SPOTS WORN BY ANOTHER

ONE

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MARINETTE would like to think that she was very accustomed to strange things occurring in her life. Why wouldn't she? Paris was attacked by a multitude of akumas whose powers ranged from strange to downright disturbing. And she, ordinary and plain Marinette Dupain-Cheng, was the one tasked to wield the Ladybug Miraculous and save Paris from being overrun by the akumas.

But there was a limit to what Marinette could handle, and seeing an older version of herself lying on the floor of her bedroom, unconscious, was when the string snapped.

A scream erupted from her mouth and the older version of herself - clothed in the protective spandex of her transformation - snapped her eyes open and leaped to her feet, immediately flowing smoothly into an defensive position. Sharp bluebell eyes roved across the bedroom until they snagged on a flustered, exasperated fourteen-year-old Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

"W-WHAT ON EARTH?!" Marinette screeched, shuffling into the corner of her bed, her eyes wide with fright and pinned on the also flabbergasted Ladybug. "W-who the hell are you?"

She definitely wasn't expecting the drawled reply from her older self.

"Clearly the older version of yours truly, mini-bug." Ladybug's tone was dripping with sarcasm as she crossed her arms, her whole body relaxing, clearly sensing no threat. Then tacked on, "Well, maybe not your older self from this dimension."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'NOT FROM THIS DIMENSION?!" Marinette shrieked, tugging her covers closer to her body, in hopes of foolishly defending herself. "A-and why s-should I believe y-you? Y-you c-could be an a-akuma."

Ladybug opened her mouth to respond before she was interrupted by a sweet, "Marinette, what's wro-WHAT THE?"

Clearly Tikki had not seen everything as she had claimed many times before this uh, incident.

"WHO ARE YOU?" Marinette screeched once more.

"If you would just let me explain." Ladybug growled, her fists clenching and a frown marring her face before she took a deep breath. "Okay, so you want proof that I am Marinette Dupain-Cheng? Okay. When you - we - were seven, we discovered our passion for fashion by seeing our mother stitching our favourite dress back together and eventually helping her."

Marinette and Tikki shared a glance, Marinette's muscles relaxing as she looked at the older version of herself with more curiosity than fear. Somewhere within her, those words Ladybug had said rang with the truth of her words and Marinette recalled that day with fondness as she felt those wondrous feelings of excitement and amazement.

"Now that's cleared up, how do you think - or know - that you're from a another dimension. Travel between dimensions is nigh on impossible and if it ever is done, it's extremely dangerous." Tikki stated, her eyes brimming with questions she hadn't voiced.

Ladybug flopped onto the pink desk chair and wheeled it in circles as she answered. "One, I redecorated my room by this point. Two, I definitely changed my look. Turned out the pigtails weren't my style after a while."

Marinette's curiosity increased, though she didn't leave the supposed safety of her bed. "Huh?"

Her wordless question was ignored as Tikki cut in, "What's different in your dimension. From the look and feel of you, you're powerful - more powerful than I've sensed before."

A quick exposure of white teeth in a grin. "Because, in my world," Ladybug paused, glancing briefly at her younger self before her attention returned back to Tikki. "Chat and I knew each others identities from the very beginning."

Suffice to say, Marinette was quiet for the rest of the afternoon as she promptly fainted after that tid bit of information was revealed.

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Night had arrived by the time Marinette woke once more.

Groggily pulling her covers away from her, she tumbled down the steps of her bed and turned around - only to come face to face with her older self. Her mouth dropped open and she drew in the necessary air to release an ear-splitting scream before a warm, spotted hand clamped firmly down her mouth. Her scream was muffled and her older self only looked miffed.

When her muffled squawks had trailed off, Ladybug only drawled, "You done?"

Marinette nodded meekly, her eyes still wide. Ladybug's hand dropped, her own pair of bluebell trailing over her meek fourteen-year-old self. She must of found what she was looking for when she abruptly turned around and collapsed on the pink desk chair. "You know, you could thank me. If you screamed, then our parents would've been up here in a heartbeat."

"Uh . . . thanks?" Marinette squeaked, frozen to the spot. Tikki silently flitted to Marinette's shoulder, patting her cheek as a silent show of support. Marinette didn't know if she ever felt more grateful for the small kwami. "S-so about the identity t-thing?"

"Oh, that." Ladybug said, starting to look sheepish. "I understand that probably wasn't the best thing to jump on you, but . . . my point is, I'm sorry." It hit Marinette that this was the first time she had seen an expression on Ladybug's face that was (she guessed) normally on her own face. "Anyway, after you fainted, Tikki filled me in on everything and I understand that you haven't - and afraid - to reveal your identity to Cat Boy, correct?"

Marinette nodded hesitantly, growing bolder and as her curiosity began to overwhelm her nervousness.

"Well, that wasn't exactly our case as I figured his identity out pretty soon after we defeated Stoneheart. I can't really explain what happened, I mean there was nothing extremely revealing about him it just . . . clicked." Ladybug explained, gesturing wildly as she did so, nibbling on her bottom lip.

Marinette took a hesitant step forward. Ladybug seemed to perk up at this and gave her a soft smile, blue eyes twinkling.

"Since it's gonna be awhile before I return to my own dimension, I'll just stay here. If that's alright with you." She tacked on quickly at the end.

"Of course." Marinette chirped. An awkward silence ensued which Marinette took to her advantage and absorbed the details that made up Ladybug's transformation. Her attention first snagged on the style her hair was pinned into. A tight French plait tamed her ebony locks, held together by a small ladybug hairband. A simple mask covered her identity, the same domino style that Marinette herself had, but instead outlined with a small strip of black around the edges. Marinette's gaze shifted downwards to see a black collar attached to a simple bodysuit. Black started at her fingertips to her shoulders on both arms, and the trademark red-and-black spots covered her torso. Pure black started at her hips and trailed downwards and when Marinette stopped at her feet, she shrieked,

"YOU WEAR HEELS?!"

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AN: How do you like it?

I've always liked these types of stories and I was inspired to do this from one of PerditaAlottaChocolate (sorry if I spelt the username wrong!) and I would just like to point out this will be a short story unless it gets away from me and I end writing more than I plan too.

Btw, how do you feel about Ladybug's costume? :D

- Bye

P.S. NOT EDITED!