#marinette is buff to me okay | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vintage-retro-queen · 6 months

Text

Paris Reacts to Too Bad the Sandman Isn't Here

Akuma Class

It was the weekend again, and every student from Bustier's class was all together, ready to watch another episode of Total Drama Island and see what Marinette was going to do in the show.

They were all looking forward to seeing it. Everyone except Adrien and Lila.

Adrien can never forget what his father told him that Sunday morning.

"Reach out to her. With Miss Dupain-Cheng befriending the Corleone's daughter, a connection with the Corleones will take us farther."

He couldn't get the words out of his head. And he doesn't know how to explain it to him either. 'How do I even tell him that she changed her number? If only Plagg was here, he'd know what to do.' he thought to himself.

Lila on the other hand was beyond furious. Ever since she came up with that one little lie of saying that there was a summer camp that she wanted to recommend to Marinette but was scared to, the tables have turned on her in a blink of an eye. She didn't even know that it was actually a reality show. If she had known, she would have been on it and befriended a very popular idol and not the goody-two-shoes. However, she could've sworn that she had seen her somewhere before, but just couldn't put a finger on how, what, and why.

However, before she could think, Alya started to yell. "It's starting!" Everyone started to pay attention to the show that is now starting. When they started to watch, they saw the host, Chris McLean start talking.

"Last time on Total Drama Island, twenty-four campers arrived and learned that they'll be spending the next eight weeks at a crusty old summer camp. The campers were faced with their first challenge, jumping off a cliff into a shark-infested waters, and while most campers took the plunge, a few were forced to wear the dreaded chicken hat. At the Campfire Ceremony, it all came down to two campers, Courtney has experience as a C.I.T. in summer camp but refused to jump, and Ezekiel managed to tick off every female contestant at the camp, including one of the popular idols, with his sexist comments about women. In the end, the first camper voted off Total Drama Island, was Ezekiel. Proving that homeschooling and reality TV don't really mix." "Still serves him right," Alya said, crossing her arms, glaring at the scene where the Boat of Losers arrived for Ezekiel to hop on. As much as Adrien sympathizes with Ezekiel, he is also offended by Chris saying that homeschooling and reality TV don't mix. 'Then how do you explain me in that music video with all of my friends?' he thought, still offended. "Who will be voted off this week in the most dramatic Campfire Ceremony yet? Find out tonight, on Total Drama Island."

After the theme, the scene shows Chris walking into the said scene and holding up an airhorn and megaphone and has it go off, waking up every camper. "Ow! It's seven in the morning!" Leshawna exclaimed and glared in anger outside, "Do I look like a farmer to you?!"

"I guess they're in different timelines from us." Alix guessed, raising a brow.

After most of the campers were all outside, still looking tired and yawning, Chris spoke up to them. "Morning! Hope you slept well." "Hi, Chris. You look really buff in those shorts." Heather said, making Chris wink and say, "I know." Alya scoffs. "Wannabe flatterer. And here I thought Chloe was the flattering type." she says with almost everyone agreeing with her. "Look! There's Marinette!" Rose exclaimed, pointing to Marinette and Lucy walking out of the cabin.

"Glad you two can join us, girls," Chris said. He then continues talking to the rest of the still, tired campers. "Okay, now that everyone's here, I hope you're all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute." "Oh, excuse me, I don't know if that's enough time to eat breakfast," said Owen. "Oh, you'll get breakfast, Owen." Chris said, "Right after you complete your twenty-kilometer run, around the lake."

"A twenty-k run around a lake at seven in the morning? What is he trying to do to them?" Alya asked, making Nino shrug. "Big whoop. I can do a fifty-k run around the city block at five in the morning." Kim brags, causing Alix to roll her eyes. After that, she and the rest of them continued watching the show and surprisingly ignored Lila before she was about to say something.

"Oh, so you're funny now?" Eva questioned, not liking Chris's motives, and started marching towards him with her left hand formed into a fist, ready to punch a man to a bloody pulp. "You know what I think would be funny-" the class looked shocked and surprised seeing Eva like that. However, before Eva can do anything to Chris, she gets pulled back by Geoff and Duncan. "Eva, try to control your temper?" Courtney whispered to her. Eva then turns to Chris again. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" she asked. "A little," Chris admits. "You have thirty seconds." they then watched and listened to Courtney's confessional. "Okay, that girl, Eva, has got to get a handle on her temper. She's only been here one day, and she's already thrown her suitcase out a window and broken the lock on one of the bathroom doors." "That's terrible," Mylene says, shocked to know that about Eva. "Yeah, if she does have a temper like that, and if there was a competition for that between her and Nora, she would probably win it." Alya said, remembering the time Nora let her temper get the better of her once.

After that, they continued to watch the campers as they started to prepare for their kilometer run. "Okay, runners! On your marks, get set, go!" with that, they all started running. All but Marinette and Lucy. "Girl! What are you doing?! Get to running!" Alya yelled as she and her friends watched Marinette not picking up the pace. That was until they started to see her and Lucy's confessionals come up. "Nettie and I were a bit suspicious about us awake so early and are told to do a run around a lake." "Nettie?" Alya questions. 'What? Did she give Mari a nickname? They only just started to become friends in just the first day.' she thought. "As a result, Lucy and I decided to walk instead. That way, we can see what this challenge really is." "That's very smart of the two trying to see what the challenge is," Adrien says, impressed with the girls' ideas. "Yeah, that way we'll see what Chris is planning," Nino said, agreeing with Adrien about the girls trying to figure out what the challenge is.

As they watched Lucy and Marinette walk to the table where the rest of the Screaming Gophers were, Gwen started to talk, "Hey, wait a minute, if they lost, that means we won the challenge." she said. As the Screaming Gophers sans Marinette and Lucy cheer for their victory, Chris stops them. "Whoa there! Hold your horses, guys. That wasn't the challenge." he said. "What did you just say?" asked Gwen.

"Who's hungry?" there, they all see a table full of home-cooked food. The class looked amazed as they saw the table full of delicious food. Just then, the confessionals started rolling in of Gwen and Owen and then showed Marinette and Lucy's confessionals. "I must admit, the buffet table looked amazing. However, since there were still suspicions about the running and the buffet, I decided to stick with something light. Such as a bread roll and maybe some of the salad." "As much as I want to enjoy a delicious home-cooked meal as if it was home if my hunch is correct, I'm just going to do the right thing and stick to the salad." 'That seems smart for the two.' Adrien thought, smiling. After seeing their confessionals, they all see that most of the campers were stuffed after devouring the buffet. Some of them noticed Lucy quietly snickering to herself. 'What is she laughing about?' Alya thought suspiciously. But both her curiosity was cut off when Chris got on the messy table with a megaphone in hand and announced, "Okay, campers! Time for part two of your challenge,"

"I thought eating was the second part," said Owen. "What more do you want from us?" "Weird goth girl is right. Haven't we been through enough?" asked Heather. "Um, let me think about that. No! It's time for the Awake-a-thon!" Chris announced. "The what-a-thon?" Owen asked. "Awake-a-thon?" Mylene questioned. "Don't worry, this is an easy one. The team with the last camper standing wins invincibility." "So what you're saying is the 20k run and the turkey-eating frenzy were part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake?" asked Gwen. "That's right, Gwen." "Man, that dude's good." Nino said in disbelief.

They watched and saw that twelve hours later in the show, everyone was already too tired, had bags under their eyes, yawning away, and looked as if they were about to pass out at any minute or any second. All but the last two, Marinette and Lucy. Who are apparently just sitting there. "Wow, that was very smart of Marinette to avoid being out of the challenge," Adrien said, amazed that Marinette was still awake. "Yeah, I wonder if there's a way to actually join her to win the money?" Kim said, curiously thinking of how to join in the show. Just then, they see the confessionals from Gwen, Marinette, and Lucy. "The Awake-a-thon was definitely the most brutal thing I've ever done in my life," Gwen said in her confessional. They then see Lucy's confessional. "Just as Nettie and I suspected. But then again, I feel like this challenge will be a walk in the park. This brings back some memories of when I was with some old friends of mine when I was five and six years old." the kids' eyes widened hearing that Lucy had done this before. Even at a young age. "I know I was too young to do any of that at night, but still. It's pretty much an easy task for me. I got this one in the bag." "So she got to stay up all night with her friends? So cool!" Alix complimented, thinking that it was awesome that Lucy stayed up all night with some friends. "She's so lucky. My parents wouldn't let me do that because of those school nights and curfews." Kim said, feeling a little jealous of what Lucy did when she was little. 'That doesn't make sense. She's a world-known idol. How does she do everything and not get tired even after as a kid? I mean, I do it all the time when I'm Chat Noir, but I don't think that's healthy for a celebrity.' Adrien thought in disbelief, feeling doubts about Lucy staying up every night. They then pay attention to Marinette's confessional. "This won't be too bad. I always take all-nighters whenever I have to do homework, work on design ideas, and work on commissions for my clients. So this won't be so hard." Adrien smiles happily for Marinette. He knows she works really hard on her designs all day and night. Even though he does worry for her well-being, he knows Marinette can win this challenge.

As they watch them and the rest of the campers continue on with the Awake-a-thon, Owen is already down and out. "This is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life." "Tell me about it. I can't read any of my Stephanie Queen books during this whole ordeal." Lucy said, upset she couldn't read her Stephanie Queen books for the challenge. "Bummer. That's not cool of Chris not letting her read through the whole challenge." Nino said, feeling sympathy for Lucy. Juleka nods in agreement since she doesn't blame Lucy for wanting to read some good horror books. That was until they heard them talking still. "Could be way worse," said Trent. "How?" asked Marinette. "I could be stuck here without you to talk to," Trent said to Marinette, making her smile. Gwen smiles as she sees Trent talk to Marinette. They all then see her confessional. "Not gonna lie, but for some reason, I can actually see the two being together when this whole crazed-storm of a show is over. Those two, totally deserve each other." "That's one way to put it, Gwen," Juleka said, smiling and liking Gwen's idea. Adrien on the other hand, felt like his heart was stabbed twice by Gwen and Trent's words to and about Marinette. He was about to say something until they all watched Heather's confessional. "So, my strategy is to get two other campers to form an alliance with me and take to the Final Three. The only question is, who can I find that is either desperate or dumb enough to do whatever I say?" "Uh, probably nobody?" Alix said. Just then, they all see Lindsay in a mid-handstand. "Um, Lindsay? What are you doing there, Bambina?" Lucy asked. "I'm trying to get the blood to rush to my head. I think it's working." "Can I try?" Beth asked her. And Lindsay told her sure. "I wouldn't do that if I were you two," Lucy said worriedly. "Yeah, I'm with Lucy. That doesn't seem so safe." Mylene said, looking at Beth and Lindsay worried. "Lindsay, Beth, can I talk to you for a second?" Heather called. As they head over to her, they are shocked and in disbelief to see Heather talking Beth and Lindsay into forming an alliance with her by telling them that she can take them to the final three. Not to mention Heather telling Lindsay that she can't date Tyler since he's in the Killer Bass team and she's in the Screaming Gophers team. That was until they watched Lindsay's confessional. "Heather said I couldn't date him. She never said I couldn't like him," she said. "That is very true," Rose said, agreeing with Lindsay's opinion. As they continued watching it, they watched as Eva told them she was going to the restroom. And when she walked, her MP3 player dropped from her pocket and onto the ground. That was when the students watched Heather taking it. They looked shocked as she took it with an evil-looking smile while walking back to Beth and Lindsay. "Isn't that Eva's MP3 player?" asked Lindsay. "Yep," Heather replied. "Isn't she gonna get really mad when she realizes it's gone?" "That's what I'm hoping for," Heather said, smirking evilly. The students looked shocked after watching that part of the show. "I can't believe Heather would do that! That girl could be like Chloe and a supervillain both combined with no mask!" Alya said in disbelief with most of her friends agreeing with her.

They continued watching the show, still in disbelief at what Heather did. They see that the sun has gone down and some of the campers are already falling asleep, but are trying their best to stay awake for the whole challenge. Which leaves eleven Screaming Gophers and Seven Killer Bass still awake. "Congratulations, campers. You've made it to the twenty-four-hour mark. Time to take things up a notch. Fairy Tales." "Lucky!" Rose gasped, feeling a little jealous. "Oh, he's not serious!" Gwen exclaimed. "I know, out of all things, he has to choose fairytales? I could be reading Stephanie Queen's Critter Crematory by now!" Lucy complained. "Talk about irony." Juleka murmured, taking pity on Lucy for wanting to read Stephanie Queen's books. As Chris read, more and more of the campers started to fall asleep while the rest were trying to stay awake.

Now there are six Screaming Gophers and four Killer Bass. Meanwhile, they see Gwen, Trent, Lucy, and Marinette having a small talk. "Okay, favorite song?" "Jagged's song tribute to the Parisian heroine Ladybug," Marinette said. 'I guess Marinette is a fan of Ladybug.' Adrien thought to himself. "Too Cool for School by my favorite late Drummer of KISS himself, the Fox, Eric Carr," Lucy said, crossing her heart for the late drummer. Most of the girls awwed when Lucy told them her favorite song from the said late drummer. "I did hear my father explaining that Eric Carr was his and my mother's favorite drummer back in the day. Even Nathalie hummed some of his songs from time to time. Although father did explain that he, mother, and Nathalie were both upset that Eric Carr passed on from heart cancer on November 24th, 1991." Adrien explained, remembering the times his father and Nathalie reminisced the times they listened to Eric Carr's music. His friends looked sad hearing that from him. "That's terrible," Rose said, feeling sad that a good drummer passed on years ago, right before they were born. Lila growled, knowing that there goes her chances of coming up with lies with 'Knowing Eric Carr and how he wrote a song about her as well as a way to express his admiration of her.' They then continued to watch the show after Trent told the girls his favorite song, 'She Will be Loved' and asked them about their favorite colors. Marinette says her two favorite colors are pink and red. "All colors from the 50s to the millennial 2000s. Oh, and black and Navy blue, of course," Lucy said. 'I bet father is going to find some design ideas now that Lucy said what her favorite colors are.' Adrien thought to himself, not aware of hearing Gwen's favorite color. Lucy then asked them for their favorite video game. "Death Arise," said Gwen. "Oh yeah, that action, adventure, and horror game that has you fighting off zombies," Juleka said, knowing what game Gwen was talking about. Lila was about to say something, but they raised their hands at her as a way of saying, 'Not now, maybe later.' which made Lila growl and cross her arms. "Music Gods," Trent said. "Oh, That video game where you play a game guitar, game bass, game drums, and game turntables and play your favorite songs with them. Trent has good music taste," said Nino. They then hear Marinette say hers is Ultimate Mecha Strike III. It was pretty obvious to most of them since they always remembered Marinette playing it sometimes and teaming up with Max in the tournament. They then hear Marinette asking Lucy what her favorite video game is, "Victorian Servant: The Truth for the Vixen's Secret." "Isn't that the game with almost the same storyline as its manga series Victorian Servant itself?" "Yeah, it's kinda like a gender-bent version of that other manga series but with strong female characters and promotes both feminism and the pride community." they all talk about the video game that Lucy said, Lila growled as they all kept on talking and not paying any attention to what she has to say about the Victorian Servant video game.

After talking, they all continued watching the show. It was already fifty-one hours and still counting, and they all see that Justin is still standing there, and doesn't look to be tired at all. That was until Marinette tapped on his face which caused him to open his eyes, startling her and shocking them (the Akuma Class) and the campers. "His eyelids are painted! I saw it!" Eva yelled, pointing it out and getting Chris's attention. "Get out," he said in disbelief. "Oh, I got to see this." Chris then runs over to Justin and sees that they were right that he did paint his eyelids. "That is so crazy incredible! But you're still out, dude," he said. With that being said, that leaves five Screaming Gophers still awake for the challenge. "Is crazy incredible even a word?" "I don't know, but I still don't get why Justin has to paint his eyelids. That doesn't make any sense." As they all continued watching, they saw that it was two days later and on the morning of the show. They all were surprised to see that Marinette was still awake, yet she still had bags in their eyes telling them another story. That was until Adrien noticed that Marinette was looking at something. That was until they watched as Duncan put Harold's hand in a cup of water. "Oh, gross, it works! Dude peed his pants!" Duncan exclaimed, waking Harold up. As Harold wakes up, he realizes that he did and tries to cover himself in embarrassment while they all look in shock, disbelief, and disgust, while Kim is quietly snickering and trying to hold his laughter from seeing that happening on TV, wishing he was actually there to see it in real life. "Duncan! Why did you do that?!" Marinette said, running towards the scene. "Ah, come on, dollface. You gotta admit that was hilarious." said Duncan. Marinette glares at him. "Maybe for you, but that is still wrong." she said. "How immature can you be?" "Yeah, you tell him, girl!" Alya said. They then see the confessionals, starting with Duncan who looks like he's won the lottery after Cupid shot an arrow at him before that. "Feisty. I like that in a chick. And with this one, I think I might have found the one." Adrien's eye started to twitch at the same time with his eye twitching jealously. But he calms down a bit around the same time they start watching Lucy's confessional. "I saw that too, and believe it or not, but I've been through a lot of weird stuff back at my old high school, but that, that was just the lowest of low, even for Mr. Juvie Boy. That was just wrong. But aside from all of that, I got to get the bright side of things." Lucy then grabs a vintage-looking camera, takes a finished photograph out of it, and reveals the photograph to be Noah kissing Cody's ear. "Ha! We've been here for a week, and we're already getting a first ship. How fun is this in our second challenge?" Most of them started snickering and laughing. Most of them except Adrien, who is now watching Noah's confessional. "I didn't know it was Cody! I thought I was kissing Marinette!" Noah then realized what he said five seconds later. "No! I mean-AGH!" Adrien doesn't know why, but for some reason, hearing the guys' comments about and mentioning Marinette like that makes his blood boil.

After that, the rest of them continued watching them, seeing Gwen yawn saying, "I'd kill for a coffee right now," she said. Lucy was taking a couple of whiffs of an essential oil. Lucy then opened her eyes widely and turned her head to Gwen. "Sorry, Gwen. Did you say something?" Before Gwen can ask what she is sniffing, Chris walks in with a cup of coffee in his hand. "What is the matter with you people?" he asks, sipping his coffee. "Come on, fall asleep already." Gwen grabs Chris by the leg. "You got to hook me up, man." She said. "I'll even eat the grinds. Anything!" 'Boy, I would've been the same way as Gwen is if I went through a challenge like this.' Alya thought to herself as she watched Gwen desperately trying to grab the coffee out of Chris's hand. "Alright, you seven stay with me. The rest of you go and get a shower, for heaven's sake. You stink!" Chris said, sipping more of his coffee. "Well, what did you expect, McLean?! You're the one who made them do this dumb challenge!" Alix yells at the T.V. They watch as they see Lucy and Marinette are still awake, and Chris starts talking. "I didn't want it to come to this." he said. "I said that to Chef Hatchet last night. I said, "Chef, I don't want it to come to this." But darn it, these campers are tough. And so, I've come up with the most boring, sleep-inducing activity I can find." 'Great. Now what?' most of the students thought. Just then, Chris opens a book, which they all realize that it was a...

"The History of Canada. A pop-up book. Chapter One."

The class and the campers groaned as Chris read away in the pop-up history book. As Chris goes on in the book, it brung Eva, Heather, Gwen, and Trent to sleep. The class looked worriedly at Marinette. All of them except Lila. Lila was still mad that the new episode of the reality show she and her friends were all watching was taking all the attention away from her. But she then gets an idea in her head. When the time comes, she's going to tell them that she found the show and she's making all these challenges. She smiles, already thinking more of these brilliant ideas in her head. A little while later, Chris announced to the still awake three campers, "Time for a bathroom break. Any takers?" he asked. "I've held it this long, sweetheart," said Duncan. "I can go all day." Lucy scoffs. "Yeah, but I doubt you can hold it for another ten chapters." the class snickered from that and saw the look on Duncan's face. After that, Lucy's saying made Duncan change his mind, and head to the bathroom. "You've got five minutes." Chris said. "Long as you don't mind a little company." "Fine, but stay out of the stall." Duncan warns. After a little while, the class watched and saw Lucy and Marinette, who were starting to feel extremely tired, making them feel worried. That was until Chris received some intel from an intern. "And we have news. It looks like Duncan's taken a dive on the can, which means there is not one, but two official winners of the Awake-a-thon. And those two winners are...." they all watched as they saw Lucy and Marinette murmur something that they couldn't describe what they were saying, and the two girls fell back first, fast asleep, knocked out cold.

"Lucy and Marinette! The Screaming Gophers win!" most of the class cheered for Marinette to win the second challenge. Lila scoffs and rolls her eyes, not impressed about Marinette winning the second challenge. She hopes that by the next episode, she will lose and everyone will vote her off. After watching Heather's trick making Eva mad worked, they all watched the Elimination Ceremony, and to no one's shock nor surprise, Eva was voted off the team. And she was ticked. "Nice. Really nice." Eva said to the other campers, looking as mad as a raging bull. "Who needs this lame-o T.V. show, anyway?" as she stomps off to the Dock of Shame, she ragingly kicks Chris in the shin. As he lets out an 'ow' and holds his possibly bruised leg, he turns to the Killer Bass, telling them, "Have a good night's sleep tonight. You're all safe." they all then saw Courtney's confessional. "See? I told you. You can't act like a total raging psychopath and then expect people to just forgive you, no matter how tough and strong and fast you are." Courtney explains and crosses her arms, "She's never gonna have a career if she doesn't get her act together." "Yeah, but it wasn't even Eva's fault! Heather was the one who started it!" Alya yelled with the rest of her classmates yelling and complaining in agreement.

After that, they turned off the TV, finished it, and headed home. As Adrien heads home, he heads into his bedroom, and turns on his computer, seeing that the same episode is playing live as well. He then realized that he hadn't finished watching the rest of the ending. As he watches Eva in the Boat of Losers, she starts to talk, "I guess my temper got the better of me. Again. But whatever, they just lost their fiercest competitor. I hope they realize that." Just then, she feels something in her pocket. She checks to see that it is a little charm that has Rosie the Riveter that has words that say, 'Stay Strong, Eva! You Can Do It!', an essential oil that is labeled 'Anger Management', and a note that says, "To the strongest gal we know, M & L" Eva smiles, "But then again, there are some people that are actually understanding." she said. Adrien smiles, knowing that it must've been Marinette, feeling that there is hope that Marinette will be turning a new leaf, and hoping that she will keep it up when the show is over. After hearing a knock from Nathalie, telling him that his father wants to talk to him, he turns off his computer and heads off, still hoping that Marinette will be the same 'Everyday Ladybug' like she was supposed to be.

Celebrities

It was the weekend for all of the celebrities of Paris, France. And they are all getting together, getting ready to watch the new episode of Total Drama. Luka smiles as he looks through his chat history with Marinette on the new distance chat app, WhatsAppening. He was glad to see that she was having a blast at Wawanawkwa and making some new friends. He even called and talked to her and her new friends, and they were really nice to them. Even though Heather and Duncan were a little cold-shouldered, they were still pretty chill people in his book. Chris and Chef were even good people after he and his father met the two on the call. Even though the spots were full for the first season, Chris explains if possible, he would be happy to put Luka in the show for the second season if the show gets good ratings and views. Jagged thought it was a brilliant idea for his son to be on the show when they have a second season. His mother was also saying that it was a great idea. Since then, Jagged has started promoting Total Drama on his social media pages. A lot of other celebrities followed along in the blink of an eye. Luka can never forget how many followers he got from Paris to Canada in a millisecond when Jagged started promoting the show.

He then snaps out of it as he starts to hear his dad calling him over. "Luka! Come on! The show is about to start!" Luka runs over to the room and joins the rest of the celebrities on time when the show starts. After watching the recap and theme, the show began with Chris walking into the scene using an airhorn and a megaphone, all of the campers. After seeing most of the campers there, they see Marinette and Lucy exit their side of the cabin and walk over to join the rest of their team. "Glad you two can join us, girls," Chris said. He then starts talking to the rest of the still, tired campers. "Okay, now that everyone's here, I hope you're all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute." "Oh, excuse me, I don't know if that's enough time to eat breakfast," said Owen. "Oh, you'll get breakfast, Owen." Chris said, "Right after you complete your twenty-kilometer run, around the lake." "Oh, so you're funny now?" Eva questioned, not liking Chris's motives, and started marching towards him with her left hand formed into a fist, ready to punch a man to a bloody pulp. "You know what I think would be funny-" Luka and the celebrities looked shocked and surprised seeing Eva like that. However, before Eva can do anything to Chris, she gets pulled back by Geoff and Duncan. "Eva, try to control your temper?" Courtney whispered to her. Eva then turns to Chris again. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" she asked. "A little," Chris admits. "You have thirty seconds." they then watched and listened to Courtney's confessional. "Okay, that girl, Eva, has got to get a handle on her temper. She's only been here one day, and she's already thrown her suitcase out a window and broken the lock on one of the bathroom doors." "Yikes. I can't imagine seeing what Eva would be like when she's here in Paris." one of the celebrities said, shuddering at the thought of Eva being here in Paris.

After that, they continued to watch the campers as they started to prepare for their kilometer run. "Okay, runners! On your marks, get set, go!" with that, they all started running. All but Marinette and Lucy. Some of the celebrities started yelling, telling Marinette to hurry and pick up the pace. However, she was not catching up with the rest of the campers. That was until they watched both hers and Lucy's confessionals. "Nettie and I were a bit suspicious about us awake so early and are told to do a run around a lake." "As a result, Lucy and I decided to walk instead. That way, we can see what this challenge really is." "Hey, Rock and Roll! That's very smart of you and Lucy, Marinette." Jagged said, raising his soda cup for Marinette and her friend with their way of doing the challenge. After seeing the campers make it to the main lodge, they see most of the Screaming Gophers cheer, knowing they beat the Killer Bass on the run. But before most of the celebrities can react, Chris spoke up. "Whoa there! Hold your horses, guys. That wasn't the challenge." he said. "What did you just say?" asked Gwen. "Yeah, I second what Gwen asked. What did Chris just say?" another one of the celebrities, Chanel Watson asked, agreeing with Gwen.

"Who's hungry?" there, they all see a table full of home-cooked food. Luka and the celebrities looked amazed as they saw the table full of delicious food. Just then, the confessionals started rolling in of Gwen and Owen and then showed Marinette and Lucy's confessionals. "I must admit, the buffet table looked amazing. However, since there were still suspicions about the running and the buffet, I decided to stick with something light. Such as a bread roll and maybe some of the salad." "As much as I want to enjoy a delicious home-cooked meal as if it was home if my hunch is correct, I'm just going to do the right thing and stick to the salad." "Hey, another smart way from my favorite little lady and her friend!" Jagged says as he raises his soda cup again and then sips on it. After seeing their confessionals, all the celebrities saw that most campers were stuffed after devouring the buffet. And only Luka noticed Lucy quietly snickering to herself. Luka was already wanting to know what Lucy was snickering about. Either it was seeing the campers stuffed after devouring the whole buffet, or it was something else in her mind.

He then snaps out of his train of thought when Chris starts talking. "Okay, campers! Time for part two of your challenge," "I thought eating was the second part," said Owen. "What more do you want from us?" "Weird goth girl is right. Haven't we been through enough?" asked Heather. "Um, let me think about that. No! It's time for the Awake-a-thon!" Chris announced. "The what-a-thon?" Owen asked. "What in the world is an Awake-a-thon?" the third celebrity questions, already as confused as the other campers. "Don't worry, this is an easy one. The team with the last camper standing wins invincibility." "So what you're saying is the 20k run and the turkey-eating frenzy were part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake?" asked Gwen. "That's right, Gwen." "Man, Chris is good." a wunderkind celebrity said.

All the celebrities watched and saw that twelve hours later in the show, everyone was already too tired, had bags under their eyes, yawning away, and looked as if they were about to pass out at any minute or any second. All but the last two, Marinette and Lucy, since the two are both just sitting there. "Those two really dodged a bullet." "Yeah, but exactly how long is that even going to take?" As they question how long the challenge will be for the campers, they see Gwen, Lucy, and Marinette's confessionals. "The Awake-a-thon was definitely the most brutal thing I've ever done in my life," Gwen said in her confessional. They then see Lucy's confessional. "Just as Nettie and I suspected. But then again, I feel like this challenge will be a walk in the park. This brings back some memories of when I was with some old friends of mine when I was five and six years old." every celebrity in the room looked shocked, surprised, and in disbelief hearing that. "I know I was too young to do any of that at night, but still. It's pretty much an easy task for me. I got this one in the bag." "Wow, I didn't know Lucy did that as a kid." another wunderkind said, still surprised knowing Lucy had done that as a child. "I wonder when it started?" another celebrity questioned, curious to know how she did that as a kid. While some celebrities in the room were all questioning the new fact about Lucy, Luka, Jagged, Penny, Ali, and Clara were more focused on listening to Marinette's confessional. "This won't be too bad. I always take all-nighters whenever I have to do homework, work on design ideas, and work on commissions for my clients. So this won't be so hard." "Rock and Roll, Marinette!" Jagged praised. Penny and Clara both nod in agreement. Luka smiles happily for Marinette. He knows she works really hard on her designs all day and night. Even though he does worry for her well-being.

As the celebrities watch them and the rest of the campers continue on with the Awake-a-thon, Owen is already down and out. "This is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life." "Tell me about it. I can't read any of my Stephanie Queen books during this whole ordeal." Lucy said, upset she couldn't read her Stephanie Queen books for the challenge. They then hear them talking still. "Could be way worse," said Trent. "How?" asked Marinette. "I could be stuck here without you to talk to," Trent said to Marinette, making her smile. Gwen smiles as she sees Trent talk to Marinette. They all then see her confessional. "Not gonna lie, but for some reason, I can actually see the two being together when this whole crazed-storm of a show is over. Those two, totally deserve each other." Luka smiles, thinking that is a good idea. Even though his heart started to break a bit, he still thought it was a good idea. He and the rest weren't aware of Heather's confessional, her having Beth and Lindsay in her alliance, and secretly stealing Eva's MP3 player. They continued watching the show and watched the sun go down, and some campers were already falling asleep. But are trying their best to stay awake for the whole challenge. Which leaves eleven Screaming Gophers and Seven Killer Bass still awake. "Congratulations, campers. You've made it to the twenty-four-hour mark. Time to take things up a notch. Fairy Tales." "Oh, he's not serious!" Gwen exclaimed. "I know, out of all things, he has to choose fairytales? I could be reading Stephanie Queen's Critter Crematory by now!" Lucy complained. As Chris read, more and more campers started to fall asleep while the rest were trying to stay awake.

They all continued watching the show. It was already fifty-one hours and still counting, and they all see that Justin is still standing there, and doesn't look to be tired at all. That was until Marinette tapped on his face which caused him to open his eyes, startling her and shocking them (Luka and the celebrities) and the campers. "His eyelids are painted! I saw it!" Eva yelled, pointing it out and getting Chris's attention. "Get out," he said in disbelief. "Oh, I got to see this." Chris then runs over to Justin and sees that they were right that he did paint his eyelids. "That is so crazy incredible! But you're still out, dude," he said. With that being said, that leaves five Screaming Gophers still awake for the challenge. "I don't think there's such word as crazy incredible." Penny said, sipping on her iced tea.

As they all continued watching, they saw that it was two days later and on the morning of the show. They all were surprised to see that Marinette and Lucy were still awake. Yet, they still had bags in their eyes telling them another story. That was until Luka noticed that Marinette was looking at something. That was until they watched as Duncan put Harold's hand in a cup of water. "Oh, gross, it works! Dude peed his pants!" Duncan exclaimed, waking Harold up. As Harold wakes up, he realizes that he did and tries to cover himself in embarrassment while they all look in shock, disbelief, and disgust. "Duncan! Why did you do that?!" Marinette said, running towards the scene. "Ah, come on, dollface. You gotta admit that was hilarious." said Duncan. Marinette glares at him. "Maybe for you, but that is still wrong," she said. "How immature can you be?" "You tell him, Marinette! Duncan must've done that to get your attention on purpose I bet!" Clara said. Luka nods, with all the celebrities agreeing with Clara, all not aware of Duncan's, Lucy's, and Noah's confessionals.

After that, the rest of them continued watching them, seeing Gwen yawn saying, "I'd kill for a coffee right now," she said. Lucy was taking a couple of whiffs of an essential oil. Lucy then opened her eyes widely and turned her head to Gwen. "Sorry, Gwen. Did you say something?" Chris then walks in with a cup of coffee in his hand. "What is the matter with you people?" he asks, sipping his coffee. "Come on, fall asleep already." Gwen grabs Chris by the leg. "You got to hook me up, man." She said. "I'll even eat the grinds. Anything!" "Alright, you seven stay with me. The rest of you go and get a shower, for heaven's sake. You stink!" Chris said, sipping more of his coffee. "Well, what did you expect, McLean?! You're the one who made them do this dumb challenge!" yelled the wunderkind celebrity. They watch as they see Lucy and Marinette are still awake, and Chris starts talking. "I didn't want it to come to this." he said. "I said that to Chef Hatchet last night. I said, "Chef, I don't want it to come to this." But darn it, these campers are tough. And so, I've come up with the most boring, sleep-inducing activity I can find." Chris opens a book, which they all realize that it was a...

"The History of Canada. A pop-up book. Chapter One." The campers groaned as Chris read away in the pop-up history book. As Chris goes on in the book, it brung Eva, Heather, Gwen, and Trent to sleep. Luka and the celebrities looked worriedly at Marinette and Lucy. A little while later, Chris announced to the still awake three campers, "Time for a bathroom break. Any takers?" he asked. "I've held it this long, sweetheart," said Duncan. "I can go all day." Lucy scoffs. "Yeah, but I doubt you can hold it for another ten chapters." some celebrities snickered from that and saw the look on Duncan's face. After that, Lucy's saying made Duncan change his mind, and head to the bathroom. "You've got five minutes." Chris said. "Long as you don't mind a little company." "Fine, but stay out of the stall." Duncan warns. After a little while, the celebrities watched and saw Lucy and Marinette, who were starting to feel extremely tired, making them feel worried. That was until Chris received some intel from an intern. "And we have news. It looks like Duncan's taken a dive on the can, which means there is not one, but two official winners of the Awake-a-thon. And those two winners are...." they all watched as they saw Lucy and Marinette murmur something that they couldn't describe what they were saying, and the two girls fell back first, fast asleep, knocked out cold.

"Lucy and Marinette! The Screaming Gophers win!" All the celebrities cheered for Marinette to win the second challenge. Even though they never had enough time to finish the rest of the show, they were happy that Marinette won the second challenge, and are looking forward to watching the next one next weekend. When Luka headed home, he headed to his room and saw that the show was still going. He watches on his T.V. seeing that Eva was eliminated. He watches Eva in the Boat of Losers, and she starts to talk, "I guess my temper got the better of me. Again. But whatever, they just lost their fiercest competitor. I hope they realize that." Just then, she feels something in her pocket. She checks to see that it is a little charm that has Rosie the Riveter that has words that say, 'Stay Strong, Eva! You Can Do It!', an essential oil that is labeled 'Anger Management', and a note that says, "To the strongest gal we know, M & L" Eva smiles, "But then again, there are some people that are actually understanding." she said. Luka smiles, knowing that it is both Marinette and Lucy. Luka then turns his T.V. off and starts to get ready for bed. 'I hope you're doing great in Wawanawkwa, Marinette.' he thought.

Friends and Family

Everyone was already sitting down and getting ready to watch the new episode of Total Drama Island. Tom and Sabine were glad that their daughter was doing well in Wawanawkwa. After talking to her on WhatsAppening, they see that Marinette is happy being there. Even Marinette's friends from Paris, New York, and Shanghai were glad to see her happy there. They all even got to meet her new friends there. They were all nice, even though Duncan and Heather were a little cold-shouldered, they were still nice. To them, that is. And when they met Chris and Chef, they were nice to talk to. Tom and Sabine even shared some recipes with Chef and D.J.. And Chris said to Marinette's friends that if it was possible, he would be happy to have them on the show. When Audrey heard it from Zoe's phone the one time she visited Paris for a day, she agreed with the idea and started promoting the show on her social media. And Chloe, wanting her mother's attention, as usual, she followed her mother's golden footsteps and promoted the show on her social media as well. Tom and Sabine were surprised to see millions of people standing in a very long line at their bakery the next day. When they finished their shift for the day, they figured out how when they saw that Chris sponsored their bakery. Overnight, their bakery became one of the top ten most popular bakeries. Even Soqueline's family arts and crafts supply shop became popular overnight thanks to Chris sponsoring it.

When they all got ready and turned on the T.V., the reality show was on. After watching the recap, they watched and saw Chris walking into the scene with an air horn and a megaphone in both hands. Using them both to wake up all the campers in the cabins. They then cheered as they saw Marinette walking out of the cabin with Lucy. Chris then starts talking to the rest of the still-tired campers. "Okay, now that everyone's here, I hope you're all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute." "Oh, excuse me, I don't know if that's enough time to eat breakfast," said Owen. "Oh, you'll get breakfast, Owen." Chris said, "Right after you complete your twenty-kilometer run, around the lake." "Oh, so you're funny now?" Eva questioned, not liking Chris's motives, and started marching towards him with her left hand formed into a fist, ready to punch a man to a bloody pulp. "You know what I think would be funny-" they looked shocked and surprised seeing Eva like that. However, before Eva can do anything to Chris, she gets pulled back by Geoff and Duncan. "Eva, try to control your temper?" Courtney whispered to her. Eva then turns to Chris again. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" she asked. "A little," Chris admits. "You have thirty seconds."

After that, they continued to watch the campers as they started to prepare for their kilometer run. "Okay, runners! On your marks, get set, go!" with that, they all started running. All but Marinette and Lucy. They looked confused seeing the two just walking. That was until they saw their confessionals. "Nettie and I were a bit suspicious about us awake so early and are told to do a run around a lake." "As a result, Lucy and I decided to walk instead. That way, we can see what this challenge really is." "That is a good plan from the two." Tomoe says, impressed with the girls' idea. Kagami nods in agreement with her mother. Socquelle smiles seeing that Marinette has a plan with her camp friend. After a little bit, they see that the Screaming Gophers beat the Killer Bass. But then Chris tells them, "Whoa there! Hold your horses, guys. That wasn't the challenge." he said. "What did you just say?" asked Gwen.

"Who's hungry?" there, they all see a table full of home-cooked food. All the families and friends looked amazed as they saw the table full of delicious food. Just then, the confessionals started rolling in of Gwen and Owen and then showed Marinette and Lucy's confessionals. "I must admit, the buffet table looked amazing. However, since there were still suspicions about the running and the buffet, I decided to stick with something light. Such as a bread roll and maybe some of the salad." "As much as I want to enjoy a delicious home-cooked meal as if it was home if my hunch is correct, I'm just going to do the right thing and stick to the salad." "That's my Marinetta!" Marinette's grandmother, Gina cheered, impressed with her and Lucy's idea. After the confessionals, they see that all of the campers got full after eating the whole buffet, while Marinette finishes eating her bread roll and Lucy is snickering to herself about something. Chris then gets up on the table and announces to the campers, "Okay, campers! Time for part two of your challenge," "I thought eating was the second part," said Owen. "What more do you want from us?" "Weird goth girl is right. Haven't we been through enough?" asked Heather. "Um, let me think about that. No! It's time for the Awake-a-thon!" Chris announced. "The what-a-thon?" Owen asked. 'Oh, so that's what he's doing.' the friends and families thought to themselves, now understanding what Chris was doing. 'That would explain why the food would be mostly turkey. That was very smart of Marinette and Lucy to stick to the salad and bread roll.' the friends thought. They continue watching the show. "Don't worry, this is an easy one. The team with the last camper standing wins invincibility." "So what you're saying is the 20k run and the turkey-eating frenzy were part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake?" asked Gwen. "That's right, Gwen." "Man, he's good." After Chris told them to move, the friends and family watched as everyone started to head out of the main lodge to the campsite to start the Awake-a-thon. "So, how long do you think it'll be before everyone's out cold?" Trent asked Gwen, Lucy, and Marinette. "About an hour, give or take," Gwen said, giving Trent her answer. As they see Owen walking past them, looking as if he is going to pass out at any second, Gwen added, "Maybe less."

watched and saw that twelve hours later in the show, everyone was already too tired, had bags under their eyes, yawning away, and looked as if they were about to pass out at any minute or any second. All but the last two, Marinette and Lucy, since the two are both just sitting there. "I'm glad Marinette didn't run and eat the other stuff in the buffet," Mirelle said, with the rest of the friends nodding in agreement. "Yeah, that would've been bad." They then stopped talking when the confessionals came on. There, they watch that it was Gwen, Lucy, and Marinette's confessionals. "The Awake-a-thon was definitely the most brutal thing I've ever done in my life," Gwen said in her confessional. They then see Lucy's confessional. "Just as Nettie and I suspected. But then again, I feel like this challenge will be a walk in the park. This brings back some memories of when I was with some old friends of mine when I was five and six years old." all the family members and Marinette's friends looked shocked, hearing that from Lucy herself. "Lucy actually stayed up that young?!" Aurore gasped with her jaw dropped to the floor. "How was that even possible?" Kagami questioned, with Marc asking, "And since when did that happen?" They then continue to hear her confessional. "I know I was too young to do any of that at night, but still. It's pretty much an easy task for me. I got this one in the bag." "Well, I guess that's good if she says so," said Zoe. They then see Marinette's confessional. "This won't be too bad. I always take all-nighters whenever I have to do homework, work on design ideas, and work on commissions for my clients. So this won't be so hard." Tom and Sabine smiled happy for their daughter. They know that Marinette actually does have some all nighters to work up on some schoolwork and her designs. They're all very happy for Marinette. Even though, they do worry about her well-being.

watch them and the rest of the campers continue on with the Awake-a-thon, Owen is already down and out. "This is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life." "Tell me about it. I can't read any of my Stephanie Queen books during this whole ordeal." Lucy said, upset she couldn't read her Stephanie Queen books for the challenge. "That's a shame, really," Marc says, feeling sorry for Lucy. They then hear them talking still. "Could be way worse," said Trent. "How?" asked Marinette. "I could be stuck here without you to talk to," Trent said to Marinette, making her smile. Gwen smiles as she sees Trent talk to Marinette. They all then see her confessional. "Not gonna lie, but for some reason, I can actually see the two being together when this whole crazed-storm of a show is over. Those two, totally deserve each other." they all smiled at that. Even though their smiling faces faded after watching Heather getting Beth and Lindsay in her little "alliance", and taking Eva's MP3 player without anybody knowing, they were still watching the show and watched the sun go down, and some campers were already falling asleep. But are trying their best to stay awake for the whole challenge. Which leaves eleven Screaming Gophers and Seven Killer Bass still awake. "Congratulations, campers. You've made it to the twenty-four-hour mark. Time to take things up a notch. Fairy Tales." "Oh, he's not serious!" Gwen exclaimed. "I know, out of all things, he has to choose fairytales? I could be reading Stephanie Queen's Critter Crematory by now!" Lucy complained, with Marc giving her a sympathetic look on his face. As Chris read, more and more campers started to fall asleep while the rest were trying to stay awake.

Now there are six Screaming Gophers and four Killer Bass. Meanwhile, they see Gwen, Trent, Lucy, and Marinette having a small talk. "Okay, favorite song?" "Jagged's song tribute to the Parisian heroine Ladybug," Marinette said. Tom and Sabine smiled since it was obvious that she kept playing the song nonstop in her room. "Too Cool for School by my favorite late Drummer of KISS himself, the Fox, Eric Carr," Lucy said, crossing her heart for the late drummer. The family and friends smiled and raised their cups in honor for the late drummer. They then heard that Trent's favorite song was She Will Be Loved and then asked the girls their favorite colors. Marinette says that hers is pink and red. "All colors from the 50s to the millennial 2000s. Oh, and black and Navy blue, of course," Lucy said. 'I don't know why, but I feel like mom is going to make some designer outfits for her in those colors after she said that on live television.' Zoe thought to herself. Gwen then says hers is midnight blue. Lucy then asks what their video games are. Gwen says hers is Death Arise and Trent says his is Music Gods. Marinette then says hers is Ultimate Mecha Strike III. "It's true. She's been beating me on every level every time." Tom said, approving it. They laugh and continue watching the show. Marinette then asks Lucy what was her favorite video game, "Victorian Servant: The Truth for the Vixen's Secret." "Oh, I like that series!" Marc says, happily. "I hear it's good." Kagami said, with her mother nodding in agreement. They all continued watching the show. It was already fifty-one hours and still counting, and they all see that Justin is still standing there, and doesn't look to be tired at all. That was until Marinette tapped on his face which caused him to open his eyes, startling her and shocking them (the family and Marinette's friends) and the campers. "His eyelids are painted! I saw it!" Eva yelled, pointing it out and getting Chris's attention. "Get out," he said in disbelief. "Oh, I got to see this." Chris then runs over to Justin and sees that they were right that he did paint his eyelids. "That is so crazy incredible! But you're still out, dude," he said. With that being said, that leaves five Screaming Gophers still awake for the challenge. "There is no such word as crazy incredible." Tomoe mumbled.

As they all continued watching, they saw that it was two days later and on the morning of the show. They all were surprised to see that Marinette and Lucy were still awake. Yet, they still had bags in their eyes telling them another story. That was until Luka noticed that Marinette was looking at something. That was until they watched as Duncan put Harold's hand in a cup of water. "Oh, gross, it works! Dude peed his pants!" Duncan exclaimed, waking Harold up. As Harold wakes up, he realizes that he did and tries to cover himself in embarrassment while they all look in shock, disbelief, and disgust. "Duncan! Why did you do that?!" Marinette said, running towards the scene. "Ah, come on, dollface. You gotta admit that was hilarious." said Duncan. Marinette glares at him. "Maybe for you, but that is still wrong," she said. "How immature can you be?" Marinette's friends all talked in agreement, getting the family's attention, and they were not paying attention to Duncan, Lucy, and Noah's confessionals.

After that, they all continued watching them, seeing Gwen yawn saying, "I'd kill for a coffee right now," she said. Lucy was taking a couple of whiffs of an essential oil. Lucy then opened her eyes widely and turned her head to Gwen. "Sorry, Gwen. Did you say something?" Chris then walks in with a cup of coffee in his hand. "What is the matter with you people?" he asks, sipping his coffee. "Come on, fall asleep already." Gwen grabs Chris by the leg. "You got to hook me up, man." She said. "I'll even eat the grinds. Anything!" "Alright, you seven stay with me. The rest of you go and get a shower, for heaven's sake. You stink!" Chris said, sipping more of his coffee. "Well, what did he expect? He is the one who made them do this challenge." Jessica said, crossing her arms. They watch as they see Lucy and Marinette are still awake, and Chris starts talking. "I didn't want it to come to this." he said. "I said that to Chef Hatchet last night. I said, "Chef, I don't want it to come to this." But darn it, these campers are tough. And so, I've come up with the most boring, sleep-inducing activity I can find." Chris opens a book, which they all realize that it was a...

"The History of Canada. A pop-up book. Chapter One." The campers groaned as Chris read away in the pop-up history book. As Chris goes on in the book, it brung Eva, Heather, Gwen, and Trent to sleep. The family and Marinette's friends looked worriedly at Marinette. A little while later, Chris announced to the still awake three campers, "Time for a bathroom break. Any takers?" he asked. "I've held it this long, sweetheart," said Duncan. "I can go all day." Lucy scoffs. "Yeah, but I doubt you can hold it for another ten chapters." some of Marinette's friends snickered from that and saw the look on Duncan's face. After that, Lucy's saying made Duncan change his mind, and head to the bathroom. "You've got five minutes." Chris said. "Long as you don't mind a little company." "Fine, but stay out of the stall." Duncan warns. After a little while, they watched and saw Lucy and Marinette, who were starting to feel extremely tired, making them feel worried. That was until Chris received some intel from an intern. "And we have news. It looks like Duncan's taken a dive on the can, which means there is not one, but two official winners of the Awake-a-thon. And those two winners are...." they all watched as they saw Lucy and Marinette murmur something that they couldn't describe what they were saying, and the two girls fell back first, fast asleep, knocked out cold.

"Lucy and Marinette! The Screaming Gophers win!" They all cheered for Marinette to win the second challenge. After watching the elimination ceremony, Eva was out of the show. When she rode off on the Boat of Losers, she started to talk, "I guess my temper got the better of me. Again. But whatever, they just lost their fiercest competitor. I hope they realize that." Just then, she feels something in her pocket. She checks to see that it is a little charm that has Rosie the Riveter that has words that say, 'Stay Strong, Eva! You Can Do It!', an essential oil that is labeled 'Anger Management', and a note that says, "To the strongest gal we know, M & L" Eva smiles, "But then again, there are some people that are actually understanding." she said. They all smile, knowing that it is Marinette and her friend Lucy. After that, they all agreed that they would meet again next week, and watch the next episode. And of course, they're going to give Marinette time since she's now getting her well-deserved sleep after winning the challenge for her team.

??? & ???

They both looked in worry as they watched and saw Lucy looking extremely tired. But that all changed when Chris got information from one of his interns. "And we have news. It looks like Duncan's taken a dive on the can, which means there is not one, but two official winners of the Awake-a-thon. And those two winners are...." They then hear Lucy mumbling something that they can hear clearly. "Is it just me? Or is that a sorcerer from a different realm with an evil smirk heading our way?" they both looked shocked as they heard that and ignored Marinette's mumbling. "She remembers." one of them said, holding their clipboard tightly in their arms. Even though they were glad that Lucy and Marinette won the Awake-a-thon, they were more focused on their old friend. "Adrien needs to hurry it up contacting Marinette." the other one growled, gritting their teeth.

Desc Prologue Get to Know My OC Chpt 1 Reactions Pt 1 Chpt 2 Chpt 3 Reactions Pt 3 Chpt 4 Reactions Pt 4 Chpt 5 Reactions Pt 5

27 notes · View notes

kellywithawhy · 1 year

Text

THEORY: ADRIEN + MARINETTE BOTH KNOW! Psychoanalytic reading here!

Season 5 spoilers below with some vague nods to the finale.

Okay so I literally returned to Tumblr after 9 years just to make this post because I can’t stop psychoanalysing Miraculous and I bet that Astruc and Zag or the writers or somebody is a psychoanalysis buff too.

So I am convinced that Adrien/Chat Noir and Marinette/Ladybug KNOW—albeit unconsciously—about their alter egos! And this is why they keep blocking themselves from being together: BECAUSE they know! Also, they might literally be one soul in two bodies. Or something like that.

Let me explain. So, the conscious mind is your everyday internal monologue; the subconscious is like the sorting/mail room that carries on processing more quietly and which processes info constantly, either sending it to the conscious mind to deal with or sending unimportant, terrifying, and/or reality-destroying info the unconscious to repress or deal with in its own way. FYI the unconscious comes through our DREAMS and our BODIES. So the body might process the unconscious through a nightmare, for example, or it might create a disease, a desire, “chemistry”, etc. The body remembers. And the unconscious talks though symbols and the abstract etc.

Therefore, if you’re in love with someone, and you know them physically, even if they’re in the best disguise in the world, your subconscious is going to pick up that scent. That body language. That laugh. That energetic footprint. Your body is going to either lean into them or recoil from them (depending on who it is to you). This is maybe another factor for why Gabriel pushed Adrien away or why Adrien keeps leaning into Marinette and touching her even though he isn’t consciously aware of his feelings. He’s literally programmed unconsciously to seek her out because his unconscious knows that she’s Ladybug.

So here we are all making jokes wondering how after X many seasons, how can our characters be so blind?? WELL maybe they’re not. Maybe they all see and know but then the subconscious goes AHHH this is bad! Because REASONS. And then sends it to the unconscious. (More on that in a sec.)

As a result, we have the crazy both ways love square where they all love each other but keep finding ways to keep each other at a distance. They know their love for each other and that it’s reciprocated but have to play both parts of chaser and refuser because it’s like a battle with their internal selves over what they want and can’t have, and they’re playing it with each other too.

So why can’t they have each other? Why is the unconscious keeping it all locked up and still saying no? Well, if we look at the language of the unconscious, we see Chat Blanc in Mari’s nightmares, so that is an obvious reason why she would reject not only Chat but also Adrien. On Adrien’s side, i think he’s probably afraid of being rejected by both Ladybug and Marinette, which is why he is so hurt when he thinks that Marinette doesn’t like him or is rejecting him (even though he claims to be in love with a different person! E.G. Puppeteer 2–which has another example of the unconscious taking over: the body/unconscious definitely knows that Adrien isn’t a statue!!)

And when/if you’ve seen the last few eps of Season 5: this whole unconscious theory neatly explains that whacky creepy video from Feligami. But they can’t just tell Marinette this other reveal. Or else she’ll just go BAM it was a dream: into the unconscious with you!! Instead they have to speak the language of the unconscious (symbolism, abstract, unreal) so that it’s safely « a weird movie » and then give space for the conscious mind to sort it out for itself. Which is probably why Marinette falls asleep! And is why people faint at crazy news. Their conscious, subconscious, and unconscious minds need to sit down and have a meeting!!

So therefore I reckon that Adrien could literally transform in front of her and she wouldn’t believe it. In fact, she wipes or resolves those timelines, which is her metaphoric forgetting too—her choice not to see it or go down that timeline.

But I have a more whacky theory too that might also lend to the reality-bending aspect that gets info sorted to the unconscious. Remember how in The Kwami’s Choice Plagg reminds Tikki that they’re « really ONE »? And who’s seen the last ep?

Meanwhile, Tikki says that Marinette and Adrien were « made for each other ». And they are the miraculous holders, continually magnetised back to the job and each other. What if one some higher cosmic level Adrien and Marinette are one Soul?

Okay THANK YOU I CAN SLEEP NOW

#adrinette #miraculous #miraculous lb #miraculous ladybug #miraculous season five #miraculous spoilers #miraculous leaks #miraculous theory #tikki #feminism dothedishes #plagg #tikki and plagg #psychoanalysis #fan theory

25 notes · View notes

miss-wanna-write · 2 years

Text

so ive posted a couple of fanfics already about this, but let me introduce you to my miraculous ladybug x persona au!

first things first, what ive already covered! so when they’re 7, Marinette, Nino, and Kim break away from the field-trip group and end up in Paris’s version of Mementos, and a shadow attack leads to Kim awakening Ardent, his persona.

after this, and numerous groundings, scoldings, and lectures from various parties, the trio then proves they learned NOTHING and continues to go exploring in the secret catacombs using the mysterious and kinda spooky app that appeared on their phones. this is how Marinette and Nino got Odette and Orpheus accordingly.

they don’t actually do much with these powers? it’s mainly just a cool make believe thing, with the occasional encounter with ‘living ghosts’ (the human shadows) that they talk to and help out. or have their persona’s (”we’re not calling them Stands, Kim!”) beat up if they get aggressive.

fast forward like 6 years to canon and the trio is freaking out. or, Nino is freaking out because Kim’s being targetted by a giant rock golem who used to be Ivan, Marinette’s not picking up, and the app they normally use to enter the Catacombs is updating.

the gist of this au, is that having a persona is a double edged sword. it allows normal people to fight akuma’s within the metaverse, and weaken the butterfly’s hold on the person, but also, if you have a persona your akuma is far more difficult to fight.

there’s a lot of stuff i haven’t really figured out, and some i haven’t concretely set up, but i do have all the initial persona’s for the crew! note, all persona’s were chosen from random sources, their only ‘theme’ being how they relate to the characters (even if it only makes sense to me)

Marinette Dupain-Cheng & Odette

Skills are focused on Ice & Healing. She’ll later gain Bless once her Ultimate is unlocked.

Odette is the protagonist of the ballet Swan Lake, and I felt the stories could line up. The curse of akumatization by the evil sorcerer Hawkmoth, Prince Adrien who the Black Swan Lila tries to steal away.

okay so this one may heavily depend on my persona headcanon that Lila seems to boast a lot of things that have been done by Marinette or are related to Marinette (knowingly or unknowingly) in canon.

Don’t worry about how Swan Lake so commonly ends in tragedy, I swear that’s not relevant.

Another skill Odette has is that she can be used to create a rudimentary shadow radar in a still patch of water. Yes Marinette’s clumsiness makes this difficult.

Nino Lahiffe & Orpheus

Orpheus has the element of Zio, plus some useful buff/status causing moves. He’s specifically built for long fights, with high defence, health, stall moves, and Dia. i do not remember why.

As for why Orpheus was chosen, I feel it an accurate representation about the lengths Nino would go for love, and lose because of it.

Okay so maybe it was partially inspired by the ultimatums I see in salt fics between him and Alya.

Kim Chiến Lê & Ardent

The Physical Force of the team. As in he uses both Physical attacks and Force/Wind attacks. That was a bad pun, sorry.

So Ardent is actually the Beast’s name from the 1947 version of Beauty and the Beast, which is probably well known to most of you. The fairy tale, not like, the 1947 version.

But, uhh, I mean the Beast was cursed by an enchantress due to his bad actions, and acts like a huge jerk, and, well, we’ve seen Kim and how he acts. Even in this AU, while I think he’d be less overtly mean, he’s still insensitive and makes wrong decisions that hurt people.

Alya Cesaire & Virgil

Fire and ailments are Virgil’s bread and butter. Yes that ailment is brainwash, gotta show she has the power of the press after all.

No this is not Virgil DMC (could you imagine), this is Virgil from Dante’s Inferno. tbh I kinda chose this based off reading the wikipedia page and lining up character roles and it’s really shakey and could probably be better, but I don’t know what else to use for her.

Alya joins after accidentally getting awakened during Lady Wifi by Nino and Kim defeating her shadow form. Funnily enough, I have a super solid idea of what Alya does in the story, how she’s introduced, and how she reacts to certain scenarios, yet absolutely 0 solid idea’s for her personas.

Virgil also has the ability to catalogue shadow weaknesses/profiles in his book, which takes the place of the notebook Mari, Nino, and Kim were using before.

Max Kante & Menvra

Max is the teams navigator and their guy in the chair, except he is also in the catacombs along them.

Obviosuly he wouldn’t be like Fuuka, inside an orb at the entrance of the dungeon, but I don’t think he’d be quite Futaba floating around in his persona. Somewhere inbetween, Rise and Futaba, I think.

Menvra is a Etruscan goddess, representing war, art, wisdom, and medicine/health. This is one of the more classic persona figures (they say, like Orpheus isn’t Nino’s) and yes, I am very shakey on this much like Alya’s. The difference is, Max is not a hugely developed character so I have limited traits to choose from as opposed to Alya where I have conflicting traits to choose from. I am, however, 100% sure of his Ultimate Persona.

I’m honestly debating whether Max joins up during Startrain, where the limited space causes him to accidentally get dragged into the Metaverse and subsequently awakened, or Robustus because the Metaverse app won’t run.

Kagami Tsurugi & Kaguya

I am, first and foremost, weak to girls with swords. And have once again (once again, they say, not having written the previous thing they are referencing) made Kagami just a. Powerhouse.

She’s got the Almighty skills, alongside Nuclear, and is a one woman army.

I really associated the themes of Kaguya attracting suitors, what with Kagami’s purpose basically just being a faux-love interest, and the punishment of material attachments. Listen, I will be the first to admit that a lot of these persona’s are just, I feel the vibes and they match. There is no rational or explainable reasoning for these, it just fits.

Also fun fact, the feather cloak Kaguya wears is burnt when she’s first summoned. Like, pre-burnt. This is story relevant.

Kagami herself joins the group after Ikari Gozen. Ladybug gives her an piece of paper in exchange for the Dragon Miraculous. Said paper has the meet up location and time fo the next Catacombs excursion.

#down in the catacombs #miraculous ladybug au #miraculous ladybug #au starter

2 notes · View notes

princess-of-the-corner · 2 years

Note

Marinette: an akuma erased the wall of my room to ask me on a date

Nino: what?!

Kim: this sounds like the lead in to a joke

Marinette: and I said yes

Kim: what?!

Nino: Mari, why?!

Marinette: because he erased the wall of my bedroom?

Kim: okay, fair

Marinette: however, this means that I can’t be Ladybug and Chat will be on his own

Nino: fuck, that’s right

Kim: yeah

Marinette: so, since you two know that I’m Ladybug, I wanted to ask if maybe one of you could fill in for me?

Kim: dibs

Nino: "Wait, NO!"

Mari: "Already texting Chat to expect a tall buff replacement so better luck next time."

Meanwhile.....

Chat: "....... I feel like Ladybug clocked me as Bi, clocked what my 'type' is, and is trying to let me down gently by setting me up with someone else."

Chloé: "I have many questions but mostly how did you get all that?"

Chat: "She said she has to do a super secret mission so she can't help but she's sending a 'tall and buff guy' as a replacement. Then mentioned how we have to protect the Akuma's next target, who is Mari by the way, and said 'Totally cute, right?'."

Chloé: "Oh she is absolutely trying to set you up with one of them."

#glamour trio

43 notes · View notes

miraculousares · 3 years

Text

Reflexes

A quick fic inspired by this gif set

Over the last three years of being Ladybug, Marinette had changed in several ways. The two most notable to those around her were both physical. One, she was buff. Like, she could beat Kim at wrestling kind of buff. When she wore bikinis to the beach with her friends, they'd all stare at her abs for a moment. Alya constantly asked her how she had gotten so ripped but never got a straight answer. It's not like Marinette could exactly say that she had gotten strong by fighting villains all day.

The other thing that had become most noticeable was her fighting skills. Few of her friends ever witnessed anything as fighting wasn't a super common civilian issue, but Alya saw her take down a mugger with one hand. Nobody really believed her when she told people about it - "Oh, sweet little Marinette couldn't hurt a fly," they often said - but she still made a note not to startle her or get on her bad side.

One of the most problematic changes that she'd made, though, was her fighting instincts. While it came in handy during fights with akumas, she often found herself judo-flipping her partner, Chat Noir, when he snuck up on her. The worst part was that he never learned to give her some warning, so it wasn't an uncommon occurrence to accidentally throw her best friend off of roofs. Of course, he was always okay. Not only did he have his staff and super-agility, but he'd learned to expect it. That only made her feel more guilty.

~ o n e d a y ~

Ladybug leaned against the chimney of one of the several rooftops of Paris. She was looking down at her yoyo's screen, catching up on some fan emails, while she waited for her partner. Suddenly, she felt the sudden presence of someone behind her, a hand reaching toward her. Instinctively, she grabbed the wrist and slammed the attacker down on the ground in front of her. She kept the arm in her grasp and put a foot on the person's chest to hold them down. The laughter that followed registered before the face did. She immediately let go and took her foot off of the blonde and held down a hand to help him up. Once he was standing again, he worked to control his laughter.

"Stupid cat, I've told you over and over again not to sneak up on me like that! You know that I react like that to being startled," she grumbled, closing up her yoyo and attaching it to her hip.

"I know, I know. But it's kinda funny," he wiped a tear from his eye.

"It won't be so funny when you dull my reflexes and I get my miraculous stolen by a villain," she retorted, pushing him playfully but sternly on the shoulder.

"My lady, you could never be dull, not even your reflexes." His eyes shone with adoration and she rolled her eyes. She had to admit that his flirtiness had gotten a lot sweeter in the past few months as they got to know each other deeper and deeper.

"Yeah, whatever, kitty. Are you ready to go on patrol?"

"With you? Always."

The two leaped from the rooftop and began scanning the streets of Paris for any akumas or citizens in need of help. They helped an elderly woman gather the groceries that had fallen through a hole in her bag and helped prevent a traffic collision. As always, they stopped by the bench where Mr. Ramier sat with his pigeons and chatted with him, bringing him comfort. The man had gone through a lot of trauma, having been akumatized over 50 times. Finally, the sun began to set and they decided to call it a night.

Marinette stretched and yawned, extremely tired. As soon as they'd gotten home from patrol, they got an akuma alert and had stayed up until nearly 5 am fighting.

"I don't know how I'm gonna make it through the day on only two hours of sleep," Marinette commented as she messily pulled her hair into her signature pigtails.

"You've got this, Marinette! I know you can do it!" Her kwami pressed against her cheek in a hug and the girl felt energized just from the affection from the small creature.

"Thanks, Tikki," she smiled. Then she opened her bag for her to fly into and headed for school.

"Hey, girl!" Alya called from across the courtyard. She was standing near the stairs talking to Nino. Marinette managed to jog over there and greeted her friends.

"Oh man, you look terrible," Nino commented. Alya jabbed him in the side. "I mean, you seem tired. You okay, dude?"

Marinette nodded. "Yeah, the noise from the akuma last night kept me up," she fibbed.

"Oh that's right, it was right over by the bakery, wasn't it? Did you see that villain though? Hawkmoth is really stepping up his game!" Alya continued to talk about the night's battle, giving Marinette a chance to zone out for a moment since she didn't need a rundown of the battle she'd fought. Suddenly, she felt a hand grab her shoulder. She jumped and her instincts took over. She grabbed the wrist of the person behind her before they could even tighten their grip and threw them with a slam onto the ground a few feet in front of her. Then, she processed what had just happened and who she had just thrown. She rushed over to him and offered a hand to help him up.

"Oh my god! ARE YOU SORRY? I mean- I'm okay! I mean... uh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay, Adrien?" He stood up and stared at her in shock.

"I told you! I told you she was a damn ninja! Mylene owes me $10," Alya celebrated. But neither of the pair was paying any attention to her. Marinette was too lost trying to decipher Adrien's gaze and why he had yet to let go of her hand. The bell rang and students filtered out of the courtyard and into classrooms and eventually, the two were alone.

"I- ah, Adrien?" Marinette stammered, her face still a bright red but her thoughts more clouded by confusion than romance.

"I guess your reflexes haven't dulled yet," he whispered, his eyes never leaving hers. Marinette paused for a second, trying to figure out why the phrase sounded so familiar before it hit her.

"It won't be so funny when you dull my reflexes and I get my miraculous stolen by a villain."

"My lady, you could never be dull, not even your reflexes."

She felt her knees give out and she fell to the ground. Adrien quickly moved to kneel down beside her. She just stared at the blonde for a while, her eyes wide and brain moving at a thousand miles per minute.

"Chat... Chat Noir?" She finally pushed the words out of her lips, though they were a struggle. It felt impossible. Adrien was so different from Chat Noir. But, when she thought about it, it all made sense. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a tight hug.

"It's really you, buganette," he whispered into her hair, returning the embrace.

"My kitty."

#ml fanfic #miraculous ladybug #miraculous fanfic #mlb #fanfic #ladynoir #adrienette #ladynoir fic #adreinette fic

131 notes · View notes

sayuricorner · 3 years

Text

Miraculous Ladybug x Identity V: The Oletus manor diary of a ladybug: Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Warning : English is not my first language so sorry if it’s confusing !

Warning 2 : This fanfic content salt if you don’t like don’t read !

Hhheeyyy! So I decided to write a fanfic from my Miraculous Ladybug/Identity V crossover salt prompt !

This fanfic will be in the form of diary entries wrote by Marinette during her stay at Oletus Manor!

Have a good reading! ^^

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

20/04/2015, Oletus manor :

So, how to begin this ? I know this diary was suppose to help me to pass time during my recovery and to ̎ evacuate my negative emotions ̎ but I don't know how to begin it !

Sure I had a diary in the past, but, I didn't write in it for one year now ever since... Lila...

Anyway ! Mademoiselle Dyer adviced me to write in this diary to keep me distracted and not glooming all day, she say it's important with my current state it's important that I am in the best state of mind as possible 'cause according to her ̎ a good mood help to had a good recovery ̎ and she's a doctor so she know what she's talking about !

Well, maybe I can officially begin with a presentation ? Yeah I think I will go with that !

My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I'm 15 and a citizen of the city of Paris in France, I'm also the hero Ladybug(Is this really a good idea to write this?What if someone find this diary and read it?Rha the hell with it I'll make sure NO ONE at home read it or even know it existence when everything is over!) and let's just say my current situation is... Not good.

To put it simple : A crazy villain is terrorizing the people of Paris by turning them into villains by using their negative emotions with the goal to get and use magic artefacts for a karmic wish for... whatever the reason is, I'm holding the responsability of fighting his akumas since my 13, and became the guardian of said magic artefacts over the 2 last years, a girl who had the bad habit of lying to be the center of intention who is akumatised on a regular basis and hate my guts because I don't fall for her lies, said girl lied about me to my class and now they see me as a bully and are bullying me ever since, my class win a trip in a little town called Eurydice in the USA, the girl once again lied about me bullying her, my class managed to leave me behind in the middle of the forest during a outing, I became even more lost while trying to go back to town and of course it begin to rain, I have been found by the habitants of a manor which was nearby but fall very sick and cherry on top, apparently the rain is a violent annual rain season which last for two weeks.

So now I'm stuck away from my class, stuck in a wierd manor, very sick and bed-ridden, for two weeks until the rain stop and I left the miracle box at the hotel which mean, outside of Tikki, I have none of the miraculous with me and if the akuma alarm act up I will not be able to go to Paris to fight the akuma ohgodohgodohgodwhatI'mgonnado?Thisisadisaster !

...Okay... Oooookkkaaayyy... Let's calm down Marinette, it's not the time to let the stress get the best of you, remember what docteur Dyer said a good mood help to had a good recovery ̎ and you stressing will not help.

…

Okay I feel better ! Honnestly why am I nagging myself like that ? I mean until now the akuma alarm was silent so normally that mean everything is okay and even if an akuma attack Chat Noir is in Paris so he would be able to protect the city !

Right ?

No ! No ̎ right ? ̎ as a question ! Chat is in Paris and he CAN handle it ! Focus. On. Your. Health !

Anyway ! I will talk about something else ! Oh maybe the manor I'm staying in ? Or at least the very little few I know for now !

So from what I know this manor is know as the Oletus Manor, a really old victorian manor which have been built by British people who moved in America long time ago.

The manor was set in the middle of the forest away from the town and apparently ̎ Oletus Manor ̎ wasn't it original name, it first name was ̎ Mansion Eurydice ̎ in reference to the town nearby.

… I'm gonna be honnest I feel like there's something strange with this manor ! I didn't really took a good look at it but there's something in it atmosphere, something dark which give me a chill in my spine.

And to be honest the habitants seem also a bit... off.

Not to say they're probably bad people, docteur Dyer seem to be very nice after all, but... all this people who seem to be from different places, living all together in this dark manor a bit isolated from all the rest, dressed in those old fashionned clothes, not vintage clothes but like they were from old times, it was quite strange.

And perhaps it was because of the fever but when the docteur Dyer bring me to my room, I swear I have saw among the people gathered quite ̎ unique ones ̎ like a big buff and tall clown or a big lizard man.

Just what kind of place is this ?

I could call for docteur Dyer and asking her but... I'm too exhausted, I think I will stop here for now and go to sleep.

Yeah I will do this, I'm gonna try to had a good sleep and tomorow I will talk to docteur Dyer and try to had answers !

It's not like I had anything better to do for the next two weeks anyway !

#ml salt #identity v #miraculous ladybug #ml salt fic #ml fanfic #survivors #hunters #emily dyer #marinette dupain cheng #class salt #diary entries #marinette deserves better #lila salt

48 notes · View notes

edendaphne · 4 years

Text

“Discordant Sonata” Chapter 16

New chapter of "Discordant Sonata"! (Feat. adorable art by @corgi-likes-chat!) Here’s a cropped preview:

>>Read it here on Ao3<< >>Read it here on Wattpad<<

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

CHAPTER 16: LEGATO

Legato: “tied together”; indicates that musical notes are to be connected, so they are played (or sung) smoothly

(Mood Music: Mamma Mia (Swing version) - Opa Tsupa)

[One month later]

“Alright, I’m gonna take the side door and rush upstairs to steal the elven artifact. You got these guys?”

Chat rubbed his hands together, then picked up his controller, adjusting his grip. “Oh baby, I'm itching to try out this new greatsword.”

Marinette nudged him with her elbow. “Don’t aggro too many mobs. Space ‘em out.”

“Did you forget I can stun?" he poked her back.

"No, but you often do,” she quipped. “One sec, buff refresh."

"Ouch, my masculinity! Too bad your regen got nerfed with the last patch.”

"I’ll manage; I bought some extra potions.” She shrugged. “Remember not to blow your rage too early this time. We don't want to pull out prematurely!"

Chat gave her an incredulous look, as if she’d grown a second head.

Marinette winked at him. "I've just seen how you handle that greatsword of yours."

Chat howled with laughter. “Double dagger spec? More like double entendre spec!” He squeezed her shoulder. "You've come so far.”

“Oh, I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve,” she replied.

He sniffled and dramatically wiped away a fake tear. “I'm so proud of you."

Marinette giggled and settled herself into a comfortable position, crossing her legs on the floor. Her fingers gripped her controller tightly in anticipation. “Alright, Minou. It’s go time.”

---

Several tense minutes of yelling and frantic button-mashing later, Chat wailed in agony as he plopped backwards, “NOOOO!!! We were so close!!”

Marinette turned around, frowning. “Dude! Why’d you have to go off on your own into that side corridor?! You should’ve known it would be full of stealth enemies!”

Chat’s arms flapped around as he sputtered incredulously. “Y’know what?? We shouldn’t even be here! You’re the one who wanted to two-man a four-person dungeon!”

“We would’ve succeeded if only you’d stuck to the plan, Mr. Curious Cat!”

Chat paused to shoot her a petulant glare. “Well, I guess that means you won’t be needing this epic leather armor you’ve totally been looking for all week, that I just happened to loot from said forbidden corridor! I bet it’ll fetch a high price at the auction house!”

Marinette let out an offended gasp. “You wouldn’t dare!”

“Wouldn’t I?”

“Give it!!” she yelped as she reached across for his controller.

“Nuh-uh! Nope, too late! You should’ve been nicer to me when you had the chance!” He clambered away, but she chased after him.

“Get back here!” she cried, catching him by the waist.

Chat continued to taunt her, holding the controller up high. “Gee, I wonder what kind of trinket I could buy with all the gold I get for this,” he remarked, tapping his finger against his chin.

Marinette grabbed one of the throw pillows from the chaise and thwacked it against him.

“I’m gonna tell Ladybug about your evil deeds!” she threatened.

Chat grabbed another pillow with his free arm and swatted her back with a laugh. “She won’t believe you! I’m her beloved partner, after all!”

“Wanna bet?”

Before he could reply, Marinette tackled him to the ground, grabbing at his belt to hold him in place. She reached for the controller, but his arm was still too long. She adjusted her grip at his side to reposition herself.

Chat squirmed at her touch and yelped, “ACK!! That tickles!”

Marinette’s eyes widened and she looked up at him, a devilish smirk slowly slithering across her face. She crawled on top of him, securing her legs on either side of his hips. And with that, her fingers went to work, mercilessly tickling his ribs and obliques.

Chat screeched and wiggled, desperately trying to scoot away from but failing every time.

“Surrender!” she commanded, continuing her onslaught.

He answered rebelliously between cackles, “Never! But I may scream.”

He thrashed and tried to squirm away, but she had him right where she wanted him. Chat laughed so hard that his eyes began to water, and he begged for mercy in between belly laughs.

Finally sensing her opening, Marinette got ahold of the controller, yanking it away from his lowered arm.

“AHA!” she cried, lifting her arm triumphantly.

Chat’s eyes grew wide and his mouth twisted into an indignant pout, then he used his enhanced strength to lift his hips off the ground, reversing their position so she was the one being pinned.

Marinette gasped in horror and outrage. “CHEATER!! You’re using your super strength!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, I’m always this strong,” he quipped back, flexing his arm dramatically. He adjusted his position on top and tried plucking the controller away from her.

Despite being a bit disoriented now that she was on the bottom, Marinette maintained a death grip on the controller.

Chat grabbed her wrists and pinned them over her head and she grunted as she struggled. “Oh, how the tables have turned,” he purred as he trapped them both under a single hand. His other hand trailed down to her waist, poking experimentally, then extending his claws from his fingertips to amplify the sensation.

Marinette writhed and wriggled under his touch, shrieking and giggling uncontrollably.

“Do you yield?” he demanded impishly as he stared down at her flushed face a mere few inches away.

“NEVER!!” she replied tenaciously, defiantly puffing out her chest, as if straightening out her posture would somehow intimidate him, or grant her extra resilience.

“You are soooooo stubborn, Ma Minette,” he chided playfully, squeezing her sides hard and making her squeal some more. Marinette twisted and kicked vigorously, trying to escape, but to no avail.

Their antics were interrupted by a descending musical chime and agonized screams erupting from the laptop screen, which was propped on top of Marinette’s antique chest for easier viewing. The pair stopped, their heads whipping towards the source of the sound.

Their respawned characters had died while they were occupied with their tickle fight.

The pair looked back at each other, then busted into hysterical guffaws.

As they laughed and panted, Chat couldn’t help but notice the way Marinette looked with her long dark hair fanned out on the ground, her tiny freckles more prominent against her reddened cheeks. She really had become quite a stunning young woman after all these years. Despite spending their teenage years together, his attention had always been elsewhere, and he’d never really paid attention to how different she looked now, versus when they first met.

She seemed to notice him staring and smiled, and the rosiness of her cheeks seemed to intensify. Probably from the exertion, he figured. And yet, he couldn’t help but feel his own face beginning to feel hot under her gaze.

She looked like she was about to say something, but as she opened her mouth, a new sound blasted across the room; it was Marinette’s mobile phone.

He felt her twitch underneath him, and for the first time, they both realized the position they’d put themselves in. Anyone who walked in on them at this moment would surely have... questions.

Face feeling red hot at this point, Chat released Marinette’s wrists and got off of her so she could get up and check her phone. Giving him one last cheeky smirk, she stood up to see what the commotion was all about.

She gasped as she checked the screen. “Oh my goodness! I’d totally forgotten, I have a study group in fifteen minutes! I have to get ready!” She turned off the alarm and pocketed her phone, then scrambled to her desk to get her school materials prepped.

Chat’s ears twitched in response. “Oh! It totally slipped my mind as well. Good thing you set a calendar alarm. Otherwise, your classmates would’ve walked in to Chat Noir just casually playing video games at your house.”

Marinette darted to her full-length mirror to look herself over, then dashed over to her vanity to grab her hairbrush.

“Do I look alright?” she asked as she fixed her hair.

“My darling, you look positively radiant,” Chat replied theatrically, taking a seat on the chaise.

“Is my outfit okay?” she continued harriedly. “Should I change? Is my shirt wrinkled? Do these shorts make me look short? Is my hair sticking up in the back?”

Chat grinned at how flustered she was. “Helen of Troy would pale next to your indescribable magnificence, Mademoiselle.”

“Chat,” she jokingly reprimanded, but failed at containing an upwards twitch of her lips.

He shrugged feebly. “You look totally fine. But why? It’s just your classmates.”

Marinette hesitated. “Well… Just… no reason!”

She received a skeptical eyebrow in reply. He knew her better than that (not that she was very good at hiding her feelings in the first place). Giving up any further pretense, her posture drooped in response.

“Alright, alright, the truth,” she conceded with a resigned sigh.

Chat leaned forward imperceptibly, raising his eyebrows in silent query.

“My old crush is gonna be there–”

Chat gasped loudly despite himself.

“–And I wanna look nice!” she continued. “But not like, sizzling ‘I’m tryin’ to steal you from your girlfriend’ kinda hot, ya know? I’m just trying to get past him. I wanna move on. I wanna prove to myself that I’m doing okay. He's still one of my best friends. I need to show that I'm happy for him.” Then she added with a weak smile, “Plus, Alya knows what my wrestle-hair looks like, so I'd have to answer some awkward questions if I don’t look at least somewhat put together.”

Chat closed his mouth, which he hadn’t realized was in “fish gape” mode until just then. He looked down towards the floor, now understanding why she would feel so apprehensive.

Marinette was doing her best. He felt his heart swell with affection and sympathy. He had to help somehow; he always tried to be a source of extra confidence whenever she needed to face challenges. It was the least he could do for her.

Chat stood up, cleared his throat and approached her desk, swishing his tail back and forth as he pondered her words.

“I know exactly what you need,” he offered with an air of authority.

Marinette quirked an eyebrow. “You do?”

He retrieved something from her vanity and, with a flourish, he presented a tube of shiny pink lip gloss. “Ta-da! For the ‘I still look cuter than everyone in the room without even trying’ look.”

Marinette accepted the tube of lip gloss, and she couldn’t help but giggle at his sweetness and sincerity. “Sounds good to me! Thanks!” As she looked into the mirror and applied the lip gloss, she continued, “Sorry to kick you out of the house. Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

Chat waved it off. “Of course, don’t worry! I have somewhere I need to be this afternoon anyway, so take your time.”

“Alright. I’ll text you when we’re done, but it shouldn’t take longer than a couple of hours.”

“Okey dokey!” He stood behind her and gave her a quick parting squeeze, then walked over to the floor hatch to exit her room, giving her one last wave. “Later, Maribug!”

Marinette smiled after him as he descended the stairs, amused as always at his unintentionally accurate nickname. If only she could tell him.

Someday, she told herself. Someday there will be no more secrets.

She dearly hoped that that day could come soon.

-----

(Mood Music: You Don't See Me - Safetysuit)

A short while later, Nino and Alya arrived together at the Dupain-Cheng residence. At the door, Marinette greeted them with a smile and invited them inside.

From across the street, a certain tall, blonde, bespectacled figure peeked from behind a tree, deciding to wait a few minutes before making his own entrance.

“It looks like your girlfriend was able to tame her Wrestlemania hair after all,” Plagg whispered from inside Adrien’s pocket.

Adrien poked him gently with his finger. “Hush, she’s not my girlfriend,” he admonished.

“Oh that’s right, I forgot,” Plagg replied. “You already have a secret girlfriend, according to everyone’s favorite international celebrity, Lila Rossi.”

He rolled his eyes. “Ladybug’s not my girlfriend either,” he corrected him again.

Plagg poked him back. “And how did you know I meant Ladybug?”

“W-well, I-I just…” Adrien stammered, his body growing hot in spite of the crisp autumn weather. “It was implied. Anyway, we’re not in a relationship.”

“Not yet, you mean?” Plagg inquired with a quirked brow.

“Plagg! That’s not– I mean… not that I’d mind –AUGH, wait! That’s not what I meant to say!!” he whisper-shrieked as an even more intense wave of heat traveled down his torso. “Let’s just go. I can’t spend a bunch of time trying to figure out what kind of relationship we have, or we’ll be late.”

“You could always ask her tonight during patrol,” Plagg suggested with an eyebrow waggle. “Unless your mouths find something more ‘fun’ to do instead.”

Adrien let out a choked whine, covering his face with his hands. Instead of answering, he scurried down the sidewalk, trying his hardest to ignore the muffled cackles emerging from his clothes.

He rang the doorbell and waited. A few moments passed and the door opened to reveal Alya, who greeted him with a smile.

“Hey, buddy! Glad you could make it! Come on in!”

She led him upstairs to the family room, where everyone’s study materials and textbooks were already spread out onto the dining table.

“Hi, Adrien!” Marinette called from the kitchen area as they walked past. “Make yourself comfortable, I’m just getting us some refreshments.”

Adrien greeted her back, making sure to compliment how pretty she looked today (to which she replied with a small “EEP!!” and a flustered, stuttered, “Thank you”) then he walked over to join Nino.

“Dude! Long time no see!” he said excitedly, standing up to welcome him and give him a tight hug.

Adrien chuckled as he squeezed back. “I know, right? It’s been almost twenty-four hours! I was starting to go through best bro withdrawals!” He set his backpack down and began laying out his own notes and textbooks.

A few minutes passed as they chatted and got situated, but Adrien couldn’t quite focus on the conversation. He was too busy casting (apparently not so furtive) glances towards the door, curiously awaiting whoever else would be attending their study group.

Sensing his restlessness, Nino asked, “Hey bro, you looking for something?”

Adrien shrugged. “Oh, I was just wondering–”

A loud clatter of pots and pans interrupted their conversation, punctuated by a loud “EEEEEK!!”, and the group’s heads whipped towards the kitchen in alarm.

“Marinette?” Alya asked, a worried crinkle appearing between her eyebrows.

“I’m okay!!” Marinette cried from within. “Just bumped into something and uhhh, knocked over some other stuff, no biggie!” she explained sheepishly.

Adrien turned back towards Nino and Alya. “I’ll go help,” he reassured them with a smile.

He walked towards the kitchen, watching Marinette as she put away the kitchenware she’d accidentally knocked out of a cabinet.

He rounded the corner of the bar countertop and called out cheerfully, “Heya!”

Marinette whirled around in surprise with a sharp yelp, accidentally stepping backwards onto a stray metal platter. Adrien watched as if in slow motion as Marinette fell backwards towards the hard tile floor.

“Mari!!”

Adrien reflexively darted forward and managed to catch her just in the nick of time, her body nearly parallel to the floor. He pulled her up gingerly, his arms firmly wrapped around her waist and back, their chests barely touching. They stared at each other as they panted, their breaths mingling together.

Marinette blinked, her cheeks a deep crimson, and she let out a small, nervous laugh. “Nice catch,” she said, almost as a whisper.

Adrien let out a deep, relieved sigh. “I got lucky. Sorry I startled you.”

“No, it’s okay,” she said as he pulled her closer and helped her stand up. “I really should pay better attention to my surroundings,” she continued, rubbing her arm with a rueful expression on her face.

“You’re just trying to do too much all at once, that’s all. Let me help,” he replied. “I can reach all the high shelves!” he offered, flexing his arms theatrically, trying to add some silliness into the awkwardness.

She blinked, then let out a small giggle, cheeks still red. “A-alright,” she replied. “Uh… Why don’t you pour some water into these glasses while I finish cleaning this up?”

“Sure!” he chirped happily.

Marinette smiled and resumed her task of cleaning up the fallen pots and pans. Adrien opened the refrigerator to fetch the water pitcher, then began to fill the glasses.

As he did so, he noticed there were only four glasses on the countertop. Odd. They’d need an extra one for Marinette’s (former) love, wouldn’t they? Were they coming alone or would there be extra people? His chest tingled with curiosity as he wondered who it could be.

Turning back towards him, Marinette said, “By the way, the water pitcher’s inside the refri— oh nevermind, you already found it.”

Adrien chuckled nervously, continuing to pour. He cleared his throat and changed the subject. “So how many glasses do we need?”

Marinette looked back at him with a perplexed look. “It’s just the four of us today, as usual. Unless you invited someone else?”

“Uhh, no, I didn’t. I just thought…”

He trailed off and froze.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

Marinette had said–

...but if no one else was coming, then that meant...

No.

No way.

Was Marinette in love with Nino?? He’d had a small crush on her ages ago, but he and Alya had been together for years now. Marinette would never try to wedge herself between them, not in a million years!

Her crush couldn't be Alya either, right? Marinette had mentioned that her crush was male.

But… But that meant–

“Adrien, the water!” Marinette cried, her voice jolting him back from his thoughts.

Horrified, he realized he was still pouring water into the already-filled glass, spilling it all over the countertop.

He gasped as he realized his mistake, and set the pitcher down. “Shoot! I’m sorry, Marinette! I'll clean it up!”

He turned around to open a drawer across the way, bringing out a couple of kitchen towels to soak up the liquid.

“I kinda zoned out,” he continued, wiping up the mess. “I’m really sorry, it looks like I’m only doing more harm than good in here.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. But, um...” Her face scrunched up in confusion, “How did you know that’s where we kept the towels?”

Adrien’s eyes grew large. Oops. Why was he so full of blunders today??

“Uhh, I’ve just… I’ve seen you open that drawer before. O-on a different day,” he deflected with a shrug, obviously unable to divulge the true reason he knew his way around the Dupin-Cheng kitchen.

Marinette let out a short hmm . “Yeah, that makes sense. You must have a great memory!” She smiled with a blush and added, “Although that shouldn’t surprise me; I’ve always known you're really smart.”

Adrien forced himself to smile at the compliment, yet a cold chill ran down his spine.

“Not as smart as I should’ve been,” he muttered, speaking about more than just spilled water.

He should have noticed. He should have known. He should have realized sooner that the sadness in her eyes was because of him.

Marinette patted his arm, which tingled under her touch. “No worries, it’s just water. No harm done!” she said sweetly, her kind smile growing even wider.

But I hurt you , he thought to himself. Their conversation from that day rushed back to the forefront of his mind. An indirect and cruel rejection before she ever even got the chance to confess.

He thought back to all the times they’d hung out together as civilians since that fateful day when she came home in tears after school. She’d never treated Adrien any differently after he unknowingly broke her heart. Was she that amazing an actress, or was she just that strong?

Marinette finished putting the drinks and snacks onto a serving tray and bid him to follow her to the living area, where Nino and Alya were eagerly waiting. But how would he be able to concentrate on studying after knowing he’d been the focus of Marinette’s unrequited affections?

No, not affections. She’d used the word “love”. She was actively trying to fall out of love with him.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Nevertheless, that nagging feeling stayed with him for the remainder of the study session. -------

(Mood Music: Que reste-t-il de nos amours? - Avalon Jazz Band)

[Later that day]

Marinette squinted suspiciously.

Chat had been acting weird. Or rather, weird for him, which was saying something. He’d been in a somber mood ever since he came back that afternoon after her study session. What had happened during that brief time while they’d been separated?

Speaking of which, she recalled that poor Adrien had been acting out of sorts as well. She’d asked him if everything was alright, but his face went red and he waved it off, saying it was nothing, claiming that he was just a little tired. She hasn’t pressed the issue, especially knowing that he had a difficult home life and busy schedule. She dearly hoped he’d come to her if he ever needed someone to talk to.

In any case, she’d been surprised to find Chat just as morose and out of sorts. She’d asked him what was wrong and he instantly dismissed it. Then he promptly excused himself to his bedroom, which was unusual. Normally he was chatty as can be during dinnertime, then he would hang out with the rest of the family during the evenings, playing videogames or board games, or engaging in conversation over some tea.

But tonight, he’d hardly spoken a word. He had only answered briefly when spoken to, and it was like he could barely look her in the eye. And whenever he did, she could’ve sworn she saw something like… guilt?

She wasn’t sure. But she knew she didn’t like it.

Something was wrong. She was sure of it. Perhaps he wasn’t able to share what it was exactly due to his secret identity, but she was determined to help him fix it. She wanted to know the truth.

Tikki had lightly chastised her, saying that maybe Chat Noir had a good reason why he couldn’t share his problems, and that she shouldn’t pry or be too nosy. But this wasn’t nosiness! They were friends! And not only that; it was her duty as Ladybug to look out for his well-being, right??

Speaking of Ladybug...

They had patrol scheduled for later that night. Should she ask him again, as Ladybug? She pondered it... but no; he’d probably act tough and pretend it was nothing again. They were still working on being more open with each other, but progress was slow. Though not for lack of trying. Chat just… didn’t always know how to relax around Ladybug. He didn’t verbalize it, but it was as if deep down, he was always bracing for imminent rejection. Almost like he expected everything to be a dream, and any day now he’d wake up back at his father’s house, all alone.

Despite being allies, there were still many obstacles that stood in their way, as they both navigated through their partnership trying to find their unique dynamic, still somewhat guarded in their words and actions, to avoid hurting the other. There were invisible walls between them, and every time they’d succeeded in tearing one down, it was only to find that there was another wall behind it.

He’d mentioned before that he would never want to do anything to jeopardize their partnership. So he had a tendency to keep quiet about a lot of things, and not rock the boat, so to speak. He’d mentioned before that he trusted her implicitly. But it was like he didn’t trust himself. Or trust his luck.

He tended to be more open with Marinette, most likely because he didn’t feel that he had to watch what he said as closely for fear of rejection. Thankfully, he’d always been able to confide in her.

That is... until today.

She sighed.

Maybe he just needed an evening where he could be himself and be a normal person, as the guy behind the costume. But how to do that without revealing his identity?

Her eyebrows scrunched deeply as a tiny idea planted itself in her brain, slowly blooming into a full-blown scheme.

“I know that look,” Tikki remarked warily. “You’re up to something, aren’t you, Marinette?”

“Maybe,” Marinette replied with a sly grin. “I think Chat needs to get out of the house and spend a night on the town.” With that, she hopped off her desk chair and walked to the large, antique storage chest in the corner of her room where she kept all her current sewing projects. She rummaged around, searching for something.

“How are you going to do that?” Tikki asked with a concerned furrow of her brow.

“I’ll explain in a minute,” she replied as she found the item she was looking for, then set it down on her chaise.

She then opened her phone’s contacts and dialed Mylene’s father's number.

Tikki peeked over her shoulder. “I’m not sure where you’re going with this, but I hope it helps Chat Noir cheer up,” she remarked.

A few seconds later, there was an answer on the other side of the phone.

“Monsieur Haprèle? It’s Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I have a quick favor to ask, if that’s alright.”

A few moments later, the phone call ended, successfully putting the next part of her plan into motion. Monsieur Haprèle had graciously offered to stop by and drop off the items Marinette had asked for, since he needed to be in that part of town anyway for an errand.

“I think we have everything we need.” She winked at her kwami. “And now, Ladybug needs to make a phone call. Tikki, spots on!”

----

Chat closed his communicator and plopped onto his bed with a groan. Ladybug had cancelled patrol at the last minute, postponing it to the next day. He ran his hands down his face dejectedly. He supposed that was just as well. As excited as he’d been to meet with her tonight, he probably wouldn’t be very good company, since he’d been in such a crummy mood all evening.

Still… he’d really wanted to see her. Her presence always managed to do wonders for his morale.

He settled for pulling up a candid photo he’d taken of her with his staff’s camera on a different day. She was breathtaking; smiling softly while looking into the distance, the sunset a golden halo behind her, making her look like the angel she was. He smiled at the memory, and he felt his stomach fill with butterflies as they always did when he truly looked at her.

He swiped to the photo he’d taken right afterwards, when she realized he was taking a picture, her eyebrows raised in mild surprise. Then the photo after that, where she’d let out a bashful giggle, bringing her hand to her mouth, looking adorably shy. And the last photo from those few precious moments: Ladybug striking a dramatic pose, with an exaggerated pout that would put any supermodel to shame; a reminder of her sense of humor and willingness to be vulnerable and silly around him.

His smile broadened, his heart now thumping loudly in his chest. She really was so extraordinary.

A sudden rap on his bedroom door jolted him out of his daydreaming. He sat up and put his staff away as he answered, “Come in.”

The door opened, revealing a sharply dressed Marinette. He almost didn’t recognize her at first, since she’d changed out of her clothes from earlier and her hair was up in high twin buns.

“Hey Minou! You busy tonight?”

“Uhh, actually, no. Patrol got moved to tomorrow.”

“Then I have a proposition for you,” she said, her voice high and chipper. Without waiting for a reply, she took his hand and practically dragged him up to her bedroom. “But first, I need to give you something.”

They arrived at her room and she let go of his hand, then knelt by a large cardboard box he’d never seen before that was labeled “Backstage”. She unfolded the top, then started bringing out a myriad of fabrics and materials so hastily, that her movements were practically blurred. She took out a large pair of sunglasses that resembled vintage aviator-style goggles, an almost ninja-esque facemask, and set them aside.

She stood, holding something else behind her back, and walked up to him with a shy grin, her legs doing her trademark nervous shuffle.

“First of all, I- uh… I made you something. I started it a little while back and finally finished it today.” She tucked some hair behind her ear as she averted her eyes timidly, her cheeks dusted with a lovely shade of pink. “I hope you like it.”

She revealed the item behind her back, holding it up with both hands. It was a black zip-up hoodie, with muted, subtle detailing as an homage to his Chat Noir suit, but the main feature was the cat ears sewn onto the hood itself.

Chat’s jaw dropped, and his eyes practically bugged out of his head. This was the cutest, most considerate thing he’d ever been gifted.

He was at a loss for words, but thankfully Marinette interrupted, “I made it for you so you could hang out at home without having to be transformed all the time. ‘Cause I know that can be exhausting for Plagg, and it’d probably be more comfortable for you to be dressed in casual, loose-fitting clothes. Also–” she gestured towards the box behind her, “–my friend’s dad, he’s an actor, and he gave me a box full of masks and other costumes. You can mix and match, so you can have fun with it while still protecting your identity.” She extended the hoodie towards him hesitantly. “Uhh… anyway, obviously I didn’t take your measurements because it would’ve ruined the surprise, but it should fit you just fine. Cotton-polyester blend fleece is pretty forgiving like that.”

Chat gingerly accepted the garment, slowly and carefully running his fingers across the soft fabric as he admired the attention to detail his friend had lovingly crafted into a piece of clothing that would hardly ever be seen by anyone else.

He gaped at her, throat feeling quite dry. “Marinette… I don’t know what to say. Just… Thank you. This is such a thoughtful gift. I… wow.” He brought his hand up to his face, still in total disbelief. “I wish there was something I could do to show you how much I appreciate that you’re always looking out for me. There’s gotta be a way for me to thank you. Y-you’re always so… you’re just… I’m...”

Marinette stepped closer to him, their toes almost touching. The sudden proximity got his attention instantly, and she booped his nose with her index finger. “Well then, this is your lucky day. I know just the thing you can do for me.”

“Uhh, sure! A-anything you need, just ask,” he stammered, slightly confused.

She began, “Sooo, here’s what I was thinking…”

She continued to speak as she paced around the room, sort of beating around the bush, the speed of her words steadily increasing until she was talking a million miles a minute, so rapidly that he could barely understand what in the world she was talking about. Although he distinctly heard the words “movie theater”, “chaperone”, and a pleading, “You wouldn’t want me to go all by myself, would you?”

“Uhhh–” he tried to interject, still deep in his confusion.

“And before you turn me down and say, ‘But I, the dark and mysterious Chat Noir, cannot be seen in public with a civilian!’ don’t worry: I got you,” she interrupted.

She handed him the sunglasses and face mask, and said, “Detransform and put these on, along with your hoodie. You can wear these to the movies and be totally incognito!”

Chat let out a high-pitched “WHAT?!” his voice cracking once it couldn’t go any higher.

“No one will recognize you with the costume! It’s really not that conspicuous! Lots of people wear special blue-light blocking glasses when they watch movies or use their computers. And face masks have become a pretty common way to keep germs from spreading, so nobody will spare you a second glance. You’ll totally blend in with the crowd. And it’ll be my treat! Please??”

Chat rubbed the back of his neck, eyes darting around nervously. This was all so sudden and he was unsure how to respond. He’d never done anything like this before.

“I-I dunno…”

Marinette continued, wringing her hands anxiously as she spoke, “I know this is totally out of the blue, but there’s this one movie I really wanna watch that’s only gonna be in theaters for this one weekend. I’d ask Alya and Nino, but it’s pretty last minute. And even if they’re available, they’d probably just make out during the entire movie anyway, and God knows being the awkward third wheel gets tiresome after a while,” she added with an eyeroll. “Adrien always has to be booked months in advance, all my other girlfriends are busy, and I really don’t wanna go alone; it’s not safe to walk around a big city all by yourself at night, y’know. So, what do you say??”

Chat looked back at her, her big blue eyes silently begging him to come along.

He suppressed a sigh, biting his lip instead. She wouldn’t want to hang out with him if she knew who he really was and what he’d done to her. She’d always been absolutely wonderful to him– to both sides of him– and he’d repaid her by being a crappy friend who’d been totally oblivious to her feelings. He truly didn’t deserve her.

He was about to decline and try to make up some excuse, but just then, her words from earlier in the day popped back into his head: “I’m just trying to get past him. I wanna move on.”

He paused. All day, he’d only been thinking about his own feelings and feeling sorry about himself, wallowing in guilt. But right now, this was about Marinette, and her needs. And at this moment, it sounded like what she needed was someone to just be with her. He could set aside his own apprehensiveness and insecurities to help her out, instead of pushing her away. After all, she always went out of her way for her friends constantly, at the cost of herself. She’d always been so selfless… to the point where she tended to neglect her own needs. He couldn’t let her keep doing that.

Determined to make things right and treat her the way she deserved for once, he nodded and smiled. “Alright, Mari. I’d love to go with you.”

Marinette let out a delighted squeal and resumed doing her excited wiggle-dance, but Chat interrupted, “On one condition! It’ll be my treat instead. After all, what good is a paycheck from the best bakery in Paris if I can’t use it to spoil my absolute favorite roommate?” He squeezed her shoulder with a wink.

Her mouth popped open in shock, then twisted into a pout. It looked like she was about to argue, but in the end, decided not to press her luck and accept his terms.

“Deal.”

#Miraculous Ladybug #Discordant Sonata #fanfiction #Marinette Dupain Cheng #Adrien Agreste #Chat Noir #enemies AU #ML AU #aged up #Ladynoir #Marichat #Adrienette #Eden Writes #corgi-likes-chat #art by others #fanfic art #jhsldkfjhlasjkdf sorry about all the innuendo lmaooooo #I headcanon Marinette's inner sassypants comes out more while she's gaming XD

322 notes · View notes

a-grapevine · 4 years

Text

Promises

I don’t exactly write much, but here’s a little somethin’ I made. Don’t expect much of it. Tips on writing would be appreciated.

---

We got separated

You said you'd never leave me

Why did you have to leave?

It had been a few days after Jason's death. It affected many, but hurt little 9 year old Marinette the most. She was devastated. He promised... he promised he'd never leave her side. But here she was at his grave, alone. No one else had come to his funeral, not even the jerk that took her brother away. Though that never stopped him from seeing her. He was the best brother she could ask for. And because of that, Marinette wanted to keep his memory alive. She would protect the lost and found.

---

It had been a few months and Marinette Todd had kept her promise. She now had a growing team of street kids to protect and feed. They barely got by sometimes but Marinette would be okay with skipping a few meals if it meant her team could eat. Her team consisted of a pair of abandoned twins, a few street kids, and a stray dog. They were like family to her.

...But no one can replace Jason.

She was brought out of her thoughts by Allegra, one of the street kids running towards her.

“They took Claude!”

“Breathe Allegra, now who took Claude?”

“The buff guys with black jackets with a strange words on the back”

Traffickers.

“I'm going to go get Claude back, okay. If I don't make it to the docks by sundown. I want you to take the rest of the team to Lemmar Rd, house 241. Tell the nice lady that Marinette Todd sent you, code aqua. Can you do that for me Allegra?”

“W-what do you mean if you don't come back? You have to come back! We need you...”

“Allegra, I need you to promise me this”

“I promise.”

Marinette gave Allegra one last hug before leaving to get Claude despite the rest of her teams cries. I made a promise that would protect the lost and found, so that's exactly what I'm going to do.

---

Marinette made it to the traffickers hideout and managed to sneak in without getting caught. It took a while but she eventually got to where they were keeping hostages.

The person guarding the hostages knocked out, and the keys stolen. She always did have sticky fingers. She went to unlock Claude’s cell and proceeded to unlock the other cells and free all the other hostages. They were almost free. That was, until one of the guards came to check on the hostages and found them missing. The whole warehouse was going on lock down in 3 minutes and there were still a few people left. Marinette grabbed as many people as she could and ran towards freedom. The adrenaline rush really helped. 2 minutes left.

There was still 3 people left and Claude was one of them. Why does he have to be so slow sometimes. She ran back inside unaware of the eyes following her. 1 minute left. She grabbed Claude by the arm and ran. The other 2 hostages made it out while she was going back in. 48 seconds. They wouldn’t make it in time. 29 seconds. With the last of her energy, she pushed Claude forward with a quiet “Get to the docs before sundown”

11 seconds.

I won’t go down without a fight.

“Correction. We wont go down without a fight.”

“Jason?”

“I’m back pixie pop. For good this time. I promise.”

2. 1. Lockdown complete.

#sibling jasonette #maribat #quantic kids

90 notes · View notes

loverofallthingssmart · 3 years

Note

Marinette Dupain-Cheng

How I feel about this character: i care for her so much shes everything she is beauty she is grace she deserves the world and i would give it to her

All the people I ship romantically with this character: okay okay. kagami x marinette, adrien x marinette, and sometimes maybe sometimes alya x marinette

My non-romantic OTP for this character: ooh ooh alya&marinette because god. GOD theyre such good friends. they're so SO SO SO wonderful yall im just. i care them so much. and then ALSO kagami&kim&marinette bc i think the asians should chill together and make fun of white people <3 like kim and marinette have been in the same class for years and then kagami and marinette's friendship is just so good and i think kagami and kim would get along swimmingly because jock4jock friendship (if we're being real kagami and marinette are nerd4nerd, kim and marinette are prep4prep, and kagami and kim are jock4jock and all of them together would be a healthy mix)

My unpopular opinion about this character: the way some of yall draw and write her. like that is a white girl. she is mixed let's not forget it !!!!! its like extremely prevalent in the fandom and i just,,, just because she's white passing doesnt mean she isnt asian theres like 3 whole episodes regarding her asian background please

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon: give my girl a break (im not caught up on season 4 so i wont spoil it for everyone) but man,,, shes so stressed i just,,, please,,,,,,,,

my OTP: adrien x marinette in all forms of the lovesquare they're soooooooo ugh i adore them

my cross over ship: again, don't like crossovers sorry </3

a headcanon fact: shes buff. she would wrestle all the dudes before class and she'd beat them (i was gonna say everyone falls a little bit in love with her but that's like canon JHDGDHSJ) and her favorite color is black actually. (not pink like people think) ALSO! her hair is so jet black, it looks blue in the light so when she dyes her hair dark blue, no one actually realizes.

thank you for the ask anon !!!

send me a character, ship or multiple characters and ill answer specific questions about them!!

#HELP i have a bunch of small headcanons to make up for the fact that i don't have a long rambly headcanon like i normally do #also #the asians thing is modeled after real life #im in a group chat called 7 and a 1/2 asians bc one of them is mixed and we DO make fun of white people all the time #we're also all jock4prep4nerd like all variations of it so if anyone is like 'that seems so unrealistic' lmao im going to 🔪#marinette dupain cheng #ml #ask me anything #2 am ramblings

7 notes · View notes

consumeconstantly · 4 years

Text

Small Buff Girl Sightings Ch 4.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ao3 ___________________________________________________________

Marinette is not surprised when she receives a text message from Lila two days after she speaks to Damian. She’s been expecting Lila to contact her.

After all, Damian refuses to listen to common sense and transfer, and since he hasn’t been brought into the fold with the rest of the class, he clearly must be against them. This causes the rest of their classmates agitation. Marinette is afraid that Damian might end up like the rest of the transfer students; pushed away and aggravated to the point of akumatization.

It doesn’t matter that Marinette brushes off Damian’s attempts at conversation. All it matters is that there is one (1) Very Attractive Boy that is not under Lila’s thumb and is associating with Lila’s supposed enemy. Surely, the Italian girl knows that the current situation holds all of the possibilities for a disaster.

Marinette isn’t sure how Lila has her phone number, but she supposes it doesn’t really matter. Since Marinette didn’t run for class president this year, Lila was elected because of everybody’s adoration for her. Being Class president is a good resume boost, so Lila accepted, and appointed Alya as her Vice Deputy (and of course, allowed the faux reporter to do all of the legwork for her.) So, it’s highly likely that Lila just looked up her number in the class registry.

7:45AM | Unknown number: it’s lila. i’ll meet you at the corner cafe near the louvre at 4 today. we need to talk

8:05AM | Marinette: okay

Unknown number: youre not going to ask why

Marinette: we both know why

11:02AM | Unknown number: be on time

On his part, Damian isn’t the kind of person who is heavy handed in conversation, which is good for Marinette. He makes snide comments when annoyed and asks questions about assignments that reference lessons he wasn’t there for, but is quiet otherwise. He doesn’t bother much with pleasantries and also doesn’t bother asking to hang out after school, which Marinette is very glad for. Hawkmoth is sending out akumas more frequently than he has in a while, and she has a lot of work to do with commissions-- mostly received through word of mouth-- and homework. She does want to get into a good college, after all, and it’s not exactly like she can put I am the superhero, Ladybug on her admissions essays. Or maybe she could, as some sort of joke?

Still, his obvious denial of Lila’s advances is all too apparent to the class, and even without Lila’s instigation, gossip spreads like a wildfire. In fact, it spreads despite Lila’s desire for it not to. The class doesn’t talk about it when Lila’s in earshot, but Lila knows what’s going on. Lila sees the pitying looks that are thrown her way, the whispers in her ear about the bully, Marinette, getting her claws into another, poor transfer student.

At first, Lila attempts to divert the class’s attention by pushing her relationship with Adrien. Lila gets even closer to Adrien, who, weirdly, smells like some sort of old cheese, especially when she gets close to his breast pocket.

“Oh, Adrien, I think it’s so sweet that you’re going to be taking me to dinner tonight!” Lila finds that Adrien’s forearms are surprisingly muscular. Not that there’s anything wrong wth that-- she likes her boytoys to be strong, but sort of stupid.

It’s a pity that Adrien isn’t stupid, just a pushover. The two of them have an agreement, just like she and Marinette do; Adrien will play along with Lila during class time so her empire remains as strong as ever, and Lila gives Adrien an out for model related things. She doesn’t know where Adrien continually disappears off to during photoshoots, but Gabriel trusts her for some weird reason she hasn’t figured out yet. Which means that Lila is the perfect, ever constant excuse. Occasionally she goes out with Adrien on a “date” to keep up appearances, but it’s hard to date someone who doesn’t follow her every whim. Lila also doesn’t know anything about gaming, or anime, or anything that Adrien has interest in. In return, Adrien dislikes fashion, manipulation, and lying. Really, they have no common ground.

When the American transfer showed up, Lila had been hoping that he would be dumb. He is wonderful eye candy-- more muscular than Adrien and definitely more filled out, that’s for sure. Lila knows that Gabriel has Adrien on some god-awful model diet, but that boy can metabolize like there’s no tomorrow. But it’s not Lila’s place to intervene. That’s family matters-- that’s show business.

Damian Grayson is not stupid, which is either a blessing or a curse, because that means theoretically this man is the whole package. He’s tall, dark, and has a sharp tongue. Exactly Lila’s type. But nothing that’s actually good ever comes her way, and the moment she meets him, she can tell that he dislikes her. Not for the first time, Lila regrets telling such bald-faced lies her first year. Prior to that year, her mother and she hopped countries nearly every year. Apparently, her mother decided that having Lila in the same school throughout high school would be beneficial. Maybe if Lila hadn’t made such a huge mistake in her first year at Francois Dupont, she would be friends with Marinette, who has more of a spine than the rest of the class combined.

Lila knows a losing battle when she sees one. Damian doesn’t like her, though she’s not sure why. She gets the feeling it’s not just because of her past lies. She’s good at telling what people feel about her, has been trained to since a young age. Since her mother is a diplomat, business dinners and charity galas have been her playground since childhood. Figuring out people’s relationships started as a game, at first. Then Lila learned she could turn her knowledge into a tool. As she bounced around from school to school she got more and more adept with manipulating the relationships that she saw. But she’s seen her mom lose before. She miscalculated, thought that she could change somebody who was too headstrong. It hadn’t been pretty-- and it was high stakes, too. That’s why her mom and dad are now divorced.

She recognizes the same bullheadedness in Damian that Marinette has, and Lila knows that with Damian and the class at odds like they currently are, things will go south. Unlike the other transfer students, Damian looks like he will not be easily cowed and will not transfer just because his classmates say mean things to him. They certainly won’t be able to hurt him physically. Which is why she needs to meet up with Marinette. Do damage control. Make sure that she is safe, and that nobody can hurt her. Nobody in this stupid class can hurt her, really. Except for maybe Marinette, but she is too kind to do so. And now, Damian. Which means Lila needs to get a lock on him, and Marinette is her way to do that.

That’s why Lila is here, now, at this cafe near the Louvre, far, far away from anybody who goes to Francois Dupont. None of her dogs will find her here, and she can work something out with Marinette.

Marinette slides into the seat across from her after ordering something, and Lila begrudgingly admits that the girl is pretty and fashionable. She has a fluid grace to her motions, as well, which is why Lila found it weird that she had been so klutzy when they first met. Puberty, maybe?

“So,” Lila starts. She doesn’t really know how to talk to Marinette. Marinette is not one of her dogs. Marinette is smart, and loved, and good at what she likes; she is, at the very least, Lila’s begrudging equal. “Damian Grayson.”

“Damian Grayson,” Marinette repeats, knowingly. She smiles and jokes, “It almost sounds like we’re meeting up to talk about who we have a crush on.”

There are times when Lila wishes that Marinette took her up on the first option of the truce she presented. She wouldn’t have minded a partner in crime, and Marinette is everything that Lila lacks. That’s why Lila offered it in the first place. She knew that Marinette wouldn’t take it-- she was far too morally inclined too-- but it was worth a try.

“I’ve tried talking to him,” Marinette says, “But he’s not the type to listen.”

“He’s smart.” Smarter than the rest of the class, Lila thinks, so of course he won’t ally himself with her. People who follow who are always disillusioned dreamers who don’t have enough common sense to use Google. “I don’t mind if he’s not on my side. He just can’t be against me.”

Lila doesn’t care much about her classmates at Francois Dupont, but she can’t give them up, either. She still has the rest of this school year and the next, and it’s easier having her classmates fawn over her and drop everything at the flick of her wrist. It makes being class president very easy. If Damian exposes her lies, the end of her lycee years will inevitably end in an unpleasant altercation with Gianna Rossi, her mother. And while her classmates are inarguably dense and too trusting, their attentions aren’t altogether unpleasant. They invite her to go to mundane places and she agrees to, when it’s not too much of an inconvenience.

Marinette nods, sagely, then sips her Cafe au Lait. “There’s nothing to worry about there. He doesn’t like dealing with classroom politics, so as long as you don’t mess with him, he’ll stay away.”

“Good.” But also-- Lila hesitates. She doesn’t think that Marinette will agree with this, but she’s a little bit desperate. As useless and unthinking their classmates are, Lila doesn’t want to lose them. They’re all that Lila has. And they’ll think it weird that Damian isn’t on her side. They might start messing with him, and by extension, Marinette. On Lila’s short list of who she has tried and failed to take down is Marinette. The girl is slow to anger and has seemingly unending patience, but she’s unquestionably talented and charismatic, which means Lila does not want to see her mad. She’s been accepting of the new classroom dynamic in which her classmates ignore and ocassionally insult her because the whole school knows the two of them have bad blood, but some days Lila catches Marinette looking at Alya, Nino, and Adrien with a distant fondness. If they totally turn on Marinette, it won’t end well.

Apparently, Marinette can see the hesitation on her face. Lila is surprised at how good the other girl is at reading people. She definitely should not have the same experiences that Lila does. She has too bright of a disposition to have experienced a life constantly embroiled in politics and poor personal relations. But somehow, Marinette is almost as good at reading people as Lila is.

“If you think the rest of the class is going to do something, I’m pretty sure that Damian will be fine with you shunning him. He doesn’t like liars, but as long as it gets him out of dealing with the rest of the class, he’ll be fine.” Marinette knows how little Damian cares for their classmates. She can ask him for permission after talking to Lila, and then act accordingly.

This is surprisingly easy. Though, most things with Marinette are. Even the first time that Lila confronted her, they only needed to speak a few words before everything was resolved neatly.

“I’ll let you know what I decide to tell them.” Lila figures that it’s easier for her to tell Marinette what she’s planning and not get an unexpected surprise at the last second where the girl opposes her.

“Sounds good.”

Marinette’s phone is on the table, and it buzzes itself to life. Lila sees her lockscreen: a picture of Marinette and her family. Lila thinks of her own lock screen. It is much less personable. A lock screen that is one of the many that are preinstalled.

Marinette picks the phone up, which comes off as uncharacteristically rude. Marinette doesn’t seem like the kind of person who is constantly attached to technology, and she does have better manners than most of her classmates. Lila doesn’t think she’s ever seen Marinette pick up her phone when talking to somebody, and Lila wonders if Mariette picks up the phone because she thinks so little of her.

But Marinette looks pale and worried. She says, “Sorry, but it looks like I have to cut this short. If there’s anything else, just text me, okay?”

Then, Marinette dashes out the door, wide-eyed.

Lila wonders if Marinette’s statement extends to things outside of their classroom situation. Maybe she can get Marinette’s opinion on Gabriel’s Spring line.

“What’s wrong, Renee?” Marinette is worried. Renee never calls without texting, first. Normally, he calls when it’s nighttime, right before he goes to bed. He’s calling in the middle of the day, and something feels wrong.

Renee is taking shuddering breaths on the phone, and Marinette feels her stomach drop. “M-ma-maman,” he wails.

“Did your maman do something?” She’s making her way to Renee’s grandparent’s residence. Marinette visited Renee once in the past week, and he was settling in fine. His grandparents really love him. They said that after their son died, they were rarely able to contact Renee because his mother always had him so busy.

“Maman, she, she hurt Nonna.” Everything that Renee says is punctuated by sniffles and held-back tears.

“Is Nonna bleeding? Can Nonno come to the phone?”

“N-no, I don’t know, Mari, I’m scared, Maman, she’s never been this angry before, Nonno made me lock the bathroom door, I can’t hear them anymore, she’s not going to hurt them, is she? She can’t hurt them, Mari, what am I supposed to do? I’m sorry, I’m sorry for being so bad, I’m sorry. Please--”

“Stay right where you are, okay Renee? Can you use your phone to call the police to Nonno’s house? I’m going to be right there. Nonno and Nonna are going to be okay.”

Renee lets out a shaky, “Yes,” and then Marinette hangs up the phone, darting into an alleyway to turn into Ladybug. She thinks that this might be the fastest that she’s made her way through Paris, and her heartbeat is so fast, Marinette feels like she’s about to vomit.

Ladybug swings to the suburbs where Renee currently resides, detransforms, and sprints into the house. The door is left wide open, which is a bad sign. It signals to Marinette that Celia was violent from the start, and that the elder Monsieur and Madam DeVries did not even have time to close the door.

She is unfortunately right; Madam Devries is on the floor with her arms over her head, body in a fetal position. Celia is barely restrained by Monsieur DeVries, who has deep scratches on his arms.

“You,” Celia snarls when she sees Marinette come through the door. “You bitch! Your stupid intervention made me lose my chance at a promotion. Now I’m on probation! I could be demoted, all because you thought that you could teach my child.”

Celia’s stiletto heels slam onto Monsieur DeVries’ bare foot, and he flinches from the pain. It gives Celia just enough slack for her to escape his arms and storm up to Marinette. “Everything I do is for Renee. I work so he can go to school, so that he has a roof over his head, and so he can go to all of those stupid lessons that his father wanted him to do. And what do you do? What gives you the right to take him away from me?”

She tries to claw Marinette, but misses. All Marinette has to do is sidestep, sweep Celia’s already shaking legs from underfoot, and then pull Celia’s arms sharply and backwards. Marinette’s shin is locked over the back of both of Celia’s knees, and Marinette contorts the woman backwards so Marinette can speak directly into Celia’s ears.

Marinette is glad that there are no cameras rolling here, though she has gathered so much evidence against Celia for charges of child abuse and corporate fraud that there is no way that Celia isn’t going to jail. Sine there’s no video evidence, if Celia wants to bring this instance up, she can just claim self defense.

“You starved Renee when he didn’t want to go to the lessons that you arranged. You beat him if he did anything wrong. You made him think that it was normal for kids to go weeks without seeing or hearing from their parents, prevented him from contacting other family members and from making friends, and humiliated him just because he wanted to hug you in public.” Marinette pulls Celia’s arms back even more sharply, so that her spine was over Marinette’s other knee. Celia let out a gasp and a muffled cry of pain. “You can’t pretend that you did all of that for Renee. You certainly can’t pass off the laundering of Silverstein and Company’s money as something necessary for you to take care of Renee.”

Marinette abruptly pushes Celia onto the floor, letting the leg that wasn’t restraining Celia’s knees onto the woman’s lower back. It’s a lot easier to restrain somebody who’s unconscious, but Marinette wants Celia awake to realize how quickly her life is going to go down the drain. So that Celia knows how much evidence she has stacked against her.

It takes Marinette longer than it usually does for her to restrain her victim with zip ties, but she gets it done well before they even start to hear the police sirens.

“If you think you can use your late husband’s name as an excuse for what you’ve done to Renee, you have another thing coming. I will see you in court this Thursday and not only will you be out of a promotion, you will be out of a job. I’d like to see you try to get a job in France when you have charges of child abuse, violence against a teen and family, fraud, and money laundering on your record.”

“But I love Renee! He is my and Jean’s child. The last connection that I have with Jean. How could I ever hurt him intentionally?”

This only makes Marinette feel more disgusted. How twisted Celia’s vision of love is. Is this how Gabriel feels towards Adrien? Does he also delude himself into believing that his constant isolation of Adrien is a form of love?

“Sometimes, intent doesn’t matter.” Marinette says softly. “The consequences of your actions make you accountable. If you truly love Renee, let him be happy. Let him be safe.” Maybe one day, Celia will learn to be better. To love better. Marinette isn’t sure if Celia should ever be let back into Renee’s life, but that isn’t a decision she can make. That’s something that Renee and Monsieur and Madam DeVries must decide. She hopes they wait on it.

Celia cries, and Marinette can feel the woman’s shudders underneath her fingers. Her face is to the ground now, but she’s lost all color and Marinette can almost believe that she is ashamed and doesn’t want to look at anyone. But as good as Marinette is at partial and half-truths, she’s never been good at lying. Not even to herself.

The police come, and Celia is escorted out in a solemn procession.

Madame and Monsieur DeVries do not thank Marinette, but the way they look at Renee with such concern and affection as they embrace him is all she wants, anyways.

The trial is a quiet affair. There is little to no media coverage because Monsieur and MadameDeVries want it that way.

Since Celia’s physical assault on her son, the case was expedited. Instead of testifying Thursday next week, both Renee’s grandparents and the Silverstein and Company insisted that the date be moved up, and somehow, they managed to get the case to be heard on Friday of the same week.

Renee attaches himself staunchly to Marinette and Damian at the trial. After they visited him at the DeVries house last week, Renee never stopped talking about the best big brother he could hope for. Now, after he has seen his mother launch herself at his Nonna and Nonno, he only has his grandparents and the two of them.

Monsieur and Madam DeVries take this in stride. They are thankful that they helped in getting Renee away from his mother and supportive of Renee forming an attachment to the two of them.

“Damian,” Renee asks when his Maman is on the stand, “Is Maman a bad person?”

Damian is not sure how to answer this. He is no expert on people and his experience with parents is limited and unusual. His mother is an ambitious assassin who raised him to be cold-hearted and brutish. There is little love lost between the two of them. Still, Damian can’t bring himself to think of his mother as a bad person. A villain, maybe, but she had her moments--as brief and few as they were-- of kindness. As far as Damian can tell, Talia really thinks she is doing right by the world. All she wants to do is make the world a better place, though how she goes about doing that is... less than savory.

He shoots a look at Marinette. She shrugs and says, “Just tell him what you’re thinking.”

“People aren’t bad.” The words feel shaky on his tongue. Talia and Bruce both have very different ideology that they’ve espoused to him, but neither feels right to say to Renee. It’s weird to say there are no bad people in the world, when he is a vigilante who fights villains on a daily basis. To say that people like the Joker are not bad, when he has so much blood on his hands. He looks at Marinette, and she’s giving him an encouraging smile. It makes him feel like he’s saying the right thing. “Misguided and twisted, yes. There are also people who are bad for you. Their decisions and actions can be bad, and they can be hurtful.”

Marinette smiles, and it makes Damian feel good. He’s never really expressed his feelings on the dichotomy of people being good or bad, but he thinks about it often enough. His siblings and father all have pretty varying views on the matter, so he can’t claim that he is right, but if Marinette agrees with him, he can’t be all that wrong.

If this view isn’t wrong, perhaps he’s needs to reevaluate his relationships with the people surrounding him, and his feelings towards himself. Dick has tried for a very long time to make Damian believe that he is not a bad person, but Damian has never really believed him. Dick says Damian was just misguided in his youth, following the instructions of someone who should have known better. That so long as Damian tries to be a better person and do better things, that he will be a good person.

Being a good person has never sounded right to Damian. He knows that his hands have taken lives and if he’s being honest, he’s not that unwilling to take more. Father believes killing people is a bad thing and refuses to do it. When Todd went off on his own and killed people, Father said it was unacceptable, and that it didn’t matter that the people he killsed were doing bad things. Thus, if Damian killed in the past, Dick’s logic simply doesn’t make sense. He cannot redeem himself from the lives he has taken; they cannot magically resurrect themselves.

But if people aren’t good or bad and only their actions are, then maybe Damian is a hero, as Dick has continually tried to convince him. He has faced consequences for his past actions, and though he’s not sure that the consequences will ever be enough, the decisions he makes now are better. As Robin, he goes out of his way to help people. As Damian, he ocassionally tries to mediate.

“Still, even if people aren’t good or bad,” Marinette whispers into Renee’s ear and squeezes his hand, “That doesn’t mean you have to be with them. If they’ve hurt you, it’s your right to avoid them, and you shouldn’t feel bad for doing that.”

Celia shivers on the stand and the few times that she brings herself to look at Renee, Marinette can see the beginnings of remorse on her face. Realization and remorse are the first steps to change. There is a future out there that will let Renee and Celia be together again, though Marinette personally doubts that it will ever happen.

After the trial, Renee is released to the custody of Monsieur and Madame DeVries, and Celiaa is sentenced to 14 years in jail, with a possibility of parole in 7 years. Many of the scandals th Silverstein company has under their belt was pushed onto Celia. Marinette can’t say she’s pleased with that, but it’s not as though she’s willing to fight for a shorter jail sentence for this woman.

The five of them go out to celebrate the result of the trial filled with quiet joy.

One week after the trial, three since Damian arrived in Paris, and Marinette and Damian are engaged in a wrestling match in Marinette’s living room.

“Come on Marinette, don’t be such a sore loser.”

Marinette finally manages to flip and pin Damian onto the ground. “I would not have lost if you didn’t knock the controller out of my hands with thirty seconds to go!”

“That was just poor strategy on your part. You could have knocked my controller away too, instead of chasing after yours.” It’s surprisingly difficult for Damian to get himself out from under Marinette, and it’s even harder for him to flip her back and cage her. “Besides, it’s not my fault that you have such sweaty hands. Should keep a better grip, Pigtails.”

Marinette sputters. “Don’t insult my hairstyle choices!”

“I wasn’t insulting them. It’s a--” nickname. But Damian doesn’t give people he’s not close to nicknames. When he doesn’t know someone’s name, or doesn’t care for them, he calls them by distinguishing features. But Damian knows Marinette’s name and thinks that she’s a decent person. The way Pigtails rolled off of Damian’s tongue feels more like an endearment than anything else. He thinks that her pigtails are pretty cute, after all. They fit her childish persona when she is relaxed.

Sabine comes up the steps from the boulangerie and smiles at the two of them.

“You two are getting along well,” she says so nonchalantly that Damian feels a flush growing. He lets his weight off of Marinette, and she bounds up, onto her mother’s arm.

“Maman, tell Damian that my pigtails are great. He’s insulting them!”

Sabine smiles lovingly at her daughter and shakes one of the pigtails with her hand. “Definitely the tails of one very cute pig.”

“Maman, you can’t call me a pig. I’m your daughter.”

“I said a very cute pig.” Sabine looks at Damian and winks, and his flush grows even more. “Now isn’t it about time for the two of you to go back to school?”

Marinette groans. “Don’t remind me. Madame Mendeleev is going to give a physics test today.”

She grabs another pastry and her bag before kissing her Maman and heading out to the streets with Damian.

“Bye Maman, we’ll see you after we go visit Renee!”

“Bye, Sabine.” Damian inclines his head as Marinette’s mother waved them goodbye from behind the bakery counter.

It’s nice being friends with Marinette. The days go by quickly, and there’s rarely a dull moment. Somehow, the two of them kept meeting each other after akuma attacks, and between all of their accidental run-ins and their scheduled visits with Renee, Damian finds that he’s more often in the presence of Marinette Dupain-Cheng than he is alone.

At first, Marinette is prickly, but after Lila spreads the lie that he doesn’t speak French well and feels anxious when in big groups, and oh, did she mention that he wants to leave and not be friends with any of them, the class doesn’t really bother with him much. She’s much more willing to be around him once that occurs.

Surprisingly, what Lila said isn’t even that much of a lie. He wants-- or at least wanted-- to leave Paris because he thought that Hawkmoth wasn’t that big of a deal. He certainly doesn’t want to befriend anyone who is imbecilic enough to believe Lila. His French is a little bit rusty, but it’s definitely passable.

Now that Lila is not constantly trying to hold Damian’s forearm, he relaxes a lot. Marinette is a calming, level-headed person who balances out Damian’s doom and gloom with cheer and optimism. She’s good at catching him up on the classwork, though not the best ad science, and is a responsible person that Damian trusts with most things.

Lately, he’s been thinking of trusting her a little more and fishing for information on Hawkmoth, Chat Noir, and Ladybug. For some reason, Damian thinks that she will be a very good source of information if he approaches it the right way.

He aces the physics test. It’s a good day.

They’re walking back to Tom & Sabine’s Boulangerie when they come across Nicolette, the girl Marinette saved from Fraser.

“Marinette! Damian! I’m so glad I ran into you two. I never got a chance to thank you guys for saving me.” Nicolette looks infinitely happier than when they had first met her. She’s so different than when Damian first met her. He’s never been good at reconciling people in extreme situations of stress with how they are normally, so Damian supposes this is just par for the course.

“Can I get you guys coffee? It’s really such a relief that Fraser’s finally off my back. He was hounding me for a long time.” Nicolette’s voice trails off towards the end. She’s ashamed.

“I’m free. I’d love to have coffee with you. Damian?”

Damian doesn’t have any real reason to refuse. Research on Hawkmoth is important, but he’s hit a dead end as of late, and stressing about the lack of information-- Damian curses magic, for the umpteenth time-- will do nothing. It doesn’t help that he can hear his older brothers in his head, telling him that he needs to get a life.

“How’s your new job going?” Marinette falls into conversation with the girl, and the two of them manage to drag him into the conversation as well. Having a rapport with someone he barely knows is unusual, but surprisingly pleasant. There’s no need to go into depth over things he doesn’t care for, and anything that a party doesn’t seem interested in or doesn’t like is glossed over immediately.

Perhaps his brothers are right, and Damian does need to get a few more friends his age.

“My boss says that if I keep performing the way I am, I’ll get a promotion before the end of the year! Can you believe that?”

“That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you. And your coworkers?”

“They’re pretty amazing. I’m so glad that I decided to work for Dior instead of Silverstein and Company. Silverstein was what really sent Fraser off, and they’re not even in fashion. They’re in real estate or something. Dior always reminds me how valued I am, and that’s something I really needed after dealing with Fraser for so long.” Nicolette looks around the cafe and lowers her voice. “There’s not a lot of information out about it in the media yet, but I’ve heard that Silverstein is going to be in pretty hot water soon; someone high up in their Paris branch really messed up. Apparently she was doing all sorts of illegal things under the table, and let a lot of those who were under her get away with the same thing.”

Marinette and Damian exchange looks. They know exactly who she’s talking about, but they come to the joint decision that they don’t need to talk about it. Because talking about how they know means talking about Renee. And even though Nicolette is friendly, there is no reason to expose another person’s life story. Especially not when they’re as vulnerable as Renee is. Marinette gently redirects the conversation back to fashion.

“Oh, I love Dior! Their ready to wear line was to die for this year.”

“Definitely, a lot of my friends like Gabriel better, but I simply adore the way that Dior emphasizes femininity. I don’t think that women need to emulate men in their fashion; we’re amazing the way we are, and should be appreciated.” Nicolette looks Marinette up and down. “Speaking of, I love your outfit. It doesn’t look like it’s something from a ready-made store.”

“I like to design my own clothes from time to time,” Marinette waves off the compliment. “Both Gabriel and Dior’s original missions are founded on principles that I greatly admire, though I have to admit that I’ve had some personal run-ins with Monsieur Agreste that have reflected poorly on his recent choices, and I am no longer the biggest fan of his work. It’s sad that he’s deviated so much from what he originally wanted to do-- give his wife and women the power to be treated as an equal.”

Marinette isn’t exactly sure how Gabriel treats Adrien in his entirety, but what little she does know is enough for her to despise the man. For the past year, Marinette has wanted to emancipate Adrien, and that desire has only gotten stronger in the past few months. In her gut, Marinette knows her initial suspicions are correct: Gabriel has to be Hawkmoth. More recently, even their moods seem to be interconnected. Gabriel has been hounding Adrien more than usual-- more photoshoots, late nights, less correspondence with his friends, more of a diet, and those are only things that Marinette has observed. And Hawkmoth has been coming after her and Chat Noir with a vengeance. He’s released an akuma every single day for the past month, and it’s taxing on her, though Marinette can’t say that his newest strategy is any weirder than the other ones he’s been trying out during the past half year. At least the akumas aren’t that strong, but it’s worrying because Chat Noir feels more obligated to come out to at least half of the akuma battles, and it’s clear that he’s too tired and too busy to do so.

“What about you, Damian? Do you have a favorite courtiere?” Marinette smiles sheepishly. They’re talking about fashion, and she’s not sure that he enjoys the subject all that much.

“I don’t know much about fashion, but all my brothers can talk about is this new designer that’s been working with Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale. They’re completely obsessed, but I can’t remember the name.” Damian thinks the designer’s name had an M in it, but he’s not sure.

“Oh, MDC! They’re so elusive, but their designs are stunning. I’d love to work with them, if I ever get a chance. It’s a pity that they’re so secretive.” Nicolette whips out her phone. “I have a whole file on all of the designs that they’ve released so far. They have a great eye for color, and their construction is flawless. I even have a few designs that they haven’t claimed, but I’m pretty sure they made it. All of them have a pretty distinctive--”

Nicolette narrows her eyes. “Wait.”

Marinette looks down at her cup, and then back up into Nicolette’s, calm and steady. “I love MDC too. Since I’m an aspiring designer, I reference everything she makes pretty often. I based my jacket off the one she made for Clara, with a little bit of Dior Spring 2017 for flair.”

“No. Way.” Nicolette’s eyes set themselves on the lapel of her blazer. “No, no, no, there’s no way.”

Damian raises an eyebrow, looks at Marinette and then Nicolette. Nicolette’s mouth hangs slightly ajar while Marinette holds her cup of coffee. He feels like he’s missing something here, but he’s not exactly sure what. MDC. Marinette. MDC. Marinette.

He pauses. What is Marinette’s last name again? He thinks he’s heard it at least once before-- must have, because they needed to state their full name for the court records-- but what?

Nicolette squeals and takes Marinette’s hands. Still, she knows when to keep things a secret; since Marinette hasn’t revealed her identity yet, there must be a reason why she wants to keep it a secret. Marinette saved her, so there’s no way that Nicolette is going to betray her trust. Plus, this might give Nicolette a huge break if she plays her cards right.

Apparently, Nicolette deems Damian either to be nobody important, or somebody who’s already in confidence with this secret that Marinette is keeping, so she lowers her voice just enough so that the three at the table can hear. “I cannot believe that I’ve met you. I can’t believe that you saved me! Do you know how kickass that is? Half of the designers who are working for us look like they’re fragile enough to blow away if one more needle stabs them. Oh my god. I can’t believe this. This is one of the best days of my life.”

For her part, Marinette looks confused, with an underlying current of either amusement and possibly anxiety. “They are pretty new to the industry. It’s rare to meet another fan!”

“Don’t play me like that. I got my job for a reason. I was one of the top scorers in business school and might have been hired for my background in technology, but the reason why I had an emphasis on fashion is because I am obsessed with couture. And when I get obsessed, it’s pretty easy for me to see when it’s one of my favorite designer’s styles.”

“Thanks for thinking that I copied them so well!” Marinette smiles, and Damian almost doesn’t catch the hint of tension in her shoulders. “I do have a lot of free time on my hands though. High school student and all.”

Marinette has learned to lie very well. After years of hiding life-altering secrets, she has to be. There’s a lot riding on her ability to keep silent. Paris, for example.

Unfortunately for her, the two people at the table aren’t fooled by her act. Damian pieces it together from context clues and a quick glance in his contact list, where Marinette is listed as “Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Nicolette, on the other hand, is very well versed in MDC’s past designs, and also has the conviction to follow through with her beliefs.

Marinette’s denial of her alter-ego is not outlandish. She’s a teenage girl, and perhaps not ready to face the media storm that would come after outing herself to the public. So Nicolette drops the issue, and Damian doesn’t comment. She hums, pulls out a business card and says, “Well, your construction on your blazer is much better than we see with interns usually. If you’re ever interested in coming to Dior, just shoot me a message. I’d be glad to give you a referral or help in any way. It’s the least I can do.”

“Wow, that’s amazing! I’m not sure, but I’m thinking of trying to intern this summer.” Marinette isn’t sure that she can, what with her duties as Ladybug that will inevitably pull her away from her internship and will not reflect well on her work ethic (she really needs to take down Hawkmoth before she gets into college, or at least before she gets into the working world), but it would be nice to intern for one of the biggest fashion companies. And honestly, after knowing how awfully Gabriel treats his own son, she’s not sure she wants to find out how he treats his interns.

“Please Marinette,” Nicolette says, eyes twinkling. “With your skills, I can land you more than an intern position. But it was nice catching up. We should do this again, sometime.”

“It was nice,” Damian says, and he finds that he means it. More than nice, actually. Damian knows more about Marinette now, and he’s sure that there’s even more for him to discover. She certainly keeps things interesting, that’s for sure.

“Definitely.”

“Eugh. Damian, would you please throw out that shirt of yours?” Marinette wrinkles her nose. “Mustard yellow is not your shade. How is it that the one colored shirt that you have in your wardrobe is also the ugliest thing you own?”

Since they now see each other on an almost daily basis and Marinette’s proclivity for fashion has been outed, she voices her distaste with Damian’s limited fashion sense more often than not. The boy knows how to work a good black t-shirt and jeans, but not much else. She asked him if he was trying to go for the emo look, yesterday, and when he said no, she demanded that he wear something with color the following day, So, Damian flipped through the clothes that he brought with him to France, and found that the only colored clothing he brought was a t-shirt he doesn’t even remember packing.

“I’m wearing something colorful,” he says. “You told me to.”

“If I knew that this was the only thing that you owned in color, I would have gladly let you remain in your emo phase.” Marinette sighs. “Now that I know this is your only option and that you are not an emo, I have no choice.”

In the time that has passed since the two of them met with Nicolette, Marinette has not acknowledged the elephant in the room. She has said nothing of her relation to MDC, but it’s not hard to figure it out. Damian spent the night after they met up with Nicolette looking at a collection of all the things that MDC has designed and found a very distinctive logo sewn into each. This logo is also found on all of the things that are up in Marinette’s room, but he hasn’t mentioned it. Thus, the two of them pretend that she is just an aspiring designer, rather than one who already has high-end clientele.

With a dramatic swoon and an intake of breath, Marinette says, “I suppose I must help you with your wardrobe. The reformation of one Damian Grayson has now been entrusted to me, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

The mention of Damian’s fake last name makes him bristle more than the jab at his clothing colors.

“My wardrobe is fine. I don’t see anybody else complaining.”

“Damian. You interact with maybe five people on a regular basis in Paris. Renee doesn’t think you can do a single bad thing in the world, and his Nonna and Nonno aren’t going to say anything about your fashion choices. The barista at the cafe is head over heels for you and clearly doesn’t think about anything but your pretty eyes and the muscles under your t-shirt. Maman and Papa just think that you’re a teenager who doesn’t have more than one outfit, and that you’re possibly emo.” Marinette pauses. “You do have more than one outfit, right?”

Damian scoffs. He may not know fashion, but he can certainly afford more than one outfit. Still, Marinette doesn’t know much about him in terms of family or finance. They’ve kept everything very surface level, though he’s sure that she has her own assumptions. He has his own about her, though he does have more information to work with. He can’t shake the feeling that he’s missing something big, though. The way they keep meeting up after akumas and the way she’s able to take people down so easily when Damian knows that she doesn’t actually go to the martial arts class down the street from Francois Dupont. But every time he tries to think about it for too long, something else draws his attention. His train of thought always slips away.

“Don’t you scoff at me young man. I am now obligated to help you, you poor, misguided soul. I am going to dress you to impress.” Her grin broadens. “I bet that I can get that barista to ask you on a date. What would you prefer; for her to leave her number on a cup, for her to silently drool over you, or for her to try to work up the nerve to ask you out directly?”

“I don’t want her to ask me out at all.” He leans back onto the armrest of the sofa and assesses her.

“Come on, Damian. You need to make more friends. Go out. Live a little!”

“This, coming from you,” Damian says amusedly. Marinette and his brothers would get along splendidly, if they ever met. Not that they will.

Marinette huffs. “I certainly have more friends than you, and I definitely interact with way more people than you do.”

“That’s what you get for working in customer service. And also for having some sort of moral obligation to save the world.”

At this, Marinette almost stutters. Her mind instantly goes to Ladybug. But Damian can’t know. All of the times that she’s seen him on scene after an akuma attack, they were all coincidences. They have to be.

“I don’t know why you feel the need to save everyone and their uncle from stalkers and continue to intervene in random street fights, but where I’m from, that certainly doesn’t happen very often.”

Oh. Oh, he is talking about her civilian form. He doesn’t know. It’s fine.

“Funny, because you always seem to step in to help whenever you see me.” Marinette frowns. “Say, where are you from, anyways? I know you’re from America, which explains why you have such horrible fashion sense, but where?” Marinette cracks a smile, thinking of Damian in American stereotypes.

“So what was it? A surfer? A cowboy? Oh my god, a skater boy,” she cackles. She can totally see it. The slightly rebellious slightly punk combo. There’s no way that Damian wasn’t a skater boy back in the states.

Damian looks insulted. “I was not a skater boy. If you must know, I’m from Gotham.”

Is that too much information? He regrets it almost as soon as the words are out of his mouth, but he has gotten too relaxed in her presence. That isn’t good. He can’t let things slip like that. He should have redirected her, let him think that he was from New York, or that he was a skater boy. If Marinette decides to look up Damian and Gotham, there are a good number of photos of him alongside his real last name. Then she’ll wonder why he lied to begin with. That will be bad. That can’t happen.

She considers him. “You’ve really got it rough, don’t you? Moving from one crime infested city to the next. Gotham’s worse, though. At least here, we’ve only got two overpowered villains and a bunch of victims. Over there… the likes of the Joker and Two-Face? They hurt people, and there’s no Miraculous Cure from Ladybug to fix the damage they’ve done. Honestly, I’m surprised that you don’t avoid danger at every turn.”

Gothamites do tend to avoid danger much more than their Parisian counterparts. Gothamites walk with purpose and are rarely out on the streets longer than they absolutely have to be; they’re a smart bunch, who don’t want to get involved if they don’t have to. Most people keep their cards close to their chest, and don’t let people know that they care.

Damian doesn’t think it’s bad, though he does have to admit that Paris is less dangerous. Frustrating, because he can’t do much when a situation arises, but it’s almost nice how normal he feels in Paris. That’s something he hasn’t gotten to experience much of, and while the first few days were weird, he’s settled into a sort of routine. He gets along with Marinette a hell of a lot better than any of his classmates back in Gotham, except for maybe Kent, but he and Kent rarely see each other during school hours.

Marinette breezes back to talking about fashion, almost as if she knows that she’s getting into territory that neither of them are quite ready to go into, and Damian gladly accepts it.

She claps her hands and says, “We’re going shopping. Let’s get you a wardrobe that makes your loved ones proud.”

It doesn’t escape Damian’s notice that she says loved ones instead of parents, and wonders if she knows more than he thinks she does. He wonders if she already knows that he’s Damian Wayne. Somehow, he doubts that she knows or cares that he is the son of an American billionaire with mommy issues. But it does feel good to have someone that doesn’t assume things about the state of his family. She’s been incredibly noninvasive and patient, backing off as soon as she thinks there’s a possible limit if he ever says more than he means to. Damian wonders if this courtesy is because she doesn’t want her own secrets to get out. It doesn’t matter, whatever the reason.

He’s glad for it.

They’re in her bedroom.

Damian lies on her chaise, tossing a stress ball that he finds on her desk. Marinette sits in her rolling chair, working on a commission.

“Ever thought of opening up a website?” Marinette’s room is nice. It has a feminine charm to it, but nothing overwhelming. Very different from Barbara’s chaotically organized room that has cold cases and theories lying around on every open surface and Cassandra’s weapon filled one.

Marinette hums. “I’ve thought about it. I don’t know if I want to. I don’t really have the technical expertise to make it happen.”

“You’ve got Nicolette. I wouldn’t be opposed to helping you with the technological aspect, either.”

At her desk, Marinette’s hands still. “The commissions I get just from word of mouth are pretty amazing. They’re also pretty time consuming.”

Damian can’t tell if he’s pushing too hard. If she’s uncomfortable with what he’s saying. Not for the first time since he’s been around Marinette, Damian wishes that he could read people better.

“But you want to be a fashion designer. You can only do so much with word of mouth.”

“I’ve got plenty of time,” Marinette counters. “I’ve got years before I can even think about making it big.”

This… annoys him for some reason. Marinette doesn’t have to wait for years before making a splash in the fashion industry. She already is. And she can make an even bigger one if she just makes a way for people to contact her reliably.

He sits up. “You are perfectly capable of achieving your dreams now.Why are you putting what you’re passionate about on hold? It makes little sense to limit yourself when there are celebrities around the world vying for a piece of yours. Even my brothers like your designs, and it’s difficult to catch their attention.”

Briefly, Damian wonders if his words would mean more to her if she knew he is a Wayne. That his brothers are Waynes-- the impossible to please, highly irritable Waynes. He shakes away the thought. Thanks to her everyday hero attitude, she’s gotten to meet a surprising amount of famous people or people on their way to fame, and she treats them no differently when she finds out.

What goes on inside the brain of Marinette is far beyond him. Every time he thinks he has her pegged, she does something that makes his assumptions wrong. It’s frustrating how little he knows about her when he is supposed to be one of the world’s greatest detectives. The one thing that doesn’t change, the only common thread that he can follow is that Marinette cares for people far better than most care for themselves.

It’s only been one month, but Marinette is passionate about everything she does, from helping out her parents at the bakery to all of the random acts of kindness she does around town. The good will she shows people on the streets, whether they’re down on their luck that day or are going through a rough patch is unconventional and awe-inspiring. Anyone she meets who’s in a really bad situation is immediately swept up into endless love and affection and she always continues to meet up with them when they need it. If she comes across a situation where she can help,Marinette always follows through. She drops everything for complete strangers that she meets.

So why can’t she take a stab at her own dreams?

“I don’t have time,” Marinette manages. Damian doesn’t think that he’s seen her breathe since they’ve started this conversation.

“Marinette. Look at me.”

She turns to him, eyes downcast and mind clearly elsewhere.

“Marinette.”

She looks at him. Damian is taken aback at the kind of blue her eyes are. Layers of different shades of blue with flecks that almost look silver surrounding her pupil. Even her eyes have freckles.

“You need to make the time.” And then, she looks so helpless, her eyes full of regret and confusion and anxiousness.

Damian wants to do something. With his hands, or feet, or something. He wants to move, he wants to hold her. He settles for running a hand through his hair, a highly unusual action. He likes his hair neat and doesn’t like tics. They make him feel weak. But if running his hand through his hair can stop him from reaching out to Marinette-- for what, Damian thinks, a hug?--then he’ll do it.

“I’m busy, Damian,” she says plaintively, like she’s begging him to believe her.

Why, though? Damian doesn’t understand. Why can’t she just make a website? God knows his brothers would be all over it. The only reason Tim hasn’t figured out her identity is because he respects the fact that MDC clearly does not want to go public. He’s been trying to hunt down an alternate way to get an MDC commission for months now and has only just stopped short of reaching out to Jagged himself. Damian doesn’t understand why he feels so frustrated at her lack of effort, either. He’s seen plenty of people around him in Gotham give up on their dreams in favor of more practical ways of life. People he knew that were talented and could make it, and he never, ever pushed them. Because it was their life. Their decisions. So why?

Why does it hurt so much when Marinette doesn’t follow her dreams?

“I see. Then if you’re so busy, maybe I should stop taking up your time.” The words taste like blood in his mouth. What is he doing? Being with Marinette makes him feel good. Like he’s worthy of being Bruce Wayne’s blood son and that he’s a good brother. Why should he give that up just because Marinette doesn’t want to grow up?

He drops through the trap door and closes it behind him. He goes back to the apartment his father bought him for his stay in Paris. It is empty, cold, and impersonal. For the first time since he’s met Marinette, Damian desperately wishes that the Justice League would give him permission to be Robin.

2:02 AM | Marinette: Damian?

Marinette: hey im sorry for

Marinette: honestly i don’t even know i

2:06 AM | Marinette: will you help me make a website?

2:10 AM | Damian: ok

Damian: i’ll come over tomorrow after school?

2:12 AM | Marinette: yeah

Marinette: that sounds good

3:30 AM | Marinette: im sorry i don’t really know what for but i’m sorry

Marinette: i felt really horrible

Marinette: im sorry

3:37 AM | Damian: you need to learn how to take care of yourself before you take care of others

Damian: please.

#miraculous ladybug #dcu #mlb x dc #maribat #daminette #damian wayne is robin #sbgs #original content #adrien agreste #lila rossi #marinette dupain cheng #damian wayne

114 notes · View notes

marinettemarch · 4 years

Photo

Marinette March 2020 is happening! Thank you all for being so patient! Who’s ready to love our precious protagonist! To participate, all you have to do is use the prompts listed above (or under the cut) to create art, fic, gifs, whatever your medium of creation is and use the hashtags #marinettemarch 2020 or #marinettelove 2020 and @ this blog. We will share all submissions to this blog during the event, and on May 1st we will resume general content reblogging. If you don’t finish on time, no worries! We will accept submissions throughout the year as they come in.

This event is open to anyone in the fandom, but please keep in mind a few rules.

1. This event is to appreciate Marinette

Any character hate will be blocked. Read: ANY This event is not the place to vent your frustrations with other characters and especially not with Marinette. Please keep submissions salt-free and center them around Marinette.

2. Please keep ship content to a minimum unless otherwise suggested by a prompt

This month is about Marinette, not any one particular ship. You can have hints (i.e. her canon unrequited crush on Adrien or any other ship you might want to include, etc) but please keep the focus of your story on her. There will be ample opportunities later in the year to celebrate various ships involving her. This month was created to celebrate her character.

3. NSFW is okay for some of our implied aged up prompts (or if you just want to do an entire aged up AU the whole month)

But please keep it aged up (she is canonically 14), put it under a read more, and tag it so that I can know as well. This event is for people of all ages, so please be respectful.

4. No salt

I repeat: NO SALT of any kind. Salt has its place in the fandom, but not in this event. This event is meant to be Marinette-positive and fun. Leave the salt at the door. You are free to make as much of it as you want in your own space, but not for this event. Salt submissions will not be reblogged. If you have any questions or concerns about whether your submission counts as salt, please message me here or on my ML blog @purrincess-chat

I want this event to be a fun way to create content for our beloved protagonist, free of other fandom drama. Feel free to interpret the prompts any way that you like, and most importantly: have fun!

Prompts listed under cut:

1. New Beginnings

2. Letting Go

3. Vacation

4. Dough

5. Babysitter

6. Double Life

7. Memes

8. Goodbyes

9. Uncle Jagged

10. Alter Egos

11. Gamer

12. Kwami Mom

13. Domestic

14. Compass

15. Ultimate Power

16. Friends

17. Designer

18. Rare Pairs

19. Past Lives

20. Gown

21. Class President

22. Akumatized

23. Buff!Marinette

24. Pressure

25. Order of the Guardians

26. Comfort

27. Future

28. Team Leader

29. Flowers

30. Balcony

31. Miracle Box

**prompts were created with the help of the Marinette Support Squad server**

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #ladybug #marinette march #calendar #marinette march 2020

546 notes · View notes

miraculouslycool · 4 years

Text

Your Strong Disguise - Part 1

Pairing - Ladynoir/Adrienette

Rating - PG

(Standalone, Happens after Miracle Queen, Lukanette and Adrigami are not canon, Marinette doesn't know Adrien threatened Lila)

Marinette squealed as she skidded inside the school gates.

"Sorry, Mr. Harpele!" She called as she ran inside.

"No problem!" He called back kindly like he did almost everyday when she was late.

She shouldn't have stayed up until three last night patrolling!

Well, she did get to spend a lot of time with Chat, and they did get a lot of hijinks of her new guardianship figured out together.....so maybe it wasn't so bad- NO, FOCUS MARINETTE! she screamed in her head.

She didn't know how it was possible to sigh in relief when she was panting for breath, but it seemed like she wasn't that late. She could still hear the chattering of her classmates, meaning that Miss Bustier hadn't arrived yet.

Marinette was too busy reveling in her relief she hadn't noticed the crushed, empty can underneath her mobile feet.

"Woah!" Marinette yelped as she braced for the impact of the ground.

Instead, she felt herself being caught by a pair of strong arms and her face collided against someone's chest instead.

"Marinette, are you okay?" Adrien Agreste's concerned voice rang through her ears.

"Adrien?" Marinette looked up to see him looking at her worriedly.

"Oh, yeah, I-I'm fine!" She said nervously, stepping away a few paces.

"You sure? Nothing broken?"

"Nope! I'm good to go!" Marinette grinned.

Three months ago, she would have cringed at herself for saying something so simple to her crush, but right now, she was proud of herself for not vomiting her words anymore.

Three months ago, she had given up on her feelings for him, to let him and Kagami be happy together. Well, they lasted a good two weeks before deciding to call it quits and remain friends.

And thankfully that did nothing to impact hers and Kagami's friendship either. Adrien and Kagami were a bit awkward for a week, but soon enough that melted away and they were incredibly close.

And Marinette was grateful and surprised that that didn't bother her. In fact, Adrien and her had gotten a lot closer the past few months.

Don't get her wrong, a part of her would always love Adrien, but that tempting, irresistable urge to absolutely be in a romantic relationship with him was no longer there.

And spending more time with a certain black cat with green eyes did help....

"Marinette?"

Adrien's voice made her realise she had been spacing out. Again.

"Oh no. Don't tell me I did it again." She groaned. "How long did I zone out this time?"

"Three minutes?" Adrien giggled.

"And you were just watching as I stared off into nothing?" Marin said crossly.

"Well....you gotta admit." He said, leading her over to the steps. "Waiting till you realise that you were spaced out is quite entertaining. Atleast you didn't jump into the air this time."

Marinette groaned. Sometimes Adrien was worse than her kitty. "It was one time! Will you and Alya never let it go?"

"Alya threatened me not to." He admitted guiltily.

"Of course she did." Marinette sighed as she climbed up the stairs. "So, how come you are arriving at the same time I am? Aren't you the one with the perfectly managed schedule?"

For some reason, Adrien looked nervous. "Uh, you know. I was up all night doing homework. I was so busy with that fencing tournament that I was behind on all my schoolwork."

"Oh right, the one our entire class went to!" Marinette said excitedly. Kagami had gotten off on the right foot with their class, and everyone had cheered for her just as loudly as their did for Adrien. Well, everyone except for Lila who wasn't there because of one of her 'charity trips' that everyone except Adrien and herself 'oohed' and 'aahed' over.

When they entered the classroom, Alix and Kim were having a paper ball war and Max was keeping score. Most of the students were laughing or cheering them on.

Nino was in Marinette's place and was excitedly talking to Alya.

"Hey, you two!" Alya waved, and sent a smug look towards Marinette who quickly glared at her.

"You don't mind if I sit here until Miss Bustier gets here, do you dudette?" Nino asked Marinette who smiled and shook her head. "Not at all, Nino! I'll just sit next to Adrien until then."

The minute they had taken their seats, Alya began, "So, I was thinking, the four of us have a movie night this Friday. It's been so long since the four of us hung out."

"I'm totally on board as long as there are no horror movies." Marinette said.

"You got it, girl. Nino managed to convince me out of that one."

"Wait, am I hearing this right?" Adrien asked in disbelief. "NINO managed to convince Alya out of something?"

"I'm still in shock, to be honest with you bro." Nino deadpanned.

"Oh, don't rub it in." Alya huffed as Adrien and Marinette laughed.

"What about you, Adrien?" Marinette asked. "Do you think you'll be able to make it?"

"Uh...I think so, if I can stay at the top of my fencing, Chinese and basketball classes and practice my piano and ace my photoshoots." He turned positively grumpier as he continued, and Marinette knew why.

"Well, it's settled then." Alya stated. "Since Adrien being able to be there is still on the rocks, I say that we choose a movie that he likes, so even if he is only able to be there on FaceTime, he'll atleast get to see a movie he wants to watch."

"That's a great idea!" Marinette said.

"Yeah, thanks a lot, Alya." Adrien grinned. "Although.... I'm not exactly a film buff?"

"Yeah, everytime we manage to get to hang all you wanna see is anime." Nino said.

Adrien glared at him as Marinette giggled. Yet for some reason, he didn't feel embarrassed in front of her at all.

"Well, do you have any favourite actors-" Marinette began but she was interrupted by a shrill voice.

"Oh my goodness, are you guys having a movie night?" Lila Rossi said excitedly.

Marinette wanted to use her dormant Ladybug strength to kick her off the Earth itself.

Adrien was much better at hiding his emotions, but even he couldn't help but glare at her.

"Yeah we are, Lila." Alya said. "This Friday."

Marinette wanted to throttle her.

"That's so awesome! I'm free this Friday too! Can I come too?"

Alya and Nino were friendly with her, but they looked incredibly uncomfortable.

Marinette took a deep breath. "But I thought you were going to that gala that's honouring your mom in Rome this weekend!" She said innocently.

She wasn't even lying. Lila had been bragging about it for a month. "You were saying how you were going to catch the plane on the 29th, that is this Friday."

Adrien grinned at Marinette proudly. She was so awesome, she didn't even need to raise her voice to get rid of her.

"Oh, um, yeah. I must have forgotten!" Lila said nervously. "My short term memory loss must be acting up again."

"Sorry about that, dude." Nino said kindly.

"Yeah, maybe some other time." Alya said.

Adrien and Marinette shared a relieved look.

"So, as you were saying," Marinette began, not even bothering to check if Lila had gone away or not. "Do you have any favourite actors? Maybe we could see one of their movies?"

Adrien thought. Nino was right, he didn't really watch movies that much. And the only movie he watched intently with reverence was ....his mother's.

He really didn't want to bring up a depressing topic especially when his friends were in high spirits, so he said, "Emilie Graham De Vanily. She's my favourite actress."

Thankfully, none of them recognised the name.

"Huh, I've never heard of her before..." Nino said.

"She's acted in some pretty rare movies, but those are some of the few I watch. You guys..... would be pretty bored by them so maybe it's better if we choose something else." He said apologetically.

"Are you sure?" Alya asked.

"Yeah! I don't mind-"

"Wait, did you say Emilie Graham De Vanily?" Lila began with a laugh so fake it made his stomach retch. "I love her so much! She's one of my oldest family friends!"

Adrien felt like he had been slapped in the face.

"Sorry, what did you say?" He asked quietly.

"Emilie Graham De Vanily, Adrien! I love her too! I've been to all her movie premieres, she's my mom's oldest friend, they went to grade school together! I can help you meet her if you want, she LOVES her fans."

Marinette began irritatedly, "Oh, give me a break-" but Adrien put his hand on hers and stopped her.

He plastered on a smile. "That's awesome, Lila! Do you think you could get me a meeting tomorrow? My whole week is so swamped, I think I could only make some free time for tomorrow."

Lila blanched, but she held on. "I'll see what I can do, Adrien, she's a busy person-"

"You said she loved her fans. So she'll obviously be happy to see me." He said.

Alya, Nino and Marinette had gone quiet. The tension between them was skyrocketingly high.

"Well-"

"So look up when you can meet her." He insisted.

"But I-"

"Look it up." He gritted his teeth so forcefully the entire room went quiet.

Chloe who was talking on her phone turned to see him intently. Sabrina looked up from finishing Chloe's homework. Max paused in the middle of marking Alix's score. Alix dropped her ball. Kim was looking at the five of them in the middle of throwing his ball. Nathaniel didn't look so sleepy anymore. Rose, Mylene and Juleka had their mouths wide open. Even IVAN looked shocked.

None of them had ever heard Adrien sound so furious.

"Adrien, why are you mad at me?" Lila began to sniff fake tears.

"I asked you to look her up. You do have your phone with you, right?" He said, glaring at her.

"Um, yes-" Lila hastened to search for her name.

"What does it say?" He said with an air of fake concern.

"She-she's" Lila was trembling. "She's Emilie Agreste."

A collective gasp echoed through the room.

Adrien had stood up by now.

Marinette was outraged, but she couldn't help but feel unsettled at Adrien's anger.

"So when you manage to find a way to arrange a meeting with my mother who disappeared a year ago, let me know, will you?" He said, fisting his palms so tight he must have drawn blood.

"Adrien, I-"

"Oh, save it." He snapped before storming out of the classroom.

"Adrien!" Marinette called out to him, but he didn't turn back.

"WHAT THE HELL, LILA?!" Marinette roared, spinning around to face the liar. "How could you lie about something like this?!"

"How dare you upset my Adrikins, you bitch?" Chloe shrieked, throwing her phone on the table. "You are disgusting, utterly disgusting!"

"I never thought you would do something like this." Nino wasn't as externally angry as the girls, but he was incredibly upset. "Shame on you Lila."

Alya was beside herself with rage. "How dare you?? What has Adrien done to you to deserve this?! What else have you lied about??"

"I wasn't lying!" Lila blubbered. "He looked so down at yesterday's photoshoot with me I wanted to make him happy! I didn't know his favourite actress was his mom!"

"Yeah, Lila, you made him reeeaally happy. Congratulations." Alix said sarcastically, but her eyes were blazing with fire.

Marinette wanted to stay and watch Lila beautifully ruin herself, but she didn't want to leave Adrien alone at a time like this. She ran out of the classroom's cacophony of loud accuses and tears to find him sitting at the bottom of the stairs, hugging his knees and burying his head in them.

Marinette felt her heart break. Adrien didn't deserve this. Everyone knew he loved his mom dearly, but Marinette realised just how much only now.

Adrien was always kind to Lila, at least before he found out her lies were actually damaging to others. The fact that she would exploit this about him-

No, she couldn't think about Lila now. Adrien needed a friend. And she was going to be one.

She slowly got down the stairs to not startle him.

"Hi, Marinette." Adrien's muffled voice startled her instead.

"H-hey." She said. He still didn't look up.

She sat down next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I am so sorry." She said sadly.

"Why?" He looked up. His eyes were red with unshed tears. "It's not your fault. You didn't ask her to lie about my mom."

"No, it isn't- but I should have recognised the name, I should have said something sooner-"

He laughed humorlessly, blinking away his tears. "Do you think she would have stopped? I had to let her go that far, even if it was hurtful. She needed to be taken down a peg."

"Oh, Adrien." Marinette said. "It's okay if you want to cry. It's just me."

"I know it is. I....just don't want to be akumatised."

At that moment, Marinette hated Hawkmoth and everything he stood for. Nobody could even think of feeling bad or upset without giving into the fear of being used for evil. As long as he was around, being human was a luxury nobody could afford.

Marinette slung her hand around his arm and pulled herself closer. "I'll keep a lookout for any akumas." She promised.

Adrien looked at her like he was a blind man who was just granted sight. And maybe that was literally true, because his tears were blurring his vision.

Marinette laid her head on his shoulder and he nestled his on the top of hers, letting his tears trickle down his face.

What had he even done to deserve Marinette? He was a nobody compared to her. She was strong, smart, brave, outspoken and most importantly had so much love to give everyone. All he knew was to shrivel up and give in.

He knew since the beginning that she had a thing for Luka. Ever since the ice rink. And yeah, he knew that Luka was a good guy. He was gentle, kind and a great listener. Something anybody would want. Someone Marinette could be incredibly happy with.

He had no idea why he always felt weird about the idea of them together. For a moment, when he figured out that Marinette's handwriting could have been the same one on his Valentine, his heart had leaped. Until it was reminded that there was someone else in her life. So he didn't complain. He didn't want to make the same mistake he made with Ladybug. Not with Marinette. Besides, he had Kagami, so he couldn't complain.

How unlucky was he with love? First Ladybug had someone else, then Marinette, then Kagami and him didn't work out.

Marinette and Luka lasted for an even shorter time than him and Kagami. In fact they were closer than ever as friends. And that made Adrien happy, and that in turn made him hate himself for being happy.

It wasn't long before he realised he had feelings for Marinette, with the help of a gentle prod from Plagg (okay, he threatened that he would use Cataclysm on him if he didn't realise the truth). And for some reason, that scared him.

That was completely new. When it came to his love for Ladybug, he threw himself completely into it. He never gave up on trying to win her affections, and her refusal of her feelings hadn't stopped him either. So why was he so scared to tell Marinette the exact same thing all of a sudden?

Boom!

"Adrien Agreste!" A demonized voice shrieked from the recently bombarded classroom door.

"What was that?!" Marinette tumbled out of his arms as they got up.

Steadying her, Adrien looked up to see a levitating figure, clothed in loose robes of purple and had sashes flying out of her sleeves. Her long brown hair was loose and was billowing behind her like a train. Her skin was light purple but failed to match the red hot anger in her face.

"Lila?" Marinette gasped.

"You two!" She screeched. "You humiliated me! And you are going to suffer dearly for it!"

One of her sashes extended towards them, but Adrien pulled Marinette out of the way, running ahead of Lila.

She cackled. "Do you actually think you can outrun the Guilt Tripper?!"

"Adrien! Her sash is growing!" Marinette yelled from behind him.

Without wasting another second, Adrien paused to grab Marinette bridal style as he ran with her.

"What the-" Marinette squealed as she held on to his neck.

"Don't worry, Marinette, I'll get you to a safe place!" He said quickly as he ran towards the direction of the girls' restrooms.

Marinette didn't know if she was shaken by the Akuma or Adrien's surprisingly large amounts of superhuman strength.

Setting her down in front of the door, he said, "Get inside before she catches up to you!"

"What? What about you?!" Marinette said forcefully.

Adrien reached behind her to open the door and gently shove her inside.

"It's not you she's after." He said breathlessly. "You don't need to get hurt unnecessarily."

"Adrien are you insane?! You're not going after her alone-"

"Lock the door from the inside." He said before closing the door and running away to transform.

"Looks like I found the guilty party!" An evil laugh from behind him said.

Before he knew it, he was tightly wound by her sash and was being pulled towards her.

"Let me go!" He grunted, trying to pull away from her.

"After what you did to me?! You could have just let it be! Who was it harming?? Isn't that the Adrien Agreste logic? Stand by and do nothing?"

Her words stung more than they should have.

Her eyes suddenly turned more purple than they already were, and before Adrien could do anything she aimed at his neck and fired.

Pain crept up through his veins, and then he was falling. Right into Ladybug's arms.

"Sorry, looks like the real jury's arrived, Lila." Ladybug said smugly.

"I'm not Lila, I'm the Guilt Tripper!" She screamed before firing at Ladybug.

Ladybug expertly dodged her, and ran away with Adrien.

"Are you okay?!" She asked him.

"Yeah, I am fine, I managed to avoid the worst of her blast!" He said, panting for breath.

She ran out towards the stairs leading to the basement. "Do you think you can hide there?"

"Yes, thank you for saving me Ladybug." He said as she put him down. "Is Marinette okay?" He asked anxiously.

"She was the one who told me where you were. I told her to lock herself in a bathroom stall." She smiled.

Adrien sighed in relief. If Marinette got hurt because of him, he would never forgive himself.

"Stay out of danger, Adrien. And one more thing." Ladybug said.

"Yes?"

"Don't accept responsibility for something that is not your fault." She said seriously before swinging away.

See you soon, Bugaboo. He thought as he ran down the stairs.

"Plagg, let's go!" He opened up his overshirt.

"I was enjoying my cheese- Adrien, what's that on your neck?!" Plagg yelped.

"Huh?" He looked down. He hadn't even noticed that his neck was still throbbing with pain.

Now he was wearing a choker with a large purple pendant with a symbol of a mirror cracked right through the middle.

"Where did that come from?" He wondered, but then a sharp sting of pain creeped through his head.

"Aghhhh!" Adrien yelled, holding his head.

"Adrien! ADRIEN!" Plagg was screaming.

-------

"Everything is perfect, my dear Mayura." Hawkmoth leered. "Lila Rossi has begun the first part of our plan. Now it is your turn."

Mayura smiled bewitchingly at him before plucking a feather from her fan. Closing her fist around it, she filled it with amokised energy and merged it with a ballpoint pen.

Closing her eyes, she visualised her sentimonster. Blond, wild hair, vivid green eyes, tall and sturdy, black leather, and the final touch, his tail.

She opened her eyes to see a perfect image of Chat Noir in front of her.

"Chat Noir, you are Ladybug's true love. You will stop at nothing until she returns your affections and becomes yours and yours alone. Are you ready?" She took his ringed hand and placed the pen on his outstretched palm.

He opened his eyes. Mayura beamed at her creation. He was perfect. He looked exactly like his real version, but the eyes that normally held mischief and tenderness now held a feral hunger for his prey, Ladybug.

"I was born ready, Mayura." He smirked.

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

#miraculous ladybug #adrien #marinette #adrienette #ladybug #chat noir #ladynoir #lila salt #Adrien sugar #alya sugar #Lila salt #my fics #Your Strong Disguise

335 notes · View notes

heizerux · 4 years

Text

IN NEW YORK YOU CAN BE A NEW— Hero :3

My ML NY Special review/thoughts

First things first, I love this whole intro sequence they had going for the special. Really takes me in for the ride that they’re going International. Anywhoosies, the following are majority of my thoughts as I chronologically had them as I watched the special.

Starting off: SPACE POWERS SPACE POWER SPACE POWERS :o

I know they’re just friends, but im just saying Chat, not everyone goes out of their way to research rose colors to give to their “friends” ;3

CONGRATS ON THE BABY MS. BUSTIER!!!!!!!! May we meet your baby in ANY of the next two seasons. :3

Sock Washington Adrien and Marinette’s growth :’3 I love the analogies for her good FRIEND she uses.

Nathalie in bed rest from the peacock miraculous low key makes me wonder if Emílie started there first before. . . Well, ending up out.

I LOVE that this is an ACTUAL post S3 film. Most special films are made with that “description” to be inserted in any season, but they always feel off with continuity in the main series. Here we carry on that that although Adrigami and Lukanette are in the steps of “building” towards something from S3. . . We see that Adrienette/Ladynoir is just . . . Not going away anytime soon :3

The Ladybug kitty beeper 🥺 I want one. Gimme

Plagg: See any supervillains around??

(Idk. Try below the house 😬)

I love to see Kagami. I see she’s supportive of Adrien and his feelings with toughness lol.

Not gonna lie I low key actually think it’s sweet that Luka is so supportive of Marinette in general? He’s such a secure and good guy. I really could never (I actually forgot about the salt and comments about how he’s bland while watching him in this minute he had lol) He wasn’t bad. He was just here.

Marinette lights up Adrien’s thoughts/problems and he doesn’t even know it lol Boy can go from “Oh no, Ladybug is gonna be so pissed” to “OMG Marinette is here :D”

In regards to Alya: I didn’t know NYC was a “romantic” city. I just thought it was “flashy” lol

The SUNSETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT VIEWEWWWW and the HUGHGGGGGGGGKVDXHHXHXEEEEEEEERRDUURUTXITCTICTCITUTXOCOHVURSUZIFDIEURJJUSDIFIAWEKVMMVVFJHSHTYETIFJCHgshjfjdufii—

Nino FINALLY said it 👁👄👁 “Adrien is a baby chick coming out of his shell”. He straight up called out his own bro on his absentness. . . #wokenino

Ok, Majestia’s badass. I like her in this a lot and she’s a MOTHERRERFVHDYSYHFJYSIRKG GC DFUKGJG—

Sorry. Better luck next year, Domacles 🥺

“IN NEW YORK YOU CAN BE A NEW MAN!!!”

Alya’s pointing XD . . . Annnnd Adrien missing the sign U_U

“The croissants are en route” BITCH I—

But Adrien, dear, PLEASE catch a hint :’3

No, Chloe! Don’t throw the mini Lafayette D:

I LOVE the new girls, Jess and Aeon so much

💕Sabrina x American Boy💕 that’s all. This matters to me

Kim found a buff friend to do buff things with🥺

We need a Hot Dog Dave in our real lives. A hero that brings free food. Hmmmm

Flying Adrienette . . . Dancing, together 🥺 UGH THEYRE SO IN LOVEEEEEEEE

Marinette AND Adrien’s Worst Continous ENEMY: Automatic Doors still

I’m trying SO HARD not to make anymore Hamilton references in this special 👁👄👁

American villains have the “common sense” Hawkmoth lacks. Technopirate:“Why do you want jewels? Don’t you want a bomb? No? Umm, okay?”

Chat Noir blowing his cover because Marichat!!!!!! Not gonna lie I found myself yelling a lot in excitement

. . . And THEN I found myself crying because seeing Ladybug being ACTUALLY LEVEL 9,000 mad at Chat Noir made my heart hurt. Ladybug chill 🥺

Lafayette was an American miraculous holder!!! 👁👄👁

These entire scenes. . . I don’t EVER wanna see them like hurt this again.

Oh yeah, Hawkmoth does stuff. The girls work to seek LB and CN as all adult heroes are going mad.

And the reunion 💕💕💕💕💕🥺🥺🥺💕💕

I just really love to see that even though they’re both “moved on” from their “love”, they keep coming back to and caring for each other. . . Those fist bumps are now equal to passionate Ladynoir kisses to me 🥺

LOOK AT THE AMERICAN HOLDER!!!!!!! I didn’t see this coming at alll and I’m fucking PLEASED with what we got. A Native American girl being a holder. *chefs kiss* I’m so freaking happy guys.

(Rip Paris but NY has bigger problems lol)

Omg Justicia and Knight Owl are together💕 I’m pretty sure that’s canon if you catch my drift 👀

Kind of an afterthought but I was a bit surprised to see the space powers shown kind of secondhand in this. I still hope to se them more in action within the show. Chat’s space costume looks gorgeous mimicking a night sky.

This special brought loves square fluff, hurt, super gays, more people of color, good insight on what the US is doing with their heroes, and a posible birth of more American holders? This isn’t even past the tip of the iceberg but this episode brought good stuff!!!!

10/10!!!!

#miraculous new york #ml New York #ml new york spoilers #ml new york special #ml spoilers #ml ny #ml ny special #miraculous ladybug new york special #ml #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug and chat noir #ml thoughts

32 notes · View notes

tired-college-student-writing · 5 years

Text

Tim’s Secret Weapon Pt. 5

I’ve been slightly obsessed with @ozmav ‘s Damian Wayne/Marinette Dupain-Cheng pairing as of late, and just saw a post that has inspired me more than anything else has in months, so I felt the need to write it

Summary- Tim has always seen the numbers floating above people’s heads, been able to perceive their threat levels with a single glance. After being a hero for so long he thought he was desensitized to seeing high numbers above people’s heads until Damian brings a new friend home. Part 1 Part 4 Part 5 (HERE) Part 6 _______________________________________________________________________ Dick got a look on his face.

A pinched sort of look that made it look like he was thinking something over intently.

It was a look that filled all of the Bats and anyone that knew him from his Robin days with a sense of dread.

“Dick…” Jason drew out slightly, “What are you thinking?”

“I’m going to do a thing,” He replied almost offhandedly, “Since she hasn’t seen us yet.”

“Don’t-” Damian didn’t even finish since Dick had already disappeared, causing Tim to bury his head in his hands.

“God that’s annoying,” The other three found themselves groaning in unison, their own inside joke even as found his path almost instantly.

The eldest son snuck through the crowd of teens unnoticed, surprisingly. Most would think that one would notice the thirty-year-old right outside the secondary school, but he easily weaved through the crowds and worked his way behind the baker’s daughter.

Marinette was too involved in his conversation with the blond to notice Dick grinning mischievously at her from behind the half wall she was leaning against.

In a swift move, the acrobat grabbed her and lifted her onto his left shoulder in one fell swoop, earning a high pitched squeal from the girl as he spun in a circle perched on the half wall and drawing almost all of the attention of the whole courtyard.

“Hello, Mari!” He greeted casually as if her hands weren’t twisted into his hair in her shock.

She blinked down at him, taking a few seconds to register what was happening before her face morphed into fond irritation, “Seriously, Richard?”

The blond, Neon Green 15, she had been talking to was staring in between them as if he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be concerned or bemused.

“Ummmm… What’s going on?” the buff boy, White 12, from nearby asked, hand raised slightly.

Marinette glanced around and groaned as she realized that her entire class was staring at her up on top of Dick’s shoulders.

“Everyone, this is Dick” Marinette introduced, “He’s a family friend of sorts. Dick these are my classmates.”

“Nice to meet you,” Dick greeted waving a hand happily with Marinette still balance on one shoulder.

“Should have known Mari was skanky enough to get with a guy twice our age.” The Batfam stiffened and turned to look at the origin of the voice. It was the girl Tim pointed out earlier as being dangerous, Copper 9, a wide smirk on her face as her posse snickered. None of them had to turn to feel the bloodlust boiling off of Damian, not that they would deny the red tinge to their vision. Marinette had wilted in a millisecond.

“Told you that was a bad idea, Grayson,” Damian snapped as the other three walked over much calmer than they were feeling.

Marinette lit back up at their appearance and started poking Dick’s cheek.

“Put me down. Put me down. Put me down. Put me down. Put me down.”

“Okay, Okay!” He laughed as he lifted her off his shoulder and passed him easily to Jason.

Jason grinned, holding her on his hip, “Hey Marigold,”

“Jay!” She giggled giving him a hug, “Not the brother I wanted, and don’t hand me to Tim cause he looks like he hasn’t slept this week and I don’t want to be dropped.”

Jason clutched his chest, “That’s so mean, sunshine! Though you’re right about Tim.”

“Rude,” Tim grumbled, but couldn’t stop the grin that came to his face, “but hug the devil spawn before he tries to rip our arms off.”

Damian glared at him, but as soon as Marinette wrapped her arms around his neck he softened, placing a kiss on her hair, “Missed you, Habibiti,”

“Missed you too, Dames,” She giggled, excitement bubbling, "What are you guys even doing here? I know you don't like to travel too much."

Jason cut in, "Bruce was inspecting the Paris branch, so we just decided to tag along."

"Oh, Bruce is here too? I'll have to make some of those strawberry cream macaroons he likes."

“Brothers? Wow, that’s a new low,”

“Who the fuck are you?” Jason finally snapped, glancing over at Copper 9.

“Who are you?” one of the other girls standing with her, an obnoxious orange 5 twisting over her, asked, phone pointed at them, “Cause showing up to a high school isn’t exactly a good look for post-college graduates, mister.”

“Well going from oldest to youngest, He’s Dick, as Mari already said, I’m Jason, that’s Tim, and the twerp that’s snuggling up to Marigold is Damian, her boyfriend.”

“We’re brothers,” Dick added, as the group around the two girls looked stunned while many of the others perked up.

“This the guy you’ve been telling us about huh?” The tiny pink-haired girl, Icy Blue 13, comments, giving Damian a considering look.

Buff White 12, next to her smirked at them, “You do go for the lookers, huh, Nette?”

A red-haired boy, a lavender 4, laughed softly, “I thought he’d be taller,”

“Since when do you have a boyfriend?!” Orange 5 yelped, causing Mari to roll her eyes as she finally pulled away from the youngest Wayne.

“I’ve been telling you, Alya,” Marinette snapped making the boys blink. There was actual venom in her voice, ice pointily aimed at the other teen. Marinette never had real heat in her words, not even with the Rogues, “I started dating him a year ago, but you didn’t believe me.”

“Two soon,” Damian piped in, looking smug at the flabbergasted group.

“But you’re into Adrian!”

The blond boy, Adrian, Neon Green 15, frowned, “She and I are just friends. She’s been trying to get me with my crush for the last six months? Why on earth would you think she had a crush on me?”

Marinette shrugged, “I mean I did, but I got over it around your fourteenth birthday.”

“Wait,” the boy got a look of realization on his face, “Is that why you always stuttered around me?!”

“Oh my god!” Icy Blue 13 cried, “You can’t tell me you’re seriously that dense!”

“Homeschooled Alix!” He snapped back, “I was homeschooled by a recluse!”

“But if she’s not in love with Adrian,” The pixie cut blonde, Buttercup Yellow 3, questioned trembling slightly, “ Why has she been so mean to Lila?”

“Perhaps,” the nerdy boy, Nerdy White 12, pushing up his glasses, “Marinette’s feeling towards Lila has something to do with the fact that Lila’s claim of having a disease that causes her to do or say things she does not mean to can only be labeled as Compulsive Lying and yet half of the class believes every story that she tells and gets upset at anyone that dares to question her.”

“Shut it, Max,” Alya growled, “This has nothing to-”

“Utterly ridiculous,” The blonde girl, Canary Yellow 14 over her head, cut in without looking up from her phone, “You can’t seriously tell me this has nothing to do with Dupain-Cheng questioning Rossi’s idiotic stories.”

“No one cares about your opinion, Chloe,” Lila purred with an ugly scowl, “Or is it Chealse? I can’t keep up since your mother never seems to get it right.”

“Yeah, no,” Chloe continued, “That insult is like a year and a half too late, and I don’t have to do anything but ask questions.”

“What are you playing at, Bourgeois?”

Chloe looked up from her phone, eyes going to the group surrounding Lila, “At lunch, Lila was talking about her new boyfriend, right? Who feels like reminding everyone of who that was?”

The ginger girl, Tan 4, piped up, “She’s been dating Damian Wayne for the last month! They met at a conference for her nonprofit in Achu.”

Tim couldn’t stop the snort that escaped from him as Damian’s face twisted into disgust. Marinette’s hand covered her mouth to cover her smile but Dick and Jason didn’t even try to stop their laughter from shaking their frames.

“Of all the fucking people!” Jason wheezed, “You pick him!”

“Hey! Don’t laugh it’s romantic!” Canary Yellow 3 cried, tears pricking her eyes.

“Isn’t it Rose?” Lila cooed, eyes narrowed at the laughing group, “Dami-bear is such a sweet man.”

Chloe hummed, eyes sparkling, “I bet he is, but I have another question.”

“What?”

Instead of answering Alya’s question, she turned to the group that was laughing even harder, Dick and Jason were only standing from clutching to each other as they repeated, ‘Dami-bear’ over and over again.

“Do you boys happen to still have your passports on you?”

Tim held up a single finger as he tried desperately to regain his breath.

“What are you playing at, Chloe?” Alya snapped after a tense moment.

“Her point,” Damian growled, and suddenly Tim had a giggling Marinette leaning against his shoulder as the younger man stalked over “Is that I’ve never been to Achu.”

He thrust his passport into her camera lens.

Damian Wayne standing out from the page in stark clarity.

"Oh that note," Tim piped in, smirking slightly as he watched her nine wavier in place as if ready to flick down. Oh, how her tower of lies was crumbling, "using the Wayne to further yourself or claiming that one of us is cheating on anyone can be considered Defamation so I would suggest that you retract any statements you've made before we're forced to talk to our lawyers."

They didn't stick around to see the effect the pronouncement beyond the sickly color Lila turned as her whole posse turned to stare at her in disbelief. Alya looked panicked as the boys grabbed Marinette, who was practically vibrating with nervous energy and herded her towards their car.

Alfred raised an eyebrow, "Did you enjoy yourselves, sirs?"

"You know it!" Dick laughed, as they snapped their seatbelts.

"I hope they didn't cause too much trouble, Miss. Marinette."

"Hello Alfred," She greeted lightly even as her shoulders pulled up next to her ear, "It's nice to see you, and don't worry, they fixed a problem for me."

Tim wanted to ask, and he could see his brothers did as well, but Marinette shook her head.

"Can we go to where you're staying? I think my classmates are going to break out of their stupor soon and I don't want to face them yet."

Alfred's eyes were hard in the rearview mirror, but his voice was as level as ever, "Of course, Miss Marinette. Master Bruce actually would like to meet you at the hotel we're staying at."

"Let's not keep him waiting then,”

______________________________________________________________________

Telling Marinette they knew she was Ladybug could have gone in a lot of different ways, they were aware of this, and had planned for a multitude of them to try and ensure an easier time of getting the girl used to the fact that they knew and were in fact Superheros too.

What they weren’t expecting was for Marinette to pale the second Damian spoke the words, “We know you’re Ladybug,” and flip the platter of sweets into his face, effectively cutting him off before sprinting to the window screaming, “Spots on!”

They were not expecting a bright pink light to overtake her, nearly blinding them.

Tim was not counting on the fact that he could see her number through the blinding light as it faded to pure white as the numbers climbed higher and higher, vanishing once they reached 99, the light fading in the next millisecond to reveal Ladybug in all her glory.

They were not expecting her to open the 80th-floor window of their hotel suite and throw herself out of it, yo-yo catching the next building and flinging her away faster than humanly possible.

“Well,” Jason drawled, eyeing the carnage, “That went well.”

_______________________________________________________________________

Taglist: @vixen-uchiha @iggy-of-fans @mewwitch @roseinbloom02 @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @mochinek0 @royalchaoticfangirl @09shell-sea09 @mystery-5-5 @derpingrainbow @aloha-posts-stuff @hauntedfreakdeputyhero @maribat-archive @blue-peach14 @kae690 @zazzlejazzle @vincentvangoose @be-happy-every-day-please @xxmadamjinxx @celestiacq @peculiarlylostdreamer @dani-ari @melicmusicmagic @themcclan @nyctamaximoff @nataladriana9 @drama-queen-supreme @miraculousbelladonna @urbanpineapplefarmer @graduatedmelon @lexysama @hecate-hallow @ki117h3dr4g0n @vinerlover @interobanginyourmom @bluefiredemon @imanerddealwith @tinybrie @clumsy-owl-4178 @shizukiryuu @whogavemeaninternet @schrodingers25 @lunar-wolf-warrior @urbanpineapplefarmer @xxmadamjinxx @crazylittlemunchkin @littleredrobinhoodlum @rougemme @dur55 @phantommeow12 @kand-roo @silvergold-swirl @officiallyathiana @completelypeccable @redhoodsdoll @nataladriana9 @mariae2900 @northernbluetongue

#miraculous ladybug #batman #maribat #marinette dupain cheng #Damian Wayne #Tim Drake #meta!tim #dick grayson #Jason Todd #Alfred Pennyworth #miraculous class #numbers AU #lila gets exposed

782 notes · View notes