Chapter Text
Marinette stood inside her bedroom in complete shock, clutching the Kwatagama Tikki had just given her tightly. She felt her legs tremble and struggled to comprehend what she’d just been told. With a deep breath, the girl lets herself collapse face-down on the chaise, burying her face in the soft mattress as her Kwami watches in great concern. Her expression is something right between existential dread and whatever face someone might make after facing the unknowable horrors people write about after going insane on a random Tuesday afternoon! She slowly lifts her head to look at Tikki once again, still very much not processing what she’d been told two minutes ago.
“…want me to run it back for you?” the Kwami asks gently, as if trying not to scare the living daylights out of her. A little too late for that, given the crisis she was actively going through! “Okay…deep breaths Marinette, it’s simple!” Tikki smiles happily, with the slightly forced kind of joy that’s meant specifically for cheering up other people. “So…as I said before, mine is the Miraculous of Creation. Yeah? Therefore, that’s my concept. And you happen to be very attuned to it. I didn’t expect my Kwatagama to unlock these new powers for you, but it’s not a bad thing…” she starts off gently, floating a little closer and trying to gauge if the girl she was talking to might be going into shock.
For her part, Marinette felt just about ready to scream her lungs out until she lost her voice. “How is it not the worst thing that’s ever happened to me? How?” she demands, shooting up from the chaise and barely stopping herself from strangling Tikki right then and there! “You never told me that was part of the job! This is a disaster!” the bluenette screeches, loudly enough to shake the entire neighborhood’s windows halfway to shattering. If Chloe was still awake, the blonde would try to sue her for stealing her job. She lets out another dejected cry, before curling up into a ball of anxiety and wailing in despair.
At least the Kwami has the decency to look apologetic about this whole mess. “I’m sorry! It’s not supposed to trigger this early! Normally, we’d be having this conversation when you’re older!” Tikki exclaims in a small voice, zipping around the air above her as if physically puzzling out how best to help. “Please calm down…I don’t want you to attract any Akuma. Just let me explain—”
“Explain what? Why your birthday gift includes stupid sex powers?” Marinette snaps at her, red in the fact from even remembering their prior conversation. “My life isn’t some shitty porn movie, Tikki!” she screams at the Kwami, arms wildly gesturing to herself as she tries not to die of embarrassment. “What happened to birthday cakes? A card with well-wishes?” the girl wonders in despair, deflating like a smashed pinata, slowly rolling off the chaise, and letting herself crumble to the floor like soggy bread.
Tikki looks like she has an answer prepared, but—in the interest of not being strangled to death—stays silent for a moment, considering her words very carefully. “Look…I am sorry. This is supposed to be a gift for my Holders. Young adult humans enjoy it a lot, and it synergizes really well with Creation. It’s perfectly safe, and completely optional. I can’t take it back; you’re too in-tune with my Miraculous for that. Using it or not is completely your choice,” the Kwami says in a low, placating voice, trying rather desperately to calm her down before she spirals any further. “And besides, there’s a bright side! I think it might really help with your anxiety!” Tikki grins happily, using her small thumbless hands to try and etch a smile on the girl’s face.
Unfortunately for Marinette, it’s entirely impossible for her to stay mad at anyone for too long. Especially her Kwami. Maybe she’s just too pure a soul and that’s to her detriment, but as much as she wants to be angry and definitely is terrified…knowing what she’s unwillingly gotten herself into is better than running around blind, so as mortifying as the explanation is…she’ll have to sit through it. “Okay, fine. I guess magic is stupid and accidents happen. Just…start talking before I lose the rest of my mind, please.” This is already a borderline-nightmare, but she’d rather not think about it like that right now.
Tikki claps her hands together cheerfully, grinning from nonexistent ear to nonexistent ear! “Alright, let me back it up! So, my gift is simple! Think of it as…creating opportunities for you! Essentially, I’m giving you a bit of cosmic leeway. Well, a lot of it, with a bit of divine luck on the side. Normally my Ladybug would already be an adult before these powers took effect, but they’re still perfectly safe!” the Kwami rambles assuringly, searching for the right words to use and nervously pausing between each sentence, gauging her reaction. Marinette glares for her to get on with it before she starts having another panic attack over this whole thing. “You embody the concept of Creation very well, and as such…I’m giving you the chance to freely participate in the most sacred process of them all!” It’s sex. She means sex. “Only if you want to, of course. But it’s the liberty to do so that really matters! You’re free to express yourself as creatively as you want! You can ask anyone you’d like to try it out with! Nobody will ever get mad at you, or judge you, and there’s no unexpected consequences to worry about in life anymore! At least when it comes to my gift!” Tikki smiles sweetly, looking at her like she’s expecting some sort of reaction.
“So…you’re letting me experiment with myself as much as I want. And I can just ask people to have…sex—” she grits her teeth while spitting out the words, her cheeks going beet-red “—whenever I want. Or g-go naked or something…and nobody bats an eye?” Marinette asks, bringing her own translation to the table and trying to figure out if she has any of this right.
Curse her luck, Tikki nods affirmingly. “Yup! And due to you being very lucky, nothing that you don’t want to happen is possible. Nobody will harass you, you can’t have accidents, or anything else bad! Chances of injury? Chances of someone screaming at you for how you dress or what you’re asking for? Chances for any unexpected developments? All zero!” the Kwami chirps cheerily, zipping around the room in excitement and probably thinking she’s warming up to the idea.
Marinette…isn’t so sure. That all sounds completely ridiculous, but she already pinched herself twelve times to make sure this wasn’t some really weird dream. The thought of just…being able to do anything she wants is obviously tantalizing. But great power comes with great responsibility. Surely there’s drawbacks of some kind! “So what? People just agree with whatever I say, all the time? How is that fair?” she asks aloud, pointing her finger accusingly. Total freedom for her sounds nice and all, but if that’s the kind of price that needs to be paid, she’d rather go back to being at risk of social ostracization through a failed love confession, and grow old all alone except for her fifty cats and a hamster named Nightmare, like what she’s listening to right now!
“Oh no! Nuh-uh! Of course people can and will deny your requests if they don’t want to get involved!” Tikki clarifies sharply, which is honestly very reassuring. Considering she’s the embodiment of luck or whatever, Marinette really didn’t want to be trotting around and messing with her friends’ heads without knowing. Especially not Adrien’s, since even with the lingering existential horror of sex on her mind, she still couldn’t stop thinking about being able to just go up to him and ask for a kiss or a cuddle, or to let her inhale his scent for a little bit! “I’ve spent months teaching you responsibility, Marinette! Now’s the time to practice it!”
The blue-haired girl takes a deep breath for a moment, kicking out the impending fantasies to kissing him senseless in front of Chloe and making her burst with rage. “Okay…okay. So consent is still a thing, thankfully. What else should I know, Tikki?” she asks more earnestly this time, since evidently these are powers she’s stuck with for the foreseeable future. Being too good at her Ladybug job apparently did have drawbacks. Becoming a harem anime protagonist overnight being one of them, for some fucking reason!
The reason in question—still floating right above her with a proud grin—pauses to think before answering. “Uh…let me see. Well, people not minding what you do also means they’ll be a lot more receptive to your requests. Not if they didn’t want to agree in the first place, but…okay, picture this! Let’s say, hypothetically, that you want to kiss Alya! You’re her best friend, and she’d totally reciprocate! Except, she doesn’t think you’d ever actually ask her to. Normally, if you did, she’d be shocked and need a minute before settling on a pre-decided yes, right? But with your new powers, she’ll probably just kiss you on the mouth right away!” Well, wasn’t that exciting? Her enormous bisexuality crisis certainly didn’t have anything to say about that idea! Thanks, brain! …why the fuck were all her female friends so stupidly pretty? Or was she just too gay to handle this?
“Oddly specific example aside…I think I get it?” Marinette states firmly, but it comes out as a confused question. Did Tikki know something about Alya that she didn’t? All in all—now that she wasn’t halfway into cardiac arrest from pure shock at the thought of sex powers—that didn’t sound so bad? Granted, Marinette had no plans to use them and should be careful around Adrien, but the extra freedom would probably be nice. If it really extended to her entire life like Tikki said, then it’d be much more peaceful not having to worry what other people were thinking about her. For the record, Ladybug wasn’t exactly a risk taker. She preferred to play it safe and always have backup plans upon backup plans! With this in mind, Marinette took off her shirt and bra, reasoning that her Kwami had seen boobs before. “So, I could just walk around Paris like this and nobody would care?” she challenges her openly, wanting to be absolutely sure she understood how her new powers worked. For science, of course! She wasn’t going to actually use the stupid sex abilities! That was more ridiculous than Hawkmoth’s fashion sense!
Before Tikki can respond, there’s a sound coming from beyond the trapdoor, and Papa perks his head into the room with a smile. Her Kwami hides within moments, but her dad’s eyes quickly find her…and the bare breasts currently in full view. He turns away quickly with a gentle laugh. “Sorry sweetheart! Are you changing?” Tom Dupain asks jovially, not the slightest bit mortified at seeing his daughter’s boobs out in the open. Well, the privacy of her own bedroom late in the evening after her birthday party, but still. “Your mom and I would like to talk to you downstairs for a second. Do you have a moment?” he asks in a completely unbothered tone of voice, like Marinette being topless is the dictionary definition of normal.
For her part, the blue-haired girl finds this situation incredibly stupid. She’s beet-red at the face already, and Tikki is giving her an encouraging smile while hiding behind her pillow. Marinette hasn’t had any time to process the news, much less ask questions about the how and why this is even a thing. The powers not being meant for her yet does somewhat explain it, but she’d still like to grill her Kwami over all the details. Still, Papa seems perfectly content to wait at the trapdoor, glancing over at her expectantly since she hasn’t answered him yet. And, naturally, not minding her boobs being out in the slightest. Gosh, this is beyond dumb! She should just smile and nod, put a shirt on, and then go down without dying of embarrassment on the way to the ladder! “Yeah, sure. Let’s go.” Marinette finds herself walking over to him, missing the critical top half of her wardrobe, and following her dad into the kitchen.
Maman takes her bare boobs with exactly as much surprise as he did, which is to say absolutely none at all. She’s smiling from ear to ear, holding a small tray of chocolate chip cookies and treating the topless teenager like the shirt isn’t even missing to begin with. “Sorry for dragging you out of your room so late, Marinette. Happy birthday again! I baked a few too many for the party, and I figured we could spoil our little girl a bit!” Sabine Cheng says with a cheery tone, despite the cookies in question being freshly-baked. The oven is literally still cooling down; it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes since she finished this extra batch.
“Thanks mom! I’ll take them to school tomorrow morning to share with everyone!” the girl smiles back, desperately trying to keep her voice steady and not launch into an interrogation about why they aren’t freaking out over her lack of a bra right now. Tikki’s powers are apparently working wonders already! “Uh, Maman?” Sabine perks up happily, setting the tray down on the kitchen table and letting the cookies cool for a bit. Once again, no reaction to the clearly visible boobs in the room. Well, at least she never has to worry about all those nightmares of going to school without pants anymore! Validation for everyone with severe enough anxiety to still be dreaming about it to this day! Or just her. Probably just her, seeing as normal people didn’t have creation-themed powers centering around what’s in their and others’ pants. “Never mind, I’m just tired from the party. Good night!” Sure, because that didn’t sound like an insecure deflection.
Maman chuckles to herself coming closer and giving her a tight hug that has their chests pressing together for a bit too long…or maybe she’s just noticing because there’s one less shirt in the way. “Sweet dreams, honey,” Sabine smiles, letting go of her, only to pause for a moment. “Oh, and don’t be shy, okay? I think they’re cute,” she says assuringly, gaze going just below her neckline. Uh-huh, cool. She was going to strangle Tikki now. Marinette fails to hold back a blush, and dashes upstairs to her room, this time remembering to lock the trapdoor.
She lets out a deafening sigh of relief, looking down at herself and immediately throwing her bra and pajama top back on before embarrassment managed to outright kill her! Holy shit, she just had a normal conversation with her parents while half-naked! Taking very, very deep breaths, she climbed onto her bed and chose to lay down for a few seconds. That whole experience had been…weirdly normal? It’d have probably been more mortifying if Papa had made some huge deal out of accidentally walking in on her, but at least she hadn’t been doing anything. That usually required either a picture of Adrien, or imagining a certain cat boy dressed in black leather, not that she’d ever admit it to him. If the love of her life had never come to school, maybe Ladybug would’ve considered the other green-eyed blonde, but as things stood, absolutely not! Still, none of what happened downstairs was particularly traumatizing. Maman just teased her a little, though far more openly than usual, and Papa still averted his gaze upon seeing she was embarrassed, only turning back when it took her a couple seconds to respond. Her parents just acted like this was normal, and while that scared her a lot…it also wasn’t the worst thing in the world?
“I told you so!” Tikki sing-songs from behind her pillow, zipping into the air and out of strangulation reach in case the girl was still cross with her. “Trust me Marinette, you’re going to have a ton of fun if you stop overthinking and just go with the flow!” she assures her cheerily, smiling brightly and zipping around with clear excitement at seeing her not completely reject the gift.
“That sounds a lot like something Chat Noir might say,” Marinette notes sharply, exhaling a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She’s morbidly curious what he might do with these kinds of powers. Probably ask her on ten million more dates! Granted, Ladybug would still say no…at least she thought so. They’ve been working together long enough that she trusts him with her life, but his constant joking around can be a bit annoying at times, especially because he takes their relationship so much less seriously than her. It applies to life in general, but…maybe she could stand to learn a thing or two from him. “You think I should tell him about this?” she wonders absently, imagining how that conversation might go. Yeah, sure! Why shouldn’t she run up to the boy who repeatedly proclaims he desires her more than anything while half-naked, or even better yet, ditch the suit entirely! What could possibly go wrong with that?
“It’s your call Marinette, but remember, I’ll always support you!” Tikki exclaims encouragingly, and the girl only half-believes her. She wouldn’t help her tie Chloe up in a closet and leave her there, so it couldn’t be completely true. Not that the heroine would ever do such a thing, but the point still stood. Should she actually? He might not believe her at first, or even worse, get far too excited about it and cause a mess that even Ladybug won’t be able to fix. Besides, the smart thing to do is slowly test the limit of her powers, in case her Kwami just hadn’t accounted for something modern or unexpected. Tikki might say everything would be fine, but she’d prefer verifying that through independent sources. Well, herself really. And maybe she could ask Alya for help. Without revealing any secret identities of course!
Ugh, taking all of this so lightly was a mistake! But if she laid here to think about it more, a sweet, lovely anxiety spiral would be the only real result. Marinette seriously needed to clear her head before doing anything stupid! Maybe going on a run might help? It was already almost midnight; Chat didn’t have any reason to be outside right now, so it was reasonably safe to go crash the fuck out at one of their usual spots for a bit. “Tikki, Spots On!” she whisper-yelled in newly-found determination, jumping up on her bed to open the skylight and leaping out into the city. Ladybug swings a few city blocks, flipping through the air and running over rooftops effortlessly, before stopping to survey her surroundings.
Weirdly enough, her suit felt really airy tonight. Usually the draft was near-imperceptible during parkour, but this time she couldn’t stop feeling it practically all over her body. …Marinette made the mistake of looking down at herself, and nearly screeched into the night. S-she was naked! Full-body nude for the whole of Paris to see! The only parts of her costume left was her mask—thankfully for Tikki’s continued existence—the black neck collar, a ridiculously thin crimson belt to hang her yoyo on, and the very edges of her suit covering her feet and hands. What the actual fuck? “Marinette, relax! The suit responds to your subconscious, remember? I have you covered! Just take a photo of yourself and you’ll see!” the Kwami’s voice rings out in her head, and the heroine forces herself not to panic, blindly following the command and snapping the pick. Tikki probably had no use for nudes, so why…oh, she looked completely normal. Full spandex everywhere, no boobs or pussy for the public to see. That made…more sense. “Don’t blame me! You’re the one who was thinking about it five minutes ago!” She ignores the Kwami’s exclamation, trying to calm herself with the assurance that Ladybug’s dignity was thankfully protected. By the dumb hentai logic these powers seemed to operate under, nobody would be able to get through the quantum masking—and by extension notice that she was functionally nude—unless she herself explicitly revealed that information to them first, just like with her identity.
Safety in debauchery! Another win for that tiny voice in her head that wanted to sniff all of Adrien’s fencing gear after practice and—if possible—glue herself to him by the hips for the rest of time! …exactly what Marinette really needed in her life! She shook her head and parkoured a few more blocks, feeling the wind on her privates and trying to get used to the sensation. Her suit could probably go back to normal if she really willed it to, but with Tikki apparently shooting her power load out early—she seriously shouldn’t have phrased it like that—her brain was probably going to eventually adjust and see this situation just as normally as everyone else. Plus…it was a punch to her social anxiety’s gut, and that at least was somewhat of a win.
Marinette ran a couple laps around the block, stopping to gaze at the Eiffel Tower for a moment. With bullshit hentai logic, she could probably use it as a dildo if she wanted! …the awkward mental silence on Tikki’s part made her think that might not be a very funny joke. Deciding to absolutely not give herself enough time to panic about going to school tomorrow, the heroine rounded back to her balcony and quickly detransformed, returning her body back it’s normal state of being covered by her pajamas. She should probably seek Alya out tomorrow and try to recruit her for a bit of power-testing, while also figuring out why she felt uncharacteristically okay with the rapidly-developing situation. Was she still in shock? Would she wake up tomorrow and lose her mind over everything that had transpired? Did Tikki do something? By her own admission, that wasn’t how the powers worked, and the Kwami had never lied to her before. Hopefully, it didn’t mean she’s always been some sort of secret pervert. Chat Noir would have a field day if he found out! N-not that there was something for him to discover! Of course not! Well anyway, she better head to sleep and fast-forward to forcibly going deaf from the sheer volume of her alarm clock…before her brain could get any more ideas!