Hawkmoth had not had the best start to his day.

He had stayed up late the night before, scouring the internet for any possible historical Miraculous users in hopes of finding either information about unrevealed powers he might have or potential weaknesses or limitations that Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous might come with. Nooroo hadn't been any help, of course- the kwami had refused to be even remotely helpful once he had revealed his intentions for the use of the Butterfly Miraculous- so it had been a long, exhausting search for articles. He had ended up printing several particularly long papers out so that he could transform and simultaneously search for possible akuma candidates and get some research done.

And so he sat in his lair at a small folding table and slightly rusty folding chair, electric lantern lighting up the space, and straining to both stay away and be able to read in the dim lighting. He had opened his window a bit more than usual to let in a little more light, but it wasn't helping much. He had of course had to go to work during the day (he couldn't miss too much, even if it was so that he could win and achieve the Ultimate Power. He had the feeling that no one would be particularly inclined to accept that excuse), so he was running on pretty much empty by the time he entered the lair in the first place and the sun was starting to get a bit low in the sky. Add in several hours of nothing but bland emotions and several dry scholarly articles and Hawkmoth really couldn't be blamed for not being particularly awake when he finally did feel frustration and anger ripping through the air.

And that was how it all started.

Caline Bustier sat at her dining room table, frowning as she put together lesson plans for the week. She couldn't help but feel that the endeavor was somewhat futile these days- combine the number of akuma attacks that happened in their part of the city with the fact that the principal had started closing down the school whenever an akuma got too close (and usually kept it closed for far longer than necessary; really, she had to get together with some of the other teachers to talk to him about that), and she was far behind schedule. Normally her classes would have gotten through another two books and moved on to more in-depth grammar, but with so many of her classes cancelled thanks to the attacks and a limit on how much take-home work she could give (thanks so much, Mr. Mayor, she thought bitterly), there was no obvious way to make it up. She had already decided that she would have to cut out some of her favorite (but less necessary) lessons, and several field trips would have to be cancelled as well if she wanted to cover everything that her students needed for their end-of-year test.

She had never had this problem before. It was all thanks to Hawkmoth and his akumas.

It wasn't just how far along she was getting with her lesson plans, either. Her students' performances were getting impacted as well. Some of them were likely getting thrown off their game by the attacks. Akuma attacks made more than a few of them nervous, and then they couldn't get quality studying done during the time that they weren't in the classroom. Some, like Alya, were so caught up by the superheroes that they were occasionally letting other things slide.

And then there was Adrien and Marinette. She just had no idea what was going on there, but it was her duty as a teacher to make sure that her students learned. So she had to take note whenever they "went to the bathroom" and ended up missing class, and then she would have to make a list of important bullet points that they had covered while they were gone for each of them. It was a lot of extra work, but she wanted her students to succeed.

(She also didn't want Gabriel Agreste to come storming into the classroom to demand why his son wasn't getting better scores- it was something that Mayor Bourgeois had done for Chloe before, and she wouldn't put it past Gabriel to do the same.)

Looking back and forth between the things she absolutely had to cover and the amount of time they had left in the school year, she couldn't help but get a little frustrated. Sure, in theory they could finish everything up now that most of the frivolous lessons were cut out, but only if the akuma attacks moved away from the school in the near future- like, now. Otherwise, they were going to get behind to the point where there was no catching up unless she could somehow persuade the mayor to drop his ridiculous take-home work restrictions.

(She wondered what the likelihood of success was if she just happened to mention the restrictions to Mr. Agreste in hopes of him charging over to the Grand Paris and being intimidating and/or persuasive enough to change the mayor's mind, then discarded the idea. She didn't want Mr. Agreste to pull Adrien out of the school due to concerns about his education, especially considering that Adrien was only just starting to come out of his shell more and make more friends.)

As she looked over the prospective schedule for the rest of the year, she could only get more and more frustrated. This was ruining her whole teaching style- her classes were supposed to be educational and fun. She didn't mind if she took a little longer to teach concepts, because she normally did it in a fun way that ensured that her students would remember the lesson. Now, she didn't have time for that. She would have to discard some of the stories that she used as teaching lessons in favor of the much more straightforward (and boring) worksheets. That would probably mean a drop in her student evaluation score, but again, it wasn't something that she could control.

Ugh. More than anything, she wished that Hawkmoth would just... cease to exist. He was the one at the root of all of her problems, the one who was throwing off all of her carefully laid plans. If she ever had the chance to fight him, she would punch him right in the middle of his big ugly nose.

Sighing through her anger, Miss Bustier let herself imagine it. She would stumble across Hawkmoth and scowl fiercely at him. He would no doubt try to but on a big show, talking grandly about something (she didn't know what, really- she had only really heard him the once, when his cloud of black butterflies tried intimidating Paris on the second day Stoneheart was out- but it really didn't matter). She would roll her eyes, roll up her sleeves, stomp right on over there (she wouldn't, not in real life, but it was so satisfying to think that she might in her mental story), and punch him right in the middle of his ugly nose. While he was reeling from that, she would rip off his Miraculous (what it was she wasn't certain, but surely it would be obvious up close? It would be a piece of jewelry, like Ladybug's earrings or Chat Noir's ring), and stomp on his face a few times for good measure. Then she would give him a piece of her mind, chew him out for daring to interrupt her lessons, and kick him a few more times before handing him over to the police.

If it wouldn't make her sick to see Hawkmoth's face every day, she would make a dartboard with his face on it. She could probably sketch a pretty good representation of it just based off of the butterfly head, and it would be so satisfying to see a dart landing right in the middle of those soulless, uncaring eyes.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice the dark butterfly peeling its way in her window. Seconds later, it was entering the necklace she had gotten when she graduated from teaching school, and everything went black.

After so many akumatizations, Hawkmoth could essentially go on autopilot. He didn't really need to think to address his new supervillains. The corrupted butterfly worked together with the person to create their supervillain suit and their abilities, and Hawkmoth relied on his powers to give them a name and to feel out what their problem was. Thanks to years and years of practice in his workplace, he could give an impressive-sounding speech without really thinking about the words coming out. It was a useful ability when he was as tired and distracted as he was now.

Of course, inattention while creating a supervillain wasn't exactly the best idea in the world. Had he been paying attention, he surely would have thought twice. The most recent receiver of his corrupted butterfly was annoyed- furious, even- but not just with any old person. No, she had it out for him, Hawkmoth, because of his role in disrupting her classroom.

And he didn't even notice.

"Educator, you have the powers to go after the one that keeps interrupting your lessons," he intoned, on autopilot. The process was second nature by now, really. "Go find them and take care of them so you can teach like you were always meant to. All I ask for in return is the Miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir."

Akuma made, instructed, and turned loose on the world, Hawkmoth turned his attention back to his papers, missing the wave of bewilderment followed by malicious glee from his newly akumatized supervillain. He had just read something about there being more Miraculous- more than just the Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Butterfly Miraculous- and he needed to learn more. Maybe there was another loose Miraculous out there up for grabs and he would be able to recruit someone to work alongside his useless akuma to finally defeat Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Of course, then he would have to find information about where the last superhero with that Miraculous had been. And, if his research had taught him anything so far, it was that most Miraculous users weren't exactly what one might call visible. And, on top of that, the current idea of a superhero wasn't the same as it had always been. He couldn't just search for historical figures with what he considered to be superhero-type outfits, because the outfits changed over time and many past users could have looked just like others of their time with the exception of wearing a certain color scheme.

He had learned just how rare it was for a superhero to show up in the historical records after comparing the number of mentions that he had found so far with the number of Butterfly superheroes that Nooroo had mentioned there being when Hawkmoth had initially found the pin. There had been hundreds of holders... but only about a dozen mentions of people who might have been holders, at least that Hawkmoth had found so far. Nooroo had refused to confirm or deny if Hawkmoth's finds were legit leads or just eccentric people with a strange taste in clothing.

Twenty very dry pages later, and Hawkmoth's eyes were drooping. He was fairly certain that he had basically just been skimming the article, not reading it, and he would have to re-read it again tomorrow, when he was (hopefully) more awake. He briefly considered putting the papers aside and maybe seeing what his most recent akuma (an upset schoolteacher, he thought, or maybe a secretary with a grudge?) was up to. It didn't take long for him to discard the idea, though- most akumas did just fine (...well, until they lost) without his assistance, and really, all he needed was a few sips of coffee from the thermos that he had brought and he would be able to actually focus again. He didn't want to waste too much time.

He had just gulped a few sips of lukewarm coffee (he needed a better thermos, really, but he didn't exactly have the time to go out shopping for one at the moment) and flipped back a few pages to re-read the parts that he had just skimmed over when there was a loud BANG! followed by the sound of breaking glass. He glanced up, puzzled, expecting it to maybe be a car crash in the street below, but it was too close-

Instead, his most recent akuma stood in the middle of his lair, glaring at him in the dim lantern light.

For several long seconds, Hawkmoth was puzzled. What was Educator doing here? He had never had an akuma come and visit his lair before. Had she somehow detected that he wasn't paying attention to her and been upset about it? It wasn't as though he had never paid less than complete attention to an akuma 24/7 before. With Vanisher, he had taken several very long naps and she had just kept on doing her own thing. Sure, it took his involvement to get her (and pretty much every other akuma) to go after Ladybug and Chat Noir, but generally akumas were pretty happy to not have him supervising them that closely while they took their revenge on whoever had upset them. It meant that they could cause more personally fulfilling havoc before Ladybug and Chat Noir got in their way.

He didn't have long to ponder what the Educator's reason for visiting was. She lunged at him, and his automatic response was to bolt, overturning both his table and chair and sending papers scattering across the floor.

"What on earth!" Hawkmoth yelped, skidding across the floor with the Educator hot on his heels. He frantically tried to remember what exactly was fueling this particular akuma, but he was coming up blank. Something about someone interrupting them and preventing her from getting things done? But that was hardly the only concern. If the akuma was here... where were Ladybug and Chat Noir? Had the Educator accidentally led them here? That was the absolute worst-case scenario.

"I will end all of these interruptions to my teaching!" the Educator roared, picking up the overturned table and flinging it at him. "And then I can teach my lessons in peace!"

"Yes, yes, I know! So then go after the person interrupting, then!" Hawkmoth bellowed, dodging the table and using the wall as a springboard to change direction. "Not me!"

In the back of his mind, Nooroo suddenly stirred. The memories of Educator's akumatization were pushed forward with a distinctly smug tinge, letting Hawkmoth catch more details than he had the first time. He felt her anger again, anger directed at the person responsible for the interruptions to her teaching, anger directed at... him.

Oh.

"You couldn't have warned me about that earlier, you little nuisance?" Hawkmoth snarled as he dodged the chair (it hit the wall with a crack and fell to the ground with a dent in the back). He couldn't believe that Nooroo would just let him create an akuma that was targeting him, Hawkmoth, without so much as a warning, knowing full well how much that would endanger him.

...actually, that fit the kwami's new attitude almost perfectly. Nooroo seemed timid and scared, but he fought back against his imprisonment in small ways, like not telling Hawkmoth anything that might make him stronger. This was the biggest act of rebellion so far.

There would be consequences. That was, if he got out of this.

The Educator threw a punch that Hawkmoth only just managed to dodge. He blocked the next punch with his staff, and it gave an alarming shudder and a creak. He jumped back, alarmed. Really, this was ridiculous. Could a supervillain whom he had given powers really hurt him?

He didn't particularly want to find out. So he ran and dashed, dodging hits and slipping over the scraps of his ruined research. He wasn't a fighter, so he couldn't stop and face the Educator head-on (and, if he ever had to go up against Ladybug and Chat Noir without an akuma at his side...

It couldn't happen. He couldn't let himself get in that position. He would lose.)

For what felt like hours (but was probably only minutes), Hawkmoth scrambled around trying to dodge the hits. Unfortunately for him, the Educator was quite a good fighter- which, to add insult to injury, was probably a skill that his akuma had given her while he wasn't paying attention. She got in a few hits and, much to Hawkmoth's horror, he could actually feel the hits. His suit wasn't giving him much protection against the supervillain, probably because her powers and his were from basically the same source. If he didn't get out of her range soon...

How did Ladybug and Chat Noir do this, even? What did they do when they were up against an akuma in a fight? It was appalling that he even had to resort to their tactics, but he was sort of in a pinch here. His mind whirled. They used their special powers, Lucky Charm and Cataclysm, but he didn't have that option. His sole power was possessing the akuma to create his supervillains. And after they used their powers, they got the akuma and purified it, but he didn't exactly have Ladybug's purifying yo-yo (yet; it would happen someday, as long as the Educator didn't defeat him first), so he couldn't free the akuma and do that-

He was an idiot. Maybe he didn't have Ladybug's yo-yo (yet), but he had been the one to give the Educator powers and he had been the one to corrupt the akuma. He had threatened to take powers away before, so why not now? All he needed to do was pull the akuma out and he would be home free.

...of course, it was hard think of how to do that when he had never done it before. He had tugged hard enough to cause pain, of course, to make akuma villains cry out and be momentarily helpless, but-

It would have to do.

Ducking a roundhouse kick aimed for his head, Hawkmoth made for his broken window. Just before he pulled himself out, he gave an almighty tug. Educator crumpled for a moment in pain, and he took the opportunity to get out onto the rooftops and run several buildings over. Thankfully Ladybug and Chat Noir were not lying in wait for him, which let him have a moment to regain his bearings. He couldn't wait for too long, though, or Educator would gather her bearings and come after him again.

Thankfully, now that he wasn't in immediate danger, it wasn't too hard to remember how he was supposed to recall the akuma. A few seconds of concentration later, and the akuma fluttered out of the broken window of his lair and towards him. He caught it in his gloved hands easily enough, and then it was just a matter of pulling the negative corrupting energy off and banishing it with a wave of his hand. He waited for the white butterfly to flutter off again, and then Hawkmoth bolted.

After all, if there was any chance that Ladybug and Chat Noir were in the vicinity, he needed to get out now.

Miss Buster blinked back to consciousness to find that she was somewhere unfamiliar. It looked like it was some sort of attic, judging from the rafters above, and the place was completely destroyed. A large window was smashed out- she was going to have to be very careful to not get cut- and what looked like what had formerly been metal shutters were busted in as well. Broken furniture and ripped papers littered the floor, which looked like it was in dire need of some mopping, or at the very least some sweeping. It was all very strange, from the blacking out to being somewhere where she had never been before. She puzzled over it for a minute, but it didn't help much. She remembered wanting to punch Hawkmoth in the face, and then she must have had some very vivid dreams about actually being able to face the asshole supervillain and chasing him down with righteous fury.

She couldn't help but smile and give a little snort. If only. That would have been amazing (if not highly unrealistic), and then he would think twice about sending akumas during the middle of the school day.

After glancing down to make sure that she wasn't going to accidentally cut herself on the broken glass, Miss Bustier carefully pushed herself to her feet. It took her a minute to figure out where the door out was, but then she was trotting down the stairs and out the door onto the street. She had to consult her phone to figure out where she was- thank goodness it hadn't gotten lost during the trip over, considering that she couldn't even remember it- and then she was striding confidently towards the nearest bus station to get a ride home, pondering all the while what might have happened. She couldn't possibly have been turned into an akuma because then she surely would have come back to consciousness with Ladybug and Chat Noir standing nearby, but she hadn't spotted them at all. Maybe she could talk to them the next time they came through the school (it probably wouldn't be long) and see if they had any ideas on what might have happened. Whatever had gotten her from her apartment to the strange attic was magic, and surely the duo would want to know if there was more magic going on in the city besides the now-normal akumas.

On the other hand, they probably already knew about whatever it was and she would just be distracting them from their jobs. If they had the time to spare following a fight then maybe she would mention it, but they usually had to take off pretty quickly after whatever akuma they were fighting was defeated.

She would have to think about it later. Right now, she had to get back to her apartment. She had some lesson plans to finish writing.

Even several days later, Hawkmoth had yet to transform again. Nooroo had been quietly smug about it, but it didn't matter. Hawkmoth couldn't quite shake the memory of the Educator slapping him across the face, the terror he had felt when she was going after him and he was failing at fighting, failing even worse than Ladybug and Chat Noir had during their first fight. He wasn't going to make that same mistake again- he was definitely going to start analyzing who his potential akumas were angry with more carefully.

On top of his worries, it didn't help that his lair was still a complete mess, or so he assumed. From what he could remember of the damage, several of the large, petal-shaped panes of glass were smashed to bits (ugh. Getting panes of glass that large and in that specific shape was going to be such. a. pain.) and the remote-operated window shutter was bent and twisted in a way that would make it completely nonfunctional until he could do something about it. It would be a lot of work, work that he wasn't entirely certain that he could pull off.

He didn't need the window to be perfectly functional in order to akumatize people, sure. But it would just be sad to have an akuma deliver the Miraculous to him while he stood in the middle of a sea of glass and twisted, dinged-up metal. He would have to go in and clean things up soon- unless (maybe, hopefully) the damage had been undone once the akuma was free of the Educator's necklace. It had happened, at least to some extent, when Stoneheart's akuma was released to the first time, and he had yet to see any signs of damage to the rest of the city.

In fact, he had yet to hear anything about the Educator's attack. There were no civilian reports of an akuma, not sightings of Ladybug and Chat Noir out during that time, and no reports of mysterious damage occurring in the city. It was a bit of a relief, actually, because Hawkmoth didn't want the entire populace of Paris wondering what had happened to make him recall an akuma without having it fight Ladybug and Chat Noir first. It was good that so little was known about the attack by the public.

What was less good was how little Hawkmoth knew about the attack. He had been so distracted during the akumatization that he didn't even know who the victim had been. They had been a teacher, he thought, and of course he knew their general motivations (stopping him from interrupting their lessons). He definitely didn't want to accidentally target her again, because what would happen if he tried akumatizing her for something different? Would she come back in her earlier akuma form, with her focus on him remaining? He wasn't sure how it would work, since the only time he had akumatized someone twice before was with Stoneheart and that was with the same butterfly, with the same corrupting energy that had been used for the first akumatization. Other than that, either people weren't getting upset enough for him to notice again or they were being greyed out on his emotions radar. Nooroo was refusing to tell him which it was, claiming ignorance because "this isn't how the Miraculous is meant to be used". He hadn't even seen the woman once she detransformed, since he had run beforehand and hadn't returned to the lair to peek after releasing and cleaning this akuma.

Maybe he should consider at least temporarily halting akuma attacks during the day. He didn't want to accidentally find the woman again and run the risk of her suddenly turning on him.

One month later

Hawkmoth glanced at his watch and grinned. The city's lycées and collèges would be out for the day now, which meant that he could akumatize people to his heart's content without worrying about rousing the former Educator's ire. There was one slowly growing well of frustration that he had been feeling all afternoon, but he hadn't dared touch it because he could tell that it was uncomfortably close to the apartment where the Educator had been. But now, peak frustration had been reached, and the person was just ripe for possession. He smirked and reached for one of his butterflies, corrupting it easily as breathing. He let it go as he worked to get a better reading on his latest target. The closer the butterfly got to them, the better of an idea he got of what exactly he was dealing with. From this distance, he could tell that the person was frustrated about something needing to be rescheduled...? A cancelled photoshoot? One of many recently, if he was reading it right, all cancelled for the same reason.

The feelings suddenly strengthened, which meant that the akuma was now in the same room as his intended target. Hawkmoth sat up and paid attention so he could do his best sympathizing with his newest supervillain. The target was one Nathalie Sancour, and she was frustrated at having to reschedule a photoshoot for the fifth time. It was difficult because there were numerous models that she needed to all have available at the same time, and some were quite busy, and she was on a time limit because the ads that were coming from the photoshoot in question were due quite soon. The previous photoshoot attempts had all been foiled by akuma attacks, and if it weren't for that darn Hawkmoth then this would all be done by now-!

Hawkmoth pulled back. Nope! Nope nope nope nope nope. He was not doing this again. He yanked his akuma back before it could enter Nathalie's necklace and summoned it back to his lair. He waited for a few tense minutes for the possessed butterfly to return to him, and then as soon as it was cleaned and let loose again, he detransformed and headed for the stairs. Never mind that there were potential other targets out there, he was done for the day. He would come back and defeat Ladybug and Chat Noir another day, when he hadn't just nearly created another akuma that had it out for him.

Nathalie stared in bewilderment at the window that the corrupted butterfly had just flown out of. It had been one of Hawkmoth's akumas, of that she was certain, and it had been flying straight towards her before coming to a dead halt right in front of her tablet and then turning and flying back towards the window frantically, almost as though it was terrified of something. She hadn't ever heard of that happening before, and for a minute she wondered why Hawkmoth had apparently changed his mind about akumatizing her. Then she shook herself and turned back to working on rescheduling the photoshoot that had gotten cancelled earlier in the week thanks to yet another pesky akuma attack tearing through the set. It didn't matter why the corrupted butterfly had turned around and she really shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth no matter how strange it was, especially since it could be potentially dangerous for her to become an akuma, considering what she suspected about Adrien and the reason behind his mysterious disappearances. Nathalie really didn't want Hawkmoth catching wind of her suspicions.

Whatever had happened to make Hawkmoth change his mind so suddenly, she couldn't count on happening again. She would simply have to be more careful about controlling her emotions in the future.

A/N: As with most of my stories, this is a one-shot and therefore complete.

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