Numb (FINISHED!!)

Chapter Two

After everyone had settled into class, Kagami, having given her boyfriend a kiss on the lips and making the trip to her private school, class started. Today's class was a special one however, for everyone would be paired into groups of two. So the teacher quickly started listing off names, already knowing who would work best with who and who was more suited to be in a group together.
Rose and Juleka were paired, much like Max and Kim, or even Mylène and Ivan. Alya and Nino were paired, mostly due to an aggressive email from Adrien's father saying to never pair his son and the boy together for an out of school project, and Sabrina and Chloé worked together. Nathaniel and Lila were put together simply because if one was paired with Marinette then they'd never get their work done due to bickering or how unsocial the other two would be.
So that left only two more people. "And finally Adrien and Marinette will be paired. Your project is to design and create something that represents something you both love. You will have until the end of the week and will have to present it on Friday. Get to work." Ms. Bustier announces. A strange project for a literature teacher, but a soon-to-be graded project none the less. Gritting her teeth, Marinette got up and traded seats with Nino, the class all giving her worried glances to see what she would do. While she gave no visible signs of caring besides clenched fists her mind was a storm trying to drown a mighty ship.
"So what day should we-" "You do your part on the days of Monday through Wednesday. That'll give you plenty of time to do you part and give me more than enough time to do my share of the project." She interjects the blond with a steely voice, taking out a book full of designs of previous projects throughout the years. Adrien stares at the drawings in awe waiting as she clicks a pen and starts to scribble something on a blank page. Curious, much like a cat, Adrien leans in closer, too captivated to see all of the curious looks his friends and fellow classmates are giving him. "Could you move?"
It was Marinette's voice that broke him out of his trance, a sudden embarrassed flush tinting his cheeks as he moved away and apologized. Stealing glances at her, he watched as she wrote ideas down but then quickly scribbled them out. He could over hear some of Alya's and Nino's discussion of what they should do with their project. Soon coming up with an idea but hiding it behind hands and using hushed voices, Nino catching Adrien looking and winking at him with a grin.
Adrien gives him a smile as well but then glances at Marinette, almost as if to ask for help. Sighing, Alya taps Marinette's shoulder and asks, "Yo girl, what are you going to do your project about?" This only causes Marinette's eyebrows to furrow. "I don't know, I don't have any ide-" suddenly her entire face lit up as she looked at her purse. "I've got it!" The girl exclaimed rather loudly with a large smile and wide eyes as she quickly starts to sketch something.
The entire class looks at her, most everyone grinning at seeing a bit of the girl they once knew peaking behind the black veil that is the girl that has taken her place. "Ooh, what's got you excited? Spill it girl, come on!" Alya exclaims, more than ecstatic at seeing her friend's old personality shine through in these rare moments. Suddenly though her face falls as she realizes something, wiping something out of her eye with her sleeve she tears the page out of her book just as the bell rings.
"Never mind. Can't do that." She says quietly and throws the piece of paper into the waste bin, being the first to leave the classroom and head to the next. Everyone exchanged glances at each other, Adrien getting up and grabbing the crumpled up paper. Unraveling it with care, the entire class, including their teacher, looks over his shoulder and see a roughly drawn sketch of Paris's very own cat themed superhero.
"Why would she get so excited and then so sad over Chat Noir?" Mylène asks quietly. Adrien quickly wiped away the tear that was threatening to fall, for reasons he didn't understand, and quickly shoved the paper onto his bag where his kwami was hiding. "We should all get to class." He says and is the second person to walk out and head to chemistry class. Once inside he takes notice of the depressed girl seated in her usual seat, drawing something in the same book, so focused she doesn't even notice Adrien walk in. Looking over his shoulder and hoping to catch a glance at what the girl is drawing so intensely, he succeeds and sees her designing a jacket now.
Everyone thought that whenever Marinette became like, like this, she gave up designing. Adrien gives a small smile as he sees that he and his classmates were wrong about their old friend's talent. Her brows furrow as she jots down a few notes in the corner, which the curious Parisian boy tries to read. The only thing he can make out from the notes were that she was going to have to ask someone, particularly a male, to get their measurements. Suddenly a small, sad smile appears on her face as she carefully tears the page out and brings out something else, a leather book skeleton with ripped out pages simply crammed in between the hard covers, it's original pages no where to be found, with rubber bands helping keep the new loose sheets of paper trapped.
Marinette carefully removes the rubber bands and then opens the book, sadness filling her eyes as she adds the new page in with all of the others. As she closed and reapplied the rubber bands however, students starting to file into the room, a large crash could be heard from outside. Everyone's phone went off, no doubt it being a text from Alya conforming it was an akuma. Everyone looked up at their teacher hopefully, her giving a sigh in response and letting them leave the classroom to go home. "But remember to come back once it's over!" She yells out, clearly annoyed.
Marinette was the first out of the classroom, immediately disappearing once she was gone. Adrien was the next, quickly heading to an empty classroom and opening his over shirt. "Can't we just wait a few minutes? I wanna eat some Camembert," the small, black cat kwami complained. "No time Plagg! You can have cheese when we're done!" The model exclaimed, yelling out a quick "Transform me!" before jumping out the window as a Paris's favorite cat-themed superhero, Chat Noir. It didn't take long for him to spot his partner in justice, Ladybug.
"What seems to be the purrblum Ladybug?" Chat Noir has stopped calling her his lady since he, he as in his civilian counterpart, started dating Kagami. Ladybug was holding onto a lamp post, analyzing the situation. An akumatized citizen could be heard from the middle of the park. "I am Rose épineuse! Nobody cared about my beloved roses! Always stomping and destroying them! So now my roses will destroy you!" Chat Noir watched as Ladybug's keen eyes follow the movement of the villain.
She always seemed to be watching these days. "The akuma, it's in her trowel." Ladybug finally concluded before swinging her yo-yo and getting involved with the scene. That was another thing that had started. Ladybug didn't communicate with him as much anymore. She had told him many times that it was because she wanted to save everyone as quick as possible to save time, but the curious cat was starting to get a little ticked off about it. Ladybug was his friend!
Why was she always trying to shorten their time together? Sighing, the boy jumped, using his staff to propel him into the fray as well, saving a woman and her baby from being hit with prickly rose thorns. "Hurry and get to safety, well take care of this, don't worry." He told the frightened mother and child, the woman giving him a swift nod and then running away after a rushed thank you. "Ladybug! How're we supposed to get past her vines and thorns?" Chat Noir asked, looking over to Ladybug who already had a rather large cut on her side. "Ladybug! Your stoma-" "I know Chaton, trust me, I know," she grunted out but didn't go to touch the large wound. "Lucky Charm!" She yelled out, throwing her yo-yo in the air and having it become accompanied with a red based, black polka dotted shield. Looking around and nodding to herself she yelled, "Chat I'm going to distract her! When I do I want you to use your baton to knock the trowel out of her hand and destroy it!" Only nodding along to the order, he quickly sank back and out of the fray, hoping to be forgotten from the busy mind of the akuma.
It was exactly what the bug themed superhero needed, seeing as she became the prime target for the rose themed villain. Sending vines to wrap around the teenager while the thorns get lodged into her shield. "Ugh! That's it! I'm going to squash you little bug!" Rose épineuse yelled out in frustration before whipping a vine around Ladybug and knocking her shield to the ground, leaving the villain completely engrossed in what she was doing.
"Now Chat Noir!" The girl yelled out in pain, the vine was mercilessly causing her side to open up far more, making what was before a large cut into a gigantic wound, opening from a few inches away from her spine all the way to  her bellybutton. Chat Noir, noticing his friend in agonizing pain, quickly jumped back into the fight. Extending his baton as quickly as possible and managing to knock the small gardening utensil out of the villains hand, jumping as quickly as he could and calling out his cataclysm to destroy the source of power. The villain cried out in surprise before falling to the ground.
Before the two masked teenagers was a woman in her late sixties, sitting on the ground in confusion. "Wh-what happened?" She asks, clearly confused. Ladybug walks weakly over to the woman, helping her up before throwing the battered shield into the air, accompanied with the words, "Miraculous Ladybug!" Soon enough a familiar face arrives on the scene, paramedics rushing after her.
"Ladybug! Ladybug! Are you okay? We've never seen you get hurt during an akuma attack, how will you get home?" Alya questions and Ladybug gives her a weak smile. "I'll be fine! Really, it's just a scratch." She declares, wondering the exact same thing. The paramedics go to try and grab her and bring her to their ambulance before her earrings beep. "Well that's my signal to get out of here! Bye guys!" Ladybug quickly announces before disappearing quicker than you could reveal her identity.
"Ladybug wait! What about-" Chat goes to yell but quickly cuts himself off when he sees that she is no longer visible. Sighing he waves goodbye with a teasing smirk and leaves as well, heading back to school where he detransforms and doesn't see Marinette for the rest of the day.