Happy MariChat May my quarantine companions!

I've been quarantined for a little over 2 mouths now, which is also roughly how long it's been since I last updated this. But this chapter is a bit longer, so I hope that it satisfying.

Everything was fuzzy and dark when Marinette began to regain consciousness. It didn't feel the same as waking up in the morning. For one thing, she felt way too disoriented and her head hurt. Plus, she did not feel well rested.

Her bluebell eyes slowly opened to an unfamiliar room. There was a big window with light blue curtains to her right. There was a lot of light coming through, making her head feel worse. Her slightly blurry gaze then turned to her left, where she noticed something big and pink. Her mind was too hazy to try and process what it was. The next thing her eyes caught notice of was the familiar silhouette of a person sitting in a chair in the left corner, just a few feet from where she was lying down.

"M…Mom?" she was able to utter.

At hearing her daughter's groggy voice, Sabine bolted out of her chair, dropping her book without marking her page. "Marinette!" she exclaimed, rushing to her bed side. "Oh sweetheart, you're awake! How do you feel?" Sabine leaned down and gently took her little girl's hand.

"Dizzy," Marinette replied, blinking a few times to try and clear her vision. "Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital, dear. Do you remember what happened?"

Marinette took a minute, thinking of the last thing she could remember before waking up. "I was…at school. Chat Noir was fighting an akuma…some falling rocks…"

"You were standing under the archway above the school entrance when it collapsed. Chat Noir dug you out of the rubble, then your classmates called an ambulance and brought you outside," Sabine explained.

This was a lot for Marinette's mind to absorb. She remembered Alya talking to her from the school's entrance but she wouldn't leave, then rocks were falling around her then everything went black.

Chat had dug her out? He was supposed to be stopping the akuma. Was he still fighting her? Her stomach sank when she thought of him fighting alone without his partner.

Still, it was very heroic of him to save her.

"Are they here?" She was mostly asking about her friends from school, but also Chat. Was he there too to see if she was okay?

"No. We sent them home. The doctor said you can't have visitors yet. But don't worry, I promised Alya I would let her know the minute you woke up and she would let the rest of your class know."

"Where's papa?"

"He had to go back to the bakery, but we wanted at least one of us to stay with you at least until you woke up. We can call him after we talk to the doctor." With that, Sabine stood up and gently kissed her daughter's cheek. "Sit tight. I'll be right back," she said before turning around and walking out of the room.

"Tikki?" Marinette called for her kwami when she was sure she was alone.

Marinette knew she was no longer in the clothes she had on that morning and wearing a blue hospital gown, so the belongings she had on during her accident—including her little purse—were in a closet on the opposite wall from her bed. At hearing her name, the tiny red kwami fazed through the purse and closet door fast as a flash. "Marinette!" she exclaimed, latching her stubby arms to her holder's cheek. "You're okay!"

As happy as Marinette was to see her little friend, they still had a problem to discuss and it was better they talked about it now while they had some alone time. She wasn't sure how much of that she would have while she was there. "The akuma?"

Tikki reluctantly let go of her cheek and just floated in front of her face. "Miss Fortune is still out there. Paris needs Ladybug to purify the akuma, but you can't go out in your current condition."

Marinette nodded. She didn't exactly know her condition yet, but she did know she was in no shape to be fighting anything. Plus, there was no way she'd be able to sneak out of the hospital even if she thought she felt fine. "Someone else is gonna have to wear the Ladybug earrings for this one," she said, already knowing who that was. "Tikki, I need my phone."

The ladybug kwami flew back into the closet and opened the door to bring the cell phone out. When it was in her owner's hands, Marinette looked through her contacts list and pressed the turtle icon.

"Hello?" the voice on the other end asked when the ringing stopped.

"Master Fu?"

"Marinette. Are you alright?"

"I'm in the hospital. There's an akuma and I can't transform and go after it." She hated how helpless she sounded, but it was true and had to be said.

"I know. I saw what happened at your school on the news," the old guardian replied.

"I need you to come here. Paris is gonna need Mister Bug again," she told him. Even if Chat Noir came to visit her, she couldn't exactly give the earrings to him. He wasn't supposed to know who she was. She needed Master Fu as her middle man.

"I am on my way to the hospital right now. I'll be there in a few minutes." Of course, Master Fu would think ahead and come to see her. Not just to visit and check on her but to talk about how to stop the akuma with her out of commission. Hopefully, he would arrive after the doctor talked with her and she could convince her mom to go home for the night. Then he could sneak in without too much suspicion.

After they hung up, Tikki put Marinette's phone back where she had found it and returned to her owner's side. She too was very worried about her. And—unlike her friends and family—she couldn't show herself during all the chaos and check on her. She had to stay in her little purse through it all and it was torture.

With Tikki cuddled against her shoulder—she could easily hide when her mom came back with the doctor—Marinette let her eyes wonder her room. She noticed there were two bouquets on the window sill to her right. Both were beautiful and made the bluenette smile. She knew they must be from her friends. Then her eyes went back to the giant pink thing she remembered seeing when she first woke up but couldn't identify on the other side of the room.

That too was a bouquet. A great, big, pink bouquet that looked like it could be a small tree.

Who the hell got her that? It must have cost a fortune. It was beautiful and in her favorite color, but it was simply too much.

She would have to ask her mom about it later.

Marinette then spotted something on the hospital table beside her bed out of the corner of her eye. It was a card, standing up, and it said 'Get Well Soon' on the front.

She smiled again as she reached out and grabbed it. Just as she suspected, her entire class had signed it—including Luka. Everyone had singed their names, drawn a little picture and/or written a sweet little message for her. Seeing each one made Marinette giggle with adoration. Until she was stunned, upon catching the sight of a section of the card occupied by the penmanship of a certain crush of hers.

Adrien A.

To our everyday Ladybug

Wishing you a 'miraculous' recovery

And under that was a red circle with five black spots. It was rough but she could tell it was supposed to be a ladybug symbol.

At first she was touched and was about to swoon, but then she snapped to frantic because she thought he called her that because he somehow found out her secret identity. It only took another minute for her to remember that he had called her that a while back at her Heroes Day picnic and she relaxed.

Marinette let herself swoon, thinking about how sweet and amazing he was. Then her thoughts when back to the huge pink bouquet in her room. The two most well-off people in her class were Adrien and Chloe. Chloe definitely wouldn't spend money on her like that. She didn't even find her signature in the card. Adrien on the other hand… it was possible.

He was her friend and he was the type to give gifts to a sick friend—not that she had seen him do it before. But she wasn't going to get her hopes up and assume it was from him. Maybe they were from Jagged Stone. They were tight and he could afford a bouquet that insane.

Curiously, Marinette reached her hand up to her forehead and felt a bandage off to the right. She had a vague memory of something hard hitting her there. Which made her wonder why the archway collapsed in the first place.

She knew Chat Noir had been fighting Miss Fortune up near there. The akuma's power was bad luck, maybe she made the structure unstable and crumbly to use against Chat Noir. Or…

Was it Chat who did it?

With her head still hurting, Marinette didn't want to think about it too hard. For now, she moved that to the back of her mind. She'd ask someone for the full story later.

Marinette leaned back into the hospital bed, making herself comfortable, re-reading the card as she waited patiently for her mom to come back with the doctor. She was anxious to understand her condition.

Because of the damage to the school and the fact that there was still an akuma on the loose, classes were cancelled until further notice. So all students and faculty were ordered to stay at home for their own safety.

As soon as he got home, Adrien only stayed in his room for about ten minutes—and that whole time, he was transformed and trying to call Ladybug, but she didn't pick up once. Then he decided to just head out and try to find Miss Fortune himself, hoping Ladybug was already on the scene and wasn't picking up because she was too busy fighting.

But he was wrong. By the time he found Miss Fortune, his lady was nowhere to be found. The bad luck girl even mentioned she hadn't even seen a glimpse of the spotted heroine all day.

This had Chat worried. She wasn't at the fight earlier at the school either. Where the hell was she? Was she okay? Did Miss Fortune get to her before she even had the chance to transform?

He hated not knowing. It was times like these he wished they knew each other's identities so he could know where to look for her if she was late or held up for some reason. He could help her if he knew. He wanted to help her. Not just while they were suited up.

Chat hated to fight without his partner, but he had to. It was his duty as a hero of Paris. He just hoped she showed up before anything really bad happened. Just like back at the school, he knew he couldn't purify the akuma without his lady, so he knew he couldn't just destroy her belt yet. He at least hoped to learn more about how her powers worked so he could learn how to defeat her later. Or, if he was lucky enough, maybe take her belt from her.

The akumas goal was pretty basic; she wanted to jinx anyone she could find with bad luck and ruin their day. To do this, she had been throwing the charms on her belt at people.

When she saw someone just walking along down a sidewalk, she threw her charm that looked like a ladder at them and POOF! There was a ladder right in front of them. And as soon as the person walked under it, BAM! They tripped, got slashed by a puddle from a car driving passed, or a passing pigeon left a white splatter on their shoulder.

Or when she saw someone sitting at a table in front of a café, she threw her tilted salt shaker charm at them and again, a salt shaker just appeared on the table. Then, when the person reached out to grab their drink from off the table, they'd hit the salt shaker and knock it over. Then bad things would instantly start happening to them too; they accidently spill their drink on themselves, they fall out of their chair, or a flock of pigeons would come out of nowhere and attacked them for their pastry.

Her black cat charm made a real, living black cat. And every time it walked by an unexpecting bystander, bad things happened to them too out of nowhere.

And then there were the three-leaf clover and upside-down horseshoe charms. They didn't create the real thing like the others did. When she threw one of those at someone, it landed on their body and just stuck there. No amount of pulling could get it off.

It was bad luck to simply possess either of these items. This kind of charm wasn't like a ladder, which you had to walk under.

Or a salt shaker, which you had to tip over.

Or a mirror, which you had to break.

Or a black cat, which had to cross your path.

All Miss Fortune had to do was get it on someone and they were jinxed. And the worst part was, it couldn't be gotten rid of so easily.

And every time she ruined someone's day, Miss Fortune just laughed her head off like it was the grandest thing in the world.

Chat Noir jumped in to stop her mischievous meddling, but couldn't get close enough to take her belt. He didn't want to get hit with any of her charms. Then he would have even worse luck in defeating her. At the very least, he could keep the akuma's attention on him and off innocent people so they could get away.

The feline hero got in close, trying to strike her with his staff. Miss Fortune redirected his blows and threw her own punches and kicks. When he went in to strike her again, she managed to grab a hold of his staff with both her hands. The two faced off, pushing against each other.

"You know what, kitty," Miss Fortune said to him, teeth grit in a smile. Chat was angered further. No one but his lady was allowed to call him 'kitty.' "I think we got off on the wrong foot. Maybe we just need to take a moment to reflect!" Before Chat knew what was going on, Miss Fortune pushed herself away from Chat, then quickly pulled her broken mirror charm from her belt and threw it at his feet. A second later, in a puff of smoke, Chat looked down and saw he was standing on a giant mirror. It stretched all the way to both sides of the road and just as far down the road in front of him and behind him. He prepared himself to jump away, but stopped when he heard the villain warn him. "You move even an inch and that glass will crack," she hollered to him from the top on a nearby lamp post.

Chat huffed in frustration. If he broke the mirror, he was jinxed. He had no choice but to stand still.

Miss Fortune jumped from the lamp post, diving in to grab at him. Chat ducked, trying really hard not to add more pressure to his feet. She missed him and landed on the road, just beyond the edge of the mirror.

"You can't just grab my ring pouncing at me like that," Chat hollered to her a few yards away.

"And you can't stand there forever," she hollered back. Realization dawned on the feline hero. She wasn't trying to take his miraculous. She was just trying to get him to move so he'll break the mirror. "Sooner or later, you'll move and then taking your miraculous will be easy pickins,'" Miss Fortune giggled wickedly.

"Right, breaking a mirror is bad luck. You know what else is bad luck? Crossing a black cat," Chat snarled back at her. He of course meant 'crossing' not just in the sense of merely encountering, but in the sense of 'rubbing the wrong way.' He was still very angry with her for earlier and she was definitely continuing it.

Miss Fortune merely shrugged. "True. But I'll be fine," she waved off before her smile turned wicked again. "As soon as Ladybug gets here, she'll become my good luck charm."

Her good luck charm?

Her good luck charm?!

"LIKE HELL!" Chat screamed. How dare she think she can use his lady as some personal relic to undo any sort of bad juju on her.

Before thinking through what he was doing, Chat extended his baton out, aiming for the akuma's face. Unfortunately, she was anticipating that and stepped swiftly to the left, missing her head by barely an inch.

"Bad move, kitty cat," she said smugly before grabbing hold of his baton. She started jerking it in all directions, giggling madly. With the other end still in his hands, Chat was jerked with it.

Chat was pulled and pushed back and forth, dipping down forward and back. He looked rather ridiculous, trying to keep his balance without moving his feet. Sadly, even letting go of the stick completely was another bad move. With the extra-long stick in her hands, Miss Fortune jabbed Chat straight in the chest, pushing him down unto the mirror, flat on his rear.

True to her warning, the mirror's surface cracked severely under the not-so-harsh pressure of Chat Noir's butt.

"And… that's seven years bad luck," Miss Fortune chimed just before the mirror disappeared in a quick puff of smoke, its purpose fulfilled. The damage done.

Confident there was no possible way she could lose now, Miss Fortune dropped the silver baton and began her new barrage of attacks.

This fight was even worse than the previous ones from that same day.

Chat kept bumping into things and falling while trying to dodge Miss Fortune's strikes. When he activated his baton to extend it, it sprung up and hit him right under the chin. Then he would drop it a lot while trying to twirl it to defend himself. He did manage a flawless back-flip to evade her but it ended up with him crash landing in a cluster of garbage cans.

It was humiliating and dangerous. Yet deep down somewhere inside him, Chat sort of felt this was what he deserved. He messed up his cataclysm and ended up hurting one of his best friends. A sweet, innocent girl who was just in the wrong place at the worst time. It still pained him while trying to fight. Although he felt this was a proper punishment (maybe not harsh enough), getting his miraculous taken from him and handed over to Hawkmoth wasn't acceptable.

He couldn't defeat her properly without Ladybug and her powers, not to mention he was all but useless with his luck so bad. What he needed was a lucky charm. Something to counteract the bad luck on him.

Ladybug was always their good luck charm. With her, they always prevailed. But she was nowhere to be found for the time being. So he would have to make do without her.

He had to make his own luck. Somehow.

Chat looked around, trying to come up with a way to change his luck. His eyes fell on Miss Fortune's belt again as he thought of how he could get it off her when they stopped on her horseshoe charm.

Horseshoes were bad luck when they were upside-down because it trapped the luck in. However, if it were to be turned facing up in a U shape, this meant the luck was being shared, bringing good luck to those who possessed it.

With that knowledge, Chat had an idea. It required perfect timing and positioning, but if it worked, he definitely stood a better chance against this akuma alone.

"What? You're not gonna try to stick me with more bad luck?" Chat taunted as he secured his baton to his back.

"You're a real glutton for punishment. You must feel really bad for what you did to that sweet girl," the akuma said, grabbing the three-leafed clover charm from her belt. "Too bad she didn't have her own lucky charm protecting her from you!"

As much as the comment stung, Chat did his best to ignore it, in favor of focusing on his plan. As Chat charged forward, Miss Fortune threw the three-leafed clover, but Chat swerved to the side, missing it completely, then he jumped. With the mangy cat coming at her from above, the akumatized girl finally reached for the horseshoe and threw it.

Chat smirked as he watched the horseshoe coming at him. He had all but a slit second to wait for the perfect moment, but when it came, he was ready.

There in midair, he thrusted his body over, rolling his self just as the charm hit him right in the chest.

Chat landed on the ground, kneeling. Miss Fortune looked down at him, satisfied. She knew her charm had hit its mark and couldn't wait to see it there, stuck to him, making his luck twice as bad.

However, when the feline hero rose back up to his feet, the horseshoe was revealed to be positioned right-side up.

"What?!" Miss Fortune shrieked.

Chat looked down at his chest, seeing the first part of his plan had worked. He gave her a wicked grin. "Today must be my lucky day after all."

Putting his baton out again, Chat tried attacking…and it wasn't terrible. He was able to stay up on his feet, use his weapon the way he meant too, and managed to not bump into anything hard and/or smelly.

It felt great, having some luck back, but the blonde black cat didn't let himself get too cocky. He still knew he couldn't just release and purify the akuma yet.

Well, he could still try accomplishing the second part of his plan: getting that belt.

He was certainly feeling lucky enough.

Chat Noir had Miss Fortune chasing him over some rooftops, when he suddenly stopped at the edge of a building. Looking down, he could see a café awning right below him.

Okay. Looks like he was using his old plan from back at the school after all. Except this time, it was going to work and no one was going to get hurt.

Chat looked over his shoulder, making sure Miss Fortune was still coming this way. Then he jumped down from the roof. Not long after, Miss Fortune arrived at the same ledge. She knew she saw the pesky feline jump right there, but when she looked down to the street below, he was nowhere to be seen. Although, she did hear a trash can rattle in an alley on the other side of the road.

The bad luck akuma jumped down to the awning below her and intended to bounce right off that and onto the road, but as soon as her feet made contact with the fabric, it separated from itself right under her and she fell through up to her waist.

Miss Fortune struggled to pull herself up, but barely a second later, she felt her legs being tied together, followed immediately by the feeling of her belt coming off her hips.

"Hey! What the heck is going on!?"

From under the awning, Chat Noir smirked like a Cheshire. There he stood, his black tail belt tied around Miss Fortune's legs—keeping her from kicking him—and her charm-covered belt in his hand. He didn't even need his cataclysm; just a well-placed tear along the awning fabric with his claw.

"A belt for a belt, Misfortunate," he chimed before taking off running.

It was almost sunset. He wasn't exactly sure where he was going, he just knew it was better to keep the akuma as far away from her source of power as possible until he found his lady and could finish the job.

Hearing the defeated and trapped girl's outraged cries getting further and further away, Chat looked for a quiet place to think and calculate his next move. He spotted a subway entrance and headed there. Jumping down the stairs, several at a time, Chat reached the tiled floor of the platform, but he didn't stop there. He ran down the tunnel, made several turns, and didn't stop until he reached the sanctity of the sewer.

The feline hero stopped to take a breather, sure he was a good enough distance away.

"Okay. I've got the belt," he said to himself, looking down at the possessed object firmly grasped in his claws. "What do I do now?"

"Adrien."

Chat jumped with a start, not expecting the presence of another person down there with him. And certainly not for them to address him as his civilian self. No one was supposed to know. Except maybe…

Turning his body when he jumped, Chat saw a familiar, short, old Chinese man in a red Hawaiian shirt, looking up at him with a friendly smile.

"M-Master Fu? How-how did you-"

"Perhaps you just got lucky," the old man replied with a wink. Obviously, he had noticed the right-side up horseshoe on the feline's chest. "It's safe to detransform."

"Are you sure? Maybe I shouldn't."

"You're going to need to."

"What do you…" Chat wasn't exactly sure why the guardian would ask him to drop his transformation now. He hadn't even used his cataclysm during the fight. Still, he trusted the old man knew what he was doing. Chat placed the akumatized belt down on the ground next to the sewer wall. "Plagg, claws in," he said, allowing his kwami to fly from his ring and a green light to reveal his secret identity.

"Hello Plagg," Fu greeted the black cat kwami.

"Master Guardian," Plagg greeted him with a respectful blow before turning to his holder. "I want cheese," he said bluntly.

Adrien rolled his eyes, reached into his white shirt and reluctantly handed him a small piece of camembert. As his gluttonous kwami ate, the blonde model turned his attention back to the master. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

The old guardian said nothing as he pulled a small box from his pocket—similar to the one he first found his ring in. Adrien stared at the box for a moment. Why was Master Fu handing him another miraculous? The only miraculous they needed right now was…

Panic overcame the young teen's mind. Adrien hastily took the box in his own hand and lifted the top. A blinding, red beam of light met his eyes. When it subsided, there floated the little red kwami he had met once before.

"Hi Adrien," she greeted him with a smile.

"Tikki!?" he exclaimed. He looked down into the box and, sure enough, there were the earrings that she fused with. "Wh-what's going on? Why do you have these? Where's Ladybug?!" he asked fanatically. If he wasn't worried before about why his lady had not shown up at all so far that day, he certainly was now. First Marinette got a skull fracture because he made a stupid mistake, now there was something wrong with his beloved Bugaboo!?

"Calm yourself, Adrien. Your partner is fine," the master told him. Adrien did calm, but only slightly. He still didn't understand why. "She, unfortunately, could not transform to help you. And before you ask why, know that I can not divulge the specifics to you. But please trust that she is okay and you will see she again soon." While the explanation made sense, it still had him concerned. He could not know the details. Most likely because it had to do with her personal life, which he wasn't supposed to know about. Again, he wished he knew so he won't be left wondering and/or worrying. Even with this information, he was still worried because he didn't know the whole story. But, he couldn't focus on that right now. She was okay. That was the important thing. Maybe she just had a cold or got hit with one of Miss Fortune's jinxes and didn't feel it was safe for her to transform. "Adrien Agreste, you are the only person Ladybug trusts with her miraculous, as I know, you have used it once before. So I ask you to please put on the earrings and become Mister Bug again. Once the job is complete, you will remove the earrings and I will return them to Ladybug," Master Fu explained.

Adrien envied that Master Fu knew who his lady was and he didn't. Guess it was one of the perks of being the Guardian.

"Okay," Adrien nodded.

"Wait," Master Fu said, stopping Adrien before he could take the earrings out of the box. "Before you put the earrings on, I must ask that you take off your ring first."

Adrien glanced down at his right hand quick. "What? I can't."

"I know how you feel about parting with it, but it is dangerous for the ladybug and black cat miraculouses to be wore at the same time," he explained calmly but serious. Even if he didn't activate them at the same time, it was still best that he didn't even have them on.

"He's right kid," Plagg said to his holder. Beside him, Tikki nodded in agreement. "It's alright," he said reassuringly. He didn't like it any more than his owner did, but it was for the best.

Master Fu held out his left hand and flattened his palm out. "Place it right here," he said, gesturing to his palm with his eyes. "It will stay in my open palm, right where you can see it. You can put it back on the moment you remove the earrings," the old man said.

Adrien sighed but nodded again. That was fair. Reluctantly, he pulled his ring off and placed it in the old guardian's waiting hand. Adrien took the earrings out of the box and stuck them on his ears one by one. Although his ears weren't pierced, the miraculous adapted into clip-ons for him.

"Okay, Adrien. Just like last time. Say, 'spots on!' You already have the akumatized object so this should only take a minute," Tikki told him when he had them on.

"Right," he understood. But he couldn't help but ask. "Tikki, is your holder really okay?" Adrien envied Tikki the most. She lived with Ladybug. She knew her like nobody else. He wished he could know her that personally. He wanted to know everything about her.

"She is, don't worry," Tikki reassured him with a smile. "She felt terrible not coming to help, but she was in no condition to be out."

Hearing this only made him more anxious. While he trusted her word that she was okay and not dying or in imminent danger, he still wished he could have seen her himself. Beside himself, Adrien smiled. "Well, then I'm glad she didn't come. I'd rather she be safe than anything else."

"I know. It's good to hear that you care about her so much," Tikki replied, giving him a hug on his cheek. Adrien giggled, feeling her antennas tickling the side of his face. He very rarely got hugs from Plagg—and they were always delivered on his chest or shoulder, and never his cheek. He liked it. It was a nice temporary change.

If Ladybug and I knew who we were, we could hang out with our kwamis and I could get more cheek hugs from sweet little Tikki. The blonde model thought to himself as she let go.

Adrien cleared his throat. "Tikki, spots on!" The next moment, Tikki was sucked into the earrings, pink light overtook the teen boy, covering him in a red suit with black poka-dots, complete with a matching mask and magic yoyo wrapped around his waist.

Mister Bug took a moment to look down at himself. Just like last time, different from his black leather cat suit, but still really cool.

"First, use your Lucky Charm," Master Fu instructed.

Mister Bug glanced down at the akumatized belt left on the ground. He knew he needed to free the akuma to purify it, but he should use the Lucky Charm first so he could reset everything afterwards like his lady does. "Of course," he nodded in agreement and pulled out the yoyo. "Lucky Charm!" he exclaimed, throwing the yoyo above him. In a flurry of pink light and ladybugs, a pair of red hedge trimmers with black poka dots fell into his hands. "hedge trimmers?" He didn't exactly need to figure out a use for them, but he had to wonder. Then, almost instantly, it made sense. "Oh…perfect." He couldn't use his cataclysm to destroy the akumatized object. He needed something to cut it with. Mister Bug picked the belt up with one hand. "Master Fu, would you mind?" he said, holding the belt out for him to take.

Before he could grab it, however, a little green blur came out from behind the old guardian. "Allow us, Master," Wayzz offered as he and Plagg grabbed both ends of the belt and held it up.

It wasn't a good idea for a civilian to touch an akumatized object. Miraculous holders were better protected when transformed, but Fu couldn't in his old age. He didn't have any extreme negative emotions for Hawkmoth to exploit, but it was just better the kwamis do it anyway.

With the charm-covered belt out in front of him, Mister Bug held the trimmers in both his hands and clipped the tough material in half. As the two pieces feel to the ground, a dark butterfly fluttered out.

Mister Bug quickly dropped the trimmers and reached for the yoyo again. "No more evil doing for you, little akuma," he said, opening the yoyo. Just as he'd seen his lady do a hundred times before, he swung the yoyo at the butterfly and snatched it out of the air. "Gotcha!" he exclaimed, catching it in his hand. He then pressed the top and released the now white butterfly. "Bye-bye little butterfly," he said happily as he watched it fly away down the sewer tunnel. Hopefully, it'll find a drain or something and make it back to the surface. After putting the yoyo back at his waist, the spotted male hero grabbed the trimmers from off the ground. "Miraculous Mister Bug!" he shouted as he threw them up above him, releasing a swarm of ladybugs that flew all around them.

The ladybugs made their way outside, fixing everything that needed it from the battle. The damage to the school was repaired, everyone who was jinxed was back to normal with their luck, Miss Fortune was brought safely down from the awning and turned back into her original self; hopefully a little wiser for the ware to not read too much into superstitions.

Back in the sewer, Mister Bug watched Miss Fortune's charm belt turn into an ordinary belt, back in one piece, covered with an adorable four-leaf clover pattern. "I think it worked," he concluded. "Tikki, spots off."

In a flash of pink light, Mister Bug turned back into Adrien. Tikki flew out of the earrings and landed in his hands.

"You were great, Adrien," Tikki said with a tired smile before rubbing her belly.

"Are you hungry? Sorry, Plagg already ate all the cheese I had on me," he apologized, feeling bad he had no food to offer her.

"It's okay, Adrien," Master Fu said. Adrien raised his attention to him and saw he was holding a chocolate chip cookie. "I have it covered." The old guardian handed the sweet treat to the sweet, hungry kwami, who immediately started eating it.

As Tikki ate, Adrien removed the earrings and placed them back in the box. He then grabbed his beloved silver ring from Fu's still flat palm and replaced it with the earring box. Adrien slipped the ring back on with much joy. Plagg flew back over to his holder.

"Well," Adrien said. "Chat Noir should probably go find that girl, make sure she's okay, and give her back her belt. Plagg, claws out!" Green light transformed the blonde model back into his true super hero persona, complete with his black belt tail back where it belonged. Chat Noir reached down and picked the girl's belt back up.

"You did well, Adrien," Master Fu congratulated him with a proud smile. "Ladybug will be proud to hear how well you did on your own today." And with that, Master Fu put the small box in his pocket, turned around, and started walking down the sewer tunnel.

Chat said nothing as he watched the old guardian walk away. Crestfallen.

"Not when she finds out what I did to Marinette," he uttered to himself.

He looked down in shame for a minute, thinking back to earlier. Images of Marinette laying on the ground, surrounded by rubble, bleeding from her head flashed back into his mind. Tears began to form behind his eye lids. But he did his best to shake them off. He still needed to go back and check on the akuma victim. Belt in hand, Chat turned tail and ran back the way he came.

By the time Adrien arrived back to his room, it was late and he was exhausted. Both physically and emotionally. He had to get some sleep. The school was repaired so classes would resume tomorrow. As he curled up in bed and tried to fall asleep, his brain continued to wander back to Marinette.

She was safe, resting and recovering in a hospital. The doctor said she was going to be fine. Despite reminding himself of this, Adrien couldn't relax. Unable to rest his racing mind, he turned onto his back and grabbed his phone off his nightstand. He knew he must have missed some texts or calls while being transformed for most of the day. Scrolling through his text meeages from the past few hours, he found one from Alya, sent almost four hours ago.

Marinette is awake it said.

Adrien shot up from his bed, sitting right up as he looked over the three worded message several more times.

Marinette is awake.

She was awake.

A soft sob escaped Adrien's throat. The tears he had been holding back finally came out, but they were happy this time. Relieved. Then ever so quickly, his guilt came crashing back to him. Tears of sadness and regret mixed with his tears of joy. In the safety of his room, he finally let his emotions out.

A little while later, after he had calmed down, Adrien thought about what the next day would entail. He knew his friends were going to want to go visit her in the hospital tomorrow after school. He wanted to visit her too, he just had to be careful not to look like the guilty person who put her there. It might be hard keeping it together but he just had to see her with his own eyes; awake and smiling.

He would go to her as Chat Noir and apologize properly. Just maybe after she was better and out of the hospital.

There was also the matter of seeing Ladybug again. He didn't know the nature of the matter that kept her away from battle today, but hopefully he would hear from her soon too. Although he feared having to explain to her everything that went on. He knew she was going to find out somehow. If not from him, then from someone else. But it should be from him. It was only right to admit his own faults.

It was an accident. She'll at least understand that. Still, he dreaded facing Ladybug with this.

Even worse will be facing Marinette herself and begging for her forgiveness.

He couldn't bare the thought of either girl hating him.

And that wraps up with the akuma. I originally had a different way of the fight going down, but I just wanted to wrap it up and move the story along.

I have a lot of ideas to create MariChat fluff. And my favorite; spicy-fluff. So I just want to get to that.

Stay home, stay healthy, and stay tuned ;)