Chapter Text
Mikael was exhausted. Between the whole Coccinelle business that he’s kept from his twin sister (which they do not keep secrets from each other at all), apparently all of his friends in his class turning against him (all because he did not want to date the lying Italian girl), Hawkmoth, school work, and the stress of being a teenager in Lycee: he was just emotionally exhausted. He could feel Tikki try and give him comfort, but honestly, Mikael wanted to just scream and tell the world to go screw itself.
He missed his friends.
His bandmates.
His sister.
Being normal.
A pair of hands dragged him into an empty classroom, Mikael was stared down by his younger twin sister who was glaring at him. He wondered what he did wrong this time. “Alright, spill.”
“Huh?”
“What the hell is the Rossi girl spreading around lies and why is no one standing up to her?” Hope blossomed in his chest, he was foolish enough to believe that even Marinette would turn against him. He needed to make up for that slight, maybe he should offer to do some of her harder chores? Marinette’s eyes studied his face, “I swear to God, Buddha, and whatever else God is listening, gege if you do not tell me who is hurting you right now, I will put you in a blanket sushi roll.” (Chinese: older brother)
Her serious expression coupled with the emotional exhaustion made him crack. Marinette would always threaten to wrap him up in the most comforting blanket she could find (or make, Kwami knows his twin sister was gifted like that) and smother him with love as his punishments. He always took being the eldest so seriously, need to be the representative of the family and be perfect so no one would ever look down on him or his family or his sister.
Mikael started to laugh. He kept laughing, and somewhere between laughing, he started to cry. It just was so hard. He wasn’t strong enough to go back to being alone again, not after he thought he made such good friends. “Let me take care of this the Dupain-Cheng style?”
Mikael snorted. “Which way is that?”
“The way that makes them realize what they did was wrong without an Akuma fluttering around and making you more stressed because of you-know-what that you’re trying and failing at hiding from me?” Mikael froze, he felt Tikki freeze in his shirt too. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice? Mikael, you’re my twin brother. I was trying to wait for you to just come to tell me, but you’ve been so stressed and depressed lately… I couldn’t wait for you anymore.”
Mikael looked up at his twin sister, who looked at him with so much compassion and love that he felt his eyes water again. “You?”
“I’m so proud of you gege.”
“Miling, duibuqi. I wanted to tell you for so long, but I couldn’t risk it and then the lies just kept piling up-” (Chinese ‘duibugi’: I’m sorry. AN: Miling is Marinette’s Chinese name, thought it was weird that she didn’t have one as Asians children [that I know of] usually do)
“It’s okay.” Mikael somehow knew that if it was not okay, his sister will move mountains to make it so. It was like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders and he could finally breathe again. “So, Coccinelle? Really? Of all the possible names you could come up with, Coccinelle? No wonder the guys never let you title the songs!”
Marinette shoved herself into his arms, and it felt like he could fly. No longer had to lie to his twin sister, and Tikki would absolutely adore- He froze. Tikki’s golden rule was that no one could find out that he was Coccinelle. He felt Marinette open his shirt a bit and smiled at Tikki. “Hello, midnight-cookie-thief.”
Tikki gapped at Marinette. Usually, reveals happened because of a mistake of the chosen or the choice of the chosen. Tikki had never experienced the chosen’s family just to come out of the blue and confront the chosen in the most comforting matter because of a mistake that a kwami made. Mikael choked on his laughter at Tikki’s expression. “But you- How did you-When!”
“I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng, younger sister to Mikael, daughter of Tom and Sabine,” she whispered as she cuddled her older brother. “Apparently, no one gave Rossi the memo that you do not mess with my brother. So I’m going to make sure she understands.”
“But, you’re not in my class.”
“I’ll fix this gege, I’ll fix all of this,” she cooed as if he was a baby. “I’ll straighten out her stories, and everything will be back to normal. But, gege, let this be a lesson on who you can trust and call a friend.”