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“Take a small break, for me?” Marinette asked as she turned on the light to her and Tim’s office.
It was currently nearing 3am, and Tim had yet to slip into bed. Marinette had gotten up in attempts to get her fiance to get some sleep. The young man had fallen asleep in the office or had simply not slept more often than he slept with her. Marinette knew it was a part of Tim’s personality, a side effect of his work-a-holic tendencies, but no pun intended it got tiring . She just wanted to cuddle with her fiance!
“I’m not tired,” Tim replied, knee deep in his latest case. It was something about a series of murders that was pointing to Professor Pyg, but Tim had yet to pinpoint a location. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“Well, Mr. Perfectly fine it is 3am and you’ve been up for three days. You’re not going to catch Pyg sleep deprived.”
“I’m a bat. We’re all sleep deprived. I’ll sleep when I’m-”
“Dead, I know. But that’ll happen sooner than later if you don’t take a break,” Marinette folded her arms over her chest. “Please? I can’t sleep without you.”
“Are you trying to guilt trip me?”
“Yes. Is it working?”
“No. I’ve spent enough time in the office to know you sleep perfectly fine without me.”
“That’s the problem! You can’t seem to take a break! You’re always working!” Marinette cried out, tired and frustrated.
“I’m saving lives!”
“Not when you’re so sleep deprived that you can’t even think straight! That’s going to get you and everyone else killed!”
“Oh please, like you know what it's like, to be a hero and know that every life not saved is your fault.” Tim scoffed. Both of them were letting anger cloud their judgment.
“OF COURSE I KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE, I WAS A HERO TOO!” Marinette wiped angry tears from her eyes before continuing at a much quieter level. “I was Ladybug, the one from Paris, Tim. The one that disappeared and presumed dead after they found Chat’s body,” The tears turned sad. “I need to go.”
Even though Marinette was in her pajamas, she fled the apartment. At least she had her slippers on. She ignored Tim’s cries to wait, to calm down, that he was sorry. All she could think about was the death of Adrien- the sadness and relief she had felt after it, and the death of her parents that soon followed.
It is unsafe to travel alone in Gotham at 3am, ex-hero or not.
Marinette never saw the crowbar coming for her head until it was too late.
—
“What, do you think this is our song?” Ladybug asked her partner, laughing. They were currently traveling across Paris via rooftop.
The boy in question was singing obnoxiously, not even bothering with the majority of the words, rather just the tune. The song was the theme from the movie Paris had made- Ladybug and Chat Noir . Marinette had hated how shallow the film had made her seem, and hated how it made Chat seem clingy and obsessive, yet completely okay. In actuality, it wasn’t the case.
Flirting was a coping mechanism mixed with an inside joke.
Simply put, Chat Noir was very very gay.
His father didn’t approve, and so to escape his rath Adrien pretended to be romantically interested in Chloe, who was also very gay. It was a whole can of worms, something that had taken a half hour to explain when Marinette learned Chat’s identity. All his life had been a mix of hiding and evading, so much that by the time Adrien got the miraculous, his first reaction to seeing someone he looked up to, was to flirt.
After they revealed their identities, it became an inside joke. Nervous cat equals flirty cat.
A beautiful friendship had grown deeper after the reveal, as well.
“Yeah, don’t you think so, M’lady?” Chat grinned back at her. “I think it sounds great!”
“It’s from a movie that got our relationship entirely wrong. You were made out to be a sexual harasser, but it’s not called out as a problem and therefore gives the impression that it’s completely okay. It’s not! My character seems like a bossy, standoffish prick who leads you on with crumbs! You deserved better, but so did I. It wasn’t right.” Marinette ranted.
It was at that moment that they came upon Agreste Manor. In which Hawkmoth and Mayrua resided. It had been a shock, but that had quickly turned into determination. Adrien wanted to be free from his father, just as Marinette wanted to free him. He deserved to be free, and lead a better life not filled with being forced to be an unpaid model.
It was all too easy to slip inside. Adrien did live there, afterall. After that, it was even easier to go into the secret lair and confront Hawkmoth (Gabriel) and Mayura (Nathalie).
If only the battle was as easy.
Everything seemed to pass extremely quick yet slow at the same time. Marinette was fighting Hawkmoth, and had very little time to see how Chat was doing. One moment he was doing fine, and the next Adrien was in front of her, taking an attack for her.
Ladybug screamed. Then, she called for her lucky charm and defeated the two villains in a fear and anger induced haze. The next thing she knew, Ladybug had the butterfly and peacock miraculous, and she was sitting in front of Chat. She threw her lucky charm in the air, but it didn’t change Chat’s condition.
“That was so stupid.” Marinette cried.
“But also kinda cool, right?” Adrien replied, then gasped out in pain as Mariette put pressure on the stab wound.
“No, just stupid. We can’t reverse it. You need help.”
“Hey,” Adrien started. “I’ll be okay. Do you have a bandaid though? I hurt myself falling for you.”
“Are you flirting with me?”
Chat laughed, only for it to turn into coughing. Blood spattered on his lips, causing a new wave of tears to fall from Marinette’s eyes. “Of course, I just can’t conceal my love.”
Marinette let out a wet giggle, then became somber again. “Please don’t leave me.”
“C’mon, Bugaboo. As long as I’m in your heart, I can’t leave you. No matter where I am.”
“I love you. You’re my best friend. You’re family.”
“And you are mine.” Adrien whispered as he said his final words.
That was the night Adrien Agreste joined the stars. Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain joined him later that night, after a break in at the bakery that Marinette had been too busy dealing with Hawkmoth to be there for. Sabine and Tom were forever bonded, not even letting death bring them apart. They joined the stars as well, taking in the boy who tried to find happiness but was continuously thwarted by his father, who was killed when trying to break free.
—
Marinette woke up to a pounding headache, and opened her eyes. She was tied to a chair, and not very well. Sadly, her slippers were removed, leaving her sock covered feet in the open. Marinette had loved those slippers! They were bunny themed, and matched the pair she gave Damian as a joke one year. Alas, her feet were now cold against the cement.
Behind her, a man and woman were “discussing” (re: arguing about) her. Apparently they had recognized Marinette as Timothy Drake’s fiance, and an easy cash grab. She had been looking pretty vulnerable, in her pink pajamas and bunny slippers.
“Miranda, we can’t give her away to be trafficked!”
“It’s better than getting caught! Damnit, Louis, we shouldn’t have attacked her! It’s been forever and she still hasn’t woken up, what if we killed her?”
“I know that! It was the spur of the moment! We don’t have the money to pay for Cassidy’s medical bills! What else were we supposed to do? She’s still breathing, she must be alive!”
“I don’t know Louis! Not kidnap the Marinette Dupain-Cheng, that’s for sure! Now we’ll never be able to help Cassidy!”
Louis seemed to calm down, trying to reassure Miranda. “Hey, we’ll get through this together. You and I, till death do us part. Through sickness and in health, in holy matrimony.”
It got quiet after that.
Marinette decided to call attention to herself at that point. She didn’t want the conversation to turn into a decision to dispose of her, thank you very much. So, she decided to ask a question:
“Hey, can I get my slippers back?”
A stupid question, she knew, but if Marinette asked for release it might have the opposite effect. Not until Mari was positive they would let her go.
Miranda walked around the chair to face Marinette, her brown hair falling into her face. Apparently Miranda hadn’t covered up her face, a rookie move. No doubt Louis was in the same predicament. At least they weren’t like that other guy who used “invisible ink” on his face and robbed a bank thinking his face was invisible.
“You’re awake! Good!” Miranda asked, not bothering to wait for an answer. “I’m afraid your slippers got lost on the way here.”
Oh that bitch.
Marinette promptly burst into tears. She’d had a rough night, sue her! She was tired, cold, had a headache, wanted to go home, and most of all she wanted Tim. Marinette knew that things had gotten out of hand and she had rushed out in an anger-induced haze, but she just wanted a hug from her fiance! It was the anniversary of Adrien’s death, and she was high strung. Hence, the tears.
“Miranda! Why is she crying?” Louis rushed to Marinette’s side as his fatherly instincts flared.
“I told her that we lost her slippers!”
“We’ll get you new ones?” Louis tried to reassure the younger.
“Shit! Do you need a tissue?” Miranda added.
Marinette nodded, and her hands were released from the chair as tissues were offered. Blowing her nose as her kidnappers rubbed her back, she made a plan on escape. Her feet weren’t even tied down! Miranda and Louis had completely freed her!
Still, it took awhile to stop crying. Sometimes once one starts, they can’t stop. When Marinette believed in her ability to suddenly not burst into tears again, she simply asked to go home. Feeling bad, the two agreed and asked her not to tell anyone. They wouldn’t do it again, as the two were simply not cut out for it.
Making a note in her head to research and help Miranda and Louis, Marinette left the warehouse she had been brought to and started to make her way home.
Only to be interrupted by Harley Quinn.
“Blue! There you are!” She called out as she got closer. “Everyone’s been worried sick about you!”
“Hey Harley. What do you mean by everyone?”
“Well, after you had your fight with Timmy and ran out, he went out to look for you in full gear. Just as patrol was wrapping up for Jay. He told Babs, who asked Tim, and soon the whole family was lookin’ for ya.” Harley continued as if nothing was wrong, typing on her phone.
“What? But it’s been like, a few hours!”
At that, Harley stopped. “Sweetheart, it's been a day. Where have you been ?”
A day?
“Got kidnapped and knocked unconscious. They let me go because they felt bad. Trying to pay their daughter’s medical bills.”
“Aw, it’s always the desperate ones that hit hardest, huh? You gonna help them, blue?”
“Of course, they’re good people in a tough spot.”
“Speakin’ of spots,” Harley continued, slipping her phone in her pocket; “what’s with the Ladybug reveal?”
“He told you about that?”
“Only when he was forced to reveal everything that had happened prior to you storming off.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, just learn from it.”
“Right… sorry.”
Harley laughed out loud. It was then that the Batmobile turned around the corner, and the two got in. Bruce was in the front seat driving, and didn’t say anything until the two got in the car.
“Injuries?” He asked, straight to the point.
“Head contusion, potential concussion,” Marinette replied. “How’s Tim?”
“Had to be given a sedative to go to sleep. Otherwise he would still be out in the city looking for you.”
Looking down at her lap, Marinette apologized again.
“He should be waking up by the time we return, though. Dick stayed behind to watch him, and said that Tim is showing signs of waking up,” Bruce continued as if nothing happened, then admitted: “He was worried about you. We all were. You’re family, superhero status or not.”
—
“Hi…” Marinette said as she sat down next to Tim, who was nursing a cup of hot chocolate on the couch.
There was a pause, then simultaneously both Marinette and Tim apologized. Then paused, and laughed at how in sync they were.
“Seriously, I’m sorry for everything. I shouldn’t have blown up at you, nor should I have left as I did.”
“I’m sorry too! I should listen to you, especially when I fall in a rabbit hole of cases and haven’t slept. I should have realized that you were having a bad day, and last night was just everything blowing up and I’m sorry.”
“I should have told you about Ladybug long before now, too.”
“You didn’t. That was your story to tell, not mine to demand.”
Marinette smiled. “I love you.”
Tim smiled back. “I love you more.”
They just had a fight, but things would be okay. Just like any relationship, they had to work at it. Sometimes there were hitches in the road, with fights and tears, but that was okay. As long as they kept working at it, they would be fine.
“Can I tell you about Chat Noir?”
“Do you want to?”
“Yes.”
“Then please do.”
“So Chat Noir, or Adrien Agreste, was the flirtiest person ever, but he was also sweet…”