Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had to be now. Nooroo hovered by the lukewarm cup of coffee that his master had proclaimed was ‘absolute poison’ and left almost completely undrunk.

Nooroo didn’t think Gabriel Agreste was... a bad person per say, he was just...misguided, that’s all! But still, knowing what his master planned to do, to corrupt and give powers to those who only wanted destruction and chaos, that was something Nooroo could not allow no matter the cause or circumstances. As Gabriel typed away on his laptop, Nooroo tried to steel himself, he had never tried to escape a master before... it was a risk, definitely, but was far better than the alternative of letting his master wreak havoc on the city just to force the guardian to unveil himself and then steal the cat and ladybug miraculous.

Nooroo was nervous, that couldn’t be denied, but he also knew the consequences of making a wish... and that was something he would rather not relive. Nooroo studied his master’s eyes and hands as they single-mindedly worked in tandem, his master’s focus completely riveted on the screen and not particularly paying attention to his surroundings.

Today was the first time in a very long time that Gabriel and Nooroo had even left the Agreste estate (the building was far to impersonal to be considered a ‘home.’) Nooroo braced himself, he didn’t know when his next opportunity would be and he had to move quickly or else the chance would pass. Gabriel Agreste was currently at one of the best hospitals in France, a bit far from the city of Paris, yes, but notable because of their stellar surgery and long term patient medical programs. Gabriel’s goal today was to promote his son’s popularity and new hair care brand by having Adrien ‘volunteer’ to visit some sick kids in the pediatrics ward.

Double checking to make sure his master was distracted, Nooroo nodded to himself, assuring himself that this was the right choice, before very abruptly and very purposefully knocking the almost full cup of coffee directly onto Gabriel Agreste’s white shirt. Gabriel startled, standing up in shock, but before he could get any words out Nooroo spoke first, profusely apologizing.

“Master, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying attention and I bumped into the cup! Master please forgive me, it was an accident!” Gabriel interrupted Nooroo’s apologies by holding up his hand in the universal sign for ‘stop.’

“Your blunder is... frustrating, to say the least, but nothing unsolvable.” Gabriel kept his face carefully blank (as he always did) while he pulled out his phone and sent a text to Nathalie, his longtime assistant and associate. “I have asked Nathalie to acquire a new shirt for me. Adrien will be arriving from fencing practice soon and I must tidy myself first before we start today’s activity. I will see you once I have freshened up and changed.”

Gabriel pulled out a small black and red box that was ornately decorated with Chinese characters and ancient patterns from his pocket, unclipping Nooroo’s gem from his shirt and placing it inside the plush velvet that lined the box’s interior.

Nooroo just nodded and smiled. “Yes master, of course master.” Nooroo’s eyes trailed after Gabriel, as the man nodded at the Kwami, seemingly satisfied with Nooroo’s answer, and left the room the door clicking with a sort of nerve wracking finality.

Nooroo’s heart was thumping very quickly, he only had so long before Gabriel was too far and he would be sucked back into the miraculous. Moving fast, the little creature used all the force he could muster to shove the box far and hard off the table, it hit the ground with a thud and clacked shut, drawing Nooroo back into his gem. Once again stuck inside of his physical medium for his power, Nooroo could only hope for the best.

The box bounced once, twice, before skidding away across the floor and under the crack at the base of the door.

Sliding into the busy hallway the box was accidentally kicked by a rather overwhelmed nurse who didn’t even notice it. Skidding once more on the freshly waxed tiles the little box was knocked even further away from the room where Gabriel Agreste had been waiting. The hospital was very fast moving, especially in preparation for the young volunteer model who was about to arrive, distracted and excited patients and employees alike were inadvertently helping the small container on it’s inconspicuous journey, dribbling it further and further into the white toned building.

Now in a much less busy section of the hospital, the box rested on well scuffed floors in front of a boring white door. The door was labeled with a name that had clearly been there for a while, a light layer of dust coating the plastic plaque that was labeled with the name of the room’s occupant.

The box didn’t lay there for long, a nurse in fuzzy slip on clogs quickly noticed the box on the floor after nearly stepping on it, her attention shifting from the clipboard in her hand to the box resting on the tiles. The nurse just sighed and shook her head with a fond expression on her face. “Tsk, tsk, little Miss. Dupain-Cheng is always forgetting all her little fashion doohickeys everywhere! That girl needs to pay more attention to where she leaves her things.”

The nurse scooped up the box in her hand and opened the door that it lay in front of, the room contained a standard hospital bed on wheels (the kind with a remote to lets you change the angle that your back is resting at), a large window that took up nearly half the wall, a couple of well worn padded wooden chairs for visitors, a closed closet door and a nightstand that held a pink and white polka dotted lamp and a pretty vase of lilacs.

The well intentioned nurse placed the box on the nightstand, just underneath the dense canopy of lilac blossoms that seemed to sprout from their well loved vase. “I’m sure that Miss. Marinette will be very glad to have you back! Now don’t you go anywhere in the meantime!” The nurse exited the room, closing the door gently behind her and chucking as she walked away, thinking of magical boxes that sprouted legs and could walk on their own.

Unbeknownst to the room’s occupant or the box’s previous owner, life was about to change very drastically, but fate has a funny way of working things out, be it for the best, worse, or something in between.

A breeze blew in from the cracked open window, causing an ice blue lilac bloom to float down, arcing elegantly as it lay at rest on top of the box, yes, there was definitely much to come, lives to change, strings to connect, but for now the scene was peaceful and serene. Not entirely unlike the calm before a storm, but as everyone knows, you must have rain before everything and anything can grow.

Chapter Text

Adrien stared out the window as he watched the scenery pass from his seat in his father’s rather overly luxurious car, or rather...limousine, he supposed. It was long enough to be one. Despite the limousine’s comfortable (and expensive) interior, Adrien had never liked the car. Just sitting in it felt like his family was flaunting their money or something, but it’s not like he really had a choice anyways. He sighed and brushed some stray hairs out of his eyes, his father would probably want him to re-do his hair anyways before going down to meet the kids.

Adrien knew that today wasn’t really about the kids or doing the right thing, today was about bringing attention to his hair and the new hair product brand that had his face and name all over the packaging and advertisements. Adrien’s eye itches from the excessive use of air conditioning in the limo, but he resisted the urge to rub his eye just in case his eye got irritated. His father was sure to be upset if he looked anything less then perfect when he showed up at the hospital.

Practicing a half hearted smile in his reflection on the window, Adrien thought about what the visit would be like. He was sure his father wouldn’t let him visit the terminal patients in fear that Adrien might catch something himself, and while that certainly sucked, Adrien understood that everything had to be picture perfect (quite literally). He imagined that the kids would be excited to meet a ‘real celebrity’ but more likely than not, it would be the hospital employees that would be more excited for his visit.

If this went well today, not only would the ‘Adrien’ hair brand be well promoted, the hospital would also receive a fair bit of attention too.

Adrien’s bodyguard and chauffeur, affectionately nicknamed Gorilla, made a grunting noise from the drivers seat as the car made a wide turn into the parking lot of a particularly large hospital building. Drawn out of his musings by the noise, Adrien refocused on the building in front of them as Gorilla parked the automobile.

The hulking shadow of the sleek and modern building was simultaneously impressive and intimidating. A clustered group of reporters, paparazzi, and groupies were standing next to the main entrance of the hospital. Adrien maybe had about twenty seconds before they converged on him like a group of shrieking seagulls. Adrien shook his head harshly, no, he couldn’t have those kind of thoughts, these people were his fans or there to capture his image to show to his fans back at home. Taking a deep breath, Adrien pasted his model business smile onto his face and shoved his exhaustion deep down where nobody would see it.

Gorilla exited the car, moving around to open the back door so that Adrien could step out. Just as envisioned, the swarm of media and Adrien fans jumped to surround him as he stepped out onto the concrete of the hospital parking lot. They shouted his name and questions to him, Adrien just smiled and nodded, eager to escape the hoard and get inside. Taking a quick peek at his wrist watch, Adrien noticed that he was very nearly late and his father was not a man who tolerated tardiness.

Gorilla fended off most of the crowd as Adrien made his way to the door.

“Thank you all for coming to see me today!” Adrien addressed the crowd, smiling as best he could while still inching back towards to doors. “Official pictures of today’s visit will be able to be found on Gabriel Agreste’s website! Thank you again for your support!” Gorilla opened the door and Adrien slipped inside the building with a final wave to the crowd of fans and media. Calls for him to come back immediately wrung out but Gorilla mercilessly closed the door on them, a smug smile on his face.

Adrien made his way to the front desk, more than aware of all the eyes that trailed after him and the phone cameras that were trained on his face, awe apparent on all that watched him, the attention was nice at first but now just made him feel like a zoo animal, like he wasn’t human anymore. Choosing to ignore that stream of thought, Adrien placed a hand on the desk as the woman from behind the counter openly gawked at him, her coworker too focused on her phone screen to have even seen him yet.

The first woman clumsily tapped her coworker’s arm, never taking her eyes off of Adrien. The second woman looked up, her expression mildly irritated before melting into something more akin to disbelieving excitement. Adrien smiled his model grin at the two women. “Hello, my name is Adrien Agreste and I’m here for a visitation!”

The woman who had been on her phone nodded like a bobble head and stood up with an unnecessary amount of force, sending her wheeled office chair spinning off into a deeper part of the office behind the desk.

“Yes! Of course! Follow me right this way Mr.Agreste!” Her movements were rather stiff and jerky as she came around the side of the desk and motioned for Adrien (and subsequently Gorilla) to follow her down the maze like hallways to a much more colorful area labeled ‘children’s residential.’ Stopping in front of a door with a vinyl rainbow sticker on it. The woman smiled and gestured to the door, trying to find her words but stumbling over her tongue a bit. “You-your father will be! He will be here any minute!”

Adrien nodded and thanked her she hesitated before turning away, giving him a small smile and a little wave before scurrying off down the hallway again. Adrien briefly wondered if the hospital had banned the staff from asking for autographs, his thought process was quickly halted by the sight of his father approaching him and Nathalie trailing quietly behind him. Behind Nathalie was a man that Adrien recognized as one of his regular photographer’s interns.

“Hello, father.” Adrien said as his father’s eyes raked over his appearance, apparently not finding anything that needed to be immediately corrected. Gabriel Agreste held out his hand and Nathalie passed him her work tablet. Adrien watched as his father made a few taps on the tablet’s surface before the elder Agreste turned the tablet for Adrien to see. The screen displayed a rather tight schedule, but to Adrien’s immense relief, he saw that the objectives were timestamped to the minute, not the second as he had initially feared.

Gabriel cleared his throat before speaking. “Adrien, this chart is a schedule for which room you should be in and when. The hospital has provided us with more than enough time to gather promotional shots. You are to keep your bodyguard with you at all times. We will be leaving here in two hours.”

The way that Adrien’s father spoke was cool, clean, professional and certainly not even close to the tone one would associate with a father talking to his son. Gabriel Agreste gestured very generally to the man behind Nathalie without even glancing over. “This is one of the photographers in training that your regular photographer Vincent has spoken highly of. He will be following from room to room to collect images of you chatting with the...sick. You are not to pay attention to him, all photos are to look candid, am I clear?”

“Yes, father.” While Adrien would never admit this out loud, he was rather glad that he was given express permission to ignore the camera. Of course, he couldn’t ignore it completely, keeping his expression and the angle of the lense in mind, but it would allow him more brain space to focus and talk with the patients than if he had to be constantly posing. While Adrien was well aware that this was just for publicity, he was excited that he was going to be actually able to do some volunteer work, something his father would never have allowed him to do on his own.

Gabriel Agreste nodded in approval, handing the tablet back to Nathalie. “Good. I will expect satisfactory results then. While you are working I will be in room 433 wing D working on my laptop. When you are done Nathalie and I will meet you at the front entrance.”

“Understood, father.” Adrien had already forgotten the room number but threw in a nod for good measure anyways. A small pleased smile formed on his father’s face, causing pride to bloom in Adrien’s chest. “I won’t let you down father!”

Gabriel’s expression reverted to his neutral displeased face, just as quickly as the smile came it was gone. “I should hope not. I will see you in two hours Adrien.” Gabriel returned the nod with a small one of his own before turning and leaving, again with Nathalie trailing behind him down the hospital corridor. The photographer smiled at Adrien.

“Shall we get started then?”

Chapter Text

Gabriel Agreste sighed as his tasteful leather shoes click-clacked on the tiles of the hospital hallway. Sometimes that boy just looked so much like his mother... seeing his son’s face fill with pride at the simple notion that Gabriel would be pleased almost made Gabriel want to call off his plans completely.

But that was something he couldn’t do.

No matter how many people he hurt, even if those people included his own son, it would all be worth while once she opened her eyes again.

Behind him, Nathalie grew increasingly concerned as the pair made yet another wrong turn, her employer growing more and more distracted by his own thoughts. Watching yet another sign telling them they were going the wrong way pass by, Nathalie cleared her throat with a small cough, drawing the man’s attention to her, stopping where he was to turn back to look at her face.

Nathalie pulled up a map of the hospital’s layout on her tablet. “Mr.Agreste, the sign we just passed said that we were in wing B, and the room directly ahead of us is room 116, which means we are not only in the wrong building but also on the first floor rather than the fourth.”

Gabriel looked mildly surprised at the information Nathalie had brought to light, but the surprise quickly fell away to an irritated scowl, frown lines marring his face. “Thank you, Nathalie. I suppose that we are a little lost then, hm?”

Nathalie quirked an eyebrow at him, her expression staying professional but bordering on amused. “That would be correct, sir. I have a map here but the building is rather complicated. With how far we are from the room... I do not believe I would be able to guide us there efficiently.”

Gabriel stays silent for a moment as he thinks. There is no harm in asking for help he supposes, no harm to anything but his pride that is. He considers his options, taking note that he doesn’t see any hospital staff in the immediate vicinity. He is just about to suggest simply retracing their steps when a voice from behind him interrupts his thoughts and the words die in his throat.

A small “um...” has him turning back around, at first not seeing anything at eye height until he hears a soft. “Hello, do you need some help?” Which makes him shift his vision lower, finally seeing the girl in the wheelchair directly in front of him. She smiles, tucking a few strands of her dark hair behind her ear. “Sorry if I’m intruding but you looked lost, can I help you find what you’re looking for?”

Gabriel is about to say that he’s fine and doesn’t need any help when Nathalie quickly sidesteps around him and smiles at the girl, who must be in just her early teens based off of her looks, Nathalie crouched down to her knees so that she would be eye level with the teenager’s face. “That would be lovely, thank you. We are looking for room 433 in Wing D.”

The girl’s nose crinkles in something close to distaste before a pleasant smile overtakes her features, making Nathalie even doubt that her previous expression even existed, maybe just a trick of the mind...it had been quite a long day after all. “Of course!” The girl chirps with not a hint of animosity, “Just follow me!”

Nathalie felt sad for the girl, being stuck in a wheelchair at such a young age. Glancing behind her shoulder, Nathalie could see Gabriel’s eyes flash with a similar pity before turning calculative, while it was a shame that a girl such as herself was unable to walk, most of Gabriel’s attention was on her face and arms anyway.

She was objectively pretty and about the same age as Adrien. Her arms were smooth and well toned, muscles probably built from necessity in order to have a maximum capacity for mobility despite her... unfortunate circumstances.

Her physical disability didn’t seem to be slowing her down at all as she maneuvered down the hallways with a graceful and incredibly elegant ease, not even slowing or tipping as she rounded the hallway’s admittedly rather sudden turns. The two adults had to speed walk to keep up with her, their shoes sending taps and clacks echoing down the tall and rather narrow side halls.

Gabriel almost smiled, that kind of confidence would have... and still could look good on a runway, perhaps if he did a line focused on body positivity or something “all inclusive” he would try to scout her as a model.

Reaching a rather sudden halt, the girl in the wheelchair spun back to face the two adults, her hands gripping the wheels and minutely tugging them in the opposite direction to stop the wheelchair from spinning around again. The two adults were definitely panting a little, or at least breathing heavier than they were before (though Gabriel would never admit to either.)

The girl grinned and gestured to the wall on her left, where elevator doors were neatly embedded, designed to camouflage with the rest of the hall and easy to miss if you didn’t know what you were looking for.

“We are now in Wing D, take the lift up three floors to the fourth floor and walk to your right until you see room 433. I need to be back in wing F now, so I will be taking my leave. I hope you find your room easily enough and have a good rest of your day.” The girl nodded at the two rather dumbstruck adults, her close mouthed smile teetering on the edge of helpful and smug as she rolled back a bit before turning away from the adults and starting down the corridor at a rather hurried pace.

Snapping out of his stupor first, Gabriel took a step forward without even thinking. “Wait a moment, young lady!” The girl paused, her chair turning with her gaze as she looked back down the hallway at them. Gabriel took out a sleek metal business card holder engraved with his initials and plucked out a card. “If you are ever in Paris please give the number on this card a call if you have an interest in modeling.”

The teenager turned around fully, her smile polite and unreadable as she accepted the card but didn’t bother to look at it. “Alright, thank you. If I am ever in the Paris area I will consider it. Now, I really need to be heading back, the nurses are expecting me to be in my room.”

She tucked the business card into a side pocket that was built into the seat fabric of her chair and sent a small wave at Nathalie and another smile and nod combo and Gabriel before she turned again and rolled away down the hall, past the corner and out of sight.

Nathalie had finally come back to her senses and pressed the button to call down the lift to the upper floors, her boss still staring somewhat blankly down the hallway at where the girl had disappeared.

He turned toward Nathalie, looking slightly frazzled. “Nathalie, I never asked for her name.” His brow furrowed before smoothing back out again, his shoulders giving a small shrug. “Well I suppose it doesn’t really matter. Giving her a business card is probably enough, now we can only leave it up to fate I suppose.”

Nathalie made a noncommittal humming noise as the elevator dinged and the doors swooshed open, allowing both of them on and responding with prompt efficiency when Nathalie indicated the floor they needed using the softly glowing buttons. Back in their usual positions, Gabriel in front and Nathalie trailing behind, they quickly exited the elevator, walked through the busy hall and made it back to the room, where Gabriel’s laptop and spilled coffee lay untouched.

Gabriel stilled and stiffened, Nathalie bumping into his back when he stopped in the door unexpectedly. “Sir?”

“It’s gone...” The words came out murmured like speech inside a dream.

“Mr.Agreste?”

“Nathalie, it’s gone.”

Gabriel turned around abruptly, panic and fear evident in his eyes. “Nathalie the Miraculous box is GONE.”

Nathalie’s eye widened as the implications of the phrase set in. She immediately pulled out her phone and dialed the hospital front desk.

Gabriel frantically searched the room as Nathalie called up help from the main desk. Searching under cabinets, leaving chairs overturned and even nearly flipping the table in his haste and desperation. His mind raced, trying to come up with all the possibilities of what could have happened. Theft? Misplacement?

As Gabriel tried to calm his nerves and pull on a calm demeanor the head of hospital security arrived. Gabriel’s perception of reality wavered like a veil in front of him as he vaguely heard Nathalie explaining to the woman that a box with a small gem inside had gone missing from their room.

The security head simply shook her head and called into her walkie talkie, listening to the buzzing cacophony that answered her and she apparently understood. “I’m very sorry Mr.Agreste, but the hallway security cams say that nobody entered or exited your room, and you requested a room with no camera inside so we are kinda stuck.”

Gabriel wanted to scream, Gabriel wanted to pull all his hair out and make the security guard bleed for saying there was nothing they could do, Gabriel wanted to break something. Instead, his heart broke as the base for all of his plans to bring back Emelie mysteriously vanished from under him.

“Please keep looking for it... it was a keepsake from my wife.” His voice came out deceptively flat and cool, but to someone who had known him for so long she knew his words were hollow. The security guard’s eyes softened as the words hit her, working in a hospital she saw loss and grieving almost everyday.

She nodded. “We will definitely keep an eye out for it.”

Gabriel wanted to curse her out, tell the security chief that of course they would keep an eye out, he wanted to scream that they didn’t understand that this piece of jewelry was more important than the lives of everyone in his hospital combined. Instead, he just nodded, looking a lot more put together than he felt.

Nathalie dismissed the head guard and sent a text to Adrien.

“Gabriel, we still have the peacock Miraculous. All isn’t lost yet. We will get it back eventually, the butterfly as well as the ladybug and cat.” Nathalie’s words were whispered but Gabriel clung to them, nodding again. Nathalie smiled slightly, everything was going to be alright, she was going to make everything alright, no matter the cost. “Come on Mr.Agreste. I’ll take you home. Gorilla will take care of Adrien but for now you need a place to rest and think.”

Gabriel nodded numbly again, letting his secretary and most trusted confidant guide him out of the building, his mind already whirring with changes to his scheme.
It wasn’t going to be easy, losing an integral part of his plan, but he would make it work.

He had to make it work.

Chapter Text

Marinette yawned and rubbed at her eyes. She hated the bi-weekly in depth checkups she had to have. Nurses already checked in with her on a daily basis so why was it so important to make her answer questionnaires and do various body-scans so often? It’s not like anything is going to change anyways.

The doctors had decided to change her medicine again today, the thought of being on yet another new pill nearly made her nauseous. Marinette knew she would never get better anyways so why even try…

She shook her head harshly at that, giving herself a small headache while she tried to disperse the small cloud of gloom that had settled over her. A pair of voices that she didn’t know pulled her out of her thoughts. Rolling up to where she heard the voices she saw two adults that looked like they were arguing over something.

Marinette pat her hair down and turned to surreptitiously edge further down the corridor so she could hear their words better. They didn’t look like patients… were they guests?
“—eans we are not only in the wrong building but also on the first floor rather than the fourth.” The woman’s voice was flat and professional, almost devoid of emotion. To Marinette she sounded like someone out of a sci-fi movie rather than a worried visitor… probably not a guest of a patient then. Maybe some sort of news outlet?

“Thank you, Nathalie. I suppose that we are a little lost then, hm?” The man is tall and has his back turned to Marinette. His voice is clearly frustrated, maybe even a bit angry. Marinette hesitates to roll forward more. She can see the woman, Nathalie is her name Marinette surmises, she is average hight with high cheekbones, blue eyes and rimless glasses. Marinette also notices she has the tips of her long bangs dyed red… which shouldn’t look very professional but she makes it look impressively elegant.

“That would be correct, sir. I have a map here but the building is rather complicated. With how far we are from the room... I do not believe I would be able to guide us there efficiently.”
She appears to be staring unblinking at the man in front of her. Her expression carefully schooled into a neutral expression, but after hours and hours of learning to read other’s faces, Marinette can see that there’s laughter in here eyes and a small twitch near her nose which is very telling that she is suppressing a smile.

So they are lost then… probably the parents of someone who is visiting… but Marinette won’t rule out the possibility of them being press yet.

The man still has his back to her and is silently thinking.

Marinette shrugs to herself, deciding to approach them, she might even be able to get a little amusement out of the interaction, hospital life can be so uniform and boring, unexpected guests are usually at least somewhat interesting.

“Um…” Marinette waits expectantly as the man turns around… and looks right over the top of her. Of course. She resists the urge to sigh in irritation. “Hello, do you need some help?”
That got his attention. He looks down, and… Marinette guesses his expression is one of surprise but it’s extremely muted, as if he isn’t used to feeling things or doesn’t want to. Marinette notices a few hairs that escaped her earlier pat down and tucks them behind her ear, keeping her eyes trained on the man.

His eyes are also blue like the woman (Nathalie, she remembers) but his are a bit darker. His hair is platinum blond but his eyebrows are grey, in the back of her mind Marinette wonders if he dyes it. His glasses have thick and kinda boring black rims and his jaw is… quite square.

“Sorry if I’m intruding but you looked lost, can I help you find what you’re looking for?” Marinette’s eyes watch the man’s expression closely as he thinks slowly and then starts to open his mouth, most likely to say no, she predicts.

Before he can reject her offer, his companion sidesteps around him and smiles down at Marinette before crouching down so she’s at eye level with Marinette. “That would be lovely, thank you. We are looking for room 433 in Wing D.”

Marinette blinks in surprise and her nose crinkles with disgust. She hates it when people crouch down to talk to her. Its demeaning and rude and makes her feel like she’s five. But alas, it’s a common occurrence. Occasionally even the Nurses and Doctors will do it.

Marinette sighs internally and smooths out her face into a mostly pleasant expression, the one that she uses when people ask her if she’s really disabled, because some fights are just so repetitive that they’re not worth picking anymore, even if the blatantly rude offenses still get on her nerves.

It’s also the expression she uses when she’s being sarcastic but coming off as ‘kind.’ Needless to say it’s well practiced.

“Of course! Just follow me.” Marinette spins around abruptly, but not before she sees the regular surges of pity sprouting in the eyes of the two strangers. She scowls, glad the adults can’t see her expression right now.

Marinette knows she’s going too fast but hearing the rather frantic sounds of the stranger’s shoes hitting the ground as they run after her makes her feel a somewhat vindictive sort of pleasure.

She rounds another sharp corner, her mood lifting because she knows her speed and steadiness are impressive, they’re a perfect ‘Fuck you! I’m completely capable!’ statement that usually helps blow away some of the pity she constantly sees all around her.

There’s a growing tightness in her chest that she knows is a precursor to an Asthma attack, usually due to her own over exertion. But she doesn’t want to show weakness, so she can probably hold off using her inhaler for another couple minutes, besides, it was worth it to see a couple of regular adults panting and kinda disheveled, losing to the girl in the wheelchair under the mobility category. Knowing she was faster than them, better than them even in this small way? Totally worth it. She can’t stop the small grin already on her face as she sees how tired they are from trying to keep up.

“We are now in Wing D,” It takes all Marinette has to keep her voice steady, she can feel a wheeze itching at the back of her throat already. “Take the lift up three floors to the fourth floor and walk to your right until you see room 433.”

Marinette knows she needs to use her inhaler NOW. But she knows she can’t show any more weakness or the pity she was just able to shave off will come back tenfold. “I need to be back in wing F now, so I will be taking my leave. I hope you find your room easily enough and have a good rest of your day.”

She just needs to get around the corner and then she can pull her inhaler from the pocket of her chair. The man calls out to her and a plethora of curses ring out in her head. “Wait a moment, young lady!”

Marinette bites back the groan and holds her breath to keep herself from wheezing as she turns around, her face blank as the itch in her lungs turns to a burn.

“If you are ever in Paris please give the number on this card a call if you have an interest in modeling.” He pulls out a card and hands it to her. Her head is starting to go very light. Marinette just nods politely, a small wheeze he doesn’t seem to hear escaping her mouth as she forces a stiff smile, her words coming out odd and stilted, luckily for her, these two don’t know her well enough to tell.

“Alright, thank you. If I am ever in” Another small wheeze slips out. “the Paris area I will consider it. Now, I” And another. “really need to be heading back, the nurses are expecting me to be in my” And another. “room.”

Marinette unceremoniously shoves the card into the side pocket of her chair grasping for the familiar shape of her inhaler. She hurriedly sends a wave a smile and a nod at Nathalie and the man before making her speedy retreat.

Once safely around the corner she yanks out her quick relief rescue inhaler from her pocket and quickly administers three puffs, waiting impatiently as she feels the tight pain uncoil and she finally breathes a sigh of relief.

She pulls out her phone and checks the time, still three more hours until it’s time for her second daily control inhaler dose. She’s probably fine.

Tapping her screen she opens up her familiar speed dial set of numbers, she lets her eyes slide past her mom and dad’s contacts and clicks on a contact that’s blandly labeled as ‘nurse.’

Quickly selecting the call button the other side of the line picks up after just two rings. “Miss. Dupain-Cheng! You were supposed to be in your room twenty minutes ago! Where on earth are you!?”

Marinette’s lip quirks up in a tiny smirk, happy that the nurse on the other side of the line can’t see her expression. “I was just helping some guests find a room. I’ll be back soon, I just want to stop by the pediatric ward to see Manon on my way back, I know she has an appointment today and is probably visiting her old hospital friends now that she’s out in the real world.”

There’s a long suffering sigh on the other end of the line and Marinette is struggling to suppress the giggles that are bubbling up in her belly.

“Fine!” The nurse relents, “You can go see Manon, but just know that I’m keeping an eye on you! Also, there’s a pretty high profile celebrity doing volunteer work today! Aren’t you curious?”

Marinette breathes out harshly from her nose, an almost laugh. “Thanks but not interested. I’ll be in my room within the hour.”

The nurse starts to talk again but Marinette has already pressed the end call button.

“Whoopsie.” She murmurs, smirking, not sorry at all.

Marinette shoves the rescue inhaler back into her chair pocket, the little piece of paper crumpling slightly beneath it, the nice business card already completely forgotten by Marinette.

Chapter Text

Adrien held onto a teddy bear as a bedridden little girl told him about a dream she had last night. Her arm movements were big and exaggerated, punctuating every detail of her story.
Adrien smiles softly and nods along, throwing in a simple “And then?” or “What happened next?” And sometimes a “Really? Tell me more!” When prompted.

The little girl was maybe six, she said her name was Etta and she had been in the hospital for about a month. She was looking forward to this upcoming Thursday because her twin sister, big sister and parents were coming to pick her up and she would get to go home with her family.

Etta was excited to go home and she made that very clear to Adrien. She was excited to finally get to sleep in her own bed again! She said that the doctors told her she had “Ah-pen-disc-ai-tus” and that she had healed very well.

Etta was very proud as she told Adrian about how brave she was, even though it hurt. She pulled up her shirt a little to show off her heavy gauze bandage that was taped over the place where her surgery cut was.

She rambled about how she was gonna have “a super duper cool pirate scar” and about how her parents were finally gonna be able to tell her and Ella apart, even though they looked the same.

Adrien couldn’t help but giggle at that, the idea that Etta’s defining feature from her identical sibling would be a very tiny scar on her stomach struck a funny chord with him and she smiled genuinely until the rapid snapping of a camera lense snapped him out of his joy. He slid right back into model mode, keeping his kind expression controlled and scripted as best he could.

Taking a quick glance over the top of Etta’s head, Adrien caught a look at the clock on the wall hanging just inside his periphery view. Adrien had forty two second to wrap this up and be in the next room.

As soon as Etta took a breath in the midst of a new rambling story Adrien leaned forward and booped her nose, she was shocked silent for a moment before a fit of giggles overtook her, her big brown eyes looking up at Adrien as she grinned.

“Mister Adrien, you’re so silly!”

Adrien shook his head and booped her nose again. “Not as silly as you!”

Taking advantage of her momentary distraction, Adrien slipped the teddy bear back into her arms and patted her head affectionately. “Sorry Etta, I’ve gotta go now, but I’m very happy that you were able to get better so fast! You’re so strong!”

Etta looked torn. She wanted to be proud and smug about the compliment but… her new friend had to leave already? He had just gotten here!

Her head tilted in confusion. “Mister Adrien? You have to leave already now? You aren’t moving in?”

Adrien’s eyes softened and his eyebrows drew together in a picturesque reflection of remorse. “Sorry Etta, I’m just visiting today, I’m not moving in. But, hey! You get to go home soon!”

Etta frowns and looks down at the sheets.

The sound of the camera shutter pauses momentarily and the photographer clears his throat just loud enough for it to be heard, the sound itself is innocent enough but the message behind it is clear: make the little girl smile or move onto the next room.

Adrien wants to grimace but when he’s working he’s not allowed to frown unless the job specifically calls for it. Instead he stands up from the bedside chair.

“Sorry Etta, but if I don’t leave the room then there might not be enough room for your family later! You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

Etta’s eyes widen comically as the (rather unrealistic) implication hits her. She pouts, her lower lip jutting out as she begrudgingly concedes to letting him leave, still a little suspicious about his logic, but he’s a big kid so he must know what he’s talking about, right?

“Okay… But will I see you later?” Etta must have been pretty lonely in the hospital by herself because she really doesn’t want him to leave, even though she’s only known him for all of three and a half minutes.

Adrien shrugs, smiling as bright as he can. “I’m not sure, but if I do see you I’ll be sure to come over and say hi, alright?”

Etta brows an irritated puff of air out of her nostrils but nods. “Okay, that sounds okay.” She sticks out her pinky finger. “But you have to pinky promise that you’ll come say hi, no matter what you’re doing! Or else you have to swallow a THOUSAND needles! And that’s a lot of needles y’know!”

Adrien stares at the extended pinky for a moment, before he recovers and slides a determined and serious expression on and wraps her tiny pinky in his own, bobing their hands up and down in a sort of contractual pinky promise handshake.

“I absolutely super promise that I’ll say hi if I see you or else I’ll swallow a thousand needles!” Adrien grins as Etta’s face light up, estatticalqly satisfied that he agreed. She nods happily as Adrien stands up to leave, sending her a small wave and a murmured “Buh bye, Etta.” as he leaves the room, the photographer slipping out of the room ahead of him to get a shot of Adrien leaving the room.

“Don’t forget your promise!! You gotta say hi!!” Etta calls as Adrien reaches to close the door behind him.

He sends Etta a conspiratory wink. “I did promise! And I never break a promise!”

‘Unless it’s unavoidable.’ Adrien thinks to himself, but the words are left unspoken as he shuts the door with a click. He’s already fifteen seconds behind schedule and he can’t spend any longer on goodbyes. Every room he’s had to leave today has been an exhausting and uphill battle because none of these kids want to be left alone. Adrien takes a mental note to ask the hospital staff to give more time to talk with the longterm stay patients before he leaves today.

Nobody should have to be alone through things as terrifying as what these kids are going through.

Adrien shakes the thought from his head for now, he has to focus on keeping a positive outlook otherwise his feelings may impact his work. He turns to the Photographer intern as the man fumbles with the paper schedule that Adrien’s father left for them. Adrien waits patiently as the man re-reads over the next session.

Adrien had already memorized the itinerary for today but figures he shouldn’t say anything, some photographers can be very… stubborn when it comes to their ideals, so it’s better to just let things work out on their own.

The photographer cleared in throat and started walking, leaving Adrien to trail after him which was incredibly rude, but time and time again Adrien had been taught to take the path of least resistance, so he said nothing as he walked behind the man.

“That was the last room for the live in patients.” The intern’s voice was nasally and carried a great air of self importance, not a great attitude for someone who worked with picky high profile clients all the time, but hey, what can you do. Adrien figured that the intern would mellow out with more experience under his belt…eventually.

“We are now on our way to the reoccurring patient rooms, these are the rooms for patients who were discharged and can live at home but must come back In regularly for checkups so that their condition could be monitored.” The intern prattled on, and Adrien felt himself growing a bit irritated with the over explanations.

Adrien NEVER went into a job unprepared unless the job was very last minute, so to have it be explained again by a person who was literally reading the definition off a piece of paper irked him to no end, but he didn’t want a fight so he just stayed silent as the man continued to chatter in his high nasally voice about things Adrien already knew.

While Adrien is somewhat glad for the substantial lack of spaghetti references, he still thinks he would like Vincent better. As his regular photographer Vincent knew him well and didn’t over explain things. Vincent had a knack for perfectionism and was a pure blooded professional, unlike the intern who still clearly had no idea how to treat this situation in the slightest.

Adrien let himself get lost in thought and shut out the words of the intern, the intern was lucky that this was an easy job. If these photos weren’t supposed to look candid Adrien was sure that the intern wouldn’t have the compositional prowess to direct him properly, even though Adrien was a seasoned modeling veteran.

Adrien couldn’t stop the soft sigh that escaped his lips as she quietly shook his head. They were almost half done with the ‘volunteer session’ at the hospital, with about an hour left Adrien was to keep his patience in check, but after he would submit a request to not be paired with this photographer again.

Adrien pulled himself out of his thoughts when his eye caught the door number that they just walked past, the intern continuing to walk forward and chatter away endlessly. “Um…” Adrien raised his voice, unfortunately not loud enough over the incessant stream of words that were exploding from the intern’s mouth.

“This is the door!” Adrien said louder. The intern turned back, looking a bit pissed at being spoken over. He looked at the door sign then back at his paper, waving at Adrien dismissively.

“Yeah, sure. Go acquaint yourself with the patient while I go check in with the nurses.”

Adrien opened his mouth to say that he didn’t think that it was a good idea to enter the room without express permission, but his photographer was already a good four feet and counting down the hallway, rounding the corner and gone.

Adrien groaned in exasperation…still, he should probably due as the intern said, if something went wrong it was best to follow instructions then blame the person who gave them.
Adrien knocked on the door and heard a muffled “Come in.”

…that didn’t sound like a kid’s voice. This is the pediatric ward, right? Yes, the sign says it is, a parent perhaps? Or a hospital employee?

Shrugging off his own questions he pulls on his best professional smile and opens the door, running through his normal introductory speech.

The regular ‘Hello, I’m Adrien Agreste, an Agreste company model, I look forward to working with you today’ died in his throat as his smile froze and his breath hitched, because he was looking at one of the prettiest girls he’d ever seen (and being a model, he’d seen a lot of pretty girls with beauty of world renown.)

She had dark, soft looking hair that lay gentle on her cheeks, framing a light toned face with slightly pink cheeks (probably pink from laughter). But what really caught his eye was her sharp and gorgeous blue eyes that seemed to pierce right through his heart and soul, like they could read his every thought and he’d never know.

A delicate frown turned her lips downwards.

Adrien (miraculously) was able to snap his focus away from her ridiculously enchanting eyes and take in the rest of the room.

There was a little girl with caramel skin and big fluffy ponytails, she had a gap tooth smile and a curious look in her eyes. She was sitting on the dark haired girl’s lap and the dark haired girl was sitting on… a wheelchair, he realized with a start, he hadn’t even noticed…if he had just seen her from the waist up he wouldn’t have even known she was disabled.

The dark haired girl’s frown deepened as she seemed to note his thought process.

“You’re not a nurse.” She said, her voice clear and wonderful and not nasally in the slightest.

Adrien very nearly gaped at her, struggling to keep his expression schooled in a tight professional smile.

“Uh, no, I’m not.”

Chapter Text

Marinette rolls at a leisurely pace through the hallways, smiling and waving at nurses and patients she knows (which is almost everyone, you get around once you’ve been living in the hospital a while.) Marinette is in no rush.

Manon’s check ins happened once every month and lasted about three hours, sometimes more, though it was mostly just her mom filling out paperwork.

Manon had been diagnosed with Leukemia about two and a half years ago, her treatment had been completed six months ago and she was free to go home, the check ins were really just a precaution, after all, the hospital was quite expensive anyways and they had to keep up their good reputation so it was always ‘caution over necessity.’

Manon had developed an attachment to Marinette very quickly, due to the lack of volunteers and staff to keep kids entertained in the pediatric ward Marinette often found herself spending time there. It wasn’t exactly the easiest task, but it was far better than the alternative of just sitting alone in her room.

It was on one of these visits to the children’s section that Marinette had first met Manon and Manon had single handedly attached herself to Marinette at the hip at almost all given times. During Manon’s visits after she had been allowed to go back home, the little girl would always whine and sometimes cry until she got to see Marinette.

It was easy to feel completely vilified the almost six-year-old, so Marinette and the Nurse’s made a plan, that Marinette was allowed to leave all nonessential business to go see Manon and her mother Nadja when they were in the building.

This suited Marinette just fine as that most of the nonessential meetings were just reruns of the same old check ins day after day or attempts to follow a regular schedule.

Go for a jaunt through the garden at this time, be back in your room at this time, and so on and so forth. It could be absolutely mind numbing and it was always good to have something irregular happen because it made Marinette feel like she was actually living, rather than just going through the movements of whatever depressing fever dream she was stuck in, of whatever dollhouse she couldn’t escape from.

While Marinette did enjoy the break from her ordinary, she was also quite jealous of Manon (though nobody knew because she kept it well under wraps), Manon told Marinette everything. What she did at school, the latest rumors about her classmates, the new slide that got installed on the playground, what she ate for dinner, which cereal was superior eat.

She talked about ev-ry-thing. And it was exhausting at some points.

But mostly Marinette wished that she could have those experiences as well.

Marinette wished that she could happily talk about playing kickball with friends, or the new roller rink, or video games in her living room, or ice cream on the bridge, not to say that Marinette wanted to switch places! No, she would never ever wish a misfortune like hers onto anyone else, especially not a child, more so not a child who looked up to her as if she were their older sibling.

It was gratifying to be held at such high esteem at times, but idolization brought on lots of questions.

“Why can’t you walk? Can you walk soon?”

“I don’t get it, why can’t you just breathe through your mouth?”

“You don’t have to go to school?”

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

Marinette’s heart broke at every reminder of what she couldn’t do, but still she calmly explained.

“Sorry, my legs just don’t work, no I don’t know why they just stopped. My lungs are weak so I need to work harder than others to breathe sometimes, my chest gets tight and I need to take my medicine. I take online classes so I do go to school, not just like you but I am learning right here in the hospital. No I don’t have a boyfriend, I don’t really know many kids my age so I’ll have to wait a bit longer for that.”

The questions didn’t come just once either, they often got repeated multiple times because Manon’s small five-year-old mind wasn’t exactly a steel trap.

Marinette loved the little girl to bits but it could be hard to keep her annoyance in check at times.

Marinette was almost to the rainbow doors of the pediatric ward when she hears her name called from somewhere behind her, she contemplates just continuing on and pretending that she didn’t hear it, but instead she just sighs and pauses, taking a moment to herself to plead to whatever higher powers may exist that this isn’t another nurse telling her she should be in her room. Because she is really, really sick of those same four walls.

She shook her head and slapped a fake smile on her face before turning around to the sound of the clicking heels approaching her, her smile turning genuine once she say the face that the voice came from.

“Hello Ms.Chamack,” Marinette greeted the familiar redheaded woman.“It’s lovely to see you! How have you been?”

“Good afternoon Marinette, I’ve told you, call me Nadja! It’s been going as well as it can be, the studio has been pretty busy recently, did you know that Jagged stone is moving to Paris? The tabloids are going crazy!” Nadja laughed but she sounded exhausted.

“No way, Jagged stone?! As in the rock star?”

“That very one! I have an interview scheduled with him but I’m a bit… apprehensive about it… apparently the only way he agreed to be interviewed was with his giant lizard in studio and I’m certainly not looking forward to THAT.”

Marinette blinked. “You… He’s bringing his crocodile to the TV station?”

Nadja released a long suffering sigh and threw her hands into the air with an aggressive exasperation. “I suppose so! At least, that’s what the execs have told me.”

Marinette made a face. “I’m sorry you have to deal with that… I know you’re not a big fan of anything bigger than a house cat.”

“Yes well, it’s a good opportunity to expand my career and, you know, not lose my job. There’s not much I can do about it. I’ll see if I can get you an autograph.”

Marinette’s eyes positively sparkled at the mention of an autograph. “You would do that?! Thank you so much Ms.Cha-“ Her words cut off by an unheated glare and a smirk from the woman she was talking to. Marinette fidgeted with her fingers, looking up at her a little sheepishly. “…Ms.Nadja.”

Nadja grinned. “Yes, I’ll see what I can do Miss Marinette, now go see Manon, I wouldn’t want to keep you any longer and her temper tantrum threshold is… not the best.”

Marinette nodded and grinned. “Okay, I’ll be on my way then! See you later Ms.Chamack!”

Marinette turned and swiftly zoomed down the hallway, humming her favorite Jagged Stone tune as she made her escape.

“Call me Nadja!” Nadja cried in vain down the now empty hallway, letting out a fond giggle as Marinette’s dark hair disappeared from view.

Chapter Text

Manon was six, well, almost six, but she told everyone she was six because six was better than five and five year olds were still babies and babies couldn’t do anything.

But not six year olds. Six year olds were big girls and the bigger you are the more things you can do and the more people will listen to you.

Manon wanted to hurry and grow up, wanted to hurry and become someone special.
Like mama.

Manon’s mama was on the TV everyday and was a very important person that everyone knew. That’s how you know you’re special, by how many people know you. Because Manon’s mama was so special she was always busy so Manon had a lot of babysitters.
Manon didn’t like babysitters.

Manon was a big girl and could take care of herself just fine.

She missed mama but didn’t say anything because she was strong. Needed to prove she was strong. Because she was a big girl.

Manon sometimes wished that big sis Marinette could be her babysitter but she was still stuck at the hospital just like Manon had been last year. Big sis Marinette had a different sickness than Manon… Manon didn’t really understand why big sis Mari never stood up or walked around.

Marinette had told her that she just couldn’t, but if Manon could get cured why couldn’t big sis Marinette?

So every time Manon saw Marinette she asked if she could walk yet, big sis always said no and that she’d never be able to walk, never ever, but Manon didn’t believe in never evers because Manon had gotten better, hadn’t she?

Manon loved big sis Marinette almost as much as she loved mama, Manon had once asked big sis if she could live together with Manon and mama, live in Paris and go to school like big sis had said she wanted to, but big sis always just shook her head and smiled in a way that confused Manon.

Smiles are supposed to be happy things, so why did big sis Mari’s smile look so sad? Manon didn’t understand… but mama seemed to get it so Manon just had to get bigger, get older know more and then she would get it. Once she was tall and important and special she would know everything, like how to make big sis’s smiles happy again and how to let big sis walk again and how to make mama spend more time at home rather than at big stupid ‘work.’

Manon kicked at the air and scowled. Mama had left a while ago and Manon hadn’t seen big sis Mari yet and the nurses wouldn’t stop LOOKING at her.

Manon huffed and let her feet clang loudly against the metal base of the check up room’s examination bed, feeling a bit of vindictive joy as one of the nurses, a male nurse with the low ponytail (must be a newbie, Manon had never seen him before), flinched.

People only got scared of people with power, Manon knew she had power because she had mama and people did what she wanted because she was mama’s daughter. But that didn’t make her important… not yet. To be important Manon would have to become even more special than mama and that would take a lot more growing up.
Manon slammed the heel of her foot against the metal drawers of the hospital checkup room’s bed again, harder this time.

The loud sound echoed harshly through the room, tinny and obnoxious, making the nurse flinch again. Manon could see his eyebrow twitch in annoyance as his lips pulled into a tight and ingenuine smile. Manon was good at reading faces, she had to be with who her mom was. Mama was trained to smile and if Manon wanted mama to be happy she had to be able to tell when mama was sad.

The nurse leaned forward into Manon’s space with his fake smile and stupid jangly lanyard. Manon wrinkled her nose and frowned, scowling. It was clear that he was looking down on her. After all she was just a kid wasn’t she? Manon couldn’t wait to grow up.

“Little miss, could you please stop kicking the bed?” The corner of the nurse’s mouth twitched as he tried to keep his strained smile on his face.

Manon just stared down at him down her nose and kicked the bed again. Louder. Harder.

The nurse’s brittle smile twisted in an ugly way as it shifted so that he was sneering at her, bearing his teeth. His patience had snapped. It had been a long day, too many crying kids and too much hullabaloo over that goddamn rich kid pretty boy who had been wandering around all day.

“Listen brat.” He spat at Manon as she watched on impassively. “You need to show respect to your elders.”

He leaned in closer to her, Manon cringing back at the sudden proximity, her nose scrunching up in distaste.

“You’re nothing. You’re just a kid. You think you can push me around because your mommy is rich? What a joke. You’re-“

The door slammed open to show a very pissed off Marinette, holding up her phone and displaying the screen, showing the steadily progressing line of a new audio recording. Glaring at him, she seethed, placing her still recording phone in her lap as she rolled forward menacingly.

If looks could kill, Marinette would have been found guilty of murder that day. “I’ve heard enough. But please, if you’d like to keep talking, be my guest. It would be my pleasure to present the board with more evidence as to why you should have your license revoked.”

The man flinched back so harshly that he almost tripped backwards over the little hazardous waste trashcan kept by the side of the check up bed. His face was rapidly growing alarmingly pale. “No I-“

Marinette’s eyes widened slightly as she realized something. “Wait a moment, I recognize you.” She laughed, the sound delicate, beautiful and cruel. Her next words coming out in almost a purr. “You’re the new intern they hired a week and a half ago, tsk tsk, couldn’t handle the pressure, huh?”

He stumbled forward, his eyes alight with panic. “Wait, you can’t-“

Manon took that as her cue.

Suppressing her excited grin at seeing Marinette, the little girl promptly turned on the water works. Manon hopped off the check up bed and launched herself into Marinette’s lap, sobbing. Marinette had to quickly grab and pull back on her wheels so that the two wouldn’t be sent sprawling back to into the hallway by the force with which Manon had jumped.

“Marinette, Marinette!” Manon cried out pitifully. “This mean man called me bad things and threatened me! He said I was worth nothing and- and! He got all up in my face and even grabbed me!”

The nurse’s face flushed indignantly. “I didn’t! I swear I never touched her I-“

“Get out.” Marinette spat the words out with enough force to take down a building. “You’ve said enough. Get out before I call security to take you out for me like the garbage you are.”

The nurse’s breath caught in his throat, his mouth popping open and closed like a fish out of water.

“Out. Now.” Marinette’s words left no room for argument, and just for good measure Manon upped the anti on her crying and became loud enough that surely everybody in the hallway and both rooms next to them could certainly hear her.

The nurse’s face twisted with rage and for a moment Marinette felt a flash of fear strike through her. Fear that this tall, stronger than her, able bodied man would get violent. She took care not to let it show on her face but she couldn’t do much about the shake of her hands which only made Manon cry harder if that was even possible.
Instead, his jaw loudly clicked shut and his fists curled up tight at his sides.

He rushed past them, his feet stomping hard on he ground, and out the door, slamming it behind him. Marinette heard a thud from outside the door that could have only been him punching the wall, followed by a loud but muffled expletive, a word that Manon certainly didn’t recognize and filed away in the back of her head to ask her mama about later.

Waiting for a moment, Marinette let out a shaky breath. She tapped the ‘end recording’ button on her phone and used her other hand to smooth over the back of Manon’s head (who was still wailing into her lap and getting her pants all wet.) “Manon dearest, you can stop crying now. He’s gone I know you’re just pretending.”

Immediately Manon wiped away the last of her tears and beamed up at Marinette. Manon’s cheeks were still blochy and her eyes a bit pink but Marinette knew from experience that those symptoms would clear up in just a bit. When Manon had still been a live-in patient she had often used her fantastic crying act to get out of check up appointments and scheduled outings she didn’t want to participate in, so suffice to say Marinette was quite familiar. Especially since Marinette had become the Manon whisperer and the only person in the hospital that the five year old would actually listen to.

“Did I do good, did I do good!!?”

Marinette sighed, continuing to pet Manon’s head like she knew she loved. “Yes, but next time let’s not lie.”

Manon froze, her eyes straying away and looking anywhere but at Marinette’s face. “W-Whaaaaaaat? I didn’t lie, what do you mean?”

Marinette booped her on the nose with an eyebrow raised and a little half smile. “You did, Manon. I can tell. Did he actually touch you?”

Manon scowled. “…No. How could you tell I lied? Are you angry at me?”

Marinette shook her head. “No, I’m not angry. And a magician never tells her secrets, tater tot! But keep in mind: only bad guys lie for their own benefit or for no reason, okay? So only lie if you really really have to.”

“Do you lie Marinette?”

“Only if I need to.”

“…okay. I’ll try to do the same then.”

Marinette grinned and pulled the little girl up fully on her lap. “Good! Now hold still for me for a sec, ok? I have to let the nurse supervisor know what happened.”

Manon nodded and curled up against Marinette’s chest. It was little moments like this that made Manon feel it was okay she wasn’t all grown up yet. Manon liked fitting perfectly into Marinette’s arms. Mama couldn’t do that! Fitting perfectly was one of the things that made Manon just a little important.

Marinette’s phone made a little swoosh sound, then a doodeloo sound, then some more typing sounds, another swoosh and after a moment another doodeloo.

Marinette patted Manon’s head and Manon looked up. “I sent the conversation recording to the nurses, they’ll take care of it and you don’t need to worry about seeing him again. They’re going to send someone over to replace him now so that they can wrap up your checkup and paperwork as well as fill your mama in on what happened.” Marinette smooched Manon on her forehead, curling a stray hair behind her ear. “Now that all that’s over, didn’t you say you wanted to tall me about your new friend at school?”

Manon practically vibrated with excitement. “Yes yes yes!” Manon shifted, situating herself so that she was straddled on Marinette’s lap so that she could use her hands to help tell her story. If Manon had painfully elbowed marinette in the side as she moved, marinette didn’t say anything.

“So I became friends with this girl Ella and she-“

For the next ten minutes Manon regaled to Marinette the excitements, disappointments, rumors and daring adventures of primary school.

Marinette smiling and laughing and chiming in at all the right times. Manon had been gesturing excitedly as she explained about how Chris from the neighboring class was about to tell her friend Ella where he hid the Bakugon he found on the way to school when there was a knock on the door.

Manon cut off her story and stared at the source of the sound. Marinette pinched her cheek, smiling gently. “It’s probably just the replacement nurse, hun.”

Turning herself towards the door, she raised her voice just loud enough so it could be heard in the hallway. “Come in!”

There was a weird moment of hesitation before the door opened to reveal a handsome blond boy hat was about her age.

He had a very emotionless and fake looking smile on his face. He seemed like he was about to say something but then he stopped, his teeth clenching together for a nanosecond before they loosened and his eyes drifted from her own face, to Manon’s before finally resting on her wheelchair. Emphasis on resting.

Marinette frowned deeply, borderline pouting. This was one of the many reasons she hated interacting with people from outside the hospital. They just would never stop looking. “You’re not a nurse.” She said plainly.

The boy tensed, his eyes flickering back up to her face (finally.) His already strained smile becoming even more plastic, artificial.

“Uh, no, I’m not.”

Chapter Text

The three stared at each other, all of them not exactly sure what to do.

“…so, um, what are you doing here? This isn’t your room?” It was Marinette who broke the silence, causing the blond boy to snap out of whatever strange trance he was stuck in.
“Oh, I-I’m Adrien Agreste! an Agreste company model, I-“

“Why is a model here?” Manon interrupted, her eyes big with wonder and sparkling with excitement. Models were famous people, models were important people! Mama always said that the more connections you can make the better for your career and Manon wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip away.

Adrien blinked somewhat owlishly before walking further into the room and lowering himself to Manon’s eye level in Marinette’s lap. “I’m here to say hi to all of the patients today and give everyone get better wishes, why are you here little lady?”

Manon narrowed her eyes at him. He was deflecting with a question, it was something she saw mama doing all the time so Manon knew there was more to the story as to why Mr.Adrien was here but she decided not to push it.

“I’m here for a checkup! I had Lu-kee-mee-ah but I’m all better now!”

Adrien grinned, Marinette took note that this smile seemed more genuine than any other expression she had seen on him yet. Interesting.

“I’m so glad to hear that!” He said, seeming genuinely happy. “I bet you were super brave and strong while you were sick, weren’t you?”

Manon nodded excitedly. “Yep! Mama said I was super duper brave and strong and Mama never lies!”

Marinette couldn’t help the small laugh that bubbled up her throat as she smiled softly down at Manon. Unfortunately the sound drew attention to her again as Adrien’s eyes shot up to her face with alarming speed. The sudden change in focus caught her off guard as her breath stopped momentarily in a sort of aborted half gasp, the air hitching, stuck in her throat.

After a second that felt far too long his gaze drifted back down to Manon, his formerly relaxed smile subtlety tightening with an emotion that Marinette couldn’t quite place. “And who is this you’re with, darling? Is she your sister?”

“Kinda, sorta, but not really! This is Marinette! She’s the best! She hung out and played with me while I was sick and said I could call her big sis when I asked! She’s just as important as mama and that makes her my kinda-sorta sister!” Manon looked very proud and Marinette could feel her eyes starting to water.

“OH WAIT!” Manon practically yelled, scaring the tears right back into Marinette’s eyes.

“I forgot to introduce myself! Mama says that’s the most important part of a first meeting! I’m Manon and I’m going to be very influ-influh-inful- I’m going to be very very super duper important and powerful when I grow up so you should definitely remember my name!” She ended her statement by booping Adrien on the nose with her finger.

The boy was smiling politely but his eyes were blinking bewilderedly at Manon’s decree. She certainly had quite the strong personality, now didn’t she?

Marinette turned her head to the side and covered her mouth with her hand in an attempt to muffle the amused snort that she couldn’t keep down at seeing the blonde boy’s baffled expression. He so clearly didn’t know how to react to Manon’s nose boop, perhaps it was outside of his script? That thought combined with the persisting confusion and absolute befuddlement still in his eyes (now looking at her), well, that was enough to send her over the edge.

Unable to hold it in anymore Marinette’s carefully held composure in front of the stranger known as Adrien absolutely shattered. Full body shaking laughter burst out of her, causing Manon to slip off her lap and Adrien to startle backwards, almost falling on his behind in the process. This only made her laugh harder.

The sound ringing and echoing in the small check up room, Marinette's sides hurt and her wheelchair even rolled back an inch or so with the force of the snickers coming out of her. She could barely click her breaks into place as her laughter devolved into small gasps and giggles. Unlike how the laughter of pretty girls is always described in books Marinette’s laughter was not at all like the gentle tinkle of bells or the soft sound of wind chimes in a prairie breeze.

This girl- this girl, her laughter was loud and raucous, warm and full. One of the most genuine and beautiful sounds Adrien had ever heard. Her laughter felt light logs on a cracking fire, alluring and comforting, her laughter felt safe.

And he absolutely loved it. He didn’t even know this girl and he was already finding himself falling for her. Wait… falling for her?

A furious blush overtook his face as he abruptly stood up to full height from his crouching position. Marinette hiccuped in surprise at the sudden movement, her giggles stopping short as she misread the action as embarrassment and potentially anger. (And though it was true that the action was out of embarrassment, it was a very different kind than Marinette was thinking.)

“No, no wait! Haha- oh my god my cheeks are so sore- sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you! It was just- ahaha, ow, ow, ow, ugh, my ribs- just- ehe, your, your face was so, just like, shocked! When Manon tapped you! He he he, oh my god-“

Adrien blinked slowly in a very catlike manner as his stalled brain slowly caught back up with time. “Oh! No, I-“

“Adrien.”

Adrien was interrupted by the door abruptly opening and a cold voice saying his name.
Natalie usually looked pretty stiff but right now she looked like the physical embodiment to the question ‘Who pissed in your cheerios?’ Which is to say, she did not look very happy.

“We’re leaving.”

She turned on her pointed heel and swiftly click-clacked away, giving Adrien no time to process before his bodyguard some how squeezed his way through the door and shuffled Adrien out of the room. The large man nodded at Manon and Marinette before closing the door very gently, the soft click of the handle and the retreating steps giving way to silence.
Manon and Marinette looked at each other. Marinette hiccuped loudly before the two of them fell into giggles once again.

“What an in-ter-es-ting checkup today has been!!” Manon exclaimed loudly. She put her hands on her hips and stared up at Marinette in silence for a moment before lunging forward to scramble back up onto Marinette’s lap. Manon threw her arms around Marinette’s neck and held on tight. Marinette gently stroked Manon’s hair and patted her back.

“What’s wrong, mon petit minou?”

Manon just shook her head into Marinette’s shoulder.

Marinette held her and waited, sometimes patience was key to finding out what kids wanted. The ticking of the clock on the wall filled the silence that had just been full of so much noise and excitement, a rather stark contrast if you asked Marinette.

Marinette looked up at the ticking clock, the second hand jolting forward rhythmically and the hour and minute hands smoothly gliding forward, unstopping. As the minute hand passed the 45 mark Marinette knew they were out of time for their meeting.

Manon’s mother would be back any moment and Marinette was already quite late for her regular check up. Well, the nurses knew it was a Manon day so they would be a lot more time lenient than usual anyways. Just as Marinette was about to tell Manon she had to say goodbye the armful of little girl mumbled something unintelligible into her shoulder.

“What was that, minou? I couldn’t understand you.”

Manon abruptly pulled back, a huge frown on her face. “Are you sure you can’t come back with me ’n momma this time?”

Marinette sucked in a sharp breath as her eyes involuntarily prickled and her throat tightened. She took a deep breath before lifting Manon up off her lap and gently setting her down on her feet.

“No, Manon. I can’t. You know I can’t.”

“But it’s been so long! When I had Lu-kee-mee-ah Mama always told me, ‘just a little longer’ and you’ve already had so, so, so, many little longers... So why can’t you just leave?”

Marinette knew that this conversation would happen at the end of their visit. It always did. Marinette also knew that it would still take a couple years for Manon to understand. But it still hurt to be asked. It still hurt to answer. Marinette shook her head ‘no’ again. The two of them looked at each other in silence. One with unshakable stubbornness and the other with tired resignation. Marinette knew exactly the words she always said but like always she struggled to find them in the moment.

After all, one can only explain the same thing in so many ways. It often took her a little more than a moment to collect her words.

Fortunately or unfortunately, this time she didn’t have to.

A gentle knock on the door had both girls looking up at the door as a Doctor and Ms. Chamack entered.

“Mama!” Manon launched herself into Nadja’s awaiting arms and Nadja wasted no time picking up and cradling her baby to her chest.

“So I hear you had quite the…eventful checkup today sugar.”

“Yuh huh, big sis was like a hero… she can’t come back with us this time either though…”

Nadja frowned and looked over at Marinette, who gave her a strained smile and a weak wave. Nadja quickly changed her focus onto the nurse standing beside her but it was already a little too late. Marinette had seen the clear flash of pity that had cut through Nadja’s expression. And that was enough to cause another stab of hurt in Marinette’s chest.
Not a great end to an otherwise mostly lovely visit.

Speaking to the Nurse, Nadja’s demeanor changed drastically. “My lawyer and I will be contacting your establishment soon in regards to what happened today. I expect all audio and video footage to be sent to the direct email in my file lest I have to file a public police report and get a warrant.”

The poor nurse just looked tired. It was abundantly transparent that she had already heard this multiple times from Ms. Chamack within the past short while.

“Of course Madam, we will have those to you by five ‘o clock at latest.”

Nadja narrowed her eyes in a very predator-like fashion. “Make that 3 ‘o clock at latest. You’re lucky I don’t make a social media post right now.”

The nurse paled. “…I-I will pass that onto my supervisor!” The Nurse’s wide panicked eyes flicked over to Marinette like a drowning man desperately searching for something to keep him a float. “Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng! You are quite late to your checkup, yes? Shall I escort you out now?”

The Nurse’s pleading expression made Marinette sigh and ultimately take mercy on the poor employee taking the wrath of a celebrity world renowned anchor news reporter. “Yes, that would be nice. However, I will be moving myself.”

The Nurse nodded gratefully. “Yes! Of course! very understandable! I will be waiting in the hallway for you to finish your goodbyes! Adieu Madam Chamack, Adieu petit Mademoiselle Chamak.”

With two quick bows to Nadja and Manon the nurse anxiously made her quick and eager escape to the hall, shutting the door behind her.

Nadja’s harsh facade melted as soon as the nurse was gone. Now that all the excitement was done Manon was drooping tiredly on her mother’s shoulder.

“It was lovely to see you again Marinette. I do wish I could have spent a bit more time with you but after the whole…mess that I wasn’t here for, I’m sure my daughter was more than happy to have you all to herself.”

Nadja chucked and held out a hand for Marinette to grab. Marinette reached out and felt the comforting warmth of Nadja’s small, perfectly manicured hand holding her own. Nadja gave Marinette’s hand a squeeze.

“Please remember that as soon as you get the ability to make trips out to Paris, you are more than welcome in our home. Marinette, you are family, do you hear me? Don’t be a stranger and call often or else this little munchkin might throw a fit!”

Marinette could feel herself fighting potential tears as she and Nadja chuckled.

“I’ll see you later, alright sweetheart? Stay in contact Mari, I'll see you soon.”

“See you soon, Ms. Chamak. I promise to text as soon as I’m done with my check up.”

Nadja gave a playful scowl at Marinette’s use of ‘Ms. Chamak’ but decided to let it slide this time. Nadja leaned in to give Marinette’s cheeks the traditional goodbye kisses and gave her hand one final squeeze before letting go.

“Manon? Would you like to say bye bye to your big sis Mari?”

Manon gave a tired wave to Marinette which gained another small laugh from both Nadja and Marinette. All three exited the room and Marinette watched as Nadja and the now sleeping form of Manon walked down the hall and around the corner and out of sight. Marinette sighed before she turned to the nurse who was standing far too at attention.

“Alright, let’s go.”

The Nurse nodded briskly and took the lead, Marinette rolling at a leisurely pace behind her.

Rolling right back into her usual monotony.

Chapter Text

She really didn’t need one or even particularly want one but every so often Marinette couldn’t stop thinking about how nice it might be to sometimes use an electric wheelchair. The general idea of an electric wheelchair kinda freaked her out. Sure, it would be nice to just push a joystick forward and move, but at the same time, the idea of not having full control over her own movements was a bit… frightening.

What if the battery just died in the middle of the day? What if the motor got a mind of it’s own and suddenly accelerated without her say-so? Obviously these would be outliers. Logically, Marinette knew that a medical appliance like an electric wheelchair would have to go through rigorous testing before it was released as a market product for the general public. But still, these negative ‘what if’s’ persistently wheedled their way through her meandering mind.

Like she said before, Marinette didn’t really need or want an electric wheelchair but these were the thoughts that floated to the top of her brain after the check ins that included shots.

Her arms were sore as hell from whatever anti-biotic something or another they kept putting into her but there was no way in hell she was gonna let the nurse’s walk her back. They always tried to desperately to fill the silence on the way back to her room. Words filled with empty promises like ‘I’m sure you’ll be standing in no time!’ or ‘You’ll be out of here any day now, sweetheart!”

Sure, of course, they weren’t trying to be jerks. It was still annoying. It was still rude.

It was annoying and rude enough so that after every single required checkup, when Marinette excused herself back to her own room, she insisted that she was absolutely totally definitely fine and capable of getting back on her own, Nurse Diana, thank you very much.

After all, being stuck in a hospital for years on end really does end up ruining the ‘it’s the thought that counts’ sentiment. Because spending even months in the hospital you quickly learn that frilly words and potentials with no backing evidence are useless to you.

And so, it was on those somewhat painful (but not unbearable) and blissfully silent journeys back to her room that Marinette pondered electric wheelchairs and what it might be like to not spin her wheels herself. Rolling the same shaped thoughts carefully over in her head until she, like always, reached the sliding door to her own room and put those thoughts right back on the shelf, deciding every time that she didn’t like the shape of them and of course she would never get an electric wheelchair, but saving the ideas anyways, sticking a little mental bookmark where she left off. Just in case. For next time.

Marinette easily pushed the door open and then rolled into her room. Turning, and sliding the door back closed before locking it. The action of locking her door was more symbolic than anything. All the nurses had keys and could get in anytime they wanted or needed to, but Marinette supposes it’s the thought that counts. Besides, even if it was kind of an illusion, the privacy felt nice. The hospital staff never unlocked it without permission anyways and they always knocked, boundaries were clear and followed which was another thing that Marinette loved about this hospital.

Marinette rolled herself over to her bed. She parked her chair by locking the breaks in place and then steadily lifted herself from her chair to her seat-level mattress, using the bed’s metal safety bars as support. This was an action she had done so many times that the well practiced and fluid motion of Marinette’s bodily transfer was so fast it could be missed if you blinked. She used her hands to pick up her legs and move them completely onto the bed rather than hanging over the edge of it. On a day that she had more energy, she could sometimes just use her momentum to swing both her legs up without having to move them one by one.

But today she was very tired, understandably so too. It had been a long and…eventful day, but now it was over. Now it was just reading, drawing and surfing the web for the rest of the day. Maybe even talking to some of her online friends if she felt feisty, who knows! The possibilities are endless!!

She laughed at that last thought. Too much enthusiasm. ‘The possibilities are endless!’ Yeah, right.

She shook her head to reset her train of thought before it got too dark. Marinette didn’t want to go down that mental rabbit hole right now. She would much rather just grab her iPad and-

…

…?

Marinette stared at the little red and black box that sat next to her little vase of flowers. The little red and black box did not disappear upon being noticed, despite the fact that it clearly didn’t belong there.

“That’s not mine.” Marinette said out loud. Stating the obvious out loud. To herself.

Marinette grabbed her bed remote and pressed the button that brought the bed higher so that she was almost level with the surface that the definitely-isn’t-supposed-to-be-in-her-room-but-is-box was sitting on. She looped the safety ribbon on her bed’s remote around her wrist and let it dangle as she hooked her hands under her knees and pulled her legs into her body, then pushing up on the bed to balance herself on top of her folded legs.

She pulled up at the adjustable table so that the surface was about three inches above her lap. She reached to touch the box but then hesitated. Should she really touch something that wasn’t hers? The shimmering engraved edges of the red design on top glittered enticingly. Marinette made a little groaning sound before ultimately- delicately, gently and ever so carefully- picking up the box.

God, the little thing even felt expensive.

Marinette flipped the little box gently in her hand, checking every surface and looking for some sort of name or initials that might also be engraved somewhere on the box. After all, the item was clearly custom made. Surely, someone who went so far out of their way to have a beautiful one of a kind item carved out of some rare strange material (stone of some kind maybe?) would put some kind of identifying feature on it in case it got lost right?

Wrong, apparently. Marinette’s mouth twisted into a small frown. Maybe there’s something identifying on the inside?

Marinette felt bad about snooping through other people’s stuff but she’d feel even worse if she couldn’t help get it back to them.

Smoothing the pad of her thumb along the opening crease, Marinette quickly discovered the back and then the front of the box by feeling the little bump that indicated the box’s hinges. Hesitating again for a moment, Marinette’s throat tightened with guilt. She would absolutely hate it if someone went through her stuff, but she’d hate it even more if someone found something of hers and didn’t do all they could to return it to her.

Cementing that last thought in her mind Marinette decisively popped open the lid of the box.

Light abruptly gathered in the open box, so bright it blinded her. Shielding her squinting eyes with one hand and holding the box with her other it was all Marinette could do to keep her gaping mouth shut as she watched the shine coalesce into a sparkling sphere that lifted up into the air and formed into… a purple winged mouse??

“OH MY GOD-“ The words were less of a choice and more of a gut reaction as Marinette dropped the box and instinctually tried to skitter away, which is not an easily preformed action when your two very much non-working legs are trapped underneath you.

The panic motion sent her way off balance and right over the edge of her (currently quite tall) bed, the metal safety bars doing absolutely nothing to help keep her up. She fell, both over the side of the bed and victim to the constraints of gravity, hitting the ground harshly and making a very unflattering noise as the air got rather brutally knocked out of her.

The…creature followed her down, more floating than flying. “Oh dear! Master are you okay?”

Flabbergasted silent just long enough for the… the thing to finish its sentence Marinette couldn’t help but scream as she once again skittered backwards, now with much more room to work with.

“OH MY GOD IT TALKS- oh my gOD THE BUG-MOUSE THING TALKS, IT-“

“Master, please! I-“

“Ms.Dupain-Cheng?” Both the purple bug-mouse thing and Marinette freeze and go completely silent and still at the sound of a new voice coming from behind the locked door. “Ms.Dupain-Cheng, I heard a large thud and I’m here to check if everything is okay! May I come in?”

The bug-mouse thing’s eyes widened in panic as it looked between Marinette and the door. Marinette never took her eyes off the bug-mouse, her own eyes wide with panic, mild fear and a lot of confusion. She opened her mouth to respond but before she could say anything the bug-mouse rushed towards her face, stopping just before crashing into her nose but still causing her to flinch back and shut her mouth with a click of teeth.

“I’lltellyoueverythingI’lltellyoueverythingjustdon’tletherinthiscouldbelifeordeathpleaseyou’remyonlyhopeandoptionandifyousaynothenIwillnotbe-“

Marinette gently put her whole hand on top of the bug-mouse to get it to stop talking. She expects that touching it will send a disgusting shiver up her entire arm but…it doesn’t. Touching the strangely shaped purple being almost makes her feel…warm. Safe. Floaty. Weird. Marinette decides she doesn’t like the sudden flood of uncontrollable feelings that touching the creature brings…it makes her uncomfortable to feel out of control of her own emotions.

“Ms.Dupain-Cheng I’m coming in now!”

Both Marinette and the bug-mouse thing snap out of whatever strange trance the touch put them in at the sound of keys jingling outside the door. Marinette’s hand lowers and the bug-mouse puts its…hand-nubs together, looking at her with a pleading expression.

“N-no! It’s fine!” Marinette says loudly to the person behind the door, not taking her eyes off the purple existence. “A… a bug just flew in the window and-and it scared me so I fell out of my bed! It’s gone now though so I’m all okay!”

Both Marinette and the bug-mouse-thing can feel the aura of doubt coming from behind the door, but the disembodied voice just sighs a heavy sigh and the jingle of keys muffle, like they were put in a pocket.

“Very well, Ms.Dupain-Cheng. Please try to be more careful next time. And remember to press the call button if you need anything.”

“I-I will! Thank you!”

The nurse on the other side of the door huffs before the sound of footsteps begin and then fade, signaling that the nurse has left.

The bug-mouse lets out a breath of relief, then sucks it right back in when they notice Marinette glaring at them.

Marinette moves her legs to be sitting criss-cross applesauce and crosses her arms.

“Start Explaining. Now.”

The bug-mouse’s gaze jitters around for a moment before they seems to resign themselves to their fate. He seems to make himself comfy, or as comfy as one can be while sit-floating in the air, and he takes a deep breath.

“Um, so-“

Chapter Text

“Okay, just…Let me go over it again. You are a Kwami, which is a tiny god that, um, presides over one of the… pillars that hold up the laws of the universe.” Marinette paused for a moment, waiting until the bug-mouse hesitantly nodded. “And you are called Nooroo, and you are the god of…Transmission?”

“Yes master.” Nooroo replied.

Marinette crinkled her nose in response to that. “…ew. Don’t call me that. It’s weird.”

If Nooroo had eyebrows they would have been pinched together in confusion. “Is that an order, um, Mistress?”

Marinette balked at the title. “What? No! And, um, don’t call me that either…please.”

“Then Mast- no, um Mistre- wait, oh goodness, what... what do I call you?”

Marinette tilted her head at the floating Kwami, her expression a little incredulous. “Isn’t it obvious? Just call me Marinette. It is my name after all.”

It was Nooroo’s turn jolt in pure shock at the idea presented. “Oh I could never! That would be far far far too rude of me!”

Marinette frowned, her nose crinkling in mild frustration. “Well, I guess we will just have to figure it out later then. Back to the explanation. Please correct me or jump in if I say anything wrong or miss something important, kay?” Nooroo nods in confirmation and Marinette takes the cue as a sign to continue.

“So you, Nooroo, are one of many god-creatures called Kwami. And all of you uh, Kwami, live-or rather, exist inside of physical accessories.”

Nooroo nods enthusiastically. “Yes precisely right, Master!” Marinette’s mouth twists sourly at the use of the title but she decides to hold her tongue for now and lets Nooroo continue. “When a person dons a Kwami’s item and says the activation phrase the Kwami and their wielder combine harmoniously to call upon and utilize the powers that that specific Kwami presides over.”

“And what exactly is the power of transmission?” Marinette asks, “Does it have something to do with communication? Like talking to someone long distance?”

Nooroo claps their little arms together delightedly. “You are actually quite close in your guess! Yes! Communication is just one part of what we can do!” 

Marinette’s brows furrow and she mouths the word ‘we?’ silently but the excited Kwami either doesn’t notice or ignores it in favor of pushing forward with their explanation. 

“To transmit has two main definitions! The first one is to broadcast or send out a signal of some sort, the second definition is to pass something onto someone else. As the Kwami of transmission my powers encompass both of these aspects! When wearing me, my wielder is able to send out a butterfly of compressed emotional intention to a location of their choosing. My wielder is able to feel and follow any intense emotion that they decide to narrow in on, when-“

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Marinette blurts out, surprising the Kwami with her interruption. She can see confusion starting to cloud Nooroo’s expression so she quickly rushes to explain. “I mean! If someone chose to compress, like, anxiety or something and then give that to another person wouldn’t that be, like…bad?”

“Ah! That's not exactly how it works but you are on the right track.” Nooroo amends. “You see, regardless of what emotional intention my wielder sends out, my butterflies are only able to amplify what is already inside another person’s feelings. You would not be able to wish negativity upon someone who is fully happy in that moment.”

Marinette hesitantly nods. It’s a lot on information all at once and Nooroo doesn’t seem like he’s even close to done with his explanation. “Alright… I think I get it. You can continue now if you’d like.”

Nooroo blinks in surprise at the politeness that Marinette is showing towards him. He never experienced this kind of amicability from Master Gabriel and it had been many many years since he had had a master other than Master Gabriel. “Ah, um, yes! Thank you! I shall continue… moving forward, after you gather and compress your emotional intention within the butterfly and send it out, it will gravitate and be pulled towards the biggest sensations of your chosen emotion. Once you find a person who’s emotions are a strong enough fit to that of which you contained within the butterfly you can land and meld with them temporarily, of course though the most important thing is consent!”

“Consent?”

“Yes, consent. Before you can fully meld with a person you must receive their verbal approval for a transmission transformation, or should your butterfly be rejected it will be ejected from their being. If your butterfly gets ejected it will once more gravitate to the next biggest similar sensation.”

“And what exactly does… meld-ing entail?”

“To meld with another is to overlap minds and grant power. The amplified condensed emotion will magically transform your target into a temporary power holder. The powers must stem from the initial emotion but as to what the actual power is would be up to the limits of the miraculous wielder’s imagination. It also acts and an exchange, to provide assistance for your will to another’s wish.”

“…Miraculous?”

“That is what the Kwami artifacts are called Master!”

“…uh huh. Miraculous. Ok… so, why are you here?”

Nooroo blinked, tilting his head to the side in a way Marinette might have found cute if she wasn’t so confused. 

After what looked like a moment of thought Nooroo grinned and clapped their arms. “It was fate! Fate Brought me to you! It is you, Master Marinette, who will don the butterfly miraculous to protect it and everything around from the danger that lurks upon the horizon.”

“Wait wait wait wait wait!” Marinette waved her hands frantically in front of her face. “Fate?! That’s not real! And what do you mean danger???”

Nooroo’s expression darkened considerably. “Both fate and the looming danger are incredibly real, master. Even the Kwami’s themselves cannot take action without a medium to help guide our powers. Long ago the-“

“Pause. Wait. This sounds like it’s going to be a very long story so can I please take a moment to get off the floor?”

Nooroo gasped, ”Oh how terribly rude of me! Yes, please, make yourself comfortable!”
Marinette frowned as she reassessed her current situation.  

She is on the floor, still, but she has the height remote to her bed still attached to her wrist, so if she army crawled over and got back up on her wheelchair she could bring the bed down and climb back up. Yeah, that makes the most sense. Moving to put her plan into action marinette pushed herself forward only to wince back in pain. 

Right. She fell. 

Tenderly touching the side that she fell on she could feel the beginnings of a huge bruise going all the way up her thigh and torso and maybe even a muscle strain or two. She grit her teeth in frustration and tried to move again. She had felt worse but god it still flippin' hurt. 

Nooroo flew in an anxious little circle, fluttering close and unsure. 

The movements of the purple creature in her periphery frustrated her to no end. Marinette glared at them. “If you’re not going to help, then stop watching so intently.” She spat out the words with a vitriol that clearly stemmed from years of frustrating from people just watching. “I don’t need pity, so if you have nothing to add just wait.”

Nooroo’s flight path stuttered to a halt. He seemed to be considering something, his brain working hard enough that you could almost see the steam coming out of his (not?) ears. 

“Master…might I…pose a potential solution?”

Marinette paused. “I’m listening.”

Nooroo gulped, knowing what he was about to do was wrong and a blatant act of trickery, but he needed confirmation that he could convince her. 

The little purple deity flew back up to the bed and grabbed the small opal-like magical gem from from the box where it lay forgotten above. He flew it back down and hovered in front of her, knowing that he didn’t have too much more time to complete the handoff before he disappeared back into the artifact. Acting before he could think better of it, Nooroo zoomed forward and clipped the gem to the collar of Marinette’s shirt, breathing a sigh of relief as he watched the familiar purple ribbon-esque wings unfurl. Marinette jolted and pulled back a little but Nooroo was relieved that she didn’t fight him or bat him away. 

“Master, all you have to do is say ’Nooroo, darkwings rise’ and I will be able to help you!”

Marinette gingerly touched her fingers to the charm that was now clipped to her chest, she expected it to be cold to the touch but instead it was a strangely comforting warmth. Like she was meant to be wearing it.

She could feel the magical power thrumming under her fingertips, calling to her, wanting to be used, and that scared her. Stalling without sounding rude, Marinette spoke.

“…Isn’t…Isn’t, uh, ‘darkwings’ rather, well, sinister?”

Nooroo shrugged. “Perhaps it does sound a bit foreboding, but that is what has always been said. Please master, say it now! Nooroo, darkwings rise.” 

Nooroo could feel themselves growing agitated, restless and a little bit desperate. What if she refused his help? What if she put him back in the box and he became lost to time once more? He couldn’t let that happen. Not again. He sensed a good heart inside of his new potential master, he just needed her to use that for him. An exchange, just like the powers he bestowed. He knew he could help her if only she would (albeit unknowingly) help him.

After all, people love to receive what they want, what their emotions say that they need. 

Marinette bit her lip in thought, her mind straying from the opportunity presented and instead getting stuck on the firmness of the words that Nooroo had presented her with.

“Always, hmm? Nothing is ever really permanent. At least, that’s what I think. What If I said something nicer, like, ’Nooroo, take flight!’”

Nooroo was about to snap for first time in centuries, because that’s just not how it worked!

The Keywords were always, always, always the same! For forever! And he was about to say as much when he abruptly felt the ever so familiar pull come from his chest, unforgettable and insistent, something he literally couldn’t fight against. As the Miraculous pulled him in and he zoomed past master Marinette’s surprised expression he couldn’t help the feeling of fantastic, ecstatic incredulity that bubbled up as he and his new master successfully melded.

Her new phrase had worked!

HER NEW PHRASE HAD WORKED!!

Nooroo had never heard of anything like this ever having happened before!

Now back inside the warmth of a well intentioned and healthy meld, Nooroo could feel himself going into stasis. He never really understood why Kwami’s entered a state of quiet equilibrium once the meld happened, unable to talk to their chosen, perhaps it was to give the wearers more freedom, perhaps it was to give the Kwami’s themselves a rest while the weight of their powers lay upon a different pair of shoulders. Regardless, it game him time to think as well as explore the inner workings, shapes, colors and feelings of Marinette’s psyche. 

He could feel her fuzzy unrest and confusion, and in reaction he could feel his own measure of guilt welling up.

Well, what’s done is done, Nooroo cannot escape his master’s psyche unless they themselves removed him or used up the allotted power per wear.

Speaking of… did he ever tell her how to deactivate the miraculous?

Nooroo’s tiny whispered “uh-oh.” echoed off the fluttering and shifting uncertainty inside Marinette’s core where he currently rested.

After a brief flash of mild concern Nooroo let the gentle waves of latent kindness from Marinette’s dormant emotions lull him into a state of soft meditation.

After all, there was probably nothing to worry about! She made the impossible possible! She changed the words that no one had changed for millennia, Nooroo was pretty sure she could figure it out by herself, and once he was out he’d be more careful with his explanations. Maybe have her take notes. 

It’ll be fine.

He’s pretty sure it’ll be fine.

Chapter Text

Gabriel and Nathalie had arrived in a different car with a different chaffer, and apparently had more important “Company things” to privately converse about which left Adrien back in his original seat in the limo driven by his bodyguard for the long, long drive back. His bodyguard wasn’t much for conversation so as the quiet countryside rolled by so too did the inside of the car stay quiet.

Adrien cursed himself for not bringing his headphones, music was pretty much the only thing he could use for distraction on his phone. He had plenty of games at home but his father insisted that the phone Adrien carried with him be treated as a “work phone,” and much to Adrien’s dismay work did not include games or social media. Not that he was permitted to have social media anyways.

Not like he had friends to use it with…anyways.

Well, technically, “Adrien Agreste” had social media, but it was run by the company and he wasn’t allowed access the account as it was run by his father’s social media managerial assistants.

He supposed he could ask for Gorilla to turn on the radio but after the abruptness of his exit from the hospital he didn’t really feel like making any requests.

So there he sat. Quietly gazing out at the quiet scenery from the quiet car as he quietly sighed into his hand.

Without much else to do his brain flipped over the events of the day. He had started his day as normal, waking up at 5:30am on the dot to take his daily run on the treadmill before going down to eat a perfectly calorically balanced breakfast. Alone. Then, like usual, Nathalie briefed him on his daily schedule and when Adrien had asked where his father was Nathalie had dutifully answered (as she always did): “My apologies Adrien, he’s busy.”

Then after that was tutoring, usually he had literature, math and science in the morning, a lunch break, and then history, foreign languages and fencing in the afternoon, but due to his promotional “volunteer” visit to the hospital he had been given the afternoon off. Not “off” exactly- since he’d be working anyways- but off from classes at least.

Though he was sure he’d pay for that tomorrow with double work so that he didn’t fall behind. His teachers were already always telling him that he could be, should be, doing better at his age, and he would hate to disappoint not only them but also his father and Nathalie.

Adrien didn’t particularly hate schoolwork, it kept him busy. Some of it was interesting. His teachers may be abhorrently dull and droll but at least they knew what they were talking about…he guesses. Adrien thought it dreadfully unfair that his only friend got to go to actual school while he was constantly stuck at home. Chloe talked down about school to him but Adrien suspected that she exaggerated how much she disliked it so that he wouldn’t feel as bad. It didn’t actually help but, y’know, he appreciated the sentiment.

Adrien thought about the children he visited today. About his irritation at his replacement photographer and lastly, about Marinette. He wished he had exchanged emails with her… she was very charming. She definitely didn’t suit the sterile atmosphere of the stuffy hospital. Meeting her was like seeing a butterfly fluttering around the closed wing of art museum. A splash of unexpected movement in a place so strategically maintained and still.
Eventually the gentle rocking of the car lulled him to sleep and Adrien dreamed that he was a black cat chasing a purple and blue butterfly down the halls of the Agreste mansion and out into the city of Paris.

The two of them raced down crooked allies that were lined with old cobblestone, moving in the way that one only could in dreams. Leaping in gravity defying motions they ascended to the rooftops, playfully zooming past the many chimneys and across the skyline. The butterfly flew up alongside the Eiffel Tower and Adrien followed behind it, running directly up the metal leg of the building, leaping from surface to surface in impossibly powerful jumps as his companion weaved between the beams that kept the structure up.

The way the butterfly fluttered ahead of him felt just like playful laughter, a warm feeling of joy bloomed in his chest as he smiled best he could in his little and lithe cat body.

Reaching the top of the tower the butterfly touched down, its wings opening and closing gently as a soft wind caressed the two. Adrien settled himself down in front of the butterfly on the grated walkway that the beautiful little bug had settled itself on.

A strong breeze caused Adrien to close his eyes as his fur whipped in the wind, squinting his eyes open he caught the tail end of the butterfly spinning away, its little bodyweight unable to hold itself down against the forces of nature.

Adrien watched in shock and terror as the butterfly beat its wings desperately against the gale that set it swirling away from the tower. Spinning away into the skies above Paris the butterfly turned into a soft downy feather, unable to control itself as it floated further and further away.

Adrien found himself stuck, heavy sadness washing over him as he could do nothing but watch the feather spin further and further away. The feather shifted colors, from the cool and calming blue-violet into a rather sinister looking red, a color that sent shivers of unnamed, untamed fear down his spine.

His legs tensed, wanting to leap after the feather, to return it to it’s rightful state, blue, serene and next to him. But as he felt his legs finally start to work again, getting ready to jump further than ever before, to catch up to his butterfly-turned-feather, an aggressive jerk from the car woke him.
Adrien’s seatbelt choked him as the momentum from the now stopped car threw him forward, his neck bending unpleasantly with the motion and shaking his head in a way that gave him an instant headache. Dazed, confused and irritated Adrien looked up bewilderedly wondering what possibly could have make his overly careful, rule-following and borderline paranoid bodyguard maneuver the car in such a dangerous manner.

He lifted his head and opened his mouth to ask as much when the car reversed with such speed that the pressure from his seatbelt punched the words from his lungs. The car span and started speeding away from whatever they had just turned from.

As the vehicle spun Adrien stared wide eyed and open mouthed at the gigantic figure in the street. What the hell was that thing?! Shocked speechless Adrien twisted his body so he could stare out the back window of the car as they fled from the beast that was tearing up the street. A huge creature made of what looked like sharp and jagged stone with a broken heart insignia over its chest roared as it effortlessly flipped cars and used its hands to crush through the surrounding buildings. It seemed to be saying something, shouting something, but with how far Gorilla had already driven them and with all the windows closed it was impossible to hear if the moving maw was simply spouting sounds or if it was actually speaking.

True to form, Gorilla weaved in and out of traffic (in a much less than legal manner) to try and get them back to the Agreste estate as quickly as possible. Sharp turns and broken speeding laws were ignored in favor is getting away from the monster that seemed more than happy to cause both property damage, injury and loss of life without a second thought. Adrien watched speechlessly as the destroyed streets of Paris, one of the most prominent cities in the world, sped past the window of the limo, everything going so fast and blurring together it made Adrien dizzy.

Gorilla slammed on the breaks, causing the vehicle to drift to a not-so-smooth halt as a huge boulder crashed down in front of their car. Adrien gasped at the gigantic rock that now blocked their path. If Gorilla hadn’t stopped… they absolutely would have been killed. Smushed into a goopy paste, and even if they didn’t get smashed, squashed, absolutely obliterated, they would have definitely at the very very least been pretty badly injured and stuck inside the car.

“Out.” Gorilla grunted. Adrien can count the number of times he’s heard his bodyguard talk on less than ten fingers, so hearing the gruff voice of his protector and guide only caused his panic to increase as it really showed how serious the situation was as if Adrien hadn't already been aware. Heart beating hard against his ribcage Adrien scrambled desperately to open the door. Stumbling out onto the street and just barely catching himself from falling into a heap on the rubble strewn street. Adrien whipped his head around, trying to take in the sheer carnage of the once pristine roads when he saw an elderly man across the way trip and hit the ground pretty harshly, his hands taking the brunt of the fall.

An ominous creaking caused Adrien to glance up and with a sharp and sudden horror he saw that the man was directly beneath the brick wall of a building that was in the process of crumbling.

Without really processing his actions Adrien forced his shaking legs forward, unheeding of the shout from his bodyguard Adrien leaped and shoved the older man out of the trajectory of the falling brick. The two bodies hit the ground harshly but avoided the worst of the falling building, escaping with a only a few scratches and scrapes each. Adrien could hardly believe himself. God, his father was going to be so angry at him, risking his life for a total stranger.

Sucking in greedy gulps of air, completely out of breath from his sprint Adrien looked over at the man whom he had just saved.

The older gentleman looked shocked (understandably so), staring wide eyed at the pile of brick that he surely would have been buried under (if not for Adrien) and fiddling with a green bracelet on his frail wrist.

“Are… are you alright?…sir?” Adrien huffed out best he could.

The man, who was short, asian and wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt mutely nodded, before turning his gaze to Adrien. The man abruptly reached over and hugged Adrien. Adrien stiffened and kind of just…let it happen. Yeah, it was totally weird to be hugged by some random old guy he didn’t know, but people react to trauma in different ways…right? Right.

The man patted Adrien on the back twice before withdrawing a kind smile on his face. Relief and was that…excitement? Sparkling in his eyes.

“Thank you, young man. You can certainly act on your instincts well. It was almost like you had wings there, you were so fast!”

Adrien blinked. “Um…oooookaaay, uh, yes! Happy to help! I-“

Adrien’s sentence got cut off as Gorilla appeared in front of him, a scared and furious expression on his usually incredibly stiff and stoic face. The larger man grabbed Adrien by the hand, hoisting him up and throwing him over his shoulder fireman style before booking it out of there. Adrien “eep!”-d in surprise before his brain caught up with him.

“Wait! What about the old guy, he-“ Adrien’s words died on his tongue as he looked back at where he just was to see the entrance of the alley that he was just in was completely empty. Totally devoid of strange old men in bright Hawaiian shirts who wore green bracelets. Maybe he bonked his head during Gorilla’s reckless driving because no person could possibly move that fast. Had he imagined that entire interaction? Had Adrien imagined an entire person?? No, no... right? That's ridiculous, but-

All he could do was gape open mouthed at the retreating road as he bounced on Gorilla’s shoulder as his bodyguard ran them both back to the manor.

Preoccupied by being absolutely bewildered and confounded at the disappearance of the man he was sure had rescued Adrien was completely oblivious to the little red and black box that had been slipped into his pocket during the hug that most certainly had not been a trauma response.

Chapter Text

Alya had been, like, very nervous to start at a new school where she didn’t know anyone. But yeah, that’s a totally normal response to the unknown she guesses.

She got to class early so that she could she could take in the atmosphere and settle a little…new year, new her! Or something like that. She sat in her chosen spot in the empty classroom and tip-tapped her fingers on the table. She felt awful fidgety. Reaching for her bag Alya pulled out her research journal. That’s what she called it but really it was just a fangirl log for keeping track of her favorite heroes. She flipped to a sketch she had been working on of a hero in India who had recently come into the spotlight because they had saved a bunch of people from an office building that had caught on fire (reasons yet unreleased, but speculation to be an act of terrorism.)

Alya hummed as she added on the accent patterns to the hero’s half cape that looked like it was probably a repurposed sari. Alya wasn’t an expert though so maybe it was just a patterned fabric. Whatever it was it was cool looking and Alya was a more than a little disappointed that she couldn’t recreate it with total accuracy. Alya was a pretty damn good writer but she was no artist. Still, it was nice to sometimes have drawings to accompany her excited personal little fan-rants. She hummed as her pencil scritched away at the nice paper. The notebook had been expensive but it had been totally worth it. Darkening the lines of her outline she flipped her pencil over to start erasing parts of her messy sketching process when a sudden voice totally jolted her out of her creative zone.

“Dude! That’s so sick!”

At the unexpected sound Alya literally jumped in her seat, accidentally flinging her journal into the air, she fumbled for it but was surprised when she saw a hand shoot out and snatch it out of the air with surprising accuracy. Her eyes followed the hand to an arm, that (of course) connected to a body and finally up to the face of a boy with a rather sheepish expression.

“Oh uh, sorry about that dudette, didn’t mean ta spook ya…” The boy held her notebook back out to her with a wry smile while he used his other hand to rub the back of his neck in a somewhat anxious manner. Alya stared for a moment longer before she gingerly took her notebook back.
They stayed there like that for a bit before Alya cleared her throat and pointedly looked at the bench that she was sitting on and that the boy was standing in front of.

“So like, you gonna sit or…?”

The boy started. “Oh! Yeah!”

He slid into the empty spot next to her as she watched him with a critical eye.

“So, uh, I’m Nino!” His greeting was accompanied with a big goofy grin and a hand out clearly meant to be shaken. Alya’s eyes drifted from his face to his hand and back again before she slowly reached her own hand out and gently shook his, a small incredulous smile and a lifted brow adorning her face.

“Alya. It’s a pleasure to meet you, I think?”

Nino gave their hands a solid pump before releasing them and laughing. “You think? Gee what a vote of confidence!”

Alya’s face lit up pink as she scrambled for the right words but before she could say anything Nino chuckled again.

“It’s all good dudette, I was just joshin’ with ya. New student? I’ve never seen you before and I thought I knew everyone in our grade!”

Alya breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, yes, new. I am. Brand new and… a bit nervous if you couldn’t tell.”

Nino smiled softly. “No worries, jus’ remember to breathe It’s a new year, new classroom, everyone’s gonna be a lil off kilter.”

Alya blinked and smiled lopsidedly, a litter uncertain on how to answer that. His demeanor was a little clunky but he was very sweet. Alya was about to thank him for the sentiment when Nino gasped happily and shot up from his seat like a rocket. He made to sprint down the stairs, taking a half-aborted step before seeming to remember that Alya existed.

“BRB dude!! They’re setting up Mari!!” With those parting words Nino leapt away, taking the stairs two at a time and reaching the front of the classroom in three seconds flat. Alya’s eyebrows rose to her hairline as she watched him run like a track star.

‘…set up ‘Mari’? Is that a software or something?’ Alya craned her neck to look over the crowd that was beginning to gather at the door of the classroom. A man in a janitor uniform set up what looked like a mix between a charging port and a mini heli-pad on the right side of the front middle desk.

A kid with boxy hair, dark skin, overly chunky glasses and a short stature ceremoniously lifts something small, round and pink into the air.
“May I present the Markovinette v_6 hybrid! Now with battery AND solar power, privacy emoticons, hover capabilities, and historical camera logs that automatically get uploaded to the cloud!” A smattering of admiring oohs and applause. Is this a cult? Is Alya’s new class an orb-worshipping cult??
Abruptly Nino whipped around to look at her, grinning and beckoning her over. Alya narrowed her eyes in suspicion but curiosity won out over caution. Shrugging to herself Alya lifted herself off the desk bench and slowly made her way down to the crowd. Man, this class was short, huh? The kid with the pink ball was flanked by an even shorter light skinned girl with her multicolored hair in locs. She was holding a school notebook and pencil case that matched the pink of the ball that the nerdy guy was holding.

A petite blonde gal was chittering excitedly to an equally short girl with vibrant hot pink hair in a spiky side pony with a baseball cap and a slightly taller shy looking guy with red hair holding a sketchbook so tightly it looked like it might’ve been the only thing keeping him from drowning in social awkwardness.

“Yo! Max! I gotch’er big-ass binder!”

‘Ah,’ Alya thought as she glanced over to the voice, ‘so that’s where the class’s height was.’

A tall, buff guy with some (frankly, very dated) frosted tips and a short sleeve red hoodie pushed his way through the onlookers, his height dwarfing most of the people at the front of the crowd. “Thank you Kim! Please place it on the seat behind the charger port!” Directed the guy Alya guessed was Max, waving his hand in the general direction of the desk. “It will take a bit for the Markovinette to calibrate so our distant friend should be able to join us around noon, would anyone like to volunteer to be desk supervisor? Nino?”

Nino fist pumped so hard he bounced a little “YES! Score!!” He turned to Alya, the grin on his face bright as the sun. “You wanna join me dudette? The ‘bot’s not that big and Mari is always up to making new friends!”

Alya couldn’t help but lift an unimpressed eyebrow as she cocked her hip out to stand in a way she hoped portrayed her amused ire adequately. “Maybe if I had even a lick of context I’d be excited to sit next to the oversized gumball. Care to explain, like, literally anything?”

Nino’s eyes widened and his mouth popped open into a little ‘o’ shape. He removed his glasses and dragged a hand down his face in exasperation of his own scatterbrained-ness.

“Right, right! You’re new! Ugh, totally my bad broseph, of course you’d be confused! Ok, ok quick intro time! This-“ Nino traipsed over to the pink ball which Alya eyed in interest and could now see that there were black flower and butterfly decorations as well as a few slits over it that looked like they could open. “-will become Marinette’s temporary body!”

Alya blinked. Then blinked again. “Who’s what?”

Nino blinked back. “Oh, uh, right. So…” Nino shifted nervously from foot to foot and bit his lip. “I’m sure she’d rather tell you herself but, since you’re new it’d probably be better to give you a quick classroom crash course. Marinette is a friend of everyone in this class. I don’t want to go into details because it’s not my story to tell but, uh, something not cool happened and now she can’t come to school. Like, physically. But she’s still totally part of our class even if it’s from a distance! So like, originally she was just on a video pad, then on one with wheels that could move around, THEN max and his little genius brain started developing Markov who… actually… HEY MAX!”

Alya cringed at the sudden shout but couldn’t help the itching need to know literally everything about this weird little class. Mysterious circumstances? A collection of loud personalities? A secret GENIUS inventor?? There just had to be so so much more going on under the surface.
The kid with square hair and dorky glasses looked up from his conversation with the nervous redhead and the strong frosted tips dude (Kim?), a scowl on his face. “What, Nino? We’re kinda in the middle of brainstorming here.”

‘Okay…kinda rude but whatever,’ Alya thought, glancing sideways at Nino, he seemed totally unperturbed by Max’s prickly attitude so Alya decided to shrug it off. She didn’t know anyone yet, maybe this was just the usual dynamic.

“You got Markov on ya? We wanna ask it some questions!” Nino gestured to himself and Alya. Alya very much wasn’t sure what a Markov was or if she even wanted to be asking questions to one. Max curled his arms protectively around his shoulder bag, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

“What do you need to know that I can’t answer? Better yet, who even is that?” Max pointedly jutted his chin out in Anya’s direction, his tight grip on his bag never letting up.

Nino grinned and made little jazz hands motions towards Alya. “She’s a newbie! Pretty rare to have a transfer, right? And obviously she doesn’t know the whole sitch with Mari so we just wanted to get a closer look at Markov and maybe chat a lil with him so she could get a better grasp of the Maribot dealio!”

The wrinkle between Max’s eyebrows deepened and his eye twitched a little. Alya was starting to get a little sketched out by this guy, total mad scientist vibes. Max gave her a suspicious once over, glancing her up and down as if looking for any potential threats on her person which sent chills up the back of her neck.

He considered her a moment more before abruptly straightening his back and whipping out a hand towards her. “Name?”

Alya blinked a little dumbly as her brain struggled to catch up to the sudden change in demeanor. “Oh, um, I’m Alya.” She said, grabbing his hand in hers. Max pumped the handshake up and down once before letting go, his expression more open.

“Nice to meet you, Alya. Please do not listen to Nino when he calls Marcovinette the ...’Maribot.’ That title is overly simple and insulting. Marcovinette v_6 is a perfectly reasonable name considering the creation’s origins.” Max rolled his eyes and flipped his shoulder satchel open. He pulled out another orb, this one was blue and white with an obvious faceplate.

Max pressed and held the two nodules on either side of the ball until the faceplate lit up and two black dot eyes ‘opened.’ A grabber claw extended out the bottom and a small purple propellor out the top. A little bell jingle sounded as Markov rose up off Max’s hand, Max smiling like a proud parent. Which, he was…sorta, Alya supposed.

“So long as Nino supervises ask Markov whatever you want, just send him back to me before class starts.” Max punctuated his sentence by fixing Nino with an unnerving, wide eyed stare and the universal 2-fingered symbol for ‘I’m watching you.’ To which Nino responded with a Jaunty salute. Max nodded and returned to his previous conversation.

“Hello Nino and New Friend! Lovely morning, is it not?” Markov chirped.

Nino grinned again (which Alya was realizing quickly was his default expression.) “Sure is Markov! This is Alya! We were hoping to ask you some questions about the Maribot if you were chill with that?”

“Of course Nino and New Friend Alya! I would be happy to answer any questions you may have about my fellow creation! Shall we move to a quieter place away from the conversations so we may better concentrate on our own exchange?”

“Sure thing, lil dude! Lead the way my guy!”

Markov bobbed up and down in an approximation of a nod. Well, as much of a nod as something that’s pretty much just a head can do. The little bot flew ahead further into the classroom and away from all the people at the front. Nino motioned for Alya to move with him and follow the bot back.

“Um, by the way…” Alya glanced at Nino and he looked at her and tilted his head to indicate he was listening. “…what time does class even start?”
Nino looked back up to the front of the classroom and up at the clock on the wall. Class supposedly started at 7:30am, it was now just after 9am.
Nino looked back to Alya and halfheartedly shrugged. “Noon, maybe? Two pm? Madame Bustier sometimes doesn’t even show up on the first day to give us an opportunity to ‘reacquaint ourselves with the school,’ or something.”

Great, Alya thought, even the teacher is a total weirdo. This was either going to be a super long year or one of the shortest of her life and she had zero idea which was it was going to lean at this point.

Well… at least it certainly wouldn’t be boring…