Adrien wasn't sure why Nino bothered Chloe so much. From what he'd seen, the guy just liked her and wanted to spend time with her, and for some reason that made Chloe see red. Adrien double checked his work on the handout in front of him. He had forgotten to finish the math homework last night, so here he was, before school started, desperately trying to finish it. Inwardly, he grinned. This experience was so thrilling to him, it was exhilarating. If he had forgotten to do work for his tutors at home, they would have simply assumed he'd have trouble with it and walked him through the problems. Since he was enrolled in public school, however, the teachers didn't have that much time on their hands, and there was a possibility he would get in trouble if he didn't turn in the work. There were actual consequences for laziness here. It might not be from his dad, but there was the possibility of attention from an adult who cared about him, even slightly. Still, he didn't want the embarrassment of not having his work done. His eyes slid across the page as he double checked the sums in his head.
In front of the table Adrien shared with Chloe was Nino. He was an average sized guy with dark skin and large glasses on his face. His clothes usually consisted of jeans and a shirt of some band or another, and he always wore a red baseball cap on his head. Overall, he was an agreeable guy, and there was nothing really offensive about him. Even the things he talked to Chloe about were middle of the road, mundane things. Did she like Jagged Stone? Because Nino loved Jagged Stone. Had she been on a picnic before? Because Nino used to go on picnics all the time with his siblings and aunts. Did she have any dreams for the future? Because Nino wanted to be a DJ.
Honestly, Nino was being really nice, considering no one else in the class except for Sabrina chose to talk to Chloe. For some reason, she just didn't see it that way.
"What exactly did I do to make you think I wanted you talking to me?" she sat back in her seat and glared at the boy. "Tell me right now, and if you can't think of anything, then just walk away." The rest of the class mumbled silently in the background, apparently used to Chloe's tone of voice. Adrien mentally cringed. He knew her. She didn't mean to be like this, not really. There must be something going on-something she hadn't yet told him.
"You didn't say anything," Nino admitted, "But it's not like you ever told me you wanted me to go away."
"Fine, then I'll fix that right now," Chloe said, somehow looking down her nose at Nino while sitting down. "I don't want you to talk to me. Ever. I want you to go away."
Someone banged their hands against a desk, and the class went silent. Adrien looked up from his homework and watched as a short Chinese girl stomped over to his table. Her hair was a dark blue, her brow furrowed, and her eyes were cold as ice. Chloe tensed next to him, and half stood out of her seat. Adrien suddenly wanted to be back home, away from whatever was about to happen next.
"Do you even hear yourself when you speak?" The girl grit out of her teeth. "Or do you just not care that you're talking to another person like that?"
"Why should I care?" Chloe sniffed. "He came to me; obviously he wants to hear whatever I have to say, whether it's nice or not," Chloe looked the girl up and down. "And you're one to talk. Since when have you been nice?"
"You should care," the girl said, ignoring Chloe's question, "because he's a human being, and he deserves the courtesy of being treated like one, not some bug on the bottom of your shoe!"
"If he was a bug he would have been tossed out, along with the Jimmy Choos. I'm giving him the chance to walk away before I do that." Chloe looked relaxed, checking her nails and jutting her hip out, but she was still standing-she was still ready for a fight. The girl stiffened, and her face turned red. Sabrina joined the table, on Adrien's right. He was now boxed in and stuck in the situation. He tried to go back to checking his math.
"Chloe's not some monster," Sabrina defended. "Stop treating her like she is! She has a right to say she doesn't like him."
"Sure she does," the girl nearly growled. "But she doesn't get to talk to someone like that when all they've done is be nice. Or did you not realize that, Chloe?" The girl turned her gaze from Sabrina back to Chloe. "Could you tell he was being nice because he's a good guy who wants you to feel included and less alienated? Did you get that, or did that not even occur to you?" the girl laughed in derision. "Of course it went right over your head. Is kindness even something you understand?"
Sabrina was about to say something, but the girl glared at her, and she shrunk back. It reminded Adrien of a turtle. Chloe's ears were beginning to turn a faint shade of pink, and her fists were shaking. The teacher had walked in, took in the situation, then walked out, stating that he needed to go to the bathroom. Adrien cleared his throat,
"Now, that's a little harsh, don't you think? Chloe's-"
"Stay out of this, boy toy!" the girl snapped, not even bothering to glance at him. Adrien frowned. Boy toy?
"Hey, I'm not-"
"Marinette," Nino cut Adrien off. "It's not that big of a deal. She says stuff like this all the time." Nino pulled at her arm. Sabrina retreated back to her seat, and Chloe was slowly starting to loosen. Apparently, the battle was winding down, and Adrien was thankful. He still had an entire back page to check.
"I know she does!" The girl-Marinette-frowned. "But she can't talk to people like that, and for some reason no one but me is willing to say that to her face!"
"It's fine. Come on, you scared off the teacher again. Have a little coffee, that'll probably calm you down." Nino looked at Marinette's desk, and Alya-the girl who's phone he had destroyed with his Cataclysm-waved a thermos enticingly. Marinette's body relaxed, and she nodded.
"Yeah, you're probably right." She took a deep breath and straightened, heading back to her seat. Adrien wondered if she was going to apologize at all. She must have read his mind or something, because she turned and stared at him.
"I'm not going to apologize," she declared. "Not until she apologizes for everything she's said and done."
The teacher walked back into the classroom, and the first lesson of the day began. It was a review of something his tutor had taught him a few weeks ago, so Adrien found himself zoning out most of the time. His mind couldn't stray too far from the fiery girl with icy blue eyes. Her face had been so fierce, he could understand how nervous Chloe was when standing up against her, and her words had been so sharp that Adrien felt cut just standing next to Chloe. Yet, when he thought about what her point was, he couldn't argue with her. Yes, she'd been unnecessarily aggressive when talking to Chloe, but he wasn't going to argue with her and say that Nino didn't deserve common courtesy.
He glanced at Chloe out of the corner of his eye. She looked like the teacher was saying the most interesting things she had ever heard, which is exactly how he knew she wasn't paying attention to a single thing the poor guy was saying. Why hadn't she just apologized? She had to have known she was in the wrong for treating Nino like that. He just couldn't think of a possible reason she had been so combative-and he wasn't sure he wanted to question her about it.
Adrien's interest in the verbal altercation was slipping as the teacher droned on. He took a chance and glanced around the room. It didn't look like anyone was paying attention, actually. The back few rows of the classroom all had their heads down, looking at something in their laps. The row in front of them had to be more careful, and ended up passing notes back and forth with their table-mates. Then there was the front row-the row in which he, Chloe, Alya, and Marinette sat. Alya seemed to be doing the reading for the next class, and Marinette was doodling. Chloe was simply spacing out. The teacher kept talking and talking...Adrien's eyes fell lower and lower. Soon, he was asleep.
"Adricat!" Adrien woke with a start. Chloe was yelling in his ears, practically dragging him out of the classroom. "We have to go! There's been an attack!"
"So soon?" He wondered. There had just been one a few days ago.
"Don't question it," she snapped. "We have to get to safety!" Chloe stopped, looking around. "Where the heck is Sabrina?" She turned and ran back. "Go to the bunker!" She called, not checking to see if he did what she ordered. Well, that solved one problem. Adrien ran to the bathroom and transformed. He leapt out of the building and extended the staff, looking around for the Makara.
The kids leaving school noticed him. Some kept running. Most paused, took a picture, then started towards the bunker again. Adrien didn't even have the time to roll his eyes. He pushed off the staff, and headed towards the giant cloud of destruction.
This Makara was unusual. It had a piscatorial jaw, with thousands of razor-sharp teeth jutting out of its underbite. That seemed to be the only solid thing about it-the rest looked like a haze of fog.
He seemed to have arrived on the scene before Ladybug. Since he was no longer welcome to speak to the police, he decided to hit the Makara head on, just to try his luck.
"Cataclysm!" he cried, and color seeped away from his view of the world. He hung onto the staff with one arm and did his best to angle himself just right before launching at the creature. Then, a figure jammed into him.
"Oof!"
He recognized that voice.
"Ladybug?"
"No time," she panted, and ran off. He turned to see what she was talking about and his jaw dropped. It was a hoard of pixelated creatures. They were all square and purple and shot orange circles from their mouths. The orange balls seemed to be explosives, since whatever they touched blew up. Hundreds of them were in the air, and they originated from a larger purple square. An Akuma. Adrien could see exactly what he needed to destroy.
Ignoring the Makara, he made his way to the Akuma. Ladybug was using her yo-yo as a lasso to round up as many of the tiny robots as she could. She used the ball of robots as a wrecking ball, bulldozing through more of the small robots. She was doing her best, and dozens of them were destroyed by each swing, but more were being produced each second. The little robots kept flying around the city. Some of them stayed close and fired at the Makara, some went for surrounding buildings, and still others flew off into the distance, where Adrien could no longer see them.
There was no use warning the Akuma of his presence, so Adrien simply leaped on top of it. The entire thing was shaped like a big purple box. It was unusual because of just how different it was from the usual Akuma, just like the last pink slime monster. Whoever was making the Akuma was learning how to make them stronger, and that did not bode well for Cat Noir or Ladybug.
"Cat Noir, watch-!" Ladybug called a warning, and Adrien snapped his head around to see what she was talking about. Three robots were in front of him, and he had nowhere to hide. They all shot out orange balls, and Adrien braced for impact. It never came. Ladybug had wrapped her yo-yo around him and pulled him out of the way. He got an idea.
"Swing me back!" he called. She started to do as he asked, but released him too early, and he crashed against a building. To keep his supercharged hand from touching the stone, he had turned to his side, and now his shoulder and hip screamed in protest. He turned to complain to his partner, but she was swarmed by the robots. Rubber shots were effective against them, but there were so many that the cops might as well have been individually picking hairs off of a cow while trying to shave it.
Adrien braced his legs and jumped back onto the Akuma. He realized that while it looked stiff and plastic, it was still covered in thick fur, and its face still had that strange red glow around it. The Akuma didn't seem to notice him, it was too busy arguing with itself about something. Adrien didn't eavesdrop long enough to find out what was bothering it so much, and used his Cataclysm on the Akuma's jacket. It disintegrated, and a white butterfly emerged. The man beneath the Akuma fell like a rock, and Adrien reached out to grab him. His shoulder did not like this decision and let him know, but he couldn't let go. He watched as the butterfly flew away, further and further.
"Ladybug!" he called. "The butterfly is getting away!"
"Little busy!" she bit out. "You could help, you know!"
Adrien tossed the man none-too-gently onto the nearest rooftop and went to help his partner. Or, he tried. They didn't work together often, and that was painfully obvious in the ensuing tussle. Adrien quickly found out his fists didn't do much other than annoy the robots, so he had to use his staff. Likewise, Ladybug was stuck using her yo-yo. Every few robots, his staff would knock her yo-yo out of the way, or her yo-yo would wrap around the staff.
"Get out of the way!" she called out.
"You're the one who wanted help!"
"That was back when I thought you would actually be helpful!"
"Come to the ground," the police called, and really, the two heroes had no choice but to listen to the command. They were getting nowhere in this alone. They touched down, and Cat Noir gasped. He turned and extended his staff.
"Oh, no you don't," an officer put her hand on Cat Noir's shoulder, but that wouldn't stop him. The staff extended, and she gasped, holding on tight to the superhero.
"That'll teach you to tell me what to do," he mumbled. She screamed. He couldn't toss her onto a roof at the speed he was going, so he had to keep her with him. "Hey, keep an eye out for a white butterfly. No rush, but we have about six minutes. Well, I'll need two minutes to get away-no rush, but we have four minutes."
In the end, the officer was no help. She passed out, so Adrien was forced to carry her deadweight while searching for a single while butterfly. Ladybug flew past him.
"Your time is going to run out," she said. "Give me the officer. What are you looking for?"
"The butterfly," Adrien said. "Someone didn't purify it when she had the chance."
"Well, excuse me," she snapped. "Someone was being mobbed by a hoard of exploding video game minions. Now stop and give me the officer, you're running dangerously low on time if you want to get out of here without anyone figuring out who you are."
The two of them landed on a building. He glanced her direction to hand the officer over and blinked. Her outfit was completely gray, her hair was burnt, and there was what looked like soot on her mask. "Geez, what happened to you?"
"One of the robot's explody balls got me," she grumbled. "I really hope transforming back will get this smell out of my hair." She kept fiddling with her hair, but Adrien's focus was just past her shoulders.
"There it is!" Adrien cried, dropping the officer on the room. Ladybug turned and immediately threw out her yo-yo to catch it. Once purified, the butterfly flew out, just as white as it had been before. "It looks exactly the same," Adrien mumbled. "How can you tell if it's purified or not?"
"You have one paw on your ring left," Ladybug turned to pick up the officer. "I'll deal with the cops today. I owe you for ditching last time." Then she was off. Adrien couldn't say anything to her anymore, so he turned and went home. He logged onto the Ladyblog, to see any footage of the day's fight. Alya, the girl who ran the blog, had somehow put up cameras all over the city, and she always posted amazing pictures. The attack had only been quelled a few moments ago, and he knew that she likely hadn't had the time to go through all the pictures she'd taken and post the best ones, but he was still disappointed when he didn't see anything new on the website. He brushed his teeth, took a shower, and went to bed.
"I'm getting pretty fed up with you two kids," Officer Perot growled as he grabbed his fellow officer from Ladybug's arms. "Tell your partner that you're done-no more playing hero for either of you."
"I'm not playing hero, I am one. How could you have possibly handled today without me, without us?" Marinette was so used to having this conversation by this point that she was beyond anger and headed straight to mocking indifference. "The Akuma was saved by my partner. He went to go find the possessed butterfly. When one of your fellows decided to tag along, she fainted. And don't think I didn't see how badly you were struggling with the Makara-wouldn't have been able to even touch without the Akuma's minions swooping in an bailing you out."
"That is none of your concern," he lectured. "You are a citizen-a child at that! You need to leave this to the professionals. You and your partner are hardly the professionals you keep painting yourselves as. We saw you throw him into a wall, and we were the ones who ended up shooting down all the minions!"
Marinette opened her mouth to voice her rebuttal, but a soft sound stopped her. She turned. A man had exited the bunker. He looked around the street. His face was ashy and white, and Marinette couldn't tell if he was going to pass out or not.
"Sir?" She heard a few officers call out to him. One had her pistol at the ready. Marinette approached the man. He had tears in his eyes.
"This was my home," he looked at her, but he didn't seem to see her. "Right there," he pointed somewhere behind her, where only a pile of rubble remained. "Third story up, room 324B. I live-lived there. What am I supposed to do now?"
"You can lean on me," Ladybug said, feeling her countenance soften. She wasn't going to lie to the man and say it was ok, or it would all be over soon. She didn't know that. She only knew the present, and at the present, she was there for him. "I'll be here."
All the officers in the vicinity had relaxed, and she felt them take a moment to look at the street around them. A few sat on the ground, unable to continue standing as they took in all the damage done to their once beautiful city. They could argue all they liked, but it wouldn't do any good. Whether Ladybug and Cat Noir showed up or stayed at home, the streets of Paris were getting destroyed by monsters. Marinette wouldn't be able to live with herself if she did nothing when she had the power to do something.
The man wavered on his feet, but Marinette held him steady. He wouldn't fall. She would hold him upright. Ladybug would be there. He turned in a circle.
"That used to be a cafe," he whispered. He didn't bother pointing, he wasn't talking to inform her, he was talking as a form of grief. "My daughter goes there every morning before school because she likes the boy who works at the counter." He kept spinning, and Ladybug kept her arm on his back. A few officers came out of a building, holding an unconscious man who must have been the Akuma. Ladybug didn't pay him any mind. "That used to be a book shop," the man's voice cracked, and he stopped moving.
"My home," the man whispered, and wrapped Ladybug in a hug. She didn't mind. She could feel his tears fall into her hair, and his body shake with sobs. She swallowed. She couldn't think of anything to say, and apparently, neither did the cops surrounding her. They all stood in silence for a long while.
(When the Ladyblog finally posted updates of the most recent attack on Paris, it contained footage from a bodycam worn by a cop. The video was grainy, and most of the words were hard to make out, but one sentence stood out to anyone who watched the footage: 'You can lean on me.' In the days and weeks to come, that phrase would become synonymous with the image of Ladybug. Ladybug, who at first appeared to be so hard and abrasive, also allowed herself to show compassion for those who had lost. Ladybug, who was quickly becoming Paris's favorite hero.)
