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Chapter Text

Love Stage

“And the winner is….” Mrs. Bustier began with excitement peppered in her voice as she slowly opened the envelope. Everyone who entered the contest was on edge, while some others couldn’t care less. Marc’s hand instinctively reached for Nathaniel’s hand; who’s hand squeezed back with the full force of his nerves. “Marc and Nathaniel’s Miraculous manga!” she exclaimed and the two entangled in one another’s arms jumped up with screams of excitement.

Their classmates cheered them on as Chloe crossed her arms defiantly. “Should’ve been my story!” she huffed.

Alya rolled her eyes and said, “Well it could have been yours, if yours wasn’t copyrighted by Disney….”, which earned her a glare from the seething blonde.

As the assembly calmed down and the students returned to their classrooms, Marc and Nathaniel were swamped by every thespian in the school.

“Can I be Ladybug?” a girl asked.

“Sorry, we’ll have to hold auditions!” Marc replied swiftly as he tried to squeeze by her to get to his classroom.

“I’ll be the best Chat Noir you could find in school!” a boy said with his hand on Nathaniel’s shoulder.

Nathaniel wiggled out of his grasp with a sharp “Audition then!” before bolting to his seat in the room.

Mrs. Bustier closed the classroom door with a heavy sigh. “Alright listen up everyone, today we’re supposed to be picking up where we left off with ancient Egypt and the pyramids.” She said sweetly, but no matter how sugar coated her tone, the class still groaned. “But since I know you’re all too worked up to focus, just this once I’m going to cancel studies to let you all discuss the play. But please respect Marc and Nathaniel’s decisions and don’t take anything too personally, this is their life’s work and they have to think it over carefully.”

In an instant all the attention was turned to the two boys in the back of the room. Marc turned to Nathaniel and whispered, “We might have to do some auditions right here and now.” to which Nathaniel nodded in agreement.

It was, of course, Chloe to first throw herself before them and begin her theatrics. She leaned back with the back of her wrist on her forehead, whining about only god knows what. Marinette and Alya rolled their eyes while the rest of the class just scrunched their noses and made noises of disgust. Adrien was the only one to even give Chloe a normal stare, only wrinkling his brow in amusement as she tossed her blonde head around and spurted out random lines from the comic.

“Oh Chat Noir, whisker me away from this place!” Chloe said in a sultry tone.

“Chloe…” Marinette grumbled out. “That’s not even Ladybug’s line, the baker girl says that.”

“I-I know that! I’m just….just showing off my acting skills! I can be anyone in the play!” she said as she  crossed her arms pompously.

“Fine then!” Nathaniel said smugly. “We can make a role just for you!”

A very confused Marc beside him grimaced. What is he thinking? Why are we pampering Chloe?

“Ohhhh la la!” Chloe purred. “A new hero maybe?”

“It’ll be a surprise! You’ve already got the part, so don’t worry about auditioning.” Nathaniel said with almost venom in his voice.

“Nath!” Marc whined in his ear. “What’re you doing?”

Nathaniel leaned in to whisper “If we give her a special role, then she won’t try out for the role of Ladybug, and that way we can stop her from sabotaging or heckling us.”

Marc’s eyes lit up. “You’re a genius! Can I make her special role?” they said mischievously.

“I was banking on you to do the dirty deed!” Nathaniel grinned back wickedly.

Adrien gave Chloe a soft smile as she descended the stairs back to her seat. “Congratulations on getting a special role, Chloe.”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder and winked at him. “You should audition too, maybe they’ll give you a special role like me?”

“Really? Me in a school play?” he asked dumbly, pointing at himself with a light blush on his cheeks.

“Ugh…” Marinette groaned from behind him and turned to look away from them. I’ve suddenly lost all interest in this.

Adrien felt that groan in his soul and turned his attention back to Chloe with a defeated look. The fellow blonde just nodded her head up to the two in charge, his eyes followed her notion and gazed up at them almost longingly. He watched as half the class surrounded them, none actually auditioning, but all of them giggling and having a good time. He yearned, what for he didn’t quite understand. A nudge from beside him snapped him out of his daze and back to his new friend beside him.

“Nino?” he asked curiously.

Nino nudged him again. “You’ll never break out of your rut if you don’t go play with the others!”

“But they all hate me.” He said lowly as he gently bit his lower lip. “Everyone adores Marinette, and after that chewing gum incident….no one will ever forgive me.”

“It wasn’t even you! It was Chloe!” Nino sighed out dramatically. “The more you act friendly with Chloe, the more likely they are to think the gum on the seat was intentional.”

“But I can’t just throw Chloe aside, she’s my oldest friend.” Adrien said drearily.

“Just go apologize to her, set things right.” Nino suggested and Adrien turned his head back to Marinette, who was scribbling in her notebook.

He turned further around and stuck his face closer to her desk, trying to be cute or silly, but from Marinette’s peripheral vision it only looked creepy. Just as she looked up at him, he gave her his best smile. She scowled down at him and turned her nose upright and his grin fell. He turned back to Nino dejectedly, giving up hope.

“See?” was all he mumbled out before laying his head down on his desk and pouting.

Nino patted Adrien on the back harshly and said “I’m calling for back up, hang tight buddy”.

Adrien didn’t know what he meant, but decided to not ask. I can see why everyone adores Marinette, I just wish she could see the real me. I wish she would give me a chance to just explain….to make things right… Maybe we could be friends…or even…. His heart raced slightly at the thought and he shook his head feverishly, as if to perish the thought.

Nino walked up Alya’s side of the stairs and nudged her with his elbow; their secret signal for ‘we need to talk in private’. She excused herself and followed Nino just outside the classroom door.

“What’s up?” she crossed her arms, expecting him to con her into the play with him.

“Alya, babe, we gotta get Adrien and Marinette to make amends” he began with a frantic look. “The poor guy is straight depressed and Marinette won’t even talk to him!” he added with urgency in his voice.

Alya looked thoughtful as she peeked back into the classroom to observe Adrien pouting and Marinette scowling at her notebook. She scrunched her upper lip and nodded with a “yup”. She pulled her head back out of the door and slapped her hands on his shoulders. “I’ve got a plan, it’s gonna be wild, but it might work!” she said with her infamous witch grin.

Oh no, I sent the Witch of Paris on my friends….what have I done? Nino gave a worried expression followed by an unsure grin. “Y-yeah…totally…. I don’t know what you’re gonna do, but I’m s-sure it’ll not go horribly wrong…again…”

“C’mon, we’ve got negotiations to do!” she said demonically as she dragged Nino by the wrist back into the classroom and straight up to a terrified Nathanial. Marc’s soul left their body, but their mortal shell remained on auto pilot.

“A-alya?” Nathaniel stuttered out. That look in her eye….wait, are those fangs? Does she file her teeth?

“Yo, friendsssss!” she opened up as she sat cross legged in front of them. “I have a request- nay! A proposition!”

“You can’t be Ladybug without auditioning.” Marc said flatly, their soul still somewhere in orbit.

She cackled. “Oh! Hah! No, of course not! As much as I’d love to be Ladybug in a play or television series someday, I know it’s not my destiny!”

“So what are you scheming then, witch?!” Nathaniel hissed out, sensing the fuckery that was suddenly afoot.

“You still haven’t confessed to Marinette, right?” she asked in a sing song tone.

Nathaniel went bright red. “N-no, and I never will! I’m with Marc now, so there’s no-”

“Hold up!” Alya threw her hand out in front of her in a ‘stop’ pose. “Why not instead of telling Marinette that you used to love her, why not instead show her?” Alya said as she batted her eyes.

“Why would I do that?” Nathaniel asked.

“How would he do that?” Marc asked, their soul returning to Earth, the Witch of Paris wasn’t after them afterall. Sheesh, she’s always playing match maker! First Nathaniel and Marinette, next was Nino and Marinette, then she came for me to get with Nathaniel, she roped Nino in with herself, now she’s after Marinette again! Who is it this time? Ivan? Kim? Max? Marc’s head spin in circles as they attempted to unravel the match-making witch’s scheme.

“Simple!” she said jovially. “You want Marinette to be happy, right?”

The duo nodded in agreement.

“You modeled Ladybug after Marinette, right?”

“Shhh!” they hissed. “That’s private, no one knows that!”

“Uh-huh…” Alya chuckled almost mockingly.

“Get to your point!” Nathaniel hissed through grit teeth.

Alya sat on his desk and leaned over him, that mischievous grin never leaving her face. “Why not give her the Ladybug role? You know, no better actress than the model herself, right?” she asked with a sticky sweet tone with undertones of diabolic intentions.

Nathaniel’s face relaxed into a soft surprised expression. Marc looked thoughtful and hummed to themselves softly, as if pondering the pros and cons. The two began whispering to one another, hunched down underneath the large desk, just out of the witch’s hearing range.

“Nath,” Marc began with caution and asked, “If we give Marinette the Ladybug role, are we still able to pull off the ending?” with a hint.

“Yes, actually…” Nathaniel paused and opened his notebook to show them a page of the script. “Marinette might be the only valid person to play Ladybug.”

Marc took a moment to read the passage and gasped, “Nath, you’re a damn genius! Marinette it is!” he chuckled out.

The two rose back up from their hiding spot and gave the witch a smirk. “We accept!” they said in unison and Alya throw her arms up in victory.

“Pleasure doin’ business with you both!” she shouted back as she wrangled Nino and pushed him back to their desks.

Marinette, who had been lost in her sketch diary until now, let out an exhausted yawn and stretched her arms out. “Man, I was up until three in the morning prepping the donuts for the morning rush with my dad. I am soooo taking a nap as soon as I get home.” she said as Alya sat down beside her.

“Girl, you need a life, and not your parents’ life, you need your own life.” Alya scoffed. “Maybe you should ask to help with the play, have a little fun!” she said, the playful tone in her voice teased Marinette with temptation.

“What, so I can play the silly baker girl in a play and in real life?” Marinette laughed out mockingly followed by a flat “no thanks”.

“Actually…” Alya smirked, “I was thinking you could do the costume designing!”

Right in the soft spot. Alya was a sniper, and Marinette a sitting duck. She stood upright out of her chair, and like a zombie, marched up the stairs to Marc and Nathaniel, who awaited her ever so patiently.

“Nathaniel, Marc, I’d like to be-”

“We’d love you to!” Nathaniel interrupted as he slapped his hands on the desk.

She blinked, shattered out of her dream-like daze, “really?”.

“You’re perfect for the job, you’re literally the only person who can pull it off! Alya already explained everything we needed to know!” Marc added with their fists clutched to their chest.

She blushed brightly and stumbled over her words, “th-thank you!”. She wobbled a bit and shyly asked “So….when do we start planning and stuff?”.

“Well the school already reserved the conference room for whoever won the contest to begin planning this weekend, are you free?” Nathaniel asked.

She nodded vigorously with a quick “I’ll bring pastries!”.

The Witch of Paris grinned from ear to ear from her desk as she watched the body language and facial expressions of her bestie, the mission had begun. She observed as a very giddy Marinette bounded back to her desk, her twin ponytails fluttering with each step, much like a dog wagging its tail.

“I take it you got the part?” Alya asked knowingly.

“Yup, I can’t wait!” she shrieked.

“You got the biggest part in the whole play!” Alya added.

"Second biggest, but yes!" she cried out in joy.

"Second biggest? I beg to differ, but you go girl!" Alya retorted happily.

Adrien, who had witnessed the ethereal sight of her jovially hopping down the stairs in slow motion, was snapped out of his daze by her shrieks of delight. She got the role of the baker girl? Maybe I should take Chloe’s advice…maybe…just maybe… He stood up as if in a trance.

Luckily Nino caught him before he too took the zombie walk up to the mangaka duo. “Yo man, you gotta do it right” he said as he spun the blond around and away from prying ears.

“Wha…” Adrien mouthed softly.

“It’s obvious that Marc and Nath only gave Chloe a special role to get her off their backs, you don’t have that kind of clout.” Nino said darkly.

“Clout?” Adrien asked dumbly.

Nino straightened his glasses out and placed his other hand on his friend’s shoulder. With a deep voice he said, “If you want the bug, you gotta become the cat”.

All Adrien could do was furrow his brow and part his lips slightly.

Nino sighed and spoke in his deep tone again, “This is your chance, don’t blow it by being an airhead. Don’t go up there thinking they’ll just hand you the role of Chat Noir.” Nino sighed out. “You gotta become Chat Noir,” he said suavely, pulling Adrien in closer. “Roll up there with his charisma and charm! Make a few cat puns, say a few lines from the manga,” he said with sly grin. He then leaned into his ear to whisper, “make them think you’re the real Chat Noir”.

“But I don’t wanna be Chat Noir,” Adrien frowned. “I wanna be the guitarist boyfriend of the baker girl,” he said with his shoulders slumped.

“But…Chat Noir is the one who gets to rescue the baker girl, and not to mention that she even develops feelings for him. Why would you wanna play the role of the boy she ends up dumping?” Nino asked with a scowl of disbelief.

“Because the baker girl doesn’t end up with Chat Noir in the manga, he ends up with Ladybug. The guitarist gets to dance with the baker girl, they even have a kiss scene together!” Adrien said with a dreamy look in his eyes.

“Yes…but….” Nino said dimly, “the baker dumps the guitarist in the second to last book, remember?”.

“We don’t know what the final book brings, it’s not being released until after the play. That’s how Marc and Nathaniel won the contest, they promised to reveal Ladybug and Chat Noir’s identity on stage and to finish the story before the last book comes out. You have to see the play to know how the story ends! Otherwise you have to wait a few months for the manga to finish! We don’t know what happens to the baker and the guitarist yet!” Adrien rambled off as Nino’s head spun in circles.

“Dude, she’s probably just a plot device for Chat Noir’s feelings for Ladybug, she’s not getting a happy ending like Ladybug is. Why would they have her dump the guitarist if they’re going to get together again after Chat Noir dumps her for Ladybug?” Nino asked, he could feel the headache coming on. "Besides, the guitarist only has like two scenes with Ladybug."

“I don’t care about the fictional characters and how their stories end, I care about getting my moment with Marinette.” Adrien said solemnly, the look in his eye telling Nino all he needed to know. “I know she’ll see me up on stage and turn away from me, but it’ll give me the chance to apologize and set things right. If she doesn’t want me to be the guitarist, then I’ll accept her answer.”

Nino looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded his head. “Okay, but be prepared for the possibility that they took out the kissing scene from the script, or that they would alter the script to protect Marinette’s feelings. Or the possibility that Marinette isn't the baker girl at all.”

“I’m well aware that if I get the role of guitarist that the kissing scene will be axed from the script, I made peace with that the moment I made the decision to audition.” Adrien said stiffly.

“Well then, it seems like you know what you’re getting yourself into.” Nino laughed out. “Go give em’ your best Felix impression!”

Imagine, me as Felix and Marinette as Bridgette on stage… The dance scene… The hand holding… What if they don’t axe the kissing scene? What if Marinette is cool with it? He could feel his cheeks heating up in tandem with his heart rate. What if I get the chance to be her friend outside of the play? I could learn the guitar in real life and go to her bakery to play for her. We could really be just like Felix and Bridgette… for real…

Nino shook Adrien’s shoulders, bringing him out of his stupor.

“Thank you Nino, I’m gonna try it!” the blond said as he steeled his nerves. A fire was lit somewhere in his soul, it yearned to spread.

He took several deep breaths as he waited his turn to audition in front of the mangaka duo. His turn came up and to his dismay, the bell rang signaling the end of class. His heart sunk and his fire doused as he sulked back to his seat where he flopped down, no longer having the motivation to make it to the limo to take him home. Marinette walked right on by him with Alya in tow.

“Hey man, they haven’t made a choice yet, there’s still time!” Nino tried to cheer him up. “Alya and I are going to Marinette’s bakery if you wanna join us.”

“No thanks, she wouldn’t want me there anyways. Go on without me.” Adrien said lowly with his face planted into his bookbag on his desk.

“You sure?” Nino asked again, but got no reply from the boy. He slapped a soft pat on his friend’s back before departing.

There Adrien sat, with his face in his bag as everyone else piled out of the room to go home for their evening nap. All except two mangaka who were taking their sweet time compiling all of their scripts and notebooks that had been laid out for planning purposes. A loud thud followed by the distinct sound of papers flying everywhere snapped Adrien out of his depression.

“Marc!” came Nathaniel’s shrieking voice.

It was almost instinct that Adrien knew what was happening in those few short seconds, without even having seen it. He was out of his seat and half way up the stairs to catch Marc before they faceplanted. It took all three of them a moment to register what had even happened.

“Th-thank…you…” Marc said groggily as they lifted their face from Adrien’s chest, absent-mindedly noticing his scent. He really wears his own brand of cologne?

“No problem, you alright?” Adrien asked as he helped them to their feet.

“Yeah, thanks again.” Marc said quickly before kneeling down and gathering up all the misplaced papers. Nathaniel hung back and observed the behaviors of the supposedly jerk-faced Adrien Agreste as he helped pick up the papers. Perhaps there’s more to him than just Chloe’s boytoy. He pondered for a moment before Alya’s words came flooding back to him.

[“Why not give her the Ladybug role? You know, no better actress than the model herself, right?]

“Why not give him the role, no better actor than the model himself, right?” Nathaniel mumbled out inadvertently as his eyes deadlocked on Adrien’s.

“Excuse me?” Adrien asked with a tilt of his head.

Marc shot up from their kneeling position on the floor, their head darting back and forth between Nathaniel and Adrien quickly. They then pranced back to Nathaniel’s side, whispering a harsh “what in the hell are you thinking?” in his ear.

Nathaniel whispered back, “think about it, we used Marinette as the model for Ladybug. It makes perfect sense to use Adrien for Chat Noir”.

“Just because we used Adrien as the model for Chat Noir doesn’t mean that we should use him on stage. Marinette doesn’t like him, imagine if we tell her he’s the guitarist and there’s a kiss scene with her and him together!?” Marc hissed angrily, but quietly. “We can’t have Adrien as an actor if the cost is losing Marinette as an actress!”

Nathaniel looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, “we’ll ask her”.

Marc went silent, also looking thoughtful as they both turned back to a rather perplexed Adrien. The blond stood at the middle of the stairs between the desks, awkwardly holding disheveled stacks of papers and notebooks, head still tilted to the side almost cutely. Marc descended the stairs and met Adrien at the middle. They placed Their hands on either side of Adrien’s head and straightened his neck out so that his head was upright. Their hands then went to his hair and began ruffling it, fluffing it out.

“Yeah….” Marc mumbled with a small curious smile. “Yeah!” they said with more vigor as they covered his ears with his blond hair.

“Huh?” was all that could escape from Adrien’s mouth as he stared down at his smaller classmate in confusion.

Marc closed Adrien’s jaw with a light push from under his chin, then used their thumbs to force his mouth into a smirk. They then pushed his eyebrows up a tad bit, then stood back to observe their work. Nathaniel’s eyes opened wide, there stood Chat Noir, guitarist by day, super hero by night. Marc grinned widely, crossed their arms, then turned back to Nathaniel who was still gawking.

Adrien dropped the expression Marc had forced on him and asked “what’s going on?” sheepishly.

Nathaniel and Marc smirked. “Oh we have to make this work!” they said in unison.

The Witch of Paris is never wrong. Terrifying and confusing as she may be, she was usually right. Nathaniel thought to himself. I bet she told me to make Marinette Ladybug knowing we modeled Adrien after Chat Noir. Her boyfriend is dating Nino, she probably wants to go on double dates so she and her man can have their best friends together. That sly wench! She’s magnificent!

“Uh…guys?” Adrien asked nervously as the two warlocks glared hungrily down at him from the top of the stairs. The twin demons began cackling, laughing at Adrien’s confusion and the fortuitous situation they’d stumbled upon. Adrien began to feel their sinister vibe from across the classroom. Am I in trouble? Am I in danger!?

Chapter Text

Saturday morning, Francois Dupont was aflame with teenaged angst as the mangaka duo set up their faux stage in the conference room. The audition line was out the front of the school, wrapped around to the side. Marinette gawked at the massive conga line, struggling to balance the boxes of pastries and cups of lattes atop. Alya and Nino stood guard as bouncers, vigilant at their post, ensuring no chaos erupted in the audition line. Line cutting was met with shrewd snaps of fingers and beggars with scowls. The Witch of Paris, guardian of the baker girl, spotted her target from across the large courtyard that separated the entrance from the conference room.

“I’m going in,” Alya said as she abandoned her post to escort the princess to her royal chambers. Nino lifted his eyebrow at her, but said nothing as he watched her march over to the struggle-bussing Marinette.

Marinette took a sigh of relief when she saw Alya approaching her, but it was too late, the lattes were already toppling from the heavens and on their descent to the underworld below. Thankfully, a hand reached out and grasped at one in a heroic attempt at salvaging it from the fall. Unfortunately, that same hand had a deathgrip which crushed the paper cup, cleaving it in twine. Even more unfortunately, that hand was somehow attached to the wrist of him. He who alliances himself with Chloe, he whose face is plastered across Paris, he whose back of head remains in her peripheral vision all class long. Him, the gummer of chairs. Adrien Goddamn Agreste.

“A-adri…” she almost said his name, but instead turned her head away defiantly. Her feet were soaked in hot latte, but she was too determined to not look at him to care. She kept walking, shoes squeaking awkwardly, and met Alya halfway through the courtyard, leaving behind a heavy-hearted Adrien.

“Gurl, that was kinda rude…” Alya said in almost disbelief, “I’ve never seen you so chilly to someone who was trying to help you.” As Alya took half the boxes off of Marinette’s stack, she noticed the downcast and guilty look on her face.

“Well…” Marinette began softly as she turned back to see Adrien picking up the soaking wet cups, “well maybe if he’d just apologize to me…”. She watched with a strange knife in her chest as that poster-pretty-boy took the cups to the bin and tossed them in, his hands soaking wet. “If he’s sincere, then he’ll say something.”

Alya kept her downtrodden stare at the dreary boy as Marinette swiftly moved passed her to the conference room. He can’t apologize if you won’t even let him speak to you! She bit her tongue however, and instead opted for silently following her into the conference room. She set the boxes of pastries down and took note of Marinette’s curiously zoned-out stare at the boxes.

“You okay, chika?” Alya asked and as soon as the words left her mouth, she witnessed a tear escape Marinette’s eye. “Whoa, whoa, hey now!” Alya whispered harshly with hushed concern.             “There’s no need for tears,” she said as she wiped one away for her.

“Oh Alya,” Marinette whined softly. “This isn’t who I want to be.”

Alya growled lowly, “then go talk to that poor boy!”

Marinette turned to look back into the courtyard, Adrien nowhere in sight. “Maybe another time, just let me mope for now,” she said with a gentle sigh. She wiped her tears and dried her cheeks then opened the pastry boxes to begin hanging them out to the volunteers. Why am I still so cold to him? It’s not like he’s done anything since then. Well….he also hasn’t made an effort to apologize either…. She shook her head of thoughts of him and continued to offer the pastries to the crew. When she made it to the two bosses, she took careful note of the sinister smirks on their faces. The bewilderment and concern swirling in her heart overtook her Adrien-anxiety in an instant.

Marc was the first to step forwards, place their hands atop the lid of the pastries, and close it with their smirk intact. Marinette’s concern was growing by the second; she stop at ground zero of whatever was about to happen.

“Mari!” Marc chirped brightly, smirk aflame. The box was gently taken from her grasp and set aside as Marc said “are you ready for the costume fittings?”

She let out a sigh of relief, followed by a flash of confusion. “Fittings? We haven’t even designed them yet, let alone sewn them.”

“Come with me!” Marc giggled out and they looped their arm through hers, Nathaniel looping his arm through her other arm.

As the Marinette sandwich squeezed through the side door like a can of sardines, she was met with the awesome, but confusing, sight of a full rack of costumes and props. They lead her up to the rack and released her into her natural habitat, the crafting room. The first costume on the rack to catch her eye was the Ladybug costume, already forged in its peak likeness to the manga. She grabbed it off the hanger and held it up to examine it. She wanted to smile and admire it, but something sad sank into her soul.

“Look,” Nathaniel began with an almost guilty tone, “I know you love sewing and your designs are fantastic, but a producer already had Hollywood-worthy costumes made up for a movie.”

“A movie that got cancelled when we wouldn’t sign our rights over,” Marc added. “Luckily, someone had enough weight in the industry to pull some strings and let us borrow the costumes!”

Marinette turned to look at them, the pain evident in her big blue eyes. It broke their hearts to see it. “I-I don’t understand, why then do you need me?” she whispered with every ounce of disappointment seeping out.

Marc bit their bottom lip and did their best not to cry. Nathaniel took a deep breath and grabbed the costume then held it up against her. “Because you’re Ladybug.” he said flatly. She blinked, expression unchanging. Nathaniel gave her a head tilt followed by “what’s wrong? I know you love costume designing, but that’s not what we need you for. We only needed you as Ladybug.”

“And the-” Marc started, but then slapped their hand over their own mouth.

Marinette stared at them curiously before turning back to Nathaniel. “Wait, wait…” she began by shoving the costume back into Nathaniel’s hands. “So yesterday, you weren’t saying you wanted me to be the costume designer…you wanted me to be Ladybug!?” she exclaimed, probably louder than she should have.

“Shh!” Marc and Nathaniel hissed, closing the door behind them for added privacy. They encircled her once again, making the secrecy of the situation obvious to her.

“We have a plan!” Nathaniel grinned.

“One of the core reasons we didn’t sign the movie contract first!” Marc added with excitement.

Marinette sensed something mysterious and foreboding on her horizon. “Hit me with it.” she said cautiously as she crossed her arms, her curious glare switching between the two frequently as they spoke.

Nathaniel cleared his throat and held up the costume. “Someone very famous has a son who loves our manga, so much so that he convinced his father to fund a live-action theater movie release of it. We hadn’t signed contracts or chosen actors or anything like that, but so help sway us they made these costumes.”

“Oh it was fantastic!” Marc whined in both dismay and pleasure. “They offered us millions of Euro to sign the movie rights over. They were gonna cast A-list celebrities and even give us a ten-year-contract to make another super hero manga! We’d have it set for life! It broke our hearts to say no!”

“Then why did you say no!?” Marinette exclaimed, bewildered how high schoolers reject such an offer.

“Because we read their script.” Nathaniel sighed out, Marc’s elated aura fell. “They wanted to change who Ladybug’s and Chat Noir’s civilian identities were. They also wanted to make the audience know who they were right from the beginning of the movie, rather than waiting for the ending. We couldn’t let them destroy the story we fought so hard to make…” Nathaniel scowled down at the suit in his hand as he spoke.

“…to destroy the romance we’d built up between Ladybug and Chat Noir for three years, just for some Hollywood snobs to sell more movie tickets.” Marc added with a sneer. “The manga hasn’t even revealed who Ladybug and Chat Noir are behind the masks yet, and they already wanna change it and reveal it in the first two minutes of the script!” Marc screeched as they pulled on their hair.

“Oh god…” Marinette mumbled out in disbelief. She then shook her head feverishly. “We can’t let that happen!”

“That’s why we need you!” Nathaniel pointed at her dramatically as he posed.

Marc ran to his side to pose and point at her with him. “Only you can save Ladybug and Chat Noir for us!”

“I-I’m flattered, but why me?” she asked insecurely, her fists clutched to her chest tightly.

Nathaniel took a deep breath and braced himself, his heart butterflying through his chest and out the window. “We modeled Ladybug after you, it was our way of bringing a real-life super hero into the story.” Nathaniel said with a slight blush. Marinette stared at him, unsure of the deeper meaning behind his words. He took a step closer to place the costume back into her hands. “You were always destined to be Ladybug, because she is you. We were never going to let anyone else play her, even if it became some huge A-list Hollywood movie, you being Ladybug would’ve been one of our demands.”

She was speechless, and her cheeks bright pink. “I-…that’s…I’m flattered…but…I still don’t understand…” she stammered out as her eyes darted everywhere but into Nathaniel’s eyes. Marc gave Nathaniel a slight pat on the back, as if saying ‘go for it!’

He took her hand and held it gently, tempted to squeeze it just a bit. “The way you stand up to Chloe, the way you defend the innocent in class, the way you take class representative to heart to protect us all, everything that you stand for was my inspiration for writing Ladybug. I won’t let someone else wear this costume on stage!”

Marinette’s eyes watered, for what purpose she didn’t quite understand. She couldn’t tell if we was scared, moved, or happy. All she knew was that she was Ladybug. “Thank you Nath!” she said before pulling him into a tight embrace.

Marc hung back and watched with a bittersweet smile on their face. I’m so proud of you for finally confessing, Nath! If only I had your courage… Their eyes landed on the next costume on the rack, the black leather outfit of Chat Noir. An image of some handsome young man flashed through their mind, but was gone in an instant. They shook that whimsical feeling away as Nathaniel and Marinette’s hug parted.

“So I do have one question…” she began with unsurely as she held up the costume to her chest. “Will I also be playing my civilian form in the play?”

“Yup!” Marc chirped as they grabbed a costume off the rack, a pink and blue ankle length maid dress.

“Wait….” She paused as she eyed that oh so familiar dress up and down. “Ladybug is… Bridgette the baker girl?”

“Haha, yeah!” Nathaniel chuckled nervously.

“I guess that makes sense if she was modeled after me, but I can honestly say…I don’t think many people will see that one coming.” She gave an awkward smile as she reached over and fiddled with the ruffles on the apron of the dress.

“You have to keep it a secret! No one can know you’re playing Ladybug!” Nathaniel said eagerly with a smirk. “Everyone will recognize you as the Baker Girl, but no one will know it’s you as Ladybug. It has to stay that way until the end of the play.”

“Will I get to know who Chat Noir is then?” she asked.

“No!” Marc and Nathaniel screeched in unison, startling her.

“I’m sorry!” Nathaniel said more calmly, but still flustered. “Let me explain.” He sighed out. “The truth is, Marc and I are having trouble writing the big reveal because we disagree on how Ladybug and Chat Noir will really react. We’ve written dozens of mock-scenarios, but we just can’t agree on how to do it.”

“Oh, that’s quite the predicament…” was all she could think to say.

“That’s why we need you and Chat Noir’s genuine reactions up on stage at the finale!” Nathaniel said with a sly look. “You and Chat Noir’s actor are both going to decide how the super heroes are going to react to the big reveal!”

Marinette’s eyes widened. “We have to decide?”

“Think of it like Star Wars and how they didn’t tell Luke about Vader just so they could film his real reaction!” Marc said delightedly. Marinette swore they were sparkling.

“I just hope I can be a good Ladybug,” she said unsurely.

“You will be,” Nathaniel said, finally letting go of her.

She gently hung the costume back onto the rack, admiring it one last time as Marc put the baker dress back as well. They all headed back into the conference room, this time as individuals instead of as an awkward sandwich. They were greeted by the sight of the hivemind of Miraculous fans awaiting for the auditioning to begin. Many of them showed up in homemade Ladybug and Chat Noir costumes, giving Nathaniel and Marc the dreaded feeling that they were right.

Everyone is gunning for the lead role…no one is auditioning for the minor roles…

A certain blond head squeezed by the roaring monolith and into the conference room, trays in hand. He set them onto the table with a groan of exhaustion. “I hope I’m not late!” he sighed out as he slumped into a chair unceremoniously. Marinette’s mood plummeted, he was the last person she wanted to be working with in close quarters while performing her heart out. Seeing him while rehearsing is going to ruin my acting, how am I supposed to be the graceful and dainty Bridgette and the heroic Ladybug if I’m too preoccupied with-augh! I hope he’s not an actor! I hope he’s just here to help with the auditions and the grunt work!

Marc took note of Marinette’s pout and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Please understand, we had good reason,” they said softly and her head whipped around to look at them, utterly baffled. Marc got the hint and said, “we had some roles already filled by people we knew we wanted to do them, like Ladybug, Rena Rouge, Carapace, Master Fu, and the Felix the guitarist.”

“I see…” she mumbled out flatly. “I’ll be okay though; I can do this!” she reminded herself. Then, with a calm mind she asked, “what role is he playing?”

“Felix the guitarist, Bridgette’s boyfriend.” Marc said quickly before darting away from her and back to Nathaniel’s side.

With eyes as wide as saucers, Marinette turned to look at the boy who was sipping on a latte. A Dupain-Cheng latte. Her anger that had been rising suddenly fell back down to hell where it belonged. She made her way to his side, slightly in awe of the sight before her.

“Are those all from my bakery?” she asked as she eyed the few dozen hot lattes with her bakery logo on the cups.

“Yeah, you dropped yours so I…” he paused, unsure how she’d react, but he pressed on. “So I bought more.”

I only bought five; for Nathaniel and Marc, Alya and Nino, then one for myself… Adrien bought dozens!

“Th-thank you…” she stuttered out shyly.

“Y-you’re welcome…” he stuttered back, equally as shyly.

He blushed, she blushed, the lattes blushed.

She remained blissfully unaware of his presence for most of the auditions, but mostly because he was helping with bouncer-duty with Nino. Alya was busy recording each audition and taking down names so that Nathaniel and Marc weren’t overwhelmed by the thousand headed beast known as ‘their classmates’. After a few hours of merciless onslaught by the hydra, the last of its heads were falling off. Only a handful of auditioners remained and the light at the end of the tunnel was finally visible. Thankfully Chloe hadn’t shown up, or it’d have made the whole ordeal even longer than it already was. The last auditioner stepped into the room, a familiar goth emerged with the force of the nature itself pushing her forwards.

“You can do it!” the sun yelled out as she gave the moon a push towards Nathaniel and Marc.

The two mangaka waited patiently for Juleka to speak, but all they heard was a quiet whimper.

“I…I’d…liketobe…please...”

“We can’t hear you,” Nathaniel said and Juleka winced.

“I’msorryfor….yourtime…” she mumbled and turned to leave, but her fairy godmother blocked her exit, sealing in her doom.

“You get back in there and show em’ what you’ve got, Jewels!” Rose said defiantly.

“I-I can’t…” Juleka said in defeat.

“You were so excited yesterday! You stayed up all night ranting and raving about how you were gonna do it!” Rose squeaked as she used her arms and legs to barricade the doorway.

Juleka turned back to the duo and slowly approached them once more. Her lips trembled, refusing to let her speak, but her fists gripped tightly onto the table between she and them. “I wanna….be..” she began slowly.

“Louder!” the fairy shouted from the back.

“I want….” Juleka said a bit louder, but she still hesitated.

“I said louder!!” the sun roared with fury.

Juleka slammed her palms onto the table, rattling the papers off and startling the authors with her sudden burst of rage. The demonic look in her ruby eyes reminded them of a tigress on the hunt.

“Give me your miraculous, you teenaged brats! You don’t understand the powers with which you wield, only I can unleash their full potential!” Juleka’s demonic voice echoed around the room, terrifying everyone else still lingering for clean up. She got on her knees on the table and grabbed both of them by the collars of their shirts, still glaring down at them. “I will have my wish, and you will submit to my will!”

Marc shivered while Nathaniel grinned brightly. “We found us a Hawkmoth!” Nathaniel said ecstatically.

“Uhh…Juleka dear…can you let me go please? I’m about to pee my pants...” Marc whimpered.

Juleka’s death glare halted abruptly as she let them go and scuttled off the table, face bright red. “I’m so sorry!” she cried out covering her face with her hands. “I got carried away, I’ve just always loved the manga so much and have always wanted to play a villain in a movie or TV show!”

Marinette and Adrien sat off to the side, terrified. That’s who we’re going to have to go up against on stage!?

“Is wearing a diaper under the costume an option?” Adrien asked as he coddled his hot latte in his hands, shivering. “Doesn’t Felix get abducted by Hawkmoth at some point?”

“I’ll make us cloth ones, I get the feeling we’ll be needing to change them often…” Marinette chimed in, also retreating into her latte for comfort.

For once, Marinette felt slight comradery with Adrien. It was a foreign and unusual feeling, and she wasn’t sure if it was welcome or not yet, but never the less she acknowledged its presence. She found herself feeling less and less like she was noticing Adrien’s presence throughout the evening, but now it was like a melting feeling, as if he was blending into the group effortlessly. By the time the conference doors were being locked by the staff and everyone was heading home, Adrien had become just another boy in her class instead of the Gummer of Chairs.

Alya brushed up alongside her and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her away from her homing direction. “Hey, A-Alya!?” she stammered out at the sudden change of direction.

“We’re not going home just yet chika!” Alya chuckled out. “The costume sponsor also gave us a budget for props and research development!”

“For wha…” Marinette blurted out mindlessly as she allowed herself to be dragged off to god knows where.

“Marc and Nath have invited us to dinner so we can talk about the script! They wanted me to catch you before you scurried off to your bed and turned your phone off like usual!” she explained with a suspicious amount of grin on her face.

Marinette squinted at her, but remained silent and allowed herself to be lead a couple streets over and into a restaurant. The smell hit her full force, making her realize that a few lattes and a pastry weren’t enough to sustain her any longer. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply before letting it out with a dreamy sigh. From across the room, Adrien caught sight of her and that wonderfully cozy look on her face. She looks like she’d be comfortable to sit with by a hearth, or to watch a movie with as you hold hands.

He closed his eyes as he imagined her sitting beside him, just comfortable and relaxed, nothing even special or spectacular. Just peaceful. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed wasn’t the neon ramen sign or even the brightly lit up menu, but the dreamlike state Adrien was in. He’s so much more handsome in person than he is on posters and in commercials. She caught herself slipping and slapped her cheeks with her palms. Alya turned her head just in time to catch a glimpse of Marinette’s panic slaps.

“Gurl, I thought you liked ramen?” Alya asked with a bit of sass. “You’ve mentioned this place like ten times since it opened.”

“Oh I do love ramen, and I have always wanted to come here,” she said quickly as she forced her eyes to stare at the menu. “I just had to….calm myself down before I shrieked in excitement!” she lied.

“Ohhhkay then…” Alya said suspiciously, she knew a lie when she smelled one. Marinette was as terrible of a liar as she was a singer. She lead her to the large table where many of her schoolmates were already seated. Marc and Nathaniel were at the end, followed by Rose, Juleka, Nino, Alya’s seat, another empty seat, then Adrien. There were at least ten other schoolmates that she didn’t recognize and she knew it’d be rude if she asked someone to switch seats with her, so she bit her tongue and sat down between Alya and Adrien.

Throughout the meal, Adrien struggled with his chopsticks. Marinette gave it and helped him, “here, like this” she instructed as she placed her hands atop his and guided him. He trembled beneath her touch, struggling with the morality of playing dumb a bit longer so that she’d keep her hands on his.

Curse you father, for making me take Chinese lessons all those years! I could be getting tutored by her instead of that old man this whole time!

Eventually he relented and in an instant was a master with the chopsticks. The upside was getting a compliment from Marinette on how quickly he learned. For the remainder of the night he had a dumb silly smile on his face that everyone but Marinette noticed. He felt like he was both on fire, yet perfectly calm and cool, an indescribable feeling of peace mixed with ecstasy.

“You are so good with chopsticks!” Alya said slyly at Marinette. “I bet you speak Mandarin fluently and everything, being half Chinese and all.”

“Alya, you know damn well that I don’t speak a word of Mandarin…” Marinette huffed, sensing the playful bullying coming on. Adrien’s ears burned to hear more. “But,” Marinette began with a dainty sigh. “I’d love to learn it someday, so I can go visit my relatives. None of them speak French.”

Adrien’s eyes gleamed at the side of Marinette’s unsuspecting head, a sinister plan to get close to her formed in his head. Thank you father, for making me take Chinese lessons all those years! I could be tutoring her and getting close to her now! I could tutor her and rehearse the Felix and Bridgette scenes together. She has a bakery, the perfect meeting place. There’s a chance!

Nino looked at the fire in Adrien’s eyes and smirked, nudging Alya. “It’s working,” he whispered into her ear.

Alya too took note of the volcanic eruption, spewing hot headed romance from her side. “A little too well,” she added with a raised brow of concern.

That damned Witch of Paris, always meddling, always right. Nathaniel thought as he gave his two super heroes a light hearted smile. I hope things keep looking up, it’d suck pretty bad if those two end up fighting again.

Chapter Text

The first official day of rehearsals and nerves were so tense that they could split atoms. Not that that made sense, but it made infinitely more sense than Chloe strutting up in a Ladybug outfit. Through the groans and scoffs of the other actors, it became apparent that the diva wasn’t going to comply with Marc and Nathaniel’s decisions. Marc scrunched their nose at her, ready to strike the heathen down where she stood. Nathaniel put his arm out, knowing that Marc was either a cinnamon roll or a jalapeno pepper, there was no in between.

“I got this one, babe,” he said then made his way to the walking hurricane.

Chloe flipped one of her twin ponytails over her shoulder, “I hope everyone got the new script I put on your desks this morning!”

Nathaniel was almost to her when the real Ladybug swooped in and halted the imposter in her tracks. “We confiscated those and put them in the recycling bin before anyone got the wrong idea!” Marinette hissed at her. Chloe looked appalled, but Marinette didn’t let her get the chance for her antics. “Marc and Nathaniel worked hard on their manga and the script for this play, not you. This is their lifes’ work, not yours. You’re lucky you were given a special role that wasn’t in the manga. You’re lucky you get to be a unique, never before seen super hero that was tailor made just for you! Why can’t you just be grateful that you got special treatment at all and let others have their fair share too?”

The jeers of the other actors balked Chloe’s attempts to retort, and instead she chose to back pedal. “I was just…I…” she glanced nervously all around the room and saw that she had no allies and zero clout. “I was just showing off the spare Ladybug costume I had made up in case we needed a spare! How rude!”

Marinette raised her brow. She totally rewrote the script, I read it. “Oh, my apologies!” Marinette forced a ridiculous smile and put her arm around the other girl’s shoulders to pull her in. “If you ruin this, I’ll tell Adrien about how you rewrote his lines to be pathetic, how you were going to make him cry and beg on his knees!” she whispered with a demonic grin.

Chloe’s heart leapt up into her throat, “that’s not his role, that’s the guitarist’s role to beg and cry for the lowly baker girl’s affection!”

Marinette turned her to face Adrien, who was holding a guitar, “he wanted that role, very badly!”

Chloe’s eyes darted all around, she couldn’t fathom what she was seeing. “I don’t understand….” she paused as she looked at Adrien’s baggy ripped pants and loose-fitting shirt. “He’s filthy rich, and a model, why wouldn’t he wanna be the rich guy who plays Chat Noir?”

“Well, for starters,” Marinette began as she released Chloe from her near-choke hold, “there’s the off-chance that the rich guy isn’t Chat Noir at all, not to mention that Adrien probably just wanted to play the guitar on stage like Jagged Stone.”

Chloe’s heart plummeted, but then her anger sky rocketed. “This is ridiculous, utterly ridi-“

“Utterly ridiculous!” multiple actors cried out mockingly, finishing her line for her.

Chloe’s eyes watered as her face turned bright tomato, she rushed out of the gymnasium whimpering. Adrien watched her run out with tears rolling down her cheeks, his heart ached for her.

Marinette frowned and turned back to everyone. “Not cool guys, that was going a bit far to gang up on her.”

Nathaniel approached her, “thanks for averting that disaster” he said with a sigh of relief. “But now I fear that she might concoct an even more malicious plan than before,” he added with a worried gaze in the direction Chloe retreated towards.

“We’ll just have to take her punches one at a time and not let it affect the play,” she said with a flexed arm. “Bridgette has too many croissants to bake to worry about a fake Ladybug!”

Adrien’s aching heart was warmed in an instant. Marinette should’ve gotten the Ladybug role, she always knows what to do and how to handle it. If the others hadn’t heckled Chloe, I bet she would have of stayed and put on her real costume. I should go talk to her. Adrien set the guitar down and made his way out of the gym and into their classroom, where sure enough, a blonde Ladybug was bawling her eyes out.

“Chloe?” Adrien asked cautiously as he approached her desk. “Can we talk?”

The blue-eyed hurricane lifted her head to look at him with grief in those sapphires, mascara running down her cheeks, staining the mask. She pulled the mask off and tossed it onto the table, followed by the two hair ties that had been holding her hair in Ladybug’s signature style. “Are you coming to beg me to play that damned bee-thing?” she huffed hotly, turning her head away from him.

“I-I don’t know what that is,” Adrien opened up with as he moved to sit in Sabrina’s seat. “All I know is that I was excited to be in a play where I could explore a new side of myself, where I could play guitar and get to act alongside you.”

Chloe finally let herself look at him, in warm surprise, and a tiny bit of her agony dissolved. “Really?” she asked softly.

“Yeah!” Adrien exclaimed giddily. “I’ve known you my whole life and we’ve both been on the covers of magazines, commercials, posters, you name it!” he said with such joy, but then his jovial expression dropped. “…but never together…”

Her eyes threatened to tear up again. “What am I supposed to do then? They won’t let me back in I bet,” she groaned out in sorrow.

“Has that ever stopped you before?” Adrien smirked at her. She perked up upon hearing him enabling her, but then she hesitated. He saw the internal struggle going on in her head and pulled her into a loose hug, “what if I convinced them to make one extra special thing for you?”

She returned the hug and whispered back, “like what?” she laughed out, almost in denial.

“I was thinking,” he began as he pulled away from the embrace, “what about instead of Vesperia, why not Queen Bee?”

She lifted her eyebrows, “ohhh la la, carry on!”

The classroom door suddenly flung open to reveal a haggard and heavy breathing Bridgette in full costume. “Vesperia!” she wailed dramatically. Several other actors, including the mangaka duo, appearing behind her. “There’s an akuma attacking Paris, Ladybug and Chat Noir are nowhere to be seen!” she cried out with all her heart. “We need you Vesperia!”

“Save us Vesperia!” an actor called out from behind her, nearly swooning.

Chloe stood up abruptly on the bench with one foot on the desk and her fists on her hips. “That’s Queen Bee to you!” she shouted in her usual snooty tone. Adrien tugged on her arm and she looked down to see him making a downward hand motion. She didn’t quite understand his exact meaning, but she got the hint never the less. “I mean… I mean, don’t fear, Queen Bee is here!”

Bridgette blinked in confusion and tilted her head. Adrien shot Nathaniel and Marc a pleading look, with his hands interlocked together and a sheepish smile. The two mangaka gave each other a confused look and a shrug, followed by giving Adrien a head nod.

Bridgette managed to read the room and cleared her throat. “Queen Bee, the akuma was spotted by the Louvre, but Ladybug and Chat Noir are nowhere to be seen! Can you hold it off until they get here?” she pleaded.

“I’m on it, little baker girl!” Chloe shouted as she leapt off the desk.

Adrien took a deep sigh of relief. She's got a few things to learn, but at least it seems like she’ll cooperate now. Thank you, Marinette. He thought as he gave Bridgette a longing look as she interacted with Chloe. At least I get to be a super hero along side Chloe, and a civilian along side Marinette. That’s all I could ever ask for. He thought as his heart melted at the sight of Bridgette and Chloe running out of the room to go rehearse. The other actors followed suit, but Marc hung back and waited until everyone else was out of ear shot.

“Thank you, Chat Noir!” Marc said with a wink. Adrien gave them an earnest grin and the ‘V pose’ with his hand. Something akin to a flower blossomed in Marc’s heart, the warmth of it threatening to take hold of them, but they managed to rip their eyes off of the model and retreat out of the classroom. Just like Nathaniel saw Ladybug in Marinette, I’ll always see Chat Noir in you, Adrien. I’ll always….always…. They swallowed the lump in their throat and began sprinting back to the gymnasium where the rehearsals were taking place. The whole way there, their heart kept doing flips and flops in their chest as the image of Adrien in a black leather outfit flashed through his mind. Always…

Something told Adrien that he needed to get back to the gym, but he knew that his role wasn’t up today. I wanna watch Queen Bee save Bridgette…. was the only thought urging him forwards. As he made it to the gymnasium, he was greeted by the sight of Bridgette hiding behind Queen Bee and an akuma pointing a staff at them. The smile on Queen Bee’s face, and the hand plastered over Bridgette’s mouth in an attempt to hide her smile, was all he needed to see.

Nathaniel approached Adrien with the guitar in hand, saying “you know, it was Marinette who made everyone go get Chloe and call her Vesperia.”

Adrien took the guitar and looped it over his back around his shoulder, “I knew.”

“I feel like she’s already saved this play a few times, just by being herself.” Nathaniel said as he watched the mock fight take place between the actresses.

“She’s saved a lot more than a play today.” Adrien almost whispered, but Nathaniel heard it loud and clear.

“Indeed,” Nathaniel said with a knowing smirk. “That being said, I wanted to ask if you and Marinette had the extra time to stay for about an hour after rehearsals, to go over something.”

“Sure, my father cleared my schedule so I could be in the play, all of my free-time is being dedicated to this play.” Adrien said simply. “Which honestly surprises me, but I guess he saw it as my entry into acting.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me, he did fund it after all.” Nathaniel said with a slight groan. “I was honestly worried he’d make demands when I found out he was the one who donated the high-quality costumes and props. Then when I found out he was giving us a large budget just to make it Broadway worthy, I panicked.” He confessed with a shiver.

“Please don’t tell Marinette that my father is funding the play,” Adrien pleaded with a sideways glance.

“He’s going to get credited at the end of the play, there’s no hiding it,” Nathaniel said as he frowned.

“Then could you keep it a secret until the play is over?” Adrien asked as his eyes turned back to that wonderfully ethereal smile on Bridgette’s face as Queen Bee held her over her shoulder.

“Daaang!” Nathaniel whistled out. “Chloe is strong, she’s holding Marinette like she weighs nothing!”

“Haha, yeah!” Adrien laughed out nervously. “Weekend yoga, pilates, and self-defense classes with her made me realize that she’s actually in good shape for a young girl. It’s a good thing she doesn’t get into fist fights with the other girls, she’s probably win all of them.”

Nathaniel looked up at Adrien with wide eyes, full of terror. “Even….Alya…?”

“Is Alya strong?” Adrien asked, morbidly curious about the fear in the ginger’s eyes.

“Alya fought off an undercover cop in freshman year. She flipped him over her shoulder like he was a sack of potatoes.” Nathaniel said deadpan, the fear never leaving his eyes.

Adrien gawked at the boy, “I don’t wanna ever find out who is stronger.”

The two boys continued to watch the scene unfold in which Queen Bee tossed Bridgette into Rena Rouge’s arms with ease. Neither girl seemed to struggle with their role as Bridgette was tossed unceremoniously back and forth between the two.

“Hey,” Marc cried out in fear for Marinette’s life, “this isn’t in the script!”

I have a whole new reason to fear the Witch of Paris, and it has nothing to do with the rumor that she files her teeth into fangs. Adrien thought as he watched Rena Rouge run at full speed up the bleachers with Bridgette in her arms bridal-style, cackling madly.

“D-do…Do I have to have that kind of strength as Chat Noir?” Adrien asked, terrified that he’d drop his precious on stage in front of everyone.

“Well, there is the scene where you have to carry her out of bed when she’s sick as Felix. Then there’s the scene where you save her as Chat Noir.” Nathaniel pondered. “But don’t worry, I’m sure if the girls can carry her, so can you.”

I wouldn’t count on that… Adrien thought as he began to sweat despite his loose-fitting clothing. Marinette, forgive me if I drop you…

The first day of rehearsals came to a close and, as promised, Adrien and Marinette stayed behind. Marinette and Adrien remained in their Bridgette and Felix civilian costumes, as per Nathaniel’s request. Adrien’s hair was still fluffed out, something that made Marinette’s heart twist strangely. She caught herself stealing glances of him, taking note of the small silver hooped earrings sticking out of his hair. Are they really pierced, or are those clip-ons?

“I’m sorry we made you two stay in costume for so long, I wanted to make sure you got extra time in for the opening scene.” He said nervously as he handed them both each a stack of stapled papers.

The actors opened the first page, reading it carefully. Adrien’s mouth hung open slightly as Marinette bit her lip in concern. That’s right, the first chapter of the manga has Felix and Bridget making out! Their minds screamed in unison, hers in terror, his in delight.

“I-is this….this what…” Marinette stammered, unable to finish her sentence.

“You don’t have to practice the kissing!” Nathaniel said quickly with his hands up in defense. “I just know there’s a lot of cuddling, swooning, and intimate dialogue in the opening act. I wanted to make sure you both were comfortable with that and that you had time to rehearse without twenty on-lookers staring at you.”

Marinette let out a sigh of relief as Adrien’s eyes remained fixated on the manga picture printed out along side the script text, showcasing the pose of the kiss. Adrien took a sharp inhale as he turned the page and saw Felix atop Bridgette in a playful manner, before slamming the script closed. You know, for how obsessed I was with this manga for the last three years, you’d think I’d have remembered this scene in better detail.

“So…” Marinette began cautiously, “what parts are we rehearsing right now?”

“Right now, I’m focused on making you two comfortable around each other,” Nathaniel said sternly as he crossed his arms. “We can’t have a Felix and Bridgette that don’t even like each other as friends, there has to be chemistry and a genuine bond going on up on the stage.”

No problems here! Adrien’s mind melted softly at the thought of getting to hug Marinette. His stomach felt fuzzy, not nauseous or painful, just fuzzy like a TV screen on the wrong channel with the volume off.

I guess that talk is long overdue. Marinette thought as she looked over at the shaggy pretty boy and accidentally locked eyes with him. Alya, help me!

“Do you have any suggestions?” Adrien asked, sensing the thick wall of fog between them.

“Well,” Marinette began with an uneasy consciousness, “Bridgette is a baker and I own a real bakery, this scene takes place at one of the tables,” she said slowly, her nerves evident in her voice. “We could go over to my place and sit in one of the back tables,” she suggested as she looked back down at the script.

“I was hoping you’d suggest that,” Nathaniel said with relief. “But I didn’t wanna impose on you and your parents.”

“No, it’s okay, they’re used to me bringing Alya and Nino around a lot,” she said with reassurance and a nervous smile.

Adrien’s mind roared with excitement; I’m getting to go to her place! Her whole house probably smells like fresh bread and cookies, it must be extra warm from all those ovens going all day too. I bet it feels like walking into a real home!

Marinette couldn’t identify the look on Adrien’s face, only that she could describe it as the face one makes when sleep walking. “Adrien?” she called out to him curiously, but got no response. “Anybody home?” she asked again.

“Home…” Adrien whispered as he smiled softly and exhaled slowly through his nose. I can smell the macaroons from here…

Nathaniel moved in to throw his arms around the blond’s shoulders and spin him around, just out of Marinette’s hearing. “Adrien!” he hissed into his ear rigidly. The boy remained lost in his daydream, the heavenly realms of a bakery warmed into a home by a real family.

“I’m gonna go on ahead, I’ll meet him there…” she said awkwardly as she backed away slowly.

Nathaniel nodded at her, then he went back to the mission at hand, awaken the Felix sleeping inside of Adrien. “Felix!” he shouted as he shook him lightly. No response. “Chat Noir!”

Adrien’s eyes snapped open. “What?!” he gasped out haggardly. As he came back down to Earth from the heavens, he noticed that Marinette was gone and Nathaniel had a rather annoyed expression.

“Marinette went to her bakery to set the scene, she wants you to meet her there in costume. Just bring the script and the guitar.” Nathaniel said with exhaustion evident in his voice.

“Oh…okay…” Adrien mumbled out with rosy cheeks of embarrassment.

“And no more spacing out!” Nathaniel said quickly before going back to Marc from across the gym.

Okay, think like Felix! What would Felix do for Bridgette if they were going on a date to her bakery? Adrien swung the guitar over his shoulder and rolled the script up into his back pocket where it stuck out comically. His cheeks turned a slight rosy pink as he stood there awkwardly, mentally preparing himself for the inevitable embarrassment to come. Felix would be suave, bring her a gift, give her the kitty eyes when she sasses him. Man, Felix is a lot like how I envisioned myself being as an adult.

Before he knew it his feet were taking him away to that sweet sugary paradise just across the street. Be like Felix! He kept reminding himself. Be suave, be carefree, be in love! He noted that he secretly liked the feeling of carrying the guitar on his back and that the loose-fitting clothing were rather freeing feeling. His heart pounded faster with each step he took towards the bakery, towards her. I’m gonna make things right, I’ll apologize about the way we met, explain the gum situation, then I’m gonna…. His thoughts paused as he made it to the entrance of the bakery to witness the long line of customers filing in and out.

Am I going in as the suave Felix, or the apologetic Adrien? He couldn’t find his answer just by staring longingly at the door. He took a deep breath and looked around. He spotted a hattery across the street and got an idea. I’ll go in as Felix, warm her up, then swoop in as Adrien and casually start that conversation.

Marinette grew impatient. Is he coming or not? Maybe this was a bad idea, I should’ve had Nathaniel escort him. She pouted as she sat at the back table, plate of assorted sweets and two lattes ready to be shared and devoured. She idly watched the stream of customers from the back seat of the bakery, day dreaming of someday escaping her boring everyday life. I love the bakery, but I want to design for a living. She turned her gaze out the window, where she watched customers leaving with boxes of pastries and bread.

With his heart in his throat and the handle of the guitar in his hands, he broke through the line of customers, earning him angry glares and whines of complaint. But he didn’t hear them, all he heard was the strum of the guitar as he made his way inside. He stumbled upon a most ethereal sight, something that not even his wildest dreams dared show him. Bridgette was looking wistfully out of the window, before her was a slice of that nirvana he’d been searching for all his life; pastries and cookies.

He continued to finger the guitar slowly, matching the rhythm of the song playing. He made it to right in front of her, she whipped her head around to see him. The scent of herb breads, cookies, coffee, and chocolate hit him full force as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes slowly. When he reopened them, her bluebells were locked onto him, lips parted slightly. Locked in combat, or in something more tangible, they remained fixated upon one another.

And for that short moment, Adrien felt something inside of him break free and run away from him. That mystical look of wonder and curiosity in her eyes made him want to give chase. He felt like he was following a white rabbit down a hole and entering a whole other world, her world.

“Adrien, that’s totally your phone in your pocket playing that song, not you.” she said with a quirky smirk as she crossed her arms.

He reached into his pocket to turn the song off and said “someday I’ll learn it for real, and when I do, can I play it for you first?”

The look of surprise that came back across her face made him want to melt. He didn’t give her the chance to reply before moving to sit in the seat next to her. Be Felix! He reminded himself. He reached into his other pocket and pulled out a small box and placed it on the table before her wordlessly. He pretended to fiddle with the guitar strings as he awaited her next move.

Bewildered, she took the small velvet black box and held it. Okay, this is obviously him just acting like Felix. Act like Bridgette, the girl madly in love with Felix. She slowly opened it and in complete and utter awe she slammed it back closed. Okay, those are totally the earrings from the store next door that I’ve totally been saving up to buy for the last six months! I forgot playboy here was filthy stinking rich! Don’t fall for it girl, don’t fall for it! Just act like Bridgette, it’s just a prop, he’s only pretending! None of this is real! Just play along, play pretend!

She opened the box again and her eyes sparkled as she pulled out the earrings and put them in. “Oh Felix,” she whined in the daintiest tone he’d ever heard, “why do you spoil a simple baker girl like me?” she said with her hands on her cheeks, cradling her head as she gave him the bluebell beam of love. “Whatever did little me do to deserve you?” she asked again, slowly blinking at him

The icy hands of a poltergeist snaked up Adrien’s spine, chilling him thoroughly. He pondered how one could freeze solid and melt from the inside out at the same time, and came to the conclusion that Marinette just had super powers. He swallowed his heart back into his chest after its escape attempt.

“It’s for our one-year anniversary, my sweet macaroon!” he said seductively, a tone he did not intend to use. Shit, roll with it!

Oh, he’s good. She thought, realizing how much danger she was in with this disaster of a pretty boy. As they continued their script dialogue, her heart began its coup d’état against her brain. I’m in trouble if I keep staring into those gorgeous emerald eyes of his-no! Bad girl, stop it! Stop oogling him! Yes, he’s beautiful and he has the cheek bones of an angel-stop it!

As they ate the pastries and drank their lattes, Marinette was losing the war to Bridgette. Felix snaked his arm around her shoulders casually, sipping his latte with his free arm. You want him to do it! A mischievous stray thought ran through her mind. You like this side of him, you don’t want him to stop! The voice taunted her further, urging her to lean into Felix’s chest.

Adrien shivered slightly at her sudden touch. Keep going, you want her right? Now is your chance! His mind began speaking to him in a voice more sinister than his own, but oddly enough, he felt as if he recognized it. She’s right there, waiting for you to play out the next scene, the scene you’ve been waiting for!

Adrien glanced down at the script on the table, eyes widening slightly. The kiss scene!

Marinette’s eyes followed suit, down to the script and to the following scene. Absolutely not!

Don’t lie, you’re curious! The mischievous voice teased her. You have a million reasons why you should, and no good reasons why you shouldn’t!

Adrien braced himself as he looked down at the top of her head. Here goes everything!

She looked up to see him leaning down over her, his face mere inches from her own. She didn’t move up to meet him, she remained firm in her stillness as she kept those ethereal bluebells fixed upon his own burning eyes. That mystical look in her eyes urged him forwards, and upon instinct his free arm reached over and cupped her cheek to pull her in. He was centimeters from wonderland.

“Wait…” she whispered and his palm released her cheek and his head retreated slightly.

“What’s wrong?” he whispered back, slightly heart broken. She could see the disappointment in his eyes.

A vision of Bridgette formed in her mind’s eye, she stood there with her fists on her hips glaring down at her. Why did you stop him!?

“I’m just not ready for that yet,” she said somberly as she turned away from him. She scooted out of his hold and back to a safe distance. He did not give chase, but rather kept his longing gaze on her.

“I’m sorry, I guess I did rush that a bit,” he said nervously as he felt the pangs of guilt begin hitting him in the chest. Something akin to anxiety welled up inside of him as he managed to tear his eyes off of her and focus on the latte on the table in front of him.

“It’s okay, you were just following the script, it’s not like we’re doing this because we’re actually dating or anything like that,” she said a little harsher than intended.

It stung, oh boy did it sting. He let out a ragged breath and slumped in his chair. She mistook his melancholy for annoyance and wrinkled her nose at him. Not that he saw it, he was too busy staring up at the ceiling, wallowing in negativity and trying to silence Felix before he got anymore terrible ideas. I had to go and listen to my inner demon, he just had to pop up right then and there.

“Hey kids!” a masculine voice called out and they both whipped their heads to look at the tall, burly man.

“Dad!” she cried out. “This is private!”

Tom took note of his daughter’s extra-feminine dress and apron, then he noticed the happy-go-lucky pretty boy guitarist. So that’s my little Marinette’s type? Well, I respect her choices, but he needs to be tested for husband quality control purposes! The man leaned down and examined Adrien like a piece of meat.

“Boy, what’s your name?” Tom asked sternly.

“A-Adrien…” he stuttered out meekly.

Tom nodded then snapped his fingers. “Adrien, come with me,” he commanded.

Instinctively, Adrien shot up from his chair with a “y-yes sir” and followed the man. He was led into the back end of the bakery where he was ushered to a counter and tossed an apron. In an obedient daze he tied the apron on. This is exactly what would happen to Felix if he met Bridgette’s dad! This will be good research for character development!

“First take a fist full of flour and sprinkle it on the counter. Good. Now in this bowl combine the sugar and melted butter. Whisk it quickly before it gets room temperature and becomes too stiff to work with.” Tom instructed.

“Got it!” Adrien said as he began whisking the mix.

Marinette peeked around the corner curiously, guitar in hand, to witness the duo whipping up something that reeked of vanilla. She observed from a distance for a moment before leaning the guitar against the wall and heading up to them. She watched as Adrien’s hands worked the dough with ease. Stupid boy strength, it took me weeks to work up the arm strength to knead dough like that.

“Marinette, your boyfriend is a natural!” Tom chirped merrily, causing the both of them to blush.

She was speechless, but then Bridgette took over for her. Yes, let your parents think you’re dating, it will fuel the rehearsals! You can use this to make practice seem real!

“So he is,” she said simply, causing Adrien’s blood pressure to skyrocket.

See, she didn’t deny it! Felix roared in his mind. You can do this, just make the best cake this bakery has ever seen and she might see you as husband material!

Adrien fell for the trap Felix laid out and began adding things to the mix while Tom was distracted by Marinette. Cinnamon, lemon, and some cherry juice! This sounds so good! He finished mixing and poured it into the pan and popped it into the oven on the top shelf. He made his way back over to them and announced “it’s in the oven!”

“Oh good, now in thirty minutes we’ll check on it. In the meantime, I’m going to go make the macaroons for the dinner rush, so don’t forget to set a timer!” Tom said before turning back to the baking table.

“Oh good, that’s over!” Marinette sighed out. “I was worried he’d kidnapped you for the night.”

As they made it back to their seats, Adrien was lost in thought. “Hey, I’m just curious…”

“Hm?” she hummed as she sipped on her cooled latte.

“Back there, you didn’t…” he hesitated. I’m reading too far into it. Then Felix began hissing at him from the recesses of his mind. It’s her father, she let her father think you were her boyfriend and didn’t correct him! How is that ‘reading too far into it’!?

“Didn’t what?” she asked almost cutely with a tilt of her head.

His heart thumped at her cuteness. “You didn’t correct your dad when he called me your boyfriend,” he said sheepishly.

She had to stop herself from the scream that just threatened to escape from her very soul and out her body. “Oh I uhh…I just…” she started with a stammer, unable to think of exactly the right words. “I just thought it’d be good for the rehearsal environment if my parents played along is all….”

While not technically a lie, it still felt like lying somehow. They got lost in conversation, discussing the perks of pretending to date for the sake of the play. The time ticked by, the sun began to set, and the fog rolled in across Paris. The bakery was closing down, but they stayed there, holding hands at the table in the back. They were simply lost in the day dream together, blissfully unaware of the panic in the kitchen.

She allowed him to pull her in close once more, just like the script says. His arm looped over her shoulders and she looked up at him with those blue eyes he yearned to stare into for all eternity. His hand once more went to her cheek to pull her in, this time she did not speak.

Just try it, you’ll like it! Bridgette giggled and pushed Marinette forwards.

Go for it, she isn’t running away this time! Felix cackled as he pushed Adrien down.

Their eyes closed as their lips hovered only a centimeter apart. His heart raced madly as hers began playing the hokey pokey with her rib cage mercilessly. Her hands moved up to his chest and rested there. He trembled at her intimate touch, especially since he’d never been touched there before by someone. She could feel his hot breath on her lips and it set her instincts ablaze, like the spark that ignited the forest fire.

Closer! Felix and Bridgette screaming in unison.

A sudden loud blaring alarm thrust them back into reality and tore them out of their fantasy world.

“Oh god, the cake!” Adrien shot up in horror. “How long has it been in there?”

Marinette stood up with him. “Holy…it’s been in there for like two hours!”

They came crashing into the kitchen to witness the flames of chaos erupting from the open oven as Tom battled with the fire extinguisher. Adrien’s heart sank as the flames engulfing the kitchen spread to the ceiling. Sabine ran up to them and grabbed them both by the arm and hustled them out of the store and onto the sidewalk.

“The fire department is already on its way!” she shouted as she went back inside to get her stubborn idiot of a husband. She re-emerged with the large man in tow looking defeated and a bit crispy, but uninjured.

It may have only taken the fire department another minute to reach the scene, but to Adrien it felt like he’d aged thirty years. How he remained standing on his feet was beyond his own understanding, he wanted to bawl his eyes out, but he couldn’t even summon an emotion right now. I forgot he told me to put it on the bottom shelf, I forgot he said to set a timer for thirty minutes, did I even grease and flour the pan? I was in such an egotistical hurry to impress her that I….I….

He watched on as the flames were put out by the fire fighters and the smoke billowing from the front door ceased. Marinette’s cries of sorrow into her mom’s shoulders would forever haunt him. No matter what the future held for him, even if she found it in her heart to forgive him, he’d never forget what she sounded like as she cried “no, no, no!” repeatedly. Sabine took Marinette to their car and drove off somewhere unknown to Adrien.

Before he even had a chance to attempt an apology, Tom turned to him and placed a large hand on his shoulder. “Kid, this isn’t your fault,” the man started. Adrien looked up at him with terror in his eyes. “I’m the head chef, I was in charge of that kitchen this evening. I should have set the timer myself, and I should have kept my eye on you better. That was my kitchen, and I failed it.”

“But I…” Adrien began as the tears finally found his eyes. “I was so forgetful….if I hadn’t-“

“No stop,” Tom silenced him. “I foolishly dragged you into the kitchen and forced you to do something that wasn’t your profession.”

“But I agreed to do it!” Adrien retorted as tears streaked his cheeks. “I forgot you said to put it on the bottom shelf, I didn’t grease the pan, I-”

“Those things alone wouldn’t have caused a fire. A burnt top that can be cut off, but not a fire. My negligence did this, not your naivety. So please don’t feel like this is your fault.” Tom said as he wiped a tear forming in his own eye with his apron. “Not the first fire I’ve caused, certainly won’t be the last.”

Adrien couldn’t reply, he wanted to be relieved that Tom wasn’t angry, but he couldn’t forgive himself enough to continue. “Where did Marinette go?” he asked with a heavy heart.

“I told her and her mother to go to a hotel for the night, we don’t know what condition the structure of the building is in.” Tom said simply.

“But why does that mean she can’t go home, why a hotel?” Adrien asked dumbly.

Tom turned to look at him, something akin to fear in the man’s eyes. “We live at the bakery,” he said and Adrien’s heart almost stopped. Tom turned and pointed to the top floor’s balcony. “That’s Marinette’s room up there, where my princess looks out on her kingdom every morning with the sunrise before school.”

Adrien’s legs finally gave out from underneath him, sending him plummeting to the ground in an awkward sitting position. He bawled his eyes out into his hands as the firefighters came up to Tom to talk to him. He remained lost in his agony, oblivious to the exchange between Tom and the firefighters. When he managed to calm himself enough, he pulled out his cell phone and make the shaky call to his father.

“Adrien, is your rehearsal finally over for the day?” came his father’s tepid voice. “I’ll send for Natalie to come get you.”

“Father, I…” he paused, his voice trembling. “I messed up…” he cried out softly.

“What did you do?” the man asked, stiffly tepid still.

“I ruined everything,” was all he could muster. Oh no, the guitar! Nathaniel borrowed that from Juleka! It was a Jagged Stone original! Oh god no!

“You are still playing the role of Chat Noir in the play, right?” Gabriel asked pensively, fully expecting a simple answer.

“I accidentally caught the bakery on fire, I didn’t mean to!” he cried out with a sob. “They were having me rehearse with the baker girl and we used a real bakery, my cake caught on fire!”

There was silence on Gabriel’s end, which drove Adrien to cry even harder. “Come home at once,” was the last thing Adrien heard before the call ended.

It didn’t take long for that familiar limousine to pull up as the firefighters were pulling away. Tom had slipped away whilst he was on the phone. Adrien trudged defeatedly into the limo and laid himself across the backseat, refusing to even buckle himself in. Natalie tried to engage in idle chit chat on the short drive home, but Adrien refused to speak. Once home his father was waiting for him in the foyer.

“Come,” the man instructed and Adrien followed him into his office. “Sit,” he ordered and Adrien sat down. Gabriel took a deep breath and looked his son over and took in his ragged attire and dreary expression, like he was missing his soul. “Start talking.”

Adrien’s mouth opened, but no words came out. Gabriel slammed his fist onto the table, startling him. Adrien’s head rose up quickly to look at him in fear. “I….I was just…”

“What happened? Why are you dressed like a loser?” Gabriel asked darkly.

“Marinette is playing the role of Bridgette, the baker girl, in the play. My civilian form is supposed to dress like this, and I have to interact with Marinette’s character. We were rehearsing at a bakery, the Dupain-Cheng bakery, when her dad asked me to make a cake with him. I…I forgot to set the timer on the oven…I got lost in rehearsals…the next thing I knew…” Adrien paused as more tears welled up in his eyes. “It was on fire…”

“Was baking the cake part of rehearsals?” Gabriel asked with a huff. Did he say ‘her dad’?

“Yes,” Adrien said, only half lying. Research purposes technically.

“Are they taking the role of Chat Noir away from you because of this?” Gabriel asked.

“I-I don’t know…” Adrien looked down at the floor, as if he needed another thing to beat him down at the moment. “But I bet Marinette won’t want to act with me ever again.”

“If we remove this Marinette girl from her role, could you go on as Chat Noir?” he asked as he began writing on a piece of paper.

“No!” Adrien shouted abruptly, but then calmed himself. “Please don’t do that to her!” he begged. “This wasn’t her fault and I’ve caused her enough stress and drama, don’t punish her for my mistakes!”

“If her character must interact with Chat Noir, but she’ll refuse to act with you after this incident, the only logical conclusion is to remove her from the role of Bridgette.” Gabriel said sternly as he continued writing on his paper.

Adrien began to sob audibly, pulling Gabriel’s attention back to him. He paused his writing and instead looked deep in thought down at his desk of paperwork. Adrien was too distraught to think right now, and Gabriel didn’t grasp the emotional side of the situation.

Adrien must be Chat Noir, it’ll boost his career and the Agreste brand. There must be something that can be done to correct this situation. Gabriel pondered.

“I took her bakery from her, please don’t take anything else from her!” Adrien pleaded.

Gabriel’s eyebrow lifted curiously, he opened his laptop and began searching. “What’s the name of her bakery?”

“Dupain-Cheng.”

Gabriel’s blood pressure began to rise as he curiously googled that familiar name.

“Adrien,” Gabriel began after a long pause. “What would make this situation go away?” he hinted.

He lifted his head slowly, tears still falling from his cheeks and into his hands. “A time machine…” he muttered dumbly.

Gabriel didn’t laugh. “If you can’t be Chat Noir, I will pull the funding for the play. So come up with a solution, after that we can talk repercussions.”

Adrien wiped his tears off on his sleeve and did his best to calm himself enough to think straight. “Buy her a new bakery,” Adrien suggested after a moment of silence.

Gabriel remained silent as he turned back to his laptop and began typing. Adrien waited impatiently for his father to finish typing away at her keyboard. When the words came, he didn’t expect anything of the sort, and was thus taken down a different route than anything he could have ever expected.

“Oh shit, it’s that bakery!” escaped from Gabriel’s mouth. His hand went to his mouth in a ‘oops’ manner before going back to the keyboard. He spent what felt like an hour typing up a storm, followed by writing a letter by hand.

Adrien observed this odd behavior as his father’s face had gone from stoic to a mildly wide-eyed and cautious. After several moments of what felt like panicked typing and writing, Gabriel closed the laptop and called Natalie into the room. He opened his drawer, pulled out a small pocket-book thing and tore a piece of paper out of it. He wrote on it, then put it into an envelope followed by the hand-written letter.

“Yes sir?” Natalie said as she entered the room. “You called?”

“Take Adrien to the Grand Bourgeois Hotel, he’s spending the night there and delivering this to the Bridgette actress.” He said as he shoved the envelope into Adrien’s hands. “Go pack for a weekend trip,” he ordered and Adrien nodded.

“Am I grounded?” Adrien asked defeatedly.

“No, forget punishments, this situation was beyond your comprehension from the beginning,” he said before turning back to his paperwork.

What in the hell is happening? Adrien’s head spun as he packed his bags. Why am I going to Chloe’s hotel? Since when does my father make hand written apology letters? Why isn’t he grounding me? Before he knew it, he was standing in the lobby of the hotel. Being close to midnight there was no one in the lobby except the desk clerk. Natalie checked him in and made her departure. He was led to his room where the attendant dropped his bags off.

I’m here for the whole weekend, but why? He pondered as he laid himself on the bed. What does this letter say and why is it addressed to Marinette and not her parents? I wonder what it says… He attempted to open it, but his father had sealed it. He placed it on the night stand and changed into his pajamas then laid in bed.

His mind spun in circles, returning to that abysmal accident repeatedly. His heart wouldn’t let him sleep, but his pounding headache told him that he needed to. He rolled onto his stomach to cry for the final time as the day caught up to him, forcing him into that dark pit of nightmares that he always dreaded going to. But this time, I deserve those nightmares.

Chapter Text

[Mari: Alya, I just don’t know if I can trust him or not.]

[Alya: Gurl, who the heck burns down a bakery on purpose?]

[Mari: Dad says that there’s no way that we can reopen before AFF, why do I have this horrible sinking feeling like it was all part of the Agreste’s plan?]

[Alya: GURL!! There’s no way in hell that the brand who pre-paid a year in advance for catering for a whole festival is going to burn down the caterer less than a month before the event! I know you and Adrien have had misunderstandings, but this is something that not even CHLOE would do on purpose! I really feel like it was truly an accident!]

[Mari: I just have so many questions that I can’t bring myself to even ask him! Girl, help!]

[Alya: What hotel are you at right now? I’ll come get you, you can stay at my place so you’re not stuck listening to your parents snore, and we can eat junk food and cry together.]

[Mari: You’re the best Al! I’m at NGN on main and third.]

Alya and Nino arrived at the NGN hotel at well after midnight. All three of them exhaustedly piled into the taxi and squeezed into the backseat. Alya took note of Marinette’s Bridgette outfit and raised her eyebrow at her.

“Did you not change clothes first?” she asked suspiciously.

“They wouldn’t let us back into the house, I couldn’t even change clothes or grab my toothbrush.” Marinette tiredly sighed out.

Once back at Alya’s house, the three of them unloaded the fridge and freezer of its treasures and began the feast of tears. While Alya and Marinette dove into the chocolate ice cream and donuts, Nino opted for the potato chips and remained relatively silent as the two girls openly sobbed into their desserts.

“I can’t believe this happened less than a month away from fashion-fest!” Marinette whined between bites.

“Girl, I’m telling you, it was an accident,” Alya sighed out.

“Suspicious timing though, you’ve got to admit, right?” Marinette asked as she dropped her spoon into the container.

“I mean….sure… The timing couldn’t have been worse, but I don’t see why he would’ve done it,” Alya mumbled out, something worrisome eating at the back of her mind. “You had insurance, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Marinette said tiredly. “We’re not worried about the finances of repairs, it’s just that the festival was our thing, you know?”

“Mhm…” Alya mumbled, urging more details out of her friend.

“Every year we cater the Agreste Fashion Festival. Kinda funny how thee Agreste model is the one to sabotage it, right?” she sneered down at her spoon sinking into the ice cream.

“Now hold on!” Nino barked. “Didn’t you say earlier that it was your dad who made him bake that cake? Didn’t you say that your dad said that it was his own fault, not Adrien’s? Why are you still so stuck on Adrien being evil or some shit?”

“Nino!” Alya growled at him. “Just because you’re friends with him doesn’t mean she has to blindly believe in his innocence like you! Think about this from Marinette’s perspective, Adrien never apologized for the gum incident, or the lunch incident, and he didn’t even bother speaking to her about the bakery as it was happening. I don’t blame Marinette for being suspicious, but she doesn’t know what we know!”

“What don’t I know?” Marinette asked curiously.

Oops! Alya groaned and threw her face into her hands tiredly. “Girl, he’s been trying to apologize to you for months now, but you wouldn’t even let him speak to you! The role of Felix was supposed to help you two warm up together so he can talk to you, why would he light your damn house on fire?”

Marinette’s eyes watered as she looked at Alya bewildered. “He’s been….trying to apologize…this whole time?” she asked slowly.

Nino placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry I came to Adrien’s defense before yours, but I’ve been best friends with the guy since the day he started school with us. The only thing he ever talks about is how sorry he is for all the misunderstandings he’s caused you. I’ve been waiting patiently for the day he finally manages to apologize to you, but you keep pushing him away and he’s too shy to stand his ground,” Nino said, the exhaustion hitting him hard.

Marinette was speechless, and the only thing she could manage to do was to just cry it out. Alya wrapped her arms around her and cried with her. Nino’s eyes watered a bit, but he chose to pull out his phone rather than join the group hug going on between just two girls. He began texting Adrien.

[Nino: Sorry man, the cat is out of the bag. Alya told Marinette that you’ve been trying to apologize, Mari had no effing clue apparently. Looks like both of you are a couple of fools. The good news is that Mari seems open to talking to you now.]

I wonder if he’s awake still. Nino shut his phone’s screen off and started cleaning up the mess from their feast while Alya took Marinette to her room. Alya’s clothes might have been a size too big for her, but for pajamas it was perfect. The girls slept in her bed while Nino crashed on the couch, all three blissfully unaware of Adrien’s current predicament.

---

He could hear her screaming, that wail of agony muffled only by her mother’s bosom that tormented him. He tried to hide from it, but no matter where he ran the echoes chased him down. Each cry she let out found him in his hiding spot and unleashed a new wave of agony upon him.

“I’m sorry, Marinette!” he cried out into the abyss, but the abyss cried back.

“I bet you and Chloe planned this!” the void screeched.

“No, I promise, it was an accident!” he pleaded.

“You’re just like her, you even defended her when she was in the wrong! All you’ve done since you’ve arrived at school is enabled her to torment us further!” the void roared back at him.

“I just…can’t turn my back on my old friend…” he said softly, the defeat in his voice echoing back to him.

“Then you will never be her friend, she who shared, she who forged!” the void said in a dark and malicious tone, startling Adrien.

“What does that even mean, what am I supposed to do!?” Adrien yelled out into the nothingness.

“Put on the ring,” was the final echo of the void, it came as a soft whisper of his own voice.

“What ring?” Adrien asked, feeling the stillness take hold of him. “What do you mean?” he asked again in desperation.

There was silence at long last, whatever monster that had been chasing him down finally gave up the fight. The softness of its final transmission both soothed and concerned him further. What ring? What would putting on a ring do? Just as those thoughts entered his head, he looked down at his right fist to see a black ring with a green paw print on it. Oh, that ring, the miraculous of the black cat from the manga. But how is that going to—Oh… I get it… Bridgette won’t know who I am as Chat Noir, I can… I can get close like that!

Like a bubble bursting, his eyes flung open and he threw the covers off of himself. He started getting dressed, but then all of his enthusiasm vanished suddenly. What am I doing? Why did I wake up so excited? The dream left him, the memory of the void erased from his mind, leaving him with only the sensation of hope. Hope with no reason or foundation, just that warm spark of courage.

He continued to dress and groom himself, all while trying desperately to remember what the dream was about and why he felt so reinvigorated suddenly. He checked his phone and saw Nino’s text. Good, it looks like she’s willing to at least talk. But what would I even say to her? Sorry I destroyed your home and business, leaving you destitute? He went to grab something from his suitcase and remembered the letter on the nightstand. What is this even supposed to be? My father’s half-assed attempt to apologize on my behalf?

He pocketed the letter and shot Nino a text.

[ADRIEN: Are you still with the girls? Can we meet somewhere?]

[NINO: No, sorry, we took Mari back to the NGN Hotel to go be with her parents. Something about official paperwork regarding the fire, since Mari witnessed it she’s gotta sign something for the insurance. I know you wanna apologize and all, but she’s got bigger things to worry about right now. Just give it another day or so, I’ll give her your number so she can text you when she’s ready.]

[ADRIEN: I guess you’re right, thanks Nino!]

I guess I’m staying in this hotel room today. But I don’t want to be alone…

[NINO: Btw, where are you right now? We stopped by your house to bring you something from Marc, but your father said he’d “sent you away”???]

[ADRIEN: I’m at the Bourgeois hotel, room 227. I’m not sure why he sent me here either, normally I’d be grounded to my room.]

[NINO: Don’t move! We’re coming over!]

Baffled, Adrien obliged and didn’t leave his hotel room. When Nino arrived, he had Alya in tow and they carried in several bags and boxes. Adrien could smell the food, specifically pizza and some sort of pasta. His stomach growled hungrily as they set all the boxes and bags down onto the king sized bed. One box in particular was wrapped in bright green wrapping paper, like a Christmas gift. Nino handed it to him and winked.

“I think I know what’s in here,” Nino smirked.

Adrien tilted it head as he examined the package. “Bwah?” he mumbled out dumbly.

“It’s from Marc, so I’m guess it’s…” he leaned in to whisper, “the thing!”

“I’m sorry, I’m still so shaken up that I just can’t process anything right now, it’s the what?” Adrien scowled at the box. The last thing I deserve right now is a gift.

“Just open it!” Alya whined as she flipped the pizza box lid open and began devouring.

Adrien set it down on the bed next to them and unwrapped it carefully. When he looked inside he immediately slammed it shut. “I-I don’t think anyone else was meant to see this!”

“It’s the Chat Noir suit, isn’t it?” Alya and Nino said in unison.

“H…How did you guys….what!?” Adrien said with wide eyes. “No one is supposed to know!”

Alya laughed so hard she snorted, Nino squeezed his eyes shut and sighed.

“We’ve known since before you did, my guy…” Nino said lightheartedly.

Alya managed to stifle her laugh long enough to reply. “Yeah, Nathaniel and Marc admitted a few things and one thing led to another…and before you know it…a secret was spilled. Then when they were chosen as the contest winners, we kind of told them to follow their hearts on the actors for the play. You know…”

“No, I don’t know…what?” Adrien asked dumbly as he held the suit up to himself and examined it.

“Well, I already spilled the Marinette secret, it’s your turn babe…” Nino said, giving her a look.

Alya shrugged. “Fine by me!”

“What secret?” Adrien asked, ears burning.

“Three years ago…” Alya began with a most mischievous grin. “You posed for a teen magazine in which you wore all black leather. Well Marc used you as the model they’d trace over and over again to help them draw the perfect character for their story. Then they and Nathaniel met and it turns out that Nathaniel was also using a real person to model his character after. They melded those two stories into one manga, and they’ve asked the real original models to be Ladybug and Chat Noir on stage. They wanted the most authentic actors to play the characters, because no one else can be them, except you two!”

“Whoa…” Adrien whispered as he looked at himself in the mirror. “All this time, I had no idea!”

Good, it worked, he’s in better spirits. Alya thought as she returned to her pizza gorging.

“So…” Adrien began as he moved back to the box and pulled out the mask. “Does that mean that Ladybug is someone Nathaniel is friends with?”

“Well, err….” Alya froze up.

“I don’t know, we don’t know who she is other than she is one of the other actresses in the play.” Nino interjected, saving Alya the trouble. “You see, Chat Noir and Ladybug can’t know who each other are, remember? It’d ruin the authentic ending.”

“I know, I guess I should stop asking questions then, I don’t want to ruin their plan,” Adrien said as he continued to pull props out of the box. “Then again…” he began as he pulled out the ring and slipped it onto his finger. A memory triggered, a very strange sensation overtook him. Something akin to hope welled up inside of him once more when he saw the ring on his hand. “Then again, would I even be allowed to continue on as Chat Noir once Nathaniel and Marc find out what I did.”

“I seriously doubt that Nathaniel and Marc would hold that over your head like that,” Alya sighed out. “I know that it’s hard to be the person who messed up, but you are your own worst judge. You’re merciless on yourself. Imagine if it were Marinette who burned your wardrobe or something by accident, would you hold that against her forever?”

“No, of course not, it was an accident!” Adrien nearly shrieked. He calmed himself and put everything except the ring back into the box. “I mean, of course I’d be upset, but I wouldn’t refuse to work with her ever again. I’d still want to be Felix and Bridgette on stage with her, but that’s me! She doesn’t feel the same as I do…”

“Have you asked her how she feels?” Alya asked with an oddly serene aura around her. “Do you know for a fact if she’s holding a grudge, or if she can’t wait for the bakery to be rebuilt so that she can pick up where you two left off? Isn’t it possible that she’s more mad at her own dad than she is at you?”

Adrien looked like he was in a trance, but within seconds his eyes watered and he buried his face into his hands. “I think that’d make me feel worse!” he cried out. “Knowing that I’m the person who drove a wedge into her happy family would destroy me!”

“Oh, you pure hearted fool…” Alya groaned out. I can’t believe I doubted you for even a second. I wish Mari could see this right now.

“Just eat dude, I gave her your number and told her to text you when she was ready. There’s nothing else you can do for now, just calm down and see what the day brings. Who knows, she might even come hang out with us tonight!” Nino said cheerfully.

Adrien gave him a half smile and chuckled. “You’re right, I should calm down, but let’s be real here, she’s not going to just jump at the chance to come see me tonight,” he laughed out.

“One could dream, kitten!” Nino said cheekily as he held up the pizza box towards him.

Over at the NGN Hotel, Marinette was signing an insurance paper diligently. She ignored her mother’s ringing cell phone and continued to recount her version of the story onto the legal document.

“Oh yes, hello,” Sabine said into the phone, most of it skyrocketing passed Marinette’s ears and out the window. “Mhm….yes… Oh it’s alright, my husband is so forgetful sometimes….Yes, he’s forgotten cake timers plenty of times…. No no! They’re together you see…Yes! Yes just like that! We were watching them…. Oh I don’t think that’s the case at all, sir! No no, it’ll be alright!.... Wait, are you sure? That’s so much trouble for you though! …. Well if you insist, we’d be awfully appreciative! .... A letter? No, we haven’t seen him yet…. Room two hundred and twenty seven? And ours, two hundred and twenty eight? Okay I’ll tell her….. Thank you again sir!”

Sabine hung up and sat beside her daughter who was just finishing up her statement to the insurance company. “Dear,” she began with a warm smile. Marinette looked up to see that honey and chamomile smile and quirked her brow. “Dear, thee uhm…” she hesitated, lying was never her strong suit. “The insurance company has upgraded us to a nicer hotel, but we already prepaid for the week for this room. Why don’t you go on ahead and take the room for yourself?”

Marinette’s eyes sparkled. “F-for real? What hotel?”

“Bourgeois on main, it’s just down the street, and Chloe won’t know you’re there, the room is under the insurance’s claim. Also, the building inspector said that there’s no structural damage to the building, so you can safely go get your stuff and take it to the hotel with you,” she explained.

“So the flames didn’t reach the rest of the house?” she asked ecstatically.

“Nope, only the kitchen got burned, but it’ll need a complete repair. Good thing we have insurance!” Sabine laughed out, mostly in relief.

“Oh thank god!” Marinette whined out in relief. “I thought I was gonna be stuck in this costume until we got to the store! I just wanna brush my teeth!” she exclaimed as she jumped up.

Before Sabine could blink, Marinette was dashing off to their house, luckily they lived on main street and were relatively close to everything. She was one block from school, two from the park, three from the Bourgeois hotel, and five blocks from the NGN hotel. She was at her house in only a few minutes of running. She came to a halt at the entrance, the smell of old smoke and some strange chemical filled the air. She used her key to open the front door and lock it behind herself.

She grimaced as she walked closer to the kitchen to examine the destruction. The wall with the oven was nearly collapsed, and the rest of the kitchen was painted black with ash. There was a soggy mess of god knows what on the floor that squished under her feet. Then something purple caught her eye, something leaning against the adjacent wall. She gasped and carefully made her way over to it and picked it up.

Oh no! Juleka’s prized guitar! It’s all burned and the strings are melted! This is all my fault… She felt tears welling up in her eyes. If I hadn’t distracted Adrien… If stupid dad hadn’t pushed him into the kitchen and forced him to bake a cake… If I had just worked up the courage to do the scene the first time… She retreated out of the kitchen with the guitar and headed up to her room where the air was much cleaner. I’ll have to explain this situation to Juleka soon, hopefully she’s not too mad at me…

She looked around her room, pink and pristine as ever. Despite the lingering scent of ash, she took a sigh of relief and began packing her bags. You know, now that I’m not in a state of panic and chaos, I can see that there’s no way Adrien could’ve planned all this. It’s way too elaborate, even for Chloe. Not even Chloe would try to burn down someone’s house. No wonder Nino went off on me last night, I must’ve sounded so vindictive.

She finished her packing and slung her bags over her shoulders. With the guitar in hand she left the bakery, locking the door behind her. She made the short few block walk to the Bourgeois hotel where she was greeted by a peculiar sight. Is that a crocodile in the lobby? She froze, despite acknowledging that it was in a harness and leashed to a security guard. She tiptoed around it and attempted to get to the front desk where she saw a most unexpected guest.

“Jagged Stone?” she blurted out thoughtlessly.

The tall man whirled around and eyed her up and down. “Hey miss!” he shouted enthusiastically. “Rockin’ guitar! I used to have one just like it when I was your age,” he said with a thunderous laugh. “Well uhm…except mine didn’t look like the devil himself got ahold of it…” he said slowly as he stepped closer, kneeled down, and lifted his shades to inspect it.

“Oh I know!” Marinette whined out. “My house caught on fire last night, so that’s why I’m at the hotel now, but the guitar didn’t quite make it through…”

“Let me see it, love,” he said as he gently grabbed it from her and held it up in every direction. “Well, the good news is it’s probably still playable, but the strings will need to be replaced. Other than that, the scorch marks look really awesome!”

“R-really?” Marinette stammered.

“Yeah, tell you what,” he said as he slung the guitar over his back. “Give me an hour with ‘er, and I’ll have ‘er working better than before!”

Marinette nodded, eyes wide as saucers. “I’ll be in room two hundred and twenty eight….”

“I’ll be there!” Jagged said as he vanished into the elevator.

Marinette remained standing there, blinking in denial at the elevator. What just happened? Did I somehow un-curse Juleka’s guitar? She looked like a zombie as she walked in a trance up to her room. She set her stuff down, took a shower, then opened her bag to dress properly. She held her clothes up and her nose wrinkled. Oh no…please no… She held them up to her face and groaned out. They smell like smoke! I can’t wear any of this! She reluctantly put the Bridgette outfit back on and put her normal clothes back into her bag before picking up the phone on the nightstand.

“Hello?” she asked. “Is this the front desk?”

“Yes ma’am, how may I assist you?” said the man on the other end.

“How much is laundry service?” she asked with almost defeat in her voice.

“It is three hundred euros for one load,” the man said stiffly.

“Th…three…hundred?” Marinette stammered as her head spun.

“Oh my! Forgive me, I just noticed the caller ID says that you’re the VIP in room two-twenty-eight! We’ll send for a maid immediately, no charge ma’am!” the man said swiftly, nervousness evident in his tone.

“Ohhkay…” Marinette slurred out suspiciously.

“Forgive me for my lack of awareness, my apologies ma’am!” the man said in slight fear.

“It-it’s…okay…thanks…” she said dumbly as she hung up. Wow, that was weird. What the heck kinda insurance did mom and dad have?

Before she could even process the man’s words, there was a knock on her door. “Room service!” the woman’s voice called out sweetly. Marinette opened the door and the lady bowed to her, saying “I’m here for your laundry miss, I’ll have it back within the hour!”

Marinette handed her the pile of clothes and asked “I don’t understand, why was my laundry service was suddenly free because of the room I’m in?”

The woman took her clothes and gave her a sheepish expression. “Well, you’re the VIP that was called in urgently for this room. Everything you could ever want from room service and all of the hotel’s services are included in the price of your room. The spa, restaurant, room service, and even one of the private event rooms is yours during your stay.”

Marinette blinked dumbly. What the heck kinda insurance!?!? It was an incomplete thought, but the voice screaming inside her head told her that something didn’t add up. “But why am I the VIP?”

“You don’t know?” the woman asked curiously. Marinette shook her head. “Well, neither do I honestly, but that’s how the room was ordered.”

“I am in the right room….right?” Marinette opened the door to see the number two-twenty-eight.

“Yes, we were told we were expecting a young Asian girl from Miss Chloe’s school,” the woman explained.

“I thought Chloe wasn’t supposed to know I was here….and why would the insurance company know I know Chloe?” Marinette said as she made a disgusted face.

“Huh?” the maid hummed out. “I don’t recall them saying anything about an insurance company, only that an esteemed regular reserved the room directly for Chloe’s classmate.”

“Th-thanks…I guess…” Marinette said awkwardly and the maid excused herself.

Marinette picked up her phone and called her parents. “Mom, what is going on with this hotel room?” she hissed.

“What do you mean dear?” Sabine asked almost mischievously.

“Why am I being treated like royalty here?!” Marinette hissed again.

“We had really good insurance!” Sabine lied.

“Mom!”

“Really, really, good insurance?” Sabine lied again.

“Do you know how much this room would cost if paid outright? More than the repairs to the kitchen!” Marinette said in exasperation. “What’s really going on here?”

“Uhh…your father needs me, got to go! Enjoy your stay honey!” Sabine said sweetly before hanging up.

Oh, I’m not buying this insurance thing one bit! Marinette thought to herself bitterly. Something bizarre is afoot!

It was still considered morning as it was before noon, so she ordered a large brunch from the restaurant to be brought to her room. Marinette stepped out onto her balcony to ponder what mysterious entity gave her this fortune. When the food arrived, her head spun as they pulled out several carts of food, enough to feed a whole family. They began setting up the largest feast of her life on the balcony table before her. Everything from steak and eggs to fruit and cheeses was laid out before her. Several pitchers of different colored juices were set down alongside an array of sauces and jams. Her stomach growled hungrily as the smell of the fresh herb bread and bagels, still steaming hot from the oven.

She began indulging herself as the staff excused themselves. From behind herself, she heard a “ohhh!” sound from a younger man. She whipped her head around to see someone familiar, but she knew instantly that they’d never met before. She dropped her fork and nearly choked. The man had messy blonde hair, a black mask, and a fully body black leather suit. He was leaning over the railing of the balcony next to hers, his face mere inches from her own.

“Chat Noir!?” she screeched out in shock.

“Bridgette!?” he screeched back, equally in shock. “Wh-what’re you doing here?!” he asked as he hopped the railing over to her balcony.

Woah! He made that look so effortless, he could have fallen! He must be athletic and used to stunts like this! She thought in awe as her eyes refused to tear away from his emerald sclera contacts. It’s like the real Chat Noir is here! I guess technically he’s the closest thing to the real deal there would be.

“So…” she began slowly. “Why are you here at the hotel?”

“I was gonna ask you the same thing,” he said dumbly as he took the seat across from her.

“It’s a long story, but since you’re here, eat with me!” she said with a warm smile.

His heart fluttered. This is exactly what Bridgette is like in the manga, she really is the perfect actress for her! “Thanks! I escaped from my friends and didn’t get to eat, so this is nice!” he chirped as he began to eat with her. “So what happened?”

“Oh uhm…” she started, but suddenly looked downtrodden. His heart sank. “My bakery burned down and the insurance company put me up in this hotel until the repairs are done. My whole house smells like smoke so I can’t safely stay there yet. Even my clothes smelled of smoke, I can’t take this outfit off until they get back with my laundry.”

Insurance company my ass! Adrien thought. I bet you that my father did this! Oh…my father…the letter!

“Oh man, that’s rough!” he said nervously. “I’d heard that something happened,” he lied. “Felix’s actor’s room is the one I came from, I’m staying in a different room. The rich guy who funded the play and the costumes said I should stay here for some reason. I guess I found that reason!”

Bridgette laughed lightly and smiled at him cutely. “He sent me my hero!”

Something in Adrien’s heart and soul began clicking, like the puzzle pieces of his life were suddenly aligning for the first time since his mother’s death. I bet she’ll become a famous actress after this play. “Say, Felix’s actor told me that he was supposed to give you a letter from someone, but I left it in his room, let me go get it.”

“Oh, okay…” she said as she watched him hop the railing between the balconies. So dangerous!

He returned and retook his seat, extending the letter out to her. “I don’t know who its from or why, but he wanted you to have it immediately. It just so happens that I found you first is all!”

She took the letter and opened it cautiously, unsure of what magical nonsense awaited her in this mystery letter. Is it from Adrien, an apology letter? Is it from the rich funder? She thought as she opened it to see a personal check and a hand written letter. Her eyes widened as she saw the numbers on the check and the signature of the owner.

She trembled as she read the letter. Chat Noir observed in absolute curiosity burning through his veins and out his eyes. He felt as if he could shoot lazers at that letter, for her too burned with the desire to read it.

[Bridgette,

It is with utmost sincerity that I apologize on behalf of my son Adrien and the entirety of the Agreste brand. My son’s foolish actions were made due to my lack of strict parenting and thus this responsibility falls to my shoulders. I understand that the Dupain-Cheng bakery is an icon on main street, and by extension, all of Paris.

The Agreste Fashion Festival next month cannot continue on without its caterer, and the Miraculous play that will act as a segway for my son’s career to branch into acting must resume as planned. In order for this to happen, I must take financial responsibility for this incident. Please forgive Adrien and the Agreste brand as a whole. I hope to see the Dupain-Cheng bakery continue to be our caterer at our future events.

The million euro check should cover not only the repairs to the bakery, but ensure that the repairs are done quick enough to ensure the bakery return to fully functional in time for the festival. Any left overs are yours to keep to do with as you wish. I have also reserved room 228 for you at the Bourgeois hotel for the next month. All of the expenses are paid and you should have no problems rehearsing in their event room. I have sent Adrien to stay at the room next to you so that you may continue to rehearse together, as I understand you two share important scenes together.

I pray for the bakery’s speedy repairs, the play’s success, and your special friendship with my son to continue to blossom.

Gabriel Agreste]

“Holy crap!” Chat Noir spurted out. Father! What does that last line even mean!?

Bridgette slumped in her chair as her mind reeled in circles. A million euros!?

Chapter Text

I know this story only had a very small following, but I wanna continue it again. So I'm going to re-write it and repost it under the same title. I will post an update with the new story and then delete this one. I normally wouldn't even bother making an update like this, but I didn't want to risk anyone getting confused when I posted a duplicate story. I've become a much better writer since I posted the original and have made peace with the reasons I stopped writing MLB fanfiction in the first place. I look back and see how many errors I made, a plot hole error, and even some bits of information I left out that were key components to the story. I wish to fix these and improve the reading experience of it all.

Long story short, this fanfic was written for someone in a discord server I left as part of a gift exchange. I never received my story from my exchange partner (who isn't the person this story was written for - it was a secret santa situation) and I had a massive falling out with the leadership of that server for reasons I won't get too into detail, but they were related to the MLB fandom and someone posting something incredibly offensive/illegal and the mods condoning it and even reprimanding me for reporting it calling it "silly shipping drama".

Thank you for the few people who read the fic and I hope you'll come back and read the re-write soon!