The Mystery of Loup Gris (A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfic)

Chapter One

TEN MONTHS EARLIER - PARIS, FRANCE

"Miraculous Ladybug!"
A great whorl of pink beams burst from Ladybug's Lucky Charm, whipping across the streets of Paris in a flurry of light as they mended the aftermath of the latest akuma attack.
When the beams returned, spiralling back into Ladybug's yo-yo, a black mass behind them split apart, a redhead woman emerging on all fours with a perplexed look on her face. The last thing she remembered was being harassed by some developers outside her greenhouse and a smooth, but dark voice speaking into her mind. Now here she was below the Arc de Triomphe, watching as gargantuan vines disappeared from the roads.
"Wha-?" she stammered. "What...happened?"
Within moments, whole crowds of people were gathering around them, applauding Ladybug and Cat Noir's newest victory in a great, euphoric wave.
Despite the work she had done today, Ladybug couldn't help but feel a little shy, rubbing the back of her neck as Cat Noir laughed and waved back at their admirers. After soaking up the attention for a few moments, the feline held his fist out towards his partner, smiling as he and Ladybug exchanged a fist-bump.
"Pound it!"
And like clockwork, Officer Roger Raincomprix emerged from the crowd, smiling as he fiddled with his navy police cap.
"Good job, Ladybug and Cat Noir!" he grinned. "We've can take it from here!"
Ladybug acquiesced with a nod and following Cat Noir's lead, leapt over the greenhouse's fence and across to the next building. But as soon as they were out of sight, Cat Noir suddenly grabbed her hand.
"Milady! A moment, please?"
Ladybug stopped as her partner called out to her, raising a single, bluebell eyebrow.
"Cat? What's wrong?"
"Um..." Cat Noir felt himself taken aback for a moment, his words caught in his throat as he stared into Ladybug's sapphire eyes. "I...uh..."
But he willed himself back to sanity, clearing his throat and taking Ladybug's other hand and holding it to his face.
"Milady," he began. "I know that you're busy and all...but in a few days..."
Ladybug angled her head. "Hmm?"
"Uhhhh," Cat stammered. "Well, I know you probably know this already...but it's alright if you don't, but I..uh...just thought you should know...just in case! There's an important day coming up, um and was wondering if you would..."
Important Day? Ladybug suddenly felt anxious, like she had forgotten something very important.
"Is it...your birthday?"
Cat Noir shook his head, forgetting his nerves and laughing as he squeezed Ladybug's hands tighter.
"No," he chuckled. "No, it's not my birthday, it's about us!"
Us. The word sent a short buzz of electricity through Ladybug's body. As Cat Noir leaned closer, she felt even more unsettled, watching as her blue-haired reflection in his emerald eyes.
"Don't you know?" Cat asked inquisitively. "It's been a y-!"
Deet! Deet! Deet!
Ladybug gasped as her earrings started beeping, shocking her awake from her trance.
Saved by the bell.
"Sorry, Cat Noir!" she apologized, slipping her hands out of his. "Gotta go! Bug Out!"
Ladybug drew her yo-yo and turned to leave, but stopped momentarily and turned around, patting Cat Noir's cheek with a nervous smile.
"Maybe next time, Kitty."
And without another word, she threw her yo-yo over the adjacent building and leapt off into the horizon, Cat Noir sighing disappointedly as he watched her disappear.
"It's been a year since we became heroes..."

Ladybug zipped over the Parisian rooftops, her thoughts buzzing in time with the busy street-life below.
It had been almost two months since their duel with Hawk Moth on Heroes Day, two months since the Miraculous Wielders of Paris had come together to face their greatest battle yet.
And though they had won, the battle had taken the heroes completely by surprise. Without either Ladybug, Cat Noir or Master Fu knowing, Hawk Moth had not only managed to launch a co-ordinated attack on Paris but had also unlocked more of his potential.
Ladybug had tossed the same thoughts over and over in her mind for weeks. Yes, the heroes had won the battle, but barely. Practically a fluke. They might have won the fight, but Hawk Moth had escaped, with new knowledge of his Miraculous - slipping through their fingers once again.
Ladybug stopped flying across the streets, landing on a rooftop to catch her breath and gather her bearings, the roof of Francoise-Dupont gleaming in the distance of the yellow morning sun.
But even worse, Hawk Moth had a new ally - the Peacock. Yet another new power on Hawk Moth's side. Ladybug had tossed the same thoughts over and over in her mind these last few weeks and had come to the same conclusion; that they hadn't won at all. The victory had been hollow.
The heroine's hand curled into a fist at her side, gritting her teeth until she felt like they would crack.
She had to get stronger. Both her and Cat Noir. Ladybug had consulted Master Fu about this after Heroes Day, but the monk had yielded no answers.
The heroine retracted her yo-yo cord as she came within view of the Francoise-Dupont. As she landed, Ladybug took a deep breath, her lapis eyes darting back and forth to make sure no-one had witnessed her arrival.
A weight released itself from her chest when she saw the coast was clear, front-flipping off the roof and into the school's atrium, diving into the locker room just as her Miraculous timed out. Streams of white and hot-pink light washed over her, a light breeze tousling her blue pigtails as 'Ladybug' turned into Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
A pink sprite hovered by Marinette's side, a mischievous glint in it's chibi eyes.
"Tikki?" Marinette asked. "Why're you looking at me like that?"
Tikki's sly smile grew, the kwami moving closer to Marinette's ear.
"Maybe next time, Kitty..." she cooed.
Those words sent a hot flush through Marinette's body, her cheeks turning bright pink as Tikki snickered to herself.
"W-W-Wha-What?!" Marinette stammered, her eyes wide as saucers. "Tikki?!"
"Since when have you been so friendly with Cat Noir, Marinette?" the kwami giggled, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. "Does Adrien have some competition~?"
Marinette gasped, her hands clapped against her cheeks as Tikki's laughter subsided. Millions of thoughts were racing through her mind like television static, overlapping and growing louder as Marinette tried to make sense of them.
Noticing her master's worry, Tikki put a hand on Marinette's cheek.
"Relax, Marinette..." she beamed. "I was just teasing!"
The chaos in Marinette's mind finally settled down, allowing her to form coherent thoughts.
The girl knew she'd be lying if she said that Cat Noir hadn't grown on her - puns, flirts and all. There had always been a bond between them, right from the moment that they had first met - a union that had only strengthened with every battle they fought together.
"Marinette?" Tikki asked, her pint-sized head angling with confusion.
But, in the end, their being together would only bring uncertainty - hurt even. They were two different people, masks or not and even if she could somehow bring herself to reveal her identity, would Cat still want her? Would he accept all of her? Or was he only interested in Ladybug?
The lie. The fake me.
Marinette sighed, opening her locker and fishing around for her books.
...And that wasn't even counting the biggest hurdle - Adrien. Marinette knew (from no lack of trying) that she could never forget her first love and that even if that love remained unrequited, dating another would feel like an irreparable betrayal, like she'd be breaking Adrien's heart without even having a place within it in the first place.
"I dunno, Tikki..." she sighed. "I don't wanna think about it...Not with everything going on..."
Marinette could practically hear Tikki hanging her head, the disappointment curdling in her tiny form.
"I just..." she sighed without finishing her sentence, gathering the last of her books and closing the locker.
-Until something hooked around her lower right ankle.
"Wagh!" Marinette cried out. Without noticing, someone had managed to sneak past the bluenette and trip her to the ground in a blur of sunlight, red walls and falling books, a guffawing laughter echoing above her.
Marinette removed one of the fallen books that landed on her head, the smug faces of Chloe Bourgeois and Sabrina Raincomprix towering above her.
"Clumsy trash!" Chloe remarked. "Maybe if you'd spent less time talking to yourself and more time listening to moi, I might actually be able to look at you without wanting to barf."
Marinette sneered at the terrible twosome as they left for the classroom, their cackling laughter echoing after them.
Right. How could she forget? Marinette was already at her wit's end balancing her superhero and school lives, so where would she find the time for dating? With her luck, there'd probably be an akuma attack every time she was asked out...
The girl let out a defeated groan, reaching for her scattered books with a forlorn expression.
But just then, a footfall resounded from the locker room door, becoming louder and louder as they neared Marinette.
"Ugh, go away Chloe..." Marinette spat. "Shouldn't you be on your way to class or some...thing..."
The bluenette turned to face 'Chloe' as she finished gathering her books, a pair of snow-white Doc Marten boots before her eyes.
An embarrassed blush formed on Marinette's face. Those weren't Chloe's shoes....
And then she finally looked up, a boy's face staring back.
The blush on Marinette's cheeks brightened as she looked upon him. The boy was a head taller than her, with auburn, fade-cut hair and skin so fair that it bordered a pallor. His clothes seemed just as unworldly, his lean form wrapped in a loose, sable-black drawstring shirt and ragged, white cargo pants that dangled just partway down his shins.
Was he some kind of traveller? A gypsy?
"-e do this often?"
Reality struck Marinette like a freight train as the boy spoke. His voice was low, but had a soft refinement to it.
"What?" Marinette asked, hoping he didn't notice her daydreaming.
"The blonde." he repeated, indicating in the direction Chloe had left. "Does she treat you like this often?"
Marinette felt shy all of a sudden, shaking her head as she put on her best fake smile.
"Huh? Chloe? Nah! I mean she does - but wait, she doesn't and u-um...there are others besides me! But y-you know...m-mostly me and-"
"Grow a spine."
Marinette froze, the boy's words cutting through her like a sharp blade. "H-Huh..?"
"I said 'grow a spine'." the boy spat, his eyes narrowed. "If you don't quit stammering like an idiot and learn to stand up for yourself, people will just keep making fun of you."
He straightened his leather shoulder bag, not even bothering to help Marinette off the ground.
"...That's the way the world works."
And he left without another word.
A wave of insecurity started to rise within Marinette as she watched the boy leave, groaning in defeat once more. Oh man, she barely even met a new person and he already thought she was a total dork. The bluenette knew she had her flaws but did that guy have to be so mean about it?
She sighed and hung her head, picking up the rest of her books.
But her self-reflection was interrupted by the sound of another foot-fall, a caramel skinned girl with large glasses appearing in the doorway.
Marinette's eyes lit up. "Alya!"
Alya's glassed face wrinkled with disapproval. "Marinette, what are you doing on the floor? Don't tell me you fell over again."
"No," Marinette grumbled as Alya helped her up. "It was Chloe. And then after she tripped me over, some boy started being mean to me..."
Alya folded her arms as Marinette dusted off the sides of her pants. "What boy? Was it Adrien?"
She gasped as she put a supportive hand on Marinette's shoulder, a sinister glint in her eyes.
"Girl, you tell me that Adrien was being mean to you and I'll have him dangling from the Eiffel Tower before you can say 'Ladybug'!"
Marinette looked at her friend with silent shock, clamping her hands over Alya's mouth as if in fear of someone hearing them.
"No way!" she exclaimed. "Adrien would never do something like that! He's too perfect!"
She stepped back as Alya rolled her eyes.
"Besides, this guy looked nothing like Adrien! He was taller and with darker clothes and brown hair with some kind of silver streak in it! Or was it white? I can't remember..."
Alya seemed just as puzzled as Marinette was.
"Hmm," she pondered, cycling through some photos on her phone. "Doesn't ring a bell. But you said he had a streak in his hair? Sure it wasn't Luka?"
The mere mention of Luka's name brought a hot flush to Marinette's face. "No...b-but, Luka wouldn't be so mean either!"
Alya rolled her eyes again as she tucked her phone away and started toward the stairs to class. "So what did this guy say to you anyway? What was it that upset you so much?"
Marinette followed her friend up the stairs, sighing with every step.
"He told me to 'grow a spine'. That I needed to stop being such an idiot and stand up for myself."
Alya glanced away coyly. "Well..."
Marinette gasped, a look of mock betrayal on her face. "ALYA! Not you too?!" The bluenette whined like a wounded dog and clung to Alya's arm.
"Mari," Alya sighed, patting Marinette's head. "You aren't weak at all. And you're definitely not an idiot. You're kind, sweet, sensitive and so, so talented."
Marinette could feel a 'but' coming from a mile away.
"...But you shouldn't let Chloe get to you. You need to be brave - to stick up for yourself!"
Her words made Marinette hang her head again. "I know, I know. But that's exactly what the guy said."
Alya laughed as they reached the homeroom class door. "Heh, maybe next time you see this guy, you should thank him."
"Ugh!" Marinette shuddered. "No way!"
The two of them finally reached the classroom, Marinette turning the brass doorknob with a delicate hand. "I don't think I ever want to see that guy ag-"
"Marinette and Alya!"
The girls froze as a voice beckoned them from the front of the room, a merigold-haired woman watching them with her hands on her hips. "Homeroom started over three minutes ago, where have you been?"
The two girls felt the eyes of the entire classroom upon them, Marinette smiling nervously and Alya shirking back towards the door.
"Sorry, Miss Bustier." Marinette quickly apologized, bowing her bluebell head. "I fell over and hurt myself in the locker room. Alya stayed behind to help me with my books..."
The stern look on Miss Bustier's face relaxed, her understanding smile returning, albeit with a weary sigh.
"I do hope you're alright, Marinette." the woman said. "But please be aware that it's your duty as Class Representative to set a good example."
She shuffled the papers in her hands together, tapping them against her desk.
"...And to welcome new students to the school."
Alya's eyebrows raised. "A new student? Who?"
"The one trying to get into the classroom."
Marinette and Alya shrieked as they felt a presence behind them, one that seemed to appear out of nowhere. As they jumped aside, their hearts pounding like fists in their chests, an aloof looking boy sauntered past them - stopping just before Miss Bustier's desk.
Marinette's eyes bulged when she realized who it was, his odd clothes and cold attitude setting off alarm bells in her head.
"Agh!" she exclaimed as she pointed at him accusedly. "It's you! The guy from before!"
The boy folded his arms coolly. "You were expecting Jagged Stone, perhaps?"
His reply made Marinette grit her teeth. She tried to come up with a witty retort, but she was cut off by an exasperated sigh.
"Girls," Miss Bustier groaned. "Please sit down..."
Alya nodded in agreement and took Marinette by the hand, dragging her towards their desk. As they took their seats, Miss Bustier's frown relaxed, her cheerful demeanour returning as she faced the brown-haired boy.
"My name is Alexander." the boy introduced himself. "Alexander Rollo. I just arrived in Paris last week and I'll be staying here for the next few months."
He rolled his neck and picked up his canvas bag at his feet, starting towards the chairs until Miss Bustier called him back.
"Um, Alexander! Don't you think that introduction was a little too brisk?"
Alexander stopped walking, his brow furrowed and jaw set.
"Why don't you take this opportunity to answer some questions from the class?"
Alexander opened his mouth to protest but over half of the class had already raised their hands.
"Excuse me!" Rose asked in a soft, mouse-like voice. "You said you moved here? Where are you from?"
"Not Paris." Alexander answered.
"Yo!" Nino called out. "What's your favourite kind of music? You into DJ raves?"
Once again, Alexander rolled his eyes. "No musicians you'd know and no, I'm not into 'raves'."
"What about sports?" Kim asked, his eyes wide with fascination. "Any exercises you like doing-"
"These questions are exercising my patience." Alexander groaned. "Does that count?"
And finally, Alya stood up, her fingers moving across her phone at a dizzying speed.
"New guy in Paris, huh? Got any juicy info on-"
"Perhaps I was being too subtle..."
Alexander stood up straighter and tucked his hands behind his back, watching the class as if he were a drill sergeant.
"I am not here to make friends, much less try to get along with anyone. While I am at this school, I will do what is expected of me but I will do it my way and with as minimal social interaction as possible."
One could almost feel the temperature drop as Alexander spoke, his piercing eyes narrowing.
"I do not even want to be here. I am here because I have to be. And I will not have this demeaning period of my life made worse by any clique crap or suck-ups trying to play nice."
He glanced at Miss Bustier, the woman shuddering as their eyes met.
"Understood, teacher?"
The coldness of his words steeped the classroom into a stillness, leaving even Miss Bustier at a loss for words.
"...Very well then." the teacher resigned, pushing back a loose strand of her hair. "Well for now, how about you sit up the back next to Nathaniel?"
The tomato-haired Nathaniel looked up from his sketchbook, an uneasy look on his face as he met Alexander's icy eyes.
"...Alright." Alexander sighed. Ignoring Nathaniel's anxious expression, Alexander slung his knapsack over his shoulder and marched up the aisle between the desks. As he strode past, Marinette felt Alexander's steely gaze upon her, an iciness that compelled her to avert her eyes elsewhere. Her bluebell eyes darted across every chair, dewy window pane and oblivious person in the room, but they eventually found their way back to Alexander again, drawn in by the bracelet on his right wrist.
It wasn't a particularly flamboyant piece of jewellery, a simple silver band with a thin white cord wound around the middle, but there was something eerily familiar about it-
A sharp pain shot through Marinette's skull, causing her to jolt in her chair and wince and clamp her hands to her head. Her reaction went mostly unnoticed by the class, except for Alya, who glanced at her friend worriedly.
Are you okay? The girl's eyes seemed to ask.
Marinette simply giggled awkwardly, feigning embarrassment as the last of the pain subsided. But as it ebbed away, a numbing sensation began to gnaw at her ears, just beneath her Miraculous earrings.
An icy hand squeezed Marinette's heart. Something wasn't right.
Normally, Marinette could feel some kind of warmth or tingle of energy from the earrings, even in their dormant state. But as her fingers caressed their metallic, domed surfaces, Marinette couldn't feel anything from them. No warmth, no buzz nor even a sliver of Tikki's power - just empty metal shapes pinned to her ears.
The cold feeling in her heart intensifying, Marinette took a deep breath and looked towards the back of the class, her breath hitching in her throat when her eyes fell upon Alexander.
He was staring at her.
Marinette felt her lungs and heart constrict as she locked eyes with the boy, caught on the receiving end of perhaps the most frightening sensation she had felt in her life.
Alexander's eyes were even darker than before, burning with a stalwart, black fire that seemed ready to set Marinette ablaze, if the constricting coldness didn't choke the life from her first.
The way he looked at her, the way that cold darkness seemed to sink into her soul, like the teeth of a vicious predator.
They locked eyes for a few short, but unbearable seconds before Alexander suddenly looked up, watching as Miss Bustier wrapped up the remainder of homeroom.
Marinette finally looked away as well, but the effect of Alexander's gaze lingered. She almost couldn't believe it; the sheer hatred and malice in his eyes. Was he the reason for the coldness she felt in her ears? Why the Miraculous felt so empty?
Oh, get a grip, Marinette!
he chided herself for thinking like that, for entertaining such a silly thought. How could a stare affect a Miraculous or a person like that? Alexander might have seemed like a cold person, but surely that's not all it would take?
And yet, the feeling in her heart persisted, the bluenette hugging her arms around herself.
Those eyes. They were almost like...an animal.
And after what seemed like an eternity in a frigid purgatory, the bell finally rang.

What the hell is up with Alexander?

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- Kai-Shiro :D