A small light from the hallway turned on. Ladybug froze, but when she heard the sound of tired, heavy footsteps move closer to the living room, she ducked behind the sofa, praying that Chat wouldn't knock on the front door or something stupid like that.

The smell hit her before she saw him.

One time, when Marinette was small, she and her mother visited one of her great aunts in on the other side of the country. This aunt owned a pig farm. Marinette had been on normal farms before, and she knew they smelled weird. Living in the countryside allowed her to really connect with that part. But nothing could have prepared her for the smell of fifty pigs. She'd been taught manners, but that night, Marinette had cried over her potato soup, because though she held her perfumed shirt close to her nose, she couldn't get rid of the smell of literal shit pervading her senses.

This man smelled — and looked, Ladybug noticed as he turned on the light over his kitchen stove — like a pig.

She held back her gags as the large man, greasy and balding, took a slow, long drink of lukewarm water. Then, he refilled his cup with the lowest water pressure Ladybug had ever seen, but instead of taking another sip, the man dumped the water over his head, and suddenly slammed the cup down loudly.

Ladybug jumped. A clear glass cup Marinette hadn't seen, sitting on the edge of the couch, fell over from her bumping the side of the couch. It clattered loudly as it hit the coffee table and landed on the carpet floor.

The man whipped around, his smell evading Marinette's nose more intensely, as she slunk further behind the couch.

"Who's there?" the man shouted.

Marinette's heart pumped loudly in her chest. She felt her face go cold as the man slowly stomped towards where she made herself as small as possible. Just then, she realized she didn't have any weapons to fight. She looked around quickly. To her left, against the fireplace, was a fire poke.

Her eyes darted everywhere else, easily seeing thanks to the kitchen sink light. Other than the cup on the floor, just out of her vision, she saw a pillow across the other side of the small living room. She couldn't stab the man. She wouldn't. But he stepped closer, slow enough to give her one more second to think, one step away from a decision she'd never had to make before.

But who was this man? Whose house was she in? Did Chat Noir send her into a horrible home, as the clockmaker? Obviously, he somehow had a connection to the Akumas, and she was there, stuck behind his couch, barely out of vision. The smell penetrated her nose, stronger, and stronger, and she couldn't bear it any longer. She reached for the pillow, ready to cover her face.

But her hand was suddenly covering the hilt of the fire poker, and she was suddenly standing in front of the clockwork maker, holding the poker like a sword towards him. She glanced down at her fingertips, scratched from hanging on the brick wall, as they shook under the iron.

She didn't know how to use this. She couldn't. But maybe, for a moment, she could buy enough time for answers.

The man froze in his place. His eyes were wide, shadowed against the light behind him, and his horrifyingly gloomy, wrinkled mouth frowned deeply. His breathing was haggard, and his lips popped open as his bare arms lifting up slowly, the smell of onions now accompanying the smell of pigs.

Ladybug breathed through her mouth.

"What do you want from me?" the man asked, shaking deeply. "What are you-"

Just then, the front door knocked.

"Monsieur Allard, it's me, Chat Noir. Let me in!" Chat's voice sounded stressed on the other side.

Monsieur Allard stared at Ladybug. She glared in warning, but inwardly, she felt like she could breathe, though not with her nose. He continued staring, but when he glanced at the poker, Ladybug realized he was waiting for her permission to move. She nodded, but when he immediately let out a heavy, relieved sigh, and walked towards the door, back towards her and arms still held in the air, something icky stirred in her heart.

It came from within her.

"Mon kitty," the man said when the door swung open, Chat running in quickly and searching frantically around the room to see her. His eyes found hers in an instant, and the panic in them didn't help the ickiness.

"Come in," said the man in a drawl. "Come sit."

Chat glided over to Ladybug and put a hand slightly in front of her, turning immediately back towards Allard. Ladybug caught a whiff of him, and she'd never smelled anything so good in her life. The smell of soap mixed with sweat didn't last long enough, though.

"You first," he said.

Allard heaved a heavy sigh and thundered his way towards the couch, briefly stopping against the wall before continuing to the couch. He sat down with a plump, and a gust of wind blew Ladybug back.

"It is not a good time right now. I have friends coming over soon."

"I'm sure your friends can wait," said Ladybug immediately. "First, we have some questions for you."

"Questions?" asked the man in a thick accent from somewhere Ladybug couldn't put her finger on. "What kinds of questions?"

"Do you know who the Akumas are?" she asked.

The man gestured to the kitchen chairs. Ladybug glared in response, but Chat Noir grabbed two chairs and set them out across from the couch. After a few seconds of silence as the two waited for her to sit down, Ladybug slowly, begrudgingly, planted her butt on the edge of the hard wood seat. But when she did, the man replied.

"Everyone knows who the Akumas are, dear."

"Don't call her dear," Chat said at the same time that Ladybug replied, "Who are the Akumas to you?"

"They are people who have brought up some news reports, no?" he said nonchalantly. Then, he turned to Chat. "Who are the Akumas to you?"

Chat glared and leaned forwards menacingly. "They are evil."

"Why do you believe that?"

Ladybug replied. "They've hurt people. They continue to hurt people. They've threatened the king."

"You do not know their intentions"

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters," he said.

"I disagree," said Ladybug, her shoulders tensing with every second. "It doesn't matter what their intentions are. They continue to hurt people. There's never a good excuse to hurt people."

"Ah, yes," said Allard pensively. Then he glanced compassionately at the poker that was still in her hand, but the other end resting against the floor. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Ladybug succeeded in not flinching back. Luckily, Chat responded before she had to.

"Well, then," he said, leaning back. "What are the Akumas' intentions?"

The man's head lolled to the side, as if listening for something. Then he hummed a little. Ladybug wanted to throttle him for some reason. But because of that, she dropped the poker. Chat picked it up as they waited.

"I think that Akumas are just like little butterflies," Allard finally said. "Maybe they are in their little cocoons, ready to grow. But they've been stuck in the cocoons for a little too long, or maybe their caterpillars are too tiny because they were never given enough. And when they become little butterflies, they can fly. But with everything the learned as larvae, caterpillars, in their cocoons, they won't fly to kiss anyone. They'll fly to kill."

"What do you mean?" Ladybug asked sharply. "Is that a threat?"

Allard ignored her as he stared at Chat Noir. "Mon Kitty, come visit me again. If you don't leave now, you can never come back."

Suddenly, Chat's hair seemed to stand on end. His angry expression slowly morphed into fear. His hand reached out and grabbed her wrist, and pulled her up, saying, "My Lady, we have to leave," as he headed towards the front door.

"Wait, what?" She pushed against his pull, and firmly planted her feet. "We don't have any answers from him yet."

Chat growled as he pulled harder, moving her half an inch. "Stop, let's go."

"Monsieur, what does this watch-"

"Ladybug, please!" Chat insisted.

She ignored him as she turned back towards the man who sat low on the couch, her arm still firmly grasped in Chat's surprisingly soft hand. "What does this have to do with the Akumas?"

The man sat up more, slightly less hunched than he'd been seconds before. "The Akumas?" Then he chuckled, as if he genuinely found it funny. "Sweetheart, everyone needs a watch. Helps keep an eye out."

"What do you-"

"LADYBUG!" she jumped at Chat's intense voice and swiveled back towards him. "We need to leave NOW!"

Just then, Ladybug heard it. The sound of men's voices as they came up the street, chanting in a low tone. The sound filled her back with ice, and her muscles tightened instantly. There had to be at least 15 voices, maybe 20. She couldn't fight against all those men if she came into contact with them. So she chose to follow Chat as they silently ran out the apartment door and down the hall.

Just as they were leaving, the man's voice echoed behind them down the hall. "Mon Kitty."

Ladybug let out a tiny gag as they breathed in fresh air for the first time in a million years. They ran away from the sounds of chanting men, until they were far enough they felt safe to stop, and they fell into a dark alleyway, breathing heavily.

"What are we going to do next?" Ladybug said after she could talk without the stitch in her side. "It's clear he has more information, but he wouldn't talk... Wait, you knew him. How do you know him?"

Chat sat, unmoving, against the wall, his head leaning back against the stone wall. Ladybug was about to ask if he was alive, but then his head dropped forward, and it shook back and forth.

"We'll get it," he said. "We'll connect the dots. We're just missing a lot of pieces."

"Do you really think we can make a difference?" Ladybug asked, voicing her insecurities.

Chat's eyes popped up immediately. She couldn't see them clearly, but she could feel their intensity. "Absolutely." His voice was firm. "You've been here only a few nights, but I've been out for months. I know that they are just people. Evil people, but people. And that means that they can be stopped."

"What if we can't stop them?"

"Then we make a difference within ourselves, and we help those around us."

Ladybug stayed silent, and she looked up in between the alleyway at the tiny square of night sky above her, the sky too cloudy to see the stars. She felt bad. She had a lot of power as a princess, but actually no power, since every moment of her life was filled with what other people expected from her. She wanted to help other people. She wanted to make a difference. But she couldn't.

And tonight, for the first time since becoming a princess, she saw the first instance of real power she held over someone. And it wasn't from love, or gratitude, or her helping them. She'd held a fire poker against a man, a man who she knew nothing about, didn't even know if he was innocent or guilty. And she held power over him.

And she didn't like it.

"Hey." Chat's voice was much softer when he spoke.

Ladybug closed her eyes.

He continued. "I don't know you under that mask, obviously. I don't know if I ever would, since you live under a rock, and I like to get stuck in trees..." he chuckled to himself but sobered up just as quickly. "But I can tell you do a lot for those around you. And you help more people than you think... If doing this tonight was too much, I will never blame you for not coming back. This is a whole other level, and it's scary... I'm scared too... But if you want to know the truth... it was a lot less scary next to you. Thank you for being there. Even if you never come back, I know I'm braver because of you..."

Ladybug stayed silent in response, but she bowed her head. Leaving was not something that she'd even thought about. She didn't have an issue with the fear of meeting an Akuma. She had an issue with becoming someone who reveled in power, or someone who made others scared of her. She wasn't going to leave.

But this man...

Well, let's just say, Ladybug was grateful for the darkness because her cheeks were, without a doubt, the same color as her future hero get-up.

Ladybug tucked a piece of hair behind her hair and peeked up at him. "You're a good partner. Thanks to you, we're here, we're safe. And we have something we can maybe work with, starting tomorrow. So, um, thank you."

Chat gave a bow of his head and stuck out his hand to her. She looked at it confused, until he glanced to her hand with a little smirk. Then she blushed and gave it to him from across the alleyway.

With a gentle kiss on her hand, Chat Noir said, "Anything for you, my Lady."