Ladybug

Ladybug looked up at Chat Noir as his personality changed.

Her thigh was in pain. He had used cataclysm on her, and the longer she laid there, the more apparent it became that it had been on purpose. He had never been in an illusion.

"How were you akumatized, Chat?" She tried to keep the fear out of her voice.

"That's not what's important right now, bugaboo." He smirked, "now it's nothing personal, but I'm going to take your Miraculous."

"No," she whimpered, "please, Chat! Fight him!"

"If you must know, I've been akumatized for days. Ever since my father visited me in the hospital."

She gasped, "but that would mean-"

"I've been akumatized for a week and no one noticed, especially not you. Now hold still, this will all be over soon."

He reached down with his right hand to pluck her earrings out.

That was his mistake.

With a yell of defiance and pain, she grabbed his ring, and using his momentum against him, pulled him over the top of her, landing a few feet away as Adrien, without the white top to his shirt.

He stood up and dusted his palms. "Bravo, I wasn't expecting that."

At first, Ladybug had thought that his ring would be the object, but now she could plainly tell that it was his shirt.

Tricky, that wasn't a treasured object like it usually was. Then again, Adrien did wear that shirt a lot…

She sat up and stored the ring in her yo-yo.

She kept the glasses on, who knew when an illusion would be thrown at her.

Adrien came towards her, "Just give up, you're all out of tricks."

"No! The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing!"

He stopped, then held his head in his hands. "Ladybug? I—" He screamed and fell to his knees. A purple butterfly mask appeared around his eyes.

"Keep fighting him, Adrien!" Ladybug knew what was happening, that the only thing she could hope for was a distraction.

"It— it hurts!" He panted, squeezing his eyes shut. "A real father wouldn't do this to his own son! You're a horrible father!"

Time seemed to slow down as she realized what that was implying, Gabriel Agrèste was Hawk Moth.

He was just close enough that she could reach forward and touch him.

This was going to hurt.

She used her good leg and bolted on top of him.

She took his t-shirt in her hands and ripped it free from Adrien.

This was a completely inappropriate time to notice that he looked even hotter without a shirt on.

She ripped the shirt up some more, for good measure, and finally, a purple butterfly flew from the tatters of it.

"Time to de-evilize!"

She spun her yo-yo above her head since she couldn't stand. The yo-yo snagged the Akuma.

"Gotcha," she sighed in relief, she opened her yo-yo back up, "bye-bye little butterfly. Pound it."

She knuckled herself.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" She threw the 3D glasses into the air.

She collapsed flat on her back, the Miraculous Ladybugs mending her leg and Adrien's shirt.

Adrien.

She pushed herself back to her feet. He was hugging himself and kneeling, breathing hard.

"Are you okay?"

He slowly shook his head.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He took a shaky breath. "I've known for a week that my father," he spat the word out, "is Hawk Moth. I haven't had time to process, because he akumatized me and made me forget."

He shook his head sadly, "I don't know if it's because I'm a Miraculous holder, but I remember everything. I wanted to hurt you. It was a deep desire that even I don't understand."

Ladybug didn't know what to say, so she just hugged him.

"Can I sleep at your place tonight?" It came as a whisper, "I'm too afraid to go home."

"Of course you can, even if I have to hide you from my parents, which I probably won't, now that I think of it. "

She opened her yo-yo and got the ring out.

Plagg Hugged Adrien. Adrien looked like he was trying to say something that was very hard for him.

"I don't think you should give that back to me."

"What?" Ladybug was shocked. "Why?"

"I don't deserve it. You should give it to someone who does."

"But Master Fu chose you!"

"He chose wrong."

"No, he didn't."

"How do you know?"

Ladybug smiled, "Even before I knew who you were, I trusted you with my life. I knew that everything would be alright with you by my side. I know I told you I was in love with someone else, but I loved both sides of you, even if I didn't know it."

Adrien smiled a soft little smile. "Thanks." He whispered, "I needed that."

They left for Marinette's place with Adrien's ring back in its rightful spot.