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"Jeunesse: temps des échecs."

"Youth: time of errors."

Henry de Montherlant

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One bright morning, Marinette Dupain-Cheng woke up with a loud gasp, clawing at her throat frantically. This behaviour was remarkably different from her usual routine of lazing about in bed for as long as she could afford.

It took a few seconds of glancing every which way before the familiar sight of her room helped her calm down.

She sighed, eyes on the ceiling as her heartbeat slowed to a more manageable level.

There was a moment of silence. Then, Marinette brought a trembling hand to her left earlobe.

She wasn't wearing any earrings.

And the realization brought a smile to Marinette's face.

"It worked!"

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A few minutes later and Marinette was leaving her house with a spring in her step and a box full of homemade macarons to share with her classmates.

Her smile was radiant as she walked along the Seine, though she kept looking at the street around her as if its state — perfectly immaculate, though the road could use some renovations — was surprising. She'd woken up earlier than usual so she didn't need to hurry to school as she'd done countless times in the past.

As she left her home behind, she didn't notice a familiar old man trip and fall. And she certainly didn't see an amiable passer-by help the man up.

Instead, Marinette skipped cluelessly to school, certain that everything was going to be all right. There were several familiar faces hanging out next to the school entrance, prompting Marinette to slow down.

"Rose! Juleka!" Marinette called. She came to a stop in front of the two young girls. "Mesdemoiselles," said Marinette with a theatrical bow, "it is a pleasure to see you."

Rose giggled. "You seem in a good mood today. Are you that happy to go back to school?"

"I don't think anyone should be happy when it's this early…" mumbled Juleka.

"Marinette raised an eyebrow. "Not a morning person, are you?"

Giving Marinette a blank stare, Juleka crossed her arms. "Whatever gave it away?"

Once, Marinette might have been put off by Juleka's sarcasm, but today she answered with a confident smile:

"Probably my incredible psychic powers." She flipped her hair like a bimbo, and was gratified to see Juleka smile. "Anyway, I really have to go in now before Chloé steals my seat. You guys coming?"

"We're waiting for Mylène," said Rose.

At the same time Juleka had asked, "How do you even know Chloé will be in the same class?"

Marinette's eyes did not widen. She stayed perfectly calm as she answered, "I know I'm not lucky enough to avoid ending up in the same class as Chloé again." Her face twitched into a smile. "Anyway, have to go, bye!"

And with those last words, she spend through the entrance of the school, barely hearing the "À plus tard!" and "Bye!" Rose and Juleka said back to her.

Marinette headed to her classroom. Her smile wasn't as vibrant as it had been before talking to Rose and Juleka, but she was still in a rather good mood.

Half the class was already present in the classroom when Marinette arrived. Her eyes flicked from face to face before stopping on a young man talking to a girl with colourful dreadlocks.

"Ivan," she whispered to herself. Her hands formed fists at her side as she summoned the courage for what she was about to do.

She waited three seconds, and then headed over to the boy.

Unfortunately, she barely took two steps before someone intercepted her.

"Génial," sneered a blonde girl, pointing an accusing finger at Marinette. "I'm stuck in the same class as you again."

Marinette's stare was blank and uncaring. "Obviously, Chloé, since I'm right in front of you. Now if you'll excuse me—" she said, pushing past Chloé, "—I have somewhere to be."

She pretended she didn't hear Chloé's outraged squawk of "Don't you ignore me!" and instead walked over to Ivan and the girl he was talking to.

"Hey Ivan," she asked, "can I talk to you for a minute?"

The boy looked over at Marinette. "Oh. Hey Marinette. What d'you want to talk about?"

Marinette held up two fingers. "I just need two minutes of your time to tell you something in private." When she saw his uncomfortable look, she laughed. "I'm not going to confess my undying love to you or anything, so don't worry about that."

Ivan shook his hands frantically. "I wasn't worried about that!"

Marinette didn't respond to his exclamation and instead turned to the girl next to him. "Mylène, could you give us a moment?"

The girl nodded shyly and went over to sit at a desk.

When Marinette was sure no one was overhearing, she turned to Ivan and said, tone serious, "I know that you have a crush on Mylène."

The boy went completely red, spluttering uselessly. "I-I… W-w-what?! No!"

"I support you and hope you'll get together with her," said Marinette earnestly, "but I just wanted to tell you that I overheard Kim. He knows about your crush and is planning on taunting you about it in class to make you lose your temper and get detention."

Ivan frowned. "What? Why would he do that?"

"Some people just aren't very nice," said Marinette. "From what I heard, in a few minutes he'll throw a note at you saying really mean things about your crush on Mylène, so when you get the note, don't look at it, okay? That's exactly what Kim wants. He wants to make you really angry, so don't read the note."

Ivan nodded slowly. "I'll do that. Thanks, Marinette. You're a nice girl."

Marinette patted his shoulder and turned to walk at the front of the class where there was someone else she wanted to talk to. It was a girl sitting at the front of the class. She had wavy brown hair with dyed ends, expressive eyes and tanned skin.

"Hey," said Marinette when she came to a stop in front of the girl.

The subject of Marinette's attention raised her eyes from her phone. "Hi?"

"You're new, right?" asked Marinette. "Welcome to the class. Where did you transfer from?"

The girl turned off her phone to focus on Marinette properly. "I'm from Montreuil. My mum used to travel over an hour to get to work, and we only recently found a good place next to her job that didn't cost an arm and a leg." She shrugged. "New home, new school." The girl looked back at Marinette. "I'm Alya. I like photography, writing and comics, especially anything DC or Marvel. You?"

Marinette put her bag on the floor and sat next to Alya. "I'm Marinette. I like sewing, video games and rock music. I… I used to do a lot of gymnastics and…" she said, opening the box her father had given her, "my dad's an awesome baker. Would you be interested in a bribe for your friendship?" She gave a conspiratory wink.

Alya grinned. "Don't mind if I do." She grabbed one of the macarons and studied the intricate decoration on it for a second before popping it in her mouth.

"Hmmmm…" Alya closed her eyes, the corners of her lips quirked up. "This is delicious. I bet your dad's baking could convince teachers to give us top grades."

Marinette snorted. "That would be great, but Madame Bustier doesn't accept bribes as easily as you do."

"Well…" said Alya, drawing circles on the desk with the tip of her index finger, "then I'll have to use my charming personality to convince all my teachers to give me awesome grades."

Marinette bit her cheek to stop herself from smiling and adopted a falsely concerned expression. "And what about when you get a job and you have to prove with your hard work that you earned those grades?"

Alya waved the issue away. "That's what delegating is for, ma chère."

They both shared a laugh.

At that moment, Madame Bustier cleared her throat, and chatter in the room died down.

"As everyone found their seat? Yes? Good. Welcome to another school year. Let's begin with roll call…"

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The bell rang, and barely seconds later there were students pouring out of the school.

"First day went well," stated Marinette as she and Alya headed down the steps in front of the school. "Was it hard for you?"

Alya frowned. "What d'you mean?"

"You don't really know anyone in the class," Marinette pointed out. "Being the only new student and all."

"I'm not the only new student," mumbled Alya.

They arrived on the street and continued along the road, shoes slapping on the pavement.

"Yeah, well he didn't show up today so you couldn't really go talk to him and bond over you both being new."

Alya's brow wrinkled and she stopped walking. Marinette realized it only a moment later and turned back. "Alya?"

"… Is that why you came to talk to me?" asked Alya. "You saw I was new and decided to speak to me out of pity?" There was something close to aggression in her tone.

Marinette just looked at Alya, expression neither defensive nor conciliatory. She just appeared… neutral, unfazed by the accusation.

"You seemed like an interesting person to talk to, so I came over to chat. Was I wrong?"

Alya snorted. "If I say no then I'll look self-centered by praising myself, and if I say yes then I'm disrespecting your attempts to be friends with me. There's no good answer."

Marinette smiled gently. "Then stop being paranoid. Insecure isn't a good look on you." She held her arm out. "How about you come to my home? My mother makes great biscuits."

Alya hooked their arms together. "That sounds awesome." She paused. "You know, it's kind of strange how we just click, you know? I feel like you know me really well even if we only met today. You get me, if that makes any sense."

"I'm good at reading people," said Marinette with a shrug and a carefree smile.

"Maybe we were friends in another life. That'd be cool, right?"

Marinette looked down at her shoes, biting her lip. "Something like that."

If Alya noticed the way Marinette's eyes were tearing up, she didn't say anything.

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They arrived at Marinette's home a few minutes later. Her home was set in the rounded angle of an old-fashioned apartment building, covering several floors. Her parents' bakery was on the ground floor, while the private family areas were in the upper floors.

Despite living in an apartment building, Marinette's home was the size of a modest house. Her mother, Sabine Dupain-Cheng, came from a family with money, which was why Marinette's parents could afford such a large place in the middle of Pairs, with a beautiful view of the Seine and, right on the other side, Notre-Dame de Paris. Such a view was not cheap.

Alya whistled. "Nice place."

Marinette pushed the door open and the little electronic bell rang when it detected movement.

Sabine Dupain-Cheng was behind the counter, wrapping up a baguette for a client. She looked up and smiled at the sight of her daughter.

"Marinette! How was school, honey?" That was when she noticed Alya. "And who's your friend?"

Alya stepped forward to say hello. "My name's Alya Césaire, madame."

Sabine's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Any relation to the judge of that cooking show…" She paused. "I can't quite remember the name of that show…"

"That's my mother. She's a really good chef and gets invited to judge cooking competitions from time to time."

Sabine gave the baguette to the client and bade him goodbye before turning back to Alya. "Well, that's something you have in common with my daughter — parents that work with food. I'm Sabine, and my husband Tom is out grocery shopping. You might see him later if you stay for dinner."

Alya shook her head with a grin. "Sorry, but I'm expected home for dinner. I came because Marinette told me you make fabulous biscuits."

Sabine chuckled. "That's kind of you to say." She removed a tray of biscuits that were blue due to food dye, were covered in a small circle of frosting in the middle and a few wavy lines around it, making it look like a shining sun with the dyed biscuit as the sky. "Here," she said, handing the tray to Marinette. "Go eat this upstairs, okay?

Marinette nodded and led Alya to the back of the bakery, where there was a room with a staircase leading to the upper floors. They only walked up to the first floor, which was where the living room, kitchen and dining room was, as the upper floors were Tom and Sabine's bedroom, then Marinette's room, and then the terrace.

"Could you wait for me here?" asked Marinette. "I need to go check on something in my room real quick."

"No prob'," answered Alya as she sat down on the sofa and turned the TV on. She bit into one of the biscuits, and the sound of pleasure she made had Marinette blushing to the roots of her hair.

Marinette hurried upstairs, heart beating fast. By the time she entered her room, her hands were slick with sweat. She locked the door after her and then turned to her desk. Her expression one of deep anticipation, she approached the desk covered in her personal things. Then, she frowned.

"… What?"

With sudden urgency, she pushed everything on her desk to the side, sending many things flying. Still, there was nothing.

"No no no no NO! Tikki, where are you?!"

She looked on her other pieces of furniture, riffled through her chest full of clothes, searched under her bed, everywhere.

There was nothing.

"Tikki?! Are you there?! Show yourself, please!"

She staggered, falling to her knees. All the cheer of the day was gone.

"How is this possible?" she whispered. "I was chosen because I was worthy. I've just changed one day… What am I supposed to do?"

Marinette stared blankly at the ground, trembling ever so slightly. For such a sunny day, things had become grim indeed.

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Marinette stayed in her room, immobile, until she heard the faint sounds of someone calling her name.

"—nette! Marinette! Hé oh? Marineeeeeette!"

It was Alya.

Marinette wiped her tears, tilted her lips in a parody of a smile, and headed downstairs.

She found Alya standing right in front of the television, staring at it in delight. When Alya noticed her, she waved her over.

"You gotta see this!" exclaimed Alya. "Look!"

The television was set on a news channel showing an aerial view of Paris. It zoomed in on a street full of half-destroyed buildings and fleeing civilians, in the middle of which was a gigantic, insectoid creature.

"You called me a miserable ant?!" shouted the monster. "Well what d'you think of me now?!"

With one arm, the creature hefted up a car and threw it at a small group of panicking people.

Marinette gasped, leaning closer to the TV.

An instant before the civilians were due to be crushed, a thick black thread wrapped around them and they were violently pulled out of the way. The angle of the camera changed, showing a female dressed in red with black spots, spinning a yoyo lazily.

"How dare you treat Parisians like that?! I don't care who you are or what you want, but you'll be sleeping in a prison cell tonight, and that's a promise!"

And with those words, the superheroine threw herself into battle.

"But…" Marinette spluttered, "that's not me!"

"Of course it's not," Alya retorted, stars in her eyes as she stared at the screen. "It's a real life superhero!"

Alya turned on her phone hurriedly, going through the settings.

"I have to go," she said.

"Go where?" asked Marinette, eyes glued on the TV screen.

"This is the first proof of real life magic in the world," said Alya, "and it's a superhero with a supervillain. I'm going to livestream this 'cause this event is gonna make it in the history books. Trust me, I'll be internet famous by the time this is over."

"Do you even know where to go?" asked Marinette.

Alya nodded. "I recognize the street, even if half of it is destroyed. It's only ten minutes away if I run."

"I'll go with you," said Marinette, standing up. "I… I have to see Ladybug for myself."

"Ladybug? That's a catchy name," said Alya with a wink.

Marinette led them both downstairs to the bakery where Sabine was staring at a phone depicting footage of the rampaging monster.

Sabine's head snapped up when she heard them.

"No, Marinette, stay—!"

But Marinette and Alya were already running out of the bakery, ignoring Sabine's commands for them to stay.

"Marinette," shouted Alya, "run in front of me and guide me while I set up the livestream!"

Marinette nodded and placed herself three meters in front of Alya, running towards the distant plumes of smoke she could see slithering up towards the sky.

"Got it!" shouted Alya.

Marinette took a quick glance back to see that Alya was aiming her phone at the disaster site they were approaching.

"Hey watchers, sorry I didn't warn you about this livestream," said Alya to her phone as they finally reached the destroyed site. "I'm not gonna do the comic review I promised — this livestream is because I've got the pleasure to be seeing the first ever superhero and supervillain battling it out in Paris!" Alya laughed giddily, filming said superheroine as she tried to wrap the insect monster with her yoyo. It tied him up neatly, but he just used his superior strength to pull at the cord of the yoyo, forcing the heroine to drop her weapon or be dragged towards her foe.

"Oh, and you guys finally get the face reveal you were asking for," added Alya brightly.

Marinette was staring at the battle scene worriedly. The heroine was disarmed and trying to fight the villain with hand to hand combat, but the difference in strength was too big to be overcome.

"Alya, continue filming! I'll see what I can do to help!"

Instead of berating Marinette for her recklessness, Alya encouraged her, aiming her phone at Marinette:

"Good luck, girl! We'll be watching!"

The villain was still holding the heroine's magical yoyo in a tight grasp while he kicked her around with enough strength to make Marinette wince.

After a quick glance to asses the situation, Marinette steeled herself and sprinted over to the ant monster whose back was currently facing her. He was laughing at the superheroine's cries of pain as he overpowered her.

"Give me your Miraculous!" he shouted.

"I'm sorry, Monsieur Colonie," said the heroine as she panted for breath, "but there is no way I'll be doing that."

The beast grinned. "You don't have a choice, my army of ants is already spread out all over Pa—"

At that moment, Marinette jumped onto his back and wrapped her arms around him. Her efforts to choke him didn't affect him due to his exoskeleton, but he was sufficiently distracted to relax his grip on the yoyo. The superheroine seized the opportunity and ripped her weapon from the creature's grasp.

She jumped back, and once there was enough distance between her and her enemy, she spun her yoyo and cried:

"Lucky Charm!"

A circular, red metal tray with black spots appeared above her head and she caught it with a bewildered expression.

At the same time, the supervillain finally managed to grasp Marinette by her neck and pull her off his back. He held her in front of him, watching in glee as her kicking and wriggling grew weaker and weaker, unable to breathe due to his tight grip.

Just as Marinette's strength seemed to leave her entirely, a black blur came down to drop kick Monsieur Colonie in the face. Marinette was dropped and she landed roughly on the ground. She raised her head, and saw that the newcomer was another superhero, dressed entirely in black leather with feline ears on top of his head and a long belt trailing behind him as a tail, swishing back and forth as if made of flesh.

"You seem a bit too jittery," said the superhero to Monsieur Colonie with a confident smile. "Are ants colonizing your pants?"

The insectoid monster roared and his arm shot out to hit the superhero with such strength that he was thrown into the air, landing several meters away in a graceful roll.

"Are you okay?!" shouted the heroine, dropping the black and red tray to run to her partner's side.

Marinette looked at the tray on the floor with disbelief.

"How stupid can she be?"

She shook her head and ran over to pick up the tray while the two heroes battled. Grasping it tightly, she looks at the supervillain and the heroes battling him, eyes narrowed as she looks for something. After a few seconds of fruitlessly glaring around, she growls in annoyance.

"And of course this doesn't work without the earrings. Just great."

She looked back and saw that Alya was still filming the whole thing, safe in an alleyway. There were also several reporters and cameramen around the scene of destruction, trying to get a good angle.

When Marinette turned back towards the superheroes, she saw that the heroine was struggling against an army of ants the size of rats that had shown up out of nowhere, while the hero was losing ground against Monsieur Colonie, fighting off the swipes of the villain's claws with a metal staff.

Just at that moment, the villain sent the black-clad hero's weapon flying, leaving the young man completely defenseless.

Marinette's eyes widened, and without any more thought she threw herself forward, sprinting at such speeds that she felt an immediate burn in her lungs. She arrived in front of the hero just in time to raise the spotted tray as shield, catching Monsieur Colonie's next blow.

The hero was saved, but the force of the villain's blow was too much for Marinette despite her improvised shield. With a sharp crack!, her forearm gave under the pressure.

"Ah!" she gasped, tears in her eyes. She didn't have enough breath to scream so she choked, body torn between inhaling and shrieking in pain.

Her legs trembled and then she fell to her knees, biting her lip so hard it drew blood.

The black and red tray fell to the side, rolling over to the superheroine who managed to beat of the giant ants long enough to pick it up. The young woman looked at the tray and then stared at her surroundings with a frown.

The hero wearing black had gotten his hands on his weapon and used it to smack the villain sharply on the nose, sending him backwards and away from Marinette, who was still clutching her arm and letting out a near-silent, steady whine of pain.

Finally, the superheroine in black and red smirked and sent the tray flying like a frisbee. It hit a lamppost, rebounded and collided with Monsieur Colonie's head. As a result, the villain's hat fell off.

The cat-themed hero hit the villain when he tried to reach for his hat, allowing the heroine to grab the hat and rip it up. A black butterfly came flying out of the hat, shining like wet tar.

"Purify it!" rasped Marinette angrily.

Unfortunately, the two heroes were too far away to hear and just watched the butterfly flutter gently away with satisfied expressions.

Monsieur Colonie's body flashed, and revealed an ordinary man of short stature, lying stunned on the ground.

"Wha-what happened?" he asked, looking around himself. He saw the destroyed buildings and paled. "Is… Is that my home?!"

Neither of the heroes paid attention to him. The heroine bent down to pick up the tray she'd magically summoned while the hero knelt down next to Marinette.

"Are you okay?" he asked gently.

Something between a hiccup and a sob escaped Marinette, and she bit her lip even harder, causing blood to trickle down her chin.

"I'll be fine," Marinette forced out between gritted teeth. "It'll be gone in—"

The superheroine threw the tray into the air and shouted, "Miraculous Ladybug!"

A wave of shining energy covered the scene, lingering over any damage the villain had made and repairing it swiftly. When it reached Marinette, it healed her arm but left the lip she'd bitten as it was, only healing what had been directly caused by Monsieur Colonie. When the wave had passed, it was as if nothing had happened at all.

"—a moment," she finished. "Thanks for the help, Chat Noir."

The hero in question quirked an eyebrow. "I hadn't thought it would be so easy to guess this cat's name."

"Guess?" repeated Marinette drily. "I just said the first superhero name that came to mind when thinking of you. It's not my fault you chose such an obvious name. It doesn't exactly take much creativity to come up with 'Black Cat'."

"Great minds think alike," said Chat Noir with a smile. He pulled Marinette up to her feet. "Thanks for the assist'. Without you, I'd have been ant-food."

He wiggled his eyebrows, but Marinette's expression didn't so much as twitch.

Chat Noir huffed. "Tough crowd." He shrugged it off without a care. "Anyway, next time you should leave this to the professionals. You could have received worse than a broken arm."

Out of the corner of her eye, Marinette could see that Alya had gained enough courage to move out of cover now that the villain had been beaten, and was hurrying over to the heroes while the rest of the media was still hesitant to advance.

Marinette looked back at Chat Noir and rolled her eyes. "Professionals? Then I'm afraid to imagine what you behaved like before you were trained."

Alya's arrival cut off Chat Noir's retort.

"Oh my gosh you guys are real superheroes!" she exclaimed, pointing her phone at Chat Noir, his female partner and Marinette. "What are your names? Who was that supervillain? How did you manage to repair all the stuff he broke?"

"I'm Chat Noir and my partner is…" Chat Noir trailed off to let the heroine in black and red answer.

However, the young woman seemed too intimidated by the camera to say much, so before the silence became awkward, Marinette pointed at the female hero and answered for her:

"And she's Ladybug."

After a moment of hesitation, the newly-named Ladybug nodded, accepting the name.

"We're here to protect Paris against—"

Her earrings beeped, interrupted her speech, and Ladybug's expression grew serious.

"Sorry, gotta go!" She gave a polite wave of her hand and then used her yoyo like a grappling hook to fling herself upwards, onto one of the buildings, and run out of sight.

Not to be deterred, Alya turned to Chat Noir, but he was already running away on all fours, leaping from the pavement to a lamppost, and then jumping up on the roof of an apartment building.

"Chat Noir, wait!" Alya shouted.

He cackled, and just before he was too far to be heard, he shouted back, "A cat never comes when called!" and then he was too far to be seen.

Alya placed herself next to Marinette and angled the phone so that they were both visible.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the first livestream with real-life superheroes! We got closer than the media dared, and my friend Marinette even risked her life to save Chat Noir." Alya winked. "So please, like and share this video, and if you want more superhero content, subscribe to my channel!"

And with those last words, she stopped the livestream.

"Wow," she said with a sigh, "that was quite the fight."

"Did the video turn out okay?" asked Marinette.

Alya nodded. "Yeah, internet didn't cut off at a crucial moment. But my channel is mostly a place where I post videos of myself reviewing comics and giving my thoughts on them. Livestreaming a real superhero fight doesn't exactly go with my usual calm reviews, so I might create a second channel where I post videos about Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"You should create a blog instead," proposed Marinette, "that way you can post written articles and videos."

Alya's eyes widened and she grinned. "Great idea! My dad has created tons of internet sites for his clients, so he could totally set me up—" She glanced behind Marinette and her grin disappeared. "Uh oh, papparazzi alert. Marinette, we might wanna make a run for it before they start assaulting us with questions."

Indeed, the media had finally gained the courage to approach now that the danger was passed, and were headed straight for Alya, Marinette, and the man that had once been Monsieur Colonie, who was still on the ground, looking completely stunned.

Without a second of hesitation, Marinette ran towards the other side of the street, Alya not a moment behind her.

That left the poor man that used to be Monsieur Colonie as the sole subject to the media's attention as all the cameramen and journalists converged on him with loud questions and many flashes of light.

By the time the police arrived to take the man in for questioning, Alya and Marinette were already long gone.

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A/N: "Monsieur Colonie" is a pun, because in French 'colonie' is both a word that means 'a group of ants' ('colonie de fourmis') and 'summer camp' ('colonie de vacances'). The akumatized villain was a man in charge of a summer camp who was insulted and called 'as insignificant as an ant', thus the pun.

Translations:

Mesdemoiselles: Misses

À plus: See you later!

Génial: Great

Ma chère: My dear

Madame: Madam

Hé oh?: Hellooo? (A way to get someone's attention. It is not meant as a greeting.)

This story is also on Archive of Our Own, which has a much better way of translating words. On AO3, all you have to do is hover over one of the French words in my story and the translation will appear just above. You don't need to scroll down to find the translation. The story has the same title on AO3 and my penname is the same.

Anyway, none of the French words I use are particularly important to know so you can skip over them easily. I mostly put them there to give the story a more 'French' atmosphere.