Work Text:
Everyone has a Devil and an Angel on their shoulders.
And Marinette Dupain-Cheng was sure that it was abnormally weird. She also was sure that it was her personal curse.
She had a good childhood. Loving parents, cozy bakery and starry nights on the balcony when she couldn’t sleep. The room in the pink colors, everything that little girl could dream off!
When she was eight, she started to notice weird things happening around her. Either a customer trip at the place where she was a few seconds ago, or she would suddenly feel the emotions of people. A normal kid would immediately tell their parents about those strange things but Marinette felt that she couldn’t. As if the voice in the back of her head was whispering that it would be a mistake.
With years passing she could say that it wasn’t just her imagination but back then she didn’t know about it. She just kept that little secret to herself and never said a thing about it.
At school she was… She was, for some reason, an outcast. She didn’t know why but most of the kids she tried to play with didn’t want to include her in their games. Furthermore, they looked at her a little scared. Marinette couldn’t find a reason for it until one day a water bucket fell on her and made her wet.
“What is it, Dupain-Cheng, huh?” Blonde girl that Marinette never really interacted with asked her mockingly. “Want to cry in a dough?”
Marinette hadn’t run away that day. Instead, she went straight to the teacher and told them what happened. But the teacher’s response shocked her.
“But nothing happened!” The teacher, a kind-looking 40-year old woman, exclaimed. “That was just a game that Mlle. Bourgeois wanted to play! I’m sure that she accidentally tripped and then the water spilled over you.”
“But, Madame..!” Marinette tried to point out that it wasn’t an accident but she was interrupted.
“I’m sure that Chloe will give you her apologies! Now, let’s take you home, you need to change!” The teacher stood up from her desk, took off the jacket and put it on a little shaking girl.
But if the teacher thought that she was shaking because of getting cold, in reality she was shaking because little Marinette was ready to cry. It was not right! How could the teacher say this? It was obvious that it wasn’t an accident but they all pretended that it was!
And the sudden thought flashed in her head that suggested teaching them a lesson. All of them made her look bad and miserable. All of them who supported the wrong. And it seemed right to her.
But Marinette didn’t want to hurt them. They did the wrong thing, but it doesn’t mean she needed to harm, to break them. And she didn’t.
Until the day before her 13th birthday.
That day her parents, as usual, kissed her on the cheeks and waved to her on her way to college. As usual, she sat there, listening to the teachers’ explanations about their subject and rarely answering to insulting comments from her classmates and other bullies.
“M. Jacquezare?” Sabrina Raincomprix, her classmate, interrupted the teacher who was drawing another graph on the blackboard at their last class of the day. “I think I smell the smoke in the air.”
The teacher immediately sniffed the air and coughed.
“You’re right, Sabrina. We need to find out if the source of the smoke is in the…”
“Watch out there!” Rose Lavillant, another Marinette’s classmate, shrieked loudly, pointing at the window.
Everyone turned to the window, and Marinette felt that her heart slowly stopped working.
The bakery was on fire. Her home, her parents were burning down.
No one stopped her when she opened and jumped out of the window (their class for that lesson was on the first floor), no one tried to call for her when she ran at full speed towards the burning building. Only when she reached the bakery, one of the firemen caught her and tried to hold her from running into the fire.
“LET ME GO!” Marinette screamed, trying to wrestle her way from the hold but she was too weak to do so.
“I can’t, girl,” the fireman answered, huffing but still holding her firmly. “We don’t want you to die.”
“MY PARENTS ARE IN THERE!” She tried to kick him in the balls, but the man predicted that move and dodged the hit. “LET ME GO! THEY’RE DYING!”
“We’re trying to save them,” another fireman answered to her, wiping out the sweat from his brow. “We need to call for help, Phillip. We located the fire so it won’t get on other buildings but it’s too strong to put out on our own.”
“Roger that,” the man who was holding her nodded. “Can you watch over the girl while I’m calling?”
“Yes.”
After several hours the fire was finally put out. Marinette, tired of fighting firemen, fell asleep in the middle of the operation, but when she woke up she found out that her parents didn’t survive the fire. They suffocated from the smoke.
The firemen were late. They didn’t save them. She didn’t save them. She was now alone.
Well, not exactly alone, as she found a copy of herself in very dark clothes sitting on her left shoulder and sadly smiling at her.
It was hard to not freak out at the sight back then but Marinette was emotionally tired and dead after her parents died to even react to that thing. She just noted that she now could see things on people's shoulders, as firemen were trying to explain the situation and comfort her.
Several days passed without her noticing it until she found out herself in the room that looked old, maybe even ancient.
“This is now your room,” a raspy voice on her right said. Marinette turned her head to see grandfather Roland, who she last saw on her 9th birthday. “I will leave you alone for now… Make yourself comfortable here…” And he left, quietly shutting the door behind him.
She was standing there, just staring at the pale yellow walls, feeling how they were starting to mess thoughts in her head. Feeling how less and less alive she slowly becomes.
Stop.
Marinette jolted in her place, looking around in searching for the voice.
Only you will see me, turn your head left.
Marinette looked on her shoulder and saw the thing that looked like a copy of her staring at her.
Good. We need to live. I’m sure that parents wouldn’t want you to die.
Marinette flinched from mentioning her parents but nodded. That thing was right. She will try her best. Even if her parents won’t see it.
The next day she was standing at the entrance of the college, not sure if she was able to make the final move. That place reminded her about them. That place was too close to them. And yet, she had to go there.
Though, she wasn’t able to take the final step.
“Look who’s here!” The high girl voice came from behind. “Our new orphan!”
Marinette felt like she was stabbed right in the heart. Why would they remind her that she is alone now?
You’re not alone.
“Chloe, I think you’re taking it ov…” The redhead girl that always accompanied the blonde tried to reason.
“Why are you even here? Why are you not on their graves, crying like an infant?” The Bourgeois girl continued to mock her.
“Please, stop.” Marinette thought to herself. She couldn’t even stand at this point, slumbering on the ground and sobbing.
We can make them stop.
“Chloe, stop. It’s not good…”
“Miserable, worthless as her parents, piece of nothingness.” Chloe finished her sneer and walked over Marinette. And then she abruptly fast and strong opened the door, hitting ravenette hard with it.
The hit landed on Marinette’s head, making the world around her go black.
“No… I won’t let you talk like that…”
And you have all the rights to do it.
“But it’s not right…”
But they all deserved it.
“I don’t want to hurt them…”
So they will hurt us?
“I-”
-will-
“-teach-”
-them-
“-all-”
-a lesson!
“Chloe!” The redhead ran towards the body lying on the floor, checking the pulse. “You could have killed her!”
“I couldn’t!” Chloe huffed, looking outside the door. “I would never be able to do something like that!”
“I hardly feel her pulse!” The girl, Sabrina, shrieked, jolting in her place and looking panickingly at Chloe. “We need to call 112!”
“You do it!” Chloe started to panic too. The realization of what she could have done finally hit her. “Do it!”
“Okay, okay!” Sabrina searched her pockets for a phone, before she looked in her bag and took it out. But the second she tried to dial the number, a hand snatched it and broke it with a hold.
“Hey, what are you…” Sabrina looked at the person who broke her phone and froze.
Marinette was slowly standing up from her place with a huge, wicked smile, holding the cracked phone and looking at it weirdly.
“What is the point in playing games by the rules you don’t have to follow?” She asked, dropping the phone on the concrete.
“Uh, Marinette?” Sabrina warily looked at her and, simultaneously with Chloe, took a step back. “Are you okay?”
“Who is this girl who is talking?” Marinette looked at her, tilting her head slightly on the left. “Is this Sabrina the Quiet? Is it Chloe the Queenie Meanie of the Lazy Beamy?”
“What is wrong with you, Dupain-Cheng?” Chloe shrieked, slowly taking out the phone and pressing the quick call to her father.
“Is Chloey calling daddy-paddy?” With the same mocking voice Marinette continued smiling wickedly.
“What is going on out there?” The roaring voice of Damocles from inside alarmed them all, making them look at the doors.
“Well, I’ll see you all! All who were guilty in their death!” Marinette suddenly screamed before running away fast and disappearing from their sight.
It took three days to officially declare her missing. Roland, after hearing news, had a heart attack and survived it but he required a lot of medical treatment after it so Gina stopped traveling around the world to take care of him.
The Francois-Dupont college was filled with the most ridiculous and absurd rumors about the missing student. And the horror stories about the school grew larger as people started to believe that it was haunted. How else could they explain the explosion in the middle of the hall without cameras detecting the perpetrator? And the closets full of mystery items and no traces?
Of course, some students were suspecting that it was done by the missing Dupain-Cheng girl. But why would she do it?
Marinette herself, several months after being hit in the head, found herself finally visiting the bakery that she was avoiding all this time. The building was standing abandoned as no one was going to live there so a lot of things were still in their place except those which were written in the wills of her parents. Slowly pacing through the ashen corridors and moving cautiously on staircases, she slowly made her way to her previous room.
The view of smoked and burned pink walls with a destroyed bed reminded Marinette that she could be there too. She could be with her parents that day and she could be dead too.
Looking around the room for the last time, she was ready to leave when she noticed a standing out wooden box in the far corner of the room. Curious to see what was inside this box, because she couldn’t quite remember if it was there, Marinette slowly made her way around the room, freezing every time she heard a suspicious creak under her weight and taking another step when it was clear that the floor wouldn't fall under her.
Finally, she reached the box and picked it up. It was light and dusty but the wood was in a good condition. Cleaning it from the dust, she saw a red pattern engraved on it and making it look mysterious. Feeling the sudden urge to open it, Marinette didn’t resist it and opened the box, revealing a pair of earrings laying on the red velvet.
Maybe, just maybe, that was the present that her parents planned to give her and hid it there to surprise her in the evening? But it was not like them. But if it was their birthday present, it would have been very nice. Marinette felt the tears forming in her eyes and sobbed, before breaking in the hysterical laughter. Wasting no time, she put the earrings in her ears, not prepared for the blinding red light that came from them. When she was able to see again, Marinette noticed a weird-looking creature, hovering in front of her and looking with concern at her. But it immediately disappeared when the girl looked at it, shifting into a smile.
“Hi, Marinette! My name is Tikki and I'm the kwami!” The thing – Kwami apparently? – said joyfully, getting closer to Marinette. “I-”
“Explain,” their curiosity was picked, because it wasn’t something regular that they both saw every other day.
“As I said, I’m Tikki, the Kwami of Creation! The earrings you put on are called Miraculous and with the help of them you can become a heroine!” Tikki explained, not noticing the smile appearing on the girl's face. “To become a heroine, you need to say ‘Tikki, Spots On!’ and I’ll help you transform the costume that you will wear. In the transformation, you will be much stronger and agile, which will help you fight the villain that appeared in the city! And-”
“If you’re magical, and I assume you are,” Marinette said slowly, “then there should be powers?”
“Yes!” Tikki was glad that her new holder was taking information easily. “Your power is called ‘Lucky Charm’ and it will give you an object that will help you in the battle or in the escape. But after using it you will have a five minute timer before you detransform,” adding the worry in the voice, Tikki showed how bad this can be. “After you detransform in the safe place, I will need to recharge. And…”
“Great!” The wide and wicked smile appeared on Marinette’s, on their face, making the kwami flinch. “Then it’s time to pay the visit! Tikki, Spots On!”