Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Twenty euros she lies about knowing the Waynes in the second hour of the flight, that was the bet,” the blonde next to her grinned. The ravenette groaned and dug in her side purse for her wallet. Begrudgingly, she hands two flat bills over to a smirking Agreste.

“She could have waited an hour again," she pouted, "This is Alya’s fault, she had to go all reporter about Gotham,”

“Alya will be Alya, Mousette ,” he teased, pocketing the money happily.

“Oh you know, I totally know the Waynes! I even dated the one a year older than me that has a boyfriend, but I was just so obnoxious we broke up, it’s not like saying that in a Crime Capital would get me killed or anything,” she mocked, pretending to twirl her hair and batting her eyelashes. Her boyfriend burst out laughing, catching the rest of the row’s attention.

“What’s so funny dude?” Nino, questions as everyone turns their attention from the story-filled Italian a few rows ahead to the couple.

Adrien just waved his friend off.

“Uh, j-just something Marinette was telling me about Gotham,” he says through his laughing fit.

“Do you want to share the joke, Marinette? It seemed to be really funny,” the butt of said joke says, batting her eyelashes obnoxiously innocently.

“No,” Marinette scowled. The italian pretended to be taken aback as her lower lip quivered and her eyebrows turned upward. They should stick that way.

“You- you don’t have to be so snappy M-marinette,” she stammers out as her seatmate, Alya rubbed her back and shot Marinette a look of disappointment. It was something Marinette was used to at this point.

“Marinette,” the brunette sighs, “you could be a little nicer to Lila, even if you don’t want to share your joke,”

The girl just rolls her eyes and slumps back into her seat with an annoyed frown.

“Only six more hours,”  Adrien whispers into her ear, supposedly encouraging but only serving to torment her. She groans and drags her hands down her face.

~

        Three hours later, and everyone else is asleep while the duo cuddle watching and whispering comments on the movie Adrien had downloaded for them to watch. 

"Isn't it a bit narcissistic to be watching a show you voice acted in?" she proposes.

"Well then isn't it narcissistic for you to be watching a movie starring you?" he retorts.

"No, because it's not about me, this about a girl named Bridgette who happens to use the same moniker and suit as me,"

"Hmm,"

~

“Do you think we’ll see the Bat?” he whispers to her. She hums in thought.

“Maybe," she shrugged,  "we always run across the heroes whether we want to or not, then again it could have been Superman if Lila hadn’t charmed Damocles into changing the destination,” he stares into the void before popping out another question,

“You think it's all a plot to take out the most dangerous akumas in Paris?” you know, like a conspiracy theorist.

“Nope,” she popped the ‘p’ , “Gabriel would never let you come if that was the case, ‘Daddykins’ was just concerned for his daughter’s well being and decided the rest of her class needed a break out of the goodness of his heart and his dear old friend Brucie just happened to own half a city,” she imitated her Lila impression again.

“I know she’s our friend now but I still can’t believe she included the entire class on her trip, I'd like to emphasise the entire class,”

“Chloe’s better now Chaton," she smiled,  "our Bee is much better, what I think is she let the change of destination slip without complaint because there is a chance some liar gets shot in the face if she says the wrong thing in the wrong place,” she sighed dreamily at the thought.

“Is it wrong to hope that happens?” he asked, scrunching his eyebrows together.

The ravenette just shakes her head, “Nah, anyone who actually knows her, has it out for her,”

He nods,  “You aren’t wrong, Kagami already has a notebook filled with revenge plots should we choose to engage her as our secret weapon,”

They are both quiet for a minute, tuning back into the movie when he pops another question, just out of curiosity.

“So, d’y’know anyone in Gotham?”

“Maman said I had a cousin her age there by some weird relation on their mother’s part. ‘Bruce’ she said I think, I didn’t get a last name. She said I'd see the resemblance,” she shrugs, “she says she hasn’t talked to him in years but they were good friends. But she smirked at me so of course there is something else,”

“Maybe it’s Bruce Wayne,” he joked, “I went to a gala once, black hair, blue eyes, you fit the Wayne profile nicely… he even has an adoption problem, maybe you get be the next victim if he isn’t your cousin,”

“Don't even joke about it,” she warned, “ all the stuff you’ve joked about have come true somehow in some way,”

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng-Wayne, has a nice ring to it, don't you think?” he teased, sweeping his hand across the air as though the words would appear.

She tapped him up the back of his head, “The universe would love to throw that in my face,” 

He rubbed the back of his head with a pout and patted his hair back down, then sticking his tongue out teasingly.

“How about we make a bet," he starts, " I say, we meet at least one Wayne in the first three days with your luck,”

“That’s a stupid bet,” she frowns, “ten euros we don’t see any until the tour of Wayne Enterprises,” she offers.

“Deal,” he smirked.

“And,” he added, “if you end up being related to the Waynes somehow or add them to your sad rich kids group I get fifty euros each sad rich kid and a box of macarons,”

“My-my what club?” she asked in confusion.

“Bug, your sad rich kid club,” he said, like it explained anything.

“But I'm not a sad rich kid-” she protested.

“No, no everyone else is,” he amended

“How-” 

“Me,” he points to himself, cutting her off, “Chloe,” he put up two fingers, “Kagami,”  another finger was added, “my cousin by extension,” he rolled his eyes.

“Felix had a rough start okay?”

“Luka-” he put up another finger.

“Luka’s not a rich kid!”

“His dad is, and best part? We all have parent issues,”

She spluttered, unable to think of a comeback. It was true, she was hoarding a bunch of sad rich kids with mommy and daddy issues under her wings. He just chuckled at the win and they continued their movie. 

The movie reaches the credits some time after and they are both yawning and ready to fall asleep in each other’s embrace. One snores softly and the other is motionless as they rest on each other in deep slumber .

ooooooooooooooooooooooo

When light starts flooding through the windows hours later it’s rays of yellow and orange illuminating the plane softly. Sunrise? The lighter of the two sleepers slowly blinks his eyes open and smiles. Gently nudging his shoulder forward, he stirs his partner’s sleep.

“Minnie, wake up,” he whispers to her. She groans and shuffles. Since they couldn't openly refer to each other by their main alias' they opted to go for the lesser known ones, Aspik and Mutlimouse. 

“Five more minutes maman,” she mutters. He softly chuckles. Tucking some of her hair back, he kisses the crown of her head.

“C’mon m’lady, there’s a pretty sunrise this morning,” he whispers again.

Her eyes flutter open and she rubs them groggily. She takes a look around her and then up at him and smiles.

“Morning,” she mumbled against his shoulder.

“Morning bug, let’s go see out the window,” she sits up and looks at him confused but he just tilts his head and smiles, before gently grabbing her hand and raising up. She yawns sleepily but still follows him to the back of the economy section.

She’s still walking when she stops abruptly by bumping into him. He’s standing there staring out a window and she follows his line of sight.

“It’s really pretty,” he sighs. The sun, in all its glory is slightly under the horizon with clouds painted in different sunny shades hovering above and below. The sky itself in various pastel shades above and behind the ball of light.

“It is,” she remarks as they just stand there, taking in the beauty in silence.

“Y’know, the sun doesn't shine in Gotham so we should take it in while it lasts, you’ll miss it for the next two weeks,” he jokes despite the truth behind it.

“Good thing I have a portable sunshine generator here,” she retorts, holding onto his arm.

“Hey!” he silently protests, jabbing her shoulder. She giggles.

Just then, a flush from the bathroom becomes apparent. The door opens to an unknowing brunette. She’s muttering to herself in another language before taking notice of the couple in all its fluffiness and her stare turns cold.

“Hey guys!” her sickening sweet voice rings behind them. The two whip their heads around. Smiles drop in annoyed frowns but they answer her out of the goodness of their hearts.

“Good morning to you too Lila,” Marinette smiles, still dazed by sleepiness and lacking the care to change the facial expression just to give the brunette the time of day.

“Morning Lila,”  the blonde beside her said with less optimism.

The brunette fluttered her eyes and took a quick glance at the sunrise, 

“Oh the sun looks really beautiful this lovely morning, don’t you think? It’s always so beautiful from plane view,”

“Uh huh,” Marinette nodded, still lazily smiling.

The italian, still talking despite clear lack of her unappreciated presence stares at their entwined hands and scrunches her eyebrows,

“Adrien! Did you and Marinette finally get together? It’s just, you all are awfully cuddly and the class would be so happy if you were! But does Adrien’s father really approve of this? It's just-”  she fiddled with her thumbs, "I know he was very hesitant about his relationships, and I haven't heard anything of it? Are you not going to tell everyone? After all, everyone's been waiting for this moment,"

Marinette tightened her grip on his hand anxiously. They were official yes, but not to the public, only their parents, yes even Gabriel Agreste approved of them. The media would hunt them down if it got out. And her class isn’t the best at secrets. 

“Actually Lila, I’ve just become closer to Adrien these days you know?” wait for it…. “ But we’re just really good friends ,” she smirks as she looks at Adrien's eye twitch in annoyance.

The Italian smirked, “Well, since you two are so close now, I guess you told him about your crush on him! How wonderful for you! But since you aren’t together, did he reject you?”

Before she could reply to the smartass, Adrien butt in, 

“Actually, yeah she told me, but we decided to take things slow,”

The Italian frowns at the defeat. She thought she had the upper hand there didn’t she?

“Oh, okay, I hope you all stay really good friends and nothing bad happens during the trip, Gotham is super dangerous after all, anything could happen!” Then she walked off with a pep in her step.

Adrien exhales dramatically, “Kwami, that was a nightmare,”

Marinette shared his sentiments, “Yeah, my very good friend, she’s a pain, and it sounds like she’s also going to try something during the trip,”

He groaned and pouted, “I said I was sorry! Bug, how could you bring up  that shameful time!”

She giggled in amusement and gave him a quick peck on the lips after she was sure they had no prying eyes.

“Because , you tortured me for three years minou, you deserve it, now c’mon we have about twenty minutes before we land, let’s go back to our seats,”

Like a love sick puppy, he follows her back and the two just relax as their fellow classmates begin to re-awaken. Soon after it’s announced that they’d be landing in a few minutes so they fasten their seat belts and wait.

`````````````````````````````````````````````

As they land shortly, Marinette and Adrien pull down their suitcases from the above head compartments and wait for the line to clear so they could exit, everyone chatters while looking at each other’s phone screens, grinning like idiots..

The duo, confused by this, taps their nearest classmate’s shoulder. Nino turns around, quickly shoving his phone into his pocket.

“What’s up dude? Ya need somethin’?”

“Uh yeah, what’s everyone looking at on their phones?”

The boy had a moment of panic before answering, “Uh, it’s nothing important, just something Lila sent some of us, nothing concerning dude,” then he averted his gaze.

The blonde hummed, slightly suspicious.

“What are they looking at Scales?” his mouse asks from his side. 

He furrows his eyebrows.

“I dunno Mousie, Nino said it was nothing important but Lila sent it so…”

“It is something of concern,” she finished for him, he just nodded. 

“They’ll tell us eventually M, we just ignore it in the meantime, we have to get out the plane now anyway,” she agrees with him and they both walk off the plane, in vigorous conversation.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

It’s in the luggage area, they find the meaning of chaos. Yes, Gotham doesn’t have many incoming planes but the few who dared step foot here, hell hath no fury like a luggage mix up brawl. In every corner people fought for identical luggage or each other for trying to steal the luggage.  Lila had cried several times about her luggage going missing while others picked theirs up, each time insinuating the thief only to have it found by a caring classmate.

Somehow, Marinette’s single suitcase was no where in sight and she had spent minutes extra with Adrien looking for it. They didn’t notice the retreating figure of their fellow parisians leaving the luggage area as they found her suitcase behind one of the machines.

By the time they try to rejoin the group in the shuttle area, a member of airport staff breaks the news to them.

“Sorry kids, the last shuttle with a bunch of 'frenchies' left about ten minutes ago, to hell with those idiots for leaving you kids in Gotham,” he said, sending them a pitying look. Marinette was ready to cry.  Before the tears could escape, Adrien offers a comforting hug, “thanks sir, we’ll find our way somehow,”

“Sorry I can’t help ya, yer a decent people from the usuals,” he shrugs and goes back to his post, shaking his head and muttering about assholes.

“Adrien, we can’t walk through Gotham to the hotel, it's on the other side of the city!” she cried into his shirt. He rubbed circles on her back.

“I’ll see if I can call us a ride, don’t worry Nette,” he reassures her. Even though he himself was panicking internally.

He whipped out his phone quickly and dialed Nathalie.

A: Nathalie? 

N: yes Adrien? How was your flight? Is something the matter? You were to call when you arrived safely at the hotel.

He scratched the back of his neck as he answered her,

A: About that, we got left behind at the airport. Is there any way you can get us a ride with someone trustworthy? We can’t exactly walk to the hotel.

There is a moment of silence, a groan of frustration and then something breaking in the background before he receives a reply.

N: stay at the airport Adrien, I’ll call you a ride shortly. In the meantime, would you like to tell me how this happened and are you alone?

He sighed, she’d have found out anyway, he supposed.

A: Well, Marinette is here with me and someone misplaced her luggage in collection and by the time we found it, they had somehow left us.

N: your teacher and class left you???

A: yes? That's what I said-

N: Sigh, this is  a serious matter Adrien, it will surely be dealt with when you return to Paris, on another note, your ride has arrived, look for a black limousine, the Driver’s name is Claude, he will escort you to the Wayne Hotel where I hope matters will be sorted out for now,

A: Thank you Nathalie

N: You’re welcome Adrien, stay safe, 

He clicks the end button and sighs, then leads Marinette to the pick up area hopefully and quickly finds their ride.

“A limo,” Marinette deadpans. He shrugs.

“You rich people,” she says under her breath as they approach the driver’s window. He laughs out loud and bows to her when they enter the car, to which she rolls her eyes.

Soon, they’re on the ride to the Hotel with a good few words for a teacher by the name of Caline Bustier.

Chapter Text

“Merci beaucoup Monsieur Claude, enjoy your evening,” Marinette bids the driver adieu as they stand in front of the Wayne Hotel. He gave a two finger salute.

“You too kid,” he chuckled, “ stay out of trouble,” then he drives off.

Marinette stares up at the towering building and sighs,“Well Adrien, we have a teacher to greet,” he sighs in equal heaviness.

“Or we could sneak into our room and deal with them in the morning,” he shrugged. She grinned.

“You're being a naughty kitty now? Plagg must be rubbing off on you,” she teased. The black kwami immediately flew out of the blonde’s pocket.

“I am proud of him pigtails, he’s learning so quickly,” he wiped a 'tear' from his eye proudly.

       The ravenette rolled her eyes and shooed him off as they walked into the lobby. Plagg huffed and flew into Adrien's pocket silently.

       Greeted by a still somewhat sleepy receptionist, they explain their situation to the slightly sceptical worker. By the time they finished, and she believed them, they had gotten the key to their room and a nice dish of pity along with a complimentary breakfast.

“Who leaves kids in Gotham?” the red head mutters to herself as the happy couple walk off. “They’re too sunny for here anyway,” she scoffed, shaking her head, smiling nevertheless.

````````````````````````````````````

Without notification, they slipped into their shared room and relaxed for a few minutes before starting to unpack in the two bedroom room. As they empty their suitcases Marinette speaks,

“So, how come we’re sharing a room?” she asks, before flushing pink, “N-not that I mind!”

Adrien stills for a second to think,

“I dunno, I don’t think it was supposed to be the arrangement but I don’t think our parents would mind, and no one else's opinions really matter here,” he shrugs.

“The class would throw a hissy fit if they knew,” she giggled.

Both kwamis fly out of their hiding places for a much needed stretch.

“Oh Marinette! Since you both share a room we can roam! How wonderful!” her cheerful red kwami, says with a large smile. The second of the pair lazily floats to the kitchen, stretching all the way and grumbling about his hunger.

“Of course Tik’s just stay in the room and out of sight if anyone comes in,” her master responds, to which she nods happily.

Kwamis enjoyed their freedom plenty after being put away for so long. Marinette was happy to provide them with the space they needed to roam.

Oh! she had to take the box out of her carry-on!

Quickly the ravenette stumbles toward her duffel bag and unzips it, removing the disguised miraculous box. Punching in the release combination, blurs of kwamis dash out in every angle in incoherent and continuous chatter.

“Kwamis! C’mere! We have some stuff to talk about,” the blonde calls them over to the chaste.

“I think you mean rules to set,” Marinette corrected him. He waved her off.

1. Do NOT leave the hotel room unless with a holder
2. Do NOT eat out the pantry in one go 
3. Do NOT use powers while in the city 
4. Lastly, don’t interfere with their classmates, whether they are being idiots or not 

Some of them nodded solemnly, others snickered and whispered among themselves but agreed anyway. Very soon all was set and they were ready to head back down for their free breakfast, it was seven a.m. and jet lag would kill them at this rate if their stomach’s beckons didn’t.

They headed downstairs with Plagg, Tikki and Trixx who had just nibbled on some snacks. The cute cafe installed in one of the floors had a very American menu to say the least.

Adrien had ended up with a french toast plate and tea (french toast was most obviously not in fact, french. But bread drenched in sugary goodness) and Marinette received a store bought croissant and the strongest coffee she could get her hands on, which surprisingly was nearly as strong as her Mama’s ‘caffeine death’ mix, maybe a few shots less. Coffee, was her newest solution to drowsiness-after-akumas problem, the taste had taken a while to get used to but in the end it worked out, for her.

She could have sworn she heard the worker mutter about another addict but she shrugged it off. There were days she just needed the caffeine.

ooooooooooooooooooo

They are half way through the meal. Only half . When the class enters as a group, laughing and chatting, or maybe a little groggy. Unlike the couple, they looked well rested, probably had more than two hours of sleep- 

Marinette sighs into her cup as Lila acknowledges their presence.

“Marinette! Adrien! There you are! Everyone was so worried when you all didn’t reach on time with the bus! Where were you two? You made us all worried!” she chimed before a familiar red headed teacher stepped forward from the group, with a worried face.

“Adrien, Marinette,” she addresses the two in a rather condescending tone, “why did you not inform me you would be taking another mode of transport? If Lila hadn’t said anything we would have assumed the worst,” she chastised. 

The two frowned but before Marinette could even open her mouth, Adrien shot her a look, then he put down his slice of toast and stood up slowly.

“Miss Bustier,” he mirrored her tone, “we did not, in fact plan to use another vehicle but seeing as you left both Marinette and I in the luggage area, I had to call my father’s assistant to arrange a driver for us, you kind of caused this when you didn’t call role call and relied on Lila’s word,” he faked some hurt for good measure.

The teacher spluttered, “B-but Lila said you were coming separately, so I didn’t-I didn't think to-”

“Check with us?” he finished for her. 

“Miss Bustier, what would have happened if Lila was wrong? You know about her condition ,” he stressed on the last words, of course, Lila had informed faculty of her unfortunate lying disease, the poor creature. 

 "If we didn’t have a car we would have had to walk, everyone knows how dangerous Gotham is,” he looked up at her, and blinked twice.

She looked defeated as she stuttered out an apology and Adrien excused himself and Marinette to go back to their rooms for the rest of the rest of the day. The blond grabbed his blue eyed girlfriend's hand gently and pulled her up from the table. She, all the while, still taking in what Adrien had even said. Muttering accompanied the stares they received from the students still in a group behind Mme. Bustier as they walked away.

Reaching back to the room, Marinette drops onto the couch with a bounce as she smiles.

“That was amazing Adrien!”

He rubbed the back of his neck, “She needed it. How could they leave us behind? Just because Lila said so,”

“I have a theory that she slowly removes intelligence from those around her and when she absorbs it, instead of using it for her lies it adds to her horrible fashion sense and the length of her hair,” Marinette tells him, he cracks a smile.

“Maybe,” 

Any further conversation was cut by simultaneous growling of two very neglected stomachs, 

“ They could have waited for me to finish eating to barge into the cafe,” Marinette whines.

“Think we could get room service?”

“But that’s so boring-”

“How?”

Ignoring his question she grinned.

“We could call Chloe and sneak out," she smiled slyly "I’m sure there are cafes around the block,”

"Nette, it's Gotham, and you want to sneak out?" he stressed, raising an eyebrow at her. He wasn't used to any rebellious sides of the petite girl as she was showing now.

"And we're superheroes," she retorted. 

He rolled his eyes at her arguing statement but gave in either way.

“What would we tell anyone who notices we’re gone?”

She thinks for a second before smirking, “we’ll ask them where that concern was three hours ago,”

“Are you sure that I’m Plagg’s wielder?”

“Hey!” she squawked ,throwing a cushion at him.

“Just call Chloe,” she huffs as he laughs freely.

He cringed seeing all missed calls and text messages under her name. The second he dialled, their Bee was ready to bite their heads off.

C: ADRIKINS! WHERE WERE YOU AND DUPAIN-CHENG AT CHECK IN?

A: Hey Chlo, 

M: Hi bee! We got left behind then got a ride from a limo and then had half our breakfasts before we had to go back to the hotel room and, we’re hungry now, wanna sneak out with us?

C: Dupain-Cheng you need to use more than one sentence to be understood

C: Is that why you weren’t on the bus? I took my own ride but Rossi said some lie about -

C: Oh my god, we left you behind, where are you now???

A: Room two sixteen,

M: As we said, wanna sneak out for some coffee? It’s like, nearly eight, cafes should be open.

C:....

C: I’ll be there in five you utterly ridiculous people

Then she hung up on them and true to her word, she was there in a few minutes in all her blonde glory. As she entered, she looked at them, up and down,

“You two are going to fill me in before we go anywhere ,” 

Cue, the nervous laughter.

~one story later~

“So you’re telling me, this goody two shoes,” she gestured to Adrien, “talked down Caline,” she finished sceptically.

To which the ravenette proudly nodded. “T’was a thing of beauty,” she gestured.

 Chloe stepped up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, 

“I am a proud mama Bee,” she declares, then smirks  “now, are we taking the lobby or the fire escape out?”

“We’re five stories up and you want to take the stairs? Outside?” Adrien asks.

“Why not?” Marinette counters.

He could argue. But then they'd be here forever.

To the fire escape they went, respective kwamis along for the treats.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

As the akuma class sat down gossiping and munching on their breakfasts, the hottest topic on the board was Adrien’s chew at Miss Bustier. It was unlike him, they all agreed. Then again, he had been acting differently around Marinette as well.

“Als, all I’m saying is maybe Marinette is just finally comfortable with Adrien,” Nino reasons, but his girlfriend is persistent.

“But Nino! Haven’t you seen them recently? They’re practically dating! And Marinette has been really snappy with Lila lately, what if she’s doing it to make Lila jealous because they both like him? Didn’t she try that with Kagami?”

“Didn’t she help Adrien and Kagami get together whenever ago? I mean, they didn't work out but, just think it’d be kind of strange for her to do that Dudette,” he countered, taking a bite of his egg.

“But still! I think we should keep an eye on her, she’s my best friend and all but she’s being really mean to Lila these days and Adrien is enabling her!”

The boy just sighed into his food. “I’m not going to jump to conclusions like the last time Als, you’re on your own with this one,” then he’s silently eating, watching as his girlfriend pulls the Italian to their table.

He did think about it. He really did. And nothing added up. Sure, he was happy Marinette and Adrien were finally not bumbling messes around each other anymore and they were super close but he did see Marinette a little less cheery with the rest of their classmates than usual. 

And she was a little snappy with Lila, but only when she was being accused of actually bullying Lila or listening to one of Lila’s cool adventures, which kinda made it look like she actually did it.

But he saw the way Lila had looked at his best bro and dudette too and despite what she told everyone she did not look happy seeing them together. Sometimes he would catch her scowling before quickly masking it with a smile, the side glances she would give the couple and once he could have sworn she growled. But maybe it was jealousy? He knew both girls liked his bro.

Generally, Lila was a nice person though. So it confused him as to why the two nicest people and the class were mortal enemies, it didn’t make sense and it couldn’t all  be because of one boy.

It hurt his head to think about all this drama but he knew for a fact he wouldn’t get involved in one of the ombre haired reporter’s crazy reporter schemes.  The last one had ended with her being suspended and he’d rather not be roped into that, especially in Gotham of all places.

For now he’d stay in the background and lend a helping hand only if needed.  And potentially stop his girlfriend from running head first into situations that could either get her killed (it was Gotham, anything was possible) or in some kind of ridiculous trouble.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

“They had something called a Drake special and it tastes just like maman's,” she smiled into her large mug.

Chloe wrinkled her nose, looking at the ravenette across from her. 

“That’s not good DC, that just means there’s another coffee-holic out there like you,”

“Maybe we could be friends!”  she grins. Adrien shakes his head but smiles anyway.

“You are going to die by caffeine intake one of these days you know, I saw the way the barista looked at you when you ordered that many shots,” her boyfriend scolds. She stuck her tongue out at him,

“She looked at me in awe and adoration, right Chlo?” she batted her eyelashes as the girl across from her.

The blonde scowled, “more like horror and fear Dupain-Cheng,” she sipped her latte.  The ravenette feigned hurt.

“You are so mean,” she pouts.

Adrien gives a soft laugh and pecks her on the cheek, “and you’re so cute,” he teases as she blushes a deep pink.

Chloe ‘s face morphs to disgust, “Ew, Adrikins, no PDA when there is a third party,”

To this he pouts too, and she rolls her eyes. The entrance doorbell rings as a man enters and trudges to the counter, looking half dead. 

He’s pale, yawning like crazy and ready to fall asleep on his feet when the barista shakes her head and hands him Marinette’s exact order and makes an off hand comment to him. He shoots a quizzical look at the Parisian's table. He nods and walks over, taking a sip of his cup.

“Morning,” he greets them. Chloe and Adrien’s eyes sparkle in recognition and Marinette, none the wiser, returns the greeting happily. 

“Good morning!”

“Can I ask a question?” he directs at her and she shrugs.

“How do you drink the Drake special? It’s six shots of Espresso,”  to this, the two blonds at the table start snickering, she just poked her tongue out at them before turning back to him with a smile. 

“Well, it was the closest thing to what my maman makes in the morning for me so I said why not? I needed it for today anyway and it balances out my pastry well,” he blinks twice and stares at her and gives a tired smile.

“I’m glad to have met someone else who can drink the Drake special Miss, my brother’s said it was impossible,”

"And they have good reason to say so," Chloe muttered. Marinette shot her a look before replying to the man.

“Tell your brothers, this is me on a plane ride’s worth of sleep dealing with my class, this is mild compared to a sleepless night, I would have about three of these,” she fingered the cup.

He gaped, looking at her friends for confirmation. One blonde nods shamefully and the other rests their head on the table in a sign of defeat as the ravenette smiles.

“She’s ridiculous , utterly ridiculous, we can’t even take the coffee away, she just buys a new one,” Chloe complains.

The man pulls out his phone and starts texting someone suddenly.

“My younger brother, Damian has declared that as a fellow coffee addict we should stick with our kind,” he announces, Marinette starts laughing. He then furrowed his eyebrow at a second glance at the phone.

“And now my other brother, Dick, is telling me we need help, I just don’t think he understands,”

She giggles at the familiar comment,

“I’ve been there too! My friend, Kagami, likes to rope these two into plotting to steal my cups daily, clearly they have never pulled more than one all nighter,” she adds. The blonde scoffed.

“Well it should be clear that some of us need our beauty sleep Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe retorts.

Marinette faked hurt, “are you saying I’m not beautiful?” She places a hand to her heart.

“Of course you are bug, but sleep deprived Marinette is ready to kill at the slightest disturbance,” Adrien supplies.

“You say this like I live off of it! I only have it when I need it!”

“Which is five days a week, Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe replied. 

"It could be worse! it could be seven,"

The American gave a haughty laugh.

“So, what are you lovely coffee lovers doing in Gotham if you don’t mind, you don’t seem very…local,”

“You mean depressed like this city?” Chloe blurts.

He nods solemnly as Marinette scolds her for her bluntness.

“Yep,” he popped the ‘p’.

“Class trip,” the three ringed in unison with a dampening sigh.

“To Gotham?” he says sceptically, raising an eyebrow.

“Daddykins decided we needed a break from Paris, we were going Metropolis but a little weasel made us change plans and now we're in this...dreary place instead but  and I decided to take these losers with me,” Chloe explained, checking her nails.  He grimaced at the mention of the terrorized city but was quickly pulled out of that train of thought.

“Hey!” Adrien exclaimed at the ‘losers’ part.

“Paris? OH, you’re with the W.E. tour group!” the boy realises. 

“Are you going to stand there the whole time or take a seat?” Chloe snarked at him. He just shrugged as Marinette glared at Chloe for again, her bluntness.

He takes a seat beside her and sips his coffee,

“Hello fellow coffee addict, I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” he shook her hand, introducing herself,

“Adrien Agreste at your service,” the blond grinned.

“Chloe Bourgeois but I’m sure you knew that,”

“Hello fellow insomniac, I’m Tim Drake,” he smiles.

 Realisation hits her like a brick. 

Tim- 

Drake-

 The third Wayne boy- 

Merde.

Her face matches her mood, much to Wayne's confusion. He might have been expecting at least one of them to fan over him but he didn’t expect the dread, triumph and disinterest coming from each of the three.

“Is something wrong?” he tilts his head.

 Marinette huffed and turned to her boyfriend wordlessly as he grins like an idiot. She digs into her purse furiously and hands him some crumpled bills.

“What?” Tim asks and Chloe snorts. 

“They probably made some bet and you made Dupain-Cheng lose,”

“What could they possibly have bet on-” he was cut off by a grinning Agreste.

“We bet that M here, would meet at least one Wayne in the first three days in Gotham, you won me my next bakery trip my good sir,” Adrien announces proudly. Marinette looked at him utterly betrayed,

 “You just lost me my next cup of coffee,” she pouted, folding her arms.

“Sorry?” he tilted his head, a bit confused, “ I just don’t see where the bet could stem from,”

“You know who we are right?” Chloe asks him, and he nods, “Ninety percent off the people Minette meets outside of school or celebrities of some sort and the Waynes being the local ones was the perfect way to test her luck, it was inevitable I don’t know why she’s surprised,” she flicks her hair back as she explains like she’s stating a fact.

He just mouths an ‘oh’.

“So, how is the city so far?”

Shrugs went all around.

“Beats us, we got here hours ago,” Adrien answered.

He then looked around, “you said you were on a class trip right?”

The ravenette nodded.

“Where….is that class?”

“Well-” Marinette started.

“We snuck away,” Chloe supplied.

“Chloe!”

He raised an eyebrow, frowning at the revelation.

“Isn’t that dangerous? Going alone in the crime capital of America? Won’t you get in trouble?”

“Weeeeell, they left us at the airport so Madame Bustier can’t really do us much, plus they probably won’t even notice until they need something,” Adrien droned on.

Tim, previously listening intently, choked on his drink. And went into a coughing fit before incredulously staring at the unaffected teens.

“T-they left you?? In Gotham?” he exasperated.

“We have a patha- patha, urgh, comment dis-tu cela en anglais?” Marinette groaned.

“Pathological hon, we have a pathological liar in our class who hates our guts, Adrikins and DC were left behind because of her and no one listens to us,”

“That- what- she had you left behind?" he continued his incredulous tone.

“It wouldn’t be the first try, back in Paris she made Nette miss the bus,” Adrien shrugged.

“ Why are you so casual about that ?” he said, dragging his hand through his hair.

“It happens,” she shrugs,  “we learnt to deal with it, at home we try not let stuff like that get to us,” Marinette grimaces before Adrien rested a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

He cringed at the reference to their city’s situation but found them interesting, as Adrien Agreste was supposedly single according to public knowledge, was it a secret relationship or something? The media here would go wild for a story like that.

“Okay, that’s not right regardless, here, lemme give you my contact in case it ever happens again,” he says before digging in his pocket for one of his cards.

He hands it to the girl next to him who stuffs it in her purse. 

“Merci beaucoup Tim,” Marinette smiles gratefully at him.

“De rien,” he replies.

Before he could continue, his phone starts ringing and he fumbles to get it. As he clicks accept, his ear is screamed off by an angry p.a. telling him he had a meeting in five minutes and he was nowhere near the Wayne Enterprises building .

“Shit - I uh- I gotta go before my assistant kills me for missing my meeting, see yaaaa” he says quickly, getting up and making a sharp right turn at the door rushing out in a panic. 

“He was fun,” Chloe remarks as Tim leaves.

“Explains the ‘Drake’ special too! I told you there were other people who drank this stuff!” Marinette smiles.

“Nette, did you see the state of him? He was ready to faint, it’s not good,” 

“I never said it was Chaton, I just have company,”

“Okay bug,” he sighed, “okay,” 

Chloe took a quick look at her phone before grimacing. 

“Miss Bustier will be looking for us by now,” she sighs.

Marinette hums , “We should probably get back then,”

“Are we going through the front door? Or back the way we went so we won’t get caught,” Adrien asks,

“Well, if we can avoid a lecture why not,” Chloe stresses.

Being the victim of Caline Bustier’s lectures was as pleasant and ideal as listening to Lila drone on about one of her adventures while being mute. So, stuffing the last of his breakfast in his mouth, Adrien walks with the two girls holding cups out the cafe and across the road to the hotel.

As they approach the building, they avoid any view points as they walk up the stairwell, trying not to spill their travel cups.

“We could have picked a lower floor, ” Chloe complains.

“You insisted, the best of the best for us Chloe, this isn’t exaaactly our fault,” Marinette replied.

“So you prefer to stay on level three with Rossi and co. in regular rooms then? I could have you transferred from the suites if you want-” Chloe teased.

“No,” Adrien deadpanned as they all laughed.

Soon they were climbing back in through Adrien and Marinette’s window and mentally preparing themselves for a day trapped in a hotel with Lila Rossi and their classmates.

“What are you doing in this room,” Chloe sneered.

Chapter Text

“Lila, Nino won’t listen to me about Marinette and Adrien, you believe me right? There is definitely something going on with those two, but no one else is noticing!” Alya ranted to the friend beside her as she set down her plate and mug.

In the recent past, Lila had become one of Alya’s closest friends. On top of being a great material source for her blogs, the girl was a great listener and super nice to everyone!

Alya had been doubtful the first few months of her arrival because of all the things Marinette had been telling her, but all investigations came up fruitless.

Once Lila had most definitely been cleared of any suspicion, Alya had started noticing how Marinette was the one who was rude to Lila. Constantly trying to disprove Lila’s stories, the attitude in every exchange and even the subtle hints Lila dropped that Marinette harassed her.

“Of course I believe you Alya!” she chimed in her cheery voice, taking a bite of her fruit salad, resting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Then she took a quick glance around before whispering in the brunette’s ear,  “Don't tell anyone, but on the plane ride this morning, I saw them watching the sunrise together, they looked really close but when I tried to talk to them both nicely, Marinette was really rude to me,” she whispered in her ear.

This had Alya raise an eyebrow. So she had been right!

“Really? What did she say to you?”

Alya noticed a slight hesitancy in her answer, was she afraid to say something?

“Well- at first, they both frowned at me when I said good morning! Which was so rude! Then … when I asked why Adrien and Marinette were so cuddly, Marinette just got closer to him and then told me they were just really good friends, I think she was trying to make me jealous!” she confessed.

Just-

Just a-

Just a friend- 

JUST A FRIEND?

Marinette Dupain-Cheng did NOT say just a friend after two years of pining after him.

 She COULD NOT-

“ She what?” Alya hissed out, stabbing her fork into the pancakes.

No one could come here and tell Alya that AFTER TWO YEARS of being a wingman that this girl would go there and friend-zones the dude. She had his schedule in her room for kwami’s sake- a gift for every occasion for the next thirty years. This girl-

“Yeh,” Lila said with more confidence, “you would think after all she's done out of jealousy she would be glad to be finally close to Adrien but then she goes and mocks me!”

“That’s what I’m thinking! Girl, she’s definitely doing it on purpose now! After two years and she can finally talk to him without foaming at the mouth, suddenly she doesn’t like him like that anymore? Something is obviously going on between those two. Nothing is adding up,” she exclaims, stuffing some food in her mouth.

Lila sighed. “Well Alya, their new relationship is none of our business but I would think as her best friend, Marinette would tell you these things, I guess she doesn’t really trust you, I mean, imagine if they were secretly dating! That kind of inside scoop would do great for your blog!” she smiled. 

“Marinette and I haven't really been talking these days,” Alya admitted, rubbing her shoulder sheepishly. Lila perked up at the admission.

“Really? I thought you two were super close,”

“Well, ever since she’s been hanging out with the ‘supposedly’” she put finger quotes in the ‘supposedly’ , “reformed Chloe Bourgeois and Adrien a lot and not around the class I haven’t seen her much, then she’s always at Juleka’s house or on outings with Kagami, it’s like she doesn’t have time and I’m always busy with my blog y’know?”

Now that she thought about it, Alya hadn’t even had a proper conversation in over a month!

Lila nodded solemnly to the words and offered a smile, “Well, I’m glad to spend with you bestie! But I still think there’s something up with those two, don’t get me wrong! I’m glad they’re getting along it just-”

“Different?” Alya finished for her.

“Mhm, I am curious about what happened this morning too! They came late and then Adrien was very mean to Miss Bustier, even though she was trying to help, then they went to their rooms but I checked! They aren’t on the same floor as us, neither is Chloe,”

“Really…” Alya hummed, “I didn’t even notice, do you think we could find out which floor they’re staying on?”

“Well, maybe if we ask the receptionist nicely,” Lila shrugged.

“It’s worth a try,” Alya affirmed, finishing her breakfast.

~minutes later~

“Absolutely not,” the redhead at the front desk deadpanned.

Alya sputtered.

“Why not? They’re in our group! How are we supposed to find them if we don’t even know their room numbers!” she argued.

The lady narrowed her eyes.

“The young lady and gentleman as well as the third party had special arrangements made and if you are currently unaware of their living quarters clearly they do not want you to have this information. Take it up with your teacher and do not attempt to ask me again unless there is an emergency that requires immediate access to their rooms,” she dismisses them, turning her gaze back to the keyboard in front of her.

“But Madame! Surely if there was an emergency we wouldn’t have time to come all the way down here and then reach there roam yes?” Lila tried to reason, surely it was a good enough reason?

The woman didn’t even spare her another glance before repeating herself, pinching her nose bridge, “Take. It. up. With. Your. Teacher.” she gritted out, “now have a nice day!” she chimed, pitching in her best customer servide voice.

Alya grunted in frustration before grabbing a scowling Lila by the arm and pulling her away from the front desk. The Italian gave little protest as she was dragged into the elevator. 

“We have a teacher to talk to,” Alya said before they endured a quiet trip to the fourth floor. 

Caline Bustier thought herself a reasonable woman. She cared for her students, she tried her best to help with their common conflicts and she prided herself in teaching them and helping them become mature young adults.

So when two students raise a vital security issue with her of course she amends the issue! Adrien had already taken a tone with her that morning and Chloe had always been temperamental, especially on the bus ride to the hotel which was very early in the morning.

The idea that the entirety of the class did not know the young Bourgeois and Agreste heirs and their mutual friend, her star pupil’s living quarters was concerning! What if there was an attack or such emergency and their friends couldn’t reach them!

The moment the issue was addressed she of course pulled out her phone and checked the paperwork Monsieur Damocles had emailed her with the information concerning the trip.

“Floor five, room two hundred and five and two  hundred and six, Chloe and Marinette must be sharing a room,” she told them, receiving consecutive thanks before both enthusiastic brunettes ran off.

She loved helping her students.

````````````````````````````````````

“Shouldn’t we knock to see if they are here Alya?” Lila questioned, tilting her head innocently as Alya pressed her ear to the door.

“Nope,” she popped the ‘p’, “we should go in and see if we can find anything to prove they’re in a relationship and we can’t do that if they’re around can we?” she explained before digging into the carry on on her left shoulder.

“Isn’t that breaking and entering? We could get in trouble!” Lila whisper-yelled to her in concern.

She just shook her head, “if Marinette’s half the trouble you’ve been telling me, she and Adrien probably snuck out with Chloe,” she dismissed before pulling out a lock pick set in triumph.

Lila was mildly impressed with her little pawn’s preparedness. But where the hell had she learnt to pick locks??? It was frankly concerning how prepared Alya was for these situations, something to note down. All she had to do was play the innocent friend, guiding the puppet’s subconscious to do her bidding and it’d all work out.

She had a lot to gain from getting into the brat’s room, or Adrien’s. Currently, they were attempting Adrien’s room first since he was closer to the elevator.

When the door clicks open to Alya’s satisfaction, the two peek their heads into the room and look around before letting themselves in.

“I told you,” Alya said as the empty room confirmed her suspicions.

“I didn’t think they would go so far as to sneak out of the hotel!” Lila remarked, taking the most incredulous tone she could muster. Though truthfully, she didn’t expect such rebellion from the little pushover Marinette was.

Alya scanned the room for any belongings before she noticed some things. There were two large bags on the sofa….one had Adrien’s signature grey colour with stripes and the other had a cherry blossom….

A cherry blossom.

The one that Marinette used in her design logos.

“She and Adrien are sharing a room,” she breathed out. She ignored Lila’s exasperated ‘what?’ before she ran into the bedroom. And sure enough, the single king sized bed was smack in the middle of the room with two chest of drawers neatly packed with clothes.

“I was right!” she shouted.

She quickly snapped a photo of the clearly shared room and the two personalised suitcases at the corner of the room, then she snapped some more photos throughout the room. All the while, Lila idly wandered around the room before finding a small study desk beside a large bookshelf littered with design drafts and stationary.

Interesting…   she thought as she casually snuck one of the smaller sketchbooks into her orange jacket.

While she was glad they got into the room and she’d be leaving with something promising, she was absolutely furious Gabriel had allowed Marinette and Adrien to share a room. It was ridiculous!

Unless… Adrien was doing this against his father’s rule? Now that was some leverage to use against the blond, maybe she could blackmail him!

She smirked at the thought as her ‘friend’ came rushing to her side with her gallery open.

“Girl, I told you so! I think they’re secretly together. I mean, they are sharing a room! And they were cuddly on the train and neither of them has been an awkward mess in so long and-”

One, Could this girl shut up? Two, this was not what she expected… It was time to deal the next hand of cards anyway. 

“Alya,” Lila sniffed, “you know this means Marinette really did steal Adrien away from me right?” she said slightly above whisper level as she pumped as much hurt as she could into her voice.

Sudden realisation dawned upon the blogger. She gasped  lowly and put her hand over her mouth.

“Oh god Lila I’m so sorry, I know how much you care for Adrien,” she sympathised. 

Yes, yes-

“What if-” Alya said before pausing, “what if, when I find cold hard evidence, I post this on my blog? A secret relationship between an upcoming designer and the son of Gabriel Agreste would surely raise suspicion wouldn’t it? It will teach Marinette not to hurt you like this again,”

This was too perfect.

“I- I don’t know Alya, what if we get in trouble?” 

“Don’t worry Lila, all we need is at least one kiss on camera and we’ll have everything we need for justice, because,  all that’s necessary for the triumph of evil is good people do nothing,,”

“O-okay Alya, but we have to be-” she reluctantly began agreeing before the balcony doors opened. A vexed blonde, wrinkling her face in disgust.

That’s when Alya and Lila knew they were in shit.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

“What are you doing in this room,” Chloe sneered, the grip on her travel cup threatening to crush it.

Both Adrien and Marinette momentarily froze seeing them. The whole room looked nearly the same, but the little details indicated things were moved like the cushions being off and the decor on the bookshelf inches away from prior positions and a few books tilted and out of place. The blankets draping over the couch no longer neatly folded but rumpled. 

Before Chloe could even point fingers, the real vixen of the two stepped forward after both brunettes got over the shock of the sudden discovery.

“Oh Chloe! The class was so worried when no one heard from you or Adrien and Marinette here! Miss Bustier had asked us to check on you but when we looked through our floor’s rooms you weren’t there! So of course we had to check the front desk out of concern-”  Lila started ranting.

“Lila, no one else here believes you, you can drop the act,” Marinette said, the coffee no longer uplifting her mood. Lila’s face morphed to ‘hurt’ as she attempted to defend herself.

“M-marinette, what are you talking about? Are you really going to accuse me of being a liar again! You can ask Miss Bustier! We just came to-”

“Snoop around looking for dirt?” Chloe snapped.

“Stop it,” Alya commanded, finally opening her mouth. All mouths shut and eyes turned their attention to the blogger.

“You’ve been keeping secrets from me and I need answers! I know you and Adrien are in a secret relationship,” she blurts.

The ravenette freezes. Alya scoffs at the reaction.

“See? It has to be true if that’s your reaction,” she rolled her eyes.

“Alya-” Adrien tried.

“Don’t! You both are sharing a room for Pete’s sake!”

Marinette didn’t know how to react. On one hand, they could become Lila Rossi’s in their own right and lie their ways through, or they could use all the valid reasons beside the ‘couple’ thing to dig their ways out of this.

Before she could bullshit an excuse, Adrien took the stage.

“I have nightmares Alya,” he deadpanned. Lila, Alya and even Chloe bore confused expressions.

“What-”

“At home, I have an embarrassing amount of stuffed toys I use to comfort me. You've seen my giant cat plush. This is Gotham, I couldn’t shove them all in a suitcase,” he let out a bitter laugh, “Marinette is the person I’m closest to in the class so we had a special arrangement, she calms me and helps me when I have attacks,” he admitted, rubbing the nape of his neck.

All three previously unknowing girls flashed sympathy before Alya started again.

“I-I’m sorry to hear that Adrien but you can’t expect me to believe that for the passed few months you two have been acting like couples with the constant snuggles and inside jokes is just reduced to you trust her-”

“Alya, you have no real reason to believe that, you’re going on baseless accusations all over again and jumping to some serious conclusions,” Marinette added.

“What do you mean-”

“Does Lady Wifi 1.0 ring a bell?” Chloe chimed.

Chloe knew that dig was uncalled for, but she couldn’t help it. Cesaire had the nerve to walk into her best friends’ room and blatantly accuse them, albeit being right. If it was one thing, the blonde knew exactly the right buttons to press when it came to aggravating people.

Alya’s face flushed red with anger and embarrassment. She failed to notice Lila slowly backing away.

“I was thirteen-”

“Stop. You broke into our room because I know I locked the door! Then you snoop through our stuff for who knows how long and then you accuse us without solid proof of anything! 

And don’t think I didn’t notice you brought that liar along with you, haven’t you noticed everything I do wrong and everytime I keep something from you, not even including now, she ,” the raven haired girl pointed to the silent sausages hair girl, “has been involved? ALL our issues started when she came about!”

Alya held back a growl as she placed a foot forward. ‘How could Marinette blame her behaviour on Lila?’ she thought to herself.

Lila on the other hand, became wary of the fight about the break out. Alya was inches away from leaping and Marinette looked ready to kill, opposing her usually only mildly challenging demeanour.

 It was seeing Adrien look like a dog in defence mode that set her off. He was barely holding onto Chloe’s shoulder, somewhat holding her back, but he looked tempted to let her go and see what she would do to them. She knew Chloe wouldn't mind stooping down to deck the reporter the second she could, or maybe herself.

There was no way Alya was winning this one and the italian had seen all three of these people face akumas head on. It was a losing battle.

“A-alya, I think we should just go, we’re so sorry Marinette, I know you don’t mean to blame me and we’re so sorry for coming into your room without permission,” Lila said before yanking Alya’s arm and running through the door as the bespectacled teen protested. None of the other teens in the room got a word out as they left.

``````````````````````````````````

“Lila! What did you do that for!”  Alya hissed at the Italian, pulling her arm free. Lila visibly flinched before responding.

“Alya!” she chided, “ I was afraid it would get physical! You might’ve been hurt! They said a lot of mean things to you! What if they complain to Miss Bustier and play victim? You know Marinette is lying to you now so we

should leave it alone for now,”

For once, Lila actually meant every word. She did not, however, expect the smirk that followed.

“But bestieeeee, I told you we were going to put Marinette in her place, I have so much evidence, all I need is one kiss on camera from them, plus I’ve faced akumas too, do you really think one little punch would get me down?”

“ Oh ” was her only response. She had forgotten how involved Alya got in the attacks to get her scoops.

They walked back to the suite in silence as Alya plotted her scheme of ‘justice’ out loud. Lila just smirked at the chaos that would unfold. At this point, making Adrien hers would never happen unless Marinette was fully removed from the picture. And the reporter was providing the perfect means for it.

It was Gotham anyway, anything could happen.

Anything.

Marinette watched as Lila practically dragged Alya out of the room then her cold exterior melted into panic. The first thoughts racing through her mind were to check the box.

She scurried into the bedroom after resting her cup on the kitchen counter. As she dug into her smaller suitcase, she breathed a sigh of relief as the box was intact.

“Are you all alright?” she whispered into the room. 

Slowly, kwamis began emerging from their various hiding places among the clothes, furniture and bags.

“We are fine guardian, the sausage hair and glasses did not suspect our presence but they did rummage through your belongings quite a bit!” Daizzi informed her, throwing her tiny paws in the air in outrage.

“Did you see if they took anything?”

Orikko shook his head.

“We remained in the bedroom the whole time, we did not see anything outside of here, Alya simply took multiple photos across the room from what we saw,” he informed her. Trixx deflated at the revelation, just hanging her head low.

She must have been ashamed of her previous holder. The fox kwami had quite liked the young Cesaire at the beginning, 

“You have to be careful Marinette! They are most definitely up to something that will be no fun at all,” Barkk said, shaking his head with his doggy ears drooping. 

Marinette nodded as Tikki flew out of her purse.

“Oh I ought to teach that puny child a lesson!” her kwami said stiffly before racing through the suits, presumably to stress eat. 

Marinette left the room with a last glance to see Chloe and Adrien inspecting the room for any missing items,

“Are the kwamis alright?” Chloe asks her from the kitchen.

“They’re fine, Orikko said Alya took some photos but they haven’t said much about Lila,”

Chloe scoffed.

“Of course Rossi took something, it’s just a matter of what, she’d never pass this up to take something?”

“Maybe Alya kept her busy? I’m not seeing anything missing,” Adrien suggested from his spot by the sofa.

Marinette’s eyes danced around the room. The clothes weren’t tempered with. They had their phones with them. They had nothing in the kitchen yet. The books were messy and the desk-

Her designs were on that desk .

She quickly walked over and searched through her papers.

She had her drafts.

Her pens and pencils were intact

Her sketch book was-

Where was her sketchbook???

“H-have any of you seen my pastel sketchbook? the - the one I carry around with me? I had my design commissions in that one,” she cautiously asked.

Adrien and Chloe glanced at each other . Then they shook their heads, ‘no’

“No no no no no no no,” she muttered as she looked around for it. Her lips quivered as she came up empty.

“Marinette, we'll find it,” Adrien said, approaching her as she curled into herself.

“She can’t have that book Adrien, she can’t- I have my MDC commissions in it! All the pages have my business logo!” she cried as he hugged her. Tears strayed and she sniffled.

“We’ll get it back Nette,”

“No one knows who MDC is for a reason, Chat! I can’t be outed yet-”

“This can’t happen now,” she muttered, a tear slipping down her cheek.

“DC you need to calm down, I’ll kill her before she says anything, don’t worry we will deal with her ,” Chloe growled. 

“And if we don’t get there in time, we finally have something solid to slam down lawsuits about, she broke into our room, took photos without our consent, blatantly accused us and stole from you, she might’ve gone far in the past, but this is too much,” Adrien growled.

``````````````````````````````````

The brunettes enter the room and Alya is already typing out her story when Lila goes into the bedroom and pulls the mini book out of her jacket.

She sits crossed legged on a comfy blanket and removes the string keeping it closed. The first design bore a distant sense of familiarity to a suit she’s seen somewhere on her instagram feed. She stared at it for moments before noticing the little logo at the right corner bottom of the page in intricate cursive writing.

MDC

Her eyes widened in recognition. This little brat was the designer so sought after in Paris? She’d heard from the other models at Gabriel that MDC only did commissions for people with references from her closest clients.

She was supposedly just as popular as Gabriel if not more and her client list consisted of pop stars and rock gods and other such high class individuals. But no one had ever seen her face.

But the designer had kept anonymous for a year.

‘Until now’ she supposed.

A smirk crept up her face. This was even greater leverage than her Adrien sharing a room with that bitchy baker’s daughter.

After all, Marinette Dupain Cheng hated attention. And the media loved to give it. So what would happen if a scandal between competition's  heir and herself took place, it was awfully suspicious wasn’t it?

Oh the things she’d do with this information.

Chapter Text

“Mousie you need to calm down,” Adrien whispered to her as he squeezed her hand gently.

Ever since they found out Lila stole her sketchbook she had been on edge and in constant worry. She’d glare at the brunette, and was tempted to deck her every second she wasn’t panicking. Especially as everytime their eyes made contact the snake smirked, which was infuriating, at the least.

But she had the right .

 Adrien knew how much her designer persona’s anonymity meant to her and he felt like letting Plagg ‘intimidate’ Lila into keeping shut. Sadly, all he could do is offer comfort as they found a way to retrieve the book, that was, hoping Lila didn’t already tweet it to the world, or Alya, but that’d have the same result either way.

What had them both even more on edge was the fact that Lila had yet to make demands of them. It was a scary silence.

“I- I know Adrien, I’m trying but I can’t help it. She’s too quiet! And she is definitely going to pull something today,” She whispered back to him.

“You know we are gonna get it back right?”

“Y-yes but what if we’re too late? What if she already does something? Even tampering with the pages could lead to disaster! Or posts my identity online!” 

He just hated  when she got so panicked she began catastrophizing, it worried him when she spiraled down that hole.

“Did you even sleep last night Minette?” he asked, noticing the dark circles under her eyes. She gave a lopsided smile and shook her head. He grimaced at the wordless reply.

He should not be condoning the use of that death liquid, but his partner needs it to get through today. Between the stress, worry and lack of sleep she was probably running on pure will power and spite. Maybe magic too.

“Coffee?” he sighed. He just loved the way she lit up.

“I love you,” she smiled.

“Don’t lie to me,” he hissed, scowling at her, “you love caffeine,” he grinned as she pouted.

“I also love to be functional, caffeine does that, you can tie for first place if you want Pik,” she stuck her tongue out as he laughed.

“God you two are so sweet I think my teeth are rotting,” Chloe said behind them.

They both laughed.

“I’m glad you think we’re sweet,” Marinette teased.

Ignoring her, the blonde continued.

“If Dupain Cheng needs coffee then I’m getting tea, we have thirty minutes to wait anyway thanks to Rossi and I’m sure the lobby has a cafe or something somewhere,” she says, pulling the two away from the group.

“Maybe we can thank Lila for trying to leave us behind this time, the schedule change gives us time to get actual food instead of rushing to get to the bus,” Adrien joked.

Marinette scowled. 

“No,” 

The class, in its corner of the lobby, hadn't even noticed the three leave in search of breakfast as they chatted amongst themselves. But why would they? Lila was recalling this amazing tale of her last expedition in Africa and they had already eaten breakfast, courtesy of Lila messaging them of the schedule change.

Even Miss Bustier hadn’t been aware of said changes, thank miraculous Lila was there to help her.

By some miracle, Adrien found a source of caffeine for his girlfriend. The workers were thoroughly horrified upon seeing a five foot, four parisian girl down a cup that they’d only witnessed one of their co-CEO’s tolerate with a straight face. One had even asked if she was a little loony.

“Nah, she’s just tired,” was the blond’s brief explanation to them. It did not serve to soothe their nerves.

The way she brightened at the taste of the ungodly drink was enough to earn ever witnesses respect. And start a thread of gossip throughout the building.

When they do return to their ‘group’, it’s to sip coffee, tea and scroll through their phones. What else were they to do for the next twenty minutes? Listen to Lila?

ooooooooooooooo

Nine o clock hits and it’s finally time for the tour. Their tour guide, a tall, tired black haired man introduces himself as Clyde. The first floor they walk through is just offices . Rather anticlimactic for the first floor after waiting for practically an hour.

“Wayne Enterprises was founded in the late seventeenth century by Solomon Wayne, who turned a modest real estate fortune left by his father into a merchant’s house…..”

“Five euros Lila has more than one tie to the Wayne family,” Chloe whispered between the blond and ravenette.

Marinette snickered while Adrien sighed.

“That’s a losing bet Chloe,” he frowned.

“Fine, what’s the possibility we run into the coffee boy again?”

“Tim?” Adrien asks.

“No the zombie downstairs, yes Tim , what other half dead person have we seen in Gotham yet?” Chloe snarks.

“Marinette,” he deadpanned. 

The girl in subject guffawed, 

“Excuse-moi? I am very much alive,” she remarked, very offended.

“Tell that to the poison in your hand,” their Bee said, motioning to her coffee cup, "Qui se ressemble s'assemble," she roled her eyes.

Marinette protectively put it to her chest.

“This is my lifeline Bee. How dare you insult it, and Tim,”

“My case rests,”

“Wha- bu- no- I-urgh,” Marinette protests.

Her boyfriend laughs at her expense. 

“Let’s just pay attention to the tour,” she mumbles.

One hour . That’s how long they walked through levels before their first cafeteria break. At least the area had good food. And decent coffee. 

At least.

The Parisian group occupied three tables, Lila Rossi and her closest listeners at one bench. The… less involved students at the second, i.e. Mylene, Juleka, Ivan  etc. and the third table, consisting of half the miraculous court. Of course, not all of their classmates were present. Some parents just didn’t see how Gotham, the crime capital of America, was any safer than Paris, city of Jadedness.

“Dudette, don’t you think enough has happened? And how in the world do you know they’re sharing a room?” Nino pressed.

His girlfriend was getting ridiculous now. He knew Lila and Alya had disappeared sometime during breakfast yesterday, but the information she was sharing seemed a little too suspicious.

Lila looked like a deer caught in headlights while Alya just frowned

“W-well,” the olive skinned girl stuttered, obviously trying to make up an excuse.

“Does it matter?” Alya asked nonchalantly. 

He narrowed his eyes. Just then, the pinkette at one end of the table beside the jock, decided to speak up.

“Course it matters Als, you just happened to disappear yesterday, then a day later you and Lila are spilling probably private information to half the class, what’s your source?” 

Kim nodded in agreement beside her, but that didn’t really matter, he normally agreed with everything the skater said unless it was saying she was athletically superior.

“The source of your information will validate your claims by a large percentage of Alya, especially if that source is trustworthy,” Max added, adjusting his glasses. 

Nino noticed the slight twitch in Lila’s right eye with every new input added to the topic. How strange-

“Well I think my own two eyes are a good enough source!” the brunette snapped. Everyone stared at her.

The parisians watched the reporter in disbelief and Alix’s eyes darkened.

“Your what ,” she hissed, her voice low.

Lila gulped but Alya didn’t seem to notice the rising aggression in moods across the table. 

“Sh-she didn’t mean it like that Alix, we just-” Lila tried to save them but Alya was on a roll.

“You heard me. Lila and I got the room number from Miss Bustier, by the way did you know they were on another floor? With bigger rooms?” she didn’t wait for an answer before continuing , “then, we entered Adrien’s room, we thought, ‘hey, maybe I’d find some proof that Adrien and Marinette were secretly together!’ Then I saw all of Marinette’s stuff in the single bedroom so it was obvious!

You know the real kicker? They weren't even in the room. It took minutes before Adrien, Marinette and Chloe came through the balcony from who knows where and they looked ready to attack me when I called her out-” she ranted, like they’d be understanding.

Nino didn't know what to say. But he knew that was wrong on so many levels. He had known Adrien, Alya and Marinette for years. But he had known Mari for the longest and he was sure that even if something was going on, there was a reason she didn’t say anything. 

Sure, they weren’t as close, but he knew right then and there this whole situation was wrong. Very, very wrong.

“Alya,” he said, his tone low, effectively shutting her up, “do you realise that you went into their room without their permission? Breaking and entering is a crime ,”

She just rolled her eyes dismissively.

“Well, technically yes, but it was for the story of Nino! You have to understand that!”

“No, it’s just wrong . You don’t break into people’s rooms to get proof of something you have a gut feeling about. That is called breaching privacy,” Alix snarked.

“W-well, we did ask Miss Bustier-” Lila tried.

“Lila, it’s still not cool and I thought you would have known better cause you’re a nice person and all, why did you go along with Alya to their rooms?” Kim said. 

 “W-well,” she panicked.

If she said Alya dragged her along, that’d backfire because it was Alya. she couldn’t say she was the one to influence Lila because, ‘that was the wrong thing to do! How could she encourage Alya to breach their classmate’s privacy?’

“Well?” Alix snarked. She did not like that at all.

Well she was in shit. That’s what.

Lila could have thanked whatever force out there was on her side at that point. Because before she could bullshit a sloppy answer, she was saved, by an akuma alert nonetheless. Everyone’s attention had turned from her response, to their pinging phones. They didn’t have use for it here in Gotham, but then again she could be wrong.

“Pull up the live feed,” Max tells Kim, completely ignoring all previous conversation.

“We may not be in Paris, but I'd like to see what's going on,” he explained.

As though the prior conversation never happened, Alya pouted.

“I can’t cover the attack for my blog,” she sighed, pulling up channel seven, where Nadja Chammack, the only slightly less desperate reporter hovered over Paris, recording the scene.

Nino shot her a look before focusing on the screen. He'd find a way to apologize to Adrien and Marinette, because what was happening was wrong and he knew it.

ooooooooooooooooooo

“Uuuuuurngh,” Marinette complained into Adrien’s shoulder.

He sighed defeatedly.

“Do you need our help M? Feed says its Puppeteer today,”

“No,” she breathed, “Kagami and Luka should be there hopefully, I’ll call if I’m desperate, just cover for me, say I’m calling maman and papa or something, I don’t know how long this will take,”

Chloe nods silently but firmly. The girl hands her cup to Adrien as the realisation hits her.

“This will be cold when I come back, won’t it?”

He offers a sheepish smile. She just groans. Her head drops and she gets up from the table and asks for the nearest washroom.

Two halls down and a right. She’s finally found a bathroom, an empty one , to transform in. as she opens her purse, two kwamis fly out and she retrieves a pair of glasses.

“Come on Marinette! The people of Paris need you!” the red and spotted one urges. The horse just rolls her eyes and neighed.

“You’re right Tikki, Spots on!” she whispers as a flash of pink engulfs her.

“Kalki, full gallop, voyage, Paris,” she says as the horse kwami is sucked into the piece of jewellery.

As a vibrant blue, glowing portal materialises, she leaps through begrudgingly.

The things she sacrificed for Paris, first her vacation time then, her coffee and always, her patience. Oh when she got her hands on the butterfly wielder, revenge would be sweet.

Chapter Text

“Merde,” she cursed, walking out of the portal. As the glowing blue light slowly faded into nothing, she panted heavily. Tired was what she felt. What she would give to be able to go home on her chaise and sleep her agony away. It didn’t matter if she was in her bedroom only minutes ago, she wasn’t on her bed sleeping, she was avoiding being killed.

~

‘She grunted in pain as her back slammed into her bedroom wall, “Urngh,”

The wax Chat advanced towards her when a green projectile sliced it’s head clean off and it dropped down lifeless,  the shield embedding into her pink wallpaper, “Watch it,” she hissed at the cringing hero,"Sorry!" he cried before heading down stairs to assist Viperion'

~

She clutched her ribs in pain, knowing it was partially her fault. She probably broke some the way she was feeling. This is what she gets for trying to run out untransformed. it’d take over a month to heal on its own.

 Maybe Tikki’d help her out? Or she could visit the team’s base, pick up some of the herbs she’d taken from Fu’s old place. 

 And she had the tour to get back to, her flimsy excuse wouldn’t last long and Lila would probably start spewing some story about their dear classmate’s sudden disappearance. What utter bull.

She groaned and thanked Tikki she didn’t have any visible injuries, beside the most subtle of limps. Stupid civilian form- stupid detransformation time limits- with the worst timing.

“Stupid akumas,” she mumbled.

She opened the bathroom door and looked side to side before trying to find her way back to the group which, according to the planner on her phone, should be in the R & D lab right now for an exclusive tour.

Damn , why were there so many corridors?

 Her bones already felt brittle, ready to snap at any sudden movements and there was a spike of pain with every step forward, why did she have to walk this much? The best that could be done to soothe the injury was hunching over, ever so slightly to be as inconspicuous as possible when passing workers. No one watched Marinette  twice as she slowly made her way to her class.

No one in the building knew she had a broken rib, and they really didn’t need to. In Paris she’d have just had to sit through classes before visiting the base but that wasn’t a fixed solution now was it?

She just suffered in silence, with the muted support of her kwami as she wandered around. Pretty soon, she was just on her phone just staring at the building layout as she blindly walked around, absent minded to her surroundings. She tried not to look desperate after five minutes and was about to suck up her ego and ask for help.

Then she bumped into something, barely restraining a wince. Then she looked up. Some….one?

“Desolèe monsieur-” she says before recognizing the face. She blinks twice.

“Marinette?” the boy asks her.

It was the Wayne they had met in the cafe a day ago! His name-  Jim- Kim- oh

“Tim.. hi?” he stares at her as she backs away slightly.

“What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be with your friends- or class?” he asked, staring at her, squinting his eyes.

“I got lost,” she deadpanned, like it explained everything, “what are you doing here?”

“I work here? “ he smiled sheepishly, before looking around, “How did you lose yer blondies?” he teased. 

She blushed in embarrassment. Of course he was here! His name is Wayne duh- 

“oh , oui , so uh,  I had to make a call and they moved rooms and then I tried to search where on the map but I got turned around- then I was just wandering until I bumped into someone-  you! So uh here I am!” she rambled. At least her excuses are getting better?

~

“*on comms~

V: LB, Puppeteer’s been spotted headed east ward.

LB: assistantance?

V: Ryuko is unavailable, a turtle would be appreciated.

LB: Any resets?

V: No.

LB : cause of akuma

V:....

LB: Viperion?

V: Manon is missing her babysitter, she’s out of town for a while, \

Ladybug faltered for a moment, a pang of guilt attacking her chest. This akuma was her fault . 

V: Ladybug stay focused, it’s out of your control. 

LB: I- …. Okay. ETA, ten minutes, on route to acquire turtle and fox.

~

Tim nodded at her excuse like he understood her word smash. Truly a feat on its own.

“I guess you’re with the french tour group then,” she confirms, “C’mon I’ll get you there I don’t have a meeting tiiiiiiiill,” he rolls up his suit sleeve and checks his watch, “an hour from now,” he concludes.

She shrugs , “Help would be nice,”

He flashes a grin as he takes her arm and leads her through the floor.

“They should be in the R & D labs right now right?”

“Mhm!”

“Cool, since you missed about half of the tour, you’ll be getting an exclusive with me, myself and I, the fabulous Tim Drake, between my office and cafes, I’m basically a local CEO cryptic,” he boasts.

“Except when the board pisses me off,” he mutters under breath.

She shoots him a puzzled look. 

English was a weird language.

“What does - cryptic mean?”

“You are thought to exist, but being sighted is so rare and there’s unreliable proof, so your existence is basically up for question,” he replied off-handedly, like he was making sense.

She nods, pretending she understands. As the taller boy drapes his arm over he shoulders, he leads them both forward. She winces at the sudden action, trying her best not to groan in pain.

Merde, she couldn’t get caught here with an injury.

Thankfully, he doesn’t notice.

“So, how was your tour so far?” she grimaced at the question, 

“Eventful,” she offers.

“That bad? Was it the tour guide? Is it the building itself?” 

“No!” she refutes, maybe a little too quickly, “It wasn’t bad , just my classmates deciding to be chaotic, annoying- disruptive and Chloe and Adrien motherhenning me for erm, lack of sleep-” half the truth, that’s what she gave.

He snorts, “Been there,”

“Then there was an akuma attack at home, so everyone stopped to watch the live feed, it was close to my house, so uh, that’s when I called my parents, to make sure they were okay y’know,”

~

‘“Fennec behind you!” she yelled as three wax figures jumped onto the fox hero. She couldn’t help him as she herself was fighting off five. “Viperion! She’s inside the Patissier!”  

~

He grimaced. The mood instantly dropped.

“Are they okay?” genuine concern lacing his words.

“Y-yeh they’re fine, even if they weren’t, Ladybug would have fixed everything,”

“Okay,” he doesn’t pursue the topic.

Yeah, Paris managed to be more depressing than Gotham somehow. The magic of supervillains shines bright.

Not minutes later, he started pointing out different areas where he gave detailed accounts of his acts of rebellion against the undermining workers he dealt with, he named different departments for her and some of the actually interesting jobs they saw through and retold his comical stories of pissing off his assistant and Father.

She laughed when needed (suppressing a wince at the pain that followed)  and absorbed the information with content. Their tour guide was okay, but Tim’s tour was probably four bars higher on the satisfaction rate. 

She was glad they were friends/insomniac partners.

“Over there- is the office I had practised my skateboarding in much to-” he explained as she looked at the frosted glass office he pointed at.

Clumsinette had made her appearance for the first time today.

She tripped on her foot and nearly fell, but thankfully the boy beside her had caught her by the waist.

She hissed in pain before biting her tongue as she resisted curling in on herself. Alerted by the reaction the boy propped her up.

“Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” he panicked.

“No no I’m” she grunted, “ fine ,”

His face straightened.

“You sure?” he said sceptically.

“It’s nothing Tim, just some uh, stomach pain?”

“Was that a question?”

“No…” 

“Nette, what happened,” he said, with the tone he’d use against rogues . Surely she would answer him.

“Tim, I just fell down a while ago and it still hurts, I’m a clutz, it’s fine,” she insisted, silently praying he wouldn't pursue it.

He just sighed.

“If you say so Nette, but if you’re hurt you should see a doctor or something, we’re close to the labs anyway,” he says, trying to dismiss the topic.

She was most definitely hiding something. Did someone attack her? Why was she covering for them? What could have possibly happened. She had mentioned a liar but not a bully who would physically hurt her. How could falling down affect your ribs? 

She was lying to him and he couldn’t help but wonder why.

Maybe he could check the cameras later?

Yeah, he’d do that.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

After some awkward silence, he opened the lab doors for her and gave a teasing bow, 

“And here I bid you adieu, I must make my way back to the office before the five minute marker if I don't want my head bitten off,” he joked before turning to leave.

“You sure you don’t want to tell Cha-Adrien and Chloe a quick hello? They’re at the back of the group so no one should notice you,” she asked.

Why not? Maybe he’d catch a glimpse of the blonde’s bluntness directed towards the classmates the three most obviously disliked. It could be fun. Maybe if he recorded it for when he was inevitably late for his next meeting, the comedic value would tone down Tam’s scolding.

“Yeh, I don’t mind waving a hello to the blondies,” he shrugged as she giggled.

The two had walked through the lab quietly and soon the group was in sight with the two fashion heirs in sight. Mustering every bit of sneakiness she could, she tiptoed behind them and touched their shoulder making them both jump.

“Mari!” Adrien whisper yelled, then taking notice of the waving co-CEO. The two waved back as he walked off.

“You okay?” he whispered into her ear. She winced.

“I think I broke a rib-” she started. He furrowed his eyebrows before turning his head to the side.

“Chloe!” he whisper yelled, the blonde instantly switched her phone off and whipped her head in their direction.

“Mare bear broke her rib,” he snitched as she went full mama bee mode.

“We’re getting you to the doctor. Now,” she orders, leaving no room for argument.

“Can Kaalki take us to the base?” she questioned.

“I don’t have any food for her,” Marinette sighed.

“The minute I get my hands on sugar, we are going to heal you okay?”

After the command, the cat and bug duo saluted her jokingly.

“Yes ma’am,” Adrien teased.

“You have to take care of yourself, Dupain-Cheng! How did you get hurt?” she scolded silently.

“It- it took two transformations and Viperion,” she grimaced. Chloe’s hard expression melted.

They all knew how... hard some akumas could be. Her partner took her into a side hug and rubbed comforting circles on her back as she leaned into his shoulder.

“I’ll try to be their next time Mousie, you can’t keep hurting yourself like this, don’t worry,”

As they walked along with the rest of the tour, it didn't seem anyone noticed her presence even as they passed through another department. From her spot at the back she could still faintly hear the snake spewing some more nonsense about her gothamite ‘connections’.

“Oh , you know the one I told you about on the plane here guys? I just hope we don’t run into him here because he works here. I don’t want it to be awkward between us,” Lila's voice rang out from the front of the group.

Alya had her phone at her side, typing away, presumably transcribing Lila’s story seeing as the NDA’s didn’t permit them to share anything they’d seen in the W.E. building.

“Don’t worry girl, if he passes by we can hide you,” Alya reassured her, draping a ‘comforting’ arm over her shoulder. A chorus of soft agreements followed and Marinette could practically see frustration vibrating off of the ever so patient guide.

“Thank you Alya, you guys are so sweet,” she batted her eyelashes, wiping a ‘tear’. 

“So if M. Drake is her ex and works as CEO, why did she come on the tour if she didn’t want to see him? The lie has no logic which is ri-”

“ridiculous , utterly ridiculous,” Adrien and Marinette said in unison, grinning.

She scowled at them.

“How dare you Dupain-Cheng, Adrikins, the betrayal-”

“Is it utterly ridiculous too?” Marinette giggled at the gobsmacked look on the blonde’s face.

“Don’t make me call over your dear friend Rossi,” she threatened.

The ravenette gasped.

“You wouldn’t,”

“Try me,” she smirked.

Suddenly the devil herself flicked her gaze in their direction.

“Oh Marinette! How nice of you to join us!”

The ravenette groaned.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

“M?” a voice said behind her, slightly startling the petite girl. In reflex, she slammed her book shut and her grip on the pencil flipped to that of a dagger.

Turning her gaze to the voice, the blond in a big black hoodie grinned as she relaxed.

“Salut minou,” she said, recognising him, “what are you doing here?” she questioned, tilting her head, then motioning for him to sit beside her.

As he walked from the stairwell onto the flat roof, he sighed, taking a seat. 

“The kwamis said you would be up here,” he explained, as he leaned on her shoulder.

She glanced at him then turned her gaze to the hazy view ahead of her.

This city, she decided, was a dirty place. The skies opaque, a permanent grey as clouds of pollution painted it. The buildings, either belonging to an entirely different time period, were dilapidated in some form of fashion or the rare modern and restored ones. The dubious street lighting barely illuminating the city was accompanied by the soft glows of all night establishments.

Yet somehow, it still managed to be pretty. Well, at least from her view eleven stories up. Close up wasn’t nearly as appealing.

She could only imagine how different it’d be to jump across these rooftops instead.

“It’s kind of pretty,” she mumbled. Her partner snorted.

“I don’t see it,” he remarked, “I feel like if I breathe too hard I would start choking,” he joked.

She giggled at the half truth.

“You’re not wrong,”

They sat there, ever still. Adrien leaned on her shoulder with his eyes closed, while she sketched under the lowlights of the gloomy night sky.

Being up there, even sitting, they felt tall . On patrol nights, they’d be just like this on the Eiffel Tower, at the edge.

“Are you alright?” he whispered to her.

She knew what he meant. She did. So she offered him a sheepish smile.

“Just a little sore, I’m glad Master Fu’s herbs worked as well as they did. His magics works in weird ways,” she shrugged, not taking her eyes off the page.

“That’s good to hear, it was hard enough for three of us to portal back to base after the tour,” he huffed.

Lila had become a mild inconvenience when Chloe, Adrien and Marinette had ‘suddenly disappeared’ after the tour for over an hour.

Working  with Fu’s herbs was hard when they had to translate the grimoire to understand which stick did this and which powder did that. Because if they didn’t get the mixture right, the whole room could smell like eggs or turn purple in one explosion. 

They could speak from experience.

They sat in silence for moments.

“Je suis désolé Marinette,” he said out of the blue.

She raised her gaze to her partner and tilted her head, expressing her confusion. The statement truly perplexed her. He had no reason to apologise, did he? 

“Que veux-tu dire?”

She felt his deep inhale.

“I wasn’t there for you,” he paused, “Chlo and I covered for you, but it's not the same, I left you to fight alone,”

She furrowed her eyebrows and rested her head on his and her free hand on his.

“That’s not true Adrien,” she whispered back gently, squeezing his hand, “you helped me in other ways,”

He then lifted his head, causing her to raise as well before he stared into her eyes, remorse filled.

“But I did, you broke a rib, Marinette !” he whisper yelled, his expression that of a distraught nature, “I’m supposed to protect you, and I didn’t, if I had been there, I could’ve taken your hits- Done something-”

She dropped her pencil. Then she held his face tenderly with her hand.

“No,” was said firmly, “You need to stop that Adrien, you aren’t just a shield . You are my partner, my equal . And I will not have you believing that the only way you can be useful is as an expendable pawn,”

“But-”

“No,” “you can’t keep doing that, throwing yourself in front of me? Sacrificing yourself? It hurts me when you do that chaton. You can have the purest of intentions but then your execution of them always proves to hurt someone, you act in the moment and then, you're gone. How can you protect me if you aren’t by my side? ” 

Tears brimmed at the corner of her eyes as flashbacks of every time he had thrown himself into danger in an attempt to save her crossed her thoughts. How every plan he made to help protect someone backfired because he either acted too hastily, or had approached the situation badly.

He couldn’t just stay with her .

She pulled her hands away, pressing them to her chest. He stared at her dumbly. A sense of realisation dawned upon him.

“This isn’t just about the akumas, is it…” he said. She just looked away and sniffled.

“I know I messed up back then,” he sighed, “not defending you, or anyone else, from Chloe? I had thought by keeping her happy she’d change, after all, I’d known her for so long,” he gave a dry laugh, 

“And then that- Lila, came along and I thought the same thing,” he took a sharp inhale, “I thought, if she’d been pleased, she’d stop being a little liar...stop manipulating everyone and then so long later nothing had changed. I realised, she'd never be satisfied,” he paused, 

“I’m sorry it took me so long to realise she was hurting people, the class, me, you . I’m so so sorry about everything you had to go through thinking I had your back, I-”

“But you changed,” she cut him off.

“Huh?”

“You stood up for me.” her lips twitched upwards, “You realised what was going on and you stood by me, even when you knew your father would kill you back then, you told her off. You spoke up, knocked her a peg down and you stayed by my side ,”

“I-”

“You nothing ,” she narrowed her eyes at him,, then pointed at his chest, “My minou gave so much up for me and yet he still doesn’t see himself as valuable or worthy. He throws himself to the wolves at every chance to prove himself and he acts with his heart because he’s driven by his loyalty to those he loves. You are my partner,” with each sentence she lightly jabbed him.

A lump formed in his throat. ‘ Was that really what happened? She was the important player in battles. Of course he protected her! But- was it true…that she felt like he’d just left her?

Were his sacrifices only proving a hindrance to her?

Did he really screw up so badly in the past?

Or was he still doing it?

“Desolèe,” he muttered.

Then she cupped his face for the second time that night.

“Stop. Being. Sorry. You . Stupid. Cat,” she jabbed him with a finger at every word, then sighed , “Just promise me. That your safety will matter to you as well. You can’t look out for me if you aren’t even around,”

He stared into her bluebell eyes. Despite the burning in his throat and the tears of guilt ready to spill, he gave a small smile.

“I promise,” 

“Good, and you better keep that or I’ll fling you across the city for being stupid,” she teased, although she was dead serious about that.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

“Well m’lady, a cat must be a little mischievous now and then don’t you agree?” he smirked.

“I thought we left the mischief to Plagg?” she retorted with a smile.

“But I’m his kitten! He said so himself!”

She shook her head, still grinning.

“I guess the bad puns were inherent then,” she muttered to herself as she picked back up the pencil laying inches away.

Her boyfriend gawked.

“You find my puns endearing! I distinctly remember you saying my sense of humour was my best trait!”

“Who says they weren’t the best because they were amusingly terrible?” she smirked.

He gasped dramatically and placed a hand to his heart.

“You love them,” he insisted, kissing her temple.

She flushed pink and buried her face in her book.

“You can’t just do that,” she mumbled in her hands, still blushing.

It was his turn to smirk with a smug smile on his face, “What? I can’t kiss the love of my life?” he teased, kissing her crown.

“Adrieeeeeeeeeeen,” she whined.

He just laughed like an idiot.

An idiot in love.

Chapter Text

“....could that”

“That wouldn’t work, I heard from Alix they’d be having a girl’s sleepover tonight at her place,” she sighed, running her hand through her hair.

The blonde opposite to her copied her actions. “What if we send in the kwamis?” Said beings perked up at the idea, bright expressions jumping at the chance to be put into action.

“Yes guardian! We are masters of elusiveness!  I, the kwami of illusion, volunteer as tribute!” Trixx announced proudly raising his tiny paw enthusiastically, as the other tiny creatures snickered.

“We need to stop letting Chloe watch these English movies around you,” Marinette mumbled.

“But she ain't wrong Pigtails, you and Loverboy aren’t exactly subtle,” the black cat kwami added, floating to the fox’s side.

“Hey ! What’s that supposed to mean!” Adrien pouted. The kwami laughed, “Nothing at all,”

“Marinette, is it wise to take the sketchbook? What happens if you get caught? Don’t you think you are acting too hastily?,” Tikki reigned in the voice of reason.

“Tikki, the longer she has the sketchbook, the more time she has to something horrible with it, right now, the best option we have is to get it back as soon as possible,”

“She’s right Tikki, we have to do something now,” Adrien reinforced Marinette's point.

The kwami hummed lowly, neither agreeing nor speaking another word against them.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

“Okay, here’s option D since A, B, and C are too complicated,” the ravenette scowled.

The blond suppressed a snort, “I’m sorry we don’t have access to a grappling hook to swing into her balcony,”

“My suit covers that!”

“Ladybug can’t be seen in Gotham?”

“Touché,” 

“Right, let’s hear option D,” he encouraged her, amused by her rather creative plans.

“Okay, so first, we need a fake moustache and a staff pass….” Adrien smiled fondly at the ridiculousness.

.

..

….

“Pigtails is really going all out for that sketchbook,” Plagg observed as he nibbled on another roll of camembert.

“At this rate the night will end before they actually execute a plan,” Trixx scowled, his paws folded as he sat next to the cat after being turned down at his offer as 'tribute'.

“Intervention?” he posed, but through his full mouth is came out more like ‘infuhfenshun’

“Of course,” Trixx rolled his eyes. “Silly humans always need a nudge now and then,” the fox kwami added.

“Tikki’s gonna have our tails,” he snickered as Plagg gulped.

“But she loves you, so you can take the blame and we’ll get out unscathed,” he quickly added, batting his eyes innocently.

“How dare you! I am not your scapegoat! I am superior!”

“Yeah yeah, being of destruction and all that, now, we have an agreement?”

The green eyed kwami Hrphmed but nodded.

Trixx knew he played his cards right, Plagg was always a sucker for his ‘sugarcube’ 

…

..

. 

“Okay, wait, what if we use just the staff card? We don't need to disguise ourselves,” Marinette tried, the other two involved in the discussion shook their heads once more.

“That’s stealing,” the blond gave his girlfriend a pointed look.

“We’ll give it back!”

“But then how are we getting it back to the staff member? We could get kicked out of the hotel if we get caught!”

“Erm,”

.

..

…

“If we get caught by Pigtails it’s on you,” Plagg reiterates for the third time as they stand in front the door entrance, ready to leave the room.

“And if we get caught by Tikki it’s on you,” Trixx returns.

The cat just grumbles and the two phase through the entrance with ease. The halls are empty as they float through. Both looking at each door as they make their way down the hall. And seconds later Plagg stops abruptly, and as Trixx notices he does the same.

“Why’d ya stop?” he said, raising an eyebrow.

“Urgh, Triiiiiixx do we know which room they’re in?” Plagg whined.

“Oops,” he shrugs, “It’s just a little more time to take, it’s supposed to be below us with the other class, if we listen closely I’m sure we’ll hear the giggling that usually comes with these human sleepovers, remember when the guardian had them?”

Both shuddered, recalling being crammed into the miracle box whenever Marinette had her friends over. By crammed, they mean she physically pushes them into a corner and whisper yells at them to get the box because she forgot she was having company over.

The cat sighed, unwilling to put this much effort into finding them . 

“Fine, but you better be getting me extra camembert for the amount of work going into this,”

"Why couldn't you take an interest in something more ordinary? Like macarons or something? Why cheese?"

"Do not insult my Cheese!" he hissed right back.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The room is an absolute mess. That’s the first thing the two noticed as they phased through another set of walls, finally finding them. There’s popcorn all over the two person bedroom and enough clothes to warrant that an entire modelling gig had happened. This group had made a five star suite look like a kid's birthday party had stormed through.

Hiding behind an empty, but used bowl and a tall glass, the two took a moment to be nosy.  The seven girls sat in a circle in the middle of the room on the grey matting, chattering so loudly it was a wonder none of the neighbours had filed a complaint, or their teacher had disbanded the most surely unauthorised gathering.

The shy ‘smelly wolf’ kid, if Plagg recalled, was braiding goth girl’s hair while Pinky sat crossed legged next to her nodding along to whatever the liar was babbling about. Reporter girl nodded along with Sabrina.

“...Oh yes, of course I can get you in contact with the Gotham Gazette Alya! My mother did a piece with one of their best! Vicki Vale was it?” the italian gushed and stars practically shone in Alya’s eyes.

“Omg, girl thank you so much bestie it would be an a-mazing opportunity! Almost as good as Lois Lane!”

“That’s so sweet of you Lila!” Rose cooed. 

“I hope to get some shopping done at the mall tomorrow, that’s where we’re spending the free day right? Gotham has such an interesting fashion sense,” Lila sighed dreamily.

“Mhm! I wonder if they have anything for me! This city isn’t really bright but I'm sure there has to be something! All everyone wears here is so…dull,” Rose frowned, flashing back to her observations during the tour. Everyone they had passed by in the bus and in the building wore muted colours and suits and ties, no colour whatsoever! She much preferred Paris’ bright skies and colourful people.

Rossi gave a sly grin before quickly masking her expression with feigned worry, “I’m sure you will… but I just hope Marinette doesn’t cause a scene,”

Alya rolled her eyes annoyed while the goth all but perked up at the mention of the ravenette’s name, “What do you mean ?” she muttered, her focus moved from the girl braiding her hair to the one speaking.

The brunette picked at her nails and bit her lip like she didn’t just jump at the chance to throw shade on their president.

“ When did she cause a scene on the trip Lila? I know she was missing from the tour for a while but that wasn’t a scene was it? ” Rose titled her, perplexed at the proclamation. 

“No, but Marinette had put Adrien up to talking to Mme. Bustier rudely yesterday, ” Alya scoffed as she ‘recalled’ the event. All attention wasimmediately turned to Alya's story.

It was at the point, the kwamis tuned out of the teenagers’ conversation, not wanting to listen to them talk badly of their guardian. Especially as Plagg fully knew the teacher was in the wrong in that situation and that pigtails hadn’t put his kitten  up to anything.

“ Bleck , I don't need to hear this, c’mon Trixx, we need to get the book,” Plagg gagged as he carefully floated behind an array of items trying to stay out of the sightline of any of the room occupants. 

“I agree,” he said, taking one last look at his previous holder, shaking his head in disappointment, then following his companion.

He had truly thought the young reporter made an excellent Fox. But a Fox could only be so great if she could create but not distinguish between illusion and reality. They'd had a good run.

Two pairs of eyes danced around the messy room from a lampshade, attempting to navigate the sea of belongings. The sketchbook was pink, they would recall. A pastel pink with polka dots on one part and stripes the other.

The beds were messy, but empty. The shelves untouched and the double door closet filled with clothes but nothing more. Under the bed were the suitcases, the blue one was completely emptied and open, but the zebra print…maybe? Would it be so easy?

Plagg hummed as he stared at it before going in. 

“ Aha!” he whispered triumphantly eyeing the very book they’d been searching for. Reaching his tiny paws out, he gripped the end of it and tried to float upward .

The issue is, tiny kwami bodies can only hold that much weight, whether they had the powers of the universe at their fingertips or not. He groaned at the strain, the unbalanced weight distribution had the object leaning downward from the opposite end until eventually it fell back down.

“Triiiiiixx,” he whined. The fox zipped into the case quickly and snickered a bit before speaking, “What did you expect Plagg? That thing is five times bigger than you,” then he looked up, “you didn’t even open the suitcase,”

The cat just groaned again, “The stupidity of sausage hair out there must be rubbing off,” he muttered. His companion laughed again before leaving to unzip the suitcase before returning. The two held the opposite ends and lifted it with ease of the suitcase and past the bed sheet covers.

Then they flew slowly and cautiously past the bed base, vertically behind one of the shelving, and then above the head of whichever girl was closest to the door, miraculously going unnoticed. Just as they were going through the small space between door and frame, Trixx’s tail flicked aside, causing the decorative vase on the night stand right beside them to shake, but they weren’t there long enough to watch it topple over with a startling chorus of shattering pieces.

Not at all, they high tailed out of the room the moment the first shriek sounded, managing to unlock it from the inside.

The two laughed to their tiny hearts’ content as they floated in position right in front of the door.

“Aww sweet camembert, that was the most fun  I’ve had since the wax museum,” he pretended to wipe a tear.

“It was quite enjoyable,” Trixx agreed before the two floated continued their journey through the corridor, up the emergency staircase (because the sketchbook couldn’t just phase through the walls with them) and back to their room. But not before catching sight of a very panicked, disgruntled, and half asleep teacher bursting out her door to see what the commotion was.

Oooooooooooooooooooooo

Pete’s only had this job for a few weeks now. He’s lived in Gotham his whole damn life. All thirty seven of 'em! He’d seen the Joker on the news, he’d seen a Riddler attack up close and he’s experienced fear toxin first hand. He could safely say he'd seen some weird shit.

Being a security guard whose sole purpose is to stare at the thirty monitors for twelve hours daily was supposed to be one of the most normal and safest jobs he could find. He should have known there was no normal in Gotham.

Nothing about the flying sketchbook on the floor whatever at ten thirty in the night was normal. There was no drone hovering over it, there was no body attached to it, there was no ominous fog surrounding it like the magic in shows. It was just floating. Extraordinary, he'd say.

But was this something he had to call in according to the rules? No. it was not. Was he going to call it in either way? No, he was going to pull out his phone and go straight to Twitter, finally having a reason to use the #onlyingotham tag while finishing his powdered doughnut. The peak of life was getting to use that famous tag.

Pete’sEatingDougnutsAgain @dougnutlover  jun xx

#onlyingotham do you see just a sketchbook floating down floor five with no ominous smoke or anything at ten thirty in the night. I swear I slept enough and this is not a hallucination. There are no guidelines for this in training. Is this suspicious activity? Most likely. Will I call it in? If the boss sees it here, Technically I called it in.

#shouldIbeCallingThisIn? #ProbablyShouldCallInTheMagicBut #ThinkOfThePaperwork #pleaseDon'tFireMeThisJobIsTheNormalestIEverHad

Chapter Text

“So, basically, you want B to adopt her,” Jason summarised his younger brother’s last twenty minutes of ranting. He could swear Tim’s eyes had widened, but behind the white lenses of his mask it was rather hard to tell.

“What gave you that idea?” he shot, an incredulous tone apparent.

“Well,” he huffed, “You specifically mentioned blue eyes and black hair, a classic trait,” he put up a finger, “You’ve taken an interest in her which clearly means she’s either a weirdo or a hero of some kind,” he put up another finger, rolling his eyes(not that Red could see beneath his mask), “She-”

“ What does that mean?” he was interrupted.

“Eh?”

“Are you saying my friends are weirdos ?” he asked like it was news to him.

“Timbo,” he rested a hand on the man’s shoulder, “I’ll admit the hero side of the spectrum are exceptions, but have you met your boyfriend ,”

“ He’s not weird! ” Tim frowned, “He just has an open imagination,”

“The last time I met him he asked if I was a clone because Jason Todd is legally dead,” the vigilante deadpanned, staring dumbly at his sibling through his helmet.

“Whatever,” Tim mumbled, crossing his arms, “Let’s just finish patrol,”

“Nuh uh, we were talking about Sunshine so we’re gonna talk about Sunshine,” he tutted.

“ You haven't even met her and she has a nickname?”

Jason shrugged, “C’mon, we can talk and patrol, we still have three blocks to cover,” then he leapt onto the next rooftop flawlessly.

Red Robin sighed and followed suit. The two raced across buildings, occasionally looking down into the narrow alleyways between buildings. They’d continued bickering for at least ten minutes before they were walking across another office building when Jason had spotted movement on the next rooftop.

“Figure on the hotel at 6, hold back Replacement,” he said, squinting.

His brother turned his attention fully to the two black figures sitting in the middle of the flat roof.

“They’re a bit relaxed to be burglars,” he remarked.

“Still,” he said, “We can still check, patrol is rather slow tonight,”

“ Have you forgotten the Arkham breakout last week, ” Red Robin said in a ‘duh’ tone.

“No,” he shook his head, “Demon Spawn is already looking for them with Cass,”

“No names on field,” Oracle chimed in over the comms. 

“Sincerest apologies,” he snarked.

“Another one is joining them,” Red Robin announced.

“A meeting?” Jason suggested.

“Maybe” he hummed, “I’m sure we can get closer,”

“Oh,” Tim sighed, “It’s just Marinette and Adrien,”

Red Hood shot him a questioning look, before squinting at the figures, maybe he could make out a blond?

“You say that like it’s normal, did they seriously earn your trust already?”

“Shut up,” he frowned, “If you’re so adamant on observing them, why don’t you go ahead and listen in on their conversation,”

“Maybe I will ,”

“It’s kind of pretty, ” the girl mumbled. Jason snorted following her gaze. 

Which crack thought Gotham was pretty?

It was apparent ‘Adrien’ shared his sentiments with his next comment, “I don’t see it, I feel like if I breathe hard enough I’ll choke,”

He’d tried to listen in to the next exchange but they were whispering . They were on a desolate rooftop with only vigilantes nearby, why would they need to whisper? But the interesting part followed, after the silent exchange the blond chastised his girlfriend(?) in a rather familiar tone.

“But I did! You broke a rib Marinette,” he looked like he watched someone die with the plain distraught on his face , “I’m supposed to protect you! And I didn't. If I had been there I could have taken your hits- done something-”

He tuned out of the conversation from there onward. He really wasn’t in the mood for a lovers’ spat but he did find something interesting. Sunshine dearest didn’t look in pain at all for someone with a broken rib supposedly . While he did not have context, it was clear the injury was a recent acquisition. 

“Tim,” he mumbled, “you really do have an interesting choice of friends,”

~

(present time)

Let it be known that Jason Todd was pissed . It had only been what? A night? Yeah, it had only been a night since he got invested in Tim’s friends’ drama and somehow Bruce had managed to coerce him into babysitting the Frenchies. And despite what Tim had said about the small percentage of the class he’d met, the rest of them were plain annoying.

They didn’t want an international incident, Bruce said. There was a diplomat’s daughter and the mayor of Paris’ child on the trip, he’d said . And multiple rogues had escaped two weeks ago , he’d also said. Yeah, Jason could see the logic, but he didn’t have to like it.

He’d only been tailing all four separate groups all over the mall for an hour and nothing had really gone wrong . It really just was a very unproductive way to spend the morning.

Even observing the Ravenette and blondies Replacement had been talking about was a waste of time. If they weren’t in clothes stores it was fabric stores. And he didn’t need to hear the ‘gossip’ going through the second group. Honestly, he’d just wasted twenty minutes tailing each group of students. So he decided, he could just observe from his phone. So he found a comfy spot out of sight and did just that.

~

Two chilli dogs, french fries and a cup of soda later, he was sitting in the food court dragging his hand down his face as the lack of action increased his boredom tenfold. It’s not like he wasn’t used to it. Stake outs tended to run on lengthy and patience was a must but seriously .

He groaned after his second soda, “There are better ways to waste a weekday,”

If he was going to be stuck here, he might as well make it everyone else’s problem.

*Chat: The fam*

Ilivedbitch: B send Cass next time, this is boring

Purple’sbestfightme : get a chilly dog or somethin

Ilivedbitch: been there done that, next?

Thetrueheir: Todd, have patience, even you can complete a simple task as watching teenagers

Ilivedbitch: oh yeah? Why don't you do it then

Thetrueheir: because that's your job

He wasn’t gonna argue with that, the kid would just drag along the conversation until he ‘won’.

Ilivedbitch : sure

Ilivedbitch: anyway, nothings happening and its already like, 9 when do i leave?

CrytpidOfGotham: Jason, you leave at the end of the day when they do

CryptidOfGotham: Also, who chose names this rounds?

I<3myjob: was steph’s turn

Purple’sbestfightme: snitch

I<3myjob: very creative of you 

Purple’sbestfightme: Last round you did fruit names,

I<3myjob: i was tired in my defence

TheDukeOfTheManor : Tim, you're always tired

I<3myjob: well i'm busy so i have the right

Missknowitall: hate to bring down the mood but

Missknowitall: @everyone i need y’all to log into comms, we have intel on scarecrow sighting 

CryptidOfGotham: Location barbara?

Missknowitall: near Gotham’s shopping district, Jay he’s in your area

“Shit,” he cursed, jumping to his feet. He watched his third unfinished chilli dog with a sigh. He needed to get his suit and get these people out of here.

Shoving his phone in his pocket, he walked off at a fast pace towards the escalator, manoeuvring through the thick crowd of people. It was mid morning Monday, why were there so many people? 

He’s pushing through people at this point, but as a shriek sounded through the open air. The echoes of shattered glass and gunshots followed. By now, he was cursing repeatedly as he made his way up to the third floor, down three store fronts, corridor on the right to the security booth . 

He opened the door quickly, startling the guard in the chair at the centre of the room.

“Hey you can’t be-” he started with a frown but Jason just rolled his eyes and walked up to him ignorantly.

“Sorry bud, I’ll need to borrow your seat for a while,”

Chapter Text

“Alya MOVE!” Adrien yelled hoarsely as another masked man came behind her. 

He was too far away to help, the other side of the food court to be exact, basically escorting Mylene, Ivan and Max out and away from the mass crowd, it would be easier to get to a safe hiding place that way. If he had his baton, he could just set it to extend and just, yeet the goon away- 

He dreaded that Marinette was near enough. The flurry of movements that followed his words? Her absolute lack of self preservation as she jumped forward, shoving Alya out of the way? He detested that too. 

And he didn’t dare look away as the reporter was smart enough to actually run away this time, her fearful expression reassuring him she won’t do something stupid. And from scooting on the floor from where she fell to picking herself up, she followed the rest of their classmates and a few other civilians that had headed to the nearest shop for sanctuary.

He wanted to yell Marinette’s name. He wanted to show his concern, be the knight in shining armour she had been for him way back when. But he couldn't.

  But he was in no position to draw attention to himself.  Nor did he have the means of helping her. So he silently watched as she fought the restraining arms of the muscular man who’d tried to make a grab for Alya reach for her instead.

 And sweat dripped down his face as he watched her snap at the Rogue, whatever she said, he couldn’t hear. He loathed the way she looked around the room before speaking so meekly, dawning a fearful expression. At that moment, he knew.

He knew in every ounce of his body that Marinette had made some sort of deal for everyone else’s safety. And he absolutely hated everything about that decision, because whatever the cost, it was going to get her hurt.

“ NO! ” she screeched as the gas mask was forced onto her face. She thrashed up and down, side to side, clawing at the man’s arms but he had her secured well enough. He watched in slow horror as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed.

Shrieks of panic followed. The large crowd surrounded stared, they just stared in terror, watching as the petite parisian slowly shook, regaining conscience she staggered to her feet moments later. The stance she took, reminiscent of every Akuma battle they’d been in. He couldn’t afford to worry at this point, the safest thing he could do was evacuate. 

He couldn’t afford to worry. No, not at all.

Officially, they were both in heroic modes. Chloe was already shoving their classmates away, slipping past any goons standing by. He thanks kwami their Bee couldn’t see the centre of the crowd right now as he nodded to the blonde, trying to get everyone else he could out of harm’s way.

Or whatever could be considered safe at this point.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

“Nino we need to go- now ,” Adrien hissed, pulling the boy out from under the table as the boy stared in shock at the horror scene before them. 

“I- But- M-marinette- We- can’t-” he stuttered, eyes glued forward, his body unmoving.

“Nino we have to go now! She would’ve gone to save Alya for no reason if we don’t leave now,” the blond whisper yelled as he squeezed his classmates shoulders before yanking him backward with as much force as needed.

Nearly all of them were out unnoticed, he just needed to get this one person out. (By everyone, he meant their class, because that was priority)

 As the DJ was now flat on the floor from the sheer force of the pull, Adrien could see the tears going down his face. Trying his best not to fall victim to the exact panic of the person in front of him, he grabbed Nino by his arm and dragged him through the path between the chairs he had made on his way crawling towards him. 

He tried his best to block out the sound of his girlfriend yelling at the rogue. But between that and forcing his friend to move, it was difficult. The situation, slowly getting harder and harder.

He huffed as he struggled to continue carrying Nino while trying to keep the down low. Eventually his arms gave out and he decided on a different approach. He stared into Nino's eyes with as much confidence as he could as he spoke.

“Panicking is going to get us nowhere,” he stated.

“But Mari-” he shook his head.

“We can’t help her. She’s gone and it’s up to Gotham's heroes to save her. There’s no miraculous cure here, we cannot risk going out there right now,” his voice was hoarse and words bitter, he’d done too much shouting during the initial break in.

If he took a moment, it was funny or ironic, if one chose. Paris’ heroes were reduced to civilians, counting on cryptid vigilantes to save them. And here he was, becoming a motivational speaker when even his life wasn’t together.

“What we can do is make it out of here. Alive and intact. And when they do get Marinette out of here, she’ll have nothing on her conscience. We both know if anyone doesn’t make it out, she’ll never live it down so move ,”

He heard the gulp that followed his statement. He wasn’t used to taking command, that was his partner’s usual role, but it seemed like the change in tone was motivating enough to get his friend moving on his own. 

Within a minute or two, the boys had made their way back to the rest of the class, huddled in the Jewellry shop nearest to the Food Court.

Multiple people had taken to huddling behind the glass countertops or some even in the back room, where employees were usually the only ones allowed. Among them were classmates, unfortunate bystanders and actual staff.

It had a certain je ne sais quoi to people coming together under dire circumstances. The adults were willing to listen to kids if it meant safety and even opposing parties didn’t care about anything prior when the time mattered, something demonstrated when even Alya had listened to Marinette’s last warning, the girl she’d been throwing shade on for days.

But, he wouldn’t dwell on that. Not at all, he had to stay focused on the situation in front of him.

“Oh thank kwami you're safe,” Chloe tackled him in a breathtaking hug. Quite literally. Her pale blue eyes flicked to behind him. Instantly, her eyebrows creased worriedly and her pupils contracted.

“Where is she? Where’s Dupain-Cheng,” she demanded, the relieved tone gone out the window and replaced with an interrogative voice that felt like he was the culprit in a good cop bad cop situation.

He looked up and away, shutting his eyes tightly as a tear slipped out. He could not  lose it here. Not right now. He needed to keep it together-

But the devastation. Kwami wishes he didn’t see the pure and utter devastation on Chloe's face as the hope drained out of her system.

“ No, ” she breathed, “She didn’t. No no no no NO! ” her hands sifted through her hair, pulling on strands.

“She uh, she pushed Alya out of the way,” he mumbled. 

He knew it would set her off. He did, Chloe had been trying not to maim Alya ever since she broke into their room. And he definitely saw the moment the Bee had started turning her gears.  Her fists had clenched so tightly they were shaking, if it were a cartoon, she’d be steaming, or frothing at the mouth. 

He decided against protesting when she handed him the sunglasses rested atop her head before she made a turn and stomped toward the very source of her anger. 

“ You ,” she spat, aggressively pointing at Cesaire, who was sitting with her knees to her chest, hiding her face. When the brunette raised her head, Adrien really didn’t anticipate the state she was in. Her glasses lay crooked to the frame on her face, eyes watery and red, cheeks tears stained. She’d been crying, a lot. And she wasn’t done if the way her shoulders were shaking.

But Chloe really didn’t care. Her tone didn’t soften seeing the absolute mess Alya was.

“ What do you want, Bourgeois? ” the reporter croaked out, like it physically pained her to speak.

“It’s because of you!” she pointed accusingly, uncaring of Alya's distressed appearance, “Because of you, Marinette is out there fighting for her life because she had to save your ungrateful ass!” she yelled, all but spitting in the latter’s face.

“You don’t think I know that?” Alya cried, rubbing her eye using the heel of her hand, “She pushed me out of the way after I opened my big mouth,” she sniffled, shaking her head.

“Imbècile! Acknowledging it happened doesn’t do shit right now! You and that Crètin over there,” she turned to point at Lila in another corner, “have been nothing but bothers this whole trip!” she gave a dry laugh, “What’s stopping me from just beating your a-”

“Oh Chloe, you really haven’t changed in the past year have you?” a ‘sweet’ voice rang in from the last place Chloe had pointed.

Adrien was tempted to growl, a reservation his childhood friend did not have at all. He’d been watching the interaction, somewhat pitying an already sobbing Alya and ready to break apart a fight. He could safely say, Alya deserved it, no matter how the other part of him tried to side with one of his former best friends. But when Lila opened her mouth? 

Plagg already had it out for her, maybe he should properly introduce them-

 Anyway, he didn’t need to look around the room to see that all the other classmates, still in various stages of shock from a few minutes prior, now had their full attention on the girls. They tensed significantly in the few moments Chloe took to respond.

“ What -” she snapped harshly.

He had to admit, it was slightly impressive that Lila’s expression was undeterred, an annoying smugness tracing her facial expressions. Even he was slightly afraid, and he wasn’t even involved.

“Our classmates told me stories about all the years of bullying you had put our classmates through, they said after you spent a term with your mom in NYC you had cooled down. Fixing a relationship, was it?” she placed a finger on her chin thoughtfully.

Oh kwami.

She knew she’d struck a nerve there. She had to, right?

“But here you are, proving them wrong,” she shook her head disappointedly,  “I read up on these ‘villains’ in Gotham you know, just in case things like this happened. Scarecrow out there? He plays on fears and emotion, and stressing our poor peers out is only going to make the toll on even being in this situation even harder.

 Could you imagine how bad it would be if we got caught and everyone was already in such a bad state? Can’t you see the state Alya’s already in? You're no better than the rogue out there, playing at her feelings, making her feel worse with your words,”

He looked around the room in horror as all his classmates nodded their heads in various degrees of agreement. Some even looked ashamed but nodded their heads like this was Miss Bustier lecturing Chloe.

How could they be so cruel? To compare their classmate to- a psycho? A killer ? A villain? He knew she bullied them, he’d reprimanded her in the years he’d been at the school. But was it that bad for them to agree?

Surely not. Right? 

Her years of being the bratty blonde princess of Paris were a shameful and regretful time for her to recall. A sore spot she never liked mentioning. Truthfully, he’d expected tears as Rossi attempted to embarrass her in front of the majority of their classmates.

Silent tears, maybe a frustrated grunt. Embarrassment from being reminded of her… past, embarrassment from the agreement circulating through the room. For her to clench her shaky fists, maybe yell and then retreat.

Instead, he saw the anger. The flare of fury as she turned around and narrowed her eyes at the italian. It was unlike the temper tantrums of her past, the childish whining or immature ‘powerplay’s’, unlike the spite she’d concentrated into determination on the field, it was pure and distilled hatred directed solely on Lila.

 He could never miss as she ran up to the silver tongued (kwami bless him) bitch. She managed a sucker punch straight to the jaw . With a collective gasp, Rossi was out cold, and the room erupted into pure and utter chaos.

He couldn’t help the smile. It just tugged at his lips, finally seeing the liar shut up.

 A triumph short lived as a loud voice sounded at the shop front, and a knocking on the door followed. 

. 

…

……

They couldn’t have been found right? 

Villains were never polite enough to knock.

Chapter Text

Marinette staggers back onto her feet as her head pounds. Kwami, it felt like an akuma had slammed her into a wall or something. She rubbed her eyes in an attempt to clear her vision and shook her head trying to dismiss the array of high pitched voices, all incoherent. Her eyelids felt heavy as she opened them and all the light came flooding in.

“Ugh,” she groaned as she clutched her head.

What was going on again?

 Attack- 

There is an attack-

 Who?

 Fear- 

Villain- 

Faceless- 

Scarecrow! 

 In front of her, she squinted as the rogue slowly morphed into another figure, a haze of colour assisting the transformation. The endless black that was supposedly his eyes gained colour and shape, turning into hauntingly blue cat pupils. The burlap sack that was his mask shrunk and transformed into a defined facial structure and his hideous clothing morphed into a slender figure dressed in a white leather suit. 

But it wasn’t real was it?

No, she’d stopped this.

It wasn’t real!

That was so long ago-

It wasn’t real, so why was he here?

“How dare you-” she yelled at him, her breath heavy.

Maybe she shouldn’t be spitting at the lethal rogue like that but he had no right-  

 He smirked, or, the face he was wearing did.

“That, little lady, is quite the odd reaction,”

“Don’t call me that-” she clenched her fists. 

“And why not? I’m curious about what you could possibly be seeing, perhaps you’d like to share with the class?” he gestured his hand all around him, there were other people? Why couldn’t she see them?  “It’s quite disappointing your fears don’t have you screaming, crying or begging,”

She growled at his disrespect.

“You don’t faze me, you are not mon minou you- you bastard!” she lunged at him without delay.

One would have thought it an unwise move, considering the factors of this being a Gothamite rogue and her being in her civilian persona but all she felt was rage gazing upon the pretender.

  Despite Chat Blanc- No, Scarecrow’s lack of face to express, the hallucination illustrated his surprise at the attack quite well. He stumbled back trying to shove her off but she relented to pull at his hair (which outside of the vision would be his mask) and force him to the ground using her weight.

Hitting the ground with a thud he still attempts to remove the petite parisian but she doesn’t give him a chance as she delivers a blow to the face. The adrenaline high delaying any pain she should have had from the force of it.  He waves his hand in a cat-fight like manner in a futile attempt to block her.

“Don’t just stand there! Help me you fools!” the imposter shouts, his voice hoarse. He didn’t get to protest further as she jabbed his throat causing fits of coughs and choking.

 On La Dame de Fer where they brawled, multiple akumas start materialising through the veil of emotionless blue sky , the worst of the lot she’d face over the years.

Syren runs forwards and attempts to pull her off by the arm. Her grip is strong as she drags Marinette off with her superior strength. Hissing, the ravenette turns around and sends a kick to her scaly side. She doubles over in pain, releasing her grip. 

“Stay away you sea devil,” she warns. Sacre bleu she hated dealing with Syren.

Then Style Queen and a smaller version of Ikari Gozen hastily run toward her, weapons at the ready. She effectively flipped the former over her shoulder with a strong grip and kicks the latter in the shin as hard as her black combat boots would allow.

 Both collapse roll on the floor curling into themselves in pain, pathetic . 

She turns back in Chat Blanc’s direction but he’s already back on his feet and directing more akumas her way.

“You have no right-” she chokes out, barely able to look him in the face, just like the few nights he’d haunt her. It hurt to look at him.

“Stop using his face right now! Stop it- Stop it- Stop it!” she cries.

 He isn’t fazed, he doesn’t even tilt his head like the confused kitten the real one would.

Two more akumas head her way, Riposte and Dark blade. But they don’t actually have swords do they? She might not have had her yo-yo but to hell if that would stop her.

Where was Tikki when she needed her? She wasn’t in her purse, she didn’t even have that.

She takes a quick look around, deciding on an iron rod (whether that was its actual form or not she didn’t care) and it served well enough as a baton/ bo staff. Thank maman for her teachings. And her time with Plagg of course.

One swings a right hook and as she ducks she swings her baton (rod) and hits Darkblade’s knee resulting in a satisfying crack. He crumpled to the floor and Risposte flinches but charges forward reluctantly.

Twirling the baton (rod) she blocks a sword (fist?) and whacks the akuma in the head as they too collapse on the ground almost dramatically. 

She stands her ground as she takes deep breaths. They might not be magic but they could still deal damage, and there was no cure for this.

 Her eyes flicked around the two others coming at her  and she wiped the sweat off her brow, tightening her hold on the baton (rod?)

Why were there so many? Was there a for-hire site somewhere in Gotham where rogues would just casually pick up an army of henchmen? How many people willingly worked for mentally ill baddies with affinities for making others suffer?

Kwami was glad she didn’t wear the stupid heels Chloe had picked out for her, they'd only served as a hindrance.

Chloe

Where was her class??? Everywhere she turned were simply akumas and the imposter but no sign of any of the french students. Did they leave her?  Were they in danger?

“Chloe? Adrien? Alya! Nino? I - can't see anyone- where are you?”

A flash of panic surged through her, the fear so raw and overwhelming it just felt like heat was surging through her head and chest. Her heartbeats so rapid she almost felt as though it was ready to burst.

A demented laugh escaped the pretender.

“Looking for your friends? Even if they were here you might’ve attacked them with whatever you’re seeing you feisty little lady. They left already! The blonde brats led them away. What are you Frenchies doing in Paris honestly? Some of you are bat material, you my dear would fit in well here,”

Thank miraculous they were safe. The Queen Bee led her hive away.

“Well , they are smart then, everyone knows Paris is a breeding ground for brave citizens so shut it. No furry is kidnapping me and forcing me into his flock of birds because I can fight now, let me leave or I will fight you,” she snapped.

Words to be laughed at. She’d slapped Adrien up the back of his head for calling the renowned detective a furry, and yet here she was being a hypocrite. And she’d fight him? What idiot would fight a rogue while high on poison(?) and lacking the skill?

“You have the self preservation of a Gothamite my dear, I am quite sure my friends would love you,”

She wasn’t sure if to be worried or flattered. Especially as a rogue was telling her this.

“Well you’ve gone and painted a target on my back already so have at it,” she snarked.

Note to self,  update list of things that remove mouth filter, lack of sleep, fatigue, morning akumas  and fear toxin.

“Now stop wearing my chaton’s face or I will kick it in,”

“Well little one, before I grow tired of your entertaining fit and punish you for your little fist fights, enlighten me to this cat’s face, what is your fear? And why on earth would you be afraid of your kitty?”

“It’s none of your business,” she snapped. Why wasn’t she fighting him already? Right, stay alive. Not Ladybug. Civilian. Civilian Marinette.

“Oh but it is, My life’s work is to study fear. To record and adapt, to ensure my test subjects produce the desired reactions, I love to study my toxins and you are the first to have such a….unique reaction, so tell me and I may spare you just yet,”

She gritted her teeth. His words were to be taken as seriously as Rossi’s but what’s the harm in humouring him? The bats should be there soon and admittedly, she wasn’t going to win alone. She needed to stay out of the conflict as long as she could, for her sake.

Priority was survival.

“ I won’t tell you whose face you wear. I had lost him because of my mistake. And these goons you have for your dirty work?” she laughed dryly, “ They wear the faces of the problems that are my responsibility to face,”

He was quiet for a hot minute. 

“That is quite fascinating indeed. You cry and beg but not scream. You fight my men ruthlessly and yet you are afraid of the reminders they pose as. You little lady, are very interesting,”

“I assure you sir, I am just a normal girl with an absolutely normal life,” internally, she would scoff at the words.

“If you believe so, who am I to question those beliefs? If I withhold my men from attacking would you speak to me about what you see? This is a truly a phenomenon and I must know more,”

“Well I suppose not dying is preferable,” she scrunched her eyebrows, “do you promise not to attack if I drop my baton?” She tilts her head like an innocent child.

He nods but she knows better to trust a villain so she does not relax her stance as she lowers her weapon. Especially to one who just wanted to ‘talk’ even if they were genuinely intrigued.

“If it does not bother, I'd prefer not to look at you during this…vision. It’s unsettling,” that was true-

“Understandable,” he nods, “ now tell me, if my current form does indeed scare you, why did you not scream upon first sight?”

“Minou is very close to me, you are a dark side that happens but doesn’t. I never told him about this side and he’d never known it happened. I fear what he does to himself and to others in this form of….insanity. I don't fear him as a whole, just the damage done when he did what never happened,” she explained as vaguely as she could. Maybe she could play the ‘not native speaker’ card?

“While I am perplexed by your somewhat riddled speak, I have found it concerning that this, pardon if my French is off, kitty?  Scares you because of his potential madness and yet you didn’t scream, you…begged for me to take off his face. Why?”

“Because, when he turned he wasn’t himself. He was controlled and he looked the opposite. His energetic green eyes turned a haunting ice blue and his messy blonde hair bleached white. He wasn’t him,” she sniffed. Why did he have to look like Chat?

“So with his insanity came a new appearance,” he hummed thoughtfully before continuing, “And why did you fight the other men if this minou’s form scared you? You said they were your responsibility, explain?” his last words lolaced with eagerness.

“They are bullies of mine who demand things I cannot give and must fight to protect, even if they get injured,”

“Surely mere bullies could not provoke such violence, there is clearly more,” he urged.

“They fight me, I fight them, they hurt me I endure, they hurt others I persist,” she insists, a warning underlay ‘don't test me’. She phrases it riddle-like purposely, just to spite the curious psycho.

“Could you stop playing riddler for five seconds and give me straight answers?” he snaps frustratedly.

“I am giving you what you want! I can say it however I like, from where I stand, I am your only subject of this result,” she snapped right back in the very same impatient tone.

“Fine” he grits out, “then tell me, where did you learn to fight? Despite your small frame you incapacitated half of my strongest men,”

“Lessons and years of being targeted,” she deadpanned.

“By whom?”

“Do you know Paris’ situation?”

“The magic terrorist if I recall,”

“His mind controlled peoples always have a reason for being manipulated. And despite everything, I am somehow always caught in the attack so of course I learn to fight,”

“With every question I ask your life sounds less than normal little lady,”

“Don’t call me that,” she hissed. He ignored her and continued.

“Hm now, you have explained why you do not react the same to the toxins, but why are you not afraid here?”

What was she to say? That she was stalling? That she was afraid of death but cared enough to be daring? That she was high on toxin and ready to shove his syringe down his throat?

“Because, I am scared but I will smile when faced with problems and I will laugh when put through sadness. As I have for years,” she decided.

“Well-”

His response was cut by a chorus of shattering glasses and screams. The two didn’t make eye contact but they knew. The bats were here.

About friggin time too.

She panicked as she saw the rogue point at her,

 “Take her!” he yells at his goons. 

Multiple akumas approach her again. She is quick to pick back up the weapon she had previously dropped by her foot. Before anyone could actually make contact, some get hit by metal disks (batarangs? That’s what Alya called them) and others are swiftly knocked to the ground by a dark figure.

  She holds her baton up in the air and settles her feet in a defensive position. Her vision still hasn't cleared and talking with the insane man hasn't helped with her headache. She was in no shape to fight off more than two idiots at a time.

“Stay back,” she spits at the first akuma to approach her, it was a Puppeteer. Tears pricked in the corner of her eye seeing the akumatized little girl in front of her but this wasn’t Manon.

“Miss I’m here to help,” they say, voice contorted. 

“I can’t see who you are, you could be another idiot for all I know, so unless your name is Adrien stay away ,” she hissed, gripping the metal in her hand tighter.

Without a word they advance her with something in hand. I mean- there was a possibility it was a bat or something coming to administer the cure for her but she wasn’t taking chances. 

The second they got close enough she dealt a kick. Which they caught, with quite a strong grip too- but! But then she jabbed their chest with her baton and they stumbled back. She then advanced and quickly swept under their feet.

Then she felt someone behind her and found a ‘Dark Owl’ imitation behind her, towering in height. She leapt back and scanned around for any others. He held something small in one hand but the other was free.

She tried to push him back with her baton but he just caught it and tossed it aside with a ‘clank’.

“Hey!” she protested. He just grunted  and stepped forward, the occupied hand hovering over his shoulder.

She doesn’t know if she channeled her inner Ladybug or something but she leapt and used his shoulders as a pole vault and flipped over. Landing behind him, she jumped onto his back and held his throat in a lock. He tried to pry her off when she felt a sharp sting on her thigh.

She used her weight to slam them both to the ground but then another bar of dizziness was added to her body. Within moments, she struggled to even open her eyes, drowsiness overcoming her. Eventually, she gave into the fatigue. 

Then it all went black.

Chapter Text

“Sacre bleu, what now ,” the blonde hissed as she turned toward everyone else.

All eyes had turned to the store front and the mouths previously very engaged in protest were shut. Adrien had only held one finger up in response. Using the other hand to point to the door he slowly went from the middle of the store to behind the counter next to herself and the unconscious italian. 

“Someone’s outside, I need you to stand on the left end of the door, avoid the glass,” she whispered into her ear before crawling across the room, behind the counter tops and to the right side of the door with a fire extinguisher he’d grabbed from the wall on the way in hand.

Copying his actions parallel to him, the only weapons on her were the six inch stilettos she’d bought, and was miraculously able to keep possession off in the run. Maybe it was because she’d hand several shopping bags wrapped around her arm with their tight handles of cheap plastic and she hadn’t the time to get it off as she played civilian escort.

And Marinette said heels were useless -

Marinette.

Kwami she hoped Dupain-Cheng made it-

No. Stay on task.

She didn’t have time to worry.

She nodded to Adrien and raised the weapon in an offensive position as the doors opened. Both blondes were about to swing when Chloe spotted a domino mask underneath the mop of hair. Her eyes widened as she froze,

“Wait! Stop!” she yelled, almost cringing at how loud she’d been. If they got caught after they had worked so hard to get away, she’d die of embarrassment before they shot her. Adrien had hesitated, causing him to miss his target instead of stopping the attack altogether.

The figure fully entered and recognition was instantaneous. The black haired man sported a blue accented black suit and a pair of small baton looking weapons. (sue her for forgetting the word) even through his white lensed mask,the surprise was evident as he held both hands up in a surrendering motion. He was a vigilante sure enough, however his name however, eluded her entirely. It wasn't important anyway.

“Hey! I’m on your side!” He reassured them.

She suppressed a groan.

 They’d nearly assaulted a vigilante.

Meh he would have deserved it for sneaking up on a bunch of armed, scared civilians.

“I’m here to get you out while my team takes care of Scarecrow,”

The announcement yanked back up the long discarded hope in the hiding civilians.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

She was on a stretcher .

That was the first thing Chloe noticed as the last of the hostages were escorted out of the building. She had been huddled in a blanket next to Adrien a few feet away from the rest of the class, all the way on the opposite end of the mall’s yard but that didn’t stop her from seeing.

The baker’s daughter lay limp on a stretcher while two paramedics carried her out, the last three vigilantes trailing behind her. She was safe .

“Adrien,” she grabbed his shoulder harshly, turning him in her direction, “Adrien it’s her! It’s her! They brought Marinette out!”

The gears turned in the blond’s head quickly and the previously out of zoned teen was now very much alert. He turned towards the nearest medical personnel. 

“Can we-”

“We aren't waiting for someone to say something!" she scolded, "Let’s go!” she grabbed his arm, disregarding the blankets falling off their shoulders as they drew closer to the ambulance van their partner was being placed into, closing in on an awkward jog-pace. No one seemed to notice them walking off in a hurry.

~

“We need to see our friend,” The mayor’s daughter demanded, determination displayed for all as she spoke to the paramedics closing the van door.

“Sorry ma’am, you need to give the girl a minute, she was just administered the dose of antidote and uh, waking up is quite a ride, especially with her… unique reactions to the toxins themselves,” the man said, scribbling something down on his notepad.

The bee wielder opened her mouth to cuss him into letting them in, but Adrien placed his arms firmly on her shoulder, “It’s fine," he sighed, "We can wait, but how long do you think the wait will be?” he asked, voice tensed and Chloe could hear the strain on politeness.

“Give ‘er thirty minimum, but erm, she has… other people in line for an audience,” the man said, nudging his head towards the tall figure talking to a man in a brown trench coat near one of the other vans. Then he walked away, presumably to check with other people.

It was tall, dark and brooding, (at least, that's what Chloe might’ve called him) the famous ‘Batman’. What could he possibly want to talk to Marinette about? He couldn’t possibly want to interrogate her, not about whatever happened in there.

Right?

It seemed like Adrien had followed her thought process as he looked to her with worry.

“We can’t have him asking her about anything ,” he said, exaggerating the ‘him’ as he pointed to the vigilante, “She’ll freak,”

“ I know that Adrikins. We both have an idea about what she saw and talking about things straight forward isn’t Dupain-Cheng’s style. If she’s forced to talk about it things will go wrong,” 

“They’re taking statements, you think we can stall him?”

“Well if Dupain-Cheng isn’t planning to wake up, period we won’t have an issue,” Chloe rolled her eyes in feigned annoyance.

Why them? 

Ooooooooooooooooo

It had only been ten minutes, Chloe knew this. It was normal for victims of fear toxins to take a while, the medic told her this. And yet, the young Bourgeois could not stop worrying.

The two had been hovering near the rest of the class while waiting. And kwami did they hear some interesting statements being taken.

Nino:

“I-I’m still not really sure what happened back there,” he hugged his blanket tighter, “One minute I was being dragged behind my girlfriend and Lila on their shopping spree and the next, there are gunshots and my man Adrien is pulling me between tables and chairs away from a whole kidnapping and manic sack bag villain attacking Mari,” he looked down and then away as the woman scribbled furiously on her notepad,

“Would Mari be Marinette Dupain-Cheng?”

“Yeah,” he muttered.

“Could you tell me what happened to her? It’s fine if you don’t want to,”

“I’d rather you hear it from me than…others,” his gaze flicked over to the olive eyed brunette crying to another officer.

The policewoman raised an eyebrow but listened nonetheless.

“'Alrighty' then,” she huffed, clicking her pen, “Let’s hear it,”

Ivan and Mylene:

Despite his tall and menacing appearance, the officer taking his statement quickly found his more introverted personality somewhat surprising.

“ Chloe saved us,” he admitted, twiddling his thumbs, “She did aggressively grab us,” he thought out loud, but was quick to amend,  “but only to pull us away from some of the masked men!”

“Oh don’t sound like that Ivan!” the shorter girl scolded, “We’re grateful she pulled us out of the way, because of her we escaped those- those-,” she struggled to find the word, “Villains?” she questioned herself.

“Adrien was also pulling our classmates away,” the boy added, to which his girlfriend nodded.

“If only Marinette hadn’t pushed Alya away,” she frowned.

“Could you elaborate on that?” the officer clicked his pen.

The couple shared a glance before recalling the tidbits they’d observed in the struggle.

Alya (Plus Lila (?)):

The young Cesaire was still sobbing. One would think her tear glands would have dried by now but you’d suppose the guilt was enough to keep her going. This was not helpful to Officer Hillary.

“Miss, I need you to breathe,” she said gently, “I can’t take your statement if you can’t even form words.

“ Hic H-he he n-nearly go- hic to me! M-mari hic Marinette pushed me hic out of the way hic ,” she stuttered, choking on her words.

The girl beside her rubbed circles on her back sympathetically.

“Please be patient with her,” Lila smiled softly, “Outside of Paris, being endanger is scarier without reassurance that the Miraculous Cure will save us so it’s hard for my friend here,” she sighed, “If you would like, I could give you my statement instead?”

The woman shrugged, staring down at her blank notepad.

Juleka:

“Chloe pulled me and Rosy into a jewellery shop when everything started,” the shy girl mumbled, the officer straining to hear her without pushing.

“There was a complaint from one of your classmates about being assaulted by Ms. Bourgeois while you all were in hiding, could you confirm this?” he asked nonchalantly.

A smirk escaped from beneath her purple tipped bangs.

“Of course not, Lila has a lying disorder, you can ask our guardian for the trip,”

“...a lying disorder,” he shot her a sceptical look, “That’s new,”

“Hm,” 

Alex (and Kim apparently):

“Unlike Mylene and Ivan,” the pink haired girl recalled, “This doofus and I saw Marinette’s whole…episode,” she poked a finger at the buff and athletic boy behind her.

“It was freaky man,” Kim shivered, “I’ve never seen Marinette like that,”

“Marinette, Adrien and Chloe had been helping people evacuate, everyone had made it safely to a store front further down the hall from the food court,”

“Except Marinette, Alya, Adrien and Nino,” Kim intervened.

“Nino had a panic attack mid- escape so Adrien had to drag him away,”

“And Alya tried to film the attack,” the boy said in a dull tone.

The officer taking their statement paused momentarily, “I’m sorry… film ?”

The pink haired parisian scowled, “Old habits die hard,”

“She nearly got grabbed,”

“And Marinette shoved her out of the way,”

“And got gassed instead,” Kim finished.

“ Well fuck ,” Officer Jefferson cursed, sieving his fingers through his hair, “This is one hell of an attack,”

Chloe and Adrien:

Officer Hillary had taken at least a dozen statements so far, all of which she could compile into about three different timelines of events. One thing she noted was the heavy involvement of the Parisian teens in the mess of things. From her batch of victims’ statements, the majority talked about the two blond kids that’d helped them and the poor kid who played hero and ended up gassed.

After winning three rounds of rock-paper-scissors with her partner Jefferson, she’d gotten the privilege of taking their statements.

So, the middle aged officer walked up to the two teens, whose gazes were locked on the paramedic van across the yard. 

‘ That must be where Ms. Dupainn Cheng was being kept,’ she mused to herself.

“Mr. Agreste? Ms. Bourgeois?”  Sure, she phrased a question, but it’d be hard not to recognize them after the many descriptions she’d gotten of them.

The two snapped towards her with varying expressions.

“Oui?” the girl replied.

“My name is Linsdey Hillary, I’m here to take your statements,”

“Could you do us a favour first?” the green eyed boy asked.

“Sure?” she shrugged, contemplating what his request could be, “Once it’s in my power,”

“Can you stop him,” he pointed in the distance, “from taking Marinette’s statement?”

The woman looked towards the area he pointed and was mildly surprised. He’d pointed directly at her boss, Commissioner Gordon and the Bat, both of which were in routined exchanges of accounts and information.

Officer Hillary scratched her head.

“Look kid, I dunno’ if yer pointin’ at the Bat or my boss but I can’t do nothin’ if either decide to talk to your friend,” she admitted.

The crestfallen look on the boy’s face was disheartening.

“Oh,” he frowned, “I guess that would be hard,”

Then Chloe flicked him, earning looks of question from both parties.

“Be real Adrien, a petty officer couldn’t tell him off even if they wanted to,” she rolled her eyes.

“You didn’t have to flick me ,” he argued, “You’re wearing acrylic nails for kwami’s sake!”

“All the better to flick you with,” she hissed.

What was a kwami?

Lindsey cleared her throat, “Moving on,”

“Can you tell me exactly what you saw?”

ooooooooooooooooo

Adrien and Chloe had taken the liberty to make themselves comfortable after giving their statements. It had been forty minutes and Marinette was still unconscious. The paramedics were now talking about carrying her to the hospital and it didn’t sit well with the blondes.

Fifty minutes passed by and statements had all been taken, except Marinette’s. Thankfully, the vigilantes had gotten tired of waiting and left. But it was getting worrisome how long she was unconscious.

Then the medic from earlier walked up to them.

“She’s awake,”

Oooooooooooooooooo 

Adrien and Chloe scrambled onto their feet and toward the van where their now conscious friend lay waiting. They both rushed into the van and just withheld from tackling her into a hug.

“Hi,” she smiled, like nothing was wrong.

Chloe flickered her forehead, earning a loud cry of pain.

“What was that for!” the ravenette hissed, rubbing the spot she had been assaulted.

“You imbecile!” Chloe sneered, “I was so scared! Adrien looked ready to cry when we watched you leave the building in a stretcher!”

Marinette pouted.

“I was not!” he protested, “but we were both really worried Marinette,” he frowned, “Chloe nearly went berserk on the poor medic because he wouldn't let us see you,”

The blonde in discussion’s cheeks reddened in embarrassment, “He was being ridiculous,” she resolved, crossing her arms and looking away.

“I’m sure he was,” Marinette added, feigning agreement.

“Shut up,” she huffed. 

“Anyway,” Adrien hummed, “Since you’ve been un- unco- quel est le mot? Merde, euhh asleep, yes let’s go with asleep. Since you’ve been asleep Mme. Bustier took everyone back to the hotel, the Bats left and Scarecrow was arrested. Uhm, we made sure they don’t need your statement and,” he checked his phone, “Our ride should be here in a few minutes,”

After taking a moment to process all this new information, Marinette’s face expressed confusion , “Ride?”

“I asked Nathalie for a favour,” he summed.

“Does that mean we don’t have to go back to the hotel right now?” Chloe said, a very suggesting tone.

The ravenette tapped her chin in thought, “What will we tell Mme. Bustier?”
“That she should have provided transport if she wants to give us a time limit, obviously,” she rolled her eyes, crossing her arms.

“That’d be mean to her,” Adrien frowned, “She doesn’t really deserve that,”

Chloe faltered for a moment before feigning a determined expression.

“Well then hope she doesn’t give us reason to give it to her then,”

“Then where are we going?”

Chapter Text

Lindsey had been working for G.C.P.D. for ove ten years now. As a middle aged native of Gotham, the brunette had seen, heard and experienced some…interesting things. From cleaning up Condiment King’s messes to that one encounter with the Prince of Clowns himself, which, at this point, was practically a rite of passage into citizenship in the city of crime.

And yet, the vastly varying accounts taken in the statements from the latest rogue attack completely confuffled both herself, the Commissioner who habitually took every bat-related case and her partner, a poor, migraine plagued Andre Jefferson. So, joining two tables together next to the bullet-board by the commissioner's desk, they compiled the statements, comparing them, trying to recreate a timeline.

The aged man scratched his head as he stared at the barely- legible notes his officers had taken.

“This…is odd,”

“Commish’ it doesn't make any sense,” Jefferson complained, holding up one of the many papers with furrowed eyebrows.

“Which part?” Lindsey asked, walking over to her partner.

“All of it,” he sighed, “I have one ‘vic’, “he did some finger quotes,  “saying she got assaulted by the blonde ‘frenchy’, Bourgeois, and I got another saying the ‘Vic’ is a sociopath with a grudge against our civvy heroes here,” Jefferson pulled out another sheet from beneath the pile and neatened it.

“And here, we have the ‘Bourgeois’ kid admitting she slapped her, but a whole ass essay of justification,”

“It seems like the first one is a liar if both blondie and other kids are givin’ similar stories,” Lindsey speculated.

“That’s the least of the issues where the attack is concerned,” the old man interrupted, “Have either of you seen the CCTV yet?”

The two looked at each other and shook their heads. While opening his laptop, their superior added, “The guard was knocked out in the camera room but surprisingly, the feed was uninterrupted so we have clear footage of the happenings in both the assault situation and the hostage scenario. You really don’t see this in gotham everyday,”

Lindsey scoffed, “What don’t you see in Gotham?”

>on screen<

Camera 193 Food Court, East View

Time : 10:34

The clarity was impeccable and was the first worthy note. One thing Gothamites always took seriously, would be security. 

Compared to what they had met, the food court seemed relatively normal. People were bustling in and out of the camera’s sight line. Some stood impatiently in line for food at different fast food stalls, others walked in groups with no less than five shopping bags wrapped around their wrists. It was oddly normal.

Then the glass shattered.

Audio as clear as day, the replay of the screaming shoppers echoing through the room. Multiple masked men entered into view from different angles. The masks, being the iconic burlap sacks, with holes for visions and a fashioned stitch resemblant to mouths. The Scarecrow gang. 

Gunshots rang through clearly and people scattered like ants in disarray, some being grabbed by the thugs and others being cornered.

Lindsey inhaled sharply as she watched the scene unfolding.

Among the crowd were familiar colours busy at work.  The girl Jefferson said he’d heard a million controversies about was undoubtedly (If not a little aggressively) pulling her classmates, or random teenagers, away from the attack scene and past the camera’s view presumably to the jewellery shop they’d taken refuge in later one.

First went the buff kid with the skull t-shirt with his pastel girlfriend past the side wall and behind the thugs and then the robot kid, pink haired girl and jock. If she squinted, the officer might’ve seen the girl who’d cried about being assaulted slyly creeping away from the main scene in the middle of the court while her ‘best friend’ cried in shock.

Three different mini crises were working diligently together to create the chaos of the attack. While both bold blondes were slipping away with their classmates (or dragging) other civilians were frozen in shock or in hysterics as they were grabbed and tossed into a corner, awaiting their dosage of toxins. Some brave souls were struggling against the Scarecrow gang’s thugs while others huddled together presumably in an attempt to retain some sense of safety in numbers.

 “Look here now,” the commissioner pointed one at the extreme right of the screen where the masked rogue himself stood, surrounded by his underlings and a familiar face in restraint.

Marinette, if she recalled. She and her partner had just arrived on the scene when the paramedics had practically ran out of the building with the ravenette in a stretcher hooked up to an oxygen mask. It was a disheartening sight.

Here, the girl seemed way more spirited, struggling against the two men (Twice her height mind you) kicking and cursing. 

Then, she was talking to the Scarecrow. She wasn't cowering and quivering like any other person who’d had the fates’ unpity, she was unafraid , a state of being he’d only seen in the bats n’ birds themselves.

If she’d been told by word of mouth, she’d’nt believed it. But the footage was right in front of her.

“I ain’t seein’ things right boss?” Andre muttered, “Girlie’s really talking to the bastard,”

The man shook his head, “Unless we’re all delusional? No, a teenage foreigner is talking to the Scarecrow while in captivity,”

“Girl’s got guts,” Officer Hillary commented with an impressed tone, “I don’t think even J here could stomach that,” she ruffled his hair.

The man almost hissed as he quickly fixed his curly hair.

“Don’t touch my hair,” he growled.

“Sure,” she rolled her eyes.

“Pay attention,” Commissioner Gordon chimed.

The two gave mocking salutes and turned back to the screen.

By now, the dosage of hell-sent toxins had already been administered to the parisian via an aggressively stabbed syringe and the Marinette kid had dropped to the floor, her body limp.

“Oh shit,” Lindsey cursed, feeling nauseous as the scene unfolded before her, even if it was through a screen, she felt as though her gut had dropped to the pit of her stomach.

“It gets worse,” her boss's gruff voice frowned.

A few moments later, the petite teen staggered to her feet, clearly disoriented.

She started yelling at Scarecrow and it faintly reminded Jefferson of that time he’d seen the true rage of customer dissatisfaction at the bank. He’d pitied the bank teller back then, but this was a different situation and should not have warranted the same reaction.

“She’s really handing it to him,” Andre commented as the ravenette held up a heated exchange with the rogue.

Several thugs run at her on the rogue’s word, perhaps not at once but very closely behind one another. With some of the most-vigilante-like shit Jefferson had ever witnessed, the girl tore through them, with swift kicks and hard blows. 

All she did was blink. She took her attention for one second. And suddenly the parisian was pummeling the sack-faced psycho.

  He sieved his fingers through his tousled hair, continuing to watch the scene in disbelief. 

Two thugs practically dragged her off their boss and out of seemingly nowhere, the girl picked up a piece of piping that might’ve come loose during the break-in and handled it in a shockingly efficient manner. With quick movements, she had three crippling with their knees in clutch or felled like a lumberjack would his timber.When she did drop her weapon, two more came behind her and holy shit she flipped one over her shoulder.

Then Scarecrow got back up. Jefferson revelled in the rogue’s dishevelled state. Lightly dusting off his clothing (presumably for show) he touched his face. Had the officer on the other end of the screen had squinted, he might’ve seen the burlap sack-mask from nose down.

Then there’s another exchange of words. This time however, something seemed different. While facial expressions were obviously unreadable on the rogue, Marinette seemed confident . She held herself in an assertive manner as she spoke. From what Jefferson could see, it seemed almost casual .

No,

This was something different.

“Frenchie’s stalling ,” he said in disbelief.

His partner smirked.

“I told you, she’s gutsy ,”

“She’s smart,” Gordon mused, “She bought enough time for Batman to arrive while avoiding more casualties,” then he sighed, “But it was risky,”

“Commish’ there’s no way she’s foreign,” Officer Hillary remarked, “She’s braver than even the locals,”

Their superior paused the play back, and took a seat at the table behind them.

“Officer Hilary,” he sighed, “Have you heard of the situation in Paris?”

The woman paused momentarily.

“The magic supervillain?” she guessed.

The old man nodded solemnly.

“Considering the group was both foreign and consisting of minors, I had the team do a minor check,”

“It is Gotham after all,” Jefferson affirmed.

“Several things of concern arised,” Gordon said, “The main one being their heavy involvement in attacks in Paris, Akuma attacks I believe. And their school records, God have Mercy,” 

Lindsey raised an eyebrow.

“Can’t be worse than the local brats,” she challenged.

Jefferson’s superior looked her dead in the eyes and mouth a single word.

Worse . 

Jefferson huffed.

“Commissioner, even so, these statements don’t make a lick of sense,”

He then proceeded to pile three stacks of paper, pushing them in different areas on the table. Pulling one or two sheets out, he laid them in the middle.

“In this one, I have some outside witnesses claiming they saw the blonde arguing with the alleged victim and the ‘assault,” he finger quoted, “but sayin’ it was provoked,”

He slid another sheet of paper into view, “in this one, I have one of the classmates accounts claiming the both blondies were busy dragging away their classmates, literally and into the jewellery shop where Nightwing escorted them out of the building during the fallout of the battle,”

“ And then I have the victim, Ms Rossi’s statement saying she had to escape on her own after Dupain Cheng had saved the glasses girl from getting snatched,”

“All I’m hearing is that Rossi’s exaggerating to save her ass and the bullshit ain’t adding up,” Lindsey offhandedly remarked.

“That’s the most interesting part,” Jefferson grinned, “Another kid said Rossi had a lying disease, ”

Lindey’s eyes opened wide.

“A lying disease?” she laughed. Commissioner sighed deeply.

“Well I guess we know why her statement doesn’t make sense,” Lindsey said.

“Okay then,” Jefferson sifted through the documents, “Now that we’ve set the record straight and have camera evidence, we know the timeline of events. I got the report on the Arkham breakout and Scarecrow was sent right back,” he looked down at his watch, “About thirty minutes ago,”

“Case closed?” Lindsey asked.

“No,” the old man added, “The kids have put a target on their backs and will definitely need some sort of protection and surveillance for the rest of their visit. News outlets have already published the stories and rogues are bound to take interest in the girl who took down Scarecrow,”

“Get the Bats involved? Maybe he could provide discreet protection. It’s better than a group of teenage Parisians walking around with bodyguards twenty four seven. Neither practical nor discreet,” Jefferson suggested.

The commissioner hummed.

Chapter Text

The heavy iron door creaks open and the rogue stares at the movement with an uninterested gaze. Scarecrow had spent four hours in intensive care after what the little brat at the mall did to him and it was not fun. After treatment, he was left with unsightly bandages across his limbs and face. It didn’t help that the moment he was so kindly escorted back to his cell in Arkham, every other inmate cackled at the sight of him. He was going to be the laughing stock of the asylum for the next month at least.

He cursed the news outlets for airing his humiliating defeat and recapture.

Batman walked into the interrogation room with heavy steps. The dark knight flit his cape to the side and sat down at the chair opposite to him. The two stared at each other for a hot minute as the guard closed in the door.

“Dr. Crane,” the vigilante, addresses the man in cuffs.

“Scarecrow,” the rogue corrects.  The vigilante simply hums.“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

“I think we both know why I’m here Johnathon,” 

“ Scarecrow,” he insists, only to be ignored. Blasted Bat. He had this habit of referring to rogues by their ‘real’ name, he believed it humanised them. Rubbish.

“Why don’t you make this easy on both of us and talk,”

“You know what?” the rogue leaned in, “I think I just might…See I met be this intriguing young lady . While I hadn’t the pleasure of learning the girl’s name we had a nice little chat, very informative. I believe you are already acquainted, after all, she did try to choke you into submission”  

Batman perked up.

“You see, this brave little frenchy was injected with a nasty dose of my latest fear toxin strain. Of course, you have experience with how my most recent strains go,” he made a gesture, “What surprised me was her absolute determination to ignore her visions! She had tears streaming down her eyes and I’m sure a gust of wind might have been able to knock her down at that point but she one persistent bitch,”

“Elaborate,”

“Don't rush me,” he hissed, “I will be going at my own pace, thank you very much,”

The vigilante simply grunted.

~ Some blocks away ~

Jason sighed as he jumped to another rooftop. He had to head to the cave to start patrol in about half an hour’s time and he’d parked his bike a little too far from his previous destination. He’d just been sold information on another Black Mask trade deal and that meant he would have to start planning his interception at least two weeks in advance to ensure success. 

Plus he hadn’t eaten yet and he was starving . Maybe he could pick up a Batburger on his way?

A cackle resonated through the air. 

It sounded akin to the kind you’d hear from a Joker Gas victim. Without thought, he rushed towards the source. He doesn’t even take the time to alert anyone or think.

When did Joker escape? He’d been in isolation for the past three weeks after his last recapture. That bastard clown wasn’t the type to slip out quietly, it was always a show.

As he jumps onto the roof  on which the sound originated, he readies himself, hand hovering over his gun.

 Instantly, three figures stood up, ready and alert. A sense of relief flooded over Jason as he stared at the three individuals. They seemed perfectly fine.

“We don’t have any money so run along!” a feminine voice yelled.

“Why would a thief be on the roof Bee, they usually stick to alleyways,” another questioned.

“Maybe he’s desperate,” the first one retorted.

“I think he’s got a gun,” a third voice sounds, “...or a few,”

“It’s your turn Snake eyes,” What kind of nickname was that? It sounded more like a code name than a nickname

“My turn to what?” the male voice questioned. They were awfully casual for a group who thought they were being robbed.

“To deal with the interruption. I dealt with the sausage head who broke into your room and baker girl handled the last Paris trip,”

Interruption…what an interesting label.

“Oh,” he says. He spoke in a ‘Hey-I-put-C-for-number-twelve?-it’s-wrong?-oh’ kind of tone, before shrugging,  “Okay,”

Perplexed and somewhat relaxed, Hood squinted as the figures stepped forward just enough to be visible under whatever little moonlight penetrated the thick haze of the Gotham sky. They were teenagers . Highschoolers by the look of it.

 The male of the trio was a tall blond, had a vaguely familiar face and a lean physique. The girl who’d called him desperate was a few inches shorter and the blonde had her hand on her waist and was staring him down with such contempt you’d think she was one of those uppity aristocrats in historical fiction that looked down on the lower class like peasants meant to bow at her feet.

‘It was the French kids from the mall that Tim liked,’ Jason realised, ‘The mall kids,’

“Good night monsieur would you kindly leave us alone before-” the boy started, clasping his hands together, but his words slowly died out, his eyes widening. He made a one eighty turn and walked right back to his group.

  He leaned down to talk to the raven haired girl, “He’s a costume, Minnie. A costume! I can't fight a costume. Do you see what I’m wearing? I cannot afford to rip this shirt, my father would kill me,”

At least he had some sense. Maybe.  The ravenette sighed at the boy and the two had another little mini exchange right in front of him. He couldn’t tell if they were brave or idiotic. 

“You lot seem awfully relaxed for a bunch of kids who think they’re being robbed,” he remarked.

“I didn’t know the bats committed petty theft now. Are Wayne’s funds not enough anymore?” the one with icy blue eyes snarked.

“Wayne funds the Justice League doesn’t he?” the blonde asked the ravenette to confirm. 

“I’m not here for your money kid,” he finally says.

“Then what do you want?” the boy asks, “I dont think it’s illegal to sit on rooftops, is it? Chloe, is it?”

Chloe shrugged.

“Maybe I saw three unidentified figures on a rooftop in the middle of the night and wanted to know what was going on,”

“Well it’s just three harmless teenagers, run along now,” the blonde snarked again. In a way, she really reminded Jason of the Demon Brat, especially that nasty mouth of hers.

Jason hummed in thought before decidedly moving closer.

“You lot are awfully chatty for three harmless teens yeah?”

“And your mouth is kind of big for you to be related to the brooding Bat,” she retorts. 

“Oh yeah? Why do you assume I know Batman? For all you know I could be a mob boss here to kidnap you for trespassing on my turf,” he challenged.

“Well, the big red bat out on display is a bit of a giveaway,” Shortie …Marinette if he recalls,remarks.

Jason opens his mouth for rebuttal before closing it again.

“Touché,”

The four stood in silence for a moment.

“...Don’t you have  places to be…?” the boy questioned, “Bad guys to beat up?”

Red Hood checked the imaginary clock on his wrist.

“Hmm, I guess I do have a ten o’ clock at the Cave but the Old man pissed me off on Friday so I’m not too inclined to be there yet. And uh, I’m a bit in the grey area yeh? I’m not a villain but I’m not exactly a law abiding citizen? You feel me?”

The three shrugged.

“Well since you seem to be sticking around, I have a question for you,” Shortie says.

“Okay, shoot,”

He receives three confused expressions once again.

“Uh, okay then. Pretend for a moment, your mom told you that you had family named Bruce in Gotham, what are the chances it's a certain billionaire?”

Jason’s eyes widened. She really did fit the Wayne profile didn't she? He knew he was right, Tim  was going to love this.

“Oh my God, is he your father? Did he have another secret love child after Demon Spawn? Or was it before? You’re definitely older-”

“Euh, no. I have a cousin named Bruce who’s supposed to be in his forties…I think. And I definitely have two parents already,”

“Well, the Ba- I mean Wayne is in that age range and I could definitely see the dark hair and blue eye thing but it’s doubtful that in all of Gotham he’s the only one who fits the description,”

Marientte turned to her friends with a dramatic, “S EE ?!”

“Been facing some Wayne accusations have ya? You should be careful, if the paps’ get wind of you, yer time in Gotham will be anything but peaceful. Especially if you hang out with Timmy,”

“How did you know I talk to Tim?”

Shit.

“ Uhh , the bats are close with the Waynes, we have a special relationship. I talk to the Drake kid now and then. Save ‘im often from kidnappings you see,” he played it off.

“Uh…huh,” she nodded, but she didn’t sound very convinced.

Shit shit shit.

“Anyway,” he checked his imaginary wrist watch, “It’s about time I head out, places to be, people to protect y’know?”

Yes, he was bailing to get out of this conversation. Would there be backlash at some point? Probably. Was he going to deal with it when it happened? He’ll cross that bridge when he gets there.

~ At the same time, but like, across the city in Wayne Manor~

“So, how did the Arkham visit go?” Barbara asks as she cuts into her food.

“He was frightfully cooperative. Almost…enthusiastic,” Bruce replied.

“Enthusiastic?” Tim raised an eyebrow, “about what? Getting beat up by a teenage girl?”

 The man sighed, “We’ll have to keep close watch on our French visitors. Ms. Dupain Cheng has attracted unwanted attention and the multiple circling articles are bound to raise interest in the entirety of the class,”

“After all, who wouldn't be interested in the kids who beat up a rogue,” Duke butted in.

Barbara nodded.

“So who’s taking bodyguard duty?” Tim asked with a grin, “I would love to but someone left a pile of paperwork on my desk  so that they could spend two nights on a stake out,” he glanced at his father.

Bruce cleared his throat dismissively.

“Due to the majority of you all being occupied already, Duke and Jason will either decide amongst themselves or take turns,”

“Have you informed Todd of your decision?” Damian asked, not raising his gaze from his plate.

The silence is loud enough.

“Bruce…” Barbara trails off.

“I’ll let him know during patrol tonight,”

~

‘ Batman, don’t you have something to tell Hood?’ Red Robin starts on the comms.

‘I was getting to that,’ was the gruff response.

‘ Sure you were’

‘ What d’ya’ want Old Man? I swear if this is about the guy I shot last night it was-’

‘The who?’

‘Uhhh, nothing, what can I do for you?’

‘I’m assigning you to surveillance of the international students for the time being, they’ve garnered too much attention since the last rogue attack and I’m willing to bet it won’t be the last altercation they get caught up in,’

‘The Frenchies?’

‘Yes,’ Batman confirmed.

‘Again?’

“Yes,’

‘Sure’

‘That easily?’ there was disbelief in Spoiler’s voice, ‘no, Do It YoUrSeLf OlD mAn, I’m NoT a BaBySiTtEr?’

‘Nah, I’m cool with it,’

‘I’m grateful for the cooperation. You’ll be starting tomorrow, I’ll send over the schedule. I believe they have Gotham museum of heroes and Gotham Botanical,’

‘Noted’

~

“Well,  he was an interesting character,” Adrien remarked as the vigilante hopped off the rooftop and grappled the distance to the next building.

“Quite,” said Marinette, “Although, something’s off. How did he know I’ve met Tim? I don’t think any press saw us,”

“Didn’t he say Tim told him? Because they’re close?”

“Puh- lease Adrikins, that was obviously a bullshit excuse he made up on the spot,” Chloe explains, “Did you see him run off when he got caught red handed?”

“Oh,”

“Do you think he’s been tailing us? What if he knows about my…visit back to Paris,” 

“I doubt he does but we should still be cautious. It’s best to avoid the local heroes while we’re on their turf. I heard Batman isn’t a fan of magic,”

“I agree,”

Chloe hummed.

“I find that hard to believe considering you like to give them reasons to become more acquainted with us. You seem to be more than eager to be rescued by them,”

Marinette groaned, “ I told you I was sorry Bee. I didn’t intend to get gassed and beat up bad guys,”

“You’re right,” Chloe sighed, “You just can’t help being a goody-two-shoes, it’s okay, it’s not your fault,”

Marinette pouted.

Chapter Text

Considering the day before their lives were in mortal danger and one of them was nearly hospitalised, the three teens were pretty chill this fine morning. 

Living in Paris does that to you. 

Chloé lay down, taking up a large chunk of the couch as she held her phone over her face, scrolling.  A pillow propped her head and her legs sung over the edge of the furniture. Marinette had sprawled out on the carpet, head in Adrien’s lap, accomplishing the same amount of nothing. 

It was a comfortable silence.

Fair, considering it was a bit too early in the morning for the ravenette to function. And Adrien? He too, simply sat contemplating life. A fun pass-time. They had about two hours 'till they needed to meet up with the rest of the class to get lunch and a trip to Gotham Botanical.

Unsurprisingly, Mme. Bustier had decided to stick to the original itinerary because c’est la vie and a day out would be a good distraction from the newly acquired trauma.  New city, same response to crisis. Brush it off and move on with life was the Parisian special.

That was probably half the contributor to their steadily stacking mental issues.

Oooooooooooooooooo

Lila frowned at the corner of the room across from where she sat cross legged on the bed. Her zebra striped suitcase lay open and unaffected by her scrutinising gaze. She was absolutely certain she’d put that brat’s sketchbook in her bag for safe keeping  the other night, when Alya’d hosted the girls for a night of snacks and gossip.

She was going to go senile trying to figure out where the fuck the sketchbook went. She’d already asked Alya if she’d moved anything from the suitcase and that was a waste of time.

Of all the idiots in their class, the one she was rooming with was least likely to go sniffing through her stuff.

 Alya was generally a buffoon, unless she had a story to cover in which case she managed to get herself together and display some sense of perceptiveness and muster up some common sense.

Maybe one of the other girls had taken it.

 It was certainly a possibility.

 Considering the lingering doubt they’d shown during the gossip session some time prior. Signs that they no longer took her words at face value had been appearing over the past few days and she wouldn’t put it past those snakes to not go through her things when she wasn’t looking.

Yes, ironically, snake was probably as befitting an analogy for them as it was for her. Lila was simply charismatic .

 She had a way with words, persuasive talent one might call it. Unlike those mindless pigeons who flocked to the next person throwing crumbs, Lila was the one supplying the demand. 

Whether the bait was mouldy or fresh out of the boulangerie was no concern of hers.

Maybe it was Marinette. She’d witnessed firsthand the lengths that girl would go to get what she wanted and frankly, it would be admirable if it wasn’t such a hindrance to Lila’s own plans. 

But surely if Marinette had noticed her sketchbook was missing, she’d have gone guns blazing in the first place, especially after Alya had pissed the little golden trio off.

Regardless, the class president had just survived a run-in with one of Gotham’s local nutjobs, it was doubtful that retrieving her sketchbook was that high on the list of priorities. Unless she’d sent her two blond lapdogs to retrieve it although the Bourgeois bitch seemed glued to her side. The fact of the matter is her ticket to making Marinette’s life had disappeared and she only took a few photos which was not enough, at least not for Lila.

She sighed and opened her phone. Swiping into her gallery, she pulled up the photos she’d sneaked of Adrien and Marinette cuddling in front the plane window.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng. M.D.C. It fit so well and yet…something was still missing. How did she manage to conceal a globally renowned persona for the past year? A better question would be when did she make time to manage it? As far as Lila was aware, Marinette was a chronic insomniac (it’s all over her face on a Wednesday morning with the tumbler of coffee in hand) who helped her parents out at the bakery, did small commissions and tackled her duties as class president.

The last of which alone was enough to preoccupy any highschooler.

She opened one of her search engines and typed in the designer’s name.

M.D.C. has already had countless collaborations and commissions from the 1% socialites after debuting with their Jagged Stone tour wardrobe last year. The amount of money that must have been made would make Lila’s three year tenure as a Agreste Brand model look like petty cash.

It just wasn't fair. 

Lila had worked so far to get where she was. Manipulating her way into her school, the fashion industry and keeping up with the rigorous schedule for photoshoots and promotions. She’d taken time to promote herself to her class and online. She’d worked so hard.

Why did Marinette have everything handed to her on a silver platter? Money, friends, power and even a hot boyfriend. Why did Marinette get all the privileges Lila deserved?

And most of all, why was she still anonymous? If Lila was a world famous designer, she’d have done a face reveal long ago. The amount of attention she’d receive was unimaginable. World famous, celebrity boyfriend and perfect school life? She’d have been the it girl of the decade.

Wait.

Marinette was definitely dating Adrien. This much was obvious enough, the scene at the plane, their hotel room, they’re definitely together. So why haven’t they made it official to anyone else? Why keep it secret?

This brought the Italian back to one of her previous assumptions. Maybe Gabriel was still not in the know. If their secret got out, he’d definitely separate them. Dating without his permission? Adrien couldn’t even go to school without approval, much less get a girlfriend. He’d throw a hissyfit.

They’d be ruined if she outed them.

Lila grinned and shut off her phone. She turned to her roommate, who sat pouting at her laptop screen on the parallel bed.

“Alya~ I just had a great idea,”

She smirked as the brunette watched her with interest.

~

Both brunettes marched towards their teacher eagerly. Caline Bustier raised her gaze from her cellphone as her students approached.

“How can I help you ladies?” she smiled.

Lila played with her fingers  and looked up at the woman.

“Well Ms. Bustier, I- I wanted to talk to you because I’m concerned for Marinettte. I know we don’t get along but I do care for her and- and after what she went through yesterday I’m worried what state she’d be in mentally. You know after going through such a traumatising thing it wouldn’t be surprising if she needed a break,”

The woman looked at the two students thoughtfully and smiled. 

“I’m glad you both are looking out for  your classmate, I’ll  run it by Marinette and-”

“No!” Alya blurted as Mme. Bustier had turned. Lila repressed a sneer.

In an attempt to save them both, Lila stepped in front of Alya with a nervous laugh. 

“What she means, Mme Bustier, is we already asked Marinette before we came here, and she gave us the okay. Haha, besides, it’s only eight, surely she’s still asleep! You know Marinette!”

The woman still looked hesitant.

“I- I suppose,”

“Oh! And We couldn't possibly leave Marinette here all alone! She said she wanted Chloé and Adrien to remain here with her,”

“Of course, I’ll leave them be when the bus arrives then,”

“Thank you~” she smiled sweetly.

Lila grabbed Alya’s hand and pulled her away. The latter gave little protest.

“What was that about!” Lila hissed.

“I’m sorry! It slipped!” Alya whisper-yelled, throwing her arms up in the air.

“That was too careless!” she sneered.

The Parisian's eyes widened at the harsh tone. Lila paused at the reaction. Shit.

“I’m sorry Alya, You- you just really scared me there,”

“Oh girl, it’s okay, it was my fault, I shouldn't have acted rashly,”

“Yeah,” 

“C’mon let’s go meet the others for breakfast,”

Lila smiled.

“You go on ahead, Alya, I have to visit the bathroom first,” she waved.

“Okay, see you there,”

Lila’s smile dropped as the girl turned her back.

“Idiot,” she whispered, retrieving her phone, “Now, let’s see if we can move up the bus arrival,”

Ooooooooooooooooooooooo

Just under a dozen kids walk out of the hotel and yet none of them bore resemblance to the trio he’d encountered on the rooftop, the very reason he agreed to babysit the french visitors.

They were interesting; the half pint, lanky blond and the mouthy blonde. Jason would be lying if he said they didn’t play a role in him agreeing to tail the group in the first place.

So where were they?

The bus drove off.

Well fuck, okay then.

Oooooooooooooooooooo

“I’m so sorry kids, the bus with your class left at least an hour ago,” the woman behind the front desk in the lobby revealed.

“I could have put money,” Chloé sneered.

The woman offered a look of sympathy, which didn’t do much, but it was the thought that counted.

“Merci beaucoup madame,” Adrien responded, “We’ll figure something out,”

The trio took a side-bar.

“Well, what do you all want to do then? I’m not in the mood for playing catch up with them,” Marinette remarked, as if on cue, her stomach grumbled. The girl’s cheeks heated. Chloé snorted.
“Well, we have our first stop,” 

Ooooooooooooooo

“I could take him in a fight,” Kim puffs out his chest. 

“You cannot take Batman in a fight, LeChien, you are asking  to get your ass handed to you,” Alix rebutted.

“Okay fine , maybe not Batman… Robin?” he tried.

“The guy shorter than Rose?” Alix’s eyebrow quirked.

“Hey,” Nathaniel added, “Robin is a badass for a ten year old, have you seen his katanas? I’m pretty sure he’s a ninja or something,”

Nods of agreement followed. The red-head had been reserved for most of the trip, not out of character, but quieter than usual.

“If anyone could take him in a fight, it’d be me ,” Nino jumped in. The whole bus sent him looks of disapproval.

“I don’t recall any of you fighting off akumas bare handed,” he added.

“Babe, my sister nearly killed you,”  Alya gave him a pointed look.

“But I won ,” he pushed, “Against a giant spider,”

She made a ‘so-so’ gesture.

“Please, Robin beats up rogues on the daily,” Alix remarked, bringing them back to the main argument, “You can’t even beat me,” she poked a finger at her friend.

“Hey! I could totally beat you! We’ve raced plenty!”

“And I beat you every time, your point?”

Kim guffawed.

“You win Pinkie,”

“Okay himbo,”

“Quoi?”

Nathaniel whispered in his ear.

“Je ne suis pas!” he refuted vehemently. 

“Oui,” she grinned.

“Non,” he narrowed his eyes.

“Oui,” her tone remained unchanging.

“ Non,”

“Oui,”

“Non!” the blond-tipped boy’s volume increased.

“Oui,” she chimed again, teasing tone unchanged..

“Argh!” she cackled at his frustration.

In a moment, he schooled his expression and then a grin grew.

“You think I’m handsome,” his imitation of Flynn Rider was piss poor at the best. The pink haired girl scowled.

“Save that ugly mug for Ondine, and I was talking about the latter half of the definition, dumbass. Up there’s a bit empty,” she pointed a finger at her head, “I’m sure if I wrung your neck that little pea brain of yours would rattle around 

Nathaniel, Nino and Max stifled laughs.

“Mme. Bustier, how long is the drive?” Lila leaned over her seat next to Alya and  spoke in the teacher’s ear. The woman repeated the question to the driver.

“Ehhh we’re about thirty minutes out,” he responded, eyes unmoving from the road.

“Merci, Monsieur,”

“Who wants to take buzzfeed quizzes!” the bespectacled brunette shouted, grabbing everyone’s attention with the screen in her hand. 

All heads whipped in her direction.

ooooooo

The trio drag their feet into the same cafe as earlier that week. Without a second glance, the Bourgeois swiped her card across the machine as her best friends both picked up blood-sugar raising amounts of desserts and coffee cups that definitely violated at least several health codes.

“You are both disgusting,” she scowled as the couple both took gulps of the scalding liquid.

“You’ve never had an early morning after a stressful night and it shows,” Adrien remarked. 

Unfortunately, Marinettte was not the only java junkie in the trio, however her consumption rate far surpassed her partner’s. Chloé could understand, Adrien’s life was planned down to the minute and scheduling a five minute nap between shoots was not helpful in any form or fashion.  But even thinking about the abominations they ordered left a bad taste in her mouth.

It was like they tried to outdo each other with the ridiculousness of each order.

The ravenette would take the darkest roast and the maximum legal amount of caffeine she could shove into a cup, no sugar, no cream. Adrien however, would order a coma-inducing amount of sweet. White chocolate, caramel, a shitton of sugar and cream, any and everything that would give her cavities just thinking about.

She could understand where the need for caffeine stemmed from but truly, the duo was utterly ridiculous with the copious amounts they consumed on the daily, more so Marinette but who would stop her?

Chloé rolled her eyes and took a bite of the subpar quiche.

“Dupain-Cheng, when we get back home, let your parents know I’ll be stopping by for at least a week, because what the fuck is this?” she dangled the confection, a distasteful expression painted on her face.

“Maman and papa are always grateful for the business,” she hummed.

And it was true, the bourgeois family were some of her parents' biggest clientele. Catering jobs and the odd dozen every now and then had significantly contributed to their sales.

“Anyways, according to the schedule, the class will be visiting the museum and as much as I love antiquities and {other descriptions?] I think some fresh air would do us some good,”

“Three hours taking in that crisp Gotham air wasn’t enough?” Adrien remarked.

“I’d hardly describe fuel emissions and clouds of pollution as crisp , Adrikins. And those three hours crying in  each other’s laps and then sucking faces were hardly relaxing. Yeah I know exactly what you lovebirds were up to when I left.” she sent him a pointed look, “Plus, I was thinking somewhere a little more green, kwami knows I could use a change of scenery, a little more colour maybe? I’m tired of these monochromatic bores of architecture,”

“Didn’t take you as the nature type Bourgeois, how about Gotham’s Gardens?” Marinette perked up while Adrien flushed at the blonde’s comment.

“Can we go for Batbugers after? I’ve been dying to try them since we got here. They’re supposed to be the best in Gotham,”

“ Why do you crave grease? You know how bad it is for you,”  Chloé chastised.

“I think it’s a forbidden fruit thing or really, food just  tastes better when it’s illegal,”  the blond speculated.

“Crime enhances the flavour,” Marinette nodded in agreement.

“Look, what my father doesn’t know won't hurt him,” Adrien said, plain and simple, “I won’t splurge though, I still have this gorgeous figure to maintain,” he grinned.

Both girls rolled their eyes.

“First stop?”

“Gotham Gardens,”

Oooooooo

“Als, where are Nette and Adrien?” Nino was suddenly acutely aware that his bro and childhood best friend were completely missing from the bus. Chloé too.

Childhood best friend. Marinette had known him since…five? Since he and Kim were five.  Kim had drifted away from Marinette after the…incident but all three were still friendly. Nino was proud to say he’d maintained a close relationship with the girl all through primary school and now secondary.

Well, he’d say close but, for a while now, there seemed to be a wall between them. And as frustrated as Alya would get whenever it was even alluded to, the primary reason for this rift between what used to be such a tight knit relationship was a certain brunette.

Initially it was just marinette. The ravenette would go quiet whenever Lila inserted herself into the conversation and the scornful expression she didn't even bother to hide was one she’d only previously donned in Chloé’s presence…before she went through whatever inciting incident brought on her character development.

Then Adrien had followed suit.

 Nino might not have been the most observant or the smartest but he noticed the reassuring glances the blond would send Marinette whenever she seemed troubled. The little hand holds under the table Alya was too busy ranting about some topic to notice. They way he not so subtly rejected all Lila’s advances and openly opposed her in a less hostile than dudette’s manner.

When Alya had speculated about them dating, Nino wasn’t  very sceptical despite his responses to his girlfriend.

The truth is, he was a little afraid for them. Sure, he would be really happy if they got together after all the pining. Marinette concocting hairbrained schemes with the girls every other week and Adrien’s obliviousness to his obvious affections for her, they would both be idiots for not having confessed earlier.

But he knew what happened when the reporter set her eyes on a lead. Persistence was one of her best qualities but she could get carried away. Absorbed in the narrative and oftentimes, she fabricated her own leads or was a little too aggressive in her pursuit.

The duo (plus Chloé he supposed, but that wasn’t a new development) had been giving him and the rest of the class the cold shoulder since they’d arrived in Gotham. It wasn’t like them to just ditch though.

His girlfriend shrugged dismissively.

“I think I heard them tell Mme. Bustier they weren’t coming. Marinette’s still pretty shaken up about the other day,”  she said offhandedly, not lifting her gaze from the screen where  she scrolled through her socials.

It made sense, but there was some uncertainty about the girl’s tone that unsettled him.

The brunette bit the inside of her cheek.

Nino had known Alya for a little over two years now, and as someone he cared for deeply, he made a point to pay attention to her as much as she deserved. He knew her little quirks.

That's why he knew how to recognise tell tale signs that she wasn’t being entirely truthful with him.

Honesty was something the boy valued greatly and though he had a great deal of respect for boundaries, he also knew that if something was bugging her, or she really needed to get something off her chest, he wanted to be there for her.

“That's it?” he questioned, “Nothing else?” he quirked an eyebrow.

His girlfriend swallowed hard. That was nervous tick number two.

“No,” she mirrored his expression ,”What else would there be?”

“Okay,” he conceded, “By the way,” he started back up, “Why did we leave an hour earlier than the schedule?”

He caught her eyes jump in surprise before the expression was quickly schooled.

“Uh, I’m not sure, you’d have to ask Mme. Bustier. L-Lila just woke me up this morning and told me the schedule had been updated?”

Lila.

Alya had  total belief in their friend, Lila. Nino had no issue with lila, she was charismatic and was honestly really cool. He’d sometimes catch her bubbly expressions dropping, or her voice grating as though her cheery tone was a forced one, it took a while to see but after Marinette’s relentless attacks he’d started noticing other odd little things.

She’d push Alya in certain directions, guiding her to certain conclusions the way a parent would subtly hint to comprehension answers that eluded the kid’s grasps. Their classmates also soaked in her words like sponges, and if they doubted her she’d quickly remedy that. It was always a mis-speech or one of her ailments acting up and while Nino could sympathise, because hey, she couldn’t help it, sometimes it went a bit far.

It was a little unsettling.

“And how did Lila know?” He was careful to avoid an accusatory tone.

Alya shrugged again.

“Mme. Bustier must have sent her a quick message or something, I dunno,” her fingers tightened around her phone.

She adjusted her glasses and tucked a curly lock of hair behind her ear.

What was the possibility Marinette, Adrien and Chloé hadn’t received the message?

Or that it was done on purpose.

The DJ’s stomach churned uncomfortably at the thought.

oooooo

It’s so bright.

As compared to the dreary surrounding cityscape, the garden was practically neon. Vibrant foliage covered both sides of the path and prickly turf grass spanned an impressive distance. It was a wonder this much greenery could be found in such an urban city like Gotham.

“Okay, but I’d look gorgeous in pink. Specifically that one,” the blond pointed to a bleeding heart's bloom.

Chloé turned her head to scrutinise the flower before looking her friend up and down.

“No,” she decided.

The model frowned deeply.

“Well fuck you because I’m a supermodel, I can pull off any colour,” he crossed his arms and raised his head in indignation, which looked rather comical from where he lay flat, head on his girlfriend’s leg, “Right Marinette?”

The ravenette in question bit her lip at her boyfriend’s pleading expression. He stared up at her , eyes wide and begging. It was adorable .

“You are completely, and absolutely right,” she agreed.

The two nodded solemnly. Chloé scoffed from her position, which mirrored Adrien’s, on Marinette’s other leg.

“That  statement was biased and thus, will be disregarded,”

“It is my opinion as a professional fashion designer-” The bourgeois held up a finger to Marinette’s lips.

“I do not want to hear you wax poetry about your boyfriend. Thank you very much,”

“I’m starving ,” Adrien whined.

“ Woe is you, ” Chloé feigned pity.

Adrien averaged the position of her head, and flicked her.

“ Ow you son of a bitch . This is why your father doesn’t love you,” she sneered, rubbing the spot.

“I’d ask you if you kiss your mother with that mouth but she hasn’t been around in months,”  he retorted.

Chloé guffawed.

“ Children . Both of you,” Marinette sighed. Both blondes scowl at her.

Four blurs of colour zip past them before making a u-turn and slamming breaks right in front of the parisians causing Marinette to fall back.

“Marinette!” four voices yelled in unison, “We’ve made a friend!”

“She’s royalty among the flora!” Kaalki announced proudly.

“She’s very pretty,”

“The plants love her!”

“We love her!” they exclaim in unison.

Marinette nearly ripped off a chunk of hair upon hearing their words.

“You were seen!” she screeched, “What part of stay out sight was mistranslated!”

“Who is it anyway?” Chloé asked.

“Are these the friends you spoke of, little ones?” a voice purred. 

The trio jumped to their feets at the introduction of this stranger.

It would take a blind man not to notice how the atmosphere changed immediately. Flowers perked up, trees stood straighter. The grass brightened to a greener green. The plants loved this figure.

“Hello,” the woman greeted the three with a small smile, “You must be, their guardian and company,”

Marinette shot Tikki a look. The kwami remained unbothered, grin unfaltering.

“Bonjour madame,” the ravenette returned. Politely.

The figure revealed themselves, taking a step into view away from their hiding place behind one of the salmon trees.

She was gorgeous, the woman appearing from behind the foliage. Though her skin was an odd green pigment, the fiery red hair that fell down to her mid back and her features were striking. Prominent cheekbones, a sharp jawline and these deep phthalo green irises. She could be a model , tall and lean was her stature, her curved figure draped in a myriad of various types of flora entwining into a natural garment.

If only Marinette could replicate such clothing on a mannequin. 

Suddenly, Marinette could understand why the kwamis were so taken with this woman.

“My name is Pamela, although I go by Poison Ivy,” her silky voice delivered the introduction, “I wanted to introduce myself to the keepers of my new friends,”

~

Alix twirled the pasta on her plate aimlessly. It wasn’t the food’s fault that it was mediocre. It was the company, she was sure.

Kim and Max had decided to table with Lila, Nino and Alya. And boy did she regret not sitting with Juleka and Rose.

“And then, my uncle brought mama and I to this beautiful [insert some bullshit about the louvre or some other historical antiquity/fact]

Alix grew up with two nerds and a family deep seeded in tradition. She could answer any question that could be conjured about ancient indo-european and middle eastern civilizations simply because her brother had a habit of practicing for his tests and lectures by infodumping straight into her right ear.

She’d spent years going to white collared events in hoodies (much to her father and grandmother’s aggravation) and rolling her eyes at the old people who pinched her cheek and took turns chastising her about her hair, attire and general appearance. Addressing lords and ladies from across the content who’s family names dated back so far [something something]

Never in her life as the daughter and sister of two historian big brains had she heard such butchered and inaccurate recollections of Roman history.

Lila had taken the cake . She’d not so subtly hinted at being a direct descendant of Van Gogh, who was neither Italian nor had any children; proceeded to word vomit some eloquent but nonsensically stringed together sentences as word rich as they were substance poor. Alix was gripping at the table cloths to keep biting her tongue

She could understand wanting  to seem cool and knowledgeable, and arguably, to a less educated in the arts, maybe she was

That didn’t make her words and claims any less grating to the ears.

A thought popped to mind, a call back really, to all those months ago when Marinette had called out the girl for lying about her disabilities. 

Just how many times had Lila been a little too hyperbolic, or taken creative liberties with her stories and claims?

Her stomach churned.

She wasn’t that hungry.

oooo

“You are of the French group,” the little boy more so states than asks as he pets his hound.

Though his face is neutral enough and his demeanour is composed, Marinette can’t help but liken him to a little gremlin. She could see him sitting in a spinny chair (sue her, the English was not within her grasp) and turning dramatically with a “well well well,” a cat on his lap and a glass of milk in a whiskey glass. Whoever his parents are, they must have their hands full.

“Euh..oui? Who might you be?” she asked, as politely as possible.

Surprise painted his face.

“...you do not know my name? What rock are you living under?” he scrunched his eyebrows, maintaining the expression as his adorable dog rolled over to receive belly rubs.

The ravenette shrugged.

“You have not given it,”

Just as he opened his mouth to respond, Chloé butted in.

“Ma-ri- nette , what is taking you- Oh, hello Wayne,” her features pinched.

The kid rolled his eyes.

“Bourgeois,” he tutted, “ Still spilling drinks?”

“Still breaking arms?” she retorts with an equally aggressive head tilt.

“It was dislocated ,” he corrects, enunciating the words for each syllable, a tone saying I’ve-had-to-defend-myself– one -too-many-times.

“Sure,” she turned to the ravenette, “Anyways, lets go, Adrien is bitching because that pit of his is crying,”

“Of course it is,” she rolled her eyes playfully

“You are leaving already?” the boy asks, visibly deflating.

Cute!

“Euhhh,” she didn't want to upset him. She’d already upset one kid for the week.

“Don’t you have school,” Chloé snarks.

“For your information. We were dismissed after someone sent a bomb threat to get out of a physics quiz,” he turns up his nose haughtily.

Marinette snorted.

“Don’t pout. It’s unbecoming of you. Go walk your mutt. We’ll see you at some point again, god knows this city is making sure of it,”

His expression soured, an exaggerated frown upon his lips. Chloé blew raspberries at him and linked arms with her. He stuck his tongue out in retaliation.

“Let’s go, Dupain-Cheng,” she pulls the parisian along, “If I have to be subject to that mangy cat lamenting his woes, so do you,”