Work Text:
- Marinette was signed up to join a lion dancing group with Kim as Kim dragged her in and her mom want her to be close to her roots.
- For Kim’s case, he saw Lion Dancing at France’s Chinatown and wanted to join, cause the stunts!
- Lion Dancing is common among Chinese and Vietnamese Communities
- When Marinette first started, she was fine with it until she learned to love the sport.
- With Marinette’s smaller frame, she is the one who controls the head of the Lion, she has to perform a lot of lifts and kicks while Kim is holding her.
- (Was thinking of writing irony? or was it another word, where Marinette is the one at the tail end of the lion but it sounds risky for a girl with a smaller frame to carry a larger boy. Maybe Buff! Marinette could but still don’t want to risk it)
- In competitions, Marinette and Kim always perform on the lion dancing pedestals.
- During Chinese New year, they would perform the Lion Dance at France’s Chinatown
- They sometimes compete against other lion dance groups too
- So, both Marinette and Kim are buff enough, but not too noticeable for Marinette’s case as she is mostly performing as the head and it weighs as much as 15lbs or less than 7kg (so maybe a watermelon?)
- Marinette is one of the few girls that joined the Lion Dance group as Lion Dancing is still very much a boy’s club
- As Ladybug, nothing much changed except she can jump really high.
- Marinette is less clumsy here because one misstep on the pedestal could mean injury but like how some dancers are graceful when dancing but clumsy in real life, that’s Marinette.
- Childhood friends Kim and Marinette is a must in this AU
- Marinette and Kim trust each other, like Ladybug and Chat Noir levels of trust.