Yay! another chapter! who is excited. I can't wait to see what the guesses of who our evil villain is in the comments.

Disclaimer- On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being I don't own MLB and 10 being I am the sole owner of all things related to Ladybug, I am standing at a solid negative two.Chapter 5: Spaghettaly

Marinette froze.

"L-l-luka?" She guessed.

"In the flesh! By the way, you're an excellent kisser".

He waited for a response, staring at her in the evening light. The only thing he heard was a thunk. The glimmering stars grew dimmer and dimmer until they seemed to disappear.

Everything was replaced with blackness.

As he slowly regained consciousness, Luka was aware he was being dragged-- at a weird angle.

"Perhaps I'm in a chair," he pondered. As he tried to move, he noticed he was bound to the what he was now fairly certain was a chair.

"Heh mmee-e wuh hguhing awe?" He mumbled. Luka frowned. He had meant to say, "hey Mari, what's going on?", but he was only now realizing that he was gagged.

As his vision began to return, he saw 4 silhouetted figures perched above him.

No wait, 3 people and a showerhead.

"Now listen up," Nino roared, "we are going to find out what you did to Adrien, even if it kills you". Nino proceeded to cover his face with a towel.

"Wait, does it matter how hot the water is for waterboarding?" Alya asked.

"I don't think so," Nino replied nonchalantly,"but try hot".

Luka tried to scream as he felt the scalding water pour over the cloth. It began as drops and quickly absorbed into the cotton towel. As he prepared to struggle against the current of water, the flow suddenly stopped.

"Ok," Marinette said uneasily,"so now we just let it soak and he tells us the answer?"

Alya shrugged. "Something like that. Nino, are you sure we only needed 100mL of water for this?"

"That's all it took in the action movie," he confirmed.

"If you say so," came the reply, as the group walked into the other room.

After 10 minutes the crew returned.

"I think it wasn't enough," Alya noted confidently,"I'll go get some more water".

Marinette stopped her.

"Wait, I know we need to get this done, but I'm going to wash his hair while we're at it. It looks disgusting, and I don't think Adrien will appreciate a dirty bathtub when he gets back".

She tried to sound confident that Adrien would return, hoping her words and actions would weaken Luka's resolve.

Alya found herself at the sink, filling up the measuring cup as Marinette washed the greasy black and blue hair.

After 10 minutes of cleaning, they were finally ready to add the second cup of water, not realizing they could have used the showerhead much more effectively then adding water a cup at a time.

This time the sound of laughter permeated the damp cloth as they poured.

"Time for pulling out nails," Nino said," looking at the 'action movie torture list' on his phone". The laughing stopped quite suddenly.

Alya smiled. "I've got this one".

As she grasped the tweezers, she picked the edge of his left big toenail. The whole foot gave off a rank odour, making Alya regret her decision to volunteer. The toenail in question was a yellowed, overly large nail, and it tore as she yanked.

Luka grunted a rather unfriendly word, though it was hard to discern.

"Ready to talk, Lu..." Marinette trailed off,"Nino, you removed the gag before we started, right?"

"Um... was I supposed to?" He asked bashfully.

Marinette removed the towel, and unfastened the gag.

"Are you ready to talk?"

"Well since you were kind enough to wash my hair, give me a hot towel treatment, remove a hangnail that has been killing me for weeks, and wash my feet, sure".

"We didn't wash your--" Marinette looked down to see Alya had retrieved the discarded towel and was in fact wiping Luka's feet.

"Sorry girl, but these reek".

The trio returned their attention to Luka.

"Ok, here's the story", he began.

"A few days ago, when Adrien went missing... " he stopped," shoot, I don't know which part I was supposed to skip".

Marinette offered a quizzical look.

"Kagami said I should tell the truth, but that I shouldn't tell you everything... I can't remember if she specifically told me what to not tell you... but I guess since you three are willing to pamper me... I mean torture me for information, I can tell you everything... besides, I couldn't hide the truth from you, Beautiful".

The group groaned.

"Ok, Luka, less flirty more explainy," Alya ordered.

"Ok, so umm... I was stopping by your house to ... te oo tha im in lu wuh oo" he mumbled.

"What?" Marinette asked.

"Uh, can you two leave," he asked, looking at Alya and Nino.

"No way!"

"In your dreams dude".

Marinette gave her friends a look.

"I guess we should check on the twins," Alya excused, grabbing Nino, and closing the bathroom door.

"Um... Marinette, I didn't get over you. I was coming over here to admit I was still in love with you".

"Oh". The word tumbled out of her mouth.

"Oh," Adrien said,"are you sure we need to go to Italy?"

"Yes my sweet Kitty. I'm sure Marinette will piece toegether my plan, and there is nowhere in France I could hide you to keep you safe from her".

Adrien nodded. "So when's our flight?"

"Let's just say we need to wake up early".

Adrien heaved out a sigh. "Listen, I get it, you have a miraculous and I don't. You could easily overpower me. But frankly, I don't know if I'll make it to a different country on an empty stomach. Can I please go to the kitchen and make something to eat?"

His captor furrowed their brow, and thought before speaking. "Listen, Adrien, my Love, I don't know what happened to your ring. But we can go make dinner... together".

The warden extended their hand, which Adrien graciously took, though it pained him to do so.

As he walked down the hallway, Adrien quelled a shudder. "Models can act. You don't like them. Models can act" he repeated to himself.

As he made his way into the kitchen he had an idea.

He retrieved a box of durum wheat spaghetti, made in Italy.

"Ahhh," he shouted as he poured the entire package of pasta on the floor.

"Adrien, please tell me you didn't spill the spaghetti all over the floor?" A voice begged.

"Um... sorta," he admitted, pretending the incident was accidental,"don't worry, we have more and the maid will clean it when father gets back from his trip".

While his personal warden was turned away, he pushed the spaghetti into a pile, roughly shaped like an arrow pointed southeast. He scratched a fingernail into the box, directly below the claim "made in Italy". Then tossed it next to the makeshift clue.

His captor looked relieved to not have to clean. "Ok, just tell me your manners are better than your coordination".

Adrien smiled. Make that two ideas.

"Um, maybe you could pull something up on your phone? I don't remember enough about table manners?"

"This isn't a trick is it?" The warden asked disapprovingly.

"How could asking you to search manners on YouTube do anything?" He responded slyly.

After about 10 seconds of staring, they relented and picked a video "Manners 101".

The video played, telling Adrien a list of things he already knew, though he pretended to have forgotten or not known many rules. As th video closed he began to fret- or at least act the part.

"I don't know if I'll remember all those, can you save them?"

With a flick of a finger, the video was saved and a vague hint was sent.

Adrien quickly prepared the spaghetti, this time avoiding the spill that had occurred earlier.

As they sat down to eat, Adrien tried to mind his manners, while still making the occasional mistake.

The captor gently reminded him of his mistakes, then tried to comfort him.

"But it's ok Adrien. Sure you used the wrong fork, but not everyone uses forks. In fact, while I was in Japan, most people I met didn't use forks".

Adrien nodded solemnly, pretending to be hurt.

Now it was time to go double or nothing.

Yeah, I guess I'm just down because I haven't caught up on my favorite show. I know it's dumb".

"Oh I'm sorry, what is it mon trésor?" The kidnapper cooed, removing their phone from their pocket.

"Um it's silly... Meerkat Manor. I don't know if you've heard of it?" he said, acting utterly downtrodden.

"Oh, the old animal planet show. I'm sure we can find it online". The fiend had now wrapped Adrien in a snuggle, and help up the phone.

Meerkat Manor

They hit the search button and Adrien pointed to YouTube.

"That's it! You found it!" He said, simultaneously hugging the person he had once thought of as a friend so many years ago. Adrien ignore the pang of nausea that accompanied the sickening act of affection.

After an episode snuggled up to his enemy, Adrien finally spoke again. "

Can you save it here? I think I'm going to head to bed, you know, make sure I'm rested for the flight".

As he walked back to the bedroom, the warden followed closely behind. He expected them to see him to the door, but instead they used a key to lock the door from the inside. From there they followed him all the way in and curled up next to him.

Adrien felt his skin crawl as they fell asleep.

It had only been an hour or two, but Marinette felt like it had been years. Luka was in love with her. He had stalked her!

After the initial shock had worn off, Luka had explained more in detail.

"So there I was walking up to your house when some big muscly akuma dude breaks down your door and grabs Adrien".

Marinette stared, hoping that more information would accompany the statement.

"I think someone was walking next to him, but the sun was in my eyes. Anyhow, when I went to check, I saw your house was a bit worse for wear, but it was obvious you were safe in the bathroom. As I was leaving to go report what I had seen, I found Chat's secret object, the one he uses to become a hero. I guess it must have slipped off in the action".

Marinette stared more intently.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you're married to Chat Noir. Anyways, it doesn't matter anymore, because I'm the new Chat Noir".

"And what makes you think any of us will let you take the ring?" She asked, suddenly seething on the inside.

"Plagg, claws out! How do you expect to stop me..." Luka looked at his untransformed body, then at his ringless hand.

"Sorry, kid, but now that you don't own my miraculous I don't need to take orders from you," Plagg said, phasing through the wall, a chunk of camembert in hand.

Luka sighed. "Probably for the best. I may have the fame and riches, but let's be honest, people only like me for my music. Even Kagami has been acting weird around me lately".

The girl froze. "Why?"

"I dunno, ever since a few days ago, she has just been acting strange".

Marinette remembered tidbit of information, then proceeded to untie Luka.

"If you remember anything else, let us know".

Luka touched his rope burned hands, then nodded and walked away, his head hung low.

As the door closed, Alya, Nino and two infants appeared around the corner.

"You guys heard everything, huh?"

"Yeah," Alya admitted," crazy, huh?"

Marinette began to shake her head, then stopped.

She had developed a habit of constantly checking Adrien's YouTube account for activity. She had just found two videos. Meerkat Manor and Manners 101.

"I think Adrien left us another clue".

There are some clues here that could point to several different people.

So, who is our mystery fiend?