Archive of Our Own

There were clouds but no rain. The kind of winter morning that felt ominous, where you couldn't really be surprised if it started to pour with sharp hailstones, you could only hope that it wouldn't. Any regular Parisian might imagine the clouds as being omens of other things, of ambushes or of unveiled secrets, of things happening that shouldn't happen. A call to action for a hero who would one day return home, irrevocably changed, unable to see eye to eye with the friends he once knew.

For Marinette, though, it was an omen that she needed to wear a jacket on top of her cami and cardigan. Overcast and summer — that would have been fine without a jacket, even on the coldest days. Overcast and fall, at least in the first half, was fine without a jacket. But right now was early February and it just wouldn't do to risk it on a day like this. She had a duty to not get sick, after all.

Another thing she wouldn't risk was eating breakfast, because then she'd spill something and have to clean it up, and she was already late. Instead she took a lunchbox and stuffed some bakery leftovers from the kitchen into it, and she took care to lock the door before humming her way downstairs and entering the bakery from the back. She kept humming as she kissed her dad on the cheek, received a kiss on the cheek from her mum, and waved at M Consommé and Mme Dévoré as she passed them by on her way out the front door. They cheered her name in reply, and then she was outside with a tinkling bell and she could immediately feel that the jacket had been a good choice. Her breath was fully visible in the air, and the chill prickled against her cheeks; she ran the rest of the way to school.

Rose, Ivan, Nino, Aurore, Zoé, M Monlataing, Diane, Nathaniel — she passed all of them by with pleasant greetings on her climb up to the classroom. They greeted her just the same, though with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Today was a good day, despite the cold.

Inside the classroom, Alya was the first to see her, and the first to say hi. Everyone else quickly followed suit, and she told them all good morning and rubbed her hands together to ease off the slight stiffness from outside.

"You really need to wear warmer clothes," said Alya, who had a knitted hat and gloves on the desk in front of her. She wasn't wearing her jacket, but it lay open behind her like she'd just wrenched it off.

"I'm fine," said Marinette. "My jacket's pretty warm."

"You're wearing 10-denier tights and we haven't even started on winter holidays."

"I'm fine," sang Marinette. "I ran. I'm warm."

Alya placed her hand on Marinette's thigh. Both of them yelped.

"Geez! Alya!" shouted Marinette.

"Holy smokes, that's cold!" shouted Alya. "How are you alive right now?"

"I'm fine!"

It was their usual type of banter, really. Marinette was very good at doing things Alya thought weren't very smart, but they both knew there was no way to catch hypothermia or gangrene on the short walk from Rue Gotlib 12. Alya worried, but she was going to give up soon.

"At least get a scarf," said Alya, sighing.

"Around my legs?" Marinette grinned horribly. "That won't work —"

"I'll rub your legs warm."

Marinette jolted, turned to see Kagami standing there. In a black, shining puffer jacket, and — for the season — a long red tartan skirt. She wore earmuffs, too, and she had a scarf around her neck, but in the middle of all that she looked perfectly impassive. Not normal impassive, either, because Kagami just did that sometimes. This was next level, the level that was intentional.

"Hey, Kagami," said Alya.

"Y-yeah, hey," said Marinette, already anxious and getting more so.

"Hello," said Kagami. "Do you want me to rub your legs?"

"No! My legs are fine!"

"They are, yes," said Alya, nudged Marinette in the back of the shoulder with her knuckles. She had transitioned from 'worried' to 'flirty joking', thank goodness.

Kagami cleared her throat, though, a strangely morose sound in the circumstances. "Her legs are better than just 'fine'," she said, and Marinette suddenly felt her face burning. "They are superb. I wouldn't have offered to rub them otherwise."

"Ka-Kagami!" bleated Marinette. "What — what's gotten into you?"

A glint. Or something, or other, in Kagami's eye. She was planning something. The rest of her face stayed admirably still, though, as though she had specifically practised for this exact conversation. Damn her and her pattern-reading. "Nothing has 'gotten into me'. I'm not a car."

"… There are many things that aren't cars that can have things in them," murmured Marinette.

"Cool new jacket, though," said Alya, and Marinette took the opportunity to look at her own lap for a bit. Kagami's unflappable face was impossible to deal with, because Marinette couldn't meet it without feeling competitive and trying to match it, and she was no good at staying impassive or, for that matter, keeping still.

"Thank you," said Kagami. "I bought it yesterday at Hermès."

"Hermès? That's gotta be worth a fortune! And you're wearing it to school?"

"Yes."

"What if it gets torn?"

A zipper sound. Kagami was undoing the jacket. "Then I will buy another one."

"Rich people," said Alya, shaking her head in the corner of Marinette's vision. "I'll never understand you guys — wait — hang on!"

It wasn't just Alya, either. A general ripple rose through the room, and Marinette found herself turning her head to look past Alya at everyone behind her, because multiple people were staring at Kagami right now. Wide eyes, raised eyebrows, half-open mouths, the lot.

"… That one's gotta be even more valuable," said Alix, as the first one to speak after Alya. Juleka nodded quietly along with her.

"Yeah," said Alya.

"What?" said Marinette.

"They're impressed by my camisole," said Kagami.

Her tone was enough to raise all kinds of dread. Marinette turned around again and saw Kagami standing there like a fashion model, the cocked hip and the diagonal leg, the arms dangling straight down the slide as if to hide that they were there. None of that was the problem, though, even though she looked terrifyingly good like that. The problem was that above the skirt, framed by the world's most expensive jacket, was a white cami with a tiny black bow. Not just any black bow, either. It looked the exact same as Marinette's cami, down to the laced lining around the neck and the tone of the colours.

"… What?" repeated Marinette.

"Is that one also from Hermès?" said Alya.

"It isn't," said Kagami, completely ignoring Marinette. "It is custom-made."

"It looks good on you," said Adrien. "And the jacket, too!"

"Yeah," and "Yeah," and "Yeah," said some of the others.

Maybe they weren't wrong. Marinette struggled to even analyse Kagami's appearance, though, both on the subjective and the qualitative level. Kagami was wearing her top. Kagami was wearing her top. Not literally her top in an ownership sense, at least hopefully not, but it might as well have been. Medium-thickness white cotton cloth, close but not snug fit, hints of creases where it stuck into the skirt, a black sewn-on neckline with lace trimming. A dainty little bow adorning the middle. The bow even lay above the top node of the sternum, pushed slightly out by the little ball of bone, exactly like it did on Marinette. The sides and the back weren't visible, but there was no reason whatsoever to think there would be any divergence there. And the sensation of the cloth against the skin was…

"Marinette? What are you doing?" said Kagami.

Marinette blinked back to reality. She was leant forward, and she had the cloth pinched between her fingers, rubbing it. It was the exact same thickness, the exact same texture. The stitches along the bottom were a pitch perfect copy, even the width of the fold.

And she had tugged it out of Kagami's skirt.

"S-sorry!" screamed Marinette, whirlwinding her arms away. "I didn't… I…"

"If you do things like that to me, I am legally allowed to do the same to you," said Kagami. She still held the same pose, like she was waiting for someone to take a photograph — or ten dozen.

"Legally? What?" said Marinette. "What law?"

And Kagami just smiled. Like a terrible, hungry beast baring its teeth.

"What law?"

"It's a joke, girl," said Alya. "Relax."

"But —"

Marinette didn't get any further than that, though. Because the words stopped coming, and then the teacher stepped into the room and called for quiet, and Kagami just… shrugged her jacket up further and walked to her seat, without even a hint of acknowledgement that a conversation had just taken place. She wafted past like a cherry blossom hurricane and Marinette followed her with her eyes a little bit, then realised what she was doing, and then slammed her forehead into the desk loud enough that Nino squealed in shock.

Kagami was wearing her cami. And that meant something dreadful was afoot.

──── ୨୧ ────

The next day was warmer. By maybe one and a half degrees. Marinette still ran all the way to school, but today she had deliberately changed her top. Today, it was a kind of ratty tee with a pink sakura print; it used to be her favourite top, but during the summer she'd noticed that the fabric was wearing very thin and had frayed on the arms. So she'd swapped it out of her wardrobe, and she had kind of grabbed it today out of nostalgia, but the reason she was switching in the first place was Kagami. Because Kagami was up to something, and if God knew what that something was, then God was capable of more things than Marinette had ever imagined.

She rushed into the classroom, after leaving customary greetings with everyone outside it as usual, and she was touching her desk before Alya could speak even the first syllable of her name.

"Hey, Marinette," she said. "Bad morning?"

"No," said Marinette.

"Congratulations."

Alix snickered somewhere in the background. Marinette breathed out and pulled off her jacket, letting it slide down to the small of her back. "I'm ready for school," she said. "Locked in. Ready to go."

"It's just school, dude," said Nino, leaning back with his arms behind his head. His elbow nudged Alya's pencil case. "No need to lock in."

"Perhaps if she wants to be a failure."

Marinette turned to the door. Kagami was there, in the same getup from yesterday. Long skirt and puffer jacket, with the jacket zipped all the way to the neck — the neckline almost looked like a collar with how closely it was done up. Her eyes shone with a fiery glow.

"It's just school," repeated Nino, though his voice was the kind you use when you don't really have the confidence to speak your opinion loud.

"Marinette is destined for great things. That means she has to do well in school," said Kagami. She rolled her shoulders and stepped fully inside the room with a walk fit for a runway. Once she was by Marinette's desk, she turned her gaze on Marinette. "It's good to hear you are prepared. A locked-in Marinette is formidable."

"Um," said Marinette. She felt rather locked-out right now. It was really hard to concentrate on anything else when Kagami insisted on being — doing — whatever the things she was being and doing right now. Being hot and doing violence, but Marinette knew that was only a part of it. "I don't think… I don't know?"

"Good. School will teach you." Kagami pulled down her zipper now, raising her chin with majesty. Gradually, the same top as yesterday was revealed — white cotton cami, black silk bow, lace neck lining. She left the zipper hanging on its last tooth, but the top split like a flower in the sun and revealed black, and white, and… pink.

Pink flowers.

Pink cherry flowers.

"Kagami… where did you…"

"Did you rob Marinette's closet or something?" said Alix. She leant over Ivan's desk and her elbows banged against it, loud enough that Marinette both jumped and squeaked.

"I have never been in Marinette's closet," said Kagami. "Unfortunately."

"… Kagami?" said Marinette.

"Well, you know how it's like with Marinette and closets," said Alix.

"I don't," said Kagami.

"Nor does she."

But Kagami was very clearly wearing Marinette's cardigan. The grey cotton-acrylic blend, pink sakuras with black leaf embroidery, the black lapels with pink trim, the exact same shoulder seams. The bottom wasn't visible right now, nor were most of the arms, but presumably — given Kagami's usual attention to details — those would also look the exact same. Kagami was, on her upper body, wearing exact replicas of Marinette's clothes, and the cardigan couldn't be stolen because Marinette was wearing her own.

"At least you've got a good sense of style," said Alya, nudging Marinette in the small of the back.

Marinette didn't look at her. She kept looking at Kagami. First at Kagami's clothes, and then into her eyes.

"You're doing this on purpose," she told her.

"Doing what on purpose?" said Kagami — which only confirmed Marinette's suspicions. Kagami was still in control of the conversation, she could always talk laps around Marinette with utmost ease, but she was never good at pretending. She was too honest, and her faux-innocent voice didn't have even a trace of confusion to it.

"You're planning something."

"I'm wearing clothes," said Kagami. Then she turned on her heel and said, head half turned over her shoulder, "You, Marinette, should focus on schoolwork. I have great expectations for you."

With those words, she stepped up to the back of the room, and all anyone could do was just watch her in quiet awe. Or at least, that was the case for Marinette. And since no one else said anything, she thought it must be true for everybody else too.

"What's she planning, Marinette?" whispered Alya.

"I… don't know."

"Maybe she just likes you," said Adrien. Way too loudly.

She knew what he meant. He meant 'idolises', which was bad enough. But the thing it sounded like he meant made her kick the back of his seat hard enough that he jolted and clutched at his heart.

Kagami was definitely up to something. Not just in the way she dressed, but in the way she flaunted it, in the way she made it feel like she was taunting. And in the way she mixed it in with compliments and quips…

And the worst part was, Marinette knew she couldn't stop it. She had no way of counteracting whatever Kagami was doing, and she wouldn't even if she knew what it was. She could only wait and see what happened and hope that whatever happened, Kagami the praying mantis wouldn't bite off her head.

──── ୨୧ ────

"You really need to put on more clothes," said Alya the next day. Which was several degrees colder, by the grace of Satan. Everyone else, at least as far as Marinette could see, was wearing hoodies and hats and other warm stuff.

"I'm wearing a jacket," protested Marinette, rubbing her own thighs. She had gone back to her previous outfit today, because she might as well. White top, grey sakura cardigan, and the shorts over 10-denier tights. And a fleece-lined jacket on top.

"You are wearing nylon tights. It's nil degrees out."

"Let's hope Kagami doesn't try to copy the rest of your getup," called out Alix. She was cupping a hand to the side of her mouth. "Two girls with frostbite in class? We'd have to burn our schoolbooks to keep you warm."

Nino cackled. "That sounds good to me."

"We'd burn your cap as kindling too," said Alya, snatching the hat off his head. He didn't protest, he only raised a single arm and waved it lazily behind his head, in Alya's general vicinity.

"Babe… come on… I need that…"

"No, we need it to warm up Marinette," said Alya, laughing and then gently whapping his forehead with the soft part of the hat.

"You don't."

Kagami's voice was the bell that tolls for whom, and the whom in question jumped in surprise — because she hadn't heard Kagami arrive, but there she was, in her puffer jacket and her long thick skirt and her expression that gave absolutely nothing away. Marinette wasn't the only one to be surprised, either; Nino let out a quiet, "Jesus!"

"You need to take better care of your legs," said Kagami. "They are very attractive. It would be a shame if you had to amputate them."

"Whawhat?"

Kagami shrugged. "Amputation is a common treatment for gangrene. I will help you warm your legs, so you won't have to go through it."

Marinette was about to ask what 'warming' entailed — but then Kagami lifted up her jacket, and she found the button for her skirt, and she started to undo the skirt and Marinette screamed, "No! No! Don't —"

Despite her protestations, though, the skirt fell to the floor and Kagami stepped out of it, reached down to pick it up, draped it over Marinette's legs. All of that was horrible. However, none of it was as horrible as what Kagami was wearing on her legs.

"Girl," said Alya. "Are you robbing Marinette's drawers or something?"

"Literally," shot in Adrien. "That's just Marinette's shorts, right? And tights?"

"No. They are mine."

"Are you still wearing her top half, too?" said Alya, the worst way she could possibly have phrased that question.

Kagami's reply was to unzip her jacket. She was indeed.

"Wow," said Nino. "You've got a fan, Marinette!" He bapped the hat so it flew out of Alya's hand and hit Marinette in the neck.

"How about underwear?" said Alix. "Did you take her undies too?"

"I assure you, I have better ways of getting into Marinette's underwear than that."

Marinette felt like a bomb went off inside her head. Her face boiled red with the blast, and her ears where ringing. She tried to open her mouth — but nothing came out, because she didn't have a coherent thought in her brain anymore. The clothes were bad enough, the praise and very clearly stated expectations were another, and the flirting on top of that, and not a single one of those things made sense together. Was Kagami doing an experiment? Was that why she was now taking Marinette's hand and guiding her upright, and then pulling the skirt up along Marinette's legs? Was that why she smiled confidently as she finished the job by buttoning the garment around Marinette's waist just a little bit too meticulously? Was that why she held her hand there afterwards, probably in full awareness that Marinette could do nothing to resist her?

"I feel like I'm watching some weird porn where the clothes go on instead of off," said Alix. Marinette barely managed to suppress her instinctive whine at that, because she knew it would come off completely wrong.

"Childish," replied Kagami, shaking her head. "I'm simply preserving legs that… deserve preserving." A hint of hesitation. Maybe she forgot her script for a moment.

"That's a tongue-twister," said Nino.

"A proper copper coffee pot," supplied Adrien, perfectly.

Marinette felt a tug on her jacket sleeve. She turned to see Alya, grinning like a godawful fairy, leaning the side of her head on her fist as she looked past Marinette's hips.

"Don't you think Kagami's legs look good, though?" said Alya.

"Al—" started Marinette.

Then she turned to look at Kagami's legs, just to make sure Alya hadn't seen something weird.

Then she kept staring. At the toned muscles. At the tightness of the fold where the shorts crossed over into thighs. At the way the 10-denier nylon seemed to glitter silver. At the bend of the knees. At the curve of the hips. At the button that kept it secure.

Then she blushed furiously.

"Alya!" she screamed, and ran out of the room. With the skirt fluttering wildly, but warmly, even in the cold outside the door.

──── ୨୧ ────

When Kagami showed up the next day, it was completely unsurprising to see her wearing the same make of skirt again. Marinette knew what Kagami's wardrobe looked like, or at least used to look like. She could have twenty of any particular garment in her drawers and closets, possibly more.

It was more embarrassing to Marinette that because of that, they were both wearing the same skirt.

"You look stunning today," said Kagami. There was no weight to the statement. Just a normal, regular, common statement, akin to 'It is sunny outside.'

"I'm wearing your skirt," said Marinette, because saying anything else felt like a trap. "You should, should get it back."

Kagami shook her head slowly, ponderously. Raising her finger, she tutted. Kagami Tsurugi tutted and wagged her finger, like that was a thing a Kagami was supposed to do. "You shouldn't take your clothes off in public, Marinette. That's indecent."

"I'm — you did that! Yesterday! Right where you're standing now."

"But I had clothes on underneath," retorted Kagami.

"I do too! The same clothes, in fact! I —"

"You don't understand, Marinette. You undressing is different from me undressing."

Marinette blinked. "H-how so?"

"Because you're clumsy. You would just pull down your shorts along with the skirt."

"I would not!" argued Marinette, hotly.

"And besides, I'm not sure I would be able to control myself if I saw you take your clothes off."

Marinette went even more hotly, but for a different reason. "Bwuh?" she said, feeling like her brain was on fire. And maybe her chest, too.

"Keep the skirt," said Kagami. "It's yours now. Use it until the weather's warm enough. I have many spares you can borrow."

"Are you putting on pigtails next, Kagami?" asked — someone. Whoever. Probably a girl, but Marinette wasn't paying attention. If the flirting was bad, the sudden lack of flirting was somehow even worse: on some metaphysical level, she felt deeply unfulfilled. Like she'd been told the first half of a word but not the second, like she'd struck a match but it didn't actually catch aflame. Or maybe the opposite, because everything was on fire.

And Kagami answered with creased eyebrows. "No," she said. "I would never." Which meant she definitely would.

All of Marinette's clothes felt itchy now. Not literally itchy, but metaphorically, and that was worse because she couldn't scratch a metaphor. The cami felt like it belonged to Kagami, just like the cardigan, just like the shorts and tights. Marinette should just come to school in a potato sack tomorrow, because she could never match up. And… she glanced at the floor. True enough, Kagami was wearing canvas shoes that were the same as hers, down to the colour and patterns of the laces. They, too, were Kagami's now.

"I like your shoelaces," Marinette said, without really thinking about it. Maybe Kagami had stolen them. There was a precedent.

"Thank you," said Kagami, confident. Then she hesitated. "I — thank you." Strange. She was supposed to be in control, unflappable.

"If I went to school naked tomorrow, would you copy that too?"

That one really flapped Kagami. Her eyes opened like horizontal elevator doors. Her mouth fell open. Her cheeks turned a deeper shade of brown. "I… need to go," she said. She didn't go up to her seat, but down and then out the door, and she was almost running by the time her first foot went outside.

The room was strangely quiet, the only sound being shuffling hands and held breaths. Until Alya put her hand on Marinette's shoulder and said, "You should definitely not come to school naked tomorrow. You'll freeze all your bits off."

It wasn't really until then that Marinette realised what she had just said. She strangled a scream and let her head fall hard against the desk. Hard enough that a few seconds later, she woke up on the floor with Adrien, Alix, and Alya all fretting over her, and a large bruise on her forehead.

──── ୨୧ ────

Kagami didn't copy the forehead bruise the next day. Nor did she copy the jacket. Instead, she wore her own puffer jacket — Hermés, extremely expensive, stylishly black — over something that couldn't even be the cami and cardigan, because her torso looked like a balloon. Her arms, thicker than yesterday by far, couldn't even bend all the way in, and Marinette briefly worried that Kagami might have gotten into an accident yesterday and now had a full upper body cast.

Then she realised that Kagami would never allow herself to be injured like that, that she would even stare down a car coming at her until it stopped out of sheer embarrassment, so it must just be a sweater. Probably two or three sweaters, actually.

Even so, and in spite of her actively choosing to wear all those clothes, Kagami still seemed a little uncomfortable as she came up to Marinette's desk. Her eyes tried to do a scan of Marinette, but they flickered, jumped. The effect was that she remained standing there for a moment longer than usual, which made Marinette feel exponentially more self-conscious.

"Your clothes don't suit you," said Kagami. This was apparently a mistake, because her eyes immediately widened in horror. "I mean — you deserve to wear better clothes."

Her tone was so very different today. She had offered a bunch compliments over the past week, sure, but always from a position of power. Like she was the one who determined whether it was valid for Marinette to accept the compliment, or feel satisfied by it, and because she hadn't given that explicit permission Marinette had kind of just taken it all as an act of aggression. Now, though, Kagami sounded like she was struggling to form the words, like the conversation had already run away from her.

"I… made most of these clothes myself," replied Marinette.

Kagami looked down. "Yes."

"D-do you want me to make new ones instead?"

It was a supremely silly thing to say. But seeing Kagami struggle with finding words, Marinette felt a strange type of pity for her. It wasn't right for Kagami to be out of sorts. That was her job, as the awkward worrywart, and Kagami was supposed to know how to control her emotions and steel her expression.

Kagami frowned, though. There was surprise in that expression, but a different kind from before. She looked past Marinette, to the other row of seats, but only for a moment. When her eyes landed on Marinette again, they'd gained a tiny hint of steadiness.

"I don't want you to make clothes," she said, as though she was lying. "Especially not for me."

"Er, I didn't say I would —"

"I want you to wear a Hermès puffer jacket."

"… Oh," said Marinette.

Slowly it dawned on her that Kagami absolutely did lie just now. Making clothes? Kagami would love it if Marinette did that for her. From the look in her eyes, she might be overjoyed by a single home-knit sock. Was that why she'd been copying wardrobe stuff? She just wanted to shake things up a bit?

"I don't think Marinette has the kind of money for that," said Alya.

"Could sell the bakery," suggested Adrien, master of money. Nino whapped him in the back of the head, but gently.

"You know," Marinette started, ignoring the row in front of her, "I could make you a — a, I could make you a jacket if you want."

Kagami's expression did a series of somersaults before she even opened her mouth, eyes widening then narrowing and going everywhere all the while, her nose wrinkling and unwrinkling and her lips curling like wet hair. "… I… no! No, that's all wrong. You are the one who needs to reconsider your wardrobe. I told you you have to wear a Hermès puffer jacket."

"Um, okay? But —"

"How will she get one, though?" said Nino.

"Like this," replied Kagami.

And Kagami unzipped her jacket, revealing a second, identical jacket right underneath. That one was fully zipped up, except the neck which was folded flat against her shoulders. She wrenched off the outer jacket with an almost desperate urgency, and then she held it with both hands and presented it to Marinette in the way a toreador might do to an improbably near-sighted bull.

"This is your jacket now. You should wear it."

Alix cackled somewhere. Marinette just stared, and really more at Kagami than at the jacket.

"Wear it!" insisted Kagami.

"… Okay," said Marinette, took careful hold of it. If this was really a Hermés jacket, and really a gift from Kagami, she wanted nothing less than to accidentally tear it.

"Well," said Alix. "I guess that works."

"Okay, Kagami, if you don't try pigtails tomorrow I'm going to be really disappointed," laughed Alya. "Did you seriously buy her that? You know she's just going to ruin it somehow by tomorrow morning."

Marinette swallowed. "Yeah, actually… I don't think I can wear this, I should just —"

"No!" said Kagami. "You have to wear it."

Again, that tone of frantic desperation. Something was really up with Kagami. "Um… are you okay?" asked Marinette. "Did I do something wrong?"

Kagami stared.

Kagami ran.

"Wow," said Adrien, after Kagami was well outside the room. "I haven't seen her like that before."

"You really know how to turn a girl's world upside down," said Alix. A crumpled-up paper ball, probably thrown by her, hit Marinette on the top of the head and landed on her desk.

"Nice throw," said Nino.

"I don't even know what's going on," said Marinette, absent-mindedly reaching out for the little thing. "Don't blame me."

"You'll figure it out," said Alix.

"Marinette always figures stuff out," said Adrien.

Maybe. Kind of. She knew she was good at problem solving, but there was a huge asterisk to that statement. She always figured stuff out, except when it came to Kagami. With Kagami, she kept messing up somehow. Or, like with this whole ordeal, she let Kagami take the reins because even though she sometimes knew what Kagami wanted, she could never out-think the girl. When she tried she ended up wheel-spinning. And the worst part was that she enjoyed it, because when she was up against someone who projected control so well, she could let go a little bit. Let the seas sail past as she drifted away on someone else's boat.

Her fingers kept working at the paper ball as she ruminated. Soon the creases unfolded and Marinette saw the text, 'Marinette and Kagami, sitting in a tree'.

"Alix!" groaned Marinette, creasing it back together.

"I call them as I see them," was Alix's smug reply.

"Call me," mumbled Juleka, which shut Alix up.

Kagami didn't return for the rest of the school day.

──── ୨୧ ────

Marinette sat in her room and squeezed the puffer jacket between her fingers. Idly, but also, it gave her something else to think about.

The cut was nice, very nice. It was the best part. The seams felt very machine-sewn, they weren't very interesting, but the thread was thick enough that the jacket wouldn't fall apart for several years. At least not for anyone who wasn't Marinette Dupain-Cheng. But also, the insulation didn't feel very comfortable. It wasn't horrible, but given that the jacket cost an intense, horrifying 11'500 euroes — she'd checked — she would have expected better work. The sleeves didn't itch, but they lay over her wrists in a way that made her feel like she was itchy. Which might be the same thing, but she didn't really have the presence of mind to perform a proper analysis right now.

She worried about Kagami. Admitting that felt like admitting that the weather was cold. It felt too obvious and yet, it was one of those obvious things that required comment. Kagami had never intentionally missed a day of school before. Even yesterday, after the naked comment, she had returned a short ways into the next class, and even that was a first for her. There had been a lot of firsts for Kagami this week, in fact, starting with the wardrobe change and then oscillating wildly from there.

Kagami wanted something. She wanted different clothes. That much was obvious, at least. Marinette eyed the basket of cloth under her desk — the sewing machine she hadn't really used for the past three months right above it, because she had cracked the needle on a denim mishap and then she'd bought a replacement needle and then, because of her brain, she'd just stared at it out of the corner of her eye since then. Told herself to fix it already, over and over, but that hadn't worked. Of course it hadn't.

Now, though…

Her mind was made up, without much thinking required to get there. She'd make something Kagami could wear. Maybe a jumper, or a different cardigan, or just a blouse. But something Kagami would like. Maybe an entire outfit?

That was enough motivation to replace the needle. It wasn't hard, it was just hard to get started. However, the motivation wasn't enough to get her actually started on any clothes, because as she was riffling through the basket of fabrics there was a knock on her trapdoor.

"Yes? Come in?" she said, pushing the basket away. At this time of day, it had to be a guest, because her parents were busy in the bakery, but she hadn't invited anyone. Alya, maybe? Or Nino? They were her most frequent after-school visitors.

The head that popped up wasn't either of theirs, though. It was Kagami's. "Hello," said Kagami, brows furrowed and eyes sharp.

"K-Kagami!"

"May I come in?"

Marinette swallowed. She felt like Kagami was already in. "Er, yes."

Another part of Kagami's plan was about to unfold. Marinette could feel it in her bones. Unlike earlier in the day, Kagami looked focused. In control.

At least kind of. Because when she got fully up on the floor, she ended up staring at the sewing machine. And there was a small wobble.

"You're sewing," she said.

"Yes. I, I think so."

"You shouldn't be. Your clothes are fine."

Marinette glanced down at her lap. "Oh. I guess? Thank you?"

"I'm serious." A sigh. "You don't need to change anything about your wardrobe, or yourself."

What a strange plan. Something must be up, somehow. Some kind of penny about to drop. As Marinette looked back up at Kagami, though, she saw that Kagami was back to her normal clothes again. Red canvas shoes rather than copies of Marinette's. Black 100-denier tights. Her red summer skirt, which hopefully meant she'd worn the longer wool skirt on top, because walking from Kagami's to here took almost half an hour. Black long-armed skirt that barely showed under the sleeves of her white leather blazer. And of course, the tie.

"You look different," said Marinette. "I mean — normal. No, I mean — you changed your clothes?"

"Yes. I did."

"Okay. You, um…" Telling her she looked good would feel wrong. Not to mention, it would be very very embarrassing. "You. Yes."

"I am." Kagami sighed again. "You're not to change your wardrobe unless you want to."

Marinette nodded, throwing a quick peek at the basket again. "Right."

There didn't seem to be a plan after all. Somehow, Marinette felt disappointed.

"I need to apologise," said Kagami. "This wasn't meant to happen."

"Oh," said Marinette. She wrinkled her face a little. "You… weren't meant to wear exact copies of my clothes?"

"No!" said Kagami — it was a half-snap, but it didn't have the energy of a reprimand. Or if it was, it wasn't a reprimand at Marinette. "That was the whole idea."

"Oh."

"The problem is everything else."

"I'm sorry," said Marinette.

"No!" Even louder — this time, Marinette might have imagined it was actually a reprimand for her, if not for the way Kagami looked actually broken up. "Not you! You are fine!"

Marinette waited. She doubted that, but she didn't want to interrupt.

"The problem is that I'm not meant to fall in love with you. I wasn't meant to develop feelings for you. It's all… wrong."

"Oh, well," said Marinette, all geared up to reassure her, but then the actual words sank in. "Wh-wha-whawhat?"

"I wanted to play a prank on you," Kagami said, like that was an answer. "To throw you off balance. Toy around with you."

"… Why?"

"Because it's so easy."

That obviously wasn't the real answer. But maybe Kagami believed it when she said it, because once the words were out, she twisted up her mouth like she disagreed with them.

"I mean," she continued, "I don't know why. I wanted to have fun. For some reason, this is the idea I came up with, and I ended up falling in love with you. I'm not supposed to be in love with you. I've only loved boys before."

Kazuno. Adrien. Félix. Discounting how almost the whole class had suspected Adrien of being a trans egg for months now, that was true enough. And Marinette focused on that part, because if she thought about the rest of it she might explode. "Sure," she mumbled.

"And then I started thinking about you all the time. Even when you weren't there and I wasn't messing with you. Your face. Your hair. Your smile. Your legs. Your bu—"

"Okay, okay," said Marinette, raising her hands. There was a time and a place to be terrified of speaking and this was neither. "I, I, um, okay. Don't."

Kagami frowned. "I'm confessing to you and you're telling me to shut up?"

"No! I just — you really like me?"

"No," said Kagami. "I love you. There's a pretty significant difference. Technically speaking I also like you, but I think I've long made it abundantly clear that this is the case, so I hope I don't need to repeat myself."

Marinette gulped, looking down. "No. Um, no, you… I'm just… surprised?"

"You're surprised that someone is in love with you?"

"Yes! I mean — no! Maybe! Yes, absolutely! Why?"

"Well, I'm sorry to be a disappointment," huffed Kagami.

"You're not! You just —"

— oh, to hell with all of it. There was a reason she was considering making clothes for Kagami at all. There was a reason she appreciated speaking to Kagami even though she had no control over the situation when she did. There was a reason Kagami could even control her like putty in the first place.

"… I'm going to sew some clothes," she said, trying and failing miserably to sound determined. "Even though you told me not to."

"What? Why?" said Kagami.

"Because I'm sewing them for you. As a, as a gift. A couples' gift."

Kagami looked superbly confused for a moment. Then she frowned. "Is this your way of telling me you love me back?"

Marinette replied with a flushed nod.

"Okay. Then we are a couple," said Kagami, folding her arms. "But you are not to sew me a single piece of clothing. Understood?"

"… Why not?" said Marinette, blinking. "You gave me a super expensive jacket and a lovely skirt."

"Because I say so," said Kagami. "Please excuse me. I have to go launder a casket. We will kiss at school on Monday."

"What?"

"Monday," insisted Kagami. She spun on her heel and went back towards the trapdoor and the stairs, descending way faster than she usually did. And Marinette could only sit and stare as her pixie cut disappeared underneath the floor.

Hopefully, tomorrow would actually bring some answers as well. Because today so far was the most confusing day Marinette had had for years, and it still wasn't five o' clock. There could still be other weirdnesses lurking just around the corner.

As she threw herself back in her chair and exhaled all the air she had available through pursed lips, she had no idea how correct she would be only half an hour later.

──── ୨୧ ────

The portal to the Burrow opened like there was no hurry whatsoever. In a way, there couldn't be a hurry for a rabbit holder. Marinette looked up from her desk — more specifically, from her sewing machine, which she was itching to use even more now that Kagami had told her she shouldn't — and waited for Bunnyx to pop her head out. When Bunnyx did emerge, it was like a reverse Cheshire Cat: her grin appeared first, and Marinette only became aware of the rest of her a short while later.

"Hey," said Bunnyx, sleazily.

"You're too young for this to be dangerous," said Marinette. Bunnyx seemed to be exactly as old as she — well, Alix — was at school today. "What's up?"

"Well…" Bunnyx stepped out of the portal, twirling her umbrella. "I have a request. From the past."

"From the past," echoed Marinette, emptily.

"Yep. And a little bit from the future, I guess."

Marinette blinked. "Please explain."

"You sure?" said Bunnyx. "Isn't it more fun when you don't know what's going on?"

She didn't look directly at Marinette, Marinette noticed: the closest she came was looking a little bit east of her ears. The rest of the time she scanned the room, her eyes circling the walls like she was circling the topic or, perhaps, the drain.

"I've spent the past week having no idea what's going on," replied Marinette, folding her arms. "Especially today. I'd like to actually have an idea from now on, please. What do you need?"

"I need you," Bunnyx finally met her eyes, "to make Kagami, exact copies of your clothes. Shoes, top, shorts, everything. That good with you?"

And she seemed so innocent while asking. Not real innocent, but put-on innocent. She was still hiding something.

"Are you and Kagami working together, or something?"

"No. Well, she's the one who asked, but I'm doing this entirely for personal reasons," replied Bunnyx. Her umbrella got another twirl. "But yes, she does think we're working together."

Marinette put her head in her hands and groaned. "God, Alix. Just tell me what's going on, and if you do it fast enough I'll make those stupid copies."

"Okay. Here goes," said Bunnyx. Something hard tapped against the ground, probably the tip of the umbrella. "Kagami wants — wanted, I guess — to prank you. She said she wanted to put you off kilter for a bit, for a bet."

"For a bit, for a bet?"

"You bet. I don't know who she was betting with and I swear it wasn't me, but her plan was to just get under your skin. By, for example, wearing your clothes. Guess what happened?"

What a stupid question. "She wore my clothes. Duh," sighed Marinette.

"That too. But she also fell in love with you, you doofus. Didn't you speak to her just after school?"

"I was! But — you mean you know about that?"

"When she asked me to go to the future to ask you, I said I'd think about it. Then I went into the future to see what would happen, and I found out you were dating, and then I went back and told her yes but I didn't tell her she'd be in love with you at the end. Or that you'd end up dating. Honest, it's the funniest thing I've ever had the joy of observing. I think she had feelings for you before but she was just in denial about them. But yeah, I've kept up, and this is the part where I ask you to make the clothes."

If this was what an explanation looked like, Marinette wasn't sure she wanted to know what the questions were anymore. She thought she knew, but now she felt like she'd opened the Book of Revelations only to find, well, the Book of Revelations.

At least she had one answer, though. Kagami didn't want her to make new clothes... because she'd already made those other clothes, or she would have made them from Kagami's perspective. That part made sense. Everything else was a nonsense oats porridge.

Still. She'd have to make the clothes now, wouldn't she? That was causality. If she didn't make the clothes now, all of time would be messed up, or at least the tiny part of time that existed in her life. Maybe more importantly, though, if she didn't make the clothes she wouldn't have Kagami.

"I'll do it," she sighed. "Give me four weeks."

"Oh, you didn't have to answer. I already knew you'd do it," said Bunnyx, doing fingerguns. "But thanks. Kagami will be overjoyed."

"Because I'm just like that, or because you already got the clothes from me in the future?"

"Yes."

Marinette groaned. "God. Do you mind telling me why you — both of you — decided on doing it like this?"

But Bunnyx just blinked a couple times, then shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe she just really wanted to get in your pants."

"Right," said Marinette, burying her burning face in her palms again. "Forget I asked."

"Already forgotten," said Bunnyx. There was a sound like her lightly slapping her forehead. "Anyway, I'll get going. No time to waste except what I've already wasted —"

"Before you go," interrupted Marinette. She kept staring into her hands. "Tell her, not in the past but like. Whenever after right now, I guess, that I'm happy she likes me and that we're dating."

A few seconds, and steps, passed. Then Bunnyx's hand landed on her head, rustling through the hair. "I think you should tell her that yourself."

"She knows I can't do it. She'll understand," said Marinette.

She could only hope that they were actually dating, and that this wasn't just another one of Kagami's pranks.

On Monday, she quickly found out in a whirlwind of hands and lips that Kagami had been completely serious. She was still confused, but with Kagami's hand in hers, she didn't mind too much anymore.

And when she murmured to Kagami that she would sew her a jacket anyway and she'd better take it, Kagami did protest. But her eyes and the tiny crease on her lips said she was happy.