Chapter Text

S N A P

Years had led up to this point. It had been a long time coming. Frankly it should have happened shortly after it started.

It had been years of lies and betrayals. The people she had thought were her closest friends had turned on her. Lila had been right from the start. Her classmates would turn on her. All because of lies.

Lies they shouldn’t have believed; they could be easily proven wrong. Could have easily just been thought about—a napkin, take an eye out?

Instead her classmates, at the time friends, had believed what a new student had told them. They wouldn’t have even bothered to look up through a clear window to see whether it was raining if Lila said that was why she had been an hour late.

A few times Marinette had believed that they’d believe her. Few times when it seemed that Lila’s lies had finally spun themselves around their spider queen. Times that the stories were so obviously fake that not even Ladybug herself could convince a child they were true.

And yet.

Still Marinette watched as her class raveled themselves into the latest of their queen’s web. She watched thread after thread of silk entangle them, bind their hands, wrap around their throats and bind them in place. Marinette knew the dangers of false promises. A promise to introduce to an idol was a happy dream, but a promise to get a special invite for a contest or an uncle that could but a fast-track to a life-goal. While a happy step today, would just be leading to a bigger fall, and with how high Lila had stacked her tales, her classmates wouldn’t survive the fall. And despite herself Marinette didn’t want that to happen.

“Of course I introduced MDC to Papa Jagged! I couldn’t let my protégé miss out on such talent.”

Marinette felt something inside her snap. Maybe instead of cushioning their fall, she’d be the one pushing them off.

C H A P T E R 1

Marinette wanted to scream. She wanted to throw all of Lila’s lies into her face right then. But she held back. After years of seeing the spider queen weave her web she knew tugging a few strands only wound the struggling flies in tighter.

‘Jagged Stone calls his adoptee’s Nieces and Nephews! So they call him Uncle Jagged!’

‘MDC, me, met Jagged Stone because of our service project at the hotel—all of you were there and saw me work with him!’

Nieces and Nephews? Well I am his favorite after all, I just didn’t realize everyone else was just a nephew. Silly Marinette, you shouldn’t claim to be MDC, I did meet him and his style is so different to your pathetic drawings. And just because you worked with him so long ago doesn’t mean you would be his solo-designer now.

Marinette scowled to herself, when had she gotten so good at impersonating Lila; even just in her head?

Before her classmates could spot any emotions on her face she relaxed into her blank stare. After the first months of being on her own she had learned to channel her emotional control into a mask. Hawkmoth would not be able to use her emotions, and neither would her classmates. Marinette was able to keep her mask on long enough to get by her classmate’s swarm passing them quickly.

Chloé joined her from her classroom door with a murmur, “they move faster than they think, at least.”

Marinette’s face scrunched as she snorted. Chloé returned her smirk with a side eye as they continued towards the school entrance.

“Lunch at your place, as usual?”

“Of course, a bakery is much less busy than the world famous Parisian hotel restaurant!” Marinette responded somewhat sarcastically. While the Bourgeois’ hotel was world famous, and the restaurant inside of it, they preferred the cozy corner bakery for their lunch breaks.

“Good, there are far too many visitors at the hotel nowadays.”

“Oh? No one cute enough show you interest then, Chol-Bee?”

Chloé scoffs at Marinette’s comment before adding, “we both know I wouldn’t be interested.”

At that both girls smiled to themselves. Chloé had only recently let Marinette know her biggest secret. And sharing had only brought them closer together.

Once Lila had finally made good on her threat to turn the class against Marinette, the bakers’ daughter had spent a few weeks alone in the back of the class. Quieted into submission Lila had begun turning the class on Chloé, who had also seen through Lila’s tall tales. As the long-time class tormentor she had not lasted nearly as long as Marinette, and had been moved to the back desk next to Marinette.

Their friendship had begun slowly, a borrowed pencil or sheet of paper, but both girls were alone and wishing for company. The first times visiting one another was awkward, having to repeatedly explain no it’s not a school project, yes, the two really did want to spend time together, yes Mama I am not being forced to say that! After Marinette’s parents had gotten used to seeing Chloé around the bakery their friendship had flourished quickly.

Until just a few weeks before Chloé had begun to pull away. After just a week of a quiet, shy Chloé avoiding the bakery Marinette cornered her after school. The small French-Asian girl may have inherited her mother’s small frame, but she had also gotten her strong glare.

“What’s going on? Are you tired of me? Or do I smell? I smell don’t I—I knew I should have kept that shampoo brand. But they changed the smell of it! And I just could— “

“No!” Chloé looked down, closed her eyes and sighed, she looked back up at Marinette, who had thankfully stopped her flow-of-consciousness word-vomit. “I… did some introspection and” Marinette searched her face. Chloé suddenly felt two small hands squishing her cheeks forward.

“Chlo, whatever it is, I know you’re a good person. Sure you’ve been mean and done some bad things. But you’ve grown up. You’re a good person, and you’re my friend.” Marinette slowly blinked and paused, removed her hands off of Chloé’s face. “I’ll stop now before I ramble, but I need you Chlo.”

Marinette turned around and walked away before slowing down and turning back. She smiled a small, sad smile, “you’re my friend, I need you with me.”

Chloé’s eyebrows immediately rose, and she could feel tears pulled from her eyes as she rushed to hug the small girl, her friend.

“I know Nette! And I love you! I’ll… I’ll work up the courage to tell you what’s up, ok?”

Marinette had imminently returned the hug, and as Chloé collapsed into it, she held them both up. At Chloé’s words she smiled into the blonde’s ponytail. “S’okay Chlo, we all have secrets we don’t share.”

At that Chloé pulled away a bit shamefully. “Well…” her feet shuffle underneath her and she kept trying to look anywhere but at the girl in front of her. “I do kind of know one you don’t share… little bug.”

Marinette blinked at her in confusion before trying to respond, “What? No—I… what!”

As Marinette flustered and batted the air in front of her Chloé started laughing, “there’s only one person in Paris that could put up with me. I know I’m ridiculous.” She stopped laughing and looked at her friend. She smiled sweetly at her, “and there’s absolutely only one person that could be so tiny and still so forceful!”

Marinette just kept sputtering. Chloé had gotten past her and had resumed heading back towards home before turning back around. She saw Marinette still faced away, where she had been. “I’ll figure out how to tell you okay? A secret for a secret?” Marinette finally turned to face her, mouth agape, before her kindness took over.

“You… you still don’t have to!”

“I know,” Chloé smiled from ear to ear, “but I do want to, after all we’re the best of friends.” She winked at Marinette before sitting into her waiting town car.

The next day Chloé sat down next to Marinette and immediately was writing up a storm. Every few minutes she would sigh or stop and look puzzled before flipping the page and resuming a writing frenzy. By lunchtime she had all but given up. On the back of her notebook cover she wrote a note to Marinette.

“Do you know what asexual means?”

She held the notebook open so Marinette could see it, Marinette’s eyebrows drew together in confusion while she nodded affirmatively.

Chloé breathed out heavily before continuing under it briefly, before holding it open again for Marinette to see.

“I don’t know exactly how much, but I do know that I am.”

Marinette could see Chloé nervously biting her lip, and looking like it was taking all of her power to keep the notebook cover up so she could finish reading.

Marinette reached over to take Chloé’s hand, before looking directly into her eyes and nodding once quickly. Still holding her hand, she wrote in her own notebook a quick heart, before pushing the page towards Chloé.

Seeing the little heart Chloé’s face relaxed into a small smile, and squeezing their hands. The two ended up without notes for the day.

~~~ ツ ~~~

The two girls stepped back onto the school grounds laughing, with twin sighs they split into their classes. The majority of the day they were able to sit next to each other, no one wanting to sit near the social pariahs meant they didn’t need to argue with anyone over seating arrangements.

But they weren’t that lucky in every class, Marinette had her fashion and business classes, were Chloé was instead focusing on public works and finance. She had grown up seeing her father waste his money and had seen her share of self-serving public officials. Chloé was determined to be different. After resolving to be a hero worthy of working beside Ladybug, she could see how she herself had abused various systems, and wanted to work towards fixing those. Even if she would never wear a miraculous again, even if Ladybug would never trust her—she could help from a civilian side.

Marinette’s class choices were obvious. Her worn sketchbooks were a constant presence at school. After a few ‘accidents’ she never left her sketchbook anywhere. She had tried switching to a drawing tablet, and even a portable tablet, but neither gave the same paper feeling that she hadn’t realized was a key part to her sketch process. So she carried a beat up binder, every day she would return home, scan in any sketches she had done and unclip them from the binder.

In her room, Marinette had several folders and binders full of her different styles, and had subscribed to different cloud services to store the sketch scans digitally. Experience had taught her caution. One of the more secure storage services even had date tags, so in future if needed she could prove exactly when they had been uploaded.

Marinette settled into the last row of her classroom, and waited for Ms. Bustier to return from lunch. She pulled out her sketch binder and started doodling a haughty high-fashion dress/tux. Nobody would ever wear such a monstrosity. And Marinette didn’t have an interest going to work on the non-functional fashion. But the over-the-top designs where always fun to play with. They were a good way to break out of her comfort zones and break and blocks she had.

After the lunch of Chloé complaining of all the visitors stuffing the hotel for the Paris’ fashion week, Marinette was feeling inspired to work on a few weird things.

She didn’t have tickets to see the show. And she didn’t even plan on trying to attend this year. Last year she had used her Ladybug powers to get onto a nearby roof to watch people enter, and hoped to get peeks into the show itself. Instead she had ended up late to an akuma from the show.

As soon as the akuma alert had gone off, none other than Chat Noir had landed next to Marinette on the roof next to the show. He had insisted on carrying her back to her balcony, and had fretted over how she’d had managed to get onto the roof.

It had taken the ground shaking from where the akuma was for him to finally leave without an answer, finally allowing Marinette to transform into Ladybug and follow him back across the Seine.

So this year she planned on laying low. The Chat hadn’t stopped by to see her for a month now, and figuring another akuma would present itself, she planned to sketch on her balcony. Then she would be able to easily leap into the battle, and return without having to create any excuses.

Her night didn’t go as planned.

Sitting on her balcony surrounded by her plants, she slowly blew bubbles. Nino had left behind some half-used bottles. She watched the bubbles jiggle in the air before popping on leaves. A few had popped over her open sketchbook, leaving soapy circles on the open page. Marinette paused and reached for the book. Her head tilted to the side and she reached for a pencil.

She drew a woman through the bubble, and sketched a few different bubble-inspired clutches to match a bubble dress.

Putting her sketchbook back down, Marinette looked over the Parisian skyline. Marinette could almost hear a thump as her old partner would drop down next to her.

Chat Noir’s civilian side had needed to return his miraculous to her before work moved him away from Paris.

They had spent a short patrol together before she had worked the nerve to ask what was so serious he had to preface their scheduled patrol.

“So… Chat?” They both avoided looking at one another. “What was it you needed to talk about?”

“Bug,” he sounded so solemn, so unlike his usual energetic nicknaming. “I’m moving, moving out of Paris.” At that their eyes met.

Ladybug was in disbelief. Even in her worst nightmares, ones where they only found out one another’s real names after being beaten by Hawkmoth, ones where she had to find his family to say he didn’t make it out but he would always be her hero. In all her nightmares, he was there. It was the two of them against the world after all.

“What?”

“My Father, he thinks it would be the ‘most beneficial to the company,’” his voice dripped in disdain. “I tried to convince him against it. I’d say you know him; I guess by know you do know enough…”

The two original heroes of Paris sat in silence. Ladybug trying to imagine how she would handle now being alone. Chat Noir sat trying to come up with any way he could get out of moving. The closest he had come would be to spend his time in London with his Aunt and Felix, but, even that would be too far to stay as Ladybug’s partner.

“The horse miraculous? You could use it to keep up with akuma… and we could patrol less so it wouldn’t be such a hassle.”

“No, Bug.” Chat sighed and looked over the top of Paris. His city. “As much as I would stay by your side, your partner needs to be here. You need someone who can help, even while in Paris I missed fights.”

Ladybug looked into his cat-eyes while he gazed over Paris. As much as she wanted him to stay, to stay her partner he looked like he was already finished saying goodbye to the city.

Tonight was just for her.

Chat Noir looked up at Ladybug, his eyes shined with unshed tears.

“The real question is how to go about handing over my ring?” He asked with such finality, not giving her the chance to argue. So she didn’t.

Instead she told him exactly what she thought of him. She started from the beginning, admitting his speech to the news on the first day of their heroing had been what got her to transform again. That through all his puns and jokes she saw that he helped her stay balanced. And that, anytime she doubted herself he was there to make sure she kept going.

Eventually her throat had become too filled with emotions and they sat on the roofs of Paris just holding one another’s hands. Two heroes crying silently.

Once the tears had dried up, and all that was left were heavy sniffles, Ladybug’s yo-yo buzzed.

“Wow, bed-time.” It felt like no time had passed, and that generations had passed.

“Right.” Chat patted his legs as he stood up. “So, how do we do this.”

Ladybug paused again. “I… don’t know. I never imagined this. Never imagined I’d be doing this without you.”

Chat Noir smiled down at her. “Even if I’m not next to you Bugaboo, doesn’t mean I won’t still be cheering you on.”

She gave him a watery smile, before accepting his hand and stood up. Not wanting to leave, she held onto his hand. They continued to just stare over the Parisian skyline, before Ladybug sighed and looked back at him.

“Well, I don’t know who you are. I know you’re my partner, and my most trusted friend. So, if you think we need to detransform for me to take your ring and get you home safe, say the word, Kit-Chat.”

He looked down at their hands for a moment before sighing. “Can you believe after all this time I’m going to say no?”

His gaze rose to meet hers. Her eyebrows were drawn together as she listened to him continue, “I’ll have to let you know who I am, I’ll need help sneaking back into my room. But, I’ll be in Paris packing for a few days. And, seeing how this will go, I don’t want to risk Hawkmoth finding out who you are. That’d be… that would be a bad send off.”

Ladybug nodded quickly. While fully ready to reveal herself as his princess, it wasn’t her first choice. What she did not expect was to be helping Adrien Agreste back into his bedroom that night. After holstering her yo-yo, she looked around the room a bit slack-jawed. No matter how many times she visited Adrien’s room it still managed to feel like too much, and now it had that added element that this was where her cat would start patrols, would be during so many akuma alerts starting.

She looked back at the boy in front of her, “well, kitty, pound it?” Ladybug held up her fist, quivering only slightly as she held back more tears.

Adrien let out a watery laugh before they bumped for the last time.

Returning to the present, Marinette looked around her balcony noting all the changes. Since taking the Black Cat miraculous her good luck had gone out of control. Not in her life, but in the small things. Where before she would need to swap her plants around, now she had far too many. Because of the small good fortunes none of her plants died, even at a sudden frost they managed to stay strong and she didn’t have the heart to toss them out. So her balcony slowly overgrew, where a cat-boy would sometimes join her was now full of catnip plants she managed to cultivate.

Glancing at her phone to check the time, Marinette was surprised, it looked like with the Agreste’s taking time off from the Paris fashion show there hadn’t been anyone hurt enough to become akumatized.

Marinette kept in touch with Adrien as much as possible. She liked all of his social media posts, and had thought of hanging a map to track his travels. But that had seemed too pre-teen Marinette crush style. Instead she’d get the occasional photo of an Adrien selfie, someone from his father’s entourage in the background. Their trip of ‘cultural inspirations’ began in Tibet. They were now traveling around in the Americas.

Adrien had said even though they’d share a handful of rooms he still wouldn’t see his father often, sometimes days at a time would pass before he’d spot him in the hotel cafeteria sipping a coffee.

Even though he didn’t talk much to Marinette about it, he seemed disappointed that in close quarters his father still managed to avoid him.

Marinette finally figured out why Gabriel Agreste could manage to be so distant to his son even while traveling. Adrien had just posted a photo of him back in Paris. After sitting bolt upright and confirming that no, this wasn’t a remember-when photo, Marinette dashed out of the bakery, she tracked down where Adrien had mentioned he would be. She managed to convince him to finding Andre’s together. Starting as a concerned friend, something was tickling in the back of her mind, Marinette started putting pieces together.

Adrien’s posts were normally when he was feeling the loneliest. Normally when he hadn’t seen his Father. It was always around those times one of the vicious akumas would appear in Paris.

Now knowing that Adrien and Chat Noir were the same, she rethought his defense of his father. He had been so sure Gabriel Agreste was not Hawkmoth. But then why did he have a miraculous book? Who else would be able to work from home, no boss keeping a watch for any lunch-time akuma, or to be scolded for staying late to release a midnight villain. For what other reason could a trip from the Agreste travels, to Paris in time for an akuma attack occur for. Every. Akuma.

Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth.