Marinette could feel her heart pounding out of her chest as she felt the few minutes she had left ticking away. Even worse, those minutes were quickly turning into seconds. Noticing the time dwindling, she proceeded to run faster, pushing her short legs to their maximum velocity and feeling the burn from her aching muscles shooting up her calves. Her breath shallowed, and her ears were ringing, but she ignored it all and did with what little blood flow she had in her brain to concentrate on the task at hand. It wasn't like she hadn't been on a severe time frame before, but she was trying oh so desperately to beat this out, or the consequences could be catastrophic.
"Hurry up, Marinette! You're running out of time!" her kwami warned.
"I know!" she shouted.
As she reached the end of her journey, she bolted up the stairs in front of her as fast as she could manage, hoping that she would make it before it was too late. Her eyes grew into saucers as she caught a glance at her watch, only seconds remaining. With all her strength, she nearly screamed as she made it up the last few steps and shot herself through the hallway, practically slamming the door blocking her way into the wall holding it up.
The bell rang as she made her way through the door.
"Marinette, glad you could join us, and you made it just before the tardy bell. Well done." said Madame Bustier, clearly amused.
The class giggled softly (though Chloe did so not so softly), as they took in Marinette's exhausted yet tensed appearance, her body and clothing covered in sweat and her hair plastered to her forehead. The doorknob was still tightly gripped in her hand, now covered in her palm sweat. She took in a few shallow breaths, trying to gulp in whatever air she could with at least some grace to get herself back in order, though without much initial success.
"Yeah… I… Thanks…" she voiced in between desperate breaths, glancing through her bleary gaze at the class in front of her. Most of them were staring at her, some concerned while most were still incredibly entertained by the outburst. She didn't really care though. It was far from the first time that she'd had such an abrupt entrance to the classroom and it absolutely would not be the last time. At this point she was kind of used to the attention she'd been getting from her interruptions.
At least this time she hadn't had to face an akuma that morning, but the accidental oversleeping as a result of either akumas, patrolling, or worse, her homework, was beginning to get a little bit irritating regardless.
Quietly she closed the door behind her, purposefully avoiding looking into her teacher's gaze as she turned back towards the class. She tried not to notice the burning protests from her legs or the annoying taunts from Chloe as she made her way up to her seat, then sighed as she collapsed in it, her arms falling just in time to cradle her head which nearly slammed into the desk. She heard a friendly chuckle beside her as her arms surrounded her head.
"Oversleep again this morning?" Alya asked quietly as Madame Bustier began proclaiming their lesson for the day.
Marinette nodded against her forearms with a whiny groan, closing her eyes within the darkness her shrouding arms allowed her for just a moment to try and regain some of her energy.
She laughed again, patting the top of Marinette's sweaty head lovingly. "You really need to work on that, girl. What is this, like the fifth time in the past two weeks?"
"Six maybe." Marinette replied exhaustively.
"You're ridiculous, Marinette." she laughed. "But if it makes you feel better I brought you something to eat, since I kind of figured this would happen. Consider it my Marinette's survival kit."
Marinette heard Alya place something in front of her arms. Peeking one eye over them, she noticed it was a banana and a store bought packaged chocolate chip muffin. She wasn't normally a fan of the less fresh confectionaries in packages, being a baker's daughter and all, but the gesture made her stomach churn in delight.
"Oh my gosh, thank you." she replied desperately, unveiling her head and grabbing at the banana. She tore into its peel and bit into it with little hesitation which earned a laugh from her best friend. She had wanted to grab something to eat on the way out of the bakery, but the morning rush taking up all the extra food that usually laid about the bakery, as well as the five minutes she had to get to school, were a bit hindering.
"It's no problem, what would you ever do without me?" She said with a proud grin.
Marinette nodded nonchalantly as she enjoyed her banana while Alya looked away from her best friend to take a glance at the desk below them.
"Speaking of oversleeping, you may not be the only one who's a bit behind on their sleep."
Marinette glanced down at whatever had captured Alya's gaze, and only just then noticed the fact that Adrien was sitting below her, head down on the desk and only moving with a very faint up and down motion. She felt her nerves jolt, having not even realized that he had been front and center in the classroom to watch her escapades that morning, but immediately relaxed as she realized that he was clearly out cold. She sighed, relieved at the thought, and continued to stare absentmindedly at his shining blonde hair moving up and down slowly, smiling and silently appreciating the changes his movements made in the lighting the sun cast on it from the window.
Alya snorted, "Were the two of you up late together last night? He only made it in here a minute before you."
Marinette's head shot up. "Wh-wh-what!? Of course not! We weren't talking, what?!" she stammered in a panic filled whisper. Banana nearly sputtered out of her mouth with every word. Her friend stifled back a laugh at her reaction.
"Relax, I'm kidding. Like I'd believe that you managed to talk to Adrien without telling me about it as soon as it happened." she laughed.
Marinette huffed and placed her chin in her hand, looking away from Alya and back down at Adrien. She could too talk to Adrien, maybe, possibly. It just took some… effort. Like a lot of effort. Because often times she could barely get out a sentence in his presence that didn't make her look like an idiot, or at least it felt that way. There were definitely times that she managed alright, she thought anyways, but it could be a struggle sometimes. Still, partly sadistic as it felt, she found herself smiling at the fact that they were both exhausted, so at least they had some sense of commonality. In fact, that was the one thing she felt like she could truly connect with him on, aside from their obvious ties to fashion anyways.
She let her mind wander, trying to imagine the reason that Adrien could have been up so late that he'd oversleep and be so exhausted in the morning. A fashion shoot? Lots of homework to catch up on? A late night rondevu with someone?
She shuddered at the last thought but shook it away.
He was definitely no stranger to being tired in class though. He was late almost as often as she was, which she found funny considering he was always driven to school by his father's employees. Maybe Adrien had a favorite coffee shop or something he liked to stop by before school and the line was always long? It'd definitely attribute to the tardiness record he'd built up. She'd have to find out, maybe she could get him something there, granted she make sure that she manages to get to school on time herself.
The night before for her had been pretty uneventful. The only issue at all was that her patrol had run a little bit later than usual, partly thanks to a late little kitty, but luckily there was no akuma to take care of which certainly made things easier. Ladybug and Chat had taken some time to do some sightseeing as well, which wasn't entirely uncommon but was definitely something that made them stay out later. It wasn't often, but there were definitely occasions where they got to spend time with one another and simply enjoy the nice weather in the city.
Of course, it also didn't help that he was very insistent about not wanting her to leave, which wasn't terribly unusual but sure could get her off track. She didn't necessarily mind though.
While he could get irritating with all the flirting and puns, she still admired him greatly, even if he kept her out late and she had to stay up and finish her homework. It was just an unfortunate circumstance if anything. Her only saving grace that morning had been Tikki yelling at her to get up.
She owed her some cookies for sure, double chocolate chip as an extra bribe to avoid a lecture.
She wondered almost absentmindedly if Chat ever had trouble getting to school on time or had issues with sleeping management too. He was definitely around her age after all, so he almost definitely went to school. She felt like an expert at this point, replaying in her mind just how many late night akuma attacks or patrols had made her late the next morning. She almost felt guilty, thinking that Chat was suffering from their activities as well, but there was literally nothing she could do about it. Hawkmoth was going to do what he would and they unfortunately had to answer the call.
But if nothing else she should at least know if her partner was doing okay.
She made a mental note to ask him about that next time she saw him. As much as she tried to avoid getting into one another's personal lives for the sake of their identities, she still wanted to make sure he was doing well. If nothing else, it was her responsibility as his partner to make sure her other half of the team was in good health.
And considering how droopy her eyes felt, she knew she certainly wasn't that great off either.
Suddenly, Marinette jumped and her eyes shot up as she heard a loud wooden smack that startled her out of her stupor. Looking back down, she noticed Madame Bustier with a ruler in her hand standing at the end of Adrien and Nino's desk with an irritated expression. Adrien had sat up, and even though she could only see him from behind, it was easy to tell he was pretty disoriented.
"Mr. Agreste, I think we'd both find it best if you paid attention during my lesson and didn't spend the whole time snoring. Wouldn't you agree?"
Adrien paused for a moment, trying to get his bearings on the situation, but soon nodded slowly. "Yes, Madame. I apologize for that." he said with a yawn.
She smirked, "Perhaps you need to get your father to loosen up on your modeling schedules, hm? Can't have your busy schedule affecting your grades." she voiced nonchalantly, turning back towards the whiteboard to proceed with her lesson.
Adrien rolled his eyes at the comment, not so much towards her, but more so at the idea of his father giving him any ounce of a break in his ever so busy schedule. He was the biggest reason he and Ladybug had been out so late the night before anyhow. If he hadn't had that dumb evening photoshoot, he wouldn't have been late to patrol, and him being late meant that he just had to spend more time with his lady. Not that he ever minded spending more time with her, ever.
The young model felt a tender hand on his left shoulder, causing him to turn at look at his friend beside him.
"You feeling alright, man?" Nino asked.
"Yeah I'm fine." Adrien yawned, taking a moment to rub his eyes. "I just didn't sleep well last night. I had a photoshoot to do and it kept me out kind of late."
"Bummer, the old man ever consider giving you a break?"
"Not on your life." Adrien scoffed.
"Jeez, even with you this exhausted? That's not cool."
Adrien shrugged, "That's just kind of how it is. It's part of the deal with letting me go to school I think. He doesn't want me here, so he makes me work a ton and exhausts me to the core, maybe in the hopes that I'll quit and just go back to being home schooled." He shook his head and chuckled, "I'll go through this for the rest of my life before I allow that though."
Nino smiled, "Go you, man. Stick it to him. You know we've got your back." He said, clapping his hand against Adrien's back. He glanced up, "Heck, Marinette looks like she's in the same boat as you even."
"Marinette?" Adrien asked.
"Yeah dude, you must have been asleep and missed it. Marinette burst in here like a millisecond before the bell rang. Pretty impressive if you ask me." he chuckled.
Adrien took a second to turn his head just a little bit towards the girl behind him. She was staring off into the distance, clearly not paying attention to the lecture below her, and chewing pieces of what looked to be a mostly eaten banana in her left hand. Her head was lying lazily in her other hand and her eyes were droopy with dark circles underneath them.
He let out a small laugh, noticing the similarity between he and his friend, and the noise brought Marinette's eyes out of her trance and into the gaze of Adrien's. He noticed her and smiled, giving her a small and knowing motion with his hand towards his eyes along with a quick sulking frown.
She picked up on it immediately and almost too excitedly nodded with a smile of her own and a timid shrug. He chuckled a little and turned back around, making Marinette's heart revert back to its previously erratic state.
"Whoa, nice one. You didn't even scream that time." Alya chided quietly, elbowing Marinette in the arm softly.
Marinette barely noticed. Internally she felt like she was overheating, wanting to hyperventilate and scream all at once. Adrien had noticed her, and for the time being that was absolutely all that mattered to her. He was sharing a moment with her, and it thrilled her to no end. Stupid as it was, it was pretty satisfying and empowering to have something to connect with him on for once.
Where should she go from here? Planning their first date? Marriage? Naming their children?
The classroom suddenly shook underneath them, knocking over chairs and items on their desks and causing the students to react and yell out.
Maybe she'd have to worry about it another time.
"What on earth was that?" Madame Bustier voiced as the shaking ended abruptly, quickly scanning the room. "Are you kids alright?"
The class nervously gave a unanimous confirmation, prompting her to nod and move over towards the door to the classroom.
"What could that have been? It felt like it was an earthquake of sorts."
They watched silently as she carefully opened the door and peered her head out into the courtyard at the center of the school's classrooms. Marinette couldn't help but be interested in what was going on herself. Earthquakes were far from common in France and this felt relatively abnormal.
She felt a knot settle in her stomach as to what could have caused the disruption. She could only hope her gut feeling was wrong.
Without warning the classroom shook again, though the pulsation was not nearly as centered as it had been before. The walls to the left of the room shook more than the floor had been.
Whatever was causing the shaking was moving.
"You all need to shut up!" a loud voice yelled from outside.
A few curious classmates began to approach the door alongside their teacher, Marinette working her way towards being one of them alongside Alya and their two classmates sitting beneath them. They couldn't see very well through the small space their teacher allowed through the crack in the door, but Marinette managed to push her way through the others just enough to see a figure standing in the courtyard below the railing of the hallway.
It was a girl, probably a little bit older than Marinette, and with her back to their upstairs classroom Marinette could only make out that she was wearing a skintight black suit that looked as though it was made of some kind of leather. She had a loose brunette ponytail on the back of her head, and something was jutting out from both of her shoulders that she couldn't quite tell what they were.
Marinette's heart began to sink. Almost undoubtedly, she was staring straight into the back of a morning akuma. Just what she needed on a day she was already tired.
Madame Bustier noticed the girl and decided to step out of the classroom, earning protests from her students behind her as they tried to grab at her jacket and pull her back into the classroom and away from the obvious threat. She persisted and managed to tear her way out of her students' grasp, then walked over to and leaned over the railing.
"Young lady! What is the meaning of this! Are you the one making all of this noise!?" She yelled.
"Madame Bustier! Get away from there!" Marinette yelled.
As she spoke, the oddly dressed girl turned and looked up at the classroom, allowing Marinette to see her much more clearly. Along her chest were bolts of electricity it looked like, or maybe they were soundwaves. They were moving up and down at a fairly consistent rate and were pumping in unison with the same current resting on her black butterfly shaped mask. She could see now that the things resting on her shoulders were actually headphone jacks, and in her hand was a giant pair of headphones she lazily swung about next to her. Wires spread across her arms and multicolored lights lit up in time with the beats on her chest and boots, giving her a very rave-like vibe.
She was akumatized, and was certainly not a very happy akuma at that.
"How many times do I have to tell you all to be quiet!" She yelled, throwing up her hand and releasing some sort of loud seismic wave from an electric blue circle resting in the middle of her palm. It hit their teacher instantly, pushing her up against the wall on the outside of the classroom with a great force before she fell to the ground. The class screamed and immediately started to make their way out of the classroom to escape the school building or find shelter from the akuma, causing her to smirk evilly and run after them.
Marinette stayed behind, ducking down and moving to help her teacher, reaching out for her and placing reaffirming hands on her shoulders. Her hair was disheveled from its previously pinned bun and her clothes were now wrinkled and bunched, but she looked relatively unharmed.
"Madame, are you okay?" she questioned.
Madame Bustier looked up fearfully, nodded, and began to try and speak, but then looked at Marinette in shock as no words came out of her mouth. She tried again and again but no sound would leave her lips. She looked into Marinette's eyes helplessly.
"Oh my gosh, your voice!"
The woman grabbed her throat in dismay, her face riddled with terror and confusion.
"Relax," Marinette said in response, hovering her hands in front of her in a calming motion. "It'll be fine, once the akuma's gone you'll be fine."
Her teacher nodded again, and Marinette held out her arm for her to grab so they could stand up together. Once stable, Marinette put on her brave face and instructed her teacher to make her way out of the school with as many students as she could, as quietly as possible, and that she'd work on gathering other students to find a way out. Madame Bustier protested, or at least tried to, but Marinette made it clear that she wouldn't be able to help much with her voice gone. Reluctantly, she agreed and ran off.
She could feel something poking her side as her teacher hiked down the stairs, and Marinette knowingly took a step back into the classroom and closed the door. Just as she was about to talk to Tikki, she turned around and saw a sight that made her jump.
"Adrien!" she mouthed in a panicked whisper.
Right in front of her she could see her crush slumped on his desk, still barely moving up and down in even intervals. Realizing he hadn't even noticed her, she cautiously moved around him, peering around his head to see his face, which she had no luck doing as it was hidden within the confines of his arms. He was completely out cold, yet again.
She grimaced. Even during an akuma? She thought pensively, ignoring the thoughts that pressed at her mind wishing she could join him.
She felt Tikki prod at her again and quickly tiptoed away from Adrien to the back of the classroom, where hopefully with him asleep he wouldn't be able to hear her. She opened up her handbag at her hip and the small red kwami burst out in a panic.
"Marinette, come on! We have to get moving! The akuma's attacking the school!"
"Shhhh!" she hushed "Tikki, Adrien's asleep down there, I don't want to wake him up with you here."
She glanced down and her eyes widened. "Oh, sorry." she said in a much quieter voice. "But we need to transform, right now! We don't have time to waste!"
"What? I can't transform now. Adrien's right there!" she whisper yelled, motioning towards him below.
"You have to Marinette! We don't have time! Your classmates are in danger!"
She looked down at him with a perturbed glance, eyeing his slowly moving body with scrutiny. Even with all the noise going on around him and outside he still hadn't stirred a bit.
She sighed, "Okay, fine. But we need to be quiet."
"No problem. Let's get moving."
She nodded, "Spots on."
Tikki cheered quietly, allowing herself to spin into Marinette's dotted earrings. Merely seconds later Marinette was surrounded by pink light, wielding her red suit for the first and hopefully last time for the day. She groaned, wishing things that morning could have gone a fair share more smoothly, but she had a job to do now.
Now Ladybug, she opened her eyes and glanced back down to her sleeping audience, only to be shocked as she noticed his face had turned out of his arms and was facing her just enough for him to have had a quick glance at her transformation. He definitely still looked asleep, but she couldn't be sure that the light from her transformation hadn't disturbed him enough to open his eyes and see what was happening. For all she knew, he could be faking being asleep. She could feel an internal panic stir up inside of her.
The school began to shake again, and she could hear distant screams below her. Now wasn't the time to worry about things like that.
Quickly, she made her way to the bottom of the classroom, once again eyeing the gorgeous boy in front of her. As much as she admired how cute he was asleep, she knew that leaving him there was definitely not safe, especially if he started snoring by chance. He didn't need an akuma being his rude awakening, so it may as well have been her. She cringed at the imagined image in her head of him becoming irritated with her when she woke him up, but that unfortunately couldn't stop her.
"Adrien," she said softly, giving Adrien's shoulder a timid yet gentle push with her gloved hand.
She was met with an agitated whine from him as he moved his face back into the darkness and pushed his head further under his arms. She jumped as he moved, though she relaxed as she noticed he remained pretty motionless afterwards. She frowned, realizing that whether he was pretending to sleep or not, gentle was definitely not going to work. She needed to get him awake though, and fast.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the same ruler that Madame Bustier had used on his desk a bit earlier.
She sighed, raising her eyes to the ceiling exasperatedly as she moved over to the ruler and grabbed it. Moving back to the desk and lifting the ruler, she whined and silently prayed Adrien wouldn't hate her for what she was about to do.
SMACK!
"Aaaah! Sorry! I'm awake!" Adrien yelled with a start, shooting off the desk and raising his hands above his head.
It took him a second to realize it wasn't his teacher standing in front of him.
"M-Morning, sleepyhead." Ladybug said, trying to remain confident, yet the nerves were falling through the cracks of her ruse.
Her voice enveloped him like velvet regardless.
"L-Ladybug?" Adrien stammered, feeling a blush creep its way onto his face.
His facial reaction was not comforting. She couldn't tell if he was just happy to see her or if he now knew something that he wasn't telling her. She still had a job to do though and couldn't start worrying yet.
"I'm sorry!" she shouted on impulse. "Err, um… S-Sorry for the rude awakening, I didn't think I would be able to get you up otherwise." Her hand instinctively scratched the back of her head to distract her from the goosebumps pushing under her skin tight suit.
"Uh, no problem." he said, swallowing for no particular reason.
It was a little abnormal for him to interact with Ladybug without his suit. He had only done it a handful of times, and being without his alter ego made it a little bit more difficult to hide his terribly apparent nerves getting the better of him as he looked into her beautiful blue eyes. Trying to distract himself, he glanced around for a moment to regain his bearings, only to notice that the classroom was completely empty.
"Whoa what happened? Don't tell me I slept through all of school." he said, panicked.
There would be nothing more mortifying than Ladybug being called by his father to collect him because he never came home.
Ladybug grimaced, "Not quite." she replied, noticeably still a bit unnerved. "We have a bit of an issue going on, and I can't leave you here."
"Um, an issue?" Adrien asked, feeling slightly embarrassed as he rubbed his eyes.
She nodded, "There's an akuma going on a rampage outside, and she's attacking students. We need to get you to safety as soon as possible."
Adrien's eyes went wide. An akuma? Here? Now?
What a way to start the day.
He only then started to notice the persistent prodding and scratching at his stomach and realized Plagg had probably been trying to get his attention for a little while now. Great, he silently chastised, nagging himself for falling asleep on the job, quite literally.
He had to get out of there and transform, fast.
"Oh! Um, okay, I guess we need to get out of here." Adrien suggested.
Ladybug nodded, "Definitely, I'll escort you outside."
"What? No, you don't have to do that, I'm fine." Adrien protested, standing up from his desk and moving away from her and towards the door. "I don't want to get in your hair. I know you have a job to do."
Ladybug moved towards him persistently. "Not a chance. You just woke up and I can see how tired you are, so I want to make sure you're alright. Besides, Chat Noir's not here yet and I'd rather not start trying to fight the akuma until I have him here to assess the situation with me."
Adrien groaned internally, realizing that he was impeding Ladybug's progress on saving the school. It certainly wasn't the first time either, and knowing his track record it wouldn't be the last. Not only that, but knowing his lady, he wouldn't be getting away from her protection as quickly as he'd like. She was persistent and stubborn, not that he didn't like that. He always admired how much she put herself into danger to help others, even if it wasn't exactly helping him or her at the moment, unbeknownst to her.
Not to mention that she looked a bit disgruntled for whatever reason, and he wasn't about to let that persist on his lady's face.
Defeated, he hung his head and nodded, figuring the sooner he did as she wanted the faster he could get out there and help her.
"Alright, if you say so." he agreed, albeit reluctantly. He ignored the irritated poke from Plagg under his shirt.
She nodded. "Great, follow close behind me, and keep as quiet as possible." she instructed sternly, making a shushing motion over her lips. He nodded once, and the two crouched down and proceeded out the doorway to the classroom.
Glancing about as they made their way down the stairs a few feet from the door, Adrien could see that the hallways were pretty deserted, the whole school being shrouded in an eerie silence that made him uncomfortable. Ladybug stayed vigilant as ever in the meantime, doing her best not to let the quiet environment, nor the proximity of Adrien to her, interrupt her focus. Marinette could freak out about being around Adrien later, Ladybug had to work on getting him out of there first. The last thing she wanted was for Adrien to get hurt by an akuma, and it definitely wouldn't be happening under her watch.
Still, she couldn't help but be flustered by the situation at hand, which was definitely not making keeping focused easier. The worry that Adrien might have seen her transform continued to plague her thoughts.
As they moved, they could occasionally hear yelling and the loud noise of the akuma's seismic waves attacking the students causing whatever noise was irritating her. Ladybug shuddered, worried about her peers being attacked but knowing she couldn't do much without Chat helping her. Sure, she was the one who could purify the akuma, but without him there to fight alongside her she felt pretty useless. You can't perform a duet without both performers after all.
"Wow, that one was rough." Adrien said, just after another schoolwide earthquake shook the floor underneath them. He moved closer beside her as they continued their slow walk through the hallway.
"Y-yeah, it was." she replied, still trying her best to keep her mind clear.
"I really hope my friends are okay. I remember that Marinette was really tired this morning. I hope she and the others made it out okay." he mentioned absentmindedly.
She internally jolted.
Why did he just mention my name oh god? she thought in a panic.
"Uh, some students made it out earlier as I came inside. I-I'm sure your friends made it out okay." she stammered.
Adrien fell concerned as he noticed the shakiness in her voice. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Perfectly, why?" she said, not so convincingly.
"It's just you always seem so confident and positive, but right now you seem kind of worried."
She flinched. "I'm okay, really. It's just kind of a rough start to my morning."
Adrien's heart dropped. "Is it because Chat Noir isn't here?"
She paused, taking the opportunity to swing the truth in her favor. "Kind of."
"You don't feel like he's ditching you, do you?"
"No, not at all!" she said hurriedly, having to correct her voice's volume once the words left her mouth. "No, it's just… I really don't like being in these situations without him, especially when they're this intense. I hope he shows up soon."
"I'm sure you'd be alright."
"I'm not." she rebutted, finding herself growing slightly agitated.
"But what do you need him for? You seem to get along fine on your own plenty." he replied somewhat guiltily.
"I completely disagree." she said sternly, surprising him with the lack of hesitation in her speech. "Chat and I are a team, it's not just me. And when he's not here it makes me feel a little uneasy, but he's going to show up soon, I'm sure of it." she added confidently.
Before either of them could say anything else, they heard something small and quiet to their left.
"Ladybug." whispered a voice from across the hallway.
Looking to their left, Adrien and Ladybug noticed a quiet and scared young girl in the doorway of a classroom with a gaggle of other students behind her. They looked shaken.
"Hey," she said soothingly, making her way over to them with Adrien close behind her. "Are you guys alright?"
The girl nodded, "We're fine. We barely made it out of our class. Sarah suddenly burst in the room and attacked our teacher and we didn't know what to do."
"Sarah? Is that the girl that was akumatized?" Adrien asked from behind.
Another boy nodded, "Yeah. Our teacher told her to take off her headphones when class started and she got really huffy, so she got sent to the principal's office. She seemed really upset this morning, like she was just really cranky."
Ladybug looked back, "That must be what got her akumatized. She's just been irate and wanted everyone to leave her alone."
"I can sympathize, I've been a little behind on my sleep myself and I can get kind of cranky." Adrien said sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.
Ladybug frowned sympathetically at the comment but turned her attention back to the class. "Don't worry, I'll get you all out of here. We just need to be really quiet and make our way to the entrance of the school. Do you think you guys can do that?" she asked. The students nodded.
She looked back at Adrien, "Mind helping me heard these guys out of here?" she asked with an apprehensive smile.
Adrien felt the blush envelop his cheeks even more than they had before. Ladybug was asking him for help? Not as Chat, but as Adrien? He felt as though he could walk on clouds he was so light.
"Uh, yeah, sure!" he said, a bit too loudly. Ladybug gave him a spooked glance at the loudness of his voice and he immediately quieted it, feeling embarrassed.
She smiled towards the class confidently. "Alright, let's lead these guys out of here. Just a few at a time so that we don't make too much noise."
Adrien nodded and stood up alongside her, the two separating some to begin leading the students towards the entrance of the school. They did so a few at a time so that they could make their escape quietly and not attract the akuma with the noise of many footsteps. One by one Ladybug coaxed them out of the doorway, using her arms to lead them over to Adrien across the hall from her, who would then lead them towards the school's entrance. A few on occasion were too scared or nervous to move too much further past the door, but with Adrien's charm, he was able to coax them towards the entrance of the school with relative success.
Ladybug smiled admiringly at him as she watched him lead student after student towards the doorway as she sent them out, loving how helpful and heroic he was being. He could have practically been Chat Noir.
If only, she thought playfully.
Just then, one of the students tripped as she ran out of the classroom, having been a little too quick on her feet as she made her way out. She fell down onto her stomach, groaning a little louder than she meant to as her body hit the ground. Immediately Adrien and Ladybug's eyes met in shock as they gasped in unison at the girl, covering their mouths as soon as the noise left them.
Almost instantly they could hear someone shouting from across the courtyard of the school.
"Who's that! I thought I told you to be quiet!"
"Our cover's blown, get out of here, now!" Ladybug shouted at the rest of the class.
Without a second to waste, the rest of the class made their way out of the building at blinding speeds, yelling and making quite a commotion as they ran past Adrien and Ladybug. They could hear the akumatized girl making her way through the school towards them, the loud electro music pumping through her headphones growing in volume as she got closer.
"Adrien!" Ladybug shouted, looking back at the boy behind her. "You need to get out of here with the rest of them!"
"What about you?" he asked worriedly.
"I'll be fine! Chat will be here soon!"
At least I hope so. she thought.
Adrien hesitated following her words, glancing to the left of her as he was now able to see the girl the class dubbed as Sarah making her way towards the two of them. She was definitely akumatized, covered in black leather and pumping blue sound waves on her chest and iconic Hawk Moth butterfly mask. He noticed that she was lifting her hand up in front of her, and he squinted to see what she was trying to do with it.
"I said shut up!" the girl yelled from across the way, and suddenly a beam of seismic ways shot out of her left palm towards Ladybug.
Adrien gasped, "Ladybug! Watch out!"
Ladybug looked behind her to see a wave of blue shooting towards her at unbelievable speeds. Before she even had a moment to gasp, the seismic waves and something heavy crashed into her, and she was shoved into the wall close to the entrance of the school.
She groaned in pain, grabbing at her head and rubbing her now aching forehead from the headache the soundwave immediately supplied her. Remembering what just occurred, she gasped and grabbed at her throat, only to notice that her voice could still be heard.
"What the…? How did-?" she asked, only then beginning to notice that Adrien's body had crashed on top of her in the impact.
"Oh my gosh, Adrien!" she yelled in a panic, helping him off her so she could grab at his shoulders. "Are you okay?"
Adrien nodded, rubbing his head and moving his mouth to assure her that he was fine. His eyes widened when he realized that not a word of what he said actually exited his mouth.
"Oh no, you too?" she asked dejectedly. "Adrien, you didn't have to do that."
Adrien smiled sheepishly and shrugged.
"Watch out!" They heard Adrien's voice yell, followed by the maniacal laugh of a girl. The two teenagers looked up to see the akumatized Sarah looking down at them from a few feet away, an amused evil smirk gracing her lips.
"Gotta say, kid. That was pretty funny. Heroic and charming, sure, whatever, but definitely more funny than anything." she chided, addressing an unimpressed Adrien.
Ladybug growled, "What's your problem, Sarah! Why are you attacking students?"
The girl growled back, "I'm not Sarah, I'm Volume." she proclaimed proudly, pushing her thumb towards her chest. "And it's for exactly what you're doing right now, making too much noise. Everyone just needs to be quiet and leave me alone. And sorry, Ladybug, but that includes you!" she shouted, shooting another seismic wave at the two.
Without a second thought, Ladybug grabbed Adrien and jumped out of the way, getting the two to the safety of the school's entrance and away from the seismic attack that shook the wall they had just been next to. Ladybug pushed Adrien out the door only a moment later.
"Run! Get out of here!" she commanded.
Adrien was about to try and protest before he felt the same insistent scratching from earlier at his side. Now remembering that he still needed to transform, he nodded once before shooting down the school's large staircase at the entryway to find a safe space to do so.
As he ran off, Ladybug turned her attention back to Volume, noticing that she was about to unleash another attack. Immediately she jumped out of the way just before another seismic wave shot at her, and then again when another one came her way.
"Stand still!" Volume shouted angrily, unleashing her waves again and again in an attempt to land one of them on Ladybug. Each time Ladybug narrowly managed to jump out of the way, only angering her further.
"This needs to stop, Sarah! I know you've got to be in there somewhere!" she yelled back, releasing her yoyo towards the akuma. Volume easily batted it away with her left hand, still attempting to land a blow onto the masked heroine in the midst of her motion.
"I told you my name's Volume! And I'll never stop until everyone learns to keep their mouths shut and leave me alone!"
With her last words she increased the size of her seismic attack by using both hands, barely missing Ladybug as she hurriedly pushed herself out of the wave's fire.
She gasped for breath, realizing fighting in such a closed off space wasn't going to be getting her anywhere, and tried to make her way out of the school so she could get better ground. Volume followed her with ease though, blocking her exit and forcing Ladybug to backtrack further into the school, essentially trapping her as she continued to dodge her attacks.
Chat, where are you, you crazy cat? Ladybug thought desperately as she ran as fast as she could away from the laughing akuma.
Adrien quickly made his way over to an abandoned alleyway, gasping for air all the way and feeling somewhat disturbed at the fact that he couldn't hear any noise he made at all. Finding a spot to hide, he made sure no one was anywhere near him as he slid into the shadows between the two buildings and behind a dumpster. Glancing right, then left, then right again, he decided the coast was clear and moved his overshirt to let out his kwami.
"Man, that sure took you long enough, didn't it, Sleeping Beauty?" Plagg commented snidely as Adrien released him.
He sighed, giving the kwami an irritated look and finding himself wishing Volume's powers had affected him too. A true shame indeed.
"What's the matter, cat got your tongue? Or should I say, akuma got your tongue?" Plagg laughed.
Adrien groaned silently. They really didn't have time for this. He would do whatever he could to get Plagg to cool it with the jokes later, but now wasn't the time.
"Plagg, claws out!" Adrien mouthed confidently, the silence earning no response from his ring. He gasped, staring at the ring in disbelief and horror.
Plagg rolled his eyes, "Yeah yeah, I hear you." he said, obediently whipping himself into Adrien's ring regardless.
In a quick flash of green, Adrien was finally cloaked in his Chat Noir identity and he wasted no time finding his way back over to the school, using his baton to catapult himself over the buildings he had run past to get away. Overhead, he could see that students continued to run out of the school as it shook with each of Volume's attacks. Chat cringed as he thought about Ladybug having to fight her off all by herself, worry coating him like a mollasses.
As he dropped back down at the entrance, he could see through the doors that Ladybug and Volume had moved over to the back of the school's courtyard, Ladybug narrowly dodging each of her attacks. As she jumped, he watched Volume throw out her giant headphones which easily latched onto Ladybug's ankle, earning a silent gasp from him as he watched Volume pull her violently down to the ground.
Just before Volume was about to blast one of her waves at the fallen Ladybug, Chat ran to her and slammed his extended baton into the side of Volume, sending her shooting towards the back wall of the school. He smiled as his momentum from the unexpected attack slid him over to his lady.
"Nice one, kitty. Sure took you long enough to get here though." she said as she freed herself from the headphone's wires.
Chat Noir smirked, giving a small bow as he held out his hand to her and mouthed the words, "And a good morning to you as well, my lady." before remembering that he still couldn't speak. He recoiled almost immediately., praying she didn't notice
"Oh no, how did you get hit too?" Ladybug asked, pulling herself off the ground with his hand.
Well, she noticed.
Chat Noir shrugged nervously, feeling nervous sweat start to form on the back of his neck as he tried to motion a quickly plotted story where he was blocking the way for a pack of students. Luckily for him Ladybug seemed to buy it because she rolled her eyes playfully in response.
He figured he wasn't being completely dishonest anyways.
"Be more careful next time, kitty cat. Though I will say, the no talking is kind of an improvement." she chided with a hand on her hip, smiling bemusedly.
Chat pouted at her, but their banter was interrupted by another seismic wave from Volume coming between them. They jumped out of the way just in time, each turning to stare back at the akuma before them.
"Oh great, now there's two of you? Guess I'll have to shut both of you up." Volume sneered, swinging her released headphones with more speed.
Just then, the two heroes could see the iconic mask of Hawkmoth glow across Volume's eyes, earning them a quick moment to strategize.
"Chat, we have to destroy her headphones, I'm pretty sure that's where the akuma is." Ladybug insisted.
Chat nodded once, proactively aiming his baton at the large headphones Volume swung in her hand. He extended it, trying to stab them against the wall, which he did successfully to one of them. Immediately the sound from one of the speakers in the earbud died out, leaving the electro music spewing out of them to be a little bit less bassy than it had been before, but no akuma flew from it. The noise broke Volume from her trance as she glanced at the now broken earbud behind her in shock, immediately angering her by the sight of it.
"No, Chat! Her real headphones!" Ladybug corrected, pointing to her ears.
Chat smiled back, embarrassed, and Ladybug rolled her eyes again.
"You'll pay for that one!" Volume yelled, sending another loud blast Chat Noir's way. He jumped and dodged it with his catlike reflexes, pulling back his baton and swinging it in her direction yet again, though missing swing after swing. He gritted his teeth, yelling out silently with each attempted blow or kick, though never making decent contact with any of them.
As he distracted her, Ladybug moved behind them, scouting out ways to take her out long enough to grab at her headphones. Above them, she noticed that the railings that lined the balconies surrounding the courtyard falling around and on top of her could be a fairly ideal way to trap her just long enough to grab them.
"Chat, use your catacalysm on the railing!" she shouted, pointing above her.
Chat nodded and shot his way up to the balconied hallway above them, hanging from his legs off the bars connected to the floor. Raising his arm above his head, he attempted to shout out "Catacalysm!" and placed his hand on the bars of the rails, only being reduced to awkwardly blinking when he noticed the power wasn't responding at all to his silence.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Ladybug shouted, dodging another attack as she swung her yoyo towards Volume.
Chat threw up his hands in exasperation, jumping back down from his perch to try and take the aim off of Ladybug. Volume laughed as he reached the floor.
"Cat got your tongue, Chat Noir? What a shame. It'll only be that much easier to take your miraculouses then!" she shouted, blasting another wave at him. Chat rolled his eyes at the joke, wishing he could say he'd heard it before and that neither time was clever.
"I never thought I'd say this, cat, but you're actually more annoying when you can't talk." Ladybug scoffed.
He gave her a cheeky smile in return, the "I knew you couldn't resist my voice" quip not even needing to be said. Volume took the opportunity to try and catch him off guard but luckily continued to miss.
Finding a quick moment to spare in Chat's presence distracting Volume, Ladybug threw up her yoyo with a shout of "Lucky charm!" The yoyo sprung into the air with a burst of pink light, and then fell down to Ladybug alongside a new item, a red and black spotted megaphone with a small microphone attached by a thick black wire.
"A megaphone, huh?" she asked herself, glancing at Volume as she chased after Chat Noir. An idea sprung to her in that moment, and she made her way over to Chat as he ran from her.
"Move over behind us and be ready to snatch her headphones!" Ladybug yelled over the blasts around them. Chat nodded again, turning away from them and running the opposite direction, which luckily didn't stop Volume's trudge towards Ladybug.
She turned herself away from Volume as she ran, hiding the megaphone in front of her body and waiting until she could see Chat Noir was where she wanted him out of her peripheral vision. At the perfect moment, Ladybug waited until she could hear Volume unleash another one of her seismic waves, and with quick movements she forced the microphone out into the way of the wave, holding the megaphone in front of her as she turned towards Volume.
The wave threw her hand back, but luckily it shot directly into the microphone and out of the megaphone, just as Ladybug had predicted. Volume was hit almost instantly and was flung back in the direction of Chat. She impacted with the floor, sliding against it and landing almost directly at the silver toes of his feet.
Chat smiled down at her smugly, seeing the electric blue headphones in the girl's ears and ripping them out, carrying her phone with them. He threw them at Ladybug and she caught them in her hand, throwing them to the ground and smashing the earbuds with her foot. Sure enough, a small black butterfly made its way out of the wiring.
"That's enough for today, akuma!" she yelled, quickly opening the compact of her yoyo and flinging it at the black butterfly. She caught it easily and quickly released it once her yoyo returned to her hand, allowing it to fly away from her.
"Miraculous Ladybug!" she shouted, throwing up the megaphone and watching it burst into a swarm of luck bringing ladybugs. All around them the damage from the school was repaired, and Ladybug watched with delight as swarms made their way outside of the building to renew the voices of those who had them stolen. Even more delight came as her partner was swarmed as well.
"Woo boy, feels good to be back!" he shouted, stretching himself out towards the ceiling, then grabbing at and staring down at his chest. "I sure missed you, voice."
"I dunno, it was kind of a nice break not having it around." Ladybug mentioned.
He smirked, "Sure, but I know you'd miss me telling you how much I adore you after a while. Just admit it, Bugaboo."
"If you say so, kitty." she said with a smile, gently touching the tip of his nose.
A small voice from below them caught their attention and Ladybug watched with concern as the black power of the akuma left the body of Volume, returning her to her original form of Sarah. She was disheveled, her brown hair splayed out in a messy ponytail and her comfortable looking black sweatshirt and pants wrinkled and unkempt. It looked like she'd had a more rough morning than even Marinette.
"Ugh, oh god. What the heck happened?" she asked, rubbing her head as she pushed her back off of the floor.
"You were akumatized, but you're okay now." Ladybug said, offering her hand to the teenager sitting in front of her.
"Oh no, I'm sorry! I was just so cranky this morning!" she apologized frantically as Ladybug helped her up. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone!"
"Don't worry too much about it." replied Chat, picking up and handing back her repaired cellphone and headphones. "It happens sometimes, just be sure to try not to take out your bad morning on everyone else. I'm pretty sure if I did that as often as I do, I'd have no friends at this point."
Sarah laughed while Ladybug winced at the comment, realizing that maybe her inquisition towards his lack of sleep may have actually been true. Adrien first, and now Chat too? Why did everyone she cared for have to suffer from such an affliction?
The thought of Adrien struck a nerve in her brain.
"Oh my gosh, Adrien! I never got to see if he was okay!" she shouted, readying to bolt out the door to find him.
"Whoa whoa whoa, hang on, m'lady." Chat quickly intervened, grabbing at her wrist before she ran off. "Now's not exactly the time to go find him."
"Why not?" she asked, tearing her wrist away from his grasp.
A beep from her earrings provided the answer.
"That." he said.
Ladybug groaned. "But I need to find him, and I need to make sure everyone's okay."
Chat shook his head, "Look, you worry about getting out of here so no one sees you. I'll take care of everything over here and make sure everyone at the school's alright."
"But Adrien-" she protested.
"Is totally fine." he promised, wishing he could assure her better. "I'll make sure he and everyone else are fine. Now get out of here before your time runs out."
Ladybug sighed as she heard her earrings beep yet again, only one minute remaining.
"Alright. Thank you, Chat. I'll talk to you soon."
He smiled cheekily, "Looking forward to it, m'lady."
She smirked, propelling her yoyo forward and slinging herself away from the school. As she did so, she could still hear Chat making the comment about how his mornings had been causing him to be a bit more irritable than he'd liked, which was bothering her to no end. She hated that she was right and really needed to talk to him about it.
But the one thing left weighing on her mind was Adrien, which wasn't incredibly abnormal. It was different this time though, and left a ball of dread sitting in her stomach.
Welp, finally making this happen. I have a lot planned for this story and I plan to actually get it finished. I hope you all enjoy it as we begin this wild ride.
A huge thank you and credits to australet789 for allowing me to use her incredible akumasona as my opening akuma to this story. She inspired me so much and I just wanted so desperately to use her, and she was nice enough to allow me to do so! Please check her tumblr, she's an incredible artist!