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Marinette arrived at school to see everyone talking to each other and looking at their phones with sad and worried faces.
Seeing her best friend, she walked over to her, “Alya, what’s going on?”
She gave her a bone-crushing hug, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
Alya stared at her, “Oh, you don’t know.”
This was starting to get maddening, “Know what?”
Instead of answering, Alya showed her her phone and played a video.
As soon as she realised what she was watching, Marinette’s face turned pale.
The camera, which had been going live, had been placed by a bird-watching enthusiast, not knowing it was one of the superheroes' usual spots.
The video showed a Paris rooftop with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
Ladybug arrived to see that Chat Noir was gloomier than usual.
She looked at her partner and said, “Let me guess your father again?”
“Yeah, “ he said miserably.
She sat down beside him.
“We had a last-minute change to my work schedule… again.”
“And it was when you would have hung out with friends… again.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
“Look, I know how it looks…”
Ladybug raised an eyebrow.
Chat sighed, “He wasn’t always like this, but a little over a year ago… something happened.”
Ladybug looked hesitant but said, “You never mention your mother…”
Chat looked sad, “Yeah, she’s… gone now.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, I’ve been through the five stages of grief, but my father–”
“That’s still no excuse; he sounds like a real Gabriel Agreste.”
“I… what?!”
“It’s a saying that’s been going around. It refers to a father who is a control freak and emotionally manipulates their kids and deludes themselves into thinking this is parenting.”
(When he saw this part, the actual Gabriel Agreste cracked his phone in anger.)
“Fathers? Not mothers?”
“No, we call those a Tomoe Tsurugi.”
(And the real Tomoe Tsurugi broke her phone at this part.)
“Huh, I would have thought they would be called an Audrey Bourgeois.”
“No, Audrey is not a control freak. An Audrey Bourgeois is a parent who doesn't care for their children in the narcissistic and egotistic belief that being their parent is all there is to being a parent, and not just being an awful person.”
(A very loud, ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! Was heard by everyone at the hotel the following day.)
“Are there any more nouns for bad parents?”
“Just one a Bob Roth is a money-grabbing sleazebag who has no problem with insulting their children.”
(Bob Roth… just shrugged his shoulders and continued with his day.)
Chat continued, “There is one good thing about having a father like mine.”
“Oh, what’s that?”
“Every Time I need to go fight an akuma, I can just blame him.”
“I wish I had an excuse like that,” Ladybug said, “I keep having to come up with a new one every time, and some of them make me sound crazy!”
“I’m sure they're not that bad.”
“Trust me, they are, but I can live with that. But I now have a reputation for being unreliable, and I can’t tell anyone why.”
“Yeah, I know how that feels,” Chat told her.
“What do you mean?”
“A while back, I tried dating, but I kept having to leave when an akuma attacked and lie about where I was going. Eventually, my now ex-girlfriend stumbled on proof that I had lied about why I left, and now she barely talks to me.”
Ladybug sighed, “I had a similar experience. The guy I was dating didn’t buy my lame excuses and just straight out asked where I always disappear to, and… all I could say was I couldn't tell him, so I broke up with him. We managed to stay friends, but that made it clear to me that dating isn't an option until we defeat Shadow Moth.”
“Yeah,” Chat agreed quietly.
They were silent for a while.
“Do you know what the worst part is?” Ladybug asked.
“What?”
“People like me as myself and Ladybug, and I know it’s stupid, but sometimes I wonder… Do my friends like me more as Ladybug?”
“What?! No! Absolutely not!”
“How do you know?”
“Because if you're even a fraction as amazing outside the costume. Then everyone will love you.”
“Not everyone,” she said softly.
“Do you mean Chloé?”
“I really messed up with her. I didn’t handle her right. Let my personal feelings cloud my judgement.”
“Personal feelings?”
“I… have met Chloé outside the mask, and she has caused me a lot of pain, but then I saw a glimpse of decency in her and gave her a chance, but then one day I got distracted by boy problems, and she thought I was ignoring her, and now she hates me.”
(When she heard this, Chloé had conflicted feelings).
“But it’s not just her. There’s this girl in my class who claims to know me, or rather Ladybug and I can’t prove she’s lying without revealing my identity. While she has everyone in my class carrying her things for her because of fake injuries and doing favours for her when she makes promises to introduce them to other famous people she claims to know.”
“So she's a Lila Rossi?”
“What?!”
“Lila Rossi, that girl who says she’s your best friend but actually hates you for confronting her about her lying.”
“As if I could forget!”
“Well, we could make her a noun for manipulative pathological liars, who are obsessed with being the centre of attention” all the time.
(The real Lila was enraged at this, but this quickly turned to panic when she realised everyone in Paris now knew the truth about her “friendship” with Ladybug.)
Ladybug laughed, “Thanks, I needed that.”
After a while, Ladybug continued, “But I’m a hypocrite. I hate liars, while I lie to everyone I love every day.”
“That’s not the same thing,” Chat said, “We lie to protect them and ourselves while Lila lies to leech off people.”
“I just feel like such a fraud not being able to be who I really am and acting all confident outside while inside I’m wondering if I'll screw up.”
“I have experience with that,” Chat told her, “I always have to act the perfect son in case my father hears I have been 'ruining the family image' but as Chat Noir, I can be who I want to be.”
“But your friends never get to see this side of you?” Ladybug asked.
Chat sighed, “No.”
They were quiet for a bit.
Ladybug got up, “I think we should start our patrol. Maybe it will clear our heads.”
Chat agreed, and they jumped to the next rooftop.
Marinette kept staring at the phone even though the video had ended.
“Girl, listen to me. None of your friends sees you as inferior to Ladybug. She’s a distant figure, while you are someone we know, and when you told your secret, I only admired both sides of you even more, and they would too.”
“She’s right, Marinette,” Tikki added from her purse, “your friends have always stood by you, and they always will.”
Marinette smiled warmly.
A few days later, things had changed.
Lila had been given detention for over a year to make up for all the schoolwork she had skipped while the Lila Rossi verb caught on.
The people of Paris went out of their way to be supportive of the heroes to the point that a Protect Ladybug and Chat Noir movement started.
The other heroes insisted on becoming more active to lessen the burden and give them more free time. At one point, Pigella spontaneously hugged Ladybug and assured her that her friends surely loved her on both sides of the mask and that she would be proud if she were among them.
Meanwhile, some rich parents were suddenly finding themselves under scrutiny, making their lives more difficult, especially a certain supervillain who was finding it increasingly difficult to control his son, with every interaction with him being constantly watched.