Luka was laying on Marinette’s chaise idly stroking her hair as she sat looking at the miracle box. “I think I should get to know all the kwami. I’ve been learning about them, and what they do, but I haven’t tried all of them out yet. I’ve worn practically all of them, but I didn’t transform with them. I’m thinking maybe I should. I’ve used both Longg and Trixx in combination with Ladybug and Multimouse respectively, although Trixx is now with Rena. Plagg has been my kwami both on his own and combined with Mullo. And I’ve used both Mullo and Tikki together.
Luka sat up, pulling his girlfriend onto the chaise and into his lap. “Did you want to try out other kwamis, then?” He asked, as her head rested against him. When she nodded into his shoulder, he smiled into her hair. “Did you want to start with Sass? We could switch for a little while. Maybe go for a run, or find a quiet rooftop tonight, or an abandoned building.”
Marinette pulled back a little and looked him over, assessing. She glanced up at Tikki who also looked thoughtfully at Luka, before smiling at Marinette and giving her a thumbs up. “You’re on. We’ll switch tonight. If that works, there’s something else I want to try!” Smiling, Luka kissed her forehead, already thinking about what he would try in the mouse costume.
They waved goodbye to Marinette’s parents, claiming they were out for a walk and made their way over to the school and up to the roof. Luka pulled off his bracelet and handed it to Marinette. She smiled up at him, but instead of unclasping her necklace as he expected, she reached up to her earlobes and held out her earrings. Luka just gaped at her, eyes darting between her face and the earrings resting gently in her palm.
Hesitantly, he reached out and took the earrings, securing them in his ears, tucking his earrings into his pocket. Marinette nodded at him, her smile radiant, and called for Sass to transform her. Luka quickly followed suit, and they looked each other over. Luka wore almost the reverse of what Chat had worn when he was Mister Bug, with dark panels over his abdomen, and shoulders, black books up to his knees, while his sides, arms and thighs were all red with black spots. His hair was jet black, and his eyes their normal shade of blue.
The new snake hero grinned up at him, mischievously. “Aww… Ladybug, you got hot!”
A blush crept up the new Ladybug’s neck, but he looked down at his girlfriend's smirking face. “That’s Scarlet Beetle to you, Snake!” The snake just poked her tongue out at him.
She was wearing a dark teal suit that was very plain, but had lighter teal accents around the neck and forearms outlining the suit, and a lighter teal bandolier to which the lyre was attached on her back like a quiver. The legs of her suit also faded from dark teal to light teal on her boots. She grinned at him. “The name’s Medusa. I remember learning when we studied mythology that it means ‘guardian’ and I thought it was appropriate.”
The pair raced cautiously across the rooftops, mostly sticking to the shadows, until they came to the financial district, an area that was mostly empty at night. They both tested out their weapons, Medusa able to play surprisingly well on the lyre, and Scarlet Beetle a natural with the yo-yo. After about fifteen minutes of practice, Medusa looked up at Scarlet Beetle. Without breaking eye contact, she called out, “Sass, Mullo, unify!” There was a brief flash, and the light teal portions of her costume had turned pink, and a pink jump rope had materialized around her waist.
“I wanted to see if I was Multimouse, and one of me used Second Chance, if all the parts of me would remember, or if I would only remember when I came back together again. They experimented together, calling on Multitude, and then Scarlet Beetle told her a joke. She called for second chance, flicking back in time. It turned out that only the Multisnake wearing the bracelet remembered the joke and punchline, but when they call came back together, she did remember.
Having just detransformed in order to recharge both Sass and Mullo, they heard a telltale screaming just a few streets over. Immediately transforming into Multimouse, she beckoned the slightly stunned Scarlet Beetle to follow her, ignoring his suggestion of trading back. She did hand him the snake miraculous back, which was comforting, but he really wished she’d have taken the earrings as well.
The akuma was not a difficult one, and Multimouse and Scarlet Beetle were just working through a plan for Scarlet Beetle’s lucky charm when Chat Noir showed up. He turned out to be the missing element for the lucky charm, and they were able to defeat the akuma pretty quickly after that. His miraculous was beeping, but Multimouse’s wasn’t, so while he slipped behind the chimney to recharge, she stayed to talk to Chat.
She told him that she only knew what Scarlet Beetle had told her, but she did know he was Viperion. Ladybug had asked him to cover for her for the day as she was going to be unavailable. She would have gone to Chat, but the only two miraculous that couldn’t be combined were the Ladybug and the black cat. Acknowledging this truth, Multimouse continued that neither of them had seen Ladybug’s identity, and that when Viperion realized he had the earrings he was surprised.
Chat nodded. “That’s Ladybug, always three steps ahead of everyone else. Viperion is definitely a good choice, he’s a creative soul. I was Ladybug once, you know.” He couldn’t suppress the shudder at the memory. “She makes it look easy, but it isn’t.”
“You can say that again.” It was Viperion who emerged from behind the chimney. “I much prefer this job to that one. No offense Tikki.” He looked at the little red kwami who was cheerfully devouring a chocolate chip cookie. She smiled at him, crumbs falling from the corner of her mouth. “Even with everything I’ve seen, this is definitely the better gig.
Multimouse smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “You did a great job, Viperion. I feel safer knowing that both of you are around to back up Ladybug should she ever need it!” Both Chat and Viperion smiled at her. Chat offered a two-fingered salute and disappeared off to wherever he had appeared from, while Multimouse and Viperion headed back to an alley near the bakery.
They changed back to their civilian selves, and Luka handed the earrings back to Marinette. Walking the last few blocks back to the bakery, they loitered just outside the door as Luka stroked a thumb across Marinette’s cheek. In answer, she reached up and cupped his face with both her hands. “Thank you, Luka. It really does mean a lot to me knowing that you are able to back me up, should anything happen.” She pushed up on her toes, one of her hands sliding into his hair, gently guiding his mouth down to hers.
They stayed outside, kissing tenderly, until Tom stuck his head out the door. “Sorry to interrupt, kids, but it’s getting late, and I want to make sure Luka makes it home OK.”
Both teens were instantly blushing bright red, but Marinette kissed Luka’s cheek. “Let me know when you get home, alright?”
He nodded, and gave her one more hug, before grabbing his bike from the rack outside the house, snapping on his helmet and pedaling home.
Marinette Dupain-Cheng is tired. Not just sleepy, although she is that; not just ready for a break, although she desperately needs one. Marinette is exhausted to the very core of her being. She has all the typical stresses of a teenage girl: school, friendships, an unrequited crush that she is desperately trying to get over. She has the normal stressers of people living in today’s Paris the fear of akumatization, of being manipulated and turned against everyone you love, because some megalomaniac wants to steal jewelry from a couple of kids. The trouble is, she’s one of those kids with the magic jewelry.
The biggest problem in Marinette’s life right now is the fact that she is not only Ladybug, the most sought after of the city’s superheroes, and the only one who can purify the akumas, but the guardian of the miraculous. Her mentor lost his memory when circumstances forced him to revoke his guardianship, and she was left with nobody to turn to. Nobody who she could have no secrets from, at least.
Chat Noir, the only other full time superhero, found freedom in his miraculous form, where she had only found pressure. She’d enjoyed the freedom of not having to make all the decisions, even though she had, ultimately, helped Mister Bug come up with the plan. She needed to familiarize herself with all the Kwami, as their guardian, but for patrol, she thought that she could let them go back to previous wielders, and she could take Mullo, hopefully avoiding too much suspicion.
She ran her idea past Chat, and he loved it, offering to pair up with some of the newer recruits in the beginning, and let them pair with each other as they became more comfortable. Having the work spread over more hands, as well as well as having users who were more in tune with their kwamis was a comfort all around to Marinette.
The first two that they spent time with were Rena Rouge and Carapace, the most familiar of the temporary heroes, slowly rotating through them all, taking turns, talking about which heroes to pair up with each other in order to balance well. Rena and Carapace were a natural duo, as were Pegasus and King Monkey. Ryuko and Queen Bee were less obvious, but Ryuko could handle Queenie’s attitude, and Queen Bee respected Ryuko’s skill as a fighter. That left Viperion to be paired with Multimouse, while Chat paired with Ladybug. Marinette was doing double duty, but they both agreed to tag along with the other teams, occasionally, and Marinette was content to let Chat go out more often than she.
Ladybug would drop off the Miraculous to the two on patrol that night, occasionally accompanying them for a little while, other times just telling the pair where to meet up. A schedule had been worked up for patrol, letting people plan their lives around patrol, and accommodating those who occasionally had plans later in the evenings.
It was Multimouse’s night for patrol, and she absolutely loved the freedom that came with pairing with Mullo and it definitely didn’t hurt that Chat had suggested that she pair with Viperion. Luka had been her rock since she had become the guardian. Not that he knew anything about that, but he’d been there for Marinette, whenever she needed him, whether it was as a shoulder to cry on, a tutor for homework, or just as friends hanging out. He would show up when she needed him, and never pressure her about anything.
Marinette thought that she would always feel something for Adrien, but she knew that would never work out, and was moving on. She had always found Luka attractive, and the more she got to know him, the more she felt drawn to his quiet strength and calm exterior. Feeling braver under a mouse mask of anonymity, Marinette decided that she was going to have a little fun while patrolling with him.
Luka had been surprised when Ladybug had caught him on the deck of the Liberty, asking if he wanted to continue being Viperion. Being unable to say no to one of the heroes of Paris, he nodded, watching the smile break across his face. As she explained what they were planning, how he would spend time with either her or Chat to start with, then he would have a partner to patrol with. He’d not seen Multimouse in action… there’d been nothing about her on the Ladyblog, either; not that there had been much about him, but at least he’d been mentioned.
Multimouse had only been out once, from what Ladybug had said. She’d done a fantastic job when both Ladybug and Chat Noir had lost their kwamis to an akuma, saving the day, but then had revealed her identity to Chat, making her a target, so she hadn’t been brought out again. He leaned against the chimney of the roof on which he was to meet Multimouse, pulling out his lyre, gently strumming a tune, closing his eyes while he waited.
Scampering across the rooftops, Multimouse heard Viperion before she saw him, music floating up towards her, a song of anticipation and nervous energy. One more rooftop, and she saw him. One foot braced against the chimney, back resting lightly against it, eyes closed, head tipped back towards the night sky, hands cradling the lyre like he would his guitar if he were in his civilian clothes.
She landed silently on the roof. Although she was new to partnering with Mullo, she wasn’t new to being transformed, and the muscle memory was there, no matter the form, she just had to stop herself from reaching for her yo-yo.
Taking a few steps towards her new partner, Viperion sensed her and opened his eyes, a small smile playing around the corners of his lips. “You must be my new partner. I’m Viperion.” He held out his hand for her to shake, pausing briefly as their eyes met, and he seemed to take note of something, but his smile didn’t waver.
Sending him a teasing smile, Multimouse looked up into his green eyes. “Hi! I’m Multimouse!” Her smile grew wider as she appraised him. “And I’m a little nervous to be paired with a snake!”
The look she sent him had him wondering which one of them should truly be afraid, but he just offered her an easy smile. “Ladybug said that we didn’t have any set route, just a general area to run through. Did you want to start anywhere in particular?”
Multimouse’s tail twitched, and a wicked grin spread over her face. “Want to start at the Montparnasse Tower?” When Viperion nodded, she was off, before throwing back over her shoulder, “race you there!”
She was leaping off the next rooftop over when Viperion’s laughter rolled over her, and she heard him land of the roof she’d just vacated. His much longer stride helped him keep up with her, so while he was closing the gap, it was painstakingly slowly.
Her breathless giggles traveled back to him on the wind, and he almost stumbled at the familiar ache it caused in him, but seeing her pink cheeks, flushed with happiness and exertion, and the wide smile she gave him as he landed behind her, only a few seconds slower to reach their destination, he knew that her happiness was worth more than anything.
Luka was pretty sure that an akuma could walk right up to him and he probably wouldn’t notice. He’s being a terrible superhero, he knew, paying more attention to the girl by his side, especially since she keeps flirting with him, but at that moment, he didn’t care, and he knew that Ladybug wouldn’t object, either.
