#my brain: include their kwamis RIGHT NOW

[what-am-i-doing-in-this-fandom]

You know this image? Yeah, it's literally them

And their kwamis are the exact opposite

#this was so fun hope you guys like it #cole's art #miraculous ladybug #miraculous fanart #ml adrien #adrien agreste #adrienette #marinette dupain cheng #ml marinette #ml tikki #tikki #ml plagg #plagg #relationship dynamic #could be platonic or romantic #me: oh wow this picture is so them! #my brain: include their kwamis RIGHT NOW #they look so weird in clothes haha #i love stripping characters out of their contexts and just dressing them up #NEED to see them in more clothes #any reccs in the reblogs i'll dress them up in whatever

[trishacollins]

Felix Makes Choices/ML AU

Anyway, I am redic easy to enable and right now my brain is feeding on ML and all the neat little divergent points that could or couldn’t happen. This one is a divergent towards the end of “Strikeback” and basically follows the premise of “What if Felix took the Peacock and ran his little tail off”

Felix had been practicing slight of hand for years. They had first started as magic tricks to amuse himself – and then Chloe and Adrien, who were eternally fascinated by the way Felix could make things appear and disappear.

They were the only people in his life that he was really trying to impress at the time.

Still, playing a high stakes game of chicken with his uncle when it relied entirely on his ability to protect the pieces he had – Adrien’s amok and the Miraculous’ including the one he planned on using to get out of the situation – while getting the piece that he needed – namely, the Peacock and the Butterfly if he could manage it – was probably one of the most stressful experiences of his existence.

Topped only by waiting for his father to die and hoping that the man didn’t find something that could destroy his ring in the meantime.

His uncle was not a student of skill games, at least, so even through Felix put the amok flat on the table at first, it only took the shift of two fingers to switch it out with a decoy as soon as the Peacock – and his uncle’s ability to tell an amok from a ring – settled on the table between them.

After that, it was simple, really. He summoned the yoyo, he pulled out the horse – unified it with the dog – and away he ran.

“Adrien, don’t go home. Meet me on Rue De Rivoli near the Hôtel de Ville, try to stay out of sight.” He ordered the amok, as he frantically pulled the Miraculous out of the yoyo.

It vanished before he got them all, but he threw the ones he did have in the bag he had brought for the purpose and fled.

Something exploded behind him, and he cursed, tucking the amok away safely and dropping his transformation.

Barkk materialized and looked at him with confusion, the horse with supervision. “What’s going on?”

“Hawkmoth very much wants me dead.” He explained to the Kwami, because Nooroo and Duusu had been a foundational part of his childhood, the most consistently kind creatures in his life. He would not be cruel to the Kwami.

They had no more choice how they were used than sentis did. “I know you’re hungry.” He told her apologetically. “But right now, we need to get to somewhere safe. I have food for you there.”

And he was glad, so glad, that in his paranoia he had bought the apartment in Paris fully in cash. Even if the idea of getting Adrien to move out and live with him had been something he planned much further down the line.

Barkk seemed to consider it for a moment, and then darted into his shirt pocket.

“Where is the Guardian?” The horse Kwami demanded.

“I can explain later.” He held open the flap of the bag, and the horse stared at him for a long moment before darting inside.

He switched out his clothes, changing into a hoodie that he could pull up around his face. The last thing he wanted was for a ‘fan’ to spot him as he made his way quickly to the apartment.

“Adrien, come to the lobby.” He was never going to use the Amok again. Never. He would give it to Adrien, and explain everything, and then swear off creating sentis and let the Kwami have a good time and they’d all be free together.

It wasn’t a solid plan yet, but he was getting there.

Adrien looked pissed as he came storming in, faltering only a little bit when he saw Felix. “What are you doing in my head?!”

“I’ll explain. Upstairs. You have to trust me.” Felix told him.

“Trust you? Trust you! Felix, this is insane. This is a new level of-”

Felix grabbed his wrist. “Hawkmoth is going to try to kill me, and if we don’t get out of sight, someone is going to see us. Please, Adrien. You can leave afterwards. I’ll explain.”

Adrien scowled, looking down at the hand on his wrist. “You have twenty minutes. Then I’m gone.”

“That’s all I need.”

He had dreamed about this for so long, winning their freedom, stealing them both from their creators. Stealing Duusu – stealing Nooroo, too, and he would have to explain to Adrien that they needed to find a way to get Nooroo – that there might be another Amok, because his mother was wearing a ring. How to give counter orders, if there were.

He was almost dizzy with the possibilities as he used his key in the elevator, and let them into the flat. “There’s food in the fridge, Barkk. Tell me what you like.” He told the Kwami as he locked the door behind him, practically shoving Adrien inside.

#adrien agreste #felix graham de vanily #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug au #My fic

[symwinter]

So… about that Miraculous rewrite, what do you have in mind?

Okay, thank you for asking, I appreciate it. I’ll try and make this as concise as possible, because there’s a lot and I tend to ramble, so I’ve made it in the form of a numbered list:

1. I don’t plan on redeeming Chloé. I feel like despite actually knowing why Chloé didn’t get redeemed, there’s a pretty decent lesson about how entitlement doesn’t mean you get what you want that they definitely also could’ve gone with of if they were a bit smarter with it.

2. No zodiac kwami. They’re the bane of my existence. Why are two of them time travel based in power?

3. Adrienette is the endgame couple.

4. As of right now I’m sitting at three seasons, each one being 16 episodes plus three specials but I might either add a season four or make season three longer. One of the specials is the alternate dimension one. I love the concept of it.

5. I also gave the show an actual timeline. Because the Christmas specials says it’s Adrien’s first Christmas without his mother, but then season one has the Valentine’s Day episode which means it’s February and then the school year in France starts in September so if we look at season one as somewhat chronological, it means the Christmas special is wrong and that drove me crazy so I just redid the whole timeline. Because it would be his second Christmas without his mom.

6. Nathalie doesn’t have an unrequited crush on Gabriel. I never quite got that.

7. Any rich kid that was a sentimonster isn’t one anymore. The peacock miraculous doesn’t create sentimonsters but rather charms enemies as its main skill.

8. Adrien has more of a backbone than he does is canon and Marinette’s crush on. Adrian is a bit more healthy.

9. Rather than using potions to unlock new skills, the kwamis can manifest them themselves. They just need to expend extra energy and there are just some situations where that’s more difficult. I just feel like the book and the potions and the rennlings from the Shanghai special make the kwamis feel less like something ancient powerful and more like a tool. And also because Frozer takes place in January/February and Syren takes place in March/April (both are season two episodes though).

10. Up until the collector, Natalie didn’t know that Gabriel was Hawkmoth and agrees to wear the butterfly miraculous in order to get Gabriel to let Adrien go back to school and not be able to pull them out for a stupid reason anymore otherwise she’ll just go to the cops and be like “my boss is the supervillain.” She does this again in Simon Says but with Adrien’s love life as a preemptive caution.

11. Adrien is in the finale battle. I don’t get why they didn’t include him in season 5.

12. Emilie Agreste is a famous actress so her disappearance (aka I haven’t quite settled on what I want to do with her) is a lot more well-known to the public.

13. I am planning on renaming both of Felix‘s parents. I just haven’t quite settled on names yet.

I think that’s all I got right now. I’ve mainly been focussing on the timeline and the episode list and any changes to episodes rather than the characters themselves which feels counterproductive, but it’s just the way that my brain works, especially since I find it really difficult to think out Marinette and Adrien as individuals. My brain kinda just weaves them together.



#miraculous ladybug #symwinter’s trash writing #symwinter answers

[nightinggail-writes]

you have to understand (that the one i killed is me)

Becoming Guardian of the Miraculous has caused nothing but anxiety and stress for Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Between her duties as Guardian, her job as Ladybug, and her civilian life, she's struggling to push through the stress. To Marinette, there's only one solution to her plight; she has to give up one of the three sides of her life.

Tags: angst heavy, depression, un-beta'd, alyanette undertones in future chapters

word count: 1,270

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Read on AO3

Spotify Playlist

Thunder rumbling

Castles crumbling

I am trying to hold on

God knows that I tried

Seeing the bright side

I’m not blind anymore

I’m wide awake

- Wide Awake by Katy Perry -

Marinette numbly stared down at the box in her hands. It had been three weeks since the battle against Miracle Queen. Three weeks since Master Fu transferred the guardianship of the Miraculous over to her, erasing his memories in the process; and her life has been nothing but miserable ever since.

As she stared down at the box that was slowly leading her to her demise, all she could think was how she couldn’t hold this much responsibility. Her eyes, which should have been bright with the joyful naivety of youth, were dim and tired, making her look as if she had been alive for far longer than the fifteen years she’s been on this earth. Dark circles and bags lay beneath those sky-blue eyes, the true evidence of her lack of sleep. She had far too many responsibilities, and they were starting to make an impact on her health, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Marinette recalled the events of earlier today. How Alya, Alix, Juleka, Mylene, and Rose all got akumatised because of her, how in the end she gave them a shitty lie instead of the truth that she can never tell them, how even when Alya stayed behind to talk to her, she still didn’t say anything. Maybe in another universe, she told Alya that she was Ladybug, maybe she even told them all, or she told Chat Noir, as risky as that would be, but in this one, she was still all alone.

“Marinette?” Tikki called out, the kwami’s eyes full of concern for her holder, “You could have told Alya, it wouldn’t–”

“It would put her in danger, Tikki,” Marinette muttered. “I can’t tell anyone, not even Chat Noir. That would just put him in danger too. I’m alone in this, I’ve accepted that and so should you.”

Marinette racked her brain for anything she could do to make this whole situation easier for herself, but every idea she had wouldn’t work. Every idea ended with complete isolation from everyone, abandoning all her friends and eventually her family too, just to continue to fight Hawkmoth for possibly the rest of her life, and never seeing them again. The other options included quitting being Ladybug for good, but that wouldn’t work either. For one, she doesn’t want to give Tikki up, or Chat Noir for that matter, and two she would have to go out and find a replacement and that would take who knows how long, and there's no guarantee that this new Ladybug would even be able to keep up with Chat Noir or handle the Akumas. Every option she thought of was one she didn't enjoy the outcome of.

A plan, she thought. I just need one plan, that’ll ensure I can beat Hawkmoth sooner rather than later, and won’t have to give up my civilian life forever for.

“Marinette, you don’t have to give up your civilian life or give up being Ladybug. You can do both,” Tikki pleaded. “I believe in you, you can handle both.”

And just then, an idea popped into Marinette’s head. It was insane and would probably require a lot of planning and wouldn’t be able to be put into action until her parents would be out of the city for a catering event for a few days. She would have two weeks to prepare for the most insane idea that she’s ever thought of.

“I don’t quite like the look on Marinette’s face right now…” Ziggy whispered to the other Kwami’s, “She has this crazed look in her eyes.”

“I’m not crazy, Ziggy,” Marinette stood up from her chaise, her tired, baggy eyes wild as she gestured to herself, “I’m a genius. I don’t have to give up my civilian life permanently!”

“See, Marinette! I told you that you didn't have to give up your civilian life! You just need to—”

“Fake my own kidnapping! There are no flaws in that!” Marinette enthused. “I’ll just go missing for a few weeks and dedicate that time to hunting down Hawkmoth and my duties as Ladybug won’t be as taxing! It’s genius!”

The Kwami’s looked at each other, and then looked back at Marinette. She had her arms crossed with one hand on her chin, occasionally lifting it to gesture at nothing as she mumbled to herself, pacing back and forth across her room. Her hair was messy from running her fingers through it and her eyes, formerly droopy and tired from stress, were now wide and wild thinking through the details of her plan.

The group of god-like creatures huddled together and nudged Sass forward to say something to their Guardian that may break her away from her plan. “Ah, Marinette, while that idea isss…intriguing, we don’t believe that it’sss the wisessst plan. Where would you go while being Ladybug? What would you do to find Hawkmoth? And if you did happen to find him and recover the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculousss, how would you go about un-kidnapping yourssself?”

Marinette stopped pacing and for a moment the Kwami’s thought that Sass had gotten through to Marinette. Until she opened her mouth, that is.

“Well, I would find an abandoned building to stay in, of course. As for finding Hawkmoth, that’s a plan that would take longer than a few minutes to think of, and figuring out what would happen after I recover the Miraculous is something for future Marinette to figure out.”

“Marinette,” Orikko spoke. “What about your friends? You’re parents? You’ll be leaving them, and they won’t even know what actually happened to you. Doesn’t that make you sad?”

Marinette’s arms went limp, as if hugging herself, her eyes softening and dropping in sadness, eyebrows scrunching, as a frown formed on her face. She looked as if the life had been sucked out of her. “You think I won’t be sad? Of course I’ll be sad. I don’t—I don’t actually want to leave my life behind, but I don’t have a choice. I’ve never had a choice when it comes to the Miraculous. I have to do what’s best for the greater good, and if giving up my life is what it takes, then that’s what I’ll do. No amount of begging is going to convince me to do otherwise. I’m sorry.”

The Kwami’s looked down after hearing Marinette. It hadn’t occurred to them that Marinette had felt this way about the Miraculous, or that she didn’t actually want to leave her friends and family behind and be the Guardian and Ladybug for the time being. The thought of this brought some of the Kwami’s to tears.

“Oh, Marinette,” Mullo cried. “We’re sorry! We didn’t think about how you felt about this. Well, we knew of course because we were there, but we didn’t know that’s exactly how you felt!”

The other Kwami’s shouted their agreement with what Mullo said, and flew over to hug Marinette.

Marinette closed her teary eyes and pet the Kwami’s as they nuzzled close to her, “I love each and every one of you.” she said, “Never think otherwise.”

“We love you too, Marinette!” Daizzi exclaimed.

“Everything will be okay, Marinette.” Wayzz declared, “All will go well.”

“Of course everything's gonna work out. I have all of you to help me.” Marinette replied. But even as the words left her mouth, she was still consumed by the everlasting blanket of loneliness that, in two weeks time, would be all she had.

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #miraculous au #miraculous fic #marinette centric #mlb fandom #mlb fic #repost #dual posted on ao3 #alyanette #miraculous ladybug fic

[fabizetha]

Miraculous Guardian Headcanons

I was thinking of ideas of some abilities a miraculous' guardian could get when turn into guardians (ideas that clearly aren't that way cuz the show already shown us that it's completely the other way)

(Guardians can know holder's identities: kwamis' magic can protect their holders' identities no matter how silly their masks are, maybe they even can make other people perceive the holder's voice different. But not for the guardians, kwamis can not fool a guardian. For example, Marinette when became guardian, she could either figurate out Chat Noir's identity or see the similarities between Chat and Adrien (still, she could be in denial, cuz "hey! i know they're phisically way too much similar, and even have the same f-cking voice, but they have completely different personalities! they can't be the same person"). Still, this not necessarily includes the identities of holders that properly protect their faces with the suits, as Hawk Moth and Mayura (although the guardian still could hear their voices properly).

Higher hierarchy: it's very well know that if a holder orders to do something, the kwami has no other option than obey. That way, the guardian is in a higher hierarchy than a normal holder, so a guardian can make the kwamis obey them even if they do not posses the miraculous. Even further, guardian's orders are way more important than a normal holder's. If a holder told their own kwami to go to the left, but there's a guardian telling the kwami to go to the right, the kwami will go to the right. Guardian's orders can nullify holder's orders. (Of course Marinette is a good and adorable girl so she does not give orders bcuz she does not perceive herself as someone more significant than others).

Despoil a holder: even if a miraculous' taken away from their holder, the holder in question is still considerer as that kwami's holder until they say by themself the renounce. This changes with guardian's orders as they could do the renounce for the holder. To explain myself better, I'm presenting to you this situation: Nooroo is in completely disagreement to Gabriel's goal and actions, Nooroo would like to take his own miraculous away from Gabriel, but of course, he can't, as Gabriel is his holder an has power over him, and obviously Gabriel's not giving up the miraculous (not just him but any kwami couldn't take the miraculous from their holders, the only way that's possible is if the holder gave them the miraculous in hand). But if there were Marinette, aka the guardian, she could say some stuff like "Nooroo, I free you from Gabriel" and there you go, Nooroo now can take his own miraculous from Gabriel and run away. (This rule does not necessary works when the holder is currently transformed).

Kwamis' agreement: maybe not always, or maybe not when the guardian's ideals are way too different to the kwamis', but beign the guardian automatically brings kwamis' respect and their desire to do almost whatever the guardian wants them to do. For example: if Adrien gently asks Plagg to do him a favor, Plagg won't do it. It's not an order, Plagg has the option to not do it, and since Plagg is this little piece of lazy sh¡t, he's not doing it. BUT if it's Marinette asking him, same way Adrien asked, still with the option to not do it, Plagg will do it, and not because he likes Marinette better, but because she's the guardian so it makes Plagg want to do it. Of course, this does not works when the guardian is asking too much, and kwamis only will obey the guardian if the kwamis by themself really want to or if it's a guardian's order.

Sorry for using the same words over and over again, but I needed to keep clarifying some thing cuz my brain is kind of prettymuchdumb even in my native language, in English is way more complicated to properly understand what the h3ck I am saying.

#i'm not writing a fanfic about this but you can #you can also take any point of this if you liked it and use it independent in any fanwork youre doing #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #ladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #kwamis #miraculous kwamis #chat noir #gabriel agreste #nooroo #tikki #plagg

[cinnabuncombyne]

𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬' L𝐢𝐬𝐭

This is a list of all the series I have planned out to do in the future!

The order they are listed in is not the order I will work or finish them in! This is just a list to organize my brain and let anyone else see whats in store!

Websites will be listed with their source so if you want to request something from it then you have easy access to the info!

𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐒/𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖𝐒/𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒

Bluey (Characters and prominent toys)

Faires from Pixie Hollow (Movies)

Winx Club (Winx, Specialists, Antagonists)

Miraculous Ladybug (Heroes, Villains, Kwami)

𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐒/𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐂𝐒/𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒

Rainbow Magic Books (Fairies)

Fairies From Pixie Hollow (Books)

𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒

Genshin Impact (Characters, Melusines, Weapons, Enemies, Wildlife, Elements, eventually more)

Animal Crossing Villagers

Little Nightmares (Characters)

Stardew Valley (Collections, Achievements, Hats, eventually more)

Neko Atsume (The Cats!!)

Minecraft (Items, Mobs, Blocks, Biomes)

Backrooms (Standard Levels for now)

Dead By Daylight (Killers & Survivors)

Overwatch Heroes

Honkai: Star Rail (Characters, Light Cones, Relics/Ornaments, Consumables, Currency, Enemies, eventually more)

Apex Legends Characters

Valorant Characters

Subnautica (Fauna and Flora)

𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐒/𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐁𝐎𝐗𝐄𝐒

TokiDoki

Pokémon

𝐓𝐎𝐘𝐒

Littlest Pet Shops (Some are produced more than once, I will make a list available of which ones can be selected since there are a couple thousand)

Rainbow & Shadow High

Monster High

Ever After High

Gen 3 MLP

Shopkins

Lalaloopsy (Dolls and Pets)

Zhu Zhu Pets

American Girl Dolls

Bratz Dolls

𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐘𝐒

Squishmallows

Webkinz

Jellycat Stuffed Toys

TY Beanie Boos (Apologies for the ads)

TY Beanie Babies

𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐒

Flowers (Using a book I own for this info, will link the list once it's made to pick from)

Trees

Fruits

Vegetables

Succulents

𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐒

Large/Small Wild Cats

Dinosaurs

Moths

Cows/Cattle

Sheep

𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄

Constellations

Planets

Exoplanets (There are over 5,000 of these and the list is growing, no I will not do all but by golly I'll do some requested ones and some pretty ones as long as they got pictures to go with them!)

Seashells

Types of Full Moons

Moon Phases

Natural Phenomena

𝐀𝐑𝐓

Sherman Williams Paint Shades

Famous Paintings (The ranking doesn't matter. Just find a nice one and I will put something together for it)

The Alphabet (I will get this organized on the side)

Pre-Made Aesthetics

Crayola Crayon Colors

𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐃

KitKat Flavors (This is the best I can find right now, I know not all will be listed)

Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Flavors

Types of Cake

Kool-Aid Flavors

Bug Juice Flavors

Girl Scout Cookies

Soda Brands (Flavors will be included in the brands)

𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐒/𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐌

Limoges Boxes

Lenox Spice Village

Bath & Body Works Scents (This website is the best I have at the moment. Will find one that has recent scents as well)

Yankee Candle Scents

Board Games

𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘/𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐎𝐍

Mythical Creatures

Greek Deities (will have other religions later)

𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑

Months of the Year (Will include their seasons and associations they have)

MBTI Types

States (Will include: State Flowers, Birds, Animals, Fruits, and Trees)

Academics/Classes (Others that aren't on this list can 100% be added)

Emotions (From the Emotions Wheel)

#future series #future series list #list

[ur-favorite-queer-queen]

Miraculous Side Effects

For Maribat March day 6 theme miraculous side effects 

Master List

Despite popular belief, the miraculous did not give you powers or animalistic side effects outside of the miraculous. So no she did not eat aphids and could not create things out of thin air. 

The only side effect of the miraculous was you became a little more in tune with a certain part of yourself. For Tikki it was being more structured/organized, with Plagg you became a little more chaotic, Trixx you became a little more honest, and so on. 

Most days Marinette found herself wearing the ox miraculous, a nose ring. For some reason nose rings scared people off and most days she was so deep into her work she didn’t want to be talked to. Unfortunately, this came with the side effect of being more hot-headed. When especially pissed off she forgot all reason and would either tell a person off or beat a person up. Neither was pretty. 

And just her luck that today was one of those days. She had been up for 28 hours working on Jagged and Penny’s outfits for some rich man’s gala. 

With any luck she wouldn’t have to attend, not that she didn’t have a dress she always had one on hand, but she really didn’t want to socialize with a bunch of rich people. If they were anything like Chloe or Kagami, no offense to her best friends of course, then they would be a pain to talk to. 

Now here she was in this coffee shop, she didn’t bother remembering the name of, to get a cup of coffee so she could finish the stitching on Penny’s dress. 

Ignoring the guy’s horrified expression at how much caffeine she wanted and his muttering of ‘there’s now a female one’ she patiently waited for her cup. 

The second she got it she chugged most of it down, immediately feeling more awake. Screw sleep, she could take a nap once she was done. 

She had literally just finished drinking it all when a body slammed into hers. She ended up falling on the ground, cup still in hand, and glared at the person who bumped into her, mostly because he was still standing. 

Her first thought was ‘Fuck, he’s cute’. What was it with her and green eyed men? Faintly she could hear someone saying, “Good going Demon Spawn!” but she wasn’t paying attention. 

The lid had fallen off the cup and now the little bit that was still left had splattered onto her clothes. And she liked this shirt too. 

He offered her a hand but she was still pissed off, her mind no longer listening to reason, and it didn’t help that Stompp’s side effect was amping up her aggression. 

Completely ignoring his offer of help she got up and gave him her best glare, the one that had grown men shaking. Now this wasn’t her best moment, but in her defense she was sleep deprived and now needed to change her clothes which took up more of her precious time. 

“Dude watch where you’re going next time!” She shouted, the whole place went silent. 

It took the dude a moment to say something but she just ended up cutting him off, “Look I’m sorry, I-” 

“You’re sorry. Yeah, apology not accepted.” And with that she grabbed her lid off the ground, dramatically smashed her cup with one hand, and threw both things away in the trash can by the door as she walked out. 

It wasn’t until she had finished Penny’s dress and took a much needed nap that she realized the opportunity she just wasted. She could’ve accepted the apology and maybe got a date with a really cute guy! But no she just had to act all snappy and rude to him and she was glad she never had to see him again. Gotham was a big city and what were the chances she would see him again after all. 

Stompp just thought she did the right thing telling the guy off. Of course, the most aggressive of the kwami would be telling her that. She really should try wearing Daizzi’s miraculous one of these days. Not that it was going to help her racing heart whenever she thought of him.

-

Despite what everyone, including sometimes his own family thought, Damian did care for his family. That included his siblings. 

Which is why he was here, with Jason Todd of all people, trying to get Tim Drake to come home and take a nap. They had a mandatory gala to attend on the weekend and Bruce didn’t want Tim Drake acting like a zombie for it. 

Damian was trying to do his job and get Tim Drake home while Jason Todd thought it would be funny to tease the both of them. 

This may or may not have resulted in him saying some not appropriate things to Jason Todd resulting in Jason Todd shoving him resulting in him accidentally knocking down someone. He fully blames Jason Todd. 

He looked down at the girl he had knocked down and the first thought that came to him was ‘Fuck, she’s pretty’. Where the hell did that come from? This thought almost drowned out Jason Todd’s “Good going Demon Spawn!” Keyword, almost, he definitely was going to maim Jason Todd later. 

Looking back at the girl with gorgeous blue eyes, adorable freckles and was that a nose ring he offered her his hand to help her up, doing his best to ignore those that were whispering around them.

Much to his and he’s pretty sure his brother’s surprise, she gave him a glare that could rival the batglare and completely ignored his hand when getting herself off the ground. 

Then another shocker was when she shouted at him, “Dude watch where you’re going next time!” The whole place went quiet at that, she had just yelled at the Ice Prince. 

It took him a minute to compose himself as he tried to apologize only to be cut off, “Look I’m sorry, I-” 

“You’re sorry. Yeah, apology not accepted.” And with that final statement she grabbed the lid that had fallen off her cup, smashed said cup before throwing both things in a trash can as she walked out. Woah that was hot Shut Up Brain! 

“What just happened?” Tim Drake questioned. 

“Demon Spawn just pissed off a girl. Tried to apologize to her and she rejected his apology.” Jason Todd laughed. 

“Shut up Todd!” Damian snapped, “Let us just get Drake back to the manor.” 

“Yeah, yeah, on it Demon.” Jason Todd said before throwing Tim Drake over his shoulder and walking out the door. Damian kept his head down as he followed them. 

Later he would think about the girl with blue eyes, freckles, and a nose ring and would not be able to stop his racing heart. Or his siblings teasing after Jason Todd told them the story of the girl who rejected him after he had bumped into her. And it wasn’t like he was ever going to see her again.

-

Those that were in the coffee shop would have a story to tell their friends. The Ice Prince of Gotham bumped into a girl, tried to apologize to said girl and she didn’t accept his apology. Or try to flirt with him or sue him. And none of them had gotten it on video. 

Who knows? Maybe he’ll get a second chance at a first impression. *wink wink nudge nudge*

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

Me not so subtly saying there will be a part 2. Again sorry for posting so late, procrastination is my best friend these days. 

@maribatmarch-2k21 

#maribatmarch2021 #maribat #maribat march #miraculous side effects #agressive marinette #she uses the ox miraculous #this is totally daminette #part 2 will be second chance #see u then!

[kasienda]

The Five Minute Adventures of Snake Noir: Ch 5 - Unwanted Revelations

Chapter 1: I Want It To Be You

Chapter 2: Best Friends

Chapter 3: Best Laid Plans

Chapter 4: A Thank You

Chapter 5: Unwanted Revelations

“You okay, dude?” Nino asked. They were sitting on his bed, watching an anime, but Adrien had no idea what was happening in the current episode. 

Adrien’s head shot up from where his cheek had been pressed into his propped up knee.

“Yeah, of course,” Adrien said. “Why wouldn’t I be?” 

Nino frowned, and paused the show. “You’ve just been quiet tonight. 

“I’m just tired,” Adrien said, which was mostly true. “The photo shoot this morning went seven ways to hell after it was disrupted by that akuma.” 

“That akuma sucked!” Nino said.

Adrien nodded in agreement. It had taken Ladybug, Chat Noir, and five temp heroes (Carapace included) hours to deal with. “And once it was cleared up, father insisted the shoot continue even though we had already lost our lighting. Then afterwards he lectured me for an hour about not being professional enough because none of the shots came out to his satisfaction.”

Adrien trailed off, noticing that Nino had his lips pressed tightly closed. 

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Adrien said. 

Which had been the wrong thing to say. Adrien knew it as soon as the words left his mouth. 

“Not that big a deal?!” Nino repeated. “Dude, he runs you ragged, doesn’t let you have any fun, puts you in situations where it is literally impossible to succeed, and then he yells at you when you fail.”

“He doesn’t yell,” Adrien defended.

“I don’t know why you defend him!”

Adrien shrugged. “He’s my father.” 

“Is he? Seems more like he’s your boss.” 

Adrien sagged on the floor, and Nino wilted a second later. 

“I’m sorry, dude. I don’t mean to make you feel worse. He just… makes me so angry!”

Adrien smiled then. “It feels good to have you on my side.” 

“How would you feel about me borrowing the Snake?” Nino asked, casually. 

Read on Ao3

Adrien started, sitting up straight. “What?!” 

“I mean, I just want to punch him in the face. Just once, dude, I swear. But I’d prefer not to get thrown in jail with my future career destroyed because your old man is vengeful.” 

Adrien burst out laughing. “I’d pay to see it actually.” 

Nino smiled and bumped his shoulder into Adrien’s. Adrien’s laughter died down, but his smile remained. 

But Nino looked solemn. Adrien frowned and leaned forward. “Are you okay?”

Nino smiled. “Yeah, I was just thinking. Have you ever thought about using the Snake to confront your father?”

“No,” Adrien admitted. “I am trying not to use it for selfish reasons.”

Nino rolled his eyes.

“What would I even say to him?” Adrien cleared his throat. “Hello Father! I bend over backwards to meet your expectations, but they’re impossible to reach. I want you to show me the same respect you expect me to show you.” Adrien shook his head. “What would be the point? He won’t remember, so nothing will change.”

Nino stared at a Jagged Stone poster across the room. “I just… wonder sometimes if he even knows how much he’s hurt you. Confronting him might tell you that.” 

Adrien was silent for a long time. 

“Dri?” 

Adrien looked up at Nino’s concerned gaze, and then turned away again. “I just…” Adrien said. “What if the answer is he does know? And… doesn’t care?”

Nino wrapped him in a hug at that moment, and Adrien let his cheek fall onto Nino’s shoulder. 

It had been easy to visit Nino and Marinette with the Snake Miraculous. Adrien knew that they cared about him. In fact, he had known they had cared about him on both sides of his mask. If anything, he had underestimated how much affection and love they held for him. So he hadn’t been afraid of anything that might come out in a conversation with them that they couldn’t remember. He knew he’d still hold them in the highest regard. 

But with his father, if he learned something he didn’t like - that his father didn’t care about him, rather than was just abrasive and uncomfortable with feelings and affection - Adrien didn’t know if he would be able to keep up the song and dance routine required to keep his father happy. Adrien wanted to keep what little freedoms he had managed to squirrel away. He couldn’t stand it if they were taken away. He was terrified he wouldn’t survive it.

On some days, he knew he was too close to not almost wanting to survive it. 

It was too easy to throw himself in front of an akuma’s blast, too easy to picture his own bubbling cataclysm floating towards his chest without concern.

But things had gotten better, were continuing to get better. Thanks to Nino mostly, and to Ladybug, too. 

“Have you ever used the snake with anyone besides me?” Nino asked, interrupting Adrien’s thoughts.

Adrien didn’t want to mention Marinette. He knew Marinette wouldn’t have minded, and Nino would have listened without judgement. But it felt weird to tell Nino something about Marinette that she herself didn’t remember.

“Ladybug picked me to use the snake against Desperada,” he confided instead.  

“You’re Viperion, too?!”

Adrien winced. “No, I was Aspik, but… it didn’t go well, and I eventually gave it up, and she selected someone else to be the snake. That person is Viperion.” 

Nino looked at him suspiciously. “How long did you stay in the loop before you gave up?” 

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “Umm… like three months?” 

Nino bolted to his feet. “Months?! Dude! You need to stop torturing yourself!” 

“I just… wanted to impress her as myself. She’s already said no to Chat Noir. I was hoping… that being Adrien was a…” 

“Second chance?” Nino filled in sarcastically. 

Adrien grinned. “Exactly! But… she needed a temp hero in the first place because the two of us weren’t enough. So… I had to give it back, and tell her to find someone else. I feared that Adrien was only a disappointment to her.” 

“You tried for months! What more could she ask of you than that?” Nino pursed his lips. “Like how many loops is that?”

“25,912.” 

Nino’s eyes widened, and he just stared at him until Adrien had to look away. 

“Didn’t you lose count?” 

Adrien shook his head. “The snake doesn’t let you forget the number. You know every time what loop you’re on.”

Nino was really solemn after that. “I think that power is the scariest of them all,” he said quietly. 

“Scarier than the power of destruction?” Adrien teased, trying to lighten the mood again. 

“Yes,” Nino said seriously, not taking the hint.

Adrien sighed. “What was the hardest akuma for you as Carapace?” 

“As Carapace?! I was fighting Anansi as Nino while you were caught in some spider web! That was terrifying.” 

“You were a natural with the baton,” Adrien said. 

Nino ducked his head down - trying to hide a blush.

“I was really threatened by it at the time,” Adrien admitted. 

Nino’s gaze snapped back up. “Threatened?! By me?”

“I… It felt like Ladybug was trying to replace me.” 

Nino shook his head. “She was trying to save you, dude!”

“It kinda feels like she’s trying to replace me now, too.” 

Nino frowned. “What do you mean?” 

“She told someone else her identity. And yeah, she explained why she couldn’t tell me so it’s easier to accept now. But Nino, I’ve been sidelined so many times recently. Rena Rouge removed me from the battlefield when Style Queen attacked. I was so far away that by the time I got back…” he trailed off, his brain spiraling rapidly.

“Dude?” 

“Rena Rouge told me not to interfere with SentiBubbler, too.”

“I’m sure she didn’t mean to push you aside like that. Alya loves you both as heroes. You should hear her fangirl about working with both of you.” 

But Adrien wasn’t hearing Nino anymore. Rena Rouge knew a lot - more than any of the other temp heroes. She had made plans with Ladybug before Ladybug had even shown up. 

Rena Rouge was the one that knew Ladybug’s identity. 

But Rena Rouge was Alya.

Ladybug had said she told her best friend in her civilian life.

That meant… 

Adrien couldn’t breathe. 

“Adrien? What’s wrong?” Nino asked, urgently.

But Adrien couldn’t answer. All he felt was horror and dread writhing sickenly in his gut. This was knowledge he wasn’t supposed to know. 

He was the one person that wasn’t supposed to know.

But it fit and he couldn’t unknow it. Marinette had… she had burst into tears upon learning his identity just like Ladybug. She had ranted and railed in anger that Ladybug hadn’t realized how hurt her partner had been by her actions. She hadn’t been angry with Ladybug - she had been angry with herself. And then, she had erased her own memory when he had hesitated because they weren’t supposed to know. 

He was going to throw up. 

“Dude! Talk to me!” Nino begged, tapping either one of Adrien’s cheeks.

Adrien turned toward his friend, but his eyes looked past him, remaining unfocused. 

“Plagg! Sass! Help!” Nino called.

The kwamis flew into his line of sight, and conversed together briefly. Adrien heard none of it.  

His body was trembling - shaking so hard it was amazing he hadn’t fallen off the edge of Nino’s bed. Though that might have had to do with the hand clamped painfully onto his shoulder bracing him from tipping over. Hot tears fell from his cheeks and his chest burned. He clawed for air that refused to come.

“Kid,” Plagg called. “Slow down. You’re okay. Nothing’s happened yet.”

“I-I’m n-n-not supposed t-t-to know,” Adrien managed to get out between the body quakes. He had always wanted to know. And Marinette, she was amazing! She always had been. He wanted to be ecstatic at the revelation. “I don’t w-w-w-want to destroy the world.”

Ladybug had said the moon was in pieces.

“And if you get akumatized right now over it, it will be a self fulfilling prophecy!” Plagg snapped. “Now breathe properly already!” 

“Dude!” Nino chastised. “That’s not how you calm someone down during a panic attack.”

“I’d like to see you do better,” Plagg challenged.

But Nino was already ignoring the kwami. “Dri, breathe in with me.” And then he slowly and dramatically breathed in. 

Adrien tried to follow suit. Really, he did. He took in a slow deep breath, but then his throat would lodge close again, and he’d start gasping again. His chest spasmed painfully. 

“Can you reset the last five minutes?” Nino asked Sass. 

The kwami shook his head. “It’s very dangerous for me to use my power without a holder to limit them. It's not worth the cost,” Sass informed. “He already knew everything needed to put it together. He just hadn’t thought about it. We can reset… maybe… without destroying the timeline completely, but he’ll just figure it out again probably within a few days. Plagg and I knew it was only a matter of time.”

“Some warning would have been nice!” Adrien shrieked, his anger cutting through the shaking, but only for a second. 

“Look kid, we don’t know that this is the end of the world. And honestly, it probably isn’t!” 

Adrien’s green eyes locked onto the floating kwami. “What do you mean?” 

Plagg turned to Sass. “You explain it.” 

“My power works differently than Fluff’sss, but from my understanding, the end of the world probably had very little to do with you knowing each other's identities. It was more like that it was an event that was easy to change to prevent a certain series of events. It wasn’t necessarily that you couldn’t know one another. Just that you couldn't know that day.”

“Why didn’t you say any of this before?” Adrien gasped out. He was still struggling to keep his breathing slow. 

Sass shrugged. “Because we don’t know for certain what happened, and anything short of a guarantee wouldn’t have been enough for Ladybug.” 

“Look!” Plagg interjected. “If things truly go to absolute hell and back, Fluff’s holder will most likely show up to fix things again, and since she’s not already here, we’re likely fine.”

The tension in Adrien’s chest broke, and the rest of his body slumped. Luckily, Nino was there to catch him. Adrien clung to his shoulder even as he tried to face the kwamis. As always, Nino was a rock. If he was phased at all, Nino wasn’t showing it. 

Adrien was dripping with sweat, his blond hair was plastered to the sides of his face. He could breathe now, and breathe heavily he did, still leaning heavily on Nino. 

“So, what do we do?” Adrien asked.

Plagg shrugged. “Use the snake to tell Ladybug you figured her out. Then come up with a plan together. She’s a crafty one. She’ll have ideas.”

Sass nodded. “Most likely, she will know more than she’s told you, Chat Noir. She may have a better idea of what needs to be avoided.”

Adrien nodded. “Okay, okay. We can do this.” He turned to Nino. “Help me stand?”

Nino held out his arms, and Adrien hauled himself to his feet with Nino’s support. 

“I’m sorry to cut our illicit slumber party short,” Adrien said. 

Nino shook his head. “No worries, dude. Fate of the world stuff obviously should come first. But… umm… are you going to be okay running over rooftops? No offense, but… you look like shit.” 

“Plagg, claws out,” Adrien called. As the transformation washed over him, Adrien could stand up straight, breathe easier. He sighed in relief. “With the transformation, I’m okay.”

“Can you let me know when you get somewhere safe and outside a time loop, dude?” 

Adrien smiled. “Yeah, sure.” Adrien pulled his baton from his back. “And Nino?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for being here. Thank you for not asking questions.”

Nino smiled. “Of course, dude. Anytime.” 

… 

Marinette wasn’t on her balcony, but her light was on. He couldn’t handle waiting so he sent Sass through the window. She was up on the roof less than a minute later. 

“Chaton? What’s wrong?” 

He transformed with the snake and activated second chance immediately, and then fell heavily onto the only chair on her balcony.

“You shouldn’t have let me keep the snake,” he began without preamble. 

“What are you talking about?” she demanded, but her eyes were wide. 

“We don’t have time for you to try to misdirect me. It’s too late, m’lady.” 

She wilted. “How? Did you try to figure it out?”

He shook his head. “No. I just…” His fingers tried to tear through his hair, only to find the suit draped over his skull. “You told me to tell someone. So I did. I told my best friend. Only he turned out to be a temp hero. He slipped. He thought I knew who he was when Chat Noir showed up in his room. It’s not his fault.” 

“Breathe, kitty.” 

He took in a shuddering breath, but he was still shaky. The panic was starting to grip him again, and he was trying to keep it from exploding, but he knew he was slowly losing the battle. 

She crouched down in front of him and held his hands. 

And he barreled forward in the story. “Then because I knew his identity, I later realized who Rena Rouge was. And I know that you never told me that she was the one that you revealed your identity to, but… she just… knows too much. And I know who Alya’s best friend is. I swear I never meant to figure it out!”

And he couldn’t breathe. “I can’t… m’lady, please. I’m so scared.” He broke off as the sobs overtook him again. 

She held him, stroked his head and neck with calming hands, and whispered nonsensical soothing sounds into his ears. He leaned into her comfort, into her warmth, fighting to collect himself. He needed to get enough out so she could tell him what to do. How to fix this. Because he didn’t want to be akumatized and he didn't want the world to end. Especially not by his hand.

“Tell me what to do,” he sobbed.

“Who’s your best friend?” she asked. 

“Nino.” 

He felt her sharp intake of breath.

“Please don’t start crying,” he begged. “You always cry when I tell you.”

“It’s too late, Adrien,” she whispered. And when he looked up her eyes were already filled with tears.

“Please tell me you have an idea,” he begged. 

She took up his hands and squeezed them tight as she kneeled in front of him again. “You’re not going to like it.” 

He snorted through his tears. “That’s a given.”

“You’re going to go back and you’re going to pretend you don’t know.”

He sucked in another breath and he closed his eyes against her words. “How do you expect me to do that?”

“You’re clearly a very good actor,” she said gently.

And he crumpled in on himself at her words. His head fell into their joined hands as his body shook in an emotional earthquake.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, continuing to stroke his head. “I wish it was different. I wish I wasn’t placing this burden solely on you. That I wasn’t asking you to put on mask after mask. You shouldn’t have to.” 

“I just… why, do you need me to pretend? How does that help us?” 

“Nothing can change between Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

He felt himself nod though he wasn’t sure if he could ever pull that off. He felt like his whole world had been thrown out of orbit.

“And nothing can change between Adrien and his very good friend, Marinette. You understand?” 

And suddenly, he did.

“We can’t date,” he concluded.

She nodded. “We can’t date. Knowing who you are… it’s clear to me that it wasn’t the reveal that was the problem. It was that our reveal led to us dating.” 

“Wh-What? What does that have to do with anything?” He asked.

“We can’t date. You have to pretend like you don’t know. Can you do that for me, kitty? Can you wait until Hawkmoth has been defeated?”

“I uh… wait?” 

“I love you,” she confessed. 

And he stared at her in shock. She loved him? 

“And you love me. But our love… it destroys the world.” 

Her words hit him like a never ending monsoon. He felt thrown about, twisted up, and torn into pieces all at once.

“What?” he hissed.

“That’s what Chat Blanc told me. I didn’t know you were Adrien. Adrien was the person who learned my identity that day, but it was Chat Noir who knew. And Chat Blanc… he said it was our love.” 

He shook his head even as he cried. “No, no, Mari, I refuse to believe it.” 

“I still have nightmares of the place. Of you alone, and half insane.” Her hands cradled either side of his face. 

He kissed the palm of one of her hands. 

“Mari, please,” he begged. “Don’t make me pretend with you.” 

She kissed him. Hard. He felt dizzy. 

She pulled away and smiled. “Figure I owe you a kiss that you will remember.” 

Then the world blurred around him. God damn her! This was how she knew how the snake worked in the first place, knew how to activate it when she had him distracted. She was the fucking guardian. 

He was standing again. He collapsed into the chair again and just continued to cry.

“Chaton? What the hell happened? Why are you always crying on the other side of one of your loops? How awful am I to you?”

His arms snaked around her midriff, and he pulled her against him. And just sobbed into her stomach.

“You’re not awful, Mari. You’re amazing.” 

And he loved her. 

Her fingers ran over his head and cat ears, causing them to flick back and forth.

He spent the whole loop crying, and the next one after that. But he recovered faster than he did with Nino that first night with the snake. It only took four loops before he got ahold of himself. Maybe he was  getting better at coping with world-ending fear and grief. Or maybe it’s because his lady is just a little bit more soothing to him, as awesome as his best friend was. 

Now, he just felt numb.

And exhausted. 

“How many loops have you been through?” she asked softly.

“Five” 

“What can I do?” she asked.

“M’lady, you’re already doing it.” 

She stiffened at the endearment. He holds her to him harder. “I know have to pretend that nothing has changed. I have to wear a mask around you all the time. Every moment of every day as Chat Noir and every day as Adrien, and I know that I’ll get really good at it. It’s something I’ve done a million times before. But let me have an extra loop or two okay?” 

He can feel her shaking as suddenly she’s crying too.

“I just… I’m scared,” he confessed. “I don’t know how long we’ll have to do this. I don’t know if I’ll remember how to take the walls down when it’s over. Will I even know who I am?” He squeezed her tighter. “And… I don’t know if you’ll wait for me without knowing,” he whispered.

She was caressing the sides of his face in gentle soothing strokes. Tears streamed from her eyes. 

“You’re so amazing!” she told him. “So resilient, and so much stronger than me.”

He barked a broken laugh that held no humor. “You’re wrong. I’m so broken. I’ve been so tempted so many times to just break the loop and let you remember.” 

“But you haven’t.” 

“You’re usually the one that resets it once everything comes out.” 

She kneels down at eye level with him. “You’re my strength, Chaton. My ability to reset the loop is to keep you safe. And no one else. I love you so much.” 

“I love you, too, m’lady.” 

She moved forward to kiss him and he pulled back. She frowned. 

“Please don’t,” he begged. 

“Why not?” 

“Because there’s already too many kisses that we can’t remember. I want us both to remember them.”

“Chaton, if you feel that way strongly, I can respect it. But if you’re afraid of forgetting what it feels like to be yourself, I want you to feel it, to remember it every single day. You should always know what it means to not have to wear masks. What it means to be loved.” 

“Every single day?” he repeated. 

She nodded firmly. “Every single day.”

“What about not abusing the miraculous?” 

“Abuse it,” she said. “I don’t care. You’re more important.”

He was speechless. 

So when she leaned in again, he let his eyes fall closed. Let her press her lips gently against his own. His whole body melted into the contact like butter. He kissed her like it was the first time and like it was the last time, because in a way… it was. 

They stayed together - sharing their life’s breath, letting their mouths and tongues dance together in sync the way Ladybug and Chat Noir always were. They didn’t stop. Eventually, the world blurred, and he realized she had reset the time loop herself again.

But this time he was smiling when he found himself standing on her balcony once again peering into her concerned blue eyes. 

This time he felt lighter and freer. She loved him. And he loved her.

And they would be together someday. 

He had to believe that.

...

Chapter 6: Miraculous Abuse

#Platonic adrino #adrino friendship #Marichat #love square #angst #hurt comfort #kisses #TW: suicidal thoughts #Trigger Warning: suicidal thoughts #time loops #identity reveal #permanent reveal #and reveal take backs #Confessions of Love #miraculous ladybug fan fiction #A miraculous reveal #The Five Minute Adventures of Snake Noir #ml spoilers #ml s4 #my own content

[pl-panda]

The vines that bind us - Chapter 4

Chapter 1 || Previous || Next

She was now back in Gotham and it was time to start acting like it. 

The break came sooner than expected. Mari might have actually missed it if not for the text from Chloe that they are on their way. Mr. Drake locked the doors to his office from the inside to made sure nobody interrupted him unless Batman started skateboarding in the lobby (his words). She really didn’t know what to think about the young CEO. So far their interactions were limited to the brief moment of panic before meeting Luthor, followed by this brief moment when he locked the doors.

When she arrived in the cafeteria, Chloe was already waiting for her with Ethel. They took over a table in the corner and already littered it with various documents and folders.

“Um… Hi?” Mari greeted them.

“Oh, Mari-bear!” Chloe grabbed the girl by the wrist and dragged her to the table. When she was seated, several papers were put in front of her.

“So! Ethel and I read through the contract and we have good and bad news? Which first?”

“Let’s get the bad out of the way.” Mari nodded.

“You’re stuck in that job for half a year.”

“What!?”

“Don’t worry.” Ethel palaced her. “It’s not as bad as it looks. The whole deal was that you could be hired at any point of your internship for a period of six months, after which there would be a revision of your contract to either terminate it or make it more permanent.” 

“Who does that kind of thing?” The girl shouted a bit louder than necessary, but nobody paid them any mind. Alya and Lila were clearly visible at the other side of the cafeteria with a large crowd around them. 

“It’s practically never used. I mean now you have all the benefits of being Wayne Enterprises’ employee. Plus you will actually have a salary. And Sarah’s salary was nothing to scoff at.”

“But… What about school!? I know we were allowed to leave for two months, which by itself is crazy if you ask me…”

“Given that our headmaster is an idiot that bends under whoever throws money at him and our teacher should never be allowed to be in the same room as any child…” Chloe muttered in French. 

“Yeah. I get your point. But I can’t just leave school for six months!” 

“Puh-lease!” Chloe waved her hand dismissively. “We both know you could’ve graduated in the middle of last year if that Chienne and Connard allowed you. And you would have the perfect scores. Hey! I’m sure you can sit SATs in Gotham while you work here.” 

“And my commissions?” She looked at the blonde. “Marigold Désign et Création is only starting to get some popularity. I can’t just close the store! Oh no! What about my Flower Shop in Paris? The girl I hired was supposed to work there only for like… three months best! I can’t just suddenly… Oh no! You know Sang hates being away from me! And what if Bleue outgrows her pot? And don’t get me started on Rouge! He is…’

Mari suddenly felt two hands on her shoulders. “Goldie! You’re spiraling again.” Chloe stared in her eyes. “And your eyes are showing.” 

That finally calmed Mari. She usually tried to suppress her natural look in favor of how she used to appear. Her iridescent green eyes were kept blue and dark-blue hair muted to the point it seemed black. Plus her skin was not green unless she was using her powers. She was not sure where that skill came from and she was ninety percent certain her mother couldn’t just mute her green skin and fiery red hair. Still, she was glad that she did not have to look like an Akuma 24/7. 

“Thanks, Queeny. I’d probably have a breakdown if not for you.”

“You have a Flower Shop in Paris?” Ethel asked curiously.

“My… It used to be a bakery before I inherited it. Since I like plants more than bread, I turned it into my own greenhouse. I used to only have a small garden on the rooftop, but then I kinda… filled every room with plants.” Mari suddenly blushed.

“Whoa. You sure do love plants. Are you sure you’re not related to Poison Ivy?”

Chloe half-expected Mari to start trying to deny it or babble. 

“And what would make you think that?” The girl joked instead. “Just because my plants don’t wither at my touch, I am related to a villain?” It might have come harsher than she wanted, but her bright smile and pearly voice made it clear that she had no hard feelings. 

Ethel laughed. “True. I’m sorry about the commissions and the store. I really wish there was something WE could do, but our hands are tied.”

“How am I supposed to be a personal assistant? I have like zero experience or even theoretical knowledge!”

Ethel opened another folder and read something. “Well, you were class representative, ran your own small business, kept up with school work, met with clients, and babysat several kids. That’s pretty much what you have to do now. Just make sure that the baby is doing things on time and organize his time.”

“Ha ha ha.” Chloe deadpanned. “Why not ask Nathalie? She liked you well enough.”

“I can’t just call her and ask her to teach me!” Mari protested. “I mean she must be very busy!”

“We can go find the disaster boy. He can definitely convince her.”

“I can’t just use Adrien like that! And besides, we don’t need to look.” She pointed at where the Blond boy sat next to Lila. He was clearly very uncomfortable with his situation, but they both knew that he couldn’t go against his father’s orders. Apparently, ‘Lila was good for business’. 

“Then we can go now. Thank you, Ethel.” Chloe said as she grabbed Mari and started to drag her toward the group.

“Stop it! Queenie! You know…” 

“Hush! I will deal with the idiots if they try anything.” The blonde silenced all protests.

The two approached the group just as Lila was finishing a ridiculous tale about how she was on good terms with the bat-family. Alya was of course recording the whole thing and streaming live. When the class spotted girls approaching, Kim and Ivan quickly turned into bodyguards blocking them from joining. 

“What do you two want this time?” Sabrina asked with venom.

“Like I would lower myself to dealing with the common rabble. I came to speak with the only person here who doesn’t have a negative number of brain cells, so be kind enough to let us pass. Or just pry Adrien from Lila and we will leave you to your fantasy world.” Chloe stared down at her former follower (they were never really friends).

“Nobody asked you!” Rose shouted. 

“Sabrina did.” Mari pointed out. She was not sure why, but she felt much more confident in her dealing with the class now that they were in Gotham. Maybe it was because they were now on her own turf, maybe because there was no Akuma risk, or maybe she was just done. 

“Shut up you bully!” Alix shouted. “Adrien doesn’t want to go with you anywhere!”

Over half of the WE employees disperse, not wanting to be pulled into the drama. The ones that stayed were just looking between the two groups. 

“Actually,” Adrien started, surprising everyone, Lila included. Why was her boy talking? She didn’t order him to talk. “I’m curious about what they want. The break is almost over anyway so we should probably get going back to work.” He said diplomatically. 

“Whatever!” Alya put her phone down. 

When the class and the spectators dispersed, Adrien sighed in relief. “Kwami I hope Gerard gets here soon. He usually tries to at least limit the Liar somewhat. Then again, he won’t be coming to WE…”

“It’s a tall building. I’m sure that we could make it look like an accident.” Chloe grinned.

“We are not killing her!” Mari protested.

“Spoilsport.” The Blonde deadpanned. 

“Anyway, is that a social call or do we have some situation? Please tell me it’s not an Akuma.”

“Not that I know of.” Mari quickly checked her phone, but so far no messages. 

“Mari here got hired.” Chloe did not bother with subtlety.

“Congratulation!” The boy beamed. “I knew you would do great here. We should go to celebrate on Friday!”

“Except I have no idea how to be a personal assistant.” Mari moaned.

“Oh! That’s no problem. Let me just call Nathalie.” Before the girl could protest Adrien already had his phone out and dialed his Father’s PA. “Nathalie?” He asked when the face appeared on the screen.

“Adrien. I’m sorry but your father is not here. He left Paris and won’t be returning for some time. He will be supervising the acquisition of new resources in China.” She informed him.

“Oh. That’s no problem. I actually wanted to speak to you.” He smiled brightly.

“Huh?” She asked surprised.

“My friend Marinette found herself in a peculiar situation of being hired as a personal assistant. Would you mind giving her some pointers?”

“Sure. Please forward her my personal number so she can call me in an hour. I will be free by then.”

“Thank you, Nathalie. You’re the best.” He waved the woman goodbye and hanged up. “See? No problem at all.” 

“Um… Okay… Thank you so much!” She hugged him tightly. 

“Sure. That’s what friends are for. What about the Friday celebration?”

“Well, I can give you all a Marinette tour through Gotham…” Her smile grew a little mischievous “Or you can get Marigold style trip.” They all laughed before scrambling to do their respective works.

Mari got into the elevator and pressed the top-floor button. Slowly, the doors closed and it went up. When she arrived, she looked around to check if anyone was looking for her before walking to her desk. Out of nowhere, a blade pressed itself to her neck.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” A low voice asked from her right, slightly to her back. Immediately, she tensed.

“I work here if you must know. Now I apologize for the delay if you needed something, but I was trying to sort out a certain problem. Do you have an appointment with Mr. Drake?”

“Tt. I’m not in a mood for games.” 

She smiled slightly. Acting faster than would be expected, she grabbed the blade in a monkey grip and pushed it away. The attacker then tried to swing it at her, but she managed to side-step. Doing a quick lunge she managed to punch his hand and make the blade move to the side while walking into the guard. She delivered a strong punch to his face, followed by a low-kick to the back of his knee, forcing him on one knee. The daze caused him to loosen the grip he had on the sword. Mari kneeled on his legs, pinning him down and at the same time stole the sword and threw it away. Before he even had a chance to explain anything, she delivered another punch to his head, making the boy see stars before everything turned black. 

She gathered herself and walked to the sword. It was rather simple ninjato that she stored under her desk. There was a tablet with the WE logo on it that she promised herself to check later. The intercom had at least two dozen buttons. They were all labeled with some shortcuts she did not understand, so instead, she picked the security number from her WE employee handbook and called. 

“Um… Hello?”

“Hello. What’s the problem miss?”

“Yes. My name’s Marinette. I’m the new PA to Mr. Drake. When I returned from break some boy attacked me with a ninajto. I managed to knock him out, but I would appreciate if someone came here to…” She didn’t get to finish because a burst of loud laughter came from the other side. She stayed silent for a few moments, baffled at the reaction. Finally, she had enough. “Good to know the fact that someone almost chopped me with a Ninjato is funny to you, sir, but personally I do not find the situation laughable and I would appreciate if you showed at least some concern over the terrible breach of security that is firstly bringing the sword to the building and secondly trying to kill an employee!” She screamed loud enough to make her cup of (now cold) coffee shake. Only now she realized that her hands were trembling. 

“Um… of course, madame. I will be sending someone up right away… madame.” He hanged up. She still heard that he was on the verge of laughing.

Mari collapse into her chair and stared angrily at the boy on the floor. She was afraid to walk to him. She was definitely getting some plants here tomorrow. That would make her feel safer. Nervously, she started to design. She didn’t even notice that she was using the boy that attacked her as the base. 

After a few minutes, the doors of the elevator opened and two guys in suits walked in. As soon as they saw the unconscious boy they broke into a fit of laugher. Mari stared at them before recognizing one of them as Grayson, who was giving them the tour earlier. 

“Oh! My! God! She actually knocked Demon Spawn unconscious!” The other one said through tears. Mari decided she didn’t like him either. They were supposed to be helping her, not laughing more. 

“Excusez-Moi! I was attacked here! During the tour, I was led to believe this is a respected company,” she made a jab at Grayson, who only laughed more. “In respected companies employees are not attacked with a sword when they come back from the break. So can someone explain to me what the actual fuck?!” She swore. 

“This is gold. I’m calling B. Wait! I need a picture or he won’t believe me!” The not-Grayson kept rambling, completely ignoring Mari. Angry, she picked a pencil from her desk. Taking a few seconds to aim, she threw it. The impromptu projectile sailed through the air until it hit the elevator button, making the doors open. This finally got their attention, especially since the pencil passed not-Grayson by an inch from his ear.

“What the…?” He was interrupted when the girl stormed past him and entered the elevator. She was now holding the ninjato through a tissue. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“To HR. Maybe they will help me.” She answered simply and sent them a glare. “It’s clear that you two dumbasses aren’t doing anything.”

Grayson held the button, stopping the doors from closing “Hey! Aren’t you supposed to be French?” Dick asked, confused by her strong Gothamite accent that showed itself.

“Aren’t you supposed to be helping?!” She shouted at him. 

“Ugh… My head…” A groan came from the floor.

“Aww… I didn’t get any pictures.” Not-Grayson grumbled.

“Tt. Shut up, Todd.”

“How is the view from down there Demon Spawn?”

“I don’t have time for games. There’s some intruder on this floor. She claimed to be Drake’s personal Assistant, but we all met Sarah.”

“Um… Baby D, did no one inform you about the french class coming for an internship starting today?”

There was suddenly a glimmer of realization in the boy’s eyes. “Oh…”

“Oh?” Mari screamed. “that’s all you have to say?!” 

Her would-be attacker jumped at the sound of her angry voice. When their eyes met, the two had a staring contest. It continued for a moment, neither wanting to leave it be. Dick and Jason observed with amazement how that little girl was able to rival Damian’s glare and not wither immediately as most would.

“While I enjoy seeing the two of you fight for dominance, can someone explain to me what exactly happened?” Todd finally broke the silence. Mari immediately turned her eyes at him. He briefly noted that her blue eyes had a green tint in them that he did not notice before. 

“What happened is like I said. I after I returned from break that imbécile attacked me with the sword. I had some self-defense classes, so I managed to disarm him.”

“Some? You had ‘some’ self-defense classes and you disarmed Demons Spawn?”

“Okay, I’ve been practicing since I was five. Happy? It doesn’t change the fact that he attacked me!”

“You’re the one that attacked me. I was merely ensuring you were no threat.” Damian tried to argue.

“By pressing a sword to my neck?” She asked/shouted. “Please! This is Gotham.”

“She has a point.” Dick decided to intervene. “Okay. We will make sure that Damian won’t bother you anymore… and maybe add some bonus to your next paycheck for the trouble he caused. Our father will definitely hear about this.”

“Your father…?”

“Bruce Wayne.” 

“Oh… Fine. But I’ll be keeping the ninjato for now.” She said in no-arguing tone. It was clear that Damian wanted to argue, but his brothers pushed him into the elevator while Mari walked to her desk. She put the sword under the desk and mentally added some hooks to her shopping list. If that rich idiot thought he would get away with attacking her with a sword, he was sorely mistaken. 

The tablet turned out to have a complete calendar with all planned meetings, a ready to-do list, and access to inter-department chatrooms. There were more apps that she decided to look up later. For now, she opened Mr. Drake’s schedule. He had quite a lot of office hours, but she also noticed that there was a press conference set on Friday, several meetings throughout the week, and a few other stuff. Definitely much cleaner than Adrien’s schedule that she already knew by heart.

As the hour was mostly up, she knocked on the office doors to see if her boss needed something done. He shouted a barely-audible ‘busy’ and she did not try to intrude. Probably some important stuff. She pulled her phone and called Nathalie’s number that Adrien sent her earlier. 

“Hello, Marinette.” The woman greeted her. 

The next several hours were spent on the crash course about everything that being Personal Assistant boiled down to. Ethel was right. Her work as Class Rep, babysitter, and the business owner gave her quite a few necessary skills. What nobody mentioned (because nobody knew) was that her obsessive Adrien stalking also came in very handy. Most of what she practiced with Nathalie was about dealing with people and applying her skills in the new job. By the time her work was ‘over’, she had a bit more confidence. Mari was still panicked over the amount of responsibility that befallen her and the additional work and reading that she would have to do after hours. It was a pure blessing that this day was empty. Nathalie also gave her an incredible amount of pointers about how to deal with situations when the Boss is absent most of the day. She could guess that Gabriel kept dumping more work on the poor woman as he locked himself away to design. The last thing before she entered the elevator was to pull out the drawers in her desk and hide the ninjato behind them. It fit perfectly and the drawers didn’t seem that out of place. She suspected the boy would try to take it back when she was gone.

As she was leaving the elevator to meet with her class, she spotted Chloe talking lively with Ethel. Madame Bustier came through the main entrance. Once the class gathered in one place, she gave some speech about how proud she was of them and thanked Lila for the opportunity. Mari used that time to check on the class. Some looked quite happy, others had sour moods. Adrian managed to sneak away from Lila and was hiding behind the girls.

Just as they turned to leave, the front doors burst open and several guys (and one woman) in green suits with purple question marks walked inside, followed by a man in a similar suit. He carried a cane with a question mark on top and a green bowler hat with a single question mark in the center. Mari resisted the urge to gag. The fashion disaster that was Riddler entered the house. Seriously! Who mixes deep green with neon purple? And not to even mention the Hawaiian shirt she could spot under his suit. Whoever dressed that guy deserved to be shot. And it had to be a custom job, because what store would dare to sell such monstrosity!? She also noted that people got on the ground so she did the same. Her senses tried to reach to nearest plants for some comfort, but all of them were fake. Why does no one keep real plants in this building? Then again, Mr. Drake had and they were almost dead.

“Well, hello Wayne Enterprises!” He greeted them. “Riddle me this: It belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do. What is it?”

“Name,” they heard a voice say from the back.

“Yes.” Riddler seethed. “And I really don’t like it when someone uses mine in their ridiculous stories. Now, which of you can tell me where I can find Lila Rossi?

NEXT

#maribat au #maribat #Mother!Ivy #miraculous lb #miraculous ladybug #miraculous #batman #dc #MLB

[cheshiremadd]

Uprooting Bindweed

Ao3

I'd had the idea of Rena and Chat talking about Marinette and Adrien in my WIP folder, and then @galahadwilder posted the perfect prompt on discord to go with it: what if Chat Noir fired Rena Rouge.

Thank you SO much to @alexseanchai and @sweetmeatdale for your feedback! 💜

Speaking of Alex, they came up with the title, because they're amazing like that. Bindweeds are used as "food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the convolvulus hawk moth". With that information and the Bindweed tarot card, I knew a more perfect title would not be found.

-

The Akuma of the Week was searching for Marinette. The fourth time this month, and he was really hoping there was nothing to that. So many targeting the same person not Chloé or Lila seemed strange to him. But that was a worry for another time.

Chat Noir and Rena Rouge had been sent ahead to the bakery (he was very glad that he’d stashed Marinette somewhere else). Rena was to Mirage herself into the designer and play bait, but they had to wait until Ladybug could lure the akuma closer. Five minute timer, and all.

Rena reached her balcony first, and went to the trapdoor without hesitation. Chat figured he’d have to be the one to open it, and had been planning how to go about it without giving away how familiar he was, but Rena had no qualms. His stomach soured at the thought that he wasn’t the only superhero to visit Marinette.

She’d redecorated some since he last was in her room. He wasn’t able to come as often as he wanted, and they typically preferred the open air and view of her balcony when the weather was warm.

Adrien’s modeling photos were still present, but they’d been updated to more recent shoots. On another wall were more candid pictures. Their friends and classmates. People he assumed were Marinette’s family (only some of whom he’d met). Several of Kitty Section. Her and Jagged Stone and Penny Rolling (it still blew his mind that she’s on a first name basis with them). Lots of her and Alya and Nino. Fewer of Adrien.

He knew she had more of Chat than of Adrien. But she kept those on her phone, locked away in a secret folder. Too much chance that someone would see her walls.

One caught his eye, placed directly in the center, the spot of honor. A high res of Chat-him and Ladybug. They’d thrown their arms over each other’s shoulders and snapped half a dozen selfies. It’d been Ladybug’s idea to submit the best of them to the Ladyblog, giving civilian them plausible deniability.

The last wall, above her sewing supplies, held her inspiration boards. One for general inspiration, holding her favorite pieces from her favorite lines (only one of which was a Gabriel piece, he noted with some interest), some fabric squares of different colors and patterns, and scenic pictures from around Paris. The other, he knew, was more specific to whatever she was currently working on. Pinned to it was a handful of dried flowers, a fabric swatch to match each flower, and several sketches.

Chat glanced at Rena, realizing she’d been quiet this whole time. She was staring at Adrien’s modeling photos, the look on her face unreadable. He looked with her. He wondered if there was a specific shoot Marinette favored.

“This must look so strange to you.”

Chat looked back at her, but said nothing. He wasn’t sure what he could say that wouldn’t give away exactly how close he was to Marinette.

“I promise she’s not some weird stalker in love with a celebrity. Well. He is a celebrity and she does have the biggest crush on him.” Um. What? “But they’re actually friends. She didn’t even like him when she first met him. The—the Wall actually started because he wasn’t allowed to hang out very often, and no one could get any candids of him.”

What?!

His shock must have shown on his face. He turned back to ‘the Wall’ in an effort to hide at least some of it.

“You seriously didn’t know?” Rena said. “You’ve got to be, like, one of two people in Paris that doesn’t. I keep flopping on whether Adrien knows or not. One minute it’s like he’s encouraging her feelings, the next he’s going on about how glad he is to have such a good friend.”

Chat tried not to sputter. “How—how does ‘no candids’ turn into—” He gestured at the collage of Adriens.

“None of them were perfect.” Rena said it like she’d heard it a million times. “This photo shows his sincere eyes, but the rest of the face is photoshopped too much to be his real smile. ‘That advertisement had most of his real smile!’ ” She pitched her voice higher in mimicry. “ ‘But they shaved several centimeters off of his waist! Several! He’s skinny but he’s not that skinny can you believe they felt like they needed to change that, Rena?’ Well, she didn’t say Rena, she said my civilian name. I mean—you get it. And, oh, that outfit looks really good on him, it looks like something he’d choose to wear himself, but he looks so tired in that one. I bet that was at the end of that all-day shoot.”

(They didn’t actually shave inches off his waist. They did shave a little, but that wasn’t the point because—) He never realized that Marinette paid so much attention to him. He wanted to deny it. She’d specifically told him that she didn’t have a crush on him. And Marinette hates liars.

But. But she’d been embarrassed, that day. And she was embarrassed around him a lot. Especially when Alya was involved. It’d taken him a long time to notice that, but once he had, he saw it everywhere. And with this new piece of information…it shone a whole different light on many of their interactions.

Chat swallowed. He wasn’t sure what to do with this knowledge. He’d been in love with Ladybug for…for a long time. And Marinette. Marinette was special. Rejecting her was hard enough the first time, but at least he’d known that it’d never work between a superhero and a civilian.

Oh, Kwamis. She had a crush on Chat, too! Adding that event with this new understanding, he realized she never meant to confess to him. She’d probably been about to backtrack, but then her parents interrupted, and it was out of control from there.

What better evidence that someone truly liked you for who you were than falling for you twice and not realizing it?

Rena shuffled a bit, finding other things to poke her nose in, and Chat realized that he’d never responded.

“So, you don’t think it’s creepy that this girl has like twenty pictures of her crush on her walls?” He didn’t think it was creepy. He thought it was endearing. But he was curious what she would say. She’d been interestingly defensive of Marinette.

She snorted. “Hey, if it’s crazy, Adrien’s her same kind of crazy. He’s got more photos of Ladybug on his phone than I do, and that’s saying something.”

His brain came to a complete stop. And then worked overdrive. How the fuck did Rena Rouge know that.

She sighed, picked at her flute, and continued. “I’ve been wondering if she shouldn’t give him up, though. It’s starting to get unhealthy. Ruining her friendships in class.”

His chest tightened and it became hard to breath. Loving him was bad for her. The thought rattled around, but what she said next wiped it all away.

“There’s this girl in class, Lila. She’s an amazing person, done all these things, and has a real chance with Adrien. Marinette can’t let it go. She swore that Lila was lying, then dropped it and now just gives her the cold shoulder. Won’t go to group outings if Lila’s involved. Keeps flaking out. Avoids her completely. Lila’s trying, so hard, to keep the peace, mend bridges, and Marinette just refuses to listen.”

Rena dropped her hands, hitting her thighs, and paced. Agitated.

“It’s jealousy, pure and simple. And if she’s going to be like that, then I just don’t know if I can approve her being in a relationship. Especially with him.”

Chat felt something inside him harden. Gritted his teeth. Considered biting his tongue. He knew who this was. It’s plain as day now, and he’s mildly surprised he didn’t see it before. She’s supposed to be Marinette’s best. friend. And this was how she thought of her?

To be fair, Rena looked torn over this. Chat could see the hurt in her eyes, the worry in her bitten lower lip. The frustration in the creases of her brow. And she was telling all this to Chat, whom she only passingly knew.

But he couldn’t keep the distaste from his face. “Marinette’s right. Lila Rossi is a fucking liar. You think she’s got a real chance with Adrien Agreste? He wouldn’t touch her with my extendable baton. He only does photoshoots with her because clearly no one at Françoise Dupont knows what proper procedures for expulsion are, and that stunt Rossi pulled almost turned into Heroes Day 2.0.” He tugged down one of Adrien’s glamour shots. Marinette’s handwritten and detailed critiques ran along the edges. “From what it sounds like, Agreste would be lucky to date a girl like Marinette.”

Rena stared at Chat, stunned. “What do you know about Lila?”

He let out a short and hard laugh. “Enough. That little interview on the Ladyblog? I doubt there’s a true word in it. I mean, Ladybug’s best friend? I’m Ladybug’s best friend!”

Some of the tension released from her shoulders and she rolled her eyes. “Right. I forgot how jealous you can be, too.”

Chat growled at her. His ears flicked back, low on his head, and his tail whipped through the air agitatedly. “If you’re going to sit here and defend that manipulative bitch then you might as well take that miraculous off right now.”

Rena stepped back into a defensive stance. She was a decent fighter, but he was better. If she refused to give it over peaceably—

Something thumped on the roof. Ladybug. There was still an akuma, and that took priority. They needed to be where Ladybug expected them.

“Mirage, now.” His words were short and clipped. He pounced past her and opened up the window opposite of where the akuma would be coming from. “Follow the plan. We can talk about this later.”

The plan worked out like most of Ladybug’s plans do: perfectly. Chat’d tied the villain up in Marinette’s tarp-roof, presented with a string-of-lights bow and a flourished bow to his Lady to his Lady. She did her thing, tossed the spotted paperclip into the air, and Marinette’s balcony and room put themselves back together. The glamour shot even taped itself back on the wall.

Chat sent Ladybug a look. She gestured in a direction and he nodded. He was pretty sure he knew the roof she meant.

Rena passed by him with wariness, but he paid her no visible attention. She took off with Ladybug in the agreed direction while he turned to the akuma victim. He had a princess to protect.

“Here, let me get you down to street level,” he said. The deakumatized girl seemed hesitant to step into his arms, but relented after seeing no other way down. “Do you remember anything?”

Tears shone in her eyes for a moment, but she swiped at them and tried a smile. It didn’t work. “I—I think I’ll be okay. It’s stupid, I just…let my stress get the better of me.”

He opened his mouth, but she cut him off with a gasp. “Oh, no, Marinette! I didn’t do anything to hurt her, did I?”

“Mlle Dupain-Cheng is fine,” he hurried to reassure her, “but…do you remember why you were after her? Did she do something wrong?”

“No! No. Marinette is lovely; she’s always helping us out in the Garden Club!” The girl paused, ashamed. “I was just feeling overwhelmed and she always seems so put together, she juggles all these responsibilities…I was jealous. Like I said. Stupid.”

“Hey, hey, your feelings are not stupid. Everyone gets stressed and feels like they’re drowning at times. I bet if you asked Marinette about it, she’d say that she always feels like that.”

He remembered himself and what he had to do, and glanced upwards.

“I’m very sorry. I’d usually stay longer and make sure you’re really okay, but I have an urgent something.” He handed her one of the business cards he’d made up. It had information on a number of Akuma support groups. “I can be back in about 30 minutes if you want to wait?”

Her smile turned a little more real. She took a deep, calming breath and let it out slowly. “I think I’ll be okay,” she said again. “I’ll—that’s good advice. Talking to Marinette. Thank you, Chat Noir. For caring.”

He smiled and saluted her, then bounded off. His baton confirmed that Ladybug and Rena were still active a few rooftops over. But then he watched Rena’s signal go out and put on a burst of speed to get there in time. They weren’t on the roof, it turned out, but in the alleyway adjacent to the building.

Ladybug’s eyebrows raised in silent question when she saw him. “Sorry, Bug. This is something that needs to be done.”

Alya looked between the two. Suspicion bloomed and, with it, fear.

Pernicious cat gods, this was going to be awful.

“Alya Césaire.” Chat held his hand out. “The Miraculous. Please.”

She grasped it so hard her knuckles turned white. She took a big gulp of air and said shakily, “This feels final.”

He stared at one of his closest friends, and didn’t let himself waver.

“Your recklessness has put many in danger, including Ladybug and myself. You gave Lila Rossi a platform to speak, to spread her lies. You, who had held a miraculous before, and likely would again. Whom Ladybug had shown a partiality to in interviews and questions. You had every opportunity to check Rossi’s story.”

And, oh, he sounded exactly like his father. That grated.

“In giving her credibility, you opened several of your classmates up to her manipulations. Your best friend warned you about her lies, and you wrote it off as petty jealousy. You tried to write off what I told you as petty jealousy.”

He could kind of see how she’d come to that conclusion, assuming Marinette never told her about that cringe-worthy ice skating date and knowing that she was in love with him. (Alya said ‘crush’. Having this new option to attribute to Mari’s behavior, he knew it was more than that.)

“Furthermore, I can guarantee that at least one terrorist watches your blog. A civilian claimed to be a superhero’s best friend and you broadcast that to the world. What happens when said terrorist decides to use that?”

It was harsh, and damning. But it had to be said. She needed to understand.

Alya looked from him to Ladybug and back, then repeated the motion. “You—you can’t…” Alya’s voice broke. Her eyes settled on Ladybug, who appeared to have turned to stone, she held herself so rigidly. “He can’t do this. Right? You hand out the Miraculous; it’s your decision. Not his!”

Ladybug’s stormy eyes turned to ice. The Ladyblogger realized her mistake and opened her mouth to salvage something, anything, but Ladybug cut her off. “You, of all people, should know that Chat is my equal. He’s right. I should've…but I didn’t…” She shook her head, once. “I stand by his decisions.”

Chat released a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. Alya’s eyes grew bright with tears and she clutched the Fox Miraculous harder. She stared at them, and they stared at her, and she finally dropped it into Chat’s claws.

Ladybug’s hands fluttered in Alya’s direction. She pulled up short, though, unsure if her touch would be welcome.

“This doesn’t make you a bad person, Alya,” she said gently. “You’ve been lied to and manipulated. That’s not your fault. But, as a reporter, it’s important to consider the consequences of distributing information. Just as it is to produce evidence to back your stories.”

Alya’s hand pressed against her mouth, muffled a sob.

Ladybug hesitated, considering, and then spoke again. “You can still be a hero, Alya. Magic, the miraculous, it doesn’t make you into what you aren’t. You make you a hero. And, like I told Chloé, being a hero starts with your everyday life.”

Silence. The only sounds were the girl’s sniffling and the pounding of Chat’s heart. Even the sounds of the city muted. He had to force himself to stay still. Fidgeting felt disrespectful somehow. It was broken by Alya.

“So—so Lila was never your friend?” she asked thickly.

Ladybug’s voice was so gentle, yet cut through what the Ladyblogger had known like a knife. “No.”

Alya nodded. Wiped her eyes and tried to pull herself together. Her short gasps of breath betrayed how upset she was. “I. I think I’ve—” She swallowed. “Got some thinking to do.”

She turned to face the street, straightened her spine, and walked out. Her walk looked a little robotic to Chat, a little too forced to be her normal. She barely made it ten meters before Chat heard Nino call out to her.

Good, he thought, deflating a little. Nino will protect her.

His priority was his Lady.

“Well, it looks like you finally joined me in getting past the time limitation.” His attempt at lightening the mood fell flat even to him.

Ladybug didn’t respond at all. She took a big, shuddering breath.

“Oh, Bug…” Chat was quick to wrap his arms around her, and gently pull her head to rest on his shoulder. He coaxed her into a shuffle-walk until his back met the dirty alley wall, the heel of the hand that still held the Fox necklace rubbing up and down and across her back. “I’m so sorry.”

She shook her head back and forth; his claws tangled further in her hair. He tried not to listen to her quiet tears. He drowned out the sound of Nino and Alya moving on. The cars on the street. Instead he looked for the delicate and distinct sound of an akuma’s wings. She deserved a moment to mourn without worry.

Ladybug took a deep breath.

“You were right.” Her voice sounded wet. “Her blog affects many, and we were probably the only ones she was going to listen to.

“Actions…actions have to have consequences. Alya wasn’t seeing them, and—and maybe we shouldn’t be judge, jury, and executioner, but—the longer this goes on the worse they’ll become.”

Neither of them moved. He continued to find no evil bugs. Or feathers, but they usually went weeks in between Mayura sightings.

A gentle wind blew. They were having a round of good weather. Sunny days that were just warm enough to make the breeze feel perfect. He was hoping it’d hold through the weekend.

Ladybug pulled away to wipe her eyes. He fumbled a folded black handkerchief with green embroidery into her hands and she shot him a grateful, if watery, smile. “Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Oh, that just warmed him down to his toes. And emboldened him to push a little more. “Hey, I was wondering, would you mind saying that bit about me being right again? Because I could listen to that all day—”

He internally cheered as his partner huffed out a laugh and rolled her eyes. “Careful, kitty. I can see your head getting bigger by the second.”

She returned fire!

Mission accomplished.

.

That meant it was time to go, he guessed.

.

Chat stood there a moment longer. Contemplative.

“What are you thinking about, minou?”

He turned to her with a small smile, trying to hold it back and mostly failing. She crinkled a smile in return and raised an eyebrow.

“I’m going to get me a girlfriend.”

He said it so resolutely, so surely, so smugly, that she couldn’t help but laugh. “You are, are you?”

He nodded. His smile spread to full blown glee. “If she’ll have me. Rena said something while we waited, and it just made me think. There’s this girl, LB, and fuck is she amazing. She’s been waiting for me for the better part of two years, and I just realized that I’m crushing on her. Hard. I don’t even know when it started.”

He sighed, happy. “I’m going to ask her out. Tomorrow. And pray to the kwamis that she gives me one last chance.”

(Adrien didn’t ask Marinette out the next day, because Alya looked awful and he figured she needed the support. He’d count himself lucky if she didn’t get akumatized over this, and would attribute the entirety of that luck to his princess. He did invite her to lunch the day after that—he’d thought it’d be more difficult than it was, but Alya was already leading Rose off to a quiet corner—where he managed a stuttered and stilted confession. He honestly had no idea how Marinette managed to understand it, but she must have because she gave an enthusiastic “Yes!” and the next thing he knew they were making plans to explore the city together on Saturday.)

-

It's the job of the Black Cat to recognize when something’s not working, and to get rid of it. Destruction is necessary for Creation to truly thrive. And, sometimes, that means destroying what Creation loves. But, sometimes, the thing Creation loves is the vine that's choking her.

(Or enables the vine that’s choking her.)

#miraculous ladybug #chat noir #ladybug #rena rouge #alya salt #alya learns a lesson #lila salt #adrienette #ml fanfic

[rosethornewrites]

Fic: Breaking Point

Relationships: Caline Bustier & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Characters: Caline Bustier, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Alya Césaire, Max Kanté, Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Juleka Couffaine, Lila Rossi, Tikki

Tags: caline bustier salt, Reveal, Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste Knows, Protective Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Caline Bustier Knows, ml salt, Harassment, Lila Rossi Lies, Bad Classroom Environments, Gaslighting, enablers, Bullying ,Salt, Identity Reveal, Spitefic, Swearing, Adrien Sugar

Summary: '“For instance, being a superhero is not a viable career path,” was what made her tune in, her attention fully pulled to Mme. Bustier, who seemed to be looking right at her.' 

Note: This was written based on a prompt by @norakwami.

AO3 link

------

Marinette wasn’t really paying attention to Mme. Bustier’s lecture. To be fair, it was about career options and how to achieve them, something she had researched so completely she already had a list of universities she intended to apply to, along with possible companies to intern, all carefully tabbed in a binder at home that was also slowly filling with application and portfolio ideas.

Given that she was only fourteen and still had four more years before she reached the point of applying, she was ahead of the game. Perhaps she could be considering going to another lycée instead of the feeder for Collège Françoise Dupont, perhaps somewhere private that had a focus on fashion. But she didn’t want to put pressure on her parents, who would have to pay the tuition for such an institution, when she was already winning awards and making a name for herself through designing for Jagged Stone and the up-and-coming Kitty Section, among others.

“For instance, being a superhero is not a viable career path,” was what made her tune in, her attention fully pulled to Mme. Bustier, who seemed to be looking right at her.

What.

The.

Fuck.

Marinette felt frozen by that stare, pinned like a ladybug by an entomologist. How could she know? Did other people notice her stare?

“Ladybug is almost certainly harming her civilian future through these superhero antics, which prevent her from fulfilling all her obligations.”

Alya snorted. “That’s not Ladybug’s fault—it’s Hawkmoth’s. Ladybug protects the city. And maybe Paris should pay her for her services!”

“Ladybug is a teenager who should be concentrating on school,” Mme. Bustier declared, still staring holes into Marinette.

“Ladybug has never released her age,” Adrien murmured, his voice sounding strained. “So that’s conjecture, Mme. Bustier. How does this have to do with our future careers?”

To her horror, he turned and followed her gaze to Marinette.

She felt as though she might hyperventilate, panic rising in her gut. If she was compromised, that put her family and friends at risk, put the Miracle Box at risk, played right into Hawkmoth’s hands. She’d never been good at a poker face, and she wasn’t sure whether she was managing now.

Adrien’s eyes widened, and she knew she’d failed, at least with him. Kwami, she hoped she could trust him.

“I’m glad you asked, Adrien. For instance, Marinette, would you please share your current preparation for your future career.”

All eyes were on her, and she could feel the thoughts swirling around them as she was called out. She swallowed, trying to push it all down.

“I-I… I have a binder. At home. F-fifteen different universities with fashion p-programs. In order of where I want to go most. Also c-companies that offer internships.” She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves—it helped a bit. “I’ve started my portfolio, including the b-bowler hat that won M. Agreste’s contest, and my work for Jagged Stone and Kitty Section, and p-pictures of clothing I’ve designed and made.”

She could hear murmurs around her, and Alya gave a low whistle beside her.

“Girl, no wonder you don’t sleep. You’re on top of this!”

Mme. Bustier’s mouth became a thin line, her lips pressed together as though she was irritated.

Marinette wished keenly that Master Fu was still around, could handle this situation. She’d come to realize Mme. Bustier was a terrible teacher, enabling bullying and shaming victims as though they were at fault for their treatment. But this was a whole new level of awful.

“Still, the way you run off during Akuma attacks interrupts your daily life and prevents you from—”

“We all run away during Akuma attacks! They disrupt all our daily lives.”

Adrien stood, his back rigid from tension.

“Marinette has been personally targeted multiple times during Akuma attacks. So have I! A lot of this has been documented on the LadyBlog. It’s traumatizing—and we keep our memories of that because we’re not the Akuma. I run and hide, personally. Why would you shame Marinette for that?”

The class fell silent, and glancing around Marinette could see the tension in their faces, their own memories of being chased by Akuma.

Adrien had moved this away from the idea of Marinette being Ladybug to her being shamed for her reaction to Akumas. He was protecting her. And she loved him all the more for it.

“There was Evillustrator,” Marinette murmured, jumping on the red herring.

She glanced at Nathanaël apologetically. He offered a sad smile.

“I had to help Chat Noir with that. It was scary. Andr�� Glacier became Glaciator and came looking for me, and Chat Noir saved me from getting frozen. And Gamer was looking for me. Chat Noir saved me again.”

She could see Max wince across the aisle.

“Reflekta turned me into her clone because she was mad at me. And it was my fault.”

Marinette turned and mouthed ‘sorry’ to Juleka.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Juleka whispered, then cringed as she realized her voice had carried far enough for everyone to hear.

She smiled, then turned back to the front.

“My own grandmother tried to turn me into coal when she was Akumatized because she was upset I wasn’t like eight years old anymore—Chat Noir saved me again there, too. And then my dad was Akumatized and Chat Noir and Ladybug had to save me again.”

Marinette hadn’t been able to transform, needing to be saved as a civilian before she could get back as Ladybug. Too many of them had been so public she’d had to trust Chat Noir would be able to hold his own until she got there—and she did, but she was afraid sometime that would be fatal.

“And I saw footage when Adrien was dropped from a building and then when Volpina pretended to drop him from the Eiffel Tower. That’s terrifying!”

She didn’t turn around to look at Lila. Instead she looked at Adrien, who was still standing, alternating between glaring at Mme. Bustier and glancing back at her with concern in his eyes.

“And then there’s mind control Akumas, like with Miracle Queen. I’m scared of Akumas, Mme. Bustier. Even when they’re across the city, they won’t always stay there, and I want to hide. And I refuse to be ashamed of that!”

It wasn’t a lie, either. Civilian her absolutely wanted to hide—and did, just behind a mask.

She turned her attention to the teacher, keeping her back straight, remembering she had Adrien on her side, even if she wished he didn’t know—damn Bustier for that. Marinette steeled herself.

“I don’t understand why you’ve singled me out to try to imply I alone am somehow failing to perform because of Akumas, but you always seem to do this. I’m at fault for being bullied. I need to be an example and not react when my belongings are destroyed and my locker is broken into. Or when someone gets me expelled by somehow putting test answers in my bag and a new Gabriel-brand necklace—supposedly an heirloom—in my locker that’s been broken into before. I’ve spent the last year feeling I’m not allowed to have emotions. But this is the last straw.”

Marinette stood, picking up her bag. When she glanced down Tikki was giving her the Kwami version of a thumbs up.

“Frankly, Mme. Bustier, you have been toxic for my mental health for quite some time. Time I’ve spent researching to discover what you’re doing isn’t appropriate for the classroom; it’s abusive and reportable. If you’ll excuse me, I need to speak to the M. Damocles, as well as my parents. And perhaps the Board of Governors, as I am no longer willing to tolerate this treatment and its continued harm to my education.”

With that, she marched down the stairs, past an open-mouthed Bustier, and out of the classroom, holding her head high.

Once in the open hallway, clear of the windows, she deflated.

“Well, fuck,” she whispered. “I guess I get to do research on a new collège, too.”

She supposed, at least, she’d been successful at diverting Bustier from the Ladybug accusations; the last thing she needed was for Ladybug-hater Lila to know and come after her.

“You and me both.”

Adrien’s voice behind her nearly made her jump out of her skin. She was relieved to see no one else had followed him. She could hear the hullaballoo of the classroom behind her, all control having been lost.

He quirked a grin. “We’re in it together, Bugaboo. As always.”

She stared, feeling like there was a hamster lolling on the wheel of her thoughts instead of running to turn it.

Adrien took her arm. “Come on. I’ll support you. Let’s go talk to M. Damocles.”

“Ch-Chat?” Marinette managed in a hiss as her brain finally caught up.

He gently guided her forward. “My Lady.”

She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to laugh, cry, scream, or some combination of the three. But as they approached M. Damocles’ office, Marinette pushed the issue aside.

After all, she had work to do, and Ladybug didn’t leave work unfinished.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous fanfiction #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #bustier salt #alya cesaire #max kante #juleka couffaine #nathaniel kurtzberg #caline bustier #lila rossi #lila 'the liar' rossi #ml salt #adrien sugar #identity reveal #my fanfiction #miraculous salt

[loosescrewslefty]

Miraculous Ladybug- Fixing the Powers

I’ve been very much bothered by the way that the writing team for Miraculous Ladybug has been handling powers for a long time now. It might not be as frustrating or offensive as how they sometimes treat the characters and their relationships, but it BOTHERS me. Because it doesn’t make sense that Adults are more powerful than kids just by the grace of being an adult if the magic comes from a kwami and the jewelry and as such the age of the wearer shouldn’t matter as much. And objectively speaking, there as several ‘minor’ miraculouses that seem WAY more powerful than the two that are supposed to be the most coveted, the Ladybug and Chat Noir miraculouses. Also both the addition of the potions AND the distinctions given to some of the miraculouses/kwamis (Such as Pollen being the ‘Kwami of Subjugation’) are just... ODD. So a while back I sat down and charted out a way to ‘fix’ the powers in Miraculous Ladybug, much like I’ve seen others fix plots and characters.

More Clearly based on Yin/Yang, Wu Xing, and the Zodiacs

I can’t tell you how much it annoys me that Astruc clearly chose these Chinese motifs for the aesthetic, and didn’t bother researching or properly applying any of the theology attached to them to his show. Ladybug and Chat Noir SHOULD be equal, and balance one another out, but they’re not. Instead, Ladybug gets way more power and importance than Chat Noir does. And the Wu Xing Cycle is an important one too, because that’s nature holding itself in check. 

The Wu Xing has four different cycles attached to it; the Creation Cycle, the Destruction Cycle, the Insult Cycle, and the Controlling Cycle. It could have been interesting to lean into this, so that pairing two miraculous heroes together can lead to new powers being unlocked, depending on the two in question, and that if a  Hawkmoth happens, there are two heroes other than Ladybug and Chat who’d be able to step up and confront him.

New Stations/Distinctions for the Kwamis

It bothers me that the distinctions chosen for the Kwami feel extremely random, and don’t fit together at all. Nooroo is “Generosity”, Trixx is “Deception”, Pollen is “Subjugation”, Wayzz is “Protection”, and Duusuu is “Emotion.” Like, on their own these are fine. But none of them really relate to one another in a way that makes sense, which the Wu Xing SHOULD. As much as it annoys me, I can sorta understand why it would be a bad idea to attach the specific elements themselves to each Miraculous, because then people will expect the powers of that miraculous to relate to that element, which is very limiting. The Wu Xing is about much more than just nature and the elements. It’s also used to reference the passing of time, physical parts of the body, emotions, cardinal directions and so much more. 

But I still feel that the Distinctions for each Kwami and their powers should be presented in a what where it makes sense to see them relating to one another. One way I’ve suggested for people to do this is to include Ladybug and Chat in the consideration and base each of the Kwamis off of one of the Seven Chakras. But another way I like much better is to consider the kwamis in relation to what area their abilities will affect. For Example; Fox- Mind (Wood) Bee- Energy (Fire) Turtle- Body (Earth) Peacock- Soul (Metal) Butterfly- Heart (Water)

These are things you can tell at a glance relate to one another, without limiting the kwamis too much to being one trick ponies. And speaking of limits...

Limits are based on internal balance, not age

In an effort to make the sage figure that is supposed to be Fu NOT look like he has sand for brains and decided it’d be a good idea to give his chosen heroes a massive handicap against the villain right out of the gate, we’re going to change up the limiter for the Miraculouses. Rather than being based on age, the thing that determines how well you use a miraculous is your affiliation with the element/distinction that the Miraculous represents. Let’s use Kim as an example here. He’s very energetic and driven, so he’d have a great time with either the Bee or the Turtle, but give him the Peacock, the Butterfly, or the Fox, and things will get a hell of a lot harder for him. On the exact flip side, Juleka would be great with the Peacock, Butterfly, or Fox, but would struggle with the Bee or the Turtle.

Having the powers draw off of being able to synchronize with that power/ability due to personality makes sense, and is more true to the concepts that Miraculous Ladybug is trying to present than claiming that it’s because of age. And the beauty of this is that people can grow and change at any point in their life, which means that they can learn and change and miraculouses that they once struggled with can become easier for them to use while ones they once used easily can slip from their grasp if they begin to neglect that aspect of themselves.

More Clear and Understandable Power Pyramid

This is one of the things that bothers me MOST about how they’ve been handling the powers. We’re supposed to see Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculouses as the be all/end all, but many of the zodiac miraculouses seem much more powerful than them, and even the Peacock and Butterfly can create opponents that are more than a match for the Lucky Duo. Not to mention the fact that, as I said before, the Lucky Duo itself is imbalanced due to Ladybug getting all the power in their relationship. So the best way to fix that?

Power Pyramid.

By this, I mean that instead of all miraculouses just getting one power and calling it a day, it makes more sense to present the powers as an almost ‘trickle’ effect. To start off, Zodiacs get defined by a single element and whichever side of Yin/Yang they fall on, and get their power based on that. For example, the Dragon. That is a Yang/Earth (Body) Personality, who uses the elements in an aggressive way. Meanwhile, Snake is a Yin/Fire (Energy), so they require someone who comes across as passive, but is actually patient and knows to wait for the precise moment to strike.

Next level up from the Zodiac Miraculouses, we have the Wu Xing/Elemental Miraculouses. Rather than just one power, each Wu Xing Miraculous should get two, one based on it’s “Yin” Abilities, and one for it’s “Yang.” the way I broke it down when I was working this out for examples went like so;

Trixx

Fox Powers/Mind

Yang- Mirage 

Creates an illusion of the user’s choosing.

Yin- Outfox

Gives the user the ability to convince the victim that anything they’re saying is true.

Pollen

Bee Powers/Energy

Yang- Nectar

Ability to heal injuries and cure illnesses (not as strong as Miraculous Cure)

Yin- Sting

Causes temporary paralysis

Wayzz

Turtle Powers/Body

Yang- Shell-ture

Creates an impenetrable shield

Yin- Withdraw

Teleportation ability that allows the user to put people and object of their desire in a pocket dimension of their own making for protection.

Duusu

Peacock Powers/Soul

Yang- Good Spirits

Creates a golem/familiar of sorts that is bonded to a certain person or object and protects them at all costs.

Yin- Soul Search

Allows the user to leave their body and enter another persons to take control of their actions and peer into their memories.

Nooroo

Butterfly Powers/Heart

Yang- Metamorphosis

Creates heroes to fight alongside the user

Yin- Butterfly Effect

Allows a brief glimpse into the future

And then after the Elements, at the top of the Pyramid we have Ladybug and Chat Noir, who get a whopping FIVE power each, but can only access those powers when they are in tune with that aspect of themselves, much like using the lesser miraculouses. For Example, Marinette’s Ladybug Can easily do the Mind, Energy, and Heart powers, but has a much, MUCH harder time with the Soul one, because she tends to read people at face value rather than trying to see beneath the surface. Adrien’s Chat Noir is excellent with the Body and Energy powers, but struggles much more with Mind (linked to one’s creativity) and Heart (Based on people’s abilities to connect with others, something Adrien struggles with after being home schooled his entire life) My idea for the Ladybug and Chat Noir powers look like this;

Tikki

Ladybug Powers:

Positive Heart- (Healing) 

Miraculous Ladybug/Miraculous Cure

Heals all wounds, restores everything to its proper state

Positive Mind- (Inspiration) 

Lucky Charm

Grants Ladybug an object to help her win

Positive Energy- (Creating) 

Wish Come True

Allows Ladybug to will into existence something of her own choosing

Positive Body- (Protecting) 

Elytron

Allows Ladybug to recreate both her own suit and the suits of her allies to help them fight (space suits, ice skating form, underwater suits, ect)

Positive Soul- (Life) 

Red Thread

Ladybug has a limited ability to communicate with plants and animals, extending some of her power to them. Also works on humans, if the person trusts Ladybug enough to basically let her see into their very soul.

Plagg

Chat Noir Powers:

Negative Heart- (Toxicity) 

Cat Scratch

Curses the victim with a lingering sickness that can only be healed by Ladybug.

Negative Mind- (Madness) 

Cheshire Cat

Causes temporary insanity, which varies from victim to victim.

Negative Energy- (Destruction) 

Cataclysm

Destroys anything the user touches.

Negative Body- (Weakness) 

Catatonic 

Puts the victim to sleep.

Negative Soul- (Death) 

Catacomb

Allows the user to see, touch and summon spirits/ghosts

And that’s the basic breakdown of how I feel the powers of the ML universe SHOULD be handled instead. Feel free to comment with thoughts and inputs of your own and ask questions if any of this doesn’t make sense! ^^

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #adrien agreste #gabriel agreste #master fu #hawkmoth #ml: ladybug #ml: chat noir #power fix #canon fix #yin/yang #wu xing #zodiacs

[oc4everything]

So I saw the Miraculous New York Special last week and there has been one thing that has been bothering me and a few people mentioned it already, so let’s go over it.

Let’s talk about Aeon/Uncanny Valley

Uncanny Valley is an American Superhero. She’s an Android built by the superhero Majestia, who considers her and treats her like a daughter. Now when I heard that her hero name was uncanny valley my initial thoughts were “huh that’s kind of a mean name for a robot”. For those of you who don’t know, the uncanny valley is a concept that states robots are more appealing the more human they appear, but lately the term is used to describe how unsettling robots and dolls are the more human they look. That is because your brain can tell something is off about it. It looks very human, but off enough that it can be unsettling. Like the motion capture Polar Express movie.

This wouldn’t be so bad if not for one other thing, that being that Uncanny Valley’s human form is a dark-skinned black girl named Aeon.

There is also the chance that having her robotic form look like this could be considered white washing?

Now I want to say right now that I think the creators had good intentions with this. Their logic was probably something like “Well, America is a country with a large black population, and we already want our new miraculous holder to be Native American (see Aeon’s sister, Jess), so let’s have our other new character represent that. At the very worst if this action could be considered carelessness or a failure to see if this is a bad choice.

There is a scene in the middle of the special where Cat Noir accidentally uses Cataclysm on her, breaking her, but Ladybug is able to use Miraculous Ladybug to reverse it. They talk about how relieved they are that they were able to fix it because Aeon is a machine. I think that’s in there just to point out that they don’t now if they could reverse it if it were a human he used it on instead of a machine. Aside from that everyone is very disturbed by the incident itself, especially Majestia, who is establish as being a protective mother towards Aeon.

As a character Aeon is actually very sweet. You can tell that her Moms and sister really care about her like she is a human and that she cares about other people. She seems to be a pretty standard example of the robot trope. She takes her programming literally and as a result is always trying to help people, like by setting up Andrien and Marinette. Sort of like “always a little too-well intention” type deal. They seems to be trying make her an innocent and good hearted type of character.

She is also a technological foil to the magical elements of the Miraculous universe, like not being able to see kwamis and being able to see through Ladybug and Chat Noir’s transformations. If we actually do get a spin off series like the Miraculous World logo and after credits scene implies, she may end up getting the standard character arc about learning how being a robot does not make her any less human than other people. Where she made any other race, I don’t think she would have been written any differently. I believe the decision to make her design black was done for representation. Which begs the question: is it good representation?

I have not seen many people say anything about Aeon which leads me to believe that she is actually very likeable character and I would like to see more of her myself. But I wanted to discuss some of these concerns I had and I noticed a few other people bring up.

It makes us ask what are the rules when writing humanoid or fantasy characters that are POC or coded as such? It’s nice to include them in fantasy or sci fi scenarios and the same roles have been done by white characters before, but because of the different contexts or implications that come with writing these types of characters, should we be more aware when writing them?

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ny special #miraculous nyc #miraculous aeon #miraclous uncanny valley #miraculous jess

[p-artsypants]

Integrity (Part 2)

Integrity is the practice of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. - Overwhelmed with her responsibilities, guilt, and drama, Marinette has an emotional breakdown in front of everyone, and even hands over her earrings in a moment of weakness. Only for a few seconds, but the damage was done. Adrien’s pretty quick on the uptake like that.

Ao3 | FF.net

It was now 11pm. Adrien and Plagg both laid on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

That was...a lot.

“Your father...” began Plagg.

“Yeah.”

“...is Hawkmoth.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not...that surprising.”

“Yeah.”

They continued to lay there, silently accepting all they had seen.

“And Marinette is Ladybug.”

“Yeah.”

“Crazy day.”

“Yeah.”

Silence.

“I’ve never seen him cry before.” Said Plagg.

“I’ve only seen it once before. I had assumed he cried when mom disappeared, but he never did in front of me.”

“It was...kind of reassuring.”

“Yeah.”

“And your mom is still...”

“Yeah.”

Gabriel had said a lot down in his secret garden. How sorry he was, how guilty he felt, how he knew he had gone too far, the times he almost quit, even though he was so close.

Adrien hadn’t been able to say a thing.

His mother was right there, but Gabriel had hid her, because he didn’t know how to explain to his son what he had done.

“You know,” said Plagg. “I get why he thought get my and Tikki’s miraculous would help. But it’s really a last resort thing. There’s other ways to treat a magical coma.”

“Yeah.”

“You okay?”

“Emotionally drained, and just...seeing my mothers face...”

“I get it.” Said the Kwami, nuzzling up to his face. “We’ll figure it out.” Plagg afforded him a few more minutes of quiet contemplation before asking, “Are you going to help him?”

“Yeah.” Adrien said absent-mindedly. Then clarified, “obviously not the way he asked me to.”

Gabriel had explained the situation. That he needed the Ladybug and Black Chat Miraculous to bring Emilie out of her coma. He had been using Lila and Chloe as triggers to set emotional teenagers off, but with Lila out of the picture, he needed someone else to fill that roll.

Adrien had asked, in the calmest voice he could muster if Lila knew he was Hawkmoth.

Gabriel had clarified that no, only Nathalie knew. And now, now that he was standing up for himself and proved himself trustworthy, he was being let in on the secret.

He had the brain power to thank his father, but it sounded pretty hollow to his own ears.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to say anything else. His father just kept talking. The truth spilled out of him like a fountain, like he was relieved to finally confess all of these terrible things he had done.

Adrien imagined that when he finally came face to face with Hawkmoth (again) he’d punch the man in the face, and then when he was defeated, he and Ladybug would scream it from the rooftops. Then he and Ladybug would share a deep kiss as Hawkmoth was loaded into the squad car.

He never imagined his father in that scenario.

But, hauntingly enough, the reveal wasn’t as agonizing as it probably should have been. He hadn’t even cried. He shed a few tears at his mother’s face, but that was a given. With his father, it was just shock. And a little frustration and guilt directed at himself. How had he not known sooner?

“Shouldn’t we tell Marinette?” Asked Plagg, breaking that self-deprecating spiral before it began.

“Yeah...we probably should. But I...don’t know if I can. I haven’t even told her my identity.”

“You don’t expect to fight him on your own?”

“No. I really don’t want to fight my father. Not after he was so...vulnerable. And he trusted me.”

“Trust means little when you’re a terrorist, Adrien.”

“Maybe...but it means a lot to me...”  

“Okay.” Plagg patted his cheek. “What’s ideal in this situation? Not realistic, ideal.”

“We...get my father to hand over his miraculous, I take it to Marinette, and together we find a way to wake up my mother...and then I don’t loose either of my parents.”

“You know your father isn’t going to hand it over. Even if you tell him who you are. And I can’t recommend enough for you NOT to do that.”

“No, no I won’t do that. That’s too risky. I saw how desperate he was.”

“So what do we do? We can’t wait.”

“No, we can’t. But...since we know where he lives, we know where he sleeps.”

“What? You’re going to take it while he’s sleeping?”

“Nope.” Adrien turned to smile at him. “You are.”

“Me?!”

“There’s not any code against Kwami’s taking another’s miraculous, is there?”

“I mean, it’s rude. But if it’s for the Kwami’s own good...” he put a paw to his face. “I’ll do it. Nooroo is hurting with your father.”

“I think the peacock is here too. It might be in the safe.”

“Oh!!” Plagg cried.

“What?”

“I saw it! Adrien! When we broke into your dad’s safe! There was a peacock brooch in there in disguise and I didn’t even think about it!!”

Adrien groaned. “Damn, Ladybug even guessed that my father was Hawkmoth all that time ago!”

“He akumatized himself though. He threw you off.”

Adrien finally sat up, resting his elbows on his knees. “You’re right. We have to be smart about this. If his miraculous goes missing the morning after he told me, I’m suspect number one.”

“So how do you want to pull the greatest heist of the century?”

“Go take the peacock first, and then get the moth. I will run the shower and hide in the bathroom. As soon as you have them, we’ll transform and go to Marinette. That way, if he wakes up at any point and comes looking for answers, I’ll have an alibi.”

“Not a strong one, but it’ll work.”

“It has to work. Then, I’ll pack my fencing duffel and disappear for a few days. Until Ladybug and Chat Noir can talk to him.”

“Yeah, that’s not suspicious.”

“I’ll leave a note, that lets him know everything is going to be okay, I just need a little time to process everything.”

“I have a feeling he’s not going to take well to that.”

Adrien wiped his hands down his face. “I mean, we could consult Ladybug first if you think that’s better!”

“Nah, I think she’ll appreciate you acting quickly and discreetly.”

Adrien looked at the clock. “Okay. I’m not sure what time he goes to bed. But I’ll pack up my bag now. Can you spy on him?”

“I’ll be the most serious I’ve ever been in my entire existence.”

“Watch out for Nooroo too. He might alert my father.”

Plagg gave him a considerate look. “Something tells me he won’t.”

So Adrien gathered his belongings. A few days worth of clothes, toiletries, and a few possessions he couldn’t leave behind if things went south, including his passport and birth certificate. After a moment of consideration, he shoveled Plagg’s cheese stash into a garbage bag.

“Hey! What’s the big idea?!”

He tossed the cheese bag into his duffel. “It’s suspicious.”

“What? You think he’s going to rifle through your room?”

“I wouldn’t put it past him.”

Then he scrounged around and found a little gift box. It would hold both Miraculous perfectly.

At midnight, Plagg went out for the first Miraculous. He returned only a few minutes later, empty handed. “Your father was still down in the basement. I’m going to go back down and watch for when he comes back upstairs. You should try to get a little sleep. I’ll wake you when I have the peacock.”

Adrien nodded, but didn’t think he could actually sleep. He was completely exhausted after this whirlwind of a day. He now knew the two biggest secrets in all of Paris. If he wasn’t Chat Noir, it may have been enough to turn him on his head.

But as it stood, he was Chat Noir, and he had a job to do.

Time stretched on, and the longer he waited there, in the dark, the longer he worried. What if Plagg was caught? Of course he could phase through anything, and he was smart enough not to lead back to him. But then his father would immediately be on edge.

The house was silent. In the huge halls and thick walls, it was impossible to hear what was going on. The door could open at any moment.

There was a creak, and Adrien held his breath.

“One down.” Plagg whispered.

Adrien exhaled, despite his heart pounding. Now is when the risk was greatest. Now he could be caught with stolen goods.

“Is my father asleep?”

“Looks like it.”

Adrien nodded, and took the peacock brooch. He put it in the box, and took it, and his duffel bag, with him into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

He set the box on the counter, and then went over and opened the window.

“Take it when you feel it’s safe.”

“Roger that.” Plagg gave a serious nod, before disappearing into the house.

Adrien turned on the water, and then took a seat on the toilet.

And waited.

It would be okay. Everything would work out fine. His father hadn’t figured him out as Chat Noir yet, and he even confessed that he greatly trusted Adrien. So...his father would be asleep. Not guarded, not paranoid. Just sleeping.

Minutes dragged on, as all he could do was sit there and catastrophize.

“I got it.” Plagg announced, appearing silently.

Adrien jumped at the sound. But lost his voice at the sight of the butterfly pin in Plagg’s paws.

“It went smoothly?”

“Nooroo saw me.”

Adrien shut his eyes in defeat.

“He didn’t say anything. He actually smiled at me and pointed at the pin. He wanted me to take it.”

Adrien sighed in relief. “Then we did it.”

“Almost. We have to get these in the Miracle Box.”

“Right! Plagg, Claws Out!”

—

The first stop was the school. He had to drop off his overnight bag. A part of him wondered if it would have been alright just to take his bag with him in the morning, since it was his fencing bag, but there was always the risk that Gabriel would stop him and search through it in the morning. He couldn’t risk anything.

Normally, when he was this high strung, he would savor the rush of the wind, and the secrets of the night.

But not tonight. It was far too dangerous to leave for long.

He landed on the roof of the school, and climbed down to the courtyard. Thankfully, the locker room was open, and he was able to quickly stuff his bag in his locker. The school looked different at night. Eerie, quiet, and too dark for someone without night vision to walk through. He stayed only long enough to stash his bag, before leaving again. He couldn’t worry about security cameras.

And thankfully, Marinette lived right next to the school.

He landed on her balcony, not really caring if his fall woke her up.

Peering in her window, he saw her curled up, sleeping peacefully. He had half a mind to just leave the box and let her sleep.

But no, this was too important. He had to make sure she received it.

He knocked his knuckles against the glass.

She stirred.

He knocked again.

She turned her face towards him, and he could see her squinting at him. And then her clock.

Finally, she stood and opened the hatch. “Chat Noir? What’s wrong? Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Far too late to be making house calls to pretty girls,” he joked, but it lacked luster. “But I got you a present.”

“At 2 in the morning?”

“It can’t wait. Sorry. But I think you’ll really like it.” He handed over the box. “Don’t wait to open it. But I can’t stick around. I trust you more than anyone in the whole world. I know you’ll know what to do with them.”

“What are you talking about Chat? You’re acting really weird.”

“I know, I’m sorry. We’ll talk later, okay? I just—I got to go.”

Perhaps he was seeking comfort, or maybe he was just hopped up on adrenaline, but he swooped down and pressed a kiss on her forehead. Then without anything else, he fled.

—

Chat Noir dropped into his bathroom, the shower still running, the door still closed. He had left soft music on too, just in case someone called to him and he couldn’t answer.

He dropped his transformation, and undressed. It wouldn’t do to come out of a hour long shower with dry hair.

He showered quickly. Just enough to be convincing. Then put on his pajamas, and left the room.

Sitting on his bed, cloaked in the shadows, was his father.

Though Adrien prepared for it, it still startled him. “Oh!”

“Have a nice shower? At 2 in the morning?”

Adrien gulped. “I was...I couldn’t sleep. I thought a shower would help.”

“And did it? Are you all calm and relaxed?”

No. “Yes?”

“Good.” Gabriel stood, and in a few quick steps, loomed over his son. “Where is it?”

“Wh-what?”

Gabriel grabbed him by the collar and yanked him upwards, forcing him up on his toes. “Don’t play dumb with me! I know you took it!”

“I didn’t—I don’t—!”

“Don’t lie to me!”

“I’m sorry!” Adrien burst, honest to god tears spilling over his cheeks. “I didn’t think you’d mind...”

“I wouldn’t mind?!” Gabriel screamed. “Are you stupid or something?!” He let go of Adrien who stumbled back. “Get it for me. Now!”

Adrien scrambled over to his TV and grabbed a DVD. The one his mother had starred in, Solitude. “Here...you were just so busy...I didn’t think...”

Gabriel stared at the case, wide-eyed. “Adrien...”

“Next time, I’ll ask. I promise.”

Gabriel sighed, dropping the case onto the bed. “This wasn’t what was missing. You were fine to borrow this without asking.”

“Oh?” Adrien wiped his face. “Then, what’s missing?”

“My miraculous.” He jutted out his jaw, and lowered his gaze.

Adrien resisted the urge to smile. It seemed he was a better actor than he thought. “Your...Miraculous is missing? But...did you check by your bed? Maybe it fell off your nightstand? Or wherever you put it when you sleep?”

“I wear it to bed.”

“Isn’t that uncomfortable?”

“I’m used to it now. I have to wear it. I’ll wake up if I feel a strong enough emotion.”

Adrien ran over the information his father had given him earlier. He couldn’t let on that he knew any information about the Miraculous, but he did have the Ladyblog as a source if he slipped up.

“What about the little moth thing? The...karmi?”

“Kwami.” Gabriel clarified, “and his name is Nooroo. I’ve ordered him to obey...but it could very be likely he took it from me. At least, that’s the most likely scenario.” He frowned a little harder. “It couldn’t have been Nathalie…?”

“Do you want me to help you look for it?”

“No.” Gabriel sighed, patting his shoulder. “I’ve already caused you to lose sleep. You have school in the morning.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.”

“Thank you, Adrien, I knew I could trust you.” And with a solemn nod, he left him alone.

Adrien sank to the bed, exhausted.

A solid alibi, great deflection, and even offering to help. It looked like he was in the clear. But that would only last so long.

“That was terrifying.” Said Plagg, sitting next to him.

“You’re telling me.”

“You technically didn’t lie either. You didn’t take it.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think I’d feel guilty about it.” He looked to the door. “That Miraculous, or the power of having it, has changed him so much. He used to laugh, Plagg. He told puns and we joked and had fun. He was still always cutthroat and serious in the fashion world, but when he came home...” he rubbed at his eye. “He never yelled at me like that.”

“So those tears aren’t faked?”

Adrien shook his head. “I’ve never been more scared in my life. I thought he...I thought he might actually kill me.”

“But he didn’t. You’ve got a bag packed, and once we figure out how to help your mom, we’ll be back and put everything right.”

“Yeah. Okay.” With a slow exhale, Adrien rose from the bed and made his way over to his desk.

Dear father,

After all the information I learned last night, and your treatment of me afterwards, I have decided that I need to leave for a while. I just need to process this, and I can’t at home. I will be staying with a trustworthy friend, and I will continue to go to school. I won’t have my phone on me. If you need to get in touch with me, you can meet me at the school, where there are witnesses.

I’m really sorry. I’m just a little scared right now.

Love,

Adrien.

He put the note in his wallet, making sure to remember to leave it somewhere his father would see tomorrow.

He was so tired. So exhausted. His head throbbed, and his legs hurt from being so tense.

He took out some Ibuprofen from his nightstand, shook out two pills, and swallowed them with a sip of water.

The water was cold, but he didn’t remember getting it. Must have been after the reveal. He had been in so much shock.

“Adrien?” Plagg asked.

“Hmm?”

“Tikki’s here. Are you okay if I leave for a while?”

“Yeah. No threats of Akuma anymore.” Adrien spoke drowsily. “Go and tell Nooroo I said hello.”

Plagg smiled him. “Get some sleep, kid.”

—

Marinette stared at the spot on the railing that Chat had jumped off of long after he left.

He was acting really really weird.

“Well?” Asked Tikki. “Aren’t you going to open it?”

“I guess...but...” She worried her bottom lip. “It’s probably okay, right? Nothing suspicious about giving a random female civilian a gift at 2am.”

“Just open it already!” Tikki cried, impatient.

Marinette giggled at her. “Alright alright.” She pulled the tabs, and popped the top flap.

In a blindingly bright flash of light, two small figures appeared.

Marinette almost dropped the box.

Tikki floated closer. “Nooroo? Dusuu? Is it really...”

“Tikki!” They both cried, zipping to her and embracing her.

“I don’t understand...” Marinette breathed. Then, she glanced down into the box that rattled in her hand. Two brooches, a peacock and a butterfly, rested inside.

“How did he...where did he...?”

“Oh!” Cried Nooroo, flying into her face with the biggest smile imaginable. “You’re Adrien’s friend! The cute one! You’ll watch over him, won’t you?”

Despite the overload that was happening right now, Marinette was quick to put the pieces together.

“If you care about Adrien...so that means...Gabriel really was...?”

Nooroo nodded, much more sadly this time.

“How did Chat figure this out? How did he get you? Did he go up against Hawkmoth alone?!”

“No. Plagg came and got me while Gabriel was sleeping.” His eyes widened. “I can say his name!”

“The bond must be broken then!” Exclaimed Tikki. “You’re free from his control!”

“Oh thank you!” Nooroo cried nuzzling into her face.

“You’re welcome?” Marinette returned, holding the Kwami. Though she was unsure what she had to do with this at all. “How did Chat or Plagg find you?”

Nooroo shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t get to talk to him. I went into the brooch when he took it off of Gabriel.”

“I’m just...I’m so confused. I have no idea how...and why me? Why Marinette? He couldn’t possibly know who I am!”

“He did say you’d talk later.” Tikki reminded, helpfully.

“And another thing! Where did he have to run off to so quickly? He practically shoved this into my arms!”

“I guess you could stay up all night speculating, or you could go to bed and get answers tomorrow.”

She growled. “Hold on. I just—Spots on!”

As soon as the transformation completed, she had her yo-yo out and called him.

The call didn’t connect.

Nor did the five others she tried.

Her tracker clearly showed he wasn’t transformed, so what was the point?

“Spots off.” She grumbled.

“Any luck?”

“No. I have no idea what’s going on! He’s not transformed, or else I could go to him. What if he’s in danger? What if—?”

“Marinette. You are way too paranoid for your own good. You have both of the Miraculous here. So he can’t be in too much danger.”

Marinette gave Tikki a half-hearted glare. “Yeah...I guess...” Then she looked to Nooroo and Dusuu. “Would you like to go back in the Miracle Box?”

They both got really excited at that. “Yes! Yes please!”

“I know!” Sang Tikki. “I’ll grab some snacks and join you in a little bit! I can leave now that there’s no threat of akumas!”

No more akumas.

It had only been a year or so. But the idea of never having to fight an Akuma again was so foreign.

There were still criminals in Paris. She wouldn’t have to give up being a hero. But, things would be easier now.

She could take a vacation!

“Earth to Marinette!” Tikki chirped.

“Oh! Right, sorry. Just...processing some things.” She got out of bed, and lifted her mattress to reveal the hidden cubby where she had stashed the Miracle Box. She placed the brooches in their compartments, making the two kwami’s vanish from her room.

“You okay if I join them?”

“Yeah. If you wanted to go find Plagg and invite him too, you can. And if you wouldn’t mind checking in on Chat?”

“I think Plagg would love to celebrate with us. I’ll go find him.”

With Tikki checking in on the situation, Marinette started to relax.

She snuggled in her blankets, replaying that kiss with Adrien again. It was her go-to comfort place. His hands warm on her shoulders, his lips pressed so gently against hers.

He had said it wasn’t a celebrity thing, but...how many times had Ladybug interacted with Adrien? Enough to constitute for even a friendship?

She knew Adrien liked Marinette. Not ‘like like’ but he sought out her company, and asked her for advice. He had snuggled against her on the train, and held her close when they slow danced. She did believe that his feelings had grown stronger when he found out who she was.

But how strong those feelings were in the first place, she didn’t know.

She didn’t understand. How could he love Ladybug so much that he hesitated dating a girl who was right in front of him, and who liked him back?

This warranted more talking. She just hoped that she wouldn’t ruin her own chances.

“We’re back!” Tikki chirped, phasing through the window.

Plagg was with her. “Sweet victory, huh?”

“Somehow, I thought defeating Hawkmoth would be a lot less...underwhelming.”

“Things aren’t over yet.” Plagg said seriously. “The kid has a pretty huge favor to ask. A couple, actually. But he wants you to relax for now.”

“How did he find out? How did all of this happen?”

Plagg grinned. “Turns out I’m great at espionage!”

She smiled. “Well, Nooroo told me that much. But how did you and Chat figure out who he was?”

“Long story. I don’t have the attention span. He’ll tell you later. Now, Tikki promised me some cheese quiche?”

Marinette sighed to herself. It looked like she really wasn’t getting any information tonight. “Help yourselves. She knows where the leftovers are.”

Tikki nuzzled her forehead. “Why don’t you go to sleep? Regardless of the Hawkmoth drama, you had a really stressful day.”

“Thanks Tikki.” She took one last look at Plagg. “I take it, that you being here, means that Chat’s safe? He’s okay?”

“Yeah, he was just about to go to bed.”

“Why did he rush off?”

“He had a feeling someone was going to check on him.”

“Oh. Okay. As long as he’s alright...”

“Bug. Go to sleep.”

—

This chapter is a lot shorter than the last, but it felt like a good stopping point. I’m going on vacation next week, so this won’t update for a little while. I’ll probably update ‘Longest Night’ first. But thank you all for the comments, likes, kudos, and favorites! I love you!

@redheadeddemon16 I think you wanted me to tag you?

#miraculous ladybug #ml #ladybug #chat noir #gabriel agreste #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #adrienette #adrinette #ladynoir #identity reveal #fanfiction #integrity

[dessarious]

The Angel of Death Pt26

Inspired by this Story Starter by @someone-ev

AO3   Prologue   Beginning   Previous   Next

The next night, Tris waited impatiently for Fu to return. She did not want to tell him about her past but she needed him to understand that he couldn’t keep screwing with her the way he had by making her room with Chloe. It was far too dangerous for him to make those decisions without consulting her first. This line of thought already had her pissed off and on edge when Wayzz flew in with his bracelet. Damn it.

“What the hell happened now?” She spoke through gritted teeth to avoid yelling. The Kwami wasn’t the one she was mad at. Wayzz hesitated.

“The Guardian went to find your handler to get you out of being an assassin.” Tris pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to fight off the impending explosion.

“I told him that I don’t have a handler.” She said the words slowly. Wayzz offered her a sheepish look.

“He assumed you were lying to protect yourself or them.” Tris could only sigh in annoyance.

"He was the one who said I don't lie in the first place. Why did he decide that this of all things is what I would lie about?”

“He thought that with it being a matter of life and death you would. And you have to admit you do keep secrets.” She was going to have an aneurysm, she could feel it.

“Of course I keep secrets. So does he so he should understand that concept. Where is he?” She was going to have to go rescue him if for no other reason than to keep him from telling anyone what he knew about her. It wasn’t much but it was more than enough to draw attention she didn’t need.

“I’m not allowed to tell you. He didn’t want you to endanger yourself coming after him.” Tris could only scoff at that. She wasn’t the one that would be in danger.

“Fine, who did he go after then?” Wayzz seemed to consider the question and Tris was banking on the fact that Fu wouldn’t have forbidden him from mentioning anything but his physical location. She had no reason to think he was careful enough to think she’d be able to find him if she didn’t know exactly where he was.

“Some group calling themselves the Shadow Brigade.”

“The Shadow-!” She couldn’t even get the whole name out as her throat closed in rage. She struggled to get her laptop open without breaking it as her hands shook from the anger. “I can’t believe he would think I’d ever have anything to do with those bottom feeders! They’ve never once had an op where they didn’t lose men. Most of the time they don’t even manage to take out their target. Hell, they’re laughingstocks because of the time two of them mistook the other for their target and took out their own team.”

All the Kwami were floating there looking at her like she’d gone insane but they didn���t understand. If the Angel of Death was ever connected to those idiots there would be people coming out of the woodwork to take her down, and not just assassins either. Every contract she took would likely be a trap to get her out in the open. She had to stop this before… Shit. The Darkweb was already swimming with rumors of her being a child. She was going to have to put them down hard to salvage her reputation at all. This was a disaster.

She found the Shadow Brigade easily enough. Their security was just as inept as everything else about them and in no time she was hacked into their system. Not only could she access their cameras but all their blueprints and guard schedules were on the same server. While she was grateful she wouldn’t have to work too hard to take them down she couldn’t help but think that the challenge was what made things interesting. This would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

“You can’t go after him.” She just raised an eyebrow at Wayzz. “If you both end up captured there will be no one to protect the Miracle Box.” She just rolled her eyes.

“If those morons capture me I deserve to die. But if it will make you feel better I’ll take the box to Ladybug and only keep you and Nooroo on me in case of an emergency.” Plagg, Tikki, and Wayzz all started shouting denials. Dusuu was studying her. Poor Nooroo just looked stunned. “Enough. My mind is made up.” None of the Kwami looked happy but they did stop bothering her so she could finalize her plans.

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

Chloe was getting ready for bed when she heard a noise out on her balcony. That was strange. When she went to the window she didn’t see anything at first. She was about to shrug it off when her eyes landed on what looked like a fancy jewelry box just outside the doors. It looked familiar and she opened the door to pick it up. When she did she saw the letter on top of it with her name written in flowing script. Once she was back in her room, the box securely on her vanity she opened the envelope.

Chloe,

I apologize for springing this on you with no warning, but time is short and I know you can be trusted. The Guardian of the Miraculous has been kidnapped and I must retrieve him. I do not anticipate any difficulties with this task, but on the off chance things do go wrong the Miraculous must be protected. As such, I must ask you to keep the box safe until I or the Guardian can come collect it. It is a great responsibility but I would not have given it to you if I had any doubt you were the right person for the job.

It wasn’t signed and Chloe had to read through it several times before her brain would actually process the words correctly. When she did she immediately opened the box to see many pieces of jewelry, including a very familiar pair of earrings. She reached for them, almost half certain this was some kind of sick joke.

AO3  Prologue   Beginning   Previous    Next

Ko-Fi

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@kceedraws @theatreandcomicfreak @krispydefendorpolice @magic-miraculous @chocolatecatstheron @mooshoon @northernbluetongue @interobanginyourmom @rebecarojas07 @dast218 @abrx2002 @damianette-is-life @yin-390 @fontegagrilledcheese @bigpicklebananatree @tbehartoo @nobodyw8s4evr @linim2503 @ladybug-182 @marinettepotterandplagg @daminett4life @thethirdwheelfriend @corabeth11 @emotionalsupportginger @shizukiryuu @toodaloo-kangaroo @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @hauntedfreakdeputyhero @sassakitty @my-name-is-michell @multplelifes @sassydepression @danielslilangel @winter-gardenflower @animegirlweeb @romanoff-queen @nanakeid @paradoxal-occurance @theg0ddesspersephone @hinata3487 @irontimetravelflower @the-real-gingakid @heaven428 @peachedpocky @justafanwarrior @gentlemanoftimetravel @18-fandoms-unite-08 @kittycatwowmeow @pale-lady-dreamer @i-is-mysterious @captainartsypants @write-for-your-life2 @queengeorgiaaa @schrodingers25 @thecaptainthunder @elspethshadow @stela-likes-drawing @loysydark @lozzybowe @renscorpio @elmokingkong @the-fusionist @tis-i-beanbandit @smolplantmum @iwantwhirlledpeasandlotsatrees @colorfulmongerpsychicranch @chocolateherringtacofan

#maribat #marinette dupen chang #kidnapped au #assassin mari

[gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights]

Summary:  Marinette had replayed the video enough times. She'd know Adrien's voice saying those three words anywhere. (Set the same day as the episode Felix.  Reveal Fic.  Rated T for kissing, ignores Chat Blanc mostly because my heart can’t take the angst right now.)

~~~

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

“I lo—”

Tikki’s tiny butt sat on the video’s pause button, freezing Adrien’s lips in a perfect o.  

“Marinette, you need to get ahold of yourself.”

Marinette was sure her complexion matched her kwami’s as she dropped her face onto her desk.  “I knoooooow.”

She was being ridiculous.  More ridiculous than usual, anyway.  But something about those words did more than just make her stomach flutter—it felt familiar, though it was probably just from her daydreams.  If he’d told her he loved her before, there was no way she’d forget it.

Her thumb instinctively moved to replay the last five seconds again.  Tikki flew into the small space between her and the phone screen, catching the digit between her arms.

“This is an intervention,” she said in her most authoritative voice.  Considering it was still two octaves higher than the average humans, it shouldn’t have had much effect, but Marinette hated disappointing Tikki.  She was her friend, the only one she could be completely honest with.

And Tikki was pretty good about being honest with her, too.  If the kwami thought Marinette needed an intervention, she was probably right.

“Fine.” Marinette spun in her desk chair, intending to pull out some butcher paper and start drafting a pattern in the few hours before patrol tonight.  It wasn’t likely that Hawkmoth would akumatize two people in one day—or four, considering it had been three for the price of one thanks to Felix’s stunt—but Chat had sounded a little desperate when he asked if they could still meet up.  She hoped he hadn’t planned another impromptu date.  She didn’t know if she could handle that after finding out that yet another one of her plans to confess to Adrien had fallen through, this time through no fault of her own.

Would he have said I love you back to her if it weren’t for his cousin’s interference?  They’d gotten so much closer lately, but…

“I’m not good with jokes.  The girl I’m in love with doesn’t like them, either.”

That she didn’t need a recording to replay.  It was embedded in her memory, like a deep splinter she couldn’t dig out.

He might say he loved her, as a friend.  But beyond that?  She was just setting herself up for disaster.

“Marinette?” Tikki asked.  “Do you need some help with the paper?”

She shook her head, almost whacking it on the desk leg as she scrambled for her supply box beneath.  “No, I got it. You can grab the measuring tape, though.”

She was finally going to mock up the pattern for an airy sundress she’d spent the last week sketching out. Nothing would take her mind off of her troubling love life like the single-minded focus of a personal project.

It worked a little too well, though.  Between drafting each piece, cutting the paper, pinning it to the cheap test fabric, cutting the fabric, pinning the pieces to each other—she barely managed to stop herself from starting the actual sewing when Tikki held up her phone.

On top of a group selfie of her, Adrien, Alya, and Nino, the clock showed 9:29.  Patrol started at 9:30

“Ack!  I’m going to be late!”  She jabbed herself at least ten times getting her pins all back in the pincushion.  Everything else could wait, but she didn’t want to swing in and catch one in her foot later.

“Tikki, spots on!”

By the time she swung across town to the Eiffel Tower, her bugphone read 9:35.  Record time, but still late. So where was…?

“Little kitty on a roof, all alone without his lady…”

The familiar tune was more downcast than Marinette was used to.  Sure enough, when she swung up a few crossbars to Chat Noir’s perch, she caught a flash of his forlorn expression before his usual grin took over.

“Hey there, Bugaboo,” his voice chirped as chipper as ever.  Had she been imagining his earlier mood?  Or maybe he’d just been worried she wouldn’t make it.  Silly kitty.  Regardless of whether or not she returned his feelings, she’d vowed to never stand him up again if she could help it.

“Any trouble on the way over?”  He asked.

“Only with myself,” she admitted, rubbing the still-stinging pads of her fingers.  She probably should’ve put some ointment on them before transforming; the suit irritated the little pricks further.  “Civilian me is still as much of a mess as ever.”

She’d hoped that by dropping non-identifying clues on how much she struggled in her daily life, Chat Noir would see through the perfect illusion he had of her and come to his senses.  Honestly, she should’ve known better.  It hadn’t worked the first ten times she’d tried, and now it only brought a wider smile to his face.

(That wasn’t why she did it, of course.  Even if it warmed her more than she wanted to admit, she only had feelings for one green-eyed blond.)

“The only mess you make is a mess of my heart, my lady,” he said with a wink that had her rolling her eyes.

“How do you even come up with those lines?” She asked with a stifled laugh—at how bad it was, not because he was actually funny. “The internet?”

“I’m paw-fended,” he gasped, claws spread in front of his mouth dramatically.  “I’ll have you know that everything I say is a one-hundred-percent Chat Noir original.”

“Of course.  I should’ve known.  Who else could drop that kind of cheese so seriously?”

“Only because I am serious, Bugaboo,” he reminded her.  As if she could forget.  Bantering back and forth with him was so easy; she hoped she wasn’t accidentally leading him on.  He deserved better than that.

He smiled as he bumped his shoulder against hers.  His voice bared his sincerity as he said, “Hate on my puns all you want.  It won’t change the fact that I love you.”

I love you.

Electricity shot up Marinette’s spine.  No.  No, it couldn’t be— 

I love you.

She’d replayed those words at least a hundred times (two hundred and fifty-three, but who was counting?) in the past day.  She’d memorized his exact inflection, the way he spoke from his heart, even if it was about all their friends and not her alone.  She would recognize his voice saying those three words anywhere.

Anywhere.  Including coming from her ridiculous, pun-loving partner.

“Ladybug?”  Chat scooted away from her, his fingertips digging into the backs of his hands.  “I’m sorry, I—I know you don’t feel the same way, you don’t have to—”

“Adrien?”

He nearly toppled off of the tower. Marinette caught him by the shoulder, holding him in place before he could lose his balance again, or run away, or—she didn’t know what he’d do.  She really should’ve thought this through.  They were supposed to keep their identities secret!  It wasn’t his fault, of course; she imagined if he’d called her Marinette while she was in the suit she would’ve had a much worse heart attack— 

“Who—who’s Adrien?”  Chat forced a grin.

“Oh, no.  You’re not getting out of this that easy.”  She fell deeper into Ladybug mode, still not letting her brain process that—that holy crap this was ADRIEN, Adrien who had just confessed his love to her—to her—!

“Ladybug, please, please don’t freak out, I’m sorry.” It was his turn to grip her shoulders as she tried to breathe.  His acidic green eyes were blown wide, the miraculous transformation hiding his normal soft chartreuse irises.  Still, how could she not have noticed?  It was him it was him it was him and she couldn’t unhear it, couldn’t separate his apologetic voice now from their time at the wax museum when she had almost kissed him and no, now that was even doubly embarrassing because it was CHAT, she’d almost kissed CHAT NOIR— 

“I’m not freaking out!  Why would you think I’m freaking out?”

Her eye twitched.  Her heart just about escaped her ribcage at the soft look of concern her partner was giving her.  Oh, this was bad.  This was very, very bad.

“I know you didn’t want to find out, and I… how did you find out?”  He asked hesitantly.  His hand left her shoulder to rub the back of his neck, and she barely restrained herself from tugging it back.  Or better yet, climbing into his lap and hoping he’d enfold her in his arms.

Bad.  Very, very bad.

“I… well, you see—haha look at the time!”  She sprang up and glanced at her obviously-watchless wrist.  “Looks like we’re too late to patrol tonight.  Oops!  Sorry Ad—Chat!  I’ll have to love you—SEE you later!  Bug out!”

“Ladybug!”  He scrambled to his feet, reaching for her arm before she could grab her yo-yo.  He was Chat and he was Adrien and he was touching her and even through both their suits she felt herself burning.  No, no, she could not be weird with her partner.  Not after she’d turned him down over and over and— 

Part of her wanted to cry.  But Chat—Adrien—had already beaten her to it.

“Please, LB.  Please, don’t go. if you have something against Adrien you can tell me, o-or you can not, but please just… don’t leave me.”  He swallowed hard, his voice thick with the tears already pooling around the lip of his mask.  “Not tonight.”

Tonight.  Today.  The anniversary of Adrien’s mother’s disappearance.

The anniversary of Chat’s mother’s disappearance.

“Oh,” she breathed, feeling like the worst partner—the worst friend in the whole world. She pulled him close, shoving all other traitorous feelings and desires aside, and focused on comforting him.  “I’m so sorry, kitty.  I’m not going anywhere, I just—panicked, that’s all.”

He laughed hollowly.  The sound curdled in her stomach, a sick parody of the cheery sound that usually rang from him.  But he had every right to sound that way, after what he’d been through. His mom was gone and she knew his home life was a wreck and he had so many of his father’s expectations dragging on him, and moonlighting as a superhero on top of that— 

How had he ended up being the carefree one out of their duo?

“You panicked because I broke the number one rule.  I gave myself away somehow.”

“No, chaton.  It’s not your fault.”  She rubbed soothing circles into the small of his back, trying to ignore how she could feel the toned muscles through the leather.  (His suit was much worse for her sanity knowing it was Adrien in it.)  “It’s my fault.  One hundred percent definitely my fault.”

He pulled back enough to stare at her, his head tilted sideways like he really was just an overgrown curious kitty, and her transformation from Ladybug into a puddle-bug seemed all too likely.

“I still don’t know how you did it.  Is this one of those ‘lucky charm’ connections only your brilliant mind can make?”

Marinette giggled into his shoulder, because maintaining eye contact was beyond her physical limit right now.  “Chat, the only brilliant thing about me is how brilliantly stupid I’ve been.”

“I’m still not following, my lady.”  His voice was still a little rough, but no longer dripping with desperation.

She kept up the soothing pattern on his back, just in case.

“I… er…”  There was no good way to say, oh, I recognized your voice because I’ve been listening to you tell me you love me all afternoon, only you weren’t even saying it to me and actually I’m a massive creep and you probably don’t want to be friends with me anymore, let alone be my partner and— 

“Shh, shh, breathe.”

—And now he was comforting her again.  It took her back to the first time they’d met—well, the first time Ladybug met Chat Noir.  She’d been so useless, and he’d been so ready to assure her that she could handle it.  From then on she’d somehow begun to take charge, but without that first push—without him—she’d never have gotten here.

And maybe… maybe leaning on him again wouldn’t be so bad.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her forehead resting against his chest.  He held her tight but refrained from any other soothing motions.  Of course he wouldn’t.  She’d brushed off too many of his physically affectionate gestures before.

“You have nothing to apologize for.”  It was a testament to how serious he was that he didn’t slip in a paw-pun there.  Honestly, she wished he had; she could’ve used the laugh right now.  “I trust you.  I always wanted you to be the first to know my identity, anyway.”

“Chat, I have everything to apologize for.”

She could hardly explain why without giving away her own identity, but she knew it was only a matter of time.  She’d rather have this conversation now than after she’d made a fool of herself—scratch that, she was already making a fool of herself, but it could be worse.  She could accidentally call him Chat in class.  She could boop his nose like she sometimes did as Ladybug.  Or someone could catch her doodling their wedding outfits in her notebook. She was really going to have to stop that, or Alya would wonder why she’d suddenly decided she wanted a “ladynoir” themed ensemble.

Great.  Five minutes into finding out Chat was Adrien, and she was still daydreaming about marrying him!  Get a grip, Marinette!  She hadn’t been this bad around Adrien in months, but connecting him with Chat had short-circuited her brain.  

“I’m not… I’m not like this, as myself.”  She pulled back and gestured down to all of her.  “And I don’t know that you’d still like me if you knew.  You never seemed to before.”

“Are you saying I know you?  Civilian you?”

He didn’t sound surprised.  Had she given herself away, too?  Her spastic reaction earlier did scream “Marinette.”  It wasn’t how she’d dreamed of revealing herself to her partner, but since when did her dreams regarding Adrien ever pan out?

“Yes.  You do.”  She hoped her voice sounded more confident than she felt.  Sure, she was thrilled (and confused and mortified) that Adrien was Chat Noir, but would he feel the same about her identity?

“Can I… can I guess who you are?”  Adrien-Noir asked, his voice fragile as glass.  His hands shook against her back. “If you don’t want me to, I get it, really.  But I… I think I know.  There’s no one else you could be.”

She pulled back, her eyebrows drawn in confusion beneath her mask.  “You’re that certain?  I was so—nevermind. I want to hear it.” Explaining how careful she was to mislead him would only confirm his suspicions, if he was even right.  For all she knew, he thought she was some stranger he knew from fencing or one of his other extracurricular activities.

One of his sly Chat-grins spread across his face.  Normally that would have her worried, but it was a relief to fall back into a familiar pattern.  

(Though how close he leaned in to her ear was new.  And was likely to make her burst like fireworks if she so much as breathed.)

“I love you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Fire spread through every inch of her.  She jolted in Adrien’s arms, cracking her head against his jaw and making him yelp.

“Sorry!  Oh my—are you kayo—okay?”  She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming.  Adrien said he loved her!  Marinette her!  And then she probably broke his jaw or something—!

“I’m fine—a-at least I think I am, if I was right?  About you being Marinette?”  He rubbed his jaw and smiled hopefully at her.  Yep, she was definitely going to be a puddle-bug.  He’d be scooping her off the side of the Eiffel Tower in a bucket.

She swallowed the giddy laugh bubbling up in her.  “I bet it would be really embarrassing if you weren’t.”

He laughed and scooped her up in a hug that lifted her feet from the metal beam.  “Marinette!  I knew it!”

Pressed close to him, she barely resisted the urge to wrap her legs around his waist and kiss his lips.  He was Adrien and Chat and him, and he was holding her and he loved her!  

The laugh finally escaped, breathless and smitten, as she laced her fingers behind his neck.

“You did.  Somehow.  I was so careful too—you have no idea how hard it is to split yourself and use that many miraculouses at once.  The illusion was perfect though.”  She frowned as she thought back on their fight with Kwamibuster.  “How did you find out?”

“I asked you first.”  He smirked. It was a face he made all the time, it had no right to be so cute now.  It was a just a curve of his lips, of Adrien’s lips—

“If I kissed you, do you think you’d forget about it?”

She slapped her hands over her mouth.  Had she—had she really said that?  To Adrien!?  

“Actually if you could just forget I said that too—”

“Not a chance, Buginette.”

She hadn’t thought his grin could get any wider, but she’d been wrong.  He held her tight, her toes barely brushing the ground. Still, she could escape if she wanted to.   

(She didn’t want to.)

“Chaaaat…”

“Thanks to Oblivio, I forgot the last time you kissed me.  There’s no way I’m forgetting again.”

She flushed as she remembered the picture Alya had taken of them.  Of course, it made sense now—she must have somehow learned Chat’s identity while they were under Oblivio’s influence.  How long had that fight taken?  Did she have a shorter or longer reveal-to-kiss timeframe this time? 

And then the full force of it hit her.  He wanted to kiss her.

Adrien.  Wanted to kiss.  Her.

She lost what little coherent thought she had left as she dug her fingers into his hair and pulled him to her.  Their lips collided roughly, and she felt him gasp before he melted into her.  

From there, it was all a blur.  Some distant part of her mind might have registered how she ended up with her legs wrapped around his hips, how he stumbled back into a crossbeam, how he held her so tightly she might’ve been crushed outside of the suit.  But all of that was faded against the single-minded desire to drown him in the love and desire and everything that she’d kept bottled tight for the past year.

She had no idea how long it was before he pulled back and breathlessly said her name.  “Marinette.”  Those three syllables in that voice had her losing her mind.  She was about to claim his lips again when he turned his head, making her miss and kiss his cheek.  Well.  That wasn’t so bad, either.  She peppered the side of his face, up to the edge of his mask, and he laughed.

“Marinette.  LB.  You can’t hide behind kisses forever.”

“Watch me.”

A kiss to the shell of his ear.  His nose. The sliver of his neck that wasn’t covered by his suit— she felt his legs wobble a little at that one.

“...I stand corrected.”

She giggled at the completely smitten look on his face.  She’d put that there.  Of course, Chat had looked at Ladybug that way before, but the fact that it was also Adrien beaming at her, knowing she was Marinette… All the puzzle pieces finally fit together, grooves sliding into place just as perfectly as she fit in his arms.

“Two can play at that game, Bugaboo.”

Oh.  Oh.  Sure, they’d practically been making out seconds ago, but the soft kisses he now littered across her jaw somehow felt even more intimate.  Their first kiss had been desperate.  These were slower, like he had all the time in the world—and they did.

He wasn’t going anywhere.  He loved her.

She practically groaned in disappointment when he finally lowered her back to the ground.  

Adrien just laughed.  “I had no idea you were so clingy, Princess.”

“I’m not clingy,” she pouted, stepping back from him to prove it.  “But if you think I am, fine.  See if you get any more kisses.”

Three whole coherent sentences.  Wow. After kissing Adrien, she expected to be a stuttering mess, but she was actually finding it easier to channel her Ladybug confidence.  Maybe it was the fact that for the first time, she knew he was as crazy about her too.

“Hey, hey, I never said that was a bad thing.”  He squeezed her tight again, a slight purr rumbling in his chest before he coughed.  

“I think we all know who’s the clingy one, anyway.”  She said, scratching the spot behind his ear until she coaxed another purr from him.  Bad idea.  She couldn’t spend all her time with her lips locked to his.

“Whatever you say, Marinette.”  His tail curled around her.  “So… as mind-meltingly amazing as kissing you was, I think I still remember a certain question I had.”

How she found out his identity.  Right. This had to be the biggest whiplash for him—her literally turning him down last week just to turn around and practically jump him. (Not that he was complaining, obviously.)

She bit her lip.  Lying to him would be impossible, even if she wanted to.  She’d promised a long time ago that she would never lie to him… except for when she had to hide her identity, but that was because Master Fu would want to reclaim their miraculouses if they revealed themselves.

...Which they just had.  Her gut twisted at that realization, which had been lost in her earlier excitement.  But Fu couldn’t just take their miraculouses, right? He was training her to be the Guardian.  Plus, after their fight with Feast, Marinette hoped he would know better.  

She was Ladybug.  Adrien was Chat Noir.  No one else could replace them—not to Paris, and not each other.  

She could deal with Fu.  But dealing with Adrien knowing just how obsessed she was?  That was a different terror entirely.

“Fine,” she sighed.  “It’s really, really embarrassing though.  You’re… probably going to think I’m a creep, honestly.”

Adrien blinked when she glanced up at him through her eyelashes, not daring to watch him directly.  “I won’t judge you, I paw-mise.”

She dropped her head in her hands and stifled a giggle.  At least they were back to puns.  She never thought she’d be grateful for that, but it eased her nervousness.

“You know how you, uh, sent a video to our class today?  To reply to the videos you never saw?”

“Yeah?  What about it?”

“Well… err…”  She was sure her face was challenging the shade of her suit, but he just blinked innocently.  “I may have… singled out the part… where you said, um…”

He was still waiting patiently.

“I took the part where you said ‘I love you’ and replayed it two hundred and fifty-three times.”

She wanted to shove her fist in her mouth.  She wasn’t going to lie, but she didn’t have to be that honest!

Chat stared.  Blinked.

...And doubled over laughing.

Well, this was it.  At least she’d gotten to kiss him once, right?  Hopefully he could forget this enough for them to still work together, because she’d never forgive herself if she ruined their partnership and Hawkmoth got their miraculouses because of it— 

“You—I can’t believe it.”  His arms had fallen while he laughed, but now he pulled her in again, practically crushing her to his chest.  “And here I thought I was the crazy one.”

“Please kill me,” she groaned.

“Never.”  He said with a kiss to her temple that shot lightning across her skin.  “I’m keeping you forever, Bugaboo.  No takebacks.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense.” She paused, searched his eyes for any trace of hesitance.  If anything, he looked giddier than ever.  “You’re not mad?  Or… weirded out?”

“Marinette, I play with action figures of us.  Sometimes they kiss.  I really have no room to talk.”

She gaped up at him.  The image of Adrien making toy versions of themselves kiss—okay, she had to cackle too, because it was too insane to process otherwise. They really were made for each other.

“You do have to promise me one thing, though,” he said, his voice sobering.

“What?” She asked before her brain could start catastrophizing again.

“You have to let me say I love you at least two hundred fifty-four times.  I can’t be beat out by a video of myself.”

He—he was serious.  Right when she was thinking it was impossible to love him any more, he said things like that.

“That’s a lot of times.”

“I guess I’d better get started then, huh?”

She punched his arm lightly and ignored how much she really really wanted to let him do just that. (Maybe with a few more kisses sprinkled between.) 

“Not yet, chaton.  You still have to tell me how you recognized me.”

“Technically I don’t think you finished,” he pointed out, to which she rolled her eyes.

“I’d heard you say ‘I love you’ so many times, I recognized your voice.  That’s all.”

“I would’ve told you I loved you as Adrien a long time ago if it would’ve made you see it.”  He chuckled.  “I wish I had a story like that.  I didn’t know for sure, I just thought… well, Marinette and Ladybug are the two most amazing girls I know, and… I think I hoped it was you more than anything.”

The soft grin on his face threatened to send her melting again.  He’d wanted her to be the girl he loved.  Of course his epiphany had come over something so sweet, rather than her completely embarrassing story.  

“That still doesn’t explain how you saw through me being Multimouse and Ladybug,” she said.  “You really do think with your heart more than your head, don’t you?”

“One of us has to.”  He winked, and she hid a lovestruck smile.  She couldn’t give him the satisfaction of melting at everything he did.  He was still her silly kitty, after all.  “I know it looked impossible, but if anyone could pull off the impossible, it’s you.”

She could pull off the impossible, which right now included resisting the urge to kiss him senseless again.

“You’re the one who’s impossible,” she said with a flick to his bell.  

“And you can pull me off anytime,” he blurted before covering his mouth.  “Uh.”

“Adrien, that doesn’t even make sense,” she said for the second time in the past five minutes.

His face flushed.  “I can’t be at the top of my flirting game all the time.  I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything, to be honest.  The cheesy pick up lines are kind of a coping mechanism.  Not that I’m upset, I’m not!  I’m so, so happy—It’s just—it’s a lot.”

“It is a lot,” she agreed, slipping out of his embrace to sit on the cold metal of the tower.  “Come on, sit with me.  Paris can take care of itself for one night.”

He grinned and plopped down beside her, hesitating only a moment before enfolding her in his arms.

“Thank you.  This means the world to me.”  He kissed the top of her head.  “Today was… well, you know. A year ago today my mom disappeared. I’m doing alright, much better than Father is, but still...”  He slumped against her, his chin resting on her shoulder, their cheeks brushing.  “It’s why I wanted to be with you tonight.  And then everything else—well, it’s better than I could’ve imagined.”

She was afraid it had been too much for him, dealing with their identities at such a sensitive time, but he did look much more relaxed now.  Despite his cousin’s earlier interference, she had managed to help him anyway.  That was the most important thing.

“I’m glad I could help.  I actually tried to tell you in the video Felix deleted… but I love you, Adrien.  And I’ll always be here if you need me.” 

He turned his face so their foreheads rested against each other, filling her vision with his bright green eyes.  The hopeful glow in them could’ve put all of Paris’s lights to shame.

“You love me?”

His breath ghosted over her lips, mingled with her laugh.  She’d said it.  She’d finally said it.

“Of course, minou.  What, did you think I kissed you because we’re just friends?”

“That happened?”  He blinked in fake innocence.  “I don’t know, I think Oblivio might have hit me while you weren’t looking.  You might have to kiss me again.”

She rolled her eyes, but she could only do the impossible for so long.  Their noses bumped as she kissed him long and soft and slow.  Could she ever get used to this?  Each kiss left her soaring higher than the last.

They broke apart giggling and flushed before Chat shyly asked a question.

“Did you mean it when you said you’ll always be here if I need you?  I can be a very needy kitty.”  His voice was all Chat Noir, but his face was the soft, open expression she was used to seeing from Adrien.  

He was worried about that?  But then, there were so few other people in his life who were just there, she realized.  No wonder he had coveted attention from Ladybug for so long.

“Always, Adrien,” she said softly.  “I know I can’t fix everything. Especially about your mom.”  She cupped his face in her hands.  “But being here?  That’s easy.  Never feel bad about needing that.”

“That’s all I want,” he breathed.  “That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

He wrapped her in his arms again, and she hugged him back just as tightly.

“Me too, kitty.  Me too.”

#tali writes #miraculous ladybug #ladynoir #chat noir #ladybug #fic tag #this is like the worst fic layout #one day i'll decide how i want to go about posting oneshots #but not today apparently