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Marinette was going about her normal day at school when the akuma attack happened. It wasn’t anything unusual; she’d been on her lunch break along with the rest of her friends, planning out yet another way for her to ask Adrien out. But of course, the akuma alert just had to ring just as they were finally starting to agree on a plan.
Everyone dispersed in different directions. The screams sounded close, meaning the akuma was nearby. Alya had immediately run out, Nino hot on her heels, and Chloé transformed right in the lunchroom. Meanwhile, Marinette ran in the opposite direction, looking for an empty classroom to transform. She sprinted out of the lunchroom to see the akuma wreaking havoc in the courtyard. Chat Noir was already at the scene.
“Well, well, who do we have here?” Chat asked, twirling his baton as he walked in the akuma’s direction.
“Chat Noir,” the akuma victim growled. “I’m gonna turn you back into a kitten!”
“Sorry, I’m not quite sure I follow,” Chat said. He jumped nimbly to the side as the akuma aimed several blows at him. “In case you haven’t already noticed, I’m quite the mewtiful kitty as it is.”
Marinette suddenly felt one of her friends grabbing her from behind.
“Come on, Marinette!” Rose said, eyes wide. “We have to hide!”
“Yeah, I’ll go hide in that classroom,” she said, breaking free of Rose’s grasp and running towards the classroom. She had to transform!
“Parents only appreciate you when you’re younger!” the akuma hissed. Marinette could now distinctly make her out as a young girl who was probably not even ten years old. “All my parents care about is my baby sister!”
“Well, babies do need more attention than older kids do,” Chat said.
“You don’t understand! They don’t care about me anymore! I’m gonna turn everyone back into children! That’ll show them how annoying they are!”
The akuma aimed several more blows at Chat, but this time, Carapace showed up at the fight. He immediately jumped in front of Chat and held up his shield. Rena joined him, and Queen Bee wasn’t far behind.
Okay. So they’d be able to handle the situation just fine for now. Good. Marinette was nearly at the classroom now. Just a couple of more feet. She just had to avoid the akuma’s hits—
Unbeknownst to her, however, the akuma spotted her movement and began aiming blows in her direction. But they never hit her. Someone else instead jumped in front her, effectively deflecting the shot.
Marinette slid into the classroom and slid the door shut. She sighed in relief, turning around, ready to transform—
The classroom wasn’t empty. Great.
“Oh, sorry!” she yelped, quickly turning away before Kim and Max could question her. “I’ll just leave now.”
“Mari, wait!” Kim said. “You can’t leave, there’s an akuma out there!”
“Well I um, I have to go to the bathroom!” she blurted out. She slid out of the classroom, cursing under her breath. She’d have to find another place to transform. She frantically looked around. But where?
There. She spotted another classroom a couple of meters away. A quick glance through the windows told her that no one was inside. Marinette dashed in the direction of that classroom. Unfortunately, she didn’t make it there in time.
“Marinette!” Rena Rouge gasped, suddenly landing in front of her. “I need your help with something.”
Marinette glanced anxiously at the empty classroom just several feet in front of her. “Uh, Rena, I’d love to help you, but I—”
“Here!” Rena thrust something—no, someone —into her arms. “He got hit by the akuma and there’s no one else I can trust to watch him sorry gotta go bye!”
“Wait!” she called, but it was too late. Rena was already launching herself back into the fight with Carapace and Queen Bee at her side. Chat Noir was nowhere in sight, which meant. . . .
Marinette looked down and saw wide, cat-like green eyes blinking back at her.
Oh, no.
“Hi Marinette!” Chat chirped excitedly, throwing his arms around her neck. “I’m so happy to see you!”
Except this wasn’t really Chat Noir. More like Kitten Noir, actually. His suit remained the same, and his hair was as messy as ever, but there were several key differences. This was a much younger, not even four feet tall version of him. And that wasn’t all. Not only did Chat’s body seem to have changed into one of a five year old, but his mind and personality as well. After all, the actual Chat had never been this chipper.
“Chat,” she said dazedly. “It’s great to see you too.”
Actually no, it was not. Marinette had more important things to do than babysit! She needed to transform and defeat the akuma as soon as possible so she could go back to figuring out a way to ask out Adrien.
“Rena wouldn’t let me fight,” Chat whined. “Can you believe it? Me! She wouldn’t let me fight! I’m pawsome ! Of course I can fight!”
“I’m sure you can,” Marinette said. She placed him on the ground. This way, he only came up to her stomach.
“I know! You should go tell Rena that.” He pouted.
“I’m sure Rena has a good reason for not letting you fight,” she pointed out. “You’d probably rush into battle without thinking.”
Chat frowned and tapped a finger against his chin as if he was thinking. “That’s true. And I won’t be able to protect Ladybug if I rush into battle, right?”
She stifled a laugh. “I don’t think you’ll be able to protect Ladybug as a child anyways.”
“Of course I will!” he huffed in indignation and crossed his arms across his chest. “It’s not my fault Rena doesn’t trust me.”
“Sure,” she muttered. “Anyways, I gotta go to the bathroom, but stay right here, okay? I’ll be right back—”
“Wait, Mari, you can’t leave!” Chat tugged on the hem of her jacket. “Rena promised that you’d spend time with me!”
“She what? ”
I’m gonna kill Rena.
“Yeah!” Chat exclaimed, looking up at her with kitten eyes. “Please? If you leave, there’ll be no one else that’ll wanna spend time with me!”
“Well I’m kinda busy now actually, but maybe. . . .” she trailed off.
Instantly his face fell. “Oh, was Rena lying? Do you not want to spend time with me?”
“No!” she said hastily, but he didn’t seem to hear her.
“I’m sorry for bothering you, then,” he said, downcast. His tail—heck, even his ears!—drooped.
“I—I really do have to go, but um—” Marinette sighed, biting her lip. “Fine. Just for a little while, though.”
Marinette vowed to get revenge on Rena the next time she could.
Chat lit up with joy. “Yay!” he exclaimed. “Where are we going first?”
Marinette glanced above them. The akumatized wasn’t in the courtyard anymore. She couldn’t see her, but from the screams that were coming from outside the school, she could guess that it was currently near the Place des Vosges.
At that moment, she made up a quick plan in her head: avoid the akuma, get out of the school, head to her parent’s bakery, drop Chat off there, give him some sweets, and then figure out a way to transform without him noticing.
“How about we go to my parent’s bakery?” she asked. “Do you like pastries?”
Chat grinned. “I love pastries! Especially croissants. Does your parent’s bakery have croissants? Oh, or pain au chocolat ! That’s one of my favorites. Or—”
She grabbed his hand and started pulling him out of the school. “Yeah, there are plenty of croissants there. I’m sure you’ll love them.”
“Great!” Chat was practically skipping. “Father usually doesn’t let me have pastries. He’s very strict about it. Maman sometimes lets me have one or two, but only on special occasions, but then. . . .” he continued blabbering as they walked over to the bakery.
Gosh, had Chat really been this talkative when he was a kid? Or was it just the akuma’s magic?
“Hey, Marinette?” Chat suddenly asked.
She looked down at the mention of her name. “Yeah?”
“What’s your favorite pastry?”
“Oh, um, I don’t know? I like them all.”
“Come on, you have to have a favorite!”
Marinette shrugged. “Does anyone ever tell you that you talk too much?” she asked wryly.
All at once, Chat suddenly seemed crestfallen. “Father says that,” he said. “He says that I talk too much for my own good sometimes. He says that I’ll drive people away if I keep talking.”
“No, it’s okay,” she said, reassuring him. “I kind of like it.”
And truthfully, she did. While her partner did flirt with her far too often for her to actually take him seriously, it was nice to see the playful side of him in a different perspective.
He smiled. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Well, in that case. . . .” Chat continued to babble on about whatever came to mind, and this time, Marinette actually listened instead of zoning out. It was actually really cute to witness this side of him. She mentally made a note to herself that the next time she saw Chat as her civilian self, she’d remind him of this encounter. It would be nice to smile about this in the future.
“Oh look, we’re here.” She threw open the door of the bakery and walked in, Chat trailing behind her.
“Sorry, we’re closed because of the akuma,” Tom said from where he was clearing the register.
Chat gasped. “But Marinette ,” he whined, “you said I’d get croissants!”
“Marinette?” Tom looked up to see his daughter standing hand-in-hand with one of Paris’ superheroes. Said superhero was currently about half Marinette’s height, looking at him as if he’d shattered his whole world. Tom Dupain gaped in shock at the sight in front of him.
“He got hit by the akuma!” she said before he got any ideas. “And he wants pastries.”
“Oh,” he said. “But I thought—”
“Papa,” Marinette said, shoving Chat in front of her, “he wants a croissant.”
“And a pain au chocolat !” Chat piped up. “Please.”
“Okay,” Tom said in bewilderment. “Do you have money for that, kiddo?”
Chat’s eyes widened. He shook his head.
“Papa!” Marinette hissed. She patted Chat’s head comfortingly. “The pastries are on the house. ” The glare she shot her father clearly said, stop being petty!
“But—”
“ Papa. ”
Tom sighed. “Fine.”
“And now I really need to go to the bathroom,” she said, “so, Papa, could you please watch him for a while?”
Tom had absolutely no intention of babysitting the superhero that had broken his daughter’s heart. But with the way Marinette was glaring at him, it was clear he didn’t have a choice.
Once again, Tom sighed. “Come here, son,” he said to Chat, “you can pick out your pastries.”
Chat grinned and walked over to where Tom was beckoning him.
“Be nice,” Marinette said. She sighed in relief, and making sure Chat wasn’t paying attention, she made her way upstairs. She did feel a little guilty, but there was a reason she was a superhero. She needed to go fight the akuma. Finally, she could go transform!
Oh yeah, and she needed to have that talk with Rena about giving out child superheroes to random civilians. That wasn’t cool.
Meanwhile, Chat picked out his pastries down in the bakery and sat down at a table to eat them. He grinned.
“These are great, Mr. Dupain!” he said. “I love them!”
For the first time since Chat had walked into the bakery, Tom smiled. “I’m glad you like them.”
“Wait, where’s Marinette?” Chat asked as he munched on a croissant.
“She went to the bathroom upstairs,” Tom said.
“Oh.” Chat frowned. “Can I go and get her?”
“She’ll come back on her own—” Tom broke off when Chat turned to him and gave him the kitten eyes.
“Please? I promise I won’t leave any crumbs.” He shoved the rest of the croissant in his mouth and looked up at him pleadingly.
If there was one weakness both father and daughter had, it was that neither of them could ever turn down the kitten eyes.
“Don’t take too long,” Tom said.
Chat beamed. “I won’t!” he said. He leaped off the chair he was sitting on and made his way upstairs, following Marinette.
It didn’t take long for him to find her. She was in her living room, simply standing there. Chat was about to call out for her when—
“Tikki, spots on!” Immediately a wave of light washed over her.
“Are you kitten me?” Chat gasped. “Marinette, you’re Ladybug?”
Ladybug whipped around to see Chat Noir standing at the door, mouth wide open. She gaped at him.
“Chat! I thought you were downstairs!”
“Marinette!” he said excitedly, “ you’re Ladybug!”
“I—” Ladybug groaned. “Gosh, I really am gonna kill Rena,” she muttered.
Chat cocked his head. “Why?”
“No reason.” Ladybug sighed. “Well then, Chat, I don’t suppose you wanna go fight now?”
He grinned. “Really?”
“Really,” she said, holding her arms out. “I’ll even carry you there.”
“Yay!” and with that, Chat jumped into her arms.
She took back everything she’d said. Ladybug just prayed that once the cure finally washed over, they could erase Chat’s memory of this entire incident.
(Spoiler alert: it didn’t.)