Chapter's Note

This is a short and straight-forward pure comedy chapter.

[If you are reading this after October 15th 2017, I didn't add a new chapter or anything, I updated to correct my mistakes.]

Alya had the right to be worried.

She loved her best friend, but why in the world did she have to disappear every time there was an akuma attack?

One second she's there and the next, poof! Just like that, gone! Then, as soon as the akuma was purified, oh hey! There she is!

But when she and Nino opened yet another vacant classroom door, she did not expect to find both missing students sitting at a desk.

Marinette was repeatedly banging her head against the top of the desk while Adrien was trying (and failing) to smother his fit of hysterical laughter.

"Marinette!"

"Adrien!"

She and Nino rushed to their friends, relieved to see them in one piece.

"Girl, where were you?! Do you know how worried I was?" She asked angrily while Nino was trying to calm his best friend down.

"We're so stupid!" She moaned, slapping her hands to her forehead and leaning her elbows against the desk.

"In-" Adrien wheezed out, "Indeed we are."

Then he started laughing even harder while Marinette groaned and slammed her head against the desk once more.

Alya and Nino were very confused.

Nino knew his best friend.

No really, he might have only met him last year, but he knew Adrien... Well, except for three things that puzzled him.

One; why did he love cheese so much?

Two; how can he have the tendency to disappear into thin air whenever an akuma attacked?

And Three; why did he start dating Marinette so suddenly?

Don't get him wrong, he was thrilled for both of them. He had known Marinette since they were kids and was aware of her huge crush on his best friend. (Even though he did have a crush on her at one point, but those are details.)

He knew that Adrien couldn't have been more lucky and that Marinette couldn't have found someone better.

But as far as he could tell, Adrien had a huge, hopeless crush on Ladybug.

Until two days ago, that is.

It had been right after a particularly bad akuma attack. Mathematica (a math teacher who was insulted by a student who said that mathematics were useless) had messed up the students with numbers. It might sound harmless, but it had quite the impact. Some lost height, others gained weight, one had even de-aged.

But the worse cases had gotten more limbs, or less blood.

When Ladybug and Chat Noir showed up, more than half the people present were already different in one way or another. Although most of the effects were harmless, some students were in critical condition, one of which had a decrease in the number of brain cells

After Post-Akuma attendances were taken (missing two as usual), he and Alya had bolted out of the gym and immediately started searching the empty classrooms for their best friends.

After they had found them (and after whatever crisis the two of them just had), Adrien just out of the blue invited himself to Marinette's house in the evening.

And she agreed.

Without blushing, or stuttering, even once.

Alya's expression was proud, which turned to curious right away when she started questioning them about what they were doing when the akuma attacked.

"We got held up. This guy," She pointed her thumb at Adrien, "Lost a l-." She paused, "Lost a leg."

Nino's eyes widened almost comically while his friend tried to explain himself,

"Ah! It wasn't that bad I swear! I just, uhh, couldn't walk."

"Not that bad my ass. Come on you two," He grabbed Adrien's arm while Alya did the same with Marinette, "No running away during akuma attacks."

He and Alya dragged them towards their class. From the corner of his eye, he saw the two of them turn towards each other and exchange a complicit look.

He did not want to know.

Three weeks later, their class was doing (extremely boring) grammar exercises when a loud crash, followed by a bellowing voice, broke the silence,

"Grades are stupid! School is stupid! The education system is messed up and I, Ripper, will destroy it!"

"Oh come on, again?!" Alya facepalmed, of course, this was more content for the Ladyblog, but five attacks in a week was ridiculous!

What's more? This was the second one that occurred at their school!

(And seriously? Ripper?)

The sound of chairs screeching against the floor made her turn her head to the left.

"Oooh no you don't!" She grabbed Marinette's arm as Nino did the same with Adrien.

In sync, they started their protests.

"But Alya! There's an akuma right-"

"Nino! Let me go! I have to-"

He was interrupted by the door slamming open and revealing the akumatized student in the doorway. Before anyone had the time to react, he had sailed past the desks and pushed the teacher against the wall.

"There will be no teachers spewing nonsense at children anymore."

His tense and clawed hand raised above his head as an ominous smile crept up his face.

Then two figures, out of nowhere, drop kicked him.

It took most of the class a few seconds to register what just happened.

In front of the classroom, standing protectively between the visibly pissed akuma and Mrs. Bustier, were Adrien and Marinette.

Alya blinked. Once. Twice.

Her best friend never told her she could Taekwondo.

"Aah, merde."

When-

"Welp, re-fur-exes am I right?"

Marinette groaned and facepalmed... While dodging the enraged akumatized student that was trying to kill her.

What.

"Plagg's in my-"

"Locker, I know. Go, I got this."

Without another word, Adrien turned on his heels and shot outside the classroom, avoiding several swipes from the akuma.

Still twirling around the slashes of Ripper's claws, Marinette leapt to her desk, grabbed her purse and shouted;

"Tikki! Transforme-moi!"

For a few seconds, everything was engulfed in a flash of blindingly pink light.

And when Alya re-opened her eyes, At Marinette's place stood a superhero in red and black spandex.

[AlyaCésaire.exe has stopped working]

Nino's mind caught up around the time Lady- Wait, Mari- Wait no. Both crashed through the glass windows to go after the akuma, leaving behind a trail of shattered glass.

Then he realized something,

Adrien

His head whipped around to the sound of footsteps. Chat Noir stood before the door, examining the the classroom. From his position, Nino saw his eyes quickly dart from the shaken up students to the broken glass. He leapt towards the windows, but before he could reach them, Nino's hand clamped around his belt-tail and yanked him back.

"Hold on! You're-"

"No time, Nino, I'll explain later. Bye!"

And with that, Chat Noir- Adrien. AdrIEn?! hopped out the second-story windows and landed safely before dashing towards the still ongoing fight.

"You guys have a lot of explaining to do."

Alya's tone contained a bit of every emotion known to human beings. Nino's eyes were the same.

Marinette and Adrien exchanged the same sheepish, complicit look they had shared when they had discovered each other's identities.

"Look, we-"

"Save it." Alya cut off, "Your tone is apologetic. We don't want you to apologize for not telling us. I read comics, Nino reads comics, everyone reads comics. We know superheroes and secret identities crisis and etcetera etcetera."

Marinette and Adrien sighed in relief. After they had stopped Ripper (cough -and Hawkmoth- cough), they were immediately cornered by their best friends in the alley they ducked into to de-transform and had feared their reactions.

"All we want you to do," Nino continued with a smirk, "Is spill. Everything."

"Actually," Alya frowned, "Can you begin with answering why exactly did Hawkmoth give up after so long?"

"And so suddenly, too." Nino added.

An awkward smile crept up on Adrien's face.

"Well... When you find out the superhero you'd been trying to kill in order to steal a ring is your own son, you kinda just-"

He was interrupted by their synchronized screech,

"WAIT WHAT?!"

Author's Note

This is at least the fifth time I edit this.

I'm so sorry for the random story update alerts.