The Hood And The Bug

Chapter 1

Six months after defeating Hawkmoth, Marinette decided to leave Paris. Not having a good relationship with her parents and former friends, and Chloe and Adrien moving to New York and London, she didn't have anything keeping her in the city that destroyed her teenage years. After a few research on the best fashion programs in the universities around the world, she applied to five of them being New York, London, Toronto, Milan, and Gotham. She was accepted at all of them, so she once again had to make a choice. With the help of her two best friends and the kwamis her first choices would've been to be with Chloe or Adrian so she wouldn't be alone, but she decided to base her decision on the program and the cost of life, including multiple aspects in the day-to-day life in each city.

Her mind was set, she was leaving everything and everyone behind to build herself a new life and trace her own path. She stepped inside her new three bedrooms apartment; it was spacious and even without any furniture it was cozy enough to make her smile. She sat the Miracle Box on the kitchen counter to free the small gods, they were as excited as she was about this new start in Gotham.

The City of Crimes just found itself a new hero, Ladybug was here to help and to mostly study, but to help bring the balance. With Tikki and Plagg always with her she felt safe, she sat down a sleeping bag and a pillow for the night in the living room, first thing tomorrow would be to go get everything she needed, especially a bed and the sewing material, she was not able to bring with her from Paris.

Sleeping alone was the worst for Marinette, back even before HawkMoth's defeat she always slept with Chloe or Adrien. It was the only way for her to have a couple of hours. She had nightmares every night and after the first month her parents stopped believing her, saying she was doing it for attention seeking. Fortunately for her, her best friends knew what she was going through, they had a schedule where they knew who was going to her place for sure or if she was at Chloe's hotel. Most nights it was a black cat in leather who would knock on her trap door and Adrien would land on her bed, he was strong enough to stop her from hurting herself during her panics and him being taller and bigger than her made it possible for them to sleep in a way she would be wrapped in his arms to feel safer. With Chloe they would sleep in the same bed, but to calm her down the blond would use her words and play with her hair until the young Guardian calmed down and if nothing worked, the mayor's daughter would call the model for his help, and he was there in less than five minutes each time.

Now she had no one, she had to learn sleeping alone, maybe not being in Paris will help her. Laying on her back and looking at the sealing, all the kwamis around her head on the pillow and the sleeping bag made her smile, she didn't felt alone at that moment and slowly drifted to sleep, with the help of the little music playing on her phone and Plagg's purring.

* * *

It had been a long day, but at least she was now able to sit in her new couch, the delivery guys had just left, and she just had to place everything she had bought at the right place: plates, glasses, food, towels and so much more, because she didn't have anything before. The next step was to do the same thing with the things in her suitcases: clothing, sewing equipment, Miracle Box, books and all the souvenirs and decorations she had brought with her. Two hours later she placed the last picture frames on her bedside table, the first being a picture of Chloe, Adrian, and herself at their graduation a little over a year ago and the second was Chat Noir, Arabeilla and Ladybug at the top of the Eiffel Tower, this one was her favorite.

The week was pretty smooth, with adjusting to the time difference and getting her ways into the city. She made a trip or two to Gotham University to know where her classes were and to see the campus. She was also able to buy most of her mandatory books for the semester and sewing materials she was missing for those classes. She didn't live to far from the school, about a twenty minutes' walk, probably less than five if she was Ladybug.

She was about to leave the campus to go back home when she walked into a door and fell to the ground.

"Oh my god! I'm sorry are you okay miss?"