Strangers Like Me (Keeper of the Lost Cities + Miraculous Ladybug Crossover)

Chapter 2

Welcome to the second chapter of our story! Thanks for sticking with us during the gap between uploads. In this chapter, you'll meet the characters of Zagtoon and Thomas Astruc's Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir! The collage above pictures Ladybug/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Chat Noir/Adrien Agreste, Alya, and Nino (Alya below Ladybug and Nino below Chat Noir ;))! -Ellen

"Marinette! You'll be late for school again!" Sabine called up the stairs.

"Coming!" the teenager shouted back to her mother tiredly, still slouching in her sakura desk chair.

For the past few days, the akuma attacks had slowed down until there was barely one attack every two weeks. But Marinette felt something brewing. The problem was- she didn't know what.

Ladybug and Chat Noir had been on patrol every night for the last week yet nothing had showed up. And yesterday they had been out until midnight.

"I'm so tired," Marinette grumbled, dragging her feet down the stairs. She leaned down and placed a kiss on her mom's cheek, eyeing the waffles set out for her.

Sabine placed a hand on her daughter's forehead. "Maybe you shouldn't go to school today," she suggested. "You don't look so good."

"I don't feel so good either," Marinette admitted. She shook her head. "I shouldn't miss more school than needed."

"Fine," her mom relented. "But come straight home if you feel worse."

"I will," Marinette promised, swallowing the last bit of her waffle. She grabbed her backpack and dashed past the counter, waving to her mother from the bakery doorway. "Bye! Love you!"

*~*~*~*

"Chloé is getting more and more desperate," Alya, Marinette's best friend, shook her head as they entered their school, Collège Françoise Dupont. "Just look at her and Adrien!"

Marinette let out a little shriek of surprise, looking wildly left and right. "Adrien? Oh my gosh, Adrien. Where is he, what's she doing, what's he doing?"

"She asking him if she can be in his next photoshoot." Alya pointed to the entrance of the fencing hall.

The girls looked over. Sure enough, Chloé Bourgeois, Queen Bee and daughter of the mayor of Paris, was flirting with Adrien.

"So, Adrihoney," She smirked, "We would look sooo cute together in that new pastel line your father is releasing."

"How did you know about that?" Adrien asked, equally confused and uncomfortable. "My father hasn't told the press yet."

She giggled almost sweetly (Marinette and Alya were not fooled). "My daddy's the mayor, remember? It has its perks." She leaned closer to him.

Marinette let out another little shriek. "Alya, she's going to kiss him and then they'll get married and have little children and live in a--"

RING!

Alya laughed as Chloé pushed away from Adrien and flipped her blonde hair, then settling on scuttling off, Sabrina at her heels. "Saved by the bell, girl!"

"Phew, you're right... But what if he liked her and then I don't have a chance to--"

"Don't worry, I'm sure Adrien can see right through her infatuation act. Chloé's shallow and he's smart! He'll figure it out! Now get to class, that bell was the two minute warning."