Adrien's POV

"I know we were not dating or anything, but I wanted to take a pause, you know, before things get out of hand..." I mumble, shoving my hands deep into my pockets as we stand under the school's protection from the rain.

Marinette says nothing.

"I mean, I know this relationship was kinda weird. It's just that I need a break," I continue, hoping to get her to say something to me.

She does not.

"Are... you okay?" I whisper as the rain slowly drizzles from the sky.

Marinette doesn't move.

I reach out to hold her shoulder. She steps back and looks at me in the eyes, and I realize that she's crying.

"Why..." She whimpers. "Why would you do this to me?"

I reach out and hold her hand. "No, look, you don't understand-"

"-you kissed me, and we were almost officially dating. Why now would you end all of that?" She cries.

I frown. "Look, it's just that..."

"Just what?" She shouts. "You think you can just play with my feelings?"

Lightning strikes and thunder rolls. The rain starts to pour down harder.

"No!" I cry. "I'm sorry, Marinette. You're right. I know this seems really bad, but I just need some time so I can-"

She looks at me in the eyes with tears pouring down. "Just stop. I don't want to hear it."

"Mari-"

"I said stop," she whispers. "I thought... I thought you would be different, Adrien. Turns out you're just like every other model in Paris."

She backs away. Her feet step into a puddle as she slowly steps out into street. Rain drenches her hair and her clothes. Her mascara runs, and she stares straight ahead at me. The smell of her perfume lingers in the air.

"I wish that I never fell in love with you, if this is the true you," she replies coldly, sending a dagger through my heart.

I drop my arms, and feel tears slowly forming.

"You're a jerk, Adrien. A player. I don't know why you would do this to me," She sneers, holding her bag tight to her shoulder and puffing her chest out.

"You're right," I mumble. "I'm sorry. I... I shouldn't have done anything."

Her tears get lost in the rain pouring down her cheeks "What changed!? This morning you and I were cuddling, and now you want to break up. Why, Adrien? Why?"

Because you feel in love with the model me. I wish you fell in love with the hero me, but you didn't. So I thought that I could make you fall out of love with the model me. But I realized too late that that was the wrong move.

"Marinette, you're right. I shouldn't have done that to you," I confess, reaching my arm out to the bluenette.

She slaps my hand away and snarls. She sticks her nose up in the air and turns to the side, whipping her hair off her shoulders.

"You're cruel, Adrien. Emotionless. Just like your father."

She turns and runs down the steps, dashing though the rain down the street to her house. Her feet splash in puddles along the way, soaking her handmade shoes.

She's gone.

"Adrien..." Tikki mumbles. "Why did you do that?"

I lean against the brick wall of the school building and close my eyes. "I thought... I thought that I could get her to fall out of love with me and instead fall in love with Mister Bug."

"That's where you're wrong, Adrien," Tikki says as she flies out of my bag and close to my face. "You and Mister Bug aren't two different people. You're you."

I open my eyes slightly.

"You're Mister Bug. You're also a model. You love to make puns and love to play piano. You're a huge flirt, and also a heartwarming friend. You're you, not two different people."

I sigh deeply and close my eyes again.

That's where I messed up. I was treating Mister Bug and Adrien Agreste as two different people, when they're really just one person. Mister Bug is me, we're not two different people. Breaking up with Marinette as Adrien just so she could fall in love with Mister Bug isn't going to help the situation.

"What was I thinking, Tikki?" I gasp, slam in my hands against my face.

Tikki smiles reassuringly. "You can fix this, Adrien. I know you can."

I press my hand against the ladybug miraculous resting in my ears. "Are you sure I can?"

Tikki giggles. "Of course you can! Just visit her tonight as Mister Bug, and tell her everything."

I tilt my head curiously. "Are you sure that will help?"

She nods. "Positively! Just promise me that you will tell her you know about her secret identity."

I nod, squeezing my hands into tight fists. "Thanks Tikki, you're the best."

"Now go home, check on your dad, and transform! If we get there too late, she might catch a cold from running home in the rain!" Tikki encourages me with a bright smile on her face.

I smile back, reflecting her positive energy. "I made a mistake. A really, really big one. But I'm going to do everything in my power to fix it!"

Marinette's POV

"Oh my god Plagg, he hates meeeeeeee...." I whine, shoveling ice cream into my mouth as tears fall.

Plagg glares at me. "Ugh, Girls. Their hormones are a mess at this age."

I jump up from my bed and chuck my spoon at him. He just snickers and dodges the attack. I sigh from defeat and collapse into my bed, sending pillows and sheets flying up in the air.

"I yelled at him. I called him a jerk. I called him cruel. I called him an idiot!" I cry into my pillow, tears starting to form again.

Plagg rolls his eyes. "What mental break down are we at now? Number twenty-seven?"

I ugly sob into the pillow. "T-Twenty-eight..."

Plagg just groans and tosses my ice cream spoon right back at me. I hear a clunk and pain immediately shoots through my body on the right side of my forehead, the part where the spoon hit.

"Thanks, Plagg," I grumble.

"No problem, really."

As I reach to grab the dirty spoon and move it off my bed, my sleeves from my shirt come up and my eyes glance over the dark magic growing on my arm. I stare at the dark lines crawling up my arm and a shiver finds its way down my back.

"Ew. It looks grosser and grosser everyday," Plagg insults, hovering over my arm.

I shift in my bed and sit cross legged, examining the painful curse growing in my arm. I tilt my head and hold my arm close to my eyes, squinting and looking at the lines. With little luck, I decide to slip the sweat shirt off my torso to get a better look, and when I do, dread fills my body.

"It's grown, Plagg," I point out.

"But you haven't used any of your powers yet," Plagg reminds me. "How is that possible?"

I shrug. "In fact, I've been avoiding using my powers because it hurts so bad. Just simply transforming feels like I've been shot in the arm."

"That's an exaggeration."

"How would you know?" I snap.

Plagg rolls his eyes. "I feel the same pain you feel, idiot. I am technically apart of the miraculous, after all."

I gasp and jump in my bed, bringing my hands up to my mouth. "It hurts you? So, every time I transform or use my powers, it hurts you just as badly as it hurts me?"

Plagg nods.

I jump and get on my hands and knees on the fluffy bed, staring at the tiny kwami with my eyes glaring at him. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"I don't know. I just didn't."

"PLAGG!" I shout.

I fall backwards into my bed, falling into my pillows and blankets. The bed bounces a little bit from my weight, but as soon as it settles, another thought settles in my mind.

"Adrien won't want to talk to me again, will he?" I whisper.

Plagg's eyes grow wide as he zooms towards me. "No he won't! Of course he'll want to talk to you!"

I stare straight at my ceiling as I lay on my back on my bed. "He's polite, so he'll say 'hello' or 'could I borrow a pencil', but that'll be it."

Plagg stays silent.

"He probably hates me, Plagg," I mutter with the familiar feeling of tears forming in my eyes again.

"Marinette, you need to stay positive!"

"What's there to be positive about?" I pathetically ask, shutting my eyes tight. "He broke up with me Plagg."

"Well, technically y'all weren't even dating in the first place, so it's not that bad..." Plagg says, trying to help the situation.

It doesn't.

"Plagg, what if he never wants to see me again? What if he really does hate me?" I cry, holding my pillow tightly against my chest.

"Marinette, please! Think positively!" Plagg begs me, gently resting on my hand and rubbing it with his tiny paw.

"He probably likes Chloé. That's probably why he's okay with moving on," I whisper with glazed eyes.

"Marinette! Please listen to me!"

"That's probably why he hates me!" I shout, tears flying everywhere.

"Marinette!" Plagg shouts. "What if an akuma attacks?! What if you get akumatized? What will happen to Paris?!"

I roll over on my bed, pulling the sheets above my vision and shutting my eyes tightly. I snuggle deep into my dark cocoon and quietly sob, filling the tiny space with my hot breaths.

"So what?" I whisper.

Plagg doesn't say anything, and instead, zips across my room and hides inside my backpack. I rest my fingers on the tip of my blanket and pull it down slightly, peaking at my now hidden kwami. I give a confused look, wondering why he just flew away from our emotional conversation, until my ears pick up something.

The light flapping of butterfly wings.

I whip my head around and see dark particles of energy float out of a dark butterfly flying straight towards me. An akuma. I scramble out of my warm cocoon and trip on my blankets, falling onto the dark wooden floor beneath my bed. The akuma flies over my bed and takes a dip down towards me, straight on its path to akumatize me.

I jump back on my feet and sprint across my room, and make a dash towards my trapdoor. Almost like the world hates me, I slip with my socks on from trying to run so fast, and slam my chin into the floor. The akuma flies straight in front of my view, blocking me from exiting my bedroom.

I scramble backwards, still on the floor. Plans start running through my head, filling my brain with ideas on how to beat this akuma.

Should I cataclysm it? No, I won't. Plagg will get hurt from me using my powers just as much as I do. I won't make him go through that.

I still don't understand how I can use my powers without being transformed, but that's not a worry right now. I just need to get out of here without being akumatized.

I run backwards and press my back against my wall, terrified beyond words. My parents aren't home, so it's no use crying for help, but it doesn't seem like I have much of a choice here.

So right as the akuma flies right by my nose, I open my mouth and shut my eyes. I take a deep breath, filling my lungs with the cookie-smelling air in my room, and scream. And I scream loudly. An ear piercing, throat hurting, glass shattering, ear deafening scream. A scream that fills my room with such volume that even the birds outside my room scatter away.

And right before the akuma touches me, right before I lose all hope, right before I give in to the tempting evil darkness, I hear one single word that fills my world with relief.

"Gotcha!"

A yo-yo flies right in front of my nose and swallows the akuma whole, then instantly recoils back in the direction it shot from. I blink one, then twice, then look at the direction the yo-yo shot from.

"Bye-bye, little butterfly!" the boy chirps, sending the pure white butterfly out my window and watching it gracefully fly through the sky.

"Mister... Bug?" I whisper, feeling the cool, safe feeling of relief flood my body.

"In the flesh," The blond replies, jumping in my bedroom and landing with his classic cheesy smirk.

Oh my god.

More tears threaten to fall down my rosy cheeks. "I... I can't... I almost... you would have..."

"Words?" He asks, walking over to me and kneeing down on the ground beside me.

I look at him with huge eyes and shaky hands.

"Mister Bug... I almost... I could have..."

Without waiting, I jump up into his arms. He catches me and holds me with my legs wrapped around him. I hug him tightly, feeling his warmth flood my body.

"Thank you!" I cry, stuffing my head into his neck and hugging him tightly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

He smiles and puts me down on the ground. My feet touch the floor and I look back into his bright green eyes.

Mister Bug tilts his head to the side and smiles.

"It's really no problem, my lady."

Wait.

The world freezes. Did he just say...

"... m'lady?" I question, backing against the wall. "No... but I'm not..."

"Don't even try and hide it, buggaboo. That dark magic growing up your arm is all the evidence I need to know," he replies simply, pointing at my arm.

Oh right, I took my sweatshirt off to get a better look at the dark magic. I forgot to put it back on.

"You don't look surprised," I comment, furrowing my brow.

He shrugs.

I frown. "You're acting like this isn't a big deal, despite your constant begging during akuma battles to reveal our identities."

He looks away, looking guilty.

I gasp.

"You knew before, didn't you?"

His smile quickly fades. "We've got a lot to talk about, my lady."

Hehheheheh I can't drag out their fight for too long, y'all know me.

Chapter Question: What would you like to see happen next chapter? (The comment I use will be credited first thing!)

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