Shadowing, Jacques decided, was a dying art-form. He'd followed Marinette from work, to the hair salon, to an inexpensive shoe boutique, and then home. Not once had she met with anyone interesting, though she had helped a few children retrieve a ball from a tree and had bought a wizened old man a bag of bird seeds for his pigeons. It was nauseating, the type of work she did for free, but he kept at it. Sooner or later la salope would meet with another of her boyfriends – or even better, Chat Noir, and Jacques would be able to catch his transformation on film.

It was so frustrating really, he'd been taking pictures during the whole scene, but while he had seen it with his eyes, in his photos it just showed Adrian being thrown at the wall, and suddenly Chat Noir appeared in his place. Not that people couldn't put two and two together with evidence like that, it was so obvious but a picture of the famous Adrian Agreste in mid transformation into the equally famous Chat Noir would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And then, once he had money, Jacques could finally life the life he deserved.

He could move into a fancy mansion where he could devote himself entirely to his music (though maybe he would come out once in a while to get pictures on other famous celebrities to keep the cash flowing.) He would open up his mansion every week or so to have parties, (what was the point of having wealth if you didn't show it off?) They would be events only the elite could be a part of.

Fame, fortune...he would be tripping over girls begging to sleep with him, and he was sure that Marinette would be one of the crowd. That's why she was fawning over that rich Adrian Agreste after all, so long as you had money, girls would do anything for you.

A flash of movement caught his eye and Jacques peeked out from behind the tree where he was keeping an eye on Marinette's apartment. Marinette was strutting down the street, looking dolled up in a new dress and matching heels. Probably meeting one of her sugar daddies, Jaques decided as he snapped a few pictures. He waited until Marinette had gotten to the corner before he followed her.

"Are you sure I look okay, Tikki?" Marinette fussed as she walked down the street. "It's not too much, is it? Maybe I should've worn something more casual. Do I still I still have time to go back and change?"

"Marinette, relax," Tikki squeaked reassuringly. "You look beautiful. That new blue dress you made looks great with your heels."

"It feels too short." Marinette tugged at the hemline. "Or maybe because the heels are too high? If the color hadn't been a perfect match I wouldn't have bough them."

"They're perfect." Tikki assured her, patting her hand. "Adrian is going to think you look amazing."

"But maybe I shouldn't care about what Adrian thinks?" Marinette babbled as she crossed a busy street. "I should be more concerned with dressing pretty for me, right?" One or two passersby glanced in her direction as she walked by, wondering if the pretty, petite brunette was talking to them. More than one wished she was, as Marinette continued down the street, not noticing the admiring glances being thrown her way.

"I bet it'll be like high school all over again and I won't be able to talk to him. Maybe I should cancel," Marinette said nervously, pulling her phone out. "I mean, even if this is just a casual dinner between friends I don't want to come in and make a total idiot of myself."

"Marinette!" Tikki risked exposure to fly up into her best friend's face and give her a pep talk. "Listen to me," she said, hovering as close as she could and putting her tiny paws on her hips. "You are no longer in high school. You are a strong, confident, beautiful woman who shouldn't need to worry what Adrian thinks about you. Who cares if this is a date or just a casual dinner with friends? Just focus on being yourself, and if he does want it to be more he'll tell you."

"But what if he doesn't tell me? What if he doesn't want more?" Marinette fretted.

"Well, you can still tell him how you feel," Tikki said reasonably. "And if he doesn't want to be anything more than friends then at least you were honest about yourself. But the important thing is to enjoy dinner and stop worrying about-"

Tikki stopped talking and ducked to hide in Marinette's shoulder length blue-black hair. "Marinette!" she whispered urgently, "we're being followed!"

"What?" Marinette resisted the urge to turn and look, and instead pulled out a small compact make-up mirror, using the reflection to look behind her. "Where?"

"A couple yards back in a dark jacket and green baseball cap."

"Are you sure?" Marinette strained to make out the reflection in the fading light. "Maybe he's just going the same way we are."

Tikki was silent for a moment.

"Okay, turn down this alley coming up. If he's not following you, he'll keep going. And if he is-"

"Ladybug will have a word with him." Marinette finished grimly.

As the dark alley came up on her left, Marinette turned into it, stepping into the semi-gloom of the shadows. A few trashcans stood near the entrance and she ducked behind them, tucking up her skirt so it wouldn't touch the dirty concrete. Then Marinette waited in silence, her faithful kwami at her side, barely breathing as the seconds ticked by slowly.

The scuff of footsteps could be heard as people walked by, but none stopped. Then:

"Marinette?"

The voice, with a slight sneer was familiar. "Come out, I know you're here.

Marinette rose slowly, eyed the scrawny figure leaning against the alley wall.

"Jacques." She stepped around a puddle and faced her ex-boyfriend head on. "Why are you following me?"

"Oh, just taking a stroll down memory lane. Never realized you had so many famous friends."

"Well if you hadn't been so busy when I invited you to meet them, maybe you would!" Marinette snapped. Irritation flashed in Jacques eyes...then he smiled.

"You're right, I should've. But I'm making up for lost time now." He toyed with the camera slung around his neck and smiled at Marinette. "I wonder how many people would be interested in knowing that you not only have a little thing going on with the famous Nino Lahiffe, behind his fiancee's back, but you've also got something with returning celebrity, Adrian Agreste?" Jacques smirked, then added, "Or should I say the infamous Chat Noir?"

Marinette felt herself freeze as that last statement was tossed out. Chat was Adrian? Adrian was Chat? Was it possible?

She thought of the times when others had made this same accusation and another Adrian appeared just at the right time. Gorizilla, for example, and then there were times when he was just hiding or someone else had taken his place, like Chameleon or CopyCat. That should be enough proof, right? But she had gotten someone to take her place more than once too, in Timebreaker she had used herself, and in Kwamibuster and The Pharoh she had found excuses.

How many times over the years had an akuma attacked, and when it did, Adrian was the first to lend a hand? She thought back to Adrian fighting in the café. He'd reacted and fought like someone who had extensive training. He could've picked it up in the States. He could've picked it up from being Chat Noir. (It definitely explained how Chat had gotten there so quickly.) She'd thought she'd seen a flash of green as she had transformed, but it was over so quickly, and then Chat had stepped in...

When Adrian left for the United States, Chat disappeared too. And when she had woken up after she and Chat fought with the Weather Wizard, Adrian had been by her side.

"Come on, don't play dumb," Jacques' jeering words jolted Marinette out of her head. She attempted a smile. Whether it was true or not, none of her friends needed a scumbag like Jacques to drag their names through the mud.

"You think anyone will believe your gossip? What are you going to do, start a blog?"

"Of course not, do I look like I'd want to waste my time in front of a computer?" Jacques held up his camera and a thick envelope. "I got all the proof I need right here." He sneered as Marinette's eyes widened slightly in shock. "Not only do I have some very sweet interactions between you and your boyfriends, but-" Jacques smiled as he lied through his teeth. "I have Adrian's entire transformation into Chat Noir on film!" He tucked the envelope back into his jacket, then crossed his arms. "So unless you not only want every news outlit in the world to know your boyfriend's secret identity, and that you're sleeping around with both of them, you're going to have to make it worth my while."

Marinette hesitated for only a second.

"What do you want?"

Jacques smiled triumphantly.

"Oh, baby if only you'd said those words to me two days ago, we'd still be together."

"I dumped you." Marinette snapped. "And I'm starting to wish I'd done that months ago!"

Jacques started to snarl, then he remembered he still had the upper hand.

"Actually, I'm a little short on funds," he purred. "I was going to ask for only a little bit money to get by, but now I'm thinking if you don't give me enough to pay my rent, I'm taking these pictures and selling them to the highest bidder."

"You're blackmailing me?"

Jacques shrugged.

"You do have another option. Put in a good word for me with your friends, Nino and Adrian so I get a gig with them. It would be a huge help to get my music out to the world – something you should've thought of weeks ago."

Marinette felt her stomach turn. How had she ever believed that this scumbag was boyfriend material?

"So to be clear, you want me to put in a good word to my friends, who you will publicly humiliate if I don't do what you say? And say, I do get you a job with them," Marinette continued as she felt her temper come to a boil. "Are you going to just half-ass the job like you do everything else until you get fired and then complain it was someone else's fault?"

Jacques' cheek's flushed with anger and he took a step forward.

"Get me that job, or else I'll put pictures of you having a very tender moment on your balcony with Chat Noir! Yeah, I saw you," he continued as Marinette paled, "and unless you want the rest of Paris to know that Marinette Dupan-Chang is a dirty salope, then-"

He staggered back in shock as Marinette's fist slammed into his jaw, knocking out at least one tooth.

"Don't you ever try and threaten me." Marinette's voice shook with anger. "And don't you ever, ever try and threaten my friends. If I even see a glimpse of a scandal for Nino or Adrian, I will call the police and have you arrested."

Jacques was staggering to his feet. She'd HIT HIM. The quiet, subdued Marinette had actually hit him, and she didn't look quiet or subdued anymore. There was a furious light in her eyes like that of a tiger that had been provoked and was now ready to attack. He decided to bluff his way out.

"You think I care if I get arrested?" He tried to smile but it hurt too much. "What's the longest they can hold me for, a few years at most? But if these photos are leaked, it can drag their careers down for life. Do you want to be responsible for-"

Jacques walked into a black pole that hadn't been there a second ago.

"What the hell?" he bawled, holding a hand to his smarting eye. It would be black tomorrow, he just knew it, and there was only so much make-up could do.

A clawed, gloved hand seized him by his collar and hauled him up onto his toes as easily as if he was a child. Murderous green eyes looked into his. And Jacques gulped with a suddenly dry throat as Chat Noir growled at him, showing sharp teeth.

"Marinette might only be nice enough to have you arrested," he snarled, "But if you lay a finger on her, or on anyone else you're threatening, I won't leave enough of you to fill a shoebox. I will make you my personal cat toy, and by the time I'm done, you're going to wish you'd never met either of us in your life."

Jacques shrank away from the furious glare. This just wasn't fair. He'd thought Marinette would be an easy target but now she had one of her boyfriends protecting her?

"Please..." he whined, "I wasn't going to actually hurt her...."

"You weren't going to-" Chat raised a fist. "I could cataclysm you right now."

"Wait! Chat!" Marinette stepped in. "Look, Jacques, I hate your guts but we'll let this all go if you give us your photos and camera right now."

"What?" Jacques complained, "Do you know how much it cost me?"

Chat raised Jacques a little higher off the ground.

"Do you know how much it will cost to replace all your teeth?"

"Okay, okay! Fine, here take it!" Jacques said sulkily. He handed Marinette the camera and thick envelope of photos.

"Thank you." Marinette said, taking out the film from the camera and tucking it into the envelope.

"Can I have it back now?" Jacques asked hopefully. With any luck he could have some new pictures to sell by next week. Chat snatched it from Marinette's hand.

"Listen to me very carefully, Jackson." He said with a smile.

"It's Jacques-"

"Yeah, I don't care." Chat interjected. "We're going to let you go, but I want you to get this idea into your tiny, tiny little brain. If you go near Marinette, or any of her friends again, I will find you, and it will not end well." He punctuated his point by crushing the camera with one hand. "Do I make myself clear?" He said, letting the mangled camera fall to the ground. Jacques nodded, his eyes wide with fear.

"Good." Chat tossed him in an open garbage can so he landed among a stinking mess of rotting vegetables. "Now stay there until we leave."

He walked over to Marinette and scooped her tenderly up in his arms as she protested.

"Let's get out of here," he said firmly. Cradling Marinette gently in his arms, he leapt gracefully up a fire escape on one side of the alley, disappearing into the darkness above.

Down in the alley, Jacques climbed gingerly from the trashcan, and spat out a mouthful of blood. He ached all over, and he was smart enough to realize that Chat Noir would be good on his word if any pictures of Marinette or himself ever got out. But he would be damned if he didn't make them pay, one way or another.

Jacques spat blood again and limped away down the street. He still had one option left.

Hello Miraculous Readers,

Happy Holidays! I hope you're enjoying the story so far, and I thought that in celebration of the New Year I would post TWO MORE CHAPTERS instead of ONE :D

 Once again, I want to say, I really appreciate your support even though these episodes are coming out in fits and starts, it's the only thing that keeps me writing honestly. However, I promise at the very least to have a steamy new chapter next week to keep you entertained while I plan the next stage of this story :)So you can curl up with a hot mug of your choice of beverage and enjoy a little present from your authoress, Cantrella <3