I'm gonna be honest... Idk how I feel about this... anyways, please tell me what you think and give constructive criticism! Otherwise, that's the end for this one, please go check out some of my other ml works. If you're all about angst, Put a Ring on It is your best bet probs. If you love yourself a daily (healthy) dose of Marichat, go with Standing on the Rooftops, it's a short oneshot. If you're a weeb, go for Maid For It. If you like a little bit of all of that and more, go for my longest on-going story: Charming Spell from the Miraculous Lovebug series (there will be more shorts for the series after I finish it, idk about another full novel, but for now Muffin Much is the only short) Thanks to anyone who read it all the way through! 3
Marinette hid inside of a bathroom stall. It was the end of the school day, and Adrien had already left.
She finally had them, but for some reason she'd waited all this time to put them on. She reached into her purse and pulled out her dark gray earrings, she carefully put both earrings on.
A red orb lit up in front of her. Marinette smiled, "You're back! I missed you so much, oh it was terrible… some akuma stole my earrings, I thought I'd never see you again!"
Tikki gave Marinette a funny look. "Marinette…? Are you feeling ok?"
"Well, of course not! How do you think I felt thinking I'd lost you?"
Tikki squinted, "Hmm… I guess."
"Anyway, just because I stole my earrings back doesn't mean the job is done. We still have an akuma to take care of! Spots on!"
Chat Noir stood at the edge of a rooftop, sweeping his eyes across Paris. "This is gonna be tough, how am I gonna do this?"
"Don't worry, Chat Noir, you aren't alone anymore. I got the earrings back, we're in this together."
Chat Noir turned around and saw Ladybug standing behind him. She strolled up to him, he noticed an extra swing in her hips.
Ladybug put her hands on Chat's shoulders. "Saving Paris is important, but to be honest, being with you again was my main motivation to get my miraculous back."
Ladybug let her hand slide down to Chat's chest, and around his waist. Chat blushed. She kissed his shoulder. He shook his head and pushed Ladybug away.
"If you're the real Ladybug, what did I offer you yesterday that you refused?"
Ladybug pursed her lips, "... a…. Kiss."
Chat Noir twirled his staff, "Wrong. I offered to stay the night at your place. And for the record, you're nothing like Ladybug."
Ladybug snarled and spun her yo-yo. Chat Noir immediately turned to escape. He wasn't going to fight anyone unless his real partner was there.
Marinette waited on her balcony again, as ordered by Adrien. He had told her to wait for him to come as Chat Noir, and they'd go patrol together. That way, as soon as he'd managed to retrieve the earrings, Ladybug would already be on the scene.
Just as promised, Chat Noir landed in front of her, breathless. "Sorry, I had to get the akuma off my tail- get it? Tai-"
"Yeah, I got it." Marinette rolled her eyes and wrapped her arms around Chat's shoulders.
Chat launched the two of them upwards with his staff, and took Marinette to a building rooftop nearby his last encounter with the akuma victim. He figured they couldn't have gone far.
Chat tugged on the loose strands of hair next to Marinette's cheeks. "Stay here and be ready for when I come with your earrings."
Chat backed off of the ledge, and landed perfectly on the ground. "Alright, come on out. Looks like I'm not the pussy around here."
Civilians around him snapped photos, and walked away confused as to who he was talking to. Chat Noir stood waiting, it was better to stay put, the akuma was bound to come to him sometime.
"Could I take a selfie with you?"
Chat turned and saw a girl with long hair, reaching upwards with her smartphone. "Sorry, I'm busy right now…"
"Aw, please? It'll be real quick, but could you take the picture? Since you're a little taller than me?" The girl started to put her smartphone into Chat's right hand.
"Oh, alright, as long as it's quick…" Chat wrapped his hand around the phone, but the girl didn't let go, "Hey, could you-"
The phone appeared to melt into Chat's hand, he felt a tug on his ring. "Hey!" Chat balled his hand into a fist, it would be harder to remove the ring that way.
Chat grabbed his staff with his left hand, and felt extremely wrong when he gave the girl the best whack he could against the head. A woman nearby screamed, some people began to film.
The girl fell on the ground, freeing Chat Noir's hand. Chat waved his hands desperately, "Wait, no! You don't understand, it's not what it looks like! Didn't you see her hand? She's a shapeshifter!"
Groans and shouts of doubt from witnesses made Chat realize why the akuma had made it so easy to escape from the strangely mutated grasp. If anyone had seen how deformed her hand was, they would have believed him.
Then it occurred to him. He reached down to the little girl playing possum, and brushed her hair aside to reveal the unmistakable earring. When he attempted to remove them, the girl screeched, there was only one way to get out of Chat's reach. Her face and body twisted and stretched in inhuman ways, the people around them were now screaming for different reasons. They ran in different directions, as far from that strange creature as possible. A dark, slenderman-type body, breathed heavily above Chat. It lifted a slimy arm and drove it into Chat's stomach, thrusting him 50 feet away.
Chat fell and tumbled another few feet from the momentum. He wiped his mouth from the small pebbles that had rubbed into his skin, and got up slowly. He turned around to face the akuma again, but it was gone.
Marinette came from around a corner and ran up to Chat Noir. "Are you alright?! I saw where that thing went, come with me!" She reached out her hand to guide him.
Chat Noir started to put his hand in hers, when he noticed something. Marinette, had the earrings on. Chat reached for his staff, he hesitated, he shut his eyes tightly before swinging at Marinette.
She jumped out of the way. "Chat! What are you doing?!"
Chat raised an eyebrow, "Where'd you get those nice earrings, Princess?"
Marinette touched her ear and winced, "Dammit."
Chat smirked, it was just as he'd theorized. No matter the extent the akuma could shapeshift, if they had the earrings on, they couldn't change that one detail.
A staff grew from Marinette's palm. "Now it's my turn."
A few inexperienced swings later, Marinette finally decided she wasn't any match for Chat's field of expertise.
Marinette's hands raised and formed a black sealed cover on Chat's head, lifting him above the ground. "Even a cat with nine lives has to breathe at some point."
Chat struggled for a few seconds then extended his staff in front of him, throwing Marinette off her feet, and releasing him. Chat knelt on the ground and gasped for air.
"Adrien…" A soothing voice murmured in front of him.
Chat looked up, and saw his mother. His breaths were shaky. He whimpered, scooting back clumsily.
"What's wrong? You look pale!" Adrien's mother stepped closer.
Chat swiped his hand in front of him. "No! Stop it! You don't know a thing about her. That's not her voice!"
His mother crouched in front of him. "What are you talking about?" She cooed, "Do you need a hug?"
Tears formed at the edges of Chat's eyes. "Go away…" he croaked. Mrs. Agreste took hold of Chat Noir's hand.
Marinette appeared behind Mrs. Agreste, sneaking up to her with a purse that appeared weighted. Marinette swung her purse to the back of Mrs. Agreste's head. It was utterly terrifying for Chat to see his mother get bashed against her head, then watch her scream in pain when two earrings are ripped from her ears. But it was a relief to see Ladybug, the real one, standing in front of him and reaching out to help him up.
Mrs. Agreste quickly transformed back to the terrifying black figure, the torn ears melted away. They took one look at Ladybug and Chat Noir, and fled.
Before chasing after the akuma, Chat turned to Ladybug. "I'm sorry… I messed up. Looks like you were the one who saved the day after all."
"What are you saying? I need you more than anything. You were definitely the hero here, you don't give yourself enough credit. Me, it was a lucky shot, honest."
Ladybug's kind smile convinced him.
Ladybug spun her yo-yo, "Now let's go kick some slimy butt."
"Lucky charm!" Ladybug threw her hand into the air and caught a jug of water.
The akuma, who'd declared themselves as Nobody, cackled. "What are you gonna do with that? Quench my thirst?!"
Ladybug unscrewed the cap of the jug. "You know, you're a lot like this water, Nobody."
Nobody tilted their head, "huh?"
"You're transparent and runny."
Nobody looked down at their strangely formed, black body. "I'm not transparent at all. But people do choose not to notice me… they don't want me to exist. But they'll try and stop me when I try to live a normal life. They only acknowledge me if it's to hate me."
Ladybug closed her eyes briefly, "That's how you feel. But what I also meant was, you're much like water, which is colorless, because you're easily colored. Easily changed."
Nobody growled, "Y-you know nothing about me!"
"I don't. But obviously, you're easily influenced. Look at you, feeling useless because of everyone else. It's easy to knock someone down when they don't fight back. Mix dirt into water, the dirt doesn't become clean, but the water becomes dirty. The trick isn't to ignore them, that won't work, you have to let them have it. Water might be easily affected, but you know what?" Ladybug adjusted the jug so that her hand was on the bottom and the other hand was supporting the side, "Water can influence other things too, especially things with a weak foundation."
Ladybug splashed Nobody with the water inside the jug. Nobody screamed. Their form collapsed, and from inside them, a small pill bottle fell to the concrete. The white pill bottle was labeled, Space Trips, a small font on the bottom spelled lysergic acid diethylamide. Ladybug opened the bottle and spilled the content in front of her, smashing it all to pieces with her foot.
The familiar purple-black butterfly flew out, Ladybug quickly captured it, purified it, and set it free.
She threw the empty jug of water into the sky, and a blanket of pink glitter cleaned and repaired Paris.
The repaired bottle of pills started to roll away, Ladybug picked it up.
"No, please." A soft voice pleaded.
Ladybug looked over at the plump, short-haired girl on the ground. "You don't need these… what you need to do is be sure of yourself, embrace who you are. That's the only way you can be stronger than anyone else. Strong enough to defeat hatred."
"How can I embrace myself when nobody loves me?"
"Do you love you?"
The girl sat silently on the ground. Ladybug crouched down and hugged her.
She whispered, "If you don't, then you won't have the eyes to find someone who does. But for now, I can."
Chat Noir sat with Ladybug on her roof. "You handled that really well."
Ladybug sighed, "I just thought she needed a friend."
Chat smiled, then furrowed his eyebrows, "Nevertheless, I'm sorry that kiss was forced on you like that. Was… it your first?"
"Not exactly… and don't worry, I'm ok."
"Wait, then what was your first kiss? With who?"
"Maybe I'll tell you some other time…"
Chat grumbled, "Fine. Anyway, I gotta go…" He stood up to leave.
Ladybug shot up, "Oh wait!"
Chat stopped, and looked at Ladybug.
Ladybug blinked shyly. "Maybe… you can make up for the fake kiss?"
Chat smirked, "I'm not one to disappoint."
He held her gently, and planted the softest, most genuine kiss, Ladybug could ask for.