Halloween rolled right around the corner and Adrien did not have a costume. He didn't really like costumes anyways, since he was always being pampered and dressed up for photoshoots and commercials. Just a few weeks ago he'd had to look like a pirate for a commercial selling deodorant. He didn't know if kids his age even dressed up for Halloween, so it didn't bother him too much.

At least, it didn't bother him at all until he came to school and saw that a majority of the students were in costume. He didn't think so many would actually do it, but then again, this was his first time attending a school. This was his first Halloween spent out of the house.

"What are you supposed to be?" Adrien asked Marinette as she sat next to him in Mrs. Bustier's room for their homeroom period. She had her hair in short pigtails and her bangs puffed up. She wore what looked to be a homemade knit pink dress and a pair of pink fairy wings on her back.

"Oh, I'm the knitting fairy!"

"The knitting fairy..?"

"Yeah, it was a character I created as a kid. I thought it would be fun!"

"Well, you look nice."

"Thanks."

And then Nino walked in, and he was a turtle. Adrien had no idea what kind of getup this was but it was most certainly bizarre. He had a purple ninja mask on, a makeshift cardboard turtle shell, numchucks, and he was green.

"And... what are you?"

"Donatello!" Nino replied with a grin.

"Donawhatnow?"

"The teenage mutant ninja turtle!"

"Are you making this up?"

"Wh- YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES?!"

"No?!?!??"

The whole class turned to look at him, including Alya (dressed as a mermaid) who said, "Adrien, what the fuck?!"

"Is that wrong?"

"Yeah! What rock have you been living under?!" Alix–who appeared to be a devil–exclaimed.

"I don't know what's happening-"

"I've never seen any of the teenage mutant ninja turtle movies or shows but like- everyone knows about them!" Alix argued.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" Chloe snapped. She was dressed up like Ladybug; she had a whole suit, wig, and everything. Sabrina, sitting next to her, was Chat Noir.

"It's alright, I really am... I guess I didn't have the same childhood as everyone else, huh?"

"We're messin 'with you man, but seriously, you should watch the new show." Nino said confidently.

Looking around, Adrien realized the only other people that weren't in costumes were Nathaniel and Juleka. Mylene was in a mouse onesie, Ivan was... something that was bloody... Marc was a vampire, Rose was also a fairy, and Lila also Ladybug.

"Well now I feel weird." Adrien muttered.

"Bout not knowing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?" Marinette asked.

"No. I don't have a costume."

"I thought your costume was supermodel," Marinette teased.

"But- I'm already model-?"

Marinette face palmed. "Oh Adrien," she suppressed a laugh. She didn't want to make him feel bad. She couldn't help but noticed how distressed he already was. "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah?"

"You look down. Is it about not having a costume? We could make you one real quick!"

"Oh- uh- No... it's not that."

"Do you... wanna talk about it?"

"Well... every year for Halloween my dad and I would watch scary movies together. I mean, we haven't done that in a few years, occasionally Natalie will but she doesn't like scary movies so... it's fine though. My dad promised me last week that that was the plan for tonight, only for me to find out he's actually agreed to take part in a talk show tonight and totally blew it off."

"You're dad sounds pretty ignorant."

"Well you don't have to be so blunt about it," Adrien slightly smiled.

"Hmm... maybe we can get some friends together to watch scary movies tonight!" Marinette suggested. "Me, you..." her cheeks lit up in a shade of pink, "and uh- Nathaniel and Alya and Nino of course! Hahahaha!"

"Really? You'd want to do that?"

"Sure! Why not?" Marinette grinned. "You can come to my room- HOUSE! House! Come over- yes!" Marinette quickly looked away, mumbling frantically to herself.

"That's so... sweet of you. I'd love that! Should I bring something?"

"Did I just hear I randomly got invited to Marinette's house for a scary movie?" Alya turned around with a sinister smirk on her face. "Adrien, this is a slumber party. Bring snacks, pajamas, and hmm........ Do you have jewelry beads Marinette?"

"Wait- how did this become a slumber party?! IT IS A SCHOOL NIGHT!" Marinette exclaimed.

"A slumber party?!" Nino grinned.

"Am I invited?" Alix said sarcastically.

"Oh! Can I come too?!" Mylene asked.

"I'm assuming I will be coming," Chloe said, "for Adrien."

"I guess that means I'll be there too," Sabrina said.

"Can Juleka and I join?!" Rose asked urgently.

"You better invite me." Lila sneered.

"Am I... included?" Mylene asked again.

"What is happening-" Marinette muttered, "That's so many people... in my house..."

"Ugh Marinette, you're such a pansy. Look, the whole class can be invited to MY house instead so that we have more room," Chloe said boastfully. "... I guess that includes you too, Marinette."

"Oh-"

"But you must have a costume, for all you basics here."

"How did this happen," Marinnet muttered to herself.

***

"How did this happen?" Marinette found herself saying yet again as her dad dropped her off at the Bourgeois suite hotel.

"It'll be fun, don't worry dear!" her father assured.

"Are you sure this is alright? It's a slumber party, there will be boys... it is a school night-"

"You're 17! I trust you, ok? And if anything goes wrong, make sure you call me and I'll come pick you up right away. Now have fun, sweety!"

"O-ok..." Marinette straightened the straps of her fairy wings. "Thank you dad," she said and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Don't go around kissing boys now, keep it PG!"

"I have a boyfriend!"

"And I'll kill him if he hurts you!"

"Alright dad, bye now!" Marinette waved him off as she backed away towards the hotel. Here goes nothing..." She took a deep breath and marched inside. She was then escorted to Chloe's personal party room... which apparently was a thing. It was similar to the gala area Marinette had been when Princess Fragrance had first appeared. Most of her classmates were already there, just Juleka, Rose, Lila and Ivan had yet to show up.

"Hi Marinette!' Sabrina said as she welcomed her in. "By the way, Chloe invited a few more people... and some of us brought more people to tag along so... don't be overwhelmed!"

"Who all is here?" Marinette asked curiously.

"Lila said she's bringing her boyfriend, Adrien brought a person from his fencing class, Juleka is bringing her brother, and um... for some reason Prince Ali is here."

"... there's a prince here..."

"And Chloe's half sister, Zoe."

"Chloe has a sister?!"

"Yeah, and this dude named Ray."

"Who's Ray- does Chloe have a secret brother too?!"

"Ray's just a musician Chloe's really close to. And I think Adrien's cousin invited himself over?"

"What-"

"And I invited my friend Lenore, she's over there! That's all though!"

"I-"

"Oh! Looks like Lila came!" Sabrina moved past Marinette, likely to go tell Lila the same wild tale of people who would be here.

"Hey Marinnette." Someone appeared next to her.

"GAH! ADRIEN!" Marinette jumped. Adrien was dressed like a pirate.

"Oh- I didn't mean to startle you..."

"You're alright! I just didn't see you coming!"

"Oh, you're here," came Nathaniel's voice as he hunkered himself next to Marinette. He was in a unicorn onesie. And he looked extremely nervous. And he had gone pale.

"I just wanted to thank you, Marinette. This probably wasn't going to happen if you hadn't mentioned it in class." Adrien smiled.

"Y-yeah, well- it wasn't supposed to happen like this but, well... yup!" Marinette felt her cheeks flush. Why was her face getting hot?! Only God would know. "Nice costume?"

"Th-thanks." Adrien nodded. His skin was intentionally dirty, especially around his cheeks. He had a really realistic pirate costume–it looked super expensive. "I'm reusing a costume from one of my campaigns." Ah. That explains it.

"Nathaniel," Marinette looked at her fake boyfriend, "you look nice too."

"Oh, flirting in front of me! I will perish!" Alya said, having come from nowhere. It seemed she never missed an opportunity to make fun of Marinette.

"The gangs' all here," Nino remarked as he approached them.

"I've never been to a slumber party like this," Adrien admitted.

"Well, this is an extreme slumber party my guy," Nino gestured to the people filling the room.

"Adrien," someone dressed in a japanese looking oni giri mask appeared next to Adrien.

"Oh! Kagami! Hi!" Adrien startled.

"I lost you," Kagami said. "Who are these people?"

"These are my friends, Marinette, Nino, Alya and Nathaniel!" Adrien said like a happy puppy.

"It's nice to meet you," Kagami said flatly. They lifted up their mask to reveal their blank, unexcited face of fiery judgment. "Kagami Tsuguri, pronouns they/them."

"Ohhhh! You're nonbinary?! That's so dope!" Nino exclaimed.

"Mm," Kagami looked away.

"I'm Marinette, she/her," Marinette said.

"Are you mocking me?" Kagami raised a brow.

"What?! N-no! I- Well- No!" Marinette turned red in embarrassment.

"Ah... hahah..." Adrien patted Kagami's shoulder. "She's nice Kagami-"

"Fine." Kagami said stiffly. They didn't seem like a pleasant person. 

Just then, the doors to the room opened up and Rose, Juleka, and two guys Marinette had never seen in her life walked in. Juleka was dressed as a witch now, and the two boys were a zombie and Chat Noir. One had turquoise hair, and looked identical in facial features to Juleka. Marinette assumed he was her twin brother. And the other had dirty blond hair with two bottom lip piercing that looked like fangs when he had his mouth shut.

"Who is-"

"That's Ray," Adrien answered before Marinette finished her question. "Chloe's friend."

Marinette didn't care about Ray. She was fixated on the zombie boy with turquoise dyed hair. He looked... cute. And Marinette felt both compelled to go talk to him, but at the same time, run away in fear. It was Luka. Marinette remembered his name now.

"Wow-"

"Alright people! Listen up!" Sabrina said, cupping her hands around her mouth. "We're gonna play a few games before the movies so gather around!"

"Oh... this will be bad..." Alya said with a smirk on her face.

"What? Why?" Marinette and Nathaniel asked.

"This is a party full of teenagers and a few celebrities. We're all seniors or older. It's about to get wild in here," Alya grinned.

And indeed it did. The games started out as being just truth or dare, but as that game went on the dares and questions got more wild and Marinette ended up sitting in Nino's lap for fifteen minutes on a dare somehow. But the worst of the worst always came from Alya's mouth. The people learned to fear her. She knew the worst dares to give, and the most evil questions to ask. She made Adrien take five shots of what Marinette had previously thought to be pineapple juice, but quickly learned was actually a buzzed beverage after Adrien started showing symptoms of drunkenness. He wasn't exactly drunk, drunk, but he definitely was acting slightly off. Alya almost got Sabrina to confess who she'd like, but had worded her question in a way that Sabrina only had to reveal it was a girl. The monstrous Alya gave a horrible dare to Ivan that made him beg to leave the party as a result. We do not talk about that dare.

And then Alya had taken full control, and decided it would be amazing to play spin the bottle. But not just an ordinary spin the bottle. It was seven minutes in heaven. They all knew her true intentions behind the game–get people who liked each other to get trapped in a closet together for seven minutes. But the bottle had other intentions in mind.

Nathaniel and Chloe were the first sacrifices to the closet. Chloe was absolutely peeved about this but had to do it anyway. She was also slightly buzzed herself, and the only way to get out of it was to take a shot of the drink that was definitely not just pineapple juice. She didn't want to get drunk, so went with Nathaniel angrily. Obviously, nothing happened. Marinette could only assume the two sat in a closet together in silence for the whole seven minutes before they could get let out.

Nathaniel spun the bottle which landed on the girl Marinette had yet to talk to, Lenore, and Lenor spun it to seal her fate off with whoever it would force her into the closet with. It was Nathaniel. Again. He was not having very good luck with this.

When the two got back, Nathaniel spun the bottle again, and it landed on Alya. Finally. She could get a taste of her own medicine. Or so Marinette hoped, but unfortunately, the bottle chose her. So Marinette and Alya just went and talked in the closet for seven minutes. Marinette swore she would make Alya pay for her evil deeds at some point. The time would come soon.

None of the pairings were that interesting after that anyways. The bottle kept choosing close friends to go to the closet where nothing would happen. The point of the game was to get two people who liked each other to go in the closet and kiss. Having Nino and Adrien go in there, wasn't going to cut it.

"Juleka and Rose." Alya announced with boredom. "When will it pick something interesting? I crave drama!"

However, Marinette had to disagree with this. Juleka looked extremely flustered about having to go to the closet with her best friend. That was weird. Marinette wasn't the only one who noticed. Nathaniel, sitting next to her, also appeared to have caught Juleka's behavior. He must have had a gay sense for this sort of thing. Juleka... was a flaming lesbian.

"Ohhhhhh what did you guys do in there?" Alya snickered, for as Rose and Juleka returned, they were both bright red.

"We talked!" Rose said stiffly.

"Y-yup." Juleka mumbled. They sat down and didn't say a word.

"Oh whatever," Alya sneered. "Rose, pick the next victim."

"Ah..." Rose fumbled over to the bottle and spun it. It landed on Marinette. Marinette's mind began racing. What if it landed on Adrien? Wait, why would she think that?! She didn't like Adrien! What if it was Luka?! Oh no... She restrained from glancing over at Luka but couldn't help it. She'd spun the bottle, and as if the bottle knew who she was looking at, it pointed itself right at Luka.

"Oh," Luka said.

"Wow, the Couffaine twins are getting bitches tonight!" Alya sneered.

"Alya!" Marinette said with a face of horror.

"Oh god..." Juleka hid her face in her hands.

"Alya, I HAVE A BOYFRIEND!"

"He don't mind, right Nathan?" Alya snickered.

"Make my torture stop." Nathaniel hid himself.

"Go already, you're stalling," Chloe snapped. For a moment, Marinette considered calling her dad to flee home. But he wouldn't be here in less than seven minutes. She had to brave this. Peer pressure and embarrassment forced her to.

And so, Marinette was in a small closet with Luka.

"Um- hi..." Marinette refused to look at him.

"Hi..."

Awkward silence. Marinette glanced up at him and saw he was looking at her. Crap.

"I'm Luka, er- Juleka's twin brother..." Luka muttered.

"Y-yeah- uh- I'm Marinette, with no siblings." That was a dumb thing to say.

"Hello Marinette with no siblings," Luka said lightly.

"Urggg-" Marinette put her face in her hands.

"I remember you from school," Luka admitted. "We used to share a class in our first highschool year."

"We did? I don't remember you..." Marinette said, pulling herself from her hands.

"I look way different now." Luka smiled. "I've got gages now," he pointed to the hole in the lobes of his ears, "and I dyed my hair. It used to be red."

"Red?" Marinette searched her memories. Nope. No recollection of a Luka with red hair in there. "When did you drop out?"

"After our second year," Luka replied.

"How do I not remember you... I feel really bad about it now!" Marinette admitted. "And You're Juleka's twin! She-" Marinette's eyes widened. "Wait-"

"Yeah..." Luka looked away.

"Wow! You look so different!" Marinette exclaimed. "In a good way- er- of course! You pass really well! I do remember you now."

"Yeah... I didn't want to come here cause I knew some of my old classmates were here, and I feared they'd know who I was and..."

"Well I had no idea so, you're doing really good. You pass really well! Wait- I already said that-"

"Thanks," Luka smiled.

"It was... Lilith?"

"Yeah," Luka frowned.

"I like Luka a lot better than Lilith," Marinnette said. Luka's eyes sparkled; or maybe that was Marinette's imagination.

"Thank you... What about you then? You have a boyfriend now?"

"Oh-" her heart sank, "Yeah... Nathaniel Kutzburg, do you remember him?"

"I never had classes with him, but I sorta remember seeing him. Damn, he's tall now."

"My whole class is so tall! I thought Nathaniel and Ivan were the tallest and then freaking Marc shows up- Though he does have better posture than those two, so maybe it's an illusion."

"Maybe," Luka chuckled.

They continued talking to break the ice and Marinette felt a lot more comfortable being around him. Nino unexpectedly threw open the door, however, right when Luka was revealing some deep secrets about his mom.

"Oooooh what are you two talking about?" Nino smirked.

"Your mom," Luka retaliated.

Nino gasped dramatically. Marinette hurried out as fast as she could with Luka in tail.

"Anyways, we decided to end the game because it was getting boring. Adrien's dad's on TV if you wanna watch it with us," Nino said.

"Huh?" Marinette made her way to the couches where a cluster of children were watching a talk show featuring Adrien's dad.

"Please, this is so embarrassing..." Adrien sighed.  Marinette sat down between Nathaniel and Nino, with Adrien on the couch behind them.

"It's gonna cut to the gameshow part in a sec," someone said. And just as predicted, it did.

"Welcome to the Challenge!" the host exclaimed. He had a supposedly famous DJ guy with him that Marinette had never heard of.

The show was Halloween themed for the special, so it was a Halloween related challenge. Marinette was barely paying attention. Next, a magician named Simon Grimault was introduced to take on another challenge.

"Mister Grimault, you are a hypnotist. You use cards to hypnotize people to get what you want from them!" the host said as the magician walked on stage.

"Y-yes, I'm a hypnotist. But uh, I don't use my skills to get anything!" Simon Grimault said.

"So, mister Grimault, your challenge is to get an elusive celebrity to come to this very set!" The host said.

"Oh, so it's rigged," Adrien stated sourly.

"Huh?" Marinette asked.

"He's supposed to hypnotize my dad, I already know what happens," Adrien grumbled.

"Give it up for the king of fashion, Gabriel Agreste!" the host exclaimed. A video call of Mr. Agreste popped up on screen.

"What?! I was told this was an interview!" Gabriel said.

"It's an act," Adrien rolled his eyes.

"Lets see if you can get Mr. Agreste here with your hypnotic persuasion!" the host said giddily.

The show then went on to "hypnotize" Adrien's dad and got the Agreste man to show up on set. It was rigged. The host was being particularly rude to the hypnotist though, mocking him and saying how he was a greedy, manipulative man. After the games ended, they went to interviewing Gabriel Agreste for the main part of the talk show. Adrien looked embarrassed the entire time, but angry all the same. Angry with his father for blowing him off for a talk show.

"Adrien, why don't we step away?" Marinette said, already standing up. "You... don't look to good..." she whispered.

"I'm fine..." Adrien said. She could only assume that being buzzed was making his emotions a bit worse.

"Adrien-"

"Woah! That's an insane costume!" Lenore said. Marinette looked back at the TV. A new figure had interrupted the show, dressed in all back with a face as dark as night, almost like a mask.

"Is that an act too?" Marinette asked, having a sense it wasn't a costume at all.

"How would I know?" Adrien grumbled.

"Simon says..." the figure said with a distorted voice, "stop breathing."

It threw a card at the game show host and immediately, he started to choke and gasp for air, grabbing at his throat. He couldn't get any words out, squirming and shaking now as he fell to the floor. Gabriel wasn't the one being interviewed, but rather an actor in the horror film the party was planning on watching that night. The actor was not pardoned.

"Simon says you are the serial killer you pretended to be," it said and threw a card at the actor. A dark look struck their face as the actor looked down at the show host, a smile creeping across their face, enjoying the sight of pain.

"That's an akuma!" Alya exclaimed. Immediately, the show was cut from the air.

"Shit-" Marinette looked back to Adrien who was now mysteriously gone. He was back at the beverage table, drinking. Why did anyone even think to buzz the drinks? Adrien was definitely going to get drunk.

"I think my leg is swelling up again, I'm gonna go put ice on it." Alya wheeled herself away and out of the room.

"Alya might need help with- uh- stairs-" Nino said and vanished as well.

"There's elevators-" Chloe tried to say but he was already gone. No one was paying attention to Adrien. Marinette was about to go get him away from the drink, only to find he was gone.

"Shit-" she muttered, scanning the room. There was no sight of Adrien. Now she was faces with a crossing of roads; either she go find Adrien and make sure he didn't go do something stupid, or she go save Paris as Ladybug. "Can someone go find Adrien? He's gone!" Marinette announced.

"And you will be....?" Chloe gave her a weird look.

"Taking a FAT SHIT!" Marinette ran away. Why did she say that of all things for an excuse?! Marinette flew from the room, quickly transforming into Ladybug and jumping out the window at the end of the hall. Using her yo-yo, she soared over the city to find the building in which the talk show was taking place. It wasn't hard to find, as they were sponsoring themselves all over the place like crazy.

"Ladybug, sup!" Carapace joined her, running along the edge of a rooftop.

"You're here!"

"As is mandatory." Carapace nodded.

"Do you know if Rena Rouge will be here?"

"I doubt it. She made that one time appearance a week ago and POOF! Gone!"

"Maybe her job is to be here if Chat or I are missing?"

"Maybe," Carapace agreed. "Speaking of, where is Chat Noir?"

"I haven't seen him yet," Ladybug said. She launched herself into the air, landing in the street in front of the film center. Carapace jumped down next to her moments later.

"I wonder if he's aware there's an akuma. It's Halloween, he could be out partying."

"I was at a party, I still found out. It was a Halloween special broadcast, there's a high chance he would have seen it."

"And if he didn't?"

"We brave this alone."

Most authors doing anything to get their ship alone in a situation together:

Me: *puts Ladybug and Carapace alone on a mission because that's the power of friendship and a drunk cat*