Chapter Text
"And who are you supposed to be?", Chloé speaks with a slight snap, her voice and posture filled with confidence, she crossed her arms as she ran her eyes over the other person's form that remained obscured by the darkness of the small alleyway she exited from, all she can make out from the darkness is the brilliant sapphire eyes that seemed to glow ever so slightly.
A person clad in feline-like attire stepped forwards from the darkness, stepping into the moon's light, a coy smile curling her pink lips as her eyes met her Ladybug's own. She brings a hand to her chest and feigns hurt, "Well, your other half of course, my Ladybug.", The words are slightly bitter on her tongue, but she remains composed and continued. "My name is Felidae.", she says as she then bows slightly.
Chloé raises her eyebrows sharply. "Right...my Black cat or whatever?", she says.
Felidae nods her head and stands up straight, "Yes and you are my Ladybug.", she reaches out a hand.
Chloé sighed and reached out, allowing for her hand to be taken into her black cat's own.
Felidae pulls her closer to herself, her other hand reaching behind herself to grab her baton, she keeps a smile on her lips. "May I take us elsewhere?", she asks as she lets the girl's hand go only to slowly wrap her arm around her, pulling the slightly tense Ladybug holder against herself, their faces a few inches apart.
Chloé's cheeks burn the lightest shade of pink, she simply nods her head.
Felidae nodded back and without another word, she extended her baton and both girls went up to the roof of the building they were standing next to. They land with a light thud onto the clay tiles of the roof.
"So, does my Ladybug have another name she goes by or is she going to just stick with the original name?", Felidae asks as she retracts her baton and places it back behind herself with a soft click, she breaks the physical contact with the blonde and steps away a bit, turning to her to face her.
Ladybug hums and merely shrugs her shoulders. "I...I'm not sure, I mean it's not like I sit around and dream up a bunch of superhero names for myself everyday.", She says, placing her hands onto her hips, she purses her lips slightly, "I'll just stick to 'Ladybug' for now."
"Alright, well, Ladybug, may I ask, has Tikki spoken to you, given you a gist of what's our endgame?", Felidae asks, her smile still on her lips.
Chloé nodded her head.
"Good, good.", Felidae says enthusiastically, "So are you in this for the long haul or?", she trailed off and shrugged her shoulders.
"I...uh, she said this would be a probationary period type of thing, that you would decide whether or not I get to keep the earrings.", Chloé shifted in place, lifting her arms to cross them over her chest, her eyes meeting those piercing sapphire eyes.
"Something like that. That's true.", Felidae snapped her fingers and gestured the finger guns to the blonde. "While temporary, there is a chance for you to become a permanent holder, my little bug.", she grins.
Chloé sighed, her eyebrows furrowing. "I see…", she said.
Felidae recognized hesitation coming over the blonde. Saw her growing a bit anxious. "What's the matter? Don't want the earrings?", she asks curiously.
"I-It's not that, it's just…", Chloé's pauses for a moment, looking away from her partner to be.
"Just what?", the cat holder asks.
Ladybug releases one more sigh and lifts her gaze to meet Felidae's gaze. "It's just...what happened to Ladybug...the real Ladybug and...Chat Noir?"
Felidae flinched slightly, but quickly collected herself. "Oh uh...well…", She stuttered slightly, she cleared her throat as she brought a hand up to her bell, she gave it a single tug as her eyes flickering away for a moment. "Look. Chat Noir was a bit of a problem. He was becoming a liability…", she breathed out, her demeanor changing.
"A liability? How?", Chloé asked curiously.
Felidae turned suddenly, giving her back to the blonde, she brought a hand to the back of her neck. "Well he was unreliable, unpredictable and he wouldn't listen to Ladybug.", she swallowed thickly, she turned her head to look over her shoulder, "So I stripped him, he was a safety concern not only for jeopardizing the safety of Paris, but also Ladybug's own.
Chloé rose her eyebrows, still feeling like she wasn't getting the full picture here.
"Ladybug is okay, she just feels that maybe it was best to change things up. But just because she isn't Ladybug doesn't mean she isn't playing a role here, she'll be around and she'll also be the person whom Tikki will be reporting to regarding your progress as her successor should you be chosen to keep the earrings. My word will merely help enforce Tikki's reasons for wanting you as her holder or not.", the girl said before turning her head back to face forwards.
"Oh…", is all Ladybug can say. She felt odd, wondering why she was even being given a chance to be the holder of the miraculous Hawkmoth wants most. Especially after the whole miracle queen fiasco. She looked down to the clay tiles she stood upon.
A moment of silence washes in along with a slightly cold breeze. Both girls simply stood there for a moment.
"You know, you can also tell me how I'm doing too, you could also tell Tikki how you feel about my performance.", Felidae breaks the silence with a gentle voice, she slowly turns around and faces the blonde once again. "I don't ever want to put you in a tough spot. Everyone has different personalities and not everyone can get along, but people can always tolerate each other.", she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm going to try my best by you, I'll protect you to the best of my abilities and I hope you can trust me enough to voice your discomfort should you ever feel it around me."
Chloé nods her head.
"Good, now that that's all out of the way, Ladybug, we can start our evening patrol.", Felidae says with a smile, "I look forwards to working with you."
"Likewise.", The blonde responds.
And their first evening together begins.
"So, how was it? What did you think of the new Ladybug?", Plagg asks as he eats some of the cheese Marinette bought for him at their local deli.
Marinette sighed as she plopped down onto her bed, she laid on her back, facing the dimly lit ceiling, "I think she's good so far, pretty blunt and straight forwards, but I like her for Ladybug. I trust Tikki, she would never choose wrong, I'm sure of it."
Plagg swallowed his many chunks of cheese and nodded his head, "Oh yeah, Tikki knows what she's doing."
Marinette simply nodded her head and just laid there, falling into thought.
She hoped things would work out, she was the black cat now among...other things, and someone else would play Ladybug, maybe with a different player or two added to the mix permanently, things would start to go her way.
She hoped.
"Hey, I got groceries!", came a familiar voice.
A familiar voice that belonged to her real partner. Someone she trusted, someone who saw her for her.
"Yes, honey, spice and everything nice has returned, hopefully she brought more of that cheese!", Plagg yelled excitedly as he quickly flew from Marinette's side and flew out of the bedroom through the closed door.
Marinette rolled her eyes and got up from the bed, she walked through the dark room and reached out, pulling the door open, she sighed as she stepped out of the darkness and into the light of the small kitchen. Her eyes immediately lock with vibrant sapphire ones.
"Saw the new Ladybug, how was she? You like her? Does Tikki like her?", the blonde asks as she begins to unbag the groceries. Setting everything onto the small table.
Marinette shrugs her shoulders and crosses her arms over her chest, she began to step towards the blonde haired teen. "She's...good, blunt, likes to just get down to it, which is fine by me.", Marinette said, unlike how she was when she first became Ladybug, this other Ladybug was rather firm and determined from the start.
"Think she's the one?", the blonde asks innocently, her eyes dropping to the now unpacked groceries.
Marinette shrugs again, "I'm not sure, I need more time to get a real feel of her and we also have to have you and Grandmaster Su-Han meet her too."
"Annnd, Tikki needs to give us feedback on how she is as a civilian too!", Plagg said, popping up and out of the lone paper bag that no doubt held a tin or two of fresh expensive cheese."
"Right...that too.", Marinette said a bit bitterly.
The blonde grimaced slightly, "That's definitely important. A hero needs to be one with or without a suit.", she commented as she picked up a carton of milk. She lifted her gaze to Marinette and spoke again. "So, will you uh...be taking me with you to Tibet this weekend again? I know last weekend was a bit of a-"
"Something else. It was something else.", Marinette's says bluntly as her arms drop to hang at her sides, a spaced out expression washed over her face as she no doubt thought back on their shared experience together. It had been the blonde's first time training with her and it was definitely hard on the poor girl.
The blonde blushed, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be all whiny but it was brutal, Su-Han-"
"Grandmaster Su-Han.", Marinette rose a hand to correct the blonde.
"Yeah, him. He was hard on us, on me. I mean, has it always been like that for you?", she places the milk carton back onto the table.
Marinette nodded her head, it was always like that, always. It had to be like that, brutal, hard and trying. Su-Han was the real deal, Fu was barely a guardian, he didn't even know a fraction of the things Su-Han knows. If she was to maintain the mother box, or rather, the miracle box, she had to train to properly become a guardian. She had to learn how to treat the kwamis if they got Ill, had to learn to read the book she had mere screen captures of, but most importantly, she needed to learn how to handle rogue miraculous wielders without the need to use a miraculous herself. It was only because of Su-Han that she finally woke up and accepted her situation. Accepted that she had lost, but just because she lost, it didn't mean it was the end.
Every ending is merely the beginning to something not yet known. Those were Su-Han's words to her the night he opened her eyes to the realization of how unreliable Chat Noir had been.
It's been months at this point, months of her learning to accept that she lost her friends, her partner and her parents. Su-Han picked her up, showed her to make peace with everything and simply find a lesson in every failure that occurred in her life, from the loss of her friendships, to the loss of any battle past, present or future.
"Zoé. It's going to be hard and if you feel like you're not ready for it, than you're free to remain a wielder. I'd still like for you to remain in the picture.", Marinette said sincerely. She knew Su-Han's training would get harder before it got easier. She only managed it because she was in too deep into this war over the miraculouses. But Zoé, well, she wasn't as deeply invested in this whole thing like she was.
Zoé sighed heavily. She wanted to help Marinette, the girl was the only person she felt a true connection with, Marinette was genuine and selfless, she honestly looked up to her. She nodded her head and narrowed her eyes slightly in a show of determination. "I...I'm already here, I know what's at stake and I do want to help.", Zoé says earnestly, her mind going back to the night that started this, the night that brought them together, her, Marinette and the Grandmaster.
The night they stripped Chat Noir, or rather...Adrien Agreste.
It wasn't easy, it was confusing. She had but a split second to make a decision. It was right after an Akuma attack, all of them were high on their tempers and adrenaline. Zoé remembered just standing beside Ladybug when Chat Noir said something that just pushed Ladybug over the edge, the spotted hero snapped and attacked, swiftly getting him onto his back. She remembered freezing when she saw the two struggling. Both of them calling out to her for help.
"Help me strip him!", Ladybug yelled out as she and Chat Noir struggled on the muddy rainy ground.
"Get her off of me! Help me!", Chat Noir yelled, teeth gritting as he caught one of Ladybug's fists into his hand while Ladybug caught one of his own into her hand.
Shivering, confused and somewhat scared, she moves before she thinks and helps Ladybug overpower the boy. It ends just as quickly as it began, it ends with Zoé getting the boy in a choke hold and Ladybug straddling him, quickly slipping the ring off from the boy's finger.
It was a shock, it was like time stood still in that moment.
Ladybug was just as, if not more surprised than her.
Without saying another word, without waiting for Adrien to say anything, Ladybug got off the boy, turning away from him and scooped her up and over her shoulder, throwing her yo-yo out, they left the scene and the distraught boy. That night, Zoé learned who Ladybug was, once they got somewhere safe, somewhere private, Ladybug put her down and crumbled to the ground, her transformation wearing off, revealing her civilian identity and a confused God of creation.
"I'm here for it, all of it, I can't promise i won't whine about it, but-", Zoé shrugged her shoulders, "-I'm going to stick it out."
A small smile curled Marinette's lips.
Zoé missed America, her father, her old friends, but there was nothing she could do about her situation, she was here, in Paris France, on a whole other continent across a giant ocean. She knew no one here beside her mother when she first got here, she lived with a stepfather she never met before, a half sister she was willing to love and hoped would love her back, but didn't, and a mother that could care less about her existence. She had nothing better going for her, so when Ladybug- Marinette asked for her help, of course she said yes, of course she made this whole new reality of magical beings and magic, her first priority.
Marinette was the first to notice her and accept her. So she'll do what she does best, remain by her side as her loyal companion.
"Did you buy ice cream?", Marinette's concerned voice takes Zoé out from her thoughts.
Zoé hums as she snaps back to reality and follows Marinette's gaze, "Ah! I took too long to unpack everything!"
Marinette chuckled. "Also, you should probably head home tonight, not that I mind the company or anything, your mother-"
"-Doesn't exactly care what I do or where I go.", Zoé shrugged, "Andre is always busy, mother is always...somewhere and my dear beloved sister could care less about me.", the blonde smiled sadly. "It's also a bit lonely over there, here it's you and the kwamis and sometimes Grandmaster trying to figure out what the little men in the TV are doing.", she chuckled softly towards the end. "But if you want me to go-"
"No! No!", Marinette brought her hands up to wave off Zoé's words, "You can stay!", Marinette smiled a bit guiltily. "Honestly, having you around is nice, sometimes these kwamis drive me crazy.", she chuckles.
Zoé's lips curled upwards more.
Marinette shifted a bit in place, she rose a hand up to the back of her neck and rubbed it, "You know...if the situation at home is like you say it is, you can...well...move in?", she says slowly, cautiously.
She knew Zoé had been avoiding going back to where she lived, she just didn't fully understand why. Till now of course. She was used to Zoé at this point, the blonde had been coming around for months now, she might as well just live with her at this point.
Zoé beamed immediately, "Really!?", she clasped her hands together, a twinkle in her eyes.
Marinette nodded her head.
Zoé jumped and rounded the small kitchen table, she threw her arms around Marinette and hugged her tightly, "You won't regret it!", she grinned.
Marinette patted the girl's back, of course she wouldn't regret it, there were no red flags on Zoé's end, she was sincere, genuine and honest. The blonde had helped her through some of the most difficult months she's ever faced, emotionally. After she emancipated herself and dropped out of school, she had no one in her corner, not until Zoé reached out to her, telling her that she knew about how Lila's lies had dug her into the hole she found herself in. It was definitely the beginning of a real friendship back then she never knew what Zoé would come to mean to her, it was hard to believe that Zoé had family ties to Audrey and Chloé, she was like a flower among weeds.
"Yay an unlimited supply of cheese!", Plagg suddenly interrupts their moment, shooting out of the paper bag that both Marinette and Zoé forgot he was in.
"Urgh, did you eat it all already?", Zoé turned to the kwami of destruction, she pulled away from Marinette as Marinette moved and stepped past her towards the kwami.
Plagg grinned and laughed when Marinette grabbed him from the air.
"Plagg you pig, that was for your week.", Marinette scolded the kwami. She grabbed the paper bag with her other hand and tilted it towards her so that she can look into the bag, two metal tins sat empty of its contents. "Plagg!"
"That was a snack.", Plagg says as he stuck his tongue out.
Zoé snickered slightly, "Gee-whiz. That's the last time I buy in bulk for you, Plagg.", the blonde steps towards the two, her eyes flickering over to the time displayed on the small oven a few feet from Marinette and Plagg, "The other kwamis will be coming out for their own playtime soon, let me get dinner started, help me clean up the melted ice cream and unpack the rest of the stuff, yeah?", Zoé suggests, knowing that if the kwamis came and saw everything spread out, they'd most likely take it without knowing what to do with it.
Marinette sighed and released Plagg, "Right, I'll get the towels.", she said.
"Thanks.", Zoé says, a grateful smile on her lips.
"I didn't raise you like that, Marinette."
"I'm so disappointed in you, how could you?"
"Girl, you're done, that's enough!"
"Wow, Marinette, not cool."
"I always win, Marinette."
Marinette gasped, her eyes snapping open, sweat blanketing over her. She sits up and swallows dryly, her breathing uneven. She brings a hand up and runs it through her short hair, she grimaced as felt how damp her hair was. "Damn it.", she curses in a hushed tone.
"Marinette?", an equally hushed voice speaks suddenly.
Marinette snaps her head towards the origin of the voice.
"Tikki?", Marinette breathed out in relief.
Tikki floats in, a smile on her face. "Marinette.", she says as she floats closer to her previous holder.
Marinette reaches out and gently grabs the kwami, pulling her into her chest, holding her close. She closed her eyes. "Oh Tikki.", she breathed shakily.
Tikki closed her eyes and melted into her past holder's embrace.
It's been months of them being on an on and off kind of relationship. After she dropped out of school and moved out of her parent's home to be able to pursue her training as the new guardian to the miracle box, she was told she had to give Tikki up to a full time holder. She wouldn't be able to play Ladybug and continue her training at the temple in Tibet under Su-Han, at the same time. A Ladybug had to stay in Paris while she was away. It hurt, hurt so much to give Tikki up, but they knew it had to be this way, it was either she trained to become an official guardian or surrender the box to Su-Han.
Marinette and Tikki discussed it thoroughly, neither wanting to let each other go. Even if they weren't kwami and wielder, they would still be friends.
"I miss you, Tikki.", Marinette said shakily. Watery eyes opening.
Tikki hummed softly. "I miss you too, Marinette.", cuddling further into Marinette's hands.
"How is Ladybug treating you?", Marinette asked.
"Great, actually. She's a little prickly and blunt, but she has kindness in her heart, even if it may not seem so.", Tikki says.
Both kwami and human pull away from each other.
"How was your interaction with her?", Tikki asks as she now sees eye to eye with her old master.
"Well.", Marinette begins a chuckle pushing past her lips. "She is definitely a bit prickly, but maybe that's for the better. I like her, she gets straight to the point.", Marinette finishes. She crosses her arms over her chest, a light smile curled her lips as her eyes locked with her beloved old kwami's own.
Tikki smiled, "I'm glad you like her too.", she shifts in the air and floats down to settle upon Marinette's knee. "How has your training been, I've been told you've been learning the art of Mirakung Fu."
Marinette grinned, a twinkle sparkling in her eye, "It's gotten easier and as for that fighting style, it's definitely got it's perks when I'm going up against akumas. I know it's specifically for...wielders. but I think it also works great against other opponents."
Tikki nods her head. Her full attention on her old master, "I also heard you've been working on repeling akumas, how's that going?"
Marinette's grin turned sheepish. "Uh well...um…", she rose a hand to rub the back of her neck, her eyes flickered away from Tikki's own.
Tikki sighed softly. "It's okay, Mari, I know it's a very hard technique to master. Don't push yourself too much, it'll come to you.", she gently patted Marinette's knee.
Marinette's genuine smile returned, "Yeah...thanks, Tikki."
The kwami of creation nodded her head, "You're amazing Marinette, I'm proud of you."
The ravenette feels warmth blossoming in her chest alongside a knot slowly building in her throat. She felt a familiar prickling in her eyes. She reached down and scooped Tikki up into her hands and brought the kwami close against her cheek. She closed her eyes and just held the kwami once again.
She had nightmares more often than not, she had many restless nights, but tonight, with Tikki staying just for the night, she would have a rare dreamless sleep.