Searching for Open Eyes

**Author's Note**

Please please please read this, or you might be confused going forward!

To start off, this work is just meant to be something fun that I do in between my own studies and projects. I wanted to make this because I want to keep practicing my writing, and because I just love Miraculous (tales of ladybug and cat noir yada yada yada)

So to begin, this is a fanfic that exists in an alternate universe, and so I'll begin by outlining the things that are different in this universe to the canon of the show:

1) In this AU Ladybug and Cat Noir are good friends and trusted partners (very different from the canon, am I right). What this means is that Cat Noir is not constantly pursuing and (let's be honest) harrassing Ladybug and begging for her attention and affection. He is also not completely useless without her help like he is in the show, and in fact has saved Paris without her help on one or two occasions (assume there were episodes where she got incapcitated and he had to save the day).

2) I don't want to assign a specific time to this AU in comparison to the canon timeline, like by saying "this story takes place in between seasons 3 and 4", but I do have certain events that I want to have happened or not have happened for this story to make sense.

2a) To start with, the Shanghai special has to have happened. I will be making references to stuff like the Prodigious, so Lady Dragon and all that does exist in this AU.

2b) The New York special has not happened, and, in fact, just assume the NY special doesn't exist in this AU because I will be describing Marinette in a version of the U.S. where superheros aren't common, so Magestia and Night Owl are just comic book characters, ok?

2c) Keep in mind that also, since the NY special doesn't exist in this AU, the whole "Cat Noir lies to Ladybug about coming to New York and then no one was in Paris to stop the sentimonster attack and now Ladybug and Cat Noir have even less trust between them" thing didn't happen, so don't freak out when Marinette goes to America, because it's all good :D

2d) In terms of where this story takes place outside of the specials, I don't have a clear idea, but let's just assume that Ladybug and Cat Noir can occasionally call on the help of other heros if they need to. Master Fu is someone that both heros have met, and Cat Noir (remember he's useful in this AU) knows the identities of the supplementary heros that help them, and he's even trusted to give out miraculous when it's needed.

2e) I'm just going to call him Hawkmoth. I know his name changes in some seasons, but I'll be using his vanilla name for this whole AU.

2f) Lastly for the timeline stuff, beyond the original few heros, the miraculous have not been used and we (the audience) don't know and can't simply assume we know the powers of the other miraculous that haven't been used. I plan on changing some of the powers of some of the miraculous, but not too many, so don't say I'm wrong when I make a miraculous have a different ability than we've seen in the show now that Season 5 is over with.

3) Adding onto the note above about changing facts about the miraculous, I'm going to do something that might be considered controversial. (deep breath) In this AU, I'm making all the miraculous into magic rings, as opposed to various different pieces of jewelry. The kwamis still all exist, and I'll even keep their canonical names, but Marinette owns a ring with a little ladybug on it, not a pair of earrings. This is a design choice I made based on my own preferences.

3a) (rant) Like the fact they are all different things always bugged me, and this is just simpler and more cohesive! Like the miraculous were canonically made by some poweful wizard or something, right? You're telling me this wizard decided to make every single thing a different accessory? You can tell the concept of them all being different was wearing thin after a while, too. There's like four different necklaces, and one of the miraculous is a pair of hair clips? Also, it's easier to hide a ring than to hide a whole crown! The monkey miraculous is a literal crown! How would Kim keep that discrete? Wear a headband?

4) All the characters are older.  I know in the show they're around 15, which is way younger than I was imagining them in this AU.  Let's put them around 17 to 18, as I imagine them with more responsibilites, more maturity in their decisions and thoughts, and with more mature language. 

4a)  As an aside, audience's thoughts on swearing?  None, some, a lot, whole hog, or back it off?

5) Marinette and Adrien are not in relationships, either with each other, Kagami, or Luca, or whoever else.

6) I promise I didn't want this author's note to be this long, and I'm aware that the longer I make this the less likely people will read to the end. So, last bullet point: Zoe Lee exists, and without getting into spoiling my own story, she is important, and certain things about her that were revealed in season 5 are relevant to this AU :)

Outside changes I made from the canon, I will now briefly (briefly, I promise) say some stuff about what I will be adding in:

In this AU, Marinette will be facing new enemies and trying to discover new magical treasures, things that are not the miraculous and function using the power of a different kind of cosmic being, i.e. the Miraculous use the kwamis, the Prodigious uses the renlings.

These new treasures are something I came up with and want to explore in this AU, but they are kinda out there when compared to the magic items already shown.

Also, to be up front, this fanfic will include a romantic subplot that is not Marinette and Adrien, and I really don't care if that messes with the endgame of the show, because I already said how Cat Noir is not in love with Ladybug and they are just friends ("she's just a friend.")

(watch out, another rant) Finally, last last last thing, really just a pet peeve of mine that I'm getting out of the way: Marinette will always be called Marinette. I know a lot of fans nickname her "Mari" and use that nickname in their own fanfics, but throughout the entire show no one has canonically called her that. Also, I'm pronouncing it "cat" Noir, and I don't even know why people use the French spelling of it. Also also, Marinette's hair is black, not blue. This is as canonical as Plagg loving cheese. If you disagree, look up the poem Adrien wrote about Ladybug(Marinette) in the episode "Dark Cupid".

Thank you so so so much for reading to the end, and I can't wait to write this story for you all to enjoy!