Marinette had processed all that she needed to. She understood that Chat Noir/Adrien had been a selfish, stupid person, with no respect for her feelings. He'd concocted some stupid plan just to get her to fall in love with him, and had thought nothing of breaking her heart in the process. She was positively enraged. God help him if he ever came out of that room.

Tikki tried to calm her furious friend down. "Marinette, it's not entirely his fault. People can get tunnel vision when they're in love." She held the girl's gaze. "You of all people should know that."

Marinette huffed and turned away, glaring at one of Master Fu's silk screens. Tikki sighed. "Marinette, if this had happened three months ago, how would you be feeling right now?"

Marinette considered. Three months ago, she had been hopelessly in love with Adrien. "I would have been over the moon," she admitted grudgingly.

"So why aren't you over the moon now?"

"Because...because I went through a lot of stuff because of his idiocy, Tikki. I was hurt and sad and angry. And he was so clueless and-" She was cut off by a knock at the door. Master Fu poked his head in.

"May we come in?"

Without thinking, Marinette nodded. The door opened wider and next to Master Fu was a sheepish-looking Adrien Agreste.

The very sight of him caused Marinette's temper to flare up again. She shot to her feet with a murderous expression on her face.

Adrien backed away, walking into the wall and hitting his head with a thud. "Ow!"

Marinette smirked, pleased that he was feeling pain.

Master Fu looked between the two and decided that things would get very ugly, very quickly if he didn't step in. "Marinette, Adrien has something to say to you," he said, sounding just like the parent of two arguing children.

Marinette pursed her lips and turned away. "I have no interest in anything that person says."

"He wants to apologize."

"Who says I'll forgive him?" Marinette folded her arms across her chest. "I have to go."

"What? Where?" cried Adrien, looking crestfallen.

Marinette glared at him. "I have to get a mask for myself and a dress for my friend by tomorrow. I think that's slightly more important than dealing with you." Her words were icy, her stare even colder.

Adrien's jaw dropped. "You're going to the dance? With who?"

"What did you expect me to do? Crawl into my bed and cry all night just because you said no?" replied Marinette, conveniently forgetting that she had originally intended to do exactly that. "And as for who I'm going with, well, that's none of your business." She spun on her heel and began to march towards the door.

"Marinette, wait!" cried Adrien desperately. "I'm sorry! I was a complete idiot and you have every right to be mad-"

The door slammed shut, and Adrien Agreste slumped to the ground, defeated and despairing.

MLBMLBMLB

Marinette stormed through the streets of Paris, making a very angry beeline for the bakery. She had to get to work, or she wasn't going to finish before tomorrow.

And she was most certainly not going to think about Adrien Agreste.

Pulling out her phone, she began to flick through images of masquerade masks, trying to decide on a style that would match her dress and be simple enough to make. Ordinarily, she would have designed a mask, but she simply didn't have the time. She'd gotten so caught up in her superhero life, and now it was biting back.

The bluenette was so absorbed in her research that she walked straight into someone's chest. Yelping, the girl fell to the ground, dropping her phone with a clatter. "I am so, so sorry!" she cried, without looking at who she'd bumped into. She snatched up her phone, accepting the hand up.

"That's quite alright," said a voice she knew well. Marinette narrowed her eyes. The voice, the feel of leather and sharp claws against her palm….

She abruptly dropped the hand and helped herself up. Without a second glance, she began to walk away, her steps long and fast. There were a few sharp pounds behind her. "Marinette, wait! I'm sorry!"

She didn't turn around. "Leave me alone!"

"Let me explain!" Chat Noir caught up to her and put his gloved hand on her shoulder. "Please, Marinette!"

Marinette let out an angry hiss, as though she was the cat, and shrugged his hand away.

Chat Noir didn't give up. Usually, perseverance was a quality Marinette admired about him, but not today. "Marinette, you're not being fair."

She snorted. "Have you ever heard the phrase, 'life isn't fair'?"

"More times than you'd think."

"How sad. If you want pity, you've come to the wrong place. Maybe you should go to Chloe. I'm sure she'd give you all the pity you want."

"She'd probably try to give me much more than I want," said Chat, attempting to make the angry girl laugh.

It didn't work. Instead, she just picked up her pace. For someone so short, she was a really fast walker. The cat superhero had to jog to keep up. "Marinette, why can't we talk about this?"

"Because I don't want to."

"Have you ever heard the phrase, 'you can't always get what you want'?" mocked Chat Noir. "You're going to have to talk to me eventually."

"Oh, will I?"

"Yes, you will. Patrol? Akumas? Surely you won't let this stop you from protecting Paris. Oh, sorry, I forgot. You don't have a problem with neglecting your duty, do you, Ladybug?" As soon as the words left his mouth, Chat knew he should have kept his mouth shut, but his temper was getting the better of him.

In front of him, Marinette let out a furious growl-shriek. Spinning around, she raised her hand as if to strike him, but then stopped herself. She turned again and ran ahead. Within moments, the girl had ducked into a side street and disappeared from view.

Chat cursed, and began to run after her. It was getting kind of late, and who knew what kind of people were waiting in side streets, preying on young people such as Marinette? While Chat had no doubt that Marinette would be capable of punching their lights out, he knew that his lady wouldn't have much of a chance against a knife-or-gun-wielding criminal.

Getting desperate, he called out. "Marinette? Where are you?"

No reply. "Marinette, please!" Still silence, until the steady beat of footsteps broke the stillness. Chat turned, expecting to see Marinette running towards him with a masked thug hot on her heels, but instead, he saw Marinette shoving open the door to her family bakery and slamming the door, effectively getting out of his sight.

Chat sighed. He could always go up onto her balcony, of course, but he was pretty sure that would qualify as harassment. He didn't want to be confronted by Marinette's father. The guy was huge.

Shoulders slumping, he turned and headed for home, wishing that the evening had gone better.

MLBMLBMLB

Marinette leaned against the door, chest heaving. She wondered if Chat noir would keep trying to talk to her, or if he would go home. She hoped it would be the latter.

But she didn't have time to think about her partner now. She had stuff to do, and she was going to have to wake up early tomorrow. As a member of the Dance Committee, she was expected to give the location a once-over, just to make sure everything was in place. She also needed to pay a visit to the library, and hopefully get a head start on her History assignment. While it wasn't due for another three weeks, Marinette often got so busy trying to manage two lives that she forgot about projects. With all the time she'd had off this year, the girl couldn't afford to get a low grade on this assignment.

Marinette ran upstairs to her room. She flopped down onto her desk chair and brought up an image of the mask style she'd chosen. It would be difficult work, but there was no way that she was turning up without a mask. Practically everyone else was.

She also needed to complete her work on Alya's dress. After some consideration, Marinette decided to do Alya's gown first, then her mask. Better that Alya had a dress and Marinette didn't have a mask, rather than the other way around.

Marinette picked up the dress and her needle again and began to stitch. Her fingers slipped, she dropped sequins, and she pricked herself many, many times, but by seven o'clock, the dress was looking exactly like Marinette had wanted it to. Pleased with her work, she hung it up on one of the ladder rungs, so that when she climbed down the next morning, she wouldn't forget it.

Now it was time to work on the mask. Marinette had never made a mask before (apart from the paper-plate ones everyone made when they were six), but she'd done a bit of research and had a decent idea on how to pull it off.

She set to work, her hands moving nimbly as the creation slowly began to take shape. Tikki let Marinette work for a solid half-hour before pouncing.

"Chat Noir's right, you know."

Marinette flinched, and almost dropped her not-quite mask. "Tikki!" she snapped. "I'm trying to concentrate!"

Tikki didn't back off. "I know that, Marinette," she said patiently. "But this is more important."

Marinette felt her temper flare up, but tried to keep it under control. "I don't see how."

"You have to talk to him eventually. You can't neglect Paris because of him."

"I wasn't planning to," replied Marinette, with gritted teeth.

"Besides, you haven't done patrol in a while. Hawkmoth will strike again at any minute."

Marinette clenched her fists and tried to calm herself down. She couldn't afford to waste time arguing with Tikki. "Fine. I'll go on patrol tomorrow." She turned back to her work, dismissing the conversation.

Tikki could have jumped for joy, except that it was difficult to jump when you were floating. "Great!" she cried squeakily. "I'm proud of you, Marinette."

Marinette just nodded curtly, and continued to work. Tikki smiled to herself, and retreated to her stash of cookies.

MLBMLBMLB

Marinette was exhausted- physically and emotionally. Yet somehow, she still managed to get into school at the time she'd wanted to. So far, everything was running smoothly.

That was all about to change, of course. Marinette didn't need to be a psychic to be able to tell that as soon as she met Adrien, things were going to turn weird. Their strange behaviour around each other was surely going to attract unwanted attention from their friends.

But she would cross that bridge when she came to it. For now, her focus was on her history project. She sat in the library, bent over her work, researching and typing on her laptop. Her topic was a good one, and it was easy to access helpful, reliable sources. Marinette practically cruised through the work. It was almost relaxing.

At half-past eight, Marinette packed up her belongings and left the library to meet Alya out the front. The blogger was already there, texting madly on her phone. She didn't glance up as her friend approached.

"Hey, Alya!"

Alya squeaked and almost dropped her phone. There was a huge smile already on her face, and it only got wider at the sight of Marinette. "Hey, girl! Have you got it?" she asked excitedly.

Marinette nodded, and with a flourish, pulled the neatly folded dress out of her bag. "Voila!"

Alya squealed in delight. "I love it! Marinette, you're amazing!"

Marinette gave a dismissive wave. "Oh, it was nothing, really. Who were you texting?"

Alya tapped the side of her nose, trying to be coy, but unable to stop herself from beaming. "Oh, no one."

Marinette arched her eyebrow and gave her friend a playful smirk. "Was it...Nino?"

Alya shrugged. There was a call from behind them, and the two girls turned. It was Nino, walking towards them. "Hey, Alya! Hey, Marinette!"

"Hey, Nino!" they called back. Marinette gave her friend a suspicious look. Who had she been texting? And why was she smiling like that?

Hi again. Hope you enjoy the new chapter! If you have any advice for me or think I'm doing something wrong, feel free to tell me! Thanks.