“Chat Noir, look out!” Ladybug pushed the hero who was once again slacking off out of the way of the akuma’s blast, putting herself in the way instead.
Suddenly, she is somewhere that resembles an empty room, with some of her friends . “What is going on?”
“Since you obviously weren’t paying attention to the speech I gave before, I’ll explain again. ” The akuma appeared behind her, and she ran at it. “You can’t hurt me here. This is my dimension. Now, maybe you should sit down, and I’ll explain it to you. I am Bachelorette, a love akuma. Whomever I hit with my beam is transported to a pocket dimension to live out their version of the reality show the Bachelorette. All your contestants are people who have liked you in the past or currently do. You can’t get out until you pick someone to be in a relationship with. Hawkmoth can’t reach here, so he doesn’t know your identity, Marinette. Now, smile for the camera!” With that, the akuma disappears.
“Camera?” She shakes her head. “Reality TV show. Someone is watching this. Perfect.”
She walks over to her ‘contestants’. “This is apparently the Bachelorette. You allegedly all like me in some way or another. Got to be honest, wasn’t expecting 10 people. Mind telling when and why?”
Luka steps up first. “I have liked you since I first met you. You are still the song playing in my head. You are creative and kind.” Kagami follows closely behind.
“Your smile is infectious and you never hesitate to forgive someone.”
Tim barely looks up from the coffee he managed to bring with him. “You were the mysterious kid that appeared one summer and talked back to Bruce, which almost everyone found hilarious. I have since stopped liking you, and am currently dating Connor.”
“Ditto. You know how easily I give affection out. Right now, I wanna go to Cass.” Steph smiles.
Nataniel shyly smiles. “You already knew about my crush on you from before.”
“You were so kind and bubbly, even if you were clumsy.” Rose bounces on the balls of her feet.
“When I said I liked Alya, I was actually trying to confess to you.”
Adrien frowns. “I have actually no idea. My only crush has been on Ladybug.”
“I liked you for a while, but bullied you because my only role models were my parents, and you know how they are.” Chloe stares at her feet.
Peter was the only one left. “Um, you were kind and we had common interests,” the ‘in red, arthropods and crime-fighting’ was left unsaid, “so I slowly fell for you.”
Marinette was stunned. “Okay. Seems like me being kind is a common thing people find attractive. Noted. Um, Bachelorette, what happens when I send people home?” The akuma appears behind her again.
“When you send people home, by telling them that they have been sent home, they go to the viewing room. The only exception is if they are in someone else’s Bachelorette season as well.”
“Wait, viewing room?”
“Yup! Your class, the Waynes, and May are trapped in a room and are currently watching this play out.”
“Perfect.” She turns back to the contestants. “Okay, half of you have significant others, so I’m sending you home. Nino, Nathaniel, Rose, Tim and Steph, you have been sent home.” The 5 of them got sent home in a puff of smoke.
“Ooohh, what an enticing first episode!”
…….ooooo000O000ooooo…….
Meanwhile, the class is confused as to why they are trapped in their classroom forced to watch Marinette’s misadventures in love, the Waynes are confused as to why they never knew that there was a supervillain in Paris, and Aunt May is confused to why she isn’t at work anymore. She is a nurse, her work is on a time-restriction. Meanwhile, 5 kids teleport from the screen into the room.
“It’s not like she’s going to choose anyone besides Adrien anyway!” Alya exclaims to her classmates. A chorus of agreements permeate the room. The Bats glance at each other, and Dick is the first one to speak.
“Which one is Adrien?”
“The blond guy.”
Damian scoffs. “If you actually look at the screen, you’ll see that she is blatantly ignoring the blond boy. She seems much more interested in the blue-haired boy, or maybe the brunet.” For some reason, this makes a purple-haired girl smile. Jason rolls his eyes at this.
“Obviously, she is more interested in the dark-haired girl than either of the boys. But yeah, today isn’t a good day for blonde rich kids.” As he says this, Marinette tells Chloe to improve her friendship with Sabrina before pursuing a romantic relationship, and tells Adrien that she isn’t interested in having a doormat.
Bruce speaks for the first time. “I think she likes the remaining three the same.”
…….ooooo000O000ooooo…….
That was exactly what was happening. Marinette liked Peter, Kagami, and Luka all the same amount, which led to her continuously taking them on dates while trying to set up the two left behind. She has no idea what to do, she is no closer to reaching a decision.
Meanwhile, Kagami, Luka, and Peter had started to develop feelings for each other as well as for Marinette, and didn’t know how to talk about it. Turns out, they wouldn’t have to: the Bachelorette exposed their thoughts instead.
“Where’s the drama? The pizazz? You three are supposed to be fighting over her, not also developing feelings for each other! This is reality TV!” The akuma looks at the four of them distastefully. Finally, she sighs. “A polyamorous relationship is technically also an option. If Marinette agrees, she can declare that she is choosing all three of you, and you can be as lovey-dovey and uneventful as you want with each other somewhere far away from me and my cameras.”
The teens look at each other, then Marinette speaks. “I choose Luka, Kagami, and Peter as my romantic partners.” Suddenly, they were engulfed in a bright light, and they were in Marinette’s classroom. She looks around, then runs for the door. “As much as I’d love to stick around, there are still people out there. Since I have already been hit, Bachelorette can’t affect me. I’ll be back once she’s defeated.” And with that, she dashes to an empty classroom and transforms into Ladybug again.
Without Chat Noir being around to interfere with the battle, she quickly finds and purifies the akuma, then races back to her boyfriends and girlfriend, eager to confirm that they have a relationship with the four. “Hey, Peter? Are you and May staying in Paris?”
“Yeah, there’s no way for us to fly back to New York right now, so we’re stuck.”
“Would you two like to stay in our guest bedroom?” She smiles bashfully as she asks him.
“Sure. the three of us,” Peter gestures behind him to Kagami and Luka, “were about to ask if we could come over anyway. We wanted to discuss boundaries and define our relationship with you.”
“Okay. They’ve ended school early since my classmates were trapped, so we can go now if you want.”
“Sure!” As marinette started to walk with the three of them, someone grabbed her arm and pulled her towards them.
“Hey Marinette, have you actually given up on Adrien? Cause you know it isn’t nice to string along three people just to dump them when your first choice comes around.” Alya looks at the girl in front of her analytically. Marinette just rolls her eyes and tugs her arm free, sprinting after her group.
They are all laughing together, and Luka picks Marinette up for a piggyback ride. Peter holds Luka’s hand while Kagami hooks her arm through Marinette’s leg. They looked like a mess, but they were all having fun, and that was the only thing they cared about right then: each other.
