Chapter Text
“Lila Rossi?” Adrian asked.
Marinette nodded, rubbing her temples in an attempt to relieve her headache. “In the show, she lied for attention. I don’t know much about her. She only showed up in the first season once, but from what I picked up from the fandom, she threatened and bullied canon Marinette in the following seasons. I don’t know how much of that is fanon though. Something about chameleon salt… I think that might have been an episode name.” Marinette bit her lip. “I’m not too certain, really.”
Adrian hummed. “So how big of a threat is she?”
“Apparently she was willing to work with Hawkmoth to get what she wanted, like willingly and not just brainwashed in the heat of negative emotion. I’d say she’s a goon level minor annoyance. If I recall correctly, all she does is lie and throw tantrums when things don’t go her way.”
“Well, we’ve already dealt with Hawkmoth, so what’s the problem?”
“I don’t know.” Marinette frowned, fiddling with her bracelet. “Just a bad feeling, I guess.”
“Like scary magic intuition bad feeling?”
Marinette huffed and rolled her eyes. “Just keep your guard up. Things aren’t canon anymore, if they ever were, but that doesn’t mean things will be peaceful.”
“Things are never peaceful with us.” Adrian muttered as he opened the door to their classroom for them. Marinette hooked their arms together, ready to begin their dating charade.
Their classmates were clustered around two unfamiliar people.
“Oh gods, there’s two of them,” Marinette groaned quietly as she buried her face into Adrian’s arm. No wonder her instincts had been going off all morning, giving her the massive headache she was dealing with right now.
“Hey dudes,” Nino called. “Glad you guys aren't too busy making out to get to class on time.”
“Hey Nino, who are they?” Adrian asked, eyeing the two unknowns behind his bright smile.
“New students,” Alya beamed at them, excited to spread news.
“They’re twins!” Rose chirped.
“Hi, I’m Lila.” the female twin greeted, giving Marinette a politely dismissive look and zeroing in appreciatively on Adrian.
“Fabrizio. Just call me Zio,” the male twin smiled, his eyes sweeping calculatingly over the two reincarnators and lingering on Marinette in a predatory way.
“You expected there to be one Rossi, but you were wrong, there is me, Zio.” Marinette mumbled into Adrian’s ear, trying to ignore her growing headache. Could they be any more obvious?
Adrian choked on air and turned away as he attempted to cover up his laughter as a coughing fit. “Mari!” he hissed, sending her a glare with no heat.
Marinette gave Adrian a cheshire’s grin before turning back to their two new classmates and giving them a customer service smile that was so natural only Adrian could tell the difference. “I’m Marinette and that’s my boyfriend Adrian. It’s nice to meet you two.”
“Sickeningly sweet as always,” Alya cooed teasingly.
“Marinette’s the class president and big sister, if you need anything, just go to her.” Alya explained needlessly.
“Hey, doesn’t Zio mean uncle in Italian?” Adrian asked.
Fabrizio gave a short chuckle. “Yeah, I was something of an older brother for my old class too, kind of like you.” He said, giving Marinette a playful wink. “But they called me uncle because it’s already in my name.”
Marinette gave him a polite nod, customer service smile still on her face. “How interesting! I’m sure you’ll fit in just as well here.”
Thankfully Bustier came in and the class dispersed and went to their seats. Marinette was seated in the back and away from either of the Rossi’s who apparently liked to sit up front.
-
“There’s something off about them,” Adrian commented once they’d made it to their hero hideout that they still didn’t have a name or code for. “They’re magical aura is too strong for people without cores. Or is that a twin thing?”
“Twins with magic have a habit of either cancelling or amplifying each other’s powers. So yes, it’s probably the twin thing. What I thought was interesting is that it doesn’t feel completely human in nature.” Marinette answered, taking notes on the things she’d noticed about the Rossi twins before she forgot them. “An atavism, I’m guessing.”
“Magical creature blood, abilities, and no training.” Adrian nodded. “That’s not a good combination. On the bright side, they’re probably not even aware they have magic and they definitely can’t use it if they haven’t formed a core.”
“A fairly safe assumption but there is a chance they could learn and figure it out on their own.” Marinette tapped her pencil against the pages of her notebook. “We should figure out what they’re descended from to prepare...” She words devolved into mumbling over her notes.
Adrian huffed. “You’re being paranoid. They’re just kids.”
Marinette stopped tapping as she pursed her lips and gave her partner a dirty look.
He rolled his eyes and leaned back against the bookshelves. “Yes, yes. I know. Be prepared for anything. Don’t underestimate someone based on their age, gender, alignment, or anything else.”
“They won’t be kids forever.”
Adrian sighed but despite his misgivings, he gave his own observations. “I’m certain their magic has a connection with the moon but it’s not a moon alignment. It’ll take a while to sort through the possibilities but I’m positive that what they use is metaphysical in nature.”
Fortune telling, illusions, mind reading, mind control, hypnotism, puppeteering… that sort of thing.
“And that Fabrizio kid is the stronger twin.”
Marinette nodded, she’d noticed that too. “At least they’re not descended from Selkies, the magic doesn’t feel quite like that special signature combination feeling. I can’t rule out Sirens though.”
“Thank the gods,” Adrian muttered. Selkies were a pain to make enemies of as their songs could neutralize or strengthen certain kinds of magic. Sirens, while more vicious, were far more manageable.
“I know you’re busy planning how to take them down but don’t you think we should train them or something?” Adrian asked. “Untrained magic users can be pretty dangerous.”
“I'm biased but they seemed to me like the kind of people who would abuse power. Trained magic users willing to abuse their powers, particularly when dealing with mind magics, seem far more dangerous, if you ask me.”
Marinette sighed and leaned back into the couch she sat on. “But I’ll leave it up to you to decide if they should be trained but please learn what kind of people they are before you make that decision. Watch them for two months, at the very least.”
Adrian nodded.
“And ask the Beaumont's, the Li’s and Father for advice.” Marinette ran a hand through her hair. “You should also-”
“Marinette,” Adrian stressed. “I get it, I’ll be careful. Stop worrying.”
“Telling me to stop worrying isn’t going to make me stop.” she hissed. Nevertheless, she forced herself to relax.
This was actually written a while ago, when I wanted an eviler Rossi than Lila.
In this fic, Lila's basically a minor inconvenience because reincarnated Marinette used to be and sometimes still is worse than Lila when it comes to manipulations and the like. So I needed someone worse than Lila to be the bad guy and since Adrian is also a reincarnator, it can't be Adrian salt. So I made Fabrizio the magical stalker creep to pick up the slack. He's where I was going to shove all the Adrian salt, but he's since been replaced since I couldn't figure out how to fit him into the timeline. Might save him for another fic.