Inspired by these sets of paintings! grimmforest . tumblr post / 158009264752 / here-have-some-glowy-tattoos-that-deprived-me-of

It was on a cold, wintry day when she discovered them.

It had been a class on UV lighting, when she had discovered that the backs of her hands glowed. It was a delicate pattern, of checkered lines that extended from under the cuffs of her long-sleeved shirt, and stretched up to wrap around her middle finger like a middle-eastern princess.

She had run her fingers over the lines, noticing the spots that filled a gap between the lines, and the swirling pattern that extended from the lines around the base of her thumb.

Curious, she set down the blacklight device she held on the desk in front of her, and pulled her sleeve up to her forearm, before pulling it down quickly before anyone else could notice.

She was covered.

So she put her hand up.

'Miss? Can I go to the bathroom?'

The teacher rolled her eyes, but agreed, so Marinette switched off the torch and snuck it out with her through the darkened room.

She raced down the hall, and pushed the bathroom door carefully shut behind her with hardly a second glance at her surroundings.

She snapped off the light, and set the torch against the basin.

She pulled her shirt off, and could only stare as the girl in the mirror glowed gold more and more in the semidarkness.

From her hands the lines became cross-hatched splashes of colour, starting from a single, brightly-glowing spot on the back of each of her wrists. These splashes came from explosions of the same colour, one in the centre of her forearms and the other from the crook of her elbow. From there the tattoos changed, a patterened line stretching well over the balls of her shoulders and the tops of her arms, and within this pattern was the unmistakable pattern of ladybug wings. Down her back and over her chest was more splashing designs, and Marinette stared, open mouthed.

'Tikki,' she whispered, 'did you know about this?'

The kwami appeared from her jeans pocket, and performed a quick circuit of the girl's torso with a cursory glance.

'I did.' Tikki confirmed. 'These are the miraculous markings. My miraculous markings, specifically.'

'But, but, I had no idea they were even there?' Marinette gibbered.

'They show that a holder was, at some point in their lives, a miraculous holder. The longer you've had the miraculous, the larger and more detailed they become, to a point.'

Marinette stared down at herself. 'You mean they're going larger than this still?'

'No, this is about saturation point. You'll maybe get one or two more.'

Suddenly the door was pushed open, and Marinette let out a startled yelp, diving for the torch, which clattered to the ground unhelpfully.

'Marinette?' Came a startled, yet familiar voice, and the girl relaxed slightly, but still scrambled for her shirt.

'Adrien!' She pressed the shirt to her chest, flushing terribly. 'Th-this is the girl's bathroom!' She scolded.

The boy shook his head, approaching carefully. 'What's going on? You snuck off like there was an akuma. Did you hear something? What's with the blacklight?'

'N-nothing like that.' She shook her head. She took a deep breath. 'You're wearing short sleeves today, right?'

'Yeah, why?' His head tilted confusedly in the semidarkness.

'Have you seen what you look like under the lights yet?'

'No?' Adrien looked even more confused. 'Nino immediately stole my light and set both of ours to strobe so that he could pretend to rave.'

She nodded strongly to the one she had borrowed. 'Have a look.'

He blinked at her for a long moment, before turning his attention to the fallen torch.

He raised it, and his eyes widened.

'You're, gold?' He questioned, and she waved him away. 'I didn't know you were into that sort of thing?'

'I'm not wearing clothes, you idiot! I mean look at yourself!' She half-snapped, pressing the shirt to her skin further.

'I don't know what you're-oh,' he cut himself off as he raised the torch wondrously at his own exposed skin.

Snake-, or perhaps leaf-like tendrils wrapped themselves up and down his arms, cross-hatched and devilish, meeting to two points at the backs of his own hands and disappearing back up his sleeves.

He shrugged out of his overshirt, and pulled off his black undershirt as quickly as he could, with a slightly panicked glint in his eye.

He was almost entirely luminescent green.

The tendrils met at the balls of his shoulders into circles, where four-pointed stars sat in the centre, and his shoulder blades sported tendrils like flames that stretched and parted over his shoulders like cats eyes. He twisted carefully to peer to see what was on his back further, and read the two characters that sat in the small of his back aloud.

'Black cat.'

'What was that?' She looked up at him, focusing on his face this time.

'It's what's written, right there. Black,' he pointed, 'cat.'

The design fell even below this and beneath his hips, where they vanished from sight, with triangular ears and flaming designs continuing.

Marinette turned away to stop herself from staring, and his eyes were drawn by the movement.

'Lucky.'

She peered over her shoulder to eye him. 'You weirdo,'

He flailed at her, flushing red in the dim light. 'No, no! I mean, it's on your neck!'

'What?'

'You have "lucky" written on the back of your neck! I swear!' He pointed dramatically to the back of his own, before rubbing it awkwardly. 'I like the ladybug wings,' he admitted, facing her properly.

She eyed off the tattoos that stretched across his collarbones, but did not delve down his actual chest.

Indeed, it was the tattoos she was looking at.

'What are they for? Are they a miraculous thing?'

Marinette shook herself out of her revere. 'Tikki said they were the marks of a miraculous.' She paused, as Tikki nodded in agreement. 'Hey, Tikki, can you see these normally?'

'Yes, why?' Tikki questioned innocently.

'Then you would have seen them on Adrien well before we had known about each other.' Marinette raised an eyebrow. 'Is this why you weren't surprised in the slightest about finding out that Adrien was Chat?'

'Of course.' Tikki smiled. 'I'd recognise Plagg's markings anywhere!'

'And you knew? All this time?'

'I didn't want to spoil the fun.' The kwami shrugged.