Miraculous One Shot Compilation

The Wrong Kind of Bugaboo

"Hey, did you get the answer to number five on the homework?"

"No, that one had me confused. I don't think we covered that in class!"

"Settle down class, settle down!" Miss Bustier tried to bring order to her pupils, who were reluctant to comply. Everyone, not wanting to turn in incomplete homework, was scrambling to find the answer that no one seemed to have. Miss Bustier knew what was wrong, but she needed an opportunity to explain. "Question five on last night's homework will be counted as a bonus question." Finally, her class was settling down enough to listen to her. "I realized I got a question from next chapter mixed in to the review. I'm sorry - I made a bugaboo."

Most of the class nodded, relieved, but a girl in the second row made a strangled noise. To her, 'Bugaboo' had come to mean something else entirely. That pesky cat had made sure of it.

One seat ahead of her, a boy's face burned, also thinking of the pet name he'd given his crush. "Bugaboo isn't a mistake," he muttered aloud.

"Dude, what was that?" his best friend questioned him. As far as he knew, a bugaboo was a mistake or a problem; he didn't know any other meaning for the word.

"Bugaboo isn't a mistake!" Adrien repeated, getting a bit defensive. All the while he knew they were talking about different things, and still he had to assure himself. It was getting more and more difficult to keep himself convinced the longer the target of his affections refused to acknowledge him. "At least my Bugaboo isn't."

"W-what is your Bugaboo?" the girl behind him inquired. His whisper had grown to a normal speaking voice, loud enough that the girls behind them could clearly hear what he said.

He hadn't really meant to be spreading this around, but was he ashamed of his feelings? No! Why shouldn't his friends know about the girl who claimed his heart? He turned around in his seat, grinning as he told Marinette, "She's... she's... ugh, I can't put it into words. I love her! She's the best girl I could ever want, but she's..." Adrien trailed off, saddened by the thought of what the girl wasn't - his.

"Oh," Marinette said simply, looking down at her desk.

"Adrien," Miss Bustier cut in to the group's conversation. "Would you like to tell the whole class about this girlfriend of yours?"

"No, sorry about that." With that, the class continued, but not without curiosity hovering - especially in one corner of the room.

--

"Since when do you have a girlfriend?" Nino asked right after class. "And you call her, of all things, 'Bugaboo'?"

"The nickname suits our relationship," Adrien explained. "I can't tell you why, it just does."

"Okay? So tell me more about her."

"I can't. Except, let me get this straight: she's not my girlfriend. I just wish she were."

Adrien finished the day as discouraged as ever, unaware that the right kind of Bugaboo had just come to a realization of her own. She wished her partner were her boyfriend, and she knew he was going to be.