"Hello and good morning, Paris. This is Nadja Chamack with you morning news." The reporter stated. "They've been the buzz for some time now and all of Paris adores them, but is Ladybug and Chat Noir's partnership fading? Recent footage from the past few weeks has shown the heroes arguing and their missions have taken longer to complete." Nadja pointed at a TV that played a sequence of short videos." With all the questions that have come from this, the superheroes continue to refuse to do an interview or address the issue at hand." A fake image of Ladybug and Chat Noir popped up and split down the middle. Nadja looked back at the camera. "Are the protectors of this city giving up? Is their team disassembling? Who will keep Paris safe? More to come. I'm Nadja Chamack with your morning news." Nadja gave a wave and the screen changed to a commercial.
A young girl watched the news story on a store TV from outside. She watched the whole story and felt sad because of it. She aspired to be like Ladybug and looked up to the heroes of Paris, but with the two arguing and becoming negative news reports, it was upsetting.
The girl turned around and saw a group of pigeons at her feet. She smiled and gave them a few pieces of her blueberry muffin. They happily gobbled up the small pieces and started pecking at her dandelion ring.
"Hey, guys." She covered her ring and tossed the last bits. "Don't eat that. It may be a plant instead of a real ring, but . . . it's all I got." The pigeons looked up to her for more, but she showed them her empty hands.
"Hope? What're you doing?! You can't feed the birds!" Her mother shouted, grabbing her hand. "That muffin was for you not them."
"But they're hungry." Hope whined.
"And so are we." Her mother put her hands on her shoulders and looked at her. "You know we can't afford too much. I can barely afford our meals, let alone these birds included." The mother smiled at her daughter. "I admire your kindness and I'm glad you aren't depressive about our current situation, but . . . we'll have to leave them be. We can't afford to aid everyone."
"I just wanted to help them." The girl said quietly as her mother walked her away from the small flock.
"But Marinette!" Tikki whined as she followed her chosen.
"It's okay, Tikki. Me and Chat Noir will be just fine." She said, a little frustrated.
"But you just saw the news report." Tikki pointed to her computer. "News is spreading about the tension between you two."
"No one's going to believe that." Marinette waved it off. "News is biased and overdramatic anyway, so most people will just ignore it."
"But if Paris thinks your aren't going to be partners anymore, they're gonna lose faith in you guys and they'll publicize all of your mistakes more." Tikki worried. "And if you slip up too badly, everyone might hate you two and push you away to try and fix it themselves, causing them to hurt themselves."
"You worry too much, Tikki." Marinette stated, tucking her notebook in her backpack.
"Just talk to Chat Noir. Don't leave anything hanging." Tikki insisted. "It feels like you're hiding something. Something you won't admit to anyone, including me. Chat Noir should at least know."
Marinette stopped packing her bag and closed her eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about, Tikki."
"You may not know all the details, but you definitely feel that something is off. And you're hiding it." Tikki said, flying in front of her. "I don't know your emotions and I don't know how you're feeling, but at least admit . . . that you don't know either."
Marinette opened her eyes but didn't look at her kwami. "Everything will be fine, Tikki." Marinette ignored her and slung her backpack on her shoulder before walking out.
Tikki sighed and zoomed into Marinette's purse just before she dropped the hatch.
Marinette quietly walked down the stairs of her house and left the building. Tikki still felt something off with her, but didn't say anything. Marinette crossed the street to the school where she instantly spotted Adrien. A cool breeze blew his blonde locks out of the way to reveal his flawless face. For some reason lately she's felt a stronger connection to him. They weren't talking more, hardly at all actually. But something just felt different. She didn't know if it was her sudden distance from Chat Noir or not, but she was more drawn to Adrien as a person.
She waved to him from afar, but he ignored it. Marinette shook it off and walked up the front steps of the school. Right when she was about to set foot on the last step, her foot suddenly slipped and Marinette fell. Marinette rammed her ankle into the edge of one step as her stuff scattered.
"Ow." She hissed, holding her ankle.
The school bell rang and Marinette sprung up off the steps, feeling a stinging pain. She sprinted to grab her purse and backpack along the lover steps before carefully making it to the top. Marinette ran into the school, ignoring her ankle since she didn't want to be late to class once again.
During class Adrien seemed a little down. He wasn't his usual happy self like he was when he's around his friends and he stayed like that all day without a word. Adrien seemed to be thinking about something, but he never said what it was and no one mentioned it.
Sorry for the short chapter, but this is like an intro to the story . . . kind of. At least the other chapters are longer. If you read this story before August 2018, then you read this before I updated it. I went back and tried to add some more details and words to this part. Nothing too big, but whether you wanna reread it or not, it doesn't matter.
-Alice Pink