Chapter Text
“Spots on.”
Grandma Fen’s earrings fall out of my hands before I even get to put them in my bag. They roll off behind me to who-cares-where.
I shut my eyes as the tight suit falls over me.
I wait for a response as my parents stand there. Nothing, okay…
Please say something. Anything.
I can’t take it anymore. I open my eyes. “Are you going to say something?!”
“I can’t believe it!” Sabine is the first one to break the silence. “You’re Ladybug? I just can’t imagine how much this has taken a toll on you.” I am wrapped into a warm tight hug from both my father and my mother.
“I can’t believe I grounded my little girl for ditching class when you were off saving the world…how could we be so blind?” Tom sighs. “I feel horrible.”
“Why, you have no right to. You didn’t know. If anyone should feel horrible, it should’ve been me!” Tears start to prick at the sides of my eyes.
“What? Don’t be so hard on yourself, sweetie,” Tom responds. I can’t stop the tears from forming at the edge of my eyes.
“I just…I’ve been lying to everyone lately…about my identity and other things. I can’t seem to stop getting paranoid all of the time! I don’t know what to do,” The tears fall out of my eyes and onto the shoulders of my parents.
“It’ll be alright, you have us now. You can rely on us and get the heavy weight off of your chest,” Sabine assures me.
“You can trust us. We are here for you, Marinette,” my father tells me.
I laugh, choking through the sobs, and I’m wrapped into an even tighter hug. “Trust is a funny word. It’s hard to trust people when they have so many vulnerable pieces of you they can drop.”
“I’m so sorry you had to go through all of this alone.”
“Even when I told some friends….it was never enough, was it? I always felt alone, like I’m the one who has to carry it all.”
“I see, and I understand.”
“No, you really don’t. People think I skip school while I’m out getting threatened by an old man who wants my theory to make a…heartless wish. I attacked supervillains day and night and nobody batted an eye, nobody said “we shouldn’t even let teenagers protect Paris, it puts their lives at risk. What was Master Fu thinking entrusting me with the ladybug miraculous and choosing me as a guardian!? I’m a horrible guardian, a failure even!”
“Woah, woah, woah, a failure? No way!” Tom tells me.
“You’re being too hard on yourself, please let other people help you out and take the heavy burden off of your shoulders,” my mom responds shortly after.
“I don’t know what I would do without you both,” I chuckle, tears still forming from my eyes.
“We’re your parents. Even if we weren’t, why wouldn’t we care for you and help you out with your struggles?” Tom answers.
“Of course,” I chuckle, trying to wipe my tears, “you’re totally right. Sometimes my brain just goes to the worst case scenario and I end up…”
“Spiraling?” Sabine asks me.
“Yeah, how did you know?” I pause.
“I found an article about a mental health disorder called OCD, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and spiraling about worst case scenarios and intrusive thoughts is one of the many symptoms.”
“So you think there’s something wrong with me?” I joke, but not really joking. I push my parents away quickly and Tom puts his hand on my shoulder, reminding me to not jump to conclusions. I realize how bad I’d gotten in blocking out everybody else’s comments during my spirals. They’ve noticed this, too.
“No, sweetie! If anything, you’re so strong for being able to deal with this, but sometimes strong people need a break. We were thinking about getting you diagnosed,” Tom interjects.
“Oh, well that’s a relief,” I breathe out slowly. I didn’t even realize that I was holding my breath in the first place!
“Yep. I can send you the article through your computer and you can check it out whenever you would like. We will find someone who can potentially diagnose you.”
“That sounds great, mom! What a relief that there is a term for this, and that I don’t have to carry my newer burdens all alone now! You are the best,” I tell my parents and wrap them in a tight hug. I allow myself to let out a few more sobs, albeit happier…yet anxious for what the future holds.
“Spots off,” I finally speak the de transformation words out loud after a few seconds. I admit, I’m anxious to detransform because what if “Uncle Wang” set up cameras or bugged the house after looking around the house (probably to hide the present to stage the akumatization and trying to find my earrings) when “he” asked for the….
I gasp suddenly.
Did something happen, Marinette?” Tom questions.
“Dad…your keys,” I point out, “do you have them?”
Tom pats himself down, searching through his pockets. “No, I don’t.”
“That means…” I start to breathe in and out rapidly and Sabine brings me back by putting her hand on my shoulder.
“Honey, we can change the locks,” Sabine assures me. “We have secret protocols in case of emergency.”
I would laugh at this if we weren’t in a serious situation. “But that’s not the point, when the bakery is open you recieve a lot of customers, and when you receive a lot of customers you’ll be distracted and someone can sneak up here and…” I realize that I’m going into a spiral, so I take a deep breath in and out. “Whoops, sorry.”
“You’re alright. I’m glad that you can notice when you are going into a spiral and take a deep breath,” my mom tells me.
“The point still stands…what if someone breaks in, and you know…” I let my parents know my concerns.
“I have an idea,” Tom whispers the rest in my ear.
“That’s a great idea, dad!” I beam with joy.
“You’re doing great honey. You’re our little superhero. I just can’t believe that all this time, you’ve been…” and then Sabine freezes in her tracks.
“What, what’s—“ I stop talking, frozen, when I hear an all-too familiar voice.
“Ladybug…?”
I stop dead in my tracks. My eyes grow wider as I turn around.
“You’re…” A young blonde boy falters as he steps forward. He looks down as he hears a crunch below his shoes.
“Damn! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to break…” he stops short.
“Ladybug, me?? No way, you are mistaken! I was multimouse once though if that’s what you—“ Lies, lies, and more lies.
“Shut up,” Adrien mutters from out of the blue.
“E-excuse me?” My eyebrows shoot up. Did I do something wrong? Did I overstep or overtalk? Does he know of the lie that I’m keeping from him? I take a deep breath and sigh, waking up to him.
“What are you doing with…?” I begin to say but I get cut off by Adrien who puts a finger over my mouth.
He breaks something.
“Is that grandma Fen’s earrings?” I ponder.
“I thought my memory was playing tricks on me because I didn’t remember mom having earrings…she never did, I was right,” my mom speaks up.
Adrien sets all of the broken pieces of the earrings aside. In the middle lies a round mini-microphone. My chest grows tight and I feel my heart beat faster. I feel like the world is shifting beneath my feet. Out of all of the surprises for my mother’s birthday, I was not expecting some of this…that’s for sure.
Adrien puts the bug in his back pocket.
“Are you sure that will muffle what we say?” I question.
“Oh…y-yes, definitely!” My eyebrows shoot up and all of a sudden I hear a crash.
“What was that?!” I scream as well all uncover our ears.
“I can check,” Tom reassures all of us.
“Be safe,” Sabine exchanges a look with him before he walks out of the room to make a call.
“Who gave you those earrings, Marinette?” Adrien questions.
“Why is this any of your concern?” I question my boyfriend,
“I’m your boyfriend, and after learning certain information I realized that if somebody gave you a pair of earrings so you were to take off your own, this person would have no problem taking your totally normal and not out of the ordinary earrings.”
“Wow, he’s good,” Sabine whispers in my ear.
“Uhh, why don’t we talk somewhere else other than in this building, okay?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“That’s fine with me,” Sabine tells the two of us as we walk out.
We find Tom in the other room as he hangs up. “What is it, dad?”
“Apparently what we heard was a few cracks in the building next door forming. That’s normal, the building next door is very old.”
I sigh in relief as Adrien chuckles nervously.
“Where are you both heading out to before the pizza party?”
I choose to refrain from lying to make up some absurd excuse about babysitting or walking my goldfish (seriously, what was I thinking when I created a lie like that?), it feels good to tell the truth for once.
“We’re heading out somewhere close by for a nice long chat,” I smile as I grab Adrien by the hand.
He puts a hand into his pocket and throws something in the trash, presumably the broken spying earpiece.
“Where should we go?” Adrien asks me.
“Your choice,” I reply immediately.
“My place then,” he brings up.
“Great idea.” I’m suddenly on edge and it doesn’t take Adrien long to notice.
He sighs. “Actually, I know a better place.”
“You…what?”
“Follow me,” he says.
“Alright,” I trust my boyfriend.
A few minutes later we arrive at the tallest place in Paris….
“The Eiffel Tower?!” I shriek.
“What? Don’t tell me you’re afraid of heights,” he smirks.
“No, not at all! But…why here of all places?”
“It’s the perfect place…and very romantic.
“I guess that’s true…”
“It’s also your favorite spot to look at the view!”
“Huh, since when did I tell you that?” I ask my boyfriend.
“Oh…uh….” Before my mind can wander too long, he tells me that Alya told him when he asked once for advice on where to go for a date.
“For a second there I was thinking you’d read up about Ladybug’s favorite places, as she usually does patrol there.”
“Oh, definitely that and not any other secret reason! I mean yeah, I did do that actually. Sorry. I actually used to have a crush on her!” Adrien smirks.
I squeal, “you had a crush on me!? I mean…”
Adrien frowns. “Marinette, it’s okay. I’m not going to tell anyone.”
Phew, that’s a relief. I already figured, I trust him. There’s still that nagging voice in the back of my head telling me he’s going to tell someone though.
We walk into the elevator. I look at him and my chest grows tighter. Here goes nothing. “Speaking of telling someone something. I’ve been keeping something from you, I’m so sorry. It’s the reason why I got tense when you mentioned going over to your house. I just fear you’ll hate me after I tell you this…” I stop short when hands cup around my face. I look up and see Adrien.
“Hey, nothing will make me hate you.” There’s silence for a few seconds. “It’s about my father, isn’t it? You know, if it’s something about him and what he did, it’s okay. I’ll believe you. I won’t leave you.”
“No, it’s not okay! He was horrible to you…”
“Yeah, I know. Even when people tried to assure me that he was a hero and a good person, there was always that feeling there, clawing at me, that he wasn’t as good as others made it out to seem. He wasn’t ever good, nobody ever saw what actually happened with me.”
“I did. I noticed,” I quickly say, tears running down my face. “I noticed every last bit of it until…”
“Until he what was it…sacrificed himself? I highly doubt he would do something like that. I already know he was awful, so why would you try to sugarcoat it?”
“He was Monarch.”
I feel my throat tighten. A few seconds go by…he isn’t responding. “Adrien…?”
“Okay, yeah, that’s really bad. But uh…”
“And Mayura was Natalie.”
“I’m sorry? What, why?”
My breath hitches. “He…he…” my hands shake, but he grabs them.
“Marinette?” We don’t notice the elevator opening, nor do we notice ourselves walking to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
“He wanted to bring your mother back,” I manage to choke out through sobs. “I saw him detransform, I saw Natalie die, then the last time I actually trusted someone, Gabriel, I detransformed and he froze me. He took the ladybug and the black cat miraculous and he…he…died. He brought back Natalie, but even she is acting weird.”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” Even Adrien knows it’s not. “Actually, it’s not. It’s not okay.”
“That I lied?”
“You weren’t sure what else to do. You experienced something traumatizing. It’s not okay that you had to see all that.”
“Wait, there’s more. The night of prom, I thought I saw you, but turns out it was Felix disguising himself as you so he and Kagami could lure me in and put on a play. He made me realize that when Natalie found the peacock and the butterfly miraculous, your mom was infertile…so she used the peacock miraculous to create you…and then Gabriel gave the peacock miraculous to Colt to create Felix…and Tomoe for Kagami. Apparently you were made out of love, which meant that your mother’s heart was affected. Kagami was created out of jealousy, which is why Tomoe is blind.”
After that, my mouth freezes. I can’t talk, I just cry. Adrien laughs a bit.
“What’s so funny?” I manage to croak out.
“Sorry, I just didn’t realize that’s how the peacock miraculous worked. It’s insane that because of the broken miraculous, the emotion that one would use to put into a sentibeing would be what causes them to potentially die. Why does Tomoe get the free ride out of this?!”
“I don’t know…please, don’t blame yourself.” Out of the corner of my blurry vision, I catch Adrien staring at his rings. I guess he caught on to where his amok lies.
“What…? How isn’t this not my fault…”
“Your mother loved you, she took the risk to create you,” I tell my boyfriend. “Before you even think this, you’re not a monster. You are not at fault. Your mother and your father chose their fates.”
“Don’t call him that, that man is not my father,” Adrien’s grip tightens.
“You’re mad.”
“Not at you, m’l- Marinette. I’m mad at…”
“Yourself?”
“No, the world. I’m mad at the world and at Master Fu for throwing u—YOU into this mess. YOU don’t deserve it. The miraculouses only cause corruption,” he balls his hand into a fist.
“Mhm,” I nod my head. “I’m so sorry, Adrien.”
“Don’t be. It’s a lot, but you shouldn’t have to hide secrets from me. If you feel uncomfortable, tell me. I can protect you.”
“Oh, my knight in shining armor! You can protect me from akumatized villains!” I over-exaggerate, and Adrien laughs.
“Oh, that doesn’t sound like a nightmare!”
Now, it is my turn to laugh. I laugh hard, and eventually it turns into crying. Adrien hugs me tight and we end up seeing the sunset together.
“About your mansion…I got uncomfortable when you mentioned it. Underneath the mansion is a lair. Everything’s cataclysmed now but we could find a way down there. There’s a painting which has a few buttons, you can find which buttons through this eye-glass piece.”
“I remember when Felix accidentally left one of these in the room where the painting is long ago. If only we had figured out everything back then.”
“It wouldn’t change how traumatized we would be after finding out.”
“True,” Adrien yawns. “Is there anything else you’d like to get off of your chest?”
“I should probably talk to Cat Noir about this, but he got akumatized in an alternate reality as a white cat who made everyone crumble in destruction. I still get nightmares about it occasionally.”
Adrien chokes on his saliva. “Woah, are you okay?!” I pat him on the back as he drinks water.
“Y-yeah, I’m alright. Y-you could tell him the next time you see him.”
“Yeah. Also, Luka’s kwami did tell me that you were akumatized in a different timeline.“
“Alright.”
“All I’d like to focus on right now is this. The present. I am supposed to get someone to talk to…I don’t know how I can talk about any of this, I’ll only tell them about the civilian aspects, but I also need to find out who the new Hawk Moth is. Oh, get this, there’s apparently a mole in the Miraculers.”
“WHAT?” He shrieks. “I mean…uh…how go you know this?”
My eyebrows shoot up. He’s so concerned. I shrug it off. “I thought it was only a draft which knocked over my snowglobe, but I remembered I had closed my window before leaving my room. Also, my bed was messy. I figured it was nothing until my uncle started acting weird, wanting me to put those earrings on that you crushed earlier. Apparently, Uncle Wang is in Shanghai with Fei, but when Uncle Wang arrived earlier today, he said Fei was back in Shanghai running the shop. Then, when I went to check on “Uncle Wang” in the guest room, he wasn’t there! It’s like he completely vanished!”
“Marinette, it’s clearly not safe for you to stay in your home. You need to stay at a friends.”
“I know. Sabine mentioned that. What about your place?” I am a bit uncomfortable with that option but Adrien makes me feel safer.
“Oh, uh, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He pats his back pocket.
“Why not?”
“Because…whoever this new butterfly holder is knows we are dating. If you aren’t at your home, they’ll think you’re at mine…or heck, even Alya’s! I figure she knows.”
“Yep. It’s funny, Cat Noir thought she found out my identity when that guy who made videos about us online, but she actually found out about Monarch’s identity. Cat Noir ended up erasing her memory, but she hated that I was lying. She didn’t even wonder how I was feeling or consult me… I also told Luka but I did second chance.”
“You’re oversharing,” Adrien points out.
“Whoops.” I chuckle. “I got off track.”
“Who do you think the mole is and where do you feel comfortable staying?” Adrien wonders out loud.
“I don’t—“ My phone rings.
“Hello?” I ask through the phone. Adrien sits up straight.
“No, I’m not transformed. That’s why you couldn’t reach me.” Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Adrien in a thoughtful position which nearly causes me to burst out laughing.
In fact, I would’ve burst out laughing if it weren’t for what the person at the end of the call informs me.
“I’ll be right there,” I say as I hang up, dropping the phone.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry, I’m going to have to leave.”
“Leave? Where?”
“London.”
“LONDON?”
“Felix called me, I need to go.”
“Would you like any help?” Adrien asks me.
I turn to him, kiss him quickly. “I don’t see how you could help, London is a few hours away and a miraculous is much faster than a train. I would need Cat Noir, but maybe he’ll see me flying by and join me.”
“Of course, I got it.”
“Tikki, spots on!” (Insert long transformation and epic cutscene music 😎)
“I’ll call you later then.”
“Of course! You can make it back home okay alone?”
“I should be asking you that. Maybe you could stay in London for the night, I’ll let your parents know on the way back to the mansion.”
“Thank you! You’re the best boyfriend ever!” I hug him and eat a macaron as I fly off into the sky, leaving the city of Paris, and Adrien, behind.
-
“H-how…” Adrien whispers.
Plagg appears from outside of Adrien’s back pocket. “Hey, at least the Eiffel Tower wasn’t what was cataclysmed instead.”
“No, it’s too far away…but, you know what I mean! You kept Monarch a secret from me!”
“I’m sorry, I can’t say anything without the guardian’s permission.”
“I’ll get over all of this, eventually. Hey, who do you think Marinette’s fake uncle was?”
“I don’t know, kid,” Plagg replies.
“I’ll think about everything I just learned later, right now we have to catch up to her! Plagg, claws out!”