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Chapter Text

Alyssa Garcia liked a lot of things in her life. Cake, that was a big one. She adored a well-made cake, bonus points if it was one of those fancy-ass art cakes. She also likes lists, it helps her keep her goals in order. She also really likes the cartoon 'Miraculous Ladybug'.... maybe a tad too much but who doesn't have a weird obsession? At least she didn't eat dirty nappy's or enter into sexual relations with her car.

She's seen every episode twice and even has some merch. It's normal. She's normal. She swears that she is.

...

Okay, so maybe she woke up this morning in the body of a baby but that could happen to anyone. The place smells really good though so that's a point in its favour, she's pointedly ignoring that the world around her is a cartoon because there are only so many things that the brain can take before it gets too much (even for the most level headed person, everyone has limits and she's quite sure waking up in a cartoon is pretty much everyone's.).

She looks around the room she's in and finds that it's very... pink. Don't get her wrong, she likes pink but there is such a thing as too much and this? This was too much, the clashing hot pink walls and light pink carpet makes her cry. It doesn't help that the baby furniture is a mix of dark wood, white wood and her brown wooden crib. Whoever designed this needs to get their eyes checked.

The door opens and feels like she's been slapped in the face. That's Tom Dupain! Marinette's father! From her favourite cartoon! What the HELL?!

"Hey little cookie, mommy and daddy still need to work so let's take another nap okay?" Tom says as he picks her up, Oh My God he's holding her! Awkwardly too. She can't, she just can't. She passes out.

When Alyssa wakes up she's sure that it was all a dream. Maybe she had been reading too many fanfics about people falling into cartoons before bed. That must be it, she resolves to not do it again and opens her eyes... It wasn't a dream, oh god! It wasn't a bloody dream!

Crap!

Okay! Calm down Alyssa, you can do this. All you need to do is calm down and take stock. Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Alyssa blinks when she manages to get her emotions under control. Okay, Alyssa, time to do what you do best. Make a list:

1. You are a baby, not a newborn but also not old enough to speak.

2. You are somehow Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

3. Marinette was a half-French half Chinese girl who lived above a bakery. So you should learn both languages.

4. Marinette's parents own a bakery. They don't have extra staff so they don't spend a lot of time with their daughter.

5. Marinette wants to be a fashion designer. Meaning that She was going to have to do that as well.

6. At some point when she was 12 or 13 Marinette was going to become a superhero.

7. Adrien Agreste was also going to be a hero at the same time.

8. Gabriel Agreste was going to be the villain along with Nathalie Sancoeur.

9. Lila Rossi was at some point going to try to ruin her lift.

10. All of her friends were going to abandon her.

11. Lila Rossi was going to work with Hawkmoth.

12. Master Fu was the Guardian and he was going to make Marinette the next one.

13. The book of the guardians was in Adrien Agreste's house.

Okay, the list is a little long but she feels that it hits all of the key points in her new predicament. There is not much she can do with how little she can control her limbs but she's determined to not sit idly by, she's never been one to slack off after all. The first four points on her list are plain facts, she'll have to wait until she has a firm grasp of French before she moves on to Chinese, so she moves on. Points six to thirteen are future events so she can't do anything about them yet so she's stuck with point five and the preparation for point six. There is no way she's becoming a superhero without any training, she doesn't want to die.

.... Those are also things she's going to have to wait for, damn her baby body! Guess the first thing she needs to do is practice her movement. Damn it! This is going to take forever!

Forever last around five months and it's awful but in that time she gets good at picturing everyone in better outfits. This of course comes with the downside of getting disappointed when people walk around in stupid outfits, is everyone colour blind but her? It didn't matter. She was also getting a lot better at french, she almost understood most of what was being said around her.

Not the point anymore because now she's on the move. Little feet making tiny *Pat pat pat* sounds as she runs around with crayons in hand. Her little fingers had been itching to jot down ideas and now that she can she does on any flat surface she can.

Her bedroom door is covered (as high as her little arms can reach) jewellery styles and surrounded in English shorthand. Necklaces, bracelets, earrings, anklets, rings, nose rings, eyebrow piercings. Both male and female designs. She details metals, jewels, and the occasional rope type of each piece to give her a better feel of them. Under no illusion about how bad her drawing skills are with the low control on the motor skills she has. 

She uses the shorthand to match them to the assortment of outfits she's drawn all over the walls of her little room, each with its shorthand detailing fabrics and colours. And of course, she can't forget the shoes, who could forget those? That was the floors job, holding onto those designs.... because it was the floor and shoes walked.... never mind.

It drove her parents insane but then again they really shouldn't be leaving a baby alone in a room for hours on end so who's fault is it anyway?

It takes three weeks and someone else pointing it out for them to finally give her a stack of papers. She devourers the stack in a day. The look on their shocked faces sends her into a giggling fit, she's not sure if it's the fact that she used all of the paper or that she'd not drawn on anything else that gets her parents the most (She's stopped calling them Marinette's parents after the first month when it had become clear that she wasn't going back home). She ends up almost drowning in paper after that, which she loves because designing is currently the only thing keeping her from insane, which means that it's time to start the second part of her 'Be the biggest Fashion Queen' plan. Being able to draw.

It takes her a whole year of constant sketching to be at a level she's happy with, she's going to keep practising of course but nows is not the time for that. Now, she needs to redraw everything so it's at least legible. 

She's not given up on point six, she may be busy (Her fault, she'll admit.) but she's not about to let her teen self go into battle without any sort of training. It's why she hounds her parents with endless energy until they sign her up for all of the toddler classes.

On Monday she has baby gymnastics. Tuesday it's baby ballet. Wednesday, baby dancing. Thursday, more baby gymnastics. Friday, more baby dancing. And the weekend where she keeps calm and continues her goal of copying her crayon doodles into actual outfit designs.

Slowly baby gymnastics becomes kid gymnastics where the instructor watches her like a hawk and starts leaving hints about the Olympics with her parents (they barely pay attention which she's quite glad for, it means that she doesn't have to say no outright. She needs to keep with the Miraculous timeline until she had the box).

Baby dancing changes and expands too as she grows. Ballet, of course, stays ballet though the routines become more complected. Not that she can't handle it, her balance has never been this good in both of her lives. Ballet is something she would have liked to do in her old life actually but she had been hit with puberty quite early and well, being top-heavy through off-balancing quite a lot. The baby dancing, that changes a lot. Suddenly instead of running around and spinning in circles, she's learning how to waltz, tango, street dance and (after her dance instructors meet up in a weird attempt to get her parents to go professional) aerial dance which is fascinating.

It's weirdly addictive being constantly active. Always on the move, always doing something that requires her whole attention. A therapist might say that she's trying to fill the gap that should be filled with parental attention but what did they know?

This is how she suddenly finds herself six with no idea how the time sped past. Well, time to start part three of point five on her list.

"No." 

"But mama!" 

"I said no Marinette! Now let me clean the front of the store." 

In response, she grabs a rag and cleans the front of the display cases she can reach.

"Thank you, Marinette. My answer is still no though." 

She glares at the rag before dropping it back into the soapy water and storming away.

"No." 

"Please papa!" 

"I'm sorry Marinette but you're too young for something like that. Maybe when you're older, now why don't you help me by putting these in the oven." 

He holds out a tray filled with uncooked Pains au Chocolat (Chocolate-Filled Croissants). She steps back and crosses her arms.

"I'm too young for a sewing machine but not to stick my arms in a hot oven?" 

She spins on her heels and storms away while her papa splutters.

This keeps going on leading up to Christmas and she can tell that she's wearing them down. Slowly but surely they start crumbling under her constant onslaught. 

It's 3 am? Gee mama, wouldn't it be great if I had something to do right now that is ten times quieter than 'random' dance parties?

What was that papa? Do you want me to stop eating all of your chocolate chips? Well maybe if I had something up in my room to keep me distracted?

Do you want me to stop running around the front of the store yelling about being bored during rush hour? Maybe figure out how to keep me entertained mama.

Stop cutting random holes in my clothes? But papa, you wouldn't even have to worry about this if I could just sew it back up again.

She smiles brightly at them as she unwraps the sewing machine she had wanted on Christmas. Her parents are both also overjoyed at finally having some peace on the subject. She rewards them by making a chore chart for herself (Paid chores that give her money to buy what fabrics she needs) which seems to please them greatly.

By the time she's seven, all of the clothes in her closet are made by her hand. It makes her feel accomplished (Her current favourite was this one because of how hard it was to get the mesh overlay right).

She's completely overtaken by everything at this point. School, dancing, gymnastics, sketching, sewing, helping her parents around the bakery, all of the little kids in her class who want to be her friends because she brings macaroons for everyone every Monday morning. It's not until she sees Kim and Alix comparing yo-yo tricks that she remembers the reason she was all of this in the first place. The next day she goes up to them shyly with her brand new yo-yo.

"Alix, Kim ?" She calls softly as she walks up to their table. 

They look up at her and smile brightly. (You betray me when Lie-la comes.) She thinks sourly as she smiles back. "Hi, Mari! What's up?" Alix says, showing off her missing tooth from when she'd knocked it out after a skateboard accident.

"I saw you both doing cool tricks with your yo-yo's and I was wondering if you'd teach me?" She asks.

"Of course Mari! Sit! You're going to love this one!" Kim says as he pulls out the third chair for her then flicks his yo-yo and uses it to pull her chair in.

This was a good idea.

Then she wakes on her tenth birthday sweaty and nauseous, having a really hard time getting up. Crap, crap, crap! Was she sick or something? Wouldn't she have noticed yesterday?

She's halfway out of bed when her parents rush in smiling. They keep smiling until they realize how scared she is.

"Marinette? What's wrong?" Her papa asks from next to her trap door. He doesn't get closer however which hurts. 

She feels like she's dying, why isn't he panicking? In fact, why isn't her mama panicking either? And why do they smell like wood and lavender? "Dad... I think something's wrong, please. I know that you need to bake for today but I think that I need to go to the hospital." She manages to choke out. God, she's so hot. Why is she so hot?

Her mama looks confused. "Marinette, what are you talking about? All that's happening is that you're presenting."

"What the fuck is presenting?" She snaps before having to screw her eyes shut. The light from her window was starting to get blinding.

"Marinette!" Her papa snaps.

"Fuck you! I'm dying and you aren't helping me!" She snaps back angrily. She doesn't know why their brushing off of her state of illness hurts her so much, she doesn't spend a lot of time with them anyway.

"... Do you not know what's going on?" Her mama asks weakly, guilt filling her eyes. She grits her teeth and shakes her head. "Oh my darling, I'm so sorry. I could have sworn that we told you."

"Every human has two genders." Her papa explains softly. "The first being male or female. Until a child turns ten this is the only gender that they have, once they turn ten they gain their second gender. These are split into three. Alpha, beta and omega."

"You just presented as an omega, what you're going through right now is a practice heat. You'll go through them every two to three months until you turn sixteen when the real heats start." Her mama adds softly. "These heats are going to last around a week each time unless you get pregnant. This brings us to the next topic..."

Which is how she's dragged into a whole speech about mating bites and scent marking so she knows what to avoid if she doesn't want a relationship. It is the most embarrassing bird and bees talk she has ever had! This topped with how she's feeling and her fast-growing panic about the fact that Miraculous Ladybug had somehow become an A/O/B universe. It's a lot and not at all surprising that she passes out.

Heat week is hell and she's more than glad to put it behind her.

She's forgotten all about the Miraculous again by the time she meets Master Fu. Too caught up in mass-reading about everything to do with second genders. How could her parents just forget to tell her something this important for 10 years?! Marinette is starting to dislike the two beta's. This is absurd.

She's just left the bakery and is on her way to Collège Françoise Dupont for the start of the new year when all of a sudden she spots an old man walking across the road, she also spots a car going full speed. It takes her a split second to realize that neither of them is stopping and he's about to be hit, she acts before she realizes it and suddenly she's tackling him out of the way.

"Are you okay sir, I didn't hurt you did I?" She fretted until the old man answers.

"No my child, thank you for helping me. I hope the rest of your day goes better" She recognizes his voice "Goodbye" Master Fu says as he walks away.

She stands frozen until he turns the corner, her mind spinning out of control. It's happening, oh god it's happening!

She forces herself to keep calm as she enters the school, her fingers brushing over the little box in her bag that wasn't there when she left her home. There is a tiny god sitting snug in her bag and she feels completely out of her depth. It doesn't matter that she's spent her whole life (here) preparing for this moment, now that it's here she feels like she's not ready at all.

She pushes the thoughts away as she enters the classroom, Alya should be... there she is! That means that Adrian will be here tomorrow and with him StoneHeart.

She sits in the front row like she should and only unpack enough to make it look like it she planned to stay. She doesn't think that she'll have to pretend to be a klutz today, nerves firing off in the rapid-fire.

"Move Dupain-Cheng." Chloe snaps as she walks in, the scent of angry alpha mixing with her natural scent of honey and lemons. "My darling childhood friend Adrian, you know the model, is going to be starting today and I need room to sit with him."

In her mind, she snarls out insults towards the annoying alpha. She's a lot nicer when she speaks though, she always is. "Come on Bourgeois, I always sit here."

"New year new places," Chloe says boredly. "Now move."

"Wow," Alya says as she storms over. The scent of angry beta mixing with autumn leaves. "I've never seen an alpha act so shit to an omega before. Thanks for teaching me something new bumble bitch, come on sweetie. You can sit next to me."

"Thank you." She says trying desperately to keep how insulted she is out of her voice. She hates that people just assume that she's weak just because she can pop out babies and they can't.

Chloe doesn't even try. "Excuse you? Who the hell gave you the right to question me little beta? Do you even know who I am?" 

"She's the mayor's daughter," Sabrina adds helpfully, proud beta curling with a summer breeze.

"And I'm supposed to care why?" Alya snaps.

By then she's picked back up and is standing, taking a little bit of pleasure from the fact that after all of this Adrian isn't even going to turn up today. She lets a little bit of her annoyance with them waft out cutting their argument short. "It's fine." She says with her customary smile. "I don't know who this Adrian is but you seem excited for him to turn up and he's your friend so I understand that you want him to sit next to someone he knows on his first day. I'm okay with moving." 

"Wha... You shouldn't just let her walk all over you because she's an alpha!" Alya splutters.

Chloe, and then Sabrina when she sees Chloe's face, sends Alya a furious look before turning back to her. "How can you claim to love fashion but not know who Adrian is? His father is only the most important fashion designer in France!" Chloe cries out insidiously as she gets out of her way. 

Giving her the customary distance an unmated alpha is supposed to give an unmated omega, contrary to Alya's accusation on the front of second genders Chloe is the pinnacle of perfectly behaved and polite Alpha. The mayor's daughter prides herself on respecting omegas because her father is one.

She tilts her head like she's pretending to think about it then she pulls a face. "What, you mean the guy with the duck butt hair that dresses like a candy cane? Why would I know anything about him? He looks like he wouldn't know fashion if it slapped him in the face." She says to the alpha as she moves out of the aisle, keeping the same distance from Chloe before gently grabbing Alya's elbow. 

A tiny bit of tension leaves Chloe's shoulders even as she puffs up at the insult to Gabriel, she doesn't seem to care that much though if the tiny little waft of amusement is anything to go by. "Whatever Dupain-Cheng. Go sit down and stop stinking up where I'm going to sit."

"Why you little..." Alya growls but is cut off when she yanks her towards where she was sitting before.

"I'll stop when you stop Bourgeois." She says back with a sweet smile, Chloe huffs but all of the anger she entered with is gone. Sabrina mouths 'thank you' behind Chloe's back before joining her in the front row. "I know you're new and you're trying to protect me but that was honestly just how Bourgeois and I interact." She tells Alya softly.

"You shouldn't have to deal with that." Alya hisses lowly, not low enough with the way Chloe tenses. "It's abuse."

"It's not." She assures just as lowly, meaning that Chloe can hear her too. "I mean verbally it might look like it but we communicate more in scents than in words. I know it's a bit confusing to betas since you guys can't smell scent changes like we can but it just... She wasn't insulting me, she was just a little mad and being blunt. And no, she wasn't mad at me." 

She sees a little flicker of glare in Alya's eyes and can't help but think 'HA! How do you like being stereotyped for your genders shortcomings?' "Fine. I don't like it but I'll trust you." Alya sighs. "I'm Alya by the way."

She smiles sweetly as she takes Alya's offered hand. "Marinette. Macaroon?" She asks as she brings out the box, tossing everyone's usual orders to them. She always makes sure to have two of each kind for emergencies so she's not bothered about Alya having little to pick from. Juleka, Nino and Alix getting two, one for them and one for their siblings.

"I'll be taking that extra blackberry spice for Adrian," Chloe says before Alya can even look into the box, sending Sabrina up to get it.

"Sure, that's his favourite right?" She asks as she hands the macaroon over, Sabrina nods to her before scurrying back to Chloe.

"Yes, his horrid taste is his only flaw. He doesn't like the manuka honey one I saved for him last time. It's ridiculous, utterly ridiculous." Chloe huffs, clearly not wanting an answer.

"What's this one?" Alya asks as she points to an orange one.

"Oh! That was an experiment. Orange and vanilla mixed with a hint of black pepper to give it a tiny kick. I've not tried one yet, I was running late so I must have accidentally shoved it in with the others."

"I'll take that one then. It sounds like it will be really good or really bad." Alya says cheekily, clearly finally over the seating debacle.

"Good luck." She says, playing along. Alya crosses her fingers then takes a bite, as soon as her mouth closes she sinks a little in her seat and moans. "So I should make more then?" She asks the beta cheekily.

"I want to eat these forever," Alya says solemnly before shoving the rest of it into her mouth.

"As do we all." Miss Bustier says as she enters the room. She closes the box and holds it to Nino who passes it to Sabrina who then passes it to Miss Bustier. "Thank you Marinette, the staff always enjoy your leftover treats. A lovely start to the week. Now, you must be our new student Alya Césaire. It's wonderful of you to join us this year."

"Thank you, Miss..." Alya starts, trailing off when she realizes that she doesn't know miss Bustier's name.

"Miss Bustier." Miss Bustier says kindly.

"Right, thank you Miss Bustier," Alya says again.

"You're welcome. Now this year we'll be focusing on...." With a kind smile, Miss Bustier turns to the whiteboard and starts writing on it.

The day progresses smoothly after that if you ignore Chloe's burst of rage when Adrian informs her that he won't be coming, and soon she's at home staring at Tikki's miraculous box. Is she ready for this? Does it even matter if she is? Tomorrow is going to happen no matter how ready she is. StoneHeart is going to happen no matter how ready she is...

She takes a deep breath and opens the box. The black stud earring looks almost mocking but she carries on and puts them on before she lets herself fall asleep knowing that the next day is going to be a long one.

 And she's right because as soon as she opens her eyes Tikki is there, right in her face. It takes a second for her brain to catch up to what she's supposed to do and when it does she opens her mouth to scream but is cut off by an over-excited Tikki.

"You're a plane-shiftier! It's been so long since one of my Ladybugs has been a plane-shiftier! Tell me, do you already know who has the butterfly and peacock miraculous'? Or are you here for something different?" Marinette blinks in shock then mourns the swift death of years worth of planning.

"Umm... how did you know?" The kwami tilts their head then blinks back.

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's been so long since I've seen one of your kind that I forgot that you spend most of your life thinking that you are alone, this must be upsetting for you. Oh no, have I ruined your plans? Oh, I'm sorry, really"

"It's okay, but what gave me away?"

"It's your magic." She stills at that in confusion and Tikki smiles. "Humans don't usually have magic but when someone crosses the planes some of the residue sticks to them so that when they land in whatever place they are meant to be a seed of magic is planted in their soul, this seed grows with them, so the younger they drop in the more they have access too but most don't even realize that it's there since it just feels like themselves. Now that you know though I can teach you!" 

She sits there for a bit to process then she blinks again. "That's so cool, when can we start?"

"After school, if you want but can you answer some of my questions too?"

"Which ones?"

"Do you already know who has the butterfly and peacock miraculous'?" 

"I do. Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur. Adrian's dad and his dad's assistant, Adrian is the one who Master Fu gave Plagg too." She admits to the tiny god. "But I'm waiting until Master Fu names me guardian to properly get them. Once I have them I am planning to move somewhere far away so you guys can rest and heal."

Tikki floats looking thoughtful, then they break out into a blinding smile "You're really smart, I like the plan. I'll tell Plagg as they're going to sense your magic too and they can relay to both Duusuu and Nooroo if they can get to them without being caught then I'll tell Wayzz and they can relay it to the rest"

"They're not going to be upset?"

"Of course not silly, you're a plane-shiftier, that means that you know what's going to happen to a certain extent so we'll trust you to know what your doing, Nooroo and Duusuu will also have something to look forward to and the rest of us will finally get to sleep in peace for a few centuries after you achieve your goal. What're a few more years in exchange for that certainty?" Tikki smiled and she sighed.

"Okay, then I guess we should get ready for school" Tikki smiled brighter.

"You're going to do great" They cheered and she smiled back.

Of course, learning about all of this information right before the day of her first fight as a superhero is going to be distracting. She has years worth of plans she has to reorganize, allies she has to consider. If she had the night to think about it then sure, she'd have been fine but she had decided to do this right before school like an idiot. She feels like she's drowning but at some times she's excited, I mean come on! She has fucking magic! How cool is that!

So cool in fact that she almost gets hit by a limo. She spins out of the way last second before forcing herself to fall because she sees Chloe bounding up. She's not going to let this asshole ruin her image of a dizzy omega. What kind of prick drives a limo to school anyway? Not even Chloe does that!

"Oh god! Are you okay?! I'm so sorry!" Adrian cries out as he pushes his way out of the limo. Ah, she'd forgotten about him and a quick look at his hand shows that he's wearing Plagg's ring. Perfect, everything was coming together.

Adrien takes a few more steps towards her as she moves her ankle to make sure it's not hurt then he freezes. She doesn't pay him any more attention since she knows all she needs to about him.

"Dupain-Cheng, do I need to call my father to get you taken to the hospital?" Chloe says with a little bit of spoiled rich kid tone sprinkled in. The little curl of worry around the lemons and honey gives away what she thinks.

"Not at all Bourgeois." She says, letting a little reassurance bleed into her scent.

Chloe nod sharply. "Then why are you continuing to make a mockery of our school by sitting there?" She snorts quietly and pushes herself up, glad to feel no pain in her left ankle. "Adrien!" Chloe snaps making her lookup. Chloe is linking her arm through the other alpha's arm (she catches a whiff of alpha among his natural scent of freshly mown grass and... cheese?.... Oh! Plagg, she forgot about that.) and pulls him to the school, she blinks once before realizing that he had been a way to close to her. "Let me show you to class."

Nathalie Sancoeur is someone who pays attention to everything around her, one has to with the sociopath alpha and psychopath omega (currently in a coma but still very dangerous) who she worked for (Emilie had pratingly kidnapped her in college and Gabriel was more than happy to help Emilie keep her when their schooling had finished) so it wasn't at all hard to see how her young charge looked at the tiny omega when he caught a whiff of her scent. It's a look she recognizes from his parents any time the other was in the room. She can't help but wonder what it is as she snaps a discrete photo, making sure to get the little omega and Adrien's face in the photo then sends it to Gabriel.

NS: Image

NS: She's an omega we almost hit with the limo.

NS: Miss Bourgeois seems to know her and she's entering the school building so I'm assuming that she's in the same class as Adrien will be.

NS: How should I proceed?

GA: Find out everything about her.

GA: I'll talk to Adrien when he gets home.

GA: She's very pretty though.

GA: Tell him that I approve on the way home.

GA: And clear my week, I'm going to help him set up her room.

NS: Of course sir.

She takes a second to feel sorry for the girl as she watches her climb the stairs and enter the school as well as to hope she returns his affections before whatever plan Gabriel and Adrien think up is set in motion then she's stepping back into the car to get set on her next task.

Marinette's a little shocked to not find gum on her seat but then she remembers that this world, while similar, is different. Chloe is different... or maybe she's not, maybe Chloe is the same as she is in the show but now Marinette can see what's underneath because of the emotion scenting. They had both been quite free with it really, being the only alpha and omega in class meaning the only one who could smell the emotional changes. One could say that the two of them were secret friends. She wonders how this is going to be affected by Adrien's presence, the addition of someone else who understands things on their level.

Tikki pushes at her leg a little then smiles widely at her when she pretends to be searching for something so she can look. She smiles back and focuses, pushing the thoughts away. More important things are going to happen today after all.

The classroom starts filling up but she doesn't pay much attention until she feels eyes on her, when she looks up she meets Adrien's eyes. She blinks in confusion as he smiles brightly at her then smiles back slightly but wearily. He has a look in his eyes that makes her feel uncomfortable as he watches her but then Chloe is talking again and he turns to her instead. She breathes a small sigh of relief.

"Oh look at you girl, making eyes at Agreste" Alya whispered next to her ear making her jump slightly which has the unfortunate side effect of bringing Adrien's eyes back to her.

"I was not" She hissed back lowly hoping that only Alya could hear her.

"Aww come on don't you see it?" Alya whisperers more eagerly.

"See what?"

"That you're the only omega in the class, of course, it'll give you an edge if you want to go after him" She can see that Alya is getting excited about this and she's quick to cut her off.

"I'm not interested in him Alya, I've not even met him. I'm not just going to throw myself at him because he's an alpha and I'm an omega. If that was true then I'd have been throwing myself at Chloe long before this. So please drop it" Alya gives her a look but stays silent and not a moment too soon because Miss Bustier walks in and the lesson starts.

She almost forgets the Akuma's until StoneHeart smashes his way into the classroom and grabs Mylène. She runs with the rest of the class then when no ones looking she turns down a different corner and into an empty classroom. She immediately transforms and is surprised to see that her super suit looks different than it should. She's frozen looking at her reflection until she hears a crash and screams then she's jumping out of the window and joins the fight. She makes the snap decision not to let the Akuma getaway like in the original then quickly escapes after sharing a fist bump with Chat Noir.

It's only when she gets back that she realizes that this has the side effect of no one knowing that Hawkmoth was the villain. She hadn't given him a chance to give his monologue after all. Crap, now she's going to have to watch her words more than usual.

Marinette's life goes from busy to 'OMG I don't even know if I have time to breathe' In a week. 
Now her weekly schedule looks a little like this:

Monday: Macaroons, school, avoid Adrien, gymnastics, looking over her secret website 'Mable Designs Clothes' (Tikki suggested the name Mable with a secret smile), answering emails, Akuma fights.

Tuesday: School, avoid Adrien, ballet, guardian language lessons, looking over her secret website, answering emails,  Akuma fights.

Wednesday: School, avoid Adrien, waltz/tango, doing favours for her classmates, looking over her secret website, answering emails, Akuma fights.

Thursday: School, avoid Adrien, street dance, magic lessons, looking over her secret website, answering emails, Akuma fights.

Friday: School, avoid Adrien, aerial dance, guardian language lessons, looking over her secret website, answering emails, Akuma fights.

Saturday: Looking over her secret website, answering emails, magic lessons, completing as many commissions as she can, Akuma fights.

Sunday: Looking over her secret website, answering emails, magic lessons, completing as many commissions as she can, listening to Tikki relay messages from the other kwami, sneaking off to send whatever she's made, Akuma fight.

The school work is easy, don't get her wrong (being an adult in a tween's body would do that) and she spends most of it working on sketches for her slowly growing client base. Her after school classes are easy too, at this point they are more of an excuse to keep in shape than something she needs to learn and she's considering swapping one of the dancing classes for parkour which will be helpful with her side job of hero-ing. The constant favours being requested by her classmates is still annoying but doable as always as well, she'd stop but her being a pushover might be a crucial point in the timeline. That doesn't mean that she doesn't spend hours punching her pillow at night. She hates that they think she'll always help because she's an omega and that's what omega's do.

The lessons she gets from Tikki are awesome. So, so awesome. She slowly learns how to heal people by sneaking into the local hospital and healing the people on death's door little by little, she pays special attention to the kids but she does sit in the room with adults and elderly people too. Gently weaving magical blankets only she can see and laying them over the sleeping forms of the one she visited that day. This is how she spends her magical class on Thursday, during her weekend magic classes she learns how to summon objects from thin air which means that she no longer has to buy her fabrics and can save her money though this only works if she knows all of the components of what she's summoning meaning that for the first few weeks she had to extensively study how all the things she needed were made. She's hoping that at some point she can get to the point where she can magically sew perfectly as well.

Learning the guardian language is hard at first because It's so unknown but eventually, she gets the hang of it and is sure that by the time Lila steals it from Adrien she won't need any help from Master Fu on translating it.  

Her Sunday talks with Tikki are also quite informative, Plagg is the most helpful with their contact with Nooroo Duusuu isn't active yet so they can't talk. She soon has an entire map of Adrien's house including all of the hidden rooms.

Her fights with Akuma are also quite easy even if they do happen daily Gabriel doesn't appreciate the fact that she ruined his chance to play hero by being too good at her job. It annoys her that she can't do anything about it yet.

The problem she has is with Adrien and Chat Noir, he's so different from what he should be and it kind of scares her. He doesn't flirt with her as Ladybug like he did in the show but he does make excuses to check on her as Marinette, sometimes it's after a battle and he's checking on her as Adrien. Other times he turns up on her balcony as Chat Noir to 'see how she's faring', it doesn't help that the magic of the miraculous covers up their scent completely so she can never tell what he's feeling as he sits on her balcony railing and watches her.

She doesn't like it, doesn't like the fact that he knows where she lives. That he knows ways to get to where she sleeps.

He also somehow becomes her partner in every class project and, with her parent's permission, drags her to his house to study as often as he possibly can. His father is also always there which is weird because he was pretty absent in the original but it guaranteed that if she's there then when they're called to lunch he's already at the table, smiling at her like he knows a secret and laughing with Adrien at inside jokes that make her uncomfortable and she knows that this is the classes fault because the girls get upset when she insists that she doesn't have a crush on him and the guys keep trying to talk him up. The only one who seems to be annoyed and worried about Adrien (apart from her) is Chloe. Chloe is officially her favourite person under the Kwami (who are all super awesome from what Tikki says and Marinette completely believes the little god about everything at this point) because, like their class, she does something. Unlike her class, it's in her favour.

Chloe, the absolute queen, takes to enforcing the unmated alpha/omega distance hard. To the point of yanking her or Adrien away from each other with sharp words about Adrien's reputation and carrying a spray bottle filled with water to spray Chat Noir whenever he gets close. It is the highlight of all of her days, it even makes up for the employee contract that now sits on her desk. Completely untouched but still sitting on the corner of her desk because she doesn't know what Adrien would do at this point if he found out that she hid it.

It's Wednesday and she has another school project that requires a partner. Once again Adrien is her partner and once again they are at her bakery so Adrien can ask permission for her to go home with him. She wishes that they would take the hint once and say no, just once.

"Hello, Miss Cheng!" Adrien calls happily as he walks her (drags her) through the bakery's front doors.

"Adrien! What a lovely surprise, what brings you both here today?" Her mom says with a bright smile.

Adrien sighs. "Classwork I'm afraid, I was wondering if Marinette could come over again to work on it with me?"

Her mom sighs too. 'Really mom? Stop sounding so disappointed!' She growls in her mind. Chloe pointedly walks past the bakery window, giving her a look that clearly says 'Do you need help?' She shakes her head a little, Chloe nods and continues on her way.

"That's a shame. Of course, she can go to yours, you have my complete trust." For fucks sake mom! Don't just say shit like that, now he's going to be worse! "Here, why don't you take some snacks with you." Her mom starts packing a bag with one of each pastry.

"Thank you, Miss Cheng," Adrien says politely.

"Oh nonsense, call me Sabine." Her mom says happily, great just great.

"Sabine then. Thank you so much for this and for trusting me with your daughter's safety." Laying it on a little thick brat.

"Think nothing of it." Her mom says. "I was wondering about something."

"What is it?" He asks.

"Do you like Marinette's outfit?" Marinette can feel her eyes widen in horror. No! No no no no, fuck mom! Don't you dare do this to her! 

Adrien turns to her and gives her a proper once over, going so far as to walk around her. She hates it and makes sure to glare at her mom. This is not okay.

"It's wonderfully made like everything else she wears. Father has been wondering who her designer is, he's very open to hiring them." He says when he finally comes back to the counter.

"Well." Her mom says smugly, completely ignoring her glare. "She's a bit too young to hire right now but I'm sure she'd love the opportunity when she's old enough, wouldn't you Marinette."

She's never wanted to hurt another person as much as she's wanted to hurt her mother right now. The air in the bakery grows heavy as pleased mown grass fills the room, not that her mother notices at all.

"Really? Marinette, why wouldn't you tell me about this? Your designs are always exquisite." He says brightly, pulling his phone out to text his father this super exciting news no doubt.

Quick, think of something! "Oh, they aren't that good." She mumbles as she rubs the back of her neck (lies, the tiny community she has all love her stuff. TDW has even preposed on behalf of his pack, twice, because 'I don't think I could ever live without your genius!'). "And I wouldn't want to bring sub-par things to your father and expect praise because we're work partners Agreste." She adds. 

His jaw ticks at the use of his last name but she's not letting it go, she feels like the only thing protecting her at this point is the unofficial laws on how unmated alphas and omegas can act. If she calls him by his first name all bets are off.

"Marinette, your designs are sub-par. My father has been trying to hire, well, you since you first walked through our door. Thank you so much for telling me this Miss... Sabine, come on Marinette. Nathalie's outside with the car." He tugs her along before she can reply.

"Bye darlings!" Her mom calls as the door closes behind them.

Everyone in the Agreste house watches her like a hawk, slipping in as many compliments about her outfits as they can in casual conversation. Or not casual at all in Gabriel's case. He gives her the same once over as his son as soon as she steps into their mansion. 

"The stitch work is phenomenal, sizing is perfect for your frame and the colours complement your skin well." He says as he stalks around her. "Well done Marinette."

"Thank you." She says softly because what else is she supposed to say to a man with an empire this large?

It's as she's getting home after a long night of trying to keep Adrien doing their project work that she gets the cursed contract. Nathalie stops her as she's getting out of the limo, it's still stupid.

"If you could wait for a second miss Dupain-Cheng, I have something for you," Nathalie says.

"Oh?" She asks, knowing that she's going to hate whatever Nathalie has.

"Yes, here." Nathalie hands her a small stack of papers, she looks at the title and feels her blood go cold. "It's an employee contract, Mr Agreste thought that it would be beneficial for you to have it so that you could make the changes you wanted before you turned eighteen."

"I...." She manages to stammer out.

"It would be safest if you said thank you." Nathalie points out.

"... Thank you...."

"You're very welcome. Have a lovely night Miss Dupain-Cheng."

"... You too Miss Sancoeur."

So that's her life until the summer holidays start where she is once again rescued by Chloe. As soon as she walks out the front door of the school Chloe is taking her arm and speed walking to her bakery. Adrien is luckily doing a photoshoot.

"You have twenty minutes to pack your stuff then you're spending the summer with me in New York. I'm not leaving you alone with him." Chloe says lowly. "I'll wait downstairs."

"Thank you." She says in relief and darts upstairs to do just that. She packs quickly then calls Master Fu. "I'm going on holiday." She says as soon as the call connects. "It was a surprise."

"Don't worry Marinette. Are you alone?"

"Yes."

Suddenly a portal opens and Master Fu tosses a pair of glasses to her. "These will help you, I'll message you when an Akuma pops up."

She puts on the glasses with a smile. "Thank you." He nods and the portal closes.

Tikki laughs brightly as they hug the new kwami making her laugh. Time to go on holiday.

Chapter Text

Time limit or not she's not about to make a fool of herself in from of Chloe's mother, New York's style queen and badass alpha, so she packs her best works (and a few of the more risky outfits she's made over the years since she's not going to have to worry about touchy alpha's) and her sewing machine, makes sure that she has the one she's going to change into right at the top then she zips everything up. She then cuddles Tikki and Kaalki before slipping them into her purse and slipping Kaalki's glasses (now sunglasses) into her hair.

"Time to blow this popsicle stand," Marinette says to herself before snickering and starting the trek down to the ground floor where Chloe is waiting. Chloe tries to help with the last staircase but she still ends up lifting the bulk of it.

"Why is this so heavy Dupain-Cheng?" Chloe huffs as she glares at the suitcase. "What did you pack in there? A sewing machine?"

"Uhh... yes actually." She admits as Chloe takes the handle and wheels it towards the front of the bakery.

"Really?! Why would you pack that?! We're going on holiday."

"Yes, I know." She says excitedly. "Do you know how much work I can get done?!"

"You are ridicules Dupain-Cheng, utterly ridicules," Chloe says sharply but honey and lemons curls around them in an amusing manner making her smile. 

Of course, she still has to tell a bunch of people that she's leaving, like her parents and her club teachers but she's confident that she'll be on that plane. Parents first because they are, well, right there.

"Mama, papa?" She asks as she breaks away from Chloe who continues towards the bakery door with her suitcase, wheeling it to the car the Mayor is standing next to with his fatherly grin. "Could I talk to you for a second?"

They look up from the laptop in front of them, likely doing finances while it was quiet. "Yes, Marinette, what is it?" Her dad asks.

"Well one of my friends from class has asked me if I wanted to spend the summer with them and I think that it would be a great opportunity for me." She says, carefully wording it since she knows that the moment Adrien comes by they will spill the beans. "Can I please go?"

They look at each other thoughtfully, clearly weighing the pros and cons of having her gone all summer. In the end, the pros win (or the fact that the only parent they know that would give her 'opportunities' is Gabriel) like she knew they would, they smile at her. "Of course you can honey, we trust you to be able to take care of yourself. Do make sure to call us if you need us." Her mom says, not likely.

She beams back. "Thank you, mama, papa." She darts in and hugs them both before running excitedly out the front door, Chloe looks up from her phone and raises an eyebrow. "They said yes." She cheers. 

Chloe smiles a rare, genuine smile and the Mayor lets off a pleasing puff of omega and honey cake. "As they should." He boosts as he ushers them into the back seat of the car before following them in, waving at the driver to start the drive to the airport. "Who would be more trustworthy than Paris' Mayor and his wife?"

"No one," Chloe answers easily, making the pleasing honey cake grow in volume. Mixing happily with honey and lemons.

"Exactly." She agrees, because he's worked hard to be a good Mayor since he was the first omega Mayor and because they are both rescuing her from a summer of sexual harassment. "Do you mind if I make a few calls though? I need to inform my after school clubs that I won't be coming for the summer."

"Of course." Mayor Bourgeois says easily while Chloe blinks then fixes her with an assessing look.

"You go to after school clubs? On top of everything else?" Chloe asks, calculating, secretive and a tiny bit worried.

"Yeah." She says as she pulls her phone out and brings the first-class number. "I used to have a lot of energy as a kid so my parents put me in a few classes, I guess I never stopped." She shrugs at Chloe, with both her shoulder and scent before the phone picks up.

"Marinette! My star, I have a new challenge for you!" Bastien, her gymnastics teacher says happily as soon as the call connects.

"Bastien I..." She tries but the beta cuts her off in his excitement.

"The Def, on the bars!" He cries excitedly. "I was scrolling through some of the new routines that came from the last Olympics and I saw this and thought of you! You could easily master it in about three months, two if you finally drop that 'street dance' class and come back to us on Thursday again."

She chuckles, she can't help it. Bastien has not hidden how much he detests her street dance for 'distracting her from greatness. "I'm not dropping the class Bastien, we've talked about this before."

"Yes, yes." He huffs. "But how will you ever compete in the Olympics if you keep allowing this to distract you?!"

"My parents said no to that, remember." She reminds us this is also an argument they have often.

"I know that too Marinette but in four short years you will be eighteen and able to sign up all on your own without those bastards dragging you down." He cries in frustration. "It's like they can't even see that you are made for greatness. God forbid that they think you are going to become a common baker."

She 'secretly' loves hearing him openly complaining about her parents where she can't but she has more people to call. "More like a trophy omega. Not that this matters at all to why I'm calling." She says, he scoffs loudly at that. As the very thought was an insult to him, it's funny because Chloe gives off the same scoff even though she has no understanding of their conversation. "I was calling to inform you that I'm going to be spending the summer out of Paris so I won't be able to come to practice."

All noise dies on the line for a moment and she is worried that Bastien might be akumatised but then he is back, more serious than she's heard him since she started and they hadn't found their boundaries. "Where are you going?"

She opens her mouth to answer then gets the startling realization that she doesn't know that, she quickly turns to Chloe. "Hey Bourgeois, where are we going?"

"... New York," Chloe says with a raised eyebrow.

She smiles at the alpha. "Thanks." Before switching back to her conversation with Bastien. "I'm going to New York, but ah... maybe don't tell my parents that, there is this alpha they approve of that I can't stand and I don't need him turning up and ruining the holiday."

"Please." He huffs, annoyed. "I've given up telling your parents anything." She chuckles because it's true. "And you are in luck because I have a friend in New York who would be happy to take you as a student this summer."

She blinks. "Bastien, wait..." 

He cuts her off again. "I'm not letting you lose progress Marinette, you are going to win gold at the Olympics if it fucking kills me. I don't care about how stupid your parents are."

She sighs a little. "Bastien, I'm not going to the Olympics..." Chloe and Mayor Bourgeois snap their whole attention to her, clearly shocked at that statement. "... and even if I did, how can you say that I would get gold with such certainty?" And now Mayor Bourgeois is getting a calculating gleam in his eyes, it's fine. All she has to do is become the guardian and none of this will matter.

"I know that you will win the gold now for the same reason I knew that you would win gold as a little girl forced into my class so your parents could ignore you for a few hours." He states. "Because you have natural talent, the will to hone it, and frankly you would settle for nothing less. I will text you the name of my American friend and the address of their gym once I inform them that they will finally get to meet the student I have been bragging about for years. Have a safe trip." And then Bastien is hanging up on her.

She feels warm and fluttery at Bastien's absolute faith in her, she almost cries because that's all she's ever wanted from her parents. She calls her next teacher.

"Hello, this is Eugène speaking. Head instructor of Paris' elite ballet School. Who might I be speaking to?" Eugène asks, from the sounds in the background she realizes that she has managed to catch him in the middle of a class.

She cringes slightly at that before answering. "It's Marinette, I'm sorry to call in the middle of a class but I wanted to let you know that I will be unable to attend your classes this summer as I will be out of the country."

"Ah, Marinette, that is unfortunate but I understand. I expect you to be at the same level as you were during our last class." The alpha says sharply.

"Of course, I will keep up the practice." She agrees.

"Good, was that all?" He asks.

"Yes." She says then hears the line click off, not that she expected much different since Eugène hated wasting any time. Even if that time was saying a quick goodbye.

"Marinette. To what do I owe this call on my one day off?" Haydée says primly after picking up on the third ring, the omega always picks up on the third ring without fail no matter the time. Unlike her husband, an omega named Noël, who was highly unpredictable. It made the fact that she taught the Tango class and he taught the Waltz class such an inside joke between her classmates.

"Good evening Haydée, I am calling to inform you that I will be spending the summer in New York with my alpha friend and her family." She says respectfully. "So I will be unable to attend your classes. I would also like to request that this information does not make it back to my parents as they have been trying to push a courtship on me and I wish to spend my break not worrying about it."

Haydée hums thoughtfully, in the background she can hear Noël coming closer. "But your parents do know that you are going somewhere do they not?"

"They do. I informed them that I was going to be staying with a friend from school for the summer, it is not my fault that they choose to believe that it is with the alpha they wish for me to court."

"Good, good," Haydée says. "I may not agree with how your parents raise you but that doesn't mean that I will contribute to a kidnapping, no matter how willing it may be."

"Who's trying to kidnap our Mari?" Noël asks, right next to the phone now.

"No one," Haydée says simply. "Her parents have agreed to let her spend the summer in New York even though they didn't even ask where she was going or who she was going with."

"Aw man, I like them less and less every time they are brought up," Noël says with a laugh. "So I suppose this is an 'I can't come to class' call then Mari-bear?"

"Yup, also a 'maybe thinking about dropping one of my dance classes for a parkour class and hoping for your opinions on which one since you've been teaching me the longest' call." She says.

"My class, without question," Noël says without pause.

"Wow, that was fast. Tell me how you feel why don't you." She laughs, ignoring the little stab of pain in her chest.

"Oh it's not like that Mari-bear and you know it. It's just that there is only so much time I can have you run through the same dances before we are just sitting there like fools." He huffs. "I've known you since you were a little ankle-biter and I love you like my own but we both need to know when enough is enough. Parkour sounds like something you would find fun and I'm not going to make you drop a class you still have things to learn to do it. Plus you'll still see me when I come and bug Haydée."

"... True." She says softly. "Thank you for being my teacher for all of these years Noël."

"And thank you for actually liking my classes, most of the brats are only doing it because their parents are forcing them to." He jokes back.

"I will be sending you the address' of some... less than legal dance clubs I found when Noël and I were on our honeymoon. I think it will be good for you to experience a place with fewer dancing rules while you are on holiday." Haydée cuts in.

"Thank you Haydée, I'll see you when I get back." She says, waiting for their goodbyes before hanging up and picking the next teacher to call. Chloe openly gapes a little, clearly noting that she is now going to over three after school clubs (three being the limit most parents do since ant more than that can be extremely time-consuming).

"What's up Nette?" Abel says after picking up the call.

"I'm off to New York for the summer so I'm not going to be able to come to your classes." She tells the alpha.

"No sweat, I'm off to California myself." He says with a laugh. "I was going to call everyone tomorrow to tell them. Have fun Nette."

She laughs as well. "You too Abel." She hangs up and goes to call Arianne, her aerial dance teacher when Chloe stops her with a hard look.

"Dupain-Cheng, how many after school clubs do you do?" Chloe asks.

"Umm... six." She says slowly. "But Tango and Waltz switches days so I only do one every weekday since I visit the hospital on the weekends."

"Of course you do," Chloe mutters before looking her in the eye. "And you're okay with that? On top of classes, making your outfits and doing whatever the class asks you no matter how stupid?"

"Well, it's what I've always done." She points out, slightly unnerved by the look Chloe shares with Mayor Bourgeois over her head.

"Right. Fine." Chloe says stiffly, letting her go so she can make her final call.

"Hello, Ari here. Who's this?" Arianne asks.

"Hey Ari, it's Mari." She says to the beta.

"Mari! How's my favourite silk dancer doing? Is there a reason you're calling an hour before class starts?"

"There is actually, my friend is taking me to visit some of her family over the summer. It was all very last minute and I'm actually on my way to the airport as we speak."

"Oh cool, I'll take you off my list then. Call me when you're on your way back so I can add you again."

"Will do, bye Ari."

"Bye Mari."

The rest of the ride to the airport is quiet and she feels slightly like she's done something wrong but she doesn't know what it is, it's odd in itself that she seemed to trust Chloe enough to let the alpha see this far behind the curtain. Is it because Chloe was figuring out that her klutzy persona was a lie? Was Chloe regretting helping her?

The silence is broken by them pulling up to a large aeroplane. Chloe pulls her out and helps her get her suitcase out before wheeling it to a flight attendant with barked orders to keep it safe because it contained fragile equipment. 

"Chloe worries a lot about you." Mayor Bourgeois says suddenly from next to her, the first time she's heard him speak since the beginning of their drive. "Alpha Agreste has always been a little obsessed with things but they were small and Chloe was able to brush it off but this... Chloe tells me that alpha Agreste has been ignoring all of 'unmated alpha' etiquette. Is this true?" He asks seriously.

"Not all of it." She says quickly, knowing exactly what part has him so grim. "He has not asked or offered to scent anything for my heat nest nor does he openly push when I refuse to call him by his first name."

His eyes narrow at her, there is a lot more to unmated alpha etiquette than that after all. "... Has he placed things into your nest without permission?"

"No Mayor Bourgeois." She says, blushing a little because this was an embarrassing topic.

"But he wants to." He says with a weary sigh. She doesn't say anything, knowing that it was true. "I want you to pretend that you are courting my daughter when you come back."

She blinks in shock. "What?"

"You are her friend Miss Dupain-Cheng, a very good friend from what I hear, and she is worried about what alpha Agreste will do if you are still not at least courting during your first actual heat but it would give him room to challenge her if she only started courting you just before your sixteenth." He points out kindly, watching Chloe micro-manage their suitcases being placed in the aeroplane. "She and my alpha are planning to brooch the subject with you while you are with them but I thought it would be better if you heard it from me. I love them both dearly but they are quite... territorial and blunt to boot, preferring to plough through a subject even when it needs care."

She snorts at that because it is so true, Chloe is proving it right before their very eyes. "I see and I... agree." She tests the words she plans to say next before she speaks them, very aware that no one knows about MDC so to him she is just a bakers daughter talking to the Mayor of Paris about his daughters dating life. "I had been thinking of, maybe, asking Chloe about something like this. She is a very good friend and has been doing everything she can to keep the whole class from breaking the 'unmated' rules, I had hoped that a fake courtship until we found who we wished to mate, would make it less stressful for her."

That is the right thing to say with the way his eyes sparkle as he finally looks back at her. "Then as Head omega of the Bourgeois pack, I approve of your courtship to my eldest daughter."

"Thank you Head omega." She says with a small bow before blinking, wait?! Eldest daughter?!

Before she can ask about it Chloe comes bounding back towards them, throwing herself into Mayor Bourgeois' arms for a large hug. "Goodbye father, I will see you next week for our weekly video call."

He laughs brightly and pets her head before she lets go. "Goodbye Chloe, I will see you then and I hope to see Marinette then too."

Chloe tilts her head a little before she grins. "Of course father. Come along Dupain-Cheng." Chloe hooks their arms and drags her to the aeroplane. 

It turns out that the Bourgeois' own their cool private jet, the thing is massive inside and Chloe openly laughs at her wondrous expression. They stay seated during the takeoff but as soon as the seat-belt sign switches off she is out of her seat and digging through the top of her suitcase.

"What are you looking for Dupain-Cheng?" Chloe asks curiously, much more relaxed already compared to when they sit in class.

"I have an outfit that I wanted to wear in New York. A few." She admits as she finally finds it. "They are a bit... risky and not something I can wear in Paris anymore but I want to at least wear them once, you know?"

Chloe's eyes light up in understanding and she smiles softer than Marinette is used to. "Well go on then, don't let me stop you but I will tell you if it looks utterly ridiculous on you."

She laughs as she darts towards the bathroom. "I would expect nothing less."

Even the bathroom is massive, which is great because she has enough room to properly change into her new outfit. She looks at herself, pulling a little at the lace making up the bottom of her top in worry, is it too much? Or actually, is it not enough?

"You look great!" Tikki cheers making her jump and look at her purse, four large eyes stare happily back.

"Yes, you look like someone worthy of wielding my miraculous," Kaalki say primly.

She smiles back as her confidence returns, she straightens her back and holds up her head. They are right and as a fashion designer, she had to be able to take risks. "Thank you both."

"You're welcome, now go out there and wow that alpha," Tikki says cheekily, flying up to nuzzle her cheek before flying back into the purse. Kaalki pets her thumb before settling back in.

She gives herself another nod in the mirror then walks out, Chloe splutters for a second when she sees her but then she slowly grins. "Mother is going to love you, Zoe, too though she will be shyer about it."

"Zoe?" She asks curiously.

Chloe sighs and waves to the seat across from her. "Zoe is my little sister, an omega... and a meta." Marinette sits quickly and listens as Chloe explains the situation.

Zoe is Chloe's half-sister, born of her mother's second omega in New York. Something that has been kept out of French media so as not to make it look like Mayor Bourgeois isn't enough for his alpha. This is stupid because packs are a widely accepted thing around the world. Zoe was also born with the power to paralyze people for a time with a touch, something that she's only recently been able to control without issue. Due to the world's views on meta's Chloe's parents decided that her mother and step-mother would stay in New York with Zoe so she could go to a special school to teach her control while Chloe would stay with her father. Both Bourgeois daughters didn't really like this arrangement but they understood why it had to happen. So every summer Chloe would fly up to New York to spend it with her mothers and sister and every other summer Mayor Bourgeois would join them.

It was quite a lot to process really but then again she was an adult dimension travelling superhero in the body of a fourteen-year-old so she had no room to judge. Which she slowly explains to Chloe when the attendants leave them alone, letting Tikki and Kaalki fly out when Chloe looks like she doesn't believe her.

"... Wow," Chloe says after she's done pouring her heart out, Kaalki's (sun)glasses sitting in her hair now. "I mean I figured out that you were MDC and I suspected that you might be Ladybug but I would have never guessed the whole 'from another dimension' stuff."

"I'm sorry what?!" She gapes. "What do you mean you know that I'm MDC?!"

Chloe snorts, and doesn't even cover it up! Chloe must trust her. "Please Dupain-Cheng, the mother is on your RED list, I know what your work looks like. Plus you always check out the fit secretly when I get a new MDC original, it wasn't hard. But if it makes you feel better then no one else has figured it out." Ow, she thought that she was being discreet about that. "Not that, that means much since we are surrounded by utter idiots."

"I... okay." She says weakly, Tikki pats her cheek in sympathy from where they sit on her shoulder. "I can deal with that."

"Oh good because the mother is going to know the moment she sees you," Chloe adds, somewhat smugly.

She chokes a little at that. "I... should I change?" 

Chloe snorts again. "Dupain-Cheng, you're going to get changed out of something made by MDC and into something else clearly made by MDC to not be wearing something made by MDC?"

She huffs and crosses her arms. "... At least call me Marinette, now that you know all of my secrets."

Chloe grins at her like the cat who caught the cannery. "Then you may call me Chloe since you also know all of mine."

They land and Marinette breathes a sigh of relief. No Agreste's, no favours for her class, no pretending to like her parents. Freedom smells like honey, lemons and friendship, and she's all for it. 

"This way, ma'am's." One of the flight attendants says as he leads them towards one of the exits.

Chloe is a step ahead of her with both suitcases. Marinette would argue that she could carry her suitcase but she has Mayor Bourgeois' warning and knows that this is just Chloe laying the groundwork so Adrien has less he can fight against when they return to Paris. This isn't Chloe who knows deeply (because Marinette has never hidden her true emotions in her scent when they were in class, not that Chloe did either) that she hates when anyone treats her as weaker due to being an omega. This is Alpha Bourgeois who is publicly showing that she is strong enough to carry both of their bags without help as well as saying that she doesn't need to worry about her items because they will be protected. 

A normal first step in most courting situations. Granted the omega usually knows that they are being courted, and while she does know that Chloe doesn't so technically Chloe is skipping steps but Chloe has always liked to be a step ahead. The world of formal courting was convoluted and annoying but she would suffer through it to keep herself out of Adrien's hands. She's grown less worried about keeping to the small things of the timeline so long as the major things stay the same. 

"Come on Marinette, mother is picking us up. You wouldn't want to make her wait would you?" Chloe says drawing her back out of her thoughts.

She scowls playfully and jogs to catch up. "It's not my fault your legs are so long." She huffs making Chloe laugh.

Chloe is right, as soon as her mother spots her a knowing glint lights up in her eyes. "Do you like my suit?" She asks as soon as they are close enough though she hears what's being said loud and clear. The scent of surprised and pleased alpha curling around limes. 'Does the suit you made me look as good on me as you thought it would?'

"It suits you." She says back, her own true words conveyed by her eyes and scent. 'It does, better in fact.'

"Good, I am quite taken by the designer. It is a point of pride that I am one of the small numbers on their RED list." Ms Bourgeois says as she has her driver load their bags.

"Careful mother," Chloe says as she watches the bags go in the back of the car with sharp eyes. "Marinette has brought her sewing machine and it will not be broken."

Ms Bourgeois grins at them. "Marinette is it?"

"Yes," Chloe says bluntly.

"Very well." Then Ms Bourgeois turns back to her. "I was not told that this would be a working holiday."

She smiles up at the older alpha sweetly while she lets her scent carry the sharpness she wishes to convey. "When isn't a holiday a working one?"

"A fair point." Ms Bourgeois laughs. "Shall we?" They all get into the car.

The summer speeds past after that. She meets Zoe who is a little shy but delightful company and Chloe's other mom. She goes to her 'summer gymnastics' classes. Chloe portals her into Paris to fight Akuma with a pissed off Chat Noir then opens new portals when she's alone so she can come back. She takes Chloe and Zoe to 'not at all' legal nightclubs. She loses herself in MDC emails and commissions. 

It's great, it's wonderful. She blinks and she's on the aeroplane home listening to Chloe trying, and failing, to gently explain her plan for the new school year.

"I think that we should court until we find other partners that appeal more to us." Chloe states after a stretch of silence. She did say that Chloe failed at the gentle part.

"I know, your father told me before we left." She says, watching the fight drain out of Chloe. "And I agree but you need to know that a girl is joining our class this year, Lila Rossi, who is a very good liar that might make everything difficult."

Chloe's eyes narrow and the scent of honey and lemons sharpens to a point. "How good?"

She sighs a little and looks out of the aeroplane window. "The whole class turns on me at her word. She has them wrapped so tightly around their words that Max believes that I could stab him in the eye, through his glasses, with a napkin."

Chloe blinks in shock at that. "Max, the beta genius who calculates everything and build an A. I with actual emotions believed that you could stab through glass with a napkin?! "

"Yup." She says.

"... That's a skill, not that I won't verbally destroy her if she tries that again but a skill nonetheless." She can't help the tiny grin at the thought which, by Chloe's smug answering grin, is what the alpha was aiming for. "You've got to remember that you aren't alone in this anymore, we are bound in secrets and courtship. I'm going to have your back."

"Yeah, Marinette," Tikki says happily, floating between them. "It is always good to have an alibi when you murder the villains and burn their bodies in the town square."

She blinks at the happy kwami. Chloe blinks at the happy kwami. She blinks at the happy kwami again. "What the fuck Tikki."

"What?" They say, tilting their head in confusion. 

"What?!" She laughs hysterically. "You just casually brought up murder like it had anything to do with what we were talking about."

Tikki pouts. "I was just putting it out there." They huff, crossing their little arms. "You're plan is great but it's always good to have a backup."

"And your backup plan is... murder." She says slowly, still kind of thinking that Tikki was joking.

"People used to drag criminals to my temple and sacrifice them to me you know, this isn't anything new." Okay, so Tikki isn't joking. That is a little terrifying and also... oddly comforting for some strange reason.

"You know what?" Chloe says, drawing both of their attention back to her. "I like you Tikki."

Tikki perks up and flies over to nuzzle at Chloe's cheek. "Aw, I like you too!"

She wants to complain but she's smiling again... she's let them have this if only because they aren't going to kill any of the Agreste's. 

As the aeroplane lands, Chloe pulls out a thin choker. She marvels at how pretty it is. "Will you wear it?" Chloe asks.

"Of course." She says and lets Chloe clip it on, it's serious now. She and Chloe are officially courting. 

Chloe keeps her fingers on it for a moment before dropping at and meeting her eyes. "I don't find women sexually attractive. Just so you know." Chloe says it like she's trying to let her down but all it does is make her feel safer.

"Me neither." She admits, and just like that the last barrier between them crumbles. They both grin before getting off the aeroplane and driving home, they go to her's first because Chloe wants to walk her to the bakery door. Chloe kisses her cheek and leaves again as she lets herself in and fights to drag her suitcase up the many, many stairs it takes to get to her bedroom.

Then, before she knows it, it's morning again and the start of the first day back to school. Marinette is up early once again, sitting with Tikki and meditating before she has to leave knowing that the calm they had built up over the holidays is over but also that they are closer to their goal than ever before. "Do you think that it's going to be bad?" She whispers as her alarm goes off, all of the confidence she had gained during the holidays snuffed out by the knowledge that she was going to have to face whatever wrath Adrien is going to have in response to her and Chloe courting.

"I can't answer that but what I can do is help you get through it, we're almost there so you won't have to deal with them long." Tikki puts their paw to their chin in thought "We'll be free of it all in a year at the most." She smiled at the kwami and got up. "Now hurry up Marinette, we want to get there before Adrien can bug your chair again". She grimaces at that, remembering the first few she found. It was a little horrifying knowing that he might have been listening in on her she gets so paranoid about it that she spends a small fortune getting her room outfitted so it constantly disturbed any listening devices. 

Chloe is waiting for her outside of the bakery with a large coffee that she makes grabby hands for. "Are you ready Marinette?" Chloe asks after she's done downing it.

"Not at all but I can't avoid school." She replies then takes the hand that Chloe offers. Chloe nods in understanding and starts pulling her towards the school standing menacingly across the road.

It turns out to be just as bad as she thought, it starts with Adrien as all of her bad days do. He's waiting for her at the school gate, a big sunshine smile on his face as he greets her like always but his eyes scream in rage as he eyes her choker and their joined hands. "My two best friends are courting? Since when?" He does a poor job of covering the pure anger in his voice as well, it's lucky that he's a model and not an actor.

"We have been dancing around it for years," Chloe says as she meets Adrien's challenging gaze head-on. "But we decided to go for it at the beginning of the summer. I presented her to my family and they all approved of her. Is that a problem?"

Another messy courting rule, if one of the families is in complete agreement about a courtship then the only way for the other family to break it is to have actual evidence that it is a toxic courtship to deny it. A rule Adrien was likely going to exploit if he had, had the chance.

"No. Not at all." Adrien bites, glaring at Chloe and sending her a pleading look. 

She meets his gaze head-on and leans into Chloe's side. "I have accepted alpha Bourgeois' offer of courtship." She states plainly. Another rule in courtships, all other offers during a courtship must be rejected or it will be seen as being greedy (unless all courting parties agree to start a pack) and the courtship is terminated.

His eyes harden again and he nods stiffly. "I understand." He hisses, the only response that won't be seen as an insult to them both. Welcome to the other side of the trap asshole she thinks bitterly as he spins on his heel and storms into the school. Chloe squeezes her hand lightly before they continue. 

It, of course, gets worse when they enter the classroom because Lila is there in the centre surrounded by their classmates. When Lila's eyes meet hers and it yanks her back to whenever she locks eyes with Adrien. Lila's eyes widen a bit and an emotion Marinette still can't place after a year of seeing it on Adrien enters them. It makes all of her hair stand on end just like it does with him. Chloe stiffens and her scent curls around them both protectively and as much as she just wants to sit there people would question her if she didn't introduce herself. It doesn't help at all that Adrien is standing next to Lila, shinning his fake sunshine smile at her. Nothing makes her want to run more than when they both turn their heads to her and smile. 

It almost makes her flinch but she swallows and steps up to them. "Hi, my name's Marinette Dupain-Cheng and I'm the class president, I've not seen you before so I assume that you're new. What's your name?" She tries to smile but she's almost drowning in alpha sent, freshly mown grass mixing with open sea air to fight honey and lemons as the two alpha's watch her while the third stays stuck to her side.  

Until Lila smiles brighter and grabs both of her hands, pulling her right one out of Chloe's hand. "My name is Lila Rossi." Sea air starts slowly swirling happily whilst mown grass grows stormy and honey and lemons become violently sharp.

"Hands off," Chloe growls furiously making Lila jump back in shock like she didn't see Chloe's claim around Marinette's neck. Everyone else in the class slowly comes to a stop, finally picking up on the fact that this wasn't at all a happy gathering of alphas. Not that they could have known since most of the battle up until this point had been fought by scents. 

Marinette swallows again. "It's lovely to meet you, Rossi, would you like me to show you around the school?" She hates offering but as class president, she must. 

"No, I'll do it," Adrien says before Lila can answer and she'd be worried about a fight since Adrien dislikes Lila as much as he currently dislikes Chloe but the mown grass settles almost immediately at the suggestion.

"If that is what you want to do." She says softly, still reeling from the flooding feeling of 'Angry alpha, hide' and hating it. "Thank you for offering Agreste."

He looks extremely sour at that. "You're welcome... Dupain-Cheng." Oh, that looked like it hurt. It helps her push away the low rolling panic in her gut. It would be highly unbecoming to curl up in Chloe's chest right here in the classroom. But this is also good because it means that Adrien most likely has the book.

Chloe pulls her into her usual seat and sits next to her, forcing Alya to take the seat behind them with Sabrina. It doesn't stop Alya from gushing about how Lila was Ladybugs best friend as well as a half comment about 'not knowing who she shipped Marinette with now' that made Chloe growl warningly. For the first time in her life, she keeps her annoyance out of her scent, no one can know that Chloe's alpha protectiveness is pissing her off. Knowing that Chloe's only doing it to keep in the parameters of formal courting doesn't help at all. Soon though the class is ending, she and Chloe find a quiet spot before letting Tikki and Kaalki (she was going to give the horse miraculous back after school today since she got in late yesterday) out.

"Could you cover out scents?" She asks quietly. "As you do in the suits, Adrien and Lila can't know that we're following them."

Tikki nods quickly. "We can but it requires the same amount of energy as transforming, we'll need food after."

She nods quickly back. "I'll feed you both back in my room as soon as we get the book.

Suddenly everything around her feels muted and cold. "Hurry, I don't know how long we can hold it," Tikki says, making her and Chloe dart out. It doesn't take long to find Adrien and Lila, stalking them is quite easy as well. They talk casually in the library and when Adrien isn't looking Lila steals the book then they make plans to meet up after school and split ways. Marinette and Chloe take great care in staying out of sight while Adrien and Lila pass them before they continue to follow Lila. The three of them (not that Lila knows) end up in a bustling plaza where Lila takes a seat at a cafe. She orders a coffee and a pastry then starts reading the book.

"Are you okay?" Chloe asks, Marinette turns slightly and see that Chloe is talking to Kaalki.

"I am fine." Kaalki huffs, shaking slightly. "I will be able to hold out until we have the book."

Chloe nods and lets Kaalki hide in her purse again, just in time too because Lila finishes up and makes her way to a jewellery shop on the other side of the plaza. It takes about ten minutes for Lila to walk back out, by that point both Kaalki and Tikki are shaking but determinedly holding out. As soon as she sees Lila dump the book she makes her move, merging into a group passing the bin so that if Lila turns she won't spot her then splits and snatches the book before darting back. Tikki and Kaalki manage to hold the cover until about halfway back to her bakery but it doesn't matter at that point because their scents are nowhere close to where the book was last seen. 

Because they are in such a hurry to get to her bakery they miss out on the conversation Adrien and Lila have.

Adrien sits on the side of the fountain as he waits for the new girl, he wants to kill her as much as he currently wants to kill Chloe for taking HIS Princess from him. How dare that retched, backstabbing cunt do this to him! She knew that he had wanted her! He has wanted to ever since he saw her eyeing his Marinette but at the same time, he recognizes the look on her face. He sees it every time he looks at the mirror whilst he's thinking of Marinette, sees it in every photo of his parents when they glance at each other. He also knows that he's never seen that look on Marinette no matter how much he wishes he did. Now he knows why Chloe had been dripping poison into his poor darlings ears right from the start. God, he can't stop thinking about her! She's just so beautiful with her sparkling bluebell eyes and her silky blue-black hair that she always has in those adorable pigtails. And her scent, oh God, her scent made him almost lose control. He can still remember the first time he had smelt it like it had just happened, warm cookie dough wafting slowly around her like the comfiest of blankets. 

He sighs and opens his eyes again, scanning the crowd for the other alpha. He needs help keeping Marinette in line and getting rid of his new, completely unexpected how fucking dare she, competition as much as he hates to admit it. Even with Chloe's interference, he should have broken Marinette down by now, it had been a fucking year. He's slowly been turning more and more people to his side, putting her into more situations that have her only by his side but it's not enough because while others are on his side she is not and she's smart about it. Oh is she smart, she claims that she can't trade seats with Nino because then she would never see Alya, she always tries to add people to their study group so that he's not alone with her for long, starts long conversations with his father at lunch when he's managed to drag her over so that they spend more time at the table 'though that one backfired on her' he thinks with a smirk since his father has become more and more invested in making her apart of the Agreste family due to this? And to top it off she's entered a formal courtship with his 'best friend'. He needs help, he can't always watch her. Especially when there is an Akuma. He frowns at the thought, she always seems to escape from where ever he puts her during those and as much as he wishes that he could just sit there and watch her he can't because of Hawkmoth. He snarls at the thought of the villain who keeps taking him away from his princess at the worst times, this might even be how Chloe sunk her claws into his poor darling! Protecting her from the akumas when he (as Adrien) couldn't. Blast it all! But having a civilian to watch her who is just as invested in keeping her away from her new prospective alpha would help. If Lila is any good then they may even speed up the plan he has for his dear princess. 

"Why am I here Adrien?" Lila asks in a sugar-coated voice. He rolls his eyes.

"Drop the act Rossi, I can't be bothered to deal with it." She frowns at him but stays silent, assessing him. "What I want from you is to make a deal." 

She raises an eyebrow. "What kind of deal?" 

"I am willing to share Marinette with you if you help me break her as well as help me in getting rid of Bourgeois." He states simply, straight to the point. 

She blinks back, shocked. "I'm sorry, you what?" 

"Don't play dumb Rossi, I saw the way you looked at her." He snaps, making her expression melt into cold indifference. 

"Yes, so? I don't know why everyone else isn't after her, she's adorable and smells like warm cookie dough. Who doesn't like warm cookie dough? I don't see why that means that I should share with you Agreste." 

"Because she's strong and she's smart." He hisses and Lila perks up "She fucking perfect in every way but I can't spend every second with her no matter how much I want to, shown clearly in how my bitch of an ex-best friend has swooped in and started a fucking formal courtship with her! And neither can you, That I'll say now. She's too slippery for that." He huffs. 

She smiles sharply at him, finally getting what he is saying. "But if we take turns then she's always covered, right? We keep her between us and away from Bourgeois then no matter which way she faces one of us will be there." 

He smiles back at her just as sharply. "Can you imagine it?" He whispers, his eyes alight with obsession, not that he minds showing it currently as it's being mirrored in the eyes of his companion. "Can you imagine the look on her face when she finally breaks?" 

Lila growls lowly in need. "You have a deal, now tell me what you've already done so I know what to avoid." 

"Come with me back to my house then, father is helping and I'm sure he would be frilled with this new development." He says as he pushes himself up, ignoring the way his skin crawls when she takes his hand. Soon it will be the hand he wants and these other two alphas will be rotting in an unmarked grave.

Plagg sits in Adrien's bag trying not to be sick, they don't know how Master Fu could have chosen so wrong. They almost fly straight to pigtails to tell her what's happening now but then they remember that they are the only ones keeping Nooroo company so they take a deep breath and eat a slice of Camembert to calm down. They will tell Tikki tomorrow and everything will be alright.

As soon as they get into her room Marinette grabs a couple of cookies and a few sugar cubes then shove them at the dead tired kwami while Chloe takes rapid pictures of all of the pages of the book for her, she lets out a sigh as Chloe finally closes the book.

"What now?" Chloe asks, sending the pictures to her in bulk.

"Now I take Kaalki and the book back to the guardian then tomorrow we start translating." She says, stretching and standing.

Chloe pauses and her fingers brush the (sun)glasses on top of her head. "... Do you need to take them both back? Surely having the book will distract him enough to not realize that he doesn't have Kaalki."

She shakes her head with a chuckle, holding out her hand. Chloe pouts then slaps the glasses into her hand making her grin. "Sorry Chloe but I have a plan that hinges on him trusting me completely, you weren't even supposed to know about the kwami."

"Right." Chloe huffs. "Fine, I suppose I'm not allowed to walk you down either?"

"I'm afraid not." She agrees.

Chloe huffs, yet again and leans in to rub her wrist against her neck in a weak scent mark then gathers her things. "Walk me out omega Dupain-Cheng?"

Now it's her turn to huff. "Of course alpha Bourgeois." She slips the book, Kaalki, Kaalki's glasses (now just glasses again, magic was so cool) and Tikki into her bag then leads Chloe down. 

"What's this?" Her mom snaps as they enter the bakery main floor, her eyes going from the choker around Marinette throat to Chloe who is not the alpha she wanted courting her daughter. Her dad pops his head in, confused by her mom's tone of voice.

Chloe straightens and stares her parents down. "I, alpha Chloe Bourgeois, have entered a formal courtship with your daughter, omega Marinette Dupain-Cheng. A courtship that all members of my family have approved of." Chloe states making her parents rear back in shock, she's going to have to avoid them when she gets back. "Now if you'll excuse me, omega Dupain-Cheng was walking me out." Then, before her parents can form a retort, Chloe takes her hand and tugs her lightly from the bakery. "Are you sure you'll be okay going on your own?" Chloe asks when they are far enough away from the bakery.

She rolls her eyes. "Yes, Chloe. I'm a big girl, I have my big girl pants on and everything."

Chloe holds up her hands with an amused grin. "Fine, fine. I'll pick you up again for school tomorrow."

"I'll see you then." She replies, not saying how dumb that rule was since she lived across from the school.

She stands there and watches Chloe's car drive around the bend then spins on her heel and makes her way to Master Fu's massage parlour. Knocking twice on the frame as she enters.

"Just a moment!" Master Fu calls from the back room and she nods even though he cannot see her. 

Her fingers twitch around the strap of her bag as nerves eat at her. She needs to hand the book over now and then she needs to somehow get it back to the Agreste's tomorrow. She can't claim that she has a crush on Adrien like the original Marinette did because that would end her courtship to Chloe and the whole point of that was to keep Adrien away from her. She closes her eyes and tilts her head back with a trapped groan, everything was turning into a god damn mess! He was supposed to have the creepy crush on her hero persona, then again this wasn't supposed to be an A/O/B universe, Chloe was meant to be a bitch and the people of Paris should have at least a clue as to what Hawkmoth looked like. She can't keep changing things because it's convenient to her, at this rate she might as well be blind. She can't go at this blind, not when the players on the board were so much more dangerous than the cartoon had portrayed them.

She hears the back door open and straightens up. Opening her eyes and smiling at the older beta. "Master Fu, I have something that I think belongs to you." His eyes crinkle in amusement at the semi-inside joke as the scent of burning candles wafts around them, turning a little playful. She pulls out Kaalki and her glasses.

He takes the glasses as Kaalki flies over, nuzzling his cheek for a second before hooking little arms with Wayzz and zooming off. "Thank you for returning my reading glasses miss Dupain-Cheng. I'm glad to have them back where they belong." He grins as he adds his part to her joke, it's not that they think they are being watched really, just that it's funny for some reason.

"Well, I'm glad you have them now because I found a book I thought you might like earlier today." She says, using their joke to launch into handing the book of the guardians over.

His eyes widen as he takes it from her, opening it with shaky fingers. Burning candles freezing in the air before rushing around in excitement. "W-where did you find this?" He asks her as his fingers run over slightly fading symbols that make up the guardian language.

"... Adrien Agreste brought it to school today." She says softly. "I recognized the symbol on the front, the miraculous box has one too so I followed him, a girl from our class stole it from him then dumped it into a bin in the plaza. I think because she couldn't read it."

She pretends she doesn't see him freezing at that while also pretending that she didn't know that Adrien was Chat Noir. "The model?" Master Fu finally asks as he snaps the book shut with one hand (she's always wanted to have a reason to do that).

She huffs. "How did everyone know that before me?" Burning candles give off a tiny puff of amusement at that.

"That is curious indeed." He muses as he tucks the book under his arm. "I will look into it. You, however, have a class you need to get to right?"

She tilts her head in confusion until she remembers that she has gymnastics in like, five minutes. "Crap." She cries, scrambling to get to the front door while Tikki snickers in her bag. "Bye Master Fu! It was nice chatting with you!"

"You as well." He says with a small laugh. " Oh, and Marinette?"

She turns questioningly towards him with the front door half open. "Yes?"

He smiles softly at her. "Congratulations on your courtship."

She blushes and her fingers find the charm on her choker, a little smile playing at the corner of her lips. "Thank you." She pushes all of her sincerity into it because he's the first to congratulate her. Then the rush is back and she's darting out into the street, towards her gym, while praying (to Tikki much to the kwami's amusement) that she makes it on time.

She flops onto her bed with a groan. "... Aren't you going to get changed?" Tikki asks, seeing as she's still in her gym clothes.

"No." She says more groan than words. Now that she's back in her room and the world is stilling once again, her worries come back full force. She has to do something, she only has until tomorrow to decide. She can tell that Tikki has picked up on the dark turn of her mood because she feels them sit on her head. She stays there, curled up on her bed and absorbing silent comfort from Tikki, for a while before she speaks again. "I don't want to go through with the next part of the plan Tikki." She sighs and rolls over.

Tikki, the adorable and terrifying being, rolls with her until they are sitting on the tip of her nose.  "Then don't." Tikki answers in a matter of fact tone.  

"But the timeline...." She starts to argue but Tikki cuts her off. 

"Doesn't matter more than your safety Nette." They say. 

"But..." 

"No." Tikki glares at her and she bites her tongue. "It's already turning out differently than you told me it was going to be anyway! What does having that bastard removed from your class have to do with being the guardian anyway? It might not even happen with the way it's going." They hiss. "You know what will happen if you try and follow the timeline with this Marinette. You will break your weird courting thing with Chloe and then they will trap you! Plagg was vivid when they explained the last plan the bastards had for you and that was before you played the Chloe card."

She closes her eyes and shivers as she remembers it, poor Plagg had looked sick to his stomach as he explained Gabriel's plan to trap her in a binding courtship that fast-tracked into an early mating. Names of date-rape like drugs and drugs that boost fertility swimming around her head, Plagg had refused a wheel of Camembert when she'd looked up the names he had given her. 

"If I don't do this then we're in the dark, we won't know what is coming anymore and you guys would be in danger." She points out, the last defence of her plan. Years of work slip through her fingers but she finds that she doesn't mind, in fact, right now she feels like dumping the rest as quickly as she can. Sickness rolling in her gut.

Tikki sits quietly on her nose for a moment then slides down her nose so they can pat her forehead. "But we do know Nette, we have Plagg and Wayzz who keep us both updated so no matter what we won't be caught unaware."

She clenches her hands a little. "I'm being selfish." Asking Chloe to waste years tethered to her when she could be finding her omega, asking the kwami to constantly spy on the Agreste's and Master Fu because she was a coward... 

"And I'm telling you that, that's okay," Tikki says, a little sharply, as they continue to pat her forehead. 

"What if..." 

"Shhh, it'll all be okay. Soon you will officially be the guardian and then we all can leave. No more Adrien, no more Hawkmoth, no more stress. I know you worried about how sharply this timeline has shifted but I promise that we will do everything to stay on track so long as it doesn't put you in danger." Tikki promises to make her huff and roll her eyes. 

"I'm in danger every time I fight as Ladybug, Tikki." 

Tikki sends her a bright smile at that. "Lair." 

"Fine, I won't return the book but if this goes wrong I'm blaming you." She says finally as she runs the pad of her finger over Tikki's head. 

"The worst that can happen is that you have to steal the miraculous box from Master Fu after you kill all of the Agreste's. It's slightly different than your plan but I for one think that it might be better given what Plagg has said."

"Tikki!" She cries in shocked laughter. "I'm supposed to be a hero."

Tikki pouts but is amused. "Chloe liked my plan."

"Chloe is a bad example, she just likes to get ahead of the problem."

"Exactly," Tikki says with a giggle.

She sighs, fighting her smile. "I'm going to bed Tikki, goodnight."

"Goodnight my little bug," Tikki says fondly back before flying up and snuggling onto the pillow next to her. 

Chapter Text

There are paws pressing into her cheek, tiny little paws that only spell trouble. Marinette cracks a blurry eye open and sees that it is just as dark as she feared, so the wake-up call was for an akuma. She debates for a second before deciding that Paris can surely do without her for a night, closing her eye again and snuggling back down. She hears Tikki groan in annoyance then squeak in panic and dive into the sports bra she completely forgot to change out of, seconds later she hears the *Thump* of something landing on her terrace. Now it’s her turn to groan as she hears her window rattle.

“Go away Chat!” She yells sleepily, tossing one of her pillows at the window. The window rattles again before a low hiss fills the air. Well, fucking great, now she’s wide awake.

“You’ve locked your window.” Chat Noir hisses in low fury.

“I have entered a formal courtship. I can’t just let random people wonder around my room.” She points out, snappishly. Sitting up and glaring at the two luminous green eyes glaring back at her.

“I am NOT a random person, Princess.” He growls, pointedly giving her window a stronger rattle.

“Well, you’re not the one I’m in courtship with either!” She growls right back, almost dropping her blanket (which was covering her sports bra, not that he didn’t have an eye full when she first sat up) when she starts waving one of her hands around to prove her point. “So, you still count! Now leave before I call the police, hero of Paris or not you know formal courtship rules Chat. I’m not about to ignore them because no one knows your designation.” She swears to, well, Tikki that she’s going to beat this bastard with his staff at some point.

He opens his mouth, likely to sprout some more bullshit at her but then her akuma alarm goes off. He glares at her phone as if this was all part of her evil plan to get him to fuck off before turning his glare back to her. “Stay here. I’ll deal with this then we’ll talk again.”

“I’m not joking Chat.” She hisses as he starts backing away from her window. “If you turn up at my window again, I will call the police. Alpha Bourgeois needs to be present at all further talks we have.” She had, admittedly, completely forgotten about this rule with everything else she had going on, but she is so glad to have a real reason to tell him to fuck off at night. She’s going to get so much more sleep now! He bares his teeth at Chloe’s title but jumps away.

Tikki waits a beat then flies out of her sports bra. “We never speak of this.” They say pointedly. It makes her snicker.

“Done. Now let’s deal with this so I can hopefully go to sleep before school starts.” Tikki nods and transforms her into Ladybug.

She almost unlocks her window then pauses, if Chat comes back before she can then he’ll see it as an invitation. She sighs and steps away, it’s riskier but she’s going to have to go out the bathroom window. She’s not about to risk her new security blanket.

The bathroom window is smaller than she remembers (or she’s just gotten bigger since she last considered yeeting herself out of it to end her problems) but after some wriggling, she manages to pop out of it, using gravity to add to her swing. By the time she gets there she gets a full view of a meteor being launched back into space by… Ah, she’d forgotten about Volpina. Wasn’t this supposed to happen after she (Ladybug) confronts Lila? It doesn’t matter because they’ve both spotted her.

“Ladybug!” Chat calls, completely covering his crazy like he had been an actor. “Just in time! Come meet Volpina, she’s like us.”

She touches down on the rooftop gently and walks over with all of the alpha power she can (heavily copying Chloe like she does every time, so people stopped questioning her authority). “Ladybug, it’s good to meet you.”

Volpina beams and takes the offered hand. “It’s great to meet you to, I’ve been looking forward to it since I found out I was a hero too. Finding my grandmother’s necklace has changed my life.”

“What was their name again?” She asks as she keeps her hand locked around Volpina’s, even when the other girl tries to tug it away.

“I… what are you talking about?” Volpina asks, a little alpha growl starting up making her raise her eyebrow. Chat’s eyes narrow, at least he was semi good at his job.

“You’re kwami, what’s their name.” She asks as she tilts her head.

“Why are you so suspicious? What, are you scared I’m going to be a better hero than you?” Volpina snarls as she tries to, unsuccessfully, pull away.

“I am awake right now because of an akuma alarm, yet there is no akuma to be seen.” She hisses back.

“Just tell her so we can all go back to bed.” Chat says with a sweet smile, really playing up the fake omega card.

“Fine! Foxy, alright! Now let go!” Volpina growls making her tut.

“Wrong answer.” She says before reaching to snatch her necklace. Volpina punches her in the face as Hawkmoth’s mask flashes across her face before rolling away from Chat’s grab and jumping off the roof.

“You okay Bug?” Chat asks as he tracks Volpina’s progress through the city.

“Physically? I’m peachy.” She grumbles as she rubs her chin. “Emotionally? I’m tired and pissed.”

“Huh. Me too.” He growls as his eyes lock on Mayor Bourgeois’ hotel. Well, that’s not worrying at all.

“Wanna talk about it?” She asks. “This fight is clearly going to take hours and as much as I like you kitty…” Which is not at all. “… I’m not going to be in any mood to talk to anyone when we crush the little lying fox.”

She watches him turn her offer over before sighing and sitting on the roof ledge. “There’s this o… girl I like in school. She’s just… everything about her makes me want to bundle her in blankets and protect her, you know?” She hums to show that she was listening. “I was really excited to spend the summer with her but then…” He tosses his baton onto the roof in frustration, it rolls until it hits her foot. “I have, had, a best friend, one who knew I liked this girl and I’ve just found out that they went behind my back to court her. Just to hurt me! A formal fucking courtship, gah!”

He covers his face in his hands and leans so far back that if this was a normal person she’d think they’d fall to their death. “Have you considered taking a step back?” She asks as she scoops up his baton. His eyes snap to her sharply and she sighs, he’d been doing such a good job acting like a normal teen before that. “You’re clearly very upset about this and it kind of sounds like this is what they want.” Not really but she’s taking it as a bonus prize. “So, take like, a week, to calm down and get used to the idea then come back with a fresh head on your shoulders. This...” She uses his baton to wave over him. “… is only going to put a further wedge in things. Also, if you talk to this girl you like and she says no to something drop it and move on, it shows that you can take her opinion into account and that might make her like you more.” Not really but if he does that it’ll make her life easier.

“… It’s that easy?” He asks slowly as he rights himself.

“I have no idea but honestly, it couldn’t hurt.” She adds because she doesn’t want to give up this new power to convince him to back the fuck off.

“I’ll… I’ll think about it. Thanks Bug.”

“You’re welcome, Kitty. Now let’s beat the fuck out of this akuma so we can at least have a power nap before school.”

They kick Volpina’s ass, and it is soooo satisfying even if Lila hasn’t done anything to her yet. It however takes hours like she predicted and so the only time she sees her bed before school is in passing as she changes for school BUT Chat isn’t at her window like he is every other end of battle so win!

“I would have asked for more than a week.” Tikki hums as they float around her head.

“You would have stabbed him.” She counters with a snort making the little god grin.

“Which means I wouldn’t have had to deal with him all together. Which one of us wins, I wonder.”

“Oh, shut up.” She chuckles as she tosses a cookie at them, Tikki snatches it out of the air with a wide grin before diving into her bag. She makes sure she has everything (and that all her windows are still locked) before heading down, usually she’s fine being a little late but she doesn’t want to make Chloe wait.

Her parents are waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs with the bakery sigh still flipped to closed. Wow, Gabrial must really have them in his back pocket for them to even consider opening late. They’d never done so for her after all, and she was their flesh and blood. “Marinette, we need to have a serious talk.” Her papa says and she mentally rolls her eyes, here we go.

“Sure.” she says as her eyes dart to the front door, relaxing when she spots Chloe past the glass slowly tapping her foot in annoyance. “Is this a right now talk or we expect you to come right home so we can talk talk? Because alpha Bourgeois is waiting for me outside and I need to let her know if she’s going to be late to school.”

“She can go on ahead.” Her mama snaps making her blink at the blatant try at ending her courtship since Chloe not escorting her would be seen as Chloe not viewing her as worth her time. Okay then, so they were just going to disrespect her entire opinion in life right out of the gate, cool.

She walks right past them, unlocks the door because it being locked at all wasn’t worrying in the slightest, then pokes her head out. “My apologies, alpha Bourgeois, but my parents want to talk to me before school and it’s looking like it might be a long talk. May I offer up my earrings temporarily so that you may keep my scent while we wait.” Will you take up the Ladybug just in case Hawkmoth tries some shit because my parents will use it as an excuse to drag me away like an unruly child?

Chloe tuts in annoyance as she eyes her parents behind her before making a show of stepping close to her to remove the earrings, conveniently getting close enough for Tikki to dart out of her bag and into Chloe’s pocket. “I accept your apology in place of your parents for making me wait so long as you know that I place no blame on you.” Chloe clips the earrings into her ears then bumps their foreheads for a moment.

“I know.” She promises before stepping back, she waits until Chloe is leaning against her car again before shutting the door again.

“This is serious Marinette.” Her papa growls making her regret not just walking out the door and walking to school with Chloe.

“I’m treating this seriously, papa, by informing my intended alpha that we’ll be late so she can call ahead while we talk.” She answers as she turns to face them, feeling naked and vulnerable with Tikki not in her purse.

“You have no idea how worried we were about you!” Her mama rages. “Three months and no word! No calls! How could you lie to us like that!?”

“Lie? I told you I was spending the summer with a friend.” She hisses back.

“Another lie, Adrein came asking about you and had no idea where you were.” Her papa snaps.

“It’s not a lie! Agreste isn’t the only person in the world, papa! I know other people! I hang out with other people! Just because he manages to weasel his way into being my project partner all the time doesn’t mean he’s the only alpha I know!” She cries as she throws her hands up.

“Marinette! You take that back; Adrien has been nothing but good to you!”

“No! I’m sick of this! I don’t like Agreste! I’m not going to mate Agreste! There are never going to be Dupain-Cheng-Agreste pups running around!”

“Do you know how bad this makes us look? You are running around with the daughter of the man trying to get us to sell our bakery?!”

“Do you know how bad it looks that you’re trying to practically whore your daughter out to the Agreste’s like that will get you anything?” She snarls as she eyes them, her papa at least looks like that statement shocked him enough to shut the fuck up. Her mama though is getting red in the face. “Why can’t you just care enough about me to let me be happy? Just this fucking once see me and care about me enough to back the hell off, to save the stupid reputation you seem to care so much about if you can’t muster being actually fucking parents for once.”

Then she spins on her heels because she’s fucking done with this happy little chat and storms out of the bakery, mockingly switching the sign to open as she goes. “Are you okay, Marinette?” Chloe asks as she pushes off of the limo and approaches.

She takes a deep breath and lets it whoosh out before nodding. “I’m fine.” She hums.

“Good.” Chloe hums back as she unclips Tikki’s earrings and makes a show of putting them back in her ears, once again getting close enough for Tikki to slip from pocket to purse. “I would hate to be forced to partition my father with the removal of an omega in an unsafe environment.” The threat loud enough for her parent to hear it through the closed door but it wasn’t meant for them, several people along the road slow and move their eyes from them to the bakery they were standing in front of. “Shall we go to school now, my dear omega.”

She smiles and nods, her cheek rubbing against Chloe’s palm since the alpha had yet to remove it, while keeping a tight grip on her scent. No one needs to know that the possessive alpha things are pissing you off Marinette, it’ll only cause trouble.

Adrein doesn’t turn up to school that day, or the day after that. In fact, he doesn’t turn up for the whole week and she’s sure that this is because she took the book. Which is great because Lila has started her one woman show.

It would be fine if she was the target because she’d been preparing herself for it since she was five but she’s not and it leaves her somewhat scrambling.

“Lila, I’m so sorry. I can’t believe Bourgeois did that to you.” Alya says in sorrow as Lila cries and clutches her ‘ruined’ notebook. “I always knew she was a bitch.”

“I-I’m sure she didn’t mean to hurt you by calling you that, Lila.” Rose offers softly as she pats Lila’s shoulder. “Chloe’s just… prickly.”

“Are you sure you saw her say that to Marinette? Mari can be a bit spacy sometimes, but she’d never let her courting partner treat her like that… right?” Alix says quietly to Kim as Lila whispers what she ‘overheard’.

That last one is highly insulting, and she has half a mind to deck Alix the next time they get close. Spacy! Like she isn’t doing a million things at once. Instead, she goes ‘full omega’, cuddling close to Chloe with a constant light purr, tilting into every touch from the alpha (and fighting not to bite her whenever she starts petting her head like she was some sort of fucking cat… harder than it sounds), pushing out content, happy, safe into her scent wherever she goes. Purring a tiny bit louder whenever the scent catches Lila off guard making her scowl.

Doing anything and everything to project that she’s happy in this courtship, that she’s not leaving this courtship, that anyone who comes up to get in the way of the courtship is doing so against her wishes. And it works, outside of her class that is, several omegas (with their potential alphas tailing a safe distance behind them) come up and quietly congratulate them. Kagami, who’s potential alpha isn’t behind her but who’s scent mark she seems to wear with extreme pride, gives Marinette her number with the promise to always answer should she need quick help and deadly swordsmanship.

Apparently, Chloe hadn’t been the only one worried about Adrien’s behaviour and Kagami had seen it first hand when her mother had first tried to set them up.

“I have found happiness now, as you have, but I know it will be a battle to keep. Should you need me and my courting partner we shall be there with blades drawn, even if he would prefer to pretend he has no skill in the art.” Kagami promises seriously with a respectful nod to them both.

“Thank you for your offer to help. I’m glad to call you a friend.” She says with a soft purr, smiling at her fellow omega when the purr is echoed for a moment.

“I am glad you call you that as well, shall we set up a date to discuss the terms of this friendship further? I would like to introduce you to my courting partner so that we are all on the same page.”

“I’ll have my father make reservations for us this weekend.” Chloe agrees making Kagami nod before leaving them to their lunch. “This is a lot easier with Adrien gone.” She whispers into her hair.

And it is until he pops up at the start of the next week with an awkward smile and an apologetic scent.

“I’m sorry.” He starts with making both her and Chloe blink at him. “I know that I reacted badly to your formal courtship but it’s not because I wanted to break you up.” He lied valiantly in front of their whole class. “It’s just that you’ve been my best friend since we were in diapers Chloe, through thick and thin, and Marinette has been so nice and sweet to me since I started here. I just thought that I was losing you both and I couldn’t do that again, not after losing my mother. I know that I acted ungrateful and disrespectful but… but can we still be friends?”

Fuck. He looks at them both so bashfully and hopeful, like a puppy asking for pets. “Oh, he’s so sweet. Bourgeois completely betrayed him yet he’s still willing to be her friend. If it had been me, I don’t think I could have ever even looked at her again.” Lila whispers somewhere in the background followed by whispered agreements. Fuck!

She leans into Chloe’s side with a tiny purr, hoping that her making the content noise for someone not him will make him snap in front of everyone but it looks like his PR mask is stronger than his crazy because his eyes seem to widen almost pleadingly at Chloe. Fucking hell, she needs to give him worse advice next time.

“Of course we’re still friends, Adrien. Don’t be ridiculous.” Chloe scoffs making Adrien beam and move his eyes to her.

“I…” Motherfucker, she can’t even blame him for this shit show because she’s the one who told him to calm the fuck down. Bad past Marinette! Look at what you’ve done! “I never wanted us not to be friends Agreste, you just felt a little… intense.”

“I’m so happy to hear you say that!” Adrien rumbles with an even bigger smile. “But you can call me Adrien, you know.” I see what you’re doing asshole!

“I’d prefer not to…” She says softly, she expects him to push since that’s what he’s been doing since they met but he just nods making her blink.

“That’s okay, it’s a respect thing. I get it.” What? “I hope you become comfortable enough to call me by my first name soon, but I won’t push.” He tells her seriously. What?!

“He’s such a sweetheart, it’s clear how much he respects Marinette and her choices. Unlike Chloe, I didn’t want to bring this up since I thought it was private, but I saw Chloe forcing Marinette to eat honey cakes with her even though Marinette doesn’t like them.” Lila whispers again.

“He’d be a much better alpha for her, did you see his notebook? He’s got all of her likes and dislikes in it, so he never makes such an obvious mistake.” Alya adds conspiringly.

“He’s so in love with Marinette, I feel really bad for him.” Rose says softly.

“She’ll figure out who the better alpha for her is, don’t worry.” Juleka mutters encouragingly.

“And when she does, we’ll all be there to support her.” Mylène promises.

“I’m so glad we can put all this behind us and be friends again!” Adrien says with an almost blinding grin. Bastard.

“You look pleased with yourself.” She notes as Chat slam-dunks Stormy Weather.

“Your advice worked!” He laughs as he tosses Stormy Weather’s umbrella to her so she could break it. “Ch… My ex-best friend looked like she’d swallowed a lemon and M… the girl I like looked so surprised and pleased when I told her that it was okay not to do something I wanted her to do.” She wasn’t pleased at all but whatever.

“I’m glad I could help Kitty.” No, she’s not. “It’s good to see you putting your heart back into this.” Which is a little true, she was slightly scared he was going to say fuck it to being a hero and kidnap her right out of her bed.

“What about you?” He asks as Stormy Weather melts back into Aurore.

“What?” She asks, not following his leap in the conversation making him grin mischievously.

“Is there anyone you have your eye on? Anyone you need help wooing?” He asks as he sidesteps Aurore.

“I… no?” She says slowly, she’s not really thought about who she would pursue given everything going on. It hadn’t even occurred to her that at some point she’d be looking to date or, kwami forbid, settle down.

“No?” He asks, insidious. The reporters slowly clambering around her look shocked as well. “You’ve never looked at someone and though ‘that’s who I’m going to spend the rest of my life with’? Not even looked at someone and thought ‘cute’?”

“I mean… do comic book characters count?” She asks awkwardly as she rubs the back of her neck. This was entering levels of friendship she never wanted to have with any side of Adrien.

He snorts out a laugh as he pulls her into a side-hug. “Comic book characters! Kwami, you’re a bit useless outside of battle, aren’t you?” She growls at him and swats the playful flick of his tail. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure you what you like. Tell you what, my nights are annoyingly free for a while, why don’t we take a break to feed our little gods then meet up on the Eiffel tower? I’ve got a bunch of stuff we can go through.”

He slow blinks up at her with a completely omega head tilt and she hears the whispers starting up. There are several ‘such a cute sibling bond’ and ‘he’ll slow-blinking like a real cat! He totally trusts her with his life’. Even one or two ‘Damn it, there goes my Lady-Chat ship’.

“Sure Kitty.” She says and it feels like pulling teeth. “Two hours, okay?”

He grins brightly up at her as he lets her go. “It’s Purrfect.” He laughs before launching himself away. Fucking sneaky bastard, even when he’s making a point not to bug her, he’s still bugging her!

“You don’t have to go.” Tikki protests as they stuff their face.

“I kind of do. We’re playing nice, remember?” She grumbles as she sikes herself out to spend an unknown amount of time with Adrien alone.

“I mean, if he was…”

“We’re not murdering him. He’s not doing anything murder-worth at the moment anyway.”

“Yet, he’s not doing anything murder-worth yet.”

“Fine, yet. Are you good to go?” She asks as she shakes her hands out one more time.

“If I say no will that get you to stay?” Tikki asks with a sigh.

“Nope. We’re playing nice in the suit. Hawkmoth still hasn’t become Crimsonmoth yet and we’re going to need Chat Noir for that fight.” She points out.

“Urg, fine. But you’re going to be the one to tell Chloe.”

“Mean.” She protests making Tikki stick their tongue out. “Tikki, spots on.” Once she’s suited up, she squeezes through her bathroom window and swings off into the night. At least it was a weekend.

“Bug! You made it.” Chat cheers as he sits on the small platform at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Around him are a bunch of porn magazines that make her turn bright red, Tikki was right, this was an awful idea.

“Um, why do you have… ah… those?” She asks as she keeps to the perch she landed on.

“Because I’m a teenage boy?” He answers slowly before his eyes light up in glee. “Don’t you watch porn, Ladybug?”

“Quite.” She snaps making him grin more.

“It’s okay to be scared.”

“I’m going to hit you.”

“Liking naked bodies is completely natural.”

“I swear to the kwami I’m going to beat you to death Chat.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from the evil naked people.”

God, she has no idea what possess her to do it, but she launches herself at the laughing boy. Maybe because she was too embarrassed to remember that he was a psychopath, maybe it was because he was so normal in that moment that to her, he was just a teen like her. Maybe she was just fucking stupid. It doesn’t really matter as she crashes into him making them roll until they almost roll off the edge, she sees a flash of his claws before they’re digging into the metal to stop them from going over. Meaning that he’s on top of her and she has nowhere to go.

He's still chuckling as he rolls off of her and sits up, offering her a hand so she’s not laying half-on half-off the platform. She takes it because she was supposed to be playing nice. “I’ll stop teasing.” He promises as he tugs her to his magazine stack. “But it’s no wonder you’re so…”

“So?” She growls making him snicker.

“Violent when taking down Akumas?” He offers as he tugs her into the spot next to him.

“You just slam-dunked Stormy Weather two hours ago.” She protests.

“Yes, but that was victory violence. Your violence is more of an outlet.”

“Am I supposed to be violent with my lovers?” She asks, trying to at least understand where all his aggression as Stalker Adrien came from. If she could get him to see that that was not how to go about things, then maybe she’d save his next outright bloody obsession crush from dealing with what she was.

“If you want to.” He snickers as he pokes her with his tail, moving to laughter when she swats it away. “Alright, I’ll stop teasing. You can do what you want with your lovers.” He emphasizes the s with a grin. “I’m more of a one girl type but you’re very commanding so I think this might be more your style.” He drops a magazine into her lap with ‘HOTEST PACKS RANKED’ splashed across the top.

“… I’m uncomfortable.” She hums as the magazine sits on her lap making Chat snort.

“Don’t worry, these are all new.”

“I wasn’t worried about that until you said that.” She protests.

“Yeah, I guess I’d be uncomfortable if my normal friends knew all my preferences too. How about broad strokes? Do you like girls, boys, or both?”

Kwami this was awkward as hell, but she swallows it down, as soon as she gets through it, she never has to deal with it again (hopefully), “… Boys…” Chat noticeably sags and smiles more genuinely up at her.

“Then take all of these.” He dumps every male prominent magazine into her lap before scooping the rest into his arms. “And figure you preferences out. I’m going to spend the rest of the night being a teenaged boy.”

She makes a face that has him laughing as he tips off of the platform to plumet into the world below them… what’s really fucked up is if this was his normal personality she’d be happy to call him her friend.

She doesn’t touch the magazines for a full week, embarrassed to even know that they exist. Instead, she has lunch with Chloe, Kagami, and Kagami’s potential alpha Luka (she had not seen that one coming). Or she sits smiling awkwardly while Adrien ‘hangs out’ with her and Chloe, it’s all artificially respectful which is worse because she has no reason to tell him to fuck off.

She can’t put it off forever though because she just knows that Chat will tease the fuck out of her if he finds out, so, with all her curtains drawn because like hell is porn magz going to be the thing that reveals her, she tugs them out of their hiding place and flicks one open.

Okay! Wow! That’s a dick, right on the first page!

She slams it shut and tosses it to the side, she’s not opening that one again. She flicks through several more tasteful ones before she gets brave enough to the first one Chat gave her, hottest packs ranked. She’s seen a few pack-centric films, mostly romances but there was this one cool horror movie where the last girl[tm] was the last member of the pack (it was very shocking to see her dealing with each ‘death’ and had sort of put her off of the topic), but she wasn’t one hundred per-cent on how they worked.

Still, it could be useful. These were likely rich and famous packs so knowing their preferences and colour palate would be good if she managed to swing them as clients. It’s a count down from pick twenty-five to first place with a page detailing the personalities of each pack member. She finds herself skipping over packs with blonde members (and is annoyed at Adrien for ruining a whole hair colour for her, not even Chloe being blonde can save her preferences apparently) and packs with female members (which makes her annoyed at herself) but there are a few she lingers on. The Bennett pack was pretty cute in a ‘I’d pinch their cheeks’ kind of way, the Foster pack was quite pretty, the Wayne pack was pretty hot though. So, was the Harrison… wait? What?! She flicks back to number five and sees the Wayne’s splashed across the page.

What. The. Fuck?!

And at Number five we have the Wayne pack! Now, I know what you’re saying! ‘The Wayne’s deserve a higher spot!!!’ and while I, your humble editor agrees, the fact that the Wayne pack is a multi-layer pack actually disqualifies them for the running.

When I’m telling you I had to beg this magazine’s owner on my hands and knees to even include them…

Anyway, let’s start the introductions!

At the very top of the pack is playboy Bruce Wayne, loving father of his brood and a delight in every interview. As I’m sure you all know his mysterious mating partner is still nowhere to be seen but he has been seen in the company of Miss Selena Kyle, a bright beta who seems to be keeping the alpha on his toes.

There is an accompanying picture of Bruce laughing as Selena stalks away with his tie.

Next in line Is Richard Greyson-Wayne and his pack. The charming Head-Alpha is well known for his kindness as well as high protectiveness over his pack. A role model for every Alpha looking to expand from a single mate.

Speaking of protectiveness Jason Todd-Wayne, the Head-Omega of their pack, completely surpasses Mr Greyson-Wayne’s with his almost violent protection of his mates. And with the muscle to back it up the Head-Omega is crushing omega stereotypes in all the best ways.

The next omega in their pack is Timmithy Drake-Wayne. Spotted at a young age as a genius Mr Drake-Wayne has continued to excel well into adulthood, Co-CEO of Wayne Industries at thirteen, CEO of Drake Enterprises at sixteen, and with enough computer knowledge to completely ruin a person with a few key clicks.

Last but certainly not least is the newest member of their pack, Damian Al Ghul-Wayne. The young alpha is a serious young man, as expected of a master swords man. Though he is not serious all of the time, if you catch him in a rare moment then his love for art and animals shines as bright as the sun.

There are a few pictures here. Dick kissing Jason while Jason sits on top of a motorcycle, Jason carrying a sleeping Tim while chatting on the phone, Tim plastered to Damian’s back and kissing his cheek with a coffee in one hand and a phone in the other, Damian actually grinning while Dick sits on the floor with a kitten napping on his head.

In parallel to the Wayne boys are the Wayne girls. A beautiful, mated pair that seem to complement each other completely.

Miss Stephane Brown-Wayne is a bubbly alpha with sunshine hair and an even bigger sunshine smile, she’s been known to make friends with everyone she meets. She’s also quite big in the party scene, adapting to Gotham’s night life like she was born in it.

Miss Cassandra Cain-Wayne, in contrast, is a calm omega known for having a good head on her shoulders. Able to calm Miss Brow-Wayne in a serious of soft words. She adores books and is known to have a tea collection so wide that Miss Brown-Wayne built her a tea-shed so she could store it all.

Here there are pictures of Stephane under the LED lights of a rave, Cassandra drinking tea, and both of them sprawled out in a garden (Cassandra reading and petting Stephanie’s head while she napped).

Marientte blinks once, twice, then three times before a spark of anger lodges itself in her chest. These were the Bats, that meant that (in addition to this being a stupid A/B/O universe) this was a cross over universe. That meant that the fucking Justice League was real and none of those fuckers had come to help. What the fuck!

She’s so angry that she drops the magazine and goes to the only mode she would have to contact them. Twitter.

Fuck Hawkmoth

@FightMeInAnAlleyHawkbitch

HEY! @JusticeLeagueTheLeagueOfJustice ! Do you’re fucking jobs! Paris has been dealing with a supervillain that is weaponizing our emotions for a whole fucking year and you’ve been doing what? Sitting on your assess and pretending to give a shit? #FucktheJusticeLeague #FuckHawkmoth

Justice League Official

@JusticeLeagueTheLeagueOfJustice

Replying to @FightMeInAnAlleyHawkbitch

Hi, Kid Flash here. I’m sorry that we didn’t notice the trouble in Paris before, is there any evidence you could send me that I could toss at the adults? #I’mNotAnInternIJustWorkHere

She sends him the link to Alya’s blog before her mind relatches on the magazine, more specifically the suit Tim is wearing. Because she made that suit. She snatches the magazine up and re-flicks to the Wayne’s… that’s her suit alright, she clicks out of twitter and into her site… Ah, TDW, the guy who’s proposed to her.

…

He is cute, and his pack’s pretty hot too…

No! Bad Marinette! You’re already dealing with one annoying alpha, there’s no way you’d survive in a pack, get it together.

So starts the six-week war to get the Justice League to do their fucking jobs. Should she be excluding them to keep with the timeline? Yes, has she slept at all this week while having to deal with Hawkmoth’s temper tantrum at her trying to involve the Justice League? No and she’s fucking sick of it.

I mean fucking hell; Chat had discovered he could Cataclysm people at the end of week two and she’d not had enough brainpower to be worried about it at midway through week three.

#FucktheJusticeLeague does become the number one hashtag in Paris though, people are even adding to posts that have nothing to do with Hawkmoth’s reign of terror, like:

The daily food grind

@MarlenaCésaire

We here at Le Grand Paris are proud to announce our newest dish Ratatouille! Made with 100% less rats than the movie. #NewMenuItem #LeGrandParis #FucktheJusticeLeague

The Queen Bee

@ChloéBourgeoisOfficial

Just took my potential omega and a few friends out to get our nails done, it’s been a stressful few weeks. #SpaDay #MayorsDaughterSpecial #FucktheJusticeLeague

The Gamer!

@MaxKanté

Just beat the ultimate high score on Ultimate Mecha Strike III! Take that Marinette! #NewBestGamer #ComeAtMeMarinette #RemachChallangeIssued #FucktheJusticeLeague

She’s a trend setter. Yay… But they do come, eventually. Superman and Wonder Woman to be accurate which makes Tikki zoom around happily.

“Her mother was one of my bugs! I can feel it.” Tikki promises happily as she pats her cheeks. “I’m sure she’ll approve of my plan, her mother had one of my temples. You know, the ones criminals were sacrificed in. I wonder if it’s still there. We should visit after murdering the Agreste’s.”

“You weren’t lying, they’re really adding it to every conversation.” Chloe says in disbelief as she stumbles around her room grabbing the things she needs for school. Wonder Woman and Superman had asked to speak to the local heroes but like fuck she was running straight to them after how long it took them to get there, so she’d suited up and called Chat. They’d both agreed to go to school first because fuck the Justice League.

“The less Marinette sleeps the more she considers it.” Tikki informs Chloe who nods in understanding, kwami, kill her now. “She’s up to four complete back-up identities now.” Tikki almost sounds like a proud parent, and it makes her huff.

“It’s five.”

“We don’t count Fernando Ferrufino.” Tikki says with a wave of their paws.

“What’s wrong with Fernando?” She protests as Chloe blinks at her.

“You mean the alpha who likes women? Nothing, nothing at all.”

“Who would suspect man liking omega Marinette of going that far? It’s the perfect disguise.” She protests more.

“Everyone.” Chloe cuts in as she tosses her jacket at her. “Everyone knows you overthink like that.”

“See!” Tikki cries as she pouts.

“If you do go to ground, I expect to be kept in the loop.” Chloe adds sharply.

“I’ll find a way.” She promises, half a yawn, before Tikki dives into her bag.

Somehow, she gets through the day before Chloe takes her home then it’s out her bathroom window (she swears she needs to get that thing resized somehow) to meet the Justice League. “Chat Noir, you’re here. Good. I’m so ready to be done with this.” She grumbles as she lands next to him.

It, in her sleep deprived brain, takes her a moment to spot the scowl on Chat’s face as well as the agitated swishing of his tail. “Glad you’re here, Ladybug, these two were just telling me how disappointed they were in us for our joke.”

She blinks at Chat then blinks at superman and Wonder Woman. “… I literally swung up here with a yoyo. Chat yeeted himself up here with a pole. What part of this is a joke?” She asks, genuinely worried for the world if this was how two of the main League members treated threats.

“We do not doubt the authenticity of the jewels you carry. But to use such power so frivolously is a crime we cannot ignore.” Wonder Woman says authoritatively.

Wow, WOW. “Is this a we’re taking the miraculous you use to stop mass emotional terrorism talk, a by order of the mighty Justice League you’re under arrest talk, or a we’re supper disappointed in you for asking for help because that means we actually have to do our job so we’re going to gaslight you into thinking this is all fake so we can go home without lifting a finger talk?” She asks as she blinks up at the two heroes, too tired to watch her words in the slightest.

“Sounds like all three, Bug.” Chat fake purrs as he watches the other heroes like he was tracking threats. Which doesn’t look like a far off assessment with the way they shift in the face of her blatant disrespect. Fucking fine! They’ll gut Hawkmoth without the outside help, bastards.

“Cool.” She hums boredly as she tugs her yoyo out, running her fingers along the edge to open the phone feature. “Perma ban from France so they don’t try shit?” She tilts her head to Chat, he breaks eye contact with Superman to send her a sharp grin in agreement before turning back to watch the floating man splutter. “Cool.” She says again before calling Chloe’s dad, pointedly holding eye contact with Wonder Woman for the few seconds it takes for the call to connect.

“Ladybug! How nice to hear from you.” Mayor Bourgeois says happily. “How is the meeting going? Who are we expecting to set up in Paris to help you and Chat Noir catch Hawkmoth?”

“It’s good to hear you too, Mayor, but I’m afraid the meeting is going quite poorly. Apparently, Superman and Wonder Woman aren’t here to help but to take the miraculous and possibly arrest us for using them? I’m not too sure since most of this is complete nonsense.” She explains, watching the older omega’s face pale before lighting up in protective fury. “The main thing though is that they aren’t here to help us and since they are planning to actively make everything worse Chat and I want to partition you to have them removed from Paris.”

Superman opens his mouth to protest but Mayor Bourgeois cuts him off furiously. “Done. Give me five minutes and no one from the Justice League will be able to step foot in France again.”

“Thank you for quick assistance but just banning them from Paris should be enough.” She adds, not wanting him to get into any real trouble.

”They have not only threatened you but my entire city. France is only the start.” Mayor Bourgeois hisses furiously before the line cuts off.

She snaps her yo-yo closed as she stares at the dumbfounded heroes, letting it dangle from her fingers. Like fuck is she putting it away with two super powered threats right in front of her.

“Tell your mom I said hi.” She says to Wonder Woman with a sharp grin when both of their coms spark to life [she can hear them getting chewed out already, it’s glorious] before turning to Chat. “Wanna get an ice cream before shit hits the fan again?”

”Yes! It’s been weirdly hot lately.” He cheers before snagging her wrist and launching off the side of the roof.

She slings her yo-yo out to catch them and shoves all thoughts of the disastrous meeting from her mind.

Fuck the Justice League.

Chapter Text

Paris had, understandably, been furious when Mayor Bourgeois had given the interview updating them on the situation but Marinette hadn’t cared. Mostly because Hawkbitch had decided to take a break now that the ‘threat’ was gone.

A week. It was a whole blissful week where she could sleep. It’s like a fucking miracle and she’s fucking furious at Lila for ruining it. Why couldn’t she just fuck off for once?!

“… And when I get you’re miraculous I’ll totally have more time to grind that lying little bitch to dust!” Anti-bug yells before using her yo-yo to tie Chat up.

“Not that, that doesn’t sound lovely.” It really did. “But I was having a great vacation from this bullshit and you’re ruining it.” She calls as she drops down, Anti-bug stalls for a second when she spots her and she uses it to tie her up in a yo-yo, dangling them next to each other.

“Hey Bug, long time no see,” Chat says cheekily as he waves.

“Don’t take this the wrong way kitty but I wish it had been longer.” She hums as she tugs the hairpin, she sees the akuma infect out of the struggling villain’s hair before snapping it. “Miraculous Ladybug!”

“Me too.” He says brightly before he crashes to the floor. “Ow.”

“I… what’s going on?” Chloe asks as she looks around. She watches confusion bleed into anger before melting away, they all need therapy after this. “Apologies for the inconvenience.” Chloe hisses to them before storming away, almost ripping the roof door off its hinges as she yanks it open to descend into the building.

“Five minutes, new record.” Chat cheers as he pops up. “If I make it back fast enough it’ll be like I never left my catnap.”

She rolls her eyes at the heavy hinting and waves her hand. “Go on. I’ll see you next time.”

“YES! Bye Bug!”

“Bye Kitty.”

It keeps happening in a bullshit loop that makes Marinette look to the skies with the need to scream. School, after-school clubs, Adrien pushing the boundaries of friendship as far as he could without breaking them, Lila being fucking Lila, Akuma after Akuma.

The fact that she still has time to remember to breathe is a miracle at this point.

Well, until Jagged bursts back into her life. Literally.

“MARI! HOW'S MY FAVORITE NEICE DOING?!” He yells as he kicks the door to the bakery open.

“Uncle Jagged!” She laughs as she launches herself away from yet another ‘conversation’ about her formal courtship with Chloe. He picks her up and drags her into a spinning hug, letting her catch a glimpse of Aunt Penny beaming behind him. “I’m doing really well, I’m even in a formal courtship. Hi Aunt Penny.”

“Hello, Marinette,” Penny says with a kind smile, petting her head with motherly affection as soon as Jagged drops her back on the floor. Her scent of parchment and alpha curled around her protectively.

“A formal courtship?! It’s not with that blonde boy is it?” Jagged asks, his scent of leather and alpha joining Peggy’s in bubbling her like they could protect her from the world. Kwami, she appreciates it so much it almost brings tears to her eyes. “I know he’s a model, Mari, but you could do so much better.”

“Jagged.” Peggy sighs even if she clearly agrees.

“It’s Alpha Chloe Bourgeois.” She tells them, pointedly ignoring her parents' reactions in the background.

“See! Even Mari knows she can do better.” Jagged announces smugly, grinning at Penny’s amused eye roll. “That’s the mayor’s daughter, right?” She nods. “Rock ‘n’ roll kid.”

“Now, Marinette, this isn’t completely a social call though it is lovely to see you again,” Penny says as Jagged starts carting her out of the bakery, also ignoring her splutting parents in the background. “Would you mind joining us for lunch?”

“If you wanna have lunch with your new potential alpha instead we’ll cover.” Jagged whispers because he’s cool like that.

“I’d love to join you for lunch, actually.” She grins, letting them tug her into their car and drive off to wherever they picked to eat. “So, what’s up?”

Jagged shares a bright and loving smile with Penny before turning back to her. “I’ve asked Penny to Mate with me.”

“You did?!” She says excitedly, looking towards Penny for her answer even though it was clear by the fact that they were having this lunch in the first place.

“I said yes.” Penny rumbles happily. “Even if he did beat me to asking by five minutes.”

“We’re having the pre-mating in New York this summer and were wondering if you’d make the outfits.” Jagged continues. Pre-mating ceremonies were a big thing since Mating was permanent until one of the Mated pair or pack died. Usually, people get married first, sort of like testing the permanence of their bond against things like losing wealth. A lot of people never made it past marriage. “We were thinking of something like a masquerade ball, with the scent blockers we thought it would be a totally rock ‘n’ roll concept.”

A very important part of Pre-mating ceremonies was that everyone but the to-be-mated pair needed to wear scent blockers so the couple wouldn’t have other’s scents on them during the Mating without completely isolating them. The only place scent blockers were allowed despite the decades of people lobbying to overturn the rule and allow them to be used for children until their proper heat/rut.

“Of course.” She agrees quickly, so very excited for them both. “How many people?”

A lot. The answer is a lot. So many that she’d actually had to call her after schoolteachers again to drop out of her classes and make most of the outfits with magic.

She’d learnt a lot about what her magic could do while her parents tried to argue with Jagged and Penny about her going. Number one; She couldn’t create food or water out of thin air, or well, she could but they would have no sustenance meaning that not matter how much she ate or drank she’d still be hungry and thirsty. Damn, there goes her dreams of unlimited coffee. Number two; She couldn’t create things she didn’t know the logistics of already, meaning that she’d had to figure out how to make the music notes shimmer to life in the light first before she could magic them up, which ended up being the whole reason she’d needed to use magic in the first place.

It’s worth it though because her parents lose and as soon as the summer rolls around she’s on a plane with Chloe. Unlike last time she’s wearing Kaalki's glasses since they would be splitting up as soon as the plane hits the tarmac. Chloe wasn’t going to the Pre-ceremony because she was going to Zoe’s ‘graduation’, according to Chloe Zoe had been deemed by her school as finally having complete control over her power so they were going to spend the customary two weeks mixing their family scents again.

Marinette is happy for them since she knows how hard not having her sister around was getting for Chloe with Lila constantly trying to break her down, happier when Chloe admitted that Zoe was going to be returning to Paris with them to start up ‘normal’ school.

“Stay safe, Marinette.” Chloe rumbles as they hug at baggage claim.

“You too, Chloe.” She purrs before letting go to drag her suitcase towards where Jagged was waving a massive sign with her name on it, the letters were in bright sparkly pink. “Hey Uncle Jagged.”

Marinette is smiling as she watches her Uncle and Aunt glide over the dancefloor. Tikki’s stud earrings now dangled from her ears in sparkling rubies, matching rubies pulled her hair into an elegant bun instead of her usual pigtails. Kaalki's glasses had merged into the black marble-like half mask she’d made, blacking out the eye sockets so no one could see her eyes. She was really proud of her own dress; it was dark red and had a floor-length skirt that swayed elegantly when she walked showing flashes of her black heels. The back was open and the sleeves were made out of a sheer fabric, it looked quite plain until the light hit it a certain way then little black music notes shimmered into existence along the skirt in the tune of the song Uncle Jagged had written for Ladybug.

She had thought that it was a nice nod to her hero alter ego that no one was really going to pick up on because everyone had the notes to one of his songs shimmering in and out of existence as they danced around.

The bland collar around her neck signalling that she was in a courtship kind of threw the look off just a tad but she was determined to rock it along with everything else.

It had been a bit of a nightmare trying to figure out outfits for people Jagged and Penny insisted she not know “For the theme Mari!” but they had at least sent her measurements, skin, and hair colour pics. But it was worth it because the morning before the Pre-Mating ceremony her MDC website had suddenly been swarmed by the rich and famous people that Uncle Jagged had invited to his Pre-Mating, all telling her how much they had loved her outfits and asking what her wait time was on commissions, she had cried for an hour whilst Tikki and Kaalki had patted her face and congratulated her, then her MDC Twitter account had exploded which in turn had brought more people to her site.

“Mind if I share your hiding spot, Pixi Pop?” She turned her head to the tall man who’d decided to lean against the wall next to her. He was clearly strong with the way his muscles filled out his deep black suit, the crimson silk shirt the only drop of colour on him and she didn’t need to see the thick collar curling around his neck to know that he was a matted omega. She remembered this set, mostly because they’d insisted the suits looked as identical as possible apart from the shirt colour. The other silk top was a blue so deep it looked black until the light hit it.

She waves at his spot invitingly with the hand holding her wine glass of red grape juice. “Not one to talk? Thank fuckin’ Christ.” He sighs, taking a deep drag of the drink in his hand. It looked like a whisky.

They stay there, in the corner of the room silently watching the party for almost a full hour before the other half of the set comes stalking up to them. Power and grace under a shark’s smile, no wonder he’d bagged the bulky omega at her side. “Jay, I thought I lost you. Who’s your friend?” He rumbles as he causally runs his fingers through the omega’s hair. It’s highly possessive but clearly not aimed at her with the way an alpha further away that she’d clocked was trying to work up the nerve to come over sours and scuttled away.

“Not a clue, which is the whole point.” Jay purrs as he leans completely into the alpha.

“You couldn’t have even asked?” The alpha sighs theatrically.

“I’m only here so you ‘stop accidentally breaking omega’s hearts, I’m sick of ruining them when they overstep’.” Jay quotes mockingly.

“Fine. I’ll ask. I’m sorry for my omega’s manners, dear. What is your name?” The alpha asks and the masks seem to embolden her. It’s not like she’s ever going to spend enough time in New York to meet them again.

“The one who made your suit. I’m glad they look so good, the Mated couple-to-be refused to let me see proper photos.” She hums, delighting in the way they freeze up before fully turning their attention to her.

“Oh, the little dragon is going to be furious that I met you before him.” Jay grins, border lining on violent as he detangles himself from his alpha. “In fact, one moment.” He tugs his phone out and walks away a little making his alpha sigh fondly.

“This is going to turn into a pack fight.” He grumbles as Jay starts talking into the phone quietly.

“I apologise.”

“Oh, you don’t need to do that. It's how they show affection at this point.” He huffs with a slight smile before his attention shifts back to her. “However, if you are feeling guilty I’d adore getting to know you better before Jay storms back over to have you authenticate his ‘winning’.”

She eyes him as he half leans over her, something about him is more dangerous than the average alpha and he knows it. In fact, he looks like he’s revelling in it. She wonders about what his scent is like, something as sharp as him or maybe deceptively soft. Exotic for sure.

“I’m a gymnast.” She says after another moment, watching his smirk light up with genuine delight.

“Me too! I used to be a trapeze artist.” He tells her excitedly, suddenly more puppy than wolf but she doesn’t mind at all. Falling into easy conversation about their skills.

She does end up having to ‘prove’ herself over the phone to Rick [he’d weaselled Mari out of her without her noticing and she’d demanded a name in return] and Jay’s remaining pack members. Dragon the omega and Blade the alpha. Talking well into the night after that before Jagged and Penny had swooped in and stole her away for family time.

There is the faintest shift to Rick’s posture that reminds her sharply of Adrien but it’s gone in a moment. Chased away by Jay leaning into his side and whispering into his ear. Both of their eyes had shifted to the collar locked around her throat more than once but they’d never commented on it.

She stares at it afterwards, back in her hotel room. Every time they’d looked she’d wished it wasn’t there, that they didn’t have to keep reminding themselves of her formal courtship. “Then what?” She snaps to herself as she rips it off. “They’d court you? They’re way out of your league, Marinette, and you have way too much on your plate. Get it together.” And she should, she should pack it in and get back to completing her goals.

She should but she just can’t put Chloe’s choker back on. Can’t make herself lock it around her neck. She hates it because she knows what will happen if she comes back to Paris without it, sure, she’d be protected by the ‘mourning’ period of ending the courtship for three months but after that? Hell.

Chloe doesn’t look surprised to see it missing, in fact under the worry and sadness there is a spark of relief. Chloe had found someone, someone she’d actually wanted to be her partner. It was clear as day and it somehow made this easier, it wasn’t all Marinette’s fault this was happening.

“Are you sure?” Chloe asks as Zoe looks between them.

“We’ll figure it out.” She promises them before they board the plane.

They return to the start of Crimson Moth because fuck her apparently. “Stay here and no matter what you do, don’t panic.” She orders sharply before dashing off. “Spots on. Kaalki, take me to the guardian.” The portal opens up and she darts through. “No time, I need the miraculous box and the turtle bracelet.”

Master Fu blinks at her. “Marinette…”

“Again, no time. And yes, I know they’re all going to be temporary heroes but there is no way in hell I’m dealing with this with only Chat Noir.”

“Are you absolutely…”

“Yes! I’m sure this is going to be a nightmare and a shitty learning curb but I’m. Not. Doing. This. Alone.” She snaps.

He studies her for a few moments before slowly taking off the turtle bracelet and placing it in the box. “I am trusting in your skills Ladybug. Take care and be safe.”

“Thank you.” She sighs as she grabs the box. “I’m taking this too, bye.” She quickly snags his bowl of sugar cubes and jumps back into the portal to the airport. “You’re both still okay, good. Chloe Bourgeois, I am making you the temporary holder of the Rooster miraculous and the power to choose where you’d like to help in this battle. Zoe Lee, I am making you the temporary holder of the Bee miraculous and the power to paralyse those who would attack the innocent. When this battle is done you will both return the miraculous’ to me. Do you both accept?”

“Yes.” Chloe says instantly, putting the miraculous on.

“I… are you sure?” Zoe asks meekly.

“If I wasn’t I would have waited for Chloe to hide you before asking.” She points out.

“… Okay, I agree.”

“Good. These are Orikko and Pollen. I’ll meet you both at your dad’s hotel, the roof.” Kaalki opens a new portal and she drops through it just in time for Kagami to knock Darkblade’s sword out of his hands. She kicks him into a wall to knock him out before turning towards the four in front of her. “Double date? Cute, sorry to crash it. Kagami Tsurugi, I am making you the temporary holder of the Dragon miraculous and the power become one of the three elements of the storm. Luka Couffaine, I am making you the temporary holder of the Snake miraculous and the power to reset time to a pre-designed point. Juleka Couffaine, I am making you the temporary holder of the Tiger miraculous and the power to super charge an attack. Rose Lavillant, I am making you the temporary holder of the Pig miraculous and the power to trap an enemy in a pleasant dream. When this battle is done you will all return the miraculous to me. Do you accept?”

They do so she passes out the miraculous’ and pops to the next location.

“Alya Césaire, I am making you the temporary holder of the Fox miraculous and the power to create illusions to distract enemies. Nino Lahiffe, I am making you the temporary holder of the Turtle miraculous and the power to shields to protect your teammates. When this battle is done you will both return the miraculous to me. Do you accept?”

And the next location.

“Sabrina Raincomprix, I am making you the temporary holder of the Dog miraculous and the power to summon objects you’ve touched. Nathaniel Kurtzberg, I am making you the temporary holder of the Goat miraculous and the power to bring your paintings to life. When this battle is done you will both return the miraculous to me. Do you accept?”

And the next.

“Mylène Haprèle, I am making you the temporary holder of the Mouse miraculous and the power to split yourself. Ivan Bruel, I am making you the temporary holder of the Ox miraculous and the power to temporarily become immune to attacks. When this battle is done you will both return the miraculous to me. Do you accept?”

And the next.

“Kwami, last stop.” She huffs before launching into her well rehersed speech. “Alix Kubdel, I am making you the temporary holder of the Rabbit miraculous and the power to travel through time. Lê Chiến Kim, I am making you the temporary holder of the Monkey miraculous and the power to summon random objects to disrupt the fight. Max Kanté, I am making you the temporary holder of the Horse miraculous and the power to teleport. When this battle is done you will all return the miraculous to me. Do you accept?”