Third pov
Marinette could honestly say that if it wasn't for her needing to recruit Marc, she would've pleaded to be allowed to stay home. It would have worked, especially as she looks like she feels.
(AKA Half Dead.)
"Marinette!"
She looks up just in time to see Aurore coming towards her. The blonde hugged her as soon as she reached her.
"I'm so happy to see you. I thought you'd be staying home. Especially after- y'know..." She trailed off as she realized it might not be something Marinette wants to talk about.
"Yeah, I was thinking about staying home, but, well, I haven't seen you guys in months." Marinette scratches the back of her head sheepishly.
Aurore smiled. "We've missed you too. The Quantic kids told me they got to meet you and that you were mostly fine, but i really wanted to see for myself." Her voice got a little quieter. "We saw the video. Then when you didn't come home we weren't sure..."
Marinette rubs her friends back. "To be honest, i wasn't sure for a moment either. It was, terrefying... but I'm still here. A bit more scarred but I'm here."
Aurore nods, then tries another bright smile. (Marinette doesn't have the heart to tell her it's not looking very real.). "Let's go see the others."
The two of them went into the schools mostly empty library.
"Did you hear that Bustier and the principal got fired? I think it was about time. They were awful at best and downright abusive at worst." The blonde shook her head. "You have a new teacher now. Apparently he's originally from the US but he moved here as a child. His name is Eric Coleman."
Marinette was content to listen to one of her reporter friends talk. It made her feel right at home.
"Marinette!"
"Mari!"
"Nettie!"
"Dudette!"
There was no time to react as she suddenly had in order, Claude, Allegra, Adrien and Nino hanging from/hugging her.
"Guys, air!"
And with that she is let go and can once again enjoy the wonderful past time of breathing.
"We've missed you. You can never go away again!"
"Claude, you saw me a few days ago."
"Irrelevant. You are Marinette of house Dupain-Cheng, queen of this dreary city, mother of everything good, destroyer of liars, breaker of bad fashion trends. We need you here."
Once the dramatic speech was done Marinette was laughing so hard it was hard to breathe. "Alright, who decided to show Claude Game of Thrones?"
She got no answer since everyone was laughing as hard as she had been.
Time skip
Once the day ended Marinette had done a great deal of things like;
Avoided her classmates (Lila included).
Met her new teacher. (A very nice man that had somehow gotten her class to listen to authority.)
Learnt new things in class.
Nearly been smothered.
Kicked akuma ass.
Realized that she needs to eat even more now that school is back in her life.
And now, now she was walking with a strangely quiet Marc beside her.
"Are you okay?"
"Shouldn't i ask you that?"
Marinette chuckles. "I guess. If it makes you feel better, I'm feeling just fine."
He nodded. "So what did you want to talk about?"
Here it is.
She pulls him with her further into the park until she's certain that they are all alone. "I need to ask you something and i need you to be quiet until I'm done talking. Can you do that?"
He hesitantly nod yes.
"I'm Ladybug."
Marc's eyes widened.
"Yeah, that's the reaction the others had too. Anyways, i want to ask you if you would accept a permanent postion as Silver. It's not a good job. It's bloody, it's painful and you will no doubt recieve permanent trauma. If you say no i will respect that and not push you."
The other teen is quiet and pale. Marinette feels so bad that she's even asking.
"I accept."
Now it's Marinette's turn to look surprised.
"You're not pressuring me. Honest. It's- I want to help protect my home and loved ones. This seems like the best way to do it." He gives her a shaky but honest smile. "Thank you for trusting me with this information, and please don't feel bad. I want to do this."
There's tears building in her eyes and she feels so bad, and he wants to help-
She hands him the Fox necklace. "I trust you." She nervously runs her hand through her hair. "I trust you."
"Thank you." Marc hugs her once she tells him it's okay. "Thank you, for giving me a chance to help."
Time skip
It's late when Marinette steps through the door and her stomach sinks at the feeling in the air.
It doesn't get better when her parents are giving her sad looks as soon as she reaches the kitchen.
"Marinette, honey, please sit down. We, we have some bad news." Her maman starts.
Marinette sits on the chair between them.
"Sweetie I'm so sorry, but Fu is dead. He passed away in his sleep sometime this morning."
Her throat feels tight and her eyes are burning again. (Why is she crying? Hasn't she cried enough yet?)
"He left most of his things to you since you were the closest he had to family. There was no debt and he owned the apartment so you don't need to do anything now, but you deserved to know."
(Hasn't she cried enough yet?)
*******************************************************
Felix doesn't flinch as he hears someone landing on his balcony, expecting it to be one out of two options.
Something proved right as he can hear the person knocking on the glass door.
"Hello cousin." Felix says as he opens the door to see Adrien standing there with a grim face. "It seems we have a lot to talk about."
"Yes, we do Felix. Can i come in?"
**************************************************************
It's night when Luka arrives at the usual meeting spot.
Marinette is sitting detransformed watching the city, one hand gently massaging the other.
"I have scars one them. They're just thin lines, but they just, kinda, itch sometimes." She quietly explains.
Luka tosses a marshmallow to Sass before sitting down with Marinette, gently taking one hand to look it over.
He could indeed see several thin scars going over her palms and fingers, sometimes going up onto the back of her hand. Enough to be a bit painful at first but still something that'll heal quick. Now it's just an annoyance that will itch until enough time for them to have realistically heal, has passed.
The teen lets out a have sigh as he massaged her hand. "Thank you. You're a god send."
"You can pay me back by taking a nap sometime this year."
They burst out in laughter.
"Sometime this year, huh? I'll try, no promises." She winks.
He just smiles and shakes his head. "I'll believe it when i see it."
The night is warm and calm around them. Sitting still isn't an issue.
"Have you told anyone?"
Luka shakes his head. "I've been trying to plan the best way to tell Juleka, but it's hard."
"I know what you mean." Marinette says with a wry smile. "I don't know if there's any easy way to tell your family you've been fighting bad guys and risking your life since you were eleven."
"True." Luka stood up and stretched. "Wanna race accross the rooftops?"
"You're on!" Marinette leapt out of the tower and transformed in mid-air.
Luka laughed. "That's cheating! Come on Sass, let's do this."
As soon as he was transformed, Viperion was following Ladybug accross the city.
I'm sorry, i killed off Fu....
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