Imogen Craddock
As Marinette lay back, clouds drifting before her eyes illuminated in the moon's glow, a feeling of serenity passed over her as she drifted towards sleep; that was until an abrupt noise awoke her from her trance. (Back in the present, Marinette's mind pondered the sound and its arrival in the middle of the night. Her immediate thought was Tikki who often went for a midnight snack but upon hearing another crash from below, her suspicions leaned towards a less positive conclusion.) Tikki was never as loud as whoever was creating the commotion below, she was cautious, and this, this was just reckless.
Stepping down from her bed, Marinette made her way towards the door taking an extra effort to avoid the floorboards that produced creaks. Not unlike Tikki, she, too took precautions to ensure the close secret of her nightly adventures, though in Tikki's opinion "not enough", she heard the words echo in her head. Tikki would not advise chasing an unknown noise maker in the middle of the night, but for Marinette curiosity had grabbed hold and showed no signs of releasing her.
As she came to a closer view of the door, Marinette could now see it was partially open. This discovery did nothing to assist the now uneasy feeling brewing in her stomach. She was positive that it had been closed when she fell asleep, like every teenage girl, she valued privacy. While her anxiety was growing, her inquisitive nature took lead as she opened the door revealing the dimly lit room that led towards the sound and its source.
Staying flush to the wall Marinette made her way towards the door slowing as she reached Tikki.
"Tikki?", she knocked keeping her voice low.
"Mari, what are you doing up this late" the little creature groaned "You should be asleep, you know, growing body and all that"
"Whats going on, Akuma, patrol?"
"There's someone downstai-" she was cut off by Tikki.
"There's what!" Tikki's voice rising
"Shh, it's not that bad, come on lets transform," Marinette said now immediately regretting waking her.
"wait, wait, wait, So there's an unknown stranger downstairs but everything's fine?" Tikki said, still trying to wrap her head around the facts Mari had just presented her with.
"everything will be fine, that is once we find out what's making the noise, TIKKI SPOTS ON"
As the she reached the stairwell reducing her pace, they both realised that sometime between Tikki waking and arriving at the stairs the noise coming from below had stopped.
"maybe they've gone?" Tikki suggested, wishing it true, desperately hoping Mari would
abandon this crusade of hers and just go back to sleep.
"mayb- wait listen" the sound had begun again, though this time much closer and easily
identifiable as the shuffling of feet.
Mari began moving towards the sound about to open the door at the bottom of the stairs when tikki whispered final words of warning,
"curiosity killed the cat".
Marinette's pause was long enough for the source of the original footsteps to speak.
"But satisfaction brought it back" the voice was familiar, Adrien maybe? But what was Adrien doing in her house in the middle of the night?
She turned the handle.
"CHAT!" the cheeky face waiting behind the door immediately changed to pure shock.
"la-l-adybug?". Oh crap she was still wearing the ladybug costume. "What are you doing here?"
"what am I doing here? What are you doing here this is my house". She realised her mistake as soon as it left her lips. "I-I mean marinette's house"