By the time they made it to Marinette's balcony, she was beginning to shake and sniffle in Chat's arms. Vixen glanced between all of them, then gave a decisive nod.
"Chat. You and Queenie comfort Marinette. Scarabee and I will get the dog settled up here, we can't bring her into the house until she's been washed and de-fleaed, especially not with the bakery on the first floor." She shot Scarabee a reassuring look. "She'll be fine up here, don't worry. We'll get her some blankets and food and water, and she can sleep under the awning in case it rains. You stay up here with her, I'll go grab what she needs."
The other three nodded, and Scarabee set the dog down, sitting in one of Marinette's chairs and ruffling her ears to keep her occupied. Vixen opened up the hatch to Marinette's room, slipping down the ladder easily and registering Chat jumping down carefully after as she headed for the trap door to the rest of the house.
Her worry about where to find old blankets and having to hunt for them was appeased when she spotted Marinette's parents bustling around the kitchen, making dinner. Sabine looked up and shot her a warm smile.
"How did the fight go, Alya?"
Vixen started, tail lashing in her shock. "Uh…"
"Oh, don't be surprised. You three weren't being very subtle when you suddenly stopped coming around in costume and started dating Marinette normally."
"… Please don't tell anyone," Vixen squeaked.
"Don't worry, your secret is safe with us," Tom said, wiping his hands clean and moving to give Vixen a one-armed hug, then a reassuring pat to the shoulder. "All of you."
"Besides, someone has to look after all of you. I don't know how you got these abilities, but giving them to teenagers and expecting them to go out and fight with no support system in place for between fights?" Sabine gave a very unladylike snort. "I'd like to give them a piece of my mind."
"Ladybug's mentioned a Guardian before…" Vixen said weakly, then winced, ears laying back and tail tucking between her legs. "Actually, um… here's the thing… Marinette was tonight's akuma, so…"
Now Tom and Sabine looked genuinely alarmed. "What could have happened to her to cause her to be akumatized?"
"We're… not entirely sure yet. Chat and Queenie are with her upstairs right now."
Tom and Sabine shared a look. "… How did you purify the akuma without Marinette as…"
Vixen winced. "Nino stepped in to do that. I think he'll be glad to give Marinette back her… powers," she said carefully, not sure how much was safe to tell them.
Having adults who knew what you were up to as a superhero was going to take some getting used to.
Speaking of Nino... "Um, that's part of why I'm down here. Nino kind of… picked up a stray dog that got dragged into the fight. We don't want to bring her inside because of the bakery, that and she could really use a good bath and flea treatment, so we were just going to get her settled on the balcony with some food and water and a couple blankets."
"Thank you for thinking ahead. Tom, can you help her find the old blankets? I'll put some leftovers in a bowl that the dog can have. All of you are staying for dinner, right? Don't bother coming down, we'll bring up plates for the five of you so that Marinette doesn't have to get up." Sabine started rummaging through the refrigerator. "Just make sure to call your parents if you plan to spend the night. We trust you kids to not get up to anything, or at least to use proper protection if you do."
"Mrs. Cheng!" Vixen squawked, tail lashing in agitation, and tried to ignore the sudden howling laughter in her head, courtesy of Trixx.
"What?" The small woman looked far too innocent as she dumped some rice, steamed vegetables, and chicken in broth into a bowl, another filling up with water in the sink. "I'm not ready to be a grandmother just yet, so it's important to practice safe-"
"Okay it's been great talking to you thanks for being so understanding but I have to get back to the others!" Vixen yelped out hurriedly as she snatched up the blankets Tom had just pulled out of a closet and two bowls, juggling them for a brief second before darting up the stairs to Marinette's room as fast as she could.
Tom and Sabine shared an amused look, then broke down into laughter. "No need to scare them off, sweetie!"
"Come on, what's the fun of Marinette having four boy- and girlfriends if we can't tease them all?" Sabine shot her husband a wicked grin full of mischief before pulling out more ingredients for dinner.
Five hungry teens ate a lot, especially when four of them were superheroes.
Vixen glanced at the trio on Marinette's bed on her way back up, and her ears pinned to see that Marinette had her face buried in Chat's chest, soft sobs shaking her body. Chat and Queen Bee were pressed as close to their girlfriend as they could get, and Queenie was hissing softly into her burner phone she kept for use as Queen Bee, clearly angry but not willing to yell in case she upset Marinette further.
The fox-themed hero flicked an ear in Chat's direction, and he looked up to murmur softly. "Delayed reaction hit once she came out of shock. Queenie's on the phone with the police, she's pulling every string she has to get those guys in lockup."
Probably just the word of one girl wouldn't be enough in most places, but at this point Paris had a special dispensation for akuma-victims, and any akuma that was furious enough to go right after the reason for their akumatization instead of the local heroes were more likely to be believed.
That, and as heroes they were used to giving reports to the police for more serious akumatization reasons.
Sad as it was, Marinette wasn't their first victim who had been akumatized because they were attacked, and those akuma always, always went after the ones who wronged them first.
"I'll check the submission for the Ladyblog later and write up an article then, if there's any video of Scarabee I'll put that the official story is Ladybug was out of town and needed someone to fill in for her," Vixen replied, then leapt up through the roof hatch onto Marinette's balcony.
It didn't take them long to get the dog settled, although they had to hand feed her because she wanted to scarf down all of the food at once, and neither of them wanted her getting sick because she ate too fast.
"What are you calling her?" Vixen asked as she finished tucking a blanket around the dog with Scarabee.
"Marinette already named her," he chuckled, ruffling the dog's ears before following her to the hatch. "Fenrir works just fine. Besides, she doesn't know it's a boy name."
"Fair enough." Vixen shrugged, carefully climbing down the hatch and waiting for Scarabee to finish closing it behind him before worming her way into the pile on the bed. Scarabee hesitated, and she snorted before using her tail to yank him after.
Queen Bee tapped 'end' on her phone call and huffed. "Okay, we'll have to give our statements tomorrow suited up, but the police will be on the lookout for the assholes. Thankfully they already have profiles from the last incident, so they know who they're looking for." With a tired sigh, she handed the phone to Chat, who set it on Marinette's nightstand, then dropped her transformation.
Vixen and Chat did the same, and Alya looked over at Scarabee. "It's easy, just want the transformation to end."
He nodded, and one wash of red sparkles later, a tiny red and black figure shot over to Marinette, smacking into her cheek hard enough to make an audible sound. The girl jumped, pulling back from Adrien's chest, then brought both hands up to cup Tikki and bring her around, where the kwami leaned in and rested both tiny hands on the end of Marinette's nose.
"I'm sorry…" Marinette whispered, then swallowed and repeated it a little louder, voice hoarse. "I'm so, so sorry, guys. I wanted to tell you, but-" She stopped as Tikki laid a tiny hand gently between her eyes, then leaned in to press forehead to forehead with her Chosen.
"I already explained that it was me who kept urging you to keep your identity secret," Tikki said. The little kwami took a shuddering breath, then continued. "I was wrong. Maybe if I hadn't been so insistent, tonight wouldn't have happened."
"Mari?" Adrien reached out to gently tuck a loose lock of hair behind her ear. "What exactly happened? For you to be…" He trailed off, unable to finish.
Marinette cupped Tikki a little closer and closed her eyes, taking slow and deep breaths to steady herself. "I was on my way back after my last delivery. They cornered me in a street where I had no way out, and nowhere to duck into so I could transform."
Alya hated, hated to ask, but she had to. "Did they…"
"They didn't get to me." Marinette gave a wry look. "I hate to say it, but Hawkmoth… actually saved me. They ran as soon as the akuma showed up." She shook her head. "I tried to fight the possession, but all I could do was get my Miraculous off and send Tikki to go find you guys. After that… it's kind of a blur." She swallowed. "Did I… Did I hurt anyone?"
Chloe wrapped her arms around Marinette, pulling her over a little so that she could spoon her girlfriend's side. "No. You scared the crap out of those guys, and we had to deal with a couple of giant animals, but you didn't hurt anyone."
"Actually…" Nino moved up to press a kiss to Marinette's cheek. "It was you who defeated… well, you."
Marinette blinked, confused. "What?"
Alya smiled, pillowing her head against Marinette's belly. It was a little awkward, arranging five people on Marinette's bed, and Nino had to wrap an arm around Adrien to steady him so he didn't fall off, but all of them felt the need to be close to her. "When you came up against all of us… you stopped. You recognized us, and you told Hawkmoth that you wouldn't hurt us for him."
"You handed over your akumatized item yourself," Adrien finished, lifting a hand to gently stroke Marinette's hair. "I've never seen an akuma fight off Hawkmoth's control like that."
"You're amazing," Nino murmured, then frowned a bit and scooted down slightly so that Adrien was less in danger of falling off, as his arm was aching already from the awkward angle it was in. That put him next to Alya, both of their lower legs hanging off of the bed, and let Adrien scoot up a little further to curl around Marinette's upper body. "Okay, if we're going to do five-person cuddles, we seriously need something bigger."
"We can use my room or Adrien's," Chloe said, burying her face in Marinette's hair and voice a little muffled. "One of us can carry you up, Nino."
"Stairs are a thing, guys," Nino said dryly.
"Kind of hard to sneak you into my room through the house itself," Adrien pointed out.
"Guys…" Marinette sighed, tension slowly leaving her at being surrounded by her boyfriends and girlfriends. "Back on topic."
"Yes, My Lady," Adrien purred, joining Chloe in nuzzling into Marinette's hair, and thus missing her blush at the endearment.
Alya nuzzled into Marinette's stomach. "I'm not going to lie, I at least am a little upset that you kept your identity from us… but I understand why you did it. I just wish we didn't have to find out in the way we did."
Marinette swallowed hard, throat scratchy from her earlier crying, then stroked Alya's hair. "I'm sorry. I really did want to tell all of you, but…"
"I'll take the blame for that," Tikki said, floating up to rest on Marinette's temple. "Now, if you don't mind, Nino? No offense, you're a wonderful boy, but Marinette is my Chosen."
"Oh, right." Carefully, Nino took off the earrings and passed them back to Marinette. Confused, he paused and then fingered the small holes at the top of his ears. "Hey, they're healed up."
"Consider it a thank you," Tikki said. "To save you the grief of waiting for them to heal on their own, since you only got the piercings because of the situation."
A small voice piped up from Adrien's shirt. "Since the ladybug is out of the bag, can the rest of us come out now?"
Tikki sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine."
Suddenly, three blurs shot out, one from Adrien's shirt and the other two from Alya and Chloe's hair. All three tackled Tikki at once, knocking her off of Marinette's head and onto her cat pillow, the lump of which resolved into four kwami having one big group hug, with Tikki at the center.
Nino blinked. "Wait, all of you have little buddies?"
"They're bonded to the Miraculouses," Adrien explained. "The little black cat is Plagg. Honestly, he's a little shit who likes the stinkiest cheese he can find, but…" He shrugged and grinned, reaching out to run a fingertip over the top of Plagg's head.
"Trixx is the fox. She likes playing pranks, so don't be surprised if she pulls a few on you. They're harmless ones, at least," Alya said.
"Pollen is my kwami. Horrible at telling the truth, but…" Chloe shrugged and gave a wry grin.
Marinette blinked. "Huh, Tikki's always been sweet and helpful with me, if pretty cautious."
"Ugh, you are the lucky Ladybug, you're the only one who has a kwami who isn't a jerk," Alya huffed.
All five teenagers burst into laughter, the last of the tension and adrenaline from the fight fading away.
Marinette's laughing was interrupted by a large yawn, and she buried her face into Adrien's chest with a sleepy hum, unable to tell whose hand began stroking her hair but not caring. "Thank you. All of you. For being there for me."
"We've all got each other's back," Nino said softly. "It's why we all work so well together." He yawned as well, and shifted to better pillow his head on Marinette's stomach, next to Alya.
"Gotta love the adrenaline crash," Alya mumbled.
Chloe gestured for her phone, and Adrien passed it to her. She muffled her own yawn as she tapped at the screen a few times. "I set an alarm, we can all take a short nap before dinner. Marinette's parents will wake us up if it's ready before then."
"Sounds good," Adrien said as he set the phone back on the nightstand, then pressed in closer.
Yeah, they'd probably have more things to talk about after dinner, but they were finally, finally all on the same page.
Half an hour later, Tom opened the hatch to Marinette's room, and smiled at the sight of five out cold teens piled onto Marinette's bed.
At least he managed to get a picture before he had to wake them all up.