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“Hey Marinette.”
“Alya!”
Alya smiled as Marinette turned to face her.
She was standing in front of the statue of a former Ladybug in the Louvre, Tikki floating by her shoulder, smiling. On reflex, Alya checked to make sure nobody was about, but Tikki was too careful to be out in the open if she was likely to be seen.
“So, you called me here, what's up?” Marinette asked.
“Oh, you know, the usual: School, my blogs, video editing…”
Marinette hid a giggle behind her hand.
“Aaaand? You know I love chatting with you, but I know you well enough to know that you didn't call me here just for that. Why do I feel like you need some ‘special’ advice?”
Alya laughed. “Hah! Got it in one M. I just didn't know if you'd want me bothering you with Ladybug stuff is all...”
Marinette smiled.
“Just because I'm not Ladybug anymore, doesn't mean you of all people can't pick my brain about it! I was Tikki's Holder for quite a while you know!”
Marinette sat on a bench and patted the seat next to her. Alya sat beside her, and Tikki plopped down between them.
“I don’t think I’m cut out for this. I keep messing up.” Alya sighed, slouching forward, resting her chin in her hands.
“Oh Alya, I messed up all the time, sometimes several times a day! But that’s just part of being Tikki’s Holder. You’ll get the hang of it.”
“Every time I use my Lucky Charm, I try and think how you would do it, and by the time I have an idea, the fight is over and all I'm good for is cleanup!”
Marinette stuck both arms out in front of her, a if indicating something.
“Well, that's your problem! You're trying to think like me - I do NOT recommend it!” Marinette made a side to side cutting motion with one arm. “You're your own hero Alya, the Lucky Charm will adapt to how you think. Like when Mister Bug used it for example, they were a lot more straightforward.”
“I guess…” Alya said hesitantly, before buryinh her face in her hands. “AARG! I’ll never be as good as you were!”
Marinette shrugged, as Alya sat back up straight. “Even if that were true - which I don't believe for a second by the way - so what? Look, I know I'm not exactly the easiest act to follow-”
“No kidding! Dragonbug, Pegabug, Ladybee, Pennybug, Bug Noir-”
“Huh-” Marinette tapped her chin. “-I really went hard on the unifications didn't I?”
Alya, laughed and Tikki giggled.
“Us Kwamis all loved you Marinette! You were the most fun we'd had with a Guardian in centuries!” Tikki chipped in, waving her arms enthusiastically.
Marinette smiled down at her former Kwami.
“And I loved them all Tikki, but you were always my favourite - just don't tell Mullo I said that!”
Tikki giggled as Marinette turned her gaze back to the Kwami's Holder.
“But anyway… Alya, don't worry about living up to my example. You're not me, but that's not a bad thing! You're different than me, yes, but that is great! You get to be your own hero! And who knows? You might end up an even better Ladybug than I ever was!”
“I guess…” Alya said, looking at the floor and fingering one of her earrings.
“Marinette is right Alya! All my Holders are different, and that's what makes you all so much fun! Besides, I gave you a Kwagatama - I only do that if I really like you!”
Alya ruffled the top of Tikki's head, eliciting a giggle from the Kwami.
Their conversation was interrupted by a klaxon sounding.
Alya sighed.
“Akuma alert?” Marinette asked with a wry smile.
“Something like that, ooh maybe if I'm lucky I can get some footage for the blog!”
Marinette laughed, causing Alya to quirk an eyebrow at her, laughing a little herself.
“What?”
Marinette gave her a smile tinged with sadness.
“You sounded like your Grandmother just then, she was always running straight into danger, even before she got a Miraculous. You know, I would never have been Ladybug without her?”
Alya Marlena Lahiffe gave Marinette a lopsided grin. “For real? Nana A?”
Marinette nodded with a grin. “For real. She was my very best friend. You were named for her, you know? And those headphones, I'd recognise Nino's style anywhere.”
Alya nodded, self-consciously fingering the chunky vintage headphones her gramps had given her when she was a baby - they’d been bigger than her entire body back then! He'd insisted she'd grow into them - not that any music player was compatible with them anymore, but some things were just more important than function.
“Well then!” Marinette slapped the top of her legs and stood, and Alya followed suit. “I’ll tell you all about how your 'Nana A’ and I first met, and how she helped me become Ladybug next time.” Marinette smiled warmly in memory. “You know what one of the first things she said to me was? ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil- ”
“-is that good people do nothing.’” Alya finished with a smile. “I know it off by heart. She left me her entire Majestia graphic novel collection, I must have read those hundreds of times with her…”
Marinette smiled warmly at her, looking her up and down before looking at Tikki.
“It was great seeing you both again.”
“You too Marinette!” Tikki said happily and - Alya thought - a little wistfully. Although her Kwami would never admit it to her face, Alya had a feeling Great Aunt Marinette would always be her favourite.
“Like I told you before, you’re always welcome to come ask me for advice Alya. But for now: end of Reunion?”
Alya nodded with a smile.
“End of Reunion.”
The smiling visage of Marinette Dupain-Cheng aka Ladybug, faded, and Alya hid the Kwagatama pendant under her retro Kitty Section tee, taking a moment to look up at the statue of Ladybug, back to back with that of Cat Noir.
These were them as they had been back when they were her age in the mid 2010s, when they first started out. All around her were sculptures of the other heroes who came after.
As she hurried out of the room she spared a glance for Rena Rouge and Carapace with a smile - her Grandmother and Grandfather.
“Your Grandparents would be so proud of you, Alya, and so would Marinette, the real Marinette. I know I am!”
“Thanks Tikki. That means a lot.” Alya smiled, swiping a happy tear from her eye.
Making sure there was no-one about, and that she was in a camera blindspot, she turned to Tikki.
“Tikki, Spots on!”
As she transformed, she wondered if Marinette had felt this same thrill every time she became Ladybug? She had to have done, right? Maybe she'd ask her about it next reunion?
No sooner had she turned into Wonderbug, than her comm beeped.
She rushed through the different eras of the hero wing of the Louvre as she answered her teammate's call.
“Hey Violetta, I heard the alarm, what's up?”
“Wonderbug! Finally! I was starting to think you’d disappeared! Cyberpunk is on the rampage again, he's ripping up trees at Jardins d’Hapréle!”
Wonderbug rolled her eyes. When was that guy gonna get it through his thick metal skull that the neon drenched dystopia he wanted just wasn't going to happen?
She smirked as she raced past the statues of Eagle, Uncanny Majesty, and the rest of the American Miraculous Team, and replied to her partner.
“Don’t go getting your Kamikos in a twist Violetta, I’m on my way.”
“You had better be! Vanta Cat is already here, and I've already had to Heroize someone as well!”
“Ooh Vanta Cat.”
Alya could swear she could hear her teammate's eye roll.
“How can you have a crush on someone when you can't even see their face and they don't say a word?”
“I don't know! There's just something so… dark and mysterious about them! They even learnt how to use sign language to activate their power - that's so cool!”
“Ugh. Am I the only one who takes this seriously?”
“Absolutely. Like how seriously you were checking out Buzz last time?” Wonderbug teased her friend.
There was a clearing of the throat on the other end of the phone before Violetta changed the subject. “Where were you anyway?”
Wonderbug grinned at the tone of irritation as she exited the hero wing and made a dash for the main entrance, narrowly avoiding bumping into a short, pink-haired girl about her age, maybe a little older, dressed in retro clothes in blacks and greens who gave her a strange knowing smirk as she passed.
As she exited the museum and spun her yoyo around, glowing pink ladybug wings sprouted from it, before she threw it into the air, and was yanked up behind it, sailing past the hover cabs and roof gardens of Paris as she made her way to help her teammates.
“Oh, you know, I was just getting some much needed perspective from an old… friend.”
~🐞~