Adrien licked a sample of the homemade soup off the tip of his finger. He was absent from school the day before, and Marinette – with the assistance of Alya and Nino, and the supervision her mother – had made him some soup to help him feel better.

"I get why Cheng Shifu renamed his Celestial Soup after you, Marinette." Adrien said as he looked up from his classroom desk. His eyes were wide and sincere. Marinette temporarily got lost in them. "It wasn't just to bestow you honor for standing beside him. It was because-" His whole posture tensed and his face went pale.

Marinette kept her folded hands close to her chin, trying hard to concentrate on not shaking. Adrien had tasted the soup she made for him! He seemed to have liked it even! Then he looked like he had a stroke. Marinette's breath caught as she pictured him just toppling over to the side like a brick. She had poisoned him! She knew she did!

Then he started coughing. Marinette wasn't sure if she should be glad that he was coughing, because it meant she hadn't killed him with her soup, but it could also mean he was now choking on it. Maybe she still killed him!

Adrien frantically screwed the cap of Marinette's thermos back on, gathered it up with the rest of his things, and slid off the bench behind his desk. "Sorry," he choked out in between coughs. He kept his head down as he brushed past Marinette and raced for the door. "I should go eat this and rest up for the rest of the school day."

Then he was gone. Out the door and down the stairs in a flash.

"What was that?" Alya blinked as she tried to register what she just saw.

"That was me killing Adrien with my soup!" Marinette sank onto the steps next to his desk. "You saw how he just froze, and then the coughing? That's it. I killed him." She smacked her forehead against her knees as she hugged her legs close.

"Nah," Nino said. "My man is just a bit weird. He probably felt the coughing fit coming on and tried to hold it back. That's all."

"You didn't kill Adrien," Alya said. "He seemed to really like it. Nino's probably right. Come on. Let's go have our own lunches. You'll see. He's probably going to be right as rain when we get back."

Marinette softly nodded, not entirely believing her friends, but giving them the benefit of the doubt. She then let Alya walk her back home.

Ding.

"Welcome home, sweetie," Sabine said as Marinette entered through the bakery door. "Oh, no thermos? Does that mean you managed to give the soup to your friend today?"

"Yeah," Marinette sighed as she shuffled over to the register. Mindlessly, she kissed her mother on the cheek.

"She's a bit panicked about him eating the soup, ma'am." Alya offered.

"Oh, well we'll have to see if we can distract her, huh?" Sabine smiled and cupped her daughter's chin with her hands. "Thank you, Alya. Are you having lunch with us?"

"No, thank you. I'm meeting up with my mom at Le Grand Paris." Alya waved goodbye and headed off, ringing the bell a second time as the door closed behind her.

Sabine escorted Marinette upstairs to put a lunch together. Marinette remained zoned out the whole time. She only vaguely recalled watching her mother put the salad together.

"I'm sure your friend is very grateful that you, Alya, and Nino all put in the effort to make him something to feel better. That was very sweet of you," Sabine said. She poked at a few pieces of lettuce and watched Marinette do the same.

"What if he doesn't like it? What if it makes him feel worse? What if-"

"Marinette, sweetie, calm down. It will be fine. You did well when you made it. Your great-uncle would be even more proud than he already is. Trust yourself." Sabine walked around the breakfast counter and kissed Marinette on the forehead. "Please try not to stress out. Enjoy your lunch. Honestly, dear, I don't know what happened that made you lose your confidence so much."

Marinette then remembered Chat Noir. She wasn't sure what had gotten into him, but he was just as frazzled as she felt when she saw Adrien scurry out of the classroom.

"You took care of Terravenger all by yourself while you were waiting for me to finally show up," he had said. "Once I did you were still taking care of everything by yourself. What was I even doing in that battle, huh? You pretty much single-handedly took him down. You didn't need me. You never did. Not with this akuma. Not with others. I'm no superhero. I'm so lame compared to you."

"That's not true!" she had argued back. "Chat, tell me right now that you know that none of that is true! We're partners. I can't be Ladybug without you. I never would have if it weren't for your encouragement."

She had tried to close the distance between them, both physically and emotionally. She wanted to grab his hand and hold it until he believed her, but for every step towards him she took, he took one away. His ring beeped. He only had seconds left before he would de-transform, but Marinette couldn't give up. As Ladybug she tried one last time to reach him.

"Chat? Tell me you-" her earrings beeped. She was nearly out of time as well. She touched her earrings as if she could muffle the beeps. She wanted to ignore that their time was short. She needed him to know that he was far from useless.

Abruptly, Chat Noir closed the gap between the two of them with two large steps. Without looking at her, he wrapped his arms around her and jerked her close. She lost her balance and fell into his chest, in complete shock as he squeezed her tight and breathed her in.

"I'm sorry," he had whispered into her ear. Then, just as suddenly as he started the embrace, his hands shifted to her upper arms, and he held her at arm's length. He just held her there as she regained her balance, unsure of what was going on in his head or what had just happened. Once she was steady he let her go, and bounded off to a thick grouping of homes a block away.

After she had gotten home that evening she allowed Tikki enough time to recover before transforming back into Ladybug. She tried to call Chat Noir, but if he wasn't transformed it wouldn't matter. There was no way he'd get her messages. She left some anyway.

It kept a while for Tikki to convince Marinette to not transform back into Ladybug every half-hour or so in order to see if Chat Noir had tried calling her back.

That was roughly sixteen-hours ago. Marinette had been so focused on Adrien that day she nearly forgot about her partner. Her stomach lurched.

"Marinette?" Sabine looked up from her plate. "Are you alright? You haven't touched much of your lunch. Are you still worried about your friend?"

"Um, yeah. Sorry, Mom, I'm not that hungry. I think I'm going to lay down for a few minutes instead."

"You need something in your system for the second half of the school day."

"I'll be fine. I promise. I- I just need to lay down is all." Marinette slid off her stool and kissed her mom on the temple before hurrying up the stairs. She could feel her mother watching as she climbed to her bedroom.

"Are you alright?" Tikki asked, floating out from her hiding spot inside Marinette's purse.

"Tikki, spots on." Marinette's kwami got sucked into her left earring. A flash of pink surrounded Marinette, and her Ladybug costume formed, replacing her school clothes. Once she was transformed, she pressed a button on her magical yo-yo to convert it into a phone. She listened, but there were still no messages. She tried Chat Noir again.

It was her third attempt. She had also called him that morning when she woke up. She already left him four messages. When he didn't answer again she left him a fifth.

"Chat Noir, please contact me. I really do want to talk to you. I want to be there for you, but I can't be if you won't let me. I'm going to try again at around four today. If you hear this, please either get back to me, or meet up with me then. I'll be on the top of the Francoise Dupont school."

Defeated, Ladybug hung up and attached the yo-yo back to her hip.

"Spots off," she said, her voice soft and sad.

"You can't keep focusing on Chat Noir or Adrien," Tikki gently instructed. "It's not healthy to worry yourself so much over them. It's sweet that you care so much, but they both know that. You can't magically heal Adrien, and Chat Noir will talk to you once he's ready."

"I wish I knew how else to get a hold of him." Marinette sunk onto her chaise, and stared at her fingers folded in her lap.

"I know you do. You really should get something to eat, though. Your mother is right, you are stressing yourself out too much."

Marinette paced around her room. She couldn't sit still, not even long enough to eat anything. Her eyes drifted around her room like she was trying to figure out what to do with a Lucky Charm. She knew there had to be something else she could do to reach out to Chat Noir. She wondered if Alya would be able to think of something. She knew so much about superheroes.

Wait! Alya! That was it!

"Sorry, Tikki," Marinette said with a smirk, "but spots on!"

Once she was Ladybug again she leapt onto her lofted bed, and then out the skylight that lead to her balcony. She didn't have much time left before lunch was over, but she hoped she had enough to complete her plan. She swung her yo-yo, lassoed a building, and swung herself over to Le Grand Paris hotel.

Alya was finishing up her lunch with her mother at one of the poolside tables. Ladybug landed on the banister lining the rooftop patio.

"Ladybug?" Alya nearly knocked over her chair as she jumped from the table.

"Alya, I'm sorry to interrupt your lunch, but I was wondering if I could steal you for a favor before you have to return to school."

"A favor? For you?" Alya turned to her mother, who gave a reassuring nod, before turning back to Ladybug. With a large grin, Alya pushed up her sleeve and flexed. "What do you need, Ladybug?"

Ladybug chuckled and held up a hand. "Nothing dangerous, I promise. I just wanted to have you post something on your blog. Can we find somewhere quite to record in?"

"I believe the conference room on the fourth floor is vacant today. You should be able to get in there easily, and no one should bother you." Alya's mom stood up and began escorting the girls to the elevator.

"Thank you, Mrs. Césaire," Ladybug said. As the elevator doors closed she counted to ten, slowly.

"This is awesome!" Alya said. "I'm alone with Ladybug. Ladybug asked me for a favor! I'm assisting a superhero!"

"Alya." Ladybug stepped close to her best friend and placed her hands on Alya's shoulders. "I can trust you, right?"

Alya blinked a couple of times. "Yeah. Yes. Of course you can!"

"Good." Ladybug took a few steps back and leaned against the wall. "I need to trust that you won't ask any follow-up questions-"

"But-"

"No. We don't have the time, and I'm already going to tell you more than I probably should. I need you to know that I'm not going to be able to say any more. I also need to trust that you won't paint Chat Noir in a bad light."

"Bad light? Why would I? What's going on? Is there something wrong with Chat Noir?"

"No! Well, yes. Sort off. I think it will make sense when we can talk more."

The elevator doors opened soon after, and they snuck into the large conference room. Alya spent a couple minutes organizing for the best shot before motioning for Ladybug to take a seat.

"Okay," Alya said. "What do you need me to post?"

"I need you to do a normal intro like you would for any of your blog clips, and then I just need you to let me talk without any questions. Alright?"

"Um, alright." Alya switched her phone into selfie mode, after double checking that she had Ladybug properly focused on the other side. "What are we doing though? An interview?"

"An announcement. Say that I have an important announcement."

"And you came to me and the Ladyblog instead of the news stations? Too cool!"

"Alya, focus! You don't have much more time before you have to be back at school."

"Oh, right. Yeah, sorry." Alya cleared her throat and shook off the last of her fangirl giggles. Her face now serious, she hit the record button on her phone.

"Hey, peeps! It's Alya from the one and only Ladyblog, and boy do I have some exciting news for you. I'm currently sitting with the Ladybug right now! She has a very special announcement she would like to share with everyone. Ladybug?" Alya hit the button to switch off of selfie-mode, and nodded for Ladybug to go ahead.

Ladybug took a deep breath as she quickly planned out one last time what she was going to say. She made sure to look directly into the camera lens, and smiled softly.

"Hello, Paris, and to anyone else throughout the world that may be watching this. As you well know, I'm Ladybug, but what you probably don't know is how I became Ladybug. Or, rather, why I decided to be Ladybug. I have to say that it is largely because of Alya here-"

Alya stifled a squeal.

"-and just as largely because of Chat Noir. I think it's important that all of Paris knows how the two of us met."

**A/N: I know this isn't the update a lot of my fans were waiting for. I swear I AM working on the penultimate chapter of "Peeping Tomcat." I just couldn't get it to work, so I tried a writing trick: Write it from a different character's POV.

Naturally, I had to give Marinette a go. What has been going on in her head since the Terravenger attack? This companion story takes place between chapters 13 and 14 of "Peeping Tomcat."**