Claw Noire stood at the balcony with Shadybug, his eyes darkening as he thought over her words.
"The Supreme entrusted us with a Miraculous, didn't he?"
Shadybug nodded.
"But we failed to get the Butterfly Miraculous and keep it."
"Didn't you just take it from Betterfly?"
Shadybug shot him a glower.
"Yeah, but it's not going to stay in my grasp for long, if I've learned anything."
"What if we....cataclysmed it? Then nobody gets it?"
Shadybug stared at him in shock.
"I'm not sure that would be a good idea...imagine how furious the Supreme would be, Claws," Shadybug replied slowly, but she was starting to think about his idea.
"Yes, but we still have that alternate dimension option," Claw mentioned. Shadybug shook her head.
"Where do you think I learned that trick from?"
"The Supreme? Really?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Yes...No, we have nowhere to go, but we are strong enough on our own, right?" Shadybug mused.
"Yes," Claw Noire muttered under his breath, instantly getting fidgety. He loathed agreeing with Shadybug.
"Aw, is the poor loser of a kitty catty over there reluctant to agree with his Shades?" Shadybug teased, leaning in to see his expression on his sudden bowed head.
"No. Especially not if you're going to treat me like this. I'll disagree, how's that sound, Shadybug?" Claw Noire snapped in response, his head snapping up and a full on glower meeting her innocent gaze.
"Oh, that's nice. Thank you for using my actual name, Claw Noire," Shadybug spat back and approached the railing.
"Oh, but of course, isn't that what the sidekick is supposed to do?" Claw Noire purred, his lips peeling up into a mean sneer. Shadybug coughed, suppressing her laughter. Which only made her cough harder, until she was hacking and coughing. Claw Noire raised an eyebrow.
"What? Did I finally eradicate your ability to breathe based on one sentence?"
"N-no," Shadybug coughed, "it's just, your comment amused me greatly."
"Why is that, Shades?" Claw Noire asked, tilting his head, but she could see his clawed fingertips twitching, signaling a cataclysm incoming.
"Perhaps because you called yourself a sidekick. It's the first time you agreed to acknowledge that," Shadybug responded stiffly. Claw Noire smirked.
"That's not for your satisfaction, but as to mine to see your face react with shock as I actually agree, so it's to my satisfaction."
"Why does that satisfy you?"
A smirk.
"It's a change from your blank expressions."
"I don't always have blank expressions. I get angry expressions, because you make me annoyed and mad half the time with your mere presence, but I guess it is a semi-reassuring comfort to have said annoying, irritating presence by my side."
Claw Noire put a hand over his heart sarcastically.
"Aw, Shady, that touches me so much," he said in a higher-pitched, fake, sweet voice.
"Shut up," was her only response back. Claw Noire did, so Shadybug had to turn away from him to mask her expression of surprise from him listening to her.
"So...eliminate the Supreme?" she whispered. Claw Noire hesitated. Then he nodded.
"Yes. Eliminate the Supreme," he murmured quietly back. Their voices had dropped in volume due to the fact that the Supreme could be anywhere, listening for anything and could do absolutely everything to ruin their lives. Shadybug glanced up at Claw Noire, but his expression became unreadable. She suddenly had the urge to be close to him, she somehow couldn't fight it. Shadybug approached him and gazed concerningly at him.
"Is the poor Claw Noire scared?"
"No. Not for my own life, that is," he muttered and met her gaze. He blinked in surprise when he realized how close they had gotten.
"Then whose? When did this soft side develop?"
"Yours," he mumbled, then turned his head. Shadybug couldn't resist, and pulled his chin towards her.
"Claw? You care about me realistically that much?"
He leaned in closer, his lips inches from hers.
"Maybe, when you're not annoying the hell out of me, I do care."
With those words, he leaned in even closer, and he carefully, cautiously kissed her. Shadybug's eyes met his; they widened, but then she closed her eyes and kissed him back. She leaned into it as he gently hugged her, bringing her up onto her tiptoes. Then he pulled away and said nothing upon what he had just did. Shadybug was super confused, but she said nothing about it either.
"We need a night's rest. Plan this shit out tomorrow. Just...keep our plan very low-key and do your best to not even...I don't know, think about it or something. The Supreme could be anywhere."
Claw Noire gave her a stiff nod.
"Yeah, that'd be for the best, Shades," he said in his normal, cocky, arrogant tone.
"Alright, then, kitty catty, I'll see you tomorrow, but I doubt it'd be a good idea to strike in daylight."
"No," he agreed, but his expression faltered for a moment.
"What? Am I wrong, Claws?"
"N-no."
"You seem to disagree...."
"I am just the sidekick here, aren't I?"
"No! You're the sidekick but you can have opinions, right?"
"You hate when I disagree with you!"
"Yeah, I may hate it but don't let that stop you!" Shadybug snapped, "After all, it's our norm, is it not?"
Claw Noire straightened up and shot her a glower.
"If that's how it is."
"Yeah, that's how it is, idiot," she snapped back, anger searing in her eyes.
"Okay. Well, I'm going, so au revoir, Shades," Claw Noire seethed in reply, then stormed to the railing and casually jumped over the railing.
"Yeah, BYE to you too!" she shouted. When he was gone, she fell to the floor of the second-level landing of the Eiffel Tower and buried her face in her hands.
"I never should've done this. Letting him kiss me when my walls were down was sheer stupidity," she muttered, and her entire frame started shaking. Shadybug brushed her hair with her hands out of her face for a moment then rose, dropped her hands down by her sides and took a few deep breaths. She cleared her throat, composed her expression and swung off the landing, out through the huge opening and jumped down to the ground below. She landed beautifully gracefully and stood up to her full height.
"I will not let this happen again," she said firmly in a icy tone. With that, she swung her way back to her home, but her mind was completely elsewhere and she didn't see her mother lunge at her in time before the blow sent her crashing to the floor. She got up quickly and just in time to dodge some random object getting thrown at her head. She ducked and quickly started spinning her yoyo into a magical shield.
"Well, Mother, I sure hope you don't want my Miraculous! You'll never get it!"
"I want you out of this house and I never want to see you step into my house again, Shadybug. I despise any do-gooders."
"I'm not a good person, Mother. I trash Paris. Who do you think is currently keeping a iron hold on Paris?"
Her mother raised her eyebrows.
"You rule over Paris, under the Supreme's control? How? How did my pathetic, idiotic, clumsy girl grow up to be this hardcore, mean, bitchy teenager?"
Shadybug gave her mother a cold glare.
"You weren't around enough, so of course you wouldn't see the changes I went through after I got my Miraculous."
"Well, I'm not sorry. It looks like my abandoning you turned out for the better."
"It would've been nicer to have my mother's support, but no, that's too much to ask for!" Shadybug snapped in response.
"It is, when I never wanted you in the first place, child," her mother retorted. Shadybug kept her ground, but the shock flared up inside of her.
"That's good to hear, because I despise you!"
Her mother laughed.
"Good, so you're not coming back to this house."
Shadybug cleared her throat.
"I will do whatever the hell I want, because my mother can no longer stop me."
Shadybug summoned a lucky charm and threw it at her mother. Then she swapped the lucky charm out and tied up her mother then used another set of lucky charms to officially restrain her mother.
"Now, that is exactly what you get for disrespecting an ally, an powerful ally, of the Supreme."
"You will get my wrath-"
"You're disowned. I am disowning my own mother. Wow, this is really shocking."
Shadybug shrugged, tossed her head and started spinning her yoyo again as she scanned the room.
"Eh, there's nothing worth anything whatsoever in this shithole of a room. Guess it's time to go ask Claw Noire for a favor," Shadybug muttered.
"Go to-"
"Shut up. Just, like, shut up. I'm so done with you."
Shadybug climbed out the window and gazed up at the night sky. A pang hit her in her heart then she shook her head, cleared her thoughts and left her childhood home and bakery behind. She swung over to where Adrien Agreste lived, perched outside his window and peered inside. It was dark, but she could see a shadow moving around inside. Then a lamp turned on and she ducked out of sight as Adrien himself appeared. She peeked up again, saw him scanning outside then watched as he turned around and the lamp went out. With a sigh, and the firm decision in her mind, she left her perch and fled through the darkening streets of Paris to the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower she would stay until she eliminated every person that had wronged her in Paris, starting with her mother. Then she would return home.