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ggomos-maribat · 2 months

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Double Lives

Damian was certain that his wife was keeping a secret from him.

He trusted her with his life, of course—Marinette had kept a number of things from him in the earlier stages of their relationship, like her experience and trauma in Paris. He knew not to pry, and eventually she opened up. He was glad that some burden was taken off her shoulders.

But this was different. She was deliberately trying not to get caught; she took care to hide her phone from his view, and there were days she'd come home very late. When asked, she'd get irritable but also nervous around him. Damian didn't want to assume things right off the bat, but he did hope she would finally grow comfortable to talk it out with him. And so he resisted using his ‘resources’ to peek into her life—what kind of distrusting partner would he be if he did that?

He knew, too, that he was being awfully hypocritical. He was still yet to sit her down and reveal his vigilante alter ego to her as well as his family's. Damian would swear he planned to rip the bandaid off when they got engaged. But he couldn't bring himself to do it, out of the fear that she'd leave him. As far as he knew, Marinette wanted a normal quiet life after living through the Evil Butterfly Man's reign of terror. Telling her his identity would just put a target on her back, if there wasn't any already after she became a Wayne.

He couldn't imagine his sweet innocent wife exposed to the horrors of vigilantism.

Still, even though he had his own secrets, it felt quite frustrating not to know hers. That was what Damian was thinking one dark night when the door finally opened, signalling her arrival from work.

“Damian?” Her eyes widened. “Why are you still up? You shouldn't have waited for me.”

“It's alright. I couldn't sleep anyways.” And I will be sneaking out for patrol later. He stood up to kiss her cheek—

But froze upon seeing a red mark right at the base of her neck.

Marinette hummed tiredly. “Next time, don't wait for me if you're tired, okay?”

“. . . What's that on your neck?” He dared to ask.

Her hand immediately flew to the spot on her skin. For a split second, her expression changed into a hint of annoyance. “It's—it's . . .” she stammered, “I accidentally hit myself.”

“You hit yourself?”

She nodded meekly.

Damian stared at her for a moment. There was one thing he knew about his wife: she was a bad liar. But she was expert at omitting things, partly because she probably knew he wouldn't interrogate her further. He knew that she was aware it was the vaguest of explanations but she never tried to elaborate.

He mustered out a smile. “Be careful next time.”

She let out a nervous laugh and squeaked out a ‘yes’.

“By the way.” He took a deep breath, “I visited your office this morning.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, and your secretary told me you hadn't punched in for the day yet.”

The silence between them was thick.

“Ah . . .” Damian could practically see the gears turning in her head. “That was . . . erm, I had to run an errand before work! Yeah . . .”

“I see. I was hoping to have lunch with you earlier but it seems that you're busy nowadays.”

She cursed in French under her breath.

“I'm really sorry, Damian.” She fidgeted with her fingers. “I'll make time this week. I promise.”

She hurried off to their bedroom, leaving Damian with his thoughts.

He really really didn't want to assume the worst. But his heart was racing and when he looked at the signs, they were clear as day. His mind started to spiral a little, wondering where he could've gone wrong, wondering if he didn't spend enough time on her or if she felt that he wasn't giving enough effort.

But he pushed all those thoughts away and followed her to bed.

***

One Saturday afternoon saw Robin and Superboy in the Watchtower's breakroom, talking about Damian's predicament. He hoped his friend could at least contribute an objective outsider's perspective in his dilemma and encourage him to broach the topic with Marinette.

“She's cheating,” Superboy deadpanned.

“She's—she's not,” he argued back, “Perhaps I am just reading too much into it . . .”

“Um but the hickey? The late night escapades?” Superboy frowned. “I don't know about you, but I don't think there's any other explanation for it.”

Robin bit his tongue. No, it's not possible. He loved Marinette terribly, and he knew—he could feel the same love from her if not more.

His friend sighed, “Look, I know it's hard to believe. Even I don't think M can be . . . unfaithful but you should confront her about it.”

“I can't. I can't face her like that when I am still keeping a secret of my own.”

“Then tell her you're Robin. A secret for a secret, hm?”

Robin didn't even want to think about how messy that conversation would be.

“It's all just about communication,” Superboy continued. “If you're worried she won't accept you, take my mom and dad as an example—”

He stopped talking, indicating that he sensed another presence nearby. Just on cue, a fuming Ladybug stomped into the breakroom, heading straight to one of the refrigerators.

The two men watched as she muttered angrily while looking around for food—Robin could see the clear exhaustion on her tensed figure. The Parisian heroine had joined the Justice League after the Hawkmoth fiasco became public; the heroes were quick to recruit her but not before she voiced out her complaints about the League neglecting her city. Though she hadn't revealed her identity to anyone, she had formed bonds with the other heroes her age, not excluding Robin and Superboy.

Superboy winced when she kicked the fridge door.

Ladybug did a hundred eighty, showing both the fires of hell and sleepless nights in her blue eyes. “You don't happen to have an extra stock of Kryptonite, do you?”

Superboy looked at her warily. “What happened this time?”

“Your dad assigned me to another magic-involved mission!” She tugged at her hair, sitting beside them. “I thought I made it clear I didn't want to be involved in too many missions especially if it's non-miraculous related ones!”

“You could . . . tell him that?”

She shot a sharp glare at them. “You don't think I did? They're insisting it's miraculous related when Constantine hasn't even confirmed anything! Just because Paris was terrorized, it doesn't mean miraculi are going to pop out from everywhere! These missions are affecting my normal life!”

It was a common complaint for heroes who had alternate civilian lives, but Robin was a bit surprised that she was that open about her feelings.

“And—and Batman too!” She pointed a finger at Robin. “I know Monsieur Furry's guilty about the Paris thing and all and me not having a mentor but he keeps checking on my progress after missions liked a damned helicopter parent! “

Before either of them could reply, she continued ranting, “I was going to meet an important client yesterday but they just had to call me in to help with the mission! And then it goes on until freaking midnight! What about my precious sleep?! Then Zatanna accidentally used a spell on me—it hit my neck and now it looks like a hickey!”

Her head dropped onto the table. “How the fuck do I fucking explain that to my husband?!”

Robin and Superboy looked at each other, wide-eyed.

“You—you haven't told your husband that you're a hero?” Superboy asked carefully.

Not lifting up her head, she replied with a muffled voice, “Of course not! I can't do that to him! He's already exposed to enough danger because of his last name! I just can't tell him ‘ hey mon amour so I'm actually that heroine from Paris on top of my emotional PTSD!’”

Robin swallowed. That was Marinette's name for him.

It ticked too many boxes.

He started to subconsciously connect the dots: catching his wife absent at work at the time the magic-wielding team of the JL was away on a mission; Ladybug sharing that she finally linked up messages from her yoyo to her personal phone; his wife coming home late, tired and fatigued from head to toe when all she was supposed to be doing was designing.

“I'm sure he'll come to understand your circumstances,” Superboy consoled.

“He won't.” The heroine sat up, revealing that her eyes were now welling up with tears. “He probably hates me right now because I'm sending the wrong signals. What if he thinks I'm just taking advantage of him for his money? His family already hates me! What if he's filing for a divorce right now?”

Robin felt the nudge from his friend, as if to tell him to do damage control. Superboy abruptly stood up, spouted out an excuse about being called by someone, and left the room to the two of them.

Ladybug sniffed, “Sorry, you probably didn't want to hear all of that.”

“It helps to get your problems off your chest.” Robin awkwardly patted her head. In truth, she was really Marinette, he wanted to pull her into a hug already.

He coughed. “Why—why do you think your husband's family hates you?”

“Oh . . . I don't know, but his father’s always distant. Whenever I'm at a family dinner, they're just very quiet,” she replied sadly. “I know they're good people but I felt like I didn't belong somehow. My husband keeps saying they adore me though.”

Robin wanted to sigh out loud. His father still had his guard up because he believed she was a civilian, hence there was a side of her family they could never show her. It was always quiet due to Alfred's stern lecture about behaving in front of Marinette lest they accidentally spill something they shouldn't.

“It sounds like your husband cares a lot about you,” he told her, “Don't you think he would trust you if you told him the truth?”

“But I can't! I don't know where to begin!” She pursed her lips. “He's always been good to me and he never steps the line even if I'm obviously lying. I just . . . I thought I could tell him before we got married but I was too scared and I didn't want to ruin what we had.”

“But he won't think any differently of you, would he?”

“No . . .”

“Then you have nothing to be afraid of.” He smiled a little. “It may come off as a shock at first but he will accept it in time. You will be stressing yourself out even more if you keep thinking about the worst scenarios.”

She stared at him. “When did you get so wise?”

“Ever since I started thinking about what my wife was doing.”

She tilted her head. “Huh?”

It was unmistakable. Those gleaming blue eyes were Marinette's.

He was such an idiot.

“She keeps coming home late, hides her phone every time I'm near,” he listed, gauging her reaction. “Last night, I found out she hadn't come to her office even when she said she was working, and I caught her with a strange mark on her neck.”

Her eyes slowly widened as she seemed to come to the same realization. The heroine's gloved hands flew up to cover her mouth. “Damian?” she whispered.

He checked if the coast was clear and slowly peeled off his domino mask to show his full face. “I'm sorry I didn't tell you habib –”

He was cut off by her warm lips, her arms winding around his neck. Damian immediately melted into her touch, relieved that they finally divulged their secrets. He wouldn't have to be worried about introducing her to the hero world after all.

He was extremely relieved, in fact, that he hadn't noticed his father and eldest brother stroll into the room.

“ROBIN! Are you cheating on your wife?!”

Robin pulled away from Ladybug, withholding a sigh of exasperation. He put his mask back on and turned around to see Batman looking constipated and Nightwing utterly shocked.

"How could you do that to—to . . ." Nightwing cried out.

"Leave us." He glared.

"Robin—" His father's voice was tinged with disapproval.

"Leave. Us."

Fortunately, the two scurried off. Damian faced his wife, who seemed as flabbergasted. He was worried since it was her identity that was at risk, unless he embraced the unexpected cheating allegations.

"Oh my kwamis," Ladybug said softly, "I called my father-in-law a furry ."

"It's deserved." He rubbed up and down her shoulders. "What do you want to do?"

"Oh um . . ." She ducked her head. "Maybe go home and I'll—I'll explain everything from the beginning."

***

Damian had to recount his life story after his wife shared hers whilst they cuddled in bed. After they talked, he was surprised to learn so many new things about her—he thought he had her memorized already, even before they exchanged vows. At the same time, he was mentally kicking himself for thinking that Marinette was never closely involved in the war against Hawkmoth.

Of course she was Ladybug.

Of course she was a hero.

So while she was spiraling at the number of times she'd unknowingly mocked her in-laws in the suit, he was regretting not telling her the truth sooner. If they'd opened up years ago, he would've stayed by her side during missions, helping her deal with the troubles of having a masked alter egos, and sharing his own experiences with her. A stronger bond would've formed between them, because they both understood the hero's life after all this time.

Not long after, she finally decided she was ready to tell the Waynes who she was. ‘It would do more harm than good if I kept hiding it anyway,’ she reasoned. He did agree, since she was part of the family, both as Ladybug and Marinette. The others would surely be overjoyed (and less overprotective) if they found out that she was a hero. What Damian found strange, however, was Marinette seemed to worry that Bruce's opinion on her would change and he'd become ‘distant’ as Batman as well.

“Remember, Batman is afraid of you,” he had reminded her over and over again.

(And Batman would be ecstatic to discover that Ladybug was his daughter-in-law, but Damian would never tell her that. The caped vigilante had grown fussy over the Parisian heroes as his way of ‘making up’ for the Paris incidents . . . But at the same time, he cowered ever so slightly when Ladybug raised her voice on him. Damian's siblings blamed Ladybug's black hair and blue eyes for triggering the adopt-itis.)

And so Damian and Marinette decided to arrange a family lunch to break the news to everyone. It was then Damian remembered that there was one issue he hadn't resolved yet.

“If you don't tell Marinette today, I'm telling her.” Dick glared at him from across the table.

Damian glanced at his watch. His wife wasn't present yet, and had sent him a message about picking up pastries from Paris first.

“Tt. That would mean revealing our identities, Richard.” He crossed his arms.

“Just because you have the mask on it doesn't mean you can do that to her!” Dick argued. “Does Ladybug even know you're married?! ”

“What did he do to Pixie-pop?” asked Jason.

“He---he—” Dick was once again trembling in anger and disbelief.

“We saw him kissing Ladybug.” It was Bruce who replied. “Damian, I never expected this from you. You will have to talk and apologize to Marinette.”

“You did what?!” Jason stood up so abruptly that the utensils clattered.

“What the fuck?” Tim exclaimed.

Stephanie gasped. “What the hell Damian?”

“Holy shit,” Duke whispered.

Damian could only stare at the entryway of the dining hall, hoping that Marinette would arrive soon. If he was left with his family any longer, they'd be beating him up and disowning him.

“I have . . . a reason,” he said through gritted teeth. He couldn't exactly tell them right off the bat, since Marinette wasn't there yet.

“Open . . . open relationship?” Cass frowned.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared at the ceiling—a portal— and from it, a figure dropped down, much to everyone's shock. Ladybug, unified with the Horse miraculous, grinned at them with an armful of boxes filled with croissants and macarons.

“Ladybug?” Bruce gaped.

“Your daughter-in-law actually.” She lowered the sunglasses, showing her narrowed eyes. “And your worst fucking nightmare.”

“W---What?”

Damian could barely control his laughter, seeing his father frozen.

She detransformed completely and scowled at Bruce. “This is technically your fault, furry old man! If you didn't keep agreeing to send me on those magical missions, I wouldn't be so tired and caused a misunderstanding in the first place.”

Damian didn't have time to shield himself from the eruption of noise on the table. With his wife's theatrical reveal, everyone was in different states of shock. Tim stood up quietly to face a wall with a blank stare, entertaining another existential crisis. Duke choked on the water he was drinking. Jason was crouched on the floor miserably with his hands over his face, perhaps because of the times he complained to Marinette about Ladybug's uptight methods. Dick's jaw was completely unhinged, and he was slapping himself every minute or so. Stephanie passed a hundred dollar bill to Cass.

And Bruce. Poor Bruce was paler than their porcelain plates, speechless and unmoving.

Damian exchanged a wide smile with his wife. He loved her so much.

#maribat fic #maribat fanfic #dc x mlb #mlb x dc #maribat #daminette #maribat marinette dupain cheng #ggomoz #maribat damian wayne

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artzychic27 · 5 months

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I was bored a while back and made the MLB characters using the Black OC maker on Picrew

Marinette: Proud to be Blasian, still tense when she gets weird looks/Dyed her hair because she wanted to be Coraline for Halloween, now she just likes the color

Adrien: Black mom, white dad, identity crisis/Gabriel’s still a dick and wants Adrien to be a “Good Black.”/Usually always on the receiving end of light skin jokes

Alya: The same, just with bigger hair/The Queen of Hoop Earrings/One TikTok account for general stuff, the other just to post videos of her and her friends dancing and stepping

Nino: Undoing Gabriel’s influence on his bro and helping him embrace his blackness/You did NOT hear him listening to Robin Thicke/Starts every Shabooya Roll Call

Chloé: Bad and bougie/Identity crisis on a count of she was adopted as a baby to make her white parents look good/Will only let Marc and Juleka style her hair

Sabrina: Only knows English because she listens to Megan Thee Stallion religiously/Scarily good at break dancing

Juleka: So goth, she was born black/Favorite movies in order: Get Out, Candyman, The Blackening, Us, Karen, and Ma/A pro at doing hair

Rose: Will punt you if you make a “Not Black enough” comment/Not fond of how hospitals treat black patients. She’s had first-hand experience, and it wasn’t great/Excited for the Tiana series

Luka: Doesn’t say much, but when he does, it’s insightful as hell/He can’t see, but it adds to the mystery, so he keeps his hair like that/Imagine Johan from Black-ish

Nathaniel: Black Panther, Storm, Spider Man, Cyborg, Vixen, Bumble Bee, and Static Shock comics lining his shelves/The definition of Blerd/Surprisingly good at stepping

Alix: “Scar twins!” “But your scar is-“ “Shut up! Scar twins!”/Classroom solidarity by shielding her from others when her hijab slips off/She and Nath tag the city by putting stickers with images of historical women of color everywhere

Marc: He’s the one braiding his classmates’ hair/Hates how black people are written in most shows and movies/Scarily good at rapping. Do NOT try to challenge him to a rap battle, you will be humiliated

Kim: Always swimming, so he constantly has his hair braided or in twists/“Yes, I’m black and I can swim.”/Worships Beyoncé in his spare time

Max: The same, but with vitiligo and a fancy tie/Not selling the patents for any of his inventions. He’s not risking any companies purposely leaving out that he’s the brilliant mind behind any of them

Lila: She will never lie about Oprah. That’s where she crosses the line/Competing for Alya's title as Queen of Hoop Earrings

Ivan: You know those videos where the white baby leans over to see what the black guy is watching on his phone and then holds his hand? He’s the black guy/Worried about looking too "threatening"

Myléne: Constantly promoting black-owned businesses on her socials/Most likely to lead a protest/HATES Rachel Dolezal… Actually, they all hate her

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quindread · 1 year

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THE COTTAGECORE MARI AU PROMPT THAT NOBODY ASKED FOR

Pairing: Daminette (edit: they’re like 19/20 in this, post high-school)

Rating: It has mature themes, you have been warned. But it’s pretty tame at the same time. Violence + Sexual Themes

________________

Mari is diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety disorder after she quite literally removed her beloved city’s supervillain (and her dear partner’s parent) from the plane of existence. Like she removes the suffering from the minds of all of Paris and has Gabriel written off in a car accident a year after his wife’s disappearance. Only her Court (Adrien, Kagami, Zoe, Alix, Max) and the Order remembers. Mari and Adrien decide not to pursue a relationship. They’re both healing and are decidedly better off friends - siblings in everything but blood.

Lila, who was not punished due to her not really being a miraculous holder and upsetting the balance, continues to slander Mari. Her class isn’t hostile but has no desire to interact with the “new and mean Marinette” Lila was painting her to be. It’s still a huge betrayal given the fact that Mari was supportive and very generous to these people.

So here’s how her new housing arrangement works: have you ever wondered how Gina can afford to travel around the world without a job? Yeah, I think she came from money. Like, old money - real estate old money to be precise. Passive income and such. Hearing about her Fairy’s situation, she offers an unused property at the countryside of Metropolis.

Marinette’s therapist and parents approve of her vacationing there for the summer when they realize that her stressors and triggers where all environmental. So off our girl goes!

Note: She does not have the mother box with her anymore, just Tikki, Plagg, and Kaalki. (She does have unrestricted access to it as the Grand Guardian though - she trains with the Order once a week in Tibet until she doesn’t)

Mari is aware of the Supers and was relieved that the Kwamis don’t show up in x-ray visions and with the fear of them eavesdropping she learns FSL to communicate with them.

The townhouse and the verdure around the property inspires Mari to start a garden. The quiet oddly soothes her and when she feels lonely she goes into town or the nearby farmer’s market where she charms the locals. She meets the Kents - they love her! Martha enjoys baking with her. Lois uncovers her identity as Jagged and Clara Nightingale’s exclusive (and reclusive) designer - they bond over fashion trends and the gossip surrounding the industry. Clark and Jon were another story.

She figures them out having sensed the same soul in Superman and Superboy in this father-and-son duo. They x-ray her as a precaution and finds the mysterious cracks and evidence of past injuries that should have killed her. There’s a very anti-climatic reveal that Martha and Lois are not privy to with respect to Marinette’s wishes.

At least one Kent would be in her home during the day. The Kwamis are free to roam around when it was Clark and/or Jon visiting. She ends up bonding with Jon who also grew up too fast (metaphorically and literally).

She ends up extending her stay in Metropolis indefinitely. Her parents also decided to open a branch of their patisserie there which Mari managed. They visit her as often as they could.

Mari was dismayed to find that no, Metropolis had no schools with both a fashion and business degree - that’s how she ends up in Gotham University.

Jon tells Mari about a Damian - a friend of his.

J: He’s…. uh… he has a big heart.

M: …

J: He’s a bit of an asshole(?)

M: Ah.

Mari meets Damian who reminds her of Kagami - antisocial and proper. They share a few business classes and are both members of the art club.

Mari is still this ball of anxiousness and has only allowed Mia “Maps” Mizoguchi and Katherine Karlo into her life, the former she learned was close to Damian - she didn’t mind when she and the girls met up with Damian, he was quiet, honest, and minded his own business. Through their hangouts Damian finds out about the friendship between Jon and Mari.

He’s hesitant to befriend her at first due to the conflicting rumors about her: due to her timid personality she had a split reputation. One side called her sweet, shy, and kind. While the other calling her arrogant, high-maintenance, and rude. He soon finds out that the latter half were spread by cliques who’s offer of friendship she declined and men she rejected. He was glad that he relented to Maps’ insistent invitations - she was a decent person to hang out with and it didn’t hurt that she was pleasing to the eye. (She also enjoyed sharing her vegetarian salads with him - he starts appreciating it more when he learns that she picks the vegetables straight from the garden she grows.)

As her luck would have it, a robbery unfolds at one of their favorite coffee spots. Mari and Damian - who were both pretending to be civ - try to find a way to protect their friends. The robbers recognizes Damian as a Wayne and takes him and another GU(a school for rich and affluent people’s children) kid - Marinette - who had stood in front of her friends.

They’re gagged, blindfolded, and carted off to who knows where. Damian discreetly activates a distress signal and the bats spur into action. Mari, aware that she was sturdier than Damian, draws the men’s attention to her (she purposely pisses them off and gets beaten up when they start to pester Damian).

M: [removes her gag somehow] Really? A ski mask? And in black? How boring can you get?

*Damian shaking his head furiously in the background*

Kidnapper(KN): Shut up, girlie!

M: You know I always wondered how Kidnappers could have a secret a warehouse as a hideout. It’s not like you can afford the rent—

KN: Are you trying to get yourself killed?

M: You’re backed up by some politician aren’t you?

KN: H-How the fuck did this bitch know?

M: There’s literally a stack of campaign papers behind you.

KN: Wha—

M: That’s some shit graphic design by the way. I’ve seen grade schoolers that can do better.

KN: [points a gun at her] Shut up or I’ll blow your brains out.

M: You wouldn’t.

KN: The fuck do you know—

M: You need me alive to get ransom from my parents.

KN: …Nobody said you had to be in one piece though.

M: Touché—[get slapped hard]

*Damian basically starts convulsing in the background*

M: …Damn. You punch like a cunt—[And the kidnappers basically start to rough her up]

The bats arrive in five minutes and it’s Red Hood that finds them first. He sees these mf’s beating up a woman and goes ballistic(pun intended). Red Robin and Spoiler has to forcibly restrain him when he starts to use his fist instead of his guns.

M: [bleeding and bruised] And that’s how you deck someone, you amateurs.

D: [who was released by Black Bat is confused, mad at himself, and in awe] You blithering idiot! Why the fuck would you aggravate our captors like that?

M: [delirious] It was either you or me Damian. Can’t have your pretty face damaged now, can we?

D: [Is floored and very concerned] And what of yours?

M: … dun worry—my assets are…elsewhere… [passes out from the pain]

D: …

Later, his family would tease him about the flirting when he isn’t all sensitive about the incident.

Winter break comes, most of the Batfam visits the Kents(they have a penthouse/some ridiculous property in Metropolis) as a tradition. The Kents went to visit Gotham and stayed at the manor last year.

(Batfam who went: Bruce, Dick, Jason, Steph, Cass, and Damian)

They visit Mari too. Dick and Steph are absolutely thrilled about her cottagecore lifestyle. So much so that they match her aesthetic and begin helping out in the garden - they send pictures to Alfred who request they bring back fresh produce.

Jon and Jason plot to get Damian and Mari together. Unbeknownst to them that Damian was already resolute on courting Mari like the decorous man that he was - he didn’t know what he was doing but Mari’s flush when he initiates flirting tells him he’s doing okay.

Because of his childhood, Damian was never the type to be touchy but imagine his shock when he finds out that one of his more prominent love languages was physical touch. He realizes he’s touch-starved almost immediately when Mari starts giving him small touches like a hand against his bicep, she had a fondness for touching his hair which never failed to deliver a shiver down his spine, and hugs from her are comforting - she felt like home.

Meanwhile Mari does not have any idea how she survived the early stages of Damian’s advances. He was blunt and did not pull his words with insults but it apparently translated to him being verbally open with his affections.

M: I always wanted to be the Knitting Fairy while growing up.

D: Does it not please you that you became a garden fairy instead?

M: Huh, that doesn’t sound so bad.

D: Well, you certainly look the part.

M: [turns into the same shade as the poppy beside her]

And then when the tension between them became more prominent he wasn’t shy with dropping innuendos too.

M: [open’s the door for Damian, haggard from lifting sacks of garden soil] Oh, I didn’t know you were coming so early. I’m a bit of a mess. Sorry.

D: [Tilts his head] You say that as if I wouldn’t appreciate you sweaty and tousled after a rigorous activity.

M: [self-combusts]

And when the touching began?

M: Damian, what color do you think looks better with this shade of blue?

D: [places a hand on her side while looking over her shoulder] I think the a more neutral cream would do.

M: [stops functioning]

Their first kiss?

Pulled straight out of a book that Marinette only read in the privacy of her bedroom.

They’re teasing each other, it evolves to a game of cat and mouse with Damian skillfully evading her. She corners him by turning on some of her sprinkles. He gets wet, growls in the way he would in Mari’s dreams, and pulls of his shirt. She’s too distracted by the hard planes of his stomach to notice him prowling towards her like a beast moving to claim his prey. He picks her off the ground with ease - he’s a foot taller than her - and takes her to the sprinklers.

(I’m going to write this part out properly, maybe to inspire myself or a potential adopter of this prompt)

“Nononono!” Marinette shrieks as the first round of water splashes her. She writhes but Damian had her arms held down her sides.

“All is fair in love and war, Ya Amar.” She ignores the endearment in favor of closing her eyes as the sprinkles rotate in their direction again. But she knows what it means. Ya Amar. My moon. His moon. The water had nothing on the chill that ran down her spine

The water stars seeping into her intimates and she’s soberly aware that the light fabric of her dress would betray her. It doesn’t take long for Damian to discover that fact, he releases a strangle sound. She opens her eyes, he snaps his eyes from where he was clearly looking at her chest. He scrambles to drop her.

“Shit— I’m sorry. This was not my intention—“ he starts but she’s faster. Her now free arms grasps his shoulders and without a second thought, she drops her lips to meet his. Damian inhales sharply and he tilts his head, temporarily breaking the kiss before raising her higher and pulling her by the back of neck - he kisses her with hunger and passion that has Marinette melting further against his chest.

She wraps her legs around his back and he moves to tightly grasp both the back of her thighs. She would worry about bruises later when she didn’t have Damian’s tongue caressing her own. He drops them to the ground and Marinette does not release her hold over his waist. She whines against his lips when she feels the consequences of their activity.

His hands start wandering as he greedily collects and files the sounds that leaves her lips. He begins to trail kisses down her neck to the neckline of her dress that now clung to her body like a second skin giving him his first peek at the maddening shape of her body. And just when he trails a finger against the underside of her breast a loud noise pulls them apart.

Jason finds them and the sight in Mari’s garden has him dropping the shovel he was asked to bring over.

J: Fuck! No, don’t stop! Hell—I’ll leave—I didn’t see shit!

D: [moving to cover Marinette who covered her face in embarrassment] Fuck off, Todd!

J: I’m sorry! [slams the door shot]

D: Tt.

J: [shouts from inside the house] Use protection!

D: Todd!

They started officially dating that day and Jason had no reservations in sharing that he definitely cockblocked his little brother much to Mari and Damian’s horror.

Both keeps the PDA to minimum in school but it was very clear how amorous they where in “private”. There is a table in the art hall that Mari can’t quite look at without blushing to her roots.

She finds out he’s Robin after her first encounter with his alter-ego. He confesses his past when she confronts him. There’s fear of abandonment in his eyes when he gazes at her after his spiel but she kisses his worries and doubts away. She even goes to show her appreciation for his years of service to Gotham.

Her reveal happens when she unceremoniously drops a vial in Jason’s hand claiming that it would remedy the effects of the Lazarus pits with continuous use - it was completed after a year in the making.

Cardinal joins the Batfam occasionally as part of Batman’s contingency plans. They respect her choice as a retired super-soldier and try to keep her out of the business which she appreciates. She is officially initiated as a member of Justice League Dark as an informant/magic specialist and a wildcard.

Years later, she legally inherits the property from Gina when she and Damian get engaged. Damian moves in with her and she lives her cottage life all while being a reclusive designer that comes out once in a while for fashion week.

FIN

AN:

Maybe there’s a Lila take down somewhere but I don’t have the energy to write her at all. We all know its Damian and Tim that makes sure she never sets a foot in high society ever again.

Ig add some details about learning to healthily cope with her anxiety disorder under the guidance and love of her found family? (I have a similar illness but me and my therapist are still figuring it out so I have little idea how to write this) Her PTSD does not need further discussion (miss ma’am had to kill someone) but her anxiety disorder stems from the fact the she’s a person who’s in charge of world-ending powers - everyone and even yourself can become untrustworthy. She starts to get nervous from misreading body languages and everyone is suddenly out to get her.

#mlb x dc #i wrote this instead of studying #daminette #marinette dupain cheng #bamf marinette #maribat

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mc-lukanette · 7 months

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It was the day after the class seats had been swapped around, Marinette having since resigned herself to being moved to the back. She wasn't happy about being alone, but everyone else was with their own seats and the last thing she wanted to do was stir up a fuss again just to have it turned against her.

Making a case would've been less of an issue had she told everyone that she was actually no longer into Adrien and had an entire boyfriend to show for it, but Alya was too unpredictable in how she might react to that and the others hadn't seen her and Luka together long enough to understand. She loathed the fact that an infatuation of less than a year was what people were basing her character on - nowadays, she looked back on it like an artist who grimaced at their week-old work - but her private life was no one's business but her own. If she had to reveal it to convince people that she wasn't an evil person going after a "perfectly innocent" girl over a crush, then—

Well, normally she would say that it was her fault, but Luka had been firm about her not blaming herself for everything under the sun and she was really trying to stick to that.

Maybe being in the back won't be so bad, she thought, attempting to calm her mind. I feel, um... taller? That's something.

It wasn't helping.

"Alright, class," Miss Bustier called out, clapping her hands to earn everyone's attention, "before we start today, we have a new student who just transferred to our school and I'd like you all to give them a warm welcome."

A new student? Marinette shut her eyes and held back a groan, thinking that the current "new student" was already more than enough. If it was another Lila or Chloe, she might have to seriously consider bribing Master Fu for the fox miraculous so she could Mirage herself into class to avoid them altogether.

Also, as she was quickly realizing, the only available seat was next to her. This was a disaster, an absolute disas—

"Luka?" Juleka blurted out, uncharacteristically loud in her shock.

At the name of her boyfriend, Marinette's head jerked towards the classroom door, seeing him standing next to Miss Bustier like he belonged there. She blinked, glancing out at the hall as if the real new student would come in, but nothing happened. Even when she looked back at Luka, he met her gaze as if to wordlessly tell her that yes, he was there.

Just to make absolutely sure, she dropped her arms to her lap and pinched her forearm until it hurt.

After giving a general introduction that Marinette processed none of, Miss Bustier turned to Luka to ask, "Would you be alright sitting in the back next to Marinette?"

He nodded, not waiting to start heading up the stairs. Eyes, either curious or puzzled, followed him as he went, but he had his own eyes on his decided-upon seat.

Marinette could only continue gaping at him, even as he sat down and made himself comfortable. He eyed her, smiling softly, then reached out and slowly closed her mouth. The cheek caress that followed was so subtle and quick that no one could've caught it even if they were looking, but it finally brought her back to life.

Leaning towards him, she whispered in a panic, "Luka! What are you doing here?! How are you here?!"

He took a single glance at Miss Bustier, who was turned towards the chalkboard, then leaned in and whispered back, "I didn't want you to have to do this alone."

"But—!" Her face scrunched, mind racing in an attempt to understand. She'd told Luka about what happened with Lila, but that was only yesterday. For him to have found a way to transfer between then and now was—was— "That's crazy!"

He shrugged, unphased.

She gripped the table, as if it would give her the mental support needed to juggle the thoughts in her head. "You didn't have to go through all this for me! It's too much!"

That finally got a reaction out of him, but not in the way she suspected. He frowned disapprovingly, leaning in further and raising a hand between them to further muffle his words to others' ears. She felt his breath against her ear as he explained, "You're my girlfriend, Marinette; my girlfriend and my best friend. It's not 'too much' if it's what I wanted to do."

He left it at that, straightening up again and putting his focus towards the front of the class. She could only pout at him, hoping no one saw the blush on her cheeks.

It felt wrong, somehow. It was Ladybug who was supposed to swoop in to save people, not the other way around. She was the one who had to make choices on the fly to help others.

She could already hear Luka's voice in her head, shooting that idea down: "Ladybug can't be the savior all the time. Someone has to look out for Marinette too."

It was almost frustrating, losing a battle of words in her own head, but she'd be lying if she said that it didn't make her feel relieved to have someone who would back her up no matter what. Whether she chose to go after Lila or not, he'd be behind her the entire way.

She couldn't help herself. Checking to confirm that there still weren't eyes on them, she leaned up towards Luka and imitated his gesture, raising her hand between their faces. He'd seen the gesture out of the corner of his eye and tipped his head to listen better, but she kissed his cheek instead.

Pulling back quickly to look normal just in case the pecking sound had been caught, she dared only a single peek at Luka to catch his reaction. He was trying and failing not to grin, probably looking as if he was just very interested in the lesson to any outside eyes. It occurred to her then that, had they been in the front or middle rows, it would've been impossible to not be seen by anyone behind them.

Letting an imaginary Marinette in her mind cheer and jump around for her due to being unable to do anything even close to that in class, her thoughts screamed, Being in the back is the best!

#queuekanette #lukaneventte: No Context November #Flower Arrangement Shipping #Pro LukaMari #Lukanette #type: salt #episode: Chameleon

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mochinek0 · 6 months

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Daminette December 2023: 15-Lost A Bet (SUB)

Damian wouldn't say he hated someone, but he hated Marinette. She was a new employee at Wayne Enterprise and she was a giant distraction. He would catch himself watching her.

'This has got to stop!'

"I want to make a bet with you." Damian announced as Marinette walked by his office.

"Fine." Marinette spoke, "What do you get if you win?"

"If?" he chuckled.

She smiled, "What if I win? I'm very competitive."

"I would prefer you work in a different section." Damian spoke, "What do you want?"

'Pfft. That's all he wants? Me out of his way? I'm not telling him I'm leaving to a different section in two month; he can suffer.'

"I want you to take me to the Wayne Gala." Marinette announced.

'I knew it! She is just like all those other girls.'

"And before you start flattering yourself, " Mari spoke, "I want a way in, to promote my own fashion line. Being with you helps."

"so you are using me as a business tool." he stated.

"Isn't that what every woman who dates your father does?" Marinette asked, "Promote their next ballet recital, movie premiere, Broadway show, or modeling catalog? I figured you Waynes were use to it."

"He dated those woman." Damian spoke, embarrassed by his father's background of woman.

"Oh." Marinette whispered, "Well, I'm not asking to date you. How about an invite then? You won't even have to talk to me, if you don't want to. Let alone e stuck with me for the entire night."

"Agreed." Damian smiled.

Damian sighed in frustration. Marinette had won their bet and certainly was using the gala to her advantage. He never expected her to come so dressed up. Being in the office was one thing, but seeing her in a gown was another. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. She was a social butterfly, much like his father. She spoke to everyone without a worry. It became a bigger problem when other guys kept offering her a drink. It seemed like the whole gala had their eyes on her.

Damian growled and made his way over to the middle of the crowd. He put his arm around her waist, immediately gaining her attention.

"Marinette." Damian spoke, "I have been looking for you.

"Mr. Wayne." Marinette answered back.

He smirked, "It is after hours."

Mari gulped, "D-Damian."

Marinette looked away, but he could see the faint blush on her cheeks. Damian smiled at her reaction. Several guys took note that the Ice Prince was smiling at the designer and quickly made their way to another side of the room.

"My stepmother wanted to see your latest creation, I believe." Damian declared.

"Oh?" Marinette questioned.

Damian kept his arm at her waist and guided her through the crowd.

"Are you ok?" he whispered.

"Yes." she whispered back, "Were you just trying to get me awy because if so, I didn’t need your help."

'I was trying to help!'

By her pout, he could tell she was upset.

'I don't know why she would want to be with those idiots anyways.'

"Thank you again, Marinette, for making my dress." Selina spoke, seeing her.

"Of course." Mari smiled, "I enjoy making your outfits."

Damian remained silent, realizing that Marinette already was acquainted with his step-mother and likely her friends.

"How was the mob?" Selina asked, taking a sip of champagne.

Marinette shrugged, "A few customers, but other than that, a few trying for a good time."

Selina watched out of the corner of her eye as Damian gripped his glass a bit too hard. She smirked.

"You should take one of them up on their offer." she suggested.

"I should?" Marinette asked confused.

Selina looked over to the mob, ignoring Damian's glare.

"The hell she should." The Wayne heir growled.

"Marinette is a single, desirable young woman, Damian." Selina answered back, "She has needs as well."

Mari looked down at the floor, blushing red.

'I certainly wasn't expecting my sex life to be somehting my bosses' family talked about. I wonder what made Selina change her mind. Before, she was telling me never to leave with someone from one of these things.'

Before Marinette could ask, Damian grabbed her and pulled her out towards the garden.

Selina smirked as she watched them walk away.

'Now, where's Bruce? He owes me $100.'

Selina spotted Tim and made her way towards him.

"Do you know were Bruce is?" she asked.

"Uh, I think he stepped out for a breath of fresh air." Tim answered, "Why?"

'So he already got bored and left to roam. Did he really think no one will notice him gone?'

She sighed, "Tell him he owes me $100."

"Wait!" Tim exclaimed, "What?"

"Yeah. We had a bet." Selina replied.

"Hold up! Is this about getting Damian a date?" he questioned.

"Yep." she spoke.

"Dammit!" Tim whined.

"Why are you upset?" Selina asked, "Do you not want him to be happy?"

Tim pulled out his wallet and handed her $100.

"He asked you to pay me?" she rebutted.

"No." he pouted, "He made another bet with me that you would succeed. I thought you wouldn't."

Selina laughed and took the money.

"Who did you set him up with?" Tim asked out of curiosity.

"The designer." she smiled, "He seemed really upset with her getting attention. I told her she should take advantage of the cesspool and go home with one of the. Your brother grabbed her hand and took her outside after that. Thanks, Tim."

Tim watched in shock as she walked away. He had no idea his younger brother had a crush on their new designer.

'Didn't expect him to be the possessive type. Scratch that, Talia waltz in here like she owns Wayne Manor, all the time, and Bruce still lets her, as long as she behaves. Looks like Bruce, but has Talia's attitude. I need to stop making bets with Bruce.'

TAGLIST: @maribat-calendar-events @animeweebgirl@a-star-with-a-human-name@meme991001@vixen-uchiha@abrx2002@alysrose-starchild@fandom-trapped-03@dood-space@moonlightstar64@saltymiraculer@marveldcedits20@09shell-sea09@icerosecrystal@animegirlweeb@insane-fangirl-of-everything@blueblossombliss@nickristus-dreamer@megawhitleycalderonpaganus@missmadwoman@meira-3919@princessdaisysolosyourfaves@blep-23@fangirlingfanatic@darkhinauniverse@ravenr22@im-a-satanic-ritual@ravennm84@bianca-hooks123@a-slytherinish-gryffindor@starling218

#daminette december 2023 #daminette #damian wayne #marinette dupain cheng #bet #damian x marinette #marinette x damian #wayne gala #marinette is popular #jealous damian #selina kyle #bruce wayne #tim drake #dc x mlb #mlb x dc #mochinek0

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mikodrawnnarratives · 10 months

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I just remembered a project I worked on for a while in like 2021 (maybe 2020) and it had a LOT of akumatized marinette's

That was the idea behind the whole thing but man I did one by one and found some of the most obscure akumatized marinette au's

Sooooo I'm dragging these drawings up from the ashes and maybe it'll be a nice surprise for some of y'all to see

yall got ✨fanart✨

and possibly reminded of miraculous ladybug HA

usually these were done on different canvas's (that were like 250x250) and then just... copied onto a larger canvas??? Mistakes were made and I was insane

A handful of these akumanette's were actually made by me cause apparently... roughly 18 other marinette's wasn't enough

Click for quality and this is a long post

First of all, shoutouts to my own akuma abominations creations.

First image, the ladybug with the red long hair? yeah the idea was the akuma bug seen in canon in like, s2 (also shown next to her) but updated for the new look in s4. Vry original we'll give it a 6/10

I don't remember too much for the middle one that is slightly dimmer. Though I do remember that was the kind of IDEA behind her. She's also holding a knife cause of course. Why have magical powers to kill people when you can harness the power of K N I F E 7/10

I remember a little more about the jester marinette in the back. She had a whole thing with medieval research, jester research, and she also wanted to stab Lila cause everyone wanted to stab lila at the time. 9/10 cause I had a fun time with her

Then the robinhood poster mari was a robin hood akuma mari. 3/10 not original

Slightly canon to downright canon

Ladyblanc was a popular akumanette idea so slightly canon, I didn't base it off of anyone's au

Ladybug and Marinette are there because what's the fun of a crossover if the og doesn't get to panic along with the rest of them????

Last image, not talking about persecuter, we'll get to her in a bit. I just thought it would be funny at the time if I included Chloe and Antibug cause... haha

Antibug is kinda an akumatized lb rip off soooo

OTHER'S AU'S

what you've been waiting for

Thank god I kept track of credit (pats past me on the back)

First of all, at the very front we got @zoe-oneesama 's devil au that made an updated appearance in her scarlet lady au, love to see it

You'll also notice little devil bug on lb's knee in the sketch

Alopeka is to the left of Devil au, by @piearsonist

hi betcha you never would have guessed you got FANARTED HA

This is a post that explains that akumatized marinette, and you'll find more if you go to her page

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND

Princess justice at the right by @kibouwmlb (also, hello hi, surprise) and honestly it is SUCH a pretty design OMYWORD I love the watercolors

Twiddling her thumbs, minding her business. Remember the release of Descendants 3? Yeah, Queen of Mean baby. And MORE by @shiinaeu hi you are a legend to me

This was so fun to draw at the time and I was experimenting in ways I hadn't before. Peak youtube miraculous ladybug fixation meeting art interest. First one of the characters I did fun fact

@edendaphne betcha you didn't expect fanart of that one scorpion akumanette well THINK AGAIN (also, crazy that this was around when I did your dtiys I just realized, huh)

ANd then slightly more obscure, though the post does have 173 ish notes so, is @skullqueensart 's akumanette right here

Why does akumanette have sunken cheeks here? I have no clue honestly. Take it up with me from 3 years ago and maybe you'll get answers who knows. She's also just... chilling. Looking at nothing. Into the abyss.

Not now chloe's, we are discussing persecutor now.

Love the story idea honestly and the akuma design is so god tier AKUMA that oof @yiprincessart I love it

Oh uh, and chloe will be fine

CAN👏I👏 TALK👏 ABOUT👏 HER

She is the moment, she is beauty, she is grace

@artist-from-outersp-ace I love her. She looks so SO pretty!! At the time I loved your artstyle and I still do!! Too bad at the time I didn't know that Tumblr works by reblogging. I will be amending that.

I also remember being SO frustrated when drawing her that I didn't get a timelapse saved in time to show the drawing process :(

But I did love figuring out folds in the dress and the coloring process! Figuring out how to replicate elements in your art!

srs guys. Look at the RUFFLES

Alright, we are all agreeing to be accomplices and bystanders to Akuma jester marinette's NOT MURDER murder of Lila in the background? Okay good.

@lunian I have fanart for you~

And when I tell you I struggled with her design, I STRUGGLED. I ended up satisfied in the end but the curls bro, we lost the curls

But I do love her concepts and powers and I did back then too

And next to her, Okay, I never fully finished, mostly because I couldn't figure out how to get the hand to work with the tray balance thingie

@ladybub made this Lady Justice design and I WILL BE THERE when the comic updates. Or... if they aren't able to continue the comic that's also fine too <3 Life happens

Still love this au and the unique way for Marinette to get akumatized! Me and my sister bonded over our love over it!

I think this might be the first akumanette that isn't on tumblr to my knowledge. They are on Instagram tho @stivenwithani

Anyway I really liked the concept and the design just, reeked, of akuma that I included her

Okay more that I didn't really finish

We got another Princess/Lady Justice akuma idea at the left. Which I never kept track of the credit DANG IT I WAS DOING SO WELL

I'll update if I find the credit but man the OG did really well with the art.

And I have this akumanette comforting Lacrima from... a very graphic and whump fanfic Longest Night, read the tags

Anyway, Lacrima needs all the love she can get (also, funny enough, is the oldest out of this "gathering" of akumanette's)

It's not finished but hey @p-artsypants I gave angst ridden Lady Lacrima friends and fanart so.... yay...

AND THEN THE LAST ONE

was victim to so much reposting I could never find credit for it- UNTIL NOW

but the artist unfortunately deactivated their blog so that explains why I couldn't find their username all that time ago

It was a cool idea and I always love when creators take inspiration from how similar Marinette's name is to another word for a kind of puppet "Marionette"

But before I forget, I'll end this post on one of my akumanette's that I tried to squeeze in but never got to. But I did make more art for and I remember the story!

I remember having a background planned but I never really got around to it. Basically the story was that marinette got akumatized but managed to take off her earrings in time. I think the reason for her akumatization was connected to figuring out the secrets that Emilie had been hiding with the peacock miraculous (BEFORE we knew that adrien was a sentimonster).

Tikki had to bring the earrings to Chat Noir and he had to find someone that looked ENOUGH like Ladybug that Hawkmoth wouldn't notice as much that Ladybug wasn't actually there. Enter Mireille cause at the time a few people were pointing out how similar she looked to the dupain chengs.

Akumanette's powers had something to do with casting depression? I think? In the form of dragons? Oh, Also she travels by walking on the dragons so thats cool

I don't remember everything but I did have a lot planned for her.

10/10 just because I had a fun time with her

#tw old art #Don't Cringe at Old Art Challenge GO #long post #rambling about art and stories #akumatized!marinette #akumatized marinette #I'll add all the tags for the others ltr #miraculous ladybug #lady justice #princess justice #akumatized ladybug #I put this in my drafts in april and it's time to stop being socially anxious and just post it

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lilian-writes-sins · 1 year

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“𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑟𝑎.”

❥︎ pairing: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir x gn!Ladybug miraculous user!Reader

❥︎ p.o.v: 3ʳᵈ person

❥︎ prologue summary: After months of unsuccessfully trying to find Hawkmoth’s identity, Marinette Dupain-Cheng is faced with a different kind of challenge: moving house halfway across the world. Stressed about her situation, both as Marinette and as Ladybug, she puts off telling everyone the news. On her final day in Paris, she visits Master Fu, the holder of the Miracle Box, and gives back the Ladybug Miraculous entrusted to her. With a final goodbye to her old life, the Dupain-Cheng family leaves for New York, starting a new chapter in their lives.

❥︎ tags: marinette leaves; weird magic headcanons to explain things; mentions of an Akuma attack

❥︎ word count: 1,734

series masterlist | chapter 1

This day couldn’t have started better for Marinette Dupain-Cheng; for once, she wasn’t late for school, waking up earlier than her alarm, in fact. She didn’t rush her morning routine, there were no accidents consisting of tripping down the stairs or spilling food, and the girl was on her way to school in no time.

The school day was also quite nice, not as full of mishaps as it usually is. ‘It truly is miraculous!’ Marinette thought to herself as she walked across the street to her home, ‘Even Chloé didn’t bother me, actually, that was kind of weird’. The girl pushed open the front door to her home and was immediately greeted by her loving parents. It seemed like they were waiting for her.

—“Hey mom! Hey dad! What’s up?” Marinette asked.

—“Hi, honey, me and your father need to talk to you. You’re not in trouble, of course, but it is quite urgent. Here, let’s sit down,” Sabine, Marinette’s mother, gently stated.

The family goes to sit at their dining table. The young girl’s thoughts were running wild, and her hands were growing slightly cold and shaky.

—“So… what is it?”

—“… Well, ahem, your mother and I got a business offer that would help us move up in the world!” Tom replied.

—“Oh, well, that’s great, I don’t see a problem with it!” Marinette congratulated her parents, feeling elated for them.

—“Yes, it is great, but... we’ll have to move to the United States if we take this offer,” the girl’s mother finally spit out.

Time seemed to stop for a second, but for Marinette, that second felt like an eternity. She stood frozen in her seat, staring almost past her parents sitting in front of her. An uncomfortable, stuffy silence passed before Marinette stood up, her chair almost falling over.

—“But... but we can’t just leave! What about ME? What will I do when we move? I only have two years of school left; all my friends are here; and- and you’re telling me that I’ll just have to start over?” The girl felt her throat closing, unshed tears pooling in her eyes, and various thoughts swirling through her mind.

‘What about Ladybug? What will happen to Paris when she’s gone? Oh god, Chat Noir will be powerless against Hawkmoth all on his own!’ Marinette ran upstairs to her room, ignoring the worried shouts of her parents, who were pleading for her to come back.

The teen girl slammed her attic door shut and fell face first on her sofa, sobbing loudly. Tikki flew out of her bag, worried about her holder.

—“Please don’t cry, Marinette! Everything’s going to work out!” the kwami tried to comfort her.

—“But it won’t, Tikki! Everything’s turned upside down so suddenly, and I just can’t deal with it right now! I don’t even want to THINK about what to do about Ladybug! I don’t want to give you up, but there’ll be no other choice…” Marinette was inconsolable at the moment, so the kwami suggested the two get some rest.

The next morning, Marinette woke up late, silently thanked her good fortune that it was a Saturday, and headed downstairs to freshen up, trying to relieve her swollen eyes and face her parents.

—“Good morning, honey. Are you feeling better today?” her mother asked gently.

—“Morning, mom, yeah... I’m better,” the teen responded, searching through the cupboards for something to eat. “I mulled it over and... I’m fine with it. Obviously, it’s a big change, but if it’s going to make you and dad happy, then let’s do it!” Marinette smiled brightly. Just then, a thought popped into her head, “Uhm, mom? When exactly are we moving?”

—“Oh! Well, see, this was struck upon us quite suddenly, and we ourselves needed a bit of time to process it... so, we have a bit over a week to move,” her father coughed out quickly, coming into the room.

—“…WHAT? But- but that’s such a short amount of time!” the girl shouted, shocked by the news, though she deflated just as swiftly, “I would’ve thought we had more time, not- not a week...”

—“Well, don’t you worry,” Marinette’s father rubbed her shoulder reassuringly, “a week is quite enough time if we start now!”

That week, the teen girl didn’t know how to break the news to her friends, especially Alya. She kept putting it off until her very last day of school. Marinette rushed to class on Friday with a box of macarons her dad had made and a few hand-crafted bracelets and charms in hand. She tripped a few times along the way but made it to class just in time.

The school day was quite ordinary, though a bit chilly from the crisp early December air. As school ended, she broke the news to her friends. Tears were shed, lungs were nearly crushed from tight embraces, and heartfelt goodbyes were shared. Alya, Nino and Adrien could only watch sadly as their friend left for home.

Unfortunately, her last day in Paris was also the same day Hawkmoth decided to send out one of his Akumas to terrorize the city — a deranged farewell of sorts, the girl pondered as she ran for cover. She swiftly transformed into Ladybug and, with the help of Chat Noir, took down the villain in no time.

The two heroes were about to part ways. The heroine asked her partner if he could meet her on top of the Eiffel Tower after re-transforming. Of course, the feline-themed hero eagerly agreed. As they met up, Chat looked at his lady with anticipation, but then she broke the news.

—“…Chaton… I don’t- I have... to leave Paris, and I don’t think I will ever return.” Ladybug couldn’t look her partner in the eyes, not ready to see the expression on his face.

Chat Noir looked like he was about to break down, but he calmed himself and went to comfort his distressed friend. The teen boy promised her to continue protecting their beloved city and become partners with the next Ladybug Miraculous holder.

And so, the pair of heroes, partners, and friends hugged and bumped their fists together before parting ways for the last time.

—“Pound it!”

The heroine leapt across the rooftops, intent on heading home, before remembering one more person she had to visit, perhaps the most important one. Swiftly changing directions, Marinette hid behind a dumpster in an empty alleyway, then walked the rest of the way to Master Fu’s residence, the cold air nipping at the apples of her cheeks. The teen girl opened the door and saw Wang Fu with his back turned before he addressed her.

—“Hello, Marinette, what brings you here today?” asked Master Fu.

The girl stood in the doorway with Tikki by her side, unsure of how to break the news to him. She went to stand by him, and the old man turned to face her as she spoke.

—“Uhm… Master, I should’ve probably told you this earlier, but... I- I’m leaving Paris permanently.”

—“My, that is of importance...” Fu replied, walking away from Marinette, looking through his dresser, opening a couple of drawers, searching for something unknown to her, “You do understand that you cannot take the Miraculous with you, right?”

—“Aha!” It seems that he found whatever he was looking for.

—“Of course, Master, I’ve accepted it as much as I could,” the girl replied, confused but not questioning him.

—“Alright, then, to sever the soul ties between you and Tikki, you must take this.” As he spoke, he handed her a small fabric bag.

Marinette stood there, eyebrows raised, confused out of her mind, wondering just what the hell was inside. Master Fu noticed her gaze.

—“This bag contains a secret blend of herbs and spices to help you recover quickly from the aftermath of the separation. Though it is not lethal, all holders feel as if they have lost a piece of themselves. The bond between a holder and their Kwami hurts more or less, depending on your connection.”

—“Will I still be able to remember any of this?” Marinette asked.

—“Yes, you will. Only the memories will become murky as time goes on. You will not remember secret information, only a blurry picture,” the elder replied.

—“…oh…”

Master Fu handed her a cup of steaming liquid, presumably the very herbs he had been talking about.

—“Drink up, this will help you reduce most of the symptoms in advance.”

Marinette did as instructed, gulping down the hot liquid, her throat confused by the oddly tropical yet spicy and sour blend of flavors. After setting the cup aside with a sigh, the girl turned to face a strangely quiet Tikki.

The pair looked at each other, committing themselves to memory for what was definitely the last time. All the time they had spent bonding was gone so suddenly, as if someone had pulled the brakes at the last possible second. The little creature gave in first, flying over to Marinette’s face and hugging her as far as her little limbs could let her. The girl embraced her back almost instantly, her eyes welling up with tears.

—“I’ll miss you so, so much, Tikki...”

—“I will miss you too, Marinette, you will always be one of my favorite holders.”

Shaky hands reached up to the earrings — such unsuspecting little jewels, yet they held so much power within them. The girl removed the backings from the rest of the earrings and watched as her beloved friend disappeared into them with a bright pink light, the black studs reverting to their iconic red and black spotted theme. Marinette stared at the two pieces in her palm longingly before handing them over to Master Fu.

—“Be very careful over the next few weeks. A splitting headache is the most common symptom after separation. Drink this tea blend twice a day. You should feel better after a month,” he said, putting the Miraculous back into the Miracle Box.

Another farewell was spoken that day, and with it went another piece of her old life.

Early in the morning, the Dupain-Cheng family left for the airport, their home empty and barren, a shell of what it used to be, now left behind. As they boarded the plane, Marinette sat in the window seat and looked out the window.

—“Goodbye, Paris… I’ll miss you,” she murmured softly.

series masterlist | chapter 1

❥︎ author's note: This is a re-write of the original chapter!

❥︎ series taglist: @leafanonsforest @ok-boke @they2luv1naia @mytaiyakeylover (if you wanna get added, lmk!)

❥︎ posted: 2023 | 05 | 25

#❥︎.lilian writes #❥︎.new bug in town #adrien agreste x reader #chat noir x reader #miraculous ladybug x reader #cat noir x reader #mlb x reader #gn!reader

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rosie-b · 1 month

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True Blue

Chapter 12: In which Nathalie is the MVP

I'm finally back!!! It feels like it's been forever since the last chapter. This past semester was really busy for me, so I'm glad that I could finally post a new update! You can read it on AO3 or below!

Pinning the brooch back on felt like a chore.

The poison hadn’t spread far enough that it was physically difficult for Marinette to do, but after that akuma, she barely felt worthy to touch the brooch, let alone wear it and transform with it.

Duusu appeared moments after she managed to secure the brooch with weak fingers. Normally, Marinette would avoid talking to the kwami. She felt guilty about it, but M. Agreste had warned her that the kwami’s mind was addled, poisoned by its own Miraculous, and that talking to Duusu could hasten the spread of her illness.

Well, that was no longer a concern. So what if Marinette poisoned herself again and again each time she became Bluewing? She had the ingredients she needed to undo the dark magic every time.

“Wooh! What a ride! I was upside-down for a moment!” Duusu giggled, whirling around in the air before stopping in front of Marinette’s face. “Hello! Who are you? You look weird!”

Marinette sighed. M. Agreste had been right, after all. Duusu did seem pretty addled. Didn’t they remember her at all?

“I’m Marinette. We didn’t exactly have the best meeting last time,” she said to the wide-eyed bird. “Would you like to try again?”

She offered her hand to the bird, who eyed it suspiciously and pecked at her finger. Marinette sighed.

“I’m your new holder. Nice to meet you,” Marinette said, forcing a small smile onto her face.

At these words, Duusu immediately brightened up and began flying around her excitedly. “Oh! A new holder? How exciting! I haven’t had a new holder since Foom! Or maybe it was Doom? Duberry? Emery? Oh, well, I’m sure we’ll get along just fine!” Suddenly, Duusu stopped with a frown. “No, wait, you can’t be my holder. You smell like... roses. And bread. That’s not right, that’s not right at all,” they fussed, flying back and forth in a dizzying motion.

Marinette felt she was going to throw up, and she knew it wasn’t just the kwami’s back-and-forth flight causing the feeling.

“Stop!” she cried, covering her eyes with her hands.

But Duusu kept flying back and forth, and she could feel the air shifting against her skin with its motion. The kwami’s dizzying movement mixed with the sickly feeling of the brooch’s poison, and Marinette couldn’t focus, couldn’t think.

“Stop, please! I order you to stop!” she cried out, without fully recognizing the power of what she had said.

Duusu ground to a halt. They struggled in midair, casting a betrayed look at Marinette.

“What happened? Did you just... order me? Oh, none of my holders have ever ordered me before,” they mourned, and their tail drooped behind them as Marinette slowly uncovered her eyes.

“I did? I ordered you?”

It was a horrifying thing to wake up to. Marinette had only said the first words that came to her mind in an attempt to make the sickness-inducing motion stop. She hadn’t meant to command anyone, not really!

And yet, she had. Marinette doubled over as the sick feeling in her stomach intensified.

“You did!” Duusu wailed. “And now you feel awful! But, oh, I’ll never be able to move again!”

With this, they burst into tears, crying aloud at the horrible situation they were in, and Marinette felt her eyes well up, too.

“I’m sorry!” she gasped. “I didn’t mean to! How do I undo it?”

“I forget!” Duusu cried. In a panic, they cast their gaze about, trying to find some kind of solution. Then they paused on something just outside of Marinette’s vision, and suddenly, their tears halted in their tracks. “Oh, look, a butterfly! Easily my only true rival in beauty,” they preened. “Isn’t it beautiful, Master?”

There was no way Duusu was just seeing a normal butterfly, not today in Paris. It must be an akuma! But why would M. Agreste send another akuma out so soon after the last one?

Marinette whirled around, trying to spot the akuma through her blurry vision.

There it is, she realized, It’s just a meter away!

But wait, its wings... they’re orange, not black and purple.

Marinette sucked in a deep breath. This was just a normal butterfly. She’d been wrong. Relief coursed through Marinette’s body, easing the churning sickness in her stomach a little.

Determined, Marinette turned back to Duusu, who was back to wriggling in place. She still needed to un-order them!

“Duusu, I release you,” she tried, forcing her voice out as loud and authoritative as she could get it. When nothing happened, she tried again. “Uh, I order you to disregard my previous order.” Will that work? M. Agreste never taught me about kwami orders!

Wait. What if... what if Duusu isn’t the only one I just gave an order to?

Marinette would never forgive herself if she’d just broached M. Agreste’s trust and broken her promise by giving an order to poor Adrien! Her heart raced as she wondered just how badly she’d messed up (on top of everything else she’d messed up today).

Meanwhile, Duusu began zipping around again, although they stopped when they noticed Marinette’s eyes beginning to cross.

“Oh, thank you!” they cheered. “I’m all better, Master! But... but you still feel so bad!”

Duusu burst into tears again, and Marinette swallowed, reaching out to cup them in her hands.

“There, there, it’s all right,” she said in a quiet voice. “I’ll be okay. I’ve been okay before, too. But right now, I need to get back to Adrien! We were at a photoshoot together, but then I... I did something horrible!” Her hands began to tremble, only partly because of the weakness spreading in her thanks to the brooch’s poison.

Duusu wailed even louder. “Oh, it’s so sad! You think you hurt him, but you’re the one feeling all the pain!”

“I’m sure he’s not feeling so good, either,” Marinette muttered, brushing a tear away from the corner of her eye before it could fall. “Duusu, do you think when I ordered you... I ordered him, too? Oh, what if he’s still stuck by the mansion, or the park? What if I made him stop moving in the middle of a street? Duusu, I really need to go make sure he’s okay! Spread my feathers!”

She was running off towards Place des Vosges before her transformation had finished, her mind focused only on making sure Adrien was safe.

“Adrien!” she called as she drew closer. “Adrien!”

People stared at her as she passed by. One old woman even crossed herself. Marinette wondered why. She was just a normal girl, right?

As she skidded past the corner where her house sat, she caught sight of Adrien. He was helping Nathalie move something back into the limousine, a garment bag, perhaps. What exactly it was didn’t matter, though, because he was moving! That meant Marinette hadn’t ordered him, after all!

Well... not unless she had, and then her counter-order had worked on him, too. She’d better check, just in case.

“Adrien,” Bluewing panted as she rushed up to him and put her hands on his shoulders. “Are you okay? Have you felt any weird urges to stay absolutely still and not fly around in dizzying zig-zigs?”

Adrien went rigid under her touch. “Uh, nope, nothing like that, Bluewing,” he said, quirking one eyebrow. “Why, did Hawk Moth make another akuma already, and you’re trying to check if it's working?”

“Well, no, I...” Marinette’s face scrunched up. Bluewing?

Panicking, Marinette looked down at herself and realized that yes, she really was Bluewing right now! She’d just transformed to get here in time, but then... she hadn’t remembered to detransform. She’d just run up to Adrien like this, and now it looked like a well-known villain was checking in on a random (but famous) civilian.

Bluewing realized that this was possibly the worst she had messed up that day. Maybe ever, if this led to the public figuring out her real identity.

“Oh, n-no, sorry, I just wanted to check up on you,” she stammered. “I’m so sorry, there’s no akuma right now. That I know of. So, um. Bye?”

She lifted her hands off of Adrien’s shoulders in a very casual, totally-not-your-best-friend-y way and ran back out of the park. To her horror, she could hear someone laughing as she fled, and as the adrenaline faded, the sick feeling in her stomach came back full force.

“Fall my feathers,” she whispered once she’d made it back to the mansion. Ripping off her brooch, she put it back in the safe and hurried out to the foyer, intending to head right back out to the park.

Gabriel stopped her as she stepped out of the room.

“The photoshoot has been cancelled,” he informed her bluntly. “Adrien called me to say that he was concerned you wouldn’t feel comfortable working with him today. Apparently, he kissed you while you were under Dark Cupid’s spell,” he added with a stern look.

So, this was happening now. Sure. She didn’t need a break to recover from all the mistakes she’d already managed to make, or anything!

Marinette felt faint as she summoned up her courage and stood tall despite the pain now radiating through her body. “I suppose that’s one way to put it. Believe me, I didn’t mean to. And I know,” she swallowed hard, “I know he didn’t want to kiss me. I don’t know what happened. But I’m not surprised he doesn’t want to work with me, after that. I understand if he never wants to see me again.”

Gabriel tsk- ed and looked down at Marinette for a moment, no doubt considering whether to take back Adrien’s amok, fire Marinette from her internship, and never let her in his house again.

“I don’t think that’s what he meant. Adrien is nothing if not stubborn, and once he makes a friend, he is reluctant to let go of them. I believe he’ll be back to normal in a day or two, as sentimental as he is. Do not worry too much about him, Marinette. Keep your attention on what’s most important. Your... entanglement with Adrien threw you off today. Don’t let yourself be distracted by whatever you feel for him. Call it what you want, but don’t take me for a fool, Marinette. Don’t waste your potential for the possibility of a relationship with Adrien.”

Marinette felt shame creep up her neck, staining her cheeks a damning red. “That’s not... I don’t want to date your son,” she protested. “I... was distracted by what happened, but only because it made me hurt a good friend. That’s not what I ever wanted to do,” she whispered.

“As you say,” Gabriel said disbelievingly. “Regardless, I think perhaps I have put too much stress on you recently. Take the afternoon off. I’ll have Nathalie give you homework, so that you don’t fall too far behind on your lessons. Go home, and don’t think about the mission for one evening. When you come back tomorrow, I expect you to be sharp and ready for battle.”

“Yes, M. Agreste,” Marinette said. “I’m sorry for letting you down.”

“I don’t want you to be sorry,” he said. “I want you to be better.”

Gabriel walked past her, heading to his atelier. Marinette lingered behind, feeling lost. He’d just dismissed her. She had done such a terrible job that he’d dismissed her and told her to rest, like some tragic Victorian lady!

It was all Marinette could do to stay on her feet and keep her shameful blush at bay as she packed up to go and replaced her old vial with one full of new potion. This immediately lifted most of the sickness she was feeling, but not all of what she felt was because of the Miraculous’ poison; she knew that.

Ms. Sancoeur stopped Marinette before she could leave.

“I haven’t given you your lessons yet,” she said in her usual, cold tone. “Here. Gabriel told me you weren’t feeling well today. I hope you are better tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” Marinette said as she set down her bookbag and placed the folder Nathalie had handed her inside it. “I promise, I’ll be back to normal soon.”

“Good,” Nathalie said, folding her tablet under one arm.

Marinette lifted her bookbag over her shoulders. “Will I be walking home, or did M. Agreste ask the Gorilla to wait for me?”

“The chauffeur will drive you, of course. But before you leave, there’s something else I need to tell you. Marinette, someone recorded the kiss Adrien gave you to break Dark Cupid’s spell.”

Marinette felt like she’d been hit by one of Chat Grise’s warning-less punches.

“What? How? I, I didn’t see anyone after,” she stuttered as her heart pounded fast and loud in her chest. How could this keep getting worse?

“One of Adrien’s fans noticed your fight and followed you back to the mansion. They recorded the second half on their phone and posted it on social media,” Ms. Sancoeur continued, looking down at her tablet and ignoring Marinette’s wide-eyed gaze. “Unfortunately, I was unable to take the post down before it went viral. I’m doing what I can to scrub the video off the internet, but with how large and active Adrien’s fanbase is, I’m afraid it’s an impossible task. Until the commotion dies down, you’re going to have to deal with increased attention from the public and heightened security when you’re outside the mansion. For now, don’t go anywhere without telling either me or M. Agreste first. We’ll have Adrien’s bodyguard cover you if he’s available.”

Marinette’s mouth was dry, but her hands grew clammy as she listened to Nathalie’s explanation. Her mind skipped like an old DVD as she tried to picture how the public must think of her now. What explanations were they coming up with for the kiss?

She must have looked as panicked as she felt, because Ms. Sancoeur’s face softened. “Marinette. It’s okay to admit that you need a break for more than one evening.”

“I’ll be okay,” Marinette quickly replied. After all, the kiss had just been another side effect of an akuma. With how often Paris got those, Marinette’s moment of infamy shouldn’t last long.

Nathalie’s eyebrow lifted half a millimeter. “Are you really sure you can handle this? From now on, every time you step outside, you’ll need to watch for paparazzi. That’s in addition to all the reporters you have to avoid as Bluewing, and although Adrien will be dealing with increased exposure after the kiss as well, if the public has a negative opinion about it, they will find a way to blame you. In their eyes, you’d be a criminal.”

In their eyes, you’d be a criminal.

“Oh,” Marinette replied, her body on autopilot as Ms. Sancoeur’s words circled around in her head like a child’s toy train on its track. “I’m sure it won��t be as bad as what the press says about Bluewing,” Marinette responded, her shoulders slumping as she mentally prepared for the next few days of hell. “I’ll handle it on my own, Ms. Sancoeur.”

“Please don’t. You don’t need to suffer, Marinette, all you need to do is give us a call before you step outside for any reason. And hang blackout curtains up in your room, if you haven’t already. And don’t stay in your parents’ shop for long; it’s too open and that makes it dangerous.” Ms. Sancoeur sighed. “Just... be careful. Adrien cares a lot about you, Marinette, and it’s clear that you care about him, in return. True love’s kiss is not something to scoff at, apparently.”

Marinette’s heart caught in her throat. “True love’s kiss? Ms. Sancoeur, you must be mistaken. That wasn’t kiss love true— kiss blue— I mean, it was just an effect from the akuma, right? It didn’t mean anything.”

Nathalie’s lips thinned. “Marinette, I may not be an expert in romantic love by any stretch of the imagination, but the akuma today was likely influenced by the literature Kim was reading with the rest of Adrien’s class. I keep notes on what he is studying, even now, and this week, Ms. Bustier’s class was studying fairy tales. In particular, they were studying classics like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.”

Marinette scowled and crossed her arms. “So? That doesn’t mean anything. It’s not like M. Agreste had you design the akuma for him.”

Nathalie frowned and adjusted her glasses. “Adrien already told me his half of the story. The kiss was not a side effect of the akuma; anyone can see that. Its powers reversed people’s affections, and Kim targeted lovers and friends. That means your protective love for Adrien was turned into a dangerous hatred of him. You were attacking him— were, but Kim wasn’t the only one paying attention in class. Adrien decided to kiss you, in the hopes that the fairy tales’ words would prove true. A kiss, a symbol of romantic love, is what breaks evil’s spell.”

Marinette swayed on her feet, and Nathalie quickly reached out to steady her.

“Of course, friendly love is quite powerful, too!" Nathalie said in a rush. "It’s what kept me here, trying to find a cure for Emilie alongside Gabriel. And— but sometimes, friendly love, in the end, doesn’t turn out to be so friendly. Don’t you think?”

Nathalie looked extremely embarrassed by her admission. Marinette was so occupied by what she’d revealed about the kiss to focus on anything else, though.

“But, Ms. Sancoeur, I don’t love Adrien like that! He’s my friend, but I know my love for him is just platonic! Even if he loves me, I— I’m in love with someone else!” she burst out.

Nathalie stilled and straightened. “You’re in love? With whom?”

Marinette’s cheeks reddened as she realized her mistake.

“I’m in love? What? Where did you get that idea? I’m not in love, I’m just friendemy, henemy, I mean I’m not in love! With anyone! So there!”

Marinette tried to maintain steady eye contact with Nathalie to show she wasn’t lying, but Ms. Sancoeur had mastered the art of the withering gaze at If Looks Could Kill college, and it wasn’t long before she had to cave in.

“Okay, fine. I’m not in love, but it’s just really hard to not think that Golden Bug is cute, right? I mean, his puns are atrocious, but for a villain, he’s way too kind. He’s on the wrong side, but he has a heart of gold!” She giggled helplessly. “And his eyes are like, wow, and his face when he’s confused is just—”

“Let’s stop there,” Nathalie said hurriedly. “Please just stop. You’re in love with Golden Bug?”

Marinette’s cheeks felt like they were on fire. “It’s just a crush. A phase. I’ll grow out of it.”

Ms. Sancoeur sighed. “Okay, you have a crush on Golden Bug. But you know Adrien has a crush on you?”

Marinette squeaked. “Well, now that you’ve said it like that, I guess I do? But he probably, I mean, it’s been a confusing kiss, I mean, we’re just friends and we’re going to stay like that! And I can’t date him anyway, because M. Agreste said I couldn’t, so how do we help him get over me?”

Ms. Sancoeur’s eyes sharpened. “Gabriel told you not to date Adrien? When?”

“Like, five minutes before you started talking to me. He said my emotions are making me distracted during battles and then told me to take a break. I don’t think he trusts me anymore. But he let me keep Adrien’s amok, which— oh, no. Nathalie, you don’t think I’m influencing Adrien to love me, do you? Am I abusing his amok? Why don’t they come with instructions; this is all too complicated,” she fussed, slapping her hands to the side of her face.

Ms. Sancoeur frowned. “Well, do you want him to love you? Or did you give him an order to kiss you today?”

Marinette’s hands fell into fists at her side. “No! I would never!”

“Then his emotions are not influenced by your amok. They are his own, Marinette, and you shouldn’t start trying to control them now. I’ll talk to Gabriel for you, and see if I can get him to change his mind. You should be allowed to date whomever you like.”

“What? Thank you, but I thought I said I don’t want to date Adrien?”

“No, but you did imply that you wanted to get over Golden Bug, and I find myself agreeing very much with that sentiment. And here, you have Adrien, who already cares very deeply about you—”

Marinette clasped her hands over her ears. “No!”

Ms. Sancoeur’s lips twitched as if she was amused, but she took pity on Marinette after a moment. “You don’t have to date him. But I am concerned that M. Agreste is restricting who he can and can’t date. I’m not just talking to him on your behalf, but on Adrien’s. Although, if you really do want to move on from Golden Bug, and if you happen to face the core of those friendly, distracting emotions you have for Adrien and find they’re not what you thought they were... I don’t think it would be such a bad idea. He is the real reason you agreed to become Bluewing, isn’t he? I know it couldn’t have been Emilie. You never had the chance to know her like I did.”

Marinette looked down, feeling the heat in her cheeks cool somewhat. “You’re right. Most of what M. Agreste told me was awful, and I do care about healing Emilie, but Adrien... well, he’s the closest friend I’ve had in a long time. I don’t want to hurt him! And I don’t want him to get hurt by anyone else, either. That’s why M. Agreste trusted me with one of his amoks. That’s why I agreed to fight, to protect him and make sure he gets the family he deserves. Only, I feel like I’m kind of doing the opposite of not hurting him now. How can I keep being his friend when I only mess it up? And how do I turn him down without hurting him, especially since he hasn’t confessed his crush to me?”

Nathalie hummed. “I think Gabriel was right to trust you. You haven’t hurt Adrien, not yet, anyway. You might, if you deal with his feelings the wrong way. He’s as fragile as he is strong, Marinette. But you know that already. My advice, as unqualified as I fear it is, is to keep being his friend as you have in the past. Don’t acknowledge his feelings unless he brings them up, and be honest and gentle with him. Your friendship means a lot to both of you. It’s not going to break because of a crush.”

“But it might,” Marinette said fearfully. “What if I say the wrong thing? What if I never get over Golden Bug, but Adrien never gets over me, and we have to tiptoe around our feelings forever?”

“You won’t say the wrong thing, Marinette, not if you’re honest and considerate. And if you still love Golden Bug? Then you’ll work through it. You have a heart of gold, yourself, you know. And there’s enough room for more than one kind of love in it. Listen. Go home, rest up like Gabriel said. Don’t worry about anything tonight. I’m on your side, and we’ll figure this out together. You’ll be okay. Both of you will.”

Marinette sniffed. “Thank you,” she said, surging forward to give Nathalie a quick hug. “You’re the best secretary ever. You deserve, like, a thousand raises for this. And a hamster.”

Nathalie huffed out a quiet laugh. “Well, thank you. I appreciate it. And I promise not to let word of your secret crush slip to Gabriel. Now, don’t waste your extra time. Go, the chauffeur is waiting for you.”

She patted Marinette on the back and watched her get ready to leave. When Marinette reached the car and got in, she offered a small wave, and turned to head to the atelier.

Marinette smiled as the car pulled away from the mansion. She hadn’t seemed like she would at first, but Nathalie really did care.

#true blue #ml fanfic #rosie-b writing #bluewing au #miraculous ladybug #ml au

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nobodyfamousposts · 1 year

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Chloe’s Lament: Ripping Apart

Chloe’s attempts to improve her situation…didn’t work out, to say the least.

Mostly because in her mind, improving things for herself had to involve tearing down others to build up herself by comparison. Something she was easily able to do in the previous world when she was the ‘Princess of Paris’ with the power of her father and her social status to push her demands.

Here…she didn’t have that. At all. Which to Chloe’s ever-growing frustration, made her efforts entirely uphill battles.

She didn’t even have the Ladybug Miraculous to either set things right or to use to her advantage. She didn’t know who the new Ladybug or sidekick were, either. And unfortunately for her, her disregard for people unless she needed something immediately meant that she hadn’t paid attention to the old man Hawk Moth was attacking and thus didn’t know where to start looking for the Guardian or the Miracle Box to at least get the Bee again. Even worse, she hadn’t thought to bother with Hawk Moth or his sidekick once they had been stung, meaning she was just as clueless as everyone else was on the villain’s identity, so she couldn’t try to target him for his Miraculous either!

What she did have, however, was future knowledge of events—or at least what she bothered to notice outside of her own activities in the previous timeline. And one in particular stood out the most:

The hat contest.

Dupain-Cheng was still very much a fashion enthusiast despite the changes in this reality. That meant if nothing else, she would still take part in the contest once it came around.

And Chloe knew it would. She even checked to make sure! Even if Adrien despised her, she was still his ‘friend’ as far as Gabriel was concerned. Thus, she was still allowed to visit the Agreste Mansion. Sure, she had to make an appointment and didn’t have as much freedom to go about as she pleased, but she was able to slip away and confirm Gabriel’s intention to hold the contest.

So that meant she already knew what was coming! And with her foreknowledge, she was sure to win!

The plan was simple: recreate the famous feather derby hat for the contest before Marinette could.

Without the signature this time.

This way, when the would-be designer tried to reveal Chloe as the thief, Chloe would have the upper hand. With no signature to prove Marinette’s claim and more than enough time to build proof that she had created the design first, Chloe would succeed in gaining fame and simultaneously crush Marinette’s dreams of being a professional designer. She would be branded as a cheater and blacklisted from any further design competitions. Gabriel would certainly never trust her again. And Adrien—poor Adrien would obviously need Chloe’s shoulder to cry on once he learned that Miss Perfect Marinette was only using him!

But as it turned out, there were three problems with this plan that Chloe had not accounted for…

Originally, Chloe was able to send Marinette’s hat design sketch to a professional hat maker to bring to life within the deadline.

This time, Chloe had neither the influence nor the funds to get any decent professional to make her design. Her attempts to use her mother’s channels didn’t work either when she couldn’t replicate the original design for them to use as a base.

“They’re feathers! What’s so complicated about it?!”

She also didn’t have the original sketch this go around.

And her less than eloquent efforts to explain the appearance, make, or materials of the desired hat to the interns only got everyone involved both frustrated enough to set off an argument that quickly got her mother’s attention.

Audrey Bourgeois was still very much the famed Style Queen and had no patience for Chloe or her tantrums. And without Andre’s position as Mayor or hotel owner to at least make him a business associate that could exert influence, it wasn’t like Chloe was in a position to make demands. And with only so much time to Paris Fashion Week and not to mention the other shows in the meantime, Audrey didn’t have the people or the patience to spare.

Audrey promptly told her to leave the workers alone unless she had something revolutionary. And despite her insistence to the contrary, a half-formed idea of a hat made with feathers of all things did not count.

As such, there was no one Chloe could get to make the hat for her.

This meant that if she wanted to create this hat and crush Marinette, she would have to make it herself.

Which led to the second problem with Chloe’s plan: for all that she prided herself in knowing and wearing fashion, she had no idea how to actually make it.

Sure, Chloe had a head start on the contest, but that was a very limited advantage for someone with little to no experience in sewing and an unwillingness to learn. Instead of taking the time to plot out a process, figure appropriate fabric, and learn the steps to make a hat, Chloe decided to jump into trying to just make the hat from her memory.

It couldn’t be that hard, right?

As such, by the time the competition actually started, what Chloe had was not so much a hat as…

“What is that? A gaudy balloon?”

“It looks like someone tarred and feathered a plastic bag.”

“I thought it was a deflated football?”

Yeah…that.

It was a sad-looking thing that could hardly be called a hat. Sunken and lumpy with a few feathers sticking out in odd directions. Chloe’s attempts to make her hat by hand resulted in a complete mess, and she had only a number of burns from the hot glue gun and bandages over her fingers from pricking herself to show for it.

“It’s…definitely unique.” Bustier said, clearly trying to be supportive.

Okay. Fine. So her hat was a failure. But she had wasted no effort in building proof that it at least was solely her creation. She could at least still get Marinette on theft of the idea. Maybe she could even claim sabotage if she spins it well enough!

And maybe she could have, except that there was still the final problem with her plan…

She had been assuming all this time that Marinette would be entering the contest with the same hat as before. That she would experience the same lack of inspiration and go to the same place and thus gain the same idea to enter into the contest.

All of which were very vital steps that Marinette would have to go through to reach the desired outcome Chloe had intended to achieve. All were steps that Chloe could not ensure Marinette would follow.

…all were steps which would be completely pointless when Marinette didn’t even compete.

“Wait—what is she doing in the stands?!” Chloe demanded, pointing to Marinette in outrage.

Marinette, for her part, had been sitting in the stands with a notebook in hand and surveying the various entries. She had been taking notes or drawing or who knew what until she looked up in confusion at the yelling.

“Chill out, Chloe. It’s an open contest.” Nino said, frowning at her.

“Yeah. People are allowed to watch.” Alix added.

“No!” Chloe shook her head furiously. She spun on Marinette. “I mean why are you THERE instead of HERE? It’s a hat competition! Aren’t you supposed to be competing?! Where is your entry?!” She demanded.

Marinette blinked in surprise.

“Well, I’m not competing. I’m just here to cheer the others on. And maybe observe. The officials said it was okay.”

And just like that, all of Chloe’s less than carefully laid plans were thrown out the window.

“What do you MEAN you’re not competing?!”

Because Marinette HAD to be competing! That was the entire point of Chloe even wasting her time with this stupid contest!

Marinette shook her head. “I’m friends with Adrien, and he’s the son of the man holding the contest. And the one who will be modeling the hat. While I don’t doubt Mr. Agreste would be impartial, there are rules against this sort of thing for a reason. It would reflect poorly on his integrity. And I don’t want people to question anything I create because of any potential bias.”

But…

That…

That was—!

“Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!”

What was even the point of having connections if you didn’t use them? What kind of socialite was Dupain-Cheng supposed to be, anyway?! It was like she didn’t even know anything!

Marinette was an idiot! She had this amazing position and the world at her fingertips and she couldn’t even use it right!

Chloe stormed out of the auditorium, ignoring the voices and attempts to call her back.

It was…

That was so…

It wasn’t fair!

Marinette was just being lazy! Not using her position or appreciating what it gives her! Not doing anything to prove herself to anyone and show just why she deserved her role! And yet everyone just loved her anyway!

And that…that was the worst part!

Previously, Chloe had to fight tooth and nail just to get people to so much as acknowledge her greatness. She had stayed on top of trends, learned how to navigate the world of the elite, and dealt with anyone and everyone to show why she was not one to cross. She showed why being the “Mayor’s Daughter” was such a pivotal role and why she most deserved it. She had learned to take advantage of any mistake to use to her own ends and end up on top. From Daughter of the Mayor to Queen Bee to Miracle Queen, Chloe had earned her kingdom.

And yet Marinette Dupain-Cheng…she wasn’t doing any of that! She was rich and didn’t use it. She had the power of the Mayor’s Daughter and she didn’t defend it.

She…she was doing nothing and people loved her.

It wasn’t fair!

It wasn’t FAIR!

It wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair it wasn’t fair

IT WASN’T—

“Chloe?”

Chloe jerked up at the voice and immediately wiped her eyes.

Bad enough her plan had been such a failure, she didn’t need people knowing she was crying over it, too. She had nothing left in this world but her dignity. She couldn’t be seen as weak to anyone.

Even if it was Bustier.

“Chloe, I’m sorry. Were you upset?” The teacher asked as she approached cautiously.

“No.” She denied immediately. Because she wasn’t upset! That would suggest her plans had gone completely wrong. And they hadn’t! Because she hadn’t lost yet! She could still find some way to turn things around!

“Chloe, there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Chloe refused to look at her.

It wasn’t like Bustier could understand. It was more than just the hat. It was more than a single contest. How could she even begin to explain it all? Everything she’d had? Everything she’d lost?

Bustier—in true ignorance, smiled kindly and rested a hand on Chloe’s shoulder.

“Your hat was your first attempt, wasn’t it? It clearly had a lot of effort put into it.” She said, soothingly. “I think I could see what you were trying to do with the design. You must have felt rushed with the limited time to work with.”

The words didn’t help. They did the exact opposite of help. Because Chloe had known the contest was coming. She’d had more time than anyone to put her entry together. And she still failed.

“With a bit more practice, it would have been a very beautiful hat. I’m sure it would have won.”

It would have won. In another world, it did win. She hadn’t expected it to be so hard to put a hat together. Why was it so hard?

“Oh! Here’s an idea!”

Chloe blinked as Bustier clapped her hands together, smiling brightly at the sudden thought.

“If you’re interested in fashion, maybe we can ask Marinette can help you?”

And.

Chloe.

Froze.

“It’s hard when you’re first starting out and trying something new—”

It was like she was underwater. Bustier’s words washed over her, but she could barely hear them. Just sound. Just noise. Somewhere above her but its meaning unable to reach her.

“—maybe with a bit of guidance, you can make your hat even better—”

It was like she was falling. No ground beneath her—no stability. Free falling, but fully aware of her own weight dragging her ever downward, not knowing just how far the hole went…

Chloe gripped her creation harshly. Her ugly, pathetic imitation of a masterpiece that even her mother had praised.

“—Marinette loves fashion and knows a lot—”

Marinette must have cheated. There was no way she could do something like that in a few hours without help!

Neither of them noticed as the seams began to unravel and tear in the force of Chloe’s hold.

“—perhaps what you need is a mentor?”

Stretch.

“—volunteer to tutor you—”

Pull.

“—very talented—”

Unraveling.

“—a lot of love to give—”

Unraveling apart.

“—always willing to lend a hand—”

Just like her world.

“—I’m sure she’d be happy to help you improve—”

Just like her life.

“—don’t we try to ask her? I can even go with you and—”

Until it all ripped apart—

“SHUT UP!”

Bustier jerked back in shock at the outburst. She was actually acting as though Chloe had hit her or something—which was ridiculous! Because Chloe was the one in pain right now and nobody would see or try to help her!

“I’m sick of hearing about Dupain-Cheng and how special she is! I don’t need her help! I don’t need anything from her!”

Her teacher frowned, looking confused. Like she didn’t understand. Because she couldn’t see it.

No one could see it!

“Chloe, what are you—”

“She’s a thief!” Chloe yelled. “She knows what she’s doing! I’ll bet she planned this! She must have!”

“What are you talking about?”

She stomped her foot in rage. “This isn’t hers! None of this is hers! She only has it this good because she stole it from me first!”

“Chloe, you’re not making any sense!”

“I didn’t Wish big enough the first time! Why did I even bother with taking everything from her? I should have just Wished for her to disappear!”

“Chloe!”

But she just stormed away.

Out of the hall. Out of the building. Out of the school altogether.

But no amount of walking would take her out of this life she’d Wished herself in to.

All she left behind were the torn remains of an amateurish hat and fragments of her idealized hopes that were just as broken as her plan for revenge.

The only witnesses were her own teacher.

…and a classmate who had seen the whole thing.

#ml fic #chloe's lament #lament series #chloe salt #caline bustier #marinette dupain cheng

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imsparky2002 · 11 months

Text

Coward and Proud of It

(Nathaniel is drawing in his sketchbook after another akuma attack, and notices his classmates looking embarassed, their faces riddled with guilt.)

Nathaniel: Why do you guys look like that?

Alix: Dude, we’re such horrible friends! We forgot about you again!

(He looked confused. She sounded sincere, but why?)

Rose: I can’t believe we left you behind! We’re supposed to look out for each other!

Nathaniel: Uh, what are you talking about?

Nino: We didn’t go back to look for you dude! We were too busy saving our own skins. (He looks ashamed. Nathaniel realizes what’s going on.)

Nathaniel: Are you talking about the last akuma attack? You think you abandoned me?

Kim: Yeah! You were nowhere to be found. Weren’t you looking for us?

Nathaniel: Uh... no? Guys, you didn’t leave me behind. I left you.

(The entire class gasps in shock.)

Chloe: What are you on about, Kurtzberg?!

(He just rolls his eyes at the girl.)

Nathaniel: Whenever I am able to do so, I slip away from you guys. Afterall, Akumas seem to have a magnet for our group. And the best way to avoid getting killed is to lay low, away from the source.

Adrien: You make it sound like we’re a liability to you!

Nathaniel: *Bluntly* You are. You all run around like headless chickens, instead of ducking for cover and keeping your heads down. If this were a zombie apocalypse, you’d fail horribly. Well, except for Adrien and Marinette. Somehow you two always manage to avoid the brunt of the attacks. Not to mention you’ve never been akumatized yourselves. Main character energy if I’ve ever seen it.

Marinette: Yeah... that’s the reason. *Internally sweating*

Max: Nathaniel, you make up one fourteenth of a group. I am pretty sure we’d realize if you had abandoned us.

Nathaniel: Well, Max, for a guy with such a high iq, you clearly weren’t smart enough the other four times I did it.

Alya: Hold on a second, you’ve left us FIVE TIMES?!

(Nathaniel nods. He doesn’t understand why everyone seems so surprised.)

Nathaniel: You make it sound like it’s such a hard thing to do. When you’re all freaking out like that, it’s easy for a quiet guy like me to slip away.

Alix: (Talking about the Art Club Squad) But every time we texted you in the group chat, you acted like you were trying to find us. You even said you understood how panicked we got.

Nathaniel: Yeah, I was lying. You think I’m gonna reveal my escape plans? Then you’ll wanna join me, and I can’t have anyone from this class, even my friends, putting a target on my back via association.

Juleka: *Mumbling* Ouch, dude.

Chloe: Hmph! Well if you’re so elusive, tell us how on earth a nobody like you managed to survive all these attacks.

Nathaniel: Why should I tell you? You’d just try to join me next time.

(Rose uses her puppy dog eyes, and he caves.)

Nathaniel: Alright, fine. But I’m not taking any of you next time, you hear me?

(They grumble and nod.)

Nathaniel: Ok, Stormy Weather was pretty easy. All I had to do was avoid Alec, head home to my house, shut all the windows, lock the doors, hide under the bed, and done. For some reason, Akumas usually attack anyone unlucky enough to be outside. If they don’t have a specific victim in mind that is.

(The classmates all mutter in agreement. He had a point.)

Nathaniel: Next up was Guitar Villain, and once again you all ran off together, not even thinking of splitting up. And it seems none of you got the idea of just pretending to like the music. That’s what I did, just copied what I saw Ivan doing in class the day before, and headbanged like there was no tomorrow. I find the music to be cringe as all hell, not to mention the singer’s a deadbeat dad with an obviously fake English accent, but I had to fake it to make it.

Juleka: *Muttering* He really is a scumbag.

Nathaniel: Then there was Frightingale. I didn’t escape by myself, since I got a helping hand from a certain cute writer who I had been in the music video with. Turns out we had both been crushing on the other for awhile, and finally had the courage to ask eachother out. He took me to a safespot with the other kids in Mendeliev’s class, they took a liking to me, since I actually bothered to ask about their lives. You do realize that the kids besides Marc, Mireille, Jean and Aurore have names right?

Marinette: Of course we did!

Nathaniel: Really, what are they?

(The class is unable to even come up with a guess.)

Sabrina: Uh...

Nathaniel: That’s what I thought. Anyway, Zombizou was my favorite. Me and the Science kids got to kick love-zombie ass, and in order to avoid suspicion, Marc and I kept making out whenever they were near. It was so awesome! (He blushes before getting back on topic.) So yeah. You guys never abandoned me, I abandoned you. And before you say anything, no, I’m not sorry.

Alix: *Looking forlorn* But dude... we’re your friends!

Nathaniel: Well, you are. Most of the Art Squad is, but the rest of you only interact with me if you need something for your ships. You realize I’m an accomplished cartoonist, right? The Ladybug comic I work on with Marc is a huge success. I’m just as important as the rest of you!

Kim: Dude, we aren’t saying you’re not.

Nathaniel: Well I wasn’t important enough for any of you to notice I was being bullied by Chloe?

Chloe: Oh please, Kurtzberg. You got off easy.

Marinette: She made everyone’s life bad, Nathaniel. Not just yours!

Nathaniel: When you get bullied, everyone coddles you. When I get humiliated in front of the class, nobody besides my art friends came to comfort me, to explain to me why I got akumatized, why I was right to feel angry about what happened. Marc’s class also took the time to explain to me how it was creepy to write my self-insert being in love with a real classmate. They’re the reason I apologized to you, Marinette.

Chloe: Well if they’re so cool, then why don’t you join them!

Mylene: Chloe! We wouldn’t want that! Nathaniel’s our friend!

Nathaniel: Actually, that’s what I plan on doing next year. No offense, but I can only tolerate like half of you. I’d rather be with a class that actually recognizes my value, that takes the time to ask how I’m doing. If that makes me a background character in your world, so be it.

(He gets up and sees Marc waiting for him.)

Nathaniel: I’m not some helpless little lamb that gets lost whenever there’s an akuma. I’m a survivor, a coward, and I’m proud of it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna make out with my boyfriend.

(He smirks as he sees each classmate with their jaw on the floor.)

Turns out our Nath wasn’t abandoned after all. He’s just an escape artist. This felt so cathartic to write, and I hope you enjoyed it. As usual, let me know your thoughts in reblogs, replies, posts, and asks. @artzychic27 @msweebyness

#nathaniel kurtzberg #nathaniel #nathmarc #comedy #class salt #nathaniel sugar #they aren't all assholes #chloe salt #marinette salt #miraculous ladybug #miraculous #canon salt #smart nath

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imthepunchlord · 11 months

Text

Possibly How It Should Have Been

Gosh, I've just thought about it sometimes, as I'm largely trying to turn my creative focus onto something more enjoyable than ML (hence less writing for ML fics), but sometimes I just can't help but focus on it. Cause it's a great concept and it's butchered and that bothers me so much.

And there's SO MUCH that could've been done to improve it. Some of which could be easy tweaks. Some of which needs massive overhauling. Some of it is just picking a lane, staying in that lane, and you follow the road to progress.

It's a great concept with a LOT of possibilities and ways it could've been done. I've actually thought about possible ML Rewrites a few times, I even reached out to a friend to try and help develop a Rewrite that we could've collabed on cause I was struggling to much to decide, and we both just got stuck cause there's so many options for characters and what could possibly be done as we could see so many pros for each option.

And of course, part of the pondering that came to my mind was seeing promising improvement with kwami swaps.

Like, Marinette and Adrien may have developed better if they had each other's miraculous. Plagg could've been the ideal foil to Marinette as he's the opposite of her in every way, addressing her overworking herself, prioritizing others over herself, and caring so much about her responsibilities that it just weighs and stresses her out. And with Adrien and Tikki, she could've helped him develop as an actual, step up in responsibility, learn to take on duty, to care about others over himself. She also would've helped him get the plot rolling, as Adrien is a stagnant character but Tikki is not. She's going to get him involved into the Agreste plot whether he wants it or not, and in turn, he's going to get Tikki to learn to be more attentive and considerate of her holders cause things can go south for Adrien very quickly if she pushes too much.

Gosh, another great kwami swap that could've been done that could've improved a lot was switching up who are the leads. I always wondered if Tikki and Plagg TRULY would've picked Marinette and Adrien, also if they were even the right picks now that we know that Fu doesn't know everything and is running on limited knowledge. As far as we know, they ARE the wrong picks for these two. And considering there was an ep of Tikki and Plagg picking their own users, I now wonder if Alya and Nino should've been our actual leads.

How Alya was initially as Scarabella screams to me that it would've better served in the Origins as a starting hero. Alya also has promising potential arcs as a starting hero, especially as being a superhero is her living her dream:

There's the struggle of balancing her civilian and hero life, she can learn that the civilian life is just as important.

She can learn that being a hero isn't all glory and isn't always easy.

She can learn the importance of secrecy, and what happens if she exposes herself to the public or to a friend (probably Marinette).

And a lot of the lessons Tikki is involved with would make more sense with Alya, who does get tunnel vision and isn't good at listening to others and isn't so considerate and can be very pushy with her own agenda. Alya naturally aims for the leadership position and Tikki wants her Ladybugs to be leaders, so Tikki can help guide Alya to improve as a leader. Lastly, Alya will challenge Tikki on her call outs, which could at certain points help established that Tikki isn't always right and is open to learn and adapt too. And Alya could busy herself looking into HM, making her theories and being nosy about his identity, which Tikki would readily be apart of and encourage. Which Alya should've done in the show than recklessly trying to expose the heroes identity to the public and help HM win. Which, if Adrien wasn't a hero, maybe that should have been his role instead, which Gabriel could encourage and Adrien is even more excited cause he thinks his father is taking an interest in what he does which can be some later Adrien angst for you.

With Nino and Plagg, the BIGGEST plus is that it would actually give Nino SOMETHING outside Alya and Adrien. It would've prompt him to get more focus, and based on what's seen, he's 2nd to Marinette in having the most friends, meaning he can be more engaging and present with what happens to his classmates. Plagg also could bring some needed chaos to his life. You can even expand upon what's seen in Horrificatr where Nino can be controlling, strict, and harsh so Plagg can work on that. Nino does have some similarities to Marinette where he does care a lot for his friends and is hardworking, so there's something there to make Plagg a bit of a foil to him. To expand on Nino's role as Alya embraces being the big hero and savior, could even do the fandom popular idea of him getting Guardian training.

With those two taken, this nicely opens up others getting the Five.

Marinette can work with either Bee or Fox. If you want to work off Chloe vs Marinette, it works best if Marinette has the Bee. Though I think Pollen's personality should be overhauled, but if not, at least there's a perk that yes man Pollen going to force Marinette to take initiative and decide things for herself instead of seeking advise from her kwami. And with Fox, that can work off Marinette being a meddler, schemer, being creative, and her more inclined to work from the shadows. There could also be a fun twist to explore with Marinette not liking liars and she has a miraculous tied to deception, plus her and Trixx could've been an interesting pair to see interact, especially if working off what's seen in Sapotis where Trixx is very observant and manipulative, but also a bit of a chaotic gambler (from what I've seen, later seasons seem to ruin Trixx as a character). And of course, Marinette having Fox could work off her vs Lila, you could even dabble in her vs Felix.

Arguably, Chloe MAY grow as Alya and Nino would NOT have been so tolerant of her unlike Marinette and Adrien, so Chloe could've gotten the Bee and actually be a good hero and character for it. But that can also come down to preference and how you want Chloe to go.

Adrien could've gotten the Turtle, which I think could've been one of the best miraculous he could've gotten as he naturally likes to be a protector, and this miraculous works off that while also giving him protection. Wayzz also could've maybe addressed Adrien readily sacrificing himself, help him learn to be more cautious instead of rushing in, or at least think and be smart about how you go forward. There's even a possibility of Adrien having Turtle full time, as Nino could share his suspicions with Fu about Gabriel, so Wayzz could be there as a spy to check things out, which would have Adrien eventually get involved in his own plot, but still allow things to be at a slower pace. And as Wayzz, ideally, seems to be serious and dedicated but also playful and open minded, I think he would be very engaging with Adrien, which in turn could mean that when Adrien needs a call out, he would listen to what Wayzz had to say more (as most of the time Adrien ignores what Plagg says).

As for the leads, both would have an equal neutral involvement in the plot that can explain why things don't resolve quickly (looking at you Adrien who won't even ask questions about the suspicious book your father has). Alya would be a hero and lead for glory and self-righteousness, Nino would be to genuinely help others. Neither would have a super close tie to Gabriel, allowing him to sit under their noses for a while.

Also, gosh, you even could've had a lot of fun with color coded rivals/foils/personal antagonists for Alya and Nino.

If you really wanted to do Alya vs Lila, let Lila actually have the Fox or maybe she bought the Fox in Volpina, and this has Alya and Lila having the miraculous the other is color coded for. She could work off being a hero initially for the wrong reasons, just like Alya who starts for the glory too, as well as integrity vs deception.

Something could also be done between Nino vs Felix, with Nino really color coded for Peacock while Felix is color coded for Cat. Could play off both being ambitious to a fault and being selfish and nosy, but Nino cares more for others vs Felix is more exclusive.

And if expanding to others...

Of course could do Marinette vs Chloe if Marinette has the Bee, Chloe could have the Mouse, which could be funny to see Chloe deal with herself. That might humble her.

As for Adrien... could do him and Max being foils, work off Max getting Horse while largely wearing green, and I think Adrien is most color coded for Horse. Could work off both being perfectionist and could delve into the shared interest of gaming, with Max trying to bring out the competitiveness in Adrien. Could be thinking vs action.

Either way, ML is frustrating cause it's a show with potential and great concepts and it's irritating that it got butchered so. And the most frustrating thing is that there is just so many options to how it could've been done better. And kwami swap wise, these are my top two picks that would've been better.

Thank you for coming to my TED talks.

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ggomos-maribat · 9 months

Text

2 | a girl named Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Part 2 of Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Dead | Masterlist

Tim came rushing into the Batcave with an armful of papers which he dumped by the computer in front of Jason. "I remember now. Why her name was so familiar."

"Lila Rossi's?" Jason looked up at him. Ever since the news blew up, Tim had been visibly restless, like the whole ordeal was a mind-boggling case. Though Jason, too, couldn't quell his own curiosity.

"No, that girl she supposedly killed. Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Tim pulled out a folder from the bottom of the pile and slapped it on top. Jason caught the same name on the case's title. "Her death two years ago was a cold case I found. Damn it, why didn't Damian tell me?"

"And you solved it?"

Tim huffed out. "No, I didn't have the time to go back to cold cases again and it kind of got buried with the other ones."

Jason opened up the folder with one hand and skimmed the content. Both Lila and the 'Marinette' girl were from Paris—he remembered how the media was raving on about the death being a mystery, and Lila, Lilia Ross, must've been involved in it. Of course, there wasn't definite proof as all rumors went.

On the corner of the paper, there was a stapled photo: a girl of East Asian descent, with dark hair and blue eyes. She wore a knit sweater, beaming at the camera with her hands clasped on the strap of her bag.

Just then, Jason heard a ping, followed by a curse from Tim.

"Lilia Ross just posted a video." In an instant, he was right by Jason's side so he could see it too. "Looks like she's addressing the accusations."

"Why would she do that?" Jason knew Bruce got all sorts of backlash too, but not once did he ever seriously address all the rumors since that would be equivalent to admitting they were true.

"Honestly this isn't something she can actually ignore. It blew up pretty badly and the online market is important for her business."

Jason looked at the video in scrutiny. Lilia Ross' setup was simple but still put together: there were brand products displayed in her background along with trinkets on the shelves reminiscent of Paris. The brunette's face seemed solemn, but he couldn't get a read if it was forced or not. The title of the video was short, all caps, bordering on being click-baity—'MY MESSAGE TO EVERYONE...'

"Hi everyone," Lilia managed a small smile. "Recently it has come to my attention that an anonymous poster broadcasted that I'm a suspect for murder. I didn't want to talk about it at first, but I decided to tell everyone the truth not for my sake but for the sake of everyone who was affected by that incident."

"Her name is. . ." She paused as if choked up suddenly. "Her name was Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She was my friend and classmate in collége and lycée back in Paris. Two years ago, she . . . she passed away—they found her near Pont des Arts. We were told it was suicide."

Lilia took a deep breath and her eyes glazed over. Jason wanted to think that she actually looked remorseful. "Well, I should say her parents didn't say anything else other than that so we were kind of left in the dark about the details. But all of us—our class was really close—we're still grieving. If I knew she was hurting that badly, I . . . I would've done something before it was too late. Marinette was a kindhearted girl and we all loved—love—her. She was taken away from us too early."

Her expression shifted from sad to silent rage. "That's why I can't stand people using her name for this useless sensationalism. This is hurting her close friends, her family, everyone who knew her. Please don't bring her up again; give her some peace. She doesn't deserve this kind of treatment. And please think twice before spreading awful rumors about something so serious."

Jason tore his attention away from the video to look at Tim, who had his lips pursed, thinking deeply. Tim set down his phone. "The facts add up with Marinette's case file, but she's lying."

Tim opened up the folder again. "It's true that the police ruled it out as a suicide and there's still a lot of mystery surrounding her death. But based on what I've gathered, Lilia—er, Lila—and Marinette weren't friends."

"What do you mean?"

Tim picked up another folder, showing Marinette's school record. "According to this file, there were some reports of Marinette bullying her classmates, some issues of theft, blackmail, cheating . . . Lila made it seem like she was likable to everyone, which doesn't seem to be the case."

"But if Lila's intention of making the video was to partly clear her own name, obviously she won't badmouth Marinette." Jason frowned.

His brother shrugged. "Yeah, I thought that too. I'm not pointing at Lila as a likely suspect in this, actually. This case is so confusing that if there was actually an answer to it that makes sense, I doubt a then nineteen-year-old girl would've pulled it off by herself."

He sighed exasperatedly. "But then again, anyone could've been the culprit, and that includes Lila."

"Wait, so you're sure it's not suicide then?"

Another presence suddenly entered the cave. Judging by the soft humming, Jason figured that Dick was home from Bludhaven.

The eldest strolled into the room, hands casually in his pockets. "Hey, Alfie told me you guys were down here!" He greeted. "Did you guys see that accusation on Lilia Ross? That was crazy."

Jason stared at him. "You follow Lilia Ross?"

"I see her stuff here and there—I'm not a boomer, you know."

"So you know about everything then." Tim turned to the computer next. "We're investigating the case."

"What case?"

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng's death," Jason replied. "It's one of Replacement's cold cases and Lilia Ross is tied to it."

"So it wasn't suicide?" Dick walked towards the table, eyeing the papers scattered around. "Hold on, tell us everything. From the beginning."

Like the cop he was, Jason could tell that Dick was showing interest in the case as well. If it wasn't something Tim could crack right off the bat, it must be that difficult. Tim began typing things into the large computer, pulling out the case files in digital form to show the two of them.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, only child and daughter to Thomas Dupain and Sabine Cheng, who own a bakery in Paris. She died when she was just eighteen years old." Tim presented a few pictures. "Attended Francois Dupont in collége and lycée, the same one Lilia Ross went to . . . they were also classmates with a few other notable people: model Juleka Couffaine, physicist Max Kante, the current director of the Louvre, Alix Kubdel, and others. She had a perfect record up until the end of collége when she started getting tardies and absences, then she had three cases of theft, two of cheating and a few reports of bullying and harassment in lycée. She got suspended twice because of that."

He switched to another file. "And then . . . her death. April sixteenth of their last year in school. Locals found her body in Pont des Arts, near the foot of the bridge. The investigation only lasted about three days, but the police declared it a suicide despite the fact that there was no note found, no signs of tendencies before that day. I don't know if it was her parents' decision, but they didn't investigate any further."

Jason shifted on his seat. There was no clear picture of the body, only a blurry photo taken from far away, showing a motionless figure lying on the bridge, with police tape serving as its barrier. She was still young . . .

Tim's expression turned grim. "Apart from that, here's where it gets weird. Her parents consented for an autopsy and I dug around for the file. They found nothing significant."

"Nothing significant?" Dick echoed.

"As in nothing. No marks on her skin, no sign of injury, no organ failure, no traces of drugs or poison anywhere, no fingerprints, no DNA other than hers." Tim clenched his jaw. "Nothing. Which means . . ."

"They didn't know the cause of death," Jason continued for him.

"Yes, but she was deceased. Only they didn't find out how and they couldn't even estimate the time of death."

"Maybe the coroner faked the report?" Dick suggested.

Jason crossed his arms. "Yeah, but if they wanted to cover up something, then they would've written a fake cause of death, right?"

"Exactly," Tim agreed. "Literally all it says on paper is 'no significant findings. Cause of death unknown'. That's all!"

"So if they don't know the cause of death and there was no note . . . they can't just say it was suicide," Dick concluded.

"Could they just have missed something?" Jason asked Tim.

"That's a possibility, but I'm not convinced it's a suicide with so many things unaccounted for. An accident or suicide would've left some kind of clue, which this case lacks. With evidence this meticulously covered up, it must be predetermined. Homicide."

"Is that why Lilia Ross was accused?" Dick wondered out loud.

"According to the anonymous post, she allegedly tormented Marinette which makes her a suspect in her death," Tim explained. "There's no evidence pointing to her though. Like I said, there's no evidence at all. Since the investigation period was so short, the police never questioned anyone other than her parents so even if her classmates had something to say about it, there was never a record."

"What about the cameras?" Dick said.

Tim looked a tad bit insulted. "You think I didn't check?"

He quickly opened up more files, video feeds of the day of the incident. The cameras didn't quite give a clear view of the bridge itself, only the roads on either side of it. "No sightings of Marinette or anything weird. Before, during and after the body was found . . . just a small crowd from the commotion. Marinette was last seen alive the morning before, but the cameras caught her going home but not going out after."

Jason searched the feed for anything out of the ordinary but unsurprisingly, nothing stood out for him. "What about her parents? What did they say?"

"They . . . they said Marinette was always stressed out and busy but they never thought she'd resort to suicide. She seemed normal the day before," Tim answered solemnly. "They saw her coming back home but didn't catch her leaving, but apparently she had a habit of sneaking out sometimes."

They all fell silent, seemingly at a loss on how to resolve all their questions. Jason couldn't wrap his head around the whole thing because it all appeared like the impossible did in fact happen. How did she get to the bridge? How did she even die? If there was a killer then why would they . . .?

Then Jason noticed Tim looking at him.

"What?"

"Bruce only asked me to look into this. Why are you so invested?" Tim leaned against the table.

"Why does the reason matter?"

"Like . . . I'd expect you to say something like 'leave the dead to rest in peace' or something like that."

Jason snorted. "First of all, as the spokesperson of the dead, I wouldn't say something like that. More like 'the dead need the living to bring justice for them.'" He averted his gaze. "And secondly, I want to know more. No, I want the truth because . . . because I think I've seen Marinette before."

Taglist: @hammalammadamdam

#maribat fanfic #dc x mlb #mlb x dc #maribat #maribat fic #character death #major character death #angst #MDC is Dead #dc x miraculous

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