Chapter One: Ice Melt

Marinette walked to school with a contented sigh. She had woken up early that morning to add finishing touches to her homework, and it was looking like she would be on time to school. For once, her duties as Ladybug hadn't interfered to the point of making her fall too behind on her schoolwork.

With her backpack swung over her shoulder, she approached the steps in front of her school. She raised a hand to greet Alya, but the sight she saw on the steps made her pause. Alya stood with Nino, their heads practically touching so their whispers wouldn't reach the ears of those around them. Marinette walked over, her hand falling to her side. The two of them were talking very intently while looking at a notebook clutched in both their hands.

At that moment, a silver limo pulled up to the school. Adrien stepped out, gorgeous and graceful as ever. He saw Nino with Alya, a confused expression spreading over his face. He walked up to Marinette, both watching their friends.

"What's up with them?" he asked.

Marinette started at the sound of his voice. "Oh, uh, I-I don't kn-know. I j-just got h-here," she stammered out. She groaned inwardly. When would she be able to say a single coherent sentence to him? She just got so flustered by those dazzling green eyes…

"Hey, Nino, what're you guys reading?" Adrien didn't react to her stammering, simply walking up to the two teens huddled together. They broke apart instantly. They did a complete 180, Alya slamming the notebook shut and hiding it behind her back. Both of them smiled sheepishly and waved at their friends.

"Oh, it's nothing, dude. Just something that we've been working on. Let's get to class." Nino and Adrien left together and went into the building.

Marinette pulled her eyes away from Adrien's back and walked up to Alya. She looked at the notebook behind her back. "What's in there that had the two of you all whispery?"

"You'll find out later, promise," Alya assured her. "But for now we should go to class."

The whole first half of school, Marinette kept trying to sneak glances into the secret notebook. All the while, Alya kept peeking inside, adding notes to it. Marinette did her best to look nonchalantly when she did this. That meant that instead of being truly nonchalant, she very obviously leaned over and almost fell out of her chair. Alya shook her head, laughing as Marinette barely caught the table in time to hold herself up.

When the lunch bell rang, Alya pulled the notebook out once more. "I need to meet up with Nino, Girl. Do you mind if we separate for lunch?"

Marinette sighed. "Go ahead, I can just go back home for lunch anyway. Whatever you guys are doing must be captivating!" she added as Alya hurried to the row in front of the class to catch up with Nino before he left.

The next minute left most of the class gone, and just Marinette and Adrien left in the room. Without him so much as looking at her, Marinette felt her cheeks go bright red. She stumbled to put her stuff back in her backpack. In the process, she dropped a pencil, which fell to the bottom of the stairs. The clanking alerted the attention of Adrien. He walked to the base of the steps and grabbed the writing utensil.

"Drop this?" he asked, smiling at her.

Marinette laughed nervously. She walked over and took the pencil from her, the fingers that brushed against his tingling at the touch. "Th-thanks. I, uh, guess it hand from my slipped. Er- slipped from hand my. I mean, slipped from my hand!" Her cheeks burned, turning a deep shade of red.

Thankfully, Adrien just laughed. "Sounds like a cat's got your tongue," he joked.

Marinette snorted, only just managing to disguise it with a cough. That sounded exactly like something Chat Noir would have said. "Y-yeah. I guess s-so."

"Well, I've got to head out for lunch. See you, Marinette." Adrien waved at her, leaving her standing in the middle of the classroom awkwardly.

"B-bye!" she managed, waving a belated goodbye. After a minute, she followed him out, her cheeks dulling to a pink. In the courtyard she saw Alya and Nino sitting together, once again working on their notebook.

Marinette shook her head and went home to eat lunch. On her way, however, she heard the all-to0-familiar sound of screams coming from outside. She stiffened immediately, running out to see what was causing the commotion.

The familiar limo that brought Adrien to and from school was stopped not far down the road. In front of it was another car, frozen in a block of ice. A woman with pure white hair stood on the sidewalk. She wore a pale blue and white suit. Other students ran out, and she turned to look at them. Her mask looked exactly like frost had begun to creep out from her eyes. She had a belt adorned with several items.

"No one can have an icy personality when they're covered in ice!" she said with glee, grabbing a baton from her belt and pointing it towards the silver limo. Ice shot from the baton.

Right before it hit and encased the car in ice, the back door flung open and Adrien dived out of the car. He quickly scrambled to his feet and ran from the ice and the akuma victim.

Marinette, seeing him run safely to hide, ran back into the school. She found a luckily empty classroom and unclasped her purse.

Tikki flew out, looking worried. "That was a close one for Adrien," she observed.

"Too close. Tikki, spots on!" There was a burst of pink magic, and Marinette transformed into her now-familiar Ladybug outfit. She hurried out of the room. Everyone was distracted by the akumatized girl to notice her running out of the school. She swung her yo-yo and went to the roof of the school.

"Hey Ice Queen!" she shouted, looking down as people scattered before the white baton. The girl looked up and grinned, the outline of a purple butterfly appearing in front of her face.

"Looks like we've got a slippery situation on our hands." Ladybug looked over, rolling her eyes at Chat Noir.

"We've got to find out where the akuma is," she said, ignoring what he said.

"My name is Ice Melt, and I will have your Miraculous!" she shouted up at them. She grabbed another baton from her belt, pointing it at the original car. Fire burst from this one, turning it into a puddle of water.

Chat Noir and Ladybug gasped. "That heated up quickly," Chat Noir said.

They both leaped down, Ladybug using her yo-yo to swing down, and Chat Noir using his own baton to slow his descent. They landed on either side of Ice Melt, standing in fighting stances.

"Whatever happened to you, we can help. This isn't going to help you," Ladybug said. She took a step towards Ice Melt, hoping that for once reasoning with them would work. She was wrong.

A stream of ice shot towards her, making her dodge to the side. She threw her yo-yo, wrapping it around Chat Noir and yanking right before another blast hit where he'd been standing. He screamed in shock as he was forced towards her. He crashed into her, sending them both sprawling to the ground. A grin broke out on his face as he looked down at her.

"Not now, Chat," Ladybug said, pushing him away and getting to her feet.

He followed her lead and stood, facing Ice Melt once more. "Any plan on how to get rid of those batons, Milady?"

Another blast fired. They scrambled to the side. "She keeps them on her belt. We need to get that while she's mobile and can't shoot."

"Got it." Chat immediately jumped onto a nearby lamppost. He turned to Ice Melt, waving his hand tauntingly. "If you want my Miraculous, you'll have to come and get it!"

He started to move away, using lampposts and buildings to propel himself further.

"Get back here!" Ice Melt shouted, putting the baton back on her belt and racing after him.

Ladybug smirked, waiting a moment before following them. She swung through the streets, trying to find a good opportunity to get to her belt. She was about to swing towards her when the purple butterfly appeared in front of Ice Melt. The villain turned her head and glared at Ladybug. The image in front of her face faded away.

"Not so fast, Ladybug." She stopped and grabbed her ice baton, firing a shot towards her. Ladybug yelped, changing her direction as fast as she could. She hit a rooftop when she felt her foot go cold.

Ladybug looked down in horror. Her foot was encased in a block of ice. She tried pulling her leg, but it remained steadfast. Looking up, she saw Ice Melt coming across to her on a bridge of ice. Ladybug started to pull on her leg harder.

"Ladybug!" Chat Noir shouted from a distance. He turned around, racing to make up the distance and stop Ice Melt.

Desperately, Ladybug grabbed her yo-yo and threw it into the air. "Lucky Charm!" she shouted. A red pair of scissors covered in black dots fell into her hands. She stared at it for a second, her anxiety rising. Glancing around, she searched for any way she could use it. Ice Melt's belt caught her attention as well as Chat Noir's staff and the chunk of ice Ice Melt was walking on.

"Chat Noir! Use Cataclysm on the ice!" she shouted. He looked at her in shock, almost tripping as he kept running. Upon finding her gaze, he nodded. Sometimes, she wondered if he trusted her too much.

"Cataclysm!" Chat Noir continued running, then touched his hand down a few feet from Ice Melt. The ice shattered and collapsed, momentarily bringing both Chat Noir and Ice Melt with it.

On reflex, Chat's staff shot forward and lodged itself into the side of the building. He crouched on it in his typical cat fashion, and his hands grabbed ahold of Ice Melt's hand.

"Chat, it must be in the belt!" Ladybug called, moving as close to the edge of the roof as she could. She tossed down the scissors, which he caught deftly in his free hand. While Ice Melt was still recovering from the shock, Chat Noir bent down and used the scissors to cut through the belt on her waist.

A purple butterfly emerged, flying up into the sky. Ladybug sighed in relief.

"No more evil doing for you, little akuma," she said. She swung her yo-yo and caught it. "Time to de-evilize!"

She retracted the yo-yo and she slid her finger down the middle. A pure white butterfly flew out and into the sky. "Bye-bye little butterfly."

Chat Noir jumped up to the rooftop, scissors in one hand. "I left Ice Melt on the ground. Apparently, she had a fight with her mother," he said.

Ladybug took the scissors from him and threw it into the sky. "Miraculous Ladybug!" Red and black magic flew from it, repairing the damage done by the akuma - including freeing Ladybug's foot from the ice.

"Pound it!" Ladybug put out her fist and Chat Noir touched his to it. Their hands returned to their sides.

"Does your foot need warming up Milady?" Chat said with teasing smile.

Ladybug's earrings beeped. "That's my cue. See you Chat," she said, throwing her yo-yo to swing away.

Chat watched her go, sighing. All he could hope was that one day she would look at him like he looked at her. It wasn't long before she was out of sight. He turned and started racing across rooftops to get back to the school. He landed discreetly behind a bush and whispered: "Claws in."

"That was a close one for Ladybug," Plagg noted, floating in front of Adrien.

"Yeah. I'm just glad she's okay, I don't know what I'd do without her," he said.

"As a superhero or do you mean your nonexistent love life?"

Adrien chose to ignore this comment. "Just get in my jacket, Plagg." He held it open and the black kwami flew inside.

He walked out from behind the bush, into a crowd of students talking. "Adrien! Where'd you go, dude?" the familiar voice of Nino called to him.

"I found somewhere to hide. I didn't want her to keep going after me," Adrien said with a shrug. "Is everyone okay?"

Nino nodded. "Ladybug and Chat Noir saved the day once again. Though your bodyguard doesn't look too happy."

Adrien looked towards the silver limo and his shoulders slumped. His gorilla-like bodyguard had located him and was stomping towards him. "My father won't be happy either," Adrien said with a sigh.

Nino patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. He let the car get hit, maybe he won't even bring it up to him."

At this, Adrien perked up. "Yeah, that's true. I guess I should go. See you next class, Nino." He waved a goodbye and went to deal with his bodyguard.

Hawkmoth clenched his fist angrily in his dark atrium. "One day I will get you, Ladybug. You and Chat Noir will fall to me, and I will have the power of your Miraculous'." The window closed, leaving him encased in darkness.