Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Marinette was heartbroken. Lila kept lying and almost everyone in her class seemed to believe Lila. 

Even ALYA believed her.

They were supposed to be best friends, but Alya, who wanted to be a journalist, didn't even doubt Lila's lies, didn't even fact check them.

It hurt, but Adrien hurt her more. Today, he'd found her bleeding and crying and told her to do what he did, to PRETEND to believe her. He said "Take the high road, Marinette. Her lies aren't hurting anyone. God, you're so selfish." Lila's lies hurt Marinette, but he didn't see that. He ignored the bruises and cuts, pretending they were just cause she was clumsy while knowing that it was being done to her. Didn't he care about her at all?

Well, if he didn't care about her, then she wouldn't care about him. He had shattered her, but she would reform stronger than ever, and she would start by growing up.

It was time to throw off the trappings of childhood and don the beautiful chains of adulthood.

Mari climbed up to her bed and tore down her pictures of Adrien and backstabbing friends, putting them in a box as she couldn't bring herself to throw away the days before Lila. She left the pictures of her true friends, her parents, her older sister Monica, and her childhood best friends.

Next, she tore down all of her posters of Adrien in modeling outfits, replacing them with posters of his sister, Isadora Agreste, Jagged Stone, Monica, and Clara Nightingale.

That was all she was currently able to do, but she'd go shopping tomorrow with the funds from her fashion website, MDC fashion. She had tried making Marinette Fashion, but when her classmates found out, they left hateful comments and bad reviews, sabotaging her in every way they knew how, so she took down that website and created a new company with her initials so she could sell fashion without dealing with their shit.

Marinette shook her head really fast to refocus herself. Ok, now that she had done what she could for her room, it was time to fix her fashion. She had been wearing the same outfit for as long as she could remember, just making it in a larger size when she outgrew it and making multiple, and yeah that made getting dressed easier, but the outfit was kind of childish and wearing the same outfit every day meant that she felt like her identity was slowly fading.

Why did she even do this? Why did ANY of them do this? She didn't know, and she didn't really care, she was just done. 

Marinette was donating all of that outfit to good will, along with everything she had bought off the rack except for her hoodies, sweaters, sweatshirts, and flannels because those were just so comfy. Slowly, deliberately, she went through her closet and put all of her store-bought things, other than the afore-mentioned, into a trash bag labeled good will. Next, she did the same, going through her purses and shoes.

Now it was time for the final touch: Picking out an outfit for tomorrow. This outfit would change her image in some way, as it would be the first time in a long time that she didn't wear her signature outfit, so she had to make sure it sent the right message. It would make a statement, a statement saying she wouldn't be bullied any longer, that she was proud of who she was and what she'd done, that she was no longer going to make herself small for their amusement.

For the next twenty minutes, she went through her closet slowly, meticulously, finding outfits and discarding them, mixing and matching shoes and shirts, dresses and jewelry, until she found the perfect outfit. An outfit that said "I am done letting you walk all over me, from now on I bite back."

She smiled. They had no idea what was coming for them.

Chapter Text

For once, Mari woke up and got out of bed when her alarm went off. She stretched, then put on the outfit she had picked out the night before. She put the top half of her hair into a braid crown that she threaded with gold tinsel and red tinsel and curled the rest. 

Yawning, Mari looked in the mirror and decided makeup was needed. Previously, even though she had an insane amount of a variety of makeup, she rarely wore it, thinking Chloe would bully her more, but she decided that the new her wouldn't care. Carefully, she applied eyeliner, something she still sometimes struggled with. After she was satisfied with her wings, she confidently applied gold eyeshadow, brushed on a bit of blush, and gave her lips an addition of red tint. Lastly, she applied mascara and curled her eyelashes.

Now that she was ready, she walked down the stairs and caught herself humming "Confident" by Demi Lovato. Mari smiled. It had been ages since she last felt truly confident. Years and years, not since...

"No." she said aloud. She wasn't going to think of that, to open that box. It had happened, it was over, she couldn't change it, and it would never go back to the way it had been. To the way SHE had once been.

"Good morning, Mom. How'd you sleep?" Mari said.

"Good morning, I slept goo- Wait, Marinette? What are you doing down here so early? And what are you wearing" Sabine asked, surprised her daughter was out of bed, let alone pretty much ready for school.

Marinette looked down at her outfit. She was wearing black, flowy pants that were snug from waist to mid-shin, then flared out. She had paired them with a blood red halter top and black heels(they barely added any height at all, she wasn't crazy). All of this was finished with a black leather jacket with a hand-painted gold dragon that was inside a larger, black dragon on the back with the words(also hand-painted in gold) "A dragon without a rider is a tragedy..." above them and the words "A rider without their dragon is dead" below.(AN: Yes, I added an entire leather jacket just so this outfit would, first off, not get dress-coded and secondly, so I could add a Fourth Wing reference, but mainly the latter. There will be many dark fantasy references that I will either have added or were already in this, and I will not be pointing them out. Deal with it)

"Well, I decided it was time for me to start dressing and acting my age. What do you think?"

"It looks amazing, honey, and you look happier than you've looked in a while." Sabine said with a proud smile at her younger daughter.

"You know fashion makes me feel confident." Mari said with a twirl. "Oh, can we go shopping after school? I want to redo my room, plus I need some fabric and thread for my most recent commission. Oh, and where's dad?"

"Sure, sweetie, and I thought I told you last night but I must've forgotten. He volunteered to teach a cooking class and left early to set up. Also, I made scones for breakfast. Careful, they're still a bit hot. " Sabine replied, and held out a plate of scones. Mari grabbed a paper towel and wrapped two scones in it and grabbed a third to eat while she packed the backpack she'd just finished making the night before. It was black with book quotes embroidered in gold on it, such as "We are the Thirteen, from now until the Darkness takes us. Let's show them why." and "I would come for you. And if I couldn't walk, I'd crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we'd fight our way out together - Knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that's what we do. We never stop fighting.". Inside the bag, she stuck her sketchbook, some fabric, a sewing kit, a collapsible mannequin she'd designed, and her laptop.

"Bye mom, love you!" Mari called as she walked out the front door, not wobbling despite her heels. In all honesty, she wasn't really clumsy, but after Chloe started bullying her, she lost her confidence, which resulted in clumsiness. 

Mari walked to school, thinking about the design she was working on, so caught up in her thoughts she didn't notice when she reached her school until she bumped into someone and they both fell over. 

Mari stood up, brushed herself off and gave herself a quick once-over to check for injuries or damage to her clothes, then offered her hand to the other person. "Hey, sorry abo... You."

"Dupain-Cheng, you need to watch where you're going! You could've ruined my MDC brand sweater!" Chloe screeched. "You're lucky it wasn't ruined! Wait, is that an MDC original?" she gasped, her outrage turning to shock. "But how could a baker girl afford that??" 

"Well, my parents DO run one of the most successful bakeries in Paris. Oh, wait, no, it's THE most successful bakery in Paris. Plus, someone in the MDC company was impressed by my designs and hired me, so I get a discount." Mari said boredly, examining her nails. "Now, I must dash. Much to avenge, revenge and destroy." Mari said as she started walking.

Suddenly she stopped. "Oh, I almost forgot." Mari said, looking over her shoulder and letting ice enter her gaze. "DON'T get in my way."

Chapter Text

Mari walked away from Chloe with a smile. She had finally stood up to her! Chloe, who had bullied her for literal YEARS, had been left speechless in her presence! It was exhilarating! 

Slowly, her smile faded. They hadn't always been this way... but down that road was madness, and Mari had had enough madness for an entire month in the past week alone. 

Mari had let her train of thought continue exactly twice. One of them was soon after... the Incident, when she had been too in shock to understand, and the other had ended with a mental breakdown and three days in the hospital.

Lost in her thoughts again, she paused so she didn't run into anyone again, only for someone to run into her and fall. She turned to look at them and saw him. The boy who broke her heart. The boy who had said he was her friend, but watched as her life was slowly ruined and done nothing.

Adrien Agreste.

He looked up at her in wonder and quickly stood up. "Marinette... You look..." He breathed.

"Save it." She replied, putting her hand up.

"But Mari.." He tried.

"NO. You don't get to use that name anymore, Mr. Take-The-High-Road." she snapped at the boy. the one she had once been in love with, but who never noticed her until he broke her heart.

"Marinette..."

"You are going to stand there, and you are going to LISTEN, got it?"

The blond boy Marinette had thought she knew so well, but had turned out to not know at all nodded his head, looking dejected. Well, served HIM right.

"Yesterday, you found me bleeding and crying in a fucking ALLEY and told me... hmmm.... what were your exact words? Oh yeah. "Marinette, you need to take the high road when it comes to Lila. Yeah, she lies a lot, but her lies don't hurt anyone. You, however, not even pretending to believe her upsets her AND her friends. You're going to get someone akumatized, and you know that. God, you're so selfish." Do you know why I was bleeding in an alley, hmm? Because Lila and her fucking sheep somehow learned my schedule, hid in an alley, and dragged me in there when I walked by, then proceeded to beat me up. You know that most of my injuries don't come from falling, yet you prioritize the safety of someone whom I have LITERALLY seen grab an akuma MEANT FOR SOMEONE ELSE, yet you act as if we are friends. Well, after what happened yesterday, you are no longer a friend of mine, and I no longer like you. I have had a celebrity crush since you first started modeling, which ended the first day you joined this school then became a true crush after you apologized and gave me the umbrella, and you never noticed. I was always "Just a friend" or "A very good friend", but now that you have betrayed my trust and shattered my heart, you look at me like that? Like I am beautiful and irreplaceable? Fuck no. And how did you even stumble upon me? I no longer love you, I no longer trust you, and I no longer even like you!" Marinette ranted, her voice getting louder and louder and the other conversations slowly ending until she was the only noise, then sudden silence, more piercing than the yelling. 

Marinette looked him dead in the blue eyes she had once loved, the blue eyes that were full of sorrow, regret, guilt, and tears, and felt her emotions shift from a burning fire of rage to a frozen heart, full of an anger that was just as strong, but more dangerous, long-lasting, and slower acting. He backed up a step and she knew that he could see the change in her and feel the danger emanating from every pore. Her beautiful blue-belle eyes, filled with frozen anger, stared deep into his soul until she knew that she was not wrong, he was a backstabbing, whimpering coward and deserved this. She looked into his eyes and she said two words in a voice that was terrifyingly quiet after all the yelling, "Fuck. Off."

And she walked away, leaving him in the one open area, surrounded by people who had just learned exactly what type of person he was as she vanished into the school building.

Chapter Text

CHLOE POV

Chloe shivered as Marinette walked away. Usually, she was so nice and sweet, or at least kind of neutral, but today she was terrifying. Someone, or possibly multiple people, had done something to her. Chloe didn't know who OR what, but she knew something had happened and Dupain-Cheng had been broken.

Chloe was about to walk inside so she could find Sabrina and tell her what happened when she noticed Dupain-Cheng speaking with Adrien, or more Dupain-Cheng talking at him. The longer she talked, the louder she spoke and the taller she stood, whereas Adrien was shrinking further and further into himself.

Chloe walked as close as she could get and once she could hear what Marinette was saying, everything snapped into a kind of white-hot focus. The class was bullying her. Lila was ruining her life. And Adrien just stood by and watched, pretending to be her friend but really be a backstabber. And Chloe had noticed none of it, adding on to her burden by bullying her. 

She had never gone to those lengths, no, or turned Dupain-Cheng's friends against her, but Chloe and Sabrina were not innocent by any stretch of the mind. They had been part of the cause of the poor, angry, broken girl in front of Chloe, part of the reason she twisted tighter and tighter, like a rubber band getting pulled taut until it snapped.

And Chloe felt SORRY for her, sorry for the girl who.... NO. She had vowed to never speak of it, or even think of it, ever again.

As Dupain-Cheng ranted, Chloe's anger at herself, at Lila, at Adrien, at all the ones who had broken her, had done this to her, sharpened. It got even sharper when Dupain-Cheng's gesturing lifted her sleeve from her wrist for a split second, just enough for Chloe to see fresh bandages there as if... As if the bubbly girl had CUT herself.

Chloe was shocked out of her thoughts by a sudden silence, broken only by two words that sent chills down her spine yet said so quietly on those closest could hear, said in a tone icier than she had ever heard from anyone and especially shocking from this girl:

"Fuck. Off."

Chloe didn't even think Marinette COULD cuss. She never had before, and if she was cussing now, something fundamental had broken. Dupain-Cheng turned and walked away, leaving Adrien in a pit of sharks. 

Her anger had her storming up to Adrien and getting close to his face as she hissed a singular question that had him turning pale.

"Is. It. True."

Chapter Text

CHLOE POV

"Is it true?" Chloe hissed.

"W-what do you mean?" Adrien stammered, taking a step back.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't lie to me. Is. It. True?"

His eyes darted back and forth, searching for an escape, for sympathy in the eyes of the gathering crowd. Not seeing one, he focused back on Chloe, sweat visible on his brow. "I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific." He said with a forced laugh.

Chloe smacked him as hard as she could, anger fierce. "You know what I'm fucking talking about you bitch!" She screamed as he stumbled back in shock, hand going to his face.

"C-chlo, you're-you're making a scene." He said in an attempt to placate her, only to shrink in fear as her glare intensified.

"Are you going to answer, or am I going to tell your father what I just heard?" She asked, her voice terrifying in it's sweetness, causing Adrien AND the crowd to back up a step.

"Fine, yes, just please don't tell him!" Adrien begged.

She smirked. "Alright, then explain what I am so mad about, loud enough for everyone to hear, then go and explain to Ms. Bustier, Ms. Mendeleiev, and Mr. Damocles, or I'll tell everyone, including your father, that you're cheating on Kagami instead of just telling her. I'm telling her either way, but you have a choice between everyone knowing or her knowing and choosing who to tell." Chloe whispered, quiet enough that he had to lean in to hear her.

Adrien somehow went even paler and gulped, looking around. Chloe looked around too and smiled. The courtyard was full of people, with a circle of empty space around them. There would be no quieting it down once he explained. There were too many people. 

He turned to Chloe, pleading in his eyes, searching for a single shred of sympathy. "Please." he whispered. 

Chloe laughed, a joyless thing. "You dug your own grave, and now it's time to lie in it."

"What is going on here? Why is almost nobody in class? Oh, hi Marinette." 

Chloe glanced over her shoulder to see Marinette had been watching from just inside the door and Ms. Bustier had come to see what was happening. As Ms. Bustier maneuvered to the front of the crowd, Chloe smiled, dagger sharp.

"Hello Ms. B, Adrien was just about to confess something to the school." She said, her voice full of false sweetness.