A/N: Hello again my lovely readers! Thank you to all who wrote a review, I really appreciate it so so much, and feel free to write another one for this chapter, I read all of them and they mean so much to me! Thank you for your kind words, requests and suggestions! I took them all into account, and I've decided to go with a mix of Ladynoir and Adrinette, let me know what you think!

Also, I watched Miracle Queen and I was absolutely not pleased at all with it's ending. So I am going to continue this fic as if the episode Miracle Queen never happened because I can not even express my anger with that episode into words.

Anyway, enjoy!

Chloe Bourgeois had to remind herself that she was not in an anger induced dream. That she was, in fact, once again in possession of the bee miraculous and, once again, operating with the boost of an akuma.

Now, adding not one, but two more things to the list, she also had to remind herself that she was, in fact, standing in a dark room illuminated by a circular window tinted purple standing in front of the number one most wanted criminal of Paris; Hawk Moth.

Chloe, now Miracle Queen, stared around in disbelief, then said the only thing she could think of. "This place is dark, cold, gross, and ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!" Chloe paused, fully taking in her surroundings for the first time. Then she noticed something. "Where's your bird friend?"

Hawk Moth gave her a chilling look. "She is resting," he replied in a tone that implied that line of questioning was over.

"Whatever," Chloe said, shrugging off his cold tone. "What's the plan?"

Revealed none of his emotions, Hawk Moth began to lay out Chloe's role for the next few days. "I have the Guardian of the Miraculous in a secure location that no, I will not be disclosing to you," he said as Chloe opened her mouth to speak, then pouted and crossed her arms, but said nothing.

Hawk Moth continued. "You, or rather your wasps that you are able to summon, have the ability to have a person's worst nightmare play out right before their eyes once that person is stung. It will be an illusion to any spectators, but the person that the fear belongs to will be able to interact with it in all their five senses."

Miracle Queen inspected her nails. "And how exactly is that power gonna make any difference?" she said, putting in an implied ridiculous! Utterly, ridiculous!

Hawk Moth just continued to look at her with a consistent lack of emotion.

The akumatized miraculous holder looked up from her nails and rolled her eyes. "Fine. Just tell me what to do to bring Ladybug down and I'll do it."

Hawk Moth's face formed into what could only really be called a wicked smile.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was sprinting down the street, keenly aware of the fact that she was still a block away from school and had less than 30 seconds before the bell rang. Which was unusual for Marinette, she usually had a little less than 5 minutes to get to Francois Dupoint on time when she left the bakery.

Ah, how Marinette missed normal days.

Knowing that she had only a few seconds left, Marinette put on an extra burst of speed that even Ladybug would've gotten tired from…

… and ran headfirst into Adrien Agreste.

Normally, Marinette would've blathered some string of incoherent words meant to be an apology and then feel simultaneously embarrassed and lovestruck after the experience. But today, all Marinette saw when she looked up at Adrien was the kiss that he had shared with Kagami, and all the pain it had brought with the realization that she was going to have to be constantly putting up a mask. And not her black and red one.

"That's stupid," Chat had told her last night, sometime around 11 pm. "You shouldn't have to pretend to be happy and paste on a smile every time your with, uh, what was his placeholder name again?"

"Erm, I think it was Bob, and the girl I think was Sally," Ladybug replied.

Chat frowned good naturedly at that. "I thought we'd decided on Stanley and Vallery."

"No way. I never would have agreed to that, it was definitely Bob and Sal-"

"Anyway!" Chat interrupted pointedly, which got him both an eye roll and a reluctant giggle from the black-spotted hero.

Chat continued, this time in a softer tone. "You shouldn't have to pretend to be happy around Stanley and Vallery if your not, because that's going to wear on you over time and start to tear you up inside," Chat paused to take a shaky breath, and it occurred to Ladybug that he wasn't talking just about her situation with Adrien. "You have to tell him," he told her. "You have to tell Stanley the truth, so that you can stop pretending, so that you can be honest around him. It will hurt, but it will also help take away some of the long term pain."

His next words held so many different meanings and implications that Ladybug's heart officially ordered it's papers of resignation for head of the romance department.

"It will help you move on."

"Uh, Marinette, are you ok?" Adrien's words of concern startled Marinette back into reality, along with the late bell, but the two teens didn't move from their spot.

"Y-yeah," she lied. "Yeah good I'm, I mean, good I'm yeah, er," Marinette facepalmed and sighed, apparently giving up on on saying words in an order that made sense.

Adrien smiled down at her, completely oblivious, as usual. "It's ok, take your time, we're already late anyway."

Marinette snorted at that. Remembering Chat's advice from the night before and riding on a wave of sort-of-confidence, she asked hesitantly, "A-Actually, c-could you meet me on the steps when lunch starts? I, I need to tell you s-something."

A full sentence at normal speed and volume! Today really wasn't normal.

Adrien, still smiling obliviously, replied, "Sure Marinette, everything ok?"

"Y-yep," she answered, lying for the second time.

"Great, shall we head in for our fashionably late entrance M'la- Marinette?" Adrien gestured in a very Chat Noir like way towards the entrance. Nodding, they walked into the school.

I need to remember to not make a habit of staying up until 2 am on a rooftop in the cold with Chat Noir, Marinette thought as she walked up the stairs to her class. I thought I was talking to Chat instead of Adrien for a second.

I should probably not make a habit of staying up until 2 am with M'lady, I thought Marinette sounded like her for a second, Adrien smiled to himself as he thought of Ladybug, but that happiness changed to guilt when he remembered his kiss with Kagami.

Adrien and Marinette walked into class almost 10 minutes late together, and so they had raised some questions. Well, lots of questions.

Once Ms. Bustier had managed to quiet down the class, Adrien and Marinette had been able to take their seats, and Lila had stopped "congratulating" them for dating (to which both of them denied), Ms. Bustier began the morning's lessons.

Marinette wasn't paying attention. She tried, she really did, but when Alya wasn't sending her texts warning Marinette that she would be getting some answers as soon as she could ask, Marinette was trying to come up with exactly what she was going to say to Adrien. She wrote four rough drafts in her mind and mentally discarded all of them.

But to be fair, how does one tell someone that they've been in love with for almost a year one's feelings when that someone has kissed one of one's close friends?

The lunch bell came all too soon, and yet at the same time it also felt like an eternity to Marinette. Funny how those things work.

When Marinette finally was able to make it to the steps outside the school after escaping from Alya, only by assuring her that she was leaving to talk to Adrien, Adrien was already waiting for her.

"Hey Marinette," he greeted her warmly. "What's up?"

Before Marinette had time to chicken out and/or get lost in his big green eyes, she slammed her eyes shut, took a deep breath, and did what she does best. She spoke from the heart.

"Adrien Agreste," she began. "Ever since the second day I knew you, you've shown me your kindness, offered me your support, and given me your friendship," she paused preparing herself what she was going to say next, but still not opening her eyes. "And for that I will always be grateful, but-" her voice shook, and for a moment she faltered. "But it friendship wasn't enough for me. I had a crush on y-you, the b-biggest crush, and I w-wanted more, I s-still w-want more." steeling her resolve Marinette got out the last of what she needed to say with only a few stray tears traveling down her cheeks. "I know you kissed Kagami, I know you have a crush on her and n-not on m-me, I know you two are probably dating."

Taking a deep breath, Marinette lifted her lids and looked Adrien right eye. "So your friendship will have to be enough. In my heart, for a while it still won't be. But with time, m-maybe." She noticed Adrien just staring at her with an expression that looked a little sad, but mostly shocked and confused.

Marinette finished looking down at her shoes. "I won't lie and say that I'm happy with it, nor that I'm happy for you and Kagami, but I'm happy that your happy, and I'm happy that she's happy, and I guess that's all I can be right now."

Adrien didn't say anything, and Marinette was too afraid to look up.

That was when they heard the screams.