironic @nathleigh @mialuvscats

#another one?!#adrienette #maribat #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #chat noir #ladybug #dick grayson #nightwing #jason todd #red hood #tim drake #red robin #cassandra cain #orphan #damian wayne #robin #no betas we die like robins

142 notes · View notes

thecaptainhelm · 4 years

Text

Shut Your Mouth Pt.2

hahaha, daminette part two, wasn’t a one shot, gn gn gn.

Marinette sighed as the shower warmed up, rolling her neck and relishing in the light feeling of accomplishment. Ever since Hawkmoth had been defeated, a mere two days ago, things had been tense. Hawkmoth, now known as Gabriel Agreste, was arrested along with his assistant Nathalie Sancoeur who had since retired as Mayura the year before. It was a stroke of luck to discover that the Guardian had the ability to forcibly renounce a broken Miraculous. Something Gabriel hadn’t known, granting them extra time as he futilely tried to ‘fix’ the brooch. While that happened, she managed to finally convince Chat to at least keep him as a suspect if not out of suspicion, then to actually strike him from their list. It didn’t take long rack up evidence against him, especially after learning from the Bats of Gotham.

The battle was quiet, in the early hours of the morning, where the city forcibly cut the power to the Agreste mansion, and it only took one Venom for each while they slept defenselessly. It took only a few minutes to find evidence that he was at least working with Hawkmoth, and when they found the miraculous pin and brooch, it was confirmed that he was, indeed, Hawkmoth with Nathalie working as his henchwoman Mayura.

Soon, with what was probably the fastest trial of the century, Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur were declared guilty and sentenced to serve life in prison and an insane asylum respectively. It had only shocked her for a moment that Mayura pleaded guilty and asked to be sent directly to rehab for mental help, by reason of insanity wrought by grief. What did surprise her was that she was the one to take the miraculous and give them to the Agreste couple as an anniversary gift, ultimately setting off a chain of unforeseen consequences.

That was a whole other cake she didn’t want to bake just yet, so she decided to finally just take a moment to breathe for what felt like the first time in five years.

So it was only normal that her smartwatch chimed on the hook of the shower caddy, a picture of a frowny eagle glaring right at her. She cursed her luck, yeah, no breaks was still her usual routine. It must be real hard for the universe to break out that particular habit.

Then she remembered that she set this particular picture and ringtone for the one person who had never called.

Robin, the vigilante that she might have, kind of, definitely made an enemy of.

Who was also her crush, so that was just. Great.

In her defense, she was a human being, and human beings were capable of amazing feats. It was just that her amazing feats were more amazing bouts of stupidity. Seriously, why did she do it? Just where did her common sense escape to make her think that was even a remotely good idea, because she wanted to go there and never come back.

She had kissed-- no! She made out with Robin, the most notoriously ill-tempered member of Batman’s team. The only reason he didn’t deck her in the face was because, because, well she didn’t know! Was it mercy, a misplaced feeling of pity, perhaps?

No, actually, it was more likely that he was frozen stiff with rage. Marinette couldn’t blame him, heck, she’d be angry too, suddenly getting passionately smooched in the middle of livid rant.

She had planned on giving him her contact information for the longest time, since they'd come to the understanding that they only wanted to do what was best for everyone, the kind of understanding that only leaders could have. And to maybe get closer to him as much as professionalism allowed. So, it stood to reason that she had to go ahead and ruin that, too. She really couldn’t believe herself sometimes, who randomly kisses someone, hands them their number, and then trots off back to work? Marinette Dupain-Cheng apparently.

In fact, it was about time he called. She had pretty much an entire year to prepare herself for what was sure to be a concise and frigid rejection, maybe even a “Stay for away from, lest I stab everyone in this room and then jump out of a window out of utter disgust”? She might as well get it over with and then move on to be alone for the rest of her life.

She wiped the water out of her eyes and squinted at the text message, before jumping out the shower with a loud curse. She hurriedly dried off and put on her clothes, before heading to the Miracle Box, rereading his message.

Emergency evac, one person, requesting Pegasus’ portal twenty kilometers horizontally above sea level precisely fifteen minutes after this message. Coordinates attached.

The message was sent ten minutes ago. How long was she catastrophizing for?!

Max was partying along with the rest of Paris while she took a breather in her art studio. Even with the full fifteen minutes she wouldn’t be able to find him in time. Shit, would she even be able to transform in time?

She grabbed the glasses from the box and Kaalki appeared in a proud flash.

“No time, there’s trouble,” she panted. “Ready?”

“Hmph, of course,” Kaalki tossed her head. “Let’s go, shall we?”

“Kaalki, transform me!” She eyed the time, two minutes left. She memorized the coordinates as she searched for a suitable place for him to land, and realized she was going to have to catch him in her storage closet.

One minute left. She opened the door and cleared space in the center of the room.

Thirty-five seconds. She stood on an old chair that she moved into the center of the room.

Twenty seconds, and she called, “Voyage!” and threw the portal up towards the ceiling.

Zero. She braced for impact and caught a body that plummeted through in a free fall.

“Ow,” she closed the portal with a groan, amidst the shattered pieces of what used to be a pretty sturdy chair.

“Don’t complain, it could have been worse.” A deep voice rasped.

Wow, to think she missed him, that asshole.

“Shut up, Robi-- oh my god your arm! Get up, getupgetupgetup!” She hauled him up as gently as possible, annoyance giving way to concern.

Robin was, putting it lightly, a mess. He had lost his mask, his eye was swollen shut and his face was bruised with cuts all over, and he was sticky with blood practically everywhere she looked. It was his arm that she was most concerned about, however. It was set in a splint, but he must have been in a rush because it was set wrong, his thumb facing perpendicular lyaway from his body.

“I am fine,” he sagged into her, weary. “I just need a place to stay for the night.”

“If you weren’t so grievously injured, I’d throw you out for that,” she remarked. “But guess what? It’s your lucky night monsieur, and I’m a trained field medic.” Robin looked at her, maskless, and she had to dart her eyes away from his maskless face.

“Oh, so Ladybug finally started replacing her subpar lineup? About time, either she benched them or Hawkmoth would kill them at some point. They were woefully incompent.” Yep, this was definitely Robin, no doubt about it with that attitude.

She called off the transformation and was somewhat pleased when he reflexively jerked his head away. She pulled him into a princess carry and made her way back to the bathroom, inwardly delighting at his reaction. She would never let him live this down.

“It’s me, Robin. Ladybug. Pegasus couldn’t make it, so you’ll have to do with me instead of a random stand-in.” She raised her brow, not that he could see it.

“Unless that bothers you, Boy Wonder?”

“...I’m not,” he mumbled.

“Hm?”

“I’m not Robin anymore.”

What. What.

“What?”

“I’ve retired, effective as of nine months ago today, Robin’s cape has been hung up for the next generation.”

Relief didn’t come yet. “Oh, so you’ve taken on a new mantle? Or are you finally the next Batman, though it would take some time to fill those shoulders. Literally, I mean that literally, um.” She observed his downcast expression and once again started walking to the bathroom. When had she stopped?

“I’m not taking over anything,” he said sullenly. “I can’t. Not after what I did.”

“Come on, it couldn’t have been so bad,” she opened the door with her heel as she backed them towards the stool by the sink. She set him down carefully, taking full stock of his injuries.

“It was. Batman’s cowl has always represented a strict moral code, one that I’ve always...struggled to adhere to.”

Marinette bit her lip as she kneeled in front of him. He didn’t say anymore, and she couldn’t think of anything to say. She sighed and brought out her med kit from the towel cabinet. She was always like this with him.

With Robin (now not Robin?) she had always drawn a blank. She could read his emotions somewhat well, had a good grasp on his moods, and could have genuinely insightful conversations with him. It was only at crucial moments like this that she struggled. Even with Adrien she had always known what she wanted to say, but Robin was different. Everything about him screamed “one chance only” and that caused her mind to go blank. It was so unbelievably frustrating that she could scream.

Marinette handed the glasses to Kaalki and nodded towards her purse hanging on the door handle. The kwami zoomed towards it and soon disappeared into it with the miraculous.

“Robin,” she called gently. He didn’t move. “I’ll have to cut your shirt off, okay? I need to see where the blood is coming from.”

“It’s not mine.The blood.” He kept his gaze away as she froze.

“Well, we’ll have to reset that arm,” she tried again. “It’s not...it’s not looking good, to say the least.”

He looked towards his mangled right arm and nodded.

It took some time to undo the splint and she tried not to think about where he had been for him to only have rotted wood and prison rags on hand. She cut his shirt off at the sleeve and down his middle, pulling it off and exposing a painful canvas of mottled bruises, scrapes, and cuts. She handed him her towel and he stuffed it in his mouth without a word. She gently untied the splint.

“Are you ready?” She gazed at him resolutely. He nodded and braced himself as best he could.

“On my count, one, two--” She re-broke his arm a count early on purpose.

“Arrghh! Ffuk!!” He jerked out of her grip.

“Hold still!” He spat out the towel and glared in response.

“Mizq dhiraei allaeaynat 'aw aidbitha!!!” She only understood ‘rip’ and ‘arm’ but she got the gist of his screaming.

“Alright it’s done now, I’m setting it, so stop moving,” She couldn’t help but sigh under his vicious scowl.

“Tsk. Be grateful that I can barely discern your features Ladybug. You’re on my shit list and I don’t feel like kicking your ass today.”

“Wow, thanks for saving me Ladybug, I could have died if it weren’t for you!” Marinette couldn’t help but snark at him.

“...tsk!” Yep, that was as good as she was going to get in his condition.

After years of fighting akuma victims she was able to observe the complex and hidden emotions of her opponents and the civilians that she rescued. And right now, her experience was telling her that Robin had more than his pride ruined. His self-confident, courageous, and taciturn nature seemed to be regressing as he fell back into what was probably a self-defense mechanism. For him to be like this instead of exhausted in his current state told her that he must have been through a lot since she last saw him.

She started to gently clean the blood off and noted the bruises underneath definitely came from an intense melee battle. Most of them were in places that made her cringe just looking at them. At least he doesn’t have any other broken bones, or stab wounds. Lucky him.

Robin put an ice pack to his face in the meanwhile and wouldn’t look in her direction.

It was quiet for a while. “So, what should I call you, then?” And she had to open her big fat mouth, didn’t she? Now it was awkward. It was awkward, and he hated her, and she was never speaking again, ever.

“Damian.” Uh oh.That didn’t sound like a moniker.

“Um, nice code name?” She started disinfecting his cuts and scrapes, trying not to panic.

“I no longer require such aliases.” Ok, process that later, heal Robin now. Process. Later.

“Ro--, Damian, uh, well,” She sighed. “My offer still stands, you know?”

He made a quiet noise.

“Last time I saw you, I mean. I had left in a rush,”-- after kissing you senseless-- “but I’m always here to listen if you want to talk about what happened.”

Robin, or Damian now, she still wasn’t used to that, froze. His brows furrowed and he strangely went red in the face, before sighing, slumping against the sink.

“I...the blood’s not mine. It hasn’t been my for a long time, but it might as well be for how long I’ve carried it. I’m not a good person so much as to blame myself completely, but I do recognize some of the fault as mine. I’d gotten help, and I was making progress, but it wasn’t enough. I started falling back into old habits and I hated it. I tried and I failed, and I kept trying and failing for months and I…” He gained a look of despair, the first real emotion she’s seen on him since he dropped in.

“I couldn’t do it anymore. I just kept disappointing everyone and I hated it so much,” he dug his fingers into his matted hair.

“So, I left. I decided to go on a journey to try and repent, and it was working, at least I thought it did. But, then I had stumbled upon a Shadows base and I…” He peered unseeing at the floor.

“It was like I lost all sense of reason. I lay siege to the entire facility and found my way to the next base. It all turned into an endless cycle, all the way until I reached headquarters and inadvertently met up with high ranking members of the Justice League, teaming up to diminish their power. We were successful, but a candidate for the position of the Demon’s Head activated the self-destruct module. Everyone was scrambling to get out and suddenly my mind felt clearer than it had ever been.” He took a deep breath and Marinette moved closer to offer some comfort. He leaned towards her gratefully.

“The Justice League had already had an escape route, but the Shadows were in disarray for some reason. After I was sure my old comrades were out, I locked all the doors, and dived down to a ceremonial bathing chamber.”

“And that’s where I came in,” she whispered. I think I’m starting to like him more than I should. What is wrong with me?! Who made me this way?! She had some complaints in regards to that.

“You saved my life,” he inclined his head in an informal bow. “Thank you, Ladybug.”

“...Marinette.” She croaked suddenly. She was left reeling from his info dump and her intense, romantic feelings. So, why not go for a confession?

Damian whipped his head up in disbelief.

“My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Enchanté, Damian.” She smiled at his bewildered state, wiping away a bit of blood under his chin. She opened her mouth to say more, but didn’t get the chance.

Damian leapt up, furious. “You fool! I knew you were a space cadet, but I didn’t think your brain drifted beyond the stars! How utterly moronic!”

“Wait, why are you so mad?!” She panicked. She kind of had a spur of the moment idea to kiss him on his split lip, but that was looking less and less likely to happen.

(Damn it.)

“You told me your name!” he shouted.

“Yes, and you told me your’s?” She retorted.

“Have you forgotten Hawkmoth?! Your enemy that can read the minds of the emotionally disturbed should he decide to possess them!” He started to hobble out of the bathroom, still half-treated and mostly in pain.

Oh.

Oh!

“I have to leave, now! If I can stay calm long enough to reach the trains then I’ll be moving too fast for a butterfly to suddenly get me.”

“Uh, Damian?”

“No, it might already be enroute to someone else and might even already be on board,” He winced and stumbled on the tassel rug in the hallway.

“Woah, hang on a second Damian,” she grabbed him before he could fall, but he pulled out of her grip.

“We don’t have time for this, I can guarantee that I would be one of the worst akumas you’ve faced in your hero career, nevermind the insider information I hold within my mind.”

“Yes, but listen to me,” Damian moved towards the small sitting area, not listening to her.

Again.

“This safehouse should be around one hundred kilometers from the city limits, you’re safe for now, but Hawkmoth’s estimated rate of growth was--”

That’s it!

Marinette grabbed his jaw and slammed it closed. She had had enough.

“This isn’t a safehouse, we’re in my art studio,” she snapped. She could see the rage begin to build to new heights in his eye.

“No, shut your mouth, and listen!” A vein in his forehead started to pulse, but he didn't move to speak.

Good.

“Hawkmoth has been defeated as of last week, and the trial was concluded a couple days ago. Going by what you told me, you've been out the loop for almost a year, so you don’t know that my team and I had closed in on Hawkmoth’s trail some time ago and were able to build a solid case that’ll go through in a court of law,” She carefully let him go.

“So, you’re safe, I’m safe, and Paris is safe too.” She’d already started to calm down in the middle of her explanation, and idly noted that she should probably take an anger management class.

And sign up for therapy. Lots of it, preferably.

Damian nodded slowly as he rubbed his jaw and she couldn’t help her wince.

“Sorry, did I handle you too roughly? Come here,” she started to pull him back towards the bathroom. He resisted.

“No, it’s fine, no damage just from that much force,” he tugged his arm away but she quickly moved behind him and began to push him through the bathroom door.

“Well, I’m not done treating you, so get back in there.” He grabbed the door frame and pushed back, and her calm demeanor left as quick as it came. Was it even truly there to begin with?

“I said,” she picked him up and threw him back on the stool where he grasped for stability.

“Come here.” She leaned in close to his bruised face, and wow, the one eye that she could see was so very, very green. “I’m not done with you, yet.”

“...okay,” he whispered. He kept his head down.

It didn’t take long to finish disinfecting the rest of his wounds, and soon she started applying ointment to the worst of his bruises. She had enough, but she was definitely going to be restocking in order to play his nursemaid for the next week or so. She rose to her feet and started packing away her kit.

“I’ll give you some pain meds for the night, I’ll leave you to take care of the injuries under the rest of your clothes. Come find me in the kitchenette. I’ll make something for us, though it won’t be anything fancy.”

“That is fine.” Marinette frowned at the strange husk in his voice. Did someone try to suffocate him? Why hadn’t she noticed until now?

She kneeled beside him and reached around him for the water bottle she had left in there earlier, but noticed him twitch and start to blush. Did he get a fever too?

She observed his red face and clear, but dilated eyes. Merde, did she embarrass him from earlier? She knew he had a large ego, but it was his own fault for being stubborn.

“Here, get yourself some water from the sink,” she handed the glittery black bottle to him and hurriedly strode out of the bathroom, calling,

“Holler if you need me!”

Completely aware of the flustered state she left Damian in. Though not for the reason she thinks, at least.

#daminette #maribat #part two

232 notes · View notes

princess-of-the-corner · 3 years

Note

Phantom Chloe/

Hawkmoth: *evil gloating as the heroes lie in pain*

A sudden voice: GABRIEL AGRESTE YOU MOTHERFUCKER!

Hawkmoth: *turns* Emilie?!

Ghost Emile: Mind explaining to me why you're attacking Paris, AND OUR SON, using the Butterfly Miraculous?

Ghost Emilie: *turns to Mayura* And don't think you're getting off the hook either Nathalie!

Oh he's in a lot of trouble.

#phantom chloé au

24 notes · View notes

p-artsypants · 4 years

Text

Perfect, No Matter What

In which Gabriel sets the bar even lower for himself, a reveal happens because of pain medication, and the new guardian actually goes to Chloé for advice.

At least Adrien gets some kisses out of it.

I’ve been watching ‘Botched’ while I work remotely and it took me to dangerous places.

Ao3 | FF.net

—

You know the phrase, ‘beauty is pain’? Well, some people knew that better than others.

Especially Adrien Agreste.

Diets, rigorous exercise, intense skin care routine including microdermabrasion, UV treatment, and teeth whitening.

Perfection.

And he hated it.

At this point in his life, he feared that his slew of doctors thought he was horribly vain.

Really, he was just the victim of a highly critical father.

On a Friday, Adrien prepared for school as usual. He dressed casually, lightly styled his hair, and ate breakfast.

As he came back down the stairs after grabbing his bag, his father was waiting for him.

“Father?”

“Just here to see you off to school.”

That was new, and concerning, to say the least. “Oh…thanks?”

“Hmm,” Gabriel hummed, stepping into his personal space. Without another word, he hooked his thumb around Adrien’s chin, manipulating his head in different directions.

“What?”

“Hush.”

Adrien just waited in fear as his father examined him, turning his face this way and that, and a look of displeasure was growing on his face, stronger and stronger.

Finally, blessedly, he pulled away. “That will be all. Get off to school.”

“Uh…okay.”

With confusion and paranoia, Adrien went to school.

—

The day continued on as normal. No akumas, no unnecessary drama, easy homework, nothing to stress about.

And nothing to bring Adrien’s attention away from his father’s strange behavior this morning.

The class before lunch, his paranoia picked up when Nathalie interrupted the lesson.

“Pardon the intrusion, Adrien has a doctor’s appointment, and will be out for the rest of the day.”

This was news to him, and he could only gape.

“Come on Adrien, get your stuff. Is one of your friends willing to take notes?”

“Marinette will!” Alya volunteered.

“Y-yeah! Of course I will!”

“See to it that you drop it off at the mansion after school.”

“I have fencing after school, we have a tournament tomorrow.” Adrien pointed out, while still shoveling his books into his bag.

“I’m afraid you won’t be participating in the tournament, or any other weekend activities.”

“What? Why?”

“I’ll explain in the car, please now, hurry.”

Adrien did as told, not before casting a fearful look to his friends.

—

Marinette couldn’t stop thinking about Adrien.

Not that it was any different than usual, but that look on his face…

It was haunting.

The look of complete horror and loss. To be fair, if she had received the same news he had, she probably would have been blindsided as well.

The reaction at the house when she brought his homework wasn’t insightful either. Just like every time she brought something for him, the camera came out, the drawer opened, and that was it. No communication, no nothing.

“I don’t know Tikki, should I text him? Or would that be weird? Does he know I have his number?”

“Marinette, I’m sure he’d love to get a text from you. Just ask him if he got the notes.”

“Great idea! Simple! I can’t butcher it!” She took out her phone and read aloud as she typed. “Hey Adrien…it’s Marinette. Alya gave me your number…did you get the homework? Let me know if anything is unclear, or if you need anything else.”

“Good!”

“Would a heart be too much?”

“It might be a comfort for him? Sending him love in his isolation.”

“Okay. Heart. And send!” She hit the button and nearly threw her phone in anxiety.

Then she waited.

And waited.

An hour or so passed as she tapped her foot with tense energy.

“Whatever he was pulled for is probably still going on. I wouldn’t worry about it, Marinette. Adrien isn't the type to leave someone on read.”

Taking a calming breath, Marinette nodded in agreement. “You’re right, I’ll just suck it up! I might hear from him tonight.”

So she spent the day doing homework, and a bit of various projects to stay busy.

Nearing patrol time, Plagg showed up on her desk, spooking her. “Hey pigtails.”

“Ah! Plagg! What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with Chat? It’s almost time for patrol.”

“Nah, not for him!”

“This is joint patrol. It’s Friday night.”

“Yeah, well I’m here to let you know that he won’t be joining you tonight, and I left him because I knew he was going to try to transform, and he’s in no shape to!”

“Is he sick? Injured?”

“Injured.” Plagg confirmed. “Not dire, and he’s already been treated…though there was no reason to be hurt in the first place.” He muttered that last part to himself.

“Is he okay?”

The little cat shrugged. “Eh, probably. Little trauma never hurt anyone. It’s over now.”

“What happened?”

“That, I can’t tell you. Though I’m sure you’ll see it eventually. I’d just prefer to let this play out naturally and see what happens.”

“You really are chaotic, aren’t you?”

He beamed. “Only the most chaotic. Well, I’m here to join you, so you aren’t patrolling alone. That way he’ll be happy, and you’ll be happy that he’s not out with an injury.”

“That’s bizarrely considerate of you.” She snorted.

“I know, aren’t I the best?”

She scratched him between the ears. “The best. Now let’s go!”

—

Monday morning finally came. Marinette had finally received a response from Adrien on Saturday, which was just ‘yes I did, thank you!’ with a little heart as well.

It melted her a little.

But Adrien didn’t elaborate any more. It was complete radio silence from him, both to her, and to Nino, who had also tried to reach out.

But now it was Monday, and hopefully he would be here.

“Chloe,” Nino asked. “Did you hear anything from Adrien this weekend?”

“No!” She exasperated. “I called him like nine times, and not once did he answer! Nathalie said he was sleeping when I called her. And Gabriel didn’t answer either. It was ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”

“He confirmed that he got my notes, but didn’t say anything else to me.” Marinette added. “I’m kinda worried.”

“Me too. He should be here by now.”

Luckily, the tension didn’t last long, as Adrien’s extremely tired voice spoke from the doorway. “Hi guys…”

Record scratch.

He looked hideous.

Both eyes were black, with huge purple swollen bags on each cheek. It was swollen so bad, his eyes were half shut. A thick bandage rested on the top of his nose, and over the nostrils, leaving just the little pink tip poking out.

“Dude!”

“Hey…” He couldn’t even smile, and looked to be in a lot of pain. He shuffled to his seat and sat down.

“What happened bro? You look like you got hit by a bus!”

“You really shouldn’t even be here.” Alya added. “That looks really bad.”

“My dad didn’t want me to come, but I begged him. I already missed half of Friday. I didn’t want to fall behind.”

“Yeah, but like, what happened?”

Adrien hesitated a moment, and then admitted, “I ran into a wall.”

Chloe scoffed, glaring at him with an absolutely disgusted look on her face. “Sure, right.”

“You broke your nose?”

“Yeah, really badly. Doctor got me all fixed up though. I’ll be fine!”

Marinette wasn’t convinced, however. It was weird that he had been pulled out of school for some sudden weekend event, only to show up on Monday with a broken nose.

Unless Adrien, in a desperate move to get out of the weekend plans, ran headfirst into a wall, which was admittedly kind of funny.

Or something more sinister was going on instead.

Nino and Alya continued to badger him about it, but Adrien just reassured them that he was fine.

But Marinette took notice of the bandage on the inside of his right ear too. How does one damage an ear when running headlong into a wall?

Marinette’s phone buzzed, a message from Chloe, of all people.

Chloe: I can see that look on your face. Adrien is lying. I want you to get the truth out of him.

That was surprising!

Marinette: What? Why me?

Chloe: Because if this is what I think it is, he’ll never admit it to me. And I need to know if I need to be disappointed in him or Gabriel.

Marinette: What are you talking about? And why me?

Chloe: It’s not my place to say, okay? You’re the class rep, and his friend. You’re good at coaxing people to open up. Do this for me and I’ll buy you some fabric or something. Don’t make me beg.

Marinette considered it. Seeing Adrien look like this quieted that part in her brain that just shouted ‘Adrien Adrien Adrien!’ And brought out ‘He’s hurt, he’s vulnerable, protect him!’

Marinette: You don’t need to buy me anything. I’ll try to talk to him, for his sake. I won’t mention you at all.

Chloe: Good. Let me know the details, alright? I’m very concerned.

Marinette: Obviously, if you’re asking for my help.

Chloe: Don’t get used to it.

Marinette: I won’t. :)

Turns out, Marinette didn’t even need to plan out how she was going to approach Adrien. He made it easy for her. At lunch, he approached her.

“Hey Marinette, can I talk to you for a sec?” His voice was nasally and groggy.

“Sure thing!” She chirped, leading him to a quiet corner. Her blood pressure spiked. Did he find out that Chloe had talked to her? Was he about to tell her to mind her own business??

“I have a really big favor to ask, and you can say no, but I just thought...”

“Whatever you need,” she laid a hand on his arm. “Just say the word.” Okay, maybe she was coming on too strong, but that nose…

He kind of smiled, though it looked painful. “Sorry, I’m not supposed to smile.”

“Gotcha. We’re serious here.” She steeled her mouth into a neutral grimace.

“I begged my dad to let me come back to school, but I didn’t realize how tired the...pain meds were making me. Do you think your parents would mind if I crashed on your couch until the end of the day? You’re just so close to school and—“

“I understand completely!” She smiled at him, only to make that neutral face a minute later. “I mean, yes. I’m sure it’ll be okay with them. You okay to come now?”

“Yeah, my chef sent me with some soup in a thermos.”

“Alright, then let’s go.”

Over at the bakery, which was blessedly not busy for lunchtime, Sabine noticed Adrien and gasped.

“Oh honey! What happened?!”

He winced. “I Uh...I ran into a wall.”

“He’s already been to the doctor.” Marinette clarified. “He was just wondering if he could nap on the couch for a few hours. The painkillers are making him groggy.”

Tom came into the room at his wife’s exclamation. “I bet it’s hard to sleep with that too.”

“Yes, exactly.” Adrien breathed.

“Of course you can nap upstairs. You’re always welcome whenever!”

“Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

“You might be better off in Marinette’s room so we don’t disturb you.”

“Is that okay with you, Marinette?” He asked.

“Oh! Yes! Of course! Wherever you want! Umm I’ll show you upstairs!” And she gestured him onward.

In her room, Adrien looked around as he sat his bag down. “You still have the pictures of me.” He said fondly.

She had forgotten about them in her worry. “Oh! Yep! I like to look at them for inspiration, and to support you, you know?”

He walked over to her wall and stopped to look at one. “And...if I didn’t look like this anymore? Would you still like them? Like me?”

What an odd thing to wonder. “Of course. Are you worried that you’re going to look different now because you broke your nose?”

He was quiet for a moment, then admitted. “Yeah.”

“Don’t worry, Adrien. I’m sure it’ll heal just fine.”

“Yeah, I trust you.”

She awkwardly patted her hands against her thighs. “So...you can use my bed, or you can just use the chaise...”

“Can I steal that big cat pillow? I’m supposed to sleep sitting up.”

“Oh yes! Of course!” She scrambled up to grab it for him. “Anything else I can get you? Where’s your soup? I’ll warm it up for you.”

He gave her that warm and tender smile that made her heart swell. “You’re the best, Marinette.” He took out the thermos from his bag. “Could I also have some water? I’m going to take some more drugs.”

She giggled, “sure thing. I’ll be back in a sec.”

She took the soup downstairs and poured it into a bowl, then popped it in the microwave. Then she got a glass of water and a bag of frozen peas and went back upstairs.

Adrien was reclining on the chaise with his head back, resting.

“Here’s your water,” she announced, sitting by his side.

“Ugh, thank you. My face is killing me.”

She snickered at him. “There’s a mean joke here, but I won’t say it.”

“You’re not supposed to make me laugh, remember?”

“Oh right, sorry.”

He took the water and popped a few pills. “Fair warning, this medicine makes me a wee loopy, so...”

“Well, I’ll be going back after lunch, so you probably won’t embarrass yourself too badly.”

“Mmm, I trust you won’t tell anyone if I confess my undying love for fried chicken.”

“Your secrets are safe with me.”

The microwave dinged and she excused herself to get it. The bowl was too hot to take out, or even hold to eat out of. So she took the time to make a sandwich for her own lunch, and grabbed an extra slice of fresh bread for Adrien.

Returning upstairs, Adrien was reclined again, with the frozen peas on his face.

“Soups on.”

“Feed me...” he begged weakly.

She almost dropped the tray she was carrying. “What? I mean, are you sure? I uh...”

He made a grabby hand toward her. “Soup soup...”

“Oh,” she breathed out. “The medicine kicked in fast.”

“Me want soooooup.” He moaned, absolutely miserable.

Seeing him so vulnerable and slightly childish was so sad.

And kinda cute.

“Okay, I’ve got it, but you have to sit up first. I don’t want you to spill on yourself.”

He moaned and groaned as he shimmied up. “Otay?”

Marinette giggled, “Otay.” She set the tray on his lap. “I’m not used to high Adrien.”

“Hi Marinette.”

She giggled again, “no, I meant you’re being goofy.”

“H-yuck.”

She shook her head. “Eat your soup, Adrien.”

“Yes mom.” He slowly spooned up his soup. He was quiet as he did so, looking like he was focusing hard on it. His eyes blinked slowly, like he was going to fall asleep at any second. Finally, he pulled away a half empty bowl and held it out to her.

“You done?”

He nodded.

“Okay.” She placed the bowl on the tray and stood. “Let’s get you a blanket.”

His eyes closed as he settled back down.

She grabbed a fuzzy blanket from her bed and draped it over him, which he immediately snuggled into.

“Alright, you rest as long as you need to. I’ll rush back here at the end of school to wake you up.”

He took her hand. “Mari?”

“Hmm?”

“I didn’t run into a wall.” He confessed in a whisper, tears gathering in his eyes.

Immediately, she sat by his side and grasped his hand. “What happened?”

“I got a nose job.”

Her jaw dropped. She never imagined Adrien as a vain person, so unless this was for his health, it kind of changed her entire perception of him.

“I didn’t want to.” A tear streaked down his cheek. “My dad made me. He pulled me out of school and took me to the doctor. They said my cartilage was shattered, probably from all the hits I take as Chat Noir…”

“They said that?” Her mouth was dry.

“They don’t know I’m Chat…no one does. You won’t tell, right Mari? Fried chicken?”

She nodded fervently. “Of course Adrien. My lips are sealed.”

He nodded slowly, starting to relax more. “They had to rebuild my nose. They took cartilage from my rib, and skin from my ear. It hurts all over.”

“Even with the medication?”

“I’ll never be good enough.” Another tear rolled down his cheek. “Not for him, not for her…no one.”

Marinette was torn between the fear of him remembering and forgetting what she was about to do. Nonetheless, she cupped his very bruised cheek. “Adrien. Even if your nose fell right off your face, I…I love you. I think you’re perfect.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Remember when we first met? When I yelled at you over the gum?”

“Dumb gum…”

“Yeah, I thought you were just like Chloe. Just a spoiled, pretty, rich kid.”

“But I am, I’m such a brat.” He nuzzled his face gently into her hand.

“No you’re not. It was never your looks that made me like you. It was your kindness. Okay?”

He slowly blinked at her. “My face hurts.”

Very gently, she leaned in and kissed the very tip of his nose. “All better.”

“Mari lucky kiss. Just like lucky charm.” His eyes fell closed. “Don’t tell anyone about nose job, ‘kay? Dad’s not bad, he’s just grieving…”

Marinette gave a long exhale. Being distant and withdrawn from society? Grieving. Forcing his son to get a nose job at 15? Insane.

There was just a lot in this conversation that was too much to unpack in the first place.

File the whole ‘Adrien is Chat Noir’ thing away to freak out about later.

“I promised, I won’t tell a soul.” Except Chloe, because it seemed like she had guessed it already.

“Night night…” He mumbled, letting the drugs pass him into the world of slumber.

She petted his head. “Night kitty.”

He didn’t say anything else after that, so she safely assumed he finally fell asleep.

With the calmness that only comes to someone in shock, Marinette collected the dishes and took them downstairs, placing them in the sink.

Plagg and Tikki quietly followed behind, watching her with concern.

When the dishes were safe, she slowly turned around, spotting them floating there, gazing at her.

“I…” She began. “Where to start?”

“Well, for one thing,” Plagg began. “He hasn’t been that talkative to anyone else all weekend, so he must really trust you.”

“A nose job! A freaking—plastic surgery! He’s 15! What the hell—who does that!? To their kid!”

“Oh good,” said Plagg. “She’s not freaking out about the other thing yet.”

“I mean, if it was a medical thing, like a deviated septum or something, I’d understand, but it didn’t seem like that all! Was it like that? Is he just delusional? Tell me he’s delusional, Plagg.”

“Well…he is delusional. But his dad said his nose was developing an ‘unsightly hump’ to it.”

“A hump! A HUMP!!? What if this surgery is botched!? What then, Gabriel!?” She gasped and grabbed Plagg. “PLAGG!”

“Yes?”

“YOU’RE HERE!”

“Yes?”

“HE REALLY IS CHAT NOIR!?”

“Shout a little louder, I don’t think they heard you in Los Angeles.”

“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod—“

Tikki flew up in front of her face. “Marinette, you’re the guardian now. You had to find out eventually.”

“Yeah, but not while he’s high on painkillers! He’s already had his nose ripped away from him! He didn’t need to lose his identity too!”

Plagg phased out of her hands. “Why don’t you take a nice calming breath.”

“I AM CALM!”

“Yeah, I like to scream when I’m calm too.”

She sunk to the floor, hyperventilating.

“What’s the big deal anyway?” Plagg asked, lounging on her thigh.

“What’s the big deal? What’s the big deal!?”

“Repeating my question is not an answer.”

“The ‘big deal’ is that Chat Noir and Adrien are the same person! The love of my life, and my partner! The same!”

“So this is a happy freak out?”

“No! Yes! I don’t know!” She slapped her hands over her face. “I’m confused.”

“Obviously.”

“Okay Plagg, lay off. This is a lot of information to deal with.” Tikki pacified. “It’s a good thing, Marinette. You know, it might be a good idea if he knows who you are. Once he feels better though.”

“I think my brain is about to explode.”

“Join the club. Man, you got a set of pipes.”

Marinette took a shaky breath. “Okay, okay, I’m calm. I’m cool! Just…I’ll worry about Chat Noir later. What should I do about Adrien?”

“Stutter like a moron?”

“Plagg, seriously, stop.”

“Killjoy.”

“What about Adrien?” Tikki urged.

“Should I call the police or something? Is it legal for a 15 year old to get a nose job?”

Plagg got up and started to float around the kitchen. “It is for the right price.”

“Chloe wanted to know who she was supposed to be disappointed with. Should I tell her? Do you think she would know what to do?”

“You really want to ask Chloe for advice?”

“This is so out of the realm of what I know!” She threw her hands up. “I know superhero and Miraculous stuff, and designing and fashion, and you know, normal teenage stuff! I don’t know anything about the legal ramifications about illegal nose jobs on minors!”

Tikki patted her hand. “I think you should talk it over with Chloe. I know you’re pretty disappointed in her because of Miracle Queen, but Adrien is really her only friend. She might be respectful of him. Either way, someone needs to know about it. It’s not okay.”

Marinette nodded. “Yeah, I suppose she is the best to talk to right now.” She winced. “I can’t believe I’m going to Chloe.”

“I’ll stay behind with Adrien,” Plagg assured. “Not that I’d want to be anywhere else.”

“I wouldn’t want you to be anywhere else either. Thankfully my parents are home. I’m sure they’ll check on him periodically.”

“Then all that’s left to do is to go back to school and act like you only got one piece of life changing information instead of two.” Tikki grinned.

“And who’s better at fibbing than me?” Marinette put her hands on her hips.

“Ummm, everyone else in the world? Is that a trick question?”

Marinette groaned. “Just get in the bag.”

—

Back at school, as soon as she walked in the door, Marinette was grabbed by the wrist and yanked off into a solitary corner. She had expected to be shanghaied by Chloe, but not quite so violently.

“Soooo?” She asked, once they were alone. “Where’s Adrien? I saw you guys leaving together!”

“Relax,” Marinette hushed. “He needed a place to lie down for a while and didn’t want to go home. Also, he didn’t want to go far.”

Chloe pursed her lips. “I suppose that makes sense. So? Did you get it out of him?”

“Look Chloe, he did tell me what happened, but he asked me not to tell anyone. So I will not confirm that his father made him get a nose job.”

Chloe grunted, balling up her fists. “That piece of—“ a string of swears came out of her mouth that were completely unladylike. “Alright, what are we going to do?”

“I was hoping you had something in mind. I’m not sure what we even can do.”

“I know Gabriel will weasel his way out of it if we go to the authorities. And even if we did, Adrien would hate us for getting his father in trouble.”

“Yeah...” Marinette sighed. “Is it Stockholm syndrome?”

“What?”

“When you’re locked up for so long you start to care for your warden instead of waiting to leave? Or else Gabriel is secretly affectionate and we never see it.”

“He changed a lot. He used to be...at least a little warmer. Gentler. But I’d never call him a good dad.”

Marinette frowned. “I...have an idea. It’s not a good idea. In fact, it’s a really really bad idea.”

“Let me hear it.”

“What if...” she scrunched her lips. “We’d have to convince Adrien, but what if we botched the surgery?”

Chloe’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

“Like...we fiddled with the recovery, and made it look like the surgeon did a bad job? Then the surgeon who operated on a minor would get in trouble, and Gabriel would be forced to recognize that his meddling ruined Adrien’s nose.”

Chloe grimaced. “That’s pretty devious, even for you Dupain-Cheng.”

“It’s all I got at this very second.”

“Isn’t that dangerous too?”

“Look, I said it was a bad idea.”

“But...”

“But...?”

“It would get Adrikins out of modeling for a little while. At least until it heals. Then Gabriel will be forced to shell out more to get it properly fixed...”

“Forget it, this is a bad idea.”

“No no,” Chloe insisted, a malicious smile in her face that only came with her dastardly ideas. “This could work. You mention it to Adrien. Caution all the dangers and what not, but if you plant that seed in his head...we can go from there.”

“Why don’t you do it?”

“Because I’m not supposed to know about the nose job, duh!”

She had a point.

“Now let’s get to class before anyone thinks we’re friends or something.”

—

After school, Marinette rushed out of the building to get to Adrien before his driver came.

But it was no use, the Gorilla was already waiting in front of the school.

Dare she even attempt to sneak Adrien back over? Or should she just let the man in on the secret?

Believing that honesty was the best policy, Marinette approached the sedan and knocked on the window.

The gorilla rolled it down, giving her a patient look.

“Hi! Um, Adrien is at my house.” She pointed to the bakery. “At lunch, he got drowsy from the painkillers and asked if he could nap on my couch. I don’t think he wanted to go home—“

But the bodyguard understood, and beckoned her on, then started the car.

Marinette hurried back to the bakery. Inside, she greeted her mother with a kiss.

“I checked on him an hour ago,” said Sabine. “He was still sleeping.”

“Thanks Maman!” She called as she was already halfway up the stairs.

In the apartment, a little voice in her head reminded her gently, “Adrien is Chat Noir,” as she started up the stairs to her room.

She did a u-turn and came back down. “Oh I’m not ready...” she lamented.

“You don’t have to be right now,” Tikki provided. “You just have to wake him up so he goes home.”

“Yeah, yeah okay. I can...how am I supposed to wake him up?”

“With a kiss?” Tikki batted her eyes, mocking her.

“What! No! No I can’t!” She covered her red face. “I’ll just—shake him!”

And she trudged up the stairs.

Seeing sleeping Adrien, however, melted her heart. He was propped up, though slightly leaning towards the trap door. At some point during his nap, he (or Plagg) had snagged the Ladybug plush from the box in the corner, and he was now cuddling it. His mouth was open to breathe and he snored ever so gently.

He was precious.

Pushing away all hesitation, Marinette stepped forward and swept the bangs from his forehead. His eyes twitched at the touch, though he continued to sleep.

Daintily, she pressed a kiss to his forehead, lingering for just a moment.

“Wakey wakey, my Prince.” She said fondly.

Adrien’s face screwed up, and then he moaned in pain from moving his nose. “Huh?”

“Adrien?”

“My Lady?”

“It’s Marinette.”

He opened his eyes, blinking rapidly to focus them. “Oh…Marinette?”

“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.”

“How long was I out?”

“Well, schools over. So about three hours.”

He shut his eyes. “It feels like it was only 15 minutes.”

“Well, I explained everything to your driver and he’s waiting outside. You can go home and go back to sleep.”

He opened his eyes again, and looked at her. “Not gonna lie, I really liked sleeping here. It was…warmer. Cozier.”

“Well, if you decide to try to go to school again tomorrow, you can nap here again…or anytime you’d like to. If you need to. You’re welcome whenever, that is.”

He sat up and stretched, his shirt riding up and revealing his tummy.

She did not look.

(Yes she did.)

“Hmm…I think I’ll try out your bed next.”

Her eyes blew wide. “Wh-what?”

“This was comfortable, don’t get me wrong. But the bed would probably be better.” Then his sleepy words finally clicked into place. “For a nap! By myself! But the chaise is fine! I should be lucky you let me over here at all! It’s the drugs!”

Seeing him flustered was new, but very fun. She smiled at him. “I know what you meant. I was just…not expecting it is all.”

“Right, so…”

“So…”

“I should probably get going…”

“Right. Don’t want to make your driver wait.”

“Right…” He rubbed his hands together, then fidgeted with his ring. “Listen, Marinette?”

“Yes Adrien?”

“Um…about earlier…when I told you I was Chat Noir?”

“You remember that? I thought you were completely strung out on meds.”

“I mean, I was, a little. It’s a little fuzzy, but still…can you keep that a secret?”

“What, that you said it in your pain med haze? Of course.”

“No I mean—“ He bit his lip, looking at her earnestly.

“Wait, are you really—?” She had given him an out, and he hadn’t taken it. He could still back track though!

“Marinette, I…” He closed his eyes, his brow furrowing in thought. Finally, he opened them again, tears gathering at the corners. He whispered, “Lying to you would just hurt worse. I can’t, not to you. I’m sick of lying. I’m sick of secrets. Please don’t tell…please don’t tell…”

“I won’t,” she assured. “I won’t.” Marinette rested a hand on his forehead, worried that he might be getting a fever by how vulnerable he was speaking.

He felt fine, but pressed his head into her hand, seeking out contact.

“I’m scared.” He whispered.

“Of what?”

“Of him…my father.” He drew a shaky breath. “I’ve been meaning to tell Ladybug…but I know how protective she is of our secret identities. She’s right, of course…but…”

“You should tell her anyway. Make her listen. If she cares about you, she will.” She hadn’t even noticed she was still touching his head until he leaned away. She lowered her hand, only for him to grasp both of hers.

“Thank you, everyday Ladybug. I owe you big time.”

She shrugged. “Just talk to Ladybug, and we’ll call it even.”

“Okay,” he smiled weakly and pulled her into a hug.

It was strong and firm, even a little painful with how tight he hugged her. A hug that drew strength, that was trying to savor a feeling.

That they both hoped would last.

“I’ll see you later, okay?” He asked when he finally pulled away.

“Sure. You know where I live. I’ll leave the trap door unlocked.”

He breathed a relieved sigh. “Just having the option is the best news I’ve gotten all day.” He stood. “I really do have to go now though. He’ll get suspicious. I’m not going to practice after all.”

“Go, I don’t want you to get in trouble. And make sure to talk to Ladybug at patrol tonight!”

“I will!” He assured, hooking his bag over his shoulder. “Thanks a ton, Marinette!”

It was only after he left that Marinette realized he had never told her he had patrol tonight.

Maybe he wouldn’t notice.

—

Marinette had the volume on her phone turned up all day. She didn’t want to miss anything from Adrien. Whether it was him noticing her slip up, or just needing someone to talk to.

She supposed, now that she knew how mischievous he could be, he might just drop in from the trap door.

But given the pain and exhaustion from his nose, he might not be so willing to transform.

After she had dinner, but still a few hours before patrol, her phone dinged.

She swiped it up.

Adrien: I was thinking about it all day. I’m really happy that you know my secret. Secrets are funner between two people. :3

Marinette: You mean three right? You’re going to tell Ladybug, right?

Adrien: Of course. I will tonight. But for right now, it’s just you and me. Adrienette secret.

Marinette: Are you high on meds again?

Adrien: No. I took some more after I came home, and then took another nap. Nathalie woke me for dinner. I think I’m going to stay awake and do some homework/look over your notes before patrol

Adrien: Why did you ask if I was high?

Marinette: I just thought you were being goofy

Adrien: That's my secret cap. I’m always goofy.

Marinette: XD

Marinette: hey does Kagami know?

Adrien: That I’m goofy?

Marinette: Lol no that you’re cat boy

She doubted it, since it had taken him getting high to admit it at all. But she did wonder where he drew the line. Chat was always more relaxed when it came to Identities. Did he want to tell Kagami? Should she tell him about Ryuko?

Adrien: no, why would she?

Marinette: she’s your girlfriend?

Adrien started and stopped typing a few times, the little bubbles popping up over and over.

Finally, he just called her.

Which was just great. She wanted to stutter like a moron today. She had missed not doing so earlier! “Adrien?”

“Hey, hi, sorry, umm...it's kinda complicated. So I didn’t want to text it out.”

“Oh, sure. I understand.”

“Are you busy?”

“No. Just sketching.”

“Do you mind if I rant a little?”

“My ears are yours.” What a weird thing to say. He was going to hang up now.

Or giggle, that was fine too. “So...Kagami and I never actually started dating. She thought we did, and when I said we weren’t she got really mad and we argued about semantics…She said I was leading her on, and I said I was just being nice, and she said I was being a people pleaser and fake…I said she was jumping to conclusions. She said it was implicit permission and I said I needed to give explicit permission…”

Marinette winced. “Yikes.”

“Yeah, um, don’t tell her I said this, but I’m pretty glad it didn’t work out.”

“Really?” She dared not to hope.

“Yeah. We both had expectations that the other couldn’t meet. I wanted someone who was willing to just listen to my problems and show me affection. Kagami grabs the bull by the horns and she’s not a hugger. She wanted me to solve her problems with her mom and to be an escape…but with my dad, it was the same exact problem.”

“Oh, I see what you mean. That is hard.”

“And also…being with her was…really boring.”

“Boring? Kagami?”

“We have the same life experiences. Allowed to watch the same movies, read the same books. There was nothing to add. We’re too alike.”

“Huh.”

“And truth be told…” he winced, hesitating, but then admitted, “I’m still desperately in love with Ladybug.”

Desperately. Desperately!

“I know she doesn’t feel the same way about me. So I tried to move on. I know it’s not healthy to date someone else to get over someone, but Kagami was just so…insistent. And I don’t know, it made me feel awkward.” He sighed. “I’m really tired of girls fighting for attention, when the one girl I want brushes me off.”

Marinette clenched her fists.

I have messed this all up.

Oblivious to her pain, he continued. “I wanted to give Kagami a chance because she’s my friend and she’s nice. Every other girl who’s wanted me has just wanted ‘Adrien, teen idol’ not ‘Adrien the boy with thoughts and feelings’. They just talk at me, and cling to me. Like Lila…and Chloe, unfortunately.”

“You deserve someone who listens to you.” She assured, swallowing her sorrows.

“That’s why I like hanging out with Ladybug. She’s so cool and kind! But we have some really deep conversations. As Chat Noir, I’m not ‘Adrien, teen idol.’ I’m just me. She sees me as an equal. She’s my best friend, Marinette. I can just talk to her, you know?”

“Yeah.” She whispered.

“I—I’m sorry.” He suddenly cut himself off. “It’s pretty unfair to you to hear my woes about my love life.”

“No, it’s okay. I promised to be a pair of ears to listen.”

“I know but…earlier today…” He paused. “Didn’t you say you loved me?”

Bad. Bad. Awkward. Oops oops. Abort!

“I—I did.”

“Did you mean it like…?”

“Like however hopes the most.”

“Uh huh. Please be honest with me, Marinette. Please.”

How to play this? He had just gotten over a rant about girls fawning over him. Wouldn’t it be awful to lump herself in with them?

Especially since she hadn’t revealed herself yet. What if she doomed herself now, and then later doomed Ladybug?

“I…I love you. Adrien. I enjoy spending time with you. I love your laugh, and my day is brighter with you in it. You’re my favorite person. It doesn’t have to be romantic. I just want you in my life.”

Marinette held her breath before a pleasant hum came from his side of the phone.

“Then I think…I love you too.”

She tried not to scream.

But she did mime the action to Tikki, who responded in kind.

“Would you still love me with my old janky nose?” The question was sad, but his tone was light.

“Your nose was perfect! I think your old man just needs new glasses!”

“No way, if he gets new glasses, he’ll just find something else to fix. ‘These cheekbones aren’t sharp enough! Nathalie, bring me the cheese grater!’”

“Nooo! Stay away from Adrien’s cherubic cheeks!”

“Cherubic?!”

“Like a newborn baby!”

His wonderful sunshine laughter burst from the speaker before it broke off in a moan. “Ughh you’re not supposed to make me laugh!”

“Oh, sorry. I forgot.”

“You just like to see me suffer.”

“Absolutely not, Adrien. You’re baby.”

“You heard it from her, folks. I’m baby.”

“And don’t forget it.”

They talked for a while longer before Adrien relented to do his homework.

“Are you going to try to come to school again tomorrow?”

“Yeah. I know I can crash at your place again, so I’ll try to make it through the morning classes.”

“Good. Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye Marinette, love you.”

“I love you too.”

And he hung up.

And Marinette fell off her chair with a scream. “Tikki! He loves me! He loves me! Both of me! He’s desperately in love with Ladybug! And he wants Marinette in his life! He loves me!!!”

“And you’re going to return the favor tonight during patrol?”

“Can I?”

“It’s up to you. There’s always the threat of secret identity mishaps, but personally, I think you’ll be stronger together if you reveal yourself. He obviously needs you. Especially if things like this nose job are going to become a recurring problem.”

“God, I hope not.”

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“Besides revealing myself? I don’t know. I still have that awful idea that Chloe and I had. I just worry about how deep that problem could become.”

“Well, you’ve got a little time before patrol starts.”

“Yeah, I guess I’ll brainstorm.”

—

Despite her best efforts, the only other options included calling in an adult. And if Gabriel was deranged enough to force a nose job on Adrien, then he would surely blame him for getting busted.

Maybe talking with Adrien would prove fruitful.

And with that, she left to meet with him.

Chat Noir, that is.

She arrived first. The high rooftop offered a full view of nighttime in Paris in all its splendor, without being visible to civilians.

A perfect meeting place if she said so herself.

The minutes ticked on, and Adrien was still AWOL. Was he that nervous? Or maybe he fell asleep. Or maybe his nose was hurting too much?

Would Plagg know where to find her?

She took out her yo-yo and flipped open the screen, his paw print appearing on the grid. He was transformed and out and about. She watched as the paw print bounced around from block to block. He was not heading towards her. What was he doing?

It took a while, but eventually he started making his way towards her. This gave her a few minutes to get her story straight.

Then he arrived, holding onto the top of the staff and riding it to the roof like an elevator.

“Evening my lady,” he greeted, lacking any flirtatious tone and scarily neutral. “Sorry I’m late...I needed to clear my head.”

“Hey kitty. How are you feeling?”

“Um...I’ve been better...” the mask formed over the bandages, but did nothing to hide the shape or the bandages over his nostrils.

“Broke your nose?”

“...yeah, something like that.”

She waited. Normally Ladybug would jump right into patrol, but she knew they had to talk. She was just trying to give him the right moment. “Do you...want to talk about it?”

He gripped his arm and looked away from her. He was still out of arm's reach and only felt farther as the time stretched on.

“I...something happened. And I need to tell you but...I don’t want you to be disappointed with me.”

She sat, leaning her back against the lip of the roof. “I could never be disappointed in you kitty. Let’s talk.”

He didn’t look so sure, but sat next to her regardless. He pulled up his legs and rested his forearms on his knees.

She waited.

“I um...I messed up. I told someone my identity.”

She kept her face neutral, allowing him to continue.

“I was really scared and in pain...she let me nap at her house and she made me feel safe. I had some pain meds, but I let it slip that I was Chat Noir. Later, she gave me an out, saying she assumed I was just loopy from the meds but I couldn’t deny it. I had to tell her the truth. She’s one of my best friends, and she’s so trustworthy! I’m so sorry Ladybug...I just...it just came out...” He trembled as a tear rolled down his cheek. “I don’t regret it. But...I know I have to give up my ring. I’m...I’m so sorry.” He covered his face with his hand. “I wanted to be there for you while you were the guardian, but I already blew it. I’m such a mess...”

Ladybug wrapped an arm around him and pulled him into a side hug. “Chat, I’m not going to take your ring. You’re still my partner, and I want no one else.”

Chat shuddered and began to cry in earnest, letting out all that he was trying to conceal.

Ladybug tried not to cry too. After all, there was more talking to be had. She rubbed his back and across his shoulders.

“Marinette told me everything.” She whispered.

Chat’s eyes blew wide as he whipped his head to look at her. “No...no no she promised...she promised she wouldn’t tell!”

“Shh, hey hey, it’s okay.”

“No! She gave me her word she wouldn’t tell! I told her everything! I trusted her!” The absolute betrayal in his voice broke her, and she found her eyes stinging with tears.

“Chat...she told me it was an accident. She begged me not to take your Miraculous away. She said you needed me. You needed a friend. She was concerned, Chat. She loves you.”

He hiccuped and sobbed.

“She told me about your injury, and that you don’t feel safe at home. She told me that you’re still in love with me...and she said she couldn’t ask for a more perfect partner.”

His haggard breathing stuttered at that. “W-what?”

“She said your puns are hilarious, just ill timed. Your fighting skills are second to none. And that despite all that you go through everyday, Adrien, that you still continue to be an encouraging anchor to her. And most importantly, as the guardian, she says she can not pick a better Chat Noir.”

He swallowed harshly. “My...my lady?”

“Yes kitty.”

“Marinette?”

She nodded. “I didn’t break my promise. Mums the word.”

The next moment, Ladybug was on her back, as Chat had thrown himself at her, his arms tightly wound around her. “My lady!” He sobbed. “My beautiful lady!”

Ladybug just patted his head and pressed a warm kiss to his forehead. “Yes kitty. I’m here. I’m here and you’re safe. I’ll keep you safe.”

“I knew it was you.” He breathed. He leaned away to look down at her, affection pouring from his eyes. “I don’t know how, but my heart knew. You wonderful girl. I wouldn’t want anyone else.”

“Chat...”

“I love you, Marinette. You’re everything I ever wanted.”

Her face burned as a few happy tears leaked out. “I love you so much Adrien...but...”

“But?” He asked, voice small.

“Don’t put me on a pedestal. I’m not perfect.”

He scoffed. “No one is. But you’re perfect to me.”

She smiled sadly. “I meant, there’s something else we need to talk about.”

“What? I get to stay Chat Noir, you love me, you’re the most amazing, kindest, sweetest, trustworthy girl—“

“I kept my mouth shut about nearly all your secrets. All but one.”

He furrowed his eyes. “Wait what? To who? Tikki? She doesn’t count!”

“No, not Tikki.” Ladybug pushed off the ground so they could sit and talk again. “Listen. Chloe cornered me when I came back to school. She already had a hunch, but...I confirmed the truth about your nose.”

Chat didn’t respond, just stared at her.

“I’m sorry. I know that was the thing you specifically told me not to tell about, but...it’s just not right, Adrien. This is wrong. Like, really really wrong.”

He frowned at her slightly and turned away. “I kind of figured Chloe had me figured out. She’s seen her mom get enough rhinoplasties to know what it looks like.” He scratched the back of his head. “But like...just because you’re not used to it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. My dad is just a little more critical of me. That’s our normal.”

“No no no no no! Bad kitty!” She grabbed his hand tightly. “Never ever, for any reason, is it okay for an adult to force their child to have elective surgery. You said you were scared earlier! Don’t try to justify that behavior!”

“Well...it’s not great, but he’s my dad and he’s grieving...”

“Adrien Arthur Alphonso Andrew Absolon Athanese Agreste, you know better than that.”

Chat gawked at her.

She held his cheeks in her hands and forced him to look at her. “This stopped being a grieving process. It’s abuse.”

“...I just didn’t want to have an abusive father.”

“No one does, kitty cat.” She whispered, rubbing her thumb over his cheek, careful not to bump his nose. “But justifying his behavior isn’t going to help. It’s just going to make it worse.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

Ladybug screwed up her lips. “Chloe and I...may have come up with a horrible idea. I wanted to talk to you about it to workshop it.”

“Okay. I’m listening.”

She bit her lip and answered haltingly. “We could...purposefully...botch your nose.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Botch my nose...? Why would we do that?”

“If your bandages come off and your nose is ‘worse’ than it was before, your dad will take it out on a doctor that was willing to operate on a minor, and your dad will have to realize it was his fault this happened.”

“You don’t think he’d suspect me of tampering with it?”

“Would he? Knowing that it’s your nose on your face that you’d have to live with?”

“I don’t know...”

“Like I said, it’s a terrible, awful idea. A huge risk. But it’s all I got right now.”

Chat frowned, bringing his hand to his chin. As he considered this, his brows twitched and his lips screwed up. Then, his whole face relaxed and a smile slowly overtook it. “The surgeon said it would take a few weeks for it to heal on the surface, but a year or two to heal on the inside before it would be safe to operate on it again. If it’s botched…I could get out of modeling for at least a year.”

“Is that what you want?”

“To not have to miss class for photoshoots? To not wake up early, or have my free days taken? To have to say no to hangouts? To not have a rigid diet? To not have my flaws pointed out by my father, makeup artists, and photographers? Gee, how will I survive?”

She smiled a little at that. “I can’t emphasize how dangerous messing with this is. You could have breathing problems, headaches…”

“With my crippling anxiety and self-doubt, I already have breathing problems.”

It probably meant it as a joke, since he said it so casually. But there was just so much weight to it that he couldn’t be lying.

“Adrien, do you need to see a therapist?”

“Eh, probably.”

“Did you see any therapists after your mom disappeared?”

“No, father said it wasn’t anyone’s business what happened to our family.”

“Christ on a motorbike…okay, once your nose gets revealed, I want you to act as traumatized as you can and demand that you see a therapist. I really think it’d be good for you. Does that sound fair?”

“Yeah…I think you’re right. It might be weird though…”

“Sure. But I just want you to be happy, okay?” She rested a hand on his cheek. “I’m asking you to do this not because it’s what I want. I’m asking you to put your mental health first.”

He shimmied over so he could hold her, and rest his head on her chest. “I believe you. I love you.”

“I love you too, Adrien.” She whispered, her lips caressing his forehead. “Oh should I say, ‘other boy’?”

He looked up at her. “Really? Me?”

“Since the moment you gave me your umbrella.”

“Aw Bugaboo! That was the day I fell in love with you too!”

For a long time, they stayed just like that. Embraced, safe, content, and basking in the affection they’d been denying for so long. Broken hearts mending, battered souls finding reprieve.

“So,” Chat began. “How are we going to bust my nose?”

“Wait, you’re serious?”

“Unfortunately, it makes a lot of sense.” He pulled away from her, begrudgingly, and stood. “I’ll stand here, and you go to the other end, and then just chuck your yo-yo at my face as hard as you can.”

“I can’t do that!”

“It’ll be fine, my lady.”

“No it won’t! There’s no way to control it! What if I cave your nose in completely!?”

“You won’t. I have silicone braces in the nostrils. If you shatter the cartilage, it should stay in place. The doctor took cartilage from my rib and rebuilt my nose. We need to break that.”

“Or just dislodge it.” She suggested. “Wait, I’ll try for a clean snap in the middle.”

“You can try,” he chuckled.

Ladybug hopped to her feet and took her place a good twenty feet away.

“I’m going to close my eyes. Don’t tell me when you’re throwing it so I won’t flinch.”

“Okay!”

Then silence.

He waited with bated breath, flexing his fingers.

Then there was a whistle and he turned his face reflexively, taking the impact to the side of his nose.

CRUNCH

And he hit the ground.

“Chat!” Ladybug rushed over to him.

He gave her a weak thumbs up.

“I’m so sorry! That looked so painful!”

“You held back.” He teased.

“Because I didn’t want to kill you! I know it was my idea, but that was terrible!”

The bandages under his nose were nearly soaked with blood already. “It didn’t hurt that badly…”

“Let’s take you home and redress your nose. Okay kitty?”

“Only if you do it for me, My Lady.”

“What do I look like, a nurse?”

“No, but you are the one that broke my nose.”

“Oh great. Now you’re going to lord that over me?”

“Always, my darling bug.”

—

Back at Adrien’s room, he dropped his transformation and turned to look at Ladybug.

“What’s with that look?”

“I just…it’s one thing to hear it, and another to see it.” She also dropped her mask.

“Oh…I see what you mean. Despite the pain in my nose, I’m just…really happy to see it’s you.”

Smiling gently, Marinette took his hand and guided him into the bathroom. “I’d say we’re pretty lucky.”

“Well, I hit the jackpot.” He joked. “I think you just got the consolation prize.”

“Nonsense. You’re the perfect trophy husband.” She reached up and gently removed the tape holding the bandage in place, and then eased it off.

Adrien watched her reaction, his heartbeat quickening when her eyes widened in horror and her jaw dropped.

“Is it bad?”

She nodded. “Can you breathe okay?”

“It’s hard with the splints, but it doesn’t feel any different from before.”

“Okay. Well, that’s...good? Um..go ahead and look.”

Adrien turned to face the mirror, and tears sprang to his eyes. His face, his nose, what he was familiar with, was wrong. The bridge was broken, and very visibly bent like a parenthesis mark. No doubt about it, the surgery was botched.

But he wasn’t expecting to be so startled by it.

Marinette’s arms wrapped around him from behind. “It’s okay kitty. It’s alright.”

Adrien nodded, his nose throbbing. “I should probably redress it.”

“Do you want help?”

“It’s alright my lady, I’ve been doing this all weekend.”

Very gently, she turned his face toward her. Then she kissed the corner of his lips to avoid bumping his nose. “Roman statue, Pinocchio, Jimmy Durante, no matter what your nose looks like, it’s perfect to me, and to Nino and Chloe and all of your friends. Because it’s yours.”

He embraced her, leaning his cheek on top of her head. “Thank you, Marinette. That means a lot to me.”

“Of course kitty. Anything for you.”

There was no talk of what came next for them. Adrien redressed his wounds and took some pain medication. Then Marinette tucked him into bed before transforming and going home to sleep herself.

—

The bruising was even worse the next day. He looked like he got stung by a bee, he was so swollen.

“Dude...” Nino whistled lowly.

But Adrien ignored him in favor of Marinette’s shoulder. He snuck up from behind and dropped his chin on her, embracing her around the waist at the same time.

“Oh! Adrien!” She squeaked, unprepared for the hug. “How do you feel today?”

“Like Ladybug hit me with her yo-yo.”

Marinette chuckled despite herself. “I’m sure she’d never do a thing like that. She’s far too nice, and I think she has a crush on you.”

“That’s good,” stated Nino, eavesdropping. “Adrien’s got a mongo crush on her too.”

“Hugh Mongo?”

“Hugmongus Dungous.”

Alya was alert the second Adrien dropped his chin on Marinette. “Okay, well for someone crushing on Ladybug and dating Kagami, you’re certainly chummy with Marinette.”

“Kagami and I aren’t dating. We never did. And Ladybug is better off with Chat Noir.”

Marinette patted his hands in mock consolation.

“That still doesn’t explain why you’ve decided to use Marinette as a pillow.”

“She let me crash on her couch yesterday at lunch. After she left, I found her diary and read the whole thing. I found out all about her gigantic crush on me.”

Nino let out a violent sigh of relief. “You mean we don’t have to hide it anymore?! Finally!! Dude, it was getting so embarrassing!”

“Completely unbearable!” Agreed Alya. “Did you see the calendar?”

“Calendar?”

“Alya...” Marinette warned, her face turning red.

“Yeah! She has your whole schedule written out! It’s adorable!” Then she added under her breath, “and borderline creepy.”

Adrien hummed and hugged Marinette a little tighter. “That’s nice. You’ll have to share that with me. I’m so bad at time management.”

Chloe had been listening for a while as well, but decided that this was a good time to interrupt. “Adrikins? Can I borrow Marinette for a moment please?” Her voice was so sickeningly sweet, as if she were asking daddy for a pony.

Adrien sighed and released Marinette. “Be nice,” he warned.

“Of course!” She beamed, before grabbing Marinette’s wrist and hauling her off to a corner of the courtyard again. “You two are awfully close this morning! What gives?”

“Well...last night he called me and we had a good talk. Then I told him of the idea we had. He wasn’t thrilled initially, but the more he thought about it, the more he came around. He eventually agreed.”

“And then?”

“And then I went to sit on my balcony, and saw Ladybug and Chat Noir patrolling. So I flagged them down and told them the whole sad story. As Adrien told me, they showed up at his house and Ladybug broke his nose with her yo-yo.”

Chloe screwed up her face. “Ladybug, Huh?”

It was obvious she was still having some reservations of the hero ever since Miracle Queen. Maybe Marinette shouldn’t have mentioned Ladybug in the first place.

“Did she mention me at all?” Chloé asked.

“I said you and I came up with the idea to botch Adrien’s surgery. She kind of laughed and said we were crazy, but she respected how much we both cared for Adrien.”

“She didn’t say she was disappointed with me?”

“No, should she?” After all, Marinette wasn’t supposed to know about Miracle Queen.

Chloe was quiet then shrugged. “Maybe. Not your business though.”

“That’s fair.” Marinette amended.

“So she broke his nose?”

“Yeah. But she said we’re not allowed to tell people she’s responsible for it. Adrien doesn’t even want people to know it was a nose job.”

“Here’s a bit of inside information from the world of the rich and famous. No one ever wants people to know they’ve gotten a rhinoplasty. If they have surgery, they disappear until it’s healed. Then they emerge and all the rich and famous friends so “oh wow, did you get a haircut?” But never, never, is it talked about with men. You see?”

“Huh. So if anyone notices he has a crooked nose?”

“Gabriel will probably make up a story about him being in an accident, to drive up the tragedy.”

“He’s a real piece of work.”

“That is something we can agree on.”

—

Adrien stayed until lunch again, before going to crash on Marinette’s bed. The next day was much the same, and the day after that. By Friday, the swelling had gone down significantly.

“I’m not going to have to crash at your place today, My Lady.” Adrien said by way of greeting.

“Oh, do you feel better now?”

“No, I have an appointment at lunch. One week post op. Fingers crossed.”

“Let me know how it goes, okay?”

“Absolutely!”

And so at lunch, he pressed a kiss to her cheek and left with his driver.

It was less than an hour later when her phone buzzed with a message from Adrien.

Adrien: going in. I’m about to destroy this man’s whole career

She burst out laughing, startling Alya and Nino who were eating lunch with her at her house.

About 15 minutes after that, her phone dinged again.

Adrien: where are you?

Marinette: At my house. Lunch is almost over. Why?

Adrien: we’re going to a different doctor and I need an ‘emotional support friend’ with me. Can we pick you up?

Marinette: Absolutely! I’ll be right down!

Marinette explained the situation to her parents, Alya, and Nino, and prepared to meet the sedan outside the bakery.

The car pulled up and she wasted no time getting inside and sliding right in beside Adrien.

“I apologize for asking you along on such short notice, Miss Dupain-Cheng.” Said Gabriel from the passenger seat. “The reveal of Adrien’s nose was understandably quite upsetting to him. It appears the doctor who did the first corrective surgery did so poorly, and Adrien’s nose is ruined. We will be going to a new doctor to see what our options are. He’s requested someone come along to comfort him. I don’t blame him, I’m extremely upset myself.”

Marinette turned her attention to Adrien, seeing his eyes red from tears. He may have gotten actually emotional, or just from watching his father get angry.

“I understand, Mr. Agreste. It’s really no problem. I want the best for Adrien.”

“You’re an artist with a keen eye. His nose is clearly crooked, right? That foolish quack had the audacity to say that it was fine! Swelling he said!”

Marinette turned Adrien’s face toward her to get a better look.

His nose was even worse, if that was possible. It might have been swelling, but no doubt about it, the bridge was pointing left.

“It’s...it’s a little off...” she said sheepishly.

Boy, she did a number on him.

Adrien simply took her hand and squeezed.

Soon they arrived at the new doctor’s office. A plastic surgeon, specializing in rhinoplasty. The office was emasculate, marble flooring, chandeliers, it looked more like a hotel than a doctor's office.

Gabriel strode right up to the front desk. “Gabriel Agreste. I called a little bit ago about an emergency consultation with Dr. Nosestiff for my son.”

Adrien and Marinette looked at each other. Nosestiff? There’s no way that was a real person.

“Of course. He was able to squeeze you in. He’ll be with you in a moment. Please take a seat.”

They sat down in the empty waiting room, Gabriel tapping his foot impatiently.

“I hope that the other doctor loses his license.” Said Gabriel, to no one in particular. “It was supposed to be a simple surgery. That’s what he promised. I paid 100,000 euros for my son to look like a boxer. Unbelievable.”

Adrien had not yet let go of Marinette’s hand, and he trembled at his father’s anger.

Marinette rubbed a hand down his arm soothingly. “It’s going to be alright.” She whispered.

“Alright? Alright?!” Gabriel barked at her. “No it’s not alright! Adrien’s future as a model is ruined! That’s not alright! And all because—“ he stopped and hung his head.

All because of me. Is what he didn’t say.

“Agreste?” Called the nurse.

The group was led back to an examination room where two doctors were waiting. Adrien was urged into a chair.

“Hello, I’m Doctor Nosestiff, and yes, that is my real name.” He shook everyone’s hands. “This is my colleague Dr. Zasio.”

“Gabriel Agreste. This is my son Adrien, and his friend Marinette.”

“From what I heard on the phone, Adrien has had...an accident?”

“As you can see,” Gabriel gestured to his face. “The doctor was supposed to be performing a rhinoplasty, but instead decided to turn my son into a rhino!”

Adrien turned his face from side to side.

“Yes, that is a severe complication. He still has a lot of bruising and swelling, did you just come from the other doctor?”

“The one week follow up, yes.”

“What doctor did you go to? Was it a plastic surgeon?”

“Yes, a cosmetic surgeon.”

“Well, a cosmetic surgeon and plastic surgeon are not the same thing. Cosmetics can do lip fillers, Botox, and rhinoplasties, but they should not be doing septoplasties, which obviously happened to Adrien. Rhinoplasty is surface level. Nostrils and the tip. But a septoplasty deals with the septum and the bridge. That doctor shouldn’t have even touched Adrien’s bridge.”

“He said his cartilage had been shattered and that it needed to be rebuilt.”

“Again, not in his area of expertise. Adrien, did you have some sort of face trauma?”

“Uh—“ Adrien started, but Gabriel interrupted.

“No. It must have happened when he was born. Adrien hasn’t even been in any situations where he could get hit in the face.”

The doctor frowned at this.

Dr. Zasio spoke up. “What was the goal of the first surgery? Surely you didn’t know about the shattered cartilage?”

“Adrien developed a bump on his nose that was unsightly and uneven. Here’s a photo from his last photoshoot.” He handed over his phone.

The doctors both stared at it in shock. “Oh my god!” Exclaimed Dr. Nosestiff.

“See? It’s quite distracting—“

“That’s a perfect nose! Absolutely gorgeous! People would pay millions of euros for this nose! Why on Earth did you want to change it?”

“I uh…” Started Adrien, yet again, Gabriel interrupted.

“This bump, right here.” He pointed to the screen.

Dr. Nosestiff pinched his own nose and frowned at Gabriel. “Look Mr. Agreste. I’m going to have to ask you to sit in the waiting room.”

“Excuse me?”

“It's obvious that you’re upset about this, rightfully so. But I need to speak to Adrien, and you haven’t let him have a word edgewise. I think you might be a little hysterical right now.”

No, that’s just how he always is, Adrien thought.

Gabriel balled up his fists and jutted out his jaw, the impending explosion gaining pressure. But instead he huffed and raised his chin. “Fine. I will go wait out in the lobby.” He snapped, and walked out.

Dr. Nosestiff exhaled once he left. “Wow.”

Adrien and Marinette exhaled too.

“So what’s really going on?” asked Dr. Zasio. “I’ve seen your ads. They’re everywhere. I’ve had patients bring in your picture asking for your nose. What gives man?”

Adrien swallowed. “I didn’t want surgery. I liked my nose. I didn’t know there was anything wrong with it.”

The two doctors sighed dejectedly. “Disgusting. your father put you up to this?”

“Yes.” He confessed, sheepishly.

“What did the doctor say to you at your consultation? Did he ask what you thought?”

“I never talked to the doctor before the surgery. I was pulled out of class without warning, driven to the operating room, and put to sleep. When I woke up, my face was totally swollen, and the nurse said I was ‘all better.’”

“Yeah, all better,” scoffed Dr. Zasio. “Who was this doctor? Picasso? No one should operate on a minor unless it’s an emergency. You weren’t having any difficulty breathing, were you?”

“No.”

“Thought so. Well, he messed you up real good.”

“Um,” Marinette spoke up for the first time. “There’s something else you should know.”

They both looked at her, listening.

“Adrien confessed to me what happened, and we…well, I had…a really terrible idea.”

“Which was…?”

“I’m the one that screwed up his nose. I hit him. We purposefully botched the surgery to make Gabriel feel guilty.”

Dr. Zasio buried his face in his hands as Dr. Nosestiff just stared.

After a long beat of silence, Dr. Zasio finally just chuckled. “I mean…I guess you accomplished your goal? Waste his money, and make him live with the fact that his risk put Adrien in jeopardy. Honestly, it’s better that you did that this time instead of seven surgeries down the line when he starts to look like a ken doll.”

“What you did was extremely stupid and risky.” Scolded Dr. Nosestiff. “But, it was clever. This isn’t the first time a narcissistic parent has forced cosmetic surgery on a child. But I have a feeling it will be the last for Adrien.”

Adrien smiled a little at that.

“Now, let’s talk about fixing that nose. How’s your breathing?”

“It doesn’t feel any worse than before.”

Dr. Nosestiff tilted his chin up and shined a line in his nasal cavity. He poked and prodded with a long q-tip. Then he gently felt the bridge of his nose.

Adrien winced.

“That hurt?”

“Yeah.”

“Still broken, of course. I’m actually optimistic about this. The skin of your nose is thick, so breaking the cartilage and resetting it should solve most of the problems. If the other doctor had to reconstruct it, that probably means he took out all the old cartilage to begin with. Now, the golden question: Are you planning on continuing whatever activity it is that shattered the cartilage in the first place?”

Adrien and Marinette shared a look.

“I kind of have too.”

“Okay. Well, try to be a little more careful?”

“I’ve been telling him that for a while.” Teased Marinette.

Adrien just fondly rolled his eyes.

“Now for the news that’s going to make your dad really mad. I don’t operate on minors without due cause. Since you can breathe fine, I don’t see a need to get you in here as soon as possible. How old are you?”

“I just turned sixteen.”

“Perfect. In two years, come back, and we’ll fix this. I’ll tell your father too. You need to fully heal before any more surgery happens. If anyone goes digging in there, the risky for a horrible, life threatening complication goes up. Gabriel Agreste will just have to deal with having an attractive son with a slightly bent nose, over having a son with no nose.”

Gabriel was brought back into the examination room to hear all this himself while Marinette and Adrien waited in the lobby.

Adrien just sat with a fond smile on his face. “You know what? I’m also okay with a slightly crooked nose.”

“I think it’s cute.”

“I think you’re cute.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “Hey, I was thinking…next weekend, if you’re feeling better, do you want to go on a date with me? Maybe get some ice cream?”

“Oh my lady, I’d love to…but I have to check my schedule. I might have a photoshoot—JUST KIDDING I’M FREE!”

#miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #adrinette #ladynoir #chat noir #ladybug #gabriel agreste #identity reveal

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alexannah · 4 years

Text

MLB: Yet Another Félix Rewatch

Yep, another Félix rewatch post. I can’t help it—every time I watch that episode, I think of something new to comment on! And since it’s my favourite …

(Previous rewatch posts here and here.)

I’m going to go through it in a nice organised way this time.

Marinette:

I’ve commented before, not specifically about this episode, that people rarely seem to spot an akuma before they actually take a victim. I’ve noticed before that in this episode, Marinette is facing her friends as they are akumatized, and yet doesn’t appear to notice it before it lands on Alya’s tablet.

I’ve always put it down to just most episodes not requiring a moment where the characters notice the akuma before it lands, so it moves the plot on a few seconds faster, and save having to plausibly show a character failing to avoid it.

But in this case, where it seems so obvious, I put it down to Marinette being so distressed by the video, she’s not paying attention beyond trying to persuade her friends that it can’t be Adrien.

Adrien:

I have to wonder if Adrien has never mentioned that he has a cousin, much less than one who looks so much like him they once convinced his parents they were the other? It seems like one of those fun stories you would tell a best friend, and let’s face it, how many fun stories is Adrien likely to have from his childhood? Apart from Marinette—and possibly Luka, though he doesn’t say either way—the others were pretty quick to believe that it was Adrien in the video. I could understand them thinking he was just upset and lashing out because of what day it was, but they clearly think that maybe he wasn’t the person they thought he was.

Most likely the answer here is “because plot”, rather than a reflection on the characters themselves.

Ladybug (and Cat Noir):

I’m not sure the heroes quite understand the meaning of “out of harm’s way”! This is not the first time that one of them has taken someone being targeted by an akumatized villain to a rooftop or other high-up open space, only for said villain to find them. Maybe season four they’ll start preparing secret secure locations in advance?

I’m probably expecting too much with that one.

The Showdown

Another red-edged screen. The only other one I can think of off the top of my head is in Ladybug, when Lila smirks as the people around her are akumatized, which I commented on in my Ladybug rewatch post. If the significance of it then is that Lila has figured out Gabriel is Hawk Moth (my current theory), I wonder what the significance here is? It clearly can’t be the same for Félix.

I shall have to watch all the episodes again to see if it occurs in any other places, and try and figure out the connection. A connection besides the involvement of a potential future Hawk Moth, that is.

Hmm … now I mention that … both those episodes take place after Timetagger, where we learn there is a future Hawk Moth. If my theory about Lila and Gabriel is right, then that shows a pivotal moment—when she moves from pawn to a more powerful piece on the board.

The moment in Félix is when we’re about to see that he is willing to make a deal with a supervillain, potentially risking goodness knows what kind of damage to the world (since the majority of the characters have no idea what Hawk Moth’s plans are, so it’s fair to assume that world domination is a possibility), all for the chance to get a piece (or set) of jewellery for his mother. In the case of both characters, we already know they’re sneaky brats. But those moments reveal them being possibly dangerous.

Of course it could simply be for dramatic effect, with no underlying reason. But I don’t buy that.

Félix:

Why did he wear Adrien’s shoes? He didn’t need to wear his jeans either—the video only showed him from the shoulders up! That kind of thoroughness feels foreboding to me in light of my previous speculation.

Though it could just be to make the animation easier; they just use the Adrien figure rather than creating a second Félix. (I don’t know the technical terms.) But that’s a boring explanation, so …

Hawk Moth:

It initially occurred to me when watching him akumatizing the Punisher’s Trio that that would have been a good opportunity to be Scarlet Moth. Félix had upset more than three people; it just so happened that only three of them were holding the akumatized object. And while he wouldn’t have planned in advance this time, Hawk Moth isn’t exactly one to turn down an opportunity (no matter how pathetic)—this is a guy who akumatized a baby. At least twice. And it’s not because he already knew he needed Nathalie to get Adrien out of harm’s way—because he didn’t think of that until after he’d already send his victims on their way.

But talking of Catalyst, I remembered a moment afterwards why he wouldn’t have done. Because this episode takes place after Ladybug, where Nathalie collapsed. I wonder what could have happened if Nathalie had been able to be Catalyst and the idea had occurred to him? Might make an interesting AU …

It also occurred to me, when watching him address Félix as Hawk Moth, he was literally talking through the Trio’s mouths. None of them say “Hawk Moth says …” and there’s no time for him to say, “Tell him this …” before they speak. So it looks like he has the ability to talk directly through his victims. That’s useful to know.

Also, what need was there for him to move from one to the other between sentences? Show-off.

The Twin Rings:

When Félix and Amelie arrive, Gabriel has his hands behind his back. Am I remembering wrong or is it normal for him to stand like that? But when Félix holds out his hand to shake his, and he just looks it at, you see from the perspective of behind his back. And his hands twitch. He is cupping his left hand, the one with the ring, with the right one, and it looks like a protective twitch to me.

It’s subtle, but there. (I love the little details in this show!)

He already knows that Amelie wants the rings. Let’s say that he’s aware how obviously devoted Félix is to his mother, so he’s reluctant to shake hands—not because he’s “not the physical sort” (which I would quibble …), though that might be part of the reason, but because he’s also aware of Félix’s talents (if Adrien knows he does magic, then it’s safe to assume Gabriel might know) and doesn’t want him to try and take the ring.

Though doing so right when they arrive would be a pretty bold move. Unless Félix is aware that Amelie is only visiting to try and get the rings, and figures once he shows her, they can scarper before Gabriel has the chance to realise it’s missing.

Then, when they’re leaving, Félix offers his hand again, and Gabriel’s hands twitch again.

It’s the same movement. He’s still protective and reluctant. Yet, after a slight pause, he says “Goodbye, Félix”, sounding unusually warm (for him), and actually shakes his hand. Why? Well, considering the speech Félix has just made about being sorry and “coming back a better person”, maybe he decides that Félix is not going to take the ring after all. (Bet he regrets that now.)

Also, comparing Félix’s expressions between the two moments, he does come across as a bit less ... threatening, the second time, doesn’t he? That could also have contributed. Gabriel also looks less wary of his offered hand.

Amelie

When I originally drafted this post (it can take me ages to get around to getting the screenshots), I didn’t have any new Amelie observations to add, surprisingly. However since then, something has occurred to me ...

When Amelie says the words “Now that his father isn’t around to stop him getting into mischief”, I’ve only ever before thought about how lame an excuse that is, and not about her actual intentions behind her words.

Earlier in the episode, Adrien defends his cousin to Plagg, saying how Félix probably “isn’t himself” because of his dad’s death. But Amelie makes no attempt to defend her son or excuse his actions. She’s attempting to move the blame off of herself. (Pathetically, but that’s not actually my point this time.) Félix stops her and says he doesn’t deserve forgiveness, completely missing the fact that she wasn’t actually defending him at all! Her view is that the issue isn’t that Félix does bad things; it’s that he’s not being stopped anymore. So that’s actually the opposite of what Adrien was saying, which is that he’s acting out because of losing his dad. According to Amelie, Félix was acting out before. If anything, she’s dropping him more in it, whilst making it sound (at least to him) like she’s trying to let him off the hook. If intentional, this is really twisted parenting.

This is the first time I’ve ever felt even slightly sorry for Félix. He’s clearly devoted to Amelie, but it seems from that moment that maybe it’s a one-way devotion. I’ve read theories that maybe the two of them are meant to hint at the kind of relationship Adrien had with Emilie, and that insight into Amelie definitely supports my interpretation of Emilie’s character.

#amelie salt #miraculous ladybug #miraculous lb #mlb #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #amelie graham de vanily #felix graham de vanily #graham de vanily #episode felix #mlb felix #hawk moth #ladybug #adrien agreste #gabriel agreste #twin rings #graham de vanily rings

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pigeontheoneandonly · 4 years

Note

Tell me about your experience writing "Discovery." What made you decide to write it? Did you know the scale from the beginning? Were there initial story ideas that got thrown out? What were your ups and downs with it?

So Discovery took me four years to write. (I posted it to FFN. Then some years after that, I gave it another polish and put it on AO3.) If I’d know the scale of the task when I started, I wouldn’t have had the courage to continue.

(Worth noting: I have been writing since my age was single-digits. I had never finished a long work of fiction before Discovery. Writing it taught me how to finish things. It would’ve been worth doing for that alone.)

Were there ups and downs? Absolutely. I’m pretty sure the last six chapters or so took an entire year to get down. I was exhausted by writing it, and I didn’t want the ride to end, simultaneously. Which is kind of a head trip.

I don’t think I chose the story as much as it chose me. After I finished ME3 (and, you know, the requisite week of sobbing and brazen grief, my spouse thought I had lost my mind), I started writing a post-ME3 fic. But I kept running into things I wanted to put into the fic that were not canonical events, which put me in the awkward position of having to bog it down with a lot of expositional work. So, I thought to myself, why not just do a novelization, right?

Hahahahahaha oh gods

When I really began Discovery, however, is when I sat down and wrote what became the first scene in Chapter Three. (Yeah, it’s always been about Kaidan and Nathaly.) This is pretty typical of my process. I’ll get an idea, subconsciously ruminate on it awhile, and write two or three easy chapters, that flow as fast as I can type them. Then I run out of ideas. Then I sit and make an outline.

An outline for me is a living document. I’m constantly adjusting and updating it as I write. The only big rule I have is I can’t move backwards once I start posting. (And this is helpful to me. I need to have some restrictions around my writing, or I’ll be mired in indecision and what-ifs forever. Having it churn out like a tapestry where you can’t go back and redo part without unraveling the whole damn thing is useful.)

So there were some ideas that didn’t pan out. Originally, Nathaly and Kaidan were going to hook up for the first time on Noveria. (Spiritually, that scene was moved to Virmire, if not the actual sex.) Nothing about her relationship with her mom was planned. Maybe most surprisingly, her close friendship with Liara wasn’t part of the original plan, either; they were just drawn to each other as I wrote them. (Tali was going to be the bestie; and of course Nathaly and I both adore Tali, but it wasn’t the same kind of mesh.)

Probably the most infamous off-script moment was Virmire. I’ve written about this extensively in response to comments on that chapter, but originally it was going to be very true to canon. And I struggled with writing that for a month and threw out so many drafts. Then it came to me: I was BORED. It’s one of the most pivotal moments in the plot and I was yawning, because it was a Shenko fic, because everyone knows what happened. So I decided to throw a wrench or two in and the result is one of the best chapters I’ve ever written.

#sorry this got long #i could talk about discovery forever #thanks so much for the ask!#ask me anything #ljandersen

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angelofthequeers · 5 years

Text

Salt-Kissed Lips

Disclaimer: I don't own ML.

My contribution to the Leap of Faith zine by @ladrienzine now that we’re allowed to publish our works! It was so awesome to work with everyone involved and it really solidified my love for these blushing dorks!

“Isn’t it fascinating?”

“Father!” Adrien’s heart nearly leaps out of his body through his throat. But when he whirls around, Gabriel Agreste is far from angry.

“I always knew they existed,” the older man says in a hushed voice. His grey-streaked blond hair, madly gleaming cold grey eyes, and pale skin tinged a sickly blue by the light of the gigantic tank are more than enough to give him the look of a mad scientist without the need for some cliché white lab coat. “Everyone called me crazy. But I always knew my Emilie was taken by one of them!”

Adrien’s not exactly sure what to say. Oh, he’s not surprised to see a real mermaid in the flesh; his father’s been obsessed with “the blue tail in the moonlight” that he’d seen just after Emilie’s disappearance for so long that Adrien would’ve been more surprised to find that they didn’t exist. It’s just that he’s never seen Gabriel quite so…unhinged before now.

“They want to take my Emilie?” Gabriel says. “I’ll take one of them! I need to make some phone calls, Adrien. Soon, the whole world will know that these things are real and I’m not crazy! People will stop avoiding you and thinking of you as the crazy man’s son! Take a good look at that thing and know that it’s the reason your mother is gone!”

Once Gabriel’s gone, Adrien turns back to the massive tank that’s part of the marine park in which Gabriel works. The brilliant blue eyes that glare back at him are so full of venom that it’s a wonder they’re not shooting jellyfish barbs at him – wait, can mermaids even do that? Can they speak human languages? Or breathe air? What can they do?

“I’m sorry,” he says. Whether or not she can hear or understand him, he at least needs to make it clear to himself that he’s not his father. The sight of the girl with long dark hair in pigtails, a vivid scarlet tail dotted with black scales, and matching scales across her chest and face, almost like a mask, is like mild indigestion in his gut.

This is wrong. Okay, so Emilie might have been taken by a merperson, and Gabriel’s got every right to be full of grief. But keeping a mermaid prisoner and turning her into an exhibit to be gawked at for the rest of her life? There’s no way Adrien can justify this to himself. The hatred in her eyes isn’t helping, and neither is the fact that…wow, she’s stunning.

Oh no. Does this make Adrien a scaly?

Snap out of it! That’s not important right now!

The seed of a daring idea suddenly sprouts in his mind. Should he dare –?

Gabriel will be furious.

But this is the right thing to do.

But can he disappoint his father?

It’s not like Gabriel’s been much of a father since Emilie’s disappearance. He’s pretty much been raised by Nathalie, his father’s assistant.

He can’t let this happen. If he sits back and lets Gabriel turn this mermaid into an aquarium animal, he’s just as bad as the man that people associate him with. And if there’s one thing he’s not, it’s Gabriel Agreste.

“Hey.” He lightly taps the glass. The mermaid bares her jagged teeth and recoils, her black pigtails billowing around her like seaweed. “I’m gonna get you out, okay?” When she doesn’t seem to comprehend him, he points at himself, then at her, then up at the top of the tank. The hostility fades from her face, replaced with a puzzled frown. “Just hold on.”

Adrien bolts up the stairs out of the room as fast as humanly possible. He can’t be caught – he just can’t – if he’s caught, Gabriel will totally end him – whatever love the man has for his son can’t be any stronger than his rabid obsession with avenging Emilie.

Once Adrien’s outside and at the edge of the tank, he pauses. Is he really going to do this? Betray his father like this? After all these years of searching for the thing that took Emilie…

But this mermaid isn’t to blame. And she’s not a thing. Besides, will Gabriel really just up and be a better father once he’s turned this mermaid into a freak show? Or will he continue to obsess over her and soak up the glory of such a discovery?

Before he can once again doubt himself, Adrien sticks his hand into the tank and splashes, hoping to attract her attention. Once she’s up here, he can grab her and haul her out, smuggle her through the park somehow, down to the beach nearby –

Something grabs his wrist and yanks him into the tank. He yelps, although this is a bad move as his mouth is instantly full of water – he can’t breathe, the mermaid’s eyes are boring into him, he’s gonna be fish food –

He struggles even harder when the mermaid grabs his face. But rather than try and devour him with her terrifying teeth, she wrenches his mouth open and blows bubbles into it. Adrien reflexively swallows…and whoa, he’s not drowning! He can breathe underwater as effortlessly as in air!

“I’m Adrien. What’s your name?” he says to test this, and his voice rings in his head like echolocation in the marine documentaries he loves watching.

“I don’t trust you enough to give you my name. What do you think I should be called?” The mermaid’s voice is melodic, like she’s singing as she talks. It’s a sound that Adrien would gladly record and hoard for himself to listen to again and again; a sound that’s just as beautiful as the girl to whom it belongs.

“Um…” Two strips of red seaweed woven through her pigtails float above her head, almost like antennae, making her resemble a very fishy insect, especially with her wide eyes behind the red scale mask and her black-spotted red tail. “You kind of look like a – a ladybug…”

“Ladybug…” the mermaid says slowly, as though testing the word. “Ladybug. I am Ladybug.” She tilts her head, examining Adrien as though he’s a particularly interesting specimen. Which is ironic, given their positions. “You’re not like the other one. He’s full of hate.”

“I’m sorry about him,” Adrien says. He instinctively reaches out to take one of Ladybug’s pale, red-webbed hands, but stops himself just in time in case touching a mermaid is offensive or uncomfortable for her or something. “He thinks a merperson took my mother years ago. He’s been obsessed with avenging her ever since.”

“We don’t take humans,” Ladybug growls. “Humans beg to come with us. Many of my kind are humans that we saved from their own lives, whether they hated them or were in danger or simply discontent.”

“You think my mum…hated her life?” Adrien tries to wrap his head around this new information. Would Emilie really have gone freely with the merpeople? Left Gabriel? Left…him? Sure, their lives hadn’t been perfect, but no life is, right?

“I don’t know,” Ladybug says. “But if you help me escape, I will gladly share more information with you. I’ve always been fascinated by humans. My friends warned me not to come too close to shore…I should have listened to them…”

“Right! Yeah!” Adrien says. “If I lift you out, I can carry you out of here. There’s a beach just outside here. You can breathe air, right?”

Ladybug smiles and nods. The sight should be terrifying, what with how her sharp teeth are bared like he’s a tasty morsel, but it’s actually kind of cute and makes her look gorgeous, even if the blue tank light is making her appear rather ghostly. Swallowing, he kicks for the surface and emerges into the warm air with a gasp, then hauls himself out of the tank and leans at the edge to dip his hand back in. Ladybug’s head surfaces just a moment later. Now in the natural light of the late afternoon sun, her skin has a rosy glow to it that just enhances her prettiness, and Adrien’s stomach does a flip-flop as he carefully drags her out of the water.

“Thank you, Adrien,” Ladybug says. Adrien takes a moment to adjust her in his grip, shivering at the way her glittery, slippery tail hooks around his arm for extra support. It doesn’t feel earthly, but it also doesn’t feel like the fish he and Gabriel have caught many times before on the rare occasion that Gabriel would spend father-son time with him. Or maybe that was just a way to keep an eye out for mermaids.

“So…you guys “save” humans, right?” Adrien whispers as he stumbles through the building. Thank god that it’s after closing time, so he’s not bumping into people everywhere he turns.

“Yes,” Ladybug says. “We’re not kidnappers. We only take humans of their own free will.”

“Uh…how exactly do you do that? Just constantly blow bubbles in our mouths?”

Ladybug giggles. The sound nearly makes Adrien fall over and cry at the unfairness. How can one person – mermaid – have such a beautiful voice? Maybe Ariel had been truer to life than he’d thought.

“Our kisses have many effects on humans,” she says. “We can entrance them. We can cure them. We can cause disease in them. We can also turn them into one of us.”

“Whoa. Seriously?” Adrien’s brain wants to implode at this overload of information, though thankfully it doesn’t betray him as he carefully pushes the entrance doors open with his shoulder and sets off down the path to the beach. “You can actually make me one of you?”

Ladybug once again regards him with her curious head-tilt. “Would you like that?” she says. “Your father is not a very nice man, is he?”

“He’s doing the best he can,” Adrien says automatically. “He’s still not over Mum’s disappearance.” But even as he says the words, he knows they’re a lie. When’s the last time Gabriel had hugged him? Spoken to him for a purpose other than to issue an order? Spent time with him outside of obsessing over merpeople and dragging Adrien into his vengeful crusade?

And it’s not like anyone else likes Adrien either. When your father’s loony and mermaid-obsessed, people don’t generally see the point in assuming that you’re any better. Crazy by association, he’s been branded. Either that or other mermaid fanatics pester him for information and access to his father.

“The transformation is reversible,” Ladybug says as though reading his mind. Who knows, maybe she can? “If you ever decide that you’re unhappy, you can return to the land. But I wouldn’t be able to associate with you if you chose that. It would be too dangerous for –”

“Adrien! Come back this instant!”

Adrien gasps and ducks behind a thick clump of bushes, praying to every deity above that there’s no sign of them sticking out for Gabriel to see.

“Son! You know how important this is to me!” Now there’s a plea in Gabriel’s voice. “Bring the mermaid back! Do it for your mother!”

But if Ladybug’s right, Emilie would want him to do the exact opposite: to free Ladybug, not take her back to captivity. Squaring his shoulders, Adrien takes a deep breath and then makes a run for it down the sandy trail to the beach. He doesn’t remain unspotted for long; after a few moments, Gabriel shouts his name.

“Bring my mermaid back or you’ll be in more trouble than you could ever imagine!” his father bellows. Adrien’s lungs are burning – his legs are like jelly – he’s fit, sure, but this could be a literal matter of life or death – just a little further, over the soft sand and down the wet, crunchy layer –

The minute his legs hit the waves lapping the shore, Ladybug wriggles and squirms until he loses his grip on her. Although they’re in the shallows and she can’t swim, she’s able to gracefully roll further into the water until the waves catch her and pull her out. Adrien’s heart stops in his chest at the sight of the beautiful mermaid in the light of the setting sun, her tail such a beautiful, deep red and her blue eyes just as piercing as they’d been in the tank.

“Adrien Agreste!” Gabriel’s emerging from the sandy path now. His eyes are wild behind his glasses, and he’s practically frothing at the mouth. Whoops. Adrien is so grounded.

“Adrien!” Ladybug holds out her hand. “Come with me?”

Stay with his fuming father, who’ll probably lock him away for ten years for letting a mermaid go? Who hasn’t even really raised him while obsessing over Ladybug’s kind? Or go with Ladybug, who’d only shown him hostility out of self-preservation and had given him even just a little closure about his mother?

“How can you steal years of work from me?” Gabriel shouts. “Your mother would be ashamed to even call you her son!”

Time seems to stand still as Adrien makes his decision and sprints out into the crashing waves. His hand closes around Ladybug’s just as Gabriel reaches the ocean, and the mermaid grips him tightly and heaves him out until he can’t even touch the bottom.

“Adrien?” Gabriel says. Adrien looks over his shoulder, directly into Gabriel’s eyes.

“My mother would have been proud of me for doing the right thing,” are his final words to Gabriel Agreste before Ladybug tugs him into the orange ocean. When he tries to breathe and gulps in water, he realises that Ladybug’s bubble magic must have worn off…but then she’s cupping his face and kissing him, and all he can do is inhale seawater and kiss back, his eyes fluttering closed, her lips plump and salty…wait, why can’t he kick anymore, why don’t his legs work, how can he breathe so much better than before…

His eyes fly open when Ladybug pulls away. The first thing that catches his eyes is the glimmering black tail that’s replaced his legs, with brilliant green fins instead of feet and green fins up the sides of the tail. Then he looks at his hands and finds green webbing between his fingers, and there are black scales going up his torso diagonally – and there are gills on his neck –

Holy. Heck. He’s a merman. Ladybug had been telling the truth! A melodic giggle escapes the mermaid beside him, and it’s a trip to realise that he can see her clearly despite the growing lack of light.

“You make a very handsome merman, Adrien,” Ladybug says, kissing his cheek. She takes his hand and interlinks their fingers. “Are you ready to go now?”

Adrien looks back towards the shore, where Gabriel’s face can be seen above, twisted in fury and distorted through the water. Then he looks at Ladybug and her shining eyes and pretty smile, and his decision is made.

“Let’s go, Ladybug,” he says.

#miraculous ladybug #ml fic #aotq fic #aotq oneshot #ladybug #adrien agreste #ladrien #gabriel agreste #mermaid marinette #mermaid au #kisses #leap of faith

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quicksilversquared · 4 years

Text

Feathers Fall, Wings Rise

Gabriel Agreste had found his wife unconscious after using the Peacock Miraculous before, but something was different this time. She seemed sicker, and even after hours had passed, she didn't even stir.

Obviously, something had to be done. And if that 'something' required using magic, then so be it.

links in the reblog

Gabriel Agreste found his wife's unconscious body on the floor of his office on Tuesday at half-past seven in the evening. She was barely breathing, and one glance around her person gave away the fact that she had used the Peacock again, despite her promise that her previous time was going to be the last, really.

Gabriel exchanged a worried look with Nathalie and hastily bundled his wife into a wheelchair and into the locked-down, secret bedroom in the back of the house without anyone noticing. He removed the broken Miraculous from her once she was moved to the bed, carting it back to the office- perhaps a bit of distance would help speed along her recovery- while Nathalie got Emilie hooked up to the medical machines they had managed to procure after previous collapses. They would monitor Emilie's condition until she had woken up again, and then still while she recovered, just to be safe.

"Sir, I've set up the oxygen mask as well," Nathalie told him when he returned, the Miraculous locked away in the safe until he could think of a better place to hide it, one where Emilie wouldn't find it and use it again. She looked worried. "Emilie seems to be in a deeper sleep than she's ever been before, so I thought it would be better to be safe than sorry. Are you sure that you don't want to call for an ambulance?"

"I'm positive," Mr. Agreste said tersely, because really, what could a hospital do besides pry a lot? Emilie's condition was caused by magic, and unless the staff had a magic expert on staff that they didn't tell the general public about- which Gabriel severely doubted- they wouldn't be able to do much anything besides sit back and wait. "We have top-of-the-line medical equipment here, and it's set up to tell me when anything changes. And you know that Emilie wouldn't be happy about people prying into what's causing her weakness. Even if she's done nothing wrong- well, some people have opinions about magic."

Nathalie pursed her lips, but nodded anyway. "As you wish, sir."

The evening passed, and Gabriel waved off Adrien's inquiries about where his mom was by telling him that she was tired and had gone to bed early. Adrien seemed disappointed but accepted that- after all, it wasn't the first time that it had happened- and Gabriel checked in on Emilie before going to bed.

She hadn't stirred.

Gabriel frowned deeper- Emilie really hadn't been careful enough with the Peacock, that much was obvious- before locking up the bedroom for the night so that no nosy house staff would look in.

This had happened before, of course, but it always put him on edge when it did.

And then the next morning dawned, and Emilie's vital signs had slipped firmly into coma territory.

"Sir, I think we should really call the hospital-" Nathalie started, but Gabriel silenced her with a single hand.

"Look into what medical equipment is required for dealing with a coma. We will ride it out ourselves. She will need nutrients, of course, in place of food, and fluids. I expect to have a full report on my desk by this evening of what we'll need and what's been ordered."

"Of course, sir."

"And as for me, I think I'll try to track down that man who sold Emilie the Peacock," Gabriel decided, scowling at the thought. They hadn't been interested in buying the man's other wares when they had met up with him- or at least they hadn't yet been willing to pay more than half a million euros for what honestly sounded like a fantasy story. Now- well, they had more experience with the one Miraculous that they had bought, and they were willing to shell out for the Miraculous that wasn't broken.

Sure, Emilie would have to acquaint herself with a different power set , but she couldn't continue with the Peacock. Saving her brother-in-law just wasn't worth her getting progressively weaker like this. Maybe she would even make a breakthrough with a different Miraculous and different powers at her fingertips.

By midday, Adrien had to be shooed off with more excuses about his mother resting. A call to his Mandarin tutor ensured that he would be busy for several hours of the afternoon, and then Gabriel continued his search for the Chinese man who had sold Emilie the Peacock. He had some information to go off of- there had been a shop, and they had just shown their interest in more powerful wares- but he still had to remember the shop name and find it online- if it was even listed online, that was.

"You could always call up tour guide companies in the area and see if you could pay one to go to the shop and get the phone number for it," Nathalie suggested as the evening drew to a close and Gabriel had made no progress. "It would be easier, and I'd bet that it wouldn't require a large fee, as long as you pick a company that's located in the area to start with."

Gabriel hummed in thought. "That's a good idea. Outsource the work. I'll do that over dinner- inform Adrien that his mother and I won't be joining him. And since Emilie doesn't look like she'll be up and ready to go out again for a couple days, please come up with a cover story for why she won't be around so he doesn't keep asking."

"Of course, sir."

"How goes the search for equipment needed for a coma?"

"It's been ordered and express-shipped, sir. We should be receiving several large boxes tomorrow morning. I'll arrive early to ensure that I'm here to receive it before any of the other staff can get a look at it."

Gabriel nodded. That was good. Speed was essential if they wanted Emilie to recover faster. They would give her the best care- without taking her to a hospital and dealing with nosy nurses and inquisitive doctors- to get her out of her latest slump, and then they would (hopefully) get another Miraculous so that she wouldn't keep driving herself into the ground.

He should have reached out to buy the other Miraculous sooner, he really should have. Now, there was no guarantee at all that the man would still have it.

They could only hope.

It had been five more days, and Emilie still hadn't woken up. Her coma seemed stable enough for now, but she wasn't waking up.

What was the use in Gabriel having tracked down the shop and spent nearly two million to get the second Miraculous and all of the other Miraculous-related things the man had- the book, some scrolls, a couple half-burned paintings- if Emilie didn't wake up?

They couldn't keep on making excuses for why she wasn't around, either. They could only keep Adrien's curiosity at bay for so long, and Nathalie responding to his texts to Emilie only satisfied him so much. He was looking forward to her return from the relaxing retreat that they had told him she had gone to, and had Emilie actually been coming back from any sort of retreat- well, she would have gone to see her son first thing. For her not to would be weird.

"We're going to have to claim that she's vanished," Nathalie said grimly as she and Gabriel sat locked in the office, going over their options and all of the research that Nathalie had done about comas. "There's no other option, Gabriel, not unless you want to go to a hospital. And I know you said that there were maybe things in the book you ordered that would help her, and that would be hard to do in a hospital without people noticing."

Gabriel sighed, massaging his temples. He hadn't wanted to do this. There would be too much scrutiny of their family, both the police and the press trying to pick out any secrets that the Agreste family was trying to hide. But they had made all of their Miraculous-related orders from a secret account that shouldn't be traceable for this exact reason, and Nathalie always took care to wipe and replace any camera footage or computer trails of events that might be- well, suspicious. As long as they were careful, they should be able to pull off a disappearance without looking too suspicious. It would be hard to explain Emilie's reappearance once she woke up, but- well, they would cross that bridge when they came to it.

After all, at this point, it was only a matter of time before someone outside of the family noticed Emilie's absence and then their not reporting it first would look more suspicious.

"Tonight, we have to move Emilie downstairs, to her inspiration garden," Gabriel decided. "It'll take a lot of trips, to get her down and then move all of the equipment and a bed. Then tomorrow evening, we'll report her missing. Once the investigation's passed, we should probably improve the set-up there." He let out a long sigh. "I am so glad that we have that now. If we didn't…"

He trailed off. Nathalie nodded.

"For now, all we can do is make sure that there's nothing suspicious out. Even in the safes- you know that the police will want to see them. And bills, accounts that we're signed into online- all of it has to be cleared, and thoroughly." Gabriel glanced around at his office, trying to remember all of the places that Emilie stashed her journals and notebooks. Everything would have to be hidden today, because come tomorrow evening, or maybe the morning of the next day- well, the mansion would no doubt be swarmed with police looking for clues about Emilie Agreste's disappearance.

And Gabriel wasn't going to let them find anything.

At eleven thirty-three, a phone call was made from the Agreste Mansion to the Paris police department reporting a missing person. Twelve minutes and forty-three second later, the first patrol car pulled through the gates of the mansion and two officers and a detective hopped out. Nathalie met them at the gate, ushering them into the house and to the office to meet with Mr. Agreste.

There was no going back now.

Gabriel Agreste let out a long sigh as he settled into his chair. It had been a long day, right on the heels of an equally long week. Emilie hadn't improved at all in the week since the police visited, and- well, Gabriel really couldn't count himself at all surprised, though of course he was disappointed. Dealing with police coming in and out and checking footage for discrepancies and clues had been exhausting, particularly since they had had to keep the police away from both Adrien and his bodyguard to ensure that their stories wouldn't clash with the one that Gabriel and Nathalie had given the police.

Luckily, the police weren't terribly inclined to interrogate a mute man and a twelve-year-old when Gabriel and Nathalie were being so terribly cooperative.

Well. Outwardly cooperative, at least. They hadn't falsified anything more than they strictly had to- the more components there were, the harder it would be to keep their story straight and the easier it would be to overlook any details that could throw their entire story under doubt and closer inspection. As it was, making sure that they kept to the same details and didn't add anything for the entire week- an entire week full of police visits, some surprise and others not- had been hard enough.

And then they had had to deal with Adrien on top of all of that. He had been inconsolable, constantly dogging at Gabriel and Nathalie's footsteps in search of any answers at all. Gabriel had finally snapped at him- after all, how was he supposed to get any work done if Adrien insisted on following him around every moment of the day?- and he had finally stopped, but Gabriel didn't doubt that he would require some attention again at some point. After all, he had always taken after Emilie and her tendency to be overly emotional about things.

He could only hope that the next week would be better. The police had exhausted their investigation of their house- they had been very through about that- and all of the possible questions that they could possible think of. He could return to his work- he had fallen behind with all of the fuss of getting Emilie settled and the investigation and Adrien demanding attention- and at least get somewhat back on track until something more could be done. If he didn't, he might very well have to deal with investors backing out over worries about him not being able to keep up the quality of the company.

Now that Emilie was stable, Gabriel couldn't help but feel a bit of annoyance with her at all of the fuss and scrutiny that they had gone through- and would no doubt continue to go through- because she couldn't be careful enough with the Peacock. She would have to be the one to deal with the fallout from her return and figure out the logistics there, because he had already spent too much time dealing with her mistake already.

Of course, for her to deal with things, she had to actually wake up. Gabriel couldn't deny that he was worried about that not happening, though, and his worry far outweighed his annoyance.

He loved Emilie, enough to tolerate her annoying family and her equally annoying insistence on actually inviting them around and helping them out when they got themselves into trouble. Now she had made herself seriously ill with her attempts to help, and he-

-he could very well be facing a future without her.

Huffing out an angry sigh, Gabriel shook the thought off and turned back to his work. He had no time for negative thinking- and blowing things out of proportion was Emilie's thing, not his- and it wouldn't do anyone any good. It would only distract him from his job. With another shake, he pulled up a few sketches and started working. After a few hours had passed- thankfully without interruptions from Adrien wanting to know if anything new had come up- Gabriel was starting to feel good about his progress. He had picked up his projects just where he had left off, with almost no pauses or other confusion about where he had intended for things to go.

And then Nathalie came in, carrying a box under her arm.

"It's the shipment from China, sir," she told him, stepping up next to his desk. "Where do you want it?"

Gabriel resisted the urge to growl and snap to just put it somewhere safe for now, couldn't she see that he was busy? It wouldn't be smart to alienate his only support so soon, not when he didn't know how long it would be before Emilie woke up. So he set his pen down and considered the box Nathalie was holding.

It wasn't what he was expecting. For some reason, he had been imagining a battered box, something that he might find forgotten in the back of a shipping truck, with a lot of stickers all over. This, though, looked completely normal, like it had come from one of Gabriel's own stores.

"I'll look at it later," he decided after a moment. After all, he had gotten the second Miraculous for Emilie to use, and clearly she wasn't going to be using anything when she was in a coma. But there was more that the second Miraculous in the package, and- well, Emilie was injured by Miraculous means, it wasn't far-fetched to think that maybe there was something in the package that might help her. "Tuck it under my desk for now. And keep an eye on the security cameras for the rest of the day, I don't want to risk having someone come in unexpectedly."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to put it down in the garden, then?" Nathalie inquired. "Emilie's garden, I mean."

Gabriel considered that. "Perhaps. As long as I can have enough light to read down there- I'll be working until dark, probably. Or at least until I get to a stopping point."

Nathalie nodded, her face completely impassive. "Of course, sir."

Gabriel turned back to his work as she headed off. He lasted for another hour, wrapping up the things he had been working on so that he wouldn't lose his spot before heading down to Emilie's underground garden. A quick check of the monitoring panel told him that there had been no change in Emilie's condition, so Gabriel turned his attention to the box. Nathalie had set up a table and a lamp so that he wouldn't have to kneel on the ground to open the box- that was much appreciated- and both a scissors and a knife to open the package. In a few deft swipes, the tape had been slit and Gabriel opened the box.

It was packed. There were scrolls and a book and a smaller box, one that was more battered and covered in tape. That presumably contained the non-broken Miraculous, and he would save that for later. Right now…

Gabriel reached into the box and grabbed the folded note on top. It was a receipt and a packing list, with a small scribbled handwritten note on the bottom. It looked like it had been run through a translator at some point, honestly- the grammar was a little stilted and there were some odd word choices- but he scanned it anyway.

And when he did, his heart froze.

Apparently the seller had gotten the Miraculous things from the family of a man who had died young and unexpectedly. He hadn't known until more recently that the man had apparently been using the Peacock, and an autopsy after the death hadn't turned up anything. He had just fallen into a coma one day… and never woke up.

That sounded far too familiar for Gabriel's taste. Suddenly, his blown-out-of-proportion worst-case scenario was all too possible.

Newly reenergized, Gabriel turned to the rest of the box. Surely something in it would offer something to help. The man who died probably didn't have the medical technology that he had for Emilie, and hadn't been able to be helped in time. The equipment would buy him some time to read through everything-

He opened the topmost scroll and promptly swore, his temper spiking as he looked at the unfamiliar characters. He couldn't read that, and it was like no alphabet that he had seen before. That suggested that it was in some sort of code.

Gabriel was a fashion designer, not a code-breaker! He didn't have time-

He stopped himself halfway through that thought. This was Emilie's life in danger. He could make the time. It would be easy enough to hire another couple of designers and one more administrative staff person to pick up the bulk of his workload so that outsiders wouldn't notice any difference. He wasn't going to step back from designing entirely- that just wasn't happening- but he could clear on a solid chunk of his day to work on deciphering the code.

Gabriel let out another huff at the thought of the lost time before continuing to pull scrolls out. They were all in that same code, with only the occasional picture, and he set them aside for the time being in favor of pulling out the book.

It was in code, too. Really, he shouldn't have expected anything different.

At least there were pictures.

Gabriel flipped through the book, scanning over pictures of superheroes and trying to eke out any information he could from them. A flash of purple flipped by, and Gabriel quickly flipped back to see a page with the Butterfly Miraculous, the one that he had ordered. He couldn't read anything, but he could get the gist of the powers from the pictures. And frankly, those powers- well, they were incredibly similar to the Peacock's, from what Gabriel could tell. They might have been more useful for Emilie's goal, really.

But that didn't help him.

Gabriel bookmarked the page and continued on. Close to the end, he spotted another drawing. A much more interesting one.

It looked like- like two Miraculous, combined. And on the opposite page, a man that had power. Serious powers.

There was no way to confirm it, of course. Gabriel couldn't read the text that went along with the picture. But it looked like if he got those two Miraculous in the picture, it would allow him to weld strong enough magic to wake Emilie up and remove her from danger. The only problem, of course, was how to get his hands on those two Miraculous. The old shopkeeper that he had gotten the box of Miraculous things from didn't have any more. Gabriel would have to hunt them down, and he didn't have the slightest idea of where to start. The easiest way would be to lure them out somehow.

….but how?

Almost automatically, Gabriel's eyes slid to the side, to the battered box that housed the non-broken Miraculous, and the start of a plan started to fall into place, puzzle pieces slowly coming together to create a bigger picture.

He had to be safe about it, no matter how much he wanted Emilie up and out of danger right away. Rushing into using magical powers was how Emilie got sick, after all, and if he got ill… well, it wasn't worth thinking about. He was smarter than that.

One way or another, Gabriel was going to get Emilie back. Of that, he was certain.

#Miraculous Ladybug #my writing #gabriel agreste #nathalie sancoeur #villain origin story

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tsuki-chibi · 4 years

Text

Blackberries (Adrinette April) Day 19: Rain

Or see it on AO3: Blackberries

--------

When Adrien awoke the next morning, he didn't jump out of bed immediately. He took a few minutes to lay there, staring up at the ceiling and remembering the very pleasant time he and Miel had spent on the tower. Pleasant... but also, in a way, bittersweet. As cute as Marinette looked while transformed with the Bee miraculous, they both missed Plagg and Tikki deeply. It just wasn't the same traversing Paris as Miel and Tromper. Much as he hated to admit, Adrien thought he understood now what Trixx had meant when he called Adrien a kitten.

"Are you getting up?" Trixx asked, and Adrien rolled over to see Trixx staring at him from Adrien's desk. He smiled lazily at the kwami. Marinette was still sleeping, and the quiet contentment rolling through the bond was peaceful.

"Yeah, I am," Adrien said, though he made no move to get up. Fatigue weighed down his bones. He really shouldn't have stayed out as late as he had. The sun had been maybe a couple of hours away from cresting the horizon when he'd crawled in his bedroom window. The make-up artists were going to be outraged when they caught sight of the deepening bags under his eyes.

"You could just stay in bed all day," Trixx said.

"Now you sound like Plagg," Adrien said, amused. How many times had Plagg suggested the same thing? Though when it came to Plagg, it was less out of concern for Adrien's welfare and more for the fact that Plagg was, at heart, a lazy cat who liked nothing better than cheese and a day in bed. Unfortunately, Plagg had gotten stuck with a holder who rarely had the luxury of a full night's sleep, never mind the time to spend daylights hour under the covers.

Trixx snickered. "Yeah, I hear that a lot. Wayzz complains that Plagg and I are too much alike for his sanity," he said, violet eyes twinkling with mischief.

Adrien contemplated that for a moment. "You're lazy and destructive too?" he asked after a moment.

"Nah, but I am a fox. I like to play tricks," Trixx replied. "That often creates chaos, and chaos and destruction go hand-in-hand. The last time Plagg and I had fun together, we created the Grand Canyon."

"That's... horrifying," Adrien said after a slow blink.

Trixx gave him a wicked smile. "No, it was fun. I'd like see to Plagg again..."

"I'm not sure Paris can handle that," Adrien muttered.

"Adrien?"

His heart thudded against his ribs as he shot upright. "Yes, Nathalie?" he called out, motioning for Trixx to hide.

'What? What?!' Sensing his panic, Marinette came awake in a confused flounder. Adrien quickly sent a pulse of reassurance her way.

"You need to be ready within two hours for the show. You can practice piano after you have breakfast," said Nathalie. Thankfully, she didn't open the door - both because she would've seen Trixx and because Adrien couldn't resist making a face in her direction.

'Oh,' Marinette thought, slumping back against her pillows with a groan.

"Thanks Nathalie," Adrien said with forced politeness, swinging his legs over the bed. "I'm not hungry right now, though. I'll get something later."

"Very well," Nathalie said. "Then you should start your practice now."

"Right," Adrien muttered. If he listened hard, he could hear the click of her heels against the hardwood as she strode away. He shook his head. Naturally, he had zero intentions of practicing the piano this morning. He and Marinette had plans. But that was alright. It had been sometime since he'd set up his iPod to play music while he was out. And since he'd practiced for a while last night, he didn't feel bad.

'What a wake-up call,' Marinette thought. 'I thought for sure you were being attacked!'

'Sorry, I panicked. Sometimes Nathalie just opens my door and Trixx was right out in plain sight,' Adrien thought, glancing around for the kwami. He finally spotted Trixx, now curled up at the top of one of his bookcases.

'Right,' Marinette thought. 'Well, I guess I'm awake now. I'm going to go see if Maman will let me go.'

'Wait and I'll come over. Maybe she'll be more inclined to let you go if I'm there too,' Adrien thought, climbing out of bed. He got dressed, did his hair, and brushed his teeth, knowing that Marinette was also getting ready. When he was finished, he locked his door, set up his iPod with the classical music playlist, and walked over and pulled open the curtains. Far from the bright, sunny day of yesterday, it was overcast and drizzling. Heavy fog hung over the streets of Paris. Adrien made a face.

"Now see, if I were Plagg, I'd flat out refuse to go out in that," Trixx said from behind him.

"You are not wrong," Adrien said. "Would you do it for a cranberry-blueberry scone? Marinette's papa makes the most amazing scones."

Trixx's eyes gleamed. "You've got yourself a deal."

"Trixx, let's pounce!" Adrien whispered. Orange light washed over him, briefly illuminating the room. Tromper then opened the window and stepped up onto the ledge, wincing as a fine mist sprayed his face. He might be a fox right now, but the cat side of him wasn't terribly pleased by the weather either.

He jumped off the ledge and quickly made his way towards Marinette's house, landing in an alley about a block away. He detransformed, tucked Trixx into his pocket, and walked the rest of the way while mentally following the conversation between Marinette and her maman. As predicted, Sabine wasn't crazy about the idea of her daughter going out so soon after being grounded. The words "you should have thought of that before going out during an akuma attack" were uttered just as Adrien opened the bakery door and walked inside. Both mother and daughter looked up at him.

"Oh, Adrien!" Sabine said in surprise.

"Hi," Adrien said, running a hand through his hair and grimacing when it came away damp. "Marinette, are you ready?"

Marinette winced. "I don't think I can come today, Adrien, I'm sorry. I should have called you before you came, but I was hoping that something might change at the last minute." She shot her maman a pointed look.

It wasn't hard to conjure up some disappointment, since he was well used to no one coming to his shows. Adrien pasted on a smile. "Oh, I see. That's okay. Thanks for trying."

"You have a show today, Adrien?" Sabine asked him. "Will your father be there?"

"Probably not," Adrien said honestly. "My father doesn't really like to go out in public. He usually sends Nathalie in his place to make sure that everything is done properly. Sometimes Nathalie brings along a tablet so my father can see what's going on through Facetime... so I guess sometimes he's there? Though I really prefer when he's not, because things go so much more smoothly otherwise..."

Sabine frowned. "I see."

"But that's okay. I'm used to it," Adrien went on, shrugging. "I just thought Marinette might like to come because she loves fashion so much... and it would've been nice to have a friend in the audience."

'You're laying it on a little thick,' Marinette thought.

He ignored her, adding, "Sorry, I'll go." He turned towards the windows and did a quick double-take when he realized that, during his couple minutes inside the bakery, it was started raining hard.

"You need an umbrella. I'll get you one," Marinette said with another look at her maman. She disappeared upstairs.

"Have you eaten yet?" Sabine asked him. Then, without waiting for him to respond, she added, "Pick out whatever you like, Dear."

"I wouldn't mind a cranberry-blueberry scone," Adrien said shyly.

"Of course!" Sabine took three of the scones and slid them into a paper bag, handing them to him. She shook her head when Adrien reached for his wallet and sternly told him that he wasn't going to pay for it.

"Thank you," Adrien said, touched. He clutched the bag to his chest as Marinette returned with an umbrella.

"Have a good show," Marinette said softly, handing him the umbrella.

"Oh, for goodness' sake. Just go, Marinette. But you're to be home immediately after, understand?" Sabine said.

Marinette lit up. "Really?! Thank you, Maman!" She kissed Sabine's cheek, hooked her arm through Adrien's, and literally dragged him out the door. Adrien got the umbrella up just in time to keep them both from getting soaked. The bakery door swung shut behind them, leaving them out in the chill and damp, but Adrien couldn't keep himself from grinning in triumph.

'Laying it on too thick, huh?' he thought smugly, and she snorted and elbowed him as she grabbed the umbrella.

‘Yeah, yeah, they love you and would spoil you rotten given half a chance. Now let’s go. I want to see Tikki!’ she thought, pulling him forward. Adrien opened the bag, broke a scone in half and slipped half to Trixx before stuffing the other half in his mouth as he followed.

#miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #marinette dupain-cheng #sabine cheng #trixx #fox adrien agreste #bee marinette dupain-cheng #soulmate au #blackberries #adrinetteapril2020

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purrincess-chat · 5 years

Text

Will You Be My (Fake) Lover CH4

If you thought last chapter was steamy, I have some news for you about this one. Aka, Adrien can’t stop kissing Marinette, and he’s starting to think there’s something wrong with him.

Read on AO3

Chapter 4

Lila drummed her fingers on her folded arms with a scowl as she watched Marinette’s makeup artist work, the two chatting and smiling casually. It should be her doing that shoot and the interview, and now she was just going to be a side model while Marinette and Adrien got the cover with their stupid fairytale shoot. But they could enjoy this little performance while it lasted because it wouldn’t be long before she exposed them and set their fake relationship up in flames. Those goody-two-shoes couldn’t possibly keep their charade up for long, lying to their friends and family. It was going to eat away at them, and Lila was going to be there the second they cracked.

“You can wait by the fountain, my young principessa. Your Prince Charming is almost done with makeup,” the photographer instructed, pointing to her mark.

“Okay!” She smiled sweetly, and Lila rolled her eyes. Her niceness was so annoying, and her face fell the moment their eyes locked as she passed by.

“You may have everyone else fooled, but I can see right through your phony little relationship,” Lila said with a smirk, and Marinette’s eyes narrowed.

“Jealous?” She asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Hardly,” Lila grunted. “Adrien doesn’t love you. He never has. You will always just be a friend to him.”

“Well, that’s more than you can say about him,” Marinette said with a laugh, and Lila felt her temper flare.

“You’re so clumsy, Marinette. It’s a real shame you won’t get your fairytale ending with Adrien after all,” Lila said, and Marinette’s eyes narrowed.

“What are you-” Before she could finish, Lila hooked her foot around Marinette’s ankle and pushed, sending her toppling backwards into the fountain.

“Oh, no! Help! Marinette’s so clumsy, she tripped and fell into the fountain!” Lila cried as Marinette flailed in an attempt to sit up, meeting her triumphant smirk with a glare.

“No, no! Your hair, the makeup! Get her out of there and into a back up dress,” the photographer ordered, but before he could stop him, Adrien darted from his chair and crawled into the fountain after her.

“Adrien, your clothes-” Marinette started as he knelt beside her.

“Are you okay?” He asked, eyebrows knit together worriedly.

“Fine. I-” She glanced up at the photographer and makeup artists crowding the fountain, eyes locking with Lila’s as she stood beside them innocently, and Lila quirked a brow at her as if issuing a challenge. “I tripped and fell in. I’m sorry.”

“Are you hurt?” Adrien asked, looking her over.

“No,” she said, eyes stinging as she tucked wet hair behind her ear then, feeling her earlobe, she gasped, “My earring!”

“Don’t worry. We have back-ups of those too,” her wardrobe specialist assured her, but panic surged through her chest.

“My grandmother gave me these earrings,” she said with a pout, training those desperate eyes on Adrien. Without hesitating, Adrien lowered onto his hands and knees, crawling along the bottom of the fountain despite how the photographer threw his head back with a groan.

“Got it,” he said after a few minutes of searching, holding it up.

Marinette breathed a sigh of relief as he crawled back toward her, gently pushing it through her lobe and brushing her cheek with the back of his hand.

“There, good as new,” he said with a loving smile. “Now let’s get you dried off, princess.”

Before she could protest, Adrien scooped her up into his arms, carrying her out of the fountain and to the tent set up across the courtyard. She clung to him awkwardly like a wet cat until he set her down and draped a towel over her shoulders, rubbing her arms a little to warm her up.

“Thanks,” she said, tugging at the corners.

“I’ve got you, always,” he said, kissing her hand before retreating back out to the sidewalk as Marinette’s team rushed in.

Lila stood off to the side, arms folded over her chest as the crew prepped for her shoot while Adrien and Marinette were indisposed, and Adrien passed her on the way to his tent with a scowl.

“Don’t think I don’t realize what happened just now,” he growled in her ear.

“I don’t know what you’re-”

“You seem a little slow to comprehend, so I’ll say it again. Stay away from, Marinette,” he said sternly.

“I didn’t do anything,” Lila insisted with a coy smile, but Adrien glared through her.

“We both know that’s a lie, but if you do anything to her, I’ll make sure no one listens to you ever again,” he shot back, and Lila rolled her eyes.

“You don’t have the guts,” she said with a laugh.

“Try me.” Lila quirked a brow, shrinking a little under his cold gaze, those green eyes filled with more malice than she’d ever seen.

“Whatever,” she grumbled, averting her gaze. “Even if I don’t do anything, it won’t be long before you two crack. You may have everyone fooled for now, but you’re both too angelic to keep this charade up for long. Just know that I look forward to watching your friends get crushed under the weight of your lies.”

Adrien’s jaw clenched as the photographer called her over for her shoot, hands clenched into fists at his sides. He couldn’t tell if he was shaking from the cool breeze against his wet clothes or from the unbridled rage burning inside him. Either way, he wasn’t going to let Lila off so easily.

***

“I can’t wait for your shoot to release. You look so beautiful,” Alya said the next day in the locker room, staring down at the picture Marinette had uploaded to her Instagram. “You two are so cute together.”

“Thanks. It was really nerve-wracking, but I had fun,” Marinette said, rubbing the back of her neck.

“You did great,” Adrien assured her, and she smiled up at him as he leaned down to touch his nose to hers.

“I’m more interested in this article about you saving Marinette from the fountain,” Nino said, flipping his phone around to show an image of a very soaked Marinette being carried by Adrien.

“You’re such a klutz, girl,” Alya laughed. “But it was super cute of you to jump in after her like that, Adrien.”

“The photographer didn’t think so,” Adrien chuckled with a wince. “But I’d do anything for you, my love.”

“Aww,” Nino and Alya cooed as he planted a soft kiss on her flushed cheeks.

“I have to go get changed for fencing, but Nathalie promised we could hang out afterward while we do homework,” he said. “Provided that we actually work on it.”

“You’ll have to keep your hands to yourself,” Marinette said teasingly.

“It’s not my hands you should be worried about.” He winked, leaning down to kiss her goodbye.

“Oh, Adrien. There you are, I-” Kagami approached with her gym bag, stopping short when she saw them together. “Am I interrupting?”

“Oh, Kagami,” Marinette said, spine stiffening as her brown eyes darted between them.

“Hey, I was just about to get changed,” Adrien said, shouldering his duffle bag.

“You and Marinette are a couple now?” She asked, voice guarded and hesitant as if she were fighting to maintain her composure.

“Yeah. We’ve been together for almost a week now,” Adrien said, and Marinette bit her lip.

“I see,” Kagami said, lowering her gaze. “Congratulations. I hope you two are very happy.”

“I’ll just be a few minutes then we can warm up,” Adrien said before retreating to the bathroom.

“Excuse me. I think I left my jacket in the bathroom,” Kagami said, bowing politely before retreating to the other side of the locker room.

“Kagami, wait!” Marinette called after her.

“Trouble in paradise already.” Alya winced as Marinette gave chase, and Nino quirked a brow.

“What?” He asked, and Alya rolled her eyes.

“Kagami has feelings for Adrien too. She and Marinette were kind of competing to catch his attention,” Alya explained. “And now Marinette’s won, so Kagami must be devastated.”

“Man, being a hot teen model is messy. It doesn’t matter who you end up with. You’re always gonna break some hearts,” Nino said.

“Good thing I don’t have to worry about that with you,” Alya teased, brushing his nose with her finger.

“Hey!” Nino puffed his cheeks, and Alya threw her head back with a laugh. “Do you think they’re all gonna be okay?”

“Knowing Marinette, I’m sure she and Kagami will smooth things over,” Alya said. “I hope anyway. Marinette has had a crush on Adrien since day one, and now they’re finally together. I’d hate for anything to ruin that.”

“Kagami!” Marinette called, but the girl in question didn’t stop as she pushed open the bathroom door. “Please, wait!”

“I appreciate your concern, Marinette, but I’m fine,” Kagami said finally, spinning around to face her, and although she wore a smile, Marinette could see the hurt in her eyes.

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way. I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Marinette said, and Kagami shifted her weight.

“I know, Marinette. It’s not your fault my mother keeps me from things she deems unnecessary like social media and texting. I’m not angry with you or Adrien,” she said, lowering her gaze to her shoes. “My friends are happy, and I should be happy for them.”

“Kagami,” Marinette started with a sigh. “You’re hurt, and I’m not going to try to convince you that you shouldn’t be. I understand if you don’t want to see me right now, but you’re my friend. I’m here for you if you need me.”

“Thank you, Marinette, but I don’t see a point in crying over a boy. They’re rarely worth it,” Kagami said, and Marinette frowned.

“Your feelings are worth it,” Marinette said, and Kagami processed that for a moment before her face fell, tears bubbling in her eyes and shoulders beginning to shake.

Marinette stepped forward, taking Kagami into her arms as she began to weep. She wasn’t sure what to say to make it better. She didn’t even think words existed that could. Pain like this could only be mended with time, with tears, with friendship, but in that moment, Marinette shared her pain because she wasn’t with Adrien anymore than Kagami was. But Marinette couldn’t tell her that, so she held her close until her sobs quieted, and her shaking stopped.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Marinette asked.

“I will be,” Kagami said, wiping at her cheek. “I’m glad that it’s you and not someone else like Lila. Now that I wouldn’t be able to stand.”

They both laughed at that.

“Thank you for checking up on me, Marinette. If anyone else is deserving of Adrien, it’s you, and I truly hope that you two are happy,” Kagami said with a bow.

“I hope that you find someone truly deserving of you too, Kagami. You’re really smart and amazing, ya know,” Marinette said, and Kagami smiled, cheeks flushing.

“I can see why Adrien likes you. You’re very kind, and I’m glad that we’ve become friends,” Kagami said, and this time Marinette was the one blushing. “I accept defeat.”

Marinette watched as she squared her shoulders and held her head high as she paced from the room, her heart twisting in knots. She knew that this arrangement with Adrien would be hard, but she didn’t picture it like this. She only hoped that they didn’t hurt anyone else when all was said and done.

***

“I’m really surprised your dad is letting you come to the party,” Marinette said on the limo ride to Nino’s apartment. “He’s really let up since we got together.”

“A little bit, yeah, but I also might have told him that we’re meeting up to work on a group project,” Adrien said, innocently batting his eyelashes with a smirk.

“You’ve been awfully rebellious lately,” Marinette noted with a grin, and Adrien folded his arms over his chest.

“It’s pay back for his attempt to stick me with Lila.” Adrien shrugged, and Marinette cupped a hand to her lips to stifle a giggle. “I just wanna have fun for once. Is that so wrong?”

“I don’t think so,” Marinette shook her head, and Adrien’s face softened as the limo slowed to a stop.

“Ready?” He offered her a hand.

“Yep.” She placed her hand in his before climbing out, twining their fingers together as they headed up the stairs to Nino’s door.

“Yo, Adrien!” Nino greeted, extending a fist for him to pound. “Giving your pops the slip so you can hang with your best bro and lady? Very sneaky, my dude.”

“I like to have fun every once in a while, ya know,” Adrien chuckled as Nino gestured them in.

Several of their classmates were standing around the living room chatting over drinks and snacks, and Alya waved them over to the couch. Nino draped his arm over her shoulders as they sat, and Adrien awkwardly did the same for Marinette.

“I’m so glad you two could make it,” Alya said, shifting to face Marinette. “We have tons of fun party games for couples, and you two are definitely playing.”

“Yeah, of course.” Adrien nodded, exchanging glances with Marinette.

“Awesome! I’m so glad you two are together now. You guys can go out on dates with us, and we can get ice cream at Andres, and we can go to couples’ events,” she said with increasing excitement. “I really am happy for you, girl. I know you’re perfectly capable and amazing on your own, and in no way do I think that being in a relationship is a necessity for everyone to find happiness, but it’s just kinda nice to have someone.”

“Yeah, no, totally. I get what you mean,” Marinette said with a smile that fell as soon as Alya turned her head.

Somehow, she wasn’t having very much fun at this party. To everyone else it appeared as though she had everything she wanted, but little did they know that she couldn’t be further from it. Adrien’s arm was around her, but it was meaningless, just a gesture to keep up appearances. She had to remind herself of why she was doing this because if she didn’t then it would be just another steppingstone for Lila to get what she wanted and make everyone fall further into her web. Adrien would be miserable, and Lila would lord their relationship over her until it was over. She had no other choice. She had to do this even if it hurt.

“Alya! You and Nino are up next to dance,” Rose said, gesturing over her shoulder to the screen where her partner score with Juleka flashed, and Alya cast Marinette a sly smirk.

“Why don’t we let Adrien and Marinette have a turn?” She suggested, nudging them with her elbow. “We can see how in sync you two are.”

“Uh, that’s oaky. We don’t want to-” Marinette started, but Adrien cut her off.

“Oh, yeah! Now I don’t have to solo or partner with Nino. C’mon, Marinette, this should be fun,” he said, taking her hand and pulling her up.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Marinette asked under her breath as Rose selected a song for them.

“Why not? It’s just dancing. We’ve danced together before.” He shrugged.

“Yeah, but…”

“Don’t worry. You and I will make a great team.” He winked, and she felt her limbs tense as all eyes fixed on them.

While it was true that dancing was easy enough, she couldn’t help but feel awkward as if they were broadcasting to everyone how fake their relationship was, so for the next several minutes she focused on getting the moves right. Adrien didn’t seem that concerned and seemed to be enjoying himself, so Marinette took a deep breath and forced herself to loosen up a bit. It wouldn’t matter if they flubbed one game, and no one was likely to question the authenticity of their relationship even if they did. At least, that’s what she told herself until Nino called out a hearty greeting, and Marinette caught sight of Lila entering as she spun.

The world seemed to move in slow motion as their eyes met, and the pit returned to Marinette’s stomach. Those taunting green eyes seemed to mock her from afar, speaking the worlds Lila didn’t have to.

One wrong move, and everyone will know you’re lying. I’ll make sure of it.

Her heart jumped up to her throat, and in her moment of distraction, she lost her footing, tripping into Adrien and sending them both toppling to the floor. Adrien took most of the impact, cradling her instinctively to protect her, and the moment his back hit the ground, she shot up with a gasp.

“Are you okay?” They said in unison, and Marinette fumbled against his chest.

“I’m sorry!” She said with a wince as they sat up, and Adrien rubbed his back. “Are you hurt?”

“Nah, Kagami has done worse to me in fencing,” he assured her, brushing her cheek with the back of his knuckle. “I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

“It’s hard to be in sync with someone so clumsy. I feel bad for you, Adrien,” Lila said, crossing one leg over the other as Nathaniel and Kim laughed in agreement, and Marinette lowered her head in shame.

“That’s okay. I think it’s cute that she can’t stop falling for me,” Adrien said, prompting a chorus of ‘awws’ from their friends, and Marinette smiled up at him as he shot her a wink. “I’ll always catch you.”

Marinette felt her cheeks flush, and she leaned into kiss him sweetly, lingering a moment in hopes of expressing her gratitude.

“You two are so perfect together,” Rose cooed, cupping her hands to her cheeks.

“Up,” Adrien offered her his hands, pulling her back to her feet before lifting her hands to his lips. “Will you accompany me to the snack table for a cold drink, m’lady?”

“I’d be honored,” Marinette said, casting a pointed look at Lila as she linked her arm through his.

“Okay, Alya and Nino. You’re up!”

“Sorry about that. I let Lila get in my head,” she mumbled as Adrien dug two drinks from the cooler.

“That’s okay. I think it worked out better in the end anyway,” he said, passing her a can then swiping a macaron.

“Yeah,” Marinette said, glaring back over where Lila was sitting. “She just gets under my skin. I wish I could get back at her somehow.”

“I’m all ears if you have ideas,” he said before taking a swig of his orange soda.

“I know it’s not right to- wait, you want to get back at her too?” Marinette’s eyebrows raised in shock, and Adrien quirked a brow.

“Isn’t that what we’re doing?” Adrien motioned to the theoretical connection between them. “I’ve been ready ever since she got you expelled.”

“Are we taking the low road?” She asked with a smirk, and Adrien bit back one of his own.

“Not entirely, just…a little detour,” he proposed, pursing his lips deviously. “So, what do we wanna do?”

“Hmm…” Marinette hummed, glancing around the room at their assets, gaze lingering briefly on Ivan and Mylene embraced in the corner with locked lips and feeling her pulse accelerate at the thought. “I have an idea, but…”

“What is it?” Adrien asked with a prompting nod.

“It’s nothing. I’ll think of something else.” She waved it away.

“No, tell me,” he insisted, and she bit her lip before stretching up to whisper in his ear.

His eyebrows raised in shock, a grin curling on his lips as Marinette lowered back on her heels and winced.

“Okay,” he said with a laugh as her cheeks darkened, taking her hand and leading her to the chair in the corner.

Adrien sat first, placing his drink on the floor before extending his arms to her, and she awkwardly climbed into his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. He smiled at her as she got situated, eyelids hooding before he leaned in to touch his lips to hers.

She was met with that same spark through her veins, drawing her in closer. His breath tasted like orange soda, and she wanted to drink as much of it as she could. It wasn’t real, and she knew that, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy it. That the eager way he hugged her against him, sucking her bottom lip with a contented sigh was genuine instead of an act.

If she thought too much about the true nature of their relationship, she’d never be able to pull this off. So, she pretended, pushing away those thoughts and kissing him deeper which he welcomed, cupping her cheek and letting his tongue slip into her mouth. If she knew one thing, it was that Adrien was going to drive her absolutely mad by the end of it if he always kissed her this way.

“Am I the only one who finds their relationship a bit odd?” Lila was saying across the room to Alya. “I find it hard to believe that they got together so suddenly. It’s like there’s something else going on.”

“What makes you say that?” Alya asked, quirking a brow. “Marinette has had a crush on him for like ever, and everyone knows that Adrien has always admired her a lot.”

“I just find it a little weird that Adrien never showed real interest in Marinette before outside of being friends, and now they’re suddenly so in love,” Lila said with a shrug.

“That’s just because Adrien is really private. There are things even Nino doesn’t know about him, and they’re best friends,” Alya said. “Besides, why would they lie about being in a relationship?”

“I don’t know, but they just seem so awkward and stiff, don’t you think?” Lila added, and Alya chuckled.

“They’ve only been together a couple weeks. You should have seen me and Nino when we started dating. It takes a while to get comfortable,” Alya said with a smirk before she sobered. “Do you have any proof that they’re not really together?”

“Yeah, I don’t think you have to worry about the two of them being genuine,” Nino grunted, pointing across the room where Marinette and Adrien sat tangled in each other’s arms, unabashedly making out without a care in the world.

“Seems pretty genuine to me,” Alya said pointedly to Lila before calling out to them with a whoop. “Oh la la, get a room, you two!”

The two separated just enough to turn to them with impish grins that grew wider when Lila’s jaw clenched.

“Hey, why don’t we play our first couples’ game?” Nino suggested, and Alya stood up with a nod as Nino downed the rest of his soda.

“Alright, it’s time to play 7 minutes in heaven for those participating,” Alya announced, and several classmates crowded into the room excitedly.

“What’s 7 minutes in heaven?” Adrien asked, and everyone shot him knowing smirks.

“It’s a game where you spin a bottle, and whichever couple it lands on has to go into a room for 7 minutes and makeout,” Alya explained.

“Among other things.” Nino waggled his eyebrows.

“Other things?” Adrien cocked his head to the side, and Alya elbowed her boyfriend with a pointed look.

“Just stick to kissing for now, Prince Charming. You’ll get to other stuff later,” Alya said, setting the bottle on the table as all the couples gathered around, and Lila was awkwardly shuffled out of the way, much to her annoyance.

“Okay, first up is…” Nino said as the bottle spun. “Juleka and Rose!”

Rose squeaked excitedly, grabbing Juleka’s hand and tugging her into the closet as Alya set the timer.

“Do you guys play this game often at parties?” Adrien asked as everyone carried on with their conversations.

“Yeah, we play this one, guess your partner where we blind fold you and you have to guess if the person kissing you is your partner or not. The newlywed game, find the mint, never-have-I-ever, all kinds of games,” Mylene said, counting them off on her fingers, and Adrien pursed his lips.

“Find the mint?”

“Oh, I think you two will be good at this one,” Alya said with a smirk, and Nino dug a tin of mints from his pocket. “One of you will hide a mint somewhere in your mouth, and it’s the other persons job to find it.”

“So, it’s just an excuse to make out?” Adrien quirked a brow.

“Pretty much.” Everyone nodded, and Alya shook the tin.

“Wanna play?” She asked, and Adrien glanced over at Marinette, biting his lip.

“It could be fun,” he said with a shrug. “Do you wanna play, my love?”

“As if you need an excuse to kiss me.” She rolled her eyes, holding her hand out to Alya who deposited a tiny mint into her palm, and Adrien looked the other way while she hid it.

“You have two minutes, Agreste,” Alya declared as Nino started another timer on his phone. “Go!”

Adrien bit back a grin, taking Marinette’s face in his hands and diving straight in. He could taste the mint on her tongue as he began his exploration, exchanging giggles as he pressed under her tongue only to come up empty. He could feel her smile as his tongue whipped around her mouth searching for its prize, his heart pounding as he leaned into her more. She wrapped her arms around his neck, trailing her fingers through his hair, and he let out a soft moan.

Kissing her made his pulse quicken and his skin tingle, fueling the burning sensation in his core. Her body was so soft against his own, her lips sweet and buttery to taste. Oh, how he enjoyed kissing those lips, feeling her tongue between his own as they clung to each other. It awakened something primal in him, and he never wanted the sensation to stop once it started. He could have spent hours with her.

He knew it wasn’t right to think such things about a friend, but once the thought entered his mind, he couldn’t get it to leave. Not that he wanted it gone anyway even if it did leave him feeling guilty. Marinette was just so fun and down-to-earth, and now whenever he looked at her, he couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was when she smiled. How cute she looked when deep in thought or when she was focused on something. All of her wonderful qualities were written on her face, and she was one of the most radiant people he’d ever seen. Being a good kisser was just an added bonus.

Whoever ended up with her in the end was gonna be lucky, and he had to admit he envied them a little. He’d give anything to be with someone like Marinette for real, and the longer they pretended, the more often he caught himself thinking that this was real. Everything felt so natural with her, and there was no doubt in his mind that if they loved each other that they would truly be as happy as they pretended to be.

There were times when they were alone that he found himself resisting the urge to reach out and take her hand or hold her close, and he had to remind himself that there was no need for such things with no one around to see. It made his heart sink a little each time, but he kept telling himself over and over that they were just friends. Friends and only friends even if he just wanted to kiss her all the time now.

Marinette flinched as his tongue made contact with the mint between her cheek and her bottom teeth, successfully freeing it from its hiding place and pulling it into his own mouth. He pulled away with a triumphant laugh, showing the mint on his tongue to Alya who stopped the timer with an impressed nod.

“47 seconds to spare,” she said as he curled his tongue back into his mouth and finished off the now mostly dissolved mint.

“Can we play again?” He asked, and Marinette gave him a look.

“Knock yourselves out,” Alya laughed, setting the minds down on the coffee table before joining Nino on the couch.

“You seem really into this,” Marinette said as he picked out another mint, and he paused, feeling his heart jolt.

“Uh, I’m just trying to be convincing,” he said softly, glancing around at all the other couples.

“There is such a thing as too convincing, ya know,” she shot back, quirking a brow, and he shrank a little.

“Sorry,” he said, lowering his gaze like a puppy scolded for tearing up the rug, and Marinette reached out to place a hand over his.

“It’s fine. Just be careful. We are still a new couple, so it makes sense to be a little crazy about all of this, but don’t overdo it,” she said, and he nodded in understanding.

“Yeah, sorry. I know you probably don’t like kissing me so much,” he said, and she pursed her lips to hide her smirk.

“I don’t mind it,” she admitted with a shrug.

“Really?” His eyebrows raised, heart skipping into a sprint in his chest.

“Yeah, it’s kinda fun…from an objective standpoint.” She rubbed the back of her neck.

“I like kissing you too,” he said, and her gaze flicked back to his as a shy smile curled on his lips. “I know I shouldn’t, but…I dunno. I like it.”

Marinette bit her lip, cheeks darkening a few shades as she reached into his palm, taking the mint from his hand and pressing it to his lips. She leaned in to kiss him again, and he wrapped his arms around her as they shared the mint between their tongues. Knowing that she enjoyed kissing just as much as he did made him feel better about all of this. He was already asking so much of her that he’d hate to think that he was bothering her and reaping enjoyment from it. Marinette was so important to him, and he hoped she could tell that from the gentle way he caressed her cheek, meeting her with a tenderness that contrasted his former hungry passion.

He wanted so many things with Marinette. He wanted to touch her so softly and delicately as if she were a porcelain doll, but another part of him wanted to kiss her wildly and feel the heat of her flesh against his own. When all was said and done between them, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to look at her again without wanting to kiss those soft lips of hers or hold her small frame close, and the more he thought about ending things, the heavier his heart grew.

Marinette would make an amazing girlfriend. He cared about her, and he could talk to her for hours. Truthfully, he’d always wanted to get to know her better and learn what things went on in her head when she made that cute thinking face. She’d always been an enigma to him, and he so desperately wanted to figure her out.

As the last traces of the mint dissolved, their lips parted, but Adrien held her face close, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek before nuzzling against it with a sigh. She matched his gentleness by turning to kiss his hand, still cupping her jaw before leaning against his shoulder. He wondered if she could feel his heart pounding in his chest as they remained embraced for several moments until Ondine noticed with an adoring laugh.

“You two are so sweet. Why don’t you ever snuggle with me like that?” She turned to Kim, hugging his arm and resting her chin on his bicep.

“I’ll cuddle with you,” he said, seeming taken aback before wrapping his arms around her and pressing a kiss to her cheek much to her delight.

“There will be plenty of time for you two to cuddle because you’re next,” Alya announced as Juleka and Rose surfaced from the closet with ruffled hair and glassy eyes, walking hand-in-hand back to the beanbag they were sharing earlier.

After Kim and Ondine was Alya and Nino, but on the fourth spin, the bottle landed on Marinette and Adrien.

“You’re turn, girl.” Alya grinned at Marinette who turned to Adrien.

“Come on. I’ll teach you how to play,” she said, taking his hand and leading him down to Nino’s room, being sure to shoot Lila a purposeful glare on the way.

“See you two in 7 minutes,” Alya said with a wink as they closed the door.

“So, now we make out for 7 minutes?” Adrien quirked a brow, a small grin tugging on the corners of his mouth as he leaned down with puckered lips.

“Adrien, there’s no one in here but us. You don’t have to pretend,” Marinette said, and he peeked an eye open before deflating a little.

“Oh, I just thought that…Nevermind, you’re right.” He straightened, clearing his throat and tugging his collar. “So, we’re just gonna sit in here for 7 minutes then?”

“We aren’t going to make out, but…” Marinette reached into her purse to retrieve her lip gloss. “We’re going to make it look like we did.”

Adrien parted his lips as she stretched up, dabbing dots of gloss around the corners of his mouth before smearing them in with her finger. Next, she ruffled his hair, doing her best not to get too preoccupied with how soft it was. She gripped bunches of his shirt until they wrinkled before finally pinching the skin on his neck.

“What’s that for?” He asked.

“Fake hickey,” she said, tilting his jaw and pressing a few kisses to his neck surrounding the mark, leaving glossy impressions in her wake before repeating the process on her self.

“My first hickey,” Adrien said thoughtfully, examining it in the mirror.

“It’s not real,” Marinette said pointedly with a laugh.

“I know, but everyone will think it is,” he said, pursing his lips. “I really appreciate you going through so much effort for me.”

“I know how much you didn’t want to date Lila, and I wouldn’t want you to either. Unless you actually liked her in which case, I’d probably recommend you get your brain scanned,” she said, and Adrien let out a quiet laugh.

“As I’d hope you would if I ever did,” he said, sitting in Nino’s desk chair. “You’re a really great friend.”

When he held out his arms, Marinette crawled into them, laying her head on his shoulder as he brushed her bangs out of her eyes. The softness in his expression made her cheeks warm, especially when he traced her lips with his thumb, looking like he wanted to kiss her momentarily before he let his hand drop. She felt her pulse quicken as she relayed what he’d said earlier.

Adrien liked kissing her. That had to mean something, right? Could it really be that he was starting to fall for her, or was it just wishful thinking on her part?

“How long do you think we’ll have to keep this whole thing up?” She asked, and he drummed his fingers for a moment before shrugging.

“As long as we need to, I guess, or until you get tired of me,” he said. “If there’s someone else that you…I don’t ever want you to risk your happiness for me. I’d rather date Lila than do that to you.”

“There isn’t anyone else really…” She said, gazing out the window with a distant expression.

“That’s good. I was worried that I was keeping you from being with the person you loved,” he said, seeming to relax a little.

“Nah,” she murmured, face falling as her heart sank.

She could have told him right then. Because he was keeping her from being with the one she loved, and in turn, she was sacrificing her own happiness. She could have told him, but she didn’t want this to end. If this was all she was ever going to have then she’d savor every moment. After everything she was giving to him, she could afford a little selfishness, couldn’t she? It wasn’t like she could tell him that he was the very boy she loved with all her heart.

“So, what happens if we have to keep this up for a long time? Are you going to fake marry me too?” She teased to take her mind off things, and he laughed at that.

“If I have to…I wouldn’t mind it actually. I’d be happy with you,” he said, and she felt her heart skip.

“What about the girl you love? Isn’t there someone?” She asked, glancing up at him, and he stared up at the ceiling thoughtfully before a sad smile curled on his lips.

“It’s okay because she doesn’t love me back,” he said. “I’ve told her how I feel several times now, and she always rejects me. I’ve tried to move on a few times, but it’s just really hard when you love someone.”

“Yeah, I know how you feel,” she said, lowering her gaze with a sigh. Especially when you spend a lot of time making out with that very person.

“You remind me of her a little sometimes,” he admitted, glancing down at her with a smile. “You’re both kind and smart and always helping others.”

“She sounds really nice,” Marinette said, and he let out a sigh.

“She is, but I think deep down I know it’s not meant to be. I just…don’t want to accept it, but things are different now I guess since you and I are…doing this,” he said, gesturing to their current position cuddled together.

“Do you ever think you’ll fall in love with me since we’re so similar?” She asked with a smirk, and he let out a breathy laugh.

“You’re a good friend, but I guess…never say never.” He shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll both fall in love for real during all of this.”

“One minute, you two!” Alya knocked, and Marinette shifted to straddle him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“We should probably be kissing when she opens the door,” Marinette said, and Adrien nodded, pulling her in close and touching his lips to hers.

It was strange how much he’d wanted to. How disappointed he was when they didn’t. Kissing her made him feel so warm and safe, and yet so wired as if an electrical current were running through his veins. He couldn’t really describe it, but he knew he didn’t want it to end.

“Time’s up, you two!” Alya said, one short minute later. “Oh, wow.”

Adrien reluctantly retracted his tongue from her mouth, but not before brushing it against hers purposefully, sucking her lower lip hard before breaking away. They both panted lightly as Alya leaned against the door frame with a smirk.

“Well, looks like someone learned how to play,” she chuckled, and Adrien realized then how suggestive their current position was before Marinette crawled off his lap.

“He’s a fast learner,” she said, pulling him up and guiding him back out into the living room.

“Nino, we’re up again,” Alya said, beckoning him with a grin, and he jumped up from his seat, rushing after her.

Adrien flicked his gaze around at all of their friends chatting as if nothing had changed, but something in him felt different. The room felt too hot, and his heart threatened to beat out of his chest. When his eyes found Marinette again, his condition worsened, and he swallowed back the lump in his throat as that smile of hers returned to her lips as she struck up a conversation with Alix. She’d never looked more beautiful.

He closed his eyes hard to clear his head, breathing a heavy sigh before opening them again. His brain was probably just foggy from all the kissing, but he had to admit, Marinette’s lips were one hell of a drug, and he was starting to get addicted.

#miraculous ladybug #adrinette #adrien agreste #marinette dupain-cheng #fake dating au #my writing

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