𝐉𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄 𝐉𝐔𝐋𝐘 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐, jasonette

i. 𝐚𝐢𝐦

Ever since she was a child, Marinette's life was planned out.

Number one, get the best grades in school so she could get into a good university. Originally, the idea was to get into a university like Harvard, but a later addition was to get into a specific, prestigious fashion university. That was when she discovered her talent and passion for sewing.

Number two, make real friends. Marinette's parents, from a young age, had always told her the value of true friends who would help her, no matter what. Because of that, Marinette had always been looking for friends who would stick by her no matter what. We'll come back to this one later.

Finally, and maybe the most important, don't fall in love. At least, don't fall in love with someone who could manage to royally screw up all her aims in life, because then where would she end up?

Out of all of these, in her short twenty-something years, Marinette managed to go 'wrong' in every single one of these aims. Miraculously, though, the outcome wasn't as devastating as she would have expected.

i.

Marinette likes to divide her life into two sections: Before Ladybug and After Ladybug.

Let's start with Before Ladybug.

Before Ladybug, Marinette was a star student. She had the highest grades, the most credit, and was in charge of a lot of clubs—basically, her academic life was, in other words, perfect. Even though she still sucked at some subjects (Science, for one), Marinette coped and worked hard; in the end, she managed to produce the grades.

On the other hand, in After Ladybug, things got a little messy. The first was that she didn't have time. Hours upon hours of her day could be spent fighting an akuma, which in turn, was hours and hours wasted because she could have been using that time to study science. Those weren't the only grades that dropped, out of all of them, science was the one that Marinette cared the most about.

By the time she was a legal adult, Marinette was on the verge of murdering Hawkmoth with a spoon, because for what joy was the sadistic maniac still doing this? For God's sake, he had been doing this for four years straight and he still hadn't stopped. Didn't he ever get tired of it? Marinette certainly did, especially when Chat Noir just became an extra weight on her already cracking shoulders.

At any rate, because Hawkmoth was still active, it was Marinette's moral and ethical obligation to stay in Paris until he was defeated. In the end, Marinette couldn't even go to the university she was aiming for—London College of Fashion—because of Hawkmoth's inability to just give up.

When Marinette defeated him a year later, things changed and she no longer wanted to go to London. So, in conclusion, that first aim was a complete and utter failure.

ii.

For this one, everyone only needs one name, two words.

Lila Rossi.

When Marinette was still an overly nice, naive teenager, she genuinely thought her classmates were her true friends—friends for life, as she used to think of them. All that changed when Lila Rossi appeared in class, with her guileful charm and fanciful tales. Suddenly, her bright charisma was all that all the blind idiots in her class to see. They dropped Marinette like a hot potato, not even caring to politely throw her in the trash.

It took Marinette a while to recover from that. Even more so when the one person she thought she could trust to have her back let her down monumentally. A little side note: Marinette may have not been entirely clinical when she was contemplating the decision to take Adrien's miraculous away. But, Tikki said it was fine, and she was the kwami with the strongest moral compass, so Marinette trusted her judgement. She didn't even feel the slightest sliver of pity for Adrien when she 'cruelly and heartlessly took [his] miraculous without reason.' In his words, of course.

In any case, by the time she graduated from high school, Marinette's only friends were the kwamis, and in modern society, she didn't really think that they were, you know, proper friends in the regular, totally normal way.

But, that was no matter now because since meeting a certain someone, Marinette's social life has been much more developed.

iii.

Out of all her three aims, Marinette used to think she screwed up the most in this last one.

When she first saw him, Marinette didn't think much of Jason Todd. To her, he was just a refreshingly quiet American, who apparently came to the park near her apartment very often and generally at the same time as her. But, she wasn't blind, and he was a very handsome man—especially with his dark, almost obsidian black hair and shockingly contrasting blue eyes, so Marinette often took the liberty of sketching him, obviously without his knowledge.

The first time she ever spoke to him was an experience that Marinette will be forever embarrassed by. The first thing she said to him was, "I'm not a creep—I promise!"

You understand the situation, I assume.

It was a rather windy day, and Marinette knew she probably shouldn't be drawing him, especially when the paper could fly away at any minute, but then again, Marinette wasn't exactly known for making good decisions.

As soon as she looked away, for just a second, the sketch of him flew away, and—what do you know?—smack-dab into the middle of his face.

Marinette tried—she really did—to try and get the paper before he saw it, but there was no hope of hiding its existence when Jason peeled it off of his face and saw a sketched version of himself on the paper.

The following conversation was one that would forever be etched into Marinette's memories and not because it was an enjoyable one. It was one filled with lots of sly smirks from Jason and embarrassed laughs from Marinette giving Jason a very unfair advantage. In the end, though, Marinette managed to escape that conversation with empty promises to give the sketch to Jason as soon as she finished it.

A week later, Marinette learned that Jason Todd was nothing if not persistent. For some reason, he hadn't forgotten about her 'promise' the week before and was constantly bothering her about the sketch.

Eventually, he figured out just how to manipulate Marinette; with puppy dog eyes. Somehow, he had the ability to make his eyes look all watery and adorable and for some stupid, ungodly reason, Marinette couldn't resist them.

They become close after that, with Jason often coming up to Marinette's apartment once they realised they only lived a few floors apart. Jason's exact words were, "Honestly, we're such idiots."

Marinette's retort was quick. "Speak for yourself."

Jason's response was even quicker, tickling her until small tears lined her long eyelashes. Lips a hair's breadth apart, it only took one of them leaning forward to connect them.

After a bit of the dodge-avoid-ignore strategy—that lasted about two weeks—they finally began to date, and all was well.

Well, until the matter of secret identities, but eventually, they got over that too.

This brings us to now.

"See?" Jason said triumphantly, waving the old piece of paper with her aims on them. "You didn't screw up at all, Pixie. And it's all because of me."

Marinette grinned as she pressed a kiss to Jason's lips.

"Whatever you say, darling," Marinette said with an amused grin.