Well the whole NaNoWriMo thing lasted like, a day, so I decided to keep up with my fanfiction instead.
Some notes: This will not be feast, love eater, or miracle queen compliant - there will be mentions of a different backstory for the temple/losing the two miraculous, and Chloe will get a redemption arc. Also this chapter was written before Felix, so I had no idea Adrien knew anything about chess.
Chapter 3: Cats Can't Play chess
Marinette was about to pull her hair out. How was Alya believing this?
"- Miss the movie for me," Lila was saying. "I'll just have to work extra hard once this injury passes to catch up on homework."
"It really is no problem, Lila," Alya replied. "Me and Marinette can just see it next week. Right girl?"
Marinette rolled her eyes. "Except Lila's probably going to pull another excuse to get you to do her homework."
"Im not doing her homework for her," Alya said, also rolling her eyes. "Honestly, stop assuming the worst just because it's Lila."
Marinette sighed and looked around the classroom, hoping someone would come to her defense. Lacy's eyes met hers, and Lacy gave her an encouraging smile, but there was worry in her eyes.
Marinette couldn't blame her. She'd been bullied enough herself enough to know how scary it could be. And Lacy was still new - yeah, she and Alix has grown close fast, but the friendship was still only three weeks old, and her friendships with the rest of the class were still growing. She didn't have the same history Marinette had with the class - not that it seemed to matter, Marinette thought dryly.
Marinette looked at the only other person in the class that knew Lila was a liar, but Adrien looked half asleep. Of course, with an akuma right by his house last night and an early morning photo shoot, he had every right to be tired.
Marinette sighed. So much for back up.
"What's wrong with someone else doing your homework?" Chloe asked. "Sabrina does mine all the time, and she's happier for it."
Sabrina nodded eagerly as the rest of the class - minus Adrien, being half asleep - rolled their eyes.
As Marinette put her books away, Nino poked Adrien, waking him up from his daze, Alix challenged Kim to race to the park, and Rose started talking to Juleka about the newest Kitty Section song. Just like that, the class was back to normal.
Alix and Kim left first, followed by Lacy, Nathaniel, and Max, who was already talking statistics about the race. Chloe was next out, followed by Sabrina, and Marinette joined Rose and Juleka on the way out. Behind her, Nino had finally managed to get Adrien standing and walking.
"I love the new t-shirts Marinette," Rose said. "They're perfect!"
Juleka nodded. "Everyone likes them."
Marinette couldn't help but smile. "I'm so glad to hear it! I was worried that the-"
Doors to a classroom flew open, cutting off all conversations.
"I am Chessmaster! I will make all of you members of the chess club, and then the school will have to fund me!"
"I heard about the chess club!" Rose said. "They lost one of their members, and were shut down because of low attendance! I would be upset too if that was one of my clubs.."
"We have to get out of here!" Marinette said.
The three girls were close enough to the stairs to risk running down and heading for the doors. Behind them, Marinette noticed Nino push Adrien into a classroom, and Ivan and Mylene making a break back to their classroom.
When the girls reached the bottom of the stairs, Marinette broke off and headed to the bathroom. Thankfully, it was empty.
"Hawkmoth doesn't take a break, does he?" Marinette muttered. "Tikki, spots on!"
Chessmaster's dress, of course, looked like a chessboard.
It was brown, was alternating light and dark squares. The dress reached the ground, and had short, puffy sleeves.
The rest of her was half-white, half-black (which looked awful, Hawkmoth needed to pick a color scheme and stick with it) and she had a tiara like the queen piece. In one hand she held a staff, topped with what looked like a chess piece.
"I bet that's where the akuma is," Ladybug muttered.
"I was thinking the same."
Chat Noir landed next to her, an irritated look on his face.
"You okay Kitty?" Ladybug asked.
Chat Noir yawned. "Just tired. I think I need a cat nap."
Ladybug nodded. Chat Noir had mentioned last night that he had an early morning today, and last night's akuma had kept them both up for what felt like ages.
"Don't worry," Ladybug said. "I bet this will end quickly. So far she's only really made people play chess. That's pretty harmless, right?"
It was not a quick end.
Apparently, Chessmaster could also summon large, animated chess pieces (which frustratingly didn't seem to function as chess pieces, and instead could go anywhere they wanted) and also had the same move-mapping power as Party Crasher. It didn't help that a bishop had stepped on her lucky charm before she had a chance to see what it was. Thankfully, Ladybug and Chat Noir had avoided being captured, but they had taken a few beatings along the way.
The worst had to be the knight who threw Ladybug through a wall.
(Mind you, she had been thrown into walls plenty of times before, but through a wall was a lot more painful.)
Groaning, Ladybug looked up. She was in an apartment, somewhere near the school, but that's all she could tell without sitting up. And she didn't want to sit up quite yet.
"Ladybug?"
Ladybug blinked, finally forcing herself to sit up. She looked to the source of the voice, realizing that, by chance or by luck, she had ended up in one of her classmate's apartments.
She had never met Lacy as her alter ego. Lacy always stayed as far away as she could from akuma attacks, either out of survival instincts the rest of Paris seemed to lack, or because she was still unused to the idea of Ladybug's cure. Even now, she seemed less star-struck than Alya or Chloe would be, and more concerned.
"Are you okay?" Lacy asked, kneeling next to Ladybug.
"I'm fine," Ladybug said. "I take hits like that all the time. Are you alright, Miss...?"
"Lacy. And yeah, I'm fine."
Lacy held out a hand, and Ladybug accepted the help up. Just as she stood up, her earrings beeped their last warning.
Ladybug looked around, needing a place to hide, but there were no good hiding spots in the small living room.
"Upstairs."
"Wha-?"
Before Ladybug had time to react, Lacy was pulling her up the stairs to the second floor. Lacy shoved the superhero into an empty room, and the door closed behind her just as Ladybug's transformation dropped.
"That was a close one," Marinette admitted, leaning back against the door.
"Good thing Lacy was so quick to realize what you needed!" Tikki commented.
Marinette nodded, her eyes wondering the room.
It was obviously Lacy's room, but it didn't look anywhere near what Marinette had expected. She always pictured her classmate having one of those coordinated rooms, with a Disney theme or something.
Instead, the room was a mish-mash of everything. Her bed was covered with fuzzy blankets of various colors, her walls with photos she must have taken herself. She had more clothes on her desk, bed, and closet door than in her actual closet (which had been left open that morning), and had replaced her desk chair with a yoga ball. Beside her desk was various moving boxes still left unpacked or half-packed. Nearly every corner of the room had a pair of shoes thrown half-hazardly against the wall.
"And I thought my room was a mess," Marinette commented.
Her eyes wondered to the pictures on the wall. She knew she shouldn't peak, but curiosity killed the Ladybug, and she found herself walking over to them anyways.
She immediately spotted a picture of herself, working hard at something in the library. Marinette had seen the picture before - Lacy was good at warning people when she had taken a picture of them - but she had never had a chance to compare it with the rest of the photos.
But they were all so similar.
Alix was making a similar face in one of the photos - nose scrunched in concentration as she flew around a corner in a skating race. In another, Alya had wide eyes as she recorded something on her phone. She spotted a photo of Lacy's stepmom, Elisabeth, beaming in a wedding dress, and another of blonde-haired girl Marinette didn't recognize, miming to herself while reading a script.
No poses, no forced smiles, no blank expressions. It was obvious what Lacy liked to focus on.
I'm, uh, really good at reading facial expressions, Lacy had said. It hadn't seemed like enough then, for that conversation, but now Marinette wondered. Had that been how Lacy had sensed what Ladybug needed? Had it been that clear on her face - filled with worry, looking around for something?
A small, timid knock on the door followed by receding footsteps knocked Marinette out of her thoughts.
Marinette cautiously opened the door, but no one remained in the hall. In front of the door was a plastic bag with a first aid kit, water bottle, and granola bar.
"That was really thoughtful of her!" Tikki said as Marinette closed the door again.
"I'll have to thank her when I get the chance," Marinette agreed.
She didn't need most of it - the suit protected her from any cuts, there wasn't much she could do for the bruises, and she wasn't hungry - but she was dying of thirst. It took her about a minute to gulp down the water, and Tikki finished her macaroon about the same time.
"We should get back out there," Marinette decided. "Tikki, spots on!"
Chess pieces can't climb, so of course Chat Noir was taunting them from the roof of the school.
"I couldn't do much but distract without you," he said. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Ladybug replied. "Just had to recharge."
Ladybug looked out over the courtyard. Random Parisians had joined the students playing chess, and Chessmaster was teaching Mr Ramier the basics.
"You didn't happen to see what my lucky charm was?" Ladybug asked.
"Oh, it was a Ladybug themed chess set!" Chat Noir said. "It looked really cool. Until it was run over."
"Chess? Why would it want us to play chess?"
"Well, I hope it's not that direct," Chat Noir said. "I don't know about you, but I know nothing about chess."
"Ohhh," Ladybug said. "That's so obvious! Lucky charm!"
She wasn't surprised when a spotted megaphone fell into her hands. She held it up to her mouth.
"Chessmaster! Chat Noir here doesn't know anything about chess and wants to learn!"
Chessmaster was floating up to them faster than Hawkmoth could say It's a trap.
Ladybug grinned and readied her yoyo. "Gotcha."
"And then Chat Noir actually stayed and got some basic chess lessons!" Alya finished. "You should've seen it! He was so cute."
"So I saw," Marinette replied, rolling over from her back to her stomach and propping the phone up on a pillow on her bed. "That video is one of your most popular posts."
"I know," Alya said. "I hope this means the chess club gets the boost it needs. I'd join myself, but between the blog and helping Lila with her homework, I don't have the time."
"Same. I'm too busy helping out at the bakery and being class president, I don't think I could join another club! Speaking of class president business, did you read through the email I drafted on getting cushions for some of our seats?"
"Sorry girl, but I didn't get the chance."
"Alya!"
"Don't blame me, blame Hawkmoth! I would have had plenty of time if I didn't spend an hour playing chess. Besides, you're a good writer. Trust yourself."
"Yeah, but you're better." Marinette sighed. "Just read through it once, okay? I already don't think Mr Damocles will like it, but I promised Rose I'd try and I really want to give it my best."
"Of course," Alya said. "See you tomorrow!"
"See you."
Alya hung up, and Marinette groaned and flopped on her bed.
"This is the fifth time Alya's said she'd do something for me and blown it off," Marinette said.
"She has a point," Tikki commented. "I'm sure lots of people had their schedules thrown off by Chessmaster."
"I know, and I wouldn't be worried so much if it was just things like that. But this is also the first time in weeks she updated her blog! And she hasn't said anything herself, but I overheard her mom say something about her grades dropping when she visited the bakery yesterday. I'm just worried her helping that liar is interfering with her own life!"
"Have you told her this?" Tikki asked.
Marinette sighed. "No. Anytime I say anything negative about Lila, she gets defensive."
"What if you asked her mom about it? Or Nino?" Tiki suggested.
"I don't know, that feels like going behind her back."
Marinette rolled over onto her back and looked up at the skylight.
"Tikki?"
"Yes?"
"Are you feeling up to transforming?"
Ladybug landed on a rooftop, looking out at her city.
There was a certain freedom in her transformation, even with the burdens of being a superhero. As much as Lila might hate Ladybug, one classmate couldn't hurt her now.
Looking around at what had been damaged by the battle, Ladybug smiled at the thought. It didn't seem like Hawkmoth could hurt her, either, even if he was a thorn in her side.
There was always a voice in the back of her head in akuma fights, worrying that the damage this time would not be fixed. But once again it was - houses rebuilt, walls fixed, bruises on her side vanished. And for once, Ladybug let herself feel the confidence the rest of Paris experienced in her. When the next akuma hit, when the next building crumbled, it would vanish - it needed to, as a hero Ladybug couldn't let herself get too arrogant - but nothing was at risk now. She could just let herself feel.
Ladybug sat down at the edge of the roof, feet dangling in the air, and relaxed.
She wasn't sure how long she stayed there, but when her eyes began to droop, Ladybug headed home.
That's when she noticed the balcony light.
Ladybug frowned. Hadn't that been Lacy's apartment? Against the light, she could make out Lacy's figure sitting out on the balcony, feet dangling over the edge. Ladybug swung over, landing next to where Lacy was perched.
Lacy jumped when she landed. "Ladybug?"
"Sorry for scaring you," Ladybug said. "But I wanted to thank you for earlier. You were a big help."
"Really?" Lacy asked. "I mean, all I did was give you a little space."
Ladybug smiled. "Don't underestimate the effect a small action can have. That little space was exactly what I needed."
"Glad I could help!" Lacy smiled at her, brightly and honestly, but her expression slipped a second later. She turned out towards the city. "Do you ever get used to it?"
Ladybug frowned. "Used to what?"
"Seeing it destroyed," Lacy replied.
With a sigh, Ladybug sat down next to her. "No, not really. It's not easy seeing your home destroyed."
Lacy smiled, a little bitterly and sarcastically and a little too much like she knew what Ladybug meant. "No, it's not."
"You're not originally from Paris, are you?" Of course Marinette knew that, but Ladybug had no reason to know.
"I'm from Brooklyn," Lacy said. "In America. But I spent a lot of time in Manhattan, and Long Island, and that took a lot of storm damage a few years ago. It was difficult seeing it like that."
"I can imagine," Ladybug admitted. "But even without a magic cure like mine, people rebuild."
Lacy snorted. "Buildings. They rebuild buildings. That's not the important part."
"No, it's not," Ladybug agreed.
"How do you do it?" Lacy asked. "You're constantly being beaten, or thrown through walls, or nearly drowned, and you're doing it for people you don't really know."
"It didn't start that way," Ladybug replied. "When I first became Ladybug, I wanted to run far away. And I almost did - but that would have left my partner - my friend - all alone. I started because of him, and because of my other friend, and my parents. And somewhere along the way, I started doing it for all of Paris. But it all started for one person." Ladybug smiled at Lacy. "I think that's how a lot of heroes start."
"Just one person," Lacy repeated.
"You're a lot braver than you think," Ladybug said. "Trust me."
(The storm damage mentioned in this chapter was the Battle in New York in The Last Olympian, with the mist making it seem like regular storm damage.)
