Hey, if you are still reading this story I'm so sorry for the almost two month hiatus. Work was eating me up and depression from the quarantine and other situations hit me hard. But! I'm on break now (unemployed until they tell me they want me for next semester, it's a hassle) so here it is!
After class hang outs were a thing Adrien got to enjoy whenever he could weasel a way out to attend them. It was also a huge help Marinette went as well, seeing that his father had been quite impressed with her results at the hat contest and after knowing she was in the top three of highest scores, there was less of problem if he mentioned he would go with her to reinforce some studies.
Like social studies, which he justified by being at Trocadero about to watch two of his classmates racing around for a dare. It was a good thing he reminded his friend about it a day before, he knew Marinette had a tendency to space out a little between tasks.
If it wasn't for Nathalie who kept a tight grip of his schedule he'd be way worse than her.
"So long they don't take longer than my alarm I'm good," Marinette said while Kim and Alix trash talked at each other "I have to be back to deliver that cake."
"Too bad your parents couldn't get that evening spot" Adrien said, amused at the antics of his classmates.
"On your marks, get set!
"Hold up!" Alix stopped and turned towards them, giving Alya what seemed to be a fancy pocket watch.
"Hold on to this for me would you Alya? I don't want to drop it during the race,"
"hold on girl! I can't, I got to- "
"Guard it with your life, It's a family heirloom!"
Maybe it was a side effect of being the black cat and familiar with bad luck, but Adrien had that feeling that something was not going to turn out good from this. He saw Alya give Marinette the watch, her hands already busy holding up the banner.
"Get set, go!" Max shouted as Alix and Kim started their race, the class cheering and waving on the stairs.
"But she asked you to- "Marinette tried to say, suddenly yanked from a too sudden pull from Nino's side. Adrien saw the pocket watch fly out of her hand, about to land horribly on the floor when he reached to catch it. Oh he was thankful for his cat reflexes in this situation.
"Need any help?" he smiled at her.
"Thanks," Marinette smiled back "that would have been a disaster."
"Tell me about it," he held onto the watch, looking back at the Trocadero to see Alix getting ahead of Kim.
"Last lap!"
Maybe his bad feeling was just a false alarm?
"Adrikins what do you have there? Some super old case or something?"
Oh, nevermind, there it was.
Adrien turned to Chloe who had just snatched the pocket watch from his hand to inspect it.
"Careful, it's Alix's," he tried to reach for it but Chloe just rolled her eyes at him.
"If it's Alix's it's probably worthless,"
Adrien frowned.
"Give it back to Adrien, Chloe" Marinette glared at the blonde, who just pulled away from them to poke at the watch. There was a bright blue light shining as soon as she pushed it, the surprise making her toss it away. Chloe, Adrien and Marinette watched in horror how the watch rolled out to the track, landing right in front of Alix's way, the girl rolling past it and smashing it to pieces.
"Oh no," Adrien muttered, this was going to be an akuma day, he could feel it.
"Yeah!" Alix cheered in front of them, but everyone had already seen the accident, the cogs and springs scattered on the floor. The girl's face was crushed, rolling back to pick the remains of it, anger in her eyes as she turned towards them.
"Did you do this!?" Alix exclaimed at Alya.
"Ah, I had to videotape the race so I gave it to Marinette but she had to hold the banner so she gave it to Adrien and Chloe snatched it from him and dropped it and ahm, then you skated over it."
"My old man gave me this for my birthday!" Alix held the pieces to her chest "this was a family heirloom!"
Yep, Adrien winced. Totally an akuma day.
"It was an accident!" Marinette stepped in.
"We didn't mean any harm!" Adrien tried too, maybe there could be a way to fix it.
"As if," he heard Chloe scoff "I totally had nothing to do with this."
Adrien glared at her. If he had to point fingers then yes, she had a lot to do with the situation.
"You are all to blame!" Alix snapped at them and left them standing there.
"I'll go talk to her" Marinette looked at Adrien, their eyes catching the same message Adrien was fearing, the akuma that could probably happen.
"Chloe this was all on you," Adrien turned to her "you didn't have to take it away from me."
"W-well" she crossed her arms "maybe she shouldn't have brought it from the very beginning."
Adrien glared at her. While it was true, Alix had just come from lunch with her dad, and she had trusted her friends to look after something important to her.
"You can't just do that either way, it wasn't yours to play with and you can't wash your hands from this situation either."
"Yeah!" some of his classmates said, glaring at Chloe too.
"Whatever, this was a dumb thing anyway" she flicked her hair.
"Then why are you even here?" Alya glared at her.
"Adrikins is here of course" she tried to latch onto him but Adrien was getting tired of this. He was getting tired of Chloe just not getting how her actions had consequences.
And speaking of those, the sudden rolling of skates made him turn to see a clearly akumatized Alix skating her ways towards them.
"Run!" he yelled at his classmates and ran on the opposite direction. Oh no, had Marinette been caught? That was going to be disastrous if she was-
"Stop Alix!" he heard her from the other side of the track "what are you doing?"
He could ask her the same thing trying to intervene untransformed. Adrien moved behind a tree to observe, eyes widening in horror when Kim disappeared in front of them. Oh this power was bad alright. He sneaked further from them to a place where no one could see him.
"Claws out!" he called his transformation, glad to see Marinette had transformed as well.
He made sure not to touch her directly as he landed a few meters away from her.
"Let me guess," he smirked "we are all playing a game of tag and you're it?"
"Exactly" Timebreaker turned her attention to him and dashed to attack him.
"Don't let her touch you!" Ladybug yelled from the other side, just as Timebreaker lunged at him. He jumped high, evading her with ease.
"Miss me, just a second too late," he smiled. Ladybug ran towards him, as they saw Timebreaker lung at another of their classmates.
"No!" Ladybug screamed when Alya got caught, her body frozen in a mid-jump as she started to vanish.
"Well she's not wasting any time does she?" Chat gripped his baton.
"The more people she freezes the more energy she has to go back in time!"
"Ugh time travel" Chat groaned "never really got it."
"We can worry about that later; our friends will be goners if we don't get that akuma!"
They lunged at Timebreaker just in time to stop her from attacking Ivan.
"Keep your hands to yourself!" Ladybug pulled at her yo-yo, only to be flung towards her from the sudden tug Timebreaker did. Who knew she was that strong?
Ladybug looked at the silhouette of Hawkmoth appearing on the akuma's face, just as she lunged to touch her. This was it, she thought for a short second, only feel the sudden warmth and weight of Chat Noir shielding her from the attack.
"W-Cat Noir! No!"
Ladybug felt herself be frozen, looking in disbelief her partner, her best friend, vanishing in her arms. That damn cat! Sacrificing himself for her!
"Oh wow, six minutes in one go! Must've been all those nine lives," Timebreaker taunted her.
Ladybug put her grief to a side, anger bubbling inside her. She stood up in front of his vanishing figure, ready to throw Timebreaker away as soon as she tried to snatch the black cat ring.
"Chill out Hawkmoth" she grunted once she stood up "I have a sick plan."
Oh no you won't, Ladybug wrapped her yo-yo around her, suddenly carried away as Timebreaker created speed to travel back in time. Huh, like Back to the Future, a voice like Chat Noir said in her mind. She was going to save him, save everyone, she thought as she gripped tight on the string.
There was a sudden flash as a portal opened before them and suddenly Ladybug could hear her classmates cheering from below.
"We… actually went back in time?"
Ladybug peered down, confusion bobbling her head as she saw her own self down there from minutes ago.
"Chloe! Put the watch down!" she yelled at her, just as Timebreaker jumped to land in front of the class, the mentioned watch falling from Chloe's hand and smashing on the ground.
Huh, Ladybug had to wonder why this time it broke when the first time it had rolled away.
"Ladybug! This time it's your fault!"
Ladybug winced, granted, it kind of had been.
"Everyone get out of here!" Ladybug yelled at her classmates "don't let her touch you!"
She glanced as another akuma flew towards this timeline's Alix, making this fight even worse.
"Who are you?" she turned to see herself. Oh this was giving her a headache.
"Look, I don't have time to explain but I'm you from just a few minutes in the future."
"She's right!" Tikki popped her head out from her, past Marinette's, purse "she is you I can feel it!"
"This is crazy!"
"I know! But trust me…trust yourself?" she shrugged, "oh! The cake!"
Ladybug was somewhat glad of this small silver lining, sending past her to deal with that before getting in trouble with her parents, focusing on the two akumas now. But if she was in the past then that meant-
"Hey LB, did I miss something?"
"Chat!" she rushed towards him and hugged him tight, relieved to see he was there, corporeal and alive.
"…I guess I did miss something,"
"I can't explain now but we have to capture Timebreaker's akuma, your life depends on it!"
"Which life? I've got nine" he tried to joke, but Ladybug's face told him this was no time for jokes.
"I'm serious!" she pulled away from him, her eyes shining from tears she was trying to hold back "the akuma is in her roller blades, we've got to release it!"
Chat was confused as to why his partner looked so distraught, but if she was like this, then this akuma was more dangerous than expected.
"You got it LB" he went with her to face not one, but two akumas. Ok, what was going on here?
"Whatever you do don't let either of them touch you!" Ladybug exclaimed, both getting into the fight with the akumas.
It was easier for him with his baton, but still the fight was too tight with each preoccupied with one akuma at the time. How were they going to solve this one out if they couldn't exactly be touched? It became worse when they went around touching innocent bystanders to absorb energy, suddenly faster than them.
"I thought we were chasing them," Chat glanced at Ladybug, just as a yo-yo came across the akumas to stop them, and a very familiar voice calling them from above.
"Hey you two! Need a hand?"
Chat blinked, rubbed his eyes and blinked again. Two Ladybugs? He couldn't help but to look left and right once the other Ladybug landed next to him, baffled and totally confused of what was going on.
"One of you must explain what is going on."
"I will," Ladybug on his left said, just as Timebreaker started to skate away from them.
"They're planning to go back in time again!" both Ladybugs said, startling Chat.
Oh this was so surreal to him and he was in a cat suit fighting magical monsters.
"Lucky charm!"
Chat looked at the different objects and his partner, partners? Thinking face. Ok, he could go buy them some time, he knew Marinette always came up with the weirdest plans of action.
He made sure to destroy part of the track to slow momentum on the akumas, looking at Ladybugs' plan unfolding before his eyes. Chat snickered, of course it was going to be something out of the ordinary.
"Miraculous Ladybug!" he heard the charm and the swirl of ladybugs floating everywhere to fix everything, and soon there was only one Ladybug remaining in front of him.
"So! About that explana-oof!" Chat's air was squeezed out of his lungs when Ladybug crushed him in a hug again "LB?"
"I'm just…so happy you are ok" she squeezed tighter "don't you go sacrificing yourself like that!"
"But, what did I do?" Chat held her shoulders "LB?"
"I- "the sudden beep of their miraculous cut her off "I'll explain tonight, ok?"
"Usual spot number three?"
"You got it" she smiled and let go of him "bug out!"
Chat sighed and vaulted his way out, the hours for their meeting too slow for him to wait. He decided to go home, seeing everyone else had scattered, but there was something in the back of his mind that he couldn't quite pin on.
As soon as night hit, he was jumping his way to the usual rooftop they had designed as spot number three. It had been a good plan to have different places to meet, just in case Hawkmoth caught sight of them in the same place, and as soon as he landed he saw Ladybug already there, feet dangling from the edge as she looked at the Parisian lights.
"So…" he sat next to her "what was that akuma today?"
Ladybug turned to him and finally started to explain, how he had sacrificed himself for her and how she had travelled back in time to defeat the akuma. Chat felt his heart break at how upset Ladybug sounded, feeling her hand squeezing his when she said how he disappeared in front of her.
"I know, part of your side of this job is protect me since I can purify the akuma" she looked at him "but that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice yourself as if nothing mattered!"
"LB," he grabbed her hand and held it with both of his "you can't blame me for acting on instinct sometimes,"
"I could have lost you!"
"And I'm sorry for making you feel that way" Chat said even if it had been him from another timeline "I can't lie to you and say I won't do it again because we don't know how the akumas will be" he sighed "but I trust you will always bring me back."
"But…"
"However," he smiled at her "I can promise to try and not be that reckless because the last thing I would want is to hurt you,"
"You are one silly cat" Ladybug hugged him "I'd be lost without you."
And it was true, Marinette thought as she felt him hugging her back. Whether as Adrien or Chat, she couldn't imagine her life without him in any sense of the word. Her chest tightened at that thought, and she didn't want to feel that way ever again.
"So how about we watch a movie tonight?" Chat said "I'm thinking Back to the Future,"
Ladybug groaned.
"Oh, oh, how about Meet the Robinsons?"
"Are you going to call each time travel movie ever?" she glared at him.
"Too soon?"
Ladybug punched his arm with a smile on her face.
I spent a good while thinking whether to continue this or not and the answer is yes but not with every episode because some were never appealing to me, plus I really want to write other chapters from season 2 and 3 and from 1 I'm reaching my "ok these don't call my attention"
So, if I don't get to write one of your fav episodes I'm sorry, but I'm doing this for fun first, so maybe there are like 5 or 6 more from season 1 I'll do (Volpina is a must for sure)
Thank you for reading!