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Chapter Text

Beep beep. Beep beep

Marinette woke up with a groan, reaching out to quiet the alarm, to no avail, however. She groggily lifted her head, her half-open eyes scanning the table for the clock, upon noticing its absence she rubbed her eyes before averting her gaze towards the ground, ah there it was. As it turned out, this was the second time said alarm had gone off that morning, and she had already knocked the clock to the ground the previous time. She leaped out of bed hurriedly, basically doing everything at once, with a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth while she put her pink leotard on, and untied shoelaces while she threw her black shorts and pink jumper over the top.

Despite everything she got ready and shoved her bags on just about quickly enough to make it to school before the bell rang. She rushed down the stairs, freezing as she heard a voice upon reaching the front door. "Nuh-uh young lady, no daughter of mine is leaving on an empty stomach" as Marinette's mother spoke she waved a wooden spoon in the direction of the raven haired girl. Sighing, defeated, Marinette sat down at the kitchen counter, "but maman I'm going to be late for school!" She exclaimed in an over dramatic tone. "And on your first day back nonetheless" her mother chuckled as Marinette gave her a halfhearted glare. As soon as it touched her plate Marinette grabbed the croissant and jumped out of her seat, "Okay thanks mom, see you later!" She spoke as she darted out of the door too quickly for her mother to argue.

As it seemed, luck was on her side today, as the bell rang only seconds after the panting girl got through the entrance. 'Ah, joy' came Marinette's first sarcastic thought as she entered the classroom, of course Chloé Bourgeois was in her class. Again. She was like a demon who Marinette couldn't seem to shake off no matter how much she wanted to. Anyway, Chloé was preoccupied, looking down at something with a smug face, not liking this, Marinette followed the blondes gaze to the part of the barre that Marinette had always warmed up at, there was a piece of gum directly where Marinette's hand would be, stood over it was a blonde boy who she recognised from billboards around France as Adrien Agreste, son of famous fashion designer Gabriel Agreste, she assumed he was a friend of Chloé's. "Hey get off of there!" She began in a hushed yell, "that's not funny, you must be a friend of Chloé? Well stick with her and leave me alone." She placed a tissue over the gum, moving to the side so that she didn't touch it. With an annoyed sigh she finally looked towards her best friend , Alya, who was leaning against the barre and had been watching the whole event, "that was pretty brave, girl" she said to Marinette as she sat down to change her light pink sneakers for her white ballet shoes while responding, "I'd just like one year where I don't have to deal with crap from Chloé and her minions."

Adrien hadn't intended to get on someone's bad side on his first day at ballet school, and when he had seen Chloé put gum on that girl's part of the barre he had figured that he couldn't just leave it there. He wanted to explain that it was all a misunderstanding but she didn't seem to be in any mood to listen to him right now, so now he was stood by someone who had looked like they didn't really want to be there, but was now facing Adrien. "Dang that sucked dude" Adrien sighed in response, "and on my first day" the guy gave him a sympathetic smile, holding his hand out, "the name's Nino." Adrien shook his hand, smiling "Adrien." The two continued in light conversation.

Mrs. Bustier eventually got the students lined up and practicing simple moves, it was only like this because ballet was the first two lessons they had and since it was the first Monday back it probably meant that the students were only half awake. It would get more interesting later on in the term. As the lesson came to an end Mrs. Bustier made a short announcement to the class, "Alright students, it has been decided that this terms performance will be Swan Lake, since we want to give you as much time as possible to prepare the performance for the end of term we decided to tell you now. You'll have two months until auditions take place so if you'd like private lessons at some lunch breaks please come and see me, I have a schedule at my desk and it is first come first serve but I'm happy to go through parts with anybody who wants the help." And with that she let the class out for their recess.

Marinette exited the room with Alya by her side, who was over the moon for the lessons to finally be over, she didn't particularly enjoy ballet, and found that journalism was more her forte, and Marinette knew freestyle was more for Alya if the girl had to choose a style, but she attended the school regardless, to please her parents. The rest of their day flew by, science, math, French literature, and for Marinette and a handful of other students who had picked the option, textiles. It may be a school of the arts but it was still part of the national curriculum that the students take all the usual required subjects as well, and the students had optional subjects they could pick themselves, Marinette had enjoyed her hobby of designing clothes for as long as she could remember, even having a few original ballet leotards.

Marinette left with Alya, waving the ombré haired girl goodbye as her parents arrived to collect her in the car. Marinette was about to set off to her friend Tikki's house for her extra ballet practice with her, Tikki had been Marinette's baby sitter, who had also attended Collège français dupont des arts, and actually been the person who introduced Marinette to the world of dance in the first place, but before she could take one step down the steps her awful luck finally caught up with her and it started raining.

She stepped back under the canopy of the school with a sigh, and it was the day that she just happened to forget her umbrella. Great. She took her phone from her bag ready to text Tikki, when Adrien stepped out, opening his own umbrella. He turned to look at Marinette, who turned away, still in a huff about that morning and not indenting to get over it any time soon. She heard him sigh, it sounded sad and she almost instinctively asked him if he was okay, but obviously decided against it because one upset sigh wasn't going to guilt trip her into forgiving him, only to probably be victimized by a cruel prank again. God, what was it with famous people and being brats. He looked at the ground as he spoke, not particularly wanting to see Marinette's annoyed glare again, "I honestly didn't put that gum on the barre, Chloé did, but I felt bad throwing her under the bus. I'm kinda new to all of this, school and friends- guess I'm not great at it yet" he paused to laugh awkwardly, "I hope you can forgive me and we can be friends?" He held out his umbrella.

Marinette felt her face heat up lightly, she was shocked and honestly quite annoyed at herself for jumping to conclusions about the boy so quickly. She nodded meekly before reaching out for the umbrella that he was offering her, their hands brushed gently, causing a slight blush to tint both of their faces before they completed the exchange. He smiled at her, waving and saying "see you tomorrow Marinette!" Before running to the limo that had pulled up for him at some point. Marinette had waved to Adrien in response, and quickly shoved her hand down upon realizing that she was still doing so despite him being gone now. She hopped down the steps blissfully, starting the short walk to Tikki's house.

When Marinette told Tikki that this term's performance was Swan Lake, the red head happily said that she had auditioned for the part of Odette a few years back when they chose as the performance for one of her terms. "I didn't get the part, but I can remember the routine" she giggled. So she began to teach Marinette the routine she would need for her audition, Marinette was thankfully a pretty fast learner, and after about two hours Marinette sat on Tikki's couch in her, now sweaty, tracksuit, tying her shoelaces. Tikki handed her a cold bottle of water, "so, I know I always ask and you never agree, but please come to Miraculous tonight! I really think you'll like it, plus you have to meet Chat Noir, I'm sure you'd give the guy a run for his money! And if you don't you don't have to come back! I swear we take precautions and you won't be found out!" Tikki begged for the millionth time. Marinette's eyes trailed to the ground.

Miraculous was a break dance club, and Tikki ran it with her "friend" Plagg. From what Marinette knew, a lot of the people in her school went there, Alya definitely did as she had also been on Marinette's case in attempts to get her to go since forever. Admittedly, it seemed really great, but it was against the school rules to attend, Gabriel Agreste, famous for mostly dance-wear, particularly ballet-wear, donated an awful lot of money to the school, his only main term being that they made it disallowed for students to go to Club Miraculous due to his mysterious resentment for freestyle dance. Obviously this didn't stop many students, but the fact that if she got caught she could be expelled largely put her off the risk, she knew she was lucky ti be attending such an amazing school. However, she did want to go, she felt bad not being able to support something Tikki poured so much love and time into, and the break from everything where she could just enjoy herself would be great. She sighed, looking back up at Tikki, "fine," she decided that going once couldn't hurt, so long as she was careful and it really was only once, "but only tonight, that's IT" she took a drink of the water as Tikki jumped up happily, smirking as if she knew something that Marinette didn't.

"Okay, come back here at 6:00 and we'll work out your disguise, I have to open up at 7:00 and meet Plagg there, he'll probably arrive with Chat Noir so you guys can meet, or you can just hide in a back room, whatever you want to do." Marinette nodded, she had heard of Chat Noir, well of course she had, everyone had heard of Chat Noir he was the champion of club Miraculous, apparently no one had beaten him yet, Tikki always babbled about how she thought Marinette could beat him, but she only thought this because she had walked in on Marinette practicing freestyle once and then acted as if it was much more incredible than Marinette believed it to be. However, when it came to freestyle Marinette wasn't really sure what her skill level was, nor did she care, freestyle was when Marinette allowed the music to just flow through her body as she moved how she wanted to, unaware of her surrounding and not being chained down by a routine that she had to follow so being skillful in the style wasn't really important to the girl.

With a final goodbye to Tikki Marinette headed home to get some much needed rest before she headed back to Tikki's to come up with a costume and false name to go by while in the club.

Chapter Text

When Marinette arrived home, she flicked her shoes off and collapsed straight onto her bed, not even caring to change her clothes, so as you would expect, she was rather surprised to awaken at 5:40 and realise that she hadn't so much as showered and she needed to be back at Tikki's house in twenty minutes. The fifteen year old leaped off of her bed, rushing into the bathroom to hurriedly shower, and then drying her hair, rushing to shove on an old, faded pink t-shirt, and grey leggings, recalling that Tikki said something about helping her plan her disguise, and therefore assuming she didn't need to worry about dressing nicely. Tying her hair into its signature pigtails, she checked the time "shoot, 5:55" she said to herself, shoving an oversized grey hoodie on and racing out of the front door for the second time that day. Quickly yelling "going to Tikki's, see you later!" To her parents.

When she entered Tikki's house she found herself instantly being ushered into the bathroom to change into the clothes that had been rapidly shoved into her unexpecting arms. When she emerged she was wearing black sweatpants with red streaks travelling down the side, and a red, cropped hoodie covered in black polkadots, red high-tops completing the look. "Wow" Tikki sounded proud of herself. She then escorted Marinette to a stool at her small breakfast bar, where she applied a little makeup to the pale girl, just some red lipstick, a little mascara, and red face paint to substitute for a mask. Looking in the mirror, Marinette smiled, impressed with the ladybug themed design her friend had come up with. Absolutely not Marinette's style, so odds were she should go unrecognised.

"So, are you ready to go?" Tikki asked, sounding excited. She'd never admit it, but as she nodded in response to her friends question, she couldn't help but notice her own excitement. Tikki opened the door and she followed her out, waiting as she locked it and following her through the emerging darkness. They stopped walking upon arrival to the outside of an ominous two-storey brick building, the windows were blacked out and the door was also painted black, although the paint was chipping. Tikki tried the handle, sighing when it was locked, and rolling her eyes as she took her keys from the small red bag she was carrying across her shoulder, she spoke as she unlocked the door "I should've guessed he wouldn't be here yet, he's always late, probably too busy eating or something" she finished with a giggle, obviously referring to Plagg. The redhead pushed open the door with a barely audible creak, allowing Marinette to enter first.

As Tikki turned on the lights Marinette's bright blue eyes scanned the large hall they had entered. It's walls were painted black, most likely to further emphasise the effects the colourful lights gave off, there was a bar on the left side, which Marinette knew from description, only sold non-alcoholic drinks, with a door behind it that she presumed to be some kind of storage room or unused kitchen,  the majority of the room was covered in wooden flooring, a large area in the middle was sectioned off by the black square drawn around it, from videos Marinette could only assume this was where dance battles took place. Finally, on the right side of the hall, a purple door stood alone in the corner of the wall.

When Tikki saw Marinette looking at the door and handed her a key, "that leads upstairs, it's actually where Chat usually hangs out until the dance battles start, you can go do the same if you want, at least until people actually start arriving" Marinette nodded, walking over to the door and unlocking it, allowing it to close behind her as she began her short walk up the stairs. She found herself in a narrow hallway with a door on either side, so she entered the for closest to her, finding herself in a dimly lit room with a faded red couch placed against a wall. The flooring was the same as the wooden floor downstairs, and the walls were, again, black. Aside from the couch and the small end-table next to it, the room was empty.

Marinette made herself comfortable in a corner of the couch, taking her phone out of a convenient pocket that was thankfully in her leggings, and putting in one earbud from the pair that she had been keeping in that same pocket, she began listening to the song she was auditioning with in school. Eventually she found herself practicing the part her and Tikki had started working on earlier, to the extent she could in high-tops anyway, she was barely even aware that she was doing it.

When Chat Noir entered the room he would normally hang out in he was surprised to see a girl already in there, wearing some kind of ladybug getup and dancing a ballet piece that he recognised as one of Odette's dances in Swan Lake. He realised it must have been the girl Plagg said that his girlfriend was bringing. He had to admit, she was really talented. She didn't seem to realise his presence, and so he took a seat on the couch and watched her in all her elegance. When she finished he started clapping with a smirk.

Marinette jumped, turning around to the sound of clapping as a bright blush lit up her face, there was some sort of cat-boy sitting there, she regathered her posture, letting out a short breath of annoyance and leaning against the wall, "haven't you ever heard of knocking?" she gave him a half-hearted glare to which he laughed at, standing up and approaching her, "well, it was my terf before it was yours, My Lady" He finished with a Cheshire-cat-style grin as he took her hand and kissed her knuckles. She pulled her hand away and crossed her arms as he continued, "The name's Chat Noir, it's a pleasure to meet someone with such astonishing beauty" he extended his hand,

Marinette found herself rolling her eyes, thinking for a moment, "Ladybug." She decided that name could stick, she shook his hand, smiling. Chat Noir seemed to have a large grin plastered onto his own face. "Well, could I interest m'lady in a non-alcoholic beverage from the bar out there?" She scoffed despite the nervousness evident in her stance, "I am not your lady. Anyway, won't there be people out there by now?" It wasn't until then Marinette had realised the loud music pounding through the club, which was evidence enough that the DJ was there and Ladybug wasn't sure she was ready to meet anyone yet. Chat figured as much, judging by the question she had asked, "probably, but they don't bite, I can introduce you to some of them!" He smiled in a surprisingly kind manner, so Marinette nodded as she took his outstretched hand.

As soon as they left through the purple door, the were surrounded by bright colourful lights and a massive crowd of people who looked to be enjoying themselves. Marinette found herself subconsciously pulling back a bit, but when Chat turned to smile at her in a way that asked, "you ok?" She regained her confidence and followed him to the DJ booth that was standing in the corner of the room across from the purple door, a boy around her age was stood there wearing an orange cap, blue headphones matching the shade of his plain t-shirt, black sweatpants, and glasses that sat neatly above his blue mask of face paint. Just as they got there another girl arrived and Marinette couldn't place her recognition. She had ombré hair that traveled around half way down her back, a mask of black face paint, black sweatpants, and a black vest-top with a white wifi symbol sitting in the middle of it.

"This is our DJ, The Bubbler" Chat Noir motioned to the boy with the cap, who gave a two fingered wave before focusing again on the music. Chat then motioned to the girl, "and this is Lady Wifi, she has a blog about the club, she records the dance battles and posts them sometimes, and if she's lucky she gets an interview occasionally" The ombré haired girl smiled. Ladybug tried not to choke on her words as she uttered a "nice to meet you both" shaking each of their hands. However, she was mentally facepalming for not realising instantly, of course she had recognised Lady Wifi, it was Alya!

After having met the two Chat lead Ladybug to the bar, where they both sipped ice water. They sat drinking in a comfortable silence for a short while, and then The Bubbler announced that Dance battles were starting, "To start things off this year with some excitement, we're going to let anyone challenge our reigning champion, Chat Noir, as the first battle of the night!" His voice boomed through the microphone, Chat stepped down from his stool next to Ladybug, "well, that's my cue, see ya around bugaboo" he smirked, walking to the ring as she rolled her eyes at another stupid nickname.

"Is anyone brave enough to challenge the infamous Chat Noir?!" The Bubbler boomed again. Marinette sat in thought for what couldn't be more than five seconds as she considered. Then she stood, "I will!" She spoke with confidence, though her thoughts were a mess as she stepped into the square with a hand from The Bubbler. "Let's go!" He yelled into the mic one more time, starting a beat. Guess she wouldn't have time to regret this.

Chapter Text

Chat Noir had to admit, he was surprised, he didn't think Ladybug would be the breakdancing type, not after the performance he just saw in the break room. But he supposed that was hypocritical, he had been doing ballet since he could walk and breakdancing was his passion.

Marinette had never publicly breakdanced in her life. She had always done it in the confines of her room to random songs for a fun kind of release. But this was a whole new level, she didn't even know if she was any good! But no backing out now, she let Chat Noir go first. He started out with some pretty complex moves, the crowd was cheering like mad, but not overly surprised as they knew Chat could do this, but it was still impressive. Ladybug would probably be impressed herself, but she was only half paying attention, also trying to picture herself in her room, without a crowd, to get a feeling of familiarity and stop the nerves.

While the fact that she was surrounded by a crowd of people continued to linger in the back of her mind, she managed to lose herself in the music as she had intended. This made the whole experience much more comfortable. She wasn't broken from her reverie until she finished, and when she was greeted by silence she was greeted by silence from the crowd she assumed the worst. But as she and Chat continued, the audience broke out into cheers, for what, she couldn't really understand. Anyway, her and Chat Noir continued their battle like this for a while longer.

When the music ceased they were both very sweaty and panting uncontrollably. Chat already knew who had won, but surprisingly, he wore the most smug grin you could imagine, he was honoured to have been defeated by someone so amazing, and couldn't imagine having it any other way. The Bubbler stepped between the two, seeming somewhat shocked though he tried to hide it, Alya was stood off to the side, having been recording the whole thing, and through reading her expression she was completely astounded. "Wow! Seems like we have a new champion lady's and gents!" He raised Ladybug's arm in the air, she smiled, determined not to let her own jaw drop in surprise, she had seen Chat Noir's dancing, how on earth did she top that? The guy who had never lost?

"Ladybug!!" The Bubbler finished. Marinette pulled her arm away as the crown began to disperse back into groups of people chattering and having fun amongst themselves. "While I appreciate it- really I do! I can't accept that title, Chat Noir clearly deserves to keep it" she shot Chat an awkward smile before hopping off of the stage and making her way outside. She leaned against the wall and let out a breath, she couldn't take Chat's title away from him when she didn't even intend to come back, it was unfair. She actually would've really liked to go back, what she just did with Chat was exhilarating, it just took all of the stress of school and ballet right off of her shoulders, but the things that were at stake in the case that she were to ever be caught were beyond scary.

Despite what you may of thought, Chat was in no way upset at the idea of losing his title to Ladybug, and he couldn't believe it when she had turned it down. Did she do it because she felt bad taking it from him? Because he WANTED her to have that title. After sharing a confused gaze with his friend Nino, or as he's known here "The Bubbler," he quickly followed Ladybug's footsteps, he burst through the door quite rapidly, so at first he didn't spot the red and black clad girl leaning against the wall with her hand against her heart as though he'd given her a shock, which, honestly, he probably did the way he rushed out there.

He let out a breath of relief that he was unaware he had even been holding in, having thought he may of lost her, and then he moved so that he was leaning against the wall with her. "What was that all about? You know, I really didn't mind you taking the title. You deserve it! That was amazing! I'd be happy for you to be the champion, because whether you accept it or not you definitely are." Marinette's eyes moved from him to the ground, as she strung her words together, not doing very well at it though. "It's just.. I can't come back. It would just be rude of me to take your title and then disappear." Adrien gazed at her with a confused look, as he tried to understand what she meant, that's when it hit him that she might either go to his school, or go somewhere with the same rule about this club. So she was scared of the consequences.

"You know, the odds of getting caught here aren't very likely" he spoke in a matter-of-a-fact sort of tone that made Marinette kind of want to laugh. "The schools don't really know where this place is, so someone would have to make a pretty big slip up to lead them here. The only thing they really know about this place is the fact that it exists somewhere! So look, if you won't TAKE my title, I have a proposal for you" Marinette allowed her gaze to meet Chat's, he had a hopeful look in his eyes, "Alright, shoot." She still had her worries, and was honestly shocked at how easily she was convinced, but she deserved to have fun like this too, she always took the precautions she should, followed the rules (aside from getting to school on time), she could have something like this, just one risk. "Team?"

She was beaming from the moment the word left his mouth, although she did well to hide how exciting this offer was to her. A cheeky smirk spread across her face, "sure thing, kitty, hope you can keep up with me then" she tapped his nose before starting to head back inside, not seeming to notice the pink tint across the bridge of said nose. "Clawsome!" He sort of jumped mid run to catch up to her as she rolled her eyes and turned to meet his crap-eating grin. "You did NOT just make a cat pun" despite her false-disgusted tone she was trying hard to not laugh, "oh yes I did!" He laughed, bombarding her with another flurry of cat-themed puns, earning an eye roll or exasperated laugh each time.