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purrincess-chat · 3 years

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Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s Spite Playlist: Remix CH4

Yall ready for Uncle Jagged? I’d say out of the first 7 chapters, 4 is probably the one I tweaked the most from the original. It’s still roughly the same, but you’ll notice several key differences. Our girl is gonna get all the love she deserves!

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Chapter 4: The Change

“Do you think we should ask her what’s wrong?” Eliott whispered at lunch the next day as Marinette pushed food around her plate.

“I dunno. It could make things worse,” Macy said.

“But she looks so sad.” Martin winced.

She should have known they’d notice. It’s not like she was trying to hide it. Her heart was too heavy to lift up anymore, and for once, she couldn’t find her smile. There was no light to shed on the situation. No motivation to even go looking for any. She was a ghost of the confident girl they’d met yesterday, so she couldn’t blame them for having whiplash. Still, it was sweet of them to worry.

She set down her fork and forced a pained smile. “I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine,” she said.

“Did Gabrielle get to you?” Martin shrank, glancing around as if her posse were poised to strike.

“No.” She shook her head, chewing her lip contemplatively before continuing, “It’s my old school. Yesterday my best friend was akumatized because I left, and-”

“Oh, that’s so scary!” Macy gasped. “We’ve had a few akumas here before.”

“Yeah, I think I recognize some of you,” Marinette said, then quickly added, “-from the news.”

“Is everything okay?” Eliott asked.

“Not exactly…” Marinette shifted her gaze back to her plate. “She and I agreed to go our separate ways after everything.”

“Marinette, I’m so sorry,” Macy said.

“It’s probably for the best.” Marinette shrugged. “There’s this girl at my old school that’s a huge liar, and she has everyone wrapped around her finger, including my best friend… my ex-best friend. I tried several times, but I could never prove that she was lying. Then she started turning my friends against me, and—yeah.”

“Wow, no wonder you left,” Eliott said.

Macy stretched across the table to take her hand. “Hey, you have us now, and if there’s anything we’re good at, it’s forgetting about our problems for a little while, so why don’t we do something fun tonight?” She suggested. “I hear Jagged is playing a concert in town; we could go if you want.”

“But I thought it was sold out.” Marinette’s eyebrows knitted together.

“Well, aren’t you friends with Jagged?” Eliott asked. “Ask him for tickets.”

“I- we’re not really that close. I mean, I designed for him a couple of times, but I don’t really think that he would do that. Besides, I wouldn’t want to trouble him…” Marinette rubbed the back of her neck.

“It doesn’t hurt to ask,” Macy said.

Marinette eyed her phone with pursed lips before pulling up her Instagram. Of course she followed Jagged, but she barely interacted with him. He probably wasn’t even the one running the account—most celebrities had an assistant for that. Her request would probably get buried among the thousands of other comments, but it was worth a shot. She typed a quick message and hit send, praying he wouldn’t be too upset with her for asking.

“I’m surprised that a girl as connected as you doesn’t take advantage every now and then,” Eliott said when she set her phone down. “I mean, you know a lot of famous and powerful people.”

“I don’t like to bother anyone.” She curled her shoulders. “Besides I don’t know him that well.”

“Jagged called you his favorite little lady when you were on that TV show with him.” Macy reminded her. “I think it’s safe to say that he likes you enough to give you a few free tickets.”

When Marinette’s phone vibrated on the table, they all crowded around to read Jagged’s reply.

“Yo, Marinette! It would be totally awesome if you could come to my show tonight! The floor’s sold out, but I’ll have Penny send some backstage passes for you and your friends!”

“Well, well, well,” Eliott said. “Looks like we’re going to see Jagged Stone.”

♪♫♪ Better Without You ♪♫♫

Alya toyed with her stylus, gaze fixed on the desk in front of her as she attempted to piece together the last 24 hours. After everything they’d been through together, how could Marinette end things like that? Her stomach churned, recalling the drained look in Marinette’s eyes the night before.

Maybe she’d overreacted. Marinette was her best friend after all, and best friends didn’t abandon each other for no reason. It wasn’t like Alya wanted to stop being friends. She was just so hurt and confused that she’d said it on impulse. She never expected Marinette to agree, but maybe she felt the same way Alya did. Maybe she thought Alya didn’t want to be her friend anymore, so she let her go despite how painful it was. It was a nice thought anyway.

“Good morning, Alya!” Lila greeted with her usual cheeriness, though her face fell upon seeing Alya’s forlorn expression. “Is everything alright?”

“It’s nothing.” Alya blinked out of her trance, shifting in her seat.

“It doesn’t seem like nothing.” Lila pried. When Alya remained quiet, Lila placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You can trust me. We’re friends, right?”

“Yeah…” Alya weighed it for a moment before turning to face her. “It’s about Marinette.”

“Oh, I see! You’re upset because she left.” Lila nodded in understanding.

“I tried to talk to her yesterday, but things didn’t exactly go well…” Alya lowered her gaze to her lap with a frown.

“Did she tell you why she left?”

“Not exactly…” Alya bit her lip. “I mean, I have a hunch, but she denied it.”

“It wasn’t because of me, was it?” Lila gasped, and Alya averted her gaze. “It was, wasn’t it? Oh, I never meant to upset her. I even tried to ask her to be my friend in the bathroom the day I came back, but all she did was yell at me and call me names. I didn’t want to tell anyone because everyone loves her, and I didn’t want to start trouble, but she was the reason I got akumatized.”

“She yelled at you?” Alya’s eyebrows raised in surprise, and Lila nodded.

“I just don’t understand what I ever did to her to make her not like me,” she said. “I’m really sorry that she’s taking it out on you.”

“It’s not your fault. Marinette was always a little eccentric. I just don’t know what pushed her over the deep end.” Alya sighed, leaning against her fist. “I guess…our friendship didn’t mean as much to her as I thought.”

Lila eyed her with pursed lips before a smile stretched across her cheeks. “If I was your best friend, I would never leave you like that, Alya,” she said. “In fact, if you want, I could move up to sit by you, but I completely understand if you’re still torn up about Marinette. I’d never try to replace her or anything.”

A small smile curled on Alya’s lips. “Thanks. I could use a friend right now.”

Lila placed her bag on the desk, beaming as she took her new seat. Alya eyed her with a contemplative frown.

She’s a liar. I’ll never be friends with her.

“Just promise me one thing,” Alya said.

“Anything.”

“Promise you won’t ever lie to me,” Alya said.

Lila blinked in surprise but linked their pinkies together nonetheless. “I promise, Alya. You’re my friend. I’d never lie to you.”

“Thanks, Lila. You’re the best.”

♪♫♪ Save Rock and Roll ♪♫♪

“So, you guys really aren’t friends anymore?” Adrien asked later that evening.

Marinette’s chest tightened. Adrien had called her after his Chinese lesson, having overheard about her split from Alya at school. She didn’t dare wonder what people were saying about her—even thinking about it made her skin crawl. Maybe it was for the best that she was going to see Jagged Stone tonight with her new friends. She needed the distraction.

“Nope,” she said. Setting her phone on the dresser, she grabbed sweater from her closet and held it up in front of the mirror.

“Are you okay?” Adrien’s voice was laced with worry.

The corners of Marinette’s eyes stung, and she chewed her cheek, focusing on her outfit. Adrien had already seen her cry once in the last 24 hours. She wasn’t about to let it happen again.

“I don’t know.” She hung the sweater back on the rack with pursed lips and shrugged. “It hurts, but so did being pushed aside for a new girl.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know you two were close.”

“Not close enough, apparently.” She swiped through hangers with a little more force than necessary.

“And you’re sure you don’t want to try to work things out?”

Marinette tapped her finger on the bar and nodded. “If I tell her that Lila is lying, it’ll just be more of the same. Even if we told her that Ladybug called her out, Lila would still twist it and make herself the victim.” She grabbed a jacket and slipped it on. “How do I look?”

“Incredible, as always,” Adrien said, bringing a flush to her cheeks as she brushed her hair in the mirror.

“Sorry your dad won’t let you come with us,” she said.

“I’m used to it by now. He barely lets me go to the movies.” Adrien sighed, swiveling back and forth in his chair.

“I’ll try to get Jagged’s autograph for you.”

“Thanks. I promise we’ll do something together soon, even if it’s just sitting on a couch eating ice cream,” he vowed, and Marinette smiled.

“I’m glad I still have you,” she said. “You have no idea how much it means to me that you understand.”

“I’ll always be here for you. Even if I can’t leave my house, you can call me anytime,” he said.

“Thanks, Adrien.” She picked up her phone and waved. “I’ll see you later.”

“Have fun at the concert!”

After he hung up, she pressed a soft kiss to his picture on the screen. Who knew that all she needed to do to get Adrien’s attention was change schools? This was the most they’d talked since they met, and although she wasn’t ready to tell him her feelings, she was loving the attention.

“Ready to go?” she asked her kwami.

“This is your first time hanging out with your new friends outside of school! I’m happy that you’ve made friends so quickly,” Tikki said.

Marinette hooked her purse over her shoulder with a smile. “I have a good feeling about this group. Even if they are insanely rich, I feel like they’re different. They aren’t stuck up or arrogant like Chloe or Gabrielle. They’re nice.”

“Marinette! Your friends are here!” her mom called from the living room.

“Coming!” Marinette closed the clasp of her purse and skipped down the stairs.

“Got your phone?” her mom asked.

“Yep.” She nodded, holding it up.

“And you’ll call us right away if anything happens?” her dad added, arching a warning brow.

“Of course.” She stretched up to kiss his cheek. “Bye, Papa. Bye, Mama.”

“Have fun, sweetie!”

Marinette waved over her shoulder as she headed down the stairs. The limo was waiting outside, and Macy’s butler opened the door when she approached.

“How exciting is it that we have backstage passes to see Jagged Stone?” Macy squealed. “Honestly, Marinette, you’re the best.”

“I still feel a little weird about it,” she admitted sheepishly.

Eliott glanced up from his magazine and rolled his eyes. “Jagged wouldn’t have given you the tickets if he didn’t want to. When you have connections, there’s no shame in using them. That’s how you make friends in high places,” he said. “Don’t worry. We’ll teach you everything you need to know.”

“Then your old friends will all wish they didn’t turn their back on you.” Macy linked her arm through Marinette’s. “Because you’re already the most incredible person I’ve ever met, and I’ve only known you for a couple days. You stood up for someone you didn’t even know, you’ve got all kinds of celebrity connections, and you are wearing the cutest jeans I’ve ever seen!”

“Thanks, I stitched the pattern in myself.” Marinette ran her fingers over her trademark flowers.

“When you start your own fashion line, I want to be your first customer,” Macy said, and Eliott set down his magazine with a scoff.

“Not if I get there first,” he said.

Macy stuck her tongue out at him as they pulled up to Martin’s building. Macy’s butler opened the door again, and the scrawny boy climbed in timidly.

“Hey, Martin.” Marinette smiled.

“Are you sure it’s okay if I come too?” he asked.

“Of course! You’re our friend now,” Marinette assured him.

Martin shifted his gaze to his lap with a small smile.

On the drive over, Macy and Eliott chatted about how annoying their expensive phones were, leaving Martin and Marinette to sit in silence.

“Um, thanks for this,” he said, stealing a quick glance before fixing his gaze back on his shoes. “I’ve never really had any friends. Everyone just kind of walks all over me.”

“Can I tell you a secret?” Marinette pressed a hand to the side of her mouth. “I used to be a lot like you.”

“Really?” He blanched.

“At my old school, Chloe Bourgeois used to torment me all the time, but one day someone stood up to her for me and helped me find the courage to do it myself. It gave me a lot more confidence, and I was able to branch out and make more friends.” She lowered her gaze with a frown, heart sinking. Now wasn’t the time for a pity party, so she shook it off and continued, “That’s why I stood up for you because I know how much it changed my life when someone did it for me.”

“Wow,” Martin said. “I still don’t think I could ever be as confident as you.”

“Never say never.”

Awkward silence stretched between them while Macy and Eliott continued gossiping about various celebrities. They were so comfortable with each other that Marinette didn’t know where to interject. She decided it was better to leave them be—she had enough to think about anyway.

She leaned back against the seat with a sigh, recalling old memories of sleepovers and birthday parties and scheme after scheme to get Adrien’s attention. All of that seemed so far away now, and she was left with a gaping hole in its wake. She missed her friends. She missed her old school. She missed all of those memories, and more than anything, she wished she could go back.

But too much had changed now. Lila had everyone wrapped around her finger, so things would never really be the same. Besides, being around Lila wasn’t good for her, and if her friends couldn’t see the truth… It was best for her not to be around them either. Even if it left her feeling empty. Those holes would fill with time, and she’d make new memories with her new friends. Her old life would fade, and eventually she wouldn’t even remember what it was like before.

She had bigger things to worry about anyway—such was the lot she took on when she accepted the call to be Ladybug. Superheroes couldn’t afford to take chances, and Marinette couldn’t afford to have bad friends. This concert was a fresh start for her, a chance to carve a new life with new people who wouldn’t toss her aside like old bread.

When they arrived at the venue, Penny was waiting for them by the back entrance. She draped their passes around each of their necks and clicked her pen.

“Don’t lose these and keep them on at all times, okay?” She instructed before pressing a hand to the Bluetooth device in her ear. “Yes, I’ll go check on Mr. Stone now- uh, come in, the show will be starting soon.”

“This is so exciting!” Macy bounced beside Marinette. “I can’t believe I’m gonna get to meet Jagged Stone, and it’s all thanks to you, Marinette.”

“Yeah, thanks for hooking us up, Marinette.” Eliott echoed.

“It was you who encouraged me to ask, Eliott, and we wouldn’t have gotten here without Macy, so really we all had a hand in it.” Marinette waved it away.

“This is a disaster!”

They all stopped short as Jagged stormed into the hall.

“My lucky jacket is ruined! I can’t do the show like this!” he cried.

Penny rushed to his side to investigate the ripped article in his hands. “I’ll get with wardrobe to see if they have a different one,” she said, but Jagged shook his head indignantly.

“If I can’t wear this jacket, I won’t do the show.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

“But Jagged-”

“It’s lucky! All of my best performances happen when I’m wearing that jacket, and who knows what might go wrong if I go on without it!” he whined.

“Jagged?” They turned to Marinette, her friends standing behind her with bewildered expressions. “Is everything alright?”

“Yo, Marinette, you made it, rock on!” He pulled her in for a tight hug. “Too bad I have to cancel.”

“All of this over a jacket?” Martin asked, shrinking when Macy and Jagged turned to him with cutting glares.

“A rockstar’s show isn’t just about music, Martin. A performer’s wardrobe can be the difference between a rock legend and a rock nightmare,” Macy explained with a scoff.

“She’s right. I can’t go on like this. I look ridiculous without it!” Jagged said.

“Maybe I could fix it?” Marinette piped up, and everyone’s heads whipped around to face her.

“Could you really, Marinette?” Jagged perked up.

“The concert starts in 10 minutes. People are already in their seats,” Penny said, consulting her schedule. “Can you make a repair that fast?”

“I can try.” Marinette shrugged.

“Then I leave the fate of my show in your hands, Marinette.” Jagged handed her the jacket. “I have total faith in you.”

Marinette examined the tear in the shoulder seam with a determined frown before pulling out a mini-sewing kit. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, she set to work trimming excess threads.

“She carries a sewing kit around with her?” Eliott cocked a brow.

“She’s a designer, of course she does,” Macy said.

Everyone watched her work in eager anticipation, and after a few minutes, Marinette pulled the thread tight to close the gap. Knotting off her work and clipping the last thread, she held it up proudly.

“Done!” she said, and everyone breathed sighs of relief.

“Marinette, you’re my hero!” Jagged cheered. He cupped her cheeks, planting a kiss on her forehead before donning his jacket. “If you hadn’t been here, I wouldn’t have been able to perform. You’re a real lifesaver.”

“3 minutes!” One of the stage-hands announced as Penny passed Jagged his guitar.

“If you ever need anything from me, you’ve got it, Marinette.” Jagged winked.

Marinette bit back a shy smile as the arena erupted with cheers.

“See? If you hadn’t asked Jagged for tickets, you wouldn’t have been here to help him,” Eliott said pointedly as they stood on the sides behind the curtains to watch.

Marinette glowed with pride. Eliott was right. If she hadn’t used her connection to be there, then Jagged would have canceled. It was a weird coincidence, but it eased her guilt about asking for such a big favor, like she was paying Jagged back.

What would her friends back home say if she told them she saved Jagged for real? Of course, Lila would probably come up with something bigger and better to one-up her, but at least she could tell Adrien about it later.

“I want to dedicate this next song to a very special young lady,” Jagged said into the mic. “She has been a huge inspiration to me, and I want to invite her on stage to sing this one with me. Clara and I wrote it to honor the heroes of Paris, and tonight she was my hero, so come on out here, Marinette.”

“No way!” Macy gasped as they all shoved Marinette out onto the stage.

“Marinette is exceptionally talented.” Jagged wrapped an arm around her as she joined him. “In fact, if it wasn’t for her, tonight’s show wouldn’t have happened, so tonight this song is a tribute to you, Marinette. You’re my everyday Ladybug.”

Marinette cupped her hands over her mouth, cheeks hot as she took her place at the mic. As Jagged began to play a familiar melody, she looked at him for her cue.

“Another day, I’m back at school. I think about him, he’s so cool.” She glanced at her friends who gave encouraging nods. “He looks at me, I look away, but does he see me anyway?”

Sensing her unease, Jagged sang along with her softly until it was his turn to take up the second verse. By the second chorus, Marinette was gaining confidence as the crowd cheered them on. She removed the mic from the stand and paced across the stage, touching hands with people in the audience. She was no Clara Nightingale, but she was having fun performing with Jagged. As she belted out the last chorus with Jagged, a familiar rush pulsed through her veins that reminded her of Ladybug.

She was powerful. She was confident. She was free.

#mdcspr #marinette dupain-cheng's spite playlist remix #my writing

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pl-panda · 4 years

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The vines that bind us - Chapter 6

Chapter 1 || Previous || NEXT

Elevator took her all the way to the highest floor. When she exited, the floor was back to perfect condition and several more plants were awaiting her. She promised them silently to check on them soon and went to the main office. She knocked several times on the doors, but nobody answered. Hesitantly, she pushed the doors open, but no one was in the office. After double-checking with security, it turned out that Tim Drake did not show to work. She sighed. Looks like more work for her… Just like Nathalie said.

“Didn’t you cause enough drama…” Lila never got a chance to end that sentence, because Mari delivered a straight one strong enough to send her flying several feet back before she came crashing down. Blood pouring from her nose.

The girl was about to launch herself at the liar and pound her into the ground when two strong arms grabbed her. She noticed the characteristic spikes on the sides of black gloves and stated to trash around. “Let me go you overgrown furry!” She screamed. “I will mix her face with the concrete until it’s nice and even!”

She tried to wiggle herself out of his grip. Most of the class surrounded Lila and were trying to help her. It only served to irate Mari more. She kicked her leg back, hitting Batman’s shin. It was finally enough to let her go. The girl fell down... right into the embrace of Chloe and Adrien who managed to get to her on time. The two blondes hugged her tightly.

“There. It’s alright Goldie. You got her good. Rest.” The girl cooed and pressed her best friend to her chest, muffling the sobbing. Adrien was just silently there and hugged them both. When Batman tried to approach again, the boy sent him an angry glare. The warning was clear and the vigilante didn’t really need anything from the girl right now.

After a bit, Mari fell asleep in their embrace. The stress finally caught up to her and she couldn’t hold exhaustion at bay any longer. Chloe easily picked her up and started to walk toward a taxi that was conveniently parked nearby, waiting for them.

“What!?” Angry Alya looked from Lila who was now being cared for by a pair of paramedics. She turned to Commissioner Gordon who was discussing something with Batman. “You!”

The policeman looked at her curiously. Alya continued her shouting. “You’re letting her go just like that? She just assaulted Lila! She might’ve ruined her modeling career! Arrest her!”

“Miss.” Gordon shook his head. “These are some of the braves men and women in Gotham, but I doubt any of them would dare to try and arrest her right now. They don’t get paid enough.”

“What?!” Several kids started to protest, but Gordon just ignored them and directed Harvey to start taking statements. He wasn’t paid enough to deal with these brats.

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Bruce sighed as he exited the Batmobile. Almost immediately, he was swarmed by the rest of his family. Jason and Dick practically carried him, still in the suit, to the movie room.

“Now, Ladies and Gents, we have some of the greatest shows for you. We call it… The Demon Trashing!”

What followed was a clip taken from monitoring in the anteroom of the CEO office in Wayne Tower. He watched as Damian, dressed in civilian clothing, and carrying a simple ninjato on his back entered the room. He walked around for a moment before knocking on the main office doors, but whatever answer he got seemed to have irritated him given the scowl that formed on his face. He walked over to the PA’s desk that stood there, but no one was here. After a short moment, one could see the elevator doors open again and a small girl in a smart outfit walked in. Damian dashed to the shadows before she had a chance to notice him.

Bruce resisted the urge to facepalm. He could already see where this was going.

When the girl started to walk to the desk, his son suddenly reappeared with the sword drawn. He pressed the blade to her neck. From the angle, it was impossible to see either of them expressions. The man did not expect his son to kill a civilian for trespassing, but the amount of glee on Jason’s and Dick’s faces was suggesting that his headache hadn’t really started.

The girl suddenly grabbed the blade and pushed it away. Damian, probably acting on instinct, tried to cut her, but she just walked out of the way and disarmed his son before knocking him out. There was a short skip to when Jason and Dick entered the room. The small girl was clearly very much irritated with them from the start and when she reached her limits, she used a pencil as a projectile to open the elevator doors.

A small smirk made its way to Bruce’s face when he saw her storm past his three sons, carrying the ninjato through a tissue. The video ended with Damian waking up.

“And that’s how Drake’s new PA trashed a certain Demon Spawn. I swear, she could probably give Luthor’s bodyguard a run for her money when it comes to being a badass” Jason commented on the silent video in his typical fashion.

“Tt. She stole my sword.” Damian huffed.

“You mean the sword she later used to stab Riddler’s man before disarming him?”

“I still consider the best part of today when she called B. an overgrown furry,” Dick said trying to hold back on laugher.

“Wait. I have a new personal assistant?” Tim asked half-awake.

“Yeah. She was supposed to be an intern, but apparently, Sarah hired her on the spot and quit.”

“Oh… Cool.” Tim said and took a swing from his gargantuan cup.

“Did you manage to pull the video of her taking down Riddler?” Bruce asked.

“The cameras malfunctioned before she even entered.”

“It was me,” Tim confessed. “I was still in my office when the alarm sounded. I keep a separate copy of my suit in a hidden compartment. To save time I dressed there, but I had to disable the CCTV…”

“Yeah yeah. Whatever.” Jason shut him up. “I also got the part when Damian’s eyes roll back as my new screensaver.”

“Tt. You’re lucky I don’t have my sword.”

“Don’t think you’re getting it back any time soon,” Bruce said in a stern tone and sighed. “What exactly do we know about her?”

“She is from Gotham, but she lives in Paris for some years. She said she was practicing martial arts since she was five.” Dick started

“She is also one bada…”

Jason was interrupted by Alfred, who entered the room with a plate full of cookies and tea. “A young woman just called. She asked me to forward a message to young master Damian.”

“Tt. What is it?”

“I quote. ‘Good luck getting your sword back now. Police took it as evidence. Suck it, Wayne.’ I believe the woman was young miss Chloe Bourgeoise.”

Dick, Jason, and Tim were literally rolling on the floor laughing. Bruce just facepalmed.

“No, you can’t break into the evidence room. You might jeopardize the whole investigation if you taint the evidence.” Bruce said in an exasperated tone.

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It was late after midnight (or even early morning, depends on your definition) when the vigilantes returned from the patrol, only to meet Tim and Barbara working on something on Batcomputer in tandem. Whatever it was, they were completely devoted to it since neither realized they had company until Bruce made a coughing sound.

“Not now.”

“What exactly are you doing?” The father inside Bruce resisted the urge to force-feed Tim some sleeping meds.

“We’re doing the background check,” Barbara said while typing frantically.

“On my new personal assistant.” The boy supplied.

“oh?” Bruce raised an eyebrow.

“Like… from what we found she is either the worst bitch on the block or strongest badass around.”

“Langauge master Tim.” Alfred scolded him.

“Sorry. But like seriously! There are so many contradictions.”

“Check this out.” She pulled out a scan of a letter. It was largely creased, but still perfectly readable. “Her adopted parents one day disappeared, leaving her everything they owed sans some of their clothes. It was like they packed and left.”

“You suspect a foul play?”

“I’m not sure. The investigation was a joke and so was the follow-up proceeding. The interesting part is the custody battle that followed.”

“Jagged freaking Stone and Parisian Mayor.” Tim interrupted Babs. “It ended with a compromise that Jagged was lawfully named her uncle and Mayor became her guardian. She was the one who suggested it.”

“How can one be lawfully named someone’s uncle?”

“Apparently one can in France. Or they just made some concessions to a celebrity. Seen weirder things.” He shrugged. “She was also his designer for years now. You remember that mysterious MDC?”

“The one you used to fawn over?” Bruce asked.

“She is brilliant so sue me.” The boy huffed. “Also, it stands for Marigold Désign et Création. She runs an internet boutique where she takes commissions from both commoners and celebrities.”

“What does it have to do with anything?”

“I’m getting to that. Gee.”

“Maybe I will get there?” Babs tried to take over. “She’s been working part-time as a babysitter to get funds to buy materials for new clothes and received nothing but praise. She also became a class representative. A successful one at that. She also holds the national championship in U-17 Mechastrike.”

“How is that important exactly?”

“You wanted to know everything about her B., so we are giving you everything.” Tim sassed

“Just… get to the important parts.” He shook his head. What did he do to deserve this?

“Fine. Her school records are a mess. Skipping that they wouldn’t hold to any official inspection, they straight-up contradict each other.” Tim waved his hand in some undefined gesture. “On one hand, she receives nothing but praise from the teachers, but at the same time, there are multiple bullying reports and even several assaults in here. Most of them were met with harsh punishments.” Tim opened a separate file. “Too harsh according to the school charter.”

“It didn’t help that the letter from her parents also mentioned these kinds of things.” Babs chimed in, trying to regain control of the tale. Bruce just gave an exasperated sigh. He just gave up and allowed them to solve it, mentally already cataloging the information.

“Except! There were statements from several people that contradicted this. Especially Chloe Bourgeois. She said, ‘Puh-lease! Mari is the kindest doormat in the world. I was mean to her for years and she still welcomed me back with open arms.’ Given her track record, I’m inclined to believe it.”

“There was also this Drama, capital ‘D’, with MDC stealing designs. Several tabloids caught the wind of it and it even led to the police investigation. Only after Jagged Stone intervened, the thing quickly shut up.”

“Now onto the juicy parts!” Babs smiled.

“And that was what? An introduction?”

“Yup. She has a certified black belt in two different martial arts, is a master gymnast, has an IQ of over 130 and owns two separate businesses in Paris.” She quickly read. “As we mentioned, she is the honorary lawful niece of Jagged Stone, but also designed for Clara Nightingale, Nadia Chamack, worked with Gabriel Agreste, was offered an internship from Audrey Bourgeois before she became her ward. She was seen hanging out with Kagami Tsurugi, world-renowned fencer, and Luka Couffaine, the rising star under Jagged Stone’s tutelage.”

“That was fast.” Tim summarised.

“Yeah. Also, she was adopted some nine years ago. She originally comes from Gotham.”

“Do we know her biological parents?” Bruce asked, getting serious.

“That’s where it gets juicy. When I tried to pull out her adoption files, the computer shut down to avoid detection. There is some serious encryption on it. Probably due to who her father is. We got some of it. She described her mother as ‘wearing an outfit that showed more skin than her beachwear’, so we suspect she was a prostitute.”

“Hm… It’s not unheard of. You say she was with her mother until she was eight?”

“Between seven and nine the file said.”

“Hm… Do you think she is a threat?”

“No. But I have a different question. Why didn’t the league investigate Paris’ supervillain?”

“We were made aware of him only recently, after what our satellites mistook for Poison Ivy attack,” Batman said in an irritated tone. The fact that there was a supervillain running around for close to four years completely undetected grated on his nerves. “Diana Prince has been investigating for some time now. She has it under control.”

“The only problem I see is that she is only sixteen,” Barbara pointed.

“I mean I’m barely seventeen and I ran this company for two years now. And don’t act high and mighty. You started playing Batgirl at fifteen.”

“Played?!” She screamed.

“You wore a hoodie and carnival mask at first.”

This quickly developed into an insults contest until Bruce finally had enough. He just shook his head and left. Alfred silently followed him, carrying a plate of sandwiches.

-----

The next morning, Mari woke up in her bed, with Chloe and her curled together in a mess of limbs and clothes. Of course, she panicked and jumped up, waking the blonde.

“Honestly, Goldie, five more minutes. I need my beauty sleep!” She murmured.

“Um… Why are we in one bed?”

“Because you fell asleep hugging me yesterday and refused to let go at any point. I swear I wanted to get a crowbar. Ridiculous!”

“Sorry…” Mari gave her a sheepish smile.

“None of that! You ruined Lila’s face in one punch. Adrien texted me that in the end she lost seven teeth and will require plastic surgery for her nose not to look like a mashed potato.”

“No…!” Her eyes widened.

“Yup.” Chloe grinned, popping the ‘p’.

“That’s awful! I can already imagine how much the class will hate me now! And the employees that saw this! There were cameras there!”

“Some people actually applauded you. It could be also because you called Batman an overgrown Furry though…” Chloe’s voice wandered off. Mari collapsed onto the bed, head buried in the pillows.

“Kill me…”

“Can I kill you with hugs?”

“Fine…”

When the panicking bluenette finally calmed down, Chloe got her to sit down and showed her the headlines.

Brave WE employee saves dozens of lives!

A hero without a suit!

Civilian stopped Riddler!

Personal Assistant takes down a dangerous criminal!

They were all overly positive and showed much support. Only one tried to vilify her based on Lila’s comment and her being punched, but it quoted Ladyblog as a reliable source, so it was dismissed. The majority of the comments were also positive. The ‘overgrown Furry’ was already trending too.

Only one of the articles contained the list of names of people killed in the attack.

Ted Black - a security guard, put himself between the bullet and another employee Sigfried Osborne - a security guard, died when he tried to stop them from entering Molly Bishop - a PR specialist, called the police when she thought the guards were busy Heidi Dickson - a security guard, killed in crossfire Craig Lloyd - an HR employee, wrestled the gun from one of the henchmen before he was shot in the back. Ethel Arson - A lawyer, killed in crossfire Christian Thorn - a security guard, shot two of the riddler’s henchmen in defense of a group of hostages.

Their room had several live plants on the rail. Mari walked to them and allowed her powers to flow. Slowly, the flowers bloomed. She picked seven beautiful flowers and put them on the table.

“Mari… I’m sure they will understand if you don’t come to work today…” Chloe placed a hand on her best friend’s shoulder.

“No… No. I won’t be scared into hiding by Riddler of all people.” She said with determination and some coldness in her voice. She stood up and walked to her suitcase. From there, she gathered a different outfit. Now she would wear a red shirt, a black blazer with the Ladybug logo on her right breast, a black pencil skirt, and black leather ballet shoes (she still hated heels). But the greatest change was her hair and eyes. She let go of her twin pigtails and allowed her wavy hair to run free. It was no longer black, instead turning dark blue with purple highlights. Her eyes also changed. Her bluebell eyes also changed. The iridescent green she used to suppress was now mixed with the normal eye color, giving an entrancing effect that was hard to stop looking at.

“It’s time to rock this place.” She smiled at her best friend.

------- (Play ‘Confident’ by Demi Lovato) --------

Marigold and Chloe entered the Wayne Enterprises in full stride. Flashing her pass, she got them through control without the queue or checking, much to the shock of the class (who still had no idea Mari was now technically their boss). Adrien showed the girls thumbs up. Lila was seething, but neither Chloe nor Marigold paid her any mind and guards didn’t let her follow them and straight-up kicked her to the back of the queue.

Mari gave a nod to the receptionist, but they didn’t slow down. Elevator was about to close, but one of the employees held it for her. Once they entered, she quickly checked her tablet and the to-do list she had for that day. First stop: PR. Chloe was going to HR to receive a new mentor after… the previous day.

When she entered the Public Relations department, Mari didn’t stop to chat with the employee that looked at her in awe. Her goal was the department’s head office and that’s where she would go. Gently knocking on the doors before entering, she pushed the doors. While she was smiling kindly, her whole posture screamed professional.

“Hello. Mr. Drake will need the Friday press conference plan adjusted in response to what happened yesterday. There needs to be a mention of the event, as we won’t want to sound too detached. The press would tear us apart. Some gesture to show the public that we care…”

“Maybe a memory board in the lobby? And perhaps schedule Mr. Drake to visit each of the families somewhere next week?”

“I think it will be okay…” For a short moment, Mari allowed her confidence to drop, but she quickly gathered herself and made a note in her calendar.

“If that’s all…”

“I will also need a press statement no later than by lunch.” She said quickly. “Make it a priority and forward it to me to read before you post it.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” The man smiled. Mari was about to leave when he spoke again. “And thank you for yesterday. Many people owe you their lives.”

She stopped in her tracks, unable to say a word. Finally, she regained her composure. “Thank you. I… I’m coping.”

As she left the office toward the elevator, Lila and Alya, who were interning in that department, tried to speak with her, but she didn’t even spare them a glance. Alya tried to grab her, but she was stopped by one of the older employees. As the elevator doors closed, Mari could see the girls receive a serious scolding. A grin made its way onto her face. Lila and Alya would have a really hard life for the next two months. Especially if she had anything to say about it.

Her next stop was the security office. She entered it with a neutral expression, but it lasted only maybe five steps from the elevator. She didn’t tear up. She was a Gothamite inside. Right as one walked out of the elevator, there was a small bar, behind which a board was filled with pictures. Some looked really old, black and white or even sepia, while some others were high-quality and new. Roughly half of them were the clean pictures one would attach to a resume. The other half were profile pictures from social media. Or a photo that was taken in the forest. One was even a detailed drawing of a person. There were maybe fifty of them in total.

“It’s a reminder. Guards who lost their lives since the founding of WE” An older man said. “Silas Wayne started the tradition after he served in the Great War. You’re here for something miss?”

“Oh… Yes. The security on Friday press conference. We must increase it by about fifty percent. And make sure that only those with invites can enter.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He saluted her.

“Um…” Mari suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable.

“Don’t worry. It wasn’t your fault.” He said in a comforting voice.

“Thank you, sir.” She allowed a weak smile to enter her face before she left. Only two more stops.

The elevator next took her to the Legal Department. She had many things that needed to be done here. Chloe met her as soon as she exited the elevator. Mari managed to regain her professional posture and once more emanated the aura of confidence. She wasn’t sure how long she could keep it up, but she was determined to show that she was okay.

“I already forwarded your requests. At first, Madame McKinsley was reluctant, but apparently, our entrance is already the top corporate gossip. Good job Mari-bear.”

“Good. Thanks, Chlo. Now get back to work before someone sees me get friendly with an intern. I have a plan.” Before they separated, Marigold let a smile ghost her face. “One more thing. You’re free to unleash the foxes of war.”

Chloe lit up at that. Her whole demeanor changed to almost beaming light. She immediately started planning. Mari left her to the devious scheming and instead went to McKinsley office. The head of the Legal Department was a middle-aged woman with short, slightly graying brown hair and no-nonsense composure.

“Miss Bourgeoise informed me of your visit. I already had several documents prepared, but I will need clarification on several things.” She offered the young PA a chair, but Mari refused with a shake of her head. She opened her tablet and started to go through the list.

“First of all, the video that caused the attack was leaked by an intern. What actions exactly can be undertaken in response?”

“There are several options. We could terminate their contract entirely, but as it’s their first offense, it could’ve been seen as too harsh. It would also require to terminate all internships.” The woman was clearly unamused by the situation. Mari just raised her eyebrow and gave her a quizzing look.

“I’m not sure who in their right mind wrote their contracts, but when I track them down they are gonna get their ass demoted to toilet cleaner. It’s one big mess.”

“Don’t I know it…” Mari deadpanned. “So, other options?”

“We can move them between departments, so having them demoted to Toilet cleaners could also work, but it’s not exactly a legal punishment. The fact that it was Riddler really threw a wrench in any legal proceeding as he is clinically insane and the video was not directly calling him out and only speaking about him. I could give you the legal mumbo-jumbo, but the gist is that they are somewhat protected.”

“What about revoking their privileges?”

“Take that to HR.”

“Will do. Now, about the next matter.”

“It was much easier. She can’t do anything to you, not even forward the bill. You were in shock and there are several recordings showing her taunting you. If she pushes it, she will lose. You’re a public hero right now. Good job by the way.”

“I was only doing what had to be done.” Mari brushed it, doing her best to keep a professional face.

“Sure…” It was clear that McKinsley did not believe her.

“Now about the last thing?”

“Ah. The slander. I already directed it to our French and Italian departments, but it’s slow-going. That witch made it an international case. It will definitely bite her, but we have to be patient.”

“Brilliant. Thank you for your time.” Mari left the room with a grin on her face. Now onto the HR.

As she strode through the floor, people turned their heads to look at her. In the killing outfit, she looked older than she was and the aura of confidence and professionalism made her seem like a powerful woman. They had no idea just how powerful she was, but the way she carried herself was enough to make them shake in their shoes.

----

When the doors of the elevator opened, Juleka and Rose were waiting for her. Both looked furious. Before either got a chance to say anything though, Marigold silenced them with a murderous glare that took away their voice. She strode past them looking fabulous. Any other employee removed themselves from her path to avoid her ire. The rumors were already circulating and the fact that she took down Riddler before Batman even arrived did wonder to her image.

“Hello. I had an appointment.” She said when she entered the head of the department office.

“Yes. Miss Dupain-Cheng. I was told you forwarded a list of topics, but an intern lost it.”

“Was this intern from my class?” She asked in a cold voice.

“Um… Yes actually.” The woman said after checking a small post-it.

“Then it was probably sabotage.” Mari spat the words. “I asked to have a list of possible punishments in regards to the newest intern group prepared. Two of them were responsible for the leak. Sadly, as one of them is the class representative, she is quite popular.”

“Ah. Well…”

“First of all, both Alya Cesaire and Lila Rossi are to have all possible privileges revoked for breaking the rules. They leaked or were involved in the leak of video. Neither of them is to be handed anything more important than refilling a stapler or bringing someone coffee, to ensure they are no further threat to this company. They will also receive an official warning and an entry to their acts. They are also restricted to the lower floors. If possible, I want their access to electronic devices restricted. Maybe assign them a pager each so it doesn’t negatively impact their work.”

“Hm… I will see what can be done, Ma’am.” The woman replied, already going through her notes.

“Good. Onto the next business, while it pains me to do it so fast, we need to hire more security as soon as possible. But make sure to triple check their backgrounds.”

“Understandable.”

“And the last thing. Why was Damian Wayne allowed to bring a ninjato into the building?”

“There is actually no restriction on bringing swords ma’am. We’re trying to fix it, but we’ve been blocked at every turn even when Mr. Wayne was the CEO.”

“And whose permission is needed?” Mari allowed a small grin.

“Yours would do. Sarah was always too stuck up to even leave her desk unless forced so she didn’t care that much.”

“Consider my permission granted. Forward the paperwork to me.”

“And if Mr. Drake disagrees?”

“He can try.” She said coldly, remembering how close she came to being cut in half.

“Oh…”

“Last thing. When is the top floor scheduled for repairs?”

“It should be done already. It was made to withstand an assault from a much larger force, so we only had to replace the furniture. Following the instructions that were left, we repotted the plants into bigger and more decorative pots. As per your request, we added some more plants.”

“Thank you. Plants always calm me down.”

“I prefer cat pictures.” She pointed at the wall where a cheesy calendar with a cat giving her thumbs-up was hanged. It took all of Marigold’s willpower not to burst into laugher at the image of Chat Noir posing for such a calendar.

“Good. Thank you.” With that, she left. This time, Rose and Juleka did not try anything. They were too terrified of her.

----

#maribat au #maribat #marinette dupain cheng #redeemed!chloe #Good!Adrien Agreste #Batman #miraculous lb #miraculous ladybug #Miracuolous #DC #mlb x dc #Mother!Ivy

259 notes · View notes

mcheang · 4 years

Note

Adrien’s Enemy: A new boy arrives at school who starts bullying Adrien. He insults him, pushes him around, tries to frame him as a bad guy. He even tries to come between Marinette and Adrien so he can date her, much like Lila & Chloé do. Adrien learns a lesson about what’s its like to be bullied and the importance of standing up to bullies outside his mask

Tommy Ange

This is a draft as I am still not sure about this story, but I like the idea of Adrien taking charge of his future

Meet the new classmate. The son of an actor and model. As such, yes, he is beautiful and rich and well-connected.

On first impressions, Tommy is charming and modest. He doesn’t boast. People know of his connections because Mylene was a fan of his father’s work and had noted his son at the airport.

Anyway, Tommy is currently staying with his mother while his dad travels for a movie shoot.

Because of his shyness, he doesn’t warm up to the likes of Lila or Chloé, who definitely won’t stop talking his ear off or learn the meaning of personal space.

Instead he gravitates towards warm and sweet Marinette. While Marinette is a fan of fashion, she never asks him stuff about his mother’s work. To be fair she never asks Adrien either.

But when alone with Adrien, Tommy is cold and brusque. He isn’t interested in being friends with a “doormat” and “sycophant” (this insult belongs to Lila actually). Tommy can’t stand 2-faced people. To him, there is no gray area. No middle ground. And Adrien’s desire to maintain peace with all his friends, despite the obvious tension with Chloé, was annoying. At least Chloé was honest about who she hated. But for the likes of Adrien and Lila, where they stood was not clear to Tommy.

You see, Tommy dislikes overt friendliness. Used to people wanting to use him to meet his parents. Too much kindness seems fake to him.

Adrien is sad Tommy dislikes him. He tries to appease the new student. Even if that means accepting Tommy’s reminders that he can’t hang out, he has a shoot; and yes, he hasn’t hung out with Chloé in a while, he should visit her; and sure, Adrien will gladly swap partners with Tommy.

Ok, part of the reason Tommy dislikes Adrien is because he knows Marinette likes Adrien. But the blind boy doesn’t see that and instead asks for Mari to just ignore Chloé’s insults and Lila’s lies. To take the higher road. What nonsense is that?

Tommy hopes that in pushing Adrien towards the 2 girls she can’t stand, all the while sympathising beside her will get Marinette to like him.

Honestly, he would have succeeded if Adrien didn’t have Plagg.

Plagg: why are you letting that devil push you around? Now you’re stuck with that Liar for a stupid project.

Adrien: but he’s nicer to me now.

Plagg: you’re just proving him right that you are a doormat. You want everybody to like you when that is an impossible task.

Adrien: no it is not!

Plagg: when was the last time you hung out with your friends...outside class?

Adrien: ....

Plagg: he’s isolating you from your friends. And you’re letting it happen. They’re already wondering how you can tolerate Chloé after seeing her insult them. Old childhood reasoning can only go so far. You need to stand up to the devil and tell your friends what he’s been trying to do.

Adrien: but he isn’t hurting me.

Plagg: you’re stuck with a girl who constantly harasses you for the semester! And for crying out loud, report on her behavior too before I bite her and give her a curse.

Adrien: Plagg, you know what will happen if my dad hears about this. He’s working with Lila and Mrs Ange now. I can’t cause trouble or I’ll get pulled out of school.

Plagg: what’s so good about school now? You’re only ever around whiny bee and the liar. And soon enough, they’ll be your only friends if Devil boy gets his way.

That was an unpleasant thought but Adrien stubbornly stood by his belief.

Plagg sighed. “Ok, let’s try a different scenario. Say Ladybug decided to give Tommy a Miraculous and he starts trying to shove you out of the picture, what are you going to do?”

Adrien: please, I’m Ladybug’s partner, she would never abandon me.

Plagg: so you would let him flirt with your Lady?

Pause. Cats are very territorial!

Adrien bared his teeth. “Not a chance!”

Plagg: why can’t you be this assertive outside the mask?

Adrien: i have a controlling parent!

Plagg: then stand up to him. Are you going to let your father dictate you for the rest of your life? Cos at this rate, you’ll still be living under the same roof when you’ve graduated and have a job, probably as a model.

Adrien paused. He doesn’t hate modelling but he doesn’t want that to be life career! Plagg was right. He needed to grow up, run his own life.

Adrien: you’re right Plagg!

Plagg: of course I am. Do I get extra Camembert as a reward?

Adrien: no. But I’ll give you a show.

Adrien actually went to Nathalie to inform her he will be quitting modelling once he graduated Dupont. He will finish then based on his contract but will not sign another one. Second, he’s taking a break from modelling for a while. If his father complains, he quits piano and will complain to his fans. Wayhem is already psyched for a public outcry.

Next, Adrien visits Nino, Alya and Marinette to tell them the truth about Tommy. And this is where he apologizes to Marinette for his stupid advice. (Adrien did ask Plagg why he never protested this advice but Plagg lazily responded she wasn’t his kitten <but Tikki’s bug>)

Alya is shocked and wants to confront Tommy. She plans to expose him and Lila in front of the whole class. Adrien puts his foot down at that. It would be mean.

Alya sighs. “Fine. It will be a quiet exposure. I’ll text the class the truth about Lila and-“

Marinette interrupted, “I want to hear what Tommy has to say.”

Marinette visited Tommy and asked him for his side of things. Tommy truthfully admitted he disliked Adrien for being the go-between. To him it was a sign of not really having the back of his friends. And Tommy just hates superficial friends.

Marinette: i understand. But you were still wrong to try to separate Adrien from us.

Tommy shrugged. Every time he saw Adrien, he was disgusted by that ridiculous optimism that everyone would get along if they played nice.

Marinette: don’t judge a book by its cover. Adrien has had difficulty standing up to his father. He likes to give people second chances.

Tommy: a lot of them.

Marinette: the point is, what you’re doing is wrong. And you can either settle your differences with Adrien, or we’re not friends anymore. Because in your opinion, I have to pick a side.

Tommy reluctantly chooses his friends. After that, while he ignores Adrien, he doesn’t try to shove him away anymore.

Plagg congratulated his chosen for taking this step. “Now let’s inform the class that Lila needs a lesson on personal space.”

#miraculous ladybug fanfic #miraculous ladybug fic #ml fanfic #ml fanfiction #ml fic #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #adrien stands up for himself #lila busted #lila is exposed #lila gets exposed

206 notes · View notes

chocoluckchipz · 3 years

Text

A Soulmate for Christmas - 3

< Previous

"Dupain-Cheng. We need to talk."

Marinette stopped breathing, sinking deeper under the desk.

Chloe groaned and took a few steps away. "Don't make me get down there and drag you out. And next time, make sure you aren't hiding right in front of a mirror. Be thankful I didn't out you to Adrien."

Marinette glared at her reflection peeking out from a corner of the mostly covered mirror she’d failed to notice.

"I suppose you want my gratitude for your generosity?" she huffed, climbing out of her hiding spot to face her old nemesis.

"I’ll do without, but let’s make one thing clear—I did it for Adrien, not you."

"Oh really? I fail to see how this benefits him since, you know, he wanted to find me."

Chloe smirked and looked Kagami’s way. Marinette followed her gaze, only now noticing how intently Kagami was watching her.

"So, this is her?"

"Unfortunately."

Matching smirks on their lips, Kagami’s eyes held restrained curiosity. Chloe’s? Disbelief.

Marinette could feel the weight of their judgement increase with each passing second. She scoffed. This crap was tiring to deal with back in the lycée. Now it wasn’t even worth the fight. "Listen, I doubt either of you want me to come in and mess up whatever thing you three have going on, so how about you tell Adrien you mistook me for someone else, the waitress he spoke to was not Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and we all walk our separate ways?"

Kagami folded her arms over her chest, arching an eyebrow. "What about Adrien?"

"What about him?"

"He’s your soulmate."

"He’s engaged to you."

"Did you hear anything we said here?"

"Didn’t have much of a choice."

"Then, you’re aware that we’re faking it. There is nothing but friendship between us."

"So I’ve heard."

"And you still want to walk away?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"She’s always been weird," Chloe snipped. "Adrien deserves better."

Marinette scoffed. "No one deserves a soulmate who humiliates them in front of the whole country."

"You can’t really pick your soulmate, you know," Kagami said.

"But I can walk away from one who respects neither me nor our bond. Fake or not, he chose to be with you. I’m not going to interfere. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back work."

Kagami grabbed Marinette’s hand before she could take a step. "You don’t understand. It’s not something he’s doing because he doesn’t respect or want you. Adrien’s practically saving my life with this, risking everything he ever wanted to do so."

Marinette almost laughed. "How is fake dating saving your life, Mlle Tsurugi? Fake dating is for fiction, a good book for a lonely evening or a movie to laugh with friends about. In the real world, in our modern society, it's irrelevant. And especially for someone as powerful and influential as you. You don't need to fake date. You can just say a word and all your problems will float away."

Kagami’s grip on Marinette’s hand tightened as she seethed through her teeth. "You have no idea what you’re talking about."

"Oh, don’t I? I’ve spent enough years in the same class with Chloe to see how people in your circle solve their problems."

"You shouldn’t put everyone in the same basket." Chloe stepped in, wrapping her arm around Kagami’s shoulder. She leaned closer to Kagami, their cheeks starting to glow at the contact, Kagami’s with a bee mark, Chloe’s with a dragon.

To say Marinette was surprised was an understatement.

"Just because we live in different circles doesn’t mean our lives are easy or that our problems always go away with a snap of our fingers," Chloe continued. "If you want to think of me like that, fine. Whatever. But not Adrien and certainly not Kagami."

"I still fail to see the reason why someone would need to fake date."

Before Chloe could start talking, Kagami cut her off with a wave of her hand. "Marinette, would you mind hearing me out? If you still want to walk away after what I have to tell you, neither of us will stop you."

Perhaps, this was the quickest way to get this over with. Maybe, she was curious herself as to what was going on between the three of them. Whatever it was, Marinette pulled up a chair, sat down and waited.

Kagami settled on a couch while Chloe leaned on its arm. "I was born and raised in Japan in a very conservative family where traditions were the law and whoever broke them was excommunicated forever. When I was fifteen, my mother and I moved to France, and I got to know the more liberal approach to life the French follow. I met Adrien through our parents’ business dealings. We became friends, and for the first time ever, someone could understand me, the life I was living, and the feelings I was suppressing. He wasn’t in any better of a situation at the time, but at least I was allowed to attend a private school. Adrien was kept locked inside his mansion. Later, I met Chloe and discovered the soulmate bond we shared. I was happy for the first time in my life. That is until my mother decided I had to marry one of her business partners’ sons for the sake of the family’s interests."

"A much older male," Chloe scoffed, scratching her nose. "Disgusting."

"Fifteen years older," Kagami confirmed. "And he lives in Japan which meant I would be forced to move back and lose not only my friends but also my soulmate. I would be expected to be an obedient, silent wife for the rest of my life, confined to looking after the house and birthing as many children as my husband wished."

"Ridiculous!" Chloe huffed. "Utterly ridiculous."

Kagami patted Chloe’s hand in a comforting gesture. "Perhaps if I’d never moved to France I would have gone along with her plans without complaining. However, after I had a taste of freedom and saw how happy I can be, I knew I couldn’t give up all of this. Give up Adrien and Chloe. Give up my dreams for the future. So, I panicked and said I was already secretly dating someone and didn’t tell her only because I wanted to make sure it was serious. Mother would’ve never agreed to let me stay if that person wasn’t from her list of approved potential spouses. A list made up of very influential and wealthy people. Adrien was one of them."

"He’s on the list of every Parisian mother." Chloe huffed. "Sucks to be him."

"I couldn’t say Chloe’s name," Kagami continued. "Mother isn't against same-sex relationships, but she considers them just ‘practice’ for the ‘real ones’ because, apparently, I need a man as a life partner."

"As I said, ridiculous."

"So, I said Adrien’s name, then begged him to play along. We never thought it would get out of our circle. We even developed a plan for how to get me out unscathed and free. Adrien and I were supposed to only play a couple until my birthday in November when I became a legal adult by Japanese law. When that happened, I started transferring my funds to accounts my mother had no access to so I could walk away freely. But that takes time, and two weeks ago she found out and demanded an explanation for the transactions. She threatened to send me back to Japan immediately if she didn’t approve of what I had in mind. The transfers weren’t done yet and she had enough influence to stop it.

"I freaked out again and said Adrien and I were getting married, so I was gathering my personal funds into my own account that I planned to join with my husband’s after the wedding. I told her we were waiting for a special occasion to announce the engagement. She wasn’t buying it. She gave me a week to prove my words. She put a hold on all the transfers until then. It was Adrien who suggested we take it to the media. That way, she wouldn't doubt us, and she’d be somewhat pressured to let me stay in France, at least for the time being. Once the article was out, my mother released the funds, and as of last night, I’m a free woman.

"No one was ever going to announce an engagement. My things are being packed as we speak while my mother and I are out of the house. I won’t be going home with her. I’m moving in with Chloe, and, thanks to Adrien, I’m not doing so without a penny to my name. Adrien never meant to hurt you. He never looked any other woman's way. All he wanted was to help a friend."

There wasn’t much Marinette could do but remain frozen in her seat, stunned at Kagami’s words. Her defences down, she hated to admit that everything Kagami had said made sense. There was a reason. A reason good enough to justify this whole thing. She couldn't hold this against Adrien. Heck, if any of Marinette’s friends were in Kagami’s shoes, she’d be fake proposing to them too. So, if everything that Kagami had told her was true, then…

"Marinette," Kagami spoke more gently, watching her with a lot less hostility. "For as long as I’ve known Adrien, every summer, every vacation he got, he was travelling to Milan, attending every fashion show and just wandering the streets in hopes of finding you. He painted over and publicly revealed his soulmate mark only because he’s desperate at this point. His father’s been pressuring him to date for publicity for years. He gave him a break when he thought we were a couple, but that ends tonight. And let me tell you, Gabriel Agreste is not the person to care for Adrien’s feelings and desires. He’ll make his life a living hell if Adrien continues to refuse to comply. Please, Marinette. Give him a chance. He deserves it."

"I’m giving him your number as a Christmas present tomorrow," Chloe spoke up. "You have until then to think about it. Let’s go, Kagami. It’s time to set Adrien free and show the world who your soulmate truly is."

"Right." Kagami stood up, giving Marinette one last glance. "The choice is yours, but you’d be a fool to walk away from a man like him. They don’t come as kind, loyal and loving as he is these days."

The door behind the pair closed, leaving only the sound of Marinette’s heart echoing in her ears. She could hardly move. If everything she’d just learned was true, she owed Adrien an apology and, if he wanted one, she owed him a chance. Because while she would definitely want a chance with the man Kagami had just described, she had to wonder if she deserved one at all.

With a sigh, she stood up and headed back towards the kitchen.

Later. She’d find him later. First, she had a job to finish and sweets to serve. The rest would have to wait. They’d waited for years. What would be another few hours?

Next >

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#miraculous ladybug #adrienette #soulmates #adrinette #fluff #light angst #misunderstanding #happy end #aged up #no magic au #soulmate marks

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mikauzoran · 3 years

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Marichat/Lila Fake-Dating/Emotional Blackmail: Betting Against the House: Chapter Six

Read it on AO3: Betting Against the House: Chapter Six: Fidelity

Marinette was so engrossed in her sewing project that Tikki had to inform her that Chat Noir was tapping on her skylight.

“What?” She looked up with a jerk, her stitch going crooked as her hands accidentally moved the material.

“Chat Noir’s here,” Tikki repeated, glancing back up towards the skylight. “Or, he might have just left. I don’t hear him knocking anymore.”

Marinette swore under her breath as she pushed herself up out of the chair and sprang into action, ascending the ladder up to her loft at double her normal speed. She didn’t see him at the window, so she pushed it open and pulled herself up onto her balcony.

He turned around from where he’d been leaning on the balcony railing, taking her in with soft eyes she was more used to seeing as Ladybug.

“Uh…hey,” he greeted, raising a hand tentatively.

“Hey.” She blinked, eyes going to the rose in his other hand. “Is that…?”

She pointed.

He followed her gaze, looking down at his own hand in surprise. “Oh. Yeah. Sorry.”

He lifted the rose, holding it out to her as he timidly advanced. “I think you dropped this—I mean, I know you dropped it. I saw you drop it, but… Did you want it back?”

A cloudy expression set into her face as she stepped forward to take the rose and then stared at it thoughtfully.

It didn’t look like her thoughts were positive ones.

“You don’t have to take it back,” he hurriedly added. “I’ll keep it if you don’t want—”

With a jolt like one suddenly waking in the middle of a dream, Marinette’s gaze whipped around to her right, and she began searching the streets below.

“…Uh… If you’re looking for Adrien Agreste, he’s gone,” Chat informed gently, not all together sure that she was even looking for him in the first place.

Marinette looked back to him in surprise. “He is?”

Chat nodded. “I kind of saw the…er…little scene…between you and him. I was here to see you, and I just happened to catch…whatever that was. Sorry.”

She held up her hands and waved them, seeming to come back fully to the present moment and out of her thoughts. “No, it’s okay. It was…” She winced, biting her lip. “It was nothing. Um… Did you want to come in?”

“May I?” He took a hesitant step forward. “I don’t want to bother you. I heard…” His brow furrowed, and he lowered his voice. “I heard a couple things. Are you feeling okay? I heard you were sick.”

She averted her gaze, her cheeks colouring slightly. “Thanks. Yeah, I’m fine. I’m not actually sick. I just…I kind of feel like crap. I probably look like crap,” she laughed ruefully, glancing down at her sweatpants and baggy t-shirt and touching her hair self-consciously.

“You look cute,” he chuckled. “I dig the messy bun.”

She cracked up at that. “Thanks, but it got that way by accident rather than design. It was a fully-functional, respectable-looking bun earlier before I rolled around and pulled on my hair in grief and messed it up.”

He clicked his tongue, waving away her protests. “You’re rocking it, Princess. Trust me. I know what I’m talking about.”

Her lips settled into a soft smile, and she motioned for him to follow her down into her room. “Come in, Minou. I could use a friendly face. For some reason, today, it feels like everyone’s against me.”

“I promise they’re not really,” he attempted to comfort her as they made their way down into her attic bedroom.

She hummed ambivalently, dropping the rose off at her desk before taking a seat on her chaise and gesturing for him to sit at her feet. “Can I play with your hair? Please?”

“Yeah, sure,” he replied, hoping he didn’t sound too eager as he sat between her knees, his back to her.

They sat in silence for a good minute or two, Marinette running her fingers through his hair to comb it and then separating little strands into sections to braid, before she finally spoke up, mumbling, “…Today kind of sucked.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered a little more balefully than made sense since she didn’t know that he was the chief cause of her strife. “Did you feel like talking about it?”

“No. I mean, yeah, but…” She pursed her lips, shaking her head. “It’s complicated.”

He waited a beat, debating before remarking offhandedly, as if he had no personal stake in the matter, “…I hear that Adrien Agreste is persona non grata around here. Apparently he’s dating that awful Lila girl?”

“Lila freaking Rossi,” Marinette hissed. “I don’t know what the heck is the matter with him. How can he just…? She is worse than awful, Chat Noir. She��s a bully and a liar and—ugh. I don’t even,” she growled. “How can he even stand to let her touch him? He knows what she’s like, and still he…he…” Marinette petered out with another “Ugh!” of frustration.

Chat swallowed hard, guilt wrapping its fingers around his heart and squeezing painfully. “Maybe…Maybe there’s some piece to the puzzle that you’re missing,” he suggested cautiously. “Maybe he has a good reason. Maybe he doesn’t have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” she pouted sullenly, her temper cooling somewhat. “He could stand up for himself and say no for once. He’s always been like this, Chat Noir. He never wants to cause trouble, and he always avoids confrontation. He’s spineless.”

Chat winced, feeling the jab slide clean between his ribs and puncture a lung.

“He just appeases everyone and lets them walk all over him. It makes me sick sometimes to watch him cave without a word. I don’t know what I ever saw in him, and I don’t know why I put my faith in him,” she muttered bitterly.

“Maybe it’s more complicated than you think,” he offered in a flimsy attempt at self-defence. “I’m sorry he let you down, Marinette. You’re totally within your rights to be angry, but you can’t know what’s going on inside his head. Maybe he has a good reason, and you’ll feel bad later for being so harsh on him.”

“Yeah, maybe.” She blew out a long sigh, dropping her arms from his hair to loosely hang around his neck and resting her head on top of his. “I’m just really hurting right now, Chaton. He was the one person I thought I could count on in my struggle with Lila, so I’m feeling utterly betrayed,” she whimpered. “It’s hard to give him the benefit of the doubt when I can’t imagine any circumstance that would compel him to date her.”

Chat closed his eyes and forced himself to breathe through the aching pain in his chest. It killed him to sit there useless while she was hurting—while he was hurting her. But he couldn’t explain himself. She’d insist that he stop, and then what would have been the point of submitting to Lila’s ever-increasing demands over the years?

He had to see this through to the finish.

“I’m sorry, Princess,” he whispered helplessly. “I wish I could do something to make it better for you. Know that I would do anything to make it better.”

“Well,” she chuckled halfheartedly, trying to lighten the mood. “You could start by not trying to make me behave rationally and think about things from Adrien’s point of view. It would be easier if I could just demonize him and lash out at him with all of my righteous fury.”

“Sorry to take away your scapegoat,” he laughed weakly.

“Yeah,” she teased, giving his hair a little nuzzle. “Whose side are you on, anyway? Mine or his?”

He twisted around to face her, kneeling at her feet and gazing up at her earnestly. “Yours,” he stressed, desperate for her to believe him. “Yours. Always yours, even when it doesn’t feel like it.”

She blinked at him, taken aback by his vehemence.

Slowly, a warm, genuine smile danced across her lips, and she leaned in to brush a delicate kiss against his forehead. “Thank you.”

His heart nearly exploded as she pulled back and smiled down at him with a soft look that made him think that maybe he had a chance after all.

“Yeah. I mean, yeah. Anytime,” he replied dumbly, struggling to get his brain and his mouth to work in concert. “You’re welcome. Always.”

She laughed—a light, airy sound that made his heart soar—and it was obvious from the smug look on her face that she could tell how smitten he was.

He couldn’t bring himself to care. So what if she knew she had him at her mercy? He trusted her with his heart.

“Wanna play video games?” she inquired, breaking him out of his reverie.

He blinked at her, his brain still scrambled from the memory of her lips against his skin.

“If you have time,” she hastened to add, nerves flaring up at his lack of a response. “I mean, I know you’re busy what with saving Paris and regular life stuff, but…if you weren’t doing anything, I was supposed to be hanging out with my friends tonight, only that’s not happening because Adrien is a traitor, so if you wanted to hang out, play some Smash Brothers, have dinner with me and my family, snuggle on the couch and watch movies…? I could use the company,” she confessed.

“Yes to all of the above,” he replied enthusiastically, finally getting a handle on how his mouth functioned again.

Adrien was still floating on cloud nine when he returned home several hours later.

Lila had pressured Adrien into agreeing to come up with a romantic surprise for her in response to Adrien’s claim that Nino had been consulting with Adrien about a surprise for Alya the previous day (since Adrien was, allegedly, so good at that kind of thing), and Adrien did not aim to disappoint.

He escorted Lila to her locker where she found beautiful orange lilies inside.

“Oh, Adrien!” Lila squealed, leaping into his arms and giving his cheek a joyful kiss. “They’re beautiful!”

He couldn’t tell if she were just putting on a show or if she were genuinely pleased with the gift.

She was certainly satisfied with the response of the other students as they cooed and raved about how sweet Adrien was, what a cute couple he and Lila made.

Marinette stood apart from the others, looking on in a mix of resentment and pensiveness.

Adrien wondered if she knew anything about the meanings of flowers. If so, she might know that orange lilies were not a nice gift. Perhaps she was wondering if Adrien knew the implications of the flowers he had given his girlfriend.

She caught him gazing at her and turned away, going to her own locker. Once there, she gave a start, a soft gasp escaping her lips when she spotted the sunflowers, tucked inside and waiting for her with a little note attached.

Adrien’s heartbeat quickened a little at the pleased smile gracing her lips and the rosy blush rising in her cheeks.

Alya was the first to notice Marinette’s surprise and draw the attention of the others.

“What’s this, Girl? A secret admirer?” she trilled excitedly.

“Alya, don’t—” barely made it past Marinette’s lips as Alya swiped the card and read aloud, “‘For my Princess. I hope these sunflowers brighten your day, even though they’re not half as radiant as you are. Much love from your not-so-secret admirer.’”

The girls chattered excitedly all at once, completely forgetting about Lila to join in the speculation about Marinette’s mystery boy.

Lila turned a venomous glare on Adrien, hissing dangerously under her breath, “Your ‘Princess’, is she? You did this on purpose to upstage me, didn’t you?”

Adrien frowned, leveraging all of his acting skills to feign wounded innocence. “Hey, I don’t know why you’re looking at me like that. Those flowers aren’t from me.”

Lila’s eyes narrowed, scanning him intently.

“He’s just a friend,” Marinette insisted over the din of her friends. “Just a close friend that I play video games online with. He’s a total flirt. He’s not even serious. He knows I had a rough day yesterday, and he was just trying to cheer me up.”

The girls didn’t seem to buy Marinette’s story entirely, but her persistent denials seemed to mollify all but Alya.

“Oh, Honey. I think he’s serious, even if you’re not,” Alya hummed skeptically, pitying the poor boy who had fallen for her rather oblivious best friend.

The other girls joined in with sympathetic hums of their own.

Adrien turned to Lila. “I feel like you owe me an apology for your accusations of infidelity.”

“How about not?” Lila growled quietly, shoving her books roughly into Adrien’s arms as she continued to seethe over Marinette inadvertently stealing the spotlight.

The week stretched on with, luckily, only a few minor incidents to mark it.

Marinette continued to hold a grudge against Adrien, but she was more than happy to spend her evenings with Chat Noir.

He was glad that he could help her feel less alone, even if it were just in some small way, and the time he passed with her was a balm for him too.

It was a relief, after dealing with Lila’s ever-increasingly ridiculous demands all day, to cuddle and watch Disney and Studio Ghibli movies with Marinette, to bake cookies together, to play niche video games, or just to sit in her room working on separating things but enjoying the other’s presence.

Nino kept giving Adrien worried glances, looking like he was this close to saying something several times a day.

It made Adrien sick with anxiety.

He shouldn’t have told Nino. It felt like he had the sword of Damocles hanging over his head and never knew when it would drop, when Nino would break his promise and try to tell everyone about Lila, ruining years’ worth of Adrien’s sacrifices and hard work to protect Marinette.

If Nino asked him if he were okay one more time, Adrien was going to cry.

All he could do was lie and say he was fine, all the while knowing that Nino knew he was lying.

“Just don’t say anything to anyone,” Adrien kept repeating, and Nino would nod, assuring, “Yeah. No. I won’t.”

But Adrien could see the way Nino tensed around Lila, how he clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes whenever she invaded Adrien’s personal space or asked him to do things for her.

The week was rough and already wearing Adrien down by the end of it.

He felt sick with guilt over hurting Marinette and sick with fear about when Nino was going to crack and spill the beans. That wasn’t even taking into account the hell Lila was putting him through.

Lila was steadily getting worse. She was growing bolder with her public displays of affection to the point where Adrien was genuinely uncomfortable.

The casual touches and the expectation of cheek kisses had quickly crossed the line. More than anything, he was sick of the sensation of Lila clinging to him. The constant contact and her weight and her warmth made his skin crawl. He couldn’t wait for evening to come so his personal space could be his own again to share (or not share) as he saw fit.

Adrien had always been a little touch-starved, but, now, physical contact was something he found himself recoiling from, sometimes even with Marinette.

On the third day, Lila made Adrien move to the back of the class to sit with her, and it was torture to be separated from his friends. Classes had been a brief reprieve from Lila’s presence, an oasis where he didn’t have to think about her for hours at a time, but, now, even that solace was stolen from him.

He missed passing notes with Nino and the little sweets his best friend would often share.

Adrien had considered it a victory when, the previous year, he’d convinced his father to allow him to eat lunch at school with his friends. Now, he found himself wishing he could go home for lunch again because Lila had gotten it into her head that she needed to sit on Adrien’s lap and that they needed to feed one another to show what a lovey-dovey couple they were.

Adrien was quickly finding that he had little appetite during the day. He scarfed down leftover baked goods from Tom and Sabine’s as well as whatever the Dupain-Chengs had for dinner in the evenings when he visited Marinette, but he couldn’t keep much down during the day.

The smell of Lila’s cloyingly sweet floral perfume made him feel nauseated.

He wasn’t sure how much more he could take, but he was certain that something had to give, and soon.

He was afraid it was going to be him.

Adrien was at his breaking point, so maybe that’s why, when Ladybug asked what was wrong that Sunday on patrol, he gave in so easily and spilled his guts to her.

#Marichat #Adrinette #Adrienette #Lady Noir #Miraculous Ladybug #Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction #Adrien Agreste #Chat Noir #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Lila Rossi #Hurt/Comfort #Fluff #Angst #Happy Ending #Fake Dating #Emotional Blackmail #Mikau's Writings #Betting Against the House

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kalaluchi · 3 years

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chapter 05: Jagged Stone

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Marinette was confused.

How could two people go from comfortable banter to awkward silence in a span of two days? She’d heard of going from 0 to 100 real quick, but she’d never thought it’d happen to her.

More accurately -- to her and Adrien.

She stared at the back of his head, wondering where she’d gone wrong, as Mme. Bustier droned on with her lesson.

Marinette had really thought she’d finally gotten over the shy-awkward-start phase after the whole movie “date” last Friday. (She still wasn’t sure if that had been meant as an actual date, or as a chill friend hangout. And frankly, she was too scared to ask.)

But then the weekend came and they’d barely talked. (Though she’d been secretly hoping for a random good morning from him or something -- even just once.) She’d been busy baking and cramming assignments and random projects, and just like that the weekend was over.

It was now Monday, and she was sad to think all her efforts to become closer had gone down the drain. They’d exchanged greetings as she made her way to her seat that morning, but it was now 2 periods after lunch, and he hadn’t spoken to her at all. There weren’t even any of the corny memes he used to send when they were both bored in class.

Not that he’d been ignoring her, though. It just seemed like… he’d forgotten about her or had nothing more to say to her.

She probably could have reached out herself… but every time she was about to approach him, she felt like she was walking on eggshells. One wrong step, one wrong word, and something would crack.

She groaned, painfully aware that she was probably overthinking things too much. She checked her phone for the 10th time that period -- no new messages.

Marinette let out a sigh.

One apparently much louder than she’d intended.

“Anything to share with the class, Marinette?” Mme. Bustier’s voice broke through her thoughts.

She bit her lip, her ears red. “No, Mme. Bustier. Sorry,” she murmured, embarrassed.

She thought it was absolutely worth it though, because just then Adrien offered her a small smile in sympathy before turning back to face the front. So there was hope for them yet.

She sat back in her seat, deep in thought again. On impulse, she leaned forward and tapped Adrien’s shoulder while Mme. Bustier was facing the blackboard.

“Do you, uh, can I borrow a pen?” Marinette whispered in his ear.

If she didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought Adrien was blushing slightly from the sudden interaction. “Here you go,” he replied in the same quiet voice.

Her fingers tingled when they brushed his during the exchange, but she thanked him anyway. She really had no intention of using the pen (she’d never leave home without her beloved pencil case, with all the colorful pens and markers, please) so she decided to wait until class ended to return it and use it as an excuse to start a conversation.

Brilliant! This must be what Alya feels when she comes up with one of her schemes.

An hour later, as Adrien began packing his bag to go home, Marinette tapped him on the shoulder nervously. Her brilliant-a-period-ago plan was starting to not feel brilliant at all.

Nevertheless, she held out the pen to him, smiling. “Thanks for lending me this a while ago. You’re a lifesaver.”

He chuckled easily. “No problem. You looked like you needed some life-saving,” he joked.

Marinette couldn’t help but scoff at that. “I can save myself, thanks,” she muttered, in a tone sharper than she intended.

“Of course,” the blond backtracked hastily. “I didn’t mean to assume, I just--”

“Is… that a Jagged wallpaper?” Marinette asked suddenly, immediately forgetting the earlier offense.

“Uh, yeah. You listen to Jagged Stone?”

“Listen to Jagged? Get out, I practically breathe Jagged! Wow, I can’t believe he didn’t come up once in our conversations…”

“Well, I… didn’t really peg you to be a Jagged girl, honestly. No offense, though, I really don’t know why it didn’t occur to me. I mean, now it seems obvious. You’re nearly as cool as him.”

“Shut up,” Marinette laughed, waving away the compliment. “No one is as cool as Jagged. And it’s okay, I didn’t peg you to be a Jagged fan either.”

“You’re kidding. How could I not? A great singer, and a great player too. Piano, guitar, you name it! Heck, I bet he could even play, like, a lyre or something.”

Marinette scrunched her nose and raised an eyebrow. “A liar and a player at once? Can’t say that’s exactly my type. I’ve met too many of those, thanks.”

Red spots bloomed in Adrien’s cheeks as he sputtered, “No, I’m not-- that’s not what I--”

“I’m joking,” she interrupted, honestly surprised at his reaction. So annoyingly endearing.

“Oh.” Adrien sighed in relief, as Marinette bit back a smile.

There was an awkward pause as she thought of what else to add.

She had just opened her mouth when Adrien blurted, “There’s actually a Jagged show tomorrow.”

“Yeah, part of the Jagged Worldwide tour, right? I’ve got my room all set up with 3 flavors of popcorn to eat while I stream it.”

“Actually,” Adrien said somewhat nervously, “I may or may not have an extra ticket to the show, thanks to the Agreste brand and all.”

“Get out,” Marinette deadpanned, in shock.

(Adrien noted that that was the second time she’d said that in the last five minutes, and chuckled internally. How cute.)

“So, you wanna go?”

There it was again. That… awkward is-this-a-friend-thing situation. Marinette’s conscience told her no, don’t fall for his trap! He definitely only sees you as a friend, you’ll just get hurt if you hope for more! Which, true… but then again. This was Jagged. How could she say no?

“I’m in.” She beamed, bouncing on the soles of her feet. Even though the concert was on a school night, she was fairly sure her parents would let her go once they found out it was another ‘date’ with Adrien.

“Hey, Nino! Marinette said she’s game to come with us to the concert tomorrow,” Adrien called over his shoulder at his best friend.

“Sweet! See you there, my dude! I’ll pass the news on to Alya.” He gave a last wave before leaving.

Ah. So definitely not a date. At least she was aware.

Unless… a double date? Marinette groaned inwardly. Why did things have to be so complicated? She could almost feel the headache she was going to get from all this. (Especially now knowing that Alya would be involved.)

Marinette had never seen so many people in her life.

If she thought her bakery’s end-of-the-month sales were insanely crowded, that was nothing compared to the mass of people at the concert grounds, tightly packed and eagerly awaiting the arrival of their favorite singer.

As usual, something went wrong right off the bat. Their little group of four had gathered outside the grounds at 4:30pm sharp, but it hadn’t even been five minutes since they’d entered and already Alya and Nino were nowhere to be seen.

Marinette panicked immediately, obviously, frantically searching for the telltale brown-red-tipped hair of her best friend.

Adrien calmed her down immediately, saying that the lovebirds probably wanted to ‘spend some alone time together.’

Had Marinette been in a normal state of mind, she might’ve noticed that this practically reeked of another of Alya’s schemes. As it is, she simply allowed herself to be led by the blond-haired boy.

“Let’s go this way so we’re closer to the stage,” Adrien said gently, steering her one way. “Here, you can… hold my hand so we don’t get separated,” he added softly, taking her hand in his.

Soft. She was surprised to find that his hands were smooth and uncalloused. Well… she didn’t know what she had expected, but she thought they were absolutely fine as they were.

They finally made their way to the front as the singer stepped onto the stage to an eruption of cheers. She had to bite back a pout as Adrien dropped her hand to clap his own. She was about to suggest they link hands for the entirety of the concert, but all thoughts disappeared once the music started playing. She let herself get lost in the song, letting go of all her fears and doubts just this once, dancing to the tune, jumping to the beat.

A few minutes in, Adrien leaned in close. “I love this song,” he said, speaking directly into her ear to be heard over the crowd’s screams.

“Me too!” she shouted in reply, hoping in her heart it were actually words of endearment he’d said.

Once the first five songs ended, Jagged Stone stepped up to the mic, and a quiet hush spread through the crowd, waiting with bated breath for what he would say.

“I just want to thank everyone here for coming,” he started, pausing when the crowd roared their approval. He laughed heartily. “Never in my life would I imagine I’d be getting crowds like this, especially right here in Paris. Not many people know this, but I didn’t always like the name Jagged Stone. I mean, as is, it’s really nothing, right? It is what it is: a stone that is jagged. That means cut different from the rest, sort of sharp around the edges, prone to hurting others. Who would want that, right? Growing up, I was told I’d probably amount to nothing, so maybe I should choose a safer, more secure path. But then-- and here’s the key-- I grew up. And look where I am now.”

Marinette whooped along with the other concert goers, wanting her support to be evident.

��See, that’s the thing,”Jagged continued, on a roll. “These things take time. I came to love the name Jagged Stone. Because over the years, stones that are jagged smoothen around the edges. They become toned, weathered. They become the kind of precious stone you see being used in jewelry, maybe. Suddenly they’re something beautiful, valuable. Meaningful. Are they different from what they were before? Of course. But are they still themselves? Absolutely. Was that greatness there all along, right from the start? Without a doubt.

So to everyone out there: don’t rush it. Everything moves at its own pace. You may seem sharp around the edges, but that’s just how we are. Other people might not know how to approach those edges, afraid of getting hurt. But give it time. The ride will smoothen out. I want you to remember that there is already something valuable in each of you, even at this very moment. It’ll just take time for you to get used to that something, to hone it into the best version of you.

And speaking of time, I’d like to thank you all for the time you’ve given to be here! With that I’ll be performing my last song of the concert, my brand new single: Miraculous!”

“That. Was. Amazing.”

Ten minutes later, Adrien and Marinette had navigated their way out of the thick of the crowd, and were making their way to the meet-up spot as previously discussed.

“Definitely,” Marinette agreed, taking a bite of the cotton candy she’d bought. “That speech before the last song? That was my favorite part.”

“Really? He played six songs and not one of them classifies as your favorite part?”

“Oh, be quiet,” Marinette scoffed, shoving his shoulder lightly. “Stop judging. It just… hit close to home, I guess.”

“Oh… Well, uh, I don’t really know any of the context, but you do know you’re pretty amazing, right? As you are right now.”

Marinette took another bite to hide the blush spreading across her cheeks. “Thanks,” she said meekly, unsure of how else to respond.

“There you are!” a voice called. Marinette suddenly found herself enveloped in a tight hug. “I can’t believe we got separated right at the start! Nino here wouldn’t even let me go look for you because we’d found a great spot, he said.”

“Hey!” her boyfriend protested. “You were the one who said let the two lov-- oof, did you have to step on me foot?”

“Oops, accident,” Alya said lightly. “So anyway, how did you two find the concert?”

“It was fun,” Marinette replied softly, wrapping her arms around her best friend’s waist.

“Yeah? Something interesting happen?”

Marinette laughed. “No, I guess not. It was just… I don’t know, it seemed pretty--”

“-- miraculous,” Adrien finished, and they all had to agree.

As they headed back, Marinette reflected that maybe it wasn’t so bad she’d been treading on eggshells just the other day. Maybe her relationship with Adrien was just like what Jagged had said in his speech. At the moment rough at the edges, either party cautious of how to proceed in fear of hurting the other or getting hurt. And that was okay.

Because eventually, it would smoothen out.

And eventually, maybe, just maybe, it would bloom into something beautiful-- something hopefully more than friendship.

All they really needed was time.

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#adrinette april 2021 #adrinette #miraculous ladybug #idk what im doing sorry #ml #mlb #mlbcn #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #adrienette #mlb fics #adrinetteapril2021 #day 5: jagged stone #jagged stone

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toujoursmiraculous · 3 years

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Thoughts & Reactions to Sole Crusher & Queen Banana!

Here's my 2 in 1! Starting with Sole Crusher. Loved the tourist feel in the beginning, gives it a very different feel and interesting to see it from Zoe's perspective. Aww Zoe's so nice to Marinette right away. And it's awfully sad that she only ever had one friend. :c I wonder who that friend is? Zoe's right about her family not appreciating the baked goods from the Dupain-Cheng bakery. I don't know if she's fully aware of the history there, or if she just knows how picky her mother and sister are. But it was awfully sweet of her to give them to the tour guide to give to her family instead. So Zoe learned: in order to survive, she had to put on an act and be somebody she's not, because her family wouldn't accept her being a decent person that cares about others. When asked about her middle school, her response, "I found a cockroach in my locker!" Might not be true, doesn't sound like it's the only thing at all if so, but sadly it was enough for her mom to not question anything.

Chloe's definitely a lot worse now after Miracle Queen. In my opinion, this is us beginning to see how low she's gotten and will continue to get. As Avatar Aang once said, "When we reach our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change." I'll write more on this in a separate post later. Zoe's sure scared to object to anything and be herself. Not even hesitating to act like a brat when around Chloe. If she didn't end up growing up around Chloe, how horrible are her parents??? We know Audrey is pretty bad, but even then if she had a decent dad she'd likely not end up like this. I suppose we'll have to see, but this poor girl. :/ Rose: Can we adopt her? Lol awww. Wonderful of Marinette to know that after only one brief encounter with Zoe, she knows that the Zoe at school isn't really her, and wants to genuinely help. How can anybody hate that about her? I don't get it. If it's because she doesn't do things how you'd like them...Most things in life won't go as you want them, or be taken by others as you may intend them, so you have to appreciate what's there and the intent of others actions. "But my family made me think that to deserve my place, I had to give up on some of my dreams." If Andre's talking about his parents here, as he said "When I was young", then oof this poor man, no wonder he's so timid and such a pushover. If he's referring to Audrey and Chloe... then that's a huge oof because Audrey knew exactly who she was marrying and should've never ended up with him in the first place if she didn't want to be with a director. So Zoe left because she couldn't stand it in New York anymore around her dad and the kids at her school. She hoped that she wouldn't have to act anymore and could just be herself. It really sounds like she needed to act a certain way in order to survive getting bullied, or worse. Dang, she really must not have met Chloe before then, or heard anything about her if she thought living with her mom and sister would be better. But in a way, it is better for her, because she has Marinette and the kids at school now. And she has Andre who's probably a better parent to her than her actual parents. Which is surprising and also not at the same time. "We end up hiding our feelings deep down in here." Okay so he says that with a booklet that has Emilie's face on it held up to his chest. Now, it may just be nothing but him thinking about his director dream. But. It could've also been any other object he held to his heart, it could've been something without a face on it or at least not her face. And Andre did work with Emilie. So I would not be surprised at all if there was something there that this is hinting at. Hmmmm. Also, I guess that's not Tomoe Tsurugi? Even though it's Kagami's model they used. And she's really pretty, too! Maybe something will come from this, or the animators didn't think it through when they added that image. Who knows. Even Chloe's first thought when she's in trouble is to go to Marinette what the heck 😂 When Kaalki teleported into Adrien's room...had Adrien turned around as it

happened he would've seen enough of her room to recognize it. Instead the portal changed and was outdoors. But lol poor Kaalki slamming against the window! All his things getting sucked in and Plagg's cheese was hilarious. XD Chloe's second thought of where to go: Luka's. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. 🤔 "This winner and loser thing doesn't exist!" Sad that Chloe thinks this way at all, who even taught her this? x.x Chat Noir: Did somebody start off on the wrong foot today? Marinette: I'm not finished! Chat Noir: Huh? LOL I laughed so hard at this moment. Did she forget who she is at the moment because even Chat's like what "I will always support you!" AWWWWWW what a good friend! And I think by helping Zoe become stronger, she'll in turn help Chloe be a better person too. But I'll talk about this again later. Poor Sabrina in this episode, my goodness. She works in a tiny closet and has to run along the limo. Chloe's seriously getting awful. Zoe's charm is the cutest one so far! So pretty. Ivan giving Zoe a hug was the cutest thing ever. Like, I don't ship them, but this shouldn't have anything to do with it. He and the rest of the kids care about her and respect her for being open and honest with her struggles, and want to be there for her. It's so wholesome. 😭 I find it interesting that even Audrey in this episode doesn't always know how to react to Chloe. xD But thank you Andre for caring enough about her to keep her in Paris and trying to keep some peace between the two. "For the first time in my life, I feel at home." 😭😭😭😭😭 Just imagine for a minute if Marinette didn't bother to help Zoe, believed how she acted at school rather than when she met her, and didn't tell the other kids about what was going on. Everything for her would be so drastically different. All because Marinette showed some kindness. Now onto Queen Banana. Well poor Marinette can't help but faceplant on the news. xD I can just tell what Alya leaned into say "You okay, girl?" and Marinette mumbling under the cape, "that's what the news is going to see of me, aren't they?" "Afraid so." "groan" Ah okay, Thomas was an alumni of the school. Cool. Poor Andre, he's just doing what Zoe suggested of him and not give up his dream of directing! I wonder if being around Luka and Juleka made Zoe want to put that pink streak in her hair. xD I want Luka and Zoe to be really good friends, that'd be so cool. Chloe being really awful some more. To everybody. I've noticed a pattern and I think I have her figured out pretty well. I'll be writing a in-depth post about her soon! She's making them change the entire movie just for her. xPP I said to my sister, "as soon as she leaves they should just film their original ideas." They do, thank goodness. xD I got so happy that we get an Adrienette scene in this ep! And then I saw he's locked in a cage, willingly, smiling at Marinette while the door shuts and I just burst out laughing. He's not even nervous he's locked in a cage, suspended in the air! Booooooy must like Marinette a lot! "Now let's take care of Adrien and get him out of that cage." OMG thank you, Marinette. While the image of him is comical, it's making me so uncomfortable that someone's up there like that and that someone also being terrified of being locked up in such a small space. Also, how long do you think Adrien would've stayed up there had Marinette not said something? Oh? What a change of pace, when Adrien goes to try to make things better for everyone, he screws it up pretty badly to be what really drives Chloe to get akumatized. She may have cooled off enough on her own as she tells Adrien "I'm fine." ...until he suggests apologizing to everyone. "You promised to stop being rude to everyone. And I told you that we couldn't be friends otherwise." OOF. Okay so her reaction to this really goes into the territory I want to talk about in my upcoming post about Chloe. "Banana BOOM BOOM!" lololol it sounds so funny in German dub xDD Marinette instantly pulling Zoe away from the attack x33 Ladybug's spin move with Chat Noir XD

it's like what's happening we're fighting an akuma not dancing This entire akuma feels like a Donkey Kong game and I love it. Those games are my childhood. Ooof Ladybug needs to be more careful with her Lucky Charms, they can sometimes be massive! Like that giant doughnut in Weredad. I seriously legit thought that the Gorilla was Gorilla, Adrien's bodyguard before the episode aired. XD The best heroes in this show tend to be the ones that have the most self-doubt, have you noticed? Ladybug, Carapace, and Vesperia all expressed serious doubt in themselves being a superhero, but when they suit up they're fierce! Like they were born to be a hero. Don't worry about Chat kissing Vesperia's hand. That's just the way he is, it's not in a flirting way. c: I remember when people freaked out about Rena Rouge and Chat Noir. It's the same as that, nothing more. "Or I'll turn her into baby mush!" LOL Chloe threatening to turn Ladybug into baby food hahaha that sounds so outrageous and weird that it's funny. And yet in this situation, would be actually possible so it's quite disturbing....hm. Dang, Hawk Moth trying to reakumatize her immediately. You go Zoe, speak up for yourself! And good on Andre for putting his foot down about Zoe too. "You may hate me, but I love you. And I'll always love you even if the whole world hates you." OKAY, THAT WAS REALLY BEAUTIFUL. Including the way she convinced Chloe to take the charm. Marinette's literally in hearing range of Adrien as she's talking to Tikki LOL she's like 5-6 feet away maybe? But that's okay, he probably would think nothing of it if he heard Marinette talking lol. I really like Zoe's character, I think she makes a wonderful addition to the show and that her character is extremely important. ;) Again I'll talk about it in my upcoming post! I've really noticed a lot of things when it comes to Chloe that I look forward to sharing my thoughts on sometime early this week. I really don't think things are as clear cut as a lot of people seem to think about her.

#ml #miraculous ladubug #ml spoilers #ml season 4 spoilers #ml spoilers season 4 #sole crusher spoilers #queen banana spoilers

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hateswifi · 4 years

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Rising from the Ashes: Of the Past and Nightmares

So this is Part Eleven here is to my Master List and Part Ten.

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"So how'd you get to Gotham from Paris?" Jason asks, plopping down on the couch in the living room.

"Oh easy the glasses, it's called a miraculous, this one is the horse miraculous that grants the power of teleportation," Marinette said, tapping her glasses. "I have a kwami named, Kaalki. The kwami that transforms me into Ladybug is Tikki the goddess of creation. My partner, Chat Noir, has the god of destruction, Plagg. We are balanced."

"Your partner, Chat Noir, is Adrien. Kagami is Ryuko. Luka is Viperon. Chloe is Queen Bee. I'm assuming at least, you don't seem like the type to pick people you don't trust," Damian asked. "But if Chat Noir is your balance does that not make you soulmates?"

"Yes and no. We're not the soulmates you might be thinking of. We are best friends platonic soulmates if you will. We are meant to be in each other's lives and we can’t live without each other," Marinette explained.

"That makes sense, but who is Tikki and Kaalki?" Jason asks.

Marinette lifts her hair and they fly out. "Meet Tikki and Kaalki. I have other kwamis as the guardian, but they are in the miracle box at the moment," Marinette explains, holding out their favorite food.

"Hi, guys!" Tikki chirps, landing on her head.

"Oh my gosh! They're adorable! They're so small and precious!" Dick cooed, standing up to move closer to them.

"I can bring other ones out at different times. Kaalki is just the one I had out due to her transportation powers. I would show you Plagg, but they don't show up on camera," She explains, petting Kaalki's head.

"Miss Marinette, do you have the miraculous of the peacock? I wish to catch up with Duusuu," Alfred asks.

"You had Duusuu before she was taken?" Marinette asks, shocked.

"Ahh yes, is she alright?" Alfred asks.

"She was in the hands of an evil miraculous holder recently, Hawkmoth's partner Mayura, but I think seeing a previous holder would help. Tikki, is that true?" Marinette asks.

"That is correct Mari, it would help wit the cleansing," Tikki said. "Could you also take out Wayzz?"

"Of course I would be able to," Marinette said, standing up leaving Damian's embrace. She opens her bag and takes out the miracle box she takes out the turtle and peacock miraculous after she put the horse miraculous away. "Alfred, would you be able to wear the brooch? I wore all of them once and passed out afterward. Master Fu advised against wearing more than three. I'll need it back after."

"Of course, Miss Marinette," Alfred said, taking the brooch and pinned it to her jacket. Marinette puts on the turtle miraculous.

"Hello Master Marinette, it's good to see you again," Wayzz greets, bowing.

"Wayzz, please call me Marinette," she answers.

"Wayzz I must speak with you," Tikki says, flying off. Alfred had already walked off to catch up with Duusuu.

"So those are some of the kwamis," Marinette said, snuggling into Damian's embrace.

"What do you mean you passed out after wearing all the miraculi?" Damian asks, kissing her head.

"During the akuma called Kwamibuster, every time Chat or I got hit we would lose our transformation. I went to Master Fu and asked to take all the miraculous so I wouldn't have to reveal my identity. I came up with this brilliantly over the top plan that worked. I'll show you the video Alya took some time. The miraculi are only supposed to be worn one at a time because of the power it holds," Marinette said.

Wayzz flew into the room saying. "But Marinette is the best guardian and holder of Tikki's miraculous that we've had and she somehow was able to pull it off."

"Diana's mother was a Ladybug," Alfred informed them, reentering the parlor.

"That's why she feels familiar," Tikki realizes, landing on Marinette's head. They all chat together, taking turns to ask questions to the kwamis. At the end of the night, Damian decides it's too late for her to go home. Damian leads Marinette to a guest room beside his room. They're standing by the door when he decides to give her the present he bought her.

"Angel, can you face the door for a moment," Damian asks. She turns away from him. He opens a small bow and takes out a necklace, a white gold infinity heart. "Can you look at me now?" She turns back around. "Beautiful," he breathed.

"The necklace?" Marinette asks her bluebell eyes sparkling.

"No, you," he leans down and kisses her softly.

"Prince, you're too nice," she said, breathlessly breaking the kiss. "Goodnight," She says, standing on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. She then entered the room and closed the door quietly behind her. She falls onto the bed lovestruck. Damina places his head on the door and happily sighs before walking to his room. She changed into her pajamas which is a Jagged Stone hoodie and leggings.

Not long after she fell asleep she woke up screaming from a nightmare. Damian rushes into the room as she is sitting up out of breath. "Angel are you ok?" he asks, sitting beside her rubbing her back.

"Ya it was just a nightmare," she whispers, into his shoulder.

"How often do you wake up to nightmares?" he asks, kissing her head.

"More often than I would like to admit," she whispers. "It has been worse since the fire."

"Want me to stay with you?" he asks.

"Please?" she asks looking up at him and blushes. "Umm... Damian, why are you shirtless?'

His face goes completely red looking down at himself. "I... I heard you scream, Ummm... kinda just ran into here, and normally I sleep shirtless," he explains. "Do you want me to grab a shirt?"

"No, please don't leave me," she says, yawning. He lays down and wraps an arm around her. She looks at his arm.

"What happened there?" she asks, tracing a scar.

"When I first moved in with my father, my mother got captured by my grandfather's successor. While father put mother into the Lazarus pool I chased after him, we got into a fight. At one point he put swords into both my arms to stop me from fighting," Damian explains, holding her closer. "Now go to sleep."

They fall asleep with her partly on top of him one hand in his hair the other over his heart. He has one arm around her, and the other hand was on top of hers. Damian didn't normally like touching but sleeping like this with Marinette.

"Oh my gosh!" Dick whispered to Jason, peeking in the room.

"Come on leave them alone, remember privacy?" Tim whispered, pulling both of them away from the door by their collars. "If you wake Damian wake up, he will murder you. He won't care about Father's rule."

Damian woke up to them talking, but couldn't move to murder them due to his Angel still peacefully sleeping on him. He fell back asleep waiting for her to wake up. After an hour or two, he's woken up by Marinette moving on top of him, she was trying to get out of bed without waking him up.

"No, Angel, please don't leave," he groaned, pulling her back into his embrace.

"Dami-- Damian," she stutters, trying to wiggle out of his strong embrace. "Alfred just called us for breakfast." She finishes trying to sit up again.

"Fine, but next time we're going to stay a bit longer," he says, into her ear, his chin on her shoulder. "I... I mean if there is a next time."

She kisses his cheek. "I would love that. Maybe watching a movie of your choice next time," she smiles, getting out of bed. He quickly follows. They take a seat on stools at the island where plates of waffles sat on the counter.

"So you wanna tell me what woke you up last night?" Damian said, pouring him and her a glass of orange juice.

"Well I have constant nightmares over the last standoff against Hawkmoth," she explains, taking a sip of OJ.

"What about the last battle?" he asks, sitting down beside her after he put the OJ back in the fridge.

"You know how Jon saw a healing stab wound?" Marinette asks he nodded in response. "Well, I took that stab wound trying to save Adrien from falling off the Eiffel Tower, he was grabbing Kagami. While I was trying to pull them up I got stabbed, Luka then knocked into Hakwmoth knocking him off the Tower. When he was falling he somehow made it on to a lower platform and ran back to his liar near the end of his transformation," Marinette sighed, taking another bite. "My nightmare was me trying to catch you, but I couldn't catch you, then everything she had said about me was becoming true." she hisses at the mention of

"Who is she? What could she say to make you react like this?" Damian asks, taking her hand.

"Oh... Ummm... her name is Lila Rossi but it... it.. it isn't important," she stammered, wiping a quick tear that was threatening to fall.

"Marinette, Angel, she must have hurt you in some way if you're reacting this way to here," Damian said, wiping the stray tears.

"She turned all my friends against me with her lying ways. Adrien knew the truth but couldn't truly help me in any way due to his father's overbearing nature. After he found me crying on a roof during one of our patrols, he drew the line there and helped me with Lila's antics," Marinette explained.

"What did she lie about?" Damian asks, pulling her into a hug.

"What didn't she lie about is the real question," Marinette snickers into his still shirtless chest. "She always lying about connections, she is still currently ruining my ex-classmates' lives. She fell down the stairs and said I pushed her, I got suspended. She faked a couple of different disabilities to gain the sympathy of others. She stuck the answer key to a test in my bag and framed me for cheating. Gabriel the retired Hawkmoth, has admitted to Lila willingly let herself be akumatized multiple times. She threatened me and told me she would separate me from my friends until I was all alone." He is silent, but she can feel his heart rate speed up. She looks up at him, fury was spread across his face. "Prince, please say something," she whispered, placing a hand on his cheek.

He takes her hand and kisses her palm and says, "Angel, no one plans homicide out loud."

"You can't kill her, sadly," she said whispering the last part. "Also one more thing you should know about, apparently you adore her and you guys have had an on and off relationship from childhood," she smirks, her bluebell eyes sparkling with mischief as he gags. They finish eating breakfast together and after cleaning up Damian escorts her home.

When she arrives home she unpacks and washes her clothes, then starts Scarlette's bridal shower outfit. She makes a cornflower blue button-up blouse and a white high skirt with white sheer fabric on the top of the solid underskirt. She sent a picture to Scarlette and let her know she could pick it up on Sunday. She also recommended pairing it with a pair of pastel pink high heels and clutch.

Life went on, she started building a name for herself with the help of Diana under the name of Nette. She told Diana that Marinette knows that she is Wonder Woman and that she is Ladybug. Diana laughed it off saying that she knew Marinette had Tikki from the moment she entered the store, part of the reason Diana hired her so quickly. She was intrigued by the holder of creation. Damian and Marinette continued to go on dates. Damian came home with Marinette for Chinese New Year, he also wore a disguised just in case. In March, Damian asked Marinette if she would move into the manor with him, she declined because she has a year contract on her apartment and she doesn't want to mooch off of him.

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kittyotakunoir666 · 4 years

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Felinette Month Day 1: Matchmaking

Based on @miraculouschatpuns Coffee Shop au

D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9 D10 D11 D12 D13 D14 D15 D16 D17 D18 D19 D20 D21 D22 D23 D24 D25 D26 D27 D28 D29 D30

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It had been a month after Lila returned back to school and started causing a rift between Mari and the class, Lila started whispering things to the rest of the class about how Marinette was bullying her, how Marinette was trying to drive Adrien away from being her friend, and that Lila didn’t know why Marinette hated her, which causes the class to start distancing themselves from her. They went so far as to start avoiding Marinette by doing stuff with Lila that they normally would do with Marinette such as picnics, movies, parties, sleepovers and hidden those events from her.

Marinette eventually found out because one day she was walking around for inspiration when she saw them leaving the movie theater after they had told her they were too busy to go together. She had felt her heart sink as she realized that Lila had made due to her promise and had taken her friends from her. Marinette was getting teary and began to run away because she didn’t want them to see her. Except Lila did see her and that put a smirk on her face.

While Marinette was running she really wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings but when she finally did stop running she saw that she ended up in a quiet street in a fairly nice area. The area was circular with small shops were everywhere, there was a small park in the center, and along at the opening at the other side of the circle was a small coffee shop. She was making her way to the coffee shop but was also taking a look at the other shops.

Once she got to the coffee shop she couldn’t help but welcome the smell of coffee inside so she enters. When she enters she takes note that all the seats and booths there had bookshelves or small stacks of books, she decides to stay. She quickly orders a medium-sized mocha and looks for a place to sit, she finds a little nook that has two armchairs and a little table between them, she does notice there is a half-empty cup of coffee and a small stack of books sitting on the table but she thinks that maybe they still needed to clean it so she ignored it and sat down.

Marinette grabs a book and curls up, trying to forget about the betrayal she feels. She started getting really sucked into the book that she doesn’t notice the boy approaching her. The boy had stopped and stared at Marinette before taking his seat across from her.

Marinette finally realized that he was there and mentioned that it was nice that the coffee shop provided books. Though the boy did agree, he had said that the books were actually his and that he had brought them with him since he didn’t know if the shop provided his favorite books.

Embarrassed, Marinette starts apologizing for practically stealing his book and starts to leave but he tells her that it’s fine and she can keep reading it if she wants. She wasn’t hurting anything and his parents had been telling him he needed more friends, which he thought wasn’t needed considering how many friends he did have, and if she liked his book choices she obviously has good taste. So they continued reading in silence for hours.

Before they both knew it, it was getting late and they would have to leave. As they were walking out they realized that they never introduced themselves. The boy introduced himself as Felix Culpa and mentions that he comes to the shop almost every afternoon since he likes the calming aura it provides. As Marinette introduced herself she also mentioned that she wondered about this area on accident and would have to find her way back.

Felix helps her find her way back and they both realize that she wasn’t too far away from her house and would actually be able to return to the shop whenever she wanted and also be able to see Felix again. They quickly exchanged numbers and said goodbye. Felix really didn’t live far but it was a trip away from the coffee shop but he didn’t mind.

Eventually, it became routine for Marinette to visit the coffee shop whenever Felix texted her that he would be at the shop. They would just go to the coffee shop and spent time together in the nice silence that was between them. Marinette was able to get inspiration from the coffee shop itself alongside Felix himself. Felix was just happy to make another friend who knew what a pleasure the quiet could provide.

They eventually get comfortable enough that they started talking about their lives and opening up more. Marinette eventually shows him her designs inspired by the coffee shop and Felix himself. Felix blushed at the designs inspired by him but he loves it because it shows how passionate Marinette is for her designing. Felix, on the other hand, provides info on why he has walls up and keeps to himself, Marinette understands and doesn’t judge.

Meanwhile, with her class, she had decided to keep quiet about seeing everyone at the movies and started declining their invites, saying that she was busy since they obviously didn’t want her around. Why else would they lie to her, besides she really prefers Felix’s company to their company anyways. Felix didn’t lie to her, Felix didn’t call her names, Felix didn’t abandon her for a psychological liar.

So while her friendship with her class went down the drain she was happy about being friends with Felix. Eventually, she did meet Felix’s other friends and they adored her. They liked that this person, this small, kind, generous person had so much love to give. So they invited her everywhere with them and she was glad that she had friends who cared for her.

Back at school, Lila was upset because, despite Marinette being left out and knowing it, she doesn’t seem sad or upset, she actually seems happier. But who cares about what she thought Marinette was happy.

~0~

Which brings us four months later with Marinette having feelings for Felix and Felix having feelings for Marinette and them not doing anything about other than telling their shared friends.

The shared friends were just so done.

Some of them created a plan, one of them was against it.

“Guy, you forget I can tell the future with my cards and they all say they get together on their own,” Nyx told the group, The group of friends minus Marinette and Felix were gathered at Allegra’s house in her room. They all were scattered in the room, Nyx was standing and leaning against the wall near the door, Ruby, Terra, and Allegra were all on Allegra’s bed, Claude was sitting in one of the armchairs near the balcony door along with Allan in the other armchair, Sébastian was sitting on the floor leaning on Allan’s legs. Jake was sitting on the floor leaning on the wall brushing Rosemarie’s hair in front of him, Kagami was sitting on-top of Allegra’s desk and Luka was sitting in the chair next to the desk strumming his guitar quietly, “Not to mention your plan is ridiculous and foolish”

“Ok, first off, Fuck you, this plan is perfect, second of all, you probably didn’t take into account us when telling the future” Ruby pointed out from where she was sitting in Allegra’s room.

“Actually I did, many times, I thought of every possibility and they don’t get together because of you, they get together on their own. And when this whole thing blows up in your faces I’ll be there to tell you I told you so” Nyx exclaimed crossing her arms.

“Okay, Nyx has voiced her opinion, who agrees with her” Sèbastian said calming the storm before it could begin.

No one spoke up, Nyx shook her head and stopped leaning on the wall and started walking out the door, she stopped she spoke to the group, “Since you plan on going through with this plan to make sure that if you get caught, you apologize afterward or Marinette and Felix will avoid y’all for at least a month and so will I, now I’ll see you after the disaster”

At that Nyx left through the door, leaving behind the group in silence when a phone alarm went off. They looked at Kagami since it was her phone. Kagami took a look and saw that it was time for her fencing lesson, rolling her eyes she told the group she had to leave. The remaining friends decided to go home so that the next day they could put their plan in action. They all bid Allegra goodbye and made their way home.

~0~

The next day they put in action, the only people who couldn’t make it was Kagami, Luka, and Terra, and Rosemarie. The plan went like this, they would meet up like normal than they would go to the ice skating rink, where they would “accidentally” push them together, then they would go to the Fair that was in the city visiting where they would split and “accidentally” separate themselves from them and then they would trap them together in the Ferris Wheel were they would have no choice but to confess as it is known that couples would confess to each other in Ferris wheels.

So they put their plan in action when they gathered together in the park. It was Ruby’s job to commence the plan, “ Hey, how about today we go to the ice rink?”

“Yeah, we haven’t been there in a while, why not” Sѐbastian inputted

“I’m ok with going there, how about you Felix” Marinette agreed

Felix looked at her and gave a small smile when he saw that she was excited to go to the ice rink so he responded with, “Sure I’ll go”

So they made their way to the ice rink, the thing is the group isn’t great at keeping secrets so Marinette and Felix were suspicious, Nyx was just thinking why her friends were idiots.

When they arrived they all got rental shoes except for Nyx who was already ongoing to the ice rink. As they were skating Felix and Marinette were, of course, skating together in silence but enjoying each other’s company. Ruby was just about to “accidentally” push into them when the announcement told people to leave the ice rink because they were about to put a show on for people to see so everyone began to leave. Felix carefully took Marinette out of the rink and Ruby followed right after knowing that if she did push them it would not look like an accident.

The group stayed for the show, it was a group dancing on the ice, three guys and three girls. The girls got into place in the center of the rink and you could see they were the angels and the guys were on one of the sides and they were the demons in the show. The lights shut off and a spotlight was put on the girls while red fog surrounded the guys and the music began, it was Bring Me To Life by Evanescence (here). Nyx had a smug smile at the turn of events.

After the show, the group decided that that was enough ice skating and that they should do something else. Just as Claude was about to suggest the Fair, Marinette beat him to it, “How about we go to the fair, it’s in the city right now and it only cost $12 for entry since we aren't adults yet.”

“I was just about to suggest that Marinette,” Claude said enthusiastically, Nyx facepalmed. Her friends really were idiots.

So they made their way to where the Carnival Fair was being held. Once there they did stick together before they slowly started separating. Claude and Allegra went to check out the different booths, Allan and Sѐbastian went to check out the couple activities, Ruby went to check out what competitions they had, Jake went off on his own to who knows where, which left Nyx, Felix, and Marinette.

The three were looking around and going to different booths trying out the different booths. Eventually, their prize pile got too big since it was Marinette and Nyx playing the games that they were winning six prizes at every booth that they started giving out their prizes to the children walking around. All of a sudden though Nyx got a bad feeling, she started looking everywhere but she couldn’t find where the bad feeling was coming from.

It put a pit in her stomach.

“Azucar?” Nyx whispered to Felix as Marinette was distracted at a ring toss booth. She was winning.

“What?” Felix asks, whispering back. They were both standing looking at Marinette destroy the game.

“I got a bad feeling out of nowhere, I’m going to investigate and also to get churros but I won’t be too far, I’ll keep both of you in my eye view but Felix,” Nyx said in a fearful tone that made Felix finally look at her, “The bad feeling was directed to Marinette”

This made Felix’s eyes widen and he whipped his head to look at Marinette smiling and having fun. His face immediately relaxed and he turned back to Nyx, they both came to an agreement. Nyx left to look around but was still at a safe distance but was hidden from Marinette and Felix’s viewpoint.

“Hey, Where did Nyx go?” Marinette asked Felix after winning yet another six prizes. Felix took three of the prices putting the one that looked like a black cat with green eyes in his bag that he brought.

“She went to get some Churros but she’ll meet back up with us don’t worry,” Felix said explained trying to reassure her as he grabbed her hand automatically, they both were giving the five prizes away to the children they randomly passed with the parents thanking them for it.

They began walking around just looking around and sometimes stopping and looking at what the booths are selling, what activities they had, basically basking in the silence they like to share. Felix then realized their situation, they were alone, holding hands, and really close to each other. He wasn’t the only one who noticed if the tightening grip on his hand and the blush that was creeping on to Marinette was anything to go by. They both had small smiles on their faces and crept even closer together.

“Felix,” Marinette started, the blush on her face grew brighter, “um... Do... do you…”

She was then cut off by a voice that she used to love to hear as it was her best friend’s coming from behind her, “Well, well, well, what do we have here. If it isn’t “Miss. Ditching my friends for strangers”

Marinette turned around and there was Alya front and center with Lila and the rest of the class, minus a few noticeable classmates, not liking that they ran into Marinette. Lila had a smug look to her face but was hidden behind her sweet and innocent act. Alya was glaring at Marinette while the rest of the class also glaring with the exception of Nathaniel, Jeluka, and Rose who looked uncomfortable being there.

“Hi Alya,” Marinette said in a deadpan tone, it’s been months since she actually felt sad about losing her “best friend”, “How are you?”

“Cut the carp Marinette is this the reason you stopped hanging out with us,” Alya accused while pointing to Felix, “Or are you trying to use him to make Adrien jealous because girl that’s going too far, you need to get over this jealousy of yo..”

“Is that really all you think of me, a girl who’s driven by her jealousy, a girl who’s so boy crazy she’d go so far as to use someone to get what she wants?” Marinette hissed out cutting Alya. This made a few classmates flinch as they’ve never seen Marinette so mad, Alya and Lila were both also taken aback by this. But before Alya could open her mouth again Marinette stopped her, “No, I’ve had enough, You accuse me of ditching you guys when in reality it was you guys who were doing the ditching. You guys were the ones who were going out as a group without me, it was you who said you didn’t have time to hang out.”

“That’s n..” Alya started but Marinette cut her off again.

“I saw you guys leaving the movies many times” Marinette stated. This made all but Lila flinch, they thought Marinette wouldn’t find out about those times. “So don’t you dare say I was the one who ditched you guys.”

With that Marinette turned around and headed for the carnival’s exist. Felix saw her head towards the exit before turning to Marinette’s class about to say something when a hand shut out to stop him from doing so. He turned to see it was Nyx, she gave him a smile and nodded her head to go and follow Marinette. Felix nodded and ran to go follow Marinette, Nyx will take care of the class.

Felix ran to catch up with Marinette, when he couldn’t find her he started heading to where he knew Marinette would go to.

Their coffee shop.

When Felix entered, the employee at the register pointed with his head where Marinette would be. Felix gave him a thank you nod and made his way to where Marinette was sitting in their seats with her head down. When she felt Felix staring at her she lifted her head up and tried to give Felix a small smile but it didn’t reach her eyes.

Felix then sat down with her and held her hand that was on top of the table and gave it a tight squeeze. Marinette let out a single tear before speaking, “I thought I was able to move on from them, I thought I was stronger, I…”

“Marinette you are stronger, You were able to look Alya and the rest of them in the eye and tell them that they were the once who did you wrong and that you were able to move on from them,” Felix assured her, “You’ve grown stronger than from the girl who decided to enter this coffee shop because she ran away from her so-called “friends ``''

“But I also ran right now” Marinette groaned

“No, you left a situation that if you didn’t it would have gotten worst” Felix explained

“But…” Marinette started

“No” Felix cut her off, “You need to not beat yourself up, You did well, you got out of a troubling situation, So we will move on from that and return to what you were going to say before we were so rudely interrupted.”

Marinette blushed as she remembered that before they were interrupted she was going to confess, “Oh...um...nothing...You don’t have to worry about it”

“Marinette,” Felix said with a smirk as he got the hint on what she was going to do.

Before Marinette could make excuses the employee at the register let out a yelp. Felix and Marinette turned to look at what he yelped at. There standing was Nyx and she had a bit of dried blood on her jacket and her hair messy.

“Nyx, What the fuck” The employee exclaimed.

“Oh, don’t worry Adam, the blood’s not mine,” Nyx stated calmly. Felix and Marinette were staring at her wide-eyed.

“That isn’t reassuring Nyx, do I need to call someone or what do I need to do” Adam exclaimed holding his phone at the ready to dial.

“No, Adam, just calm down, all I did was get in a small fight with a bitch and her dog,” Nyx said calmly finally making her way to Felix and Marinette, “Noone died but we did get kicked out for today and we can go back tomorrow.”

“Well do I need to call your guardian or?” Adam asked still holding on to his phone

“Nah it’s fine just continue as you were,” Nyx told him giving him a small smile before directing her attention to Felix and Marinette, She took a notion of them holding hands but said nothing of it, “Marinette you won’t have to worry about Lila or Alya for a while and because you went through something like this today I have to warn you both that our friends created a plan to match-make you guys.”

“Oh we knew about that” Felix said

“Nyx, thank you for what you did but I am mad that you fought them,” Marinette said giving Nyx her ‘I’m disappointed in you’ look.

“Yeah well,” Nyx shrugged off the look mostly unfazed by it., “Anyway I actually only came to tell you about that and to warn you about the group but I gotta leave now cause I have a thing to do, so adìos mis preciosos”

With that, she left leaving Marinette and Felix alone again. They both looked at each other and smiled. They got up and left the shop thanking Adam for his service and apologizing for staying after closing hours, he assured them that it was no problem. They walked to Marinette’s home in silence never once letting go of each other's hand.

#felinette #felinette month #felix culpa #alya salt #marinette dupain cheng #class salt ?#marinette happiness #OC'S #luka couffaine #kagami #but they are there for like a scene #Day 1 #Felinette month day 1 matchmaking #Coffee shop au

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ronninoir · 4 years

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Can I Steal You for a Second? CH16

Summary: Adrien is forced to participate in a new dating show, but becomes more excited when Ladybug says she’ll participate as her civilian self.

AKA: AU where Adrien doesn’t know Marinette, the superheroes are 22 and Gabriel is mean and ruthless but not Hawkmoth.

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Start from the beginning Chp 1 on AO3

Chapter 16

(Please enjoy this EXTRA LONG chapter because I can and I hope you're ready for what this chapter entails, cause it's a fun one.)

Marinette woke up excited. She was going to get to see Adrien today! It felt as though the whole house was buzzing. Alice came back from her one-on-one with a rose and Juliette was calmly helping Hanna get ready. Everyone else was in a frenzy. They knew that with so many girls on one date, they would have to fight for time. Marinette was just hoping that some girls (cough cough Lila) didn’t take that literally.

When it was time to leave, Marinette and Hanna gave Juliette a hug. “Have fun! Kick some ass!” Juliette called as they ran for the van, which made both Hanna and Marinette burst into giggles the minute the set foot on the van. The ride didn’t feel very long with all of the girls chatting with each other and in no time, they were pulling to a stop.

They were greeted by a producer who led them inside a warehouse with a smile. As they followed, they were greeted with what was obviously a film set of some sort. It looked a lot like what the mansion looked like on Cocktail Party nights with cameras and lights and microphones everywhere. They walked further into the space and was greeted both by Adrien, who looked handsome as always, and another man who looked to be in his late 20s.

“Hello ladies, and thank you for joining me today,” Adrien began, smiling at all of them in turn. “I have something super exciting planned for you. Most of you may not know this, but my mother was an actress before she disappeared. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to star in a movie and today we will be doing just that. I have here with me a popular film director, Jean Vigo, who is going to be directing our film today.”

The other man stepped forward and addressed the girls, “Yes, hello to you all. Today we are going to be filming a short movie, which will be a mystery. Someone has stolen Adrien’s heart and he will have to search through the list of suspects to see who has it. All of you have assigned parts and will be fitted for costumes. First, let’s pass out scripts and I need you to begin memorizing lines.”

Marinette waited as a crew member stepped forward and began calling out the girls’ names. They each had a script, which was about 13 pages long, with their names on it and their highlighted lines marked. Marinette would be playing the role of the undercover detective, who was sent to aid Adrien in his investigation without him knowing.

Marinette was actually really excited about this. Although she had been separated from Hanna, who was playing the role of a lawyer, Marinette, out of all the girls, would get to spend the most time with Adrien while practicing and shooting.

She was in the first group to be fitted for costumes, which meant she’d be memorizing her lines while waiting on everyone else to be fitted. She was wearing this sexy red dress that had a low neckline and the sleeves were off-the-shoulder while going into a full long sleeve. It had a sparkle to it, and clung to Marinette in just the right places. It also had a fake holster on her thigh, which made Marinette feel both sexy and uncomfortable. Inside the holster was a fake gun, a fake knife, and her badge. Right at the end of the movie, after Marinette revealed that she was the undercover cop, she would seductively pull out her badge and gun. The costume department did a wonderful job dressing her and she was waiting for the rest of the group to be done. She was spending some time memorizing her lines when she heard a shrill scream from nearby.

“OH MY GOSH! I can’t believe that I DON’T get to kiss Adrien in the movie! Who in the WORLD wrote this script? And you’re making me wear THIS? Is this EVEN a Gabriel original, because I’m a model and know good style. This is NOT good style! This is TRASH and I REFUSE to be a part of this!”

Marinette had to stifle an eye-roll. Lila was already causing a scene and they had only just arrived at the date. Marinette was silently hoping that Adrien would hear about this outburst and have a good reason to kick her out, but she tried not to get her hopes up.

“I’m so sorry, Miss Rossi. But, that’s your assigned costume and not every girl can have a kiss scene with Adrien. Miss Dupain-Cheng doesn’t have a kiss scene and she’s not complaining.” Why did I have to get dragged into this? Marinette wondered as she slowly turned towards the crew member talking with Lila. Lila chose that moment to shoot Marinette a glare, which Marinette returned with a smile.

“Well if Miss Marinette Dupain-Cheng can get over it, then I guess I can too. She is the favorite after all. I want to be just like her.” Lila’s voice was as sweet as a macaroon and stung like poison. Lila slowly approached Marinette and she took that time to size her up. Lila was currently barefoot, and Marinette discovered that she wasn’t as tall as she made herself seem, only a couple of inches taller than Marinette. She was also dressed in a typical maid outfit, black and white dress, modest skirt length, odd looking headband. She was very angry, though, and Marinette knew something was about to go down and was preparing herself for a fight. But, when Lila put her hand gently on Marinette’s shoulder and leaned forward towards Marinette’s ear, she was so in shock she didn’t do anything.

“Come with me,” Lila whispered in a deadly way.

Marinette did as she was told, half curious and half trying not to make more of a scene. The two girls ended up in a bathroom together, since the cameras can’t follow anyone into a bathroom.

Lila roughly pushed Marinette inside and after Marinette had righted herself with a frown, she crossed her arms and stared Lila down. Lila copied her stance and crept closer to Marinette.

“I knew you would be the problem child on the first night.” Marinette rolled her eyes but Lila ignored it. “You have done nothing but ruin all of my well thought out plans. I am meant to marry Adrien Agreste. You have no hope of winning his affections and honestly, you’re so pathetic I’m having trouble seeing you as actual competition. You need to sit down and leave me and my future husband alone, do you hear me? If you keep up this ‘I’m the perfect child’ act, I’ll have no choice but to turn all of your friends against you and force the public to see me as the good guy.”

Marinette had to admit that the speech was slightly terrifying. Thankfully, being Ladybug for so long, had rubbed off some of that courage and strength into her normal, everyday life. Plus no one talks about her Kitty that way. “Leave me alone. You have no ‘right’ over Adrien and you don’t own him. He is here to make his own decisions and you have to play by the rules just like everyone else.”

Lila paused, but only for a minute, before stepping even closer to Marinette. They were merely inches away when she dropped her voice and whispered with a straight tone, “Give me your dress.”

“Excuse me?” Marinette asked incredulously, while taking a step back to better look at Lila.

“I said, give me your dress. I’m going to play the sexy detective and you are going to play the pathetic maid and just spend the entire movie dusting and being annoying.”

“No.” Marinette muttered that word with all of the contempt and confidence she could muster.

Lila looked as though she had been slapped and reached out and pulled on a sleeve of Marinette’s dress. “Fine, then I’ll take care of it myself.” She gripped Marinette’s arm with a vice like grip and yanked down. Marinette heard the fabric ripping and watched as her sleeve fluttered to the floor. Marinette bent to pick it up, anger rising, and when she looked back, Lila had turned and was looking at herself in the mirror. She had her hand raised and was looking as if she was going to high-five herself or something odd when a huge CRACK was heard.

Marinette couldn’t believe her eyes. Lila had slapped herself. She had tears running down her face and a red hand print was beginning to appear. She gave Marinette a devious smile before reaching for the doorknob of the bathroom door.

“I can’t believe it, Marinette!” Lila yelled as she opened the door to the camera crew waiting outside. Her tears were flowing down her cheeks and someone was rushing up to Lila immediately to help her. “I thought you were my friend! Just leave me alone!” Lila cried as she was ushered away by a producer. Marinette could only stare after her in shock as a producer rushed up to her and said, “Well, looks like we need an interview.”

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

Adrien had just finished putting on his costume and was working on his lines when the producer who had originally told Adrien about Gabriel’s plans for the show, Mark, rushed up to him in a hurry. He’d never seen a producer rush before and was curious as to what the occasion would be.

“So sorry to bother you Adrien, but something’s happened you need to know about.”

Mark’s tone of voice put Adrien on edge. He stood up quickly, forgetting his script and followed him to a room off to the side, near where the girls were getting ready. Inside was Lila and she looked a mess. She was dressed in an adorable maid outfit that actually made Lila seem older and more mature. Adrien’s attention, however, was quickly drawn to the red handprint shaped mark on her cheek and the tears running down her face.

“Oh my gosh, Lila what happened?”

At that, she broke down into sobs, and between the sobs Adrien was able to piece together the story. She was in the bathroom fixing her make-up, when Marinette came storming and claiming that Lila was ruining all of her plans and that she was meant to be with Adrien. Lila tried to tell her that she meant no harm when she freaked out and told Lila that she would turn all of her friends against her and that she would look like the good guy. Lila tried to calm Marinette and accidentally ripped her dress. Marinette freaked out and slapped Lila.

Adrien was having a hard time processing this. It didn’t make sense. Marinette didn’t seem like the kind of girl to go off and become violent with anyone. He thought back to the Marinette that said all of those wonderful things about him multiple times Saturday night. This didn’t sit right and he needed to get to the bottom of it. Adrien remembered what Plagg had told him, about dealing with the drama. “Lila, I’m so sorry this happened to you. Let’s get you fixed up and ready to go for the movie and I’ll see you in a bit okay?” He turned on his heel and walked right out the room, itching to find Marinette and see what her take on this was.

As Adrien searched through the warehouse where they were filming, he knew he should be memorizing his lines but was much more concerned about this. He had to do what Plagg suggested and solve this before it got too big to handle. Finally, he found Marinette, leaving another small room with a camera crew and looking harassed.

“Marinette! I’m glad I found you. We need to talk.” Marinette looked almost upset at those words but solemnly nodded and gestured for him to lead the way. He led her to the boys bathroom, knowing full well that no one else would need it and that way they could talk without the cameras following them. Maybe he could get the full truth from her with more privacy.

“So,” Adrien began watching Marinette and her reactions closely. “I was just talking with Lila.” At that, Marinette’s eyes flared. Adrien took a step back away from Marinette, but continued anyway. “She said—”

“I don’t care what she said, it's totally false. I did not touch her, I did not say anything to her except defend you when she claimed that she owned you. She is the one who ripped my dress after asking me to switch roles with her. She also slapped herself right after she threatened me and I was too stunned to say anything. Plus, who would believe me? Who in their right mind would slap themselves? Adrien,” She grabbed his arm and forced him to meet her eyes, “I promise that I have nothing to do with this.” Marinette was breathing heavily and had tears streaming down her face. Adrien noticed that she was gorgeous while determined and crying, and his heart twinged a little. He shook his head to clear it, he couldn’t be thinking of how pretty she was when he was supposed to be clearing the air.

She looked up at him with a fierce determination and he could tell that she was telling the truth. He had gotten to know her well enough to know for sure. Plus, she once told him that she always keeps her promises, and she has given him no reason to doubt her. Lila on the other hand messed with Marinette at the last rose ceremony and seems to thrive off of drama. That gave him reason to doubt her.

“You have to believe me, Adrien. I would never lie to you.”

He immediately thought of Ladybug. She had that same look in her eyes when fighting an akuma, or telling Chat that she knew where the akuma was located. He trusted her blindly and it always worked out for him. Now, he owed Marinette that same trust.

“I believe you, but the other girls won’t. Lila seems really upset,” at that Marinette rolled her eyes, “and I can’t allow this drama to be present or made to seem okay.” He paused for a minute, thinking up a plan. “Okay, I have an idea.”

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

Adrien walked Marinette to the main room where they could clearly be seen by the cameras. He made sure there was some sort of distance between them and he led her straight to the room where he had left Lila, who was graciously still there.

“Marinette, Lila, I know something happened earlier today that needs to be discussed. I’ve heard each of your takes on the story and I have decided what’s the best thing to do with both of you. Lila, I want you to be cleaned up and ready to play the maid in the movie.” Lila’s face flashed a look of anger before going back to a calm demeanor.

“Whatever you want, Adrien. But, what will happen to Marinette?” Lila asked with a sniffle, getting up calmly from her chair. Adrien was hoping that she would think he sided with her, as the rest of the girls and crew would side as well. Adrien was just hoping that he could catch the camera crew that followed the girls to the bathroom before Lila did.

“As for Marinette,” Adrien made a show of turning towards her. She did a wonderful job of looking very upset and she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Adrien took a deep breath and tried to sound as much like his Father as he could. “She is going to be excused from the day-portion of the date. She and I will have a talk tonight at the evening portion and her fate will be decided then.”

Lila seemed satisfied with that answer and sauntered out of the room, making sure the give Adrien a peck on the cheek as she left. Adrien, now slightly blushing watched as the rest of the crew followed after her. He turned towards Marinette again and asked, “Can I walk you out?” She nodded and he led her towards the exit of the warehouse, making sure no one was following them.

He grabbed her hand before she got in the van. “This isn’t goodbye. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Marinette nodded and, without warning, pulled Adrien into a hug. His arms automatically wrapped around her and he couldn’t help but take in her smell and the feel of her in his arms. It was something he could get used to.

“I trust you,” Marinette whispered into his chest, where her head rested. He couldn’t help but smile at that as he let her go and opened the van door for her.

“Tonight.” He reminded her, not wanting to let go of her hand.

“Tonight.” She gave his hand a squeeze and then let go and shut the door.

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

Adrien felt a tug on his heart as he watched the car leave the lot. As soon as it had turned the corner, he rushed back inside and beelined for the main producers.

“I need footage of the fight that happened between Marinette and Lila.” He always forgot how much like his Father he could sound like until moments like these. He was directed towards the crew that followed them and was allowed to watch the tape.

All that could be seen was the bathroom door, but everything was clearly heard. The hardest part was that since there is no way to know who was saying what, exactly, both Marinette and Lila’s story could be true. He pulled aside one of the producers and asked if some sort of voice recognition could be done on the video so he could know exactly who said what. He was told that it was possible, it would just take a couple of days, maybe even a week to complete.

Adrien nodded and returned to the fake movie set, where his script and un-memorized lines were waiting.

A couple hours later, Adrien was dressed in a decent suit and casually making a movie with 11 beautiful girls. They had cut out Marinette’s character completely, and he ended up having a kiss scene with every girl willing, including Lila. Each one put their full effort into the date, even if some of them were not very good actresses. Overall, Adrien decided the date would have been more fun if Marinette had been there to enjoy it with him.

Word got around quickly (thanks to Lila, no doubt) that Marinette had been asked to leave the day portion of the date. He had to reassure a hyperventilating Hanna that Marinette would be at the night portion of the date and that he had not kicked her out of the house. He was approached by others, both worried about Marinette’s safety and claiming her innocence.

“Adrien,” the cool, crisp voice of Kagami cut through his thoughts as he watched the girls pack up to leave for the night portion. “Can we talk?” Adrien smiled at her and gestured to a more secluded corner where no cameras were sure to find them.

“What’s up?”

“It’s about Marinette. I need to tell you that she did not harm Lila.”

Adrien was a little taken aback by her statement. Kagami didn’t ever seem to interact with the other girls and only talked with Adrien privately. He had never even seen Kagami interact with Marinette, especially be friends with her enough for her to come to Marinette’s defense.

“I didn’t realize you and Marinette are close.”

“We aren’t. I just know that she is innocent. I am very perceptive of these things and I can usually read the motives or the thoughts of a person before most. When I saw Lila after the incident, her motives were clear.”

Adrien waited for Kagami to elaborate, but she didn’t. He sighed and bit back a small smile. Kagami was interesting, and someone that Adrien could definitely see himself falling for. But, there was a side of her that didn’t seem to understand a lot of social situations, much like himself. He really grew to care for her during their fencing date. He felt as though that was the first time she opened up and connected with Adrien, without even saying a word.

He knew that pushing Kagami to clarify would only lead him to be more confused, so he instead rested a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you for telling me, Kagami. I appreciate you bringing more clarity to the situation.” She gave him a slight bow, like they would at the beginning of a fencing match, before walking away.

All the signs pointed to Marinette being in the right, but without a confirmed voice recognition test tonight, he was going to have to treat Marinette like the bad guy.

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

Marinette had never been more nervous for the second half of a date. Last week she was addressed by Gabriel Agreste himself, and this week she would have to be on the receiving end of Adrien’s anger, even if it wasn’t true. He had told her his plan with the voice recognition software, but if there was one thing that Alya taught her, it was that things like that take time, which means that she wouldn’t be liked by many tonight.

She had the whole afternoon to change and prepare for the evening portion of their date and was itching to see other people again. She met up with the group right outside of the hotel that was hosting them tonight, and was ushered to the back of the group as they were filmed entering.

She could feel both the cameras and Hanna watching her more than normal and she sighed as the realization that it was going to be like that the whole date hit her. She sat at the edge of the couch, right in Lila’s eye sight, and waited for Adrien to come and make his toast.

Before too long, Adrien entered, smiling and looking handsome, as usual. Just the sight of him in a suit got her heart racing and made her palms sweaty. “Long time no see, ladies.” Adrien smirked, causing all of the girls to laugh. Marinette gave a weak chuckle. “It’s so wonderful to see you all in your normal clothes, and may I say you all look stunning tonight.” Adrien’s eyes swept the group and landed on Marinette. She felt a slight blush hit her cheeks and she quickly looked down at her lap, hoping no one caught the slight edge of her smile.

“I am so excited to talk with each of you tonight and I want you all to know that I value your feelings and opinions very much.” On that ominous note, Adrien turned towards Marie with a smile and a, “Can I steal you for a second?” to which he received a nod.

Once Adrien was out of earshot, the girls began chatting and Hanna grabbed Marinette’s wrist. “Let’s go to the bathroom.”

Marinette gave her a weak smile and followed her to the closest bathroom, locking the door behind her. She then turned on both of the sinks. “What are you doing?”

“Making background noise so no one can hear what’s being said outside.” Hanna said with the most serious face Marinette had ever seen her wear.

Marinette smiled, “That’s brilliant!”

The girls retreated as far from the door as they could and Marinette explained her side of the story to Hanna. When she had finished, Hanna was shaking with anger.

“That girl! Ugh! What does she have against you to continuously target you?”

“I don’t know, but Hanna we have to let it go. I promise that I have a plan and Adrien believes me, he believes that I’m innocent.” Marinette gently placed her hands on Hanna’s shoulders, the physical touch calming her slightly.

“I just don’t want to see anything happen to you, Marinette. You’re one of my best friends, tied with Juliette of course.”

“And I don’t want anything to happen to you, which is why you need to stay out of it. I’m used to fighting people like Lila and I can’t let you get twisted in this battle she’s created.” Marinette pulled Hanna in for a hug and they just held each other for a minute. “Just think of Lila like one of the akumas I’ve had to deal with. My best friend back home told me that, ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.’ Lila is the evil here, and I’m the good people. Just like in my stories. Good always wins.”

“Ladybug and Chat Noir always save the day.” Hanna said, pulling away from Marinette and giving her hands a squeeze.

Hanna had no idea how true that statement actually was.

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

Adrien was having flashbacks to his first night ever being the Bachelor: so many girls and very short conversations. At least this time he knew all of their names.

He had purposefully saved Lila and Marinette for last, hoping to spend more time with each of the girls smoothing out the fight from earlier. The last thing he needed was another akumatization of one of the girls. Lila was first, and he didn’t have a clue what he was going to say. Without his proof, he couldn’t confront her, so his main goal of the talk was to just keep her calm and content until he could confront her with the truth when he had it.

When Lila was instructed to interrupt his conversation with Camille, Adrien plastered on a fake smile and reminded himself that it would all be over soon.

“Hey gorgeous,” she teased as she gave Adrien a hug and a kiss. He made sure it was a short one and had her sit down with him to talk.

“How are you doing after everything today?” He asked, trying hard not to let the anger color his voice.

She had the audacity to give him a sad smile and a sniffle before replying, “I’m doing much better. Thank you so much for dealing with Marinette. She’s been so mean to me since the first night in the mansion and I just didn’t know how to tell you.” She sounded like a small child talking about their lost puppy, and Adrien worked to keep the grimace off of his face.

“I’m sorry you’ve had to endure that, especially here on the show. All I want is for all of you to be happy and comfortable while I work out how I feel about everyone.”

Lila gave a giggle that was probably supposed to be cute, but Adrien wasn’t about it. “You are the sweetest thing.” She had begun to play with his tie, which if he remembered correctly from various movies he had watched meant that she was probably flirting with him. Adrien took that as a good sign that she couldn’t see how upset he was with her.

She gave him a look that could only be described as sultry and leaned in close enough for their breaths to mix. “What is your heart saying about me?” He stuttered slightly, not prepared for their proximity for each other and knowing that the truthful answer wouldn’t please her. She took his silence as something other than the uneasiness that it was and moved even closer to him, to where she was sitting on his lap. “Or are you paying attention to what the other parts of you are saying?” Adrien gulped and her hand started to slip from his tie towards the bottom of his shirt. He quickly intercepted it and twined his fingers through hers to prevent her from trying to do whatever she was planning on doing again.

Adrien swallowed and gave a weak smile, “My heart is telling me that there is more to you than meets the eye, and that I want to get to know you even more as our time together continues.” Technically that wasn’t a lie.

“Does that mean you want me to stick around?” Lila asked playfully. He had forgotten that she had two hands, so when the other one began petting his hair, he almost jumped. But he quickly smiled to cover his skittish movements when an idea popped into his head.

“Actually, I do.” The smile on her face almost made him gag. “I was going to wait to ask you next week, but I was hoping you’d do me the honor of having a one-on-one date with me.”

Lila’s smile got bigger and she leaned in for a kiss. This one lasted longer and Adrien had a harder time pushing her off of him. “Oh, Adrien I would love to have some more alone time with you,” she gushed.

“We’re still going to have to go through the formalities with the date card and whatnot. Plus, you can’t tell a soul, it’s just between me and you for now.” She nodded and leaned in for another kiss. He was so over this kissing.

Adrien’s saving grace came in the form of heels clicking from afar, which made Lila pull back. She gracefully slid off of Adrien’s lap and gently grabbed his hand, making it look like nothing had transpired between them right as Marinette rounded the corner. Marinette smiled nervously and Adrien stood up, taking Lila with him. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to have a serious conversation with Marinette now.”

Lila nodded solemnly and pulled him in for one last hug. He counted to five before pushing her away and letting go of her hand. His gaze immediately went to Marinette and his whole body seemed to relax. He made sure to make his smile look grim as he caught her hand and led her to the chaise.

“So, how was the rest of the date?”

“What are your thoughts on today?”

Both Marinette and Adrien started at the same time, causing them both to laugh. Adrien couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on his face. “You first.”

Marinette hadn’t let go of Adrien’s hand and was playing with his fingers, like Ladybug did sometimes when he was upset. She also wouldn’t look at him. “I think you should go first.”

Adrien paused slightly, suddenly very aware of the cameras watching, before diving right in, “I know you told me your side of the story about what happened with Lila today, but I need you to know that Lila’s version is the complete opposite of yours. And that means one of you is lying to me, and that bothers me a great deal.” Adrien held up his hand as Marinette went to open her mouth to speak, and she quickly shut it, looking dejected. “Now before you say anything, I need you to know that I am analyzing the footage that was taken from outside of the bathroom and trying to piece together for myself what happened in there.”

Marinette glanced up at him slightly and spoke just loudly enough for the cameras to catch it, “What does that mean for you and me?”

Adrien bit his cheek to keep from grinning. Should fashion not work out for her, she has a serious career potential in movies. She is a wonderful actress. She is selling this so well.

“I’m going to keep you around,” Adrien said with a soft smile, reaching out to lift her chin up. Her blue eyes locked into his and he could see real hurt there. He froze, suddenly worried that Marinette may actually think that he is mad at her. He wanted to ask her right then, but since he couldn’t be sure she would answer him not in character, he moved on with the conversation as planned.

“Marinette, I really care for you. I have a serious crush and I am very interested in seeing where this relationship can go. But I need you to know, I will not date a liar. If you are the one not telling the truth, please come clean with me now, and it’ll make it easier on both of us later.”

She was still looking him in the eye and they had subconsciously moved closer together though Adrien knew he wouldn’t be kissing her tonight. “I promise you, Adrien. I’m not the one lying to you. I care about you too much to do something like that.”

Adrien smiled fully now and stood up, once again, taking the girl attached to his hand with him. Although he didn’t mind this attachment as much as the last. “Thank you for your honesty, Marinette.” He pulled her in for a hug, and with his mouth covered by her hair, whispered, “Please, please stay so we can chat.”

She pulled away and gave him a smile, which he chose to interpret as a yes. He watched her walk away and was struck with how much harder it was to see her go than any of the other girls.

Once she was out of sight, he was whisked away to choose who received the group date rose. He honestly chose a random name that wasn’t Lila or Marinette and went ahead to present it.

“Hello again, everyone. I had such a wonderful time talking with all of you and I am so grateful that I was actually able to spend time with all of you tonight. There are so many of you, it felt like my first day at the mansion all over again, but it was better because our conversations were deeper and real.” Some of the girls awed at that, and he made a mental note to thank the producer who wrote most of his speeches. He reached out and grabbed the rose sitting on the table. “One of you really opened up to me tonight and I wanted to show how thankful I am for that.” He searched the group, noticing both Lila’s awaiting eyes, and Marinette’s patient ones as his gaze landed on who he had chosen. “Zoe, will you accept this rose?”

Zoe beamed and blushed a bright red. She stood up clumsily and almost tripped, but was caught by both Adrien and Lucie grabbing her arms. “Oh goodness! Thanks,” Zoe was even more red than before as she took the rose from Adrien and quickly sat back down.

A producer stepped up and began assigning girls to rooms for interviews and Adrien watched Marinette slip away towards the bathrooms. He quickly followed.

As he got closer to her, his heartbeat quickened and his hands started to get clammy. He didn’t know why he was reacting to her like this, but he had this crazy urge to kiss her. He settled this time for a hug.

“You did a wonderful job on that speech! You made it so easy to not be super happy to be with you.” Marinette said, craning her neck to look up at him. He loved how small she was and how easily she fit into him. Her hugs reminded him of the comfort and safeness he felt when hugging Ladybug.

“You did such a great job. I was terrified you were actually upset with me,” Adrien gushed, letting a little of his worry into his voice.

“How could I be mad at a plan that you created? Lila seemed pretty happy when I saw her after you two talked. So that’s a really good sign.”

Adrien shivered a little, remembering what his talk with Lila had really been like. He looked back down at Marinette, and the urge to kiss her overcame him again. He channeled some of his inner Chat Noir and dove right in. She was clearly startled at first, and he almost pulled away. But then, he felt her lips soften against his. She began kissing him back and he realized how intoxicating kissing her was. He was on cloud-nine and he never wanted to come down. When they did break apart, Adrien was slightly out of breath, and he was pleased to see that Marinette was as well. They both stood there in the moment, just smiling at each other and forgetting that an entire other world existed around them.

“What was that for?” Marinette asked, her breathy tone doing dangerous things to his body.

“I wanted to kiss you so bad earlier, but couldn’t because I was pretending to be upset with you. I was going to go crazy if I didn’t get that kiss tonight.” Adrien realized he was sharing a lot to one of the 14 girls he was currently dating, but he didn’t feel embarrassed.

Marinette flushed a darker shade of red and just smiled at him. They both jumped when a crew member dropped something nearby, reminding them both that they were actually not alone, nor supposed to be together.

Marinette was the first to react. “Oh no, I have to go! They are going to be looking for me to interview soon!” Adrien didn’t want her to walk away, and held her hand a little longer. She leaned up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you again Saturday at the cocktail party.” He nodded and watched her walk away once again.

Kissing Marinette was wonderful, and thrilling, and familiar. Her lips were soft, sweet, and tasted oddly like strawberry lip gloss. Something about it struck a chord with Adrien, but he pushed it away, and began searching for Mini-Natalie so he could go back to the hotel room and sleep.

Jean Vigo is a movie director in France, but he is not in his late 20s as he actually passed away in 1934, but his picture on Google looked the coolest so that’s why he got chosen to be the director.

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nobodyfamousposts · 5 years

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Why We Won’t Hate Adrien If He’s Not Perfect

Here me out:

For all my salt and griping, I don’t hate Adrien Agreste. He’s not a bad character. The problem is that he has potential that is not being utilized in favor of coddling him—to the point where all the GOOD things that can come out of his character aren’t happening and his potential is being wasted for the sole purpose of having him be as the writers say, “perfect”.

I don’t want Perfect Adrien. I want dorky, socially awkward Adrien who sometimes drops witty one-liners and has no idea how to deal with situations. And I want it to be okay that this Adrien exists.

But do you know the worst part? It’s the same Adrien as canon. It’s the same Adrien the show initially presented us. The only difference is how they are choosing to use him and how they are choosing to frame him.

Consider for an example, the difference between the Airbender series Sokka and the live action movie Sokka. It’s the same character. Same concept. Same background. Same overall story. But what separates them is the completely different execution between the two that makes one the snarky and brilliant guy we all love or at least are willing to tolerate for his better moments, and the other a bland cardboard cutout we want to forget exists.

The first one is better because (other than the fact he has an entire series to grow instead of a 2 hour movie to try to work that in between overused narration and horrible CGI/effects) he starts out flawed and is recognized as flawed. We see his issues as early as episode one and they don’t go away immediately. He gets growth, but his growth makes sense in the context of his adventure. Even when he missteps and regresses, there’s cause for it. And at no point does his potential as a character feel truly wasted. There’s a reason why Sokka is perhaps the most popular character in the series for all that he’s the only “non-special” one.

Adrien could have been that! They wouldn’t even have had to do much to make that happen!

Show him struggling to actually engage with people! Insert a few clips here and there of him relying on anime tropes and messing up interactions for it if that’s where he’s really gotten all his knowledge of school and socialization from! Hell, his “forgiveness” and “be nice to your bullies” lectures would make SENSE in that light if he’s taking it from the viewpoint of anime where the good guys always forgive the bad guys and the bad guys always get better for it! All they had to do was SHOW that issue while having it BE an issue instead of ignoring it or laughing it off shortly after and bada-bing! We’ve got a character for Adrien that plenty of people can actually relate to!

Show him being frustrated with his modeling and being stuck indoors. Not just “sad Adrien is sad”, but actually FRUSTRATED. Have him complain! Have him vent to Plagg! Hell, have him vent to NINO! He’s his best friend, THAT’S THE EXACT SORT OF THING HE’S THERE FOR!

You want to keep him lecturing Marinette, fine. But explain WHY! Have there be a REASON that she is the only one he will try to actively lecture about things that’s not just about her being wrong and needing to be the “bigger person” even when she shouldn’t be! Maybe it’s because he hates conflict as a whole and he knows that out of everyone involved in said conflict of the day, Marinette’s the only one he can be sure will LISTEN TO HIM and take what he says into account instead of blowing him off or yelling at him outright. It’s not fair to Marinette to constantly be put in that position, but at least it would EXPLAIN IT rather than just have it be that Marinette is always in the wrong somehow.

You see what that does? We have Adrien having the exact same issues in canon, but by simply framing them differently, we have a more rounded Adrien!

The things we all seem to dislike about Adrien right now aren’t actually bad things. Him lying to Ladybug about the cause of an akuma, him being a brat when he gets rejected, him lecturing the person who shouldn’t be the one lectured—these can be GOOD for his character if they were just acknowledged differently in the show!

Let’s bring up the previously mentioned Sokka for example. Remember how he started out as a foolish chauvinistic wannabe warrior who hated all Fire Nation to the point of automatically assuming anyone strange was one of them by default? The wannabe warrior got curb stomped by Zuko. The chauvinist dismissed and got his butt kicked by girls! The guy who hated all Fire Nation people encountered a group that was indiscriminate of who they were actually hurting. And what did this cause? GROWTH.

All those things, all those traits would easily make everyone HATE Sokka. He could EASILY have been the Scrappy of the series! And I have little doubt that as the movie had shown, if it was just anybody writing him, he would have. Except he LEARNED. He started training to actually BE the warrior he wanted to see himself as. He started using that quick wit of his to make plans instead of snarky comebacks! He started seeing past the Fire Nation to the PEOPLE he was actually encountering. Sokka’s flaws were clear and apparent. They were acknowledged as among his character traits and they were treated as actual problems he had to address if he was going to continue this adventure with the Avatar without being the one holding everybody back.

Adrien could have been done the same. They wouldn’t have to lose the Sunshine Child status. They wouldn’t have to lose his angst and inner turmoil. They just had to USE what they were having him do instead of gloss over it while showing us shots of Adrien looking like someone kicked his puppy every so often to remind us we’re supposed to feel for him.

I for one would not have hated Adrien for being a brat in Glaciator if they had acknowledged it as an actual problem and had him legitimately apologize. I would not have hated Adrien in Copycat if they had him admit to lying to Theo or at any point tell the truth to Ladybug that the blame was his rather than hers. I would not have hated Adrien for his lecture in Malediktor if he had acknowledged that Chloe had done some pretty rotten things, but yeah, throwing a PARTY is kind of much. I also would not have hated him in Chameleon for telling Marinette not to out Lila because it isn’t working, it’ll make her target them, and she already got akumatized just because Adrien asked her NICELY to pretty please stop lying to him. So I don’t get where this insistence is coming from that he has to be absolutely perfect with all of the genuinely poor choices he’s made being shown as “good things”.

That’s not to say I do hate Adrien now—because I don’t. I just don’t see where the incessant NEED to protect Adrien from negative consequences is coming from. If they had let Adrien be human and make mistakes, I for one would not hate him for it. No doubt some people would, but there will always be those. I can bet though that plenty more fans would be forgiving for it. And there would be a heck of a lot less salt for us to throw at him that would make people actually debate Felix being a better option simply because the writers wouldn’t be nearly as inclined to waste him in an attempt to coddle the character.

No offense, Felix.

#adrien salt #let adrien be wrong #adrien agreste #ml salt #miraculous ladybug #tales of ladybug and cat noir #analysis #ml analysis #adrien analysis #what could have been

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pl-panda · 3 years

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To Marry a Vigilante: Part 18

MASTERLIST || First || Previous || Next

To Marry a Vigilante: Part 18

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The akuma of the day turned out to be the editor-in-chief of the tabloid that tried to spin a story about Damian and Allegra. It might’ve had something to do with the fact that the Mayor’s office, Kane Industries, and Wayne Enterprises were going after his newspaper for libel and slander. The Printer was defeated by Pink Tigress, who was working with extreme prejudice that day. Ladybug arrived just in time to purify the akuma.

After it was all sorted out, the group retreated to Wayne Manor, where they met Chloé waiting for them.

“Good. You’re here. Now it’s time to plan a counter-attack.”

“What?” Marinette asked, surprised.

“Counter-attack on Erica and Lila. They practically declared war with that stunt!” Chloé raved on.

“Huh?” Damian was equally confused.

“Apparently, ‘The Printer’ was paid a rather large sum to have this article published without checking credibility. He did these things before.” She explained.

“So they actually started to play dirty?” The bluenette asked

“They didn’t!” Tim ran inside the cave, panting. “How in a hundred treadmills can you run so fast?!” He stared at the blonde.

“Puh-lease! I just used a short-cut.” She huffed. “One could think you accuse me of… physical training.” She made a disgusted face, but she was smirking.

“Tt. So did they attack us or not?” Damian scowled and started to sharpen his sword. Where he got the sword from was not important at that moment. Everyone long since gave up on trying to track all his hidden weapon stashes.

“They couldn’t. Neither has that amount of money. I traced it to a foreign account registered on Emma Rose Blake.”

Marinette’s eyes widened and she stumbled back as if the name slapped her. “ Adrien… ” she whispered.

“What!?” Damian was on his feet in an instant.

Sabine grasped her dagger before her expression turned soft and she walked to hug her daughter. “It’s okay, sweetie. You’re not alone.”

“I… Adrien snuck out once. He wanted to watch that movie that starred his mother. Solitude. ”

“I remember! That one threw a wrench in my search for a while.” Tim beamed.

“We stumbled upon each other and he took me with him…” She remembered and blushed lightly. “I only saw the intro, but from what I found out on the internet, his mother was the lead. Her character’s name was Emma. Rose. Blake.” She told each word separately, making sure they got the message.

“So that bastard thought he could get the two of you to break up?” Chloé asked. “Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! The two of you are the sweetest, most loyal couple in the whole of Gotham. And besides, the blasted spell wouldn’t let anything like that happen. We’ve seen the effects.”

“Tt. It does work both ways.” Damian’s face was twisted in a scowl. “And I reserve my right to skin the cat and feed him to sharks. I’m sure Penguin will let me borrow some.”

“I’m… not sure if you’re joking…” Tim stared at his brother, worried about his sanity.

“I’m not.” The youngest Wayne cut him off. “That flea-ridden alley-cat is intruding on my bond. My marriage. The league… It’s the single most sacred relation for the members of the league. For me.” He grabbed Marinette’s hand. “And he will suffer for trying to separate us.”

For a moment, Marinette stared at him, taken by surprise by his revelation. Then, she cuddled into his side.

“I’m not leaving.”

“I know.”

“Also,” Chloé decided to interrupt the cute moment, “you’re trending.” She showed them a video.

Marinette and Damian were standing on the table in the cafeteria, holding hands.

“...I trust Damian with my life. I’m his and he’s mine!” She declared. There was steel determination in her eyes, but also flame that burned bright.

“I’m hers and she’s mine.” Damian echoed. He had an identical expression on his face. They raised their joint hands before turning to one another and sharing a quick kiss. In the background, many people cooed at the romanticism of the scene. Then, a black butterfly sneaked through the window. Marinette looked at it and grasped it from the air. When she opened her hand, it was a mess.

“Not today, Hawkass Junior.” She seethed. Then, like a queen she was, she and two blondes by her side left the place among applause.

“Someone recorded it?!” She started blushing profoundly. Damian’s cheeks were also red.

“Tt. Who did that?”

“Claude.” Chloé smiled. “But that’s not the important part.”

“Then what is?” Sabine asked. “Also, I want a copy of that video.” In response, her phone vibrated.

“Maman?!” Marinette moaned.

“The ‘Not today, Hawkass Junior’ is breaking the records on Twitter and Tumblr.” She smiled. “You’ve become a sort of a hero today. MDC is now the designer. Jagged Stone went live and he spent five minutes doing nothing but praise you!”

“Only five minutes?” Damian asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Penny found him and dragged him by the ear from the screen. After that, it was only Fang posing before the camera.”

“That’s… That’s Jagged alright…” Mari giggled.

Damian only huffed.

Chloé’s phone vibrated and she opened the link. She laughed for a good two minutes before she was able to speak. “Mayor Kane... just declared... ‘Not today, Hawkass Jr.’ to be the official motto... of the campaign against his terror.”

“Can I make an MDC shirt with this?” The designer beamed. “I know! I’ll make a pillow! No! A…”

“You can make an entire collection, sweetie.” Sabine was grinning. “You’re the hero both in and out of the suit.” She cooed. “And you’re so cute! I’m totally sending this video to Sandra! And uncle Cheng! He’ll love it!”

“Maman!” Marinette moaned again, but she was smiling. She had people that wouldn’t abandon her.

--------

Two days later it was finally Saturday, which meant a bit of freedom from the kids at school. In hindsight, Marinette preferred it when she was not that popular. Of course, Chloé did what Chloé did best and worked her crowd control magic. She wasn’t constantly accosted at school. At least not by most. Maps made her into a personal hero of sorts.

Now though, it was Saturday, which served as an excuse to stay late in bed, spend the whole day with Damian before spending the evening watching cheesy movies with Chloé and her mom. It would be a perfect Saturday.

She got dressed in her favorite red dress, making sure to wrap the rope dart under the sash. It wouldn’t do to leave home without any means of self-defense. Not in Gotham at any rate. Her hair fell down her back and curled slightly. On her left wrist, she put a small gold bracelet with a single pearl. It was light and didn’t attract too much attention, but made her whole outfit stand out slightly. She paired it with high stockings and black ballet shoes with silver ribbons. After a thought, she picked a black glossy leather wristlet. Damian promised they would be going somewhere special.

When she got downstairs, he was already waiting, dressed in a semi-formal outfit. His suit was of course MDC original. He had dark trousers, a white shirt with the topmost two buttons open and a jacket with sleeves rolled to his elbows. All in all, it gave a bit of a roguish vibe, different from what he wore on most occasions. Marinette made sure he wore nothing but her creations. He tried to protest that it was too much work, or at least pay her something for it. She threatened she would forbid him from paying for anything for her. Damian made a mistake, arguing that she was living under his roof. Her response was to start calculating rent. He relented and allowed her to dress him up to her heart’s desire.

“Hello, Habibti.” He smiled at her.

“Damian! Will you tell me where we are going?” She hugged him.

“Not yet.” He said mysteriously. “We’re going somewhere special and I want to surprise you.”

“Daaaamiiii!” She tried again but to no avail.

“Tt. You hang out with Maps too much.”

“She’s cool.”

“She’s irritating.”

“That’s just because you’re not willing to give her a chance.”

“She thinks I’m Batman.” He huffed.

“Curious why.” Marinette retorted, smirking. “I’m sure the fact Robin led her for a gift hunt had nothing to do with it, am I right?”

“Tt. I admit nothing.” He tried, but a small smile made its way on his face. Curses! Why did she make him so mushy?

“I knew there was a heart somewhere deep inside.” She continued, smirking triumphantly.

“Don’t be ridiculous. All people have hearts.”

“Even Erica?”

“She’s not a person. She is just walking irritation.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Marinette said. They were walking down the road, bantering to and fro.

They arrived at the gate, where a sports car was waiting for them. Damian took the driver’s seat and pointed her to the shotgun. The car radio was playing the song they danced to during their dance-off. It was full of life and brought back some fond memories.

“Can I know where we are going now?” She begged.

“Not. Yet.” He said with a confident smirk. “You’ll love it though.”

“Fine.” She relented and remained in her seat. Marinette decided to focus on the sights outside the window.

They were driving through the city. She saw that the mayor wasted no time and ‘Not today, Hawkass jr.’ indeed became a city-wide slogan for the campaign about positive thinking. Marinette had a not-so-small suspicion that Chloé and Allegra had something to do with it. She wouldn’t put it past them to artificially boost the popularity until it exploded. Not that she complained that much. If it helped stop more akumas, she was all for it in fact.

Finally, the car pulled in front of the Gotham City History Museum. Or at least Marinette thought it was the museum, from the angle she couldn’t be sure. Before they got out, Damian handed her a blindfold.

“You’re joking?” She stared at him. “It’s a museum.”

“How did… Nevermind. I have a surprise for you.”

“Why would… No way!” She connected the dots. “But… But we didn’t do that much!”

Damian looked at her with a mixture of amazement and mirth. “I’m surprised Bourgeois didn’t share the news with you.”

“She was too busy hanging out with Cass yesterday.” She then got a pensive expression. “The two of them hit off better than I thought.”

“True. I’m disappointed with Cassandra, but alas.”

“No, you are not. You’re happy that she’s making friends.” Marinette countered with a smile.

“You have no proof.” He dropped the blindfold and got out. “Come on or we’ll miss it.”

In response, Marinette put on her sunglasses and also got out. On both walls of the museum, there were giant posters of Ladybug and Black Cat in their heroic poses. He was standing straight on the dark background, with both hands on the baton that served him as a cane. He was looking left, toward the Ladybug poster. He looked serious and a bit intimidating. Ladybug on the other hand was smiling and overlooking all the passers-by. They’ve used her new suit, for which she was eternally grateful. Marinette would probably burn in shame if they decided to stick with the original.

Inside, Damian led her through the entrance, showing the tickets. They went straight to the Superhero hall, which previously was called just Bat-hall. Marinette was feeling a whirlwind of emotions. She remembered the statue unveiling back in Paris, but it was after months of activity. Here, Gotham accepted two more heroes after a few weeks. Granted, Hawkmoth jr. was much more persistent and his akumas more destructive (plus they had even worse fashion sense), but Marinette still didn’t consider herself special enough.

Reporters from various newspapers crowded around the podium on which stood Mayor Kane. Allegra was by her side. When the young blonde spotted them, she winked at them and smirked. Marinette waved to her in response while Damian guided her toward the front row. He was a Wayne. He didn’t settle for anything else.

The ceremony was lovely and Mayor Kane spoke kindly about the new heroes. Not once she broached the subject of their age. The statue itself was tall, with all three Miraculous users standing side by side, Ladybug in the center, and slightly forward. After that was done and the mayor answered some questions, Damian prodded her slightly and the two snuck out unnoticed. He led her toward the back and onto the stairs that led to the rooftop and the couple was away from the prying eyes. They walked up and opened another set of doors that led them outside.

The day was a bit chilly, but several heaters placed on the rooftop made it feel perfect for how they were dressed. In the center, there was a blanket with a picnic basket and a small heat-isolated container next to it.

“Damian!” Marinette giggled when he hugged her from behind and nuzzled into her neck.

“A surprise.” He whispered.

“But… How… Why… And on the rooftop?” She gave him a questioning look.

“Heaters needed a power source.” He answered before leading her to the blanket. “And it was closest to the previous attraction.”

When they sat, cuddled together, the boy pulled a small box of strawberries. Marinette immediately snatched it from him and tasted it first. She practically melted at the taste. Seeing the look of betrayal on his face, she smirked and picked another.

“No.” He protested when she put it before his mouth.

“Come on Dami. A plane needs to land.” She kept smirking. Damian tried to keep his dignity, but ultimately he gave up and allowed her to feed him. “See? It wasn’t that hard.”

“Not a word of this to anyone.” He grumbled. “I have a reputation to uphold.”

“Okay… Only Chloé and Allegra.” She giggled at the horrified look on her husband’s face.

Deciding to change the subject as fast as possible, Damian asked “Did you like the statue?”

His wife beamed. “It was amazing. I showed you the one in Paris. I mean that one is okay too, but this was actually much better! It acknowledges not only me but all three of us. We are a team and I want us to be represented as such. And did you notice that they actually replicated the tail behind you fluttering?”

“It was indeed adequate work.” He replied, reserved as usual.

They sat in peace for a bit more, with Marinette occasionally feeding Damian a strawberry. They didn’t really need to speak, instead just enjoying the monotonous sound of cars before the museum and relaxing with each other’s embrace.

Feeling a bit mischievous, Marinette tapped Damian’s shoulder and made him turn to look at her. As soon as their eyes met, she leaned and fed him another strawberry. Except this time instead of holding it with her hand, she was holding half of it in her mouth. This, of course, led to two of them kissing. Both of their lips tasted like strawberries.

It wasn’t a long or passionate kiss, but it was still full of love.

When they broke, Damian had a funny expression on his face and Marinette giggled. He shrugged and pulled a thermos from the container, pouring both of them a cup of hot chocolate each (together with marshmallows).

Damian regaled her of some of the tales about his great detective skills and how often he saved the day. She kept giggling and pointing out obvious mistakes, to which he huffed good-naturedly. He tried to stay away from subjects related to the League of Assassins and his childhood, but Marinette coaxed some stories out of him, careful not to prod too much. She respected his decision to leave it behind, but at the same time, she wanted to understand him. In the end, they just laid on the blanket cuddled together, with all the sweets consumed.

“Damian… I love you.” She nuzzled into the crook of his neck.

“Yes. You told me that at the airport. And several times after.” His logical brain responded before emotions took reins and he continued. “I love you too.”

“But I feel like it was always in response to something you said. I wanted to tell you that from myself. I love you.” She cuddled closer to him and he hugged her.

“ Habibti, ” he whispered.

“ Mon chéri, ” she answered.

After some more cuddling and looking at how the evening sun slowly set behind the monumental towers of central Gotham, Damian finally untangled himself from Marinette and got up. He helped her on her feet and turned the heaters off.

“It’s time to go. We have two more places to visit.” He informed her and led her down to the museum proper. They snuck out of the staircase and joined one of the trips unnoticed, before leaving the building and avoiding anyone seeing them. It was fun to do teenage things sometimes.

-----------

Their next stop was a small Italian restaurant that was out of the way and mostly empty. Damian had a table reserved there and made sure to pick one that was out of the way, in the corner that overlooked the whole place. What Marinette didn’t know was that he paid to have the tables next to them kept empty.

They settled on a vegetarian lasagne with grilled swiss cheddar, spinach, and ricotta. Marinette wasn’t a vegetarian herself but after their little picnic, they wouldn’t fit two separate dishes. She enjoyed the tastes Damian introduced her to since they met each other. Especially (to Plagg’s delight and Tikki’s mirth), she loved the various cheeses that he exposed her to. While she sometimes still ate meat, it happened more and more seldom. Alfred’s cooking was on par with her uncle’s.

Their discussion was much lighter now that they weren’t entirely alone. She smiled when he accidentally referenced Game of Thrones. He tried to deny it but in the end, he had to confess or people would think he knew what a ‘meme’ was. That was humiliation beyond what he could survive.

“...I’m just saying that if it’s a bit strange that Allegra and Claude always disappear together.” She finished her speech.

“Tt. As if my cousin would lower herself to dating the clown.” He huffed.

“I didn’t say they’re dating. It’s just that for at least two weeks now they kept slipping away.”

“You’re imagining things, Habibti.” He dismissed her concern.

“Okay, but what about Felix and Jon? They also run aw… ay…” She suddenly froze when a large group of people pushed their way into the restaurant. On the front, Lila and Alya were guiding them right to where the couple was sitting.

Marinette heard Damian curse under his breath before suddenly everything was enveloped by thick, black smoke. She felt someone grab her wrist and pull her into a nearby door. They found themselves in the kitchen, Damian leading her between working cooks. Marinette saw how he pulled a phone from his pocket and texted the restaurant owner. He also paid double for the trouble with the smoke bomb. Luckily, the owner apparently understood the need for a quick getaway. The class on the other hand would be in for a rude awakening.

“That was close…” Marinette sighed in relief.

“Tt. I should’ve challenged them to a duel for interrupting us.” Her husband scowled.

“I told you no killing.”

“They would survive… probably.”

“Still. Now, where is that secret birthday party supposed to be?” She had a hard time keeping a straight face when he choked on his own saliva and stared at her with wide eyes.

“It was Claude?” He asked harshly.

“Of course not. Did you really think I would forget my birthday?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You did forget Christmas.” He pointed out. This time, it was Damian’s turn to try and not show any reaction to how she started spluttering.

“That… I… But… It… We… It was something completely different!” She finally shouted.

“Whatever you say, Habibti. As for the party… Let’s go. They should be ready by now.”

------

Chloé was running around the club they rented for the evening. She was doing at least seven things at once, but that wasn’t important. She needed the party to be perfect. She already made sure that all guests were in place and she was now fixing some of the decorations that were not to her liking. She had trouble balancing all the things she was holding and placing them one by one. Then, someone took the weight from her.

“Maybe I can help?”

“Thank you Maribear…” Then, Chloé’s brain registered. “Maribear!?”

“Surprise!” The bluenette cheered.

“How?!” The blonde jumped back, startled.

“Tt. She blackmailed me.” Damian grumbled from behind his wife.

“Um… With what exactly?” Tim walked from his hiding place. The rest of the guests followed through.

“Now. It wouldn’t be effective blackmail if I told you, right?” Mari turned and looked at him with a smirk on her face.

“True. Happy birthday, sweetie!” Sabine was suddenly behind her daughter, Chloé, and Damian. She managed to startle all three of them.

“Maman! Don’t scare us like that!”

“Payback’s nice.” Her mother and Chloé responded at the same time.

“They got you there, Angel.” Damian decided to repay her for the blackmail.

“Hey! You’re supposed to take my side!” She giggled. “Besides, it’s my birthday.”

“I’ll try to remember next time.”

With that, the party started.

-------

Masterlist // Next

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zoequeenz · 4 years

Text

Extreme Aggressor (Part 3)

MASTERLIST

PREVIOUS CHAPTER

Persephone Chase’s POV

Derek is trying to get into the laptop. He’s been trying for a while, nothing is working so he brought in another laptop to try to get into Richard’s. I hear footsteps and I turn around, Gideon, Elle, Hotch, and Spencer enter the room.

“Okay, here we go.” Derek says.

The laptop hums and the login screen pops back up.

“What’s the number six at the bottom of the screen?” Elle asked Derek.

“Number of password attempts before the program wipes the hard drive.” Derek answers.

“There could be an email or a journal in the computer, something that tells us where Heather is. Do you think you can break in?” Elle asks.

“In six tries?” Derek says in disbelief scoffing and shaking his head.

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Gideon says.

Derek doesn’t know what that means and looks at Spencer.

“Samuel Beckett.” Spencer answers with a nod.

Then Derek answers back with.

“Try not. Do. Or do not.”

Before Spencer could answer I say…

“Yoda.”

Spencer looked at me in shock. I smirked at him. If he can’t recall every Saturday night we have movie marathon sleepovers. We watch movie series and he answers all of my questions. Gideon turns and looks at a small shelf on the wall. He reaches out and grabs a book. He looks at it for a second, it is called “Journal of Applied Criminal Psychology”. He flips through the pages and finds a newspaper clipping. The headline reads “-BLAST KILLS SIX”. The photo under it pictures Gideon and another man. It was back six months ago, when six agents died. Spencer finally looks over at it, Gideon and Spencer look at each other and Gideon says…

“I wanna talk to him.”

He closes the book and walks out of the room. After he leaves Derek and Elle look up from the laptop.

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Jason Gideon’s POV

I walk into the kitchen and throw the book down on the table. I taken the seat across from him.

“You read my paper. Learn anything?” I ask Richard.

“Heirens said a man living inside of his head was the one who committed the murders. You said he was lying, that there’d never been an actual case of multiple personalities.” Richard answers.

“You have an academic interest in dissociative identity disorder, or you just planning your defense?” I ask.

He chuckles in response. I pull out the newspaper clipping and show Richard.

“You a fan of Adrien Baal’s work?” I ask him

“No. I’m a fan of yours,” He says leaning forward.

“You know...they never give you the real facts about CPR...that outside of a hospital, it’s only effective 7% of the time. Your friend had a 93% certainty of dying, but you kept trying...even after you’d broken his ribs, even after his blood was all over your hands.”

“Why don’t you tell us where Heather Woodland is?” I ask him ignoring what he just said and keeping eye contact.

“Woodland...isn’t she the girl who went missing a couple days ago?” Slessman asks sitting back in his chair not showing any emotion on his face.

I just nod in response. I look around the room, I see a sign that says “Good little boys are like sunshine.” then a cookie jar that reads “Cookies for Good Boys Only.”

“Get him out of here.” I demand in a whisper like voice.

I walk out of the kitchen and past Hotch giving him a look that says follow me. He walks out and meets me at the side of the house. I am trying to calm myself but it is not working.

“Hey.” Hotch says to grab my attention and I turn to him.

“He said “isn’t she the girl…”. If he’d already killed her, he would have said--.” before I can finish Hotch cuts me off.

“Wasn’t she the girl…”

“She’s alive. We don’t know for how long.” I tell him.

“Is it true what he said about CPR? I mean, I didn’t know.” Hotch tells me.

“You want statistics on CPR, ask Reid.” I snap.

“I wanna know if you’re okay.” he fires back.

“I’m fine.” I say.

“Are you?” he questions.

“Think I can’t do the job?” I ask.

“I think you can’t be two different people at once.” he tells me.

I look away and smile realizing something. “What is it?” Hotch asks me.

“Conflicts in the profile.” I answer.

In my mind I remember the interview; the victim board with Heather on it; other victims crime scene photos; the second dump site; the unsub near the body, turning then running away; the messages; the message that matched the “Lipstick Killer”; the funeral; the child who looked at me; people walking on the sidewalk; the first victim with the belt around her neck; odd photos; a close up of an eye; a map that was labeled and stickered; Slessman walking down the stairs; and lastly sitting across from me.

“Two different behaviors.” Hotch says for me.

“Two different people. There’s a second killer.” I say.

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Elle Greenaway’s POV

Hotch, Gideon, and I are at a government building.I walk behind them as we walk down stairs, god why do they have to be so freakin fast.

“A second Unsub?” I ask surprised.

“It’s not unusual. Remember Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris?” Gideon answers.

“1979. They outfitted a van to rape and murder girls in California.” I say.

“We’re looking for someone who fits a similar relationship.” Hotch says.

“They’re not equals. Slessman’s smart, but he is a submissive personality.” Gideon tells us. “So number two is the dominant.” I clarify.

“Authoritative, arrogant.” Gideon adds in.

“Probably not as smart as Slessman.’ Hotch brings to the table.

“He’s like the schoolyard bully recruiting a good underling--he’ll be protective of Richard. He’ll make him feel like he owes him.” Gideon says.

“If Richard’s been up in the attic fantasizing about being an extreme aggressor, this guy showed him how to do it.” Hotch informs.

“He helped him take the first step.” Gideon pushes.

“I think we should interview him, us this as pressure.” I suggest.

Gideon stops and looks at me.

“No, no. We need leverage. A name.” Gideon says.

“ From the suspect list?” I ask.

“That’ll take too long. There’s gotta be a faster way.” Gideon wonders.

“There is.” Hotch says.

He leads us into the lobby. Richard’s grandma is waiting there, I can’t help but feel a bit bad for her. She just found out that her grandson is a suspect in murders and she can barely breathe on her own. She looks for fragile, so tiny.

Hotch comes in with a cup of coffee.

“Here. This might be a little hot.” He warns her.

“Mrs. Slessman, I don’t think we’ve got the right guy. I think the person we’re looking for might be a friend of Richard’s.” Hotch tells her.

“Richard never had many friends.” she tells him.

“You sure? There’s gotta be someone.” Hotch responds.

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Persephone Chase’s POV

We still can’t get into the laptop, we’ve been here for hours and even boy genius can’t get it. Spencer walked out of the room a long time ago and I haven’t seen him since. I miss him, it’s weird not having him around.On cases we go everywhere together, we maybe in the same house but I have absolutely no idea which room he is currently located. I look over at Derek and see him pull out his phone. I already know he is calling Penny a.k.a Penelope Garcia. She is the Technical Analyst for our team.

“You’ve reached Penelope Garcia in the FBI’s ‘Office of Supreme Genius’. Penny greets.

“Hey, it’s Morgan. Need you to work some magic here. I got a program called Deadblot Defense and a girl with only a couple of hours to live, so what do you know?” Derek asks Penny.

“Then you’ve got a problem. Deadbolot’s the number one password crack-resistant software out there. You’re gonna have to get inside this guy’s head to get the password.” Penny tells him.

“I thought I was calling the ‘Office of Supreme Genius’” Derek says in a disappointed tone.

“Well, gorgeous, you’ve been rerouted to the office of ‘Too Friggin’ Bad’” Penny told him.

“Thanks anyway.” Derek says about to hang up but then he does the unthinkable.

“Babygirl it seems as if boy genius and little one are fighting.” Derek tells her.

I look at him with a glare that would put him six feet under. He looks my way and laughs. This is some big game to him. Plus Spencer and I are not fighting, he held my hand when I got nervous. But then again he did that back when we got in a fight a while back he still held my hand because I’m always in need of comfort from my best friend. He puts her on speaker phone.

“Wait, what?!?! Fighting but they are meant to be.” Penny cries.

“I know right, they are in separate rooms at the moment. They can’t stare at each other anymore then look away when the other looks at them.” Derek says dramatically.

“Alright, alright I get it we are “perfect” together. But there is no romantic feelings between us.” I tell them.

Of course I’m lying. I have always had feelings for Spencer. He has always been there for me, even when we are fighting he still is there. Everyone thinks we would be cute together but I think he only thinks of me as sister. I love the boy but he doesn’t love me.

“Haha very funny little one but there is totally some romance between you two, you just can’t see it.” Derek laughs.

“Yeah Sweetheart it doesn’t take a profiler to see that you two are meant to be.” Penny says in a serious tone.

“Whatever, I don’t care how much you believe there is nothing between us.” I say.

“Okay, believe what you want little one, bye babygirl.” Derek says hanging up the phone.

“REALLY?!?!” I scream at Derek.

“Little One, come on everyone knows there is some feelings there. Why are you getting so mad.” Derek asks.

I just roll my eyes and walk out of the room. I love Derek like a brother but sometimes he can get on my nerves. Kinda wish that I went with Elle, Gideon, and Hotch. Where is Spencer? This house isn’t even that big, where could he be? I walk outside, I need to think…

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Jason Gideon’s POV

Hotch was interviewing Mrs. Slessman. We needed some information about Richard that he didn’t plan on telling us.

“Well, there was...there was this one young man. I think his name was Charlie.” Mrs. Slessman told Hotch.

“Cross-reference Charlie for the second Unsub.” I told Elle and she begins typing.

“Charlie is probably Charles Linder. He was Slessman’s cellmate and received a dishonorable discharge from the military.” Elle says pointing to the screen.

“He’s bigger, tougher. He could have protected Richard in prison. Where were they incarcerated?” I ask her after explaining that he is the dominant one in the relationship.

“Cascadia. Less than a mile from here.” Elle says with a smile on her face.

“Let’s go.” I say walking out of the office.

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Persephone Chase’s POV

I follow Derek into the bathroom after my failed attempt of looking for Spencer. When I look back at Derek I see him open the mirror. He pulls out a bottle and shows it to me.

“My name is Richard Slessman, and I have trouble sleeping.” Derek says out loud to no one.

We then walk into Richard’s room. I think I know what’s going on here. Derek is putting himself in Richard’s shoes. Derek lays flat on Richard’s bed and sighs.

“Okay. What do I do when I’m trying to sleep.” Derek asks again to no one.

He reaches up into a cubbyhole above Richard’s bed. He pulls out a lot of CDs; he then finds a portable CD player and headphones. He looks for a CD in the player but there is none. He then looks my way and notices I’m standing next to a CD rack. Oh joy we get to go through that now. Yippe. He then walks over to me.

“Persephone, guys, a little help. We’re going through everyone of these Cds--scratches, wear and tear. I wanna know which CD he plays the most. Let’s go.”He commands.

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Spencer Reid’s POV

Hotch has me looking for an address for Linder. I hear footsteps and I already know it’s Hotch.

“We get an address on Linder?” Hotch asks.

“It’s coming right now.” I answer.

I look at the fax printout while Hotch hands something to the agent sitting at the desk.

“Does senior management want a field assessment on Gideon?” I ask.

“Don’t worry about it.” Hotch tells me quietly.

“Are they nervous about him being in charge?” I ask Hotch.

“Aren’t you on your way back to Slessman’s house to help Morgan and Chase?” He asks me.

He then turns to walk away but before he can get far I ask…

“Do you know why he always introduces me as Dr. Reid?”

He then comes towards me.

“Because he knows that people see you as a kid, and he wants to make sure that they respect you. What’s the address?” Hotch asks with a sympathetic look on his face.

“Don’t think it matters anymore.” I say showing him the paper which causes him to sigh.

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Elle Greenaway’s POV

Gideon and I went to the prison. We are on the lookout for someone who may know Slessman or Linder.

“Winston Churchill said, “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you will see.”

Gideon and I walk up to the warden to see if he can give us any information. Just as I get a phone call from Hotch.

“Anyone who can tell us more about Slessman?” Gideon asks.

“Tim Vogel was the security guard covering Slessman’s block. That’s him over there. I’ll get him for you.”the wardens says walking in Vogel’s direction.

“That was Hotch. Linder’s name came up on a police report.” I tell Gideon.

“And?”He asks waiting for me to finish.

“He’s dead--car accident, two months ago.” I finish.

“Linder is dead.” I say to clarify.

We then head down to talk to Vogel.

“Too bad you guys came here for nothing. I mean, talk about scum. I can’t remember how many times I put Linder in solitary for causing trouble with us.” Vogel says while taking out his keys and opening the door.

“You’d think the inmates would try to stay on our good side, right? Especially since half our job is protecting them from each other.” he says in a kind of annoyed tone.

“You protect them?” Gideon asks in a curious tone.

“If you’re a little white guy? Especially in a prison like this.” Vogel says making a point.

“Linder’s 6’4”. You talking about Slessman?” Gideon asks.

“Oh, yeah.” Vogel says nodding.

Gideon and I share a look.

“Thanks for your help.” Gideon says ending the conversation.

“We look at Vogel and notice when he uses his key to unlock and open doors. It took us awhile but we eventually got out of the prison.

“He befriended Richard, protected him, made him feel like he owed him.” Gideon speaks.

“He fits the profile. And did you see them?” I ask.

“The keys.” Gideon answers.

(Time Skip)

We are in the car waiting for Vogel when all of a sudden a red Datsun Z comes out of the parking lot. I take after the car and Gideon gets on the phone to call Hotch. “Hotch, I just found your leverage. His name is Timothy Vogel.”

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Aaron Hotchner’s POV

I enter the observation room or the room on the other side of the one way glass and lower the room’s temperature.

“What’s he doing?” asked the male agent.

“Lowering the temp. The cold puts them on edge.” the female agent responded.

“Okay, so I want SPD, and I want a Seattle agent in the room. I want him to see that we’ve got every department working on this. And I need some file boxes. Fill them. I don’t care if the paper’s blank. And I want you to write the name on the sides.” I command leaving the room but not before I hear the male agent ask…

“Whose name?”

I enter the interview room carrying the fake file box. Other agents follow me inside also carrying file boxes.

“Four months of investigative work, one file, and guess what, Richard. It’s not your file. See, we don’t care about you.” I say pushing the box towards Richard.

He looks at it and reads Vogel’s name. He looks shocked and scared, we got him.

“It’s Vogel we want.”

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Persephone Chase’s POV

Spencer was finally back from wherever he went and he came to help Derek and I. Spencer and I are currently in Richard’s room looking through the CDs. Spencer is sitting crossed legged and my head is on his left leg. We have been looking through CD cases for hours and I am so bored but it’s my job I don’t have a choice. Spencer picks up a CD fiddles with it as he thinks. Then he gets that cute little look on his face telling me he figured something out. He pats my arm to tell me to move. I pull my head off his leg and he stands up. He begins to head out the door but not before he gives me the “you coming” look, I get up and follow him to wherever he is going. I follow him to the attic where Morgan is pacing and muttering to himself.

“Aw, c’mon. I need a password. I need a password.” he pauses then looks around.

“What could I possibly be looking for?” he asks himself.

Spencer then enters the attic with me following behind. Carrying an open paper clip. Derek sits down then sighs.

“I’ve been thinking about the CDs.” Spencer tells him.

“Oh, Reid,come on. We tried the CDs. We searched,sifted, and sorted through everyone of this guy’s head-banging heavy metal collection. We gotta find something, of this girl is dead.” Derek says in an aggravated tone.

“Derek why don’t you let him explain then judge what ever happens.” I say trying to show that Spencer may have a good idea.

All the while Spencer was getting to work with the paper clip and fiddling with the laptop.

“Think we may have missed the obvious.” Spencer tells us.

“What are you doing?” Derek asks.

Spencer pulls out the CD holder and finds a Metallica CD inside.

“Reid, what made you think of this?” Derek asks in an impressed tone.

“It was the only empty case.” he says showing Derek the case. “All right. I’m an insomniac who listens to Metallica to go to sleep at night. What song could possibly speak to me?” Derek asks us.

“Enter Sandman.” Spencer says getting up and walking over to me.

“I’m proud to call you my best friend Spency.” I say while throwing my arm over his shoulder.

“Me too, Percy.” he smiles.

“Okay, I think you too are cute but come on Spency and Percy?” Derek laughs. I roll my eyes and sit down somewhere away from Derek; Spencer came over.

“How did you come up with Spency?” he asks me. “I’m not really sure. When you were frying your brain figuring out what to do before we came up here I thought of nicknames and liked Spency the best.” I say.

He just smiles at me. But when he smiled I got butterflies in my stomach. I guess my feelings were stronger than I thought because I’ve never felt this way towards any guy I’ve ever dated of course they were all douches but not Spencer.

NEXT CHAPTER

#criminal minds #criminal minds series rewrite #spencer reid #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x OC #criminal minds imagine #spencer reid series #best friends with a genius profiler

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