Chapter Text
Cackles flood the darkness as silhouettes seem to form a circle. “You are nothing!” They speak in unison. “A manipulative little attention seeker!” The silhouettes become brighter and brighter, filling up the space with a white pain.
They aren’t wrong. They are never wrong. Because that’s all that she is: nothing, a little attention seeker,
“Worthless!”
Worthless
“Know-it-all!”
Know-it-all
“Gold-digger!”
Gold-digger
“Marinette!”
… Marinette?
A gasp springs from the bluenette teenager as her torso flies up in shock. Her shoulders and chest moves in rhythm while she puts a hand through her tangled hair. Looking at the clock on the mahogany nightstand to her right she yelps in horror when it reads 6:15.
Marinette, is usually late, but this was an occasion where she couldn’t even dare to be slightly late. She swings her legs to the side of the bed, lunging to her clothes before falling forward in a graceless motion. She grunts, looking back at her feet, tangled in her pastel pink weighted blanket. She kicks it off before immediately rushing to the bathroom with an inhumane speed.
“Marinette! I’ve been calling your name for the past 15 minutes!” A flying red… being, with an enormous head, a tiny body, and little wings that distinctly like a ladybug zooms out of Marinette’s covers and right on top of her noise as Marinette is aggressively brushing her teeth.
“Ti-i! Um Sowwy!” She mumbles through the white toothpaste before spitting it out. “Tiki, I’m sorry! I just had a bad nightmare!” She reassures the little god.
“You’ve been having them a lot! I’m worried!” Tiki’s eyes dilated in sadness and love for her holder and friend. “You’ve been so tired and anxious lately.
Marinette drops her bright face as she brushes her hair. “It’s fine Tiki. I can’t dwell on it.” And yet she does.
It crawls into her brain every night, quietly haunting and feeding on her more and more until she could barely breathe and wake up with a cold sweat that leaves her shaken and having dark circles under her eyes. It feels as though she is becoming a corpse, pale and sunken eyed, bone peaking through her shirt and hair becoming stringy that it’s as almost as if she’s not real anymore. What if she isn’t… what if…
Marinette feels a tiny tap on her forehead and sees Tiki hovering over her in worry. She sighs, “Seriously, I’m fine!” Yet the tiny being looked at her with doubt.
She applied a light foundation under eyes and a blush to her cheeks, grabbing two red hair ties for her signature pig tails. She rushed out of her bathroom, grabbing a fuzzy pastel pink sweater and baggy jeans, jumping into them with precision. Marinette gracelessly tripped down the stairs where she landed in a laundry basket with a grunt.
“Good morning honey. Did you have a good sleep?” A gentle voice came from the kitchen nearby.
“Mamon! All good! Great! Amazing! The best I had in months! Is there any extra muffins?!” Marinette rambles, in a rush before getting interrupted by a blueberry muffin shoved in her mouth.
“Don’t worry baby.” Sabine Cheng pats the bluenette as cheek. “Here is your bus ticket.” She hands Marinette a ticket before ushering her to the front door. “Bye bye honey! Text me and your dad everyday!”
Marinette waves back, mumbling with the muffin still in her mouth. “Ohay! Ba ba!” She starts sprinting to the bus stop. She hit the bus doors as they closed with a grunt. “Please open the door!”
She pushed against the glass door, letting out a small “oof” as it swung open, bumping her nose. “Thank you so much!” Marinette gasped beginning to slowly drag her suitcase up the steps, rambling ‘sorrys’ and rushing to her seat. Using both hands she strangled the train pole in exhaustion, inclining her head to the side as she heard the news on a nearby cell phone.
“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news! Ladybug and Chat Noir was spotted saving Paris again from the akumitized Monsier Mouse as her ladybugs flew across half of the city! How heroic!”
Pfft, heroic my ass.
“Yet, even after this victorious win, viewers are spectacle of Ladybug’s team as they seem to be disappearing left right! Usually after an argument with Ladybug herself, most recently was the hero Rena Rouge! Will Rena Rouge be able to hold onto her hero title, or will she fall with the other missing once-heroes?”
Marinette groaned internally, done with the reminders of her formal team. At least she has Chat, even though he can be a little prick from time to time. Unlike Shanghai and New York, Marinette actually has plan for if things go south when she is gone, regardless of if Chat were to be at Paris or not. The Horse Miraculous. Ok, so that wasn’t much of a plan but Marinette had learned that she would have to rely on it more, now that almost her entire team is gone. Well, except for Luka…
Before she turned into a strawberry, Marinette looked up to see the airport stop, practically throwing the ticket in the bus driver’s face, sprinting into the airport. She looked left and right, before seeing trap red head with a tight bun in her hair surrounded by a multitude of high schoolers. They were about to enter the security line which meant Marinette was just in time.
She praised herself internally making her way to the group. “I’m here Ms. Bustier! Just in time!” Marinette gasped out. Others began into snicker and she flinched at the noise. “Yes, Marinette! You are just in time! Join the line please!” Ms. Bustier called over the muttering and giggling. Marinette was then shoved at the back of the line, right behind a familiar blonde with a high ponytail.
“Bak- Marinette! You’re here! Oh thank fucking god you’re not late” Chloe sighs in relief, pulling Marinette into a tight hug. Marinette returns the hug with equal vigor before pulling away.
“Chloe~ that’s mean!” Marinette pouts before letting out a small giggle. Though after a moment, she drops her smile and her face takes on a slight worry. “You okay?” Pause. “Chloe?”
That seems to snap Chloe out of it as the blonde takes on a slight blush. “Obvi! I’m fine, you’re just being ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!” She says before swinging her head away from Marinette a moving with the line. Marinette gags playfully when one of Chloe’s curls ends up in her mouth. “Why does your hair taste like weirdly like hair cupcakes?” Marinette gags again but Chloe doesn’t respond out of a false spite.
Marinette soon came to the scanners, pushing through with casualness, yet getting halted by a security guard. Marinette’s eyes widened as her heart rate picked up unintentionally. “Please come this way ma’am, we would like additional screening.” She said as Marinette internally questioned her life choices. Luckily, after the extra screening, the class had waited for her, albeit unwilling to. “Oh my god, do you think she was pulled over because she was a terrorist?” One person, Alix muttered, before other students began laughing.
Welp, I am screwed. This is what it’s gonna be like the entire trip. Just because I filled out that stupid Wayne Enterprise form. I am a terrorist. I put on a fake mask and call myself a hero, but I have no clue who Hawkmoth is, half the entirety of Paris has been akumatized. The heroes at New York and Grand Master Su Han was right. I should have never been hero, I should just give up my miraculous-
“-so we can just go to a cafe.” Marinette shook her head , clearing out the fog in her brain before looking at the blonde by her side.
…
“Huh?” She let out a small sound of confusion and Chloe raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow.
“Ms. Bustier said we had two hours before our plane leaves so we have an about an hour and a half to eat and chill for a bit.” Chloe squinted her eyes, and talking at slower pace. “So I was thinking let’s find a cafe?” She asked patiently.
“Uh yeah!” Marinette says softly, letting out a small yelp as Chloe dragged her in a random direction.
As Chloe brought her into a cafe, Marinette took a glance at the menu by the front entranced and grimaced. “Chloe! This is too expensive!” She almost screams.
“”Don’t worry! I took my dad’s credit card.” Chloe waves her hand in the air a ‘no worries’ gesture and Marinette gives an incredulous look before getting dragged to a table in a similar manner.
They both take seat at a booth in the cafe, exhausted from the morning. “So~ what do you want?” Chloe asks, her icy eyes scanning the menu. “It’s on me.” She says with a smirk.
Marinette chuckles, “Of course. I want-“ she paused as her face paled and her eyes widened in horror. “I… I-“ she gasps out, trying to make out words.
Chloe had realized something wrong with her friend. “What’s…” she had started to say, turning her head to look behind her, seeing a certain brunette. “Oh! Oh. That bitch!” Chloe swings her head back to Marinette, placing a gentle hand on the bluenette’s own in comfort. “Just keep your eyes on me, okay?”
Marinette nods her head slowly with unsureness before trying to speak again, mumbling over her words trying to form a statement.
“Hey~ M-M-Marinette!” A voice sounded from behind Chloe, causing the blonde to groan. “Honestly, I thought you were gonna be late like always, and we could just leave without you!” Alya said with a bright and cheery voice, and the girls giggled underneath their breaths.
Marinette flinched at the words coming from her former best friend’s mouth. Once that phrase had been told by another one of her best friends, Luka, and it has been a comforting nickname used by him. Only him. Now it is in the mouths of… of…
“Oh shut up! Go find your own fucking table and leave me and Marinette alone, you leeches!” Chloe groans loudly and obnoxiously and many of the girls grew faces of unadulterated rage and they began spewing insults in which Chloe seemed to barely be listening, sharing light conversation about some of the food she had over her spring break with a blank faced Marinette who was blinking in mild confusion.
Another groan came out of Chloe’s mouth as someone had began rambling fake apologies. “I’m so sorry girls, I just can’t stand to see you all mad for me!” Lila had a faux sad smile on her face placing heavily manicured hands on Alya’s and Alix’s shoulders.
“No! Chloe should not say those mean things about us!” Rose’s light voice carried throughout the group, resulting in many others agreeing with her with more vigor.
They had began insulting Chloe and Marinette, calling them bitches, harlots, gold-diggers, and bullies when a waitress with a grimace walked toward them. “Please gals! Can we find a place to sit? I would like to note that all of you are considered loitering.” She asked them all gently, ushering them away, before giving a soft smile to the blonde and bluenette, causing them both to ease their raised shoulders ever so slightly.
“So! About that croissant…” Chloe had continued as if nothing happened, and Marinette forced a smile on her face. God this gonna be a long trip.