Chapter Text
Marinette sat miserably in her pile of fabrics, the fabrics she had saved up her allowance and pay for bakery help for so long, the fabrics that fallen through the paper bag and was now being completely drenched by dirty gutter water. It had broken her fall, but she would have preferred gashes and scrapes to this.
All because of Chloé. She was long gone now, her and Sabrina having walked past with grating giggles after tripping Marinette. She had been too shocked to even retaliate.
Gathering up her ruined purchases, Marinette felt cold water running down her arms, soaking into her blazer, and hot tears running down her face. Through blurred vision, she just saw the akuma enter the ruined paper bag and turn it a sickening whorl of purple against black. The overwhelming cloud of anger and hurt and despair turned into a storm. It felt like the opposite of when Tikki transformed her.
"Miss Fortune, I am Hawk Moth," a silky, paternal voice echoed in her mind. This was the voice of a man who could sell snow in the Antarctic. "I am inviting you to take the trip of your life and make your enemies fall. I simply ask you do me a favour in return: bring me Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous."
Chloé. The spoiled brat, born with a silver spoon in her mouth, who always got what she wanted. She should feel the misery she brought others. She should receive the retribution she had never got, and no amount of connections or manipulation could help her against the power of fate itself. It would be so simple. She already had half of the repayment, Chat Noir would be so easy— for her, he would— he would do anything. He was her partner. They put everything on the line for Parisians every day. For each other.
"No."
"... What?"
"Get your stupid butterfly out of my bag."
"Excuse me?"
"Nope. I'm not terrorizing Paris and fighting it's superheroes! Do you think I'm crazy?"
"But—"
"I'm going to put this stuff in the laundry, get some coffee with some cream in it or something, and video calling my friend. I'll be fine. Screw off, Hawk Moth."
Marinette shut her eyes tight and willed his disturbing presence out of her mind, imagining the glowing butterfly outline fading from her face, and the shop bag going back to brown paper. She felt the corruption leave her and opened her eyes to see the akuma drop pathetically out of the bag and onto the floor. She regarded it for a moment.
To hell with it, if she fought off Hawk Moth's power once she could do it again, even if the akuma tried to possess another of her belongings. She stomped on it. It's wings were bent pathetically at angles as it flapped uselessly when she raised her foot. She stomped on it again. Hard. She lost count of how often she stomped on the thing until it was just black legs and bits of wing floating in the gutter water. She huffed and started for home.
Elsewhere, the mechanical cover of a window slowly closed. A figure in a silver mask watched it silently, unmoving. In time, he was left in darkness once again. After a few breaths, he looked around at the fluttering white butterflies. "Do you think I'm losing my touch?"