A/N: Have I mentioned I'm bad with deadlines...? Hmmm? Yes I have, I'm sure. So please don't murder me. :D But here's the longest chapter I ever posted! Yay. Though there are loads of people to whom a chapter by 3,211 words (without A/N!) is very short, but hey, compare me to myself, not some other people I know nothing about!
So the thing is that I actually wanted to continue the chapter but I was like they will never get to read it if you continue doing this so here it is! Cut off a place that clould be called a cliffhanger but really, it actually isn't.
The Ladyblog had gone crazy and honestly, Alya wasn't surprised in the slightest. With that late night live video, the theorizing stepped onto a whole new level and the blogger gave up on moderating the comment section altogether.
She put down her phone onto the bedside table and threw the warm blanket off of herself, cursing the cold mornings. One would think Alya'd be dead tired after the nightly adventure but she had never been more awake than now is. She had a friend she had important questions to, after all. What she couldn't get was that why Nino didn't seem too interested, though. As if he hadn't found out that one friend of his has a seemingly close relationship with a superhero. With an opposite sex superhero to top it all. What if Marinette started to fall for Chat Noir and they didn't know about it?
But again, Marinette was just as awkward as ever around Adrien... well, maybe her case wasn't as hopeless like it was at the beginning, but still.
It didn't save her from the interrogation that Alya was planning, though.
After about fifteen minutes, she was stepping down along the stairs to the groundfloor, dressed in her favourite outfit, hair still a little wet from washing so it was kind of straight rather than slewing into her trademark soft curls, but she didn't care really, her reddish-brown locks will soon bound into curls anyway. As she stepped down from the last step, Alya put on her black-rimmed glasses, finishing clearing it with her plaid shirt and went into the kitchen, where her beloved mother was just putting a plate full of fried eggs and bacons onto the middle of the dining table beside a basket filled with fresh croissants, completely ignoring the ear-splitting blabbering of her younger daughters.
"'Morning, mum" Alya said, but didn't hear her mother's "Good morning, dear" response because she quickly stepped to the table and grabbed two little arms of two of her triplet sisters when they tried to lay hands on the food and not to leave a single bite for their elder sister. Alya called out, "Ohoo, pipe down, kids, sis' wanna eat as well!" then, ignoring their protests, she grabbed a handful of greasy bacons from the platter, almost all of it, and dropped the food onto her plate with a triumphant grin on her beautiful face.
"Alya" her mother warned, but her voice was supressed by the burst of chaos, caused by the triplets demanding their bacons back. Well, Louane and Louise at least stayed on their seats, but Léonie jumped off her chair and attacked her elder sister. She climbed onto Alya's back, pulling her hair while Alya tried to yell at Léonie to "Get the hell off!" while simultaneously tuffing one of the bacons into her mouth with her already greasy right hand - table manners be damned. It looked like her mother came to this conclusion as well because she just sighed in defeat and leaved to the bathroom. In the exact same moment as the bathroom door closed behind her, the sound of the doorbell echoed through the small house.
"Will you open the door, Alya?" came Mrs Césaire's voice, and Alya almost missed it because of the persistent squeaking right into her ear by her sister on her back (who were laughing rather than being angry) and the loud snickering of those who were on their seats. "It's probably Madam Delacroix about her daughter's wedding menu!"
"Coming!" Alya shouted towards the door but before she actually went to let in her mother's guest, she shot a warning look to her sisters who weren't clinging onto her. "Don't you dare touch my food!"
"Yes, ma'am" Louise blabbed out, making herself and her twins roaring with laughter. Alya just rolled her eyes and went to get the door, struggling under Léonie's weight and ignoring the pain in her skull by the continous hair pulling, pinching her little sister's leg with her greasy hand all the way to the door. She carefully turned the doorknob with her other hand as she tried not to fall to the side.
But instead of Madam Delacroix's buxom, graceful figure, she surprisedly recognised Nino on the doorstep.
Alya, as much as she could while a seven year old was clinging onto her, turned her head back towards the inside of the house and shouted, "It's just Nino, mum!" then looked back to her friend, letting him in as she grabbed one of Léonie's legs and tried to pull, but it was no use.
"Do I wanna ask?" Nino arched an eyebrow.
"No, you don't" Alya said flatly.
When Léonie actually looked up to see who's standing in the door and she saw Nino, a huge grin splitted across her little face and like some cute kind of monkey, she climbed Alya and jumped forward, straightly towards a wide-eyed Nino. He caught her, but if Alya didn't reach out and grab his arms to steady him, Nino would surely have fallen out through the door and onto the pavement.
"I missed you sooooo much!" Léonie exclaimed into his t-shirt as she rubbed her little nose to Nino's shoulder. Nino looked up to Alya, and at the moment she saw the utter shock on his features, the girl burst out laughing.
"Why can't she be this cute when she interacts with me?" Alya asked, wiping tears from the corner of her eyes. "She only spent time with you once and about a year ago and she still loves you more than her own sister!"
"Ummm..." Nino tried to say something and he bent down to put the clingy little girl onto the floor. "I thought you didn't remember me?"
"Rubbish!" Léonie said with gleaming hazel eyes. "You're the best! You have that looots of video games and it was sooo cool to play with them like boom-boom, BANG, tsssh" she said as she formed a gun from her hands and imitated that she shot down Alya and the vase beside her.
As Alya said before, Léonie and her twins met Nino about a year ago. The eldest Césaire daughter fell ill that time, and her mother, who had to go to a chef-meeting, couldn't make her babysit the triplets when Alya barely could whisper without pain. So Mrs Césaire called Nino's mother for a favour, and she was glad to help. As it turned out later, while Louane and Louise had fun with Mrs Lahiffe making each other's hair, drawing et cetera, Léonie was rather bored and went play with Nino who was playing a paint-ball themed video game at that moment. And she practically fell in love with him. It was adorable.
After about ten minutes (which included a few bacons, a hand-washing for Alya, and a little small talk between Nino and Mrs Césaire), the two friends left the Césaire residence and set off towards the school. They finished off a few doughnuts that Nino bought in the Dupain-Cheng's bakery while the boy explained why he came after Alya in the first place.
"I actually wanted to get Marinette as well" he said. "But her parents said that I'd better go without her if I don't wanna be late from school. So I just bought these doughnuts and came after you." When he saw Alya opening her mouth to ask the reason, he answered before she could say a word. "I've talked with Chat Noir."
Alya's jaw dropped.
"You what? When? Where? How?"
"Whoa, chill!" Nino raised his hands in defence. "It's not like I planned it or anything. My mum sent me out to the balcony to pick up the dried clothes she hanged out the day before, and I saw him when I was on it. He saw me too and stopped by."
"Superheroes don't just 'stop by', Nino" Alya huffed. "And? What were you talking about?"
"I asked him that why did he let us eavesdrop" Nino answered. "He just shrugged and said 'seemed fun.'"
"Bullshit!" Alya exclaimed and threw her hands into the air. "What kind of stupid superhero risks his and his partner's secret identity for such a shit reason? Come on!"
"Hi Nino, Alya" came a familiar voice (which somehow sounded pretty amused), and the two looked up to see Adrien, smiling at them. 'What's up?"
They didn't even realise it that they already started to climb the stairs to the schoolgates. Time flies, they say and it seems to be true.
"You won't believe it, Adrien" Alya said, lowering her voice. "Last night–" The bell rang, cutting the girl off and she sighed in annoyance. "We'll tell you later."
Ms Mendeleiev was sitting at the teacher's desk in the chemistry labor, shooting irritated glances towards five empty seats. The warning bell already rang off and there were only 26 seconds until her class started. Why can't these ungrateful brats respect her, their teacher, by arriving in time? Is this too much to ask for or something? Oh, but when she was a student, she could make it to classes in time! Her teachers loved her, the most responsible girl in the class...
The door burst open, and three students stepped into the classroom in the exact moment as the last bell rang off. They moved towards their seats, but a loud bang made them freeze in place. Ms. Mendeleiev was standing, her right palm pressed against the desktop, skin still tingling from the hit she struck against the poor piece of furniture.
The two boys and one girl turned towards her, ducking their heads in shame, and said in unison, "We're sorry, we're late, Ms. Mandeleiev."
There were only three of them. Agreste, Lahiffe and Césaire. But Dupain-Cheng and Bourgeois still don't here, Ms Mendeleiev thought with great annoyance.
She took a calming breath. "Sit!" she ordered in a sharp voice and decided she'll just going to go on with her business, namely teaching, and won't make herself angry for some missing students. Who cares? Lucrece Mandeleiev was not someone who could be easily angered. Or so the woman believed. (Everyone else would disagree with her, though.) So she just straightened herself out, grabbed a marker and furiously wrote the topic of todays' lesson on the whiteboard.
She turned back towards her students. "What are you all waiting for? Those notes won't write themselves!" she said and started to lecture, not waiting even a second for the children to take out their notebooks – they can blame themselves: why didn't they pack out their things before? Instead of chatting they could have prepare for class in their few spare minutes before the bell rang.
Ms Mandeleiev felt herself calming down during the lesson, and when she sat down behind the teacher's desk, just a few angry thoughts about ungrateful brats came to her mind. There were a little less than half an hour until class ends, and she just set to stictly watch over the children during the project she said them to start on class. Of course, they won't be able to finish it, but there were two days until the next Chemistry lesson. Homework doesn't hurt, it's important.
But then the classroom door opened, and Chloé Bourgeois walked in with full gracefullness, earning surprised glances from her classmates – the mayor's daughter was many things but nobody could recall any occasion when she was late. She sat down beside that redhead girl with glasses (whose name never managed to stick in Ms Mandeleiev's head despite her remarkable name-remembering skill), and silently took her friend's notebook to take a picture of the notes.
The teacher, in utter disbelief, stared at her for exactly five seconds before she snapped, all of the frustration from the start of the class rushing through her at once.
"I don't care, Miss Bourgeois, how much are you the daughter of the mayor" she marched directly in front of Chloé's desk, "but you do not interrupt my class in this manner! I expect respect and thus you either come to my class in time or not show up at all to avoid interrupting! Explain!"
Chloé lifted her ice-blue gaze to her teacher, and took a long moment as if she had to think about where was she and what was she doing in here. She blinked with her long mascaraed eyelashes once, twice then slowly parted her lips. "I..." she started in a faraway voice, but suddenly she straghtened herself up. In a blink, her dazedness completely vanished and the girl who looked into her teacher's eyes with an unmistakable superiority was certainly the Chloé everyone knew. "I believe that the personal reason because I was late is nothing of your business."
Ms Mandeleiev didn't believe her own ears. "Excuse me?! You are learning some manners from me in a few minutes, young lady! One does not speak like that to her teacher–"
But Chloé didn't even tried to look as like she's listening. She pouted irritatedly, and with such a speed that was clearly practiced, called her father.
It was the last straw.
There were thirteen students in the classroom, but only Adrien noticed the black-purplish butterfly that appeared out of thin air. He was expecting it, actually – their science teacher wasn't a person anyone would describe as 'peaceful and pardoning' so it was bound to happen sooner or later and, as much as Adrien didn't want to admit it, with Chloé around it was rather sooner than later. He truly believed though that Chloé wouldn't put someone in real danger on purpose. She was mean, yes, and changed dramatically since their childhood, but wasn't pure evil. He remembered crystal clearly the shy little girl who was so lost without her mother, or without Adrien after a few moths into their acquaintance. And she was a cunning little kid back then, just sadly she uses this ability for questionable reasons nowadays. Also, she did have a way of... communicating that often led to akumatize people, it wasn't something Adrien would try to convince himself otherwise about.
He has to speak about that with her, though.
"Oh, crap" he heard Nino saying and the sound snapped him out of his thoughts. In front of Chloé stood a nasty looking supervillain, still sporting Ms Mendeleiev's features but with a disgusting shade of yellow skincolour. Her eyes were covered in purplish gogglers and her hair, while stayed the same purple it uses to, was standing up in mad sciencist-style. Under her usual white labcoat was a purple dress Adrien didn't even tried to describe, and the labcoat itself now reached past her ankles, its sleeves very wide, swinging with every movement she took while announcing herself as Acid O'Philius.
Time to flee and come back as Chat, Adrien thought and sneaked towards the door in the chaos that was breaking loose with everyone's panicking all over the place. He slipped out rather easily, since Acid's main target was clearly Chloé. Nobody followed him because the class was too scared to think as it seemed, with Alya and Nino as exceptations: while Alya tried to approach the villain with her filming phone in hand, Nino tried to drag her out of the classroom.
Adrien ran along the hallway and turned at the first corridor, reckoning there would be a good place to transform. He was this close from speaking to Plagg, but just as he opened his mouth, he felt something bumping into him, so hard he felt he was loosing his footing. He grabbed onto the something that crashed into him, and when he looked down, it turned out to be the shoulders of Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
It was amazing to watch how her face blossomed into a very violent shade of red in a nanosecond when she looked up to met his gaze.
"A-Adrien?!"
The boy pushed her to arm-lenght, still grasping her (surprisingly muscular) upper-arm. "Don't bother to go to class" he said, looking into her brilliant blue eyes. "Ms Mendeleiev's turned into an akuma. I'm–" he took a second to came up with a quick lie "–going to the principal's office to apprise Mr Damocles. Stay safe!" Therewith, he dashed off. In the exact opposite direction of the principal's office, but Marinette wasn't there by mind enough to notice it.
She blinked rapidly after him, trying to put aside the OhmygoshAdrientouchedmyarm to process the information she was given. It was hard, and really, not just because of Adrien. She sneaked out at night to patrol so she hardly had slept enough to use her brain successfully. No matter how a laughing material she thought that Chat has said was, she actually couldn't sleep because of it when it came to bedtime. She overthought it and was too anxious to success in falling asleep. And she ended up searching for creeping-in-the-shadows akumas until six in the morning. It was sheer dumb luck that her parents hadn't checked on her – being bakers, they got up around five o'clock.
So, where was she? Yeah, Ms Mendeleiev. Akuma. Danger. Right, so. What was she supposed to do, again? Oh, come on, Marinette, snap out of it! It doesn't matter if there's an Adrien's hand-shaped tingling spot on each of your arms!
"Marinette!" squaked a high-pitched voice, and she blinked again as Tikki came into focus. "It's time for Ladybug to show up!"
"Oh. Yeah. You're right."
Meanwhile Adrien, now dressed in tight cat suit, made his entrance through an open window of the science labor. He was very relieved to see that the akuma hadn't gotten into mad-destructive mode yet. She just had having her monologue about ungrateful students, directed towards Chloé who was (clearly uncomfortably) kneeling in front of her on things that suspiciously looked like marbles, when she looked up to met Chat Noir's otherworldly green eyes through her purplish goggles. Her disgusting shade of yellow for a skin got wrinkled by her grimace.
"Coming for the rescue, are we?" she asked through gritted teeth but straigtened herself up. "It is not likely to be here anyone who needs to be rescued. A teacher has to set a good example – therefor I am not here to hurt my ungrateful students. I am merely giving a lecture. You may stay though boy, I would like to have your miraculous."
"A supervillain that capable of speaking without yelling my head off!" Chat said and hopped onto the floor with a smirk on his handsome features. "I am flattered."