She had never meant to lie. Ladybug was her hero, and she knew that she could never live up to the amazing, fearless, and perfect girl that must be behind the mask!
She was just Mireille, a typical teenage girl from at Collège Françoise Dupont ...well fairly typical anyway. Sure she had been affected by multiple akuma attacks over the last couple years, but Ladybug and Chat Noir had always been there to save her and her friends. The craziest time had been when she had suddenly been thrown into the spotlight when she won a Kids choice competition against her classmate Aurore. Overnight she became the youngest weather girl in Paris...but the disappointment of losing had gotten Aurore akumatized into the villain Stormy Weather...and she had immediately turned Mireille into a popsicle the first chance she got! Now Mireille couldn't even put ice cubes into a drink; it just made her shiver at the memory of being frozen into that elevator. She had never even gotten the chance to thank Ladybug and Chat Noir in person! But they had saved her so many times!
Mireille flipped back her raven black hair, that blew across her face in the wind. The sunlight warmed her face and highlighted the dark blue reflections on the loose strands of hair. She passed by a poster advertising the new Gabriel cologne, and couldn't resist pausing a moment to sigh at the dreamy green eyes of Adrien Agreste. It was still hard to believe that he actually went to her school! She still had an hour before the morning shoot at the news studio for the Saturday weather forecast. She glanced up at the etched glass window of the Dupain-Cheng-Chong bakery, and smelled the warm inviting scent of fresh bread. She had time, and thought she'd pick up a bag of croissants for the crew. It wasn't her plan to be there right at that moment, and she might have left sooner had she not decided to wait for the kind baker's offer to throw in some chocolate chip cookies that were about to be pulled from the oven.
It was just a case of being in the wrong place at the right time.
Across the street Ladybug had already used up her lucky charm, and the akumatized man was no closer to being stopped. He had been transformed into a thrashing purple bull that was trampling everything in his path. Worst of all Chat Noir was fighting desperately to provide Ladybug a way out, but he couldn't keep the crazed bull back. Ladybug's earrings started beeping their last warning. Both Ladybug and Chat Noir frantically looked for anywhere to shield her secret identity from the world, and most of all, Hawkmoth!
Chat Noir could see the Dupain-Cheng bakery across the street. If he timed it right he could possibly launch her close enough to make it inside. At least there he knew that she would be safe. Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng and their daughter Marinette could always be trusted. "Quick! The bakery!" Chat Noir had whispered in her ear, making his breathe tickle her ear. "Go hide there!"
"What! There?! No, I'm not going there!" Ladybug forcefully whispered. "I can't go there! Someone will see me!"
"A whole lot of people out here will see you too in a second, including Hawkmoth!" Chat Noir narrowed his eyes in frustration. Honestly, she could be so stubborn! This quality usually only made her all the more enticing to Chat Noir, but this time she just had to let him save her already! He stepped in beside her slyly, and draped his arms solftly around her.
"Ah...what are you doing?!" Ladybug stiffened in the close proximity of her partner like a deer in the headlights.
"Saving you as always!" Chat Noir's declaring with a devilish smirk as he grabbed her, used his baton to launch her over the unsuspecting head of the akuma victim and straight through the door of the Dupain-Cheng bakery.
Ladybug lost her transformation, and collided headlong into a female customer who had been buying a bag of croissants. It was none other than Mireille! The teenage girl had a split second to yelp out a squeak of alarm as she witnessed her hero flail into her in a swirl of magic ladybugs. They lay twisted up in a heap, with scattered croissants flung around the floor. Marinette sat upright with a look of pure panic on her face, meeting the equally shocked expression of the girl who had unwittingly been exposed to Ladybug's true identity.
"Marinette?!" called her father from the kitchen where he had been busy pulling out some fresh cookies. He looked over the counter, and sighed deeply croissant-carnage all over the floor. "Oh Marinette, not again!" he sighed, shaking his head. "You can't just come barreling in here when you're late! Now look, you knocked over this customer!" he scolded gently. "You aren't hurt miss, are you?" Tom asked the girl still (who was still staring unblinkingly at Marinette).
"Ahhh...no...no...it's fine. No really, it's a honor...a privilege...I mean, it's no problem at all," Mireille sputtered, as Marinette's eyes widened, pleading internally that what had just happened really didn't just happen. "Actually Sir, it was probably my fault. I just got surprised, and lost my grip on the bag," Mireille excused, as Tom stopped down to offer each of them a hand up to their feet.
"Well that is very nice of you to say, but at least let me go grab you some more fresh croissants," Tom said over his shoulder as he headed back into the kitchen.
"You're really her! You're La..." Mireille started to whisper to Marinette, but was quickly cut off by a bellowing voice from outside.
"Ladybug!" the akuma victom hollered. "I know you're in there! Say goodby to your precious pet!" The villain wasted no time, and in horror Marinette and Mireille watched the bullish creature press down his full weight against Chat Noir. Chat Noir gasped for air, struggling frantically to catch his breath.
"No! I don't have enough time to refuel Tiki! I have to stop him!" Marinette said our loud as she raced to the door, but Mireille barred her way.
"Please Ladybug, don't go out there and give yourself away!" she pleaded with Marinette. "I..I...think I can help!"
"Just forget you ever saw me Mireille. Can you just do that," Marinette asked.
"I could lead them away! Be a distraction for you! Look, I could even pretend to be you!" Mireille hastily poked eye-holes in the white paper bag she had been holding.
"It's too dangerous, and we've got no time!" Marinette tried to push her to one side.
"You always save everyone in Paris! It's time someone saved you," the girl shot back in determination. In a moment of decision she dodged Marinette's attempt to push by, and jumped out onto the street ahead of her. Mireille rushed out of the bakery, taking the white paper bag that still smelled like buttery pastry, and popped it over her head. "Hey you monster!" She yelled, with a break in her voice. "Leave Chat Noir alone! If you want my miraculous come and catch me now, or loose me forever!" Then she bolted down the street and around the corner.
The bull-like monster was apparently distracted enough that he lost his grip on Chat Noir, who managed to grab his lost baton when the creature turned to hear taunt. Chat Noir's extended his weapon, and caught the creature right in the eye, making him howel in rage. Loosing no time Chat Noir vaulted after the sprinting girl wearing the paper bag.
The akuma victom chased Chat Noir and the girl he assumed was a detransformed Ladybug.
Marinette had rushed out of the bakery behind Mireille, but both Chat Noir and the monster were too distracted following the false ladybug to realize that the real ladybug was left standing on the sidewalk, trying to formulate a new plan that would fix the whole mess. Meanwhile Tiki was busy scarfing down one of the fallen crossants.
"I'm ready!" Marinette Tiki chirped eagerly from Marinette's shoulder.
"How did this get so messed up!" Marinette asked Tiki exasperatedly, running around the corner to where the three had disappeared. "Now this girl from my school knows who I really am...and worse...five seconds later is in danger because of it!"
"It couldn't be helped," Tiki reassured her, keeping pace. "And it was the girl's own choice to try to help you. Don't worry, we'll save her!"
"Tiki, Spots on!" Marinette wasted no time in calling on her transformation as soon as they were in the shadow of the building, out of sight.
Meanwhile, Chat Noir had finally caught up to who he assumed was his reckless partner. He grabbed her up in his arms, and managed to vault them a couple blocks ahead of the bull.
"How could you just rush out of a perfectly good hiding spot before charging Tiki up?!" Chat Noir scolded "Ladybug." "You've got to say "Spots On first before running into danger, remember!"
"Well, I wasn't about to just hang out in the bakery and watch you get crushed to death!" the girl shot back a bit muffled under the paper bag.
"Can't live without me huh?!" Chat Noir grinned.
"I..I ah.." the girl stuttered. "No...Well..I mean...what would Ladybug be without Chat Noir!"
The shakiness in her voice caused Chat Noir to freeze. She wasn't joking this time...she really had been worried about him. Their eyes meet, and he noticed that they were not the bluebell colour he was expecting. In her civilian form Ladybug apparently had dark tangelo eyes. How many things had the transformation hidden from him.
"Chat Noir, I need to tell you..." she said reaching out to touch his arm.
His eyes were glued to the slender curve of her hand, and the fair softness revealed. He held his breath at how close he was to her without the barrier of her costume. But his mind could not linger on her touch, or her unfinished sentence because a thunder of hooves was headed straight for them.
The villain caught up and tried to charge them. He lowered his head, and waved his head like a battering ram. Chat Noir's shielded the girl at his side, but she tripped back, loosing the bag off her head.
"You okay Mi'Lady?!" Chat called, looking back, and then dropped into stunned silence. His surprised eyes met her startled ones, as she frantically grabbed for the bag to pull back down over her eyes.
Chat Noir forced himself to look back at the groaning akuma victom, and tried to steady his racing heart. He had seen her! Her face! The love of his life, and she was different than he expected. Beautiful, but it was like meeting again for the first time. And yet surely that was just the magic of the miraculous. He was sure that he looked different as Adrien than he did as Chat Noir. ...Still he was sure he had seen her before...maybe a girl from his school! Mirerre-something...wasn't she the girl that had won the weather contest back when he and Ladybug had first started protecting Paris. It all seemed to make sense now how Ladybug had known about the contest when they had fought Stormy Weather. He was tempted to glance back over his shoulder again at her, but he didn't want to make her feel even more awkward at mistakenly revealing herself to him.
He just wanted to find a way to let her know that he loved her, and would love her no matter who she was under the mask. A flood of thoughts surged through his mind. Now that he knew would they both be able to keep their miraculous?! Maybe now that he had seen her, maybe he should reveal his identity as well! Maybe this way she could finally see that they were meant to be together!
"Chat Noir! Look out!" she called from behind.
Chat Noir was once again jarred from his daydreams of remote islands, fruit on the beach, and pet hamsters by the threat of the villain before him. No...Hawkmoth would not take his Lady from him at the very moment he had found her! Chat Noir summoned all his strength and fought back with even more furosiry. "As much as I'm loving your new look, Any chance you might be ready to transform yet Bugaboo?" Chat Noir smiled back at her. "We could really use a bit of luck about now!"
"You and me both," she muttered, but then caught sight of the real Ladybug leap onto the roof above them. "You know, I think I'm ready! Just...ah...just don't look at me for a second okay?!"
"Mi'Lady, you don't have to worry. You know you can always trust me," Chat Noir assured her softly.
"Thanks Chat Noir...I'm just...I'm not who you think I am...I'm just..." she tried to explain in a hurry.
"Okay, okay, you're all shy now that I've seen you," Chat Noir smiled, and turned back to the villain who was grunting across the street ready to charge. "Ok, I promise I won't peek, if you promise you'll help me out here with this guy!"
"Tiki, Spots On!" she called, with a glance at a confused Ladybug who dropped beside her, and had a crinkled white paper bag shoved into her hands, before Mireille had sprinted away and dove under a nearby parked car.
Ladybug looked over at where the fleeing girl had disappeared, and then back at the paper bag with her families design sketched on the front. "Uh Kitty did you...?" Ladybug asked in a dazed voice, making Chat Noir turn back with a dopey grin.
"Did I...?" He asked with a wink.
"Did you...you know what...never mind! We'll talk about this once we've finished this guy!" Ladybug twirled her yoyo as the villain charged.
"Can't wait!" Chat Noir said enthusiastically, glancing sideways over at Ladybug.
"Lucky charm!" Ladybug called, and a red spotted cape furled down into Ladybug's waiting hand. Using it like a matador, distracting a charging bull, Ladybug flashed the cape across his eyes. The creature reared up on his hind legs.
"Cataclysm!" Chat Noir shouted sliding right underneath him and struck his gold hoof with his paw. The akuma victom crumpled to the ground, and a purple butterfly was quickly captured by Ladybug, and released with her typical,"Bye Bye little butterfly!" Followed by a toss of her lucky charm to revert everything back to how it had been, and repair the damage caused by the creature...only there was one thing her lucky charm couldn't fix...the way Chat Noir was looking at her right now!
Oooo
I do not own Miraculous Ladybug or their amazing characters. Thomas Astruc is the mastermind behind it all. I am just a fan who wonders how the recurring background characters might be brought the the forefront in future episodes. Please like or follow to get new updates;)