Beep beep beep.

Ladybug's hand went to her earrings.

"Well, Chat, looks like I've gotta fly." She grinned, spinning her yoyo in preparation for the leap she was about to make. Chat Noir smirked and leaned against a lamppost that hadn't been there 10 minutes ago. It had, in fact, been knocked over by a particularly vivacious akumatized-person, and had only recently been restored by Ladybug's Lucky Charm.

"Well, now. I can tell I'm rubbing off on you. Probably more than you know…" the kitty preened himself smugly.

"Huh?" Ladybug looked at him questioningly, yoyo still in motion. Chat looked down at her through veiled eyes and leaned in enticingly.

"You can't tell me that wasn't a pun, Bugaboo. 'Gotta fly?' Not the most original, but I appreciate the effort." Ladybug shook her head and chuckled. Her earrings beeped again, more urgently, and she raised a hand to tickle Chat's chin, much to his delight.

"Silly kitty." She murmured. And with that, she was gone, swooping through alleyways and over rooftops before her kwami's transformation wore off. Ashe left behind a slightly dazed Chat, whose entire blood supply seemed to be racing to the spot where she'd touched him, judging by the fact it felt like it was on fire. After his moment in a star-struck trance, Chat shook his head and grinned to himself as he slinked off through the darkening streets of Paris.

oOo

Ladybug felt the tingle in her extremities that signalled her transformation was coming to an end, and knew she wouldn't be able to make it back to the bakery in time. Hurriedly, she dropped to the ground and ran to the nearest lamppost, hoping there weren't any prying eyes. She didn't get a chance to look and check however, before the pink glow enveloped her and she changed back into plain old Marinette.

With a sigh, she opened her purse to let Tikki fly inside from where she was currently floating by Marinette's head. When Tikki didn't go into the purse, the girl looked up to see a horror-stricken expression on her kwami's small face.

"Tikki, what's wrong?" Asked Marinette, worriedly. Seeing that the little creature's eyes were focused on something to Marinette's left, the girl craned her head round to see what the problem was.

And it turned out to be a very big problem.

Chloe Bourgeois was standing not ten feet away, with her mouth wide open and her phone in her hand, clearly having been trying to take a photo of her anonymous heroine.

Marinette suddenly went very cold.

No no no no no no no.

The air seemed frozen. The city was silent, almost as if it sensed it's heroine's turmoil and was holding it's breath in expectation of the fallout. The moon strengthened it's shine and the few seconds stretched into eternities.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng?" Whispered the blonde as the two girls stared at each other, both equally aghast. Marinette couldn't seem to make herself speak, move, do anything. She was frozen in place, just like her kwami. A sneer began to work it's way across Chloe's face, taking the place of the shock that had been there previously. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Ladybug?" Chloe screeched, an unreadable expression on her face.

"Chloe, please, shh-" Marinette began, panickedly, only to be cut off by Chloe's malevolent cackle.

"Well, isn't this a revelation! And to think, I was around to take this perfectly timed photo…" Chloe turned the phone around so Marinette could see the image on the screen clearly. Her stomach dropped. Taken from such a close distance, there was no way anybody could mistake the figure. Clearly Marinette, the figure was halfway through the de-transformation. She had no mask, and her suit only covered her torso, neck and the top of her thighs as it retreated, leaving Marinette's trademark pink jeans and grey shirt in it's wake. She was surrounded by a pink light, and her kwami was just materialising out of her earrings. The scene depicted was unmistakeable. Ladybug was Marinette, and soon the entire country would doubtless know about it.

Marinette, Ladybug, was doomed.

"Just you wait, Maritrash. Before you know it, this picture will be all over the internet. Everybody is going to find out who Ladybug really is, and won't they be disappointed!" Chloe cried exultantly. She'd always been looking for a way to one-up Marinette, and finally, here was the triumph she'd been waiting for. It was better than she could ever have hoped. She pulled the phone back towards her, and prepared to send the image in a mass text to every single one of her contacts.

"No!" Cried Marinette, stepping forwards, arms outstretched. The blonde raised an eyebrow at her. "Please, Chloe. Please don't tell anyone. I'm begging you, I- I'll do anything."

Chloe tilted her head, intrigued.

"Well, now. Doesn't that sound interesting."