Chat Noir propelled himself higher and higher into the sky. The cool October wind whipping through his blonde hair was almost soothing—and there was a certain smell of fall in the air that rang a familiar tune. The sky was much too polluted by the light to see any stars but he felt that if he could fly high enough he could see them.

He refused to believe that the curse hadn't gone away. It was still small as of the moment, but he knew his time with the dance of luck was going to dwindle away. Things were about to turn further south than they'd ever been before. Would he really go insane?

As he thought about this, he became more aware of the ring around his finger. Like it was getting heavy with the infection of his thoughts. The ring was cursed. He wanted to rip it off and throw it away into the Seine, never to be seen again.

But alas, if he did that, he'd be saying goodbye to Ladybug permanently. He just didn't know what to do.

He recognized his school as he launched himself from a building near it, and now knew where he was. He hadn't exactly been paying attention to his location beforehand. He struck the end of his extended staff onto a ledge of the building and continued his mindless journey.

Suddenly his ring burned. A sting of pain around his finger caught him by surprise and out of nowhere, his staff slipped off the edge and he came crashing down onto the balcony of a neighboring building to the school. His head hit a chimney on his way down and he lost his staff. With a loud thud, and the sound of a pot shattering, Chat Noir slammed into the floor of the balcony.

He rolled over onto his back in defeat, staring blankly up at the sky above. His head throbbed in pain from where he'd hit it on the chimney. Curiously, he touched the spot with his gloved hand and had to bite his lip to stop himself from making sounds of pain. It was bleeding, and it stung–a lot.

A trap door at the start of the balcony opened up and someone poked their head through with a phone flashlight–it was Marinette.

"Chat Noir?" Marinette said in surprise, before falling off whatever she was standing on to get to the trap door and disappearing. He heard a commotion from inside what he presumed to be her room, then the hatch door flew open again and there she was. "Is there an akuma?!"

"Uhhhhh...." his eyes lazily slipped away from her. "No."

"What are you doing?!" She cautiously crept up onto the balcony as if suspecting he'd jump up and attack her.

"I fell. Sorry." He forced himself to get up. Blood dripped down his temple and he could now taste it in his mouth. "I didn't mean to cause such a... ruckus..."

"Oh- You're bleeding!"

"I'm gonna... go..." he tried to stand up but his head was spinning. He had a horrible headache. "Damn luck..." he muttered to himself.

"Did you hit-"

"I hit my head on the chimney or something," he interrupted.

"You must have gotten a concussion."

"I'll be fine-" he stood up- "I'll be heading off now, thanks for your concern."

"Uh... I don't think it's safe for you to leave right now."

"And why's that?"

"You're literally shaking and look like you're about to collapse," Marinette said with a scolding tone. "Here, have a seat." She forced him to sit on a lounge chair. "I'll be right back!"

"What..."

She disappeared into her room again, leaving Chat Noir alone. When she came back, she had a homemade med kit with her.

"Oh- no- you don't have to-"

"I want to help!" Marinette insisted.

"No, no- Why?"

"Cause uh-" her eyes darted away for a moment- "You saved me that one time with... Evillustrator. This is just me giving my thanks!"

"Uh... more like I used you to get to Evillustrator..." his eyes flashed with sudden regret, "and... put you in danger..."

"Oh huh-" Marinette chuckled nervously, "Was that what happened?! Er- No! I remember it differently. You hit your head, you must have...... amnesia!"

"That's not how amnesia works..."

"Says who?"

"Science."

"Whatever! Ugh!" Marinette exasperated, "Just let me help you! You're not even on pa-" she stopped herself, "pa.....ramedics...."

"What?" He rose a brow. Marinette now looked panicked.

"Uh.... Here, sit still!"

"Huh-"

She quickly grabbed his face and pressed a wet cloth against it to clean up the blood.

"What are you doing?"

"Helping!"

"I don't need-"

"Let me do my thing!" Marinette said with a demanding tone.

"I barely know you-"

"You really hit your head hard. It won't stop bleeding."

"I'm fine."

"No you're not. What were you doing? Is something going on? Is the Bubbler back?!"

"No! No! Nothing like that!" Chat Noir assured.

"Here, keep this against your head." Marinette interjected for a moment to give him the washcloth. "So what was happening?"

"Nothing..."

"Patrol?"

"Yeah. Sure." Looking at her, he knew she knew he was lying, but she chose not to say anything.

"I'm going to get you some ice, I'll be back," Marinette sank back into her room. Chat Noir let out a sigh.

"Stupid bad luck," he muttered to himself. He wanted to leave. He really wanted to leave. He didn't want Marinette involved in anything that had to do with his curse, and he feared she'd pry that information out of him with how talkative and sweet she was.

But for some reason he stayed. He told himself he was thinking too hard about things, he needed to just relax. Perhaps that was true, or maybe he wanted to believe it was. Honestly, he didn't know what to believe.

When Marinette came back, she had a bag of ice in one hand and in the other, she brought sugar cookies. "Do you like sugar cookies?" she asked as she climbed up through the hatch, balancing the plate and using her head to keep the trap door open.

"I, uh...." Chat Noir stared at her blankly. "Where'd you get those?"

"... this is a bakery, Chat."

"It is??"

"Yeah...?" She got to her feet. Chat Noir couldn't remember Marinette ever saying she lived in a bakery. Except, of course, there was that one time she brought buns to school which he had to decline. Did he hurt her feelings by doing that?

He stared at the plate as she set it down next to him and handed him the bag of ice. He pressed it against the sore spot on his head, completely silent.

"You can have them if you want. Those were leftovers and it would be a health code violation if we sold them... NOT THAT THEY'VE GONE BAD OR ANYTHING! Th-they're fine it's just like- after it's been out for two days we have to throw them away and-" Marinette was rambling.

"I... can't..." Chat sighed.

"Why not?"

He didn't want to say it was a dietary restriction. Because then she'd ask if he had food allergies and when he'd say he didn't she'd want to know what the restriction was and then he'd have to say it was a diet and then she'd ask what diet it was and then he'd have to explain his whole "keep my model body from being mush" thing and... He could already hear Ladybug lecturing him.

"It's... uh... I just ate."

"You just fought the Bubbler though!"

"I eat fast!"

"Well, alright then." Marinette shrugged it off. Mission successful.

"Um... thank you... for helping me," Chat Noir said, looking out at the street that headed to the school.

"No problem! What happened anyways?"

"I told you, I just fell."

"Oh... alright then." She definitely didn't believe him. "Do you want to... stay a little longer or...?"

"I need to go." Chat stood up abruptly. "Sorry for the intrusion."

"Oh-"

"And uh... yeah... Sorry about the whole Evillustrator thing. That must have been scary for you."

"Huh- yeah- Well actually I'm, er- dating the guy who was akumatizated into the... Evillustrator... now..." Marinette said with embarrassment.

"Oh?"

"Yeah.... You uh.... Helped us get together..?"

"Well, that's good I guess."

"Y-yup!"

"I'm not really one for romance though," Chat said, climbing up on the rail of her balcony–still holding the ice pack against his head.

"That's a surprise, I took you as the type of guy who sweeps girls off their feet!"

"Hah... yeah, definitely."

"Take care of yourself, ok?"

"I'll be fine."

***

With the all excitement of the Bubbler happening last night, Marinette had forgotten all about the new student Mrs. Bustier had mentioned. So she was rather surprised when she walked into class and found that some kid was sitting in the seat next to where Ivan would be. He looked very uncomfortable and small from where he sat, stiffly hiding himself from the world.

Marinette took her seat. Should she address him? Or would that make him uncomfortable? She offered a weak smile as compromise to her thoughts but the new kid took no notice of her anyways.

Alya wheeled herself to her seat and took no notice of the boy. She looked especially tired, like she'd been up all night.

"Woah, what happened to you?" Marinette asked as Alya sat in front of her.

"I had to go to the ER again last night," Alya grumbled.

"What?! Why?!"

"The... Bubbler... my stitches just popped open again when we ran away or something. It set back the healing process by another few weeks." Alya groaned. "At this point I'm never going to walk again!"

"Don't say that! It's only been a month! It'll be ok, you'll see!" Marinette assured.

Marinette had barely noticed Chloe Bourgeois swiftly glide past her as she made her way up to Ivan's desk. 'Oh no' was all Marinette could think. Ivan wasn't there yet so Chloe sat herself down in his seat and greeted the new boy.

"I'm Chloe Bourgeois," Chloe said proudly.

"H-hi..." the boy mumbled in response.

"... yeah, this is the part where you tell me your name."

"O-oh! Uh-" he staggered over his words. "M-Marc."

"Marc who? I only talk to people who are somebodies."

"Somebodies?"

"People worth my time are the people with flesh to their names, if you know what I mean."

"Marc Anciel."

"... Arc-en-ciel? Rainbow?"

"N-no- it's Marc. Marc Anciel."

"Rainbow boy." Chloe hummed. "Yeah, never heard of you." Chloe stood back up. "But you have potential. I like your hair."

"I- oh- thanks," Marc said sheepishly, running his fingers awkwardly through his dark raven hair.

"Oh, Ivan's here," Chloe scoffed as the bulky tatted teen walked into the classroom. His face was glued in a frown.

"Who are you?!" Ivan exclaimed with a pinch of anger before softening with regret, "I mean- uh- sorry..."

"Yeah..." Marc looked away. He wore a navy blue baggy shirt with thin light blue stripes running down it vertically. In the center, written in green, were the words "Zombie Boy". His nails were painted black and little bracelets jingled around his wrists, one of which contained the colors of the mlm pride flag.

"I'm Ivan."

"Marc."

"Cool." Ivan sat down. Marc was hunched over but Marinette could tell he was nearly as tall as Ivan. Why were so many of the boys in her class so tall when she was so short? She wanted answers for this heinous crime.

"Uh-" came Nathaniel's voice as he'd stopped next to Marinette's desk on his way to his desk.

"Hey, Nathan...?" Marinette rose a brow at him. His eyes were locked onto Marc's bracelets and he didn't move. "...Nathan...?"

"Morning," he said to Marinette very quickly before hurrying up to his seat at the back of the class... directly behind Marc.

"That was weird." Alya said, turning herself back around to face the front.

"Is everyone here today?" Mrs. Bustier asked as she turned her computer on.

"Rose is... abs...ent..." Juleka said, shying, hardly making even a mumble.

"Pardon?"

"Rose is.. At the doctors," Juleka's voice got even quieter.

"Everyone else is here?" Mrs. Bustier's eyes scanned the classroom. "Perfect! Now, I'm sure you've all met Marc by now-"

"Not really. He just sat down and didn't say hi." Lila scoffed.

"Oh- uhm-" Marc mumbled something.

"Would you like to introduce yourself, Marc?" Mrs. Bustier asked.

"Oh- uh- sure?" Marc fumbled. "I'm Marc..." he glanced down at Chloe, "...Anciel, and-"

"Rainbow boy," Chloe whispered to Sabrina.

"Uh-huh-uh-um- yep! That's all!" He quickly hid his face.

"You guys are free to do catchup work for your other classes this period. Remember, your English papers are due tomorrow so I highly suggest working on those," Mrs. Bustier reported.

"Mari! Come down here!" Alya beckoned as soon as Mrs. Bustier was done. Mari rolled her eyes sarcastically and moved herself to sit between Alya and Nino.

"What's up?"

"Nothing." Alya grinned. She pulled out her tablet.

"Nothing?" Marinette couldn't help but notice Alya's nervous glances at Nino who was busy doing his own thing.

"Yuh," Alya said. Nino got up and moved to sit with Adrien, and Alya let out a sigh of relief.

"Uh... are you... sure?"

"Yeah!"

"Ok..." Marinette looked up at Nino and Adrien for a moment, then back to Alya. "... you didn't want to sit next to Nino."

"What?! Noooo!"

"This is about the Bubbler, isn't it!" Marinette whispered.

"No!"

"Alya!" Marinette seethed, "You said it yourself, you don't remember being akumatized and what it was like, and neither does he. So it's unfair to hold anything against him."

"Yeah but- all the damage caused by Lady Wifi- er- me- was from Chat Noir!"

"The Bubbler didn't cause any damage though."

"Marinette, you were in a bubble!" Alya whispered through her teeth. "He chased me all the way to the bus stop and I had to fight him in a wheelchair."

"Alya..."

"And then I had to go to the ER! Again!"

"Alya, that wasn't Nino."

"You guys talking about the Bubbler?" Adrien chimed in.

"Uh..."

"Hey, let's stay out of their conversation..." Nino said.

"Who do you think it was!?" Alix said with a devilish grin.

"There's thousands of people in Paris, it's not like we know them all," Chloe said snarkily.

"Oh, actually it was Carapace." Adrien said with confidence. Everyone gave him a very confused look, and Nino appeared to be in panic.

"N-nah man, I think I saw Carapace trapped in a bubble," Nino said.

"No, Carapace was the bubbler," Adrien claimed. Alya was looking up at Adrien in fear, and Marinette was flat out confused.

"And... how would you know that?" Alya asked.

"Oh- uh- er- I think I saw it.... On... social media?" Adrien lied.

"What the-" Marinette muttered under her breath.

"He appeared near your house, right?" Mylene asked Adrien.

"He... did?"

"If it's Carapace then maybe you know him!" Alixe grinned.

"No-"

"Wait- Adrien knows Carapace?!" Sabrina asked.

"You know Carapace?"

"Carapace was the Bubbler?!"

"But wasn't-"

"No! Guys! Listen!" Alya roared over everyone. "Adrien DOESN'T know Carapace, Carapace was NOT the Bubbler, and it doesn't matter! Just- I don't know, maybe try NOT getting involved in their businesses? Identities are kept secret for a reason."

"Who do you think you are? Ladybug?" Chloe cackled.

"Maybe I am!" Alya growled.

"That's enough! Everyone get back in your assigned seats!" Mrs. Bustier called out. Begrudgingly, Marinette returned to her desk and sat next to Adrien.

"Is this... usually what happens?" Marc quietly asked Ivan who only grunted in response. Marinette turned around.

"Uh... no, not really." She gave him a weak smile. "I'm Marinette, by the way."

"H-hi." His eyes darted away.

"Is this your first year at Francois Du-Pont?"

"Um... yeah..."

"Oh, well, I guess this has been a huge warm welcome." Marinette giggled.

"Yeah..."

Marinette peaked over to Nathaniel who made eye contact with her. He stiffened and quickly looked away. Ah. Marinette could smell the tension in the air. And it was gay.

"Quit flirting with your girlfriend in public!" Lila scolded Nathaniel and thwacked him on the head.

"Ow- Hey I literally just MADE EYE CONTACT?! How is that flirting?"

"I dunno Nathan, seemed very flirtatious to me." Alya smirked.

"N-no! It-"

"Yuh, it was."

"Please stop," Nathan grumbled, melting away in shame. Marinette gave Alya a wary smile.

"Girlie-"

"Alya," Marinette sighed, "sometimes you are unbearable," she said with a chuckle.

"I know I am and I'm proud of it!"

A/N 

For the record, I'm sorry I disappeared. I've just been losing motivation for this because it's not really gaining much attention anywhere. I will worship you if you share it around for me. Pls.... I made it to be read by both mlb fans and people who've never seen the show, so you can show it to anyone except your english teacher.