Gotham Mouse, Paris Bug

Chapter one

Ladybugs Don't Belong in Fairytales
Chapter Text
You would think, that after three years of Marinette being Ladybug that she would be more careful. That she would know not to detransform on her balcony as she did back when she was new to her powers and had pictures of Adrien posted like wallpaper in her room.

But, in all fairness; Marinette was having a really rough week. Rough year to be honest. Lila had not attacked her swiftly or suddenly, Lila wasn’t confident enough with her standings in the class to accuse Marinette of stuff that quickly. But what she’d done instead was so much worse.

She stretched it out, periods of normalcy, where she had friends before Lila would lie up a storm, so quickly and aggressively that Marinette would immediately try to call her out. She was dismissed as a stupid jealous baby every time. And then when things would quiet down; Marinette found herself unable to trust them fully. So she kept some distance, and that made it harder. It made her resent Adrien for a while, because of him everyone assumed she couldn’t have more complex emotions, and he still discourages calling her out. It was driving her mad.

So she had torn down the posters, the schedule, she had thrown out the gifts as well. She rid her life of the little crush completely, dedicating herself to her studies, her friendships, Ladybug, and fashion. She branched out from Alya and Nino and Adrien, who wanted to talk about Lila and Ladybug and between the prior two; Marinette’s former crush. They simply didn’t get it when she said she was over it.

Then the rumors began.

No one knew how they started, or that’s what they said anyway. But suddenly people questioned her disappearing during Akuma attacks, her sudden ‘loss’ of a crush on Adrien, and her dislike of Lila. People have a tendency of waiting for the other shoe to drop, some people resented Marninette for having so many friends and for being such a ‘goody-two-shoes'. It was ridiculous how quickly it happened, suddenly the class needed a new Representative, and the art club didn’t really feel like meeting, and Kitty Section didn’t really need new costumes. Luka had been confused and then furious when he realized it was because of Lila, he told Marinette what he had been told, and let her cry with him.

It had gone on like this for months now. But thankfully, Marinette knew who her real friends were now. Max had never believed Lila, aside from a brief spell of being starstruck. As soon as he gave it a second thought, he was thoroughly embarrassed. He shared his findings with Kim, and the two had stopped paying mind to Lila. So Marinette took to being with them more, discussing their own interests, past stories, and their questionable opinions. Everything was considered, nothing was dismissed without thought given into why not or why so. Marinette finally felt like she had the chance to breathe.

They had each other’s backs, and it was a little like when they were kids. And Kim would get in a stupid situation, and Max would get him out of it, and Marinette would have cover stories, and Bambi eyes ready to save them from any prying parents. They balanced each other out well.

And it was enough for Marinette, even when Alya asked her to move because she wanted to sit with her best friend.

Ms. Bustier hadn’t seemed happy to see Max and Kim sitting on either side of Marinette, considering it was supposed to be two people a bench. But in the end, she seemed to have decided it wasn’t worth causing a scene over.

They were inseparable after that.

But still; things were stressful and Hawkmoth was throwing out Akuma after Akuma in the heat of the early summer.

So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when Marinette finally messed up.

“Um,” Marinette blinked owlishly. “Surprise?”