My Good Friend (a miraculous ladybug story)

Chapter 5: Float Like A Butterfly Sting Like An Akuma

The entire wall behind Marinette's computer was covered in a web of red string and markings. In the center were ShadowMoth and Mayura. To the left were akumatized victims that had been akumatized twice. Below them were the most frequent akumatized victims, and to the right were victims who were only attacked once.

"Marinette, that's an awful lot of people that have gone to your school that were akumatized." Sabine said as she looked at the victims.

"True but most of them are children of important families like Chloe Bourgeois, Sabrina, Alya has her blog, Lila's mom and so on."

"Yeah or even your friends" Tom added through bites of food.

"That is odd. But the three most akumatized people are Chloe, Lila, and Mr. Ramier. I don't know Mr. Ramier personally." Marinette was just realizing how strange it was that so many of her classmates were akumatized.

She remembered all of them being akumatized, but in the grand scheme of things anyone in Paris could have been akumatized. Her friends just had poor luck. She stared at the connecting strings and scratched her head.

Tom exhaled heavily after finishing his pizza and checked his watch. "Whoa, it's getting pretty late here. I have to open up the bakery tomorrow, my love if you'd like to sleep in tomorrow morning so you can stay up with Marinette you can."

"Aww," She cooed and gave him a peck on the lips. "I think I'll join you in a few minutes, we have that large order for Mano's birthday in two days and we haven't even started on the cupcakes."

He squeezed Marinette to his chest before he left. "I've missed having my tiny baker around."

"Goodnight ladies!"

"Goodnight!" They replied in unison.

Marinette started putting away the markers and pens while her mother straightened out the papers scattered on the floor.

Sabine looked at all of Marinette's classmates on the wall and hummed. "Marinette?"

"Yes, mom?"

Sabine looked at the pictures of Adrien Marinette had taken down and piled by her sewing supplies with a curious look. "Both you and Adrien haven't been akumatized. As much as I am relieved I wonder why out of your class you both have missed it."

Marinette froze and dropped the markers in her hands. She saw Tikki watching from behind a set of books directly out of her mother's sight. Tikki shook her head.

"I- I don't know mom I've never been so distraught that Shadowmoth could manipulate my emotions like that. I guess."

Her mother crossed her arms and tilted her head in thought. "And Adrien?"

"Adrien is always super calm and well adjusted to the situation. He's always nice and doesn't let his emotions get the better of him. Why, what are you implying?"

The older woman walked over to the sewing set and picked up a picture of Adrien cut from a magazine. "Marinette if I had superpowers I would want to make sure you above everything were safe."

Marinette was screaming internally. She knew this would happen, she should've never let her parents help her. It was too obvious. She can't put them in danger like this. She figured it out. Now what was going to happen? Would she even be able to be Lady Bug anymore?

"I think Gabriel Agreste is ShadowMoth."

Marinette's over-thinking stopped. Her jaw fell open and she shook her head frantically.

"No, that's not possible mama. Adrien is the nicest person I know. He wouldn't let his dad be a supervillain. On top of that Mr. Agreste has been akumatized before! He couldn't akumatized himself!"