Secret Teller
It was another bright day in France with only a few wispy clouds to break the wide expanse of the light blue sky. The sun was a little more than half way through the sky when Alya greeted Marinette with a mischievous grin as she walked out of her family's bakery. Marinette raise an eyebrow at her best friend, wondering what her devilish mind came up with during their short lunch break. "You know, Marinette," Alya started, "I think it's about time you confessed your undying love to Adrien." Marinette blushed "Wh-what?" she laughed nervously. "I-I can't do that!"
"Hi, Marinette." The two girls jumped, had he heard their conversation? Marinette blushed more; unable to look at Adrien's face.
"Hi, Adrien, Nino." Alya responded for the both of them.
"Did you have a good lunch break?" Adrien asked as they walked up the school steps together, but they didn't answer. The bell rang meaning they were late for class. The four of them ran inside and up to their classroom, making it just before the teacher walked in. Marinette and Alya looked at each other with an understanding look. Adrien didn't show any signs that he had heard their conversation earlier. Marinette sighed internally with relief and took out her book and notebook for class.
However, unbeknown to them, someone else did hear their conversation and she wasn't going to let Marinette, of all people, confess their love to Adrien. Chloe smiled to herself. She had the perfect plan to crush Marinette's dreams, or to be more precise, her heart. During study hall in the library, Chloe told Sabrina her plan and had her write a letter that would make Marinette never think about so much as talking to Adrien ever again. After Sabrina finished the letter, the two pretended to have to go to the bathroom to slip it in Marinette's locker. They returned to the library with smug looks on their faces to wait for the fun to begin.
The bell rang again telling everyone that the last period of the day had ended and it was time to go home. As Marinette was putting in her first two locker combination numbers Alya rushed over to her juggling homework and books. "Hey Marinette," Alya struggled to shove her stuff in her bag. "I gotta leave now or I'll be late for the bloggers meetup at the park, see ya tomorrow!" She ran out toward the school doors, somehow managing a small wave to Marinette while still shoving stuff in her bag and almost dropping her books in the process. Marinette waved back stupidly to the now empty doorway giggling at her friend's antics. She turned back to her locker and spun the lock to the last number in the combination, 13. Inside she found a note with her name written on the outside in neat hand writing. Wondering who could have written it, she quickly opened it. Marinette went from curious-nervous to dumbfounded. The letter read:
"This morning I overheard your conversation with Alya about how you wanted to confess your love to me. Well, I'm writing you this to tell you not to bother. I'm only just able to tolerate being friends with you. I would never want a stammering klutz like you to be my girlfriend. I've already set my heart on a true French girl, Chloe.
-Adrien"
It almost didn't feel real, the wheels in her mind stopped turning. Marinette couldn't remember feeling the tears run down her face after finishing the letter, or how she managed to make it to her room without being stopped or whether or not anyone even noticed. Her heart hurt more than anything ever has. She sobbed into her pillow, still clutching the letter in her hand while Tikki was trying to console her. Marinette couldn't hear her, or maybe she did but it hurt too much to think about. She just wanted to forget everything, to never have foolishly fallen in love with someone who hated her.
"Ah young love and first heart break. So much emotion. So much untapped power." Hawk Moth chimed to the butterflies that surrounded him. "Go my little akuma," he ordered as one of them turned black and purple in his hand "Evilize her."
Shut off by her sorrow from anything going on around her, Marinette hadn't noticed the akuma that had flown through her window, but someone else did. "Oh no you don't!" Tikki squeaked "You are not akumatizing Marinette!" She tried to kick it away but the dark butterfly was too fast and landed on the severally crinkled letter still clutched in Marinette's hand. "Oh no!" Tikki lunged forward hoping to somehow be able to stop it, but there was nothing she could do. Marinette was already transforming without her.
Time seemed to have stopped for Marinette the instant the akuma absorbed into the letter. A voice echoed clearly in her head that wasn't her own. "Hello, Secret Teller. My name is Hawk Moth, I can help you get revenge on the one who broke your heart, as long as you agree to do as I say."
Tikki looked on in helpless horror as the Marinette she loved was replaced by a young lady with a heart crossed out with a black "X" on the front of her new outfit. This other person wore a round purse around her waist and a blindfold over her eyes. Her black boots and gloves faded to red on the rest of her outfit which matched the black and red lines running down her cheeks from where her eyes where hidden. Before Tikki could say or do anything, Marinette, no, Secret Teller jumped out the window and headed toward the school across the street.
After being held back in the library by Chloe who asked for help studying, Adrien finally made it to his locker. "I thought she would never stop talking." Plagg lazily floated out of his hiding place, "She delayed my hourly camembert snack."
"You know, there are more important things than cheese, Plagg."
"Like Ladybug?"
Before Adrien could blush, too much that is, a scream echoed from the court yard. What he saw through the locker room window was unmistakably someone who had been akumatized. "Looks like your camembert is going to have to wait some more." Adrien joked. "Plagg, claws out!"
Chat Noir burst into the court yard just in time to see Secret Teller hit Sabrina with a letter after narrowly missing Chloe. Sabrina's face darkened, voices that only she could hear were telling her everything she feared people thought of her. She fell to her knees, her face showed the pain her heart felt, but her eyes were blank. Secret Teller pulled another letter out of her purse and aimed again at Chloe when Chat Noir stepped in. "Stop right there! Everyone likes to get letters once in a while, but this is a bit much, don't you think?"
"There's Chat Noir, give me his and Ladybug's miraculouses and I will help you get revenge." Hawk Moth's voice echoed in Secret Teller's head again. "As you command." She silently replied.
"When it comes to the truth, you can never learn too much. Why don't you try it?" Secret Teller threw several letters at Chat. He dodged them with cat like grace, and then he realized who it was that had been akumatized. It was Marinette! For a fleeting moment he wondered how she had been persuaded to help Hawk Moth, but more letters were being thrown at him and the thought left him. The letters were coming at him even faster now, and it was getting hard to hide from them in the court yard.
"You can try running Chat Noir, but I will deliver a letter to you and take your miraculous as payment." Secret Teller called after him as he bounded onto the roof of the school. She leapt up on the roof to give chase; her blindfolded eyes fallowed Chat as he zigzagged behind chimneys and over gaps between buildings.
"Ladybug, where are you?" Chat asked out loud to himself, "I could really use your help right about now!" Another letter flew by his head and hit a chimney behind him. He knew he couldn't keep running like this, but without Ladybug, Chat wouldn't be able to purify the akuma. Catching the butterfly with a normal container wouldn't work, he was pretty sure that, like Plagg, they could fly through solid objects. He didn't want to take the chance.
"Whoa!" Chat Noir exclaimed, "That was way too close. I'm running low on power too, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. Ma Lady, where are you!" Chat decided, as his miraculous went down to one paw pad on his ring, that it was time to loose Secret Teller to recharge and track down Ladybug.
Unbeknown to neither Chat nor Secret Teller, Tikki had been fallowing the pair trying to think of someway she could remove the akuma herself. However, Hawk Moth was bound to be watching, and if she tried to help, it would reveal Marinette's true identity. Deciding Chat Noir is safer to talk to than someone Hawk Moth is controlling, Tikki hurriedly fallowed Chat as he tried to loose Secret Teller.
Chat Noir made it just in time to hide behind a tree before he transformed back into Adrien. Tikki was shocked by what she had just witnessed, and yet it seemed oddly fitting. She had planned to just go straight over to him and explain what had happened, but she hesitated. Was revealing Marinette's identity as Ladybug to someone she knew worth the risk? Try as she might, Tikki couldn't see any way around it. She carefully flew over to the shady bench where Adrien had sat down. She could see his worried face as he pulled out a small wheel of camembert closely followed by Plagg. "I have to do this." Tikki reassured herself.
"Adrien!" A small, high pitched voice called to him as he handed a piece of camembert to Plagg. He saw the little red Kwami with black spots fly over to him.
"Who are you?"
"Tikki?" Plagg said, after swallowing his cheese whole, more asking why she was there rather than answering Adrien's question.
"I'm the Ladybug Kwami, I need your help!"
Adrien's heart lurched. "What? Is Ladybug in danger? What happened?" His mind was racing with all sorts of terrible things that may have happened to her.
"She's," Tikki paused, she was on the verge of tears "She's been akumatized."
"You mean to tell me that Marinette back there, Secret Teller, is Ladybug?" Too many things were clicking in his head to say anything else.
"Yes." Tikki paused again, this time for a different reason. Looking back to how this all started made her remember that it was whatever that was inside the letter that caused Marinette to be akumatized. "She got a letter from you and completely broke down." Tikki finally finished with a hint of anger in her voice.
"A letter? From me?" Adrien stumbled, "But, but I didn't write anything to her." Tikki's expression lightened a little.
There was silence between the three of them for the longest minute before shaking off the shock and glume that came with the conversation. "We need to come up with a plan to get her back without making hundreds more Seceret Tellers or revealing either of our identities." Adrien spoke wearily. He got up and began to pace, thinking out loud, "If I capture the akuma as Chat Noir, there's a chance that it could get away and cause more trouble. Not to mention Marinette would still be upset over the letter and would likely get akumatized again." He paced silently for a moment, thinking to himself. The slight breeze that slowly pushed fluffy clouds across the sky played with his hair, making it a bit messy. Adrien absently ran his fingers through it in a subconscious attempt to fix it. "I think," Adrien finally spoke, "I think I should do it as myself."
"But Adrien," Plagg rose up from the bench to be level with Adrien's eyes "She'll hit you with one of those letters if you so much as show your face to her!"
"I know! But I have to try something! Since this happened over a letter she thinks I wrote, then I need to be the one to confront her and tell her the truth. Maybe doing so will get her to de-akumatize herself." He looked confident in his plan, if not a bit worried too. "Once she's back to normal, she can transform into Ladybug and capture the akuma before it flies away."
"But what if your words alone can't change her back?" Tikki joined Plagg in front of Adrien, "What if you get hit by one of those letters? Then there won't be anyone who could help her!"
"If it looks like I can't dodge the letters or talk to her, then I'll transform into Chat Noir and try the harder way to get her back."
Tikki still looked very worried.
"Don't worry, we will get her back." Adrien assured her.
"Yeah! If there's anyone that can do it, it's my man Adrien here that can." Burst Plagg with pride and confidence, one of the only times he showed this much emotion toward something that wasn't stinky cheese. Tikki risked a small smile, maybe it will all work out.
Adrien and the two Kwamis made their way toward the school where they hoped to find Secret Teller or at least some clue as to where she went. They passed a few people who were on their knees, clearly hit by the evil letters. Then a few people turned into crowds of them. They must be getting close.
"Where are they!" A loud shout was heard from near the school. Adrien rounded the corner just in time to see Secret Teller enter the school again.
"Looking for me?" Adrien's voice called to Secret Teller from behind. She turned to him, her face twisted with anger. "So you finally show your face to me." She spat.
"Marinette, I didn't write the letter you got-"
"Lier!"
"Please! You have to listen to me. We're friends, and I can't imagine a world without you!" Adrien hadn't thought about what exactly he was going to say to convince her, he just spoke from the bottom of his heart. "I love you Marinette!" He pulled her into a hug. She was stiff with shock, a shock that ran down to her very core. Secret Teller wavered, she wanted to push him away, but the part of her that was Marinette didn't want to let go, his words felt true and his touch was inviting. A crinkled up letter fell out of her hand and Marinette put her arms around Adrien, finally back to normal.
"Marinette!" Tikki cried, tears ran down her small cheeks. Marinette and Adrien released each other. "Tikki, I'm so sorry, I-" She gasped "Tikki! You showed yourself to Adrien!"
"There's no time to explain, Marinette! We need to get rid of that akuma before it gets away!"
Marinette hesitated, she felt terrible for everything that happened. "I-I don't know if I can-"
Adrien took her hands. "Please Marinette, I know you can do it. You are very strong and passionate, and there's nothing you can't do. Believe in yourself the way that I, and everyone else, believes in you."
Marinette smiled, she felt light, as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. "Right. Tikki, spots on!"
Adrien was transfixed as Marinette transformed into the person he had always loved and felt a connection to. Then he realized that that was the same feeling he got when he was around Marinette too.
"Be back in a minute" Ladybug chimed. She used her yo-yo to catch up with the akuma which was flying over the school roof. There was a flash of light as Ladybug purified the akuma and all those who were affected by it went back to normal.
"W-What happened? Why am I kneeling on the ground?" Sabrina asked out loud to herself. "Oh my! It's almost night time!" She ran past Adrien and down the school's front steps out of sight just as Ladybug landed next to Adrien. She transformed back into Marinette after making sure the two of them were alone.
"So, you were Ladybug this whole time." Adrien laughed.
Marinette blushed "Yeah." Then a thought came to her. Speaking to Tikki this time "but why did you reveal my identity to Adrien?" Before Tikki could say anything, Plagg flew out of his hiding spot. "He's not just Adrien, you know."
Marinette's mouth hung open in shock, when she realized, she closed it and looked at Adrien. "So you're…"
"Chat Noir, at your service Ma Lady." Adrien bowed.
"I can't believe this." She laughed, forgetting about the letter and everything else that had happened that day. The two of them laughed, completely comfortable with being near each other, amazed that they went to school and fought evil together this whole time and never knew it. Time seemed to stand still but suddenly it was night time as they talked on the steps of the school. When they finally realized what time it was, they reluctantly bid each other farewell and went home with a spring in their steps. Tomorrow, everything was going to be different, and the new couple wouldn't change a thing.