Chapter Nine

A/N: Hello lovelies! I suppose that you guys are the true fans. Thanks! I'm aiming to give you guys a bit of a Thanksgiving present and have 2-3 chapters up during the next week, this one included. Please understand that if this does not happen, I was either a) unable to do so, what with family and all, or b) infected with writer's block. And, uh, since I'm not planning on doing Glaciator, well…here's a bit of Marichat/Luckybeth for the holidays. Onto the chapter!

Queen Phantom

Helen locks the doors to her room, pacing with fistfuls of hair in her hands. It is gone, gone, gone, gone.

It had been a year into her marriage with Frederick when she had discovered the safe in the wall. It contained newspaper clippings with pictures of a beautiful woman dressed in a skin-tight blue bodysuit with slashes of green and dots of pink running through it, holding a fan like it was a pack of knifes. She stood next to three other people: a man who looked so much like her he could be her twin, dressed in a purple bodysuit with oddly placed ribbons, holding a rapier, a woman dressed in a tight red suit with little black spots covering everywhere but her arms and legs, which were in a plain black color, swinging a yoyo, and a man dressed in a simple black cat suit with little ears perched atop his head, wielding a baton. All had masks. The title read 'LadyNoir- Confirmed?' and the caption tagged them as Pagoni, Skoros, Ladybug, and Chat Noir. Another clipping followed it, a funeral notice- Athena Chase and brother Ares Olympo die in tragic accident, revealed to be heroes Pagoni and Skoros. Survived by Frederick Chase and Annabeth Chase. The woman who came before her. She had worried about measuring up, then, to a superhero, and had slammed the safe shut, vowing never to return. Another year passed, and she had grown apart from Fredrick. She had returned, and noticed something else besides the newspapers and large, odd book: two pieces of jewelry that she hadn't noticed before. A pin, broken, shaped like a peacock, and a small brooch, purple. She pocketed them. And in the privacy of her bedroom on day while Frederick was away, she tried them on. Nothing happened out of the unusual happened as she put on the peacock pin, but when she pinned on the little brooch, a large butterfly-bug thing had popped out. She had swatted at it and eventually it had calmed her down, introducing himself as Nooroo. He said that he was there to help her become a superhero, but she wasn't interested in trying to measure up to Athena. She wasn't interested in saving people who probably wouldn't thank her for her trouble, or even deserved to be saved. She was interested in finally being respected, powerful. A queen. And if this little brooch was as powerful as Nooroo made it out to be, she could use it to become not a hero but a villain. A little voice told her to get certain words out of Nooroo, 'Wings rise', and twist them to become what she needed to be. Not wings, but dark wings. She had called the words and looked over herself in mirror, amazed. She was in a suit, dark purple, fitting her form. A silver mask curled around her face delicately and streaks of purple ran through her dark brown hair. A butterfly emblem curled around her wrists. She looked killer, and her weapon- a cane- turned out to be rapier in disguise. Elated, she let Nooroo out. She saw the fear in his eyes as he looked at her, and instead of feeling regret or shame, she felt powerful. She was powerful. The Voice agreed, and she spent more years learning her powers and growing them. Biding her time. Building a lair in which she could train. Waiting, and watching, until that fateful day when Nooroo squeaked out that the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous had been activated. She had felt a rush of power when she infiltrated Ironheart's mind, commanding and controlling him. Her rush had faded day after day when her victims failed. She was losing control, the Voice was shrieking at her, Frederick was growing suspicious, so she hit Annabeth. It made her feel so powerful, so in control, and she knew she should stop but the Voice was approving, so it couldn't be all bad. It was the Voice who had encouraged her to kill Frederick, telling her that he knew her secret and would take everything away from her.

And now it's all unwinding before her eyes. The book is gone. She meant to try and decipher it again, and now she'll never get the chance. She supposes that it's not that bad, but she does need to know where it is. But ah could have possibly stolen it? The Voice urges her to think about who knew, and the first thing to come to mind is Nooroo.

"Nooroo!" she calls, and the trembling kwami appears before her.

"Yes, Mistress?" he squeaks pathetically.

"Did you take my book?" she asks, voice cold. Nooroo knows that her next thought will be for Annabeth, and he can't let that happen, can't let Annabeth get hurt for doing what he can't, so, already dreading his punishment, he nods.

"Yes, Mistress. It's not yours-" Helen pinches Nooroo's antennae and throws him. He hits the wall with a dull thump and sinks to the ground weakly.

"You fool! It is all mine; it will all be mine! I order you to tell me where it is!" she shrieks.

"I don't know," he coughs out. It's true. He doesn't know. Helen puts the toe of her shoe over him, an, furious, starts to press down. He's in blinding, unbearable pain, and finally- finally! - she lifts. A release. She picks him up by one arm, dangling him, and drops him roughly into a small box she made for his use. His prison. The lid shuts and he's alone.


Annabeth starts stuttering, speaking furiously. She can practically hear Plagg whispering advice. Play dumb.

"I don't know what you're talking about, she's not me, I don't know her, who the heck is Lady Jinx?" she squeaks out. Not that dumb. The man in the wheelchair laughs, and she gasps.

"You! You're- you're the man who fell that day!" she accuses. He nods.

"Guilty as charged. Why have you come and visited me, Lady Jinx? Has Plagg brought you here?" he asks. Plagg pops out of her jacket pocket, shaking his head.

"Nope. She found your shop all on her own," he says. Annabeth grins. It almost sounds like…pride? Another kwami, green and with a little shell on his back, pops out behind the phonograph she had noticed previously.

"Hello, Lady Jinx! Hello Plagg!" he says, smiling. Annabeth wiggles her fingers at him and Plagg dives at him. They go back behind the phonograph, presumably chatting, and Chiron, because it must be him, the owner of Chiron's Mythos, looks at Annabeth expectantly.

"I found a book," she says, a trifle nervous, "and I wanted to get it looked at." Chiron nods.

"May I see it?" he asks calmly. Reassured, she pulls the book out of her backpack and hands it to him. His eyes widen and he clutches it to him.

"Where did you find this?" he gasps, wheeling himself closer to her.

"In a safe at my house," she says, still a bit alarmed. "Chiron, what is it?"

"This book was lost a very long time ago, along with the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous. I thought it was gone forever, but when the Butterfly Miraculous appeared, I dared to hope…Lady Jinx, do you know what this means?" he says, eyes searching out hers. She does, unfortunately, and she doesn't like where this is going.

"Helen is Kronas," she says slowly. Chiron nods.

"Yes. Now this is not for sure! We do not know! Do not approach her, if she is you could get hurt and if she's not that could lead to issues. Let me investigate. Do you understand, Lady Jinx?" he asks, making sure he's being very clear. Annabeth nods, still shaken up.

"Yes, Chiron. Come on, Plagg," she calls to the kwami. Plagg flies out, uncharacteristically silent. Annabeth walks to the door and pauses, turning to Chiron. "Should I tell Luckybug?" she asks. Chiron considers this briefly and then shrugs.

"Whatever you wish, Lady Jinx. Keep in mind that knowledge is power," he says. Annabeth nods and keeps walking. Quickly, she ducks into an alley and transforms.

"Plagg, claws out!" Jinx slides half her slide up to call Luckybug. Not unexpectedly, he doesn't answer, them having just fought Volpina, so she leaves him a message. "Meet me on the Eiffel Tower A.S.A.P," she says, and then hangs up. Holding her staff tightly, she shoots into the air and lands on a rooftop, running towards the Eiffel Tower.


Helen paces. She has no idea what to do. It's gone, with valuable knowledge. Nooroo has no idea where it is so presumably, he took it somewhere and it was transported away. She feels her anguish attempting to overcome her and the Voice whispers advice to her. Use the despair, it says, and Helen knows instantly what to do. "Nooroo, dark wings rise!" she calls. Nooroo, still weak, is sucked into her pin and Kronas appears, dark suit and all. She summons a butterfly, even in the relative privacy of her bedroom, and cups it, turning it dark. "Stay close," she orders it. "Nooroo, dark wings fall!" she says loudly, and Nooroo flops out. Then she says words she never imagined that she'd say. "Nooroo, I renounce you." His eyes widen in shock, but not for long. She snatches the akuma out of the air and places it on a bangle around her wrist. Dark bubbles cover her form, and when they're released, she looks like an ancient demon reborn. A mask not unlike Kronas' mask covers the top half of her face, tipped in black streaked with red. Smoky designs swirl across her cheekbones and a simple black bodysuit covers her form. A white toga hangs loosely off of it and pure black angel's wings sprout from her back. A twisted crown of silver and iron is placed on her brow, and a wickedly sharp knife hangs at her hip. "Queen Phantom," she murmurs, and instead of being the woman who was akumatized over losing a prized item, she's the woman who was akumatized over the loss of her husband. Good for PR and it comes with a much more powerful ability- the ability to collect souls. And, maybe, just maybe, once she's gained the Miraculouses, she can bring back Frederick and see the fear in his eyes before she kills him all over again. The Voice shrieks it's approval, and with one swift move she kicks the window open, launching into the growing sunset.


Tikki flies next to Percy while he draws on his balcony.

"Percy, Lady Jinx sent you a message!" she squeaks. Percy tumbles off of the chair he's sitting on in a flurry of arms and legs and pops up grinning.

"Really? What did it say?"

"Meet her on the Eiffel Tower, but-"

"Spots on!" he shouts, not even bothering to duck down.

"-Percyyy!" she shrieks as she's sucked into the cufflinks. He takes off jumping, falling for a minute before the swing of the yoyo catches him. He gets to the Eiffel Tower quickly, rappelling to the top using his yoyo. Lady Jinx is waiting for him on their usual beam, pacing. She looks up quickly as she sees him coming in and runs a hand through her hair nervously. This is probably business related.

"What's up, m'lady?" he asks, winking at her. She huffs.

"This is no time to joke, Luckybug!" she says. "I have some very big news, so sit down and shut up." He sits down and shuts up, and she keeps pacing, twirling her staff anxiously. He snags it with his yoyo and she doesn't even flinch, so focused on whatever she's going to tell him.

"We think Helen Chase is Kronas," she gets out in a rush. Luckybug's breath rushes out of him and he's sort of glad that he's sitting. "Me and the Guardian of the Miraculous. Who I met. His name is Chiron, and I can't tell you where he's located, but ask your kwami if you want to see him. He's how we got out Miraculous. We think it's Helen for reasons I'm not able to say, but trust me on this," she says. She looks nervously at him, afraid that he'll press for more. He knows that she's not comfortable with sharing more, and that it'll only make her feel worse, so he just nods instead.

"Always, m'lady." She finally sits, swinging her legs as she looks out at the sunset. He looks at her, so different from when they met. Still confident. Still capable. Still beautiful. Maybe she hasn't changed, actually. Maybe he has. He's become more used to her presence, her protection. Her loyalty, and maybe, just maybe, her friendship. He decides to break the silence between them.

"Have you talked to someone about…y'know, your dad?" he asks tentatively. This kinda made her explode last time he brought it up, so he's treading carefully. She sighs, still not looking at him.

"Yeah. I've been talking to Te-not a professional, but a really good listener. He's been helping me," she says. She seems calm, so he decides to press a bit more.

"Have you told your friends?" She shakes her head morosely.

"Nope. It's not that I don't trust them, it's just I haven't gotten the right opportunity to tell them. And maybe it's too late now. I don't know. And," she pauses, considering her next words. "There's this boy I like, who's in my friend group. I don't want his pity." She stares at her hands and she hopefully missed the look that he could sort of feel coming into his eyes. Heartbreak.

She likes someone else. Not him. Never him. And yeah, maybe it's his civilian form, but come on. The chances of that are close to nothing. He stays silent, not offering her any advice, and just focusing on every breath. They sit in silence, until a flash of black catches Luckybug's eye, far below them near the Louvre.

"There's probably an akuma," he says dully, none of the usual spark left in him. She sighs.

"Yeah." He jumps off the Eiffel Tower, and for a moment as the wind whistles in his hair he considers just not catching himself. Whoa! Too dark. Nope. Not killing himself over some girl he doesn't even really know. He throws the yoyo outquickly, catching himself and swinging up. His momentum carries him over a few buildings and drops him neatly in the little square around the Louvre. Lady Jinx lands right after him, baton swinging quickly. This has been a sucky day for both of them, and he can tell that she's as tired as he is and probably just wants to go home.

"Let's get this over with," he shouts to her, and both advance on the akuma 's wearing a white toga over a black bodysuit with a crown and dark angel's wings. She laughs and Jinx's eyes widen. It would be funny if it wasn't for the expression on her face. Fear. Jinx is terrified of this akuma and he has no idea why.


From the moment Jinx sort of told Luckybug about Percy, she's been a bit lighter. She's extremely grateful for him and this partnership, helping her through challenging times, but he's seemed off. No usual flirting, just grim determination. She had supposed that she could be the banter during this fight, but when she laughed, she knew exactly who it was. The woman who's ruled her life for a very long time, the woman she could only escape from in her superhero suit, has followed her into her secret life. And now, she can hurt Jinx just as badly as she's hurt Annabeth. She can see Luckybug looking over at her in concern, but all she can do is stare into Helen's cold, cold eyes.

"Helen Chase?" she manages to choke out. The woman laughs again, and her laugh is Helen's laugh right before she raised the belt…Jinx starts shaking.

"I am not Helen, foolish girl. I am Queen Phantom, and I will bring back what was stolen from me!" she shrieks. Diving at a terrified civilian, she reaches for her knife and slits his throat open. Instead of blood spilling from the wound, white smoke flurries into a bracelet on her wrist. Any civilians left start screaming and all rush en masse into the Louvre. Thankfully, everyone's been smart enough to run, except for one tourist couple staring mouths agape at her and one small girl, picking up a stuffed bear. If Jinx knows Helen, she knows who she's going for, and she sprints towards the little girl, picking her up and practically throwing her into the Louvre.

"Jinx!" Luckybug shouts, trying to give her a heads up, and she looks first at the bodies of the tourist couple. She looks second, a second too late, at Queen Phantom rushing right at her. She barely gets her staff up and then she's upon her. Jinx blocks each knife attack with speed, but Queen Phantom is relentless and vicious and soon catches her in the side. Luckybug is sprinting towards her but it's too late and her staff slips out of her hands but Luckybug's almost there so close so close so close-Queen Phantom grasps her chin in an iron hold. Her fingers will leave bruises, but Jinx doesn't care about that right now, isn't thinking about that. Luckybug's yoyo comes in quickly, trying to steal her knife, and Queen Phantom catches the disk and swings it around, almost jerking Luckybug with it and certainly ripping it out of his grasp. He's sprinting for it, but he won't make it. Not in time.

"I want you to remember this moment any time you think you can possibly stand up to Kronas," she hisses, her breath sour. "You are nothing and you are easily defeated." Jinx knows that she's dying here, or whatever this akuma will do to her, so she musters up her courage.

"If I'm easily defeated how do you explain all your failures to beat me?" she chokes out. Cold, impossibly cold metal at her throat and Helen-no, Queen Phantom's furious stare.

"Any last words?" she snarls.

"Jinx!" Luckybug screams, voice full of desperation.

"I am more than you'll ever be," she says calmly, not to Queen Phantom, but to Helen, as Annabeth. She feels a shot of pain and then warmth. Bright sea green eyes float in the haze, a feeling of safety surrounds her, and then black fades into black fades into black.


"Damnit!" Luckybug shouts. Rage contorts his features but before seeking revenge-before breaking every bone in Queen Phantom's miserable body, he swings over to Lady Jinx with a yoyo he retrieved moments too late. Ignoring Queen Phantom, who just broke open the door to the museum, he slumps against the wall, cradling Jinx in his arms. She peers up at him, a slight smile on her lips, and leans into him. Her eyes close and Luckybug knows he's alone. Brushing frustrated tears from his eyes, he lays her gently on the ground and stands up. Queen Phantom is stalking away from another body, the girl Jinx had tried to save, and he screams in rage. His yoyo catches her in the face and she stumbles. It hits her again and again, pounding her to the ground as he slowly advances, taking his time. He's seen too much death today- first the false death of Annabeth, Jinx, and now a little girl. He's done, completely done with this shit. Queen Phantom cowers on the ground. Her hand goes to her wrist and taps it. The souls of those she's been killing come out of it in one silvery blur, taking on their human forms, and Luckybug pauses, searching out Lady Jinx among them. He sees her, hovering above them, but instead of a smile on her face or words of encouragement on her lips, she has a tear-streaked face.

"Protect me, my spirits!" Queen Phantom shouts, and she opens her wings in a whoosh, taking to the sky. The spirits descend on him in a howling mass and he flicks his yoyo this way and that, sending them back into her bangle where, hopefully, they'll stay. There's only one left-one he couldn't bear to kill. Jinx. She hovers just above the ground in front of him, wiping tears from her eyes.

"It hurt so much, Luckybug," she says. He almost covers his ears, he doesn't want to hear this, doesn't want to hear how she died. "Why didn't you save me?"

"I couldn't," he says in a whisper. "I'm sorry, but I can fix this! I'll be able to fix this," he says again, mostly to himself. She spreads her arms and opens her mouth. He doesn't want to be wracked with guilt anymore, so, turning away, he flicks his yoyo in her direction. When he turns back, nothing's there.

"Lucky charm!" he calls. A bowling ball falls into his hands and he stumbles. Queen Phantom is high above him, laughing still, and he fastens his yoyo around the heavy ball. Swinging it around and around, he finally lets go and it soars into the sky, hitting one of her outstretched wings and sending her spiraling to the ground. He approaches her quickly, retrieving her bangle and the bowling ball before she can release any more spirits, and snaps it in half neatly. The akuma flies out of it almost delicately and he catches it quickly with his yoyo.

"Time to de-evilize," he mutters. The butterfly floats out and he jogs over to Jinx's prone form. Cradling her with his arms, he tosses the bowling ball a bit into the air.

"Miraculous ladybug!" he shouts, and butterflies sweep over the bodies on the ground, including her's. She slowly opens her eyes, looking first at all the people stumbling to their feet, and then to him. "Jinx?" he asks, and his voice barely makes a sound but her cat ears probably pick it up and he cups her face and she looks at him with her big, big grey eyes and leans into his hands and this, this is perfect.

"I'm here, Lucky," she says gently. It's taking all he has not to kiss her right then and there and just as he's about to do it she stretches, wincing slightly. In an instant he's on his feet, helping her up. He hugs her.

"You're an idiot," he says into her hair. She laughs.

"How so?"

"Cataclysm, you absolute fool," he says. Pulling back, he looks with suppressed mirth at her oh yeah face. Now he really wants to kiss her. He leans in, resolving to do it, and she puts a finger on his nose, pushing him back. Right. The other guy. His mood falls again but he manages a fake smile. "Don't do that again. And, uh, I think it's safe to say that Helen Chase isn't Kronas," he reminds her. She nods, some-what downcast.

"Yeah. Catch you later, bugaboy." She jumps into the air, landing on the Louvre and taking off running. He approaches Helen carefully, not sure what to say, when his cufflinks beep.

"Bug out," he says to the general public, and, missing the way Helen's eyes lock on his Miraculous, he throws his yoyo and pulls. Moments later, he's airborne.


Annabeth tightens her fingers on the straps of her backpack. Yesterday was...interesting, to say the least, with two akumatizations in one day and her own death...twice. Teddy was arguing with, or rather being argued at, last night, and she supposes Helen tried to force her way in. She stays in her room as much as possible now, and Teddy stands guard every night. But, since there's always been so much drama, she's decided to end it once and for all and get up the courage to tell Percy that she loves him. Even if he does reject her, it can't be worse than her father's death or an argument with Luckybug. God, she hated that look in his eyes when he said he loved her. She'll never be able to love him back, not as long as Percy's in the picture, and maybe even if Percy's out. She sees the familiar shock of dark blue-black hair approaching up the steps of Goode and hurries to greet him. "Hey, Percy!" she says cheerfully. He nods at her. "So, I, um, have something- what's wrong?" she asks. Percy looks so tired and so sad, and as a friend first she wants to make sure that he's okay. He meets her gaze finally, and manages a melancholy smile.

"Nothing...it's just, this girl I like, she doesn't like me back," he says in a hushed, ashamed voice. Annabeth feels her world spinning and reaches out a hand to the wall, supporting herself.

"That's awful," she says dully. "Excuse me." She rushes away from him, heading to the bathroom, and locks herself into one of the stalls, thankfully alone. Plagg flouts out and looks at her with sad eyes. Tears gather in her eyes and she sniffs, rubbing them away with the edge of her hoodie sleeve. He doesn't love her. Maybe he never did. At least they're friends, but Annabeth will always want to be more. She whimpers, quietly, but freezes as the door opens. She tries to stay silent, but a choked sob escapes her.

"Hello?" the girl says. It's not a voice she recognizes, and she draws within herself more. "Um...are you okay?" she continues.

"Yeah," Annabeth says shakily. "Boys are stupid." The girl laughs.

"That they are." Felling more confident, Annabeth unlatches her stall. The kind stranger is a girl about her age, with bright frizzy red hair and pretty green eyes. Freckles dust her face and she has a paintbrush stuck haphazardly in her hair. "Hi! I'm Rachel, I'm new."

"I'm Annabeth," she says softly, still a bit ashamed that this random, if kind, girl caught her crying in the bathroom.

"Well, Annabeth, let's get you to class," she says, looping her arm through Annabeth's. "Where's your homeroom?"

"Ms. Bustier's, room 213," she replies. She expects Rachel to nod or continue the conversation, but the redhead gasps delightedly.

"No freaking way! That's my homeroom! OMG! We're going to be best friends, I can feel it! Is Stupid Boy in our class?" Annabeth manages a half-grin at Rachel's enthusiasm and nods. Rachel pushes the bathroom door open, pulling them both through it.

"Point him out to me," she says. They hurry up the stairs and enter the classroom. Thankfully, they aren't late, and Thalia almost trips down the steps as she rushes towards them.

"Annabeth! Did you hear, there's another new student! Probably not as cool as Kelli, but still-oh," she pauses as she takes Rachel's appearance in. "Hi, new student!" Rachel nods politely at Thalia then elbows Annabeth. She should probably care about the consequences of this, but she finds herself oddly detached as she subtly points to Percy. Rachel spots him, and her eyes widen a little bit but undeterred by everything that is Percy Triton-Jackson, she marches over to him, grabs his hoodie front to get his attention, and slaps him smartly across the face. He stumbles back as she releases him and holds a hand to his throbbing check, stunned. She nods at Apollo, who is staring at her as if he's not sure whether he should defend Percy or hide, and goes back to Annabeth and Thalia.

"I'm sorry, what's your name?" she asks Thalia as if nothing had just happened. Annabeth feels the irrational urge to giggle and pushes it down. She looks back at Percy, and alarm bells, much like the alarm bells that started ringing for Kelli, who is making eyes at Beckendorf from the back row, start ringing in her mind. She feels disgusted by herself, to imagine herself threatened by a girl who moments after meeting her had slapped a tall, intimidating, cute boy she didn't know just because he made Annabeth cry, but the way Percy's looking at Rachel as if she's a mystery he wants to solve makes her feel even worse. Poor Rachel. If he hooks her, she hopes that he at least has the decency to give up on his mystery girl. Dully, she takes her seat and spend the rest of class staring out the window.


Annabeth leaves her window open, as usual. She's not going to stop closing it just because there's akumas around at any given time. She lives in a house surrounded by a tall fence, for God's sake, and she is perfectly fine keeping the window open. A while back, someone-probably Frederick- had a large beanbag-ish thing placed under one of the floor-to-ceiling windows and built a small wooden wall around it to keep it secured. As time went on, Annabeth started filling it with pillows and hung a few small shelves next to it. She placed some ornaments and books on them, but she always kept the window next to it closed, not wanting rain or wind to damage anything. Usually, she was good about closing windows during storms but there had been a few mishaps here and there. Tonight, Annabeth just wants to forget about the past week-about her dead father, Rachel, Percy, and Luckybug. She huddles up under a blanket in a soft grey hoodie, reading one of her favorite books, Wolf by Wolf, with a cup of hot chocolate next to the open window, providing a bit of breeze. It's late, around ten, and she's nodding off even with the open book in her lap, when something splashes her face, startling her. It's begun to rain, an unexpected storm, and her blanket, pillows, not to mention her book are all getting drenched. Quickly, she bundles the wet articles up and heaves them off the window. She struggles to close the window against the wind, finally latching it shut, and she's about to climb into the beanbag again, this time with dry blankets and pillows, when something makes a dull 'thud' against the window. She looks up quickly and registers the red first. Then she looks up and it's…Luckybug? She scrambles out of her comfortable position and opens the window quickly. It flies open and he tumbles into her room. Ignoring the urge to help him up, she goes for the window. She hears a groan behind her as she tries to close it again, but Luckybug gets up to help her shut it.

"Thanks," she says, looking up at him. "Oh! You're hurt!" He has a bruise on his forehead from where he made contact with the window, skin spilt open, and his nose, while probably not broken, is bleeding. She grabs his shoulders, forcing him into her chair, and goes to her bathroom to rifle around for medical supplies. She got some after Bubblette and has used them a couple times, but she still has stuff left over. She hurries back to him, climbing onto the beanbag and kneeling in front of him. "What were you doing out?" she asks, ripping up a bandage.

"I was trying to get back to my house when it started raining," he says. She presses his nose lightly with the bandage and he winces. "Ow!"

"You're a superhero, stop being such a baby," she says, smirking a bit. "You still haven't answered my question." He sighs, carefully leaning back from her probing fingers. She scoots closer, determined to clean him up.

"I was… on patrol?" he says, making it sound like a question.

"Wrong answer. You don't patrol today," she scoffs. He thought he could get away with excuses.

"How do you know when I patrol?" She chokes on air briefly. Welp. She thought she was so smart.

"The Lucky-blog has your schedule," she says confidently, trying not to seem like she's lying. He accepts it, with a raised eyebrow, but he doesn't press anymore.

"So, sometimes, when I'm feeling down, I-SHIT! That hurt, Annabeth!" he howls. While he was distracted, she took the opportunity to press rubbing alcohol to his cut. He backs up further, giving her a betrayed look. He feels his back hit the glass- there's nowhere to go. She advances on him, brandishing a cotton ball dipped in rubbing alcohol until she's practically in his lap. He clears his throat and she realizes where she is, scrambling backwards. A bit too far backwards, as she leans back a bit too far and almost topples over the edge. Luckybug grabs her arm and pulls her back. She stares at him with wide eyes, breathless.

"Thanks," she says.

"No problem," he squeaks, and blushes, making his voice deeper quickly. "I mean, uh, no problem." She laughs quietly and presses a bandage to it.

"All done," she tells him. He rubs it, mock offended.

"Do I at least get a kiss to make it better after all the suffering you put me through?" he jokes. She smirks, leans forward, and presses a light kiss to the bandage. She draws back quickly, flushing, and asks a quick question to distract them both from what she just did.

"Why were you down, 'bug?" she asks, avertin her eyes from his stare.

"Down? Oh-that. Well, I sort of confessed my feelings to this girl. She didn't reciprocate them," he says. She twitches slightly. She has a feeling that she knows exactly who that girl is, and she doesn't ask. She doesn't want it confirmed. Instead, she gives a little, brittle laugh.

"That makes us two of a kind, huh?" she says sarcastically. She can sense him stiffen.

"You…like, you're into girls? That's totally cool of course, and I didn't mean to offend it's just I didn't expect it? Not that, just-" He's cut off by Annabeth's peal of laughter. Real laughter, not fake giggles. Bellyaching, body-shaking laughter. She almost rolls off the beanbag, she's laughing so hard. "What?" he asks, a slight smile coming onto his face in spite of himself.

"I'm not into girls! I was talking about a boy I liked, a boy who rejected me, you idiot," she gasps out. He blanches, realizing that yes, he is an idiot, and slowly joins her in laughing. When they both compose themselves, he looks seriously at her.

"Why would any guy reject you? You're smart, kind, pretty, not just pretty, a literal model! Most guys would kill to date a model, who is this idiot? I want to re-educate him," he says, getting annoyed with this mystery guy in spite of himself. She avoids his question, turning the tables on him instead.

"Well, why would any girl reject you? You're…smart, as far as I can tell-"

"Hey!"

"-witty, handsome, and oh yeah a superhero! Someone any girl could confidently show her dad. You're literally one of two superheroes, and most of the girls in Paris drool over you," she says to him, trying to boost his confidence that she fears she may have really hurt.

"The only thing is, she's a superhero too," he mumbles. Annabeth acts shocked.

"Lady Jinx? She doesn't like you? Well…I dunno. She's kinda stupid for not seeing what's right in front of her," Annabeth says, laying a hand on his shoulder. It's true. She is stupid, it doesn't make sense that she'll reject a handsome, strong, superhero for someone who's kind of a no one. But nobody ever told her heart it had to make sense. Luckybug does something that surprises her. He hugs her. She usually hates being touched now,and has trained Thalia a bit to keep her hands mostly to herself. But whereas she would usually shove him away or stiffen, she does something that surprises herself. She leans into him, tentatively putting her hands on his back. She never realized how broad it was-no. Bad Annabeth. Don't go down that path. He pulls away after a minute, smiling softly at her.

"Thanks for fixing me up, and listening, Annabeth," he says. She nods, a bit flushed.

"Any time. Drop by whenever. Just- don't smash into my windows anymore, deal?"

"Deal," he says. He opens the window, looping his yoyo around the inner handle, and winks at her. "Bug out. Goodnight!" He jumps out, like she's done many times before, and unhooks his yoyo just before the window slams shut, rattling the frames. She presses herself against the glass, watching his form jump across the rooftops of Paris, fading into the night.

"Goodnight," she whispers against the cool surface. It's late, and she's sleepy, but a thought keeps repeating in her mind. I think I'm seeing what's in front of me now.

A/N: The real reason everyone, or at least most people, love Marichat fics/headcanons is because at some point they all have to confront this great feat of irony: Marinette, talking about Adrien rejecting her, to Chat Noir, who is Adrien, and Chat Noir also probably complaining about Ladybug, who is Marinette, rejecting him. That was a bit confusing, but you get the gist of it. They keep rejecting each other, for…each other. And that's why, even if MLB has little to no character development, people still are invested in it. Hope y'all liked the chapter and have a safe holiday!