start notes—

Wherein Marinette runs from life in the palace and ends up a stowaway on the wrong boat— in the very arms of the person she's been warned all her life to stay away from.

(But then again, she'd willingly let herself be held in Captain Adrien's muscular arms any day.)

my tellonym: milkisande

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pirate

some of us just want adventures,
the open-sea wind in our earrings.

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MARINETTE doesn't run away for any particularly deep reason.

She likes being a princess well enough; to be pampered and taken care of for every little thing. Whatever she wishes for becomes the topmost priority for people to fulfill. Life is convenient and easy, but sometimes to the point that it's too much so.

Whether or not it's a good thing, Marinette simply finds life in the palace boring.

More than anything, she wants freedom. She wants to face obstacles and danger. She craves adventure.

(Anything at all to get her out of the gated walls of the palace, if even for a moment.)

So when Marinette overhears her father talking about one of the merchant ships going to the Cesaire Kingdom— she's never been there before, and letters exchanged between her and Princess Alya always make it seem like a wonderful place to go— the occasion becomes both a golden opportunity and a goal:

To sneak out of the castle and get on that boat.

(In reality, Marinette can very easily ask her parents to send her to the Kingdom— and they'd be absolutely glad to do so, likely even sending an entire fleet to accompany her; but that'd be too simple.

She wants the dramatic adventures of being a stowaway on a ship, moving away to far-off lands and distant places. But she'll likely take one of Alya's boats when she decides to come back.)

It's supposed to only be a fun little vacation, after all.

Nothing permanent.

So when Marinette goes down to the seaport and sneaks onto a mysterious boat along the shores, with her kingdom's logo messily draped upon its sails, she expects to be found by kind merchants and jolly villagers who would gladly help on her mini little adventure while on the water.

Instead, however, she gets found by a not-so-nice young man with black hair dyed gold at the tips— something she'd never quite seen before— and is almost manhandled onto the ship's deck.

"Guess what I found crawling inside the hold," he grins, roughly pulling her forward. "A little bug managed to sneak inside without us realizing it."

"A girl?" A tanned boy appears and looks her up and down, eyebrows knitted in confusion. "How the hell did she get in here?"

Marinette's captor shrugs, still holding her by the arm. "Must've done it while we were getting supplies at the… where were we again?"

A messy-haired boy rolls his eyes, half-covered by the bangs upon his face. "The Dupain-Cheng Kingdom. Kim, we were just there like half an hour ago."

"Shut up! It's not like I should care about that stuff. You're the cartographer," he suddenly pulls at Marinette, making her wince. "And I'm the muscle."

"Anyway, I don't get why anyone would sneak in here in the first place." The tanned boy speaks again, walking towards her and kneeling down until they're facing each other directly. "Do you have a death wish, little girl?"

Marinette spits in his face, before suddenly thrashing and breaking free of the man's— Kim's— chokehold. She grabs the sword sheathed in his belt, steps back, and panickedly holds the weapon forward.

"Don't come near me!"

Nino wipes at his face with his sleeve, but otherwise seems (strangely) unbothered.

He only smiles. "Do you even know how to use that?"

"Shut up!" Marinette says, frantic, before waving the sword around. "What kind of merchants are you, to handle a woman— to handle me, so roughly… how dare you?!"

(She realizes later on how entitled that sounds, but blames it on her royal upbringing.)

"We're not the one who snuck into a pirate's ship, miss. You're the trespasser here."

She splutters. "That's not the point! The fact is that I— wait.

Did you say pirate ship?"

The tanned boy walks forward, and his smile does nothing but unnerve her.

Marinette takes a step back.

"Do you realize the situation you're in, then?"

"No, but I… this is a Dupain-Cheng merchant ship," she starts, barely getting a word out. The pirates seem completely indifferent to the sword she's wielding. They corner her, slowly but surely. "I saw the flag, it's—!"

She looks upward to point, only to belatedly notice that her kingdom's insignia is completely gone, replaced by a black flag with an undoubtedly familiar catlike skull placed upon it.

It's the insignia of every scary story and warning Marinette's ever been told about since she was a child.

She's almost backed up against the door.

"This can't be his ship… not that monster…"

The door suddenly opens, and Marinette's pushed forward.

A young man stands in front of the door— tall, imposing, with dazzling green eyes that seem to pierce directly into her own.

(If this were any other occasion, Marinette would think him attractive.

But she recognizes that face from the stories they tell.)

Devilishly handsome with a mouth always upturned into a smile,
His appearance is the only beauty from destruction.

Marinette vaguely notices even the pirate men step back suddenly, evidently fearful of their leader.

"Chat Noir."

She manages to say it, her voice barely above a whisper as his smile grows ever-larger.

"So you've heard of me?"

"The black cat… the symbol of despair and destruction to whoever come across you and your party." She pauses, and holds her breath. "They say nobody has seen you directly and lived to tell the tale."

"My reputation precedes me. But I've heard too much about myself."

He kneels in front of her, and forcefully tilts her chin up to face up.

"Now do tell me, how has a ladybug such as you strayed so far from home?"

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"I thought I was going to die right then."

"I do recall you having a flair for the dramatic."

"Me? Do I need to remind you what the entire Seven Seas thinks of you?"

"Ah yes, I remember what you said. The symbol of destruction and despair, am I right? That nobody has ever seen me and lived."

Shove.

"Ah, if only the people truly knew that the black cat pirate they were terrified of was actually just a kitty in disguise."

"They will know and believe what they wish. After all, who would guess that the black cat's wife was the lost princess of the Dupain-Cheng Kingdom?"

"Please, I'm much happier leaving Princess Marinette behind."

"Good, she was a spoiled brat."

"Watch it."

"And I'm much happier with Ladybug, anyway."

"I am, too."

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end notes—

no long a/n for today coz i'm busy as hell but if you know where the lyrics are from u get so many high fives : but yes:

thank you for reading! ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～