This chapter has a few timeskips, I hope you won't get confused :)
Anyway, I'm really unsure about the next chapter. I don't exactly want to spoiler you but it's really hardcore and I'm seriously not sure about uploading it. There's gonna be violence and I feel like it's really pushing the limits of Mature rating but I don't necessarily need it.
So let me know in the comments if you're up for this scene or if I should leave it out since it's not really story relevant but explaining one or two things.
For now, enjoy~
After class, Nino mustered up all the courage he had and stood, stepping in Chloé's way. Marinette was already out, she probably ran off somewhere. But the rest of the class stilled as the blonde mustered the boy from head to toe.
"And you want?", she sneered.
"I want you to leave Marinette alone.", he said, bravely standing his ground. His gaze once again swished over to Alya but the girl was just calmly collecting her stuff, her gaze downcast. As always… His eyes jumped back to Chloé who frowned at him.
"Okay then.", she suddenly grinned, "Now step aside."
Nino bared his teeth and shook his head, the stares from the class getting more intense. He knew what he was doing and if it meant defending a murderer in their eyes. But he knew better. He knew she was no murderer.
"I don't believe you. Leave Marinette alone. Please, Chloé."
The girl just laughed at that. Her laugh was cold and loud but Nino could hear something other behind that. It was-… A little bit insecurity? Maybe? Sadness? He couldn't pinpoint it but he was sure it had to do with Ladybug's sudden death.
"Oh, come on, you wanna-be DJ. She just gets what she deserves. Nothing more-…", her white teeth shone as she grinned wider, "… And nothing less."
Nino huffed and squared his shoulders.
"Today was too much. You can't keep on doing that, Chloé. I won't stand by and watch. Stop doing this to her."
Chloé's face fell a bit when she realized he was really serious about this and wouldn't let her pass until he heard at least an apology from her. Which she wouldn't give over her cold, dead body.
"Move, Lahiffe. Or I'm calling my daddy."
Nino just clenched his teeth at that, forcing out a humorless laugh.
"Do that. Then I can tell him what his stuck-up bitch of a daughter did today."
A gasp went through the classroom and even Alya looked up when Chloé's outraged shriek echoed off the walls and her hand connected with his cheek. His head flew to the side from the slap but he still didn't budge.
"How dare you?!", she snarled, hitting him again on his other cheek, "How dare you speak to me like that?! I'll-"
Just as she was about to slap Nino a third time someone firmly took hold of her wrist. She turned her head and her glare met Adrien's tired green eyes. He lowered her hand without any effort and softly shook his head.
"This is too much, Chloé. Stop treating Marinette like that. And stop slapping Nino."
She placed her other hand on her chest and dramatically gasped.
"But Adriki-"
The boy just warily shook his head and went over to Nino, placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it.
"The coffee was unjustified and mean, Chloé. Nino's right, you went too far."
The gazes of the class went from the two boys to Chloé and back again, a few gulping when Chloé's face only hardened.
"It wasn't, and you know tha-"
"It was.", Nino growled, "Marinette's not guilty and that coffee seriously burned her face, you saw that. And yet you can still laugh about it.", he huffed once more, "Despiteful, man. And seriously not cool."
She only huffed and straightened her back, suddenly losing her theatrical tone from mere second ago and stalked past them, moving out of the way before Nino could grab her. Sabrina followed on her heels and the two of them vanished down the stairs. Nino scowled, rubbing one of his cheeks.
"One day she'll get it back. One day.", he threatened, looking after her.
The class silently packed their stuff together and they all moved past him, following Chloé down the stairs since they knew they had just stood by and watched as well and nobody wanted to get in Nino's way right now. Even Alya just shouldered her bag and quickly walked past him, heading to the library. When Nino went back to his desk he and Adrien were alone. He hauled his bag on his shoulder and turned to the door to run off like the others but this time it was the blonde who blocked the way.
"Let me see this, Nino."
The young DJ just gave him a look and snorted humorlessly before wanting to walk out of the classroom but his friend placed a flat hand on his shoulder and gently turned him to look at him.
"Please."
Nino wrinkled his nose.
"It's nothing. Let me through, dude."
Adrien tried to stand his ground but his hand sank after a short staring battle and Nino resumed walking. Just when he was out the door, Adrien thought to have heard his friend murmuring.
"… You didn't ask Marinette either…"
Sirens blared through the early morning air and caused a very sleepy blonde boy to snap up in a sitting position. He yawned and immediately got up to look outside.
Nothing unusual greeted him. The perfectly cared for garden of the Agreste Mansion, the neighboring houses, the grey sky, just tinged with a little sunlight, the green vines climbing up some street lanterns, a stray kitty walking down the stre-… Wait, what?!
Adrien's eyes widened and he pressed his cheek against the window as he tried to look down the street. Why were there vines everywhere?!
He opened a window and heard a distant, feminine cackle. Just as the sound faded he rolled his eyes.
"Not again-… Not right now, c'mon…", he glanced at the clock above his door, groaning when he saw that it was five in the morning.
"Ishn't it, like-… Way t' early for shis kinda shtuff…?", Plagg drawled from his bed, sounding very regretful of his whole existence.
Adrien just nodded in agreement and sighed.
"It is, but-… Hawkmoth doesn't seem to think so. Come on, get up, we gotta get going."
Plagg growled at him and buried his face in Adrien's pillow.
"Nooooooouuuuuuuuh…", he whined and the blonde nodded, understanding him more than ever.
"Plaaaaaaaagg! We gotta stop that darned Akuma!"
His Kwami tried to hide further so he picked up a piece of camembert from the desk where Plagg had left it after yesterday's Akuma attack and went to his bed, holding the stinky cheese closer to the Kwami.
"Eat up, buddy. We have to go."
Plagg's eyes narrowed to slits as he finally looked up, hesitantly taking the piece of camembert.
"What about you, kid? Don't you wanna eat something as well?"
Adrien merely huffed at that.
"No time."
His Kwami sat up, biting off an edge of the cheese.
"Kid, you have to eat. I don't want you to be dead on your feet. Run down and get a slice of bread from the kitchen, that's enough for me. I'll be finished when you come back."
"No Plagg, just eat up and then transform me!"
"Adrien.", suddenly the Kwami looked really serious as he laid the cheese aside, "I'm not eating until you get yourself something."
Adrien just growled and ran out of the room to get a slice of bread. He knew Plagg was way too stubborn to be argued with and when he denied his beloved cheese the boy knew there was nothing to do but obey the Kwami's orders.
For such a tiny being he had a massive stubbornness to himself.
As the blonde slipped into the kitchen his traitorous stomach began churning. Of course, Adrien rolled his eyes, of course I have to get really hungry now…
So he grabbed two slices of bread, put some kind of marmalade on it (he didn't check what marmalade, he just grabbed one) and ran up to his room again, the two slices of bread with the marmalade almost spilling on his shirt.
When he arrived back in his room Plagg had naturally already eaten up. So much for his threat. Adrien managed to change into normal clothes while eating since he suspected that this Akuma attack would last until school started, or maybe even longer, so he could maybe pretend he overslept again. Or fell asleep after a sunrise shoot? Yeah, that was better.
He groaned. Soon he would be out of excuses.
As soon as he was finished he called upon his transformation and jumped out of his window, eager to end this Akuma quickly, even if he was practically dead on his feet because of sleep deprivation.
The day before he had had to fight an Akuma that had turned people to lizards. With no cleansing light from Ladybug they stayed that way, which made Akumas so much crueler. Plus, he'd had to fight him until sundown and after that still had to do his homework until after midnight. Being out again already was-… Just eating on his nerves. And his concentration.
He sighed while he dashed over the roofs of Paris, after the Akuma that seemed to be eager to transform Paris into their personal garden. Everywhere were vines sprouting out of the streets and up on the houses, flowers bloomed on the most impossible spots and trees broke open the asphalt of the streets. Along his way he encountered quite a few people trapped in their homes or surprised by a tree growing right in the way of their car. He helped as well as he could but he knew he had to find the Akuma and capture it, only then he could help these people.
In the distance, he heard a police car being stopped, the sirens that were blaring the entire time just cutting off with a faint crash. Thanks to his heightened senses in the suit he knew where it was roughly located.
So Chat got to all four and narrowed his eyes.
He had to stop that Akuma.
He growled under his breath and lunged over another street, from roof to roof, nearing in on the akumatized victim. Hawkmoth slowly but surely lost in strength yet definitely not in persistence. But the most recent Akumas had only to do with living things, things that grew or moved on its own. Nothing that had to be magically moved. Did that mean something?
Well, he had talked to Plagg about the limitations of his powers once and the tiny god of destruction had shrugged, his only answer being 'infinite', since he was a chosen. Did that mean Hawkmoth had not been chosen?
He had already suspected that Hawkmoth forced his Kwami to do what he wanted so did that mean he couldn't use his Miraculous as infinitely as Adrien? Because he wasn't fit to wear the butterfly Miraculous?
Chat Noir sighed as he jumped around a tree that had sprouted right out of a roof.
He didn't know anyone else who knew about the Miraculous, their powers and how they worked. Ladybug had once mentioned an old man who had explained a few things to her on a book she had found. He reasoned that this had been the book he had lost the same day he had taken it out of his father's safe. His eyes widened and he almost missed a step, just barely catching himself by ripping his arms in front before slamming down on the roof.
His father!
It was his book to begin with! Why did he have it at all? Adrien had never really thought about that after Volpina, after he had lost it he had pretty much forgotten about this book, out of shame to have stolen and lost it on the very same day.
But his father had used the designs that reminded him of Miraculous forms on multiple occasions in his designs, hell even his shoes wore an outline of a butterfly!
So either his father had believed the book had just been an illustrated fantasy novel in a foreign language or he really knew what a Miraculous was.
Could it be?
That his father could know what a Miraculous did, what it was, maybe a little bit more?
He had reacted a little weirdly to his ring a few times…
Maybe he could-… He could talk to him about it? And-… Not be alone anymore?
Chat shook his head as he finally got a glance at the Akuma. He couldn't be distracted from the fight, as tempting as talking to his father may seem. He had to keep his head in the game.
That's another thing. He would've made at least a few nature puns by now but-… Without anybody telling him to stop it wasn't any fun anymore. No, well-… When Ladybug wasn't around to tell him to stop.
He shook his head and observed the Akuma instead, furrowing his eyebrows.
It was a woman, maybe in her thirties? She wore a dark green suit that was covered in patterns reminding him of ivy leaves and a mask that seemed to be a mix between Hawkmoth's trademark butterfly mask and-… A skull?
What was that all about?
"I AM SNAPDRAGON!", the Akuma blared, "AND I WILL NOT LET THEM TAKE NATURE FROM ME!"
Chat Noir sighed and rubbed over his face.
Of course, of course it had to be a plant Akuma. He couldn't stand these.
She thrusted out an arm and where she pointed plants began sprouting out of the ground, around the houses and covered everything. He growled as a tree broke through the pavement and sent a man up with it, trapping him high up in its branches.
That'd be fun. Yay.
He huffed and straightened up, shouting down.
"Hey poison ivy! Here I am!"
The woman whipped around and stared up at him, furiously forming something in her fists that he couldn't make out.
"MY NAME IS SNAPDRAGON AND YOU WILL NOT STOP NATURE!"
The blonde superhero sighed as she shot something after him. He jumped out of the way, not even looking back with what she had aimed at him. It was better to focus on what her next move was.
Marinette wasn't sure if she would survive this all.
Sure, she had stayed strong since Miss Fortune had turned her life into a living hell and she had managed to stay away from suicide attempts like drinking herself to death or running straight into an Akuma attack or just throwing herself off her balcony.
But as it all became a little too much just when Chloé had confronted her once again, she really began doubting if she would make it through.
Could a human die by the lies told about him? Marinette thought of it as true.
She curled up tighter inside the paper garbage bin that was smelling of plastic, praying that nobody would find her.
She had gone to school, as usual. She had stayed away from everyone, she had coped with her hangover, she had ignored Nino's worried glances and the hate that got her presented on a silver tablet by everyone. It had been a normal day of avoiding everything, as usual.
Until Chloé had once again lost her temper. She had walked right up to Marinette and had begun yelling the usual stuff.
She was a murderer.
She killed Ladybug.
She was responsible for every following civilian casualty. For every injury.
For Chat Noir's breakdown, this week after the Snapdragon Akuma. Alya had somehow managed saved him and tried to get him to a hospital but he had declined, that's everything Marinette knew.
Of course, she hadn't spoken during her scolding. If she had dared to speak Chloé would've made things even worse. But when she had finally addressed Marinette personally, asking her how much her father hated her now, Marinette wished she would've spoken.
Because she didn't know that Chloé had wanted an answer. She had remained stubbornly quiet and had looked up at Chloé through empty eyes.
That's when the blonde had snapped. She had lifted her hand and had slapped Marinette across the cheek.
The bluenette had stood up without another word and left the classroom. Behind her the commotion had begun and she vaguely recalled someone holding Chloé back, but she couldn't care less who it had been. Though she might have seen a red flash. Either it had been Nino's cap or Sabrina's hair but really, she didn't care.
She had found this dumpster and, well… Had done it like the trash. She had thrown herself away.
Wondering if she would every come out of this alive.
Wondering if she could live a normal life at all from this moment on. The whole of Paris knew and hated her. Moving away wouldn't get her anywhere. She knew that her past would catch up to her and as soon as somebody caught that she was a murderer she would once again have the same problems.
Her career as a designer had become nothing more than a desperate wish. Nobody wanted to buy clothes of a murderer.
And she had the daughter of the mayor as a personal poltergeist. She was sure Chloé had the power and influence to keep an eye on her and possibly even manipulate people and documents so that she'd end up on the street since her father would want to have her out of the house as soon as she was of age. Which would be in a few months.
She sighed and nestled deeper into the paper in her garbage bin, not noticing that she slowly fell asleep.