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supernaturalscribe67 · 6 months

Text

Euphoric

Words: 3,587

POV: 3rd Person and brief 1st Person

Pairing: Gabriel x Trans!FTM!Winchester!Reader

Warning(s): Fluff, Language, Dysphoria, a single mention of Deadname (D/N), self-hate, mention of past self-harm, attempted self-harm, hurt/comfort

Summary: Dysphoria can hit at any moment, and when it hits, it hits hard. The reader is going through a tough time with the way he looks, doubting himself and the people around him. When he feels at his lowest, ready to seep back into his old ways, his boyfriend, Gabriel, is there to help him out.

Request:

Hi I've been binge-reading your stories recently and I was wondering if you could do this request. :)

So a Gabriel/FTM!Reader where the reader is dealing with really bad dysphoria (possibly mentioning past SH?) and a comforting Gabe? Possibly with an established relationship?

(Would be so fucking rad if he Sam and Dean's younger brother!!)

Tysm even if you don't do this, I love your work so much and it's helped so much recently

@genekies

A/N: I'm so sorry this took so long to get out, hun! A lot has been going on at work that has taken my focus away from writing. However, I finally found the inspiration to write this with the help of my Supernatural novels that I found hidden away in a box! I really hope you enjoy this story and that it brings you some type of comfort! Feedback is greatly appreciated!

Much love~

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Good morning, sugarplum!

Sorry, I couldn’t be there when you woke up this morning. Duty calls. I’ll be back later tonight! I hope you have a good day! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! <3

Your Casanova,

Gabriel

Why do some people wake up with an already negative attitude? A multitude of factors could be the cause; relationship issues, low self-esteem, stress, unhealthy thoughts, and lack of sleep are just a handful of possibilities. Some have their reasonings read out to them by a licensed professional they pay an arm and a leg to visit every couple of weeks, while others lack the funds and/or the proper motivation to cope, so they bottle it up inside, casting it away to the darkest depths of their mind for weeks, maybe months. They ignore the feelings they get, the troubles that stalk them, until the bottle inside of them fills to the brim. It shakes and stirs, begging for release. It spills out, slowly at first, but then the pressure becomes too much to handle, and it combusts.

And (Y/N) felt like he was about to explode.

Nothing looked right. His jawline wasn’t sharp enough, his curves were more pronounced than ever, his binder didn’t make him flat enough, he was too short, the hair on his face was barely considered peach fuzz at that point, and his eyes - yes, his eyes - screamed femininity. Screamed female. Screamed everything about you is wrong. Screamed;

You are not a man, and you never will be.

It wasn’t often that his gender dysphoria acted out as bad as it had that day. Sure, there were times when he woke up and the negative thoughts just never seemed to go away. The thoughts that made certain parts of him look wrong, misplaced. Rarely had his mind told him that everything about him was wrong. Rarely did his mind tell him he wasn’t the man he wanted to be. But, when those thoughts arose, they hit him hard, as if he got struck by a semi-truck going eighty on the interstate. It hollowed him out and made him a shell of his former self. A shell that was slowly wilting away.

His brothers were the first to notice his shift in demeanor. While he normally came into the kitchen every morning with a goofy grin on his face, a smile was nowhere to be seen. His head was cast down and he barely spoke a word to either Sam or Dean. Another thing they noticed was the lack of exposed skin he had. Usually, (Y/N) would walk out of his room clad in a t-shirt and shorts in the morning. That day, he wore a hoodie, sweatpants, and socks. The temperature in the bunker hadn’t changed, so it wouldn’t make sense that he was cold. If he had been, he would have complained about it for the rest of the day, yet he didn’t say a word. Instead, he silently got some coffee and sat down with his brothers at the table. He didn’t engage in conversation.

Later on, the three of them sat in the library, heads buried in books and computer screens. They would typically sit around, and talk about potential hunts or random information that they had found. (Y/N) acted the same way he did when he was in the kitchen, though. He was physically present, but nowhere near as mentally present. His head was down, the cord from his earbuds wrapped around his phone, which was sitting next to the book he had been reading. It didn’t even seem as if he was actively reading the text. It had been ten minutes since he turned the page.

Sam leaned closer to Dean, who sat next to him. “Does he seem off to you?” He asked in a low, quiet voice.

Dean looked up from his computer and glanced over at his youngest brother. He hesitated, studying him for a moment before he nodded. “Yeah, something’s wrong with him. Has he said anything?”

Sam shook his head. “No.”

“Do you think it has something to do with Gabriel?”

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

Dean pursed his lips for a moment before he turned back to (Y/N). He leaned over and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. (Y/N) lifted his head to look at his brother and, for the first time that whole morning, their eyes connected. Dean noticed something almost immediately. His eyes were empty, void of any emotion. (Y/N) took an earbud out.

“Yeah?” He asked, voice low and monotone.

“Hey, man, you doing okay?”

(Y/N) looked away for a moment. “Yeah?” He shook his head and shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You just seem a bit off today.”

“I’m fine.”

“Did something happen with Gabriel?” Sam asked.

“No? I said I’m fine.”

“Ok, well, obviously you’re not,” Dean said. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing!” (Y/N) spoke in an exasperated tone.

“(Y/N),” Sam leaned forward, palms flat on the wooden surface. “If something’s wrong, you know you can tell us, right?”

“Nothing’s wrong! Will you two stop fucking bugging me!?” He exclaimed.

(Y/N) slammed his book shut and shoved it away from him. Quickly, he stood, stuffed his hands into the pocket of his hoodie, and stormed out of the library. Sam and Dean’s eyes were attached to him until he was out of sight. Dean and Sam shot a glance at one another, both of them opening their mouths as if to say something, but decided against it before they went back to their work.

(Y/N) was numb, aside from the small annoyance that had bubbled up inside of him from his brothers’ persistence. One common trait that was distributed through all the Winchester siblings was the lack of willingness to talk about their emotions. It was an ideology that was beaten into them when they were younger and first got into hunting. Bury your emotions deep within, don’t let them show, and don’t let your enemy know your weakness. Hell, don’t let your allies know your weaknesses, either. They’ll turn their back on you if they see you at your lowest. Stay strong, hide your feelings, and don’t let anyone in, even if it’s family.

When he made it back to his room, he walked over to the small dresser that was pressed along the far wall. Beside the dresser sat his tennis shoes. He grabbed them and put them on. He walked back over to the dresser, opened up the top drawer, and rummaged around in his undergarments for a moment before he fished out a pack of Marlboro Reds. The box was slightly creased, the plastic rustling in his grasp. It had been a while since he had a cigarette. He hadn’t felt the need for them, but he could feel the stress and anxiety grumble inside of him. He needed something to clear his mind. (Y/N) placed the carton into his hoodie pocket and left his room.

As he made his way past the library archway, he was stopped by his brother’s voice.

“Where’re you going?” Dean piped up.

(Y/N) stopped in his tracks and turned towards them. “Out.”

“Out where?” Sam asked.

“Look, I’m just going to take a walk around the bunker, that’s all. Going to clear my head.”

Dean and Sam shared a look. “You sure?” Dean asked.

“Yeah,” (Y/N) shrugged. “Just need a breather is all.”

“Alright, well…don’t go wandering too far.”

“I won’t.” (Y/N) shared a small smile.

Sam and Dean returned the smile as (Y/N) turned his back on his brothers and headed up the staircase toward the front door.

The afternoon sun slithered past the canopy of oak tree branches. Orange, red, and yellow leaves shined bright, painting the dirt floor like a kaleidoscope. About half a mile from the bunker, a dead tree had fallen during a heavy thunderstorm several years prior. The trunk has since been embedded in the ground, forming a natural bench in the middle of the forest. This was where (Y/N) had gone to clear his head.

He sat at the edge of the log, back slouched, elbows resting against his knees, and hands hung limply between his legs. The smoke from his lit cig wafted upward towards the treetops. The end of the cigarette slowly withered away, a small amount of ash falling upon the autumn leaves. His eyes were cast down and glazed over, the thoughts in his mind running at a hundred miles an hour.

You’re delusional. A man? No one would ever consider you a man. You look nothing like a man. Nothing like what you want to, and you never will. You’ll always look like the girl you were born as. You’ll always be (D/N), and there is nothing you can do about it. Sam, Dean, Gabriel? They’re all lying to you. They’re feeding into your delusion because they feel bad for you. They don’t love you or support you. They’ll never see you as a man. Never have and never will.

(Y/N) lowered his head as he brought the cigarette up to his lips. He inhaled deeply, feeling the burn of the smoke filling his lungs, before he brought the cig away from his mouth. He tapped the end of the cig, the ash falling onto the ground. As he shifted, the sleeves of his hoodie lifted, the remnants of depressive episodes from his past peeking out through the cotton fabric. His eyes shifted to the discolored scars. He could remember how he felt when he first made the scars. The relaxation he felt afterward, the relief. It was a distraction from the pain he felt within. It was a distraction that he desperately craved.

For a moment, he looked at the end of the cigarette. It was slowly dwindling to half its original length. He shifted it in his fingers and brought it to his wrist, stopping right before the end of the butt touched his skin. He hesitated and contemplated. (Y/N) closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and moved the cig closer to his arm.

“Hey Sugarplum,” the voice came out of nowhere.

(Y/N) let out a startled shout, the cigarette fell to the ground as he turned toward the sound of the voice. Sitting beside him on the log was Gabriel, his signature smirk etched onto his lips. (Y/N) sighed and leaned down, grabbed the butt, brought it to his lips, and took a final drag. He then lifted his foot and put the cig out on the bottom of his shoe before he flicked the remnants onto the ground. He placed his hand on the log and exhaled, the smoke leaving his lungs and creating a halo around his head.

“A little birdie or two told me you went on a walk. The little birdie also told me you weren’t feeling the best.” Gabriel said as he reached an arm around (Y/N)’s shoulders.

(Y/N) could feel himself instantly relax at Gabriel’s touch, the tension leaving his shoulders. So much was going through his head. So many emotions beating at his heart, begging to be released, begging to be expressed. Yet something was stopping them.

“I’m fine,” (Y/N) said, his voice soft.

The smirk was gone from Gabriel’s face, his expression turned more serious. He inched closer to (Y/N) so that their sides were pressing against one another. He pulled him close.

“You know that’s not true,” Gabriel whispered. He pressed his nose against (Y/N)’s cheek. He ran his fingers through his hair softly and soothingly. “I can hear everything going on in your pretty little head, sugar, and I know that it’s not quiet.”

Gabriel’s closeness was comforting, something that he had been craving all day. The longer Gabriel sat next to him, the more relaxed he felt, yet the demons were still scratching at the inner crevices of his mind. With the mixed feelings he experienced, it was all so overwhelming. (Y/N) recognized the familiar prickle of tears appearing in the corner of his eyes.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Gabriel breathed as he wrapped his arms around (Y/N)’s body, pulling him as close as he could, his head resting on Gabriel’s chest.

(Y/N) sniffled as he allowed the tears to fall, something that didn’t happen very often. Something he would, normally, not let himself do. Be vulnerable. Vulnerability is what gets you killed in the hunting career, and there was no time for that. Still, the warm feeling of Gabriel’s arms wrapped around him made him feel at home, made him feel safe, and told him that it was okay to let himself go.

Gabriel rubbed (Y/N)’s back. “Do you want to tell me what’s bothering you?” He asked quietly.

(Y/N) hesitated for a moment as he clasped his hands together. He rubbed the back of his knuckles, a soothing gesture he learned from a young age. “I don’t…” he trailed and let out a sigh, shoulders slouched. “I don’t look like a man.”

“What?” Gabriel furrowed his brows.

“I don’t look like a man, okay!?” (Y/N) exclaimed and moved away from Gabriel, standing abruptly. “I mean, look at me! I’m so short and feminine! Look at my hips! Look at my face! Everything about me is wrong. Everything about me isn’t what it’s supposed to be and it’s killing me.” (Y/N)’s voice got louder, frustration evident in his tone.

The tears were freefalling, and (Y/N) did not attempt to wipe them away. Gabriel simply stared up at him, listening, a saddened expression making its way across his face.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to wake up and look at yourself in the mirror and see nothing but a body that you hate? A body that you don’t want to be in? That you feel like you don’t belong in? It feels like my life is a lie, that I’ve just been kidding myself when I said that I could finally be the man that I always wanted to be. Everything that you or Sam or Dean have said about me, validating my emotions, supporting me through everything, was just some pathetic pity party in an attempt to make me feel better about myself, even though, deep down, I know I’m not going to look anything like I want to. I’m not going to be the man that I’ve always dreamt I’d be because I’m stuck. I’m stuck in this worthless body that I was forced to have and I can’t do anything about it. I want…”

The tears were coming faster now, his words becoming shaky, almost unintelligible.

“I want to be happy…but I look at myself and I just can’t.”

Gabriel stood and walked over to him. “(Y/N), look at me,” he reached down and cupped (Y/N)’s wet cheeks, lifting his head so that he could gaze into his reddening eyes. He used his thumbs to wipe the tears away. “Do you want to know what I see when I look at you?” He had a smile on his face.

(Y/N) sniffled. “What?”

“I see a handsome, strong, brave man who risks his life daily for the people that he loves. I see a man with a heart of gold, who would do anything to make other people happy. I see the most handsome man on the face of this planet, the most wonderful man that my father had ever created. More importantly, I see your soul.”

“My soul?”

“Yes, your soul. I see how bright, beautiful, magnificent, and glorious it is. How perfect it is. The man you truly are.”

(Y/N) looked down at the ground. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Gabriel’s middle. Gabriel wrapped his arms around him, running his fingers through his hair.

“I know it’s hard some days. You look at yourself and don’t like what you see. You feel like there’s nothing you can do to change it. That people aren’t going to see you for who you are. I hate to break it to you, sugarplum, but that’s all I see.” He chuckled deeply. “All I can see is the man you are. The man you were meant to be. And some days are going to be harder than others, you're going to beat yourself up more than you should, and that’s okay. Because, in the end, you’ll get through this. You’ll gain your confidence back. You’ll see yourself and finally say ‘This is me’, and I am going to be with you every step of the way.”

Gabriel leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to the top of (Y/N)’s forehead.

“Because I love you. Every part of you. The parts that you like and the parts that you don’t like. I love it even more when you’re happy with yourself. When you love yourself. And even if I pop in one day and you’re dressed as an Oompa Loompa with a five-foot-tall bright green and yellow mohawk and a beard the size of Gandolf’s, then I would still love you.”

(Y/N) snorted and let out a short laugh. “You’re ridiculous.” (Y/N) shook his head. “An Oompa Loompa?”

“Hey, it’s not my place to judge if or when you decide to dress up as an Oompa Loompa.”

(Y/N) rolled his eyes, a smile curled into the corner of his lips. Gabriel brushed his wet cheek with his thumb.

“Feeling better?” He asked softly.

“Yeah, a little.”

“Good, I’m glad. And I’m proud of you.”

(Y/N) furrowed his brows and glanced up at Gabriel. “For what?”

“For telling me how you feel. If I know anything about you Winchesters, I know that that wasn’t easy.”

“It wasn’t. But…it felt good.”

Gabriel nodded. He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss against (Y/N)’s lips. When he pulled back, he stared lovingly into his eyes.

“You’re my person, (Y/N). The person that I love and care for, and if you ever feel like this again, just give me a shout and I’ll be there faster than you can get my name out of your mouth. I never want you to be alone when you feel like this. You don’t deserve to be alone through this. Promise me that you’ll call me next time you feel like this?” Gabriel’s hands trailed down from his face to his arms and stopped to grab his wrists gently. He rubbed them softly through the sleeves.

(Y/N) opened his mouth and hesitated. “I can’t promise, but I’ll try.”

“That’s all I needed to hear,” Gabriel smirked and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Now, do you want to go back to the bunker? We can cuddle on your bed, and watch some of those terrible reality TV shows. I think I have a bit of an addiction to 90-Day-Fiance.”

(Y/N) smiled. “Do you mind if we sit out here for a little bit? It’s a beautiful day out and…I’m not quite ready to go back inside yet.”

“Of course, anything for my sugarplum,” he leaned forward, his nose brushing gently against (Y/N)’s.

“Thank you,” (Y/N) whispered. “I love you. I don’t deserve you.”

“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong. You deserve the world and every beautiful thing in it.”

“I don’t want the world. All I want is you.”

“Then have me you shall. Forever and always.”

“Forever and always?” (Y/N) lifted a hand, his pinkie finger sticking out.

Gabriel smirked and chuckled. He lifted a hand, hooked his pinkie onto (Y/N)’s, and looked deeply into his eyes.

“Forever and always.”

My Dearest (Y/N),

I’m writing this, not as one of my regular notes, but as a reminder to you. I want you to pack this away somewhere safe where you can take it out and read it whenever you feel down about yourself in any way.

You are strong. You are brave. You are handsome. You are perfect. You are loved. You are you.

I know it’s hard to see yourself in a positive light at the moment, and everything may seem like it’s closing in as if nothing is going right and it will never get fixed, but, just know, you’ll make it through this. Just like you’ve done on multiple hunts, you will prevail. You will conquer the enemy, even if that enemy is yourself.

Remember, you don’t have to fight this battle alone. I’m here for you, and so is Sam and Dean. We all love you so much and we want you to be happy! We love seeing your smile when you walk into a room. You brighten our day just by being you, and nothing will ever change that.

If you need anything, anything at all, just think of me, and I will be there for you. We can watch your favorite movie and I’ll even bring you some of those little dessert cakes you like from the cafe I took you to on our first date. Even if you don’t want to talk to me about it, I want you to know that you don’t have to suffer in silence. Not while I’m around. I’ll always be by your side, no matter what you go through.

I love you,

Forever and always,

Your Casanova,

Gabriel

72 notes · View notes

6-2-aestheticsofhate · 7 months

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Gabriel ultrakill voice thank God my binder blocked the bullet

#'is crop top armor' WRONG its a battle binder #<- joke

65 notes · View notes

tokillamockingbird427 · 3 months

Note

Trans Man Rorke headcanons [with some headcanons trans headcanons for Keegan and Neptune mixed in] (this is a but long)

Scared the ever loving shit out of Elias the first time he almost keld over from a painful menstruation cramp

Stocks Chocolate, painkillers, and heating pads in his office

Doesn't bother hiding his top surgery scars, most of the guys thought that he just got into a really weird fight until he explained that they were from a surgery he had in his mid twenties

He came out at the diner table when elias was talking about combing two types of cars together and said “I just don't know where i'm going to put the tranny*” [*he's talking about the transmission] and Gabriel replied, “I’d put the tr*nny in the driver's seat” whilst pointing at himself, cue Elias being horrified and rapidly apologising

He then proceeded to lecture Elias and the rest of the guys over the use of words that double as slurs

Both Keegan and Neptune came out to him later that night [Keegan's FTM and Neptunes FTMTNB]

Rorke immediately lectured Keegan on using unsafe binding materials [ace bandages] and lectured both of them for working out whilst binding. He also took the shopping for binders and packers, and taught them how to use KT tape as an alternative to a binder.

He also offered to pay for ant surgeries the wanted

Neptune took up his offer for top surgery

Keegan, meanwhile, blue screened [poor thing is scared of surgery.][okay it may be more of a fear of being alone+unconscious around a group of people he doesn't know that well]

Gabriel assured him that he doesn't need to have any type of surgery if doesn't what to, and that not having them doesn't make him less valid as a trans man

To this day Keegan still has his tits

He started stocking pads and tampons in his office after this conversation

Rorke also made sure that they both had access to a different set of showers then the rest of the guys

And he double checked that they both had a safe place to live

He wound up putting aside some rooms in his house for them

Keegan wound up moving in with him and Neptune tends to stay over randomly

After Gabriel ‘died’ they found out he had left the house to them and they live together now

Gabriel got a *bit* protective over them as well

He also made sure that they could always have access to their testosterone injections

On that note, Gabriel himself prefers to use a gel testosterone

Gabriel shaves his head for gender confirmation reasons

He originally didn't want to get top surgery, he drank a lot of coffee [which helps shrink breast tissue apparently] and did a lot of weight lifting when he was a teenager in order to build up pectoral muscles, and the combo of those gave him a very masculine presenting chest. He only got the double mastectomy after his mother died from breast cancer, mostly out of fear that he'd develope it as well [he will literally never tell anyone this].

Keegan and Neptune often catch them self looking out for David the same way Gabriel looked out for them

🐺

Trans Neptune truthers, join me, we will conquer the world! ...Or maybe just the fandom. That's more manageable.

I like to think there was zero warning sign before he keeled over so one second Elias is babbling in his ear about supplies and the next Rorke is half collapsed on the floor convincing Elias for a good moment that he just bored his Captain to death.

Merrick simply assumed he got into a weirdly targeted knife fight until Rorke explained.

NOT THE TRANSMISSION

Mf just immediately adopts them. They had no chance.

I gotta see what this mf's house looks like, I always figured it was on the smaller side because I think of him as the practical type but it'd be real funny if it turned out he lived in a big ass house in the suburbs rather than the cabin in the woods. Has a wild lawn rather than the mono-green-dead bullshit tho. (DEATH to plain ass lawns with zero biodiversity.)

He's a HEN! Broody. Hah.

Aw, every time I make fun of him for being bald one of you come in and give me a reason to feel bad about it. Alright Rorke. You get away with it in this scenario.

Oooooo, a secret to take to the grave. Interesting.

Don't let Rorke find out Hesh is trans he might swap Logan for him seeing as he was so quick to grab Neptune+Keegan up

#call of duty #call of duty ghosts #gabriel rorke #elias walker #keegan p russ #neptune (cod: g)#hesh walker #logan walker #beloved anon #🐺 anon

17 notes · View notes

crystal-ball-of-ow-canon · 2 years

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Cole looking through the five inch binder of adoption papers etc. Gabriel kept: wow I can't believe you kept everything even your emails to the social worker

Gabriel: of course I did, thought it would be important or mean something to you later

Cole: this was a lot of work you and Jack went through just for me

Gabriel:I promise you it was worth every second of it

Cole pulling out something: hey what's this?

Gabriel: oh we had to write to the social worker talking about our family and background and explaining why we wanted to adopt

Cole reading Gabriel's: oh that's so sweet *Gabriel's letter is written similar to a journal entry talking about growing up with several sisters and always wanted to be a parent, specifically how he wanted to adopt* Pa, I'm going to cry

Cole moving on to Jack's: what'd Dad write? *Jack's is formatted almost like a business resume and is even in third person* oh my fucking God he wrote this like a resume!!

Jack indignantly: well it was kind of like I was applying to be a parent!

Cole continuing to cackle: it's in third person!

Jack: it's how I organized my thoughts best!

Cole now literally rolling on the floor: I've already found a typo on the first page!!

287 notes · View notes

christaspirit · 2 years

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Notes: I've seen many people do the fic where Marinette gets kicked off the class trip, but how mean her classmates acted bothered me, so I made them as in character as I could.

This takes place after season 3 if Marinette got Master Fu's tablet instead of Gabriel. Uh... that's all I've got to say.

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

Marinette’s entire life changed when Lila joined her class.

Adrien insisted they don’t call Lila out. Gone was her friendship with him, and her crush.

The majority of her class believed Lila about Marinette bullying her. Those friendships were gone.

She lost trust with Mme. Bustier, as Bustier believed Lila’s injuries without any doctors records.

So when the school year was drawing to a close, Marinette’s only friends left in the class were Alya, Nino, Rose, Juleka, and Nathaniel.

Some of her other classmates were picking on her (slamming the door in her face, tripping her), but most of them just stood by passively.

Marinette had noticed Chloe was annoyed with Lila but assumed that was just because Lila was getting more attention than her.

So when Chloe had walked to Marinette’s desk with a thick binder, Marinette was surprised.

Chloe set the binder down on Marinette’s desk.

“What’s this?” Marinette asked.

“It’s…” Chloe muttered. “It’s a record of everything I’ve ever done to you. From the snide comments to wrecking your work and copying you,”

Marinette blinked, and opened the binder. To her surprise, Chloe was telling the truth. Everything Chloe had done to her in the past four years was written in the binder, in Chloe’s handwriting. However, next to each thing was a number. Most of the records of the snide comments had a single euro written out next to them, but some of the meaner things had even more euros, and anything Chloe had wrecked or copied had a number that matched the price of the object.

“What’s with the euros?” Marinette asked.

Chloe winced.

“I…” Chloe started, her voice cracking. “I thought that maybe I should pay you back. Things cost money, and I know that if I ruined your things or copied them, I had wasted your money… so… I’m going to pay you back,”

“Why are you paying me for things you said though?” Marinette asked.

“Because-” Chloe’s voice broke. “Because… well, I know that you’ve done everything for the class for free in the past. I’ve noticed. You made the banner for that race for free, you’ve made all their outfits for free… I felt like someone should pay you, and if they aren’t, then I will. And I’ve made enough mean comments about you that you’ll make a profit off of this,”

Marinette stared at the binder, then up at Chloe.

“Why are you doing this?” Marinette asked.

Chloe looked to the floor.

“I guess…” Chloe muttered. “I was just mean because I was jealous. You’re talented, you have your parents, and you were friends with everyone. Meanwhile, my mom can’t even keep my name straight, cheated on my dad and I have this half-sister I’ve never met, I make Sabrina do everything, and no one likes me… I thought making you miserable would make me feel better, and I guess I got carried away and didn’t realize that it was wrong. But after seeing how the class has treated you, some of whom have known you for years… I realized just how bad I was being. I realized what I put Sabrina through. And then Adrien… he knows the truth, and refuses to do anything! And Mme. Bustier is horrible!”

Chloe was lucky they were the only people in the classroom because the majority of the class would have glared at her.

“Alya doesn’t really like her either,” Marinette said.

“So… yeah,” Chloe said. “Can we… start over? As friends?”

Marinette looked at the binder.

“Sure,” Marinette said.

—

Alya was a bit surprised at Marinette’s sudden friendship with Chloe, but seeing how hard Chloe was trying to change, she muttered a comment about how “only Marinette” would give the girl a second chance.

Chloe moved to the back of the classroom after she apologized. Partially so she wouldn’t accidentally make Sabrina take her notes, and partially to give Marinette company after Marinette had been sent to the back of the classroom.

Marinette and Chloe became close in their hatred for Lila. Chloe helped Marinette with some of her responsibilities as class president (mostly funding, but a bit of planning too). Chloe also did pay Marinette back, encouraged Marinette to stop giving people things for free if they were really expensive to make, and helped Marinette set up a website for commissions (with some help from Sabrina and Alya).

And so, Chloe and Sabrina joined Marinette’s group of friends.

—

As the school year drew to a close, Mme. Bustier had an announcement.

“Alright class,” Mme. Bustier said. “As you all know, next year you’ll be the graduating class. Because of this, you’ll be taking a trip at the end of the year, and will have to fundraise the money. However, it’s been brought to my attention that not everyone will be able to go, as not everyone gets along. So Marinette, I’d like you to sit out the trip,”

Marinette stared at Mme. Bustier in horror.

“Mme. Bustier! You can’t do that!” Alya said, abruptly standing up. “We’re all looking forward to this trip!”

“Alya, do you want to be removed as well?” Mme. Bustier asked.

“You don’t have to remove me,” Alya said. “If you don’t let Marinette go, then I won’t go,”

“Me neither,” Nino said.

Marinette friends all agreed to not go if Marinette didn’t.

The whole class looked back at Marinette.

“Fine,” Marinette said. “But if I’m not allowed to go, then I won’t plan it. I won’t be running for student rep next year. Besides, I only ran this year so Chloe wouldn’t win,”

Chloe slouched a bit at those words, but knew they were true.

“Alright then,” Mme. Bustier said. “But you will finish up as student rep this year?”

Marinette nodded.

“It’s too late for a new representative,” Marinette said.

“Alright,” Bustier said. “Now, onto the lesson,”

—

After class, Marinette’s friends questioned her on why she didn’t argue about being removed from the trip.

“For one,” Marinette said. “I don’t want to go on a trip with Lila. But also, I’m not gonna help fundraise it if I’m not going. And seeing them suffer, and their trip fail in the end will be theraputic for me,”

Her friends extchanged glances.

“Why would they suffer?” Alya asked.

Marinette chuckled.

“Because unless Lila is secretly amazing at planning things,” Marinette said. “Which is doubtful considering she can’t keep her lies straight, the fundraisers will fail. No one in this class knows how to run one. I’ve planned every fundraiser for the past four years, and Chloe always supplied funding for major events,”

Her friends stared at her in shock, then they all smiled.

“Man…” Nino said. “Dudette, that is just petty,”

Marinette smirked.

“Call me Pettynette then,” she said.

“What will we do next year instead?” Rose asked.

Marinette smiled.

“How do you guys feel about a club?” Marinette asked. Her friends exchanged confused glances. “We have enough time to ask the school board to approve a club. Then, we can fundraise all year, and go on a club trip together, even better than any of the graduating class trips,”

All of her friends smirked. They liked this plan.

“Then, at the end of the year, we can go on a trip of our choosing over summer break,” Marinette said. “The club can be invite only, so our classmates can’t join. Of coarse, kids from other classes are allowed to join if we let them, and we’ll all go on a trip together,”

“What should we call this club?” Rose asked.

Marinette thought about it for a moment.

“How about the World Travel Club?” a new voice asked.

Everyone looked over, and saw Aurore and Marc.

“Have you two been listening this whole time?” Chloe asked.

The two nodded.

“We overheard what you were talking about,” Aurore said. “I’d like to join this club. I’ve heard the end of year trips are lame anyway,”

Marc nodded.

“Me too,” Marc said. “And I would like to recommend the name the World Travel Club,”

Marinette and her friends thought about it.

“Sounds great,” Marinette said. “Welcome to the club,”

—

Marinette got the approval she needed. The school board let them know that next year, the World Travel Club would be open.

Meanwhile, the end of year dance was coming up. It was going to be held in the ballroom of Chloe’s hotel, and everyone knew it would be fantastic.

A couple days before the dance, a few of Marinette’s classmates came up to her, asking her to make their outfits.

“Sorry,” Marinette said. “There isn’t enough time. However, next year, I’ll happily make them if you commission me,”

“But you made Rose, Juleka, Alya, Nino, Nathaniel, Marc, Aurore, Sabrina, and Chloe’s,” Mylene pointed out.

“Yes,” Marinette said. “Because they commisioned me a couple months ago, and they paid. You haven’t. So sorry, but I can’t,”

Her classmates were annoyed, but knew that she was right. There wasn’t enough time.

“I could-” Lila started.

“Lila,” Marinette said, staring her dead in the eye. “There is no designer in the world who could make an outfit from scratch, from the design to the final form, in two days,”

Lila shut her mouth.

When the dance rolled around, Marinette and her friends hung out the entire time, along with Kagami and Luka, who Marinette and Juleka had invited respectivally. The two also joined the World Travel Club. Luka would be one of the chaparones, and Kagami was joining the school next year. The group defenitely had the best outfits.

—

Summer came around, and Marinette was more free to focus on her Ladybug roll. Ladybug made the annoncment on live TV that none of the original temporary holders would be returning, as Hawkmoth knew their identities, and it was too dangerous. Secretly, Marinette knew that most of them would stay, but under new identities. But Ladybug didn’t tell Chat that.

Ladybug wasn’t trusting Chat lately. He’d been way to flirty, and sometimes refused to fight the akuma because she turned him down. Many times, he didn’t even show up. And of course, there was the constant badgering about sharing identities, and Ladybug’s desicsion to replace the old heroes. Mostly Queen Bee.

“You should have talked to me before you made that anoucment!” Chat said. “I thought we were partners! A duo! That it was us against the world!”

“Chat, I couldn’t keep the old heroes,” Ladybug argued. Hawkmoth knows who they are. He could exploit that, like he did Chloe!”

“Chloe should keep her miraculous!” Chat said. “That’s why she was akumatized! Because you wouldn’t give it to her!”

“And I admit I should have given it to her during Heart Hunter,” Ladybug said. “But she was being selfish too,”

“Chloe’s gotten better!” Chat said. “She’s much less selfish now!”

“Everyone knows her identity, Chat!” Ladybug said. “That’s why I stopped giving her the miraculous!”

“Ugh!” Chat Noir said. “You should have talked to me before getting rid of the other heroes!”

“Chat!” Ladybug said. “I don’t need to talk to you about that! I’m the guardian! Who does or doesn’t get a miraculous is completly my choice! Which goes for you too!”

Chat stared at her in shock.

“You aren’t seriously thinking of replacing me, are you?” Chat asked.

“You’ve been being childish!” Ladybug said, annoyence in her voice. “We have one. Job. Protect Paris. Yet you neglect your duties to flirt at the worst possible times! There’s a time to goof off, and a time to be a proffesional! While there’s an akuma going around, it’s time to be proffesional!”

“M’lady!” Chat said. “You and I both know that the Black Cat and Ladybug miraculous are soulmates! Why won’t you see that!”

“Because you made it up!” Ladybug shouted. With that, she stormed off.

Chat stayed on the roof.

“Fine…” he muttered. “You’re being silly. We’re destined for each other. But if you refuse to admit that you like me, then…”

Chat left, a plan brewing.

—

A couple of days later, Chat asked Ladybug out on a date during patrol.

“Sorry, Chat,” Ladybug said. “I’ve got plans,”

“No,” Chat said. “This date should be more important!”

“Ugh!” Ladybug said. She left without another word.

Chat smiled.

“She’ll come,” Chat said. “And she’ll come to her senses,”

—

Ladybug didn’t go on the date, and instead went out with her friends as planned. They found Andre the ice cream man, and got ice creams (Most of them oblivious to who their ice creams represented).

However, at the next akuma fight, Ladybug was losing her pacitence with Chat.

Chat was complaining about how Ladybug stood him up, and refused to fight the akuma, leaving Ladybug to face it on her own. She was already suffering second degree burns (“Why does it need to spit fire?” Ladybug had complained).

“Chat! Help me!” Ladybug said.

“No!” Chat said, sitting cross legged on the ground. “You stood me up last night,”

“I told you, I had plans!” Ladybug said.

“If you aren’t gonna apologise, then go get a new holder!” Chat said.

“Chat!” Ladybug yelled. “Fine! I’m sorry or whatever! Just help me!”

“Are you really sorry?” Chat said.

“No,” Ladybug said pointedly, then she did her best to muffle a scream as she got hit again. “But I don’t have time to get another hero! You should be helping!”

Chat still refused.

By the time Ladybug managed to defeat the akuma, she had third degree burns, the entire street was in flames, and most of Paris was finding it difficult to breathe. Everyone let out a sigh of relief when the magical ladybugs raced through the streets, healing all the damage (and most importantly, all the burns people had gotten).

Chat still refused to talk to Ladybug, but she was pretty much through with him.

—

A couple of hours later, a video taken by Aurore had gone viral, and people’s opinion on Chat Noir had gone down greatly.

Aurore had posted the video on both her Instagram and her new blog, and had sent it to Alya to post on the Ladyblog as well, as the Ladyblog was pretty popular. She had gotten stuck during the akuma attack, and had recorded the akuma fight, and most importantly, the argument between Ladybug and Chat Noir.

People were furious with Chat Noir for refusing to help Ladybug, and for possibly sexualy assaulting her. People started thinking back to other fights, and remembered how pushy Chat had been, and how he hadn’t been showing up.

Adrien was confused about the backlash. Why were people mad at Chat? Why weren’t they mad at Ladybug? She was the one that stood him up.

Then Alya posted a video she had taken the previous day. It was when Chat had asked Ladybug out on a date, and she turned him down. People were even more upset with Chat. In fact, there were very few people in Paris who liked Chat.

Marinette however, hadn’t seen either of the videos. She hadn’t left her room since the akuma attack.

A couple hours after Alya posted her video, Alya, Kagami, and Chloe showed up at Marinette’s house. The three were let upstairs, and found Marinette in her room, curled up on her bed, shaking. Kagami immediatly recognized it as a panic attack.

“Marinette,” Kagami said. “What-what’s going on?”

Marinette couldn’t find her voice.

Kagami, Alya, and Chloe all climbed up to her bed, and just comforted her as they waited for the panic attack to subside.

About an hour later, Marinette was finally able to breath normally, and Kagami asked her again.

“I-” Marinette said softly, her voice cracking. “I-”

“You can tell us anything,” Alya said.

Marinette’s hands shook.

“But… this…” Marinette said softly. “This could change everything,”

“Marinette,” Chloe said. “You’ve already changed our lives. What else could you change?”

Marinette couldn’t keep it in anymore, and burst into tears, and spilled. About everything. About being Ladybug.

The girls were shocked that she was Ladybug, and suddenly, it all made sense.

Ladybug had been sexually assaulted by Chat Noir for months. She was now in charge of the miracle box, losing trust in Chat, and had just gotten third degree burns across her entire body. She had lost a large number of her friends to a liar, a liar who claimed to be friends with her.

The three girls comforted Marinette. A couple hours later, Marinette had fallen asleep in Kagami’s lap.

—

A couple of days later, Marinette was finally ready to talk to the girls again. She had spent a lot of time with her parents, and had calmed down enough.

So, she asked what to do with Chat Noir.

“Just take his miraculous,” Kagami said.

Chloe and Alya nodded.

“He needs to go,” Chloe said.

“But what would Paris think?” Marinette asked. “This isn’t like replacing you guys… people expect him!”

“Actually, Paris sorta hates him at the moment,” Alya said. “Me and Aurore uploaded videos of Ladybug and Chat Noir, and Paris knows what’s going on. But if you really want it, I can put a poll up on the Ladyblog,”

Alya didn’t wait for a response.

A poll was soon active on the Ladyblog, and had already gotten 13 votes.

“I feel like you should have a way so that people can express their emotions without getting akumatized,” Kagami said. “Stop an Akuma before it happens,”

“That’s… not a bad idea,” Marinette said.

“Aurore and I can use our blogs to help locate Hawkmoth,” Alya said.

Marinette blinked.

“Wait, since when does Aurore have a blog?” she asked.

“Oh, she made it a couple weeks ago,” Alya said. “She got inspired by me, so made her own blog. Mine focuses more on research and the heroes, while hers is more of a blog to discuss peoples feelings, and a safe place to talk about what’s bothering them. She also uploads videos of the akuma attacks whenever she gets them. Hers would be a good place to start tracking him down, because people often talk about why they were akumatized. She could maybe also have people discuss where they were akumatized, and how long it had been since they got negative,”

“That’s smart,” Chloe said.

“Alright…” Marinette said. “Alya, get back to me with those poll results tomorrow. As for now…”

Marinette walked over to her sewing kit, and pushed in a combo on the spools of thread. It opened, revealing the miracle box. She reached into it, and grabbed out three miraculous.

The fox, the bee, and the dragon.

“I’ll give you guys your miraculous permanetly,” Marinette said. “All you need to do is create new superhero identities. Try to make them different from your old ones. And maybe… get a good camofluage form?”

The three girls flushed. True, all of their miraculous had just gone through a recolor.

“Wait, but your camofluage form is just your miraculous in black,” Chloe pointed out.

Marinette stared at them.

“And it’s also a pair of earrings,” Marinette said. “Earings aren’t often super fancy or anything. Besides, they can change to match my outfit if I really need them too,”

“Oh,” Chloe said. “Good point,”

The three girls put their miraculous on, and the kwamis came out of them.

Alya’s necklace changed to a more orange version of her phone charm.

Chloe’s comb changed to what looked to just be a pretty comb that she could slip into her hair, but was technically a pair of bee wings like the ones on the miraculous in charged form.

Kagami’s chocker changed into a simple black bead with her family name on it, like it was on her ring.

“Alright,” Marinette said. “Now you just need new hero identities!”

—

The next day, Ladybug met with Chat for patrol as usual. However, she knew it would be Chat’s last day.

The results of the poll came in. 99% of the Ladyblog readers wanted Chat gone (there were like, two people who didn’t).

Chat Noir hadn’t seen the poll.

He didn’t know what was coming.

“Hello m’lady,” he said.

Ladybug rolled her eyes.

“Hey Chat?” she said. “Can I check your ring real quick?”

“Why?” Chat asked, frowning.

“The grimoire said something about your ring, so I need to check,” Ladybug fibbed.

“Anything for you m’lady,” Chat said, and gave her his hand.

Ladybug pulled the ring off, and slipped it into her yo-yo.

Chat detransformed into Adrien.

“Of coarse…” Ladybug said, staring at him in discust.

“M’lady!” Adrien said.

“Zip it!” Ladybug said. “You’re done,”

“Paris is gonna hate you for this,” Adrien said.

“Really?” Ladybug said. “99% of the readers on the Ladyblog wanted Chat Noir gone,”

“What about the last 1%?” Adrien asked desperatly, trying to turn the tides in his favor.

Ladybug stared at him.

“Two people,” Ladybug said. “Goodbye, Adrien,”

With that, she left.

—

Marinette felt so much more free after getting rid of Chat Noir.

Infact, her ladybug suit changed. She now had a pair of wings, her hair was up in twin buns, and her outfit was better armored, and included more black.

Then there was the introduction of the new heroes.

First introduced was Chloe, as Beehive. Chloe posted a picture on her Instagram of her with Beehive, doing the peace sign. The picture made it obvious that she was fine with being replaced.

The true intent of the picture was to distance herself from Beehive. Chloe took the selfie with an illusion created by Alya.

Beehive’s outfit had wings, and a fur like substance around her neck and waist. She also had a stinger like skirt and heels.

Next introduced was Kagami, as Wild Dragon.

Her new suit was blue instead of red, and, while she didn’t have wings, she was able to fly.

Alya was the last to be introduce, as Silver Fox.

Her costume was now silver, and her hair was up in a bun. She had a bow in her hair that resembled fox ears, and flaps of fabric in the back of her costume, resembling fox tails.

Paris loved the new heroes.

—

A little before the start of the school year, Chloe introduced everyone to Zoe, her half-sister. It turned out that Zoe had been having problems at her old boarding school. Zoe also wanted to be an actor one day.

Zoe immediatly joined the friend group, and the World Travel Club.

Then school started up again. Aurore found out Mirele wanted to join the World Travel Club, and the club let her join.

Soon it was then time to decide where they would go.

Both the class, and the club.

—

“Alright,” Mme. Bustier said. “Seeing as no one ran against her, Lila is now class president. So class, where do you think we should go at the end of the year?”

The classmates going began spitballing, before finally landing on a weeklong trip to LA.

“Alright,” Mme. Bustier clapped her hands to get the class’ attention. “We’ll be headed to LA. Now rememer, you have to fundraise this trip yourselves. You can get donations from family members, but mostly need to fundraise the trip. You can come up with ideas after school.

It was after school that the World Travel Club met. After talking for 15 minutes, they still couldn’t decide on one place to go.

“Alright, how about this,”Marinette said. “We can go on a tour. We’ll go everywhere we want,”

The club looked around. It wasn’t a bad idea.

“Nice work Prez,” Chloe said.

“You’re president too,” Marinette pointed out.

The two girls had been made presidents of the club. Marinette because it was her idea, and Chloe because she was good with money.

“Anyway,” Marinette said, and she uncapped a dry-erase marker. “We’ll head to Hawaii, LA, Gotham, Miami, and New York,”

Marinette wrote their destinations on the board.

“We can spend two weeks in each place,” Marinette continued. “Leaving us two weeks at the end of break to spend at home. But how much will it cost?”

The club spent the last 45 minutes of the meeting looking up everything they wanted to do. Where they wanted to go, plane ticket costs, passport costs, hotel costs, and the cost to stay at private resteraunts. At the end, their goal price was around 50,000 euros, just to be on the safe side.

“Alright,” Marinette said. “We’ve got a lot of fundraising to do. Meet here tomorrow, and we can discuss different fundraising plans,”

—

Mme. Bustier class had only stayed after school for about ten minutes. They came up with a couple fundraising ideas. Bake sales, car washes, raffles, that kind of thing. They would also earn money from the different school dances.

No one discussed any further for a couple of months.

—

The next day after school, the World Travel Club got back together to plan some of their fundraisers.

“So we’ve got a lot of money to make,” Marinette said. “So we need to get started soon. So what different kinds of fundraisers do you think we could do?”

Bake sales, car washes, raffles, they all knew the normal ones.

“We could always start a go-fund me page,” Chloe said.

The whole club paused.

“That’s a good idea,” Marinette said. “And we could sell different things too. I could make dolls inspired by the heroes,”

“I could give acting lessons!” Zoe piped in.

“I could DJ,” Nino said.

With that, the club got even more ideas. Marinette wrote them all down. She could do commisions just for the trip, Nathaniel and Marc could be commisioned as well, to have people put into their comics. Alya could give blogging lessons. Sabrina agreed to be a tutor. Luka could teach people how to play different instruments. Juleka could do some modeling. Rose could teach people ways to fight negativity.

At the end of the session, the club had come up with lots of ideas.

“Alright,” Marinette said. “We need to get started as soon as possible. What should we start with?”

“It’s not gonna be warm for much longer,” Mirelle pointed out. “Maybe a car wash, and the bake sale could come first,”

“And we could sell cookies at the carwash!” Rose said, clapping her hands together.

“And we could sell water baloons,” Aurore said.

“Alright,” Marinette said. “This Saturday will be pretty hot. Nino, could you bring your DJ stuff and give us music while we work? We could host this at the park!”

“Sure dudette!” Nino said.

The club was in agreement.

“Alright,” Marinette said. “I’ll set up a go-fund me page. Alya, Aurore, you two wouldn’t mind promoting it on your blogs, would you?”

The two girls shook their heads. Then, all the club memebers agreed to promote it on their social media.

When they left, the club members were figuring out how to set up ways to make money.

—

Marinette managed to set the go-fund-me page up within an hour of the meeting ending and sent the link to the members of the club in a big group chat. Within a few minutes, it was on all of their social media, including hers.

To her surprise, the first few donations were large.

A couple thousand was donated by Chloe’s family.

A couple thousand from multiple different celebrities, such as Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, and Audrey (surprisingly, she donated twice).

It was times like these that Marinette forgot she knew so many celebrities.

—

That Saturday, they got set up in the park. Sabrina had gotten them warrants to sell things there, and sure enough, people came.

Marinette had brought with her three dozen dolls. She had Ladybug in both her new and old suit, Beehive, Wild Dragon, Silver Fox, Rena Rouge, Carapace, Queen Bee, Pegasus, Viperion, Ryuko, and one Chat Noir. The dolls were sold for 5 euros a doll.

Marinette had also brought sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, macaroons, croissants, and lemonade.

Aurore, Mirelle, and Nathaniel were doing face paint.

The water balloons were a big hit, and all of Marinette’s dolls were sold (except for the Chat Noir one). They ran out of food eventually (despite the massive amount they had), and at the end of the day, they had earned 2,372 euros.

“Why’d you make a Chat Noir doll?” Alya asked as they packed up.

“It was just an experiment,” Marinette said. “The dolls are easy. I only made one Chat Noir though, and as I thought, no one wanted it,”

“What’ll you do with it?” Kagami asked.

Marinette shrugged.

“Leave it in my room,” Marinette said. “With all the other cursed things I’ve made in the past. I have a whole drawer dedicated to it,”

“Woah,” Chloe said.

Marinette chuckled.

—

On Monday, the World Travel Club met up again after school.

“Alright,” Marinette said. “The carwash was a success! This next Saturday will be nice again, so Chloe and I were thinking, what about a pool party at her hotel? There could be a small admission fee, and we could sell treats,”

“So a pool party and a bake sale?” Marc asked.

“Mhm,” Marinette said.

“Sounds sweet!” Nino said, pumping his arms into the air.

“So is there any foods you guys are gonna want to bring?” Marinette asked.

“If we’re doing it at the hotel, I could have my mom make stuff,” Alya said.

“My mom has this amazing cupcake recipe!” Aurore said.

The club went on about different sweets they could bring.

“Alright!” Marinette said. “I can bring in a variety of things as well. I’ve also been working on the dolls, and I’ve been selling them off my Instagram,”

“We’ve had a couple of commisions,” Marc said.

“I’ve got a dozen people for lessons,” Luka said.

The rest of the club went on about their success with lessons.

The club meeting ended early that day, and they went off.

—

Halfway through the week, there was an Akuma attack, and Ladybug needed the cat miraculous.

Adrien was sure Ladybug would come to get him but was horrified when a different hero appeared, using his miraculous.

It was a girl, definitely younger than the others, but not by more than a year. She had medium-length messy blond hair with a green streak, wore what looked to be a black leather jacket, and had black boots with green pawprints. She also had a belt tail, and a hood attached to her jacket.

This new superhero went by the name Kitty Noire.

With her help, the heroes defeated the Akuma.

Ladybug met her in an alleyway after the Akuma was defeated.

“Thank you, Ladybug,” Kitty Noire said, and she removed the ring, detransforming into Zoe.

“Thank you,” Ladybug said. “We definitely needed your help defeating this villain. And though you’d make a great permanent member, having both the Ladybug and the Black Cat miraculous out at the same time is risky,”

“I understand,” Zoe said.

“Whenever I do need you though,” Ladybug said. “I look forward to working with you,”

—

On Saturday, what seemed like half of Paris showed up for the pool party.

The club knew that wasn’t true, but there were more people here than that time the boys threw a party at Adrien’s house.

There were hundreds of people there, including the entire school.

Aurore had brought cupcakes, Alya had brought a variety of muffins, Nathaniel had brought brownies, Mirelle served ice cream, and Marinette had brought a variety of crosspoints, macaroons, and cookies.

Marinette had also brought the dolls again. The single Chat Noir doll wasn’t there, but there were a dozen Kitty Noire dolls.

Kagami was making balloon animals (none of the club members knew she knew how to do that), Nino was playing live music, Nathaniel, Aurore, and Mirele did face paint again, Zoe was performing some skits with Marc, and the group had a bunch of different water toys for the kids.

No one had told people that it was a fundraiser. Chloe had just advertised it as a pool party on her Instagram the previous day. Marinette had told them that the best fundraisers are the ones where people don’t know it’s a fundraiser. Just let people have fun.

The pool party lasted all day. Marinette sold out of dolls again, Kagami ran out of balloons, and they finally ran out of food.

At the end, after everyone left, the club had to clean up. Kagami and Marinette picked up all the balloon pieces that had come from kids accidentally popping the balloon animals, and kids throwing water balloons.

At one point, Marinette tripped, and nearly landed in the pool, but Kagami caught her, and pulled her up, bringing them both a little to close for comfort. Both girls went red.

By the end of the day, they had raised 7,364 euros.

—

By November, the World Travel Club had had 7 fundraisers, from a couple more bake sales and car washes to a haunted house on Halloween.

It was November when Mme. Bustier’s class hosted their first fundraiser.

They had decided on doing a carwash.

They had set up in the school parking lot (after finding it) and played music off of a set of speakers Max had brought.

They only earned 200 euros.

—

“Alright, it’s December,” Marinette said. “Which means we have a prime opportunity. We can do a raffle for gifts, there’s the winter dance, and it’s cold, which means we can sell winter foods,”

“I saw at the winter dance we hand out flyers for the raffle,” Aurore said.

“We could also sell some food!” Rose said.

“Maybe we could sell hot chocolate and candy canes and other stuff under the Eiffel Tower,” Mirelle said.

“Ooo! For the raffle, we could sell some lessons!” Alya said. “Like, I can teach people how to edit videos, Rose can teach some lessons on how to calm yourself down, Luka can teach some more music lessons, that kind of thing,”

“We can also bring in some other items,” Kagami said. “Like the dolls that you’ve been making,”

“Marinette, what if you made some hats and scarves based on the heroes?” Nathaniel said.

“Great idea!” Marinette said.

“We can hold the raffle at the hotel,” Chloe said.

“Thanks, Chlo,” Marinette said. “For the raffle, I could probably bring in some of my designs. What about your personal projects guys?”

It turned out that music lessons were doing great, Rose was a bit overworked with how many people needed help with facing negativity. She and Aurore teamed up and made a Patreon together. Sabrina had a dozen different tutoring gigs with some of the younger kids. Alya had gotten into the swing of things with teaching people how to blog. Nathaniel and Marc were a bit behind on the number of people that wanted to be in their comic. Zoe had gotten quite a few people wanting acting lessons. Nino had lots of gigs every week. Marinette was having great luck with commissions, and the dolls were selling like crazy.

The club’s go-fund-me page was doing okay too. They didn’t get as much as the first few donors, but every euro counted.

—

Every couple of days, a few members of the Club would go to the Eiffel Tower and sell hot chocolate, apple cider, candy canes, and warm popcorn. Each trip only earned them a couple of hundred euros, but they made the trip often.

Meanwhile, the club got stuff ready for their raffle. It wouldn’t just be their school, the raffle was also promoted on their social media.

—

During one Akuma attack, Ladybug realized that the only way to get the akumatized object away from the Akuma was to use the dog miraculous. They couldn’t get close to the object for longer than a second, and couldn’t get far enough to break even if they had managed to grab it.

So Sabrina made her debut as Basset Hound. Her costume had a white top and pants, high black boots, an orange jacket, black gloves, and dog ears that somehow stayed on, the same way Chat Noir’s had, the way Kitty Noire’s did.

The villain was quickly defeated after Baset Hound got close enough to touch the item with her ball, then far enough to summon and break it.

She was only a temporary hero but promised that she would get her miraculous back when she was needed.

Marinette made a new doll.

—

The winter dance was a big deal. However, for some reason the decorations were much cheaper than in years past.

In all honesty, Lila had nearly forgotten to get decorations.

The World Travel Club were all sporting outfits designed by Marinette, outfits they had commissioned her for months ago. They didn’t end up paying the full price though, as Marinette gave a half off discount to her friends.

The club handed out flyers and took alternating turns handling the sweets Marinette had brought.

Much of the school was interested in the raffle the club would have in a few days. Of course, no one in Mme. Bustier’s class had been given a flyer.

It was at this dance that Alya and Nino picked up on all the romantic tension, and the two made bets with Luka on who would get together first, and who would get together last.

Within half an hour of the dance starting, Rose asked Juleka to dance. They were surprised when the music switched to a slow song (Nino had requested it) and were both bright red when the dance was over.

Halfway through the dance, Nathaniel and Marc asked each other to dance at the same time, and both went red with embarrassment. They did trance together for a bit, before excusing themselves.

20 minutes after the Nathaniel/Marc incident, Chloe asked Sabrina to dance. The two danced well together but were both red by the end.

It was only when there were ten minutes left that Kagami and Marinette danced. Neither of them had asked each other, they had just happened to be dancing near each other when a slow song came on and ended up dancing together, though both were bright red the entire song. The two excused themselves at the end and left the dance.

At this point, students were starting to leave. The entire World Travel Club was gone. However, with five minutes left, Mme. Bustier’s class mentioned the raffle for the first time. Over half the students had left, and only a few of the students still there had money and were interested.

At the end, Mme. Bustier’s class made only 200 euros.

—

A few days later, Chloe’s hotel was busy. There were quite a few celebrities waiting for the raffle, along with countless other Parisians.

Most of the club had brought cards for lessons with them, though Nathaniel was also selling a painting, and of course, Marinette had brought a complete set of her little dolls, which had been selling great off her Instagram. She had also brought a couple of original hats and scarves (when asked why she didn’t bring any dresses or something like that, she admitted that they needed to be able to be worn by anyone).

The raffle was a great hit. To no one’s surprise, the stuff Marinette had brought sold the best, with some of her things being a constant back and forth between the celebrities.

The raffle was the club's best fundraiser yet, bringing in 10,378 euros.

—

“Guys, we’ve made over half our goal!” Marinette said.

The club cheered.

“Alright,” Marinette said. “We’ll need to have everything paid for by the start of May, which leaves us with five months to earn 20,000 euros. We can do this!”

The club cheered again.

“So what are we gonna do now?” Chloe asked.

“Let’s take a break for a month,” Marinette said. “Just for January, then we’ll fundraise like crazy again come February, alright?”

The club agreed. It had been a crazy couple of months, they could use a break to focus on other things.

—

“We’ve only made 400 euros,” Lila said to the class. “What’re we doing wrong?”

None of the class had an answer for her.

“We just need a really good fundraiser,” Lila said, thinking out loud. “Any ideas?”

“We’ve always been great with bake sales,” Ivan mentioned.

“A bake sale!” Lila said. “That’s perfect! Let’s have it next Saturday! Everyone, make something and we’ll have the bake sale outside the front of the school!”

“Alright, class,” Mme. Bustier said. “All of you need to bring something,”

—

The bake sale was a disaster.

None of the kids were good at making sweets, which resulted in a lot of burnt food. Only some of the food was edible.

However, thanks to one batch of perfect brownies, they managed to make 300 euros. The class was proud of that.

“I don’t understand,” Lila said at the end. “What did we do wrong? Don’t people want to help kids?”

The class surveyed the remaining food.

“There aren’t any pastries,” Alix realized. “Marinette didn’t bring anything. Actually… I don’t think Alya, Chloe, Rose, Juleka, Sabrina, or Nino brought anything. They didn’t even come,”

“I thought I made it clear that everyone needed to bring something,” Mme. Bustier said. “I’ll be talking to them on Monday,”

—

“Were we supposed to bring something?” Marinette quipped.

Mme. Bustier had been fuming when she came into the classroom and had practically yelled at them, questioning why half her class hadn’t brought in treats for the bake sale.

“You kicked me off this trip,” Marinette said, “And they aren’t coming either. Did we not tell you we weren’t fundraising?”

The class hadn’t realized they hadn’t been to any of the fundraisers the entire year.

“It would be the right thing to do to help fundraise either way,” Mme. Bustier said.

“No,” Marinette said. “I’m not helping to fundraise for a trip that I’m not going on,”

“Marinette, please, you’ve always been the best at fundraising!” Alix said.

“No,” Marinette said. “I’m not helping. Besides, I’m busy,”

Marinette’s tone made it perfectly clear.

She wasn’t going to budge on this. And if she wouldn’t, her friends would either.

—

February rolled around, and the World Travel Club decided to host a dance for Valentine's Day. They used a ballroom at Chloe’s hotel, and Marinette convinced Nadja to publicize the event on TV, all she had to do was babysit Manon for free for a few days.

The admission fee was only a couple of euros, and Marinette’s parents provided the catering. Her parents got to keep half of the income that came from the food.

Nino was in charge of the music. He would alternate between slow dances and fast ones.

The majority of the people that came were adults, but there were some kids that came as well, including some of their classmates.

The World Travel Club hadn’t publicized the dance as a fundraiser, but rather a fun event. People came to have fun, and spend time with their spouses.

At one point during the dance, Marinette noticed her parents were looking out at the dance floor longingly.

“I can take over for a bit,” Marinette said. “You two go dance,”

“Are you sure?” her mom asked.

Marinette sighed, grabbed Kagami’s hand, and dragged Kagami back with her.

“Here,” Marinette said. “Kagami can help,”

Her parents still looked skeptical, but they removed their aprons and went out to the floor to dance. Luckily they’d been wearing nice clothes under their aprons that day.

“Here,” Marinette said, handing her mom’s apron to Kagami. “I brought my own, and my dad’s is huge,”

Kagami seemed hesitant to put on the apron.

“Kagami, do you want to get your dress dirty?” Marinette asked.

Kagami flushed and shook her head. She’d commissioned Marinette for the dress three weeks ago when the club came up with the idea to host a dance. A majority of the club was just reusing outfits, but Kagami had wanted another one. Her mother had also insisted.

Kagami pulled the apron on and tied it back.

“Now what do we do?” Kagami asked.

“Whenever people come back for food, we offer them a tray,” Marinette said. She grabbed some stretchy gloves from under the table. The table was covered in a table cloth to hide all the boxes of extra food underneath. “Occasionally, we’ll have to refill the snacks or people drinks,”

Aurore walked over.

“Wait, I thought your parents were handling the treats,” Aurore said, looking at Marinette.

“They wanted to join the dance,” Marinette said.

“Oh,” Aurore chuckled. “Alright. Can you refill my glass? Sparkling apple cider,”

Marinette located the bottle under the table and poured it flawlessly.

“Thanks,” Aurore said, and she walked away.

“Refills are free,” Marinette said.

“Oh, right,” Kagami said.

The two were in charge of the treats for another half hour. At one point, Lila and Adrien walked back and were confused about why they were there.

“Why are you two handling this?” Lila asked. “You didn’t throw this dance, did you?”

“My parents were catering,” Marinette said, “But I took over for a bit so they could dance,”

Lila and Adrien seemed to accept this, not noticing Marinette didn’t answer the second question. The two left.

A few minutes later, Marinette’s parents came back to take over, and shooed the girls away, insisting they dance.

When another slow song came on, the two girls flushed but started to dance together.

“Hi Marinette,” Alya said.

Marinette and Kagami looked over and saw Alya and Nino dancing together.

“Who’s manning the music?” Kagami asked.

“No one,” Nino said. “I’ve got a couple of slow songs lined up, so I can leave for a bit to dance with my girlfriend,”

Marinette laughed.

“Okay you two,” Marinette said. “You can go now,”

Alya and Nino smirked as they danced away.

The dance ended at 3 in the morning.

The tickets hadn’t cost much, the food hadn’t cost much, but because of the sheer number of people that came, the Club earned 8,903 euros, even after splitting the food money with Marinette’s parents.

—

“Alright guys,” Marinette said. “The dance was super successful,” “We were genuinely surprised,” Chloe said.

“Anyway, we still have 4 months until June,” Marinette said. “We still need to raise about a thousand euros, but we have enough to start placing reservations. Chloe, Alya, Kagami, and I can handle those, but we need to know where you want to go. So…”

Marinette flipped the whiteboard over to the blank side, or what used to be blank. She had written out the five different locations at the very top.

“We’ll write down what we want to do in each location,” Marinette said. “I think the order we should go in should be New York, Gotham City, Miami, LA, and then Hawaii. What do you guys think?”

The club agreed. That order made the most sense, and ending everything with relaxing in Hawaii sounded great.

“Alright,” Marinette said. She gave Chloe a marker as well, though Chloe was confused as Marinette still had hers. “Start talking about everywhere you want to go,”

Chloe figured out quickly why she was there too. There were so many ideas that it was a miracle they got everything down on the board.

After ten minutes of spitballing, the club worked on finalizing everything.

When Marinette and Chloe finally finished organizing everything, they got a question.

“What about permission from the school board?”

Marinette glanced back at Alya.

“Huh?” Marinette asked.

“We need permission from the school board for this trip,” Alya said. “And with the cost of the trip, it’ll take a while to get it,”

Marinette smiled.

“Why do you think I called the club meeting on a Tuesday instead of Monday?” Marinette asked. She pulled up something on her phone and broadcasted it to the screen in the room.

An email with permission.

“When did you get that?” Aurore asked.

“I sent in the request form as soon as we finalized our locations,” Marinette said. “They said they were waiting for proof we could make the money to go first. After the dance, I emailed them again, and they got back to me yesterday after school. The only thing we have left to do is to raise the last thousand euros, get a few chaperones, and book everything,”

The club cheered at its success.

“Anyway, we’ve finalized our schedule,” Marinette said. “And there will still be plenty of free time in case we wind up with other things happening,”

Marinette, Chloe, Kagami, and Alya locked eyes for a split second, then Marinette went back to addressing the club.

“All we need now are a few fundraisers,” Marinette said. “Any ideas?”

“Can we do another bake sale?” Mirelle asked.

“I guess we can later,” Marinette said.

“Wait, a game arcade near my house recently closed because the owners are too old to run it anymore,” Marc said. “Maybe I could convince them to lend it to us for the day?”

“That sounds great Marc!” Marinette said. “Can you text us all as soon as you have info?”

Marc nodded.

“We could do another carwash in May,” Zoe said. “We’ll probably have made all the money we need to, but having a bit extra wouldn’t hurt, especially if it’ll help us get a jump start next year,”

Zoe knew that the majority of the club would be in High School, no, lycée (she kept forgetting the french terms) next year, but Marinette had promised that the club would be for both middle and high school (or collège and lycée). At least, it would be for the school they would all go to, as it was a blend of middle and high school (ugh! Collège and lycée!)

“Good point,” Marinette said. “Anything else?”

The club could only think of more bake sales or raffles. Marinette agreed to the bake sale but said one raffle was enough, even though it had been incredibly successful.

“We’ve been bringing in a lot of money from our personal things,” Marinette pointed out. “Add together the fundraisers, our personal jobs, and the go-fund-me page, and we’ve got less than a thousand euros to make,”

“We all know your dolls are doing the best,” Chloe said, elbowing Marinette.

It was true. Marinette found herself selling thousands of dolls a week, and had employed the help of Kagami, Alya, and Chloe in making them every week, as she couldn’t keep up with the demand herself (it had required a big crash course on how to sew, and she left the girls with the easier dolls to make).

“Regardless, we’ll probably all keep up with these after the summer is done, correct?” Marinette asked.

The entire club nodded.

The person with possibly the second-best business would be Rose. Paris was attacked by Akumas often, and having someone there to help you learn how to move past the negative emotions was fantastic.

Of course, Marinette still hoped to make something so people could express negative emotions freely, as bottling them up made people feel worse. Some of the worst akumas came from people who had bottle up their emotions for too long.

The third best was surprisingly Marc and Nathaniel.

They wrote new chapters in their comic about different akumas often, and with their business started, people started commissioning them to become the Akuma of the chapter.

After the Chat Noir incident, Marc and Nathaniel had written a chapter solely focusing on Ladybug and Chat Noir, and their relationship. At the end of it, there was Ladybug walking away alone, with the ring in her hand, and Chat Noir at the end of a dark alley, not visible.

Sabrina and Luka got fourth and fifth most popular, working with several people a week.

Of course, the entire club had gotten a boost in their social media following, with people following the progress of their trip.

“Alright,” Marinette said. She took a picture of the whiteboard. “That ends today’s meeting. Chloe, Alya, Kagami, and I will meet at my place to place the reservations. Marc, get back to us on the arcade, and we’ll see you guys this Saturday for the bake sale,”

The club meeting ended, and the four girls headed over to Marinette’s place.

“Hey, how’s that… side project coming?” Chloe asked.

Marinette sighed.

“I still can figure out how to make something to block Akumas,” Marinette said. “Alya, any work on tracking Hawkmoth?”

Alya nodded with a smile.

“He’s rich,” Alya said.

The girls stared at her as they arrived in Marinette’s room.

“What?” Kagami asked.

Alya pulled out her phone, and pulled up a map.

“The general radius of where we assume the Akumas come from is right around the richest neighborhood in Paris,” Alya said. “Not only that, but with the amount of times Hawkmoth has akumatized someone in the middle of a school and working day, he’s either someone really poor and has no job, or someone really rich and can afford to slack off. Aurore and I figured out that he’s definitely rich, as the only Akuma to ever be associated with money was Bob, and the guy just wants money. We also figured out that he seems to either work from home, or have no job, as the location never changes,”

“So he’s a rich idiot who never leaves his house and slacks off at work,” Chloe said.

The four girls locked eyes.

“That sounds like Gabriel Agreste,” Kagami said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Chloe said.

“That was Aurore and my conclusion,” Alya said.

The three looked at Marinette, who swallowed.

“The only contradiction is that Gabriel Agreste has been akumatized,” Marinette said.

“He has?” Chloe asked.

Marinette nodded.

“Last year,” Marinette said. “Me and… Chat, were investigating him. This was when Adrien got pulled from school, right after Volpina,”

“Oh wait, was this about that book of his Adrien lost?” Chloe asked.

Marinette nodded.

“But uh…” Marinette said. “There’s more evidence about him than just what Alya came up with,”

Marinette walked over to her computer and booted it up. Alya noted that the Adrien wallpaper was gone, replaced with her signature and the flowers she always used.

Marinette pulled up multiple pictures from the house.

“One of the Gabriel brand icons is a butterfly,” Marinette said.

The girls leaned in closer, and realized Marinette was right.

“And…” Marinette said. “The book he lost is the miraculous grimoire,”

Kagami, Chloe, and Alya exchanged a glance.

“Gabriel is definitely a suspect,” Alya said. “I’m gonna-”

“Don’t make a post!” Marinette said quickly. “If Hawkmoth finds out, he’ll do everything in his power to try and convince us otherwise. Tikki?”

Tikki flew out of Marinette's purse, holding a cookie.

“Can Hawkmoth akumatize himself?” Marinette asked.

Tikki frowned, and stuffed the rest of her cookie into her mouth.

“I’m not sure,” Tikki said. “I haven’t spoken to Nooroo in so long. But it’s definitely possible,”

“And there’s also Mayura,” Kagami said. “There’s a high chance she knows Hawkmoth’s identity, and could’ve used the miraculous herself,”

Marinette nodded.

“As of right now, Gabriel is our top suspect,” Marinette said.

Alya found the tablet that Marinette had gotten from Master Fu and pulled up the grimoire.

“I think you can probably create something to protect us from negative emotions with sheer will,” Alya said.

Marinette blinked.

“Uh…” Marinette tried to process what she said. “Can we talk about this… after we make reservations?”

Alya laughed.

“Of course girl,” Alya said.

—

Two hours and many confused phone calls later (the girls struggled a bit to place reservations because they were teenagers, but figured out that as long as they promised to have an adult with them at the locations they could place them) the girls had placed all reservations and had most of the plane tickets bought. Now all they needed was the plane tickets for their return flight, and passports needed to be bought.

Marc texted the group chat, saying they had secured the arcade, and it would be available in two weeks.

Marinette reminded everyone to get their passports soon.

The four girls were exhausted.

“Have you had to do this before?” Alya asked Marinette and Chloe.

Chloe shook her head, but Marinette hesitated.

“It was technically Mme. Bustier’s job,” Marinette said. “But that doesn’t mean she didn’t try to push it to me, before I reminded her that, as a minor, I wasn’t able to do it,”

“Goodness,” Alya said, shaking her head. “Yeah, Mme. Bustier sucks. Especailly compared to all my other teachers from past schools. But anyway, back to what I said two hours ago, I think you can make the thing to block Akumas,”

“How?” Marinette asked.

“You have the power of creation,” Alya reminded her. “Just think about what you want to create,”

Marinette sighed.

“Alright, I can try,” Marinette said. “Tikki, spots on,”

She was covered in pink light, and then stood as Ladybug.

Ladybug closed her eyes, and pictured what she needed. She grabbed her yo-yo and opened it. She reached into it, and pulled out a large handful of jewelry.

“Woah,” Kagami said.

Ladybug opened her eyes.

“Spots off,”

Marinette looked at the jewelry she had created from nothing.

“Those look amazing!” Chloe said.

“How many are there?” Alya asked.

Marinette quickly counted them.

“12,” Marinette said. She looked them over. “And they’re all unique,”

“How come?” Kagami asked.

Marinette took a closer look.

“I think they’re for the club,” Marinette said. “They all look like they were hand made by me, but are personalized for each club member. This necklace has an umbrella and an A, this one has a storm cloud and an M, this bracelet has a rose, this ring has a pen and an M-” “We get the picture,” Chloe said. “But why the club?”

Marinette thought about it.

“You guys are my only friends,” Marinette said. “I might be able to make more in the future, but I don’t think they’d be as powerful, because these ones are for my friends,”

The three girls hugged Marinette.

“So when will you give them to the club?” Kagami asked.

“Once we reach our goal,” Marinette said. “It shouldn’t take long. Now, as long as you guys are here, can you help me make some more-” BOOM!

The four looked out the window, nearly snapping their necks.

“Tikki, spots on,”

“Pollen, buzz on,”

“Trixx, let’s pounce,” “Longg, bring the storm,” The four superheroes jumped out the balcony, and hurried toward the akuma, the new jewelry having been slipped into Marinette’s purse.

—

As it turned out, the akuma was ridiculously hard to defeat.

“Ugh, why can’t we knock some sense into this guy?!” Beehive complained, needing to dodge yet again.

“That’s it!” Ladybug said. “You guys keep him busy, I’ll be right back,”

“Keep him busy?!” Wild Dragon said. “That’s what we’ve been doing!”

Ladybug hurriedly flew away, a found Juleka.

Weeks ago, Marinette had drawn up a plan of who she could and couldn’t trust with a miraculous, and which Miraculous they’d be best fit for. Juleka had made that list, with the tiger miraculous. In fact, the who World Travel Club had made the list.

“Juleka!” Ladybug said.

“Ladybug?” Juleka asked softly, turning around.

“I need your help,” Ladybug said, grabbing the tiger miraculous out of her yo-yo.

“Wha-?” “Juleka Couffaine, this is the miraculous of the tiger, which grants the power of exaltation, you will use it for the greater good,” Ladybug said.

Juleka hesitantly picked up the miraculous.

After a couple minutes, Juleka agreed to use the miraculous.

“Roarr! Stripe on!”

—

Ladybug rejoined her tea with a new hero, Purple Tigress.

Purple Tigress was able to punch some sense into the akuma (literally), and the group managed to defeat the akuma.

Juleka returned her miraculous, and Ladybug and her group returned to Marinette’s.

“Time to design a new doll,” Marinette said with a smile.

Her friends laughed.

—

The bake sale had gone well, but they were still just short of their goal.

On that Saturday, they all arrived at the arcade. They had publicized all over Paris, and even on the news, that the arcade would be opening for one last time.

Somehow, Aurore had gotten Taco Bell to sponsor the event. Mirelle had gotten McDonalds to sponsor them as well.

Young kids and adults alike came in, enjoying time on the old machines that were filled with nostalgia for the adults.

Taco Bell and McDonalds were delivering orders for people, and the club brought them to the people who ordered them.

After having the arcade open for 12 hours, they finally closed up. Taco Bell and McDonalds each gave the club a check for 100 euros, and the club members got to work removing the euros from the machines. Then came the long process of counting them.

“49,997, 49,998, 49,999-” Marinette gasped, “50,000!”

The club erupted into cheers, and Chloe quickly counted the remaining with Kagami.

“And we have over 1,000 extras!” Chloe said.

The club erupted into cheers again.

“We did it,” Zoe said in a daze. “We actually did it,”

“And we’re still gonna do more fundraisers,” Marinette said. “They’re fun,”

The club could agree with her on that. Hard and long to set up? Sometimes. But they had been a blast.

“But anyway, guys,” Marinette said. “I have a gift to celebrate reaching our goal,”

Marinette pulled a dozen small boxes out of her purse. They were all hand decorated, and each had a different name on them. Marinette gave everyone their box, and Chloe, Kagami, and Alya feigned intrest, like they didn’t know what was in the box.

“Open them!” Marinette said, opening hers.

Everyone gasped when they opened theirs.

Aurore and Mirelle had beautifu necklaces. Zoe had a pretty ring. Rose had a bracelet, Juleka had an ornate hair pin, Marc and Nathaniel had bracelets, Nino had a stretcy bracelet, Chloe had a stylish choker, Kagami had a bracelet that matched her choker and ring, Alya had pendant necklace, and Marinette had a choker.

“They’re- they’re beautiful!” Rose said. She rushed forward and hugged Marinette. “Thank you thank you thank you!”

Everyone put on the jewelry, swearing to never take it off. They all noticed the small details that fit them.

“How long have you been working on these?” Zoe asked.

“A few weeks,” Marinette said. “I was waiting until we reached our goal to give them to you guys,”

The club chattered excitedly about their new jewelry as they left the arcade.

“Oh, Marc, I never asked,” Marinette said. “How did you convince the old owners to let us borrow the arcade?”

Marc shrugged.

“I offered to watch their hamster,” Marc said.

Marc left, running to catch up with Nathaniel.

—

Mme. Bustier class was a bit worried. They were significantly short on the amount of money they needed to make for their trip.

“I just don’t understand our bad luck,” Kim said. “Why are we struggling this year?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Alix said. “Marinette planned all past fundraisers, and Chloe just paid for them with her dad’s money. Without either of them, we’re struggling. And very much doubt Adrien’s dad will pay a hefty price to go on this trip,”

“We just have to fundraiser harder,” Lila said. “Let’s have another bake sale. We’ll tell people we’re fundraising for a school trip. That’ll help, right?”

“But all the food was trash last time,” Kim said.

“We can get store bought stuff and have our parents make it,” Lila said. “And Madam Bustier? Can you bring stuff too?” “Of course,” Mme. Bustier said.

So it was agreed.

—

Marinette, Alya, Kagami, and Chloe finished placing their reservations, a whole 3 months before they were going to leave.

It was agreed upon by the club that, over their break of fundraising, ¼ of the income fro their personal business would go back to funding the club, and the remaining ¾ would be kept for themselves.

Marinette’s dolls were incredibly popular, and she was earning a lot.

Rose was more popular than ever, with akumas attacking more frequently. She had started to live stream sessions.

Luka was finding himself nearly completely booked after school.

Nathaniel and Marc struggled to keep up with commissions, and wound up backed up weeks. They promised their readers that they would do their best, and that the commissions would be drawn, it was just taking a while.

“Goodness, I never thought we’d be so busy,” Marinette said, sketching a commission.

“Espeshily you,” Chloe said. “You’ve got two different commission sites, which include you getting commissions from celebrities, the dolls, being co-president of the World Travel Club, and you’re Ladybug. It’s… honestly a miracle you aren’t dying,”

“Yeah, uh, are you okay girl?” Alya asked.

“A little overworked,” Marinette admitted.

“Marinette? How do your two separate commission sites work?” Kagami asked.

“Oh,” Marinette said. “Technically I only have one, but when people commissioning me finish their meeting, and I show them the sketch, they choose between funding me, or the club. It’s one of the options when they pay. They choose twice. So sometimes, I’ll earn half the money for me personally, and half for the club,”

“That’s cool,” Alya said. “I was wondering what that option meant,”

“Lots of people don’t know the difference,” Marinette admitted. “It defaults on the funding me part,”

The four heard an Akuma in the distance.

“Crud,” Marinette said, looking down at her sketch. “We gotta make this fast, I’m due to meet with this person online in 20 minutes, and I’m not quite done yet,”

The four transformed, and hurried out.

—

“Really? Gigantitan?” Ladybug said, she, Beehive, and Wild Dragon flying around.

The four heroes fought the giant baby for a couple minutes, but quickly realized they couldn’t get very close to the baby without it attempting to grab them.

“I’m sure there’s some really cool complex way to defeat him,” Ladybug said after five minutes. “But we’re in a time crunch. Be right back!”

Ladybug flew away, and it wasn’t hard for the other heroes to distract Gigantitan.

Ladybug located Rose, and after the whole “meet your kwami” thing and miraculous rant, Ladybug and a new pig hero were racing back to the fight.

“Gift!” Pigella said, activating her power.

The false image of baby August eating a lollie-pop distracted the baby long enough for Ladybug to grab and destroy the akumatized object. She fixed Paris, and went to retrieve Pigella’s miraculous.

“You didn’t really need me, did you?” Rose asked, handing the anklet to Ladybug.

“I’m in a time crunch,” Ladybug admitted. “But you did great,”

Ladybug flew off.

The four girls landed in Marinette’s room and their transformations fell. Marinette quickly got to sketching, then asked her friends to leave the room and get treats while she talked to the person.

“Why?” Chloe asked.

“Privacy reasons,” Marinette said sheepishly.

The girls shrugged, and went to get some snacks, closing the trapdoor behind them. Once the meeting was done, Marinette would open it.

—

Five minutes later, Marinette had earned herself 300 euros. The commissioner had been in love with her sketch, and the ideas for the dress.

Marinette leaned back, then opened the trapdoor, and got back to her desk.

“Working on a Pigella doll?” Alya asked as she, Kagami, and Chloe walked in with a plate full of macaroons,”

Marinette spun around and grabbed 5 macaroons, and nodded.

Her friends laughed as Marinette stuffed all five macaroons into her mouth, and got back to sketching the doll pattern.

—

The class held their bake sale at the park.

The food was definitely better this time around, and holding it in the park meant that there were a lot of kids around that saw the sweets, and convinced their parents to get them food.

In the end, the class earned 912 euros. They were incredibly proud.

—

The class only had one more fundraiser, and brought in 500 euros.

The World Travel Club held a couple more, and with the constant funding coming from their side projects, by the time the end of May rolled around, they had earned 7,000 bonus euros.

One day, the class was discussing their plans for their trip to LA.

“I wanna see the golden gate bridge!” Mylene said.

“I wanna jump off the golden gate bridge,” Kim said.

The class laughed at that.

“Oh, did you guys make enough to go to LA?” Marinette asked.

The class turned to her.

“We’ve earned over 2,000!” Lila said. “What have you done all year?”

Alya, Marinette, Kagami, and Chloe exchanged looks, then burst into laughter.

“Only 2,000?” Marinette asked. “Have you even made any reservations?”

“Or purchased tickets?” Alya asked.

“Or passports?” Chloe asked.

“Or gotten permission from the school board?” Kagami said.

The entire class flushed.

“W-we-!” Lila started. “No, but we will soon,”

“When?” Marinette asked. “Break’s in two weeks,”

“You can’t get a trip to LA approved in that time frame,” Alya added.

“And you can’t even afford plane tickets with that amount of money,” Chloe said, horrifying the class. “At best you can afford, like, a themepark. A cheap one,”

Lila struggled to speak.

“W-well… at least we’re going on a trip!” Lila said. “What are you gonna do?”

Marinette and her friends all stood up straight.

“We’re headed to five different locations with the World Travel Club,” Marinette said.

The class gawked at her, then burst out laughing.

“You can’t afford that!” Lila said.

“And I doubt you have permission,” Kim said.

“Actually, we’ve had permission for months,” Marinette said.

“And we’ve earned over 50,000 euros,” Chloe said.

The following silence was deafening.

“Fi-fifty…” Lila muttered.

“…thousand?” Mylene squeaked.

“Mhm,” Marinette nodded. “We’ll be leaving the day after the end of year dance. By the way, Mylene, Ivan, your commissions are done. You can pick them up later,”

Mylene and Ivan nodded, grateful. They had saved up all year to pay for something of Marinette’s to wear to the end of year dance after what happened last year.

Marinette and her friends sat down.

“Our trip is ruined,” Alix muttered.

“Marinette, surely you and your… club can let us join you, right?” Adrien asked. “Let us-”

“No,” Marinette said, pulling out her sketchbook.

“Marinette, please, be the bigger person,” Mme. Bustier said.

“No.” Marinette said, glaring at her teacher. “You have dug your grave, and now you must lie in it. You didn’t fundraise, you didn’t have a goal, and you weren’t prepared. You’ll be lucky to get a school trip,”

“You’re a horrible teacher,” Alya said. “Marinette having to plan field trips last year… that’s your job. You’re also supposed to help fundraise, and you don’t make the victims of bullies apologize! I’m glad we’re graduating, because then we won’t have to see you ever again,”

Mme. Bustier was shocked. All her students had loved her, why would Alya say something like that?

“I regret transferring here,” Kagami said. “I only picked this school because Marinette attends it. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone,”

The class fell silent.

“Well? Are you gonna start class or what?” Chloe complained.

“O- oh! Right. Yes…” Mme. Bustier said.

—

The end of year dance wasn’t bad, but probably because every class in the school had to help set it up.

The next day, the World Travel Club left as planned.

They first stayed in a prestigious hotel in New York City. The club went all around the city, to all of the typical tourist destinations (somehow Marinette got them onto the torch of the Statue of Liberty).

Somehow, the club ran into the Avengers, and after Kagami managed to hit it off with Black Widow, the club got invited up to the Avengers Tower. They got a tour around the tower (taking selfies at every possible moment), then came across Thor.

Thor found the club amusing, and challenged them to try and lift his hammer.

Marinette started to record with her phone, and watched as her fellow club members tried (and failed) to lift the hammer. It was hilarious to watch.

Marinette was last, handing her phone off to Alya. Alya, Chloe, Kagami, and Marinette figured that Marinette would probably surprise everyone. Marinette didn’t even attempt to use two hands at first. She grabbed the handle with one hand, and picked it up effortlessly.

The tower stared at her in shock.

“It’s terribly balanced,” Marinette said.

“That’s what Vision said,” Thor recalled. “But I must take you to Asgard with me!”

“No thanks,” Marinette said.

The entire interaction was caught on video, and Marinette posted it later that night with the caption “I am worthy?!”

By the end of the visit, the club members had gotten the Avengers phone numbers.

The club spent two weeks touring even more places, and watching a couple of Broadway shows.

They then got on their plane headed to Gotham City.

—

Everyone was talking about the club’s trip. Everyone.

Mme. Bustier’s former class was jealous. Their former classmates were touring America! All they had gotten was a lousy two hour trip to some theme park no one could care to remember the name of.

They screamed when they saw all the pictures of the club members hanging out with the Avengers. Some of them cracked their phones when they saw Marinette pick up Thor’s hammer.

And summer was only just starting.

—

Gotham City was a crime haven. The club was a bit nervous, but they had gotten a secure hotel.

I’m their second say in the city, they met the Batfam, who insisted on flaunting meeting them so they wouldn’t be showed up by the Avengers.

So the club got pictures with every member of the Batfam, and even got to sit in the Batmobile.

The third day they met Superman, and all got to be flown around in pairs. Alya and Nino had been first, and picked all the pairs. After Alya and Nino was Rose and Juleka, then Marc and Nathaniel, then Chloe and Sabrina, then Marinette and Kagami, then Aurore and Mirelle, then Zoe and Luka.

There was a lot of blushing.

At the end of the two weeks, the club had met (and gotten pictures with) all the superheroes and villains.

The club got on their next plane.

—

The former class was in horror. The club had met all sorts of heroes, and even villains! Why were they so popular?!

There were multiple akumas, but nothing a little superheroes and horse miraculous couldn’t fix.

—

Miami was the next tour stop. The club spent the first day just touring, and walking around on the boardwalk.

The second day the spent fishing.

All day.

Marinette was having bad luck and couldn’t seem to catch a fish for ages.

When she finally did, it took her 15 minutes to reel it in. It ended up being a 15 pound Jack Crevall.

They hung out at the ocean the third day, and even went surfing.

They spent the fourth day souvenir shopping.

Over the next couple of days, they explored Miami, and went on some cool tours (like an alligator tour).

The club then spent a couple days exploring Disney World, Universal Studios, and grabbing every possible souvenir. Marinette had managed to get them passes so they could skip the long lines.

The entire club got sorted into different hogwarts houses when they went to Universal Studios, and they got wands.

Griffindor consisted of: Nino.

Nino was annoyed he was alone.

Ravenclaw consisted of: Marinette (to no ones surprise), Alya (also to no one’s surprise), Juleka, and Marc.

Slytherin consisted of: Chloe (to absolutely no one’s surprise), Kagami (also to no one’s surprise), Nathaniel (everyone was surprised by that), Aurore, and Zoe.

Hufflepuff consisted of: Sabrina (the club was expecting this), Mirelle, Luka (no one was surprised), and Rose (no one was surprised).

The club was surprised that Slytherin had the most people in it.

Everyone got robes and wands, and they spent the rest of the day getting souvenirs and going on rides.

At the end of the two weeks, and after a lot more shopping, the club got on their next flight.

—

Mme. Bustier class was speechless.

Sure, the club hadn’t met any more superheroes, but they still went to Universal Studios! And Disney World!

The classmates would need to talk to the club members when they got back to school.

—

LA was next.

Chloe had gotten them premiere movie tickets, and they got meet several movie stars. At one point in the week, they even got to go to Hollywood!

The club spent a lot of time shopping while in LA, and everyone ended up meeting their favorite actor.

Zoe got an internship, and wound up getting into a movie.

After the intense weeks were over, with Zoe filming a movie on and off, with the club members being background extras and Chloe playing the roll of the older sister that died at the beginning, the club was excited for their next location.

—

LA.

They went to LA?!

Mme. Bustier’s class was in shock. That was where they wanted to go!

Strangely though, there would be a couple of days of silence on the social meda, then pictures of the club getting souvenirs.

What happened in LA?

—

Hawaii was the most peaceful place on the trip.

Everyone had fun hanging out on the resort, and going scuba diving.

The final two weeks of the trip were the most peaceful.

Well, they would be even more peaceful if Alya and Nino weren’t pushing, trying to get all their ships to get together.

Rose and Juleka were the easiest. They were already super close, and didn’t take much pushing for Rose to finally kiss Juleka and ask her out (Chloe, Alya, and Marinette got a dozen photos).

Nathaniel and Marc were a bit more difficult. Alya and Nino forced them to sit next to eachother at every possible opportunity.

Finally, at the end of the first week, the two kissed (everyone got pictures of that).

Chloe and Sabrina were even harder. Finally, as the two weeks were coming to an end, Alya determined that the only way to get them together was to shut them in the hotel room together.

Four hours later, Chloe and Sabrina had finally kissed.

Luka won the bet (and 50 euros from each Alya and Nino).

By the end of the trip, they still hadn’t gotten Marigami together.

But everyone got on the plane anyway, with tons of souvenirs each from each city they had gone to (though, no one had more stuff than Chloe), and returned home.

—

As soon as Mme. Bustier’s class realized the group was in Hawaii, they thought they were done. Hawaii was much more chill than the other places-

Wait, when did Rose and Juleka become a thing?!

Wait, is that Marc and Nathaniel?!

WAIT, CHLOE AND SABRINA?!

The class waited, but only saw more pictures of scuba diving, Marinette and Kagami fighting sharks at one point, and souvenir shopping.

The class anxiously awaited seeing the club again.

—

The club retrieved their luggage from the baggage claim, and returned to their houses, all intending on sleeping for five days.

However, after only sleeping for a couple hours, Marinette’s phone buzzed. She sleepily opened her texting app.

It was Mylene.

Mylene: Can I talk with you?

Marinette groggily responded.

Marinette: Later

Marinette: Too tired to talk

Marinette shut her phone off, and went back to sleep.

—

Mylene stared at her phone.

“Did you reach Marientte?” her boyfriend asked.

“Yeah…?” Mylene said. “She told me we’d talk later. She’s tired. I guess their flight back landed recently. I’ll contact her later,”

“Oh, yeah,” Ivan said. “Jet lag. They were just in Hawaii,”

Mylene nodded.

“What do you think happened in LA?” Ivan asked. “Their social medias went silent for long stretches of time,”

Mylene scrolled down on the social media.

“My guess,” Mylene said. “They were in LA, near Hollywood, with Zoe, who’s an incredible actress. Maybe she got a roll in a movie and she couldn’t take pictures because of that,”

“Do you think it’s possible for someone her age to get a roll in a movie?” Ivan asked.

Mylene shrugged.

“Emma Watson got the roll of Hermione at 10 or 11,” Mylene pointed out.

“Oh, yeah,” Ivan said.

—

Two days after they got home, Marinette finally was able to walk around. She’d been frustrated with Hawkmoth still sending out Akumas, but that was to be expected.

She finally remembered the text that Mylene had sent.

Marinette: Oh shoot sorry

Marinette: If you want to talk I’ll be at the park

Mylene: I’ll be there!

Mylene: Is it alright if I bring Ivan?

Marinette hesitated. Mylene had been passive, but Ivan had been a cross between passively standing there, and picking on her.

Then again, the worst he had done was shut the door in front of her.

Marinette: Sure

Marinette slipped her phone into her purse, and pulled her hair back into twin braids. She was headed to lycée, she should wear her hair differently for the first time in ages.

Marinette walked out of the bakery, and into the park. She played with the charm on her necklace, the necklace that protected her from negative emotions.

A couple minutes later, Mylene and Ivan showed up.

“Hey,” Marinette said.

“Marinette, you’re hair is so pretty!” Mylene said.

“Thanks,” Marinette said with a smile. “So what did you want to talk about?”

Mylene and Ivan glanced at eachother.

“We’re sorry,” Mylene said. “We shouldn’t have stood by when you were getting picked on,”

“We just really didn’t want to pick a side,” Ivan said.

Marinette stared at the two.

She had noticed that, among her passive classmates, while the others just ignored her getting tripped, Mylene and Ivan had seemed conflicted. Not wanting to take sides made sense for the two.

“It’s alright,” Marinette said. “I knew you guys weren’t trying to be mean,” “And… sorry for closing the door in your face,” Ivan said. “I realized quickly I shouldn’t be doing that,”

Marinette laughed.

“It’s fine,” Marinette said.

“Hey, Marinette,” Mylene started. “The class was talking about letting you on next years class trip, and insisting you help fundraise. Are you going to?”

Marinette cringed.

“So… uh…” Marinette started. “The entire World Travel Club with transferring schools, to an art school,”

“Wait, you are?!” Mylene said, excited. “That’s awesome! What are the different members studying?!”

“Chloe and I are doing fashion,” Marinette started, “Rose, Juleka, Luka, and Nino are studying music. Nathaniel and Kagami, surprisingly, are studying drawing and painting, Marc is studying writing, Alya, Aurore, Sabrina, and Mirelle are studying photography, and Zoe is studying theatre,”

“That’s cool,” Ivan said. “How long have you known you were going there?”

“We sent in the applications in January,” Marinette said. “Over our trip, some of us got internships, and some pretty good opportunities,”

“So Zoe did get into a movie?” Mylene said.

Marinette blinked.

“Who told you that?” she asked.

“No one,” Mylene said. “I took a guess cause you didn’t update your social medias and you guys were in LA,”

Marinette laughed.

“Yeah, Zoe’s in a movie,” Marinette said. “We all are as background characters at the very least,”

“I’m so jealous,” Mylene said.

“There’s still time to apply to our school,” Marinette said. “I can send in a good word and you could get accepted before school starts,”

“You’d do that for us?” Ivan asked.

Marinette nodded.

“You guys apologized without being asked to, and weren’t that mean in the first place,” Marinette said. “And you also respected my wishes and actually paid for me to make your outfits,”

“Thank you!” Mylene said.

“I’ll help you two make a portfolio, and mail it to the school,” Marinette said. “C’mon!”

—

Like Marinette said, Mylene and Ivan were able to get into the art school, even with a short notice. Marinette talked to the other members of the World Travel Club, and they agreed that Mylene and Ivan would be allowed to join the World Travel Club. The two agreed, adding two more members to the ranks.

When school started up, the former members of Mme. Bustier’s class were expecting to see Marinette and all her friends at school. They weren’t quite sure if they would be in the same classes, but they had requested it.

However, when the first day of school ended, they still hadn’t seen Marinette, or any of her friends.

The second day of school, they still didn’t show up. A few of the classmates went to the office, and asked about them.

“Where’s Marinette Dupain-Cheng?” Lila asked. Adrien stood next to her. His father had forced them to start dating.

The receptionist looked up the name.

“I’m sorry,” the receptionist said. “There isn’t a student at this school by that name,”

Lila and Adrien stared at her in horror.

“What about Chloe Beurgouis?” Adrien asked.

“Alya Cesaire?” Lila said.

“Kagami Tsurgi?” Adrien said.

The receptionist searched up the names.

“None of those names belong to students at this school,” she said.

Lila and Adrien rambled off the names of Marinette’s friends, each one not being a student.

“What about Ivan Bruel?” Lila asked.

Ivan and Mylene hadn’t been to school.

“Not a student here,” the receptionist said.

“What?!” Lila said. “But he’s not even friends with Marinette!”

“You two should head back to lunch,” the receptionist said. “You’re wasting my time,”

Adrien and Lila begrudgingly walked back to lunch, and broke the news.

Marinette and her friends weren’t students here.

The class was speculating why they weren’t students.

“Well, at least they won’t sabotage our fundraisers this year,” Lila said.

The class hesitantly agreed. None of them were that mad at Marinette and her friends. They were upset, yes, but didn’t hold it against her. They held it against themselves.

—

Marinette and her friends thrived at the art school.

Marinette was now able to keep up with the demand for her dolls, and could even work on commissions at school. She was fiding even cooler outfits she could make, and her teachers helped her.

Zoe and Mylene were lucky that, as actors, it was understood why they missed a lot of school. Zoe had to keep working on her movie, and had given in a good word for Mylene, so the two were being flown all over working on their movies.

Now that all of Kitty Section was at the same school, and on the same page, they were thriving, writing more songs, and getting even more gigs. They even got to perform with Jagged Stone, thanks to both him being Luka and Juleka’s dad, and also him knowing Marinette, as she was the lead costumer for the groups.

Nino was thriving, and for once wasn’t yelled at for having headphones in class.

Marc and Nathaniel were getting a lot more of their comic done, and were finally catching up on the backlog of work, as there were some more artists and writers that could help with some of the planning.

For the first time, Kagami was able to draw without judgement, and she considered that in its self a win.

With access to even better cameras than their phones, Alya and Aurore’s blogs were more popular than ever. Aurore and Mirelle won weather girls again, and put their new skills to good use. No one knew why Sabrina was studying photography, but she was great at it.

Chloe finally learned how to sew properly, and helped Marinette tackle her workload (and she finally had some respect from her mother).

—

In the second week of school, the World Travel Club got together. Marinette gave Mylene a pendant, and Ivan a cord bracelet. It was the same as the jewelry all the other club members wore, it would protect them from akumatization.

“So where will we go this year?” Marinette asked.

“We’ve got 10,000 euros already,” Chloe said. “From leftovers from last year, and our personal businesses,”

After discussing it for a while, they decided to go to Japan. It wouldn’t cost as much, and it wouldn’t be as long, but it would still be fun.

—

It was months later when they finally ran into their former classmates.

“Oh! Hey guys!” Lila said. “Did you transfer?”

“Yeah,” Marinette.

“And we don’t feel like talking to you,” Chloe said.

“Why not?” Lila asked.

“Because you’re a liar,” Alya said. “Now leave us alone,”

The club left, leaving Lila and party speechless.

—

No one knew how it happened, but somehow, at some point, Marinette and Kagami started dating. When asked, they refused to tell, but smiled at eachother.

Marinette, Kagami, Alya, and Chloe stared at a map in Marinette’s room.

“So, we really need to figure out if Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth,” Marinette said. “Maybe… Alya? Can you go to the house hidden in camouflage and follow him around?”

Alya nodded.

The four had figured out how to use their powers the way adults could. Kagami had unlimited uses of her wind, water, and lightning powers, Chloe had unlimited venoms, Marinette had unlimited lucky charms, and Alya had unlimited mirages, that could last for as long as she wanted them to.

“When should we do this?” Chloe asked.

“We have Friday off, so go Friday,” Marinette said. “Hawkmoth attacks every day, so it shouldn’t take long,”

—

Friday couldn’t come soon enough.

But come it finally did.

Early in the morning, Alya told her family she would be hanging out with Marinette. She did meet Marinette, and the two went to Gabriel’s place.

Marinette had been offered a internship with Gabriel. She wasn’t going to do it, but had agreed to at least hear him out. She picked the day.

Silver Fox slipped in silently, her miraculous letting her walk silently.

Marinette spoke with Gabriel Agreste for only a few minutes, but left annoyed. She turned him down.

Silver Fox continued to follow Gabriel.

At noon, she followed him down to an elevator activated by the portrait. She barely managed to stand on it without getting caught.

“Nooroo, dark wings, rise!”

Silver Fox’s eyes went wide in shock, and she looked to where the Akuma left. Where in the world were they.

Silver Fox got out her flute and texted Marinette, warning her about the oncoming Akuma.

She slinked back and went back down the elevator, using both image and sound illusions to cover he tracks. Luckily, she wasn’t caught.

—

“So we have confirmation,” Marinette said. “Now what do we do?”

Marinette, Alya, Kagami, and Chloe were in Marinette’s room.

“Let’s kidnap Adrien,” Chloe said. “That’ll catch Hawkmoth’s attention,”

“And also paint us as the bad guys,” Marinette pointed out. She fiddled with the charm on her choker.

“What about a sneak attack?” Alya asked. “We can head to Hawkmoth’s lair, and when he comes in we attack,”

“That could work,” Marinette said.

“But he might have an alarm system,” Kagami pointed out. “And when you’ve fought him in the past he over-powered you,”

“Gabriel still as the peacock miraculous and the grimoire,” Marinette muttered. “That’s how he over powered us on heroes day. He used the peacock miraculous,”

“So we should steal them,” Chloe said.

“...yeah,” Marinette said.

“How?” Kagami asked.

Marinette grabbed the miracle box, and pulled out the horse miraculous.

“Portals,” Marinette said. She slipped the glasses on. “Kaalki, Tikki, unify,”

She transformed into Pegabug.

“Voyage,” Pegabug said, aiming at the ground.

A portal opened on the ground, looking down at from the ceiling into Gabriel’s study. He wasn’t in it.

“So far so good,” Chloe muttered.

“Voyage,” Pegabug said, opening another portal to the location of the peacock miraculous and grimoire. She found a short space. The peacock miraculous was leaning on a picture of Emilie Agreste. The grimoire was on a the shelf.

“Hurry up,” Kagami whispered, as Gabriel walked back into the room.

Pegabug quickly grabbed the miraculous and grimoire, and shut both portals.

Pegabug tapped the miraculous, and the kwami flew out.

“Duusu!”

The kwamis flew out and hugged Dussu.

While the kwamis reconnected, Pegabug looked over the miraculous.

“It’s cracked,” she said.

Kagami, Chloe, and Alya looked to see what she meant. It was true. The back of the miraculous was coated in cracks.

“I thought the miraculous couldn’t be damaged,” Alya said.

“They can under extreme conditions,” Pegabug said. “Tikki, Kaalki, divide,”

Marinette put the miraculous onto her desk.

“Master Fu lost the butterfly and peacock miraculous, and the grimoire, when escaping from a sentimonster. He lost them near lava. The Peacock miraculous must’ve cracked from the heat, but eventually the lava hardened,” Marinette let Duusu fly around for a bit.

“I’ll need to fix the miraculous,” Marinette said. She grabbed Master Fu’s tablet, and looked for the instructions on how to do so.

“Goodness…” she muttered.

“What?” Kagami asked, wrapping her arms around Marinette’s shoulders.

“I need molten gold, meteorite dust, and a part of the animal, in this case, probably a peacock feather,” Marinette said.

“I’ll get that for you,” Chloe said. “I’ll have my daddy get it,”

“Thanks, Chlo,” Marinette said.

Chloe pulled out her phone.

“Daddy?” Chloe said. “I want gold, a meteorite, and a peacock feather!”

Chloe listened, then put the phone on mute for a moment.

“Any particular kind of gold?” Chloe asked.

“A kind I can melt?” Marinette said.

Chloe nodded.

“24 carot,” Chloe said. She nodded as she listened. “Thank you daddy!”

She hung up.

“So what do we do until tomorrow?” Alya asked.

“Me and Chloe can work on the dolls,” Marinette said. “I’m nearly out. Kagami, don’t you have that assignment you need to do?”

Kagami nodded.

“Alright, you can do that,” Marinette said. “And Alya, you can work on your blog,”

The four girls got to work.

—

The next day, they were all in Chloe’s hotel, mostly because it had more privacy than Marinette’s room.

Marinette had looked up how to melt gold, while Kagami pounded the meteorite.

Chloe and Alya were on their phones while they waited.

“Alya?” Marinette asked. “Can you go get me a propane torch?”

Alya stared at her, then stood up.

“And Chloe, I need something called… Flux?” Marinette said. “Also, something that looks like this,”

Marinette showed Chloe the picture on her phone.

Chloe called her dad.

—

Several painstaking hours later, Marinette put a drop of the mixture onto the back of the peacock miraculous, and spoke the magic words. The miraculous flew into the air, and glowed brightly. It dropped into her hand. Duusu flew out.

Marinette and her friends smiled.

—

The next week, Hawkmoth attacked in-person.

This was the moment they had been waiting for.

The four found themselves staring Hawkmoth dead on.

The akumatized victim of his choice was Volpina. Obviously.

The fighting though, didn’t take that long.

Hawkmoth obviously wasn’t expecting an increase in strength, and without more help, the four heroes quickly took him down.

Gabriel Agreste was arrested. Nathalie got off scot free somehow, but both she and Adrien had a bad reputation. After the police searched the house, they found Emilie in the basement. Ladybug was able to easily heal her. After finding out what Gabriel was doing, Emilie divorced him, and took Adrien with her to London.

—

It was at the trial that Gabriel spilled the beans on Lila, saying that she had been willingly akumatized several times.

Lila’s reputation was ruined instantly, and she got sent back to Italy, with a million euro fine, and was sent to military school.

Over time, Marinette forgave her friends, but she never went back to school with them.

And MDC became a house hold name when she joined the fashion industry.

#pettynette #miraculous ladybug #dc x miraculous #marvel x miraculous #marigami #chlobrina #nathaniel x marc #adrien salt

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finkinthisfrew · 7 months

Text

Anything (Pt.37)

Chapter 37 After a beautifully intimate dinner in the foliaged corner of an outdoor patio under strings and strings of fairy lights, and a leisurely walk along the charming city streets interspersed with over a dozen makeout sessions in whatever hidden corner we could find, Matty and I finally arrived at the evening's destination. As we walked up the brick street towards the bar, only an hour late (not bad for us!), I admired the charming glow of the multicoloured Christmas lights which framed its otherwise unassuming doorway.

As Matty pulled the door open for me, we were hit by the overwhelming sound of people yelling and laughing as a cheesy recording of Toto's 'Africa' blasted throughout the bar. As we entered the long room, which boasted even more of the same yellow, orange and red Christmas lights which cast a warm glow over the whole bar, along with strings of coloured pennants along the ceiling, we searched the tables for the rest of the band.

Suddenly, a familiar voice rang through the speakers, singing the opening line to 'Africa' along with the track which played. I stood for a second processing what was happening, then Matty and I turned to each other at the same time with identical looks of astonishment and realization. At that moment, I realized two things. First, that we were at a karaoke bar. And second, that the voice I recognized, the one currently crooning the lyrics to the second verse of 'Africa', was none other than my friend, my boyfriend's best friend, and the 1975's drummer, George Daniel's.

We rushed over to the small crowd which stood surrounding a tiny stage in the back corner of the bar, pushing through to get to the front, breaking through just as George began to belt:

"IT'S GONNA TAKE A LOT TO DRAG ME AWAYYY FROM YOUUUUTHERE'S NOTHING THAT A HUNDRED MEN OR MOOOORE COULD EVER DOOOO"

George's face lit up with joy as he saw us break into the front of the crowd. We screamed the lyrics along with him as I felt several arms wrap themselves around me. I turned to see Jamie, Ross and Polly throwing their arms around both of us, drunkenly happy to see us. We all danced and shouted and laughed together as George performed and waved his full pint of beer all over the stage, by the end of which was entirely empty.

Afterwards, once Matty and I had a full fresh pint of beer in our hands each, and George two, he slung his arms around our shoulders, sloshing beer everywhere as we walked towards a table near the middle of the bar where Adam, John and Gabrielle all sat, smiling up at us.

"I've missed you two," he said happily as one of the other bar patrons began to sing a song I didn't recognize, "Do you know how much I love you both?"

"I didn't take you for such a sop, George," I teased, overwhelmed by the candidness of his declaration. He looked down at me with a giant grin.

"And I didn't take you for a Brit," he rebutted. "You're definitely spending too much time with Matty- we must preserve your Canadian-ness," he said as he plopped down in an empty seat at the table.

"Oh?" I responded in question, pretending not to hear Matty's giggle as we both remembered what happened the last time Matty teased my new vocabulary... "And how do you suggest we do that?" I asked as Matty pulled out the seat next to George for me to sit in. I turned around and smiled at him in thanks. He leaned down to kiss me in return, then as he smiled back at me, lingered for a few moments, then winked at me. My stomach flip-flopped.

Once we broke eye contact, I watched Matty sit down beside me as I felt something large and heavy land in my lap. I looked down to see a giant tattered binder that read 'KARAOKE' in big black letters.

"I'm certain they've heard of Celine Dion at least once in Panama," George said with a cheeky smile.

"Ohhh, no no no, there's no way I'm going up there," I said as I tossed the binder back onto the table and crossed my arms. Everyone began to protest.

"Oh please, Anna!" Matty begged along with the rest of the table as his hand replaced the binder on my lap. I felt his skin through the sheer material of my dress. I subdued a shiver- somehow his touch still made my heart skip a beat.

"Guys, there's literally no way in hell I'm getting up there and singing in front of a group of literal rock stars- I can't sing," I said as I shook my head.

"Hey, that's not fair!" George protested, "Not all of us are rock stars! Ross just stands there and looks pretty."

We all burst into laughter, buzzing with happy energy as Ross shook his head disappointedly, trying to hide the smile on his face.

"But George is right," Matty said as everyone's laughs faded. "That actually isn't fair of Anna to say," he said looking at me as he spoke to the group, "She's a beautiful singer. She has the loveliest voice. She even plays a little guitar!"

I shot daggers at Matty as he bragged about me, but he just continued to smile.

"Oh don't be modest, darling!" he said with a little scowl. I opened my mouth to object but George interrupted me.

"No, it's true! I've heard a recording myself- she's got this little angelic voice!" George said as he reached out and pinched my cheek. I scowled at him as everyone at the table started to shout at me to sing. A minute later everyone was banging on the table rhythmically and chanting, 'A-nna, A-nna, A-nna!' over and over. I sunk into my seat and hid behind my hands in humiliation.

Matty rubbed my leg comfortingly, then squeezed my thigh to get my attention as he leaned in toward me.

"Sing me a song, darling," he asked with giant begging eyes, "Please?"

I melted at his pleading face. How could I say no? I sighed dramatically, then uncrossed my arms and stood up to talk to the MC to submit a song.

After I sat back down, we'd just finished our second round of drinks and were about to take the shots Ross had bought for the table when they called up my name to the stage. Everyone looked over at me, and without hesitating, I immediately downed my shot of tequila, then took George's out of his hand and downed his too. I hopped up from the table, ignoring George's complaints as I headed over to the stage. Everyone stood up with me and walked over to join the crowd as I stepped up on stage, not letting myself stop to think even once about what I was about to do for fear of bolting directly out the door and into the night.

As the intro of Frankie Valli's 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You' began to play, I looked into the small crowd in front of me and found the glow of my favourite pair of eyes looking up at me. I gravitated toward their warmth, Matty's smile soothing my nerves slightly. I took a deep breath and began to sing the verse to him, like we were the only ones in the room. The way he smiled up at me morphed my anxious nerves into excited ones- he was so absurdly handsome in the soft red glow of the room, I felt giddy just looking at him.

People in the crowd began to whoop and cheer and scream the horn line as the song ramped up. Finally, when the chorus hit, I belted it out as everyone in the crowd, as well as the rest of the bar, screamed the lyrics along with me. I happily watched as everyone danced below me, Matty and George hooking their arms through each other and prancing in circles as Ross twirled Polly, Hann and Gabrielle and John doing the can-can. As terrifying as it was, it was exhilarating, and I loved every moment of it.

When the song finished and I finally stepped off stage, what felt like a million hands clasped around me, my knees buckling from their weight. I couldn't hold back my giddiness, laughing as I fell. Everyone helped me up, then praised me, showering me with compliments and pumping me up as another bar patron went up on stage.

As we all began to head back to our table, the crowd parted, and like in a movie, I saw Matty standing there, waiting patiently for me. He stepped over to me in two quick strides before picking me up in his arms and spinning me around, but I didn't notice any of it. All I could focus on was the way he beamed up at me as he spun me in the air, smiling at me so proudly, his eyes shining bright with joy. As he set me down, he pulled me in to kiss me, pressing his pride into my lips over and over, making me giggle as he did.

"My little rockstar," he said in my ear just to me as we finally pulled apart, looking down at me with a cheeky smile. He took my hand to lead me back to our table, squeezing it tightly as we walked. "You were brilliant," he said as he pulled out my chair for me. I thanked him with scarlet cheeks, overwhelmed. As I sat down, he pulled out his own chair and tucked it right up against mine, as close to me as possible, then put his arm around me pulling me in close against him.

"I feel like I finally understand what it's like for our fans when I look at them on stage," he turned to me as the rest of the table returned to their own conversations. "I thought I was about to melt into a puddle every time you looked at me up there," he said, trailing his finger along my thigh as he spoke. He looked down at my lap before adding quietly, "I could've sworn I was the only man in the room and you were singing just to me."

"I was," I replied honestly. Matty looked up at me with wide eyes, and his face broke into another huge smile, making my heart flutter all over again.

"Well that's a disappointment, I thought that was all for me," I heard George say as he leaned into me on my other side, grinning cheekily at me.

The three of us laughed and fell into conversation about karaoke songs, discussing the best and worst possible choices. We had just been laughing about the thought of someone performing 'Tequila' by The Champs, when Matty announced he was going to the bathroom.

"Would you like another?" Matty asked, gesturing at my empty pint glass.

"Yes please," I nodded. He pointed at George with raised eyebrows and he nodded as well.

"I'll grab us another round on my way back," he said. He kissed my cheek sweetly and stood up. Then, as if reading my mind how I already missed the way his leg pressed up against mine and the way his arm wrapped around me like a warm blanket, he leaned down to my ear and whispered, "I'll be quick, I promise. I miss you already," before pressing one more kiss onto my temple and shooting me a little smile and a wink before disappearing into the thick of strangers.

"I just wanted to say... Thank you again for coming, Anna," I heard George say to me. I turned to find his face earnestly looking at me as he placed his hand on my arm in thanks. "I really mean it. I know you know how much it means to him, but you'll never know how much it means to me. So thank you."

I looked into his eyes and noticed how they didn't light up all the way- how something dark lingered in behind his appreciation. I could tell there was more to this, but I wasn't sure how to approach it.

"I would do anything for Matty," I said. I meant it, and I knew George knew that too. He smiled at me when I said this, squeezing my arm as I opened my mouth, pausing with hesitation. I didn't want to pry too much, but something told me George would be open to it.

"I get the feeling that there's more to this," I began tentatively, "than what either of you have told me..." I left the sentence open-ended in the hopes of George filling in the blanks for me. He looked down at his nearly empty pint before downing the rest, then wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve and took a deep breath.

"Did Matty ever tell you about Steph?" he asked looking back at me.

My heart stopped. I knew Matty must have had plenty of exes, and I wasn't stupid enough to think I was the only love of his life, but to hear a name... Something about it felt too real, too threatening. I didn't like it, but I pushed my jealousy aside and shook my head, more concerned with what George had to say next.

"They weren't together for very long- maybe five, six months tops? They had a bit of a whirlwind romance. I remember he was careful at first. He tried to go slow, but the more time they spent together, the faster he fell. They had everything in common, and she was positive and optimistic, like a little ray of sunshine amidst the self-identity crisis that had been brewing within Matty over the years prior. He was so drawn to her- she seemed tailor-made for her."

I swallowed the lump that grew in my throat and tried to relax my stomach as it tensed up. I mostly failed. George continued.

"I was always weary about her- I didn't like her, and I couldn't figure out why," George said, and I had to try very hard not to let my smugness at this show. "Eventually, it all fell apart and began to make sense... Turns out she was tailor-made for him- she had lied about everything. When they first met, she pretended she didn't know who he was but it turns out she was a super fan- she'd figured out the places he frequented and staged their whole first meeting. She knew everything about him and used it all to make herself seem like his dream girl- yeah, I know, it was foul," George said, looking at my jaw which dropped open in shock. A moment ago I was jealous of this girl, but now, I felt nothing but pure hatred.

"It got even worse," George continued. "Matty found out she had been sending screenshots of their conversations to her friends. She also took all these pictures and videos of him without his knowledge or permission and would send those along, as well as the ones he'd taken that he thought were just for the two of them. I think she also was spending his money on clothes and shit for herself and her friends. I remember he flew a couple of her friends out for some shows and they went on some crazy shopping spree with his card. I don't think Matty cared that much about that, but I was fuming about it because I'm pretty certain they didn't ask beforehand..."

"That is so awful..." I said in disbelief as I shook my head.

"Yeah, it was mental. The breakup was big and messy and it really fucked Matty up for a long time... He'd already been having these identity and trust struggles outside of the relationship beforehand, and he'd been flirting with escapism with drinking and other things... but after he found out about Steph's charade, that's when he really fell apart," George explained. "I was really worried he was going to go in that direction again when we left London- I hadn't seen him so distraught since that breakup," George said, before shrugging to himself and adding, "But he seems to be doing great again, now that you're here."

"And you think that's because of me?" I asked tentatively.

George pondered thoughtfully.

"Yes," he answered bluntly. "I mean, he's a grown man and he's more than capable of taking care of himself, but the bloke's been through the wringer- it's not his fault he crumbles when the good things in his life disappear. It's like this," George turned to me fully, using his arms to explain, "His highs are so high- much higher than what a normal person would experience. But his lows are so much lower because of that, and I think he's still learning how to cope with that. Because at the end of the day, as popular as he is, he's just a normal bloke. I mean, he's not- the man's mad," George smiled cheekily as he propped his elbow on the back of his chair and rested his head in his hand, "But he's just a guy. And if you take anything from any of this, it should be that the way he feels about you... Look, I can't speak for Matty, but I know him better than anyone and I've seen what he's been through, and of all the highs I've seen him at... you're his highest. Easily."

I looked at George wide-eyed, stunned. He smiled at me kindly before taking hold of the Song Book and rifling through its pages, leaving me to my thoughts.

I sat in silent reflection as I processed everything George had just told me. It really started to sink in just what Matty had to deal with, and why we had the connection we had. It was wild to think how two people who'd gone through their own versions of hell, who were given every reason to lose hope and become distrustful and jaded about love, could trust one another so easily. Trusting Matty felt like breathing. It was effortless. And knowing how he'd gone through all of that and still treated me with so much care and affection... I always knew what we had was special, but it wasn't until now that it really hit me.

Without thinking twice, I stood up from the table and turned to find the bar. I pushed my way through groups of people and emerged to find Matty's back, standing patiently as the bartender poured a pitcher of beer in front of him.

I came up behind him, placing my hands on his waist, then wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him tightly. I felt him turn back to see who the hands belonged to, his body relaxing as he realized they were mine. He placed his hands on my arms, loosening my tight grip just enough to let him turn around in my embrace. Before he even finished turning to face me fully, I reached up on my tip toes and kissed him ferociously. I felt his shock at my urgency, which dissipated quickly as he sunk into me. His arms enveloped me as he kissed me harder, matching my level of passion. We kissed like we were alone. It felt like we were, even amidst the crowded bar which buzzed with drunk and happy people. But no one was happier than me. No one. It was almost too much.

"I love you so much," I said emphatically as we parted.

Matty smiled at me curiously as he took my hand in his, our fingers interlacing.

"I love you too, my darling," he said sweetly, cocking his head to one side, but I shook my head. He raised his eyebrow in question.

"No. I love you greedily, incessantly, naturally, necessarily, urgently, easily... I've never felt love like this before. I don't think anyone has ever felt love like ours," I said, my intensity registering with Matty as his face morphed into something more serious.

He slowly nodded his head in understanding as his eyes looked back and forth between mine. His mouth tensed slightly and I saw his chest shake slightly as he inhaled deeply.

"Sometimes, not often, but sometimes I worry that maybe I'm the only one who feels this way..." he said as he looked down at our hands. "That maybe we're both in love, but that this feeling I feel- this intensity, this overwhelming, other-worldly love I feel- that maybe I'm the only one who feels this way," he said. His eyes returned to mine, sparking as he saw me shaking my head.

"I think it's safe to assume that whatever you're feeling," I said to him as I let go of his hand and wrapped my arms back around him, "I feel ten-fold."

Matty smiled back at me, then bit his lip and shook his head before responding.

"Only if you assume the same with me- except make it a hundred-fold," he winked cheekily as he pulled me in for a hug.

His hands wrapped around me, his strong arms enveloping me. I tucked myself into his chest, breathing his comforting scent in as I tightened my hold.

"Can we go?" I asked Matty quietly.

He did a double-take, certain he misheard my quiet words in the loudness of the room.

"You were right," I continued as I looked up at him. "I don't want to do anything but lay in bed with you all night..."

His eyes melted at this and he smiled at me in adoration.

Instead of telling me 'I told you so' as I deserved, he kissed me gently on the forehead, then whispered in my ear, "Whatever you like, my darling," before taking my hand and walking us out the door and into the warm summer night.

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