Yo, yo, yo.
At popular demand, and my own want to write more, this story has become chaptered!
(I'm really bad at sticking to my plan of one one-shot and two chaptered stories [this wasn't any of those...oops?])
Woohoo, yeah, yay.
SLIGHT TRIGGER WARNING
If you've read the first chapter, you should be fine, but I still want to make sure you lovelies continue to be as mentally okay as possible.
There is a brief mention of rape, simply because Marinette starts to tell people.
There is also victim blaming from everyone's favorite bitch, Lila.
I believe that is all, but please read at your own risk.
I would prefer this story have zero reads than someone be triggered by me.
Lots of love,
Me
Enjoy the chapter!!!
I do not own Miraculous, or Chloé would have had her slow redemption arc start sooner.
Dinner had been eventful.
First, even though it was barely 6:30, Marinette descended the stairs in her pajamas. She looked exhausted, but also seemed to be spazzing with energy at the same time. Her eyes were red and puffy, a direct result of her sobbing her eyes out for hours. Her parents noticed but said nothing.
Next came Marinette gulping down water like a parched dog on a hot day. With all the crying her and Chat had done earlier, she was extremely dehydrated. Her parents were confused but said nothing.
Then it continued with Marinette shoveling food down her throat like she hadn't eaten in days. After all, the first bite she had to eat all day was that cookie with Chat, and since the rest had been on the floor, she was starving. Her parents glanced at each other after she filled her plate for the third time, but said nothing.
After everyone had had their fill, the big moment had arrived.
The scary moment.
Her parents had believed her, she knew they would. But that didn't stop the shaking of her hands, the trembling of her voice, the inability to look them in the eyes.
Even more tears were shed, with the promise they would do everything in their power to prevent this from reoccurring. They also promised to take her to a gynecologist within the next couple of days.
Laughing and crying with them, Marinette thanked them for understanding and being so supportive. She also relayed Chat's promise to accompany her if she ever wanted to take a late night stroll again.
She ignored the knowing glances of her parents.
Despite how fresh the wounds were, Marinette smiled for the rest of the night. She smiled while cleaning up, smiled while showering (her soap does not taste as good as it smells), and even had a small smile in her sleep.
She was slowly becoming herself once more.
...oOo...
The next morning Marinette woke up early.
She had made sure she set an alarm so she could wake up, as she had some planning to do.
First off, her outfit: She couldn't wear her normal one. It was plagued with memories she wished to rid herself of. Putting them in the trash bin, she turned to survey her choices.
Did she want a purple shirt? Or was she feeling the red dress? Hmmm….
Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of color. Grinning, she grabbed the shirt, turning to look through her pants drawer. Her grin turned insane, filling up half of her face.
This outfit, it was perfect.
Putting on the outfit, she turned to observe her handy work.
Smirking, she pulled her hair out of its signature pigtails, opting instead for a ponytail.
This . . .
This outfit was perfect.
...oOo...
Walking to school, people noticed the difference immediately.
The first difference was that she wasn't wearing her normal outfit, but it also wasn't the oversized clothing of the day prior. She wore black jeans with a green t-shirt, a black paw print adorning each sleeve. Her silent way of attributing her mood to her kitty.
The next difference was she was smiling. She talked, greeted people, laughed when Nino made a dumb joke. She seemed to be better than yesterday, and almost happier than she had been in a long time.
Sitting down in her seat, she felt her classmates staring at her, felt their curiosity peaking. Alya starting spouting questions left and right, but Marinette's Ladybug training had kicked in long before she even sat down.
Electing to ignore all of them, she reached down to tap Adrien on the shoulder.
Turning around, Adrien couldn't help but smile, over-the-moon that his princess was feeling better. She was saying something to him, but given the fact that he was too busy drinking in her appearance (Was it Chat themed? Or is it too conceited to assume someone wearing the same color scheme as your superhero identity means it's you themed?), he missed every word.
"I'm sorry, Marinette. I didn't manage to catch what you said. Could you repeat it please?" Adrien apologized, rubbing his neck while feeling a blush start to crawl across the bridge of his nose.
Giggling, Marinette repeated herself: "I just wanted to thank you for sending Chat Noir over yesterday. He really helped me out. I'm sorry for worrying you that much though."
"No, no, no! You have nothing to apologize for! I just wanted to make sure you didn't become an Akuma, not when I could try to prevent it!" Adrien quickly exclaimed, speaking as fast as he could, not wanting his princess to feel guilty. Especially since he knew the reason for her behavior.
"Actually Mari, what was up yesterday? You went full 'internalize everything' on us. You had me worried sick!"
"Yeah, Marinette. What happened?"
Silence filled the classroom as everyone stared in shock at who just voiced concern over Marinette.
It was . . . Chloé?
"What?" Chloé snapped, glancing around at everyone. "Marinette is never like this. She always keeps her emotions to herself, doing her best to make sure no one ever has to worry about her. It's obvious to anyone with eyes, really."
Still, there was silence.
"Seriously?!?"
"I'm sorry I made you worry, Chloé." Marinette managed to get out after a long bout of silence.
Taking a deep breath, Marinette tried to calm her nerves before she continued.
"In fact, I'm sorry I made all of you worry. It wasn't my intention, nor would I have gone about handling my misery in that way had I known you would worry this much. I mean, Adrien contacted Chat Noir to come help he was so worried.
"I, recently I had something tragic happen to me. I internalized it and refused to tell anyone because I truly believed no one would care to help me. Instead, I managed to harm the people I care about.
"It is not easy to talk about, and I hope you all understand I don't want to go into any detail concerning this event.
"Two nights ago . . . I was, um, I was . . . I was ra—"
She took another deep breath.
"I was raped."
Marinette squeezed her eyes shut, expecting the worst.
After the silence had gone on for more than a couple seconds, she cracked one eye open. Looking around, she saw everyone frozen, tears dripping down most faces.
Before confusion could completely mar her features, she was tackled in the largest group hug she had ever received, the speed they closed in on her equivalent to that of a hummingbird's wings. Alya sobbed into her ear as Nino muttered how sorry he was, and how he wished he could have been there to protect her. Adrien was shaking, his tears recreating Niagara Falls on his face. Even Chloé was a mess, mascara running down her face as she tried to get closer to Marinette.
Every member of her class was on top of her, pouring every ounce of love and affection they had into her. Every member except . . .
"Bullshit."
The crickets returned, as everyone slowly turned to look at Lila. Just as Alya was about to go off on her with a few choice words, she was cut off by a very angry blond.
"Seriously?? You're seriously going to sit there, listen to Mari say how hard this had been for her, and say bullshit?!? What the actual hell, Lila!!" Adrien growled, staring at her with murder in his eyes as his vision turned red.
The chain reaction had begun.
Everyone started yelling at her, from Max stating statistics to Alya blatantly insulting her, with Chloé threatening to ruin her parent's political career.
Kim started to flex, showing how easily he could break her. Nino was backing up his girlfriend, helping come up with insult after insult. Adrien was hissing, literally embodying his alter ego.
All the while, Lila slowly shrank into herself as she began to truly learn the meaning of fear. She watched as the class turned on her quicker than she ever would have thought possible. She listened to them defend one of her two sworn enemies.
And fear she did.
...oOo…
Marinette looked up at her classmates in amazement. She knew they were nice, hell, they were some of the nicest people she knew! But to this extent? She never would have guessed.
As she moved her gaze from one person to another, she saw the potential for all of them to become permanent Miraculous wielders one day.
She saw Alya forever jumping alongside her, Nino not that far behind. Saw Kim swinging around, Alix running faster than everyone else. And if she looked with enough precision, she could almost see a leather cat tail swishing behind Adrien, as agitated as the boy it was connected to.
Her thought process was halted when Miss Bustier walked in, demanding to know the cause of the ruckus inside her classroom.
"Lila said Marinette lied about a tragic thing that happened to her!"
"Yeah Miss, we were only trying to defend Mari!"
"Lila was hurting her after she had already gone through so much! What else were we to do!"
"We didn't get physical, Miss! We promise!"
A chorus of 'yeah!s followed as Miss Bustier looked from determined face to determined face.
Sighing, she glanced up at the target of their anger. Lila looked terrified out of her mind. Glancing around one more time, her face hardened.
"Lila, what did you say?"
In an attempt to retain whatever shred of dignity she had left, Lila sat up, holding her chin high, and said, "I only said that Marinette was bluffing about being raped is all.
"I mean, who would ever believe such a thing?"
Missing the anger slowly taking control of her teacher's face, Lila felt her confidence surging.
"In fact, even if it did happen, it surely had go have been Marinette's fault. She probably was wearing this ridiculously scandalous outfit, practically begging for it."
Looking at her nails, she failed to notice her classmates all glaring murder at her, Alya drawing Marinette into her arms as Adrien pushed his sleeves up, ready to fight. Failed to realize she had brought upon her own demise.
Before things really did get physical, Miss Bustier cut everyone off. With a cold and calculating voice, Miss Bustier sweetly started to speak.
"While that is a lovely lie you've just conjured up, Lila, I would highly advise ever saying something similar in my classroom again.
"See, in my classroom, we don't victim blame. We understand that it is entirely the rapist's fault. We know that in no possible scenario does the victim want to be raped.
"And in my classroom, we punish those who speak such thoughts."
Pushing back the strands of hair that stubbornly fall out of her bun, Miss Bustier glared into the eyes of one Lila Rossi.
"So unless you would appreciate receiving detention for the rest of your school days while also having to take over the janitorial duties and having a very detailed conversation with your parents, I suggest you shut the hell up and get the fuck out of my classroom."
Lila froze, fear taking over her body. As she failed to move, Miss Bustier slammed her clipboard on her desk, her knuckles on the hand holding her pen turning white.
"Now."
Darting out of the classroom, Lila tripped, resulting in her stuff sprawled across the floor and hallway. Stumbling up, she grabbed whatever she could and sprinted out the door.
Taking in a deep breath, Miss Bustier was instantly transformed back into her normal self.
Ignoring the awe rolling off her student's faces, she focused on Marinette's wellbeing.
"Are you okay? She didn't hurt you, did she?"
Marinette looked up at her teacher, tears filling her eyes. Miss Bustier was filled with a flash of fear, thinking she somehow hurt Marinette. But that thought process was nullified when Marinette threw herself at the woman, knocking her off balance with a ginormous hug.
"Thank you." She whispered. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Smiling, the teacher patted the girls back before helping her up, insisting that it was her pleasure, and reminding Marinette that she could always talk to her if she needed to.
Sitting back down, Marinette couldn't remember a time in which she was filled with more love and appreciation for the people in her life.
Woop.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!! I have one more planned, but let me know if you would like more than one chapter and I'll see about making this story longer!
I tried my hardest to make it longer, but for some reason it was so hard for me to make it over 2k words. I'll try and make the next one waayyyy longer for y'all!
I always appreciate reviews, as it makes my heart clench with joy to know someone enjoys my work!!
I hope you lovelies have a wonderful rest of your day, and see you in the next fic!