#so I’m going to assume Sabine just left this one as a surprise

[peridotbelle]

How I would’ve ended the Ezra and Hera reunion scene:

*they HUG*

Cut to the two of them walking towards the Ghost, all mother and son. Ezra looks up at it with a sense of homecoming. We hear footsteps clatter down the ramp and a kid’s voice call “Mom!” Jacen runs out and skids to a stop, looking at them with wide eyes. He’s smart, and he’s heard all the stories. “Are you Ezra?” he asks in a kind of awe.

Ezra, pretty quick himself, takes in the resemblance, the green hair, the mark on the shoulder pauldron, maybe a hint of a familiar presence… We see it in his face as he puts the pieces together. He glances from Hera back to the kid and now it’s his face that looks awed as he realizes who this must be.

And… cut.

(Maybe a line about “I really did miss a lot, huh?”/“Sabine left out a few things.”)

(I would obviously prefer an extended scene with more dialogue, but if we’re absolutely pressed for time then this would be the bare minimum must-have. Still, I’m grateful we got any kind of a reunion with Hera at all.)

[zaewriteshere]

Guardian of the Protocol

Ride

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Once you got the permission to, Yoru and yourself didn’t waste any time for leaving this alternate Earth.

You saw everything spin around you, but you pushed through, walking – or at least trying to – in a straight line. 

Your vision was blurry, but you could tell you were back home. You could however decipher Liam and Sabine waiting for your arrival, and you smiled weakly at them. 

It has been a while since you felt such a great amount of pain for so long.

Before Yoru could speak, you said weakly, a hand on your bleeding wound.

“I think it was a trap. It was too easy, so I would suggest not using the data we- Yoru gathered,” You corrected yourself, giving out credit where it was due. 

How you were still standing and talking was a mystery, but you continued : 

“I’m going to go to the infirmary,” You announced, already making your way there, almost falling a couple times.

Despite your best efforts, your current state got noticed by your friends, especially Kirra who rushed to you and immediately supported your weight. You smiled weakly at her, the corner of your vision darkening. 

She said something you couldn’t decipher.

This was bad.

Then, you saw Ling rush to you, a healing orb already in her hands. She gave it to you, and you already started to feel better, slowly. 

Then, you assumed that Kirra called for KAY/O, since he took you into princess carry and rushed you to the infirmary. 

Once your body hit one of the beds, you passed out.

When you opened your eyes again, you heard a very rhythmic and slow beeping. Blinded by the intensity of the lights, you groaned in discomfort. 

You looked around, and you realised you were alone in the sick bay. 

“Lynn ?” You called, hesitantly.

“I’m here,” They came into your vision. 

“How long have I been out ?” You questioned, remembering the mission and your injury. You patted where you knew the cut was, and didn’t feel any pain, only torn fabric.

“About an hour,” They estimated. “You worried us, you lost a lot of blood,” You chuckled at that.

“We’ve been through worse,” You stated, sitting up.

You felt okay, you realised.

Ling’s healing was way better than yours.

You disconnected the vials, and took a deep breath. Standing up, you looked at your clothes.

They needed a wash. 

Where was your helmet ? You looked around the room, spotting it on one of the counters. You walked to it, feeling your knees being slightly weak. 

You ignored it, taking your helmet into your hands and heading for the exit.

As you opened the door, you saw Ryo right in front of it, hand up as if about to knock.

Your eyes met, and you both froze.

Yoru was the first to break eye contact, stepping aside silently. 

“Did you want something from the infirmary ?” You asked, not moving. 

Must’ve been the reason why he was here. He cleared his throat as he shook his head.

That left you confused. There was no-one else in the infirmary but you…

It finally clicked, and you observed him in disbelief. 

He was making a point to not meet your gaze. 

“What’s up ?” You finally broke the silence.

“Let’s go outside. I’m hungry,” He said, still not looking at you.

You had so many questions, and you will ask them. 

You just figured that now wasn’t the best idea.

“Let me just change, I’m still in my battle outfit…” You accepted the invitation without saying it out loud.

Regardless, it seemed to surprise him, but he nodded.

“Don’t make me wait too long.”

You rolled your eyes but nodded, going to your room and changing for a more casual outfit.

You hesitated.

It’s been so long since you had the opportunity to relax, you didn’t know what to wear. 

You didn’t have many outfits to choose from either… You opted for a simple t-shirt, jeans and some working shoes to go along with it. You looked at yourself, feeling naked. 

You put on a denim jacket, and felt much better.

You took your small backpack as you exited your own little private area, you wondered where Ryo was. 

You didn’t expect him to just wait outside. 

When he looked up at you, he froze for a split second, before sighing loudly.

“Whatever,” He said at your confused expression.

He started walking towards the aircrafts area, and you followed suit.

He muttered something to the pilot, then took place in a much smaller ship. You didn’t really have any other choice than to sit next to him.

The ride there was quiet.

Yoru kept glancing at you. 

You didn’t notice at first, but then Lynn tried to grab your attention towards him. When you looked at him, he quickly glanced away, looking at the windshield.

You did the same, preferring to see the sights that you weren’t familiar with, rather than the person next to you who was acting strangely.

Both were interesting, but the latter could wait. 

Soon enough, you landed in what you recognised as being an asian country, though you didn’t know which one, your knowledge of Earth being fairly limited. 

You got off the aircraft, and looked around the airport. It was late evening, if you could trust the sun setting. 

You wanted to watch it fall behind the buildings, but you were rushed by Yoru to get going, and you sighed, slowly walking to the transport which you would assume would lead you to the building.

Exasperated, he took your hand and rushed you inside the vehicle, sitting you down next to him… Again.

You noticed he didn’t let go of your hands immediately. 

Seemingly realising that, he suddenly let your limb go, as if burned. You could see him looking away from you.

“You seem used to this,” You stated, looking at the building getting closer and closer.

“Huh ?” He intelligently answered.

“This whole ordeal of sneaking out to do your own thing as a civilian,” You didn’t look at him. 

“We’re not sneaking out, we can go outside whenever we want,” This time, you whipped your head to him, confused.

“Since when ?”

“Since forever.”

You couldn’t believe it. How come you never went out ? You were so curious about this world, but never had an occasion to go out until now. KAY/O knew, so why did he not propose to go outside with you ? Or even some of your friends ? You heard an exasperated sigh.

“KAY/O and Omen aren’t authorised, since they don’t exactly look… Like humans. Cypher doesn’t want to,” He answered your unspoken question, looking at you with a deadpan expression. He seemingly realised something, “You’ve never been outside of HQ ?”

“Besides when I arrived, no,” You looked down, then outside, feeling the vehicle slow down.

Silence met you. 

And this silence was kept for a while. 

He guided you to what seemed like a parking lot, and to a specific floor. 

His movements seemed automatic, as if on autopilot.

You wondered if he forgot your presence, since Ryo didn’t utter a single word to you, but it was fine for you. 

You finally stopped at a bike, which obviously belonged to him. 

You couldn’t help the look of awe that you had.

It was a very cool vehicle. 

You were snapped back to reality when you saw an object moving very fast in your direction, and you caught it out of instinct. Glancing down at your hands, it was a helmet.

Looking back at Yoru, he was already on his bike and turning it on, without one of his own.

That wouldn’t do.

You walked up to him and put the object on his head, snapping it shut while you were at it.

“Oi-” He started, looking at you with a glare. You cut him off, however.

“I’ll be fine. Your safety first, you’re the one driving.”

He sighed, but when your eyes met, he probably knew there was gonna be no way for him to convince you to wear that damn thing. 

You could tell he wanted to, though.

And that he was confused as to why you would think you would be fine.

You didn’t tell anyone about your special ability as of yet. 

You intended on keeping it that way for as long as possible, but not to the extent of other’s livelihood. 

You got on behind him, wrapping your arms around his belly, firmly grasping onto yourself. 

And so, he started driving, getting out of the parking lot and into the streets of a city that you didn’t recognise.

You looked up, noticing that the night had fallen quickly and all that was left were the neon lights. 

You gasped softly, looking around as much as you could.

It was such a beautiful sight.

[verymuchimmortalcat]

To Have Several first Meetings

Bio Dad Bruce Wayne Month Day 1: Meeting for the first time

ao3

@maribat-bdbwm

Marinette had known she was adopted since she had been twelve and had a project about genetics in school. Her parents had explained to her that her mother had given her up for adoption since she wasn’t in a situation to take care of her and didn’t think her father would be able to. Marinette’s mother had passed away soon after and while Tom and Sabine had her father’s information neither of them had ever contacted him. They left the option up to Marinette, and at the time she hadn’t cared, she had two loving parents and she was happy.

.oOo.

Marinette meets Batman for the first time when she’s 14. Wonder Woman had been in contact with them from the beginning of the hawkmoth situation, but after Heroes Day Batman insists on speaking to the them. As they enter the Watch Tower she can feel Cat Noir buzzing with excitement next to her. She’d laugh but she’s too nervous to do so.

Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are waiting for them. Marinette’s glad there aren’t more heroes around, Cat Noir looks like he might explode in excitement. They sit down at the table and Batman speaks first, “You need training.”

She’s well aware of that, but the way Batman says it irritates her, but she ignores it. She’s here because Diana asked, and because Batman is right about their lack of training.

Superman speaks up then, “We can help you with that. You can use Titans Tower for your training-”

“-And due to the nature of the threat you face, the two of you and the rest of your team is welcome there anytime.”

Marinette doesn’t point out that the rest of them are temporary heroes, it will probably alarm them more. She knows Cat Noir is probably jumping at the offer but she wants to know “why?”

Batman’s the one to speak, “if you’re going to protect Paris, then you’re going to need to be trained well.”

Marinette doesn’t know why Batman has a sudden vested interest in Paris’s safety but she’s going to go along with it. They do need the training and it will be nice to talk to more heroes their age.

“And the Justice League won’t interfere in Paris?”

“No.”

“None of them? You have a very large team and not all of them are here at the moment.”

“I will ensure everyone is informed.”

Marinette drops it, Batman sounds sincere.

.oOo.

Cat Noir and Ladybug make their first appearance in Titans tower that weekend. Cyborg and Nightwing are the ones waiting for them. They meet a lot of heroes. There’s Robin, Red Robin, Superboy, Wonder Girl, Kid flash, Solstice, Ravager, Beast Boy, Raven and apparently there are more of them usually but those are the ones she meets.

Civilian names are a whole another thing. Ladybug, Cat Noir and the Bats don’t share theirs but then there are the others. Cassie of course doesn’t have a secret identity. And Kon, Bart, Kiran, Rose and Gar don’t really mind telling another super hero. It’s a bit weird how forthcoming they are with their identities, Marinette’s had the no sharing identities rule hammered into her head for over a year now, and meeting the Teen Titans is making her question that rule.

As time passes and the miraculous team grows larger and the heroes become permanent, Titans Tower becomes steadily more occupied during weekends and training relaxes into hanging out.

They still train of course, the bats help with figuring out hawkmoth and Mayura’s identities, pretty much everyone helps with the actual fighting, and Raven helps with the more magical aspects. She meets pretty much all of the teenage superhero community over the course of a year. It’s pretty cool.

.oOo.

About a year after they start their training, they figure out Hawkmoth is Gabriel Agreste and Mayura’s Nathalie Sancouer. It’s not surprising but she knows they’re all worried how it’s going to affect Adrien, who as they learn is Cat Noir.

Marinette is fifteen when Hawkmoth’s reign over Paris ends.

Paris celebrates for days. But Marinette can’t bring herself to feel anything anymore. It’s not that she hasn’t been dealing with her emotions with the constant trips to the tower it’s just not letting herself feel anything in Paris becomes normal.

Her parents start to get worried and as much as she would love to calm down their fears she can’t. Luka, Juleka and Alya are the ones who join forces to convince her to reach out to her biological father.

When she gives in and asks her parents, they give her his contact information happily, assuming that’s what had been bothering her all this time. Marinette doesn’t correct them.

It takes Marinette a few weeks to call him but she does call him.

.oOo.

It turns out he already knew about her; he had just figured waiting until she was older was the better approach. Marinette wasn’t really sure what to make of that but he had invited her to his house in Gotham to spend a week getting to know him and the rest of his children.

Marinette accepts his offer happily. It would be nice to learn more about her father and his family (beyond what her research turned up with, Gotham reporters didn’t seem very sensible), and get out of Paris for a while.

.oOo.

Marinette is met by M. Pennyworth, who’s their butler, at the airport. Her parents had let her come on her own after M. Wayne had assured them that she would be safe. There had still been an unnecessarily large number of people to send her off at the airport, though.

Their ride to Wayne Manor is filled with a good amount of nervous rambling, from Marinette’s part. Alfred (he had insisted upon being called so) asks her about school and friends and Marinette goes on a lot of tangents as she talks about everyone in Paris.

There several people waiting at the entrance when they reach the Manor. If she wasn’t anxious about meeting her family, she would probably be more amazed at the beauty of the Manor and the surrounding grounds.

She waves awkwardly at them and says, “hi, I’m Marinette.”

The shortest boy among them, Damian she believes, turns away and walks back into the Manor. Her father turns as if to follow him but he’s stopped by the second tallest of her siblings, Marinette doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to the idea of siblings but she finds she quite likes it, “I’ll go check on Damian. Bye Marinette, see you around.”

She waves at him silently and all of them fall into silence, Alfred having left them. Would it be too late to turn away now?

There aren’t enough pictures of Bruce Wayne’s children on the internet, with the exception of Tim Wayne, for her to recognise all of them but she's pretty sure the one who finally breaks the silence is Jason Todd, returning from the dead created more than enough reading material for her research.

“I'm leaving. Nice to meet ya,” and then heads off. None of the others seem to think it’s strange, so she doesn’t dwell on it.

Mr. Wayne clears his throat and says, “we should probably head inside.”

“Truly one of your brighter ideas B,” Tim says and the other two laugh. They introduce themselves as Cass and Duke once they’re inside and Mr. Wayne tells her she can call him B or Bruce like the others do or whatever she’s comfortable with, Marinette nods in reply. And then she’s being dragged along to somewhere deep in the Manor by her new siblings and they’re talking about some kind of prank war that they’re apparently in the middle of.

Marinette grins. This is bound to be interesting.

[marauderundercover]

Taking Chances Chapter 4: Unexpected (Bonding)

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AO3

Bruce Wayne felt lost. This wasn’t an unusual feeling for him, but he wasn’t particularly fond of the events that led to him feeling lost. First, he found out he had a daughter. Yet another child that he hadn’t known of their existence. Then, he acted as Batman. He researched the girl and found that her school situation was...less than ideal. As was the supervillain situation in Paris. The girl- his daughter- had been targeted several times. Sometimes the Akuma went after her from the start. Other times, she was unfortunate enough to be in its line of sight when it was on a rampage. Any way you looked at it, she was in danger. No, the biggest mistake in researching her came with the phone number for the bakery run by her parents. Two lovely people who had raised her and taught her right from wrong. Something he hadn’t done. Their phone call was what left him feeling lost. They hadn’t demanded that he stay away from his daughter- from Marinette. No, on the contrary, they thought it was a great idea for the two to bond. Especially once Bruce had mentioned his other children. 

“Marinette was distraught when the only information we could give her about her birth father was his name.” Sabine had said, adding to Bruce’s confusion. 

“You had my name but didn’t reach out?” Bruce asked, trying (and failing) to figure out the situation. 

“We didn’t have much to go on. Just your name and that you were American and worked in business. Bridgette didn’t give any specifics, and back then it didn’t really matter. I assumed Bruce Wayne was a common enough name, especially in the US.” Sabine replied simply. The rest of their conversation had gone similarly, with Bruce growing more and more lost until the end. They hadn’t even suggested a DNA test (though he was planning on asking Marinette, just so that they could be completely certain). They just wanted Marinette happy. Even if it meant meeting and bonding with the man who hadn’t known about her existence. 

---

Marinette Dupain Cheng was not having an easy week. No, her week was sucky. In fact it was beyond sucky, it was shitty. So many things were happening at the same time, and she was just grateful that she wasn’t currently in Paris, since she was certain she’d be akumatized. From being attacked by the Joker for simply looking like a Wayne, to meeting Batman who was just as angry in person, and then figuring out Bruce Wayne really was her dad and accidentally calling him Batman, to fighting an Akuma by herself (one that she could barely handle) and then to top it all off, Adrien is Chat Noir. And Adrien has a crush on her, as Marinette. And apparently has for at least a month. Oh and now he knows that she’s Ladybug and so last night was filled with her Chat Blanc nightmares all over again. The cherry on the top of this mess was the fact that the class was practically ignoring her. She was sure they weren’t doing it intentionally and that they were just kinda distracted by Lila’s tall tales of Gotham. Tales that include her dating one of Bruce Wayne’s sons. She wouldn’t clarify which one, which was probably for the best. They two closest to their age were 12 and 19. Neither a great option for the 15 year old Italian. A shrill ringing tugs Marinette out of her thoughts. Glancing down at the unknown number attempting to call her, Marinette silently prayed that this would turn her shitty week around. 

“Hello?” She answers, wincing slightly at the way her voice sounds after a night filled with screaming and crying from nightmares. 

“Is this Marinette Dupain Cheng?” A deep voice asks. Marinette frowns. 

“Um, yes?”

“Good. This is Bruce Wayne and well, I’m not sure how to-”

“You’re my dad.” She blurts out, face instantly heating up. “Oh crap, I mean, um-”

“Well yes. I do believe I may be your father. I was in contact with your parents earlier, to ask about boundaries and such. Your mother says that you had shown interest in meeting me and seeing how we’re similar?” He says, the question clear in his voice. Marinette opens her mouth to respond, then frowns. 

“Just like that? We’re gonna meet, just like that?” She asks, hoping that her distrustful tone doesn’t push the man away. 

“I’ll admit that I was going to ask if you would mind a paternity test. After speaking with your mother, I have no doubts, but I thought it might make you feel better. And of course, if you would prefer to just act as though I didn’t speak to your parents and go on with your trip, we can do that as well. I just- I was caught off guard, if I’m being honest.” Bruce Wayne- her father- says. 

“I’ll do it. I- I would like to get to know you. I can’t have a relationship with Bridgette, but if my parents are okay with it, I do want a relationship with you.” Marinette admits, holding her breath as she waits for an answer. There’s silence on the other end for a long moment, but just as Marinette’s about to apologize and tell him he can go and pretend she doesn’t exist, he answers. His voice a little softer this time. 

“I would like that.” 

---

The paternity test came out positive, to no one’s surprise. Bruce had given Marinette the option of meeting somewhere more public (like a restaurant or museum) to bond, or coming over to the manor. Not quite ready to deal with the possibility of paparazzi and the rumors (no matter how true they may be) that would stem from a public visit, Marinette agreed to going to the manor for dinner. Which is how she ended up sitting in silence in a town car with a man who seemed like he knew more than he was letting on. 

“So, you’re the one who raised Mr. Wayne?” Marinette asks, not quite ready to call the man “Dad” or any variation of the word. The man nods and she meets his eyes in the rearview mirror. 

“Indeed, Miss. I am Alfred Pennyworth.” The man, Monsieur Pennyworth, says calmly. She tries not to let the frustration that she feels building show on her face. She feels like she should know this man, like there’s something important that she’s just barely missing. 

“Have we met before?” Marinette finally asks, racking her brain as she tries to figure out why this man is so familiar to her. 

“I don’t believe so, Miss Dupain Cheng.” He says, and for the first time since meeting him, it doesn’t feel like he’s all knowing. Instead, it feels like he’s just as confused as she is. Drat. She opens her mouth to question him more, when the huge manor becomes visible in the distance. Eyes widening, Marinette forgets everything else and turns her attention to the beautiful architecture. The giant fence and metal gates do little to hide the massive house. Sections of the house rise above others, almost as if there are towers. Dozens of windows are visible, as is the giant fountain at the front of the house. Ripping her sketchbook out of her bag, Marinette immediately starts sketching out the ideas that attack her mind. Dresses and suits and skirts, all using the architecture in front of her for the basic shapes of the outfits. As the car goes past the gate and the gardens come into view, Marinette can’t hold back her shocked gasp. Shaped hedges and flowers, hundreds of different colored flowers, and trees and- it was beautiful. Almost too perfect. Like something that belonged in a movie. She jumps slightly as the car door is opened, Alfred standing on the other side with an eyebrow quirked up. Right. She was actually getting out of the car. And going into this massive house. And spending time with her biological- nope. She can’t do this. She can’t- 

“Miss Dupain Cheng, if it makes you feel any better, Master Bruce seems to have run into some traffic on his way back from the office. You’ll have a few minutes to gather your bearings inside before he arrives.” Alfred says softly. Relief washes over her and she nods, finally moving to get out of the car. 

“Thank you, Alfred.” She says, smiling at the man. He nods back at her before leading her up the steps to the door. He opens it and then steps back, allowing her to take a tentative step into the house. Her previous panic is pushed aside as she realizes the inside is just as gorgeous as the outside. Immediately turning back to her sketchbook, she tunes out the world around her and just stands in the foyer, scribbling furiously into her sketchbook. 

“Um, hi?” A voice says, making Marinette yelp and jump, eyes scanning her surroundings until they fall on a guy. A pretty tall guy. 

“Hi.” She says softly, also confused as to who this guy was. Not her- dad-biological father-other part of her DNA-father-Mr. Wayne- not anyone she had ever met, that’s for sure. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Dick Grayson.” The man says, extending his hand, a smile on his face. Anyone else probably would have thought the smile was sincere, but Marinette had always been good at reading emotions. And she could tell that he was wary of her. Why would he- oh. Grayson. As in, Richard Grayson, as in this man was her brother. Or, well, maybe he wouldn’t want to be. Maybe he would think that she’s ridiculous or that she’s just here to get money or here to try and pull apart Mr. Wayne’s family or maybe he would think that she was trying to take his place and she would never but maybe he would hate her and- She takes in a deep breath, trying desperately to ground herself and wishing she’d taken up Adrien’s earlier offer of him coming with. 

“I’m Marinette. Marinette Dupain Cheng.” She finally says, reaching out and shaking his hand. He nods, obviously still confused. So Mr. Wayne hadn’t mentioned her. Did he hate her? Did he ask her here to have her sign a NDA? Did he not want anything to do with her? Of course he wouldn’t, he obviously already had a family. A family that he chose, not one that he had by accident. His name was on her birth certificate, surely he would have found her sooner if he actually wanted anything to do with her? He chose Dick Grayson to be his son. He wanted him. He didn’t want Marinette. He-

“Ah, Marinette. I see you’ve met Dick.” The last voice she needed to hear says calmly as he walks through the door. Marinette swallows back the thickness in her throat, the one that tells her the tears will be starting soon. 

“Uh, yes. Mr. Wayne. Um, hi.” She says, flinching slightly when he winces. What did she do wrong this time? Was he really going to tell her to take a hike? If he didn’t hate her before, he surely did now. 

“Bruce, what’s going-” Dick starts to ask but is cut off by screaming voices getting closer to them.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Demon Spawn?” 

“Not my fault your blocking skills are subpar, Todd.”

“Sub- you almost stabbed me, you little shit!”

“Almost, yes. But I didn’t. I’m sure Father will be pleased with my restraint.” 

“You little fu-” “Boys!” Mr. Wayne finally yells as the two screaming walk into view. Both freeze and the younger one’s eyes instantly fall on Marinette, narrowing as he takes a defensive position. 

“Another one, Bruce, really?” The older one asks, making Marinette flinch back. Of course. Two more of his sons-her brothers- who he chose. Another two that he wanted. Not like her, someone he was going to be forced to know. Unless he told her tonight that he never wanted to speak to her again and made her sign a paper saying that she would never contact him again and then they would never have to worry about seeing her again and- oh this is a lot. 

“What were you two doing?” Mr. Wayne finally asks, and that’s when Marinette sees the weapons in their hands. And the blood on the older man’s shirt. The man turns slightly so that that part of his shirt is hidden when he notices her staring. 

“Uh, bonding?” He says, not at all convincing. 

“Who is that, Father?” The younger boy asks, the utter distaste clear on both his face and in his tone. And this is it. This is where he’s going to say that she’s no one, she’s nothing, and then he’s going to make her sign that stupid piece of paper and the last chance she has at knowing one of her biological parents is going to fly out the window. Poof. And then she’ll be so embarrassed, she won’t be able to go back on the trip and then she’ll have to change her name but she can’t completely run away yet because of stupid Hawkmoth and-

“This is Marinette, my daughter.” Well that was unexpected.

Next

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[dessarious]

What Makes a Family? Pt21

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Marinette walked into the private dining room next to Cass and was on the receiving end of four very different reactions. One of the boys was practically vibrating with excitement. The next was quite obviously sizing her up. After him was a boy who didn’t even seem to be able to focus on her properly. She assumed that was Tim. The smallest was glaring at her as if he wanted to kill her. So Damian. She had to wonder how he’d react if she told him how cute it was that he was trying to intimidate her. Probably best to keep that to herself for now.

“These are Bruce’s sons. Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian. Boys this is Marinette and her parents Tom and Sabine.” Selina still sounded far too amused by this whole thing. She ignored it and smiled at them.

“It’s nice to meet you all.” That was all it took for Dick to explode.

“Oh my god! You’re so cute and polite even. Are you sure you’re actually related to B? What do you like to do? We should have a family movie night! What movies do you like? We should go out and you can show us your favorite places and then when you come to Gotham - You are coming right? - we’ll show you ours. We’ll just have to make sure all the major rogues are locked up first. But don’t worry we’ll keep you safe.” She just stared at him, not having any idea where to start with that. Jason rolled his eyes.

“Damn Dick, breathe and leave her alone. This manic big brother bullshit is going to scare her away.” Dick looked like a kicked puppy.

“Language Master Jason.” Alfred walked in with the food, which she shouldn’t have been surprised about given that he was their butler but she’d expected the hotel staff to do it.

“You are staying for dinner with us Grandpa Alfie?” The reactions to the name were not at all what she expected. Selina just burst into laughter, Bruce was eyeing her like she had a screw loose, Dick was cooing over how cute she was, Jason looked like he’d just swallowed his tongue, and Damian just looked insulted though she had no idea why. Tim just swayed there so she wasn’t certain he’d even comprehended what she said.

“If you’d like me to Miss. Should we get your friends as well?” There was a mischievous glint in his eyes and she wasn’t certain what to do with that. Did he think they wouldn’t get along well?

“I think that’s a good idea.” Her Maman’s tone was a bit hard and she was sizing up the boys. Once Alfred left she walked up to them. Oh, this was about to get bad. “Let me ask you boys a question. If someone were bothering and hurting Cass on a daily basis what would you do?”

“Shoot ‘em.”

“Stab them.”

“Lock them in a room with those two.” Jason, Damian and Dick’s answers came in quick succession and Sabine focused on Tim who seemed to be trying to figure out where she came from.

“Well?” The sharp no nonsense tone finally got a response.

“I don’t understand the question. I mean, Cass would have beat them to a pulp long before we heard about it.” That got a content hum and Mari felt a relieved breath leave her body.

“They can stay. And Tim is coming home with us so I can make sure he sleeps properly.” Bruce’s eye twitched but before he could say anything Tim’s confused voice spoke up.

“I’m not sleeping?” Everyone started laughing except Bruce, her Maman, and Damian. “Why can’t I stay here?”

“Because I can’t keep an eye on you here and make sure you sleep.” Poor Tim still looked so confused.

“You’re not taking him anywhere. He may be worthless but we’re not about to let some strange woman abduct him.” Marinette felt herself wince at Damian’s statement. In two sentences he’d found one of her Maman’s trigger words. Cass gave her hand a comforting squeeze.

“No one is worthless young man, except possibly those who treat others as though they are. I suggest you learn to appreciate people more.” Dick and Jason were snickering and she rounded on them. “And what are you two laughing about? Neither one of you corrected him or defended your brother. How is he supposed to learn if you don’t teach him?” They both stuttered  out denials.

“That’s just how the Demon Spawn is!” Jason’s indignant reply just got a raised eyebrow.

“He’s not going to listen to us anyway. He doesn’t even listen to Bruce most of the time.” Yeah this was a disaster. The look her Maman shot Dick made him freeze.

“So rather than say something so the person he’s tormenting knows they aren’t alone you lot just stand by and let him bully everyone around him?” Oh shit. Mari didn’t think they’d get there so quickly. Between the way things happened with the school and Chloe and Lila, her Maman was insanely touchy about the subject of people not sticking up for others. She desperately tried to motion for the boys to just back down.

“The replacement knows how we feel about him.” Oh dear Kwami, her Maman was going to kill Jason. “Besides, it's not bullying since we all know how the Demon Spawn is.” To her surprise Sabine rounded on Bruce.

“And you’re just fine with them giving each other derogatory nicknames and insulting each other?” If this didn’t stop she wasn’t going to be allowed anywhere near her father or brothers. Never mind that she was almost eighteen. There had to be a way to calm the situation; she just had no idea what it was. Cass could obviously sense her distress and walked up to her Maman who immediately softened. “Yes sweetheart?”

“Complicated, but Family.” Mari knew that Cass meant that even though they acted the way they did they would all fight and die for one another but she wasn’t certain anyone else got that. Her Maman studied Cass for a moment before nodding.

“Fine for now. But you boys will not act like this if you come to my home. Do you understand?” Dick and Jason nodded frantically but Tim still seemed to have no idea what was going on. Damian just glared at everyone. Luckily Alfred chose that moment to walk in with the others.

“Holy shit you’re Luka Couffaine!” Jason and Dick immediately went up to him to talk about music and what it was like to work with Jagged stone.

“Bourgeois?” Tim was blinking at Chloe like she’d just materialized out of nowhere.

“Drake. Still trying to survive on will power and caffeine I see.” The boy just continued to blink at her and Chloe rolled her eyes. Damian marched himself up to Kagami with a determined look.

“Your fencing skill is adequate. We should spar.” Yeah, he was definitely Talia’s son. Kagami just cocked her head at him.

“Perhaps, if it is acceptable to your father and Marinette.” He turned his glare on her but Marinette just grinned back at him.

“He’s my dad actually.” Those were the only words she heard out of Luka but Dick and Jason both started yelling in excitement until they caught Alfred giving them a pointed look. “But honestly, he’s far more fond of Mari than anyone else. After all, she is his exclusive designer.” There was dead silence for about ten seconds before the room exploded.

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[writer-panda]

Ruin and Rebirth - Chapter 1

Ruin and Rebirth

Chapter 2

Inspired by @jumpingjoy82 on Tumblr. Thank you for the amazing prologue.

I don’t own the characters, only the plot. Miraculous and Justice League belong to their respective creators

--------

"It's okay Marinette. Everything is going to be fine. You’re too young to understand, but it was for the greater good."

To young.

TO YOUNG!

It was all the Justice League's fault. If they kept their incompetent asses out of Paris, none of this would have happened.

Apparently, they just spontaneously decided to go through the Watchtower’s recycling bin, and what they found astonished them. Years upon years worth of pleas for help from Paris.

They decide to finally investigate, and it just so happens that it was during an Akuma Attack, and they threw everything the Parisian heroes were telling them out of the window, wanting to do things their own way.

Superman was one of the ones there.

And they learned just how far the Miracle Cure could go.

He decided to use his super strength and threw a car at the akumatized victim, who moved out of the way at the last minute, so the car sailed right through the Tom & Sabine Bakery, promptly, catching on fire, giving no time for the people inside to get out. No one got out alive.

Ladybug froze for a moment, before fighting with more determination than before, knowing that the Miracle Cure would bring them back.

She was wrong, which brings us back to this point.

"I don't give a damn about you so-called 'greater good' and now you’re telling me, that I'm too young to understand, but am I too young to experience it? Too young to actually see everything and everyone I love torn from me because of these heroes?! Why the hell are they here now? Where were they when this first started? What changed? And now, because of them, my entire family is dead!"

After that everything was hazy, but she knew, she hated superheroes.

They never knew when to stop, and just like Chat Noir, they expected to be praised for whatever happens, no matter if there were casualties or not.

The world would be better off without them.

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

The sun has long since set over Paris. The fires were still burning in some parts of town. For the first time since Ladybug first appeared, the citizens of Paris felt true fear. It was ironic. They didn’t fear the akuma. They feared the heroes that came to their rescue. For the first time in four years, the casualties were piling up. And the akuma was responsible for none.

True, many of them initially asked for it. With each fight, Ladybug and Chat Noir were taking longer. It’s been obvious for some time that they were slowly being worn out. Some media started to criticize the duo, question their skills, age, their right to act in Paris. They weren’t part of the UN Justice League Charter. Their only real authority came from the trust of the citizens themselves. And that trust was lost. The civilian pleas to the Justice League increased in number and frequency. Under public pressure, the mayor had no choice but to issue an official plea for help.

But then, then… the heroes came. 

In retrospection, almost everyone would agree that it was a mistake. Justice League was not used to fighting magical threats. They weren’t practiced in dealing with possessed villains. They didn’t understand. And they treated Ladybug and Chat Noir worse than sidekicks. 

That flying chicken even dared to wrap Chat Noir in a metal bar so he wouldn’t get in the way. 

Ladybug… tried her best. She allowed herself to trust the new heroes. She stopped saving every civilian from the rubble. She focused on the akuma. If heroes didn’t bother with the lives, it must’ve meant they trusted her cure, right?

WRONG

They were like a tank, riding through the city with a singular goal in mind. 

It didn’t help that they deemed the akuma a “world-level threat”. Yeah, right. Stormy Weather was powerful, but the damage could’ve been repaired. 

Or so she thought.

The volcanos, the tsunami, the tornadoes, the earthquakes? Those were fixed. The rubble caused by them was put back in place and those who suffered under them were better than new. 

But not the damage caused by the heroes. 

Not the bakery.

There was no magic in what happened. There was nothing to reverse. Those were human actions. For the first time perhaps, the people could see how much of the damage caused by the fight was the fault of heroes. How many deaths they caused. That is if they admitted, before themselves at least, that it was their fault. 

And yet, the so-called ‘heroes’ dared to lecture her about responsibility. About the sacrifice of few for the lives of many. About the innocence of young. 

She ran away. She managed to dodge them and vanish. Meld with the crowd when there were no cameras in sight and she was sure they couldn’t track her. 

Now, Ladybug stood alone on the top of the Eiffel tower, with her yo-yo communicator in her hand. She sent the message fifteen minutes ago. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but at this point, she no longer cared. There was nothing more for her. 

“He thought this was a trap.” A voice spoke from behind her. Ladybug twisted immediately, taking a guarded stance. She was still avoiding the Justice League after all. Before her stood… someone. She suspected it was an Akuma. The woman had pale skin and wore a black dress, black gloves, and a black veil over her face. 

“It isn’t. I’m alone. The city suffered enough as it is today. I suffered enough.” Ladybug’s voice cracked slightly.

“I see…” The akuma pursed her lips. For a moment, a purple butterfly appeared over her face before the woman nodded. “Fine. Give me your miraculous and I will take you to him.” 

“That isn’t going to work and you know it. You would just leave me stuck here. I’m willing to offer a token of goodwill though.” With that, Ladybug pulled a necklace and dangled it before the akuma. 

“Is that…?” 

“The miraculous of the fox? Yes. No tricks. I want to negotiate. In-person.” She made sure to emphasize the last part. 

The outline of the butterfly appeared in front of the Akuma’s face for a moment before she silently nodded. “I can lead you to him, but not before you reveal your face.”

“Fine.” Ladybug didn’t hesitate. She was past that point long ago. There was no hesitation, no doubt… no regret. Not for her actions anyway. No more.

In the flash of light, instead of Ladybug, Marinette stood before the akuma. 

“You’re…” the woman’s voice was stuck in her throat.

“I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” 

Tikki, floating nearby gasped in fear. The Kwami didn’t get a chance to explain before Marinette resumed her transformation. 

“Fine. Let’s go.”

The two leaped from the tower and started to zoom over the city. At first, they remained silent. Neither wanted to speak. It was tense anyway. It was, of course, Marinette who broke the silence first. 

“Your… your look. Have you lost someone today?”

The woman didn’t answer immediately. She appeared to be mulling over the question at first. Or wondering if she should answer.

“A… colleague; coworker. He was… a friend of mine you could say. We’ve been working side-by-side for at least a decade.”

“I see…” Marinette pursed her lips into a thin line. “I’m sorry.” She spoke up after a moment. “I imagine you blame me now?”

“No.” The akuma snapped. “You’re just a child. I put the blame where it belongs. With heroes. And with people who chose to invite them.” 

“Not hawkmoth?” Escaped ladybug’s mouth before she realized it. 

“He… he never wanted this either. He isn’t a villain you believe him to be.” The akuma hesitated for a moment, but Marinette could sense it was her own opinion. She filed it in her brain under interesting. 

-----------

When they arrived at Agreste manor, Marinette was surprised.

When they entered the study, she was baffled.

When they went down the secret elevator, she was angry. 

When she stood before Hawkmoth, she was furious. And it wasn’t because he was her mortal enemy. 

“So that’s why you neglect your only son?!” She screamed at him as soon as he turned to see her. His mouth moved, probably to give some excuse. “I don’t care if you want to rule the world or be a god or whatever. No matter what little sick excuse your brain found to justify your actions. You are not allowed to just ignore Adrien like that! He needs a father. He is a teenager and he needs you!” 

“Madmoiselle Dupain-Cheng.” His voice was cold, but in a different way than she ever heard Gabriel Agreste or Hawkmoth speak. 

“Gabriel Agreste. And I assume you akumatized your Assistant, Nathalie?” She pointed to the woman next to her. 

“Astute observation, Ladybug. You risked a lot coming here to speak with me. I could take your miraculous now, or any other time. You gave me your most precious protection: your secret identity. So… what was that important?”

“I want to know. What is so important to you that you’re willing to go any length to get it?”

“That’s it?” Hawkmoth raised an eyebrow. “That’s all? You’re ready to risk everything over that little piece of knowledge?”

“Yes.” Once more, there was no hesitation. There was no doubt. Her heart had no place for doubts anymore. Her heart was still stuck under three levels worth of rubble. 

“And what, pray tell, would you do if I told you?” He asked with a hint of amusement in his voice. 

“That depends.” She could see he was now intrigued, so she started to explain. “On whether I like the goal or not. And on whether you understand fully the implications. If you pass, you will get my miraculous and I will deliver you Chat Noir’s miraculous too. If you fail, you still get my miraculous. But you will never get the ring. I made sure that if something happens tonight, he will retire. He will leave Paris and toss the ring into the ocean in a concrete box. You would be left to torture the city all you wish until the League found you, but the ring’s power would forever remain out of your reach. You would be left with nothing but a criminal record. And your son would sooner than later be left without both parents. Of course, you could abandon your crusade, but then I would’ve won. I’m not a naive girl without a plan. Not anymore.” She spat the last part angrily, but her gaze was not focused on Hawkmoth, but far in the distance. 

“I… see. Clever. You’re right. This will probably end tonight.” He looked her over top to bottom. It was the first time he stood so close face to face with Ladybug. His nemesis. 

Gabriel wasn’t sure if he was impressed with her, or infuriated. Scratch that, he was sure he was both. She outsmarted him. She was willing to make an ultimate sacrifice for the sake of ending the fight. In that very moment, in her determined expression, he saw a reflection of another headstrong woman he knew. It was as if Emilie’s spirit stood before him. 

“So? How will it be?” she asked impatiently.

“Follow me.” He simply motioned for her and started walking. 

Soon, the group entered a large chamber, lit by several lights. In the center of a platform in the far end stood a glass coffin. Even from the distance, Marinette easily saw there was a woman inside. She was quick to pass Hawkmoth and get there, even as he was trying to grab her.

When the akuma and Gabriel arrived, they watched as Marinette was carefully pacing around the coffin and muttering under her breath. 

“She overused the damaged miraculous.” It wasn’t a question, but Hawkmoth answered anyway.

“Yes. Only the wish can bring her back.”

“You’re one of the biggest idiots in this whole city!” The girl screamed. “She is not dead, you moron. There are literally five different ways listed in the book which, may I remind you, you possess!” She continued to yell at him. “Hell! You could akumatize someone and give him healing power. You know… use the butterfly miraculous like it was meant to be used!” She scolded. “But nooo! You’ve got to be an idiot and immediately go for the most dangerous, imprecise, reckless, chaotic, risky solution there was! I’m sure she would’ve been ashamed.” 

Gabriel was at a loss for words. Was it really that easy? It couldn’t have been. He checked several times. He would’ve known. The akuma left Nathalie, who collapsed onto the ground. Some tear stains were now visible on her face. “I… I was just… I did what she told me. Only the wish can bring back the dead.” He stammered. 

“She. Is. Not. Dead.” Marinette made sure to punctuate each word. “She is in a coma. She is alive you moron. Tikki! Spots off!” The flash of light signaled the end of her transformation. “Be silent, little one.” She said in a caring voice. She couldn’t bring herself to take her anger on Kwami, but she couldn’t doubt now. “Akumatize me. Give me the power to heal her.”

The corruption left the akuma that was floating in the air, only for Hawkmoth to get his hands around the white butterfly and pour a new dose of power into it. It flew the short distance between them and sunk into Marinette’s purse. She smirked as the corrupted energy passed through her, turning her into an akuma. That is until she could see how she looked. 

“I’m not sure how you can call yourself a designer and yet dress me in this!” she complained. Her skin was now deep red, the color of blood, and her clothes turned into a white nurse uniform. Still, she walked to the coffin and easily opened the top. From her purse (now medic’s bag) she pulled a needle and injected the content into Emilie.

When the beautiful woman started to move, letting out an exhausted groan, Marinette sighed in relief. 

“Wha… what’s going on… the last thing I… Gabriel!” She bolted upright and immediately moaned in pain. Her hand instinctively flew to her back. “Gabriel Agreste! Did you keep me in this coffin for a whole week!?” She yelled at her husband. “And who’re those two?” She pointed at Marinette, who was smiling next to her, and Nathalie, still exhausted on the floor. “You were supposed to only reveal this to Adrien if anything happened to me. There was no talk about your assistant and… um, who’re you?” The woman turned to the akuma, who sighed and tore a strap of her bag. The butterfly left the item and Marinette reverted back to her normal form. 

“I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I’m… was… used to be Ladybug.” 

“But you’re just a kid. And why was Ladybug active… Gabriel!” She roared and her husband took a step back. 

Marinette was… surprised. She didn’t expect Emilie to be like that. From what Adrien told her, she was supposed to be the kindest, nicest person in the world. Then again, he might’ve been looking at it through tinted glasses.

“Yup.” The bluenette couldn’t stop herself from commenting. “He decided that the best way to wake you up was to get the miraculi of Ladybug and Black Cat.”

“You nincompoop. That plan was only for when I was dead.” She glared heatedly at her husband and Marinette couldn’t help but be a bit smug. “And you couldn’t get the items from a kid? How many other heroes are there?” 

“Only Chat Noir. He’s my age. And I sometimes call in some help from others.” Marinette supplied quickly. She was having entirely too much fun from watching Emilie tear Hawkmoth a new one. 

“Two kids! You couldn’t defeat two kids! I leave for just one second and you start getting your rear kicked by kids!”

“He also neglected Adrien for the last two years.” Marinette decided to have as much fun as she could while it lasted.

“Gabriel Agreste. You’re officially grounded until I sort this mess. Now take your secretary and leave. I will sort the mess with you later,” she ordered. Her husband could only nod and leave as quickly as possible. 

Marinette was now holding her sides laughing. ”That was amazing. Merci Madame Agreste. I didn’t think I would get to laugh tonight… But this was too good.” 

“Oh sunshine, don’t worry. I will get him in line for you. Whoever decided to let kids fight for them was clearly sick or senile.” 

“Master Fu was… he made some mistakes. I… maybe if I wasn’t so young…”

“It’s not your fault. Whatever you blame yourself for. You shouldn’t have been responsible for Paris. Or whatever else my husband did. I think some time on the couch will do him great.” The woman got up and walked over to pull Marinette into a hug. She then led the girl back to the (now half-open) coffin and seated them both on the edge. “Why don’t you tell me what ails you? I’m sure I can help.” 

For a moment, Marinette looked the woman in the eyes. Then, she started talking. She told her everything.

About a class full of idiots who believed every lie and actively fought against her.

About Lila, who manipulated everyone and did everything to turn her life into a personal version of hell. 

About the teachers, who preferred to let her be walked on then do their jobs.

About her partner, the dorky cat who couldn’t take life seriously and at times was immature. She came to like his antics, but he infuriated her as much as he kept her sane. 

About the so-called heroes, who came into the city and ruined her life.

About the destroyed bakery. The four bodies inside.

“It was her birthday. Today my nonna had her sixtieth birthday. We were celebrating when the Akuma happened. Except the Justice League came. Funny thing. The cure can return anyone killed by magic. It can’t return those killed by aliens tossing cars around.” 

“Do you have any other family?” Emilie asked, worried about the girl. She walked through so much pain in her short life. 

“My uncle… but he lives in Shanghai now. Papa was the only child and Maman moved here from Asia… I’m not sure what will happen next.” The girl revealed. 

“Next? Next, you will come live with us. No strings attached. I have no need for your earrings or other miraculous and I can keep my husband in check. I owe you that much.”

“I… you don’t owe me anything, Madame.” The girl quickly protested. “You’re not responsible for what happened. I don’t blame your family. Those were the American heroes who killed my parents. They were the ones that destroyed half the city. They are the ones to blame,” Marinette informed the woman in a solemn tone. 

“And that’s why I want you to stay with me. With us. I can protect you. Teach you. You can have your vengeance on those who wronged you. I can make you a queen. They will regret the day they wronged you.”

“I… I accept.” Marinette bowed her head.

[pawsitivelymiraculous]

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.

[peskygirl13]

Pics or It Didn’t Happen

Mild salt and slight hints of Maribat, but mostly crack. 

I did get some ideas from @unmaskedagain‘s blog. 

Their ml salt and/or crack fics sustain me. 

~~~

Marinette learned pretty quickly that even if you had proof, not everyone will listen. It’s always better to have pictures than words, because more people will believe you that way. 

It was a slow burn, but Lila Rossi had successfully turned Miss Bustier’s class against the girl. It hurt when her once friends called her jealous and a bully. 

Her! Marinette! 

Did they forget that she had been bullied by Chloe for years? Why would she become a bully after being bullied herself?

And jealous? Jealous of what? Marinette’s crush on Adrien had long simmered out into nothing but cinders. The boy was a spineless coward who would rather pretend everything was ok rather than stand up and face the truth.

It hurt that this had happened, but, oddly enough, Marinette got some of her greatest allies through this. 

It started with Chloe. 

One particularly gloomy day, Marinette saw the blonde sitting alone while eating her lunch. Sabrina had long abandoned the blonde for Lila’s fool’s gold and, not for the first time in her life, Chloe felt alone.

Now, despite their long hated history, Marinette wasn’t heartless. The Ladybug in her compelled her to sit next to the blonde and eat. Chloe stared at her, surprised, but said nothing as she continued to eat herself.

That lunch started a truce and led to a friendship. 

Next was Moriah. 

Moriah was an exchange student from America. Marinette was surprised the day she walked into the bakery and saw her parents talking with a shy looking brunette girl with glasses. 

Her parents told her that Moriah was a transfer student from America  that they would be hosting for the next few years if all went well. 

Moriah was very shy around new people, so when they arrived at school the next day, she stayed close to Marinette. Lila saw this and tried to tempt her into her web of lies. 

Moriah was interested in Lila’s tales, but cautious. She looked up any proof of Lila’s stories and found no evidence. She looked up Lila’s name. Nothing. 

When she tried pointing this out to the class, she was shunned. Chloe and Marinette welcomed her with open arms. 

After a month or so, Moriah became much more comfortable. She was witty and funny, and she had no qualms about defending her friends and she always tried to remain to the side of justice. 

This was one of the reasons Marinette decided to give her a miraculous. 

After a week of living together, Moriah found out Marinette was Ladybug. The girls had to share a room and Marinette came back late in the night, still dressed as Ladybug, assuming Moriah was asleep and detransformed in her room. 

Moriah dropped the book she was reading and squeaked behind the Asian girl.

The next few days included Moriah beating herself up about not noticing that her roommate was a superhero.

About a month or two later, was when Marinette began debating whether or not she should give Chloe and Moriah a miraculous. 

Chloe, Marinette knew she wanted to give a miraculous too. The blonde had long ago proved that she was trustworthy and ready to re-wield a miraculous, but she didn’t want to risk anyone knowing that it was Chloe like with Queen Bee.

Moriah was a different story. Marinette was scared about risking something and making a mistake like she did trusting Alya. And the risk was much higher with Moriah since the brunette girl knew Marinette was Ladybug and the Guardian. 

It wasn’t until when Ondine was akumatized again that Marinette made her choice. 

Lila had manipulated Kim and convinced him to dump Ondine, to which she was akumatized into Syren again. 

Ladybug had to fight this one almost alone because recently, Chat Noir had been showing less and less. He blamed it on his other life, but Ladybug couldn’t help but get the feeling that it was because she kept rejecting him. 

It was a long hard battle and by the time it was through, Ladybug knew she needed help. If Chat Noir was going to be a little bitch, fine. But this wasn’t going to happen again. 

That day, Marinette decided to give Chloe the Fox Miraculous and Moriah the Bee Miraculous. They became the heroes; Vixen and Yellow Jacket.

(“This is why I’m a dog person.” Yellow Jacket commented, pointing at Chat Noir as he arrived late to their first fight with disdain.)

Miss Bustier’s class were both excited and confused about the new heroes. What happened to Rena Rouge? 

Alya threw her phone when she saw Ladybug announce that Vixen and Yellow Jacket would be the new, permanent holders of the miraculouses. 

Many mocked Chloe for being replaced, assuming that the girl would throw a tantrum, but she ignored them. 

What Moriah couldn’t understand is how nobody noticed how similar Vixen and Queen Bee looked. 

The next ally was Luka, who turned out to be the most helpful. 

He never knew about the tall-tales that the class had been told until one day when the girls came by to his house boat and was met with a disgruntled Moriah whose hair was cut.

Moriah had pretty magenta peek-a-boo highlights that were hardly noticeable, but Lila decided to complain that Moriah’s colored hair was distracting her. Mr Damocles ordered her to get rid of the colors from her hair or she’d be expelled. 

Moriah, while normally always respectful, especially to adults, looked stunned. She pointed to Alix and Juleka, yelling; “What about Alix and Juleka?! Their hair is more obvious than mine! Why shouldn’t they change their hair?”

She was not allowed back on campus until the color had been removed from her hair. Moriah was furious and called her parents, telling them what had happened, and told Tom and Sabine the same thing with Chloe and Marinette.

Both parties were furious, but there was nothing Moriah’s parents could do since they were in America and Tom and Sabine tried talking to Mr Damocles about the issue, stating that there was nothing in the school rules against dyed hair and why it shouldn’t be more important than the education, but the man refused to budge. 

Eventually, after three days of failing to get Mr Damocles to see reason and missed school, Tom and Sabine emailed the school board about the issue and, with no choice until they responded, Moriah was forced to get rid of her highlights.

She flat out refused to dye her hair because to get all the highlights out, they’d have to dye her whole head, so Moriah was forced to cut her locks short to remove the color. 

Needless to say, she was pissed. 

As was Luka.

The boy had grown to be good friends with the girl and liked her highlights. Seeing the rockin’ pink cut out sucked. When he asked what had happened, the girls told him everything, including Lila’s tabloid tales.

Luka was quick to pull Juleka aside and open her eyes to reason. When the girl found out the truth, the first thing she did was tell Rose. 

The blonde girl’s eyes were opened too, and were quick to fill with tears. Everything was a lie. How could they have been so stupid? Then they remembered that Marinette had tried to warn them and were overcome with guilt. How could they make it up to her?

Marinette, Chloe, and Moriah were watching Heathers (Moriah’s suggestion) in Marinette’s room with their kwamis when Rose and Juleka entered. (Tikki, Pollen, and Trixx hid before the girls could see them)

The movie was paused and the girls stared at each other, waiting for something to happen. There was a beat of silence before Rose burst into tears.

“Marinette, we’re so sorry! We should’ve listened to you!” 

Rose and Juleka told them that Luka had opened their eyes and that they never should have believed Lila’s stories and how they had tried to prove it to Ivan and Mylene too, but they wouldn’t listen. 

They ended their apology by saying; “We know we don’t deserve your forgiveness, but we are sorry and we want to make it up to you. Starting with this.”

Both girls handed Marinette two hundred dollars each. Marinette looked between the girls and the money in shock. 

“It’s payment for everything you’ve done for us. Every dress, outfit, accessory, baked good, everything. We know it isn’t enough, but it’s all we can afford right now. We promise to give you more once we have it.”

There were a few minutes of silence after that. Marinette blinked at the girls before tearing up and smiling.

“No. You don’t have to give me anymore. This will do.” She reassured. 

Rose and Juleka awkwardly nodded, but Marinette could tell they were somewhat relieved. There was an awkward silence before Moriah spoke up. 

“I know you’re lesbians, but do you want to drool over JD with us?”

Rose and Juleka blushed, but nodded their heads happily, rushing over to join the group.

It wasn’t just the girls though. Nathaniel never believed the stories, but was scared about what would happen if he spoke up. Seeing Rose and Juleka of all people step up made him join too. Marinette also had allies in students in other classes too, like Marc, Calude, and Aurore as well as in other schools, like Kagami and Felix. For the first time in a long time, Marinette felt much better. 

She should have known it wouldn’t last. 

That night she and Moriah returned to their room after patrol, she should have noticed that her sketchbook wasn’t where she left it on her desk. 

She should have noticed when she and Moriah got up in the morning, but they were so exhausted from the night before to think of anything more than food and getting ready. 

The girls met up with Chloe at the school gates and they had just walked into the classroom when they saw Alya talking with Miss Bustier, Lila and her sheep herded on one side of the room and the rest on the other side, looking murderous. Marinette almost instantly got a gut feeling that something was wrong.

Boy was she right.

When the girls were noticed, Lila’s sheep gave them smug looks while the girl herself gave them a faux innocent look. 

She did something.

Miss Bustier cleared her throat before turning to face the girls. 

“Girls, because of your behavioral issues, the class decided that it would be best if you three didn’t go on the class trip.”

Oh yeah, the class trip. 

During the third and final year, the seniors of the school were allowed a class trip. It was to be organized by the class, mostly the president, and the entire class had to do fundraisers to pay for it. 

To be completely honest, the last thing the three girls wanted to do was go on a trip with their class. Nathaniel and Marc had gotten an internship at DC Comics (courtesy of MDC) and that was taking place exactly during the class trip and Luka and Juleka’s mom decided that they were going to sail around the world this summer and Rose got permission to tag along. 

It would only be the three girls together with a class who hated them, but Marinette was the class president and had to organize it, and if she had to organize the whole thing then she was going to enjoy the fruits of her labor. And Chole and Moriah weren’t going to let her suffer alone. 

The bluenette had already begun planning the trip. Places to go and fundraising to do. She even decided to go ahead and book reservations. It was unfair!

Marinette opened her mouth to argue when her eye caught something in the trash that made her heart stop. 

Praying she was wrong, she slowly walked to the trash can and pulled out it’s contents. 

There was her sketchbook, tattered and torn.

She couldn’t believe it. Marinette started hyperventilating, looking at the scraps of her work.

Marinette had several sketchbooks, she filled them out rather fast, but that specific sketchbook was one filled with the design ideas she had for Jagged Stone’s tour that was happening this summer. 

Marinette felt the world around her spiralling. She felt dizzy. Distantly she could hear people calling her name, but couldn’t comprehend it. 

She felt sick. 

She was going to be sick! 

That was the last thing she remembered before running home, people calling her name as she left the school.

~~~

Always make friends with people who are loyal. 

A good friend will make you feel better after someone hurt you. 

But a best friend will skip beside you with an old, rusty bat singing “Someone’s gonna get it~”

After Marinette ran out, Chloe, Moriah, Juleka, Rose, and Nathaniel all screamed at their classmates and teacher, telling them how incompetent they were. Moriah, too angry to remember how to speak french, called them scum sucking creeps of the earth that Satan wouldn’t even want in hell. 

It probably would’ve gone farther, but the three competent classmates gave Chloe and Moriah a look and told them to go after Marinette. 

The girls listened with no hesitation. 

They ran all the way to the Dupan-Cheng bakery. They walked in and Tom and Sabine looked at them before glancing upstairs with sad looks. Both girls knew immediately what they meant. They went upstairs to see Marinette doing breathing exercises, trying to keep from crying or even being sad at all. Tikki was patting her wielder's leg. 

Moriah instantly ran over to Marinette while Chloe was quick to close any windows, doors, and cover any cracks and creases that an akuma could get through before joining them

Fuck Hawkmoth! There was no way the girls were going to let Marinette try and keep this bottled up so that she wouldn’t get akumatized. 

Chloe decided that the best thing for them to do was go to her father’s hotel and have a girls night, which is precisely what they did. What Marinette didn’t know was that there was a double meaning behind it.

The girls and their kwamis spent the night eating junk food and watching chick-flicks like Legally Blonde and Mean Girls. Rose, Juleka, and Nathaniel told the others what had happened, and Chloe and Moriah were met with numerous texts, asking if they needed to come over, but the girls reassured everyone that they had it covered.

Finally, Marinette had passed out. It was after midnight and Chloe and Moriah exchanged looks before getting to work. 

Tip-toeing out of the room, closing the door behind them, Moriah unlocked Marinette’s phone and opened her contacts. 

Scrolling down the list, taking note of a few names she wanted to ask the bluenette about later, she found the contact they were looking for. 

Jagged Stone. 

Hitting the face-time button, the girls waited for Jagged to answer. The rock star was currently in America, and should only be mid afternoon over there. Even if it wasn’t, he’d stop in the middle of a live concert if Marinette was calling him.

Sure enough, after two beeps, the screen changed to Jagged’s face.

“Marinette, love! So good to hear from you-” He stopped short when he saw the two girls, neither of which being his honorary niece.

“Moriah? Chloe? What’re you doing calling me on Marinette’s phone?”

That was all it took before the girls told him everything. Lila’s stories, all worthy of a lawsuit, what happened to Marinette’s sketchbook, they even emailed him pictures of the texts that the class had sent to Marinette, most of which encuriged the girl to comitte suicide, and a link to the LadyBlog to prove that everything was true.

About midway during their confession, Penny had appeared on the screen, reading the emails that the girls had sent her. By the time Chloe and Moriah were finished, the pair looked like they wanted to commit murder.

Jagged yelled in fury, wanted to take legal action immediately, but Moriah cut in before he could.

“I agree with you Jagged, but what Marinette needs is a break. She needs a vacation from her class and Paris in general.” 

Chloe nodded in agreement.

Jagged brought a hand to his chin in thought. The girls had a point, but what to do? 

~~~

It was Penny’s idea. 

The first thing the girls did in the morning was burn all the plans that Marinette had made for the trip. They cancelled the reservations and when they got to school, Marinette walked up to Miss Buster’s desk and said; “I’m resigning as class president. If the class doesn’t want Chloe, Moriah, and I to join them on the class trip, then I won’t plan it.”

And that was it. 

Lila had been chosen as the new class president.

To her credit, she did do a decent job. She had decent fundraising ideas, but she started late in the school year, so the class only raised enough money to go to Disneyland Paris.

Chloe snorted.

The class attended the trip in June. Their social media and camera rolls filled with pictures. Most of the captions read that they were glad to get away from the bullies at school.

It wasn’t till after the trip that they found out what happened with the girls. 

It was Alix who found out first. In the class group chat, save the three ‘bullies,’ Alix texted: “OMG, look at this!”

Underneath was a picture of the three girls at the airport with Jagged Stone, Penny, and Fang. The three were posing like Charlie’s Angels, wearing huge grins, with the caption: “Touring with Jagged Stone All Summer!!”

Penny was a genius. 

Lila looked at her phone in horror. This couldn’t be happening.

Oh, my dear liar, but it is!

The first stop was Gotham. Jagged was performing at a Gala hosted by Bruce Wayne, which the girls would be attending. But first, they got a tour of Wayne industries. 

The first picture in Gotham was taken by Moriah at Wayne industries. She was looking at the phone camera like she was on the Office while very clearly behind her you could see Marinette talking with Damian Wayne, the youngest Wayne son, and Chloe talking with a boy named Jonathan ‘Jon’ Kent, son of famous reporters Lois Lane-Kent and Clark Kent. Alya nearly snapped her phone in half when she recognized the boy. The pairs were obviously flirting. The picture’s captain read: ”First Day in Gotham and I’m already a fifth wheel.”

The next two pictures taken were a surprise to everyone. 

They were taken by Chloe in the late night streets of Gotham. The first one was a picture of Marinette sitting on the driver's seat of the batmobile looking like all her dreams had come true while Batman stood beside her, arms crossed, looking rather stern.

The second picture was Moriah holding two pistols with starry eyes with Red Hood standing beside her, explaining to her how to shoot them, with an alarmed Marinette and Nightwing running towards them in the background. 

The girls did take a selfie with the entire Batfam, but they decided not to post that one.

The next few days were mainly pictures of the girls sightseeing (with the occasional sneaky picture Moriah took of her friends with Damian and Jon). However, at one point the girls were adopted (kidnapped) by Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Chloe and Marinette both agree that the weirdest thing that happened in Gotham was Moriah bonding with a talking plant named Frank.

Eventually, it was the night of the Wayne Gala. None of the girls took pictures of the gala, but the entrance was on tv, which Miss Bustier’s class made a movie night out of. 

Sure enough, walking down the red carpet were the girls. Marinette had made new outfits for all of them, just for the gala, and they were stunning.

Marinette wore a long scarlet dress. It was fashioned like a traditional chinese dress, but more Marinette-y. There were intricate designs stitched in black around the bottom of the dress with a silk sash tied around her waist. Her hair was pulled up into a bun with a fancy stain glass rose pin in it. 

Chloe wore a glamorous gold mermaid dress. It shimmered with every step she took with glittering blue details on the top that matched her makeup. And if you looked down, you could see her wearing gold, literal gold, heels. Her hair was down in beach wave curls with blue strands woven into it.

Lila and Alya screamed when they saw both girls being escorted in by Damian Wayne and Jon Kent respectively. 

Jagged and Penny were linked together. Penny wore a v-neck, sleeveless shimmering silver dress, also made by Marinette, while Jagged wore a dark purple suit. It looked pretty monotone for the man at first, but when lights hit the suit, you could see that there had been music notes embroidered into the suit that turned it into a rainbow of color.

Moriah’s dress came as a bit of a surprise. Marinette knew Moriah was more comfortable in pants than a dress, but she still wanted the girl to wear a dress, so they compromised. Moriah wore a dress that was also crossed with a suit. Kind of like Garnet’s wedding dress from Steven Universe.

She wore a tuxedo jacket over a white, sleeveless dress that draped down longer in the back, shorter in the front. She had a red sash wrapped around her waist and black tights with red shoes to match. Around her neck was a shirt collar and bow-tie that she wore like a choker. Her hair was half up and half down in curls. Moriah wasn’t one to wear make up, but since it was a special occasion, she wore some mascara and a little lipstick.

The biggest surprise was her escort. 

Walking beside her was Fang, dressed in his own original Marinette tux that matched Jagged’s.

For the rest of the night, nobody knew what happened to the girls at the gala. It wasn't until the next morning that they found out.

Chloe and Marinette spent most of the night hanging out with Jon and Damian, but whenever they weren’t doing that, they talked with the other guests, most of whom asked for the designer of their outfits, which really boosted traffic on Marinette’s website. 

Moriah hung out around the dessert table most of the night, snacking on a bit of everything, while talking with the other Wayne sons. At some point, totally unclear on the how and why, Moriah and the oldest Wayne son, Dick Grayson, got into a dance fight. The gala ended before the fight did, so they had to call a draw.

Their next destination was New York, but they made a slight detour to Metropolis per Jon and Chloe’s request. They got a VIP tour of the Daily Planet and met Jon’s parents: Lois Lane-Kent and Clark Kent. 

Moriah recorded Lois tearing into the LadyBlog with a grin on her face, having no remorse in posting it online.

Alya couldn’t understand it as she watched her idol tearing into her life’s work.

Then the girls’ mentioned BugOut, the blog Aurore ran, and Lois was a lot more pleasant. 

Alya threw her phone when she got a text from Nino that Marinette got Aurore an internship at the Daily Planet for winter and spring break, and possibly summer if she did well.

The next picture posted was the first one Marinette took. It was of her two friends hanging off Superman’s massive muscles as he flexed. Chloe denies ever drooling.

After that, they left for New York. Specifically, the Avengers’ Tower. It was the anniversary of when the Avengers first became a team, and Tony Stark, an old friend of Jagged’s, highered the man to play at the party. 

Before then, they toured the Avengers tower. At one point, they walked in to see Captain America, Bucky Barns, and Thor working out. Shirtless. Moriah let out a quiet but passionate “Hell yes” when they saw them. 

After the three men, regretfully, put on their shirts, they showed off their equipment. Chloe couldn’t help but squeal when Captain America handed her his shield. Marinette grinned as she hung off Bucky’s metal arm as he flexed it. Moriah was once again handed guns, this time by Black Widow, which were once again promptly taken from her.

After all that excitement came the big guns. Per the girls’ request, Penny recorded them trying to lift Thor’s hammer. It was all fun and games until Marinette easily picked it up. It was dead quiet before Thor’s voice thundered across the room.

“She is worthy! I must take her to Asgard with me!” 

Tony took a step forward. “Thor, you can’t take a child.” He stressed.

Thor tilted his head at the millionaire like a puppy. Moriah winced, grabbing her heart. That face was too cute for a grown-ass space god.

“Then what is the spider-kid?”

Tony faceplamed. “He’s my intern and protege. I’m his mentor!”

“Then I shall be this child’s mentor!”

“No!”

“Miss Potts can be Chloe’s mentor, for they are both fit to rule!” Chloe preened at this. 

“Thor, no!”

Moriah raised her hand. “Can the kick-ass, Russian spy be my mentor?”

Natasha raised an eyebrow at the girl before smirking.

“Yes! Black Widow will become Moriah’s mentor! It all works out! Now, I must take my new protege to Asgard to meet the All-Father.”

“Thor, no!” 

“Don’t you take my niece!” Jagged ran into the phone’s picture, looking ready to fuck-up a god. 

The video ended with Penny dropping the phone and running towards Jagged who was now riding on Thor’s back, pulling his hair.

The video went viral in an hour. 

Lila’s hands trembled as she watched the video, feeling herself paleing. She had become enemies with someone who could lift Thor’s hammer.

This wasn’t posted, but shortly after Penny got Jagged off Thor, Loki appeared. He tried explaining that he felt powerful magic coming from the tower, but was cut short when Moriah tackled him to the ground in an aggressive hug.

While we’re on the subject of proteges, at some point, Peter came over. He heard that Jagged Stone was at the tower and wanted to meet him. He, Ned, and MJ were huge fans and he really needed an autograph. 

Friday told him that Jagged was with the other Avengers in the training room. Promptly saying thanks to the A.I, the spider boy practically ran to the room. What he didn’t expect was to open the door to see a short, brunette girl German suplex the Winter Soldier while wearing heels. (A trick Natasha had taught her. The Black Widow took being a mentor very seriously.)

Tony turned to see who was at the door and was met with a red faced, dazed Peter Parker who was clutching the area over his heart like it was about to beat out of his chest.

“Natasha, your kid broke my minion!”

(Now Marinette and Chloe got their fill of taking sneaky pictures of Moriah and Peter.)

The girls did normal sightseeing stuff around New York. They went to a town called Riverdale and Moriah met a guy named Jughead. They bonded over having friends with love issues that attracted endless people while they just wanted to eat burgers.

At some point they were in another dangerous situation, but this time they met some guy named Deadpool who would make this One-Shot Rated-R if I actually put anything he said in it.

While in New York, they went to two Broadway Musicals. The first one was Phantom of the Opera. (Jagged didn’t really want to see this one, but he was outnumbered one to four. (Five including Fang. The crocodile had a weird love for Opera music.)) They also had a backstage pass where pictures of Marinette conversing with the person in charge of costumes, Chloe complementing the actress who played Christine, and Moriah hugging the actor who played the Phantom were taken.

After that, Jagged took them to see Hamilton. What the girls’ didn’t know, however, was that this was a special show with the original cast. Moriah screamed when she saw Lin Manuel-Miranda on the stage as Alexander Hamilton and when they went backstage, Moriah started crying when the cast greeted her.

Mylene, who admired the man herself, felt her heart break when she saw the picture of a joy-crying Moriah hugging Lin.

After that, they went to Florida for Jagged’s next concert at Universal Studios. They didn’t meet anyone famous there, but the class were still envious of the pictures. 

Moriah was a huge Potter Head, so this was a dream come true. She hissed at Marinette and Chloe when they playfully mocked her Hufflepuff shirt while they sported matching Slytherin shirts. 

They also went to Disney World, which was also a dream come true. The funniest thing that happened there was while Jagged and Moriah were off trying to waste hundreds of dollars on ice cream and other junk food with Penny trying to stop them, one of the park’s managers thought that Chloe and Marinette were supposed to fill-in for two of the disney princesses. Jagged, Penny, and Moriah came back to find Chloe dressed like Elsa and Marinette dressed like Mulan. Moriah laughed hysterically at the two girls until the same park manager pulled her away and she came out dressed like Belle.

Originally, Florida was supposed to be the final place, but there was a last minute change. Turns out that Jagged Stone has a sister who lives in Japan with a daughter named Kyoko Jirou.

While they were on tour, Jirou and her classmates had done a performance for their school’s festival.

Jagged, of course, was inspired and requested Penny to schedule one last performance in Japan where he’d have Jirou and her band open for him. It would be a nonprofit concert since Jagged wanted it within the next two weeks, but that didn’t bother him. 

The girls had to check in with their parents, but they were allowed to go with Jagged to Japan. 

Since it would take every waking moment to plan the concert and write a new song for it, Jagged had the girls join Jirou’s class for the time being despite being a little older.

The first picture taken was Moriah performing the German suplex Natasha taught her on a hot, ash-blonde guy named Katsuki Bakugou who said that the girls looked weak. 

The next thing that was posted was a selfie of the three girls wearing the UA gym uniforms with the caption: “Training at the USJ.” With them in the picture were Momo and Hagakure, both of which were adorning new hero costumes.

Marinette took one look at their old costumes and went on a rampage. In the time span of two days, she managed to make both girls new suits (with the help of the support course). 

Momo kept her red and white color scheme, but it became a two piece outfit that was pretty similar to a female wrestler’s costume, but with knee and elbow pads. To avoid showing too much skin, they used strands of Momos hair as a way to let her creations move past the more intimate areas of her body. Momo kept her heeled boots because if Black Widow and Wonder Woman can kick ass in heels then so could she, but Moriah gave the suggestion of being able to snap the heels off and use them like throwing darts.

Hagakure’s suit was made out of reflective lenses that could turn her completely invisible without having to be naked, but also amplify any light she admitted. She got a chest plate tank top and pants with built in kneepads. Her boots were sound absorbent for stealth and she also got a pair of rocking goggles to keep her from blinding herself.

Needless to say, both girls were satisfied with their new looks.

For the next couple of days, they took pictures of Class 1-A. Marinette was the only one who could get a picture with the Class 1-A homeroom teacher, Mr. Aizawa. Probably because she made him a new sleeping bag as an apology for their intrusion.

Funny story: When he saw Jagged Stone, he paled, before muttering “Oh dear god, there’s two of them” under his breath repeatedly. The girls didn’t understand this until they met Present Mic.

Moriah and Katsuki somewhat got along after the german suplex incident and she hung out with the Baku-Squad. Chloe took a bit of an interest in a duel-haired boy named Todoroki who hung out with a boy named Izuku Midoryia and the Deku-Squad. Izuku and Marinette got along swimmingly, just don’t look directly at them. It’s harmful to look at the sun, let alone two.

At one point, they met Endeavor. All three girls called him out and chastised him for being a horrible father and human being. Chloe took the lead on this. (Todoroki started looking at her in a new light.)

The next big news that Miss Buister’s class got wasn’t from stalking the girls’ social media. It was the Japanese news. The class couldn’t believe it when they saw that Ladybug, Vixen, and Yellow Jacket were in Japan. 

Originally the girls were only planning on going shopping, but when they saw the villain attack, their hero instincts took over and they transformed and apprehended the perp. To avoid suspicion, Vixen cast an illusion to make it look like Marinette, Chloe, and Moriah were in the background in the crowd.

The girls were interviewed by the press. Well… Ladybug and Vixen conversed with the press while Yellow Jacket was giddily talking in the background with the pro hero Hawks, who the girls had aided, with a vibrant blush on her face.

Non Surprisingly, Izuku was there. Ladybug gave him the most attention out of all the interviewer's. (Block your eyes from the sunshine rays!)

The next day, things got even crazier. All three girls were kidnapped by the League of Villains. U.A, Jagged, and Penny were in a panic until Moriah posted a selfie, looking so done with the world, with a black haired, scared man with piercings beside her staring at the phone camera like he was on the Office. 

\In the background, Marinette was chastising the villains about how rude it was to kidnap people while Chloe insulted their base’s decor. The caption read: “These idiots didn’t even take our phones.”

They were found two days later by a group of pro-heroes, led by current No. 1 hero, Endeavor, but when the heroes burst in, they stopped short at the sight in front of them.

The heroes found a very smug Marinette demolishing a very pissed Shigaraki at a video game while Chloe, Toga, Magne, and Twice were doing each other’s nails in the corner while gossiping. In another corner of the room, Dabi had decided to give Moriah new, vibrant blue highlights that matched his eyes. 

The entire base was refurbished.

The heroes were stunned long enough for the LoV to escape.

The girls had to use the horse miraculous to return to Paris several times to deal with akumas, but it was worth it. 

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Jagged’s trip was soon over and the girls returned to Paris. 

The moment they walked into the classroom they were met with glares ranging from weak to pure shade. 

While they were on the trip, Jagged had told every important person they came across every tabloid lie Lila had spun and she was met with a tsunami of lawsuits. As was the LadyBlog. Alya’s eyes were red and puffy, but she still gave a heated glare towards Marinette. 

The rest of the class wasn’t off the hook, either. With all the evidence Moriah and Chloe had shown Jagged, the entire class were sued for harassment. 

After finally getting to the email Tom and Sabine sent, the school board had found out about everything. Mr Damocles and Miss Bustier had been told to hit the road, and were promptly replaced with new, competent teachers. 

The girls gave a bright smile before sitting in the back of the class, high-fiving Nathaniel, Rose, and Juleka on the way.

Best. Vacation. Ever.

[sariahsue]

A Cat of Their Own - Ch 2

Ch 1

The room was dark and quiet and empty when they went up, just as Tom had told her it was. Marinette had turned her lights off and had left the skylight propped open. Cool autumn air floated down through it. The other window was still latched shut.

"Our daughter is a superhero," Tom said. "I'm not sure if I want to swell with pride or cover her in bubble wrap."

There seemed to be nothing they could do at the moment. "What happens if it starts to rain?" Sabine asked. Whenever something went horribly wrong, and she started feeling out of control, she had a habit of fixing her attention on the least pressing problem she could. It was all she could do not to panic. Her baby was letting herself get attacked by monsters every other day. "Her bed will get soaked."

"We'll just have to make sure we close it for her," Tom said, taking her hand loosely. How was he so calm about this? "She should be back any moment. That fight wasn't far away."

Sabine led him over to Marinette's desk, which was still scattered with the fabric she'd been cutting that morning, and then positioned them underneath the loft bed. Tom raised an eyebrow at her, but Sabine shook her head and put a finger to her lips.

Less than thirty seconds later, there was a loud thud on the roof, and they both looked up reflexively. Footsteps followed, and then the creak of the bedsprings and the scrape of her skylight shutting and latching.

"Spots off!" said Marinette's voice. A flash of pink light illuminated the room briefly, making the dress form and chaise cast wide shadows. Sabine's grip on Tom's hand tightened.

"Wow!" said a new voice, high pitched and cheery. "That akuma sure was something else."

Who was that?

"Just be glad you couldn't smell it," Marinette said. "It was bad enough for me. I don't know how Cat could stand it with that nose of his. Phew!"

Marinette's feet appeared at the ladder, toes pointed toward them. Her knees came into view, then the hem of her shirt, and finally her face. Her hands froze on the ladder rungs, staring at her parents. Marinette went from a flushed smile to a mask of horrified realization, and Sabine saw her own feelings reflected back at her. There was no denying it anymore.

"Marinette?" came the unfamiliar voice. "What's wrong?"

Marinette snapped her head up toward the sound. "No, don't!"

A red blob whizzed through the air and stopped next to Marinette. "What?" it asked. It didn't have any wings, but it floated through the air just the same. Its large head facing Marinette.

"Uh, sweetie," Tom said. "What is that?"

The thing turned, abnormally large eyes rounding slightly and its antennae twitching in surprise at the sight of them.

It's like a ladybug, Sabine thought numbly, staring at the one black dot on its head. A talking ladybug.

"Oh. I was wondering if this was going to happen soon," it said.

"You could have warned me," Marinette mumbled.

"We need to talk," Sabine said mechanically, while Marinette dropped her head down onto the closest rung. "You aren't in trouble."

"Listen, I'm sorry," Marinette said. "I wanted to tell you, but I wasn't supposed to, and I didn't want you to worry, and-"

"First," Sabine said, putting her hands on her hips, "Who said you weren't supposed to? You shouldn't be keeping secrets like this from your parents."

"Uh." Marinette's eyes flicked quickly to the little creature, but she kept her head from turning toward it too.

Sabine's eyes narrowed.

"I'm Tikki," the thing said. "And I'm afraid that that's part of the burden of being Ladybug. No one is supposed to know."

"Pleased to meet you," Tom said, holding out a hand like he wanted to shake. Tikki floated over and sat on his thumb, all smiles.

"She's a minor," Sabine said. "Legally, she doesn't have the ability to make decisions and take on burdens like this without parental consent."

"I think everyone would agree that this is a special case," Tikki said.

"And I've handled the responsibility well so far, Mama," Marinette said, "Don't you think?" She finally let go of the ladder and came to stand by them. She looked so small, so young.

"You've done such a good job," Tom said. "We're very proud of you. Aren't we?"

"Of course," Sabine said, her voice still tight. "Very."

Marinette stood up a little straighter. "Thanks. Sorry I couldn't tell you."

"This is all so amazing," Tom said. "So Tikki helps you become Ladybug? Are those earrings your miraculous? Why does Hawk Moth want them?"

Marinette's hand hovered over her ear protectively. "Yeah, these are them. And we're not really sure what his whole plan is…"

"But you do know some?" he asked.

"Yeah…" Marinette glanced over at Tikki, who said nothing.

"So where did you and Cat Noir get them? How did you two-" Sabine waved to Tikki, "-meet?"

"Uh." Again, Marinette glanced at Tikki, like she was asking permission to tell her own parents the truth.

"I'm sorry," Tikki said, hovering between Marinette and Sabine. "I don't think she should say. Secrets about the miraculous need-"

"Excuse me," Sabine snapped. "I was talking to my daughter."

The mood in the room turned icy. The creature's eyes tightened around the edges, like it was sizing up the situation. And then it floated off to sit on Marinette's desk without another word.

Marinette watched the thing go, frowning, like she'd been abandoned. Sabine felt an intense dislike for the creature. Tricking a child into risking her life every single day and lying to her parents about everything? Who would do that?

Tom put a hand on Sabine's shoulder. "I'm sure there are security risks involved that we don't know about," he said.

Marinette smiled gratefully at him while Sabine shrugged his hand off.

"That doesn't take away the fact that this is extremely dangerous," Sabine said. "Do you have to fight Hawk Moth?"

"Mama!" Marinette said, taking a step back. "Of course, we do! We can't just let him terrorize Paris like this."

"That's not what she meant, sweetheart," Tom said, reached out for her and pulled her back to stand closer to them. "Couldn't you give the miraculous to someone else?" he asked, trying to make it sound more like a suggestion instead of the pleading that it was.

"No, I can't." It was Marinette's turn to glare at him, and he sighed.

"We could find someone else," Tikki said. (Marinette's glare was quick to find a new target.) "But it wouldn't put her out of danger completely. She has been chosen for this. If Hawk Moth sought her out in retaliation, she wouldn't have any way to defend herself."

"I want to do this," Marinette said. "Cat Noir needs me. We're very experienced. We've never lost yet."

"It only takes one defeat," Sabine said.

"I'm not going to lose." Marinette wrapped an arm around each of them, pulling them in closer. "I know you're worried about me, but please don't. I'm a superhero. I protect civilians, and that includes you. It's my job to worry about you now." They leaned both into her as she spoke. "And I have Tikki and Cat Noir, and his kwami too. You've always had so much faith in us. Please don't suddenly doubt me just because she's, well, me. You don't need to worry."

"The suit will protect her from almost everything," Tikki added.

"This isn't a child's job." Sabine hugged her daughter tightly. "We're your parents. We're supposed to be worrying about you. You aren't supposed to be worrying about anything except for school and making friends and having fun. This shouldn't be your job. You're not allowed to worry like this."

"I chose this job, Mama. Please understand. I want this."

They stayed like that for a while, Sabine holding her daughter close, Tom's arms around both of them. There didn't seem anything she could say to change Marinette's mind, and she wasn't sure what Marinette would do if Sabine ordered her to give the earrings up.

She didn't know her own daughter well enough to know what she would do.

Tom finally sighed. "As long as you don't get hurt."

"And you always finish your homework," Sabine added.

Marinette smiled up at them. "Usually my late homework doesn't have anything to do with superheroing. I just don't want to do it. I'll try harder, though."

Sabine took a deep breath in, glad that something was going her way in this conversation. Finally.

Marinette led them out from under her loft bed, and the kwami thing decided it was safe to rejoin the group. It kept trying to catch Sabine's eye with placating smiles, but Sabine didn't engage with it.

"We watched your fight today. Looked pretty intense," Tom said, as Marinette sat down at her desk and started pulling scraps of fabric toward herself. She didn't do anything with them except pick at the frayed edges. With each strand she pulled out, her shoulders became more relaxed, and the strain on her face that had appeared when she realized she was caught started to slip away.

"It wasn't that bad," Marinette said. "Sticky and gross, mostly."

"I want to talk to Cat Noir," Sabine said abruptly.

"What? No." Marinette dropped the blue-patterned fabric square she'd been playing with.

"Why not? You spend a lot of time with him. We'd like to meet him. He's obviously important to you."

"Because then I'd have to tell him who I am. No one is supposed to know who I am. No one."

"And I'm to assume you don't know who he is either?"

Marinette shook her head.

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with you spending time with a boy you don't know that well. It's like meeting someone from the internet."

"Mama, it's not like that at all." Marinette stood. "He was chosen too. And I do know him."

"I have a right to know who my daughter spends time with."

"No, you don't. Not when it puts my partner's identity at risk."

Out of the corner of her eye, Sabine watched Tom's gaze volley back and forth, willing her husband to take her side.

"How about this," Tom said. "We can write him a letter, and you can deliver it the next time you see him."

"Deal," Marinette said quickly.

They both looked at Sabine. Even Tikki looked up from the cookie she was nibbling on.

"You don't have a problem with that?" Sabine said, daring the thing to disagree.

It shook its head. "A letter sounds like a nice idea."

"Fine then," Sabine said, "but you can't read it, Marinette."

"Why not?"

Sabine said nothing. There really wasn't a reason for it.

"Fine," Marinette said, folding her arms like she always did when she knew she'd lost an argument. "I'll take it to him. We have patrol tomorrow night."

"And you won't peek?" Sabine asked.

"No, I won't peek." Marinette pushed past her parents and went back up to her balcony, a sign that she wanted to be alone. Just before the skylight snapped shut behind her, Sabine heard her mutter something about "parents" and "losing all faith in her."

"We wouldn't have," Sabine said, "if you'd been honest with us." She looked directly at Tikki, so it would know who should be feeling the guilt for the situation.

Tikki didn't look upset at all. Could it even feel emotions like that? It sat there and held her gaze, looking at her with old eyes, until Sabine finally looked away.

Tom stayed silent, rubbing his fingers across the fabric Marinette had abandoned, face solemn.

Sabine had never felt so helpless in her life. Her only child, her baby, shouldn't feel like she had to protect her parents. No child should have to do that. And Marinette couldn't even see how wrong this all was.

Read Chapter Three

***

Author’s note: I said two updates this week, forgetting that I had a Spanish final. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@tbehartoo​ @redhoodsdoll @salsyy301 @lunadensmidnightprowl @kayla0binow @fleurie3am15inspo 

[unmaskedagain]

Marinette: Stone Cold

Ok so i love this prompt but it took forever to get to. And as soon as I did its like suddenly I was swamped with everything. So frustrating. But I finally finished it. And I love it. @vixen-uchiha​

              Marinette was six-years-old when her parents died in a car crash. She had been at school when the vice principle, Mrs. Valmontes, stopped by and pulled her out of class. The little black haired girl had known something was wrong instantly as Valmontes had smiled just a little hard at her and much more gently than what she was known for.

           Still, she had been really surprised to see Office Raincomprix, her classmate Sabrina’s dad, waiting for her in the principle. Marinette always thought he was really nice; always jolly and quick to lend a hand to the teacher at the end of the day if he got to class early to pick up Sabrina. However, he too, seemed rather despondent when Marinette entered the room. His partner, a rookie named Lorna, looked really sad too.

           They took her down to the station where she was led to one of the back offices. Sabrina’s dad waited with her there. And then woman name Susanna LeFlont, who Marinette would later learn was a grief counselor. Then they told her.

           Susanna held her as she cried and begged and called them liars, until she couldn’t cry anymore. And then they gave her a stuffed animal, and said they would try calling her relatives to pick her up.

           They came back an hour later, saying they got ahold of her parents’ emergency contact…

           Marinette’s Uncle Jareth Dupain.

           She had frowned when they said his name because to her he had never been Jareth Dupain. No, he was always her cool Uncle Jagged. So it took her a second to remember that his real name was Jareth Dupain-Stone, her father’s younger half-brother. Marinette even briefly remember her dad mentioning having to change their emergency contact after his mom, Gina, passed away a few ago.

           He was only 20 when Marinette born and he was always a budding Rockstar so he wasn’t around too much. And 6 years later he was the biggest rockstar in the world. Still, that didn’t stop him from rushing to the police station, Penny hot on his trail, and pulled his sweet niece into the biggest hug he could.

           Jagged took his niece to the hotel room to get her settled and had Penny go back to the bakery to get some of her things. He didn’t think it was a smart idea to take her there yet; not when the wounds were still so fresh.

           Still as the twenty-six year old Rockstar stared at the small form cuddled up to Fang, he realized for the first time that he was all Marinette had in the world; the only family she had left. The only family he had left.

           So he knew, despite the lawyers taking days to contact him regarding who Marinette’s guardian would be, that it was him. Jagged was the person Tom had entrusted to protect and watch the most precious thing he had the entire world; his daughter. And he wouldn’t let his brother down.

Tom had always been the best big brother anyone could have. And when Jagged’s own father, Tom’s Stepfather (as tom’s own father had suffered a heartache when Tom was a teen), had walked out, Tom had stepped up. He showed Jagged, who was still called Jareth at the time, how to be a man. He believed in Jagged’s rockstar dream when Jagged didn’t even believe in them himself.

Jagged would do right Tom, by Sabine; he would do what they would do if the situation was reversed and they were given Jagged’s kid to care for.

He would raise Marinette as he own. And though he knew would never come close to being the father that Tom Dupain had been…

Jagged would damn well try to be.

…

…

Jagged Stone, Shattered Roses, Nightmare’s Hail Mary, Unmasked Dragon, True Born Rejects, and Emancipated Mirrors were some of the biggest rock band in the world. Whenever, they went on tour together, they were the epitome of what people thought Rock Stars were. They were loud. They partied all night. Groupies hung around everywhere. To them, it was paradise. When all the bands were invited to go on the Kings of Neverland tour, with Jagged Stone headlining, they expected very much the same as they were used to. Jagged always had the most Rockin tour bus. His parties were legendary. They came to expect it.

However, when Neon Savage (front man of the Shattered Roses), Austin Knight (Leader of Unmasked dragon and lead Guitarist), and Niklaus Bane (Lead vocalist of True Born Rejects) showed up with beers and all other sorts of alcohol the day before their opening concert for the tour, they came across something very unexpected.

Or rather someone.

A little Asian girl with pigtails in her Blue hair, a tiara on her head, in a rainbow tutu paired with a black too large Guns N Roses shirt, her hand on her hips, no shoes, and a rather large crocodile next to her.

“What’s with the ballerina?” Austin asked. He had dyed silver hair done in a stereotypical emo style, grey eyes, and too many piercings. He was slim and tall.

           Niklaus sighed in relief, “Oh good, you see her too!” He had curly blond hair, dark brown eyes, and wore mostly black. He had ripped jeans and a red tie. The tie was as red as the whites of his looked. “Why is your hair blue?”

“Because Uncle said I could,” She answered and pointed a figure at them, “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Savage scoffed, “You got that twisted, kid.” He was a bulk guy, with long dark hair, and a severe expression on his face. His arms were covered in tattoos. He played in a metal band, and it was obvious. “Where’s your mommy?”

“Dead,” The little girl said bluntly. “I live with my Uncle Jagged now. This his tour bus, and you’re not supposed to be here.” She glared at them. “Fang, Stranger Danger!”

           What happened next was a bit of a blur. One minute they were fine, the next they were being chased around Jagged’s tour bus by a rather vicious crocodile while pint-sized twerp laughed.

           Lucky for them, their yells for help were overheard by Penny and Jagged who had been working in back, “What’s going on?” Penny asked as she ran in.

“Mates, what the h. e. double hockey sticks is going on?” Jagged asked right on his assistant’s tail.

           Austin, who had jumped on top one of the shelves, gave Jagged a confused look, “Better question; what the hell did you just say?”

“Ooohhhh! There’s five bucks for the swear jar!” The little girl taunted.

           Jagged glared at rockstar, “Watch it! A Kid’s in the room!”

           Savage glared at his longtime friend, “Who the fuck do you think set Fang on us?!” He cast a dark look at the crocodile. “Stranger danger my ass! I’ve known you sent you hatched, you overgrown cheap pair of boots.”

“That’s ten buck for the swear jar!” The girl said.

“Ten bucks?” Austin frowned. “Kinda of steep for just two swear words.”

“I swear to God-” Savage growled but was cut off.

“Chill, mate,” Jagged said. “This is my niece Marinette.” He gave her a loving smile. She beamed up at him brightly. He had been taking care of her for a year now. “I told ya about her.”

“You didn’t say she was Satan!” Austin whined. Fang had bitten him, the slowest of the three, quite a lot, and he had a giant hole in his jacket.

“I’m not Satan,” Marinette huffed. “I’m a ballerina, princess, Rockstar on my way to a tea party with Duchess Rosy Sparkles, of the Unicorn Fairies. And guess what, you’re not invited!”

“Oh that’s just mean,” Niklaus complained.

“She sicked a mini dinosaur on us,” Savaged hissed.

“Yeah, well, now she hurt my feelings.”

           Jagged sighed. The guys were some of his closest friends, and by the look up the “entertainment” they brought, they were ready to raze it up like always. But things had changed. Jagged couldn’t be that guy anymore. “Marinette’s staying with me from now on,” He reminded them. “No parties on the tour. She has a bedtime. And doesn’t need to see “us” at our finest, no matter how Rockin we are.” Jagged shrugged. “Spread the world, my bus is off limits.”

The rock stars grumbled a bit but didn’t leave. They could hang with Jagged without presence of booze, weed, loud music, and groupies. It would be a little weird but they’d managed. Jagged was their friend; they’d known him before any of them became famous and stayed close well after. They hadn’t been there for him as much as they wanted to after Tom died; too many commitments, too many required appearances in different countries that had taken them away. But they were there now. And if being there for one of their best friends meant regularly chilling with a six-year-old, then they’d deal.

Savage grunted, “Austin, get rid of the booze.”

“By ‘get rid of’, I assume you meant put back in my tour bus,” The silver haired guitarist corrected.

           Niklaus raised his hand like he was a student in class, “I get the whole no alcohol thing; that stuff will kill ya. But what your feelings on pot?”

           Jagged just sighed. It was going to be a long summer.

           The three musician, and even the other Rockers on tour, slowly but surely got used to the seemingly near constant presence of a six-year-old around Jagged or running around backstage. And the swear jar was a serious thing. It didn’t count when they were singing on stage but off it and anywhere near Marinette and they found themselves forking over five dollars for ever swear word. It added up a lot. And quickly.

           Jagged’s tour bus, instead of being the Party palace it used to be, now was the chill zone. It was also the cleanest of all the tour buses. No empty beer bottles everywhere. No one random passed out anywhere. No having to watch out for throw up. No rabid fans, as Jagged had increased his security to Tony Stark worthy levels.

           All they had to do was mind their manners and remember that Marinette was very impressionable at her age.

“OH screw you!!!!!!” Savage roared as he jumped up and frantically mashed buttons on his controller. “I’m not losing!”

           They had been babysitting Marinette all day while Jagged did an interview Buzzfeed.

           Austin snickered, “Says you.” His character raced past Savage’s. Only for something to hit him and send poor little Yoshi spinning out of control. “Did you- did you just blue shell me, bitch?” He hissed at Niklaus.

“Nooo!” Niklaus said sarcastically. “Hey!!! Not nice, brat!” He told Marinette after a banana caused him to slip off the ice.

           Marinette smiled easily, but there was a determined look in her eyes. Her hair was jelled into a faux-hawk courtesy of Ashley Crimson, from lead singer for Emancipated Mirrors, an all-girl punk rock band.

“Die, scumbag!” Ashley roared as her racer zoomed by. She was a vivacious redhead. Her and her bandmates got used to being some of the only girls around that weren’t either working for one of the rock stars or were scantily clad fangirls who do “anything” to get backstage.

“You’re going down, twerp!” Savage told Marinette.

“Bite me!” She snapped back just as Jagged and Penny walked into the tour bus.

           Jagged crossed his arms, “What did you morons do to my sweet little niece?”

“Nothing!” Niklaus, Ashley, Savage, and Austin chimed together.

“Savage taught me to throw a punch, and or kill a man.” Marinette smiled happily. “I helped Austin set up a glitter bomb in Nightmare’s Hail Mary tour bus. Niklaus and I are banned from Chuckie Cheese. Ashley and I spray painted her ex boyfriend’s car. Cleo and I got arrested. We disturbed the peace!!” Cleo was a pink haired girl who played drummer from Nightmare’s Hail Mary. She had to rush off for her own interview. “Oh and we’ve only been Playing Mario kart for an hour but they each owe like a hundred bucks to the swear jar.”

           There was silence as the words were processed.

“And not one of us taught her how to keep a freaking secret?” Ashley face palmed.

           Jagged just sighed.

…

…

           For the next few years that was Marinette’s life. Austin, Niklaus, Savage and Ashley became pseudo Uncles and Aunt to Marinette.

She spent most of her childhood on tour with her Uncle; going from to place, concert after concert. Marinette was homeschooled and didn’t mind it. Jagged went on tour with a bunch of different people over the years and she got to meet all sorts musicians; Clara Nightingale, Ed Sheeran, Adam Levine, Brendon Urie from Panic! At the Disco, Taylor Swift. Her favorite were the award shows though. Through them, she got to meet all her favorite actors. And was inspired to start designing on her own clothes after seeing so many fabulous looks. She got to model and do some acting. In her free time, she ran a very popular fashion blog/youtube channel.

The press had always loved her. To them, she was Marinette Stone (Jagged didn’t want her real name released to the media). She was always on the best dressed list, frequently seen with various celebrities, and could be found on the cover of various magazine.

However, when Marinette was eleven, she begged her Uncle to let her go to school with other kids. She was getting older and she wanted to have some type of normal childhood. It took him a year to agree. Her uncle Jagged had become quite protective over the years.

So Marinette went back to Paris. She cut her hair, used her given name of Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Her Uncle bought a grand penthouse not too far away from her new school, and whenever he was gone her bodyguard, a sweet woman named Harlow who was former CIA, was in charge of her. She started at her new school with a smile on her face.

Not long after, she became the hero Ladybug.

Everything was great. She had friends, a normal social life, went to school with other kids her age. She wasn’t constantly being followed around by paparazzi. She still ran her fashion blog and had frequently updates. It was perfect.

It took two years for it to go bust.

The reason’s name was Lila Rossi.

And she was the biggest liar Marinette had ever met. And Marinette had grown up in the entertainment industry.

Lila made wild claims that the other kids just ate up. A simple google search could refute all of them. The ones Marinette could stand was always about Jagged. Like her Uncle, or an airline, would be reckless enough to let a kid race on to an airport to save a cat; not that Jagged had ever own one. Fang was territorial.

Lila made her out to be a bully, and slowly Marinette lost all her friends. Her only one left was Adrien, her partner Chat Noir. The blond and Marinette had modeled together a few times and he had recognized Marinette despite her new looked but he kept it a secret. Because of their history, Marinette developed a crush on the other and Adrien was quick to lose his crush on Ladybug once he found out it was his dear friend behind the mask.

When Marinette was exiled to the back, Adrien was quick to join her (much to Lila’s fury) and nothing could change his mind. Mostly because he was sick of Lila always touching him despite his vocal protests, and Bustier not doing anything about it.

Soon Marinette things started being messed up or destroyed; her homework, her sketchbooks and pencils, her jacket. She was tripped and called rude names. Her cellphone, (Well one of her phones. She had two; one she used as Marinette Stone. One for Marinette Dupain-Cheng; a number only her classmates had.) was filled with mean texts.

Bustier caved to demands and had her excluded from class trips and events due to being a negative influence; again Adrien decided not to go either, and Lila was Akumatized once he said this. Marinette hadn’t been surprised. Bustier always ignored the bullying and harassment clearly happening in front of her. Still, Marinette decided to start recording her classes a hidden camera on her desk, on the corner of the celling and even on top of the whiteboard behind Bustier. It was just in case anything took a serious turn.

Still losing all her friends because of a few promises and dreams of glitz and glamour had been a wakeup call. Her Uncle had warned her. Her Aunt Penny, who Jagged had married with Marinette was ten, had warned her. So did Savage, Ashley, Cleo, Austin, Clara, and Niklaus. They told Marinette to watch out for fake friends and gold diggers, coattail clingers and desperate wannabes; people who would sell out every secret she had to the paparazzi behind her back just for five minutes in the spot light. So called friends who would do anything to get ahead, to get famous.

And it was clear that’s who most of her ex-friends were. Even Lila learned the hard way. When she told Alya about her mom meeting with some important celebrity about their Go Green initiative, this wasn’t a lie as it would turn out. However, the glasses-wearing girl posted it online, despite Lila legitimately asking her to keep it a secret. Lila got in big trouble with her mom apparently.

The teacher, Bustier, was awful but she always had been. Marinette ignored it in the past because at least she had her friends. But if that witch told Marinette to be a better example one more time, it was over.

           Everything came to a head after Marinette got expelled, granted she was brought back after evidence that it was impossible for her to have cheated surfaced, and the bluenette decided enough was enough. She finally gave in and told her Uncle everything.

           Jagged was pissed. He cursed up a storm; enough to fill the swear jar ten times over and buy Marinette a car.

           It took a while to get him to calm down. And to convince him that Marinette could handle it. She had a plan.

           Still, she remembered that Uncle was a wild card.

           Friday, during lunch, Marinette was eating in the cafeteria, when suddenly the lunchroom doors burst open, “Marinette,” Jagged called as he entered, trailed by a happy Penny and bodyguards “Where’s my favorite little fashion designer?”

           Marinette just sighed.

Adrien smirked at her; looking way too amused. The jerk must’ve known. She had thought it was strange that he wanted to eat in the cafeteria. The two rarely ate on the school grounds, opting and preferring to go to local restaurants rather than deal with terrible food and pesky classmates. Still Marinette didn’t mind as long as they away from her classmates. And they did.

Kagami, Aurore, and Claude gave her perplexed looks.

           The students in the cafeteria went wild. Girls and guys screamed, and tried to get pictures. Jagged ignored them and went straight to Marinette’s table, walking passed where Bustier’s student at lunch. Alya shook Lila’s shoulder and pointed at Jagged, and loudly asked if Lila could get her an interview. Lila looked horrified.

Jagged beamed when he reached Marinette, “There you are, you’ve been ignoring my texts,” He accused. Which to be fair, Marinette had been. Her Uncle had been coming up with way too many revenge plots to be healthy. “I decided I need a new look for the VMAs; something rockin, something tasteful, something to show remind the world the amazingness that the Rock Gods have blessed them with.”

“I’m at school,” Marinette told him.

           He smirked, “Then Learn to answer a text,” The Rock star shrugged. “But fine; we can talk later. How about at my concert, yeah. You and your friends” he motioned to the kids at Marinette’s table, “Can have backstage passes. We’ll talk then. But I really want you to wow me. Maybe get a matching hat for Fang too.”

“Fang?” Adrien asked innocently. Still Marinette could practically hear see the script he was reading off of.  “Is that your cat?”

           Jagged gasped as if insulted, “Cat? Do you think I’d ever own anything as ordinary as a cat? Me? Jagged Stone?! I should be insulted, mate. I hate cats, always have. Never owned one, never will. Fang’s a crocodile. Marinette’s knows. Fang loves her.”

“That is strange,” Kagami shot Marinette a smirk which caused Marinette to nearly hiss at the betrayal. Kagami knew too?! “Lila said you did.”

“Lila?” Jagged asked. “Who’s Lila? I don’t know a Lila.”

“Lila Rossi?” Aurore offered. “The Ladyblog practically swears in an interview that Lila Rossi saved your cat from being hit by a plane or something.”

           Jagged scoffed, “What a loud of bull! Any journalist that believes that is not worth the pen they write with.” Gasps were heard. “But I heard that rumor. Didn’t know where it was from. Thanks for letting me know who I should sue. This Ladyblog and Lila Rossi will be hearing from my lawyers.”

           It was a photo finish as to who fainted first; Alya or Lila.

           Lila went home right after that. This caused the reactions of the class to be split. Half the class still defended Lila; refusing to believe their golden ticket was lying. The other half was ready to burn her at the stake; they had carried her books, done her homework, wrote her notes, nearly everything for her.

           Marinette just sat back and watched with amused eyes. If they thought this was bad, they hadn’t seen anything yet.

           That weekend Marinette Stone released a video on her blog about bullying. She had been mentioning her own trouble with bullying for months and people had asked her for more information.

           The title of the video was:

           Bullying Stone: The Expose

           In it Marinette revealed that at her school she went by Marinette Dupain-Cheng, her real name, and had a new look. She told about how much she liked school at first. And they what changed; that it all started when a new girl arrived and started telling lies about celebrities about Marinette. She told the story of how she was expelled; and just how many procedures were broken when it happened.

           Marinette used the recordings she had of class, and even showed up the horrible texts she got.

“As you can see the teacher does nothing,” Marinette frowned. “It’s all happening right in front of her and she does nothing. In the next video, you’ll see someone being sexually harassed, in front of the teacher and she doing nothing about it. And then what victim blaming looks like. Again, as a reminder, all these videos and pictures are unedited.” She had offered to blur Adrien’s face but he declined, and even appeared in the video too and talked about his own experience.

           At the end of the video, Marinette looked straight at the camera, “Anyone can be bullied; famous or otherwise. If you’re being bullied; speak up. Tell your parents, your Aunts, your Uncles, your siblings, your cousins, teachers who you know will actually do something about it. I waited too long to tell someone. I regret that. They thought what they were doing was hurting me.  They thought I’d be miserable without them. They thought I’d cry and break and come crawling back to them. They thought wrong. You can bully Stone but it takes a hell of a lot more than that to break it.”

           The video went viral in an hour. And people were angry. The people who knew Marinette and loved her were beyond furious. Jagged, even more so, as he hadn’t seen the videos before, read the texts.

           Marinette Stone’s phone blew up with texts and calls. She was tweeted and retweeted thousands of times. And she got far too many, ‘You want me to kick their asses for you. I can kick their asses for you,” texts. But she had known she’d get them.

           The Ladyblog was ripped for lies by celebrities who been lied about on site and fans.

           Gabriel Agreste, Adrien told her, was pissed about what had been happening to Adrien, in front of a teacher no less. Lila Rossi fired. And if Lila ever had dreams about working in the fashion industry, they were over.

           Savage, after berating her for not kicking Lila’s ass, told her he and the gang (Austin, Cleo, Ashley, and And Niklaus) was coming over for some Mario Kart and artery clogging fast food.

           When the call disconnect, Marinette got a text from him.

Why did you sic Fang on them?

And that’s a five for the swear jar!

           Marinette couldn’t stop laughing.    

[pl-panda]

To Marry a Vigilante: Part 2

MASTERLIST || First || Previous || Next

Disclaimer: Masterlist

---------

The day before Christmas… was a nightmare. Marinette had to admit that Damian was right. Her parents volunteered to help Alfred in the kitchen. The butler tried to argue, but his fighting with Sabine was an unstoppable force meeting an unmovable object. In the end, they got a compromise that the baker couple would help that day, but would be banned from the kitchen for the rest of Christmas. 

The boys meanwhile were ordered to decorate the house and prepare the formal dining room. And it was a mess. First, Dick and Jason spent almost an hour arguing over the decorations, only to then see that Mari and Damian already decorated the room with the merchandise Damian somehow got imported from Paris without their knowledge. Jason tried to dismantle the decorations that were put up without a warning, but it ended with Damian chasing him with a sword… again. It didn’t help that Todd kept riling the youngest Wayne up. Technically second-youngest since he was older than Marinette by a few months, but that’s beyond the point.

Then, when Jason ended up with a slight limp after he crashed into a cupboard when trying to cut the corner and Damian’s bloodthirst got satisfied, it was time for decorating the Christmas tree. When Mari saw the tree, she almost toppled over. It was put in the hall before the stairway to the second floor. It was tall enough to almost reach the ceiling. 

“That’s your tree?”

“In my defense, I tried to order a smaller one. It’s not my fault they gave size in the metric system.” Tim argued. 

“If you cut on coffee and instead got some sleep once in a while, maybe you would’ve noticed.” Jason snickered. 

Dick took the opportunity to climb upstairs and start decoration, only to be caught by Steph, who proceeded to decorate on the other side. Seeing the two already started, the three other boys also raced to start putting decorations. It was a mess, but somehow Marinette found it endearing. It felt… homey. Then she grabbed some decorations and joined Damian. Then she teamed up with Steph to make a large bat symbol on one side out of gold tinsel garland. Then she made a red ‘R’ inside it.

And this time nobody got hurt. 

After that, Dick and Jason left for their respective homes. Tim and Steph left shortly after, leaving Damian and Mari alone with the adults. Technically, Cass also stayed at the manor, but unless she wanted to be seen, only Alfred (and now Sabine) could find her. 

The teens decided to stay in the Manor. Marinette was dead set on making everyone their gifts by hand. She brought several unfinished designs that could be adjusted. Damian was kind enough to collect the measurements for each family member from Alfred. 

And so Mari then spent all evening in her room, where she worked on adjusting and finishing everything. She was beyond grateful that her room was already equipped with a sewing machine and anything else she would need to make the gifts. The whole time Damian sat nearby to offer some advice. Mostly, he just enjoyed watching her work on the designs. 

“Do you think putting a Red Robin logo on this tie would be too much?” She asked, showing a red tie with black accents. It had a meticulous black stitch going through the narrow part. It spelled MDC over and over.

“Maybe put it inside, so that it only shows when he put it upside-down,” Damian answered. 

“But then nobody will see it.”

“There is a bigger chance someone sees it than if it’s on the front.” The boy deadpanned. 

“Don’t be mean.” She scolded him, but her pearly laughter kinda ruined it. She put the tie away and reached for the sunglasses she was working on. They used to be black, but she tinted the glass deep-red and then added details at the side. Now, there was a small silver bullet-shaped decoration where they would fold. She had a case ready where she stitched the shape of a red handgun at the top of black leather. 

“And this?”

“Habibti. They will definitely love your gifts.” He gave her a soft smile. “If not, I will introduce them to my sword” He muttered, hoping she would not hear it.

“Damian!” She shouted. His hopes went in flames. “No murdering people!”

“Can I at least maim?” He asked with a hopeful voice.

“Hm… only if you ask me before.” She giggled at his expression. 

“I think it is high time I retreat to my bedroom. It’s almost midnight, Angel. Go to sleep.” He stood up and walked outside, only to be met with Sabine’s judging eyes. She watched him carefully before smiling slightly. 

“Good. You can go. I will tuck her in.” 

After she passed him, Damian let out a breath he didn’t know he held. That woman was scary.

--------

The next morning was still hectic, but no longer so chaotic. Mari spent half of it locked in her room giving the designs final touches. She did not let Damian or her parents in since she focused on their gifts and didn’t want to spoil the surprise. Alfred was the only one who got a peek inside and he didn’t even fear Sabine, so the chances he would tell anything to anyone were less than Joker genuinely apologizing to everyone he ever hurt. 

Finally, around midday, Marinette finally revealed herself. The room was a mess of cut fabric, loose papers, and Kwami knows what else. There was also a bowl of water in the corner. 

“That was a race.” She commented before grabbing Damian’s hand and dragging him into the living room to share a tea and cookies. All adults cooed. 

“So, Habibti. Care to reveal what you made for me?” The boy asked hopefully once they were both sitting side-by-side on the two-people couch. She held a cup of steaming tea while Damian put his in a small cup holder while he was eating a cookie. 

“Nope.” She grinned. “But I can tell you that you will like it.” 

“From you? I will like any gift.” He answered smoothly.

“Stop it!” She squealed, blushing heavily. “You can’t say things like that out of the blue.”

“Why?” He asked, giving her a barely noticeable smile.

“I can’t go around blushing all the time!” 

“But you look so cute with red cheeks.” 

“You don’t look so bad either, Mi Amor,” she retorted. She wanted to get some reaction from him, but he only smiled slightly more. 

They rested, cuddled together for a bit, enjoying the silence that surrounded them. It was interrupted when suddenly Cass dropped out of the blue. Or from the ceiling, but they would’ve sworn she was not there before. 

“You… Cousin?” The girl asked. 

“Oh! You must be Cassandra!” Mari recognized her. Cass was maybe her height. She was dressed in workout clothes. “Nice to meet you. I’m Marinette.”

“Marinette,” Cass repeated. “Call me Cass. Everyone does.” 

“Um… Sure. You can call me Mari if you like?” Both Damian and Cass grinned at that, much to the french girl’s confusion. “Did I miss some joke?”

“No, Angel. It’s just that Grayson’s daughter is named Mar’i” Damian looked at his beloved’s expression. 

“Oh. Oh…” The realization dawned on her. “Well, then what about… Nettie?”

“Nettie… Like it.” Cass responded.

“Cass doesn’t speak much.” The boy took it upon himself to explain. “She first learned to communicate through body gestures.” 

“Maman told me. I can’t believe aunt Sandra left you with that monster. Maman told her some things though, so maybe next time you two meet she will apologize.” 

“Mother… Apologize… Me?” The girl asked in disbelief.

“Maman is a very persuasive person.”

Cass didn’t speak about that, but a memory of the hug two of them shared yesterday surfaced at the top of her thoughts. 

“Anyway, you wanted to get to know me? Well… um… I’m fifteen, soon to be sixteen. I love fashion and design and I make almost all of my clothes. I also practice some martial arts in my free time. I love sketching outdoors. There is this small park next to my parent’s bakery that I love to visit. In the past, I adored the works of Gabriel brand, but after the owner turned out to be a major bastard I kinda decided to just stick to my own stuff. What else… I prefer tea to coffee unless I need to pull an all-nighter, my favorite sweets are macarons and my uncle named his soup after me when he won the cooking competition.”

“Soup… good?” Cass decided to ask. 

“Oh! It’s the best. Actually, maybe we could ask uncle Wang to cook for our wedding, Dami! Can we? He would be invited anyway but then people would get to…” 

“Of course, Habibti.” Damian interrupted her.

“Wedding?” Cass had more questions.

“Oh… Um… You didn’t know?” Marinette doubled back. “Of course you didn’t know. Damian tried to keep it down and I ruined it. Please don’t tell anyone. I’m so sorry Dami! I forgot! I was just so…” 

Damian, following the usual routine when Mari started to panic, pulled her to his chest, and hugged her. He whispered something low enough for Cassandra not to hear. She did notice the couple’s body language. Devotion and love.

When Marinette finally calmed, Damian let her out of his embrace. “Thanks. I still keep some of my… less desirable habits.” 

“It’s no problem. At least I have an excuse to cuddle with you without my brothers’ merciless teasing.” 

“Wedding.” Cass urged them. Her curiosity was peaking. 

“Ah! Right. So basically Talia kidnapped me and decided I would marry her son and then we both woke up tied before the altar and she threatened to kill us and our families if we didn’t go through with it. And I was so scared back then. And T… And I had no way to do anything else.” 

Cass saw her tense and stopped herself. There was more to it, but she didn’t drill. She would learn later. Or just get it out of Tim. He knew everything. 

“Well, now we’re stuck and there is this weird spell on us that makes it impossible to cheat on one another. At least I assume it works both ways since Damian didn’t test it.” There was no doubt in her voice and her body showed complete trust. Cass was actually impressed. 

“The bitch that my mother is,” Marinette wanted to scold Damian on the language he used, but then again, he spoke about Talia so he wasn’t lying, “used some old curse on us, probably from the time my grandfather was still young. We are tied together. But we made it work.” 

“Magic… bad.” Cass scoffed. 

“No!” Mari quickly protested. “I mean not all magic is bad. It all depends on who uses it! Besides, everything turned out better than I could’ve ever hoped.” 

“Good. I… Like you.” Her cousin smiled. “Hug?” She asked.

“Sure.” Marinette nodded and before she knew it Cass tackled her into the couch, almost breaking her bones. 

“Oooh!” a new voice cooed. Damian immediately whirled around with a small dagger that he pulled from wherever he kept it. Selina Kyle was standing there, watching everything.

“Tt. I don’t like being spied upon.” Damian scowled. 

“Relax, lover-boy. I just came and I was curious where everyone went and who were the new people.” 

“Oh. That’s probably my parents. Alfred kicked them out of the kitchen today. They will probably be relaxing in the garden since they rarely have a chance to just relax. They run a bakery in Paris.” Mari smiled at the newcomer. 

“Really now? And you’re the unlucky girl that got stuck with the short, dark, and brooding?”

“Tt. I’m not short.”

“I don’t hear you arguing about the dark and brooding part.” Selina teased. 

“Angel, meet my father’s fiancée, Selina Kyle. She is also Catwoman.”

“Oh. She is in on the family business then?”

“Tt. Yes. I don’t keep things hidden from my wife.” Damian kept scowling.

“Aren’t you a dutiful husband?”

“I’m not afraid to defend my wife’s honor with a sword, thief.” The boy threatened. Selina measured him for a moment.

“Good.” She turned to Marinette. “He will do. If he is causing you trouble, you can crash at my place.” She gave her a small square paper with an address before leaving. 

“Um… What was that?”

“Tt. That was Selina for you.” Damian was still in a bad mood until Marinette snuggled closer to him. 

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

Around five, the guests started arriving. It was unanimously decided that the youngest couple would be the ones to greet their guests. And looking at the size of the table, there would be more guests than Mari assumed. Damian was now dressed in a flawless black suit with a matching bowtie and a white shirt. Mari chose to wear the red dress that she knew left Damian speechless every time he saw her. Her hair was let go and formed waves cascading down her back. 

Jason was first. He came on his bike alone. While everyone dressed in something elegant, he opted for an oil-stained t-shirt and brown leather jacket, complete with black cargo pants and heavy boots. Marinette had to admit he gave a bad-boy vibe that told her to stay away. But she’s seen this with Ivan and she was pretty sure Jason was, in fact, a big softie once one got to know him. 

Next to arrive were Tim and Stephanie. She wore a black and purple knee-length dress. It had no sleeves and hugged her form tightly. The design was several large squares of material sewn together so no two colors were the same. It was an interesting design. Tim wore a blue suit with black accents and a white shirt. They looked like a nice couple. And the boy looked almost awake, which was a success. Also, they were dragging a giant bag of gifts. 

Shortly after, a small van pulled close and five people exited. There was an older couple, a joyful boy around their age jumping around them, and two people Marinette recognized instantly. You couldn’t hang around Alya and not recognize Clark Kent and Lois Lane-Kent.

“Tt. Jon.” Damian greeted the boy.

“Sup Dames? Hello fair lady.” He greeted them, happiness almost oozing from him. Jon went as far as kissing her hand. 

“Could you stop with the flowers and rainbows?” Wayne growled.

“But it’s Christmas!”

“Tt. I know.” Damian was angry. Seeing it, his beloved grabbed his hand and squeezed it lightly.

“Hello Mr. Kent, Mrs. Lane-Kent.” Marinette greeted the adults, hoping to diffuse the situation  before Damian gets too riled up. 

“You must be Marinette. I remember Jon mentioning you when we talked about his trip to Paris.” Clark smiled. He then nodded toward the older couple. “These are my parents, Johnathan and Martha Kent.”

“It’s nice to meet ya, girl.” The man nodded toward her. 

“Hi. I’m Marinette.” She gave them a smile. Just as the Kents went inside, another car pulled in. 

This time, it was Dick with his wife, Kor’i, and daughter Mar’i. They all got out of the car.

“I still don’t understand why you insist on driving this thing. I could’ve flown us here twice as fast.” The woman had distinctively orange skin and her eyes were entirely green. Marinette instantly recognized her as Starfire. She wore a white shirt with bell-like sleeves that reached to her elbows and blue jeans that ended just above her ankles. Dick had a dark-gray shirt and jeans. She would classify their outfits as smart casual. 

“Yeah, daddy! I can fly too!” To prove her point, the little girl rose a bit into the air. She was dressed in an oversized purple jumper that reached to the ground. She also wore white trainers. Her skin was less orange than her mother’s but the color was easily visible. And her eyes were also entirely green without any white. And she was flying. Her hair was black though, as opposed to her mother’s fiery red. 

“Sweety. Come here.” Kor’i reached up and grabbed the floating daughter. The girl immediately nuzzled into her and smiled victoriously. She got exactly what she wanted. Marinette couldn’t help but giggle.

“Tt. I still find her annoying.” Damian scowled. 

“I don’t know, she looks cute to me. And you already admitted that you love cute things.” To make things worse for her love, Marinette gave him puppy eyes and a bright smile. He tried to scowl, but couldn’t muster enough strength to oppose his wife.

Dick almost tripped over the car when he started laughing. 

Since they were the last to arrive, Marinette and Damian returned inside to join everyone for festivities. 

----------

Somewhere else, in a much darker place, a lone figure stood in an empty room. His clothes were dirty and torn. The light entered only through a small window. 

“So you see? It was all a set-up!” He shouted. 

From the shadows, another figure joined. 

“But of course, sweetie. Of course.” They said in a patronizing tone. “I will of course help you.”

“You understand me. And what about… Marinette?” 

“I don’t understand your obsession with her, but I can share.” 

“Whatever. She will be mine!”

----------

Masterlist // Next

[fanartfunart]

Fly Away

Episode 3: Despair Bear

Ao3 - First - 2

(Féline Sombre & Paon Lilas designs)

Summery: An AU where Adrien never went to in-person school, not getting the cat miraculous, and found the peacock miraculous. -Chloé, determined to be allowed back to visit Adrien’s house, and discovering Adrien is visiting Marinette, sets up a party to showcase just how nice she can be. (posted in full for tumblr while I have power/internet on my computer :P)

-

Duusu was sitting on top of Adrien’s shoulder when he pressed play on the virtual hello from the class he was almost able to join. Adrien handed him a dried mango chip and he happily munched on it.

 Chloé, of course, was the first person to show up on the video, “Adrikins Hiii! I miss you already~”

 The camera turned around to show Sabrina, who must’ve been recording. She waved “Hi!”

 “Sabrinaaa, camera focused on me. Meee.”

 “Oh, right!”

 Chloé spent at least a third of the video showing him the building as if she owned it. ...Adrien was surprised it didn’t last longer.

 It shifted from the single-take style into more professionally edited together clips of various classmates. Adrien assumed this was where the boy interested in filmmaking had taken over.

 “Yo, I’m Nino, hope you get to hang out outside of school one of these days dude. If you ever need a DJ I’m your man! See you around someday!”

 “Hi, I’m Alya, investigative journalist-”

 Chloé scoffed offscreen, “You wish.”

 “Chloé I will-” the video cut out whatever happened after that. Alya stood a bit prouder, “I run the Ladyblog and am the head of the school blog! If you ever have any curiosity about the school news or superhero news, just check those out! Leave some comments if you want and I’ll get back to you asap! Keep it classy."

 The rest of the class’s videos went about the same, until the very last one. The girl from the bakery frowned at someone off to the side out of sight from the camera.

 “Come on girl, before Chloé comes back.”

 “Hi, I’m er, Marinette. I’m uh, an aspiring fashion designer and my parents own Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. I suggest trying out the macaroons! I brought some on the first day, uh, but I tripped so there weren't many left anyway so you probably didn’t miss anything!” She giggled awkwardly. She trailed off, giving a pleading look towards someone behind the camera. “Alya, I don’t know what else to say.”

 “Whatever you’d say to a new kid!”

 “Uhg, get better friends than Chloé?” She covered her mouth as Alya and Nino laughed from behind the camera. “I- mean whatttt Chloé's er, Chloé. Great evil-er friend… to er, to be setting up this videooo….ohmygosh. Can you edit that out?”

 “I would’ve, but now I’m keeping it.” Nino said. Marinette gasped in offence while Alya and Nino giggled more.

 “What are you all giggling over?” Chloé complained off-screen. Marinette gave a pointed look to the camera, and the video faded into a written message.

 “Sorry I couldn’t properly finish my message. I wish you a wonderful year, and hope you can build great friendships, even without going to school. At least you don’t have to worry about being late! Good luck Adrien -Signed, Marinette.”

 “Awwwwwwww, that’s sweet,” Duusu cried.

 “Yeah, it was.” He got out his phone to text Chloé a thank you. He sighed as he looked at her many, many, many messages of upset about no longer being allowed over anymore. He was just glad she didn’t get akumatized over it….

 He got up, glancing at Duusu. "How about we go visit the bakery and see if Marinette is open to hanging out. My father can't ban me from bakeries, right?"

 Duusu giggled, "Sounds like fun!" He frowned, "Are you only choosing to visit Marinette because she has a good place to tell your father you're going to?"

 "...No… She's just the only person in that video who mentioned a place I can visit at all."

 Duusu just giggled like he knew something Adrien didn't. He shook his head with a smile and grabbed his bag. "Come on, let's go."

-

"Marinette," Sabine called, opening the trap door to Marinette's room. She waved to the group of girls doing a miniature fashion show there. "Your friend's here."

 Marinette looked up from the blog post Alya was showing her, as the other girls continued to put on various jewelry pieces. "Who? I didn't ask anyone else to come over?"

 "A boy named Adrien. I can tell him you're busy if you want me to."

 "Adrien… Agreste?" Marinette tilted her head. He was Chloé's friend. The one that visited the bakery and fell/she pushed. Wait… he was also the guy who she made a feathered hat for who had a feather allergy wasn't he?! Why on earth would he want to visit her? Did he have some sort of ulterior motive? Was he Chloé's spy? Did he want revenge for the feathers?! "Er."

 Alya, Rose, Juleka, and Myléne all oooh-ed at the same time.

 "Oh hush. What uh, do you all think?"

 Alya grinned "Good with me, girl. I wanna see how this plays out."

 Rose nodded enthusiastically and Juleka gave a thumbs up.

 Myléne smiled, adjusting her hat, "He's a professional model right? He probably could give us some tips!"

 Marinette rolled her eyes, lowering her voice to a harsh stage-whisper, "He's Chloé’s friend."

 "The one we made the video for, yep," Alya nodded, "Exactly my point. You said it yourself, he needs better friends than her." ….On the other hand, instead of a revenge-seeking spy, he could simply be that lonely sounding boy they made a video for, trying to escape the clutches of the evil Chloé. Marinette could be the only non-Chloé & minions person he knows! Marinette sighed heavily.

 Sabine sighed softly, "Marinette… he's waiting downstairs. Yes or no."

 "Okay! Okay. I'll go down and bring him up, I guess." Marinette trudged down, ignoring the giggling girls.

-

 Adrien was wandering curiously around the bakery, hands politely behind his back. He noticed the door open and waved enthusiastically to Marinette. She squeaked and closed the door. Sabine raised a brow.

 "You can always tell him you're busy."

 "Nooo, it's fine." Marinette sighed and entered the room. Adrien’s confused head tilt turned into a smile. Like a… puppy. An incredibly patient puppy waiting for someone to play with him.

 "Hi Marinette. I watched that video today! Thank you, it was really sweet of you guys to do that. I hope you don't mind me kinda just… showing up."

 "Oh er… you're welcome. I was actually hanging out with some of the girls who helped make that."

 "Oh! If you're busy-" He gestured awkwardly to the door.

 "No, no, uh, we were just hanging out, you can join us."

 He immediately perked up, "Cool! That sounds like fun!"

 Marinette stared at him in his enthusiasm and nodded. "Come on up."

 Adrien climbed up into the room, Marinette shortly after him. The group of girls all immediately hushed their conversation upon noticing them and dissolved into giggles.

 He chuckled and waved, "Well hello. You all are wearing some lovely hats, is this a fashion show?"

 "We're helping Marinette take photos for her Instagram." Myléne said.

 "And future blog!" Alya added.

 "They've been great models for me," Marinette smiled.

 "Oh really? May I see some of the photos?" Alya handed him a phone immediately. He scrolled through some of the photos, nodding."These are great," he smiled and glanced at Marinette, "You made all these hats?"

 Marinette nodded, giggling. Rose bounced over to Adrien, showcasing a necklace. "She makes jewelry too!"

 "Those are lovely! You're really talented!" He gave Marinette a dazzling smile. She giggled and stuttered something, which was almost a thanks?

 "Hey, you're like, a pro model, right?" Alya asked, "Do you mind helping us? Got some insider tips?"

 "Oh, uh, sure!" Adrien smiled. It would be fun to help them. Probably more so than a regular photo shoot.

-

 Chloé gasped at her phone. Her Adrien in a picture on Marinette's Instagram post? All squished in a group photo with her little squad?! Why is he hanging out with her!?

 She called Adrien, anxiously tapping her nails against the back of the phone.

 Adrien picked up and Chloé did not waste a precious minute. "Why are you at Dupain-Chang's?"

 "Hello to you too, Chloé. I'm just hanging out. Marinette and her friends wanted some help with modeling her fashions."

 "Humph, that ugly stuff? Far too kind of you to do that for her."

 He sighed, "Maybe you could benefit from being a bit kinder, Chloé. It's not that hard."

 She heard a few hushed whispers in the background over the line. She balked. "I- But why would your father let you visit her and not let me, your oldest friend, over!"

 "Marinette didn't steal a book from my father's safe and get him upset enough to get akumatized." Adrien's voice was level. Gentle even. Chloé felt that was probably worse than any direct anger.

 Marinette's voice in the background squeaked out "Chloé’s book belonged to your dad?!"

 "Oh." Chloé muttered. "But actually Sabrina-"

 "I don't care if you got Sabrina to do it or not. I care if you learn from this kind of stuff and become a bit more considerate," Adrien sighed, "Maybe if you showcase some better behavior my father might let you come back over more again. But until then, I can't do anything about it. Sorry."

 "I…" Any defences or retorts died on her tongue.

 Adrien waited a moment, "I gotta go Chloé. Talk to you later, okay? Goodbye."

 "Goodbye...Adrien."

 Adrien hung up and she plopped onto the couch, staring at the earlier text messages between her and Adrien.

 Chloé blinked away tears.

-

 Adrien sighed, turning towards the group of girls, "Sorry. My father kinda banned Chloé from coming over to my house and she's still… very upset about it…"

 "She…" Marinette coughed, "Um. What was that about a book?"

 "Chloé and Sabrina came over and uh, Sabrina got caught taking my father's book. It was important to him. Apparently they lost it… I was hoping they could find and return it and they'd be allowed back but…" He glanced at the floor and shrugged.

 "Right. Right. And where did your dad get this book? Er… Maybe we can get a replacement?" She giggled awkwardly.

 "I don't know. He didn't explain much about it." He waved a hand dismissively, "Anyway, you were uh, suggesting food?"

 "Right!" Marinette cheered, "Shall we raid the kitchen? Maybe dad can teach us a good recipe and we can bake something like we were supposed to at school today." She opened the door and gestured for the group to file out downstairs.

 "Yeah, before the fire alarm interfered," Alya said, walking down.

 Rose took Julika's hand and they made their way down, Meline and Adrien not far behind.

 Marinette waited for them to get out of earshot before whispering for Tiki to come out. She zipped out as Marinette grabbed her purse. "If Chloé got the book from Adrien's house, why did Adrien's father have the spellbook? He was akumatized so he can't be Hawkmoth right?"

 Tiki shrugged helplessly, "You'll have to go over and ask him."

 "Ugh, why is tracing down who had this book like a game of evil telephone?" Marinette groaned.

 "Marinette, are you coming?" Myléne called.

 "Oop! Be right there!" She opened her purse for Tiki to zip into it. She raced down the steps to catch up to her friends.

-

 Jean-Claude arrived with chocolates and Chloé tearfully popped them into her mouth. He lingered despite his job being complete. "May I ask what has upset Mademoiselle?"

 "Adrien doesn't wanna be my friend anymoreeee," She whined, "He's making new friends with other girls. How can he do this to me, Jean-Michel?"

 "Uh, my name is- nevermind. Perhaps Mademoiselle can see comfort with Mr. Cuddly?" He offered the stuffed bear with a light flourish.

 She gasped and grabbed the teddy bear, cuddling it close.

 "If you don't mind my asking Mademoiselle, did he say why?"

 "Something, something kindness and consideration." She waved a hand. She pouted. "What do I do Jean-Yves?"

 "Perhaps Mademoiselle remembers Mr. Cuddly when she was a little girl and how he was always nice to Mademoiselle when she was a child?"

 Chloé pursed her lips, eyes shiny, and nodded.

 "Mr. Cuddly is always kind, even when it doesn't directly benefit him. But that has made him a very good friend. Perhaps, Mademoiselle can follow Mr. Cuddly's example and Adrien  will see how good a friend Mademoiselle can be."

 "Oh you're right Jean-Jacque, Adrien wanted me to show his dad I'm considerate, so I'll show him! Then I'll get my Adrikins back and he'll stop hanging out with Dupain-Chang! Er…. How...should I do that?" She giggled awkwardly.

 Jean-Pierre sighed heavily, looking exhausted already.

-

 Adrien was covered in flour and giggling about it. Juleka wasn't even halfway through a mumbled apology before he was forgiving her. Marinette wasn't sure how he was supposedly friends with Chloé in the first place. Was he mind controlled or something by her?

 Alya slid next to Marinette and grinned "So, are we thinking friendly boy or boyfriend here?"

 Marinette rolled her eyes and shook her head "I am not competing with Chloé over her infamous 'Adrikins'. Blegh."

 "That wasn't a 'ew no' though~ You can't deny he's cute."

 Marinette huffed, "Like, in a cute puppy way."

 Alya snorted and nodded, "Fair enough."

 The group's phones all pinged with the exception of Marinette's.

 They each got out their phones. Adrien raised a brow. "Chloé's hosting a party?"

 "Did you all get one?" Juleka asked, looking around at them.

 Myléne nodded, "It looks like it. Maybe she's taking Adrien's advice and is gonna try to be nicer."

 Marinette scoffed, "Please, it's probably some sort of joke or prank."

 "Did you get an invite?"

 Marinette looked at her phone and shook her head, "No…"

 Alya chuckled, "Well that means it's real and not a joke, doesn't it, hm?

 Marinette made a disgruntled face. Then her phone pinged, "Eeew! I got invited!" She threw her phone, then stumbled to catch it before it landed in the batter. Adrien stumbled and caught it for her. They crashed into each other, pinning Adrien between the counter and Marinette. She immediately backpedaled. He giggled awkwardly and handed the phone to her, stepping back out of her space.

 "This is gonna be so much fun! There's gonna be dancing!" Rose looked up, smiling at Juleka.

 "Wait, you guys aren't seriously considering going, are you?" Marinette squeaked.

 "Why not?" Myléne muttered, shrugging, "Maybe she's really trying to be nice."

 "Chloé? Nice?" She shook her head, "Eugh, whatever, you guys can go but count me out."

 Adrien shrugged, idly fiddling with the dough. "I've known Chloé for a long time. She can be cool, sometimes, really." He looked up. ...Wait, did he have baby-doll eyes like Manon or something?! What is this sorcery? He smiled softly. "Maybe give her a chance, Marinette."

 Marinette pursed her lips and sighed "Yeah, yeah, fine, I guess." Alya’s teasing smirk didn't help at all though.

-

 Chloé had it all planned. She had set up a section for adults as well, having sent invites for some of the teens' parents. Namely, she needed Adrien’s father to see how great of a person she could be. Unfortunately the main person she wanted there...was not. But hey maybe this could work with word-of-mouth…. Parents talk to other parents about how nice random kids are, right?

 So while the adults mostly stayed around the tables talking, the teens danced and played in the ball pit. Jean-Paul had been practically following her around with Mr. Cuddly, reminding her what Mr. Cuddly would do. But, Adrien was there! And! Adrien smiled at her! Every time she was nice! So the plan seemed to be working.

Until he left the dance floor to talk to Marinette and her friends. She barely contained her rage. Actually, she didn't contain it at all. Chloé abandoned her dance with Kim and started marching toward them.

 "Oh, I do need to get some of your guys' phone numbers or something so I don't have to make surprise visits all the time," Adrien said, giggling awkwardly.

 Alya nodded, "Yeah for sure, I'll give you Nino's number too, he's DJing-"

 Chloé was so close to pulling Adrien away until Jean-George blocked her path.

 "Mademoiselle if you-"

 "Move, Jean-Marc!"

 He pulled out Mr Cuddly, and spoke in a squeaky voice, "Oh, Chloé dear, Mr Cuddly is very proud of you-" Chloé gasped and tried to bat the teddy bear away.

 "Is that your teddy bear Chloé?" Kim laughed, leading the traitorous group of teens.

 Chloé gasped and pulled Jean-Louis into the kitchens.

 "I've had it with you and your stupid advice! Ive had it with you, Jean-whatever your stupid name is!"

 "Mademoiselle I was only trying to help."

 "No more Mademoiselle, no more help, no more anything! You're fired!" She marched out, leaving Jean-??? clutching the teddy bear. Somewhere, a very patient Hawkmoth (who purposefully declined an invitation in a subtle attempt to make a teenage girl more frustrated and anxious and make a villain at her party eventually) grinned to himself.

-

 Sabrina was just chilling, really. She'd helped set up the entire thing and now they'd much rather just sit and drink her juice. Just as content as Plagg with an extra piece of cheese.

 Until a teddy bear clamped onto her leg.

-

 Chloé utilized her excess frustration to pull Adrien away from Marinette. "Come on, we should dance."

 "Right now? But, I was talking to-" Adrien half heartedly protested, already stumbling along.

 "He doesn't have to go with you if he doesn't want to, you can't just drag him around," Marinette interrupted, grabbing Adrien's other arm.

 "Chloeee," Sabrina called, brandishing a hair brush like a weapon, "Come here. Let me brush your hair. It won't hurt I promise."

 "Don't you see I'm busy?" Chloé huffed. She tugged on Adrien's arm, except this time she got resistance. Adrien pulled his arm away, frowning at Sabrina.

 "Uh, something's… wrong with Sabrina," he said.

 Sabrina smiled, and leapt toward Chloé.

 Marinette intercepted Sabrina, brows furrowed in determination and flipped her onto the ground. Adrien stared at her.

 "Oh. Wow," He breathed out.

 Sabrina blinked and sat up, "Huh? Why am I on the floor?"

 Marinette frowned, looking around the room, "Er… you were… trying to attack Chloé."

 Sabrina gasped and scrambled to a stand. "Ohno, I… I uh, I need to go." Sabrina anxiously smiled and then ran off.

 "Me too actually… I, uh ...too much orange juice." Marinette ran off, leaving Adrien with- ….Where did Chloé go?

 He glanced around, and found her swatting away… some kid Adrien didn't know. He was pretty sure they were in the video somewhere.

 He frowned and glanced around, before running off to the stairwell.

-

 Marinette shook her head as she hid in the bathroom stall, "Looks like Chloé upset someone. Guess it was only a matter of time. Tiki, Spots on!"

-

 Sabrina raced into the kitchen, "Oh I can't believe I was just mind controlled by an Akuma. Poor Chloé!"

 Plagg cackled in laughter, "You have the power of destruction and you were about to chase Chloé with a hair brush. I can't believe it."

 They rolled their eyes, "That's definitely a good thing. Plagg, Claws out!"

-

 Adrien closed the door to the stairwell, checking that no one was there. Duusu zipped out with a cheer, "You love Marinette!"

 "I- what? I er-" He blushed and glanced to the side, "No I don't," his voice came out squeaky.

 "Yes you do, I know it!" Duusu giggled, gesturing to himself, "      Emotion     Kwami." Duusu tilted his head, "Do you intend to tell her? How? Maybe a cute letter or something? Oh you two would be just so cute together! And we could have more fresh pastries!"

 He sputtered and shook his head. "Focus Duusu. We need to help Chloé," Adrien said, fixing the brooch to the front of his shirt.

 Duusu giggled more.

 Adrien took in a deep breath, trying to calm his own blush. "Duusu, Spread my feathers!"

-

 Ladybug and Féline Sombre were already there… Well that was fast.

 "You finally showed up! What took so long!?" Chloé cried towards the two superheros, as she peered from her hiding spot behind a pillar. ...Or maybe it wasn't fast? Did Chloé call them or something? She has mentioned being their friend. Often. By the annoyance from Ladybug, he guessed she wasn't a very good friend if that was the case.

 "What, not excited to see me?" Paon Lilas asked with a grin.

 "Oh yeah you too." Chloé waved a hand, apparently having just noticed him. ...Paon really needed to work on some dramatic entrances.

 Nino threw a CD disc towards Chloé and she shrieked.

 Ladybug wrapped her yoyo around Chloé's leg, pulling her back and into the ball pit. Féline Sombre leaped up to restrain Nino.

 Nino blinked in confusion, "Huh?"

 "Oh, sorry," Féline Sombre let him go, looking for the teddy bear controlling people.

 Another boy threw a chair towards Ladybug. "How about a game of flying chairs?" He taunted.

 "Love to but," Paon kicked the chair away, landing in a wall, "shouldn't music be involved?"

 Ladybug was grabbed from behind and she pushed Alya off, spinning around to find the teen reporter blinking in confusion.

 A boy raised a table above his head, and Féline Sombre extended her staff to knock it out of his hands. Paon grabbed the table before it flew into any civilians and dropped it on the floor. "Careful kitty."

 "Whoops... But, where'd he go?" Féline asked, turning around.

 Ladybug looked around frantically, trying to find someone who was acting off. Paon Lilas grabbed her hand.

 "What are you doing?" Ladybug tugged away. Paon pulled back, making her stumble forward. "Oh no."

 "Ooo, pretty earrings." He made a swipe towards her earrings and she shoved him back, making him stumble.

 "Knock it off, bird brain!" She exclaimed.

 He growled and tried again with a punch. Féline Sombre vaulted in on her staff and kicked him back into a table.

 Paon Lilas plucked a feather and grabbed a plastic spoon from the table.

 A floating marionette rod was summoned. The strings wrapped Féline Sombre's arms and legs. They gasped as they were dragged forward towards Ladybug.

 "Hey!" Ladybug cried, "What are you doing?"

 "I'm not doing this!" Féline shrieked. She threw a punch towards Ladybug, "Sorry!"

 "Paws off kitty cat!" Chloé called, pushing Féline over.

 "Thanks!" Ladybug called, "Lucky Charm!" And… got an over large crochet hook.

 Paon Lilas growled and motioned his head, the senti-marrionetted Féline being flung back towards Chloé. He charged toward Ladybug.

 Ladybug glanced between the marionette rod and the teddy bear. She grabbed a marionette string with the crochet hook Féline passed her and twirling the hook to properly tangle the string, threw it into a wall. The string snapped, giving Féline control of one of her hands.

 "Féline," Ladybug called. Paon kicked her and she jumped back, "I need you to cut some strings soon!" Ladybug and Paon Lilas fought. She shielded, he swept her legs. He went in for a strike, she blocked.

 "Sure thing, Bug," Féline raised a hand, summoning her destructive power, "Cataclysm!"

 "Now, Chloé if you could be so kind-” She gestured to the captured marionette strings.

 Chloé nodded, taking up the hook and diving for the teddy bear, catching a loop on its back. She tugged and threw it back to Féline Sombre. They touched the Akuma string with their Cataclysm.

 Paon blinked as the Akuma was destroyed, halting a punch. He took in heavy breaths, stumbling back as a wave of fear hit him over the receding fog of mind control. "Ladybug? What are you doing?"

 Fear was quickly replaced with relief and pride. Ladybug grinned, "Just saving your feathery hide with our new sidekick." She looked at Chloé.

 "You haven't defeated me yet!" A small voice squeaked and kicked Paon Lilas in the chin.

 "Watch your step!" Ladybug readied her yoyo to capture and purify the butterfly that was fluttering away.

 "Can someone help me out here!?" Féline Sombre yelled. Paon glanced at the senti-monster strings attached to her feet and hand and then at the spoon he was carrying. His miraculous beeped. He snapped his fingers, pulling the amok from the spoon and dropping it.

 Ladybug threw her crochet hook into the air, "Miraculous Ladybug!" The swarm of ladybugs returned everything in the room to normal. Ladybug and Féline Sombe high fived. Paon Lilas ran. Before either of them turned to look his way.

 Ladybug turned, finding the other miraculous wielder missing. She sighed, "He flew off again."

 Chloé cleared her throat.

 Ladybug blinked and looked at her. "Oh. Er, thanks for helping me back there…. It was very nice of you."

 Chloé smiled, dusting off her jacket, "It was, wasn't it? Did you hear that, Jean-Pascal?! If Ladybug says I'm nice then Adrien and his dad have to believe it!"

 "...Mademoiselle I must admit I have no memory of what just happened."

 "Basically you turned evil and I saved you. Without me the superheros probably never would have succeeded." Chloé explained.

 Both Ladybug's and Féline Sombre's miraculous' beeped.

 "Gotta go," Ladybug said, running up the stairwell to the roof.

 "Same here," Féline said, giving a polite nod to Chloé and Jean-Something. She ran out the doors.

 "Hm. Maybe some of this nice-stuff of yours makes some sense….. Jean-Baptiste, I've decided to keep you on. Don't let the guests all run away, they don't wanna miss what's next!"

 Jean-Pierre nodded "Thank you, Mademoiselle, I will Mademoiselle."

-

 Adrien sighed as he watched Marinette finish her macaroons. He was too tired to make his own. He sat in a chair to avoid any sudden dizzy spells, resting his head on the table.

 Chloé slid next to him, looping her arms around his shoulders. "Sooo Adrikins, I'm really nice now, did you notice? I even let Marinette's dad finish teaching everyone how to make those messy macaroons."

 He pulled his attention from Marinette and nodded. "Yes, it's very nice of you." He smiled a little. She frowned…. Usually smiling causes the opposite response.

 "Ugh, what's wrong? You're not like, super happy. I did everythingggg."

 "Oh uh," he glanced at Marinette again, before looking back at Chloé, "It's nothing."

 Chloé followed his glance and pouted, "Did she say mean things to you? Do I need to tell her her macaroons are appalling or something?"

 "No! No. Please no. We just talked about being nice."

 "Oops! Right…. Wait. You don't like her do you?"

 He blushed and looked away, shrugging.

 Chloé gasped, "Nooo! Ughhh, why couldn't you fall in love with someone unattainable? Like Ladybug or somebody."

 "Huh?" Adrien crinkled his nose, "What?"

 "Nothing~ Fine, fine. We're still best friends forever right though?"

 He huffed a smile and nodded, "Yeah, Chloé, best friends forever."

 "Pinky swear?" She held out her pinky in front of him and he linked their fingers.

 "Pinky swear."

 She let out an exhale of relief, "Okay, make sure to tell your dad I'm the best influence ever now."

 Adrien giggled and nodded, "Sure. I'll try."

 "Perfect. You promised," She grinned and waltzed over to the bakers and began listing off what was wrong with their goods. Pausing at Marinette, she glanced at Adrien and simply passed her by without a word…. Marinette seemed offended anyway.

 Adrien shook his head. Oh, that didn't cause spots in his vision. Good. Satisfied with the conclusion the worst of the battle weariness had passed, he got up to see if Marinette might share some of those cookies. Then, if he had the energy, repair some of Chloé’s emotional damage.

[nerdypanda3126]

City of Love – Ch. 9

Marinette and Luka's morning together is cut short when they get some startling news.

Read on Ao3 

First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Marinette silenced her ringing phone and stretched, nuzzling into Luka as she wrapped her arm around him. He hummed as he woke and a sleepy smile stretched across his face. She kissed his neck, then started trailing lazy kisses across his collarbone and he laughed. 

“Bonjour à toi, aussi,” he murmured, still chuckling. 

He shifted underneath her, pulling his arm out from under her head so he could lay on his side instead. And he just looked at her. His bright blue eyes were full of fondness and admiration and joy and she found herself giggling and hiding from those intense eyes behind her hands. Smiling, he wrapped his arm around her to pull her close, letting her hide her face in his chest, and started running his fingers through her hair, gently teasing out the knots that had formed in her sleep.

His phone started chiming insistently next to him, but he let it go. 

“Classes today?” he asked, and with her ear pressed against his chest his voice rumbled through her and made her shiver. She shook her head against him.

“It’s my day off. You?” 

“A night class.” He squeezed her to him. “Looks like we’ve got the day together.” 

His phone rang again next to him and with an annoyed sigh he rolled over to answer it this time. 

“Allô?” His heartbeat picked up under her ear and he scooted up until he had propped himself up on his elbows. “Wait, what?” 

She watched his eyebrows knit together as the contented haze of sleep left him. “Whoa, whoa, wait a second, slow down,” Luka sat up completely, hanging his legs over the side of her bed, instantly alert, clutching the phone to his ear. “What happened?” 

Marinette sat up with him and wrapped her arms around his waist loosely as she set her chin on his shoulder. She could hear Sass on the other line, his voice frantic and rushed as he explained. 

“Okay, where is she now, do you know?” Luka tensed under her embrace and his other hand came up to cover hers on his stomach. “No, no, she hasn’t come back here, we’ve been here all night.” 

Marinette tensed with him this time and Luka’s thumb rubbed gently across her forearm, reassuring her. 

“Yeah, of course, I’ll ask Marinette. We’ll find her, don’t worry.” 

Sass apparently hung up without any further word, and Luka sighed as he wiped a hand over his face. When he turned to face her, it didn’t look like good news. 

“Um, Tikki and Sass fought last night and…” He winced. “She ran away? Sass doesn’t know where she might’ve gone, she just stormed out.” 

Marinette’s eyes widened and, panicked, she rolled back over to her phone. She’d gotten a phone call this morning, too. From Tikki. She breathed a small sigh of relief, then dialed her back. 

“Tikki?” Marinette asked as soon as the call connected. 

“Marinette, I’m… Can you come get me?” 

“Of course, yes, where are you?” She could feel Luka’s eyes on her, but he was hanging back, letting her handle it. 

“I don’t know, exactly, I took a walk last night and I just meant to clear my head, but I got turned around and I—” Tikki’s voice broke and it shattered Marinette’s heart. “I just want to go home.” 

“Okay, calm down, Tikki, I’m here. What do you see, what’s around you?” 

Tikki sniffled. “There’s a park. With um… a fountain? There’s a bakery, boulangerie, I know that one.” 

Bakery. Across from a park with a fountain. Marinette’s heart lifted. “Tell me about the awning of the bakery, is it black with gold lettering?” 

“Mhmm.” 

“Oh, thank God, Tikki, I know right where you are. Go into that bakery, okay? And stay there. I’m coming to get you. Ask Sabine for a cookie, and don’t tell Tom anything about Sass, okay?” 

More sniffling on Tikki’s end, but Marinette assumed she was nodding and she heard the familiar bell above her parents’ bakery door. As soon as she heard her dad’s booming greeting, she went ahead and disconnected. They’d take care of Tikki until she could get there. 

“You found her?” Luka asked. 

“She’s at my parents’ bakery.” She reached up to kiss him on the cheek before rolling out of bed to pull her street clothes on. “And she’s really upset. They seemed fine last night. What do you think happened?” 

Luka stared at his phone for a moment while he seemed to consider. “I think I know. I’ll head back to the apartment. See if I can get anything out of Sass.” 

“There goes our day together,” Marinette grumbled. He chuckled. 

“There’ll be other days,” he said easily, then bent to pick up his own clothes from the floor. “Preferably when my friend hasn’t imploded his relationship.” 

“So you’re friends now? You and Sass?” Marinette teased him. She pulled a lightweight white sweater over her head before she wiggled into her pink skinny jeans. 

When she turned back to him, Luka’s eyes were glued on her and it made her blush. He cleared his throat, smiling, and looked away again, and then it was her turn to ogle him as he stretched to pull his white undershirt on, his shoulders and back flexing with the movement. She’d found last night when the shirt had come off that his tattoo was a snake that wound around his bicep. When he shrugged his pink dress shirt back on, she was sad to see it go. He left it unbuttoned in the front, at least, so she could still see most of his lean frame. 

“Well, what else do you call someone you’d leave a gorgeous woman’s bed for to go smack them upside the head?” He grinned at her and flipped his collar down, settling it into place. He paused to look at her once more when he’d finished, then moved to stand in front of her. “They’ll be okay,” he said, his voice ringing with certainty, before he bent and pressed a hesitant kiss to her cheek. “À bientôt.” 

She nodded and he dropped one more kiss to the top of her head before he brushed past her to leave. After a full minute of staring after him, she blinked back to reality, although she couldn’t seem to stop smiling. But she shook that off, too, as she bent her thoughts towards Tikki instead and what kind of state she might be in when Marinette got to the bakery. 

And with that thought hurrying her steps, she grabbed her keys and rushed out the door. 

***

When Luka’s keys rattled the door open, he found Sass pacing back and forth across the living room, his dark eyes darting everywhere, his phone glued to his hand. When Luka walked in he froze and waited for Luka to say something. 

“She’s safe. Marinette found her. She’s on her way to pick her up now.” 

Sass let out a long, deep sigh of relief and sank to the floor. Luka sat next to him and leaned his shoulder against Sass’s comfortably. “You wanna tell me what happened?” 

“I’m an idiot,” Sass moaned, dropping his face into his hands. “Why I ever thought she wouldn’t find out, or that she wouldn’t figure it out, or… shit, that I had any right to keep any of this from her in the first place…” 

Luka nodded. It wasn’t much of a surprise that Sass’s secrets came back to bite him. But he could tell there was more to Sass’s thought, so he waited. 

“Last night, your sister came home,” he started finally, “and she waved my blank registration papers in my face and asked why I’m not going to classes. Which led to, I’m not here for classes, which led to how’d you sign up for the exchange program if you’re not going to classes, which led to… everything else.” 

“How’d she take it?” Luka asked, more to keep Sass talking than because he didn’t know. Sass glared at him from between his fingers. 

“Badly,” he sneered. Then he sighed again. “She didn’t turn me in, though, which… thank you. I never said thank you to you for that earlier.” Luka hummed to acknowledge him. Sass leaned his head back against their counter before he continued. “And Tikki, she was here. She heard all of it. She knows… everything, now… and I guess…” He glanced over at Luka, who kept his face carefully impassive as he listened. “She thinks… she thinks I’ve been using her, Luka. That I'm only in a relationship with her because I want to go to the U.S. Something about her being my green card, I don’t know, I didn’t catch all of it, but she…” He turned then to stare at the door, and Luka understood the rest. 

“She left,” he finished Sass’s thought. Sass swallowed and nodded, hiding his face in his knees again. 

“I tried,” he muttered after a while, “I tried to tell her I don’t give a damn where we go, as long as it’s with her. I thought she’d want to go home, that’s all, it makes sense she’d want to go home, right?”

Luka let his words hang between them as he thought back to the first time he’d heard Sass’s plan. “She’s your second chance,” Luka said slowly. “That’s what you said before. That Tikki’s your second chance.” Sass nodded beside him. Luka took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. 

His next question was important, and maybe he should’ve asked it sooner, but at the time he didn’t know if he had any place to ask. Now, though, now that he could see how important this was to him, how terrified he was, he couldn’t keep from asking any longer. 

“What are you running away from?” 

The question caught Sass off guard, and he tensed next to Luka, those scales of his ruffling into place on reflex. But he seemed to shake them off and pulled his head up to rest it on his knees instead and level Luka with a look. When he found whatever he was looking for in Luka’s expression, he sighed again. 

“My parents are… let’s say traditional. They decided it was time for me to marry, and they arranged everything. I couldn’t tell them...” He shook his head. “They don’t know anything about Tikki. I knew they wouldn’t approve, so I just never told them, but then they started talking about the wedding, and it made me realize. There’s no one I’d rather be with. Definitely not someone my parents picked and I’ve never even met her and I’d have to…” He took a sharp breath in. “I would never be able to talk to Tikki. Ever again.”

Luka nodded as Sass paused. He couldn’t imagine the pressure that must’ve been. The ultimatum that had been hanging over Sass’s head. No wonder he ran. 

“So I told Tikki I wanted to meet. Made all this happen, did whatever I needed to get here and…” He hid his face in his forearms again. “And now she hates me.” 

“She doesn’t hate you,” Luka said automatically. “She might be feeling overwhelmed, or shocked, even, but whatever it is, it’s not hatred.” 

Sass just shrugged half-heartedly. 

“Marinette’s with her now. She’ll calm down and then maybe we can all talk this out.” 

Sass peeked out under his arms. “You mean you’ll still help me?”

“I said I was in,” Luka said with a shrug, “and you said you’d accepted that she might say ‘no.’ So we’ll go over, we’ll talk it through if she wants, and if she doesn’t want to talk, well, then you’ll have your answer and we can figure things out from there.” Tentatively, Luka held his fist up. Sass eyed it suspiciously, but tilted over to bump his knuckles against Luka’s, then sighed as he uncurled. 

“You’re right. I know you’re right,” he said, then paused, side-eyeing Luka cautiously. “Doesn’t mean I’m not terrified she’ll tell me to go to hell.” 

Luka hummed in thought, then stood and shot off a text to Marinette before offering Sass a hand up. “Only one way to find out.” 

Translations: 

Bonjour à toi, aussi: Good morning to you, too

Allô: Hello

À bientôt: See you soon

[verymuchimmortalcat]

Maribat March Day 1: Found Family

Yes, I'm aware it's not March. It's already up on ao3 but I wanted to cross post it onto this.

ao3

@maribatmarch-2k21 

Hawkmoth was gone. There wasn’t even a battle, Adrien had come to her as soon as he found out about his father. Having the element of surprise and Chloe as Queen Bee, they managed to get the miraculi with minimum damage. Everything afterwards was a blur. Hawkmoth was gone. She thought for the hundredth time emptily.

She’d been staying with Chloe when Adrien had come to her, they’d known their identities for the past three years after Hawkmoth’s threat became worse. Adrien and Chloe had been the only two people she had spoken to in the last month after a horrible argument with her parents about her continuous disappearances. And the Bats, but they didn’t know she was no longer staying with her parents. All her conversations with them were mostly check-ins over text. She hadn’t visited or called, they would have known something was up so she texted Tim that she’d be busy for the next few months with commissions and Ladybug and that she wouldn’t be able to talk or visit as often. She had convinced Tikki that using the Horse miraculous to go to Gotham wasn’t using the Miraculous for personal uses, she trained when she was there and it was a good break from the tension in Paris and it reduced her chance of akumatisation. Tikki had agreed to those points but had only caved when Marinette started trying to bribe her with extra cookies.

She missed those visits. She was with Adrien when she voiced that thought. They were at the Eiffel tower, sitting in complete silence as the two of them stared out at the city. The news of Hawkmoth’s defeat would spread throughout the city in the next hour or so and it was sure to erupt into celebration. Adrien’s aunt had already been told and she was coming the next day to take him to London.

He had smiled sadly at her and said, “Go to Gotham, Bug. Go to your Family.”

When she started to speak, he cut her off, “You and me both know they’re exactly that. They’re more your Family than Tom and Sabine will ever be.”

“And you? I don’t want to leave you alone, especially after everything.”

“I’ll be fine. I have Chloé, and Aunt Amelie will be here tomorrow. I want you to go. You deserve someone to be there for you too, and they’ll be there. Even though the whole lot of you have issues with processing emotions and talking things out.”

She laughed at that, a sad sounding crying laugh, but a laugh all the same

“Talk to you later?”

“Talk to you later. Come visit, we can explore London together once things calm down. Feel free to drag the others along.”

“You’re begging for chaos.”

“And you’re stalling. Go or I’ll call them myself.”

“Ok, ok, I’m going. See you soon.”

She swung off leaving Adrien on the tower still staring out at the city the two of them had protected since they were thirteen. She headed to the hotel first to tell Chloé. Chloé was in her room, talking to Pollen as if it was the last time she would see her. “Here to take the miraculous?”

“Actually no.”

“Great. You’re finally going to talk to the Bats then.”

“It hasn’t been that long, and anyways Adrien’s on the tower. Bring him back and spoil him for me, will you?”

“Of course, now shoo. The news was just released, they’re probably already waiting for you,” and then Chloe transformed and jumped out of her Balcony.

Chloé had been right. The news had already spread throughout the world and the second Marinette detransformed her phone started going crazy. There were messages and missed calls from all of the Waynes, official and unofficial. Ignoring most of them. She opened her messaging history with Tim and sent him a message.

Batcave. I’ll be there in 2 minutes.

She didn’t need to bring anything with her, she visited them often enough to have her own room filled with her things and everything. Transforming with Kaalki she created a portal and stepped into the Batcave. Tim was already there. Knowing him he’d probably been there for the past few hours regardless of how early it was. She fell into his arms as soon as she got there. Crying, with relief, happiness and so many other emotions. And he just hugged her back and stroked her hair. “Let’s go up, Dick wants to have a movie night. Cass and Steph will be back from Hong Kong tomorrow morning and Babs already went home.”

“Tim, it’s past 4 in the morning. And I’m going to assume you mean today morning”

“well, technically, yes. Today morning and it’s not like we were asleep anyways. The news came just after we had finished with Patrol,” he said defensively.

She sighed, “you Bats and your sleeping habits.”

“Hey, yours isn’t much better.”

“Guess that makes me one of you, then”

He scoffed, “please, Damian thinks you’re skilled and that’s more than what he thinks of the rest of us. You’ve been one of us for ages now. All that’s left are official documents.”

“Please don’t fake those.”

“Do you seriously think I would do that?” He said mock offended.

“Obviously,” she deadpanned.

They continued making their way through the rest of the Manor in comfortable silence. Leaving Marinette with her thoughts for the first time since she had entered the Manor. She remembered, when she had first met Tim when he had come to Paris to train with Master Fu’s friend who had at the time been teaching her too. When they weren’t practicing, Marinette took him around the city. He had become like a brother to her. An annoying one, but she’d been continuously reassured that all siblings were just like that. And then she met the rest of the Bats and she found the way they behaved around each other fascinating. Teasing and rude until someone outside their family did the same then they were nothing but defensive and dangerous. And somehow Marinette had seamlessly joined their chaotic Family some point in the five years it had been since she had first met Tim. They had become family even before they trusted the other with their Identities which was as weird as it sounds. With Marinette dropping by Gotham to help with Patrol and the Bats occasionally coming to Paris to help her and Adrien train.

They had reached the media room and she entered the room only to be swept into a hug by Dick. Damian was sitting on one of the blankets surrounded by his pets. Jason was sitting on the couch with a book, he reaches out and ruffles her hair when she’s near him and quietly says, “you did good.” She whispers back a thank you. Duke waves to her from his spot on of the bean bags. Bruce was Bruce. So, Marinette as soon as she was free from Dick’s hug, hugged him and said, “Good to see you too B.” And then Bruce smiles and Marinette takes that as an opening and cuddles into his side. Tim sits on her other side and Marinette leans onto him too.

Jason leaves his book and joins Damian and Dick on the blanket pile on the floor, despite the large amount of space left on the sofa. Duke stretches out in the now empty space. They finally settle on watching the Avengers movies.

Damian falls asleep halfway through the first movie and Dick brings Damian closer to him. Marinette feels Tim’s breathing slowly even out towards the start of the second movie and she smiles softly, Tim needs more sleep. She falls asleep around the time the Avengers start trying to pick up Thor’s hammer.

She wakes up the next morning to Stephanie jumping on her and hugging her and as soon as she’s calmed down from the instant panic any hero gets when they think they’re getting attacked in their sleep, she hugs Steph back and laughs. Cass is standing behind Steph and engulfs her in a hug the second Steph lets go, and Marinette is filled with a sense of safety in her sisters’ arms. Steph starts talking excitedly, shooting rapid fire questions, before Cass gets her to stop by bringing her attention to Marinette’s expression. The rest of the boys start to wake. And Steph and Cass go around with the round of hugs and greetings after being gone for a while. Steph’s phone chimes with a notification. Checking her phone, Steph grins. “Babs said she’s coming by for breakfast. Oh, and Alfred said he’s making crepes and we should probably go before they cool down.”

Jason groans, “Couldn’t you have started with that.”

Stephanie crosses her arms, “Of course not. What do you take me for?”

Jason just grumbles and walks out of the room, probably to get ready before breakfast. Marinette, giggling, follows the rest of them as they all rush to get ready so they don’t miss Alfred’s crepes.

Five minutes later, the whole Wayne Family and their friends are there at the table eating breakfast. And it’s a beautiful chaos that Marinette thrives in. Babs and Dick are talking. Steph and Damian arguing spectacularly loudly about something or the other. Jason and Duke are fighting about books again. Next to her, Cass tries to make sure Tim doesn’t fall asleep on his food. And throughout the chaos Bruce just has an exasperated and tired but somehow fond look on his face. While Alfred comes and goes, offering sarcastic remarks occasionally.

Marinette knows they’ll have to talk later about Hawkmoth and Tom and Sabine. But right now, she’s eating breakfast with her family and having fun and all the worries can be for future Marinette. Present Marinette is going to wreak chaos with her batshit crazy family. The one that she chose.

[cyndecreativity]

FFVI - Deceit

Possible spoilers for FFVI - Set after The End.

---

Sabin shivered as the pub’s door shut out the cold behind him. A warm fire beckoned him from the left, but the bartender called from his right. He came for a purpose. He nodded to the barman as he shucked off his jacket and made his way across the room. Only a few customers littered the tables, too early in the day for drinking. As Sabin passed, he winced at the scent of one particularly miserable looking man. The bartender pulled a face for a short moment, though Sabin could not be sure if the target were him or the drunk.

“Afternoon, good sir.” Sabin climbed into a barstool and rested his jacket over the stool beside him.

“What can I get for ya?” Despite the stereotype, the man simply waited with his hands on the counter behind the bar.

Sabin glanced at the wall of liquor behind him. He’d never been one to indulge too much, especially not in alcohol. But he had a purpose. What would his brother do in this situation?

The bartender tilted his head, impatient.  “Ah, do you have any wines?”

The man chuckled and shook his head. “Only sell those to my VIP clients. Unless you’re looking to spend?”

Sabin barely contained his frustration. He sighed sharply and tilted his head. “How much?”

Thick, greying eyebrows lowered as the man assessed Sabin. He leaned over the bar, glanced at the jacket, and straightened up. “Got a few options for ya. What’re you lookin’ for?”

Sabin closed his eyes. Goddess grant me strength. “Actually, I was looking for one particular gi-… bottle? Goes by- It’s called Nova?”

The bartender laughed openly, a sardonic guffaw, if it were possible. “That’s not available until tonight, young’n.”

Sabin rubbed his eyes, a heavy frustrated sigh escaping him. “How much to make it available now?”

A hand disappeared into the man’s salt and pepper beard. The curly hairs shifted and moved as he pondered. Sabin arched an angry brow. “40,000 Gil.”

“Fourty-!” Sabin hissed his surprise. He came here for a purpose. “Fine.” He fished out his wallet and began to rummage for the largest Gil bills.

The bartender raised his eyebrows. He apparently expected to deter the beefy man. Excitement took over as he waited for Sabin to find all the money to slap on the bar. “Upstairs, last door on the left.”

Sabin nodded with a disingenuous smile. How his brother had afforded this… service boggled him.

---

She groaned at her reflection. The makeup she needed to cover up her scars had gotten rarer as the world disintegrated outside. She might have to return to her old life if this kept up. Most clients didn’t care for her rugged look. A pain tugged at her chest, but she picked up the eyeliner pencil. He’s gone.

A knock startled her. Gemma knew her schedule. She shouldn’t have a knock this early. “Good morning! You might have the wrong room. Lenore is across the hall.”

She heard a few steps at the door, the man turning in place, and then he knocked again. “Sorry to bother you so early?” She rolled her eyes. “This is Miss Nova, correct?”

She sighed from her position in the closet attached to the room. “Yes, it is.”

The door to the room opened. She dropped her head with a heavy sigh.

The boots sounded much heavier than she expected. “Good. I’ve actually come to see you, miss.”

A memory stirred and her heart fluttered. He’s gone. She swallowed, her breath tremulous, and pushed the closet door, the weight of her clothes keeping it open just a crack. “Well, I’m not even indecent, so perhaps you could wait in there?”

A heavy sigh brought the sound of boots to the closet door. “Miss, please, I’m in a bit of a hurry-“

He pushed the door to the closet open. She pressed her lips together for a moment, her true frustration before she slapped on her salacious smirk.

The man squealed, his arms flung upward, his jacket obscuring her view. “I’m sorry!” He yanked the closet door closed, his large jacket swept into the closet with her.

She looked down to herself. She hadn’t yet been able to get her makeup on, but any normal man might find her enticing in her simple bra and panty. Her eyes closed. A virgin?

In her room, she heard the heavy boots pacing for a moment, then the rhythmic taps of running in place, or maybe martial arts? He grunted a few times. Perhaps to calm himself. If he had gotten this far, he had to have paid. Her eyes fell to his large jacket.

“That’s quite all right.” She scooped up the jacket and turned it around. A patch on one arm looked familiar, though she couldn’t quite place it. “Seeing as you’re in such a hurry.” She pulled the large man’s jacket around herself. “I suppose we should get started.”

She opened the closet door, the jacket draped around herself to reveal the slip of her flesh between the buttons. She raised her arm along the edge of the door, her head tilted to reveal her neck around the collar. Broad shoulders met her, a purplish tank tucked into white pants, tucked into a pair of boots. Ashy blonde hair stirred another memory, more pain in her chest, but she smirked in an effort to hide it. He turned arouned.

“I’ll be whate-“ All attempts to maintain her composure failed.

A familiar face, the same but somehow different, turned around to her. Blue eyes roamed over her atop crimson cheeks. Her arm dropped, her brow furrowed, as he rubbed a hand over his cropped hair to his ponytail, a slight little rat tail sticking out of the back of his head. He sighed and turned away, the big, meaty arm blocking her view of his facial features.

“I’m sorry, Miss Nova, there seems to be a misunderstanding here. I’m not… here for… the wine?” His eyes darted to her a few times as he spoke around his arm.

She pulled his jacket tight around her mostly naked body. Did he not remember her? Did he have amnesia again? “Then what are you here for?”

He cleared his throat, an attempt to calm himself. “I, uh…” His arm dropped. She studied his jawline. The same, but different. “I heard that you have a ticket to South Figaro. Is that right?”

The question threw her. She furrowed her brow. She had acquired that ticket as a gift from Gemma for her birthday. She never understood why he exchanged her birthday pay for that ticket, she’d never expressed an interest in it before, but she held onto it. She assumed he meant it as a thank you for her service, as a ticket to freedom, should she desire it.

“Who told you that?”

He waved a dismissive hand and wandered over to sit on the edge of the bed. “That’s… not really important. But you do have one, correct?”

Her body covered and a topic at hand, he seemed to have gained some level of control over himself. “I might. Why are you asking? Did you want to buy it?”

His brow furrowed. “Buy it?”

She nodded and stepped into the room. “What’s it worth to you?”

“It’s worth a great deal to me.” Her chest tightened. He’s gone.

She sighed and dropped into a chair at the table in the room. “Well, I suppose I could sell it. But I won’t go under what the going rate is.”

He looked genuinely confused. “You’d sell it?” Not excited.

She frowned. “That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it?”

He shook his head. “No! No. I was actually hoping to convince you to use it.”

Her brow lifted almost to her hairline. “Use it?” Her brow furrowed. “You want me to run away with you?”

He laughed and shook his head again. Her heart ached. “N-… Maybe? It’s a bit complicated.”

She set her jaw. “Or maybe you’re hoping to save me?”

His lips mushed, his eyes searching for a proper response. “No. Not that.”

He sighed and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. She looked to his hands; a fighter’s hand, rough and red on the knuckles, meaty calloused fingers.

“There’s…” He looked to the window. His brow furrowed. “An opportunity.” He looked back to her, his brow set in conviction. “I’m opening a bar in South Figaro and I need girls.”

She scoffed. “Not a very good liar.”

He sighed, found out. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told the truth.” He rubbed his forehead. “Fine. I want you to go to Figaro and I can’t tell you why. How do I make this happen?"

Her breath hitched as fear gripped her throat. She glanced to his bulging arms, the tan lines for knuckles across his fingers, and focused on his face. She struggled to keep herself calm, controlled. “You want a companion for the end of the world and I’m the one you chose?”

Confusion twisted up his face for a moment. He leaned back, hand at the back of his neck again. She waited, tense.

He drew a slow, calming breath. “Yeah, sure. What’ll it take?”

She narrowed her eyes at his stubbled jawline. “I suppose you’ll have to make it worth Gemma’s while. I work for him.”

He took a deep breath and she felt the tension in his sigh, watched his muscles work under the skin, watched his shoulders roll. “If I do, you’ll get on that boat tomorrow?”

She stiffened. “Tomorrow? You expect me to drop-“ If he convinced Gemma, he’d be her new boss. She weighed her words, calmed herself; there was no way. “You know what, sure.”

He nodded and stood. “Good. Gemma is the bartender?”

“Owner.” She confirmed.

His face twisted in disgust and he stepped for the door. He looked down at his arm, then back to her. The flush rose on his cheeks again, the color spreading to his ears. “You can… hold onto the jacket.”

She chuckled a bit as he scurried out the door.

---

The sea air tasted different after the End of the World. The wind whipped her hair around, stronger than before. She remembered it all, a distant nostalgia of something she knew would never return. Maybe someday, far into the future, the grass might grow green again, the water a bright and clear blue, but not today.

A grunt and thunk behind her pulled her attention. The blonde man from yesterday dropped her two trunks onto the dock. Part of her admired the way his muscles flexed, impressed that he had the strength to carry both, but she swallowed her work and looked to his face. He’s gone.

“That’s all you have?” He rubbed his hands together.

She nodded and held out his knapsack. “Are you offering to buy me more?”

He laughed and accepted the bag with a grateful nod. “Just making sure you don’t forget anything.”

A strained smile found her face. “Not things I’ll be missing.”

He looked confused for a moment. A slight shrug found his broad shoulders and he ambled his way toward the dockworkers, presumably to ensure her items were loaded onto the boat. She looked back to Nikeah, over the dirty houses with incomplete roofs, to the bar that had come to be her home for years. From the door spilled a group of people that she couldn’t quite make out, but the vibrant colors of their clothing meant one thing. She grinned and hurried back up the dock toward town.

“Nova!” One of the girls waved feverishly as Nova jogged back up the dock.

The man turned to watch the proceedings for a moment, then turned back to the worker. “Not too long now, Miss Nova!”

The girls all tittered and waved at him. He flushed a crimson they could see from their distance and hurried up the plank onto the ship.

Lenore, a redhead, one of the younger girls, slapped Nova on the shoulder. “Lucky~! You found yourself a patron. And he’s so handsome!”

Nova laughed once. “And he still hasn’t told me his name.” The girls all looked to her. “Thank you for coming to see me off, ladies.”

“We’ll miss you, you know.” A brunette shouted from behind the pack.

Lenore nodded. “I just hope that Gemma can find someone half as good to replace you.”

Nova smiled. She didn’t mean it. She nodded. “You girls remember what I taught you, hm? And make sure Gemma hires a better bodyguard.”

Lenore reached out to grab her hand. “You won’t forget us, will you?”

Nova looked to her hand. “Of course not.”

“And if he has a brother or something-“

Nova scoffed and ripped her hand from Lenore’s. “Take care of yourselves, girls.”

She tromped back toward the boat. She really expected more. They all competed for men in the bar, but she expected a sisterhood during the light of day. Lenore had come recently, still held the competition above all else. She earned more than the other girls and liked to flaunt it. Perhaps it was for the best that Nova had a patron. She hated it. She preferred monster hunting.

“Nova!” The brunette rushed after her.

Nova stopped and turned around. “Nimsy…”

Nimsy panted slightly and held out a medium roll of canvas. Nova took it carefully. “What’s this?”

Nimsy looked back to the girls, all waving as Lenore stepped back toward the pub, waving to a few men on the streets. The men glanced between each other and started to argue.

Nova took the canvas and started to unroll it. Nimsy wrung her hands. “It’s… it’s just a little something I had. Thought it might… help you remember us. Remember your time here. And, ah…” She trailed off, nervous.

Nova unfurled the roll to a half-finished collection of portraits stitched to the larger canvas, each face in various states of artistry. The complete ones, the oldest girls at the bar since Nimsy’s arrival. Lenore barely had lines painted for her features. Nova smiled, her eyes crinkled up with the rise of her cheeks.

“Nimsy, I didn’t know you had the talent.” Nova’s eyes continued to scan the faces.

Nimsy shrugged. “Not much use now, world being what it is.”

Nova looked up to her a moment, then back to the faces. “Well, I suppose this means I’ll have to bring my patron back again.”

Nimsy straightened. “What? Why?”

Nova rolled the canvas up as carefully as she could. “Well, for starters, your face isn’t here.” Nimsy gasped. “But mostly because not all of them are finished.”

Nimsy giggled and nodded. “I look forward to it.”

Nova hugged the roll to herself.

---

The sway of the ship, however slight, upset his balance. He had trained on solid ground, in a mountain, for years. The slight rocking of a large vessel should be nothing to him. And yet the kicks never landed where they should.

“Oi! That mast isn’t your bloody dummy!” The helmsman held on hand on the large spoked wheel behind him.

Sabin chuckled and bowed slightly. “Sorry!”

A girlish chuckle found him from the door to the cabins. He looked to the woman, Nova, and frowned. “What?”

She shrugged. He much appreciated her fully clothed, though he questioned her choice of a dress for their travel. She had insisted, still under the assumption that he was to be her “Patron”, whatever that meant. He assumed it meant something like the man that paid for Relm’s paintings, but she didn’t paint. A heat rose on his cheeks and he rolled his eyes – he was far too old to be getting flustered.

“What are you chuckling about?” He moved away from her onto the larger area of the deck.

She followed after him. “Oh, I’m sorry. I just thought your enthusiasm was charming. I didn’t mean any offense.”

He growled and took up a stance in the middle of the empty deck. She stopped by the edge of the area. He waited for a moment, for her to say anything, for mockery or flirtations. When none came, he started through a training regimen.

He forgot her presence after a few punches. But he certainly did not have a clear mind. He attempted the kicks as best he could, but the rocking of the boat made it difficult. His master, Duncan, might’ve provided him with some manner of wisdom. He should visit him after this mess is concluded. Embarrassing, though, that he had managed to fight on airships and floating chunks of rock and high up in the clouds with a nihilistic God-creature, and the rock of a ship set him off balance.

“You’re very good.”

Her voice startled him. He looked back to her. “Thank you.”

She offered him a perky smile, meant to disarm him. It worked. He looked away quickly. “If I may.” She crossed the deck to him.

He stiffened at her approach. “You mean to teach me something?”

Her head pulled back, offended for a moment. She chuckled lightly and shook her head. “No, sir.” He clicked his teeth. “I don’t know how to address you.”

His brow lifted. His mouth dropped open and he pondered the events of the last day. Mirth bubbled up in his belly and he released a guffaw. “By the Gods, you’re right. I’m terribly sorry. I am Sabin R-“ He froze. Would she recognize the name?

She smiled, his laughter contagious, and waited. “Sabin?”

A slight noise escaped his throat. He nodded. “Yeah. Just Sabin.”

She placed a hand on his upper arm. He looked down to her, his eyes graced over her cleavage, and he felt the heat rise in his cheeks again. “It’s a pleasure, Sabin.”

He cleared his throat and backed away from her. “S-so how long have you had that ticket to Figaro, anyway?”

She furrowed her brow, confused, but retracted her hand. “Almost a year now, I suppose. Why do you ask?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. He had simply grasped at a different topic but answering her question might tip her off to his true purpose. He furrowed his brow. How to salvage. He drifted to the edge of the boat and gazed out at the dull, grey waters.

“Is that why you chose me? Out of all the other girls?” She moved to stand beside him.

He looked to her. “What do you mean?”

She set her jaw and looked to the ocean. “I’ve never been very popular, even before working at that brothel. Was I just the cheapest option?”

He looked at her. Her shoulders squared, her jaw set, her gaze steel. A fighter at heart. He overheard what she told the girls, “remember what I taught you”. A smile tugged at his lips. “Ah, no… To be honest, you weren’t cheap.” He looked back to the sea and crossed his arms. “Though, in my defense, I’m not entirely sure what’s expensive or not anymore.”

A chuckle exploded from her tight jaw. “Economy went to shambles since the… everything.”

He hummed agreement.

“How did you manage to make your money, then?” She glanced to him, relaxed for the moment.

He tensed up again. “Ah… inherited it.” Not untrue, not really.

She hummed. “I’m surprised there was anything left for you to inherit.” She stiffened. “Though I am grateful.” She turned and smiled to him, all brightness and charm.

A mask.

Sabin had seen the same mask on his brother ever since they met up again. The End of the World had taken something from all of them, but Edgar, despite all his reassurances, felt them stronger than most. The Returners had found each other, each finding closure or purpose in the World of Ruin, in defeating Kefka again. Edgar did his best to become a monarch that the world could rely upon, and Sabin did his best to assist, but he could feel the sadness on him.

Sabiin uncrossed his arms. “Do you have a dream?”

The mask fell away, replaced with confusion. “I’m sorry?”

A noise escaped his throat. “Sorry, I got lost in thought.” He cleared his throat. “Now that you’re… here, you can ask for anything you want.” He smiled. “So? What do you want?”

Her brow furrowed and she looked down, finger to her lips. “You know, I’ve never given it much thought. I just assumed I’d be serving you.” Her eyes roamed his torso. “What is that you want, Sabin?”

His eyes unfocused at her seductive tone. He took a deep breath and turned away. “You’re not going to be… serving me. Not… like that.” A sound escaped her and he gestured nervously. “Not that you aren’t a… lovely… woman. Just that… I’m- I’m- It’s not why-“

Her hand found his arm again and he found her giggling. “That’s all right! We can take it slow.”

Frustration and embarrassment clawed at his mind. “No, you don’t- There’s been a misunderstanding. I-“

Rain hit his arm. He jerked back as rain dropped on her. Sabin checked the skies. Not a terrible storm, but rainclouds all the same. He gestured toward the lower decks and Nova rushed away. He thanked the Gods for the interruption.

---

She found him on the deck again, practicing the martial arts with a mastery she could only pray for. Despite his constant protestations over their short time knowing each other, she wondered when he would give in to take what he paid for. Despite her best efforts, she found him attractive, though the pain in her heart reminded her constantly as to why. He’s Gone.

“Oh! Nova.” He stood from his landing out of some flip. His wide grin spread to tug at her lips.

She waved to him. “Sabin. You’re looking better today.”

His brow lifted, but the grin spread wider. “Thank you! I feel better.”

She chuckled. “Mental health is just as important and physical health, eh?”

Teeth spread through the grin and he nodded. “Yes, thank you for the talk last night!” He walked toward her and gestured to the strip of fabric on the barrels beside her. “Did it help you sleep as well?” He grabbed the water skin under the towel and drank thirstily.

He practically dwarfed her in size, not just from his massive bulk, but his height. She blushed and her chest tightened. She wanted to answer him that No, memories still haunted her, but she smiled. “Of course. Though I might’ve slept better with you beside me.”

He spilled water from the skin on himself. He coughed a bit and wiped his face.

She sighed. “Why did you hire me if not for that?”

He cleared his throat. His eyes searched around the ship, over the water, the sky. Searching for some kind of lie, she had learned. “I need… a partner.”

One brow lifted. “Why hire a prostitute?”

His cheeks flushed at the word. “I heard… you used to… be a monster hunter. Before the… everything.” He chugged more water from the skin.

Her eyes narrowed. “Then how about you teach me a few of those moves, so that I might serve you properly.”

He lowered the waterskin, cheeks full, ponderous. He swallowed the water and nodded. “You know what? Sure. I’m no Duncan, but I am a Ki-“ He froze. “Keeeeee-ind man.” He jammed the stopper into the waterskin a little too hard. “You should probably put on some trousers or something, though.”

She laughed, incredulous. “Truly?” He nodded. “Well… I’ll see if I can find any.”

---

He heaved a relieved sigh as he stepped foot on the dock. He had barely gotten used to the rocking of the ship, if ever, and longed for the steadiness of ground. Behind him, Nova smiled, a bit more genuinely than she had at the beginning of the adventure. He turned around and offered her a hand to help her down. She took it graciously.

He smiled as she released his hand. “Okay, you stay here while I go hire some Chocobos.”

She started. “Chocobos? Where are we going?”

He tilted his head as he walked backward. “On an adventure!”

She looked uneasy but settled for his answer as he drifted further away.

Thankfully the Chocobo Rental had a cart. He checked in town if there were any deliveries for the castle and loaded them up as well. Nova, for her part, attempted to take their new load in stride, but she appeared confused and uneasy.

“Are you all right?” Sabin tossed a sack of X-Potions into the cart, his attention focused on Nova on the bench at the front.

She inhaled slowly. “I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but… I assumed you lived here. Or that… we would stay here for a while, at least.”

He grinned and dropped a box of tents into the cart, the last of the items. “No, I don’t live here. Did you want to stay? I suppose we could postpone the trip a bit.”

Her forehead scrunched up, at odds with whatever duties she thought she had and her comfort. Sabin frowned. Her face pulled tighter. He sighed. “Or are you afraid of what’s out there?”

She spun on him, surprised. The first time he had unsettled her since their meeting. Her eyes roamed the ground as she searched for an answer. He hopped up onto the driving bench. “Hey, Nova, it’s okay. I’ll protect you.”

Her hands closed tightly, that melancholy back behind her eyes. He reminded her of something, someone.

“You became my patron to be a partner, right? I should be beside you if battle comes.” A deflection?

He chuckled. “Well, do you want to stop by the arsenal? Get you some weapons and armor? I never did ask what your preferred method of combat was.”

She tilted her head at him. She looked down to her dress, chosen for their arrival and assumed tourism or home visit he gathered, and nodded. “Armor might do me good.”

A new wardrobe purchased, Sabin flicked the reins on the Chocobos. They whistled and proceeded on their way, ambling along the path that Sabin directed them toward. Beside him, Nova pressed on various spots of her new armor, a new leather piece not yet broken in, and frowned. He chuckled.

It took several minutes of her adjusting the armor before she groaned and started to fiddle with her chakram. She had migrated to them in the store, then refused to purchase them, instead focused on the lances at the front. When pressed, she eventually admitted that combat actually terrified her. She preferred ranged weaponry, to keep her distance from the monster. And her throw had atrophied over the years. He had slapped her on the back, causing her to stumble, and reassured her that she was perfectly fine and normal. It might take time, but she could regain her strength if she wanted, maybe even surpass her old limits. She thanked him, still uneasy, until he dropped a Bard’s Hat on her. A chuckle escaped her and he thanked her for being open with him.

Their passage through the desert took longer than he had wanted, but he found her prowess in combat much higher than she led him to believe. Either she had been purposely clumsy during their training sessions on the ship or she remembered more than she thought. He greatly appreciated her backup, always ready with a Potion of some kind, and her skill with the Chakram took out many enemies that attempted to attack him over the corpse of their pack mate.

They made camp about another day’s travel from the castle. He set up the chocobos with food and water and settled in by the bundle of sticks that Nova had managed to find along the way. She gazed at them, her eyes lost to the melancholy again. Sabin moved to sit beside her. She jolted at his presence and tossed a few more on the bundle. He stretched a hand to cast Fire, but caught himself. Thankfully, Nova seemed lost in thought.

“Penny for your thoughts?” He moved to gather the flint and tinder.

She shook her head. “I don’t think even you have enough money for my thoughts.”

He paused before striking the materials together and looked to her. “That many, huh?”

The fire blazed to life in the reflection in her eyes. She blinked. “Missing someone, I guess.”

He tensed as he stored the rocks back in their pouch. His eyes roamed as he desperately thought of something to say.

“Oh! He’s… He’s gone. You have nothing to worry about.” She attempted a fake smile at him.

He settled back into the sand beside her. He knew. But he couldn’t let her know that. It had to be a surprise. For the both of them. He took a deep breath. “Wanna tell me about him anyway?”

Her brow furrowed. Her eyes closed. Her knees lifted toward her chin and she hugged her legs. “No. It wouldn’t be fair to you. I tell you about the men I’ve been with before and you get jealous and it poisons our relationship.” She looked to him, her eyes roaming his features again.

He felt the heat threaten his cheeks despite the warm desert air. He cleared his throat, startling one of the chocobos for a moment before being calmed by the other. He planted his feet on the sand and draped his arms over his knees. “You really should rein that in. I’ve told you already that I’m not interested in that with you.”

She looked away again. Silence filled the camp for several moments and she rested her forehead on her knees. He looked to her and rolled his eyes.

“I just… I don’t understand why you paid for me.” Her voice escaped quietly, meekly, through her tangle of limbs.

He reached over to slap a hand on her shoulder. “It’ll become clear tomorrow, I promise.”

---

Everything packed up, they made their way further into the desert. Her new employer, her not-patron, kept her in the dark. He had warned her, before they started this journey together, that he couldn’t tell her why he needed her to use that ticket to Figaro, but she didn’t realize what that truly meant.

The journey forced her to confront old memories, memories that she had attempted to lock away. The way he laughed, or smiled, or the way he looked with his hair down the few times she caught him after a bath. He looked and sounded so much like him. He’s Gone! She had to remind herself constantly. But it became harder and harder for her to accept that when his ghost fought beside her.

At least he never used magic. One thing about him had been his use of magic. He lit the fire under the bathing tub, lit the fire in the pub, used wind or ice to snuff them out. He’d even cast a healing magic or two before, when one of the girls got hurt by a client. She tried not to remember the times he had used magic to punish those clients that got out of line. But Sabin, at least, only ever used his fists. Nothing like him.

“There it is.” Sabin flicked the reins.

Nova lifted her eyes and in the distance, through the haze of heat distortion, she made out a castle, wiggling high over the desert. Her heart jumped. She stood on the wagon, hand on Sabin’s shoulder, and blocked the sun with the other. Sure enough, the castle remained, clearer the closer they got. Sabin laughed and the chocobos whistled.

“We’re heading there!?” She wheeled on him.

“Yup!” He beamed with the distinct look of a man happy to be heading home.

Couldn’t be. She shook her head. “Figaro Castle?”

He nodded. “The one and only. You know it?”

Her chest tightened. Uneven sand jostled the wagon, upsetting her balance. She fell to the bench beside Sabin. “I knew someone that did.”

Several minutes passed in silence as the castle loomed directly before them. Too many thoughts ravaged her mind to process any single one. Finally, she settled on one. “Why are we going there?”

His eyes roamed, his tell. He eventually gestured to the cargo. “Making a delivery.” He left it at that, a simple not-lie.

She sneered. “You’re still not a good liar.”

He chuckled nervously. “What! You think all these crates and barrels of stuff are for us?”

She leaned forward, chin on hand, elbow on knee. “No.”

Before her mind could process another question out, they made it to the castle.

“Ah! Sir, you’re back!” The guards jogged from the entrance to meet the chocobo and her not-patron respectively.

Sabin nodded and handed the reins to the guard. “Got some supplies from South Figaro that need unloading. Rented the ‘bos and the cart, so they’ll need to be returned. Any idea where Wellager is?”

The men moved to follow Sabin’s orders. “He should be in his office, sir. But you can never tell these days.”

Sabin jumped down from the cart and offered a hand to Nova. The guards paid her little mind. She took his hand and hopped down beside him. “Wellager?”

Sabin nodded and gestured for her to follow him. “Yeah, he’ll want to check in with me.”

Overloaded with confusion, she followed Sabin absently into the castle. She scanned her surroundings, not entirely taking what she saw, and dodged around random servants, guards, and technicians. Machines whirred in every exposed bit of wall, filling the building with a hum. Sabin travelled the halls with familiarity.

“Ah! There you are, Wellager!” Sabin waved at a man in the hall.

The man looked up from a stack of papers, large rolls of canvas tucked until one arm, a bucket of tools from the other. “Hm?”

Sabin jogged forward. “Ah, this is the surprise I sent you a letter about.” He tilted his head in what could only be described as an intimidating gesture.

Wellager, not intimidated, understood the meaning behind his words and nodded. “O-of course, sir.” He looked directly to Nova. “His- He’s down below right now, though, working on the machinery.”

Sabin nodded. “Did you make up a room for her?”

The man nodded and tilted his head. “Well, let’s have a look at her, hm?”

He thrust his items into Sabin’s large arms and stepped toward her. She took in his appearance, now free of his load. A blue and yellow turban with a gold circlet adorned his head and a bit of fabric to protect his neck from the sun, fancy pauldrons of blue and yellow with gold accents held up a cape that covered a set of armor. She swallowed hard and bowed to the man, unsure of the protocol and why Sabin had such a close relationship with the man. But then again, he did have money; perhaps a merchant adventurer then?

“Well, at least she has manners. Come, stand.” The man started to circle her, clearly assessing her.

Nova watched the man circle until he moved out of sight. She looked back to Sabin. “Are you… selling me to him?”

The man pulled up beside her and looked to Sabin. “Pardon?”

Sabin laughed, dropping all the items that Wellager had handed him, and moved to grab her arm rather forcefully. “Nothing, Chancellor. Don’t listen to her. I think it’s about time we found my brother, don’t you think?”

Her brow furrowed as Sabin pushed her down the hall away from the Chancellor. Her eyes widened. “Chancellor!?”

Sabin shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.”

The Chancellor called after them and scooped up all the scattered items on the floor.

Having wended their way through the castle to meet with the Chancellor, Nova had no idea where Sabin directed her to at high speed. She merely moved at his prodding. “You’re hurting me.” He yanked his hand back with apologies and continued to direct her through a door and down a set of stairs.

The sound of machinery grew ever louder as they descended into the pits of the castle. Figaro Castle had been famous long before the End for its ability to disappear into the sand, but to see it up close awed her. And nearly deafened her. She tried to turn back to Sabin to ask something, anything, and he shook his head. Behind them, she made out the green and red cape of the Chancellor following close behind.

They emerged through a door to a room with a huge metal piston, unmoving, as a group of men worked on the surrounding machinery, huge metal masks covering their faces.

“Ah, here we are!” Sabin shouted, though the noise level in the room had diminished greatly.

Each man lifted their head to reveal a set of large gloves protecting them from a rod that created sparks. A few of the men looked between each other and back to the pair. One man in particular dropped his rod and stood. The others looked to him and to each other again. He frantically removed the gloves to reveal blue tunic sleeves. The same urgency led his hands to pull at the back of the mask even as he lifted the front and together he worked the large metal mask off his face.

His face.

Nova felt her heart clench, her throat go dry, as he stepped over his equipment even as he dropped it. He surged forward, hair a sweaty mess against his face, eyes wide and just as beautiful, jaw cleanly shaven, an apron over his front. Even through her teary eyes, she recognized this man.

“Gerad!” She barely forced the word out, her body quivering, unable to process what she saw.

He panted as he moved to stand before her. His hands lifted toward her, hovered over her features, as if unable to believe she existed either. Sabin moved away to stand by the wall, arms crossed. She could almost make out his smug smile.

“There you are!” The Chancellor burst through the door behind her.

That broke whatever spell paralyzed the two. Gerad straightened up and his features affixed into a mask she did not recognize. He smiled, bowed his head every so slightly, his posture completely stiff and formal. He flashed her a smile, one he intended to be charming. “My lady, the engine room is no place for one such as you-“

She slapped him. Though she struggled to contain them, tears crept down her cheeks. He’s not gone! He had used her, cared for her, betrayed her, left her. She assumed he had died in this castle when the Crimson Robbers returned with their loot. She never received another letter. She had mourned him. And here he stood, alive and well, performing maintenance on the castle!

Gerad stumbled back from the blow, his face turned away, shocked. She saw a new scar on his neck. The other workers stiffened as he stood there. Sabin merely chuckled. The Chancellor gasped and hurried into the room to drop his items, ready to perform whatever duty required on her.

She watched Gerad’s eyes dim, harden. He kept his face away, allowing his cheek to redden. “I suppose I deserved that.” His eyes turned to her. “Unless you have more?”

She set her jaw. “I have plenty more, you bastard.”

The Chancellor advanced on her. “That is quite enough of that, young lady!”

Gerad reacted quickly to grab the man’s pauldron. “No, Wellager.”

The Chancellor spun on him. “But, Your Majesty-“

“What!?” Nova felt her mind break. She focused on Gerad. “WHAT?”

He inhaled slowly. “I see we have much to discuss.” He gestured back toward where he had been working. “Wellager, if you please.”

The Chancellor sighed heavily, obviously displeased with this turn of events, and moved to fiddle with the equipment Gerad had been working with. For his part, Gerad removed the oiled leather apron and hung it on a hook by Sabin. He glared daggers at the man that shared his face. Nova furrowed her brow. He had called him brother.

“Wait.” She pointed to Sabin. “You’re his brother?”

Gerad looked back to her, then to Sabin. “What did you do?”

Sabin raised his hands defensively. “I only did what I thought best.”

Gerad’s expression hardened, all angles, and he frowned. “I’ll deal with you later.”

Sabin growled as Gerad turned away to her. He softened almost immediately, but she felt the his melancholy. Her chest tightened as she fought her desire to comfort him, her feelings for him, with her anger and frustration at his betrayal.

He extended a hand toward her, one around his back. Formal. Royal. “If you will accompany me, my lady.” He gestured his hand toward the door.

She waited on the other side of the door and watched as he turned back to the room of workers in their strange equipment. “Gentlemen, if you would continue without me.” They all jolted, flustered, and returned to their sparks.

Gerad closed the door and nodded to her. “Thank you for waiting. Follow me, if you please.”

He did not wait for a response as he continued up the stairs. She glared at his back, the unkempt sweaty hair, familiar in an entirely different way to Sabin’s. The color had changed from when she knew him, but she knew the style, the way it frayed. She recognized his broad shoulders, knew what they looked like under the indigo fabric. Part of her begged to touch him, to return to that time, to that bed. She set her jaw and followed him.

He nodded absently to a few people as they made their way through the castle. He did not stop for any of them, apologizing briefly as he made his way by. They all glanced to her in confusion, but promised to address him later. He kept a hand at the small of his back as he walked, his posture upright, stiff. Formal. Royal.

Eventually he led her through what she assumed to be the throne room. Large, empty, a red carpet through the center with two ostentatious stairs in the back. He strode across without hesitation and through the back. Presumably into the King’s Chambers.

[gothic-illustrations]

Day Four - Before the Protocol 1/2

This is technically still set in the present because they are talking about Lumino before the protocol so I think it fits.

TW: Serious talk of experimentation, swearing, mention of death, violence, etc

No one spoke, no one had to as Lumino glares at the other end of the room. Sova and Sage were sitting next to them trying to calm them down to some degree but they waved them both off. Chamber and Viper sat at the other end of the room clueless as to why Lumino their normally joyful but aggressive teammate glared daggers at them. 

“Lumino I don’t know why you called us here but surely there’s some logical conclusion to whatever has made you so angry.”

“You know Sabine, I would’ve thought so too, but when teammates keep secrets its kind of hard.”

“Mon amie we’ve never kept secrets from you, or I haven’t at-”

Lumino wasted no time in getting up and striding over to Chamber and once they had gotten close enough they slapped him. Leaving a large red mark on his cheek and tilting his glasses.

“Shut the fuck up Vincent..”

Sova looks from Sage to Lumino and then back to Sage as he tries his best to see what could have possibly caused one of the people he cares for most to act so aggressively. “Милая (Milaya) surely we can talk this out.” Lumino looks back at Sova the tears at the corners of her eyes threatening to spill out “The time for talking was ages ago and they said nothing so now it’s my turn to let off some steam. I have all these years of anger and now it’s finally going to serve a purpose.”

“I suppose this is a bad time.” Cypher looms in the entryway of the door. Lumino shakes their head and Cypher steps forward and hands Lumino a bundle of documents with the Kingdom symbol adorning the front. “You’re fine Cypher I needed these to prove my point anyways.” They turn back around and walk back up to Chamber, his eye went wide as he saw the documents. Viper tensed in her seat. 

“Let’s start with you Vincent since you seemed to know who I was from the start and said nothing. And don’t even try to chalk it up to you just assuming. I saw those emails with you and Cypher.”

“Damn rat, knew I couldn’t trust him.”

“Ileana Ardelean. Does that name ring any bells to you because all these pictures seem to paint a good picture.”

Lumino snarls and talks a few photos from the bundle and throws them onto the table. Two figures stood together in the photos, one being a younger chamber from his days in the French military, the other being Ileana Ardelean. “She was a radiant who worked rather closely with you during your time in the military. Tell me where is she now?”

“She’s gone, or rather, I thought she was gone until you showed up. It’s been a while mon amour.” Vincent looked up at them in hopes of gaining a bit of sympathy but he instead for Lumino’s cold gaze staring back. 

“I’m not your lover Vincent, and even if I used to be. That died with Ileana because my name is Mikita now and I will not go by anything else.”

“But I would certainly love to know why you didn’t stop me from trusting Kingdom.”

“You were a headstrong person, you still are it seems. So nothing I said could have changed your mind. Once they said the research they were doing could save the lives of millions you hoped onto it. You left the same day, I only got to see you as you were leaving our apartment in La Rochelle. I doubt even the ring would’ve stopped you.” He looks down as Lumino’s gaze softens only a little bit. Viper had turned her head in surprise and Sage had to keep Sova from getting up and demanding his own answers.

“You were going to- ” Lumino’s voice cracked and Chamber decided to cut them off to answer “Yes, I was planning on proposing. But that’s all in the past now. I threw it away in a drunken stupor, once they announced your death.” 

Lumino sighs trying to regain a bit of composure as they turned to Viper “I guess that’s where you can start now Sabine. You weren’t directly involved in the experiments that killed my double but you sure as hell know a lot about the night it happened.”

Viper doesn’t even try and deny anything as she nods “One of the assistant scientists had gotten sick that day, they had asked me to come in as a replacement. You won’t believe me when I say this Lumino but, I didn’t want to carry out the things they made me do I only did it to keep my job.”

“Keep your job! Do I need to read off the things that you and all those other idiots did to ruin my life? I COULD’VE BEEN NORMAL IF IT WASN’T FOR YOU!” The tears rolled down their face as they screamed looking down at Viper. The silence that hung in the room gave Lumino their answer as they began to read. “Electrocution of double and person, use of radiant abilities on double, showing person their double being tortured, being tortured in front of your double, forcible blinding of double, branding of person and double. And the list goes on for a page and a half, I always wondered why I had this, guess I know now.” Lumino pulls down part of their shirt to reveal the Kingdom logo scarred onto the skin. 

“I just wanna know why. Were they even doing research? Or was it just an excuse to hurt people? My double never did anything to deserve the things done to them. It’s why I put them out of their misery, wasn’t it.”

Sabine just nods “You saw what we had done to them, and you were furious so you asked their permission and end their life before anyone could come in and stop you from doing anything else. They sent me in to put you to sleep, I was simply doing what I was told. You were a bright young person Lumino, you both were, I’m sad it ended up like this.” Lumino shook their head as they started to cry. Sage left her spot next to Sova to hug them whispering sweet nothings in their ear that only seemed to make them cry more. 

After Lumino got the courage to speak they looked back at Chamber and Viper “I want you both to know that I don’t forgive any of your actions. I might not ever forgive you. I need time to process all this, see whatever family I actually have left, and see what can be done to bring this bullshit to someone who can actually do something.” They laughed quietly “It’s kinda funny that the one person everyone told me not to trust helped me the most. Cypher helped me when you both could’ve simple spoke to me and that sickens me to think about.” 

Sova promptly gets up and walks over to Lumino and Sage, picking them up as they continued to softly cry then he spoke up “I hope you two think about your action’s. I think we should get going now.” With that, the two walked out the door with Lumino in hand. Leaving them alone in a room with that bundle of papers still strewn around the table in the centre. Viper gets up first looking over the pictures, smiling carefree faces in all of them as Viper sighs, rubbing her temple and mumbling to herself “This is why I left that wretched place.” before leaving the room. 

Chamber leans back in his chair, taking his wallet out of his back pocket and looking at the now crumpled picture of him and Ileana leaning into each other as they slow danced. In one of the only times, Chamber remembered smiling. “Maybe if I had told you sooner mon chouchou I could’ve held you in my arms…

One 

Last 

Time… 

~~~~~~~~~~~

And with that, I’m done with part one of my day four entry. The second part will be an animatic that might take a bit longer to finish so I hope you all can be patient with me. And for some clarification, if any of you need it here is a list of words I used from other languages:

Mon amie - my friend - French

Mon amour - My love - French

Mon chouchou - my sweet bun (it’ll make sense when I draw younger Lumino) - French

Milaya/милая - darling - Russian