Chapter Text
In Marinette’s final year of université, Shadow Moth completely ceased sending out akumas and amok.
At first, that made Marinette nervous. What if he was planning something big? Over time, however, she began to relax a little. Maybe Shadow Moth had seen the errors of his ways? That didn’t seem likely, but it never hurt to have a little hope.
She still had to recover Nooroo and Duusu’s Miraculous, though.
As the frequency of Ladybug’s daily patrols began to dwindle, she found herself spending more time with her classmates again, especially Alya, Adrien, Nino, Luka and Kagami. She had even revealed her identities to them and the rest of the team, and they did the same to her. By the time she graduated université, she and Alya had been dating for almost seven years, and Adrien and Nino were going to celebrate their seven-year anniversary soon. Despite tip-toeing around each other for a while, Luka and Kagami had finally worked out their feelings for each other and had been going steady too!
Then, one fateful day, she received a frantic call from Adrien. The ringing had woken her up, and despite the realization that it was almost 2:30 in the morning, she begrudgingly picked up the phone. Adrien wouldn’t be calling her if it wasn’t an emergency, after all.
“Adrien, is everything okay?”
There was a rustle at the other end of the line. “You actually picked up…! I know it’s way too late for me to be calling you, but-”
“I know you wouldn’t if it wasn’t an emergency,” countered Marinette, trying to keep the groan out of her voice. “Did something happen?”
“... Father is dead.”
“What?”
“Nathalie went into his room to wake him up this morning, and, well… we discovered that he had died in the middle of the night. The doctors are still determining the cause of death, but…”
“Oh, no… I’m so sorry to hear that! Are you feeling okay?” Marinette shuddered. “What am I saying - of course you aren't! Do you need to come over? I know it’s late, but Maman and Papa won’t mind-”
“Marinette, this isn’t something I need you to fix,” Adrien sighed. “There’s something more important that I need to tell you.”
“I know he treated you like hot flaming shit, but-”
“… I think I found the Moth and Peacock Miraculous. Their kwamis are here too; they’re terrified.”
“What?! What are you saying?”
“I think… I think Father was Shadow Moth.”
Head spinning, Marinette tightened her grip on her phone. “Adrien, you need to come over right now. Bring the Miraculous and all three kwamis.”
“I’ll be right over,” Adrien agreed.
Fifteen minutes later, Chat Noir jumped in through Marinette’s opened window and transformed back into Adrien, three Miraculouses in hand. Duusu and Nooroo hung behind him, eyeing Marinette curiously.
Plagg, on the other hand, flew right over to Tikki, giving her a huge hug.
“Sugarcube! It's been such a long time!”
“You saw me last week, Plagg,” Tikki giggled.
“Exactly!” Plagg insisted. “Way too long without you!”
Nooroo eventually spoke. Nervously, quietly, he asked, “Plagg, is this the Guardian?”
“Yep!” cheered Plagg, flitting around Marinette. “One of the best Guardians we’ve had in a while, actually!”
“Are the other kwamis okay?” asked Duusu. “Are we allowed to see them?”
“Of course,” Marinette replied, stifling a yawn as she knocked on the Miracle Box to let the kwamis know that she wanted to talk to them. One by one, the kwamis came out of the box, each and every one gasping with excitement when they saw Nooroo and Duusu safely returned.
Wayzz, notably, was especially excited to see Nooroo and Duusu safely returned. He’d always loved Master Fu, and Marinette was certain the Turtle kwami saw it as a reversal of Master Fu’s greatest mistake.
“… what are you going to do with the Wish?” asked Nooroo, a touch nervously.
“I’m not going to use the wish,” said Marinette, without a second thought. “The possible consequences are too great.”
Nooroo tilted his head, confused. “I’m not talking about the Great Wish. I’m asking about your Guardian Wish. Did the previous Guardian not explain that to you?”
Flinching a little at the mention of Master Fu, Marinette replied, “I’m afraid not.”
“I- I’m sorry if I said something wrong, Madame Guardian…” Nooroo whimpered.
Marinette quickly shook her head. “You’re not in trouble, I promise. I remembered something sad, that’s all. Can you tell me what you meant by the Guardian Wish?”
Glancing warily between Marinette and Adrien, Nooroo replied, “If a Guardian is in possession of all nineteen kwamis from the Chinese Miracle Box, they are able to make a Guardian Wish,” he explained. “It’s different from the Great Wish because the Guardian is able to choose what is exchanged in return, so long as it’s proportional to the wish.”
“I see…” Marinette said. “Wayzz, do you know what Master Fu wished for?”
“He asked for Marianne to remain safe throughout the Second World War,” Wayzz answered. “In return, a man from the opposing side met a less fortunate end.”
“You don’t have to make a Guardian Wish!” blurted Duusu. “Shadow Moth wasn’t planning to use it. He didn’t care who had to die to bring his wife back to life.”
The look on Adrien’s face was nothing short of murderous, making Duusu yelp and hide behind Nooroo. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have mentioned him, I’m sorry!”
This time, it was Adrien’s turn to sigh. “I’m not angry at you, Duusu. What can you tell me about my mom?”
“Umm… Gabriel has her in a big glass box below the mansion. She used to be my holder, but my Miraculous was broken, so she got sick and died.” Duusu welled up with tears again. “It’s my fault…”
“It’s not your fault, I promise,” said Adrien, holding out a hand to hold the kwami. “Is your Miraculous still broken?”
“Y-yes. That’s why he got sick, too…”
“That makes a lot of sense…” Marinette said, her concern for Adrien outweighing her hatred for Shadow Moth at the moment.
“I’m so sorry, Miss Guardian,” said Duusu. “I didn’t want to help him, but-”
“- but you had no choice…” Adrien concluded, earning a timid nod from Duusu. “Oh, mon petit, I’m so sorry…”
Quietly, Marinette asked, “Does this wish hurt the kwamis in any way?”
“Not any more than transforming normally does.”
Finally, Marinette stood up. “I know what I want my wish to be,” she said, to the surprise of the listening kwami. “I wish to break the chains on every last kwami and ensure that they’re never reforged onto them. In return, I wish for new chains to clasp onto all those who conspired with Shadow Moth.”
“Madame Guardian…!” gasped Wayzz, the other kwamis doing the same. “Are you sure?”
Marinette nodded. “I’m certain. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been so sure about something before.”
“Is it going to happen right away?” asked Adrien.
“Probably not,” replied Wayzz. “The magic of the Wish usually takes some time to come into effect.”
“Alright,” said Marinette with a yawn. “With that done, I’m gonna go back to sleep. Adrien, you can sleep over if you want; I’m sure Mama and Papa won’t mind. Bug out.”
Marinette’s head didn’t even hit the pillow before she was fast asleep.
The following morning, Marinette woke up, still feeling groggy and exhausted. Looking over to the small couch in her room, she saw that Adrien had taken her up on her offer to sleep over, draped half-on and half-off the couch. That boy could really sleep anywhere…
It took her half a second to realize that there was something strange going on. Sound asleep next to Adrien was a small boy with messy black hair. He couldn’t have been older than eight or nine and, despite their different hair color, he and Adrien looked sort of similar…
Even more startling, however, was the fact that he wasn’t the only one. In fact, her bedroom was now chock-fucking-full of sleeping kids.
Staggering out of bed, Marinette almost tripped right over a small huddle of the children, trying to figure out what was going on through her half-asleep haze. Then, it suddenly hit her.
Last night, she had wished for the kwamis to be freed from their chains. What if the wish had interpreted that as making them no longer deities? Looking around the room, she counted how many she could see, and realized that the number of kids matched up with the number of kwamis in the Miracle Box. That had to be it! There was no other explanation.
Maman and Papa were going to be so confused. Sure, they had been supportive of her being Ladybug & being a Guardian when she’d come out to them, but there was a big difference between those responsibilities and looking after nineteen (nineteen!) children. What was she going to tell them?
Still, there was no time like the present, so she crept out of her room, leaving Adrien and the kwamis-turned-kids to sleep. No matter what, she would do her best to care for them, as she promised Master Fu all those years ago.
All things considered, Tom and Sabine took the news with grace, with Tom even offering to get into contact with a lawyer who owed him a favor so that the children could have the necessary legal documents.
That left Marinette with an important question on her mind: who were going to be the kwamis' legal guardians? She could probably take care of a few, but even Maman and Papa wouldn’t be enough to help her wrangle nineteen kids.
“Perhaps their previous wielders would be willing to help?” suggested Sabine.
Marinette nodded. “That’s a good idea. It’s going to take a while to get to everyone, though…”
“Why not invite them here?” Tom suggested. “Your classmates come here often enough that no one would be suspicious if they all visited at once.”
“Brilliant! Thank you, Papa!”
Heading back upstairs, Marinette got out her phone, going to text the first person she thought of; they also happened to be her most recent contact. Alya was going to flip when they met their future kids.
Marinette: So… it’s a long story, but I might have wound up with some kids last night.
Alya: Ooh, that sounds like a story! Wait, let me guess…
Alya: Ella and Etta are here, so is it Manon or Chris?
Marinette: Not quite…
Alya: Huh? Is something wrong?
Marinette: Can you come over? It’s gonna be easier to explain in person…
Alya: I’ll be right over!
True to her word, Alya arrived at the bakery just short of fifteen minutes later. “So, are you going to tell me what happened?” she asked.
“It’s a long story, but to make it short, I kinda turned the kwamis human?”
“You did what?” Alya exclaimed. “I have to see this.”
Marinette hurriedly shushed her. “They’re still asleep, and I don’t want to wake them up,” she hissed. “Adrien too.”
“Adrien’s here?”
“His dad died last night,” Marinette explained, “which is how he found out that he was Shadow Moth.”
Alya balked. “M. Agreste was- love, you gotta stop dropping bombshells on me like this.”
“Sorry, today’s been kind of a lot…” Marinette mumbled.
Giving her a warm smile, Alya replied, “At least you have me here to lighten the load,” she said. “Now show me our kids!”
Marinette was so pleased that Alya had taken it well that she couldn’t help but oblige her girlfriend; thus, she brought Alya up to her room, where the kwamis and Adrien were still - thankfully - fast asleep. It took her a second to pick out Tikki and Trixx. The former’s new human form was a tiny girl with short dark hair and brown eyes, while the latter had darker skin, like Alya, as well as curly red hair, copious amounts of freckles and dark blue eyes.
Marinette wasn’t sure exactly how she knew these were her kids, but still, she knew. Stepping around the other sleeping kids, she and Alya picked up Tikki and Trixx, carrying them downstairs. They might as well start with their kids' legal documents.
Eventually, Tikki began to stir in Marinette’s arms, grumbling, “Leave me alone, Mari. I’m sleepy…”
“You’ve been sleeping all morning, bug,” Marinette said softly, as she and Alya reached the bottom of the stairs. “It’s time to wake up.”
“Marinette?” Tikki whispered, finally opening her eyes. “I feel… different.”
“The wish worked,” Marinette said, hugging Tikki close. “You’re human now.”
Tikki turned her head to the side. “I’m… human?”
It seemed to take her a moment to fully recognise what had happened, but when she did, she gasped, throwing tiny arms around Marinette’s shoulder. “Thank you, Marinette! Thank you!”
At that exclamation, Trixx startled awake, falling out of Alya’s arms and landing on the couch with a thud. “What’s going on?” he asked, as he turned around and saw Tikki on the couch next to him. “Tikki, you’re human!”
Tikki giggled. “So are you, Trixx!”
Finally, Trixx looked down at his own hands, opening and closing his fists as if he was checking that they truly belong to him. “I am human… whoa…”
“What’s going to happen to us now?” asked Tikki.
Marinette and Alya exchanged knowing looks. “If you’re willing, we’d like to adopt you both,” said Marinette. “You’ll need to choose new names for yourselves though, so Papa can get legal documents made.”
Tikki thought for a few seconds before replying, “Can you call me Tina, please?”
“Absolutely!” Marinette replied. “How about you, Trixx?”
The once-vulpine boy hesitated. “Uhhh… I’m not sure. Maybe Tristan? Is that name common enough these days?”
“I’d say it's common enough,” Alya said, putting a grin on Tristan’s face.
As Alya went to tell Tom and Sabine the names that their children chose for themselves, Marinette had a thought. “Tina, when you became human, did you lose all of your magic?” she asked.
“I don’t think so…” said Tina. “I can still feel it, but it's fainter than before. I think I might be able to call upon it similar to how you could use my powers as Ladybug.”
On one hand, Marinette was happy that the kids would be able to defend themselves. On the other hand, not only did they have nineteen kids in the house, but each and every one of them also had magic in some form.
Marinette was beginning to get the feeling that today was going to be a long day.
Still, as she watched Alya cuddle with Tristan and Tina, she knew, deep down, that she wouldn’t have changed a thing.