The last thing Marinette remembered was the water. It surrounded her, consumed her. In that moment the ocean was nothing but a gaping mouth eager to swallow her and the Miraculous whole. At least Hawkmouth was dead, his body fallen even further below her.
In her last moments she thought of Alya, fallen into the ravine. She should have never been there, Alya had been a reporter, there was no need for Hawkmoth to take her hostage. No reason at all.
Marinette tried not to think about Felix. About how he had finally agreed to take her dancing. She had liked him, liked the way he didn't fawn all over her like the others. She had even liked his harsh tongue, even though she liked to chew him out for it. At least she could rest easy knowing he would be able to move on without her. She wished she could've gotten ahold of him though, heard his voice one last time.
She wondered, where did genetically altered women who had never learned to be proper women go?
Apparently to the hospital. An odd sort of hospital, there was something in the air that made it feel odd. Any other time she would have put it down to disorientation, but she had learned to trust her instincts, and the air crackled with something unfamiliar. The smell was antiseptic, sterile, to sterile. It didn't matter how many times a hospital room was scrubbed, it would always bear some scent of its previous residents, urine, sweat, and other fluids.
This room was brand new, from the paint on the walls, to the blankets over her.
A slim woman, Italian, but that was okay since the Italians were allies now, slipped into the room and began to fill out a form, "Good morning Miss Dupain." The nurse said.
At least, Marinette thought she said that, because Marinette was far too focused on the radio station. That game, she knew it. She and Alya had gone to see it a few weeks before, before Dr. Tikki had performed the mutations to transform her.
"That's Captain Dupain." Marinette correct absently, "What happened?"
"The war is over," The nurse said, her smile wide.
That reaction alone told Marinette something was definitely wrong. How could anyone who had lived through it announce the end of the war like that? For all she knew the war was still on and she was in one of Hawkmoth's hideaways.
Which meant she needed to act quick.
She stood and grabbed the radio, threw it at the nurse, and then ran as fast as she could. She'd lifted a car in the war once, and she could already tell the bruises left from smashing a wall down were going to be similar.
She ran as fast as she could and she ignored the attempts to stop her, knocking out the strange people in black suits as they approached her. She'd never seen a woman in a nice suit, but she didn't have a second to appreciate it while she was running.
And then, she was in a street, shiny, fast cars speeding past her and neon signs surrounding her. She stared, aghast.
"Welcome Captain," Said a voice from behind her, "To the Twenty-first century."
"Felix?" Marinette asked, turning in shock, but as he came closer she found the man's features transformed until she wasn't sure why she had thought he was Felix at all.
"My father. I'm Gabriel." The man said with a wry smile, "He wanted to make sure we took care of you. And we will, as soon as you get back inside."
Behind him, a billboard moved like a movie screen, showing off a women in the skimpiest military uniform she'd ever seen. Words along the bottom said, "Support our troops. Call #1-800-OUR-TROOPS". It was replaced almost immediately by the image of a child, crying, wrapped in a blanket, "Feed a starving child for only ten cents a day."
"Alright." Marinette said, she followed Gabriel back inside, and she tried to pretend like she was marching out of habit rather than to hide the way her hands shook.
Adrien was only twenty-two when he went to Afganistan. He goes for many reasons. Because he wanted to make his father proud, because he wanted to show he can stand on his two feet, because it was go to Afghanistan and show off Cataclysm or it was go to Milan and prove to his father that all he is is a pretty face.
No matter what the reason, when he woke up attached to a car battery, he knew it wasn't worth it.
He had never supported his father's business. Never wanted to grow up and build weapons for a living. But he had always wanted to make his father proud, wanted to show that he inherited the Agreste intelligence, not only the looks.
But it wasn't his father there in the cave with him. It was only Dr. Plagg, who had a family and dreamt of escaping the cave to eat the special Camembert cheese his wife made. Dr. Plagg who helped him build the suit out of old weapons. Dr. Plagg who praised him, and then Dr. Plagg who died to save him.
Adrien made Chat Noir a public figure when he returned home, and declared that so long as the Agreste company made weapons, they would be his enemies. That his father would be his enemy. Not that the public knew that, though Adrien went on public record as agreeing with Chat Noir.
Nino cheered for him, and Chloe rolled her eyes and pouted, but seemed to decide that their friendship was stronger than either of them had expected, as she did an interview announcing her own alliance with Chat Noir.
Of course, disowning himself from his own family had some downsides. Namely that his only money was what was leftover from his modeling jobs, and no one wanted him now, with the hole in his chest. Even Chloe had stopped pursuing him once she had seen him shirtless.
So, worried about his financial future, he ended up taking a job at SHIELD, unaware of who it's director was.
Which was how, on an average Monday afternoon, he ended up in the same room as Captain Ladybug, his childhood idol. The woman he had sworn to marry in every interview he had ever given. If there was a god, Captain Ladybug would hopefully never, ever find those.
"Oh my god." He squeaked.
"Are you Chat Noir?" She asked, voice as commanding as he had expected. But there was more to it, something softer, something that the old film reels couldn't have captured.
"Y-yes!" He said, then tried to calm himself down, he winced as he took a step back from her, the suit clanged hard against the metal floors, "I mean, yes, I'm Chat Noir, at your service My lady."
She smiled at him, "They say we're going to be working together. I like to know the men I work with."
"Oh, well, I'm Chat Noir, which you already knew," He mumbled, then tried to rebound, "Ah, but I'm an inventor! I built my suit, and if you need any help understanding modern technology, I would be happy to help!"
"Really?" She asked, "The you can help me with this, I think."
He had never given much thought to her purse. He knew she kept her yo-yo and a handgun in it, and that there has always been a fight in the feminist community over it. Whether carrying a purse on a battlefield is the ultimate act of embracing femininity or a way to make women look vapid and only concerned about their looks.
He liked it though, and it must have some use, seeing as how she managed to pull a seven inch tablet out of a purse the size of her fist.
"I told Nathalie that I wanted to draw, and she gave me this piece of glass?" Ladybug held it out to him, "I suppose it's some sort of new machine, right?"
"Right!" He shouted, excited to see her catching on, "I mean, yes! It's called a tablet, to turn it on you press this button here."
He pointed to the button without taking it from her, and she pressed it on her own. Luckily, he kept his hands near her, because she squeaked and nearly dropped the tablet when it's screen flashed on. He caught it and returned it to her quickly, and took a moment to admire the way her face flushed to match her cowl.
"I wasn't exactly expecting that." She mumbled in a heated whisper, her eyes dared him to laugh, but he persevered.
"It's natural, you couldn't have known, I should have explained better!" Chat said, "It's a computer, you can touch the screen like this." He scrolled through pages, showing off the apps installed. No social networks, and the youtube app was the kind that had parental controls. There was photoshop as well. He wondered what person thought Ladybug needed to be sheltered from cat videos, but not the complications of learning photoshop.
She hesitantly reached over and tapped angry birds, then tried to hide her gasp when the screen changed and cheerful musical filtered through the speakers.
"Wow!" She began to tap at the screen, and he found himself getting lost in watching her play the game. She took to it like a duck to water, passing through the first few levels with full stars.
"Oh! But, you wanted to draw, right?" He said suddenly, after watching her finish her level.
"Huh? Yes!" She agreed, "How to do I-?"
"First press the button shaped like a house," He instructed, "Then you'll want a program, I noticed they had photoshop, but the program is hard to understand even for people raised in this century," He winced, but when she didn't react, continued on, "So, let me show you the app store and we can find you a better drawing program."
"That would be nice, thank you."
"Anything for you my lady." He grinned.
Marinette liked the 21st century, all things told. She had more rights then back in the 40's, but she always had. They had told her she couldn't fight in the war with papa, and she hadn't listened, had disguised her gender and applied in every country she could. But she faced rejection after rejection for her health. She was small, frail, weak, even for a woman. Then Dr Tikki had found her, and given her the serum.
There was no weakness in her now, but she got the feeling that even frail little Mari from before the serum would have had strength in the new millennium.
Alya would have loved it. No one would have looked at her twice or talked down to her. She would have had other people to write about too. Alya had always loved to write about heroes, war heroes or genetically altered heroes. There were so many now, of both varieties.
Marinette decided to go to the World War 2 memorial like other people decided to go and buy milk. She told Gabriel she was going to go, and if he wanted it to be on his watch or not was up to him. He seemed to understand at least.
She had wanted to take her motorcycle, but it was apparently in a museum now, and that sent her heart a flutter, so she left it. She wanted it back of course, but not enough not to take pleasure in it being seen as a historical item. Dr Tikki had chosen her for many reasons, but her humility had not been one of them.
Gabriel sent her a driver as an escort, and she didn't realize why until they got to the airport.
"I know you're not Felix," She said, "But you look like his twin."
The man, who had introduced himself as Adrien, nodded sheepishly, "My grandfather."
"So you're Gabriel's son?" She asked, and let him lead her through the crowd.
"He lets you call him that?" Adrien asked, tone scandalized, "I mean, yeah, he's my father."
"Nobody let's me do anything." She said, "I didn't join the military and destroy Hawkmoth by doing what others asked of me."
"Yeah!" Adrien agreed, and nodded his head wildly, "Grandfather used to tell stories about you, y'know? Not to me, he died before I was born, when dad was little, but he wrote these letters home and-" He stopped, because Marinette had stopped and she had look on her face like she was going to cry if he continued.
"Felix," She said, voice cracking, "He died?"
"Y-yeah," He stuttered, "Oh my gosh, sorry! I thought someone told you! I should have been more tactful, I'm so sorry!" He hurried to apologize, while searching the pockets of his black suit for a handkerchief.
"No, no," She said, and patted his shoulder a few times until he stopped moving, "I knew he was probably dead, I just... when Gabriel was still a boy?"
"Yeah," Adrien gulped, "I just, no one has told you? I would have thought..."
"The only thing I've been told about Felix has come from you, so I expect you to tell me the whole story." She informed him, perhaps more harshly than she would have done otherwise, with tears still threatening to fall out of the corner of her eyes.
Adrien finally produced a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed to her, "It's not exactly a story I would have brought up, but, shortly after you were frozen, Grandfather was announced missing in action, and later as dead."
"Oh," She wiped at her eyes, then paused as realization hit her, "But he died when Gabriel was a child."
"Yes, father was six."
"Felix had... was he?" She asked, eyes begging Adrien to say no.
"He married grandmother when he was eighteen."
She let out a gasp, not a natural one. It sounded like a death rattle, like all the air had been forced out of her lungs all at once.
"We had a date, you know.." She said, "For the friday after."
"Yes," Adrien nodded, and put an arm around her. She almost jerked away, but realized he was shielding her from the crowds who might look at her and judge. She realized she was crying in a distant sort of way.
By the time she saw the memorial, she already felt numb.
Adrien had never had to comfort a sad women in his entire life. His grandmother had been made out of iron, he wasn't even sure she had emotions, and Chloe cried at the drop of a hat. He had never taken her tears seriously, and he had never been expected to comfort her beyond a simple hug.
There was no way he could hug Ladybug, even thinking about the way he had put an arm around her earlier could send him into a blushing fit of hysterics if he wasn't careful about it. He was half-tempted to enshrine the handkerchief he had lent her. It had touched her glorious face.
It took him the plane ride home to figure it out, but he decided the best thing to do was take her where he went when he was in need of comfort, which was the bakery.
"Are you hungry?" He asked, as he pulled into the closest parking lot.
"I suppose." She said, with a shrug.
"I know this place," He hopped out of the car and opened her door, before continuing, "The best bakery in the entire world."
She followed him, eyes downcast, until he stopped. She looked up, and then gaped in astonishment, eyes wide. She brought a hand to her mouth, then dropped it, and turned to him with a questioning look.
"That couldn't be-?"
"It is!" He said cheerfully, "The Boulangerie Patisserie, still here, and still making the best macarons on this planet."
"But how? Papa... and mama said she was going to close it?" She asked, there was a sadness in her eyes, but excitement too, to see her parent's bakery still open.
"People got upset that the home of Captain Ladybug was going to be auctioned off so easily. Everyone donated money to keep it running, and Alya's family moved in to help. It's run by her great-niece, Manon now."
"Everyone?" She asked, and he understood her meaning.
No one had ever given Sabine Cheng the respect she had deserved. They had treated her like an animal, an Asian woman marrying a successful white baker. They hated her and tried to rip her to shreds with their vicious words. But Sabine was above them, because no matter how much they hated her, they still loved her macaroons.
"Everyone. After you crashed, no one dared insult her." He offered her his handkerchief again, and wondered if perhaps he had messed up again, if he shouldn't have just taken her back to the base to comfort herself. But he couldn't have done that, Ladybug had no one now, he wanted to be there for her. Like the figure of her had been in his childhood.
She wiped her tears and returned his handkerchief once more, then smiled at him in a way the took his breathe away, "That may be the only good thing to come out of this. Come on, let's go and see if their eclairs are as good as papa's."
He smiled back, hesitantly, "I never had eclairs better." He informed her, and held the door open.
"But you've never had mine." She chuckled.
"Then you'll have to make me some to compare." He laughed.
"Maybe I will, one day."
AN: xposted to Archive of Our Own. Follow me on tumblr StrawberryDecaf