Chapter 4

Chat Noir had fought classmates before.

He'd even fought friends before.

But Marinette wasn't a classmate, and she wasn't a friend either. Marinette was… special.

If he hadn't been so madly in love with Ladybug, Adrien would have asked her out ages ago. As it was, her smile still made him smile right back, her laugh made his stomach do funny flips, and anytime he got to look into those huge blue eyes of hers, he had to look away quickly before he got lost.

All of this, of course, meant it hurt him almost as much as it hurt her when he threw La Couturière against the far wall of the room, causing said beautiful blue eyes to squeeze shut from the pain.

Think. Think think think think think.

He and Ladybug had never had to capture an akumatized victim before. As soon as the person had been stunned, knocked over, or slowed down in any way, Ladybug had swooped in, broken their cursed object, and set the akuma free. But Ladybug wasn't here, and he'd probably have to wait until morning to get a hold of her.

First thing's first, he had to get Marinette out of her own room. Not only did it give her a distinct advantage, knowing the terrain, but he also didn't want to have to deal with her parents if they woke up and came rushing in to see what all the noise was about.

As Marinette - La Couturière - stumbled to her feet, Chat Noir backed up to the skylight. She followed him like they were opposite magnets, pulling another roll of ribbon off her belt and swinging it like a lasso. The motion reminded him so sharply of Ladybug that his hand almost slipped unlatching the skylight. His train of thought derailed when the skylight popped open and freezing rain poured down on him. He let out a strangled hiss of surprise and Marinette - La Couturière – actually froze for a moment and laughed. Not a cackle, but a spluttering giggle, which she covered with her free gloved hand.

It killed him. Marinette was in there, just below the surface, suppressed by all the bad feelings that allowed the akuma to control her. He couldn't hurt her. He could barely bring himself to fight her.

The ribbon swinging in La Couturière's hand suddenly shot out at him. He dodged, and the edge of it sliced across his cheek, stinging in the rain like the finest of papercuts. Her giggle turned into a maniacal laugh that chilled his bones.

FOCUS Chat Noir!

He leaped out of the skylight, silently apologizing for soaking Marinette's room with the intruding rain, and readied his staff. When La Couturière emerged, she had her enormous sheers back in hand, and a handful of needles in the other. The balcony was an uncomfortably small place to do battle, but leaping over rooftops to gain more elbow room wasn't an option. The last thing Chat Noir wanted was for Marinette to slip off a building in the rain and be hurt.

He realized a moment later he should really be worrying about his own safety first when La Couturière's shears came flying at him, wide open to slice him in half.

"Cataclysm!" he screamed, throwing his hand out in front of him. The shears struck his burning palm and the metal rusted away, flinging the two halves of the sheers off either side of the roof. He barely had time to raise his staff in defense when the needles shot toward him too. La Couturière was ridiculously fast, and she had a good arm and even better aim, not at all what he expected from Marinette. It was all he could do to knock her weapons away with his staff.

When she threw her ribbon at him again, though, he was ready. He twisted his staff out in front of him like a mini tornado, and the ribbon wound itself all the way up, tangling it beyond help. With a yank, La Couturière went flying toward him, but when he reached out to grab her, she took his wrist in one hand, slammed her other hand onto his head, and pushed off of him in an impressive front flip toward the roof behind him. She would have stuck the landing if it hadn't been for the rain. With a shriek, she slipped off the edge of the roof.

"Marinette!" Chat Noir screamed. He leaped over the edge, extending his staff to slam down into the street below them, then slid down it with one hand while reaching for La Couturière with the other. Before his eyes, he watched her twist in midair, throw a ribbon like a lasso up to the roof, and swing back to safety.

It was something he'd watched Ladybug do hundreds of times with her yo-yo. Time slowed as he watched her fly in a graceful, perfect arc through the rain and land on the edge of the roof. He was still looking up at her when he landed on the ground in a heap.

Maybe it was the deafening thunder that rolled through the ground at that moment, or the roar of the rain, or the ringing in his ears, but Chat Noir's quick reflexes failed him in that moment. He laid there, stunned and confused, his body aching but his mind whirling too fast. Marinette moved like Ladybug. He would know, more than anyone. He had always watched Ladybug openly, admiring her skill in battle, her flawless poise, her most subtle body language. Marinette's attacks, acrobatics, everything mirrored Ladybug.

But what sense did that make? Marinette wasn't a superhero. She was so normal. And not in a demeaning way. She was so down to earth. She worried about tests and she showed up late to school. She had to deal with bullies with nothing more than her quick wit and her patience. She was a safe place to be, a shelter from storms. She saw him and she smiled at him like he was the only person in the world she wanted to see. It was her normalcy he loved about her. It was Ladybug's extraordinary that he loved about her.

Those two sides couldn't make up the same person. Could they?

His raging emotions aside, small facts started filtering into Chat's aching head as he slowly tested his limbs, making sure he hadn't broken any bones. Marinette's tears after the akuma attack, that fateful day he'd walked away from Ladybug. Now it made sense why she hadn't looked afraid, only sad. Her outburst in front of the classroom in defense of Chat Noir's disappearance. Her growing depression and fatigue while Ladybug's fights grew more difficult and more numerous. And, in the days she had been missing, there had been no sign of Ladybug, and no akuma attacks.

When he'd called Ladybug, her yo-yo had started to ring somewhere in her room.

Chat groaned and started to push himself off the cobblestones. La Couturière's shadow fell over him. When he looked up at her, he drank in her face, her dark hair plastered to her skin, hanging loose now that she's pulled all the pins out of it. Her enormous blue eyes, deep like the sea, deep like the sky, deep deep deep, drowning him. He imagined Ladybug's mask on her face, and it looked wrong and right all at once.

"Chat Noir, you are a disappointment and a joke," she said softly, almost gently, like she was sharing a well-guarded secret. "You can't be trusted. Certainly you can't be worthy of your Miraculous."

When she knelt by his side, she took his hand in hers like a lover, and Chat Noir needed a moment to remember why this was a bad thing. His Miraculous ring beeped a warning. His time was running out. Before La Couturière could pull the ring from his finger, he gripped her hand tightly in his. He pulled her closer and she let him. She let him study her face slowly, memorizing all the details, illuminated only by the street lamps and their watery reflections in the street. The same freckles sprinkled Marinette's nose as Ladybug's. He heard himself laugh. Her freckles. How many signs had he been shown and he should have known just by that. What a fool he'd been. How little he'd actually known.

La Couturière's – Marinette's – face scrunched up. "What are you laughing at, bad kitty?"

"I'm just thinking how lucky I am to have nine lives," Chat Noir said, a lopsided smirk spreading over his face, summoning all of his most confident memories with Ladybug. If he didn't believe he could make things right, he'd run away again. He'd sworn to Plagg he never would. "I think I lost a life when I left you, Ladybug. I lost it because I took it for granted. But I have eight more, and if you'll forgive me, I'll spend them all trying to make it right with you."

Marinette opened her mouth to speak, and Chat Noir pulled her into a hug. She struggled to pull free, but he held her firm, one hand behind her head, the other on her lower back. They knelt there in the rain for a long moment, and then Chat Noir pulled the earrings he knew would be in her ears out into his free hand and threw them against the cobblestones. They shattered, and an akuma butterfly fluttered out.

"And now, if my luck holds…" Still keeping Marinette against him in one arm, he climbed to his feet. He held out his shortened staff, and the butterfly landed on the end. Marinette watched it, dazed and confused, as the staff extended again, propelling them all back up to the roof. Chat Noir helped Marinette back into her room, closing the skylight tightly so that the akuma couldn't escape again, then stopped short for a moment in the middle of the room, lost on how to proceed.

When he looked over at Marinette, she was sitting on her bed, still looking like La Couturière. Her face was blank, her eyes unseeing, but clearly she was breathing. He wondered if it was because he'd separated her from the akuma giving her power. Speaking of which…

A few minutes later, he came back into the room with Marinette's broken earrings. If he lost these and somehow managed to get Marinette back to normal, he was pretty sure she wouldn't thank him for destroying Ladybug's Miraculous. Still, if he could somehow reset everything and purify the akuma, the earrings would be fixed too. If only Ladybug were here- but she was! And wasn't. Chat clutched his head, groaning. What a tangled mess. Not only was Marinette two people, but now she was trapped as a third that could only be saved by one of her other 'selves'. And it was all his fault…

Think, Chat. Don't pity yourself, you don't have time for that. There has to be a way to fix this.

He almost didn't hear his ring beeping its final warning at first, but then it hit him he'd be turning back any second now. The familiar panic washed over him when he looked over at Marinette, but it stopped as quickly as it had started. He knew her now. Shouldn't she know him? Then he realized she probably wasn't even conscious, still trapped in the akumatized version of herself, cut off from her power and the voice of Papillon in her ear. Was she even seeing him right now?

Either way, he realized, if he transformed here, he'd be taking the decision away from her. She was already mad at him. If she found out who he was, a person she liked very much also being her partner whom she didn't care about romantically, who also happened to be the boy who had walked out on her… well, he wouldn't complicate it more. First he had to secure the akuma though. He found a hat box in the corner of the room, opened it, and froze.

A tiny pink creature with huge blue eyes lay curled inside. Ladybug's kwami. Chat Noir had never seen her, but he knew that could only be what she was. When the lid of the hatbox popped open, the kwami looked up, alert and ready for a fight, and her eyes widened when she saw who it was.

"Chat Noir?!" She shot out of the box, her rescuer already forgotten, searching the dark room. When she spotted Marinette, she let out a cry of horror and flew to her, landing in her lap. "Marinette?! Marinette, it's me! It's Tikki! Can you hear me?"

Marinette gave no response, her eyes distant. Tikki's tiny hands flew to her mouth, holding back a tearful squeak, and she slowly floated up to Marinette's shoulder, pressing herself against her chosen's cheek.

"Tikki?" Chat said carefully, testing the name. The kwami looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "I know she's Ladybug now. I'll do everything I can to help, Tikki, I promise. I have to turn back for a few minutes, but I'll be right back, okay?"

Tikki just nodded, turning back to Marinette's still form. Since she clearly wasn't going anywhere, he slipped downstairs into the darkened apartment, then down to the bakery, where he transformed back into Adrien Agreste.

Plagg flopped down onto one of the counters, grumbling to himself. "Geez, I'm out of shape," he whined.

"How can Marinette be Ladybug?" Adrien asked him. "What are the odds that a girl at my same school, in my same class, also chose to carry a Miraculous? What if… What if Papillon is another classmate too?"

"I don't control who gets a Miraculous and who doesn't," Plagg argued, searching around for some cheese. Adrien handed him a wrapped croissant from one of the bake cases instead, putting the appropriate change next to the register.

"Still- it's Marinette! Do you know what this means, Plagg? She likes me! She likes me, and I like her, but she's also Ladybug, and I love Ladybug, but I'm also Chat Noir, and she doesn't like Chat Noir!" He suddenly remembered himself and lowered his voice. "How am I going to do this? I need to purify the akuma. Plagg- you… you said I have potential. Do you know anything about how to purify an akuma?"

Plagg shook his head, tearing off another piece of the croissant. "Nothing, Adrien."

"But I do," Tikki's soft voice came from the stairs. Adrien and Plagg both jumped, spinning in horror to see the pink kwami floating into the room. She was more composed now, her face fixed with determination. When she looked to Adrien, though, her eyes softened and she smiled. "I'm so glad it's you, Adrien. Don't worry. Marinette will be too. She'll forgive you, I know it."

Adrien's heart felt like it was melting into his toes and rising into his throat all at once. The relief he felt in that moment couldn't be measured. That promise coming from Ladybug's kwami, her closest and most trusted friend and partner, meant more than anything apart from Ladybug's word herself. "Thanks, Tikki. It's good to finally meet you," he managed with a shaky smile.

Tikki nodded, her smile fading. "I just wish it was under happier circumstances." Her eyes moved to Plagg, searching him curiously, and he did the same. "You haven't changed at all," she said, her tone unreadable, and Plagg shifted nervously.

"Neither have you," he admitted.

That brought out a smile. "You'll have to change now. There's no time to lose. If we don't purify the akuma sent to Marinette, she'll stay frozen like that forever. I can't do it without Ladybug, so you and Adrien will have to."

"Chat Noir can do that?" Adrien asked, his mouth falling open. Tikki nodded.

"We kwami evolve with every new chosen. We've never had to purify akuma before, just like akuma have never been filled with darkness to stain people's hearts. Our powers are the same, but what we can do with them depends on our chosen. Since Papillon can create akuma that stain people's hearts, the world needed heroes who could purify those akuma. When you and Marinette were chosen, we gained the skill to do just that." She looked to Plagg. "Both of us. But since the beginning of your partnership, Ladybug was the one purifying akuma, so your ability to do it staid dormant."

Plagg's eyes widened as Tikki floated to him, her tiny paws taking hold of his head. Her forehead brushed his, and a spark passed between them. When Plagg opened his eyes, his little mouth fell open.

"I see it now, Adrien," he said softly. "We can do it! We can purify the akuma!"

Adrien had to shake himself, this new knowledge was too much in one moment. "I can save Marinette?"

Tikki smiled and nodded. "You always could, Adrien. Don't ever doubt yourself or your kwami. Ladybug is always strongest with Chat Noir. She has always needed you." She tilted her head, her smile turning just a little bit mischievous. "I'd even say she's always loved you."

Adrien shook his head again, trying to stop his thoughts from whirling. "Plagg, let's go!" he said, almost rushing up the stairs still as Adrien, then tripping when he realized he was without his kwami. "I-I mean, Plagg, transform me!"

When Chat Noir and Tikki came up the stairs, Marinette was exactly where they'd left her. Chat Noir took a deep breath, opened the hatbox holding the akuma, and held out his staff. The words flowed through him, Plagg sending the spell to him that would purify the akuma, imbuing the words with power. A small slot opened in the staff, and he scooped the akuma into it, closing it inside the metal rod. "I'm freeing you from evil, akuma." The slot in the staff opened, and a white butterfly fluttered out. He opened the skylight for it. The rain had stopped, the whole world washed clean. "Goodbye, butterfly." He extended his staff, twirled it over his head, and slammed the end down into the floor. A shockwave of magic shot through the room, and Marinette slumped over, her strange dress and weapons replaced by her school clothes and purse. Ladybugs earrings sat on the desk, whole once again.

Chat Noir hurried to Marinette, scooping her up in his arms. "My Lad- ah, Marinette! Everything's okay now, you're free." His heart was pounding so hard he thought it would leap right out of his chest. He had so much to say that he couldn't say to Marinette, that had to wait for Ladybug's ears. Should he even tell her he knew who she was?

Marinette's eyes squeezed shut, then flew open, taking in the room. "Wha… where…" When her eyes landed on him, she stopped. He could see her thoughts slowing to a stop behind her eyes. "Ch… Chat Noir?"

He tried to smile, but he felt more like crying. "I'm sorry, Marinette." He pulled her close, hugging her so tight he could have crushed her. "I'm so sorry I left you. I won't ever leave again. I promise." A promise for Ladybug too.

At first Marinette was so shocked she couldn't move. Then he felt her arms slowly wind around him, her fingers curling in the leather of his suit, then in his hair, clinging to him desperately. "My kitty," he heard her whisper, like a shock of lightning going through him, and he smiled into her shoulder. Her body trembled with sobs, and he stroked her hair, wishing like he never had before that in this moment, he was Adrien, and he didn't have the leather gloves in between his skin and hers.

Eventually, Marinette's tears slowed, but she didn't let him go, and Chat Noir was glad for that, because he was pretty sure he never wanted her out of his arms again. Marinette fell asleep with her face buried in the dip of his shoulder, and eventually he laid her down on the bed and pulled slowly out of her arms, fighting every fitful desire in his heart to keep her close.

"I'll see you soon, Milady," he whispered, grinning. Then he slipped out of the skylight and disappeared into the night.

Papillon's window slowly wound shut, leaving his observatory in darkness. He wiped a hand over his eyes, trying to steady his breathing.

"Ladybug... Is Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"