"Ugh!?"

Tikki looked up at Marinette. "What is it?" she asked.

"Look at this!" Marinette exclaimed pointing to her phone, which displayed a Facebook feed.

Tikki floated up to Marinette's shoulder and read aloud from the status update Chloe had just posted: "just had like another adventure with my besties ladybug and chat noir. they say that like villains keep targeting me specifically and like i can only assume that means im like super valuable to the good guys. im like so grateful that ladybug and chat noir are such dedicated guardians to paris and like more importantly me."

Tikki paused for a long moment. She could feel Marinette seething beside her. Tikki had always known that Chloe rubbed Marinette the wrong way, but this felt different. Marinette had just returned from a long evening of saving Chloe from her own stupidity (as Ladybug, of course). Now Marinette was in trouble with her parents for breaking curfew again and still hadn't done any of her backlog of homework.

"Don't let her get to you, Marinette," Tikki said at length. "You know the truth. Why should it matter what she thinks? Let's go to bed - it's been a long night."

"Fine," said Marinette, stalking towards her bed and flopping down face first. She muffled a yell of anger in her pillow then rolled over to sleep.

Tikki awoke suddenly. It was well past midnight and Marinette was standing by the window, looking at her phone and mumbling angrily. Tikki rubbed her eyes and started to drift upwards, intending to coax Marinette back to bed, but stopped cold when she heard Marinette's next words.

"Yes, Hawk Moth."

"Whoa, whoa, slow down," said Plagg. "Ladybug has been Akumatized?"

"Yes," wailed Tikki. "And it's all my fault! I know her - I should have seen this coming."

Plagg put down his block of camembert and rested a gentle forelimb on Tikki's shoulder.

"It's not your fault," he said, sadly. "True, we could have been more careful, but now we need to focus on getting her back. I'll wake Adrian."

"What's Adrian got to do with anything?" Tikki asked, wiping her eyes on the folded shirts they had been perched atop.

"He's Chat Noir," said Plagg, flying to the boy sprawled unconscious across a king sized bed.

Tikki's mouth dropped open slightly.

Adrian woke up the same way he always did: to Plagg using his face as a trampoline.

Adrian swatted Plagg away and sat up. It was dark. He look at his clock: three o' two AM.

"Plagg! It's the middle of the night! What did you wake me up for?"

"Emergencies have no obligation to wait for your beauty sleep to finish."

"But I just got back from an emergency, what-"

It was then that Adrian noticed the small red creature, wiping its eyes on his father's newest fashion prototype. He jumped out of bed and raced towards it, intent on saving the shirt.

"Hold on," said Plagg dragging Adrian back by his ear. "She's a friend of mine: Adrian this is Tikki - Tikki, Adrian."

"But the shir- Plagg! You put camembert on it? Father will kill me."

Tikki rose from the shirt. "Chat Noir, we don't have time," she said in anguish.

Adrian looked closer at Tikki. She looked similar to Plagg, only red with black spots. Adrian's eyes widened.

"You're Ladybug's kwami."

"Yes," said Tikki, "and I wouldn't have come to Plagg unless I was completely out of options-"

"Hey," Plagg interjected. "What are you implying about my capabilities?"

"But I am out of options," Tikki plowed on, ignoring Plagg. "And Ladybug herself is at stake."

Adrian backed into his desk chair. "What's happened?"

"There's been another akumatization," explained Plagg.

"But Ladybug's handled plenty of akumatized villains before," protested Adrian. "What's so bad about this one?"

Tikki began to sob. "This one is Ladybug," she wailed.

Adrian was in shock. The Miraculous Ladybug - the great love of his life - had been akumatized. But he knew he didn't have time to dwell on it. "Plagg," he said. "Claws out."

Tikki watched Adrian transform into Chat Noir. He seemed to do his transformation dance more out of habit than anything else. Plagg seemed to be running the transformation on autopilot too, and Tikki reflected for a moment that the dance and lights routine looked a little stupid when Plagg forgot the music.

Chat Noir dropped down from the roof onto Chloe's balcony. One of the windows was open; he slipped through it and crept into the room.

The Revealer was already standing over the bed. Chloe was still still asleep, her face covered in cosmetic green goop.

It broke Tikki's heart, as she peered out from behind the curtains, to see the Revealer again. She was in a villian costume, like everyone else who got akumatized - but those blue eyes, those little black pigtails….

The villain who had once been Ladybug - who had once been sweet Marinette - waved her hand over Chloe's face and the goop on it turned the colour of tar. The Revealer waved her hand once more, this time over an outfit set out for the next day. They glowed dark purple for a moment and in that light she saw the silhouette of Chat Noir.

The pair's eyes met for a moment that seemed to stretch into hours, each consumed in their own thoughts.

It was the Revealer who broke the silence. "Of course," she scoffed. "Back again to save little miss perfect. I'd have thought by now you'd have realized what she's really like. Why do you even bother anymore?"

Chat Noir actually gave the question some thought. Chloe had once been his only facsimile of a friend. Even though he now had other friends and could see that Chloe cared about him only for his father's fortune, he had never doubted that protecting Chloe was the right thing to do.

"I don't know," he said at last. "Maybe I just don't see how her being cruel gives anyone else the right to be cruel. Maybe I'm hoping she'll learn. And maybe that's naive, but I don't think it's my business to decide who gets saved and who doesn't."

"But don't you see?" hissed the Revealer. "Out of all the akumatized villains over the last year, how many of them became villains to get revenge on Chloe? And how many other people did all those villains harm on their path to her? It isn't a matter of who anymore. It's a matter of how many. Without Chloe the number of people akumatized will decrease drastically. Maybe Paris can finally have a little peace again."

As she spoke, the Revealer had paced over to Chat Noir and now she swung herself onto the window and said, "but what does it matter anymore? It's not like you can stop me without Ladybug anyway." And with that, she was gone.

"She's right," Chat Noir said, leaning on the balcony railing. Chloe was still sleeping inside, and Tikki was sitting on the railing next to him, staring out at the Paris skyline. "I can't get rid of the akuma without Ladybug."

Chat Noir looked at Tikki. "What?"

"Well," said Tikki, "maybe there is a way, but it would be dangerous."

Chat Noir looked at her expectantly.

"It is possible that I could create the magic yo-yo without Ladybug. But it would be extremely draining for me, and you would only have it for a short time."

"Worth a try, I suppose," said Chat Noir, "but we'll have to wait for her to show up again first."

"Yes," said Tikki, "I expect she'll come back to Chloe soon enough."

"Great," Chat Noir sighed. "Another mission babysitting Chloe. Exactly what Ladybug got akumatized to stop."

"Don't think of it like that," said Tikki, "Maybe afterwards you can talk to Chloe, but Ladybug as herself wouldn't really want to harm anyone innocent."

"I'm beginning to wonder how innocent Chloe is."

Chat Noir was watching the sun rise on Paris and thinking. Ladybug had not wanted to be akumatized any more than his other friends. He had to stop thinking of the Revealer as Ladybug. Sure, the Revealer was pushing the same point that Ladybug had so often glowered over, but the Revealer was controlled by Hawk Moth. She needed to be stopped.

Moreover Chat Noir had personal reasons for getting Ladybug back: Chat Noir would trust Ladybug with his life - she was his friend, his ally, the only person he knew who took him completely on his own terms … his crush.

And Chloe…. Oh, Chloe. How had she ended up like this? It had been so different when they were little. Her father had always spoiled her, but it wasn't until they were about eleven she started to act like this. Maybe it was a phase? Yeah right - a five year long phase. This most likely wouldn't end soon.

Still, Chat Noir knew Chloe didn't deserve all of this herself. She got away with all the things she did partly because people let her. People including him. For the last year he had told himself that he was a superhero and being Chat Noir didn't give him the right to tell people what to do - only keep them safe. But he was also Adrian, a teenage boy, and surely that meant he still had the right to be honest when he felt someone he cared about was making a mistake.

Chat Noir's ruminations were cut short by a shriek from inside. He crept to Chloe's window and peered inside. Chloe had just washed off her face mask to reveal her formerly flawless skin now covered in acne.

Chloe ran to her dresser for makeup, but none of it would stay on. Chat Noir watched as everything else in Chloe's morning routine went horribly wrong - her hair wouldn't stop frizzing, all her right shoes had been replaced with left ones, her clothes were all now knock off brands, most of them sporting Mickey Mouse logos, all her hair ties had snapped, and there was an ugly hole in her designer purse.

When she finally stumbled outside ten minutes late to find that her limo had a flat tire and her driver was ill, she seemed about ready to explode, but as some upperclass pedestrians strolled past, she took a deep breath, tucked her hair behind her ears and began to walk with a forced calm to school, not even pausing when one of her stiletto heels snapped.

Chat Noir strolled calmly into the rioting classroom precisely ninety seconds after Chloe.

The class was an interesting sight, and one quite different than he was used to walking in on as Adrian. Mylène was standing on a table yelling to an angry crowd, Sabrina was dancing around nervously in a corner. Alya and Nino were guffawing into their sleeves. Chloe was backed against the wall with Rose standing semi-protectively in front of her, Juleka was sitting under a desk and muttering forlornly.

Everyone froze when they saw Chat Noir leaning casually on the door frame.

"Oh, Chat Noir," Chloe wailed, rushing to him and flinging her arms around his neck. "Thank goodness you're here! I've been put under a simply horrible curse! You've got to get rid of it!" She paused glancing up at Chat Noir to gauge his reaction, then adding a "WHAAA!" for emphasis.

Chat Noir gingerly put his hands on Chloe's shoulders and removed her disheveled self from his person. "Yeah," he said awkwardly. "That is, in fact, why I'm here. I expect the Revealer will be here shortly to admire her handiwork, and I'd like to be here when she does."

"The Revealer?" asked Alya, her phone out recording everything. "Chat Noir, what can you tell us about this new villain? Why is she targeting Chloe? Come to think of it - why do so many villains target Chloe? Will Ladybug be joining you on this latest escapade to save the city? Do you have any ideas about who the real Ladybug is?"

Chat Noir stared at her blankly. For some reason he had assumed that when he defeated the Revealer she would change directly back into Ladybug. It had not before occurred to him that she would turn back into her real self. He was suddenly anxious. Their real identities had always been off-limits to everyone, including each other.

Then he realized that Alya was still holding her phone in his face expectantly, recording his baffled silence for all the world to see. "Uh, um, well," he stuttered, trying to regain his usual Chat Noir swagger. He cleared his throat, "A-hem, well I can't say much yet without giving the game away, obviously. But, no, Ladybug won't here for this one - not openly anyway, she's, uh, doing a bit of behind the scenes work for the moment."

Chat Noir grinned confidently, trying to fend off any more questions, but the questions never came. The Revealer had just arrived.

"Oh, Chat Noir, you bad, bad cat," she said triumphantly. "What did I tell you? Chloe is nothing but trouble and here you are defending her, so who's the villain now? You think Hawk Moth is the bad guy, but all he wants is to give people what they want."

"Well, and global domination," said Chat Noir, "but then what's a little dictatorship between friends? Look, Revealer, I'm not saying your arguments aren't valid, but I do know - and I've had a lot of time to think about this - that super powers aren't to be used lightly - or pettily. There's more than one way to- uh, feed a cat, and I don't think this is the best way for anyone"

"Sorry, kitty-cat, but your vote doesn't count anymore." The Revealer pulled up a photo of Chloe on her phone and began to edit it. Whatever the Revealer draw over Chloe's photo instantly appeared on her face and within moments she had a cartoon devil horns and a goatee.

Chloe wailed and ran from the room trying to cover the goatee with her hands, but it stuck out through them like glitchy graphics in a video game.

The Revealer laughed and ran after her, adding filters to the photo on her phone.

"Everyone stay here," Chat Noir said, then raced after the pair.

The three of them ran and yelled for quite a few minutes before the Revealer cornered Chloe in the library. Chat Noir perched on a bookshelf behind the Revealer while she taunted Chloe.

Chat Noir waited for the Revealer to be in just the right spot, then pounced. The Revealer had him on the ground in an instant. Chat Noir tried to get up and fight back, but she anticipated his every move.

"I know you far too well for you to ever win this fight," hissed the Revealer.

Inspiration struck Chat Noir. She was right, she knew his fighting style. But he knew hers as well. Checking to make sure Chloe had indeed run screaming in panic from the room, Chat Noir abruptly switched fighting style to mirror Ladybug's. A moment later he was on top of her, pulling her phone from her pocket and yelling, "Tikki, now!".

Ladybug's yo-yo came flying through the air. Chat Noir caught it deftly in one hand, smashing the Revealer's phone with the other. A dark butterfly fluttered out of the remnants of the phone and Chat Noir caught it in the yo-yo, and as it flapped out again, now bright white he whispered the words he had so often heard Ladybug say: "No more evil doing for you, li'l akuma."

The Revealer gasped, only she wasn't the Revealer anymore. Or even Ladybug. She was ... Marinette.

"Marinette?" asked Chat Noir in disbelief.

"A-Adrian," Marinette stuttered. "How did you-?"

Chat Noir looked down and realized he had transformed back into Adrian.

Marinette stared at Adrian. How much did he know? What had happened? How did he get her yo-yo? Why couldn't it have been someone she didn't stutter whenever near? If he didn't know what should she tell him?

Adrian stared back at Marinette, the face he had longed to see without its mask for so long - she had been sitting in the desk behind his all this time.

Then slowly at first, and then all at once, Adrian grinned. "M'lady," he bowed slightly.

"Chat Noir," Marinette breathed.

"Ladybug," said Adrian, offering her a hand up.

And then the were standing less than a foot apart, hands still linked.

Adrian suddenly realized that Marinette was about to go on a stuttering rampage, and he'd better say something before things got awkward, so he said the first thing that came to mind - the first thing that always came to mind when he looked into those deep, blue eyes, usually surrounded by a mask: "I love you."

"I-" whispered Marinette, "I think I love you, too."

Both were breathing more shallowly than usual and the space between them felt very, very small. And then they were kissing, and they seemed to without words have come to a mutual understanding that the world was by no means perfect, but whatever happened they would facing together - all of it - from stopping Hawk Moth, to overdue homework, to befriending Chloe in an effort to help her. Together, they could do it all.

There was much to do in the coming days: Tikki and Plagg had to be taken to the healer's for over exertion; there were several conversations over hot chocolate over what the two of them would do now - boundries, how they would act as Ladybug and Chat Noir versus as Marinette and Adrien, and so on; they also brought their friends up to speed on their plan to befriend Chloe rather than alienate her, in the hopes that she would respond in kind.

But most of all, simply being together: walking through Paris holding hands, sitting side by side at lunch while Alya teased them, saving Paris from villains, and getting to know each other as both teenager and superhero combined.