Chapter 9: New changes
Author's note: I'll likely be leaving the fandom after the conclusion of this story.
My enjoyment of Miraculous Ladybug has really gone down, I watched the show because I found the first season to be a fun watch with funny characters, but with the love-square being stretched out so long (as well as them constantly teasing and then retconning the reveal), all the melodrama and mystery mongering, the show being unable to decide whether it wants to be episodic or serialised, and the treatment of the characters; I just struggle to find any further interest in the show.
I'm at the point where I still haven't seen the New York & Hong Kong specials Special and doubt I ever will, and I haven't watched many episodes of season 4 either, just reading the summaries instead.
I'll still be writing this story, since I already have a large story plan to get through and I don't want to abandon this story for a second time.
But don't expect anymore fics from me for this show, or for me to update any of the other ML stories I have.
The day following the disastrous birthday party of Chloe Bourgeois, the students returned to their classes.
"It's just not fair." Marinette complained to Alya as the two friends walked together. "I didn't even go to Chloe's party and yet I still ended up mind controlled."
"I guess you should have come to the party after all." Alya shrugged.
"From what I've heard, there wasn't much of a party before Chloe kicked everyone out." Marinette raised an eyebrow.
"True." Alya nodded. "But I was thinking more about getting to see the brand-new hero, Queen Bee, up close and personal."
Marinette hummed, agreeing that Alya had a point.
Though, from watching the brief interview that Alya managed to get from Queen Bee the previous day, Marinette wasn't impressed with the new heroine's attitude.
"Is Queen Bee really a permanent hero like Ladybird and Chat Noir, though?" Marinette asked her friend, remembering what Alya had posted on the LadyBlog.
"No, she's not like Kleos or Púca." Alya shook her head with confidence. "Those two always arrive and then leave with Ladybird, like she's getting them from somewhere. Queen Bee was already there when we were released from mind control, but she stuck around long after Ladybird left."
"Right." Marinette said, seeing logic in Alya's reasoning.
Marinette couldn't help wondering what Queen Bee would mean for her.
The entire reason that Mr Agreste had chosen her as his protégé and started training her was to give Ladybird and Chat Noir another ally who Ladybird wasn't required to fetch first. And now Queen Bee would supposedly be filling that role before Marinette could.
As the girls walked, they found themselves meeting Adrien and Nino at the stairs.
"Hi." Marinette greeted the boys. "Adrien, are you alright?" She then questioned on seeing the annoyed look on Adrien's face.
"My dude here got mind controlled yesterday and isn't happy about it." Nino answered for his friend, giving Adrien a friendly one-armed hug. "I think it was his first time."
"It wasn't my first time." Adrien waved off. "But I still don't like that it happened."
As Chat Noir, he had been mind-controlled multiple times at this point, but it was the first time that it happened before he could transform. Though, he couldn't exactly tell his friends that.
"None of us do." Nino assured. "Especially when you know the one who caused it isn't sorry."
The group then heard a painfully familiar voice as they entered into their classroom.
"Speaking of which." Nino added.
"You need to change the art I asked for my present." Chloe told Nathaniel, who did not look happy that she was talking to him.
"But I already gave you the art." Nathaniel pointed out.
"You call that scribble a worthy birthday present?" Chloe sneered. "It was completely lazy and not at all what I wanted anyway."
Now, admittedly, Nathaniel had been a bit lazy with the art piece, since he had limited time and it was Chloe rather than a decent person, but that did mean that he was going to give any ground to Chloe.
"Hey-" Nathaniel began only to be cut off.
"Besides, I want a painting of the new hero, Queen Bee." Chloe interrupted. "Since you're already so obsessed with heroes and she's already so fabulous, you'll just end up drawing her anyway. So, you may as well draw her how I want her to be drawn. And it better not be digital, Queen Bee deserves to be hand painted properly."
"If you want something like that, then you're going to have to pay me and wait in my commission que." Nathaniel wasn't swayed by Chloe's argument.
He probably would end up drawing Queen Bee, but he was going to draw her how and when he wanted.
"Come on. Imagine how much more attention your art will get if it's promoted by me." Chloe tried to convince.
"Yeah, no." Nathaniel deadpanned. "'Exposure' doesn't pay for my art supplies."
Chloe opened her mouth to continue arguing when Marinette decided that it was time to step in.
"Leave Nathaniel alone, Chloe. He's already said 'no', and you should respect that." Marinette moved to stand next to her friend.
"Was I talking to you, Dupain-Cheng?" Chloe sneered at the other girl.
"And are you deaf, Bourgeois?" Alya joined in the defence. "Leave Nathaniel alone."
Chloe scoffed but judged the confrontation as not worth her time, turning around and going to her seat.
"Sabrina, find me an artist who will draw Queen Bee how I want for free." Chloe ordered, sitting down. "And make sure that they're a better artist than the tomato."
"Uh, Chloe. I don't think that there are going to be many artists willing to draw for free who are also better than Nathaniel." Sabrina pointed out.
"Shut up and do as I say." Chloe snapped.
Sabrina flinched slightly but put her head down and began searching on her phone for artists.
When classes let out for lunch, Chloe took her time to go home and have a properly prepared meal before transforming into Queen Bee for the second time and going to the Eiffel Tower for the meeting that Ladybird set up.
When Queen Bee arrived at the Tower, where both Ladybird and Chat Noir were waiting, her nose wrinkled at the sight of empty baguette packaging and bottled drinks that had clearly been the heroes' own lunch.
The new heroine had hoped that at least Ladybird had more class than to have such a cheap lunch while sitting on the dirty floor.
"You took your time." Ladybird said to Queen Bee in greeting, downing the rest of her drink.
"Some of us like to eat in a sanitary environment." Queen Bee said. "And you didn't give an exact time to meet."
"Newbee has a point, Buggie." Chat Noir pointed out. "Actually, can I keep calling you 'Buggie'? Both of you are insect-themed heroes."
"My name is Queen Bee." The new heroine frowned at Chat Noir. "And that is what you will call me."
"Okay, okay." Chat Noir raised his hands in surrender.
Ladybird just rolled her eyes because she knew that their new partner was just going to receive a nickname anyway.
She had also told Chat Noir to use the name she'd given, but that hadn't stopped her partner from eventually calling her 'buggie'.
"Anyway, nice to meet you, Queen Bee." Chat Noir held out his hand to shake.
Queen Bee looked reluctant as she shook Chat Noir's hand.
"Well, I guess it's better to meet you late rather than never." She commented.
It took a few seconds for Chat Noir to understood what Queen Bee meant, then he frowned.
"I already explained to Ladybird that it was literally impossible for me to transform and help out yesterday." Chat Noir defended himself.
He could say that he was one of the mind-controlled, but the exclusivity of Chloe's party narrowed down who his civilian identity could be if Queen Bee wanted to find out.
"These things can happen." Ladybird frowned at Queen Bee, knowing that she had already told this to their new partner the previous day.
"Yeah, I suppose." Queen Bee said. "But at least when they do, you'll have a true partner there to back you up." She added, as if she would be exempt from what happened to Chat Noir.
Ladybird looked ready to scold Queen Bee for her comment, but Chat Noir put a hand on her arm to calm her down, so she took a deep breath and let it go instead.
"Well, speaking of yesterday." Ladybird decided to move onto why she'd called for the meeting in the first place. "I think I need to properly explain what I was trying to tell you."
"Oh, you mean when you said that I don't own my Miraculous." Queen Bee narrowed her eyes.
Ladybird sighed loudly.
"Sit down because we're having a history lesson." She said.
"It's lunchtime, why am I still learning?" Queen Bee muttered under her breath as she sat on the cleanest spot she could find.
"I don't know much, but this is what was explained to me." Ladybird began. "Up until nearly two centuries ago, all Miraculous were looked after by an Order of Guardians, that includes our Miraculous and the ones that Iris uses. They looked after the Miraculous and handed them out when needed.
But something bad happened that caused the Order to disappear except for the current Guardian, and for both the Butterfly Miraculous and the Bee Miraculous to be lost during the disaster."
"Ah." Queen Bee said in understanding.
Things made a little more sense now, since Ladybird wasn't rushing to give an explanation.
"That doesn't mean that I'm going to hand over my Miraculous though." Queen Bee stated.
"I'm not expecting you to." Ladybird said placatingly. "As long as you help us in our fight against Iris, there's no reason to fight to take it off you."
And Queen Bee had made it clear that she would fight to keep the Bee Miraculous.
"Wait, if the Butterfly and Bee were lost together, why were they found separately?" Chat Noir questioned.
He then eyed Queen Bee in suspicion.
Ladybird shrugged.
"They must have just been found by separate people. If Iris had found both of them, she certainly would have used both of them." She said.
"You really thought that I'd work with that absolute eyesore of a villain?" Queen Bee laughed at Chat Noir.
"Sorry." Chat Noir apologised, rubbing the back of his head. "Though, how did you get your Miraculous?"
"It was a gift. I'm sure that she didn't know what the comb was. I don't know where she got it from, but the box looked Asian-y." Queen Bee explained, not elaborating on who 'she' was.
"That narrows it down." Ladybird said sarcastically. "Anything more than that?"
"I guess I can ask." Queen Bee said, as if she was being given some big task.
"Anyway. The current Guardian continued his job of looking after the remaining Miraculous." Ladybird continued her history lesson. "Some years back, he handed out two Miraculous to help battle some villain, the Peacock and the Fox Miraculous."
Ladybird held up a hand to silence Queen Bee before she could comment about the Fox Miraculous.
"The person he gave the Fox Miraculous to wasn't Iris." She stated. "The Guardian has no idea how Iris got the Fox off the old wielder, and he can't ask them since no one has seen them for over a year by this point."
"Wow, for someone apparently dedicated to protecting the Miraculous, this Guardian guy is bad at his job." Queen Bee commented.
Ladybird's eye twitched in annoyance, but she couldn't exactly deny Queen Bee's point.
Master Fu had managed to lose four Miraculous, two of which were now being used by a villain. The Bee Miraculous had at least been found by someone willing to use it for good, though getting it back into the Miracle Box when Iris was defeated would no doubt be its own issue. But the Peacock Miraculous was still missing because the hero Fu gave it to then gave it to someone else without telling the Guardian who and then also disappeared before Fu couldn't ask.
"When Iris made her debut, the Guardian gave Chat Noir and I our Miraculous' to stop her from using it for her own evil ends." Ladybird got to the parts that Queen Bee already knew from conjecture. "And, obviously, the Fox as well when she found it."
"What about the other two?" Queen Bee questioned in vague interest. "The backup duo?"
Kleos and Púca didn't really hold her interest, even when they debut. They were just more sidekicks, only with a gimmick of switching out their costumes and powers each time, which sort of made up for the fact that they weren't always around.
Still, it was a common question from the public as to why Kleos and Puca didn't always show up, and only showed up half-way through a battle. So, it would scratch a curious itch for Queen Bee to finally find out.
"I'm the one who picks them." Ladybird answered. "Sometimes we need a little extra help, so the Guardian allows me to take a Miraculous and give it to one of them temporarily."
"Well, with me here, you're not going to need to call on either of those two ever again." Queen Bee quickly used to opportunity to brag. "I can paralyse anyone I want to sting, after all."
"Uh, huh." Ladybird said, not convinced.
"I'm happy to have you on the team, Quennie." Chat Noir said enthusiastically, looking past the new hero's attitude towards him so far.
"And since you are part of the team, we should probably establish some ground rules." Ladybird added.
"Ugh." Queen Bee groaned. "I don't need to be told what to do."
"First and most important rule of being a superhero, don't let anyone know your identity." Ladybird gave her first rule.
A secret identity was a general rule for all superheroes, but it was especially important for the Miraculous heroes since the Akumatised were much more prone to shouting out personal information, no matter how much their regular selves knew to keep things secret.
"Well, duh." Queen Bee rolled her eyes, acting as if that hadn't been her original intention.
"Also, don't be needlessly sacrificial. Like Bagpuss over there." Ladybird added to her rules. "I don't want to be left with no back-up at best and fighting two mind-controlled partners on top of the two villains at worst."
"Hey." Chat Noir said defensively. "I am not 'needlessly sacrificial'."
"You most certainly are." Ladybird shot back. "How many times now have you let yourself get hit by an Akuma to 'protect' me, or taken the fall to 'give me' time or take attention away from me? When we could have worked out a better plan if you just stopped to think."
"And what, I'm just supposed to let you get hit then?" Chat Noir argued.
"Of course not. But we're meant to be partners, which means not leaving me alone to face Iris and her Akuma because you decided to use yourself as human shield."
"You've managed to pull things off so far."
"Only by the skin of my teeth sometimes. If that reporter girl hadn't been there, Iris would have won. You can't just put all this stress on me."
Queen Bee watched the argument unfold with an increasing sense of boredom.
After watching her own parents argue so often, it wasn't a new thing to her, and it gave her the sense that this was an old argument between Ladybird and Chat Noir.
And it was an argument that she wasn't interested in sticking around for.
"Well, if that's all you have for me-" Queen Bee said loudly, interrupting the arguing. "I have much better uses for my time."
Then, without another word, Queen Bee jumped from the ledge and descended down the Eiffel Tower.
With the heroine's abrupt departure, Ladybird and Chat Noir didn't feel like resuming their argument. Both heroes were left with a sense of embarrassment that they had argued like that in front of the new hero.
"Hey, Ladybird." Chat Noir said after a moment of silence. "What are you going to do about Queen Bee and her Miraculous once we defeat Iris?"
"I…we'll…cross that bridge when we get to it." Ladybird answered unsurely.
Marinette breathed in deeply before letting it out as she finished pulling on her plimsoles and stood up.
"Marinette, you'll do great." Duusu encouraged from Marinette's bag.
Marinette smiled down at her Kwami before hanging her bag up on one of the hooks provided in the dance studio changing room.
"Miss Dupain-Cheng, welcome." Zoe, the dance instructor, greeted. "Grab a mat and set up where there's space."
"Sure." Marinette said, doing as told.
In the end, after evaluating all of her options, Marinette had decided on the free-style dance class as it seemed the most beneficial.
Though, she had gone back and forth numerous times on whether to go with the Chinese dance class, just for the sake of getting more in touch with her mother's culture.
As Zoe began instructing the class, Marinette awkwardly followed her instructions, fumbling many times with what direction she was meant to go and how exactly to move her limbs.
But then she realised that Zoe was starting the class off on some basic warm-ups that Marinette already knew half of, and following the instructions became much easier.
In hindsight, Zoe expecting Marinette to start learning a routine on her first day would have been rather ridiculous.
"Ah, I see that someone already knows these steps." Zoe praised as she walked over to her new student.
"Oh, I already do exercise." Marinette explained. "So, a lot of these are things I already do."
"That's good." Zoe hummed. "You'll be moving up the tiers quickly then. Maybe you'll even be ready in time for the competition, I was worried about excluding you because you're so new."
"Competition?" Marinette questioned. "I don't think that I'm anywhere near ready for a dance competition."
"Don't worry, there's plenty of time for you to get used to the moves and find a routine." Zoe waved off the concern.
Marinette just smiled, not wanting to argue with her dance instructor.
In the end, Marinette's first dance class didn't end up being much more than learning different stretches and some walking around the room with a constant rhythm, which helped to calm Marinette's nerves about her new hobby but also made her realise that learning dance wasn't as glamourous as movies and TV made in seem; she was more bored than anything.
"Yay, your first dance class and you're on your way. You'll be so graceful when you finally become a hero." Duusu celebrated when they arrived home and in Marinette's room.
"We're likely going to have to wait longer than expected for our debut because of Queen Bee." Marinette reminded her Kwami.
She had asked Mr Agreste what Queen Bee's sudden appearance meant for her, and he had said that the new heroine meant that her own debut was no longer as urgent, but that she had to still keep up her training and be ready to step in at any time.
Duusu pouted, feeling a little resentment that Pollen had delayed her debut.
"Now! Go for it!" Ladybird shouted as she and Chat Noir pulled together on her yoyo.
"Venom!"
With some stylised flair, Queen Bee jumped at the Akumatised villain, striking them in the back just as they managed to get loose from the yoyo wrapped around them.
Ladybird and Chat Noir sighed in relief as Ladybird recalled her yoyo.
"Geeze, this guy took practically all morning." Ladybird complained, stretching.
"The worst thing is, I'm pretty sure that Iris just sets them and forgets them half the time." Chat Noir commented.
Ladybird hummed in agreement.
She had learned from Tikki that the Butterfly wielder didn't need to be transformed for their victim to be trampling around. And since Iris hadn't shown up for today's fight, it was possible that the villain had Akumatised someone just to waste the heroes' time.
"So, we didn't use our powers today." Chat Noir remarked. "Want to hang out or something?"
Ladybird opened up her yoyo and looked at the time on the screen interface.
"Sure, it's already lunch." She sighed.
Chat Noir smiled and then turned his attention to his new teammate.
"Hey, Queenie…" Chat paused when he didn't see Queen Bee where she last was. "Queen Bee?"
Ladybird pointed behind him with a dull look, to where said heroine was currently talking to a news crew.
"Ah, leave them be." Chat Noir told his partner. "Just because you're camera shy, doesn't mean that the rest of us can't talk to the press."
"I'm not camera shy, I just have a certain level of dislike for the press after the Prime Queen thing." Ladybird crossed her arms.
"Understandable." Chat Noir nodded.
While he didn't care much either way about the whole Chat Noir/Ladybird relationship theorising that Nadja had then brought up in her show, Ladybird certainly hadn't appreciated the reporter constantly trying to insist that they were a thing.
The two hadn't had a proper conversation over it, but Chat Noir was pretty confident that Ladybird's orientation was anything but straight given her strong reaction.
After another minute of standing there, Ladybird turned and frowned at Queen Bee.
"She doesn't seem to be winding down her interview." She said.
"She's not got much time left." Chat Noir added.
The two looked at each other and then nodded simultaneously.
They then walked over to Queen Bee and grabbed an arm each.
"Sorry for the interruption but it's time for us to go." Chat Noir said with a wide smile.
The two heroes then dragged the third away as she began protesting.
"You have a timer, remember." Ladybird said when they stopped.
"I was going to leave before it ran out." Queen Bee said defensively.
"Then you'd better, because you're twenty seconds from us learning your identity." Ladybird pointed out.
Giving Ladybird a short, annoyed glare, Queen Bee ran off.
"You're being a bit harsh, Buggie." Chat Noir told his partner. "We weren't exactly the most knowledgeable when we started out."
"Aye, I suppose." Ladybird sighed. "I guess that I just need time to get used to her."
"That's the spirit." Chat Noir smiled. "Everyone starts out rough, I'm sure Queen Bee will be our favourite teammate by the end of the week."
Adrien soon came to regret those words.
Over the next week, he and Ladybird had plenty of chances to get to know Queen Bee better, as Iris decided to be petty and send out an Akuma daily, only bothering to actually come herself half the time.
And Adrien had quickly gone from excited about a new partner, to struggling not to be annoyed by her presence.
First, Queen Bee came late to the next fight.
Which Adrien knew that he couldn't hold against her too much because he'd been late to fights more than once, but he could hold her attitude against her. She didn't apologise at all for being late but then proceeded to act like she had been the most important hero in that fight because she managed to surprise the Akumatised villain with her Venom.
For next fight, which Iris had actually shown up for this time, Queen Bee spent much of the fight throwing out insults. Which was fine when the insults were directed at Iris, which Adrien had to admit were funny, but not so good when Queen Bee then critiqued everything he did as Chat Noir, like when he jumped too close to her or "got in the way".
And then Queen Bee decided to blame Chat Noir when Iris got away yet again.
Then, for the next fight where Iris once again showed her face, Queen Bee decided that she didn't want to listen to Ladybird's plan, simply "because" and ran off on her own, necessitating that Chat Noir and Ladybird save her after she got tricked by Iris. And then Queen Bee had the gall to act like the veteran heroes had gotten in the way of her plan by saving her.
And the rest of the week had continued on in much the same vein, with Queen Bee displaying the unique skill of grating on every one of Adrien's nerves. And Adrien knew that Ladybird was also getting annoyed with Queen Bee, despite not being subject to the new hero's behaviour nearly as much as Chat Noir.
"How can it have only been a week?" Adrien lamented to Plagg as he lay down on his bed.
"So, she's got the personality of mouldy cheese, big deal." Plagg was unsympathetic. "Plenty of heroes have had to work with people they absolutely hate."
"Were any of them worse than Queen Pain-in-my-ass?" Adrien deadpanned.
"Eh, probably." Plagg shrugged.
Adrien just groaned.
"Are you sure that you're alright dude, you looked ready to fall asleep in class?" Nino asked Adrien the next day as they finished for the day.
"Ugh." Adrien responded.
Which, when translated, explained that Iris had decided that she wanted to be extra annoying by unleashing an Akuma during the night, meaning that the heroes had to stay up fighting it while Iris herself probably got a full night's sleep. And it turned out that Queen Bee was extra annoying when she didn't get her "beauty sleep", constantly whining about being tired and threatening to leave in the middle of the fight.
"Wow, you must really be tired if you're like this." Nino said. "You've gone non-verbal."
Adrien glared tiredly at his friend, envious of the fact that Nino got to sleep properly while he didn't.
As the two of them walked through the courtyard, Adrien heard a voice that just grated on his nerves.
"Can't you do anything right?!" Heads turned to watch Chloe yell at Sabrina.
Adrien groaned and rubbed his head.
While he put up with a lot regarding Chloe due to them being friends, he did not have the energy to deal with her and so hurried to get away from her.
"Geeze, is it me, or does Chloe seem to be worse than usual?" Alya commented to Marinette, the two girls stopping to watch while Adrien left.
It's not just you." Marinette said with a frown.
Apparently, Sabrina hadn't taken "good notes" for the classes that Chloe had missed because the blond had decided to sleep in that morning.
Though, Marinette wondered why Chloe was getting worked up considering that she had Sabrina do all her work for her anyway.
Just as Marinette moved to stop Chloe's yelling, someone else appeared at the two girls' side first.
"Stop it!" Casey imposed herself between Sabrina and Chloe, speaking with a stern voice that Marinette had never heard from the usually monotone girl.
"Who do you think you are?" Chloe demanded.
"Someone who knows that you shouldn't be yelling at this girl." Casey shot back.
"Butt out, Frizzy. You're not even in our class, so why are you getting involved?" Chloe insulted.
"Because I'm a nice person, unlike you." Casey shot back.
Chloe sneered.
Marinette decided to join in before Chloe could make another comment against Casey.
"Leave it, Chloe." Marinette walked over to stand beside Casey. "You're the only one who sees anything normal with how you treat people."
Chloe scoffed.
"Ugh, I don't have time to deal with the likes of you." She turned and walked away. "Come on, Sabrina."
Sabrina remained standing where she was, partially sheltered behind Casey and Marinette.
"Come. On!" Chloe demanded more sternly.
"Um, excuse me." Sabrina said as she moved around the girls.
"You know that how she treats you is wrong, right." Casey told Sabrina as the girl moved past her. "You don't deserve to be used or yelled at."
Sabrina said nothing, just giving a small nod before hurrying after Chloe.
Casey let out a breath and rubbed her chest as the adrenalin from confronting Chloe started to fade.
"Thanks for defending Sabrina. I know she's just a stranger to you." Marinette thanked Casey.
Casey shrugged in response.
"I have a bit of perspective of her position." She said. "She just needs it reinforced that how she's treated isn't normal and that she should expect better."
Marinette nodded in agreement.
She had tried to reach out to Sabrina before but getting wrapped up in Nathaniel's Akumatisation had stopped her from being there for Sabrina when she needed to. And it felt like Marinette had missed her chance to help after Sabrina went right back to Chloe.
"Anyway, Nathaniel and Marc invited me to see a movie. Are you coming?" Casey then asked.
"I would love to, but I already have a date with Luka planned." Marinette politely turned down.
Internally, she was glad that Casey had asked, as it meant that the usually solitary girl was actively spending time with others.
"Alright then, see you some other time." Casey shrugged, walking off.
Adrien rocked on his feet, then huffed and smoothed out minor creases in his jacket.
He then looked up and down the road and repeated the process.
"Hey, Adrien, waiting for someone?"
Luka appeared on his bike.
"Yeah." Adrien admitted. "Kagami's supposed to be picking us up for our first…date."
"So, you worked things out then?" Luka asked.
"Hopefully by the end of today." Adrien said.
"Ah." Luka said in understanding. "I've got a date with Marinette myself."
"Really? Where are you going?" Adrien wondered.
"To a nice café that I found." Luka said.
"Sounds better than what was planned for us." Adrien sighed.
"Planned for you?" Luka questioned.
"Our parents booked a reservation for us at this stuffy restaurant." Adrien explained. "I don't really like the idea of going there. Everyone's eyes are going to be on me and we're not going to be able to talk freely."
It was an unfortunate part of being a popular teen model, people being more aware of you when you just want privacy. And gossip rags being what they were, they'd take Adrien and Kagami trying to work out there feelings as an excuse to run wild with the most attention-grabbing story they could think of.
"Well, do you have to go to the restaurant?" Luka asked.
"What?"
"I'm just saying that a first date should be somewhere where you're both comfortable." Luka said offhandedly.
"Are you-"
Adrien was interrupted by a beeping horn.
A car pulled up and the backseat door opened, revealing Kagami already strapped in the backseat.
"See you some other time, Luka." Adrien waved as he left, climbing into the car.
As Adrien closed the door, he spotted Marinette emerging from the school and running over to Luka to hug him.
'Will Kagami and I become that close?' Adrien wondered to himself.
"So…" Adrien trailed off, not really knowing where to begin.
"Yes?" Kagami prompted.
"I-uh-lost my train of thought." Adrien excused weakly.
Kagami gave Adrien a blank look that he couldn't decipher the meaning of.
The rest of the car ride was spent in an awkward silence.
Thankfully, that silence didn't last for long as the restaurant wasn't far away.
The car stopped outside of the restaurant chosen by their parents and they both got out, stiffly heading inside.
Once they were out of sight, the car then drove off.
In the lobby of the restaurant, Adrien watched the car drive off, reluctant to head further inside for the reserved seats.
"What's wrong?" Kagami asked when she noticed that Adrien wasn't following her deeper inside.
"Well, it's just that…this doesn't really feel like a good place for our first date." Adrien admitted. "It's all stuffy and everyone around us is going to hear us talk."
Kagami looked at Adrien in an analytical way before smiling.
"You're right." She agreed. "We should find somewhere more comfortable."
She then turned and began walking back towards the door they'd just come through.
"But…won't we get in trouble?" Adrien worried.
"No. We just need to make sure that we're back here before we're picked up." Kagami said.
Grabbing Adrien's hand, Kagami pulled him out of the restaurant and into the streets of Paris.
Adrien blushed as Kagami continued to hold his hands as they walked side-by-side down the street until they reached one Paris' many out-of-the-way cafés, complete with its own simple charm.
"There, I believe that this is more appropriate." Kagami said as she took a seat on one of the outside tables.
"Yeah, definitely more comfortable." Adrien said. "I just hope that I don't get spotted again."
"You could get restraining orders." Kagami told her possible boyfriend as she picked up the menu from the table.
"Against a mob of many?" Adrien questioned. "It probably wouldn't stick."
Natalie had already tried that avenue after the last incident of Adrien being relentlessly pursued by fans. And while she'd managed to get a couple against the adults due to Adrien being a minor, the majority of Adrien's fans were teenagers who hadn't actually done anything to Adrien to warrant getting orders against them.
"I suppose that I should be relieved that my mother does not force me into such public activities as your father does for you." Kagami said.
Yes, Kagami had some notoriety as an up-and-coming young fencer, but only those interested in fencing would be familiar with her.
She shuddered to think what her life would be like if she was as known as Adrien, with all those senseless fans cloying for her attention.
"Father doesn't force me." Adrien said in defence of his father.
"Can you say no to those modelling jobs of yours?" Kagami questioned simply.
"Well…uh…I think I can." Adrien said uncertainly.
Adrien had never actually tried to refuse the responsibilities placed on him.
Actually, he had tried to say no a couple of times, especially at the start when he was left tired from standing on his feet for so long, but his protests had always been waved off, with Adrien cowing to the enforcement instead of standing by his own desires.
Kagami frowned slightly.
"I recall my mother mentioning child labour laws when commenting on you. Perhaps we should look into them." She suggested.
It wasn't exactly the most romantic activity for them to do, but Kagami wasn't going to let her possible boyfriend get taken advantage of.
"Maybe." Adrien shrugged uncertainly.
Kagami internally sighed and then shook her head.
"Let's talk about other things." She resolved.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Adrien agreed.
Despite the rather personal discussion just beforehand, Adrien and Kagami found themselves flowing into a more general conversation without much issue.
And Adrien found that he was enjoying himself, the awkwardness of earlier falling away and being replaced by a form of comfort.
But, of course, in a world where Iris existed, Adrien couldn't just have a single day to enjoy his date.
"Run! Villains!" A random person screamed at Adrien and Kagami as he sprinted past them.
Looking back the way that the man came, the two teens could see other people running away from something, no doubt another Akumatised villain.
"Iris has terrible timing." Kagami frowned heavily.
"Let's get inside." Adrien directed.
Nodding, Kagami ran inside the café, under the impression that Adrien would follow.
Instead, Adrien winced as he ran around the corner into an alley.
"Kagami isn't going to be happy with me abandoning her on our date." Adrien said as he let Plagg out of his jacket.
"Eh, just buy her something and she'll cool down." Plagg shrugged unsympathetically.
"I don't think Kagami will accept that." Adrien said. "So, I'll need to end this fight quickly. Plagg, Claws Out!"
Author's note: Please comment.
Sorry for the cliff-hanger there, especially after this story has been on hiatus for so long. This chapter and the next were originally the same chapter, but I noticed that the chapter was getting to be really long with a fair amount still to write. So, I decided to split the chapter here so that it won't be as daunting to read (I personally put off reading some stories because some chapters are so long).
Also, to address the matter of Zoe, as in the dance instructor, now that I've finally updated. I made my OC long before Zoe Lee was revealed, so there is no relation there (and Miss Lee won't be showing up in this story anyway since I see no reason to add her).
And, yes, I am aware of how awkward it's made things in my Nymph story, since I paired a teenaged Zoe with Chloe in that story and then that Zoe got the Bee Miraculous, and now canon-Chloe has a half-sister called Zoe who got the Bee Miraculous. Let's all laugh and then move on.