Another Loveybug AU concept, this time with amnesia!
Ladybug’s identity gets exposed to Monarch. She manages to get away, but she knows that she can’t remain as Ladybug or the Guardian anymore. She contacts Su-Han and tells him she has to give up the miracle box.
But before relinquishing anything, Marinette starts playing with her transformation. She finds out that if she focuses on her romantic feelings, it manifests as a different suit, one that she is completely unrecognizable in.
Marinette convinces Su-Han that they can’t afford to get someone else to be the new ladybug, not when Scarabella and Kitty Noire were so easily discovered. She’ll keep the earrings. She just won’t be able to remember her time as Ladybug.
Ladybug goes out in public to face Monarch one last time, this time following in Master Fu’s footsteps to sacrifice her memories to pass on the miracle box (now, returning it back to Su-Han).
A disoriented Marinette finds herself standing before a purple man who wails about losing something. But before she can ask what’s going on, a boy in cat ears takes her in his arms and carries her home. There’s something in his eyes, something she can’t quite place. Sadness? Love? Whatever it is, he doesn’t say. He merely kisses her forehead and says, “Thank you for everything.” And then he’s gone.
Alone in her bedroom, Marinette finds a box with a pair of earrings inside. As she tries them on, she is accosted by a bug-mouse who can talk. ‘Tikki,’ this being calls herself, tells Marinette that she was chosen to inherit the Ladybug mantle. Tikki also says that if Marinette channels her feelings of love, she can become a hero who can protect Paris. Marinette thinks of her love for her boyfriend Adrien (who could ever forget him?), then proclaims “Hearts on!” And suddenly, she’s pink.
She encounters the boy with cat ears again. He tells her that he’ll protect her as she gets used to her powers. She finds herself acclimating far more easily than she thought possible for a clumsy girl like her. (It’s probably a side effect of the super suit.)
She looks up information about her predecessor—apparently Alya was obsessed with cataloging every detail she knew about ‘Ladybug.’ Marinette isn’t entirely sure why she doesn’t remember much about all the months of attacks that have plagued Paris. Maybe that purple man acquired mind erasing powers and Ladybug hadn’t been able to fix it with her miracle cure before she passed on the miraculous?
Tikki tries to inspire her with her own stories of Ladybug. How she’d always try to stand up against the cruelty of the world and fight for kindness. Marinette wasn’t sure how she was supposed to fill the shoes of someone like that. Though apparently Ladybug had been a klutz with a stutter too, so maybe Marinette might not be entirely a hopeless cause.
Alya’s been sad ever since Ladybug went away. Alya had dedicated so much of her life to Ladybug, it made sense she’d miss the superheroine when she’d gone. Marinette tries to get Alya to get invested in reporting about Loveybug, but she doesn’t bite. Alya’s far more interested in making sure Marinette knows how amazing Ladybug was. Even if it makes her sad, Alya clearly needs to reminisce, and Marinette is happy to be there for her.
Adrien’s been sad too, though he seems to cheer up a lot when he’s around her. He’s also gotten really protective. Practically every time an akuma alert goes off, Adrien is sticking Marinette in a closet for her to hide in before running off to his own hiding place. She doesn’t point out that she’d feel more protected if he stayed in the closet with her—she needs to use the time alone to transform. But it’s always nice that she can use the moments where Adrien kisses her goodbye as fuel to use for ‘channeling love’ when transforming into Loveybug.
The boy in the cat ears is different too, at least from how he acted in all those videos. It was incredibly obvious that he was head over heels for Ladybug from the beginning. Marinette doesn’t understand why Ladybug had apparently rejected his advances. He was sweet. And he is still sweet, but when he’s around Loveybug… the light leaves his eyes. She probably reminds him of the partner he lost. She tries to give him space, but that only seems to make him look even more lonely. She tries to cheer him up instead. Make him laugh. It turns out he had a magical laugh. (If she wasn’t already with Adrien, she could see herself falling for the boy in cat ears too.)
Gabriel Agreste sends Adrien away to London. Marinette tries to keep the boy she loves home, but only manages one final kiss goodbye before he is taken away. She doesn’t think she can channel that kiss to becoming Loveybug. Her heart hurts too much.
As Marinette mourns, Tikki finds a box of rainbow cookies somewhere in Marinette’s room. In an attempt to cheer her up, she eats a purple macaron and tells Marinette she’ll provide a cool new power the next time she transforms. Marinette, heart still heavy, says, “Tikki, power up.” Suddenly, she’s weightless. Realizing this power has opened up the entire world to her, she immediately takes to the skies. Adrien. She could now find Adrien!
She searches London for the boy she loves, serendipitously finding him standing on a balcony of a secluded apartment. Adrien stares at her, eyes impossibly wide. “Cosmobug?” he asks, his voice hesitant.
She looks down at the suit she’s wearing for the first time. There aren’t any hearts anywhere. Only spots. She thinks she’s seen a picture of Ladybug wearing a suit very much like this. Maybe this was how all powered-up suits looked?
“I’m Loveybug,” she explains. “I’m here to rescue you!”
Adrien stands there unmoving, like he’s calculating a tough math problem in his head. Finally, he asks, “Marinette?”
She squeaks. “How did you figure me out? I’ve been so careful! Oh no, it’s because I forgot to ‘channel love’ before transforming, isn’t it? It messed with the mask magic, didn’t it? I knew I was going to mess up eventually…”
Adrien put his arms around her. “It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m really happy I found out your identity.”
Marinette curls in on herself. “Ladybug would be so disappointed in me if she knew…”
Adrien blinks. “You don’t know who Ladybug is?”
“Tikki can’t tell me things like that. She can only talk about how great her old holder was and how much she misses her.” She realizes Adrien probably has no idea what she’s talking about. “Oh! Tikki is—“
“I know who Tikki is,” he says, smiling. “And I think she left out some things. Come inside, I want to show you something.”
Adrien leads her to a mirror. “Try powering down. But this time, don’t do the ‘channeling love’ thing you do to become Loveybug.”
“What do I channel instead?”
“Nothing. Don’t think about it, just let whatever happen happen.”
She closes her eyes takes a deep breath. She tries to forget that Adrien was here with her. She tries to think of nothing, but her mind won’t let her stay on nothing. Instead, it turns towards the boy with the cat ears. The boy she has no business loving. She thinks about how she doesn’t need to be in love with him to want to be his friend. His partner, something inside her whispers. Aloud, she says, “Power down.”
She opens her eyes and sees her reflection. The hearts are still gone. The face, though… “Why do I look like Ladybug?” she whispers.
“Because you are Ladybug,” Adrien tells her.
“That’s not possible.”
“It is. Ladybug gave up her memories to protect the miraculous. But she—you—found a way to stay by Chat Noir’s side anyway.”
By becoming Loveybug. By channeling her love. “Was I in love with him before? Chat Noir?”
“I think so.”
She bites her lip. “Do you think I should return to him?”
“Are you in love with him now?” he asks.
“I… maybe,” she admits. Somehow, even when suppressing her feelings, the boy in cat ears tugged at her heart. But she could also feel a strong tug in another direction. “But I’m in love with you too, Adrien. I don’t want to give us up.”
He smiled, nodding like it was the ‘right’ answer. “You don’t have to, my lady.”
‘My lady.’ She knew those words. Not just from the Ladyblog videos. The term of endearment passing through his lips thrums against her very soul.
“Chat Noir?” she asks, unsure this could be real.
She looks into his eyes. His green eyes. Not quite like a cat’s, but there was a familiarity in the way they moved. In the way those eyes looked at her like she was his entire world.
“Yes. It’s me.”
She has so many questions. But the one that ends up leaving her mouth is, “Why are you still here? You could transform, leave here with no one to stop you.”
Adrien’s mouth falls agape once, then twice as he searches for words. Finally, he shrugs. “I guess I was waiting for someone to rescue me. If you still want to do the honors?”
Well, she hadn’t come all this way for nothing. She lifts him in her arms, every fiber of her straining with the desire to keep this precious boy safe. She still isn’t entirely sure how she’s going to protect him when his father finds out. Maybe Chat Noir could be a more permanent fixture around Paris? And, to make sure he didn’t feel so alone, Loveybug would spend as much time as possible there by his side.
Two of the biggest romantics in Paris, falling for each other… Alya might finally get invested in covering Loveybug now there was juicy relationship gossip to invest in. But Marinette should probably give Alya some closure about what really happened to Ladybug first, even if Alya couldn’t share that information with the rest of the world. Marinette couldn’t wait to see the look on her BFF’s face when she learned that Marinette Dupain Cheng of all people wielded the ladybug miraculous!
Until then, she holds on tight to Adrien Agreste as she flies him home.
At some point, he starts to get cold and she suggests that he transform to get protection from the suit.
His mouth pulls into a cheeky grin. “Plagg, claws out.” His hair turns green.
Wrong catboy! her mind screams, dropping him in a burst of horrifying clumsiness.
He calls up a power-up transformation before he falls into the sea, then flies up beside her. This time, he looks how she knows Chat Noir looks when given the gift of flight, not a green hair in sight. “Did I mention I can also transform into Catwalker?” he asks, feigning innocence (badly).
“No you did not!” she hisses.
“Just thought you should know I’ve got a backup identity too. In case we need it.”
“Do you plan on erasing your memories?”
“No…?”
“Then we don’t need another backup,” she declares. “Adrien and Chat Noir are plenty for me.”
i love how generally psychotic identity shenanigans can get but one of my favorite niche things is how a mariwalker/multiwalker dynamic changes if she finds out Chat Walker=Chat Noir and NOT Chat Walker=Adrien.
like, obviously she can’t be sure but there’s at least some part of Marinette that probably fantasizes that Chat Walker was Adrien.
BUT with logic and a little quantum masking mixed in there, if Chat Noir were ever to confess that he was indeed Chat Walker, Marinette definitely would not go “Ohhh Adrien is Chat Noir” no, she’d 100% beeline for “Chat has a super soft super sweet respectful side and I’m very attracted to it and idk what to DO with this information???”
i have an entire AU in my head about how some how some way a bunch of the other heroes discover CN’s identity. like too many to be safe. so Ladybug is kind of cornered into switching him out. But Adrien, desperate to keep Plagg, confesses he was Chat Walker so he can keep his kwami, but the rest of the team will be none the wiser that he wasn’t actually switched out.
Ladybug agrees, but knows she won’t be able to focus or handle herself if she has to directly work next to Mr. Walker LMFAO. So she switches herself out for Scarabella, and swaps around a couple of the other miraculous wielders on the team and obviously gives herself the mouse.
and now you have this kind of wild setup where Chat Walker knows Multimouse=Marinette and therefore is his girlfriend, is super protective over her during akumas, visits her balcony all the time (and also is lowkey trying to get her to figure out his identity because he wants to live out his Ladynoir fantasies with her) but Multimouse, whom he has NO IDEA is Ladybug is like “am I falling in love with Chat Noir right now so help me god-“
alternatively, i love the idea that Alya is one of the few people that DOESN’T discover Chat Noir=Adrien, however she DOES instead discover after fighting alongside him that Chat Walker=Adrien. but Adrien begs her not to tell Ladybug bc she will kick him off lol.
So now you have an even more insane layer slapped on top where whenever Alya and Marinette talk about Chat Walker— both have proof in their head that he is someone else than what the other thinks. but they can’t tell each other that. so it’s just Marinette screaming “this feels cheat-y!!!” into her pillow after every rooftop visit from Chat Walker and Alya is just like “calm down live a little” knowing full well thats her whole ass boyfriend and she’s not cheating in the slightest LMFAO
if you lean into the fanon angle that “sentimonsters are barely human” you can also spin this in a way where adrien doesn’t ”need” to eat like a normal human. he cooks and tastes exclusively for the experience
adrien training to be a baker like his in-laws is the natural conclusion for his character because gabriel’s go-to insult for marinette is “the baker girl”
and yet. in the future, adrien will be more well known for his focaccia bread than his modeling portraits. your son is going to become the baker boy
"oh boy oh boy the writers sure have set season 6 up to be a real heartbreak you guys"
From the creators of "Cat Blanc Is Going To Cast Such A Shadow Next Season When Marinette Can't Use Any Of the Old Miraculous Holders" and "I Can't Wait For Ladynoir To Reconcile When Marinette Confesses All Her Secrets And Finally Starts Relying On Cat Noir As Her Partner For Real" comes a new masterpiece,
Reblogs appreciated for reach—I’m just genuinely curious! Would love elaboration in the tags but obviously you can just keep your answer anonymous if you want as well
if ive been at a restaurant cheerfully and enthusiastically waiting for the chicken parm to be served for like 5 hours, am I not allowed to be disappointed that it turned out to be salmon instead. sure salmon is really tasty to some people but what if I just don’t like salmon. why are they serving salmon in the chicken parm restaurant? “it’s such an interesting surprise that the chef brought out salmon! I can’t wait to see what’s for dess—” no. bring me my chicken parm .
anyway that’s how I feel in the miraculous ladybug fandom rn lol
Ok so. No. Yes. But no. Think of Adrien here. Adrien is not by his nature competitive. Marinette? Félix? Kagami? It's win or die!!! Death before dishonor! You are going down!
Meanwhile, Adrien is just so happy everyone ia playing a game together! This is nice and normal! (Marinette in the background trying to wrap Félix in the net "YOU CALL THAT A SERVE!!!")
Sure—maybe the first couple of several dozen times they play tennis together, Adrien is absolutely stoked. No worries about the winner, simply over the moon that his favorite people (his family!!) are able to successfully get through an activity together—especially one that leaves everyone too exhausted to continue the smack talk into lunch afterward.
But I also think in a context where these 2 couples are eventually married and grown…
that court would be TORN. UP. even on Adrien’s part.
i really do think it would just be a more interesting plot line if the adult figures in marinette’s life were kind of forcing her hand on the whole “we have to lie about gabriel being a terrorist” matter instead of it exclusively being her decision to conjure a lie to tell the entirety of Paris. idk
felix discovering adrien is chat noir should be a priority for season 6. not even really for plot purposes—instead because luka + felix is just objectively the funniest pair to be alone in the “we know” club
