Chapter 2
Five days after his date gone awry, Adrien tries to contact Marinette every day.
He planned to talk to her to convince her to talk to Ladybug so she would give him his miraculous back.
However, Marinette could not be reached almost every day, whether on the phone, at school or at her home.
He went to her house for the third time that day in the early afternoon and rang her doorbell. To his relief, this time she opened the door.
Marinette says in a friendly tone, "Oh hey Adrien. Good timing, I was just about to call you."
"Really? Why?"
Marinette quickly walked over to a table, grabbed a note and walked back to Adrien. "I had to give you this."
Adrien happily accepted the note, thinking it was from Ladybug, but when he looked at it, his joy vanished.
Adrien looks at Marinette and asks confused "A bill? For what?"
Marinette is still smiling as she says, as if it's obvious, "For the cardigan."
Adrien was dumbstrucked. He has never had to pay anything from Marinette before. "But, but..."
"It's all listed," says Marinette, "The cost of the fabrics, time, labor, and wrapping paper."
Adrien asks confused "Wrapping paper?"
"The wrapping paper I wrapped the cardigan in was very expensive."
Adrien asks flabbergasted "Since when do I have to pay you for anything?"
"Since a friend made me realize that my time is too valuable to waste on free services."
Adrien asks confused "Who said that?"
Marinette points her thumbs to the living room and says "Kagami."
Adrien looks in the direction and was speechless. The last person he expected was sitting on the couch. Kagami looked his way, but she neither greeted him nor acknowledged his presence. He saw that she was wearing the cardigan.
Adrien whispers to Marinette, "What is she doing here?"
Marinette explains, "She came to me the day after your date to thank me for the cardigan and to apologize for your behavior."
Adrien raised a brow "My behavior? I didn't do anything wrong."
Kagami huffs "You still don't get it." Kagami says while taking a sip of tea.
"What am I supposed to understand?" Adrien asks a little exhausted. "I practically didn't say anything to Marinette."
"That's exactly the problem," says Marinette. At Adrien's questioning look, she explains, "You didn't ask me if I could make the gift for you, or if I even had the time for it. You practically ordered me to do it and then you left before I could even discuss the details of the gift with you.”
"But only because I had more important things to do," Adrien wails. "Plus, I knew you were going to design something incredible."
Marinette frown's "Then why did you talk it down when you picked it up?"
Before Adrien could deny it, Kagami casually says, "Plus he called it 'cheap'."
Marinette says with a knowingly smile "He won't find it so cheap anymore."
Adrien looks back at the bill, wondering how much she's charging him for the cardigan. His eyes widen as he exclaims in shock, "You want 5000 euros for the cardigan!"
Marinette let out a "Duh."
He asks disappointed "You really want me to pay for this?"
Marinette counters, "What's the problem? You are rich. You can easily afford something like that.”
"What makes you think that?! It's just a cardigan! Not even a high-quality one!” Adrien asks, stunned. It's not the price that bothers him, it's the fact that a friend expects money from him.
Marinette wasn't pleased that Adrien was talking about her design in such a disparaging way, but she was okay with it.
Marinette says in a professional tone, "That's the price I calculated with Kagami's help. I initially intended to only charge for the cost of the materials, but Kagami thought that I was offering it way too cheaply. After some calculations with her mother, we came up with this sum.”
Adrien curiously asks "What if I don't pay?"
Kagami says after finishing her tea "Then I will tell my mother so that she tells your father."
Adrien paled. He had no choice but to pay the bill.
Adrien looks at Marinette in a disappointed way as he says, "Marinette, I thought we were friends."
"Funny, I thought the same thing myself." Marinette replies bluntly. "But it looks like we were both wrong."
Adrien feels like he got a slap in the face.
Adrien is about to start a discussion when Kagami joins them at the door and says, "Get to the point of your unannounced visit. We still have plans."
Adrien sighs, looking first at Kagami then back at Marinette as he asks "Can we talk privately?"
"No." Both girls reply at the same time.
Adrien looks at Kagami as he says "It's about something personal."
Kagami directly asks "Is it about the ring you lost?"
Marinette acted like she didn't understand what it was about "Ring? Which ring?”
Adrien didn't know what to say. He hadn't counted on Kagami being there when he wanted to talk to Marinette alone.
When he hasn't said anything for almost a minute, Marinette says, "If you don't want to tell me the reason for your unannounced visit, you'd better go."
Adrien was about to say something, but Kagami was faster. "I think so too." She says with a knowingly smile, "After all, his reason can't be so important that it would disturb our date."
It took a few seconds for Adrien to understand what she meant by that. When he then understood what she said, he was taken back.
Shocked and confused Adrien exclaims "You two have a date?!"
Marinette deadpanned "You got a problem with that?"
Adrien didn't know what to say "You know- you see- it's like this-"
Kagami holds up a hand for Adrien to stop talking. She says "Just stop it. You're making an even bigger fool of yourself than you already are."
Adrien gave up and turns away from the girls, planning to come back the next day. However, he stopped when Marinette said, "By the way, Adrien."
He turns to her hoping Marinette would tell him something about Ladybug. What he heard instead broke him.
"Don't think of coming back here unless you want to buy something from the bakery, otherwise never come near me again."
He didn't get a chance to say anything as Marinette closed the door.
Adrien sighs and left Marinette's home.
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Later in the evening.
Adrien ran towards the Eiffel Tower as that's where Mr. Pigeon was once again akumatized.
As he approaches the Eiffel Tower, he already saw that Ladybug was there.
When she lands near him, he quickly runs to her and shouts "Ladybug! Please! We need to talk!"
"Not now!" Ladybug snapped without turning to face him.
She was about to jump back to Mr. Pigeon when Adrien grabs her arm and says "Please my lady! Please, you need to give me my ring back.”
Ladybug glares at Adrien. She yanks her arm from Adrien's grip as she angrily says "Are you crazy?! There's an Akuma!"
"It's just Mr. Pigeon, no big deal." Adrien says as if talking about the weather. He doesn't realize that Ladybug got even more angry with him.
Adrien continues "We can keep talking privately while he keeps playing with his birds a little."
Ladybug gritted her teeth's "Exactly that attitude had to force my hand to take the miraculous from you."
Adrien tilted his head "Huh?"
“Akuma incidents are nothing to laugh at. They're a serious threat." She glares at Adrien, who have to take a step back. "You, however, always view Akuma incidents as a game. It's not a game. People are being manipulated and turned into monsters just because a madman is desperate to get the miraculous.”
Adrien opens his mouth to reply, but Ladybug didn't give him the chance. "Your behavior finally made me to take the miraculous and entrust it to a partner who is more reliable than you."
Adrien's eyes widen. He stammers "P-p-partner?"
As if giving a cue, out of nowhere a girl with his miraculous appeared who was fighting Mr. Pigeon.
Adrien looks stunned at the new girl as Ladybug explains, "Unlike you, Kuro Neko is focused. She doesn't fool around, she doesn't tell inappropriate jokes, she just gets the job done.” She narrowed her eyes at Adrien as she added, “Not like you.”
Adrien didn't get a chance to say anything as Ladybug jumped towards the Akuma and her new partner.
Adrien watches dumbstruck as Ladybug and her new partner defeat Mr. Pigeon with virtually no effort. Afterwards, reporters, including Alya, ran to the heroes and asked all sorts of questions about the new partner and what became of Chat Noir. The only thing Ladybug told them was that Chat Noir retired before both heroes disappeared.
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The next days and weeks were very painful for Adrien.
When word got out that Ladybug had a new partner, Chat Noir fans, including Adrien's classmates, were very upset that he was no longer Ladybug's partner. But as the days and weeks went by, everyone was very smitten with Ladybug's new partner.
There was even a rumor that Ladybug and Kuro Neko are in a relationship, but that's just speculation. At least until someone managed to take a picture from afar where Ladybug and Kuro Neko are kissing on the Eiffel Tower in the moonlight.
Then, at some point, the day came when Ladybug and Kuro Neko agreed to appear on Face to Face, where they would like to answer any unanswered questions.
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Adrien's class, minus Marinette, Chloe, Sabrina and Lila, have gathered in Alya's living room. They are all anxiously awaiting the interview with Ladybug and Kuro Neko.
Marinette didn't come because she was on a date with Kagami, Chloe and Sabrina were in Chloe’s room, and as for Lila, she was sent to a reform school when everyone found out she was a pathological liar and possibly a sociopath.
Since Marinette no longer has a crush on Adrien, she has blown Lila with irrefutable evidence by going to Alya as Ladybug and telling her that everything Lila says is a lie and showing everything with her bugphone in front of her eyes that Lila has never achieved anything in her life apart from telling lies. While it was hard for Alya to believe, she ended up trusting Ladybug's words more than Lila's.
Exactly one day later, Alya apologized to Marinette for everything and promised her from now on like any reporter to research before she posts anything.
A few days later, everyone knew Lila was a liar and avoided her like she was a bad disease.
Like Alya, all of her friends have apologized to Marinette. Marinette, of course, accepted their apologies, but made it clear to everyone that she would no longer do anything for free. Ultimately, her friends understood that. Some of them have even given her compensation for past work.
In the end, Lila's lies were made public when Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, Prince Ali and many more famous people sued Lila.
As for Adrien, even though he knew about Lila's lies from the start, and even though Marinette has seen his true colors, she hasn't exposed him as either Marinette or Ladybug, out of respect for their old partnership.
As the Face to Face cover appeared on the TV, Alya excitedly shouted, "Everyone shut up! The show begins!”
Everyone but Adrien is excited about the show. Adrien looks to the show with a somber look.
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Nadja says as the lights turns on "Hello, Paris, and welcome to this week's addition of Face to Face. I can say that I am glad to be here, and to introduce you to our very special guests tonight, Paris very own superheroes Ladybug and Kuro Neko!"
Thank you, Nadia." said Ladybug polite.
Kuro Neko says with a bow "It's an honor to be here tonight."
"The honor is all mine," Nadja said, leaning forward slightly. "Ever since you have become Ladybug's new partner, we've all had so many questions we wished we could have answered."
"That's what we're here for." says Kuro Neko modestly, without cracking a silly joke like Ladybug's old partner would do.
"Then let's see what your viewers want to know." says Nadja. She turns to the monitor and immediately answered the first caller.
Then the first caller came, it was Alya, with showing her friends and classmates in the background.
Nadja says with a professional smile "It looks like we now have several callers at the same time."
"Hello Ladybug and Kuro Neko. I'm Alya and I have my friends and classmates behind me.”
Ladybug and Kuro Neko nod in greeting.
Alya was the first to ask a question “Ladybug and Kuro Neko I want to say first of all what a great team you both are. I would also like to know why Chat Noire is no longer Ladybug's partner?"
Kuro Neko says "Chat Noir brought this on himself."
Ladybug explains what happened a few days ago with only the most necessary information. However, she did not mention Chat Noir's or Kagami's name.
The students, except for Adrien, were shocked by what they heard.
Max asked the next question, "Aren't you afraid that Chat Noir will get akumatize on purpose to fight the two of you?"
"It's possible." Replies Ladybug matter-of-factly "I've already thought about it a bit." She looks at Kuro Neko with a small smile as she says "But if it should happen, I have a great partner to rely on."
Kuro Neko looks softly at Ladybug as she says "Plus you'll be able to kick his ass."
Ladybug and Kuro Neko giggled.
Rose asks worried "Aren't you afraid that you'll have to fight your old partner?"
Ladybug exhales heavily as she reveals "I haven't seen Chat Noir as a partner in a very long time."
All her classmates including Adrien and Nadja gasped at this fact.
Ladybug continues “In the early days I could rely on Chat Noir even if he was annoying. But after a while he showed his true colors. He didn't respect me as a partner or as a girl. He saw me as if I was an object or prize promised to him. He even didn't help with the Akuma incidents on a number of occasions and let me down or otherwise disrupt the situations in some way."
Mylene says timidly, "You and Chat Noir always seemed like you had a lot of fun and hit it off. The people of Paris saw very often that Chat Noir sacrificed himself for you.”
Adrien, who is at the back, has a wide smile as he thought Ladybug had no argument against it.
"It was like that at first," says Ladybug, "But over time, Chat Noir's jokes and senseless sacrifices became a bigger obstacle than the Akuma's. I mean, he made sacrifices that were unnecessary, leaving me alone against the Akumas."
Kim rubs his head “Coming to think of it, some of Chat Noir's sacrifices were really pointless. But it doesn't explain why there are photos of you kissing him in the past."
Ladybug looked like she was about to throw up. "The first kiss was to release him from Dark Cupid's curse. I would have put him in my yo-yo to purify him, but he’s too big for it."
Kuro Neko continues “And the second kiss was during the Oblivio incident. A kiss recorded during an incident like this is not a real kiss in my opinion."
Ladybug nodded in agreement "I can only agree with you there. I don't know what happened between Chat Noir and I back then, and to be honest I don't care. We wouldn't have gotten into this situation back then if Chat Noir had taken the situation seriously and hadn't been fooling around."
Kuro Neko respectfully says, "You won't have that problem with me."
Ladybug blushed a little, "I already know that." whereupon Kuro Neko also blushed.
Both Nadja and the students look at the heroes with curiosity.
After what feels like an eternity, Ladybug asks with a gentle smile, "Who wants to ask the next question?"
Juleka asks timidly "Is it true that you two are together?"
It was Kuro Neko who replies "That's true." She looks at Ladybug as she says "It’s like she cast a spell on me. Ever since the day I met her and then when she asked me to be her partner, it made me over the moon.”
Ladybug blushed "I can only return the compliment."
The girls among the students "Awed."
Adrien, who was still standing in the background, gritted his teeth's.
Nadja waits a respectful moment before saying in a curious tone, "I can't believe how different you behave around your new partner, ladybug. Don't get me wrong, but in our last interview here with Chat Noir, I got the feeling that you seemed tense."
Ladybug exhales heavily before explaining “I just wanted to do an interview at the time to show the people of Paris that we are there for them. But all these questions about our non-existent love threw me off course and Chat Noir only got more motivated that we could have a romance.”
Nadja rubs the back of her head in embarrassment, "I remember. I am very sorry that I put you in this situation at the time.”
Ladybug waves her hand in a dismissive way "It's okay."
Now that she has the certainty that Ladybug is not angry with her, Nadja looks at the students and says "If no one has any more questions, then we will answer the next caller."
"I have one more question." says Adrien.
Neither Ladybug nor Kuro Neko feel like answering Adrien's questions, but they acted professionally and let him ask his question.
"There's something that intrigues me, Ladybug," says Adrien. "Didn't you have any romantic feelings for Chat Noir because you're gay?“
Both Nadja and the students were a little taken aback by the direct question, but they didn't think that it too blunt, because they think Adrien didn't know any better.
Ladybug looks at Adrien as she says matter-of-factly, "First of all, Kuro Neko and I are both bisexual. Second, my sexuality has nothing to do with me not being attracted to Chat Noir. It's his character. Both with and without a mask, he has a lousy character.”
Hearing that, Adrien was beyond shocked.
Nadja asks in a professional yet curious tone, "Can you explain a little more?"
Ladybug started to explain “As I mentioned before, Chat Noir isn't the partner I once knew. I didn't notice it at first, but it got worse and worse every day. But even then there was at least one setback for him, and that was the old Guardian. In the early stages, we had a guardian who could take the miraculous from us at any time, so Chat Noir probably didn't dare to do anything. But since the past guardian gave me his title, he's become unpredictable. He started touching or hugging me without permission. He gave me million nasty nicknames, even though I've told him a million times to stop. Worst of all, he would let me down on Akuma incidents if I wouldn't go on a date with him."
What Ladybug said shocked everyone except Adrien.
Adrien waits a moment before saying, "I'm sure you're exaggerating. Chat Noir can't be such a bad guy. Especially since he has so often protected the people of Paris.”
When Ladybug looks at the monitor, Adrien felt like she was looking directly at him. She says in a calm yet serious tone, "If you knew what he was doing in the Syren incident, you certainly wouldn't be defending him."
Adrien's eyes widen in recognition. Before he could say or do anything to stop Ladybug, she started narrating that just because he got upset, Chat Noir didn't save people from drowning. She told almost everything, but withheld the most important information.
By the time she finished speaking, almost no one considered Chat Noir a hero anymore.
Both Nadja and the students began to tell how their loved ones either drowned or nearly drowned on that day.
Adrien tries to defend his alter ego, but no one takes notice, and shut him down.
When after some back and forth Adrien still didn't understand what a bad hero he was, Kuro Neko looks at the students and says "Please try to explain to him why people like Chat Noir shouldn’t be allowed to wear a miraculous."
The students promised before Nadja hangs up the call.
Nadja clears her throat before saying "That was an interesting call. Let's see what the other callers want to know."
Ladybug and Kuro Neko nodded in agreement.
There was one caller after the other, some of whose questions were answered. Most of these questions were about the relationship between Ladybug and Kuro Neko.
Other callers shared incidents where they experienced Chat Noir behaving unprofessionally. Like Mr. Ramirez who was asked by Chat Noir if he loves being Mr. Pigeon. Or a bartender who watched Chat Noir excitedly watch Chloe and Sabrina arguing, hoping one of them would get akumatized. Or Theo who tells that Chat Noir told him that he and Ladybug are in a relationship. Such and many more called in to talk about Chat Noir's missteps.
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Meanwhile.
Adrien strolls over to his house. He is angry and upset. Not just that his friends and classmates now detest Chat Noir, they have all united against him to make him understand that Chat Noire's behavior is unacceptable as either a human or a superhero.
When he then saw face-to-face how one caller after the other complained about him and or embarrassed him, he couldn't take it anymore and lied to the others that Nathalie wrote him to come home.
He was beyond angry with Ladybug, the Parisian, and Kuro Neko in particular.
As he climbs the stairs of his mansion, he wonders why he is not already akumatized.
He even wishes Hawkmoth would akumatize him. Then he could take revenge on everyone who wronged him, especially the person who stole his miraculous and lady.