Chapter Text
Gabriel watched over his young sleeping son, contemplating his decision as the melancholic rain tapped against the outside of the windows.
He could feel the sorrow, heartbreak, and confusion radiating from Adrien even as he slept, each one causing him to curl up tight and his face scrunch in pain. The beautiful wings on his back, black with each feather tipped in white like a starling's and still riddled with fluffy down-feathers, twitching with tension and anxiety. The recent news of his Mother’s disappearance had all these emotions still raw and un-soothed, something no seven year old child should ever have to endure.
Those horrible feelings, rather than deterring Gabriel, only strengthened his resolve.
The Graham de Vanily wedding band slid easily off of Gabriel’s finger, and as he clutched it in his hand, he called out for the first time in a long while, “Nooroo.. Wings Rise.”
His suit was colored in gentle lavender and soft silver details. It still looked as beautiful as the day Emilie said it made him look like a prince and inspired the name, Monarch.
The wedding band was carefully slipped onto Adrien’s finger, too big for his still young hands. But his hand clenched as it was put in place, like he had just been given a drowner’s lifeline.
Monarch then went to the window and crashed it open, summoning a little white butterfly from outside to land in his open palm. Covering it, he silently commanded for his magic to imbue into the little creature. When it was revealed once more, it’s colors now reflected his own silver and lavender. He then reapproached his son’s bedside.
It felt off, using a Blessing, imbued with positive emotions, on someone who wasn’t feeling any of the necessary feelings, only dark ones. But Monarch dismissed the concern in favor of his goal.
Gently, he set the Blessing onto the ring on Adrien’s finger and it disappeared into it.
He could feel the conflict between the good emotions inside the Blessing and the bad ones festering inside of Adrien. But the good seemed to win out as suddenly the boy was relaxing into his sheets, and his body was cocooned in glowing lavender ribbons.
When the lavender light dispersed, there was someone a little different left in Adrien’s place. This boy had hair white as snow, and when his eyes slightly fluttered and then closed again, Monarch saw glacial blue instead of spring green. Another glance revealed that the beautiful dark wings of Adrien were nowhere to be seen, not even a feather left behind.
“White Rose,” Monarch whispered, the flicker of a lavender butterfly outline hovering before his Champion’s face. “You have a desire to see your Mother again, and make your Father happy like he once was. No one should suffer because of something that was meant for good but had been broken and only caused pain. So I give you the power to save those who have been harmed by that broken item, and restore what is meant to be.”
A beat of silence and another fluttering of blue eyes, but White Rose did not stir.
The outline flickered again, and then it was gone like a popped fuse.
Monarch, confused, tried to establish the connection when he felt it fizzle out. But he received nothing. Worried, he reached out to the Blessing directly and tried to pull at it. It didn’t budge, instead, it seemed to fight back. Pain split through Monarch’s head and he gasped, stumbling back.
He had lost connection and control to his own Blessing and Champion.
Monarch realized now why he shouldn't have mixed his magic with the darker emotions that were not meant to be touched by the light of a Blessing. He was uncertain he would be able to retrieve the Blessing at all now, not without breaking the ring he held dearly.
So instead, he gently opened White Rose’s hand and pulled the Graham de Vanily ring from his finger.
“Wings Fall, Nooroo.” As soon as Gabriel was back to himself, he slid the ring back onto his own finger. “I will keep this safe for you, Adrien, until you are ready.” He turned to walk away before pausing, glancing back with sympathy and regret.
“Please be okay. I can’t lose you, too.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
Marinette was born with small fluffy wings on her back. Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng were wing-less, so it was reasonable that they were taken by surprise when their child inherited genes they themselves had not.
Tom liked to call her their little croissant because her soft fledgling wings held the golden-browned color of baked bread. Sabine told him it wouldn't stick, and they had no clue what color her mature feathers would take on. And Marinette’s mother was correct.
As their daughter grew, so too did her wings. The soft baked gold greyed and the soft down was slowly covered by sleek feathers. Soon enough her wingspan became larger, almost outdoing her own height from wingtip to wingtip.
It wasn’t until she was eight, when her wings were finally mature enough for flight, that Tom and Sabine were able to say for certain where her wings had come from in the family tree.
“She’s going to have the wingspan of a Common Crane like your mother,” Sabine chuckled as she watched little Marinette squeak as she fumbled to catch a stack of trays she knocked off a shelf with her wings.
“Yes, she is a marvelous little Crane, isn’t she?” Tom chuckled. “She already has that beautiful grey ombre of a Demoiselle like your great-Grandmother.”
“You're right! She even has those lovely and decoratively long tertiary feathers, too.”
“I thought only boy birds had fancy feathers,” Tom teased his wife.
She elbowed him gently and laughed. “You already know it’s disproved that humans don’t follow the same patterns as birds, Tom, we never have. Anyone can find beauty in another’s feathers.”
“Or lack of,” he adds on, kissing his wife atop her head and causing her to nod and laugh.
Marinette continued to grow, wings and all. When she was nine, she found a new passion in knitting, crochet, embroidery, and sewing. She had loved to draw since she was a toddler, but these new crafts allowed her to bring her imagination to life.
At ten, she purchased her first magazine. The cover featured a white haired and wingless boy her own age, the article titled: `For the FIRST TIME EVER, the public eye meets the MUSE and SON of Gabriel Agreste!’
Tom and Sabine got a good laugh out of the fact that she completely ignored the boy and the article, “She hasn’t hit a boy-crazy faze, thank goodness,” and instead only looked at the fashion and design related pages.
Unfortunately, they also would later witnessed Marinette begin to go through some social rough patches as well, and she vented it through her creations. Something she had meant to show off turned into a source of bullying on her very first day of secondary school, collège, when she was eleven. Marinette had been researching and learning fashion’s history around wings. She learned that higher beauty standards from the upper social classes meant that some people would often bind their wings as a way to keep their postures straight and elegant. She also learned there were ways to hide one’s wings below their clothing, techniques differing from wing-type to wing-type and body-type to body-type.
So during the summer break after her last day of primary school, preparing herself for her first days of secondary school, Marinette set out to make a wing-binder for herself. She succeeded in making two different types in her multiple attempts.
The first one she made was a simple netting, a style and technique that had been around for thousands of years. The netting was intended to slide underneath and between the feathers to rest perfectly out of sight. It’s use ranged from simple posture enhancement, to flight prevention in those who might injure themselves if they tried to fly when they were not ready.
The second type she made was actually more of a corset style, as it would wrap around the torso as well, not just the wings themselves. This style was one intended for hiding wings completely from sight, with the assistance of the proper style of clothing to layer over it. She had made two of this type, one each for two different ways to hide the wings.
The first was basic and classic, her wings meant to be held tight against her back with the ends of her wingtips made to drop down to the back of her legs. This one was best suited to be paired with tight shirts, loose pants, and an over-shirt, shawl, or jacket.
The second was more lax but harder to keep in position for long amounts of time. Her wings were to be spread, dipping under her arms and either over her chest or under her bust, whichever was more comfortable and-or suited the binding’s cut. This style was best paired with a dress or a loose shirt and skirt.
Marinette wanted to wear one of the wing-corsets, hoping to see a few of her friends from primary school and surprise them with her new ability to change her appearance. Sabine and Tom supported her in her excitement. Wanting her to have a comfortable day, they suggested she use the style that wraps her wings around her, especially since it looked like it might rain, and her wings would keep her warm.
When she returned home for lunch, she seemed tired and a little wet from the weather, but happy. Marinette explained that the Mayor’s daughter herself attended Collège Françoise Dupont with her, and was excited to get to know her. She had also seen Nino, Alix, and Kim, but none of her other old friends. The three that were there had been surprised, though, so she was overjoyed to have gotten their reactions and awe. She even asked them to keep her wings a secret so she could surprise the rest of the class with them later.
When Marinette went back to school for the rest of the day, the Dupain-Cheng couple were happy for their daughter. But neither one knew the news of the Mayor’s child would turn out to be bad luck for their precious daughter and her beautiful wings.