equal

Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir

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I pushed the door open for History. My eyes landed on Adrien who was backing away from Chloé while trying to get her to seat down on her seat.

I looked at the time on my phone. Yup. In Chloé's schedule, it clearly states that right now is flirting time with Adrien.

She puckered up her lips while moving forward to him. He gritted his teeth nervously as he gently pushed her away.

His eyes roamed the room, trying to look for someone to help him when they caught mine.

He forgot all about Chloé and sat on his seat.

"Hey Marinette," He greeted me in Mandarin. I guess that's our new language because I'm part Chinese and he speaks Mandarin. "Did you remember what I told you?"

"Yes," I replied in Mandarin. "I did," I looked at Nino who was seated at my seat. Then I looked back at Adrien's spot. "I guess we are seating next to each other today?"

I learnt a lot from my mother for the past couple of hours. I already knew some things in Mandarin, because when I was younger, she taught me Mandarin every night before I slept. She also used to read me Mandarin bedtime stories.

It was just a matter of pronouncing the words properly.

"Yes," He replied, still in Mandarin. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No," I shook my head and put my bag next to his. The bags sat in the middle.

"Good," He nodded. His lips formed a smirk. "You should feel honoured that you get to sit next to someone as attractive as I am,"

I shook my head, a small grin creeping on my face. "I should ask Nino if I can sit with Alya again,"

"Ah," He poked my cheek. "Don't be like that. I was only kidding,"

"Marinette? Why are you sitting with Adrien?!" Sabrina asked, folding her arms, while glaring at me. Chloé was looking at herself in the mirror and she dropped it when she heard what Sabrina said.

"Are my ears hearing correctly? You are sitting with my Adrien-kins?" Chloé looked at me in horror.

"Watch out Adrien. Obsessed girlfriend, 9 o'clock," I snickered. Of course I said this in Mandarin.

"At first, I didn't mind it, but it's becoming more and more annoying," Adrien replied, still in Mandarin.

"Why?"

"Because she is always trying to kiss me. I will never kiss her. Not even if my father forces me to," He spared Chloé a side glance before turning his back to her so that he could face me.

I couldn't help but chuckle.

"And plus, I need more girls to hit on me. Not only her," He added. "She keeps eliminating anyone who has potential interest to me,"

I rolled my eyes. "What about Lila?" I blurted out. It was the first thought that crossed my mind. Chloé didn't chase her away. I did. Well, to be specific, Ladybug did.

"What about her?" Adrien looked at me with curiosity written all over his eyes.

"She liked you. And she still does," I said. Something got caught in my throat. It reminded me of yesterday when I nearly died in that messed up fairytale. "Didn't you like her back?"

Adrien was quiet for a moment. "No. I didn't like her," He concluded.

This surprised me. "Not even as a friend?" I found myself reverting back to French.

"We didn't know each other that much. She lied about knowing Ladybug and I don't like liars," Adrien also went back to speaking French.

I stayed very silent after that. I didn't know how to reply to that. And the teacher also just walked in, silencing all the side conversations that the students were having.

"Good morning class," She greeted us. "Please get your history text books and turn to page 73,"

I turned to get my book from my mind. Unconsciously, I looked up to see Adrien looking at me. He was looking at me. His gaze trapped me. I couldn't really move. My blue eyes locked with his green ones.

Green eyes. Someone else had green eyes just like his. Why can't I remember who?

I swallowed a little and ducked my head. I got my History book and opened page 73. I felt something poke my arm.

I turned to Adrien.

"Can we share? I don't have my History book with me," Adrien said. On the outside, I nodded my head and pushed my book to the middle so that we could both see.

Our bags fell to the ground but it wasn't loud enough to make the teacher stop teaching. She was rambling on and on about the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette and King Louis the 16th.

Some of Adrien's books were spilled onto the ground. I helped him pick them up and I made sure that Tikki wasn't hurt.

She flew into his bag when the bags fell and I made signs for her to go back to my bag. She did and I made sure to zip it. I put my bag to my left and Adrien put his to his right. Then we moved towards the book in the middle.

The fact that our thighs were touching disturbed me for the rest of the lesson. But I tried to listen to our teacher without thinking about that.

"The French Revolution is a very interesting topic and personally my favourite. I cannot explain to you everything - instead, we shall watch a video on it. Then tomorrow, to see if you were paying attention, we are having a test," Our teacher said, connecting her laptop to the projecter.

The class replied with groans. History was an okay subject to me. I did fairly well in it so I didn't groan or complain.

I felt tapping on my shoulder. I turned to see Alya waving at me. "Study at my place?"

I nodded. "Definitely,"

Alya did better than me in History, so I could ask her for help in some areas.

"How about my place, instead?" Adrien entered the conversation. "Nino, you in?"

"Is that a question, dude?" Nino raised his eyebrow. "Yeah, I'm coming,"

"Whoa, who invited you two?" Alya raised an eyebrow to both Adrien and Nino. "I asked Marinette,"

"It's just studying Alya. Or are you going to do more than that?" Adrien challenged her by raising eyebrows.

"Is it some girls night? I don't mind crashing. Do you, Adrien?" Nino turned to Adrien with a cheeky grin.

"I don't mind," Adrien returned Nino's cheeky grin with a smirk.

"Guys. Alya and I want to be alone. You guys can study at Adrien's," I folded my arms.

"Don't be like that, Mari," He poked my cheek. Then he started speaking Mandarin. "Don't you want to spend time with me?" He winked, before pouting.

"Stop being ridiculous," I rolled my eyes. I also changed to Mandarin. "I am studying with Alya. You and Nino can study without us,"

"Okay. What the heck are you two saying? I know that I heard my name somewhere but what are you saying?" Nino asked.

"They are speaking the language of love, Nino," Alya sent a wink to me. I gasped, before frowning.

"More like the language of stupid," We all turned to see Chloé had joined the conversation. "Marinette has taught Adrien her stupid ways and she's influencing him,"

Adrien turned to her with a glare. "Why you-" He said a string of profanitites in Mandarin. I gasped because I understood everything.

"Adrien! You have such a potty mouth!" I reverted back to French.

"It's the same one that kissed you," He replied in Mandarin, winking at me.

My cheeks began to heat up.

"What the heck is Adrien saying?" Alya asked.

"And why is Marinette blushing?" Nino added.

"He probably insulted her," Chloé picked on her nails.

"Stupid," I cursed at her in Mandarin. "He winked at me. How do you wink at someone when you've insulted them?"

"And you say that I have a potty mouth, Mari. Look who's talking. Those words should be censored," Adrien pretended to gasp at me. He was speaking in French.

"Oh shut up, Adrien. It takes one potty mouth to know another potty mouth," I smirked at him, before turning to the video that the teacher just started playing.

I said that in French.

The video began to play and Sabrina closed the curtains. All the side conversations, once again, were seized.

After about 10 minutes, the teacher's phone began to ring and she respectively got out of class to answer it.

I kept my eyes on the screen, trying to watch the video. We were watching the French Revolution unfold. I personally didn't know that Marie Antoinette and Louis the 16th had trouble getting a child.

Marie Antoinette was not able to give birth and they would often be ridiculed. It's a shame, really. Who would take over after they died?

I believe they had a son, but he died because of something which ran in the family. That's what I think I read.

"Hey," I jumped out of my seat when I heard Adrien's voice. I must have been so intrigued by the video to pay attention to my surroundings. "Are you going for the prom?"

"Prom?" I echoed, frowning at Adrien. I've never heard of such a thing in my life.

"Yeah. Didn't you hear about it?" Adrien lowered his head to me, for reasons that I honestly did not know.

It's probably because he doesn't want everyone to hear our conversation, genius.

News flash: We are having a test tomorrow on the video that everyone is watching so that they can, you know, pass. If Adrien talks loudly, he would irritate them.

Thanks subconscious. Always tell it is, eh? Not afraid to slap in some sarcasm, too.

"No," I shook my head. "When is it?"

"At the end of this month?" Adrien answered. I couldn't help but notice how he lowered his eyelashes in a way that made me wonder how some people are just too attractive. They should be quarantined so that other people, okay let me be specific, so that I didn't have to feel insecure about my looks.

"Oh," I replied, forcing myself to look away from Adrien. "I don't think that I would be going,"

"Oh, Mari," I felt his finger poke into my cheeks. "Why not?"

"Stop poking my cheek," I removed his finger away from my cheek. "If you keep doing that, you're going to make me have dimples,"

"Well, I like doing it because I like how the blood rushes to your cheeks whenever I do so," Adrien had the audacity to poke my cheek again.

Before I could mentally rip his throat out, something burst through the walls. I nearly fell off the seat if it wasn't for my bag. I would have gotten hurt if Adrien used his back as a shield for me.

A young man walked through the walls. He was in an grey, oversized shirt which didn't fit him well. It was too small. His black, gym short were a bit big on him, ironically, and he had to keep pulling them up otherwise, we could see his butt crack.

He wore a red headband and had some red headphones hang around his neck. He also wore matching wrist sweatbands.

"Who do you think you are to burst in here?!" Chloé yelled.

"I am The Equalizer," He replied with a booming voice which sent chills down my spine. "I make things equal, for everyone,"

He stretched out his hands and hurled a bright blue ball towards Chloé. A white light blinded my view and when I saw Chloé, I found myself gasping, with the rest of our class.

She had wrinkly skin, she was very chubby and very unfit. She had lost her slim body and gained a lot of weight.

"What have you done?" She asked him. Sabrina trembled as she handed Chloé her mirror. Chloé took one good look at herself, looked like she had seen a ghost and dropped the mirror.

The mirror shattering was nothing compared to Chloé's long and well, shattering scream. I don't know how she could hold a scream for that long and how her scream managed to make my eardrums ring.

The Equilizer on the other hand, lost a couple of pounds, had less wrinkles and their youth and beauty was returning back to them.

I knew that it was time to transform the second that The Equilizer began to transform more people. I made sure to hide under the teacher's desk before transforming into Miraculous Ladybug.

"Marinette, there's something that I need to tell you," Tikki said in an alerted voice.

"Can you tell me later? We need Ladybug here right now," I peeked out at the poor victims who ended up like Chloé. "Tikki, transform me!"

In a matter of seconds, I had transformed into Ladybug - and just in time, too.

"Adrien Agreste," The Equilizer licked his dry, chapped lips. It was as if he was testing Adrien's name for the first time. "A beautiful model. Perfect looks. Perfect body. It's such a shame that I'm taking all that from you,"

He shot something at Adrien and my instincts to protect Adrien kicked in. I did a somersault before standing in front of Adrien. I swung my yo-yo as hard as I could to deflect the shot.

It bounced the wall and hit The Equilizer. I gave Adrien a side glance, not letting my guard down. "You have to leave. As you can see, it's not safe here,"

Adrien gaped at me. He opened his mouth but quickly shut it, pressing his lips to a line. He nodded his head, comprehendingly before he bolted out of the door.

"Ladybug," The Equilizer snarled. "You just got rid of my model. I guess you will have to do,"

"Sorry. I don't think so," I swung my yo-yo around before charging straight for him. Bad idea. He began to throw a couple of shots at me.

Luckily, I was able to dodge them and I began to run on the wall. As I was running on the wall, I realised that I needed to get The Equilizer out of the building so that no one else can become his next victim.

"C'mon. Is that all you got?" I teased. Villains really hate superheroes taunting them, especially since most of Hawk Moth's villains have an ego the size of Canada.

Why didn't I say Russia? Because Chat Noir has the ego the size of Russia. No one can beat him, honestly. So they settle for second best - and as far as I know, Canada is the second largest country in the world.

Speaking of Chat Noir, I hope he shows up soon because I can't defeat a bad guy without him.

I stopped running on the wall and went to the large hole in the wall that the Equilizer created when he barged in.

Taking a deep breath, I ran as fast as I could and leaped out of it. I landed with my left knee to the ground. You know. That position when someone is proposing to a person. My hands were on the ground.

I stood up as soon as I felt the ground tremble. I knew that The Equalizer was hot on my trail. I needed to steer him away, but I didn't know where.

The street had no trace of human life forms which was good. The cars were parked along in a line. The Equilizer grabbed one and launched it at me. I narrowly escaped it.

I began to run on the walls again, panting very heavily. Somehow, the Equilizer outsmarted me. The walls of the building was curved because of the road. So immediately I got down, I landed in his hand.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked as he held me in his hand tightly and began walking.

"I was made fun of. I wanted to be a fashion designer. My parents told me that that was a woman's job and that I didn't have the potential to do such a profession. So right now, I work as a guard," He started and I wondered how this had reference to anything that was happening.

"And I'm a bit overweight. My colleagues always made fun of me. It started getting into my head. I began to bald because of that. Everywhere I went, I was made fun of by everyone. Kids, adults, even the stupid pigeons who decide to poop on my head," He finished bitterly.

"So you are turning them into what you were made fun about," I put two and two together.

"Exactly," He began to climb the Eiffel Tower. If I count how many times the Eiffel Tower has been used by villains, the place was not be a tourist attraction anymore.

I gulped nervously. "What are you going to do with me?" I tried to squirm out of his grip.

"Making sure you don't get in my way," He was able to climb the top and he kept me upside down before tying me.

After he tied a good knot, he jumped down and went to terrorize others.

"Where is that cat?!" I mumbled angrily to myself. My hand tried to reach for my yo-yo. It got a fraction closer and closer. Just as I was about to dial Chat Noir, a voice stopped me.

"Do I hear a damsel in distress?" The familiar, very cocky voice asked. "Don't worry, I have heard your cries and I am here to save you,"

"Stupid cat. Fairytales was yesterday. Today we are dealing with teased people," I glared at Chat Noir. Well, I was glaring at his stomach.

"Hello, too, princess," He walked towards me and used his claws to rip the rope into shreds. "Did you miss me?"

"I saw you last night," I landed on the ground with a thud. Luckily, I had shielded my head with my hands. Accepting Chat Noir's hand, I stood up and brushed the dirt off me. I pocketed the rope that I was tied up with. It might come in handy at some point.