Chapter Text
When Marinette’s alarm sounded, she could barely open her eyes. Her bedsheets were still wet with her tears from last night.
How was she supposed to go to school now, now that Chat Noir thought she’d ditched him? Her Kitty must have been looking everywhere for her…
This was even worse than when Socqueline had gotten expelled.
When she was finally all dressed up and ready to go (it took forever to apply enough concealer to hide the bags under her eyes), she was almost late again.
A sudden sneeze from her purse snapped her out of her stupor. Tikki! She’d totally forgotten about her, poor little thing sill needed to see that healer, but she was out of time, she couldn’t be late to Mme Mendeleiev’s class again or she’d send her to the principal because she was a far less reasonable teacher than Bustier and wouldn’t accept any lame excuse she tried and…
She felt so bad having to ask Tikki to hold on for a few more hours until lunch break, but the Kwami agreed to it.
“Combustion is an oxydoreduction’s exothermic reaction,” Mme Mendeleiev lectured. “When the combustion is frank, it manifests as a flame.”
Chloé rolled her eyes. Science was never one of her favorite subjects, but the way the teacher presented it made it all the worse. Give her a good math problem any day, but this? This was Sabrina’s forte.
People often accused Chloé of making Sabrina do all her homework, which wasn’t true! First, Sabrina volunteered to do it, and often Chloé had to push her friend to not do the homework for her, so she’d get the chance to do it herself. Second, they had an arrangement for subjects one of them wasn’t good at: Chloé would assist Sabrina with complex math problems, while Sabrina assisted Chloé in science class.
With a glance around the classroom, she saw the others weren’t faring much better. Ivan was already asleep, Kim and Adrien were staring off in the distance, while Rose was busy watching something on her phone and Juleka was busy watching Rose.
She could clock the poor lesbian girl a mile away. Sweet little Rose was just too oblivious, wasn’t she? And what was she doing now? Was that… perfume?
The utterly wretched smell penetrated the entire classroom in seconds. Chloé had always known she was more sensitive to smells than her peers, to where she had to be careful about her selection of shampoo and body wash. When shopping for new scented items, she always had to smell it first, since just a whiff of an unpleasant scent could already make her start to gag. But this was next-level awful, and Chloé had to open a window just to get some fresh air, not even caring about making a scene by storming all over the classroom.
“Thank you, Rose!” Mme Mendeleiev admonished her too. That made everyone else look to the back row as well. “But I doubt this room needs to be perfumed.”
“You can say that again,” Chloé gagged, still desperately breathing in fresh air from the window.
“It is a health hazard,” Mendeleiev continued. “As you can see, people with asthma or a smell sensitivity can have a terrible reaction to this.” She held out her hand to confiscate the perfume before doing the same with her phone and sending her to the principal.
The teacher then went on to give a pointed demonstration on the other hazard of playing with flammable products in chemistry class.
Marinette took another peek at Tikki in her purse as she walked out of the school for lunch.
“I don’t feel so well, Marinette…” the Kwami shivered.
“Don’t worry, Tikki, it won’t be long before-” but the girl suddenly tripped over someone’s backpack, and Tikki went flying out of Marinette’s purse.
Marinette fell flat on her face, earning a huge laugh from Chloé and Sabrina who were just passing by.
“Do you have everything you’ll need to meet the Prince, Sabrina?” The redhead nodded. “Good, I want you to see for yourself how a young celebrity displays an act of philanthropy with the children’s hospital.”
After Marinette got back on her feet, she inspected her purse only to find it empty. Chloe had already found Tikki, who kept herself as still as possible. “Ew, what’s this supposed to be, this plushie? Who left this here?”
“You could give it to Ali as a gift,” Sabrina offered.
Chloé gasped. “Excellent idea, Sabby! This’ll be the most original plushie the prince has ever seen! An absolutely unique addition to his donation for the sick children.”
As the limo pulled up, Chloé opened the door to step in, but stopped when none other than Rose called for her. “Chloé?”
The heiress turned back around and immediately made a face. That nasty perfume was still lingering around Rose, like a dark cloud trying to kill her. “Did I hear you talk about Prince Ali?”
“Not to you,” Chloé deadpanned.
Sabrina explained it. “Prince Ali’s staying at Chloé’s dad’s hotel.”
“The only hotel worthy of housing a prince! Sabrina and I will be there to welcome him on behalf of all of Paris.”
“Could you give him this letter I wrote him?” Rose asked, handing Chloé the pink letter. Ugh, so that was the source of that repugnant stench. She must have sprayed perfume all over it before Mendeleiev had confiscated it.
With Chloé on the verge of gagging again, Sabrina quickly intervened. “Sorry Rose, but only gifts that have been cleared beforehand can be handed to the Prince.”
“Please?” Rose pressed on. Chloé was this close to getting a headache from the smell, and her whining. “I’m sure it’ll be fine if it comes directly from you!”
“Forget it, Rose!” she snapped. “You really think I’m gonna greet the Prince while smelling like fish with this in my pocket?”
At Rose’s shocked expression, Sabrina continued to lay down the law. “All gifts have to go through a clearing process to be checked for hazards, standard operating procedure to ensure the Prince’s safety. We can’t make exceptions, not even for classmates.”
“So you can forget about your stinking letter already!” And with that, Chloé ripped the letter up before disappearing into her limo, followed by Sabrina.
As the limo drove off, she inspected the plushie again. Immediately, she heard Marinette calling for her. “Chloé, wait, it’s my-m-”
Was Marinette asking about the plushie? Well, no way was she giving it back to her now. “Too late, Marinette! Finders keepers!” she called as the limo sped up.
Marinette felt like her world had collapsed. Tikki..! How was she supposed to help anyone without her Kwami?
It was all over. There was no way she would ever be able to be Ladybug again, especially if Tikki was now in the hands of Chloé Bourgeois.
Chloé was many things, but she was also smart. It wouldn’t be long before she found out that Tikki was in fact alive, especially if they were still sneezing. From there, Chloé would certainly be able to torture Tikki into revealing all the information about what they were, and since Marinette had already revealed to Chloé that Tikki belonged to her, the heiress would be able to connect all the dots.
It would just be a matter of time before Chloé knew she was Ladybug.
Chasing the blonde back to the hotel felt like a pointless chore, since it was bound to be fruitless anyway, but she still did it, dragging her feet towards the entrance.
When she arrived, Marinette saw that a pink-haired girl with green skin was standing at the entrance, spraying the doorman with a pink perfume. An Akuma?
The perfume looked very familiar, and when Marinette saw the hot pink haircut of the Akuma, she gasped. Rose! How had this happened? The biggest bright-eyed optimist of their class, Akumatized…
Another classmate Marinette had failed to protect. Another failure to add to her rap sheet. Another reason she had to give up on being Ladybug…
She helplessly had to watch Rose enter the hotel, with the doorman now under the Akuma’s thrall. There was no way she’d be able to pass by him…
So she tried to monitor the hotel from the outside.
Adrien felt like everything good with the world stopped existing.
The past week with his Lady had just been indescribable, with him jumping at every opportunity to kiss her again like that first night on the Eiffel Tower.
And then she’d disappeared, after having saved him from getting mind-controlled from that Akuma. She’d promised to meet up with him in a few minutes, just recharging her Kwami, but she hadn’t come back. He tried asking Plagg, but he had no idea either.
When watching himself on video that night, he felt sick to his stomach. The things he’d said to her, done to her… All he wanted was to see her again and apologize for everything.
The next morning, when Mme Mendeleiev confiscated perfume from Rose, Adrien realized he’d been spacing out and was lucky the teacher hadn’t spotted him.
During his lunch break, he tried to distract himself by heading back home and watching some TV. He didn’t get very far before Mme Chamack appeared with another Akuma alert.
Wasting no time, Adrien transformed again. Surely his Lady would join him to fight the Akuma, and not leave him to face it alone?
Marinette helplessly watched Chat Noir arrive at the hotel. There was nothing she could do to help him without Tikki.
‘I’m so sorry Kitty, but you’ll have to face this Akuma alone for now.’
Several minutes passed before he appeared again. He helped Chloé and two other people evacuate from the top floor.
Even after Ladybug had ditched him, Chat was still doing his duty and rescuing people from the Akuma. Because he was a genuine hero, more than Marinette could ever be again.
Perhaps she could just accept her fate? With Chloé in possession of Tikki and knowing Marinette was Ladybug, she could easily demand the earrings for herself for fortune and glory.
The four of them made it into a car and drove off. Rose was hot on their tail, chasing them by using her perfume sprayer as a jetpack.
This was her only hope, she had to follow them! Grabbing a discarded biker’s helmet and a kick scooter, she gave chase.
But when she arrived, it was too late. The car alarm was blaring and all the doors were open.
She almost didn’t bother to check inside the car, since Chloé and Chat were long gone. But it was her only lead, so she went in, hoping against all hope there’d be some clue in there to where they’d gone…
Thank every Kwami in existence she did, because she found Tikki.
With Tikki finally healed, she transformed and rushed across Paris to find Rose.
She found her at the Pont des Arts. A small group of people were under her thrall, including Chloé, Mayor Bourgeois, and… Chat Noir.
This was the first time she’d really seen him since yesterday where everything went wrong, and he was already under the influence of an Akuma again?
Rose was preparing a scented pink padlock, to be added to the thousands of them already on the bridge, to seal her love with some prince.
Clothespin at the ready, Ladybug attacked. With one swoop, the padlock was in the Seine and Rose sicced her servants on her. Chloé and the other civilians were easy enough to fend off, but Ladybug faltered at having to fight against Chat yet again.
“Kitty, please, come to your senses! It’s me, Ladybug!” she pleaded.
But Chat Noir didn’t slow down in the slightest. “Give me your Miraculous!” he sang.
Ladybug felt her mood sink. She couldn’t do this… not again. There had to be some way out of this. “Lucky Charm!” And her yo-yo produced… “Another clothespin? But I already have one?”
Then she saw it. The clothespin, Chat Noir, his Cataclysm, the giant cloud of perfume that had started to envelop the skies above Paris…
Wasting no time, Ladybug pounced on Chat, forcing him to abandon his staff for close hand-to-hand combat.
With a sleight of hand, she was able to place the clothespin on his nose. Immediately, she felt him relax and stop struggling.
“Milady…” he panted. Her strategy had worked, as soon as the perfume was out of his lungs he came back to his senses.
“Hi minou… I’m so happy to see you again…” Ladybug couldn’t resist and pulled Chat in close for a kiss. She only snapped out of it when her earrings beeped.
“Come on, we’ve got an Akuma to catch. It’s in her perfume sprayer. Prepare to pounce.”
It was easy enough to track the origin of the perfume cloud back to Le Grand Paris.
Ladybug attacked her alone, and Chat was able to sneak up to her and Cataclysm the perfume sprayer.
The Akuma cleansed, Ladybug cast her Cure which instantly erased the perfume cloud.
‘So this is it,’ Chat thought. ‘This is where Ladybug will leave again without a word.’
But to his surprise, Ladybug pulled him inside the hotel, back to the same closet she’d hidden in back when Lady Wifi attacked.
“No more fake promises,” she swore. “I’ll be right in here, back in 2 minutes. I’m not going anywhere this time.”
She went inside and closed the door. “Détransformation.” A pink flash of light appeared from inside the room.
“Détransformation,” Chat repeated. Nobody was watching them, and Chloé wouldn’t ask any questions if she saw Adrien at the hotel.
“What happened, ma Lady?” he asked.
“I’ll explain in a minute,” she answered. She sounded on the verge of tears, and Chat’s heart clenched. “Tikki, transforme-moi!”
Plagg had also finished eating. “Plagg, transforme-moi!”
The second he said his transformation words, the door flew open and Ladybug threw herself into Chat’s arms.
“Oh, mon Chaton… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” she cried, holding onto Chat as if her life depended on it.
“Are you alright, ma Lady?”
Ladybug sniffled. “Oh Chat, ever the gentleman, aren’t you? No, I’m not alright.”
She brought him back to the rooftop, where she explained what had happened since Dislocœur, from the power absorption making her Kwami sick, to the accidental loss of Tikki making her unable to transform.
“You remember that bully I told you about? I slipped up today, and she almost found out my identity. She’d have destroyed me if she found out. I’m sorry, Chat, but I can’t afford to let anyone know who I am.”
Chat’s stomach dropped. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t be serious. “But… ma Lady, you said you were ready. I promise you, I’d keep your secret safe!”
“I know you would, Chat, and I’m so sorry for leading you on. I should have thought about the risks before I promised this to you, and now I’ve had a very, very close call. It’s just too dangerous for you to know my identity… or for me to know yours.”
Before he could say anything else, she’d swung away.
Ladybug zipped through Paris as fast as her yo-yo could carry her. She had to be back home before the tears started falling.
This had to be the hardest decision she’d ever made. Just when she finally thought she could open up, life stepped in to remind her how terrible it would be if other people found out pathetic little Marinette Dupain-Cheng was Ladybug.
Chloé would ear her to shreds, steal Tikki again, and run off with all the glory. Her parents would be endlessly worried for her. Papillon would track her down and take her family hostage, just as she’d warned Alya.
And Alya… she’d never trust her again. Not after the big lecture she’d given about keeping her identity secret in the first place.
Chat could keep that secret… certainly… probably… maybe… hopefully.
As much as she wanted to risk it with him, today’s events reminded her she simply didn’t have the luxury to risk it.
It was better this way… it had to be… because what other option had she?