Helloooooo readers! Sorry it's been such a long time since my last post, please forgive me 3 Thanks to ScruffydaDruid, Curiosity - Or n0t, and SJJSpice1 for liking my story this past week and waking me up and reminding me to do this chapter! I'll try to update a bit more regularly, once every couple of weeks perhaps and not keep you waiting for so many months. Thanks for reading, love you all 3 3 3

Marinette watched Speed Demon and Chat Noir set up for the start of the race from on top of the tall office building nearby, landing on it as Ladybug and detransforming into Marinette when she was sure she couldn't be seen.

Tiki zoomed around her head anxiously.

'Marinette! Are you sure this is going to work? Isn't it a bit of a risk?'

'Shh Tiki! Make sure they can't see us. I don't know if it will work, but isn't it the best option?'

Tiki quietened down and landed on the floor, munching on a cookie that Marinette offered her, and peeked over the edge so she could also watch the proceedings.

'I guess you're right.'

The race was about to begin; Chat Noir and Speed Demon were both standing at the start line, and a terrified looking Mr Damocles stood ready with the start gun. She heard the loud bang and saw both of them start the race.

'There they go, let's hope this works.'

Her plan was based off a fable she had heard when she was younger. It was one of two stories where a slower animal was able to beat a faster one. The other was the story of the tortoise and the hare, where the hare relaxed too much and accidently let the tortoise win. She knew that that wasn't going to work, there was no way that Speed Demon would relax and with Hawk Moth watching it was a definite no to that plan.

The other story was when a hedgehog had beaten the devil in a long distance running race, and tired him to death. Well, more correctly, a group of hedgehogs, pretending to be one, had tricked the devil into exhausting himself. The first hedgehog had made a wager with the devil that he could beat him in a race, the hedgehog to have the choice of time and place. He chose to run up and down a ditch at night. When the time came, the hedgehog rolled himself up at one end of the ditch, and got a friend to roll himself up at the other, then the race with the devil started. When the devil got to the end of the ditch, the hedgehog's friend would say something like 'off we go again', or 'are you only just getting here?'. Each hedgehog kept repeating this at his own end of the ditch, while the devil ran up and down between them, until they ran him to death.

It was a fairly simple concept, with the only catch being that the hedgehogs had to look and sound the same. When Ladybug's Miraculous had given her the set of matching Chat Noir costumes, she had realised that this was the trick they were going to attempt to pull off.

After explaining the plan to Chat Noir, she had run over to the kids nearby and found four blond guys who could pass somewhat as Chat Noir from behind, and now all four were set up strategically near the corners of the race.

Speed Demon would start the race with Chat Noir, who was under instructions to quickly turn around and go back to about 50 meters behind the finish line, ready to sprint as fast as possible to the finish as soon as he saw Speed Demon turn around the final bend 400 meters behind him.

The track for the race wound around the forest where they had originally watched Speed Demon, going in and out of the trees. Ladybug had told each of the boys to simply run around the corner before ducking into the trees to find some shelter, and stay still as the akuma went past. Their black outfits would hopefully let them blend into the shadows if they stayed nice and still while covering their blond hair and face.

From her vantage point she could only see the final boy and Chat Noir, so all she could do was wait.

Chat watched from his place, sweating nervously in the sunlight. He didn't like not doing anything and letting the akuma out of his sight but he had to admit that Ladybug's plan was a good one, so he tried his best to wait patiently.

He could hear something which sounded like rain but heavier, and realised that it must be Speed Demon's feet hitting the ground at a super-human speed. Chat started jogging towards the line, watching over his shoulder as he went. There! He saw a blur of movement spin around the corner and start zooming towards him, and he ran as fast as he could.

The sound came louder and louder as the akuma gained on him, and there were 30…20…10 meters to go. Then Chat was over the line and two seconds later Speed Demon went past him, slowing down and turning back towards the victor. Chat internally was celebrating the win, Ladybug's plan had worked! But then he saw the look on Speed Demon's face.

'How did you do that?! I am the fastest in the world! But no matter how fast I ran you were always one corner ahead of me!' The akuma spat at him, literal sparks flying from him as the lava on his shirt seemed to bubble and boil even more.

Chat started to back away, thinking that perhaps beating this guy had only made things worse, because now he was super mad.

'Hey, I'm just a fast cat.' He said defensively, putting his hands up in peace. Where are you Ladybug, he thought. He really needed her support right now.

'Speed Demon, we won and you lost. Keep your end of the bargain and let us purify you.' came Ladybug's voice as she landed next to Chat Noir.

The akuma stepped back, shaking his head.

'No…I was supposed to win.' The purple butterfly suddenly appeared over his face and they knew Hawkmoth was talking to him, but they could only hear one part of the conversation.

'Yes…you're right…yes Hawkmoth.' The purple butterfly disappeared, but Speed Demon kept his head down for a moment as he thought about whatever Hawkmoth had said.

'Well that was a speedy conversation.' Chat said to Ladybug, trying to lighten the mood, but she put her hand up, signaling him to stop as she focused on the akuma.

Suddenly Speed Demon looked up, a new evil look in his eye.

'Hawkmoth has decided. The results cannot be valid, so you must have cheated, so I win. Give me your Miraculous!' He snarled and ran at them.

Chat used his baton to jump a few meters to the left, and Ladybug swung from tree on the right then a lamppost nearby to position herself behind the akuma as he charged between them.

She studied him closely, noting all the aspects of his outfit and trying to find where the akuma was hidden. The only thing that she could see was…

'Chat! His Miraculous must be in his sneakers!'

Chat grimaced. 'My lady, do you have a plan for getting those things? He moves pretty fast.'

As if to prove his point, Speed Demon charged at Chat again, who only just managed to get out of the way.

'I guess I should use my lucky charm again.' Ladybug sighed, knowing that her poor Tiki was going to be very exhausted after today's events. She was just about to throw her yoyo up in the air and call the command when she came up with an idea.

'Hey Chat, distract him for a moment please.'

Chat dodged another attack. 'Alright m'lady. Hey slowpoke, cat-ch me if you can!' and he leapt away, taunting Speed Demon into following him.

Ladybug looked around and found what she had been looking for: a giant oak tree. She swung her yoyo toward another tree on her right, judging the angle correctly so the yoyo head bounced off that tree, onto another and then another, and swung back to her. She caught it and swiftly tied a noose knot so that it was firmly attached to the tree.

Looking to where Chat was being chased by Speed Demon, she caught her breath as Chat was knocked off his feet by the speed of the akuma. He quickly bounced back up and used his pole to vault away, but she could tell that he was getting tired.

Ladybug waited until Speed Demon was facing Chat, before darting out from her shelter behind the trees and sprinting across the field to where she could see another strong looking tree. She circled it a few times to ensure the yoyo was firmly attached and wouldn't just pull her along with it when her plan was enacted. Now there was a line of yoyo string hovering just above the ground at ankle height across the field.

'Ok Chat, jump up high and land over there!' She called out to him, pointing to a patch of grass about 20 meters away from the opposite side of the trap.

Chat looked confused, but he was too tired to bother asking questions. He dodged another charge from Speed Demon and then vaulted across the field, landing exactly where his lady wished him to and only then seeing the line. He nodded to her, understanding her plan. Speed Demon turned around, and glared at the two of them.

'This is the final warning. Hand over your miraculous items now or be destroyed!' He yelled, strolling towards them at what was still a fairly fast speed.

Chat Noir snorted, 'No way! You can't catch us anyway, we won the race and now we're going to beat you because we're just faster and better.'

Speed Demon's suit started to spark, and he burst into a full sprint towards him. Ladybug pulled tight on the yoyo and held her breath as he got closer and closer to the line. She felt a massive tug on the line and felt a sharp pain in her leg as she was thrown off balance into the tree. She quickly released her yoyo and let it unwind from the tree and zip back across the field, and she limped after it. She saw that Speed Demon had tripped over the line as she had hoped, skidding to a stop just in front of Chat.

Chat quickly tugged the shoes off the floundering akuma, throwing them to Ladybug as she ran past. As she reached the tree and picked up her yoyo, she ripped the shoes open to release the little black butterfly.

'No more evil-doing for you, little akuma! Time to de-evilise!' and she threw her yoyo at the escaping butterfly, performing her cleansing magic. 'Gotcha!'

The yoyo opened to release the now purified butterfly, and Ladybug smiled at it. 'Bye-bye little butterfly. MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!' She threw her yoyo up in the air, and the pink swirl of ladybug magic flew around the park and miraculously, everything was fixed.

Ladybug and Chat turned to the civilian that was Speed Demon.

As she had expected, it was the black-haired boy who had been pranked at the start of the race. He was on his hands and knees, looking shame-facedly at the ground. He looked up at the two superheroes apologetically.

'L-ladybug? Chat Noir? Did I… man, I'm so sorry.' He said, then looked back at the ground, slowly standing up.

'I was supposed to win a race today I've been training for it all year. And then…then some guy tied my shoelaces together and I tripped and I didn't even make the top three. And I guess I just got mad and… something happened.'

People were beginning to filter back into the park area. The blond hair boy Marinette had seen tie the shoelaces earlier cautiously walked over to where the heroes and the de-akumatised boy were standing. Ladybug nodded in his direction, 'I think someone wants to say something.'

The blond hair boy blushed awkwardly as the other boy turned towards him.

'Um…Hi, Sam.'

'Hi…Hugo right?'

The boy called Hugo seemed surprised but pleased that Sam knew his name.

'Y-y-yeah. Um so, there's something I should tell you.' Hugo also started staring earnestly at the ground. 'I…I was the one that tied your laces together. I'm really sorry.'

Sam stared at him. 'But why would you do that?'

Hugo closed his eyes 'Because those guys found out that I…kind of…have a crush on you, so they told me to do it or they'd tell you. I didn't want to do it but I also didn't want you to know but now I told you so they won't tell you because you already know so I don't have to be mean to you anymore and I'm sorry for all of that please don't hate me.'

There was silence for a moment and Sam looked stunned.

'You…you like me…?'

Hugo barely managed to nod, he was so embarrassed.

Sam started to smile.

'Well, I must admit that although I haven't really spoken to you before, I kind of might like you too.'

Both boys looked up at each other and seemed lost in each other's eyes, smiling shyly and seemingly forgetting about the presence of the two superheroes.

Ladybug made eye contact with Chat Noir, and made a head signal for them to leave.

He grinned at her as they walked away, 'when are you going to finally confess your love to me, my lady?'

She rolled her eyes at him and pushed him away.

'Dream on, Chaton.' Then she smiled wistfully and said quietly, 'Though I do wish I had his courage to confess my feelings to the guy I like.'

Chat's ears twitched as he caught her whisper. He stopped walking and turned to her suddenly. 'What did you say?! You… you like someone?'

Ladybug grimaced, clearly not intending to have let him hear that last part.

'It's nothing Chat. I'll see you later.' And she threw her yoyo at the nearby building and swung off into the distance.

Chat watched her go, the usual ache that he felt after her rejections turning to a stabbing pain in his chest.

'Goodbye, my lady.'