Okay. This is a friendship-chapter because I know most of you will be treating this as a romantic interlude. But no, they're strictly friends. (For now, at least.)

(:)

Happy 2nd anniversary, Griffin Stone! Thank you for being such a wonderful and amazing friend and person!

Kagami considered herself a lot of things. Brave, smart, a fencer, and a hero for just a few.

One thing she absolutely wasn't; she wasn't a common Parisian. She ignored what most people payed attention to. She liked the silence and the busy streets.

She honestly wasn't that fond of Ladybug, either. Sure, she was the heroine of Paris, and defeated akumas often, but, surely, everyone noticed what a valuable role Chat Noir played. If she was a building, Chat Noir was the support beams holding her up, helping her stand tall.

While Ladybug played the part of the planner, the person who fabricated the plots to capture the akuma, he was the defense. He was her shield and sword in the battle.

Ladybug was the brains of the operation, and he was the body.

As a fencer, a woman taught to attack and defend, Kagami related to him the most. Fencing was her life.

Now, hardly a week after the akumatization of Chat Noir, she remembered him as she practiced her strategies against Adrien.

"You're too predictable." Kagami smirked at Adrien, the boy laying at her feet, removing the point of her saber from his gullet and instead taking into both arms, bending both points to flex it.

Adrien grinned up at her, shaking his head. "And here I thought you said I was doing better."

"Better can mean any range of things." Kagami scoffed, offering him a hand up as she pinned her sabre to her magnetic belt hidden beneath her fencing gear. "From wonderful to slight adjustments."

"Uh-huh. You actually told me I was doing amazing."

"Not my true wording." The female fencer scoffed, shaking her head. "Besides, that was a month ago. Your performance has been lacking for the past week."

"Oh." Suddenly, his cheerful face crashed, and his eyes lowered in thought. "I've…had a lot on my mind this past week."

"Hmm. I'm sure you're just as distracted as the rest of Paris." Kagami guessed, arching an eyebrow. "And just as toxic."

"What do you mean, 'toxic'?" Adrien demanded to know, removing his helmet and shaking out his blonde locks.

"You know. All of Paris. Chat-haters." Kagami dismissed, waving her hand. "Anyhow, despite your predictable endeavors, you did fairly well. That was a good training session."

"Thank you?" Adrien curiously shrugging, arching an eyebrow. "I honestly don't know if that was a compliment, an insult, or one of those weird mid-way points."

Kagami didn't answer him. She had to keep up her mysterious persona somehow, and what better way then to reject his wish for answers?

Removing her own helmet, she assured her saber was properly fastened to her belt, smiling softly at him. "You know how you have a free schedule this afternoon?"

"I do." Adrien nodded, heading for the locker room, Kagami in his wake. "Basketball practice got cancelled."

"I was not aware you had basketball."

"New adjustment, as of two weeks ago." Adrien informed her, pushing open the door, glancing behind him. "Meet you at the entrance in five?"

"Of course." Kagami hesitated, cocking her head. She held out her arm when he continued in his path, making him pause. "You know…Marinette was telling me that one time, when school was released early, you were able to join her friends and her for a photo session without your father knowing. Since basketball or whatever was cancelled…do you want to join Marinette and I today? We're grabbing some juice."

Adrien hesitated, glancing into the locker room. "Well…"

"As long as your father doesn't know that class was cancelled, we should be just peachy." Kagami continued, pushing him into the locker room. "Just think about it." She commanded him, waving as the locker closed behind the boy.

Pivoting, she made her way over to the girl's locker room, where the other female fencers were changing back into their everyday clothes.

Technically, the locker rooms weren't divided in everyday life, but for fencing, where they had to change, the rooms were divided into male and female. Kagami could wander into the other locker room after she gave everyone ten minutes to change, though.

Kagami rapidly switched from her fencing gear to her casual attire, slinging her book bag over her shoulder.

The few other girl fencers – of which there were only two by name of Lou and Christina, spared her a simple "goodbye" as she left, still chatting with each other excitedly.

They weren't good fencers, much less worthy opponents of Kagami. She didn't tell them as such, despite how much she would love to, rub in their faces how pathetic they truly were. But she was trying to follow Marinette's instructions to be a good friend.

Kagami reached the bottom of the stairs leading up to the entrance to the school fifteen seconds before Adrien came sprinting down them, waving at her excitedly.

"I spoke to Natalie over the phone; she said I could come along; as long as my bodyguard transports us!" Adrien grinned, stopping beside Kagami. "Not a word of this can reach my father, though, or else he'll get mad at me again."

Kagami smiled at that, nodding. "I suppose I am the most fortunate of the two of us; Mother approves of you and Marinette of being my friends."

"My father only approved of Lila being my friend." Adrien responded, eyes narrowing angrily, a growl rising in his throat. "And I wouldn't even know that much if my bodyguard hadn't told me that he has to drive my father and Natalie to see her daily."

"You are quite unlucky." Kagami sympathetically frowned, patting him on the back. "That girl is nothing but trouble."

Adrien laughed, a frown crossing his face. "Thankfully, I've long since figured out how to deal with her."

Kagami gazed at him, curious as to what he meant. His frown was almost unnatural – she had never seen him look so cross before. "Good. You'll probably need the skill if she's the only so-called 'friend' your father approved."

Adrien's grin was nothing short of sinister. "You have no idea."

Kagami remained silent until his expression brightened into a happier smile, worries forgotten.

He made his way over to his car, opening up the door. "Hop on in." He offered, and Kagami clambered on in.

Adrien shut the door, making his way over to the other end of the car.

As he did so, Kagami's eyes met the Gorilla's, the huge man watching her through the mirror attached to the front window. He gave her a nod, and she gave him one back, arching an eyebrow at him. Frankly, a human chauffeur seemed more personable then a robot, as her family had.

Adrien's bodyguard made no sign that he noticed her gesture, pointing his gaze straight ahead again.

Hmm. Perhaps he wasn't 'that' personable after all.

Adrien moved into the seat next to her, grinning at her respectfully. Then, he turned his attention to the Gorilla. "This is Kagami! She's taking me to hang out with her and Marinette."

The Gorilla turned around to face the two of them, looking Kagami up and down.

"Please take us to Chatime." Kagami asked, folding her arms in her lap as she addressed the famous juice bar. She and Marinette went to a different juice bar every week for fun; once they determined which ones were the best, they would stick to them.

For now, though, they were still cycling through the options.

The Gorilla glanced at Adrien, who nodded, jerking a thumb at Kagami. "What she said. To Chatime, please!"

The Gorilla nodded, turning around and turning on the car, driving it out of the parking spot.

Adrien and Kagami spoke to each other for a few minutes, but eventually, they lapsed into silence.

Kagami pulled out her phone, about to tell Marinette to expect two people instead of one.

Before she could text Marinette, her phone buzzed as the younger teenager sent her a text of her own, stopping Kagami from typing in favor of reading the new message.

I brought a plus one. Marinette's text read, her message lighting up on Kagami's screen. I hope that's okay. It's Luka; we really need to review his bands' music sometime this week, and this was the only time he was available. I swear I'll spend an equal amount of time with you both.

Kagami shook her head at her friend's worrying personality, even shining through while texting, writing back a message of her own.

Appropriate. I'm bringing a tagalong too. It'll be Adrien. Apparently, his Basketball practice got cancelled, and I decided to invite him along to kill time.

Marinette didn't respond for a few moments. Okay! She simply wrote, a slight hesitation before she changed the subject. I'm bringing your new costume, BTW.

Perfect. Kagami easily reciprocated. Be there in five minutes.

"Are you texting Marinette?" Adrien asked, craning his neck around to glance at her phone.

"Indeed, I told her to expect us in five minutes. It appears she's bringing someone of her own choosing, as well. Luka, it appears. The guitar boy."

"Oh!" Adrien grinned, nodding. "He and I get along well! Glad I'm not going to be the only boy there."

"I'm glad you two get along. This'll be our first time formerly meeting." Kagami stiffly responded, pocketing her phone. "At least, I hope we'll be able to properly meet."

"Don't worry, Kagami, I'll make sure the two of you meet." Adrien promised, beaming confidentially. "He's a great guy, I'm sure you'll like him!"

Kagami looked out the window, scoffing. Sounds like you're trying to set us up. She thought with mirth, knowing that he simply wanted his two friends to become friends. But he sure was bad with conveying his actual thought process.

"I haven't seen Luka in a few weeks." Adrien said, turning his attention to the scenery whipping past outside. "Not since Desperada."

"Ah, yes. I remember her." Kagami recalled, but, truthfully, she only remembered grabbing a random musical instrument and charging the female akuma. Then her memory stopped, resuming about half an hour later as she finished her mad rush, only to find Desperada gone and red, magical ladybugs retreating into the background. "I was able to meet several of your friends that day, if I recall correctly. But not Luka."

"You should absolutely meet him." Adrien nodded, still gazing out the window. "You'd like him if you ever met him."

Once more the ride transformed from talkative to silent, the two looking out their represented windows.

Finally, at long last, they arrived at Chatime.

Across the street from the juice bar, Marinette and Luka were sitting at one of the benches, watching something on Luka's laptop. Luka, in his right hand, held a collection of music sheets, jotting down notes on them every few seconds. Marinette had a notebook next to her, scribbling on it in rhythm to Luka. Her phone had also joined the duo, plugged into the computer. Both Marinette and Luka were wearing headphones, the pair plugged into a duel-headphone cord.

The car pulled up beside them - the Gorilla recognizing Marinette from their few chance encounters.

Marinette looked up as the car stopped, then turned her attention back down at her notes, still writing.

Adrien exited the car first, waving to her. "Hi, Marinette!"

At that, her head jerked up again. "Wha-? Padrien! I-I mean Adrien! Bellow! No…yellow! Hello! Adrien, hello!"

Kagami put her hand on the inside handle, waiting for Adrien to demonstrate his chivalries attitude by opening her door.

Adrien, as predicted, arrived on her side of the car, reaching for the handle.

Kagami, however, thrust it open before Adrien could touch it, causing the model to stumbled back in surprise. His look of utter bewilderment made her grin, and he pouted.

"Kagami!"

"Worth it." Kagami shrugged, turning to Marinette, who had already jumped up, headphones slipping off her head into the computer keyboard.

Luka, who, at this point had also looked up, took his time pausing whatever was playing, carefully removing his headphones, putting down his pencil, and made his way over.

"Hi, Kagami!" Marinette laughed, embracing Kagami as she grinned up at the slightly older girl. "It's so good to see you, again! It's been two weeks!"

The previous week's meeting had been cancelled due to The White Plague.

"I'm glad to see you, too, Marinette." Kagami responded, managing to get her arms wrapped around Marinette in a semi-comfortable position. She was horrible at hugs.

"Good to see you, Luka." Adrien greeted the taller boy, grinning at Marinette and Luka in his usual way.

The two shook hands, clapping each other on the back with their left hands while they did so.

"You too, Adrien." Luka nodded, smiling at the two newcomers. "And it's nice to see you again, Kagami."

"It's good to be formally introduced." Kagami agreed, nodding slowly.

Marinette and Adrien both seemed to simultaneously realize that was their cue to actually make them properly meet.

Acting as one, they both went to their representative partners, Marinette grabbed Luka's arm and all but dragged him half-way over to Kagami. Meanwhile, Adrien tried to grab Kagami and pull her along, then decided to change tactics after his first attempt was fruitless, going behind her instead to push. After quite a bit of shoving - Kagami was proud of how resistant she had been - Adrien managed to move her the rest of the way, so that the two older teenagers stood facing each other.

"Luka," said Adrien, gasping for breath, "meet Kagami, my fencing buddy and Marinette and I's mutual buddy."

"Kagami, meet Luka!" Marinette introduced, grinning. "My favorite teenage musician, and Adrien and I's favorite musical buddy!"

"Just don't tell any of the other members of Kitty Section." Adrien joked, winking. "Or Jagged Stone for that matter."

"Luka, will you please tell Adrien, for the last time, I'm Jagged's part time designer, not his friend?" Marinette huffed, lifting her nose into the air.

"Don't you design all his things now?" Luka teased, not on his female friend's side at all. "So much for part time."

"Luka!" Marinette whined, gazing sidelong at Kagami. "Please tell me you're on my side."

"I'm not sure who Jagged Stone is." Kagami shrugged.

Marinette and Adrien exchanged a lot of horror, frantically looking at each other, to Kagami, and back again.

Luka pulling his iPhone from his pocket, typing something in. There was a delay, then he pressed something else, handing it over to Kagami.

A man with purple hair and a black leather jacket popped up on the screen, fingers flashing across his guitar so fast that Kagami couldn't follow his movements.

"Jagged Stone; one of the most popular song artists in the world." Luka described, swiping onto another video where the man was playing a piano with a gentle tune in comparison to his previously loud and riotous music. "He can play any kind of music, and almost every instrument." He explained, switching from video to video. "He's fairly impressive."

"He's the man who akumatized Desperada…Vivian, was it? And on television. He's quite egotistic." Kagami deadpanned as Luka finally stopped scrolling, landing on a video of a much younger Jagged Stone playing a violin. "How long has he been playing?"

"Since he was a kid. He only started making music for the world a little more than seventeen years now." Said Luka as he shut his phone off. "However, he became a big deal a couple of years ago."

"He became 'The' big deal." Marinette corrected, Adrien nodding in agreement. "I can't believe we've been friends for a few months now without me knowing you didn't know about him!"

"Uh-huh." Kagami grunted. "I suppose this means I'll have to listen to his music now."

Marinette, Adrien, and Luka grinned collectively; their mission complete now that Kagami agreed to give Jagged Stone a chance.

"Oh!" Marientte suddenly said, perking up. She dove underneath the table, grabbing a large plastic bag out from underneath the bench, shoving it into Kagami's hands. "Take it! I made it exactly how you wanted."

Kagami took the package into her hands, peering in. "Thank you, Marinette. It looks wonderful."

"Try it on!" Marinette insisted, eagerly guiding her toward Chatime. "I want to see how you look and if I need to make any necessary adjustments."

The boys arched an eyebrow at each other curiously as Kagami was propelled for the juice bar, but for the better part ignored it, heading over to the laptop to continue doing whatever Luka and Marinette had been doing before she arrived.

Probably reviewing the 'Kitty Section' music, as Marinette put it. Correcting musical errors and such. And Marinette was probably designing.

Marinette pushed Kagami into the bathroom along with the package, waving. "Come out when you're done; I want to see what you look like!"

Kagami blinked, staring down at the folds of clothes.

She unfolded them, staring down at the black fabric with the tight, secure sewing holding it tight. Quick as a wink, Kagami changed into the black and partly lime green fabric, staring down at it.

No longer was she dressed in white and red which was traditional for her, but in the opposites of those colors.

Kagami twirled, stared down at it, pinching it, flabbergasted when it stretched with ease.

"This'll fit you for several years." Marinette had explained last week over the Facetime, stretching the black fabric. "And maybe a growth spurt or two. It's a special sort of fabric that stretches."

Kagami nodded at the words, turning to look at the left curve on her waist, where a neat black cat with green outlines was sewn, a blonde tuff of fur and yellow bell hung from its neck. It looked incredible. And on the shoulder, sure enough, was sewn; Ne méprise pas le chat noir. "Don't despise the black cat." A motto Marinette had crafted and sewn on her pro-Chat outfit the designer had crafted. Kagami had requested the saying for her fencing suit.

About a month previously, Kagami had noticed her old fencing outfit had been getting too small for her, so Marinette being the good friend she was, took Kagami's measurements and crafted a special suit that would stretch as Kagami grew.

The week following the Chat Blanc attack was the only week for another few months that Marinette had enough time to sew it, so, after the White Plague, Kagami had learned about Marinette's everlasting trust in the feline. So, Kagami accordingly asked for the completed version of her fencing outfit to be Chat Noir based.

Marinette complied, and now Kagami was dressed like her favorite hero.

Kagami, after giving the newly crafted suit a quick, five second test, was satisfied, exited the bathroom and making a beeline for where Marinette and the boys were waiting outside.

Marinette raised her head with a smile when Kagami exited, nodding appreciatingly. "That looks amazing, Kagami!"

Adrien and Luka looked up at her words, blue and green eyes glancing over her simply.

Luka looked a bit unsure, and Kagami had to take a minute to remember he was anti-Chat, and thus wouldn't approve of the fencing uniform.

Adrien grinned approvingly, then his grin melted into a horrified gape. "Aw, I can't fight against you! It'd be like fighting Chat Noir!"

"And we all know those attempts were fruitless." Luka murmured, staring down at his keyboard.

Adrien sent him an irritated look; eyebrows knit together. "I-"

"Oh, com'n, boys!" Marinette brightly smiled. "We're all friends here, friends having fun!"

Kagami laughed as Adrien's frown deepened slightly, sitting down across the bench form Luka and next to Marinette. "That we are. Differences supposedly, according to multiple friendship blogs, make friends closer. We may have different views on Chat Noir, but we're supposed to put those disagreements behind us."

Adrien smiled at that, agreeing. "That's certainly true."

Luka only shrugged. "I was never annoyed with it; I was only saying what actually happened. Please forgive my failure with words." He pleaded, and Marinette reached over to pat his arm.

"It's okay, Luka, we understood it for the most part." She promised, smiling.

"I understood your blunt statement." Kagami put in, not saying much else as she went to sipping the orange juice Marinette handed her.

Luka nodded, returning to listening to his music.

As Adrien and Marinette chatted about the designs in Marinette's hands, the designer stammering as little as possible, Kagami found herself gazing at the trio of friends, glad that she had joined Marinette and Luka, and that Adrien had joined her. She was one of them now, and happy to be so. She was one fo the group.

Kagami was many things, she realized. She was brave, smart, a fencer, a hero, and a Chat Noir fan. But she was also a friend. And a friend was a part of her she didn't ever want to let go.