Chapter Text
"Bye bye, little butterfly!"
Ladybug released the de-evilized Akuma into the blue sky.
"Pound it, Milady?" Ladybug met her fist to his leather-clad one and prepared to zip off into the sky to get home in time for dinner, Papa was making ravioli and she was starving after that exasperatingly long battle.
She was stopped by a swarm of reporters, all pointing microphones in her face and flashing cameras in her eyes.
Ladybug stumbled back into Chat and quickly used his arm to steady herself.
"Ladybug!"
"Chat Noir!"
"That was an amazing fight! How did you manage to defeat it using only a pair of sunglasses?!"
"Can I get an autograph?"
"Chat Noir! Can I get an exclusive interview?"
"What's it like saving the city every day, Ladybug?"
Ladybug felt like she was drowning, never had the reporters been so malicious, she was losing her cool! She was Ladybug, the savior of Paris! She saved the whole damned city every single day from ridiculously themed Akuma, and she couldn't handle a few cameras?
"Enough!" She finally managed to yell over the crowd. The out-of-rhythm round of her and Chat Noir's Miraculous beeping signaled they only had a minute to get out of there.
"The Lady's right, we gotta split! We'll take that offur on that interview another day." He pointed some clawed fingerguns at the nearest camera, and started to extend his staff to propel himself out of there when the final beep of their miraculous rand and the two heroes met each other's eyes in a look of sheer panic.
Ladybug tried once more to pull herself out of the shrinking circle of space but her yoyo disappeared when her transformation dropped.
In front of everyone.
And these vultures got it all on camera.
Marinette was panicking.
Of course she was panicking.
She had been so careful about keeping her identity secret, even to those whom she loved most.
And now, all her hard work, all her pain, all her lies which ate at her with guilt.
It had all been for nothing.
For, here she stood, detransformed, in front of all of Paris’ news station’s cameras.
She was completely and utterly helpless.
She turned to Chat for help, but instead of the unrecognizable face of some random stranger, which she had more or less expected, she locked eyes with the very recognizable Adrien Agreste.
The last thing she felt was the world spinning, and being caught by the non-leather-clad arms of her partner.
Then the world went black.