Chapter Text
The ex-Mrs Agreste; now just plain Marinette Dupain-Cheng again was sitting at a table inside her parents' bakery; her childhood home as she feasted upon the cake that her parents had made. She had to win a small not major argument with her parents just to get them to concede and let her buy the cake as a paying customer instead of just it being on the house. She thought how it was one year today the divorce was finalised between her and Adrien.
She mused about how the marriage was what she wanted as a teenager as she crushed hard on Adrien to an unhealthy degree and the reality was that it wasn't the fairy tale marriage that she and her friends and loved ones expected. All that time plotting and scheming and the marriage turned rocky and unhealthy and she was the first one out of her friends and her now ex-husband to realise that they were just not compatible.
Marinette almost jumped when she saw entering through the in-dining area was Luka Couffaine who was now a rock star. "You come here during your time off tour?" Marinette asked with a hint of amusement while eyeing how even more handsome that he had become. The two keeping in contact by messages and video chats through the years and poor him had to hear about how her marriage was becoming rockier and becoming less tolerant of her husband's flaws and initially the first to support her when she decided on the divorce. He like her parents were shocked but decided to be behind her when she firmly made it clear that she had thought it through and thought it was the best case.
"Saw you through the window and wondered how you were getting on since I know what today marks one year on." Luka said as Marinette sighed slowly nodding.
"Decided that I needed the day to reflect in a comfortable place and pretty much told the office that my decision was final; that as owner of the brand and their boss there was nothign that could be done to stop me. I am well ahead of scheduled designs and meetings anyway." Marinette replied and thinking about how successful she had become running MDC Fashion and did her best to remain humble and not have a swell big head like her deceased ex-father in law...
Uh... The less she thought about him, the better...
"Well anything changed lately?" Luka decided to ask and Marinette put up a smile.
"Alya and the girls have come to terms with it and we have fixed things through..." Marinette thought thinking that they certainly didn't make things easy.
They all married young and Marinette thought that in retrospect it might have been a mistake on her part even if the others were happy with their marriages. Marinette tried to confide in Alya about problems with her marriage to Mrs Alya Lahiffe but she kept thinking that she was worrying about little things as she had before and brushed it off saying that she just needed to talk things over with Adrien or see about counselling. Alya wanted to tease Marinette about when she would be expecting and gave hints about Marinette and Adrien naming their first daughter Alya Agreste.
All of their school friends were still close even if they had to meet up in advance now or settle with calls and messages; a lot were thinking about Marinette being a bit melodramatic and didn't believe her about thinking pursuing divorce. It only finally dawned on them that Marinette was serious when Adrien informed them that Marinette had actually hired a divorce lawyer.
They tried to convince her otherwise; especially since Adrien was dealing with stress about the allegations of his late father which was affecting the business, the pressure from the company board and so they wanted to fix things so that Marinette could help stand by Adrien's side over this.
"That's good and you any contact with Adrien... Sorry..." Luka then asked and looked apologetic but Marinette put her hand up with a smile.
"It's fine... I messaged him this morning and he is rebuilding his life... He accepted what he had to learn and is seeing on improving and rebuilding his life... I want nothing but the best for him." Marinette said as the case against Gabriel reached to a boiling point when the board had Adrien do a live press conference with a pre-prepared statement written by them to try and do damage control for the brand as well as say that the discussions about the 'alleged divorce' are still ongoing.
Adrien had actually ripped it apart before going out and made his own statement about his father not being who he thought he was and probably all the statements made against him were accurate and he will be working to compensate his victims as well since he learned that his father was worse than they all could imagine: he revealed that he found out that he was Hawk Moth all along and would be posting video evidence in his father's old logs which lit the news world in Paris.
Adrien sold off the family manor and his stocks off the Gabriel brand and would be moving away to start anew; having accepted the divorce and would be rebuilding his life. A more public outcry against Gabriel than ever before and the vandalised Gabriel statue was demolished and Mayor Bustier put out a statement that no charges would be pressed against the vandals and that the statue would not be replaced. All memorials of Gabriel Agreste would be removed and anything in his name done by the city.
Adrien didn't burn bridges with the board over this; it was more likely that he had incinerated the bridges. They cursed him and the brand founder as they had to sell off the stock and and shares for such a low price that you would hardly believe that it was for what used to be the top fashion brand in Paris once upon a time. The brand was folded into another company and destroyed what was left of the Gabriel Agreste legacy.
It was now MDC Fashion and Marinette Dupain-Cheng who held the fame and prestige that Gabriel once had.
"Good for Mr Adrien Grassette!" Luka using Adrien's legally changed name to go for his father's birth surname and if Marinette had a drink then she would toast to that.
Marinette sighed and wondered how she would say this; "Listen Luka... How badly I was able to try and fix our old relationship... It's unfair and we were teens but I remember being much happier than I actually was with Adrien and... This is so unfair and I wanted to wait for time for the divorce settle because I didn't want a rebound relationship... This is isn't fair for you but... You had time to get over me and... Why does this feel like I am a teenager again..." Marinette was close to screaming but Luka got her hand to calm her and gave her a small smile.
"How about we go for dinner tonight..." Luka suggested and Marinette gave a warm smile.
In another timeline the enganged Marinette was sighing looking at her phone in a karaoke bar; the news of the arrest of Adrien Agreste who had taken over his father as the new Hawk Moth. The bitter angry look on his face as he was handcuffed; she shook her head but her fiancé Luka helped her up as it was her turn to sing. He helped her as she sang Dead Girl Girl Walking from Heathers the Musical.
Ladybug surrounded by her team of Miraculous heroes was sighing sadly as she was holding the Cat Miraculous ring in her hand watching the defeated Gabriel Agreste being forcibly sent into a police car looking furious; Hawk Moth finally defeated but she was not in the celebratory mood that the crowd gathered was. Being arrested with him was her collaborators and minions: Nathalie Sancoeur, Lila Rossi, Chloe Bourgeois and most heart breaking of all of the heroes Adrien Agreste who it turned out found out who his father was and decided to join him after learning his motives.
Ladybug turned to Viperion but his encouraging look made her feel better and then the faces of her superhero allies/friends and they would get through this together.
Years later the ex-Mrs Agreste smiled in her wedding dress as she was declared the wife of Luka Couffaine; her now father in law as well as her husband's best name Jagged Stone making a scene about how excited and happy he was but they found it funny. Not that her own father was that much better with how excited he was.
"What are you thinking sis?" Bridgette asked her sister Marinette as they were playing a fighting game together as she was in thought which was distracting her from the game.
"Just thinking about knowing how Bunnyx had messed with the timeline several times.... You think that I would have still ended up with Luka if she didn't keep changing anything that she didn't like?" Marinette asked and Bridgette thought about it and shrugged.
"I bet you two lovebirds would always find a way to get back to eachother.... You two are great together like me and Zoe if you can excuse me being boastful...." Bridgette answered and Marinette thought about it and decided that her sister was right. Now to focus on showing Bridgette who the true fighting game Champion in the family is....