The Team Verse

xXx

The first time Marinette meets Ron Stoppable, she doesn't really know what to make of him. Not only is he working at her parents' store, but he takes one look at her and lights up. He introduces himself in somewhat broken French and she's sure she's seen him somewhere before, even if she can't quite place it. But then her parents draw her attention away before she can figure it out.

She doesn't really remember what excuse they make that sends them in back and leaves her alone with their new employee, but they do. It's quiet and Marinette has been asked to stay for a moment while her parents get something (probably a cake if she knows anything about them) ready. Really, they should know better by now.

That's when Ron Stoppable speaks up. In English. "Hey, LB, do you know what this one costs if I put it together with this one in a basket?"

He was pointing to a few different things in one of the cases, but she doesn't know what because she's just staring at him in horror.

"Oh, come on, I'm still new at this!" he practically whines when she doesn't answer and he looks up to see her incredulous look.

"'Ow did... wait... Why did you call me zat?"

He blinked at her. "Short for Ladybug."

Marinette felt her heart stop.

"What? I'm not... I mean, I just..."

He didn't respond, just staring at her and blinking, obviously not buying it.

"How did you know?" Then she paused. How much French did this guy even speak? She needed to sick to English. "'Ow did you know?" she asked, hoping she didn't sound shaken.

It's the guy's turn to stare at her before he scoffed. "Your cat guy asked the same thing. Come on, it's not that difficult to figure it out, and I have seen pictures of you suited up before. I mean, pigtails, black hair, you happened to leave about the same time..." He shook his head. "How does all of Paris not know? And no, I've never met you before, though KP talks about you all the time. She really likes you, by the way. Oh, and she still doesn't know who you are. I just figured it out on my own."

Marinette tries to shake the thought from her mind, hoping she can wrap her head around all of this. She glances back to the bakery, but can hear her parents discussing something on the other side of the room. Thank goodness. Then she turns and levels him with a glare.

"Our magic prevents people from... 'ow do you say? Draw conclusions. So 'ow did you? And 'oo are you really?"

The guy doesn't quite flinch, but he may as well have. "Ouch. That look's almost as bad as KP's. Well, I have a... condition that has to do with ancient magic powers and my naked mole-rat, Rufus, and a lava pit and a really smart, if very crazy, monkey guy. I guess it allows me to see through all of that magic or something."

Right, that brought something else he said to mind. "And you know 'oo Chat Noir is?"

The blond cocked his head at her. "Yeah. I'm surprised you don't."

"We 'ave reasons," she said defensively.

He held up his hands, placating. "I get it, LB. I won't tell."

She wanted to smack him one and had to hold herself back as she practically hissed at him (she'd been hanging around her kitty too much... or maybe not enough and was having withdrawals?), "Do not call me zat! My parents are right zere!"

He just raised an eyebrow and got a smug look. "I thought you said the magic prevents people from finding out. I just figured that would extend to me."

"I'd razzer not test it!" she growled.

"You don't have a Kwami or a Miraculous," a new voice had Marinette glancing around frantically. Her eyes finally landed on Tikki, who floated in front of M. Stoppable, her arms folded and a glare on her normally open and welcome face.

"No," he said slowly and leaned down to study her. "Like I said, Mystic Monkey Powers. That's what I got. What's a Kwami?"

"I'm a Kwami. We're ancient fairies attached to a Miraculous, and the holder of that Miraculous has powers. Are you going to hurt Marinette?"

Right about then, the teenager realized that her Kwami had revealed herself to protect her holder. Marinette couldn't help but feel touched. She did wonder what the little Kwami thought she could do without her holder, but the thought counted.

"Huh?" The boy looked honestly confused. "Why would I hurt her? I know too many people who would kill me if I tried. Chat Noir, KP, Rufus... he'd be the worst."

Wait, wasn't Rufus his naked mole rat?

"Your... pet?" Marinette asked slowly.

M. Stoppable shuddered. "You've never seen him angry. Besides, he has mystic monkey powers too, and he can use them better than I can."

This was sounding more and more like a Kwami and less and less like a pet.

And she still couldn't place... wait.

"You know Agent Possible!"

The guy raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Uh, yeah. We're married."

xXx

Finding out that Ron Stoppable was an agent himself came as a shock. Finding out that he was married to Agent Possible ("You really call her that! Ha, ha! She hates it when people do that!") came as a bigger shock. Finding out that he was here on her special request to help Chat Noir out while she was gone felt more like the icing on the cake.

"Why didn't she tell me?" Marinette asked herself after having found a stool her parents kept in the back in case someone needed to sit down... like now.

"It was in the welcome packet," Ron (call me by my first name, I'm not old yet!) said with a mouth-full of the strange, new pastry. "If you get called away from protection duty, someone will be sent to fill in. I actually only found out about you and your... uh, other side after I started working here. Wondered why I was drawn to this place, then I found out about you and it all made sense."

Marinette blinked, she did remember reading something about that, but it had slipped her mind to ask. She mentally kicked herself.

Then she thought about the others on her team. "Does Randy 'ave 'elp?"

Ron nodded. "Of course. I even helped him for a while. Posed as a janitor for his school. Not a terrible job, all things considered. Lots and lots of rebuilding, though. And they paid really well for a janitor."

"Oh," Marinette looked down, still trying to process all of this.

"What about Jake and Danny?"

Ron popped the rest of the pastry into his mouth and chewed for a bit before swallowing. Well, at least he knew better than to talk with his mouth full (unlike a few other American boys she could name).

"We jumped on a deal with Jake's family as fast as we could. They have hundreds of years of magical training. I even trained under his teacher for a while. That was harsh, dude. Dogs and mystic monkeys do not get along."

The random things he said really tended to throw Marinette for a loop.

She wondered if Chat felt the same.

Before she could voice any questions, though, he went on.

"Danny's a special case. His home town has lots of protectors and, due to some legal junk that KP knows more about, we can't send anyone in there without special permission. There's a portal to the ghost realm there and we're treating it like another country for now."

Marinette felt her eyes grow wide. "Ghost realm?! You mean where people go when zey die?"

Ron looked thoughtful at that. "Well, some people. We're not a hundred percent sure, but there are all sorts of classifications that I can't remember (don't tell KP that), but not everyone who dies goes there and some of the ghosts there were never alive. It's... weird."

Sounded like it.

"I..." She faded off and started muttering under her breath in French.

"Hey, don't worry about it, L...er, Mari!" She looked up, glaring at him for using such an informal address. He didn't seem to notice. "They'll teach you all about ghosts if you have to go up against one."

"Go up against one?!"

"Well," he started, but then his eyes darted to the door to the bakery and he gestured in that direction. Marinette realized she couldn't hear her parents anymore and rose to go and check on them just as her father came through the door.

"Was that you speaking in English?" her father asked, looking surprised.

Marinette rubbed the back of her head, a little self conscious. "Oui."

"You've really improved," he said with a smile. "I always knew you were as smart as your mother."

"Tom," Sabine said with fond exasperation. Then she glanced over to her daughter and shared a look that made Marinette giggle.

"Watch the front, will you, Ron?" her father asked.

"Oui, M. Dupain!" He said it with a bright grin and a smile. Then he looked at Marinette. "Nice talkin' to ya."

She nodded, a little uncertainly, before her parents showed her into the back room, where they'd set up a mini 'welcome back/happy birthday' party, complete with a cake that would most likely last them the rest of the month.

Marinette couldn't be more grateful that some things, at least, never changed.