Hello! I'd like to thank everyone for their kind reviews!
To people who want me to update faster and actually say it to me (I'm so glad some of you are discreet enough to not tell me to my face), please consult chapter ten to another of my stories, Bring Me Back Home (or something along those lines). It might clear some stuff up for you, since a lot of stuff is there. Last paragraph.
Review replies:
chronus79: I agree. In a lot of stories (and even in canon), Ladybug and Chat and everyone else are complete idiots (SERIOUSLY! SAME VOCAL PATTERNS, SAME HAIRSTYLE, SAME EYES, SAME BODY SHAPE, SAME MANNERISMS AROUND CRUSHES! HOW CAN THEY BE SO BLIND!).
Jenny: Felix is awesome.
Alya relayed a joke to Marinette she had read off the internet somewhere, and Marinette chuckled. It sounded like little bells chiming.
Oh. Yeah, he had a crush on her. Plagg was totally right. Adrien didn't know why he even tried pretending he didn't have a crush on her.
Adrien moaned into his pillow when the twins got home from school that day while Felix took out his homework and got to work sitting on his orange and green hammock. Plagg sat on Adrien's head, finding it fluffy and soft, like kitten fur.
"I wonder why this math is so easy." Felix wondered as he put away his math textbook thirty minutes later. Adrien still hadn't picked up any of his books or done any of his work.
"Because Father hired the best tutors available, going so far as to bring in some of the best from other countries or even continents, just so we would have a well-rounded education. By now, we would probably be able to enter a good university with no problems at all and emerge top of the class." Adrien groaned.
"Which is why we went to public school in the first place." Felix continued. "Being holed up here, alone, with no one but each other and tutors gets tedious after a while."
"Not to mention boring." Adrien raised his head from his pillow and reached towards his bookbag to bring out the tablet containing history homework and the stylus alongside it. Most of the questions were elementary, at best. Felix was right, this was far too easy.
Felix hummed and gathered all his things, dumping them back in his schoolbag. "I gotta go."
Adrien glanced at the clock. "Right, you have Cantonese and I have Mandarin." Adrien groaned. He wrenched Plagg off his head and shoved him up the sleeve of his white leather jacket with black buttons. "You get the pens and the notes - they're on the computer desk. I'll get the paper."
Felix nodded.
Adrien darted upstairs to his side of the room to collect the Chinese language notes (Cantonese and Mandarin in different folders with their respective writings) while Felix reached under a floorboard and stuffed the pens and blank paper.
As Adrien and Felix left their room to the car, towards their respective teachers' office building, they thought over the unspoken rules ever-present in the Agreste household.
The main rule is this: never speak against Gabriel. The punishment is one more extracurricular activity added to the schedule, sometimes to both of their schedules if the other twin was involved in any way. Because Felix was always far more impetuous, he had the larger schedule, filled with all kinds of activities. While Adrien only had to do Mandarin, Piano, Fencing, Dancing, and Modeling, Felix was forced to do Cantonese, Baking, Sign language, Modeling, Violin, Swimming, German, Spanish (this one by his own request), Etiquette classes, Soccer, Sewing and knitting, and Dancing. Now schoolwork and homework were added to the mix, making everything around fifteen times more difficult. Both twins were immensely thankful Natalie was able to organize their schedule around so efficiently.
Eli, the Gorilla, let them out at the Chinese language building where they took their lessons.
Both twins waited with apprehension for the lesson to be over, but Felix didn't dare look away from the board, and diligently took notes on everything the teacher wrote and several things which their tutor said.
Marinette's needles swished elegantly against the needles, passing the new fluffy stitch to the other plastic needle. She'd been working on these scarves since she'd learned from Nino through Alya that Adrien and Felix's birthday was soon.
Felix's scarf was already wrapped and embroidered, and set aside in the polka-dotted birthday bag. Adrien's was the only one left.
Marinette stood and found the length of the scarf to copy Felix's. She quickly cast off the soft fabric, knitted in the holes, embroidered her signature on the side with fine-point golden threadwork and went to find her blue ball of yarn, embroidering an A on the end of the scarf in careful cursive as quickly as she could without it making it seem like she was rushing her work.
Marinette took a deep breath. She needed to calm down. Just because their birthday was tomorrow didn't mean she needed to get worked-up about it.
Marinette calmly wrapped Adrien's scarf in blue wrapping paper and wrote his initials, AA, in black permanent marker on his present, laying is beside Felix's, a blue scarf with green embroidery and green wrapping paper with FA written on it to differentiate between his and Adrien's scarves.
She set the scarf inside the bag quickly, so as to not be preoccupied with the presents while fighting against the latest Akuma.
"Tikki, do you sense any Akuma victims?"
Tikki shook her head. "Not yet."
Marinette sighed. Akuma attacks were becoming more and more recent, sometimes in different parts of the city. While it's true that Ladybug and Chat Noir protect Paris, Hawkmoth keeps the entire city hostage at all times.
Tikki had said that there were other Miraculous gem holders out in miscellaneous parts of the world, but that mostly Circles (collections of five gems each (aside from Balance, the strongest and most efficient Circle, a Circle of Seven instead of Five)) stayed in the same continent (or country) instead of risking going into another Holder child's territory (aside from Tikki and Plagg's gems, which are attracted to one another).
Biinky the white rabbit, Spotty the cheetah, Pride the lion, Gassy the skunk, and Phlair the owl: the Wild Circle of Asia.
Killala the goat, Chaal the lamb, Phiin the dolphin, Kayee the serpent, Plitt the rat: the Imbalance-N Circle of South America.
Jubal the reindeer, Leilei the grasshopper, Charr the salamander, Chuchule the mouse, Early the crocodile: the Imbalance-P Circle of North America.
Loggic the fish, Frool the scorpion, Adami the scarab beetle, Flitte the ant, Serena the crab: the Discord Circle of Australia.
There was also a Harmony Circle, but Tikki forgot all their names and species (save for one, a bull named Lyral) ("It's not my fault!" she'd said, "It's been centuries since I've seen any of them, and their territory is a very large place!"), but she did remember that they belonged to Africa.
Finally, Tikki the ladybug, Plagg the black cat, Nooroo the butterfly, Pollen the bumblebee, Trixx the fox demon or she-demon, Duusu the peacock, Wayzz the tortoise: the Balance Circle of Europe.
"I suspect the first full Circle to be joining the Europe Circle will be the Wild Circle or the Harmony Circle." Tikki had said. "Plagg doesn't really have the best relationship with the Wild Circle in general, so I really hope that it's Harmony. It could very well be, too, if Plagg's gotten a Holder whose bad luck leaks everywhere."
Marinette hummed in agreement. "I would hate for Chat to get upset, or worse, for Plagg to spontaneously initiate a Reversal and pick a fight with the poor Child."
Tikki nodded.
Adrien groaned. His muscles ached from Fencing and he was now collapsed on his bed. Plagg was hidden in his tangled and sweaty hair.
"Felix." Adrien groaned, face still squished on his pillow. "Please come sit on my back."
Felix stood with his book, still reading it as he walked towards Adrien, until he came up to his brother and sat on his back.
Adrien giggled. "Thank you."
Felix hummed. "Aren't you getting a bit old for this?"
"My muscles ache all the time. I do this for you when you ask me." Adrien pointed out.
Felix admitted defeat and kept reading his book, occasionally shifting so his brother's muscles were eased.
During his time, Adrien did his homework.
Marinette took the tray of macaroons out of the oven. It was during times like this that she really loved baking: because it provided an excellent refuge in times of stress.
Yes, she was a stress-baker.
Another oven beeped and she quickly slid the platters of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven and cooled them off.
It was never to be said that the girl didn't have infinite luck. Just at that moment, screaming was heard.
Quickly shutting off the ovens (she was quite thankful there was nothing else in there), she rushed upstairs.
"Tikki!" Marinette cried. "Tikki!"
Tikki continued to snore.
Marinette groaned, slung the pink purse over her shoulder, and rushed outside.
Marinette watched in horror as everyone was frozen in time. A man flew off down the street.
"Guys!" Marinette cried once she was satisfied the akuma had gone far enough to not hear her. She flew off down the street, wary of any people she happened upon. Really, she needed to find a private place.
Marinette ran off towards the akuma victim, completely outside of costume.
Chat showed up.
Marinette continued running off towards the Akuma.
Chat saw her and was immediately concerned. He went down to find her among the crowd of frozen victims. Chat immediately wrenched her off the ground, adjusted her to fit in the crook of his arm, and used the other arm to vault off into the sky to find somewhere to keep Marinette safe.
Meanwhile, Marinette was internally screaming due to the fact Chat was holding her.
Marinette cuddled into Chat's chest, trusting him completely to keep her safe.
Chat left her on a roof. "Sorry, I gotta go."
"Sure." Marinette smiled brightly. "Go do your job, I'll be fine."
Chat smiled. "See ya later!"
Marinette watched as Chat left, then opened her purse, poking Tikki. "Tikk. Tikk. Tikk."
Tikki groaned. "Marinette?"
"Yeah." Marinette confirmed, looking out over Paris's skyline, which was turning pink and orange with the sunset. "We need to go help Chat."
Tikki smiled. "Just say the words."
"TRANSFORM ME!"
Tikki was sucked into her earrings and Marinette was replaced by Ladybug.
Chat massaged the crick in his neck and groaned. Clockwork, a man akumatized for having his profession, watch-making, called into question the importance of his profession (they were just old watches, what was their use?) by a brown-haired girl. He didn't get her name.
Ladybug scowled. "Lila Rossi." They heard news from all over the world, including bullying reports. The main people causing akumatizations in Paris were Chloe Bourgeois, Andre Bourgeois, and Lila Rossi (of all of the akumatizations, nine so far, were caused by Lila, the mayor, and Chloe, or had something to do with them).
Chat snarled. "I'm going to kill her!"
Ladybug hummed in agreement. "As the casket closes, I'll put gum in her hair."
Chat laughed. "Forget killing her, we should only put gum in her hair!"
Ladybug chuckled nervously. "Great, I'll go buy the sticky stuff. Should we put it all over her pillow or directly in her rat's nest?"
Chat's joyful laughter was sweet and euphoric. It made Ladybug smile.
Chat leaned in closer to Ladybug for a kiss-
Her alarm clock buzzed, startling her out of her precious dream.
Marinette groaned, burying her face in her pillow. While it was true Lila had been responsible for five of the nine Akuma so far, Marinette was convinced she might change (emphasis on might. She wasn't particularly enthusiastic).
Marinette smacked the alarm clock (it shut off with a satisfying smash) and got to her feet with a groan. She went downstairs and slipped on black leggings with a black skirt lined with acid-green lines, decorated with acid-green paw prints (her other clothes were in the wash). Her shirt was a light lime green (so was her normal shirt and jacket), her shoes black leather boots up to her knees (green zippers and linings, of course), and chose to tie her hair up with one red ribbon and another green ribbon (she couldn't find the other red ribbon).
Marinette slung her bookbag over her shoulder, grabbed the birthday present bag from the corner where she'd left it, went downstairs, grabbed some cookies for Tikki, her lunch bag she'd made herself last night, and left to go to school.
The first people she'd me were, unsurprisingly, Adrien and Felix Agreste (she was so lucky she didn't have to lug this all around the school all the way to homeroom). "Hey!" Marinette smiled brightly, waving her hand happily in the air towards both of them.
Adrien hid behind Felix, while Felix sighed.
Marinette approached them both and, ignoring the cowering Adrien behind Felix, shoved the bag into Felix's hands. "Make sure Adrien gets his, eh?"
Felix smiled. "Of course, miss."
Marinette groaned. "Don't be so formal. My name is Marinette. If you don't feel comfortable with that, please address me by 'Luna'. Everyone who doesn't know me formally does."
Felix hummed. "I'll keep that in mind, Cherrynette." The fun little nickname was after her obsession of cherries. So far, every lunchtime, she'd had at least one treat concerning cherries (cherry pie, cherry cupcakes, cherry and pomegranate juice, cherry cookies, etc) and the pattern of flowers on her white shirt she wore at least once every week was blooming cherry flowers, not to mention her purse, which was cherry-blossom pink and had a pattern of cherry blossom flowers.
Marinette stuck out her tongue, but retracted it again with her tinkling-bells laugh as she realized just how accurate the nickname was. "See ya, Felix! Bye, Adrien!"
Adrien nervously raised a hand to wave at her retreating form, while Felix simply smiled.
Felix looked down into the bag and saw two differently wrapped presents, clearly differentiating between them. On one was written FA while another was written AA.
"Here, this one's yours." Felix spoke, handing Adrien his carefully wrapped blue package on which was transcribed AA.
Adrien's face burned. He'd never expected such a nice gesture from her. He whimpered, the paper wrappings still crinkling beneath his trembling fingers. He squeezed his eyes shut. "Felix, tell me what it is, I can't look!"
Felix tore off the wrapping paper. "It's a scarf."
Adrien relaxed.
"A very well-made scarf embroidered with my initials, the color matching my eyes save for the embroidery which is in a darker shade of blue, nearing black." Felix continued, making Adrien more nervous by the second. "The stitches are all about the same size. She spent time on this scarf, and she took care to cover up her mistakes, which is anywhere she dropped a stitch. The fabric is a bit thicker in some areas because of that, but hardly visible aesthetically."
Adrien gulped and ripped off the wrapping. It was as intricate as Felix had described. Green to match his eyes, embroidered AA in gold, a very soft fabric (not like the scarves their grandmother knit for them once. That wool was tough and tough and scratchy). Adrien rubbed the fabric softly between his fingers, appreciating the warm, soft fabric.
Felix wrapped his scarf around his neck. It contrasted nicely with his black coat and black jeans.
Adrien mimicked him, and just like Felix, his own scarf contrasted beautifully with his own white coat and blue jeans.
Satisfied, and their days brightened quite significantly, the Agreste twins entered the school smiling brightly.
Until Chloe came up to them, snobby and pretentious as ever. "Adrihoney, Kitty-Felix!" Chloe cried wrapping her arms around both of the boys' necks.
Felix shoved her off and Adrien calmly removed her from his personal space. "Please keep in mind, Miss Bourgeois, that I am autistic." Felix crossed his arms.
Chloe covered her mouth and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Fe-fe."
Felix crossed his arms. "And stop calling me Fe-fe. We're not five years old anymore."
Chloe smiled and punched his arm playfully. "Well, that's what you get when your cousin's one of your best friends for years."
Adrien smiled, watching his twin brother and Chloe bicker like children. They were always like this, ever since they were toddlers (Felix and Chloe had never quite gotten along, but the fighting was playful, and mostly out of habit by now).
"Did you get the present I sent you both?" Chloe asked, voice coated in honey, running her fingers through her pony tail (it only reached the top of her neck because it had been cut around a week ago because of the gum Marinette had placed in her hair).
"Uh-" Felix began.
"What present?" Adrien picked up where Felix left off.
"You didn't get it?" Chloe asked, genuinely shocked. She hated that her cousins were looking so glum on their birthday, why hadn't her present to them come yet? "I'll have to go see if Daddy can arrange for a faster delivery. I think it'll be there by the end of the day."
Felix smiled gently. "Thank, couz."
"Anytime, sweetie."
"Don't call me that, either." Felix laughed.
Adrien smiled.
The first part of the day passed quickly, and Marinette was thankful she was able to participate in her classes instead of being called away to fight a victim again.
When lunch occurred, she was eating at the table upstairs talking to her mother, occasionally helping if she was otherwise preoccupied with other pastries or other ingredients.
In the middle of lunch hour, while Marinette was eating her lunch (Sushi, cheese, and orange juice and cherries), a purple bubble flew through the window to capture her mother. It swished and swirled around her before taking her up into the sky, speckled with green. Everyone above the age of eighteen, it seemed, had been transported into the sky.
Her father flew into the sky alongside Sabine.
An Akuma's face appeared in the skyline. "Hey, my peeps! I'm giving you a day off from your parents today, and while the cats are away the mice will play! Have fun!"
Tikki flew out of her purse (with embroidered sakura blossoms on it). "Bubbler. We need to go, Marinette!"
"Yeah." Marinette steeled herself, going to her room.
"TRANSFORM ME!"
"Hey, Felix? Keep them distracted, no?"
"Sure, Adrien." Felix smiled. "Go do your work."
Adrien's fake smile fell, revealing a tired boy who's been thrust into a role of incredible responsibility. "I don't know if I can fight my best friend."
"You need to. That's Bubbler, not Nino. I would take Nathaniel on if he were an Akuma."
"Be thankful, then," Adrien growled, "That you are not Chat Noir."
Adrien transformed and flew away to fight Bubbler.
"Hi, kitten." Ladybug greeted as Chat approached her.
"Buggy." Chat greeted the masked beauty. They continued running towards the Agreste mansion (Adrien had left his mansion and gone halfway across Paris before doubling back and heading towards there under the guise of being on patrol, then sensing an Akuma).
Ladybug cleared her throat and offered a hand to Adrien. "Shall we?"
Chat smiled. "Let's."
Each of them darted off together towards the Agreste mansion.
Bubbler landed in front of Felix from his place on top of his purple bubble. "Where is Adrien?"
"Gone back to school. I have Spanish right now, or I did before you took away the adults. Speaking of, I should think Adrien would be in a car crash right about now, since there's no one to drive the vehicles and everything." Felix sighed. "If only he were two years older..."
Nino groaned and took all the children off the street. "Okay, peeps of Paris, change of plans. When the cars stop moving, you can have as much fun as you want. Deal? Great! I'll let you all down soon."
Unfortunately, those bubbles included Chat and Ladybug.
Thirty minutes later, Bubbler let the children old enough to safely make peanut-butter sandwiches go. The rest were returned to their families or adoptive families.
Oddly enough, Hawkmoth had also been abducted and was giving orders to Nino from inside Bubbler's bubble.
Several people saw him, too. Some tried to relay a message to Ladybug and Chat Noir, but through the bubble's interference, it was like a game of telephone.
Eventually, Ladybug and Chat received the message, but it was all garbled. It made absolutely no sense whatsoever, and Lady and her cat were left with a very strange and garbled message.
"Butterfly-Cloth pine tree water circle." Chat repeated. "It doesn't make any sense. Why would someone want to say that to us?"
"I don't know, but that message was pretty scrambled." Ladybug sighed. "Remember how hard it was to hear through the bubble?"
"Yeah?"
"It's a game of telephone." Ladybug spoke. "The message gets scrambled after a while. Butterfly-Cloth, Butterfly-Cloth..."
"Butterfly is pretty obvious." Chat spoke. "A small insect with relatively large wings. If this is a game of Telephone, we can assume Cloth means 'moth'. Hawkmoth."
"Pine tree, I think, is totally lost. Water circle? Water is a liquid. Bubbles are primarily shaped liquid soap with air. Circle, sphere? Liquid sphere, a bubble? Hawkmoth bubble. Hawkmoth is in a bubble!"
Obviously, Ladybug and Chat looked through each of the bubbles, but the Moth Holder had apparently detransformed and floated away a while ago, so their efforts were fruitless.
So, they went back to their original goal: freeing the Akuma in Bubbler.
Unfortunately, most people were encouraging towards Ladybug and Chat, making their job ten times harder, since they'd lost the element of surprise.
Eventually, though, Ladybug had used her Lucky Charm, a huge twenty-five-pound wrench. Instead of looking for clues, she hit Bubbler with it in the face. Naturally, he passed out, and Ladybug was able to take the bubble wand and snap it over her knee, releasing the Akuma. Ladybug quickly purified the black butterfly, turning it into a pure-white moth.
She threw the wrench up into the sky. The Charm turned into a swarm of warm ladybugs, flying through the air and correcting the damage caused by the Akuma.
Ladybug and Chat performed the ceremonial fist-bump with each other and left their separate ways into different alleyways. Marinette rushed home to stock up on cookies (damn, Tikki was a glutton), then rushed back to school to collect homework, books, and her tablet. As it was the end of the day (they had spent several hours searching for Hawkmoth and two hours working to free Bubbler's Akuma), Marinette returned home and got started on her homework.
All she knew was that she had more than a few questions to ask her social studies teacher.
"Alright, even I find this confusing and convoluted, and I've been learning nonstop since I was three." Adrien admitted, reading over the homework.
In 'Adrien-ese', this meant he found his work confusing.
"Keep going. You're supposed to translate all of your notes from French or English to Mandarin. Your job is considerably easier than mine. German, French, English, Spanish, and Cantonese have only one similarity altogether: they're known languages that people can speak and read and write in."
Adrien chuckled. "Stop being so boring, Felix. What's happening here is far more entertaining."
"You mean the lazy magical gluttonous cat that turns into a leather superhero suit? Yes, I'm confused about him too, but obviously this isn't a dream, so we might as well accept it. We have a weird cat god living with us."
Plagg stretched much like a cat as he awoke from his nap. "Eh, I've been called worse." Plagg sighed. "I want cheese!"
Marinette chuckled. "Hold on, Tikki. I'll get you your cookies."
A minute later, Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain wondered who'd taken all of their stale cookies from the past week as Marinette snuck up the stairs.
Marinette did her homework, making it good enough to be adequate at the very least. She had more than enough to worry about as Marinette juggling her duties as Ladybug.
She wished Chat would come along and help her. It would be much better having a study buddy.
As luck would have it (she was so startled she almost fell out of her chair), Chat knocked on her skylight window, which doubled as the entrance for her rooftop. "Princess? Can I come in?"
Marinette sighed and unlocked her window. "Why are you here? It's raining, you could catch a cold!"
"You mean cat-ch a cold?" Chat punned.
Marinette frowned. "Ha-ha, very funny."
"No, seriously. I just wanted to see you." Chat shrugged. "Don't really know why, but you're a very pretty girl."
As Chat got loser, she saw the inconsistencies in his suit's design, but the biggest difference lay in his eyes, though no one would notice if they weren't very close to Chat or working with him on a daily basis.
Marinette growled. "You're not Chat Noir. Are you?"
The Chat figure growled and got down on all fours. "Princess, my name is Chat, you're quite right. However, my name is Copy-Chat. As neurotypicals say, I am an 'Akuma'. Don't really know why, as an Akuma is actually the black butterfly, and we're infected by them, so the proper term would be 'Akuma victim'."
Marinette got up and slowly walked backwards downstairs in calm, calculated steps (she'd had the set-up on her bed since she was nine, of course she knows how many steps it takes to get downstairs, and how far the steps are from each other. "Why are you here?"
"Is that not obvious?" Copy-Chat asked. "You are my wish-keeper. My purpose is to grant your wish until Ladybug and Chat Noir arrive, at which time all of the copies will rally and destroy them."
"Don't underestimate Ladybug and Chat." Marinette sighed. "Well, since you're my Copy, will you please help me with my homework?"
Copy nodded. "As you wish, Princess."
Copy and Marinette spent several hours together until both were satisfied she would get a very high passing grade on everything. At that time, Chat left with Marinette's thanks. Marinette finally transformed into Ladybug and left.
Adrien concluded Copy-Marinette was weird. Felix had known this since she'd arrived.
Copy-Marinette was a weird one, that's for sure.
Copy-Marinette had fallen asleep on Adrien after she, Adrien, and Felix had watched a movie. Her head was fallen on Adrien's shoulder and her legs curled up into a ball. The body was warm and slightly heavy, almost like it was physically there.
"Felix, do you mind looking after the Wish?" Adrien pleaded. "If she asks where I've gone, tell her I need to go to... uh... Writing courses in Mandarin."
"Got it." Felix sighed, gently removing the red hairbands from Marinette's pigtails, causing the raven hair to curtain beautifully around her face. Marinette curled up further into Felix. Her head fell on his lap and she sighed, content.
"Plagg, claws out." Adrien transformed under a blanket so the sudden light change didn't affect Copy-Marinette's sleeping patterns.
"I am Wish-Granter!" Wish yelled. "Come fight me, Holders! Come fight the newest and most developed creation!"
Ladybug tripped her, snatched her hair clip, and crushed it beneath her foot, releasing the Akuma inside. "Most developed Akuma indeed." Ladybug sighed.
It was at that moment that Chat arrived.
"Take care of her, eh?" Ladybug sighed. "I need to get going."
Chat sighed. "Alright. Later, buggy."
"You too, kitty-cat."
Each day, Hawkmoth released an Akuma. Eventually, after Reversals were needed more and more and Marinette and Adrien grew too exhausted to fight, a new superhero joined: a blonde teenage girl named Queen Bee.
"Nice to meet you!" Queen Bee giggled. She figured it would be good to not show her school personality while in superhero form, else people might figure out Chloe's actually Queen Bee.
Ladybug's suit grew a skirt. Ladybug bowed to Queen bee, fanning out her strange dress, which assimilated back into her costume when she was done. "It's good to have you on the team, Queen Bee. There are a few rules. Did your Kwami explain anything?"
"She told me some things about my powers, but not much more. I was a bit excited." Queen Bee scratched her head sheepishly with a bright smile.
Ladybug smiled, too. Queen Bee's optimism was infectious. "Well, first, you're not allowed to reveal your real identity to anyone. Absolute secrecy is required, or Hawkmoth might target people close to us to get to us on an emotional level, which could easily get us akumatized, too."
"Secondly," Chat continued, "You can't leave your Gem out in the open. It needs to be hidden or form-shifted so people don't deduce you're actually a superhero. For example, in my real form, my ring is silver and on my opposite hand."
"Mine is also form-shifted into hoop earrings instead of buds." Ladybug lifted her fringe of hair to demonstrate.
Queen Bee sighed. "So, mine could be like a hair elastic?"
"You get it!" Ladybug smiled. "All you have to do is manipulate the gem to take the form of whatever you want."
"I see." Queen Bee smiled. "Alright. Third of all?"
"Your Kwami. He or she needs to be hidden in a compartment." Chat spoke.
"Well, I have a purse, so that part shouldn't be too hard. What's four?" Queen Bee asked.
"Your Kwami needs food. He or she will ask for the kind of food he or she wants. No matter how crazy the food is, for example chili peppers-" Ladybug was cut off.
"Or salt-" Chat continued.
"Or cheese-" Plagg was offended by Ladybug's suggestion.
"Or yogurt-" Tikki actually liked yogurt and berries mixed with granola! What was Plagg trying to pull?
"Okay, I get it." Queen bee held up a hand to placate them. "Pollen likes honey candy, which shouldn't be too hard to get. Anything else?"
"What's your weapon?" Ladybug asked.
"Uh... Here it is." Queen Bee reached behind her head to her comb, which lit up and produced a pair of twin pistols. Dart guns, to be exact. "Pollen says they shoot a special type of honey that freezes people in their tracks, but that anyone to do directly with the Gems is immune, which means Akuma victims are impervious, but not their subjects or their army. My secret superpower is the tranquilizer inside here, violet instead of honey-yellow. The method of travel is my wings, but Pollen says I should do that only after a few transformations, so until then I can run across rooftops."
"Sounds great." Ladybug smiled brightly.
"Okay, but first we need to make sure you're not actually an Akuma. What did your Kwami tell you?" Chat was suspicious of the newest member.
"I was chosen to fight alongside Ladybug and Chat Noir by an old man named Master Fu, the Guardian of the Balance Circle... I don't quite know what that last part means, though..." Queen Bee replied.
Ladybug shrugged. "I believe her."
Queen Bee smiled. She was happy, and all was calm.
That last thought was redacted when she heard several explosions in order.
A man with a migraine (it was truly terrible) had been akumatized, and for good reason. He'd gone out drinking last night and had come home with a hangover, even though he was still very drunk. He was in college and had a roommate, who chose to throw open the door in the morning and greet him by throwing open the curtains and shouting that he'd made eggs (he'd thrown up soon after).
He was very mad at his roommate, enough to be sensed by Hawkmoth and akumatized.
He was an Akuma that caused all sound to be eliminated, and the more sound he stole, the more power he gained (deaf people and people who knew sign language weren't really bothered by this).
Alright, I know what you're going to say. 'Queen Bee is a Temporary Gem used when Ladybug and Chat Noir need a lot of help!'. Well fine, but this is Fanfiction. More importantly, it's my Fanfiction. So, Queen Bee is a permanent Holder, and Pollen's Holder is Chloe Bourgeois. Queen Bee is very nice (a reflection of how Chloe would act if she weren't trying to be popular through cruelty), and Chloe's behavior will improve as a result of her owning a Gem and a Kwami influencing her decisions.
Also, Ladybug and Chat Noir do need help, desperately. Fu recognized this (Ladybug and Chat Noir were being very slow and their civilian forms were very tired in their classes), so he sent out another Gem to help them. That same Gem happened to go to Chloe Bourgeois (she was the person most compatible to the bee: sweet to people she likes, a hard worker at things she cares about, a good worker in groups of other bees, and a superb collector of things she finds interesting). A Gem brings the most positive aspects of your personality to light, even in civilian form, which is why Marinette or Adrien aren't akumatized so easily.
Have a good day!
Sapphy