Enjoy!


She was the Destroyer and he the Creator, but maybe they got it wrong all along.

It turns out that sometimes everything needs to burn down before it can grow, and even the most beautiful life can quickly turn on itself.


Inferno Oeuvre

by thepeacockandthebutterfly

Marinette sighed, looking down at her fingertips with thinly veiled anger. She hated the way sparks formed at her fingertips, flames blooming in her palms at the slightest thought. She took a deep breath, holding the inferno within her at bay to protect that fabric that she was slaving over. She couldn't risk setting this on fire.

Not now. Not like this.

She took another breath before looping the needle through the fabric again, concentrating. Even the slightest prick of the needle had set off her flames in the past, so she needed to take painstaking care.

Marinette finally relaxed as she knotted the thread and snipped it off, smiling triumphantly at her finished creation: a pale blue sundress. With a grin, she tossed it in her tank full of chemicals that would render the garment flame-retardant. She had to take every precaution with her clothes, as fabric tended to easily burst into flames, and she didn't want to ever lose control of her flames and burn off every stitch of clothing on her!

It was hard work to hold her powers at bay, but at least the final product was worth it. Everything in her room was flame-proof, so at least here she could let out her emotions without judgment.

With a sigh, Marinette curled her fingers upward, letting small burst of flames shoot up into the air and twine around themselves. Entertained, she wiggled her fingers and deftly controlled the way her flames moved.

They spun around each other in kaleidoscopic motions, spiraling inward and then shooting away. With another twist of her fingers the fire was dancing, creating vivid images in her room; a princess spinning alone in her room, a puppy running towards its owner, a flower blooming from the soil.

Marinette grinned, hands dropping to her sides. She was getting better at controlling herself.

"Marinette, honey, that was beautiful!" her mom called, clapping from where she had opened the trapdoor in Marinette's floor that led down to the rest of the house.

"Mom? When did you get here?"

Her mom laughed, "I've been watching since you made that dog out of your fire!"

Marinette sighed and smiled, turning to follow her mom down into the main floor of their house. "I'm getting better at controlling them..."

"That's actually what your father and I wanted to talk to you about!"

Her father was setting the table as Marinette and her mom walked over, telekinetically controlling the dishes to sit themselves at the correct places. As one of Paris's best bakers, his telekinetic powers often came in handy.

"My little Bread-inette! Have you finally left your cave of a bedroom to sit down and eat with your papa?"

Marinette giggled. "Papa, it's an attic, it's practically the opposite of a cave! And yes, Mama said that you had something to talk with me about..."

"Ah yes," he said, quieting down, "let's all sit down and pray before we have this conversation."

Sitting down, Marinette reached over to hold her parents hands as they bowed their heads in prayer for a moment before straightening up and digging into the delicious meal before her. "Okay, papa, what did you need to tell me?"

He coughed, pausing to fully swallow his food before beginning to speak, "You see, the bakery is getting a lot more business lately, but I still don't want to hire new workers...your mama has offered to start helping out, but that would mean that she would be unable to homeschool you."

Marinette froze. Public school...that would mean interacting with other people...that meant showing her abilities to other people...

"Papa...I can't, really, what if I hurt someone?" she protested.

"You won't, you have great control over your powers now! Plus, we would be sending you to a powers school, they'll be equipped to handle children with potentially dangerous powers!"

She frowned. "Every time I sneeze, there's fire; everytime I hurt myself, even on accident, I burst into flames! I don't know what your idea of control is, but that certainly isn't it...plus fire abilities are so rare, I doubt any school would be ready for me."

Papa frowned right back. "Mari, you have better control than you think. The whole point of specialized schools for empowered children is that they are taught how to completely control your powers!"

Mama stopped the small argument with the clearing of her throat. She smiled softly at both of them before speaking. "Darling, the fact of it is that we have no choice. It's just not possible for me to continue to homeschool you! And we can't exactly send you to a public school with a bunch of normal children," seeing Marinette's distressed face, Mama placed a calming hand on Marinette's arm, "I understand that you're scared and nervous, but this is an important opportunity for you. Won't you at least give the school a chance?"

It was her mom's pleading puppy dog eyes that finally caused Marinette to let out a suffering sigh. "Fine."


"I regret agreeing to this," Marinette declared to her mother as she stood before the school building, "it literally says public school right on the front sign!"

Her mom laughed. "Marinette, private power schools have to be disguised or else there would probably be some delusional normal person trying to bomb the whole place!" she directed Marinette to take a step forward, "now squint your eyes and try to see what people are walking in."

Marinette narrowed her eyes dutifully, looking out for physical manifestations of powers. Every empowered being had a tell of some kind, a physical feature that would appear when the child presented their power. She herself had a tell, a curl of fire encircling her wrist like a tattooed bracelet. Her father's tell was a faint silvery wing tattoo above his left eyebrow.

"Hm, that girl has a...wifi symbol marked on the back of her hand? And it looks like that boy has a cluster of bubbles on the side of his neck..."

"Very good, Marinette! Now let's go instead," her mother led Marinette into the school, leaving the girl to look all around at her new surroundings.

They walked up to a lady sitting behind a desk that sat between two strange elevators. She smiled at them, looking Marinette over, turquoise eyes easily locking onto her wrist and widening slightly. "Oh my, a fire user? What a rare ability!" she exclaimed, tucking a bright red lock of hair behind one ear. She giggled after seeing Marinette's stunned face. "Sorry, I am Mrs. Sukse, but I prefer for my students to call me Tikki! I will be one of your two 'power' instructors here!"

"What?"

"In addition to your regular classes, you will have one period of specialized class a day. The first class, which I teach, is often nicknamed 'Control.' If you couldn't tell from the name, I'm in charge of helping students control their powers; both preventing them from showing and also gaining better dexterous command of them! My co-teacher, who goes by Plagg, teaches 'Application.' In his class, you will get the chance to use your powers to their full potential," Tikki explained.

Marinette frowned slightly. "That...sounds like a bad idea, my powers are not the safest to unleash."

"We have many students here with dangerous potential, Ms. Dupain-Cheng, you are not alone."


The first half of the day passed by rather quickly, Marinette's mother having already taught her most of the content in her normal classes. Becoming antsy now, Marinette had been waiting for her power classes all day, even if it was purely out of sheer boredom. She walked up to Tikki's desk and found that the woman was no longer seated there, having been replaced with a sign.

Door 1: Creation

Door 2: Destruction

Checking her schedule, Marinette saw that Creation was listed first. She walked over to the first elevator and pressed the solitary button by the side, watching as it flashed purple for a moment before opening. She walked in, carefully inspecting the interior of the ornate elevator. The doors shut with a ding before the lights started flashing. A panel popped out from the door, "place hand here" inscribed just above the metal panel in neat cursive. Marinette stretched out her hand to place it on the panel. The letters above it changed suddenly, now reading "direct powers here." Pausing for a moment, Marinette hesitated before letting fire wrap around her palm. The doors went ding again before gently sliding open to reveal a room decorated in spots of red and black.

"Ah, Ms. Dupain-Cheng, I'm glad you found your way to my class!" Tikki sang out, drawing the attention of every single person in the room (much to Marinette's discomfort).

"Ooh, newbie!" called out a blonde-haired girl, sashaying her way over to Marinette. Piercing sky blue eyes scanned Marinette up and down before glossy pink lips settled into a pout. "You aren't much to look at are you...well that's good for me!" She flicked her ponytail at Marinette before sashaying back away, allowing Marinette to see the hint of white wings tattooed on her ankles.

"Should I be insulted?" Marinette wondered out loud.

A laughing brunette, the girl with a wifi symbol on her hand that Marinette had seen earlier, slung her arm around Marinette's shoulder. "Nah, girl, Chloe gives the same treatment to every newbie that walks through those doors!" Marinette smiled awkwardly in return, unused to physical contact with anyone other than her mother. "Haha, you're cute, my name is Alya!"

"So what's your shtick?" asked a brown-skinned boy as he flung his arm over Marinette's other shoulder and winked at Alya.

Alya smacked the boy with her free hand. "Stupid! You have to introduce yourself first!"

"Oops, I'm Nino...so what's your shtick?"

Rolling her eyes, Alya sighed exasperatedly. "You're so rude!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

The two removed their arms from Marinette's shoulders to flail at each other wildly in what looked like a teasing couple's fight. It was an accident, but Nino slipped and fell on top of Marinette.

With a squeak of shock, Marinette lost control, flames blooming from her palms. The fire spread to Nino first, setting his clothing on fire. It continued into the wooden panels of the walls, slowly setting the entire room on fire as Marinette could only watch in horror. The flames continued to spread, eliciting screams from the trapped children in the room.

Tikki sat on the floor, a gentle smile on her face as she surveyed the damage. She was so excited for Plagg to meet this girl. With a flick of her fingers, the flames were snuffed out, gentle ruddy streams repairing everything in the room with ease. The students cheered, relieved that they weren't about to be burned alive.

Marinette just sat where she was in stunned silence. A sniff sounded, Marinette looking up to see Chloe standing there. "Freak," the blonde sneered, before turning and strutting back to her seat.

Feeling like she was going to cry, Marinette clutched her head in her hands. "I knew this would happen," she whispered to herself as she curled up into a ball, "all I can ever do is destroy."


It turns out that I am a horrible writer, w o w!

Actually I'm trying to write a book, but I have these two conflicting ideas that I love so so much (1. Retelling of the Chinese Seven Suns legend 2. Soulmates story) if you guys want to give me a suggestion of which to write that'd be amazing

Anyways, I am back! with another! fanfiction!

I love Colpo di Fulmine and I was really excited for it, but uh the complete lack of interest in it was a little bit disheartening...I'm sure my beta agrees with me that it hurt a little bit to have our hard work go mostly unrecognized.

To try and reinspire my writing spirit, this little mess is for all of you.

REMEMBER REVIEWS AND FOLLOWS AND FAVORITES ARE LIKE FOOD FOR A FANFICTION WRITER!