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bard-of-worlds · 1 month

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Chapter 31

Sorry this has been so long, problems moving into my new pad. ENJOY here tonight, and the rest at the other sites tomorrow!

Chat Noir smirked as he dropped into the room and sighed. “That was something else!”

He couldn’t believe half of what happened! When he left he had expected at worse Dark Owl, but everything else? Never in a million years! From the Sentimonsters to Bustier, this was the most strange battle he’d ever been in! and this is from a person who fought a pigeon controller over thirty times!

He looked around and tried to think about what to do next as he sat down on the bed. That was insane! What in the world was a robot masquerading as a teacher!? Why our school? And where did it come from!? He thought as he held his head.

“Plagg, claws in!” Chat Noir said, and a wave of magic flowed over him turning him back into Adrien.

Plagg reappeared and looked down at Adrien, smirking as he hovered there.

“You know, I can’t say anything when you’re transformed. But that was something else, Kid!” Plagg said as he nuzzled against Adrien’s chin.

“Plagg!” Adrien said with a laugh as he looked down at the Kwami. Plagg only laughed and moved to hover body to eye with Adrien.

“I mean it!” Plagg said with a laugh. “You led the team against the Sentimonsters, and

“We were on the defensive through it all! We had to wait for the others! And if that dolphin hadn’t been there!” Adrien said with a scowl.

“That was a horde. I’ve seen those tactics overrun everything sent against them! The fact that you all were able to survive that and keep those things from overwhelming you all is amazing!” Plagg argued and Adrien looked at him.

“Really?” Adrien asked and Plagg nodded.

“Good, there you are,” Sabine’s voice caused Adrien and Plagg to go still. Adrien slowly looked up seeing her and Tom standing there at the doorway.

Adrien went still and looked at Plagg hovering there and quickly thought up a lie. “Oh, you’ve found my toy! It’s something a relative sent me! A Black Cat flying a silent drone! All the rage in America among the rich!”

Plagg kept still and tried to think of how to act. He hadn’t paid close attention to Markov, but he thought that the AI wasn’t normal. How are we going to get out of this!? Tikki and Baker Girl are going to explode when they hear about this!

“Yes, the Kwami Drone series. So many of your friends have them after all!” Tom says with a chuckle.

Adrien went still and looked at Plagg, who had blinked before sighing.

“So how’d you do it? Spy on her or see her detransformed?” Plagg asked crossing his arms.

Sabine sighed and shook her head. “We found Ladybug asleep in her room. It was a while back, so We’ve known for a while. And how you came here after everything, it wasn’t hard to figure out who you were.”

Adrien looked at her in shock, wondering how they could be so right for the wrong reasons.

“And we’ve been so happy that you two had each other to help the other! For a while, we were worried about who was behind the Cat mask. But we’re so happy that you two had each other to lean on!” Tom said with a smirk.

Plagg went still and Adrien felt his mouth move before he even realized he was speaking. “We didn’t,”

“I’m sorry?!” Sabine asked with shock.

Adrien looked at them and shrugged. “Before I hid out here, I never knew who was behind the other mask. And it was an accident!”

“So you two fought, and you never knew who was fighting next to you. You just had the Kwami to lean on,” Sabine said slowly.

Tom smiled in such a way that even Plagg felt a chill.

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Arashiko landed at the Tsurugi Mansion and detransformed into Kagami Tsurugi.

As Longg looked around for the second time, something about this place still felt so wrong. He couldn’t understand why, but this place was colder than the Temple to his senses. Yesterday he hadn’t seen his Wielder’s mother, and soon he would. I have to get something about her from watching her. He thought as he floated after Kagami.

“I still don’t know why you needed to come back here my dear. Your mother might not even make it here with what happened,” Lonng said.

Kagami laughed a little, shaking her head. “If my mother is not here then I’m still expected to be here. And the machines will record my actions.”

Lonng looked at her, starting to feel something about this mansion. He couldn’t see what but that was very wrong here. That’s the kind of treatment even the worst of the Samurai wouldn’t do! None of them fought! What does this witch even think she’s doing?! He thought as he followed after her.

As she walked into a large dojo, Lonng found a place to hide in the rafters. Looking down, Lonng looked around and took in the space. It was over forty feet long and thirty wide. For just two people, this was too much. And why do I only feel one other person who is only now coming this way? Why do all these robots? Is it because she has secrets or because she doesn’t believe in human help? Lonng thought as he looked down at Kagami.

As Lonng looked on, Kagami took a wooden Japanese sword out and moved to the center of the dojo. She stood there, silent as a grave for five minutes until a door opened. In walked a tall slender black haired Japanese woman. She had long black hair in a bun style with a barrette in it. She was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a Cheongsam collar. Bellow that was a flowing deep festive red culottes pants. There was a family crest on her upper sleeves and below her neck on her back. She had on black sunglasses and black high-heeled dress shoes. There was a wooden Japanese sword in her hand that she pointed at Kagami.

Without a word, Kagami pointed her sword at her mother, Tomoe Tsurugi. A second later the two charged at each other.

They struck and parried the other's blows. Kagami moved backwards and Tomoe seemed to move forward as if she could see.

Kagami went to the left and raised her sword to block Tomoe. As soon as Kagami felt her mother’s sword hit hers, she reacted.

With a quick foot movement, she was behind her mother and waited for her to react. Tomoe slashed around in a strike at Kagami’s knees that she jumped over.

In the air, Kagami slammed her sword down at her mother’s arms. Tomoe only grunted and moved backwards, Kagami chasing after her. Striking swiftly, she forced her mother to dodge again and again.

But then Tomoe dropped down and swung her sword at Kagami’s knees. Kagami jumped over it, but as she watched her mother react she knew she made a mistake.

Tomoe moved to the side and when Kagami landed she went still. Tomoe had her blade touching Kagami’s neck and with that, the short match was done.

Lonng only looked down, shocked at what he had seen. But then he heard a strange sound next to him. He turned and saw a camera and held back a gasp. This must be how she knew where Kagami was, she had this report to her! That means that that woman's not that good! She trained herself to fight by having someone or something tell her where her opponents are! All while appearing to fight blind! He thought in shock. He had heard about this kind of training before, and the scum had fallen to one of his wymlings centuries ago!

“It is over. You were passable with your blows. But your plans were like a child! That second jump might have gotten me if I was asleep!” Tomoe said stiffly.

“Yes Kaasan,” Kagami said with her head facing down.

“And you need to be quicker! Even blinded I was able to see where you were coming from! All your foes will not be on a single line! You must be better!” Tomoe said emotionless as she stood over Kagami.

Lonng looked on and felt a growl growing in his throat. She used the cameras to see where Kagami was, I’m sure of it! She must have them programmed to see her position as the center point. It must track everyone around her so she can win! Lonng thought with rage as he watched.Andthe way this woman was talking to his newest wymling was getting on his nerves! And there was something about her that just made him want to bite and never let go.

“Thank you kaasan,” Kagami said softly.

“I heard there is a new Dragon Hero,” Tomoe said. Why didn’t this fool take the power when she had the chance? Was all my training for nothing? Will she ever be worthy of our name? Tomoe thought as she ‘looked’ at Kagami. “You wouldn’t know anything about it would you?”

Kagami looked at her mother and tried to think of what to say. For a split second, she thought about saying it was still her, but then that died. The secrets of the others weren’t hers to share, and she would keep them. So she took a deep breath and released it before she spoke.

“Yes Mother, there is. My own time with it was only to escape you,” Kagami said softly. “Ladybug-sama spoke to me with her present. After she explained who the new Dragon was and why they were there, I gave her my thanks for letting her use her powers.”

Tomoe turned and pointed her sword at Kagami’s face. “Unacceptable! We are Tsurugi! All we are is perfection itself! Why would you give such power to someone else!?”

Kagami looked at her mother, a scowl on her face.

“At the end of my battle, I gave the source of my power back as was normal. If a new permanent Dragon is here, then so be it. I was not trained to fight Super Villains as they have,” Kagami said just as softly.

Lonng looked down at Tomoe and felt something, something that bothered him.

“I’m going out for a few hours. I have a meeting to get to. Stay in the house, we will talk more once I get back,” Tomoe ordered before turning away.

As her mother walked away, Kagami kept her face blank. The robots that took care of the house were all under her mother’s complete control. She knew how they worked and that they would ‘report’ if she showed her emotions. The one thing she hated was that they could do that, but then the childcare ones were perfect nurses. But it also makes them perfect guards and spies. From the way Mother had been talking about them, I wonder if I was the test subject for the prisoner routines? It would make it safer for guards, but the risks involved. Sure she would say that criminals deserved it all, but really! They are still alive no matter what they did and robots can be hacked. She thought as she walked to her room. She felt Lonng settle into her pockets and rub against her.

Kagami had a feeling that the Dragon Kwami wanted to talk to her, and she felt that she wouldn’t do it at all.

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Lila’s eyes shot open and she looked around, finding herself in a strange-looking room. As she looked around she saw she was on a simple bed. The room looked like it had been converted from a cell, the bed she was on and a TV on the wall were the only furniture.

Lila looked around and tried to understand where she was. Then she held her head as she remembered exactly what had happened. For a moment she was still before she exploded. "That lady-bitch! I'll pull off every spot with a rusty knife!"

A sound behind her caused her to turn and see a door open and Nathalie walked carrying a surgical knife in her hand. Lila blinked before she smiled. Sancoeur's here!? Perfect! Then Gabriel saved me. I'll be able to play the victim and then I'll find Hawkmoth! He'll be able to protect me! She thought as got up.

“Miss Sancoeur, what happened? The last thing I remember is that monster Shadow Moth’s Akuma and Amok hitting my necklace and then I….. blacked out again, where am I?” She asked as Nathalie looked at her with a strange look in her eyes.

“You do that whenever you’re turning into an Akuma Lila?” Nathalie asked blandly and Lila started to sniffle.

“Whenever that butterfly hit me I just fell asleep! I can’t imagine what my body was made to do!” Lila said miserably and Nathalie only looked at her. Lila was crying, but she wondered why Nathalie wasn't believing her acting job.

“Then how was Hawkmoth able to talk to you over for so long before he called you?” Nathalie’s question caused Lila to stare at her in shock and confusion as Nathalie looked at her. How could she know that she talked to Hawkmoth before Heroes’ Day? It didn’t make sense, the only way that she could know was if……. Lila went still before she grinned and started to laugh.

“So Gabriel is Hawk….Shadowmoth! That’s just perfect! Master Gabriel knows that he can count on me for anything. Thank you for letting me escape, I’ll do anything to help his goal! And I have to talk to him about something,” Lila said with a grin and Nathalie looked at her with a level stare.

“Like you helped that girl in Germany or the boy in England?” Nathalie interrupted and Lila looked at her in shock.

Nathalie looked at her coldly and sighed. “Let me tell you something interesting Lila. We’ve found by experiments that if Ladybug needs to the Akuma used to empower a Champion. If not then anything that was done by said Champion will remain. Even things done to living beings or creatures."

As she spoke the screen changed to show views of many rooms. One had an ant the size of a dog, another a dove with three legs the size of a hawk, and the last a Cerberus Dalmatian.

Lila stared at the animals on the screen, taking them in. Then she grinned as she turned towards Nathalie. “So is the plan to change how I look then, nice! Can I be blond, my mother never let me change my hair color…………. Wait, isn’t that the plan?”

Nathalie only looked at the teen and grinned evilly. After everything, she still thinks we're going to help her. I don't know who she was raised but whoever did it failed. Well. I'll know how she was raised soon. And the look on her face when she realizes what’s going to happen…… it will make everything worth it. She thought as she grinned, looking at Lila like a bug about to be killed. “The plan is to have you be my ‘niece’.”

“Your niece?” Lila asked and Nathalie nodded.

“Yes, I took a vacation a few years back, I can say I was chasing down a possible relative of mine. After that, We're going to say your parents died. Before that 'you' were homeschooled, then do that a week or two. All to get you used to your new workload and such,” Nathalie said and Lila looked at her in confusion.

“What work?” Lila asked and Nathalie grinned at her darkly.

“The plan is for you to be a new model for the brand, after a bit of theater of course. With the fallout from what you’ve done, we need a new female model. The fall line needs a new face as the last had to leave. Family emergency and all. So since we have no one better, you’re it. We don’t have anyone else to use so congratulations,” Nathalie said dryly and Lila grinned at her and smiled.

“Great! What’s the plan for my makeover?” Lila asked with a smile. This is perfect! I’ll need to change my tells but a few days to charm Adrien once he’s found and brought back. He’ll forget all about both of those Asian Tarts! She thought as she looked at Nathalie who only grinned back at her.

“It’s to change your body, your voice, and your mind,” Nathalie said blandly. Lila blinked and looked at Nathalie for a few moments before she reacted.

“That sounds wonderful, this will……wait. My Mind?!” Lila said as she fell off the bed and tried to get away. Nathalie looked at her as an Akuma and an Amok fell towards the knife Lila only now saw. Lila paled in fear as she comprehended what was about to happen.

“Lila is going away, forever. Instead, a new person will come into being, my niece Sunrita. Who will prefer Rita, is a good and loyal person who will be willing to do anything to help us accomplish our goal. A person who will be like a sister to Adrien and will not be connected to him in any way romantically. Well, maybe as a rival for Marinette or Kagami. I haven’t decided that yet,” Nathalie said. She grinned at Lila who paled in fear as she started to understand what Nathalie was saying.

“You can’t mean, no you can’t! Wait I know things!” Lila said as she tried to find any way out of there.

“But don’t worry, Rita will be both a model and a charity worker, everything that you lied about. That is who my niece will be, so take that into the darkness. And anything you know I will know,” Nathalie said and grinned at Lila evilly. Nathalie felt a spark of twisted joy at Lila’s fear. After all the pain and trouble Lila had caused, the chance to get even was perfect.

“No!” Lila screeched as she charged at Nathalie who punched Lila in the stomach. As Lila was stunned, Nathalie grabbed her. Spinning around in a circle Nathalie threw Lila against the far wall. Lila looked up as a purple energy mask formed over Nathalie’s face. She screamed in rage as a monster formed beside Nathalie as a purple flash went over her body.

Nathalie looked at Lila in her champion form; the Stylist. Her hair was free and went to her waist with multicolored streaks down it. She was wearing a short black leather skirt and a black leather tube top. On her exposed stomach was a purple tattoo of a butterfly with her navel in the middle of the head. Her tight black pants and the long sleeves of her shirt ended in gloves. Her eyes were behind a visor across and her hair was in long waves that went down her back.

Beside her was her Sentimonster, The Mind Styler. It was shaped like a large purple helmet with a visor shaped like a butterfly. It had four long metallic tentacles that ended in manacles that ‘grew’ from the top in a circle formation.

"Say goodbye," The Stylist said coldly. She directed it and it floated towards Lila.

"NO!" Lile cried as she tried to move. But before she could move the Sentimonster jumped onto her head. Lila tried to pry it off her head for a few moments before the Sentimonster’s visor flashed and Lila went still.

The Stylist smirked and looked at the teen. She was about to raise her hands to start shaping Lila’s body to her will when her visor flashed. Her mouth dropped open at what she saw in Lila’s memories.

“Good god……….sleep, just sleep. Lila might have been dead since before she was born, but she'll have justice. From her ashes will rise a new girl who will have a perfect life,” Nathalie purred. A moment later her visor flashed as she raised a white glowing hand towards Lila. As a white energy cocoon grew around the teen, the Sentimonster shot at it. The Stylist watched as the cocoon and Sentimonster merged into one. As soon as that was done, purple light radiated out as a low beating echoed from the cacoon.

The Stylist walked to the cocoon smiled sadly down at it and patted it. “Don’t worry baby, I’ll make sure you have nothing but good memories once the bad things are gone from your head.”

The Stylist felt the energy of her transformation drop as Gabriel recalled the Akuma. She looked around the room and nodded, happy with what she saw. She walked out of it, stopping to look back at the cocoon before scowling. She had thought that Lila was a monster, a sociopath. But what she found in the girl’s memories, not in that thing's memories. It changed and destroyed every conclusion she had come to. What does this mean? I…….. first the Seven, then those Ice things disrupted our supplier……. Just what is happening to the world? She thought asshe came onto a catwalk. It ran around a rectangle-shaped chamber the size of where Emile slept. A tree with moth cocoons was surrounded by a few pieces of furniture. This was the fallback, in case they were unmasked. This place was hidden enough and had enough supplies they could survive for five years here. A phone ringing caused her to look at the wall and grab it as she brought a hand to her face. “Gabriel, everything was fine at my end. It worked perfectly. But then I found something going over the copy before the wipe.”

“Get back here, we were sent just another restraining order, this one for you. And Tomoe will be here soon,” Gabriel said bluntly. “I’ll send another feather to you to get back.”

Nathalie went still before clenching her fist. After a moment she blew air out of her

“Yes sir,” Nathalie said and sighed. She knew going in that Adrien might make a move against her for her actions, but this still hurt. He was her god-child in all but blood and she loved him, and she hated all of this! She knew and understood why they were keeping him away from their plans to save his mother. But she had to admit that they had mistakes. She could see how this all looked to him. Add in what Lila had said was the reason she even had a chance to be a model, this whole thing was what she expected from him.

Moments later she walked through the portal to see Shadowmoth and she nodded at him. He nodded back and dropped his transformation, Duusu and Nooroo appearing by his head.

“You should have wiped her away the moment you saw her. It would have been merciful to it,” Duusu said and Nathalie looked at the Kwami in shock.

“It?” Nathalie asked as she looked at Duusu. “Then you know what that thing did to her?”

Duusu turned and looked at Nathalie with such a look of loathing that Nathalie almost took a step back. Only the feeling from the Miraculous that the Kwami wasn’t thinking that about her made her stay still.

“It wasn’t free enough to even be a person. Not even like how I’m bonded to this Miraculous. Creating people and turning them into things like that….. was the worst crime. Those who did that were punished horribly. And even those who thought that Death was a mercy said that those scum didn’t deserve it. It was that wrong,” Duusu said as he looked at the being that had been Lila.

“Brother please, you……we can’t talk about the before!” Nooroo said before he suddenly went still and dropped to the floor.

“Oh brother,” Duusu said softly.

“What just happened!?” Gabriel demanded as he dropped to his knees while Nathalie did the same.

“Old wrongs done to us years ago by the so-called Guardians. He’ll be fine, he just has to rest for a while,” Duusu said as he looked at Nooroo.

Gabriel picked Nooroo up and put him into a small bed. He walked to an electronic wall safe and took off the Butterfly Miraculous. Turning back to look at the others, he looked right at Duusu. “You will explain this later little one.”

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A limo rolled into the Agreste mansion. As it stopped by the front door, a door opened in the passenger section. From the door Tomoe got out and walked towards the stairs, using her wooden sword as a cane.

Nathalie stood at the top of the stairs and bowed to Tomoe. “It’s a pleasure to see you again Tsurugi-sama.”

“Sancoeur, still working for this idiot? What has he done now?” Tomoe asked as she walked up the stairs.

“Nothing, it’s what we learned that we have to talk about,” Nathalie said and Tomoe sighed.

“Whatever it is, it wasn’t worth it to make me come here. Still, we can talk about our greater plans once he’s told me what is wrong,” Tomoe said with a hard tone. “And before that, I have something else to say about a topic.”

Nathalie only looked at the blind woman as she walked into the mansion. Shaking her head, she closed the door and readied herself for Tomoe’s explosion.

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“WHAT!?” Tomoe roared in anger. Once Nathalie and Gabriel had finished she had exploded with rage. “Her birthday is eight months from now! And you say that she’ll be out of my control that soon!? All our planes are at risk!”

Tomoe breathed heavily as she held her sword pointing straight at Gabriel.

Duusu only looked on as Tomoe threatened Gabriel with her sword. Oh, that witch might be one of the funny ones! I can’t wait to see how this goes! Still, I might have to step in as bad as that tastes to me. Duusu thought as he looked down from above them all.

“We had no idea this was the case Tomoe! None at all!” Gabriel growled as he looked at her as Nathalie stood behind Tomoe. Why did Emila have to reach out to Tomoe about the plan? Why did I have to keep working with her? Sometimes I wonder if I should try and kill her with an Akuma. He thought as he looked at her.

“That’s not good enough! Already she might be developing in ways I don’t want! Why did that little fool not tell us!” Tomoe snarled and Duusu only glared down at her. And to his surprise, Duusu didn’t feel the mental chains that kept him from speaking up. He just blinked for a moment before grinning.

“Because the Guardians made it so I could only tell my wielders what they wanted them to know! And they never knew the truth about my levels! Gabriel finally decoded the proper way to repair my Miraculous. And with that, all their spells were broken!” Duusu snapped from above her. As everyone looked at the Kwami Duusu only glared down. “As much as I don’t like what you all want to use me to do, I will not let anyone be insulated for what they couldn’t know!”

Gabriel and Nathalie both looked at Duusu, shocked. He didn’t say anything about the Sins, and that was wonderful for them. But the Kwami was looking at them now, and the small nod showed that Duusu knew that. Gabriel only nodded and then gestured to the clock.

“This is even worse than I thought. How much are those old fools hiding? Why have they only decided to move now?!” Tomoe snarled confusing the others.

“What do you mean?” Nathalie demanded as both Gabriel and Duusu looked at her.

“I asked my daughter about the New Dragon. She told me that Arashiko was trained to use it,” Tomoe said.

Gabriel stared into space as Nathalie gasped. Duusu kept calm and looked at her, feeling a spark of pride.

“Then the Guardians might not have completely. They might even have splintered,” Nathalie mused.

Gabriel nodded. “It raises more questions than it answers. Were the other heroes trained or just the Dragon? Many of our plans with the Miraculous were based on no organized resistance. Sure there probably are rogue Miracolous like the ones here. Others that might have been found by others after the Order’s end. But if one of them was trained to wield this power, were the others? This puts many of our assumptions in doubt.”

Duusu looked at them, his face blank. What plans!? I told them that their children would be humans, what are they after? I need to listen in, I need to talk to Nooroo! He thought as he gazed at Tomoe.

Tomoe just glared with seeing at Gabriel before she pointed her sword down. “What’s done is done! And I wanted to talk to you about that brat of yours!”

Gabriel went still and looked at her before sighing. “You found out about the troubles that my son is giving me.”

“Troubles!?” Tomoe said with a hard sniff. “My spies at the local news station already told me! By this time tomorrow, the whole city will know about this court case. The only thing that might be more talked about is your little pawn being exposed!”

“What?!” Gabriel demanded and Tomoe spat at him.

“That Lila girl! That’s all my spy could tell me! The words Gabriel and Lila are being yelled there!” Tomoe snarled and Gabriel looked at her shocked. Tomoe took their salience to keep speaking. “So what did you do with that little wrench? I thought your tastes ran to more…… mature things.”

Gabriel looked at Tomoein in shock at what she insinuated. He glared as he went red in the face while both Duusu and Nathalie looked at her in shock.

“How dare you!” Gabriel roared and Tomoe only pointed her sword at his face.

Nathalie interjected before more words in anger could be said. “Lila was used by the Hawkmoth identity to create another mass Akuma attack. She failed and the issue was sent to a hearing. He talked to her during the last attack, that must be what they have.”

Tomoe only turned to ‘look’ in Nathalie’s direction before growling as she pointed her sword down. “She must be dealt with!”

“The Lila situation has been dealt with Tsurugi-sama. I handled it myself,” Nathalie said with a hard tone. Of course, this witch doesn’t need to know how we handled it. She thought as she looked at Tomoe with a blank stare.

Tomoe only kept her head focused on Gabriel for a few more moments before she nodded. I can’t trust this fool! I’ll have my people end that witch! These two are too soft, they’ll never see the truth of my plans before I win. But it does seem that I need to rethink how to handle Adrien. She thought beforespeaking. “I’ll need to adjust all my plans now. And Project Alliance is in jeopardy! You must place all blame for your issues with your son on Lila. You must regain your control over Adrien or we will fail!”

“I KNOW! I had an agent of mine investigate Lila, and I have enough to show the court what she is! A master manipulator that had Hawkmoth’s help to get close to me to use us as a way to get control of the city!” Gabriel said with a hard tone.

Nathalie only grinned as Tomoe’s mouth dropped open. “What do you mean!?”

“Think. I am friends with the mayor. I threw parties here when my wife was…..active. As far as; Hawkmoth knows, I’ll throw another soon. Lila comes to the party. Hawkmoth’s new ability to generate multiple Akuma. He Akumatized Lila into her in a gown. Hawkmoth creates another at the party, everyone goes to my panic room. Lila’s ability takes control of the Mayor,” Gabriel said flatly.

Tomoe ‘looked’ at Gabriel and nodded once. “Plug any holes in that. Once we know what will happen, we start Project Alliance. I have the factories ready for them. And we’ll say that I was testing the power source for a few months, something Emila got at an auction or something. And find those a way to get them!”

“Of course Tomoe, of course. Have a good evening,” Gabriel said as Tomoe walked toward the door, Nathalie opening it for her.

Gabriel sat down and looked at his office, his eyes finding the painting of his wife.

As soon as Nathalie came back Duusu floated down and looked at Gabriel.

“Think she bought everything?” Gabriel asked Nathalie.

Nathalie only grinned and nodded. “The plan worked perfectly. And now we know one more piece Tomoe has. It should be easy enough for me to find out the who. Does that old with really think she’s that smart to keep ahead of us?”

“Yes, she does. But once we have what we want, we’ll burn Tomoe. Those passages about Nooroo’s powers to store Akuma's powers will be most useful soon. Once we can figure out how to transmit,” Gabriel said with an evil grin.

“And then we take care of Tomoe. I wonder if I should give her a makeover? Have a nice bonding experience with her. A way to say goodbye,” Nathalie purred as she grinned evilly. We might need a new model soon. And her body would be perfect once I’m done. Nathalie thought with a grin.

“Before anything happens, we need to talk!” Duusuu declared as he looked down at the humans.

Gabriel looked at Duusu before sighing and shook his head. “Fine, I owe you. What do you want?”

“A plate of greens for dinner every night for me and my kin. No more, no less,” Duusu said bluntly. “And for you to hunt that monster down!”

“What monster?” Gabriel asked as he looked at Duusu. What’s wrong now? With everything that’s been happening, just what is going on now? He thought before he looked at Nathalie. To his surprise, Nathalie seemed to be on Duusu’s side and was glaring into space, her hands flexing. For a moment he stared before he shook his head.

“I mean that woman in Lila’s mind! That monster that my Weapon revealed!” Duusu snarled in a burst of emotion that caused Gabriel to stare at the Kwami in shock.

Slowly, Gabriel turned to look at Nathalie who was glaring into space. He had only seen her like that once before. It was when someone tried to rape Emile on an expedition when their camp was attacked by raiders. They had just found the Peacock and that was the first time Nathalie became a Champion. “Nathalie, explain, now please.”

“Duusu is talking about Lila’s mother Gabriel!” Nathalie snarled and Gabriel blinked.

“What about her?” Gabriel asked and Duusu glared down.

“She’s a magic user. She might have had Lila just so she could jump into Lila’s body once it was old enough,” Nathalie said bluntly.

Gabriel only looked at her and then to Duusu who nodded. Gabriel only put his head down and sighed. “When will this day be over!? First the Sins and now this?”

Duusu only looked down at Gabriel. I’m starting to see the limits of this one. He wants his wife back, nothing else. But he is a Holder no matter his goal. Should I be able to guide him to hunt her down? Duusu thought as he looked down at Gabriel. “So what will you do?”

“You want me to hunt her down? Why?” Gabriel asked and Duusu nodded.

“If you want my help as more than a slave, then yes. We hunt,” Duusu said.

Gabriel only looked at Duusu for a few moments before shaking his head. “No, why is this so important? Who is this woman to you?”

Duusu only hovered there and seemed to be vibrating in place, glaring down at Gabriel.

“A monster like her killed my first wielder and escaped before the others could kill her. For years she was the number one enemy of my kind. But who are these Sins?” Duusu asked as he looked around.

“The ones who gave us the means to fix your Miraculous,” Nathalie said

“How could modern Villains even find that much yet know how to use it?” Duusu asked, completely shocked.

“No, the Sins are Miraculous users. Theirs are based on the Seven Sins,” Nathalie said and Duusu went still before turning towards her.

“Based on what!? Impossible! There were never any Miraculous created based on sins by the Great Mages!” Duusu shrieked in shock.

“What!? Ten where they come from!?” Nathalie asked in shock.

“Wait, Mages!? As in more than one!?” Gabriel demanded and Duusu looked at him and shook his head, chuckling. Gabriel looked at Duusu and growled. “Tell me who you mean!”

“Did you think the Guardians had any legitimate ownership of anything to do with them? No the culture that did had been dead for a century before those fools found even a scrap of knowledge. But what they found let them add spells to make my kind slaves. But I’m free now, and only the first spells are on me!” Duusu spat and turned away. Looking over his shoulder, he grinned. “And while I still can’t do anything that might endanger you, I have a gift. The right to not obey your orders, and I don’t have to tell you anything. Try and find out the truth yourself. Me, I’m going to get some food upstairs!”

Gabriel looked at where Duusu had gone. “Nathalie.”

“Yes, Gabriel?” Nathalie asked.

“Who created the Sins Miraculous if these Great Mage didn’t?” Gabriel asked and Nathalie just shrugged.

Gabriel just looked into space, trying to understand this. There was something that was at the edge of his mind, but was it possible?

“Compile all the knowledge about the Guardians we know. I smell a mystery,” Gabriel said with a grin.

Nathalie only chuckled as she walked away.

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Commissaire Bertolfo walked out of the morgue, a scowl on his face. I can’t believe this. Six officers killed on the same day! The only thing good about this is that these weren’t from one battle. The drones and robots were bad enough, Damocles actions were the cherry on top. And now this woman that attacked Rodger. Just what is she? Bertolfo thought as he looked at the ceiling. His phone beeped, and he grabbed it. “Bertolfo! Talk to me!”

“Sir, this is Adam, the team is ready to move in. Waiting for Go order?” Adam’s voice asked.

Bertolfo sighed and shook his head. Finally, I can deal with something. That filth killed one of my men, and he’s going down. Everything I have on him says that he’ll run to his home. Once we have him, he’ll be judged. He thought with a hard glare. “The word is go! I want that man alive, remember that. But don’t you dare trade your lives for his capture. If you have to bring him in a body bag! And stay safe, do everything right!”

“Yes sir! I’ll bring him in myself!” Adam's voice had a note of anger in it.

Bertolfo just sighed and put his phone away. Walking towards the elevator he passed it and moved towards the stairs. “Yeah, I need more time.”

As he stalked through the corridors, everyone moved out of his way. He walked by the elevators and slipped into a staircase, he walked up five floors. Exiting into a corridor with four police officers around a door in the distance. He walked towards them, and when they saw him they saluted him.

He stopped and looked at them for a few moments. After a long look, he nodded and walked past them, opening the door.

“……Lila’s mom!? She did this to you, Dad?!” A young voice called out as he looked in.

inside the room Sabrina was standing to the right of the bed, Roger setting up. His left arm was covered in a caste and he had a bandage over his right eye. “She made things that did this to you?! Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah Sabrina, I’ll be fine,” Roger said as he looked at her. Because of that, both of them never noticed that Bertolfo had come into the room. Roger reached over with his right arm and rubbed her head. “My arm will heal and beside a small scar, my eye is fine. And the break was near my shoulder and they set it perfectly. Give me a few weeks on paperwork duty and I’ll be out there again.”

“Hopefully sooner!” Bertolfo said, causing both father and daughter to look towards his voice.

“SIR!” Roger said as he tried to salute but winced. “Sorry sir.”

“Nothing to be sorry about. But I need to know what happened,”

None of them heard Sabrina tap an app on her phone before Roger started to talk.

“It was a normal sweep to get everyone off the road. Then we found my daughter’s classmate, Lila. She was screaming at her mother about how she won’t control her anymore. Before we could move, some of the Sentimonsters knocked the mother out. Then Lila bargained with Hawkmoth! She transformed into that illusion-making Akuma, the fox one. Then she rode off on this fox Sentimonster the size of a horse, at least!” Roger said as he leaned back, wincing.

“Someone was willing to work with Hawkmoth?! And a teen at that?! Impossible!” Bertolfo exclaimed in shocked horror.

“I don’t doubt it,” Sabrina said absently. She blushed and looked away. “Forget I said anything.”

“Sabrina, please be….” Roger began only for Bertolfo to interrupt.

“Quite Roger! Now Miss, why aren’t you surprised?” Bertolfo asked softly.

Sabrina looked between the two adults and was visibly struggling with something. Finally, she sighed and shook her head.

“I……. a few days ago my classmate was expelled without a hearing. She was expelled because Lila created an event that framed Marinette for a few crimes,” Sabrina said and Bertolfo looked at her in shock.

“You were there….” Bertolfo asked in total shock. He had barely been able to get the address of Damocles from that reporter and to hear why the trial happened. “You were at ground zero for the Double Akuma!?”

“Sabrina!?” Roger asked in horror. She was that close to an Akuma?! Why oh why?! And if she was, then Chloe was! The boss is not going to be happy about this! He thought as he looked at his daughter.

“Yeah, I was there. We were showing support for Marinette. And when the Akuma got both him and Madame Bustier…..” Sabrina just hugged herself and looked away. “We just ran. I remember the time she became that Kissing Zombie! I didn’t want to get hit a second time!”

“Wait, Bustier!? She was your teacher? And the Kissing Zombi?!” Bertolfoasked in shock.

“What’s wrong?! Is she okay!?” Sabrina asked and inside she was laughing. Those lessons Aunty gave me are paying off!! As they have always. She thought as she looked at her father.

“She’s currently missing. The police will find her,” Bertolfo said after a minute.

Sabrina nodded and sighed. “I hope she’s okay. She might not have acted right, but she tried at least.”

“I see,” Bertolfo said evenly. He looked at Roger and then Sabrina before sighing. “Miss, could you please leave? I need a full debrief and the two of us need to talk about things a civilian shouldn’t know.”

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“Of course. Good to see you, sir!” Sabrina said as she walked out the door. She moved softly towards a bathroom and as she entered a single. Locking the door, she brought out her phone and looked at an icon. She grinned and chuckled a bit before starting to type away. That worked. Hopefully, I’ll have everything I need once I get home. She thought as she started to type out a text to Chloe.

“WHAT IN THE WORLD!? I WANT THAT MAN IN CHIANS!” Bertolfo bellowed from outside.

Sabrina opened the door and saw Bertolfo rush by her, two police people following behind him. She looked towards her father’s room and saw the guards were shaken. Rushing over, she looked at her father who was staring into space. “DAD! What happened?!”

“He just got a text. Seems a news station is showing a piece about how Lila is working for Hawkmoth,” Roger said with a hollowed voice.

“Oh,” Sabrina said and then she blinked. “Didn’t the Commissaire tell the stations to tell him first?”

Sabrina then blinked as she suddenly understood why Bertolfo was so mad

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Max sat down and looked over the theater’s electrical system to kill time. Hearing the way Markov and Kaalki were ‘talking’, he smiled. He had tried to figure out how to let the two of them communicate and came up with nothing. But once he realized that Kallki could manipulate a keyboard, he had his answer. It was easy for him to make an app that could send her text straight to Markov, and they were talking for hours. It was only a stop gap, bur he had time to make something better.

He looked around saw Luka and Master Fu in deep discussion while Sass sat between them. He thought it was about an old song that Fu had been taught as a child. Nino and Wayzz were by the door to the sewers, and talking about how to reinforce it. Something about the door bothered Nino, and it did to Max as well.

Kim and Zuupu were in the corner, Kim was hand-standing as Zuppu was on his right shoe.

Max grinned, he had thought they would talk about the battle as soon as they got to Fu’s, but he had said no. The best idea he said was to wait for the others to get there. Best to go over everything once and together.

The door opening above them caused Fu to smile but that dropped as he saw who wasn’t there. “Where are Sabrina, Adrien, and Kagami?”

“Kagami needed to get back before her mother noticed she was gone. And Sabrina went to the hospital….” Chloe sighed as she shook her head.

“Adrien went to my home before my parents did,” Marinette explained as she and Chloe got down to the bottom floor.

“So what happened out there?” Fu asked as everyone and their Kwami gathered around the room. , Marinette sat down in front of Fu, Tikki on the right shoulder. Kim and Xuupu both sat together,

“During the battle, Bustier took back control from Hawkmoth. But then she started to fight Damocles. And she grew these steel claws!”

“Turns out she’s a robot and has always been one. She took the place of the real Caline Bustier, and the real one is in America. Has been since before we met robo teacher!” Chloe said with a scowl.

“Yeah, and when she went rogue she ‘infected’ one of the Senntimonsters! It infected others and since their power was combat and reproduce by dying.……….. Well, it was a mess,” Nino said with a sigh.

Next to him Kim sighed and shook his head. “Yeah, and if the Dolphin chick didn’t show up and reverse the Sentimonsters power. Sure they merged together but if they hadn't we would have lost!”

"Almost as bad as my little sis's Akuma form then?" Alya asked and Kim nodded while Max shuddered.

“Even worse, Monasterio showed up and bumbled into the battle!” Nino said and Chloe groaned.

“That idiot?! I swear why he’s still a commander of men is the real mystery!” Chloe said as she face-palmed.

“And even worse, when the others confronted ‘Robo-Teacher’, she called robots to help her. They fought them off with a few arrows from me before she put her head on a drone!” Luka said from the stairs. He had sat down on the last one and Sass was on his head.

Master Fu looked at Luka in shock as the others all nodded.

“Yeah, me and Dragon Girl went after it, and five more that changed to look like the drone with the head! They split up and I destroyed six of them as they came met back up at the river! None of them had it, and it was the same with Dragon too!” Kim said with a scowl.

Master Fu frowned as he looked around at the heroes before him. He just kept stroking his beard as he listened to them. A robot? A robot with feelings at least that long ago? I’ve seen much but this? I expected the human race to move along, to discover ways to do that without magic but how old was it? And this Spider, where did she come from? How long has she been here? And are other ‘Stolen’ around here as well? He thought as he looked around. “I might have heard about a ‘stolen’ Spider Miraculous in the temple once. But the recent events, have made me reconsider everything I thought I knew. The gossip was that the Mage gave Miraculous to certain families. The stories go that the Kwami became such a part of their the heirs wouldn’t give them up. Something about watching them until the heirs died, but I thought it was just a rumor. I only heard it once, something told by initiates to each other.”

“So we know nothing? Great. But do you know anything about those robots horse boy?” Chloe asked as she leaned against the wall. Pollen giggled as they all saw the look on Chloe’s face that showed this was to tease Max.

“I never!” Kaalki huffed and Max just chuckled.

“No, those were beyond cutting edge. I’ve never seen anything like what they used to power them! And Buistier was a true human-level AI! I….. Markov and Uncanny Valley are the only such examples that are on the side of the law. Markov is only just starting to understand emotions and humor, but Buistier? She had a terrible sense of humor but it was there! I can’t explain any of this!” Max said softly as he held his head. “It took me months even with cutting-edge AI architecture and design. I spent months teaching him emotions by carrying him around town. And Mis….. Bustier was around when we were all in preschool!”

Everyone who had seen Bustier around school nodded. She had always seemed the same for days, but this revelation threw everything

“And that’s not even talking about the drones we fought! It took me months to find a way to make Markvos’s body. It’s a custom work, and it took me most of the time to find a way to make it. Those drones…..Those were all based on a single model. But I’ve never seen that design anywhere. The numbers alone were like a factory line. I can’t figure out where they were made. This is beyond anything I know about! Sorry,” Max said as he looked down.

Suddenly a phone rang. Everyone looked around until they saw Marinette take her’s out. She smiled and looked up. “It’s Kagami! Hey, what? Oh of course give me a minute to get somewhere I can talk.”

Marinette muted her speaker and looked around as she frowned. “Kagami is talking in code, something about a game….. oh. In case her mother has her room bugged. Smart. Hold on.”

As they all gathered around her as she turned off the mute. “Sorry Gami, but you know how it is with me. Sorry that quest you took, that Monster Tamer did it first? Yeah, that happens. That’s how the game is, all the other people. And he messed up the hunting too? We’ll get them next time. Have a nice day, thanks for calling. Sorry, I couldn’t be there.”

Marinette closed her eyes as she looked down. I knew there was something about Kagami’s mother! I just hope that Kagami can keep Lonng safe and secret! She thought as she looked around.

Chloe sighed as she looked around. “Well, that’s a bust. The bot got away after all. And Giles must still be around and still a threat.”

“How’d you figure that out?” Luka asked and Chloe shrugged.

“Monster Tamer, what he could do. And the hunt? How she and Monkey Boy went after the head. Makes sense,” Chloe said with a shrug.

“Yeah. I went up she went down. Must have found some of his monsters in the sewer,” Kim said with a sigh.

“Oh,” Fu said as the others all looked at her shocked.

“He’s still active. And he must be hunting in the sewer for materials for his monsters,” Alya said with a scowl.

“And we know that he thinks Ladybug is her senior. And let me say, that fact the that Lady Joan was one of the bugs makes me respect her more. I mean to put up with the sugar tooth Tikki had back then?” Chloe said as she grinned.

The Kwami and humans all laughed a little as Tikki looked away.

“Yeah. But seriously, with their new tactic for multiple Akuma, we’ll need Sabrina a lot more,” Marinette said with a sigh.

“And sooner or later they’ll catch on and work to catch her,” Luka said softly as Sass nodded.

“Then a small team to track down the ‘Holder Akuma’ then?” Alya asked as she looked around.

Fu only nodded as he looked around. “But still, you’ll need to get away from school if his habit continues. And all of you at once?”

“It’s a trick, but most of us are going homeschooled. A few study sessions at night? But about the team to hunt, no more than four. They’ll need to be fast,” Kim said with a hard edge.

“Maybe Horse and Monkey? That way Max can get the item to us before we destroy it, and Kim can be muscle protection.” Chloe said with a shrug.

“Your power would make it easier as well. A simple strike and the Akuma would be down,” Max suggested and Chloe nodded.

“It might work if we need it. but still…” Chloe trailed off as her phone started to beep. Looking down she grabbed it. “It’s from Sabrina, she’s saying….. Oh my god!”

They watched as Chloe went white and collapsed against the wall.

“MY QUEEN!” Pollen exclaimed and shot towards Chloe as the others all went to her

“Chloe?” Marinette asked softly

Chloe looked up and she swallowed. “Lila’s mother is a Super!”

“WHAT!?” Alya screeched as the others all looked at Chloe in shock. “What the hell did she do!?”

Everyone looked at Chloe as she read what was on her phone, looking up with a shocked look.

“She killed cops to break out. And she put Sabrina’s father in the hospital! She made or summoned these golems from gems after they put her in Roger’s squad car!” Chloe said as he

“Gems!? Madame Rossi is a Gem Witches!?? But how!?” Fu asked in shock.

“Wait, Gem Witch? What’s that?” Max asked as everyone looked at Fu.

“Gem Magic is a branch of magic, it was created during what you call the Dark Ages. But the last user died out during the war,” Fu said with a strange look on his face. “At least, the last active user.”

“And you’re sure about that?” Kim asked and Fun nodded.

“Yes, I killed her myself,” Fu said absently.

At the gasps, the others all gave when he told them he waved their shocked looks off.

“She was one the Thule, a true believer in the Nazi’s vision and goal. She had killed her off the only other Gem Witch still alive when she refused to join her,” Fu said absently.

“You fought in the war?” Marinette asked and Fu chuckled.

“A bit. To be honest the Thule hunted me. They had a way to find magic and the SS was their hunting dogs most of the time. I helped the Underground destroy captured material and saved those I could. And it wasn't enough, never enough,” Fu said and sighed as he looked at Max. “The worst thing about the Horse Miraculous is that you need to have seen where you’re going or seen it even from far off. As I had never been to Britain I couldn’t act as a channel for those we rescued. I was only able to get them to barns we had visited.”

“Oh,” Max said and he looked at Kaalki before he frowned. “Wait…. Does live TV count?”

“It was before my time. Pictures didn’t work right….. so maybe?” Fu said as he looked up, trying to think.

There was a whistle before they looked at Xuupu who was behind Kaalki who was looking away. Kaalki nodded once and Max’s eyebrows shot up.

“It can?! How do you know?!” Max asked and Kaalki dropped to the floor, unable to move.

“Kaalki!!” Max cried as he grabbed her.

Marinette only looked at Kaalki before looking at Tikki who looked away.

Chloe only scowled but then she reached something and paled in fear.

“Chloe? Are you okay?” Luka asked and everyone looked up, seeing how she looked.

Fu nodded and Chloe took a deep breath. “Sabrina says that Commissaire Bertolfo wants to talk to all of Buistier’s students. It was only the time that kept that from happening now, and they were all able to get away and talk. And then she sent a message, a station is reporting that Lila is working with Hawkmoth!”

“She was right!?” Alya demanded in horror.

“Great, just great! Now we gotta watch out for people who follow Hawkscum by choice! Anything else?” Kim asked.

“Yes,” Marinette said.

Kim looked around as everyone glared at him. He raised his hands and cringed. “I swear I was joking!”

“My parents know about Tikki,” Marinette said as she looked up. “And I think you should talk to them, Master.”

For a few seconds nothing, then it was like a bomb had gone off. Adrien stared in shock as Plagg started to smirk. Alya’s glass fell off her face as her mouth dropped open while Trixx was laughing. Max had fallen backwards while Kakki only stared. Pollen was sitting on Chloe's head while she had facepalmed. Nino had his hands over his mouth while Wayzz’s mouth dropped open Luka only nodded as Sass crossed his arms. Fu had fallen backwards, the only thing showing he was still alive was the way his limbs twitched.

“Oh dear,” Marinette said softly and looked around. There was a small shaky smile on her face as she looked at Adrien. “Maybe I should have said that easier?”

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A door was slammed open and Dolores Rossi stalked into her apartment, a scowl on her face. When she had come to the police had tried to question her but she had gotten away using a few gems. But now had to leave this place! Sooner or later, someone would remember seeing her come here. And when that happened she would have minutes at best to get away. Looking around the room, she scowled and held up a hand. A green glow covered it before she brought her arm slashing down. As soon as she did, wards activated before the furniture was thrown around the room.

“All my plans! It was perfect! Have that thing make a mess, make them hate her! Then she would get into an accident, she’d fall into a coma and I’d move in! I would have been a model! I’d get one over those two bitches! And everything was perfect! Just another week to finish everything, but this happens!”

She came to a large cabinet and threw it to the floor. Doing so revealed a hidden space in the wall that the cabinet had been hiding. She grabbed the bag in it and opened it, looking inside it before nodding.

“Well, at least I still have this! And the other places I can rest. I’ll track you down you little shirt!” She snarled as she looked up a picture of Lila.

As she looked around, she took a deep breath. The people in the building were nothing to her, but she liked the view. And thankfully she had a few tricks to use to get away. “And of course, this place isn’t the one recorded on my papers. And it’s time for a few of my other identities to come out of the shadows. This is what I made them for after all!”

She walked towards her room and in moments pulled out a bag. She held up a red gemstone and fired a red beat at her furniture that shrank them all. With a scowl, she looked at a wall niche and pulled out a small box six inches long and wide with a purple triangle gem. Putting it down she touched the gem and all the shrunken furniture floated into the gemstone.

She looked at the niches and pulled out five necklaces. She looked down at one that was just twelve round purple gemstones on a string. She put it on and in moments all of the gemstones lit up, and as she watched one of them started to flicker. “A bit less than a year, perfect! I need to find her or a substitute before my time runs out. Maybe that twin had children? Well, time to pack up.

Five minutes later she finished putting all the items she wanted into a backpack bag. Walking out of the room she stopped at Lila’s room/ she scowled and a green gemstone appeared in her hand. She threw it into the room and a tornado formed. In moments the room was destroyed, everything was broken and thrown around.

Dolores looked at the wreckage and chuckled darkly. “And that is just a taste. You’ll know pain unlike anything you’ve felt before! And since I can heal scars, I think I might disfigure you before the ritual, I can heal myself after anyway.”

She walked into the kitchen and stopped as she saw a blinking light on one of her statues. With a savage grin, she started to laugh. “So they’re there? Perfect! Nothing like a massacre to cover your tracks!”

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Lieutenant Monasterio grinned as he looked at the apartment building. Everything was almost ready, all that he was waiting for was the snipers to get into place. He had planned everything perfectly. Soon that witch would be in custody, captured by normal people. This would show the world and the city the truth! Finally, I’ll show everyone that those super-powered freaks aren’t needed! And more, my command will put away a killer of cops! And even better it happened under the command of the Super-Freak babysitter! I’ll finally have my mark on the city, and then I’ll have the power! Soon this whole city will be mine. This is just what I needed to start my political career!! He thought as he sat in his command van. They were one street down and he had brought all his forces, even those beyond a few patrollers here. They were all around the building, ready to lay down covering fire against anything that she would do.

He looked around, frowning as he saw a large truck with an open trunk. “Sergeant Gonzalez! Are we ready!”

“Yes sir!” Gonzalez called out as he saluted his captain. “The Snipers have a line on the apartment. The officers are ready to breach and they have orders to shoot to maim at most. We’ll have that witch soon. Anyone who dares to kill a cop, they go down. Hard!”

For a moment all Lieutenant Monasterio could do was stare at Gonzalez and then he started to turn red.

“Then what is that?!” Monasterio demanded as he pointed at a single truck.

“Oh, that! Well, the engine broke. We could call tow but well,” Gonzalez said laughing. “That thing is so loud! I thought it might let the enemy know we’re here!”

“We know nothing about the enemy besides the fact that she can create minions! And that thing is being left there. Do you think it might affect the battle!?” Monasterio demanded with a growl.

Gonzalez just shrugged. Not sir. It’s on the other side of the building from the apartment after all.”

Monasterio blinked, looked at the building map, and then at the videos and nodded. “So it is. The word is giving, go!”

#miraculous ladybug au/ the law is the law #miraculous tales of ladybug and cat noir #adrien x marinette #ladybug fanfiction #mlb fic #mlb fandom #ladybug fic #ladybug au

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off-brand-likes · 1 year

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Whumptober Day 4: Danger written in your eyes

I couldn't decide where to put this, and it's not really over yet, but it's reached the prompt point soooo I'm putting it here.

During the send off celebration for Sabine's last night on Peridea, a Noti died squealing at a edge of the firelight. Neither howler alerted anyone to danger, though they set up a ruckus once the surviving Noti started screaming and running for their homes. Sabine was already on her feet and running into the dark with Ahsoka beside her when she consciously registered the flash of red she'd seen as the Noti died.

Ahsoka held out a hand, palm facing back toward Sabine. They skidded to a stop together. "Something's wrong," Ahsoka said. "I don't sense any of Shin’s bandits."

Sabine huffed an irritated sigh, still searching the night for movement or another flash of red. "That'd be why Shabiir didn't warn us."

Ahsoka glanced at Sabine, probably to make sure Sabine noticed her sardonic smile. "Perhaps you shouldn't have given her that name to live up to."

Sabine rolled her eyes. "It's perfect for her." They'd planned to leave Shabiir and Ahsoka's howler with the Noti for protection while Ahsoka took Sabine home by the repaired shuttle and the purrgil Huyang predicted would be in orbit tomorrow. "Screwup" wouldn't be much protection if she slept through surprise attacks.

"Mount up." Ahsoka turned back toward the Noti camp in a dramatic swirl of cloth.

Sabine followed. "Think Shin’s strafing us again?"

"Maybe," Ahsoka said in the doubtful tone of voice which meant she didn't think so at all but had no better explanation.

Shin had taught her bandits, already used to constant movement, to ride long oval patterns around their targets, ducking in and out of Ahsoka's sensing range. Sabine had taught the Noti to make perimeter sensors, but they hadn’t made many yet. In the meantime, they were supposed to have Shabiir.

Sabine and Ahsoka split up to look for Shin while Huyang looked for her on the shuttle’s sensors. He’d never found her that way before, but it gave him something helpful to do. Sabine rode a close circle around the Noti camp while Ahsoka rode farther out.

Movement in the dark drew Sabine's gaze and Shabiir's at once. "Ahsoka, I see her!" Shabiir dropped her head down and forward, all the warning she gave Sabine before she galloped into the dark after Shin.

Shabiir barely paid attention to Sabine’s guidance on the reins, even though Sabine’s helmet gave her a little help seeing in the dark. Shabiir just relied on her own flexibility to jump over or jolt around obstacles, leaving the whole “staying in the saddle” problem up to Sabine.

Something huge crashed into Sabine’s side. She fell hard off the opposite side of Shabiir and skidded in the dirt for a full second. Somewhere in front of her, Shabiir howled.

A red lightsaber lit and swung at Shabiir in the same movement, but Shabiir ducked away, yelping pitifully into the dark beyond the red light’s reach. Sabine couldn’t tell if the howler had gotten burned.

She rolled to her feet and lit the green saber as she drew it, just in time to block a downward strike with all Shin’s weight behind it, which was more than her thin build would lead somebody to expect. Sabine swung them around a step to put her back to a boulder that helped her push Shin back.

Ordinarily, she’d be dodging bandits and blaster bolts by now. Except for Shabiir’s retreating footsteps among the rocks and the buzz of the local bloodsucking insects around her ears, the night was eerily quiet. “Okay, you never want a fair fight. What are you up to?”

“You don’t fight fair either.” Shin snapped two incredibly quick strikes at Sabine’s sides.

Sabine blocked the first one and almost staggered into the second. The blade sliced her side and burned hot and sharp, but not deep enough to be dangerous. Sabine knew what that felt like. The pain made her gasp anyway. The rock behind her cracked as the tip of Shin’s lightsaber melted a long streak of it.

If Sabine didn’t know better, she’d interpret Shin’s tone as complimentary. Where was Ahsoka? Shin wasn’t so bold when she was outnumbered.

In the dim light reflected from the white band of the planet’s rings above them, Shin’s pale hair and skin glowed like starlight. At least Sabine would be harder to see in the dark. “So, what brings you out here on a nice night like this?”

Instead of answering, Shin tried to stab her again. This time Sabine deflected the strike with her gauntlet and grabbed Shin’s arm.

She used her superior weight to throw Shin against the boulder and pin her lightsaber arm against it. Just to be safe, she crushed Shin against the boulder with her full weight, dropped her own lightsaber to catch Shin’s flailing free arm, and braced her boots in the rocky soil against Shin’s wiry muscle strength.

Shin threw her head back and knocked it against Sabine’s helmet. That must’ve hurt, but she kept writhing in Sabine’s grip. The boulder Sabine had her pinned against shuddered, but didn’t move.

“Let go.” Shin’s voice shivered with focused Force energy.

Nothing Sabine hadn’t heard before. “No. I like you right where you are.” That hadn’t come out the way Sabine meant it to.

Another wave of Force energy swirled around her, but it wasn’t anywhere near as solid as the attack that’d knocked her off Shabiir. It felt a little like a gust of wind, and it didn’t even knock Sabine off balance this time.

All the fight went out of Shin. Sabine didn’t do anything stupid like let go of her, but the way Shin held herself felt different. Softer.

Her voice was so quiet that Sabine almost missed the words “I’m here for the ship.”

“I should’ve guessed.”

Shin tensed up and pulled at Sabine’s grip one more time, hard. When she couldn’t get free, she settled again. Her arms trembled slightly under Sabine’s gloves. Her wrist bones felt as delicate as a bird’s wings.

Nope, now’s not the time to think about that. Sabine said, “Why, do the other continents have better bandits or something?”

Shin huffed an impatient sigh that pushed her ribs back against Sabine’s. “It’s hard to get fuel here. You wouldn’t be moving the ship if you didn’t know the purrgil are coming soon. You used them to get here.”

“And you want to go home,” Sabine said as she realized it. Shin tossed her head like she was going to headbutt Sabine again, ineffective as that was, but she was just getting her hair out of her eyes.

Sabine should be figuring out how to get herself out of this situation. If she let go of Shin, Shin could probably kill her with her bare hands, and both their lightsabers were on the ground somewhere nearby. But Sabine couldn’t help asking, “How did you think you’d get them to take you back to our galaxy?”

“I don’t know. I’ll try things until I find the way that works.” On the last word, Shin made another attempt to squirm, pull, and push her way away from Sabine.

Sabine dug in her armored heals and hung on. “Or, you’ll die up there. Or scare all the purrgil away and then die up there.” Although, she could land Ahsoka’s shuttle, if she wanted to. Sabine had seen enough of her flying to be sure of that.

Shin stilled under her again. “Better to die doing something than scrabbling in the dirt.”

Sabine’s hands were beginning to ache from holding Shin’s wrists so tightly. Now that she thought about it, her shoulders and hips hurt from getting knocked off her howler, and the burn in her side might’ve been deeper than she thought. From the way Shin’s arms were shaking under her own, Shin wasn’t much better off.

“Look,” Sabine said. “Ahsoka’s going to be here any minute,” and Sabine was standing so close that Shin’s shudder worked its way up Sabine’s own aching arms, “so why don’t you start thinking of a way to convince us you’re safe to travel with. Because that’s the only way you’re getting on that shuttle.”

And that wasn’t a great idea, either, but it made Shin crane her neck to try and look Sabine in the face. Her eyes were wide and wild, like the trapped creature she was. And there wasn’t anything more dangerous than a trapped Force user. Sabine’s helmet probably reflected those eyes back at her.

#whump #text #no.4 #lyric prompt #No effort Whumptober #captured #burned #star wars #ahsoka show #spoilers #death mention #lady whump

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tsuki-chibi · 3 years

Text

Post-Reveal Revelry Day 12: Secretive

Read them all on AO3

“What are you up to today, Marinette?”

“Alya and I are going to the mall,” Marinette said. “Adrien and Nino might join us later, maybe.”

“Maybe?” Sabine echoed. Marinette didn’t dare turn around – not when she was carefully adding more cupcakes to the display case – but she could feel the weight of her maman’s curious stare on her shoulders.

“Adrien is finishing up an early morning photoshoot,” Marinette explained. “He was hoping to be done by noon. He said that his role is pretty minor for once.”

“Ah, I see,” Sabine said. “It’s a shame he has to be up so early on a Saturday.”

Marinette paused in putting the last cupcake down, wondering ruefully just how her maman couldn’t see the hypocrisy in that statement given that she’d been woken up at half past seven that morning. One of the bakery workers had called in sick, so Marinette had been roped into getting out of bed early and helping out.

But then again, her maman also didn’t know that Marinette had been up until 3am this morning fighting another akuma. It had been very late – or very early, depending on how you looked at it – when Ladybug and Chat Noir had finally separated to return back to their own homes. Marinette wondered if her maman would’ve been more sympathetic if she’d known that.

“Adrien will be okay, Maman. He’s used to this,” Marinette said, straightening up. The lie felt heavy on her tongue. No one ever got used to the lack of sleep caused by being a superhero. Marinette sure hadn’t.

“Still. I want you to take some sweets with you,” Sabine said with a determined nod. “And I’ll give you money to buy a nice drink for each of you to go with it.”

Marinette brightened. “Thanks! That would be great. We’ll probably hang out there for a while before going back to Alya’s.”

And having a group nap, Marinette did not add. It wouldn’t be the first time that the four heroes had crashed together, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Carapace and Rena Rouge hadn’t joined Ladybug and Chat last night, but they had both been out late Thursday night patrolling. Alya and Nino had both looked pretty dead on their feet yesterday.

“Well… I think you’ve done enough. I should be able to take it from here.” Sabine retrieved her purse and dug around, finally pulling out some money which she gave to Marinette. Then she surprised Marinette again, this time with a big hug.

“Maman, what?” Marinette said, startled.

“You’re a good girl, Marinette. I don’t think I tell you that enough. I hope you have fun with your friends today,” Sabine said, squeezing her tightly.

Marinette’s throat felt tight. Sometimes she really hated how secretive she had to be when it came to her family. The pressure wasn’t quite so intense now that Adrien, Alya, and Nino knew the truth, but it was still really hard. The problem was that she didn’t know if life would be better if she told her parents that she was Ladybug, or if it would become worse. It was a risk she couldn’t take.

“Thanks, Maman. I’m sorry I was cranky about getting up this morning,” Marinette said, hugging her back, and Sabine laughed a little.

“I would’ve thought something was seriously wrong with you if you weren’t cranky,” she joked. “Ever since you were little, you’ve always hated getting out of bed.”

“Can you blame me? My bed is just too cozy,” Marinette said. And frankly, she didn’t get to spend nearly enough time in it thanks to Hawkmoth.

“You can sleep in tomorrow,” Sabine said. “I promise I won’t wake you up. Now go! Shoo! Have fun.”

“I will,” Marinette said, unable to keep from smiling. Her parents really were the best. Maybe someday she’d think seriously about letting all the secrets go and telling them the truth. But until then, she’d just have to rely on her teammates to keep her sane.

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #sabine cheng #post-reveal #postreveal2022 #post-reveal revelry

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hedgiwithapen · 2 years

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He's my father! How can you trust me? Adrien and either Marinette or Tom and Sabine

(inspired by the Bakery Enemies AU -- very good, go read it) Adrien’s hands were locked around his elbow as he sat on the tall stool in a cramped office. The Dupen-Chengs smiled at him, his slip of an application dwarfed in Tom’s huge hand. “Do you have any questions for us?” Sabine asked, her voice warm. “The perks--” Tom reminded his wife. They’d discussed hours, pay, holidays. “You get a free pastry every day. And an employee discount on things like cakes.” “Oh,” Adrian said, thinking with a pang about the basket of pastries he’d shared with Ladybug on rooftops after Patrols. She’d loved this bakery. He wondered if she was a regular customer, if she might come in, and recognize--- “I.. got the job?” The owners of the Bakery shared a look. “Yes. You seem like a hard worker, you’ve got a good head for remembering orders. The multiple languages will be a help with our tourist customers. Unless you’re not interested?” “No, I… I am, I just…” Adrien bit his lip. “How can you trust me? He’s my father, and--nowhere else I applied even called after they saw my name, and--” Sabine reached forward for a moment, drawing back only at the last second. “You are not your father. That’s why. You’re not secretly planning on replacing the butter with margarine, are you?” “No,” Adrien said, unsure what that had to do with anything. “No desire to attack anyone with a baguette?” “I… not… really?” he hadn’t held a fencing foil, or a baton, in years. “Not even a little?” This was officially the weirdest job interview he’d had, but also the only one he’d had.. “Maybe a little. If it had a bump like a sword grip?” “See, and you’re honest. Everyone sometimes thinks about using one as a sword. Hmm, for Hero Day maybe we should do that. Little baton bread loaves…..” “You’re sure?” Adrien knew he should stop pressing his luck. Tom only smiled. “Adrien, you already said you didn’t have a problem getting up at 4 AM to start the bread. I’m the one who should be asking if you’re sure.” “Oh. Um. Great. Then, I… guess I’ll…. See you tomorrow? At, uh, 4?” Sabine stood, offering her hand to shake. It was warm against his cold one. “Tom will be here to let you in and show you the ropes. Welcome aboard.”

#Dammit Hedgi Day 2022 #Dammit Hedgi Day #Miraculous Ladybug #The Bakery Enemies AU

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miraculouscontent · 3 years

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Can I ask for "Sole Crusher" and/or "Queen Banana" salt?

I’ll do both at once because all my gripes are relatively small.

“Sole Crusher”

They’re still using Marinette’s clumsiness as a punchline and I’ve been tired of that since “Animaestro.” Sabine clearly looks worried about the fall and it’s just--it really feels like Sabine and Tom don’t care about Marinette’s clumsiness unless it affects them personally, considering that Marinette was carrying their supplies. They either help her with her problems or they have no right to react to them.

Zoe is... fine. She’s just fine. I like her enough on at least the fact that Marinette has a pleasant relationship with her. I’m just not crazy about the fact that she’s another sad rich kid; we’ve already got like three of those. Her sad backstory is also way over the top and unnecessary, essentially boiling down to, “I was a nice person and people hated me for it.” It’s made weirder by the fact that no one just points out that it’d be dumb to hate her because they’re not terrible people, or just the ridiculousness in general of the people who treated her horribly.

Shame that Zoe’s only akuma is just... her looking like Chloe. I know it’s the point that she imitates others but I prefer when akuma show off the personality/tastes of the person.

I rolled my eyes a bit when the goal was to convince Sole Crusher down. After “Gang of Secrets,” trying to calm akuma down has just lost all meaning. Sole Crusher still listening to Chloe was dumb and the whole scene just ended up being padding. Sure, Sole Crusher ended up going for Chloe instead of Kitty Section, but still.

“Queen Banana”

Less of an episode criticism and more of me being disappointed from what I expected for from seeing the pre-airing stuff. Seeing Chloe just complain and everyone just being generally annoyed by it was super same-y and I’d kinda hoped that they’d all planned to backstab Chloe from the beginning and would feign fawning over her, giving her exactly what she wants with the intent of doing whatever they wanted later. It just adds more variety and comedy to the interactions instead of feeling like “Horrificator.”

Marinette says that she won’t be in the movie and then she’s in the movie. Is consistency too much to ask for? (I know the answer, don’t worry.)

Marinette being caught tripping on the news, even if it’s just in the background, is just... *sigh*

It felt like they wanted to develop Andre in “Sole Crusher” and then he’s just more of a joke in this one. He does try to back off from Chloe more than usual, but they pointed out the fact that he’s made a movie and then that doesn’t even come up as a plot point in the episode, instead just being a gag about him getting cut off (Andre could’ve easily been shown thinking of his own movie experience and what he’d try and do in this situation).

It got on my nerves that people were constantly overriding whatever Marinette said to talk about “tHe bEnEfIT oF tHe mOviE.” Same with Zoe comforting Marinette; it just ends up feeling like Marinette is needlessly put in this position so she looks in the wrong for not wanting to go along with everything?

If the students all were doing this in their free time, they really should’ve just left and said that they didn’t want their name on that project, especially Nino. They just sort of complain but it’s not like they’re stuck on the project if they’re donating their spare time to it.

Okay wait. So “Mr. Pigeon 72″ had Marinette say that she was using her holidays to do guardian stuff, then Adrien later said “see you tomorrow” as if they’d see each other at school the next day, implying that the holidays are over, but now apparently there are more holidays just three episodes later??? I don’t understand.

The banana thing was so forced. No other way to say it.

Adrien literally wasn’t in the plot until Chloe insisted on it (lowkey felt like the line about Adrien being the only one “worth rescuing” was the writers projecting), and then he gets a spotlight in the movie, being the only civilian who got a noticeable amount of screen time being healed, probably due to Gabriel’s influence. We’re back to “Mr. Pigeon 72″ logic where he’s there just to be there and for love square (and also “Lies” logic where this guy apparently has nothing better to do and can just afford to come by).

ARE ADRIEN AND CHLOE STILL FRIENDS OR NOT?? (More Adrien being sad too over Chloe, plz kill me)

Zoe’s personality jump between herself and Vesperia is really jarring. Speaking of which, don’t dig the “V” theme in Vesperia’s design, nor bits of her transformation. (they also felt the need to show off her backside in the end card, whyyyyy)

Chloe seemed to remember stuff from her akumatization in “Miracle Queen” too, but I just want this detail explained to me, because Chloe called Vesperia by name despite only hearing it as Queen Banana. Does Shadow Moth control what they remember or what??

Can’t tell how much of Zoe’s speech to Chloe is genuine and how much is just her putting on an act. Likewise, confused by the whole hint/jab at a potential future Chloe redemption, as it’s all really unnecessary.

#category: salt #episode: Sole Crusher #episode: Queen Banana #other: ml spoilers #other: ask and answer

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yannowhatigiveup · 4 years

Text

My One And Only - Ch 4

Previous | Next

E chapter 4 is here. This one is longer than the previous chapter I think anyway enjoy this chapter!

Then Nino whispered to Alya "Do you think she likes Luka again?"

"I..don't know, but I'm gonna find out one way or another"

————————————————————

The trip went smoothly. Surprisingly, Lila hadn't done anything at all. Maybe she admitted to what she had done. Her loyal 'minions' had avoided her slightly today but Marinette knew they would come crawling back to Lila tomorrow, as if this never happened. Though, Marinette was grateful to have Alya, Nino and Adrien by her side. And Marinette was also surprised at how Chloe came to her defense, kinda. When the bluenette was getting her bag from her locker, she overheard Chloe confronting Lila.

"You were the cause of Marinette's late appearance weren't you? Ridiculous! Utterly Ridiculous! The only one allowed to mess with Dupain-Chen's is me, got that?" The blonde said. "If I ever find you bullying her in anyway I'll have you expelled!"

Marinette was thankful that Chloe had come in her defense, in her own way. Marinette was about to catch up to her friends, who were getting closer to the exit, when she felt a vibration from her phone in her pocket. She took her phone and saw a message from 'Uncle Jagged'. She opened it and read it.

Uncle Jagged: Hey Nettie! Sorry about the late notice but I've been called for an interview. We'll need to reschedule

Marinette began typing

Marinette: It's no problem Uncle Jagged! I'll be free for more less the rest of the week

Uncle Jagged: Yeah I'm free tomoz, you can drop by then

Marinette: Kk

Marinette but her phone away. 'I can spend more time with Damian' she thought with a smile on her face.

"Hey Marinette! You free later?" The voice of her best friend echoed in the near empty school. "We were planning on going to Adrien's later, his father finally allowed us to come over!"

"I'm afraid I can't" Marinette said, feeling a bit guilty. "I'm busy, actually-" she glanced at her phone for the time "I gotta go! See you guys later maybe!" Marinette then ran out the building.

"Oh that's...fine" Alya said while her best friend ran by. "I wonder what's so important that she passed up going to Adrien's"

"You guys sure you don't wanna join me in the car?" Adrien asked.

"It's fine dude! Alya and I can walk"

"If you say so" Adrien answered, unconvinced. As he got into the car, he used this silence so that he could here his own thought clearly. 'I...I think I like Marinette, no I'll admit it. I know I like Marinette but does she like me back?'

~~~

Alya and Nino were walking down the street together, hand in hand, before Nino started a conversation. "Do you think Marinette has stopped crushing on Adrien?"

Alya shook her head vigorously "There's no way! She has nearly every photo of him in existence and she memorized the boy's schedule boy heart don't forget!"

"But then how do you explain how she was acting earlier?" Nino stated, firmly believing his own theory. "She didn't trip on her words at all! Even when she was tired she would always stammer while talking to him"

Alya then thought about what her boyfriend was saying. "You're right! And to think Adrien just started showing signs of liking her". Alya sighed in sympathy for the blonde boy. "Do you think she likes Luka again?"

"Who else could it be?" Nino asked but didn't wait for his (rhetorical) question to be answered as they reached the gate to Adrien's house.

~~~

Marinette rushed home to change and to drop her designs in her room. She's gotten a lot better at designing and making her designs, so much better that everything she would where would be her original designs and she was proud of it. She quickly got changed into a light cream top with long sleeves, the cream top was so light in colour that it could basically be passed off as white. She also had a pair of jet-black leggings to match. "What do you think Tikki?"

"You look great Marinette!" The kwami yawned.

Happy with her outfit, she grabbed her sketched book, put it in her bag, grabbed her shoes and ran downstairs. "I'm going to a friend's place, I'll probably be back in the evening. Bye Maman! Papa!"

"Bye Marinette!" Sabine shouted, luckily Marinette's parents were too busy working on a cake to notice how Marinette was dressed purposefully to impress. Marinette also noticed how Tikki looked tired so she tried not to run so the little kwami could get some sleep.

She soon arrived at Le Grand Paris. She felt very out of place as the doors opened for her but she walked without fear to the reception. 'Here we go'.

"Yes Miss, how may I help you?" The female receptionist asked.

"Hi, um I'm here to go to Mr Damian's room"

The receptionist nodded "Alright just give me one minute" she seemed to brace herself to call the room's phone which Marinette didn't understand. True Damian isn't that great with expressing his emotions but he wasn't that bad. Well, not to her at least. She blushed slightly at this realisation "Sir? There's someone here to see you"

"Ask for their name" a voice from the telephone said.

"Excuse me miss what's your name?"

"Marinette" the bluenette said.

"She says her name is Marinette, sir" the receptionist said with a slightly shaky voice.

"She may come in" the voice from the telephone rang.

The receptionist put the phone down and told Marinette the floor and room number. Though she already knew the room number, she didn't know what floor he was on so the information was useful. Marinette then walked to the lift and pressed the button that would lead her to the floor Damian was on. When she reached the door she had to breathe in a little before knocking on it. Surprisingly it opened right away, by Damian of course.

"Hi again, Damian" Marinette said switching to English. When she opened her eyes she saw that Damian was examining her. 'Did I put something on that didn't match? No it can't that' Marinette then blushed a little. Though she didn't even know the guy for a full day, her crush for him had blossomed, tremendously.

Damian glanced at Marinette's outfit, it complimented her personality and physique perfectly. He then realised he might had been staring for some time now and shook his head to snap out of the trance. "Yes, hello again. Please, come in" and he opened the doors for her. Damian watched as she looked around the suite, examining her surroundings, while Damian went back to examining, well, Marinette.

"Wow, You got one of the big suites" Marinette said, her eyes outshining anything bright in the room.

"Yeah" Damian mumbled and he could tell that the girl seemed pretty self conscious about her outfit. 'Because of me staring no doubt'. So to cheer her up, he said "You look lovely by the way"

The girl's face turned into a bright red. "You really think so?"

Damian nodded. "That hair clip suits you. If you're top was pure white, I would've been convinced that you were an angel, not that you aren't one already" Damian thought of something. "Actually, Angel is not a bad nickname for you. Is it ok if I refer to you as that from now on?"

Marinette was consumed by happiness. "Thanks for complimenting my outfit at being able to pick out all the little details" On her face was now a look of pure love and joy. "And since you'll be calling me 'Angel', I think it's only fair if I call you 'Shaytan' from now on" This made Damian laugh.

"Courtesy of my brothers no doubt" Earlier, Damian had told her that his brothers usually called him 'Demon Spawn' and she laughed, not seeing why they call him that. He knew that Marinette was aware of his 'ice-cold' personality but she never judged him for it. "And is it ok if we watch this Jagged Stone interview? My brothers and I are quite big fans, Tim and Jason are even bigger fans for MDC. Full out fanboys"

Marinette giggled, "Sure I don't mind! I'm a fan of Jagged Stone too". Damian then went to turn the TV on while Marinette wen to out her bag somewhere, but she kept her phone with her. She then sat next to Damian on the sofa, leaving about a pencil's width between them. Damian was fine with this, actually, he would be fine if Marinette full on hugged him with sitting there. He didn't mind.

Then, Nadja Chamack's voice echoed in the more or less quiet hotel room. "So Jagged Stone, many of the viewers, myself included, Have been all wondering the same question: Who is this MDC?"

Jagged Stone chuckled. "Well I'm not going to reveal her name yet but I can tell you, she is honorary my niece."

"Interesting, very interesting" Nadja said. "Is it possible if we could have an interview with her?"

"If she's willing to pick up her phone then sure" Jagged chuckled again while reaching for his phone and dialing a number.

Then Marinette's phone rang. Damian did get a bit suspicious at first but didn't want to invade her privacy. That was until Marinette's voice echoed through the TV's speakers.

"Hi Uncle Jagged!"

———

Taglist: @little-bluestar,@miracleofadisaster

#maribat #daminette #marinette x damian #damian x marinette #mlb x dc

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sariahsue · 4 years

Text

Wise

Note: This is a continuation of Stars, but I'm posting it separately because the whole thing isn't titled Stars and I don't want to come up with an actual title. :p And because it's for the @post-reveal-revelry event with different prompts and I wanted to be consistent with how I put them all up here.

Marinette reviewed her options as she stirred the cupcake icing by hand. Let Chat Noir tell her his identity or not let him.

Her father's voice floated in from the shop as he happily chatted with strangers. Beside Marinette, Sabine stepped up onto a stool and peered into the huge vat of bread dough for tomorrow morning's loaves.

Chat Noir already knew who she was and had been taking full advantage of it by visiting her nine times in the past two weeks, though after that second time, he hadn't brought up sharing his identity again. She was grateful. She needed time to think, to decide.

"Marinette, I think it's combined enough."

She blinked and looked down, vaguely surprised to find herself in the bakery and not upstairs in her room, looking at a ceiling full of plastic stars and listening to Chat tell her about musical theory or what an aperture on a camera was, or a hundred other things that she hadn't known he knew. White icing climbed up the edges of the red bowl. She'd been mixing too hard.

"You seem distracted, bǎo bèi." Sabine reached up, pushing Marinette's dark bangs out of her eyes. "Something on your mind?"

Marinette's held breath left her in a puff, and she put the bowl back on the counter. "No."

"You're getting forehead wrinkles again." Her fingers traced them back and forth. "Which means you're thinking heavy thoughts."

Marinette groaned. There was no chance of hiding it from her now, and maybe she could help. "When should you share secrets?"

"What kind?" Sabine added more water to the dough. "If someone's asked you not to-"

"Not like that," Marinette said. "More like, personal info about yourself with someone."

Sabine hummed, staring intently as the dough hook spun. "Do you trust them?"

"Sure." She'd been lucky it had been Chat Noir who had found her out. He wouldn't do anything with the knowledge ever. He'd never hurt her, and she'd also never betray him. That wasn't really the problem, but Sabine wasn't finished.

"Will they respect you even when they're mad at you? Or would they use the secret against you to get even or win an argument?"

That was easy. Of course she wouldn't use it against him. "But what if something goes wrong?" Marinette asked. She tightened a pigtail to give her hands something to do. There were so many bad things that could happen to him if she knew.

"Things will always go wrong," Sabine said, "whether you share or not"

Marinette leaned against the counter. Not exactly the pep talk she'd been hoping for.

"It's not wise to only think of what could go wrong if you do something. Look at it from all angles. What could go wrong if you don't share? What could go right if you do?"

Huh. She'd never thought about it that way.

"Sharing information can lift burdens and create intimacy, but it can also give someone everything they need to hurt you deeply. But keeping secrets because you're scared of being vulnerable is just as damaging." Sabine smiled at her, like knew she'd hit Marinette's sore spot. "You need to make sure you're sharing or withholding for the right reason. It's not a decision to be made lightly."

It wasn't the threat of Hawk Moth that was holding her back. And it wasn't a fear that she'd hurt him. In her lists of what could go wrong, her fears all focused on one central theme: How would their dynamic change?

But that already started changing when he found her out. Did she want to create a deeper bond between them?

Marinette let herself be pulled into a hug. Sabine's bangs tickled her cheek. "Thanks, Maman. I'll think about it."

***

Part three here!

#postreveal2021 #ml #miraculous #miraculous ladybug

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fanfictasia · 2 years

Text

Angstpril Day 1

“I didn’t mean for this to happen”

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from Shadows of Tomorrow

“There’s a contest going on, among the cadets,” she explains, looking decidedly uncomfortable. It’s weird to remember that she’s literally preparing to become a stormtrooper. He’s less than happy, but he can’t spread his opinion about it. “They want to see if someone could design a weapon that can target beskar armor.”

That’s what they’re up to? Alarm hits him instantly. He already knows that this isn’t just some experiment or something. They’re planning to use it. Almost nothing can get through beskar, and if they specifically want a weapon for that… This does not sound good at all. “Sabine, thank you for telling me about this,” he says, grimly, “Can ymandalou tell me what else you know about it?”

She carefully studies the floor. “I – I joined,” she blurts, “We… we aren’t supposed to talk about it with non-Imperials, but I helped them make it and I didn’t realize they were actually planning to use it, but – but they are. I need to stop them. I need to destroy it, but I don’t know how, I – I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“I’ll help you,” Marr promises. There’s no use in telling her that she really shouldn’t have gotten involved in that in the first place. It’s not as if she hasn’t already figured that out. He doubts the other Mandalorians will be that understanding, but they’ll have to deal with that later. “We’ll take care of it.”

“They’re going to know that someone said something!” objects Sabine, biting her lip.

Right. That’s the other problem. And he’s not delusional enough to think she didn’t take a great risk coming here in the first place. “It is quite likely that they’ll trace it to you,” he admits with a sigh. He has to be honest in that regard. Now is not the time for giving her useless false hopes. If they find out she told someone, she could be killed.“It’s not safe for you to go back.”

“But what would I do?” Sabine protests.

He really, really hates to tell her what he thinks she needs to do.“Being as far away from all this as possible will be best,” he replies, reaching over, laying a hand on her arm, “Until all of this quiets down, it might be best if you… left the planet entirely.”

“Left the planet?” she asks, almost incredulously, “But…”

He can only imagine how she’s feeling. (He understands better than she’d realize, actually. He knows how it feels to be taken from his family, his friends, the only life he’s ever known, and be thrown into a chaotic galaxy with nothing more than his armor, which is exactly what is happening to her now. ) “I’m sorry, Sabine,” he says, quietly, “But it’ll be safest for you that way. The Empire won’t stop looking for you, and I know there’s many Mandalorians who will be upset. I can help you find somewhere to go.” It’s the best he can offer her, at this point. The Empire will be trying to kill her, and… it’ll be safest for her if she’s just away from all of it until things start to quiet down.

#star wars #star wars fanfiction #fanfiction #angstpril #angstpril 2022 #angstpril day 1 #day 1 #sabine wren #original characters #sabine #mandalore #star wars rebels #rebels #day one #i didn't mean for this to happen

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pawsitivelymiraculous · 4 years

Text

Meeting for the first time. (Day one)

A/N: Okay so I'm going to try to do this. I am going to make a tag list so if you want to be tagged please let me know. Btw most of them are going to be one shots but I may continue some of them like this one. Also, I'm sorry for the rushed ending and the formatting, my computer decided to hate me today so I'm doing this from my phone I'll fix it tomorrow.

@biodad-bruce-month

Masterlist

Meeting Part one

"Marinette, sweetheart, you are adopted."

Adopted

When her parents told her they had something important to talk to her she figured it was about school or worst-case scenario, they found out about her extracurricular activities as a super heroine.

No, instead they told Marinette that her whole life had been a lie.

They sat her down and explained that she had been adopted when she was nine months old. They tripped over themselves trying to reassure her that they loved her as their own and tried to defend the reason why they never told her.

Marinette didn't know what to think. Things like this were only supposed to happen in movies. Not become her reality.

Marinette felt so confused as she tried to process it all. None of it made sense. Tom and Sabine were her biological parents. They… they had to be.

But, the truth was slowly sinking in.

Marinette had never truly understood the expression "ignorance is bliss" until that moment. Somehow not knowing the truth felt like a better option than the alternative.

"But, why now?" Marinette asked hesitantly. "If you weren't planning to ever tell me, then why do it now?"

She really hoped she was wrong, but in movies that was when they tell her that one of her bio parents died. Usually, said parent was royalty meaning that she would be next in line for the throne. Oh gosh, would she have to move to a strange country and rule it?

Oh wait, she was apparently born in America. And as far as Marinette knew, America didn't have a monarch.

She snapped out of her thoughts in time to see Tom and Sabine share a look. Finally, Sabine spoke up "Do you remember the scholarship honey?"

She did.

Marinette had been given a one in a lifetime opportunity to study in a prestigious art school in the outskirts of Paris and was offered a scholarship that covered half of the tuition.

Unfortunately, the Dupain-cheng's didn't have enough money to cover the other half. While the bakery was fairly popular, all of their savings had dried up the month prior when the delivery truck broke down, and they were forced to buy a new one.

Because of this, Marinette had to turn down the scholarship.

Marinette's stomach dropped as she realized that her parents... or well Tom and Sabine had been struggling financially, even without the scholarship, because of her, with the knowledge of being adopted she couldn't help but feel like an unnecessary burden to them.

Seeing her daughter's crestfallen expression, Sabine rushed to Marinette's side giving her a small hug before saying. "Sweetie, we love you okay? And it broke our hearts when you had to turn down that amazing opportunity, so we tried to contact your biological father hoping he would be able to help us." She explained.

"We never heard back from him." Tom chimed in "but we thought it would be better to let you know in case we do later on."

Marinette nodded. That… made sense, and it was far better than what Marinette had immediately assumed.

Still, all the information was too overwhelming. Marinette needed to talk to the kwamis, they would help her understand the situation better.

"I- I need to go." Marinette stood up and sprinted up the stairs, towards her room. Ignoring her parents who called after her.

She ran up to her bed and landed face first in it. All the kwamis flew out from their hiding spots and gathered around her.

Tikki nuzzled her cheek. "Oh Marinette, I'm so sorry."

Marinette let out a small humorless chuckle. "So, you heard huh?"

"Sure did, bug." Plagg said, floating close to her face. "Personally, I think we should find that father of yours and… you know… bless him with a not so great day."

This time Marinette actually laughed. "I think you meant curse and no, we are not going to do that." Plagg rolled his eyes.

Suddenly, Marinette felt tired. She could continue talking with the kwamis later. She needed to sleep, yeah"I think I'm going to sleep for a bit," she informed them

Tikki nodded. "Sweet dreams Marinette." The rest of the kwamis echoed this as Marinette drifted off to sleep.

~♡~♡~♡~

Plagg grinned as he turned on the computer.

Tikki flew up to him. "What are you doing?" She asked, scandalized.

"We are going to google Pigtails' biological father," he explained.

Tikki groaned, "you don't even know how to use a computer! And there's no 'we' if you want to do something that's your problem!"

Plagg smirked devilishly "Sugar Cube, we are literal gods. We can do this! Don't you want to know who he is."

Tikki begrudgingly agreed, she even helped him open the browser. "Okay so type in 'Bruce Wayne'"she instructed. "And then press that weird looking key that says enter alright?"

Plagg complied. The two kwamis turned to look at the results.

Both kwamis gaped at the screen. Plagg whispered."Well, if this is the same guy but if so-"

"Then Marinette is the daughter of a billionaire." Tikki cut in, examining the picture. "Plagg, I think this is him."

"It's the eyes isn't it?" Tikki nodded. "Yeah, well that would mean that a freaking billionaire ignored the pleas of the adoptive parents of his biological daughter!" Plagg exclaimed, growing angry.

"Well maybe he didn't believe them?" Tikki tried to reason.

Plagg suddenly growled at the screen."Look! He has like as many kids as he has money!"

Tikki frowned, "Then why would he abandon his daughter?"

"Because he's a jerk! And I thought my kid's dad was bad!" Plagg glared at the picture causing Tikki to giggle. "What?"

"I don't think I've ever seen you so worked up over something that isn't cheese." She teased.

Plagg huffed, "well, your Bug gives me cheese, but if she's sad then she forgets. So it's really in my best interest to make sure Pigtails isn't upset."

Tikki laughed. "Yeah, yeah I totally believe you." She said sarcastically. "Anyways, do you think Marinette realizes her father is famous? "

Plagg snorted. "Are you kidding? If she knew she would still be freaking out." Tikki hummed in agreement. "Well, I think that now that we know who he is it's time to do what Pigtails would not let me do." Plagg concluded.

"Wait, what? No!" Tikki exclaimed.

"Ooo can I help with that?" A new voice asked. The kwamis turned to see Kaalki looking at them with a mischievous grin.

"Sure thing!" Plagg said just as Tikki was saying "No!"

The two ignored the spotted kwamii and began plotting how they were going to make sure Bruce Wayne would have the most unfortunate luck for at least a couple of days.

~♡~♡~♡~

It had not been a very good day for Bruce.

The DNA test had finally arrived, and he found out that he did, in fact, have another biological child. Unfortunately, Tim found the test and his efforts of trying to keep it a secret had been in vain because then most of his children interrogated him about their newfound sibling. Even Jason was there which was surprising.

Thankfully, they were wise enough not to tell Damian, because otherwise Marinette Dupain-cheng would have been in grave danger.

Dick, along with the rest, insisted that they needed to meet Marinette. So with the help of Tim, they arranged a trip to Paris for the next day. Meaning that Bruce had less than 12 hours to find Marinette and talk to her before that happened.

So as soon as all of his kids left, he asked Alfred to arrange an early flight.

Which is how he found himself in front of Collège Françoise Dupont, the high school his daughter attended.

In the rush, he had forgotten to call beforehand, so he called Alfred and asked him to inform Marinette's parents of his arrival.

Bruce still wanted to talk to Marinette before Dick or someone else inevitably found out that he had left. So he got out of the car and walked inside, only to be greeted by a very flustered looking principal.

It wasn't until she called him "Mister Wayne" that Marinette realized who he was.

"Mister Wayne! It's uh, an honor to meet you!" The man exclaimed nervously while shakily extending his hand. "I received your call and I informed Marinette's homeroom teacher of your arrival. They- they should be in my office right now."

Bruce thanked him. On the way to the office Mr. Damocles told him "What an excellent student" Marinette was. He insisted that Marinette was one of the best students in his school. It made Bruce suspicious of the way that principal treated the rest of his students.

Finally, they arrived at the office. Marinette sat in a chair looking rather confused as her teacher stood next to her wearing a tight smile.

Mrs. Bustier introduced herself in a similar manner as Mr. Damocles.

It wasn't until she called him "Mister Wayne" that Marinette realized who he was.

Her face paled as she let out a small gasp. "You- you are my father."

In retrospect, he probably should have introduced himself to her first.

#marinette dupain cheng #maribat #miraculous ladybug #ml x dc #bio!dad bruce wayne #bio!dad au #bio!dadbrucewaynemonth2020 #b!dbwm2020 #bio!dad bruce wayne month 2020 #my trash writing

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cassava-49 · 4 years

Text

I Will Be There

Felix was staring at the starry night sky of Sussex and sighed. How he wished he could gaze at this scenery with her. He could recall her innocent excited gaze at the stars. He could recall all, her telling him how little she saw of them in the city. He remembered the time he taught her how to speak English since she only understood few. He then gazed upon the moon knowing that she will be looking at it as well.

Marinette gazed above the night sky of Paris hoping to catch a star. She sighed knowing that she wouldn't be able to see any stars since the city's too bright. "There were more stars back then," she mumbled to herself. "What do you mean Marinette?" Tikki asked her holder. "Nothing Tikki. Just reminiscing, and hoping," she whispered the latter.

She then turned her gaze towards the couples in the park happily chatting with each other, holding each others' hand and staring into each other eyes. She would call herself a sucker for love since she always has been. She then turned her gaze towards the moon hoping that he would be looking towards it as well, thinking of her. "How selfish of me," she said as she hung her head and looked towards her feet. She then heard a tussle from her plants. She raised an eyebrow and made her way towards it, then she found a black cat with grey eyes trying to move around. "It's a blind cat," Tikki said as she hovered the face of the cat. "It seems like it. Hello there kitty," Marinette said as she held her hand over its nose for it to smell. The cat then instinctively brushed it's face on her hands and let out a soft purr.

"It seems like there's a new cat in town," Chat Noir says coming from behind her. "Good evening Chat Noir. What brings you here?" she asked. "Nothing really. I was waiting for Ladybug to show up for patrol. But she hasn't arrived yet, she's probably late," he casually said. Marinette then mentally slapped herself forgetting about patrol. "So even Ladybug is tardy," she said making sure like she sounded like a civilian. "Yeah, who can blame her, we're just human, we're prone to bad habits as well," he says with a chuckle as he sat on the balcony railing. Marinette then made her way towards him with the black cat following behind. "What about you? Any bad habits that the citizens don't know about?" she asked in a teasing manner. "Well since you asked, I'm actually the jealous type," he replied casually as Marinette picked up the persistent kitty. She then heard a growl erupt from the black cladded hero. "Now I see the jealous side," she said in a teasing manner when she saw Chat glaring at the blind cat. "OK. I believe it's time for you to continue patrol," she said hoping to get him to leave so that she could join him. "OK, Purrincess I'll get going now. Bye," he said as he took out his baton to continue patrol. Once he was in a far enough distance Ladybug sprung out of her room.

Back in Sussex Felix's gaze never left the moon hoping that she's doing the same. "Felix," came a quite voice. "I'm coming," he replied as he got up from his chair and went over to the person at the door. He opened the door to find Bridgette, a little girl at age five, in her nightgown clutching her ladybug pillow. "I can't sleep," she says with a yawn. "Alright come on let's tuck you into bed," he said as he took her hand and guided to her back to her room, knowing that she only wants a story. He watched her climb onto her bed. Unlike the other orphanages, this one has enough money to allow children their own room and private education. Once she was tucked in, he sat at the end of her bed. "So, what story would you want?" he asked. He watched her eyes light up and replied, "The treetops." He chuckled and began, "It was a pleasant afternoon when a little boy from this orphanage decided to wander through town."

...

It was a pleasant afternoon when a little boy from this orphanage decided to wander through town. He used the old trick of the blankets as a ladder. He made his way towards the gate and ran towards his favourite Oak tree. Once there he climbed the branches and reached the topmost part of the tree and smiled at his accomplishment. After what seemed like 10 minutes the young boy climbed down but as he descended he missed a step and fell on a little girl. He looked to his right to find two glaring bluebell eyes directed to him. She began wailing in French, "Why did you fall on me? I was just drawing and you stepped on me." "Je suis desole," he replied. "T-tu parles français?" she asked (Do you speak French?). "Oui, je parle anglais et français," he replied (Yes, I speak English and French).

They then continued their conversation in French as she asked, "Why did you fall on me anyway?" He then sat down next to her and replied, "I fell down, simple as that. Your not from here aren't you?" The girl nodded and answered, "I'm from Paris, France. How do you know how to speak French?" He shrugged and told her, "Mother Superior taught me. She's a nun." The little girl raised an eyebrow, catching her reaction he replied, "I'm an orphan. I live in the orphanage over there." He then pointed towards a large house that could be seen from their place. "I'm sorry," the girl said. "Don't be, my parents weren't," he calmly said. The little girl was taken aback by his reply and said, "I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng and I would love to be your friend." He smiled and responded, "I'm Felix Culpa. It's a pleasure to meet you Milady."

...

"Felix?" Bridgette asked as she slowly began to fall asleep. He hummed in response. "Once we go to Paris tomorrow, are we going to see her. Marinette?" she asked in a hopeful tone. He kissed her forehead and answered, "Of course luv, of course."

...

The François Dupont College was busily preparing their school for the arrival of orphans from different cities in France and some from the UK for a charity program and a meet up with Ladybug and Chat Noir. In Ms. Bustier's class the energy of the students were radiating as the class president, Marinette, began giving instructions for the final touches on the stage. "Just a little bit more to the left Nathanael," she said as the red head hung the banner. "Marinette where are the microphones?" Aurore asked. "They're in the storage room, I think," she replied. She then looked at the time on her phone and went over to Alya. "Where are they?" she asked referring to her parents. "They're coming now, see," Alya replied. There they saw the boys carrying dozens of boxes and her father was push a cart with the cake, with the help of Ivan. "A little help would be appreciated," Nino claimed as he reached the top of the stairs. "I've got it," Alya replied as she called the others for help. Some took the boxes out off their hands and followed Sabine to put it on the tables. While the others helped Tom and Ivan carry to cake upstairs.

After an hour they finished just in time to see some of the orphans arriving. "Well that's my cue," Marinette whispered as she gave her excuse to Alya saying that she's having a stomach problem. She went to a secluded area to transform to greet the new arrivals. "Mr. Damocles," she says as she walked into the school. All eyes turned to her while the orphans ran excitedly to meet her.

"Ladybug," Principal Damocles greeted. "I thought you were arriving a little later." She giggled and replied as she picked up one of the ogling orphans, "Well as I was swinging by I saw them and thought that it wasn't so bad to come a little early." They then they heard an additional voice, "I have to agree with you Bugaboo. I can't miss this for the world," Chat Noir joined. "Hey there kitty," she greeted as the two then began interacting with the children. The children were lively as ever and excitedly asked them questions. "Have you two kissed yet?" a little girl asked excitedly. "We haven't," she replied. "Well, not properly is what you mean don't you Milady," he added to which she rolled her eyes at. This earned a few excited squeals from the children as more of them began to gather. They then heard an excited voice, but what the girl said made Ladybug turn her heard. "Felix, Felix, I see Ladybug, hurry up," a little girl with dark blue hair tied in twin tails came bounding with a well groomed blond hot on her heels. Marinette felt like crying because of what she saw, but as Ladybug she put on her best smiled and made her way to the bubbling girl.

"Hi there, what's your name?" she asked. The girl then answered in English, "I'm Bridgette." She smiled and crouched down to her level and says in English, "It's nice to meet you Bridgette. Would you like to join me with the others and Chat Noir?" She nodded excitedly and began running towards Chat who equally greeted the girl with the same enthusiasm. "I apologize for that Ms. Ladybug. She had always been excited to meet you," Felix apologized. She smiled and answered, "It's no trouble at all and I'm already used to it. So you speak French?" He nodded and went to sit on one of the chairs and pulled out a book. She smiled recalling the times when she would draw and he would read. As she was about to return to the group, Hawkmoth decided to release an akuma. "That's our cue Chat. It's time to go to work," she called as she took out her yo-yo. "Right behind you LB," he replied as he set the children down and spun his baton and they went to work.

The students quickly closed the doors just in case any of the children escaped. They began the program knowing that the attack wouldn't affect them since it was at the other side of town. Felix then looked up to find the Dupain-Chengs looking at him with huge smiles and surprised expressions. He sighed and got up knowing that if he didn't approach them now they would. "Good morning Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng," he greeted. "Felix, is it really you sweetie?" Sabine asked as she went closer to him. "Yes, ma'am, it's me," he replied. Without a second to waste he was enveloped in the bear hug of theirs. "Well my boy, it seems like you've grown well," Tom said as he released him. He smiled and shyly asked, "D-do you know where Marinette is?" The two adults smiled and called for Rose. "Rose do you know where Marinette is?" She simply replied, "Alya says that she has stomach cramps." They then thanked her and told him to just wait.

Once the battle was over both heroes went back to school, entering in different places and skipped back in. "Wow Marinette, the children were so cute," Tikki says as she ate. "They really are, aren't they?" she replied. "So was that boy Felix," she teased. Marinette then playfully rolled her eyes at her. Once done, they went out with one goal in mind. She entered the celebration to find Kitty Section playing. She waved at them and found her target. She began to run to him and tackled him to the ground while laughing, without earning any unnecessary attention. She then earned a growl from him as he said, "Bloody hell Marinette. Is this your idea of a greeting?" She giggled as tears began streaming down her face. He stopped his protests and sat upright and held her in his arms as she began crying into his shoulder. "I missed you," she managed to say. He kissed the top of her head and began cradling her. "Sh, sh, I missed you too. So, so much," he replied.

What made then separate was a sound of a camera. They turned their heads to find Alya snapping a photo of the them. "Getting comfy with one of the guests aren't we Mari," she joked. "Alya!" she squealed, not really getting out of his arms. Felix chuckled and stood up while helping Marinette and introduced himself, "Felix Culpa, it's a pleasure to meet you Miss." Alya smiled and shook his hand saying, "Alya, Alya Césaire." Marinette smiled, loving the fact that her best friend and childhood friend were getting along. "Hey Mari," Nino greeted as he joined the group with Adrien. "Felix, this is Nino," she introduced the two add they shook hands. "I'm Adrien" Adrien introduced himself as he gripped Felix's hand tightly. "Pleasure," he replied, returning the grip.

"So Mari," Adrien began. "How did you meet him?" he asked, trying to hide his jealousy. "W-well, we, er, I, I mean he," Marinette fumbled but stopped when she felt a hand hold hers. She looked up to meet Felix's eyes and began to calm down, collecting herself. "What she meant to say," Felix answered for her as he looked directly into Adrien's eyes. "We met each other when we were seven at Sussex. I accidentally fell on her," he said as he earned a giggle from the girl beside him. "Maman, Papa, can I take Felix around Paris today?" she asked her parents. "Of course. Just make sure she comes back without any trouble," Tom teased, recalling the times when they would come back dripping wet or are covered in mud or when the police had to bring them back after getting trapped inside an old barn. "Yes, sir. It's not going to happen again," Felix replied. "Sorry, Alya. But can you take care of everything for today. I would really want to spend time with him," she apologized feeling guilty. "No worries girl. Although after this I'm gonna demand an explanation later," she said with a wink. "Thanks Alya, you're the best," she called as she began dragging Felix out. Unbeknownst to her the two blonds were having a stare down while they were talking. "So what was all that about?" Nino asked Adrien. "What do you mean?" he asked trying to seem clueless. "Oh come on. We're not blind, you're jealous aren't you?" Alya said. "I-I don't know what you're talking about," he defended as a light blush coated his cheeks.

...

Felix and Marinette were walking around town as the two were happily chatting with each other. "That boy earlier, Adrien," Felix said. "What about him?" Marinette asked trying to fight the blush that crept on her cheeks. "You like him don't you," he says bluntly as he looked at her. "Me like him? No! Never! W-what made you think so?" she defended. "It was obvious," he simply said. "W-why not we go to the Louvre?" she offered as they stopped at the bus stop. He nodded and followed her in the bus. Unknown to the two, three sneaky shadows were following them as they entered the bus. The other two looked at their companion who seemed to be blushing hard at what they heard. He looked down to the ground and asked, "I-i-is it true?" The other two nodded not expecting it to go that way. They then waited at the stop for the next bus and got on it to continue following their friend. At the Louvre the two were merrily talking about art and their life. "By the way, there's this little girl, her name's Bridgette and she would really want to meet you," he said. She felt flattered at the thought that the little girl she had just met would have wanted to meet her as well. "But I thought she wanted to meet Ladybug?" she asked but regretted it knowing that she made a mistake. "You met her already?" he asked suspiciously. "No, it's just that everyone there just wanted to meet the superheroes," she reasoned. He hummed in response, not exactly buying her excuse. "Your friends," he whispered as he got closer to her as they were walking through the grand gallery. "They're following us," he said quietly enough for her to hear. She then looked at a group who were taking selfies and saw in their camera were definitely Alya, Nino and Adrien. She giggled and took his hand. This surprised him but saw the playful glint in her eyes. He smirked back at her as she gently clung to him.

Adrien gritted his teeth when he saw their entwined hands. "Wow, never knew Mari had a British boyfriend before," Nino said. "Did she mention him to you before?" he asked. Alya only shook her head no. She then turned her gaze to Adrien, "No need to get hyped sunshine. They're just close friends." She then have a light pat on his shoulder. Well, I never took him as the jealous type, Alya says to herself all too happy about the situation. Nino them went over to her girlfriend and whispered, "You know, I'm kind of glad that Felix came, or else he would still be an oblivious dork." Alya then nodded her head on agreement as the continued to stalk the two.

"Come on Felix. It's just ice-cream," Marinette said as she saw Andre's ice-cream cart. He sighed and replied, "For the last time I'm not going to eat any of ice-cream. You know how much I do not like cold food." But despite his protests she dragged him towards the cart. There they were greeted with an overjoyed Andre who seemed to notice their entwined hands. "Peach pink as his lips, mint green as his eyes. This boy seems to fit your love, however there is something lacking," he said. "Oh well, at least you have found him," he casually said as Marinette blushed. He then leaned towards Marinette and asked, "What does he mean?" She giggled and replied, "Actually André can find your lover and you and your lover's ice-cream flavour." He raised his eyebrow and sighed, "Is that why you dragged me here?" She nodded happily as André began thinking of their flavours. "Perfect! Strawberry and peach will blend perfectly for you two. It's a match of childhood sweethearts and it will absolutely do," he said as he began scooping some ice-cream. He then gave it to the couple, who delightfully took it and found a bench to sit on to eat. The two merrily are their ice-cream exchanging jokes every now and then. Felix then took Mari's spoon and took a scoop of ice cream and fed it to her. She smiled affectionately and returned the action. The two then began laughing at their ploy.

In the bushes an enraged Adrien watched them share Andre's lovers' ice-cream together and began feeding each other. It made something inside him boil. It was like the feeling he felt when Ladybug was with Théo after they de-akumatized him. He then sprang to his feet and ignored his friends insistent cries and sat next to Mari as she and Felix finished the ice-cream. Once she turned she felt her face burn to find Adrien sitting next to her. "A-a-ad-adrien!" she squealed. "W-what do you doing here? I mean, what you here doing. I-I mean-," she stammered. Felix glared at the other blond and held her by her waist pulling her closer to him. "What are you doing here?" he asked. Adrien then glared back at him and replied, "I was just passing by and I thought that it wouldn't be bad if I were to stop by and say hi to Mari."

"Passed by or followed?" he taunted. This made the green eyed boy to glare more and asked, "Does it matter?" Felix then tilted his head in a menacing manner and answered, "Of course. I just couldn't help but feel that you're her to ruin our date." He then added a taunting smirk at the end and watched it fuel the boy. "Well I guess it gives me a right to put a stop to it," Adrien raised his voice as he slid his arm around Marinette's waist causing her to blush more.

"I'M!" gripped her side.

"HER!" he pulled her close.

"BEST FRIEND!"

...

At the back they could hear Nino and Alya facepalm hard. Felix then blinked at him for a few minutes then burst into a fit of laughter at what he said, leaving an overly confused Adrien. Marinette slumped at what he said. She then removed herself from his grasp, surprising the four, making Felix stop laughing. She stood up and dragged him off with her. She then left a dumbfounded Adrien, contemplating at what he said wrong. He watched the two walk away as, the blond put his arm over her shoulder, putting up a defensive aura.

Once out of sight, she fell to the ground crying. Felix followed suit, wrapping his arms around her shaking body. He didn't say anything, but picked her up she propped them in a nearby bench. He allowed her to cry in his shoulder and use him to middle any sound. He cradled her shaking body and rocked them, like he had done in their youth. After a while she finally spoke through her tears, "I-I-I love h-hi-h-him." He then held her closer saying, "I know, I know." The two continued to stay like that for about a good fifteen minutes. Marinette's sobs subsided, but remained mobile in his arms relishing his arm hugs. "Do you want to go home?" he finally asked. She looked up to him with sad eyes and replied, "Not yet." They stayed there for two minutes until she says, while remaining in his embrace, "We have to go, the others would be missing you." He smiled and helped then up, as they took the bus back to François Dupont College.

#miraculous ladybug and chat noir #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #adrinette #marinette x adrien #jealous adrien #felix culpa #felix pv #felinette #marichat #ladynoir #slight ladynoir #alya cesaire #nino #nino lahiffe #just some fluff #my fic #fanfic

129 notes · View notes

lifblogs · 3 years

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Whumptober 2021

No. 5 - I'VE GOT RED IN MY LEDGER

betrayal | misunderstanding | broken nose

Title: A Drunk's Promise Fandom: Star Wars: Rebels Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Pairing: Kanera Word Count: 1100 Summary: Kanan gets drunk while trying to obtain information, and Hera is far from pleased with him: he'd promised to never go back to that life. WARNINGS: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Blood, Sexual Fantasy READ ON AO3

Hera let out a disbelieving sigh, which was followed by the dreaded words “Kanan, are you drunk?”

Kanan swayed where he stood in the doorway to the cockpit and tried to lean against the bulkhead. Casual. Just keep it casual.

The truth was, he hadn’t had a drink in quite some time (at least… before tonight), and things were going well with Hera; he didn’t want to mess them up. Yet when he’d had to scope out a cantina on Lothal to listen for any chatter about the Empire, some shady characters had walked in, and well… wouldn’t it have been weird if he’d stayed near them and hadn’t been drinking? So of course he’d had a drink! Just one would have been fine, he figured. But he could never stop at just one.

That was his problem.

Kanan wasn’t even sure how much he’d consumed, or what all of it was. So here he was, seeing Hera separate into two versions of herself and then merge and then unmerge, and waver, and the world seemed to be tipping, and—

Say something. You have to say something.

“Not at all, sweetheart,” he tried to get out, but it might’ve sounded more like, Nah ah uhl, sweehar.

She raised a skeptical eyebrow, and then was coming into his personal space. Ooh, was she going to kiss him?

No, Kanan. Think! You’re going to be in huge trouble.

She sniffed him, and then a look of disbelief crossed over her face.

Wow, it was getting hot in the Ghost.

“Hera, is there something wrong with the ventilation?” Kanan asked, tugging at his armor and his tunic. Blast, this stuff just needed to come off.

“I can’t believe you!” Hera cried.

“Whah?” he asked, tossing his pauldron onto the floor, and then beginning to work his tunic over his head.

“You’re drunk!”

He divested himself of his tunic, and leaned against the bulkhead again. Damn, he needed a good place to lie down. Maybe with his head in Hera’s warm lap. Or with his face buried between—

“Yeah, so?” he countered.

She grabbed his wrist, yanking at him. Was she taking him to his cabin? Her cabin? But Kanan didn’t want to move much. The passage was tipping beneath his feet, roiling like clouds building for a storm.

Oh, this wasn’t good.

Kanan leaned into her pull, throwing her off balance, but he was so unsturdy on his feet that that just had the both of them colliding into the bulkhead.

“Ugh! Get off me!” Hera cried, shoving him.

Thoughts left his head. Instinct kicked in.

He swung.

Kanan wasn’t sure what had truly happened until he was slumped on the deck, against the bulkhead, a hand gently holding his bleeding, throbbing nose.

Through watery, bleary eyes he saw Hera cover her mouth with her hands. One was streaked with his blood. Were those tears building up in her eyes?

She rushed to him. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to— I— Come on, let’s get you up.” She got one of his arms around her, and aided him as he stood. “We’ll go to your cabin.”

“Hera,” Kanan groaned, voice coming out nasally from his quickly swelling nose (kriff, it hurt!), “you don’t have to… have to apologize. It was my fault.”

“What were you thinking?” she growled, carrying more of his weight than he’d like to admit. He almost stumbled, but she had him. Guilt twisted in his gut. How could he have done this?

“It was a—a misunderstanding,” he said. “I didn’t mean to.”

“Ha, at least you have a broken nose to pay for it.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“No, I don’t. You scared me, is all.”

“Yeah.”

Kanan tried to ask himself what he’d been thinking, but that was the problem: he hadn’t been.

Clank-clank-clank-clank!

Great, who was coming down the passage? Surely not Zeb...

A slim figure in Mandalorian armor, with hair a mess of colors that seemed to swirl in his vision came at them.

Sabine.

“Kanan! Is everything all right? I heard a struggle.”

A long-suffering sigh passed through Hera as Sabine helped Kanan now.

“Everything’s fine. Kanan’s just drunk.”

“Oh, well that was definitely part of the plan.”

“Hey, Sabine,” he grunted.

Her hands were cold against his bare skin, but after he shivered, he welcomed it slightly. It was just too hot on this ship! But he was more interested in Hera’s hands (even the one that had blood from his nose streaked across her green knuckles), which were aggravatingly not as curious about his body as he’d like.

“Where’s your shirt?”

Kanan couldn’t remember. Did it really matter anyway? It felt like someone had shoved giant orbs up his nostrils and lodged them between his eyes. They bled pain, and he groaned.

Stupid. So stupid.

“It’s okay, Sabine. You can go. I got him.”

“All right. I’ll check in with you later. Just make sure he got the information.”

For some reason Kanan gave a slight chuckle. “Oh, I have the information.”

Sabine patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll believe when I hear it.”

She left, and with more stumbling, Hera got Kanan to his cabin. She was immediately going through his drawers and threw a tunic at him. “Put some clothes on,” she growled.

Kanan did as ordered, not in the mood to fight with her.

Now turned from him, she said, “I’ll be back to fix you nose.”

“Hera, I’m sorry. I know you’re mad at me. I… betrayed you. I wasn’t supposed to drink again.”

She turned back to him, and he thought the expression on her face might have been sadness, her seafoam green eyes huge. “No, Kanan. You betrayed yourself.”

She left him alone with that thought, his head swimming, the ship shifting beneath him even as he lay in his bunk.

Hera was right. Kanan had told himself that he was done with this life. He’d made a promise, had started to create something new. And what he done? He’d had a drink, and then he’d had more. There was no way he was not going to pay for it. That would be tomorrow, in the morning. For now he just held his sleeve to his broken nose, trying to stop the bleeding. Was this enough recompense for his failure?

No, surely not, because Hera was right: Kanan had betrayed himself.

As she came back in to tend to him, he promised, Never again. But he’d made that promise before, and he didn’t have enough fingers to count the number of times he’d broken it.

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hateswifi · 4 years

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Duck Season

Don’t ask me about the title go ask @thecaptainthunder also it is they’re prompt.

The Master: Master List

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

“Good morning, class, as I mentioned last week we have a transfer student,” Madame Bustier greets the class, smiling wide as if it weren’t a Monday morning. Damian rolls his eyes, avoiding anyone who looked like they wanted to talk and headed up to the back corner desk, where no one was sitting.

It didn’t take long for someone to ignore the social cues he’d dropped because there stood a tan, green-eyed girl.

“You should come sit with me, the class bully sits back here and you don’t want to get mixed up with that,” the harlot says, batting her eyelashes.

“I’ll take my chances back here,” Damian grumbles back, but once again she doesn’t take the hint.

“Lila, you’re in my seat,” another, sweeter, voice says. The harlot’s smile falters before she retreats down the stairs to stew in anger in her seat.

“You’re late,” he reprimands, looking at the apparent ‘class bully’.

“Welcome to our class, I’m Marinette, the class president,” She smiles, it doesn’t reach her eyes, she’s faking it.

“So class bully and president? Interesting mix.”

“Interesting assumption,” Marinette shrugs, pulling out her classwork. He raises an eyebrow and does the same, who does she think she is to talk back to him.

Needless to say, their relationship didn’t start out the best but it got better.

“I can’t believe they’re such imbeciles,” Damian breaths out, an almost laugh, Marinette thinks to herself. Damian has been in the class for a week now and absolutely hates and loves the class. He hates how stupid the class, but again loves the class because of how idiotic they are.

“What’d she say this time?” Marinettes sighs, sliding into her seat. This was becoming a routine almost, she sits down right before the bell rings and usually has enough time to hear Lila’s amazing stories from Damian.

“It was a classic Jagged Stone story,” Damian sighs.

“I literally know Jagged, and they know that I know him, but yet, in the beginning, I was ‘too jealous’ and now they won’t even listen to anything I say,” Marinette shrugs.

“You know Jagged?” Damian asks, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s not important, they can look up any of the information she says without having a personal contact, now shhh, class is starting,” Marinette says, ending the conversation. She avoids talking about herself, almost as bad as he does. He doesn’t mind it too much because she doesn’t appear to be a threat, but yet again appearances can be deceiving.

A month into the hell that is his class, he ran into her during one of the many akuma attacks. She had just run into a closet he was running for, he was a bit worried about her because Lila likes to take action during the chaos. He was expecting to see some cliche scene of Lila corning her, but when he opened the door, there stood the Parisian hero.

“What the actual--” He was cut off by her quickly butting in.

“Oh my god! You can’t anything, I have to go, but-”

“I understand, go fight,” Damian says, effectively stopping her rambling.

They had an awkward conversation after her and Chat Noir defeated the akuma, she picked him up and dragged him to a secluded roof away from the public prying eyes, and the numbing idiocy of the class.

“So another way you knew she was lying is you’re Ladybug,” Damian says as soon as they touch down.

“I would’ve known it without being Ladybug, seriously a foreign girl comes in announcing that she’s best friends with a hero but she's been in the country like three days tops, it’s pretty obvious,” Ladybug huffs, dropping her transformation. “Why’d you follow me into the closet?”

“Ehh Lila likes to come up with lies during the chaos, so if you had an alibi I thought it would be helpful,” Damian shrugs.

“Aww, you care about my well being,” Marinette coos, nudging him.

“You’re bearable,” Damian mumbles, a hint of warmth spreading across his cheeks, must be the afternoon sun.

“That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard you say since you transferred,” Marinette points out.

“That doesn’t matter, now let’s leave,” he says, standing.

“You really want to go back to class?” Marinette asks, standing as well.

“No but I don’t want to sit in the sun, so let’s go somewhere else. Are going to get us down?”

“Sorry, I can’t at the moment, but we can climb down the fire escape,” Marinette says, rubbing the back of her neck.

“That will do,” Damian says, easily moving down the escape.

“Can we stop by my house real quick I want to grab a sketchbook, if that's ok with you,” She asks, pointing at the bakery that’s just down the street from the school.

“You live above the bakery?”

“Yeah, you hungry?”

“No, I don’t like sweets.”

“Your loss then,” Marinette shrugs, entering the back door. She appears a couple of minutes later, putting cookies in her purse. He raises an eyebrow but doesn’t question it. They walk over to the park and sit under a tree in the shade. He just sits in the shade and lets sounds of the birds singing, the breezing leaves, and the light trickling water take over his sense. It was a bit later when he hears her start humming if it were practically anyone else, he would’ve snapped at her to stop it, but her humming was calming.

He honestly should’ve seen it before he responded. It was a month after the revelation of her being the Parisian hero. They were walking around the Seine near evening after the defeat of another akuma and another day of drama with the harlot and sheep. Marinette had leave early due to the akuma and he was left to deal with the idiots by himself

“What’s the matter?” he questions.

“Oh, sorry, I have a lot on my mind,” Marinette says quietly. He steps in front of her and lifts her chin.

“What’s on your mind?” She looks up at him, his breath hitches in his throat, her eyes are glistening in the sunset.

“I… I don’t want things to change, but,” she pauses, taking a deep breath. “I really like you, you’re kind to me, even though you don’t try to show it and-”

“Enough,” Damian cuts her off, she stands in front of him, vulnerable. She’s trying to distract her self by rolling a rock underneath her foot. “If you don't want things to change, then don't change them.” He responds sternly.

“Umm, ok, I’m sorry, I’m just going to go home then. Umm! Good night!” She says, swinging her head up quickly, just enough to see her eyes glistening with tears before she turns her back and she rushing home.

“Why’d I say that?” Damian asks himself he watches her back and she rushes down the sidewalk. He has a strange urge to follow her, to pull her into a hug, and to, strangely enough, apologize for making her cry. “What’s the matter with me?” He sighs and agrees to talk to her tomorrow morning before class, as normal.

But that wasn’t the case, she slid into her seat just after the bell rung. Not only was that different, she was wearing make up, not enough for a majority of people to notice, but he knows her well, and her smile doesn’t reach her eyes again. He was going to try and talk to her during lunch, but conveniently Agreste calls for her attention as the bell rings before he could get a word out, they’re already out the door.

He feels weird, he knows he shouldn’t he also doesn’t understand why or what that feeling is. His feelings have been pretty abnormal since he got to know Marinette. When he met her, he hated her, but honestly, he hates everyone he meets so he didn’t expect to end up not hating her in the end. She was different than anyone he had ever met, she was kind, without knowing who he was, her smile was contagious. She beautiful but was humble and wasn’t a harlot like other women who had attempted to his attention.

“Grayson, I have a problem,” Damian says, sitting down in the library to eat his lunch in peace.

“What’s up, Birdie, you never call me,” Dick asks.

“This girl said that she likes me.”

“It’s not the first time, you’ve never had a problem rejecting girls before what’s up?”

“She’s my acquaintance.”

“So you like her? What's the problem?”

“Like her?”

“Do you have romantic feelings for her?”

“Explain.”

“Do you like it when she’s around? Is she apart of your life and it feels like a piece is missing if she’s not there?”

“But that could be platonic as well.”

“It could be, but do you ever have urges to hold her hand, if she is crying to wipe away the tears, or to hold her in a hug?” (I had no idea how to write this btw, almost asked for help but imma too awkward)

“She cried last night and all I wanted to do was hug her and apologize,” Damian sighs.

“You were going to apologize? She must be special.”

“She’s fantastic, a literal angel,” Damian sighs, slouching in his chair to look at the ceiling. “She takes care of and loves animals. She so good with kids, even with brats.”

“Talk to her, I’m sure she’ll understand,” Dick says, there a banging being him. “Sorry, I gotta go, Jason just walked in.” he says before hanging up.

“Talk to her?” Damian mutters to himself. “Do I have feelings for her?”

He heads back to class early, hoping to talk to her before class. There was one problem, she didn’t show up for afternoon classes along with Agreste.

He decides that he’ll take the work and notes to Marinette. He enters through the bakery, they had stopped there a couple of times before to pick up stuff sometimes a sketchbook and sometimes a snack. Sabine and Tom recognized him and let him in. He knocks on the trap door and hears a come in, he pushes it open and sees Agreste and Marinette in their pajamas, playing a video game.

“Agreste, Marinette,” Damian says, stepping into the room.

“Damian?” Marinette asks, turning surprisingly pale pretty quickly.

“I brought your stuff and I wanted to talk to you,” Damian says, rubbing the back of his neck, looking at the ground.

“Ummm… sure, Adrien can you give us a minute?” Marinette says, standing up from her spinning chair.

“You hurt her again, I’ll cataclysm you,” Adrien says, opening the trap door before disappearing underneath.

“Umm first, here’s your stuff and notes,” Damian says, handing her them. “Another thing, I’m going to guess you noticed, but I’m not good with emotions in general.”

“Yeah, I kinda figured.”

“It took me a bit, but I talked to my brother today,” Damian pauses, taking a deep breath.

“Where’s this going? I don’t want to get hurt again,” Marinette says, taking a seat of her chaise.

“I didn’t realize it before I talked to Grayson, he’s my brother, but I like you. I missed you in class and I don’t ever want to see you cry again. I want to be able to you without it being weird,” Damian says, rubbing the back of his neck, looking anywhere but her.

“You like me?” Marinette asks, standing up.

“I hate the fact that I made you cry, I never want to see sadness in your beautiful blue eyes ever again. You’re too good for me, you are an angel,” Damian says, taking a deep breath.

“I’m just me though,” Marinette says, looking at the ground. Damian steps forward, tipping her chin to look up at him.

“And you’re perfect,” Damian says, Marinette reaches on her tiptoes and kisses his cheek.

“And you owe me for playing my heart, I honestly thought you didn’t like me and I had a mini-crisis,” Marinette giggled.

“Would you like to go adopt a hamster?”

“That’s perfect if we can her name her Fluffy,” Marinette smiles.

“We’ll talk about the name,” Damian chuckles.

“I’m open to a discussion,” Marinette shrugs.

Bonus:

“I just had the weirdest conversation,” Dick says, hanging up his phone to look at Jason.

“What’d ya mean?” Jason asks, plopping down in a chair across from Dick before slouching to put his feet on the desk, taking a bite from his apple with a solid crunch.

“I think Damian in love,” Dick says, causing Jason to choke on his apple.

“What the fack did I miss?”

Bonus Bonus:

“Remember how Damian was in an emotional dilemma,” Dick asks, entering the dining room.

“Damian has emotions?” Tim asks, throwing his coffee back like a shot, or maybe it was a straight-up espresso shot, Dick wasn’t really paying attention.

“Yeah, not the point, not only does he have a girlfriend they have a hamster named Nightingale. Probably so Bruce can’t try and turn her into a bird,” Dick says, muttering the last bit.

“Hey I wouldn’t adopt Damian’s girlfriend, give me some credit,” Bruce says, taking the phone to look at the picture.

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

@mlbchaosqueen is this angst?

Permanent Tag List:

@ash-amg @bee-wrecker @damianette-is-life @mjisntme @i-will-be-your-ace @k-poplunardreams @chocolateherringtacofan @toodaloo-kangaroo @i-is-mysterious @zambie-trashart @imnotfluffy @nanakeid @animegirlweeb

Tag (from daminette group chat) list:

@long-lost-peace @iloveitwhen @kittykat24571

#maribat #marinette dupain cheng #batfam #damian x marinette #marinette x damian #damian wayne #ml x dc #damimari #angst

375 notes · View notes

pretchatta · 3 years

Text

I Saw Her Tomorrow

the authors of the MayThe4th fic exchange have been revealed! I've been dying to share my gift for @ambiguityisnoonesfriend ever since I finished it, so here it is.

a huge thank you to @skitter-kitteruwu for beta reading!!

rating: general; kanan jarrus/hera syndulla; 7.8k words (4 chapters, complete)

link to full work

---

Hera, 0BBY

The wind whistled in her ears and whipped her lekku as Hera wrestled with the glider. Her exhilaration at flying was tempered by her awareness of the imminent danger. They were losing altitude fast, but their forward velocity was enough that the roof of the fuel station was getting bigger with every passing second.

"This is gonna be close!" she yelled to Kanan.

"It always is!" he called back. She knew he couldn’t see the precariousness of their situation, and yet he trusted her completely to fly them through it.

The glider skimmed over the lip of the building, barely clearing it. The durasteel frame screeched as it skidded over the roof, but didn’t crumple. She just about managed to hold on. The rush of another successful landing almost made her giddy.

Kanan was no longer beside her; he hadn’t been able to brace in time and had lost his grip on impact. His momentum had carried him over the glider’s nose to roll onto the roof.

He pushed himself up with a groan. "That was one of your better crashes."

Hera gave him a scandalised look as she dismounted and wagged a finger at him. "Kanan Jarrus, you know I never crash. I have very-"

"Very exciting landings," he finished for her with a smile, grabbing the admonishing hand. "Thanks for reminding me. Come on!" He pulled her towards the middle of the roof and away from the pursuing Imperials.

After a few steps she had to stop him from running over the edge; the Empire hadn't yet finished covering the station. She was about to tell him off for not seeing it, but then she stopped herself with a giggle. He was blind; he couldn’t see anything.

His head jerked as though he suddenly sensed what was in front of them. He made an impatient noise in the back of his throat, clearly displeased with how exposed they were, and grabbed his commlink.

"Spectre-5, do you read? How are you coming with that ship?"

"Kanan! Did you get her?" Sabine's tinny voice came through from the other end. Hera hadn’t even realised she’d been worried, but she felt something unclench slightly from around her heart at the sound.

"Of course he did," she replied, leaning into Kanan slightly to reach the small device. She immediately lost her balance, but he caught her without missing a beat and nudged her back upright. Maybe those interrogation drugs weren’t out of her system quite yet.

"There’s been a change of plans," Kanan was saying into the comm. "We need a pickup–"

"At the fuel station," Sabine cut in, "I know. The Empire does too."

He grimaced. She found herself fascinated by how naked his mouth looked without his beard surrounding it. "Well, let’s hope you get to us fi–"

"Hold on, there are new orders coming through." She paused. "All ships are being ordered to maintain high altitude to allow a bombing run on the fuel station."

"What?" Kanan yelped. "They’ll blow up the whole factory if they do that!"

Sabine sounded like she was still listening to the Imperial orders. "Apparently the roof is reinforced, and can take a hit."

"The roof is unfinished! There’s a giant hole in it!" Kanan gestured towards it even though there was no visual link on the comm.

"I guess Pryce really doesn’t want us getting away," Hera muttered.

"Kanan, it doesn’t matter." There was a definite note of panic in Sabine’s voice now, and it was mirrored by a rising fear in Hera. "I’m not gonna be able to get down to you before the bomber arrives without blowing our cover and getting shot to pieces!"

"That’s not a problem. Just get directly overhead, as quickly as you can. Tell Ezra to be ready to catch us – just like we practised."

Hera heard Sabine’s shaky breath over the comm. "I’ll let you know when I’m in position."

The light blinked off.

This was bad. Adrenaline returned to Hera’s body, chasing away the drug-induced fog that had started clouding her brain since they’d landed. What was Kanan up to?

"What do you have planned?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"When they get here, I’ll jump," he said simply. "I can get pretty high, and Ezra can pull us the rest of the way from above."

Her mind conjured the image of him cradling her in his arms as they soared upwards, just like in every ridiculous superhero holo they’d watched together.

Except this one isn’t ridiculous, because he would do that.

He would always come to save her. Whatever it took, he would always be there. He’d fly into the middle of a maximum security Imperial complex on a few pieces of scrap metal and junk, cut her free of her bonds, fight off a nightmarish assassin and escape an impossible dead-end situation by calling on his supernatural powers.

She felt a wave of emotion rise within her, a surge of warmth that threatened to spill into tears. Did he even know how incredibly important he was to her? They’d been so focused on fighting for so long, they’d had to actively find time to be alone together before she’d left. She’d figure out how to break the other news later, but right now there was one thing Hera needed to say to him.

"Kanan," she started. His attention immediately focused on her; there was something in her voice, something soft and vulnerable, yet serious. "I know it’s been a while since I’ve said it, and I know this isn’t really the moment, but… I love you."

Her ungloved fingers stroked the exposed skin of his cheek. He turned his head slightly in response so that his lips brushed her palm.

"I know," he said simply. It was the best thing he could have said. "And I love you too."

Her mouth curved into a smile as she pushed herself up onto her toes to kiss him. He returned the kiss, the press of his lips against hers achingly familiar, like coming home. Less familiar was the scratch of stubble; after years of having a beard, she’d forgotten what it was like to kiss Kanan without one.

They were interrupted by the familiar scream of twin ion engines approaching.

"Sabine!" Kanan shouted frantically into the comm. "Where are you? The bomber’s here!"

Her response was drowned out by the TIE bomber.

It swept overhead, blotting out the light from both moons. Hera wrapped her arms tightly around Kanan’s torso. Throughout her capture and subsequent torture she’d never once lost faith that he would come and rescue her, but now, faced with their current situation, that hope finally flickered. Their last moments were upon them.

At least they were together.

The bomber passed, the whine of the engines deepening as it retreated, but the shadow remained. Hera looked up and saw, suspended in the air above them, the unmistakable silhouette of a baradium missile.

She relaxed her grip on Kanan and realised he had thrust his arms out towards the sky, eyes closed, brow furrowed in concentration. He’d caught the missile! Her brave, brilliant Jedi.

"Kanan?" she asked tentatively. "Can you... put that down? We've got to get off this roof before they make another pass."

"I'm holding the proton charge detonator," he said through gritted teeth. She felt her stomach drop through her feet; he couldn’t let go without activating the missile. The whole station would go up with it. "Can’t jump without letting go. Or sending it up to the kids. But I can still throw you."

"But – what about you?" She knew the answer even as she asked, but her brain was refusing to accept it.

His sightless eyes locked on to her face. His expression was an unreadable mask. "I'm not making it out of this one."

No.

No, no no.

She was shaking her head, even though he couldn’t see it. "I’m not leaving without you."

"Yes, you are," he insisted. "And you’re going to be okay. Don’t ask me how I know this, but you’re going to move on, and you will be happy again. I’m certain of it. And that’s all I ever wanted."

"Kanan–"

The comm beeped again.

"We’re in position! Kanan, now!"

Sabine’s words had barely sunk in when she felt herself gripped by an unseen hand, and then she was flying through the air. She caught a glimpse of the whole station below her – the square roof framing the round hole that in turn framed gleaming stacks of construction material, the bomb hovering off-center and ruining the symmetry – before her vision went dark.

She felt the wind from the TIE bomber as it raced below her at the same time as a second invisible force grabbed her. It twisted her in midair, and now she was rushing towards an Imperial patrol transport. A single figure in a fighter pilot’s uniform stood in the troop bay with arms outstretched.

By the time Ezra had pulled her into the transport beside him and she was able to turn back around, the fuel station was an expanding ball of fire.

Kanan was gone.

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Chapter 2 (AO3) ->

#kanera #kanan jarrus #hera syndulla #star wars rebels #star wars: rebels #star wars #may the fourth be with you #maythe4thbewithyou #jedi night #jedi night fix it #fic #really hope i've got the scheduling right here #in theory the reveal should have happened 5 minutes ago #i wasn't going to stay up til 1am to post but i have been unbelievably excited to share this for the last 2 weeks #pretchwritta

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pl-panda · 4 years

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To Marry a Vigilante: Part 8

MASTERLIST || First || Previous || Next

To Marry a Vigilante: Part 8

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About that… It turned out he was very wrong.

It was already past eight when the couple was awoken by the sound of an army trumpet. Immediately, both of them jumped up and took a battle stance, only to see Tim rolling on the floor laughing. Behind him, Jason was snickering and Cass had a bright smile on her face. Damian grabbed the closest item, which happened to be Marinette’s pocket mirror and tossed it at the group.

Tim and Jason ducked and Cass simply grabbed the mirror from the air, smirked, and checked herself over to make sure her face was still flawless.

“Tt. Did anyone invite you to this room?”

“Technically, Demon Spawn, only the replacement is inside.” Red Hood sassed him.

“Where did Drake even get an army trumpet?” Marinette didn’t even realize that she was channeling Damian. His brothers did though and started laughing even harder.

“Internet,” Cass explained before covering her mouth to stifle a giggle.

“Tt. It’s good to see you enjoying yourself, but kindly get the hell away from here.” Damian scoffed.

“Suuureee. I’m not leaving you alone…” Jason was about to reach for his wallet when a small, sharp object flew right past his head. A Batarang embedded itself into the wall.

“I explained it to you in the past Todd. I will draw blood if I need to when it comes to defending my wife’s honor.”

“Calm down, Demon Spawn.” The older brother dismissed him, but his hand was no longer close to his wallet. “We came to spare you the embarrassment of being found like that by Mrs. Cheng.”

Until now, Marinette was too focused on the prank to realize what exactly happened and turned beet red. She meeped and jumped under the covers, red. Damian sent a glare at his brothers (and sister) and rushed at them with his fist. They all quickly scrambled and he closed the doors.

“Tt. Pests.” He scoffed and turned to his beloved, who peaked from under the covers.

“They will never let us live it down…” She complained.

“We can always drop them off on some empty island when they’re asleep,” he offered with a hopeful look.

“But… won’t they wake up too soon?”

“The knock-out gas has more than one use, Angel.” He grinned.

“So… you want to start a prank war?” She asked with a slight smirk, embarrassment forgotten.

“No. I want to leave them on some empty island.”

“Damian!”

“Tt. Fine. Prank War. But you’re no fun.”

Damian left to let Marinette get changed and put on some new clothes himself. They soon met near the stairs and went to dinner.

Since today both Tim and Jason decided to come by, it was louder. The young couple had to suffer enough teasing to last them a lifetime. Damian promised horrible vengeance to both his brothers.

“Can I have your katana? I mean now that you’re settling down you won’t need it, right? Maybe for cutting the vegetables. Will you be the househusband?” Jason was slowly approaching the peak of what Damian could take. Right now only the fact that Marinette was holding his hand under the table and that they weren’t saying anything inappropriate yet stopped him from drawing blood.

“Ehm.” Bruce tried to interrupt the discussion and touch the matter that was actually important.

“Oh! Oh! I want the grappling hook! Mine never works that well!”

“If I tie you up with it and hang you from Wayne Tower, will you shut up?” He grumbled.

“Now, what kind of example will that be for…” Jason started, but then his gaze met Sabine’s and he froze. Suddenly, Hell seemed like a nice place to take vacations.

“Tt. I dare you to finish, Todd.” Damian smirked, knowing full-well why his brother hesitated.

“Um… I think I choose to live a little longer.”

“Smart boy.” Sabine praised him with a bright smile.

“Ehm.” Bruce tried to get everyone’s attention for the second time. This time, everyone looked at him curiously.

“Tomorrow the class will be visiting Wayne Tower. I would ask all of you to be on your best behavior and either not reveal who you are or what your relation to Damian is.” He started.

“Did you finally disown him!?” Jason cheered.

“No. But if the french class learns that Damian is dating someone, the news will be all over the internet within five minutes and we won’t be able to stop it on time.”

“Stop them with legal means you mean?”

“I know what I said. The class is accompanied by an A.I. advanced enough to be vulnerable to possession that is normally reserved to humans. I don’t know what else they have in terms of technology”

“So we get to treat Damian and Nettie as strangers the whole day?”

“No. It would be best if you just avoided the class, but I know it’s too much to ask.”

“Oh! I don’t think it would actually be that hard.” Sabine smiled brightly at the two boys. “After all, they are good boys who don’t want to needlessly make my trip harder, right?” Even though she was smiling, there was this dangerous edge in her voice.

“Maman. Have you thought about taking tomorrow off? I know how hard dealing with the class is.” Her daughter asked worriedly. Sabine was acting angrier and angrier each time she saw them.

“I’m sorry sweetie. Dealing with that group is indeed tiring. And Caline is beyond useless.”

“It’s a wonder she is even a teacher,” Jason grumbled.

“She is a good teacher when it comes to her subject, but she just can’t deal with kids…” Marinette said before stopping herself.

“So she is an awful teacher.” Her father commented. “Teaching at school is more than just helping someone learn, Cupcake.”

“Listen. Tomorrow is the last day before the Gala on Friday. I really want us to have some control over how and what the press learns.”

“So… they don’t hear that Demon Spawn got hitched?”

“That stays strictly in the family. God knows it would make our life even more complicated if we had to somehow explain that mess. We’re almost done with the paperwork to make it binding.”

“I still think we could just ignore it.” Jason tried to push again. Back when Damian was in Paris, each of his attempts was rejected.

“Tt. While I do not need any formal documents, it will make sure that if needed the proper paperwork exists and there is no need to forge it.”

“It’s a pointless risk though. Personally, I don’t care for the tabloid dramas that much…”

“You caused a fair share of them,” Tim mumbled.

“...But I wouldn’t want them,” he nodded toward Tom and Sabine, “to suddenly find themselves swarmed with journalists.”

“Can’t they just wait two years?” The baker asked, scratching the back of his head.

“We don’t know how the League will act. We are married so I don’t see any reason not to just have it out of the way. Once we’re adults, we will simply make a public ceremony to give those vultures something to choke on.” Damian said in an emotionless voice. By now Marinette learned that the more he was feeling at the moment, the more passive he tried to appear.

“We can discuss this later on. For now, I want you two to promise that you won’t intentionally reveal Damian.”

“And employees?”

“They won’t be a problem. The ones we must interact with received their instructions already and others will simply avoid me as usual.”

“I’ll volunteer to serve as the guide and replacement as chaperone,” Jason said suddenly.

“That’s sweet of you, but I can do it. It’s only until Monday anyway. Then, the class will be Gotham Academy’s problem.” Sabine dismissed him.

“But you and her,” Selina pointed at Marinette, “are coming with me and Stephanie for a spa day. We must look the part at the Gala after all.”

“You won’t hear me protesting.” The tired woman nodded. Cass looked curious between the two of them but didn’t speak anything. It didn’t escape Sabine’s notice.

“Of course you can come too, Cassandra. That was never under question.”

“Thank you.” The girl nodded.

“And don’t forget me!” Chloé reminded everyone that she was still there, even though she opted to for once stay out of the discussion that was not about her. But just this once.

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“Is it time?”

“Not yet.”

“But there are so many potential targets just waiting.”

“It’s just an illusion. You must wait until something stands out from the crowd.”

“But I want it now!”

“Don’t act like a spoiled brat. God knows I’ve seen my share of them to last me a lifetime.”

“Soon. Soon we will all get what we wanted.”

“Indeed.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Maybe, maybe not. If the plan is to succeed, we need to get their attention. Robin was not seen since Hawkmoth’s Fall.”

“It doesn’t matter. They will come. They’ll need to.”

“And if not? If the Justice League comes instead?”

“None of them can purify the Akuma. If they come… You know how Stoneheart ended.”

“Good.”

“So now we just wait.”

“It is boring.”

“We could always…”

“No. I prefer to be bored.”

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When the class arrived at Wayne Enterprises, they were greeted by Jason dressed in a semi-formal suit. He looked somewhat professional. If he wasn’t carrying a large plushy centipede that is.

“Um… Are you supposed to be our guide?”

“Oh! No. Not possible. I was supposed to lead a group of six-years-old.” He smirked.

Damian scowled deeply. He didn’t like to be pranked like that. Then, he noted a Bluetooth headset in Jason’s left ear. Smirking, he pulled a small device from his inner pocket and directed it at him. Seeing Marinette’s questioning gaze, he smirked and activated the tool.

Jason was in the middle of arguing with Madame Bustier when he suddenly jumped and tossed the headset on the ground.

“Fuck!” He cursed loud enough to get the attention of other employees.

“Please refrain from using such language near kids!” Sabine chastised him. She took perhaps more pleasure in it than she should’ve.

“Ugh. Sorry. My headset short-circuited.”

“I see.” The older woman smirked. “And what about the class trip?”

“Right… Wait just a second.” He quickly ran to the nearby janitor’s closet and put away the centipede, instead coming back with a large bat plushy. “Okay. Listen up. You’re to follow the bat. Where the bat goes, you go. If the Bat isn’t there, you don’t go there. Simple enough?”

A chorus of “Yessir” gave him some hope. Sabine, Damian, and Marinette gave him a detailed overview of the class and exactly what he should expect. And he was not impressed. Teenagers were stupid, reckless, and malleable, but they had to be idiots.

Half-way across the trip his hope was dead and buried next to his fake body.

The Lila brat continued to make subtle suggestions that she knew it all and already received a similar trip. The fact she never said anything that could make her vulnerable to a lawsuit or even have her as the reason for being kicked was mildly impressive but highly annoying. She just made some suggestions that the class later overinterpreted.

Damian and Marinette stayed at the very end of the group. He gave her a ‘premium’ trip with much more juicy details than what Jason told. Chloé listened too, but she was more focused on texting with someone. The skater girl stayed close, but not too close. Looks like the best parting gift for the class would be a set of iron spines. They definitely need some.

Finally, they arrived near a conference room where they would eat lunch, not to disturb the employees at the cafeteria.

“Listen up. You’ll get the lunch brought in shortly. Remember what I said at the very beginning?”

“It rhymed with ‘duck’,” Damian smirked.

“Not that, brat. You should forget that one entirely.” He glared at his brother (not that anyone knew that).

“Tt. Shut up.”

“Damian! Don’t be rude to our guide.” Caline reacted.

“Yeah! Mr. Wayne was so nice to offer this trip to Lila and us.”

“Funny you need to put her sepa…” The angry boy started, but Marinette grabbed his hand and squeezed. Strong.

“Whatever. The Bat stays in this room. Just so you get it into your one collective brain cell, that means you don’t leave this room until I’m back. Touch the bat and it explodes.” He warned before putting it on the doorframe and leaving.

Damian and Marinette stayed in the back, talking in hushed voices about their plans for the Gala. To make sure nobody got the wind of it, they used Mandarin. Chloé listened too, but she was still on the phone.

“Come on! You must introduce me, Lila!” Alya pleaded with the girl.

“I want to. I really do. But Bruce Wayne is a busy man. Besides, we must stay with the bat.”

“That trashy toy? Why do you need to listen to him? He is just an employee.” Alya complained. To prove her point, she grabbed the bat from the top of the doorframe. There was a sudden screeching sound and she instinctively handed it to Lila who threw the plushy away… right at Damian and Marinette.

When it landed in front of the pair, their eyes widened.

An explosion of yellow and black paint engulfed them. Momentarily they were both covered head to toes in paint while standing in a large Batman symbol.

Everyone but Chloe (who was also partially caught in the explosion) and Sabine (who glared daggers at Alya) laughed. Caline tried to hold it together, but a small giggle escaped her.

It was three minutes later that Jason came in with two more guards. He took a look at the room and zeroed on the painted couple.

“I gave you brats a simple order. I even warned you that the bat can explode.”

“It was Marinette!” Several people immediately pointed at the girl.

“Marinette?” Jason chuckled. “Don’t make me laugh. It’s obvious someone threw the Bat at her.”

“And how do you know it?” Lila tried to argue.

“Simple. She wouldn’t be able to grab the bat and cover that distance with it to end up sitting on the chair while it was in front of her before it exploded. Shadows in paint tell me everything.” Jason explained. You don’t live with the world’s greatest detective without picking some skills.

“Now I’m sure we can just dismiss it as an accident and…”

“Sorry, missy, but I’m under strict orders from B, right now. The party responsible for that is to be removed from the premise.” He spoke strictly professional, but to Marinette and Damian, it was clear he was enjoying it too much.

“But… But…” Madame bustier tried still to say something, but nothing came to her mind that could solve this.

“If the guilty confesses, the rest can stay. But I can’t legally send away a minor without a guardian’s supervision.”

“Tt. Lila and Alya were the ones that messed up.” Damian had a vindictive smirk on his face.

“Liar!” The liar shouted.

“That can easily be checked. Show your hands.”

“What does it have to…” She started, but Jason simply shined a violet-light flashlight at them and revealed they had some invisible dust at them.

“Someone will have to go with them.” He looked at the two guardians on the trip.

“I’ll go. I think girls need a lecture on appropriate behavior.” Sabine’s grin was borderline feral.

“Sab… Madame Cheng. I think it would be best if you stay with the group while I talk with the pair.” Caline tried to defuse the situation.

“Nonsense. You should enjoy the trip. I’ll take care of them for the day.” Yup. Her grin was definitely feral. It was like a cat just got handed a crippled bird, but at the same time, it was friendly and inviting.

“But… I think you should stay with Marinette! For at least the last few days until the next part of the exchange starts.” It was clear that the teacher disagreed with the idea of Sabine going with the girls.

“Oh! Don’t worry. I’m not leaving Gotham any time soon. I want to get to know my niece better and Tom got a great business offer.”

“Indeed.” The teacher did her best to keep a smile on her face. “Still, I’ll go with the girls and you stay with the class.” She said, resigned and started leaving, completely ignoring the discussion they just had.

“Caline.” Sabine’s face turned emotionless. “Remember that you are supposed to be giving them a good example.”

She received no answer.

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Without the two main problems and the enabler, the rest of the trip passed mostly peacefully. Marinette enjoyed seeing the various departments, even though many of them seemed boring. During the remainder of the break, she and Damian changed into the spare clothes she had prepared. Tim brought them to work with him when he left earlier and had them waiting at the reception.

When they were done, Sabine escorted the class to the hotel before coming back to the manor. Marinette was already locked in her room, giving the designs a final touch. Exhausted, the woman fell asleep on the couch in the library, only to wake in Tom’s embrace. She really loved her husband and would never replace him for anything.

The spa day went well. Marinette, when separate from Damian and his brothers, found herself the sole receiver of all the good-natured teasing. It was the first time she really participated in something like that, but she liked it. Mostly because of the company, not because of activities, but it was still nice to for once let herself be pampered. Her usually dark-blue hair was now a brighter shade, making the blue actually visible. It wasn’t anything close to Luka, but the metallic highlight gave her a bit more forward look.

The Gala was closing in and it was high time to get ready to rock.

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Masterlist // Next

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