“Okay.”, Marillion turned away from the railing, back to her champion. “I think I bought us a few moments.”
The heroes would be back, no doubt, but not before she could handle the situation on her own.
“Stoneheart, give Mylène a little room to breath! You’re trapping her.”
“Oh!”, he immediately opened his hand so Mylène sat on his gigantic palm instead of being stuck in his fist. “Sorry, Mylène!”
This, however, did not help to make her more comfortable. Quite the opposite: She threw one look over the edge of Stonehearts hand, realized they were on top of the Eiffel Tower, and curled into a pitiful ball of fear. Stammering an apology, Ivan closed his hand around her until she was safely tucked into his fist again.
Oh dear. She had to do something!
“Look, I know you must be afraid,” she tried to calm the trembling Mylène, hopping on Stonehearts arm to be a little closer to her. The girl looked at her with obvious apprehension.
“I swear, scaring you like this was not our intention. Right, Stoneheart?”
Ivan nodded eagerly, as docile as a puppy now. She sighed.
“He just wanted a chance to talk to you! So... would you listen to him? Just listening should do the trick.”
Mylène hid her face behind Ivan’s giant thumb.
“I just want to go home!”, she whimpered and Marillion patted her back in sympathy.
“I know, and I’m awfully sorry it came to all this mess. But I can’t transform Ivan back until he’s got it off his chest, so I really, really need your help.”
Mylène looked at her, considering her options and Marillion sat down.
“Hey, he’s not going to be mean to you, I promise. He’s a softie! And once he’s said what he wants to tell you, I’ll personally bring you back home myself. Alright?”
Mylène sniffled, but looked a little hopeful now.
Stoneheart beamed, letting himself fall into a sitting position.
“So, this morning, when I tried to speak to you before the lesson started...”
Marillion jumped off of his arm and onto the platform to give them a little space. Ivan could handle it, now. With her nearby to keep him in check, no heroes to interrupt and no Chloé to provoke him, he would finally be able to speak his heart and cleanse the Akuma.
Everything would be alri-
“Lucky Charm!”, yelled a far too familiar voice right then, a second before something hard - a parachute?! - hit Marillion right in the face. The momentum slammed her into into the railing and she saw stars.
“I do not think this is how you were supposed to use it.”, Chat Noir commented as he landed next to his goddamn partner, who only scoffed at him.
“What, are you going to cat-splain my powers to me, Kitty? Obviously, it worked just fine!”
“Stoneheart!”, Marillion groaned, more out of annoyance than pain. “Get Mylène to safety - again! Because these damn idiots are back - again! So I’m going to kick. their. asses,” she snarled, getting back to her feet, “AGAIN!”
With a roar Stoneheart jumped over the railing, about to climb down the tower, as she deflected Ladybirds yo-yo with her cane and attacked her. But she should have gone for Chat Noir instead: While she was busy fighting Ladybird, the cat had jumped over them and attacked Stonehearts free hand holding onto the tower. Startled, Stoneheart lost his grip, slowly fell backwards... and instinctively opened his other hand to catch himself. The hand holding Mylène - and the Akuma!
“Catch Mylène!”, she ordered frantically and he obeyed, allowing the triumphant Chat Noir to dive past him and throw the akumatized ball of paper back to Ladybird.
“No!”, Marillion screamed, but the cackling dumbass that was Ladybird had already broken the object.
Time seemed to slow down.
The purple Akuma, released from its target, was fleeing skywards. Stoneheart’s powers faded immediately and he transformed back, losing his hold on the railing. He fell, and Mylène with him.
Marillion had seen the most ridiculously unfortunate scenarios play out around her for years - she just had that kind of luck. She’d always noticed the chain reactions of disaster unfold just in time to prepare for the embarrassment, never soon enough to stop it.
But this was different. Lives were at stake. And she had superpowers.
Time resumed its usual pace and her body moved on its own, her mind preceding it.
Three problems at hand: Ivan falling, Mylène falling, and an Akuma on the loose.
Three persons present: Ladybird, Chat Noir, and Marillion herself.
Ladybird hadn’t expected Stoneheart to detransform and wouldn’t notice in time; she was too busy with the Akuma. Chat Noir was closest to Ivan and had his staff to catch himself. That left Mylène and Marillion.
Within a heartbeat she had grabbed the parachute Ladybird had thrown into her face. She had no time to worry about the height, she was already jumping over the railing and diving after Mylène.
As expected, Chat had caught Ivan and saved them with an unorthodox use of cataclysm - why didn’t you just use your damn staff, idiot?! - so she passed him without taking her eyes off of the screaming girl. Using all of her strength she grabbed Mylène around the waist and held onto her, then she opened the parachute.
An audible sigh escaped the girl and she clung to Marillion like a life line.
“It’s okay, you’re safe!”, the butterfly sighed. Laughing with relief she added: “Promised I’d get you back safe, didn’t I?”
Marillion didn’t wait for Ladybird to catch up with her. By the time the Miraculous Cure washed through the streets of Paris, she was long gone and back in her room, detransformed. Nooroo was sitting on her chaise lounge, stuffing himself with candy like his life depended on it. Nadja Chamack did her News Report in the TV, and of course there was only one topic.
“...Both students have returned home unharmed, and thanks to our new superhero Ladybird, all damages to our beloved city have been undone as well.”, she said with an unusual optimism. “It seems that the supervillain calling herself “Marillion” is not as much of a threat as feared. Let’s hope Ladybird and Chat Noir will continue to keep us safe!”
“Hmp!”, Marinette scoffed and turned the TV off. “Keeping them safe? Pah! I was the one who saved Mylène, wasn’t I?!”
Nooroo swallowed the last bit of candy before turning to look at her, a sad smile on his face.
“It was worth a try. I’m sure the guardian will understand.”
Realisation hit her and she jumped up.
“No! You can’t go back! You’ll be trapped forever!”
Nooroo floated up and patted her on the forehead.
“It’s safer that way.”, he shrugged. “I’m only creating chaos here.”
“No, no! Just... just look at today!”
He looked up at her, confused.
“Yes!”, she hurried to continue. “Sure, the public thinks we’re the bad guys. But if we hadn’t decided to akumatize Ivan, all these people would still be monsters, right?”
“Well... you have a point, but-“
“A-And Ivan! He finally confessed to Mylène, and now that she read his song, she actually likes him back! They looked so happy when we left, don’t you think so?”
“And they make such a cute couple too!”
Relieved that he was listening, she kneeled down in front of him.
“Who cares what the others say,” she shrugged. “If you ask me, we achieved some really great things today. Plus, I threw Chat Noir off the Eiffel Tower.”
“That definitely made my week.”
Nooroo snorted and settled into her cupped hand.
“Why, I’m glad you had fun, Marinette.”
“I did.”, she assured him. “I’ve never felt so... light before, Nooroo. So graceful and free. It was... miraculous.”
“But what if someone else gets upset around you? You’d have to suffer their misery as well.”
“Then we could akumatize them too!”
“It’s how your power is meant to be used, remember? To help people, like we helped Ivan. True, the way we did it was a little... rocky, but if something went really wrong, there’s always that annoying Ladybird, right? She can reverse any collateral damage. Besides...”
“I’d miss you if went and trapped yourself.”
A sniffle came from her lilac little friend.
“Of course, Nooroo. Very much.”
He rubbed his teary eyes clean, then he smiled.
“Then I will stay with you, as long as you’ll have me...”
When Marinette walked into the classroom alongside Alya the next day, the classroom was abuzz with chatter.
“I’m telling you, Marillion was super nice!”, Ivan insisted, holding hands with an eagerly nodding Mylène. “I’ve even still got all my memories from yesterday. She was honestly trying to help me!”
“Help you destroy the City?”
“No, you dork. Helping me confess.”
“So what, she’s like, Matchmaker Marillion?”, Nino threw in. “Sounds more like a stage name.”
“We shouldn’t take a supervillain this lightly. There’s a 89.7% chance she will strike again.”
“I’m not sure if she’s a villain.”, Mylène tried to argue. “She was looking out for me the entire time, and she saved my life!”
“Excuse me?!”, Alya suddenly spoke up, making Marinette jump. “Ladybird saved your life! When she freed you from Stoneheart! Marillion was just doing damage control for her image when she caught you, ‘cause she knew she’d lost. Also, wasn’t it Ladybird’s parachute that she used?”
Marinette sighed deeply. Looks like the most wonderful girl in the world is fangirling over the most useless one. Tragic.
The discussion went on as she quickly pulled Alya away before she could yell any further. The fiery haired menace made a move to fight her tugging, but stopped when she realized where Marinette was pulling her.
“Let’s sit here.”, she smiled at her best friend, pointing at the seat Chloé had claimed for herself yesterday. A gleeful grin spread on Alyas face and she sat down without further ado. Nailed it.
When Chloé stormed into the room, telling her off felt even better than being Marillion to her. The blondes face was an angry shade of red, but to everyone’s surprise, she sat down on the place Marinette pointed to.
“You’ll pay for that, eventually.”, Chloé scoffed. “When I tell Paris’ new hero, who is incidentally my BFF, about how rude you are, she’ll swoop in and teach you for treating me like that.”
“Oh?”, Alya snickered. “Paris’ rising star is your new best friend, now? Tell us about it!”
“You don’t deserve to know anything about her!”, Chloé snapped, but only managed to stay quiet for a second before the urge to boast overwhelmed her. “She’s the most powerful hero of them all, obviously, and of course she adores me. She’s strong, and quick, and absolutely exceptional!”
A dreamy expression sneaked in Chloé’s eyes as she went into raptures about Ladybird.
“She’s the prettiest too, and the only one with a fashion sense as good as mine. And she alone saved Paris from that superpowered menace, yesterday.”
“My, my, Chloé!”, Alya mocked her. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you had a crush on Ladybird.”
The class - childish as always - roared with laughter, but Chloé only pulled up an eyebrow.
“Who?”, she asked, and everybody froze mid-movement. Kim, who’d been in the middle of swiping away a tear of laughter, still had a finger under his eye.
“Oh, you mean that ridiculously incompetent wannabe in red, right?”, Chloé continued without a care. “Pah, as if I’d wanna be seen with that fashion disaster! No, Marillion is the true hero - of Paris and of the fashion world. Tailcoats look just exquisite on her.”
For a moment it was quiet, then the entire debate from earlier roared up and Marinette had to stop Alya from going for Chloé’s jugular.
“Wow, suddenly I have no respect at all for Marillion anymore.”, Ivan said in shock as Mylène patted his arm. “Yeah, if Chloé likes her, we were definitely wrong.”
She stayed longer after school, to deposit some candy reserves for Nooroo in her locker. Unfortunately, that meant she that when she left the school, it had already begun to rain. Just her luck.
Sighing she stepped back under the roof, hoping it would just be a quick shower and she’d get home dryly if she just waited a few minutes. Of course, her bad luck didn’t just end there though.
“Hey!”, said a tentative voice next to her, and she turned away when she realized it belonged to Adrien Agreste. Chewing-gum-boy. Chloé-friend.
“Look, about yesterday...”, he started anyway. “I really was trying to take it off.”
Yeah, a friend of Chloé tries to help. Fat chance.
That thought made her pause. Just this morning Chloé had announced Marillion to be her friend, and immediately, everyone had stopped showing support for the butterfly. She’d been bummed about that, hadn’t she? So... shouldn’t she give Adrien a chance?
She looked at him, signaling him that she was listening. Relieved he continued.
“I’ve never been to school before. Chloé has been my only friend for years now. All of this is... new to me.”, he admitted. “So I might be a little clueless sometimes, and act weird, or say the wrong thing. I’m sorry if I came across as a bully yesterday.”
He looked wistfully at the school behind them.
“But I really, really want this. Going to a public school, and making friends, and learning everything I’ve been missing out on.”
He smiled. A sad, but genuine smile, so warm and open she didn’t even need the impulse of her brooch to know that his apology was sincere. It made her heart ache for him and filled her stomach with butterflies. When Adrien opened his umbrella and turned to leave, she surprised herself by reaching for his arm.
“Just so you know...”, she said as he looked at her with these vibrant green eyes. “...I... I like to make new friends too.“
His hopeful face turned into a smile.
“Then I hope we can befriend each other.”
With a chuckle, he held out the umbrella to her. Flattered she reached out to take it - only to accidentally snap it shut and trap herself inside.
A startled laugh escaped Adrien, a sound sweeter than the bells of Notre Dame. She couldn’t help but join him, giggling nervously at her own clumsiness. He didn’t make her feel like a failure, even if he laughed at her. No, he just genuinely thought it was harmlessly funny, and worth a laugh. After the day she’d had, fun was exactly what she’d needed. Adrien was exactly what she had needed.
“See you tomorrow then!”, he said, running down the stairs towards a silver car.
“Y-Yeah! See you morrow-to, I mean, you tomorrow see! Wait, no...”
Another giggle reached her ears, this time from her purse.
“Has that boy stolen your speech?”, he teased and she grimaced.
“What did he look like? Was he very pretty? What was his name?”
She blushed, quickly running down the stairs.
“Well... yes, he was very pretty.”, she was forced to admit, though not without a groan. “Oh man, not again!”
She’d just started crushing on her best friend, she couldn’t like another person as well, could she?!
“It’s Love,” Nooroo only said when she voiced her concern. “It’s the greatest force in the universe, it doesn’t follow any rules. This is just another proof for what I knew from the moment I saw you.”
“That you have a big heart, full to the brim with love!”
“Oh you~!”, she waved off, reminiscing about the way she’d felt when Adrien had looked at her. As if she might float away.
“His name is Adrien.”, she sighed. “Adrien Agreste.”
Beside her, Nooroo stiffened.
“Yeah, like the designer. Gabriel Agreste, you know him?”
Nooroo ducked into her collar and watched as the silver car passed them, carefully staying out of sight.
“Yes.”, Nooroo said with wide eyes, already feeling the purple mist that would leave his mouth if he tried to say the wrong name.
