I Trusted You

Dismay, yet again

Gabriel stared at the painting of his wife, Emilie. He put a hand on the cold, detailed painting, feeling its embellishments as he remembered her sweet smiles and the adorable way she used to laugh. A single tear escaped his eye but he wiped it away quickly.

It was a heartbreaking thing to remember. She had overused the peacock miraculous, always wanting to help people out. She'd make helpful sentimonsters that would help people with things such as robbery and even for big things such as housefires. Everyone loved her and it was a tragedy when they believed she was dead. Gabriel was the only one who knew she was comatose and he was the only one who could bring her back. He didn't want to admit how broken he actually was from the inside.

"I will bring you back, Emilie," he whispered to himself.

Suddenly, he felt the hints of a negative emotion. He quickly pressed the buttons on the painting and descended into his lair.

Transforming, he searched for the negative emotion. "Hmm.... Clara Nightingale. She's sad again because she's stressed about an upcoming audition. Fly, my little akuma, and evilise her!" he said, not bothering with his pre-akuma speech as the akuma flew out of his lair to find Clara.

But with the akuma, there was another thing.

----

Marinette was peacefully sleeping before a loud cackling and childish giggling sound was heard. She jolted from her sleep and climbed up to her balcony. She saw people turning into shiny, pink statues and more people with pink outlines on them as Frightningale stood over a rooftop, laughing at them. "Sing or dance, or make sure you rhyme, or you will surely run out of time!" she said, twirling.

"Frightningale?" Marinette asked in confusion. Tikki flew up behind her, rubbing her eyes.

"At nine o'clock?" Tikki said groggily. “What is Shadowmoth up to?”

“I have no idea!”

Frightningale spotted Marinette and leaped towards her. Marinette didn't notice as she was busy talking to Tikki until she heard her cackle. "Oh, look at this little lady! Surely, you can handle this frenzy?" she said, shooting her with a pink beam.

Marinette turned in panic. "Oh no! Wha-"

She was stopped mid-sentence as she felt her self picked up and brought away. Someone was carrying her, jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

She looked up and saw familiar, worried green eyes. "Chat Noir?"

He looked down at her. "Marinette! You're not safe there. I'm dropping you off at Montparnasse Tower."

"Oh, um, alright!" she replied as he leaped up and landed on the tower. He let her down and she got off, standing on the asphalt. "Thanks, Chat Noir."

"Just, stay safe, okay? Don't move," he said and mounted his stick, heading towards Frightningale.

She stared off after where he left. Tikki jumped out of her purse, where she had conveniently hidden in before Frightningale struck. "Ready, Marinette?"

"Yes. Tikki, spots on!"

She saw Chat Noir and jumped down near him. "Oh, hey Ladybug. I think I'm in a fuss!"

She giggled. "You don't have to rhyme just yet, Chat Noir. You're not hit."

"Wasn't on purpose." He said.

She threw her yoyo up in the air. “Lucky charm!” Ladybug yelled. She was handed a spotted guitar pick. She squinted, trying to figure out what it meant.

"Hold on, I think we need Viperion for this one. Let me go and hand him his weapon!" she said, laughing as she swung away.

Chat grumbled. "But of course," he muttered as he dodged yet another one of Frightningale's beams.

---

Ladybug landed on the houseboat. Luka was already outside, practicing his guitar. He was surprised. "Ma- Ladybug?"

"Luka, we need you on this mission. Will you help?"

He nodded sincerely. "Of course." He transformed and followed Ladybug as she returned to Chat Noir.

"Just in case we turn get hit, use your second chance. I can't think of any more rhymes," Ladybug said.

Chat Noir looked at Ladybug. He missed the times when it was just them fighting against the world. He didn't mind all the other heroes, but lately he was feeling useless.

Distracted, Frightningale shot her pink beam at him as he turned into an outlined pink figure. "Chat Noir! Viperion, do your thing!"

"Second chance!" he shouted, turning everything back to a few seconds prior. "Ad- I mean, Chat Noir, don't get distracted! You got hit last time!" he warned. Chat Noir blinked out of his thoughts, nodding at him.

"The akuma must be in her microphone again!”

“I’ll cataclysm it-“

“I’ll hit it with my yoyo!” Ladybug interrupted, grabbing the microphone from Frightningale with her yoyo and destroying it. “No!” Frightningale wailed as Ladybug threw the guitar pick in the air, shouting “Miraculous Ladybug!”. The butterflies repaired all the damage.

Clara transformed back to normal as Ladybug created a magical charm for her to keep. “Thank you, Ladybug! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go for an audition!”

“No problem, Clara.” She turned to Viperion. “I’ll just get the miraculous from Viperion, Chat Noir.”

Chat Noir nodded glumly. “Okay.”

She ran off with Viperion. Chat Noir sighed, looking down at the floor in dismay. “And again, I was useless.” He stomped off, not following Ladybug's instructions and walked home. It's not as if she'd care if I went anyway.

He suddenly remembered that he had dropped Marinette off at the Montparnasse tower and he quickly jumped his away across to there. But he didn't see Marinette there.

"Marinette? Are you there?" he called, anxious.

He decided to go to her house to check whether she was there. He saw her, sitting in her balcony.

"Marinette! You're here! I thought I told you not to move, though?" he asked.

"O-oh, I, um, yeah, Ladybug took me back here. Don't worry, Chat, I'm fine," she laughed nervously.

"I could've dropped you back," he muttered.

"Aw, is the kitty-cat jealous?" Marinette smirked, leaning into his face.

He blushed and turned away, scratching his neck. "N-no, I just, w-was worried," he said.

She giggled. "Just teasing."

"Okay, so, now that I know you're safe, I'll go. Bye!" he said, jumping off quickly still slightly pink in the face.

She giggled. "Bye, kitty!"

----

Shadowmoth smiled villainously as he saw the sentimonster he had sent out return to his lair. He snapped it out of existence. What Ladybug and Chat Noir didn’t know was that he had secretly sent out an invisible sentimonster to spy on them.

He saw everything from their point of view and had noticed how Ladybug and Chat Noir were more distant than usual. He also took note of the fact that Chat Noir had once again been ignored and hadn’t gotten to use his cataclysm. “Hmm, conflict, eh?” He noted.

He knew exactly what to do. And he had the perfect plan for it.