Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Inko smiled softly at the prim women before her as she hummed around he tea, testing it as she always did with a careful sip before setting the cup back on the table.  She did not remove her hands form the cup, for all her spatial awareness was good, because she had no other need of her hands.

“It is acceptable.”

Inko couldn’t help but giggle around her own tea.  “You say that every time, and you’re the one who picks this place every time!”

The woman scoffed lightly, but the corner of her mouth twitched up.  “It is easy to make poor tea, no matter this being its home country.  It is much harder to make good tea; it requires patience and attention.  I will test every cup of tea that comes my way to see if it is up to the standards of the Dragon Clan.”

Inko’s smile fell a little but she hummed around her tea, taking another sip.  It really was good tea, her sister-in-law chose good places.

“Inko, tell me, how is your son?”

She lit up once more, eager to talk about her little boy.  “Oh, he’s wonderful!  He is doing more analysis on heroes from home or from news clips.  I just don’t feel it’s safe to go up to the fights, anything can happen, and he had a scare a few months ago, so he understands.  I can’t hardly understand all the things he says, he’s so smart!”

The woman hummed.  “And has his treatment gotten better?”

Inko faltered.  “He hasn’t… he hasn’t told me anything is wrong, but ever since he’s stopped going to in person hero fights, he hasn’t been able to pass off his bruises as getting jostled in the crowd, and there’s only so many times I can accept that he was roughhousing with his classmates before it looks like bullying.  How do you handle it?”

“Well, France is different.  They have higher populations of the quirkless, so having a daughter with a very non-visible quirk is easier.  Of course, it might be helped by people knowing that she has a quirk, but if it is, indeed, mine, then it does not do much for her.  And here no one would dare disparage her where it might get back to me.”

“Tomoe…” Inko bit her lip, “I know you want us to claim relations, but your family disowned Hisashi.  We’re not technically related and you aren’t the head of the family, you can’t make that decision…”

She huffed.  “I am aware.  The elders are of a strong stance that you cannot claim the family name, but I think it is ridiculous.  I hold you to be my own, more family than my idiot of a brother ever was.”

Inko smiled.  “I understand why they disowned him, though.  It was bad enough already, but his choice of name…”

Tomoe grumbled lightly, scowling.  “He brought his dishonor on himself, the family was not about to take the fall for him after that display.”

“I’m just glad we still talk.”

“The one thing my brother did right was choosing you, Inko.  I will always visit with you when I am in Japan.”

Inko slowly moved her hand to cup one of the woman’s and smiled.  “Thank you. Really.  And how is Kagami?  I know you talked about enrolling her in public school soon, and she has that french boy friend?  What was their family name, the… Agrestes?”

Tomoe hummed.  “Indeed.  I don’t know about public school, but she might enjoy it.  It certainly wouldn’t help with her education, she is more than capable of learning with her tutors.  As for the Agrestes, their business sense is… interesting.  The madam of the house is struggling with the loss of her husband, as you know, a year ago now.”

Inko sighed.  “Such a tragedy.  I’ve seen her movies, she is lovely and seemed very kind.  And a pro hero, I believe?  Izuku likes her.”

“Yes.  But she has always wanted to send Adrien to public school so he could have friends outside of their public lives, and he wants Kagami to come with him so he isn’t alone.  It seems this next year is the one for the Agrestes.”

Tomoe paused and cocked her head, light flashing off of the black glasses.

“He speaks Japanese with my daughter, and she speaks French rather well.”

“Tomoe…”

“France has a higher population of quirkless individuals,” she mused, pressing on, “and he would be with his cousin and at least one other person who would speak the language.  In addition, there are two months before school, so he could pick up a lot.  Plus, he is an intelligent boy, he would do well in school even if he didn’t understand the language.  Yes, we could take him.”

Inko felt tears welling up in her eyes, the famous Midoriya Waterworks and held a hand over her mouth.  “I, I couldn’t ask that of you. Raising a child is already a full time job, but raising two?”

“Nonsense,” Tomoe waved her hand, “he is a delightful child and I have staff to handle most of the chores, allowing me to spend time with them as we may.  It would be a joy to have another child in the house and to teach him the family ways since my idiot brother did not and will not.”

“But it would be so expensive, travel and living, I couldn’t possibly-”

“He is a Tsurugi,” Tomoe interrupted, “and no Tsurugi is a burden.  It would be a gift.”

Inko couldn’t help the tears at this point and something like relief settled in her, knowing that her boy would be safe with her sister-in-law.

Izuku stared numbly at the dashboard of the car as his mother drove him to the airport to meet up with his aunt.  His mom and aunt would always get together when they were in the same town and talk to each other.  It was maybe once a year that his cousin visited as well, and they were often busy with family and business things, so he didn’t see them often.  The two mothers always met, but Izuku often had school in their free time, and Kagami was most often in France.

And now he was living with them for at a minimum, a year.

The school years were off put a little, giving him a month's head start and two months to acclimate to the language.  He knew he could do it, he had taught himself English in a flat four weeks because All Might knew it and therefore it was cool, but his mother had barely asked for his opinion, saying that this would be a wonderful opportunity for him and it would be nice to get away from his… friends.

She knew, he felt, about the bullying.

It hadn’t been as bad recently, he wanted to say, but for middle schoolers, they could be vicious at hitting him where it wouldn’t be visible or it wouldn’t leave marks.

…Maybe this was for the best.

He met his aunt at the drop-off point at the airport and murmured a polite greeting.  She nodded once and began to walk, never hesitating and effortlessly gliding around people and obstacles and he couldn’t help but wonder, itching to bring out his notebook and write things down, even though he had analyzed her quirk years ago.

Tsurugi Tomoe, you see, was blind.

Her quirk, named Surround Sense, allowed her to effectively “see” the surrounding area using an extra sense that gave her some indication of what was around her.  It wasn’t truly sight, but it allowed her to function relatively unimpeded as long as they were within her range. Her range had increased steadily throughout her young life, extending to 30 meters when she was about twenty five.  Occasionally she would have more or less, but that was her general, all-purpose range.

His cousin, Kagami, likely had the same quirk, but because she also had her original sight, she essentially only had slightly better sense of things behind her, making it almost impossible to sneak up on her.  Of course, her range was a mere 5 meters by Izuku’s best guess (there was no confirmation that she actually had a quirk, let alone the same one as her mother) because she never had to use it.

The flight was quiet, which he was thankful for.  It was a private plane, of course, because the Tsurugi spared no expense for their heir, for his aunt, and the only people on the plane were him, his aunt, and a few of the family personnel who had come on the trip back to Japan, but they were apart from the two, and Izuku could watch as his home country that he had never left before fell away under the clouds, replaced with expanseless white, grey, and pale blue.

The flight was fifteen hours long and he watched as the sky melted into vibrant colors before fading to black and he told himself he would go to sleep soon.

He didn’t manage to sleep.

It was late at night, or rather, early in the morning, that they landed and a fancy car drove them to the Tsurugi manor.  Izuku tried to ignore the wealth his father’s family had and trudged up the stairs, calling out a quiet “I’m home” as he slipped his shoes off and let himself be led to what would be his room for the next year.

He fell asleep as soon as his body hit the bed.

It was well into the day when he woke up and wandered out, padding softly through the house that was far more western than he was used to.  He didn’t see anyone on his journey, but as he wandered, he heard a slightly muffled sound of a voice he vaguely recognized as his cousin, so he nudged open the door lightly and poked his head in.

It was probably Kagami, but he couldn’t really tell because she was in full fencing gear, thrusting the foil and working through moves he recognized from old movies where the sword fighting was more like fencing anyway.  Occasionally she would vocalize something, but for the most part she was simply breathing.

Izuku watched, mesmerized by the movement and fluidity of his cousin, something he had never been able to manage.  He was clumsy, everyone said so, he could never be like that in a million years.

Another reason he’d never be a hero.

“Are you just going to stand there?”

He jolted and his head shot up to make eye contact with the girl, mask lifted up to reveal sharp and calculating eyes.

“Um, I-I, I don’t…?”

She raised an eyebrow and narrowed her eyes.  “You do not fence?  Ah, yes, it isn’t something they teach in public school.”

He blinked.  “I hear it’s a club…?”

She snorted.  “An extracurricular, but not necessary.  And based on what I have heard, no one would have wanted you there and done anything to remove you from any of these clubs.  So you do not know how to fence.”

He felt his face go red and shook his head silently.

She hummed and tossed the foil in her hand to him.  He stumbled forward to catch it and it bounced back and forth before clattering to the ground.  He scrambled to scoop it up again, blushing in mortification and averting his eyes, fearing she would mock him.  Other than a slight sigh, she made no noise and he carefully raised his gaze.

Unlike her mother, Kagami’s hair was more blue than black, and her eyes were, in fact, visible, since she wasn’t blind.  They were a warm brown, which didn’t match the lack of emotion on her face, but they held no judgement.

“Come.  I will show you the forms and then we will eat.”

She poked and prodded him into the correct stance and taught him the basic forms.  He strained and stretched before she called it done and she walked him down to the dining room where there were light foods, foods he recognized and he slumped in relief to see the comfortable things.

Kagami didn’t talk to him as they ate, and he would have found it awkward except for the fact that she didn’t seem to talk at all.  Were he not being ignored, he would have been forced to make small talk with the cousin who he barely saw, so for that, at least, he was grateful.  He felt like he was intruding, almost.

“I know why you have come here,” she said abruptly, not looking up, “and you will be fine.  The Tsurugi protect their own, and despite my uncle, you are a Tsurugi.”

Izuku flinched and blinked up at her, knowing his eyes were far too wide.

She met his eyes and nodded once before finishing her food and standing.

“Come, I will help you with your French.”

He slowly got up from the table before scrambling after her, trying to keep up with her purposeful strides.

It seemed this was his life now, and he didn’t know how he felt about it quite yet.

Chapter Text

Izuku stumbled over the words once more and huffed out in frustration.

Kagami repeated the phrase in French, “can you explain this to me again,” something he might no doubt be using a lot when they went to school in several weeks, slowly enunciating the words and putting on the correct accent.  The language was sibilant and flowing, not unlike Japanese, but none of the words were similar.  There were some that reminded him of English words, which made them easier, but wrapping his mouth around the sounds and consonants he never had to really think about before stressed him out.  It didn’t help that as he got more agitated and lost focus, he started slurring and speaking in a thick accent.  He wasn’t stumbling for any reason, was the thing, it was just the fact that he was in a depressive rut.

Kagami frowned.  “It is not the words you are having trouble with.  You know the meanings and how to say them.  Izuku, what is wrong?”

He pursed his lips and shook his head.  “I’m just getting frustrated, it’s nothing.  We can keep going.”

She hummed.  “I think we should finish here for a while.  Perhaps some fencing will do you good.”

“Not every problem can be solved with fencing,” he grumbled, “not everyone is like you.”

He still wasn’t great at fencing, but either she didn’t hear him or she ignored him, purposefully walking off and fully expecting him to follow her to the dojo where they’d each take a foil and mask before engaging in what was some of the only physical activity he would get.

He didn’t want to leave the house ever.  Aunt Tomoe was often out on business, and didn’t want to leave the house when she returned, preferring indoor activities with her daughter and nephew, and Kagami was often busy with school work or reading, fully content to not spend more time out of the house than required.  Sometimes he would sit out in the garden and just breathe, and it wouldn’t seem all that different than back home, but the smells and sounds were all wrong and it just made him more depressed.  It was easier to deny that his life had been turned on his head when he didn’t have to confront it.

When Kagami won for the fourth time in a row he threw his foil aside  and ripped off the mask, tossing it to the side and sliding down the wall to bury his face in his knees.  He didn’t want to think about this, but of course anytime he was left in his own thoughts, he did.  He couldn’t help it.

“Izuku?”

“Leave me alone,” he muttered, knowing he was too quiet and muffled for her to hear him.

“Are you alright?  I can draw back on my training to give you a better chance-”

“It's not about the fencing,” he snapped, feelings threatening to close up his throat, “I know you’re better than me, you always will be, that’s not a problem.  I don’t care if you beat me every time.  If I won, I’d accuse you of going easy on me.”

“Then I cannot fathom the problem.  If you do not tell me what is wrong, I cannot help you.”

“You can’t help me,” he choked out, furious that his eyes were stinging, “no one can.  And who would want to?”

He laughed a little and felt her frown above him.

“Izuku-”

“Stop,” he gasped, hugging his knees tighter, “I can’t do this.  I can’t do any of this!”

“…Something tells me we are still not talking about fencing.”

He chuckled weakly, lifting his head and leaning it back against the wall, staring at the ceiling.

“No.  And we’re not talking about learning French or keeping up with my studies either.”

She remained silent for a moment, musing over things before she held out a hand.

“Come, I have an idea.”

He slowly looked at her to see her face as impassive as ever. He searched her expression for something, anything, but the trace of annoyance wasn’t there.  If anything, she looked sad and understanding, but that didn’t make sense.

She tugged on his hand and pulled him out of the room, putting her phone up to her ear as she did, speaking in French.

“Come hang out with me and my cousin.  I don’t care where we go or what we do, but we’ll meet you at the park near your house.”

She didn’t wait for a response before hanging up and they simply walked out the house after slipping on their shoes.  Kagami barely let go of him for that, immediately grabbing him as soon as they were outside again.

Izuku could feel himself locking up a little, eyes darting around to look at all these people who looked so different.  He wasn’t about to judge anyone on appearances, of course, mutation quirks were rampant and abound in Japan as well, but he could tell from the people, the fashion, and the architecture that this was not home in the slightest and it made something crawl up his throat in discomfort.

He hissed at Kagami that they should go back but she resolutely ignored him and her iron grip on his hand never faltered.

After a few minutes of walking, he began to loosen slightly, looking around and falling back into old habits, finding comfort in the different quirks he could see.

France had vastly different quirk laws than Japan; for one, public quirk usage was not criminalized unless it was used on another person or entity without permission or caused property damage.  Because of the more lenient restrictions, vigilantes were also more common under typical Japanese definitions, and it wasn’t cracked down on as much.  Of course, heroes still got preference and if a vigilante civilian refused to back out of the fight when a hero was on the scene they could get arrested for obstruction of justice. On the other hand, civilians on the scene could offer to help if they had a suitable quirk, but they still had to be given permission from the heroes to engage.  It was a little complicated, in Izuku’s opinion, but it meant that people used their quirks openly in everyday life, meaning he got to see them being used.

“That’s an interesting thought!  Nice to meet you!”

He flinched at the Japanese coming from a voice he hadn’t heard before and spun around to see a grinning blond boy.  They were in a park now and Kagami didn’t seem alarmed that this guy had just come up.

“I’m Adrien Agreste, you must be Kagami’s cousin!”

Izuku blinked.  “O-oh.  Um, yes, hello.  I’m Midoriya Izuku… er, no, in France you say given names first, Izuku Midoriya.  I-It’s nice to meet you as well, Agreste-san.”

Adrien chuckled and waved him off.  “No no, just call me Adrien.  I was glad to get Kagami’s call, I’ve been meaning to meet you since I heard you were going to be staying here for a while!”

Izuku pursed his lips and gently pried Kagami’s hand off of him.  Now that they had arrived and met the intended target, as it were, her grip had loosened.

He swallowed.  “Your… your Japanese is very good.”

Adrien beamed.  “Thanks!  I’ve only really had Kagami to practice with, but my mother says it’s important to learn a lot of languages.  If you ever want help with French from someone other than Kagami, definitely give me a call!  It’s good practice for me too!”

“For practice,” Kagami said in French, “we should speak mostly in French.  There is no other way Izuku will learn than with real conversation.  Now, what shall we do today?”

“It depends,” Adrien easily switched into his native tongue but went mercifully slightly slower, “what parts of Paris have you already seen, Izuku?”

“Ah,” he stumbled slightly over the words, “none of them?  I have stayed at home all the time…”

Adrien gave an exaggerated gasp and put a hand on his heart before breaking out in a grin.

“Then we have to show you everything!  Let’s go to the Louvre!  Everyone loves the Louvre!  Do you like art at all?  What are your interests and hobbies?”

Izuku bit his lip.  “Ah, I like to study powers?  Quirks, I think they are very cool.”

“Yeah,” Adrien chuckled, “I could barely understand half of your mumbling, but you seem to know a lot about quirks.  I think there is a new exhibit focused around the first era of quirks and the rise of art around that time.  You down to go check it out?  Oh, Kagami, how much time can you guys be out today?”

She shrugged.  “We must be home by dinner, so we shall wrap up our activities around five.”

He nodded easily and they got to walking, Adrien chatting easily with Izuku.  It was slow and simple enough that Izuku could keep up and feel included, but he was more than happy to explain the few words Izuku didn’t know.

“For only being here for three weeks, your French is really good!”

Izuku smiled weakly.

Having a river in the city, even one as regulated and straightened as it was, was a unique experience for Izuku and his eyes kept getting drawn back to the water.  The Seine was not a clean river, nor a very wide one, but the closest they had back home was the Dagobah Trash Beach, something all the small children had been warned against visiting for years now, so it really didn’t compare.

He noticed that occasionally people would look at Adrien and swoon and he furrowed his brow in confusion.  Sure, Adrien was objectively attractive, but it looked like people were recognizing him.

After the fifth gawker outside the Louvre's glass pyramid, Izuku nudged the boy.

“Why do some people seem to know you?  And get… romantic?”

Adrien smiled sheepishly and it seemed like three more girls swooned out of the corner of his eyes.

“I see Kagami has told you nothing.  I’m a model and my quirk affects other people when I smile.  I can’t help but smile anyway, though.  I couldn’t stand being cold all the time, not like Felix.”

Kagami snorted.  “Felix is angry at the world for being related to and compared to you.  Do he and his mother still come over every month?”

Adrien nodded with a pained expression.  “I understand why we look like each other, our moms are twins, but come on, you get a super sweet cousin and I get the grumpy Felix?  Totally not fair!”

“At least he will not be attending school with us.”

Izuku flinched at the reminder of going back to public school, even with his cousin and apparently this rather nice boy, and purposefully studied the painting in front of him a bit more.  He had barely been paying attention to the art exhibits as they walked in.

“Besides,” Kagami commented idly, “your quirk does not affect other people when you smile, it merely makes your smile “perfect.” How people react to that is up to them and their hormones.”

Adrien nodded solemnly.  “Thank you for your wisdom, oh great, unflappable Mistress Dragon.”

Izuku flinched again and Kagami looked at the blond sharply.

“Oh,” Adrien breathed out, “I’m sorry.”

Izuku shook his head and rubbed his arm.  “It’s fine.  You said there was a new exhibit?”

Adrien jumped on the topic change and guided them to the installation, showing off the art that depicted some of the early quirks and people’s emotions.  One was a single light in the middle of a dark painting, golden rays coming from the center in something vaguely baby shaped, in honor of the first quirked person, the baby from China.

Izuku looked at the oil painting for a long time.  The light was warm and hopeful.  It was one of the only paintings that didn’t paint quirks in a horrible light, instead, it seemed to be looking forward to the future and the potential it held.

Did Izuku still have a potential future, even without a quirk?

His stomach rumbled and he flushed in embarrassment, jolted out of his thoughts by the loud noise as Adrien chuckled and Kagami sighed.

“I forgot we did not eat lunch before we left,” Kagami muttered, “but it is too late for a full meal.”

Adrien lit up.  “Well, Izuku, you said you’ve never been anywhere, right?  I bet that means you haven’t had fresh pastries yet, right?  Come on, you haven’t lived until you’ve gotten some fresh carbs in you.  Nothing beats baked goods, trust me.”

They walked in the direction of a highly reviewed bakery when Adrien’s phone pinging and he winced.  “Ok, it seems like they figured out I’ve skipped out on my lessons and my mom is disappointed, so I will be heading home now, but definitely get my number from Kagami and we should hang out again!  I can show you all over Paris!  And get those pastries!”

Adrien waved as he ran off and Izuku felt a pang of loss.  The boy was really nice and it had been pretty easy to talk to him.

Kagami nodded once and tugged him into the bakery, ignoring his weak protests, walking up to the till where a blue haired girl was managing things.

She gave a smile.  “Hi, welcome to the Dupain-Cheng bakery!  What can I get for you?”

Kagami said nothing and Izuku swallowed, realizing she was going to wait for him to order.

“Ah, I, um, don’t know?  What’s good?”

The girl blinked and cocked her head.  “Your accent… are you not from here?”

He flushed and shook his head.  “I don’t know what to get…”

“Well, we don’t just have French things if you don’t want to try anything new, but have you had a croissant before?  It’s the classic and not too sweet.  Of course, if you prefer sweet things, we have many different flavors of macarons.”

He blinked.  “I… I don’t know what those are.  Ma-macarons?”

She blinked and whistled to herself.  “Real new, then.  What flavors of ice cream do you like to get?  Wait, no, let me just get you a variety.”

She worked quickly, getting a box and putting in six different macarons before handing it over.

“How much?”

She giggled and waved him off.  “No, it’s on the house, since it’s your first time and all.  But if you like them, you have to promise you’ll only get them from our bakery.  Deal?”

He blinked rapidly.  “N-no!  Won’t you get in trouble, or it will be taken away from your pay?”

She smiled.  “You’re sweet, but no.  This is my parents’ bakery.  Since it's vacation, I made half of the things in the store anyway, and probably all of those macarons.  They’re my specialty!”

He shook his head.  “I…”

She smirked.  “If you feel bad about taking something for free, then you can buy a croissant, since you need to try those too.  Anything for your…?”

“Cousin,” Kagami said smoothly, “and I would not mind a croissant myself.”

The girl rang them up for two croissants and handed them over.  They smelled buttery and flaky and Izuku swallowed thickly as Kagami handed over the euros needed and gave him his.

Izuku took a small bite before his eyes widened and he took a larger one, closing his eyes.  Maybe Adrien was on to something, this was almost therapeutic.

The girl laughed.  “Yeah, this was definitely your first time, based on that face.”

She tensed and flushed a deep red.  “I mean, I didn’t, oh gosh, I didn’t mean like that, please don’t take that the wrong way or out of context, oh my god…”

She devolved into rapid rambling French he couldn’t make heads or tails of, but his brain finally caught up with what she said and he looked away with wide eyes, probably also bright red.

“That’s ok,” he squeaked, “I do that much too.  Trip over my words, I mean, saying the wrong thing, kami…”

He trailed off into his own muttering while Kagami just watched with a raised eyebrow, polishing off her croissant which made him remember the flaky and buttery treat in his own hands, shoving it into his mouth to stop the muttering Japanese.

“I’m so sorry,” the girl gushed out when she had collected herself, “I’m usually much better about that. I hope you like the croissant and macarons!”

He nodded a few times before making a beeline for the door, clutching the box of macarons to his chest as he sought to leave that situation entirely.

“She was certainly interesting.  Her rambling reminds me of your muttering.”

He pouted as they walked back to the manor.  “Mean.  Just for that, no macarons for you.”

Kagami smiled slightly, the edge of her lip curling up in amusement.  “If you say so.”

Izuku grumbled and opened the box to see the rainbow of sweets.

He hesitated for a moment before selecting the green one, biting down.

The texture was odd, but it reminded him of reverse mochi, almost.  There was a slight crisp to the outside, but the middle was soft and chewy.  The green one was flavored with matcha and some spice he didn’t recognize on first taste, but it was warm and reminded him of home, even if he never drank green tea.

He savored the sweet before putting the box away for later.

“And the verdict?”

He blinked and looked at his cousin.  “What?”

“Will we be going back to the bakery?”

He blinked and nodded slowly.  “We’ll have to make sure Adrien can actually come next time, though.”

Kagami nodded.  “We will.  Now, I believe there were a few times today where you didn’t know the right French words…”

Izuku groaned good-naturedly and prepared himself for more French lessons before dinner.

Maybe school in over a month wouldn’t be so bad.

Chapter Text

Sorry, F&A are over, mum enforces family time :(

No problem! Gami says I need to go out on my own anyway.

Oh, are you still on for fencing on monday?

yeah!!!

sys!

Izuku sighed and put his phone away, backing out of his messages with Adrien as he went.  Kagami was busy and had given him a free day, but apparently Adrien’s extended family was over and thus he couldn’t hang out.  If she found out that he and Adrien had taken to calling her Gami, or “high-class” then she’d probably not even think about holding back next time they were fencing, but both boys liked to giggle about it anyway.

He counted out the money he had with him (pocket change, Aunt Tomoe insisted, but he knew for a fact that this was a lot of money, more than he could spend reasonably), promising himself he would get some pastries at the bakery while he was out.  He had run out of the macarons in two days, barely holding himself back, and he definitely wanted to try other french breads if any of them were as good as the croissants.  And, ah, that had been almost a week ago.  To say he was getting a craving was only a slight exaggeration…

He texted both his cousin and aunt to remind them he was going out and that he would, in fact, have his location on at all times.  He made sure his ringer was on loud and slipped on his shoes before heading outside.

He looked around with wide eyes.  He had gone out since that first day a week ago, but never really on his own, and sometimes the sights, the sheer differences, overwhelmed him.

Izuku took a deep breath and made a beeline for the river, knowing that it would be less crowded than the main roads (why, he didn’t know, he thought the river was lovely, if a bit smelly).

Just seeing the water let him relax a little; the gentle lapping of the small waves against the concrete sides was methodical and calming, and he slowed to a walk, just looking around and taking it all in.

Five minutes had gone by when a voice called out to him in French.

"Bonjour, Monsieur!  You are the first to find me!”

Izuku blinked and turned to see a stout man in a striped shirt covered by an apron, grinning beside a cart.  He glanced at the words on the side of the cart and it just read “Andre’s,” so he assumed this was the man’s name, but he didn’t know what the man sold.

“Ah, I’m sorry?”

The man chuckled.  “No need to apologize, young man!  It is a feat to be the first to find Andre’s ice cream!  Do you have a love, my boy?”

Izuku blinked and flushed.  “A-ah, no?  I’m… new.  I don’t know many people and even then I am very young… okasa, ah, mother said that I shouldn’t date until I'm at least sixteen.”

Andre laughed loudly.  “Ah, mothers are like that, yes.  Fear not, young man, I am a magician of love, and I am certain you will find the one that makes your heart sing, boy or girl!  I insist you get some ice cream before you continue on life’s journey, and perhaps it will lead you to the one for you!”

Izuku blinked several times as the man examined him thoughtfully before he made a noise of realization and immediately turned to his cart, whipping out an ice cream scoop and dishing out two scoops of ice cream, both tan colored but distinctly different flavors, one with a light green tinge.

“A scoop of basil for the green dove and a scoop of mystery for the future love, together paired, forever fair.  Here you are!”

“H-how much?”

Andre laughed and waved him off.  “The first scoop of the day is always free at Andre’s!”

“Aw man, someone got here first!”

Izuku looked up, alarmed, but the clear couple just smiled and waved him off.

“It’s ok, Rose,” the tall girl said shyly, “we’re still second.”

“Ah,” Andre cheered, “The Jewel and her Rose have come to visit me again!  A love so sweet, it makes me weep!  For you the scoops are easy to see, as joyous as the love you keep!  Come, come…”

Izuku waved shyly back as the blond girl waved and beamed at him, tugging her girlfriend closer to the stall and Izuku took a bite of his ice cream as he walked away.

The first flavor was the basil, he guessed, since it was slightly green.  The flavor was not something he knew he had needed in his life, but it was sweet and creamy with a hint of the herb that added an element of depth to it.  He hadn’t ever really tasted anything like it since basil wasn’t used often in japanese cuisine, but he quickly discovered this was a flavor he very much liked and would definitely be trying more savory dishes with the herb as well.

The other flavor, then, had to be the mystery flavor, but he didn’t know quite what it was.  It was smooth and a little citrusy and flowery, like… like a floral lemon, he really had no better way to describe it, but it had flakes of chocolate and praline in it as well, and it was perfectly delightful on its own.  Praline, of course, being a French thing.  He had looked up the word when looking at french desserts to get a better idea of what to get the next time he was at the Dupain-Cheng Bakery, and it was a combination of nuts and sugar, often things like pecans or almonds.  In this case, it looked like it was pecans or just seriously stunted walnuts, and it was sugary and sweet.

He took the tiny spoon Andre had put in the ice cream and delicately took a bit of each flavor out of curiosity, and hummed in glee.  Even if this wasn’t supposed to be the mystery flavor of his love, or whatever, this was a really good flavor combination, and Andre was a master of his class and profession.

He was almost to the end when he stubbed his toe on a slightly raised pavement stone, the only one he had ever seen, and he floundered as he started to fall but managed to catch himself with a complicated dance that relied heavily on the balance he had been learning in fencing.

“Nice save.”

He made a little “eep” and shot his head to the side where a boy was sitting on the deck of a ship.  How had he not noticed an entire ship???

The boy smiled calmly.  “You alright there?”

He had black and teal hair, and it reminded him of the girl from before, the one Andre referred to as Jewel, except her colored hair was purple.  He didn’t know if it was dyed or a mutation, but he had green hair so he couldn’t really say either way.

“It’s natural, for me and Jules.  I see you met my sister out on her date?”

He eeped again and covered his mouth with his free hand.  Had he really been mumbling again?  And in French, no less, that was knew, he must be paying more attention to his lesson than he thought.

The boy’s gaze didn’t leave him and he realized that he had been asked not one but two questions that he hadn’t answered, so he lowered his hand and swallowed.

“Ah, that would be the tall dark haired girl and the small blond…?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled, “that’s them.  Don’t let appearances fool you, Rose is definitely the more punk rock of the two, whereas Jules is soft.  I’m Luka, by the way.  Welcome to the Liberty.”

“Ah, Izuku, I… the Liberty?”

Luka blinked and smiled.  “The ship.  Our mom is the captain.  Are you visiting Paris?”

Izuku winced.  “Ah, no?  Not… not really?  Or if I am, it’s a really long visit.”

Luka shifted his guitar (had he always had that?) and hummed, still with that gentle smile.  “Well, I hope you enjoy your time here.  Anyone who isn’t a member of the government is welcome on the Liberty.”

His smile turned a bit coy and Izuku felt incredibly lost when a woman’s voice called out from the bowels of the ship.

“The government?!  Boy, are you letting the ponces on board?!”

“No, Captain,” Luka called down, “warning them off.”

“Good!  Anyone who lets those bilge rats on my ship will be sent to the brig for a month!  Anarchy!”

Luka chuckled.  “As you can see, Captain Anarka is not a fan of the governing body, but something tells me you’re a little too young to qualify.  I’ll let you get back to your walk, Izuku.”

Izuku smiled a little, still slightly confused, and left the ship behind as it drifted in the Seine, the strum of a guitar wafting behind him.  He looked in the direction that would take him home, but he had promised himself he’d visit the bakery, and it was nearby, just in the city a bit.  He was pretty sure he knew where he was going.

He resolutely turned down the street and began to walk, looking at the buildings and trying to remember what was familiar and what wasn’t to guide him in the right direction.

He walked for longer than he thought was needed and bit his lip, turning a little to look around.  He didn’t really recognize the buildings, but the streets were wide.  Still, he was short, and there were much more people on this street than by the Seine, so he spotted a raised building with steps and wormed his way through the crowd to climb them, getting a bit taller to look over the masses.

He smiled a bit to himself as the sun seemed to shine again and went up a couple of stairs before looking up.

He had intended to immediately turn to face the other buildings, but his eyes caught on the sign on the door.

The building itself was completely normal.  It had three floors, the top with larger windows, and it looked like it extended pretty far back, so the building could hold a good amount of people.  It was pale stone with darker ornaments and patterns in the brick to help break up the monotony.

But the sign on the door.

“School’s Out for Summer!  See You Later, Françoise Dupont!”

Not only was this a school, but he knew that name.  This was the school he would be going to in just over three weeks.  Three weeks and two days from today, he would walk up these stairs again as a student.

He sucked in a breath and pushed his thoughts away, rubbing his arms from phantom pains before turning on the spot to look across the street at the buildings like he had originally planned, scanning them for signs he might recognize.

There, to his right on the corner, was the sign in gold on black, “PATISSERIE,” the far half of the sign he knew.  He breathed a sigh of relief and pushed his way back through the crowd, keeping the direction in his head until he was at the door and pushed it open.

The bell rang above him and a voice rang out from the register, “Welcome to Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie!”

It was not the girl from before, whose name he did not know, but it was a woman who looked awfully like her with short blue hair, smiling at customers as she rang them up for an order.

Izuku waited in line until no one was in front of him, and the woman lit up.

“Oh, my daughter told me about you!  If it took you a week to come back, you must not have liked the macarons.”

His eyes blew wide.  “N-no!  I did!  They were very good, I just, ah, don’t get out much?”

The woman laughed lightly.  “I’m only teasing you, dear.  Still, the weather is lovely, you should go out more.   Marinette,” she called back, “and I’m Sabine, lovely to meet you dear.’

“Yes Maman?  Oh!  It’s you!”

Izuku blinked as the girl was suddenly behind her mother.  “Ah, hello?  I didn’t realize I was so… remember… no, memorable, that’s the word.”

Marinette grinned.  “Yeah!  Not every day we get someone in here who’s never had any French pastries!  I’m Marinette, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself last time.”

“A-ah, my name is Izuku.”

She beamed.  “Nice to meet you, Izuku!  So, did you like the macarons?  Which was your favorite?”

He blinked and looked behind him to see the store was empty.

“Oh don’t worry, dear,” Sabine chuckled, “you came at the very end of the lunch rush.  I’ll be in the back with your father if you need me, darling.”

“Ok maman,” Marinette chirped, easily slipping behind the register and leaning over the counter.  “So, don’t leave me hanging!”

He blinked.  “Ah, idiom, yes, um, well, I liked the green one?  It was matcha, yes?  And something else.”

“Ginger,” she said, looking pleased, “it's a very asian flavor, I guess, definitely one of the less sweet ones.  We wanted to pay homage to our roots, since maman is chinese.  Anything you didn’t like?”

He jumped a little, quickly waving his hands.  “Oh, no!  I liked all of them, Kagami barely got a bite!  I also like the… it wasn’t orange.  Like, a pink tan color?  I don’t know the word in French.”

She snapped her fingers.  “Probably the peach one.”

He mouthed the word and nodded.  “Probably, I’ll look it up later.  Spell it?”

“ P, ê, that's an e with a little mountain on top, c, h, e.  Pêche.”

“Thank you, Marinette.”

“No problem!  So the matcha and the peach, any other faves or have you come back for round two?”

Izuku blinked.  “Actually, I was wondering if you could help me identify a flavor, if you don’t mind.  I had it in ice cream earlier.”

She shrugged.  “Sure, describe it.”

“Well, it was like a… no I don't know the word, a fruit like orange or lemon?  It was a little bitter and had some flower tastes as well.”

She hummed.  “Citrusy and flowery, huh?  I dunno, it sounds nice though.  You got ice cream, though?  Does that mean you’re the one who got to Andre first?”

He blinked and frowned slightly.  “Yes, how did you know?”

Her eyes went wide and she waved her hands rapidly.  “Oh, if you didn’t know, Andre is super famous, and he moves all around Paris so you have to go find him.  People will post Andre sightings on social media to make it easier for people to find him, and some of my classmates, well, they went there and posted and I thought I saw the back of your head as you were walking away, I’m not stalking you it was just happenstance I swear!”

He blinked at the onslaught of words.  “I… Rose and… Jewel?”

“Juleka, but yeah.  You met them?”

He shook his head.  “Andre called them a Jewel and her Rose.  And I met… Luka?  Juleka’s brother.  He lives on a ship.”

Marinette giggled.  “Oh yeah, the Liberty.  Well, I can’t say I’ve ever really met Luka, but Juleka and Rose are in my class and have been for ages.  If you’re still around in three weeks, I’m afraid we’ll all be in school, so you can only visit after school unless you want to talk to my mom or dad.”

He looked away.  “No, I will be there.  At.  At school.”

She blinked and gasped.  “Really?!  Oh wow, we almost never get new students!  Does that mean you’re living in Paris, then?  Maybe you’ll be in my class and I can help you out!”

“Maybe,” he mumbled, “but yes, I’m living in Paris for at least a year.”

She faltered a little but smiled again with newfound determination.  “Even if you’re not in my class, this gives you plenty of time to taste test all that French pastries have to offer!  So, round two for macarons and something else?  What will it be?”

He smiled weakly at her easy switching of subject and looked at the display case.  “I don’t think I’m going to say either of these right, but I did some reading.  Do you have… Cannelés?  Or Rose des Sables?”

She repeated the words with a grin.  “You had them basically right, anyone would know what you were talking about.  And yes, we have both.  How many would you like?”

“Ah, Kagami made me promise I would bring some to share, and Aunt Tomoe as well so… six of… each?  I guess?  Then we each get two.  Then if we like them we have another and if we don’t we can barter.”

She snorted.  “I like the way you think, Monsieur Izuku.  Very wise.  Anything else?”

“…More macarons?”

“Heh heh,” she smirked, “I have turned you to the dark side, I see.  Let’s see… ever had a fig?  It's another type of fruit.”

“I don’t know, but I can look it up later.”

“Ok, fig, let’s see, let’s do a unique selection, uncommon flavors this time.  Did you like the strawberry last time?”

“Um, yes.”

“Ok,” she came back to the counter with two boxes, one the macaron box and the other a flatter box that allowed for more pastry space, “that’s a dozen miscellaneous pastries and half a dozen assorted macarons… that’ll be 30 euros!”

He pulled out a 20 and a 10 from his assorted pile.  It didn’t seem like a lot, honestly, but he didn’t really understand money quite yet and Aunt Tomoe had insisted he would have plenty of pocket change as long as he wasn’t frivolous, but this was only a small dent into his current allowance (he could call it that, right?) and it was to share.  Mostly, he amended, looking at the macaron box.

Marinette waved at him.  “Come again!  I’m free most times if you want to hang out, I know going to a new school can be scary.  Don’t be a stranger, Izuku!”

“Goodbye, Marinette,” he said back.  He might take her up on her offer, she seemed really nice and confident.

He wondered what her quirk was, if she had one.  Maybe something to do with baking?  Or maybe flavor combinations?  Then again, that would be a good one for Andre, since it seemed like his entire business model was couples ice cream, with a flavor for each person.  Maybe he could see what flavor everyone represented, or maybe it had something to do with the actual creation of ice cream?

He was easily able to get back, since the manor was on the same street as the patisserie (and the school; no don’t think about it yet), and he wasn’t sure how he had gotten so turned around in the first place.

He toed off his shoes in the door and called out.  “I’m home!”

“Welcome home,” came the two calls back, and one of the maids (don’t think about how rich your family is) waved in greeting.

“We’re in the dining room,” Aunt Tomoe continued, “I take it you have returned with pastry?  Come, let us have tea.”

Izuku walked into the dining room and sat next to his aunt, across from his cousin.   “I got… lets see, how did she say them… cannelés and Rose des Sables, two for each of us.”

“And another box of macarons,” Kagami remarked with a slight smile, “I take it you saw the girl again?”

“Yes, her name is Marinette, apparently it was a travesty that I had never had French pastry before because she told her parents about me.  Her mother was nice, though I didn’t get to meet her dad.”

“Meeting the parents already,” Kagami nodded, “how wise.”

“I-?  What?!  NO!”

Kagami chuckled a little and Aunt Tomoe frowned.  “Her parents run the bakery and she works there?  Well, I can always appreciate a working woman, but you are a little young…  God lord, what will I tell Inko…”

“No,” he squeaked, “I barely know her and we’re just friends?  She apparently goes to the school though, which makes sense since it’s right by her house…”

Aunt Tomoe raised an eyebrow.  “She goes to Françoise Dupont?  That is rare, it is a very particular school.  Her parents are either living below their means and enjoy the work they do, or they simply love their daughter very much; tuition is not something the regular worker would be able to afford.”

Izuku blinked.  “The building did look rather nice…”

“Ah, you have seen it?”

He nodded.  “Erm, yes.  I got a little lost on the way to the bakery and climbed the steps to see better.  It was the lunch rush so there were many people.”

“And you inherited your mother’s genes,” Aunt Tomoe smiled, “so you cannot generally see above people’s heads.  I'm glad you were able to find it alright.  Now, what else did you get up to on your day out?  You were out for much longer than a trip to the bakery, unless I really do have to look into this girl.”

“No no,” he said hurriedly, “I walked along the river and apparently was the first to find the famous Andre, the ice cream man, so I got ice cream.  He was a little cryptic and talked about love, but I liked the ice cream.  It was basil and something else, Marinette didn’t know it by description alone and he didn’t give me a name when I got it other than saying it was the mystery flavor of my… love, whatever that means.”

Kagami hummed, biting into the round cannelés in her hand.  “I believe I have heard of him.  He is famous among couples, he claims to sell the ice cream of love, perfect combinations for the couples who come to him.  I’m not sure I believe in true love, but I suppose with quirks anything is possible.”

Izuku lit up.  “I think he has some sort of quirk related to his chosen profession, actually!  I don’t know for sure, but my current top theories are he knows what flavors go together, he can see what flavor corresponds to what person, or perhaps something to do in the making of the ice cream itself to make sure it's always creamy and delicious!  If I find him again, I’ll have to ask.  Maybe we should go get ice cream sometime, Kagami?  I should probably spend more time outside anyway…”

She shrugged.  “If we have time, then sure.  Perhaps Adrien will decide to come as well.  Is he still coming for fencing on Monday?”

Izuku blinked, then nodded.  “Yeah, I texted him today.  He’s very nice.”

Aunt Tomoe smiled and gave a short hum.  “Good.  Only the best for the Tsurugis.  I very much like these two pastries, what did you say they were called again?”

Izuku smiled softly and relaxed slowly.  Things were looking up.

Chapter Text

“Two weeks before school,” Izuku muttered, “and I am decidedly not ready.”

Adrien snickered.  “If it makes you feel better, I can barely tell you aren’t French.  There will probably be a few words you still have to look up, but man, you’re making the rest of us learning another language look bad!”

Kagami gave a short hum of derision.  “Our family is simply superior, Adrien.  I recall that I also did not take long to learn fluent French.”

Adrien threw up his hands.  “The cousins are ganging up on me!  I hope it’s not like this in school!”

“About that,” Izuku tugged on his fingers, “there’s a lot of classes, right?  Could we… be split up?”

“No,” Kagami said, “our mothers have ensured that we will all be placed in the same class.  It worked out that the classes hadn’t been determined yet, but many in the class we will be entering will not be returning for this year, so spots were available for all three of us to remain together.”

Adrien scratched the back of his head.  “I feel bad, though, apparently Chloe tried to get us in her class but it would have had way too many people.  Other than you two, she’s probably the only one I’ll know, so I know without you guys attending I would definitely want to be in the other class.”

Kagami huffed.  “Bourgeois is a piece of work.  All wealth, no class.  I blame her parents.”

“Kagami,” Adrien scolded, “she was like, my one childhood friend!  She’s not that bad!”

Izuku hummed.  “I know a few people who are going.  Or, well, I know one person who’s going and passed two more by chance.  Not that I knew at the time.”

“You just… met people?  Oh, my boy Zuku, all grown up, making friends on his own without me or his cousin around to hover like protective gargoyles!”

Izuku giggled.  “You can meet her too, if you want.  Then you’ll know even more people.  It’s near the school anyway.”

Adrien lit up.  “The bakery girl?  She’s going?  Oho, heck yeah!  Let’s swing by, I’ve been craving sweet delicious carbs!”

Izuku giggled again as Adrien practically dragged them to the bakery and the door jingled as it opened.

“Welcome to Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie!  Oh, Izuku!”

He beamed.  “Hello Madam Cheng.”

She giggled.  “Oh no dear, just Sabine, how many times do I have to tell you?”

He flushed and grinned sheepishly.  “At least I’m not calling you Madam Dupain-Cheng anymore?”

She shook her head lightly.  “A few more times, then?”

“Yes, ma’am, a few more and I’ll get it.”

Sabine smiled widely.  “And who are your friends?”

Izuku beamed.  “This is my cousin, Kagami, I'm staying with her, and Adrien, someone she knew and introduced me to!  We’re all going to be in the same class, so it’s not too new, since they haven’t gone to public school ever and this isn’t, well, my home country.”

She laughed lightly.  “Indeed.  I think I’ve seen you around here sometimes Adrien, but I’m almost always in the back and Tom takes your order.  It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Adrien smiled his perfect smile.  “It’s nice to meet you too, Madam Cheng.”

Sabine scoffed.  “Oh stop it, charmers, the lot of you, call me Sabine!  Now, what can I get for you?”

“Well,” Kagami raised an eyebrow, “we were thinking of an early lunch in the park, so savory pastries?”

Adrien whined piteously and she rolled her eyes.  “We can always come back for dessert, Adrien, but we must eat actual food first.”

Sabine chuckled.  “Savory, yes, I can do that.  Oh, it is almost lunch time and Marinette hasn’t been in since breakfast, something about inspiration in the park.  Since you’re heading there anyway, Izuku, could you convince her to eat something?  If she’s too in the zone and doesn’t respond, just put something near her mouth, that silly girl.”

Izuku had barely gotten out a confirmation before Sabine was packing an assortment of quiches and such in a picnic basket and she slid it across the counter.

“Go on then, make sure that dear girl eats for me!”

She all but pushed them out the door and Izuku looked back in fear.

“We didn’t pay!”

“Friends and family discount!  Besides, Nette will eat some of it anyway!  Go on, just around the corner to the park, now.”

Adrian thanked her profusely as she waved them off with a genial smile and Kagami walked with purpose to the park, scanning it for their target as the boys sped to catch up to her fast gait.

Izuku spotted a blue head by the fountain, under a tree, and he beamed.

“Marinette!”

She didn’t look up and he sighed.  “Must be too in the zone, as Madam Cheng said.”

“She told you to call her Sabine.”

Izuku winced.  “Kagami I physically cannot, surely you understand?”

She raised an eyebrow and the corner of her mouth quirked up, but she said nothing.

“Marinette,” he called again as they got closer, “your mother sent us with food…?”

She looked up, but past them, squinting at something and sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth before hurrying back to scribbling.

“Ok,” he sighed, “plan B.”

He sat on the ground next to her, making sure he didn’t block the direction she had been looking and opened the basket.  Adrien sat on her other side and Kagami sat beside him.  Izuku passed out delicious smelling, warm pastries and waved one under Marinette’s nose.  She didn’t look up from her sketchbook but did absently take a bite and Izuku alternated eating himself and making sure she took another bite until she had finished five pastries, and a that point he felt like he had to intervene.

He glanced at the sketchbook slightly and his eyes widened.  “Oh, those are very good.”

“Thanks Izu,” she murmured out of the corner of her mouth, “thinking a new line and trying to think of what the trends will be in the new season.”

“Ah, autumn?”

“Mmmm,” she hummed, still not looking up, “making a line based on the seasons is a classic, but I’ve recently wanted to branch out from pink, since I have a lot of pink.  I’m thinking of warm colors, like falling leaves and a rich brown.”

“Like the color of a good pastry.”

“Exactly, Izu, you get it!”

She looked up sharply.  “Wait, Izuku?  When did you get here?”

He smiled a little.  “We’ve been here for the past half hour.  Your mum sent us with food since she hadn’t seen you in hours.”

“Oh,” she blinked, “that was nice of her.  Wait, we?”

He gestured to her other side and she looked over before flinching and turning into a statue before slowly turning back with a harsh whisper.

“Izu?”

He blinked a little, bewildered.  “Um, so the girl is Kagami, my cousin, and the boy is Adrien, our friend.  Well, he was Kagami’s friend first but she needed to get me out of the house so she introduced us-”

“I’m just as much your friend,” Adrien grinned, “bros stick together, Zuku!”

“Adrien as in,” Marinette swallowed and slowly turned to face him with a stricken look, “Adrien Agreste?  Son of the Hero Glimmer and Gabriel of Gabriel brand?”

“Wait,” Izuku cut it, “your mom is Glimmer?  Why did you never tell me?!  She’s a really good underground rescue hero, which is a really rare subclass and you’d think from her prolific acting career she couldn't be underground, but she looks completely different and I’m pretty sure uses her skills at acting to become a completely different person!  She has a glamour quirk where she can illusion anything in a fifteen meter radius and the glamorous she has been proven to make are all flawless!  This is used frequently to trick criminals and villains into messing up and her arrest rate is almost perfect!  I can’t believe you’re related to her!  Closely!”

Adrien chuckled.  “Yep, that’s my mom.  I dunno how she had time to be a movie star, a hero, and a parent, but she’s the definition of a queen, I guess.  It probably helped that she often did movies for Graham De Vanily, or, well, her sister and husband.”

Marinette blinked and just like that she was shaken out of her celebrity haze.  “Oh, yeah, that’s a lot of work.  I thought my days were busy, but if she’s a hero on top of being a functioning member of society?  Props, life can get hectic.  And Kagami, nice to finally meet you,” she smiled, “Izuku always tells me what things you seem to like, but maybe you could tell me yourself?”

“Yes.”

Marinette blinked.  “Yes?”

“Yes.  I like everything.”

Marinette burst out laughing and Izuku was soon to follow.  Kagami was the last hold out, but her mouth did quirk up slightly.  Adrien just chuckled, giving a “hear hear!” while raising his mini quiche into the air in place of a drink.

“Better question,” Marinette grinned, “favorite flavors of macarons?  Izuku’s gotten at least five boxes at this point, probably a good three fourths of our selection until we get to specialty flavors, and he still can’t decide.”

Izuku lit up.  “Have you made the basil ones yet?”

She sighed.  “No, sadly.  They always turn out a bit funky and I don’t know why, but I should have them ready in time for your first day of school.  Any closer to your mystery flavor?”

He shook his head.

“Izuku doesn’t share,” Kagami said matter of factly, “but I do like orange flavored things.”

“I like passionfruit,” Adrien chirped, “I always try to get my mom to get me a macaron when she lets me go to the bakery, and the passionfruit ones are the best!  What’s your favorite?”

Marinette hummed.  “I don’t know.  I like a lot of flavors, which helps because I make a lot of them and of course you should always taste before you bake to make sure it’s how you want it.  Maybe blackberry?  Or coffee, oh, that’s hard.”

Izuku snorted.  “Are you sure the coffee isn’t just your crippling lack of a sleep schedule talking?”

She shoved him lightly.  “Hey, it’s still summer!  I’m allowed to have a nonexistent sleep schedule for another week and a half before I need to clean up my game!”

“Mmm,” he nodded sagely, “I like the way you think, Mademoiselle Marinette.  Very wise.”

She crossed her arms and looked away with a pout and he couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“And I suppose you go to sleep at ten and wake up at dawn?”

Izuku kept laughing silently, just looking at her.

Marinette looked back and forth between the three of them who didn’t refute her.  “All of you??  Is this some rich person conspiracy, to always go to sleep and go to bed at reasonable hours even when we don’t have school?”

“Ah,” Izuku snapped his fingers, “that’s it.  It’s because these two have never gone to public school before, it’s always been tutors.  While lessons have diminished over the summer, I know for a fact Kagami still has them and I’d be willing to bet Adrien does too.”

“Guilty as charged,” Adrien shrugged.

“Well what’s your excuse,” Marinette turned to him, “you can’t tell me you don’t love summer break!”

He shrugged.  “School in Japan starts in April, as opposed to September here.  I was in school for a month before Aunt Tomoe pulled me out to come to France, so I feel like I already had my break.”

She blinked.  “Your aunt pulled you out of school?  Why?  Was the education bad?”

Izuku bit his lip.  “Ah, no.  It was…”

“Family bonding,” Kagami said smoothly, “we do not get to go home very often, but neither my cousin nor aunt have visited France before.  Since it was Izuku’s last year of middle school before high school, often the most pivotal of schooling, we wanted to give him the opportunity to see how we live the majority of our time.  It helped that it was the year my and Adrien’s mothers were thinking to put us in public school as well.”

Marinette blinked.  “But if school in Japan starts in April and it ends here in June, doesn’t that mean he’ll miss the first few months of high school in Japan?”

Izuku fidgeted.  “Well, I can always tutor like Kagami and Adrien do…”

“Yeah, Zuku is really smart,” Adrien beamed, “he picked up French so fast!  He’ll be fine.”

Marinette frowned.  “I mean, if you’re sure.  I wouldn’t want you to miss out just for an excuse to eat pastry, though that is a pretty good excuse.”

Adrien lit up.  “It really is!  Next time my mother asks me where I was, I’ll say I was held up by the need to eat pastry!  It’s foolproof!”

Izuku tugged on the grass a little, grimacing.

“That’s not… well, that’s not the only reason.  She mostly pulled me out because I’m… quirkless.”

He braced himself for derision.

“Oh!  Me too!  That’s crazy, I almost never meet anyone else who isn’t way older than me, but you’re my age!”

His head whipped around to stare at her in shock.  “You’re…?”

She smiled and nodded.  “Totally quirkless, got the extra joint in my toe and everything.  I guess it’s worse over there, huh?”

He crumpled a little and looked away again.  “Yeah.”

“Well,” Marinette huffed, “have no fear, we take quirk and quirkless discrimination very seriously in school here, so if you ever get bullied for it, go to a teacher, or me, and I’ll go to a teacher.  That doesn't fly here.”

Izuku let out a breath.  “I heard.  That’s why Aunt Tomoe brought me here.”

He was quiet for a second before he burst out, “what did you guys want to be when you grew up?”

The three of them blinked in surprise.

“I’ve always wanted to be a fashion designer,” Marinette sighed, “ever since I saw my first catwalk on TV.  It just clicked for me; don’t get me wrong, I’ve worked my butt off to make sure I know what I’m doing and what I’m talking about, but I could see things so easily.  The hardest part was learning how to draw, honestly.”

“I will take over the Clan and their businesses when my mother retires,” Kagami intoned, “but before that I would like to be an international fencer.”

“I don’t know,” Adrien hummed, “I’ve kind of sort of always thought I’d be a model in my dad’s company, but, well, that’s not really an option.  The break from modelling has been really nice, and I don’t know if I’ll go back to it.  I mean, I might, I know how and I’m pretty good at it, but for now I just… sort of want to be a kid.  Family jobs could always work, though.  Follow in my mother’s footsteps, be an actor.  Not a hero, I don’t think I can smile at the criminals to make them go away.”

“Politician,” Marinette grinned, “your smile is perfect for a politician.  They’ll never see all the back alley deals you do, too blinded by your radiance.”

Adrien snorted and gagged in equal measure as Marinette laughed.

“And you, cousin?”

Izuku leaned back against the tree and looked up at the leaves.

“I always wanted to be a hero, when I was younger.  Even before the diagnosis-”

“Hang on,” Marinette interrupted, “diagnosis?  Do you have some sort of fatal illness?”

He looked at her, confused.  “No?  I mean I was diagnosed quirkless.  Kagami, this is the right word, yes?”

“Yes,” Kagami said with pursed lips, “that word means what you think it does.”

Marinette now looked angry.  “They called it a diagnosis?!  They told a four year old that he was diagnosed quirkless?!  What kind of awful doctor would do that?!”

He blinked.  “What do they say here?”

“They just say that you are quirkless, or that you don’t have a quirk!  It’s not a diagnosis, that’s awful!  That makes you think there’s something wrong with you or something!  And there’s not!  Being quirkless just means your genes are a little different, but it doesn't make you lesser in any way!”

Izuku felt his eyes stinging and that was the only warning he got before he burst into the famous Midoriya tears.

“Oh no, did I say something wrong?!”

“No,” he blubbered, “these are happy tears.  Midoriya’s are predisposed to cry at literally everything.  I just… no one’s said that before.”

They all stilled.  “No one?”

He blinked up at Kagami.  “No?”

Her gaze sharpened.  “Not even your mother?”

He blinked.  “Oh!  I mean, not in as many words, but she still loved me instead of putting me out on the street like some parents do, and she always bandaged my wounds and hugged me all the time, so she probably thought it.”

Kagami looked mildly placated but both Adrien and Marinette now looked alarmed, Adrien speaking first.

“Hold on, wounds?”

His eyes grew wide and he tried to put on a smile on his face like always, but it seemed harder now for some reason.  “Just because I’m weaker than everyone else, it’s not their fault if they forget that and get a little rough.  Just, you know, kids being kids.  Anyway, we were talking about what we wanted to be when we grew up,” he barreled past their concern and turned away again, trying to force himself to look happy, “I pretty much always wanted to be a hero.”

His smile softened.  “It was gonna be me and Kacchan.  We knew each other since we were babies, our mothers were friends, and he… we always said he’d be the number one hero and I’d be his sidekick.  Then, well, my quirk didn’t come in and I was downgraded from sidekick to civilian.  Everyone said that nobody quirkless could be a hero, but I just… I’ve always loved heroes and quirks.  I wanted to be that, to have that.”

He turned to them with a bright smile and chuckled at Adrien.  “So I guess I also don’t know what I want to be when I grow up because my original plans have also been turned on their head!”

He took the last pastry out of the basket, long gone cold but still delicious, no doubt.  “Anyone want to split this with me?”

Adrien raised his hand silently, eyes a little distant, and accepted his half before chewing numbly.

Marinette shot to her feet.  “Ice cream!  Let’s get!  Argh, I mean, someone’s seen Andre so let’s go get ice cream as a group.”

Izuku looked up.  “Is Andre’s the only place to get good ice cream?”

Marinette shrugged.  “No, but he always seems to know exactly what you need.  Come on, he’s just across the river, he was last seen at D’Orsay Museum heading this way.  Let’s just stop in to drop off the basket and tell maman where we’re going…”

She sped off, full of nerves and Kagami didn’t hesitate to drag both boys after her, evidently approving of Marinette’s speed, and soon they were crossing the bridge in the direction of the museum when they heard his singing.

He spotted them and lit up.  “Ah, hello!  Any couples today?”

“We’re cousins,” Kagami said, indicating Izuku, “but other than that, no.  We are simply here as friends.”

Andre eyed them and began to hum about combinations before his face bloomed into a smile.  “Boys and girls will do!  As friends, so true!  For the ladies of blue, red bean and caramel almond suit you, for the gentlemen so bright, basil and vanilla, a splendid delight!”

He hummed in joy as each two scoops were handed off.

“Two pairs, just right!”

They walked a bit with their ice cream to a bench and Izuku hummed around the basil and vanilla.  They were kind of similar, but a really nice combination.  Izuku actually really liked vanilla, and it seemed Adrien did too.

“Oh, this is basil?  It’s so good!”

Marinette perked up.  “That's right, you got basil here!  And it looks like your mystery flavor isn’t one of us, either, so, sorry, but I guess we’re not your lost loves.”

Izuku giggled.  “That’s a weight off my chest, then.  Sorry, Adrien, you’re not the one for me.”

Adrien put his hand to his chest.  “How ever will I go on?  You were the only boy I’ve ever loved!”

“Do you?”

Izuku flushed as everyone turned to him.  “Like boys, I mean.”

Adrien hummed.  “I dunno.  Maybe?  Might be bi?  I mean, I’ve been around a lot of attractive men, and I know this for a fact, I’ve noticed, but I think I like girls a bit more.  I dunno.”

Izuku turned to Marinette.  “Can we exchange bites?  It’s been a while since I've had red bean.”

Mari immediately took a bit of basil and vanilla as they passed the ice creams around to try everyone else’s flavors and Izuku hummed around the other two.

“This settles it,” he murmured, “Andre’s quirk has to be something to do with making ice cream.”

Marinette stood up.  “That’s it!”

He looked at her.  “Marinette?”

“Oh,” she flushed, “not about Andre, but you’re probably right, I meant, well, I know what I need to finish the basil macarons!  I found out what I was missing!  Come on, let’s eat while we walk!  I’ll send you guys home with some pastries too.”

They trailed after her and Izuku smiled softly.

He loved his friends.

Chapter Text

Kagami sighed in exasperation as Adrien finally came into view.

“I thought we agreed on twenty minutes before the bell.”

He grinned sheepishly.  “Mum was making sure I had everything, sorry, and then I was doing my good deed of the day by helping an old man across the street.  But we’re still fifteen minutes early!  That’s enough!”

“ADRIKINS!”

He spun around and caught an arm of blond girl before she pulled herself back, her grin turning into a scornful expression.

“And these are?”

Adrien beamed.  “My two good friends!  Kagami and her cousin, Izuku!  Guys, this is Chloe, my childhood friend!”

Kagami raised a single eyebrow, but Izuku smiled shyly.

“Hello, Chloe, it’s nice to meet you.”

Her sharp blue eyes softened a little and she looked conflicted.

Finally, she seemed to reach a conclusion.  “Well, if you’re Adrikin’s friends, you can’t be all that bad.”

“Are we waiting for Marinette,” Kagami said, “or are we just going in?”

Chloe recoiled.  “Dupain-Cheng?  You know that peasant?”

Izuku frowned.  “Yeah, she’s really nice and was helpful when I was adjusting to France.”

Chloe’s expression soured and she looked like she was fighting something internal again.

“…She would do that, yeah.”

“And her pastries are to die for,” Adrien gushed, “I think I could live off things from her bakery if mum would let me.”

“…That is also true.”  Chloe’s expression twisted.  “Don’t bother waiting for Dupain-Cheng, though, she’s almost always late.  I’ll… let her know you asked about her, I guess, since there’s no way she won’t be in my class again.  But we’re eating lunch together, ok?”

Adrien quickly agreed for them and almost skipped into the building to get to their class.

“Room 13, 13, 13… oh!  Here it is!”

Adrien opened the door with a grin and his eyes grew wide.

“Vio?”

A girl with flowing dark hair, with a slight purple tint, and kind eyes turned to the door with an expression of surprise.

“Adrien?”

He grinned.  “I didn’t know you were in this class!  Kagami, Izuku, this is Violette Moreau, she plays piano and she’s really good!  Vio, this is Kagami Tsurugi and Izuku Midoriya.”

The girl smiled bashfully.  “You’re just as good at piano, Adrien, or, well,” she smiled coyly, “you would be if you practiced as much as I do.  I do believe I trounced you in that last recital?”

He groaned.  “As if I could ever beat you!  Even without your quirk the judges love you.”

She snorted.  “My quirk does nothing to influence my playing.  But Kagami, Izuku, it’s nice to meet you, welcome to the class.”

“OH, new students?”

A boy was suddenly grinning down at them, brown hair and eyes dancing with mirth.  “Jean Duparc!  Magician!  Welcome to Medeleiev’s illustrious class!  Let me introduce you to who is already here!”

A blond girl with long twin pigtails rolled her eyes from where she was perched on a desk.  “Stop it, Jean, you’ll scare them.  Aurore Beauréal, aspiring weather girl.  Next to me are Mireille Caquet in blue, Camille Le Roux in blond, and Ondine Sirène in red.”

The three girls waved and smiled as they were introduced and Ondine grinned.  “Don’t let Aurore fool you, she just takes her job as class president six years running very seriously.  We’re chill, honest.”

“And over there talking about something are Jeremiah Da Silva as the short one and Jacque Bouchard as the tall one.  Honestly Jack, you’re too tall.”

The boy in question grinned.  “That’s a good thing, I play basketball.”

Jeremiah rolled his eyes.  “It was practically in the cards, if you listen to Jean.”

Jean put a hand to his chest and gasped in shock.  “Are you doubting the cards?  How rude, Jere!”

“In the back corner is Marc Anciel, our resident writer, don’t be offended if he’s ignoring us, he’s too used to it and he’s writing right now.”

“He’s going to be our best-selling author,” Jean swooned, “but hopefully he won’t forget this class!”

“And the last two,” Aurore continued like she hadn’t been interrupted, “are Ronald Flamel and Lucille-”

“Lucy,” the girl interrupted without looking up from the odd colored liquid she was messing with.

“-Lucy De Gaulle.  Avoid them in chemistry class.”

Ronald scoffed.  “I'm the only one who can keep up with Lucy anyway, Rora.  Plus, the redheads gotta stick together.”

Jean snorted.  “Lucy’s hair is vaguely red at best.  I blame a chemistry experiment gone wrong, or maybe all those chemicals she drinks.”

“Strontium is delicious, no matter it’s partner, this is true.”

Izuku felt himself growing alarmed but Aurore rolled her eyes.  “Let’s get the crazy quirks out of the way so we stop freaking the newbies out.  Lucy has a quirk called chemical palette.  She can ingest and neutralize up to 10 ml of any chemical per day and will immediately know what the substance is made of.  Ron can set his hair on fire.  Cami will be absent on days when it rains because if water touches her skin she turns into a fish person against her will.  If she’s gone, that’s why, but she always keeps on top of class assignments so don’t worry.  Everybody else only affects themselves, so no need to get into that until it comes up.”

Kagami nodded.  “It is nice to meet you all.”

Izuku nodded and bowed a little.  “Please take care of us!”

Ondine giggled.  “So formal!  Where you from, greenie?”

“Ah,” he shot up and scratched the back of his head, “Japan…”

Ron grinned.  “I'm from across the channel, Jeremiah is from… Canada?”

The boy raised an eyebrow.  “Brazil, not even close.  But grand peré moved here, so the family has been in France for the past two generations.”

“Everyone else is a native,” Ron continued, “but this might be the most diverse class in the school, so you aren’t out of place.  I assume Kagami is also from Japan?”

“We’re cousins,” she said stiffly, “but I have lived here most of my life.”

Izuku frowned.  “Ronald, isn’t your last name Flamel?  As in, the famous French alchemist?”

Ron shrugged.  “Yeah, but that was ages ago, the name’s spread a bit.  Even to the Isles.  Still, we’ve been here for a bit.  Lucy always jokes we should switch last names so that I can be the descendant of the famous explorer and she can have the alchemist.  Mend allows it, though, so we switch for assignments for fun in her class.

“How many times,” came a grouchy older voice from behind them, causing Izuku to jump, “have I told you not to call me Mend?”

Aurore sighed.  “Too many to count, Ml. Mendeleiev.”

Izuku looked at the woman with pointed glasses and short ruby hair who had a pinched but fond look on her face.

“I see our new students got here safely.  Take a seat, anywhere is fine, I’ll only enforce the seating chart if you get too rowdy.  Same rules from last year,” she said sharply, looking at Ron, “apply.”

He sighed and shuffled away from next to Lucy, but she just giggled.

Adrien immediately grabbed Izuku and tugged them to an empty desk while Kagami approached Vio for a seat.

From the back to the front, the back row only had Marc and Jeremiah, sitting quietly together, and in front of them were Ondine and Camille.  Across the aisle from the two girls were Ron and Jean.  The next row was Vio and Kagami, Kagami directly behind Izuku, and Aurore and Mireille.  Then that left the front row as Adrien and Izuku across from Jack and Lucy.  It seemed counter productive to put someone so tall in the front, but he was incredibly calm next to Lucy who seemed a little bonkers, in a good way.

Ml. Mendeleiev stood at the front of the class with a short smile, and Izuku was suddenly hit with the fact that she was probably grumpy all the time but genuinely loved her job and her class.

“Welcome back, and welcome to our new students.  I see you already introduced yourselves, so I won’t bother forcing an ice breaker, lord knows we all hate those, so I will introduce myself instead.  I am Madame Mendeleiev, your homeroom teacher.  I also teach the majority of the science classes.  By way of announcement, if anyone wishes to run for class representative, they have until the end of the week to announce their intent.  Until then, Aurore, you are still president.  Do you have anything to say?”

The girl nodded and stood.  “As a reminder, if anyone has gotten a new phone number I need them by preferably the end of the day so I can help us all keep on top of things.  We do have a class group chat, but I request that you don’t completely mute it so we can still alert you to things if needed.  In the interest of not clogging the chat, I will also be sending out a mass reminder text to everyone that will be specifically for major events and assignments.  If someone wanted to run as class rep instead of me, I would transfer that to them, or, should they keep me on as vice, continue the service.  Does anyone have any announcements on the first day of school?”

“Yes,” Jean grinned, “I’m hosting a magic show at the hospital this Saturday if anyone would like to come and support.”

Aurore nodded. “It will be marked on the calendar.  Vio?”

“No, no upcoming events for the next few months.”

Aurore hummed in acknowledgement.  “As for weather, tomorrow is highly likely to be sunny, unlikely to be cloudy.  Back to you, Madame.”

“Hmm, good,” the teacher nodded, “The first half of the day will be spent with me in minor review.  If all goes well, we’ll be learning new material in two days.  I will be passing out a worksheet, you are graded on completion, not accuracy, but it will tell me what we need to review.  After lunch we have PE, Art, and History with Bustier.  Ah, excuse me, Madame Bustier.”

Izuku missed the sneer in their homeroom teacher’s voice as he looked down at the worksheet.  It was double sided and, of course, completely in French, but Izuku smiled to himself.

He could do this.

“Adrikins!”

“Izuku!”

The voices called out at the same time and Izuku watched as Chloe and Marinette recoiled from each other.  He smiled and waved at them both as he walked over.

“You guys are in the same class again, huh?”

Marinette was jolted out of her disgruntled stare down and smiled at him.  “Yep, same as always.  I hear you have Madam Mendeleiev as your teacher?  How are you liking that?”

Izuku beamed.  “Good!  She’s really nice, and I like all of my classmates!  Ron can set his hair on fire, and Lucy can just… drink chemicals!  I wonder what her parents’ quirks were, or how far back it goes, to create such a unique and odd quirk!  And the biological effects just sound so fascinating, because she neutralizes them as she ingests them, meaning her body is producing counter elements to stabilize the compounds, or maybe just flushing them with electrons and protons-”

“Izuku,” Kagami sounded like she was almost laughing, “lunch.”

He brightened.  “Right!  You should both come sit with us!”

The two girls’ faces contorted into horror, but Izuku was already turning away, so he didn’t notice as he went to go find a table.

Marinette sat at one end of the table, next to Izuku, and Chloe sat at the other, next to Adrien.  If they didn’t look in the other’s direction, they could pretend they weren’t there.

Izuku and Kagami both pulled out a bento and everyone else got out their own lunches.

“Marinette?”  Izuku looked at his friend, “do you not have a lunch?”

She winced.  “Ah, not really?  I usually go eat at home, to be honest, but today I was almost late because I slept in and then on the way I had to make sure that weird pedestrian didn’t get hit by a car, but anyway I ran out before I could get my lunch.”

Izuku hummed and pushed his bento to her.  “Have some of mine, then.  You’ve given me enough free food anyway, I would like to return the favor!”

“Hey girl, I was looking for you everywhere, who are these guys?”

Marinette jumped and looked at the brown girl in glasses and flannel who had approached them.

“Alya!  These were the other new kids I was telling you about, my friends!  Guys, this is another new student, Alya, she joined our class today.”

The girl smiled and waved.  “Hey there!  Let’s see, you’re obviously Adrien, greenie is Izuku, and the girl is Kagami!  But uh,” she leaned in to whisper to Marinette, “why is Chloe here?  Don’t you two hate each other?”

Marinette grimaced and slowly shook her head.  “Friend of the table, we’re making… well, not nice, but we’re being civil.”

Alya shook her head and chuckled.  “Worst luck, girl.  Can I sit here too?  I don’t know a lot of people yet.”

Marinette blinked.  “I mean sure, but what about Nino?  You guys looked like you were getting along fine.”

She rolled her eyes.  “Nino is talking to Max about some music program, I can’t follow it.”

She plopped down at the table next to Marinette, and Izuku scooched down to be across from Chloe instead of Adrien.

Lunch after that was pretty pleasant, Alya talked about journalism opportunities she was looking at and how she wanted to start her own blog, but she didn’t know what on.  Hero blogs were super common, but she loved heroes, so she was waiting for a new one to make their debut, which got Izuku to talk about hero news around the world.

“Mount Lady debuted in Japan recently,” he chirped, “she sort of upstaged Kamui Woods and took his arrest in the middle of his super move, no less, but the news coverage on it was really good!  Here, I have a video that someone from the crowd took!”

He showed the video on his phone, knowing that only he and Kagami could understand what was being said, but they made the appropriate oohs and aahs over it so he felt pleased.

Chloe scoffed when Mount Lady appeared.  “Her outfit is tacky.  Orange and purple?  What is this, Halloween?  And the tan is practically the color of her skin, that’s awful.”

Izuku’s eyes lit up.  “Chloe do you want to go into design like Marinette?”

Chloe frowned and looked away, mumbling, “I’m just good at colors and putting outfits together, I can’t design like she can.”

Marinette blinked at the almost compliment and Izuku pressed on.  “Well, what do you want to do when you grow up?”

She scoffed.  “Whatever I want, my father is the Mayor and my mother is Audrey Bourgeois.”

Izuku nodded.  “Yeah, Adrien and I don’t really know either.”

She looked at him strangely but he turned away to keep eating his lunch before the warning bell went off and he jumped, shoveling the rest of the rice into his mouth and getting up from the table.

“I don’t want to be late,” he worried his lip as he murmured, “we should go back to class.”

Marinette and Alya both said goodbye but Chloe just sniffed and left and the other three of them headed to their own classroom.

Aurore met them at the door with a raised eyebrow.  “Chloe Bourgeois, huh?”

Adrien grinned.  “Yeah, she was my childhood friend!  She can be a little mean, but I don’t think she means it.”

Aurore pursed her lips and looked at him with furrowed brows.  “Maybe.  I noticed you sat with members of Bustier’s class, did you know them?”

Izuku nodded.  “Marinette is our friend as well, and she brought over Alya, another new student.”

Aurore hummed.  “Perhaps it is the year for interclass unity.  I know Ron and Jere would love to pick Max’s brain on things, so perhaps we could arrange more things… we typically stay apart.”

Izuku blinked.  “Interclass…?  Oh, so we’d do things together?  Yes!  That sounds very good!”

Aurore smiled softly at him. “Alright, in you get, we’re still waiting on Jean-”

“I’m here!”

“-who is a master at arriving in the classroom right as the bell goes off,” she snorted, looking at the clock on the wall, “we’re heading out to art soon anyway, so get any supplies or sketchbooks and we’ll walk together as a class.”

Izuku blinked.  He hadn’t thought to bring anything, the only things he ever drew in were his hero notebooks, so he just followed the class as they were chatting.

“Hello, and welcome to Room 33, I am the art instructor, M. Monlataing, but please, call me Jean-Pierre.  If you must,” he said eyeing Jean with a slight smile, “Pierre works just as well.  In here, you're never disturbing anyone. You can come whenever you want outside of class time or after school. Anyone can create what they want, however they want.  Art is about expression, and expression is always allowed in this room as long as it is not negatively affecting the other artists.”

He looked around with a soft expression.  “We will be having a project in the coming weeks, but today is a day for free drawing.  I have many mediums and materials should you need them.”

Izuku tentatively approached the indicated cabinet with materials and took just a pencil and a piece of paper.

As soon as he pressed the pencil to the paper he jolted as it seemed to sink in and leave a very dark mark on the paper.

“Ah,” the teacher chuckled as he approached, “do you know there are different pencils with which to draw?  Most pencils used for class are HB pencils.  May I see this one?”

Izuku handed it over and he rotated it before humming.  “This is a 5B pencil.  Pencils have a grading scale, as it were.  H means hard and B means black.  They will often be associated with a number that details how far along this scale they are.  In this case, this is a soft pencil that will put more graphite to the paper with less pressure, but it also has the capability of making things very dark very quickly and is easy to smudge.  Pencils marked with H and then a number will be harder and put less graphite on the paper, even if you press harder.  They are good for incredibly fine detail work.”

He handed the pencil back.  “Experiment with different pencils, perhaps you’ll find one you like drawing with the best, or perhaps you will go back to using an HB pencil like before.”

The teacher wandered off and Izuku looked at the pencil in curiosity before he began to experiment, with different pressures and strokes until the end of the lesson.

PE passed in a blur, and Ml. Bustier was nice, but she insisted on doing an icebreaker and Izuku noticed how the entire class got a little more closed off in her presence.  When they left the classroom, done for the day, they all relaxed again, but in the class itself it almost seemed frigid.

“Aurore,” he murmured beside her as they walked down the stairs in the direction of the doors, “what’s the deal with Ml. Bustier?”

She pursed her lips and looked around for other students, but they were surrounded by their class.  Still, she kept to a murmur.

“Bustier is a poor teacher, in our opinion.  When someone is being bullied, she will often blame the victim.  She’s too passive when something is a problem, and we learned that early on.  She’s… well, she’s not the best, so we tend to be more reserved with her than Madame Mendeleiev.  You don’t have to follow our example, of course, she’s just… sorry, I should let you form your own opinion.”

“No,” he shook his head, “thank you for telling me.  I can still form my own opinions from here, but now I know a teacher I shouldn’t go to, in case…”

Her eyes softened again and she stood straighter, twirling a parasol.  “Very good.  No change in weather, so no need to bring an umbrella tomorrow.  See you three!”

She flounced off and Izuku smiled.  Kagami watched her go with an unreadable expression.

“She is odd,” the girl hummed, “but she cares.  A good fit for class representative, I find.”

Izuku nodded.  “I like her!  She’s very nice and seems super organized and responsible.”

Marinette ran home, frantic.  Alya convinced her to run against Chloe as class representative, meaning she had by the end of the week to campaign, and she had to stay after late to finalize some things with Ml. Bustier.  She was glad she had already told Izuku and their friends to go on without her, because she really hated making people wait for her.

Her mom called a greeting as she entered and she hollered one back before bolting up the stairs and pushing open the trapdoor to her room, settling in with a sigh and dumping the papers and books in her arms onto her desk.  She winced at the mess and tidied it a little before digging in her purse for her phone, only for her hands to close around something oddly shaped.

She pulled it out with a frown.  It was a octagonal box made of a dark colored wood and it had what looked to be a Chinese knot pattern as decoration on the top.  It was small enough to fit in the palm of her hand and she noticed it had a hinge, so she opened it.  She figured if she knew what was in it, it would be easier for her to figure out who it belonged to.

Inside, nestled in the velvet, were two black stud earrings.

“What…?”

They started to glow and she shrieked and threw the box down onto her desk, still open, and after a moment of glowing, a streak of pink light seemed to come from the earrings until it hovered in the air and formed a… a flying doll?

The doll blinked and beamed at her.  It was red with black spots.

“Hello,” the doll spoke in a high pitched, female voice, “I’m Tikki!  It’s nice to meet you!”

Marinette swallowed and nodded slowly, hand going to the thick textbook on her desk and the doll (bug?) looked alarmed.

“Oh no, please don’t, I can phase through objects and it would just make noise.  I can explain, I promise!”

Marinette slowly took her hand away from the book and nodded once.

The bug smiled.  “I am Tikki, the kwami of Creation and of the Ladybug miraculous!  A kwami is a physical manifestation of a force of the universe, in this case, creation.  By wearing these earrings, or the Ladybug miraculous, you accept the call to be a hero and fight off the miraculous that are being used for evil.”

Marinette’s hand shot into the air and the bug stopped.

“There are other miraculous?  And some are being used for bad things?”

Tikki nodded.  “There are many miraculous, but as far as we are aware, there are only four out right now, two on our side and two on the enemy side.  You’ll have a partner, the wielder of the Black Cat, and you’ll fight the two that were lost.  Well, it could be one or it could be both, they haven’t actually made a move yet but we can tell they’re about to.”

Marinette nodded.  “Ok, you realize how crazy this sounds, right?”

“But it’s the truth!”

“Doesn’t change the fact,” she swallowed again as her voice was getting squeaky, “that this is crazy?  Magic?  I mean, if you said you were a quirk, that I’d understand.”

Tikki shook her head.  “No, miraculous existed well before the time of quirks.  One of my more famous Ladybugs was Joan de Arc!  Only the miraculous can combat the miraculous.  Even with quirks, they can never compare, because the miraculous are the pure essence of whatever their domain is.  Kwami are essentially bound forces of nature tied to magical jewels called the miraculous that have the capability to turn the wielder into a paragon of that power.”

“Wait,” Marinette’s breath caught, “a hero?  That sounds like a hero.”

“Or a villain, depending on how the power is used, but I believe that based on current laws you would be classified as a vigilante.”

Marinette moved to sit down heavily on her chaise, and Tikki brought the earrings over from the box to plop them into her hand.

“If you’d like, I can show you?”

Marinette fiddled with the earrings for a second, idly fingering them.  “Wouldn’t… wouldn’t it be better if I had quirk, though?  I mean, then whoever had this would have more options.”

“On the contrary,” Tikki giggled, “quirks can interfere with miraculous powers!  The weaker the quirk, the better you can use the power.  The only exception is when the quirk directly relates to the power, but it has to be an almost perfect match.  So you, someone with no power, will be one of the stronger of all!”

Marinette blinked, then blurted out, “what if someone doesn’t have their ears pierced?”

Tikki giggled again.  “Miraculous can change to suit the wearer.  Clip ons were invented a long time ago.  So, what do you say?  Want to give it a go?”

Marinette bit her lip before putting the earrings in.  They didn’t feel any different than regular earrings.

“There are a few key phrases a Ladybug will use.  To transform, Spots On, to detransform, Spots off.  While you are Ladybug, you can say Lucky Charm and you’ll get an object to help you out.  Then, to fix all miraculous damage at the end of a fight, Miraculous Ladybug will restore everything.  Make sense?”

Marinette nodded slowly.  “So, I just say spots on…?”

Tikki glowed and was pulled into the earrings and Marinette sucked in a breath as, yeah, ok, this felt like magic.  She looked at the red and black spotted outfit and the yoyo at her waist.

“Huh,” she muttered, “a yoyo as a weapon?  Odd.  Maybe I should go out and test my powers or something, so I’m not woefully unprepared when the enemy does decide to make a move…”

(One of her neighbors whooped and cackled over the leather outfit he had gotten with his own transformation.  “This is awesome, Plagg! …Plagg?  Oh huh, the transformation must have absorbed him or something to give me the powers.  Wow, I feel like a magical girl right now.  Let’s see, ears, tail, staff - oooo!  Staff!  And the button… oho, it extends.  Fun, let’s go try this out.  Mum won’t notice I’m gone if I just pop out for a quick stroll, I’m sure.”)

Chapter Text

The second day of school was fine up until the point people started to get encased in stone; then the day could be considered “bad,” but who was Izuku to judge?  Maybe the stone people were having bad days!  Maybe they wanted to be statues!  Probably not, since it seemed like people were actively resisting and running away, but who knew, not Izuku, he hadn’t even been near Patient Zero when the metaphorical bomb went off.

Marinette was, though, and when she told the story later it went a little like this.

“Yo Ivan, you finally gonna do it?”

The tall boy pursed his lips and Marinette looked between the two of them in confusion.  “Do what?”

Kim chuckled with a smirk.  “Boy stuff.  Come on, Ivan, don’t make me Double Dare you!”

“I’d never take your bet,” Ivan snapped, “not for this.  I’ll do this on my own time, when I feel it’s right.”

“Oh yeah?  And if I get there first?”

Ivan whirled on the shorter, but bulkier boy.  “Stop it, Kim, you can’t goad me into one of your dares.  I’m not Alix.”

The pink haired girl looked up briefly with a raised eyebrow, but shrugged.  “Yeah, that’s fair, I never back down from a dare, not even one of Kim’s Double Dares.”

“Kim,” Marinette felt herself frown, “if Ivan says he doesn’t want to do it, then let him.”

“Don’t worry , Ivan,” Mylene chirped and beamed up at him, “I’m sure whatever it is will work out!”

Ivan looked away, blushing a little and mumbled a “thanks,” but Kim just laughed.

Ml. Bustier walked into the class, preventing further altercation and the lessons began.  Sure, it was only the second day so they were still in review, but Marinette slowly forgot about Kim’s attitude and Ivan’s problem, whatever it was.

That was, until lunch.

Kim smirked and sauntered past Ivan, slipping a folded piece of paper on his desk as he went, walking off to lunch and leaving the large boy behind.

Ivan glared at the boy but cautiously opened the note, eyes scanning the words before he scowled and crumpled it in his fist.

“That’s too far,” the boy muttered as he stormed out of the room.

Marinette furrowed her brow and her gaze lingered on Ivan as he stomped down the hall in the direction of the principal’s office.  She bit her lip and headed to the lunchroom to find Kim.

“Kim Le Chein,” she yelled, “what did you say to Ivan?”

He grinned.  “Told him he was a coward for not fessing his feelings.  If he wants to be a real man, he knows what he has to do.”

Marinette gave an exasperated sigh.  “Kim!  This is about his feelings?  Those are personal and no one has any right to interfere!  You didn’t dare him, did you?”

Kim scoffed.  “He has nothing I could want, no need to make a binding bet.”

Kim was a notorious thrill seeker who was constantly using his quirk, Double Dare, to make bets with people.  The bets would be binding and anything actually put on the line would be fulfilled at the end of the bet.  It could be extremely dangerous and he was restricted by needing full consent, and he legally had to tell people about his quirk before using it, otherwise the consequences could be drastic.  Of course, Kim was also 14 so he never tried anything dangerous, but he’d challenge Alix to races or Ondine to swimming challenges.

Still, Marinette pursed her lips, only feeling slightly better that Ivan wasn’t in a dare.  “You should apologize,” she frowned, “he was really upset, Kim.  He repeatedly told you to stop and to leave it alone, but you didn’t.”

Kim groaned.  “Fine, fine, I’ll apologize, I probably took it too far with that last note.  I just want him to man up, I know she’d say yes if he asked.”

She shook her head.  “That’s still not a good reason.  Promise you’ll apologize and you won’t do it again?  With anyone?” 

Kim sighed and scratched the back of his head.  “Yeah, ok, I get it, sorry, Nette.”

She giggled.  “Not to me, to Ivan!  I saw him heading to the principal’s office, you might want to hurry.”

Kim shot up at the mention of M. Damocles and took off in the direction Ivan had gone, eyes wide, and Marinette giggled a little at his expression.

(Meanwhile, unknown to any of the people of Paris, two figures seemed giddy, bouncing on their feet.

“Oh my, what deliciously-”

“-angry emotions!  That paper-”

“-simply soaked-”

“-drenched!”

“-in feeling!”

“Poor little child-”

“-taunted for being in love-”

“-wouldn’t it be better-”

“-if you had some chocolate?”

“…”

“That wasn’t what you were going to say, was it?”

“No, I was going to say, wouldn’t it be better if your heart was protected?”

“Oh, I see, that way if you confessed and it went wrong-”

“-you wouldn’t get hurt!  Yes, exactly!”

“And, well, we wouldn’t want anyone else to have hurt feelings-”

“-no, much better to be safe and protected in your shell-”

“-shell, what an apt word-”

“-yes I think so too, do you think that it’s time?”

“Oh yes, time for that little piece of paper-”

“To run amok.”

And the little feather fluttered in the wind, winding to the boy standing angrily outside of the principal’s office.)

Ivan opened the door and started to speak but the owl looking man at the desk tutted.  “Now now, it’s only polite to knock, out you get, try it again.”

It took everything in Ivan to not slam the door closed, but he set it firmly to the frame and knocked twice sharply.

“Come in!”

Ivan ground his teeth at the cheery voice and felt the paper in his hand crinkle more. When the wind rustled it a little.  He frowned, that was odd, a breeze in the school?  The paper moved a bit more and he looked down at it.

It smiled back.

“Don't worry,” a gravelly voice said, “I’ll keep you safe, Ivan!  I am Stoneheart!”

Ivan’s eyes grew wide as the paper-turned-stone crawled up his arm and overtook him completely.

The door opened and he looked at M. Damocles in panic as the stone covered his mouth completely, leaving the top half of his face free.

“There,” the voice said beside his ear, “all safe!  Let’s go make sure everyone else is safe too!”

Ivan’s body moved on its own and  he swallowed thickly.

Marinette was just looking to find Izuku and the others for lunch (she had brought one this time, but she’d ask if they all wanted to go the bakery for lunch tomorrow, that’d be fun) when a bloodcurdling scream rang out and her head shot up to the second floor.

The scream sounded familiar, and she tried to place it before Alix came up beside her.

“Why did Kim scream?  Oh, I bet Ivan scared him good in payback.  I’ll have to see what he did, get tips.”  She cackled and went back to her food.

Kim practically threw himself out into the open and looked down with wide eyes.

“Something’s got Ivan,” he hollered, “and I think it got the principal too!”

That drew more attention, and Kim kept running until he tripped and a lumbering stone monster leapt after him.

“Now now,” the monster said, its voice like rocks tumbling together, “I just want you to be safe, Kim!  You can get up to so many shenanigans, you know, but Stoneheart can make sure you never get hurt, emotionally or physically!”

“Let’s Ivan go,” Kim pleaded, “I still haven’t apologized!”

The stone covering Ivan (Marinette thought she would be sick, Ivan looked so panicked) formed a face around the chest area and frowned.  “But Kim, it’s your fault!  Don’t worry, we can fix this.”

He touched a stone hand to Kim’s foot and the grey material crawled up him even as Kim tried desperately to get away before it soon covered him too, all the way up to the mouth.  His hands flopped to the side and then he stood up fluidly.

“There,” Stoneheart said happily, “all safe!  Let’s go get our friends!  Oh, Mylene, Ivan wants to tell you something!”

The students in the courtyard seemed to snap out of their morbid curiosity and realize exactly what was happening and they started screaming and running, trying to get away and get out, and Marinette dove off to the side, locking herself in the girl’s bathroom until it was safe to come out, so she missed it when the heroes got there.

Izuku, on the other hand, was quickly tugged out of the school building by Kagami.  They had lost Adrien in the crowd, but Chloe was with them still and panicking immensely.  Izuku watched as the alert was put out and the first heroes arrived, escorting the students and staff out of the building and locking down exits.

One of the heroes stood on top of the roof and yelled into the school.

“Stoneheart,” they called, “turn yourself in and your sentence will be light!”

“Christ,” the hero’s voice came over the radio and Izuku locked in on the crackly sound, “what kind of quirk can take over this many people?  Surely there’s a limit, right?”

A flash of orange and black caught Izuku’s eye, but when he turned there was nothing.  He figured maybe it had been a civilian running away or something.

“What’s the situation?”

The heroes straightened at the new arrival.  “Glimmer, there are a few students unaccounted for that we assume have been captured by the one going by Stoneheart.  As far as we can tell, the quirk allows them to spread stone around a person they touch and control them.  So far no one has been able to limit the spread, and there doesn’t seem to be an end to the amount of stone that can be produced.”

Glimmer pursed her lips and scanned the crowd and her green eyes met Izuku’s and he sucked in a breath.  He knew those eyes, and suddenly he remembered, this was Adrien’s mom.  She had probably been at home, just around the corner, when the alert had gone up at the school.

Her eyes found Kagami and Izuku and she seemed to recognize them.

“Adrien was lost in the crowd, ma’am,” Kagami said swiftly, “we don't know where he is.”

Her eyes flashed with something unidentifiable before she nodded and turned back to the hero.  “Sergeant Sarco, let me know where I’m needed.  This is a little too bright for me.”

He nodded sharply and pressed on his earpiece.  “Captain Kid, what’s our count?”

A number was relayed from the hero on the roof and the door buckled a little with a sudden push from the inside.

Glimmer turned to them.  “Get out of here, we’ll make sure your classmates are safe.”

With a simple nod, they were off again, far enough away that they wouldn’t get in anyone’s way and wouldn’t be in danger even if Stoneheart did manage to-

“What the?  Who are you two?  Heroes are on site, vigilantes do not have permission to engage.”

“I’m sorry,” a girl’s voice called out, “but this isn’t a quirk!  The amok won’t be affected by quirks and can only be hurt by me and my partner!”

“That would be me,” a boy’s voice rang out, sounding rather pleased, “and might I say it is a pleasure to meet you, my lady!”

“I-what?  Never mind, this isn’t-”

“AHA!  JUST WHAT MASTER ORDERED!  A BUG AND A CAT!  PRETTY PLEASE, GIVE ME YOUR MIRACULOUS?”

“Hey,” the boy complained, and a black figure shot into the sky on a thin pole, “paws off the merchandise!  And I resent being called simply “the cat,” call me something else!”

“Stop,” the hero yelled, “you could get arrested for this!”

“Did you not hear her,” Chloe yelled hotly, “if you can’t do anything then you can’t do anything!  Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous !”

Captain Kid frowned at the mayor’s daughter.  “We’ll try all avenues before ruling them out.  You two, vigilantes, you can’t be older than teenagers, this isn’t your fight!  You aren’t trained.”

“I got it,” the boy cried, “Chat Noir!  Much better than simply “the cat!”  What about you, my buggy lady friend?  Come up with a good name?”

“I… no?  Now is not the time!”

“My Lady Bugaboo it is!”

“Anything but that!”

“IF YOU’RE NOT GOING TO GIVE UP YOUR MIRACULOUS,” Stoneheart rumbled, “THEN I’LL COME TO YOU AND TAKE THEM!”

The doors to the school burst open and several statued people came pouring out, spreading out and taking on some of the police on scene and any bystanders that hadn’t gotten clear enough, the stone covering them as well, and Glimmer seemed to disappear.

Sergeant Sarco drew his gun and shot one of them in the leg, mindful that there was still a civilian in there, and the bullet hit, but the stone seemed to ripple out from that location and the shell around the person got thicker.

A face appeared on the person, frowning.  “That wasn’t very nice,” Stoneheart ground out, “but luckily I’m going to protect everyone, even from people like you.”

The statues lunged and heroes and sidekicks started getting overwhelmed.  Any attacks they landed simply made the shells of stone thicker and less and less of the people could be seen before finally, a red and black spotted girl wrapped up the large crowd with a yoyo and braced it against a lamp post to keep them all together.

“Go,” she yelled, “Chat Noir and I are the only ones who can do this!  Chat, we need to find the amok!”

“The a what?”

“The amok!  Were you not told what was going on?”

“Um,” the feline vigilante scratched an ear, “I was told my abilities and that I would be working with you, my fair maiden, but other than that… not really?  Maybe, I didn’t really pay attention.”

She groaned.  “Ok, well, your miraculous is Destruction, right?  So you could probably break the stone.”

He lit up, green cat eyes widening in glee.  “Yes!  Do you think that’s the amok?”

She bit her lip and grunted, pulling tighter on the yoyo as the lamp post creaked ominously from the force of all of the statues, “I don’t know!  I wasn’t told a lot either!  I was barely told what an amok was!”

“That seems unhelpful,” Izuku murmured, “but it also sounds like they were sort of… chosen?  They didn’t pick this.”

“I agree,” Kagami muttered, “but I still think we’re too close.”

Neither of them made any move to exit the area, eyes locked onto the vigilantes.

“Well,” Chat Noir’s tail flicked and he twirled his baton, “we could find the source?  The face seems to move, so it can’t be that.”

The yoyo wire cut through the lamp post with a shriek of tearing metal and it came crashing down, pinning a few of the statues under it, but they quickly got up, helped each other out, and tugged their way out of the yoyo, forcing both vigilantes to jump back onto the roof.

“Ladybug,” Captain Kid started, “what the hell is this if not a quirk?”

She bit her lip.  “Best explanation I can give you is magic.  It existed before quirks and someone is using the power to try and… I don’t know, take over Paris?  Hey, Stoneheart, what’s the deal?”

A face formed and grinned, looking up at them while the majority of the statues started to spread out, helping each other over the barricades.

“Easy!  Master wants the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous!”

“But why?”

Stoneheart shrugged.  “Not my job to know.  Feel like handing them over?  I promise my embrace is like a warm safe hug!”

“Pass,” Chat Noir crossed his arms (oh he had claws, that was cool), “the only embrace I want is that of my lady. Kidding, kidding, now is not the time to be flirting, even if you do look good it red, might I say.”

“You may not,” she said dryly, “but let’s see, what did she say…?  Oh, yeah, LUCKY CHARM!”

She threw her yoyo into the air and down fell a red and block spotted coil, of what Izuku couldn’t tell, but Ladybug immediately started looking around before nodding.

“Ok, Captain Kid, how many heroes are around that can be spared?”

“Just me, kid.”

Chat Noir snorted at the pun.  “What’s the plan, m’lady?”

She looked down at Stoneheart.

“Every time he takes a hit, he gets stronger, so we’re not going to hit him.  We’re going to erode him.  Unless one of you is a trained firefighter I need a bit of time, can you buy that for me?  And Chat, save your destruction for the amok, if we can find it.”

“You mean it’s not Stoneheart himself?”

She pursed her lips.  “I don’t know.”

Captain Kid and Chat Noir exchanged glances but set to work while Ladybug leapt down to the nearest fire hydrants and unwound the coil, revealing that it was a fire hose.

Izuku heard a step from behind him and whirled around, years of being bullied honing his instincts and he saw grey.

He screamed and Kagami pushed him out of the way and went in the other direction as the statue lunged and before he could right himself, he was high in the sky surrounded by leather arms.  He was gently set on a roof and he opened his eyes to see Chat Noir.  

“You ok?”

He nodded.  “My-my cousin-”

His eyes lit up in recognition and he was vaulting away again, sweeping up Kagami as well and setting her beside him.

“Boy am I glad I practiced with this thing,” he joked, twirling the now short baton, “or I have a feeling I’d be slamming into buildings!  Stay safe and out of the way, holler if you need help again.”

Izuku raised over to the edge of the roof as he jumped off and followed the black clad figure with his eyes as he swept back into the battle.

There was a ripple across the field and it was suddenly filled with more Chat Noirs and Captain Kids, circling the stone statues that were still in the area and Izuku spotted Glimmer in the shadow of the school building, watching the fight with kaleidoscope eyes.

“CLEAR!”

Ladybug set the hose to her hip and blasted the water through the crowd of illusions, hitting the stone people with the full force of a fire hydrant.  Stoneheart struggles against the current, but instead of ripples of stone getting larger, stone chipped away, eroded by the intense water pressure, until slowly, people began getting control of their (sopping wet) limbs and could start to peel the cracking and sloughing stone.

Wails came up through the city and Izuku flinched, looking at the other stone people as they clutched at themselves.

“They must be tangentially linked,” Izuku murmured, “because hurting one is affecting all of them.”

“So you only need to defeat one?”

“Not necessarily,” he bit his lip, “it could just hurt them, but it’s completely possible to fight through the pain.”

“Enough,” Stoneheart wailed, “I know when I am defeated.  Master, call me back, please!  I have failed you today, my shell is not strong enough.”

Something in them seemed to change and the stone slipped off of all of them.

“Next time we meet, Ladybug and Chat Noir,” he snarled, “I think you’ll find I can rock your world.”

Stoneheart seemed to melt into the ground with a sigh, falling into rubble and everyone stood stock still.

“Well,” Chat Noir started, “I’m glad all the victims have decided to come out of their shell.”

Ladybug snorted and tried to muffle it but failed before catching her breath and unhooking the fire hose.  Captain Kid and Chat Noir helped her seal up the hydrant again and she hefted the coiled hose before throwing it into the air.

“MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”

The object turned into a swirl of ladybugs that swept the city, fixing the damage.

Or rather, most of it.

Captain Kid frowned at the remaining damage.  “That’s a handy ability you’ve got there, Ladybug.”

She shrugged sheepishly.  “It looks like the miracle cure can only fix damage done by the miraculous.”

“So if any heroes get involved,” the pro sighed, “damage is permanent.  Well, that’s a compelling argument for you vigilantes to get jurisdiction… Listen,” he scratched his goatee, “I’ll explain everything to the feds and try to get the official statement out in case this happens again, but you kids did good, especially for your first time.  Now skedaddle before the press and stuff get here and you can’t escape.”

They both hurriedly went off in opposite directions, but Izuku watched them both duck into the school and thought, oh, they did look like teenagers, but then again, maybe it was just a close location that was easily accessible and would soon be flooded with people to blend in with, when Captain Kid caught their eye and started scaling the building, nimbly leaping from windowsill to windowsill.

“Hello,” he grinned, “I’m glad Chat Noir got you both out of there in time.”

Izuku felt like vibrating.  “You’re the Goat Hero!  You can do anything a goat can do, like climb almost sheer vertical cliffs, leap sizable distances, and it’s rumored you can keep your balance on anything!”

The pro smiled.  “You know your stuff.  I’m not very popular, but it’s always nice to meet a fan.  I’ll take you down one at a time now, ok?”

Kagami went first, to test the merits of this hero by the appraising look she was giving him, and Izuku hurriedly got out his notebook and turned to the page he had for Captain Kid.

He had started a new notebook for French heroes, but this was his first time getting a good close look at one, and he knew he would want to draw the Captain in art class later.

As soon as he was safe on the ground he shyly offered his notebook, indicating the place for the autograph and the hero blinked.

“Oh, this is… not all French.”

Izuku flushed.  “I’m from Japan, so I will occasionally use that if there's a word I don’t know in French yet, but I’m trying to limit that so I get better.  Plus then very few people can read my notes.  The later entries are more in French, but you were one of the first ones I found…”

The hero grinned and signed the page with a flourish.  “Stay out of trouble, kids!”

“You too, kid!”

He gave a bleating laugh and waved as he ran off and Izuku grinned down at his notebook.

“IZUKU!  KAGAMI!”

He looked up sharply to see Marinette and Adrien running out of the school.

“Are you ok,” Marinette immediately fretted, “I locked myself in the bathroom but I watched the news footage and you two almost got caught!  Why were you so close to the fight?”

Izuku flushed and looked away.  “It’s… it’s a bad habit, sorry, I’m pretty used to hero chasing.  Plus, those two vigilantes looked so cool, I definitely wanted to see them in action!  It was their debut, and maybe the heroes will recognize them to act on the scene, since they’re the only ones who can do something!  Besides, Chat Noir got us out!”

Kagami nodded solemnly.  “Ladybug was very cool in the face of danger.  It was admirable.”

“Adrien!”

He looked up and beamed at his mom.  “Mum!  I didn’t know you were here!  I didn’t see you in the fight!  Well, except for the part where you doubled up Chat Noir and Captain Kid.  So cool, as always.”

She smiled but her brows were still furrowed.  “Are you alright?  You weren’t accounted for in the students who evacuated.”

He winced.  “I, uh, I got hit early.  Lost in the crowd, next thing I know I’m mostly stone.  Rock solid alibi, huh?”

She chuckled lightly.  “School is canceled for the rest of the day while we deal with the implications of this new villain and power, so say goodbye.”

“Bye guys,” he sighed, “see you tomorrow!  We should definitely talk more!”

The three of them waved goodbye and Izuku deflated with a whine, flopping to the ground and hitting his head with his notebook.

“Why didn’t you get her signature as well,” Kagami raised an eyebrow, “I know you have a page on her.”

“I already talked to one hero without making a fool of myself,” he murmured, “that’s enough for one day.  Plus, that’s Adrien’s mother,  I can’t afford to make a bad impression or she’ll never let me hang out with her son again and then you’d never be able to hang out with him again-”

“Breathe,” Kagami said shortly, smiling lightly, “she already knows who you are.”

“Oh no,” he moaned into the cover of the notebook, “that’s even worse!  Now I can never talk to her!”

Marinette laughed and tugged them in the direction of the bakery.

Chapter Text

As soon as Izuku and Kagami stepped into the classroom, their classmates swarmed them.

“I heard you almost got caught up in the fight,” Jean had wide eyes, “why the heck were you two that close?!”

Adrien put a hand to his chest.  “I was actually captured by the stone, do I get no sympathy?”

Vio didn’t even look at him, scanning the two cousins for injuries.  “No.”

Jack sighed in exasperation.  “Vio, they wouldn’t have come to school if they were injured.  No one saw what happened because most of the reporters on scene were with the larger group of heroes, not these mysterious new vigilantes.”

Ron lit up.  “Yeah, the Arme released an official statement from Captain and Sarge that their agency is willing to give the two jurisdiction.  I mean you guys saw some of the hero damage on the school, right?  Apparently the lady vigilante can fix damage from the specific villains.”

Izuku beamed.  “The other one, Chat Noir, he was really cool!  He saved us.”

“But Ladybug is definitely cooler,” Adrien protested, “she was the one who fixed everything.  Chat Noir just fended them off!”

“And saved us from becoming statues,” Izuku insisted, “plus fending them off was important!  He was just as necessary to the fight as Ladybug was!”

“Boys,” Aurore interjected with amusement, “no one else saw them, so we don’t have real opinions, but I’m sure they were both great in different ways.  Now, we have class soon enough, so let’s let them sit down and maybe they’ll answer questions when we’re not hounding them at the door.”

The four of them at the door (plus the three being “accosted”) slid into the classroom and found their seats, sticking to the ones they were in the day before.  Lucy gave an absentminded wave before downing a shot glass of unidentified liquids and winking, looking more alert.

“So what actually happened with you two,” Jeremiah raised an eyebrow, “because I’ve looked at all the posted videos and barely saw the edge of what happened.”

Izuku blinked.  “Really?  Marinette said she found a really good one, but maybe she was just watching us closely?  Well, one of the Stonehearts crept up behind us and I screamed.  Chat Noir swooped in and grabbed me before I could turn to stone and went back for Kagami, and we spent the rest of the fight on the roof, watching it all go down.  Captain Kid ended up getting us down, I got his autograph.”

Kagami nodded.  “I managed to evade the Stoneheart while Izuku was taken to safety until I could also be removed from the situation.  I observed Ladybug to be a noble pursuer of justice and am glad her and Chat Noir could do something where the heroes could not.”

Mireille smiled.  “I'm glad you both got out safely, and that everything could go back to normal.  I heard they didn’t capture the villain?”

“By way of announcement,” Mendeleiev swept into the room, “we will be doing a discussion on this, including on what we know and what we don’t.  You’re all in your seats already,” she noted with a hint of pride in her voice, “so we can get started right away.  Do you want to do class announcements first or do those later?”

Aurore waved a hand.  “We can send them out via text.  Please, continue.”

Their teacher nodded.  “Very well.  So far, we count Stoneheart as a minion villain that is, as far as we know, not a person, but a sentient manifestation of power known as an amok.  We don’t know what that is or why they’re called that, but that’s how it was referred to by Ladybug, who knew slightly more than we did.  The vigilantes and the villain or villains behind the amok get their power not from quirks, as one might expect, but from something called a Miraculous.  What that is, we don’t know, but supposedly it predated quirks.  Only other Miraculous users can fight the amoks,” she sniffed, “so the heroes will mostly be focused on evacuation and damage control instead of engaging.  The two vigilantes are being sponsored by the Arme Agency, so they won’t get arrested if they show up to a scene, but we will be having some difficulty telling what is the use of a quirk and what is an amok.”

“What do they want,” Ondine frowned, “all villains have to want something, right?”

Mendeleiev nodded.  “Apparently, the villains want the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous, the ones wielded by the vigilantes. For what, we don’t yet know.  We don’t know how amoks are made, what their powers will be, assuming they won’t all be like Stoneheart, nor do we know who we are facing behind the scenes.  The police force and hero agencies are currently investigating all the claims made by both the vigilantes and the villains and trying to figure out how to tell if it’s an amok or just a person, but for now, consider this a minor villain sighting and act accordingly.”

Aurore nodded.  “For you three, do you know French school procedure for these situations?”

They all shook their heads after a moment of contemplation.

She nodded.  “Jere, you explain it better.”

Jeremiah nodded.  “Right, standard procedure for low level threats is walk in pairs with an emergency contact, avoid being alone and check in with someone every hour if you will be moving around.  As the danger increases, movement for those under 16 is restricted and at least one person over the age of 25 must accompany minors when walking somewhere between the hours of 8pm and 8am.  These numbers expand in the winter, since it gets dark sooner.  General alerts are put out for sightings of potential foul doing and heroes increase patrols.  If the threat is high enough, there is a mandatory enforced curfew, usually midnight, with exceptions made depending on people’s jobs.  The only step further than that is full lockdown, where you shelter in the building at the time of the alert going out.  Those are usually temporary if a really big villain shows up, to keep civilians safer and make it so heroes don’t have to worry as much.  All buildings have at least one reinforced room so that if buildings get caught in the crossfire the inhabitants will be perfectly safe until help arrives”

He sighed.  “Hopefully it never gets that high.  For now, procedure for a minor villain sighting is the buddy system and check-ins.  While in school, check-ins are not necessary, since you’ll be with a teacher most times, but you’re recommended to text your guardian when you’re on your way home just in case.  The police and hero websites both list a text hotline to alert potential villain sightings.  Relatively certain that covers everything.”

Mendeleiev nodded.  “Very good, M. Da Silva.  All regulations are posted on the city website, as well as listing the current threat level, but I will also be telling you if it changes.  Life continues on as normal.”

Izuku blinked.  “France, but Paris specifically has a much lower crime rate than most other cities.  Why such extensive precautions?”

Their teacher smiled.  “Because they are just that - precautions.  Our crime rate is low in direct correlation to how careful the citizens are.  “Better safe than sorry” is a philosophy that can be applied to many more fields than just science, after all.  Any other questions or concerns?”

The class gave various negatives and she huffed in satisfaction.  “Very well.  Let us continue on with the day then…”

Lunch had Izuku bouncing.  Marinette had asked them all last night if they wanted to eat at the bakery for lunch, stating she had almost forgotten in the Stoneheart fiasco and associated drama, and the three of them were quick to agree.  Adrien, of course, was the fastest, eyes lighting up at the thought of pastry (Kagami stated the boy had a problem, and Izuku quietly giggled and hid his own growing obsession), but they all were keen to go as well.

Adrien decided to invite Chloe as they were leaving the school, and she stiffened and hesitated, but then shook her head with a light scoff, looking away as if bored.

“Sabrina and I will eat at the hotel.  Come along, Sabrina!”

A girl with an orange bob of hair squeaked and scrambled after Chloe with a grin and Marinette breathed a sigh of relief.

Only Izuku seemed to notice, and he gave her a slight side-eye until she sighed guiltily and leaned in to mutter to him.

“I get that Chloe is Adrien’s friend,” she wrinkled her nose, “but she’s never really been the nicest.  I wouldn’t want either of us to be put in a position where Adrien might have to, I dunno, choose between us because we’ve kind of been fighting since we were small.”

Izuku winced and nodded.  Forcing people to choose between you and someone else was never pleasant for anyone involved.

“Maman,” Marinette swept into the bakery, “we’re here!”

Sabine smiled.  “Lunch is in the dining room, dear.  Hello, Izuku, Adrien, Kagami.”

“Hello Madam Cheng,” Izuku and Adrien both chorused, and she scowled at them good-naturedly before lightly beating them into the back.

“How many times,” she murmured under her breath, “have I told you silly boys to call me Sabine?  Goodness…”

Adrien chuckled and Izuku grinned with a slight wince.

“So,” Marinette said as she sat down with a huff, grabbing plates and spooning out the pasta on the table, still quite warm, and setting the dishes in front of everyone else before serving herself, “what did you guys do this morning?”

“Went over villain procedure,” Kagami raised an eyebrow, “I wasn’t aware such a thing existed.  Is it mostly for school age children?”

Marinette waved her hand back and forth.  “Sort of.  It also applies to the majority of civilians, including business owners like my parents.  Buildings that have private security might not go over the same things I guess, but it’s taught in school from a pretty early age as a way to make sure everyone stays safe.”

Adrien took a bite of the pasta and hummed.  “I guess we’ve had really good security every time we've ever left the house, and my mom is already a hero, so she could keep us pretty safe, but this is the first time I’m hearing about it.”

Kagami nodded.  “My mother also deemed it unnecessary before now, I gather.”

Izuku fidgeted.  “We didn’t have anything like this in Japan.  I mean, civilians have to get away from scenes of attack, but the likelihood of a villain or criminal going out of their way to attack specific people or random people not near the scene of the crime is low unless they have a personal vendetta or just want murder as a goal, but that’s rare and those cases are given high priority to minimize losses.  The amount of damage a villain can potentially do is directly correlated to how fast the heroes try to handle them…”

Marinette giggled.  “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Izu, breathe.”

“Is it a trait of quirkless people to ramble,” Kagami asked mildly, “or did we just get lucky with you two?”

Marinette squawked in indignation and tried to shove the other girl out of her chair, but Kagami had impeccable balance and ducked and weaved to keep herself on her chair, seemingly without effort as she took another bite of her pasta.  Finally, Marinette seemed to give up, pouting, and went back to her own lunch.

“Completely changing topics,” Adrien grinned, “what do you guys think of those two vigilantes from yesterday?  I think Ladybug is really cool!”

Marinette immediately flushed.  “What?  No, she looked like she had no idea what she was doing!  Chat Noir was way cooler, he got you two out!”

Izuku bit his lip and smiled.  “Yeah, Chat Noir was really cool.  I liked his cat puns a lot, he seemed to be having fun with it.”

Kagami sniffed.  “In the case of battle, where there are people at risk, I find Ladybug’s more serious attitude to be preferred.  She kept a cool head and came up with a plan to defeat the enemy she barely knew anything about.  She is a natural leader and has a noble heart.”

Izuku glanced at the two he wasn’t related to in confusion, they both looked rather flustered and pleased, but like they were trying to hide it.

“Heck yeah,” Adrien cheered, “Kagami knows what’s up!  Ladybug is clearly the better of the two.”

“I like Chat’s goofing off,” Marinette folded her arms, “it makes sure the entire thing isn’t too stressful so they don’t make mistakes!  They’re both super new.”

“Yeah,” Izuku said quietly, “they’re both new, so maybe we’ll be able to talk about this more once we’ve seen them in action more, and know a bit more about them.”

“What do you think of their powers,” Kagami mused, “they said it’s not quirks.”

Izuku hummed, looking into the corner of the room to think.  “Well, it seemed like Chat Noir had a power that he didn’t use, and Ladybug had two major abilities.  There was her call for a Lucky Charm, which gave her the fire hose, and then Miraculous Ladybug which turned the fire hose into a red swarm that restored the area around.  If it was a quirk, that means it’s creation based that creates an object that not only functions but that works as something of a time reversal.  I don’t know if she can choose which object comes out.  Probably not, since she looked a little lost with the hose for a second, and the quirk would have to have drawbacks somehow.  To create something out of nothing is impossible, but we don’t really know what she might be making it out of.  Could she create more than one?  Then there’s the idea that the restoration only affects damage done by other beings with the same power.  We haven’t really been able to confirm that yet… as for creating the amoks, or whatever they are, to give things or concepts a degree of sentience is a revolutionary power.  No quirk has ever been seen like it, despite the fact that we’re approaching the quirk singularity if studies are to be believed.”

He blinked and looked back at the three of them, who all had various expressions of awe on their faces.  He flushed and looked away, mumbling out an apology, and hastily stood up and ran in an unknown direction.  It certainly wasn’t the doorway back to the shop and out of the store, but he wasn’t really thinking straight.  He knew, he knew that none of them would make fun of him for rambling and thinking out loud, but the reaction had practically been programmed into him and his heart was fluttering with anxiety.  He wasn’t thinking hardly at all, he was just scared and waiting to be hurt.

“Stupid, stupid,” he murmured under his breath, “its been months, why now?”

He beelined into a corner and slid down the wall.  There were bags of flour on one side of him and the tile side of a counter on the other and he felt safe and hidden from the world, and he just breathed, letting his eyes slip closed.

“Son?”

He jolted and pushed further back into the wall with wide eyes looking at the source of the voice, and his body instantly lost the tension it had gained when he saw it was just Tom, blinking in bewilderment and holding a cake pan fresh from the oven.

With his bare hands.

Tom seemed to notice where his gaze had gone and made a noise of realization before setting it down and holding out his hands.

“No burns,” he said jovially, “my quirk makes me resistant.  Really handy for bakery work, but it has the downside of barely letting me feel things with my hands.  Well, this side, anyway.  Here, they should still be warm.”

He knelt down and held out his hands.  Izuku slowly settled his own in the huge hands of the baker, feeling the lingering warmth and the smooth, sturdy texture.  He felt himself relax a bit more to see how different these hands were.

He had a bad experience with heat, fire, and hands.  There were two people in his life who had warm hands like this, but their hands were nowhere near like this.  Kacchan’s hands were rough and smelled sweet and were always a little damp.  And… and Hisashi’s hands were scarred and rough and they were never this gentle.  They weren’t warm, they burned, and they were only ever used to hurt, never to hold like Tom’s were doing.

Tom smiled broadly.  “There we go!  Now, what brings you in here?  I thought you would be eating lunch at the table!”

Izuku swallowed.  “I was… I needed to leave.  Brain was being stupid.”

Tom chuckled.  “Ah, the folly of man, to always have stupid brains.  Are you feeling better now, or do you want some fresh bread to make it better?  I find it’s hard for the brain to think stupid things when bread is on the mind.  Unless, of course, the stupid thing is about bread.  Then you’re out of luck, I’m afraid.”

Izuku smiled weakly.  “I’m ok, thanks M- …Tom.”

The large man beamed.  “Oho, wait till I tell Sabine!  She’s been trying for ages to get you to call her by her first name, but I got it first!  Aha, I have won!”

Izuku blinked, flabbergasted, and the man chuckled again before hauling him to his feet and dusting him off from the flour that had collected on him.  “Here, I pulled this baguette out of the oven not fifteen minutes ago, take that back to the table and you four can all split it.  It’s very good in the pasta sauce, I know that for a fact.”

Izuku felt the loaf placed into his hands firmly and blinked down at the warm crusty bread before walking slowly behind Tom back into the other room where Marinette was trying to convince Adrien and Kagami not to go into the other room, but they all turned to him when they entered.

Tom beamed at the three of them and put his massive warm hand on Izuku’s back with a gentle pat.  “No need to fret, he just came to get some bread!  Nice to see you all again, enjoy!”

He left without another word, but offered another pat and Izuku relaxed slowly, still clutching the bread to his chest.  He slowly offered it to the table and Marinette breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness,” she muttered, “I don’t think I could have held them off much longer.  Are you alright?”

Izuku nodded, deciding to give the same explanation he had given Tom.  “Brain was being stupid, I’m fine.”

Marinette nodded in understanding while Kagami frowned and Adrien just looked lost, but he quickly sat back down with the bread.  “We have to go back to class in fifteen minutes, we should finish eating.”

That spurred the rest of them into sitting down and they tore the bread apart, not bothering with a knife.  Adrien and Marinette both grabbed the quarter of the bread that had the heel with relish and Izuku giggled into the warm and fluffy bread.  He understood, the heel had the most crust and the crust was excellent, but he liked the middle bits just fine as well, so he was content to let them have them.

By the time he went back to school, his internal panic was practically gone.

(“Aw, the darling was scared.”

“And now he’s not.”

“Well, I think he’ll panic again.”

“Yes, he seems anxious.”

“He’s so sweet, Paon!”

“I know!  Won’t stop us, though.”

“Oh, no, of course not, if he can help us, then he will.”

“So many opportunities-”

“-so much potential-”

“Ladybug and Chat Noir won’t know what hit them-”

“-with our next amok.” )

Chapter Text

“And as a reminder,” Aurore said looking at the calendar on her phone, “Duparc’s magic show is this Saturday, also known as tomorrow, at the hospital in the children’s ward at… eleven, correct?”

Jean gave a thumbs up.

Aurore smiled briefly.  “Eleven.  No one is obligated to go but we all know he likes volunteers to make fun of, and it will make the kids happy, so feel free to stop by and support.  On another note, picture day is next week on Thursday, reminders will be sent out.”

She paused and blinked.  “Cami, it looks like rain this afternoon so you might want to go home at lunch.”

The blond sighed.  “Do you think I can still manage art?  I have an oil I want to work on for the expo in a month, but if not, that’s fine.”

Aurore closed her eyes and concentrated, a light breeze twirling the ends of her pigtails, before she opened her eyes and nodded.

“Rain is slated to start at about two.  Cutting it close, but doable.  Up to you.”

Cami grimaced, but nodded, and Aurore passed it on to their teacher.

Ml. Mendeleiev pursed her lips and looked down at papers on her desk, pulling two up and looking between them.

“We could change the schedule around, if you’d like.  Caline’s class has art in an hour, whereas we have physics, there is a project coming up… but Camille, if you would like to join her class so that you can avoid the weather, and simply get the physics notes later, that will be fine.  I know that there is some work you cannot bring home.”

Cami smiled.  “I wouldn’t want to be a bother.  No need to make special arrangements for me, Madam.  Unless there’s a way the whole class can go, there’s no need.”

The stern teachers drummed her fingers on the desk for a second.

“Aurore, would you mind taking a note to M. Monlataing for me?”

Aurore raised an eyebrow, but nodded and stood, taking the scrawled note and leaving the room.

Mendeleiev went over a few more announcements in the meantime, things that as class president, Aurore probably already knew, and then the girl came back with another note and their teacher nodded in satisfaction.

“Today will be a modified schedule in light of the rare weather conditions for this time of year, and the fact that since this is still the first week of school we can be a bit looser.  Due to the shift, we will be attending art with Ml. Bustier's class.  The room is certainly large enough, and we’ll quickly cover some of the physics now before going more in depth on Monday.  I have the utmost faith you will catch up.”

Adrien raised a hand.  “What will we be doing in our normal art block, then?”

“Since I will be with another class at the time,” she sighed, “it will be a self study period, but I suppose if you really want to you could go back to the art room, or you could go to the library.  Today in physics I would not have announced this, but I feel it is best to give you a heads up, there will be a project on particle physics that we will learn in class, there will be four groups of three and one group of two, I trust you enough not to have to assign the groups, but if anyone from Caline’s class asks, you were assigned, understood?”

There was a chorus of amused agreements and she smirked before nodding sharply.

“Well, I have an hour before art, let’s talk science.”

They got to the art room before the other class did, and carefully tucked themselves into the back of the room, getting out the things they wanted to work on.  M. Monlataing smiled and nodded at them while Ml. Bustier’s class came in, some louder than others.  A few people made a beeline for the back and blinked to see people already there, Marinette included, and Izuku waved her down.

She stumbled into a seat at their table, the four of them quite content with the arrangement, and M. Monlataing started speaking softly.

“Some of you might have noticed that Ml. Mendeleiev’s class is joining us today.  Anyway, we’re starting on our first projects today.  You can use any medium, but the theme is heroes.  Whether that means superheroes, service workers, or just important people in your life, this means something different for everyone and I want you to capture that in your art.  Everyone will be giving a short presentation on their art next Friday, or they can turn the projects in with a written presentation just for me, that’s fine too.  Don’t worry about it being perfect, just worry about it having meaning to you.”

Izuku quickly grabbed the box of artist pencils.  He had missed it on his first day, seeing them as all black pencils, but now he knew better.  He was still sort of figuring things out, but he was well used to drawing with pencils, so he enjoyed his efforts immensely.

Adrien very giggly took out clay, stating in a conspiratorial tone that this was one of his preferred art forms, but he didn’t get to do anything with it most of the time because it was too messy.

Kagami simply raised an eyebrow at that and took out an ink pen and watercolors.

Marinette, on the other hand, took out her sketchbook with a big smile and flipped to a page before humming it and standing up to go to where fabric was stored in the classroom, bringing an entire bin of fabric scraps to sit beside her chair.

Izuku blinked.  “Fabric?  Oh, you want to be a fashion designer, that’s right.”

She beamed.  “Yep!  I’m not the only designer in school, but M. Monlataing keeps fabric for these freestyle projects since he knows that’s probably where I’m going to go.  I help stock it, of course, with some of my scraps, since I can’t fit all of them in my room, but I still do most of my crafting at home.”

He nodded with a light hum.  “What do you think you’re going to do?  Question for everyone.”

“I am going to draw my mother,” Kagami said simply, “she is a beacon of strength and power to me.  I would consider her a hero.”

Adrien grinned.  “I’m doing Ladybug!  Gonna make a small statue, I just think she’s neat!”

Marinette went a little red.  “But she’s a vigilante?  And has only been seen once!  You barely know anything about her!”

Adrien smirked.  “I have a good feeling about her, she’s gonna be a great hero.”

Marinette stared at him for a bit more, looking incredulous, before she shook her head with a smile.  “I’m probably going to make something based on Glimmer, since she’s not only an actual hero but she’s Adrien’s mom.  If I’m allowed, I might even give it to her as a gift, depending on how it turns out.”

Now it was Adrien’s turn to get a little red and flounder about his mom a bit, and Izuku laughed, looking down at the crisp white paper before him as he fingered the furthest H pencil, that would only make light marks.

“I think I’m going to draw my mom,” he said quietly, “because she’s definitely been my hero more times than I can count.”

“That’s really nice,” Kagami said softly, “and I’m sure she’ll like the image.”

Izuku hummed and pressed the pencil tip to the paper, using the light pencil to help sketch out what he wanted.

His mother had gotten slightly heavier over the years from the stress of being a single parent, but he thought she still looked beautiful.  He sketched her from a side angle, sitting on the couch.  It was a memory he remembered fondly; they were watching the heroes take down a big villain and she was cheering along with him, so joyfully happy in a way that was so contagious.  They had been smiling for days, giggling and whispering about it whenever their eyes met.  He had been younger, only twelve, and it made everything seem better.  She still looked worried, but her smiles were genuine when he rambled about things and she just looked so happy to be alive, there, with him.

He slowly went up in magnitude of pencils to add darker lines and more defined features, carefully dragging a finger over the lines to make shadows and depth.

He figured he was about halfway done with the focus of the picture when he was jolted out of his reverie by everyone getting up around him.  Kagami simply raised an eyebrow at him while Marinette and Adrien giggled and he felt himself flush.

“Catch up without go -- ugh, I mean, I’ll catch up, go on without me, I just need to put things away.”

Kagami cast a careful, narrowed eye across the room, but most people were either going or gone, so she shrugged and followed the rest out while Izuku scrambled to put the pencils back in the box.

He finally managed it with a huff and slipped around the table to the cabinets to put it back, but he stumbled and ran into a boy who was trying to do the same.

“Gomen- I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention and I thought everyone had left, are you alright?”

He helped the blinking redhead off the floor and leaned back down to collect the things they had both dropped, hand lighting on a journal that had fallen open.

He paused as he took on what was on the pages.

“Wow, that’s really good!  You’re really good with poses that show movement!  I can never get those right, so I always draw people standing, or from a picture.  And I love this costume design, are you planning on going into design like Marinette, but for costumes?”

He looked up to meet wide eyes and quickly paled.  “I’m so sorry, I was rambling again, here, let me just give this back-”

“You draw too?”

Izuku flushed and nodded sheepishly, fishing out his notebook.  “It’s not anything special, but since I saw yours, here.  This is one I did recently, on Captain Kid.  I even got him to sign it!”

The boy gingerly took the notebook and his eyes scanned the picture before he handed it back.

“You’re really good,” he said softly, “your still lifes are better than mine by far.  Your style is much more realistic as well, I mostly draw cartoons.”

Izuku hummed.  “It’s in the comic book style, right?  That’s not something a lot of people can pull off, and I really like it!  Plus, the style lends itself to the dynamic poses really well.  Oh, um, sorry, I didn’t introduce myself, I’m Izuku!”

“Nathaniel.”

Izuku beamed.  “Nice to meet you, Nathaniel!  Oh, shoot, Gami is going to kill me if I’m late, I should go, but it was really nice talking to you!”

He quickly shoved the box of pencils in the cabinet and practically ran out of the room with a wave, sliding into his seat just before he would be marked tardy, pointedly ignoring the look Kagami gave him.

“I’ll tell you at lunch,” he whispered.

Lunch rolled around in the bakery again and he was happy to talk about a potential new friend he had made.

Marinette perked up.  “Oh, Nathaniel!  Yeah, he’s a really good kid, I knew him back in primaire, he’s really shy but he’s always drawing and he’s really nice.  I think you’ll get along pretty well, especially since you’re so alike!”

Izuku hummed around the bread in his mouth as he chewed thoughtfully.  “It’ll be nice to have more friends in your class in case Aurore does manage to put together that inter-class activity.”

Adrien sighed.  “I'm just upset that I can't go tomorrow.  Magic is always super cool, Felix usually takes all the fun out of it to just make fun of me.”

Marinette blinked.  “Magic?  Tomorrow?”

Kagami nodded.  “A classmate is putting on a magic show for the children’s ward at the hospital tomorrow.  Izuku insists on attending.  Would you like to join us?”

“Noooo,” Adrien sprawled across the table, “Marinette you can’t leave me all aloooooone, that’s cruel and unusual punishment!”

She giggled and shoved him lightly.  “Those are the rules in America, not here, Adrien.  Besides, why can’t you go?”

He grimaced.  “Mum’s still nervous about the Stoneheart incident and doesn’t really want me out of the house.  Besides that, I have piano.  She heard Vio was in our class and was delighted, but now I need to do piano more so I can attend recitals more with her.  Mum’s always liked Vio.  But anyway, the time happens to cross.  I’m done at eleven thirty, so I might be able to catch the tail end, or at least catch up with you guys later.”

Marinette hummed.  “When is it?  I should be free.”

“Eleven.”

She nodded and smiled.  “Yeah, I can probably make it, unless something comes up at the shop!”

“Great,” Izuku grinned, “text us and we can pick you up!”

Marinette nodded happily and they finished up lunch.

Izuku looked at the sky as they walked back and noted the gathering grey clouds.  Cami was indeed not in class, which made him sad, but halfway through the later half of the day rain started to pour, hitting the windows and making light noise permeate the classroom.  It was soothing, and the rest of the day went without incident.  He said goodbye to Jean, promising he’d be there tomorrow.

Marinette texted that she should be good to go as well, and Izuku was ready.

The hospital ward was decorated with children’s drawings and crafts and Izuku grinned as the kids cheered when Jean swept into the room in a suit with a top hat and cape, a domino mask covering his face.

“Adrien said he looks like Tuxedo Mask,” Marinette giggled, “I sent him a picture.  Does anyone have any idea who that is?”

Izuku snorted.  “An anime… villain?  It’s a really old anime called Sailor Moon.  Maybe we’ll get together and watch it some time.  I didn’t think magical girl anime were Adrien’s type, but, well, if the shoe fits…”

“Welcome,” Jean said with a flourish, “or should I say, I am here?”

The kids cheered and Izuku had to muffle a giggle at the very bad All Might impression, noticing the rest of his class who were attending had fond expressions of exasperation on their faces.

“I am here,” he said with another flourish, flicking out his cape dramatically, “to perform wonderful feats of magic, the likes of which you have never SEEN!  Are you ready, my dear children?”

They cried out in glee.

“Very well,” he pulled the cape to cover his lower face before throwing it out, now holding a magic wand, “then let us begin!  For the first bout of magic, I require… a volunteer!”

Hands instantly shot into the air and he tapped his smiling mouth with the white tipped wand.

“For this trick… Kenji!”

A boy in a knitted hat grinned and he stumbled forward on his thin legs.

Jean clapped his hands together before sliding them so they were opposite each other before pulling them apart, revealing a red silk handkerchief that he had pinched between his two hands.

“Now, Kenji,” he said very seriously, “tell me, do you believe in magic?”

Kenji nodded his head rapidly.

“Excellent!  Can you hold this for me, Kenji?  Just like I am.”

Kenji slowly took over holding the corners of the silk square and Jean stepped back with a grin.

“Now, Kenji, can you show off both sides of this handkerchief for the audience?”

Kenji spun it around so you could see the other side, also red.

“As you can see,” Jean chuckled, “nothing on either side, nothing different, and, of course, Kenji is the one holding it.  Let’s see, I hope I remember the spell… hmm, I seem to have forgotten the magic words.  Does anyone know them?”

“Abracadabra!”

“AlakaZAM!”

“Please?”

Jean chuckled.  “I think we should try all of them.  Will you say them with me?”

He pointed the wand at the red square.

“ABRACADABRA!”

He hummed.  “Not that one, then.”

“ALAKAZAM!”

The square rippled and they all jumped, Jean looking excited.

“I think we almost had it!  Last word, now!”

“PLEASE!”

The handkerchief was suddenly displaced and Kenji fell back with a squeak into Jean’s waiting arms as a bird flew out from under the handkerchief that had previously simply been suspended in the air, flying around the room while Jean righted the boy before he held out a white gloved finger.

“There we are,” he cooed, “Mia just needed us to ask her to please come out!  Very polite, you all were, and we know how much Mia likes it when we’re polite.  Thank you, Kenji, without you Mia would still be… well, wherever she goes when it’s not the second Saturday of the month.”

The bird, a small brown bird, pecked him and the kids laughed as Jean scowled and scolded the bird.

“Did you see where the bird came from,” Izuku whispered with wide eyes, “or did it really just appear from behind the square?”

Kagami frowned.  “I did not see it until it flew out.”

“Me neither,” Marinette whispered in excitement, “this is so cool!”

Aurore snorted.  “You’ll never get him to tell you how he does it either, we’ve been trying for years and not a word.”

Jean sat Mia on the rim of his hat before thanking Kenji for helping again and taking the handkerchief, holding it tightly between two fists as he hummed, walking back and forth.

“You know, Mia, I don’t know what we should do next,” the strain on the handkerchief made it pop out of one fist, but it brought with it another one, yellow, tied to it, and the children gasped in delight, “I think these kids have seen my tricks so many times,” another one, green, popped out of his closed fist, “that they might be able to do them all on their own, without me!”  Blue, this time.  “What do you think?”

She twittered at him and he hummed in thought, idly looping the strand of tied cloth around a hand as more colors popped out of the other.

“You’re right,” he mused, “there’s always those ones.  But I’m not sure if they’ll like them.”

The kids giggled and quickly denied it, saying they’d love any of his tricks and his eyes lit up with mirth.

“Well then, here we go!”

Adrien came rushing into the building right as snack break was called and grinned widely.

“What’d I miss?”

Jean stretched.  “The most sublime magic ever to be seen on this earth.  They will know the name Jean Duparc for generations to come.”

Marinette giggled.  “There were some pretty good tricks.  You’re really good at this!”

Jean rolled a card around between his fingers, flashing back and forth between the red patterned back and the joker on its face.  “Why thank you, kind lady.  But, do not ask me how it is done, for-”

“A magician never reveals his tricks,” their entire class said in unison and Jean looked mildly offended as he snapped the card to his thumb and index finger.

“And it’s not a quirk,” Ondine grinned, “we asked.  He’s shown us one trick, actually, or, well, some of us.”

Ron sighed.  “And none of them are talking either!  They get childhood friend privileges and all the rest of us are fresh outta luck.”

Aurore rolled her eyes.  “We were all sworn to secrecy on threat of death.  Sorry, Ronald.”

Jacque sighed.  “I’ve tried looking up tricks on the internet, and I have some good ones, but none as complicated and flawless as this.”

Jean shrugged, slurping at his juicebox.  “It’s a lot of practice.  Getting Mia to do what I wanted is a semi recent endeavor that involved a lot of birdseed.”

Izuku cocked his head.  “Does your quirk have something to do with animals, then?  It’s not every day you can train a wild bird.”

Jean chuckled.  “Nope!  No one has been able to guess my quirk yet, and I’m going to keep it that way!  Mia is on loan from a neighbor, they run a veterinary clinic and practically raised her from the egg when the nest was destroyed by construction projects.  The parents were too afraid to come back and take care of her, and he couldn’t find out where they went, so he had to raise her himself.  He lets me take her for magic days with the kids, they love her.”

She tweeted happily from the brim of his hat on the table, turned the other way to eat the birdseed he had put in there for her.

Adrien’s phone pinged and he turned it on to check his notifications.

“Oh,” he murmured, “Chloe messaged me.  Apparently her dad tweeted something and she’s having emotions about it.”

Kagami raised an eyebrow.  “Emotions?  Which ones?”

“I dunno,” he said cheerily, “she’s complaining but that could mean anything.  Let me check the tweet.”

He pulled up the link and clicked on it, reading it over before frowning in confusion.

“That’s… weird.”

He turned the phone over, offering it to Jean.

“Was there a music day too?”

Jean narrowed his eyes at the tweet and stood with a hiss, cards snapping harshly in his hands as he stopped fiddling with them suddenly.

“Really?  He didn’t even bother to make his story believable before lying about it?  Ugh, he took a picture in the lobby and then left, I’ll bet.  Despicable.”

Izuku leaned in with a frown.

“”Glad to sponsor a music day for the children’s ward,” he read out slowly, “love being the Mayor of Paris and making kids smile?”  But he wasn’t here, unless we missed him or something.  But then, there wasn’t a music day, and we’ve been in the children’s ward for a while now, including when he tweeted this out.”

“And I didn’t see any money,” Jean snarled, “so he’s lying about that too, just trying to make himself look good.”

Aurore stood up cautiously.  “Break is over in five minutes, do you want to go to the bathroom to calm down?  Then there’s only another half hour and you can go home to give the mayor a piece of your mind.”

Jean shoved off her hand.

“I hate liars,” he called over his shoulder as he stormed away, cards clenched tightly in his hands as he went in the direction of the restrooms.

(“Oh wow-”

“-the mayor-”

“-would really stoop so low?”

“Darling, you and I both know he’d do anything-”

“-for the votes, yes, yes, I know.  But to lie-”

“-about making children happy?  I know-”

“-and our poor magician-”

“-who actually makes them smile-”

“-well he just can’t stand those-”

“-lying adults-”

“-who don’t actually care about the kids-”

“-and definitely don’t believe in magic-”

“-oh my, why ever not, I’ll never know-”

“-so I think it’s time-”

“-to make the adults believers?”

“And to bring a smile to their faces!”

“Simon Says… tell the truth!”

“Simon Says… do a trick!”

“Simon says…”

“… run amok.” )

Chapter Text

The first sign something was wrong was a nurse standing straight up and her face breaking out in a wide smile before she spoke.

“I love working in the children’s ward more than any other place in the hospital,” she parroted with a blank expression.

“Hmm,” a voice said, “ok, you pass.  Simon Says, you can stay!”

Izuku’s head shot up as Jean came into the room, looking rather blank himself as he shuffled the deck of cards.  One of the cards was in the rim of his top hat, the joker he had been fiddling with before, and the jester on the card moved and spoke again.

“Let’s see,” he hummed, “who’s next?”

Kagami shot to her feet and started pushing them out the door while cards flew out to the adults in the area, nimbly avoiding the group of teenagers.

“Something’s wrong,” she said shortly as people didn’t bother to resist, “we need to tell authorities.”

“It’s some form of control,” Izuku babbled nervously, “having to do with the cards.  It’s like they were enchanted or something.”

“Are you saying Jean’s been possessed,” Mireille said weakly, “by what?  Those were normal playing cards not two minutes ago!  And I’m pretty sure it’s not a quirk!”

Lucy sucked in a breath and snapped her fingers.  “Not a quirk.  That means it could be like Stoneheart.  That seemed to take people over too, but this one seems like a mental control instead of physical.”

“So on one hand we won’t turn into statues,” Jere frowned, “but on the other if we get affected we become mindless puppets?”

“He said Simon Says,” Izuku murmured, “like the game, meaning it’s not complete control, it just enforces commands.  The nurse might have been asked how she really felt about where she worked.  In addition, the cards seemed to avoid us, they only went after adults.  Jean said he hates liars, and it looks like the… the amok?  Yeah, it’s making people hit with cards tell the truth.  Simon Says is generally a game of follow the leader and not following them when they don’t say Simon Says, so the powers are more than just telling the truth based on the name given.  Like Stoneheart, meant to protect Ivan from negative emotions, if I am remembering that right.  Taking into account Jean’s show of emotion before he left, amoks target people with strong emotions, most likely negative, and then work to make their… host, or whatever, not need to feel those emotions anymore, whether through protection or, in this case, vindication and revenge.”

He looked up to see most of the class staring at him and he flushed, before his head shot up and he frowned.

“Where did Adrien and Marinette go?”

Kagami looked around and clicked her tongue, looking like she was holding off a curse.  “We’ll have to assume they simply went ahead of us, because otherwise it means we’ve left them behind.  Come on, one more floor till the exit.”

“Simon Says, no one leaves!”

Blank looking adults, mostly hospital staff, moved to stand in front of all the exits, and Izuku noted they all had a playing card tucked into a pocket as Jean, no, Simon the Joker, walked calmly towards them.

“My friends,” the joker spoke, spreading Jean’s hands as the boy’s face remained blank, “why the need to leave?  You’re true believers, and you haven’t lied yet.  Not about things that are important.  Don’t you want to stay, make these kids happy?  The adults don’t understand, they’re just looking out for themselves.  You’re not… like them, are you?  Simon Says you have to tell the truth, now.”

Aurore took the lead, stepping forward slightly.  “Do you have a name with which we can address you?”

The joker on the card smiled, and Jean mimicked it.

“Certainly!  Haven’t you been listening?  Simon is the name!  Making kids smile is the game!”

“Simon,” she nodded slowly, and Izuku noticed her hands were clasped behind her back and shaking slightly, for all her voice and face didn’t show it, “we do want to make kids happy, that’s true, but was that not the point of the magic show?”

Simon and Jean both scowled.  “Yes, it was, and then the mayor had to go and ruin everything by being a lying adult.  So no one leaves the hospital until the mayor gets here.  If he doesn’t want to tell the truth, then we’ll make it true.”

“W-well,” Izuku stumbled over his words, swallowing thickly and wondering why the hell he eas talking, “we could maybe… get the mayor here faster if we could leave?  I, I mean, how’s word going to get out…?”

Simon hummed, making Jean tap his chin in thought.  “Simon Says… alert the mayor!”

The controlled adults whipped out phones and immediately started typing.  Not thirty seconds later, everyone’s phones were pinging with an alert about a villain at the hospital, and Izuku’s heart sank.  So much for that plan.

“Now then,” Simon said gleefully, clapping Jean’s hands, “with the mayor no doubt on the way, let’s have some magical fun!”

“Aw, a magic show?  Why wasn’t I invited?”

Simon whirled around with a snarled grin.  “Ah, the cat has made an appearance.  I assume the lady is not too far behind?”

Chat Noir pouted.  “I feel like I went over this last time, but I’m not just “the cat,” I’m Chat Noir!  Chat!  Noir!  Say it with me now-”

“Hand over the amok,” Ladybug skidded into the hallway, “before this gets ugly.”

Simon scoffed and Jean shuffled the fewer cards again.  “It’s already ugly, since you’re here and the mayor’s not.  Now…”

Jean grinned wickedly and shot two cards at them.  “Simon Says give me your miraculous!”

Ladybug rolled out of the way and Chat Noir pushed off the wall to dodge, leaving the cards to dissolve into the wall before they got spat out again, falling to the ground.”

Simon frowned.  “Rude.  Stay still, mangy cat!  And bug.”  

Chat Noir huffed.  “Rude.”

“I thought you only went after adults,” Ladybug huffed, whirling her yoyo to make a red shield, “and I can assure you that Chat is not an adult.”

“Hey!”

Simon leapt back into their group, weaving between them and holding up his cards menacingly.  “I wouldn’t, my lovely lady, or I might just make more faces.  Get it?  Like face cards?  Magician assistants, that’s better, I think.  Hmm.  Anyway, you don't want to hurt them, do you?”

Kagami growled and shoved Simon out of the crowd.  “You’ll find no safety amidst your host’s class, Simon.”

Simon growled, whirling on her.  “You’ll regret that.  Simon Says, restrain them all!”

Simultaneously, he flung several cards into their group and they all stumbled back with a cry until Izuku felt arms wrap around him and lift him from the ground.  He struggled against them, looking up to see Jacque looking incredibly blank.  Mireille was holding Aurore, Kagami was being held by two nurses, Ron was holding Lucy, Ondine and Jeremiah were holding Cami, and Marc was held by a staff member alongside Vio.

The vigilantes seemed to have a bit more luck, fending off the zombie adults while Simon stalked towards the captured class.

“A shame the deck is so limited,” he mused, “but let’s see, strong people… ah, yes, you.”

A card flicked out to hit Kagami and Izuku struggled more against Jack, giving a strangled cry as he saw his cousin go completely limp.

“Simon Says, those not holding someone, get the miraculous!”

Kagami stepped forward with a fencer’s grace and Simon grins before turning back to the rest of them.  “Let’s head down to the lobby to wait for the mayor, shall we?  Much more room than just this hallway.”

They were frog-marched into the deserted lobby, the only people more mind controlled staff, and Izuku started to do a mental tally.

Assuming he got all the staff in the children’s ward at the time, add in the floor staff he had seen in the hallway, and then his classmates, plus now these staff members, that put forty three cards out of commission.  With a fifty two card deck, that left nine cards remaining until Simon was out of ways to control people, and according to his own mouth, he was, in fact, limited by the deck.

He looked at his remaining classmates.  There were only six of them, including him, who weren’t being controlled.  Vio, Marc, Aurore, Lucy, Cami, and himself.   The mayor would no doubt account for another card, leaving two left for Ladybug and Chat Noir.  Then again, that was only if they managed to get hit…

But wait!  Izuku hadn’t seen Simon pick up the two cards that had hit the wall, meaning that if they could get most of them hit with a card, then Ladybug and Chat Noir would be safe from the control!

He glanced at the person closest to him, Lucy, who was pale and shaking in Ron’s arms.

“Lucy,” he breathed, “I have an idea, but you’ll need to pass it on.  I don’t know if he can hear through his carded friends.”

Her eyes slid to him, but she nodded minutely, gesturing for him to go on.

“I counted the cards, he only has seven left.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly and he could see her mind working before her eyes widened in excited understanding and she turned away to talk to her own neighbor, Marc.

Izuku forced himself to turn away instead of watching the information pass down the line, and kept a careful watch on Simon as he fiddled with the cards more, doing fancy sleight of hand tricks, but Izuku tried his best to count, to make sure he was right.

Seven cards.

Lucy was the first to speak up, muttering in a way that could be seen as her talking to herself but could also be heard by Simon, or at least the people holding them.

“You’d think he’d just card us so he doesn’t have to waste people on holding us.”

Aurore glared at her.  “Shut up, Lucy, do you want to be a puppet?”

They all looked at each other as Aurore fought off a smile as Simon turned to them, cards still.

“You know,” he mused, the joker on the card looking contemplative, “that’s not a bad plan, having all my forces available.  Thanks, Lucy!”

She looked properly terrified before her expression went blank as cards were flicked at all of them in turn.

It was foggy, Izuku thought dimly, but it wasn’t necessarily bad.

“Simon Says stand guard.”

There was a moment where Izuku realized that he had done it without even thinking about it, and he tried to stop himself, but it was like he was being shushed and patted gently on the head.  He was hopeless to resist and only vaguely aware of what he was doing.

He vaguely recognized when Ladybug and Chat Noir burst into the room, from the bright red and black in the otherwise pale environment, but then the mayor came in the front doors as well and another command rang out.

“Simon Says grab the mayor!”

Izuku felt himself move, but he really wasn’t needed, since other people were closer and the mayor stiffened then relaxed.

“Simon Says, tell the truth!  What did you do here, Mr. Mayor?”

The mayor gulped and Izuku felt his vision get a little clearer since Simon’s attention and power was mostly on the mayor, but the man answered all the same.

“I walked in to the reception, took a picture, and tweeted out that I had sponsored something for the children’s ward.”

“But did you actually do it?”

The mayor was silent and Simon rolled his eyes.

“Simon Says answer my questions.”

“No.  I don’t even remember what I said I did.”

Simon sneered.  “How repulsive.  Simon Says issue a retraction and tell the truth on Twitter.  God, adults, amiright, Ladybug?”

She growled.  “Let us go, Simon.”

He chuckled.  “I think not, not when I have you right where I want you.”

He patted his pockets and frowned, pulling them out to reveal nothing but lint.

“What?  Where are my cards?”

Izuku wanted to smile, and somehow, he felt his lips start to twitch up.

“Where are my cards,” Simon was getting frantic, “I need to get the miraculous!”

“Unfortunately,” Chat chortled, “looks like the deck is stacked in our favor!”

“No,” Simon howled, “the house always wins!  I was sure I had enough!”

He tensed, suddenly realizing that despite the number of people under his control, Ladybug and Chat Noir were right there, and he had none of his own defenses.

“No,” he growled, “I’ll get you for this!”

Jean plucked the joker card from the band of his hat and threw it right out the door.  As soon as it left his hands, his vision cleared and he blinked, looking around.

“What?  What happened?”

“MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”

A wave of reddish pink washed over them and Izuku breathed of his own free will again, blinking away the last of the cobwebs in his head.

“Thank kami,” he muttered, “that was weird.”

Lucy blinked and looked around before grinning.  “Izu!  It worked!”

Ladybug stepped over to the class.  “Is everyone alright?”

“Yeah,” Vio smiled, “we’re lucky Izuku was counting cards, though.”

Ladybug turned to him in confusion, and he had a moment to wonder why she knew who he was, but flushed and looked away.

“I um, I counted the cards and made sure he controlled enough people he wouldn’t have enough left over for you guys.”

Ladybug burst into a smile.  “That was pretty clever!  Good planning, but try not to get in their paths in the future, in case… well, we didn’t get the amok this time either, and I wasn’t sure Miraculous Ladybug would make the control wear off…”

“Relax, Milady,” Chat grinned, “it worked out fine!  And all we have to do is look for a playing card, right?  How far could it really have gotten?”

Ladybug’s eyes lit up and she waved as she hurried out the door.  “We should go check.  I’m glad everyone is ok, have a good rest of your day and stay out of trouble!”

Kagami burst in the room from the hallway and rushed over with a glare on her face as the two vigilantes left.

“Am I hearing this correctly?  You intentionally got carded?”

Izuku winced sheepishly.  “If Ladybug and Chat Noir had gotten controlled…”

“What if it hadn’t worn off with the miraculous cure,” she demanded, “what would I tell mother?  What would I tell Aunt Inko?”

Izuku winced.  “Well, by that logic,” he pointed out, “you wouldn’t have been able to talk to them since you were also controlled…”

Kagami pursed her lips before sighing, deflating.  “I know, I just worry.  This is only the second amok and you’ve gotten involved in both of them.”

He stiffened.  “We all got involved in this one,” he said angrily, “you can’t just keep babying me!”

She pursed her lips.  “It’s not babying, I’m just protecting you.  You’re my cousin.”

“What happened to no Tsurugi is a burden,” he said bitterly, slipping back into Japanese, “or was that just to placate me?  I know I’ve disrupted your life, cousin, but I thought that maybe I was getting better in your eyes instead of just being a helpless quirkless person.”

She stalled.  “That is not what I meant, I don’t think you’re lesser-”

“No, you just act like I’m made of glass,” he scoffed, back to French, “which is no different from home.”

“Izuku-”

“I’m going for a walk,” he said loudly, “I’ll be home by dinner.”

“Izuku,” her voice was more stern, but he cut her off.

“Aunt Tomoe can track my phone if she’s that worried,” he sighed, “but I need some time.”

He cast a beaming smile at Jean as he remembered the rest of the class was still there and ignored the sinking feeling in his chest.

“This was really great, Jean, up until the mind control.  Let me know the next time you’re doing one of these!”

Jean nodded absently, eyes as wide as the rest of the class, and Izuku swept out of the hospital without a second glance, emotions already cooling.  He wasn’t really angry, he was just upset that Kagami didn’t seem to trust him to take care of himself.  This wasn’t even a big deal, if Ladybug and Chat Noir were the only ones who could fight the amok, he should do everything he could to give them the best chance to do so.  If that meant putting himself in harm's way, then it meant putting himself in harm's way.

He sighed and wiped away frustrated tears, forcing his feet one in front of the other.  He had thought it would be different, but it seemed like he took two steps forward and one step back every time he made some sort of progress here.  He snorted.

“At this rate I’ll never leave France,” he sighed to himself, “since I’ll never be all better.”

He put his hands in his pockets and sighed.

Four hours until he had to be home for dinner.

Plenty of time to think.

(“Silly Simon.”

“So close-”

“-so far-”

“-but at least we were able to get you back.”

“Yes, your encore will be magnificent.”

“Go on, darling, talk to Stoneheart, compare tips, you’ll both have your time again.”

“I’m sorry to have failed you, Master.”

“Oh no, you didn’t fail, Simon-”

“-you made a strategic retreat-”

“-augmented by my partner since you don’t have legs-”

“-parasites usually don’t-”

“-Vix!  That’s so mean-”

“-but true-”

“-well, yes-”

“-but regardless, you’ll be back-”

“-and better than ever-”

“-with all your siblings-”

“-and we’ll show that pesky bug-”

“-and mangy cat-”

“-how the grownups play!”

“Oh yes, we need the miraculous more than they do-”

“-and you, my darling children-”

“-will be the opening act-”

“-to our grandest show!” )

Chapter Text

Izuku didn’t realize he had wandered onto the main street of the shopping district until he was staring at Chloe, who looked back impassively with a single raised eyebrow behind her sunglasses.  Sabrina was standing behind her, loaded with bags and boxes, looking between the two of them to gauge what her own reaction should be since Chloe was just standing there.

Izuku couldn’t help it.

He burst into tears.

Both girls recoiled a little bit.

“What the heck,” Chloe murmured, “you know, Midoriya, usually people don’t start crying until after I open my mouth and insult them.”

“Sorry,” he hiccupped, “I didn’t mean to, I don’t know what came over me, gomen nasai, it’s just… been a day…”

Chloe snorted.  “You said it.  Sabrina,” she snapped her fingers, “drop those off at the car, we’re going to need to fix this.”

Sabrina jolted and blinked, but nodded and quickly scampered off while Chloe looked him up and down and hummed.

“Stop crying,” she snapped, shoving a tissue in his face and looking away, “you’ll damage my reputation.”

He gratefully took the offered tissue and carefully blinked back tears, taking a breath to calm himself down before wiping himself off in a manner that was well practiced.  You don’t get the famous Midoriya tears without learning how to deal with them, after all.

“Thanks,” he murmured, “but I think I’ll be okay now.”

She scoffed.  “No.  You need shopping, a mani pedi, and a chance to bitch.”

He startled, but before he could stammer out a refusal, Sabrina came bouncing back with a broad smile.  “Oh, are we having a Vent Day?”

Chloe flipped her ponytail.  “I was already planning on it with Daddy’s abysmal ideas today.  Ugh, ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!  If you’re going to lie about being a good person, make your story airtight!  You’d think he’d know that, as a politician, but no, he had to go and get caught and embarrass us on the internet!”

Izuku jumped.  “Wait, but Simon… did he really post a retraction?”

Chloe scoffed.  “No.  He will probably have to, but apparently the control wore off before he could.  The confession the amok got out of him was recorded though, so it's not like people don’t know.  It’s all over Twitter.  Come on, we’re going in here.”

Izuku tried to stammer out another refusal as she pulled him into a high end clothing store, but both girls promptly ignored him.

The time spent in the store was mostly the girls pulling him in just as he was edging away, Chloe holding up something that Sabrina complimented before Chloe dismissed it and tossed it to the girl, who put it back on the rack.  Occasionally, Chloe would pick up something and hum in appreciation before handing it to Izuku, leaving him to just hold it.  At first he had tried putting things back, but Chloe rolled her eyes and tugged him along.

“Those are the ones I like,” she stressed, “hold on to them for me.”

He easily gave into her demands, despite how lost he was, and soon it felt like they had picked through the whole store before she held a shirt up.

“What do you think?”

It wasn’t really a question so much as it was a demand and Sabrina hummed, eyes critical, before giving it a nod of approval.  Both girls turned expectant eyes to him and he blinked.

“Oh, um,” he looked at it and really only saw the color, a teal, “it’s a nice color?”

Chloe sighed.  “He’s hopeless,” she muttered under her breath, before saying louder, “put this on, maybe you’ll form better opinions when you’re wearing it.”

He blinked and looked at it a bit closer.

It was a shirt, a rather nice button down.

“Wait, I can’t-”

“Put it on,” she swiped the clothing he still had cradled in his arms and forced him through a dressing room door with the shirt and closed it behind him, “so you can form better opinions.”

He looked at the door, feeling a little lost, but it didn’t seem like Chloe was joking or anything, so he looked down at the shirt in his hands.

The fabric was smooth and soft, and he really did like the color, so eventually, he put it on.

He nervously peaked his head out of the door to see Chloe standing in a completely new outfit with her hands on her hips.

“Finally,” she barked, “get out here so we can see it!”

He stepped out and she cast a critical eye over him, humming in thought.

“Sabrina?”

“In fashion and the right size!”

“Of course,” Chloe scoffed, “I always pick the right size.  Well, Midoriya?”

He blinked.  “It… it feels nice, fits well, and I like the color?”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Good enough.  I daren’t hope you have something constructive to say, but my outfit?”

He blinked at her.  She was wearing a combination of yellow, brown, and white, with a dress that had quadrilaterals of color that went down to her knees.  It had half sleeves and she tied it off with a bright white belt and dark brown boots, revealing a strip of dark brown, see-through tights covering her legs.

He made a small noise of thought.  “They’re good colors for you, and it's a very nice outfit.  I think your blue eyeliner clashes a bit, but if you were wearing your sunglasses no one could tell.  It feels modern with the rectangles.  Do… do you like it?”

SHe looked at him strangely.  “Would I have picked it otherwise?”

He smiled weakly.  “Then isn’t that all that matters?”

She pursed her lips and gave him a long look before snapping her fingers.  “Keep the shirt on, I have a few more outfits I want to try before we go to our appointment.  Time?”

“Half an hour,” Sabrina chirped, “plenty of time!”

Chloe nodded and disappeared back into the dressing room.

The next two outfits were more casual, but she didn’t like them as much, so she sighed and put them on the return rack.  “Sabrina, did you see anything you wanted?”

The ginger shook her head ruefully.  “None of this is my style, Chloe, you know that.”

Chloe shrugged.  “Whatever.  Come on.”

She sauntered to the front of the store, where the registers were.

“Just these,” she piled the first outfit on the counter, “and he’s wearing that out.”

He jolted as she pointed to him.  “Wait, what?”

She raised an eyebrow at him.  “You’re wearing it out.  Your t-shirt is fine and all, but you’re on Main, and you’re being seen with me.  Plus, you need better clothes.  You’d think that cousin of yours would dress you better.”

Izuku flinched and scowled a little at the mention of his cousin and she seemed to raise another eyebrow before turning back to the attendant and getting the purchases rung up, including his new teal shirt, apparently.  She completely ignored any of his (admittedly weak) protests (she seemed like she pretty much always got what she wanted, and Izuku was out of his depth) and soon enough the three of them were walking out of the store and he was being dragged into a salon.

“Ah, Mlle. Bourgeois!  Mlle. Raincomprix!  So wonderful to see you again!  And who is this?”

“Midoriya,” Chloe said shortly, “and the reason for our sudden appointment.”

“Ah,” the woman said sagely, “well, you are one of our favorite customers, Chloe darling.  Come, come, we’ll get you started right away, a little pampering will do you a lot of good, M. Midoriya.”

Two other women appeared out of basically nowhere and ushered the three of them into salon chairs in a rather fancy room where there was no one else.  They got situated in the chairs, Chloe in the middle, and Izuku was made to take off his shoes so he could put his feet in the warm water basin at the bottom of the chair.  He was a little weirded out by this, but his attendant just smiled and he crumpled like a wet paper napkin.

“Right,” Chloe said after they had relaxed for a few minutes, “Madame Rosmarie is my favorite, because she and her girls are not only the best at what they do, but they’re also the best to vent with.”

Sabrina’s attendant giggled.  “You also bring us the juiciest gossip, Mlle. Bourgeois.”

She shrugged lightly.  “And I tip well for your discretion, so it works out.  Anyway, usually I’m the one venting about whatever idiot stunt Daddy has pulled this time,” all three women and Sabrina snorted, “but we didn’t come here for me, we came here for you,” she fixed him with a stare, “so get to bitching.  You look like you really need it.”

He could feel his face getting hot.  “It’s really fine,” he squeaked, “it's not a big deal.”

“Oh honey,” Madame Rosmarie (he assumed) chuckled, “you’re practically oozing discontent.  You’ll feel better when you get it out, and we won’t tell a soul.  A friend of Chloe is a friend of Rosmarie.”

He bit his lip.

“Ugh,” Chloe rolled her eyes, “let me start you off.  It has something to do with your cousin.  Go from there.”

He jumped slightly.  “How… how did you know?”

She raised an eyebrow.  “I mentioned her and you scowled.  You, who smiles enough to rival Adrikins, and his quirk is literally his smile.”

“I’m fine!”

“Try again.”

He sighed.  “It's nothing… big, it’s just, well, I came here to live with my cousin to get away from certain things.  People would treat me one of two ways.  Either I was something to be scorned and shunned, as if I could make them worse just by being around, or I was something fragile to treat like glass, it was too dangerous for me to be out in the world because I’m not as strong or as durable as the other kids so I’d only get hurt.  I thought I had gotten away from it and then she just…”

His attendant blinked.  “Huh.  Quirkless?”

He stiffened and nodded.

She grinned.  “Me too!  You’re in good company, friend, but I can’t say it was like that when I was growing up.  Or not as much, anyway.”

Rosmarie snorted.  “You can’t be more than a decade his senior, Lamia, how much different could it have been growing up?”

“Very,” he said quietly, “because you’re the second quirkless person I’ve ever met.”

Chloe looked at him, incredulous.  “Second ever?  What the hell?  I know Dupain-Cheng is one.  Are you telling me you hadn’t met a quirkless person before her?”

He pursed his lips.  “Japan has the lowest quirkless population in the world per person.  I looked it up, the nearest one was two hours away by train and in their forties.  Pretty much everyone else was a few generations removed.  Most quirkless kids in my generation didn’t make it as long as I did.”

Chloe didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, eyes full of conflicting emotions, but Lamia had no such problems.

“So what did your cousin do that reminded you of it?”

He sighed in exasperation, getting a bit annoyed as he thought about it.  “It was dumb.  The amok at the hospital, it came from a friend of mine, a classmate, so we were all right there.  I had this plan to help, to limit the amok’s resources, but in doing so it put me in the path of the amok and his powers.  Kagami didn’t like that, even though she also got hit with the power.  I guess since she thought hers was an accident and mine was on purpose it was somehow worse,” he said sarcastically, “but the thing is, the plan worked!  If I hadn’t done it, the amok might have won!  It’s not like she was at all concerned about anyone else in the class or even the hospital staff, no, only poor little Izuku who can’t do anything right!”

He took in a breath and realized in the silence that he had been yelling and clutching the armrests so tightly his knuckles were white with strain.  He slowly released them and watched them flush again with blood.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell.”

“No, I get it,” it seemed Lamia had taken over the role of therapist and listener, “you want to be treated like a normal person and you feel like your cousin is being overprotective.”

“But,” Sabrina’s attendant, who he still didn’t know the name of, interjected, “was she being overprotective because you’re quirkless, or because you’re her cousin and she cares about you?  Do you get in danger a lot?”

Chloe made a noise of discontent.  “You were both involved in Stoneheart as well.  There is a… possibility… that maybe she didn’t mean it like that.  But on the off chance she did, screw that, quirks mean jack shit.”

Sabrina nodded vigorously.

“I mean,” Chloe continued, “ my quirk is excellent, being able to tell real from fake is a quirk that will always be useful.”

Izuku perked up, instantly in analysis mode.  “You can tell real from fake?  Does that apply to people, so you can tell when they’re lying, or does it only apply to objects?  And what makes something constitute as fake?  Like, knock off versions of things, or just things that are made as copies and sold as if they were originals?”

Chloe raised an eyebrow, but before he could shrink back and apologize, she hummed.

“Both.  I don’t know about people, but if I can spot a knockoff purse a mile away.”

He smiled.  “Have you tried with people?  I see no reason why it wouldn’t work with practice.”

She grimaced.  “I’ve tried before, but there are just some people who seem to mess it up.”

Izuku felt her shutting off that line of conversation, so even though he wanted to ask her what she meant, he let his mouth fall shut in contemplation.  Lamia stood up and started wheeling a chair over.

She smiled at him.  “All done with your toes, time for the manicure!  You were so into the conversation that I picked the color for you, but you can do something different for your fingers if you want.”

Izuku blinked and looked down to see his clean and lotioned feet propped up on a shelf, toes in the same teal as his new shirt.

Chloe admired her gold and Sabrina smiled at her robin’s egg blue.

Lamia gently took his right hand and set it gently on the rotating side table with a smile.

“So?”

He blinked again.  “Um, whatever you think is best.  I haven’t done this before.”

Rosmarie laughed.  “Most gentlemen don’t.”

Lamia cooed.  “You have lovely hands.”

“And coming from a professional nail artist,” Sabrina grinned, “who sees a lot of hands…”

Lamia giggled brightly.  “Oh, stop.  Madame has high standards, that’s all.”

Rosmarie snorted, holding Chloe’s hands.  “Of course I do, only the best from and for my girls.  It’s the Rosmarie Standard.”

“And the reason I come,” Chloe said haughtily, “because I deserve only the best.”

“You know,” he said thoughtfully, “I do think I feel a little better.  You’re a pretty good discount therapist, Chloe.”

She scoffed.  “Puh-lease, I’m not a discount anything.   But a bitch session always helps.  So what are you going to do about it?”

He grimaced.  “I don’t know.  What can I do?  It’s not like she’s going to stop being protective, even if I get upset with her for it.”

“Well,” Lamia hummed, “maybe if you could show her that you can defend yourself, she’d ease up a bit?  Then you can keep yourself safe and she wouldn’t need to worry as much.”

“But how,” he sighed, “she’s been teaching me fencing but I’m not all that great.  I'm small and have basically no muscles.”

Sabrina giggled.  “Oh, I got this one.  Carry a taser, or pepper spray.  Heck, even just some keys to put between your fingers.  Trust me, my papa said that a simple weapon can save your life.  But if you want, the police station teaches self defense classes.  I’m small too, but no one would be able to lay a hand on me.”

“Sabrina can take you,” Chloe looked at her drying nails in satisfaction, “since her daddy is the chief of police.  And if there’s a different weapon you want, I can convince my Daddy to pass a law to make it legal if it isn’t already.”

He blinked.  “Why would you do that for me?  You barely know me?  Actually, why have you done any of this?”

Chloe grimaced and looked away.  “Adrikins… Adrien likes you.  He doesn’t have many friends except the Ice Queen, or, well, your cousin, and me, but I will admit, I’m not exactly… the paragon of friendship, or whatever.  The first thing I heard about you was that you were small, nervous, and cute.  And if Adrien is calling you cute, then you know it’s true.”

Izuku squeaked and she ignored him.

“I’m not gonna say every friend of Adrikins is a friend of mine,” she wrinkled her nose, “especially since he seems rather fond of Dupain-Cheng, but I promised him I wouldn’t insult you in the first two sentences, so I won on that front.  All bets are off now, though.”

Izuku blinked.  “But why go as far as this?  I can’t imagine this was cheap…”

She snorted.  “Your family and mine are far too rich to care about this, Midoriya.  But you’re right, I didn’t have to do this.”

She fixed him with an unreadable stare before shrugging and turning up her nose.

“I guess you grew on me, like a fungus.”

He giggled.  “I don’t know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.”

She sniffed.  “Whatever, Midoriya.”

He paused and bit his lip before soldiering on.  “You know, you can call me Izuku if you want.  It’s… well, admittedly it’s a little weird, since in Japan you have to get permission to call people by their given names, so I’m definitely used to hearing Midoriya, or, well, more often it’s Deku, but whatever, but here everyone calls me Izuku since you all go by your given names.  Hearing you call me by my family name is… kind of weird now.”

She rolled her eyes.  “I call everyone by their last names, family names, whatever, until they meet my standards as friends.  So Sabrina and Adrikins are the only ones who get that privilege.  Of course, I can’t stop people from calling me Chloe,” she sneered, “and some people will never get the privilege of being called by their first names, but don’t take it personally.  I’m still deciding whether or not I like you.”

He giggled.  “So instead of me giving you permission to use my given name, you’ll give me the honor of calling me that.”

She nodded, smirking smugly.  “Exactly.”

“All done,” Rosmarie cooed, “and can I just say we have done very good work today, ladies.”

Izuku looked down at his nails, done in an extremely pale seafoam with white dots congregating near the tips, like… well, like seafoam.  He looked up at Lamia, astonished.

She smiled.  “Like them?”

He nodded slowly, eyes drawn back to his nails.

“Let me see,” Chloe demanded.

He held out his hands and she peered over them before giving a hum of approval.

“Now,” she snapped her own dark scarlet fingers, “anything else?”

Rosmarie smirked.  “No, darling, we’ll send the bill to the regular account.  And Midoriya, darling, don’t let life get you down.”

He blinked and nodded, feeling his curls bob, and the three ladies cooed.

“Definitely keep this sweetheart close,” Rosmarie muttered coyly to Chloe, not even bothering to make sure he couldn’t hear, “you could use more positivity in your life.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, but gave a tiny smile.

“Come on,” she said boredly, “I’m sure you need to get home soon, Adrikins has been blowing up my phone for the last hour demanding that I pull all my resources and look for you.”

Izuku startled, alarmed, but she just waved him off and Sabrina bounded up with a smile.

“Don’t worry,” she said conspiratorially, “I’ve been running interference.”

He blinked in confusion.  “When did you have time to do that?”

She winked.

Chloe tapped at her phone as they entered the street and soon, a car pulled up.

Well, no, not a car.

A limo pulled up.

“Get in,” Chloe snapped, “we’re driving you home.”

“It’s really ok,” he squeaked, “you’ve already done a lot-”

She was already dragging him into the car.

Sabrina filled the ride home with chatter about what was going on on Twitter, Chloe occasionally humming or grimacing depending on what she reported, and soon enough they were pulling up to the Tsurugi manor.

“Bye,” Chloe said dismissively, “hope you stop moping.  Text Adrikins that you’re home safe before I’m forced to block his number.”

Izuku jumped as she pulled the door closed behind him without a second glance and the car drove away.

He watched it drive off before he took a deep breath and turned around slowly.

The mansion never looked so large and imposing than it did right now.

He walked up the driveway and eased the door open, toeing off his shoes and calling out a very soft, “I’m home.”

“Welcome home.”

He straightened instantly, looking at his aunt with wide eyes, searching her face and posture for any sign of displeasure, but she just stood there with her bokken cane impassively.

They stood in silence for a moment before she tapped the bokken once.

“I am having a clan lesson with Kagami tonight after dinner.  As I am blind, I will, of course, have no idea if you are in the room listening, and if I happen to go over basics, well, she needs a refresher anyway.”

Izuku blinked and opened his mouth in confusion, but her voice softened marginally and she spoke again.

“My mother doesn’t want you knowing clan things,” she said softly, “but you are more of a Tsurugi than your father, and you’re not in line to be the heir, so I want you to know.  As soon as she steps down and I am head, you and your mother will be formally recognized in the Silver Dragons, and hence the Black Lotus.  I would have you know, at the very least, the basics.”

He blinked.  “The Black Lotus?  The… Silver Dragons?”

Tomoe raised an eyebrow and then scowled.  “My idiot brother,” she murmured, “if he wasn’t already in prison, I swear…  Regardless,” she sighed, “dinner is soon.  Don’t be late, nephew.”

She walked away and Izuku was left to stare.

“Wait,” he called, instantly cursing himself, but she paused and he forced himself to continue, “you’re not… mad?”

“About you putting yourself in harms way?”

He flinched, but her tone was still mild.

“I am not mad.  I wish you would come up with a plan that didn’t involve possible injury, but it was a good plan and it succeeded.  In the future,” her tone took on a hint of amusement, “perhaps use your well equipped brain to come up with multiple plans instead of simply sacrificing yourself.”

He bowed his head, but he was biting back a smile.  “Yes, Aunt Tomoe.”

She walked off again and he took a moment to just…

Breathe.

Chapter Text

Aunt Tomoe waited until both of them were situated and settled in the parlor, however gingerly, before she made an exaggerated noise of realization.

“It seems I have forgotten to get something.  I will return, don’t leave until I’m back.”

Izuku stiffened as she swept out of the room and firmly shut the door behind her, not wanting to look at his cousin.

After a moment of silence, Kagami blurted out, “I’m sorry.”

He was so shocked by how out of character it was for her to not speak carefully that he couldn't help but stare with wide eyes, but she seemed not to notice as she continued.

“I didn’t mean to imply you were weak,” she continued, “and it didn’t occur to me that you might interpret it in that way.  To me, it seemed ludicrous that that would be the conclusion you would draw, but I realize that I do not often say things I believe are obvious and incorrectly assumed you already knew.”

She fidgeted for a moment before turning her entire body to face him and look directly into your eyes.

“I could never think you are weak because I know that you are strong.  Stronger than me, for certain.”

Izuku jumped.  “What?”

“You have been tempered in the crucible of hardship,” she murmured, “and come out the other side where many others would fall.  There is great strength in accepting that you must leave hardship instead of enduring, and you are doing your best to heal.  It is strengthening you, Izuku, and I know that I for one would not have made it as far as you did in your trials.”

Izuku blinked, struggling to process the words.

“But you’re… you.”

She gave a tiny, wry smile.  “I am good at fencing, but I am horrible at emotions.  You, on the other hand, embrace and accept all emotions and process them efficiently and productively.”

“I don’t think I’d call panic attacks and storming off as productive outlets.”

“You came out of each panic attack largely on your own, and you removed yourself from a situation where your emotions were influencing all your decisions.  In doing so you also gave both of us time to think, settle down, and approach the issue again from a calmer perspective.”

Izuku bit his lip.  “But if you think I’m strong, then why were you upset about my plan?  It worked!”

She grimaced.  “Yes, it worked, but I would rather you not sacrifice yourself in the process.  I was terrified that I had no knowledge until after the fact, and I wouldn’t have been able to help or protect you.  Ah,” her eyes widened, “you can assuredly protect yourself in most matters of the heart, but I cannot explain my urges to physically defend you from all harm.”

Izuku giggled weakly.  “I dunno about that, but Sabrina’s dad is the head of police and offered to bring me to a self defense class that she takes.  Oh, um, Sabrina is Chloe’s friend.”

Kagami narrowed her eyes.  “Chloe as in, Chloe Bourgeois, mayor’s daughter?”

He smiled happily and nodded.

She examined him for a bit before snorting lightly and muttering something under her breath that he couldn’t hear.

“Do you,” she swallowed, “do you accept my apology?”

Izuku bit his lip, fighting his gut reaction to say yes so they could get back to normal again.

“Let’s make a deal,” he said finally, “I’ll avoid all self-sacrificing plans unless there are no other options, take those self defense classes on top of fencing, and you’ll trust me and watch my back.”

Kagami nodded.  “I will make that deal.”

“Oh good,” Aunt Tomoe swept into the room, “I found the thing I was missing just in time.  Well, back to the clan basics review, Kagami.  There is no one else in the room, of course, or that would be against the wishes of the clan head, so I’ll have to assume that any voice I hear is, in fact, my daughter.  It’s not like anyone else would be here, capable of speech, because I am much too careful for that.”

Izuku blinked and leaned in to whisper to Kagami.  “ …Why…?”

“Plausible deniability,” she muttered back, “surface level clan politics.”

He blinked.  If this was surface level…

“To begin,” the woman said, “the Black Lotus clans are an ancient coalition of families from the Asian continent, since well before the time of quirks.  Our family lines trace back centuries and we hold significant power in the eastern world.  Black Lotus, of course, being the overarching group.  Kagami, as a recall, list the five clans and the three retainers.”

Kagami sat straighter.  “There is us, the Tsurugis, also known as the Silver Dragons, with no retainer clan due to our size.  The other clan without a retainer, also due to size, is the Ruby Flame, or the Todorokis, based in Japan.  There are the Rin, a main continent clan known as the Emerald Mist, famous for their martial arts and dominion of the entire stretch of Himalayan Mountains.  Their retainer clan are the Saru, also known as the Brass Monkeys.  A clan based in Japan but with widespread influence in the production field are the Yaoyorozus, also known as the Golden Serpents, with the retainer clan the Aizawa, or the Obsidian Cats.  Not much is known about this retainer clan unless you are a Serpent.  Finally, there are the Chengs, a mostly Chinese clan known as the Sapphire Tigers, with the retainer clan of the Iron Dogs, more commonly known as the Lê Chiến.  They serve mostly as bodyguards for prominent members of the clan.”

Izuku startled.  “Wait, the Chengs as in the Dupain-Chengs?  And the Lê Chiến like Kim?”

“That depends,” Tomoe raised an eyebrow, “this Dupain-Cheng… the bakery girl, I assume?  What are the names of her parents?”

“Tom and Sabine.”

She burst out laughing, an oddity for a usually stoic matriarch.  “Ah, Sabine is here.  I knew she was a baker, but to think you met her daughter.  Kagami, you did not know?”

She shrugged.  “I was not aware she was related.”

Tomoe nodded.  “The current matriarch of the Chengs is Cheng Mei, or Sabine’s twin sister.  Sabine has publicly claimed that she is unlikely to take the clan head, even if something happens to her niece, the current heir, but I imagine that your baker girl, as heir adjacent, does indeed have an Iron Dog as a friend.  What do you know of the two of them?”

Kagami shrugged and looked at Izuku.  “You have met them more than I have.”

Izuku nodded slowly.  “Kim has a really interesting and potentially dangerous quirk where he can dare someone and lock them into a binding contract.  He is loud and energetic, and he likes sports.  He often dares a girl in their class, Marinette said… Alix, I believe.  They grew up together.  Marinette is quirkless and looks a lot like her mom, she’s small.”

Tomoe nodded.  “Your Marinette-” Izuku flushed and stuttered out that she wasn’t his anything, “-likely got him assigned young as a bodyguard as she grew up.  To think another clan was so close.  Very well, a quick lesson on the Chengs as they present themselves to the world.”

She sat back.  “The Cheng family is based out of China and is not matriarchal or patriarchal.  Their succession requirements changed as quirks started to come about.  In what is classically held to be an attempt at pure leadership, now the only way you can become head of the clan is if you’re quirkless.  This predominantly goes down the female line, hence why Mei, Sabine, and their daughters Brigette and Marinette are all quirkless.  Mei is currently the youngest clan head the Black Lotus has seen, but the family is wide and diverse in both areas of influence and career choices.  Mei is, I believe, a successful business owner in London, their brother Wu is a famous chef in China, near the family seat, and Sabine is, of course, a baker and business woman.  My, I’ll have to go visit Sabine, I would enjoy a chat.”

Izuku blinked.  “Is that why Madam Cheng didn’t take her husband’s family name and Marinette has a hyphen?”

Tomoe nodded.  “As they could both head the clan one day, it is important they keep the family name.”

“Then…” he swallowed, “then why did Hisashi…?”

Tomoe’s lip curled.  “He was a coward.  He could have continued the Tsurugi name, despite not being in the line of succession, but he was already disgraced in the family.  We believe he took your mother’s name to hide, but he was officially disowned when he used the Dragon as his villain name.”

She sighed.  “My brother was bitter that we are matriarchal, thinking that as the eldest he had claim, and he tried to take us on with force.  Unfortunately, he forgot that the lotus flower has more than one petal, and he was systematically destroyed.”

Izuku bit his lip.  “The Todorokis, the Ruby Flame… that’s like Endeavor, right?”

“Indeed,” her voice was laced with pride, “he is, perhaps, the oddball of the family for not going into law or business like the clan is known for.”

“Now,” she sighed, “some brief politics.  Your status in the Black Lotus coalition is entirely dependent on where you are in the line of succession related to people you are interacting with.  Clan heads are all equal, heirs are all equal, so on and so forth.  Most disciplinary actions are handled in-clan, but of course if another clan was slighted they may offer their opinions on the punishment.  Since Izuku, wherever he may be, is not technically in the clan, he is afforded the rank of friend of the heir, as it were.  That’s the most protection I can give him before I become head and officially adopt him and his mother back in.  Again, wherever in the house he might be, because it most definitely isn’t here.”

Izuku closed his eyes and shook his head in mirth.

“The clan name is never to be abused for personal gain, but it can be used to further the clan and its members.  For example, I will offer the both of you the best education you can have, no matter where that is.  That also means that if my nephew wants to be a hero, I will inform Principal Nedzu of UA, the best hero school, to let him take the test regardless of quirk status.  Of course, he’ll have to take a placement test out of school here, since they are on different schedules, but he is a Tsurugi, he will be well equipped to take it at that time, should he so choose.”

Izuku blinked.  “You… you think I can be a hero?  I mean, you think Izuku can be a hero?”

Tomoe nodded in approval at his correction and smirked.  “He certainly has the capacity to do so, if he wishes.  That’s not to say it will be easy, but he is personable, resourceful, and intelligent.  Yes, I believe if he desires to be a hero, he most certainly can.”

Izuku felt himself shut down like a computer.  Error, does not compute, someone thinks he can be a hero, that doesn’t make sense.  No one has ever said that to him before, and here was his super cool aunt saying that she thought he could.

“But yes,” she continued as if she hadn’t just changed his entire world, “the clan seal can get you quite far, it can give you a foot in the door, as it were.  I believe that for official business, the clans still use wax seals,” she sounded amused, “in the correct color, of course.  Now, unless there are any questions from the nebulous void about anything we have discussed thus far…”

Silence.

“Excellent,” her lips curled up, “then let us get into, as the kids say, the nitty gritty of it all.”

Izuku gulped.  This was either going to be tedious or mind numbing with information.

(He was betting mind numbing.)

“The weather for tomorrow is clear and sunny skies, perfect for picture day!  As a reminder, the art expo is in three weeks and the art project is due on Friday, in two days.  Ml. Mendeleiev?”

“Thank you, Aurore,” their teacher said, “that’s all I have for you today, get some good sleep and eat a healthy breakfast, as always.  As an aside, I am in discussion with Caline about doing joint class activities. We’ll likely delegate that to class presidents if we get it confirmed, I believe that’s Mlle. Dupain-Cheng in the other class, Aurore, with Mlle. Cesaire as deputy, so I would invite you and Jean to get to know the two of them to open discussions, but no plans are set in stone right now.”

With the class dismissed, Izuku bounded out of the room, Kagami and Adrien trailing behind in amusement.

Marinette and Alya (Cesaire, probably) were instantly set upon by Aurore and Mireille, so Izuku walked over to Chloe.

“Chlo- er, um, Bourgeois-?”

“Midoriya, call me Chloe or so help me.”

“-Chloe, thank you for the shirt again, I completely forgot about picture day and its one of the nicest things I own.”

Chloe paused and looked at him, incredulous, before turning to Kagami.

“Ice Queen?”

Kagami shrugged.  “He has clothes.”

Chloe pinched the bridge of her nose.  “And Dupain-Cheng hasn’t said anything either?  Good lord.  Well, you’re welcome, I guess, but stop telling people I got it for you, you’ll ruin my reputation as a stone cold bitch.”

Izuku blinked, but nodded.  Chloe was weird, he knew and accepted this fact.

“What are you going to wear tomorrow?”

She flipped her hair and sniffed.  “I’d look perfect in anything.”

He nodded.  “The blue eyeshadow will be interesting to match with.”

She pulled a face at him and walked away.

“Bye Chloe!  Bye Sabrina!”

Sabrina waved and the two girls were gone.

“Wow,” Adrien said with a wry grin, “you really brought out her good side, Zuku!  I think that’s the closest to nice I’ve ever seen her!”

Kagami snorted.  “It is not in her nature, one might say.  It seems my cousin has tamed the wild beast.”

Izuku blinked, flustered.  “What?  Chloe isn’t a wild beast!  And she’s perfectly nice, she’s just not good at expressing it!  I think she’s cool.”

“I’m sorry,” Alya came up behind them with Marinette still speaking quickly with Aurore behind her, “did I just hear you say Chloe is nice?   Boy, I dunno what world you’ve been living in, but can I go too?”

Izuku blinked.  “What do you mean, Alya?  Sure, she’s a little blunt, but she means well.”

Alya snorted.  “I had to convince my girl over here to run for class rep because Chloe was busy trying to reinstate her reign of terror.  She barely had to do any campaigning and it was almost a unanimous vote!  Chloe tried to demand a recount and basically threw a fit!  Plus it feels like every word out of her mouth is an insult or leading up to one.”

Izuku frowned.  “She just has trouble expressing herself, I think.”

“Plus,” Adrien butted in, “she’s the mayor’s daughter.  She’s probably used to both getting her way and people trying to use her to get theirs.”

Alya rolled her eyes.  “Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, whatever, it’s no excuse to be a horrible person!”

Izuku bit his lip to stop himself from defending the girl more.  He knew Alya probably wouldn’t believe him no matter what he said at that point.

“So,” Adrien grinned, “we’re planning an interclass activity?”

Alya beamed.  “Yeah!  I don’t really know much about the area so I’m not super helpful in the discussion, but I can do coordination and outreach for sure.  Apparently there has never been much of this interclass stuff before, which is really weird.  My old school did stuff per class and per grade all the time.”

“We haven’t before,” Aurore interjected, “because the classes usually stick together for every year, and we already know everyone.  But with the cousins and Adrien, we have new kids, who also happen to have friends in other classes.  It makes sense to do it this year.”

Alya made a face.  “I dunno why knowing everyone disqualifies you from hanging out, but ok, whatever.  Oh, are you guys excited for picture day tomorrow?”

Alya kept talking at a mile a minute, and Izuku let everyone else answer.  Marinette, Aurore, and Mireille joined the conversation too, and Mari and Mireille both gave him sympathetic glances.  He smiled and shrugged; he didn’t mind being quiet, and Alya had a lot to say.

Izuku and Kagami waved goodbye to everyone as they went their separate ways outside the building, and he gave a sigh of relief.

They walked home in quiet silence and Izuku was content.

Chapter Text

Izuku’s class went through picture day quite easily.  Camille was there since, like Aurore predicted, the weather was sunny and warm, even for early September.  Jean goofed off a little bit, but as soon as the photographer held up his camera he stilled and smiled broadly.  No one caused any fuss and after a few clicks of the shutter, they were done. Soon enough, however, a clamor came into the courtyard as they were preparing to leave.

Ml. Bustier’s class was rowdy and loud, people laughing and jostling each other despite Marinette exasperatedly trying to get them to contain themselves.  It seemed like there were far more students in that class, but Izuku knew they were comparable in size.  Their teacher was simply smiling and sighing, as if to say, “what can you do?”

Izuku could think of a few things, the first being, her job.

Ml. Mendeleiev allowed them to stay back with a snide remark about how not conduct yourself in a professional setting, and Izuku bit his lip.  Chloe tried to insist on sitting front and center, but as she was taller than most, the photographer put her in the second row, off to the side a bit.  She bickered for a bit before rolling her eyes and huffing, but moving into her designated spot.  Izuku couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief; one crisis averted.

Finally, they settled down, and Ml. Mendeleiev began to turn away, herding her class back to their room, but Izuku glanced back just in time to see the photographer huff and throw his hands up.

“You!  Miss!”

The girl Izuku had seen a few weeks ago, Luka’s sister Juleka, shrank in on herself.

“Stop moving!  Every picture is turning out with you being blurry!”

She mumbled something under her breath, blushing in mortification, and Marinette raised her hand.

“Um, excuse me, but-”

“We will try again,” it seemed the photographer hadn’t heard her, barreling forward, “please, do not move!”

A few more shutters went off and he made a noise of discontent as he flipped through the pictures.

“Mademoiselle!”

“Sir,” Marinette said louder, “she can’t help it, her quirk makes her not show up on digital screens.”

The photographer’s lip curled.  “And why was I not informed of this before I came?”

“You should have been,” Ml. Bustier frowned nervously, “it’s sent to all photographers every year.  This is the first time we’ve changed photographers, but you definitely should have gotten the note…”

He gathered up his papers and scrolled through with a raised eyebrow before he sighed.  “Here it is.  I must not have seen it the first time.  Well, this is an issue.  How have you solved it before?”

“She shows up on non-digital pictures, so a camera that uses film would do it.”

He grimaced.  “I only have one of those, and I don’t have it with me.  Ah, this is annoying…”

Juleka noticeably flinched before peeling out of the room with her head down, ignoring the calls of her classmates.

Izuku looked around and noticed that his class had already left, so as he heard the photographer frustratedly call for a break, he sent a text to Kagami that he was going to the bathroom and went to follow Juleka.

He trailed her to the girl’s bathroom and hesitantly knocked on the door.

“Um, Juleka, right?  Sorry, I think we only sort of met once, briefly, but I met your brother, and, um… gosh, I’m not super great at this, but I get it, I guess?  Sorry, no, I do get it, but it’s not your fault that the photographer couldn’t take the picture.  I mean, he said that he hadn’t gotten the note but then he found it so obviously he did and he just didn’t find it, which means this is sort of his fault, not that I like casting blame-”

He cut himself off as the bathroom opened and a tall girl stood in the doorway, looking down at him.  He carefully looked up at her, eyes flicking to the discolored tear tracks down her face, but she had a soft look on her face.

“I remember you,” she murmured, “but I would know you anywhere because Marinette talks about you.”

“O-oh,” he stuttered, “she does?”

Juleka nodded.  “She says you’re really nice, and I can see it.  Sorry, but I think Rose might be nicer.”

He blinked at the slight mirth in her soft voice before biting his lip to hold back a grin.  “Rose, that’s your girlfriend, right?”

She nodded, suddenly blushing.  “Rose is… really sweet.  I’m really lucky.”

Izuku beamed.  “Well, the photographer said he was taking a break and my cousin thinks I’ve gone to the bathroom, so can I walk you back to your class?  I promise it’s not going to be too bad, even if they have to get your class picture later.”

The light in her eyes dimmed and she looked away, letting her black and purple hair fall in front of her face.

“My quirk is such a hassle every year.  Maybe it would be best if I just wasn’t in the class picture.”

He hesitated for a moment before gently grabbing her hand.

“No,” he said quietly, “I know that there are many people in your class who would be sad if you were gone, and would rather have you there than not.  Your girlfriend, for one,” the corner of his lip ticked up, “and Marinette for sure.  I don’t know if there’s a person she doesn’t like.”

“Chloe.”

Izuku pouted.  “Nobody likes Chloe, but I think she’s just a little prickly and you need to figure out how to interact with her!”

Juleka snorted lightly.  “You’re a saint if you can honestly say you like Chloe.  A saint or a terrible person.”

He sniffed and turned his nose up.  “Obviously I'm a terrible person, can’t you tell?  But really,” he said quietly, “I think she’s just not used to people being genuine.  I dunno if she’s ever had a friend before Sabrina, and even that has a power difference.”

Juleka shook her head.  “A saint.  First you come find a girl who you’ve barely met, then you befriend the mayor’s daughter.  I see Marinette wasn’t wrong about you.”

He blushed and was about to protest, but they had come out into the courtyard and the photographer beamed.

“Good, good,” he said smoothly, “you’re back, I seem to have found a traditional camera after all, yes, let me take a picture of you to ensure it works, yes?”

She glanced at him nervously, but he gave an encouraging smile and stood off to the side, catching Marinette’s relieved smile, and Juleka fidgeted nervously as he raised his camera.

Izuku looked between Juleka and the photographer as he lined up the shot and he frowned slightly.  Something had changed, not just the camera being used, but it was a strange camera, not one that people might usually use for something like this.  In fact, it looked like…

There was a flash of light and he blinked away spots in his eyes as there was a whir and the photographer plucked the printed photo out with satisfaction.  Izuku looked around, and Juleka was gone.

“Ah,” the photographer sighed, “perfect picture.  See?”

He turned the polaroid around to show Juleka looking startled and panicked, banging as if behind glass.  She was moving, and Izuku’s heart jumped to his throat.

“Now then,” the amok smiled broadly, “let’s get to picture taking!”

Izuku wasted no time in running back to class, slamming open the door.

“Amok in the school!”

M;. Mendeleiev looked up sharply, the scolding she had almost started for the door treatment dying before it could begin.  “You’re certain it’s an amok?”

“Unless the photographer has the ability to trap you in a polaroid all of a sudden,” Izuku winced, “then yes.”

The screams of Ml. Bustier’s class reached them, and Izuku glanced back to the courtyard to see more flashes and hearing the joyful laughter of the amok.

“Come on,” he called, “let’s take a commemorative photo!”

“In,” his teacher herded him in, shutting the door behind him and locking it, “we’re on lockdown now.”

“Um, miss,” Adrien looked panicked, “my mother told me to go home when there was an amok if I could…”

She pursed her lips.  “Your mother is a pro hero.  If she wants you home, she can come collect you herself, but for now, we won’t be letting you wander around the building when there is an active villain about.”

Adrien bit his lip but nodded and sat back down reluctantly.

Izuku walked to the middle of the classroom.

“Vio,” he murmured, “trade seats for a bit?”

She smiled and easily nodded, moving to sit next to Adrien while he slid in next to his cousin.

“How much did you see?”

“I didn’t actually go to the bathroom,” he admitted, “well, I guess I sort of did, but really I was following Juleka after she ran off in tears.  I met her brother once and, well…”

“You have a bleeding heart, continue.”

He glared at her, but she simply smiled and he rolled his eyes, “and we talked for a bit before I walked her back to the courtyard.  The photographer was there, happy as can be, with a new camera he said would work.”

Kagami raised an eyebrow.  “That’s right, Marinette said that she doesn’t show up on digital screens.  And then?”

“And then he said he wanted to take Juleka’s picture, to make sure it worked,” he fidgeted, “and there was a bright flash and she was gone.  The picture printed out and she was inside a polaroid, moving around and looking panicked.”

Kagami hummed.  “So if he takes your picture, you become trapped in it.  And you ran?”

He nodded.  “The only thing I can think of to save people is to break the camera or tear the pictures, but I don’t know if tearing the pictures will release the people inside or if it will hurt them.  Which means Ladybug and Chat Noir will need to get close enough to take and destroy the camera without getting their pictures taken.”

There was a knock at the door and everyone tensed.

“Hello,” the amok sang, “I was looking over the class pictures we took and it turns out, someone was always blinking!  Do you mind coming out and retaking them?”

Ml. Mendeleiev cleared her throat, glancing at her pale class, “Ah, forgive me Monsieur, we are in the middle of a lecture, can you come back later?”

He clicked his tongue and rattled the doorknob, making everyone tense.

“I have to go soon,” he said mournfully, “I’m afraid it really must be now, lecture or no.”

“HEY, POLAROID!”

“Ah,” he sounded elated as he stepped away from the door, “Ladybug, I would love to take your picture, send it off to a magazine, you’re a new and debuting vigilante after all.”

“Sorry,” the muffled voice replied, “I’m a bit camera shy. Where is that cat…?  Wait, there’s a class in there!  Back away from the door, Polaroid!”

The amok, apparently named Polaroid, cackled and there was a flash of light.  They all held their breath.

“I told you, I’m camera shy!  Also a minor, so you need parental permission to take my picture.”

Izuku winced.  “She shouldn’t have said that.  That’s giving away too much information.”

“Not to say that minors can’t do anything,” Kagami muttered in agreement, “but there are adults who can become vigilantes.  Whoever saddled her and Chat Noir with this job should be prepared to meet my sword.”

There was the sounds of a scuffle outside getting further away before all was quiet, and Ml. Mendeleiev stood at attention.

“Ok,” she hissed, “up you get, grab your things, we’re barricading the room.  I don’t want to think what will happen if this “Polaroid” manages to figure out how to break down the door and we’re just sitting behind our desks waiting for the camera.  Jack, Lucy, let’s move your desk to in front of the door.  Everyone else, get to a place with easy cover and easy movement.”

She helped the two students in the front to maneuver their desk on it’s side in front of the door, blocking it from opening a bit more.  The sound was loud and grating and Izuku was suddenly glad that the amok and vigilante had seemingly taken the fight elsewhere, because otherwise they would have just put a huge target on their backs.  Everyone else got up, pushed their seats in, and arranged themselves behind the desks where they could easily duck and hide.

They sat in silence, ears straining to pick up sounds of the battle, and after about thirty seconds, the fight got closer and closer until the door burst into the room, pushing the desk back a few feet.  Ladybug picked herself up from the door with a wince, and did a double take on the room.

“Shoot,” she breathed, “we need to get you guys out of here.  I’ll draw him away and you guys need to make a run for it.”

She didn’t wait for their confirmation before leaping up again and pushing out into the hallway with her yoyo spinning, and Izuku quickly gathered his things and creeped for the door, sensing more than seeing Kagami following close behind.

Ml. Mendeleiev seemed to debate with herself for a moment before nodding and ushering them out of the room, making a beeline for the front doors.  There were a few stops and starts as they hid from the fighting, Ladybug summoning her lucky charm at one point before the jovial voice of Chat Noir joined the fight banter, but soon enough they were outside.

Their teacher did a quick headcount and swore.  “No one repeat that word.  When was the last time someone saw Adrien and Violette?”

“They were in the back of the pack,” Ondine bit her lip, “but it was so stressful I didn’t turn around…”

“They might have gotten separated from us in the low cover areas,” Izuku chewed on his lower lip, “meaning they either have a better shot at getting out because there’s less of them, or…”

“GIVE UP, LADYBUG, CHAT NOIR, UNLESS YOU WANT THIS GIRL TO GET POLARIZED!”

“Dude,” Chat Noir yelled, “that does not mean what you’re trying to say!  Let Vi- that girl go!”

Aurore’s head dropped into her hands.  “That’s definitely Vio.  She got herself taken hostage.”

“But where’s Adrien,” Kagami demanded, “still hiding?  Or did he already get his picture taken?”

“You know,” Lucy said hysterically, “out of context this doesn’t sound that bad!  It’s just getting your picture taken!”

“Yeah,” Ron rolled his eyes, “and then you get stuck in a photo forever.  Sounds like a great time.”

Ml. Mendeleiev pursed her lips.  “I have to stay here to make sure they both get out and get accounted for, but all of you should go home.  We’re still under an active threat, so-”

“MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”

The pink cloud swirled around the school and the alarms went quiet.  Soon enough, the doors burst open and people began pouring out, looking shaken.  Izuku saw a flash of black and purple and took a deep breath before pushing through.

“Juleka!”

Her head shot up and she met his eyes and deflated a little bit from her startled stance.  “Izuku.”

“Are you alright?”  he bit his lip and looked her up and down.

“I’m fine,” she smiled softly, “the miraculous cure got everyone out of the photos.  He got most of my class, so…”

He breathed a sigh of relief.  “That’s good.”  His eyes widened and he started waving his hands.  “Not about your class!  That’s bad, obviously, but that everyone is free now, that’s good!”

Marinette came up beside him.  “We get it, Izuku.  How is your class?”

“Vio got held hostage and we have no idea where Adrien went.”

“Right here,” he came up beside them, a little out of breath, “Vio and I got separated, would not recommend it, but I managed to stay hidden the entire time, so I got to watch the battle!”

Kagami stalked up, looking him over and nodding at his continued good health.  “And what happened?”

“It was really weird,” he frowned, “Ladybug and Chat Noir managed to destroy the camera and a dark purple feather came out of it, but Polaroid grabbed it and went up in purple smoke.  By the time it cleared, he was gone, and the feather too.”

Izuku bit his lip.  “Do you think the feather is the amok?  And the photographer got kidnapped, or something?”

“That’s the thing,” he exclaimed, “the photographer had had his picture taken, he must have been the first victim!  Polaroid just looked like him, but he wasn’t a possessed version of himself like Jean was.”

On that note, the rest of the class had spotted Vio and Adrien and surrounded them, checking them over and ensuring they were ok.

Despite the amok being taken care of relatively quickly (only half an hour of tension!), everyone was sent home.  Adrien’s mother showed up and took him away, barely letting him get a wave out, and Izuku and Kagami dropped Marinette off at the bakery before heading home themselves.  Aunt Tomoe was waiting for them at the door.

“Are you hurt?”

They both gave a negative and she relaxed a tad.

“We managed to get picture day done with,” Izuku said, “so we don’t have to worry about that again…”

His aunt let out a puff of laughter and walked into the house.  “Small mercies.  Come, in, this is the third amok in two weeks…”

Izuku felt his phone vibrate and he pulled it out as he walked through the house, noticing Kagami do the same.

Adrien: guys, terrible news

Adrien: apparently felix and his mom are moving to paris instead of visiting once a month

Mari: how is this terrible news, you get to see your cousin more?  

Adrien: mari no!

Adrien:you have a NICE cousin from london

Adrien: i have FELIX

Gami: Will he be going to school with us?

Adrien: idk probably, with my luck he’ll join our class

Izu: darn, another potential friend, what a shame (❁´◡`❁)

Adrien: you say that now, but wait until you meet him!

Adrien: idk if even YOU can befriend fe

Mari: why are they moving exactly

Adrien: amoks

Gami: wouldn’t that make them move AWAY

Adrien: apparently they want to make sure we’re close or something???

Adrien: I’ve stopped questioning my mom and aunt, they just do whatever, and fe and I have to go with it

Izu: if you want we can be there to welcome him…?

Izu: when are they moving?

Adrien: right after the art expo

Mari: it takes three weeks to move???

Adrien: mari you’ve seen my house

Adrien: picture that but like twice as much stuff

Mari: ???

Mari: your house is empty adrien

Adrien: four times as much stuff

Adrien: you know what, no, picture kagami’s house

Adrien: zuku’s room specifically

Izu: ಥ_ಥ

Izu: this feels like I’m being attacked…

Gami: you are.

Gami: clean your room.

Mari: I don’t think I’ve ever been to the tsurugi house

Gami: mother will likely be inviting Sabine over at some point

Gami: speaking of why did you not inform us that you were one of THOSE chengs

Mari: (⊙_⊙;)

Mari: wat

Izu: you guys were the sapphire tigers, right?

Gami: correct

Mari: OH

Mari: idk maman doesn't really bother with most of that, we have family reunions every once in a while but other than that

Mari: it just doesn’t come up often?

Izu: kim is totally your bodyguard tho (¬‿¬)

Mari: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Mari: kim is my friend!!!

Mari: but also that yeah

Adrien: hey quick question

Adrien: um

Adrien: what was that whole conversation about?

Mari: nothing important, dw ;)

Izu: i just started learning this stuff so idk either ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Gami: family business

Adrien: thanks!

Adrien: that explains nothing!

Mari: ok qq, why is adrien the only one w/o a chat nickname

Izu: qq?

Mari: sorry, quick question

Izu: oh, cool ^-^

Gami: I don’t think there’s much we can do to shorten Adrien

Izu: chloe calls him adrikins but i really don't want to do that

Adrien: ew no she calls me that because we knew each other as tiny children, she’s chlo-bear but don't tell her i told you that

Mari: idk izu could probably get away with it

Izu: you guys are so mean to her >.<

Mari: izu, babe, she was mean first, ive done my time

Izu: that’s a reference to prison time, right?

Mari: booyah

Mari: but nicknames

Mari: riri?

Adrien: EW

Izu: hard pass

Mari: aww, baby is growing up, using slang

Izu: thanks I learn from the best (*/ω＼*)

Gami: Rien?  Ren?

Izu: capitals, ew, why are you typing like that

Adrien: i think ren is neat!

Adrien: but we could always use joking names

Adrien: for example, my mom is glimmer

Adrien: therefore I can be ☆sparkle☆

Izu: isnt the phrase…

Izu: hang on i'm gonna get this

Izu: twinkle in your mother’s eye?

Gami: that is indeed the phrase

Mari: and it’s on theme lol

Mari: what about the rest of us, monsieur twinkle?

Adrien: you would obviously be sewfabulous

Adrien: because you are

Mari: (-///-)

Adrien: zuku is the greenbean

Izu: I can’t escape

Adrien: and gami works

Gami: I will find you and slaughter you

Adrien: ah, but you'd have to find me first ;)

Mari: idk, I like our names, adrien is the only one who needs to change

Adrien: can I still be ☆sparkle☆

Izu: didn’t you like ren tho

Ren: yeah ok lol

Ren: easy enough

Ren: you guys all got home ok, right?

Ren: sorry, should have been my first question

Izu: we’re fine here, and we dropped mari off!

Mari: yeah ive been taken care of by my knights errant, the wonderful cousin knights

Gami: if we are your knights, I do believe that makes you the princess

Gami: adrien can be the court jester

Ren: awww, you DO care!

Ren: anyway, I gotta go, ttyl!

Izu: bye!

Mari: cya (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

Gami: goodbye.

Izuku looked up from his phone at his (admittedly) cluttered room with a wry smile.

Even with the picture disaster, it had been a good day.

Chapter Text

WeatherGirl: our first attempt at interclass activities is happening this saturday at the ice rink

WeatherGirl: this is not obligatory by any means, but if you want to go, we’re meeting there at 1

SunshineSmiles: I’ll be there!!!

CraveThatChemical: busy

Hothead: same, sorry ror

Bush: we’ll be there :)

Mermaid: sounds like fun!  My canvas is drying so i'm good to go :)

ActuallyTroyBolton: i suck at ice skating

ActuallyTroyBolton: i’ll be there

WeatherGirl: that’s the spirit, jack

AuntJeremiahs: ron and i are both working on the lego robot competition but if we can work fast we might join late

Hothead: jere i love the faith you have in us but also that's not gonna happen

Free!: i’ll see if I can convince kim from the other class to go, he’s a riot :3

Mirimiri: oh that’s right you’re friends with him

Free!: swim team ftw

MagicMan: ack, i'm busy, rip

Chopin: i’ll be late, but i’ll be there

Chopin: cuts into practice by about half an hour, sorry!

WeatherGirl: Marc?

Pen>Sword: i don’t like crowds

WeatherGirl: so far we only have nine from out class

WeatherGirl: I’ll check in with the other class one sec

WeatherGirl: ok so the other class is full on non-fun havers apparently

WeatherGirl: we have only five of them coming

Bush: no it’s seven, chloe and sabrina are coming too

Bush: Mari was complaining about it earlier

Bush: its her and her vice, kim, kim’s friend alix, and this boy nino who mari and kim are friends with

Bush: then chloe and sabrina

Bush: she made it sound like she wasn’t coming but I can almost guarantee she’ll be there

SunshineSmiles: the chloe whisperer strikes again!!!

Bush: >:P

IceQueen: As Izuku said, we’ll be there.

IceQueen: it seems only fitting with the chat name I have been given.

MagicMan: did I read that right

MagicMan: did you just make a joke

SunshineSmiles: she definitely just made a joke

SunshineSmiles: I’m so proud :’)

SunshineSmiles: I imagine this is what a parent feels like

Bush: ?

Bush: gami makes jokes all the time

Hothead: SINCE WHEN???

Bush: literally all the time

CraveThatChemical: gatekeep gaslight girlboss

CraveThatChemical: we love to see it

Chopin: can confirm she does joke

Chopin: its just like the quiet kid in the back tho

Chopin: sassy and under her breath but you can’t help but laugh

Chopin: one time during english lit she compared bustier to an ostrich

Chopin: ngl containing myself was a challenge

Chopin: took all of my willpower to remain stoic and attentive

IceQueen: if she chooses to bury her head in the sand and pretend everything is fine, then she gets to be a flightless australian bird

AuntJeremiahs: this feels like an elaborate scheme to get us to believe our ice queen possesses a single funny bony in her body

IceQueen: unfortunately I was born without an ulnar nerve so you’ll have to find an alternate funny bone

ActuallyTroyBolton: i'm in tears

Mirimiri: that’s what the funny bone is called?

Mirimiri: it’s not even a bone???

Mirimiri: i feel lied to :(

Bush: yeah its a nerve!

Bush: its also the nerve that gives you feeling in your pinky and ring finger so if you have your arm a particular way your bones and cartilage can pinch the ulnar nerve and your entire half of your arm will be numb!

Bush: that's why it’s important to not be sitting at a desk in the same position all day every day!

Free!: bless you and youor facts, izuku

Hothead: your*

Free!: i'm declaring a blood feud

AuntJeremiahs: something tells me you speak from experience

Bush: yeah i totally do

Bush: its kinda fun to have half your arm numb ngl

IceQueen: Cease and Desist

Pen>Sword: I guess I can come?

Pen>Sword: no promises I’ll actually skate but I’ll try

Bush: I can do networking with some other members of the other class too!

Bush: I’ve made friends with a few of them :3

SunshineSmiles: zuku you could make friends with a rapid raccoon

Bush: why, do you know 1

SunshineSmiles: yea, felix

Bush: i'm gonna befriend the heck out of him explicitly because you’re so mean to him all the time

IceQueen: Will you be abandoning Adrien for his cousin?

Bush: yes (●'◡'●)

SunshineSmiles: wow, i am Hurt and Offended

Bush: literally stop calling your cousin names and the abuse will stop

Bush: its simple

SunshineSmiles: you’re asking me to basically change my primary form of entertainment

IceQueen: I was under the impression that was puns

Hothead: i'm starting to believe our ice queen can joke

CraveThatChemical: is this why you never talk in chat??

CraveThatChemical: because then we’d know you joke???

IceQueen: I have no idea to what you are referring.

CraveThatChemical: back to gaslighting lmao, nice

ActuallyTroyBolton: hey anyone done with the vocab list yet

Bush: I have it done! :)

ActuallyTroyBolton: zuks, love of my life, could i possibly

ActuallyTroyBolton: look at it?

Bush: how much have you done

ActuallyTroyBolton: about a single word

Bush: jack there’s 20 words on the list

ActuallyTroyBolton: hence why i would love you forever if you shared it with me? :))))

Mermaid: hoe don’t do it

Mermaid: jack what distracted you this time

ActuallyTroyBolton: idk what you mean

Free!: place your bets

Free!: video games, or video games?

ActuallyTroyBolton: f u

WeatherGirl: please tell me it was at least a good video game

ActuallyTroyBolton: it was a good video game

AuntJeremiahs: it was minecraft wasn’t it

ActuallyTroyBolton: are you gonna come here and tell me minecraft isn’t a good game????

Mirimiri: oh no is jack on another of his week long minecraft marathons again

Mirimiri: what is it this time

ActuallyTroyBolton: the survival challenge of never chopping down a tree in the overworld

ActuallyTroyBolton: it took me three hours to find a mineshaft I could strip for wood

SunshineSmiles: is he actually going to make it to the ice rink?

Mermaid: 50/50 shot, honestly

ActuallyTroyBolton: i don't need to be here for this dragging

ActuallyTroyBolton: i’ll see you guys at the ice rink >:P

WeatherGirl: if you aren’t there by the time vio is i'm sending jere to unplug your computer and hide the power cord

AuntJeremiahs: i’ll find a use for it

ActuallyTroyBolton: it wont come to that

ActuallyTroyBolton: I wont let it

Bush: i’ll see you guys at the ice rink on saturday! (❁´◡`❁)

Jacque was in fact at the ice rink by one; he was actually one of the first ones there, and Aurore wasted no time in ribbing him, even if she did also ask how his playthrough was going.  Izuku and Kagami showed up with Adrien, and Marinette came with Alya, Kim, Alix, and Nino.

Camille, Ondine, and Mirielle arrived at basically the same time, Ondine mentioning offhand they were all neighbors.

Izuku looked around and spied Marc leaning against a wall with his head buried in a notebook and he had a moment of companionship with the boy.  Other than that, the only people who weren’t there were…

A limo pulled up just as people were starting to go inside and Izuku beamed.

“Hi, Chloe, hi Sabrina!”

“Hi Izuku!”

“Midoriya.”

Marinette took a moment to look a little pained before she sighed and smiled.  “Glad you could make it.  That’s everyone.  Let’s head in?”

They walked in and the man skating rather morosely lit up and skated over quickly.

“Hello!  Are you here for lessons?”

Aurore blinked.  “We were just planning on renting skates for a few hours, if that’s alright.”

The man deflated a little.  “Ah, of course, it is almost winter, that’s right…”

“It has nothing to do with the season,” Kagami stated bluntly, “we are just on a friendly class outing.”

The man smiled weakly.  “My mistake.  Come, come, I will get you all skates.  I am Philippe, and this is my ice rink.”

Marinette bit her lip.  “Are you… not having a lot of people sign up for lessons?”

“No, the art is being lost…”

“Maybe we can see if we like it enough for lessons after we skate for a bit?” Marinette winced at the weak platitude in her voice, but she smiled determindley at the man.

He looked much brighter at that and jabbered on as he walked the people to the counter, getting their shoe sizes to get them skates.

Chloe, of course, sniffed at communal shoes and tugged a pair of bright red skates out of the bag she had brought, Sabrina doing the same in purple.

Most of the skates were in shades of blue, purple, and white, but there were a few pairs of black and red as well.  Adrien and Izuku got black pairs and Marinette and Kagami both got red pairs.

“The squad goals strike again,” Adrien crowed, “we’re all matching!  Hey, hey, red and black!  Like Ladybug and Chat Noir!”

Kagami preened a little at having red skates, smirking.  “I would only hope to be as honorable as Ladybug.”

Izuku giggled.  “I don’t think I’m chivalrous enough to be Chat Noir.”

Marinette nodded her head rapidly.  “I’m way too clumsy to be a vigilante!  And Ladybug looks so graceful all the time.”

Adrien hummed.  “I bet she’d be good at ice skating!”

Alya’s eyes lit up and she leaned over from where she had just finished lacing up her own blue skates. “You think?  I kinda want to figure out who they are, you know!  You ever heard of the Ladyblog?”

Izuku perked up.  “Oh!  I totally have, it’s this blog that recently started up to document the new vigilantes and the amoks!  I was looking for analysis on them when I found it, but it’s still an interesting and informative read!”

Alya grinned smugly.  “Aw, you like it?  Thanks!”

Izuku stopped, clutching the wall before he stepped out onto the ice.  “Wait.  You run the Ladyblog?!”

She nodded.

“That’s so cool!”

Her grin turned bashful.  “Thanks.  It’s a work in progress, since we’ve only had a couple sightings and amoks, but I guess that’s a good thing because that means less people have been in danger.”

Izuku nodded.  “I used to hero chase, I get the feeling.  You don't want people to get hurt or things to get destroyed or stolen, but watching hero fights is so cool…”

Kagami eyed him.  “You haven’t gone hero chasing that I’ve seen.”

He winced at the unasked question.  “I haven’t gone, promise.  Okasa made me stop before I left and even though I love Parisian heroes too I can just watch the news later.”

Marinette breathed a sigh of relief as she took a careful step onto the ice.  “Good, I would wor-WOAH!”

She slipped and flailed for a bit before managing to catch the wall, knees bent and leaning back.  She winced and Adrien was there in a moment, offering a hand.

He grinned.  “Come on, I can teach you for a bit.  Kagami and Izuku will probably be fine.”

She glared halfheartedly at him, pouting as she hauled herself up on his hand.  “You’re already good at this, aren’t you?”

He shrugged with a sheepish grin.  “Good balance.”

Izuku took a few shaky steps and breathed out as he was free from the wall.  Kagami skated mildly backwards, observing.

“Would you like assistance?”

“Nope,” he said cheerfully, “I looked up tips before we came!  If I start to fall I can put my hands on my knees,” he flailed a little and forced his hands onto his knees as he sucked in a breath, “like that,” he squeaked.

Kagami’s mouth quirked up a little and she shrugged.  “So be it.”

She spun around and began skating elegantly away and Izuku sighed with a wry grin.

“Of course she and Adrien would be good at skating,” he muttered, “they fence.   And have probably also gone ice skating before.”

Cami giggled, coming up beside him.  “A lot of us at Francois-Dupont probably have.  I’m more surprised you and Marinette have not.”

He blinked.  “Oh that’s right this is a rich people school.”

Cami doubled over laughing, still managing to stay upright in her skates and Ondine came up behind, skating backwards with Kim and Alix.

“What’s got ya gigglin?”

Cami wiped away a tear.  “Izuku was just saying that the reason we all know how to skate is because this is a rich person school.”

The three of them snickered.

“I mean come on,” Izuku pretended to complain, “it’s an art school!  You have to be rich if you want to go into art, because everyone knows it hardly pays!”

“Ah yes,” Jacque said sagely, coming up behind on slightly wobbly legs, “the art of basketball.”

Izuku tried to shove at the tall boy but overbalanced and almost toppled over before he grabbed at his knees rapidly, heart pounding.  Jack burst out laughing before it turned into a yelp as he was gently shoved and windmilled his arms before falling right on his butt.

“Come on, Ror!”

She raised an eyebrow.  “Jack, you’re barely better than he is.”

“My skill is in basketball,” he heaved himself up, “not something like ice skating!”

Aurore gave him a contemplative glance before breaking out in a smirk and skating away to where Marinette was still getting help from Adrien, Kagami making loops around them in stoic amusement.

Izuku watched the two girls talk before Marinette broke out in a grin and Adrien shook his head with a sigh, but he was also smiling.

“HEY,” Marinette cupped her hands around her mouth, getting the attention of everyone in the ring, “GIRLS VERSUS BOYS, SKATE OFF!”

A few people groaned, but others (Kim and Alix) cackled and soon the girls were on one long side of the rink and the boys were on the other.

Izuku noticed Vio had made it and he waved as he counted the people on each side and leaned over to Adrien.

“This is so rigged.”

Adrien made a disgruntled noise of agreement as he took in the opponents.

Aurore, Marinette, Kagami, Mirielle, Alya, Cami, Vio, Chloe, Sabrina, and Alix.

On their side, Izuku, Adrien, Jacque, Marc (who did, apparently, decide to skate, and he wasn’t that bad), Kim, and Nino.

Ten versus six.

This was totally rigged.

“So in the object of fairness,” Marinette teased as if it wasn’t completely rigged in their favor, “each team will send a person to the center to skate.  Treat it like a game of War - the better side gets a point!  And, of course, everyone has to go at least once, and you can’t send in the same two people in a row!  First one to ten points wins!”

“Is there a single person on your side who doesn’t actually know how to skate, or are we about to get hosed,” Adrien yelled back.

“I don’t,” Alya yelled, “but that’s all you’re getting, Agreste!”

The boys groaned.

“Ok,” Adrien turned to face them, “who’s good at what, if anything?”

Izuku exchanged a glance with Jacque, and the taller boy sighed.

“Us two can’t do more than skate, period.  Nothing fancy on our end.”

Marc grimaced.  “I can skate just fine, but I can’t do any jumps or anything.”

Adrien turned to Kim and Nino.  “Please,” he begged, “tell me at least one of you has experience.”

Nino scratched the back of his head.  “I can go backwards?”

Kim raised a hand with a grin.  “I can do jumps and spins!”

Adrien put a hand to his chest in relief.  “Ok, so we all have to go once.  Zuku, sorry to say but you’re probably our weakest skater.”

“No, you’re right.”

“Jacque next, then I don’t know Nino or Marc well enough to determine, then Kim and I,” he continued, “so we need to play this carefully.  We can’t send Kim and I out every time because everyone has to go and it wouldn’t be fun otherwise, but here’s how we play it…”

He bit his lip.  “If it really is like War we both have to send people out at the same time so we don’t know who to match up.  Mari and Alya are both their weak links, but everyone else is at least competent, if not as good as me like in the case of Chloe and Kagami.  I know for a fact that Chloe could hose me any day,” he said ruefully, “so that’s great.”

Izuku chewed on his lip, rubbing his chin.  “There are two strategies we could take, either we try and throw the weak people against their strong people so the loss isn’t as bad, or try and match difficulty so we have a better shot.”

Adrien grinned.  “I’m down letting you be our analyst, Zuku.  Objections?”

Nino shrugged.  “No reason not to, if you think you’ve got a good idea.”

Kim smirked.  “As long as we win.”

Izuku felt his face get a little hot, so he cleared his throat and tried to ignore that there were people around him listening.

“I would recommend trying to match strengths,” he murmured, “but it will take me a couple of rounds to try and figure out their strategy for who to send in.  Maintain your stamina and don’t go for anything too risky unless you really need it to win and we’re desperate for points.  It’s going to be hard, but I believe we can do this.”

He looked up, setting his expression into a determined stare, and the other five boys mirrored it.

“ARE YOU BOYS DONE OVER THERE?”

“OH HUSH,” Kim yelled back, “WE WERE JUST PLANNING HOW TO BEAT YOU INTO THE GROUND!”

Alix barked out a laugh.  “GOOD LUCK, OCEAN MAN!”

Kim took a moment to look offended before he growled, “send me in first, coach, I have a pinkie to beat.”

Izuku looked startled when Kim turned to him and not Adrien, who had previously taken control, but he just nodded and Kim was off like a shot, meeting Alix in the middle, idly circling each other.

It sort of ended up as a race with extra jumps and twirls built in, and they seemed evenly matched before they both slowed and Kim held out a hand with a cocky grin.  Alix raised an eyebrow but grinned back and took the hand to let Kim spin her away, letting her go as she spun.  She easily recovered and used the spin to her advantage.

“AND THAT’S TIME!”

Kim’s head shot up.  “What?!  You never talked about a time limit!”

“It’s been three minutes,” Ondine shrugged with a smirk, “and the rest of us want a turn too.”

“Taking everything into consideration,” Aurore hummed with a small smile, “I’d say the girls took that one.  You even helped, with that last spin!”

Kim threw up his hands with a wordless yell, but he was smiling and fistbumped Alix as they both went back to their sides of the rink.

Izuku watched the girls with critical eyes, observing their shuffling and hand gestures.

“Nino, you next.”

The brown boy threw him finger guns and skated out carefully as the girls sent out Alya.

This one was more skewed than the previous battle, even with Nino not being able to do anything fancy, but as time was winding down, Alya flailed and Nino lunged forward to help her catch her balance.  Alya had the gut reaction to reach out and grab Nino as well, so with them both grabbing each other, they toppled a bit, Nino holding them off of the ground with bent knees.

Izuku noted how close their faces were when they both hastily let go and Alaya fell to the ice with an “oof,” and Nino straightened up quickly, coughing slightly.

“We won that one,” Jacque called, “so that’s a point to both sides.”

Everyone agreed and Nino and Alya went off to their respective sides.

Izuku took a deep breath.  “I’ll go.  This is gonna be a slaughter.”

Sabrina met him in the center of the rink with a bright grin.

He hesitantly skated around, but it was clear that she was far better and more experienced than he was.

“You know,” she hummed, “lower your center of balance a little more, and… huh, ok, the only way I can describe this is, well, you draw, right?  Have you heard of action lines?”

He blinked, lowering himself a little more.

“Yeah?”

“No good way to describe it,” she giggled, “you sort of have to think of yourself as a series of action lines.  It keeps you smooth.  Do you know how to dance?”

He laughed hopelessly.

She giggled again.  “Don’t worry, we’ll get you there.  Times almost up, I think.  Here, grab my hand.”

He glanced at it warily.  “Are you going to spin me?”

“No,” she chuckled, “just tug you along.  Keep your body loose and slide.”

He cautiously slid his hand into hers and she tugged him along in a few loops until time ran out, and he felt a little smoother on the ice.

“Thanks.”

She smiled.  “Sure, I was getting the point anyway.”

He rolled his eyes but smiled back and skated almost naturally to their side of the rink.

“Adrien next,” he hummed, “Chloe will demand going out.”

He was correct in this assumption, Chloe skating elegantly (and boredly) out to the center, inspecting her nails as she went, but her gaze sharpened and she actually smirked when she saw Adrien pulling out.

Both sides cheered and hollered as the two blondes circled each other before Adrien broke away first, doing a beautiful step routine and ending with a twirling jump before casting his hands out with a raised eyebrow.

Chloe huffed and flipped her ponytail behind herself before holding her hands behind her back.

Looking incredibly bored, as if this was easy, she spun and stepped and made figure eights before lifting a leg almost straight into the sky as she gave one last set of spins, coming to a stop and curtseying.

Both sides were yelling, calling out their support for their competitor since now it was becoming a real competition, and the boys booed when Chloe was declared the winner.  She smirked and flicked her hair again, welcomed back into the arms of her sisters with exuberance.  Izuku smiled to himself as he saw a little bit of dumbfoundedness in her expression and how the other girls seemed to be ignoring previous animosity in favor of teamwork and beating the other team.

Marc and Mirielle were next up, but before they could do more than reach the center, the door to the ice rink opened and the mayor strolled in.

Chloe blinked in confusion, looking taken aback.  “Daddy?  What are you doing here?”

The mayor smiled genially at his daughter.  “Hello, sweetheart.  You told me you were coming to the ice rink and I wanted to see it for myself, see how business is fairing.”

Philippe popped up out of nowhere.  “Business is going well,” he said hurriedly, “look at all the kids visiting today.”

The mayor frowned sadly.  “How many people are you giving lessons to?”

Philippe coughed.  “A-ah, well, you see, winter is approaching, it’s getting much too cold to go ice skating indoors…”

The mayor shook his head.  “Unfortunately, if you don’t have the funding to continue to rent the space, I might have to give it to someone else.  Just until the spring and summer, you know, well, if you can get new sign-ups.”

“Bu-but-”

“Of course,” the mayor said smoothly, “if you can manage enough new sign-ups by the end of the day, say, six, I could be persuaded…”

Philippe looked ready to burst into tears and Izuku couldn’t help but stare in horror.

“Excuse me,” he found himself saying, stumbling over to the side, “but is anyone actively looking to purchase or rent this building?”

The mayor blinked at him before smiling.  “That doesn’t really matter.  If Philippe can’t pay the rent on the building, we’ll be forced to remove him.  And, well, if no one wants the space, then we might just tear the building down and build something new.”

The mayor lit up and turned to his blank faced daughter.  “Oh, Chloe dear, we can build a mall here!”

Chloe’s face was stiff with how blank it was.

Philippe swallowed.  “But, but, if you tear down the building, where will people skate?”

The mayor looked almost disappointed.  “If no one signs up for lessons, we can assume they don’t want to skate.”

“But that’s ridiculous,” Marinette burst out, “we’re literally here right now, skating!  Clearly we want to skate!”

Philippe looked a little bolstered by this but the mayor shot him down with his next words.

“This ice rink needs a reliable source of income, the kind that only comes from signed on lessons.  Six sign-ups by the end of the day, or I’m closing this building down.”

As the mayor swept out of the building, mission accomplished, Izuku had the sickening feeling that he was always planning on tearing down this building to have something else.  The deadline of the end of the day was ridiculous, for one, and renting out skates was a reliable method of generating revenue.  He turned back to the group and saw everyone looking a little shocked and appalled, and he bit his lip.  Maybe some of them would be willing to sign up for lessons…?

Alix spun to Chloe with a snarl.  “This was your idea, wasn’t it?  Get daddy to build you a nice new shopping mall by driving this guy out of business?”

Chloe turned her blank stare to Alix, but said nothing, and Izuku could almost feel the wheels in her head turning in a negative direction.  He stepped forward, but before things could either blow up or dissolve (despite the rising tensions in the rink), the door to the office further into the building burst open and a being seemingly crafted out of pure ice came out, sliding on shiny skates into the arena.

He grinned.

“Hello, I’m Frozer!  It seems you already know the joys of ice skating!  I’ll be back, after I freeze the entire city, so it all becomes an ice rink!  Oh, and don’t mind Philippe, his emotions were running a little high so I helped him chill in the office.  First stop, the mayor!  He has to learn!”

Frozer sped away from the stock still teenagers and right out the door, freezing the path in front of him as he went.

Aurore sighed.  “Shit.”

Chapter Text

“We should split up,” Marinette blurted out, “since we all already have skates.  We can go out to warn the city and spread the word while we wait for Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

“I agree,” Adrien nodded his head rapidly, “gotta warn people!”

Without waiting for anything else, the two of them were rapidly following the trail of ice out the door and leaving everyone else behind.

Alya sighed fondly.  “I love that girl, but she totally forgot that the internet is a thing.  And… posted.  Alert’s up.”

Kagami ran a hand down her face.  “Izuku and I will go look for them, as their friends, to keep them from getting themselves into trouble.  Everyone else should either stay here or go home.  Here might be the safest, since he is unlikely to come back.”

They all nodded stiffly in various levels of fear.

“Well,” Chloe huffed, “I’m going home.  Sabrina, come on!”

Izuku watched the two of them leave.  “Be safe,” he muttered, and then he turned to Aurore.

“If you guys keep watch on the news feeds, you can text us if you see either Frozer or Adrien and Marinette, then you can text us the location.  Keeps us safe and will help us find them faster.”

Aurore nodded.  “Very well.  The weather looks to be a little chilled for the next half hour, past that I don’t know.  Stay safe, you two, and don’t let Sunshine and Baker’s Girl get themselves frozen either.”

Izuku giggled at the nicknames and nodded, grabbing Kagami’s hand and following the path outside.

She took the lead on the ice covered streets, avoiding the frost covered structures rising from the ground with a deft ease.  Izuku bit his lip, looking down each of the streets.

“Which way did he go,” he muttered, “all the streets are covered…”

His phone buzzed and he fished it out, looking at the text.

WeatherGirl: F @ Concorde along Seine, heading W

WeatherGirl: no visuals on A+M

Izuku sighed.  “Frozer is traveling west along the Seine, he reached the Place de la Concorde already.  It seems likely he’s using the river as a boost and spreading the ice from there like an infection.”

Kagami nodded.  “Any sign of Ren and Mari?”

“None.”

She hummed.  “Then let us go south to the Seine, it is a more open area, and if the river is frozen solid it will be easier and faster to traverse than this frozen area.”

Izuku looked at the people outfitted in skates made of ice as they generally floundered on the icy streets and noted a few car crashes as well, wincing.  “Looks like he’s forced the joys of skating on everyone he’s come across,” he murmured, “this is going to cause a lot of chaos.”

“All the more reason to get to the river,” Kagami said firmly, “we’re almost there.”

They pulled out to the river and carefully lowered themselves onto the thick ice that was generally free of people and a reasonably straight shot to where Frozer was last sighted.

“Hello.”

Izuku screamed at the sudden voice behind him and flailed, releasing Kagami’s hand in his panic and falling backwards.  Arms caught him and he looked up with wide eyes into blue-ish teal ones that were full of apologetic mirth.  That was a thing, right?

He blinked as he was helped up.

“Sorry to scare you,” Luka said easily, “that wasn’t my intention.  Ah, hello, I don’t think I’ve met you before, I’m Luka,” he easily turned to Kagami who had entered an attack stance, glaring at the new boy with narrowed eyes.

“Kagami.”

Luka smiled easily.  “Nice to meet you, Kagami.  What brings you two to the Seine today?”

Izuku choked a little.  “Um, Luka, the river is frozen.”

The boy smiled and skated - wait, he had skates?!  Ok, actually, that made sense since he had snuck up on them, but still.  And he was skating so easily; Izuku was a little jealous of the ease.

“I know,” he said simply, “The amok, if that is what passed by. I can’t imagine someone being able to freeze the entire flowing river in the middle of September with a simple quirk.  We most certainly would have heard of them before now if that was the case.”

“It is indeed an amok,” Kagami said frostily, “so what are you doing on the river?”

“I live here,” he didn’t seem fazed by her hostile tone, “and when I noticed it was frozen I figured I’d go around the river to make sure no one got caught in the ice, since I know it well.  Did you two have the same idea?”

“Ah, no,” Izuku shook his hands in front of himself, “we’re trying to find Adrien and Marinette, they disappeared, and we want to make sure they’re not going to run into Frozer.”

“That’s his name?”  Luka hummed.  “Not very creative.  I take it that you were there when he formed, or however amoks come to be?”

Izuku nodded.  “He formed from Philippe, the owner of the ice rink.  The mayor came in threatening to shut the place down unless he got at least six lesson sign-ups by the end of the day, which is ridiculous.  Marinette and Adrien ran out immediately after to warn people but forgot the internet was an easier and safer way of alerting the public, so…”

“Hey, you three!  You’re too out in the open!”

Chat Noir slid across the ice as he landed, lodging his extended staff into the wall to slow himself down and push him closer in their direction since he wasn’t really wearing skates.

“What are you three doing out,” he said worriedly, “don’t you know there’s an amok out?”

Izuku nodded his head rapidly, feeling his face start to flush at the concern on Chat Noir’s- ERM, THE COLD, HE WAS FLUSHING FROM THE COLD.  Ahem.

“Our friends,” he said quickly, “Marinette and Adrien, they took off and no one knows where they are!  They could be heading right for Frozer!”

His phone buzzed and he pulled it out immediately.

WeatherGirl: still no signs of A+M

WeatherGirl: Frozer approaching the ET

He groaned.  “Still no sign of them.  Frozer is by the Eiffel Tower, though, if you’re looking for him.”

Chat Noir’s baton beeped and he flicked the top open, letting Ladybug’s voice come out.

“Chat?  Find anything?”

“A few worried civilians,” he purred, flashing them a smile, “and the location from them, in fact.  He’s headed to the Tower.”

Ladybug groaned.  “Of course he is.  What is with villains and the Eiffel Tower?  Should have known.  Get those civilians to safety and meet me there!”

“Of course, Milady!”

He slid the top of the baton closed again and looked at them sternly.

“Since this is out of the way,” he warned, “I won’t be moving you anywhere myself, but please don’t hover out in the open like this.  And as for your friends, I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for them.”

He smiled.  “I already saw Adrien, though.  He’s that model guy, right?  Don’t worry, I stashed him somewhere safe and hopefully he won’t go out looking for danger anymore.”

With a casual salute he slammed his baton against the ice, lodging it a little, and extending it to leap away to the ice free buildings.

“Well,” Luka smiled, “looks like the heroes will be looking out for Marinette and Adrien.  If you’d like a place to hang out while this gets sorted, may I propose the Liberty?  Jules will be there too.”

Izuku blinked.  “Oh right,” he murmured, “Juleka is your sister.”

Luka smiled.  “Yeah.  Thanks for helping her the other day, she really appreciated it.”

Izuku cringed.  “She ended up trapped in a picture.”

“Yeah,” he hummed, idly skating, “but you managed to make her feel better before that.  She’s known to spiral a bit, so I’m sure you helped more than you thought.  So, to the Liberty?”

Kagami grunted.  “Fine.”

Luka smiled benignly and began to calmly skate back down the river in the opposite direction from Chat Noir, and Izuku grabbed Kagami’s hand with a grin and tugged her to follow.  She did, of course, eventually take the lead in following the taller boy, but she begrudgingly allowed them to follow what she considered a stranger.

“He’s nice,” Izuku hissed, “and Juleka will be there!  You think Juleka is fine!”

“I think Juleka isn’t a threat,” she corrected lowly, “but I don’t have an accurate read on this Luka fellow yet.”

Izuku rolled his eyes and sped up a little as the ship came into view, a woman standing on the ice cursing loudly.

“Captain,” Luka called, “permission to board with two stranded?”

The woman spun around, orange glasses frames drawing his eyes immediately.

“Aye,” she said, “if they aren’t ponces.”

Izuku grinned, remembering the language from the first time he had visited.

“No government here, ma- Captain,” he assured, “just two kids trying to avoid the amok.”

She smirked.  “Then climb aboard.  Never let it be said the Liberty didn’t offer safety in the storms.”

Luka gave her a small salute and hauled himself up onto the ship, extending a hand to help them up on their skates.

“I’m assuming since you don’t have bags with you you also don’t have your shoes,” he chuckled, “but if you’d like, I can lend you some slippers. We’ll be going inside anyway, so you won’t get cold feet, but it’s up to you.”

Izuku sat heavily on the side of the boat and began unlacing his shoes.  “That’s fine,” he said, “I wore thick socks, and honestly at this point, anything to get out of these skates.”

Luka chuckled and walked towards the inside of the ship, opening the door to them.  “Welcome to the Liberty, sailor’s quarters.  Jules,” he called softly, “we have guests.”

A purple and black head poked out from the couch in the room and she blinked before nodding and smiling slightly.

“Hi,” she said quietly, “are you guys ok?”

“Yes,” Izuku hurried to assure her, “we’re fine, we were just out looking for people and Luka found us.  We have Ladybug and Chat Noir keeping an eye out for them now, so there’s no reason for us to be out in the amok’s environment.”

She nodded.  “An ice villain, huh?  Wasn’t the inter-class ice rink trip today?”

Izuku grimaced, and Kagami nodded.  “Indeed, this amok came from the ice rink.  Everyone else who was there is still, in fact, inside the building, save for Marinette and Adrien, the ones we were looking for.”

Juleka’s eyes widened a little.  “I hope they’re ok…”

Izuku beamed.  “Chat Noir already said Adrien is safe, and that he’d look out for Marinette!  Oh, speaking of them back at the ice rink…”

Bush: CN and LB are heading to the amok, CN says A is safe and will be watching for M

WeatherGirl: noted, thank you.  Where are you two?

Bush: on the liberty, where juleka and her brother live

Bush: we’re totally safe and warm!

Bush: in good company!

Bush: [location.map]

WeatherGirl: thanks, when the all clear is given we’ll come with your things

WeatherGirl: since, you know, you only have skates and no shoes

Bush: yeah we realized that lol

Bush: thought we’d grab A+M and come right back, I guess

WeatherGirl: right, we’ll watch the news, sys hopefully

Bush: sys!

Izuku looked up.  “So sys, is that like, a goodbye?”

Juleka snorted.  “It’s an acronym, for see you soon.”

He sighed.  “Ok, yeah, in hindsight that makes perfect sense.  Thanks.”

She smiled.  “You don’t know slang?”

He shrugged.  “So so.  I’m learning, but French isn’t my first language so all the texting shortcuts are new to me.”

She blinked.  “You’re… not French?”

He shook his head.  “I’m from Japan originally.”

“That’s so cool,” she whispered, ducking her head, “I’ve never been out of the country.  You sound really good for a nonnative, but that does explain the accent.”

“It was worse before,” Luka remarked idly, “but it’s definitely gotten better in the past few weeks since I’ve seen you.”

Izuku blushed and looked away.  “At that point I only had three weeks of lessons,” he whined, “I was surprised I could hold a conversation!”

“Let’s see if the news is covering the amok,” Kagami interrupted, “so we know when things might be over.”

“We don’t have a TV,” Luka said easily, but I can pull it up on my laptop if you’d like.”

He did just that, bringing up the news website and maximizing the video playing there that looked like it was taken from a helicopter, filming the battle from afar.

Frozer launched a series of ice attacks, leaving towering ice spikes littering the park around the Eiffel Tower, and blurs of red and black clashed with him, avoiding each plume of ice.  There was a faint cry of “lucky charm” and a red object showed up, what looked to be a box of salt.  Ladybug quickly went into action, Chat Noir backing her up, until Frozer had trapped himself, and then she poured the salt over him, causing him to begin to melt.  He screamed.

“I’LL COME BACK ONE DAY, LADYBUG, CHAT NOIR, AND PARIS WILL FREEZE OVER WHEN I DO!”

He seemed to shatter, and a haze of ice shards flew out of the battle in the direction of the main city, but try as the news helicopter might, they quickly lost track of the white mist and Frozer was gone.  Ladybug heaved a sigh of relief and threw the empty box into the air, shouting, “MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”

Pink swirled all across Paris and the ice disappeared.  Izuku heard a splash and a cry from outside and winced.

“I don’t think the Captain got off the ice in time,” he bit his lip, trying to keep a grin from breaking out.

Luka snorted and Juleka snickered, and even Kagami cracked a smile as the voice of the captain came hollering out, slinging curses and insults at the ice.  Soon they were all laughing, even as the sopping wet woman stomped onto the boat with a growl.

Izuku glanced down at his phone, seeing a message from both Adrien and Marinette saying they were fine and sorry for worrying them, and a message from Ondine saying she was on her way with their things, since it was on the way to her house anyway.

Izuku smiled, glad that everyone had gotten out alright and the amok wasn’t no longer causing any trouble.

Still, he frowned to himself, this wasn’t the first amok that had promised to return.  Were Ladybug and Chat Noir really defeating them, or were they stalling and weakening them?

What was the villain’s game?

(“A shame-”

“-another loss-”

“-temporary, of course-”

“-of course-”

“-but off you go-”

“-with your brothers-”

“-have we really only made male amoks?-”

“-huh, we do need some diversity-”

“-but the emotions spawned from this one!”

“Yes, simply delicious and soon to be ripe to utilize-”

“-poor dear finds it so hard to trust-”

“-can’t blame her, when everyone blames her-”

“-won’t be long before that comes to a head-”

“-and explodes out-”

“-Daddy’s little girl, blamed for his misdeeds-”

“-and mistakes, don’t forget his mistakes-”

“-oh I could never-”

“-that’s two now, Mr. Mayor-”

“-care to make it three?” )

Chapter Text

They had just gotten home when Izuku got a text from Chloe.

Chlo: DON’T GO OUTSIDE

Chlo: STAY IN YOUR HOUSE

Chlo: i can’t stop it

Chlo: i'm sorry

He, of course, immediately panicked.

Izu: are you ok???

Izu: can’t stop what???

After it never indicated she had read his messages, he immediately turned to his cousin.

“Gami,” he begged, “something’s wrong.”

She eyed the messages with growing upset and looked him over shrewdly.

“You cannot help but rush into danger if your friends are in it.”

He grinned sheepishly.  “No, not really.  Come with?”

She sighed and slipped her shoes back on, whipping out her phone. “I will inform mother of the circumstances and inform Mari and Ren.  Let’s go.”

He stepped out with determination, heading in the direction of Chloe’s hotel, when an idea struck.

Izu: Sabrina, do you know what happened with chloe???

Bri: oh you also got the worrying texts huh

Bri: no clue, I was home

Bri: currently scouring the web but nothing so far

Bri: WAIT

She sent a blurry picture taken in haste of a computer screen that showed what looked to be Chloe, but a shiny silver.

Bri: SHE DIDN’T

Bri: FUCK I'M PUTTING OUT THE ALERT

An amok alert pinged their phones with a more careful picture attached and reports started pouring in of the new amok, not an hour after the last one had been resolved.  Someone managed to attach a video.

“Mirror, mirror,” the silver Chloe grinned, “on the wall, who’s the truest of them all?”

“Stop,” Chloe begged, running up behind her doppelganger, “I don’t want this!”

Mirror Chloe flipped metallic hair over her shoulder.  “But my darling reflection, isn’t this what you’ve always wanted?  The ability to tell whether or not everyone around you is a fake?”

“Not like this.”

They shrugged.  “Oh well, bit late for that now.  Daddy was certainly fake.”

Chloe’s expression soured just as the video ended, and social media was swarming with posts about the mayor causing three amoks already.  Some people were skeptical because Chloe was involved, saying this was just a cry for attention, but Izuku felt like if he saw the mayor in this very moment…

“I’m going to punch him,” he declared, “this is not only the second amok in as many hours, but he sounds like a terrible parent.”

Kagami snorted.  “The video was a street over from the school.  Will we be going there?”

He swallowed and nodded.  “Based on the play on the Snow White line and the reference to Chloe’s quirk, it’s reasonable to assume that the amok has the ability to… reveal someone’s true self?  Chloe did say that her quirk can’t do that.  Why now though, what happened after she went home from the ice rink?”

She hummed.  “If we follow the pattern of amoks, something caused her to lose faith in someone.  A serious betrayal, perhaps?”

His face fell.  “Oh no.  Is this because people turned on her at the ice rink?”

“No,” she shook her head, “she seemed fine when she left.  It might have contributed, maybe, but it wasn’t the catalyst.”

They got to the amok before they got to the school, as evidently it had moved, leaving people yelling and crying in their wake.  They approached a trapped woman who was cowering, tapping their chin.

“Now now, look in the mirror, darling, I want to see if you’re real or fake.  Come on, can’t you stand to look at your reflection?”

The amok shifted into the woman’s form as they made eye contact and they cackled in her voice.  “Well, well, well, you’ve been lying to your boss for weeks!  Crazy, it wasn’t even for a good purpose, it was just because you wanted to sleep in a bit more!  Maybe if you didn’t stay up so late-”

“Where’s Chloe,” Izuku whispered harshly to his cousin as they ducked behind cover, “I don’t see her anywhere!”

“Maybe she had the presence of mind to leave,” Kagami muttered, “or she got accosted by previous victims of this mirror amok.”

Izuku bit his lip.  “We have to get the civilians out of their path.  This amok is just going around telling all the bad parts of people, the little ways people lie and people are going to blow things out of proportion.”

Kagami eyed a couple that was fighting, apparently about one of them cheating.  “Maybe let them hit a few more?”

Izuku rolled his eyes and shoved her slightly, knowing she didn’t mean it.  “I go left, you go right?  That puts me out of the path of the amok, but you’re better at blending in and acting.”

She raised an eyebrow at that, but nodded, and they split, pulling civilians out of the way.

“Aw,” the amok said with the woman’s voice, “it seems the numbers are dwindling.  Maybe I’ll get lucky and we’ll be able to figure out the secrets the stupid vigilantes have been hiding from dear Paris!”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Chat Noir called out with a grin as he vaulted in from a nearby rooftop, “but can you pass a message to your master, or whatever?  Because doing these back to back is annoying!”

They smiled sweetly.  “I’ll be sure to tell them when I’m handing them your Miraculous.”

“Wow, a real amok,” a voice muttered from beside him, and his head whipped around to see Alya on her phone, stars in her eyes and recording the fight.

“Alya,” he hissed, “we need to go!  What are you doing here?”

She grinned at him.  “I wasn’t able to leave for Frozer, but this seems way more my style!  A classic street fight with a villain that can reveal the inconsistencies with a person?  That’s kinda cool and mostly harmless!  This is the best opportunity I could ask for!  The Ladyblog is going to eat this up!”

“Alya,” he hissed, lunging out to grab her and drag her back, but she just skirted to another piece of cover to get a better angle.

Of course, that was when the amok noticed her, their form rippling a little when they caught the lens of the camera.

“Oh my, a fan?”  They cooed.  “Smart of you to document the fall of Ladybug and Chat Noir.  Make sure you get my name, Mirror/Mirror, in there.  Now, let's see about your reflection…”

Alya tried to scramble back, but the amok was already advancing.  Izuku saw no choice, he dove and tackled Alya behind a car just as a yoyo coming straight for the mirror’s head forced them back.

Mirror/Mirror looked at Chat Noir and transformed into a silvery copy of him, giving an evil grin.  “Let’s even the playing field, shall we?”

Izuku was still not able to physically pull Alya away, much to his dismay, because she kept fighting to record the video.

“Let me go,” she hissed, “this is great footage!”

“And when the amok becomes you and spills all your hidden insecurities and secrets,” he snapped, “I’m sure you’ll still be recording, is that it?  So that the entire internet can see the parts of you you hide?  Great plan, Alya.  Come on, we’re going to get-”

“Caught?” a voice purred, and both of them looked up.

Mirror/Mirror was looking at Alya, switching into the spectacled girl who looked downright shocked.

“Wow,” the amok looked surprised, “this is a fun one!  You pretend to be super confident because that’s how you think a reporter should be, but most of the time you’re just reckless and painfully scared.  Awww, what if no one likes your blog?  Or gets a better scoop than you?  You’ll fall into irrelevance and then who will talk to you?  New girl Alya with a boring quirk.  Shame.”

Izuku tried to slip away, seeing Ladybug coming in to grab Alya, but while she was removed, Mirror/Mirror grabbed his arm harshly and tugged him out of reach of the heroes.

“Now let’s see,” Mirror/Mirror cackled, grip tightening as they forced him to meet their eyes, “mirror mirror, like a lake, is greenie true or is he fake?”

They morphed into a silver version of him, grin cruel and their eyes finally met.

They frowned.

“No.”

Izuku blinked.  “Um…?”

“That’s impossible,” they spat, “not even…?  This power must be bugged.  Something has to be interfering.” 

“Well it sure will be bugged in a sec,” the yoyo wire wrapped around his mirror image, forcing them to let go, and Ladybug pulled it taut, “once we defeat you!”

Mirror/Mirror snarled.  “Ladybug.  Come on, just one look so the city can see you for the fraud you are.  You want to be honest, don’t you?  Mirror mirror, like a hug, is she a maiden or a bug?”

Ladybug defiantly glared at the amok as it shifted from his form to hers, smirking as there was suddenly a mirrored Ladybug, and Mirror/Mirror nimbly got themselves out of the bind, speed and strength suddenly much higher.

“What’s that song again,” the amok taunted, “I’m trying to remember the words… Oh!  Right.  Anything you can do I can do better, I’m more than just a reflection of you.  Too bad I can’t get a read on you because of your stupid magic suits.  Shame, that is.”

Kagami appeared at his side.  “Come on,” she hissed, “the heroes are here and Mirror/Mirror is distracted.  Let’s go!”

“Vigilantes,” he murmured idly, but she ignored him and dragged him to a place a bit removed from the fight where most of the civilians had gathered or fled through, and then he couldn’t help turning back to watch.

The amok would look at either of the vigilantes trying to capture them and switch into their nimble forms.  They didn’t get the powers, but they got the physical abilities, letting them avoid any attacks despite being against two people.  Finally, Ladybug seemed to realize their current idea wasn’t working.

“LUCKY CHARM!”

There was a brief pause where nothing happened but then a hand mirror fell into her hand, fully reflected, and she squinted her eyes at it before looking around frantically, connecting things to form a plan before nodding.

They went back to fighting, but the next time Mirror/Mirror tried to shift into Ladybug, she held up the mirror and they caught their own reflection.  They gave a short shriek and their form became ambiguous with no real defined lines, switching and switching and switching.  Ladybug wasted no time, wrapping the disoriented amok in her yoyo, pulling the string taut to make sure they couldn’t move.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

The vigilante smirked and Chat Noir snickered.  “Looks like your powers really are bugged, Mirror/Mirror, since you can’t even stand your own reflection!  Riddle me this: mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?  That’s My Lady, if there was ever any doubt.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes with a fond expression.  “Let’s shatter this mirror, alley cat.”

“Gladly!  Cataclysm!”

He touched his hand to the back of their neck and they screamed in multiple voices, the voices of everyone they had reflected as cracks spread before there was one final crack and the entire amok collapsed into shards of mirrored glass, a single purple feather flying out, floating away on the wind.

“Oh no you don’t,” Ladybug growled, “we’re finally gonna get you this time.”

She ran a finger over the face of her yoyo and a white portal seemed to open.  She swung the weapon with a flick of her wrist to envelop the feather, the yoyo snapping shut.  Izuku watched in fascination as the heroine breathed a sigh of relief and tapped the yoyo once to open again, but the feather that came out was white.  It settled on her hand and she blew it off with a smile.

“Bye bye, little feather.”

“Don’t come near me,” Chat yelped, leaping away from the meandering article, “I’m allergic!”

She snorted.  “A cat, allergic to feathers?  How are you going to catch birds?”

He eyed the feather until it was out of sight before shrugging with a grin.  “Guess I’ll have to stick to squirrels and chipmunks!”

She snorted, then threw the hand mirror up.  “Miraculous Ladybug!”

His ring and her earrings beeped just as Alya ran up, asking questions, and the black-clad vigilante waved her off.  “Go, you have less time.  She won’t stop until we give her something.  Trust me, Bugaboo?”

She smiled.  “I do.  Good work today, especially for the double hit!  Rest well!”

He waved her off and turned to the aspiring reporter.

“Hi, I’m with the Ladyblog, can I ask you a few questions?”

Chat grinned.  “If you can do it in three minutes, sure!  Also I have the right to not answer anything that could compromise who we are, you understand.”

Alya nodded.  “Right!  So, first question, you’re seen flirting with Ladybug during all of your battles, are you two an item?”

Chat blinked, then his face crinkled in confusion.  “Um, no?  I… I hope she knows I’m just joking to keep us from getting too serious.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I do think she’s wonderful and a great partner, but we don’t know each other and can’t, so it would be super disrespectful to flirt with her, especially on the job.  I respect her too much to do that.”

Alya nodded.  “But if you could defeat the villains and reveal your identities to each other, would you want to date?”

He grimaced.  “That’s probably a long way off, and anyway we’d need to get to know each other before that.  Same as any relationship.  Um, are you gonna ask anything about the amoks or our goals or anything…?”

“The laws against vigilantes in France are incredibly lax, why have you decided to not reveal your identities?”

He frowned.  “Because we’re not supposed to.  We have these crazy, world altering jewels that the enemy wants to get their hands on.  If they knew our civilian identities they could target our families and threaten them so we’d hand the miraculous over, or they’d come after us personally.  It’s too much of a risk.”

“But surely you could tell each other?”

He outright scowled.  “I need to go.  Please don’t ask about this again.”

“Wait-!”

Alya was cut off by Chat Noir vaulting away and she frowned in annoyance.

“I can’t believe that cat,” she stomped her foot, “these are the questions everyone wants to know!”

“You did agree that he didn’t have to answer questions if he didn’t want to,” Izuku pointed out, “and he specifically mentioned no questions that would compromise them.  That definitely felt like compromising questions.  He looked uncomfortable…”

She rolled her eyes.  “It was a harmless question about their relationship!  Everyone thinks they must be dating because they have such great chemistry as a hero duo, and it’s my job as a reporter to bring those scoops to the people!”

“You don’t need to go for gossip stories,” Kagami commented idly, “your blog won’t fall into irrelevance if you stick to facts and the stories behind and surrounding the amoks.  In fact, it might get you more views, because you would be considered a reliable source for news.”

Alya flinched at the reminder of the wording the amok had used, but she slowly looked less mad and more thoughtful as Kagami  went on, nodding slowly.

“Yeah… you’re right!”

Izuku beamed.  “And I really like your news stories!  I just… I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of reporting, right?  And they’re being helpful and saving us from things we couldn’t normally fight, so we should be respectful and helpful in turn!  I mean, if amok news goes up on your blog first they can check there if they need to find it, right?”

Alya sighed, smiling wryly.  “Yeah, you’re right.  I’ll have to apologize to Chat Noir next time I see him, that was sort of uncalled for.  I’m a news reporter,” she declared, “not a gossip rag!  The Ladyblog will be full of thoughts and maybe theories, but mostly facts!  I’m gonna go post about this fight right now, actually.  Do we know the source?”

Izuku bit his lip.  “Sort of, but not the reason.  In respect of their privacy, I don’t wanna say…”

Alya shrugged.  “I know it was Chloe, I just didn’t know if anyone knew what triggered it, that’s all.  See you later!”

Izuku sighed in relief as the girl left and slouched against his cousin.

“Two in one day,” he murmured, “Ladybug and Chat Noir must be exhausted.  I barely did anything and I’m tired.”

Kagami smiled.  “Then let us go home.  The day is done.”

(In a very pink attic room, a girl fretted over her feverish kwami.

“What do I do,” she panicked, “do I take you to a vet?  A doctor?”

“No,” the kwami coughed, “we can’t go there… we have to go… to him… this is the address…”

“I’m so sorry, Tikki,” she cried, “I didn’t mean to push you-”

“No, you needed a lucky charm in that fight.  It’s not your fault, Marinette!  I’ll be ok, just… get me to him soon, please?”

The girl nodded in determination.  “I can get you there!  …A massage parlor?  Tikki, what…?  Tikki?  Tikki?!  Oh god, ok, massage parlor it is, I hope this is the right address…”

Across the city, an old man put the kettle on.

“You know,” he murmured to his companion, “I thought it would be a good deal yet before one of them came to me.”

“You know the universe works in mysterious ways, Master.  Perhaps they will have need of us sooner than we thought.”

“True enough, my friend, true enough.”)

Chapter Text

Izuku had ushered the other three inside already, anxiously sitting on the steps and wringing his hands.  He was sitting because if he had been standing, he would be pacing horribly.

Finally, a limo pulled up to the school with five minutes to spare and he leapt to his feet, fluttering in front of Chloe as she stepped out of the car.

“Are you ok?  I mean you sounded fine over text and I know it’s been a solid 36 hours since the amok but I didn’t see you after and I didn’t hear any actual news and-”

“Midoriya,” she snapped, jolting him out of his rant with a contemplative stare.  She sighed.

“I’m fine.” Her face screwed up and she looked like she had tasted something unpleasant. “…Thanks.”

He breathed out in relief.  “Ok.  I’m pretty sure you don’t want to talk about it, but if you want I can send you cat videos or something?”

She snorted.  “During class?  Didn’t think you had it in you, Midoriya.  Won’t that cousin of yours be disappointed?”

He giggled.  “Only if I get caught.  You underestimate how good I am at sneaking things.  Besides, she’s across the aisle and a row back.”

Sabrina smirked.  “I think I have her covered, but thanks.  Do you want to get lunch with us?”

He beamed.  “I didn’t have any plans, so sure!  Ren can come too!  Ah, Adrien.  I know you’re not the biggest fan of Gami and Mari though, so maybe not them… they can have a girls lunch or something?”

Chloe relaxed minutely.  “Whatever.  Go to class, Midoriya.  Waiting outside for me, ridiculous, utterly…”

She trailed off as she swooped past him and Sabrina shook her head fondly before following with one last wave, and he took a moment to breathe before following after them, bounding for his class and slipping into his seat just as the bell rang.  He passed the invitation to eat with Chloe to Adrien and he bit his lip before shrugging.  Carefully, under his desk, Izuku texted the group chat to let them know lunch plans, and even Mari was supportive of them hanging out with and checking on Chloe.

Mari: I want to keep an eye on alya anyway, she’s been a little weird since the last amok

Mari: kept asking me questions about gami???

Mari: w/e, we can pry it out of her at lunch i guess

Unfortunately, they didn’t quite make it to lunch before there was a large commotion, just between classes.  Mendeleiev’s class, of course, were in their classroom at the time, but Marinette was quick to inform them about what was going on when Adrien couldn’t help but ask.

Mari: alya got suspended 😳

Mari: apparently she broke into chloe’s locker and took a picture???

Ren: ???

Ren: why tho?

Mari: idk!  She got hit by the last amok, right?

Mari: what the hell happened

Izu: after the thing with chat noir (that she is apparently planning on apologizing for) she promised she’d only look for facts instead of going after gossip

Izu: which is why she took down that part of the live stream

Ren: oh yeah i saw a formal apology post on her blog i think

Ren: good for her, he looked super uncomfy

Izu: so no clue tbh

Gami: why was she asking questions about me?

Gami: could it be related…?

Mari: she was asking about if i knew were you were during amoks

Mari: where*

Mari: plus

Mari: what i knew about you?

Mari: also about fencing which was weird

Mari: i just assumed she was trying to get to know you better but now that i look back at the questions…

Ren: did she say what she was looking for when she broke into chlo’s locker?

Mari: she said something about finding the truth

Mari: then she got suspended

Mari: aaaaaand her parents took away the internet for the duration of the suspension

Mari: god ill go visit after school to see if i can figure out whats up, i guess

Mari: she doesn’t seem like someone to blatantly break the rules like that

Gami: if she thought it was for a righteous cause and that she wouldn’t get caught, she likely would have been more daring

Ren: all we can do is wait and see, I guess

Izu: do you know how chloes taking it??

Mari: she’s really annoyed

Mari: but i get the impression she really doesn't care and just got her suspended out of spite

Izu: she’s not holding up as well as she presents, but we can get details at lunch

Izu: its only half an hour away at this point, anyway

When the time for lunch finally broke, the first thing that happened was his classmates swarming him, however, something they hadn’t been able to do before since he came in at the very last moment.

“Dude,” Ron said, “you good?  You got hit by that last amok and barely reacted!  Did the powers not work, or something?”

Izuku shrugged with a sheepish grin.  “Mirror/Mirror revealed people’s hidden insecurities and lies.  I am definitely full of insecurities, but most of them are pretty obvious and I don’t really… hide them… I guess that’s why it might not have worked on me.  Like, the power worked, but they seemed taken aback?”

Ondine snorted good-naturedly.  “You don’t keep a lot close to your chest, no.  You’re a really honest guy, Izuku.  I bet that made the amok freak out!”

He smiled weakly.  “Probably.  That or it was because I’m quirkless.  That could also be a factor.”

“No,” Mirielle smiled, “you’re just honest to a fault.  I’m glad you’re ok.”

The class chorused agreements and he managed to smile and slip out with Adrien, citing lunch.

Chloe was examining her nails by the door, pretending like she wasn’t waiting for them, but got up with a huff as she and Sabrina walked out.

“Took you long enough,” she said hotly, “I was afraid I would die of boredom.  Come on, we’re eating at the hotel.”

Instead of walking the singular block, they piled in her limo for the two minute drive that was only as long as it was because of the pedestrian traffic all going to their own lunch breaks.  Chloe wasted no time in sauntering in, ignoring the hotel workers entirely as she swept past them towards the elevator.

“Jean-Claude,” she barked at a butler looking man with a pencil mustache, “we’re having lunch in my suite.”

He nodded.  “Of course, Mademoiselle.”

A trip up the elevator later revealed an entire floor that was just Chloe’s, at least until famous guests came along and then she generously shared the floor with them, giving them their own rooms.  Until then, however, she had free reign and very easy access to the roof where, Sabrina informed Izuku happily, she spent a lot of time maintaining her tan.

Chloe’s room was just as large and extravagant as Izuku imagined, colored almost entirely in dark pink and white with a cherry blossom theme, tall white pots framing the doorway into her room proper with white orchids.  Chloe swept past them like she saw them every day, completely ignoring the entrance to her room in favor of the opposite direction, where the white floors and walls were framed by rich pinkish red curtains, rugs, and hot pink couches.  The room she led them to looked like a lounge, with various couches and an absolutely massive TV on the far wall.  The left wall was floor to ceiling windows, some of which doubled as doors to the balcony outside and let the sunlight stream in while keeping out the cooler late September air.

“Right,” Chloe said sharply (but with no bite), “food should be here soon.  If you don’t like anything, don’t eat it and we can look at the menu for next time.” She fixed both boys with a pointed stare.  “Because there will be a next time.”

Adrien chuckled easily and Izuku smiled with a sigh.  That was just like Chloe.

When the platter of sushi arrived, Izuku had a moment to think that this might have been Chloe trying to pander to him, but seeing how easily she and Sabrina dug in, and based on the decor he had already seen, this was probably common fare for them.

Adrien, of course, was hopeless at using chopsticks and Izuku spent a solid five minutes not eating and instead trying to fix his hands.

Once Adrien finally had a passable grip, Izuku grabbed some food for himself.

Chloe stared at him.  “You just dip it in soy sauce?”

He blinked and shrugged, swallowing.  “I don’t eat sushi all that often, so I don’t know what’s really good, I guess.”

She looked appalled.  “You’re Japanese, and you don’t eat sushi?”

He bit his lip to stop himself from smiling.  “No, not really?  I mean, I do eat it occasionally, but it's a lot less work to just make a noodle bowl, or put all the sushi ingredients in a rice bowl, or make soup, or fry something…”

Chloe seemed to take personal offense to this entirely reasonable statement and immediately moved to sit closer to him, putting a dab of wasabi in his soy sauce dish and swishing it around to dissolve it.  Before he could do more than look on curiously, she dumped several pieces of pickled ginger in as well.  Leaving them to soak, it seemed, she critically eyed the sushi platter before putting a few different pieces on his plate, taking a piece of saucy ginger out and draping it over the top.

“Eat this.”

He couldn’t help but giggle, easily picking up the sushi and popping it in his mouth, chewing and swallowing with a blank expression while Chloe watched him like a hawk.  He cleared his mouth and daintily grabbed a napkin to dab at his lips, trying to keep a straight face while Chloe twitched beside him.  Sabrina and Adrien were trying not to laugh.

He set the napkin down and reached for his glass of water and Chloe threw up her hands with a shriek.

“Did you like it or not?”

He blinked innocently at her but she just leaned forward and flicked him on the forehead with an eye roll.

“Well,” he giggled, “it was certainly different…”

“Yes.  Or.  No.”

“Yes, Chloe, I liked it.  You have superior sushi skills than I.”

She threw up her hands with a groan, hiding a smile, “Was that so hard to admit?  Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”

The other three lost the ability to stop from laughing and they broke down, Chloe crossing her arms with a “harrumph!” and trying not to smirk, but eventually they calmed down and managed to just eat and talk.

Speaking of.

“Chloe,” Izuku hummed, “what happened with Alya?  She took a picture of your locker?”

The girl scoffed.  “Yeah.  Like, I know the locks are garbage and the security cameras are broken, but honestly, like I wouldn’t have caught her!  And no way am I letting someone just rifle through my things!  So yeah, I got her suspended.”

Adrien winced.  “Do you know why she was looking through your locker?”

Chloe flipped her ponytail over her shoulder.  “She thinks I’m Ladybug or something.”

Adrien choked on his next bite and Izuku had to hand him some water in concern before the blond was able to collect himself.

“Why would she think you were Ladybug?  Erm, no offense, Chloe.”

She shrugged.  “I know I’m awesome, or whatever, and Ladybug is super cool and incredible in every way, but that’s not a reason I would be her.  I’m sure there’s at least one other person in Paris as awesome as me to be Ladybug.”

Sabrina giggled.  “I think Chat Noir is cooler.  He’s so dreamy!”

“No,” Adrien retorted, “Ladybug is definitely the better of the two.”

“Come on, Izuku,” Sabrina turned to him, “tell them I’m right.  These rich people don’t understand!”

He giggled.  “Sorry Chloe, I do really like Chat Noir.  He saved me that one time and I think his puns and jokes are cool.”

She scoffed in mock offense.  “How dare you not realize that Ladybug is clearly the superior hero!”

“Vigilante.”

She ignored him.  “That mangy alley cat just follows her around like a stray, but she’s the one with the Lucky Charm!”

“But Chat Noir protects her,” Sabrina pointed out, “and gives her time to create and use said Lucky Charm.  Plus, his Cataclysm is really important in the fight!  They’re partners!”

“But Ladybug casts the miracle cure at the end,” Adrien pointed out, looking a little red, “so the city is better after the fights.”

“I think they both need each other,” Izuku admitted, “which is why they’re both out.  If we needed just one of them, both of them wouldn’t have been picked.”

They all contemplated that for a moment before nodding.

“I still like Ladybug more.”