Last time, on Elemental:
Marinette is an air mage, Adrien is a Mer water mage. They found one another out, had a sleep over, and had a nice hookup under da sea. Meanwhile, Marinette's mentor shares too much about Marinette, everyone encourages her to report the woman, and she does. Which is a good thing, because the mentor is actually bat shit crazy and evil AF.
Now, on Elemental:
Marinette feels wretched about reporting her mentor, and Alya and Co. make a point to cheer her up. Their plans are interrupted. (Click here to read on AO3.)
Marinette sat listlessly at her desk and fiddled with her yoyo. She was out of practice, but she could still do the basic looping and sleeping with her eyes closed. The repetitive motion was calming, if not soothing, and she lost herself to it. Unfortunately, mindless as it was, it did not do much to divert her thoughts.
She’d walked out of the admin building that morning feeling like the worst sort of scum, and the intervening hours had done nothing to dispel that feeling. She couldn’t help replaying the morning’s scene in her mind. The Dean of Arcane Studies had listened intently to their complaint, and then had asked them each to submit a signed statement regarding the incident. Marinette had thought they’d be done after that, but no. The Dean had asked them to stay until after he’d spoken with Mme. Piers, so that she could render an apology to her in person.
Marinette wished now that they’d declined. She was the victim in this scenario; he could not have forced her to stay. But at the time, in the moment, she hadn’t realized that she had a choice, and the Dean had taken advantage of that. No matter what he said, her grievance was not his first concern. No, the reputation of his department was on the line, and he had wanted to do everything he could to cover his ass.
And so Marinette had been there to see Mme Piers arrive. She’d greeted them warmly, without a clue as to why she’d been summoned. Then Marinette had waited, tense and miserable, for a full thirty minutes as her mentor was berated for doing something that was, at its heart, perfectly innocent.
“Alright, that’s it,” Alya announced as she marched into the room. “No more moping.” Marinette jumped at the sound of Alya’s voice, fumbling her yoyo and smacking herself in the face. She frowned at her roomate, rubbing the bridge of her nose, and Alya winced in sympathy. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Marinette shrugged away the apology and began coiling her yoyo. “What do you mean? I’m not moping.”
“You are.” Marinette tried to object, but Alya just kept on as if she hadn’t heard. “I convened the tribunal--”
“Tribunal?”
“--and we have decided that it’s time for an intervention.”
“I’m not moping!”
Alya gave her a hard look. “You haven’t even gone to the beach with Adrien, little miss Mopey McMoperson. Not since you reported Piers.”
“Okay, maybe I am moping, but it was just this morning, Alya! And she comforted me, as if I weren’t the one who got her in trouble!”
“As she should have,” Alya said with a sniff, completely ignoring the first half of Marinette’s objection. “She got herself into trouble when she broke the rules. I will not allow you to blame yourself for her choices.” Then she turned to Marinette’s wardrobe and began rummaging through it.
“Um, can I help you?”
“Yes. You can sit quietly while I pick out the perfect outfit for tonight.” Alya pulled a summery swing dress from the wardrobe and eyed it critically. “Yup, this will do.” She tossed it to the bed and went back to rummaging.
Marinette eyed the dress. “Are we dressing me, or dressing you?”
“You, obviously. That dress is sweet, but it is too tame and too pink for me. Ah, here it is!” She pulled Marinette’s favorite pastel kimono and tossed it on top of the dress. “Now, where is that pink bikini?”
“Bikini?” Marinette echoed as Alya trailed off, gnawing her bottom lip as she thought. “Where the heck am I going?”
Alya’s expression cleared and she snapped her fingers in remembrance. “Oh yeah, I saw it earlier,” she muttered, dashing out of the room. Marinette stared after her bemusedly, and she returned a moment later with Marinette’s pink bikini.
“ We are going out to dinner for a double date with the boys,” she replied, tossing the bathing suit on top of the other items. After dinner you and Adrien go get naked at the beach while Nino and I take advantage of the empty apartment and get naked here.”
“Alya!”
“Also, I did laundry this morning. You’re welcome.”
Marinette slumped sulkily back in her chair, liking the idea very much but not wanting to admit that Alya was right. “Fine, I’ll go.”
“It’s cute that you thought you had a choice.”
“But the apartment won’t be empty,” Marinette shot back with a smirk. “Master Fu is here for a visit.”
“Damn.” Alya paused, then shrugged. “Oh well. We’ll just go to his place instead.” She gripped Marinette’s head between her hands, planted a kiss on her forehead, and sauntered out. “Oh, and I call first shower,” she called back over her shoulder. “We’re leaving in an hour.”
“You’re having a good time. Admit it.”
Marinette’s smile faded and she began to slowly spin her beer bottle in the pool of its own condensation, creating an ever-widening circle of water on the table. “You know that I am.”
“Well, she was, until you reminded her that she was upset,” Adrien said, and Alya stiffened.
“Hey!”
Nino drained the last of his beer in one long pull and then clunked his mug down onto the table, audibly smacking his lips in satisfaction. “Yeah, I thought we were trying to distract her.”
Alya deflated, and turned back to look at Marinette across the table. “I’m sorry, M. I’m just happy to see a smile on your face, and excited that I helped put it there.”
“It’s fine.” Marinette offered a small but sincere smile and squeezed Alya’s hand. “I am having a good time, and I’m glad you guys kept me from sulking all night.”
“Thanks, M.” Alya squeezed her hand back, and sat back take in everyone at the table. “So, dessert?”
Adrien grabbed the dessert menu from the end of the table and flipped it open. Then he tilted for everyone to see. “What’s good?”
“The pain au chocolat here is only so-so, but the créme brûlèe is to die for.”
“You only like your parents’ pain au chocolat , M.”
“Can you blame her? Nino asked. “Ooh, what about the créme caramel ?”
Marinette shrugged. “I’ve only have the pain au chocolat and the créme brûlèe, and I liked that too much to have tried anything else.”
“Lame,” Nino said without heat.
In the end, it was decided that Adrien and Marinette would share the one , while Alya and Nino tried the other. Adrien picked up the whole check, overriding his friends’ objections, and they left the cafe happy and full and just a little bit buzzed.
As she ambled along in the general direction of their apartment, hand in hand with Adrien while their two friends did the same a few paces ahead of them, Marinette thought back to Alya’s assessment about how the evening would progress and found herself blushing. Though she and Adrien had slept together in the same bed again last night, they not been intimate. It was something she wanted, but things were still new enough between them that she wasn’t sure just how to proceed. He’d said that his people are straight forward about sex, but knowing that didn’t make her any less shy. And what if he always wanted to do it in the water? That was fun and all, but--
Marinette’s thought process went abruptly blank as they rounded a corner and came came to a halt right next to Nino and Alya, who both seemed to be as frozen as she. A few others stood on the sidewalk or in the street, all of them staring at the same thing they were.
“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day,” said Nino inanely.
Marinette couldn’t help but agree.
A red-haired man in a t-shirt and blazer hovered in the air just a few meters away from them, his face eerily blank and his eyes glowing a violent, violet purple. He looked familiar to Marinette, but she couldn’t place him until she heard Adrien mutter the man’s name.
Nathaniel . He was a graduate student in the Arcane college, writing a thesis on channeling magic of any element through art. It was an idea which had thoroughly intrigued Marinette. He’d been another of Mme. Piers’ students, though because his course of study was far more independent, she’d rarely interacted with him. She was looking forward to reading his work, when it was published.
Marinette noted movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned far enough to see that Alya had raised her phone to record what was happening in front of them. Despite her fear (whatever was going on, it was not good), she rolled her eyes at Alya. She was as consummate journalist--even when maybe she shouldn’t be.
On her other side, Adrien squeezed her hand gently, drawing her attention, and released her. She grabbed for him, but he’d already stepped forward. “Nathaniel?” he said again, this time addressing the unnaturally still man floating in front of them. “It’s Adrien. What happened? Are you okay?”
Nathaniel’s body turned slightly, so that his empty gaze seemed to be now fixed on Adrien. “I’m sorry,” said a saccharine female voice, and Marinette felt gooseflesh run up her arms. Nathaniel’s mouth had moved, but that was definitely not Nathaniel’s voice. “Nathaniel cannot come to the phone right now. May I take a message?”
Yup, definitely not good. Marinette had an idea of what had happened to him--he’d been possessed, obviously--but she wasn’t certain of the what or how. And why was he here ? Had he been waiting for them? It seemed too great a coincidence to believe that he had not. She twitched her fingers into the sign for “air”, the signal she and Tikki had long ago agreed on as the signal for help, and Marinette felt a reassuring eddy of air lift the hair from her sweating neck. Marinette relaxed just a bit, knowing that her oldest friend and greatest ally was there with her.
“Why have you done this? Why are you here?” Adrien asked, his tone hard. She saw his hand move as well, anxiously spinning his black ring. Clearly, he was thinking along the same line that she was, and she was just as glad to have Pagg nearby as she was to feel Tikki.
“Oh, I just thought it might be nice to go for an evening stroll,” the voice answered, still using Nathaniel’s mouth. “After all, you never know who you’ll run into.”
Fuck. He--she?--had definitely been waiting for them. Marinette edged closer to Alya. “ You need to go, and get as many people away from here as you can, ” she pushed at Alya, hoping that her friend would be receptive to the mental communication.
Alya nearly dropped her phone in surprise, and stared at Marinette with round eyes.
“ This is bad, Alya. You need to get everyone away. ”
Alya nodded slowly, her eyes still wide, and she tucked her phone away in her purse. “What about you? And Adrien?” she asked, as quietly as possible.
“ We’re both strong mages, we’ll be okay. Please, just go. ”
She pressed her lips into a thin line at that, obviously not liking it, but recognizing the wisdom of getting people out of harm’s way. “Be careful,” she mouthed. At Marinette’s nod, she gripped Nino’s elbow and tugged him back.
Marinette stepped forward, even with Adrien, hoping to draw attention away from everyone else. “What do you want from us?”
Nathaniel’s body turned towards her, then, the violet eyes narrowed. “Everything.”
It was almost as if it had happened in slow motion. Strange details stood out to Adrien, branding themselves into his mind: the defiant tilt of Marinette’s chin, and the faint tremble that betrayed her fear; the grating menace of the once sweet voice as it answered; the glee on Nathaniel’s face as his hand lifted, his fist closing; and most especially, the stunned terror on Marinette’s face as a sparkling band of water coalesced and visibly tightened around Marinette’s throat.
Adrien’s vision narrowed to a single point as his fear gave way to fury. This--this thing was hurting Marinette, holding her off of the ground with a noose of air about her neck. “Release her,” he demanded tightly.
“Take her from me,” it taunted, laughing,
Adrien felt his ring pulse with energy. Something old and deep and primal beckoned to him. Plagg . “Fine,” he said, and stepped back into a defensive position and yielded to Plagg’s call. “ Tides. Rise.”
He had the satisfaction of seeing the violet eyes go wide as Plagg’s green and blue energy swirled triumphantly around him, filling him with all the raw power of the sea, binding it to him. It surged through him, filling him more completely than it had before, and he felt a wicked smile curve his lips. Plagg was just as furious, and more, felt a contempt for the being before them that was scathing in its depth.
All of this must have showed, because it faltered, loosening its grip on Marinette, and she gasped in a desperate breath before it regained its hold.
Plagg wanted to destroy ; Adrien held him in check. “Release her,” he demanded again, his voice echoing with barely leashed power.
“Take her,” the thing said again, still taunting.
And so he did. Adrien reached for the water around Marinette’s throat, his arm outstretched, and seized control of it with a sharp closing of his fist. His opponent could only gape at him as Marinette fell to the ground, clutching her throat and coughing. He smirked again.
He held the water before him, a tight, swirling sphere of water that hung suspended between his palms, and ready to launch against the possessed mage, but a grip on his ankle had him looking down. Marinette was on her knees at his feet, her skin pale except for the darkening bruise around her throat.
“Don’t hurt him,” she croaked. “It’s not him. Not his fault.”
He could feel Plagg balking at the request, but it was moot.
I’ve been working on an Elemental update for the last few days, but my writing muscles have atrophied and it’s not flowing just yet. I need y’all to send me creative energy and happy thoughts.
