#becuase I really love how this oen came out ;-;

[currentfandomkick]

Bio! Dad Strange part 12 Waiting for Help

Marinette promised herself that this was a nightmare, that she’d wake up and there wouldnt be a kwami or earrings.

She was wrong.

Her dad compliemented the new studs at breakfast, asking if she got them in Gotham.

“Found them laying around is all.”

Maman told her they’re begining self defense lessons tonight, and to bring the other girls. She didnt point out she already knew how to fight, and made a mentsl note to tell the girls to pretend she was just good at gym, not fighting.

She checked her phone. No message from Tim yet.

“What yout doing?” Tikki—no captor—asked.

Marinette forced a smile, “just checking my messages, that’s all!”

—

Tim looked over his messages. He remembered seeing two alerts on his burner from Harley Before the Arkham Prison Break and its destruction. He couslnt remember from who though... was it a heads up about the outbreak or...

He tried to find it on his laptop, cloning the phone to it ages ago. The data from it was... corrupt?

He didnt like the look of this. It was from Pixie. Teo messages, oen short and one cery, very long.

He managed to get one phrase at the end. His french had to be wrong but it said “they won’t find you”

He tried to call Pixie then. The number was disconnected. He swore.

He’d need to find the RKC somehow and findout where Pixie’s family lived. It sounded like somethinf was wrong, and he didnt know if he could get the old number back.

—

Marinette was dragged into the girl’s room on entering school.

“Marinette, I want you to help me out with Adrien—you’re the type his dad should like.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow at Chloe. She loves her but really?

“Becuase I’m smart?”

“Ew, no, well...” Chloe shook her head. “You design, and you’re good at it. He might listen to you on giving him more free time if it was to snag you as a designer.”

“His dad?” Gabriel Agreste, owner of the brand Gabriel. Hasn’t designed since his wife’s disappearance, and has a hermit problem.

“He owns a fashion brand, and they like new talent.”

Easy to exploit, unaware of industry standards, and less aware of the laws protecting them... that didnt sound good.

“And i’m the key becuase...”

“He’s seen your work before, remember last year at the show?”

He was? She didnt remember it, too busy back stage and throwing classmates into outfits while Chloe did touchups on makeup and threw people on the catwalk.

“Come on, Adrien has bars on his window, please? For me?”

That... paranoid millionaire designer or abusive father, definitely toxic tendencies though. Maybe working on this family would be a good distraction?

“I’ll try, but no guarantees. And you know i’ll use a different name, right?”

“We’re minors Mari, I’d be worried if you didn’t. Now, let’s go say hi to my prince!”

Marinette questioned her sanity once more. But magic butterflies and kwami are a thing.

She just wants to toy with Markov’s emotional intelligence and translator programming. But she needs a cover for that...

—

Flash frowned at the images from the satellite imaging. Either something was off in Paris, one picture showed damage but the one before and after showed no issues, or there was a glitch. Occam’s razor.

“Hey Red, can you check our imaging tech? We had a glitch over Paris!”

He needed to work on his proposal for the JL on intervening with the meta situation in France. No one liked it. Someone pointed out there was polarization of us vs them in France, metas fleeing left and right. From french media reports, it sounded like they were running a campaign to remove metas from France unless they were ‘under the state’s control’ and that. No one liked that.

He hopes he can get Jill out before things get bad. He know’s she can hide,’but how long can she hold out? He doesn't want an answer to that.

He’s going to get her and the others out before it gets that bad.

—

Marinette wanted to throw Kim across the school when she remembered that Kim set off the Big Guy yesterday. She would be a normal meta in hiding if he hadn’t.

Sabrina made a slideshow last night for her to lecture him. Alix is down to tear Kim a new one, and Marinette has no sympathy for him.

The class is quiet when Big Guy comes in.

Marinette gets up, smiling at seeing him and Mylene together now.

“Hey guys, so, how’d it go?”

Big guy and Mylene blushed a bit. Interesting but not definite proof of her suspicions...

“So are you to going to sit together or...”

Mylene nodded, tugging Ivan behind her. Marinette smiled back at her classmates, who were... staring?

“Guys, things happen. Now get back to what you were talking about or get ready for class, okay?”

“Says the Gothamite,” Kim smirked.

“Only during the summer, you know the custody deal as well as I do.”

“Don’t remind me, I have to be deprived of my favorite princess every summer,” Chloe pouted, almost launching herself over Marinette and Sabrina’s desk to throw her arms around Marinette. Almost. 

“I like seeing my family?” Marinette didn’t get why everyone made a big deal of it--if she was honest, objectively she did prefer Gotham. More science, metas are out and not hunted, and she has a family happy to help her with whatever  that listened to her morals and played by her rules... albeit weirdly and a bit murderous at times. 

But then she wouldn’t have her  friends and she wasn’t going to give them up anytime soon. Especially since Max would build a tesla coil if she didn’t stop him. and a death ray too, to prove he could.

Sabrina rolled her eyes as Kim flung himself over his desk and pulled Marinette into a hug. “My sister, Gotham can fight me.”

“You would lose,” Max state, cleaning his glasses. (for dramatic affect, obviously Marinette, she heard him snark in her mind) “You can’t even cross the street without almost getting run over.”

Kim blushed as the class laughed. “Shut up--I don’t need to cross streets, just fight.”

“Marinette, has he even gotten close to beating you yet?”

“Nope.”

“A ten year old kicks your butt regularly Kim.”

“She beats everyone that challenges her. It is the law. of Marinette in a fight.”

Adrien stared at her then, “Really?”

Max piped up then, “Out of the 230 matches they’ve had, Kim lost each. As have her challengers in each match.”

“That’s awesome! Do you think you could teach me?”

“As long as we’re not at my house, I don’t see why not.” Good, keep him distracted. “Oh that reminds me, Sabrina, Chloe, Alix, Maman demands you come over to practice too. Remember the rule--”

“You’re not that good in science,” Alix began

“You kind of know how to fight, but not really.” Chloe continued

“And you have never, ever done anything remotely reckless,” Sabrina snickered.

that got a number of laughs out of her group. “Oh shut up, shouldn’t you be grilling Adrien on what color and other thing he’s using from now on?”

That caused the group to light up.

“I almost forgot we haven’t introduced Adrikins to that part our little group!”

“Little?” She heard the cure red head whisper. Yes, she memorized his voice already.... its not weird at all...

“Okay, so I’m yellow and stripes, as you can see,” Chloe gestured to her outfit. “Kim and Alix understand the wonder of my choice, as Kim is red and yellow, while Alix is black and stripes, hers are always her gloves or uses her snake sleeves to pass.”

“I’m purple and argyle, the best pattern,” Sabrina beamed.

“Green and collared shirts, the only way to go,” Max stated.

“Uh, pink or red is me, and a floral pattern is always on me,” Marinette gestured to the flower pattern on her shirt and showed off her coin purse.

“Blue and my hat,” Nino tipped his hat at Adrien as he walked over. “Nino.”

“Adrien, and wow, i don’t know... is my jacket okay?”

“White jacket, when off he’s mad at us then. Pro tip, wearing someone else’s colors or patterns means they’re your favorite,” Nino explained, turning to Marinette. “So Alix is your new favorite with the new studs?”

Marinette moved to hide her earrings. 

“Marinette, how could you not tell me your rankings changed!” Sabrina mock-pouted. 

“Sweet! I get dibs on Mari’s bed tonight!”

“Alix!”

“I, just, someone told me they’d bring good luck and with what happened over the summer...” and yesterday. “I figured it’d be okay to be a little superstitious--it can’t hurt in this case, right?”

Max shook his head, ready to lecture his la partner until Sabrina and Kim glared. He shut his mouth with a small frown.

“Of course not,” Adrein beamed. “Guessing it was pretty rough?”

“It was... more Gotham chaos than usual, that’s all.” New brother that was dead and is now alive and teenage again, Hero Stalker almost dying and somehow having one of her personal heroes deem her a good soundboard for solving cases that stump him? She didn’t know what to make of it, not really. (yet, Uncle Oswald’s voice rang in her head. You will when the dust settles, until then, keep your cards from view, or end up someone’s lunch.)

“That sucks.” Well, he didn’t try to hug her... yet. She could feel him debating it. 

Class began then. 

Marinette glanced back at Cute Red Head. She really needed to learn his name soon....

--

They had gym before lunch. During it, Marinette was told to show the class what can happen if someone is flexible and does the exercises right in a fight..

Kim came after her on the mats. She turned him into her vault, sent hi to ground as she jumped off him, and flipped out her landing for fun.

“I said for normal people Miss Cheng.”

Marinette grinned at their gym teacher. “Very well. Given that we seem to have magic infecting our city, its important for you all to learn how to defend and flee to safe places. Now, today we’ll be going over evacuation procedures...”

During lunch Alya and Lila were dominating a few other classes’ groups, talking about something called the “Ladyblog” and how amazing Ladybug was....

It didn’t sit right with Marinette. Chat was a big help, when he wasn’t getting ahead of himself. She was trained, he wasn’t. Could they be a little nicer to her apparent partner? She get’s she’s good, but she and Chat can be good together, can’t they?

Chloe was about to drag her to her table with Adrien, Nino (when did that happen?) and Sabrina, but she knew Max would follow her. which meant Kim would too--and she wasn’t lecturing Kim in front of Adrien and Chloe about him being jealous of them. that was a recipe for disaster--and she needed to do some recon on Big Guy and what triggered the transformation. 

the police actually remembered to encrypt their files on the case, so she had to go the other way. 

“I’ll catch up with you guys during class, I think those two,” Marinette pointed to Big Guy and Mylene, currently sitting alone and being avoided, “might need a buffer from the rest of school, Example setting and stuff, right Chloe?”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “I am reserving you in advance for tomorrow.”

She had one day to get Kim’s jealousy under control, great.

“Sure thing! See you later!”  Marinette ran off with her lunch and took a seat across from Mylene and Ivan. “Hi, Marinette.”

Big Guy was Ivan apparently. Somehow Marinette managed to ask about how they got together, the poem he wrote yesterday did it. She squealed at that--it was cute, okay?

Kim came over after Marinette. Ivan tensed when he did.

“Hey Marinette--why are you--”

“Why not?” 

Kim was silent at that, rubbing the back of his neck. “Uh....”

“Sorry about Kim, he’s dense and i may be regular clumsy, but he’s emotionally clumsy.”

Ivan snorted at that. “Like when you almost dropped three trays of macaroons at the talent show last year?”

Marinette pouted at that. “I caught them all!”

Mylene giggled at that. “I think you’d do well in a circus act with reflexes like that.”

Marinette beamed at that. “Thanks! My Uncle Jerry grew up in one so he sometimes teaches me old tricks. Still haven’t mastered taming a certain monkey...” Marinette raised an eyebrow at Kim.

“I---fine. Ivan, I’m sorry about yesterday, i shouldn’t have made fun of the poem.”

“And?”

“...and your feelings.”

“And.”

“And I should talk my feelings out instead of taking them out on others.”

“and?”

“I,..” Kim frowned, thinking for a moment. “I’m glad you managed to confess, and will work on not acting out when I jealous of someone doing what i want to but won’t.”

“Good Kim.” He still wasn’t getting a macaroon. “Sorry about yesterday.”

Ivan stared at her and Kim. “So, dating or...”

“Ew.” 

“Never.”

the pointed at each other. “That’s my brother/sister if my parents have it their way.”

Mylene brightened at that. “Really?”

Marinette nodded, “Kim decided he has all big brother rights too, apparently i’m a human arm rest.”

“You steal my hoodies.”

“It was cold, and unguarded. free game Kimmie.”

Kim shook his head. “this is not over Mari.”

“Is it ever?”

Mylene waved at someone... Alix and Max then--too long for one person.

“Hello.”

“yo, sitting here today?”

Marinette hummed as the pair took their seats. Over the course of the conversation, she found out a few things. 1) Ivan did not remember being Stoneheart. 2) the last thing he remembers is being told to knock by Damocles which only made him angrier at the time 3) a voice talking to him.

while inconclusive, her best guess would be some form of possession with rage as a catalyst for said possession to occur. Possibly just negative emotions, but she didn’t have enough data to support that theory.  

Classes began again, this time with Adrien sitting by Nino, Sabrina moved back to Chloe’s side, and Marinette given more room than she needed. 

Class was boring. She took the girls home with her while Max followed Kim to his house. Nino said something about babysitting and Adrien looked... sad. Some Huge Guy he called Gorilla picked him up without talking. 

Maybe Huge Guy Gorilla is mute, otherwise very rude. 

Maman had her handle the front while the girls were taught in the back what to do. and probably mined for information on what happened yesterday.

Marinette checked the Ladyblog and felt sick. She was being called a hero. Her family was not one of heroes---they were vigilantes at best and she knew it. She was a vigilante at best. don’t call me a hero--heroes always disappoint.

Marinette handled the front until closing time. she made dinner with the girls and Maman while Papa finished prep for tomorrow’s pastries. 

dinner was normal. The girls kept their own anxieties about what was happening mostly quiet, but Marinette could feel it.

Alix stayed the night, Chloe had ballet and Sabrina needed to feed her hamster since Raincomrpix would be home late. 

Marinette checked her messages again. nothing from Tim. She tried texting him while Tikki and Alix were asleep. she wasn’t even on read.

Marinette kept the tears in. He was still mad at her then.... did she doom Paris by lecturing Batman?

no, she just had to wait. Gotham wasn’t always calm. she just needed to wait for it to be calm and he’d see it. The Justice League would come. If not from Tim, then she’d work something out into her messages to Flash. a code.. just one letter in each letter needed to be different enough to notice. it would take time, but she knew he’d notice. 

he had to.

she just had to wait. Had to be Marinette Dupain-Cheng in the meantime. 

Paris and her just had to be patient. 

They would’t abandon her Paris, right?

--

Bruce looked over the mostly cold case, Princess Jill, and sighed. They never found the girl that summer, and Superman wasn’t taking it well. 

He looked over at Flash, who was trying to make a proposal the others could support. His french meta, Jill Smith, she was in Paris and they made progress on that front. No idea what her french name was, or her parents, but they knew she was in deep with the Gotham Rogues for Harley Quinn and Joker to claim any familial connection. 

Both of these girls went by Jill. Possible body doubling given they both are summer only. There was a slim chance they were the same person, very slim, but that would mean that the Rouges were letting their princess go into fights, and he doubted they would. She’d be kept under lock and key while Mr. J was active, and clearly Pixie was not--possibly rebellious. They could use that to convert her.

Apparently Pixie Jill Smith was connected to a new threat to Gotham, Red Hood, often working in the same areas as Victor Zsasz. He wasn’t sure how the trio were connected, but he didn’t like it.

Flash was insistent that Jill was just scared and well... Batman would admit that much was obvious. He hoped Flash managed something usable in his proposal. The less batman needed to tweak for him, the better. 

--

That’s all this time. Warning, there is an angst train and it will hurt for a while. it takes Years for things to end up where we want it, so this is a longfic in the works.

and reminder, Marinette had multiple romantic crushes and relationships in this. I only ask you tolerate the various ships.

Also the lovesquare from cannon may not be included, or if it is, it will be very different as so far, Marinette has a very different crush. 

link to the full story for easy finding from ao3 --> https://archiveofourown.org/works/22342267/chapters/53372962

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