"C'mon, Alix, show them what you got! You're losing!"
Marinette rolled her eyes at the audaciousness of one Lê Chiến Kim. Alix had gone out on a limb and tried out for Francoise Dupont's football team last week. Despite her athletic prowess thanks to rollerblading, she didn't make the cut, so she was scrimmaging in some local recreational games for practice. Both Kim and Marinette had decided to be there to cheer her on. When Kim volunteered to watch, the bluenette figured he was doing it just to troll her, and she half-expected him to make a bet that Alix's team would lose. Instead, he was supporting her in his usual, poorly-thought out use of the French language, which may just well have been more effective in distracting the hot-headed girl than a bet, and it was certainly more of that than actually encouraging. The saddest part was, she didn't know if he knew that and was doing it intentionally or not. Were all boys this clueless?
He wasn't wrong, at the very least: Alix's team was down 0-4. They were having trouble keeping the ball in their possession, forcing them to play defensively most of the time, and their communication was falling apart as everyone got exasperated, which only served to cause their loss to snowball.
Wait, how do I know all this? Marinette thought. I don't watch sports. Has my Ladybug experience really given me such a sharp eye for competitions like this?
An uproar of cheers and jeers interrupted her errant thought and indicated that they were now losing 0-5. At least the game was almost over, so this misery could end and she could get back to the million other things she probably should be working on rather than sitting here. She had her sketchpad with her in case any fashion ideas struck, but there was nothing inspirational about this butt-whooping that was supposed to be called a football game. Balance, she reminded herself. All work and no play makes Johnny an akumatized boy.
With her face in the dirt, Lucille Pédie had never been so relieved to hear an end-of-game whistle. Not happy, just relieved that she didn't have to play this game anymore. Midfield was the most exhausting position of them all, and she really struggled to keep up with the ball sometimes. Right now, she had failed to take the ball from the other team's shooter yet again, tripped and fell, and allowed for another goal. Final score: 0-7.
The tall blond would like to say that her teammates were supportive of her and her faults, but it couldn't be farther from the truth.
"Good job, shrimp, you lost us the game. Again."
"Maybe we should call her flounder, since that's all she does."
"In science, we learned that fish never stop moving because that's how they breath. That's the opposite of her, so we can't do that."
"Yeah, look at how pink her face is! Definitely a shrimp."
They turned their noses up to her and walked away. Only the new girl, the pink-haired one, remained, though she looked quite upset too. Lucille was surprised to see her walk over and offer a hand to help her up.
"Wow, talk about rude. Lousy teammates they are," the girl said.
"They're right, though," she replied quietly, accepting the hand and pulling herself to her feet.
"What?"
"I am a shrimp. I always wimp out when the ball comes to me. I'm slow, I trip, and I can't kick 30 meters to save my life. And I'm so lanky. It's no wonder no one likes me."
The new girl looked ready to retort, but evidently didn't have words. And why would she? They had only just met. And if they had known each other longer, she wouldn't even think about it, because she would just know that it was true.
Lucille turned and left, ignoring the other girl's cry of "Wait!".
Light began pooling into a dark observatory as a lens opened its cover blocking a large window. It was a display that always pleased the one inhabitant of the room, as it heralded the time to reap what misery the chaotic elements of life had thrown in some poor fool's path.
"They say that competition brings out the worst in us, and how true it can be. So many hopes and dreams get crushed under the cleats of poor sports, even the ones who are supposed to be on the same side."
One butterfly flew into the palm of his hand, which he clasped with his other and imbued with a dark power that blackened the butterfly to a deep purple. His empowered minion knew its task, and instinctively flew out of the gap in the center of the view to the streets of Paris.
"It's time to change the rules, my akuma. Darken her heart, and let the games begin!"
Once people had dispersed, Marinette and Kim approached Alix, who was looked frustrated at the lone girl who was walking in the other direction from everyone.
"What was that all about?" the boy asked bluntly.
"Kim, don't be so inconsiderate!" Marinette berated. "Something's not right here."
Alix turned to them. "That's Lucille. The other girls, they bullied her after the match. I tried to help her out, but I didn't know what to say. I'm not so good with words like you are, Marinette."
"Stay here, I'll go talk to her."
"You don't want us coming with?" Kim said, looking a bit offended.
"Well, Alix already tried, and I highly doubt you could do a better job."
"Hey! Uh… yeah."
"Don't worry, Mari's got this!" Alix assured with a smile towards her. It quickly changed to a frown towards him, though. "Besides, 'Show 'em what you've got, you're losing'? What the heck kinda cheering is that?"
Marinette couldn't help but shrug as they started bickering behind her while she left.
It wasn't hard to spot the tall girl across the field, but the amount of distance she had covered in the short time the blue-eyed girl had been talking to her friends was astounding. She was already close the buildings nearest the field and would be out of sight soon. Oh, how nice it must be to have long legs! She picked up her pace to a brisk walk, which was as fast as she trusted herself to go without tripping over her two left feet and becoming the second person to faceplant in the last ten minutes.
By the time she reached the same buildings, the footballer was out of sight. Quietly, she crept into the alleyway she thought she saw her go into, and it didn't like long to hear a shaky female voice talking. But what she said told Marinette that it was too late.
A black butterfly flew down into the alleys near a football field. It found was it was looking for: A crying, uniformed girl that was covered in dirt, particularly on her face. It landed on her headband and was absorbed, turning it into a deep purple that matched its own skin.
The girl look forward, the outline of a purple butterfly forming over the blushed region around her puffy eyes.
"Tiger Prawn, I am Hawk Moth. So they all think you're a shrimp, do they? Well, how about you show them just how dangerous a shrimp can be? All I need you to do for me in turn is score me Ladybug's and Chat Noir's miraculouses."
"Bring it on."
The akuma's dark substance spread down from the headband to cover her whole body.
"Tikki, this is going to sound awkward, but we should wait a little bit to transform."
"What? You want to give the akuma a head start?"
"Of course not, but Alix and Kim know that I went to see her. If I follow the girl out of sight, and Ladybug follows her akuma back immediately afterward, they're sure to put together that Ladybug and Marinette are the same person too!"
"I can see your reasoning, but the magic protecting your identity should stop them from figuring it out. Please, go stop the akuma!"
"Alright, I trust your judgment. Tikki, spots on! Hah!"
On that command, her black-spotted red super uniform appeared, starting with her mask and followed by her bodysuit that spread across her arms and down her body. Ladybug had stepped up to play.
To an outsider, it may have sounded like Adrien Agreste was just playing simple piano notes, but a more experience musical ear would detect that he was playing specific chords, one note at a time.
"So a Neapolitan sixth in G major is A-flat, C, and E," he said aloud, playing the notes in order.
"Neapolitan is a flavor of ice cream," his floating black companion moaned. "Why do you gotta learn this music theory stuff anyway? Isn't it enough to play pretty music?"
"Not for my father," he answered. Lowering his voice to a mutter, he added, "Nothing is ever good enough for him…"
His phone began to vibrate, creating an ugly sound on the piano that he had it resting on to use for notes. An emergency notification had appeared from Paris's new official akuma alert app:
AKUMA ALERT
LOCATION: 12TH ARR., FOOTBALL FIELDS
PRECAUTIONS: LONG-RANGE ABILITIES
The alert was accompanied by a couple of photos of a field from across the Seine. There was a pink-ish person in center, but it was too small to make out specifics. In the corner of one, he could see a red dot on top of a nearby roof.
"Looks like Ladybug reserved a seat for this game. She's going to need her team if she wants to win, though. Plagg, claws out!"
"Can't we just go for ice creeeeeeeeeeeee–!"
Plagg was sucked into his ring, powering it up so Adrien could make his mask, ears, and costume appear, his tail-like belt extending out dramatically as it always did. Chat Noir wasn't going to miss this match.
In the real happenings in front of the lens, the pink-ish akuma had caught up to the leaving football team. Up close, it was apparent why her transformation had made her pink: she now resembled an actual shrimp. Her body was covered in layers of pale pink exoskeleton that all widened as they protruded downward, like a series of long frills. On her torso, segments ended just below her chest, at her waistline like a shirt, and below her hips, resembling a skirt. There was also one acting as a regal collar that spread from her neck outward to her shoulders. Layers also subdivided the upper and lower parts of her arms and legs, along with ones at her elbows and knees that were narrower and longer like a spade. All of the rims had a darker, coral-ish color, which matched the headband that covered her skintight head covering just below her two antennae. The areas around her eyes were covered by reflective, jewel-like lenses, but the rest of her face was exposed.
Additionally, her lanky proportions had been thickened out, gaining some meat on her limbs and a body that one might describe as plump. For finishing touches, a shrimp-like tail came down from her waist, with the uropods fanning out at its end resembling a butterfly's wings. Both of her hands were now pincers, but they were different from each other: The right hand pointed forward and had a barrel hidden between the two halves, and the left had a much larger upper half that curved down and resembled a boxing glove.
She aimed the blaster-like pincer at the others, but before she could fire, the pincer was jerked upwards and back by the string of a yo-yo that had wrapped itself around the appendage. The motion turned her upper body enough to see that Ladybug was responsible.
"Don't do it. Retaliating against the bullies isn't going to fix anything. It just makes you no better than they are, because two wrongs don't make a right."
"I'm not retaliating, I'm humiliating them so completely that they'll never call anyone a shrimp again. They'll fear the term shrimp when Tiger Prawn is through with them."
Tiger Prawn turned to face Ladybug directly, using the momentum to aid in jerking her ensnared pincer back to pull the heroine to her. Ladybug allowed the distance to close, while also recalling her yo-yo to be ready for what was coming next.
However, that composure quickly fell apart, as she barely dodged Tiger Prawn's other pincer when it punched it forward at a blinding speed. An audible crack was produced in the air, and Ladybug felt a shockwave roll over her from the sheer power of the attack. It's lights out if I let that hit me.
She performed a backwards handspring to get out of range of that possibility and swung her yo-yo into its shield position when the akuma switched to the other pincer and began firing blasts at her. They were made of water, but they quickly showed themselves that the real threat was the heat. Her shield blocked the blasts just fine, but each one exploded into a cloud of steam like smoke from a bomb, and she could feel a lot of heat radiating through her defense. After only a few shots, she had to start moving because the steam was blocking her view of her opponent.
The villain moved with her, leaping backwards to keep a position that would prevent the heroine from getting an advantage and, notably, stopping her from getting between the akuma and the people she wanted to punish. Ladybug figured that this must be a technique Lucille used a lot in her football matches.
It was a great time for Chat Noir to make his introduction, stealthily leaping in from behind and very nearly grappling Tiger Prawn before she realized he was there and rolled out of the way towards the Seine.
"Thanks for the save, kitty," Ladybug said quietly as they grouped together. "Her claws are a blaster and a fist, and they're powerful. Don't try to block them."
"Got it," he replied, immediately leaping into action again. His staff extended slightly and he engaged the villain with it, dodging water shots while using his superior reach to keep on the offensive. His partner moved to the villain's left flank, readying her yo-yo to restrain their foe when the time was right.
That time wasn't coming as fast as they would have liked, as Tiger Prawn proved remarkably effective at dividing her attention. Although she was slowly being backed towards the Seine, not once was she even grazed by the staff or yo-yo; she kept light on her feet and applied enough pressure with the threat of her own weapons that the heroes had to stay on theirs as well. Ladybug ventured a guess that this was also due to her experience, as most akumas couldn't handle the full force of their tag-team. Yet the others call her weak?
Eventually, they ran out of room, and Tiger Prawn had her back to the embankment of the river. She looked over a shoulder for a moment, then did a flip backwards off the side. With the enhanced physical abilities of the akuma, she cleared the walkway and splashed down into the Seine. This retreat prompted a purple butterfly mask to appear around her eyes.
"You're not running away, are you?" Hawk Moth berated.
"No! Not this time. Those two stalled me enough for my targets to leave, and I need to find them again. This will get them off my tail."
"That's incorrect, Tiger Prawn. They can power themselves up with a water transformation, and this has also given them a chance to formulate a strategy. Don't forget that you owe me their miraculouses."
"I haven't. Wherever I go, they're sure to follow eventually. Maybe I can get them to split up to look for me."
"Hm. Your powers aren't well-suited for stealth, but fine. Not all of my akumas even bother with a strategy, so I expect great results from you." He terminated the connection.
Ladybug and Chat Noir crouched at the top of the wall of the embankment, looking for signs of the enemy they were supposed to be fighting.
"I think it might be time for a power-up, Milady."
"Me too," she agreed, before looking down at her yo-yo. "Since it involves de-transforming, might as well make sure, though…"
"Lucky Charm!" she shouted, throwing her yo-yo into the air to exude a multitude of hearts. The hearts formed together into a thin, large circle that was red with black spots, which then fell into Ladybug's hands.
"A hula hoop? This… doesn't seem like it would indicate using our transformation. Whenever it told me to go to Master Fu, it was always something that I could find where he was, like the movie ticket. This doesn't say 'go for a swim' to me; it would at least be an inner tube, right?"
"Sea animals jump through hoops at the aquarium, don't they? Would that count?"
"I don't think so, but that gives me an idea…" Aha! Chat Noir… the football net… her hula hoop… Chat Noir's staff…
"Chat, I need you to Cataclysm that goalpost."
"Okay."
"Cataclysm!" he shouted, causing a black ball of energy to form in his outstretched right palm. He clenched it and pulled it close to show his control over the untamed destruction.
He touched the post and it disintegrated, leaving behind only the net. Before he could ask what she intended to do with it, she practically thrust her yo-yo into his face and grabbed his staff.
"Give me your staff. Take my yo-yo and track down Tiger Prawn. If she knows where any of those girls live, it could spell bad news for them and their families. Hurry, we have to do this before we transform back!"
Chat gave her a look, but he made the trade anyway. He whirled up the yo-yo and threw it. "Alright, inner Mister Bug, don't fail me now." With a tug, he went flying away towards the Seine in the direction he had seen the team members travel.
Thankfully, the yo-yo did appear to be listening to his desires. A number of guesses why went through his head as he swung around in search of signs of the big shrimp. Was it because he had been Mister Bug? Was it more broadly because his and Ladybug's miraculouses were counterparts, or even just that the two of them were so in-sync with each other? Did her bequeathing the yo-yo to him cause it to recognize him as its new master for the time being? That happened in stories sometimes. Or maybe Tikki and Plagg got to have a say?
He'd have to ask later, because as he swung under a bridge, he saw the pink-ish figure once again. Quite literally, he had spotted the tail end of her leaving the river, a brief movement of her tail disappearing down a side street being what caught his eye.
Cutting a corner over the building, he caught another glimpse of pink on a rooftop a couple of blocks diagonally ahead. The shape proceeded to drop down, and he heard a nasty crunch. Ladybug's words about her punch came back to him, and he feared the worst. With a single leap, he cleared the distance to where she had dropped and peered over the edge of the roof to see what had happened.
Tiger Prawn had stopped a car on a side road, rather forcefully judging by the fact that its front end was completely smashed, and had her blaster pincer pointed at it. Whether it was from a punch, the car being used as a cushion, or the akuma stopping the car by making it crash into her didn't matter. Other cars had been forced to stop around them, some also crashing, which congested the road. Both of the front doors of the stopped car opened, and out crawled an older woman on the left and a younger one on the right.
Chat knew which one was the target, and he ran into a corner to position himself for the rescue. Jumping off the roof across the road, he threw Ladybug's yo-yo out to a streetlamp on the main street, and it magically redirected his momentum directly towards it when he tugged to pull himself in.
His plan had been to ram through Tiger Prawn and pull out the footballer in the same tug, but it seemed the akuma noticed the yo-yo pass overhead, for she turned to face him. Thinking quickly, he flattened himself to the road and narrowly avoided getting socked, a loud crack slamming his eardrums from right above. Briefly losing his concentration from the startling noise, he nearly ran into the person he was trying to save instead of grabbing her, and he had to recall the yo-yo and use both hands to balance himself and avoid tumbling with/on top of his rescuee. The cat hero quickly set her down and placed himself between her and Tiger Prawn, spinning the yo-yo into shield form.
"Don't tell me you support these bullies, too!" she spat, glaring at Chat with her blaster pointed at him.
"I don't support any bullies, and what you're doing goes far beyond bullying! Look around! You're causing harm to the city and its people in the name of revenge!"
"What do I care? What's the city going to do to stop them? Have you seen the major's daughter? He practically supports it!"
"That's…" not true? he thought, rather than said, realizing he couldn't in good faith. He knew Chloé better than anyone in the city, maybe even including her own parents, and one thing he couldn't deny that she was a bully. He knew her reasons were… misguided, rather than truly malicious, but that's not what really mattered, was it? Actions speak louder than words.
"… not the point," he decided upon. "Two wrongs don't make a right; just because one person is being enabled to be a bully doesn't mean anyone else should be. That's basically what Hawk Moth is doing with you, isn't it? How is this any better?"
His words seemed to have an effect, as the telltale butterfly symbol appeared on her face that very instant. It was a little surprising, actually. Ladybug, being the kind, gentle, amazing soul that she is, attempted to talk down the first few akumas into giving up their powers, but they quickly found out that akumatization almost always threw out whatever common sense the victim had. He could count the exceptions on one hand, even if this one counted.
In truth, his goal was to stall for time until Ladybug showed up, and to let the civilians flee the area. His miraculous beeped, and he saw that two paw segments were now gone.
"The difference is that Hawk Moth empowers those who are hurt, not the ones doing the hurting. That's the story of the Revolution, isn't it? The oppressed taking arms and rising up against the bourgeoisie? Or the Bourgeois, as it tends to be."
"Do you really think schoolkid bullying is comparable to the wealthy exploiting the working class? Hawk Moth's just using you. He's playing on your sensitivities to get what he wants."
"Stupid cat. It's an exchange: Hawk Moth lets me get what I want, and in return, I let him get what he wants. Your miraculouses!"
Tiger Prawn jumped on top of the car and began firing blasts at him. While the shield protected him, a cloud of hot steam soon began to cloud his view and the air around him. He jumped back and looked for ways to disrupt her while weaving between her shots.
Well, there was a pretty obvious choice here, though he figured Ladybug would disapprove of it. He threw the yo-yo to wrap around the tire of the car she was on and yanked it up, flipping it over and causing Tiger Prawn to tumble backwards off of it. While she was recovering, he had the yo-yo grab another car that was nearby, and with a yell, he swung the string overhead, the car going with it to slam down on Tiger Prawn herself.
Another crack in the air was heard, and the car crumpled in on itself as it crushed her. As he figured, the car was simply too massive compared to her fist for it to rebound the whole thing in one piece. With any luck, she was trapped, but he wasn't going to sit around and wait to find out.
Chat leapt onto the first car and over the second, whirling the yo-yo into a shield again in case of a sneak attack. He found the shrimp villain crawling out from under the wreckage, and cautiously, he moved to pull off the headband where the akuma was hiding.
"No!" she cried, hastily bringing up her blaster and firing. Not at his torso, though, but his feet, where the shield didn't reach.
"AAAAAUUUUGGHHHH!" he anguished, yanking his left leg up and holding the back of the shin where he had been hit. He fell over, the yo-yo clanking on the ground, and reeled in pain. His costume looked (and felt) partially melted onto his skin from the heat. It may be invulnerable to normal sources, but this clearly wasn't a normal amount of heat, even for a miraculous.
With another bout of "encouragement" from Hawk Moth, Tiger Prawn weakly got to her feet and walked over to Chat, who attempted to scramble away but could hardly move from how much it hurt to move his leg. She kneeled and grasped his arm with her left pincer, delicately moving the other to grab the ring on his finger and–
Something smacked her in the back of the head, hard. If she wasn't powered, it would be an easy concussion, but even so, she had already taken one beating and the attack caused her to lose focus. Also, whatever it was had a net attached to it, which briefly dangled in front of her face before sliding back and scooping itself around her. She was hoisted into the air, not by lifting but through a fulcrum, as if she was on a see-saw. Although her body was secure, her limbs dangled through holes in the net and she got tangled trying to free them or turn to see her new attacker, though she already knew who it was.
Ladybug stood on the ground, wedging the base of Chat's staff under the car he had flipped, securing the tilt of her makeshift tool that held Tiger Prawn ensnared. The netting from the goalpost had been tied around the hula hoop and the staff to create a large butterfly net. The spotted heroine walked up to her catch and jumped to grab the headband before snapping it, causing the black butterfly to escape and for Tiger Prawn to lose her powers.
"No more evildoing for you, little akuma," Ladybug said, opening her yo-yo like a ladybug opens its wings to the glowing white compartment within and swinging it to charge up.
"Time to de-evilize!"
The yo-yo caught the akuma in one swoop, closing up to perform its magic purification.
"Gotcha!"
She opened the compartment again, and a regular white butterfly flew up and away. "Bye-bye, little butterfly!"
Next, she pulled the hula hoop down from Chat's staff, letting the de-akumatized Lucille walk free, and then threw it in the air as well.
"Miraculous Ladybug!"
It burst into a swarm of ladybugs, which spread out in groups to restore all the damage. The cars piled on the street were restored to order, the net disappeared as it returned to its place on the football field, which was also patched up from the various charred, muddy holes created from water blasts. One group encased Chat Noir's leg, healing up the burn he had sustained.
"Hmm," Hawk Moth toned, not feeling nearly as upset as he thought he would after another near-victory turned into defeat. "An interesting battle, for sure. Tiger Prawn's turmoil was nothing extraordinary, but such strong capabilities came out of it, much like Party Crasher. And yet, others like Frozer lost so much more and possessed immense power… yet they squandered it terribly. I will have to think on this more. Wings fall."
Despite the final resolution of the Miraculous Ladybug, Ladybug wasn't relaxing quite yet. "Chat, are you alright?!" she exclaimed nervously, kneeling down to inspect his leg.
"My leg is fine, but the burn to my pride doesn't heal so easily." That was a lie; he almost had the akuma downed by himself, but he didn't want Ladybug prying into the scruples of his methods.
He could see the relief on her face as she looked him in the eyes. "Silly kitty, you'll get over it. You did fine for me not being there to help."
The relief vanished, to Chat Noir's surprise. "Speaking of help… we need to talk. Can you meet at our special secret spot tonight?"
The Secret Special Spot (trademark pending) was the term they used when one of them wanted to talk about the biggest of their problems and needed absolute privacy for it. Chat knew something like this would be coming ever since Ladybug had the Guardianship of the Miracle Box suddenly forced upon her; he would never forget what she had said just before it happened: "I'm the worst Ladybug that has ever existed!"
It was a complete shock coming from the cool, confidant Ladybug he admired. Something must be seriously wrong, but he wasn't going to pry into a touchy subject like that without prompting. Maybe that was the Adrien side of him speaking, but since Ladybug had brought it up, that didn't matter at the moment, so…
"I'll always make time for you, Milady. The usual time?"
"Yes. Now, if you'll excuse me…"
She walked over to the confused Lucille and reached up to place a hand on her shoulder. Stupid tallness. It would be hard to look confident if I wasn't used to this sort of thing, comforting full-sized adults as a teenaged girl.
"I can't believe I was akumatized… I really am weak, aren't I, Ladybug?" the footballer asked with sadness in her voice.
"Anything but."
"Huh?"
"Being clumsy doesn't define your strength as a person; there's so much more to consider than physical talent. What really matters is your heart and your dedication. You may not be an excellent footballer now, but if you keep trying at it, you're bound to get better. The real victory is not giving up and continuing to practice, regardless of what anyone says."
"Also, if it means anything, you made a pretty scary akuma," Chat Noir added. "Your positioning was excellent, and you were smart enough to hold your own in direct combat against the two of us. Not many akumas can do that, even the big ones that swing above our weight class."
"I…'m sorry for giving you so much trouble?"
"What Chat was trying to say," Ladybug emphasized, shooting a look in her partner's direction. "is that you have other strengths at your disposal. You just need to have the courage to stand up for those strengths and figure out with your team how to make use of them. If these players refuse to listen, then you might want to find better ones, because a team that isolates its members is no team at all."
"That new girl… she did seem like she wanted to help…"
"Exactly! Just take it one step at a time. Eventually, you'll have a whole group of people who believe in you. But you have to believe in yourself first."
"Okay… thank you, Ladybug."
Her earrings beeped, and she realized she was down to her last spot. "Helping people is what I do. Now, I really have to go before I transform. Bug out!" She did her signature salute and yo-yoed away.
"Can you find your way home?" Chat asked. "I have to go, too."
"I'll be fine."
He nodded. It's too bad Marinette wasn't here to receive that advice, he thought as he extended his staff and vaulted towards his house.
There was a magnificent view of the setting sun from their chosen secret meeting place: The very top of the Eiffel Tower, after the last elevator for the day. This way, no one would accidentally overhear what they were talking about, and the people of Paris knew better than to try and snoop on their business with a UAV or anything of that nature.
Ladybug didn't often have time to sit and enjoy such things as sunsets, but she figured showing up a few minutes before the agreed meeting time wouldn't hurt her. It gave her time to prepare herself, mentally, even if it was just the latest step in the processing she had been undergoing for the last couple of weeks.
She was just starting to wonder where that cat was when a black blur jumped into her line of vision. He was careful not to approach her from behind, ever since that one time where he thought it would be funny to scare her. Let's just say that the owner of the Hostel Larue still believes that it was a freakishly large bird that hit their window, and he wasn't going to tell them otherwise. He gave a friendly wave, and she replied with an unhappy one.
"I realized why my Lucky Charm didn't want us to transform today, and it's not good news," she began.
"Oh?" he said, his ears perking as he sat down next to her.
"It's because we're limited on power-ups. Master Fu gave us supplies for three of each kind after Syren. We used one Aqua on Heroes' Day, and another for Miracle Queen, so we only have one left. He probably intended to make more after that, but then… well, you know. What's worse, Hawk Moth stole the translated grimoire, so I can't make any for us either. The upside is that Master Fu, or rather, Mr. Chan, probably has all of the ingredients safely at his new house, but until we know what to do with them, we need to save our last Aqua form for when it's absolutely necessary."
"Wow, that's… I hadn't thought about that. And that means we'll have to make the most of our transformations when we use any in the future, right?"
"Yep."
They spent a few moments of silence enjoying the sunset.
"So… that's definitely not why you requested the Triple S," Chat finally spoke, "What are you really stressed out about?"
Ladybug took a deep breath. "I mentioned help, and what I was getting at is that I need your help with something important."
"How may I be of service, Milady?" he replied instantly. "You know you can count on me."
"Well… actually… I don't, is the thing – but not because I think you don't care or can't do what I need! Rather the opposite, actually. I'm worried that you care too much and may… overstep some boundaries."
He gave her a quizzical look. He had an idea what she was talking about, since it was a conversation they'd had several times before, but what did she need him to do?
"What I mean is, I need, um, help with… managing…" she sighed, "managing stress. And emotions."
"How so? I know what happened with Master Fu was hard on you – it was hard even for me, and I've only met him a couple of times. But against a regular akuma, you're always so collected and composed, no matter what gets thrown our way. It's one of your greatest strengths, and one of the biggest reasons why you're Ladybug and not me, isn't it? I learned that the hard way."
"But I'm not just Ladybug anymore. I'm the Guardian of the Miracle Box, and that means I can't–" she looked away from him, "I can't fail. I can't lose control of myself, of my emotions, for even a moment. Even in my civilian life. I have to be perfect now. Anything less is all that's needed to make a fatal mistake, or for Hawk Moth to get his hands on me."
Chat put a comforting arm around her, but she didn't relax. Actually, she seemed to tense even further.
"You put too much pressure on yourself, Ladybug. I'm serious when I say I'm here for you. Whatever you need."
"That's the thing, Chat. What I'm worried about. You are here for me… because you love me. Even after I've said no, you still continue to try to win me over. If I let you see my heart, what do you think you're going to do with it? Do you really believe that you wouldn't try to take advantage of the opportunity?"
That question struck him, struck Adrien, really hard. He immediately removed his arm and instead wrapped it around himself.
"Do you really think it's… taking advantage? Whenever we talk about this, I think back to the Oblivio incident, and that picture Alya took of us kissing."
The red-spotted heroine shook her head. "So what? I've kissed you before to remove the effect of an akuma. It didn't mean anything. Why would this?"
"Wait, you have?"
"Yeah, Dark Cupid, it was one of the earlier ones. Turned love into hate, only a kiss could remove the effect because fairy tale clichés, and you were hit. Like I said, it didn't mean anything."
Chat Noir let that sink in, remembering that that happened when he first wanted to confess his love to her. It didn't change what he was going to say next, though. "But that kiss wasn't to remove the effect of an akuma. On the contrary, since Alya took the picture, it was after she had been de-akumatized. I also studied the news coverage of the fight from before we lost our memories. We were both blasted by Oblivio after using our powers. That means we had to have learned each other's secret identities, and whatever we saw, we must've both discovered that we had feelings for each other if it led to a kiss like that. I know we don't remember it, and that we can't know who we really are, but I trust that even without our memories, we didn't make that decision on a whim."
This only caused Ladybug to withdraw further, bringing her knees up as she curled into a ball. Her voice became shaky. "Chat… you don't understand… When I said… that I can't love you, it wasn't because of that other boy I like. I didn't want to tell you this, but I don't think you will truly accept the reality of our situation unless I do."
"Milady…?"
"Bunnyx visited me, sometime after Timetagger. She took me to a future where all of Paris had been destroyed. Destroyed by you."
His green eyes widened. "Me?"
"Something happened, it led to you finding out my secret identity, and then it broke your heart. Hawk Moth akumatized you. Both he and I… died."
"You… no… but how…?"
"She refused to let me see any of what actually happened. All I know is from what Chat Blanc said to me." Ladybug paused for a moment as the words rang out in both of their heads.
"I'm sorry… As long as Hawk Moth is still out there, we can't be together. Not romantically. But we're still partners, and I still need you. I need your help to be strong, and not fail. Can you do that for me?"
"Chat Blanc…" he half-mumbled. "I… I really don't know. I want to, but… you might be right. Can I trust myself not to take advantage of you?"
The girl looked at him. "Do you want some time to think about it?"
"No," he answered, surprisingly quickly, while clenching his fist. "I'll never say no to helping you Ladybug, especially not when you need me. The only question is whether I'm good enough. I just don't want to promise anything that I might not be able to deliver."
Ladybug smiled and placed her hand on his arm. "That's fine. It may take some time, but I'm sure we'll figure out a way."
"Ladybug and Chat Noir are like, destined to work together, right? I bet we will."
She laughed, just a little, and it warmed his heart. Since the sun had set and the air was cooling it back down, he took the initiative in standing, extending a hand to the one he loved.
"I believe it's time for us to depart, Milady."
"You're going to keep on calling me those mushy nicknames just to annoy me, aren't you?" she commented, accepting the hand and rising.
"Me? I would never do that, Bugaboo," he taunted, gesturing dramatically. He started walking backwards away from her as a grin formed on his face. "Junebuggy. Button Spots. Seven-Spotted Wond–ahh!"
With its distinct sound, Ladybug's yo-yo wrapped around the hero, pinning his arms. She didn't pull him in or do anything other than stand there and smirk at him.
"Oh my, it appears my yo-yo has jumped at you of its own accord. It must be possessed by an akuma!"
"Careful, some kitties like to play with yarn," he remarked, using his free forearms to grab the string and pull her towards him.
It would have been easy to resist, but she allowed herself to be pulled along, at least until she was in arms' reach. The blue-haired one recalled her device, using her free hand to poke his blond-haired forehead and keep him at that distance. After a moment, they both fell into laughter for a solid ten seconds.
Once they had composed themselves, Ladybug closed the remaining steps and embraced Chat Noir in an honest hug.
"Thank you, Chat. I'm sorry it has to be like this, but you really do mean a lot to me."
"You too, Ladybug. I couldn't do this job without you."
She motioned to release, and he obliged without attempting to linger. He didn't quite like the smirk on her face. "Of course you can't, kitty, because I'm the only one who can purify the akumas," she stated with two quick pats, before retreating to the ledge and revving up her yo-yo. "Bug out!"
And she was gone. Chat stood there, enveloped in warmth despite the falling temperature. I love her so much. She needs me to be strong, and I won't let her down!
Chapter Trivia:
-Tiger Prawn's powers are based on two different kinds of animal: the pistol shrimp, which creates cavitation bubbles in its claws that reach temperatures over 5,000 K, 90% of the surface of the sun; and the mantis shrimp, with one of its two varieties smashing with its claws at 51 mph (83 kph) in the blink of an eye- rapidly enough also to create cavitation bubbles (though not as hot). So yes, shrimp really can be that dangerous.