Marinette was out of her seat with her things packed before the bell was done ringing, shooting a hasty goodbye to a startled Alya as she dashed out the door. Fighting the backpack onto her shoulders, the petite girl flew down the stairs three at a time and cleared the last five with an acrobatic leap. She grunted as her feet hit the ground, leaning her body forward to run with the momentum without so much as a pause.

Marinette growled at herself as she tore past the the front door and down the steps, along the sidewalk and skidded around the corner. She knew she would be cutting it close today with the extra class scheduled after school, but there was no way she could have played truant. She wouldn't have a believable explanation for her absence, and—though it was a pretty long shot—it might arouse suspicion she couldn't afford.

After all, she could make it in five minutes …. Right?

Storefronts and cafes slid past her peripheral vision, the paved walkways becoming a blur under her feet as she pushed herself faster. The nose of a pram jutted into her path from a supermarket and she leaped over it, tucking in her legs while airborne and kept running, ignoring the angry shouts of the mother. The pedestrian light ahead flashed red just as she reached the intersection, and a rare curse slipped from her lips. Making a split second decision, she darted across the street, cars honking, narrowly avoiding getting run over by the last car by planting her hand on the bonnet and using it as leverage to spin around the car bumper. Wincing at the chaos, she cut through an alleyway and made herself scarce.

The alley was dark, the passage less than three feet wide; just barely enough for her to tear through without skinning her arms on the rough brick on either side. She saw the chain link fence coming up and jumped into the air, latching onto it halfway up with clawed fingers and the tips of her flats. Scaling effortlessly over it, she jumped back onto the ground, her palm smacking onto it for balance before she kicked off and kept running towards the light.

When she emerged, it was in an abandoned neighbourhood hidden away from tourist eyes and long forgotten by the locals. The famous Parisian architecture of uniform shapes and aesthetic geometry were nowhere to be found here. The buildings were drab and grey, paint long since cracked and peeled away, the underlying concrete stained by several years worth of rain and faded by the sun. Some structures even looked partially demolished, as if someone had tried to flatten the entire area for reconstruction but then changed their mind and left the entire thing to rot away to anonymity. If she didn't know better, she would have thought no one had set foot in this place for years.

But she did know better, and the Victorian was home to a few secrets kept hidden away from the public eye.

Marinette tore down the dilapidated streets, familiar enough that she could have navigated them blindfolded and walking backwards. Beads of sweat began forming on her skin as she rounded corners and jumped over any decris in her way. Her breaths came harder, pants filling the air along with her pounding feet, before they were joined by the unmistakable beats of music. She was close.

Skidding to a halt, Marinette dodged into the nearest building—an old drugstore, the vague outline of a red cross barely visible on the signboard discoloured beyond recognition. Diving behind the counter, Marinette dumped her bag onto the floor and all but ripped open the zipper, pulling a bundle of clothes from the bottom of her books, writing utensils, spare sketches, and tablet. She frowned, and dug deeper into the bag, tongue between her teeth until she let out a whoop of delight and pulled back her hand, a brilliant red glass jar.

Ladybug had an appearance to make.

"Adrien, dude, chill. It's only been five minutes, we can't have missed that much."

Adrien Agreste tore his eyes away from the taunting, stark white numbers of the clock on his phone screen to shoot his friend an exasperated look. "What do you mean? I am being chill."

"Don't even try to insult me, I know your lovesick puppy face when I see it. Ladybug is performing. No way are you chill."

Adrien opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the girl sitting across from him in the limo.

"Just ignore him, Adrien. A nerd like him wouldn't recognise real dance talent if it hit him in the face with a Ladybug-print brick," said Alya, face still in her phone.

"Nerd? Me? And this is coming from the girl running the official fanblog for—"

"Ignoring," repeated Alya, raising an arm to position her palm in front of NIno's face. Finally looking up from her phone, she shot Adrien a grateful smile. "Speaking of which, thanks so much for letting me hitch a ride, Adrien. This will let me grab lots of good footage for the blog on the scene as it happens!"

"Anytime, Alya. Just glad I could help, I was heading there anyway," said Adrien, returning the smile. Turning to Nino beside him, he jabbed a elbow at his best friend. "Although, if our nerd here is such a hater, I don't know why he decided to come with us. Maybe I should have you ejected from the car."

"Hey! No one said anything about being a hater!" protested Nino, dodging the elbow and throwing his cap at Adrien, who deflected it with a raised arm. "You know I can't dance, I'm just there for the music. Victorian's DJ has got some pretty sick beats."

Adrien made a show of rolling his eyes. "Whatever you say, bro."

"And you don't have room to talk. You can't dance either, so why are you so hung up about Ladybug?" Nino accompanied his question with a pointed look, which Adrien studiously avoided by glancing out the window at everything zipping by as the limo sped through the streets. Seeing his reflection in the window, he shared a secret smile with it.

"I don't know myself," he said, deciding to go with a half-truth. "It's just …. There's something about her that makes her different, makes her stand out from among everyone else." Adrien swallowed. "I can't really put my finger on it, and this is going to sound stupid, but … the way she dances, the way she moves, like she's happy and she didn't have a care in the world? It's almost like magic."

"Oh! But I think the real magic is when Chat breaks the floor with her; their chemistry is unbelievable!" Alya gushed, oblivious to the rising blush Adrien was attempting to hide against the window glass. "The way they move? Now that's miraculous!"

"Fangirl," muttered Nino. Alya heard, and rewarded him with a kick in the shins.

Then Adrien saw it, the familiar sight of the looming building sending a jolt of adrenaline through his system as the limo sped towards it. Unlike the bare concrete structures surrounding it, this one had entire kaleidoscopes of colour on its walls; artistic graffiti covering every available surface as if the once-supermarket had sucked up all the life and colour from the area for itself. The music emitting from within, audible even from within in the car, sent a thrum through him as if he were finally waking up from a long, fitful sleep.

"We're here," Adrien said a little too quickly, wrenching himself free of the seat belt and throwing open the door before the limo had completely rolled to a stop. He flung himself out of the limo, stumbling and almost face planting on the sidewalk. Nino and Alya followed after him with much more grace, thanking the Gorilla as the burly man grunted and drove off. When they turned back around, Adrien was nowhere in sight.

Adrien darted through the crowd, heart in his mouth, pushing past the press of bodies to get deeper inside. His chest reverberated from the volume of the music, drowning out the shouted conversations. It seemed the gathering was already in full swing, the attendees clamouring for the dancing to start. The Victorian accepted anyone who was willing to perform, but an overwhelming majority of the members here were in their teens. No one paid him any notice when he darted away from the crowd, sneaking to a secluded upper level where he slipped into a dusty broom closet and slammed the door shut before flicking on the lone, flickering light bulb. He threw down his bag, regretting it immediately when a cloud of dust tickled his nose and elicited a sneeze from him. Rubbing the back of his hand across his face, he glanced at the time on his phone again and winced at the numbers.

He could make it in thirty seconds …. Right?

A/N: Fairly long 4am author ramblings below, completely optional. Feel free to skip.

After a month of deliberating, I finally decided to go ahead and write this. Initially, I was inspired by Step Up (particularly Step Up 2, since that was the only one I watched xD). Then I found out about starrycove's Breakdance AU and was like 'omg no I can't write this any more this looks so much more fleshed out than what I had in mind'. But I didn't see anyone writing a fic about this (yet …?) so I thought I'd just give it a go.

The title of this fic and the place 'The Victorian' are in reference to a locally made manga called 'Wanna Dance With You' by Leoz. It's also about dancing, but goes into heavier stuff with there being an underground dance kingdom-ish thing going on. I didn't really want to go that direction, but didn't have enough material for plotting the story other than 'Marinette and Adrien are secretly Ladybug and Chat Noir, notorious street dancing duo'. After finding out about the Breakdance AU, some alterations, and much headdesking, I think I got something that can be worked into a semi-decent story so here we are. xD

Also, I'd like to say beforehand that I've never danced in my life and don't know anything about any kind of dancing so if I make a mistake or if anyone feels they can educate me in some way, my askbox (over at tumblr, username kasumiafkgod) is always open. ;)

Updates will be sporadic, and I have no idea how long this will end up, but I have a general idea of where I want to go so hopefully I won't hit any roadblocks along the way BUT WE ALWAYS KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BEST LAID PLANS.