Chapter Text
Marinette stared at the headline in disbelief, horrible dread like acid in her stomach.
She rushed to the bathroom, feeling bile rise in her throat and sting like the tears in her eyes. She retched; a horrible sound that made her head swim and tears rush down her face. She could distantly few Tikki’s paws on her back, attempting to comfort her as Marinette threw up everything she had eaten at Breakfast.
‘Ladybug’s Secret Identity Exposed; Marinette Dupain Cheng.
There was an image below, but Marinette hadn’t been able to see it before unshed tears had obstructed her vision. She was ruined, the article had been the first of many which popped up on her feed. Her social media had been flooded with followers. Her phone lay on her desk, still beeping continuously so that Marinette could hear in from the bathroom. She could already hear the normal bustle of the bakery, but it was louder than normal.
“MARINETTE. GET DOWN HERE, NOW.”
Marinette breathed out a shallow sob, dabbing at her eyes as she stumbled to her feet. As she made her way downstairs she sent Tikki a pointed look. “Backup...backup plan 12D.”
Tikki nodded, face solemn as she made the necessary preparations for a quick escape.
Sabine waited in the living room, brows furrowed. As soon as Marinette was in reach she grabbed her daughter's face and turned it to the side, Marinette backed out of reach soon after. But she knew Sabine had seen her earrings as if the articles flooding the internet weren’t damming enough.
“Why did you not tell us.”
Sabine walked to sit next to her husband on the couch, face stern. Tom looked hurt, shoulders hunched as Sabine played a hand on his knee.
Marinette swallowed the lingering taste of bile, rubbing her sweaty palms on her skirt. She had been going to meet up with her friends, the few who stuck with her through Lila’s manipulation. Suffice to say the ice cream meet-up most likely wouldn’t be happening. “I-I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. It could put you in danger.”
“I think we’re in danger now,” Sabine hissed.
“I don’t know how- know how anyone found out,” Marinette cried, feeling her hands shake at her side under her mother’s ire.
“Go to your room, and don’t even think about becoming- becoming her ever again."
Marinette could feel her heart breaking, the odd pain in her chest spreading through her whole chest. “Please, please just let me-“
“Now.”
Marinette held her breath, fighting her tears as she went to her room alone. She couldn’t stay here, not with her parents, not in Paris. Not anywhere that someone might know her really. Her parents would let her be independent, but they would never let her be a superhero.
Marinette knew they didn’t trust her that much- refused to trust her like that.
They only trusted her to be independent if it didn’t affect them. Letting their daughter be a superhero might reflect poorly on their parenting, especially since they hadn’t known about it.
Marinette closed the hatch to her room with a sound click, locking her gaze with Tikki’s sympathetic one. “Marinette, I’m-“
“Can you tell the other Kwami? Get them to help you pack any necessities they can while I call the others,” Marinette instructed, standing to shift her vanity mirror onto the door. She would need to move her sewing machine as well, maybe stash everything into a rented P.O. box until she had a safe space established.
“Okay,” Tikki agree, flying over to hug Marinette’s cheek gently. “I’m so-“
“Thanks, Tikki, but please don’t apologize.”
Tikki just gave her a sad smile, flying over to the miraculous box. Marinette drew in a stuttering breath, glancing at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was in complete disarray, her half tied twin tails partially covering her glassy swollen eyes.
She had one chance at a semi-normal life left. If it didn’t work then she’d have to have the Kwamis conjure up a fake identity and try to live off her online store. She made her way to her dresser, where she had left the only letter she had ever received from her biological dad.
Her parents had told her that Tom wasn’t her real father when she was still young, hoping to soften the blow. For about four months, Marinette had been obsessed with meeting him, had written him about thirty letters before he had replied.
Slade Wilson wanted nothing to do with her at the time.
He lived a fairly dangerous life from what she knew, had been on the wrong side of the law for a while now. He had trusted her with that information but had asked her to not tell her parents.
She hadn't told them, and now Marinette couldn't help but be oddly relieved. Maybe Slade was a bad person, but if he left her alone as he had during the past years of her life then she could live with it. Live with him.
It was better then this.
She picked up the envelope, with the picture she had printed off the internet back when she had first found out. It was a bit blurry, probably taken on an ordinary cellphone.
His suit wasn't horrible from a designer's perspective, practical armor, and an interesting one-eyed mask.
Sabine had a fling with him while he was a mercenary rather than a literal supervillain, she had told Marinette he was a freelance bodyguard. Sabine had never known how many people Slade Wilson had murdered.
She dug out a grey suitcase, pulling up her friend’s contacts on her computer.
Much of her life was grey these days, the places in the walls where taped up pictures had been taken down. The areas with pealed of paint matching scars of Marinette's heart. There were three or four pictures taped up of her friends, and one bulletin board of design ideas.
Lila had told her she would take everything from her, and Marinette hadn't believed her. But Lila hadn't taken everything truly; she had exposed her friends as fakes.
She had shown her how flimsy and superficial her friendships were, how alone she truly was despite having been surrounded by friendly faces before.
She still had friends; Luka, Kagami, and Chloe. But only one of them was in her class, so she was usually alone at school.
Chloe was amazing, about she wasn't the most emotionally aware, and didn't always notice when Marinette was spiraling.
Her anxiety had gotten worse, the constant snickers and glares shot her way grating her nerves until she felt like she was sporting wounds rubbed raw from them.
Luka was the one who understood her emotions, and who let her cry.
Chloe was the one who encouraged her to take time for herself, to learn to say no when she was uncomfortable.
Kagami was the one who inspired her to curb her embarrassment and frustrations. To never let them know they had gotten to her.
She loved her friends, and now she had to call them.
Luka's icon popped up, before clicking to his face. He was on his phone, the boat's dock visible above his shoulder. "Hey Ma-ma-marinette," He greeted softly.
"Hey, Lu-lu," She smiled, folding some clothes absently.
"I know you want to wait until Gami and Chlo are here, but would you like me to play for you while we wait?"
Marinette smiled to herself, giving him a nod.
He played something slow, painful, but with an outline of hope on the horizon. She closed her eyes, allowing the hope to build and swell within her.
The past two years had been horrible, between Chat Noir's increasingly dismal appearances, Lila's manipulations, and the constant Akuma attacks. She had finally taken the cat’s miraculous a month ago, had got through some unexpected feelings of betrayal discovering it was Adrien. She had gotten better as Ladybug thanks to it, practicing with other miraculous in her free time just for the heck of it.
"Oh, Mari."
Marinette opened her eyes, finding Kagami and Chloe added to the call, looking at her with thinly veiled concern. "Hey, guys."
"Mari, you're crying," Chloe spoke gently, as if afraid of scaring her off. Marinette raised a hand to her cheek, finding it wet to her own surprise.
"Oh, I hadn't realized."
“Do you wish to talk about it, Mari-hime?"
Marinette smiled, feeling comforted by her friends' concern for a moment. “Maybe?”
Marinette paused, glancing down at the envelope once more, it was black with an orange wax seal that still hung to the edge of the flap. The symbol pressed into it was simple, a curved S.
But it meant much more than that, and she knew that.
"My paren- Sabine and Tom aren’t going to support me through- this. I couldn’t have stayed anyways.” Her friends seem to silently agree with her statement. Tom and Sabine hadn't been close to her sine Lila had arrived. In the end, they had believed her over their daughter, so Marinette had distanced herself to heal. They hadn't appreciated that, taking it to be a sign that they were right. “I need to get out of Paris, so I’m gonna try to live with my biological dad," Marinette paused, glancing at her friends confused and concerned expressions. "In America."
Chloe grimaced, and Marinette knew from experience she was digging her nails into her hands. When they were around each other, Marinette would pry her hands open gently and let Chloe hold hers until she had calmed down. But as that wasn't possible over call, Marinette could only offer a smile.
"Have you ever met him?"
'No," Marinette admitted, shyly holding up the envelope so they couldn't see the seal. "He has contacted me once before. He's not really a good person from what I know, but he cares?"
Marinette considered the letter he had sent her. His reasoning for not wanting to correspond with her being that people around him tended to get hurt, partially due to his job. He told her he wanted her to have a family, even if he never got to meet her.
"I don't trust him, but I think I could?"
Her friends waited for her to sort out her thoughts, Marinette could think faster then anyone they knew if she wanted to, often running through so many scenarios that she left even herself dizzy trying to explain it. She had good instincts, and they could trust that. She had managed to play off her suspicion of Adrien as a hopeless stalker-like crush for years.
She had tried to figure out why she was so distrustful of him when he seemed like such a sweet guy.
She had never been able to explain it until she found out he was Chat Noir. The masked 'hero' who constantly harassed her and skirted off on his duties.
"He's smart and resourceful. Kind of a tough-love kinda guy who carries a lot of guilt and anger," Marinette decided. She looked at her friends, more confidant now that she's slowed down enough to think. It was more than that, enhanced abilities that had been passed on to her partially. But she couldn't tell them that, didn't want to.
"Anything's better than here, right?"
"I will miss you, Marinette," Kagami offered. She hesitated for another moment before nodding slightly. “And I am sorry for the poor thanks your parents have exhibited over your service as Ladybug.”
Chloe smiled, bitterly but it was a smile nonetheless. "I can’t believe you're leaving me with Lie-la Rossi," She grumbled. "But I'm happy for you leaving those people, even if your bio-dad is kinda weird apparently.“
"You're gonna be okay, Marinette," Luka told her, sounding just a little too sure for Marinette to really doubt him too much. Luka always seemed to know a little more then he should, as Marinette did at times.
"Thank you," She whispered, feeling Tikki offering her silent comfort as well.
Maybe things looked dark now, but maybe this would be for the best.
She stayed on the call for another half hour as she packed, bringing mainly necessities, as well as packaging the last of her commissions and placing her online store on a brief pause. She could start it up again once she had a secure place to actually work.
"Bye guys, I'll call you once everything settles down," Marinette smiled weakly, shutting off the call just as a knock was rapped onto her door.
"Get downstairs, we need to talk about what we're gonna do about Ladybug," Sabine called, sounding no less cold and judgemental. Marinette sighed, not bothering to respond as she looked around her room one last time.
"Goodbye," She whispered, slipping the dark glasses onto the bridge of her nose.