Chapter 14

Miguel had been racking his brain since he woke up that morning what he could say in his letter to Ladybug. He had made at least a dozen poems before the one he was working on now, each one, worse than the last. This one was decent, but it just didn't seem good enough for some reason, there was just something missing. The whole time he was writing, he was also trying to pay attention to what was going on in class. Today in literary, they were discussing the history of the Brother's Grim fairytales. How at the end of many of these fairytales, things were made right through true loves kiss and how the prince saved his princess with a kiss. He heard Anna's reply to this being that hate was no match for the powers of true love. Which really saved him when Ms. Foustein called on him.

"Can you tell me what I just said?" she asked almost as if expecting to catch him.

"Most fairytales end with true loves kiss because evil is no match for true love." Miguel answered without missing a beat.

"Very good Miguel." Ms. Foustein said pleased with Miguel as the bell rang. "Remember to read the story of Snow White for our next lesson by Thursday. And don't forget, the Police Academy will be having their Valentine's day ball tomorrow. We hope to see you all there." Ms. Foustein announced.

Miguel took another stab at the poem, but it was no use, this just wasn't working. He crumpled the paper and threw it away and headed out to his bus stop feeling frustrated. Just as he was about to walk out the door, Jezebel jumped in his path.

"Hola, Miguel, sign here please." She said opening a large roll of paper.

"Jezebel, you know I don't sign autographs anymore." He groaned brushing his hair out of his face.

"Oh that's not what this is. It's sign up for the marathon next week and I would just love it if you were a part of my team." Jezebel answered.

Miguel sighed. Her lie was weak, but he wasn't in the mood to call her out on it so he just signed what he expected to be a poster and continued on his way. As he waited for the bus, he wondered if maybe he should invite Ladybug to the Police Academy's Valentine's day Ball the next day, but then he thought that maybe it wouldn't be the best idea as she didn't seem the social events type. But it couldn't hurt to try. All he had to do was figure out the best way to ask her. Even if she said no, he was willing to be shot down than go down not trying. As the bus pulled up, he had resorted back to the poems again. And this time he was having about as much luck as before. Nothing.

Even as the bus pulled up to his house he still had nothing. When he got up to his room, he quickly finished his homework and got back to the poems, one failure after another. Plagg was with him enjoying his usual camembert cheese.

"How could possibly be in love with Ladybug if you don't even know who she really is?" Plagg asked sounding annoyed.

"What do you know about love?" Miguel asked deflated.

"Plenty, I love cheddar, swiss and I love camembert."

Miguel went over to his bedroom window and slumped against the pane.

"Is somebody frustrated because he can't finish the poem for his mysterious sweet heart?" he heard Plagg tease.

"Why should I need poetry when I could just tell her to her face? 'I love you.'" Miguel answered finding his thoughts drifting farther out to his senora.

Plagg gagged but Miguel didn't care. He continued to find ways to try and tell Ladybug he loved her and to ask her to the Police Academy Valentine's Day ball. As he continued to figure it out, he saw a strange man fly by on black cloud and had a sinking feeling that evil had just been unleashed in New York. He knew he should be worried, but now was his chance to talk to Ladybug.

'Alright, I swear as soon as I see her I have to tell her.' He thought as he transformed.

The villain wasn't that hard to find, but he got here just in time to see Ladybug barely save herself from falling off the roof of the Corrine Corps building.

"Falling for me already mi senora?" he teased getting her attention just below her. "I need to tell you something."

"It's gonna have to wait. Heart Thorn…" she tried to say, but Cat Negro stopped her speech.

"Shh, I swore to myself I would tell you as soon as I saw you." Cat Negro said helping her down and holding her close on his rod high above the ground. "Ladybug, I…"

"Look out!" Ladybug yelled quickly turning them around and taking a shot that had come from behind him.

"Ladybug!" Cat Negro yelled as Ladybug began to cringe in his arms.

"Cat Negro, run." She groaned as if she was fighting the effects of whatever had hit her.

"Why?" Cat Negro asked concerned.

"Because," She tried to warn him. "Because I hate you." She growled as he watched her eyes and lips turn black.

"Ladybug, snap out of it." He pleaded.

"You're nothing Cat Negro and nothing to me! I hate you!" she shouted pushing him off her but losing her balance in the process and falling from his rod.

She saved herself this time by hooking her yo-yo to the terrace of one of the rooms of the Corrine Corps building. Cat Negro made a jump for the roof of the building next to them and disappeared behind the chimney stacks. He quickly made his way to the entrance of Corrine Corps and found Jezebel and her friend Isabella hiding just in front of the entrance.

"Cat Negro? What are you doing here? Where's Ladybug?" Jezebel asked in that snobby tone that he had known too well as Miguel.

"She's otherwise engaged, but we need to get you out of here. A villain named Heart Thorn is here and there's no telling what he'll do if he finds you both here." He said trying to get them out.

"Uh huh, no way. I'm not leaving without this." She said pointing to the poster he had signed earlier. "That's Miguel Dorado. A super hot rock star in my class, he's hot for me of course." She bragged.

"I sincerely doubt it." He muttered.

Suddenly the front doors burst open Heart Thorn came in. Cat Negro grabbed Jezebel and Isabella and told them to run. Heart Thorn gave chase to Jezebel and her friend while Ladybug confronted Cat Negro.

"Not so fast gatito." Ladybug smirked at him.

"I don't want to fight you Ladybug." Cat Negro declared to her.

"Ugh, that friendliness, it just makes me want to be sick." She retched. "You're definitely not my friend and did you really believe you ever had a chance with me?" she sneered at him as she threw her yo-yo trying to hit him.

Cat Negro managed to dodge her over and over again as she followed him across the roof tops along the street. As much it hurt to hear her say this, he couldn't let it get to him, she wasn't herself. He had to find a way to fix this, because without Ladybug's help, he couldn't de-akumatize Heart Thorn. But frist he had to avoid being bashed to pieces by Ladybug. At last he caught her yo-yo around his rod and pulled trying to stop her.

"Why are you so full of hate Ladybug?" Cat Negro asked trying to hide the pain her words had caused him.

"Because hate conquers all." She declared to him venomously.

"I know you don't believe that, hate doesn't conquer all, love does." Cat Negro answered back. Instantly what flashed through his mind was what he had learned or at least listened to in literary arts earlier that day. How hate and evil were no match for the powers of true love.

"You're just buying time!" Ladybug said freeing her yo-yo. "Fight!" she demanded.

"I'll do better than that." Cat Negro said with a smile. He now had an idea of how he could save Ladybug.

"Huh?" Ladybug said confused by his sudden change in demeanor.

"Come senorita, just a peck." He said walking closer to her leaning in for a kiss. While he would have enjoy this any other time, this wasn't how he would have wanted his first kiss with her to turn out.

Ladybug jumped out of the way in disgust. "Get away from me you savage!" she yelled taking off with Cat Negro not far behind.

When she tried to leap across an alley way, just as her yo-yo was about to hook an anchor, Cat Negro's rod deflected it and she began to fall, but she was caught before she could hit the ground. Cat Negro held her with her back to the wall.

"No, no." she said squirming to get free.

"Don't worry, when you're free of this, I think you'll find that you actually like it." He said moving to kiss her again.

But just before his lips could meet hers, a barrage of thorns came flying in and he let her go as she ran and met up with Heart Thorn across the way in Central Park. Cat Negro followed her and they stopped at the Firelight Fountain.

"How are going to fight both of us now wuss puss?" Ladybug jabbed pulling out her yo-yo.

"Do you think he'll use his cataclysm?" Heart Thorn asked her as if he wanted Cat Negro to hear him.

"He won't have a choice. I know he's wondered what would happen if he used his cataclysm on someone." Ladybug laughed.

As Cat Negro came at them, Ladybug and Heart Thorn spilt up and began to attack him from all sides. At last he threw his rod and knocked Heart Thorn off his cloud and he landed tangled up in the tree branches. He turned his attention to Ladybug.

"Now to free the princess." He said as she came at him.

They struggled a minute and Ladybug finally got the upper hand when she jumped and landed, pinning him to the ground.

"Ladybug, his miraculous." Heart Thorn called to her while freeing himself from the branches.

"With pleasure." She said looking at his ring. "Finally, I'll find out who you are Cat Negro." She sneered taking his hand reaching for his ring. "The cat will finally be out of the bag."

But before she could even make a move to take it, he grabbed her face and pulled her lips to meet his. She didn't fight back as he expected, and it was a good sign that the kiss must have been the answer. When at last he let go, she seemed confused.

"What am I doing here?" she asked rubbing her head.

"No time, Heart Thorn's about to free himself." Cat Negro said helping her up. "Where's his akuma?"

"The rose in his hand." Ladybug answered pulling out her yo-yo. Heart Thorn finally appeared out of the trees on top of his black cloud. "We're sitting ducks on the ground. But if we can destroy his flying cloud, then we may gain equal footing."

"Good thinking mi senora." Cat Negro answered. "Cataclysm!" he summoned. "Hey Heart Thor, bet you can't hit me!" Cat Negro taunted.

Cat Negro ran for the cloud dodging Heart Thorn's thorns. At last he reached his point and jumped and reached for the cloud. At one touch, the cloud disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"You won't beat me!" Heart Thorn yelled sending a barrage of thorns in their direction.

Ladybug and Cat Negro dodged and hid behind the fountain.

"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug summoned. What came to her was a spool of ribbon. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"You plan on wrapping him gift or something?" Cat Negro commented.

Ladybug looked around. "Well, kind of. Just keep him distracted but lure him to that tree over there and I'll wrap things up." She instructed him.

"Got it." Cat Negro said jumping out from behind the fountain getting Heart Thorn's attention.

Ladybug followed close behind and danced around Heart Thorn as he got closer and closer to the tree. At last she pulled on the ribbon and it tightened around Heart Thorn securing him against the tree with his hand immobilized.

"Looks like we've got this situation all wrapped up." Cat Negro grinned.

"The rose Cat Negro, grab it." Ladybug said holding on to the ribbon.

"No!" Heart Thorn said as Cat Negro snatched from his hand.

"Sorry, need that." He smirked. "Happy Valentine's day." Cat Negro called to Ladybug tossing her the rose.

"Ahh, you shouldn't have." She smiled. "Opps." She said immediately dropping the rose and crushing it beneath her foot. "No more terrorizing for you moth." She said readying her yo-yo. "Time to be purified." She called capturing the akuma. "Be free little butterfly." She whispered freeing the purified akuma. "Miraculous Ladybug!" she summoned as the glow spread throughout the city repairing the damage caused by Heart Thorn.

"Olé!" Ladybug and Cat Negro exclaimed high-fiving.

Ladybug's earrings started to beep. "Opps, gotta go."

"Ladybug wait, I need to tell you something." Cat Negro called to her.

"Look, about everything I may have said, I never really meant it. You know you mean…"

"No that's not it, I just wanted to…" he tried to say but his ring started to beep too.

"Look out Cat Negro, your ring is flashing." Ladybug warned him.

"Yours too."

"We're about to turn into pumpkins and I don't know about you, but I'd rather not see that." Ladybug giggled as she took off.

Cat Negro stayed a moment longer realizing he had missed his chance. The only consolation he got was that he was able to kiss Ladybug, even if it was only to free her from Heart Thorn's spell. But still he had kissed her. That was something, though, he still would have preferred for her to know his true feelings for her. When his ring started to beep again, he quickly began to make his way home. When he got there, he gave Plagg a piece of camembert and sulked around his room feeling like he had failed at every chance he had that day to tell the girl of his dreams how much she really meant to him. Plagg was giving him a hard time about it and about other things.

"Can you believe all the terrible things Ladybug said to you." Plagg laughed.

"You think it's funny huh?" Miguel sighed slumping on his bed.

"Come on, what's the big deal?" Plagg asked floating over to a pile of valentines that had come in th email for him. "You got so many these from all these lady fans of yours, take your pick." He said tossing one over.

It was pink heart shaped card that floated over to his bed and landed right next to him. Not seeing a lot more he could right now any way and feeling it wouldn't be polite to ignore it, he opened it and began to read it. And he was stunned to see what it was.

"Hold on, someone answered my poem? I thought I threw it away." He said remembering that he had done just that earlier. "'Your hair as dark as night, your eyes a mesmerizing green, I look at you and wonder your inner most thoughts and dreams. Yes, your valentine I will be. Our love will be so true, together for eternity my heart belongs to you.'" He read.

"Ugh, anyone who writes as sickeningly sweet as you must be your soul mate." Plagg answered.

Miguel looked at the bottom. "It isn't signed." He said disappointed.

Out of nowhere, a ladybug came and landed on the card and left as quickly as it had appeared and flew out the window as Miguel followed it.

"Could it have come from Ladybug?" he sighed sliding down the wall to the floor dreaming and hoping so.