Chapter Text
When Kassidy Flannery first made it to Paris, she was excited. Excited to live with her grandmother who she hadn't seen since the divorce of her mother and father, which occurred many years before.
She was determined to adapt to life in Paris, helping her grandmother run her antique bookshop and her aunt run her cloth and accessory store. Even going as far as registering for school despite her being awful at French and having terrible social skills. It didn't help that she was born with the strange ability of an empath. Being able to feel what everyone else felt was never fun. Especially when Kass had violent reactions to nearly every emotion. So, when Kass arrives at school only to run into one of the very few people she swore to destroy if she ever met her, Kass's day goes spiraling downhill.
*Good morning, everyone! * The redheaded teacher announced to the class, which was buzzing with excitement.
Kass was fairly sure her name was Buister or something, but her French wasn't good enough for her to know. The woman continued to talk to the class in French and Kass tried to follow her, unfortunately she was unable to. There was a silence and the woman looked at Kass who froze, and the woman smiled at her in an understanding way. She felt a slight wave of concern coming from the teacher and confusion coming from most of the class, small waves of sympathy hit her and Kass had to bite her lip to stop herself from crying.
"Hello Ms. Flannery. I'm Madam Bustier, would you mind introducing yourself to the class?" The teacher asked Kass very quietly, in English.
Kass flushed and nodded slowly, she stepped forwards and waved at the class. *Uh Hi? I'm... I'm Kassidy Flannery... but- but I'm ca- I go by Kass. *
The class smiled and waved and a girl with black-blue hair, who looked incredibly tired sat up. Excitement raced across the room again and Kass had to stop herself from flinching. It was then she felt the bitter emotion she couldn't place but made her stomach roll. Madam Bustier pointed to the girl and said something in French. Kass nodded as the words processed in her head. Guidance, it wasn't exactly an emotion, but it was what Kass called it, a lot of 'emotions' were like that. Strange and difficult to place, so Kass gave them a name closest to what she thought they were. Shaking her head, Kass focused again, guidance, Bustier was feeling guidance- oh. Madam Bustier was directing Kass to where she was to be sitting.
Moving to the back she went to set her stuff down as Madam Bustier remarked something about making her feel welcome. Hesitating for a minute Kass smiled weakly at the girl, she adjusted her glasses and swallowed. Exhaustion and a little bit of hopelessness spiraled off of the girl, she felt forgotten and ignored. Kass wasn't going to let that continue, she wasn't the best with people, but she knew that no one should ever feel forgotten.
*Can... I-uh. Can I sit here? *
The girl blinked at her and nodded. Curiosity buzzed to life with the other emotions and a slight sense of understanding. Letting out a sigh of relief Kass sat down next to her, and the girl gave her a strange look. Kass fidgeted slightly as Madam Bustier began teaching and Kass sort of understood what was going on.
"Madam Bustier is talking about our most recent reading assignment." The girl informed her in English, "I'm Marinette by the way."
Kass cursed under her breath and winced slightly, looking up at Madam Bustier who was writing on the board she fiddled with her fingers once again.
"Was I that obvious?" Kass muttered to Marinette.
Marinette smiled and shook her head, a slight sense of sympathy sneaked into the mix, "No, I just noticed how you paused... I mean it took me a moment to figure it out. Do you have a French class?"
Kass nodded relaxing slightly, she knew how to read and write most French, speaking it and understanding it was the problem. "Sort of, Madam Bustier is supposed to be helping me... I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone."
Marinette nodded and Kass relaxed. Before she knew it the class was over, and everyone was packing up. Suddenly her desk was surrounded by her classmates as they all rapidly spoke in French to her. Excitement, curiosity, and pride slammed into her, and she had to pinch herself so her body wouldn't react. Then panic overcame her and Kass began to frantically try to figure out what everyone was saying. She looked around for someone to help her and she saw Marinette wince. Suddenly the blonde girl in a pink dress blinked as the dark-haired girl in purple whispered something to her. Understanding, concern and more sympat- wait no it was empathy, empathy hit her. Someone understood what she was going through.
"OH!" The girl in pink exclaimed before whispering to Kass, a bit of guilt came from the girl, "Hi, I'm Rose! Sorry about earlier I understand French is your second language. I remember when I was first learning English. It took me a while to understand it all! I'll help you in any way I can."
A blush covered Kass's cheeks, but she relaxed, she whispered, no one else... well beside the purple girl and Marinette knew. Smiling, she fiddled with her fingers before holding out her hand to Rose.
* Nice- nice to fall - * Kass scrambled to fix herself, * I mean meet you Rose. *
Rose smiled and took her hand, yanking her out of her seat and into a hug. She moved her towards the dark haired girl in purple, she had purple tipped hair and reminded Kass of her best friend from America, Tasha. Tasha was what you'd call a goth, however this girl seemed more punk than goth. Shaking slightly, Kass held out her hand to the other girl. Embarrassment, fear and anxiety brushed Kass as she forced herself to focus on the two girls in front of her. It seemed the purple punk girl had anxiety and maybe was shy. Sighing softly, Kass looked her over subtly, she could understand that.
"This is Juleka! She's my best friend!" Rose squealed and Kass hid a smile, they seemed much more than friends, the emotion of love was strong between the two girls and hardly seemed platonic in nature.
"it's- Oh." *It's nice to meet you Juleka."
Juleka hesitated for a moment before shaking Kass's hand, a bit of worry and fear slipped in but when Kass smiled at her a bit of joy snuck in too. Kass relaxed slightly, it was getting a bit easier to deal with. Suddenly a brown-haired girl with a strange hairstyle pushed Juleka to the side, she smiled brightly at Kass who noted Juleka's hurt look. The girl then began rapidly speaking in French, she felt... weird. The bitter emotion Kass felt earlier wafted from the girl in such strong waves Kass had a hard time focusing. Kass gave her a confused look and the girl gasped, a slight sense of glee overcoming her, before loudly declaring in English.
"Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't know you don't speak French."
Kass's new classmates gasped, shock, surprise and more sympathy hit her. Locking her jaw, she tried to keep her head clear. Smiling tightly Kass replied, "I do speak French, you were just talking really fast. I can't process French the same way native speakers can."
The girl blinked, irritation and a new bitter emotion came, she then put on an obviously (at least to Kass) fake concerned look, "Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't mean-"
"It's fine." Kass replied rather tightly as she clenched her fists.
The girl's face, her fake expression fell slightly, more irritation and was that a sense of better?... before she nodded in understanding and held out her hand to her, "I'm Lila Rossi, it's nice to meet you Kass."
Kass accepted her hand and froze as her name flashed through her head. An emotion, a strong one from behind Kass flared to life, anger. Forcing a smile onto her face Kass took in a breath. Internally calming herself down Kass chanted internally 'It's going to be okay; it's going to be okay; it's going to be okay. Breathe, breathe, breathe'. Shaking Lila's hand Kass kept her rage internal before letting out a breath. She was fine, completely and totally okay. After all Lila had no idea, she knew who she was.
*The pleasure's mine. * Kass replied smiling, feeling a nervous emotion come from Lila.
Once she let go of Lila's hand Kass took a step back and looked to Marinette who looked as if she'd rather be anyplace but here. Fear, anger and exhaustion were coming from her. Her brow furrowed as she heard a ding and looked to see her classmates looking at their phones, shock surprise and understanding hit her. A boy with a red hat, glasses and headphones around his neck stepped forwards holding out his hand.
"Hi-ya dudette, name's Nino. It's nice to meet you."
Kass hesitated before looking to see Lila with her phone in her hand. Glee, smugness and that bitter emotion, which Kass decided was deceit, wafted from her. Narrowing her eyes for a moment, Kass stepped forwards and took Nino's hand. Looks as if Lila told everyone she was lying or something.
"Hi!" A girl with glasses and brown hair tinted red bounded forwards, excitement and a hyperactive emotion slammed into Kass, "I'm Alya! I run the Ladyblog."
"The ladywhat now?" Kass asked, forgetting that she was supposed to be speaking French, her confusion caused shock and a little bit of glee from Lila to cover the room.
Alya looked at her startled, shocked and a bit irritated and Kass felt as if she just made one of the biggest mistakes ever. Nervously laughing she looked to Marinette who sighed gathering her things, she seemed to be done with everything and left the room, her forgotten emotion getting stronger. Moving slowly back to the desk, Kass picked up her stuff and waved to her classmates. She was going to befriend Marinette, even if it meant showing how weird she really was.
*It was nice to meet you all. * She said perfectly glad she practiced for a situation exactly like this. *I hope we can ...be pro-properly introduced- later, but I don't want to be late for class. *
Her classmates blinked, confusion began to hit her and Kass turned gagging before she hurried from the room, hoping to make it to her next class on time and to get away from all the rapidly changing emotions. As she hurried through the school occasionally looking for the paper she had in her hands, emotions would hit her and Kass had to push back her reactions so she could keep moving. Looking up she saw the Lila girl side eyeing her, curious and well it seemed she was wondering how she could use Kass. Or at least that's what Kass thought the emotion was. Ignoring Lila, Kass tried to push her anger away again. She was so frustrated at the fact that Lila had made her life here already so much harder. Yes, technically Lila should be the one who understood the most, what Kass was going through, regardless; moving from America to Paris was much different than moving from Italy to Paris. And the fact that Lila wanted to use her, that she lied and felt gleeful when she saw Kass's panic- it infuriated Kass. Taking a breath in, Kass tried to push her frustration aside, it was only normal being the new kid sucked, bullies and jerk-faces were normal too. Squeezing the paper in her hand tightly she let out the breath. This was normal.
Suddenly she heard a scream and looked to see a blonde girl pointing at something shrieking, fear, so much fear. Kass felt panic hit her as the people around her began to scream, pressing a hand to her face Kass resisted the urge to puke. Breathing in and out she looked around again to see people running from the area screaming, *AKUMA! *
What the fuck is an Akuma? Kass thought.
Kass blinked as she saw a purple butterfly moving towards her, it- she felt determination coming from it, despite her empathy only working on people. She stepped back and it followed, everyone's fear hit her again and she reacted instinctively. Swinging the paper at the butterfly, she felt the page hit the butterfly and suddenly a voice was in her head. Glee and smugness hit her and Kass found she couldn't move. There was a connection between her and someone else, a connection created by the butterfly. The person on the other end flinched, confusion racing over them but then they pushed it back.
*Babel, I am Hawkmoth, * The voice began before Kass let out a huh?
Suddenly the voice sighed and tried again "Babel, I am Hawkmoth, I can grant you the power to let others feel your frustration of being in a new place unable to understand or speak the language. All I ask for in return is that you give me the miraculous of Anatis and Māomīéer. "
Kass's frustration suddenly felt stronger for some reason, regardless she tilted her head in confusion. Hawkmoth sighed again tired, he was tired, before briefly explaining who the two heroes were. After the explanation Kass suddenly nodded, her irritation over taking her as the connection became stronger. She found herself grinning despite having no reason to.
"Of course Hawkmoth." The words escaped her and a emotion of confusion, her own rose up before Hawkmoth's joy overcame her.
With that Kass's whole world went black.