Marinette had always considered herself an anomaly.
She's lucky, really, that it seems her parents have passed off her early... incidents... as dreams, where their daughter's mobile would spin on its own and her rattle would hover above her crib. Surely, they dreamed up those moments when their baby would float up and away, hovering above her bed? By the time she started school she knew not to tell a soul, to keep herself in check, to make sure her secrets stayed secret.
Of course, that all changed when she became Ladybug.
It starts when, high on life after an extremely successful akuma battle, she hops onto her bed and catapults off, floating through the air and giggling ecstatically. She doesn't even think about what she's doing until Tikki gasps, and Marinette drops to the floor like a stone.
"Ow," she says, faintly.
Once she gets up and explains herself, Tikki is surprisingly understanding about the whole thing.
"It's a wonderful thing, Marinette!" Tikki says encouragingly, fluttering about excitedly as Marinette hovers in the center of her room. "Why, it's absolutely miraculous!"
The pair of them giggle over it, and the sick feeling in her stomach vanishes.
Why was she ever worried?
Oh, she thinks, floating awkwardly in front of Alya. That's why I was worried.
Thankfully, the hallway is empty, other than her best friend. But if Alya doesn't stop gaping and help her down soon, she's going to be discovered by more than her best friend.
"Alya," Marinette whines, flipping over uselessly and desperately reaching for her friend. The blood is rushing to her face, because unfortunately magical powers don't come with automatic balance. "Please help me down before someone sees."
Alya shakes her head violently, rubs her eyes, and blinks. "Are you going to explain?" She demands, nonetheless reaching out for her friend's hand and dragging her towards the floor. Once Marinette's feet hit the ground, she thankfully stops floating.
"There isn't much to explain," Marinette admits. "I was... ah, born this way." She shrugs. "I can't help floating sometimes, and sometimes things around me float too. I can't... make it stop."
Alya reluctantly accepts her answer. But that isn't the end of her suffering.
Ever since that day in the rain, when the umbrella Adrien gave her had almost floated away when he turned his back, she's noticed a disturbing trend.
Whenever Adrien is around or paying attention to her, she starts feeling bubbly and floaty and before long she's struggling to stay standing (on the ground). Telling Alya is extremely embarrassing, as the girl teases her mercilessly in private, but it cuts down on the number of times she runs off so she can float on a ceiling in one of the classrooms, because Alya drags her back down to earth before things get too bad.
"You know if you date him, you'll have to tell him," Alya informs her one day. Marinette squeaks and tucks her head into her arms. "you can't hide it from him forever. I'm not consenting to dragging you down during your honeymoon."
Marinette whimpers under her breath.
"C'mon, girl," she says encouragingly, "He'll think you're cool."
Marinette shakes her head violently, and their argument goes nowhere.
As Ladybug, it's easier to pretend she doesn't sometimes float things.
If Chat Noir catches her pulling something into her hand, she pretends she dragged it over with her yoyo. There was that one embarrassing incident with the ball toss where they ended up floating above her head instead of swooping through the air and back down onto her target, but she manages to pass it off as having a strong arm and them being higher up than they think.
However, on a regular day of patrol, she stops at the Eiffel Tower and glances down at the city, a soft smile on her face. She races home for a sketchbook and returns, quickly sitting down cross-legged and jotting down idea after idea, her work illuminated by the sea of lights below.
Chat Noir drops by, and she thinks nothing of it until she hears his soft gasp. Looking up, she blinks at him, then at herself, and yelps.
She's hovering. It's only a few inches in the air, and she drops to the ground with a thump the moment she realizes it, but Chat Noir is still gaping at her in shock, like she just shattered his worldview.
"Oops," she says apologetically.
Chat Noir, once he finally gathers himself, asks her a few questions.
No, she answers, I am not a goddess.
No, she replies, rolling her eyes, I am not part of that levitation cult you saw on the internet a few weeks ago.
No, she insists firmly, I can't teach you how. I've had it since I was a baby and never learned how to turn it off.
But at the same time, it's freeing. Even with Alya, Marinette doesn't say much about her power, and Tikki, while in awe of her ability, has always been able to float. So Chat Noir is a willing audience she gratefully accepts.
She tells him about the little things she did as a baby, turning her mobile and floating her rattle above her crib. She explains her limits, one object at a time, and when she floats herself it's never by her own will.
"Is there any pattern?" He asks, curious, and Marinette pauses to think, then smiles sheepishly.
"Whenever I'm happy," She admits, shyly. "or content. Or when I'm with people I love."
The blinding smile on his face makes her want to scream, because she starts floating again. Her silly kitty cat is grinning from ear to ear for the rest of the night.
Marinette is alone in the classroom, bored out of her mind. The pencil in her hands floats away idly, hovering in front of her, and she twirls it without touching it, watching it blur like her yoyo does. She's barely paying attention, so she can't be blamed for yelling and falling out of her seat when the door is thrown open by teenage heartthrob Adrien Agreste.
The pencil falls to the floor, just moments after she hits the ground. Adrien turns sharply, notices her on her side with half her body in the aisle, and gives her a soft smile, hand out to help her up.
She notices, as she carefully lets him help her up, that he's distracted. He picks up her pencil and hands it to her, and she stutters out a thank you just before the rest of their classmates start to arrive.
"He's finally noticing you, girl!" Alya cries, excitably.
Marinette ducks her head and giggles, a little hysterically. But Alya's right; for some reason, Adrien has started paying more attention to her. What was once a once-a-week heart attack has now become a daily occurrence, as Adrien greets her at every opportunity and seems to be just about ready to break his neck, judging by how frequently he's turning around to talk to her. She has no idea why it's happening, but she isn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Of course, this comes with its own complications.
"Down, girl!" Alya hisses as Adrien smiles brightly in their direction, her hand tugging Marinette back down to earth. It's a surprisingly common occurrence, nowadays.
"Hello, Marinette! Hi, Alya," he adds, waving to her best friend. "How are you today?"
"We're doing great," Alya says, sharply nudging Marinette.
"Ah!" Marinette yelps. "yeah, yeah, we're great. Perfect." She sighs. "How are you?"
Adrien smiles cheerfully at her. "I have a feeling today's going to be a great day," he says sweetly. Noticing Nino walking up the steps, he waves a gentle goodbye. "I'll see you two in class!"
As he walks away, Alya tugs on Marinette's arm again, dragging her feet back to the ground.
This was bound to happen eventually.
She really should have known better.
Of course, Adrien and his puppy dog eyes always won, so she'd invited him over to play video games (again). She'd spent a frantic hour taking down her Adrien Wall (again) and had only given herself an hour to set up her gaming system, but she was so giddy about the whole thing she ended up floating (again).
So of course, Adrien had to walk in unannounced.
Marinette stared down at Adrien, desperately trying to pretend that everything was normal. Adrien gaped at Marinette, eyes flicking between her and the floor, one hand raised to point politely at the space between her and the ground.
"Um," she said.
"You're floating," Adrien said, with just a teensy bit of panic in his voice.
"Is there any chance that you can forget this ever happened?" She asked hopefully.
Adrien gulped and covered his eyes. Unfortunately, he'd left himself a gap to peek through, which kind of ruined the intended effect but made him look very cute. "I don't think so," he said quietly.
Marinette slowly rose in the air, and she fought the urge to pout as she continued to idly rotate in midair. "As disastrous as this has been," she states, a bit huffily, "Could you please help me down?"
"Oh," he lowers his hands. "Right. Yes. That. Uh," he holds out a hand, almost shyly, and she grabs it, trying to reduce the hammering in her heart and failing miserably.
Adrien gasps lightly, and she realizes after a moment that she isn't coming back down to earth; Adrien is rising up.
The two of them float silently for a moment in her room, and the only thing keeping Marinette alive is the heart beating frantically in her chest.
Adrien looks somewhere between ecstatic and terrified. "Um, Marinette?" he asks.
"Yeah?" Marinette answers, desperate not to look him in the eye yet unable to look away. His hand twists around hers, and they float a little higher, twirling in midair.
"Can I say something which I probably shouldn't?"
Curse the nervous tremor in his voice, the one which stole her voice. "Go ahead," she squeaks, trying to remember how to breathe.
"Princess," Adrien says, and her heart stops. "my lady. You've swept me off my feet."