Karin: here's another miraculous story from me. It's Canon divergence. Also, no Adrien and Alya ARE NOT a couple in this—Nino just assumes they are cause he doesn't know they're Chat Noir and Ladybug and that's why they spend so much time together. There's a little bit of Nino crushing on Marinette in the beginning but that won't be long.

Title: O Fortuna

Rating: T

Pairing(s): Adrien/Marinette, Alya/Nino

Summary: Faced with failure, Marinette Dupain-Cheng surrendered the Ladybug Miraculous to one Alya Cesaire, and planned to live a normal life. However, one cannot run from destiny. Seeing the Cat Miraculous on his son's finger, Gabriel decides to no longer stand by and realizes if Fu can choose warriors, so can he. Peacock Marinette. Mentor Gabriel

"Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue."

—Budda

Chapter One: Enter Jackady

For as long as she could remember, Marinette was always considered to be average. She did all right in school, she was polite and always respectful, and never caused any trouble. No one would expect this girl to be extraordinary.

And she simply wasn't. She had the chance, but she had given it away. Perhaps if Alya Cesaire hadn't remembered to bring her bag with her that day Marinette slipped the Ladybug Miraculous into her bag, things might've been different. Marinette would've became something special.

However, that's not how things went, and Alya had gladly accepted the strange gift from an unknown stranger and taken the duty of being a hero off of her shoulders. Marinette was free from being in the spotlight and allowed to live a normal life—as it should be in her mind.

But that wasn't destiny. And destiny has a way of righting itself—whether Marinette likes it or not.

It was simply meant to be.

Marinette furrowed her brow in concentration as she sat in her room, sketching out a recent design in her mind. Her hands were covered in pencil lead from all the smudging she was doing, but she didn't seem to care. She was in her element. Creating designs was like composing a melody only she knew. The notes danced in her mind as she delicately sketched each stitch with love.

"Marinette?" Sabine opened her trap door, curious. Seeing her child in her usual spot made Sabine smile. Marinette yelped and toppled off the bed, startled by the sudden intrusion. Sabine giggled and approached her daughter, who was collecting the fallen papers quickly, shy about people seeing her work. Sabine kneeled down to the floor and stroke some of Marinette's hair out of her face.

"You're always up here sketching." Sabine said fondly. "Why don't you ever hang out with friends, sweetie?" she questioned. Marinette blushed, and looked to the floor, clutching her sketches protectively to her chest.

"I don't really have any friends, Maman." Marinette responded, a bit shy. Sabine raised an eyebrow.

"No friends? You seemed to get along well with that Alya girl—what happened to that?" the question made Marinette flinch. Memories of giving away a small red and black god to another surfaced in her mind. The failure of being a hero. The desire to be normal making her distance herself to a confused Alya. She passed the torch—that's all she was meant to do. To be friends with the girl who was secretly Ladybug seemed too dangerous to her normalcy. To her guilt and failure that she didn't want to remember. Every time she saw how tired Alya was, she couldn't help but feel even more guilty. Every bruise, every scratch—all she could remember was how it should've been her.

No, she couldn't be friends with Alya. No matter how much the other girl wants her to.

"She found other friends." Marinette mumbled. It was true. She became really close with Adrien soon after she received the Ladybug Miraculous from Marinette. It had killed any self-confidence she had in hoping Adrien would like her back one day, and she had taken down all the photos of him in her room, deciding to move on and just go to school to learn.

Sabine frowned and hugged her child. She knew Marinette was painfully shy so it was extremely hard for her to make friends. She was hoping when Marinette came home talking about a girl she met in class she got along with it would develop into a strong friendship, but it seems now it was unlikely.

"Maman, don't worry." Marinette pulled away, smiling in reassurance. "I'm happy by myself. It gives me more time to work on my designs." she gestured to all the designs hung up around her room, along with the many fabrics laid on her desk and a dress form in the corner.

"I know, sweetie." Her mother kissed her forehead. She walked towards the computer desk with all her fabrics cluttered on the surface and began to organize them for Marinette. Her eyes caught sight of a piece of paper on the desk with writing on it, not her daughter's scrawl, and curiously picked it up. "What's this?"

"Huh? Oh, that's just an address for the studio Nino is going to be performing at for some contest. Alya gave it to me in case I thought I'd want to go…" Marinette trailed off, not wanting to think about how she was being unfair to Alya by constantly refusing her friendship with excuses.

Sabine furrowed her brow in confusion. If the girl was giving her this, then maybe she still wanted friendship with Marinette after all? Perhaps her daughter just didn't know how to respond to someone who wants to be friends with her and that's why she never goes out.

"Well, you did all your chores today, so why don't you go?" Sabine encouraged. Marinette turned to her, eyes wide.

"What?" she blinked. "Why would I do that Maman? I am not close with any of them. It would feel too weird." Marinette explained. Sabine quirked an eyebrow at that. She knew her daughter was shy, but did she really despised social interaction that much?

Absently stroking her daughter's fabrics, a light bulb went off in her head as an idea formed. Sabine schooled her face into a teasing, coy expression.

"You know Marinette…" she began, still petting the fabrics. "Your father and I noticed you are running low on fabric. How would you feel if we pick up some tomorrow?" this caused Marinette's ears to perk up.

"Really Maman?" Marinette asked excited. "Usually you make me save up for fabric—are you sure?" Marinette checked. Sabine chuckled.

"Of course! We love to spoil you sometimes." Sabine said, picking up the piece of paper once more. "If," she stressed, holding up the piece of paper to her daughter's face, "You go out and have fun with friends today." She smirked.

Marinette's eyes widened before her eyes became narrowed.

"Maman! You cheat." she pouted. Sabine just smiled, waving the paper innocently. Marinette prepared to decline the bribe, but the thought of getting new fabric without paying for it was very tempting. In fact, she could actually get a good quality fabric out of this for her new project.

'I'll just keep interactions to a minimum.' Marinette told herself. She grinned at her mother and took the paper. Her mother smiled back.

"You're all right walking by yourself?" Her mother asked her. Marinette nodded as she slipped on a white over sweater robe that reached her mid thigh and the sleeves reached past her elbow over her cherry blossom pink tank top. She wore black leggings and put on black three inch heeled combat boots good for walking.

"It will be fine, Maman." She told her mother. She grabbed her purse and headed towards her trap door, waving goodbye to her mother.

Besides, how bad could it be?

Nino cracked his knuckles nervously as he waited his turn to be called on The Challenge. Adrien and the Gorilla were beside him with support as Alya had a babysitting job today. Adrien patted his shoulder in comfort.

"Relax man—I'm sure you'll do fine." Adrien said. Nino fidgeted with his hands.

"Hopefully dude. Hopefully." He replied

"Oh come on, you got me here for support." Adrien took ahold of Nino's shoulders. "You'll be fine. You're an awesome DJ."

Nino was about to reply when a girl with midnight hair pulled in pigtails showed up gasping for breath, her hands on her knees.

"Sorry I'm late!" she apologized. She looked up with her bright blue eyes and Nino and Adrien saw it was Marinette Dupain-Cheng from their class. The girl was always a loner, so to see her here was a surprise to both boys. She looked around nervously, as if she was forgetting something. "W-where's Alya?" she asked.

"Uh… babysitting duty." Nino answered, placing his hand behind his head. Marinette looked like she entered panic mood. Her eyes immediately went downcast.

"Um… sorry… Alya invited me…" she mumbled out. She wrung her hands together nervously, and surprisingly, it calmed Nino down to see someone as nervous as him and he wasn't alone. Pushing his anxiety aside, he went to reassure the girl.

"It's okay, dude. I don't mind you being here." He told her. Marinette perked her head up a little, still looking like she felt out of place. "Honest! If I knew you were coming I would've dressed better—I mean! Uh…" Nino stuttered. He remembered the crush he had on Marinette, but for some reason when Adrien, Alya, and him tried to invite her to the zoo (Nino was hoping it could be a double date, despite Alya and Adrien's denials that they weren't a couple, but come on, they were really close!), but she turned them down, squeaking and running away hurriedly.

Surprisingly, Marinette seemed to smile, though a little unsure, and it made Nino's heart beat a little faster.

"You look fine to me." She said quietly. Nino and Adrien grinned at her, ready to welcome her into their group.

"Nino! You're up!" the announcer called. Nino grinned at them and waved before going onto the set to perform his challenge. Adrien stepped closer to Marinette, hoping he didn't intrude on her space.

"Glad you were able to make it." He said. Marinette jumped a little as she wasn't expecting him to talk to her. Her heart began to pound and her palms got a little sweaty.

"U-um yeah. Alya invited me and I thought why not and here I am…" Marinette replied, not looking at him. Her anxiety was heightened with being around so many people she didn't really know. She hadn't spoken to him one on one since he asked her about what she thought about Chat Noir after the Evillustrator incident.

"That's awesome. It's always good to see you, Marinette." Adrien said genuinely. He wished he could get the girl to open up to them more as she always seemed so quiet and shy. Alya had told him many times on late night patrols as Ladybug and Chat Noir on how she thought it was so cute that Marinette was so shy, but she wished she could help her with her confidence more. Every time Chloe picks on her, Alya is always there to defend her, but despite all of the attention, Marinette just seems to shrink away from their group. Adrien wondered if maybe she didn't like them, but he reasoned that Marinette was always nice to them, even if avoidant at times. He asked Plagg about it but he just said humans are weird and asked for cheese.

Maybe with this, she can get closer to them and they all can be good friends. He knows what it's like not to have friends for so long, and he didn't want another person to suffer like he did.

He thought on how much his life has changed since he had gotten the Black Cat Miraculous. He got to go to public school, he made many new friends in his classmates, and had gotten really close friends like Alya and Nino. Having found out that Alya had somehow gotten the Ladybug Miraculous had caused the two to have to get to know each other very well (to the point where people assume they are dating, but they have to keep telling people they're strictly platonic). However, he remembers freaking out at first from her appearance, as he had worried what had happened to his previous partner. Alya, on the other hand, had no clue what he was talking about and said the earrings just appeared in her bag one day. He was filled with disappointment, wondering if he did something wrong to make the previous Ladybug quit, but Tikki had reassured him it wasn't because of him, and instead said she had her reasons. Unfortunately, that was all she decided to tell him, filling him with even more sadness that he doesn't know the girl's identity. He wonders if the previous Ladybug ever thinks of him like he does her. Tikki said it was best not to dwell on the previous Ladybug but he couldn't help himself.

"Thank you." Marinette said, blushing and looking at the floor.

"Congrats Nino! You won! We'll see you next week to perform your next challenge!" the announcer yelled, drawing Marinette and Adrien's attention. Both of them clapped for Nino as he grinned at them from the stage. He raced off the stage to fist bump Adrien.

"Told you you could do it." Adrien told him smugly. Nino rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. You were right."

"Up next is Jacques Grimault!" the announcer called. A man in a purple suit jacket stepped forward. The announcer put his arm around the Jacques. "He's a hypnotist! He can make you do anything he wants!"

"Er, actually, I don't like using hypnotism that way." Jacques responded meekly, taking out some playing cards. The announcer ignored him.

"So Jacques! Your task is to bring a very elusive celebrity to this set! Everyone welcome fashion genius Gabriel Agreste!"

Suddenly the screen showed Gabriel Agreste's stern face. Nino looped an arm around Adrien in excitement.

"Dude! That's your dad." He exclaimed. Adrien smiled.

"What is this show? I was told this was an interview." Gabriel said, not too pleased with being fooled.

"Now, Mr. Grimault! See if you can get Gabriel Agreste to come to the show with your hypnotism!"

"I told you, I don't use hypnotism that way." Jacques repeated.

"Aw, I guess you're a shy hypnotist! Isn't that funny Mr. Agreste?" the announcer smiled to the camera.

"Hilarious." Gabriel deadpanned. "Your show is pathetic, and so is your contestant. Control me? Never." With that, Gabriel signed off. Adrien shook his head.

"That's my father, alright." He said gloomily.

"Well, looks like you failed in bringing Mr. Agreste here, Mr. Grimault!" the announcer cheerfully stated. "You fail!"

"W-wait! But I didn't even get a chance!" he stuttered out.

With that, the staff took him off the stage and escorted him to the door. Jacques looked downcast at the floor as he dropped his cards. He bent down to pick them up, not noticing the black butterfly flying into one of his playing cards.

"Hello Jackady. I am Hawkmoth…"

Marinette looked worriedly at the door where Jacques left. She bit her lip, debating whether or not to pursue the man. She knew what it was like to fail in unfair circumstances. She remembered how strict Adrien's dad can be, and the fact that he didn't even get Adrien a present for his birthday instead using her scarf she made as a present instead made her not really think highly of him.

"Are you okay?" Adrien asked her, noticing her somber mood. Marinette turned towards him with a frown.

"It's just… he must've worked so hard to get on the show…" she trailed off. Adrien put a hand on her shoulder making her jump. He gave her a look of understanding.

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by the doors to the studio bursting open and a man wearing a purple and lime green suit walked in with a psychotic grin.

"What in the world?" The announcer asked. The masked man grinned and threw a card at him saying he was now a chicken.

Adrien's bodyguard rose to action and charged forward.

"Simon says you're a gorilla!" the akuma called. The card got absorbed into the Gorilla and suddenly he changed directions towards the three teenagers and made gorilla noises. Adrien, Nino, and Marinette yelped as Nino and Adrien ran in opposite directions, Adrien instinctively grabbing Marinette to follow him. The two ended up toppled in the corner.

"You okay?" Adrien asked her. Marinette rubbed her head and nodded. Adrien lead her to a safe corner and made her hide. "You stay here—I'm going to get Nino and we'll all get out of here." With that, he was already gone before Marinette could say anything. Marinette pressed her back into the crevice, praying that Adrien and Nino come back soon.

She knew she shouldn't have gone out today….

Karin: Well there is the first chapter! What do you think? Let me know!