A/N: Well, hello again readers! I'm glad to have gotten such great comments in the past few days! I was quite inspired by all of your excitement for the next chapter, that I decided to write it all morning. Well, I won't keep you waiting, enjoy!
After Cat Noir was taken, Ladybug hunkered down her emotions so they wouldn't get the best of her. Melodiva unfroze and began firing lasers at her, but it seemed the akuma was weak.
"Chat must be distracting Hawkmoth," the hero gasped softly.
Suddenly, the outline appeared, and Melodiva became much stronger. Her minions unfroze, and they began singing a new song about there being no where else to go for Ladybug. The civilians began surrounding Ladybug, but she was able to avoid them for the most part. After only a few seconds, the girl began getting very overwhelmed. The chorus members began enclosing on her, but just as she was going to get hit by a laser, a gloved hand grabbed her wrist, and the whole scene disappeared. She reappeared in an alley decently close to the battleground, but hidden.
She looked up at the person who saved her, and he was dressed identically as Hawkmoth, except his mask was smaller, letting his neat blonde hair get blown by the light breeze. A light blush appeared on her face, as she realized she was staring.
"Hello," she greeted coolly.
"Hello," the boy greeted back with a light smile which faded into sadness.
"Thanks for saving me there. I'm so irresponsible for letting my partner be taken away like that, and I'm nothing without him," the girl thanked but then lamented.
"You shouldn't say that," the villain-looking teen consoled.
"Why shouldn't I?" the bug began to cry violently.
"Because you will win this battle," the boy smiled. "If you need another breather, I'll be here to pull you out. And by the way, I'm Hawkmoth Jr. Don't worry, I'm not like Hawkmoth, or even in league with him," he introduced with a convincing smile and his hand extended out.
"Nice to meet you, Hawkmoth Jr. I'm Ladybug. And yes, I might need a bit of help now that Cat's gone," the girl stuttered, trying to get herself together as she shook the opposite teen's hand.
"Now, let's get back to battle. I'll help you along, though I don't have powers like you or Cat Noir, so I can use this cane…" A cane appeared in his hand, "and I can use my powers to teleport."
"Good," Ladybug nodded, her tears finally dried. "Let's get back to battle."
Hawkmoth Jr. grabbed her wrist, and they appeared on the ground in front of the chorus of hypnotized civilians. Melodiva noticed Ladybug, so she ordered her supporters to attack her. The akuma slowly flew down at them, and began shooting lasers, which they easily dodged.
"Do you know where the akuma is located?" Ladybug asked her "new" partner.
"I think it's in her necklace," Hawkmoth Jr. replied, pointing at the quarter note necklace she wore.
"Good thinking," Ladybug complimented. "Lucky Charm!" she cheered. A spray bottle with a fan fell down into her hands, "What do I do with this?" she thought, her mind still quite overwhelmed from the earlier events of the battle.
"Thrown it over here!" the fancily dressed boy called. She threw the spray bottle over just as Melodiva approached them.
"Come here, Ladybug, I will catch you soon. What happened to Cat Noir will also be your doom," she sang.
The akuma landed on the ground, and Hawkmoth Jr. ran at her, though she didn't notice.
"Over here!" he called. She looked over, and he began spraying and blowing her in the face.
"No! My makeup!" she cried, covering her face as Hawkmoth Jr. tore the necklace off her. He clasped two hands around it, and as he opened them back up, the akuma flew out.
Ladybug didn't stay stunned for too long, as she spun her yo-yo, cheering, "Time to deevilize!" The akuma was swept out of the air, as she cheered, "Gotcha!" Within seconds, she released the akuma happily saying, "Bye-bye little butterfly!"
As the butterfly flew away, a teenage girl was shaking her head to get out of a daze, and then she saw Ladybug.
"Ladybug, what happened? Where's Cat Noir?" she questioned.
"Everything's better, other than that." She paused before continuing. "Cat Noir's gone. He was taken by Hawkmoth," she sighed sadly.
A mob of journalists and reporters began to surround Ladybug, asking her about Cat Noir and the mysterious Hawkmoth-like boy. She looked around for Hawkmoth Jr. so she could answer questions better, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"Well, Cat Noir's now gone," she sighed. "So, it's up to me to protect Paris now, but who knows maybe that boy may help me like he did today," she explained as her Miraculous began to beep.
Ladybug swung away, into the alley that she and Hawkmoth Jr. introduced themselves. Her transformation wore off, and Tikki flew out of her earrings, exhausted.
"Here, Tikki," Marinette said as she handed Tikki a cookie from her bag. She sat down, and leaned against the wall as the kwami ate. "Hey, Tikki, what do you think of Hawkmoth Jr.?" the girl asked.
"Hmm," the lucky spirit thought as she chewed. She swallowed, and then replied, "I think it was quite nice of him to save you there."
"But should I trust him? Is he even a Miraculous holder?" the designer worried.
"I don't think you should worry about that right now," Tikki suggested. "He saved you, and even if he doesn't have a real Miraculous."
"What do you mean by a not a 'real' Miraculous," the teen worried.
"When the ancients began making Miraculouses, they weren't always successful, especially with the moth Miraculous, so the brooch that Hawkmoth Jr. wears may be an incomplete one with most of the powers of Hawkmoth, but not all of them," the kwami fluently lied.
"That's cool," Marinette smiled in amazement. "So, I should trust him?"
Tikki nodded, hiding her nervousness.
"Good," Marinette smiled as she got up and headed back home.
When she got home, she was welcomed with cheers from her parents.
"Ah!" she screamed from being startled. She looked at her parents' excited faces and asked, "What happened?" They handed her a paper which read:
"Hello, Marinette. This is a letter informing you that I, Gabriel Agreste have accepted you to be my intern. I was very impressed with your portfolio, as well as your dedication to your work. I would like you to meet Adrien after school, so my limo driver can drop you off at my office building where I will give you a tour. I am looking forward to teaching, and working with you.
-Gabriel Agreste"
"Oh my goodness!" Marinette gasped. "I got accepted!"
She ran over and hugged her parents before running upstairs and diving onto her bed.
"Good job, Marinette!" Tikki exclaimed, popping out of the purse.
"I can't believe it!" the girl cheered. "And it also means that I get to spend more time with Adrien!"
Just as the teenager was going to daydream about spending time with Adrien, her phone rang. She ran over as saw that Alya was facetiming her, so she answered.
"Marinette, did you see that battle today?" Alya spoke with urgency.
"Well, I only saw bits of it…"
"Did you hear? Cat Noir was taken by Hawkmoth," she informed her friend sadly
"Yeah," Marinette sighed, trying to hide her guilt.
"Did you also see the new guy that helped Ladybug? He looked just like Hawkmoth," journalist exclaimed, showing Marinette of a zoomed in picture of him.
"Yeah, I also saw that," the designer answered while looking at the picture.
"Do you think he's an evil akuma or something?" Alya wondered.
"I don't think so," Marinette replied. "I heard of some 'fake' Miraculouses that were prototypes of the real deal, so I think he may have one."
"Huh? Who did you hear that from?" the girl asked.
"Uh! Some person online. They were anonymous!" Marinette lied.
"Huh," Alya replied skeptically. "Don't always trust anonymous sources, Marinette. You should only believe in reliable source."
"Like you," Marinette teased.
Alya was about to comment back, but Marinette's parents called up to her to tell her dinner was ready.
"Sorry Alya, I have to go, see ya" she shrugged.
"See you, Marinette,"
The hero hung up, and went downstairs to dinner.
After dinner, Marinette realized she couldn't do homework since her bag was left at school, so instead she went up onto her roof, looking out over Paris. She thought about not doing patrol tonight, seeing that Cat was gone, but she couldn't leave Paris defenseless after having two akumas two days in a row so she let Tikki out of her bag, and unenthusiastically said, "Spots on."
The remaining hero lazily swung across Paris over to the Eiffel Tower. She landed on a lower level than usual, but Paris was below her all the same. With a sigh, she sat down, looking over Paris and wondering what really happened to her partner. Was his civilian self looking up at her longingly? Or was he imprisoned in some warehouse on the edge of the city? All the same, Ladybug sat there in the city of love alone, with no one to speak to.
"Getting a bit lonely up here?" a voice which sounded quite similar to Cat's spoke from behind her. She whipped around in surprise, and saw Hawkmoth Jr. standing behind her with a small smile.
"Hello there," she greeted nervously. "What brings you here?"
"You looked lonely. I couldn't let a hero who had such a loss today spend her night in her lonesome," he answered, sitting down next to her. "I'm quite sorry for your loss. If you ever need, I can be here for you, seeing that Cat can't."
"Thank you for the offer," she smiled back weakly.
"It looks like you really cared for him," the boy next to her pointed out, scooting slightly over.
"Well, I guess I cared for him, but not in way that he wished for me to…"
"How did he wish you cared for him?" the neat blonde teen asked.
"He had quite the crush on me, but I just couldn't love him back. There's a boy at my school who I really like named Adrien, and I'd feel so guilty to be in a relationship while I like someone else," the black-haired girl explained.
The boy seemed to be surprised, but the expression softened into a smile. "That's sweet," he commented. "Have you told this boy you like that you like him?"
"No," the bug sighed. "I can't even seem to talk to him, since every time I try, I always mess it up, or can't even talk."
Hawkmoth Jr. paused for a moment. "Did you ever tell Cat Noir about this issue?" he questioned carefully.
"No. We kept a tight policy on not revealing information from our civilian lives," she informed him.
"And what about that policy now?" the teen in the tux asked.
"What do you mean?" the teen in the tight suit asked back.
"I mean, you are telling me quite a lot of information about your civilian life, but why?"
She paused and thought for a moment. "Well, I guess it's because Cat had a crush on me, and, I couldn't bear breaking his heart." Her eyes started welling up in tears.
Behind the mask, Adrien was so saddened. His lady really did care for him, and he could barely bear seeing her so down. He scooted slightly closer once more, and slowly began to give her a hug, just in case she would reject, but she surprisingly didn't. He hung his head over her shoulder as she cried into his jacket.
They stayed in that position for a few minutes before Ladybug calmed down, and pulled away, looking up at the 'new' hero. Hawkmoth Jr. carefully moved his hand to her cheek to wipe away her tears. Ladybug suddenly felt something warm inside, and a blush came to her face.
"Well, I think I should go," the spotted hero said. "It's quite late."
"Good-bye then," Hawkmoth Jr. smile, wishing to kiss her hand, but resisted, since he couldn't reveal himself to Ladybug in anyway after how many times she's rejected him.
Ladybug got up, and then swung away across Paris. She landed back at her house, and said, "Spots off," as she noticed her blush.
"Well, that was a nice evening," Tikki grinned at her Miraculous holder as they climbed down the stairs. "It looks like someone has found another boy of interest."
Marinette blushed harder, but then shook her head. "No. I like Adrien," she said.
"Do you?" the kwami accused slightly.
"Of course, I've loved him since the first day of school, and since I got this Miraculous," Marinette claimed.
"Are you trying to convince me, or are you trying to convince yourself, Marinette?" Tikki chuckled.
The girl blushed even more, but just climbed into and covered her face with a pillow.
A/N: So, I've finally added some love square in, though this situation makes it just a bit more complicated. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you have any questions or comments, I'd be glad to take them.