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She felt something burning deep within her. Was it… jealousy? Anger? Irritation? She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. But seeing chat flirt with her made her twist up inside.
But how was this different? Chat has flirted with many other girls on their adventures, showing off and exposing his muscles. That didn’t bother ladybug, although it could get annoying. But this was different. This wasn’t any girl- this was Lila. Professional liar and show-off, she irritated Ladybug more than Chloe, and that’s saying something! At least Chloe actually liked Ladybug, even if she disliked the girl behind the mask.
“Chat! Stop it!”
“Jealous, are we?” smirked Chat.
Ladybug groaned at Lila, grabbed Chat’s arm and pulled him away into a corner.
“What’s wrong, my Lady? Just having some fun, no need to get meow-pset!”
“Chat you know what Lila’s like! She can’t be trusted! It’s best to stay out of her way!”
“Come on now, my Lady, it’s not like she’s going to get akumatised by swooning over my muscles (Chat flexes to prove his point). Besides, no need to be jealous, you’re the only one for me. We are a purrrrfect match!”
Irritated, Ladybug rolled her eyes, pulled out her yoyo and flew away. She was so done with Lila, so done with stupid chat and his stupid puns, she was done being Ladybug for today. And of course, Lila had to be right where the Akuma just happened to strike. It seemed like she just couldn’t avoid her even if she tried!
Ladybug landed up on her balcony and de-transformed back into Marinette. Holding little Tikki in her hands, she walked into her room, placing Tikki on her desk right next to a fresh cookie she had scavenged from the bakery that morning.
“Be careful Marinette, your dislike for Lila could lead to YOU getting akumatised!” laughed Tikki.
Marinette stomped around stupidly, acting out to be a scary monster and shouting out “yes Hawkmoth!” to Tikki, ending in the two laughing hysterically on Mari’s bed, only to be interrupted by a flash and a beep on Mari’s phone. It was Alya!
“Hey girl! Get on the Ladyblog right now, you have GOT to see what happened today! It was amazing, the villain was going straight for Lila and Ladybug swooped in and saved her using her lucky charm! You have to watch it, I filmed the entire thing! Ladybug is so amazing!”
Marinette sighed. “Sounds incredible Alya, I’ll watch it now”
“Great! Hey let me know what you think girl, I’ve been trying to improve my filming skills! Ok I gotta go, see you at school!” Alya winked and hung up her phone.
-------------------------
Marinette ran into school the following morning, late again! Not from an akuma, but rather from her usual clumbsyness. She couldn’t find her t-shirt, she dropped a tray of fresh bread rolls on the floor, she accidently burnt her toast, and she left to school without her science textbook and had to return home to retrieve it. By the time she finally walked into the classroom, she was too tired to think.
“Marinette, three late days in a row! You really need to start being on time! I think we need to have a talk with your parents. Now open your textbook to page 85, we are working on section C.”
“Girl, what has gotten into you?” whispered Alya.
Technically, it wasn’t Marinette’s fault. Well, today it was, but yesterday there was an akuma attack right before school started, two in one day! She was too busy being ladybug. The day before, she was exhausted from the amount of school work she needed to catch up on, and found herself sleeping well into school hours.
“Girl! Wake up!” Marinette felt Alya elbow her sharply in the side. She looked up to see Miss Bouvie giving her a harsh look and sending her to the principal. Again. She noticed as she stood up though that Adrien wasn’t in his seat. He must’ve gone to the bathroom.
Mari walked up to the principal’s office and knocked on the door. Surprised to find no answer, she tried knocking again, then slowly opened the door and peered inside. The room was empty. It was unusual for principal Democless to be out of his office during class hours, but she shrugged it off and took a seat there anyway and waited. 10 minutes had gone by, but it felt like half an hour.
“Tikki, I feel weird sitting here alone. Should we go look for him?”
“Probably, but where would could we go?”
Marinette thought perhaps he had gone to the library? She had seen him in there this morning when she was late. Instructing Tikki to hide, Marinette made her way into the library. To her surprise, it was completely dark. She walked up to the row of switches on the wall and flicked them to turn the lighting back on but it had no effect.
“Was there a power-out Tikki? Wait no, if there was a powerout the rest of the school would be dark. Why is it only the library?” Marinette continued mumbling to sort out her thoughts but Tikki interrupted her.
“Marinette! There’s someone in the corner, I can hear them breathing! Quick!”
Cautiously, she followed the direction Tikki pointed too, and soon enough she could hear the heavy breathing herself. She continued slowly towards the noise, and panicked when she finally saw the shadow lying on the floor.
“Chat!”
Marinette ran over to the limp boy lying on the ground, holding up his head and scanning his body for injuries.
“M…..M….mhhhh…”
“Chat! Wake up! Chat, can you hear me? It’s Marinette! Chat what happened to you?!”
“M… Mahh… Mari?”
“Chat it’s me, it’s ok, where are you hurt?”
It was clear that he was just coming back into consciousness. It was hard for Marinette to see where he was injured in the black, but she could feel something warm and sticky start to drip onto her hand as she held up his head. He had been hit by something hard.
“Marinette… I… Ladybug…. Where’s ladybug? Akuma…”
“Chat we need to get you to a hospital!”
Marinette slipped her hands underneath Chat’s arms and just managed to drag him out of the library. He was so heavy in that leather suit. She lay him back down and rested his head on her arm, looking closely at his blood-stained head now that they had some light.
“Chat…”
He was out cold.
Marinette stood up and looked around the courtyard from the balcony, hoping someone would be there to help. And… that’s when she saw Lila. It pained Marinette to even speak to her, but Chat needed her help. She needed to put her feelings behind her, just for now.
“Lila! Please, get help! It’s Chat Noir! He’s unconscious! Hurry!”
Lila nodded her head and ran in the direction of the nurse’s office.
“Hang in there Chat, help is coming. You’ll be ok. I promise.”