Jerk in Sheep's Clothing

Truth

Adrien called off his transformation as he slipped back through the window of his dressing, seamlessly and without a sound. Landing nimbly on his feet just as the last of the magic light faded, he walked back to his mirror to fix himself up as he caught his breath.

Chloé has been a difficult akuma for him and his Lady. Than again, now that he really thought about it, she always was. Adrien had never allowed himself to dwell on it much, out of loyalty to his childhood friend, not wanting to focus on her worst moments. But looking back at all the times she'd been akumatized, she had always been one of the more challenging foes.

In hindsight, Adrien should have been more concerned about Chloe's behavior. She'd turned into Antibug because Ladybug had not trusted her to tell the truth during a mission to help. But honestly, who could blame her, after Chloé had gotten Sabrina akumatized with her petty cruelty, and then lied about it? Ladybug had no reason to trust Chloe's word then. Then, of course, the blonde had gone and gotten upset merely because her idol rightfully called her a liar. After she had lied.

Then there was the Battle of the Queens. Chloé had stolen the Bee Miraculous and exposed it and Pollen to the entire world, just to impress her mother. Adrien knew how badly she wanted her mom's approval, but she had taken it too far. Then when Audrey and Ladybug rightfully scolded her for causing trouble, she had gotten akumatized a second time, only worse. Hawkmoth akumatized the Miraculous! It had been the biggest challenge Adrien and his Lady had had yet, only to be replaced by the Heroes Day mass akumatization.

Now that he was truly thinking about it, he had been cutting Chloé a lot more slack than he would have wanted. She bullied his friends, lied to the heroes, exposed a Miraculous to show off, endangered almost all of Paris out of selfishness, dodged any responsibility for her part in things going wrong...and he had never held her accountable for anything until today.

But Adrien knew he couldn't dwell on the past too much. He needed to learn from his mistakes and march forward. Right now, he still needed to find a way to expose Lila and Henri. But how? Jagged wasn't going to be back in Paris until who-knew-when, and Adrien couldn't think of any other way he could expose Lila's lies.

A sharp knocking interrupted his thoughts.  "Mousier Agreste!  You've been in there for almost forty minutes!  You better be primping and not lallygagging!"

"Sorry, Vince!  I'll be out in a minute!"

Adrien looked at his dresser and reached for his styling product, unscrewing the lid off the jar.  When he pulled the lid away, however, he found the container almost completely empty, with only trace amounts clinging to the edges of the inside.  "Shoot!"

He came out of the dressing room and bolted past Vincent in the hall.  "Sorry, Vince!  I'm out of hair product!  I'm going to the drugstore to get more!"

"We can get some assistants to fetch you some more!"

"No thanks!  It's just across the street!  Besides, Father prefers me to wear a specific brand!"  And with that, he was out the door before anyone could try and stop him.
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"Deazee, Deazee, Deazee...aha!"

Adrien plucked a jar of hair product off the shelf, the same color and design as the empty one on his dresser.  "Deazee Styling Gel for Men, Number 5, Iron Will Strength Hold!"  He showed the container to Plagg, sitting in his shirt pocket.  "Father doesn't allow me to use any other product for my hair."

He spun on his heel to head for the checkout.  However, as he did, he found himself face-to-face with a woman's upper body, clothed in raven black cashmere-soft material.  A soft "oh!", escaped from a pair of cocoa brown lips, which he raised his eyes to look at as he backed away.  On the same tanned face as those full lips was a pair of brown eyes.  As Adrien got a good look at the face, he noticed traces of something familiar, something that scratched at his memory but he could not identify entirely.