Chapter Text
Marinette was no stranger to bad luck. Once, she would’ve said that she had the worst luck in all of Paris. Her clumsiness and her constant torment courtesy of Chloe Bourgeois for years was only the tip of the iceberg. It's why she was eternally grateful to Master Fu once she received the Ladybug Miraculous. Her luck significantly improved, but there was only so much magic could do to counteract her completely rotten luck. Some days, it felt like the entire universe was compensating for Tikki's magic by dumping all of the misfortune on one day. Marinette called them black cat days. Black cats symbolize bad luck, so it was a no-brainer. It was also a subtle nod to her partner. No matter how bad her luck got, Chat Noir would always be there to balance it out.
Unfortunately, black cat days were a bit too common. Marinette immediately knew today was a black cat day from the massive, eye-watering migraine that practically brought her to her knees first thing in the morning. Oh, and she was an hour late to school. Marinette barely had any time to rub the gunk out of her eyes before she glanced at her alarm clock.
“Tikki! Why didn’t you wake me up?” Marinette yelped as she rushed down the stairs, trying to get ready as fast as possible.
She couldn't even blame this one on an akuma. After the night she spent trying out different concoctions for the MIraculous, she thought she might wake up a bit late, but she didn’t think it would be this bad! Marinette cursed herself for not listening to Alya when she told the bluenette to sleep on time.
“I’m sorry, Marinette!” Tikki squeaked as she tried to keep up with her chosen. “You’ve been so exhausted for the past few days and you looked so peaceful that I couldn’t bring myself to wake you. But Marin—”
Tikki hid back in Marinette’s purse as a tourist gave Marinette a weird look. She took out her phone and placed it to her ear, hoping that it made her look a bit more sane.
“It’s okay Tikki. I forgive you. What's one more tardy?” she joked, trying her best to ignore the throbbing pain emanating from her skull.
Tikki beamed, but her smile faltered. “Marinette, just wait—”
Marinette shook her head. “It’s okay. You don’t need to apologize again. Let’s just get to school!”
Marinette was halfway there, ignoring Tikki’s muffled protests and she shoved Tikki back in her bag. She didn’t want anyone seeing Tikki and making her bad day infinitely worse. She suddenly felt a painful pinch on her finger. She yelped and saw her kwami looking sheepishly up at her.
“Did—did you just bite me?”
Tikki had the decency to look guilty for a second before giving Marinette a serious look.
“Yes, because you’re not listening to me!” Tikki said, her voice firm. “Marinette, it's the weekend.”
Marinette stopped in her tracks. “It's the—what?”
“The weekend.”
Marinette gaped. She slowly took out her phone to check the date and let out a squeak.
“IT’S THE WEEKEND!”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!” Tikki squeaked.
“I can’t believe this! This is a disaster!”
Marinette was so worried about being late when there wasn’t even school today! Marinette covered her face in her hands. Lightning erupted overhead, and rain tore through the sky almost instantly, leaving her sopping wet. This day couldn’t get any worse.
Unfortunately, she was wrong about that too. The day was pure awful. It seemed as if the world has caused her clumsiness to get worse by a hundred percent. Either that, or all of the chairs and tables in the world had grown legs and purposefully positioned themselves so that she'd bump into them. Marinette couldn’t go anywhere without managing to trip on air. Plus, Alya was with her family, visiting her grandma, so even she couldn’t cheer up Marinette. She had been asked to plant-sit, and despite not being religious, she was praying to everything holy that they wouldn't be affected by her series of unfortunate events.
Eventually, she decided to just help her parents in the bakery. Her parents had to deliver a large order of assorted baked goods to a major event, and it required all hands on deck. She had offered to chip in, hoping that the workload would distract her. But even that didn’t work out since she ended up dropping an entire batch of pain au chocolats. Really, she thought bitterly, it was her fault for thinking anything would go her way. Her poor parents had just given her an understanding look and told her to take a break. Sometimes, Marinette didn’t know what she had done to deserve such understanding parents.
It was pretty late but she decided to go on a short walk to let off some steam. Marinette could even stop by Alya's house and water the plants. She debated whether or not she should leave her bag with Tikki upstairs in her room. Marinette didn’t want to take any chances. Knowing her luck, she would probably drop the bag in a gutter by accident and never be able to transform again. After assuring Tikki that she would get extra cookies once she returned, Marinette all but ran outside.
Marinette closed her eyes and took a deep breath, grounding herself. This was exactly what she needed. Marinette walked along the streets of Paris with her hands stuck in her pockets, admiring the city around her. She hummed along to the song that was stuck in her head. Paris at night was gorgeous. Of course, she’s seen it a dozen times as Ladybug, but it still never ceased to take her breath away.
It was almost enough to make her forget about her worries.
Marinette turned in an alleyway. She recognized it from the number of times she had de-transformed there.
"Mademoiselle!"
Marinette stopped in place and turned around, watching as a young man rushed up towards her.
“Excuse me, mademoiselle,” he huffed, out of breath, "do you know the time? I think I'm about to be late."
Marinette gave the man a sympathetic look. It seemed that she wasn't the only one suffering through a bit of bad luck. She patted her pockets for her phone and groaned. Of course . Of course she had left it at home. What a day.
“Sorry, I left my phone—”
She let out a hoarse gasp as she was shoved against the wall of the alleyway. The wind was knocked out of her and she coughed a few times, trying to catch her breath.
“What—”
“Give me all your valuables, now!”
Marinette froze in place as she saw him pull something out of his pocket. A second later, she was staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. She tried to take a step back but just managed to bump the back of her head on the wall.
“ Scream and I’ll blow your brains out,” the man growled.
“I don’t—I don’t have any money on me—” she gasped, hoping that it would be enough to deter him. He didn’t exactly look confident either, but the way he confidently grasped the gun made her think that he knew exactly how to use it.
"Shit. Just—give me your earrings or something. Now!" He waved the gun in her face as if she’d forgotten about it.
Marinette let out a strangled gasp and felt her migraine come back with full force. She couldn't. She couldn't. She froze in place, feeling the weight of the situation slowly wash over her.
"Hello?" he shouted at her, making her flinch backwards. She didn't know what to do. The Miraculous was arguably more important than her life. "Do you have a death wish or something?"
Marinette internally panicked. She was completely, utterly helpless. She glanced down at her bag, feeling her heart leap to her throat. She couldn’t even transform without Tikki! Why had she even left her bag at home in the first place? She was the Guardian. She couldn't risk the miraculous now!
It was such sickening irony that this petty thief was closer to getting the miraculous than Shadow Moth had ever gotten.
Calm down, Marinette. Calm down. Calm down. She repeated it a few times in her head. She wasn’t necessarily defenseless.
Marinette willed her breathing to even out. She had years of combat training as Ladybug. That knowledge didn't suddenly go away when she was Marinette. She slowly squared her shoulders. Marinette’s arms shot out as she grabbed the side of the barrel and the handle, flipping the gun around. She pushed the man away, and he fell back with a surprised grunt.
“Help!” she screamed, stumbling away from the scene.
The man sneered and grabbed one of Marinette’s pigtails, dragging her down. She screamed again and moved as haphazardly as she could to escape his grasp. He growled in frustration and used her pigtail to throw her head against the alleyway bricks. She cried out, feeling stars erupt in front of her eyes. Marinette's vision dimmed and she gasped for breath. She hadn't even realized that she was lying on her side until she saw the robber stand over her. Her hand hesitantly felt the side of her head, which was slick with sticky blood. She sobbed and placed a hand protectively on her earrings as a last-ditch attempt at securing them. Time seemed to slow as he pointed the gun at her again.
Marinette's resolve hardened. She was Ladybug . And she wasn't ready to die here.
She dove for the man’s legs, knocking him over. She screamed in rage as she shoved him against the alleyway wall, trying to make sure he was wholly incapacitated before she tried to escape again. Marinette barely heard the loud pop over the sound of the blood pounding in her ears.
She heard a shrill scream echo through her skull as the man collapsed to the ground. She realized dimly that it was her own. Marinette spotted the dark circle on his shirt and scrambled back in horror, only to slip in a pool of a red liquid. Blood. It was everywhere, on her hands, under the man, staining his clothes. Marinette let out a shaky gasp. The gun had gone off in her attempt to fight back.
“Oh my god,” she whispered.
She had heard stories of people having to kill their attackers in self-defense, but she had never imagined it would happen to her. Her breathing sped up as the gravity of the situation sunk in.
Oh my god. She had just killed someone. A human being. Marinette didn’t care who it was, the idea of stealing someone’s life from them, accident or not, meant that she deserved the highest punishment. Who was she? Who was she to be the judge, the jury, and the executioner all at once? Nausea took over as she stumbled to her feet, just managing to reach a trash can to throw up in. She dropped to her knees and curled in on herself.
And just as she thought her luck couldn’t get any worse, Marinette heard a familiar metallic clink on the rooftops. She clasped her bag shut on instinct. Marinette didn't even have to look up to know that it was Chat Noir, perched on a lamp post.
“You ought to be ashamed of yourselves! You woke me from my cat—” his quip died on his throat and his playful smirk turned into a look of horror as he took in the sight in front of him. She let out a sob, catching the exact moment that he recognized her. Was that fear in his eyes? Shock? His eyes stayed firmly locked on her own as he took in the situation. Marinette stared back, unsure of what to do.
She found herself shrinking back into the corner of the alley. Chat Noir gaped for a few seconds before he found his voice.
“Marinette?” he croaked out. Marinette screwed her eyes shut, hoping everything would disappear. She knew that she would never forget the abject horror in his voice.
The girl in question couldn’t bring herself to talk. Her voice was stuck in her throat. ( "Cat got your tongue?" he had said to her as Ladybug.)
Don't be ridiculous, she thought to herself, Chat’s your partner! You trust him and he trusts you! Just let him help you.
But, said a dark, bitter voice in her head, does he trust Marinette?
She imagined how he saw him. She was a murderer.
No. No, he didn’t. So Marinette did the thing she had been doing for years. She ran.