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A week of akumas.
It had been a week of akumas when Marinette, or Ladybug, decided that whoever was on the other side of the mask of Hawkmoth was going to die by her hands. She was going to strangle the life out of him, going to watch the life die out of his eyes under that horrendous mask.
It was bad enough that she had missed three hours of sleep before because of one akumatization that interrupted her bedtime, but it was even worse when Marinette found herself losing days of sleep to clean up after the mess that Hawkmoth had created.
So to reiterate, Marinette was going to kill Hawkmoth.
Marinette groaned when she heard her alarm sound. It had only been around four hours since she got back into bed, tucked warm and safe under her bed sheets, after fighting an akuma till 4 AM. Tikki groaned alongside her, mumbling quietly to herself.
"Fucking Hawkmoth," she found herself saying as she climbed out of bed and down her loft. "Tikki, is it illegal to kill a terrorist?"
"It's common knowledge that it’s illegal to murder, Marinette." Tikki said, floating aimlessly around before stuffing herself lightly into Marinette' pouch. "Besides, you can't kill him."
"Well, I'm about to," she gritted her teeth as she brushed them. "Do you see what he's done to my face?!" Marinette gestured to her face. Tikki wearily blinked and pried her eyes open. The bags under Marinette's blue eyes were huge and dark. They were incredibly visible against her pale skin. "I used more concealer in the past week than in the past year!" She raised the empty bottle, glaring at it.
Tikki lets out a yawn. "Marinette..." she whined lightly. "I'm hungry..."
Marinette spared a look to her kwami and immediately softened her look when she saw the expression on the creature. "Sorry, Tikki. I'll be right with you."
"It's okay! Take your time," the other said. "I'll just take a quick... nap..." Marinette watched as the exhausted kwami fell over into her pouch. She'll have to make sure to give her extra macarons to make up for everything.
Marinette quickly freshened herself up. She pulled her hair into their signature pigtails and threw her backpack over her blazer, before descending down the stairs.
"Marinette?"
"Maman!" Marinette smiled as best as she could. She was still tired, immensely so, but she didn't want to worry her mom. Unluckily, her mom saw through her act.
"Oh dear," Sabine walked up to her. "I told you I should have brought those noise-cancelling earphones for you! Those akuma attacks are getting more and more common, I don't want you to lose any more sleep because of them."
Except for the fact that if I get those earphones, I'll miss the akumas, and fail as Ladybug. Marinette bitterly thought. "Sorry, Maman," she pecked her mother's cheek hastily before digging into breakfast. "I thought I was okay without them."
Sabine shook her head, clearly worried for her health. "I'll make sure to order them for you." I can't use them though. Marinette thought. She still smiled, stealing some cookies from the plate and swiftly hiding them into her pouch for Tikki. "Here, I brewed some coffee for you, just some." Marinette's eyes immediately lit up.
"Maman!" She rushed to hug her mother, making sure to keep her coffee cup safe. "I love you!"
"I love you too, Marinette," Sabine smiled before it dropped from her face. "I'm not allowing you to drink anymore than 1 cup."
"Maman?!" She said like her mom had offended and betrayed everything she'd ever stood for.
Sabine didn't care when she started to push Marinette out the door. "It's time for you to go, Marinette! We don't want you to be late to school now." Marinette's whines never reached Sabine's ears when the latter closed the door on her.
Marinette sighed, resigning herself to walking to school, calmly sipping on her coffee. Ah, caffeine, the savior and love of her life. She took another sip, sighing contently and deeply.
"Woah, girl! You look dead on your feet."
"Morning, Alya," she mumbled quietly. "Akuma attacks were near my house for the past week, and I couldn't get any decent sleep even if I tried." She lied smoothly. Alya shot her worried look.
"You sure you don't think you can stay home? You look like you're about to fall over any moment now." Alya asked, worried for her best friend's health. Marinette waved her concerns away.
"I'll be fine, Alya, I can't miss any more classes... Though I might just take a nap in one of them." She said, yawning into her hand.
"No worries, girl, I'll be sure to help you hide from the teacher." Alya winked, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Marinette gave her best friend the most grateful smile she could muster up right now. "But sheesh- are you and Adrien fighting to see who has darker circles under their eyes?" Her head perked out at the name of her crush.
"Wait- Adrien?!" She turned her head, trying to find the boy in question. When her eyes landed upon him, she could see the visible and very noticeable deep, dark circles under his tired, but still beautifully green, eyes. "Oh no... do you think one of the akumas was so close to his house that it woke him up too?" Marinette bit down on her bottom lip, worried for his health. She racked her brain. She couldn't quite remember a time when it was extremely close, but there had been a few times throughout the week when the attacks got close enough for the residents to wake up.
"As cute as it is that you're worrying for lover boy over there," Alya gestured to Adrien, who had met up with Nino, the latter seemingly dragging the blond up the stairs. "You should be more worried for yourself." She grabbed Marinette's hand, dragging her to class too. "Sit and sleep. I'll wake you when the teacher comes."
With one more grateful look at Alya, Marinette clonked out almost immediately when her head hit her arms.
"Damn." Nino whistled as he turned his head from below to look up at the girls. "I didn't realize that Marinette became a zombie."
"Akuma near her house," Alya explained. "Kept her up with minimal sleep."
"Sounds just like what happened to me." Adrien said, a hand running through his messy hair. "Why did none of you tell me my hair was all messed up?"
"Dude, your face looks messed up. I think your hair is the least of your problems." Nino looked at him pointedly. In return, Adrien glared at him with no heat behind his eyes.
"Do you think she'll let me have some coffee?" The blond looked over at the cup of coffee in Marinette's loose hands with heart eyes.
"Are you kidding?" Alya raised an eyebrow. "As much as I love to say yes," Adrien raised an eyebrow at her choice of wording. "No one gets between Marinette and her coffee. Sorry, sunshine, but take her coffee, and you'll get a real black eye." Adrien lets a pout surface on his face at the sound of that. Still, he stared longingly at the coffee. Nino whispered something akin to 'caffeine addicts ' under his breath.
Marinette shifted in her sleep just as the door busted open. The loud slam woke her up immediately.
"Wuh-?" She sleepily lets out, peering through her barely opened eyelids are the trio that came in.
"Hah! I won!" Kim cheered as he looked back and stuck out his tongue at Alix.
"Nuh-uh!" Alix crossed her arms, staring straight up at him. "I went through the door before you! You were the one eating my dust."
"La la la! I can't hear you over my victory, shortie!"
"Max!" The red haired grumbled, turning over to the bespectacled boy next to them. "Who won?" She asked, ignoring Kim's loud shout.
"According to my calculations-" Max started to say, his finger pushing his glasses up.
"According to my girl, you guys should get to your seats and talk amongst yourself instead of to the whole class." Alya interrupted, paying no attention to Marinette's hushed whisper of her name. "Sorry, Max. You know how it is." The brunette shrugged.
"No, you are right. I should have made sure they weren't disturbing anyone with their shenanigans."
"You were involved in it too!" Kim argued.
"Oh, whatever!" Alix rolled her eyes. "Let's go to our seats." When she passed Marinette's seat, she made sure to pat her back reassuringly. "My bad, Mari."
"No, you're fine!" Marinette squeaks out. "I'm just tired, no worries."
Alix nodded in understanding. "Hawkmoth is laying it thick with those akuma attacks."
"You can say that." Marinette groaned into her arms. She fell back onto the table and before everyone knew it, she was completely lost to the world.
"That is one handy trick." Kim smirked. "I'd love to sleep anywhere at any time." Alix slapped the boy's shoulder at that.
The classroom fell into whispers as they waited for class to begin. Marinette felt the annoyance from waking up slowly seep out of her. It was a nice dreamless sleep, completely pitch black until-
"And that's how I won the medal!" Goddamnit. Marinette stirred awake again at the sound of a liar's voice.
"That's amazing, Lila!" Rose gushed as Juleka nodded in response.
"I don't mean to brag but... The judges were really impressed and even offered me a proposal to go pro! I couldn't because of my injury."
"Except both of them are fake." Marinette mumbled quietly. Still, she said it when Lila was climbing the stairs and the latter heard it.
"Marinette! How could you say that?" Lila stared at her with mock-horror in her eyes. "I know you don't like me that much, but you didn't have to say that just because you're jealous of me!" Marinette looked up tiredly at her.
"Lila, does it look like I'm capable of being jealous of you right now?" She said, deadpanning at the girl. "What I'm jealous of is sleep. So apologies, Lila," she said with no remorse in her voice, "Please just keep your voice down so I can nap for the remaining 5 minutes before class begins."
It was odd of the girl to do such a thing, but when Alya watches her best friend hit her head against the table and knocks out once more, she thinks there has to be more to this.
And, of course, Lila doesn't listen to Marinette. Her blabbing keeps the rest of the class engaged as Marinette struggles to get even a peace of mind. She's doing this on purpose. The noirette felt herself sigh mentally, gritting her teeth as she tried to ignore the brunette's lying.
None of them notice the butterfly until it's too late.
Alya's eyes widen, watching as a dark purple butterfly falls upon one of Marinette's hair bands. "Marinette! Akuma-"
"Eternal, I am Hawkmoth- "
"Shut up." Marinette groans, lifting her face from the table. Everyone gasps at the sight of the purple outline of a butterfly surrounding her tired blue eyes. Adrien tenses as he turns around.
He did not want to fight her, with sleep or without sleep.
"D-Don't hurt me, Marinette!" Lila says, breaking the silence. Everyone went pale at the prospect of an akumatized Marinette hurting anyone.
"Trust me, I don't want to." Marinette yawns again, her face resting into a glare.
"Eternal- "
"My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Not Eternal."
"You've been deprived of sleep, and I will give you the power to put those you want into eternal sleep- "
"For your record," she stands up, a fist punches the desk in front of her. There's a small yelp coming from one of her classmates behind her, and she swears she heard Nino whisper 'there's a fucking crack in the table, oh my god'. Inevitably, Alya had whipped out her phone, already recording the entire scene. "The reason I've been losing sleep is because of your goddamn akumas!" Her voice actively gets louder and louder.
"J-Just listen to me!"
"The only voice I'm listening to in my mind is the voice telling me to murder you so that I can sleep." Marinette hisses out, glaring at the wall and imagining it was the villain that was currently invading her mind. Adrien perks up at that idea.
She also thinks she heard a gasp coming from Hawkmoth, but Marinette's too tired to think any more.
"I'm running on 0 hours of sleep for the past fucking week because of the akumas that you done, so unless you want to hand your miraculous over to Ladybug and Chat Noir, and the peacock miraculous, don't talk to me. Don't try to akumatize me. Don't try anything. I am done, Mothman."
"My name is Hawkmoth, Eternal! "
" And mine's Marinette, not Eternal!"
"As long as you get me their miraculouses, you will no longer need me to send any more akumas!"
"Oh for fucks sake!" Marinette growls out. Again, she heard one of her classmate whimper from behind her. "What about the phrase, 'don't try to akumatize me', do you not understand?! I'm not doing anything for your evil schemes! You want Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculouses, then maybe you should go fight them in person instead of conspiring in your evil lair! You fucking coward!"
"I am not a coward! " Hawkmoth squawks out, affronted by her words.
"Then stop making other people do your dirty work, coward ." Marinette hissed out, her eyes rolling. "Stop making me do all your dirty work. If you think that I would ever give in, you've got another thing coming." Her eyes darkened and she threatened, "I'm going to find you and strangle you to death and sell your ugly ass for coffee. Now get the hell out of my mind!"
Marinette rips out her hairband and tugs it apart with her bare hands, watching the rubber snap and the butterfly flying out. She grabs her coffee, downs it in one shot, opens the lid, and captures the akuma in one smooth motion as she twists the lid back on.
For a split moment, no one spoke a single word. Then, Marinette yawned, slid back down into her seat, brought her arms back onto the desk, and knocked out. All done in just 30 seconds.
Mlle Bustier entered the room with a smile on her face. "Good morning, class- oh my- is everyone alright?" Worry entered her eyes as she watched her pale and shell-shocked class sit in silence, staring with horror at the sleeping noirette. "Did something happen to Marinette?"
At that question, the class went up into havoc and Marinette did not get the sleep she wanted when she woke up in the chaos. She sighed.
Man, all I wanted was sleep but all I got was evil butterflies.