Thank you all of you so much for your favorites, follows, and reviews. Your positive feedback just encourages me to write more! I will try to update as regularly as possible, but I have a big trip planned for the start of summer break so this might have to go on a bit of a hiatus within the next week or so. I will definitely keep writing while I'm on vacation so if I miss updating for a while, when I do come back, you will be rewarded with more than one chapter. Anyway, enough about me. Back to the story!

Chapter 2

"No freaking way, dude."

"My best friend is Ladybug?! Why didn't she tell me?"

"Chloe, you just smashed Ladybug's miraculous!"

Although Adrien stood in the middle of the yelling classroom, he barely heard a thing. His thoughts were way too loud. How could sweet, barely able to get more than a sentence out to him without stuttering, Marinette be the brave, sassy Ladybug who confidently brushed off Chat's flirting? They were so different, and yet they weren't. They were both beautiful, strong and would stand up against injustice if they saw it. Marinette could be assertive; she had proven that since becoming class president. As Adrien's mind pieced Ladybug and Marinette together, he began to wonder how he didn't see it before. His Lady had been right in front of him, or rather, behind him, the entire time.

A smile tugged at his lips. He was glad that Ladybug was Marinette. He had often thought about Ladybug's true identity, praying that the girl behind the mask was just as genuine when she wasn't behind it. His worrying proved futile.

Adrien was snapped out of his stupor when he felt Nino push past him. Adrien hadn't been paying attention to what was happening in the classroom, but apparently he should have been.

The class was in chaos. A group of angry students was yelling at Chloe while she tried to defend herself. Nino was physically holding Alya back from attacking Chloe. Mylene sat at her desk, looking pale, while Ivan fanned her face. The substitute barely spared the situation a glance before he, once again, buried his nose in his book. Luckily, everyone was distracted enough for Adrien to slip out of the classroom undetected.

Plagg flew out of the pocket inside Adrien's shirt. "Adrien! We need to go to Master Fu's right now!" Plagg tried to fly away but Adrien grabbed his tail.

"Plagg, hold on, what is happening? Who is Master Fu?" Adrien needed to know what was going on before Plagg led him anywhere.

Plagg sighed impatiently. "Master Fu is the guardian of all the miraculous jewels. All dormant miraculouses are entrusted to him. Ladybug has apparently already met him; it's time you do to. Now, come on, we don't have time for this; God knows what's going to happen to Tikki." With that, Plagg flew down the hallway.

Adrien raced behind him. "Wait, Plagg, who's Tikki?"

Marinette tried her best to hold back the tears she felt prickling in her eyes as she sprinted down the sidewalk. She held her injured kwami and shattered miraculous close to her heart and said a silent prayer for Tikki. Marinette's heart lifted a little when she saw Master Fu's shop in sight. He would know what to do.

Master Fu and his kwami, Wayzz, were meditating quietly when Marinette burst through the front door without announcing herself. Master Fu opened his eyes and gave her an amused smile, but it quickly disappeared when he saw the desperation on her face. Marinette was shaking and breathing heavily from having run so far so fast.

Master Fu quickly got up. "What is wrong, Ladybug?" he implored.

Marinette could only shake her head. She opened her hands and showed him Tikki as well as her smashed earrings. The way his expression morphed into one of horror twisted Marinette's heart.

"You'll be able to fix it, right?" Marinette could barely get the words out. Tears were now freely dripping down her face. Master Fu kept staring at her open hands. "Right?" Marinette sobbed out.

Master Fu gingerly took Tikki and her earrings out of Marinette's hands. His face was ashen. "I will try, Ladybug, I will try." Marinette wished he sounded more certain. "You wait here. I'll see what I can do." Master Fu and Wayzz disappeared into the back room, leaving Marinette by herself.

She collapsed onto the floor, letting all of the emotions she had tried to keep at bay loose. Marinette wrapped her arms herself and bawled. She couldn't lose Tikki; she couldn't lose being Ladybug. Without Ladybug, who would be there to stop akumas? Chat could hold his own in a fight, but he wouldn't be able to purify the butterflies of their dark energy. Chat. That damn cat could be really annoying sometimes, but she couldn't lose him either. If Master Fu couldn't fix the miraculous, she didn't know what she would do.

This was all Chloe's fault. Why did mayor's daughter insist on tormenting her the most? She hadn't done anything to the blonde and yet here she was, on the floor of a Chinese man's shop, crying her eyes out, about to lose everything, because of her. The anger that bubbled up inside of Marinette only made her feel worse.

Marinette was sobbing so hard that she didn't hear the flapping of wings as a dark purple butterfly entered the room through an open window.

Adrien was running down the sidewalk with Plagg safely tucked into a pocket of his shirt. Plagg whispered directions to him as he ran, imploring him to go faster.

"We need to get there fast. Without the magic of her miraculous to protect her, Marinette could be akumatized. With everything that's happened today, there would be enough negative energy to attract Hawkmoth's attention." Plagg's tactics worked; Adrien would be damned if he let anything happen to his Lady.

"We're almost there. It's on the next block, the Chinese antique shop." Plagg whispered excitedly. Adrien knew which shop Plagg was talking about. He had seen it multiple times on his way to and from school. That rickety old store was where the guardian of all miraculouses was?

Adrien pumped his arms harder when the shop came into view. Plagg's words had scared him. He needed to get to Marinette before an akuma did. Adrien was only half a block away when the front door of the antique shop was blown off of its hinges in a minor explosion. A figure with blood red eyes and two short pigtails emerged from amidst the smoke.

"Where is Chloe Bourgeois?!"