"YOU'RE BEING BULLIED! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US?" Shuxin yelled.
Marinette sweat dropped and cursed at Aaron and her bodyguards for tell her parents.
"Hello, mother good to see you too. How are you? Have you had dinner yet?" She innocently asked.
"I'm good and yes I did now answer my question." She spoke.
Marinette looked behind her mother and saw her father working on some papers.
"Hello father, how are you!" Marinette greeted.
"I'm not helping you in this one Xiao Mei, I'm also disappointed at you for not telling us." He said keeping his eyes on the paper.
Marinette sweat dropped and thought, 'well there goes my last hope.'
Marinette sighed, "I'm sorry for not telling you I didn't want you to worry. But also if I had told you, you would have sent the entire military force on my class, which as much as I want to myself would defeats the whole purpose of keeping my identity a secret."
Shuxin massaged her forehead as she leaned back on the sofa and said, "Still you should have told us. Do you know how worried we were when Aaron told us and I quote, "Her highness has a lying snake, and her sheep are bulling her taking it as far as physically hurting you." I had to calm your father or else he would have teleported there and went on a killing spree."
"Isn't that what the underground prisoners are for." Marinette shrugged.
There are two types of prisons one that's outside the palace and one that's under the palace, the one under the palace is only for those that have truly committed a sinister crime, such as slavery, sex trafficking, murder, abuse, kidnapping, and attempted treason. Those who are unfortunate enough to end up in the underground palace would end up being Marinette's new playmate.
A little more background on Marinette's past:
In people's eyes Marinette is the sweet innocent little girl, in which she is it's just here's the thing Marinette hates criminals, especially sex traffickers and abusers. So, when she was younger she used to "play" with the inmates in the underground prisons when she couldn't sleep.
(Flashback)
It was dead in the night, almost everyone was asleep except for the guards on patrol and one little girl. Footsteps were heard coming down the hallways scaring the people in that hall. Fear struck their hearts and crept their spines, giving them goosebumps. The men in their cells shivered, scared for the next thing to come.
"Hello!" A little girl around the age of ten greeted as she walked in with a guard following behind her.
"It's play time." She announced.
"NOOO." They screamed, "Please have mercy."
Marinette walked around and looking at each inmate.
"Hmmm, which one should I pick today, tut tut tut, oh how about you." She said as she pointed to the fifth cell.
"No, no, please have mercy on me your highness." The man begged.
Marinette asked the guard to open the door and said, "Mercy? I read your file, you abused your wife and children, two of them were no older than five years old and one of them was just a baby, in the end you murdered them so you wouldn't get caught. the neighbours confessed they begged you to stop, that they would be obedient but even if they obeyed you would still beat them. They asked you to stop and have mercy, yet you still killed them so what's the different between you and I right now hmm?"
Marinette glared at the man, eyes glowing pink, she smirked when feared shone in his eyes just like her father she installs fear to those who appose them. The man gulped, crying begging the gods and goddesses to save him.
Marinette leaned beside his ear and whispered, "It's play time." As she jabbed a small dagger laced with poison into the man's shoulder.
Screams were heard that night, scaring not other the other inmates but also the guards that were on patrol.
(Somewhere else in the palace.)
"You know she takes after you right?" Shuxin mumbled as she cuddle into Kun's chest.
"Yea, which makes me even more proud and as long as she isn't hurting innocent people it's fine." Kun whispered back.
Shuxin nodded, "I guess you're right." And just like that they went back to sleep.
(End of flashback)
"Xiao Mei your father and I are just worried about you." Shuxin said.
Marinette's eyes soften and nodded, she knew she shouldn't have kept it a secret from her parents, but it was her fight to deal with.
"So which villa are you staying at?" Shuxin asked.
"I'm staying at one of the smaller ones at little west to the palace. The one with the golden gates and mini putt putt."
"Xiao Mei, we will be having a small party in celebration of your return, do you want a theme or not?" Her father asked.
Marinette thought about is and asked, "Are my classmates invited?"
Her father shook no.
"Then no, oh and can I invite my friends? I would love for you to meet them." She asked.
"Of course, just make sure they have something formal to wear." Her father answered, "Oh and it will be a week from now."
"Understood, it's getting late and I'm still pretty jetlagged so I'm heading to bed first good night mother, father." She said as she yawned.
"Good – I almost forgot Meiying I will be sending you some paperwork – "
"No, good night father, mother I'll call you tomorrow." She quickly said as she ended the call.
'There is no way in heaven or hell am I going to help father's paperwork during this trip, last time I did that my hand got a cramp from holding the pen too long.' She thought as she flopped on to the bed.
(The next morning)
"Your highness it's time to wake up." A maid said. She woke up and noticed that there wer already three maids in her room.
"Your highness, your bath is ready." One of the maids said. Marinette nodded and followed the maid to the bathroom.
"Which scent would you like your highness, we have chocolate, peach and strawberry." The maid asked.
(Author: I'm going with my preferences)
Marinette thought about it and answered, "Chocolate."
Her bathroom started to smell like chocolate which comforted her, she really missed this kind of treatment. 'Call me spoiled I don't care, I deserve this.' She thought.
The maid gave her chocolate scented soap, shampoo, conditioner, and hair mask. She let herself sink into the bathtub and relax, for the first time in three years she finally felt at home.
"Suzy are my friends up yet?" Marinette asked as she got out of the tub.
The maid named Suzy answered, "Lord Lahiffe, Lord Couffaine, and Lady Tsurugi was seen at the gym early in the morning as for Lady Bourgoeuis and Lady Couffaine was spotted in the garden."
Marinette nodded and went to her walk-in closet where two maids more maids are waiting for her. The maids dressed her up in casual clothes as ordered, Marinette wore an oversized lettermen jacket over a baby blue coloured long sleeved cropped top that says 'bite me' with a pair of white shorts and white converse high tops.
The maids decided to put Marinette's hair up in a ponytail, normally she would put it in a bun, braids or pigtails causing her hair to look shorter but, her hair reached up to her lower back. Marinette thanked the maids and left for the dining hall.
Marinette entered the dining hall and found that her friends were already seated on each side of the table.
"Morning guys." Marinette greeted as she headed straight for the head of the table.
"Morning Mari." They greeted back.
"How'd you guys' sleep?" She asked.
"The beds here are absolutely amazing their better than in my hotel." Chloe commented.
"Luka and I slept like a baby." Juleka said.
Luka snorted and added, "And that says something since she would normally start sleep kicking."
Marinette giggled and nodded, "If you guys think the bed here is amazing imagine the ones in the larger villas or in the palace, they are phenomenal."
They all blinked a couple of times as Marinette said those words.
"BIGGER VILLAS?!" They all yelled. Marinette gave a small chuckle and sweat dropped.
"Y-yes." She answered, "Well this is the closest on to both the house the class is staying at and the palace. This villa compared to the once a bit further from the palace are bigger, I'd say about maybe 4 or 5 story high and the lands are lager because if we're too far from the palace we don't want to go to a hotel and risk getting caught by paparazzies."
They all just nodded understanding.
They all ate breakfast while talking about the activity they would do that day. Marinette then remember.
"Oh, right my father is having a party in celebration of my return, in a week and he said you guys can come along, so do you want to go? I mean Nino is already an automatic yes since he's my persona guard, what about you guys?" Marinette asked.
"It would be utterly ridiculous is I, Chloe Bourgoeuis doesn't come to a party she's invited to."
Kagami nodded her head and said, "I'm in, I would love to see how aristocrats party."
Marinette just shrugged, "Well it depends on each person honestly it could be fun it could be boring; I mostly enjoy the dancing. Juleka, Luka?"
"We're in!" the siblings exclaimed.
Juleka looked at the time and choked, "G-guys we better hurry we were supposed to meet the class at their in 30 minutes."
Their eyes widened and quickly ate their breakfast and grabbed their bags from the maids.
"Willam, we're heading out first, bye" Marinette yelled.
(With the class)
"Where are they?" Ms. Bustier mumbled.
"We're here! We're here!" The gang came in running, "Sorry we're late, traffic was awful."
Ms. Bustier sighed and said, "It's fine just, get on the bus already."
They gave her a sheepish smile and quickly got on. When they got on, they thanked the heavens that the only seats available were at the back. Once Marinette and her friends were seated they left. Today they would be visiting some museums and learning about the history of China and went to go site seeing.
Marinette was talking to Kagami in Japanese, ever since Kagami found out Marinette could speak Japanese it's been nonstop, but Marinette didn't mind she hasn't seen Kagami this happy since Luka happened. They stopped talking when Adrien came up to them, with a very, very, very creepy smirk.
"Hey Marinette, I was wondering after this would you like to go on a date with me? I mean this is your hometown, maybe you could show me around?" Adrien asked.
The gang was holding back their laughter, Chloe quickly took her phone out and started recording.
"Ew." Was all that she said. This caused the whole group to laugh.
Adrien looked confused and repeated, "Ew?"
"Yeah, ew. First, why the hell did you think I would on a date with you? No offense but I have standards unlike some of us" she said referring to Lila, "Also second, I have a boyfriend."
"HE OFFICIALLY ASKED YOU OUT?" Nino yelled attracting attention from the rest of the class.
Marinette blushed red and answered, "Yea, apparently we were already dating for a week already and I just didn't know it."
The rest of them were confused, "Is she talking about the guy from yesterday?" Chloe asked.
Nino nodded and complained, "Man I was hoping to play the big brother role."
Marinette just giggled at this.
Adrien stood there irritated, "Um, excuse me, did you forget me or something?"
Kagami looked at him with a bored expression and said, "What are you still doing here? It's obvious that her answer is no, now scram."
Adrien rolled his eyes and said, "I wasn't talking to you. So Marinette what do you think?"
Marinette rolled her eyes and answered, "Yea, no thank you, like I said I have a boyfriend and unlike you I don't want my family's name in bold letters in the gossip news unlike you. And like Kagami said, scram."
Adrien just clicked his tongue and said, "You'll regret this Marinette."
And with that he went back to his seat.
Alya turned to Adrien and asked, "So how'd it go?"
Adrien answered in anger, "B***h has a boyfriend, but don't worry, she'll still be mine one way or another."
Alya was shocked, she didn't know Marinette has a boyfriend.
'What the hell, since when did she get a boyfriend?' she thought angrily, 'she's probably said that to make Adrien jealous.'
To say Adrien was angry was an understatement, he was furious he wants to find out who this alleged boyfriend of Marinette was.
"Hello mother?" He heard Marinette say in mandarin.
"Yea, could you announce to the media that I have a fiancé now."
"No, I'll announce who it is at the party."
"Yes, thank you, oh and my friends said yes, of course I'll take them to the boutique."
"Okay yes, I'll see you next week, bye love you."
There were many thoughts running through Adrien head right now, like 'who is Marinette, what party was she talking about, fiancé?'
One thing was sure was that he was going to get to the bottom of this.