...and it's been 2 months...whoops

Summary: Marinette's reaching her breaking point and things couldn't possibly get any worse–until they do.

12:35

Peeking her head over the edge of the loft, Marinette checked one more time to make sure that her cousin was fast asleep under her on the chaise.

She bit her lip nervously then sat back down on her bed. She needed to be certain.

12:45

It had gotten infinitely harder to sneak away as Ladybug now that Bridgette was staying in the same room as her.

The first week, she had told Chat that a complication had arisen, and that she would be patrolling much later in the night. She had been sad that they wouldn't get to hang out at patrols together anymore, but she couldn't ask him to stay so late just because it was hard for her to get out the house.

So she had been incredibly surprised when at her first midnight patrol, Chat had shown up minutes later, looking a bit tired, but nonetheless determined to stay by her side.

A small grin made its way onto her face as she fidgeted with the edge of her hand-embroidered quilt. That was why he was one of her best friends. He was always there for her, even when he didn't know the whole story.

The warm feeling soon faded as the soft snores of her cousin drew her attention back to the task at hand. Her fidgeting turned aggressive as she twisted the edge of the quilt roughly.

Despite always striving to be kind to everyone, she couldn't help but feel bitter towards the girl who had been dropped into her life.

Marinette liked to think that she wasn't an inherently jealous person. She might've been hasty in when she had first met Lila, but she hoped that she wasn't like that all the time.

But then again, she had always been an only child. Having to share everything with someone else was new and uncomfortable to her.

She had been used to the way her parents sometimes coddled her, but seeing that with someone else? It was… strange. Not to mention the way those at her school seemed to group her and Bridgette together. She didn't like it.

Huffing silently with frustration, she mentally berated herself for feeling that way. She couldn't even begin to explain how she felt, but taking it out on Bridgette wasn't fair.

That didn't stop her from sneering at her sleeping cousin below her out of spite. At the flare of aggression she felt, she reached up and tugged at the loose pigtail on her right side.

12:50

A couple more beats of quiet breathing passed before she ventured to peek over the loft again. Bridgette was in the same position as before, curled up under the fluffy pink blanket. It was time.

"Tikki?"

The clasp of her purse popped open and the kwami flew out, silently yawning. "Ready?"

Marinette nodded. Lately, Tikki had had no choice but to stay hidden in Marinette's bag at all times, lest Bridgette walk in on something she shouldn't have seen.

But really, the two had no choice. Finding another Ladybug would be time consuming, not that Marinette was willing to give Tikki up. And there was nothing they could do about Bridgette. The girl had just lost her father after all.

With a final look at Bridgette, Marinette quietly pushed open her trapdoor and climbed out onto the balcony. The night was cool and soothing and she simply stood for a minute to relax. She had felt so tense lately. Not only was their last year of school filled with countless assignments and tests, but also she could feel everyone's stares on her backs. Their whispers followed her and her cousin as they traveled through the hall.

A sudden burst of anger rushed through her and her hands clenched. Why couldn't they just leave her alone! She was sick of being treated like a fragile little doll. She was sick of the way everyone was afraid of offending her and Bridgette. She wanted everything to be back to normal.

Back when her Uncle was still alive.

Glaring into the night, she murmured, "Tikki, spots on!" She ignored the way her kwami frowned as she disappeared into the glowing red stone.

Pink light flashed, and a minute later, Ladybug was aggressively swinging through the city. She was normally cautious while traveling via yoyo, but tonight, she flung herself recklessly into the air, waiting until the last second of free falling before blindly chucking her yoyo out.

She was fine .

She jumped off the roof of a building and landed on a moving car. A split second later she was back into the air.

She was fucking fine .

With a frustrated yell, she threw her yoyo at the side of a museum, but it just bounced harmlessly off.

Fine.

Somehow, she made her way to the top of her school. Heavily breathing, she tugged at her pigtails in frustration.

Ladybug. Marinette. Whoever she was, she was fine. But she was also angry. And she didn't know what her problem was .

For a quick second, she wished that she had Chat's power of destruction. Her anger and frustration was boiling over, and her lack of understanding of whyshe was feeling all of it made it worse. But she didn't have Cataclysm, and it would've been incredibly irresponsible of her to use it emotionally anyway.

At the moment, she didn't feel like giving a crap about responsibility.

Without any way to physically destroy the white stone of the school's roof, she resorted to stomping her feet. Tears streamed down her face, but she angrily wiped them away. She didn't get it.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was supposed to be fine.

Ladybug had nothing to be upset about.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was supposed to be the confident, cheerful class president.

Ladybug shouldn't be letting her emotions get the best of her.

"I'm fine!" A sudden impulse overtook her and she yelled into the night.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, and I'm fine! …I'm, I'm fine…" Her angry remarks slowly devolved into more sobs.

A soft thud behind her made her whip around and she yelped in pain when her shoulder connected with the chimney next to her. Already frustrated past the point of reason, she let out another irate yell.

Black, leather-covered hands moved to steady her. "My Lady?"

Ladybug was terribly aware of how much of a mess she looked. She was still crying, eyes probably red and swollen, and her normally neat tails were windswept and uneven.

But, she couldn't find it in her to actually care. Instead, she flung herself into her partner's arms and hugged him tightly.

He didn't say anything, though he did stiffen a bit. Then, he wrapped one arm around her while the other reached up to brush through her tangled hair. Ladybug simply sobbed into his shoulder.

"It's okay Bugaboo, it's okay," he soothed, "I'm here for you, and if you need it, I'm willing to listen."

She sniffled some more, before sinking down onto her knees and curling into a ball. Chat lowered himself down next to her. Her body shivered and shaked.

The night air no longer seemed so soothing. Instead, the coldness bit at her raw cheeks, etching a burning sensation into her face.

At last she spoke up. "I don't even know why I'm crying." Ladybug tried to smile at Chat, but it came out as more of a grimace.

"Sometimes, we don't need a reason to be upset. We just need to let it all out." Chat wrapped his arms around her once more, setting his chin on top of her head as they stared out to the city.

She laughed dryly, throat still hoarse from her previous yelling. "When did you get so wise, kitty cat?"

"I've always been wise, oh young spotted-one." He straightened up importantly, putting on airs. Then he dropped his act, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking her in the eyes.

"Seriously though, are you okay? You've been a bit off these past few weeks."

She hesitated for a second. "Just some personal stuff. It's been a bit rough." Reaching up to wipe away the last of her traitorous tears, she grimaced at the harsh combination of cold air and raw skin.

"Okay...but I'm here for you Bug. You know that right?"

A genuine smile made its way onto her face. It was a relief knowing that. "Of course."

They didn't patrol that night. Two superheroes leaned against one another as they watched the sun rise from the top of the school.

"Okay, okay. So you're telling me that the Literature test is today?" Alya pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. "This is a joke. Please tell me this is a joke."

Marinette laughed and handed her friend a bag of warm pastries. "We have it in the afternoon. Come over during lunch and we can study for it."

Alya accepted the proffered bag and took another deep breath. "Okay. Ugh, I just have so much to do! I feel like I'm writing something all the time. One minute I'm doing an essay, then I'm working on another and then I'm working on the school newspaper, and I still have a bunch of internship applications I have to get through by the end of the month!" She ripped off a section of a chocolate croissant and shoved it into her mouth.

"Breathe. It's gonna be okay! Super Mari is here to save the day!" Marinette winked, and Alya burst out laughing, buttery flakes flying out.

A hand popped in between the giggling duo, daintily holding a napkin out for Alya. Alya took it and wiped her mouth. "Thanks Bridgette." She gave the silent girl a placating smile and was rewarded with a tight smile.

Marinette frowned slightly at her cousin's interruption, something that Alya noticed with concern. It seemed like as time went by, Marinette's patience with the girl had decreased exponentially.

When Bridgette had first moved in with Mari, the girl had followed the two everywhere. Marinette had been incredibly kind and understanding, if a bit reserved herself. Both she and Alya had done their best to get Bridgette settled in as gently as possible, yet even Alya had seen that Bridgette's constant presence had slowly started grating Marinette's nerves. The journalist wasn't even sure if her best friend had noticed the way Bridgette had begun copying Marinette in some areas.

Granted, the girl had now grown out of her shell tremendously and was no longer attached to Marinette's hip. She still spend a large amount of time with them though.

Bridgette herself seemed okay. A bit sharp and blunt, if Alya was honest, but nothing incredibly problematic. And truthfully, the girl was really trying.

Alya was more disappointed in her friend for the way she was behaving. Marinette had always been a kind person, yet when someone close to her needed it most, the girl's patience had disappeared.

Alya shook off her musings and began gathering her books from her open locker. Now wasn't the time to confront her friend. But would there ever be a good time?

Suddenly, her locker door swung around and nearly hit her nose. Alya yelped and turned towards Marinette, who had jumped around behind the metal door. "What the hell Mari?!"

Marinette's eyes were wide with panic. She whispered, "Adrien!" and shrunk in on herself even more.

Of course . What else would it be? Alya followed her friend's eyes to the blond model several yards down the hall, who was having an animated discussion with Nino, a guy in Alya's geometry and computer science classes. Alya rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

Alya snorted and even Bridgette cracked an amused smile. "Jesus Mari. It's literally been years! You've gotta get your act together around him."

"He's coming!" Marinette ignored her and attempted to both hide in the locker and catch Adrien's attention at the same time.

"You're a mess," there was a teasing smile in Bridgette's voice, but Marinette frowned, interpreting her words in the wrong way.

"No I'm not! I'd like to see you not melt into a complete mess in front of such a perfect person!" The pigtailed girl snapped. Without thinking she reached up and aggressively tugged at her pigtail.

Shrugging, Bridgette walked towards Adrien with an air of casual indifference. "Hey Agreste!"

Adrien stopped talking and stared at her with surprise. She had never initiated any sort of conversation with him before. Nino's mouth quirked a bit with annoyance at her interruption.

"Hi...Bridgette."

He cautiously turned away from Nino in order to face her fully. While she was definitely a lot more outspoken than the first few weeks of her arrival, he still didn't know how to fully interact with her.

Bridgette smiled.

Alya and Marinette looked on from the distance as Bridgette began to chat with Adrien, but they were too far away to hear. Marinette seethed.

"Hey, hey," Alya placed a hand on Marinette's shoulder, "She's just doing what you basically challenged her to do."

"Yes, but she shouldn't be doing a good job of it! She should be floundering and blushing and tripping up like me!"

"Hun, most people have an okay time at attempting to talk to the oh-so-scary sunshine boy. I mean, are we going over this again Mari? Why do you even like him in the first place?"

Marinette dropped her eyes to the floor. They'd had this conversation before. "Because he's the kindest guy I've literally ever encountered."

Alya nodded. "And while I don't have a crippling crush on him because of that, I will agree with that awfully true statement. So is he going to bite you?"

"No," came the mumbled and sheepish reply.

"What's the worst that could possibly happen if you confessed?" Alya prodded her more.

"He-He could reject me!"

"And…"

Marinette sighed. Over the past three years of her rather distracting and large crush on a certain model, Alya had tried to get her to confess to Adrien countless times. "...He would probably be sweet about it too, the asshole."

"So you need to do it!"

"But–I can't! I mean, does he even know who I am? Does–"

Alya interrupted, "Of course he does. You're the freaking class president. People do tend to pay attention." Sarcasm dripped off her words.

"Yeah," Marinette stopped her torrent of words with a groan, "I know you have a point; you always do. And we've had this conversation enough to times for you to know that I totally agree with you! I-I just can't do it."

"It seems like you never can. We graduate this year Mari! You've got to do it one day!"

Marinette squeaked. "Or maybe I could, you know, just never confess, and just love him safely from afar where it doesn't hurt anyone okay? Okay. Yup!" And with that, the girl turned, bumping her shoulder harshly into the wall, and scurried away.

Alya sighed before closing her locker and following her friend.

Bridgette sat down next to Alya, who was rapidly texting on her phone.

"You're looking for Marinette too, huh?"

Alya jumped, and her fingers twitched comically in the air. "Oh my god, Bridgette you scared me! Uh, yeah, Marinette said that I could go over to the bakery with her to study, but–yeah, I didn't see her after class and she's not responding to my texts."

Alya's face was pulled into a concerned and slightly hurt expression.

Bridgette looked up and twitched her lips to the side. "She's been avoiding me. I think she's pissed at me for talking to Adrien. I mean I know for sure that she's pissed at me, because she always has these little tells whenever I aggravate her even though she thinks that I don't know." Bridgette frowned. "Anyway, it's not like she has claim over Adrien. Also it's not my fault that she can't talk to him when literally everyone else can!"

Alya looked down at her phone again. "I mean, you have to understand that this girl's literally been pining after this boy for three years at this point."

Bridgette frowned. "That doesn't mean that he's hers."

Alya put her phone down and stared at the pouting girl next to her. Did Bridgette...

She shook her head and looked down at the string of unanswered text messages. "Where could that girl be?"

They were interrupted by a large crash and the rising volume of screams.

Large blocks of legos had started raining from the sky. The two barely caught a glimpse of a rainbow akuma zoom by before a whizzing sound could be heard.

Ladybug dropped down next to the two a second later. She turned towards Alya, who had excitedly opened the camera app to record. "You need to find cover right now." Another block plummeted towards the ground, crashing into the bench seven feet away from them. Splinters of wood flew towards them, but Ladybug whipped out her yoyo and rapidly swung it around to deflect the flying shards. "Go!" Her eyes flicked briefly towards Bridgette before nodding at Alya.

Alya made to go, but the girl next to her simply raised her eyebrow.

"Why should we listen to you?" Ladybug reeled back in shock. No one had ever treated her like that before. She always forgot that Bridgette had witnessed few akuma attacks since her arrival in Paris and had never directly interacted with Ladybug before.

"Come on, let's just go." Alya tried tugging Bridgette away. The Asian girl refused to move.

Ladybug frowned, and a spotted hand reached up and yanked at her pigtail roughly. "Look, I don't have time to explain anything to you. It's my duty to help the citizens of Paris, and I don't have to explain any more than that. There are literally huge bricks dropping from the sky right now."

With that, she lassoed a large piece of a red block, using it to both propel herself upwards and to redirect its downwards path. Ladybug was gone within the second.

Bridgette stood there, staring at the space that had previously been occupied by the spotted heroine.

Alya tugged harder at Bridgette's hand. Finally moving, the Asian girl followed Alya indoors towards the school building. Her perplexed expression never left.

Ladybug swung onto her rooftop, nearly collapsing with exhaustion.

The akuma had taken nearly three hours to defeat, seeing as it never stayed in one place. She had missed lunch and all of her afternoon classes, without even having time to drop Alya an excuse for ditching her for lunch.

Not to mention, now she had to make up that literature test. Groaning, she twisted and cracked her back, a large yawn escaping her mouth.

Having a double life as a teenager was not easy.

With a look around, she unhatched her trapdoor and extended her legs to drop down onto her bed.

Or at least, she was supposed to drop down onto her bed. Instead of the soft comforter she had been expecting, her foot hit something harder. Like a bony kind of hard.

She ducked her head under the hatch, and nearly yelped when she saw her foot had hit someone's knees.

That someone being an angry cousin who was currently glaring up at her with arms crossed.

Wait–She hadn't transformed back!–

"Marinette. We need to talk."

Any constructive criticism is appreciated! Just a BTW, I tend to update on AO3 earlier because I do think its a cleaner interface. If you wanna suscribe there, I go by frostypineapple on AO3 and on tumblr!

Thanks for reading!