(A/N): 10K reads? Are you freaking kidding me?! That is so awesome! I love you, guys!!!

For the first time since you started taking fencing lessons at the school, you were not paired up with Adrien. He was considered to be one of the best in the class. It was decided by the fencing coach that Adrien deserved some time to train with someone who was better skilled with a sword, so you were assigned to one of the other boys; Lucas. Lucas was easily the best fencer.

He was a bulky boy who stood pretty tall above you. Before class, you had seen Lucas without his helmet and you saw that he had dark black hair styled into a sort of undercut. He had a strong jawline and piercing gray eyes that were constantly furrowed in concentration.

"I'm still new," you told him, begging for some sort of mercy. "So wish me luck."

Lucas smirked down at you before pulling the front piece of his helmet back down over his face. "I've seen you with a sword- you won't need it." He gracefully got into his fighting position and waited for you to do the same.

But you had frozen for a moment, mouth slightly agape. No one in the class had any sort of confidence in your skill. You swallowed hard and got into your fighting stance. The clanking of swords following the start of your match was so loud that several people around you paused for a moment to see what was going on. Lucas had forced you into defense with his swift attacks, but your time as Batwing proved to be rather helpful even now when you weren't wearing your suit.

"I heard you were running for class representative, (L/N)," Lucas said suddenly. Perhaps he meant to catch you off guard because a moment later he lunged forward, thrusting his sword at you. However, you hadn't been phased- you slid to the side and his momentum pushed him forward.

What you did next you will never be able to justify. It was a cheap shot, but you had become used to winning by creative means. You stuck your left foot out just as he passed by, making him fall onto the floor. He quickly rolled on his back to jump up, but your sword was already in his chest.

"I'll only be the deputy," you corrected. You held your hand out to Lucas and helped him stand up. "Adrien is the one running for representative."

Lucas clicked his tongue a few times then turned his back to you as he removed his helmet. "Well, this Adrien should step down and let you run. Someone as strong-willed and passionate as you shouldn't settle for being someone's lousy right hand." He reached out towards your face and lifted the mesh shield of your helmet.

You slowly took a step back. "W-Wha--"

"Nadja Chamack. Don't be bemused, it's just the news!" You jumped at the sudden loud voice. Your first thought was that someone had just turned the television on, but when you looked around you saw the news anchor from TVi News. Her maroon colored hair had been clipped back with a barrette and she wore long earrings that matched her blazer. She had a microphone in her left hand and notes in her right. The cameraman followed close behind her as she ran towards Coach D'Argencourt. When she finally reached him she began to speak rather quickly. "Do you have anything to say about your quote un-quote landslide defeat?"

You couldn't help furrow your eyebrows as you turned to look back at Lucas. "What is 'landslide'? I haven't heard that word before." You place your sword under your arm so that you could remove your helmet.

Lucas lifted his own mesh shield and examined you with his intense grey eyes. "It means by a large margin."

"Oh, I see," you mumbled to yourself just as Nadja was being hurried out by one of the school faculty members. "What did he lose?" You tilted your head slightly drew your brows together.

Lucas' face maintained its same intensity. "No one told you about the mayoral election?" He pursed his thin lips in disbelief when you shook your head. "How is that possible when you literally live with the mayor?" He let his sword fall to the ground and crossed his arms.

"I... haven't lived with them for a while."

Lucas raised one of his bushy dark eyebrows, easily double the width of Adrien's, who obviously had to have his eyebrows groomed. "Oh? Then where are you staying."

"I've been with Adrien for a few days." This statement seemed to take Lucas by surprise, but before he could say anything your coach announced the end of training for the day. It had been cut short. Part of you wanted to ask if you could stay to train longer, but the other part was desperate to see Chat Noir. While you thought it out Lucas had picked up his sword and approached you.

"Mind if I walk you to the door, gorgeous?"

You swallowed down the urge to tell him you had a boyfriend because he would no doubt ask who, and having a boyfriend was a breach of your foreign exchange student contract- you could get sent home. So you just nodded your head, hoping Adrien would come make him a third wheel.

As soon as you entered the locker room Vladd zoomed out of your bag and zoomed around your head a few times before coming to rest on your shoulder. "You got a new text message," he told you, pointing at your phone.You unlocked it and saw you didn't have any notifications. With a small scowl you turned to look at you Imawk.

"Did you go through my phone?"

Vladd smiled awkwardly and shook his head.

"You totally did!"

"There isn't a need to keep secrets from me," he reasoned. You released a long breath and nodded. You guessed it was fine so long as he remembered to tell you about the messages.

"That's fine then. I guess you can download some games, too, in case you get bored."

His eyes lit up like stars and he smiled so wide that you could see his little fangs. "Can I add my fingerprint, too?!"

You snorted to yourself then laughed. "Why not?" you agreed defeatedly. You didn't see a reason to not indulge Vladd after he had done so much for you. He felt like a best friend and your gut tightened at the thought of losing him. "Anyways, who's the message from?"

"Chloe."

And indeed it was. Chloe had staged a meet-and-greet with Jennie Kim as a way to launch her campaign. It was a photo message with the two girls side-by-side with wide smiles. Both of them looked incredibly beautiful as if they had just had their hair and makeup done. Bright yellow text was written in the top corner telling you the details and the bottomed mentioned free autographs. "You've got to be kidding me," you growled, quickly throwing all of your belongings in your duffel bag and storming out to tell Adrien.

After you finished in the locker room you came out to see both Adrien and Lucas waiting for you. "Hey, guys," you said politely before focusing all of your attention on Adrien. "You won't believe what I just found out." You handed him your phone aggressively and told him to look at the latest message. The longer he looked at it the more surprised his countenance was.

Lucas seemed to read the situation easily and said, "I'm assuming we'll have to take a rain check on that walk." He chuckled amusedly and went to kiss you on both cheeks. It was alway odd for you to do this with new people, but it's what the culture called for. You apologized and promised to partner with him at your next fencing lesson, which seemed to satisfy him. He waved goodbye to Adrien then walked off.

"Who was that?" Adrien asked, a little on edge.

You shook your head with a sigh. "I'm not really sure. I've only just met him. He's in your fencing class, you should know him better than me."

"I've never heard him talk." You didn't pick up on Adrien's annoyance, and if you had you would have associated it more with the picture in his hands. You were nearing the exit of the school

As you exited the large double doors you froze in your tracks. You had arrived just in time to see your coach be engulfed by the thick purple fog affecting only those who had been akumatized. D'Argencourt had transformed into old style armor made of iron, no doubt, with wispy black emblems. He drew his long sword to reveal it was glowing slightly red.

"Anything y-you'd like to say about your t-transformation into a—" Nadja stammered, gripping her mic until her knuckles were white.

You were completely frozen in shock as you watched a bright red orb form at the handle of his sword, and he shot it outwards to Nadja and the cameraman that had been berating him. It hit both of them between the eyes and the genuflected without resistance.

"Darkblade! The lord of Paris! Thou shalt become my knights!" He tapped each of them on the shoulders with the tip of his blade, inducting them to his army. "Soon my army shalt be immense and unstoppable!" He slashed at one of the billboards and with one clean cut he had torn it in half. "We shall take City Hall by storm and reclaim the throne from Bourgeois the usurper!"

"Um... Remember what I said about having to leave suddenly?" Adrien asked. Without looking at him you nodded. "I'm going to have to cash that in." He grabbed you by the bicep. "Get somewhere safe," he demanded in your ear. His heart was racing and he didn't have time to make sure you had found cover, which stressed him out greatly. Adrien figured he could do more for as Chat Noir, anyways.

"Y-yeah, okay."

Adrien ran off back into the school, shutting himself in the locker room. You merely got behind one of the doors and called out to Vladd. "We've got some butt-kicking to do." You smirked as he flew out of your bag. "Vladd! Ears out!"

(A/N): tadaaaaa...? *awkward smile* It's so long😅