A/N: Another original akuma! I admit, I have a hard time with fight scenes - so lucky you, you get to witness the kids outsmarting a forty-year-old grown man.

Three minutes - or the anxious equivalent to a bunch of teenagers, passed.

Finally, Adrien got up from his chair, and everyone turned. "I can't do this anymore," he decided, "I'm going to find her."

"Adrien," Felix began in a warning tone.

"No," he shot back, leaping over the table.

"Adrien!" Felix hurried from his seat and followed him to the door.

"Felix, Adrien, come back!" Alya exclaimed. "What the heck are you doing?!"

"I need to help Miss Bustier!" The younger of the two called back, throwing open the door and racing into the hall.

"Damn it all, wait!" Felix paused and looked back at the room. "Stay here."

As soon as he disappeared, door slamming shut behind him, Marinette let out a weary sigh.

"What the heck are they trying to do? Get hurt?" Nathanael snapped, his hands wringing together under the table.

The ladybug glanced at the window. She could feel something strange, akin to a tugging at her insides, and glancing down at her purse she could faintly see the concerned face of her Kwami peeking out from the dark.

Do something, she could hear her inner voice say.

Another deep breath.

She glanced at her best friend. "Alya," she began quietly, catching her attention, "I need you to do me a favor."

"What?" She questioned.

"I need you to look after the others." Slowly she raised from her seat.

"Uh-uh," Chloe huffed. "What do you think you're doing? Leading that freak right to us?"

"Marinette, what are you doing?!" Alix demanded.

"Are you nuts?" Kim added.

"Don't do this, please," Nathanael pleaded, giving her a wounded look.

"Please look after the others while I track down Felix and Adrien."

Alya's face quickly grew panicked, and she grabbed her wrist. "Wait, wait, no. No you don't."

"As the class representative it's my responsibility to follow Miss Bustier's orders," she announced, clenching a fist. "I'll look for our missing class and bring them back safely. Alya, while I'm gone, please keep everyone calm."

The bespectacled girl stumbled over her words, glancing around the room to several other nervous faces. Finally, she looked back to Marinette, and the quiet determination on her own made her close her mouth.

"... You'd better come back safely," she halfheartedly threatened.

That made her lips twitch into a sort of smile. "No promises."

She leapt into the aisle, raced out of the room, and once she was gone the room was quiet once more.

A boy clad in black crept along the shadows, eyes narrowed at the scene in the courtyard.

The akuma of the week looked like she'd gone into a tornado; her stark white hair was a swirling vortex with an afterimage of a pale green, and her outfit was a shimmering mess of mirrors imbedded in a black bodysuit.

The Cat kissed his teeth as he watched children rushing away screaming. Their hair was a mess, pimples were forming on their faces, their clothes were inside-out or subtly changed in some way.

"Where's Ladybug and Cat Noir?" She bellowed, looking angrily around. "If you give up your Miraculous now, I'll try to be nice - I won't make you look as bad as the others!"

A person touched down gently beside him, making him whirl around, hackles raised.

"Whoa there, Kitty, it's just me," Ladybug soothed, raising her hands deferentially. "What's the situation so far?"

"Mirror-themed akuma, I think," he whispered back, glancing at the akuma stomping around the courtyard. "I don't know her name, but apparently Vincent insulted her by saying she ruined the class picture."

Ladybug winced in sympathy. "Yikes."

"So now she's going around making everyone uglier. I have no idea where Vincent went, but he seems to have been the primary target unless she finds someone else." He paused for effect, gesturing to the both of them. "Like us."

"Have you seen two students that go here? Their names are Felix and Adrien. I- uh, I have a request from one of their classmates to find and return them to their classroom."

Cat Noir stiffened for all of half a second, before he hummed deep in his throat. "Can't say I have, but if we find them, I suppose we could bring them back."

Relief filled the heroine's face as he looked away.

"WHERE IS LADYBUG?!" The akuma hollered, stomping her foot and grabbing at the collar of a boy running past.

The boy let out a choked yelp as he was dragged back. His hands immediately went to the akuma's, his eyes clenched shut in fear.

"Tell me where Ladybug and Cat Noir are!" The mirror-akuma demanded, bringing him close.

"I- I don't know, okay? I don't know!" He exclaimed, trying to dig his nails into the girl's gloves. "Please- don't hurt me..."

Ladybug stiffened and her eyes widened. "That's... that's Peter..."

"Who?"

"One of the class representatives," she explained, earning herself an odd look. "I hear things, okay? Look, we have to help him out. I don't want him hurt."

"Aw, it's sweet that you care so much about the students," he cooed with a smirk. "Do you have any type of plan? A Lucky Charm, maybe?"

Narrowing her eyes, Ladybug thrusted her yo-yo into the air above her head. "Lucky Charm," she whispered, calling the powers of the Miraculous to the surface.

A flash filled the area - and for a moment, the Cat whipped around to stare at the akuma in worry - but around the same time there was another flash of light from the two, and Peter yelled in alarm.

As both lights faded, Ladybug caught a blanket out of the air and stared at it. "You're kidding me. A blanket? That's what's going to help defeat her?"

"I never would have guessed," came the Cat's voice, heavy with sarcasm.

"Oh, no, Peter," the heroine leaned in to witness the boy rushing away with his hands over his face. Already his perfectly-combed red hair seemed disheveled and his button-up was missing the top button, leaving an ugly gap with a loose thread that fluttered in the air in his attempts at getting away.

Out of the corner of their eye, both heroes spotted a familiar blond creeping his way along the back wall, semi-hidden by the shadows.

"Oh, it's-!" Ladybug started, then she frowned. "Wait, which one is that? Is that Felix or Adrien?"

"Huh." Cat Noir squinted. "Y'know what? I can't tell."

"Well, the other likely isn't far behind. Let's call that even." With a shrug and a sigh, she turned away as the boy slipped into the nurse's office.

"Alright. So we throw a blanket over her, find her item, break it, bada-bing bada-boom we're done, right?" Cat Noir leaned on his staff, raising a brow at the girl.

"We need to sneak up on her so she can't flash us with her mirror." Scanning the area, the girl hummed in thought. "If we could just get down to the first floor without being seen..."

"We need a distraction," he guessed.

"Yeah. Got one in mind?"

The smirk that crossed his face, devious and calculating, made her regret her question almost as much as his hand grasping hers and tugging her towards the nearest room did.

"Attention, students," a smooth voice came over the intercom, making the kids look up in confusion. "Don't be alarmed, the akuma has been dealt with and is harmless. As a reward for being so patient, we have free pastries from the Dupain-Cheng Boulangerie-Patisserie in the cafeteria. I repeat: we have free food. First come, first serve."

Silence.

Then, "FREE FOOD!"

A holler, nearly simultaneous, went up from multiple classrooms as teenage boys whooped and cheered.

The akuma startled at the sudden rumbling spreading across the building. "Wh- what the-?!"

Doors slammed open and a large crowd of students began pouring from all around the building, ignoring the akuma as they made their way to the cafeteria.

"HEY!" She shouted, stomping her foot. "Stop ignoring me! Where are you going?! Have any of you seen Ladybug and Cat Noir?"

"Here!"

A blanket was thrown over her shoulders, a bright black-spotted red blanket that made her stumble about with a shout.

"Her item is a mirror," Cat explained as he swept his hand under the blanket and returned it with a triumphant smile. "Right here!"

A simple compact mirror was in his hand, cute with a simple pink shell. In a flash he threw it to the ground, shattering it and causing a dark butterfly to come fluttering out of it.

"Gotcha! No more evil for you, little akuma. Miraculous Ladybug!"

A flash of purifying light (as well as a hundred magical ladybugs) fluttered around the school and reversed the damage done, and sitting on the ground was a girl with platinum hair and confused dark-brown eyes behind large round glasses. With the cloak gone, her outfit could be seen (and Cat only cringed a little): A pretty pink plaid button-up with a skirt of three tones of brown stripes.

"What...?" She murmured, blinking up at the heroes groggily. "Ladybug? Cat Noir? What was I...?"

"Are you okay, miss?" Ladybug stooped to help her up with a sympathetic frown. "You got a little upset after that photographer insulted you."

"I- oh," she realized with a shaky gasp. "That's right. It was retake day. It's retake day and I absolutely blew it!"

Cat Noir looked away as the girl burst into tears and hid her face into Ladybug's shoulder.

"I tried so hard to look nice for the photo," she blubbered in between hiccupping sobs. "I only have one nice shirt, and- and this is my only skirt I own! I didn't want to look like a freak!"

"You don't look like a freak," the heroine soothed, patting her back and handing her a tissue out of the yo-yo. "You have a few conflicting patterns in the blouse and skirt, but you did the best with what you had. You didn't ruin any photo."

"I- I'm sorry for causing trouble," she sniffled after blowing her nose. "I just... I felt so hopeless. Everyone always tells me I dress like I'm homeless... I just thought that today I could feel pretty..."

"You are pretty," Cat spoke up, and both girls looked up at him in surprise. There was a slight embarrassed tinge on his cheeks at the sudden attention, but he continued, "Look, I've met that guy before. He's a jerk. Did anyone else tell you that you looked ugly?"

"W- well, um, no..."

"It's just one person's opinion," he soothed. "Did you feel pretty in your outfit?"

"I mean..." she sniffled again, "... maybe."

"If you feel good, who gives a crap about what other people think of you?" He questioned. "You did what you could, and you did a fine job. At the end of the day your opinion is really the only one that matters on that front."

The blonde gave him a trembling smile, cheeks flushing pink. "Thank you... that's... that's really sweet."

Ladybug gave him an affirming smile and he looked away again.

"I... I feel really silly now," the girl gave a shaky little laugh. "Making such a fuss about something so small. I'm so sorry."

"You're allowed to feel bad. Don't let anyone tell you that your feelings don't matter." Ladybug patted her shoulder and handed her another tissue.

"Yeah, especially with that butterfly weirdo running around." With a scoff, Cat Noir tapped his staff against the ground. "You aren't making a fuss, you were unfairly insulted by an adult and reacted pretty understandably. It's not someone's job to be brutally honest; nine times out of ten they skip right over the honesty part and aim for brutal instead."

Nodding, the girl dabbed at her eyes with the tissue. "You're right. I should stand up for myself more..."

"What's your name?" Ladybug inquired softly.

"I'm... I'm Colette." Adjusting her glasses, she shuffled her feet. Her brown loafers scuffed quietly against the floor.

"Colette." The hero tried the name on her tongue and smiled. "I think I've seen you around. Your mom runs the thrift store up the road, right?"

"Yeah." She nodded with a smile that was more of a grimace.

"Tell you what, Colette," the cat spoke up, reaching behind himself and pulling out a small cake in a napkin (Ladybug sent him an incredulous look, one he ignored). "I have a friend, someone who's good with fashion. I could send her your way and she could help you whenever you aren't sure with your outfit. Would you like that?"

The blonde blinked, slowly taking the cake. "Really? You would... do that for me?"

"Any victim of Vincent's nonsense deserves something to cheer them up," he responded with a wink. "Besides, I'm sure she dislikes him as much as you do. Common enemy?"

She giggled, taking a tiny bite of the cake with a hum of delight. "I would like that. Thank you, Cat Noir."

"Damn it!" Hawkmoth roared as the transformation dropped, leaving him pacing about his sanctum in a huff. "Here I thought my akuma had been foolproof! How did they get the drop on me?"

Nooroo floated silently, watching their master with trepidation.

"Come," the man ordered, as he made his way out. "I can't waste any more time here."

As soon as Nooroo was back in the brooch and Gabriel Agreste was back in his atelier, Nathalie knocked on the door.

"Enter," he called tiredly as he sat back on his couch.

"Sir, an urgent message from your photography group," she explained, adjusting her glasses. "One of their photographers was traumatized by an akuma attack and is insisting on a week off to recuperate."

He rubbed his forehead irritably. Ah yes, he'd forgotten about Vincent. "What are the damages?"

"Besides emotional?" She snarked. "Well, the akuma sought him out and made his face look like a Picasso painting, for starters."

A thick blanket of silence spread over them as he ruminated on it.

"Well," he finally responded, "let him have his week off. What the hell, give him a bonus if he wants. The last thing I need is for my best photographer out of the picture and for me to have to find another one within twenty-four hours without a union."

"Hey," a voice began, making her turn.

"Hey," she answered, patting the spot beside her.

The cat hero took a seat on the rooftop, belt-tail swishing before wrapping around him.

"Y'know," he began, "I don't think you've ever asked to meet me before."

"I never felt a need to, I guess?" She shrugged. "I wasn't totally sure I could reach you before."

"What about with - oh, what's that one kid's name - Nate?"

"Nathanael?"

"Yeah, him."

Ladybug shook her head. "It was late enough for me - I was assuming it would've been for you too."

The blond let out a laugh. "I guess so. It was pretty late when I got home."

The two sat in silence, gazing at the Parisian skyline. The sun was just beginning to make its descent, painting the sky in hues of cerulean and a lighter twinge of yellow-white.

"So," he began, "what did you want to talk about?"

Ladybug hummed in thought. "Well, the akuma today. When you told me about your distraction, I didn't expect you to suggest pastries."

"C'mon, who doesn't like baked goods?" He joked.

"And the first place you wanted to go to is the Dupain-Cheng bakery," she added, narrowing her eyes at him. "You're gonna tell me it's because it was the closest bakery you knew of, right?"

"You know me so well, and it hasn't even been two months of working together."

With a huff of a laugh, she bumped his shoulder with her own. "You can let me know when you stop in, y'know? I like their food too."

"I've never seen you there," he countered.

"Not as Ladybug!" She insisted. "Perhaps we've crossed paths and never known, due to our civilian identities."

He stared at her for a moment, then shook his head with a smile. "Perhaps."

Belatedly, she realized she was still leaning against him, and she quickly straightened herself back up.

Sneaking a glance at his face, she was surprised to see him still scanning the rooftops and streets of the city, ears forward intuitively.

"Never off the job, even while relaxing, huh?" She mused.

She had to admit it was a little startling to drop in on her parents - as well as a lunch rush of customers openly gawking at them as she hurriedly ordered five boxes of assorted treats. It was even more startling when Cat casually pulled out a gift card and paid for the whole lot, cryptically musing that his parent wouldn't care.

And on that note...

"That 'friend' you talked about earlier," she began, watching him for a reaction. There was no reaction to spot. "You, uh, you know Marinette?"

"Who doesn't?" He answered.

"A lot of people don't." She tilted her head.

He shrugged. "I figured she could use someone who wants to help people, not just someone who does it for the notoriety."

Ladybug's cheeks flushed and she shyly looked at the roof tiles. "O- oh, really?"

"Yeah." He turned to face her. "What about you? Where do you know her from?"

"O- oh, well, you know." She waved off the question with a nervous laugh. "I visited the bakery while she was helping her parents. And I met her during the Evillustrator incident."

"I see." A mysterious smile spread across his face and he turned his attention back to the coloring sky. "She seems like a sweet girl."

Ladybug made a noncommittal noise and fiddled with her yo-yo, cheeks darkening further.

A/N: I had to drop some breadcrumbs in there :3 I love watching the Adrien VS Felix question on who Cat Noir is. All I'm gonna say on Team Miraculous is that I changed some heroes around because I wanted to find a more interesting combination for some of them. However, some of them will remain largely the same (mostly because finding French puns is a bit difficult when you don't speak the language =_=;

Let me know what you thought!