Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir or anything else recognizable contained in this fic.

A/N: I know these monthly challenges are more for tumblrs, but I couldn't resist writing for one of my favorite characters ever just because I'm too lazy to have a blog! And since Chameleon still gives me war flashbacks, here are all the characters drinking their Appreciate Marinette Juice!

The chapters will be drabble-y, since I'm working on two other fics at the time, each will be focused on a different character (with some repeats, since there's less than thirty-one kids in the class), but they will be interconnected.

I decided to not really focus on any of the ships, but I included canon couples like DJWifi and Ivan/Mylène, as well as practically canon but we can't really say it like Juleka/Rose, and there will be Love Square Shenanigans but no real development. So, like in canon.

I'm always behind on this show (as of writing this, I've only watched until Weredad), so by the time this fic is finished, seventy percent of this will probably be proven false, but whatever! I'll try my best to make it interesting, at least.

Warnings: None really, but I add chapter specific warnings when necessary. There is the smallest inkling of PTSD in this chapter, though.

Summary: Marinette March 2019 collection. Marinette had a tendency to take on too much in an effort to please everybody. Usually, her friends accepted it, because it was the way things worked. But, suddenly, she seemed to be fading before their eyes, falling apart bit by bit. So, bit by bit, they put her back together again.

Day One: Kindness. Ivan; in which somebody actually notices that Marinette is Not Okay.

Forget Me Not

1: Pay It Back In Kind

Marinette had always been a giver. Even before she met Alya and started coming out of her shell, she would always bring sweets from her parents' patisserie to share, offer to help the others with classwork, and she had been the only one to approach Ivan after he was akumatized.

She had always been kind and giving and a had a tendency to take on more than she could handle in order to please everyone. She always managed to do everything well and on time, so it was easy enough to ignore when she started to pile duty upon duty on herself.

The bags under her eyes, the running into class late, the sudden jolting in fright when she suddenly remembered something she had to do. . . not even the occasional swaying on her feet was cause for alarm.

Nobody really noticed anything until she snapped at Lila over a party.

"Absolutely not," Marinette seethed with more anger than Ivan had ever heard from her. Not even when Chloé put gum in her hair when they were eight. "We do not have school dances in France!"

"Sometimes, we do," Rose chirped innocently. "My cousin's class put on a dance for her school last year."

"Yeah, they're in right now, thanks to all those Hollywood movies" Juleka smiled supportively and placed a hand on the short blonde's shoulder. "Besides, they look rad. What's wrong with upending tradition to have some fun?"

Marinette pursed her lips, which was stranger still. It never took much to get her to bend to her friends' wills. And she seemed to bend even more easily for Juleka, since she knew how long it had taken her to learn to speak up for herself. But now, she just glared icily, her face almost stone.

"We'd have to fund it ourselves, the school would never go for it."

"They would if Chloé orders them to," Alix pointed out and they all turned to the girl in question in unison.

The Bourgeois only scoffed, tapping her nails on her desk, "I will do no such thing! You want your peasant party, you make it happen yourselves."

Ivan was sure she was just disagreeing with them because she enjoyed being contrary.

Alya wrapped her arms around Marinette's shoulders, "We can get the money no problem! We've managed more difficult things before!"

Which was true. Marinette couldn't argue against that. But she still tried, "It wouldn't be fair to the other classes if we have a dance and they don't."

"Then we invite them, too," Nino shrugged easily.

"We'd have to raise four times as much!"

Lila sighed deeply, one of her hands rising to her chest, "I'm sorry if it's too much trouble. I was just remembering my time in the United States and was feeling nostalgic. But if it's too much for our class president to pull off, then I'll accept it. I'm sorry that I got all your hopes up."

Marinette flushed brilliantly, her nostrils flaring in anger before shouting, "Fine! You want your dumb dance, I'll give you your dumb dance!"

She shrugged Alya off of her before turning on her heel and marching out the door. A thick silence remained in her place.

For the first time, Ivan, who preferred to blend in the background lest someone accuse him of wanting to hurt them if he looked at them too long, spoke up, "That was weird, right?"

"Marinette's never liked me," Lila whimpered, dabbing a handkerchief at her eyes even though Ivan couldn't actually see any tears.

"Marinette likes everyone." Ivan's face scrunched up before amending. "She's kind to everyone. She doesn't just snap like that."

Especially not to her friends. But no one made a move to figure out what had caused that reaction. Not even Alya. Ivan sighed dramatically and moved towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Mylène called after him.

He offered her a small smile, "I'll be right back."

The thing was, in the moment the class turned to look at Chloé, Ivan remained looking at Marinette. And in that one, unguarded moment, the look in her eyes had changed from icy defiance to something else entirely. And Ivan recognized that broken, haunted look. It was the same look he saw in the mirror for weeks after he'd become Stoneheart. It was the same look Alix had after realizing she had killed most of their class as Timebreaker. Even if Ladybug thankfully undid their wrongdoings, and even if they had no memory of them, it was still a heavy burden to bear.

But that was ridiculous, because Marinette was practically the only person that had never been akumatized, or caused an akumatization. No matter what Chloé used to say about her indirectly creating akumas. Just because she had encouraged him to approach Mylène, didn't mean she was at fault when his crush freaked out because he screamed in her face. A skilled singer he was not, but Mylène had learned to appreciate his efforts.

The dark haired girl was sitting with her back against the lockers, her legs curled up to her chest, and he was struck with the familiarity of the scene as he approached. Except their positions had been reversed the last time.

"Hey," he offered carefully.

Marinette seemed to jump in her skin, before looking up at him from behind her fringe, "Hey."

She even sounded like she did before. Quiet and shy and careful. Nothing like the proud and courageous Marinette he had come to know since akumas started appearing. He kneeled beside her, unsure of how to give comfort.

"You, uh, you kind of freaked out a bit in there."

Marinette flinched and curled further into herself. Okay, wrong way to start.

"I just meant, you must be stressed, right? It's really not fair for them to ask you to do even more."

Mylène had been excited at the prospect of a dance as well, but he was sure she would agree with him.

She sighed, a long and weary sound, and then stretched her legs out. She looked up and offered him a smile, "It's okay, they're just excited." She shrugged before rising to her feet, her exhaustion seeming to disappear before his eyes. "You're right, I am tired, but that will pass. If I can do this one thing to make them all happy, then I'd be glad to do it!"

"Are you sure? No one will blame you for wanting to take things easy."

Marinette snorted, as if he had just said a joke, "It's not that big a deal, it's just. . ."

"Yeah?" he prompted, when her smile faded into that same haunted look.

"It's just, you remember that akuma from three weeks ago? The one that made people see things?"

"Oracular," he nodded, waiting for her to continue. He didn't browse the Ladyblog like the others did, so he wasn't entirely sure what the story behind that akuma was. He knew it was something about a fraudulent psychic being outed as a fake on TV. Her power had been some sort of beam from her crystal ball that made people freeze in place see things. Some people laughed, others cried, some showed no reaction at all.

Mylène had gotten struck by the beam, and she told him what she had seen was beautiful. His girlfriend had been there because her father was supposed to appear on the show as a guest. He didn't think Marinette had been there, but maybe she had gone to show her support.

"Did you get hit by her blast?" Sometimes, Ivan thought it was unfair that the bystanders had to keep their horrible memories while the ex-akumas themselves could trick themselves into believing it had never happened.

Marinette swallowed thickly and nodded, "It was - I -"

She shook her head and then smiled brilliantly at him, "It was nothing, don't worry! It wasn't the first akuma I faced and it won't be the last! I'll get over it soon enough." Adjusting the straps on her backpack she nodded confidently at him, "Tell the others I'll get the funding for that dance!"

Skipping towards the exit, she stopped suddenly and turned back to him. He was surprised to see tears in her eyes, even though her smile was still blinding in its intensity, "Thank you for coming to see me, Ivan. I hope you and Mylène and your five kids are happy together!"

She was gone before he could finish rebooting. "What do you mean five kids!"

A/N: There's a plot, I promise! It's mostly going to be dealing with the fallout of Oracular's attack - which will be explained, but, you know, drama - but that last bit of dialogue is probably a dead giveaway as to what her power was.

So, I've been told school dances aren't really a thing in France like they are in the US, but they have happened because, as Juleka said, American movies have made them popular and lots of schools in different countries want to have one. But, the students do generally have to get the funding themselves.

I'm not sure how the updating will go. I work weekends, but now I have a car and don't have a two hour route back and forth, so I might actually be able to pull off daily updates. As long as I'm not given the night shift again, since the dead of night is when I write the most.

Please review and let me know what you liked, didn't like, and what could use improvement!

~ Destiny's Sweet Melody