7: Consumed

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You let out a slight groan as you woke up. Ah, you were tired... You rubbed your eyes as you swung your legs off the bed, bringing the covers with you. You untangled yourself, spinning around to release your legs, and ended up in front of the mirror. As soon as you saw yourself, your eyes widened considerably. Well, they would, if you even had eyes...

Your body had transformed into a container of dark, black mist. The mist slowly radiated off your body, dancing like flames and evaporating into the air. You had no features, apart from your teeth and white irises that didn't even have proper eyelids to surround them; only a black outline. The rest of you was a silhouette. 

You turned yourself at angles to study your newly-found form. You continued to stare in shock. Your whole body was mist... You touched the mirror, to see you could still make physical contact with things. You let out a sigh in relief. You were still able to touch things. You continued to stare, before letting out a sigh.

"...You know what, I'm too tired for this." You grumbled, spinning on your heal and walking off to the bathroom to get ready for your day. As you walked, you tried to disable your mist-form, which surprisingly worked. You got ready fairly quickly.

You let out a sigh and looked at yourself in the mirror once more, enabling your mist form. You noticed that your clothes weren't part of your outline... Did that mean you had no clothes on? Your eye twitched at the thought. Nah, you were probably fine... It felt like you were wearing clothes, so it was all good. You disabled your mist form once again

"Hey, Hawky. You there?" You asked. No outline appeared on your eyes. Yeah; he probably couldn't hear you without the butterfly filter... Oh well. You decided to get some food. No one lived with you, so you'd have to get your own food, and you didn't feel like cooking today. You decided to visit Marinette's bakery, since you needed some bread and felt like having something sweet. You checked yourself in the mirror a few more times, careful not to let your eyes or fangs slip. You hoped that obtaining this new mist form wouldn't do anything to the control of your appearance.

You walked off to the bakery, occasionally using your phone camera as a mirror to see it your teeth and eyes were okay. You didn't want to change in the middle of the street. Luckily, you seemed to still have the same grasp on your features. With your retained confidence, you entered the bakery, the bell ringing. Marinette was working at the till, her parents in the back, rushing around and frantically preparing something. They probably had an order or something... You approached Mariette.

"Ah, hey, Y/N!" The girl smiled. You returned the gesture.

"Is it the order?!" Marinette's mom yelled from a distance. You looked over the counter to watch them run frantically.

"No, it's just Y/N!" Marinette replied.

"Who?!" Her mother yelled once more. Ah, Marinette didn't talk about you. That was to be expected, though. You never really did anything interesting.

"A girl from my class!!" Marinette yelled back. She glanced back at you. You were staring boredly at her, waiting for her to finish up with her conversation. You just wanted food... She let out a nervous laugh, "S-Sorry about that..."

"It's fine." You replied. You briefly glanced at the foods the shop had on display. "Hm... A loaf of bread and [food], please."

"Oh, sure! I'll get you that right away." Marinette smiled, rushing to one of the glass cases and taking out some bread and [food]. She put them in a bag and gave them to you.

"Thanks." You replied, getting out your money. You had made this order plenty of times before, so you knew the price. You slid the money onto the counter. Marinette quickly counted it and sent you a smile.

"Thank you! Please come again soon!" She smiled. You let out a small smirk at her cashier-ly ways. 

"Sure. Oh, uh, how much math homework did we get again..? I did the quiz, but I'm not sure about the rest..." You laughed sheepishly. You weren't paying attention and forgot to remember homework.

"Ah, just go ahead and go upstairs. My homework is on my desk, the assignments are on the left." Marinette smiled as a new customer came in. You nodded, going to walk up as Marinette's parents asked if it was the order again, which she denied.

"Alright, thanks." You replied, heading up to her room. She had all the girls over a few times, so you knew where to go by now. You entered the room and went over to her desk. You rolled your eyes at all pictures of Adrien with a smirk. This girl was seriously in love with him... Her homework was laid out on her desk. You moved the science homework aside to get to the math homework, picking it up and mentally noting it down, when suddenly, you felt your body turn to a mist.

"Dammit!" You growled, dropping the papers onto the floor, letting them scatter around you. You tried to turn back. It didn't work. This was stupid! How were you going to keep your form a secret if you couldn't even disable it?! This anger only seemed to fuel your form more, and more black gas lifted off you.

"Y/N? I heard you shou-" A voice said, before cutting itself off in shock. You quickly turned to the source of the noise. Marinette was just entering the room. You stared at her blankly, before your posture transformed into a more relaxed one. You chuckled.

"Ah, it was a good run... Oh well. You know, Marinette, I like you. You're pretty nice, in my opinion. Though, now that you've seen this, well..." You trailed off, your body starting to lift off the ground, "You'll have to go."

Marinette stood still in fear. She gulped, and with a slightly wavering determination, she ran back down the stairs. You laughed manically.

"Oh no, you don't~" You giggled. You flew off toward her with incredible speed. Ah, you could fly... Before she could exit the room, you grabbed the coat stand beside the door and swung it at her, knocking her out. Luckily, it didn't make too loud of a sound. You let out a sigh as you stared at the unconscious body before you. You decided to bring her up to her room, just in case her parents came in. You dragged her up the stairs. Hopefully, you didn't do anything too bad. You were all for stealing her happiness, but killing her? Not so much.

You lay her on her bed and let out a huff. What a bother. You thought about what you were going to do. Perhaps you could lock her in the basement... It was dark, dusty and cluttered, but you couldn't hear anything when it was down there. You didn't want to risk her telling people your identity when her happiness wasn't completely stolen. You thought for a while as to how you'd transport her from here to your house without being seen. Transporting whisps was a lot easier than transporting humans... Though, maybe the rooftops would work...

You eventually got home, Marinette with you. No one saw you, surprisingly. You put the bread and [Sweet food] away in your fridge for later, before returning to Marinette with a smirk. You knew what you were going to do with her.

I slowly awoke, my head pounding. I was sitting somewhere... I let out a groan before recollecting my thoughts. Right, Y/N! She was actually the Akuma! I couldn't believe it... I thought she was meant to be our , not akuma! 

My vision slowly focused to show I was in a cluttered room filled with old, barely used and forgotten items. I felt something tightening around my feet. I quickly looked down to see Y/N was tying my right foot to a chair. Only then did I realize I had been restrained to a chair. I gasped as I looked down at her shadowy form. She sent a malicious smirk as she tightened the knot, making me wince slightly.

"Hey, you're awake." She smirked maliciously. "So, you saw me like this, huh? That sucks. Well, don't worry. I'm just going to take your happiness, and once you're so drained you can't talk, I'll let you go." She smiled, talking as if she were simply discussing normal matters. I could feel Tiki shift in my bag. I subtly glanced down at it to see it was open. That means I could transform if I really needed to... I shifted my gaze back at the monster before me to see she had started to let a dark whisp escape from her pitch black fingers. I gasped in fear.

"W-WAIT!" I yelled, screwing my eyes shut. I peeped back up to see she had halted with her actions, withdrawing her hand ever so slightly. "I-I... Why...? Why are you doing this? What made you so angry to get you akumatized?!"

"And why should I answer?" She replied calmly. I gulped, looking for a reply. If she was able to transform back and forth from either form, that might mean she isn't completely akumatized... I should try and convince her to come back! It's never worked with any other akumas, but that's only because they were consumed in anger... I let out a shaky breath. It could work, and it was my only choice.

"Because I want to know your story." I replied firmly. I barely knew Y/N. She always... fascinated me. She was always so lonely, and I wanted to be her friend, but it was strange... She was always so easy to forget about. I can't blame it on her; she always attended social things and tried to make friends, but once she was forgotten one too many times, she'd stop trying. But, there was one thing I did know about her, and it was that she didn't like cheesy things. So a phrase like, 'I'd like to help you' would most likely anger or frustrate her...

"Huh. I expected 'I want to help you!' or something cheesy like that. Since you didn't come up with such a horrible phrase, I guess I can reply. I'm lonely. I have no close friends. My life is boring as heck and Akumas do nothing to me. The one thing that makes everyone else's lives exciting and dramatic just ignores me, and then everyone else does too. I'm not an akuma repellant, I'm just... Nothing. I repel it all. It's sort of frustrating, but I kind of learnt just to... give up. Give up on being angry. And really, giving up being on angry just makes you sad." She shrugged, though sadness was creeping up in her tone. I felt sympathy weight me down, feeling pity for her. We went to the same school since forever, and she was always like this. Always. To think all this time she had been miserable makes my heartbreak. Suddenly, she started to laugh, "But it doesn't really matter, because guess what~? I'm the bad guy!"

She extended her arm and a whisp dove out her fingers, heading straight for my core. I gasped and tried to break from my restraints. Things seemed to slow down. No, this couldn't happen! If I couldn't do anything... If I was stuck here... No one could de-evilize her! I spotted Tikki in my bag nodding. It was my only choice... I sucked in a breath of air before shouting,

"SPOTS ON!"

FLASH!

"Lucky charm!!" I yelled once more. 

One of the ropes on my hand untied on its own, and I was able to throw my yoyo up into the air. I got a box cutter! I swiftly got rid of my restraints and ran out of the basement, leaving Y/N stunned. I scrambled up the steps and swung the door open, leaving it ajar behind me as I ran.

"Haha... Hahaha~!! I KNOW YOUR IDENTITY, LADYBUG~! I'M COMING FOR YOU!!" Y/N screeched as I ran off. I ran out the door and onto the street, ignoring her laugh that was filled with insanity. I threw my yoyo and swung upward, then across the buildings to my home. As I dove from building to building, the images and her words stuck repeating in my head, I thought...