Ch 2 The Designer
"Marinette," a voice called out of the darkness, pulling her out of the warm embrace of oblivion.
"Marinette," again, the voice drew her further out of her blissful slumber.
"Marinette! You need to wake up!" The voice was now a more familiar one. "It's getting late. You've got your internship tomorrow. If you don't leave now you won't be able to get up in the morning."
"Five more minutes, Luka." She said blearily.
"You told me that when your alarm went off I had to make you leave," Luka explained, as Marinette felt a gentle hand caress her cheek, "I'm not sure you planned on falling asleep on me though."
Marinette blinked her eyes several times to bring the world back into focus. As it did, her boyfriend's blue hair and eyes swam into view. He gave her one of his patented sweet smiles that made her heart melt a little. "You really should get going, you don't want to be exhausted for your first day."
"Remind me why I can't just stay here tonight?" She grabbed the blanket laying across her legs and pulled it up over her head.
"As much as I would love that, you know I'm not ready for that yet. Me and Shell were…"
She cut him off pulling down the blanket and waving her hands in front of herself, "I know, I get it. You lived together, and she broke your heart." She huffed. "We've been dating for almost two years now. How long is your ex going to rule our relationship?"
"Look, we can talk about this later. You need to head out." He leaned in placing a chaste kiss on her lips, pulling away before she had a chance to turn it into anything more. "Anyway, you only made it through, like, a quarter of the movie. You owe me a redo."
She cocked her eyebrow shooting him a stern look, "I'm holding you to that." Realizing sleep was a lost cause until she was back in her bed at home, Marinette gathered her things and turned to Luka. He stepped toward her putting his hands on her hips and pulling her closer. She brought her arms around his neck and he slid his around her back as their foreheads came together.
"You know I love you, right?" Luka asked with his soft smile.
Marinette smirked, "Likely story." She giggled as he looked slightly hurt. "I love you too." This time as their lips met she didn't let him get away with a simple peck. She held him close and deepened the kiss and he followed suit. When they parted, slightly breathless, Marinette hummed contentedly, "I could do that all day."
"Me too, love, but right now you need to get going." He gave her one more peck before pushing her away.
"Do I have to?" she moaned as he pushed her to the door.
"You practically made me swear a blood oath." He chuckled. He opened the door and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Be safe. Text me when you get home."
"Ok. Love you."
"Love you too, now go." He gave her one final push and shut the door.
She checked her phone before beginning her trek home. 10:30… Wow, it took Luka a full 30 minutes to get me to leave. I'm glad I set my alarm earlier than I need to, she mused, and started for home. The walk was largely uneventful. Being alone, at this time of night, wasn't the safest thing ever, but she stayed to the well-lit and well-traveled areas and didn't encounter any complications.
Once home, she texted Luka to let him know she go home safe. Her parents were already in bed, they always got up obscenely early to prep and open the bakery. She took a shower and laid out her outfit for the morning. She chose an outfit that said professional, but still allowed her personality to show through.
With one last check to make sure everything she needed for the morning was in order, she climbed the stairs to her loft bed, snuggled down into her covers, and stared at the ceiling wide awake.
She felt an odd urge to check her vanity, which made absolutely no sense to her. After fighting with herself for what felt like hours, really about a minute, she gave in and crawled to the edge of her bed. She peeked over the rail and looked a down at her perfectly normal vanity. What was that all about? She thought as she moved to get back under the covers, but she was halted by a tingling in the back of her head. She found her eyes locked back on her vanity, there was definitely something off there, she just couldn't put her finger on it.
The tingle grew to an itch on the inside of her skull as she leaned further over the railing of her bed to try and see what was different, what was causing this sensation. The itching spread and grew more intense, pushing her to lean further and further over the railing. It became all-encompassing causing her to freeze for a moment.
In an instant, the itching faded and with it, a fog Marinette was never aware of, was lifted from her vision. On her vanity she saw a small black box that she had never noticed before. Just after she noticed the box, she also saw how far out she was leaning. As she began to shift to maneuver herself back onto the safety of her bed, her hand slipped, and she went tumbling to the floor.
Laying in a heap, she groaned as she began to untangle herself. Nothing seems to be broken. She felt an ache in her shoulders. I'm definitely going to be sore. Pain shot through her head as she turned too quickly. She blinked twice to clear her vision. And have a headache. After a moment she remembered the reason she fell in the first place. Still on her hands and knees, she crawled over to her vanity. She peeked over the edge. Sure enough, the odd box was still there. Right in the back. Out of the way, apparently.
Marinette slowly stood, never taking her eyes off the box. She reached out and gently touched it. Definitely real. She couldn't decide if that was comforting or terrifying. She picked it up. It was about the size of a medium jewelry box, black with red trim, and a red symbol on top.
Squeezing her eyes shut, then lifted the lid…
Nothing happened…
She waited another second…
Still nothing…
She slowly opened one eye.
Inside the box was a pair of earrings. They were red with five black spots each. Marinette opened her other eye and examined the box and earrings more closely, "Well this is odd," she said as she began to reach for one of the earrings, "where did you come fro…" As her finger touched the piece of jewelry a blinding pink flash momentarily filled the room. Momentarily blinded, Marinette began to hear the strangest sound. Is that tiny bells tinkling?
When her vision cleared, Marinette found herself face to face with a gigantic flying bug. "Ahhhhh," she screamed, "Giant bug! Get away!" she flailed wildly and quickly retreated, the bug flying after her the whole way, until she tripped over her chaise. Once again on the floor, a strange thought occurred to Marinette, is the bug talking to me?
"Marinette," the bug said, it was in fact talking to her, "You have to stop screaming, you'll wake up your parents, and no one must know about me." The bug pleaded.
It was then that Marinette noticed two things: one, the bell sound she heard earlier was coming from the bug instead of the normal sound of insect wings; and two, the bug wasn't a bug at all… well not entirely at least. It looked mostly like a very small woman. She wore a beautiful flowing red gown and her flaming red hair was tied in loose ponytail and draped over her shoulder. Her skin was a light caramel color that seemed to sparkle when even the faintest light touched it. Her feet were bare, and on her back, she had what appeared to be a ladybug's shell and black ladybug wings, buzzing rapidly, keeping her aloft. She was reaching toward Marinette with her four long graceful arms, holding Marinette's gaze with her piercing blue eyes.
Four tiny hands gently held the sides of Marinette's face, "Please calm down," the not bug said, "I can explain everything."
A sound from her trap door told Marinette that she had, in fact woken her parents up. The not bug landed, her wings tucking in and shell covering them. She quickly hid from view as the trap door opened and Sabine, Marinette's mother, poked her head into the room.
"Is everything all right dear?" she asked as she scanned the room for her daughter. Her brow knitted in concern when she saw Marinette picking herself up off the floor, "are you okay?" she rushed over and helped her daughter up.
"I'm fine Maman," Marinette said dismissively, "I just thought I saw a bug and I panicked and tripped."
"Well, as long as you're all right," she patted Marinette's cheek, "now, shouldn't you be sleeping?" she lifted one eyebrow, "you have a big day tomorrow."
"Maman, I'm eighteen," Marinette whined, "you don't need to treat me like a little girl anymore."
"But sweety," Sabine smiled softly, "you'll always be my little girl," Marinette rolled her eyes as Sabine got up and headed to the trap door, "now get some sleep," she left closing the door behind her.
Marinette watched the door for a moment, hoping that the not bug thing would be gone and she could go back to sleep. She scanned the room, and, to her dismay, her eyes landed on the jewelry box laying on the floor by her vanity, right where she dropped it. She finally let herself look to where she knew the not bug was hiding. To her credit, she seemed to be waiting patiently for Marinette to be ready to talk.
"Um…" Marinette started, "What… um… who…." She shifted uncomfortably.
"Maybe this will help," the not bug said just before there was another flash of pink light. When Marinette's vision cleared again, the small not bug thing was gone, she had grown until she was just a bit taller than Marinette. She no longer had the sell or wings, and she only had one pair of arms. Her skin still shimmered, but not as intensely as before, "perhaps this will put you more at ease," Marinette stared, her mouth agape, for a full minute, "or perhaps not…"
Marinette shook her head, "No!" she shouted, then clasped her hands over her mouth. She inhaled deeply, counted to three, and let it out again, putting down her hands, "I'm okay," she glanced at the woman then back down at her lap "What… what are you?"
The woman giggled, "Well, there are two answers to that question," she stood and walked in front of Marinette, "One is, I am a pixie, humans sometimes also call me a fairy."
"But pixies are made up," Marinette rubbed her head, "I must have hit my head harder than I thought when I fell…"
"This isn't a hallucination, Marinette," the woman said, and not waiting for a response, carried on, "I am also something called a kwami," she walked over to the fallen jewelry box, picking it up "We are magical creatures that have chosen to tie our power to these items called miraculous," she walked back to Marinette and opened the box. The earrings looked different now. They were still the same shaped stud, but now they were a dark grey, "these earrings are my miraculous. They allow me to give my powers to a human so that they can defend the world."
"Not a hallucination, so it must be a dream," Marinette was still trying to cope with all of the new information.
"Also, not a dream Marinette." Marinette's gaze snapped up to the woman.
"How do you know my name?" She tried her best to be stern.
"I've known your name since you were chosen, Marinette," The woman said, "and my name, so we are on more equal footing, is Tikki."
"Chosen?" Marinette's brow knitted together in confusion, "What have I been chosen for?"
"You've been chosen to be the next holder of the Ladybug Miraculous," Tikki held out the open jewelry box to Marinette, "just put the earrings on, and you can speak the command word and you'll be grnated the power to defend those you love."
"There's gotta be a mistake," Marinette shifted uneasily, "why I be picked for something like that?" Marinette's eye's shifted back and forth between Tikki and the earrings, "I'm just a design student. I'm care about fashion, and cloths, and video games…"
"And your family and friends," Tikki interrupted her, "you selflessly give up your time for others, you help any way you can, many times to your own detriment."
"But I'm…"
"Who did your class pick as their representative all through college and licee?"
"Me, but…"
"Who stood up to Chloe enough times that she realized that she was pushing everyone away?"
"How did you…"
"And who made pastries at least once a week for her whole class?"
"Me! But what does…"
"Marinette," Tikki stooped her with a hand, "you are constantly putting everyone's needs before your own," she held the box out again, "if anyone deserves to wear these it's you."
Marinette slowly reached out, her body numb as she absorbed everything Tikki had told her. Is that really how people see me? "O-Okay Tikki, if you think I can do that, I guess I can give it a try," she took the earrings and put them in, "now what do I do?"
"To transform say, Spots On, and when you want to transform back again say, Spots off," Tikki instructed, "This first time you transformed you grimoire will appear," she continued, "it won't disappear, however, when you transform back," she fixed Marinette with an earnest stare, "it would be best if you found a safe place to keep it. It would not be good for anyone to find it."
"Okay Tikki," Marinette stood and walked to the middle of her room. She stood in front of her full-length mirror. She looked at the kwami and took a deep breath, "Spots on!"
The room was once again bathed in pink light. Marinette felt a wave of energy wash over her from head to toe. When her vision cleared, she was shocked to see the woman staring back at her from the mirror.
She was wearing a white bodysuit that hugged her comfortably. Over that she wore a red tabard covered in black spots that reached down to mid shin, tied down around her waist by a similar red and black spotted belt with several pouches attached to is. She had high boots and long gloves that followed the same color scheme. On her shoulders and covering her head she wore a hooded mantle, red with black spots like the rest, that, as she turned a bit she noticed, hung down in back as split half cape.
The hood cast a shadow over her face obscuring it from view. All that was visible was a red glow where her right eve would be. She pulled down the hood to see what caused the odd glow and was surprised to see she was wearing a red and black domino mask with a red lens over the right eye.
As she looked herself over, she remembered that Tikki had said something about a grimoire. Since the word crossed he mind, floating in front of her, appeared large leather bound tome. On the cover was the same symbol that adorned the top of the jewelry box.
"Whoa," she said as she grabbed the book.