1. Accepting Rejection

He knew it was a mistake to present the rose to Ladybug the moment he saw her face.

The apprehensive expression mingled with utter fear and genuine distress hit him hard like the time the Akuma dropped a literal anvil on his head a while back. It hurt like hell to see her in that sort of state and it hurt even more knowing he was the cause of it.

Crap!

He had told her not long ago that her friendship was the most precious thing to him and instead of proving it with his actions he had put her on the spot again.

He could honestly kick himself if he could.

"Chat!" Ladybug said despairingly. "I can't accept it!"

"Don't worry," he said hastily as he hurriedly stood up to his full height. "I was being silly. It's not a romantic flower."

Ladybug looked cynical.

Considering their recent past of him persistently flirting with her and trying to make every little moment of affection as a romantic gesture, he couldn't blame her for being sceptical of him and his intentions.

"I mean it, My Lady," he insisted firmly, "I was being silly and got carried away with the moment. Please accept this as a token of my friendship and nothing more."

Ladybug reached out hesitatingly, her fingers merely inches away from the stem when she halted to a stop. "Just friendship?" She questioned apprehensive all over again. "There's no other ulterior motive?"

"Just friendship," he reassured her, "I promised you that your friendship was more important and I meant it. Friends can still give each other flowers, can't they?"

"Yes," Ladybug smiled softly.

It was still the most radiant and beautiful thing he had ever seen and he felt breathless in the wake of her sweet smile. God! He loved her so much. It was a permanent ache that he could never achieve those romantic dreams he held onto for so long but he knew, deep down at the very depths of his heart, it would hurt so much more if he didn't even have a friendship with his lady.

"Friends can still give each other flowers," Ladybug agreed gently. At this she finally plucked the rose out of his fingers and sniffed it appreciatively. "I hope you know I treasure your friendship above all else too, Chat Noir. That's why I couldn't accept another romantic gesture. It would be cruel to lead you on."

Her big blue eyes were wide with eager sincerity. He could virtually hear her mind screaming for him to understand that she loved him, really she did, but just not the way he wanted.

He needed to let her know he understood.

"I understand," he said comfortingly, "I've accepted your rejection and sometimes I might get a little carried away with the banter but I promise you. We're always going to be friends first."

He had accepted this a while back after he had a few sulky days bemoaning to Plagg but he remembered his promise to her and after a brief spell of soul searching, he knew that he wanted her friendship forever over a chance of what could be a disastrous romantic relationships.

After all, as Plagg had pointed out with his mouth stuffed to the brim with cheese, no one had said soulmates had to be romantic.

This acceptance of Ladybug's rejection and determination to enjoy their friendship had made him feel so much lighter and freer than before. It was an inexplicable joy to be able to just bump fists with Ladybug and know that they were always going to be in each other's life.

He beamed for the rest of the day which he hadn't realised had been uncharacteristic of him until Kagami asked if there was something bothering him.

"Nothing is wrong," he reassured her, "I'm just finally moving past some things. Hey, do you want to go ice skating? I was thinking we could arrange a group outing and you could finally meet my other friends. I'd just love for all of my friends to meet properly."

"Oh," Kagami said oddly, "friends."

He glanced at her curiously but she bared her teeth in her usual freaky but adorable attempt of a smile and he grinned back.

Completely and utterly carefree of any romantic intrigue for the first time in months.

(Of course there was melodrama between Kagami and Marinette and some other classmates that went entirely over Adrien's head later that week. He wasn't sure what but for some reason there was a lot of glaring and dark muttering. Adrien never found out what went on because everyone – unwittingly as the guy did pester them while they were trying to have fun – had been seriously rude to the ice skating teacher and a new Akuma that led to experiment a new transformation had taken up Adrien's attention.

The Akuma battle ended swiftly (as no one threw sulky strops and abandoned one another) and somewhere along the way Kagami and Marinette left the ice skating ring arm in arm surrounded by the other girls.

Adrien was so happy that all of his friends were friends with one another. Well, almost all of them. Chloe was always going to be an outlier. The only thing that could make him happier was if Ladybug could join them all.

He look forwards to a day when that could be true.)

2. Questioning His Feelings

His brain blanked the moment Marinette Dupain-Cheng had declared her love for him.

A white noise surrounded him as his numbly returned Marinette's hug. He had dreamed for so long of a girl with black-blue pigtails and big blue eyes flinging herself into his arms and exclaiming her undying love for him to the stars. It was never this black-blue pigtailed and blue eyed girl though. And that sort of filled him with a sense of shame because Marinette felt perfect and warm and soft, and everything he wanted in his arms.

But she wasn't.

It was also so unexpected and shocking because he was pretty sure his superhero self and Marinette had a handful of encounters altogether. So how could she have fallen in love with him? This had him scrambling through his moments with Marinette as Chat Noir and he was horrified to realise how many hand kisses and bridal carries and loving compliments and – holy shit he took her to the rose petal strewn, candle-lit, rooftop! No wonder she had fallen for him so hard!

Jeeze, he was a cad!

He had totally been leading her on all this time!

His shame and shock hastily turned into pure self-loathing as he realised he had to break Marinette's heart. Marinette was his friend. His first real friend made without his father and mother's connections the way Chloe had become his friend. The first solid connection to another human being in such a long time and the idea of him, any version of him, breaking her heart made him sick to his stomach.

"Marinette," he whispered, "I-"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

He and Marinette leaped apart as Tom Dupain's voice roared from behind him. The large man loomed over them with a terrifyingly dark looked etched into his face. He gulped, as he briefly wondered this was how his life ends...tossed into a baker's oven in the defence of Marinette's virtue.

"Dad!" Marinette cried out. "It's not what it looks like!"

"Don't try to pull that one over me young lady!" Mr Dupain snapped. "I heard you declaring your love for him!"

Marinette's face flushed to such a fierce shade of red that he feared her head was about to explode. Not that he could talk much, his own cheeks felt hot to touch too.

"But Dad!"

"No buts!" Mr Dupain interrupted. "I absolutely forbid this! No daughter of mine is going to date some...some...some...Catsanova!"

"Dad!" Marinette said appalled.

He sincerely wished that the ground would open up beneath him and swallow him whole. The embarrassment was suffocating as his cheeks burned all the more at Mr Dupain's insinuations. However there was a blossoming indignation growing inside his chest that his humiliation could not suffocate.

"I said no Marinette!" Mr Dupain shouted. "As much as I would love to support you in anything you choose to do, I cannot encourage you in this. He's dangerous! A dalliance with a superhero could get you hurt."

"I would not hurt her!" He snapped indignantly. "Marinette is my friend I would never do anything to harm her."

"You may not purposely harm her," Mrs Dupain-Cheng observed calmly, "but you could accidentally attract Hawk Moth's attention to her and he might decide to use Marinette against you."

His stomach twisted at the horrendous thought of Marinette being dangled over the edge of the Eiffel Tower by Hawk Moth or one of his many Akumas. The thought of her being sliced into or frozen over or disintegrated from reality, as many other people already had been before Ladybug miraculously brought them back, made him sick to his very bones.

"I understand," he whispered, "it's best that I take my leave now." He clasped Marinette's soft hand into his and pressed a light kiss on her knuckles. "Farewell Princess."

He leapt off the balcony just as Mr Dupain loudly spluttered; "PRINCESS?!"

When he arrived home he had been prepared to stay away from Marinette in order to keep her safe. After all it had only been mere moments ago he had witnessed the gigantic baby Hawk Moth had created obliterate her bedroom and probably had accidentally crushed her to death.

(And boy did that thought steal all of his breath away.)

Still though.

He had so very few friends and he could not bear the thought of never seeing Marinette again. To never see her radiant smile or to hear her sweet giggles. To never witness her bravery as she stood up for what she believed to be right or watch her magically create something on a blank piece of paper. The thought of never receiving one of her warm hugs or to be told that he was sweet by her...

He just simply could not bear it.

And then suddenly all his understanding melted away like snow in springtime as he felt nothing but self-righteous fury at Mr and Mrs Dupain-Cheng for keeping his very good friend away from him.

How dare they?!

"Huh," Plagg smirked as he vented out to him the very next morning, "are you sure friend is the right word for it?"

"Don't belittle me, Plagg!" He snapped. "Of course friend is the right word for it. Marinette is my very dear friend and her parents have no right to prevent our friendship."

"Right," Plagg muttered sarcastically, "friendship."

"In fact I should go back there and reassure Marinette that nothing will get in the way of our friendship," he decided stubbornly, "if she's worried about Hawk Moth then we can be secret friends to keep her safe."

"Uh-huh," Plagg rolled his eyes.

He didn't care about Plagg's flippant attitude to his and Marinette's precious and awe-inspiring friendship. He was too busy figuring out away to reassure Marinette when his eyes landed on the pink rose placed on his breakfast tray. It was perfect in every way with it's light petals deepening to a dark hue on the tips.

It reminded him of Marinette.

"I'll take her this as a token of my friendship!"

"Pfft!" Plagg snorted. "Token of your friendship, my furry ar-"

"Plagg, transform me!"

Re-transformed, he had leapt out of his bedroom window with the rose carefully clenched between his teeth to keep the petals from being crushes. He swiftly made his way across the city to his dear friend's balcony and landed right before her.

"EEK!"

Marinette was still dressed in her skimpy pyjamas though they were now covered in what he could only assume were croissant crumbs as she soaked in the early morning sunshine for inspiration for her latest design. Her surprised face flushed a deep pink of mortification as she hastily covered her chest up.

"Chat Noir!" She gasped. "What are you doing here?!"

"I have decided that no one has any right to stand between us," he said firmly, "and I have brought you this rose as a token of friendship."

Marinette's cheeks almost matched the darker shade of pink on the rose as she stared at him with big, wide, eyes and her lips dropped open in surprise.

He was on the verge of reassuring her that they would forever be friends when he was interrupted by several loud footsteps.

"Marinette!" Mr Dupain called out. "You coming down? I believe this is the week I finally defeat you in Ultimate Mech – YOU!" Mr Dupain interrupted himself with a roar of utter fury as he pointed angrily at the pair of them. "I thought I told you this was forbidden!"

"You can't forbid us!" He retorted irritably. "Marinette and I are meant to be-"

"STAY AWAY FROM MY BABY GIRL!"

It all then happened so quickly. Tom Dupain was instantly Akumatised into a werewolf like creature as he lashed out ferociously and captured his own child into a fairy tale tower made of the rose that he had tried to give Marinette.

The battle was fierce and terrifying but before he knew it, the rose tower fell apart and Ladybug parachuted them all to safety as she purified the Akuma

It was all so sudden that he felt his head spin from it as Marinette stood nervously before him.

"Erm, Chat," she mumbled as she wrung her hands anxiously, "I think my parents are right. It's really dangerous to be friends right now with Hawk Moth lurking about and until Hawk Moth is gone I think we should stay apart."

His heart shattered at that but he could understand where Marinette was coming from. She was just a civilian and this morning must have been a disorientating and terrifying as it had been for him. His own heart had been in his throat the entire time he fought Weredad as he worried about Marinette and how she was coping.

"Only until Hawk Moth is defeated though," he conceded softly, "right?"

"Of course," Marinette smiled radiantly, "and then we can hang out together all the time."

He felt energised at the thought and more motivated in defeating Hawk Moth than he ever felt before. After all once he got rid off Hawk Moth the sooner he can spend lazy afternoon with his very good friend Marinette.

With a happy grin, he leaned in to give Marinette one last hug just as she slipped onto her tiptoes to give him a goodbye kiss on his cheek. They bumped into each other and their lips accidentally pressed against one another as sparks flew and their eyes widened in mortified shock.

(Tom Dupain could very clearly and loudly be heard choking on his own saliva by all of the neighbours.)

"Erm, goodbye Princess!" He blurted out as he leaped away. "Until Hawk Moth is defeated!"

"Yes!" Marinette squeaked. "See you then!"

He then dashed off before he could spontaneously combust from the embarrassment of it all. Had he just ruined his friendship despite his desperate attempt to preserve it from parental disapproval?! He couldn't think as his brain felt like it was malfunctioning and his heart raced and his stomach twisted itself all up.

He landed on his bedroom floor just in time for his transformation to wear off. "Satisfied now, Romeo?" Plagg purred, his neon green eyes gleaming. "Have you assured your Juliet that you'll remain true to your star-crossed romance?"

"Plagg!" He cried out in a strangled voice. "It wasn't like that! We're just friends."

"You mean to tell me," Plagg said in a falsely innocent voice, "that if Nino's parents forbid you from being friends you'll rush over to his to reassure him with roses."

No, no he wouldn't. Because as much as he loved Nino as a brother, he wasn't in love with him as he was with Mari-

Oh.

Oh!

Oh dear.

He numbly touched his still tingling lips suddenly unsure of everything he knew.

….Did he...did he love Marinette?

(Meanwhile Marinette screamed into her pillow. Why the hell was all of her first kisses keep happening with Chat Noir?!

Tiki was no help at all as she just laughed and laughed at Marinette's misery.)

3. Learning From His Mistakes

He knew something was wrong the moment Ladybug announced she had feelings for him.

After all they had firmly established months ago that Ladybug only saw him as a friend and while he often dreamt that Ladybug would one day change her mind and declare her undying love for him as she was this very moment, it didn't quite ring true that Ladybug suddenly changed her mind.

In the last few weeks alone she had rolled her eyes at his puns at least twenty times, had pulled her hand away from his lips ten with a hasty 'not now Chat!', and the awkward need to keep some space between them when things looked like they were getting too close was painfully apparent.

And then there was the fact that Hawk Moth was beginning to get the idea in his head to use doppelgängers to trick them out of their Miraculous.

A few weeks ago he had almost been taken in by another fake Ladybug. The fact that he mistook the silent and clearly a wax model as his beloved because she was leaning in for a kiss had shamed him beyond believe. The sinking weight of guilt had weighed upon him and made both sleep and eating impossible. If he hasn't snapped out of it the moment the wax model of his Lady reached for his ring then he could have lost his Miraculous for good and have unwittingly abandoned Ladybug in the fight against Hawk Moth.

The look of disappointment on Ladybug's face when he confessed this to her made the shame he felt deepen all the more.

"This is beginning to become a worrying reoccurrence," Ladybug had observed, "Hawk Moth has already made an Akuma look like you, what if he tries this trick again?"

He squirmed all the more at that.

Hawk Moth had tried that trick on Ladybug once before and she hadn't even been fooled for a full second as she beaten the fake Chat Noir as smoothly as if she was talking a morning stroll by the river.

"We should have security questions!" He blurted out immediately. "Like in Harry Potter! The Death Eaters could have easily disguised themselves as members of the Order of Phoenix and so they all had specialised security questions like what was the last thing someone said or what was their Patronus or something like that. If we have that maybe we can outwit Hawk Moth the moment he tries to pull another doppelgänger trick!"

The proud smile on his Lady's lips had lit up her face radiantly and almost instantaneously the shame that weighed so heavily upon him evaporated away.

Which was why when his dreams were finally coming true, he leaned in close to Ladybug and murmured; "What is your favourite colour?"

Ladybug blinked her big beautiful blue eyes at him. "Huh?!" She cried out bewilderedly.

The alarm bells he first heard when Ladybug declared her feelings for him began to ring louder.

"I said," he said calmly though his hand clutching onto his baton tightened from frustration, "what is your favourite colour?!"

"Oh, erm," Ladybug said hesitatingly, "...Red?"

Aside that it was painfully obvious that this fake was clearly guessing, he knew for a fact that Ladybug's favourite colour was pink.

"Wrong answer!" He growled.

And then he pounced on her.

(By the time Ladybug rushed to Chat Noir's aid screaming that the fake Ladybug wasn't her, Chat Noir was already in the middle of slamming the fake Ladybug onto the ground. His near victory didn't last long with the fake Ladybug turned to dust and a blue feather fluttered away stunning them both long enough for Mayura to surprise them with a swift kick to Chat Noir's face.

It was an intense battle that only got more intense with Hawk Moth appearing on the scene and they had a stand off as Hawk Moth held his cane to Chat Noir's throat and Ladybug had Mayura in a choke-hold. The swap had been swift and melodramatic as any other superhero anime moment and the relief both Chat Noir and Ladybug felt to hold onto each other was breathtaking.

"The security question worked," Chat said between heavy breaths, "it totally stumped the fake LB."

"Of course it did," Ladybug smiled, "it was an excellent tactic."

"But we might need to change the question," Chat said worriedly, "we don't want Hawk Moth and Mayura to catch on."

"Good idea," Ladybug said, "what's your favourite thing to do?"

"I love fencing," Chat grinned, "you?"

"Designing," Ladybug admitted.

For some reason the fact that this blue-eyed, pigtailed, girl loves pink and designing really itched at the back of Chat Noir's brain but he couldn't quite put his finger on why...)

4. Taking The Initiative

He had been planning for this since the moment his father announced he was going away.

Since he took his own fate in his hands by sneaking out to go to school, he had been more and more determined to go out and get what he wants regardless to whether or not he had permission. Being Chat Noir and having Plagg by his side had bolstered his confidence and strengthened his will, he was beginning to get more and more comfortable with sneaking out and having fun, and with his father away for a few days this was the purr-fect moment to enjoy himself.

"My father is about to leave," he said quietly into the webcam, "if you give it twenty minutes you can then come over and we'll go and meet my classmates for the tree planting."

Wayhem beamed back on his computer screen. "I'm looking forwards to it!" Wayhem said excitedly. "It would be awesome to finally meet your friends, Adrien Agreste, and it'll be nice to see your girlfriend Marinette Dupain-Cheng again!"

"Wayhem!" He cried out embarrassed. "For the last time you can just call me Adrien AND Marinette is just my friend, not my girlfriend."

Wayhem just smiled knowingly which he had learnt from the last dozen webcam chats that everything he had just said will be firmly ignored and at some point later today Wayhem will once again refer him as Adrien Agreste and Marinette as his girlfriend.

(He just hopes it won't be in Marinette's hearing because he only just got Marinette to finally speak to him without stuttering over every word and this might set their friendship miles back!)

"Have you got the action figure?" He asked hastily changing the subject. "It won't work if you don't have anything to bribe the Gorilla with."

"Don't worry Adrien Agreste," Wayhem said confidently, "I have it right here and before you know it we'll be having a wicked awesome time planting those trees."

He could hear footsteps outside getting closer and closer to his bedroom and so he quickly reached to turn his computer off. "Father is coming!" He whispered hastily. "I'll see you in a bit!"

Wayhem was able to send a thumbs up just as the screen turned dark.

The usual farewells with his father were as painfully awkward and stilted as always but it soon melted away to excitement as his father disappeared and Wayhem made his own appearance with the action figure in toll. The Gorilla found it hard to say no to Adrien in general, he was a kind and soft-hearted man beneath all that terrifying height and muscle, but to have something he desperately wanted waved under his nose always guaranteed that Adrien will definitely get a yes.

And so within the hour he and Wayhem were halfway to the tree planting event when they collided into Nino, Max, Kim, Nathaniel, and Ivan.

"Adrien?!" They all cried out.

"Guys!" He exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"We were coming to spend the afternoon with you," Nino said, "What are you doing here?!"

"I snuck out!" He said proudly.

"You snuck out?!"

He was a little put out at his friends' disbelieve. Did they all think he was so perfectly obedient that he lacked any resemblance of an adventurous spirit? It was a little insulting really, how did they think he managed to get to school the first time round?

"Yes he did and I helped him!" Wayhem butted in cheerfully. "We're going to help you all plant trees, it's so nice to meet you all Adrien Agreste's friends!"

"Dude, we can't go plant the trees!" Nino's eyes widened. "We've all made up excuses so we can sneak into your place and have a boy's afternoon."

"You lied to get out of a charity event?!" He said disgusted. "Nino, the girls are depending on us and we all promised to help!"

"Yeah but," Nino said helplessly, "boys afternoon!"

"Well you guys can have your boys afternoon but Wayhem and I are going to help plant the trees," he said firmly, "like I promised I would!"

"You don't seriously want to plant some dumb trees do you?!" Kim asked revolted. "There's so many more fun things we can do instead. If you don't want to hang out at your place like we planned, we can always go to the cinema or the skate park or the swimming pool!"

"Kim," Max said exasperated, "not all of us want to do physical activities."

"I want to plant trees," he said loudly, "you all get to do nice things like this and I've been really looking forwards to doing something helpful with my friends. Besides I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself knowing we have abandoned Marinette, Alya, Mylene, Alix, Rose, and Juleka to do all the work."

He was very satisfied to see that all the guys were now looking sheepish as they shuffled on their feet and twiddled with their hands.

"All right, fine!" Nino huffed. "But Alya is going to kill me!"

"Mylene too," Ivan mumbled.

"Alix won't be nice either," Nathaniel shuddered.

"I think it's a fair assessment to say they will all be very put out with us," Max gulped, "but I suppose we have no choice but to face the music. If we don't go with Adrien then it'll only make matters worse on Monday morning."

They all grumbled but complied and he grinned approvingly at them before he turned round to lead them back to the tree planting side. On the way they had bumped into Marinette and to say that the glower she had sent the others had be chiding would definitely be an understatement but she let the matter drop quite quickly when Nino very pointedly asked her what she was doing looking for them.

It was weird but quite honestly he was more focused on stopping Wayhem from calling Marinette 'Adrien Agreste's girlfriend' to her face to think on it for much longer.

(The tree planting event was a successful.

However Alya, Mylene, Alix, Rose, and Juleka had made their displeasure very clear as Nino, Kim, Max, Nathaniel, and Ivan had to do all their heavy carrying and buy all of their ice cold drinks and ice creams later that day. Marinette had gotten out from a similar punishment merely because the girls were more invested in letting her spend time with Adrien (though boy did they have words with her later in the privacy of her bedroom).

Adrien, unfortunately, came home to find that his father had never left the house as his business trip had been cancelled at the last minute and that Adrien was to be 'grounded for the rest of your life'. This punishment lasted for the total one evening as apparently some photographer caught Adrien planting the trees and the good publicity from Adrien's charitable work and brought the stocks up for Gabriel's company.

Therefore Gabriel agreed in future Adrien could join his classmates for other charitable events and had lifted the grounding up as no harm had been caused.

….now Adrien had to figure out a way to convince his father that playing video games with Nino is a charitable event...)

5. Fighting On His Own

It was his worst nightmare come alive.

For the first time in the year and a half he had been fighting Hawk Moth, Ladybug was the one that got hit by the Akuma. He had made a huge point of always shielding his Lady because she was the one with the power to purify the Akuma and she never seemed to have a problem with fighting him (which...well...kinda hurt whenever he dwelled on it...). So it felt very much his job as her partner to get hit with whatever Akuma power and be possessed or blanked out of existence temporarily or stuck looking like the Akuma, whatever it is, he could deal with it.

He couldn't deal with the blank zombie look on his lady love's face as she very efficiently (and very painfully) punched him in the gut.

It went on for an eternity as he ducked and dodged every attempt from not only the Akuma but Ladybug. His unwillingness to hit Ladybug back dragged it out painfully as he couldn't put either the Akuma or Ladybug out of action.

The desperation built up and up and it burned beneath his skin. It was as if his very being was bursting to get out of his skin and without a second thought he had slammed his hands against the ground and opened his mouth;

"RAIZE IT TO THE GROUND!"

A black blast of destructive magic poured out of him and ripped through the city as the Akuma suddenly reverted back to some helpless teen who blinked bewilderedly, Ladybug suddenly slumped to the ground and also looked equally confused, and the damaged that had been caused suddenly fixed itself as the air around them felt heavy with magic.

He found himself blinking up at the very blue sky and the pure white butterfly flapping away. He felt befuddled and exhausted as his knees buckled beneath him.

"Chat!" Ladybug cried out.

She rushed to his side and caught him just before he fell over. He suddenly felt drained as his eyelids drooped and the dark fuzzy spots appeared before him. His ring was also beeping loudly.

"Are you okay?!" Ladybug asked fretfully. "Are you hurt? What happened?"

"I'm not sure," he murmured, "but I have to go."

"Will you be okay getting home?!"

He must truly look terrible for Ladybug to hesitate letting him leave. She was usually all for them keeping their secret identities and knowing little to nothing about each other's personal lives for safety sake.

"I'll be fine," he assured her.

He clearly lacked conviction as Ladybug bit her lip worryingly but his ring beeped again and her professionalism and desperate need to keep their identities kicked in as she let him go without an argument and a much gentler fist bump than normal.

He barely made it two streets away before he ducked into an alleyway and slumped against the cool brick wall. His transformation faded and he felt Plagg collapse onto his shoulder as his own knees gave out.

"Plagg," he mumbled, "what the hell happened?!"

Plagg moaned wordlessly into his shoulder and it took a piece of Camembert slowly gnawed upon (truly a thing of miracle itself as Plagg usually gobbled down cheese like it was about to run away) before he could finally speak properly.

"Ever heard of the theory of anarchy, Kid?" Plagg asked. Adrien slowly nodded as his whole body from the tip of his hair to the nail of his toe suddenly felt like it weighed a million kilos. The dark spots before him were getting bigger and darker as sleep was sounding more and more like a good idea. "You have to destroy before you can rebuild," Plagg clarified, "it sort of runs on that. Destructive magic so destructive that it becomes purifying but it takes too much magic and it's unnatural for us to purify, it's usually Tiki's and her bug's shtick, and so it really takes a lot out of you."

"Hmm..." he hummed, "...can tell."

"Eat some cheese, Kid," Plagg offered his second piece of Camembert up, "it'll help."

He bent down and took a bite of the stinky, over strong, squishy cheese and grimaced as he forced it down his throat. It was disgusting but Plagg was right, he did suddenly feel a lot stronger as the dark spots faded away.

Plagg uncharacteristically patted his face tenderly. "You did good, Kid."

(The whole city was enraptured with Chat Noir's new powers and there were many online discussions and debates on the television. As they speculated whether or not this would mean more power-ups for the Miraculous duo.

There was a newfound uprise in Chat Noir mania as well as people purchased more and more black and green merchandise and children were happily pretending to be Chat Noir over Ladybug nowadays.

Ladybug was interviewed as well about her thoughts of Chat's victory and rise in popularity.

"I honestly don't get why people are so surprised," Ladybug beamed radiantly, "I have always maintained that Chat Noir was my partner and brought just as much as I did to the battlefield. I'm just glad that Paris is finally seeing Chat Noir as the hero he has always been."

It was true that Ladybug had always maintained that Chat Noir was her equal, her partner not her sidekick, and a hero worth working beside with...

….But this was the first time Adrien Agreste actually felt like he was a hero.

And it felt good.)