"Tonight, on our first edition of 'Face to Face,' you'll have the opportunity of a lifetime! The chance to talk LIVE with Ladybug and Chat Noir!"

Marinette was absolutely stressed beyond comprehension as call after call was made to her family bakery, ordering pastries for pick up in abundance, at the same time as a dozen or so customers were flooding the store during the rush hour. She had to face this alone! "Oh yeah!" she had said to her mom and dad when they asked if she could manage the bakery alone so they could have a date night on their anniversary, "it's not a problem! No one really comes in on a Sunday anyways!"

Oh what a fool she was. Everything was becoming so overwhelming. And that damn TV hanging over the pantry door was way too loud for her to be able to hear the orders she was taking over the phone. It wasn't just a random Sunday. It was the Sunday after last week's valentine's day, and the bakery had everything on sale which attracted way too many people for Marinette to handle on her own.

"Along with me, Nadja Chammack, we'll be revealing exclusive information about your favorite superheroes!" the TV chanted.

Oh yeah. That was another thing. Marinette was hoping she wouldn't get a lot of business today so she could close the shop early and make it to that interview as Ladybug on time. Ugh! She didn't even want to participate in that interview! But Chat Noir pleaded with her and said it would be good to assure to the public that they were safe, especially since they still hadn't caught Volpina, Rena Rouge wasn't really part of the Miracle Team anymore, Queen Bee had retired herself, and Carapace was busy being the new guardian.

Well, an hour long special about her and Chat Noir didn't sound too bad... If she wasn't literally scrambling to keep afloat on the one thing her parents asked her to do.

Tikki was far from happy about it. Marinette still hadn't taken off her earrings to let Tikki roam in full form which was definitely making the kwami very agitated. Tikki said this interview was a piss poor decision between her and Chat Noir. She said "you're a superhero! You have to remain a mystery!" and "you need to protect yourself and your identity from Hawkmoth and any of his villains!" As if any normal superhero would be working in a bakery. And Marinette wasn't stupid. She wasn't going to reveal her identity on this show... If she even made it on time.

The bell on the bakery door rang as a new customer entered. Marinette felt her body tense up under the sheer amount of stress being injected through her veins.

"Marinette! Thank you so much for agreeing to babysit at the last minute," said the woman who'd just entered... Nadja Chammack.

"No way..." Marinette felt her soul leave her body. This was it. She was done for. "I mean... Uh... No way! I just saw your advertisement for your show on TV!"

"Yes, and I have to be on set in an hour, so I should hurry," Nadja, the purple haired reporter woman said. She was just a typical news anchor, but recently she'd been offered the opportunity to host her own show. And out of bias (Nadja was good friend's with her father) Ladybug agreed to appear on the first episode to support her and hope for her shows success.

"Uh, er..." Marinette sloppily packed up one of the orders made by phone and danced back over the the cash register to ring up one of the customers waiting there, "is there any way we can... Well, you see, I'm suddenly the only person running the bakery right now for my parents and I totally forgot I was babysitting Manon-"

"Oh! You poor thing! I'm so sorry, I don't know if I can get anyone this quickly! If you had told me maybe an hour or so ago..."

Marinette felt sweat form under her eyes. "It's totally fine actually! I'll be fine! I love Manon!"

"I've packed plenty of things for her in her bag so you shouldn't have to worry about entertaining her too much," Nadja said, welcoming herself behind the counter with Manon, "and perhaps Manon can help you with the bakery? Don't worry, she's already had dinner, and she's going to be on her best behavior tonight, I promise!"

As she said this, Manon was stuffing her face with a macron behind her back.

"Make sure to watch the show with her!" Nadja said, clearly not seeing Marinette was on the verge of having a panic attack.

"YAH! MOMMY'S GONNA BE ON A TV SHOW!" Manon said with full volume. Her mother quickly told her to quiet down.

"Well, I'm sure you'll do great on your show," Marinette said, fumbling to multitask with the cash register. Behind her, the phone was ringing again. "Besides, you already have two viewers!"

"I wish you luck with this whole... mess," Nadja said, looking at how clumsily Marinette was running the bakery. "I am so sorry to put this on you. Thank you so much, I'll make sure to triple your pay!"

"Triple?! Oh! You don't have t-"

"Of course I do! Now, Manon, make sure to be polite and don't disrupt things in the bakery. You're allowed to watch TV tonight. DO NOT steal from the bakery again."

"MOMMY CAN YOU BUY ME THIS!" Manon screamed, waving a cake pop around.

"Put it back," Nadja groaned, knowing damn well that child didn't listen to a word she'd said.

After Nadja left and Marinette now had to triple task, she scrambled her brain for solutions to her now even worse problem. 1. The child. She couldn't leave a child like Manon unattended for over an hour, especially since she now had full responsibility over her for the night. 2. She had to work the shop while making sure Manon didn't cause trouble. Manon was a bratty child with no perception of what was off limits. The concept of rules didn't really make sense to her, and usually if you told her NOT to do something, she would. 3. She needed to be on that show with Nadja Chammack as Ladybug in just a little over an hour. 4. She also couldn't leave the bakery alone, or even close early with this many people coming in.

So, Marinette was actually screwed.

"Thank you sir, have a great rest of your day," Marinette said, passing a bag of goodies to the man at the counter. He was her last customer for probably the next two minutes. As he made his way out, Marinette expected the phone to ring and force her to be busy again. But it was actually silent for once–aside from Manon now screaming and running around the kitchen.

"Manon! You stay in there! I have to uh... call a friend and see if I can get some help with this!"

"OK!" Manon screamed back.

Marinette rushed into the pantry and tossed Tikki out of her bag. Well, she didn't mean to toss her, but her hands were just so sweaty...

"Look at this mess you've gotten yourself into. I told you not to participate in that show," Tikki said, looking fully satisfied with Marinette's misfortune.

"Now's not the time Tikki. I need you to help me! If you can watch Manon for me, or assist with the shop-"

"Then you STILL won't be able to appear as Ladybug on that show."

A bell rang as the next customer entered the shop. Frustrated and panicked, Marinette brought her hands to her earrings, hesitating for a second.

"Oh? So this is what you'll finally let me out for? Took you long enough."

"Don't do anything behind my back," Marinette said, "I don't want to babysit both you and Manon."

She finally took the earrings off and for the first time in about two months, Tikki resumed her full form. Over seven feet tall, dressed in a multicolored dress from the Wei and Jin dynasties, Tikki now looked impressive... and scary with a scolding face.

"Just help me, please."

"Alright. But you still have to figure out what you're going to do about the show."

"I know I know..." Marinette said, still trying to brew up a solution.

If only someone knew her identity! They would easily understand and fill in for her but no! Marinette was still perfectly secret! No one knew! No one except-

"Sandboy!" Marinette blurted out in the middle of taking an order by phone (why were there so many people phoning in?????).

"Huh?" said the person on the other side.

"So sorry, there's a kid here I'm babysitting and- chouquettes, the chocolate croissants, and the party mix, right?"

Okay. New plan... Vaguely new plan.... Sandboy knew who she was. Sandboy was with Chloe. If she could get... Well, that actually wouldn't work. To get Chloe help, they'd have to be friends. Chloe may have apologized to her and was now working on becoming a better person, but they weren't friends. And Chloe nor Sandboy knew how to run a bakery, that's for sure. Let alone babysit a child! Ugh!

Her phone pinged with a new message. Tikki was surprisingly doing a good job talking to customers, so Marinette allowed herself just a moment of a break to check it.

Chat Noir: lol where are you

OH WHAT THE FUCK! Marinette looked at the time. The show was starting in ten minutes! How did she go from having over an hour to prepare for this to having ten minutes?! Thank god her miraculous could connect to her phone and function the same as her yoyo did, otherwise she'd have no way to contact Chat Noir at all!

Ladybug: pls pls pls stall for me

Chat Noir: something going on?

Ladybug: it's fine imma just be late thx xoxo

Okay, so Marinette was screwed. More so than before. Tikki was helping with customers which was a huge help but now she needed to steal Tikki away so she could be Ladybug so she could be on that show so she could- MANON! Manon was still a problem! Everything was still a problem!

"M-mom?" Marinette said. Yeah. She was calling her mommy.

"Hey dear, is something wrong?"

"Can I close the bakery early tonight. There's so many customers and I totally forgot I had to babysit Manon tonight."

"I'd rather you not but... I suppose that's alright. Honey, why don't you ever set reminders for these things in your phone like I always tell you too?"

"Sorry maman, it won't happen again." Marinette was totally not about to cry in relief.

After hanging up the phone, Marinette saw Tikki was actually already closing up shop. And was that... Sympathy she was detecting from her? Could it be?! Tikki actually cared about Marinette's wellbeing under all that cold stone surface?!

"Th-thank you Tikki..."

"Of course," Tikki said, just as stern as ever. "There's still Manon to deal with. And you need to be across the city in seven minutes."

"Manon!" Marinette called. Manon bustled out of the kitchen, absolutely covered in flour. "Manon! What happened!"

"I DIDN'T KNOW THE BAG WAS OPEN OKAY!?"

"Let's get you cleaned up, come on," Marinette said, stress seeping into her very bones as she took Manon to the upstairs bath.

After cleaning Manon up real good and changing her into her PJs (which her mom had packed for her), Marinette had one singular minute until the show went live and she became the greatest disappointment in TV history.

"You're mom's on TV, wanna go watch?"

"YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!"

Marinette brought Manon into the living room and flicked the TV on. She had 45 seconds left till she disappointed Paris. Marinette brought out her phone to find she was being spammed by Chat Noir at this point. She had one last idea. Just as she was about to conduct this brilliant plan, Chat Noir called her and she accidentally picked up.

"LADYBUG! Please, what is going on? ARE YOU DEAD!"

"GAH! Chat-" Marinette looked down at Manon who's eyes were glued to the screen- "......... I'LL BE THERE I SWEAR."

"WE HAVE THIRTY SECONDS!"

"I KNOW!"

Marinette was already rushing down the stairs at this point and may or may not have hung up on Chat Noir so she could call Alya.

"ALYA!"

"Girl, what?"

"ALYA PLEASE CAN YOU COME OVER AND WATCH MANON FOR ME! I HAVE TO RUN AN ERRAND BUT SHE NEEDS TO WATCH HER MOM'S SHOW AND-"

"Sure."

"WHAT?!"

"Yeah, no biggie. When should I be there by?"

"Now. I'll leave the door unlocked. I AM SO SORRY."

"Marinette, it's fine."

"OKAY I HAVE TO GO NOW BYE!"

"Mar-"

Marinette hung up, transforming into Ladybug just before kicking open the doors of the bakery and flying out into the street.

"10, 9, 8, 7..."

Ladybug soared into the skies, projected by her yoyo. She'd never moved so fast in her entire life.

"6, 5, 4..."

Chat Noir was calling her again but she didn't pick up.

"3, 2, 1..."

Yeah she definitely missed the cut by now but there was no going back. She hauled ass to the news station like her tail was on fire and practically threw security into the wall as she flew inside. She had no idea where she was going. There were so many signs and so many doors...

"In here, Ladybug!" said one of the men operating the place and suddenly, Ladybug was kicking down the front doors of the studio, spinning over the rafters with her yoyo, and landing directly on the couch next to Chat Noir where the two would be interviewed.

"Just on time!" she said to herself.

"You're five minutes late," Chat Noir said. She couldn't tell if he was teasing her, showing concern, or if he was straight up disappointed in her.

"Haha, I'm sorry I'm so late Mrs. Chammack! Superhero things..." Ladybug giggled nervously. Nadja looked absolutely shocked and had become five shades paler than she was supposed to be.

"W-welcome Ladybug," Nadja said, trying to gather her bearings. She sat in a smaller seat across from the couch Ladybug and Chat Noir sat in. Behind them was a large screen that Ladybug was sure had a different image on it for the actual audience than just being a weird off blue color.

"Thought you'd stood me up, m'ladybug," Chat Noir said, flicking her ear. Phew! So he was just teasing her and definitely wasn't disappointed in her poor sense of responsibility.

"Well, thank you both for accepting this exclusive live interview. We've barely just begun!"

"We talked about pickles," Chat Noir whispered.

"Pickles???"

"I'm sure thousands have tuned in to watch you tonight," Nadja said, "I'm so happy you could make it."

"Can't disappoint the fans!' Chat Noir said with a fake cockiness.

"Fans? For you? People are coming here for me, actually," Ladybug retaliated in fake banter.

"Meh, your fans are spotty."

"Spotty!? That's the best pun you could come up with?"

"Obviously you two are very close," Nadja said, interrupting their weird teasing. "We'll get started. Properly, this time."

There was some fake laughter from the studio audience. Ladybug hadn't even noticed there were more people there aside from the crew, so it gave her quite a shock.

"People know you, but they don't really know you," Nadja began, "you're always saving Paris, and even New York it seems, but we don't know anything else about you! So how about we start off with some questions from your biggest fans!"

Nadja motioned towards the giant screen at their side which now was changing color. A random generator filled through all the question submissions before landing on one that was clearly already pre picked by the show ahead of time. It was a random girl who was ever so excited to be recording a video that the two heroes would be seeing.

"Hello Ladybug and Chat Noir!" she exclaimed, clearly quite young, maybe 10-11 ish. "My name is Amilia and I want to know how you guys never seem to get hurt! Don't your fights hurt you? Are your suits magic?! Thank you! I love you guys, see!" the girl held up two plushies of Ladybug and Chat Noir for the camera to see. "Chat Noir, you're my favorite!"

"Thank you Amilia," Nadja said after the video had finished. She smiled at the two heroes, "well, is it a magic super suit or are you two actually invisible?"

"Oh, well, we're not invisible, that's for sure," Ladybug said, waving her hand bashfully.

"The suits protect against a lot, but not everything. We do still get hurt," Chat Noir explained, "but thanks to the miraculous ladybugs, we don't usually sustain anything too serious."

"There were rumors that Rena Rouge lost her leg, is that true?" Nadja asked.

"Yes, but we assure you, she's perfectly fine. The fight against Reflekta was really heartbreaking, as we all know. But she's doing alright now, just as strong as ever!" Ladybug affirmed.

"Were there any other serious injuries you two have dealt with, hidden from the public?"

"Well, I'm generally pretty quick on my feet," Chat Noir said with a prideful smile. Then, he rolled up his sleeve over his right hand, revealing a thin scar perfectly tracing around it. "I got this from Reflekta though. Pretty cool, huh?"

One of the cameras paneled in to show the scar around his arm. Nadja seemed very pleased with this content, but was clearly wanting more from them on such a topic. Ladybug gave in and slightly opened the top of her hanfu to show a small bit of her collar bone where an electric off blue pinkish scar dashed across her chest.

"This was from Stormy Weather. That was our second time out on the field, we didn't really know what we were doing," Ladybug chuckled. She looked at Chat Noir sympathetically, and could see on his face that he was debating revealing the scars he got from Evillustrator. He used makeup to cover them up, and evidently, he still wanted to keep it that way.

"That's quite impressive," Nadja nodded. "I have to thank young Amilia for her question. Your tales are fascinating! But we don't want to bother our heroes too much on something so grave, so let's move on."

She motioned the screen again and another randomly preselected video came up. They continued with these types of questions for a while. Some a little too deep to safely answer, others more fun or silly like who inspires them, how they got their powers, how does magic work, and so on. This went on for a while until Nadja pulled up one of her final videos.

This time, it was a slightly older woman, perhaps in her late thirties. "Hey there Ladybug! I'm Edna from Nice! I see you guys on TV all the time and I was wondering if you two are an actual couple? You look so cute together! How old are you anyways? You seem too young to be heroes!"

"Straight to the point," Nadja chuckled. She looked at the two heroes kindly. "I've wanted to know this myself. There's been plenty of photos circulating around the internet, and a lot of speculation if they're real or not!" As she said this, a number of photos began popping up on the screen, one of which being from when Ladybug kissed Chat Noir in the fight against Dark Cupid.

"Wait, hold on!' Ladybug's face flushed, "we're not here to answer such personal questions!"

"Aww, Ladybug's grown claws," Chat Noir cooed.

"We're here to assure Parisians are safe, and that it's only a matter of time before we defeat Hawkmoth," Ladybug said firmly.

"Uh huh," Nadja zoomed in on the photo of their kiss... Numerous photos of their kiss. Some were blurry and taken from far away, others were straight from Alya's captures. "I've been seeing this everywhere! Or perhaps this was just a good luck kiss."

"What?!" Chat Noir practically died in his seat. "I- Ladybug- I-"

"Oh shut up, you remember that! Dark Cupid, remember!"

"Why did you kiss me?????"

"You don't remember???????????"

"Not really!"

"Oh, so they are real," Nadja grinned.

"Yes, they're real. But it's NOT what you think!" Ladybug exclaimed. She hid her face in her hands, muffling herself. "Explaining it won't help much though, ugh... But really, that was a part of our battle with Dark Cupid, it has nothing to do with anything you're thinking!"

"Mhm..." Nadja focused on other photos. One after another, all equally bizarre, and some definitely photoshopped or even AI generated.

It wasn't until she pulled up on one taken of Ladybug and Chat Noir, hiding under the awning of a hotel in the rain, that Chat Noir demanded Nadja stop. That moment had captured the two from afar, definitely having a tender moment. But nothing romantic! That was when they got to know each other a little more. Chat discovered Ladybug was a baker's girl and Ladybug discovered he was a model boy. A potentially famous one at that. They learned some secrets they would never speak of. If anything, that moment was more precious than any of the photos Nadja had revealed to them.

"We get it. A lot of those are fake though," Chat Noir said, "I must inform you all not to trust everything you see online! Especially of people like us! It can be dangerous for everyone involved."

"And rumors are rumors until they become dangerous," Ladybug agreed.

"But ARE you two together?" Nadja asked again.

"I'm sorry, but no," Ladybug shook her head, "Chat and I are just friends."

"What would a romance for superheroes be like though?" Nadja asked.

"Hard to say," Chat Noir shrugged, "I don't think I could start dating anyone, super hero or not, until Hawkmoth is gone."

Ladybug smiled at his lie. She knew he was dating someone, she just would never get to know who due to their identities being secret. And she herself still had something going on with Luka. There was a little bit of room for romance in a superhero's life, but it wasn't anything to be talked about.

"Why won't you admit it?" Nadja asked. "Why won't you admit the truth?" Nadja asked with a sudden cold tone in her voice.

"This is the truth," Chat Noir shrugged. "And I respect Ladybug too much to even tease something like this. Sorry to disappoint! Are there any more questions?"

"Come on, the audience awaits your answer," Nadja teased.

"That WAS the answer," Ladybug said harshly.

"Oh please, we saw the two of you had gone to New York together!"

"And you also saw that Hawkmoth was there too, right? And Queen Bee?" Chat Noir argued.

"Hey-" Nadja had glanced to the side where her producer was signaling something to her. She quickly changed the subject, "we understand! Why don't we move on to the game of the night!"

"Great idea," Ladybug said, clearly irritated.

"This game is super friendly, but there's a twist... or rather... twister!" A spotlight lit up a game mat to the side of one of the couches. It was, indeed, a game of twister. Ladybug felt her mind numb. Nadja explained the rules. "We have a set of questions for you to answer about the other. If you get the answer right, you stay put. If you get it wrong, well... You know how twister works, don't you?"

"More questions?!" Chat Noir groaned.

"Don't worry. They're very simple, nothing like the interview. Let's start with you as an example. Chat Noir, can you tell us what Ladybug's favorite color is?" Nadja had now led them to the board.

"Uh.... Red?"

"Really? Because I'm a ladybug?" Ladybug cocked a brow at him. He smiled sheepishly.

"Well, Ladybug? What IS your favorite color?"

"Pink!" she said proudly.

"Chat Noir, left foot on red!" said the producer who had now joined them on set. He had the spinner set on a table near the mat.

"What if she's lying!" Chat Noir protested, putting his left foot on red anyways.

"Ladybug," Nadja moved on from him, "what is Chat Noir's favorite color? We've gotta play fair, after all."

"Hmm..." Ladybug thought about it, "green?"

There was a pause as they all awaited Chat Noir to reveal the truth. But he looked equally puzzled as them. Eventually, he finally said, "uh... yes. Green."

"You're lucky for now, Ladybug!" Nadja stated, pulling out her next random question. "Chat Noir, what is Ladybug's favorite movie genre?" Behind her, Ladybug could be heard giggling.

"Because she's giggling, I think it's gonna be something random, like thrillers."

"Romcom!" Ladybug said.

"Why were you giggling like that then?!"

"Chat Noir, left hand on green," the producer said. Chat Noir awkwardly bent himself across the board.

"And Ladybug? What's his favorite genre?"

"Action movies! Like superheroes and Jurassic Park type stuff," she said extremely confidently. Just like he had with the color question, Chat Noir now looked like he actually didn't know what his favorite movie genre was. He, again, decided she was right.

"You lucky duck," Nadja remarked. "Chat Noir, will it be three errors in a row? Can you tell us, does Ladybug have a pet?"

"I don't know, a cat?"

"You wish," Ladybug snorted, "I don't have pets. And neither do you! I've seen you try picking up cats on the streets before, you don't even know how to touch an animal!"

"How do you keep getting these right?!" Chat Noir groaned, now being told to put his right hand on blue.

"What's Ladybug's favorite song?" Nadja asked.

"WAIT! Finally, I know something! It's 'Someone Knew' by Hozier, SHE'S BEEN SINGING IT FOR THREE WEEKS!"

"Yeah, I like that song," Ladybug shrugged. "I can't even guess Chat Noir's... You'd like something dumb like Ces Notes La."

"Wh- NO?!" Chat Noir said.

"Ladybug, right foot red," said the producer.

Before they knew it, Ladybug and Chat Noir were in a tangled mess. It took them a while, but suddenly it dawned on the two that the show was trying to force closeness between them. Just as they'd been so eager to get romantic details from the two! The nerve! Ladybug was going to say something when suddenly she noticed Chat Noir looking like he was about to have a panic attack.

"Chat Noir, who is Ladybug's favorite superhero?"

"Spiderman," Chat noir said with no hesitation, still looking panicked.

"Chat, you alright?" Ladybug whispered, then added, "yep, it's Spiderman. And his is Batman."

"Uh huh," Chat Noir grunted. He whispered back to her, "something's wrong."

"What's going on?" Ladybug whispered.

"My brain feels tight."

"That's blood rushing to your head," she deadpanned.

"No, it's not," he squeezed his eyes shut. "I'm hearing... A voice... Voices? It hurts."

"Chat..."

"Helloooo? You two still there, or are you lost in each other's eyes?" Nadja teased. Ladybug immediately crawled off the board and glared at her.

"I was feeling light headed, perhaps we should take a break," she lied.

"Oh, but we only have ten more minutes left of the show!" Nadja said.

"Well, lets end this properly," Ladybug bowed her head. Chat Noir meekly stood behind her. "We got an alert, so we actually must leave on short notice. But thank you everyone for tuning in! We love all our fans and your support! And don't worry, every day we come closer to figuring out how to stop Hawkmoht once and for all!"

"But-"

"Good night everybody!" Ladybug blew a kiss to the camera and then very quickly dragged herself and Chat Noir out of there. As soon as they left the studio and made way for an elevator, she pressed the question. "Was it nerves, or is something seriously happening?"

"I don't know how to explain this," Chat Noir whispered as the elevator doors closed.

"Just say it. I'll try to figure it out if it's hard to properly say."

"No, it just makes no sense."

"What doesn't make sense?"

"I think... I think Dusuu is talking to me?"

A/N my discord got hacked :(

(I never used it anyway lol)

Anyways here's the designs for the first four villains of this part of the giant fic that im somehow still writing:

Left to right we have Prime Queen, Troublemaker, Riposte, and Frightengale except I think I'm going to reattempt Frightengale's design cause that is just not it....