Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.

"Fistbump?"

"Yeah."

Ladybug and Black Cat did a fist bump, as the cameras clicked around them. A beep sounded from the miraculouses, the ring and the earrings.

"Gotta go." Ladybug prepared to leave, but a tap on her shoulder stopped her. "Yes?" the girl turned around to see the owner of the Ladyblog.

"I won't bug you two for interviews and signatures, but the Ladyblog's getting a forum update this afternoon." She thrust two slips of paper into the superheroes' hands. "Here are codes so you can access to the site extra early, and create your accounts so there will be no fake accounts." she explained why she gave them the papers.

"Okay. Thanks." Black Cat folded up the paper. As he did that, another beep sounded from Ladybug's earrings.

"You're down to two spots," Black Cat informed her, as he knew she couldn't see the spots lefts by herself.

"Well, bye for now." Ladybug used her yoyo to swing herself away. Her earrings gave one final beep, and she landed behind a tree and detransformed in a flurry of red light.

"That was a close call," Hayami muttered as Tikki zoomed in her bag. The girl peeped around to make sure no one caught her transforming from Ladybug to Hayami, then she looked at the piece of paper in her hand. She put it in her skirt pocket and adjusted the bow on her uniform.

Black Cat also bounded away and detransformed. After he turned into Chiba, he patted his bangs to make sure they were still in place. He was self conscious like that, and he did that every time he turned into his civilian form.

Plagg landed on his shoulder and hissed, "Have you ever thought about knowing Ladybug's identity?"

"No. We have to keep it a secret." Chiba replied, and gestured for Plagg to hide when he heard people chattering.

It was just his luck that the akuma attack had occurred during lunch break. Hayami had been able to sneak out and fight, but Sugaya and Okajima had dragged him out to watch the fight. That would not had been a problem, except that Chiba, or Black Cat was supposed to be in the fight, not to watch it.

So Ladybug had to hold it out on her own while Chiba had to make up excuses and run away hurriedly.

Chiba walked out from his hiding place and pretended to be part of the students that had been watching the akuma attack. Lunch break was almost over, and unfortunately for him, he hadn't even gotten a bite of food. He had to do some work for others, then he had to watch Ladybug fighting the akuma, and then he had to transform.

Summer holidays had ended, and they had to go back to school. Chiba was almost glad, because he would have work to do. And he liked working.

Chiba sneaked back into the classroom, and got out his bento box. Just as he picked up his chopsticks, the bell rang, signalling the end up lunch. Normally, Chiba would have stopped and put away his lunch, as he always followed the rules, but today was an exception.

He hungrily scarfed down a few spoonfuls of rice, and he ate half of a boiled egg in two bites. He stuffed the other half in his mouth, then decided that would be enough. He would just eat it after school.

Hayami dashed to the classroom, and flung open the door. Lunch break had ended. The girl sighed internally and went to her seat. She had promised to do some project work for a classmate, but instead, she had spent most of the lunch break fighting. She had wanted to do the work the second lunch started, but Tikki had convinced her to eat first. And Hayami knew she couldn't say no to Tikki, because Tikki was almost always right. Hayami also trusted the kwami's advice and judgement, seeing she had been alive for like 5000 years.

Chiba had been surprised when Hayami suddenly entered the classroom. He felt embarrassed that a classmate had caught him eating so frantically, but Hayami didn't even look in his direction. His eyes followed the girl to her seat, and then she took out the books needed for the next lesson.

Hayami quietly gave Tikki a cookie, and she brushed her hair away from her face as she studied her notes, written neatly by hand and a few keywords were highlighted. Hayami's worst subject was Physics, but she didn't complain, she just tried harder to study it.

"Hey, Hayami-san? Have you finished the work?" A girl with short, bobbed brown hair strode in the classroom and approached Hayami's deck.

Hayami gave a half-grimace. "Sorry, I haven't finished it." she answered honestly.

The other girl crossed her arms and looked at Hayami with distaste. "Huh. You probably got distracted by the akuma fight."

Hayami wanted to counter that the girl herself had been watching the fight, and it was she who had told her to do the work, leaving Hayami with the burden while the other girl could enjoy some free time. But of course Hayami couldn't say that out loud, so she just nodded mutely.

"I honestly expected you to have finished it." The girl told her bluntly.

"I'm sorry." Hayami said immediately, ignoring the slight sting of pain that panged her heart. "I'll finish it after school." she promised.

"You better," the girl said darkly and walked away, talking with her friends. Hayami heard her name and then the snide comment "I expected better"...

Hayami despised letting people down. She was determined to fulfill her duty of being Ladybug and a student. She would not allow any failures. Gripping her pen, Hayami stared at the blackboard in front of the classroom, waiting for the teacher and another lesson.

After school, Hayami sat in the classroom, quietly finishing her work, or rather someone else's work. Chiba was packing his books, when his eyes caught sight of the studious girl. His hidden eyes narrowed when he saw the girl. He hadn't seen her during the summer holidays, but somehow he began to care about her, more than he did for his other classmates. Maybe it was because they were so similar in personality, so she felt relatable to him.

Chiba walked briskly out, and when he returned home, he took out his half-eaten bento and sat in front of his computer. He typed the web address of the Ladyblog without thinking much about it. He had used the webpage so much he had memorized the web address. Chiba stuffed some rice in his mouth as he took out the carefully folded piece of paper. There was a thunk from behind him as Plagg rummaged through Chiba's bag for some cheese. Chiba ignored his kwami and typed in the code.

Instantly, a brand new layout of the webpage popped up. Chiba was impressed by it, and spent the next few minutes clicking around it, exploring the new features. He noticed that a PM function had been set for him and Ladybug, which would be useful in contacting the other while they were in civilian form, without revealing their identities.

Speaking of Ladybug, Chiba wondered when could she be online, so they could test the PM function out together. He reclined in his chair, waiting for his partner.

On the other side, Hayami plopped down in her chair by her desk, fingers rapidly typing the code she had. After staying behind at school, she had to rush home to make it before the official release of the new Ladyblog update.

Hayami had to click around for a while to get a hang of the new functions. Finding her PM chat with Black Cat, the girl typed a quick "Hi" and shrunk her hand away from the keyboard as if it was lava, nervous to see what he would say.

The response came seconds later. "Hello" was the message he sent.

Chiba was moderately pleased to see that his partner hadn't vanished mysteriously. It kind of proved that she was just like him, a student with duties to do.

Hi

Hello

This sure makes communicating easier.

Yeah, we can talk with each other no matter the time

And we don't have to know each other's identities.

Yup

Chiba was glad for this invention. It had been he who had said they shouldn't reveal themselves. Secretly, he was self conscious of his real form, because he thought his eyes were scary. He didn't want to creep out Ladybug, and besides, she seemed to really like him, so he didn't want to disappoint her by showing her his real, lame self.

By the way

Do you use text speech?

No

I don't either

Hayami, being a friend of Nakamura, had her fair share of seeing texts like "lol what's up" and abbreviations like "idk" and "idc". Hayami knew it was quicker to type that way, but being the perfectionist she was, she preferred to use normal sentences with proper grammar and spelling.

On the other side, Plagg was snickering at the computer screen, to Chiba's annoyance.

"If a love between masked superheroes isn't bad enough, we now have an 'internet friend' love." The kwami commented, tail flicking. He then suddenly zoomed and ran over the keyboard, typing nonsense with his feet.

"Plagg!" Chiba scolded and tried to grab his kwami on the keyboard, who quickly flew away from his grasp. Chiba ended up accidentally smashing on some buttons and sent a text made out of random letters and symbols to Ladybug.

cdsj-230k;sqs'buill' ]sajkvjhjks

?

Sorry, that was my kwami

Oh, okay

In order to stop Plagg from fooling around, Chiba took out a piece of cheese and flung it on his bedside table. Plagg immediately latched onto it, munching it frantically as if his lifeline depended on it. Letting out a small sigh, the boy turned back to the screen.

Your kwami doesn't seem to be well behaved.

Hayami realized that they had never talked about kwamis before. It was probably because if they discussed it in open, people would know how miraculouses worked, and that might attract more potential enemies.

That seems about right.

After a few months of knowing Plagg and becoming a superhero, Chiba was sure that some of Plagg's sarcasm and attitude had been transferred to him. Chiba knew there was truth to this, because when he transformed into Black Cat, Plagg also went into his outfit so they were essentially one being.

Is yours ok?

She's really nice and helpful

Maybe it's a Ladybug thing

It is, Plagg agreed mentally, green eyes trained on the screen as he gobbled down the last bits of cheese. A bitter feeling stabbed him through his chest, as he remembered the past holders he had looked after, the countless Black Cats vowing to protect their Ladybug with their life-

Just my luck.

"I'm lucky to have you, right?" Hayami turned to the spot where Tikki should be, but instead of the red, bug-like creature, a plushie of Black Cat's head stared at her.

Hayami stared back at the plushie for a few seconds before tearing her eyes away. Tikki zoomed from behind the plushie, giggling.

If anything weird pops up from me, it's probably some joke made by my kwami

So look out

Got it.

Apparently Tikki had a mischievous side too. Hayami stood up and immediately fixed the plushie back on its throne made out of other cat plushies.

On Chiba's side, the screen suddenly turned black. Somewhat mystified, the boy moved his mouse around until a page popped up, with the message "Oops! Looks like this page isn't available!".

He looked at the glowing digits of his clock, which read 5:00. No wonder, the new Ladyblog update had just been released to the public. Everyone must had been trying to visit the page, which caused it to lag and stop working.

After a few minutes, the problem was resolved, and a forum chat started. Different usernames began to pop up, and Chiba discovered that he and Ladybug had official-looking tags to differentiate them from civilian accounts.

Among the usernames, Chiba saw some names like "ladybug_waifu" and "ladybugxblackcat-otp", and ones that aren't related to the superheroes, like "hatsune-miku-queen", "mangafan" and "有鬼子". He wondered whether he should make a second account for his civilian self as not to seem suspicious, since he knew most of his classmates were avid followers of the blog.

But that was when he saw a familiar username, and Chiba's covered eyes widened slightly. The username "artsy-bean-pole" stood out among the other ones, because Chiba knew that was the internet name Sugaya went with. The boy had once told Chiba that he had began to publish his drawings online, which, he proudly stated, gained praise and followers. Chiba thought Sugaya's artistic talent was pretty amazing, especially because Chiba himself often had ideas he wanted to draw, but his drawings could never match the image he had in his mind.

"artsy-bean-pole" began to post some sketches on the forum named "FANART!". They were all pencil drawings of him and Ladybug in various poses, with some notes scribbled beside them. Chiba could recognize Sugaya's style, and remembered him showing him his work at school. A few seconds later, people began to comment.

mangafan: not bad at all, artsy-bean-pole. proportions are good, the eyes don't look weird, and they don't look too fake. thumbs up!

hatsune-miku-queen: Finally! 2D Ladybug!

ladybugxblackcat-otp: very nice but do u hv love dovey drawings of them? i wanna see them artsy-bean-pole

ladybugxblackcat-otp: *lovey

artsy-bean-pole: Wait.

Then Sugaya posted a few fully coloured drawings of Black Cat and Ladybug kissing, holding hands and even the famous kabedon, or the "wall slam". Chiba felt his face heat up when he saw those scandalous and totally untrue drawings, while Plagg cackled loudly. Covering his face, he peered through his bangs, then typed a short message, but he didn't send it.

mangafan: OHMYGODasdfghjkl

ladybugxblackcat-otp: my pores are clear, my crops have been watered, my prayers hv been answered. i love u.

mangafan: imscREAMING I LOVE YOU ARTSY BEAN POLE! OH MY GOD! THOSE DRAWINGS ARE AMAZING! *fangirling intensifies*

artsy-bean-pole: Thanks

Black Cat: ...

有鬼子: Your drawings are really nice! Please continue to draw more!

artsy-bean-pole: OH MY GOSH IT'S BLACK CAT

ladybugxblackcat-otp: wow geez this is exciting.

hatsune-miku-queen: 2D Ladybug is good. Very good.

有鬼子: Nice to meet you, Black Cat!

Hayami had been surfing the forums when she saw one forum with Black Cat's reply. Curious about what her partner had posted, she clicked on the forum, and saw a few pics loading. Impatiently, she scrolled down, trying to find Black Cat's message. But then the pics finished loading, so Hayami was suddenly facing a drawing of herself and Black Cat kissing, with hearts annotated around.

"The HELL?" the girl burst out, scooting her chair away from the screen, face as red as a tomato. Hands trembling slightly, she reached for the mouse and scrolled down, eyes sweeping past more pics of Ladybug and Black Cat in romantic situations. Her cheeks felt like they were burning as she caught glimpses of her drawn self with her crush hugging, kissing, crash-landing on each other...

How shameless! Hayami screamed into her mind. What is wrong with people? Why am I kissing him? It's not like I want to kiss him… or do I? She had finally scrolled past the drawings, and came across Black Cat's oh-so-helpful, meaningful message "...".

ladybugxblackcat-otp: i see you've taken my drawing prompts, bean pole.

artsy-bean-pole: Wait, I know you?

ladybugxblackcat-otp: i follow u on pixiv? have been following you for three months?

artsy-bean-pole: Oh, ok.

ladybug_waifu: WHAT IS THIS

ladybug_waifu: LADYBUG IS MY WAIFU NOT BLACK CATS

mangafan: chill ladybug is NOT your waifu. also somebody hasn't given me lines for a few paragraphs. thanks a lot, author

artsy-bean-pole: ?

Ladybug: I am not anyone's.

artsy-bean-pole: omg two superheroes visiting my thread in the same day

ladybug_waifu: MY IDOL! MYGODDESS! MY TSUNDERE! AHAHAHHAHAHAHAH

Black Cat: Watch your pronouns.

mangafan: ooh jealous bf

ladybugxblackcat-otp: oooooOOOOHHH

ladybug_waifu: I LOEV YOU LADYBUG! if you reject me there'll be an akuma :(

Ladybug: You can't even spell "love".

mangafan: burnnnn

ladybug_waifu: TYPO! And now I'm sad :((((((

ladybug_waifu: please love me, i have always been ur biggest fan, im always there, i love u

Ladybug: ...By chance, are you that bald person who screams everytime I make an appearance?

ladybug_waifu: it's a scream of love, a declaration of my loyalty to you

Ladybug: I take that as a yes.

artsy-bean-pole: …

ladybugxblackcat-otp: has anyone been wondering y the black cat fangirls haven't attacked this thread

ladybugxblackcat-otp: bcz their celebrity crush replied here

mangafan: fangirls attacking in three…

mangafan: two…

BlackCatIsHusband: ahhhhhHHHhahahjdzj BLACK CAT! MARRY ME!

cat-lover: He's my husband BIATCH *tosses hair*

fangirl: No hes MINE! :((((( He loves me!

mangafan: they sound like they're twelve

hatsune-miku-queen: That's because they ARE twelve

artsy-bean-pole: ladybugxblackcat_otp, you jinxed it

cat-lover: He kissed me! I can prove it! :((

Black Cat: No you can't, because that never happened

Lots of Black Cat fangirls and began to spam the thread with their confessions and their arguments with each other.

artsy-bean-pole: I thought this was a thread for art appreciation, not claiming somebody as your husband

Black Cat: Sorry for dragging you into this. Maybe I should leave.

Black Cat: Your art is phenomenal, don't let anyone discourage you.

artsy-bean-pole: Thanks a lot.

ladybug_waifu: He just doesn't want an akuma, unlike somebody who keeps ignoring me…

Ladybug: If he's leaving, then I'm leaving too

ladybug_waifu: who, me? Im flattered

artsy-bean-pole: No, she means Black Cat

Hayami wanted to say something nice to "artsy-bean-pole", but saying things like "great drawing" would cause people to think that she liked being drawn in compromising positions with her partner (whom she shared a strictly platonic relationship with). After thinking for five seconds, the spam from the fangirls became too much and a spark of fire ignited inside Hayami. Her fingers tapped on the keyboard, making louder noises than usual.

Ladybug: To artsy-bean-pole, I admire your art style. Also, to other people out there, Black Cat and I are not items you can claim. We are people, we have our thoughts, we have our feelings.

Black Cat: Couldn't have said it better myself.

ladybugxblackcat-otp: won't stop me from shipping them tho

Chiba gave a sigh, and then he clicked away from the thread. Returning to his PM chat with Ladybug, he realized his partner had updated her profile picture. Instead of being blank, it now had a picture of the Ladybug Nesoberi plushie, which he recognized as the promotional picture the Ladyblog had posted during the summer holidays.

So Chiba also changed his profile picture to a picture of the plushie of his alter-ego. When he returned to the chat, he saw that his plushie was slightly turned to the right, while the Ladybug plushie to the left. If somebody put the two pictures side by side, the plushies would look like they were facing each other.

Such a coincidence, Chiba thought. Knowing their crazy fans out there, someone would had done it within the day.

A text from Ladybug came: You changed your profile picture too.

Well now, they match.

A blush rose on Hayami's cheeks. That almost seemed like he was flirting with her, like he purposely made their pictures match.

Since we're a superhero duo, our pictures should match

Oh, of course. Hayami, being the lovesick fangirl she was, took his message wrongly. She cursed herself for overthinking things.

Okay

Chiba took out his homework. He had already spent half an hour on the internet already, so he had to do something productive.

But, the problem was, he was kind of scared to tell Ladybug he would be going offline. After all, it somehow seemed weird to him, maybe a bit too personal, and just… awkward.

So, in the end, he didn't say anything, allowing his screen to be turned on as he wrote his essay.

Meanwhile, Hayami seeing that Black Cat hadn't replied for some time, wondered if she should send him a text. But, she thought, then she would be rather nosy and poking into his business. Since she had a pretty big crush on him (Hayami had given up on hiding it from herself), of course she wanted to spend more time with him. But, he had work to do, just like her, so she shouldn't bother him.

So, in the end, she didn't say anything. Like her partner, Hayami did her Social Studies homework silently.

And also like him, she kept her screen turned on, wondering if a text from him would pop up.

Apparently, as Chiba learned the day after, Sugaya had to deal with the fangirls fighting for Black Cat after the two superheroes left the thread.

"They were so annoying," Sugaya grouched. "They all wanted me to draw themselves with Black Cat. Pssh, as if I would take those requests."

Okajima, who had heard the last sentence Sugaya said, walked over and gave him a wide, overly-sweet smile (which creeped Sugaya out). Batting his eyelashes as quick as a hummingbird's feathers, Okajima said, "Draw me with Ladybug, will you?"

Sugaya gave the boy a deadpan stare. "No." he replied. "By the way, who calls themselves 'ladybug_waifu'?"

A few paces away, Hayami had been talking with Nakamura, but after hearing what Sugaya said, she began to listen to the boys' conversation.

Okajima turned bright red. "H-how did you know?" he stammered.

Sugaya gave him a smirk. "Think twice before answering Ladybug's question online."

So it is Okajima, Hayami thought, feeling disturbed by her classmate.

Okajima opened his mouth and shut it. A few seconds later, he asked loudly, "Wait Sugaya, you're 'artsy-bean-pole'?"

Nakamura looked briefly at Sugaya, before returning to her conversation. Hayami thought she saw something weird in Nakamura's blue eyes, but that disappeared in a flash.

"Yeah?" Sugaya replied in a confused tone. "I thought I told you and Chiba?"

"He's too busy noticing what you draw," Chiba muttered. It was true, Okajima only cared about the chest sizes of the girls Sugaya drew.

"Well," Okajima crossed his arms. "Draw Ladybug for me please?" he requested hopefully.

Sugaya took out his pencil and began to sketch, making a few quick strokes on paper. "I don't take requests every time. I draw when I feel like it."

"But that person on the Ladyblog said you took drawing prompts from them, if my memory serves me correctly?"

"Drawing prompts are different from requests."

The bell rang, signalling the beginning of homeroom. The students scattered across the room looked up, and started to prepare themselves for another long day of school.

"I should take my leave." Nakamura said, waving cheerily at Hayami. "See you later!"

"Mm."

But as Nakamura strode to the classroom door, she turned her head slightly back, just to catch a small glimpse of a certain boy, before walking out.

A/N: I ship the artist boy with the blonde, blue-eyed girl. This applies to both Assassination Classroom and Miraculous Ladybug.

Also, the usernames Chiba mentioned are all names of the accounts of some 3-E students. Anyone want to guess?

To the people who had followed this story, thanks! Also, please read and review!