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Marinette feels when she wakes up that she’s in a sling. That only happens when something bad does — when her wings are injured. She tries to look up in front of her. Face-down in a sling is never fun, and she’s in the hospital.
Okay. She needs to breathe. Breathe. What was she doing before this?
An akuma battle. She remembers falling, falling, falling out of the sky as the akuma batted her from the sky and her five minutes ended. She doesn’t remember the landing, but it must have been rough. She feels a little bit of dull pain, but they must have her on pretty good painkillers.
Her hands fly to her ears. Her earrings are gone.
Oh no.
It’s then that the door opens. “I’m sorry it took me this long to get here.”
Luka. Thank goodness.
“What…happened?” Marinette asks.
“I have your earrings,” Luka says. “I’m sorry. Everyone knows — or well, everyone knows that Ladybug’s a civilian girl, and the people that actually know you know who you are. Chat got them off of your personage before the ambulances arrived, and then he gave them to me when I arrived on the scene. He probably recognized me as your boyfriend. I don’t know how, but…”
“I can’t be Ladybug like this,” Marinette says, resisting the urge to roll over. “I won’t be a good fighter.”
“I know,” Luka says. “Do you want me to pass them to someone?”
She thinks about it. If everyone already knows…
“I almost passed them to Alya, on the first day,” Marinette confesses. “I trust her with them. But I also trust you to keep them safe.” She sighs. “I don’t think I can ever be Ladybug again, not with my identity exposed. How did Chat give you the earrings?”
“He was being discreet about it,” Luka answers. “If you want them in someone else’s hands, I’m willing to deliver.”
“Is…everything okay?” Marinette asks.
“I didn’t talk to your kwami,” Luka says.
Marinette takes a deep breath. She makes the decision — Luka and Alya are both recognizable, but…Alya loves the Ladyblog.
“Talk to her,” Marinette says. “Ask her if she wants it. I trust both of you would do well with it. But she runs the Ladyblog. So she…might not want to be Ladybug full-time, with her blog — being a hero and a blogger makes things hard.”
“Okay,” Luka says. “I’ll tell her. Rest well, my melody.”
Marinette smiles, despite herself.
“Thank you,” Luka says to Marinette’s parents, waiting outside for her. Mrs. Cheng smiles at him.
Her parents have always liked him well enough. But then again, he’s loved Marinette enough to win them over.
He needs to find Alya.
Luckily, finding her is simple enough — she’s outside the hospital, actually, coming out as he comes in.
“How are you?” he asks, trying to keep his voice even.
“How’s Marinette?” Alya asks.
“Actually…” He slips the earrings into his pocket, out of his closed fist. The motion isn’t uncaught by Alya, whose gaze darts to his hand now residing in his pocket. “She wanted me to talk to you about something. We should move somewhere more private.”
“Somewhere more private,” Alya says. “Is this about…” She points at an earlobe, and he understands, nodding in response to her question.
They move.
“You know I was the first person to get there, after Chat Noir,” he tells Alya. “Before emergency services. He had the earrings. He gave them to me, because — he knew me, and he trusted me to keep them safe.”
Alya nods. “I…stayed away on purpose. For all that I’ve always chased Ladybug’s identity…I never imagined it would be my best friend. And I didn’t want to put her in danger by saying her name. There are already predators doing it. I couldn’t do it to Marinette.”
“Anyways.” He takes out the earrings from his pocket. “I talked to Marinette, and…she’s offered me a choice.”
“What are the options?” Alya asks.
“Either you take the earrings and become the new Ladybug, or I do,” he says. “You know all the reasons she can’t do it anymore besides her wings being broken.”
“I…” She looks down at the earrings in his palm. “What do you think?”
“I want to be there for her,” he says. “Same as you, though in different contexts. I have a feeling you’re better equipped for this one, though. You know so much. But you have your blog.”
“I’d give up my blog forever if it meant helping her,” Alya says. “I’ll do it. I…in the early days, I used to imagine what it would be like to be Ladybug. Nathaniel wanted her, and I wanted to be her. I even spent some time thinking about what I would call myself, who I would be. I have this figured out. I’ll pass on the blog — say it’s about Ladybug’s identity being publicly revealed. I’ll make something up. It doesn’t matter.”
He drops the earrings into her palm. She puts them on, and the kwami glows in front of them.
“Is Marinette okay?” the kwami asks.
“She’s in the hospital, and she’s going to need lots of physical therapy, but she’ll be okay,” Luka answers. “I’m sorry that you won’t be able to see her for a while. She said she couldn’t be Ladybug due to the publicization of her transformation.”
The kwami looks down. “She’s made the right choice.” It looks at Alya. “Trixx’s kit, right?”
“Yours, now,” Alya says. “As long as you’ll have me.”
The kwami looks between Alya and him. “Yes.”
“I’m going to visit Marinette now. Goodbye, Luka,” Alya says. The kwami flies into Alya’s shirt pocket.
“What did you do with the earrings?” Chat Noir asks him.
“I talked to her, and she asked me to give them to someone she trusts,” Luka answers. “I’m not at liberty to tell you, but…I think it’ll work out.”
Chat Noir’s shoulders are tense. “Got it. Thank you, Luka.”
Marinette’s out of the hospital a few days later, wings bound in a way that will definitely make her life more difficult. She can already feel it — she’s going to have to wear things with larger slits in the back. She has looser clothes that are designed to hang further off her body — she can do this. She can totally do this. As the van drives home, all she can think about is how miserable it’ll be to not be able to fly.
She hadn’t realized how much she relied on flying until now. Then again — she isn’t Ladybug anymore.
And she needs to get rid of the Miracle Box before Hawk Moth decides to rob her room in search of it. But…where can she put it? Who can she trust with it? Alya shouldn’t have the Box and the earrings, it’s too much of a burden all at once.
For once, she wishes she was privy to Chat Noir’s identity — he could probably help, and he knows who all the temporary heroes are.
Luka, she thinks, but she doesn’t know how to get the Box to him without it being weird. She texts him a box emoji and a question mark.
what’s up? he answers.
She closes her eyes. She’s not sure she trusts herself to do this, but she has to. She just…needs to get the Miracle Box out of her home. It won’t be long before Hawk Moth tries something, and Marinette needs to be prepared.
She asks Luka to come over, and bring a backpack or something with him.
He shows up about ten minutes later. Probably flew, then.
“What’s going on?” he asks, unzipping the backpack.
Marinette takes a sharp breath, and opens up the drawer she’s been keeping the Miracle Box in. “Luka…I’m the Guardian of the Miraculous right now. And Hawk Moth knows that. Which means that he could try to get an akuma to rob my house, or have Mayura make a sentimonster like Feast that does that, or…”
He places his hands on her shoulders. “Breathe, Marinette. One, two, three, four…”
She breathes, following the cadence of his counting. “Thank you,” she says. He knows how to pull her out of her head better than anyone else.
“So, you want me to take the box back to the Liberty? What if Chat Noir and whatever Alya decides to call herself need help in a fight?”
“I’ll be there,” she says, “but under a new mask, and I’ll be keeping myself hidden.” She withdraws the box from the drawer, and looks for the patch that holds the Miraculous she searches for — a necklace with a pendant. “And when they need someone, I’ll come to you.”
“Okay,” he says. “I trust you. How are your wings feeling?”
“I miss the sky,” Marinette says, looking out the window at the blue expanse above. “But…I mean, it doesn’t hurt or anything. Just uncomfortable. I can’t sleep in my bed anymore, I have to sleep face down in the hammock. It’s weird.”
“I can imagine,” he says. “Am I allowed to preen your feathers, or will that hurt anything?”
“Be gentle about it,” she says, but she’s already going to sit down on a bean bag in her room. Luka grabs the rolling chair Marinette uses at her desk, and her wings are held out in the position they have been with the braces holding them in place. He gently runs his hands through the tan feathers, picking out clumps of dirt and resolving tangles. She can feel herself sinking into the touch, relaxing as he works on her wings. “Thank you.”
“I love you,” he says, finishing up on some of the flight feathers. She straightens up, because it’s the first time that either of them have really said anything like that since they got into a relationship, and it’s a little bit scary to call it love — but that’s what it is, isn’t it?
“I love you too,” Marinette says, tilting her head back to look at him. When she says it, she realizes that it’s not really that terrifying — she can fall, and he’ll catch her. Maybe not literally, but that’s not his fault. He’s doing his best to catch her now.
Luka puts the Miracle Box in his backpack. “Thank you for trusting me,” he says as he opens up the window. (So he did fly here.) “I’ll see you soon, right?”
“You will,” she confirms. One way or another.
As Luka bikes home, he can’t stop worrying about Marinette. He knows custody of the Miracle Box is temporary, but…it makes him anxious to be taking care of it. But then again…he has to do this. She certainly can’t do it right now. They need to let the hype die down.
Luka hides the box in his closet, stuffing it on the top shelf. He shuts the door and opens it, testing if the box will fall or not. It doesn’t fall.
He lets out a sigh. Back to school tomorrow, and he’s not looking forward to it.
Marinette’s glad that her school is just across from her house.
“Marinette,” Mama says, “if you don’t want to go to school today, you don’t have to.”
She looks over at her mother. “Being Ladybug hurt my grades,” she says, in a matter-of-fact tone. “I can’t afford to miss anything, Mama.”
Mama stiffens, just slightly. “Marinette, I…can’t believe I missed it. All this time.”
“No one knew,” Marinette says quietly, hanging her head. “The person who selected me lost his memory, so even he doesn’t know anymore. He left Paris after he left the Guardianship with me.”
“Oh,” Mama responds. “I noticed you don’t have those earrings on anymore.”
“It’s a public safety risk to tell you who I gave them to,” Marinette says. “Our identities had to stay secret. Because mine isn’t, I had to give up being Ladybug. But I also can’t lose my memories. So I didn’t officially pass on being Guardian. I can’t say anything else.”
“Marinette, it’s okay if you don’t feel well enough to go back.”
“I need to do this.” Marinette pushes away from the table, grabbing the bowl of congee and dumping it into a thermos for lunch later. “I’ll see you after school, Mama.”
“Have a good day, Marinette!” Mama says as Marinette rushes out the door.
Luka is incredibly grateful that forty minutes of his lunch period lines up with the collège’s. At first it was so he and Juleka could be on the boat together for lunch, but now he mostly spends it on lunch dates with Marinette.
But he doesn’t know if she wants him there today. She said that she’d see him soon, but how soon is too soon?
And then he gets a text from her at the beginning of that overlapping forty minutes — meet me @ the park.
So he flies over there, stopping by a fast food place to grab lunch along the way. Marinette’s fond of the fries, but doesn’t get to have them often. He’s not the biggest fan of fast food, either, but with his budget it’s just what he can afford right now. If she likes it, it’s a win-win.
He plops the bag down on the bench beside her. “I brought lunch,” he says with a smile. “Picked it up just now.”
“Thanks,” she says, peeking open the bag and withdrawing the fries first. “Mama tried to persuade me not to go to school today.”
“Why?” he asks.
“I don’t know, I guess she thought it might be too stressful if I go to school and have to face all the people that know now that I’m Ladybug.” She munches thoughtfully on a fry. “I just…don’t know what else I can do besides keep going to school. I need to get my grades up, anyways.”
“Marinette, your workload is up to you now. You don’t have any more weight than what you decide to take on,” Luka says. “It’s up to you.”
“I didn’t know what I’d do with my life after defeating Hawk Moth,” she says, “and now I have to question what to do with my life now that the Miraculous isn’t in it.”
“Well,” he responds, “you have all the time in the world to figure it out.”
“Hey,” Chat Noir says, landing on her balcony. “I wanted to ask how you were holding up.” No flirtation — he’s being serious. “Scarabella’s excellent at her job, but…I miss you.”
She sighs. “I miss being Ladybug too. But…I can’t do it. The fact that you’re here right now and using that knowledge is enough reason.”
“What’s happening to the Box?” he asks. “Are you still going to be with us?”
She tucks out a medallion from under her shirt collar, and lets him take what he will from that.
“What was up with that, anyways?”
“I thought you would find out, so I came up with an overly-elaborate plan to dissuade you,” she says.
“I almost did,” he says. “Your plan worked.”
“I’m glad the world hasn’t ended yet,” she admits. “I was worried.”
“Wait, what?” he yelps. “What do you mean, the world hasn’t ended yet?”
“I…couldn’t let you know my identity, because you got akumatized the last time I slipped,” she says. “The timeline got erased and all, but…I’m still worried about it. A lot’s changed since then, but…”
“I know,” he says. “We’re both able to carry on now.”
“Yeah,” she says. “Don’t tell me your identity. I can’t know right now — if Hawk Moth attempts to akumatize me, I don’t want to jeopardize you.”
“I understand,” he says, and closes his eyes. “Good luck, Marinette.”
“I’ll be with you if you need me,” she says. “Call me. You know my number.”
He salutes, and vaults away from her balcony.
In the dead of night, there’s a knock on his porthole. He opens it up.
“Scarabella, what are you doing here?” he asks.
“I know I could just talk to her, but…” She draws herself into the windowsill. “I’m scared to ask Marinette for advice about being Ladybug, and you’re the only person who knows. I was afraid asking Chat Noir would be a sore spot for him.”
“That’s very conscientious of you,” he remarks. “You don’t have to be just like Ladybug. You have the right to forge your own path. Figure out who Scarabella is, as a hero. You already came up with your identity. You’re most of the way there.”
“You’re right,” she says. “I think I can manage figuring out my own identity. But…I still feel bad for Chat.”
“I think it’ll help you more if you don’t remind him of Ladybug,” Luka says. “You won’t be able to replicate Ladybug. You shouldn’t try to.”
She straightens up. “I might be a replacement, but…I have to prove myself for who I am. Not anyone else.
Luka smiles. “That’s the spirit.”
Around two weeks later, the bones in Marinette’s wings have healed. She misses a day of school to get the braces taken off her wings, but she’s doing better now — Ms. Bustier helped her out a lot.
“You’re going to need physical therapy to help you recover strength in your wings,” the doctor says. “Your muscles have atrophied to the point where you’ll be unable to fly for some time, but you are capable of regaining your strength.”
“Thank you,” she says. But it’s better than never being able to fly again. There were days where she thought she’d never be able to take to the skies again.
And now her physical activity isn’t reduced.
She rubs at the medallion around her neck. She hasn’t had to be Multimouse yet — Scarabella and Chat Noir have it locked down. Their partnership was awkward at first, but they’re…doing well.
“Here, allow me to supply you with some exercises,” the doctor says, producing a sheet out of their files. Marinette takes it. “Do these daily, and you’ll be flying again in no time. I know how important flight is to young people like yourself.” They tap her head with one of their wings. “You’ll be okay, Miss Dupain-Cheng. You’ve lost much, but you’ll get it back.”
When she gets out of the doctor’s office, she hugs her parents first and foremost, wrapping her wings into the hug.
The attitude around the Liberty makes it a good place for Marinette to practice her exercises — there’s a lot of open space on the deck, and Luka can help her out, too.
He loves working with her. It gives them an excuse to hang out, and the contact is bringing them closer.
“Hey, want to climb up to the crow’s nest?” he asks. “We can get you to glide from up there.”
“Yeah,” she responds. “Wait, the crow’s nest is safe?”
“Yes,” Luka answers. “I hang out there a lot. Just plug in my headphones and close my eyes and it’s okay, for a moment. But it’s a good platform to glide off of. Just…jump, snap out your wings, land on the rivershore.”
“Are you sure I can do this?” she asks.
“Belief in yourself is the most integral part,” he says. “If you don’t think you can do it, you’ll psych yourself out, and then you won’t be able to do it.”
“Alright.” She gets a determined look in her eye. It reminds him of Ladybug, and it’s relieving that she’s regained some of her spirit. She shimmies up the rope ladder with ease.
“Come on,” she says. “Wow, it’s actually really nice up here.”
As she looks around, just being up high soothes her nerves. She missed the feeling of the wind in her hair, ruffling her feathers.
“You ready?” Luka asks.
“Yeah,” she says, climbing up to the edge of the platform. “Let’s do this.”
She closes her eyes. She supposedly has muscle memory — flying is supposed to be like riding a bike.
She falls, and snaps out her wings.
She opens her eyes just to crest to a landing on the riverbank.
“I did it!” she cheers, facing Luka from the crow’s nest. She spots him glide over like she did, and then he’s wrapping her in a hug.
“I knew you could do it,” he murmurs.
“I…knew I could, too. Now the next step is flying,” she says.
A small mouse hovers outside his window.
“Hey, Marinette,” he says, and opens the closet. “What do they need now?”