Author's Note: Chat thinks he can handle things when an imposter assumes his identity - and lands himself instead in the worst day, ever.

So, first, some background.

As I started my very first story in the MLB universe, Elegy for a Chat, I found myself creating backstories and events to help understand the motivations of Chat and Ladybug as they worked their way through that adventure. Most of them were one-off shorts, not likely to be included as part of the main plot of that story, but still interesting enough to me (as a writer) that I jotted them down for reference. Suddenly, in March of 2019, I found I had several chapters worth of material and a tenuous thread to connecting them all together. I'm also ashamed to admit that I was new enough in the fandom that I'd unintentionally stumbled my way into a pretty interesting Marichat scenario without realizing what I was doing. But I learn fast. ;-)

Even though I am in the final stages of the Elegy series, I keep finding new and interesting stories to tell with these versions of Chat and Marinette, so it appears to be a story that just won't quit. Weekly updates will continue to appear – but be sure to check my profile for more details.

I am pulling the Author's Prerogative Card and using the episode production order, and not the order of airing, as canon. This particular story starts fairly early in S1 as our duo are feeling their way - as both heroes and, possibly, something more.

It was shaping up to be a really, really bad day.

I thought it had started well enough. The Mayor had commissioned a statue in the park to commemorate Paris's two newest superheroes, and I'd snuck out of fencing practice to attend the formal unveiling with Ladybug. She hadn't appeared, though, leaving me to try and entertain the crowd and the very wound up sculptor, Theo. Things started to go downhill when Theo confided that he was smitten with Ladybug and the jealousy monster within this cat reared its ugly head; I might have led him to believe I'd already occupied that spot in her heart.

I could see right away that I'd crushed him, badly, but at the time didn't really care. I was having my own troubles trying to woo Ladybug and frankly didn't need the competition. He left the park rather dejectedly, and I had I been thinking clearly, would've immediately recognized how much more trouble he would be later. Instead, I'd made my way back to fencing practice and finished out the session with no one the wiser.

The second indicator that the day was going south came up after I returned to the mansion. I'd been unpacking my gym bag and discovered my phone was missing. It was a little odd since I usually kept good track of it – my whole life was on it, after all – but even after interrogating Plagg, it appeared I'd somehow lost it back at the gym. I wound up forcing Nathalie to send for my bodyguard, who in turn drove me back to the gym.

The third indicator that the rest of the day was not going to go according to any plan at all came as we were driving. I'd been watching the news network on the tiny screen embedded into the back of the driver's seat; my jaw dropped when they cut to a breaking story and ran video of me – or rather, Chat Noir – ransacking the Louvre and taking off with a priceless painting. I was pretty sure I'd been elsewhere at the time and immediately assumed Hawkmoth had launched another villain at us.

I'd left my bodyguard at the curb and ran back into the gym; deciding my missing phone was a lower priority, I'd instead used the quiet locker room to quickly transform to Chat Noir and took off for the Louvre. Something in the back of my head was warning me that I'd probably should have cross checked with Ladybug, but another part of me was a tiny bit upset she'd stood me up at the dedication.

Landing on the roof of the glass pyramid, I'd slid down to find all of Paris's Finest pointing their weapons at me. With a bit of sweet talking, I'd managed to convince Officer Raincomprix I wasn't the Chat Noir they were looking for and to let me take a look at the scene. I was so intent on clearing my name, I didn't see it for the trap it was and wound up physically locked up in the gallery – but not before I'd found a straw-like swizzle stick very similar to the one that Theo had been chewing on at the dedication.

One Cataclysm later and I was a fugitive from justice myself. The fourth indicator that I was in serious trouble came when the entire Paris Police Force came after me, helicopters and all. That seemed like a good time to finally check in with Ladybug to let her know I was on the trail of the imposter Chat Noir, but the gathering troops had forced me to cut the call short – but not before she'd tried to talk me out of going it alone.

I managed to evade the officers by ducking into the Metro and transforming back to Adrien. Plagg had confirmed my suspicion regarding the swizzle stick: Theo had to have become Hawkmoth's latest akumatized victim. I knew then that it was my white lie about my relationship with Ladybug that had created the mess. It only seemed right that I'd have to now clean it up.

I let Plagg recharge with the emergency Camembert I kept on hand. When he'd had just enough, I transformed back to Chat Noir and started searching for Theo's workshop. It had seemed like a logical place to start, and I managed to get a glance at the advertisement he'd shown me at the dedication – the gallery address had been listed prominently but wasn't in a part of Paris I'd been to recently.

As I covered the distance, I realized I was pretty upset at myself for how I'd handled the whole situation. Yes, I was in love with Ladybug; that didn't mean others couldn't be, too. It had been unfair of me to mislead Theo, no matter how my jealous heart tried to justify it. I'd have to somehow make him see reason without hurting either one of us further.

Landing on the rooftop and peering down through the skylight, it had been easy to confirm I was in the right spot. I'd called Ladybug again to let her know I was going in to confront Theo, but had insisted to her I could handle it on my own – no need for her to get involved – and clicked off before she could say anything further on the matter. Honestly, I didn't want her to know I had lied about our relationship – at least, not until I'd had a chance to try and repair the damage.

That led to the final indicator that my day was not going to turn out well.

I'd found a cute porcelain kitty sculpture atop a crate, with a card addressed to Chat Noir. Now, any normal superhero would have been immediately suspicious, but having only been in the gig for a few weeks at that point, I was still learning the warning signs that I was in danger (I direct your attention to the Louvre incident earlier in the day). Being a complete idiot, I picked up the note and in short order found my wrists cuffed to a long chain running through an anchor firmly bolted to the studio floor.

Moving one wrist up required moving the other down, making movement nearly impossible. The chain was also short enough to prevent me from moving too far from the anchor. I tried some of my super strength and couldn't budge the anchor at all, and started to feel the swell of panic in my chest.

That's when my mistakes increased geometrically, ultimately revealing just how much of a rookie I was.

I made matters much worse by immediately calling up Cataclysm with the intent of freeing myself from the chains. Being Chat Noir was still new for me, and I hadn't completely become attuned to the enhanced senses that came with it; in that moment, I was so focused on freeing myself I wasn't paying attention to my feline ears. As my hand came down, Copycat grabbed me from behind and with super strength equal to my own, redirected my Cataclysm to piece of plywood. I watched in horror as it dissolved instead, simultaneously starting the five-minute timer to my de-transformation.

My heart was beating so hard in my ears I missed the first part of what Copycat said as he danced around me, and I saw my doppelgänger in full for the first time. It wasn't an exact mirror, of course; his voice still sounded like Theo, but everything else, down to the Miraculous on his hand was identical. I reached for my baton, trying to twist around the chains, only to find that I'd also missed him removing it.

"Looking for this? Which one should I pick up? My one or my one?" he taunted me, holding up what I presume was his version, and what I now knew was mine.

Mine rang. Copycat clicked it open and in a fair approximation of my own voice, told Ladybug he'd captured the culprit. It was almost exactly what I had planned on saying myself.

"Don't come here, Ladybug! It's a trap!" I yelled, but Theo had snapped the phone shut before Ladybug could hear.

"Too late," Copycat purred. "Ladybug's on her way, and that was my plan all along."

"She won't be duped," I said. "She knows me too well," I added, hoping that was as true as it sounded.

"I know you well, too," he said, pulling out the photo of Ladybug he'd shown me back at the dedication. My eyes widened - it was purple-toned now, meaning the akuma was hiding within it. "And from now on, she'll love me, not you!"

I blinked. "Love me?" Yes, this day was thoroughly going down the tubes. "Ahh, you're right! That's why she'll be able to reveal your true identity!"

That seemed to get under his collar as he used one of our staffs to knock me to my back. In another moment, he'd harshly raised my ring hand with an iron grip around my wrist, driving my opposite hand into the ground, hard. The fact that I found myself looking directly up at… myself… was almost surreal.

The day bottomed out with Ladybug arriving and finding me there, on the floor, about to lose my Miraculous, and quite possibly my gig as one of Paris's protectors. The flame of embarrassment touched my cheeks as she knelt over me, confusion reigning on her face as she looked to me and then Copycat.

"Chat Noir," she said to Copycat, "he looks just like you!"

"That's because I am me!" I said, but given my position, she deferred to Copycat. I could feel the red on my cheeks going to deep scarlet. So much for taking care of my own problem.

"Where's his akuma?" I heard her ask Copycat.

"In his ring, of course."

As she leaned in to start to slide it off my finger, my heart sank completely. I couldn't believe she thought I was the villain. But then again, I suppose I'd triggered the whole thing in the first place…

At that moment, one of the pads on the ring chirped and went away. Perplexed, Ladybug observed: "He even has the same powers as you…"

Copycat said something, but an idea had suddenly popped into my brain. "Look, if you don't believe I'm the real Chat Noir," I said, "ask him about our love for each other."

She stopped and stared at me. "Uhhh…"

That was my only chance, as much as it hurt to pursue it. "Would I ever lie to you, bugaboo?" I asked, with a wink and a Chat smile.

Ladybug turned back to Copycat, and leaned in close. "I hope you didn't tell him about us," she said sweetly.

"What?" he said, thrown a bit.

"That we made a secret promise?"

"Uh… yes!" he lied, "of course!"

Ladybug sat back up. "We never made a promise," she said, "Copycat!"

"I love you, Ladybug! I'm way better than this mangy alley cat!"

"Sorry," she said firmly. "Liars are losers. Chat Noir may annoy me to pieces, but he's never lied to me."

I started to breath a bit easier. "Thanks for the compliment – I think…"

The rest was bit of a blur. Copycat triggered his version of Cataclysm, but Ladybug deftly maneuvered him into taking out the chains; I kept him busy with hand-to-hand combat while she figured out what to do with her Lucky Charm. That was easier said than done as Copycat had identical abilities. At length we managed to free the akuma and release its spell over Theo.

As he recovered on the floor of his studio, I turned to Ladybug and said, "I'm so glad you could tell the real cat from the fake one."

That was when the day went totally dark, for Ladybug responded with: "Once I figured out which cat was really in love with me, it was a no-brainer."

The force of her words hit me as if they'd been physical. I may have even taken a slight step backward from her. Fortunately, my ring let out it's final warning chirp, allowing me to escape with what little dignity I now had. "Better help the fellow out," I said. "His crush just got crushed."

I turned away and as I started to spring out the skylight, adding quietly: "That makes two of us."

Scampering a few alleys away, I dropped my transformation and plied Plagg with enough cheese that I could resume being Chat Noir to get back to the gym and finally search for my phone, all the while trying hard not to think about how badly I had mishandled the day. Once back at the gym, I stayed as Chat long enough to scour the locker room with my faster feline reflexes, but came up empty in the phone department. Dejectedly I transformed back to Adrien and exited the gym, where my patient bodyguard was still waiting for me at the curb.

I stared out the window, finally alone with my thoughts and forced to return to those final, painful words from Ladybug. How could she not know I loved her? I felt like I'd made it obvious each time I was with her. Was I no more to her than her sidekick, throwing myself in front of any danger that threatened her?

I smirked a little at that, since I often found myself taking a beating in an attempt to give her more time to get her Lucky Charm going. But I'd willingly do it again and again to make sure my lady was safe. I couldn't believe she didn't see that.

Fortunately, the next day turned out to be far better.

My thoughts hadn't improved by the time I'd returned to school the following day, though. Even Nino thought something was off, which was not good since Adrien had no reason to be feeling lovelorn at the moment. I tried to channel some of my supermodel talents and fake a normal smile, but he remained concerned as we took our seats in class. I decided to try and blame it on my missing phone.

"I haven't found it yet," I told him. "I had it when I went to fencing practice yesterday, but it vanished after that. I've searched everywhere for it."

"Maybe you dropped it somewhere," he offered.

"Well, if I did, someone found it in the boys' locker room. I was checking my voicemail in there during practice – that was the last time I saw it."

At that moment, Marinette made an unusual motion behind me. I'm not sure anyone else would have seen it, but after yesterday's disaster, I'd started paying attention to all of my senses, both in and out of the costume. I turned toward her, a quizzical expression on my face, and started to ask if she was ok.

My bookbag took that moment to fall over and empty it's contents on the ground. I snapped my head around and down, and there, on top of my physics notebook, was my phone.

"What?" I heard myself say, as I bent over and retrieved the phone. "I looked there a thousand times!"

Nino chuckled. "Dude, you need some time off."

As I put my bookbag back together, I could have sworn I'd seen a look pass between Ayla and Marinette. I filed that away for later and snapped the satchel closed.

"Well," I said, "glad to have it back." I slid it into my pocket as the teacher had started the lesson.

Classwork was routine but engaging, and lunch appeared suddenly. I headed for the waiting sedan to whisk me back to the mansion for lunch, and pulled out the phone while enroute. There were a ton of missed calls – many from my home phone, when I'd been trying to locate it – and that unknown number that had piqued my curiosity yesterday in the locker room. On a whim, I redialed it.

It rang several times, before I thought I heard Ladybug's voice. "Hello?" she said.

"Uh, hi," I started, unsure of how to proceed. "Uh, this number called me yesterday and I was just returning the call. Who is this?"

"Adrien?" There was a pause. "It's Marinette!"

"Marinette?" I felt an eyebrow going up. I would've sworn it had been Ladybug, but maybe Nino was right – between Chat Noir, school and fencing, I was burning the candle at both ends. "How is it I don't have you in my phonebook?" I asked, laughing. "I'll fix that now. What did you need?"

She paused again. "Uh, I don't remember now," she said. "But if I do, I'll call you again."

"All right," I said pleasantly. "See you this afternoon."

I clicked off, and then paused. There had been a voicemail from that number, too. I flipped over to the messaging system, but the inbox was completely empty.

The recently deleted items folder, however, was not.

I opened the folder, and there was the message I'd seen yesterday at the gym. I pressed listen and held the phone to my ear.

"Uh, hello. Uh, Adrien's voicemail, this is Marinette, who, uh, has a message for you, of course, cause it's your phone so, um, hah! Hah! Call me! See you later!"

I found myself smiling. It was totally Marinette. I was about to click out when I realized I heard background noise, and kept listening. I think I heard the phone being tossed and then, faintly, Marinette's voice again.

Oh my God. She didn't know it was still recording.

"What? What did you expect me to say?" came the distance but chirpy voice. "'Hey, hot stuff, this is Marinette, I'd like to ask you on a date to a movie but I've got such a crazy crush on you that the only way I can talk to you without foaming at the mouth is over this stupid phone.' Pretty ridiculous, right?"

Another voice, even fainter. Was that Ayla? "Hit two! Hit two!"

The message ended.

I pulled the phone from my ear, stunned. Marinette likes me? Adrien? Sure, I liked her quite a bit myself, but nothing beyond the casual friend level. Although now that I thought about it, she did seem to always find a way to be in the same group I was in, or fortuitously wind up being the partner I was assigned to for school projects. And Ayla always seemed to be setting up foursomes with her and Nino, pairing me with Marinette.

I smacked my head. Not only was I blind as Chat Noir, I'd been blind as Adrien, too. I'd been seeing love with Ladybug where none apparently existed, and ignoring love from the place I least expected it.

Huh, I thought. What an odd love triangle. But I smiled, genuinely for the first time in a bit.

It's nice to know someone cares, though.

Something clicked in my brain, and I realized I was going to need to sort all of this out. I just didn't have the first clue how to go about doing it.