Author's Note: Awwww, thank you so much for your comments, favs and follows! I'm glad you liked the previous chapter. It was rather good :3

So… Who was that mysterious person Adrien met? Did they swapped lots or not? What's the result of all those swaps? Well, you'll find out in just a few paragraphs. Enjoy!

Oh, and I have a little surprise for you at the end of this chapter, hope you'll like it.

CHAPTER 10 "The party"

Finally the day of the party came. Even though Chloé was not going to be Ladybug, she still had her reputation to look up to. That's why the ballroom at Le Grand was sparkling with cunning decorations. Purple akuma-shaped butterflies were dangling happily from the ceiling. Here and there you could also spot ladybugs and little black cats with glittery green eyes. The catering tables bent with exquisite snacks. A delicate music played in the background. The overall impression was pleasant, interestingly fresh and stylish.

Chloé peered nervously around, waiting for Chat Noir and Ladybug to appear. She was no longer furious, apparently in the last two days she had used all of her rage supplies. She just wanted to know, she had to know. And when she did, it would be payback time.

As Chloé watched her classmates arriving at the party, she finally begun to grasp what Sabrina was trying to tell her about those swaps. It seemed that everybody traded their lots! So far she didn't see anyone dressed as the original character they drew.

Alya walked past her, trailing Nino in her wake. She was dressed in Simon Says costume, while her almost boyfriend apparently settled for Mime's outfit. 'Well, that figures,' Chloé thought nastily. That redhead was oh so bossy and basically never silent, poor Nino could barely utter a word in her presence anyway.

She spotted Ivan and Mylene dancing in the corner and her mouth dropped at the sight of two fake beards adorning their faces. Ivan had a guitar strapped to his back and a mop of pink dreadlocks on his head. His fake beard was black, short, similar to the usual stubble of Jagged Stone. Currently it was brushing onto a more generous fake hair glued to Mylene's face. Yuk. The girl was supposed to be Santa Claws, but the difference in height between her and Ivan made her look more like a dwarf instead. Chloé supposed the girl was even more Bashful now.

Still, no trace of Adrien, though Gabriel Agreste was already here talking to her father and Miss Bustier. Chloé was hoping that the boy would come as Chat Noir after all. Although she wasn't Ladybug, she still planned to lure him in – as a villain she needed to be rescued, didn't she? And she came prepared. She was very satisfied with her Stormy Weather's outfit. Some people would say it might be too revealing, but Chloé knew what boys wanted. She smirked with satisfaction as she noticed the look on Kim's face, when he ogled her costume. Hmmm, actually Kim himself didn't look that bad in his Darkblade attire. Chloé always had a weak spot for knights. Too bad she had to wait for Adrien.

Her fist tightened around her necklace, the newest one in her collection, ordered especially for this occasion. She might not be Ladybug after all, but she certainly deserved only the best when it came to jewelry. The pendant was small and round, split in half. Its design was cunningly based on the yin-yang symbol. The yin half was made in black onyx, with a red circle of Ladybug symbol. The circle itself was a ruby, with five spots of gold embedded in it. The yang half was red coral, but instead of a circle it had a black paw print – a set of black diamond circled with golden edges. It was the most beautiful thing Chloé saw in her life. She only wore it that evening to impress Adrien, otherwise it was stored in her father's safe.

The weather girl casted a glance in the direction of the buffet, where Sabrina chatted happily with Max. She was supposed to be Animan, but since the akuma changed his shapes, she decided to go with the last one – the T-rex, though if someone would bother to ask Chloé, Sabrina's outfit looked more like Barney than anything else. Max was dressed as Mr. Pigeon, and it seemed like he didn't give a crap.

An outburst of laughter caught her attention. It was Alix, hands on her laps, as she bend in a loud cackle. Chloé saw her before as she was pretending to take control of Juleka, who came as Rogercop, tiny Alix in a Puppeteer costume standing above her on a chair and moving Juleka's hands in the air. At the same time Rose dressed as Pixelator was taking pictures of them. Now Chloé followed Rose's finger pointing to something behind her back. Clearly it was the source of Alix's amusement, so Chloé turned around to see for herself.

The sight had her startled on the spot. Because what was coming at her was no other than the horrid Kung Food, quickly striding in her direction with an evil grin on his face. Chloé's hand clutched at the pendant. She drew her breath and was about to scream when she remembered herself. This was not an akuma, this was one of her classmates. As he got closer she noticed that instead of blond hair poking from under a chef hat (that she still saw sometimes in her worst nightmares) he had a thatch of familiar red strands. His eyes weren't yellow but blue. Yet before she was able to relax she saw that he was holding something in front of him, as he carefully walked towards her. A bowl. Of soup.

Finally Nathaniel came to a stop in front of the weather girl and despite the devious smirk (which now Chloé saw was just his make-up) he managed to state in his most polite voice, 'You broadcast an impression of someone in dire need of soup, Chloé. And I would be more than happy to provide you with such delicacy'. He pushed the bowl into her unresisting hands, clearly taking advantage of her shock. Then the redhead bowed with his hands clasped in front of his face and left, while behind her Alix, Juleka and Rose howled bended in half with laughter.

At the same time Adrien, already in his outfit, loitered around the entrance to the ballroom, although in fact he was hiding. He was reluctant to go inside by himself, as his father had already spotted him and was looking at him with a rather peculiar look on his face.

Marinette finally arrived, late as usual. And as usual she tripped over thin air and bumped into him. Adrien caught her expertly and let out a sigh of relief.

'You're finally here,' he said helping her to regain her balance. Marinette's fists automatically went to her hips as she straightened up. It was almost an unconditioned reflex probably triggered by tight suits. For a moment Adrien looked puzzled, but shook it off quickly and said simply, 'I've been waiting for you.'

The girl cocked a suspicious brown. 'Oh. Why?'

'Well, since we ended up as the heroes for the evening I thought we could go in together?' he replied, absentmindedly rubbing the back of his neck. This rendered Marinette speechless for a moment, as the gesture was so out of place considering his costume.

'And let me just say, you look stunning, Marinette!' he flashed her a pleasant smile and a wink, waiting for an outburst of stammer. Surprisingly though it didn't come.

'Why, thank you. You're so sweet.' Marinette giggled as she looked at him. 'Oh boy, this will be beyond fun to see the look on Chloé's face,' she thought. And she noticed she didn't stutter at all. It must be the costume talking, definitely a boost in courage there.

'Seriously, I know she's supposed to be a weather girl, but there's too much 'u' and not enough 'ee' for it to be 'sleety' today,' Alya was commenting on Chloé's inappropriate outfit, while Nino, Alix and Max snickered beside her casting a glance at their hostess. The said hostess was lost in her thoughts as she counted under her breath, trying to recall all the people in her class. Including her there were twelve villains present in the ballroom at that moment. That meant the only ones to show up yet were the heroes.

Chloé's eyes skipped from classmate to classmate as she tried to figure out who wasn't there. Well, Adrien obviously and… she gasped at the sudden realization, her eyes already narrowing in anger… 'Marinette!' Chloé growled through her gritted teeth.

At that precise moment the main door to the ballroom opened wide revealing two masked people in skin-tight suits standing in the doorstep. The taller one sported a black leather-like outfit with a bell under his chin and cat's ears pinned to a thatch of messy hair. The shorter was wearing a red spandex suit with black spots here and there, while her hair was split into two pigtails with red ribbons.

A susurration rolled past the ballroom. Chloé took one look at the pair in the door, growled wildly and stormed out through another entrance in a yellow blur, once again enraged to the bone.

Others just stared in astonishment at their super-classmates. There was an absolute silence. And then all guests broke into laughter, sincere, irresistible laughter. It was the kind of laughter that makes you forget all about akumas, traumatized or not. The laughter turned into applause, which subsided after a moment as the guests returned to their previous activities.

Adrien bowed to the audience, and turned to his partner, huge grin on his face 'By the way, nice platforms, Marinette. I don't think they suit Chat's costume, though,' he said looking utterly smug.

'Well, I don't like wearing them either,' Marinette murmured with amusement, 'But I figured Chat Noir should be taller than Ladybug. Don't you think?' She looked at him from an unusual perspective as her eyes were leveled with his. She was actually a bit taller now than he was. His green orbs sparkled with glee.

She looked him up and down again. As they were about to enter the ballroom she gave him a wink and said 'Those spots really look great on you…'

'I know.' Adrien replied with a proud smile.

'But the pigtails? Seriously, it's just too much!'

The boy grinned slyly. 'You gotta have them when you're Ladybug!'

He offered his arm to the girl. With mischievous glint in his eyes he wiggled his brows and asked in the most playful voice he could muster 'Are you ready to chat?

Marinette chuckled and replied 'Yes, my Lady.'

And then the world stopped for them. The words rang in their ears. Their brains were on fire, aflame with the sight of familiar eyes covered by wrong masks. Each consciousness was suddenly flooded by memories and flashbacks, forcing the mind to catalogue the similarities and premonitions, to analyze the consequences, up to the inevitable conclusion. Eventually their obliviousness started to dispel. The penny dropped.

They slowly turned to each other with eyes wide opened and shouted in unison 'Wait! What have you just said?! … '

- The En… -

nnnnnd…. you know what? I've changed my mind ;)

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..

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Chloé ran through hotel's corridors and up to her room. She leaned on the door, shaking with rage. Had she kept her eyes opened, she might have had the chance to see a black and purple butterfly pushing its way through a keyhole. It landed silently on the pendant hanging around her neck and disappeared inside. A moment later a light butterfly-shaped shadow appeared before Chloé's eyes, and she heard a gentle, sympathetic whisper in her ears.

'My poor girl. Wronged, mocked, humiliated, in spite of everything that you've done for them. They don't deserve you. You could be so much more if they just let you. But they don't see what I see in you.'

'I can give you the power to avenge that humiliation and injustice. I can give you the abilities to fulfill your potential, to be who you always wanted to be, who you deserve to be. And all I require in exchange are just two little tokens of gratitude…'

A wicked smirk crawled onto Chloé's face when she croaked 'I'll gladly comply to your wish, Hawk Moth.' In just a few seconds she was covered in black and purple smoke coming from the pendant as that silent whisper continued in a voice now lined with malice.

'Then go and show them who's the real hero around here… LadyNoir!'

…

..

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- To be continued -

Author's note: A question for you – if Mari is Chat, and Adrien is Ladybug, shouldn't the ship be called ChatBug instead of LadyNoir? xD

Feel free to let me know if you liked it? I'm dying to know!

Now prepare for the downpour of announcements…

I honestly planned to end this one right there where I wrote "The End". It was already written, proof-read, waiting to be posted, whatever. And then suddenly that idea struck me after reading a review by izzy (thanks btw, you're my little ray of sunshine for each of my fics!) and it was too good an opportunity to waste it. Approximately 5 more chapters are coming your way! I hope you're not disappointed? Though this is exactly the reason I'm so grateful for your reviews, people! I get much inspiration from your comments and PMs, sometimes in very unobvious ways.

I want to thank you all for the support you've given me so far. It really meant a world to me, as this is my first fic ever.

This one goes on hiatus for some time (short! I promise!). I need a bit of a rest, if you want the following chapters to be good. Plus, writing is going to be difficult in the next 2-3 weeks because of the amount of work pilling up on my desk.

In case you miss me, you can check my other fics (including the first chapter of a brand new ML detective AU I accidentally knocked out yesterday especially for April Fool's Day) or find me on tumblr. Don't be a stranger.