Marinette and Tikki climbed into bed. She was happy that her parents weren't upset with her. She was worried if Adrien got into trouble though. She wondered if she was still banned from his house. Marinette glanced over at Tikki who was making a nest in one of her pillows. They haven't gotten a chance to talk about earlier.

"Tikki," Marinette said. "I'm sorry for snapping at you."

"It's fine," the kwami repiled. "You were upset. The important thing is that you didn't get akumatize."

"What...?"

Tikki was quiet.

"Tikki?"

"You didn't hear Chat call out his attack?"

Marinette shook her head.

"Oh, well he killed the akuma with his attack. I'm glad we made it in time. It was raining pretty hard."

Marinette cringed at the thought of being akumatize. "Was it going for the earrings?"

"Yes and most likely I would have been pulled in."

"Oh, man," she said grabbed her phone from the night stand. She then texted Adrien thanking him for saving her. "Hawkmoth could have found out my identity."

"Yes he would have."

"Good thing he doesn't know Chat's. Adrien was already transfomed, when he got akumatize."

Tikki slowly nodded her head. She watched Mairnette put the phone down and rest her head on her pillow. They wished each other goodnight. Tikki stayed up for a bit thinking. Her mind was racing. Chat Noir getting akumatize didn't seem like an accident. There was a possibility that Hawkmoth knew Adrien was Chat Noir. Did see how stress Adrien was and plotted to make it worst? Or was Gabriel Agreste Hawkmoth..? That was a huge possibility. Banning Marinette from the house set Adrien off. Only his father would know how important Marinette was to him. Tikki shut her eyes. She would have to talk to Plagg about this on Monday.

Marinette was busy getting ready for school. She was somewhat dreading it. She was worried Chloe and Bridgette would pick on her again. They could do something with that photo. But at the same time she knew she would be fine. She had no more doubt.

"Why don't you were something cute today?" Tikki suggested. "It will help you feel more confident."

"Like what?" Marinette was opened to the idea.

"How about a skirt? It's getting warmer."

"Alright." Marinette dug through her closet. As she was going through her clothes she heard her phone ring. "Who is it, Tikki?"

"It's Alya!"

"Put it on speaker!"

Tikki flew over to the phone which was sitting on her desk. She tapped the answer button and put it on speaker. "Marinette?"

"Hey!" Marinette shouted from he closet. She showed a skirt to Tikki and she shook her head. Marinette went back to looking for a skirt to wear.

"Why are you shouting?"

"You're on speaker. I'm still getting ready. What's up?"

"Girl! You and Adrien are on the front cover of a tabloid!"

"What!?" Marinette walked out of her closet. She went over to her phone and took it off speaker and held it up to her ear.

"Someone took a picture of you guys kissing in the rain on Friday. Now all of Pairs knows you're official!" Saturday Alya came over to the bakery (still grounded from the phone) to get an explanation about Friday. Her and Nino were in the library when Marinette was picked on. They heard about it from Rose.

"Are you serious!?"

"Yep. I'm looking at it right now," Alya replied. She was standing in front of a newsstand. It was her only way to get any social like news at the moment. She filled through the pages. "Looks like they got a lot of pictures of you guys.."

Marinette groan.

"Hey, sooner or later the public would have noticed you're dating Adrien. It's better to get it over with now."

"I guess."

"Look at this way. Chloe's and Bridgette's plan was ruin."

"True. I guess this is my revenge."

"Exactly! Well I'll see you at school."

"See ya." Marinette hung up and finished getting ready.

When Marinette arrived at school, she noticed most of the girls were glaring at her. She just ignored them. They all should have seen this coming. Marinette just walked into class and took her seat. She greeted her friends. She noticed a worried look on Adrien's face. She gave him a smile. "Morning, Fluffy."

Adrien stared at her in confusion. She was really calm for someone who tried to hide as many tabloids as possible last time they were on the front.  "Fluffy?" This was not the nickname he wanted to be remembered for. He grinned. "Does this mean I can call you Bugaboo?" he asked quietly enough that only they could hear. Of course, he wouldn't really mess with her identity like that.

The class chattered for the last few minutes before the teacher entered and started class. Everyone took their seats and fell into varying degrees of interest in the subject matter. Adrien focused on the lecture. He needed to get a good grade on the next test to show his father he really was trying. 

About halfway through the lecture, Kim gasped and started pointing to the window.  "Did you need something, Kim?" Mrs. Bustier asked unamused by the interruption. But now everyone else was looking outside too.

"Uh, ma'am, it's snowing," Max said. It was May, so snow wasn't completely unheard of, but it was also getting warmer and the news had predicted mild to warm temperatures today.  No one had brought their winter coats.

Adrien pulled out his phone and brought up the radar.  There was nothing but a very small, unmoving blip over one small portion of Paris; no more than a couple city blocks which happened to include their school. He angled his phone so Marinette could see without alerting the teacher to what they were doing.  The likelihood of the snowstorm being natural had just plummeted.

Marinette just grinned and nodded her head. Why not? He was probably keep call her that anyway.

She glanced out the window, when Max said it was snowing. Marinette found this quite odd. She looked over at Adrien who was showing her the radar on his phone. This had to be an akuma. Marinette leaned back in her chair. How to get themselves out of the classroom? The bathroom excuse seem out of the question seeing how they used it before. She couldn't believe that neither one of them found it suspicious. There was only one thing that could work.

"Ow!!!" Marinette yelled out in pain.

Mrs. Bustier looked at her. "Is there something wrong, Marinette?"

"My leg. It's cramping up. May I go to the nurse?"

"Oh, of course." Their teacher looked concern. "Do you need an escort?"

"Yes. Adrien can take me."

"Alright. Adrien, please help her to the nurse."

Marinette rose from her seat and Adrien "helped" her out of the classroom. Once they were away from their classroom windows, they ran downstairs to the lockers. They were alone.

"How was my performance?" she gave him a grin.

Adrien smiled, "Perfect like always, Princess."

They exited the school and found a place to transform.  Chat Noir shivered as the snow blew around them. It was becoming more blizzard-like as they stood there. "The center of the storm was that way," he said, pointing away from the school.  They launched themselves up to the rooftops and headed in the direction the radar had indicated.

Chat slowed to a stop once they were close enough to see the akuma. He would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous about going back into the public eye as Chat Noir after the akumatization. He had to make this count.  He shivered again, this time to from the cold. He could do this..

Ladybug internally groan. An ice skating akuma. By the looks of it he was trying to turn Pairs into a winter wonderland. As he was changing a round about into an ice skating rink (most likely wanting to show off his ice skating skills) Ladybug looked at Chat. "You okay?"

Chat nodded. "I'm fine. Just thinking." He watched the ice skating akuma for a moment longer before taking a step towards the edge of the building. "I guess we should get to it," he said before jumping to the streets below.

He didn't get very far before the akuma saw him. Black was not a good color for snow stealth. He dodged a blast of ice and swung his staff at the akuma.  The akuma twirled out of the way and pushed Chat into a snow drift.  The akuma laughed and continued spreading snow and ice everywhere as Chat dug his way out of the snow.

"Ah, Chat!" Ladybug said. She frowned as she watched down below. She could tell he was lying to her. Ladybug jumped down and pulled him out of the snow. "Looks like you're turning into a pawpsicle." She hoped that a pun would make him laugh.

Chat crossed his arms and rubbed them with his hands to warm himself up before giving her a weak smile. "What flavor do you think I'd be?  Grape?  Black raspberry?" He asked, trying to continue the joke. He was already messing up this fight.

There was no chance for her to answer as snow suddenly swirled around them, threatening to bury them. Chat grabbed her hand and extended his staff to get them out of the attack and over the akuma so they could attack from behind.

'Come on, Adrien,' Ladybug thought to herself. 'You're doing fine.'

Ladybug took this opportunity to swing her yo-yo at the ice skating akuma. It wrapped around his arm and he turned his head and gave her a smirk. He skated off at high speed which pulled Ladybug. She quickly let go which caused her to faceplant in the ice. She sat up and the akuma was standing there with her yo-yo.

"Thanks for the gift," he said and did a yo-yo trick. "Now hand over those earrings." He tossed the yo-yo at her. Ladybug tried to get away, but the ice was too slippery and she fell to the ground. The yo-yo wrapped around her leg and the akuma was now pulling her to him.

"Chat!!" Ladybug screamed.

Chat's eyes widened as the akuma started pulling her toward it.  He needed to do something quick or her earrings would be gone.

He wracked his brain for any type of plan as he ran forward.  Why was he having so much trouble with something that usually came so easily to him?  As if fate was listening, his next step hit a very obvious slab of ice and he stumbled forward just as he was within range of the akuma.

Skater laughed as he slid towards him.  "Well, look what the cat dragged in.  Or should I say slid in?"  He said as he threw a snowball at him and moved no more than a centimeter to the side.

The snowball hit Chat in the face, momentarily blinding him, and he slid right past Skater, slowly face-planting into a nearby tree.  He sat up and glared as his enemy returned to pulling Ladybug to him.  Chat punched the icy ground in frustration.  Even the akuma didn't take him seriously...

He shook his head and forced himself to focus on the task at hand.  The ground was too slippery for close combat, but...  He smiled and propelled himself into the tree and then launched himself to the next tree, staying out of sight; not that Skater was paying attention to him.  Ladybug was almost close enough to have her earrings taken despite her struggling.

He jumped, tackling Skater to the ground.  The akuma struggled, releasing the yo-yo from his grasp.  Chat was about to reach for a necklace that could be the item (it was either that or his skates) when Skater made his body extremely cold, forcing Chat to let go as little prickles of ice cold pain went through him.  Skater pushed him farther back with an icy wind.  At least he bought enough time for Ladybug to untangle herself.

Ladybug quickly untangled herself from her yo-yo. That was so close. She quickly slid herself across the ice to Chat and pulled them up to a building's roof. Time for an intervention. She let go of him, when they landed on the building.

"Don't lie to me, Chat. I know you're not okay," she said and folded her arms and gave him a disapproving look. "How am I suppose to help you if you're lying to me?"

Chat averted his eyes as she reprimanded him, focusing on a bare part of the roof.  She was right, of course.  He wasn't really helping like this.  

He frowned apologetically.  "I'm sorry..  I thought I would be fine, but I don't know...  I'm doubting myself, and I haven't done anything in this fight so far that makes me feel any better about it.."  

And then there was the fact Paris was probably still deciding how they felt about Chat Noir now that he attacked half the city.  He had disappeared from battle two weeks in advance of his akumatization and then reappeared only to terrorize them.  He wanted to prove himself to them, but he was doing a pretty bad job of it.

"To be fair we're dealing with ice," Ladybug said. She noticed he wasn't looking at her. "Adrien." It was safe to use his name since they were alone. Ladybug pulled him into a hug. "You can do this. I know you can. I can't do this without you." She let go of him and gave him a smile.