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Caline had long since known that her students Adrien and Marinette, as well as occasionally some of the others, were superheroes.
It was obvious, really. No matter how subtle the two thought they were, Chat and Ladybug suspiciously showed up where the two were. Every. Single. Time. Besides that, although Caline herself had not participated in it, the teachers at their college had long since had a betting pool of who would figure out the other was a superhero first. To be fair, all of Caline’s money—if she was a gambler, but she was not and she was a responsible adult who definitely did not have an agreement with Ms. Mendeliev that if they were right she would get two hundred and fifty euros simply because she was the one handling the Dupain-Cheng and Agreste guardians. Not that she could really call Adrien’s father and Nathalie that. Sure, they showed up, sure, but they didn't show up . Even Chloe's mother had a better track record with the school than Gabriel Agreste did, which was saying something. Neither parent was great .
Even Caline had very little good to say about them, which was also saying something.
Of course, regardless of how she felt about the Agreste father, the son was much more important to her. She had seen him grow more confident over the short period of time that he had been her student, and watched him grow further after their first break happened. She was proud of him, he had started getting more outgoing than the young man who frantically tried to get Chloe to be nicer to Marinette and ended up with Nino, Alya, and Marinette as his close friend group. As for Marinette, she had also matured and come into her own person, and even as they were approaching going to lycée and not collège, she would still be happy to watch their growth further.
And then Hawk Moth decided to break into her classroom and attack Adrien and Marinette, and she was not going to let that happen. Nope. No way. She was not going to let Hawk Moth get to her students, regardless of whether or not they could actually protect themselves. And they could! She knew that Adrien and Marinette were totally capable of fighting off Hawk Moth, but they shouldn’t be because they were teenagers and it was not their job to fight a grown man who was in major need of therapy.
“Everyone relax.” Hawk Moth said, after he smashed through one of the wide glass windows on the side of the building. Sitting at her desk, Caline stared at him blankly. Meanwhile, her students were screaming and panicking, except for Nino, Alya, Marinette, and Adrien. They were having very similar reactions to what Caline was feeling internally. Marinette looked absolutely done with life, slumping forwards with her chin rested on her palm as she looked at Adrien, who had turned in his seat and was gazing back at her. Beside Marinette, Alya had her face hidden by her hands, elbows propped on her desk, and Nino was slumped forwards on his desk with his arms stretched out like he wanted to go back to bed. “Hand over the Miraculous, or else.”
Marinette and Adrien kept staring at one another, and all of a sudden Caline realized that they knew each other’s secret identities. Hmm...interesting. She put her hands on her hips, raised her voice, and spoke.
“Everyone calm down.” She announced calmly. Immediately, her whole class calmed down. Then, she turned to Hawk Moth and added, “You.”
Hawk Moth’s eyes widened, and he glanced around. Standing there, he then glanced at Lila, who was sitting in the front row because Caline didn’t trust her.
“Don’t look at Ms. Rossi.” Hands on her hips, Caline continued, “She is a student and you are a grown man. You’re trying to steal jewelry from children? Seriously? Do you even have any evidence that any of my students are in possession of a Miraculous? You’re better than this, I’m sure.” Probably not, but we’re not going to bring that up right now. I don’t want to make my students think that this sort of behavior is acceptable, at least when it comes to Lila, Chloe, and Sabrina. When Hawk Moth took a step forwards, Caline took on a sharp tone. “ Mister Hawk Moth. Sit down.”
Hawk Moth sat down on the nearest chair.
That worked? How did that work? Blinking, Caline took a breath and thought for a moment. When she did take that moment, she glanced at Marinette and Adrien. Both of them were looking at her with wide eyes. Slowly, she tipped her head to the side, nodding towards the door. They both slipped out.
Then, quickly, Hawk Moth stood up. Caline had maybe a few heartbeats to think of what to do. She glanced down at her desk. She didn’t have any typical, standard weapons, but she did have something she could use as a weapon. A stapler. It was something that she had been given by Ms. Mendeliev. She didn’t remember why, or when, but it was something that her coworker had given her and it was sitting on her desk in all of its dinosaur-head-shaped glory. It was, in fact, the shape of a T-rex head, and it was staring at her with glossy yellow eyes with its mouth open and teeth bared like a weapon showing off the silver of the stapler parts inside. And in that moment, Caline knew what she had to do.
The stapler collided with Hawk Moth’s face.
His head snapped back, and he let out a noise. The stapler bounced off his nose, flying through the air with a proud expression on its face and in its eyes. Flying off into the classroom, the stapler landed on the floor as Hawk Moth dropped to the ground dramatically. He didn’t seem to be able to get up, either too shocked by the fact he had been smacked in the face with a stapler or maybe just fully unconscious.
Biting her lip, Caline looked at the remaining students. Then, she announced, “I think I may need some help with stopping him. Does anyone want to zip-tie Hawk Moth’s ankles and wrists for me?”
Kim and Alix basically launched themselves over their desks, running to her as she handed them the rainbow zip ties she kept in her desk. Walking down the steps, already pushing his glasses up on his nose, Max spoke, “Alix, Kim, take care to ensure we do not cut off blood loss to his wrists and ankles. It would be a shame for Hawk Moth to—actually, no, you know what? He deserves it. Give him hell, you two.”
“Max.” Caline scolded, lightly. Smiling innocently at her, all three of her students turned back to Hawk Moth. Hurrying down the steps, Ivan gently pushed Kim and Alix aside and then sat on the man’s stomach, pinning him down. “Alright. Alya, Nino,” Alya and Nino both raised their heads to look at her, “You two are in charge. Lila, Chloe, Sabrina, if I find out the three of you have been causing trouble I will be putting you in detention. This is a serious situation. And I won’t have any of your lying.” She sent a pointed look Lila’s way, raising her eyebrows. Face darkening, Lila slumped down in her seat as Chloe and Sabrina both sent her glares of their own. “I’m going to go and find Professor Damocles. All of you forget everything that happened in here today.”
“What happened in here today?” Nino asked, sending her a smile and a nod when she sent a smile of her own his way. Then, Caline ducked into the hallways, hurrying through them as she looked for Marinette and Adrien. She didn’t lie, she would fetch Professor Damocles. But first...she was more concerned with the resident superheroes in her classroom (the ones who patrolled every day, at least).
She found them on one of the balconies, climbing out of a window on the upper floor.
“Hawk Moth has been stopped for now. I’m sure he will get away, but I don’t think he’ll be coming back here anytime soon.” Caline began. In front of her, both heroes startled. Ladybug did a very Marinette-esque action, flailing her arms as she turned around with wide eyes. Beside her, halfway out the window, Chat threw his arms out and started falling out the window. At the last moment, Ladybug snapped a hand out and caught him by his tail, pulling him back inside. He landed on his heels effortlessly, turning and then sitting against the wall, arms crossed behind his head like he totally meant to do what he did. Smiling, Caline looked between the two, “You can drop your costumes. We have no cameras in the halls, and everyone should be more concerned with the current lockdown alarms. I was just heading to Damocles’ office to let him know to drop the lockdown.”
Glancing at one another, Ladybug and Chat waited for a moment. Eyebrows knitting together, Chat swallowed, head ducked slightly as he waited for Ladybug’s orders. She nodded, and both of them murmured something before their costumes dropped. Both of them caught their little things—kwamis, Ms. Mendeliev called them once—and tucked them away in their jacket pockets where they wouldn’t be seen. The poor things looked so tired, they must want some sort of food. No wonder Adrien smells like cheese all the time, Caline mused. Then, blue eyes pleading, Marinette looked at Caline. “How did you know?”
“Figured it out by accident.” Leaning closer, she added, “Don’t tell the teachers you know, they have a betting pool going and I think the two of you will have fun torturing them by making them think you have no idea the other is who you are.” Adrien grinned in what she knew was a Chat way, and she leaned back. Holding her hands in front of her, Caline added, “Would you like to come with me to my office? I can bring you and your friends some snacks. I’m sure they would appreciate it, even if you weren’t—you know—for long.”
Adrien and Marinette shared another glance, and then Adrien nodded to Caline, “That sounds great. Thank you, Ms. Bustier.”
+
Bonus Scene 1:
“There she is!” Hawk Moth wriggled out of the grasps of the officers trying to wrangle him towards the police car. They attempted to grab him. Somehow, though, he slipped from their grasps and hopped over to Caline. The zip ties were still present on his wrists and ankles, and he scowled at her. “How dare you? You hit me with a stapler!”
Raising her chin, keeping a cold smile on her face, Caline replied, “And I have another one with your name on it.” In her hands, she clicked her stapler. It was a different one, shaped like a black cat with green eyes. She needed to get a ladybug one, to make a matching pair. Either way, Hawk Moth glanced down and paled a little bit, under his ugly mask. Looking at him, Caline tipped her head to the side slightly, “I would suggest going without a fight, Hawk Moth. I’m sure you’ll be back to trying to steal magical jewelry from teenagers in no time.”
The police officers caught up to Hawk Moth, dragging him away, and Caline watched it with a cold smile. He was shoved into the back of the squad car. As she watched them drive off, a nasty feeling knowing that he was probably already freed despite the fact the cops had only just left sunk in. Still, when there was movement in her peripheral, she raised her head and turned.
Standing atop Francois-Dupont, clinging to the satellite antennas with one hand and leaning out, looking about as confident as she expected them to be, were Ladybug and Chat Noir. When they saw her looking, Chat gave her a friendly, two-fingered salute. Smiling, Caline cleared her throat and began to walk back into the college. Class was out for the day, she had no need to be there.
Although she would have some tea waiting for them, just in case.
+
Bonus Scene 2:
“Well, today happened.”
Turning to Marinette, Adrien laughed and then took the black cat mug from her as she sat down on the roof beside him. The pair were seated on Marinette’s roof, watching the sparkling lights of midnight Paris and the stars dotting the black of the night sky. It was almost poetic, in a way. They had been there a thousand times before, knowing who the other was to them and also not, but ever since they had found out they had been...different. Everything was different. The stars scattered like rhinestones across satin, flickering with atmospheric interference from the wind and light pollution of the pretty lights around them. Still, though the stars had shifted in their places, they remained as they were thousands of light-years away, and in a way that was similar to how Marinette and Adrien had changed. They were the same, but they’d...shifted, somehow.
Kicking her legs thoughtfully, Marinette kept looking ahead, a soft smile on her face as she kept her chin lifted. Sitting in her lap was her own mug, a red and black spotted one that Adrien had gotten her. Adrien’s own mug was a gift to her as well, in riposte. They were gag gifts, as jokes for April Fool’s Day.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t give Hawk Moth a barrel of poison gas or a free ticket to jail for his birthday, because they didn’t know his birth date anyways.
“Yup.” Adrien popped the ‘p’ as he spoke, then took a sip of his hot chocolate. How Marinette got it to be the perfect temperature, he didn’t know. But it was the perfect temperature for his preference, and the surface was dotted with melting marshmallows. Smiling, Adrien took another sip. Next to him, Marinette started giggling. “What?”
She slurped some of her own hot chocolate, turned to him, and then pointed at her upper lip. She’d gotten a melted marshmallow moustache (wow, that was complicated just to think of, say that five times fast. Adrien almost wanted to. Melted marshmallow moustache, melted marshmallow moustache, melted marsh—actually, he was tired now it was like one in the morning). Snorting, Adrien turned back to his hot chocolate, wiping his mouth on his arm.
“We need to get Ms. Bustier a ladybug stapler. I want to see her hit Hawk Moth with it.”
Adrien choked on his hot chocolate.