#alya and nino having siblings and marinette and adrien being only children makes so much sense to me

[anna-scribbles]

vive la résistance and happy halloween!

#if i made any mistakes about the condiments please forgive me. i’m not french #happy halloween from comrade mayonnaise🤍 #ml #miraculous ladybug #my art #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #mlb #my favorite line in this is nino saying ‘i’m gonna count to three’ #guy with a little brother. #alya and nino having siblings and marinette and adrien being only children makes so much sense to me #happy halloween!!!!!!

[verymuchimmortalcat]

As You Were Once

For Bio Dad Bruce Wayne Month Day 14: De-aged

ao3

@maribat-bdbwm

Marinette was waiting at the airport for her dad, Cass, Damian, Tim and Steph. Lucius had said that there were some important things to handle in the Paris branch of WE and had insisted upon Bruce dealing with it himself. Then the others wanted to join him, leaving Dick as Batman for the week, Signal, Red Hood, Oracle and the Birds of prey to protect Gotham. Alfred had decided to go on a vacation when most of the Manor's occupants were coming to Paris and Duke would be staying with Jason for the next week. 

The five of them had promised that they wouldn't interfere in case of an akuma attack. Though Marinette was sure that they weren't going to sit back if they decided their help was needed. But hopefully they wouldn't deal with anything too severe this week. 

She waves as she spots her siblings, all of them with the exception of Steph trying not to draw attention to themselves. 

“B’s still getting everything sorted at customs and immigration,” Tim informs her once she’s finished hugging all of them.

She frowns, “was there a problem with something?”

“He’s keeping up his cover,” Damian states.

“He’s being unnaturally friendly to someone he hasn’t done a background check on,” Steph says.

“It was starting to get creepy,” Cass adds.

Marinette probably would have run away too. Galas were one thing, everyone there had been through an extensive background check but the whole Brucie Wayne act in front of people he knew absolutely nothing about was a completely different level of strange.

Their conversation turns to everything she’s missed since their last conversation. She gets a very detailed update on Damian’s pets 

They weren't waiting long before they were joined by B. Though he had to leave almost immediately to WE apparently whatever he had come for had been more urgent than they had realised. 

Once her dad is gone the five of them head to the bakery, while there wasn't space for everyone to stay at the bakery, all of them had wanted to spend time with the Dupain-Chengs. 

.oOo.

They're all at the bakery when the screaming starts. All of them immediately jump up but before any of them can join her she stops them and tells them to cover for her. Tom and Sabine don't know her identity and her siblings can't risk theirs over what’s probably a simple akuma attack. 

Promising them she'll call if she needs help she transforms and heads in the direction of the akuma. Adrien's already there but the others aren't supposed to transform unless needed. It's pretty close to WE. Marinette hopes her father actually remembered his promise and didn't become a target. 

She stops to rescue a larger number of children then she'd normally have to. Why are there so many children outside during an akuma attack?

It's only when she stops in front of a boy who appears to be about seven who looks exactly like the photos Alfred has of her father at that age does she figure out what the akuma's powers are. 

De aging. 

Marinette asks him anyway, there is always the possibility that a random Parisian child looks exactly like a seven-year-old version of her father.

It is not a random Parisian child. Marinette is the holder of the miraculous of good luck, you really would think she’d have better luck.

She crouches down so that she’s at his eye level, “I’m going to take you somewhere safe. Is that ok with you?”

He looks unsure but he nods. Picking him up, she swings back to the bakery as fast as possible. She calls Nino, Alya and Kagami and tells them there's a family emergency and to take care of the akuma and to bring it to her so she could purify it. 

Landing in an alleyway near the bakery, she de-transforms. She doesn't bother with telling him to keep her identity a secret. He already knows in the future and he's definitely not going to talk to someone who doesn't already know who she is.  

Holding his hand she leads him to the bakery. She tells Damian to get the others up and takes her dad (wow, is it strange to think of an approximately seven year old as her dad) to the living room.

She tells Tikki to give tiny Bruce something to occupy his time while she and her siblings figure something out. As they all join her upstairs, she sees as each of them realise what's happened and go from shock to laughter. 

"He doesn't remember anything. The others are taking care of the akuma. Figured you’d need help taking care of him," she says before Tim can ask. 

"Hasn't happened yet," Cass states. 

The laughter from a few seconds ago is gone. They all know what she's talking about. This Bruce Wayne hasn't lost his parents. 

This Bruce Wayne also seems to be glaring at them, he also looks scared. She can’t blame him, he wasn’t offered much of an explanation before she brought him here.

"Where are my parents?” he demands, “The girl who brought me here obviously seems to be some kind of superhero. Who are the rest of you?"

None of them look shocked that he knows that she’s Ladybug but none of them are dwelling on that. He asked for his parents what could they even tell him? They obviously can't tell him his parents are dead but they also know it wouldn't be fair to lie to him. 

"Would you like to talk to Alfred?" Tim asks suddenly. They all sigh in relief when he nods. 

Marinette calls Alfred but doesn't hand the phone to tiny Bruce immediately, it would definitely be more painful for Alfred than any of them to deal with him in this state. 

As soon as he picks up, Marinette starts speaking, "there was an akuma and dad became small and he's asking for his parents and we offered to call you instead."

Alfred being Alfred remains calm and asks her to hand the phone to tiny Bruce. All of them are staring at him as he talks to Alfred over the phone. Even though they can hear only one side of the conversation, tiny Bruce seems to calm down. 

Once he ends the call, he hands the phone back to her and says, "Alfred says that some kind of magic made me small and that all of you are very important to me when I become big."

"You're strangely adorable," Steph says. 

He frowns at that and he’s never before looked more like Damian.

“So, what do you like to do when you're bored?” Marinette asks, bending down in front of him and they all watch as one of the world’s greatest heroes rambles on about something his mom showed him last week.

.oOo.

This is the most they’ve ever heard Bruce talk about his parents and Alfred. They’re all listening intently about the woman who was their grandmother right now. Neither of them want to ask for more information. It wouldn't make sense to not know his parents if they were close to him. Alfred mentioned once that Marinette looks startlingly similar to Martha Wayne, Tim wonders if B’s picked up on it yet. Even if he has, Tim supposes, there wouldn’t be any reason for him to dwell on it as far as the Bruce in front of them is concerned his parents are alive and well.

They’ve all snuck pictures of him talking animatedly, he’s too carefree to notice, has no reason not to be. He’s already sent a few to Alfred and the others and immediately switched off notifications. Marinette and Damian do it too when their phones start blowing up, Steph’s just ignoring it and still taking photos and Cass is spamming them back. 

He goes back to watching Bruce talk without the weight he’s been carrying in all the time Tim’s known him.

.oOo.

It's strange, Cass thinks, to see him like this. The closest he's ever been to this relaxed is when all of them are at the manor for something other than a gala or bat business. 

She's alternating between listening to Bruce and tormenting her brothers who stayed back in Gotham. She’s sure if patrol wasn’t starting soon, they would’ve been here already for varying reasons.

She wonders if he’ll remember any of this when he comes back to normal, she’ll have to ask Marinette.

.oOo.

They moved to Marinette’s room in case the Dupain-Chengs check on them. Father’s taking a break from talking and is going through Marinette’s designs, Stephanie and Cassandra are with him. Drake seems to have taken on the responsibility of tormenting the others remaining in Gotham or he’s just texting his boyfriend, Damian doesn’t want to know.

He’s watching as the three of them go through Marinette’s designs, and watches as she gets progressively more flustered as they bury her in compliments, well mostly Stephanie, Cassandra and Father aren’t as vocal but it’s also the most he’s heard Father compliment someone sincerely.

It’s strange to think of the child in front of him as his father. He smiles a lot more and even laughed several times.

And then Stephanie mentions that Damian draws and Father’s asking him if he could look at his drawings. Damian offers him a small smile and unlocks his phone and shows him the recent painting of Titus, Alfred, Ace and Jerry and watches as his Father analyses the whole painting.

Maybe the child in front of him is not the father he’s gotten to know but it is nice to see him all the same.

.oOo.

Marinette’s starting to get worried. It’s been an hour and the others haven’t returned with the Akuma yet. They can’t keep tiny Bruce occupied forever. She’s considering transforming and checking it out when Tim pokes his head out from where he’s sitting on her bed and says, “hey Mari, delivery for you.”

Alya’s standing next to him with the akuma in a jar, looking confused. Marinette sighs, explaining this is going to be interesting.

She climbs up and heads to the balcony before transforming. Alya hands her the jar and Marinette purifies the akuma, calls for her lucky charm and throws it up in the air.

“So…” Alya starts, “wanna explain what that was about?” 

“Family emergency. I’ll tell you about it later. Bye!” and then Marinette’s back in her room. Her siblings seem to be panicking and her dad’s not there. The Miraculous Ladybug should have taken him back to where he was. He’s probably standing in the middle of the street completely disoriented.

Detransforming she joins their discussion, or more accurately panicked argument, to let them know what happened. They’re all on their way to the Paris branch of WE in a few minutes. She’s sure one of the employees is bound to have found him and explained things to him but they’re still going just in case.

He’s attacked by hugs when they find him in the lobby of the building, he looks confused as to why but none of them offer any explanation. Steph’s the first one to pull away when her phone starts ringing.

“Shit. We forgot to tell Alfred everything’s fine again.”

Letting go of her dad, she checks her phone and there at the very top of her notifications is a missed call from Alfred. Just one, he’s not anything like the rest of the family as proven by the hundred notifications below that. Steph’s already picked up the call and handed it to B. Marinette sends Dick a message to let him know that everything’s back to normal and to please not come to Paris once patrol’s done.

There are people staring at them, which isn’t surprising but makes her uncomfortable all the same and she knows the rest of them probably feel the same, though Tim might've gotten used to it. They watch in silence as B finishes talking to Alfred and hands Steph’s phone back to her.

He looks over the bunch of them and asks, “did you have something to tell me?”

It feels like forever that they stand awkwardly looking at him before Marinette says, “nope! Nothing important,” and drags her siblings out of the building and back to the bakery. They can talk to him later and Damian’s yawning on their way back. It’s been one hell of a first day in Paris for them, she can’t wait for the rest of the week.

#the only reason this is on time is because ive had it written for a month #maribat #mbdbwm2021 #bio dad bruce wayne #my writing

[miraculous786]

A prompt with Alya Redemption. After one lie too many Alya or her family gets hurt by Lila’s actions. No bashing anyone, but Lila salt is encouraged (incident in not Akuma related(

Masterlist

You Were To Babysit, Not Abandon

"Thanks again for this, Lila."

"Oh, it's no problem!" the Italian enthused, bright smile on her face. "It's just a shame that Marinette couldn't babysit your little angels."

"Whoa, dude! Might not wanna be calling them that!" Nino chuckled.

Alya shrugged. "Yeah, well, my girl had a commission she needed to work on for a big client. I don't blame her for not wanting any distractions."

"But...don't you think that, well- I don't know...she should make time for you? Shouldn't Marinette want you two to be happy on one of your dates?"

The reporter rose a brow, before gaining a more stern expression. "Hey, don't say that about my best friend. She already does so much for our whole class for free. She deserves a break from our needs every once in a while."

There was a flash of surprise and something akin to a snarl from the brunette, yet it went as soon as it had appeared. "Oh, of course! Silly me! It's just that one of my cousins from Italy, the one that was the daughter of a famous pianist, always offered to look after her family-friends when their parents weren't home. I guess I just expected all good friends to do the same."

She shrugged, apparent guilt on her features, making Alya laugh slightly and rush to assure, "It's fine, Lila. Trust me. Anyway, we better get going now. We don't wanna be late for our reservation. Be sure to keep Ella and Etta safe! They can get into so much mischief sometimes."

"They won't be any trouble," the teen brushed off. "Have fun, bestie!"

Nino rose a brow at the nickname, but nonetheless waved with his girlfriend as they walked out. The door slammed shut behind them, causing a slow grin to stretch across Lila's cheeks.

"Well, isn't this perfect!" she exclaimed with a clap of the hands, turning to the curious kids nearby. "How about we go visit the park to pass some time?"

~*~*~

"Lila! Lila!"

Said person fought off the urge to snap at the twins in her care, and instead replied in a sugar-sweet tone, "Yes?"

"Can we go on the carousel?"

"Pretty please?"

She glanced to the side, catching sight of the functioning ride. On it were a few children - a notable one being Manon - who were screaming excitedly at their parents nearby.

"Of course you can!" the girl allowed, whilst pressing a finger to Ella's nose in a playful manner. "Go on for as long as you want! I'll be right here."

They cheered with their arms in the air together, then proceeded to run off, giggles trailing behind them.

"Finally..." she scoffed beneath her breath. "How does that Mari-Brat deal with them when they never shut up? 'Angels'? More like devils if you ask me. No wonder they were akumatized into them."

Lila stood up from the bench she was sat at. Her head twisted to the scene at the other end of the park, and her legs soon brought her over to it at a fast pace.

There, set up in a way so as to not disturb anyone in the vicinity, was a photoshoot. Cameras of all sorts were pointing in the direction of a fountain, where a blond boy with emerald eyes was posing.

She smirked. Her gaze scanned over both him and the photographer close by. Thoughts of how she herself could be added in to the taken pictures flooded her mind, until she heard an accented voice speak.

"And that's a wrap for now! We'll have a half hour break and carry on after."

Adrien sighed in relief. He faced the woman to his far left and questioned, "Nathalie, is it okay if I have lunch now? I'll stay in the park."

"Yes you may, Adrien," his father's assistant droned. He didn't catch the way she snuck a peek to Lila, nor how a glint of something sinister shone on her glasses. "I have some business to attend to."

"Thank you, Nathalie!" he enthused, before suddenly gaining a pained look when gazing to where the Italian nearby was. "H-Hey Lila, how's it going?"

"Oh, I'm doing great, Adrien. Thank you so much for asking," Lila answered, coming forward to grab hold of his arm to further show her gratitude. However, she was halted by Nathalie opening her mouth to talk.

"Miss Rossi, if you would come with me, please. We have very important matters to discuss on the terms of your modelling contract."

"Of course!" she agreed - her smile only getting wider when she gazed upon the limousine that the female was gesturing to. She strolled over with her head held high, then entered with one last victorious smirk.

The only person to see it was Adrien, who narrowed his eyes.

~*~*~

"Excuse me?"

Adrien jumped. He turned to the source of the two voices that had called in unison, only to see a pair of familiar siblings.

"Ella? Etta? What are you guys doing out here by yourselves?"

Ella sniffled, rubbing her nose. "Alya's friend isn't here and she said she would be. We don't really know this park good. Can you help us please?"

"Please?"

The model rose an eyebrow. "But Marinette doesn't even live around here," he pondered aloud. "And she's responsible enough to not leave kids on their own. Are you sure she's not around?"

"No, Marinette isn't babysitting us. Lila is."

He grit his teeth. His fists clenched. "She's on her way to my father's mansion right now. It'll take at least fifteen minutes to walk back to Alya's," he revealed, tone laced with underlying anger. "I can't let you go by yourself, you're too young."

Etta's lip wobbled. "B-But how are we going to get home?"

After a moment, he pulled out the phone from his pocket. "Don't you girls worry yourselves. I have the perfect person to call."

~*~*~

"Hey, Alya? Are, are you okay?"

The reporter hummed with a serene smile, though Marinette couldn't help but furrow her brows at it. It was suspicious in her eyes, to say the least. The corners of her friend's mouth were slightly up, in a way that suggested that she was both happy and angered at the same time.

"If you say so, I guess..."

Alya turned her head to the baker. "Sorry, girl. It's just that, well...something happened yesterday that's had me worried for a while."

"Oh, gosh! Was it something bad?" Marinette quizzed, concern overtaking her. "Did someone get hurt?"

She chuckled dryly. "I guess you could say that they almost did."

Before the bluenette could say another word, the door to the classroom opened up, revealing a figure adorning an orange jacket. Their demeanour radiated pride and confidence, as they strut to the desks that the two best friends were at.

"Hey, bestie!" the newcomer greeted, ignoring Marinette who was sat with a subtly disgusted expression. "It's great to see you! I wanted to just tell you that I have a new exclusive for your blog if you want to record it after school today. It's about my job as a model for Gabriel Agreste, which I'm sure your fans will love."

"That's great to hear, Lila," Alya praised. "It's a shame that I have to go straight home after school. I am grounded, after all. I guess that means that I can't interview you or anything."

A flash of resentment shone in her green eyes. With a blinding smile, she spoke, "Oh, I'm sure your parents can un-ground you if you just tell them the situation. What you done couldn't have been that bad."

No one noticed how Adrien smirked from his seat.

Since everyone was focused on how Alya's smile disappeared in an instant, and was instead replaced by a look that screamed danger.

However, it seemed that Lila didn't catch on. At least not until the teen spoke up again.

"What I did was very bad, I assure you," she drawled, standing up from her table. "I trusted you, out of all people, to look after my sisters."

The Italian reared back. False tears pricked at her eyes. "W-What? What are you talking about? I thought Marinette was the one who did that, doesn't she?"

"Hey! I'll have you know that Uncle Jagged commissioned-"

Alya slammed her hands on the desk in front, making most in the room flinch. "Lila, I specifically told you to stay at home with Ella and Etta until me and Nino came back - not bring them to a park to play."

"I don't know what you're talkin-"

"You were supposed to babysit them! Not abandon them in a place where they could have been in danger or kidnapped if Adrien wasn't there to tell me where they were!"

"A-Adrien did? But-?"

Lila faced the blond, only to see him grinning in amusement.

"He, he must have made a mistake! I didn't leave them on the carousel at all! I just-"

"First of all, I didn't even mention a carousel," Alya started, finger held up for her to pause. "And second, I'm done with this conversation. I'm afraid that we can't really be friends if you lie so easily to me to get out of the consequences of endangering children."

Marinette gazed with a look that could best be described as awe at Alya. She watched with a sense of delight as Lila flickered her eyes back and forth, before deciding to humph with a flick of the hair and make her way up the stairs beside them.

"...So that was why you were in such a mood earlier."

~*~*~

@northernbluetongue @moonystars14 @soupfilledboots @vixen-uchiha @starsshineandgivehope @professionalfangirl1738

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #alya cesaire #alya sugar #adrien agreste #no adrien salt #adrien sugar #Nino lahiffe #lila rossi #lila salt #Lila sucks #ml salt #ml sugar #ella cesaire #etta cesaire

[boldlyanxious]

None the Wiser

Masterlist

All fic masterlist

Bio-dad Bruce--first meeting

(Apparently telling myself I have to much going on to participate means nothing. I had an idea and it demanded to be written.)

It felt like such a simple assignment. Pretty basic genetics lesson for biology. Blood type was an easy thing to test in class. Their biology teacher had asked that they bring in the known blood types of their immediate family to help with understanding how it would work to pass on the genetic traits. Marinette had no siblings but she knew both her parents were O+.

They had finished with eye color during the last class and that was no concern for Marinette. Genetics could easily explain how the recessive blue eyes could come from the green and grey of her father and mother. But she had never known her blood type before. Just like with the eyes she should have received the recessive o from each of them making her blood type O.

She had already told her parents blood type but when she took the test it wasn't right. She told the teacher the expected answer when she was called upon for her test result and the teacher went on to explain how this was the most likely response with a 1 in 8 chance of having O- instead. Marinette didn't show anyone her test results. She was too confused. There was no way she could have gotten A blood type from her parents.

She knew there were pictures of her mother pregnant with her. Her dad was in the room when she was born and they had been married for 6 years before her mother was pregnant. She didn't want to think that her mother had cheated but there were not many other options. Her parents always seemed so in love, Marinette didn't want to ask them how it was possible.

She was quiet the rest of the week until she came up with a plan. She would simply take a DNA ancestry test and that would make everything make sense. It was probably a faulty blood type test and she was interested in the results she would get anyway. So, that weekend she got everything together and sent off for answers.

---

Tim wasn't paying much attention to the alert from his phone because he was just waiting for his coffee order. He looked down and read it. Then he read it again before he ran out of the shop without the coffee. He headed directly back to Wayne Enterprises to tell Bruce in person what he had learned.

Bruce was not happy to be pulled from his meeting by his son. He seemed to have an issue with a small French subsidiary company that did medical and genetic testing. Tim was talking too fast and he couldn't quite make sense of any of it. His head was already filled with the stock prices and percentages being discussed at the quarterly report meeting he had just left. He wasn't switching gears quickly enough for the science Tim was explaining.

"Are you even listening to me?" Tim asked frustrated "How would you even end up with another child in France?"

"Wait, what? I don't have any children in France." Bruce responded.

"The test was flagged in the system as a match for you. But that isn't all. She appears to be a match with Damian's DNA." Tim said.

"I have a daughter with Talia? I really don't think that is possible."

"It appears that way. I haven't looked into anything on her yet."

"I need to pack a bag."

"You don't think that is a little premature? She could have been trained to kill you."

"We will still do background on her. But if I have another child, I want to meet her."

---

Marinette was frantically gathering things she needed while holding her phone to her ear, talking to Nino. She grabbed her bag, a hanging garment bag and a stack of bakery boxes. She looked over and glared at her bag with the decorations before setting down the boxes and reaching for the straps of the bag.

"Argh, this isn't working right. I need more hands."

"You are trying to carry too much. I knew you would do that. It's why I planned ahead and got you a ride." Nino's voice came through the receiver after he finished laughing at her.

"The hotel is not far away. Who would give me a ride?"

"My buddy Adrien. He should be arriving any minute."

Marinette looked up as the bells on the door chimed. Adrien walked in followed by 2 men in business suits that Marinette couldn't help but admire. She jumped at him with a fierce hug, forgetting all about her phone call. Her phone flew off her shoulder right at the older of the 2 businessmen. His blue eyes danced with amusement at her shocked expression as he caught it easily.

"Oh wow. Thank you so much. I'm sorry for throwing it at you. That was so cool." Her excited voice stilled as she realized she was still against Adrien, having frozen in their hug. She pushed away and reached for her phone.

"Thank you again." She turned back to Adrien. "And thank you for the ride. I have so many things to carry."

Nino's voice came through the phone, "what is happening?"

"Oh, sorry Nino. I kinda threw you away when I saw Adrien."

"Don't I mean anything to you? What about our love?"

"I couldn't help myself. When I saw him with the sun shining in his gorgeous golden locks it was all I could think about."

Adrien raised his eye brow at her but she waved him off with her hand and gave a conspiratorial wink.

"You've gutted me." Nino said.

"I'll set you up with my best girl. She is 16 and I know you have a thing for older women."

"Well I can't have you, baby. I guess I'll meet her."

"Ugh. Too far Nino. Don't ever call me baby again. Even as a joke."

"But you are baby."

I'm hanging up now."

"Don't forget your shoes."

"My shoes!" Marinette ran off, shoving her garment bag and her phone into Adrien's hands, she rushed back to her living room to get her shoes to go with her party dress.

---

Bruce and Tim hadn't been sure that they would see the girl when visiting the patisserie owned by her parents. But when they entered the establishment they quickly recognised the girl buzzing around as the same one they had researched after learning she shared Bruce's DNA. When he met her eyes, in the moment he handed her phone back to her, there was no mistaking that she got his eyes.

They took just enough time deciding what to try so they were able to see her as she went in and out several times collecting all she needed from what they gathered was her best friend's birthday party. She kissed her parents on the cheek and promised to see them tomorrow before she zipped back out the door the last time.

As the men walked back to their hotel they talked about how they should proceed. None in the family seemed to recognize them and they weren't sure how she came to be with them even though she was Bruce and Talia's biological child. When they arrived back at their hotel they were surprised to see the same girl unloading all the things she had packed and giving direction to the others gathered with a confidence she hadn't seemed to possess before.

All those working for her were occupied setting up decorations, sounds equipment, or tables for gifts and treats as she guided the bodyguard of her friend from the bakery in how to carry the massive cake and where to place it. When he finished and was heading out she offered him a small package from the bakery when she thanked him for all his help. Then she was off setting up for her friend's arrival.

It was odd for Bruce to realize he was feeling proud watching her. Then he had to pull himself back when he realized he was watching her. Actually it was Tim who pulled him away so he wouldn't be noticed watching a teenage girl he had never really met. They headed back to the rooms they rented. They both entered Tim's room where his computer was still working on finding information on the couple and their daughter.

---

Marinette was feeling very antsy. She had set up the perfect surprise party with Marlene Cesaire for Alya's 16th birthday. Mostly successful because it wasn't a surprise. Alya was dropping off the twins with her mother at the end of Marlene's shift in the hotel kitchen before she headed to Marinette's house for a small party in the bakery and a sleepover.

Alya had no idea how big her party was going to be. Since the hotel wasn't full and the ballroom hadn't been booked, the mayor allowed his chef to book two rooms and the ballroom and just pay for the staff to clean it rather than the typical rate. He was even allowing the teenagers to stay unaccompanied so long as they didn't destroy the room or disturb other guests (too much).

Marinette had made her a special dress with a matching hero mask and told everyone to dress as a hero or wear a mask. Kitty Section would be playing for a bit and they had a bunch of party games and songs to dance or sing to so Alya could choose the activities. Most of the people coming would be staying in one of the 2 connected hotel rooms so that party could go really late.

She got Nathanael and Marc to sit nearby and watch to warn her when Alya was close. They weren't super close to Alya so it wouldn't raise suspicion if she saw them, she would probably just stop to greet them but let them keep working. That would give them the perfect opportunity to call ahead to make sure everything was ready for her arrival.

Marinette was already regretting inviting Lila. She was not only actively not helping but she was getting in the way of everyone who was helping. She had to explain how it would have been better if the tables had been moved or if the color scheme was different. She thought hotel parties were tacky and the way her last party was was so much better because she only included her closest celebrity friends. But also the party was actually her idea and she was letting Marinette help out and take the credit so she wouldn't feel left out.

---

"I think I found something." Tim said.

Bruce walked over to look at the screen. Tim showed him Sabine's medical records from 16-18 years ago. She and Tom had been seen by a fertility specialist originally almost 18 years ago. A series of appointments after that escalated to several visits at a facility that specialized in in vitro fertilization. As far as they could tell the couple had set it up to have a genetic child but with assistance but the company had logged 2 security issues during the same month they visited. The company kept it quiet because they could find nothing out of place after the breech. One new employee worked there during that time for only 2 months: Nyssa Raatko.

"I don't know what to do'" Bruce paused. "Tell them. I definitely need to tell them."

Bruce has mostly been talking to himself while Tim was in the other room distracted. Tim heard the door latch closed after Bruce left and he had to think about what he had heard while he wasn't paying attention in order to put together why Bruce had left.

"Oh, that is a terrible idea," he said. He worked on getting his key, wallet and phone into his pockets while he slipped his shoes back on. He followed after Bruce planning to catch up with him. He walked a block in the wrong direction before he realized his mistake and back tracked to get back to the patisserie.

---

"Okay, I got the call. Alya will be here in about 1 minute. Places everyone." Marinette called out.

Everyone waited and suddenly the ballroom doors burst open. Etta and Ella had been very excited to be told it was their one chance to run away from Alya and into the ballroom. They usually were scolded for going in there. It was of limits because it might be used for an event and no one wanted them to mess things up.

Alya chased them into the room and shrieked when everyone jumped out and yelled:

"Surprise!"

"Oh, this looks awesome. How did you do all this? There is no way we can afford this." Alya said.

"Honestly, Marinette did most of it." Marlene said. "She cleared it with me and Mayor Bourgeois. I think she had a back up plan but the ballroom and the 2 guest rooms are yours because they didn't sell. He let me just pay the cost for the hotel so long as nothing is destroyed and you don't run off guests."

"Girl, this is amazing!"

"I brought you a dress to wear. I told everyone it was hero classy so there is a mask to match."

Alya pulled her into a hug and then dragged her off to change into the new dress.

---

"Welcome back. We are closed but we will still offer anything we still have available." Tom said.

"I enjoyed what I had here, but that isn't why I came. I need to talk to you about your daughter." Bruce said.

"Marinette? What happened? Is she okay?" Sabine's mind went to all the things that could have gone wrong in the last hour as she looked around for her phone.

"Nothing has happened to her, but she recently sent off for DNA and ancestry results to a company I own."

"We don't know anything about that. Was she supposed to get a parent signature because of her age?" Sabine asked.

"No. It was flagged because her DNA is a match to mine. Also a full match to my biological son. She shares the same mother as him."

The room was silent for several beats before both of them denied that what he said could be possible. He let them continue for a moment before sharing what he had learned. He explained that his genetic material had been stolen by Damian's mother and from there he believed it had been stolen by her sister for an unknown purpose. He told them he found a record of her working at the fertility clinic they had used and the company had noted a couple security breeches during that time. He continued by suggesting she had probably chosen them based on a similar ethnic makeup to himself and the mother.

They listened with increasing agitation. The man before then appeared to be very well off and he mentioned that he owned the company as more of an afterthought. They suspected he had quite a bit more money than them and he said he had custody of the other child he mentioned. They shared a look and thought they might be having the same thought that this man intended to take their child away from them. They weren't sure who legally had the right to a child in such cases. But they had heard of custody issues with couples who needed to use donors during in vitro fertilization. They had been relieved that they were able to get pregnant without using a donor. They all turned as the door opened and Marinette burst in obviously angry.

"Hold me back from that little Italian witch. I am going to rip her weird pseudo pig tails off her head and thrash her with them. Then I'll cram them down her throat so she can never lie again."

All eyes turned to Marinette as she came into the room. Based on her appearance she was probably heading up to her bedroom to change her dress. The bodice of her dress was smeared with icing after Lila 'accidentally' tripped into Marinette. Marinette then accidentally dropped her so she fell but that didn't save her dress.

Marinette looked at her parents as she felt the tension in the room. Her parents had moved to place themselves between her and the stranger in their living room. Marinette looked around but no one spoke. She didn't know how to read the unusual look on the man's face but her parents looked like something between scared and angry.

"Is something wrong?" Marinette asked.

"I was just heading out," the man said. He reached a hand out, smiling. "I'm Bruce."

"Marinette," she responded while shaking his hand. She looked back at her parents and now she couldn't tell what their expressions meant as Bruce walked out.

Next

#maribat #bio dad bruce wayne #biodad au #boldlyanxious

[thebookwormfairy]

Winx Club Maribat AU Part 2

Hey guys I'm making a permanent tag list for my Maribat stuff. If you like to be added just message me! Okay on to the story!

Part 1

Masterlist

Marinette had a great summer

She loved being back home with her parents, but something felt different

She felt like her parents were hiding something from her

Something big

She tried not to let it bother her and just enjoy her summer

Her favorite part was when her friends came over

Though she was a little surprised when Damian's brothers stepped out of the portal along with Damian, Adrien, Alya, Alix, Jon, Juleka, Nino, and Rose

Jason walking up and ruffling Marinette's hair: You look surprised to see us Pixie Pop

Damian pushing Jason away from Marinette before giving her a hug: Sorry Angel, my father wouldn't let us come unless they came along

Marinette smiling: It's no problem the more the merrier

Marinette showed them all the sights of Paris

From the classics like the Eiffle Tower

To more local secrets like Ande's Icecream

Much to Marinette's embarrassment Andre made her icecream based off of Damian and his her

But it didn't seem like he understood or at least he didn't bring it up

On the last night in Paris before they all had to return to school Damian asked to talk to Marinette alone

They climbed out onto her balcony to get some privacy

The pair stood in silence for a but staring out into the Parisian night

Damian grabbing Marinette's hands: Marinette we've known eachother for a couple of months now, and they've been wome of the best times I've ever had

Marinette blushed: Really?

Damian also blushing: Yeah, I know it's only been a couple of months but I can't imagine my life without you, and I don't want to have to. So will you be my girlfriend?

Marinette rushing forward hugging Damian: Of course I will!

The two stood there hugging eachother as close as possible

The young couple pulled apart a little bit only to lean towards eachother again when the moment was ruined by a blue skinned witch

The blue skinned witch short a spell towards the two

Damian was able to push Marinette off the balcony and onto the roof away from the spell

Damian: Are you okay?

Marinette: Yeah

The others hearing the explosion came running out of the backery seeing the witch

Adrien spotting Damian and Marinette on the roof yells: Are you guys okay?

Marinette: Yeah

Marinette transformed and flying Damian down to the street with the rest of their friends

Mayu: I know one of you have the Miraculous! Give it to me at once

Marinette: What's a Miraculous?

Jason: No idea

Mayu: I will tear apart this entire planet until I receive the Miraculous!

Marinette: Oh no you won't!

The other fairies transformed and start to fight but it was like their attacks barely fazed the witch

Damian: Come on boys we have to help them!

The Specialist jumped into the battle

Together they were barely able to chase the witch off

Marinette had so many questions, but one kept popping up in her head

Did this have anything to do with the mysterious ring she found during her final?

After the girls and Adrien used their magic to repair the damage from the battle and check on Marinette's parents they decides to go to Gotham a day early and stay in Wayne Manor

Dick assured the group that it was perfectly fine and that their dad would much rather have a few surprises guests then for any of them be injured

Bruce was very welcoming to the group of misplaced kids

As the Adrien, Jon, and the girls minus Marinette went to bed, the Wayne's and Marinette stayed downstairs

Alfred: So why did the young masters return with their friends so soon?

Damian: We were attacked

Bruce: Attacked?

Tim: Yeah by some crazy blue skinned witch! She was looking for something....what was it?

Dick: She was looking for something, um, it started with an M. Mmmm... mmiii...

Jason and Marinette: The Miraculous

Alfres was shocked when he heard that

He's heard of the Miraculous before, the powerful treasures from the planet Miracul, but they were lost when the kingdom fell

Or so everybody thought

Alfred looked at Jason as he laughed at something Marinette said

He couldn't helping thinking back to the first thought he had upon meeting Jason

That he looked so much like King Rolland

But there was no way that the Dark Coven would have let the royal children live

They sadly were probably the first of their victims

They would have been the wielders of the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous

Together they would have been able to take down the Dark coven single handly

To not get rid of such a big threat early on would have been plain stupid so of course the royal heirs are no more

But Alfred couldn't help but think that Marinette looked an awful lot like Queen Clarisse

When the fairies returned they told Ms. Faragonda everything that happened

Faragonda had a pensive looked on her face, but told the girls to head to their dorms

With the start of school all thoughts of mysterious blue witches and Miraculouses were pushed to the back of their minds

Dick was officially a teacher at Red Fountain and was totally crushing on his co-teacher Kori, who could totally kick his but

Which is one of the reasons he loves her

Marinette kept teach Adrien magic with the help of the other faries

And of course Damain now tags along with Adrien so he can see his girlfriend

Though Adrien now hates Marinette and Damian because the 2 have made it their personal mission to kill Adrien

Okay maybe Adrien was being over dramatic

Truthfully the young couple just liked to tease Adrien relentlessly about his crush on Jon

Damian become more of a regular sight at Alfea

And with him came his brothers

Much to Damian's chagrin

Jason and Marinette started to become closer and closer

Adapting more of a sibling relationships

With Jason even giving Damian the shovel talk

Damian: Shouldn't you be giving Marinette this talk

Jason: No I prefer to threaten you

Damian just glares at his annoying brother

Yes everything was going great for Marinette until one day Alfea was attacked

This person was a man you looked like a scarecrow but he too was looking for the Miraculouses

Scarecrow was throwing potions at the young fairies that made them see their worst fears

Soon only Marinette and her friends were left standing though it was obvious that the gas was starting to get to them

Scarecrow zeroing onto Marinette: You! Your the one with the Miraculous!

Marinette blasting Scarecrow: I have no idea what your talking about! What is a Miraculous?!?

Scarecrow laughing: Oh my gosh you hold possibly the most powerful magical object in the universe and you have no idea, do you? Gove me the Miraculous little girl and I just make let you live

Marinette: Never!

Scarecrow: Have it your way!

Juleka was the first one to go down, Rose followed closely behind wit Alya holding out for a but longer before she too succumbed to the gas

Alix was able to stay much longer

She continued to fight besides Marinette blowing the gas away from the two

Watching Alix gave Marinette a brilliant idea

Marinette: Alix I have an idea!

Alix trying to blow Scarecrow away, but only succeeding in pushing him back a couple of feet: I'm all ears

Marinette: Let me handle this guy, you need to blow the gas away! If we can clear the gas everybody will go back to normal

Alix: I'm on it!

Alix flew down to wear the gas was starting to use her winx to blow the gas away from her classmates and teachers

Scarecrow laughing: Oh and what are you going to do, little fairy?

Marinette didn't answer the man instead gathering all her strength into one big blast

Even with all of Marinette's power the man only laughed

Scarecrow: That was cute

Marinette stared at him in horror

How was he laughing?

She put everything she had in that blast but it didn't do anything to him

Marinette was ready to give up until she heard the same voice she heard during her final

The voice: Marinette I can help you but you have to trust me

Marinette for some reason trusted this voice

She couldn't explain why she just did

Marinette: Okay I trust you

Marinette felt another wave of power washed over her

Green sparks surrounded Marinette and she felt reenergized

With this new energy Marinette gathered all her power again and this time when Marinette released her attack Scarecrow was blasted to the ground, getting knocked out in the process

Marinette pants as she landed back on the ground, Alix was able to clear the gas and everybody was starting to calm down

She cold feel the mysterious energy leave her as Ms. Faragonda walked up to Marinette

Faragonda: You did a great job Marinette. Well take this man into custody and find out what he was doing here

Marinette: Okay Ms. Faragonda.

Ms. Faragonda stared after her young student

She saw that green energy around Marinette

The only explanation could have been the Cat Miraculous, but that would be impossible

Faragonda needed to do some research

2 weeks later Marinette and her friends were called into her office

Faragonda: Thanks for coming in today girls, in light of the recent attacks I feel like this is important, but it also must remain a secret

Alix: What is it Ms. F?

Faragonda: We finished interrogating the man who attacked Alfea and it's what I worst feared. He is a member of the Dark Coven, the coven that destroyed the kingdom of Miracul.

The girls gasped at the information

Faragonda: Yes I know. They seem to think that one of you had a Miraculous and the attacks won't stop until you either defeat the coven or they kill you. So I believe it's time to gather the Miraculouses again and for you to start the next level of your training, Enchantix. Enchantix is achieved when you save a member of you family from a life threatening situation, that's why most fairies don't achieve it. They're not willing to take such a risk, but with Enchantix you'll be able to take on the Dark Coven and with the Miraculous you'll be able to start them for good

Alya: But how will we find the Miraculous? Weren't they scattered when Miracul fell?

Faragonda: That is true Alya, but we have an advantage that the coven doesn't have, somebody from Miracul. The people of Miracul had a connection to the Miraculous and with the royal family gone hopefully they will reach out to the last citizen of their kingdom

Marinette: Who is the last citizen?

Faragonda: Jason Todd. We'll be working with Red Fountain to find the Miraculous, but this must remain top secret nobody out of this room and the Specialist assigned to the mission must know about this. We have no idea how far the Dark Coven's reach extends

Faragonda: And one more thing girls and this is very important. No matter what never put on a Miraculous. Besides the Dark Coven the only people who would be able to wield and Miraculous was the royal family of Miracul and the people they bestowed the miraculous to. Anybody else who dares put on a Miraculous will be destroyed by the very power held within it.

Of course the Specialist assigned to the mission was Jason's brothers, Adrien, and Jon

They spent months tracking down the Miraculous

The Miraculous did seem to call out to Jason, but they called out to Marinette too

Marinette didn't know what to think of it

She was too scared to tell anybody that the Miraculous were calling to her too

She was scared of what it would me if they were really calling to her

And she was also scared that the ring she kept in her pocket was also a Miraculous

Marinette didn't let these worries get in the way of their mission

There was too much at stake for her to let her fear get to her

Their mission was actually going pretty well they already found 4 Miraculouses each on of the girls' home planet

The ones they found so far were the fox, turtle, rabbit, and mouse

With each Miraculous another fairy gained their Enchantix

Mainly because it seemed that a member of the Dark Coven appeared wherever they went

Alya got her's saving her twin sisters, Alix her father, Juleka her brother, and Rose her mother

Marinette was the only one who hadn't gotten her Enchantix and she didn't really know if she wanted to get it

The very thought of anything happening to her parents or anybody in her family made her feel sick

Today the group was going to the planet Miracul

They couldn't go by ship so Tim rewired the alternate reality chamber from the fairies' finals into a transport chamber

Dick: Are you sure the next Miraculous is on Miracul?

Jason: Positive, something is calling me there

Marinette also feeling something calling her: Jason hasn't let us down yet, I'm sure we'll find another Miraculous!

Jason: Thank you Pixie Pop at least somebody believes in me

Jason jokingly pulled Marinette into a tight hug pitting about his brothers questioning him

Damian: Please remove yourself from my girlfriend Todd

Jason turning to face Damian still holding onto Marinette: No, she may be your girlfriend but she's my unofficial adopted sister

Marinette laughing: Come on Jason let go. We got work to do

Jason: I don't really want to do the work today

Damian successfully tugging Marinette away from his annoying brother: Too bad

Tim: Now now, none of that. Come around kiddies I got the portal all set up

Tim pulling out 10 necklaces: So as y'all know we can't fly to the planet Miracul so we're teleporting. The teleporter will get us there but these babies will get us back. All you have to do is press the button and boom you're back here safe and sound

Jon: Sounds simple enough let's do this!

Of course no of their missions could be simple

The planet Miracul already held a lot of danger for the fairies

Since Miracul was a frozen planet the temperature could freeze the fairies wings and cause them to shatter

So the fairies of the group didn't want to transform unless it was absolutely necessary

The group explored the planet following the voice Jason said he heard

Jason lead them into the old place going to a room that felt so familiar to him

It was a child's room, old dusty toys laid on the floor covered in dust a frost

Jason was about to pick up a small chest when there was a blast of ice

Another coven member had found them

This one called himself Mr. Freeze

The fairies transformed hoping to send him off packing

But because of Mr. Freeze's powers the fairies had a hard time fighting him off

Mr Freeze aimed a blast at Jason

Marinette flying towards Jason: Jason watch out!

Marinette pushed Jason out of the way getting hit by the blast instead

Marinette's whole body was frozen solid from the blast

Jason and Damian: No!!

The two ran towards Marinette while the others continued to fight Mr. Freeze

Damian: No no no, please Marinette no!

Jason: No Pixie Pop! No why? I promised...I promised?

The ice around Marinette started to crack and shatter and Marinette emerged from it in her Enchantix form

She wore a dressed made out of Red petals with black vines wrapping around under her bust

With Marinette's new form they were able to blast Mr. Freeze away and send him into a full retreat

It wasn't until after the fight was done that Marinette and Jason realized something

Marinette looking at Jason: Wait, if I got my Enchantix form...then that would mean we're...

Marinette and Jason: Family

@t1dwarrior-of-earth @clumsy-owl-4178 @vgirl-10123 @aestheticnpoetic @toodaloo-kangaroo @animegirlweeb @k-poplunardreams @our-preciousss @razzledazzle247 @justafanwarrior @kanamexzeroyaoifangirl

#maribat #damian x marinette #marinette x damian #daminette #winx club au #adrijon #brotp #jasonette

[unmaskedagain]

Marinette: Iron Man’s Minion

Marinette: Tony’s Stark new Minion.

I have this random story idea of Marinette meeting Tony Stark. It creates fun dynamic with the avengers who begin to questions just how many children Tony has. This story might not go anywhere apart from a few headcannons so be warned.

Most people meet Tony Stark at the Stark Expo. Some are unfortunate enough to meet Tony when he’s rescuing them in the Iron Man suit.

However, when Stark Industries decide that after the events of Slovakia, thankfully Loki had been there to stop the worst of Ultron’s plan thus saving nearly everyone’s life, a little good press wouldn’t hurt.

Stark Industries quietly announced a competition to young inventors of the world: whoever designs the best new Iron Man suit wins a replica Iron man. When one little French girl wins, however it’s the stuff of her dreams.

Or at least Marinette thought so at first.

When the Parisian hero learned of the competition, she decided to pull out her old sketches of the iron man suit. She had always admired the sleekness of it but thousands ideas always hit her on how it could improve appearance wise. Marinette decided to submit her favorite design, never think it was ever a possibility that she’d win.

In fact Marinette was so sure she’d lose, that she didn’t pay attention when the winner was announced. She didn’t find out until her phone rang and Pepper Potts was on the other side of the videotime.

Tony Stark loved her suit design and instead of a shoddy helmet, the real prize was for the Winner to come to New York, meet the avengers, and work with The Tony Stark for the entire summer as an intern.

Marinette had never screamed so loud in her life. Her parents were thrilled at the idea of Marinette getting away from the dangers of all the Akumas and the drama of her class.

Honestly, Marinette thought it was her lucky break. She hadn’t made a single plan for the summer. All of her so called friends had taken to giving her the cold shoulder thanks to Lila and her lies. Marinette hadn’t even been invited to the class’s annual end of the year party. Whenever she tried to make plans with them. They were always too busy or just plain ignored her but then they go right ahead and make plans in front of her.

Marinette had been in tears by the end of term.

She tried to tell Alya she was leaving to New York but was met with contempt. Alya and Marinette’s friendship was non-existent at that point. And whatever childhood friendship she once had with Nino, died with it. Right or wrong, he always took the side of his girlfriend.

Kim trailed behind Lila like a lost puppy, further cementing he had terrible taste in women.

The most interaction Marinette had with Alix was when the pink-haired girl when out of her way to trip Marinette.

Rose said quietly whispered to Marinette that she didn’t want to cause problems with her other friends so they couldn’t talk much anymore. Juleka follow suit.

Adrien watched it all with a passive expression on his face like he didn’t know the truth. It was then that Marinette realized the boy didn’t care what the truth was as long as he didn’t have to deal with conflict.

As far as Marinette was concerned she didn’t have a single friend left in class. Just like Lila threatened. The only good thing that came from it was that Marinette that she wouldn’t care what people thought. Marinette decided to always say whats on her mind no matter what.

           Jagged said it made her very sassy, and so very ROCK AND ROLL.

Marinette arrived at Stark Tower three days after school ended. She had jumped twenty feet when she stepped into the elevator and a voice greeted her.

“Hello Miss Dupain-Cheng,” A voice said.

“Uh, bonjour?” Marinette said. “Please call me Marinette. And you are, sir?”

“I am Jarvis.”

           Marinette nodded. She had heard about the AI that help run Tony Stark’s world. “How are you doing today, Jarvis?” She asked it.

           There was a moment of silence. Most people, a part of his creator, had never asked Jarvis how he was.

“Less chaotic than usual,” Jarvis said with a dry amused tone that left Marinette wondering if A.I could be amused.

           Marinette straightened up and her blue eyes narrowed, “You are not being worked too hard, right? You get time to yourself?”

           Jarvis assured her that he did and that he liked his job. They went onto have a pleasant conversation about their most exciting experiences and Marinette’s future dreams.

Marinette didn’t know that currently Tony was watching the interaction from his workshop with a grin on her face. He had wanted to know just who he’d be working with. So far, Frenchy looked like a keeper.

When the elevator doors opened, Marinette followed Jarvis’s instructions on where to go. And that she was to wait in the living room until Tony came for her. It was then she discovered something about the A.I.

“You’re a bit of a jerk, Jarvis,” Marinette whispered when she walked into the living room where nearly all of the Avengers were hanging out and watching… Spongebob?

           Unfortunately, Tony had been drinking coffee at the time and ended up doing a spit take all over dummy.

           It took all of two second for the avengers to notice the fourteen-year-old girl standing there.

           The bluenette’s face turned bright red. It took everything in her not to start screaming and jumping up and down.

“Oh god, cap” Clint said, “One of your fangirls

“Fangirl? Oh please,” Marinette scoffed. “Have you seen the disaster of a costume he wears into battle? Not in this lifetime!”

           Unfortunately, again, for Tony and Dummy, Tony had taken another drink from his coffee at the moment.

“She’s trying to kill me,” Tony coughed. “Worth it.” He said with his eyes still glued the screen.

           The avengers just stared for a moment. Steve Rogers blinked hard, “What?”

“No offense,” Marinette quickly said. “I’m just really into fashion. And I cannot and will not be seen as fan of man who dresses like America’s drunk prom date.”

           Clint fell off the couch laughing.

“She’s not wrong,” Natasha shrugged as she eyed the girl with a smirk.

           Steve cast the spider a look, and turned frown to Marinette, “I wore that uniform to war.”

“Like World War 2 wasn’t tragic enough,” Marinette said dryly.

“Jarvis!” Tony yelled as he ran from the workshop still trying to watch his new favorite. “Get me some adoption papers.”

“Sir, she has parents,” Jarvis tried to reason.

“Didn’t anyone teach ya to respect your elders? A voice said behind her.

           Unfortunately for the newcomer, Marinette flight or fight instincts had been firmly in fight mode for quite some time. As she quickly spun around and kicked the guy in the face. And that was how Marinette met the Winter Soldier. She broke his nose.

           Bucky crashed into the wall with a force that left his head spinning.

“Peter always wanted a sibling,” Tony told Jarvis with a joyful look.

“And May Parker still hasn’t given you permission to adopt him either.”

“Sorry!” Marinette yelled frantically as she moved to help the man. “I didn’t mean to, I promise. Are you alright? Can I get you anything?”

“Besides your dignity back,” Sam added with the biggest grin on his face. “Because that’s gone, man. Like forever.”

           Marinette shot him a glare, and turned her the disheveled man. She noticed the bloody nose and her panic increased tenfold. “Oh god. Oh god.” She pulled a cloth napkin from her purse and held it up to Bucky’s face. She looked around the room, hysterically, and spotted Bruce Banner, “Dr. Banner, help please.”

“I’m not that type of doctor,” Banner quickly said.

           Marinette narrowed her eyes at him, “Today you are.”

           Bruce blinked. He felt the big guy rumble in amusement. He quickly got up to help.

“I’m fine,” Bucky said as he tried to wave her off and move towards the others. “Nice kick by the way.”

“You,” She pointed at Bucky. “Be quiet. You hit your head and might have a concussion.”

           Bruce instructed Marinette to remove the napkin as he examine his patient.

“Tis merely a flesh wound,” Thor boomed as he strutted over to look. “Nothing to worry about.” He moved to place his hand on the girl���s shoulder but before he could…

“Touch me and I will break that hand,” The girl suddenly said, her back to the blond god.

           Thor’s hand froze in midair. Marinette turned and looked at him. “Go sit back on the couch.” She ordered in such a way that Thor was reminded of his longtime friend Sif.

“I-” Thor started but was cut off.

“Now!”

           Thor flinched back. The blue eyes watched him sternly as he slowly went back to the couch like a puppy with his tail between his legs. Far from the scary small girl.

“Pepper would love her!”

“Yes, but she’d be furious about a kidnapping.”

“How is he, Dr. Banner?” Marinette asked.

           Banner decided right then shrugging would get him killed. “He’s fine. It’s just small break. He’ll be fine in an hour.” He got a skeptical look. “Super soldier, he heals fast.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Marinette said brightly.

“Come on,” Marinette told Bucky soothingly. “Let get you on the couch.”

           Bucky just let himself be led with a sigh. Why did the small, tiny ones always give him the most trouble?

           The other avengers moved out of their way.

“Are you okay?” Marinette asked again when sat the wounded man on the couch. “Do you need anything? Do you want the remote control? I can get you the remote control.”

           Said current owner of the remote control, Scott, looked up like a deer in the headlights. He froze when the French girl’s blue eyes found him and they narrowed in challenge. Scott barely noticed Sam slowly inch himself away from his teammate.

“Asshole,” Scott hissed to Falcon.

“What did you just say?” Marinette raised an eyebrow.

“I said: Here’s the remote,” He tossed it prized possession the Winter Solider who had a smirk on his face. He knew just how hard it was to maintain control of the TV in a home of superheroes.

           Marinette caught it in midair. She passed it to Bucky.

“Thanks!” Bucky smirked at Scott as he said it. “I’m good now. I swear.”

           Marinette nodded contently.

“Ahh Marinette,” Tony said as he entered the room. The smug expression on his face and in his tone didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the avengers. “Sorry I’m late. Come on, I’ll show you where we’ll be working.”

           Marinette grinned and ran over to the Tony Stark.

“Wait, who are you, tiny vicious girl?” Clint suddenly yelled.

“My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” She introduced herself brightly, looking very much like the sweet school girl they originally thought she was.

“My new intern,” Tony smirked. Then within seconds the genius pulled Marinette out of the room and disappeared from sight as Jarvis slammed the doors behind them

           Natasha hummed, “Tony always managed find the most interesting kids. First the spiderling and now…”

“The Devil,” Sam finished. “I have older sisters. Fear the wrath of a teenager girl.”

“She’s here all summer,” Steve remember feeling oddly self-conscious.

           Bucky chuckled and propped his feet of the coffee table, “Aww, don’t worry punk, I won’t let the mean powderpuff bully you.”

“So Dominator,” Tony said as the stepped into the elevator. “You really know how to make an entrance. I like that in a minion.”

“Minion?” Marinette squeaked. “Mr. Stark?”

           What exactly had she signed up for?

           The elevator doors opened. “Call me Tony,” He said spread his arms wide as he showed of the workshop. “So this is where the magic happens.”

           For the next few hours, Marinette toured the workshop and the tower. Tony really did love the suit she had drawn but had been a bit dismayed that Marinette didn’t have too much experience in the science. Marinette was a quick learned though, and Tony was impressed about how quickly she picked up information.

Happy, the driver who had picked Marinette up from the airport and who grumbled about always being stuck with teenagers, had brought up her bags as he had said he would and left it in her room.

Marinette didn’t run into any of the other avengers again until the next day. She got up bright and early, the sun still rising, as she was still used to waking up and helping her baker parents. Plus jetlag.

With Jarvis help, she easily found the kitchen. To her dismay, the fridge was full of junk food, take out boxes, and protein shakes. And coffee. Lots of clearly expensive coffee.

She sighed and got to baking. There was plenty of ingredients to work with as the kitchen was well stocked up unused. Within the next few hours, the kitchen and thus the entire tower was filled with the sweets smells usually only found in the bakery.

Marinette had made chocolate croissants, a variety of muffins, Berries and Cream Cheese Breakfast Pastries that her father swore by, and spinach, bacon, mushroom, and cheese quiches. She even made a pot of coffee. All spread out on the dining room table before eight am.

The first to make their way up to see what smelled so good was Natasha.

“Good morning,” Natasha said. “Been busy?”

“Morning,” Marinette beamed. “Daughter of bakers. Hungry?”

           Bucky came next. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail and he had on dark sweatpants. He look half asleep as He grunted a hello as he sat down to eat.

           A lovely girl named Wanda and a man Vision, who was apparently Jarvis’ son, came up next. Marinette hadn’t met either of them yesterday but they had heard of her.

           The next person to show was Clint but he took one look at Marinette and made a hasty retreat.

“Baby!” Natasha and with a grumble, Clint came back into the room.

“Hawkeye, right?” Marinette asked.

           Clint eyed her. “Yes,” he answered as he sat down next to the Black Widow. “And if you kill me, Nat will avenge me.”

“No, I won’t.”

“What!” He cried. “I’m your best friend.”

           The redhead looked at him and then at the berry, cream cheese goodness in her hands, then at Marinette. She looked back at Clint, “You’ve been replaced.” When he went to protest some more, Natasha shoved a chocolate scone in his mouth.

           His green eyes widened as the flavor exploded. He looked at the scone, then at Marinette, then at all the food on the table. Clint nodded solemnly, “I understand.” And made himself a plate.

           Marinette giggled at the antics.

           Tony entered the room, hair on ends, greasy t-shirt on and blinked hard at the feast at the table.

“I made breakfast,” Marinette handed him a cup of coffee cheerfully when he sat down. “Sweet and savory. I didn’t know what everyone liked.”

           He nodded tiredly but perked up as soon as he took a bite of spinach bacon quiche. He swallowed it quickly, “Jarvis?” Tony called.

“You cannot adopt her, sir.”

           Thor was next and thanked Marinette loudly for the splendid feast. Scott, Sam, and Bruce arrived next.

           Steve came next, apparently just having finished up a run.

           The two stared at each other, like a pair of cowboys doing a standoff.

“Listen… about what I said yesterday,” Marinette started. “I, one hundred percent meant it. Your fashion sense is appalling. But please consider this a peace offering.”

“My style was very popular in the forties!” Steve defended.

           Bucky snorted, “Liar.”

           That sounded off around of laughter.

           Marinette spent the next few weeks help Tony design his new suit, got trained with Natasha, Bucky and Steve, and went frequently to Stark Industries with Pepper Potts. (Though Steve had quite liked it when Marinette point at Pepper and said, “See that’s fashion. Gold standard right there. You, no.”

           She met Peter Parker not long after she arrived. He was a nice boy with glasses that reminded her a bit of herself. Tony had guardianship of Peter while his aunt was overseas on business.

“Minion three,” He greeted her. Peter sat down across from her work table and started on his own project.

“Four?” She asked, with a chuckle. “And you are?”

           Peter grinned, “Minion two.” He shrugged. “Riri’s three. Harley’s one. And is the union leader. They’ll be here tonight.”

           Marinette laid down her screwdriver, “There’s a union.”

“No there’s not!” Tony yelled.

           Peter leaned over the table and whispered, “We revolt at dawn.”

“God dammit, Peter!”

           Marinette cackled.

           It wasn’t long before the paparazzi got wind of Marinette. Then suddenly the magazines were filled with Marinette: Stark’s secret FOURTH love child. Marinette literally fell down laughing when War Machine stomped in the workshop and three a magazine at Tony’s head. “Another one, Tony? Didn’t even tell me!”

She was photographed frequently as whenever she left the company an overprotective avenger was sure to join her. She was teen vogue’s best dressed list. In tiger beat’s, things Marinette just can’t live without.

           That was when her phone started ringing and texts started pouring in from Paris. Unfortunately, for her ex friends, Marinette had promised that for the rest of summer the only people from France she’d talk to were her parents. And Marinette keeps her promises.

           So she never bother to look at the texts. The only time she interacted was when she had to use the horse miraculous to portal to home to stop an Akuma. Which was hard to hide from a group of nosy superheroes.

           Everything was going fine until the Kwami was let out of the bag in the middle of a family/team dinner.

           Loki poofed in one day, walked straight up to Marinette, and demanded to speak with Plagg.

“The Kwami of Destruction owes me money,” Loki said easily.

           Said Kwami flew out from where he was hiding, “Do not! You cheated.”

           And that was that.

           Marinette had no choice but to transform into Ladybug.

           To which Happy groaned, “Another teen bug themed hero,” He glared at Tony. “You did this on purpose.”

           None of the avengers had been happy about a teen superhero battle a terrorist on her own. Peter, Spiderman, just high-fived her.

#Marienette Dupain Cheng #Marinette deserves better #tony stark #Avengers #spiderman #ml salt #ml fic #steve rogers #bucky barnes #thor

[taliaquinn]

Why Me!? Chapter 15

A/N: Sorry I took a while to update my peeps. Fun fact this chapter was originally over 2,500 words so I split it. After going through a massive edit it was still long anyways:). So Enjoy the fact that Chapter 16 is going to come out very soon, also more one shots will be posted. Check out the most recent one if you guys haven’t :)

“NO WAY,NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT,” Marinette yelped “SCREW SOCIAL INTERACTION!!!” leaping from the chair she immediately started pacing around.

“Marinette you have to go to School, you’re too smart and can't always be cooped up here.” As much as Bruce would love having his children to stay in the relative safety of the house “Besides you wouldn’t be alone Tim and Damian both go to Gotham Academy”

“B-but Bruce” he allowed shock to flood his body because finally his daughter wasn’t calling him Mr.Wayne. Uck. He knew Stark was still dealing with that problem with his own protege. “Gotham Academy is one of the most prestigious schools in the States not to mention expensive”

“Marinette, do you realize that the cost is nothing to me?” Oh god he went through this with most of his children, the whole "please don’t waste your money on me” routine. “it’s my job as a father to make sure my kids are safe AND are receiving a great education”

“The cost means a lot to me-hold up don’t they offer scholarships?” She asked a glimmer of hope in her eyes

“Yes but they are mostly for kids who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend, The Wayne foundation offers a few, anyways you won’t be completely alone Tim and Damian both go to Gotham Academy” Bruce explained, Jesus all of his kids were so weird about money, well most of them, Damian and Tim were something else.

“Ugh Fine, what about my parents? Will they be okay with it?” No way would Maman and Papa allow it.

“Oh they already enrolled you, your mother just thought that I deserved the honor of telling you” he said rolling his eyes.

“WHAT!!!!”

Oh boy maybe he should have let Dick and Alfred handle this.

Cesaire Apartment                                                                                      Paris, France                                                                                            5:00pm

“Come on Think about it Nino, Marinette’s gone what could she do anyways?” Alya asked her boyfriend on facetime, unfortunately she and Nino couldn’t go out, both were stuck taking care of their siblings. Joy.

“Alya im not sure…... the article seems a bit too far, I mean Chat Noir hasn’t exactly been helpful lately, plus he HAS been acting rather childish lately,” Nino Responded, He might need glasses but that doesn't mean he was blind to the Chat Noir situation. He’s been distracting Ladybug and he hasn’t bothered showing up a few times to the Akuma Battles!!! Some hero. “Why not post the video of your interview with Adrien? That will instantly attract all of his uh eager fangirls” he offered

“Apparently sunshine boy has to ask his Dad for permission, so this article is the next best thing” The article she was referring to was in response to the video of Marinette lecturing Chat Noir. It wasn't as much fact based but opinion based

“Why are you still hung up on Marinette so much? She used to be our best friend”

“She's a bully, who constantly attacks Lila, and still hasn’t confessed to what she has done”

“What if it’s Lila who is lying?” Nino asked cautiously, he never knew what would set Alya off these days.

“Not you too, you know what? Maybe you should just switch classes like the rest of the traitors if you believe that” she scowled. “Go be on their side”

“Sides What sides? Alya there isn’t any sides”

“Yes there's the right side and the wrong side”

“What makes you so sure that we're on the right side?” Nino finally asked. He has been having his doubts. Something about Lila’s stories just wasn't adding up.

“You’re being Ridiculous Nino, You know what? I don't want to talk to you right now, you obviously won't listen” Alya screeched ending the call. Nino Stared at the dark screen with his jaw open in shock.

He’s being ridiculous?

It's his fault?

These last few weeks, Alya has been borderline unbearable. Nino found himself having to resist calling Marinette and asking her for advice.

On one hand it was out of guilt on the other hand some part of Nino already knew what she would say. She would tell him to break up with Alya. The relationship was getting far too toxic. He turned on his phone and clicked on Alyas contact. Thinking out his Message he finally typed the message he's been wanting to send for the last few days

Nino: Hey, I just don’t think this is working. This relationship is bad for the both of us. Ask Lila for help instead. Goodbye Al

Message Sent

Message Received

Wayne Manor                                                                                      Gotham,USA                                                                                                      8 pm

“Trust me Pixiepop Dick is the last person to ask for advice concerning school, Dickhead was smart, sure, but he also dropped out of college ” Jason explained to Marinette, who was mopping about school “He decided to enroll in the Police Academy instead, believe me Bruce was pretty pissed about that”

“B-ut it he quit to do something he actually likes, I doubt he actually wanted to be a businessman,” Marinette retorted. “speaking of which do you think he’s doing alright in Bludhaven?” She asked her voice laced with concern.

Jason knew for a fact that Dick wasn’t doing that great, he was pulling overtime as Officer Grayson and working the night as Nightwing, Bruce and Tim weren’t fairing that great either. The impending gang war was keeping most of the local vigilante community busy.

“I’m sure he’s fine pixie pop”

He was absolutely not fine.

Unbeknownst to them, Nightwing had walked right into an ambush inside a warehouse right next to Bludhaven Bay. With a few more hours of sleep Nightwing might’ve had a higher chance of winning , unfortunately he was running on 3 hours of sleep a night so he was getting quickly overwhelmed.

After one too many punches Nightwing finally put out a distress alert.

“Master Jason, You have a Call from Bludhaven Bay, Your friend there seems to be in need of your help”

“I’ll take it, Sorry Maribug seems like I have to head out right about now.” Jason he quickly answered. Fuck. Dick was in danger.

“Why?” Marinette asked puzzled, why not just take the call here? “Cause This dingwatt friend of mines only calls me if he’s in trouble or about to be”

“Can I come w-” Marinette was cut off by her phone chirping crap akuma.

“Actually you know what? Better not keep you” she said walking backwards towards the door “Stay safe Jay, see ya, toodles~”. She quickly exited and quickly walked towards her room.

“She's hiding something isn’t she Alfie?” Jason said after witnessing Marinette's strange departure

“It is blatantly obvious Master Jason, although I do believe she is permitted to do so seeing as how we all have our small secrets” Alfred said with a huff. His hopes for a normal grandchild have just been dashed. Maybe he will have better luck with great-children? Shaking his heads to clear his thought he and Jason quickly made their way towards the Batcaves entrance,

Jason stopped mid stride an odd feeling overcoming him “You feel that?” Jason asked feeling a rush of warmth

“Feel what Master Jason?”

“Nevermind let's go save Dickie-bird”

Welp I hoped you enjoyed today’s update :). Also I hope you guys have been taking care of yourselves. I know that it has been a bit different lately due to well everything. Please feel free to message me if you guys need to. Stay safe and healthy ❤️

Also if the text is a bit wonky i’m sorry, still learning all the tips and tricks

Taglist:

@maribat-is-lifeblood @kass-is-weird @another-fan-of-anotherplan @damianette-is-life @amayakans @parallelparabox @miukiiu @valeks-princess @toodaloo-kangaroo @vixen-uchiha @thezestywalru @dreamykitty25 @pirats-pizzacanninibles @mochinek0 @shamefullove @mochegato @souleateralicestein @thestressmademedoit @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @aestheticnpoetic @mysupporthyperfixations @itsmeevie01

#miraculous ladybug #mlb au #maribat #batfam #Marinette deserves better #Damian Wayne #dick grayson #tim drake #jason todd #bruce wayne #class salt

[agentofscifi]

 Success is the Best Kind of Revenge

I didn’t want to feel smug, I really didn’t, but I just couldn’t help the pin prick of smugness. My entire classes sat around, horribly disappointed in our Lycée classroom. Many of them had gotten responses for Universities jobs, and internships over the winter semester. They hadn’t turned out well. 

Alya had applied to a job at a newspaper, applied to three internships and sent four university applications out. She lost every one of them. Nino hadn’t gotten his internship either nor did he get into the music school he wanted. Kim had a scholarship and college acceptance revoked, and the two other Universities who had been offering swimming scholarships pulled their offers back too. Ivan and Myléne had both been under investigation over the break for charity fraud. Though they were cleared, no other charities wanted their help and their university had pulled their acceptance out. 

Rose’s eyes were still red and raw looking. Prince Ali had cut all contact with Rose and she was denied from her music schools. All of Max’s scholarships and every since school he applied to, all fourteen of them, pulled back their acceptance. Nathaniel’s comic strip was no longer being printed and there was a pending copyright suit. Sabrina was under investigation too, for theft, breaking and entering as well as illegal photography. Her university denied her as well. She assisted Lila and Alya in harassing me over the past few years. Adrien was sitting in his seat, a numb sort of look over his face as Nino patted his shoulder. Lila, however, was the only happy one in the class. She had a firm grip on Adrien’s arm as she chatted to an unset Alya about how she helped catch Hawkmoth with Ladybug. 

The only reason I knew all of this was because of their parents. Despite their children no longer speaking to me, my classmates' parents and siblings were still in good relations with my family. Their parents had described their disappointment and confusion to my parents after all of the university issues. 

I was sitting in the back with a sad looking Juleka, an annoyed Alix and an over smug Chloe. A weird sort of girl group that formed as the rest of the class refused to grow up. I wanted to feel bad, I really did, but honestly, they made their own graves. I tried to warn them, I tried to keep them from this. They choose the fool’s gold. 

Alix, Chloe and Juleka came to the light. Chloe figured it out the quickest, many of Lila’s lies had holes in them. Chloe saw the holes quite easily. Juleka became wary of Lila after Luka met her. Apparently, Lila’s inner song is like nails on chalkboards and dying kittens. As for Alix, she had asked Lila about the Rabbit Miraculous only for Lila to tell her that it was wielded by a man in the future. Either way, they all saw what was really going on. 

Mrs. Bustier walks into the room just as the bell rings, a large smile on her face. “Hello everyone. I hope you had a good break. Did everyone do their homework?” Most of the classmates looked down at those words. Our winter break homework, making a list of options for after Lycée this year. Normally we’d have private meetings about all of this today, while the rest of us worked in the library. Mrs. Bustier decided that our class would share our options with everyone else. 

“Well, would anyone like to start? Alya?” Mrs. Bustier gives a big smile to my former best friend. 

Alya’s face pales and she mumbles for a second before clearing her throat. “I, ahh. I’ve decided to take a year off, to do a year of work. There’s a grocery store that has some openings for me and the Zoo where my Dad works is hiring summer people for the gift shop and concessions.”

Mrs. Bustier’s smile drops. “Alya, what about your internships at the newspaper, or the one at TVi?”

Alya looks down. “I didn’t get them.”

“What about Goldsmith University in London? Or Cardiff University? Of the University of Amsterdam? Or ESJ Paris? You were looking forward to all of the programs these schools offered.”

Alya’s hand on the desk clenches. “I didn’t get in.”

Mrs. Bustier’s smile was completely gone now. “What?”

“All four Universities denied me. I didn't get into any of them.”

“Oh.” Mrs. Bustier blushes a deep red and looks around to the room before settling on me. She nudges her head towards Alya, telling me to comfort my classmate. 

I raise an eyebrow at her, causing her blush to deepen. She did that everytime I reminded her, either subtly or not, that she couldn’t put all of her responsibilities onto a child. Regardless, I spoke up. I really did feel some pity for the class. “I’m sorry about that Alya. Try again next year. A job or something might help boost your application.”

Alya whips around and glares at me. “I don’t need your pity! I’ll be fine! Unlike you, you’ll just be a nobody. I bet not a single University in the whole world wanted you!” I sigh and glance over at Mrs. Bustier. She remained silent as Alya rips into me. Typical. 

Chloe lets out a small laugh. “You’re one to talk.”

Alya’s face heats up again and Mrs. Bustier finally cleared her throat. “Well, let’s move on. Nino, what about you? What about that school in America?”

Nino rubs the back of his head. “I, uh. I heard back. They don’t think I’m ready to start at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. I didn’t get the internship either, the one in Hollywood. My parents are letting me keep my DJ work up next year, but I have to find a job.”

Mrs. Bustier’s smile is obviously forced now. She’d spent the whole break bragging about her classmates on social media and in an interview. So far, the class was not doing so well. “Rose? How about you? What music school are you going to?”

Rose immediately starts to tear up. “None of them! Julliad didn’t want me! Neither did the Royal Academy of Music or Royal College of Music in London. They said my music wasn’t good enough!” 

Rose was just about sobbing at this point in front of me. Juleka looks even more sad and I agreed with her. Rose’s lyrics were actually pretty good, until Lila got a hold of her. Now the music was less inspiring and unique. 

Mrs. Bustier looks up at me. A desperate plea in her eyes. I look away almost instantly, pulling out a small thing of tissues. I pass them over to Rose’s shoulder, getting a soft thank you in response. Juleka pulls out her phone and starts to text. More than likely offering a shoulder for Rose to cry on after class. 

Mrs. Bustier fumbles with her hands for a minute, looking around the class. “Sabrina, what about you? Do you still want that social justice degree?”

Sabrina drops her head into her arms. “No. I’m not going to University next year. My father wants me to stay in Paris with him until next year. He’s...worried about me.”

Mrs. Bustier’s eyes are a little more frantic now. “Myléne! Ivan! How about you two? Where do you hope to go to University next year?”

Myléne sinks in her seat. Ivan glances around the room like he’s hoping someone will help. No one does. “We’re ah, taking a year off too. Our summer volunteer trip in Africa fell through also. So, we’re sticking around for a while. Looking at our options.” Myléne nods. 

“Oh, good for you.” Mrs. Bustier looks around the room again. She avoided us. No surprise. Unlike the rest of the class, we really didn’t get much time to discuss our future with Mrs. Bustier. She seemed to be focusing on the students she believed would be going somewhere. “Kim! How about that swimming scholarship?”

Kim flushes red too. “I uh. I’m not going to be swimming in the fall. I’m thinking about some basic classes at a local university.”

“What about the scholarship?”

Kim’s eyes darted around, briefly looking at me, before continuing on. “I lost it. There were some issues, I didn’t qualify anymore.”

“Nathaniel! What about you? Did your new comic strip kick off?”

Nathenial’s head drops to his desk and he moans. The whole class stares in shock. Nathenial shakes his head on the desk, another moan emitting from below the red hair. 

“Max!” There’s a look of comfort in Mrs. Bustier. Her smartest pupil would come through, wouldn’t he. “How about you?”

“I got denied. All fourteen schools denied me!” Max had a slight crazed look in his eyes. As I looked closer I could see how unkempt me was. His suspenders were a little askew, his hair wasn’t quite as controlled as usual, and his glasses weren’t straight. “Me, the kid who made an AI was denied from MIT, Stanford, Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, Berkeley, University of Tokyo, ETH Zürich, California’s Institute of Technology, Technical University of Munich, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Nanyang Technological University, Princeton, and Grenoble Institute of Technology. All of my scholarships, gone!” A hysterical laugh rips through Max as he sits in his seat. 

Mrs. Bustier franic look was back as she scanned the room once more. She briefly looks up at the four of us then shakes her head. Alix rolls her eyes from across the row. Obviously Mrs. Bustier thought we’d all be failors too. Instead, she looks at Adrien and Lila. 

“Adrien, what about you? Any University plans?”

Adrien’s mouth opens and closes a few times. “I’m moving in with my Aunt. I plan to teach piano to some kids in the fall. I have some… stuff to do with my father’s company this summer. I don’t think I’ll be going to a University anytime soon.”

“Lila!” Mrs. Bustier’s voice is high and cracking. “What about you? Still doing charity work? Going to University?”

Lila gives a huge smile to the whole class. “Yes. I’ll be working in Achu for a little bit this summer. I got into a few schools in the U.S, France, England and in Italy. I’m not sure where I want to study yet, but I’m sure I’ll be the next best thing in Fashion. Opps!” Lila looks up at me. “I’m sorry Marinette! I didn’t mean to offend you.”

I give a small, fake smile. “Don’t worry Lila. It’s fine. Maybe I’ll see you next year? What schools did you get into?”

Lila’s fasade drops slightly. “I, uh. Parson’s in New York, and um, Central Saint Martins in London, and um Accademia Costume e Moda in Rome. I decided to go to Central Saint Martins.”

“Impressive. I didn’t send anything to the Accademia in Rome, but I’m happy to see someone else got into Parson’s and Saint Martins.” My smile is a little sharp. I could afford to fake my congratulations when I knew that Lila’s tower was about to collapse underneath her. 

“Marinette, you got into Parson’s and Saint Martins?” Mrs. Bustier’s smile was back and slightly crazed. “Which one of those will you be going to?”

“Neither. I did get into Parsons school of design in New York, as well as Central Saint Martin’s in London, but I’m not going to either of those.”

“What school will you be going to?” Mrs. Bustier’s eyebrows are furrowed. 

“The London College of Fashion. I got into ESMOD in Paris, Istituto Marangoni International in Milan, as well as Parson’s School of Design and Central Saint Martins. I thought about staying in Paris, but I just wanted a little distance. You know, spread my wings.  I didn’t feel like going to New York either. It’s pretty far away. I almost agreed to go to the school in Milan, but I think I’m going to hold off on that school until I go to get a Master’s Degree. So, it was between London College of Fashion and Saint Martins and I just liked the London College more.” 

“Oh, that’s fantastic Marinette!” Mrs. Bustier’s enthusiasm returns in full swing. 

Alya snort ruins the moment. “If she’s even telling the truth.”

Lila blinks and then looks back up at me. “Yah, that’s true. How do we know you’re not lying. You’ve been doing that alot the last four years.”

Mrs. Bustier smile turns into a frown and she instead gives a glare meant for a child. “It’s not nice to lie, Marinette.”

A smirk earns its way onto my face. “I’m not lying. I don’t care if you believe me or not, but I’m not lying. I’ll be in London, come Fall, studying to be a world class fashion designer.”

Alya snorts again. Mrs. Bustier gives me an exasperated look, but freezes as she meets my gaze. Any sort of appreciation or respect for my teacher was gone, replaced by annoyance and I hold Mrs. Bustier’s gaze for over a full minute, causing the woman to fidget. 

Chloe finally nudges me and clears her throat. “Well, I finally decided where I’ll be going in the fall. I even have a roommate picked out.” She nudges me with a smile. 

“No way you’re going to University.” Alya’s teeth are bare as she all but growls at Chloe. “Who would want you?”

Chloe shrugs. “Oh, you know. Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, Oxford, INSEAD, Bocconi University, and the London Business School. I’m going to the London Business School. It’s ranked third in the world for Business studies. The only places above it are Harvard and INSEAD, but I don’t want to move all the way to America quite yet and I was not staying in a town less than an hour from you all.”

The whole class looks at Chloe in surprise. That was something they never realized. Chloe didn’t put work in when she was younger because she didn’t have to. Everything was given to her until Lycée when our teachers finally started to push Chloe. Now, she was a budding business woman already helping me with my MDC company. 

“No way!” Max looks up at Chloe. Anger in his eyes. “How did you get in and not me?”

Chlor rolls her eyes. “I’m fluent in French, English, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, as well as Portugese. I have a 4.00 GPA and perfect grades in all my classes. I got all A* grades in my A level exams to get me into the Schools in London. I even took the ACT and SAT for the Universities in America. I got a 33 on the ACT and a 1520 on the SAT. I have been helping my Daddy with the hotel for over three years and I’ve had three different internships.”

The whole class is staring at Chloe. They wanted to argue, but Alix cuts them off first. “Well, if we’re done arguing about how Chloe got into top Universities. I’m attending Cambridge in the Fall, just like my Dad and brother. I’m also tagging along on a dig in China this summer. There’s this old temple the Louvre is investigating with several other museums and colleges.”

The class just stares at her, completely complex. Alix shrugs and looks at Juleka. “Juleka, your turn.”

Juleka pulls her hair back and clears her throat. “I’m attending Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in London. I’ll be studying music and production arts. I’ve also been signed to a modeling agency in London, so I'll be doing that too.”

“So, you’ll all be living together?” Myléne looks at us curiously. 

I shake my head. “No, Alix and Juleka will be living on Campus this year, in the dorms. Chloe and I will be sharing an apartment however. Our schools are only 30 minutes apart when walking.”

“We’ve already found a place. 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a large kitchen. Mari gave me the Master Bed and Bath so she could convert one of the extra bedrooms into a studio.”

Alya scoffs. “You doing anything else this summer?” She tries to sound strong, but it comes off a bit flat. 

“We’re all doing a Graduation trip to Italy, you know, because we couldn’t go on the class one. Juleka’s mom and Marinette’s Grandmother are chaperoning. We’ll be touring all of Italy over a month.” Alix gives the class a smile as someone knocks on the door. 

Mrs. Bustier gives us a small smile and goes to the door. There’s a gasp and Mrs. Bustier slowly backs up. There’s four police officers just outside the classroom door along with a small collection of people. Two of the people have a strong resemblance to Lila, and another person has an Italian look. Another three people all standing together, looking over the class. Principle Damocles is present as well, looking very pale. More people are filtering in and I realize it’s the parents of most of our classmates. Each set of parents comes and stands next to their child or sits on the bench with them. Juleka’s Mom gives me a little wave as she sits next to her daughter. 

Principle Damocles clears his throat. “Students, if I could have your attention please. There have been some... issues over the break that need to be addressed.”

Alya perks up. “Have you finally come to deal with Chloe and Marinette? They’ve been bullying poor Lila for years.”

“No.” One of the women who had been surveying the class turns to look at Alya. “We’re here for a variety of reasons. First of all, several students in this class are under investigation for a variety of charges. Second of all, almost every single one of you has ended being denied from every college you applied to. Lastly, We’re here to deal with the improper and naive mindsets that your Principal and Teacher have. Especially considering Ms. Rossi. Speaking of which.” The woman turns to Mrs. Bustier. “I’m not even going to touch your bluntly stupid way of dealing with bullies. That will be handled after all of this. Right now I’m going to ask why you threw every single rule about parental contact and special privileges out the window. You do not give students special privilege for medical conditions if they do not have doctors notes. You do not just ignore the fact that you can’t contact one of your students parents by anything but email. You don’t ignore when one of your students disappears willy nilly when every she feels like it.”

Mrs. Bustier opens and closes her mouth. “Who are you? I’ve been in contact with all of my students' parents.”

“I am Amelia Vaux, the Superintendent of Education in France. And no, you have not been in contact with all of your student’s parents. The email Lila Rossi gave you is an email she set up. Mrs. Rossi has never spoken to you, received an email or signed anything for the school. The woman is still operating under the assumption that your collége closed down for months at one point.”

“I, what?” Mrs. Bustier looks completely lost. 

“Lila Rossi gave you a fake email and a fake phone number for her Mother. Lila Rossi’s father is not asstrange, despite what she has been saying. Lila Rossi has a clean bill of health according to a doctor's visit over break. No tinnitus, no arthritis, no sprains, no breaks, no vision issues, no hearing issues at all. The worst thing she’s had was a bad case of influenza when she was 11. Of course, this is ignoring the fact that the girl was diagnosed as a pathological liar and with antisocial personality disorder when the girl was 13 years old. It’s in her medical file and her student file, along with a warning about the girl’s bullying habits.”

Everyone was staring at Mrs. Vaux up front, the parents looked sick and my classmates were staring in disbelief. “No,” Alya is shaking her head. “This can’t be true. Marinette is the liar.”

Mrs. Vaux turns from Mrs. Bustier and look at Alya. “Actually, Mrs. Dupain-Cheng was telling the truth and has unfairly suffered for it for years. From what I understand, most of this class had vandalized Mrs. Dupain-Cheng’s belongings or stolen things from her. All on the words of Ms. Rossi, who’s lies could have been proven false by a google search. Jagged Stone is allergic to cats. Prince Ali only runs children’s charities. I could continue.”

One of the women in the room clears her voice at this point. “If I may, I am here on the behalf of several people of various nationalities.” She sets a pile of papers before Lila and Alya. “These are cease and desist orders for the both of you. The Ladyblog must be shut down and deleted on the ground of libel, slander, and a violation of rights. As for Ms. Rossi, you have multiple charges of libel, slander, illegal photography, and a variety of charges you order to be sent to famous people who don’t know you.” Lila was paling quickly. “You also have a case of breaking and entering, theft, copyright violation and assault.”

“I have diplomatic immunity. All you can do is kick me out of the country.” Lila stands up from her seat, a smug look on her face.

“No!” A woman with a heavy Italian accent frowns at Lila. “We have revoked your diplomatic immunity. You will be charged here, in France, and will serve out your sentence in a French Prison. Italy already made a mistake when they let you have therapy for your original incident instead of time in a juvenile detention center. We will not make that mistake again.”

A police officer clears his throat and looks over at Lila. “Lila Rossi. You are under arrest for breaking and entering, theft, copyright violation, assault, destruction of property, libel, slander, charity fraud and terrorism. Hawkmoth had a camera in his lair. We have videos of you visiting his lair. He also confirmed that you willingly took akumas, helped him akumatized people and a variety of other things.”

Lila stands frozen as the police officer cuffs her hands behind her back. She finally snaps out of it as she looks towards the other two Italian people. “Mamma! Pápa! Do something!”

The woman takes one look at Lila and then bursts into tears. She’s full on sobbing into her hands. The man simple lays a hand on Mrs. Rossi and levels his daughter with a deadly stare. “No Lila. We cannot help you out of this mess.”

Lila gaps and then glares at her father. “Why not?”

“You’re not a child anymore, Lila! You’re over 18! There’s video evidence of your crimes! That blog is filled with your lies! You can’t lie your way out of this. You can’t get off scot free! You’re being charged with terrorism!”

Lila gaps for another minute then screams. A blood-thirst, angry scream as she whips around and glares at me. “You! This is all your doing Dupain-Cheng! You stupid bitch!”

I level with Lila’s glare. “Yes. I got the ball rolling. You see, when you broke into my room before break and stole my designs so you could add them to your portfolio for University, you didn’t realize that I had a video camera set up. I got on camera, breaking and entering, theft, and copyright violation. I gave the evidence to the police. I didn't expect all of this, but I’m not sorry.”

Lila screams again and starts to fight the police, forcing the second cop to help grab Lila and drag her from the room. Lila’s parents follow them out, with the Italian woman giving the class a nod before following. The lawyer gives Mrs. Vaux a nod and follows after them. 

The other two police officers exchange looks before one clears his throat. “When investigation Ms. Lila Rossi, all of you were brought up. Most of you have broken a variety of laws at the behest of Ms. Rossi. Whether you knew that you were breaking the law or not doesn’t matter. Most of you destroyed the property of one of your classmates, more than once. You also physically assaulted her on more than one occasion. We have the video footage to prove it.”

Several parents were moaning now, forlorn looks on their faces as they started to realize the consequences of their children’s actions. 

“Oh, my god!” We all look over at Max who looked a second away from hyperventilating. “I wrote my University admissions paper about a project Lila worked on. She gave me all of the data!”

Max’s mother moans. “You didn’t look up any of it!”

Max flushes. “She said it hadn’t been published yet.”

Max’s mother mumbles under her breath. “This is why all those Universities denied you! This is why you lost all our University acceptances and scholarships! Because you took the word of some Italian classmate above your own common sense.”

“Max thought that a napkin could cut his eye.” Chloe starts to file her nails, ignoring Max’s mother, who was now staring at her. “And he wears glasses.”

Max’s mother moans once again, and slumps onto the steps next to Max’s seat.

The police officers exchange looks once again. The first one continues his speech as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “Due to the fact that most of your crimes were committed when you were a minor and were against the same person. There will not be any fines or jail time for any of you.”

There’s a large collective sigh through the room. Nino’s mother looks like she’s praying. Mrs.Vaux clears her throat. “While that may be true for legal terms, you are all on probation. One step out of line and you will be expelled from this school. You will also all have to complete anti-bullying seminars to graduate. Mrs. Bustier is also no longer your teacher. Mrs. Aveline will be your homeroom teacher for the rest of the year.” She gestures to one of the women behind her. “Mrs. Fortier is your temporary principle for the rest of the year. Mr. Damocles is no longer your principle.”

Rose hesitantly raises a hand. “Why are you firing Mrs. Bustier and Mr. Damocles?”

Mrs. Vaux’s frown deepens. “None of this would have happened if the two of them had done their jobs. Ms. Rossi’s habits were clearly outlined in her student file. If either of them had bothered to do their job correctly four years ago, we wouldn’t be in this position.” Rose nods meekly, sinking back into her seat and leaning into her mother. 

The police officer clears his throat again. “Now, while none of you will be fined or be serving jail time, you do have to serve a certain number of community service hours to complete within the next six months. If you don’t complete the service hours, you will be fined for the crimes. Your parents have already agreed to the terms we will lay out for you. However, because all of you are over 18, you can try to bring this to court.”

Alya turns and glares at me. “This is all your fault!”

Alya’s mouth grabs her by the shoulders and jerks her around. “Alya. You will complete these service hours. If you get convicted you’re looking at thousands in euros of fines and almost a decade of jail time.”

Alya gasps. “What did I do?”

The second policeman glances down at a clipboard. “Libel, slander, damaging of property, theft, and assault.”

Alya stares at the man, going slack in her seat. It was like the consequences of everything she’d done of the past four years were finally hitting her. 

The second policeman clears his throat once again. “Alright. Rose Lavillant, Ivan Bruel, Mylène Haprèle, Nathaniel Kurtzberg and Max Kanté, you will have to serve 50 hours of community service over the next six months. Nino Lahiffe, Lê Chiên Kim, Alya Césaire, and Sabrina Raincomprix, you all will be serving 100 hours of community service.”

“Ms. Césaire, by court order, your Ladyblog will have to be deleted as well.” Alya gaps at the officer and goes to stand, but both of her parents hold her down. 

Mrs. Vaux sighs, and moves her gaze up to the four of us at the top. “Ms. Dupain-Cheng, Ms. Bourgeois, Ms. Couffaine, and Ms. Kubdel, you will be switched into Ms. Mendeleiev’s class for the remainder of the year. I believe it would be best for you to be out of this environment.”

All four of us nod and start to pick up our things. The rest of the classmates stare at us. “But, who’s going to be class representative now?” Rose looks close to tears again.

I shrug, pulling my bag over my shoulder. “The job goes to the deputy now.” 

The whole class shifts to look at Alya, who pales once again. The four of us walk down the stairs to the near silence of the room, our parents trailing after us. As soon as we were out the door several people started yelling in the room. 

I knew I should care, and part of me did, but I just felt happy that most of this was all over. It took four years, but finally, everyone knew about Lila. I hadn’t felt this light in years.

Ch. 2 ~~~~ Ch. 3

#lila salt #alya salt #ml salt #bustier salt #class salt #miraculous ladybug #lila exposed #success is the best kind of revenge

[neakco]

Heroes Are Made When You Make A Choice

AO3

Inspired heavily by the song Hero-Red Pill Mix by Superchick.

Deals with stepping up to be a hero against bullies.

Some characters may be a little OOC.

This is not a sad story, it is an inspirational one. Or that is my hope.

Warning heavy bullying and suicide themes.

The story is definitely better if you have at least heard the song.

This hasn't been beta read.

The boy was sitting all alone again. Marinette may have only been at this school for a week but even she knew his isolation wasn’t by choice. She didn’t know his name but she could clearly see his pain. She had no idea if he had said or done something to be isolated but to her, it didn’t matter. No one deserves to be hated like that.

Marinette had gotten up to join the boy at his table when a girl stepped in front of her.

“You don’t want to talk to that loser.” She sneered slightly, “Tell you what if you go over there and accidentally dump your lunch on him than you can come and sit with me and my friends.”

Marinette was completely shocked. She had switched to this school to avoid bullies; not to become one.

The girl saw took Marinette’s quiet as indecisiveness. “You do this and you are one of us. But decide fast, the offer is only good until lunch is over.” She then walked towards a loud and packed table.

Marinette did want to make friends here, but not like this, never like this. The price of fitting in was too expensive for her. She straightened her back and smiled wide before walking towards the lone boy’s table. She took a seat and held out her hand. She pretended not to notice that he flinched away from her. “Hi, I’m Marinette. I am new to the school and would like to be friends.”

The boy reluctantly took her hand to shake. “Jaden. You don’t want to be my friend. They will only target you too.”

“Won’t be the first time and probably won’t be the last.” She smiled as she started to eat her lunch. “Why should your pain be my price to fit in?”

Jaden managed a small smile, “Thank you Marinette.”

Marinette finished lunch knowing that Jaden would be okay now as long as he had her.

Heroes are made when you make a choice.

The table she sat at with Jaden had more people now. Marinette’s bravery in the face of bullies had seemingly inspired others.

“How did you become so brave Marinette?” She wasn’t sure who asked the question.

Marinette looked back, not on her continuing adventures as Ladybug, but on her time in her old classroom.

Every day she was ignored, left alone, or bullied. All because she stood up for her morals. Every day became more painful to keep going.

Marinette could recall when she would take out one of her sewing needles to draw on her arm. She remembers how the pain would remind her she was still alive. That she existed. That she mattered.

Marinette then thought back to how much her own doubt weighed her down. How she began to believe everyone would be better without her. That she still wasn’t cut out to be a hero. She remembers that living each day was nothing more than a chore.

Finally, she remembers swinging to the top of the Eiffel Tower where she renounced Tikki. She had a handful of pills that she knew would cause her to sleep forever. If for some reason that didn’t work, she knew that sleeping up her would cause her to fall to the ground far below. She had stood and looked over the city. Her eyes were dry, she had nothing left to give. She remembers glancing down at her clenched fist before screaming all her emotions and throwing the handful of pills as far as she could into the night.

She blinks to come back to the present and addresses the whole table. “I decided to live.”

Heroes are made when you make a choice.

Marinette was almost home when she spotted Nino at the park with Chris and Alya’s little sisters. He seemed to be working on something and not paying attention. She sighed in relief and was going to keep walking when she saw Chris, Ella and Etta bullying another child. She knew that they looked up to Nino and Alya and were probably just trying to emulate them.

So, she braces herself and turns towards her old friend. “Nino, can we talk?”

“What do you want?” His voice was harsh and almost made her flinch.

“I know you don’t like me, but please, take a look a Chris right now.”

Nino’s eyes widened at what he saw and he rushed over to his brother.

Marinette chose to sit under a tree and watch for black butterflies. She listened as Nino lectured the three children about bullying. She almost smiled when Chris told him they were just trying to be like him and Alya. She continued to watch as Nino broke down and told his little brother that bullying was still wrong, that he himself had been wrong.

Nino finally came back towards her with his head held in shame. “It didn’t matter if you were a bully or not. I see that we treated you wrong. I’m sorry Marinette.”

She stood and smiled kindly, “I may not be able to forgive you just yet, but as long as you try to be better for Chris then I promise to try.”

“Thanks, dude.”

As Marinette walks away she could her Nino on the phone with Alya. He was explaining that they needed to talk and take a long hard look at themselves.

She smiled to herself. With any luck, Alya and Nino would become better role models for their little siblings.

Heroes are made when you make a choice.

Ladybug and Chat Noir stood in front of the press. She stood tall as she addressed the camera.

“Yesterday’s akuma was caused when a father discovered his son had taken his own life due to bullies.”

Chat spoke solemnly beside her. “This wasn’t just one small act of bullying. This young man had been bullied for years.”

Ladybug raised her hands to stop any questions. “We are not here to point fingers. We are here to raise awareness.” She took a steadying breath and continued. “Most people know that the bully is wrong, but what about those that sit back and watch?”

Chat spoke up with a brief flash of guilt, “How many of us sit back and decide it isn’t our problem? How many of us decide not to say anything because if we do it will make our own lives harder?” Guilt flashes across his face again before it is replaced by determination. “I did this. I feel guilty every day for not stepping up in my civilian life to stop a bully. I will never make that mistake again. I can never do enough to make up for it either.”

Ladybug smiled at him before turning back to the cameras. “Don’t just walk past bullying with your head down. Remember that not picking a side is the same as quietly siding with the bully. One small act of kindness can save a life. Save a family.”

“You don’t need superpowers to be someone’s hero.” Chat stood straighter.

“Heroes are made when you make a choice!”

The next week Marinette smiled when she saw the new monument in the park. It was a memorial for all those that gave up their lives because of bullies. She was quite proud of Chloe and Adrien for paying for it.

She walked closer to look at the etched words, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’

She walked to the other side and saw her own words shining brightly, ‘Heroes are made when you make a choice.’

Nothing can ever bring back the lives already lost, but maybe, maybe this is the start of a new fight. A fight for what is right.

If you are being bullied or know someone that is then be a hero. Reach out to someone, be it a friend or a stranger. You are not alone. There are websites and hotlines you can call.

If you really need someone to talk but are scared of the options given then feel free to talk to me. I can't guarantee that I will have the advice you need or want, but I listen.

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupen chang #ladybug #songfic #suicide #bullying #also on ao3 #superchick

[virgil-is-a-cutie]

Alya salt Alya and class (except Chloe and sweet tomato Nathaniel) destory Marinette's sketchbook but shes doesn't care cuz it was 4 the class and consequences happen (based on unmaskedagain fictattered remains and broken dreams(yours not mine))

Screwing Up (You Did, Not Me)

This has light salt cuz I'm too lazy to to continue. If y'all want a sequel tell me.

Marinette hums as she put her sketchbook of her designs in a metal box with a lock in it. She had bought the small vault after Chloé copied her hat design.

Chloé still winced and gave her a sheepish smile whenever they hanged out at the bluenette's room.

At least she showed she regretted it honestly.

She was glad she got the steel box, it was something she was glad she got once Lila came into the picture. She lost trust in her ex friends a week after Lila came back since they easily followed Rossi without taking into consideration what she was saying.

Sure the class have only known her for two years, but surely they've heard about her the four years that she's been at Dupont since moving from America at the age of 10 years old.

They acted like friends, but they honestly saw her as someone to only do stuff for them.

At least some did a commission unlike others in the class. That made it easier to have separate sketchbooks for the class really.

She puts a white sparkly sketchbook in her backpack since Sabrina and her had been discussing the designs for the school play that she and the rest of the theatre class were going to put on.

At least the theatre teacher commissioned her early on and Sabrina and her discussed with Marinette on what the style of the costumes they wanted for the play.

Mylene had been kicked out of the theatre club as well the class after they witnessed her verbally assaulting Marinette, who had been ignoring the shorter girl by listening to a P!ATD song. Mylene had protested, but Sabrina had ripped Mylene a new one. She may not get along well with the bluenette since Chloé and her became friends with the bluenette, but she didn't believe Marinette deserved to be treated harshly.

She wore a baby pink sundress with a black motorcycle jacket with pink flowers stitched into it and pink combat boots with spikes on them.

She had started to hang out with Gina more now and her outfits have changed a little because of that.

She fixes her hair in a side braid before grabbing a granola bar and a yogurt cup before grabbing her school bag before heading to school 40 minutes early. She had a small breakfast meeting to get to before class started.

She met with Sabrina and the theatre teacher in the theatre classroom to discuss any alterations and last minutes things needed on the classroom, which were not needed much to Marinette's relief.

So when there was about 10 minutes before class was set to start she went to her locker and put up her small make up bag that just contained eyeliner and light pink lipstick and a few nail polish containers. She noticed she was missing a white sketchbook with the design of a rainbow poop emoji, but she shrugged it off.

It wasn't that important. Well it was, but only for her class really, the classmates that deemed it a right to use up her time among other things for free things that she really believed they didn't deserve.

She hums listening to I Write Sins Not Tragedies as she walked to class, softly mumbling to the beginning of the song.

Nathaniel was pacing back and forth outside the classroom, he noticed her and tried to talk with her, but Chloé grabbed his hand and questioned him quietly as to what was worrying him.

A few of her classmates had a shameful look on their faces while a few smirked smugly at her or snickered as she walked passed them on her way to her seat in the back.

She frowns upon seeing shredded paper on her desk, but realization struck her when she saw the cover of the sketchbook her ex friends ripped up.

Nathaniel and Chloé watched from the door with a nervous and worried look on their faces.

She shrugs and sings along to the song softly as she takes a picture of it, grabs the cover of the sketchbook, saving it into her backpack.

For fun reasons only.

She then sent emails to whoever she needed to before grabbing the shredded paper and throwing it into the trash can that was beside the corner in the back. Making sure to clean up the mess well in her desk, and goes over to the front of the. She wanted to see their faces as she told them that they all screwed themselves over.

Well... a few of them did really.

Nathaniel tried to gently grab her shoulder, but she waved him off with a soft smile. She took off her headphones, music blaring loudly out of it as La Devotee played out.

She turns back around before groaning and pinching the bridge of her nose before smiling widely to the class.

Her ex friends were very much surprised, they thought she would be crying, or screaming really. Even Lila was a little shocked at the biracial girl's reaction to seeing her ripped up sketchbook. She wanted the Chinese Mexican American girl to at least cry.

They thought the the

"Aren't you.... aren't you at least a bit sad dudette?" Nino asked weakly.

He wasn't close to Marinette anymore because of Lila, but he knew that Alya went too far in destroying the bluenette's sketchbook.

He was honestly debating on breaking up with her ever since she started to beg for more dates and tell him to drop their younger siblings off with Marinette, who he knew was possibly too busy to even do so because the bluenette always had her schedule in order.

Marinette breaths in deeply and makes a praying gesture with her hands as she does this before giving them a toothy and wide eye grin.

A very wide toothy grin with wide eyes that sorta freaked out a few of her classmates. Possibly even Lila.

"I cannot stress this enough... but y'all fucked up, pendejos. Pinche brutos," she said slowly as if to let them understand as if they were children.

Which they were, but more on the teenager part really.

Everyone gaped as the small petite bluenette cursed at them. Lila blinked in surprise before smirking smugly, hiding her smirk as she dipped her head low.

"I would be, but not really. Ya ni me va importar ese cuaderno," she says with a small tilt of her head.

Everyone in the class blinked, except for Nathaniel and Chloé. Sabrina stepped in a second later and paused to take in what's happening.

She was about to speak when Chloé shook her head, making her frown, but she stayed quiet.

Marinette raised an eyebrow, "don't really care for that sketchbook really. It wasn't at all tan importante. Not at all that important to be frank with y'all."

Everyone blinked in shock at what they heard the bluenette say.

"What do yo-"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOT IMPORTANT?! IT WAS YOUR SKETCHBOOK!" Alya screeched as she stood up.

Lila flinched and winced at the yell since Alya sat very close to her.

"It was a sketchbook yes, but not one that would break my heart if torn," the bluenette said with a shrug which shocked the class.

"Wait what," Nathaniel asked in shock making Mari lightly giggle before giving the class a shit eating grin.

"The sketchbook with all the designs that are worthwhile and deemed good are locked away at home in my room. I stopped bringing it to school a month after the hat contest," she said as she looked at her nails.

"The sketchbook with a rainbow poop emoji is for this class specifically. Specifically for the class members who demand for things for free, as well as class representative things."

Everyone in the classroom frown.

"What do you mean demand? We commission you for almost a lot of things," Ivan asked curiously.

He may have stopped being friends with the bluenette, but that didn't stop him from paying a commission early than necessary for things he needed since not many stores carried his size.

A few others nodded since they always commissioned the bluenette as well order a box or two full of pastries from the bakery when they wanted to bring a treat to the class that they have Marinette bring. However, only a few froze and sunk in their seats little at the implication.

Marinette raised her eyebrow at him and gestured with a nod towards Mylene, Alya, Kim, and Alix who all just sunk down in their seats from being called out.

Lila raised an eyebrow at the people who got called out.

Rose frowns as well did the rest of the class, "wait... hold up-"

"Wait... did you all four expect Marinette to make your stuff for free?" Nino asked in disbelief.

"It's just that she desi-"

"It doesn't matter if she's a designer Alya. Marinette may not be our friend anymore, but even if she was it doesn't mean to take advantage of the fact she designs clothes and other things," Rose said with a disappointed look on her face.

"Wait-"

"Don't worry to those who commissioned me, I have your commissions on a separate sketchbook and you all did the commission online so you're all good. I just need to work on them so that they can be finished in the intended date."

"THAT'S NOT FAIR! WHY-"

"Césiar she is wasting time on making things that you and the other three useless beings don't bother to commission that make her waste tons of material just to make your useless asses things that honestly none of the four of you really deserve to have made," Chloé bit out icily with a glare.

"But it's just small things! A dress here, a jacket here-"

"Yeah posters really," Kim interrupts Alya.

Chloé raised an eyebrow and smirked widely as she stepped towards her ex friend.

"Adrien, do tell how much a custom made design does your dear old dad charge someone."

Adrien blushed and mumbled softly.

"I'm sorry what?"

"$9,000 and that was for a simple black pantsuit with a a red rose stitched in one pocket," he said out loud. The blonde shaking a little, he had arrived a minute before Nathaniel so he didn't know what was going on until the commotion started.

Chloé hums and looks at her manicured nails.

"My mother would charge up to $3,000 depending on the 'simple' dress Alya asked for really. Up to 20 grand for the dresses Alya and Mylene basically demanded from you unless she had to hand sow herself," she said with a smug grin to the two girls that basically demanded Marinette to make them skirts among other things really.

The two girls paled as they realized how much money they basically would've saved if they hadn't ripped up the bluenette's sketchbook. Even if they basically demanded it to be made by her.

Alix paled as she realized that she demanded Marinette to design her a suit simply because she hated dresses. That would've cost her so much more than a simple measly $100 that she had somewhere really.

"B...but I need a dress for a date with Ivan!" she gasps out with wide eyes.

"So do I! I need a new skirt!" Alya growls out.

"Yeah too bad so sad, but you two are not going to get anything because my commissions are already full really," Marinette said.

"B...But the school's basketball's team needed new uniforms!" Kim out.

"That is a ridiculous thing you had asked of me Kim, even your basketball couch was appalled that you asked that of me," Marinette said with a raised eyebrow to her ex friend.

Kim blushed at the realization of what was said, "but-"

"Either way I gave him the number of a really nice cousin of mine, Carrie Ross-Snell. She does design for a living, but it's more of a hobby in the side to be honest. She doesn't mind really," she mumbles the last part.

"She gave him a good price really," she said out loud.

She really was going to have to thank the stars that Sue had used the bunny miraculous to have Carrie be placed in a new home when born after The Blood Prom occured. At least Fu saw it fit for the girl and her boyfriend see their error of their ways and wanting Carrie to have a happy childhood. Which led her to be adopted by Ms. Desjarden.

Their future P.E teacher. Who later married her uncle Chris.

Thank god Master Fu had been in a America for a short while when that happened.

At least Carrie was raised with love and was cared for. Even if she was still a very shy person.

"Either way I can't work on all the things that were on that journal, there were too many last minute demands you forced on me. They're gone, as well as the other things that were on that sketchbook," Marinette said with a shrug.

"W...what about fundraisers you promised to help?!" Alix screamed out.

The bluenette raised an eyebrow and placed her hands on her hips, "I never promised anything at all Alix. You and Kim bitched about wanting help and that's it. I just told y'all good luck really," she told the now embarrassed two.

"B...but my outfit for Kitty Section!" Mylene cries out.

"Can't really work on it, it wasn't a commission, although the rest of y'all didn't commission for anything so I don't really have a reason to work on anything," Marinette said with a shrug.

The members of Kitty Section nodded, but then everyone who commissioned her froze. She had her schedule she stuck by so they knew she was already swamped and all internally groaned.

Those who never commissioned her didn't think what the matter was but remembered how much they had to have paid if they even ever asked for a commission.

They paled after that remembering what Adrien said.

The others internally groaned remembering that they had a few things they knew couldn't be worked on because they forgot about them.

Marinette shrugs, "I also had a few of the class representative things there, but oh well, can't do those anymore. As well a few things that only a few other people asked for."

Everyone frowned, but shrugged it off really as the bell rang for the school day to start.

Ms. Bustier walked in and sighs before looking at Marinette with a soft concerned look before sighing.

"During lunch class we will decide the new class representative. Marinette unfortunately has to pull out due to reasons," the teacher said with a weak smile.

Marinette smiles brightly at the teacher before going to her desk.

"What a shame, we could've gotten to go see Luther Inc. and Oscorp," she says to herself, but she said it out loud for people to hear.

All of them heard and felt their hearts break at what they just heard.

The class will soon realize that those who destroyed Marinette's sketchbook for the class fucked them all over.

Because not only did it have things for class representatives and such.

It had their schedules and other important dates that Marinette always believed and told them were very much important for them.

Something they honestly believed wasn't until the last minute and caused them to feel dread at the thought of them forgetting something or anything they had scheduled.

All because Alya and the other three decided to tear up Marinette's sketchbook.

The wrong one at that.

#class salt #nathaniel and chloe are safe #so is sabrina

[nobodyfamousposts]

What if scenario after Lila is exposed but the parents of Marinette’s classmates being so disappointed in their children when they find out about the systematic isolation based on a bunch of lies that nobody bothered to double check. Alya’s family asking if she was sure she got her facts straight on her assignments for days to come, Max’s parents having him wear goggles to protect his eyes from any stray napkins, things to show their children how wrong they were to hurt someone without reason.

I just don’t see that.

I like the salt and spite and seeing the class getting a kick to the rear when necessary just as much as anybody, but these are their parents. And they are adults. So considering that we barely see any of them, I am going to assume that they are actually good parents who care about their kids as most parents do.

As such, I don’t think they’d be that petty.

Call their kids out on bullying, yes. Talk to them about not taking everything they’re told by someone as gospel, definitely. Try to urge them away from what they see as bad influences, certainly. But the parents would have to be downright jerks to talk to their kids like that instead of actually just TALKING to their kids.

Let’s instead turn this around and show what they have to be seeing. I’m going to go with Alya’s parents since she’s the one in the middle of this. Acting before the whole “lies being exposed” bit, because I think good parents would actually catch on to that sort of thing sooner and act on it.

They know their daughter’s interests. They know how much Ladybug and the Ladyblog means to her. They know how she can get about things she genuinely cares about. And they would listen to her when she tells them about things going on at school.

So when Lila first appears and Alya regales them with the claims Lila has been making, the two send a look at each other, figuring out pretty quickly that the girl is likely embellishing things. But it seems harmless and Alya appears really excited so they stay quiet at first. After all, they were teenagers once, too. They figure that the excitement will die down, the kids won’t take it too seriously, and the new girl will just settle into the class without much issue.

Then they hear about the interview Alya did of Lila for her blog. Now, they’re a little worried, because this could harm Alya’s reputation and her blog. The new girl came from another country and probably doesn’t know about the frequent akuma attacks or just how valued the Ladyblog is—both to Alya and the community that relies on it for accurate information. They can’t just TELL Alya that Lila is lying though since they don’t know the girl, so instead they subtly suggest that Alya may want to look up other sources to back the story before posting it. But Alya is a teenager and one who is confident to the point of being brash and acting without thinking things through. So Alya brushes them off as being overly worried, because in her mind, the question of whether Lila might be lying to her for any reason isn’t even considered. Why would she lie about being friends with Ladybug or all the other things she’s done? What benefit would there be to it?

So Alya leaves the interview and her parents can’t exactly stop her. They also figure that she’s young and the Ladyblog may just be the first trial run of her attempts at journalism, so she needs to figure these things out for herself.

There’s no point in continuing to press though because Lila disappears shortly after, not that they know why. So they shrug it off as a one-time thing and figure the interview isn’t major enough to warrant backlash and there’s nothing to worry about.

Months pass, fairly peacefully. There’s only some mention of the new girl calling the class during her trips, but nothing substantial for them to worry about. Up until Lila’s return.

Then Alya comes home and goes on about how Lila is back and how awesome it is. Her parents aren’t quite as pleased but figure it’s harmless—at least until Alya comments on Marientte taking issues with her return and how jealous and unreasonable she was in class over Lila being close to Adrien. They’re confused, because from their interactions, Marinette has generally been a sweet if somewhat eccentric girl. They could see her being jealous—anyone can be after all—but not willing to move to accommodate a new student with a disability? That doesn’t sound like her.

Well, Alya admits that the whole seating arrangement was changed because of Lila. With a bit of prodding from them, she confesses that it wasn’t even Marinette’s seat that Lila needed, and that everyone had chosen to switch seats around because of it.

This only makes them more confused. Why would Marinette be upset over the seats if she got to choose where she would sit?

This…actually makes Alya pause. And she somewhat guiltily notes that Marinette DIDN’T get to choose—that everyone else picked where they wanted to sit so she was left to the unchosen seat in the back. Alone.

They’re understandably displeased with this and calmly point out to Alya that doesn’t it make sense then that Marinette would be more upset about the fact that her seat was moved without her knowledge or permission and how she was the ONLY one in the class who DIDN’T get a say in where she got to sit?

Alya gives a little “yeah I guess, BUT…” and proceeds to explain what happened during lunch and how Marinette tried to claim Lila was a liar.

That goes in lines with what the parents first thought of her and makes sense to them. But Alya doesn’t get it because she likes Lila and her lying would make no sense. So when her parents point out that Marinette may have been right, Alya waves them off by saying that she had no proof other than her own word. Ignoring, of course, that Lila has no proof of anything either.

This comes to one of “those” points for her parents. They can either tell Alya she’s wrong and explain where she’s making a mistake—which might as well be a lecture, or they can be noncommittal and let Alya figure out her mistakes for herself in the hopes that she DOES at some point figure out said mistakes. They figure that in lecturing her, she’ll either blow them off or the lesson won’t stick. It’s one thing to have someone TELL you a lesson and another to actually learn it for yourself. Knowing how stubborn Alya is, they may just take it as her parents not liking Lila for whatever reason and become defensive. So as much as they want to tell Alya what they’re seeing, they instead keep it short and simple that maybe she should look into her facts and determine for herself who is telling the truth.

For Alya, she knows Marinette well enough to know that the girl is anxious, flakes out, and tends to jump to the worst possible conclusions for things. Lila on the other hand is awesome and amazing, and has no reason to make up stories to convince them. So Alya gives a laugh and says it’s not necessary because she already knows Lila wouldn’t lie to her.

Her parents glance to each other in uncertainty, but don’t prod further.

Imagine how things would continue from here. Alya is unknowingly in a toxic friendship that is slowly poisoning her and she can’t see it. Her parents see it and they worry, so they prod and ask, but Alya just waves them off. Slowly over time, she becomes more negative about Marinette until they can’t even be called friends anymore. Slowly over time, Lila’s “issues” grow and Alya is taking on more and more burdens because of it. And slowly over time, the tension and negativity starts to wear on her to the point where she is becoming overly stressed and it’s just downright unhealthy. The fact that she’s Rena Rouge and hiding this isn’t helping with matters, either.

She starts to push off her own responsibilities. Using Marinette or others to babysit her sisters without telling her parents beforehand so she can sneak away and spend time with Nino—which becomes less a matter of actual dating and more to simply get away and “de-stress”. Using people—particularly Marinette and then getting angry when those people either can’t or won’t be there in the way she wants. Even some behaviors that are downright bullying—to Marinette, sure, but more importantly (as far as Alya’s parents are concerned), to her sisters. And when her parents try to talk to her, she shrugs them off and blames others. Thanks to Lila, Marinette has been turned into a rather convenient scapegoat by this point. And the thing about scapegoating is that many people don’t even realize that they’re actually doing it or blaming someone unfairly. It’s just that there’s a situation, she was involved, and it’s so much easier to chalk it up to being due to her rather than address the problem—especially if she can’t be aware that there IS a real problem.

But her parents are.

A couple of months pass of this and finally things come to a head and they’re forced to put their foot down. Alya comes home one day from yet another overly stressful day at school, and when she enters the living room, both of her parents are there waiting for her.

“Alya, we need to talk.”

They tell her what they’re seeing. They tell her what she’s been doing. They tell her the effect she has been having on other people—them, her sisters, her friends. And they tell her what has been happening to her—how stressed and unhappy she’s been lately. Most of all, they tell her how concerned they are for her.

She tries to wave them off, but they’re not taking it this time. When they tell her some of the things they’ve been hearing from the school, she gets angry and makes accusations of Marinette telling them lies.

They point out that they haven’t seen Marinette in weeks since she last brought her over. And that is part of where they’re concerned—Alya hasn’t been bringing Marinette over anymore. Or even any of her other friends.

Alya has been isolating herself more. Hiding away in her room. Being increasingly snappish towards her sisters. Passing her twin siblings off to other people to look after so she can go on dates with Nino—which she never discussed with either of her parents beforehand and is an abuse of their trust in her.

She blows it off, thinking it’s just about her not looking after her sisters and that the lecture is unnecessary for something so minor. They point out to her quite calmly that it isn’t that she’s not looking after the twins, it’s that she’s telling them she will and then having someone else do it—and often someone that the parents don’t know, don’t trust, and did not give permission to do so. That’s dangerous. Not to mention it’s an abuse of their trust—meaning that Alya is lying to them.

THAT gets her attention.

“I don’t lie!”

“What would you call it then? You told us you would be here to do this and you weren’t. You told us we could count on you to watch over your little sisters and you didn’t. You handed off the responsibility to someone else and didn’t even tell us. We had to find out by walking in on one of your sitters trying to deal with the twins in the middle of a temper tantrum! If you wanted time to go on dates or were otherwise busy, why didn’t you at any point simply talk to us instead of doing it behind our backs?”

Alya really can’t respond to that.

“And then there’s your blog. We agreed to let you have it with the understanding that it wouldn’t interfere with your life or other responsibilities, but we find you’re running into akuma battles?”

“It’s just to get footage!”

“Alya, it’s UNSAFE.” Her father exclaimed.

“But Paris counts on me to get them information!”

“That does them little good if you’ve been vaporized in the process or turned into a french fry!”

“It was glitter.” Alya said with a pout. “And I’m the most factual source about Ladybug and akuma attacks!”

“No, sweetie. You really aren’t.” Her mother said with a sigh, much to Alya’s surprise.

They then proceed to explain to her just what she’s been putting on her blog. Theories of who Ladybug is that borders over the edge into pure conspiracy nonesense? The picture of Ladybug and Chat Noir kissing? Videos of interviews with Lila and her false claims?

“You’re posting things without consent or without any evidence backing them. How is any of that factual? Or even news?” Her mother asked. “You saw what happened to Nadja Chamack when she took her interview with the heroes too far. How is that any different?”

“It’s the sort of thing one would see in a tabloid, sweetie.” Her father put it more bluntly.

Alya glared, scandalized.

“And that’s not even getting into the ongoing issues with this Lila girl.” Her mother continued.

“Oh, now you’re going to harp on her, too?” Alya asked, annoyed.

“Alya, have you at any point checked into anything this girl has said?”

“Of course!“

“Really?” Her mother asked, incredulously. “So you talked to Ladybug about the dangers of a civilian claiming to be her best friend when she’s being targeted by a supervillain? Looked up any of the many interviews with Jagged Stone where he expressly mentioned never having a cat? Or a lawsuit against any airline for allowing a preteen to get past security and onto the runway?”

Alya gaped.

“We knew from the start that Lila’s stories were a bit too unbelievable to be entirely truth.” Her father explained. “But we said nothing because we thought that either you would realize that as well or her stories would taper off. But it’s been months now and neither of those things has happened. The only thing that HAS happened has been you following a trend that has been increasingly unhealthy and worrisome.”

“Alya, we are concerned for you.”

“I’m fine!” She insisted.

“You don’t hang out with your friends anymore.”

“That’s because Marinette is bullying Lila!”

“Saying something you don’t want to hear and pointing out flaws in a person’s story isn’t bullying, Alya. Ostracizing that person, intentionally leaving her out of things while letting her know you’re doing it, and only talking to her when you want her to do something for you IS.” Her father replied. “Especially when her parents are going out of their way to ask us what we know about the situation and are rather intently discussing the matter of whether they should allow their daughter to remain in what they are referring to as a ‘toxic place’ regardless of how much their daughter is trying to defend you.”

Alya blanched. “Wait—toxic? You mean the school?”

“This is about you. And unfortunately, I can’t say they are wrong. Your behavior lately has been getting out of hand. And it’s not just your treatment of Marinette. We’re also talking about the way you’ve been ignoring and snapping at your sisters. How you’ve been ignoring your homework. How you’ve been posting things online that have been increasingly scandalous or untruthful, which could hurt people and get you in legal trouble. Not to mention all the times you’ve been sneaking out with Nino after telling us you would be here. And while I’m sure this Lila girl isn’t the root cause of everything, she certainly seems to be a key component to a lot of it.”

“Lila is awesome though!”

“Awesome doesn’t mean healthy. Or safe. Or good. What has this girl done for you that has you so convinced that she’s such a wonderful person?”

“She gave me an interview for my blog! And she looked after the twins loads of times!”

“An interview that you can’t substantiate. And looking after your sisters at a time when YOU should have been and when you didn’t tell us she would be, which explains why the twins were that much more unruly and out of control for the past few weeks with ridiculous claims of how they’re going to get to meet princes and never have to go to bed.” The mother deadpanned.

“And I thought the Sapotis excuse was bad enough.” The father grumbled.

“The point is, Alya, that you’ve been doing a lot of things lately that have been unhealthy for you and rather uncaring of anyone else.”

“That’s not true! I’ve been helping Ladybug!”

“I don’t think putting yourself in danger to get footage or posting a picture she expressly told you she was unhappy with would count as ‘helping’.”

“I’ve been helping Lila!”

“But does she really need your help or is she letting you think she does because it benefits her?”

Alya frowned, growing uncertain. “S-she’s been having trouble with her homework.”

“But she still has time to take on babysitting duties for you?”

Alya continued, resolute. “I’ve been helping Marinette to try to get with Adrien!”

“You’ve been complaining frequently about how much of a pain it is that Marinette is crazy about that boy only to turn around and push her to try to confess to him when she’s clearly not ready. Then she fumbles because of it and you act even more annoyed and put upon as a result. How do you think that makes her feel?” Her mother asked.

“If it’s that much of an annoyance for you, why not just let her move on from him? You said she agreed to help him on a date with another girl at the skate rink that one time, right? It sounds like she was trying to move forward. Why didn’t you encourage her if it would have resolved that issue and cause everyone less grief?” Her father asked.

“He’s her crush!”

“And crushes don’t always last.” Her mother replied. “Sometimes being a wing-woman means helping the person to let go of an attraction.”

“It also means knowing when to butt out.” Her father added, bluntly. “You’ve complained a multitude of times about how much of a pain her crush is. So did you ever stop to consider how much you’ve been contributing to it and keeping it going?”

“But she gets so jealous!”

“That would be all the more reason to let her move on when she’s trying to.” Her mother told her. “And the fact that she does get upset about something doesn’t mean you should invalidate her feelings as jealousy. She’s a teenage girl, just like you. Her feelings are complex and confusing, even to her. Instead of writing her off as jealous whenever she was upset about something, what would you have learned if you had listened to her tell you what she was feeling rather than assume?”

“But she was jealous!” she insisted. “Why else would she keep accusing Lila of making things up?”

“Maybe because Lila is.” Otis retorted.

“That’s not true!” Alya exclaimed. “She wouldn’t lie to me!”

Otis had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. “Based on what? From the moment you met the girl she was spinning tales as easily as spinning yarn. And you clearly never checked on any of her claims or you would have known by now.”

“That’s because I do know!”

“Did you ask Ladybug about it?” Her father asked.

“Well, no. But I’ve talked to her since then and she never said anything!”

“Not saying it isn’t true isn’t proof that it is. What about Jagged Stone?” He continued

“I can’t talk to him!”

“He’s put out interviews that are readily available. And doesn’t Marinette have his number?” Marlena asked her, causing Alya’s eyes to widen in shock at the recollection.

“She does.”

“So that means Marinette would know if Lila was lying about him.”

“But she never said he said—”

“Honey, she shouldn’t have had to in the first place.” Her mother said, sadly. “Marinette isn’t a journalist anymore than Lila is. If two of your friends have conflicting claims, shouldn’t you have proof that something did happen before you start demanding proof that it didn’t?”

Alya winced, remembering how she requested that evidence from Marinette without even checking on Lila’s first. Because no, she didn’t have proof that Lila was telling the truth. Nothing other than Lila’s word. And looking back, she couldn’t say there was a good reason that should have mattered more than Marinette’s.

“But why would Lila lie?” She asked, despondently.

“People lie for plenty of reasons.” Her father said, saddened. “Whatever Lila’s reasons are for lying are on her. Your responsibility is to protect yourself first and not fall for that.”

“We’ve been talking.” Marlene stated. “And while we don’t want to, we are going to ground you.”

Alya gaped up at them in surprise and hurt.

“You’re a journalist, so you know how important communication is. Furthermore, you should understand how it works.” Otis stated. “But you haven’t been communicating with us. Or with anyone. And it’s showing in just how long you’ve been letting things go on until they got to this bad of a point.”

“But things aren’t quite that bad!” Alya insisted, urgently.

“They are disrupting your life and your ability to function—as a student, as a friend, and particularly as a member of this family.” Her mother explained. “So you’re going to take the next two weeks to break away from all of that. No Ladyblog. No outings with your friends. No dates with Nino.”

“You are to also not spend any time with Lila.” Her father added. “We’ll be talking to the teacher about keeping you both separated for now.”

“In that time, we want you to see if you notice a difference in how things feel. You’re stressed, and we get that. But you don’t seem to really understand where it is all coming from or what healthy changes you need to make to deal with it. That can happen sometimes when there is just too much going on, so these two weeks aren’t to punish you. They’re to give you a break from all these distractions to focus on you and what you need to stay healthy and happy.”

Alya didn’t agree. She hated this. She hated all of it. When she first went to her room, her initial response was that her parents were being completely unfair. But she couldn’t say they were wrong. And while it was certainly a pain at first, the two weeks gave her a lot more free time to think. And the time being barred from hanging with either Lila or Marinette allowed her a break from the constant tension and stress of their little “war”.

Now she would have the time to actually try and look up the claims both Lila and Marinette have made. And while Marinette’s claims weren’t always able to be substantiated and may have been little white lies at points, it was ever more clear that Lila’s were entirely false. She’s almost beating herself up because how could she not have seen it?

But how could she have? She had constantly been busy, being dragged into one thing or another. Either her blog, or school, or Marinette’s boy troubles with Adrien, or her relationship with Nino, or Lila’s most recent grab for attention.

It leads her to go back over other things she had overlooked and disregarded. She also starts to reevaluate what all she has going on and what she really needs to keep in her life at this time.

Ultimately, this is going to lead to a change and a much different Alya once the grounding period is over.

Her parents won’t be happy about how much she’ll struggle and have to let go of to get her life back under control, but if it means a healthier and happier Alya, they’ll be satisfied.

#ml drabble #ml analysis #alya's parents #alya cesaire #lila sucks #good parenting

[princess-of-the-corner]

Monster AU: You said that the Kwamii were the same kind of monster as their chosen but what is their relationship with them? I know that Tikki is Mari's mentor and the reason that she's a demon but what about the others? I kinda think that Wayzz would also serve as Nino's mentor in Angel matters. Oh, a Wayzz became a Guardian Angel after saving his best friend/brother Master Fu.

Some of the Kwamis are the same as their Chosen, some aren't. Because not all things line up right. Like how Gabriel is Human while Nooroo will be some sort of monster. Or how Luka and Juleka are Sirens, but that doesn't fit with Sass and Roaar.

The Kwami do all know each other though, as they're all pretty ancient Monsters. As I said, the Monsters are pretty much "functionally Immortal", meaning that as long as they don't get killed, they'll live. Most of the Kwami do know their Chosen.

I'll only list what I have so far in terms of their relation to the Class:

- Tikki: A powerful and kind Demon, who enjoys offering Deals to help people. Tom and Sabine summoned her to help them make a child, and the price was that the child would be a Demon who would one day be Tikki's student. Marinette and her parents now know Tikki well, seeing her as a part of the family.

- Plagg: A Cat Sith. Plagg is an old friend of the Graham de Vanily family. And by 'old friend' I mean really old. They might've been related centuries ago, being Cat Siths and all, but he can't remember. He travels a bit, but mostly he's like that uncle that'll randomly show up at 2 am, pass out on your couch for a few weeks, and teach the kids to knife fight when you're not paying attention. He doesn't get along well with Gabriel, and the feeling is mutual, but they tolerate each other for Emilie and Adrien. Fun fact: Chloé also knows Plagg, but just thinks he's Adrien's uncle and not an ancient Cat Sith. 

- Trixx: Trixx doesn't initially have any connection to Alya, and is just a very old Kitsune. They eventually meet, and Alya is interested in him because he has so many stories to tell and skills to teach. Trixx quickly becomes fond of this overexcited kit. 

- Wayzz: Wayzz is a doctor in a hospital. As a Guardian Angel, he feels that healing the sick is the best way to protect people. He usually works in the Children's ward, but has friends in other places in case a patient becomes a Guardian Angel. After Nino had recovered from his accident, Wayzz showed up and explained things, along with mentoring him and helping him come to terms with the 'functional immortality' aspect. Bonus: Fu is also another Guardian Angel, having died saving his wife, Marianne, years ago. 

- Pollen: Pollen is a very old Vampire, mostly doing her own thing, running a place where other Vampires can get blood from willing donors (almost literally like a blood drive). Explaining her connection to Chloé involves the subplot with Audrey being a fuck. Short version is that Audrey is also a Vampire, but the kind that hunts and kills for sport. As I said, while they need blood, they don't have to kill, they can just take a little. Chloé was unaware of this before she was old enough to join a hunt. She's horrified, and between that and Audrey's general treatment of her she runs away. Eventually Chloé finds Pollen, who takes her in and teaches her ways to get blood with minimal harm to the 'victim', along with becoming a mother-figure who helps her realize exactly how bad Audrey was  

- Barkk: Grim Reapers are one of the few Monsters who have a defined job: leading Souls to the Afterlife. Barkk does her job well. She meets Sabrina in a graveyard of all places. Sabrina's mom was a Grim Reaper, but died(kinda ironic. But as I said, the Monsters are 'Immortal unless killed', and that includes accidents). Sabrina herself had no idea how her powers worked, without her mother to teach her. When Barkk learns this, she can't help but feel sorry for her, and decides to mentor her in how Grim Reapers work. They have a very sibling-like relationship. 

- Longg: Longg is another of the 'likes to travel' ones. He met Kagami while she still lived in Japan, and picked up on her Dragon nature, but was concerned. See, Dragons are an interesting creature because their powers lay dormant until around 11-13, and can only be fully Awakened by another Dragon. I still haven't decided on their ages in this AU, but Kagami would be a minimum of 15 at the time. And an Unawakened 15 year old is a little concerning, as it could be a sign of abusive parents. Thankfully in Kagami's case it was just that she doesn't know who her father is, much less anything about him being a Dragon. Longg offers to Awaken her powers and helps her learn some basics of how said powers work.

#ml monster au

[mcheang]

A miraculous bargain AU

This was inspired by Another Faust; a really good book by Daniel and Dina. The powers are copied from the book and it does not have a complete happily ever after. Spoilers for the book. It is a no-Miraculous AU where the question is what would cause the heroes to sell their souls for.

Past

No matter what Adrien does; his Father never notices him. He does his best to be the perfect Son, but maybe he isn’t perfect enough. He got defeated by the new fencing student today. What makes it worse is that with all his practises, Adrien never has time just for himself. Then his substitute piano teacher Mr Faust offers a suggestion.

At house parties, Chloe is ignored, forced to watch her glamorous Mother be the belle of the ball, while her Father impressed the influential. It makes her long to be like them, but how can she gather the attention? At least her tutor believes she has potential.

Nino is scared to takes risks. When he tried to throw his Best Friend a party, he instead got exiled from the house and transferred to a different class. When he sent his music to Bob Roth Records, XY stole his music and got away with it since he had the connections. When he tried to prove himself to his girlfriend’s Sister, he failed and humiliated himself. (Sorry Nino) the school guidance counselor advises Nino to travel a new road in life.

At a sleepover, Alya hides her jealousy of her BFF. Don’t get her wrong, she loves Marinette, but it’s kind of grating to see how many commissions she has received and the credit celebrities give her. Whenever Alya tries to get the scoop, those celebrities dismiss her and focus on greeting Marinette instead. Alya’s attempts to get school gossip failed when taking photos of someone’s locker got her suspended and kicked off the newspaper team. Alya vented her frustrations at the new babysitter she found.

Present

Dupont college is for the elite. Transfers were unheard of and yet there were five new students coming in this year. 5 children with the same foster father; the handsome and charismatic Mr Faust.

Adrien is a musical athlete and it is a good thing he loves to participate in so many clubs, because lately a disease has struck the school’s stars. It’s a shame, it would have been awesome to see their school talent against the new transfer student. Adrien could give them a run for their money.

Adrien’s power: steals the talents of anyone he touches. This way he finally gets free time for himself.

Chloe is the most beautiful girl ever seen. She has such charisma that she even has the girls worshipping her. If only she could keep her claws off the school’s most popular boy, who is already taken!

Chloe’s power: She takes a special bath that polishes her appearance and her aura enchants those around her. The more time you spend around her, the stronger her hold on you is. Her aura is a drug.

Nino seems to have everything going is way. He manages to charm a snooty cheerleader, come up with the most amazing songs, get away with awesome pranks. It’s like Lady Luck herself blessed him.

Nino’s power: he can rewind time for a short while (pretty much Viperion’s power) as such, he can do over mistakes, as well as claim credit for what others have come up with.

Alya is a fearsome presence. She seems to see right to your soul and can see through all your bullshit. She’s the school’s new gossip queen.

Alya’s power: mindreader

Marinette is the odd one out of the family. While her foster siblings thrive in the spotlight, she spends her time studying in the library. She is an amazing multitasker though. It’s a shame all of her time designing outfits is spent catering to Chloe’s demands.

Marinette’s power: She can freeze time. As such, she can finish her homework and commissions in a second. Feeling homesick for parents she can barely remember, Marinette has learnt Italian and Chinese before deciding to learn all the languages. It’s not a pleasant feeling though. Being the only animated thing in frozen time is very lonely. No wonder she resorted to drinking from Mr Faust’s wine cellar.

Here’s the deal, Mr Faust promised to grant the children’s wishes if they would come away with him. Marinette had no such wish but she was the real prize because she had no desire to bargain with Mr Faust. He didn’t have to kidnap her but Alya wanted her along like a teddy bear for a scared child.

Eventually things come to a head. Adrien doesn’t want to hurt people and wants to go back on the deal. Mr Faust locks him up in the basement instead. He doesn’t like letting his prey go.

Marinette notices Adrien’s absence and rescues him. Adrien finally tells her the truth. While Marinette is hurt by Alya’s deception and betrayal, she is wiser beyond her physical age now. Adrien suggests they run away but Marinette hesitates and claims they can’t leave the others behind.

Adrien goes to persuade Nino, pleading that difficult choices and mistakes are a part of life. Is he truly happy living this artificial perfect life, stealing others’ ideas because he has no faith in his own talent?

Marinette confronts Alya, who reads her mind. Marinette doesn’t have to say anything. Alya can read it all. How could she? How dare she steal her from her family? Did Alya even have the right to call herself Marinette’s BFF? Alya sees what had happened to Adrien, and grows wary of Mr Faust. Marinette asks Alya if she wants to be somebody who invades others privacy, seeing and hearing things that are not meant for her to know, and to spread others’ secrets. What happened to the girl who wanted to uphold truth and justice?

The others now hesitate to recruit Chloe because she loves her new life. While they consider their plan of action, Marinette goes to get more wine. Seriously, is she going to be an alcoholic when they run off?

The gang sabotaged Chloe’s special bath formula, suspicious of the smelly chemicals. Their attempt to save Chloe backfires. It turns out without the special bath, Chloe’s polished exterior reveals a hideous girl underneath. All her original beauty had withered under the fake shell she hid behind.

As Chloe runs to complain to Mr Faust, the others rush to pack survival necessities.

Alya tried to convince Marinette to leave behind the bottles before Marinette reveals the truth. She wasn’t drinking wine, she was drinking youth potion.

All the times she was frozen in time, she was aging. She had learned all the languages of the world, and it had taken her more than half a millennium. If she stopped taking the youth potion, her true age would catch up to her and she would die.

The gang realizes that in asking Marinette to leave behind Faust and his wine cellar, they were asking her to die.

Nino discovers the youth potion recipe. It’s funny how her youth potion smells like Chloe’s bubble bath.

Recipe incantation: “In exchange for the youth given to the drinker, the beauty would be taken from the bather.”

Marinette realizes that in exchange for her youth, Chloe had unknowingly paid the price.

As the gang sneak out, they are confronted by Mr Faust and Chloe. Mr Faust reminds them that they made a deal with him. They belong to him now.

Marinette retorts she doesn’t because she never made a bargain with him.

Mr Faust reminds Marinette she accepted the youth potions. She shot back he tricked her into it. She didn’t realize that so-called power he GAVE her would make the youth potion a necessity.

As Mr Faust starts to chant in a demonic language to keep his children in the house, Marinette starts chanting in the original language (the one before the Tower of Babel). It is enough to attract divine attention and allow the children to escape, all except Chloe who chooses to stay behind with her benefactor.

#miraculous ladybug fanfic #miraculous ladybug fic #ml fanfic #ml fanfiction #ml fic #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #ml au #miraculous ladybug au #ml alternate universe #miraculous ladybug alternate universe

[the-delta-42]

Marinette and Cataclysm

Based on @lenoreofraven‘s ask response

No one exactly how it happened. Some think that she was the intended target. Others thought she was just collateral damage. The day itself started normally, with everyone talking to their friends about their weekends, how their parents embarrassed them and what they did. Caline certainly struggled to stay awake. Mendeleiev often looked at her younger, newer colleague with growing concern. Caline had only been in the job for a couple of years and still had much to learn about students.

The young woman was on her fifth cup of coffee when the first Akuma attacked, from what she heard it was another teacher who had been fired after an inappropriate relation with a student came to light. Caline’s first instinct was to get her students away from it, only stopping after Alya, Marinette and Adrien had vanished. Alya was the creator of the Ladyblog, while Marinette was the Class Representative and Adrien was a model for his father’s brand. They managed to make it to the courtyard, before the Akuma crashed through a wall, flinging Ladybug around like a ragdoll. Chat Noir received the same treatment seconds later.

Nino spotted Alya behind the Akuma, filming the attack. He quickly ran and tackled her so that the Akuma didn’t spot her.

There was a yell of ‘Cataclysm’ and Chat Noir jumped back into action, Ladybug following suit. They clearly expected for the Akuma to go down, they didn’t expect the Akuma to grab hold of Chat’s wrist and slam his hand into Ladybug’s chest. The Heroine lost all momentum and balance, quickly falling to her knees and started to cough up blood. Chat Noir quickly ran and grabbed Ladybug and ran off to a secure location.

The Akuma just ran around Paris yelling his student’s name, until Ladybug and Chat Noir arrived again, Ladybug looked as if she had seen better days, with pain scarring her face and exhaustion living in her eyes. Roger remembered with a jolt that under the suits, they were just children.

After the Akuma had been dealt with, the police quickly arrested him, namely due to his inappropriate relationship with a student and how he missed a court summons.

After Ladybug threw the lucky charm, a giant paper clip, the pain that was drawn onto her face vanished and her eyes gained life again. Everything that happened at that point had gone as well as it could have gone for Caline’s class. Adrien had been called away for a photoshoot, so Marinette could focus on the board and Lila and Chloe could be quiet. Caline considered confiscating Alya’s phone after she spotted it out on her desk.

Everything was quiet, the lesson ended, Caline told Alya to keep her phone away in class. Alya shamfully bowed her head, before Caline laughed. Everyone then went for lunch, Caline joining the teacher in a corner of the courtyard. Everything was calm, nothing unexpected

Then Chat Noir came crashing through the window, another Akuma floated into the room. Caline blanched, recognising her as the Student in the unfortunate relationship. Everyone was in shock, watching on as the Akuma slowly made her way towards Chat, before she grabbed Chat’s throat and held him off the ground, her other hand going for his ring.

“Soon, I’ll have what I need to make the world see that he and I meant for each-” The Akuma was cut off by a rather thick and heavy looking textbook collided with her head. Chat hit the ground and coughed and hacked as he took deep lungsful of air. Everyone looked toward Kagami, who pointed across the courtyard, at Marinette. The Akuma ignored the book and lifted Chat up again, this time a bottle was thrown at the Akuma, followed by a loud yell of “PUT. HIM. DOWN!”

Marinette held onto, what looked like a rounders bat. The Akuma swung out at her, making the girl duck and slam the bat into the Akuma’s knee. Everyone flinched at the sound of a kneecap shattering.

Everyone watched at Chat scolded Marinette for jumping in, Marinette responding that he was at risk and he is her friend. Chat called upon Cataclysm, before charging at the Akuma. Almost as if history was repeated itself, the Akuma grabbed Chat’s wrist and slammed the hand with Cataclysm into another object.

That other object being Marinette’s head. For a second there was nothing by silence that came from it. Marinette’s face screwed up in pain and screamed. Chat kept apologising, watching as Marinette writhe in pain. Kagami and a few other quickly grabbed Marinette and demanded to be taken to the nearest hospital. Chat dealt with the Akuma, keeping the butterfly/moth in a jar until he met up with Ladybug again.

News from the hospital came, Marinette was making a full recovery, she was fortunate that the Cataclysm didn’t reach her brain, but it did take on her eyes and the ear of the impacted side. Marinette later developed red scars when she had been hit Cataclysm. For a time, Marinette was home schooled. Michael Dupain arrived shortly after that, Caline knew Michael from her time in University, apparently Michael remembered her, as he was unable to look her in the eye whenever they spoke.

One day Alya asked the unspoken question, “Are you and Marinette related?”

Michael froze, his silver/grey eyes looking at Alya, while he faced Caline’s computer.

“Yes, she’s my younger sister.” Michael replied, his tone clipped, “She’s the youngest of four.”

“Marinette has siblings?” Mylene blurted out, her hand immediately covering her mouth.

“Yes, Toby, Skye and myself.” Michael started glaring at the machine, “Skye is in England and Toby is in the States.”

“What do they do?” Nino asked, Caline internally sighed, throwing her lesson plan metaphorically out the window.

“Skye is a lawyer and Toby is an…” Michael paused, his face scrunching up in a scowl, “entertainer.”

“Ooh,” gasped Rose, “Does he know TDC?”

“Something like that.” Muttered Michael, internally grumbling about the computer that somehow had a ton of viruses on it.

“I know TDC,” Bragged Lila, “I’m best friends with his sister, he even let me design a poster for him.”

Everyone went from asking Michael questions, to asking Lila questions, not noticing Michael look at Caline and mouth if this was a frequent occurrence. Caline nodded.

“When’s Marinette coming back?” Adrien asked, making the room go sombre.

“When she can cope with being outside her comfort zone.” Said Michael, looking at the boy, “Coming back here, for her, would be like visiting a place you almost died. Which, from what I heard, is actually what happened.”

Adrien looked down, making Michael wonder what Adrien was so guilty about. Adrien couldn’t keep eye contact with Michael after that, not when he just heard about Marinette’s family and the fact he almost killed her.

For the past few weeks, since Marinette had been discharged from the hospital, Chat had been trying to contact Ladybug.

No response. Chat didn’t know where the Guardian was, so couldn’t ask him and Plagg was being unusually quiet.

For Adrien the rest of the day passed slowly, and that wasn’t counting his photoshoots, where Vincent gave up after Adrien failed to pull off a thoughtful pose for the seventh time in a row. Adrien did not look forward to that conversation with his father in the slightest.

Without a single word to anyone, Adrien went straight to his room, started playing piano music on his phone, transformed into Chat Noir and left through his window. Chat was halfway to the Bakery, when someone hit him from the side.

Chat hit a rooftop with a hard thud, he started to get to his feet, when a broadsword imbedded itself into the spot where his hand used to be. Chat looked at the source of the sword, which flew into the hand of a man with a grey trench coat with a hood and what looked like a metal mask over the lower half of his face. The man’s eyes were a golden yellow colour that seemed to pierce Chat’s soul.

“If you are one of the Heroes of Paris, I believe everyone should be worried.” Said the man, his voice in a light growl, “Chat Noir, I presume?”

Chat nodded, making the man hold out his hand, “Timber Wolf, head of the War Circle.”

Chat nervously shook Timber Wolf’s hand. Timber Wolf looked towards the Bakery.

“I’ve noticed that you have gone there every night, but you have yet to make yourself known.” Said Timber Wolf, “I suppose you have a reason.”

Chat immediately looked down, unable to look at Timber Wolf.

“I-I almost killed her.” Said Chat, his voice cracking at the end.

“I believe that it would be best for you both, if you made yourself known to them.” Said Timber Wolf, “The girl needs you more than you know.”

Chat took in a shuddery breath, “I-I don’t suppose you know where Ladybug is?”

“Ladybug is currently out of commission until the Earrings are repaired, The Great Guardian is already repairing them.” Said Timber Wolf, “He has the best healer I know working with him.”

Timber Wolf went to leap across to another roof, but stopped, “However, when we get to the Bakery, you will receive a shock, and Ladybug will too.”

“What do you mean?” Chat asked, his head tilting to the side slightly.

“You and your lady will know who each other are, Adrien.” Said Timber Wolf, before he jumped across to the roof opposite.

Chat stood there with his mouth open, before following.

The two quickly arrived at the Bakery, dropping into a side alley. Chat heard a mutter of “Wynnter, Fangs Covered.” And a light blue light shone through the alley and in Timber Wolf’s place, stood Michael Dupain-Cheng.

Michael opened the door and let Chat into the Bakery, before leading the cat upstairs and into the living room.

“I managed to wrangle him into coming inside.” Michael said, as he stood aside to reveal Chat.

Chat could only stare at Marinette, her left eye, once a warm blue colour, was now grey and sightless, her left ear looked as if it was burnt in a horrific fire. Chat could see the lines stretching across Marinette’s face and travelling down her neck and disappearing under her clothes.

“C-chaton?” Marinette whispered, making Chat move forward.

Once Chat was close enough, Marinette grabbed hold of him and held onto him as tightly as possible. Within seconds both Marinette and Chat were crying. Later that evening another Miraculous user arrived with the earrings.

Everyone was saddened to find out that since the wounds were old, the Miraculous cure didn’t affect them very much, only restoring Marinette’s hearing in her left ear. Other than that, nothing changed.

A week later, Marinette decided to return to school. Two weeks later, Lila made the biggest mistake in history. Alya overheard Lila insulting Marinette and how Adrien would never look at her because she was damage.

Lila never saw Alya’s books coming. After that, Marinette started to grow her hair out, using a long fringe to hide the worst of the scars.

It turned out that Timber Wolf was there to stay, which, for Chat Noir and Ladybug, was a welcome relief.

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #caline bustier #lila rossi #ladybug #chat noir #delta writes

[quicksilversquared]

How to Announce a Pregnancy: Chapter 6

Several years after the event of How to Fake a Marriage, Adrien and Marinette are ready to expand their family. When it comes to breaking the news, though…

Well, some people are harder to tell than others.

One year and some-odd months later...

"Masha, if you're going to be right next to Emma, of course she's going to try to use you for support, you silly cat!"

"She can't understand you, Marinette," Tikki said with a laugh. "But yes, Masha should have figured that out by now. It's not like this is Emma's first attempt at walking. Or her first time using Masha for support, even."

"Sasha is looking much smarter right now," Adrien said, pointing to where their younger cat was curled up and watching the scene down below from the safety of a stack of boxes. Or maybe she was just taking a nap, it was hard to tell. "Out of reach of the grabby hands."

"Eventually Masha is going to be there too, I bet." Marinette kneeled down on the carpet, watching Emma trying to balance herself on the furniture (and their older cat) before taking a shaky step forward. "Masha, you're just getting in the way now."

"A cat getting underfoot? You don't say." Adrien grinned, then hopped to his feet at the knock on the door, making sure to give the trio on the floor a wide berth. "Your parents are here!"

"Oh, good." Marinette glanced up as Adrien answered the door, letting Tom and Sabine in. "Emma! Look who's here!"

Emma looked up and lit up at once, falling to her hands and knees so that she could crawl over faster. "Nana! Papi!"

Sabine grinned, handing a large pot to Adrien so that she could bend down and scoop Emma up. "Hi, Emma! How's my little granddaughter doing today?"

"She's working on walking again," Marinette told her mom, pushing herself up. "She's almost got it, I think."

"She'll pick it up soon enough, and then you'll never be able to contain her." Sabine beamed down at Emma as she held her tight. "And then comes the climbing, and then nothing is safe."

Adrien laughed. "Yeah, you've told us before. We're trying to baby-proof as we unpack, but it's hard."

"Yes, well, that's why we came over today, isn't it?" Tom grinned down at Emma, then returned his attention to Adrien and Marinette. "I see that you've gotten some stuff unpacked already."

"Just the furniture, really. And a couple pots and pans." Adrien headed into the kitchen to set the pot down, then returned to the front room to take the bag that Tom was carrying. "I'm glad we got a company to help us with the move. We would have been spinning in circles if we had tried to move everything ourselves. Do you want a tour first?"

Tom and Sabine agreed eagerly, and so they started with the living room/dining room area. It was larger in their three-bedroom apartment than it had been in the two-bedroom, which was nice. It gave Emma more space to tumble around, and once she was joined by another sibling (whenever that happened), then there would be space for them to play together without taking up the entire floor. The kitchen was larger, too, which Tom and Sabine heartily approved of.

"It's larger than ours, which will be nice for you," Sabine said, looking around. "And it's open to the living room, so you can watch Emma while you cook. I love all of the counter space."

"I can't wait to start cooking in it," Marinette admitted. "I'll be able to have things cooling on the counter and still be able to cook without bumping into them. Or Adrien and I can cook together and have plenty of space. It's probably one of the best things about this apartment."

"It's lovely," Sabine told her. "It's so nice that your landlady had these apartments as well, so that you didn't need to do a lot of searching."

Adrien could only nod in agreement. There had been hardly any work involved in getting the new apartment, really. They had told their landlady that they would be interested in a three-bedroom apartment once it opened, she had put them down on a list, and she had let them know as soon as she knew that one would be opening up. They had popped over to the next building over to tour the place and confirm that they wanted it, and then they had moved.

Well, the move itself had been a lot of work. Getting all of their things plus Emma's stuff plus the stuff for Masha and Sasha all packed up had been difficult. Luckily his father had helped with the move- well, Nathalie had, at least- by sending over a check for them to use to hire a moving company. It wasn't terribly expensive since they were just shifting one building over, but it was still appreciated. Adrien and Marinette had been able to drop Emma off with Nino and Alya for the couple hours it took for the workers to clear their old apartment and get things into the new one, and then for the time it took for them to finish their cleaning and do a final walk-through with the landlady before turning over the old keys and getting their new ones.

"How is Emma taking the move?" Sabine asked as they headed out of the kitchen and towards the bedrooms. "I know sometimes little kids get upset when they get uprooted and moved elsewhere."

Marinette grinned. "She's doing well. It helps that we did a bunch of unpacking in her room before she came in for the first time, so it looked really familiar. And she got to pick which of the two kid's bedrooms that she wanted to be hers before we moved, though, uh, I doubt that she knew that that was what she was doing."

"I'm sure there's plenty yet to unpack in there, though." Sabine followed Marinette into Emma's new room, and Tom and Adrien followed her. "Ah- yes, plenty of things."

Adrien winced. There was a pretty big pile of boxes, mostly full of toys and clothes and diapers and all of the extra supplies. They had packed a box with enough for a couple days to unpack right away, but everything else still had to get put away. "Yeah, we were working on it a bit earlier, but then Emma decided to try to walk and we didn't want to miss that. "

"You had to leave some stuff for us to do, and I doubt that you want us unpacking all of your clothes." Sabine was already over at the box pile, glancing over all of the boxes. She set Emma down and then started pulling the topmost one open. "I think I know where all of this goes. Tom and I can get this room while you start on yours."

Marinette giggled. "So much for the rest of the apartment tour, then?"

"Oh! Right!"

It didn't take long for them to finish up. There were two smaller bedrooms- Emma's and Marinette's sewing room- plus a bathroom, then the master bedroom with its own bathroom and the large walk-in closet. It was large enough that Marinette would be able to easily store a lot of her sewing things in it once they needed the third bedroom for a second kid.

Not that Marinette had been sewing a ton at home now, between mainly doing commissions for graphic designs for t-shirts and caring for Emma. But she would need the storage space, at least, and it would be better if the sewing machine was easily accessible when she needed it and not packed away in a box or anything.

"Your bedroom is a nice size," Tom commented, glancing around. The room was really bare so far, with only one blanket on the bed and nothing on the dresser. "It's incredible that anyone would leave once they got this place, but I suppose if they were moving out of the city or outgrew the apartment, it would make sense."

Adrien nodded in agreement. No matter how nice the apartment was, he knew that it wasn't their forever home, not yet. He and Marinette had discussed moving to a townhouse in anticipation of having more kids- they wanted three, after all, and trying to make a move with two or three young kids would no doubt be a nightmare- but they hadn't seen any that they liked open just yet. Besides, townhouses in Paris weren't exactly cheap, and while he and Marinette were pretty well off- between his income as a model for over a decade of his life, her job at the boutique, his job at the Physics lab, and her commissions on the side, they certainly weren't struggling- they had agreed that they wanted to build up a little more savings before going out and buying a house.

"The timing of this place opening up ended up being pretty good, if you think about it," Sabine commented. She bounced Emma on her hip when she started to fuss, making a silly face at her. Emma settled down right away. "Think about trying to move within her first year- it would have been pretty hard, right?"

Neither Adrien nor Marinette could hide their winces at that. Pretty hard was a bit of an understatement there. Their first few months with Emma had been hectic at best as they dealt with diapers and feedings and laundry- so much laundry- and trying to stay on top of their normal household chores. Things had settled down as they got used to balancing it all, and as Emma's feedings grew less frequent (and she started eating baby food and then, later, soft foods, so Adrien could help out more) and the number of diaper changes she went through lessened, they actually got some of their time back. They spent most of it playing with Emma and reading to her, but if they had been trying to move then or before things settled down?

They would have been a mess.

"At least now Emma is old enough for daycare, so if we need more time to unpack we could always take a few days off to pack without her being underfoot," Adrien pointed out after a few seconds. "She loves it, so it's not like she would mind. Or notice that anything was different, really, considering that she goes pretty much every day."

Tom grinned. "You like her daycare, then?"

"Yeah! I don't think we ever thanked you enough for finding that one for us."

Sabine laughed. "It was no problem at all, really. We just asked people who came into the bakery with kids where they had their children go for daycare and if they had been happy with it. No real work required on our parts."

"Still. My father's idea of 'helping' was to tell us that we shouldn't be sending Emma to daycare and that we should get a nanny instead." Adrien rolled his eyes. "I already know that Emma would hate that. She likes seeing the other kids at daycare. And it would be expensive to have a nanny." And Mr. Agreste knew that- he had to, since Adrien had had a nanny for years even though both of his parents had worked from home- but he just didn't think it was fitting for his granddaughter to be going to a common daycare (never mind that the one they had found was definitely on the slightly more upscale side).

Tom made a face. "I'm sure he'll settle down eventually. Or he'll keep doing it and you'll just tune it out," he added, chuckling. "I suppose it's more likely to be the latter."

Adrien sighed. "Yeah, probably."

It didn't take long for them to dive into the unpacking. Tom and Sabine headed into Emma's room to finish unpacking and putting stuff away there, and Adrien and Marinette stayed in their own bedroom, hanging up some clothes and folding others to put away. Emma was put in her crib, where she could watch her grandparents while staying well out of the way.

"After this, I think the kitchen is the next priority for us," Adrien said as he pulled out another blanket and draped it across the bed. "We need to be able to cook. Your parents should be able to do the bathrooms."

"They could do the towels and soaps and cleaners, at least," Marinette corrected, and Adrien winced. Right. If they were having her parents set up the bathrooms, they should pull one of the boxes that was there right now. Her parents didn't need to know about everything that they kept in the bathroom. "And we have to remember that we have two bathrooms now, too. We're going to have to buy more stuff for one of them."

Adrien nodded, thinking about it. "I vote that the stuff we have- the shower curtain and the rugs, mostly- goes in our bathroom, and then we can find some stuff that's maybe a bit more fun for Emma's bathroom. Maybe we could do, like, a tropical fish theme or something?"

"Ooh, I like that!" Marinette had paused, shirt half-folded in her hands as she went into planning mode. "And the mirror and the walls on the tub could have those little sticky gel fish on them as decoration! It would be super cute."

Laughing, Adrien leaned over to kiss her. "Oh no, I've awakened the decorating beast."

"It's fun, and you know it is."

The two of them had only just finished working on clothes when Sabine stuck her head in. "We've finished working on Emma's room for the most part. All you have left are the wall decorations, and I know you like putting those up."

Adrien grinned. "You didn't want to deny Marinette the joy of decorating Emma's room?"

"Not when she enjoys it so much."

"We were just talking about what kinds of decorations we might want to buy for our second bathroom, now that we have two," Marinette told her mom. "We thought we might have a tropical fish theme in Emma's bathroom. It would be fun, and those colors are really pretty."

Sabine grinned. "Oh, she'll love that, I'm sure. It's fun, but not so childish that guests would think anything of it. Tom and I once went to a friend's apartment where they had decorated their kid's bathroom in unicorns and sparkly pink, and it was like here, where the kid's bathroom is the one that any guests use. It was cute, I guess, but..."

"Are you talking about the unicorn bathroom? It was absolutely overwhelming." Tom appeared behind Sabine, a slight grimace on his face at the memory. "I don't think I've ever felt so out of place. It was clear that it was a little girl's bathroom, and I felt like I was intruding."

"So be careful with the level of decoration is what I'm hearing," Marinette said, exchanging a look with Adrien. "Or maybe we could include a few pieces that are less strictly kid-ish."

"I don't think there are many unicorn things that scream adult."

Sabine laughed. "They were talking about doing a tropical fish theme, Tom. No unicorns involved."

Tom looked relieved, and they all laughed.

Emma went down for a nap while Tom and Sabine started setting up the master bathroom, and they worked for another hour before stopping for a quick snack break. Adrien grinned as he surveyed their work.

The apartment was starting to look like home again. It wasn't quite there yet- there were several rooms left to unpack, and of course the books and knick-nacks and pictures wouldn't be put up until later- but stuff was out and getting put away, and more and more boxes were getting flattened and piled up by the door to be taken out. The floor was slowly appearing as boxes were removed, and Adrien could actually see more of their furniture again.

"Was the cat tree a first priority to get up again, or did you just never take it apart?" Tom asked with a laugh when they had managed to uncover it. "And- aha! I see Sasha! I had wondered where she went."

"We never took it apart," Marinette admitted. "Since Mr. Agreste was paying for the move, we figured that we might as well save ourselves a little work and leave it together. And can I just say that I'm glad that we did?"

By the time Emma woke up again, hungry and in need of a diaper change, the bathroom boxes were unpacked, her bedroom was ready (with the sole exception of the wall decorations), the master bedroom was largely unpacked, and a good deal of progress had been made on the kitchen.

"I think I'm unpacked-out," Marinette admitted once she returned with Emma in her arms. "I never thought we had so much stuff."

"Well, we can come again next weekend and spend another day helping out," Sabine offered. "Or we can have an early dinner and see if we have enough energy to finish the kitchen, at least."

Adrien nodded in agreement. That sounded good. If they got the kitchen done, that only left the living room and Marinette's sewing room with serious unpacking left to do. Marinette would probably want to do her sewing room herself with Adrien acting as an extra pair of hands to move things around, and most of the stuff for the living room was just knickknacks, things that they didn't really need but added some personality to the apartment. Those could wait for a little longer, maybe for an evening or two where they had some time on their hands.

They would have to find the cat toys, at least. Otherwise, Masha and Sasha would start getting into things that they shouldn't.

It didn't take long for them to put the pot that Tom and Sabine had brought over on the stove, and stick the bread that they had brought with it in the oven to warm. Adrien kept an eye on the food while Marinette and her parents played with Emma. When he came back out, Masha had made herself at home on Tom's shoulder while Emma sat in his lap, giggling as Sabine acted out a story with some of Emma's stuffed animals.

It was adorable, and Adrien was glad that Emma had one set of grandparents who loved kids so much. Whenever his father saw Emma, he simply acknowledged her with a short nod before addressing Adrien and Marinette.

There was a reason that Emma didn't like him very much. Whenever she saw Mr. Agreste she hid and fussed. Whenever her other grandparents entered a room, though, she lit up and babbled for them. It was an interesting difference, and Adrien wondered how much it would continue once Emma was older.

It wasn't long before Sabine was done with her story and dinner was ready, and Adrien scooped up Emma to put her in her high chair. She squealed happily as he spun her around on the way to the table. "Da!"

"I'll put the cats back in the bedroom," Marinette said, reaching up to scoop Sasha off of the cat tree. Masha meowed and followed Marinette back to the bedroom, used to the routine by now. They couldn't keep the cats out during meals anymore, not with Emma in full Messy Eater mode. They would both get used to stealing table scraps, and that was not something that Adrien and Marinette wanted to deal with.

"You know, a baby gate would be good for that," Sabine pointed out as Sasha tried to escape. "Then you could just dump Sasha over that and not have to wrestle with getting the door closed before she escapes."

"You assume that Sasha wouldn't just climb right over," Marinette called back. "Because she would. We're hoping that she mellows out with age."

Adrien tried not to laugh at that. It would probably be years before that happened.

"Okay, but if you hung a piece of metal or something on it, would that keep her from climbing?" Tom asked. "If I gave you a couple industrial sheet trays, that would cover the holes on the baby gate. Unless Sasha is the world's best jumper, she's probably be stuck."

"It's worth a try," Adrien admitted. "It would be nice for mealtimes to not be such a ordeal."

"I'll bring the trays over during the week, then," Tom decided. "I have a few that probably should get retired, so you can have those."

"Fantastic."

Dinners took longer now that they had to account for Emma, though at least she wasn't a fussy eater. She was feeding herself now, too, and once she stopped eating it was a surefire sign that she was actually full. Adrien appreciated it, especially because Alya and Nino hadn't gotten so lucky and it was a lot harder to feed Elodie. Still, even though she fed herself it didn't mean that she did it quickly. There was a lot of pauses as she babbled to her grandparents, something almost resembling an actual word occasionally slipping out as she pointed to her parents and grandparents and her food.

"She's a little chatterbox," Tom chuckled as Emma smashed a handful of food into her mouth. "She's going to start picking up words really soon now, I'll bet. And once she starts, she'll learn a lot."

Adrien grinned over at Marinette. "I get feeling that we're in for another Marinette story."

Sabine laughed. "You are! Marinette went to daycare most of the time when she was young, but there were a few days where I just brought her down into the bakery- mostly because there was a cold getting passed around the daycare or when Marinette got fussy and wanted mommy time. And once she started learning words, she picked up all of the names for the different pastries in the bakery and would name them as people put them down. Or she would tell people what colors their clothes were. Most people really thought it was cute-"

"As they should, because Baby Mari was adorable," Tom added in.

"But not everyone was great at watching their language around babies," Sabine continued, and Marinette buried her face in her hands with a groan. "These poor boys- they had popped in to get some rolls for their mom, I think, and they dropped their money after they had paid and one of the coins went under the counter. They swore just out of habit, and then Marinette repeated them. I don't think I had ever seen anyone look so mortified before."

"They hadn't realized that there was a toddler behind the counter, listening to everything that was going on," Tom told them. "And they apologized, of course, and then hightailed it out of there. Thankfully Marinette didn't make it a permanent addition to her vocabulary."

Adrien grinned at his blushing wife. "At least not at that stage. I know I've heard some colorful vocabulary when she stabs herself with a needle."

"Oh, hush you."

"So, you said that your father helped pay for the move," Tom said, grinning at their exchange even as he changed the subject. "Have you been seeing more of him now?"

Adrien snorted. "Once every month or two. Thankfully he doesn't make it a long visit, since Emma gets fussy and he doesn't like hanging around then. She's our new get-out-of-jail-free card."

Sabine raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued. "That sounds like you had an old get-out-of-jail-free card."

"Father is allergic to cat hair," Adrien reminded her, gesturing towards the bedroom. "He used to cut dinners a bit short because his nose would start running. Then he started taking stuff for his allergies before we came over, so he could monologue at us for as long as he wanted."

"Or sit across from us in silent disapproval," Marinette added in. "Though he's mostly stopped that, at least. I think he's finally given up hope that Adrien will give up on Physics and come back to Gabriel and that I'll quit my job and work for him instead."

Sabine rolled her eyes. "It's obvious to anyone with eyes that you love your job where you are. So he's still working, then?"

Adrien nodded. "Yeah. Nathalie is doing her best to get him to take a step back, though. She thinks that he would be a lot less stressed if she was just designing and not doing absolutely everything involved in actually running the company."

"But he's not listening?"

"He's not listening," Adrien confirmed with a sigh. "Even though his doctor agrees. Being head of the company just keeps him stressed all the time." The stress was going to land his father in an early grave, Adrien was sure of it. At the rate Gabriel was going, Adrien was starting to worry that his father wouldn't still be around to tell when they got pregnant with their second child.

Even if his father had never been that engaged with him- and had been a distant, controlling parent ever since Adrien's mom vanished- Adrien still couldn't imagine not having his father around. It was a foreign concept, and not exactly a welcome one.

"And he's older than us, too." Tom was frowning. "By nearly a decade, right? Even so, he shouldn't be having that many health issues. My mother certainly isn't, and she's older than him."

"And he wouldn't, without all of the stress." Adrien wondered how much of a difference it would make if his mom were still around. She might have been able to get through to his father better than he or Nathalie could, and she and his father could have split the workload of running the company. But she was gone- none of the leads that they had had ever panned out- and what-ifs wouldn't help now. "And if he weren't just ignoring everything, thinking that stuff will go away."

Tom and Sabine both winced at that.

"At this point, I think it's going to take a major health scare to get through to him," Adrien admitted. "Which certainly isn't ideal."

"Not at all," Sabine agreed. "And I'm happy to report that both Tom and I go in for check-ups and screenings every year and we haven't had any problems. And if we did, we would certainly take the doctor's advice about how to fix it."

"And thank goodness for that."

  Tom and Sabine insisted on doing the washing-up, and then they helped finish unpacking and setting up the kitchen under Adrien's supervision while Marinette decorated Emma's room. By the time they left, everyone was yawning and Emma was nodding off in Tom's arms.

"Off to bed for us, I think," Tom said cheerfully as he and Sabine gathered up their things, handing Emma back to Adrien. "Let us know if we can be any help this week. We have enough staff now that we don't have to work such long hours and can easily spend the evenings over here. Or if you ever need someone to take care of Emma for a couple of hours..."

"We know, you tell us every week," Marinette said with a laugh. "We'll keep it in mind, just like always. And I'll send you a video if Emma starts walking on her own. She's getting so close."

"They grow up so fast," Sabine bemoaned briefly, but she was smiling. "Good-night, you three. Stop by any time."

"Good night!"

The door closed, and both Adrien and Marinette almost immediately made a beeline for the couch, flopping down on it and letting out identical long breaths.

"So, we've moved," Adrien told the ceiling. "I don't think I can handle another move for at least a couple more years."

Marinette nodded fervently. "Yeah. Not until we're ready for Kid Three and need the extra space." She sighed, then glanced around. "I think we'll be happy here, though, once we settle in. There's plenty of space for Emma, and for us, and for expanding our family again once we're ready for that."

"Two adults, two kwamis, two cats, one toddler..." Adrien laughed. "We're a bit of an odd bunch here, really."

"Well, it might be a little weird, but it's our weird," Marinette said fondly, leaning over to kiss Adrien. He returned it happily, smiling into the kiss. "And I wouldn't change it for the world."

Fin.

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #How to Announce A Pregnancy

[chimpukampu]

Time Traveler’s Bug 01

Summary: It was summer when Adrien, an ex-superhero and a widower of three kids, found his wife's unconscious-but-alive body near her grave. How did it happen? What is she doing there? And why does she still have the Ladybug Miraculous?

(or alternatively, Ladybug got hit by an Akuma and transported to the future)

Fatherhood wasn't easy for Adrien.

As a baker, he had to wake up before sunrise to proof his bread - which isn't a problem considering the number of early morning photo shoots he had done when he was young - and to start baking those batches he already prepared a night prior. Once done, he would fill in the display trays with his fresh goodies, check the backroom to double-check the inventory, then wait for his assistants to come in before he could climb upstairs for breakfast.

It was a summer break so he wasn't expecting to see Emma lounging in their dining area.

"Going somewhere with Kara?" he asked as he planted a kiss on his daughter's neatly combed hair.

"With Janice," she corrected with a grunt "And Hanson. I swear I'm just third-wheeling every time we hang out! Worst of all, those two are so oblivious to their own feelings! I'm like, am I living in a coming-of-age slow burn fic?"

He chucked at her gesticulations, then began to pull out some ingredients" You know, when your Maman was around your age, she used to third-wheel your Aunt Alya and - "

"- and Uncle Nino every time they hang out until you came along and it became a double date." she interrupted hotly "Papa, I'm only thirteen years old! I'm nothing like Maman, and I don't - I don't have time on those kinds of stuff!"

The blond turned around then pinched her cheeks lightly with endearment "That's why you're my favorite daughter."

"But I'm your only daughter." she pouted indignantly.

"I know." he winked cheekily "Go get Hugo so I can start making pancakes."

"Oui." Emma drawled, pushing herself away from the table then walked lazily towards her sibling's room. A few minutes later, she emerged with a yawning five-year-old in her arms.

"M'ning, Papa" Hugo greeted groggily as he settled himself on his elevated chair.

"Good morning, my little munchkin." Adrien cooed when his son reached out with a sloppy kiss "Want some pancakes?"

Somehow, that perked him up "I want choco-banana!"

"One order of choco-banana, coming up!" the blond announced happily as he poured in the pancake mixture into the heated pan, then side-eyed his daughter who was fetching the plates "How about you, Em?"

"Probably a choco-banana - "

"Copycat!" Hugo interjected.

"- and a blueberry?"

"Can't say no to my little Princess," Adrien chuckled, tossing some fresh blueberries into the smaller batter.

"Papa! Papa! I want blueberry, too!"

"Now who's the copycat," Emma bopped her little brother's nose much to his chagrin.

"Additional blueberry pancake for the little Prince, coming up!"

Adrien didn't mind indulging their notable increase of appetite. After all, he grew up in a very strict diet, and it was something he didn't want his children to experience.

He was about to flip the last piece when he heard a faint alarm sound coming from the other side of the room.

"Em? Why don't you check Louis and see if he has something to do today?"

"As if you can wake Lou up during an apocalypse." the girl muttered between bites.

Turning the stove off, Adrien approached his eldest son's room, but instead of rapping the door, he yelled dramatically "Oh no! It's ten thirty AM! What am I supposed to do now?"

"Ten thirty AM?!" a panicky voice echoed inside, followed by a loud crash "Oh no! M. Leduc will kill me! I'm late, I'm late, I'm…I'm..."

Adrien didn't hide his snickers when the door swung open, revealing a mop of dark hair with furious green eyes "Papa, you liar! It's just six thirty!"

"Good morning, my sleepy Kitten. Want some pancakes?"

.

.

.

Raising three kids alone wasn't easy for Adrien.

Aside from preventing typical sibling brawls, he had to learn how to give them his undivided attention all at the same time.

"...and that's why Mme. Lavillant chose me to represent the class!"

"That sounds lame, Em," Louis commented, "What do you think, Papa?"

Adrien's fork hovered near his mouth. Huh, what was the topic again?

"Papa, are you listening?"

"Of course, my little Princess. You reported a bully from a different class, and your classmates praised you for your actions, that's why they nominated you as their Class President."

A triumphant huff told him that he guessed it correctly.

"What about this Saturday?" Louis probed.

"What's with Saturday?"

"Papa!"

"Of course, of course, my Kitten! How can we forget your fencing tournament!" Adrien chuckled unabashed when his son pouted indignantly "Papa and Hugo and Emma will gonna be there with a megaphone and a huuuge banner that says 'Excel and Power Pointe!"

"Papa!"

"That's parry-fect, Papa!"

"Em!"

"Don't be a sourpuss, Lou!" Emma replied, wiping her happy tears "It's best to foil your enemy with puns!"

Louis couldn't help but slap his forehead then groaned inwardly when his father and his sister shared a fist bump.

The sound of the doorbell caught everyone's attention.

"I think that's Janice," said Emma as she stood up and kissed Adrien's cheek, followed by Louis who slipped his duffel bag on his shoulder.

"I don't want to be yelled again by M. Leduc," the boy said before his father could ask. "I'll try to be back for the picnic."

"Me too!" Emma added.

"If you say so…" Adrien trailed off when he saw Hugo's mess, then winced when he noticed how his clothes were smothered by milk and maple syrup.

"Gotta go now, Papa!" the two said in unison then looked at the picture frame of Marinette longingly with a smile, "See you later, Maman!"

"Don't forget to buy your Maman her favorite flowers!"

They answered him with a noncommittal hum.

"Those kids..." he shook his head with a wistful sigh, then stared at his wife's beautiful image "They really got your stubborn attitude, you know. And your tardiness."

"Is tardiness bad, Papa?"

"Very bad, Hugo," he replied, eyeing the maple syrup that was about to drip to their carpet "But not as bad as your catastrophe. Why don't you get Rubber Ducky for me so we can take a bath?"

"Oui!"

Hugo immediately hopped from his chair then padded towards the bathroom.

"I don't know about you, Mari, but I know for sure I don't eat like Hugo," he muttered audibly despite knowing that no one will give him a reply.

.

.

.

Being an ex-supermodel and a celebrity wasn't easy for Adrien.

He didn't want to use his fame when he took over Tom and Sabine's Boulangerie Patisserie, but people would still identify him even though he hasn't been in the spotlight for years. His marital status wasn't helpful at rejecting his rabid fans either, in which he, later on, confirmed much to his mortification, that him being a 'Daddy' was more appealing to the public than his 'Eligible Bachelor' status years ago.

He had fired five staffs for incompetence and filed two police blotters of Harassment and Invasion of Privacy before he got Pierre, a laid off pâtissier, and Jules who, at that time, was badly looking for a job. Unlike the others that he interviewed prior, they weren't intimidated by his or his wife's status, so he hired them on the spot.

It was a slow afternoon so Adrien decided to give his assistants a break. He also brought Hugo down to the bakery with a promise of a strawberry tart if he conducts himself properly, in which the young boy agreed, while he manned the cashier.

The interiors were slightly altered compared to what he recalled back when he was in collège, with a bit of woodwork on the display shelves and pieces of furniture that weren't sturdy enough to handle the weight. The aroma of butter and vanilla were still permeating the air just like what he remembered, but with a slight whiff of cocoa coming from the tempered chocolate he was yet to be stored in the fridge.

Tom used to call him his protégé.

When his in-laws were still in Paris, he would handle the front while Sabine does the packaging and Tom on the baking. It was a routine that they find more convenient, though overwhelming at certain times, especially during peak season. But once the rush dwindles down, he would go back to the kitchen to learn more about the Dupain's way of bread.

Or according to his father in law, the whey of bread.

Under his tutelage, he learned more about baking techniques, decorating tips and some recipes that were foreign even to his wife. He was proud of how he barely made mistakes or accidents on his first attempts, and his recreations were always better than his previous students.

And that includes Marinette.

When his wife died and eventually inherited the bakery, he promised Tom and Sabine that he will preserve, as much as possible, all the furniture and fixtures as each piece in the building have sentimental values, but his in-laws only laughed at his mushiness.

"You can sell the bakery if you want," his mother in law told him "Marinette wouldn't mind."

As if Adrien would let go of his wife's beloved home.

"Bonjour! How can I help?" the blond greeted when a lady entered the premise.

"I'd like to get five of your pain au chocolat, a box of macarons," she recited upon reaching the counter, then clicked her tongue as if trying to remember something "And...uh, what's your best seller here?"

He smiled toothily "Aside from our croissants that are very well known in this arrondissement, our chouquettes and petit fours are quite popular too. Our Spinach Quiches are in demand especially for young adults, and our brioche - "

"Uh, are you Adrien Agreste?"

Adrien smiled widely as he tried not to wince or show any signs of discomfort.

"I knew it! I immediately recognized you from my daughter's pull-out magazines! Oh, you have to meet her - she just divorced her second husband so she's pretty much available in the market! She's a very charming lady, and has a pleasing personality…"

This is the main reason why I preferred to stay behind the ovens, the blond sighed dismally as he bagged her orders.

"You're an invalid?!"

He barely listened to the lady's ramblings that he almost missed her reference to his condition.

"Got a problem with that, Madame?" he asked, slipping the fifth pain au chocolat into the pastry bag with a tong.

"Well, you can't walk straight," she pointed out bluntly "Can you even bake?"

"Rest assured Madame that all of the bread and confectioneries that you're seeing in this bakery are made by me." he flashed her his best customer service smile then punched her bill "That's €18.35 in total."

"Any special discounts?"

"We don't offer special discounts."

She was mumbling incoherently as she hands in the payment, but before she could accept her purchase, a tug on her sleeve caught her attention.

"Hey, old bag," said Hugo while sporting his best impassive look "Papa is not an invalid, imbecile."

"Hugo!"

"W-why you…" All the blood in her face has been sucked out as she shrieked, then gave Adrien a deathly glare "This bakery is horrible! Worst customer service ever!"

"But Madame, I'm - "

"I will never, ever, set foot on this atrocious place again and I will rate your business a one-star in Yelp!"

"Madame! I think you forgot your - "

SLAM!

"- pastries."

Adrien winced when the lady stormed outside the door and slammed it shut so hard he thought the glass would shatter on the impact.

After a few beats of silence, he hovered his gaze towards his sheepish son who flinched when their eyes met "Care to explain yourself, Hugo?"

"She called you an invalid," he muttered while worrying his lower lip. "And Maman told me that it's a bad word."

"And you think imbecile isn't?"

Hugo shrugged nonchalantly "Google never said that it's a bad word."

The blond took a sharp intake of breath, then pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers "Hugo?"

"Oui, Papa?"

"Just...go upstairs and fetch your things, okay? We're leaving now...for the picnic."

"Oui, Papa," was his glum answer.

Adrien waited until his son was gone before he jerked his head towards his two snickering assistants.

"Who among you taught my son how to cuss?!"

"Not me, Boss," said Pierre with a scoff, followed by Jules who simply shook his head "Besides, kids are too smart nowadays."

"You mean, too smart to know how to access blocked sites."

He squeezed his eyes shut much to their amusement "I think I'm having another headache."

.

.

.

Being a widower wasn't easy for Adrien.

His wife has been a constant presence in his life - his first love, his partner in and out of the mask, his best friend...his soulmate.

He couldn't imagine his life without Marinette.

And now that she was gone -

"Papa!" Hugo's annoyed voice broke his reverie "Hurry up or the bus will leave us behind!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming...geez..." he chuckled, picking up their picnic basket "You know that Papa can't walk that fast anymore, remember?"

His youngest might be stubborn, but he was wise enough not to rush ahead like most kids at his age do in public. He was even considerate enough to stay still whenever they travel together, and not even hesitate to say 'excuse me', 'please' and 'thank you' on strangers who helped them along their short journey.

Louis was already waiting for them at their bus stop.

Taking the basket from his father's hand, he explained "M. Leduc allowed me to leave early when I told him about Maman's birthday," then added "Else I will boycott the competition and he'd lose his best fencer."

"You sure have a big ego, Lou."

"Bold of you to assume that I have a big ego," he countered with a sneer "Besides, where do you think I got that gene from?"

Adrien ruffled his eldest son's hair much to his displeasure.

They were about to approach the cemetery gates when they spotted Emma running towards them with a bouquet of pink and red roses.

"I thought I'm going to miss you, guys," she huffed, trying to catch her breath. "You have no idea how many trips I've made just to find Maman's pink roses."

"And here I thought you went to Grasse to buy her flowers."

"Shut up, Lou."

"Hey, hey. Quit fighting, you two," Adrien admonished lightly "We're here to celebrate Maman's birthday, not to hold a wrestling match."

"Oui, Papa."

As the four headed towards their destination, he listened to his kids random banters. Hugo would join in from time to time, sometimes he would ask them about certain words that they were using, and their interactions warmed his heart.

He couldn't help but see his wife's creativity in Emma, her bravery in Louis, and her wits in Hugo. And in their smiles, he could see the woman he knew and loved.

It's as if Marinette never left him alone -

"Papa?"

"Huh?" he blinked, confounded at their curious stares.

"You were spacing out, Papa," Louis added with apprehension "We've been calling your name several times but you're not responding."

"Are you okay, Papa?" asked Hugo.

"Oui, my beloved munchkin," Adrien responded with a smile "I'm - "

Years of superheroing made his instinct reacted towards danger, that he immediately leapt and covered his three children with his body before they could hear the loud crash.

"W - What was that?!" Emma sputtered when the smoke began to disperse.

"I don't know…" her father muttered under his breath, pulling his kids up as he assessed their conditions "Are you three alright?"

They answered him with a nod.

"Okay, now I want you guys to stay here while I - "

"Papa!" Hugo pointed out a spot behind them "There's smoke coming from Maman's!"

"Wha - Louis! Come back here!" Adrien yelled when he saw his son rushed towards the grave, then choked when his daughter hastily followed "Emma! Why you…ugh."

Why are my kids so ridiculously impulsive?

"Didn't I tell you to stay…" he trailed off when the two stopped their tracks, and when he reached them, he immediately noticed a spotted figure sprawling on Marinette's grave.

It has been years since he last seen Ladybug in her pigtails.

She was sporting the same look back when they were collège, with a onesie-styled red tight suit with black spots and a multi-functional yoyo clinging on her side. He recalled how she despised her first costume, and how she was jealous of his because of the pockets.

Now is not the time for reminiscing the past, he scolded himself as he approached the superheroine.

He barely registered the shock that marred on his children's face when he pressed his two fingers on Ladybug's neck, then sighed with great relief when he felt a steady pulse. He tried not to spill any tears when he cradled her gently and examined the scorching marks on her skin.

"Papa?" asked Louis who was also on the verge of tears "Is that...Is that Maman?"

Adrien shook his head, biting his quivering lip to keep his emotions at bay "I'm not sure, Kitten. I'm not so sure…"

But one thing for sure, he thought fervently, that this Ladybug is none other than Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

The girl he later on married and became Marinette Agreste.

#time traveler's bug #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #ml #adrien agreste #marinette cheng #marinette dupain-cheng #time travel au #single parent au #dadrien #mominette #louis agreste #emma agreste #hugo agreste #future au #ml fanfic #ml fanfiction #my fics #miraculous fanfic #adrinette #adrienette #ladrien #ladynoir #marichat