Okay. So the chapter that I originally was going to publish is taking way too long to finish (currently at about 3k words) so I'm gettin this one out now since its been too long.
Key Points.
She's a daughter of Thanatos(I normally stay away from making people children of primordals but since he really isnt shown as one, I think it's okay...)
Her mother is an alcoholic.
Implied abuse
She takes Adderall.
She also grew up in the US
Key Points end here.
So I never had abusive parents so I'm sorry if I portray it wrong. And I am going to try to take the abuse vague, but if you think it's going to trigger you, might want to turn back. I've also never had to take adderall nor have I been addicted, so goodbye clean search history..
And of course, I can't use the line break button, so...
STORY TIME.
Marinette was three when she learned she was a freak. Mom would bind her feathery black wings to her back before she started preschool. Marinette learned not to question her mom. Her face still hurts.
When she got to her classroom, Marinette didn't see anyone else with wings. Her own twitched uncomfortably against her back, under her shirt. Mom bent down way from the other people and looked Marinette in the eyes.
If you show anyone - or tell anyone - about your wings, I will give you a lesson you'll never forget.
And Marinette listened to her.
o0o
Marinette listened behind the stairs as her mom brought in another man into their house. They both smelled like that strange liquid Mom drinks.
She thought about how today was father's day and she was the only one with out a dad. How even Natalie, the school meanie had a dad standing behind her.
Marinette wondered where her own dad was.
o0o
Marinette was eight when she started to resent.
She started to resent her mom for not taking care of her. Or herself for that matter.
Started to resent picking up the glass bottles littering the floor.
Started to resent the burning smell of alcohol and smoke.
Started to resent her hair, cut at the shoulders, the plain black emphasising he paleness of her skin.
Marinette resented the men that came into their house, not paying attention to the little girl hiding behind the stairs.
Marinette started to resent having a mother who made her fear for her life.
She started to resent her wings, shedding feathers everywhere, giving her mother one more reason to beat her. For making her a freak.
o0o
Marinette was nine when she started to hate her father. Hated him for falling for her mother.
She seen the pictures. Saw how happy her mother was before she was born.
It made Marinette believe that it was his fault her mom became who she was.
She hated him for giving her wings. Someone must have and it sure wasn't her mother.
Most of all, she hated how he left them for dead. How he never came to help her.
Her wings dropped to the ground and she bent over to pick up more glass shards, careful not to get alcohol on the various cuts on her body.
It was all his fault.
And Marinette hated him for it.
o0o
It was a few days before her tenth year when Marinette decided to leave.
She packed all her meager belonging and stole some food from the kitchen. Sneaking in her mom's room, she stole all the cash in her wallet, wrinkling her nose at the man laying next to her mom in bed.
For all her mother claimed, it wouldn't last.
Marinette didn't forget to grab the bandages to bind her wings either, putting all of them in her backpack.
She stopped in front of the door for a while. She wondered how her mom was going to take care of herself now that her maid was gone.
She can die for all I care.
o0o
Marinette was ten when she learned how to survive on the streets.
She learned how to pick locks to abandoned places for shelter.
Learned how to pick pocket. How to manipulate people into giving her money.
She learned which restaurants give pity to homeless people people and which ones shunned them.
She learned where all the donation boxes are.
She learned to never give her full name to people, often introducing herself as 'Mari'. Let people think her name is Mary. It's not like she's going to be staying.
It's best not to have attachments.
She learned how to parkour.
She often used it to get away from Child services and police.
o0o
Marinette was eleven when she saw Camp Half Blood. She saw a girl and a strange looking boy run past her on the streets. She had just enough time to see goat legs.
She thought he could be like her.
When she saw the camp, she wilted in disappointment. She couldn't see any other winged people.
Eventually someone saw her and brought to a century who explained what was going on. They just had survived a battle in the forest.
Battle of the Labyrinth, they called it.
They directed her to a worn down cabin, number 11.
She decided to keep her wings a secret.
And even though she is surrounded by people, she never felt anymore lonely.
o0o
A few days later, she saw a boy near a cliff.
Marinette accidently tripped on a rock.
She stood up again, meeting the boy's amused gaze. She huffed, "I wouldn't fall down from up here unless you have wings."
The boy dryly smiled. "And I supposed you do?"
"Yes." And Marinette still doesn't quite know what made her, but she unbuttoned her dark blue flannel, revealing her white undershirt and black, feathery wings.
"Wow." She takes a seat next to him.
A dark black symbol shines above her head and the boy meets her eyes.
"Hello. My name is Nico, son of Hades. What your name daughters of Thanatos?"
"Marinette."
And suddenly she doesn't feel that lonely anymore.
o0o
When he leaves, she joins him. Even thoughher only weapons are a set of knives.
Us Underworld children have to stick together.
And Marinette thinks that maybe, her parentage isn't that bad.
She still hates her father though.
o0o
Their relationship begins to evolve into one shared by siblings.
And Marinette feels a little less lonely. Her mental scars are still there, but they don't go near the house and they're fading, bit by bit.
Marinette know they arent going to disappear, but its fun to pretend.
o0o
Marinette keeps her wings bound in the final battle against the titans. It was a long time before Nico joined her with his father.
Hers didn't show up.
o0o
Marinette is right by his side when they drop Hazel off at Camp Jupiter.
They each get their arms burned.
They each get shunned for being dark.
After Nico runs into Percy Jackson, they both decide its to risky to stay.
Marinette and Nico leave for the doors of her father.
o0o
They trudge through Tartarus. It even more terrifying as children of the underworld.
They understand that they are on its flesh and all the monsters are just part of its DNA.
Nightmares haunt them every to they close their eyes.
But they have each other and that's enough.
When they get to the door, they get knocked out.
They never do find Marinette's father.
o0o
When they're rescued, they sleep in the same room, despite Coach Hedge's objections. It's not like they'll do anything.
Sometimes if neither if them can sleep, they read stories outloud to each other.
Sometimes Hazel joins.
o0o
When they had to bring back the statue, Marinette helped defend them, still careful about her wings.
She still doesn't trust the praetor.
o0o
It's after the Giant War and Marinette thought the shunning would go away. She thought that since they helped save them, the campers would ignore their dark auras.
She was wrong.
They left Nico alone since he was friends with Percy, but Marinette wasn't. And that made her fresh bait.
After a group of people - Roman and Greek alike - tried to beat her to death, Chiron decided it was better for her to leave.
So she went to Paris.
o0o
Marinette decided before she met her new guardians, she will have a complete start over. The morning before the day she meets them, she goes to the market and buys hair dye and scissors.
In her room, she cuts her hair to shoulder length and dyes it a dark blue. Sabine and Tom were mortals who adopted her. They were nice, if a bit overbearing.
Marinette was a bit unnerved to be honest, having gone most of her life with no positive adult input.
She still had to bind her wings around them, only letting them loose in her room.
Her room.
Oh my gods how it was pink. She convinced herself that it fit right in with her new start.
She still wore a dark jacket though, to balance it out.
Thankfully no actual monsters were in Paris. That meant she had to lie less, which was still a new experience having gone through most her life with lying.
She still kept Nico and Hazel's phone numbers on her monster proof phone.
Just in case.
o0o
Marinette is fourteen when she found it that bullying never stops.
School was where the problem started. Thankfully, Marinette had skipped out on the dyslexia part of the package. She still had ADHD though.
The mayor's daughter, Chloe called her names. Made fun of her fidgeting. When Tom and Sabine heard, they got her Adderall.
It helped, and Marinette only took it when she needed it, according to prescription.
She adjusted, just like she had to do all her life.
Still didn't help with the bullying.
o0o
When the next school year came around, Marinette started to freak out.
A so called 'kwami' had 'chosen' her to be a superhero, the same kwami found out about her wings (cause, really, how was Marinette going to hide it?), got a flirty partner, akumas existed now, got a new friend, and has to manage a triple life.
Marinette looked at the bottle. Adderall. She took a pill. Then another.
And one more for good measure.
If she needed to be a hero, she had to be focused, right?
Marinette was just glad her suit miraculously hid her wings (Like, seriously, how?).
o0o
Marinette closed the trap door, heart still beating from adrenaline during the fight.
A smile was on her face. She missed the rush it gave her.
She even saw her crush today! Adrien...
Her eyes landed on the pile of work she had to do.
She took a pill.
Even though she already had her prescription.
But it was okay right? Cause that pill's concentration went towards the fight. So this pill's concentration is going towards the school work.
She ignored Tikki's gaze as she sat down to work.
o0o
She took a few more pills the next day. And the next and the next.
o0o
On Saturday, she threw up. Tikki hovered near her face.
"Marinette! You have to stop! It's becoming an addiction! It is an addiction!"
Marinette ignored her as she stood up, flushing the toilet and washing her face in the sink.
"Tikki, its probably just food poisoning."
Tikki huffed. "Marinette, do you know how many pills you had yesterday?"
"I don't know, two... three-"
"Five."
"That is more than three."
The ladybug kwami floated up to look her user in the eye. "Marinette, you have to stop. Ladybug can't go on like this."
Marinette tenses as she weaves around Tikki, flopping down on the chair to her computer and opening up her essay document.
She pops a pill in her mouth and Tikki makes a frustrated sound.
"Oh yes. Can't have poor Ladybug being an addict, can we? It'll ruin her little perfect image." Marinette can't keep some of bitterness in and it seeps into her words.
"Marinette, you know-"
"Ever thought that Ladybug is the reason I need to concentrate more?!"
"THAT'S NO REASON TO BECOME AN ADDICT!" Tikki yelled.
Marinette looked at the tiny kwami. "I just don't want to fail." Her voice was quiet.
"Marinette. You are going to fail yourself if you keep doing this. You are losing sleep-"
"It helps with the nightmares though!" Marinette objected.
Tikki's tone softened. "And you are cutting yourself off from your friends and family. When was the last time you hung out with them?"
"I call Nico regularly. And Hazel." Tikki could see the slight desperation in Marinettes eyes.
"Marinette, you and I both know that isnt social interaction. You need to get out more. You're losing yourself."
Marinette swallowed. "I'll try to stop."
"And I'll make sure you will."
o0o
It's been two years since that conversation and Marinette had gotten better. Especially since Tikki ended up calling Nico and telling him about her problem. And now Nico thinks that he should drop by once a month to check up on her.
Marinettes still sour about that, no matter how much good it brought.
"Chat, have I ever told you about my life?" Ladybug and Chat Noir were still friends, though Ladybug was actually thinking about going out with him.
"No, you said it was too dangerous." There was a confused and curious tilt in his voice. Ladybug was strict about their identities. Marinette herself didn't know what brought this on. Sort of like when she showed her wings to Nico. And that went well, so she continued on.
"Well, I thought that since we'll be working more with each other, we should learn more about each other. And I guess if we don't say names then it would be vagu enough. You dont have to share anything, I just kinda want to get this off my chest with a... friend."
"Okay then, M'Lady."
Ladybug sat down, and Chat followed suit. They were on top of the Eiffel Tower and Marinette felt that this was a safe spot to say something.
"When I was young, my mother was abusive." She should hear Chat suck in a breath, "My father was never there and she turned into an alcoholic. She would bring all these guys in from bars claiming that their her new boyfriends, but they never lasted." Bitterness seeped into her voice.
"My dad, he never checked up on us. My mom turned abusive. I hated him. I do hate him. When I was nearly ten, I ran away. Spent some time on the streets. When I was eleven, I found this place where people like me go." She keep her gaze on the streets below, ignoring Chat's.
"I found a friend and we ran way together. We became brother and sister. We went through so much together. And then we came back. We went back to the place and for a while everything was good. Then the bullying came in. My friend, he was protected. But I wasn't.
"After getting almost beaten to death, I was sent here, where I decided to cut my hair and dye it. I don't know if you figured it out, but I have ADHD. So I take Adderall."
"My Lady, I didn't-"
"When I became Ladybug, I started to abuse my medication." Her eyes were still in the streets.
"After talking with my friends I stopped. Do you know why I stopped?"
Chats voice was quiet. "No."
"I was reminding my self of my mother." Her voice was clipped. "She became addicted to alcohol. I was beginning to get addicted to drugs. I - I couldn't allow myself to become my mom. So I stopped."
Chat scooted closer and wrapped an arm around his partner.
They sat there as they watched the morning sun come up.
Okay. Did not anticipate it becoming this long... uh review for more, I guess?
Again, I have no idea how it feels to be addicted so I'm sorry if I got anything wrong. Not my usual style of writing, but it works with this genre.
