Chat Noir doesn't know how long he stood alone on that rooftop but at some point, he felt his transformation wear off. He must've been there for hours because he could vaguely see that the sun was about to rise at any moment. The entire time Plagg sat on his shoulder, trying to give Adrien some sense of comfort with his presence.

"I just don't understand." Adrien started lowly. "Everybody flocks around me when I'm the handsome model Adrien Agreste, but the second I become Chat Noir I'm just Ladybug's ok looking sidekick."

He brings his hands up to cover his face. "Adrien is just some kind, rich, pretty face that knows how to pose in front of a camera. But Chat Noir is who I really am. I'm bold and outgoing. And I like to flirt with people to see how far I can make their blush spread. I'm super cheesy yet not a hopeless romantic like I make Adrien out to be in all those interviews."

He moves his hands from his face to cup Plagg within them before gently setting him down on the table. Adrien comes to a conclusion.

"Maybe those traits are the exact reason why nobody like Chat. Maybe I should just stick to being Adrien twenty-four seven." He looks down at his ring. "Maybe I don't deserve to be a miraculous holder after all." Adrien slowly begins to pull the ring off.

Meanwhile

Hawkmoth senses great despair. "Ahh yes. The humiliation that comes with being rejected by the one you truly love. Then having no one to deeply understand your pain. Add that to what seems to be Chat Noir's miraculous and you get a recipe for disaster. Now fly my little akuma, and evilize him!"

Back On Adrien

Right before Adrien fully takes off the ring something catches his eye. he turns to see a purple butterfly flying in his direction. "Uhh, Plagg is that what I think it is?" Upon spotting the akuma Plagg quickly flies up to Adrien to pull away. "No! Adrien!" But he's too late. The butterfly had already sunk into the miraculous ring.

Hawkmoth, in Adrien's head, shocked

"Adrien?!"

"Spots off Tikki!"

Marinette immediately stormed into her room as soon as she landed on her balcony and transformed. Tikki buzzed around her trying to console the blue-haired teen. "You guys are Paris' most powerful superhero duo, there's no way that one petty argument could break up your partnership.

Marinette gave her kwami a dubious look and said "I don't know Tikki. I meant what I said, I just didn't mean to convey it so harshly." Tikki looked taken aback by her words. "Even the part about being partners?" Marinette looked down at her pink rug solemnly. "I don't think working together is even an option at this point."

She groaned while dragging her hands across her face before falling back into her soft comforter. "I just want to sleep this off and think about what happened in the morning." Tikki hummed in agreement and flew to her pink and white polka-dotted cushion. She twirled in a circle a couple of times before settling down. "Goodnight Marinette. Try not to think about it too much."

Marinette shifted until she was under her fuzzy blanket and snuggled with her unicorn pillow pet until she drifted off to sleep

Next Morning Before School

Marinette was dragging her feet all the way to school. She had left a bit early just to meet with Alya beforehand. Her multicolor haired friend waved when they met in front of the school. "Hey gurl! Did you hear about the new heroine in Paris? I was busy so I couldn't record i-" Alya gave her bestie a one over. "Welk you look dead."

Marinette groaned. "I feel dead. I didn't get a wink of sleep last night." Alya looked curious. "Well, what kept you up?"

The bluenette panicked and stammered out, "I-uh-duh was thinking about the test today! Yeah, the one we have in class! Cause that what we do in school! We uh, take tests." Marinette's eyes were crazed as she scrambled for a good excuse to tell her friend. Aly just watched her fumble, with a knowing look on her face. "Of course of course."

Just then a male voice called out to two girls. "Hey suh' dudes? Is Adrien here yet?" Nino walked over with swagger. He held a second of eye contact with Alya and they shared a flirty look before he looked away with a smirk. Marinette just rolled her eyes at her oblivious friends. Before any conversation could be made the trio saw a black limo pull up to the school. "Speak of the Devil."

When Adrien stepped out of the car, people in the courtyard could immediately tell that there was something different about him. There was nothing different about what he was wearing though. His hair, clothes, and shoes were nothing new. 

It was the intimidating aura that he exuded that clued others in to the change. His eyes, however, were a whole other story entirely.

His once emerald green eyes were now filled with a multitude of negative emotions. Other than that they were completely blank. Adrien stepped out of the limo and walked up to his usual group of friends. Before he came to a complete stops Chloe crashed into his side, hugging him.

"Adrikins! What a coincidence that we ran into each other this morning." She squished her face against his but his face just screwed up in annoyance before he shoved her off of him. Chloe stumbled a bit but shook her head to ground herself. "I got you a preeeeseeent!" her facade dropped for a moment when she yelled, "SABRINA!!"

Before the redhead could bring the present Adrien pushed the other blonde out of his way. "Yeah that's nice and all but I don't care about irrelevant idiots."

You could probably hear a pin drop in the resulting silence. Did sweet innocent Adrien just say something rude to Chloe instead of letting her down easy as usual? Mylene was off to the side holding her boyfriend's hand. Looking as if she were about to cry she said, "That was so mean to say coming from Adrien."

Adrien, having heard the comment, immediately got annoyed. He turned to face the girl who spoke. "Just because you're weak and let people walk all over you, doesn't mean that I'm the same way." Marinette couldn't stand the tension any longer. so she interrupted. "How about we just head inside and wait for class to start?"

Her words calmed Adrien down and he gave her a weak smile. "Good idea." Then he headed inside, Nino and Alya trailing behind him. Alya stopped to look back at her friend but Marinette waved her ahead.

When she was sure that nobody was left outside, Marinette opened her side purse and whispered frantically. "Tikki! Tikki wake up I think we have a problem!" The little kwami yawns and stretches her tiny arms. "What's wrong Marinette?"

Marinette scurried around a corner of the building to have some more privacy. "Adrien is...different. he's being downright nasty to Chloe and Mylene. Its almost as if he's been akumatized but kept his natural appearance. What if something is seriously wrong with him? We can't just sit here twiddling our thumbs!" Tikki just rubbed her big eyes in exhaustion.

"I'd say that you're just overreacting but if there's a possibility of Hawkmoth being involved we should investigate." Marinette smiled and gave a firm nod. "Right. Let's get to the bottom of this!"