It took exactly fourteen seconds for Adrien to break down.

Well, that is, after Plagg lost interest and left halfway through the twenty minutes it took for Nino to complete his rant about how cool it was that his best friend was one of Paris' beloved superhero duo. Which was after the 15 minutes it took for him to actually grasp the fact that Adrien was in fact THE Chat Noir. The Chat Noir, who fought to save Paris every day alongside the beautiful heroine Ladybug.

Adrien had played along until Nino finally made his exit through the window, promising not to tell a single soul.

But as soon as the window shut, Adrien finally, completely died inside.

It was excruciating. Adrien choked on the pain, falling to the floor.

How could he have been so stupid?

Oh, god. Every day he was so close, so close to her.... How could he have not noticed? At this moment, this most painful, terrible moment... Adrien wished that Nino wasn't so much like Alya after all.

"Nobody can be the exact same amount of tired and late on the exact same days, and be doing separate things. Its just not possible!"

Adrian was suffocating in his own misery, his own tears were threatening to drown him. What type of idiot must he be to think that his lady, his Ladybug, wasn't already someone else's? How hopeful must he have been to be that blind?

"And you two always disappear for hours, always at the exact same time. And then you both show up with terrible excuses- minutes apart from each other."

All of the pieces fit together, as much as Adrien wished they didn't. Adrien almost laughed, but the hollowed sound barely made it past his lips before a choked sob pushed it's way forward and into its place.

But in that split second, Adrien realized what he was doing.

"I'd hate to see you akumatized..."

"Gah! No, God dammit..." he growled, wiping his eyes, which had unknowingly blinded him with tears. "What the hell am I doing?!" He hissed at himself angrily.

"Pull it together." He ordered himself. "Stop being stupid and just... pull it together, Adrien." He whispered.

"The last person they need to get turned is you... calm down." He said to himself.

"Calm down."

I'm sorry.. Marinette.

>××××<

"So? What else?" Nino bounced up and down in excitement.

"Well, other than knowing how it was to fight you, I know the identity of every villain there has been so far." Adrien supplied.

They were both sitting on a bench at the park, having decided to spend their lunchtime there. There weren't many people in the park, so they were free to talk about anything without being overheard.

"And what about Ladybug?" Nino asked curiously. Adrien cringed slightly, Nino was getting right to the touchy stuff, though he didn't know it.

"I love working alongside her, she's the best person I would ever want to work with." Adrien said quietly.

I love her.

Nino looked awed slightly, "I wonder what she's like."

She's amazing.. Adrien thought. But she's not yours..

Adrien stood swiftly, snapping Nino out of his stupor. "I should go.." he said. Nino started to say something but was cut off as a loud screech pierced the air.

Adrien and Nino cringed harshly as the sound attacked their eardrums, both hearing slight screaming coming from the direction of the sound.

Nino's head whipped around to Adrien as the screech of death stopped. "Hey man, I think that's your cue." Yet Adrien already was off running at full tilt towards the commotion.

Five minutes later, Chat landed on a ledge next to his beautiful partner, who was surveying the opponent with a fierce look on her cute face.

"About time you showed up.. though you could have sat this one out." Ladybug said, not looking at him.

"And miss a chance to see your beautiful face again? Not for the world, Bugaboo." Chat quipped, not even daring to look into her blue eyes now that he knew her secret. He instead chose to look at their opponent, a victim of Hawkmoth.

The man had long slicked back hair darker than night, and wore a classic black and silver masquerade half mask with a black suit. White gloves adorned his hands, and he walked on the ground at a leisurely pace, unarmed.

"All I ask," the man said, his voice echoing oddly loud in the streets, "is that which is mine to be returned to me. Immediately." He stated calmly.

This went against everything chat knew of akumatized victims, who usually were angry beyond compare. This one actually seemed to be quite harmless compared to other attacks.

"Until then, I will continue to make claims of my own until I feel that I am fully compensated for my loss." The man then raised his gloves hand, where a purple light flared to life around his fingers.

Chat felt a disturbing fear rise inside him as the man then threw his hand out towards the corner of a building, and the building imploded upon itself, a sound of shattering glass as all the debris actually turned into such.

Many people came running and screaming out of and from nearby the building, and glee flickered onto the man's face. He then raised his hand and swung it in a downward motion.

Chat watched in horror as half of the escaping people froze, and then..

The screaming started.

Glass, cold and blue, started creeping up every inch of skin. Glass, sharply pushing up from the inside and hardening bones into sturdy but fragile material.

Glass, everywhere. Poor people turned to living sculptures made of this monstrous material, forever frozen in fear.

Chat Noir and Ladybug swung into action (in her case literally), propelling themselves up and over the crowd of frozen civilians and the culprit, who had a smug smirk plastered onto his face as he turned to them. Chat realized the harsh reality: this one wasn't like the regular akumas, this was much worse.

"What did you do to them?" Chat demanded angrily, surprising his partner with his sudden seriousness.

The masked man looked amused. "Why I gave them what they wanted. That's all they want isn't it, a fine piece of jewelry to make them.... well I don't know what it makes them. But I know what I made them- diamond sculptures!" He snickered.

"You're disgusting! Why these women, they haven't done anything!" Chat growled, his eyes narrowing in anger.

Ladybug looked around, only now realizing that the only glass sculptures were that of women who were captured, and that the rest of the crowd that escaped were all men and a few crying children.

Chat must have realized that from the beginning, Ladybug realized with a jolt.

"Easy!" The culprit answers. "One of them took what is mine. Until I get what is mine, I will take whatever I want until I feel compensated." He stared at Chat Noir with intense glee.

"Ladybug." Chat said, entirely serious, which threw the spotted heroine off again. Since when was it anything other than 'My Lady'?

"Leave. Get these people out of the area. Now."

Ladybug had lots of fears and doubts, but only one question.

"Why?"

Chat extended his staff as he locked eyes with the enemy, whose hands began to glow a dark purple.

"He's not taking women. He's taking mothers."

The Jeweler