A/N: Thanks for all the love this story has received so far.

A thunder in our hearts

Part II

The fact that Alya's day started off amazing is probably why it decided to go rapidly south. The amazing part was obviously Lady Noir being confirmed as canon (and if Ladybug5ever129 showed their ugly face again she was going to rub that in their face). Now the truth was out Alya needed details for her readers. How long had they been together? Who asked whom out? What sort of dates had they been on? How serious was it?

Then to make things even better, an akuma attacked. Not that that was a good thing. It just meant it gave Alya a chance to get the scoop. She grabbed her things and rushed out of the classroom, fully intending to get to the scene of the akuma attack.

"Miss Césaire," Madame Bustier called. "I believe you're forgetting something."

Alya stopped and turned over in her head what she could possibly have forgotten but came up short. She looked hopelessly at her teacher.

"Your detention."

Damn. By the time detention finished it would probably all be over.

"Mme Bustier, is there no way to reschedule?"

"It's called 'punishment' for a reason, Miss Césaire. Come along. The quicker you start, the quicker you'll be finished."

Alya looked longingly at the door but followed dutifully. With Madame Bustier it was always best to show some level of repentance. She tended to go easier on you if you did.

Along the way to the classroom, Madame Bustier collected a couple of other students who were apparently trying to use the akuma attack as a reason to skip out on detention. When they reached the room Alya was sat down with a pen and some paper.

"One hundred lines," the teacher explained, "'I must not use profanity in class.' Make sure it's legible. When you're done hand it in and you're free to go."

One hundred lines… Alya could do that fairly quickly. Depending on the akuma, she may even make it in time to see the end of the fight.

Twenty minutes passed and Alya flexed her aching hand as she deposited the lines on the desk at the front. Madame Bustier gave them a once over before giving an approving nod. "You're free to go, Miss Césaire. However, if I hear such language in my class again it'll be twice the amount."

"Yes, Mme Bustier."

Alya calmly closed the door behind her and took off at a sprint, pulling the Ladyblog up on her phone. On one of the message boards one of her more regular followers was live messaging the battle. According to him, Chat Noir had just used Cataclysm. If Alya ran she may make it with just enough time to get a quick question in.

She's about a block away when things start happening.

Alya knows something is up when her phone starts exploding with alerts and messages. She pauses in her running to check what's happening and can barely find any coherency in the tweets filling her up feed but a story starts to emerge as she scrolls further down.

Holy shit did that just happen? #Ladybug

Omg Omg Omg #Ladybug #WTF #ChatNoir

Is she okay? #Ladybug #ParisHeroes #I'm crying

Ladyblog, do you know what's happening? #Ladybug #Ladyblog

Did #crazy just kill Ladybug? The way she just fell. #Ladybug

Who cares how she fell? She detransformed. #RIPLadybug

WTF is happening? #Ladybug #Chatnoir #ParisHeroes

Shut up saying she's dead! There's no official word yet. #Ladybug #Ladybug lives.

Mon dieu. Did that happen? #ChatNoir #Akuma

Oh my god. Was Chat Noir just akumatized? #Ladybug #ChatNoir #pleasewakemeup

Shitshitshit #AkumaChatNoir #LadybugShot #We'reScrewed

Alya scrolls through the messages in a sense of shock. There's a poor quality photo of Chat Noir staring ahead in shock as he cradles a dark haired girl in his arms (Ladybug, without the spots) filling up her feed until there's a second twitter explosion.

This time there's more photos and ones of better quality, presumably people had started pulling out phones after Ladybug was shot, of an akuma villain dressed like a fairy tale prince. There's a dark suit jacket with long coattails and his white shirt ruffles around his neck and sleeves, a golden sword strapped to his side. Long blond hair is pulled back neatly with a black ribbon and (presumably green) eyes stare out from a masquerade mask. Most tellingly of the outfit though were the tail he wore and the black ears resting on the top of his head.

In one shot, taken near enough directly in front of him, showed the girl he carried in a bridal lift clearest. She looked like Cinderella, if Cinderella's ball gown was red and black and spotted with short, ruffled sleeves made of white. Her face was tucked against the akuma's chest though from what could be seen she too had a masquerade mask. She was shockingly pale and from the photo Alya couldn't tell if she was dead or just unconscious.

At some point Alya's hand had raised to her mouth and remained there. Things had gone from bad to worse pretty dramatically. One tweet seemed to sum it all up pretty neatly.

Who's going to save us now? #LadybugShot #AkumaChat

Alya didn't even realise that her feet were leading her somewhere until a small force slammed into her chest and made her stumble.

"What the-" Alya looked around for what hit her and froze.

Floating in the air was a small catlike creature, clutching onto something silver. Alya raised her phone, though as a weapon or to take a photo she wasn't sure.

The creature looked up at her with distraught black eyes. "Please," it begged, "You've got to help me." Then it's eyes slumped shut and it started to drop from the air.

Alya's phone clattered to the floor as she reached out to catch it.

Though he wished he didn't have to, the moment Plagg realised there was no way to prevent Adrien becoming an akuma, he had tugged the Miraculous from his hand and fled, lingering just long enough to meet Tikki's tearful eyes. He didn't want to leave any of them but someone needed to be the one to figure out how to fix this and he was in the best position to do that.

He couldn't do anything alone though.

Plagg needed someone to help him, someone who could stand against his boy, who he could trust not to spill the deepest secrets of Chat Noir and Ladybug, and become Chat Noir and all that entails.

He hated thinking about the next Chat Noir when he still had a partner. It felt like a betrayal, a lack of faith. In circumstances like this it felt even worse.

It's not forever, he tells himself, Just a temporary Chat Noir until Adrien is himself again.

And that was important. He needed someone who would be able to stand aside and understand that they don't get to be the one chosen, the one who gets to special, and have the strength not grow resentful because of it.

Plagg takes a moment to consider the humans he knows of. His boy's best friend, Nino comes to mind quickly. Plagg likes the boy. He's a good person, even willing to stand against Adrien's father when he felt the man wasn't treating his son right, and there was no doubt in his trustworthiness. The boy was an almost perfect stand in. Almost.

There was something that all Chat Noirs (the ones that lasted) possessed that Nino lacked. Where Ladybug the sword against akumas, Chat Noir was the shield. Chat Noir was the one required to stand between Ladybug and the akuma and give them the time to figure out how to fix them. That alone required a certain amount of recklessness and lack of self-preservation. It also required a large amount of faith and trust. Sometimes Chat Noir had to sacrifice themselves so Ladybug could continue the fight. They had to believe that Ladybug would use that sacrifice wisely and save them in turn.

There was one person Plagg knew of that embodied that particular trait. He wasn't completely convinced he could trust her, he did remember what she tried to do as an akuma villain, however he didn't really have too much time to be picky.

Plagg flew through the streets, hoping that she'd have stayed true to form and be nearby. A couple of times he found his eyes shutting, only opening again just before he hit the floor. Kwamis weren't made for such physically exertion after their partners used their special move. He needed cheese but he needed to find Alya more. If he didn't find her now, when he had some idea of the area, he wouldn't be able to find her until after the weekend when she would next be in school.

Plagg couldn't wait that long.

And then there she was, eyes fixed on her phone as she walked slowly in the direction he had left his boy. Plagg, having been too distracted by his lethargic thoughts, didn't have time to stop and flew straight into her chest.

Plagg could see the exact moment she spotted him, he eyes going wide in surprise. There was a small hint of nervousness but there was a boldness to her that he encountered in all the best Chat Noirs. Perhaps this was the right decision afterall.

He manages to ask for her help before the exhaustion finally gets to him.

Alya looks at the small black creature in her hands a moment before scooping up her phone and heading home. It's pretty easy to put two and two together and realise it probably has something to do with Chat Noir. The glint of silver she had seen before was a ring and, though it wasn't the black Miraculous Chat Noir wore, it was similar enough to raise her suspicions. Maybe when the creature wakes up it'll be able to answer some of the questions she has been to know.

More importantly though, it asked for her help. What kind of person would she be if she turned it away?

The thing was still asleep when she got home and managed to stay that way despite the fact she had to fight her way through her many curious sisters to get to the privacy of her room. She gently placed it on her pillow.

Would it need any water when it woke up? Or food? What kind of food would it like anyway? It looked like a cat but Alya wasn't even going to try catching a mouse for it. Would it eat meat? Maybe it was vegetarian. Or vegan. Or just plain fussy. Did it even need to eat? She wasn't sure how the whole magical creature thing worked.

She bit her lip as she watched the creature a bit longer. What if it woke up and left when she was grabbing it something?

She'd just have to be quick.

Luckily her sister seemed to be distracted by something when she left her room so she was able to go to the kitchen without being accosted. She quickly grabbed a glass of water and made up a simple sandwich of cheese and tomato. Surely it was plain enough there'd be no issue.

Unless it was lactose intolerant. Cats were supposed to be lactose intolerant, weren't they? What is she killed it accidentally? Maybe she should make up something else. But she's already left it longer than she wanted to.

"It can just pick the cheese out if it needs to," she decided and took the food back to her room.

As soon as the food got close to the creature, it twitched, and suddenly darted to the plate. In the end it did pick the cheese out of the sandwich, if only to eat it exclusively.

"Thank you, Alya," it said when it finished. This time Alya wasn't in too much surprise to note that the voice was distinctly masculine.

"How do you know my name?" The question triggered an avalanche of others. "What are you? Are you connected to Chat Noir? How do you fly? Are you a boy? Does Ladybug have something like you? Do you know what happened with Ladybug? Is she okay? Why did you need my help?" Eventually she had to pause for breath. The creature took the opportunity to get a word of his own in.

"My name is Plagg. And I need you to become Chat Noir."

A/N: Marinette and Adrien's designs were heavily influenced by a fanvid I saw on youtube. Cendrillion Fanmade PV by LuciaSatalina. The artwork is so beautiful. If you've not seen it yet I recommend watching it. I imagine Marinette looking very similar, though no glass slippers. She's Sleeping Beauty not Cinderella.