Chapter Text
“Let’s get this out of the way. What the fuck?!” Adrien nearly screamed.
“Why am I so short?!” Mullo exclaimed, using her newly formed human hands to feel her newly formed human face.
“Clearly, you’re and adult or at least a teenager.” Plagg pointed to Mullo’s chest, which carried quite the size.
“Then why am I shorter than Marinette?! She’s only like five three! I’m probably as tall as Sabine or something!”
“‘My mom just has those genes, doesn’t make her any less adult’. Yeah whatever!” Mullo exclaimed, throwing her human arms into the air. “And also my voice...it’s high, but not as cartoony..Oo! I sound more like an adult!” She cheered, doing a small in-place dance. “But why the fuck am I in this? This is like an old Chinese dress. I want something modern. Like pants or something.”
“Looks like we’ll be taking this little lady to the store.” Adrien rested an elbow on a very unamused Mullo’s head. When she moved, he toppled over, crashing on the floor. Marinette laughed mostly silently, and Luka laughed aloud.
“She still makes noise?” Plagg raises a tiny kwami eyebrow.
“Just hardly. She can’t form words.” Mullo school her head.
Luka scooped Adrien off the ground, standing him up straight.
“Marinette says we should probably get leaving, and I agree. No time to wait for food.” Mullo translated once more.
“Alright gang. I’ll pay Alix for the meal and tell her she and the other employees can’t just eat it since they’ve already started, our treat.” Adrien opened the door after speaking, all four humans walking out. They just barely made it out of the bathroom when Alix walked up to them.
“Hey, I was just passing and..well who’s the girl?”
“Oh uh...me? I’m Mul-“
“Lissa! Her name is Melissa. Told you Mel, no introducing yourself with silly nicknames.” Adrien chuckled, nervousness painting it.
“You didn’t come here with her.” Alix pointed out.
“I met up with them!” Mullo quickly answered.
“I didn’t see you enter. Unless you entered before I came which was five hours ago.”
“What can I say? I love...salad?”
“No way dude! You’ve been here for five hours? For real?” Alix laughed.
“Y-Yes! Mostly in the bathroom um..” she glanced back at Marinette, then to Alix once more. “Lady stuff....” she whispered. “I’m just visiting and I was already here so I thought I’d wait at this place cause it’s a long walk!...”
“Yep! Gonna get this little lady back home now. Just kinda babysitting while she’s here!”
“I am older than you by a lot of years!” Mullo snapped. “Seriously were you even listening?!” She whispered.
“I’m proud to say I was not.”
“Adrien!”
“I was busy panicking!”
“What the hell is going on here?” Alix laughed.
“Melissa is Into roleplaying games. She likes to treat everything like one.” Luka fibbed calmly. “She’s Marinette’s little cousin.”
“I’m older than her! Than all of you actually blueberry!” Mullo snapped.
Luka chuckled again. “Haha,haha..aaano she’s not.”
Marinette scooped up Mullo, starting towards the door. Luka ran after her.
Adrien pulled out a one hundred dollar bill, and a twenty, slapping it into Alix’s hand. “Take our meals as a treat, turns out we’ve really got to get going.”
Alix nodded. “O-Oka-“
Adrien ran off before she could finish her sentence.
Alix sighed. “We live in Paris where a man in a butterfly suit attacked us for six years with magical butterflies. I’ve seen weirder.”
///
“After this, no more public appearances.” Adrien orders. The group was walking down the street, about to enter a nearby clothing store.
“Gonna speak for Marinette. ‘I could just make you clothes Mullo’. Oh but you don’t have to do that! I don’t want you to use your time on me. Rich boy can buy me some.”
“Hey!” Adrien objected.
“‘No it’s fine, Mullo. Really! I love to sew!’ Aw, I know that. You can make me some clothes. But I do want to look around in the store at least. We’re right here! ‘Ah, okay. And I think she should be allowed in public, Adrien. It’s not like Fu will know it’s her if he sees her.’” Mullo spoke again.
“But his kwami can sense other kwamis..” Luka glanced to the side.
“Well I’m not a kwami right now. I’m a human. So fuck you.”
“Jesus Christ! When did you get the attitude?! You were so polite earlier!” Adrien threw his arms out in front of him.
“I mean, not particularly. I just didn’t let my attitude show.” She gave a wink.
“Whatever. We get in, we get out, me and Luka get home and we discuss this in the morning.”
Mullo raised her finger up in the air, pausing. “No I’m not saying that. No! No! Marinette no, no I’m not asking them-I know you have a phone and can text! What am I the boss of you Well I should be! I’m older than you by like sixteen trillion years!” Mullo sighed. “She wants to sleep over tonight.”
This took both Adrien and Luka by surprise. They hadn’t prepared for someone to come over. Especially not Marinette.
“Sure.” Adrien answered.
Luka was going to protest, but didn’t due to fear of it seeming like he didn’t want Marinette over. He most certainly did, but not when there was a pile of sex toys in a recently used and uncleared bed. What the hell was Adrien thinking?! I mean Marinette knew the two were sexually intimate. It was kinda a given. But it just kinda seemed indecent on their part to have her to walk in on that type of set up.
“Okay, translation. ‘Thank you! This is just a really big shock, and it’s kinda a the three of us thing. For at least the first twenty four hours, we should work on this together.’ Eh. She’s not wrong.” Mullo shrugged. “Let’s not waste time. As you would say.”
///
Marinette had fallen asleep on the couch as soon as the group got back to Luka and Adrien’s apartment. The group had decided to change route and swing by a thrift store via request. After buying a bunch of old clothes for Mari to pick up, they also swung by a fabric shop to by fabrics and other materials that were to Mullo’s liking.
“Oh thank god.” Luka let out a sigh of relief. “Let’s go clean up our room before she wakes up.”
“What’s in your room?” Mullo was now standing in front of the two, her head cocked.
The suddenness of Mullo’s voice caused the two to jump. Tikki and Plagg had fallen asleep on the couch with Marinette.
“Goddamn it we totally forgot about Mullo.” Adrien sighed.
“Where am I going to sleep? Till we find out how to get me to be a kwami again, imma need a bed.”
“For now, you can sit in the kitchen until we figure things out. We weren’t exactly expecting company tonight.” Luka sighed. “Now please go let us clean up a bit.”
“Why? What’s so bad about your room? I don’t know much about humans in your generation so I want to know!” Mullo started down the hall, but her arm was grabbed by Adrien. “Oh no you don’t.”
Mullo let out an amused chuckle. “You must really be embarrassed! I wanna see!” Mullo broke away from Adrien’s grasp, making it down the hall before he could stop her.
“Why did we leave our door open?” Adrien sighed, his face in his hand.
“Why did you let them come without giving us a chance to clean?” Luka urged.
“Ooo! See I haven’t been in this generation for awhile but I think I see what was going on in here. So that’s what Plagg was talking about.” Mullo shouted.
“Well maybe she didn’t quite get it.” Adrien offered.
“You guys are kinky. Nipple clamps? Oh my god are these ropes?”
“Yeah. Maybe.” Luka growled sarcastically.
“Mullo Dupain-Cheng! Get back in here right now.” Adrien ordered.
“Aww! You gave me her last name!” Mullo cackled, running down the hall.
“I think turning human made you brattier.” Luka sighed.
“What? You mean...more human?” Mullo made a cocky face.
Luka raised his fist. “Adrien I’m going to punch her.”
Adrien placed his hand over Luka’s fist, slowly lowering it back down. “No. No you’re not.”
“Please?”
“No.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you Adrien.” Mullo smiled.
“Can’t Marinette read your thoughts?” Luka inquired.
“Yep! Only the ones currently on my mind though.”
“Then you are not going to think about what you saw in front of her. Ever.” Luka commanded.
“What are you the thought police? I can’t control what pops into my head!”
Adrien chuckled. “He-he..thought police. Get it? Like Thot police? No? Kay....” He cleared his throat awkwardly.
“We are going to clean up, and you are going to sit in the kitchen and start practicing how to control your thoughts.” Luka ordered calmly.
“If I think too hard about it, I’ll definitely think about it in front of her. Got any strawberries?”
“There’s a whole container in the fridge. Stuff your mouth full. Knock yourself out.” Luka answered.
Mullo ran to the kitchen, and Adrien and Luka ran back to the bedroom.
///
Marinette’s eyes slowly opened. She looked down, seeing Tikki and Plagg fast asleep on her chest. She smiled. Ever so gently, she moved the two kwamis to the arm rest, sitting up after she had done so.
“The boys are back in their room.” Mullo called from the kitchen. “If you hear a rumbling noise, that’s the dryer. They’re running a load of laundry.”
‘Okay.’ Marinette thought. ‘Think they would mind if I checked on them?’
Mullo let out a slight giggle. “Oh certainly not.”
‘What? Hey, you’re blocking a thought from me that’s cheating.’
Mullo stuck out her tongue, which was painted red from the strawberries.
‘Which door is it?’
“Last on the left side.”
Marinette nodded, standing up. She walked down to the end of the hall, knocking on the instructed door.
The door was shortly opened by Adrien. “Luka’s pretty much asleep. Nice to see you awake, M’lady.”
For some reason, the nickname she had always rolled her eyes at when she was younger was making her blush now. Likely because it was Adrien saying it—without his Chat Noir mask anyways.
“Hey, while we got the chance uh..can I talk to you Mari?”
Marinette nodded vigorously.
Adrien stepped out into the hall, taking a seat on the cushioned bench that was against the back wall of the hallway. Marinette took a seat next to him.
“So....I know I...I didn’t always treat you the best when we were younger..”
Marinette shot Adrien a text.
‘Me too. I was always doubting your abilities, and I was always so horrible to you. I just shut you down and treated you like a total joke.’
“I did feel that way sometimes...but I would always just brush you to the side and never acknowledge you as Mari, and I always was so obnoxious and pushy towards you as Ladybug...it was just rude...And I know what I’m gonna say doesn’t excuse my behavior..but I hope it can at least explain it. You know how fucking dead beat my dad was. He never taught me emotions right...it was either just treat em bland, be obsessed, or just brush them to the side. Friendship was so important to me that I was selfish about love. A wonderful girl like you doesn’t deserve to feel hurt or invaded. I hope you can accept my apology, and trust that I’m working every single day and moment to better myself.”
Marinette nodded, typing out a message. The pause she took to type it was long and silent, and really dragged.
‘That means a lot to me, Kitty. I was very naive, dumb, an honestly creepy. I was obsessed with you as Adrien. I guess you just...made me happy. Really happy. I wanted to protect you, but I almost certainly wasn’t doing so in the best way.
:( you deserved so much better than that, Adrien. I’d give you the world if I could. Luka is absolutely amazing and wonderful. He’s a good person to take care of you. Hopefully we can all improve our selves to hopefully be the best versions.. :3’
After reading the message, Adrien pulled Marinette into a hug. “We’ll always be here for each other, Mari.”
Marinette nodded.
Suddenly, the two found another figure wrapped around the both of them.
“You gotta let me in you two.” Luka’s low voice chuckled.
“Of course.” Adrien said in return with a laugh.
“We’ll deal with Mullo in the morning, okay?” Adrien said with a yawn.
Both Marinette and Luka nodded.
“Yep.” Luka yawned. “In the morning.”