Adrien looked up at her, and put his lunch down. He was happy to see her and smiled and waved. Marinette waved back. Nino and Adrien finished talking.

"Hey Adrien." Marinette said without stumbling over her words for the first time ever.

"Hey Marinette. What's up?"

She pursed her lips and closed her eyes. Then she opened them and said, "I want to talk to you about something… alone. If you don't mind."

"Okay. Hey Nino, maybe Alya wants to hang out with you."

"Yeah sure!" he said, "I'll see you back in class."

Nino got up and left. Marinette sat down in Nino's spot. She was shaking like a leaf. How was she going to do this? No, she had already been practicing. It felt like all of Paris had grown in her throat in just a few seconds. Calm down, Marinette. You can do this. You're Ladybug. It's not like Adrien is Chat Noir or anything. What if I forget? So many nervous thoughts sped through her mind.

"So… you wanted to talk about our class project?" he asked.

Marinette laughed. "Oh! No. About something else. Um… Adrien… remember that time when you gave me the umbrella in the rain?"

Adrien smiled brightly and said, "Yeah. It would be pretty hard to forget."

Marinette agreed. She paused and took a deep breath and couldn't believe that it was really, actually happening.

"Well… um… I… I really need to tell you something. Adrien… I love you. I love you and not just because you're a model but because you're Adrien."

She didn't mess up! She was so surprised she would've fallen out of her seat. Except she didn't. Adrien blinked with shock, and his face went sunset red. What would he say?

"Wow Marinette…" he blushed, genuinely touched by her words, rubbing the back of his head, "Really? Me?"

"Yes really." her tongue felt like peanut butter.

Why was he stalling?

He seemed so happy. But then all at once, his happiness faded and he hung his head.

"…Was it something I said?"

Adrien sighed and said, "No. It's not your fault, Marinette. I love you too, but… my dad… he'd never allow us to be together."

Various emotions whirled inside Marinette. First, happiness and surprise since Adrien admitted he loved her too. Then anger and disappointment because Adrien was right about his dad and she hadn't even though of that. How stupid was she to even forget that important detail! Their love was doomed right from the start…

"It wouldn't work out. My dad has a heart of ice. Funny thing that Paris is the City of Love. It's more like the opposite if you'd live at my house."

Marinette felt numb. She trembled, trying not to sob. She tried to hide her emotions but Adrien read her like a book.

"I'm so sorry, Marinette. I mean… I'll try and talk to my dad, but… he probably won't accept this."

"I understand, Adrien…"

She nodded, and got up and left. There were no tears or sobs. Not yet anyway. She couldn't cry at school. She went back to Alya. It was like her heart had stopped beating. The world was spinning out of control, yet nothing was moving at the same time. It was like she was in a void. Who was going to save her now? She didn't feel like she was Ladybug at all.

"Whoa…" Nino said, "Someone looks like they got dumped big time."

"Nino…" Alya warned, "Marinette, how did it go?"

"Terrible. Absolutely terrible."

She banged her head into the brick wall repeatedly. She felt like such an idiot! Why did she think that for one second, she would get Adrien. Especially on a perfect day such as this one with no Chloe to ruin anything. Even though her head hurt now, the ache in her heart felt worse.

"Tell me what happened." Alya said, stopping Marinette from giving herself a concussion, and turned Marinette towards her with her shoulders slumped.

Nino went away to talk with Adrien. Once he was gone, Marinette told Alya of her terrible conversation with Adrien. Alya gave Marinette a huge hug to lift her spirits, but it didn't really work. She still felt terrible, but was happy that she had a nice friend to comfort her. Superheroes needed to be saved sometimes, but by their best friend.

"Thanks Alya."
Then the bell rang for them to go back to class. The whole time Marinette couldn't concentrate on her studies, or even look at Adrien. She wondered how Adrien felt. She didn't really know how she felt, either. It was so confusing. She was in a daze for the rest of school.

Then the final bell rang, but as she was walking home, Nino was furious. He had really wanted to go on the field trip. Marinette felt bad for him, but even worse for herself, and a thousand times terrible for Adrien. Nino stomped out of the school with the map of the museum in his fist.

Marinette and Nino walked their different paths heading home. Hawkmoth could feel Nino's anger and knew it was a perfect opportunity to Akumatize him again. Now that Nino was alone, there was no stopping Hawkmoth!

"Fly away my little akuma, and evilize him!" Hawkmoth said.

An Akuma came down from the sky and evilized Nino.

Hawkmoth spoke telepathically to Nino with the butterfly mask over his face, and said, "I am Hawkmoth. It is such disappointment that you can't go on the class field trip and had to have another boring day at school! Well Adventurer, I am giving you an opportunity to go on a field trip of your own! You can go anywhere you want! All you must do in return is give me Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculouses!"

"Yes, Hawkmoth! I will get their Miraculouses!"

Nino was now transformed into a super villain called the Adventurer. He laughed mischievously and began wreaking havoc upon Paris.

****

"Marinette!" Tikki warned her as she was still walking home, "Someone is akumatized!"

Marinette hid in the shadows of a building and looked over the streets with pedestrians and cars zooming about. Her heart raced.

"What? Where?" she asked.

"Over there! It looks like it's Nino again!"

"Nino? Last time he was the Bubbler." she gasped, and said, "It's time to transform. Tikki! Spots on!"

Marinette transformed into Ladybug. Then she jumped up to the rooftops to get a better view.

Already, Nino – now called The Adventurer, looked like a mix between Indiana Jones and your typical safari tour guide. He had a lasso in his other hand. He held the map in his hand tightly. He began capturing people with his lasso and putting them in the map. He laughed evilly. People screamed as Ladybug watched from the rooftops.

"Where's Chat Noir?" she said, looking around for him, but he was nowhere to be seen.

If he didn't show up soon, she would start to be worried. For now, she jumped back down to the street and ran over to The Adventurer, whirling her yo-yo.

"Ladybug! Give me your Miraculous!" The Adventurer hissed, realizing who she was. He tried to grab her with his whip, but Ladybug used her yo-yo to block his attack.

"You'll have to do more than that to get my Miraculous." Ladybug said.

The Adventurer chased Ladybug through the streets, and Ladybug had an idea. She decided they were going to go on a field trip. Just then, Chat Noir made his appearance.

"Need some help, my lady?"

"Yes! We're going on a field trip!" she declared.

"I love field trips! Where's our spot of interest?"

"The National Museum of Modern Art!"

"Sounds like fun." Chat said with somewhat of a dull voice, but he was still up to helping her.

They jumped out of the way as the Adventurer lashed his lasso at them, shouting. They continued to run to the National Modern Art Museum.

"Chat, look out!"

The Adventurer caught Chat's tail with his lasso and at the same time Chat dropped his baton, and the Adventurer dragged him closer. Chat fought and tried to run, but he kept getting dragged closer to the Adventurer.

"Let me go!" Chat shouted.

Ladybug tripped the Adventurer with her yo-yo, by tying it between two lamp posts on either side of the street. The Adventurer fell on his face, and Chat Noir rubbed his now freed tail. He picked up his silver baton and swung it around.

"Thanks my lady." he said, purring.

Ladybug blushed under her mask. Good thing her mask was red. The Adventurer got up, and started grabbing more people to put into his map.

"You're going to London! You're going to Italy!" he shouted random places and put more innocent people in his map.

"We have to take the map away from him!" Ladybug shouted.

Chat nodded, and sprang into action. Yet it would be like taking candy from a baby, since he didn't want to let go of it. He fought with his baton, and yanked the lasso away from the Adventurer.

"Give that back!" the Adventurer yelled.

Chat threw the Adventurer's lasso to the other side of Paris. Then, they were at the steps of the National Museum of Modern Art. The Adventurer chased Chat and Ladybug inside, causing a panic by tourists and visitors who were enjoying their time there. Ladybug wondered if she would see any of her classmates, but she doubted they would stay here past school hours.

"Please get out of the way!" Ladybug told civilians.

"All Tours are canceled!" Chat shouted.

Only a few people got captured by the Adventurer, just the ones he could physically grab with his hands. He put them into the map and shouted out four random places.

"America! South Africa! New Zealand! Fiji!"

People screamed and ran out of the Museum. Ladybug thought how were they going to get the map away from him.

"Give me your Miraculous, Chat Noir and Ladybug!"

"What kind of an adventure would that be?" snapped Chat, as he bonked the Adventurer on the head with his baton as he flipped over him. The Adventurer was dizzy for a moment. Ladybug reached for his map with her yo-yo, but even though he was disoriented, he moved his arm out of the way.

"It would be the best adventure! I want to be the only one who ever goes anywhere!" he shouted, and snatched a little kid who was trembling behind an exhibit, and popped him into the map, "Russia!"

As Ladybug tried again with her yo-yo, she realized something. All the places the Adventurer was saying were places he could want to go but probably never get the chance to. Ladybug frowned. You couldn't always get what you wanted, she had learned that earlier that day. Now it was time to teach the Adventurer that lesson. They had to find a way to take away his map.

"Lucky charm!" Ladybug said, throwing her yo-yo up into the air.

Now Ladybug was equipped with a ticket and a travel brochure.

"What am I supposed to do with these?" she asked, and looked around quickly.

"What's the plan, my lady?" Chat asked.

"I have to get the Adventurer's attention with this very interesting ticket to somewhere he wants to go and then we'll snatch the map from him." she replied.

Chat nodded.

"Hey Adventurer!" Ladybug shouted, "Over here!"

"What do you want?" he said, "Give me your Miraculous!"

As she waved the tickets in the air, Chat snuck up and tried to grab the map. But the Adventurer still held on to it.

"Where do you want to go? London? Italy? Japan? America? This ticket has all the places you want to go! I even have a brochure!"

She waved both the ticket and the brochure wildly to prove her point.

"Let me see that! Wait… only if you give me your miraculous too!"

Ladybug grumbled. Chat was still trying to get the map. She shoved the brochure in the Adventurer's face to distract him. Chat snatched the map away while he couldn't see.

"Cataclysm!" Chat shouted, and destroyed the map.

All of the people who had been trapped in the map were now free. They stood around in a daze, until they saw the evil Adventurer, and quickly got out of the way. Ladybug used her yo-yo to capture the evil butterfly.

"It's time to de-evilize!" she shouted, and waved to the butterfly, "Bye-bye little butterfly."

The normal butterfly fluttered into the air.

"Miraculous ladybug!" Ladybug shouted as she threw the brochure up in the air, and everything then returned to normal.

***

"No!" Hawkmoth growled, "I was so close to getting their Miraculouses! My adventure is not over, Ladybug and Chat Noir! It is just beginning!"

The window closed and Hawkmoth's lair darkened.

***

The Adventurer transformed into Nino, who was kneeling on the ground.

"Aw man, what happened?" Nino asked, standing up.

Ladybug was left hanging when she was going to do her usual victory fist-bump with Chat.

"What's the matter?" Ladybug asked.

"I… there's a girl…" he started to say, but then his miraculous blinked, "I can't explain now. Sorry Ladybug. I have to go!"

"Okay. See you later, Chat."

Chat left the scene. Ladybug was saddened by Chat's conversation that he never got to have. What did he want to say? Maybe he'd tell her next time. Ladybug went over to Nino and they walked to the front desk. She bought him a ticket.

"You can't always get what you want or go where you want to. But sometimes you just have to wait a little longer for something that you want, and it could surprise you. And there is always an adventure waiting for you right here." she said, pointing to her heart.

"Wow, thanks Ladybug! You're awesome!"

They hugged friendly and Ladybug smiled and said goodbye. She had to transform back into Marinette quickly. She rushed to the bathroom where she transformed into Marinette just a few seconds before the last dot on her Miraculous faded.

"You did great, Marinette!" Tikki said, "I liked what you said about getting things you want. Maybe… that's a lesson for you and Adrien?"

"Yeah, I guess so." she sighed, though she didn't really want it to be true.

They went home.

When she got home, her parents were happy to see her. They must've had a good day at the bakery. But she wasn't ready to see them. The events of the school day came back to her, and she felt numb again. The adrenaline from the battle left her exhausted.

"Marinette! How did that test go?" her mom asked.

"Why are you back so late?" her dad asked.

Marinette said nothing and stomped up to her room. Now her parents were confused and hurt. They talked to each other for a few moments about what was wrong with Marinette and who should go talk to her. They decided they both should, if she was ignoring them. Her mom and dad knocked on her door as Marinette cried on her bed.

"Sweetie…" her mom begged, "Please, open the door."

"No. Go away. Leave me alone."

"Marinette, you should let them in. They want to talk to you." Tikki said kindly and softly.

Marinette sighed. Then she wiped away her tears, letting Tikki hide first, and opened the door. Her mom opened her arms for a hug, and Marinette fell right into them, and sobbed. Marinette told her what happened that day with her and Adrien. Her mom patted her head and listened.

"You can have a boyfriend if you want, Marinette. You deserve to be happy and loved. We love you."

Marinette's spirits were lifted. She didn't know, but they just saved her from being an Akumatized villain.

"Thank you, mom. I'm sorry I snapped at you and dad."

"That's okay. Being a teenager sure isn't easy." she laughed, "Come on down to the bakery for a treat."

Marinette's stomach grumbled. She hadn't eaten all day!