#marinette is annoyed because she was promised HELLO KITTY

[bklily]

i think that instead of fighting they should be friends

[ladyanput]

Spots Drawn in Marker Pt.1

Based on the AU by @miraculous-of-salt

(I promise this isn't full on bashing.)

Marinette sighed ever so softly as she tapped her pencil against her sketchbook. Today was not seeming to be an inspirational day and she had a portfolio to finish by the end of the month. 

"And I just couldn't believe that Jagged's concert was almost cancelled. But he called me and I filled him with such inspiration and determination that he just couldn't help but rock out." Lila spoke in an airy, wistful tone that Marinette had no doubt she practiced to get just right. "He said I could even get VIP passes to his next show, thanks to what I did, as many as I want."

Well there goes any and all hope for any inspiration this morning. Lila just leeched any creativity out of any room she's in.

"Do you think I could get one?" Alya piped up, beaming over at Lila as she recorded the entire conversation. "I mean, since we're besties, I'd love an interview with Jagged. Lately he's been very tight lipped about a lot of things."

"Of course, Alya, anything for my second best friend!" Lila hugged the girl, beaming brightly as Alya began posting the recording on her blog.

Marinette merely rolled her eyes and settled back in her seat in the back of the class, going back to sketching her ideas for the morning. A beautiful scarf, maybe a nice warm sweater… Marinette was quickly lost in a world of design, a world she could have control of. It was something she had often turned to after Lila had caused her life to go spiralling into a pit where her friends brushed off her concerns for the lies of a shiny new toy.

Marinette was so caught up in her sketching, that she didn't notice when Miss Bustier came in, guiding along a girl who shared a wink with Lila. If only she had noticed.

"Class, we have a new student joining us today. This is Rébecca, she just transferred to our school today. I hope you will all give her a warm welcome." Bustier beamed at her class as many of her students mumbled clumsy, half-hearted hellos.

 Marinette glanced up from her sketchbook and took a good, long look at the new girl. She was tall, slim, with dark bluish-black hair that reached her shoulders. Marinette could tell by looking  at them that her clothes were Gabriel brand, the skinny jeans clinging to her long, long legs like a second skin, the leopard print top accentuating any curves the girl may have had. 

"It's a pleasure to meet you all. Lila has told me so much about you all!" Rébecca beamed at everyone, and that instantly made Marinette narrow her eyes a fraction, while Rébecca strode over to where Lila and Adrien sat, sending a flirty little smile to the model. "And I heard you're quite the helpful one, of course. I'm so glad you volunteered to show me around today."

Oh, that was it. Lila brought along a croney to try and manipulate Adrien some more, maybe help granduerize her stories. Well, this was certainly becoming a fun class. Marinette pressed her lips into a thin line as Rébecca sat down next to Adrien, causing the boy to be uncomfortably sandwiched between the two girls. It made Marinette's blood boil at how the two girls kept pawing at the model, who clearly wanted to get away, while Alya and the others just cooed and urged it on.

Honestly, this entire class has gone crazy.

Marinette made a move to go down there and get them to stop, but Adrien had looked back at her and given her a look that pleaded that she didn't. That's what he wanted, for her to sit down, shut up, and not cause trouble. It took everything in Marinette not to snap her pencil as Miss Bustier began to lesson.

…

Adrien didn't quite know how to feel about this new girl hanging off of his arm, seeming overly cuddly with him, fluttering her lashes and trying to get most of his attention.

"How exactly do you two know each other?" Alya had asked when she and Nino sat down with the duo and Lila. Lila had only perked up, and got a somewhat secretive smile on her face, while Rébecca let out a soft giggle.

“All I can say is, Alya, that Rébecca is my best friend.” Lila boasted, giving Alya an overly obvious wink. Alya stared at Lila, as if slowly digesting her words before her eyes lit up and her hand shot for her phone.

“You’re serious?!” Alya began to open an app on her phone, but Rébecca reached out a hand to stop her, then gave Adrien a pleading look.

“Adrien, I’m very parched. Do you think you could grab me a soda, please? I would greatly appreciate it.” She slid a hand slowly along his arm, giving him a smile then when their eyes met. 

Adrien opened his mouth, but then nodded and made his way to the lunch line, which had grown fairly sizable as lunch was halfway over.

“You’re Ladybug?!” Alya beamed as she reached out and took Rébecca’s hand, an eager gleam in her eyes. “I knew Marinette was wrong about everything! Can I see the earrings?”

Rébecca nodded and pulled aside her hair from her ear, showing off the black spotted red earring, making Alya practically squeal with delight. 

“I just want to say that I’m so honoured that you chose me to be Rena Rouge.” Alya took Rébecca’s hand, so awestruck that she missed the surprised look Lila and Rébecca exchanged. 

“Well it was Lila that gave me the glowing recommendation.” Rébecca grinned as Alya began practically bursting with excitement as she began dumping question after question on Rébecca, who answered every one with ease, puffing out her chest with pride. Nino even seemed to get into it, thanking her profusely for allowing him to become Carapace, thankful he was able to protect the people of Paris.

    All the while Marinette was seated on the other side of the cafeteria with Rose and Ivan, trying her hardest to design something new for Kitty Section’s concert in a month, completely unaware of the imposter across the room. She was merely smiling as she discussed with Rose the possibility of adding more sparkles to the outfits, while Ivan was increasingly pleading for them not to.

 “Oh come on, they won’t be that bad.” Marinette smirked up at her distressed classmate, playfully sticking out her tongue. “Maybe I’ll even make the costumes neon orange.”

“Don’t you dare..” Ivan growled softly, but any playful banter was cut short by an explosion nearby that shook the school. Many students let out surprised screams as trees seemed to burst from the floor out of nowhere. 

“Hello Paris, I am Dryad, prepare to start tossing away those construction sites you use as excuses to cut down my precious trees!” A voice called out, echoing across the area, and it was then a panic began. Students cried out and began running in various directions, as the branches stretched from the trees and began snatching up various people. 

Adrien ducked off into an alcove, and thinking the coast was clear, transformed and took off, completely unaware of Rébecca watching from around the corner, a stunned look on her face.

…

As soon as school was over, Marinette stretched and let out a soft groan. Her body felt so stiff from that akuma battle earlier, Dryad had been an eco-activist who had been angry that her favourite park had been dozed over to make room for a spa, so she had been an easy target for Hawkmoth.

“Mari, I have to tell you something.” Alya ran up beside her and grabbed her arm, stopping her friend in her tracks. Marinette gave her a smile, though silently wished she were heading home right now for a nap. She just felt so drained after the day, and she wanted to relax with a nice cup of hot cocoa and some cookies with Tikki. 

    “Oh, did you get a new scoop?” Marinette’s smile widened when she saw the eager look in Alya’s eyes, the slight bounce in her step. She knew right away that the young reporter had quite the story if she was stopping Marinette right outside of school. 

    “I sure did, and it’s all thanks to Lila.” Alya grinned, but it quickly dimmed when the smile fell from Marinette’s face. She then huffed and crossed her arms, cocking a hip. “Marinette, this jealous streak of yours is getting annoying.”

    “I’m not jealous, Alya, I’m just tired of you believing her lies, which are so obvious.” Marinette crossed her arms, her own annoyed expression matching Alya’s. 

    “God, I don’t know why I even try with you. You’ll see soon enough what a fool you’ve been, never giving Lila a single chance. When you see my interview tomorrow, you’ll be begging Lila for forgiveness.” Alya said this in the most confident tone she could ever have spoken, making Marinette’s frown then press into firm line. 

    “Alya-” Marinette’s words died as soon as Alya held up a hand and began storming away. The young girl felt a heavy weight in her heart as she watched her best friend walk away. Why did it feel like she was about to walk away from their friendship..?

Marinette shook her head. No, she wouldn't let it come to that! Whatever stunt Lila was trying to pull, it wasn't going to work, Mari refused to back down and let her win, because if Lila won, she'd oh make things worse. She's hurt Marinette's friends, keep using them like she had. And she might even get her hands on Adri-

Adrien. Oh no, that new girl was trying to sink her claws into Adrien too, wasn't she? It just hurt to think about how those two would try and manipulate Adrien. But he wouldn't fall for it right? He knew Lila was a liar, he wouldn't fall for any tricks..

Marinette made her way home, tightly gripping the straps of her backpack, an uneasy feeling rolling in her stomach.

…

Adrien frowned as he was dragged off by Rébecca, who was clutching his arm like a vice.

"Rébecca, what's this about? I have a modeling gig in a few hours, so I can't stay very long.." He tried to point out, stumbling slightly when she abruptly stopped and turned to him, realizing the two of them were in an empty classroom. "Rébecca, is something wrong?"

".. I can't believe it. My Kitty has been before me this whole time.." Rébecca blushed as she slid her hand down his arm, gripping his hand lightly. "I've been so blind."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Adrien blinked in surprise as the girl set her other hand on his chest.

"Don't you recognize me, Chat? Don't you recognize your Ladybug?" She whispered, biting her lower lip. "I guess without the mask, I'm not so special anymore.."

Adrien felt his breath hitch at her words, his mind racing. No, she couldn't be.. Could she?

"I accidentally saw you detransform when I was trying to sneak back into school after our fight with Dryad. I'm sorry, but I thought since I knew, it was only fair to tell you.." She whispered, looking away as if in shame. Rébecca was internally thankful that Lila told her everything she needed to know about Adrien and the class, and was even more grateful she had given into Lila's silly little plan to try and trick the class more. Being Ladybug could be fun, afterall, she always wanted to be famous.

"What, no! M- my Lady, that's not true!" Adrien blurted out the words before he could stop himself, alarmed at the sight of the tears beginning to stream down her face.

"The.. the reason I've been rejecting you is because I've been in love with you, Adrien. And when I found out that you and Chat Noir were the same person, I just couldn't believe it, but it made so much sense" Rébecca leaned closer, their bodies pressing lightly together. "You're right, kitty, we are meant for each other, I was just simply blind to it.. Do you think I could get a second chance, please? I love you, Adrien."

Adrien was silent for the longest time, his mind trying to process all of this. This was Ladybug..? His heart began to pound as she poured her heart out to him, his hopes skyrocketing. She loved him, she really loved him! It felt like his dreams were coming true! Grinning, Adrien leaned close, their foreheads pressing lightly together as he tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, eyeing her earring before chuckling.

"I love you too, my Lady. We're soulmates, something silly as a misunderstanding could never tear us apart." He murmured, and both of them leaned closer and shared a soft kiss, Rébecca practically preening as she ensnared the gullible model.

…

Marinette huffed softly as she stared at her essay. School had to be built to torture people, there was no way these institutes built up every person of every walk of life, because these essays and term papers were a pain in the butt.

"Tikki, I think my eyes are going to explode.." She groaned as she closed her eyes and rubbed them, feeling the beginnings of a migraine beginning to form.

"It's probably because you stayed up all night." Tikki scolded her, the alarm clock next to Marinette suddenly going off, making the girl jump in her seat.

"Oh no, I'm going to be a total zombie in school today.." Marinette groaned as she put her face in her hands. She hadn't even realized she had stayed up so late, but she had really wanted to finish this dark essay before it became a bigger problem than it was worth. She should have been more mindful.

It was then that her phone beeped. When she looked at the notification, she realized Alya had published that interview she had mentioned yesterday.

"Well, since I'm up on time, I can watch it while I get ready." Marinette shrugged and tapped on the video to play it, and began getting dressed.

Alya was seated in her room, beaming proudly as she sat between Lila and Rébecca.

"Hey guys, it's Alya your lovable Ladyblogger here. I'm here to give you guys the scoop of the century! Over the past year, you've all come to know my amazing best friend, Lila, and her amazing exploits!" Alya grinned as she wrapped an arm around Lila, giving her a quick side up before sitting up again. "Well, Lila has managed to convince someone very special to give me an interview at long last, without her mask."

Marinette watched as she brushed her teeth, raising a brow as she took in Alya's words.

"Everyone, I'd love you to meet our very own Ladybug, finally showing her face, right here, on my blog!" Alya grinned like a cat who had cream.

"I have to say, it's an honour to finally reveal myself to all of you, especially on one of the most important blogs ever. Without you, Alya, I think I'd be lost. You always do the best detective work, and give everyone the greatest stories." Rébecca praised, carefully stroking Alya's ego. "Lila finally convinced me to show myself to the world. You're right, Alya, the world has the right to know.'

Marinette felt the toothbrush drop from her mouth as she stared at her phone screen, the blood beginning to pound through her veins.

"Tikki.." She croaked out after she spit her toothpaste into the sink, her body beginning to tremble. "Oh God, Tikki, she's lying.. She's- she's claiming to be me!"

"Marinette, you need to calm down!" Tikki flew in front of her Chosen's face, panic making her gasp as she saw the tears beginning to well up in Marinette's eyes.

"Why would Alya do that?! I've told her time and time again that I want to keep my identity a secret! It's important to me, it keeps everyone I love out of danger, why would she do this?! Now Rébecca's family could be in danger!" Marinette pulled at her pigtails as her mind began to race.

"Marinette, please, calm down! Maybe you can tell Alya these things at school today! I'm sure she'll listen if you calmly explain these things to you, I'm sure she'll fix it." 

".." Marinette sniffled and wiped away the tears. "You're right, Tikki. Alya has to at least think this is strange, it would be out of character for Ladybug to suddenly out herself like that.."

…

But when Marinette got to school and tried to talk to Alya, the girl merely cut her off and gave her a glare.

"I told you that you'd regret it, Marinette. I told you to try, and look at how things are now, even Ladybug herself thinks you're being unreasonable!" Alya snapped, motioning to where Rébecca sat with Lila, the class all overjoyed to have their wonderful hero Ladybug in that very room! The sight made Marinette feel ill.

"But Alya, Ladybug is always saying how she wanted to keep her identity a secret. Why would she suddenly start exposing herself, while Hawkmoth and Mayura are still at large?" Marinette held out her hands, trying to get Alya to see some kind of reason.

"You know what? I can't believe you're being this selfish right now. Honestly, this is the biggest story I've ever released and you're trying to ruin it!" Alya threw her hands up, catching the attention of a few of their classmates.

"Alya, we're best friends! Please, I just-" Marinette began,but was cut off again by Alya jabbing Marinette in the chest with a finger.

"Exactly, which is why best friends call each other out when they're being unreasonable,when they're making a complete fool of themselves! Look at you, you aren't even looking at the facts, Marinette, this jealous vendetta you have us ridiculous!" Alya snapped, then turned on her heel and stormed away. Marinette was left standing by her desk, her stomach coiling into a nervous ball.

Adrien entered the class not long after, a wide smile on his face. Before he could say anything, he caught Rébecca's eye. The girl stopped talking and abruptly got to her feet and rushed over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck as the two shared a passionate kiss.

Marinette felt her heart fall to the floor and shatter.

"Whoa, dude, didn't you two just meet yesterday?" Nino looked confused, as did the rest of the class. Inside, Lila was seething with rage, but she maintained a small smile.

"It may seem like that, but.. We've known each other for so much longer. I've been in love with Ladybug ever since I first met her. And it turns out, she felt the same way." Adrien beamed, lovingly kissing Rébecca's cheek.

Marinette began running before she realized she was doing it. She ran passed Alya, who gave her a look that screamed 'you took too long to confess, this is what you get', a confused Adrien, and a grinning Rébecca. She ignored the shouts for her to come back as she ran and ran, the tears streaming from her eyes.

She didn't have the proof, because the last time she had outed a lie as Ladybug, it had had disastrous consequences. And nobody believes her! No one saw the truth!

Marinette ran from the school and kept running, her lungs soon burning, her muscles soon aching, before she found herself into one of the small parks, which was completely deserted.

Marinette fell to her knees beside one of the fountains, burying her head in her arms as she rested against the basin, crying so hard, she soon passed out.

[thebookwormfairy]

Captain The Retired Police Dog Part 6 (Final)

BookwormFairy: Sorry for taking so long, but I'm here with the final part of Captain the Retired Police Dog. I just wanted to thank everyone who've read, like, reblogged, commented, and wrote their own stuff with Captain. When I first started this I had no idea how big ot would get. I will be doing more stuff with Captain, but this is the end of this story. Thank y'all so much for accepting both me and Captain into the fandom.

-------------------------

The rest of the trip was like a dream for Marinette

Every chance they got Marinette and Damian would spend time with eachother

And after Ace met Captain she would come along on all of their outings as well

Damian would take Marinette every where in Gotham

From the fashion district to the zoo Damian made sure Marinette didn't miss out on anything

They couldn't explain it, but something just clicked with them

It was like they were meant to be

Damian even met Marinette's parents

Kinda

He video chatted with them and was actually invited over during the summer

Which he whole heartedly accepted but warned the bakers that his family might "unexpectedly" show up with him.

Only to be told that they would be more then happy to meet them as well

Basically Damian took up all of Marinette's free time

Though sometimes, much to Damian's annoyance, the other batboys would come and "kidnap" Marinette and Captain and take them back to the manor.

Marinette didn't mind it so much, except when they didn't even wait for her to get back to the hotel

When the class was done touring Luxcorp, Jason rode up on his motorcycle and took Marinette and Captain

Jason picking up Marinette and grabbing Captain's leash: Hey French people I'm taking her and her dog. Bye

Ms. Bustier: Are you okay with that Marinette?

Marinette: Yeah I know him

Ms. Bustier: Okay have fun

Jason was less then impressed with the teacher's response but took the duo anyway

Another time Tim hacked into the schedule and change the bus route to drop Marinette off at Wayne Tower

Then Dick feeling left out did the responsible (and legal) way and called Marinette's parents to get their permission to take Marinette back to the manor.

Damian was not impressed with his brothers

Neither was Bruce

On the outside at least

On the inside he was so happy to see Marinette and Captain again

Captain wasn't sure how to respond to these strange new people in his and his girl's lives

After a couple of days they did grow on him

But he still didn't let Jason pet him

Mostly because Captain found the older boy's attempts hilarious

And his girl seemed to blossom in this new pack

Captain could see that the spark that he brought back into his girl's eye turn into a whole galaxy

She was almost always smiling and laughing now

To top it all off Alix and Kim finally pulled up their big kid briches and tried to reconnect with Marinette

At first Marinette was very weary of them

And Captain out right growled at them

But slowly they were able to earn Marinette's trust back

Not enough to be able to come on Marinette's adventures with her, but enough so that Marinette would seek them out when stuck with the class

And they would seek her out

Not even Lila could bring her down

And she tried

On this trip alone Lila has stolen several of Marinette's projects, tried to get her sent home with no success, has tried to get Captain detained, and has even tried to lock Marinette in several closets throughout the city, but Marinette somehow always got out.

All in all Lila was harmless

Until the last night of the trip when Lila went too far

Damian had tagged along with the class on their finally outing in Gotham

They went to a teens club somewhere near crime alley

Which is why Damian was with them

They made sure to leave the dogs with Alfred so he could take them back to the manor.

The night was going great

Marinette spent the night dancing with Damian, Alix, and Kim

But mostly Damian

Everything was perfect

So of course Lila had to open her big fat mouth

Lila: Oh yeah I've helped super heroes all over the world. I've even helped Batman put away a few rogues.

Villian kid (Edwin) near by: Oh really who?

Lila: You know all the big guys the Riddler, the Penguin, Two-Face,

Edwin: Hm, the Riddler.....

Lila: Yeah he's not so tough.

Lila continue to bad mouth the Riddler as Edwin called his dad to tell him all about this little, french goody goody who helped but him in Jail.

Riddler over the phone: What an interesting development, I wonder if she would like to play a game? *evil laugh*

Marinette slow dancing with Damian: This has been a great night

Damian: I have to agree with you there Angel. *Damian nuzzles Marinette's hair* I don't know what I'm going to do when you leave.

Marinette: I don't either, but I know I never want this to end.

Damian: Even with my annoying brothers

Marinette: Partially because of your annoying brothers. You know I'm an only child, but I always wished I had siblings, so they're like the brothers I never had.

Damian chuckling: don't let them hear you say that. You'll never get rid of them.

Marinette: Who said I would want to. Especially with how close Captain, Ace, and Titus has become. We'll have to fly out to eachother just so they can see eachother again.

Damian smirking: oh most definitely we be terrible pet owners if we didn't

Marinette catching on: You are so right. You'll be coming to Paris during the summer so I guess I'll be coming back to Gotham during the winter.

Damian pulling Marinette closer even though it didn't seem possible: That's not soon enough.

Alix: Hey love birds you do realize that the slow song ended 2 songs ago right?

Damian glared at the pink hair girl as Marinette backed up slightly blushing

Kim: I don't think they did Alix. How cute?

Damian: Yeah yeah let's go get something to drink.

As the small group made their way towards the bar

But before they could reach it chaos erupted in the club

Teenagers were running towards the exit trying to get away from something the group couldn't see

Somehow in the made dash out Marinette was separated from Alix, Kim, and Damian as they got pushed out of the club, but Marinette was pushed further in the club and gets corralled by a group of minions dressed in green

She scanned around the group of teens that were left seeing that all her classmates made it out except for Lila who was standing in the front of the group, but was trying to get behind the frightened teens

Marinette ended up standing next to her facing on of the famous rogues of Gotham the Riddler

Riddler: Hello kitties so sorry to interrupt your night out, but I heard one of you tattletells are the reason I was thrown back in that hellhole we call a prison so I'll give the little pest a chance to step up and we'll play a little game if they win you will all be let go and the pest will die, if they lose, well you all die. Either way that person dies so come on speak up or should I just kill everybody right now.

Lila without a second thought: It was her Marinette!

Marinette: What?!?!

Lila: Yeah it is all her she was the one who was bad mouthing you.

Marinette whispering to Lila: I knew you were mean Lila, but this is just pure evil

Lila smirking at Marinette: Why so shocked Dupen-Cheng? I know you, you wouldn't put innocent lives in danger so there's no way you'll deny it and this way I can get rid of you for good.

Marinette continued to glare at the evil girl as she was pulled up towards the Riddler

Riddler: Well aren't you a little cutie. Is what the loud mouth said true are you to person who helped put me in jail?

Marinette through clenched teeth: Yes

Riddler: Well here's the game goody goody I'm going to tell you a riddle and if you answer correctly we're going to play a game of Russian rullet *Riddler holds up an old revolver* you might get killed, you might not, but if you get on wrong then you get shot with this *Riddler holds up a newer hand gun* instant death. Are you ready?

Marinette trying to hide her fear: Yes

Riddler: Oh what a brave little girl. What is full of holes. But still holds water?

Marinette a little surprised by how easy the riddle was: A spongue

Riddler holding the old gun to Marinette's forehead: Correct

Riddler pulls the trigger as Marinette flinches but only a click is heard

Riddler: Well you live for another riddle. What can you break without picking it up or touching it?

Marinette: A promise

Riddler : Correct again

Riddler repeated the process and got the same result

This process continued for another 10 minutes and both Marinette and the Riddler were starting to get annoyed

Marinette because the riddles were to easy and Riddler because she wasn't dead yet

It should be impossible for her to be still alive

The gun did not have this many rounds

Riddler growling: Okay, Jim and Kate go to the zoo and get eaten by the sea lions but nobody freaks out, why?

Marinette rolling her eyes: Now you just stealing riddles from TheOdd1sout. They're both fish.

As Marinette answers she hears a loud crashing sound

Riddler and his goons look up at the noice and Marinette takes the opportunity to escape

She swiftly pulls Riddler's belt off him causing his pants to fall

She then uses the belt to knock both the guns out of his hands the wrapping the belt around of one of his hands flips over his shoulder grabs his other arm and tie them behind his back using the belt

To add insult to injury she kicks him in the back of his knees bringing him completely down

As Marinette looks up she sees the goons being tied up by Batman and his sidekicks all with shocked looks on their faces

In fact everybody was completely shocked by what Marinette just did

Though unnoticed by her Robin's shocked faced soon turned into a lovesick smile

That's his girl

Batman walking up to Marinette: Good job civilian, we'll take it from here, there are some people waiting outside for you.

Marinette: Thank you Batman

Marinette and the rest of the captured teenagers ran out of the club as soon as possible

They were so busy trying to get away from the trauma they just experienced nobody notice Robin slipping away trying to meet his Angel up front

As Marinette made it out she was bombarded by police officers and camera flashes from reporters

Gordan: Okay boys break it up I'll take this one

Gordon wrapped his arm around the young girl who reminded him of his daughter

Gordon: I know you've been through a lot tonight but can you please tell me what happened?

Marinette nodded her head going over everything that happened including what Lila said to her

Gordon was shocked by what Marinette told him both about how she took down the Riddler and how Lila basically tried to kill her

Gordon: Okay thank you, you go over to your friends while me and my officers gather more information.

Gordon pointed her towards Alix and Kim

As she runs towards her friends she was engulfed in a group hug

Marinette pulling back from the hug: Are you guys okay? You're not hurt are you? Where's Damian? Is he okay?

Kim chuckling: Classic Marinette worrying about others instead of her self

Alix: We're fine Marinette. We got out pretty quickly but we got separated from Damian in the mad rush

Marinette got a worried look on her face as she started twisting around searching for the man she loved

Damian bursting through the crowd: ANGEL!

Marinette running towards Damian: DAMI!

The young lovers ran to eachother embracing eachother in a long hug

Marinette buried her head in his chest letting out a sob as everything caught up with her.

Damian burying his face in her hair: Shh Angel everything's okay now. I'm so sorry I couldn't be there for you. I should have never let go of you

Marinette sniffling into Damian's chest: It's not your fault Damian you had no control of our separation

Damian: I still should have tried harder to stay with you.

The two stayed together refusing to let eachother go afraid that if they did so the other would be lost

They stood there for 30 minutes just hugging eachother as Kim and Alix joined them trying to cheer Marinette up

Gordon walking up to the small group: Several other people collaborated with your story. Ms. Rossi will be takened to the French embassy to be held until your classes flight back to Paris tomorrow we just need to know if you want to press charges?

Damian angry: Of course she'll want to press charges! That girl tried to have her killed!

Marinette softly: I'll handle this Damian. *Marinette turns around to face Comissioner Gordon with Damian's arms still wrapped around her* I would like to press charges Mr. Gordon this has gone on too long, I would also like to look into getting a restraining order on her.

Gordon: of course, we'll make sure that Paris police force understand what happened and your request.

Marinette: Thank you

Ms. Bustier yelling: Okay everybody time to head back to the hotel.

Gordon: Wait one moment Miss but Ms. Rossi is going to be retained at the French embassy for attempted manslaughter of Ms. Dupen-Cheng

Alya: What? Is that what Marinette told you? You shouldn't listen to her she's nothing but a liar.

Gordon: Actually we're doing that not only on Ms. Dupen-Cheng's testimony of events but several other witnesses who heard and saw Ms. Rossi threaten and admit she was trying to get Marinette killed and we also have video from the security cameras showing the same thing. Boys take her away!

Lila most certainly did not go quietly she was yelling all the way to the police cruiser threatening that as soon as she was back in Paris she will be Akumatize and finish the job that Riddler couldn't

Marinette watched terrified as Lila was taken away knowing very well that she would keep her promise if given the chance

Damian tightened his hold on Marinette trying to comfort her: Dont worry Angel I won't let her do anything to you

Marinette pressed herself to Damian trying to get as much comfort from him as possible.

Ms. Bustier grabbing Marinette's arm: Come on Marinette it's time to go.

Marinette looked over at her classmates seeing the murderous glares directed towards her from some of Lila's more dedicated followers

Marinette: I don't want to go back to the hotel Ms. Bustier

Ms. Bustier sighing: Please don't be difficult Marinette. You've already caused enough trouble tonight just get on the bus before you ruin the night for everybody else

Damian: EXCUSE ME! ARE YOU-

Marinette: I'VE CAUSED ENOUGH PROBLEMS?!?!? ALL I'VE BEEN TRYING TO DO IS NOT CAUSE PROBLEMS!! AND IT'S NEVER ENOUGH! WELL I'M TIRED OF BEING YOUR PERFECT EXAMPLE! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH PRESSURE THAT PUTS ON MY SHOULDERS! IT'S YOUR JOB TO TEACH YOUR STUDENTS TO BE BETTER PEOPLE NOT MINE! AS SOON AS WE'RE BACK IN PARIS I'M DONE! I'M TRANSFERING FROM YOU CLASS HELL I'M GOING TO TRANSFER TO A DIFFERENT SCHOOL IF I CAN BECAUSE I AM SO DONE! I'M DONE WITH THE BULLYING, I'M DONE WITH THE PRESSURE, AND MOST OF ALL I'M DONE WITH YOUR PACIFIST BULLSHIT!

Marinette was huffing from her outburst finally letting everything out after such a long time.

Marinette could her some clapping throughout the crowd but ignored it turning her attention to Damian.

Marinette: Do you mind if I stay at the Manor tonight?

Damian: Of course Marinette let me call Alfred to come get us and I'll escort you to your hotel room so you can gather your stuff

Marinette: Thank you

After a couple of minutes not only did Alfred show up, but so does Tim, Jason, and Dick

All ready to to kick ass and take names of anybody who even dare look at her the wrong way.

When they got to the hotel they surrounded her like a wall blocking her from reporters and classmates

Marinette gathered her stuff as fast as she could thanking herself for being smart and packing ahead of time

Once they got back to the Manor Captain tackled Marinette

Licking and cuddling into her trying to comfort his girl

He couldn't believe he let her be put in so much danger

He should have never let her out of his sight while is such a dangerous city

Captain let out a whimper trying to convey how sorry he was

Marinette: It's okay Captain I'm fine, I'm safe and everything is going to be fine better than before even.

Captain still stayed close to her side

Titus and Ace did also sensing the distress rolling of the girl followed her

As Marinette slipped into the bathroom she was finally able to comfort and thank Tikki for saving her life by using her power to make sure the bullet never got shot

And also promised to slip some cookies to her as soon as she could

After getting a good hug from each of the Wayne's and Marinette grabbing some cookies for Tikki she made her way to her guest room just wanting this night to be over.

When the Batfam was sure Marinette was in for the night they made their way down to the batcave to discuss what happened

Damian: Father if you think I'm going to let Marinette out of my sight after what happened tonight you're crazy

Bruce: Think this through Damian smothering isn't going to make her any safer it's just going to make her resent you.

Jason: I dont like it anymore than you do Demon Spawn but he's right. You can't hover over Marinette her whole life, but we do need to look into what's going on in Paris more.

Dick: You're right Jason, Rossi was saying something about being Akumatized and killing Marinette that can't be good.

Bruce: Your right Dick. So when Damian goes to Paris in a couple of weeks we'll come along and assess the situation and see if we need to step in

Damian: If Marinette gets even a scratch on her I'm going to do more than just step in I'm going to find whoever responsible and dual them to the pain

Tim: Did you just quote Princess Bride

Damian: I watched it with Marinette a couple of days ago

The rest of the batfam: Awwww

Dick, Jason, and Tim giving Brice a weird look

Bruce: Don't judge me

Marinette tried her best to fall asleep that night cuddling up to Captain but she jus couldn't

When the clock showed it was 1am Marinette decided to seek out Damian

Marinette: Captain? *perked up and looked at his girl* Can you please help me find Damian?

Captain jumped off the bed and headed to the door

Before Marinette opened the door she turned towards Tikki

Marinette: Tikki I'm going to go see if I can sleep with Damian do you want to come with or stay here?

Tikki: I'll stay here Marinette. I don't want you stressing about keeping me hidden tonight

Marinette: Okay Tikki good night.

Marinette followed Captain down a couple of doors before they stopped in front of the door

Marinette knocked on the door and after a couple of minutes Damian opened the door looking a little ruffled from sleep

Marinette: Sorry to wake you Damian, but can I please sleep with you tonight

Damian: Of course Angel come on

Damian and Marinette settled into Damian's bed seeming to fit together perfectly as Marinette rested her head on Damian's chest and he wraps his arms around her keeping her close

Captain made himself comfortable next to Titus but also lays across the young couple's legs

The next day Lila was sent on a later flight back the Fance to a town outside of Paris so that she wouldn't be akumatized by Hawkmoth and she can face the consequences of her crimes

Marinette shared a long goodbye with the Wayne's in the airport

They were nice enough to upgrade Marinette's seat to first class and even got Captain a seat so he didn't have to stay in the cargo hold

And as Marinette said her goodbyes to the people who've became her second (or third is you count Jagged, Penny, and Clara) family Captain was saying goodbye to Titus and Ace

Captain: I'm going to miss you guys so much you have become my pack and I wish I could take you with me

Titus: And I wish you could stay, I love you

Titus gave Captain a big lick to the side of his face

Captain: Thanks Titus, I... love you too

Titus: I'm going to cry

Ace giggling: Thanks for that Titus

Ace nuzzling Captain's neck: I love you Captain I wish we can stay together.

Captain nuzzling her back: I wish I could to your my mate and I hate to be away from you for so long, but my girl needs me, but I heard our humans talking and they do plan to visit eachother again so we will be together again. One day permanently I can tell.

As the girl and her dog boarded the plane they may be leaving their loves behind today but it won't be forever

Thanks to this trip Marinette is a stronger person, and Captain learned to be a little softer

As Kim pass he tried to give Captain a pat on the head only for Captain to give him a little growl before he could

Like I said he learned to be a LITTLE softer

Bonus

2 weeks after returning from Paris Marinette recieved a very interesting call from Damian

Damian: Hey Angel weird question but is Captain fixed

Marinette: Oh no, after everything that happened to him it just seemed cruel to do that to him too. Why?

Damian: Because Ace is pregnant Captain is the only one who could be the father

Marinette shocked: What?

Marinette looking at Captain: You little hound dog.

Captain: What?

@felicityroth @northernbluetongue @mystery-5-5 @sidefrienda @tbehartoo @hypnosharkrebeldreamer @sonif50 @t-nikki10 @dawnwave16

[purplerose244]

Lighten up

Here’s my fic for the @mlsecretsanta! So happy I joined in this year too, it’s one of my favorite events!! 😍 Hi @xlexicx! ❤ I’m your secret santa! Here’s my present for you, I hope you like it! Merry Christmas!! 😊😊

Summary: Take the high road, do not intervene. That was what Adrien said, to his friend and to himself. Then again, Chat Noir said none of that. And he really didn't like seeing Marinette sad.

Also on AO3

How to make the worst Christmas Eve, by Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Ingredients.

Seven days filled with plenty of akuma attacks, as fresh as possible, dripping with exhaustion. A couple of extremely busy hours to finish the dress to bring to the party, whipped consistently with stress and pressure considering all the important figures that were going to see it. And a big handful of disappointment, because while trying her best to ignore how out of place she was feeling during such an event – at least without wearing her special pois suit –, Marinette had almost forgotten the golden boy to add to the situation, or to be precise it was Adrien himself that hadn’t been able to come. Because that was what gave this terrible night its distinct disappointing taste.

“I can tell you all about him, he’s even more charming when he’s not into his suit!” A whistle in his ear. Lila was marching in the middle of the ballroom, waving around her black dress, the feathers on the hair pin over her head, and her long innocent eyelashes, followed by some of Marinette’s most precious friends. “He said he got in like a breeze even without getting recognized, I guess this party could only be that exclusive since even Marinette could get the tickets! Oh, but I’m still grateful!” She waved at her, grinning widely.

Right, she forgot one important part of this disgraceful recipe, an extremely generous sprinkle of lies all over. Better of hypocritical origins. She clenched her hand around her glass, the drink raised up a little. She was starting to wish he got the Cat Miraculous.

Just for the sake of a good old Cataclysm.

Marinette forced her grimace into a smile, for the sake of Alya, Rose, Nino and Juleka all orbiting around the star of the night. Yeah, of course she was. Even though it was the stylist who got the tickets from Jagged as a little Christmas present, it was all about that liar once again. She didn’t even know why she was surprised anymore.

“You’re welcome…”  More unique was, the latest idea the brunette had come up with to grab attention. And that one was even more out of the line than her usual.

“You guys, I’m really thirsty, and I saw Chat pretty tired too. I’m gonna take a little break, have something to drink.” Lila snapped at her friends one of those insanely studied, absurdly accurate, innocent smiles. “I would never want my date to get tired, especially since he’s a superhero in disguise! Oh, sorry, I raised my voice but remember that this stays between us, right?” She did her bat of eyelashes, she did her little wave of her hair that was meant to be annoying only to those who knew her – ergo, only this everyday Ladybug at the moment –, and leaving her excited friends behind she headed straight towards the drink station.

Right where Marinette was. Oh no, not another war declaration. When she had decided to come to this party despite knowing her sixth ticket would had gone to her, she had promised herself not to cause an argument and to stay as far away as possibly from her. Something that Lila had deliberately decided to ignore considering how she was pondering on what to drink while giving her the smuggest look, like she had just discovered Hawk Moth’s identity and wanted her to beg for it.

Hawk Moth had to be busy today. With all the evil intentions that the stylist was feeling right now, she could had become three different akumas. Then, her phone vibrated from her purse. She read the name, and all darkness dissipated immediately. Her heart was melting way before reading.

“Getting to my rescue, my prince?” She whispered, checking the new notifications.

Adrien had sent her Nino’s video first, that alone brought a smile to her face. The DJ had been absolutely adamant that he made at least a little film about the party, to show the blonde that they were all hoping he was going to recover soon. For once that he would had been allowed to attempt to an event that had happened to include a few friends of his, he had to faint a day after the end of school for Christmas break. Exhaustion. If it hadn’t made so much sense she would had been so much angrier. And she was fuming. She was mad, and furious, and sad, and all of the sudden Christmas felt so unfair. Like after being unfairly negated so many things in life, Adrien had to be stopped by a cold.

More messages followed.

Adrien: I’m glad everyone’s having fun.

Adrien: I hope the night gets better for you, you look tense.

Adrien: See you soon :)

Of course, she had made quite a face, since Lila had started to talk about her supposed relationship with her partner. Also of course, complete goo heart. Along with a deep sadness.

An angel. Even now, while forced under the cover of his bed – with those lovely cheeks all red and lucid gorgeous eyes and perfect lips and dang Mari stop it –, like he hadn’t been stuck into his own room enough to last him for a lifetime, even now he had taken the time to worry about her. He was worried about her. What a wonderful, sweet, caring, so lovable, unbelievably kind-

“Well hello Marinette, grabbing something to drink too?” Awful, hypocritical, incredibly annoying liar that had dared to interrupt her mental praises towards her beloved Adrien. Lila put herself right next, grabbing a glass herself, wearing that smirk on top of her lips. “I am too, I’m so tired, you have no idea! I didn’t know admitting my relationship with Chat Noir was going to cause all of this fuss! I guess these people really drink whatever you tell them…” It had to bring some kind of relief to her, not having to lie to Marinette since she was perfectly aware how little integrity the brunette had in her. Then again, who knew if even this manipulative face wasn’t another lie. If it turned out under all those veils there was absolutely nothing underneath, the stylist would had believed it.

She knew engaging her was a bad idea. Take the high road, like Adrien said.

But then she noticed a little necklace hanging over the black dress. With a round bell on it. And it was enough. She put the glass down to not crush it out of frustration.

“What do you want to get out of this?”

“I’m so glad you asked, you know what feels even better than seeing you hopelessly trying to prove to everyone that I’m wrong?” Yep, good call on the glass. “Thinking of that pathetic pois superhero discovering on the Ladyblog, because let’s be real Alya can’t keep her big mouth shut even for a second, that her beloved partner is going out with the girl she hates so much.” Lila hummed with satisfaction, sipping her drink, sighing delightfully. “Two birds with one stone, bella! She won’t be able to prove it wrong either, because the stupid doesn’t even know Chat Noir’s real identity!”

Marinette had always thought that her normal life and her superhero life were separated by one giant wall in between. Then this girl had come along, managing to get all the hate from the both of sides, making her feel like double herself, and double the need for vengeance.

She tightened her fists, glaring at her.

“This is dangerous, Lila! Their identities are important, their lives are! It’s one thing messing with me or our classmates, but they’re the heroes that save us every day!”

“So glad to hear your opinion, the one I don’t care about. Well then, I think I’ll go meet with my date, Chat Noir.” Lila giggled, pointing at a random guy. “Could it be him? Or maybe him? I’m the only one who knows, after all!” She laughed, Marinette grunted. “Maybe him? How about him?”

Not her kitty. Not her partner. Not her l-

“I might have a good guess.” One cheerful, sassy, unmistakable voice erupted between them. “But please keep going, don’t let me stop you. After all, when the cat’s away, the mice will play!” Chat Noir winked at Marinette, most likely hinting at that short time of her as Multimouse. Which would had been very annoying yet kinda witty, if she hadn’t been this shocked to see him.

To see him… like this.

The mask was there as usual, the ruffled hair and the pulsing eyes too. But that wasn’t his usual costume, at least not completely. He was rocking a full black suit tailored like it had been made just for him, yet the gentle shine over the cloth and the clawed gloves still present gave it away that it was still part of his normal superhero attire. He had a bright green tie with a minuscule fantasy that looked like many tiny Cataclysms one next to each other, and his usual reinforced shoes looked less rough and more refined.

He looked good. Something about Chat Noir’s confident attitude and that certain egomaniac tendency gave it away how in a proper suit he would had looked pretty great, but this was real. This was actually happening, and Marinette found herself catching her breath.

Luckily – for once in her life and only this once –, Lila was there as well.

“Chat Noir?!?” Oh, that horrified, overwhelmed face made the stylist’s night. That perfect satisfied face cracked violently, and she was frozen on the spot.

“Oh my, it is him!!” Unluckily, for once for Lila, Alya had a special filter in her ear for scoops and even from the other side of the room she managed to hear – also the brunette had erupted into a pretty impressive and delightfully scared squeak. “You actually showed up in your costume, what happened to the secrecy? Don’t worry, I know about yours and Lila’s situation, and I promise it’s between very close friends!” She had the recorder out already, pointed out like a weapon, looking oh so hopeful.

Chat Noir grinned, flashing a wink at the phone Nino was holding up to record the scene.

“You know I’m always up for a special interview for the Ladyblog, Alya.” The holder of the fox Miraculous brightened. “But I’m gonna need a heads up, because I have no idea what you’re talking about.” And just as fast the glimmer died down, turning into a frown. She put a hand over her hip, her peach-colored dress wrapped tight around her torso.

“Come on, do you really have to make it difficult? I don’t actually know your identity, although I did have a look around knowing you were somewhere.” A snort.

“Yeah I was somewhere, somewhere else. You do realize I just arrived, right?”

“Of coooouuurse, you just arriiiiived.” Alya winked at him. The cat superhero stared at her blankly, taking his time to fill a glass and empty it pretty quickly. He did look pretty tired now, like he did quite the run. “… you were here as a civilian, right? You even sent those little notes to Lila, saying how beautiful she was and all the rest!” The journalist held the recorder with one hand and picked up something from her pocket. A little green note saying ‘love the feathers, you look like a queen. CN.’. And wow, Marinette could at least compliment how shameless the brunette had been.

Chat Noir peaked over it, frowning.

“… Alya I signed stuff for you, you know that’s not my handwriting.” The journalist hummed uncertainly, like she did have that thought. “Besides, as I said, I wasn’t here. I arrived now.”

“Oh you don’t have to lie Chat Noir!” At last Lila came back from whatever world she had been stuck on, pulling off that obnoxiously wide smile right towards her kitty, huh, this kitt- the kitty! “But I understand that you’re not ready, so don’t make too much of it, forget about it and enjoy the night!” Of course she couldn’t give up, it was never that easy with her.

The cat superhero simply smirked, filling his glass again.

“Thank you Lila, a very warm welcome. How about you give the same to Officer Roger and Mr. Ramier over there?” Next to the mayor, chatting happily, where the two named that had in fact appeared only in that moment. Sabrina was greeting her father with a big hug. “We had a pretty tough moment back there, they got into another argument over pigeons and laws, luckily we managed to arrive to a compromise before things escalated. Bet Hawk Moth bite his Miraculous over this one!” He snickered, emptying another cup with a satisfied sigh.

Trying to solve a conflict through words and a plan instead of destroying everything, that sounded like the Ladybug way. And there he was, her – the – kitty, looking all happy about it like he was thinking of her proud owner petting his head.

A smile came on its own, Marinette couldn’t help it, and maybe didn’t want to.

“Great job, Chat Noir.” The superhero beamed at her. Adrien’s eyes were pure and breathtaking, but the unnatural beauty of these was impressive too. So very pretty.

Alya looked like she had half the forehead from how hard she was frowning.

“But Lila said you’ve talked all night together…”

“We did! He’s just covering it up!!” Lila’s voice raised of one octave at least, judging from how hard Chat Noir had winced being right next to her. The brunette smiled at him, batting her deer-like eyelashes. “Chat, I know what’s going on, you still feel like you own something to Ladybug. But you got hurt so much by her already, and this is not fair! Don’t you think you deserve better?” She scooted closer, raising a hand over him. “Come here, come to someone that can give you what you want.” Okay was Marinette really the only one who thought this was getting weird?

Apparently not, from how promptly the cat superhero had dodged the touch. He was suddenly extremely tense, a very wary smile on his face, hands raised like he was surrendering. Somehow his usual goofiness looked almost charming today…

Or that was the suit. Yeah, definitely the suit.

“Now there, I know I’m irresistible, but I really don’t think you should get any closer.”

“Why would you get away? Do you hate me? Prove me you don’t and get over here!” Lila tried to grab him again, but it was too easy for him. “Ladybug doesn’t even love you, why all this fuss??”

“Lila, I’m telling you, it’s better for you to stay awa-”

“I said get back here!!”

“Nope, no way!”

What a weird scene, an angry fox chasing a cat in the middle of the ballroom of the most luxurious hotel of Paris, surrounded by guests now very aware of the commotion happening. Their friends, guests, celebrities, even the mayor was starting to get worried. Marinette spotted Rose and Juleka, with the former all saddened by the fight between two people that she knew and probably wanted to get along – predictable –, and Luka along with Chloe and Kagami, with the rich girl absolutely living through this – predictable and relatable.

As a fairly common scene, Chat managed at the end to step on his own tail and struggle to stay up, right as Lila finally managed to land onto his chest with a grin.

“See everyone? It was simply a little fight between sweethearts, nothing to-”

Marinette could confidently say that, in her life, she had witnessed plenty of extremely satisfying moments. Saving her city every day along with her trusty partner while helping the people she loved? Awesome. Stepping up as her own person thanks to the confidence given from being Ladybug and getting to leave a mark into her life? Incredible. Spending occasional but so precious time with the love of her life knowing that with every single moment spent together, the chance of becoming something more became at least somehow possible? Priceless.

But this one, this very specific moment when Chat Noir scowled visibly and then sneezed, loudly and very grossly, right into Lila’s face, this one could take the cake. She had never seen such a perfect sequence of moments happening in her life.

The brunette screamed, panting in pure shock, as the hero wiped his nose.

“I tried to warn you, achoo!” He took two steps back, waving his hand at her. “I’m super allergic to feathers, and you’re wearing a hair pin full of it! I couldn’t stay near you if I wanted to!” It had some weird effect, this suited up Chat sniffing with his head up in desperate search for a tissue. Both extremely him and endearing, to the point Marinette cracked a laugh when the research was fruitful and the superhero blew loudly into a paper towel.

With the white feathers on her head, the nasty green of her eyes and the absolute flushed face of her, Lila looked one with the flag of her country. For a second. One extremely Italian second.

Then, of course, the waterfalls arrived.

“That was so mean of you, you should’ve at least warned me!” Chat Noir’s simple retort was a large grimace that said ‘I tried to’ quite clearly, but the brunette was into her part now. “I thought you were kind and special, but you’re just a jerk! You wanna make me look bad! I should’ve known! Right Alya?” She turned around to get her friend’s support.

Only to meet with something that for luck of fate, when she had first transferred in their school, Lila Rossi hadn’t managed to encounter: Alya Cesaire’s inquisitory glare.

“Wait a second.” She lowered her recorder without switching it off, stepping forward with one foot. “If he’s allergic there’s no way he talked to you or even got close to you tonight! All along you told me you were chatting with him… Lila… were you lying?”

Marinette could hardly believe it. She stared, agape, but never as much as the actual liar.

“I wasn’t! Of course not, he’s making that up to make me look bad! I don’t know why he’s pulling up all of this act, he’s probably getting manipulated by Ladybug to make me look bad! And here I thought she was a friend! Besides, I bet he’s pretending the allergy!”

“Excuse me, miss.” Completely out of nowhere none other than Mr. Ramier appeared, along with Roger and Sabrina, with the latter immediately running towards Chloe – with eyes sparkling like stars at the sight of her best friend’s two chaperones. “But if I may interject, there’s no way Chat Noir is lying about his allergy. I would know, since I get akumatized quite often and he’s forced to endure my pidgeons all the time. Very sorry about it by the way.” The gentleman looked at the cat hero, who got another tissue kindly offered by Rose and simply waved his hand like it was not a big deal. Which was fair, Mr. Pidgeon wasn’t nearly the most menacing threat ever – a bit of routine in the mess that was their lives was actually nice sometimes.

That same sweet blonde and helpful girl with the pink dress gasped all of the sudden, tears shining in her eyes. Actual, genuine drops, unlike someone else’s.

“You said the feathers were artificial, that your grandma was running a charity association that wanted to erase everything made by animals in the fashion world!!” Her lip covered in peach gloss quivered vividly. “I can’t believe you would lie about that, Marinette was right!” She turned to the stylist, who couldn’t believe this was actually happening. “I’m so sorry Marinette, I should’ve known!” Juleka from behind her nodded, looking sorry.

Lila gasped, again in her overly dramatic way, shaking her head.

“How could you say that? You know I would never lie, you know me! I… I…” Marinette should had seen it coming, as soon as those vengeful eyes got stuck on her. “It’s all Marinette’s fault!” Crocodile tears once again, the stylist didn’t even have it in her to be annoyed. “She wants to make me look bad, she did ever since I came here! I don’t know why she hates me so much!” There was such a long list into her diary, but the stylist felt like it wasn’t necessary. Her friends looked doubtful. Like they were on her side again. “And you’re trying to make me feel bad, I could get akumatized! How could you?”

“You do realize I’m right here, right?” Chat Noir grinned at her, getting closer to Marinette. “I could easily take care of you while Ladybug gets here, no problem. So go along, get crazy.” Wow, Ladybug would had not approved that. Good thing she wasn’t here.

“Did Marinette drag you into this?? She is the worst!!”

“No way, Marinette’s the best! She made these awesome shades of mine!” Out of nowhere Jagged Stone interjected, cocking a wink to her favorite designer who couldn’t help the little giggle – the frequency he showed those glasses reminded her of her dad whenever she accomplished anything. “Girl the way you’re talking to her is totally not rock and roll, who do you think you are??” The Rockstar glared. And so did Fang behind him, showing all of his teeth.

All colors drained from Lila’s face, as she pointed at the rockstar.

“What- Why- He isn’t supposed to…!”

“Oh yeah, didn’t I tell you?” Chat Noir seemed to be trying his best to contain his smug aura. “Another reason I got here this late, I thought of inviting Jagged and prince Ali! Isn’t it great? They’re usually super busy and not really into random celebrations, but it turns out they’re more than happy to participate knowing one of their heroes is here. What do you know?”

Lila was at loss, going with startled eyes from the celebrity in front of her, to the royalty not too far, to the people staring judgily at her. She opened her mouth to speak, try more covers, but Alya’s lips smack interrupt her. The journalist looked like she finally had enough, turning to Jagged.

“A question. You don’t know Lila, do you?”

“This girl? Definitely not.”

“So you never wrote her a song because she saved your cat?”

“Pff, a cat? I’m allergic to cats, and I hate them, they’re so unfriendly! Well, most of them, Chat Noir is pretty cool.” Another wink was thrown at the superhero, who cocked finger guns at the superstar. It looked oddly appropriate between these two.

Alya grabbed her head between her hands, groaning loudly.

“I can’t believe it, I… I’m so stupid. Marinette.” Her eyes were so gloomy, so different from her usual self. It made them trustworthy, despite everything. “I’m so sorry, I should’ve believed you right away. I promise I’ll make up for all I did. In the meantime…” With a quick gesture, as quick as Rena Rouge would had done it, Alya grabbed Lila’s arm and dragged her forward. “We’re gonna make sure you don’t know prince Ali too, and find out where in the world where you during your vacation since, you know, it looks like you missed school without a reason! And all of my interviews on the Ladyblog, ooooh, you’re in big trouble girl!!”

“No!! Let me go!! Marinette’s lying!!” The image of the perfect girl crumbled right away, as Lila started to pull such a tantrum that Manon would had felt embarrassed for her. “It’s all Ladybug’s fault! Or Marinette’s! Or both!! And Chat Noir’s!! It’s their fault, not mine, they’re the liars! I’m not a liar! I’M NOT A LIAR!!” And like that she was dragged away without mercy, like a criminal finally getting brought to justice.

People followed the scene, Rose and Juleka still looking sorry, Nino as well while making sure his girlfriend wasn’t going to straight up murder Lila. And Marinette stayed where she was, looking at them as the prince turned around, and another tantrum was born from the exposed liar.

After five full seconds of silence, Chat Noir blew his nose into the tissue once again, so loudly nearby guests gave him weirded out looks.

But not Marinette, no. She burst into laughter.

“Oh my gosh, it actually happened! Karma happened! A Christmas miracle!” She had to wipe a tear, more relieved than happy in reality. “If this is a dream please don’t wake me up, I wanna live in this world forever!” And in that precise moment the music changed, a slow rhythm that made her smile incredulously. “Wow, really? This night everything is meant to go just right, huh.” She giggled again, pushing a lock of her hair behind her ear. She turned towards the hero, her actual hero, finding him staring at her. The mask covered most of his face, but was that a blush?

“… then it would be a pity going against the flow, right?” Chat Noir smirked, bowing in front of her and extending a gloved hand. “May I have this dance?”

Marinette gaped at him.

“Me?”

“This superhero has every intention to dance with the prettiest girl of the night, yeah.” Curse this flirtatious little kitty, looking like he had everything under control after pulling such a stunt against that liar. Curse herself for letting it work, as she was led in the middle of the dance floor.

The lights got softer, the song too. Even with the confrontation happening not that far in the room, Marinette found it extremely easy to simply live in this moment. Especially given that her – the… alright her – kitty turned out to be quite the dancer, pulling her along gently, a hand over her hip and the other clenched around her hand. It felt like her goofy partner was miles away from this elegant person, but at the same time something told her that this made sense. For some reason him being so kind and sophisticated made her feel like it was perfectly normal.

Marinette smiled softly, moving slowly. Savoring this instant.

“I didn’t think it was going to end up like this.” Chat Noir hummed questioning. “Dancing with a superhero after the defeat of a villain without akuma, that’s something.”

“You got pretty lucky, huh? Especially on the first part.” And there he was, ruining the mood, pulling her along as he laughed. Maybe a little too much? “… oh! Sorry!” He straightened up, snickering nervously. Looking dizzy. “I’m a little out of it tonight.”

The stylist frowned in worry.

“If you weren’t feeling good you shouldn’t have come.”

“Bet Ladybug would tell me something similar, along with the scolding of my life for getting involved into civilian stuff.” She was pondering about it. Mm, maybe she could let this one go. “I understand it, I do, and I usually would’ve been on my own without interacting with anyone, but I couldn’t keep it shut anymore… not after seeing how sad you looked.” And suddenly his eyes were serious, focused. Like there was actually a guy underneath all the jokes.

It was supposed to be a shock. It felt more like a surprise to her. A little push in an unknown right direction, unexpected yet somehow helpful.

“You did it for me?”

“I think Lila getting busted helps everyone, but yes, mostly for you.” Again with the red on his cheeks, this time it was undeniable. “I thought I could let it go, but I saw how it got on your nerves, and after a while it got on my nerves because it got on your nerves, and I guess I couldn’t get my paws out of this one huh? I thought that fox needed a little less- Oh.” Huh, apparently this kitty did have an off button. And Marinette actually grinned while holding him, her cheek over his solid chest, hands around his neck. Feeling comfortable, happy.

… familiarly happy? She frowned a little.

“How did you know I wasn’t okay? You said you just arrived.” She could feel him swallow from this close, after finally putting his hands over her back. And again that warm lightning shocked her over the skin, a pinch in the middle of her brain. Like this was a dream that had happened before.

Chat Noir snorted softly.

“Let’s say a friend told me.”

“Let’s say I don’t believe you.”

“I would never lie to you. I… I really don’t want you to be sad, ever. You’re so amazing, you deserve all the happiness you can get.” And with that he let himself go with the movement, less shy, more him as he led her through the dance.

The music was lovely, Chat was lovely, and one by one other people were joining the dance floor like they were all part of the same fairy tale. She could spot Juleka and Rose holding each other, Kagami pulling forward the arm of a very flushed Chloe with a giggling Luka following behind, Alya clearly satisfied of the dealt situation with Lila dragging her boyfriend in, who looked way too into it to say anything, putting quickly his phone in his pocket.

His phone… the video… everything.

Marinette gasped, her mind finally unlocking that everything.

The film of the party that only one person had managed to see besides the DJ. The same allergy to feathers. The same golden hair, the same gorgeous green eyes. The confidence in his ways, the poor health of tonight – he was here while he should had been recovering, this dumb reckless kitty, she so wanted to slap him and smooch him. And this emotion, this undeniable feeling of belonging that came whenever she was between his arms, dancing like they had at Chloe’s party when he had made all of her dreams coming true with one single moment.

It was so obvious. The more she thought about it, the more she felt stupid and unbelieving and so, so incredibly happy. So much it was making her tear up, so much it was burning her heart violently. So much she wanted to scream it, tell all of Paris, tell the entire the world that it was happening.

“It’s you.” It came with a whisper, without her realizing.

“Mhm? You’re kinda shivering.” She untangled herself from him, missing the warmth, melting into his big, confused eyes. “Are you okay?”

There really was no one else.

“… could you come to my house tomorrow night?” Marinette tried her best to hold her voice together, tightening her hands onto him. She could see his smile. She could see him, under the mask or with it. “I’ll have a Christmas present for you. As a thank you gift.” And just like every time with every single akuma she had met, a specific plan formed into her head, with Chat Noir by her side.

Only this time, it was a complete solo mission. The most important one.

 ***

 How to make the best Christmas night, by Adrien Agreste.

Ingredients.

Seven days filled with plenty of akuma attacks, as fresh as possible, dripping with exhaustion. One or two – two – very generous pinches of scolding from father because of ineptitude at being absolutely flawless. And kwami, possibly cat kwami, fallen asleep on his pillow with his cheesy smelly breath directed towards him all night. Let it all fall onto the ground because of exhaustion, making him miss the Christmas Eve party where he was supposed to meet with his friends and have a great night – black cat, bad luck, har har.

Then… pick up the bowl and start over. Add an abundant thirst of revenge after watching one blue-haired girl all gloomy – and pretty, that dress wow, she really was unbelievably talented –, a fulfilled vendetta that hopefully wasn’t going to generate more troubling problems than the major one that got solved, and an invitation from said blue-haired girl for Christmas.

An actual, proper Christmas.

Chat Noir grinned widely, jumping right into the freezing air, way less fatigued than yesterday. He slept all day, regaining the strength, getting constant smug eyes from Plagg for some reasons. His father had even checked on him, maybe even sad that this year they hadn’t had Christmas at all. So he brought dinner to his bed, and they had it together. It had been somehow unsettling and nice at the same time. Last Christmas, his escape had caused a major problem, yet the solution to everything. Adrien really hoped it was going to be the same, especially for his feelings.

He stopped over a building. He could see the Dupain-Cheng’s bakery from there, and a sudden surge of worry caught him off guard. What was he expecting from this? Marinette was incredible, being invited felt like an honor alone. Was that why he was out of breath? What else was coming? His heart was for Ladybug, then why did it not doubt about helping Marinette?

A breeze caught his right under his neck, making him shiver. Ah, he was here in any case. And he was pretty sure his social skills still weren’t developed enough to let him come to a conclusion.

He jumped over the railing and landed on the small terrace at the top of the bakery, feeling his entire being immediately burst into amazement: it was beautifully decorated with Christmas lights and plants, little Christmas balls, stars, bows and little angels all over. A little table was settled with two chairs, with plenty of sweet goodness like bonbon, macarons, brownies and one wonderful Bouche de Noel. It had stopped snowing this morning, so the night was as clear as ever, shining of stars and wonder.

This was too much. It was so much that Adrien felt himself coming out of the costume in form of little tears, that Chat Noir quickly rubbed away. He faced a bully for a girl the other night, and now he was getting emotional because this precious little corner felt so comfortable he wasn’t used to it? He had to pull himself together before-

The door of the terrace opened. He took a deep breath. Play it cool, thank her, enjoy the moment. So he turned towards the sound with the widest smile Chat Noir had.

“I have to admit, this is pretty paw-some, Mari-” His voice got stuck into his throat.

This was a dream. This was the most vivid and lifelike dream he had ever had. Ladybug was stepping up from the door, eyes glimmering under the mask, wearing a majestic red dress covered in black dots. Long black gloves covered her elegant arms, her blue hair fell gracefully over her shoulders, and her pink lips were curved in the sweetest smile possible. With her flushed cheeks and the lights framing her figure, she looked like a queen.

And she stepped forward, her highness, looking pleased and even endeared by the kitty’s reaction, that still couldn’t move a single muscle.

“I’m glad you like it, I know you have a bit of a sweet tooth. And you seemed to really dig dad’s vol-au-vent that time we had Sunday brunch, so I asked him to make some. Without telling him why of course.” Dad…? Before…? “Ah, but you’re here for this, aren’t you?” Hadn’t he been completely out of himself from the daze of this apparition, maybe he would had noticed the little box into her soft hands. It was covered in a green wrapping paper, with a black bow on it.

Chat Noir blinked. Adrien blinked, because his brain was returning to him incredibly slowly but he could still hear the echo of what was happening. And he didn’t know if he was going to be able to take it. So without looking at it he grabbed the present, lips shivering.

“L… Ladybug?” And she dared to blush, like she didn’t look breathtaking already.

“J-just open it, okay?” And she dared to ask him to do something, alluring to the possibility to move or think or act – honestly it was asking a little too much from his little feline brain.

Nonetheless, after what felt like an eternity, Chat managed to trace the wrapping of the present with his claw, gently cutting the paper in the process. He grabbed an edge and discovered another box, black with a red cover. It was already perfect. But shivers caught him as he was pulling up the top, because Ladybug looking at him so intensely, so incredibly involved with him, that every movement felt meaningful. And when he finally peaked inside, his poor heart thought it was going to stop right there, just for the sake of passing away this happy.

A green branch, tender leaves, and white berries. A little mistletoe plush was waiting for him inside the box, soft looking and well made, like only one person he knew could had done with such care and dedication. So there was no stopping the gears inside his head anymore, not when everything was making this much sense all of the sudden, not while Ladybug was stepping close, putting her hands on his over the box.

Those hardworking hands, those hair as dark as night, those pretty bluebell eyes – blindness, thy name Adrien Agreste – that desire to get her closer and more comfortable with him. That feeling of ease that he thought was only meant for the closest of friends.

Ladybug smiled. Marinette smiled.

“Tikki, spots off.” In the cold night of Christmas, a red glimmering light manifested over the girl of his dreams, revealing the one he had been looking for all along. And through her lucid eyes, her goofy smile, her flushed cheeks, he could still see all of her. Because this was her. Beautifully her. “I-I thought this was the best present I could give you, after what you did yesterday and always did for me.” She laughed when Tikki flew over the present and picked it up, right over their heads. He loved that kwami. “I hope it’s good enough…?”

Her eyes fell, the slightest fear shaking the hands that were still covering his.

And Adrien felt appalled, so outraged, looking at her straight into her beautiful eyes, smiling so much he probably looked silly. But she didn’t seem to care.

“Plagg, claws in.” She knew, he didn’t know how, but she knew. Perhaps he was going to ask later. Right now, while Plagg reappeared and gave his fellow kwami a hand, still showcasing that same irritating smirk, all Adrien wanted was to take this miracle and hold on to it as long as he could. “It’s the best present of my entire life.” He let the box fall, gently grabbing her hands.

She laughed, and all of Paris felt envious of such beauty.

“Silly cat.” Marinette beamed at him. She then leaned forward, shy, glowing. And Adrien did the same, meeting her in the middle, finally kissing the girl of his dreams, feeling the glimmering joy inside of his heart outshining every single light of Christmas.

[miraculous-sunflower]

the skeld - a miraculous x among us AU

Marinette- pink, a flower circlet. A fashionista with a hamster ball because she loves hamsters and fashion…

Adrien- lime, kitty cat ears. Channeling his inner Chat Noir…

Alya- orange, dum sticker. Reporter extraordinaire! Dum sticker is courtesy of the lovely Marinette!

Nino- blue, headphones. He's just chilling...

Chloe- yellow, crown. *ahem ahem*, Queen Bee!

Sabrina- white, bunny ears. *sigh* I know that the outfit looks weird, but I tried my best! She looks pretty innocent though...

Kagami- red, sword in head. Fencing, ahaha, am I right?

Luka- cyan, mohawk. He looks awesome. Just awesome. Has some inner rockstar in him :)

Lila- brown, long weird funky hair. Hehe my friend and I couldn’t resist doing this!

Felix- black, top hat. Dark, and mysterious, perfect…

PROLOGUE

Life on The Skeld was rough. The stress of running a spaceship and doing tasks, based on a small tablet with the rules and instructions, was piling on top of the ten high school students. Some of them were friends, while others were enemies. Unfortunately, the fights couldn’t be prevented. Luka hated that Marinette chose Adrien. Alya hated that she couldn't blog what was going on. Nino hated that his headphones wouldn’t work. Chloe hated not being in the comfort of her daddy’s hotel. Kagami hated that Adrien was so caught up with Marinette, that he wouldn’t even practice fencing with her. Felix hated that his parents probably wouldn’t worry about him. Sabrina hated that she left her lucky pin - the one Chloe gave her - with her father, back in Paris. Adrien hated that Felix had to be one of the unlucky ten on the ship. Marinette hated not being in the bakery; her home. And Lila hated that she was all alone on the spaceship - even Chloe the brat had a friend! Unfortunately, as the days went on, things got worse, and worse. It was impossible to run a spaceship - where there were normally over 50 staff members! Little did Marinette know that on the 13th day, misfortune would strike once again.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Body in Storage. I repeat, body in Storage.” Felix reported. An emergency meeting was held straight away.

“Oh no! Sabrina!” Marinette gasped.

“What?!?! Someone killed my friend! This is ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!” Chloe snapped.

“Friend? I thought she was your servant, Chloe,” Alya smirked.

“Um, well, well she’s both!” Chloe’s face went red.

“Wait, a second, Sabrina’s dead?” Nino asked.

“Yes. Found her body in Storage. Didn’t see anyone.” Felix stated.

“Hold up. Our fellow crewmates are dying? Do you guys know what this means?” Alya nervously asked.

“Alya, what’s happening?” Adrien asked.

“There is someone, on this ship, who wants to take over.”

There is an impostor among us.

Marinette was the first to leave the table. She had to swipe her ID card, so she headed to Admin. Beep! Perfect. It only took one swipe. She noticed that someone else had come into Admin.

“Well hello there, Princess. Fancy seeing you here.” Adrien grinned.

Marinette tried not to crack a smile, but Adrien’s smile was adorable. She remembered Alya’s warning. There is an impostor among us. Be careful. Trust no one. She had said ‘Trust no one’, but come on! This was Adrien! Dorky, funny, and adorable Adrien! She really didn’t think he could kill someone.

Adrien carefully studied Marinette. Yes, his girlfriend had her game face on. She was probably determining the chances of him being the killer. “Marinette,” he looked into her eyes, and grabbed her hands, interlocking them with his, “I promise you, I’m not the impostor. I’d never kill anyone.”

Marinette showed a tiny smile. Adrien was telling the truth. She could see it in his eyes. “Alright, kitty. How about we stick together and protect each other?”

Her boyfriend grinned. “Yes! We could be secret agents! Hmmm, we need code names. Umm, oh, I’ll be Chat Noir. Yeah, Chat Noir. The Black Cat.”

Marinette laughed. “Well, if you're a black cat, I’ll be Ladybug. I mean, good luck is the opposite of bad luck, right?”

If it was possible, Adrien’s grin grew even more. “Woah, we’ll be two parts of a whole!” He raised his eyebrows, up and down. “And that fits us pretty well, right?”

Marinette blushed, but smiled. “Yes, Chaton. It fits us pretty well.”

Chloe thought this situation was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous! Sabrina was dead, so she didn’t know how to do her tasks! Ugh, where were her tasks anyway? She pulled up her tablet, which contained her tasks.

“Fix wires in Electrical. Where am I supposed to find Electrical?” She blurted out furiously.

She thought about the times before Sabrina was killed.

Flashback:

”Oh, you have a task in Electrical? No worries, Chloe! I can show you how to get there!” Sabrina joyously exclaimed.

Chloe tried to bite back her smile, but couldn’t help it. She was too happy to have a real friend on the spaceship.

Sabrina led her to Electrical. “Hey, Chloe, do you need help with your task?” Chloe was furiously messing with her distributor.

“I don’t know how to do this thing!” She yelled furiously.

“Oh Chloe, it’s alright. I can show you how. So what you want to do is calibrate it. Match the pointy part to the…

Chloe blinked twice, snapping herself out of the flashback. She needed to finish her tasks. She needed to. Sure, she had no friends left, but she had to do it. For Sabrina. Filled with a new burst of determination, she pulled up the map on her tablet. She found herself, a yellow crewmate, in Cafeteria. She also located Electrical. “Okay, so if I go down into Storage, then make a right, Electrical will be on the left. Got it.” Chloe took a breath in, and started her journey.

But as soon as she arrived in Electrical, she noticed something wrong. There, standing in the doorway, was Felix, holding a bloody knife. She saw Kagami’s bloody body behind him. Felix’s eyes widened when he saw Chloe, but relaxed.

“Felix? You’re the killer?” Chloe was too surprised to move.

Felix smirked. “No, I’m not the killer. You are.” He took his megaphone from his backpack, and raised it into the air. Chloe looked at him with a murderous gaze. “You wouldn’t dare…”

“Oh, I would. Body in Electrical. I repeat, body in Electrical.” Everyone around the ship headed to Cafeteria.

“Another body. Felix, see anything?” Marinette asked.

“Oh, Felix saw something, alright! I just saw Felix coming out of Electrical, where Kagami’s body is! It’s a self report!” Chloe yelled.

“Quite the opposite, actually. Marinette, to answer your question, I did indeed see something. Chloe ran into Electrical while Kagami and I were doing tasks, and sliced Kagami. I luckily saw her run away.” Felix calmly stated.

Marinette narrowed her eyes at both of them. “Felix and Chloe, what was your reason for going to Electrical?”

“Well, I had to download some important information regarding the electrical supply. I was going to upload it to the Admin HQ after.” Felix answered.

“Well, I was there to do a task.” Chloe bluntly stated.

Marinette got a bit annoyed. “What task, Chloe?”

Chloe froze. What task, what task, what task? “Oh, um, ah, I forgot.”

Marinette looked at her suspiciously. “How do you forget which task you have?”

“Well, before, Sabrina always helped me with my tasks,” Chloe looked at her nervously.

“Well, sorry Chloe, but Sabrina’s dead.” Nino said.

“Yeah, that sounds suspicious. I’m voting Chloe.” Alya stated.

“So am I, as I saw her do it.” Felix aimed a smirk at Chloe. Chloe glared at him.

“No please, you have to believe me. Please!” She desperately looked at Marinette. “Please, Marinette. If there’s an impostor, they would’ve killed Sabrina too. You know I’d never kill Sabrina!” Now here, Marinette was confused. All of the evidence pointed to Chloe, but this confused her. She knew how much Sabrina meant to Chloe…

“Lies. I saw her do it. I caught her in the act. The impostor is indeed Chloe.” Felix stated, once again. He was sure Chloe wouldn’t be able to escape his plan.

Chloe didn’t care about what Felix said. She just focused on Marinette. “Please, Marinette. If you don’t believe me, vote Felix out first. Then vote for me. I just don’t want to let anyone else get killed.”

Marinette thought that the idea was fair. “Alright. I will be voting Felix.” She glanced at Felix, who was stunned. He was sure his plan would work!

Alya and Felix were the ones who voted for Chloe, while the others voted out Felix. Adrien and Luka grabbed Felix by the arms and led him to Marinette, who opened the airlock that led to space. The three of them launched Felix outside, and watched his body shrivel up, floating in space.

Felix was ejected.

Chloe gulped. She knew it was her turn now.

Marinette called another emergency meeting. The rest of the crewmates turned to Chloe. “I’m sorry Chloe, but this is the only way to make sure one of you was the killer.” Marinette looked at her, apologizing with her eyes.

“It’s alright. I had this idea. At least no one will be murdered anymore.” Taking a deep breath in, she waved her hand. “Bye, everyone. It was fun working with you,” She turned around, ready to be launched into space.

“Chloe, it was fun working with you too. You’re so brave. You’re sacrificing yourself in order to protect your fellow crewmates. It’s an honor to call you my friend.” Marinette smiled at her.

Chloe gasped, but a tear of joy slid down her face. “Thank you, Marinette. I’ll never forget you.”

When she was blasted into space, there was only one thought in her mind. And it was. She was a ghost now. She glided through walls, frantically looking for Sabrina. Suddenly, she saw a pale, white-colored ghost sobbing.

“Sabrina?” Chloe whispered.

The pale ghost jumped up, but then studied Chloe.

“Chloe? Is that really you?” Sabrina asked. Chloe nodded. The two ghosts, yellow and white, ran to each other, but then realised that they couldn’t give each other hugs.

“Oh Sabrina, I missed you so much!” Chloe sobbed out.

Sabrina looked at her happily. “I did too. I hated that I couldn’t talk to you. But I’ve always been there. I followed you, wherever you went.”

“You did? Oh Sabrina, I’m so happy to see you again,” A fresh new wave of tears ran down Chloe’s face.

“I am too. But don’t ever worry, Chloe. I’ll always be with you. In here.” Sabrina gestured to Chloe’s heart.

Chloe looked at her friend. Perhaps death wasn’t that bad. She was reunited with her friend. Her friend.

Marinette blinked back tears. From the moment she arrived on the spaceship, she always thought Chloe was a brat. But no. She was wrong. Chloe was kind, so brave. Marinette would always remember Chloe. She picked up the crown that Chloe always wore, and placed it in the center of the meeting table. “She died a hero. She died protecting others. For that, we should honor her spirit.” There was a moment of silence.

Alya spoke up after a minute. “Okay, so now we are sure to have the killer out. Right?”

Marinette wiped the tears coming out of her eyes. “Yes, there should be no murders. Crewmates, continue on with your tasks.” Everyone shuffled out of Cafeteria, but Adrien stayed behind.

“I’m sorry about Chloe, Princess. But we had to. To protect the others, we needed to do it.”

Marinette looked at him. “I know, kitty. But I can’t help but be mad at myself for not realizing how kind Chloe was back then.” She looked at him wearily. “I’ve known her for years, and I’ve always thought she was snobby. But her spirit lives on, in the spaceship.”

Adrien cracked a smile at her. “Well, to cheer you up, how about we go on a task date?”

Marinette laughed at him. “Sure, kitty-cat. Let’s head to Weapons. I want to make sure there aren’t any asteroids that might hit our ship.”

The couple headed to Weapons, but as soon as they arrived, the lights went out. “Hey, that’s not good. No one has access to the lights except me,” Marinette suspiciously looked around, but she couldn’t see anything. “Adrien, Adrien where are you?” She reached her hand out.

“I’m here, Marinette,” Her hand touched another hand, and she immediately clasped it.

“We have to get to Electrical to fix the lights, Adrien.” Marinetet whispered.

“Okay, let’s go,” Adrien responded. They took baby steps, making sure there wasn’t anyone else around. They reached Electrical, and Marinette stepped to the lights panel. She flicked the switches until they all were light green. The lights started to come back on, one by one.

“Okay, that problem is fixed. Any idea why it happened?” Adrien asked Marinette, clearly able to see her now. He headed to the back of Electrical.

“No, I have no idea, unless-” She was interrupted by Adrien’s gasp. She ran to the back, and saw a bloody sight.

Standing on Alya’s body was Lila, whose back was turned around. When Lila heard Adrien’s gasp, she turned around.

“Oh, hi guys! Do you want to hear about the time I helped astronauts from Polus-” but she stopped when she noticed the dead body at her feet. She looked up at Marinette and Adrien, who had wide eyes. “Oh, guys, I swear, it’s not what it looks like-”

“Body in Electrical. I repeat, “Body in Electrical.” Marinette reported, glaring at Lila. Marinette and Adrien escorted Lila to Cafeteria. Couple seconds later, Nino showed up, and then Luka did.

“What?! Alya’s dead?! Oh god whoever killed her…” Nino looked at the ground with sad eyes, trying to hold back tears.

“Oh Nino, we’ll get justice for you. Because the killer is, drumroll please,” Adrien grinned, but Marinette shot him a death glare. “Lila.”

Nino gasped when he heard that. “Lila? How?”

“She was standing on Alya’s body. I’m really sorry, Nino,” Marinette went to comfort Nino, giving him a bear hug.

“No! I didn’t kill her! I was just trying to do my wires! I swear! It wasn’t me!” But no one believed Lila. When the time came, Adrien and Luka picked her up and launched her into space. Marinette watched Lila’s body shrivel up with a grim expression. Adrien put an arm around Marinette’s shoulders.

“I can’t believe Alya’s dead. My best friend,” She was still in shock.

“Hey, Princess. We got them all justice, right? Felix and Lila were the killers, so all of them got justice.” Little did the couple know that the ghosts were actually yelling at their stupidity, but they couldn't blame them. Lila was a liar, so the real impostor framing her was a genius idea.

Suddenly, the reactor meltdown alarm went off. Marinette’s eyes widened. No, this wasn’t good, not good at all. It meant that there was still an impostor among them. But who?

Marinette and Adrien ran to Reactor, one going up, other going down, to scan their hands to stop the meltdown. Luka and Nino weren’t in sight.

“Oh god, Adrien. We need to call an emergency meeting. We have to!” Marinette raced to Cafeteria, Adrien following her in hot pursuit. Marinette slammed the red button, and the emergency meeting siren was sounded throughout the ship. In a couple seconds, Luka showed up from Admin, but Nino was not in sight. 2 minutes passed, 5 minutes passed, 7 minutes passed, 10 minutes passed. Nino never showed up.

There was a sinking feeling that occurred in Marinette’s stomach. Nino was dead. That meant… it meant that Luka was the killer. Luka was the impostor among them all.

Adrien looked at her, and she looked at him. They slowly looked at Luka, who tried to look as innocent as possible.

“Well, Adrien, you tried. But you got caught,” Luka tried to frame Adrien.

Adrien glared at Luka. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yep. Well, Marinette,” Adrien didn’t like how Luka said his girlfriend’s name, “who do you think it is?”

Marinette looked at Luka with eyes that said, ‘Do you think I’m dumb?’. “Oh! Well, me and Adrien were on a task date,” Adrien smirked at Luka, who rolled his eyes, “sooo the only person who could have killed would be, hm, oh yeah! You!”

Luka fake gasped. “What? Why are you accusing me!? You’re probably helping Adrien…”

“This is so dumb. Princess, can we just launch him out?” Adrien was getting mad at Luka.

“Yeah, okay, we can.”

Adrien and Marinette tried to escort Luka to the airway, but Luka elbowed Adrien in the chest and grabbed Marinette’s hand. Adrien slammed into the window, groaning. Marinette thought he was unconscious. “Oh no, we’re launching you, Adrien.” Luka smiled.

“Adrien! No!” Marinette yelled.

Luka looked at Marinette. “Oh, sweet melody. I’ve always loved you. And now, you shall love me!” he laughed evilly. Marinette was still shocked that Luka killed so many innocent people.

“I can’t believe that this is the real you, Luka. I never would’ve guessed. I actually thought you were kind!” Marinette felt the tears burning her eyes. If Luka managed to launch Adrien, it was over. ‘Deep breaths, Marinette. You’ve got this. Just make a plan,’ she told herself.

Luka was only grabbing her arm, so her feet were pretty movable. She calculated the distance from her foot to Luka’s chest, then calculated how far away Adrien was. She'd have to hurt Luka pretty bad if she wanted her plan to work. On the count of three, she hurled her foot and it perfectly hit Luka’s chest. Luka fell onto the floor, groaning, but he made no sign of getting up. Marinette wasted no time of sprinting to Adrien, who was finally conscious. She helped him up.

“Okay, Adrien. We need to get Luka outside. We have to! Otherwise…”

“Don’t worry, Princess. I think we can do it.” Adrien answered.

They picked him up, and dragged him to the airlock. Marinette pressed her ID to the key lock, and the airlock opened. Using the last remaining strength that either of them had, they both pushed Luka out of the airlock.

“Did it work?” Adrien asked, out of breath.

Luka was ejected.

“It did. It worked!” Marinette threw her arms around Adrien. Adrien returned the gesture. They both started crying, as the loss of their friends finally sank in.

Alya, Marinette’s first friend on the spaceship. She welcomed Marinette, showed her how to do most of her tasks. Marinette would always be thankful for Alya’s love and help.

Nino, Adrien’s first friend. Adrien had a toxic life before coming to the spaceship, but Nino made him laugh everyday, whether it was funny turtle memes, or just being himself. Adrien would always be thankful for Nino’s love and help.

Kagami. Even if Kagami had a crush on Adrien at some point in time, she was still a very good friend of Marinette and Adrien. If someone criticized Marinette’s decision, for example if she wanted to build a new reactor, Kagami would always be there to back her up. Adrien and Marinette would always be thankful for Kagami’s love and help.

Sabrina. Sabrina was their latest recruit, but she’d been so helpful, whether it be setting up the tables for dinner, or cleaning the Cafeteria. Marinette, Adrien, and the whole crew would be thankful for Sabrina’s help.

Lila. Well, Lila was a liar, but there were some noble moments. She helped explain to Adrien how the trash chute worked. She waited to watch people’s medscan. Even if she was mean sometimes, she truly was a pretty good person.

Finally, Chloe. Chloe was mean to Marinette in the beginning, but that was just out of jealousy. She was jealous of how many friends Marinette had. She was jealous of Marinette’s position. But even if she was mean, she was kind at the end. She sacrificed herself in order to protect others. She was brave, so brave, and Marinette was guilty for not seeing it until the end. But as the golden crown sits in the middle of the meeting table, all the ghosts, who used to be crewmates on the ship, remain on the ship. Their spirit lives on.

The couple sat down on the nearest sofa, exhausted from their blood filled day.

“Marinette, do you think our friends are still with us?” Adrien asked.

“Of course they are. They will always be with us, in here.” Marinette gestured to her heart.

The couple gazed out at the starry night of the galaxy, wishing for a better day of the Skeld.

[hermionemonica]

Cause I knew I was in love with you (when we sat in silence): Marichat May 2020 - Day 27

AO3 | For the @marichatmay

Collab with @lalunaoscura

DAY 1 | <-26 | 27 | 28->

Day 27 — Kitten Noir (Chapter by @lalunaoscura)

“No, my baby.”

Marinette pouted.

“Please, mom? Let me keep it.”

“We can’t adopt a cat, Marinette!” Sabine said a little amused, watching her daughter nesting the tiny orange cat she was holding in her arms.

“It will stay in my room and I won’t let it get in the bakery and-”

“Princess, we would love to let you keep the cat, but you know we can’t. You do understand, right?” Tom asked.

Marinette sighed, but nodded.

“Can I at least keep it tonight since it’s raining? Tomorrow I’ll take it to a shelter.” she promised.

Sabine and Tom exchanged a look.

“It can’t leave your room. And you will have to clean your room tomorrow.”

“Deal! Thank you maman, thank you papa, I love you!” She screamed, excited, and ran to her room with the little cat in her arms.

She was coming back home after spending the afternoon with the girl squad when she heard the little meows from the kitty. The poor thing was wet and shivering from the rain, so she grabbed her jacket and made a nest the best she could to warm the kitty.

While she was walking back home under her umbrella – actually, Adrien’s umbrella, she knew that her parents couldn’t let her keep the stray cat, but she couldn’t let him stay in the rain and die.

It needed to be protected until she had the chance to take him to a shelter.

She grabbed a towel and dried off the kitten, slowly. After that, she made a little nest inside one box with a pillow and tons of fabrics so it would be really warm for the little one.

She watched the little kitty discovering its new nest and smiled, caressing its head.

“Marinette!”

“Yes, maman!”

“Dinner, my dear. And we can do something for the kitty too.”

“I’m coming!” she said and turned to the cat. “You stay here and nap, okay? I’ll be right back.” she caressed it again. “Good baby.”

*

“You see, I came to ask if you want a cat to sleep with you, but I see that you already got one, my lady.”

Marinette raised her gaze from her phone to her boyfriend, still transformed and smirking.

“What can I say?” she said, smiling while scratching the kitty sleeping on her collarbone. “It’s cute and it purrs.”

“I am cute and I can purr!”

Marinette giggled and Chat landed on her bed. Tikki, who was on Marinette’s head, smiled at him.

“Hello, Chat Noir!”

“Hey, Tikki!” He picked her up with his hand when she flew to him. “Did you take care of my lady?”

“Not as well as you, but I did!” Tikki teased and both teens blushed.

Crawling on all fours, he approached Marinette and lay down beside her, putting his head on her shoulder.

“You’re surrounded by cats now,” he said.

Marinette turned her face to his side and kissed him gently.

“Not yet. There is one that is missing,” she spoke against his mouth.

He detransformed and Plagg flew to nuzzle Marinette’s cheek before he went to the tiny cat sleeping on her.

“It’s weird.”

“It’s a cat, Plagg.” Chat said, scratching the cat’s head.

“Still weird.”

“It’s not weird, it’s a cute baby cat, Plagg!” Tikki sighed.

“I thought I was your cute baby cat, sugarcube!”

“Urgh, why are you so annoying?” Tikki said, leaving the bed.

“You love me!” Plagg said, following her.

Marinette looked at Chat and they both laughed.

“So is that a thing? The cat is always annoying the ladybug?” Marinette asked.

“What can I say? We love our bug, tho.” he pecked her lips and sat down on the bed. “So, who’s the cat?”

“It was outside the bakery. I brought it inside because of the rain. I’m trying to find a good argument so I can keep it.” she sighed sad. “But my parents won’t let me.”

“You live in a bakery, I thought that animals were forbidden.”

“They are, but I have been taking care of a cat for months and my parents never found out about it,” Marinette smirked. “I was thinking about hiding this little one on my balcony somehow.” She raised the cat.

“I thought I was the one taking care of you.”

“Nah, I just pretend so you would stay.” She teased and offered the cat to Chat. “Do you want to hold it?”

“We should give it a name.” he said, grabbing the cat and nestling it in his arms. “We can’t keep calling it ‘it’.”

“I don’t think we should. I mean, I can’t keep it.” Marinette said with her voice a little sad.

“Hey,” Chat held her chin with his index and thumb and made her look at him. “I know you want to keep the kitty, but you already have a lot of responsibilities. You are Ladybug and the guardian, besides… we will finish school soon.”

“Yeah, it’s true. And I know it will find an amazing family to take care of it, right, baby?” she caressed the kitty’s head. “So, suggestions?”

“For what?” he asked, his mind was too busy looking at Marinette being the most precious, kind, cute and amazing girl.

“For the kitty’s name?” she chuckled. “What?”

“I just want to kiss you so much right now for no reason.”

“And we need a reason to smooch?” She teased, approaching her face to his.

“Not at all.” He cupped her face and was leaning in to kiss her when she put her finger against his mouth. “What?”

“I don’t think we should kiss in front of the baby!” she whispered and put her hands on the kitty’s ears. “It’s so tiny and innocent!”

Chat rolled his eyes and giggled.

“You’re a teaser, woman.”

“No kisses until Kitten Noir is sleeping,” she said, taking the cat from his arms.

“Kitten Noir?” Chat gasped.

“Yeah, why? The name fits the baby so well!” She held the baby against her face and pouted. “Right, baby? You love your new name, right?”

The kitty meowed.

“It agrees.”

“Or it is screaming for help.” Chat shrugged.

“That’s it. We’re breaking up.”

“Hey, you are the one that is using my nickname to name our kid!”

“I want our kid to have your name, it’s that too much to ask?”

He didn’t reply but Marinette was too enchanted with Kitten Noir to notice.

“That’s what you want?”

“Hm?” she asked.

“Put the name of your husband to one of your kids.” he said seriously.

She looked up, looking at him, suddenly serious.

“I don’t know. I just… I had names for my kids with Adrien, but it was silly.”

“Tell me.” he approached her, eager to know more. “The names.”

“I-” she blushed. “Why do you want to know this? You really want your girlfriend to tell you about her silly plans with another boy?”

He wanted to smack himself. How did he forget that she didn’t know who he was under the mask? That the reveal was one sided only?

“You’re right. Gonna ask another thing then,” he brought his face close to hers and smirked when he saw her swallow.

“Y-Yes?”

“The names for our kids.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Give me some time. We just started dating,” she caressed his face and he turned his face to kiss the palm of her hand.

“Okay, you have three days. And I’m going to pick this little one…” he grabbed the kitty and lay down on the bed, getting comfortable. Kitten Noir was on his chest, exploring his shirt. “Come here, let’s cuddle.”

He opened his arm and Marinette couldn’t resist. She put her head on his shoulder and they talked and played with Kitten Noir.

The next day, when she handed the kitty to the new owner, she felt a little sad. But when she got the text Chat sent to her, her heart melted.

[😽]: You’re an amazing mom.

[😽]: Kitten Noir will have amazing parents like us.

[helgabatwrittings]

You and Me Against the World, M’lady

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25014643/chapters/60632809

Hi, I’m back!! And with a prompt for day 2: Stargazing, for @ladynoirjuly2020 .

As always, I want to tag @sassykittynoir , @miraculouslyinloveagain and @smileytrinity, you guys inspire me so much to write, I hope you like this! In fact, I hope everyone likes this xD! Let me know what you think!

                                                            ***

Patrol was by far the highest moment in Adrien’s week. Both he and Ladybug were getting overwhelmed by the crazy amount of schoolwork, on top of Akuma attacks and their extracurricular activities, and so, and for Adrien’s misery, their nightly meetings had to be cut short to once a week. Nevertheless, Adrien would take the most out of it, every minute that he spent with his lady was precious, he couldn’t give himself the luxury of wasting them.

Today, however, he was exhausted! His tiredness could be explained by an accumulation of the last week’s increasing hours of modelling, photoshoots upon photoshoots constantly sneaking their way into his schedule, followed by an intense fencing training every morning before classes started in preparation for an upcoming tournament, the piano lessons that lasted for at least two hours, by his father insistence, the Akuma attacks that also didn’t give any of the heroes a break, and the lonesome meals were all taking a toll on him. Besides, today he couldn’t go to Marinette’s, she said she wouldn’t be home that night, she had a family event or something like that. He couldn’t exactly tell what plans she had for the night since she stumbled upon her words too much for a congruent phrase to be comprehended. It shouldn’t matter what she had planned anyway, she didn’t owe him an explanation, and yet, he was still bummed that he wouldn’t be seeing her.

Beep beep! He looked at the lit screen of his baton, noticing the text Ladybug had just sent him, “Good Evening, Chaton! I have a surprise for you! Come meet me at our spot! Bug out!” He smiled goofily. What had his lady prepared for him? She never failed to impress him.

Adrien vaulted through the rooftops, as fast as his exhausted body could go. He got to the Notre Dame tower where they usually started patrol, and there she was. In all her majestic glory, sitting on a towel, next to a large basket, which he suspected contained some delicious treats inside. She was gazing at the shining Parisian view, transfixed by its beauty, so she didn’t seem to notice his arrival. Adrien smirked.

Silently tiptoeing until he was right behind her, he crouched to her height stealthily, “Evening, M’lady!”, Adrien greeted her in a louder than normal tone, exactly the volume he knew would startle her.

As expected, Ladybug jumped, almost knocking her head on his chin, “CHAAAT! You scared me!!” Despite her annoyed voice tone, Adrien could see a slight smirk gracing her lips.

“Awww, buguinette, you looked so peaceful staring at the view, I didn’t want to disturb you!” He teased her, flicking one of her ponytails.

Ladybug lightly slapped his hand away from her hair, “Well, since you’ve decided to be such a brat tonight, I guess I have no other option but to take this picnic basket home!” She booped his nose and chuckled, “Guess I’ll have to feed these croissants to the stray cat that visits me every night!”

Adrien gasped dramatically at this new revelation, not only was she taking the croissants he loved away, but another cat was keeping her company?? “Noooo, Buguinette! I promise I’ll behave!” To prove his point, he sat on the chequered towel, his hands resting on his legs to keep them from bouncing in excitement.

“Well, since you promised!” She sat right next to him, stretching right over his lap to reach the basket that was just next to Adrien. His cheeks went immediately scarlet, and his heart must have doubled its rate. God, this girl had such an effect on him! She had him right on the palm of her hand, Ladybug would be the death of him. Let it be known, Adrien Agreste would die because Ladybug, Paris darling, would kill him with her beauty and angelical grace!

And the worst, the absolute worst, is that she knew exactly what she was doing! She could have asked him to grab the basket, but nooo… She really wanted to end him, uh? Hawkmoth was an amateur next to his lady. She was the real criminal mastermind in Paris for what she was doing to him.

“-at…”

God, could his face get any warmer? He swore his blood had been entirely deployed to it so that LB could see exactly what she had done to him.

“-hat…”

If his heart continued to pump at this rate, Adrien would have a heart attack, he was certain of it.

“CHAT!!” His attention immediately drifted to her. Ladybug was holding a pain au chocolat, her eyes had this sparkle Adrien was used to seeing when she was amused with something, although her face was trying to pull a blank expression. “Do you want this pain au chocolat or not?”

“What?” He asked in a daze.

“Hello! Earth to Chat Noir!!” Ladybug mocked him, lightly knocking on his head.

“I’m here!” He jumped, finally realising what Ladybug was offering to him. He could never say no to those heavenly sweets she brought from time to time. They were on par with the pastries Marinette offered him every time he visited, and those had no competition in Paris. He grabbed the pastry, while Ladybug took a croissant from the basket for herself.

She wasn’t exactly talkative, but neither was he. They ate the pastries in pleasant silence, although Adrien was still a bit confused about why they were skipping patrol to have a picnic.

“Uh… LB?” Her eyes were closed, a pleased smile was gracing her lips while she slowly chewed on her croissant.

“Yes, kitty?” His heart jumped a beat at hearing the affective nickname Ladybug sometimes used for him.

“Why are we doing this? I, I mean, not that I’m not loving to spend some quality time alone with you in this romantic setting.” He wiggled his eyebrows, flirting with Ladybug to mask his nervousness.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but my life is kind of chaotic right now, and Hawkmoth has not been going easy on us. I just thought we deserved a night off, that’s all.” Her bluebell eyes established contact with his own, and his brain immediately turned into a jumbled mess. Seriously… How could he have any rational thought when his lady looked at him with that gentle expression of hers. Was she even aware of the power she had on him? How, with only a simple look, could she freeze his entire being and capture his heart to be forever hers? Some of Hawkmoth’s Akumas must have taken refuge in his belly, he could feel them inside as Adrien kept watching Ladybug in all her grace munching on her croissant. He knew that if he stood in front of a mirror at that moment, his face would be the same colour as his lady’s suit.

He needed to distract himself with something else, otherwise, his brain would start to make up these crazy scenarios and he wouldn’t be able to deal with them, especially not in front of Ladybug. Damn those teenage hormones!

Adrien looked up to the clear night sky, gazing at the stars above them. Physics was always a passion of his, especially Astronomy. He remembered spending countless nights alone in his room, back when he only had Chloé in his life, gazing through his floor-to-ceiling windows. He owned several stars charts, and his mum had also gifted him a next-gen telescope so he could further feed his passion. He had learned all the constellations, and it was those that had kept him company and helped him stay grounded when he was going through the painful grief his mum’s disappearance had brought upon his life.

“What are you looking at?” Ladybug looked down at him. When had he lied down on that rooftop? Adrien was so distracted gazing up at the sky, that he hadn’t noticed the change of position he had adopted. The fact was that he was currently lying on his back. And his Lady had asked him a question. “I’m only looking at the stars… They look so pretty, tonight. Almost as pretty as you, m’lady!” He chuckled.

“Silly kitty! And here I thought you were finally thinking of something smart for a change.” She teased him, and Adrien put a hand on his chest, gasping dramatically while a pleasant warmth spread through his chest.

“Seriously Chat! You are awfully distracted today. Something wrong?”

Adrien shrugged, “Nothing’s wrong, Buguinette. Don’t worry. I guess I’m just more tired than usual tonight.” His eyes drifted to her face, and his heart missed another beat. Maybe Adrien should ask his father if he could see a doctor, these many palpitations were definitely not normal.

Ladybug lied on her back, her body turned in the opposite direction to his, with her head right next to his shoulder, so close that he could feel the heat radiating from her, and that was enough for his brain to lose any kind of logical thoughts once again.

He avoided turning his head towards her, Adrien knew he wouldn’t be able to resist kissing her lips if he did so.

He heard her huff, “I swear, no matter how many times I read about constellations, I can never identify them. Like, for example, I know that “W” is one, but I don’t know which one!” She pointed, and Adrien followed her gloved finger.

“That’s Cassiopeia, M’lady.” He chuckled.

“Cassiopeia? What even is that?” Ladybug asked dramatically indignant. Adrien loved how full of life she always was.

“Cassiopeia was Andromeda’s mother, and incredibly arrogant and vain. This led to her downfall when she made Poseidon become irate, and the only solution for it was to sacrifice her own daughter, which was later saved by Perseus. Poseidon still thought that Cassiopeia deserved to be punished so he turned her into a constellation.” He explained.

“Wow, Chat! How do you even know that?” Ladybug looked at him and Adrien could feel her breath on his chin.

“I love astronomy. Feels like it was ages ago since the last time I looked at the stars though.” He stated simply as an image of a green-eyed blonde woman appeared in his head.

“It’s so sad that her daughter almost paid for her arrogance…” He heard her voice quivering with emotion. Adrien turned his head toward his lady. Their lips were so incredibly close to each other, it would be so easy to capture them with his own. But he would never do that. He would never take that step, not without her permission.

Ladybug looked stunning lying on that rooftop. The moonlight gave her this ethereal shine and accentuated the blue highlights of her hair. Her cerulean eyes were piercing his soul, they were so close to each other that he could discern all the different blue tones in them. He could count all the freckles adorning her face, and he swore he saw a subtle red hue spreading on her cheeks. He had stopped breathing. Adrien could no longer feel the chill of the night, only the heat radiating from her skin and breath which ironically made his hair stand on end.

Adrien needed to break their eye contact, or else he didn’t think he would survive, he needed to start breathing again anytime soon, right? Her eyes, however, had trapped him in a hypnotic spell which Adrien was certain he couldn’t escape from, and also, he didn’t want to end this moment so soon.

His heart constricted as he was the first one to look away. He knew he shouldn’t get his hopes up. Ladybug liked another boy, and he should respect that.  But the way she was looking at him, could it be? Could she possibly care for him as more than a friend? She was a puzzle in his life, one he couldn’t solve no matter how hard he tried. He shook his head trying to get rid of these thoughts. His Lady wasn’t really his, she liked another boy. Besides, he was already dating Kagami. And Marinette? Marinette was a whole other mystery for him. Wait, why did he suddenly start to think of Marinette? Plagg was right, love was way too complicated.

[silvia7272]

3 ~ First Meetings Aren’t Normal Part 2

Well, here's another one folks. Also, I might struggle with original Akuma motives, designs and powers, feel free to suggest ideas to me. Also, if you have any character drawing requests for me please tell me and I may consider it if I have time. This is probably my longest chapter yet. And I really hope you like my OC’s. If there's any other type of information you want, I’ll try to provide it.

Word Count: 4266

Tags: @queenmj10​ @fangirl39​

***

“Marinette are you ok? You look slightly pale” Sabine mentioned but Marinette just ignored it.

“What is she doing here?” Confused by her daughter's random outburst, blinked.

“Rosina had wished to speak with you about something, and she seemed so friendly, so I offered her some new types of macarons. She is such a sweetheart” Sabine pinched her cheeks lightly while Rosina blushed from embarrassment.

“I’m sorry for seeming to barge into your home Marinette, but my Aunt wanted me to talk to you.” The bluenette stared at her. No way was she a fighter, without a Miraculous there's no way they could fight any enemy, Akuma or not. She hoped she wouldn’t intervene in any of the battles. With Chat as he was, she didn’t want someone else to goof off.

“Ok, Maman I’m going upstairs, we err have some… Stuff to sort out” Her Maman looked so happy at the news.

“Oh, I’m so happy you’ve made a friend you can truly trust Marinette.”

“Huh? But I thought-” Marinette grabbed her collar before dragging her off.

“Ahh wait. Thanks, Mrs Sabine, I love the macaroons I’ll be sure to take some to gooooooo~” Sabine giggled before taking care of the next customer who just came in at that moment.

‘Master Fū why didn’t you tell what to do?’

***

“Wow, your room is so cool, there are so many materials around here. -Gasp- you have cotton, ah, so soft to the touch” She continued to ramble on about anything within her room. But Marinette still wasn’t pleased.

“What exactly are you doing here?” Rosina paused, turning around with a confused look.

“Complimenting your room?” She answered hesitantly.

“No not that I mean here in Paris. Why are you and your Aunt here?” She questioned further.

“Didn’t Aunty tell you? Aw man, long explanations really aren’t my thing” Crossing her arms and looking in deep thought, a realisation came to Marinette.

“You know my identity, don’t you?” She knew already just wanted to clarify before her next statement.

“Y-Yeah, so-” She was interrupted.

“Are you going to try and become Ladybug? Are you and your Aunt going to take the Miraculous?” Rosina widened her eyes.

“No of course not, I would never even think of that”

“Then why are you here?” Marinette really didn’t trust this girl. Was she lying?

“W-Well Aunty said we’re here to assist the young heroes of Paris. And err yeah that’s it, Hehehe”

She was lying. She was so hiding something Marinette was determined to get to the bottom of it.

“Look if you're trying to get on my good side you can forget it. You won’t trick me like-” She stopped mid-sentence; she really didn’t want to think of that.

“I promise I’m not lying. Aunty researched everything, Mr Wáng once saved Aunty before so this is us repaying him, so that may help, right?” Marinette still narrowed her eyes at her.

“Then why now, this has been happening for a year now, why not before?” She flinched at her words, as if she were on the blink of finding the truth.

“We were… Preoccupied with other events” She looked down appearing to be nervous.

“Really? If you’re just going to lie to me forget it, I don’t need another Lila around me”

“Huh so you know she’s lying too, was that why you didn’t hang out with the class at lunch?” She paused.

Rosina knew Lila was lying?

“How did you-”

“She said she knew Mandarin but didn’t know what dă shì qīn, mà shì ài was, of course, she’s not multicultural, I doubt she’s even Italian, I mean I know Aunty researched the class but she wouldn’t miss something like that” The girl nodded her head in thought while Marinette stood there.

‘She knew? She knows she’s really lying. Can I really trust her?’ She thought until she spoke some words that seemed vaguely familiar.

“I’ll stand by you as well” No, nonono not those words, anything but those words. Please not like he said.

“S-Shut up. Stop lying to me”

“But I’m not-” Rosina tried to explain herself but to no avail.

“Get out of here, I never want to see you again”

Boom

“Akuma Alert!! Akuma Alert!!”

“I have to go”

Before the redhead could respond Marinette had already gone up to the balcony when the red Kwami came out.

“Marinette that was rude of you. She was only trying to help. I may not like Mrs Franchezca but that doesn’t mean Rosina is like her. And what if she had been Akumatized? Or even you, Marinette? You need to apologize afterwards” She fretted at the thought, she had just been tired of being backstabbed by the people she thought cared about her.

But maybe she wasn’t like them.

“Yeah Tikki. I’ll apologise and hopefully, I’ll hear her out. But for now…”

“Tikki! Spots On!”

***

“Well, M’Lady looks like our fates have crossed again.” Chat Noir was seen racing across the rooftops when he was following where the Akuma was going to be.

Ladybug was swinging her Yo-Yo after him, even if the previous events were still on her mind, she couldn’t let them distract her.

“Not now kitty, I have to finish this as soon as possible” The cat in question tilted his head in confusion.

“Aww M’Lady I can’t be that bad, can I? What's your reason for this quick evacuation?”

“Chat, please. I don’t want to talk about it” Naturally Chat wanted to pry, secrets shouldn’t be kept between both of them. He had told her time and again that if she trusted him there shouldn’t be anything he wouldn’t know.

As he was about to snoop, the sight in front, stopped him.

Someone was running along the rooftops!

With a fencing sword no less.

They nodded before rushing towards them. This wasn’t the first time one of the Parisians had tried to help out with an Akuma.

Kagami sure can prove to be a pain in the butt with the number of times she got caught up in the mess.

And don’t get them started on Alya.

They were just about to reach them… When suddenly.

She leapt off the building.

“H-Hey! What are you crazy!?” Ladybug leapt to catch them as Chat Noir continued to run along the buildings, his Lady could take care of that, until they turned around and whispered.

“Marinette” Her eyes widened; it was Rosina. How had she gotten here so fast, and how did she get a fencing sword, they don’t have a Miraculous?

She didn’t catch instead swinging away, before Chat could intervene a light surrounding her sword appeared and turned.

“What the!?” He exclaimed before it died down.

She was safely on the floor but with something moving around her finger.

“Hello, you two. Please inform me of the current plan” Her smile was bright but that didn’t matter to the 2 heroes. They noticed the thing on the girl's finger, but they needed one answer at a time.

“Who are you? And what are you doing here you could’ve got hurt!” She had to pretend she didn’t know her; she didn’t want Chat accusing her of more as well.

But before that happened there was a crash as more people ran away. The thing following the girl whirled around her before turning into a… Gravelling hook.

“Crisono Tassa is my name, I hope you’ll all take note of me” She winked before going off into battle using her newfound object, with Ladybug fuming ever so slightly.

“I knew she was going to come here, damnit, she can’t do anything without a Miraculous” Chat heard her, and he couldn’t keep his anger.

“What? You knew who she was and lied about it. M’Lady, that’s not fair, don’t you trust me?”

“Chat!? I do but first we-” He interrupted.

“You shouldn’t have lied to me how can I trust you if you won’t tell me everything, it's bad enough you deny my affections!” He pouted, waiting for his Lady to apologise like always.

“But I told you, I don’t love you Chat, you’re my frie-”

“But I want to be more than that! You just don’t see how we're meant to be, just because you can’t see it yet” He was annoyed, irritated even.

“Fine, it doesn’t matter because obviously, if you really don’t trust me, I’m leaving. You don’t need me anyway.”

“Chat? … Wait Chat!” Using his baton, he scurried off.

“No, wait!” Ladybug panicked, would she go after him to get some support or put the people first? She knew what she had to do and begrudgingly without her feline, went off to fight the Akuma alone.

But she wasn’t really alone.

***

Arriving on the battlefield held, an unexpected view.

The girl, Rosina, was battling the Akuma, and rather efficiently too.

“Wow, she’s actually handling herself out there. Maybe I was wrong” She looked on in amazement, this was the first time someone without a Miraculous or Akuma was fighting fiercely, dodging expertly…

Until she saw the Akuma, a giant being who grew after every minute, was about to swipe her feet from under her.

“I knew it was too good to be true” She was about to interfere, until…

That bright light again!? What was happening?

She was being protected, like Carapaces’ Shelter, except it was just a large square, with a circuit board design?

With the Akuma distracted she jumped onto its arm. She successfully dodged all attacks made by its other arm and raced up its arm looking around.

“She’s looking for the Akuma.” She realised before looking herself. In her Ladybug vision, she finally noticed it.

“Ros- I mean Crisono it’s the handkerchief look” Luckily the redhead acknowledged the Heroine's words and jumped into the air, making a bee-line for the object.

She caught it in her sword.

“She did it, she really did it.” She sooooooo owed Rosina an apology but that was incredible. No wonder Fū and Tikki knew they could handle themselves. The guy was back to normal as she gave the handkerchief to Ladybug.

But before she could congratulate the girl, a familiar reporter, and a reluctant brunette, beat her to it.

“Wow that was incredible, are you going to be a new permanent hero? Which Miraculous do you have, what's your name and where did you come from? Are you a new hero Ladybug came to get? Could you spare a few moments of your time to give me an interview?” The young reporter didn’t let the poor girl get a chance to speak before she put a finger to her lips.

“Please no more questions Alya, but I can say a few words to you. My name is Crisono Tassa and I don’t have a Miraculous.” The brunette gasped in surprise; how did she know her name? And how did she fight without a Miraculous?

“Ladybug and I may work separately, I’m not sure about what will happen in the future, but I guarantee to help out whenever, I wish to become a number to each and everyone here. So, I bid you adieu Alya, Lila.” It appeared she flew off, amazing the Parisians enough with a round of applause but with both girls confused about being a number.

What did that mean?

“No more evil-doing for you little Akuma” Her usual De-Evilising routine continues before she overhears her ex-best friends’ conversation.

“Wow, a new permanent hero, and she knows my name? My blog is going to get so many hits.” Alya exclaims gleefully.

“Well, of course, it was meant to be a secret but Crisono and I know each other personally. And I told her all about you and your blog. I can help get you an interview if you want?” The girl with glasses squeals with delight and hugs her.

“Oh, Lila you’re the best” Normally the bluenette girl would be irritated with what Lila said but it was somewhat true. She threw up her lucky charm, having to do it before using the Miraculous Ladybug.

What came down confused her. It was a DS.

“What!? What does this have to-?” She looked over it.

It had a game over screen, with the main menu, restart and quit button there. In the background, there was a redhead. She was still so confused. What was she meant to do, surely the battle had already finished what did she have to figure out? But then she saw it.

Restart

Restart

Restart

It had flashed along with the background character.

She knew what she had to do; it was clear to her.

‘Rosina, please don’t go too far’

“Miraculous Ladybug” She yelled, repairing everything in her path.

“Oh Ladybug, can you spare just a few for me please?” She couldn’t stop the smile spreading.

“Sorry, I gotta go I’m about to Detransform. Bugout” She Yo-Yoed away leaving the reporter denied of having two interviews that day.

***

‘C’mon c’mon where is she? I only have a few minutes left’ Running along the houses to search for the redhead was like finding a needle in a haystack.

“Wait I see her. Crisono wait!” She shouted and luckily for her she turned to look at the Heroine.

“Ladybug?” Her mask was off, but something felt different. She wasn’t smiling.

“I’m sorry, I’m really really sorry. You really can fight that was amazing. I- Are you ok?” Rosina was still looking down. Her arms hugging her tightly.

“I was lying to you Ladybug. We’re weren’t really here for Akuma’s, that was just extra, and I know I need to tell you, but Aunty said not to tell anyone yet. I feel as if I’ve betrayed you.” Solemn her gaze continued to the ground.

But Marinette wasn’t concerned with that, if she continued to feel bad then an Akuma would come.

“Wait, don’t feel bad. It doesn’t matter, your secrets are yours you don’t have to tell me until you want to. It doesn’t matter ok, just please stop being sad you’ll attract an Akuma?” Rosina widened her eyes, she had almost forgotten.

“Ahhh, I’m so sorry I forgot. Aw man, Auntie’s gonna kill me” Ladybug was able to laugh, so much had happened it was good to let it out.

Until she heard that familiar beeping sound.

And to make matters worse.

“Ladybug? Where are you? We need to talk”

‘Oh no, if he comes now, he’ll see me as Marinette. I’m doomed, I’m going to lose my Miraculous’ Ladybug panicked, while Rosina looked deep in thought.

“Ladybug I can help but you have to trust me.” A serious expression donned her face, surprising Ladybug.

“Huh? How?” Rosina touched something on her cloak.

“There's no time to explain, please” She extended her hand out to her.

‘Trust me’ She spoke with no words needed.

“Ok I trust you” she grabbed it.

“Priselio” She barely heard her before she had to shield her eyes.

And just as Chat peered into the alleyway…

There wasn’t anything there.

***

Ladybug had her eyes closed; she still didn’t have any idea what was going on.

“Hey, Marinette. You can open your eyes; this part is my favourite.” She hesitantly opened one eye. But her other one opened soon after.

In front of her, would be an experience she would never forget.

“Where are we?” Around her seemed to be a galaxy of some sorts. They were in a tunnel with stars surrounding them in a seemingly endless array of space.

“When we get there, I will explain more. Or at least try to” She wanted to ask further, but it looked like she was concentrating so she didn’t want to interrupt.

She looked at her hands, or rather her costume in fact. Shouldn’t she be De-Transformed by now?

“This place has no concept of time, it’s as if it doesn’t exist. That’s why you won’t De-Transform here unless you choose to. When we go back the amount of time you should’ve spent here would’ve passed… At least that’s what Aunty tells me” She assumed she saw her confused face and answered her question.

Marinette could feel a change in the air, and it seemed like Rosina noticed it as well. Soon it appeared they had arrived with Ladybug astonished at the view. It looked like a forest, but the sky was green, and the grass was blue. The trees were purple and the river running through was pink.

“Wow, this place would give me loads of inspiration for my drawings” Her eyes bored into everything she could see.

“Yeah, I still remember my first time seeing this place. Its where we train and battle against the Revenant”

“Revenant? What's that?” They sat crossed-legged towards each other. Tikki was there to hear it for herself after Rosina told her it would be best.

“It's like our version of an Akuma or Amok. There are these Trinkets that are spread around the country that I have to collect before they either awaken or worse crack”

“It doesn’t ring a bell for me. Do you have a picture of what one looks like?” Tikki questioned. Maybe it went by a different name?

“Well, actually it's all of this. Plus, this Trinket I have on my cloak, don’t worry I err purified it? Is that the correct word?” She muttered the last part before continuing.

“It is like an Akuma if I have to be honest, except when you touch it, you get transported into its world. I should take you one day. There are more things to fight though so Akuma’s are by far easier, at least if they’re like anything by today's standards.” Marinette shook her head quickly.

“But they shouldn’t be underestimated. You must always be vigilant whenever you go into a Revenant, one wrong move and you’re done. I doubt Aunty would ever let me tell Chat”

“What!? But Chat Noir is my partner, he could help us with this!”

“No! I mean, sorry for raising my voice but he wasn’t there today, why should I rely on him?” Her voice wasn’t accusatory, more confused and wanting to understand.

“But he… We”

“I understand that you two are partners Marinette, but I can only trust you today. And by what he’s shown me I doubt I could ever trust him by his immaturity.” She nodded to herself, a habit the girl was accustomed to.

“You’re, right” She lowered her head causing Rosina to worry.

“But hey that isn’t to say he isn’t a bad guy anyway; I don’t even know him” She was rambling now. Someone stop her.

“But… He is immature, and always thinks it's like a game to him. I’m always the one who has to carry the responsibility. He doesn’t realise how much I have to figure a plan out or it will all come tumbling down. He doesn’t comprehend the burden I carry if I might screw up one day. And with everything that’s been going on, I just don’t know how I’m going to handle it anymore” Rosina stopped. Mainly because she saw the tears rolling down the poor girl’s face.

“Marinette you’ll attract an Akuma please don’t be sad” Tikki commented, she hated seeing her cry.

“She won’t Tikki. Nothing from Paris could ever come here, I’ve tried it. We’re blocked out from there. And besides, I think it’s good if Marinette lets it all out. Never being able to express your emotions could make her have a breakdown in the future.”

She could cry and not have to worry about being Akumatized?

“R-Really?”

“Yeah of course, please Marinette it's not healthy for you to be like this. You need to let it-” She was stopped when arms flew around her neck. The poor girl was crying heavily in her arms. The redhead couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, had she really been holding all of this back. Whoever Hawkmoth is would get a serious beating when she finds out.

Tikki felt guilt rising in her at the sight of her holder. The inconvenience of being Ladybug and living in Paris meant never being able to be a normal teenaged girl. She too let out some tears and hugged the girl.

Rosina could only try and soothe her with gentle pats and a song.

***

Night had fallen.

The girls didn’t notice how long they had sat, talked, cried and laughed in that world before returning to the girl’s home.

Marinette was worried her Parents had checked up on her, but it appeared that hadn’t been the case.

“Thanks, Rosina, I really needed that, more than I thought I would.” She scratched her head before blushing. It felt like she had made an embarrassment of herself on the first day of meeting her. Rosina seemingly noticing waved her off.

“It's no sweat Marinette, I couldn’t imagine never being able to cry for a whole year. I always stub my toe on something.” Both girls giggled again before the silence settled. Marinette scratched her head again.

“Hey so err, are we- we can- I mean can we be friends?” She was hopeful, but she also knew she shouldn’t be too hopeful.

But Rosina’s cheerful smile cleared her doubt away.

“You really want to be friends with me? Wow, this is such an honour. I would love nothing more than for you to be my first friend Marinette”

“First?” Rosina slightly grimaced.

“Because Aunty and I travel to different countries, I’ve never really been able to have any friends. I had to either study or train because of the, you know what. But I would love to be your friend Marinette” She grabbed her hand in glee.

“Now my first friend what activity do we do first? Painting nails? Popcorn and movies? -Gasps- Can we have sleepovers?” Marinette had to cover her mouth to stop the further questions that tried to fly out her mouth.

“I think it's getting late now and we’ve gotta go to school tomorrow, but we can do whatever you want tomorrow if you want. Unless if, you know what happens” She was the only one to laugh at that as Rosina looked on with a sheepish smile.

“Yeah, of course, you’re right. It's just that, the place we went. It needs to recharge and err that was where I live”

“So that means-” Marinette felt guilt ridding in her.

“I don’t have anywhere to stay” Rubbing her head she prepared for the voice of concern come out of her friend’s mouth.

“WHAT!?” That voice of concern didn’t come from Marinette. It came from the little hatch that entered the girl's room.

“Maman? Papa? What are you doing up here?” Without meaning to they ignored the daughter's wails of embarrassment to turn to the new guest.

“Oh, you sweet poor girl, where are your Parents? They shouldn’t leave you all alone in Paris, if you were attacked by an Akuma who knows what would happen?” She slightly winced but she knew they were just concerned.

“It's alright really. My Aunt just has a lot on her plate at the moment, she just accidentally took the key to our apartment. I know she didn’t mean to” Wow, if Marinette didn’t know the truth she would’ve brought that lie, she was good. Not like Lila because hers were actually convincing.

“But still, oh I know, you can please stay with us. You’ve been so kind and helpful towards Marinette it would be so nice for her to have a proper friend.” Marinette couldn’t believe her Mother’s words. She was so kind to even a stranger, it was commendable.

“Oh no I couldn’t possibly do that, Sir, Mlle that offer is so kind, but I’ll be fine”

“Nonsense, a friend of Marinette’s, is a friend of mine. I’ll just get some blankets for you” Tom, Rosina had to guess was Marinette’s Father, proclaimed and walked down the stairs while she shuffled from spot to spot.

“But I- you’re not going to let me deny are you?”

“No honey, now I’m sure Marinette has some spare pyjamas for you, you two look roughly the same size, now you two get changed and go to bed, I don’t want you both being late in the morning” She mainly aimed that at Marinette leaving her giggling.

“I’ll try not to Maman and thank you.”

“Yes, thank you, Mlle Sabine, I will help in the bakery whenever I can for allowing me to stay here.”

“Oh, sweetie you don’t have to. Although it would be nice to have some new company” She teased before walking down the stairs.

“So, err what just happened?” Confused they sat on the sofa Marinette had, the day's events exhausting the two.

“I think you just got adopted into my family” She answered honestly. It had never happened before, she was still in a state of shock.

“…Neato”

***

There was much talk the next day at Dupont. Since they had all followed Alya’s blog plus Nadja’s official announcement on the topic, it had the whole of Paris talking.

‘Just who was she?’ That had been on everyone's mind.

However, that hadn’t been the most shocking thing that had happened.

When Rosina, the one they wanted to get to know after her compliment introduction, had walked with someone besides her. Laughing and chatting as if they had been long-time best friends.

It was Marinette, she had somehow tricked her to be her friend!

Crisono was the least of their worries at what they saw next.

Their arms were linked together.

***

Well, that’s it, I hope you’ve enjoyed their meeting, and I hope I’ve kept everyone as much in character as I can. Do you think I should add some more information for Rosina, or should I just state it in later chapters? Do you like the OC’s or do you dislike this idea? Also, I made a drawing of what Rosina would look like as Crisono. I hope you enjoy.

Also, can anyone guess what the meaning of Crisono Tassa is?

What should my next chapter be? Chloé becoming friends or meeting Piper or something completely different?

[ronninoir]

Can I Steal You for a Second? CH10

Summary: Adrien is forced to participate in a new dating show, but becomes more excited when Ladybug says she’ll participate as her civilian self.

AKA: AU where Adrien doesn’t know Marinette, the superheroes are 22 and Gabriel is mean and ruthless but not Hawkmoth.

Read on AO3

Start from the beginning Chp 1 on AO3

Chapter 10

Chat Noir had barely set foot on the rooftop when Ladybug burst out with, “Okay, what is wrong with you?”

He blanched a little at her forwardness. “Ummm, hello to you too.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever. What’s bothering you?”

“How do you know anything could be bothering me, I just got here.” He tried to make his tone light but the stress he had been feeling since the Rose Ceremony peeked through in his response.

“Because, at the Rose Ceremony, you...” Ladybug paused, as if searching for the words. She was moving her hands in this adorable way, like she was able to grab the word she was looking for out of the air and pull it into her sentence. Finally, she said with a huff, “You were acting odd. Like something serious was bothering you. More distant than you had been at the cocktail party.”

Chat inwardly cursed himself. He thought that his model smile and a solemn voice would have been enough to convince everyone, his father, the producers, and the girls, that everything was okay. He should have expected that Ladybug would have known better.

“I’m sorry.” He said, having a seat on the edge of the rooftop. “I found out some frustrating news right before we started filming and I tried my best to hide it.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Ladybug, now seated next to him, asked as she placed her hand on his knee. “Anything you tell me won’t leave this rooftop, I promise.”

Chat paused, wishing he could talk to Plagg about this. Plagg had known the whole time and he had also gotten a glance at the “Top 10 List” whereas Adrien had not. The only problem was, since Chat was transformed, Plagg was currently inside the suit. Chat would have to detransform in order to talk to him. Even though he knew that Ladybug knew that Chat was Adrien, it was still a weird thing to consider doing. In the end, Chat decided that the moral support (if that’s what you could call an annoying cat who liked to tease Adrien) that Plagg could provide would be nice right now.

“Claws in.” Adrien felt the rush of magic and faintly saw the green light glow from him as he reached his hand out to catch Plagg in his descent.

“You rang?” Plagg asked in a lazy drawl, glancing up towards Adrien. Adrien couldn’t help but roll his eyes at his kwami’s extra-ness.

“Yes, you lazy cat. Just listen to my side of the story, and feel free to correct it or add on.” Adrien then made eye contact with Ladybug whose expression grew worried the longer Adrien looked at her. Plagg, the flirty kitty that he was, jumped up when he saw Ladybug and flew to her side. That, at least, made her smile faintly as she let him land in her palm. She began scratching him, almost absentmindedly, but her eyes rested on Adrien.

“For this to make sense, let me explain something. Before the Rose Ceremony, they pull me to a room in the house and force me to sort through which girls are staying and which are leaving on a big poster board. I was there on Saturday night after the akuma, and I was sorting the girls based on the dates and what I had learned about each girl this past week.” Ladybug was nodding slightly, giving Adrien the impression that she understood what he was saying, so he continued.

“I had decided that” Adrien hesitated ever so slightly, suddenly terrified that Ladybug could be Camille, or even one of her friends, “one girl should go home. A producer came up and told me that I wasn’t allowed to do that.” Adrien gulped, the frustration and anger he felt last night rushing back to him. “Apparently my father has a ‘Top 10 List’ of girls that are allowed to continue on the show.”

Ladybug let out a little gasp. “Have you seen the list?”

“No, but Plagg has.”

Both pairs of eyes fell on the black cat. He gave a small sigh before agreeing. “Yes, I’ve seen the list. But before you ask, I don’t think it’s a good idea for either of you to know who’s on it.” He crossed his arms and gave a little “hmph” like that was the last of the conversation.

Ladybug, however, didn’t think so. “Does Gabriel have a winner picked out or is it just like a list of names and any of these girls could win and it would be okay?”

“It’s almost set-up like a bracket,” was all Plagg said in response. Adrien didn’t fully understand what that meant and was glad to see that Ladybug was as equally confused. Plagg gave a shake of his head before explaining more. “In sports, a bracket allows two teams to be paired up continuously until there is one winner. The way your Pops has it set up is where he chooses which girls will be eliminated and which girls will move on each week. In the end, he only has one left.”

“And you’re not going to tell me who the ‘Chosen One’ of Gabriel’s is?” Ladybug asked. She didn’t look particularly bothered by all of this. All of her questions were curiosity based it seemed rather than out of anger, like his were.

“Nope. Not a chance.”

“Am I on it?” Adrien almost jumped. How could Plagg possibly know who Ladybug is! It’s not like the list had “Ladybug” listed as one of the contestants.

“If you are who I think you are, yes, you just don’t want to know where you place.”

Adrien felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his head. “Wait, you think you know who she is?!”

Ladybug shot him a smile that he knew meant trouble. “What? You don’t know yet? Don’t even have an inkling?” Her voice was filled with fake-sweetness, and Adrien was thinking of something snappy to say in return when Plagg beat him to it.

“Oh, he doesn’t have an actual clue. Whereas I thought it was obvious.” Plagg was snickering and Ladybug let out a giggle as well. It was so cute he almost forgot to be upset. Almost.

“I’m just taking my time. I want to make sure I’m right before I make any guesses.” That only caused the two to laugh a little harder. Adrien rolled his eyes and decided to change the topic.

“Doesn’t it bother you though? That my father is making these decisions, not me?”

That sobered the two up very quickly. Ladybug was the first to speak. “Oh, Kitty, you don’t know how mad that makes me.”

“Well you didn’t seem mad,” he mumbled, even though he knew it made him sound about 8-years-old.

Ladybug, however, just gave a soft smile and reached to rest her hand gently on Adrien’s. “I’m broken-hearted for you and frustrated at this whole problem you’ve been presented and most of all, I’m upset that you’re upset about all of this. The only difference is, I’m not mad at you.” Her hand moved affectionately towards his cheek and rested there. It took everything in him to not melt into the touch. “You aren’t to blame here, so why would I get angry here? Gabriel, however, better be worried. The next time I see him, he’s getting a yo-yo to the face.”

At that, Adrien laughed. His heart fell a little bit more for Ladybug after her speech. He felt lighter, somehow, now that someone else understood his problem. She slowly removed her hand from his cheek, and as soon as it was gone, he craved her touch, almost like it was something that he needed to survive.

“All right, Chaton, enough slacking. We have a city to patrol.” She handed Plagg back to Adrien and he could have sworn there was a slight groan coming from the creature. Clearly, Adrien wasn’t the only one not wanting to leave Ladybug’s touch. He gave a small smile and called for his transformation.

                    ----------------------------------------------------

Ladybug was so distracted by what Adrien had told her, that she almost forgot to deliver Alya’s letter to her. She quickly swung by her house, slipped the letter into the mailbox, and sped off into the night. A few minutes later, she landed gracefully on the balcony to her room of the mansion and stepped inside as she detransformed. She collapsed on the bed, Tikki right next to her, and just stared at the ceiling.

“I can’t believe his father would do something like that to him.” Marinette started, letting some of the anger she felt come through for the first time. She didn’t want to worry Adrien, but she was pissed that Gabriel was so controlling and cold-hearted to do this to his own son. “He has to control every aspect of Adrien’s life leading up to this and he gives Adrien the illusion of decision-making when in reality, Gabriel is holding his strings, like he is this toy instead of his son.”

“You’re not wrong, Marinette,” Tikki started but Marinette wasn’t listening.

“Adrien is an adult. An actual adult who can live on his own and pay taxes and buy alcohol to drown his father out, yet he decides to be the good son who stays and follows his father’s dream for his life. And how does Gabriel repay him? By forcing him to participate in this insane advertising campaign and choosing a fiancée for him without giving him a word in edgewise.”

“Marinette, I hear you,” Tikki’s tone was growing more urgent as she flew into Marinette’s line of sight. “But soon, so will the rest of the house. Please, can you try to be angry quieter?”

At her words, Marinette deflated slightly. She hadn’t even realized that she had been borderline shouting. Thankfully, there were only two other girls on this floor, since Mathilde was sent home. Marinette began to wonder if Mathilde had been on that list. Surely not if she was sent home, but the thought made Marinette wonder who was Gabriel’s favorite and why. It was those thoughts that followed her as she drifted off to sleep.

When she woke up the next morning, she was tired. Running around Paris as Ladybug was just exhausting, especially when you had to wake up semi-early in order to have a new date card delivered. She rolled out of bed and somehow ended up with her teeth and hair brushed and presentable clothes on as she stumbled down the stairs towards the kitchen and the caffeine.

She was greeted by an overly-excited-and-morning-person Hanna and a much calmer Juliette who was carrying two steaming mugs. Once Hanna had released Marinette from a hug, Juliette offered her the second mug, which smelled deliciously of coffee.

“Juliette, will you marry me?” Marinette asked sleepily as she smelled the mug, which was definitely filled with coffee.

Both Hanna and Juliette laughed as they led Marinette to the kitchen. One of the girls had woken up earlier and made pancakes for the house, and the two girls led Marinette towards the sustenance and sugar. Hanna and Juliette, who was slowly waking up, began chatting about the new date card and what the date could possibly be while Marinette ate. She let her eyes wander around the room and she suddenly saw all of the girls in a different light.

It’s obvious that Gabriel would choose a suitor for Adrien that would greatly benefit the company. When looking at the girls, some still wiping sleep out of their eyes while others are applying their 4th layer of make-up, it was like Marinette was looking at them through a colored lens. Suddenly, they were statistics, connections, and girls who would complement Adrien on the red carpet. It suddenly made sense why a lot of these girls were here. A handful were models, like Lila and Sasha, some had connections to other fashion empires, like Lucie and Zoe, and yet others were just from prominent families that had a lot of money, like Kagami and Juliette (although Juliette did NOT act as snobby as some did, like Lila).

Marinette was so wrapped up in discovering who Gabriel’s number one choice could possibly be, when she realized she was being pulled into the living area to wait for the date card by Juliette. She had enough sense to grab her coffee before following and taking a seat. The producers were asking questions about how everyone felt about last week and what they were feeling about this week. They called out all of the girls who didn’t get dates and asked them how they felt going into a new date week. The whole thing felt like a forced discussion group in school, except that instead of getting a grade, she was getting more “air time.”

Finally, a knock came at the door. Constance was the one who popped up and grabbed the door first. She came in and stood before the other girls, the thick cardstock note in her hand and a sense of pride on her face. “I got a date card, ladies!” She announced to a squeal from the group. Marinette just sipped her coffee.

“Kagami,” The quiet girl was sitting by herself and didn’t seem to acknowledge that her name was called at all.

“Juliette,” who gave a little gasp next to Marinette when her name was called. Both Hanna and Marinette gave Juliette a little side-hug before Constance called the next girl.

“Lily.”

“Constance,” she gave a little dance when she said her own name, like she hadn’t seen it coming.

“Sofia.”

“Pauline.”

“Sasha.”

“Let’s get to the point.” As soon as the line was read, chatter broke out across the group. The producers had to pull the group together and ask a couple more questions, but Marinette didn’t care. She only spoke when she was asked a direct question, wanting to stay out of the orchestrated drama, and tried very hard to not get upset. Just because you weren’t on the first date, doesn’t mean that you won’t get a date at all.

Tikki said almost the exact same thing to Marinette once she was back in her room.

“I know I know, but still. I’m freaking Ladybug. I should get preferential treatment when it comes to dates.”

“But, Marinette. No one knows you’re Ladybug. Not even Adrien. How can you get preferential treatment if no one knows who you are?”

“Ugggg I hate it when you’re right.” Marinette dramatically flopped onto the bed, making Tikki giggle. “What am I supposed to do until tomorrow afternoon when the next date card comes?”

“Make friends,” was all Marinette needed to hear.

                    ----------------------------------------------------

Ripping out a piece of her sketchpad, she jotted down every girl who was still in the competition. She was determined that this week, she would spend time with the different girls and follow Tikki’s advice. But, she was going to analyze the girls like Gabriel would, because Marinette wanted to know who was on the “Top 10 List” even if Plagg wouldn’t tell her. She figured that if she gathered enough information, she would accurately be able to predict who was going home this week. Then, she could propose her list to Plagg on Sunday and see what he thought.

Tikki was just happy Marinette was leaving her bedroom again.

She decided to start with the girls who were going on the date tomorrow, since she wouldn’t have tomorrow to talk to them. Marinette curled hair, practiced make-up techniques (and got some practiced on her), painted nails, cooked food, and basically became the social butterfly she was in high school. By the end of the day, she was helping the girls leaving to organize outfits and pick out accessories with her artist eye.

Thankfully, Marinette didn’t have to carry on much of a conversation. Once she got the girls talking about themselves, she was able to shut up and just listen. And of course, take notes.

By lunch on Wednesday, Marinette had a lot of information to sift through. It was becoming easier to guess who Gabriel had picked to be his Top 10, and Marinette was beginning to doubt that she was one at all. Lucie seemed to be the most promising for Gabriel’s favorite. Her aunt owns a sizable fashion company that was popular in the U.S. The ties that she provided to the fashion industry would be huge for Gabriel.

 After Marinette finished eating with the girls, they were all brought into the “Date Card Room” as the girls had begun calling it. Hanna was the only one absent, as she was currently on her one-on-one with Adrien. (To say Hanna was excited when she found out yesterday would have been an understatement). Sasha was the one to grab the date card from the door, and Marinette’s stomach was twisted into knots. If she wasn’t on this date card, she wouldn’t get to see Adrien until Saturday night, and that would just be way too long to go without those dazzling green eyes in her life.

“All right girls, I got the date card!” Sasha sang as she came into the room. Marinette felt like Sasha was taking extra-long to open the card. Marinette could feel her heart beating and was slightly terrified that everyone around her could as well. Thankfully, Juliette was sitting next to Marinette and she was squeezing Marinette’s hand reassuringly. Surely, she would say something if Marinette’s heartbeat was distracting.

“Camille,” Sasha began and Marinette stilled, not wanting to miss a name. Everyone faded out of focus except for Sasha and the date card in her hand.

 “Ines.”

“Alicia.”

“Marinette.” She let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Juliette gave her a squeeze and Marinette couldn’t wipe the smile off of her face. She was just so relieved that she would get to see Adrien tomorrow.

In her excitement, Marinette missed the next few names, but tuned in to hear the last one. Sasha made a big deal out of pausing before reading, “Lila.” Marinette’s heart sank and she was not looking forward to having to spend quality time with Lila. At all.

“Let’s strike up our relationship,” Sasha read off before setting the date card down on the table.

Marinette gave the three girls not going on a date hugs and some encouraging words before dashing off with Juliette to pick out something to wear and riddle out the date card.

“He seems to like puns,” Juliette was saying as Marinette picked up an outfit and held it against her. “No, not that one, you want something dressier but also casual.”

Marinette picked up a daisy yellow and white polka dotted sundress and held it up while she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. It’s insane that all of the girls thought his puns were endearing. Marinette just couldn’t get over how annoying they were. Rarely were they legitimately funny, but most of the time, she found it more distracting than charming.

“I think it may have something to do with bowling or playing something, based on the pun.” Marinette thought aloud.

Juliette made a noise of agreement as she studied the dress Marinette held up. “That’s a good thought. All of these dates seem connected to Adrien’s life in some way. Like ours. We went on a fencing date because Adrien was a champion fencer while in high school and college.” Juliette was still a little bitter that Kagami had gotten the group date rose. Kagami’s family is known for their fencing and Kagami herself has been fencing since she was little and has the trophies to prove it. She completely wiped the floor with the other girls and Juliette was nursing some sore muscles and a sour heart because of it.

“Oooh, I like it. But I feel like darker colors are more your style.” Juliette said eventually, referring to the dress Marinette still held. She turned and began flipping through Marinette’s closet, clearly looking for something that would fit the vision she had in her mind. She pulled out one dress and tossed it towards Marinette with a, “This is for the evening portion,” before diving back in. The scene was so familiar, she could have sworn that she was actually sitting inside of her room above the bakery, chatting with Alya about various things as Alya filed through her closet looking for an outfit for Marinette to wear. She had almost forgotten what it had felt like to have friends like this, just being in the house with so many girls. Marinette had been focusing on learning more about the girls, she forgot to just relax and enjoy the friendships themselves.

“OMG, Marinette, you just HAVE to wear this tomorrow!” Juliette’s voice snapped Marinette out of her remembering as she pulled an off the shoulder black shirt out of the back of the closet. Marinette had hidden it because it was something she had made herself and she was strictly supposed to wear Gabriel fashions while on the show. She had packed it on impulse because it was one of her favorite designs and she thought it would be good inspiration in case she ever had trouble with a creative block while she was here. When she pointed this out to Juliette, she waved it away.

“Just wear a pair of Gabriel jeans and shoes. No one will even notice, I promise.”

Marinette was hesitant. She knew from some of Chat’s stories that Gabriel could be ruthless when it came to certain things. If someone asked, she could easily say it was one of Gabriel’s from a while back, one that wasn’t seen anymore. The only person who would know was Gabriel, and how much would he pay attention to her outfit specifically?

Marinette half-heartedly agreed and was carried away by Juliette to brainstorm ideas for hair and possible date places with the other girls.

~

~

~

So excited to see what all y’all think for the next chapter, we are finally getting into the meat of the story!! Stay tuned! 

Let me know if you wanna be added to the tag list

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@discoveringmiraculouswriters​

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[angelofthequeers]

Hold Me By Both Hands: Chapter 32

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

Basically just my way of covering episodes I didn’t want to write but also wanted to establish XD

Chapter 31 | Chapter 33 | AO3 link

[9:23 pm] Chat Noir has joined miraculass.

Chat Noir: heh

Chat Noir: nice chat name

Chat Noir: didn’t know you had it in you foxy

Rena Rouge: i’ll actually ban you

Chat Noir: :(

Chat Noir: say sike rn

Rena Rouge: don’t test me

[9:28 pm] Carapace has joined miraculass.

Rena Rouge: hey shellhead

Carapace: would’ve thought we’d be more mature

Carapace: yk since we’re superheroes n all

Rena Rouge: hey

Rena Rouge: if i didn’t do it

Rena Rouge: chat would’ve

Chat Noir: you wound me

**Chat Noir: **but you’re right

**Chat Noir: **just don’t tell lb or she’ll have my arse

Rena Rouge: you know she can just scroll up when she joins right

Chat Noir: FUCK

[9:52 pm] Ladybug_ _has joined miraculass.

Ladybug: very mature, whoever named the chat

Rena Rouge: skdhfsojsaljfs;dlsa;ldjwjkhdfladybug

Rena Rouge: sorry autocorrect

Carapace: a likely excuse

Rena Rouge: it was chat

Chat Noir: le what

**Chat Noir: **i've been framed

Chat Noir: scroll up lb

Ladybug: both Chat and Rena are banned

Rena Rouge: >:|

Chat Noir: noooooo

Carapace: is it too late to give back the miraculous?

**Rena Rouge: **hey

Chat Noir: :(

Ladybug: yes, it is

Ladybug: you can’t leave me with the furries

Chat Noir: i’m not a furry :|

Rena Rouge: i resemble that remark

Carapace: you kinda r dude

Carapace: you literally run around in a black leather catsuit

Chat Noir: you come into my house

[9:59 pm] Carapace set Chat Noir’s name to furry noir.

furry noir: >:|

Rena Rouge: PFFT

[10:00 pm] Carapace set Rena Rouge’s name to what does the fox say.

furry noir: PFFT

what does the fox say: JFC

what does the fox say: i will find you

**what does the fox say: **and i will shove my flute

Ladybug: PERFECT

**furry noir: **i think you mean

Ladybug: don’t you dare

furry noir: purrfect

Ladybug: >:|

furry noir: 0:)

what does the fox say: oh come on now i can’t even finish my threat

what does the fox say: just wait till i name you shellhead

[10:01 pm] Carapace set their name to mess w turt u get hurt.

what does the fox say: istg

furry noir: bro

furry noir: i think i love you

mess w turt u get hurt: ew no

mess w turt u get hurt: ladybug save me from the furry

Ladybug: I’ll tell on you

furry noir: lol

furry noir: you think you scare me

Ladybug: no

Ladybug: but you-know-who does

furry noir: D:

what does the fox say: !!!!!

what does the fox say: wHO

Ladybug: inside joke

Ladybug: nvm

what does the fox say: :(

furry noir: omg

furry noir: ladybug you’re bi right

Ladybug: uh, yeah

what does the fox say: we had that freebie convo remember

mess w turt u get hurt: wait what

[10:04 pm] furry noir set Ladybug’s name to ladyBIrd.

ladyBIrd: I swear to god

ladyBIrd: thanks, now my kwami won’t stop laughing

furry noir: :)

ladyBIrd: this is so unfair

ladyBIrd: she’s supposed to be on my side

furry noir: at least yours sides w you sometimes

what does the fox say: and i thought trixx could be a little shit

mess w turt u get hurt: man i’m glad wayzz is chill

furry noir: :(

ladyBIrd: nope, I can’t do this

ladyBIrd: I can’t handle that name popping up every time I get a notification

[10:07 pm] ladyBIrd set furry noir’s name to catitude.

catitude: :D

what does the fox say: k cool i’ll keep this ancient relic name

ladyBIrd: only from like 2013, it’s not that old

mess w turt u get hurt: man i feel old when i remember those days

what does the fox say: stfu

what does the fox say: you named me you don’t get to regret

chat noir: don’t regretti the spaghetti

[10:20 pm]

catitude: guys?

[10:32 pm]

catitude: i see how it is

[10:35 pm] direct messages

Ladybug: hey

Ladybug: you know we’re not actually mad at your joke, right?

Chat Noir: yeah ik

Chat Noir: i’ll get yelled at if you’re actually mad

Ladybug: :(

Ladybug: no, you won’t

Ladybug: just a stern talking-to

Ladybug: unless you sacrifice yourself for me or something

Chat Noir: oof

Chat Noir: you’re still mad bout zombizou?

Ladybug: and Dark Cupid

Ladybug: and Timebreaker

Ladybug: I mean, I know I’m the only one who can purify akumas

Ladybug: but jfc

Chat Noir: sorry

Chat Noir: i just

Chat Noir: it’s not like i’m trying to play the hero yk?

Chat Noir: it’s just like

Chat Noir: i don’t want to get zombified or dusted or whatevs

Chat Noir: and it’s not like chivalry or whatever protect the lady bullshit

Chat Noir: i just know that you’re the only one who can fix everything

Chat Noir: and you’ll bring me back

Ladybug: yeah but

Ladybug: it doesn’t make watching you get killed or brainwashed any easier

Ladybug: and I can’t exactly see a therapist or something

Ladybug: because secret identities and all that

Chat Noir: :(

Chat Noir: i wanna say i promise not to throw myself in front of you

Chat Noir: but i can’t promise that

Ladybug: I know

Ladybug: I just

Ladybug: I can’t talk to anyone about it

Ladybug: except for you

Ladybug: and one of these days, everything’s going to get to me

Ladybug: and I’m just going to explode

Ladybug: fuck, I’m only 15

Chat Noir: oof

Chat Noir: same

Chat Noir: about the age thing

Chat Noir: and about the can’t tell anyone else thing

Chat Noir: my father’s kind of a dick so

Ladybug: :(

Chat Noir: but all i want is his approval

Chat Noir: like fuck do i have to scrape out my soul and turn myself into a robot to make him happy

Chat Noir: sorry

Chat Noir: didn’t mean to explode

Ladybug: don’t apologise

Ladybug: seriously

Ladybug: we’re in this together

Chat Noir: <3

Ladybug: <3

Chat Noir: why milady are you flirting with me

Chat Noir: whatever would marinette say

Ladybug: buzz off

Chat Noir: wrong miraculous :)

Ladybug: I’ll ask Rena to ban you

Chat Noir: actually

Chat Noir: should we ask her to give us mod power instead of her

Chat Noir: yk cause we’re the ogs

Ladybug: well, I don’t think Rena would abuse her power

Ladybug: and she is the tech whiz out of us

Ladybug: maybe just get her to give us mod power too

Chat Noir: tru tru

Chat Noir: i should go to bed

Chat Noir: but like

Chat Noir: i get to talk to you

Chat Noir: whenever I want

Ladybug: <3

Ladybug: go to bed, kitty

Ladybug: you can talk to me whenever you want, so I’ll still be here when you wake up

Chat Noir: k

Chat Noir: night bugaboo <3

Ladybug: night, kitty <3

[9:02 am] miraculass

ladyBIrd: oh, by the way

ladyBIrd: rules

ladyBIrd: don’t say anything that could give identities away

catitude: duh

ladyBIrd: and don’t abuse pings

what does the fox say: omg thank god

what does the fox say: i legit left a chat cause someone kept @ing us

what does the fox say: all the time

mess w turt u get hurt: so like only for emerg?

ladyBIrd: yep

ladyBIrd: or if you really need to get our attention

catitude: btw rena

catitude: knight us

what does the fox say: wut

ladyBIrd: he means

ladyBIrd: please give me and Chat mod powers

what does the fox say: k

what does the fox say: can i still be mod

ladyBIrd: sure, you’re the one who knows how to work this

what does the fox say: fuck yeah

mess w turt u get hurt: hello darkness my old friend

what does the fox say: suck it shellhead >:)

mess w turt u get hurt: you wanna go furry?

ladyBIrd: thank god it’s Saturday

ladyBIrd: I’m still in bed

what does the fox say: lmfao

what does the fox say: sounds like my bff

what does the fox say: she’s always late

ladyBIrd: >:|

catitude: i know who you’re talking about

catitude: and may i just say

catitude: bitch

what does the fox say: <3

mess w turt u get hurt: cool

mess w turt u get hurt: not like i’m here or anythin

ladyBIrd: I hope you’re nicer to your best friend than Rena is to hers

what does the fox say: hey

mess w turt u get hurt: fuckin duh

catitude: :)

mess w turt u get hurt: :)?

catitude: ¯_(ツ)_/¯

what does the fox say: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

ladyBIrd: Donkey!

what does the fox say: jkasdosdcpdskcsklandkjehfu

mess w turt u get hurt: omg

catitude: marry me milady

ladyBIrd: ew, no thanks

catitude: :(

catitude: how could this happen to me

catitude: i made my mistakes

what does the fox say: can i just say

what does the fox say: being in a gc with lb and cn

what does the fox say: is the only thing i’ve wanted from life

mess w turt u get hurt: i thought you said you had a bf

what does the fox say: eh

what does the fox say: he’ll get over it

mess w turt u get hurt: i mean

mess w turt u get hurt: tbf my gf would live thru me if she knew

what does the fox say: i love the sound of her

mess w turt u get hurt: !!!!!

mess w turt u get hurt: wait till i tell her what a superhero said

mess w turt u get hurt: rip to her

catitude: is this the sound of getting along i hear? :D

what does the fox say: hell no

mess w turt u get hurt: hell no

what does the fox say: scuse me mr copycat

catitude: that brings back memories

mess w turt u get hurt: uh obvs i was typing before you

what does the fox say: think you need to get your eyes checked shellhead

ladyBIrd: ANYWAY

ladyBIrd: you know you can’t tell her about this, right?

mess w turt u get hurt: :|

mess w turt u get hurt: ugh forgot

mess w turt u get hurt: anyway rena you’re annoying but you’re ok

what does the fox say: yea you’re mildly tolerable too

catitude: aww :D

what does the fox say: stfu

[10:35 am] miraculass

ladyBIrd: @everyone akuma

what does the fox say: no shit really

mess w turt u get hurt: guess max wasn’t lying bout markov having feelings :/

catitude: i’m just about to transform

catitude: cu on the flipside

ladyBIrd: same

what does the fox say: can we help

ladyBIrd: yes please

ladyBIrd: I’ve never seen a non-human akuma before

what does the fox say: i’m surprised chloe even tried to help

what does the fox say: like told ms m that she was being ridiculous

what does the fox say: then went after marinette to mr d’s office to help get markov back

mess w turt u get hurt: maybe she’s really changing

mess w turt u get hurt: ugh my gf keeps texting someone but she still noticed me trying to get away

what does the fox say: rip

what does the fox say: my bf is trying to ditch me

what does the fox say: i mean k i need to get away to transform

what does the fox say: but he’s being sus

what does the fox say: nvm i ducked into bathroom

what does the fox say: let him keep his secrets

mess w turt u get hurt: just got away from gf gonna turn now

what does the fox say: same with bf

ladyBIrd: just hurry and transform before Mendeleiev falls

ladyBIrd: also this is killing me

what does the fox say: ????

ladyBIrd: nvm

ladyBIrd: inside joke

what does the fox say: >:|

[12:03 pm] miraculass

ladyBIrd: good job, guys

mess w turt u get hurt: poor max

what does the fox say: i’m glad he turned markov back on

catitude: same

catitude: but uh

catitude: we’re gonna be late back to class if we don’t hurry

what does the fox say: SHIT

[6:48 pm] miraculass

ladyBIrd: so

ladyBIrd: interesting fact

what does the fox say: ?????

ladyBIrd: we talked to the guy who gave our Miraculouses

ladyBIrd: he said that HM wants them because the Ladybug and Black Cat combined lets you make a wish

catitude: like

catitude: any wish

catitude: whatev you want

mess w turt u get hurt: shit

what does the fox say: ugh so he’s after ultimate power

what does the fox say: typical

what does the fox say: can’t even be an interesting villain

mess w turt u get hurt: but like

mess w turt u get hurt: why don’t we use them and wish

ladyBIrd: yeah, I asked that

ladyBIrd: wishing has a price

what does the fox say: duh

mess w turt u get hurt: i’m gonna choose to ignore you bc serious business

catitude: yeah so if hawkass like wishes to bring someone back to life or something

catitude: someone else just as important gets dusted

ladyBIrd: equal exchange

ladyBIrd: and the universe shifts to accommodate that change

mess w turt u get hurt: oof

what does the fox say: shit

ladyBIrd: yeah

ladyBIrd: cause Chat and I are balance and all

ladyBIrd: hence why ours have that power

what does the fox say: but he’ll never get them

what does the fox say: cause like

what does the fox say: he’s not even a good bad guy

mess w turt u get hurt: rena has a point

mess w turt u get hurt: just same shit over again

what does the fox say: he never like makes an akuma to track miracs

what does the fox say: or make a stealth akuma to follow and see you turn back

mess w turt u get hurt: yeah he just makes weird akumas n prays they win

catitude: f for hawkmoth’s intelligence

ladyBIrd: let us be thankful he’s not that competent

[1:19 pm] miraculass

what does the fox say: oh btw

what does the fox say: happy 1 month anniv of this chat

catitude: you called?

what does the fox say: -_-

mess w turt u get hurt: shit has it been a month

ladyBIrd: and a month since you joined the team, Carapace!

mess w turt u get hurt: !!!!

mess w turt u get hurt: didn’t even realise

ladyBIrd: you and Rena were excellent choices

catitude: yeah you guys are pawsome heroes

what does the fox say: lasjddksfjsalkdsalfhjdksjsdladybugthankmarryme

what does the fox say: also stfu chat

catitude: :(

catitude: no one loves this poor cat

ladyBIrd: mhm

catitude: :(

mess w turt u get hurt: i’m here for u bro

catitude: bro

mess w turt u get hurt: bro

what does the fox say: welp

what does the fox say: f for shellhead’s gf

mess w turt u get hurt: hey you’d do lb so f for your bf

what does the fox say: i mean

catitude: called tf out lol

what does the fox say: banned

catitude: can’t

catitude: i’m irresistpawble

ladyBIrd: i’m telling on you

catitude: mmm whatcha say :(

what does the fox say: k srsly who is this person

ladyBIrd: nvm

what does the fox say: fine

what does the fox say: keep your secrets

[11:19 am] miraculass

ladyBIrd: SHITSHITSHITSHIT

ladyBIrd: ADRIEN NO

what does the fox say: chloe’s mum??? srsly???

ladyBIrd: @catitude where are you???

ladyBIrd: @catitude @catitude @catitude @catitude @catitude

ladyBIrd: I CAN’T TAKE ON STYLE QUEEN MYSELF

what does the fox say: lb

what does the fox say: hold on

[11:22 am] direct messages

Rena Rouge: hey

Rena Rouge: lb

Rena Rouge: maybe he’s not here yet

Ladybug: or maybe he got glittered!

Rena Rouge: well you don’t have to take on sq yourself

Rena Rouge: i’m here

Rena Rouge: so is carapace

Ladybug: nope

Ladybug: he got glittered too

Rena Rouge: oof

Rena Rouge: huh what are the chances of all 4 of us being here

Ladybug: i gotta transform

Ladybug: i thought chloe was doing better

Ladybug: she tried to help Marinette with Markov last week

Ladybug: but she’s sucking up to Style Queen

Rena Rouge: she could be playing sq

Rena Rouge: she’s got a boner for you remember

Ladybug: ew, no

Ladybug: just

Ladybug: transform

Rena Rouge: k

Rena Rouge: she’s gonna pay for hitting nino

Rena Rouge: and chat

Rena Rouge: and shellhead i guess

[12:04 pm] direct messages

Rena Rouge: WAS THAT CHAT’S KWAMI

Ladybug: yep

Ladybug: Plagg

Ladybug: don’t worry, first time meeting him for me too

Rena Rouge: i can’t believe he just

Rena Rouge: STAY AWAY FROM THE LADYBUG

Rena Rouge: that was adorable

Rena Rouge: and then i got glittered

Rena Rouge: still salty i missed the mass cataclysm

Ladybug: well, you were right about Chloe

Rena Rouge: yeah

Rena Rouge: getting glittered to save us from sq

Ladybug: I kind of feel sorry for her

Ladybug: realising that your mother won’t love you and doesn’t think you’re exceptional

Ladybug: it’s not an excuse but

Ladybug: I did talk to her a few months ago and she said it was like a switch being flipped

Rena Rouge: maybe u could talk to her again then

Rena Rouge: like

Rena Rouge: we don’t owe her anything

Rena Rouge: but if she stops being a bitch then our lives are better

Ladybug: true

Ladybug: she got Marinette to help her be better, you know

Rena Rouge: ew

Rena Rouge: why would mari do that after all the bullying

Ladybug: probably to make her life and everyone else’s lives easier

Rena Rouge: true

Ladybug: OH SHIT

Rena Rouge: um???

Rena Rouge: why does chloe have the bee??? and calling herself queen bee???

Ladybug: I DROPPED IT

Ladybug: I couldn’t think of anyone on such short notice but my Lucky Charm said so

Ladybug: I was gonna become Ladybee

Rena Rouge: wait you can use two???

Ladybug: yeah but it can be too much to handle

Ladybug: we needed to immobilise Style Queen

Ladybug: and I freaking DROPPED IT

Ladybug: I’m DEAD

Rena Rouge: well

**Rena Rouge: **that was a heck of a mental breakdown

Ladybug: I have to go after Chloe but my family won’t let me out of their sight :|

Rena Rouge: i’ll go

Rena Rouge: wait

Rena Rouge: where exactly are you??

Ladybug: secret identities >:|

Rena Rouge: right sorry

Rena Rouge: i just

Rena Rouge: force of habit

Rena Rouge: not that i ever would’ve exposed you

Ladybug: I know

Ladybug: I trust you

Rena Rouge: lsdkfpsdjcjsahfdsfjhnfdkjlkofkgimgay

Ladybug: Rena

Rena Rouge: right going

[1:37 pm] miraculass

mess w turt u get hurt: um

mess w turt u get hurt: so

mess w turt u get hurt: that happened

what does the fox say: fuckin chloe

ladyBIrd: I’m not judging her

ladyBIrd: like, her mother’s totally awful

ladyBIrd: but jfc I kind of wish I’d gotten another punch in

what does the fox say: still no excuse

catitude: yeah but the way her mum fucked her up on live tv

catitude: i kinda feel bad for her

ladyBIrd: at least she gave the Miraculous back

what does the fox say: fuckin hawkdick

what does the fox say: i could be helping my bff make a life changing choice

what does the fox say: but no i had to bust my arse on another akuma

mess w turt u get hurt: ugh why doesn’t hawkdick have a timer like us

ladyBIrd: because he’s an adult

ladyBIrd: apparently, adults don’t have the limits we do

mess w turt u get hurt: gdi

catitude: looks like no bee for now then

ladyBIrd: btw, Plagg told me details about all the anime you watch

catitude: FUCK

what does the fox say: EXPOSED

[crazyrandomfucker]

Marichat May Day 25: Blep

Summary:

After being hit by the magic of an akuma, Marin is turned into a kid. However, he didin't turn back into a teenager after the Mirculous Cure was used, So Kitty Noire decides to take him away with Master Fu with his parents permission until he's able to turn back into his old body.

-------------------

Just like usual, Hawk Moth sent an akuma in the worst time possible for Adrienne. She was simply having some fun with Marin in what she wanted to think as a date (even if they were only buying Nina a gift), she clearly didn't want to get annoyed by that fluttery villain who didn't know how to keep his nonsense to himself and preyed on other's negative emotions. Unwillingly, she had to left Marin and went to the nearest toilets to transform. Once transformed and outside the bathrooms, she went to look for the akuma, but the akuma found her first and used some sort of ray to hit her with. She breaced herself to prepare for the impact and whatever it'd be the result of the akuma's powers, but it never came, because Marin had throwedhimself in front of her to save her and now was lying on the floor with smoke coming from his now burned chest accompanied by the foul smell of burnt clothes.

Furious, Kitty Noire launched herself into attack and stroke the akuma with her baton again and again, not leaving any room for the akuma to defend themselves nor to attack. Minutes later, while Kitty was still attacking furiously the akuma, Ladybug landed on the site and analyzed what was happenning. She was surprised when she saw Kitty raging at the akuma, but when she turned she was astonished to see a little version of Marin with overgrown clothes that had a huge burnt hole on the shirt. She invoked her Lucky Charm to end it fast and calm Kitty Noire a bit, hich she both maaged to in less than a minute since the akuma was too busy defending to noticw what was happening in the surroundings. Once the akuma was defeated, Ladybug caled for the Miraculous Cure and the magical ladybugs flew all over Paris fixing all the damage caused by the akuma.

But something went amiss. Eventhought his clothes were repaired, Marin still had the body and possibly the mind of a three years old by the look of it. Both heroines were surprised to say the least. It was the first time that the Miraculous Cure didn't completely undo the damage caused by an akuma and they honestly didn't know what to do about it. Since Kitty Noire hadn't used her cataclysm and LAdybug was about to detransform in about three minutes, Kitty ushed Ladybug out of the scene promising that she'd take care of Marin and ask Master Fu and his siblings about what to do. Reluctantly, Ladybug accepted when she had just a minute before detransforming and swang away.

"Good Lord, what am I going to do now?" asks Kitty frustrated as she looked at little Marin. "Hey there Marin, do you remember who am I?"

"You agge a zupahegoine gight?" asks Marin with his eyes gleaming. "I saw you fighting that bad guy with the ged lady!"

"Yes, I am. My nem is Kitty Noire and that red lady is called Ladybug" say Kitty smiling as she's internally conflicted internally by Marin's cuteness and his lack of memories. "Hey, want me to tell you a secret?"

"Yesh! I won't tell anyone! I pwomise!" says Marin excited.

"The secret is that you're a grown up boy, but you helped me fight the bad guy and were transformed into a kid. Do you remember that?" asks Kitty patiently.

"I don't thin sho. I jusht gemembeh that I woke up and I wash in theshe big clothesh an and my maman washn't here, but I shaw you fighting that bad guy and and and like you agge incwedible!" says Marin gesturing happily with his little hands.

"You think I'm incredible? Awww, thank you Marin. You're a very good kid, aren't you?" says Kitty Noire hugging him as she loses her will to resist the cuteness. "Talking about it.. We should get you to your parents and explain them what happened".

"I can guide you! We live in a bakeggy and it zmelsh incwedible!" says Marin.

"Is that so? I've been to your house before but it was time ago and I don't remember it" says Kitty taking Marin's little hands. "Hey, do you want me to carry you home? We'd go over the roofs as if we were flying".

"Yesh! I want to!" says Marin ecstasic.

"Well then, grab yourself tightly to me, because Air Noire is going to take off!" says Kitty grabbing Marin.

"You could tie theshe big clothes like ropesh around you! It would be eashier for you to caggy me" says Marin looking his clothes fall all over the place.

"What a smart boy you are!" says Kitty Noire surprised as she teis everything around her. "I'll tie the shoes to my tail then, we wouldn't want you to have no shoes when you go back to beig a grown-up boy, would we?"

"Will I be a zmart boy when I gow up?" asks Marin.

"One of the smartest I know. Even if you're sometimes a bit reckless like when you saved me before" says Kitty booping Marins nose as she jumps. "But I liked that you were so worried about a friend like me".

"I am fwiendz with a gil sho pwetty?" asks Marin surprised.

"You think I'm pretty?" asks Kitty amazed and blushing. "You're a good boy for complementing girls so much. And yes, we are good friends".

"You have ged cheekz" says Marin and Kitty blushes more.

"It's because you're such a cute boy and because you keep saying so many good things to me, I can't help but to be happy about it" says Kitty landing in front of the Dupain-Chengs bakery. "Look where we are already!"

"It'sh the bakeggy! exclaims Marin happily.

"Yes it is. Now, let's go inside and talk a bit with papa and maman, okay?" asks Kitty.

"And Magginette?" asks Marin.

"And Marinette too" says Kitty smiling as she enters the bakery and salutes Tom. "Hello Mr. Dupain. I think there are a couple of things we have to talk about in private. You should probably close the bakery for a bit because... we have a little problem".

"Kitty Noire? Is that... I'll go call Sabine, you can wait upstairs in the living room" says Tom with a somewhat serious somewhat worried face.

"I'll be upstairs with Marin then" says Kitty letting Marin into the ground. "Come on Marin, why don't you show me the way?"

"Leave it to me!" says Marin excited and then he turns to his father. "Look papa! I'm fwiendsh with the pwetty lady!"

Kitty blushes a bit and Tom laughs. "It looks like it son, be sure to good to her okay? She's a very pretty lady after all" says Tom smiling fondly.

"I will! Come on Kitty! Letsh go upztairsh!" says Marin already in motion.

Kitty goes upstairs silent out of embarrassement, but she crashes into someone after just getting into the living room. "Ouch!" says Marinette in the floor.

"Magginette?" asks Marin confused. "Ish that you?"

"Marin? Oh gosh! Ladybug wasn't kidding!" says Marinette surprised.

"I don't know what she told you, but she wasn't" says Kitty getting up.

"It's so strange that the cure failed. I wonder if he's the only one affected like this..." says Marinette.

"We can't know for sure. By the way, I already contacted his friend Adrienne to let her know" says Kitty making a cover for herself.

"Who ish Adwienne?" asks Marin curious. "Ish she alsho my fwiend?"

"She's a very precious friend, just like Kitty is" explains Marinette. "You usually like to make clothes and she loves wearing those".

"She is also a very famous girl because she wears pretty clothes" says Kitty Noire.

"I'm sure that's not how one would describe the job of a model" says Marinette giggling.

"Of course is not, but it's still a pretty good resume" says Kitty smiling. "It's like saying that I'm a cat lady who fights crime".

"You agge a cat?" asks Marin confused.

"Yeah, I can meow, I can scratch and most importantly... I can blep!" says Kitty Noire and bleps, making Marin and Marinette laugh.

"You look adorable Kitty" says Marinette laughing.

"Well thank you Princess, I always appreciate a compliment or two from you" says Kitty with a playful wink.

"Ish ziz a pwinzesh?" asks Marin.

"Of course she is! She's a very pretty princess, don't you think?" asks Kitty.

"Ziz is pwetty!" decalres Marin.

"Yes she is. And since you're also a very handsome boy, you're Prince Charming" says Kitty happily.

"Now, now, Kitty. Remembaer that she's just a kid for now" says Marinette giggling.

"I don't think she's wrong thought" says Sabine appearing behind Marinette. "My little boy is a very handsome man, isn't he?"

"Hello Ms. Cheng" says Kitty.

"Please, call me Sabine. It'd feel wrong if the saviour of Paris calls me like that" says Sabine.

"Call me Tom as well. Mr. Dupain is my father and he's definitely not as funny as I am" says Tom coming from downstairs.

"I will" says Kitty Noire with a smile. Then, she puts on a more serious and somewhat sad face. "Now, there are some thing we have to talk about".

"Would you like some tea? It would help you hydrating yourself after fighting an akuma and bring our son here" says Sabine.

"Thank you Sabine, but I wouldn't want to trouble you anymore" says Kitty refusing politely.

"It's no trouble at all. Just think of it as a little gesture of gratefullness for one of our heroines and for saving our childrens so many times" says Sabine.

"I will take some then" says Kitty.

"Can I have shome too?" asks Marin.

"Of course you can sweetheart" says Sabine smiling fondly, but a hint of melancholy can be seen on her eyes.

"I'll prepare the tea mom, I think you should better talk with Kitty since I'm sure she has some important things to tell us" says Marinette going into the kitchen.

"Thanks honeybuns, you're a big help" says Sabine.

"So, what do you ant to tell us" asks Tom trying not to let his worry manifest on his voice.

"Okay. First things first. I'd like to apollogize for the situation Marin is in, since he jumped in front of me and took a hit for me" says Kitty serious as she bows down her head. "I'm sorry that I couldn't protect Marin".

"Kitty, it's okay. We can't blame you for something Marin decided" says Tom.

"I'm sure our boy did it for a reason, so don't blame yourself for that" adds Sabine.

"Thanks" says Kitty trying to hold back her tears. She gulps down and calms down a bit. "Okay, now. We don't exactly know what to do, since this is the first time the Cure didn't work perfectly. There could also be some other victims like him, but we don't know for now".

"I was quite surprised when I saw Marin like that" says Tom concerned. "To think that something like this happened".

"Ladybug and I were also very surprised. She even wanted to stay and take care of the whole ordeal, but she was about to detransform so I forced her to go and took over myself" informs Kitty. "Not everything is bad thought. There is someone with more experience about the miraculous that can probably help us with this".

"Well, that's something good to hear" says Sabine relieved. "I imagine you'll have to take him by youself, but is there anything we can do to help?"

"There is, thank you for asking" says Kitty Noire. "I'd need your permission to take him to the Guardian, the person I spoke of. Also, won't you have some smaller clothes for him?"

"I can help with that! I was just practicing some kid clothing andI even have some shoes" says Marinette as she brings five cups of tea.

"Thank you honey" says Tom as he takes a cup of tea an sips a bit.

"That would be a lot of help, thank you Mari" says Kitty.

"Hey, it's nothing. It's you who's going out of your way to help Marin" says Marinette.

"The tea ish good!" says Marin sipping from his plastic cup.

"I'm happy you like it" says Marinette smiling gently.

"Now then. I understand that you have to take Marin away" says Tom. "And that you probably don't know for how long this will be, but..."

"Could you at least take him here from time to time? We'll worry quite a lot since he's back to being two years old" says Sabine.

"Wait, two years old? By his looks and speech I thought that he was three" says Kitty surprised.

"He has always looked a bit older than he is, and both of our childs began to speak quite soon" explains Tom.

"I didn't expect that" says Kitty surprised, then she shakes her head and foucs. "About your petition, if things came to worst and the Guardian had to look for a cure or a method to turn him back, I myself will be periodically bringing him from here to the Guardian's home. I can't do any less for the one who protected me".

"It's a relief to hear that" says Sabine.

"And Kitty, you could eat lunch and dinner with us since you'll be spending more time hereanyway" proposes Tom.

"I appreciate the offer but... My family would suspect me if I spent my meals away without informing them" says Kitty. "So I'll have to refuse".

"It's okay, we understand that secret identities must remain secret even for your family" says Sabine. "Still, we wouldn't mind you coming from time to time to have a meal with us".

"I'll make sure to remember that offer" says Kitty. "Now, if you don't mind, I need to step out for a bit to check if the Guardian is at his home".

"I'll go to look for the clothes in the meantime then" says Marinette.

"Do whatever you must, I think we can still take care of our little boy" says Tom.

"Becaushe I am a good boy" says Marin proudly.

"Yes you are sweety. You're a very well-behaved boy" says Sabine taking Marin into her arms.

Kitty Noire goes to the bathroom looking at her baton's screen, but a message from Ladybug suddely pops up on the screen. "This is Master Fu's number, he already knows you'll call him".

"Wow, M'Lady sure thinks of everything" says Kitty impressed as she calls to the phone number.

"Hello?" asks Master Fu picking up his phone.

"Master Fu! It's me, Kitty Noire" says Kitty. "There has been a problem ad I need to bring someone to you".

"It's okay Kitty, I believe this is what Ladybug told me about. You must bring our friend Marin as sson as possible. We'll have more chances to turn him back the less time passes since he was turned into a kid" explains Fu.

"I'll be going right now. Where do I have to go exactly?"says Kitty.

"I'll send you the adress. I hope I'll be able to help your friend" says Master Fu.

"Thank you Master" says Kitty as she hangs up. Seconds later, an adress appears on her baton. "Good, now I just have to take Marin to Master Fu and get him fixed".

She walks into the Dupain-Cheng living room determined, ready to inform Tom and Sabine that she should leave now with Marin to ensure a better chance of recovery, but instead, she melted when she saw Marin in a little sailor outfit. Marinette winked at her knowingly and MArin gleamed when he saw Kitty Noire again. Coincidentally, Tom and Sabine also brightened a bit when they saw her come, but as soon as they saw her melting for Marin's cuteness, their looks turned into something else. Kitty could swear that Sabine even looked at her smugly as if she was amused. Focusing again on hertask, Kitty cleared her voice and turned to face the adults.

"I've spoken with the Guardian just know and he told me to bring Marin as soon as possible. Apparently, he'll have a better chance of turning back the less time he spends transformed" informs Kitty with a faint blush.

"Then there's no time to lose!" says Marinette and gives Kitty a bag. "Here, Marin's clothes for when he turns back into a teenager".

"Thanks Marinette" says Kitty taking the ack and tying it to her tail.

"If this is succesful, be sure to come back and celebrate with us that nothing happened" says Tom smiling.

"Yes, you must come back. I'm sure Marin will want to thank you for your efforts" says Sabine with a sly smile.

"I- I will" says Kitty blushing as she takes Marin. "Come on Prince Charming, we're going to visit someone who may turn you back into a big boy".

"Okay" says Marin as he climbs into Kitty's arms. "Goodbye maman, goodby papa, goodbye ziz".

----------------------------

After leaving the house, Kitty Noire made sure to speak continuously with Marin to make sure that he was comfortableall the time. She made some faces here and there and blepped to make Marin laugh a bit. She took some time to find Master Fu's house since it was the first time she went to, but she hurried as much as possible. Once they were ther Master Fu welcomed them in and made Kitty wait behind a room divider in case Marin instantlt turned back into a big teenager boy and the tiny sailor suit didn't fit him at all. She spent worried what seemed to be an eternity, wondering if it would succed and about what would she do if he had to stay like that for the rest of his life.

Fortunately, when Master Fu came out of the room divider, he had a smile on his face and asked Kitty Noire for the spare clothes she had brought for him. When he came out, he was a teenager again and he was wearing his clothes paired with a radiant smile. Kitty Noir tackled-hugged him and cried him a river without letting him go, constantly telling how stupid he was for taking a hit meant for her. He laughed it off and hugged her back until she calmed down a bit. Meanwhile, Master Fu ahd long left the room with a knowing smile that he, Wayzz and Weiss shared. Coincidentally, Tom and Sabine had a similar smile on their faces when they saw Kitty Noire coming with Marin on her armes, carrying him in a ver bridestyle.

[leswansong]

Marichat May - Kitty Cats & Ballet Shoes

Day Twenty-Eight: Secrets

[ A03 ]

   Adrien walked briskly down the street to the pre-designated meeting point, his bartender finally found something about the Lightning bolt girl although he already knew that she was one of the many victims of Hawkmoth but any information was helpful, he still needed to track down the villain. His mask sat in his pocket just in case it was needed, he was growing used to carrying it around with him, Plagg called him silly for doing so but it made him feel safer, he was meeting more and more people apart of the dark world without the safety of the suit, he trusted some people but not all; public places were a good place to meet the first time around, the threat of drawing too much attention was a large enough of a deterrent to most.

   The bartender, Nino, he recalled had promised that meeting in the day time was going to be worth it, Adrien was weary but he trusted that the guy was telling the truth particularly because he was meeting Adrien in secret.

   He pushed against the glass door to the café, it was busy, extremely busy. He loosened his scarf from around his neck and joined the long queue that slowly moved towards the counter. He greeted the barista and ordered a green tea, he scanned the crowd around him as discreetly as possible to make sure he wasn’t being watched.

   “Chat Noir,” he greeted in a hushed voice, his green mask hid all of his defining facial structures but Adrien could still tell it was him.

   “We never established what your name was…”

   “Yes… That doesn’t matter, shall we get right to the point then?”

   He nodded and Nino pulled out a large manila folder from a bag that sat beside him, he slid it across the table for him to read. Cautiously he flipped through it but nothing stood out.

   “What is it?” he questioned.

   “My… Significant other is…” he struggled to find a word to describe her, “an amateur detective, she is the one that dug this up. I don’t know how useful it will be but since… Since Hawkmoth appeared, she hasn’t stopped looking.”

   “And this is everything she has found so far?”

   “Yeah,” he replied, “They aren’t the originals unfortunately, I wouldn’t dare hand over those in fear of my own life.”

   Adrien chuckled and continued to read through the pages, he could see the handwritten notes in the margins of printed out pages of web sites, he read one, it detailed a small theory the researcher had, he smiled at how enthusiastic she was about the topic, he suspected that he would get along quite well with her.

   “Anything else?” Adrien asked, the paperwork was going to take several hours to go through and he really wanted to start on it.

   “Yeah, the girl at the bar, she-“

   “Hasn’t been back?” he said cutting him off, Nino looked at him and nodded, “I know, she was looking for me, she was one of Hawkmoth's victims…”

   “Oh…”

   “Don’t sound disappointed, I still owe you something.”

   Nino nodded again and stood up, “I’ll give you more in a couple of weeks, Al-” he cut himself off, “My wife… she’s doing this for fun, maybe her research can help you and your mouse friend.”

   Adrien nodded and watched him leave before he returned to the five-inch-thick stack of paper he had just been handed, it felt like Christmas to him. He could tell already that the notes were incredibly well organised, Plagg shifted in his pocket to see what it was and the Kwami groaned when he realised it was only paper and not cheese.

   Papers sat scattered around him, he could barely move without running into more and it was a struggle to move them all aside before Natalie could read them. He didn’t know that she had known where his apartment was let alone what floor he was on. She stood awkwardly in the doorway to his living room as he cleaned.

   “Adrien, your father has asked that I-“ she started only for him to cut her off

   “Ask me to move back in. That’s a no Natalie.”

   “He has offered-“

   “Still a no,” he replied cutting her off again, “Is there anything else?”

   “He wants to know how you’ve been but if this is not a good time I can come back, you must be busy with… school work I assume, I will keep this a secret for you, your father won’t be happy…”

   He nodded and she turned to leave, he heard his front door and he collapsed to the floor, his father always wanted him to get his education but only in the fields he wanted him to study. It was frustrating at how much his father still thought he had control over him but Adrien was going to prove him wrong.

   Hours of pouring over the stack of paperwork he had been given had led him to this, Marinette had agreed to help him in his suspicions.

   Adrien looked at the small box he had found in that small safe all those months ago, the simple Ladybug design had been nothing at first but now… Now he wondered if he had found one of the most powerful Miraculous so long ago without even noticing it. He opened the box and stared down at the small round earrings, he sighed and then handed the box to Marinette, she looked at him and the box in confusion before hesitantly taking it from him. She slowly put them in and they waited, no ball of light, no sudden appearance of a red Kwami, nothing. It wasn’t the Miraculous he had been looking for and it was a relief.

   Adrien rubbed his eyes, he had awoken to a dark room and he didn’t know why, his eyes shot over to his bedroom window, he stared out it, it was somewhere in the early morning, he could tell by how quiet the streets were. His phone buzzed on the bedside table as a call came through, he groaned and rolled over to answer it.

   “Hello?” he asked, his eyes had caught the time and he wasn’t happy to be awake at four in the morning.

   “Chat… We- We… uh…” Marinette’s voice came through in a panic.

   His eyes drooped closed but he forced them back open, “Did you have a nightmare?”

   “No!” He jumped at the sudden loud volume, “It’s something else… Could you get over here, like right now.”

   He sighed, “Sure…” he replied sounding a little unsure and through a small yawn.

   She whispered a thank you and ended the call. He removed the phone from his ear and stared at the screen. It sounded important but he didn’t like how vague she had been. He stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes as thoughts about what she had been hinting towards swam around in his head before he got out of bed to make himself a cup of coffee to go. Plagg looked annoyed at the lights in the bedroom being turned on, the Kwami yawned and stretched before he settled back into his spot on the spare pillow, Adrien was tempted to wake Plagg but the Kwami could sleep for a few more minutes while he made himself somewhat presentable to the world.

   His eyes felt heavy, he didn’t like driving to the opposite side of Paris before the sun had peaked its head over the horizon neither did Plagg, not even the promise of cheese would get the Kwami to move so regretfully he called for his transformation, he didn’t like forcing his Kwami into it but sometimes he had to. Clutching his travel mug tightly in his hand he knocked on the small wooden trap door. It opened all most instantly and he was pulled into the warm room bellow.

   It took a second for him to get his bearings in the pink room, he looked at Marinette, she was pointing towards something, he looked to see what it was. Red, floating, large blue eyes, Kwami…

Made for @marichatmay

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[secretagentspydetectiveninja]

The Start Of Something New

So I hear there’s a serious lack of mlm content in this fandom? I’ll do my best to help fill the void... Here, have some ridiculously fluffy and cheesy Kimax, with so many High School Musical references that if you haven’t seen it then just don’t bother reading this

Also here on AO3

Kim often liked to listen to music while doing work. It either helped him concentrate by keeping his mind entertained enough to not get bored, or he could use it as an excuse to procrastinate while he picked out the perfect playlist. Music was good no matter what.

The library was fairly quiet, with only him and Max in here, but he decided to use headphones anyway. That would stop Max getting distracted, at least. They both had different tastes in music anyway.

Feeling in the mood for a surprise, Kim put his phone onto shuffle mode and sat back to listen. Huh… this was familiar. What was it? It sounded like something he hadn’t listened to in a long time.

Livin’ in my own world, didn’t understand…

Wait – he knew this! It was from High School Musical!

He had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself laughing. This movie! He used to be obsessed with it when he was little. He didn’t even realize the music was still on his phone!

That anything can happen, when you take a chance…

It didn’t surprise him that he still remembered every word off by heart. There was something so nostalgic about hearing this, like it made him feel like a little kid again. Memories of being glued to the TV, memorizing all the dialogue, all the dances, pretending to be the characters…

Oh yes, of course! He always pretended to be Troy. Heck, he lived it. Troy Bolton was the entire reason Kim got into basketball in the first place, something he still enjoyed playing. And when he was younger, he used to fantasize about going to high school and being the basketball star, meeting a beautiful mystery girl who was good at maths, singing with her, falling in love…

Real life was nothing like that, of course. He wasn’t in lycée quite yet but he knew it wasn’t going to be anything like a cheesy musical. And when he had ended up having a crush on Chloé a while ago, he knew she was not the mystery girl he had always been dreaming about. Chloé was not remotely nerdy, or anything like Gabriella Montez whatsoever. If anything, Chloé was more of a Sharpay. A Sharpay who went and broke his heart.

Well, never mind. Maybe Kim’s nerdy mystery girl was still out there somewhere. Maybe he really would have to wait for lycée after all.

And I know that something has changed, never felt this way, and right here tonight…

It took a lot of restraint to not start singing along out loud. The High School Musical soundtrack was so good! How had he ever forgotten about it? How had he not gone back and listened to it after all these years?

Looking back down at his homework, it all looked like a confusing muddle to him. He just wasn’t in the mood for work right now. Glancing across the table, he saw that Max was concentrating hard on his own work. How did he do that? He was so smart, it was unbelievable. Even after all this time Kim found it hard to believe that someone as smart and awesome as Max was somehow best friends with an idiot like him.

This could be the start of something new, it feels so right to be here with you…

Yeah, Chloé couldn’t be the nerdy mystery girl, there was no way. For starters, it never felt “right” to be around her. She was cute, sure, and did seem to treat Kim a tiny bit better than she treated most other people. But he just felt nervous around her. Asking her out had been one of the most nerve-wracking things he had ever done in his life. Being akumatized straight afterwards had not helped matters.

Was this nerdy mystery girl someone else that Kim knew? There were plenty of people he felt “right” around. And maybe he shouldn’t limit it to just girls. After all, he was 100% certain his first crush had been on Troy Bolton himself, of all people.

What about Marinette? Well, she was awesome, but she wasn’t nerdy. And anyway, Kim had already thought about her before and come to the conclusion that he preferred having her as a friend. Hmm, what other people felt “right”? He had plenty of friends. But none of them were nerdy enough to fit. Adrien was a great friend, and probably more of a Troy Bolton than he was… Juleka and Rose counted as friends, but he was fairly sure there was something going on between them… hanging out with Alix was kind of fun sometimes, though he didn’t like to admit it…

None of his classmates were nerdy! None of them were his Gabriella! Why couldn’t there be someone in the class who liked maths, who would win a scholastic decathlon with no effort, who actually liked doing homework and–

“AchOO!”

Max had sneezed.

“Bless you,” Kim said. Then he froze.

Max.

Max was doing his homework. Max liked doing homework, in fact.

And Max liked maths. He was good at it. He joined all the academic school challenges, and always came first place.

Max was nerdy. Max was geeky.

Max was a “freaky genius guy”.

Could it be?

I feel in my heart, the start of something new…

The start of something new…

“Kim are you alright?”

Max had put his pencil down and was looking at Kim in concern.

Kim hadn’t even realized he had been staring. He had never even considered Max! Max was just his friend! They had been best friends for ages. Kim never had any reason to consider him. But now…

He gulped and tried to think of something to say. It was like his brain had completely shut down. The song carried on playing in the background, and every single word was resonating in his soul.

And the world looks so much brighter with you by my side…

Everything did feel right with Max. Everything did look bright. But that was nothing new. Things had always been better with Max around. That was why they were friends! Usually people found Kim annoying when he showed his true colours, talking too much and being a reckless idiot. But with Max he felt like he could always be himself. Max never judged him. Of course it felt right.

At this moment, though, it was starting to feel different. Like something had changed. And he had never felt this way.

Could it really be?

Was Max the mystery guy that Kim had always been dreaming of?

“Kim? Hello?”

Max waved a hand in front of Kim’s face.

“W-what? Oh… uh… yeah, I’m just…”

His brain still wasn’t working. Something really had changed.

He cleared his throat and said without thinking, “My head’s in the game but my heart’s in the song.”

Max chuckled. “You still have to do your homework though, Troy Bolton.”

Kim hadn’t expected Max to get the reference, but clearly his nerdy expertise extended to Disney Channel Original Movies too. He was so smart – it was just so cool!

Kim smiled and looked back down at his homework, but it still didn’t make any sense to him. Not right now. Not when he was so distracted suddenly. He wondered how that would go down tomorrow in class.

“Kim, why haven’t you done your homework?” “Well I was too distracted yesterday because I realized I’m in love with my best friend…”

In any case, he was not going to get it done at this exact moment. Perhaps later. Right now he needed time and space to think. He pushed his chair out and stood up.

“I’m going home,” he announced.

“Now?” Max asked.

“Yeah, I just feel like going home. I’ll see you later.”

“Okay then. See you later!”

Max smiled up at him, the same way as always, but for once it looked so cute that Kim hurried out of the room, feeling sure he would melt otherwise.

Kim did not go straight home. He wandered around the streets of Paris, not knowing or caring where he was going. All he could think about was Max. He had put the headphones away but that song just kept playing over and over in his head.

Now, looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart…

Thinking about Max’s eyes certainly did make his heart go a lot faster. Was he really in love with his best friend? Was this actually happening? All because a High School Musical song made him think about it?

Well, if he was Troy and Max was Gabriella, then he had to do something about it. He couldn’t just let this knowledge sit inside him. He had to let Max know how he felt.

But how? Last time with Chloé, things had been a disaster. Sure, Max would certainly be nicer about it. But what if it made things awkward? Kim hadn’t been friends with Chloé, he knew that her potentially turning him down probably wouldn’t change too much. But what about Max? If Max didn’t like him back like that, if he turned him down…

Kim realized his feet had carried him to the bakery that Marinette’s parents owned. He loved this place. Maybe a snack would do him good. And maybe he could go see if Marinette was around. At least she was someone he could trust, someone he could confide in about all this.

A few minutes later he left the bakery again, a snack in hand. Marinette had been up in her room apparently so he hadn’t got to talk to her. Never mind. It had been nice to see her parents again, anyway.

He was roused from his thoughts when he heard familiar voices coming from somewhere high up.

“…isn’t that right, princess?”

“Oh you silly kitty cat, I’ll be waiting!”

“Well I promise I won’t keep you waiting long.”

“And I promise I’ll try not to be asleep!”

Kim took a few steps away from the bakery and looked upwards. Up on Marinette’s balcony, he saw her standing there, talking to Chat Noir, who was sitting on the railing. No wait, they weren’t just talking! He was holding both her hands in his, looking right into her eyes. It almost looked like they were going to kiss.

Marinette and Chat Noir? Were they a couple or something? Kim rubbed his eyes and looked again, sure he couldn’t have seen that right. But nope – they were still there, still giggling and flirting with each other on that balcony. And their faces were even closer now. Closer and closer, until – there! Chat Noir gave her a little kiss on the cheek, slightly too long to be mistaken for a normal Parisian cheek kiss, and then hopped onto his baton and slid down to the ground. He landed right at Kim’s feet.

“Oh hi Kim!” Chat Noir said, waving.

“You… and Marinette…!”

“What? Oh, you saw that?” There was a slight blush on his cheeks. “I like to go visit my friend sometimes.”

“Friend? Are you sure?”

“Well yeah! She’s my friend!”

I didn’t know it before, but now it’s easy to see…

“Are you sure you don’t have a crush on her?” Kim asked. Chat blushed even harder.

“Alright, maybe a little crush. But don’t tell anyone.”

“It’s okay, I won’t. I know what it’s like to have a crush on a friend.”

“Chloé, huh?”

Kim shook his head. “No. Someone else.”

“Ah, okay.”

“So does Marinette like you back?”

Chat shrugged. “Who knows? She tells me she’s in love with a boy in her class. He’s probably a lot cooler than I am.”

“What? But you’re a superhero! There’s no one cooler than you!” Kim hoped he himself wasn’t blushing now. He had known for quite a while that he had a bit of a celebrity crush on Chat Noir. On Ladybug, too. Though who didn’t? They were amazing!

“Gee, thanks!” Chat winked and finger-gunned at him. “But anyway, I think she sees me as someone she can trust, someone she can confide in. To tell the truth, that’s how I saw her at first too. I don’t even know where this crush came from. It just suddenly hit me one day. One minute I liked her as a friend, and the next thing I know, I’m in love with her.”

I never knew that it could happen ‘til it happened to me…

“I know that feeling,” Kim said. “It literally just happened to me and uh… I don’t really know what to do…”

“Why don’t you go give your friend-turned-crush a little balcony visit?” Chat said, winking again. “Seems to be working fine for me.”

“Yeah, maybe I will…”

“What? I was kidding! Don’t climb onto a balcony, you’ll get hurt.”

“But Troy Bolton did it,” Kim said, memories of the first High School Musical movie flooding back into him suddenly. “He wanted to apologize to Gabriella, so he climbed up onto her balcony and then… sang her a song…”

A strange, stupid idea was forming in his brain. And as much as he tried to make it stop, it just wouldn’t.

“So you’re a High School Musical fan,” Chat Noir said.

“Are you?”

“Of course I am! Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat. Anyway Kim, go get’cha head in the game! Whatever you do, I’m sure it’ll work! I believe in you!”

“Thanks. And I believe in you and Marinette too.”

“I’ve gotta go now for a patrol, but I’ll see you later.”

Chat winked one last time, then ran off out of sight.

The reckless idea in Kim’s brain was now too strong to ignore. If he was going to be Troy Bolton then so be it. He would do it. It was cheesy, it was stupid, it was utterly ridiculous. But maybe it would be at least a little romantic. That would be better than nothing.

Quickly making his way over to Max’s house, he sent him a quick message.

Max, totally hypothetical question here, what would you say if I climbed up onto your balcony? Would that be creepy?

He got a reply quite quickly.

Totally hypothetical answer: it wouldn’t be creepy, since it’s you. If it was someone I didn’t know that well then I would consider it creepy. But I would just assume someone had dared you to do it and you didn’t refuse.

Oh, thank goodness. He could go ahead with his plans. Holding his phone in his teeth, he used his arms and legs to climb up the nearby tree…

Kim, do you happen to be actually climbing onto my balcony right now? I am at home, you know. If you need me to go get you a helmet then I can do that. Or a bowl. I don’t want you injuring yourself.

So who challenged you to do it? Is it a race against someone? If it’s against Alix then I’m sorry but you have a 98% chance of losing.

Kim, that question definitely wasn’t hypothetical, was it? I’m standing on my balcony right now and I can see you climbing that tree. Next time just put your phone in your pocket. You’ll get drool all over it.

Kim made the final leap from the tree branch onto the balcony, landing in front of Max. Just the sight of him made Kim feel such an odd twinge in his chest that he wondered if he should just forget the stupid idea and run away. But no – he had made up his mind. He was going to do it. After all, he had climbed up here, hadn’t he?

“So, where is your opponent?” Max asked, looking over the edge.

Kim took his phone out of his mouth and wiped it on his hoodie. “There’s no opponent, actually. I came up here on my own.”

“Really? Why? I have a front door that you can use. It would be easier. Though if you were going for improving your physique by athletic activity then you’re certainly doing a good job.”

Seeing Max adjust his glasses and look Kim up and down as he was saying that…

He shook himself out of his lovestruck stupor and cleared his throat. “I have something to do. Just listen and um… don’t laugh or anything…”

He had the song he wanted on his phone. The song that had been stuck in his head all day. He tapped his phone screen, tapped the music icon… only to suddenly notice that his phone was only on 1% battery. And the next second the screen turned black.

No! He had forgotten to charge his phone earlier! Stupid, forgetful brain. It was going to ruin everything.

“Max, can I borrow your phone for a minute?” Kim asked.

“Sure.”

Max handed it over. Kim unlocked it – he knew the passcode of course, and Max knew his – and had a quick scroll through the music selection. Nope, it wasn’t there. He would just have to look it up instead. He opened up YouTube and typed in what he was looking for. Ah yes, there, results! So this wasn’t going to be a total loss after all!

Preparing himself to sing, he tapped on the first result.

Sorry, this video cannot be viewed on mobile.

Grrr! No! He tapped on the second result.

Sorry, this video cannot be viewed in your region.

What? Why not??? It was just a harmless song! He tapped on the third result, hoping that this time it would work.

There, yes! It was loading… that little circle going round and round… yes, this was promising… he knew Max’s wi-fi speed wasn’t the best, so of course it might take a moment or two to load fully, that was okay, as long as it didn’t buffer too much…

He turned up the volume and braced himself, forgetting all his fear.

And then a 30 second ad for Minecraft started playing.

“Oh forget it!” Kim snapped, going back to the home screen and giving the phone back to Max. “This isn’t working, never mind, just… just forget I even came here…”

He turned around and swung a leg over the balcony railing, wondering if he could jump down from here without breaking both his legs. Then he felt Max’s hand on his shoulder.

“Kim, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Really? It seems like it’s something important…”

Forget being subtle, forget being Troy Bolton. Kim sat on the railing and looked at the floor.

“I was just trying to do that thing! Like in High School Musical! That bit when Troy goes onto Gabriella’s balcony and sings that song to her, and it’s really sweet and everything. And I was going to do that but the music wasn’t loading! And now come to think of it, Troy didn’t even use background music, he just sang, ugh… I should have just done that too… actually what am I thinking… I can’t even sing…”

He put his head in his hands, knowing he was blushing so hard his face must have been the colour of his hoodie.

“You were going to sing to me?”

It was impossible to tell what Max was thinking based on his voice alone. Kim just nodded, hoping he wasn’t about to get pushed off the balcony when Max inevitably started freaking out.

Except that Max didn’t freak out. In fact, Max started giggling.

“Yeah, I know, it was stupid of me,” Kim muttered, knowing he would probably laugh at himself too for doing something so ridiculous.

“No, no! I’m laughing because… well… it’s cute.”

Cute?

Most people thought Kim was annoying. Occasionally, kids who didn’t know him personally thought he was hot. Adults thought he was a troublemaker.

But no one, no one, thought he was cute.

Hearing Max say it almost brought tears to his eyes.

He looked up slightly, still not daring to look at Max’s face. “You think I’m cute?”

“Yes! Climbing onto my balcony – with my permission first, too, which is a good deal better than Troy Bolton – and then wanting to sing to me? I would say it’s very cute indeed.”

I know that something has changed, never felt this way, I know it for real…

Kim finally looked at Max to see his cheerful, adoring expression. It was a face he had seen many times – when Max had given him the brooch on Valentine’s Day, when Kim congratulated Max on his win at the gaming tournament with Marinette, when they were at the zoo together and Kim was being a fool as usual…

And it was wonderful.

“Well, uh, I think you’re cute too,” he managed to say, though rather quietly.

“Thank you,” said Max, stepping a little closer, a little smirk on his face now. “In fact, I would go as far as to say that you’re What I’ve Been Looking For.”

Kim couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’re a High School Musical fan too?”

“Contrary to what most people would expect, I absolutely love High School Musical. I always used to imagine myself as Gabriella, since I can relate with being considered the ‘genius kid’ when moving to a new school. And because I certainly have a thing for very cute jocks.”

That smirk was still on his face. Wait, was he flirting?! This was not at all what Kim had expected, yet he was far from disappointed. He took a deep breath and said, “Well I have a thing for very cute nerds, and you can Bet On It.”

Max laughed again. “I’m glad you told me! It was Now Or Never.”

“Yeah! There’s not a star in heaven that we can’t reach!”

“We’re certainly going to Bop To The Top!”

“We are so Fabulous.”

“I guess you could say that The Boys Are Back.”

“And that this is… well…” Kim put the tiniest hint of a melody into his voice. “The Start… Of Something New?”

Max’s eyes almost looked like they had stars in them, they were so full of affection. “And it feels so right, to be here with you…”

“And now, looking in your eyes…”

“I feel in my heart…”

The start of something new.

The words of the song couldn’t have been more accurate.

The memory of Chat Noir kissing Marinette’s cheek popped into Kim’s mind, and he decided to do it before he chickened out of it. Or wait… why just the cheek? Max liked him back, right? Why not kiss him properly?

He leaned forwards…

“OH HEY KIM! YOU DID THE BALCONY THING! YAY!”

Kim whirled around to see Chat Noir sitting on the roof of a nearby house, yelling at him and waving.

“Yeah, I did the balcony thing!” Kim called back.

“GOOD! I’M SO HAPPY FOR YOU! ANYWAY I’M GONNA STOP SPYING ON YOU NOW, SO SEE YOU LATER!”

Chat Noir scampered over the edge of the roof and disappeared. Kim turned back to Max, his earlier courage having gone, and settled for pulling him into a tight hug instead. It was a running joke that Troy and Gabriella kept getting interrupted before they could kiss, right? Maybe that would happen with Kim and Max too.

But it didn’t matter. What mattered was that things had gone right. This really was the start of something new. And now, what kind of musical adventures would follow them? Would lycée really be like High School Musical?

No matter what, at least he had Max. They were all in this together.

[adrelianafernandes]

Divulgence

Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous. All rights belong to Thomas Astruc and ZAGtoon.

Summary: During the Evillustrator, when Marinette and Chat Noir were trapped together in a box, Tikki tried to come out to help, but Marinette pushed her back into the purse. What if she had managed to come out before Marinette pushed her back in?

Notes: Reposting this because I finally decided to create a Tumblr blog. Hey everyone! I’m Silver and an aspiring writer and reader. It’s a pleasure to meet you all! I’m open to commissions and requests and questions - I’ll be opening up a page on that in a minute as soon as I figure out the formatting.

(This is part one of a series called Reveals and Revelations. I’ll be tagging them all with this so it’s easily found :))

XxX

“And I’m taking back my promise,” the Evillustrator snarled, rubbing something out on his drawing tablet. “Chloe’s going to get a little lesson that she’ll never forget!”

Marinette yelped as Chat Noir landed on her, squirming all the while as the box enclosed the both of them.

Then she heard the tell-tale sounds of the Evillustrator’s magic, and she knew that the boat’s engine was gone. If they didn’t escape soon, they would drown.

The Evillustrator smirked, before leaping off the barge and into the distance, heading towards the Grand Paris.

“We’ve been penned in,” Chat said, desperately prodding the floor and corners of the box with his staff. “Literally!”

“Aa-” Marinette started, only to be interrupted as Tikki poked her head out of her purse.

“Marinette,” she said in her high, squeaky voice. “There’s no time! Transform!”

Immediately Chat Noir stopped, his green eyes wide as he took in Tikki.

Marinette immediately shut the purse, covering it with her hands. “Ahaha,” she laughed. “It’s a new toy! From Japan! It’s uhm, really new and says the weirdest things! Never says anything when you want it to!”

Chat Noir could only say nothing as he stared at Marinette silently.

Then the boat lurched suddenly, and they yelped as the box slid to the side of the barge, just stopping short of the railings.

“Chat Noir!” Marinette called out desperately. “Use your staff! Extend it upwards!”

Chat Noir snapped out of his reverie, before smirking at her. He retracted his baton, before twisting it vertically. Then he smirked at Marinette before sweeping her in a princess style hold and extending his baton.

The end of the baton smacked against the ceiling of the box, lifting it and the two up as it extended. Chat Noir then angled the baton, continuing to extend it until they were over the bridge, releasing the baton and dropping down onto the bridge. Then he looked at Marinette.

She laughed nervously. “Haha, yeah, new toy, really unreliable…”

He smirked. “So it’s buggy, is it?”

Despite herself, Marinette groaned. “Not another pun, Chat…”

His smirk widened. “There’s my lady,” he said, before grabbing the baton as it dropped down from the air. “I’m going to stop the artist. Don’t make me wait too long, my lady.”

He tossed her another smirk, before extending the baton and leaping onto the roof of the next set of buildings.

Tikki poked her head out of the purse. “I’m sorry, Marinette. I didn’t think he was there.”

Marinette sighed. “I really didn’t want anyone to find out, but if it had to be anyone, at least it was him.”

“That’s true,” Tikki said thoughtfully. “Ladybugs and Chat Noirs have been partners for centuries.”

“At least it was my partner. Imagine if it were my parents, or Alya, or Adrien!” Marinette laughed.

“That would have been awful!”

Tikki giggled, zipping in the air. “Come on, you have a kitty waiting for you!”

Marinette nodded. “Right! Tikki, spots on!”

XxX

Chloe pressed her ear up against the door at the knocking. “Chat Noir, is that you?”

Then the Evillustrator erased the door, and she screamed, running to her bed and hiding beneath it.

“Chloe…” The Evillustrator called out. “Where are you? Are you hiding? That is so cute.”

Chloe shrank back in fear, ice blue eyes wide as she stared at the red clad legs of the Evillustrator.

“Are you hiding?” The Evillustrator asked sneeringly. “In the closet?”

Chloe gasped, and at that, he erased the closet on the tablet, and it followed suit in real life. Then, Chloe screamed as the Evillustrator erased all of her clothing.

He smirked to himself as he heard the scream. Honestly, all it took to get Chloe out was to threaten her clothing and beauty. She was so easy to lure out; all of the akumatised villains had found it ridiculously easy to lure her out every single time.

He grinned, before erasing the bed as he swiped on his tablet. Chloe screamed again, before running frantically towards the corner of the room.

The Evillustrator smirked. “I win, Chloe. I found you.”

“My Chanel dresses! My heels!” Chloe shrieked, before gasping dramatically. “You’re a monster!”

“You like to walk all over people, but you don’t like it when others trample over you, do you, Chloe? Do you?!”

Chloe could only scream as she ran fearfully from the drawn giant heel. Then the two heard a thwack and the heel disappeared.

“Sorry, but even if she does walk over others, she doesn’t deserve to be actually trampled,” Chat Noir said casually, raising his hand as the baton returned to him.

“In the comics, this is what is known as the final showdown,” the Evillustrator said thoughtfully as he gazed at Chat Noir, who merely rested his baton on his shoulders.

“Not really,” Chat Noir smirked. “We’re waiting for a plus one.”

As if on cue, Ladybug dropped in through the open balcony doors. “Sorry I kept you waiting, kitty.”

“A lady is always fashionably late,” Chat Noir replied, before settling into a fighting stance.

“Uhh, hello?” Chloe called out. “I need saving here!”

The Evillustrator smirked, before erasing the floor, forcing Chat Noir and Ladybug to back away quickly as the floor disappeared from under them.

Of course, Chat Noir’s luck meant that he slipped on the edge, his arms flailing as he tried to keep himself upright, before he managed to grab on the edge of the floor, digging his claws into the tile as he dangled precariously from the edge.

“Ladybug, this cat doesn’t have nine lives!” he yelled out desperately.

Ladybug set her jaw, before tossing her yoyo high up into the air. “Lucky Charm!” she yelled out as a series of hearts surrounded the spinning yoyo. Then a small object fell out of the air, right into Ladybug’s waiting hands.

“A bouncy ball?” She asked in confusion. “What do I do with this?”

“Hah!” The Evillustrator laughed harshly. “Try and stop me with that, little lady.”

Ladybug glanced around, sky blue eyes darting as they searched the room. Then several objects lit up with a red and black spotted pattern, and she smirked. “Gladly!”

She tossed the ball as hard as she could towards the lamp just past the Evillustrator, his eyes wide as they followed the ball’s motion. Then it smashed it, before the ball rebounded, bouncing off walls before impacting the lamps of the room, blanketing it in darkness.

Then Ladybug’s yoyo shot out, wrapping around the Evillustrator’s arm, before yanking on the arm suddenly. The Evillustrator was taken aback, his surprise forcing him to drop his drawing pen onto the floor.

Ladybug back-flipped, her hand quickly snatching the pen off the floor before she landed in a crouch. Then she snapped the pen, dropping the halves on the floor as a black butterfly flew out.

She ran her finger over the cover of her yoyo, the halves opening like a ladybug’s wings to reveal a white interior. Then she dropped the yoyo, letting it swing slightly to gain momentum, before she thrust it into the air, catching the butterfly in the glowing white space of the yoyo. Drawing the yoyo back to her, she smiled. “Bye bye, little butterfly,” she said as she tapped the surface, letting a now white butterfly fly out.

Chat Noir vaulted upwards, flying up and onto solid floor as Ladybug grabbed the bouncy ball, tossing it into the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!” She called, as the object dissolved into a swarm of ladybugs which flew around the room, fixing all of the damage.

Then black bubbles covered the Evillustrator, dissolving to reveal Nathanael. He groaned and sat up, wondering why he was in a room with Paris’ two superheroes and an annoyed Chloe. “Wha-what I am doing here?”

“You got akumatised, Nathanael,” Ladybug explained.

“You’re in the Grand Paris right now,” Chat Noir continued, before a beep from Ladybug’s earrings warned them of the impending talk.

“Gotta go!” The two superheroes called in unison, before leaping off the balcony and onto rooftops with only one destination in mind: the Eiffel Tower.

XxX

“You can’t tell anyone,” were the first words out of Ladybug’s mouth as they landed on the beams just below the viewing deck of the tower.

Chat Noir could only nod solemnly. “I promise.”

Ladybug sighed. “Good.”

Then she sat down, and closed her eyes as she let her transformation wear off. Tikki hovered in the air between them, giving off an apologetic air.

“So this is your kwami,” Chat Noir said in wonder. “Can we trade? I want one that is actually sweet and doesn’t demand cheese all the time!”

At this, Marinette and Tikki giggled. “Sorry kitty,” Marinette said teasingly. “But unless you have pierced ears, it’s a no can do.”

At this he slumped. “Aww, Marinette…”

Then she slumped too, sighing. “Are you disappointed?”

Chat Noir immediately broke out of his fake slump. “What?”

“Are you disappointed that the perfect Ladybug is actually clumsy, unconfident Marinette?”

Green eyes widened. “No! I could never be disappointed with you Marinette, never! You’re so beautiful and sweet and kind and friendly!”

Blue eyes widened. “You… really think that, Chat Noir?”

He smiled gently. “Yeah, I do.”

Tikki swooned from over them, cooing from her perch on a higher beam. “That’s so cute!” she whispered to herself as the two leant in closer, before their lips brushed slightly.

Then Marinette seemed to snap out of a trance, before she backed away rapidly. “I-I can’t, Chat!”

“Wha- why?!” he exclaimed.

She shrank back. “Because… my heart belongs to someone else.”

This time, Chat Noir’s slump was real as his ears drooped, and green eyes filled with hurt. He scooted back along his side of the beam as well, drawing his legs in to curl against them as he stared at the beam silently.

Then he sighed. “Do I at least have the pleasure of knowing who captured my lady’s heart?”

Marinette bit her lip, before she decided to tell him; she owed him that much. “A-Adrien Agreste.”

Suddenly Chat Noir’s eyes lit up again and his ears were alert. “What did you say?”

Taken aback by his sudden happiness, she repeated the name.

At this, Chat Noir whooped, before picking Marinette up and hugging her close to him in joy.

“Wha- Chat, what’s wrong?”

He didn’t seem to hear her, his eyes filled with joy as he stared down at her with love.

“I’m sorry Chat, but I can’t. I love him,” Marinette said, unraveling herself from the mass of excitement that was Chat Noir.

He froze for a moment, before laughing.

Marinette was starting to think something was very wrong with her partner at this point. “Chat, what’s wrong with you?”

He paused, before he smiled at her. The smile that always threw her for a loop, because it was just so familiar, but she could never place it.

“I think this will explain it all,” he said softly, before releasing his transformation.

Marinette shielded her eyes as the luminous green light washed over her. When she opened them again, she almost screamed as her eyes took in the face of her not-so-secret crush.

“A-Adrien?!” she shrieked.

The boy in question smiled sheepishly, his hand rubbing the back of his neck as he looked at the girl. “Hey, Marinette.”

She almost seemed to freeze for a moment, before she did. Her eyes grew unfocused and she stared at the ground for a long time before Tikki flew off her perch and whispered something in her ear that made her snap to reality again.

Then she laughed. Adrien smiled as he heard it, the tinkling tones music to his ears. “Marinette,” he said, moving closer to his partner. “I love you.”

She turned, and their faces were pressed up against each other, lips brushing each other’s once more as she whispered her next words. “I love you too.”