"You're here!" Alya called in relief as Marinette burst through the door to the wedding venue, a box of pastries in hand.

"Sorry! I got caught in foot traffic." Marinette apologized, handing the box to Alya who promptly set it down, taking Marinette by the hang and dragging her further into the hall.

"Doesn't matter, it's all good now. Ignore Chloé's seething stare. Kitty Section is finishing the sound check now, Nino is helping my mom unload all the food, everyone else is decorating. Oh! Except for Adrien, he's not here yet. We really should get to rehearsing soon, Chloé was right! We're going to run out of time!"

"Al, don't sweat. I'm sure he'll be here soon." Alix tried to comfort the redhead, coming up behind the two of them, "Until then, Marinette, can I borrow you for a second? We're doing some last minute fittings and I need help with my dress. Obviously," She laughed, motioning to her stomach. "I've expanded."

"No problem, Alix." Marinette followed her friend to the fitting rooms and quickly altered Alix's dress to fit a bit easier around her friend's ever growing bump. "You sure you're going to make it through the wedding before you pop?"

"Alya threatened to sue me for emotional damage if I go into labor during her wedding, so I think I don't have a choice." Alix joked as she carefully stepped out of her dress and hung it back up as neartly as she could. As she pulled her shirt back on, Chloé peeked into the room.

"Adrien's finally here. We're going to do a quick run through. We need you both out here."

"I thought we were eating first?" Marinette questioned, heart rate picking up. She thought she'd have more time to prepare herself.

"We we're going to, but we're short on time. So we're going to run through it once real quick, then talk about the changes we want to make while we're eating so we speed up the process a bit. Is that a problem?"

"No, I just.." Marinette awkwardly played with her hands and Alix rolled her eyes.

"She's partnered with Adrien. Of course it's a problem." Alix dragged her friend out to the rehearsal space and Marinette was very aware of the way Adrien's head snapped up as she approached.

"Marinette! Hey! Uh- so you're the maid of honor, right?" He asked nervously, taking a small step closer.

"We've known that for months now, Agreste." Chloé rolled her eyes. "You're just holding her arm. Don't make it weird." Chloé made her way to a front pew and turned to look back at them. "Kitty Section! Go!" The music started up and Chloe directed each couple down the aisle. She corrected their timing and footwork as if she'd done this all her life which, with knowing Chloe, wasn't all that surprising. When Alix, Kim, Marc and Nathaniel had made it down the aisle, Adrien turned to her and held out his arm.

"Our turn, M'lady." He looked at her with such hopeful eyes that Marinette couldn't possibly do anything other than lock her arm with him, heart beating impossibly fast as her ears began to ring. They took their first step down the aisle and Marinette held her breath, the music becoming a mumble in a sea of white noise. Her head began to swim when they were halfway down, her grip tightening on Adrien's arm so she wouldn't faint. She could feel it, the panic, it was rising, forming a wave that filled her consciousness with a crescendo of fear. She sucked in another breath as they reached the end of the aisle, Adrien's arm gently releasing her own as he stepped to Nino's side.

Without his touch, suddenly Marinette was floundering. It had been the first time she'd touched him, really touched him since..

"Marinette?" Alya's worried question met Marinette's brain and with a small "oh!" Marinette hurried to step into her spot, cheeks red from embarrassment.

"Sorry." She apologized quietly, head bowed as she refused to look up at the rest of the wedding party. Chloé's amused huff carried across the hall.

"Good enough. Let's go eat."

———

"Marinette, what was that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Marinette denied as she and the other girls sat around Alya's living room, snacking on popcorn and watching a romcom.

"Marinette," Myléne scolded. "We all saw it."

"Come on, what's the big deal. You've done worse around Adrien before." Alix laughed. "In fact, remember that time-"

"Alix!" Alya gently hit Alix on the shoulder and groaned. "You want her to shut down even more?"

"It's okay." Marinette sighed as she picked at her popcorn. "To be honest, I don't know what happened. I thought I was having a panic attack at first..because he was touching me. But then when he stopped it got worse."

"It was a very stressful situation of you, Marinette. We recognize that and we admire you for being so brave." Myléne assured with a gentle tone.

"If it's too hard for you to walk with Adrien, I understand." Alya assured. "We can change things around."

"No we can't, Alya. The wedding is tomorrow. It's too late to make changes. I'll be fine. I can handle it." A loud buzzing interrupted their conversation and Alya groaned.

"Only if you're sure you're comfortable." Alya leaned back to look for her phone and found it stuffed under the couch cushions. "It's Nino. He knows it's girl's night why in the world-" Alya pressed answer and put the phone to her ear. "Babe, you know it's girl's night, why-…Are you sure? Oh my god! I'll tell the girls." Alya ended the call and turned to her friends with shock written across her features. Every hair on Marinette's body stood at attention as her heart leaped up to her throat.

"Alya? What is it?" She questioned, already moving to get on her feet.

"Nino called..there's…there's an Akuma outside Max's building."

———

"Someone's gotten ahold of the butterfly miraculous." Ladybug practically yelled into her mic, feet pounding on concrete as she ran for M2M Squared.

"Do we know for sure it's an Akuma victim? What if it's a sentimonster?" Viperion's voice came through the earpiece and Carapace hurried to correct the confusion.

"I was here when it appeared. Purple butterfly symbol on its face and everything. It's an Akuma. Chat Noir and I are doing our best to hold it off, but this things strong."

"Really strong!" Came Chat's strained agreement. Ladybug fought the urge to ask for his status, sure he could handle himself.

"We're a block down," She assured, Rena, Queen Bee, Polymouse, Miss Hound, Purple Tigress, and Pigella at her heels. "Coming as fast as I can." A loud thud was heard through their earpieces and the girls collectively winced.

"You guys okay?" Polymouse questioned as they came up on the scene.

"Yup, all good." King Monkey groaned. "Maybe lost half my brain cells with that hit though." Ladybug located King Monkey on the field, cradling his head as he slunk back into the shadows. She examined the area, brain working on overdrive to come up with a plan. In addition to King Monkey, Chat Noir, Carapace and the girls behind her, Rooster Bold, Caprikid, Minotaurox, Pegasus and Viperion all populated the fight below. If Kagami had been able to fly in sooner or if Alix wasn't currently…indisposed..they'd have every single player on their side in action. Examining the scene below, Ladybug began to piece everything together.

This was a riot. Another one of Lila's Anti-Bug protests. The signs now lay discarded as the Anti-Bugs attacked civilians and property en mass, aided by a giant man outfitted in a dark black cloak with red spots. Anti-Bug, Ladybug noted with a groan. And as one might suspect, Lila was nowhere to be seen while her followers destroyed the city.

"What's the plan, Buggie?" King Monkey asked over the headset, voice still tainted with pain.

"Boys, take the protestors." Ladybug directed, once knocked out of her thoughts. The girls and I will get the akuma victim. Any idea what his deal is?"

"Well obviously, he hates you." Queen Bee pointed out with a laugh as they took note of the "No Ladybug!" symbol on the man's clock.

"Ha ha." Ladybug rolled her eyes. "Real funny. Seriously. What's his deal?"

"I think the akuma is in the sign he's holding. But it's giant. How would we-" Carapace's sentence was cut short as the girls jumped into action, not even a word said between them. Polymouse split herself into several different copies and began distracting the giant, running in circles as the akuma tried to flatten her with his sign. Once he was distracted Queen Bee hurried to use venom to stun the akuma which allowed Sabrina to throw her ball at the victim's sign and promptly fetch it, handing it to Purple Tigress who used Clout to destroy it in a single punch. The akuma flew up from the pile of splintered wood and Ladybug caught it and cleansed it, sending the white butterfly flying off to wherever it would go.

The boys stood on the ground below, staring slack-jawed up at their partners.

"Why did I even bother like we were going to be included in this?" Carapace asked, shaking his head as he headed over to help King Monkey. Police began to arrive and apprehend the more violent protestors allowing the heroes to back off and take towards the skyline.

"Meeting at base in ten?" Chat Noir asked as they all gathered on the roof of M2M.

A chorus of "yep" "got it" "see you there" answered back as they all began to take off in different directions to go feed their kwamis and recharge.

"I'm going to stop by home to grab some extras for Mullo before I head that way." Polymouse told Ladybug in a whisper. "Remember what we talked about on game night okay?" Polymouse coached quietly, looking between the two partners. "Closure." Polymouse headed off towards home and Ladybug took a step to follow.

"M'lady!" Chat called, causing Ladybug to stutter to a stop. "I just um…I'm sorry, if I made you uncomfortable at the rehearsal..with the touching and..stuff." Chat Noir's sentence trailed off as his ears flattened against his head. Staring blankly as her mind struggled to come up with some way to soothe him, Marinette nearly cried out when he turned to leave. Closure! Her head screamed! Or something! Give him something so he doesn't hate you anymore!

"No!" She cried, hand trembling. "No. I wasn't- it wasn't- it was fine. I'm fine."

"You're obviously not fine, Bug. I..I know you too well to fall for that. I'm sorry my presence is triggering for you. I don't want it to be. I wish I knew how to make it better for you. I wish I knew how to help-"

"Stop." In an instant, Ladybug's lips pressed to his cheek.

Silence.

"I'll see you at base..yeah?"

"Yeah! Yes! Yes of course." Chat tried to rein in his enthusiasm, watching in awe as Ladybug swung off across the sky. He only allowed himself to let out a loud whoop once she was safely out of earshot.

"Hey Chat?" Carapace's voice came through the earpiece. "You both still had your comms on."

"Ah, shit." Ladybug's curse came through before her comm crackled offline, a roar of laughter following from the other holders. Chat, thoroughly embarrassed, made a break for headquarters, comms unit now ripped out of his ear and tucked away for the next battle.