Disclaimer: "Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir" and all derivative works are the intellectual property of Thomas Astruc, Zagtoons, Disney, Nickelodeon, and a lot of other people. n00btmntfan is not associated in any way with the makers of "Miraculous." This story is nothing but a fan-based expansion and commentary on the source material and should not be understood as anything beyond that.

Author's Note: So, I just discovered this show and I loved it. I have watched all 26 episodes of the show and this story takes place after all of them. Contains spoilers for "Jackady" ("Simon Says") and "Volpina" in particular. Having watched both the French episodes with English subs and the English dubbed episodes that have been released, my version of their styles of speech is probably going to be somewhere between the two. Despite the fact that my story is written in English, it is to be understood that they are all speaking French. I actually like "Papillon" better than "Hawk Moth," but since "Butterfly" just sounds unbearably silly in English, I'm going with "Hawk Moth." I'll be omitting a lot of the accents on names (like Mylene and Chloe) because it's easier that way. (Hopefully you'll come to forgive me for that.) Now that all of that's out of the way, on to the story!

Marinette drifted along the boundary of sleep and waking, caught somewhere between a dream and reality. Her alarm was going off, and a soft, squeaky voice said her name. Yet she was Ladybug, sitting at school and failing a chemistry exam. Chloe sat behind her, snuggling with Adrien, who grinned widely.

"So, Ladybug," Cat Noir said, leaning over the desk. "You don't need this. I'm all the chemistry you'll ever need!" He snatched away the exam paper and started singing along with the alarm that kept going off in the background.

Marinette tried to grab the paper. "Cut it out, Cat Noir! I have to pass this exam or Adrien and Chloe will get married!"

Cat Noir stopped singing. "So? Why would you want Adrien when you could have me?"

"Ugh. Why would I want you?"

"For starters, I want you and Adrien doesn't. Adrien will never love you, Marinette."

"You know my name?"

"Of course I do." Cat Noir reached out and tugged on Marinette's hair. "Marinette. Marineeette."

"Stop it!"

"Marineeette…"

"Leave me alone!"

"MARINETTE!"

With a scream, Marinette jolted into full consciousness.

"There she is," squeaked Tikki, pulling playfully on Marinette's hair. "I thought you'd never wake up."

"Ugghhh." Marinette turned off the alarm on her phone. "I had the weirdest dream."

Tikki giggled. "So I heard. But don't worry. Failing the exam will probably not make Adrien marry Chloe."

"You…heard?"

"Oh, yes. You were talking in your sleep. Tell me, what was Cat Noir doing?"

Marinette stretched. "What else? Flirting with me and messing things up."

"Don't you think that's a little harsh, Marinette? Cat Noir has helped you many times."

"Yeah, but I can't even keep count of how many times I've had to save his sorry tail."

Yawning deeply, Marinette got out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom for her shower. She took off her pajamas and brushed the knots out of her hair while she waited for the water to heat up, softly singing the words to her favorite Jagged Stone song. When she stuck her hand into the stream of water, she gasped when she found that it was frigid. She tossed on a bathrobe and shouted down the stairs.

"Mom! Dad! There's no hot water!"

Her mom came up the stairs, a distraught expression on her face. "I know, honey. The water heater broke this morning. We've called somebody already, but they can't be here until this afternoon."

"What am I going to do for a shower, though? I can't skip washing my hair today—it's all greasy."

"Just use the dry shampoo and some perfume like everyone else, Marinette. You can wait until later."

Marinette thought of Adrien, who seemed to be taking a shower every time that she had dropped by his place as Ladybug. If she ran into him today, with all of the buildup from an extra day's worth of dry shampoo and smelling extra strongly of perfume, he would certainly not be impressed. "Mom…I have to shower today."

"If you're that desperate, you'll have to take a cold shower, then. I'm sorry."

With a groan, Marinette went back into the bathroom. "Not exactly a promising start to the day."

One freezing shower later, a shivering Marinette came down the stairs, dressed for school. With all of her books in her bag and Tikki securely in her purse, she grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl that sat on the counter.

"Not going to sit down to eat?" her father asked.

"No, Dad. I need to get to school early today to make sure that I'm ready for the big chemistry test. Alya has some notes on redox reactions that I need to go over."

Her father frowned. "Why don't you look over your own notes from the class?"

The image of a fluttering black Akuma flashed through Marinette's mind. Fortunately, it was a small job, as Hawk Moth had picked a pretty poor candidate. She and Cat Noir had wrapped the whole thing up in minutes. However, it was still enough to make her miss the first twenty minutes of class. "Erm…I lost mine."

"Hmm. All right then. Good luck, honey."

"You too! With the water heater, I mean."

"Oh, that's nothing. The mechanic will be here before you get home, and then you can take a nice hot shower."

"I can't shower twice in the same day! That will fry my hair!"

Her dad rolled his eyes. "You women and your beauty routines. I will never understand."

Marinette giggled. "Just kidding." She stood on her tiptoes to give him a peck on the cheek. "Bye, Dad." Adjusting her bag, she headed out the door for school.

Marinette had finished eating her banana by the time she arrived at school. She tossed the peel into the nearest trash can before heading up the steps that led to the front door. Alya leaned against the door, fiddling around on her phone.

"Hi, Alya!" Marinette called.

Alya looked up. "Hey, girl!" She stuck her phone in her pocket and opened her bag. "I've got those chem notes you asked for."

"You're a lifesaver. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Lose your head, probably." Alya giggled and handed the notes to Marinette. "You've got about ten minutes to look over those before classes start, though you might be able to get away with reading them in Ms. Bustier's classroom if you're careful."

Marinette swooped her eyes over Alya's untidy handwriting. "Thanks, I—"

Adrien's voice came from behind them. "I'm telling you, Nino, I was sick that day. Can't I borrow yours?"

Marinette whirled around to see Adrien and Nino coming up the steps. Her stomach tossed and her knees felt weak. Ugh, why was it that seeing Adrien did this to her every time?

"Uh, well…" Nino scratched the back of his neck. "Tell you the truth, dude, I didn't take notes. My notebook is just full of doodles. Oh, hey, Alya!"

Alya grinned. "Hey, Nino," she said playfully. She walked over and gave Nino a hug. "You ready for the big test today?"

Nino shrugged. "Not too worried about it."

"Well, I am," Adrien said, folding his arms. "Alya, I don't suppose you have notes from the day we covered redox, do you?"

"I do," Alya said, "but Marinette's got them right now."

Marinette's heart nearly stopped when she realized that Adrien was looking at her. Those green eyes were looking at her…

"I don't suppose I could borrow those when you're done, could I?" Adrien asked, with a winning smile.

"C-can course of you," Marinette stammered. "Er…I mean, of course you can. No problem."

"Great," Adrien said. "There's a ten minute break right before chemistry class. Can I borrow them then?"

Marinette froze and just grinned stupidly.

Adrien blinked and shifted uncomfortably in response.

"Sure, Adrien," Alya said. "I'll make sure she remembers. See you in class, guys."

"See ya," Nino said.

"See you, Alya," Adrien said. "See you, Marinette."

Marinette uttered an unintelligible syllable as Nino and Adrien walked away. Once they were out of earshot, she groaned. "Oh, Alya…"

Alya laughed. "Girl, you seriously need to get a grip. He's just a guy. If you treat him like that, and think of him like that, I'm sure talking to him will get much easier. And you'll probably creep him out a lot less."

"What? Oh, no! Do you think I creeped him out?"

"A little bit. But don't worry—I'm sure you can make it up. Just play it cool when you hand off the notes, okay?"

"Right. Play it cool."

"Speaking of notes, you should probably look over those."

"Look over what?"

"The notes! Look over the notes!"

A scream echoed through the entry hall, making Marinette and Alya jump. Genevieve, one of the girls in the class below them, hopped up and down, screaming, "Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!" Her bag lay in a heap on the ground next to her, where a couple of plastic knitting needles and some yarn had spilled out.

Marinette ran over to Genevieve's side. "What is it?"

Practically white, Genevieve pointed a shaking finger at the big hairy spider that scuttled away under the bench in front of the lockers.

"Come on, Genevieve, it's just a spider," Alya said. "Nothing to be afraid of."

Marinette grimaced. "A really big spider…yech."

"Don't tell me you're afraid of spiders, Marinette."

Marinette bit her lip. "As a rule, no…not if they're outside, doing spidery things…you know, away from me. But if they're inside…" She shuddered as she stooped over to pick up Genevieve's knitting bag for her.

Alya laughed. "Seriously. Only a few spiders are dangerous. There's no reason to be scared."

"Thanks, Marinette," Genevieve said, as Marinette handed the knitting bag back to her. She slung the cross-body strap over her shoulder. "They're just so icky."

Chloe walked up to the lockers with Sabrina in tow. "What are you losers all talking about?"

"I—I just saw a spider the size of a dinner plate," Genevieve said. "It's under the bench, and I—"

Chloe screamed. "It's in your hair!"

Like a fuse had been lit, Genevieve exploded. She ran in circles, screaming and crying, frantically tearing at her hair.

Chloe doubled over laughing, clinging to Sabrina for support. "Oh my gosh—Sabrina, tell me you got a vid of this idiot dancing her idiot dance for us."

Grinning, Sabrina held up her phone. "Of course I did! I'm sharing it on the school's social network as we speak."

Genevieve's face turned red, and tears started to leak out of her eyes. "No, don't! I—"

"Aaaand…done!"

Lip quivering, Genevieve turned and ran to the girls' room.

"What is your problem, Chloe?" Alya said, putting her hands on her hips. "It's not enough that you treat everyone in our grade like a piece of trash, so you have to do it to the younger classes, too?"

"Pssh," Chloe hissed. She opened her locker and fussed with her hair in front of the small mirror inside. "Idiots are idiots, whatever the grade, know what I mean?" She put a finger over her lip. "Oh, wait. You would, since you are one. Come on, Sabrina." She slammed her locker shut and walked away.

Marinette clenched her fists. "I can't believe her. It's not like she wouldn't react the same way if she thought a spider was in her hair."

Alya laughed. "That is a prank that totally needs to happen. And then we'll get a vid of her running around and screaming, and see how she likes it."

"I should probably go see if Genevieve is okay."

"Girl, that's sweet and all, but don't you need to look over the notes for the test? I'll go check on her, okay?"

"Thanks, Alya."

"No prob. You just study the notes. Oh, and keep an eye out for Mr. Spider."

Marinette giggled. "If by 'keep an eye out' you mean 'squish it the instant I see it,' then I will."

With a wave, Alya turned and headed off to the girls' room. Marinette sat down on the bench and squinted at Alya's notebook. Her handwriting crept across the page in an untidy scrawl, and the margins of the book were filled with doodles of ladybugs.

"Okay," she muttered. "So when an electron gets added, the ion becomes negative…so reduction is adding an electron, and oxidization is taking one away, right? Ah, that seems so backwards…"

A series of screams exploded from the direction of the girls' room. One by one, they all grew silent, as if the voices' owners were being put out like lamps. Marinette tossed the notes aside and ran to the bathroom, hesitantly pushing open the door. Three or four cocoons the size of people were glued the floor with massive amounts of spider web. Alya stood in the corner by the sinks, huddling against the wall, staring up at the ceiling.

"Alya?"

Wide-eyed, Alya whipped her head around. "Marinette," she whispered. "Run."

A deep growl came from the ceiling, sending shivers down Marinette's spine. Slowly, she lifted her eyes to ceiling.

A massive spider, the size of a person, hung from one of the ceiling's crossbeams. Marinette froze. Each one of its eight eyes were like a domed mirror, and its two fangs dripped a green substance than fell to the floor and sizzled. Each one of its eight appendages prickled with brown hair, and all of them ended in brown hairy human-like hands. A knitting bag was strapped across its body, filled with white balls of yarn that looked suspiciously like the same substance that held people glued to the floor.

Marinette's stomach tossed. "Genevieve?"

"Genevieve is gone," the spider thing said, its voice a horrible grating sound. "I am Arachnid. And now everyone will be afraid of me!" Several hands moved faster than Marinette could see and wove together a net of webbing that went flying at Alya. Alya screamed before she disappeared under the mass of sticky white threads and went silent.

"Alya!" Marinette barely had time to dodge before the webbing came at her. The net of webs covered the door to the girls' room. Horrified, she froze and stared at the wall of webbing that stood where the door once was. Green acid seeped through the fabric of the webs and massive fangs tore it open. With a scream Marinette ran for the janitor's closet, dodging massive balls of spider web as she ran.

One by one, all the other students milling about the school saw Arachnid and started to scream. One scream rang out higher than the rest, one that Marinette would now recognize anywhere.

Chloe.

Arachnid stopped chasing Marinette and turned its attention toward Chloe, whose face had gone white with fear. "Who's afraid now, idiot?"

Chloe screamed "Daddy!" and ran.

Marinette ducked into the janitor's closet. "What a mess. The bell hasn't even rung yet." She popped open her purse. "Tikki, we have to transform. Spots on!"