Chapter Two
"Ha-ha!" cried a shrill voice, filled with assurance. "You're about to face my strongest catt-ack yet! Prepare to be defeated, Antibug!"
"Antibug...?" Marinette repeated, glancing down at the little girl beside her. The bad pun had been very similar to the real Chat Noir - a bit too similar! - but... "Manon, that's not Antibug, it's Ladybug!"
Manon had a doll in each hand. She held the Chat Noir puppet poised above her head, about to deliver a staff-blow to his opponent. The 'staff' in question was a drinking straw that Manon had picked up at a sidewalk cafe they had passed. Marinette could just imagine the doll's real-life double making some kind of 'final straw' joke, and cringed inwardly. Then she looked at the scowl Manon was now giving her, and cringed again. She had forgotten how much her baby-sitting charge hated being criticized - even over a simple game of 'Miraculous Heroes'.
"But it's Chat Noir," Manon insisted, sticking her lower lip out in a sulky pout. "He's a hero, and he needs someone to fight, and he can't fight Ladybug, so-"
...as if he's never done it before, Marinette thought wryly. The number of times he's been controlled by akuma - he's lucky I know how to evade some of his best strikes!
Aloud, she asked: "Does Chat Noir always have to fight someone?"
Manon lowered both dolls, suddenly uncertain. She appeared to consider this, casting around for an answer. Finally, with an expression of faint bewilderment, she said: "He's a hero. It's what he does." She made it sound like the most obvious thing in the world.
Marinette chuckled uneasily. Sometimes, what Manon said was a little too close to the truth; it was difficult to dismiss some of her more accurate comments as mere childish banter. Marinette often had the uncanny sensation that Manon knew more than she should - or was an incredibly lucky guess. "Well," she said, unable to fault the girl's reasoning, "if Chat Noir has to fight someone, it's better that he has Ladybug to help him - he's pretty hopeless without her!"
"Did she tell you that?"
Marinette frowned, puzzled by the question. "Who-?"
"Ladybug!" Manon shrieked back in reply, with childish excitement; it took all Marinette's time to keep a straight face, fighting the panicked notion that she had been recognized. "You're friends with her, aren't you?"
"Uh, er, um... sort of?" Marinette managed, her mind racing. Back when Climatika had attacked them, she had told Manon that, in order to keep her quiet; the girl had now taken the words as gospel. Why do children have to be so insistent? she silently asked the universe at large, with an inward groan.
"How can she be 'sort of' your friend?" Manon wanted to know.
"She... well, she... um, I'd like her to be a friend, I suppose, but I don't really know her that well..." If you're going to lie, might as well make it a big one!
"Kind of like how that boy in the posters is 'sort of' your boyfriend?" Manon thoughtfully suggested.
"Yes, like that!" Marinette seized on the idea; at least this explanation made sense to her small companion. Luckily, she had just come up with the perfect ploy to distract Manon before she could ask any more awkward questions. "Well, if your heroes need someone to do battle with, why don't you have them face this villain together?"She held out a hand, clutching the air as if there were another doll in her hand.
Manon stared at her empty fist, then looked sideways at her, confused. "Who... is that?" she finally asked after a long, doubtful pause.
"This villain is called the Vanisher," Marinette explained, brandishing the non-existent doll as if to show off her sewing handiwork. She rather reminded herself of the Mime. Mr. Haprèle would be proud of me! "She's a very good friend of Antibug's." It was almost true - sorry, Sabrina! "She's a very sneaky villain, and very difficult to take on - because she has the power to turn invisible! Your two heroes can't see her, so they don't know which direction she's coming from!"
Manon gasped, enchanted by this new addition to her favourite game. "What will they do?" she asked, a little breathlessly. Her captivated face was adorable to watch.
Marinette smirked; the fact that she had taken down - as Ladybug - a villain that Manon considered to be difficult made her feel rather proud. "It's alright - luckily for the good guys, Chat Noir's super-sensitive cat senses have already detected her approach! Look out, here she comes!"
She play-acted tossing the 'doll' towards Manon; the girl gave a delighted squeal, holding up her puppets again.
"Look out, my lady!" she said, in her piping voice. "The enemy is on your left! Thanks, Chat Noir! You can't sneak up on me, Vanisher! Ha, I've lassoed her with my yoyo string!"
The little doll's 'yoyo' was a teabag Manon had found at the same cafe as Chat Noir's 'staff'; it had a red label that read 'Earl Grey' attached to its string. Marinette chuckled as she watched Manon twirl the 'yoyo' in the air. She was glad that her own weapon was quite a bit bigger - and a lot more durable - than this miniature version. Then again, after a long day of school, homework, helping her parents, and chasing akuma over rooftops, she could always use a good cup of tea - perhaps with a cookie or two, shared with her hard-working kwami!
Manon dashed ahead along the sidewalk, using the dolls to act out a spirited fight that wound its way over flowerbeds, around signposts, and through fence palings. Marinette followed behind, suggesting counter-attacks and calling out encouragement to Manon's 'heroes'. After a short stroll, the two arrived back at the bakery, where Ms. Chamack was already waiting, chatting to Sabine over the counter. Manon happily ran forward to kiss her mother. After a quick exchange of pleasantries and a word of thanks from Ms. Chamack, Manon returned the dolls to Marinette, hugged her goodbye, and went home.
"Oh, Marinette," Sabine said, turning to look at her daughter with a heavy tray of baguettes expertly braced against her arm, "a girl from school called in while you were out. Her name was Nicole, she said she was on the student council. I let her go upstairs and take a look at your list of club ideas. I hope that was alright, dear."
Marinette fought down a rising sense of alarm, which she concealed from her mother with an effort. "N-no, Maman, that's alright... but next time, could you maybe tell people to wait for me down here, instead of letting them go up?"
Sabine smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, darling. Your friend Alya is up and down those stairs so often, I sometimes forget that you don't like having other people up there. You let Mr. Haprèle go up to collect his hat, and that boy from school-"
"Oh, uh, yes, but-" The mention of Adrien had Marinette momentarily flustered; he was so far removed from the problem at hand, and brought up so unexpectedly, that she faltered. She hadn't wanted him up there - at first, anyway - for a whole other reason! "I know, Maman. It's just... I like my privacy, is all."
Sabine smiled indulgently. Teenagers, really! she thought, as she filled the bakery shelves with fresh loaves. It was silly, but she accepted that Marinette was protective of her private space. She had been rather bashful about those handsome posters on her wall for some time now! "I understand, honey. I'll make them wait down here in future."
"Thanks, Maman. What did you say the girl's name was?"
"Nicole. She had long, brown hair."
Marinette frowned, wracking her brain wildly. She couldn't think of anyone on the student council named Nicole; and the only girl she could think of with long, brown hair was-
She gasped, very nearly dropping her dolls. Realizing her mother was watching her curiously, she hastily recovered her composure. There was no point upsetting her mother over something already done - especially when she couldn't begin to explain why it worried her so much! "Oh. Right. Well, er, I'd better put these things away and get on with my homework-"
Once she was through the shop door, Marinette sprinted up the stairs and burst up through the trapdoor into her room. A red blur darted out of her purse. Tikki, free to come out of hiding, hovered a bit above her head.
"What's wrong, Marinette?" she asked. Her large black eyes were scouting about the room, just as her Miraculous-holder's blue ones were currently doing.
"I'm not sure," Marinette replied, using the kind of no-nonsense tone she normally saved for Ladybug. "Something doesn't seem right about what Maman said, Tikki. I don't know anyone on the student council named Nicole, and the only person I can think of with long brown hair is..."
"...Lila?" Tikki supplied, in an anxious quaver.
"Yeah." Marinette didn't exactly get along with Lila; or, to be more accurate, her interactions with her as Ladybug had been far from friendly. But why would Lila sneak into her room? She hated Ladybug, not Marinette; and she had no way of knowing that they were the same person... did she?
She frowned worriedly to herself, sweeping a glance systematically over her possessions as she puzzled to make sense of it. She knew she was probably over-reacting, but she had become nervous about letting people into the room ever since she had been elected class president, when Chloe and Sabrina had tried to-
"Oh!" she exclaimed, wheeling around; her gaze shot to the pink polka-dot box on her desk. She heaved a sigh of relief, her hand over her rapidly-thumping heart. It was still there, and safely locked. She picked it up and shook it, just to make sure; something rattled reassuringly inside. "I was really scared for a moment," she moaned, collapsing into her desk chair. "I thought maybe Chloe tried to steal it again! But she doesn't have long brown hair... unless she dyed it, or wore a wig..."
She shared a sceptical glance with Tikki. They both chuckled at the thought. Chloe Bourgeoise, whose chief concern, even in the middle of an akuma attack, was the preservation of her hairdo? Not likely! Momentarily reassured, she returned to her first suspicion. "Could it have been Lila?" she murmured thoughtfully, leaning her elbows on the desk.
"I don't see how it could be," Tikki said, fluttering over to sit atop the diary box. "Didn't she leave a few days ago?"
"Yeah, but..."
Marinette didn't really blame Lila for leaving. In fact, she felt a bit guilty about it; but she was actually rather glad that she was gone. She had been humiliated by Ladybug twice - despite Marinette's best efforts to make up afterwards - so it was little wonder she hadn't wanted to stay in Paris, where posters of the polka-dot heroine were on every second street-corner, her masked face appearing on the news every couple of nights. After Volpina's first and only appearance, Lila had immediately dropped out of the student exchange program, returning to Italy as soon as she could.
At least, that was what Marinette had heard. Rose, who was too nice by far, had tried to get in touch with Lila - even if it was only for one day, she had been their classmate - but no one knew her phone number, and she hadn't left a forwarding address. It seemed as if she really was gone. But then, if Marinette knew anything about Lila, it was that she was a compulsive liar. Perhaps she had told everyone she was leaving and then secretly stuck around, plotting her revenge? But even then, why would she target Marinette? Unless...
Marinette didn't want to contemplate what Lila might do if she found out she was Ladybug.
"I might be seeing too much into this, but it could be serious," Marinette told Tikki; the little kwami gave a grave nod. "Maybe I should write this down, just in case it turns into something important - Master Fu said I should keep my thoughts ordered, and jotting things in my diary seems to help." She picked up the diary box; Tikki obligingly lifted off it, drifting over to float just above her computer monitor.
As she fumbled in her bag for the key, her phone vibrated against the back of her hand, startling her. She unlocked the screen to find a message from Alya:
What do u reckon, class pres? will members of ladybug club like their uniform? ;)
Attached to it was a selfie of Alya and Nino. She had a red and black-spotted scarf around her neck, pretending to plant a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek; he sported a pair of black cat-ears on a headband, giving the camera a jaunty salute. Behind them, Marinette could see a sign that said 'Miracu-less Discounts!' Beneath it were racks of similar accessories - hair bands, wallets, phone charms, key rings - some of them spotted black-and-red, others embellished with little gold bells. Marinette laughed and showed Tikki; they both giggled, though Marinette couldn't help feeling a little exasperated. Trust Alya to get carried away with her favourite obsession... and trust Nino to egg her on...
"Do you think your class will choose to have a Ladybug club?" Tikki asked. "It would be quite an honour!"
She sounded innocent, but she looked faintly gratified. Can't blame her for being flattered, Marinette thought to herself, with a swell of pride for her tiny guardian. She's the one that makes Ladybug who she is!
"I'm sure it would be, but..." Marinette uncertainly glanced aside at the floor rug, which was wrinkled; Manon must have messed it up while playing. "If they do, it will only make things harder for me, won't it? I already hate lying to Alya so much. If everyone forms a Ladybug club, I'll have to start lying to the rest of my friends as well!"
"How so?" Tikki asked, kindly concern on her little face.
"Well, they'll be talking about Ladybug constantly in the club - even more than they already do. I'll have to act like they aren't really talking about me and pretend I know nothing, right?" Marinette gazed worriedly up at her kwami. "Isn't that a form of lying?"
Tikki considered for a moment. "Mm. Sort of."
Marinette couldn't suppress a grin; those were the exact same words she had used on Manon. Considering how much older Tikki was than her, the comparison was perhaps an appropriate one. "What do you mean, 'sort of'?" she asked, in a teasing tone; she reached up to gently tickle Tikki's side. The kwami clung to her fingertip in an effort to stop her, giggling sheepishly. This was what Marinette liked best about being Tikki's Miraculous-holder: she might be a five-thousand-year-old guardian spirit with the power to vanquish evil, but she was still so sweet and approachable!
"I know you hate feeling like you're being dishonest, Marinette," the kwami said, reverting to a more serious tone. Marinette nodded in agreement. "Don't feel so bad about it," Tikki went on, consolingly. "Pretty much all Ladybugs have felt bad about having to keep secrets from the people closest to them - and most Chat Noir's too, I'm pretty sure. But you're not hiding things to be selfish or underhanded. You're only doing it to keep people safe. If civilians knew who you are under the mask, it would put you - and them - at greater risk from Papillion."
"I know," Marinette said, with a sigh. She had told herself this countless times since she had become Ladybug - since she had started cutting class, stealing from her classmates, making excuses for her sudden disappearances. She could not think of a single person she knew whom she hadn't lied to at least once - she'd even lied to Master Fu, and she'd only just recently met him properly! "It's just... I hate liars, and being one myself makes me feel like such a hypocrite!"
Tikki sighed, swooping down to pat her companion's cheek. Marinette was so nice - it was what made her such a great heroine, but also made being Ladybug really hard for her sometimes! "The duties that go with being Ladybug aren't often easy, Marinette, but you've handled it really well so far. I know Master Fu is very pleased with your progress. Having to deceive your friends is the price you have to pay for preserving the safety of Paris. You're protecting the people that you're lying to, so it's more like a necessary trade, isn't it?"
Marinette managed a smile. When it was put like that, it didn't seem so bad - even if the prickly feeling of guilt still remained. "Right," she agreed.
"And don't worry about whether there will be a Ladybug club or not," Tikki continued, drawing back to look her earnestly in the face. "It's not a sure thing yet; and if it does happen, I'm sure you'll manage. It's nice of them to show an appreciation for what you do - even if it's hard sometimes, it will remind you of what you're striving for."
"You're right." Marinette's smile was genuine this time. As usual, she felt a lot better after talking to her wise little kwami. The thought of there being a Ladybug club still freaked her out, but... the idea wasn't quite as daunting as it had seemed before.
"Well," she said, with the briskness that a bout of creativity usually brought on, "there won't be any kind of club until the votes have been cast tomorrow. I'd better finish making that ballot box." It already stood in the corner of her room: one of the large cardboard cartons that her parents used when they did catering for big events. It was ideal for her purpose: it had the bakery logo (which she herself had designed) stamped all over it, so if anyone - namely, Chloe - tried to switch or tamper with it, there was no way she wouldn't know. It didn't need much done to it to finish it off: all she had to do was cut a slot in the lid for the votes to go through. She rummaged in her drawer for a craft knife, and...
"Hey, Tikki, have you seen my ruler anywhere?" She glanced at her desk; she couldn't see the familiar strip of purple plastic anywhere. Tikki looked as well, rising in the air to get a better vantage point.
"There it is!" she squeaked after a moment, pointing to the floor at the foot of the dress-making dummy.
Marinette went over and picked it up, puzzled. She usually made a point of keeping her artistic tools neat and tidy. "Did you move it here, Tikki?"
"No, of course not."
"Must've been Manon," she decided out loud. She smiled, remembering the girl's enthusiastic game of 'Miraculous Heroes'. That child had a creative streak of her own when it came to coming up with play scenarios!
Thinking of Manon made her look at her collection of dolls. She had considered putting them away safely after her encounter with the Puppeteer - that little girl was trouble in so many ways! - but couldn't quite bring herself to. Most of these figurines were her friends in real life, when they weren't akuma-tized; and it was nice to be able to have something from her other life so openly on display in her room. She had dumped the two 'hero' puppets down hastily when she came in, and they had both fallen over to one side. She went over to tidy them, pausing with Chat Noir in her hand. An idea suddenly struck; she placed the purple ruler across the doll's shoulders, like the wings of a glider.
"Look out villains, I am Cat-Wing, menace of the skies!" She gave a fair impression of him; she had heard his particular brand of bravado often enough to imitate it well. She made her answering Ladybug voice slightly higher than her normal pitch, to suit the size of the doll: "What are you doing up there, Chat Noir? Ladybugs are the ones that are supposed to fly, not cats! Au contraire, my lady; my admiration for you has given me wings! What's this, a lucky bug-creature?"
The doll swivelled in the air to face Tikki, who looked on in amusement; she squeaked involuntarily when the puppet turned towards her. "Ah-ha, just watch! I shall capture it for you as a token of my affection, Princess! Halt, fair beastie! Please allow yourself to become my Lady's companion - a love-bug for my love-bug!" She whisked the doll through the air, swooping towards Tikki on its 'wings'. Tikki squealed again and zoomed across the room; Marinette chased after her, keeping up a running commentary of Chat Noir's thwarted attempts to catch the 'love-bug'.
At last, winded from her laughter as much as all the running around, she collapsed on her chaise lounge, gasping for breath. Tikki, finding it was safe to come close again, landed on top of her, giggling into her t-shirt.
"It seems like the kind of thing he'd do, doesn't it?" Marinette asked, when she could speak again. If her parents had heard the commotion downstairs, she'd tell them that she had been watching a funny Youtube video - much as she hated lying, she was becoming quite adept at it!
"Probably," Tikki agreed, with one last chuckle. She flitted into the air as Marinette got up, replaced the doll, and took the ruler over to her ballot box, finishing it off. The kwami watched her thoughtfully as she worked.
"It was a nice, what you said about him today," she said, as Marinette smiled with satisfaction and stood, surveying the neat slit she had made in the lid of the box.
"What was?" she asked distractedly, crossing back over to her desk.
"How you said it should be a Ladybug-and-Chat-Noir club, not just a Ladybug club. I'm sure he would have been happy to hear you say that."
This time, Marinette properly took in what she was saying. "Of course he would," she answered gruffly, "and it's just as well he didn't - that guy is arrogant enough as it is!" She sat down at her desk, trying to quash another persistent stab of guilt. "Actually, I only said that because Alya wanted an answer... and to deflect attention away from Ladybug..."
That was what she told herself, as well as Tikki, but... she really had meant it when she had said it. It sometimes seemed as if people gave her more credit than her partner, just because she was the one who always purified the akuma; she knew that this was entirely unfair.
If she hadn't had Chat Noir's support from the start, she never would have made it this far. She writhed uncomfortably when she thought of how tentative she had been, back at the start. She hadn't wanted anything to do with saving Paris; whereas he had leapt straight into fighting monsters and saving people before she had got the hang of it, even though they had got their powers at the same time. In some respects, he had shown her how to do it. If he hadn't gone ahead and narrowly saved Alya from getting hit by those soccer posts, Ladybug (as she would shortly name herself) might have remained frozen atop the stadium roof, too scared to move, until it was too late. And after that, when she had failed to purify the akuma and been ready to give up, he had encouraged to keep going.
She honestly didn't know what she would have done if he hadn't been there for her on those occasions, and so many others. He did have moments of seriousness when it was really needed, advising and supporting her, calling her out when she made mistakes (rare enough though that was). She even - dare she admit it - liked his goofiness sometimes; given how dangerous their missions were, she would probably crumple under the pressure if she didn't have his constant stream of quips and terrible puns to lighten the mood. She honestly couldn't imagine diving into battle without knowing he would turn up, sooner or later, to watch her back. She still shuddered when she thought of that close call with Chronogirl, when he had taken that hit meant for her and started disappearing before her eyes... how stern his face had looked, as he slowly faded out... to think she had really almost lost him...
She came out of her reverie with a start, to find that Tikki was watching her with a knowing smile.
"...and he really does deserve some recognition as much as I do," she admitted, a little reluctantly.
"Uh-huh. When are you going to talk to him?"
Marinette froze in the common immobile-with-fear pose that Tikki had become accustomed to. It would be kind of adorable... if it didn't happen so frequently. And if wasn't so stressful for the girl who held it. "I don't know," she muttered, reanimating again only to slump in her seat.
She knew she shouldn't be so reluctant. Master Fu's words were still uncomfortably clear in her memory:
"Ladybug, you have been given the grave duty of protecting your city from the threat of Papillion. As much as I am overjoyed to have found such a capable young lady to take charge of the Ladybug Miraculous, it saddens me to have so grievously complicated things for you, by giving you such a daunting task, at such a young age. However much your masked self has to bear, the burden that Marinette carries is heavier still. There is only one other who knows what it is like to carry such a weight: your partner on your quest, the Miraculous-holder known as Chat Noir. Yet this comrade only aids you in battle, when the extent of your trials certainly doesn't end when you doff your armour. Chat Noir could be a very useful ally to Marinette as well as to Ladybug, along with - well, with the young man behind the mask, to whom you have not yet been properly introduced. It is high time for you to change that. You should greet him as yourself, take him into your confidence; and let him take you into his. Both of you have many obstacles ahead that you must overcome, you would do well to face them together, both with and without your masks."
That was what the Sifu had told her, at their very first proper meeting. Much as she respected Master Fu's knowledge and wisdom, she couldn't help begrudging him for setting her something she really didn't want to do.
"You should do it next time you get the chance," Tikki said, as if she sensed her companion's reluctance. She used the persistent, prodding tone that sometimes made Marinette feel like she had a second little mother, or a bossy older sister. She really couldn't argue back; Tikki was only reiterating what the Sifu had said.
She glanced guiltily at her kwami. "I know I should... but..." How could she explain the doubts she had, when she didn't fully understand them herself? Master Fu's words had instantly sent her into a blind panic, because...
"You know, Tikki," she began, trying to honestly say what she felt; she knew the little kwami wouldn't judge her. "When I started at this, I really didn't want to do it, but I did it because I had to. Because there were people I wanted to save." She paused, remembering the look on Alya's face as she lay pinned behind a car, calling for help; the memory still made her blood run cold. "N-not that I mind it now!" she hurriedly added, since Tikki was looking at her with a slightly glum expression. The last thing she wanted was to seem ungrateful, or to insult her closest companion; she had come close enough to doing that when she had tried to refuse her Miraculous back then! "I've gotten used to it, I guess... I, um, even kind of enjoy it sometimes... but, it's all just been happening so fast, and I've been going along with it as best I can. All this time, though, I've been trying to keep it as far from the rest of my life as possible. I really still want to keep out of it as much as I can. I mean, you've told me things about being Ladybug, and Master Fu has already taught me so much, but... I almost don't want to get too involved, in case... it seems like it could..."
Tikki nestled into her shoulder, nuzzling against her for comfort. "You're worried it will interfere with your normal life?"
"Yeah. I mean, it does that enough already, but... at least I have something to come back to when I'm not in the mask. If I didn't even have that any more, I- "
"You want to keep some distance between who you are as Marinette and what you do as Ladybug," Tikki supplied for her, understanding in her eyes.
Marinette nodded, relieved that her kwami got what she was trying to say. "It's just, what I do as Ladybug is so unreal sometimes... I mean, that giant robot we were able to use was pretty cool, but it was like something straight out of a game. And those weird weapons the Pigeon Man made out of birds were downright bizarre! And Jagged Stone's pet crocodile was pretty out-there, but then it turned into an actual dragon! And then there was who zookeeper who turned himself into a dinosaur! I mean, that's just..." She trailed off. Tikki was nodding sympathetically.
"I've had a pretty crazy life," the tiny creature admitted.
Marinette gulped. She'd been through less than a year of these shenanigans, but to have had more than five thousand years of this?! She didn't know how Tikki stood it. But then, Manon's words came back to her: That's what heroes do. Maybe this was just a regular day in the life for a kwami - but still, it must take some getting used to, even now!
"I can believe it," she said, with an uneasy chuckle. "My life has been pretty crazy lately. I mean, Ladybug's has been. Chat Noir's too, I guess; he's part of all the craziness. Sometimes, I think he enjoys it too much. More than I do, that's for sure. But Marinette's life, as far as anyone else knows, is perfectly normal. Well, as normal as life can be with the threat of akuma attacks every day. So when all these strange things happen to Ladybug... I can almost fool myself into thinking they happen to someone else. But if I start to let Ladybug's life, including Chat Noir, get into Marinette's life, things would be a lot less normal..."
Tikki heaved a tiny sigh. She knew exactly why Marinette had these sorts of fears; and for the most part, they were more than a little justified. She sometimes worried a lot about her Miraculous-holder. She had felt protective of Marinette from the start, when the terrified girl had thrown things at her and trapped her in a glass - which, given the circumstances, was an understandable reaction. She often regretted the impact that being Ladybug had on Marinette's life. Not that she thought Master Fu had made the wrong choice - no matter what difficulties the heroine faced, she always rose to the challenge brilliantly. The problem was that Ladybug's confidence tended to come off with the mask. Marinette just couldn't seem to realize how brilliant she was as herself.
Tikki watched as her companion fiddled with the ruler on the desk in front of her; the purple plastic had a faint crack in it. As much as Marinette hated lying, they both knew that she wasn't speaking the whole truth. She's worried that Chat Noir won't like Marinette as much as Ladybug, Tikki thought to herself. Then, after a pause, she added: And she knows that Chat Noir has a crush on Ladybug. She doesn't want to let him get close to Marinette, in case she disappoints him and hurts his feelings.
She rubbed the black spot on her brow in consternation. Marinette was just so nice, which was why she perfect as Ladybug - but also made it far more difficult at times!
She drifted up to rest against the girl's cheek. "Don't doubt what Master Fu said, Marinette. He wouldn't have told you to do this if he wasn't absolutely sure that it is the right course of action to take. Remember, he chose both you and Chat Noir for good reasons. You are an incredible Ladybug, with or without the mask - so I bet Chat Noir is the same! You'll probably get along really well, once you get to know him better."
Marinette raised a sceptical eyebrow. Yes, Chat Noir was a truly great hero, but... what could he possibly be like as a person? He was so happy-go-lucky all the time, it was hard to imagine him as a regular student like herself, with the same pressures of life and school and secret identities as she had - most of the time, he behaved more like a pre-schooler! She tried to imagine him going to the same college as her, attending the same classes. She bet he would be the class clown, sitting up the back and constantly being disruptive; he would call out lame jokes that exasperated the teacher and made everyone else groan as much as they laughed.
She smiled at the thought despite herself. Maybe having someone like that around might be fun. Tikki could see that her words had had the right effect; she brightened visibly, causing Marinette to feel a stab of guilt again.
"Okay," she said, as she opened the drawer and put her cutting tools away again. "I'll try to talk to him next time I see him. But I usually only meet him when we're about to fight an akuma, so we might not have the chance... Master Fu didn't say that it had to be done urgently..."
Tikki inwardly threw up her tiny arms in exasperation; she knew Marinette was only putting off something she would eventually have to do. Still, at least she'd managed to extract a promise to do it. Sooner or later.
As she finished putting her things away, Marinette glanced in the desk drawer. Beside the compartments filled with drawing and dress-making tools, there was just enough room for a few small books. The topmost one caught her eye; a thin, dog-eared volume, full of basic phrases written in pin-yin Mandarin. She had spied it as she passed a second-hand book store and bought it, on the off-chance she might have to speak to her uncle in Chinese again; the experience had made her realize how much she didn't know about her mother's native language. She was so glad she'd bought it now, as she would probably need it...
"Hey, Tikki..." Faint spots of colour had come into Marinette's cheeks, which could only mean she was thinking of one thing - or rather, one person. "Do you think Adrien meant it when he said he would give me Chinese lessons?"
Tikki beamed encouragingly at her. If Alya was proud of the progress Marinette had made, her kwami was doubly so. Ah, to be young again, the kwami thought, a little wistfully. Being around such a youthful companion sometimes made her feel several millennia younger! Like most girls her age, Marinette was preoccupied with matters of the heart - and with a gallant suitor like Adrien Agreste, she could hardly blame her!
"I'm sure he meant it!" she declared, nodding vigorously for Marinette's benefit. "He wouldn't have offered if he wasn't willing to spend more time with you - he must really want to get to know you better!"
Marinette flushed and hugged herself with happiness. It was true - why else would he offer! She had admired Adrien from afar for some time now; lately, it felt as if that distance was starting to close, slowly but perceptibly. To her own astonishment, she no longer devolved into a gibbering mess every time he approached.
Was it because she had encountered him several times as Ladybug? Perhaps not; Marinette did not share the same self-assurance that Ladybug had in spades, so it likely made no difference. No, it was Marinette who had made progress all on her own. The more she managed to speak to Adrien, with some sort of eloquence, without pitching forward on her face every time, the more at ease she gradually began to feel around him. As they had spent more time together - training for the gaming tournament, chaperoning Uncle Cheng, chatting between lessons - they had finally started to click.
She smiled ecstatically at the stack of textbooks on the desk opposite her, thoughts a rose-tinged tangle of possibilities. She actually dared to be optimistic about her chances. She had at first found it hard to believe that the Valentine's Day poem Adrien had written in class was about her, like Tikki had insisted it was. But now, if he was actually suggesting that they spend time together outside school, without any kind of prompting from Alya or anyone else... maybe he really did feel the same way about her, and was just too shy to confess - in which case, she was more than willing to give him every opportunity!
This meant she had not one, but two special missions - introducing herself to Chat Noir, and getting to know Adrien better!
I wonder what they would think of each other? she wondered, idly toying with a stray biro as she day-dreamed. It was hard to tell. She had encountered her crush a few times as Ladybug, but she didn't remember ever seeing Chat Noir in the same room as him - which was maybe just as well! Perhaps they wouldn't really get along; after all, they weren't very much alike! Chat Noir would probably try to impress the famous model, showing off his muscles and cracking bad puns. And Adrien, who always had such lovely manners, would pretend to be impressed, laughing politely at even the worst jokes - he was nice like that!
Chuckling at the thought of such an encounter, Marinette closed the drawer and reluctantly reached for her school books. But it was hard to focus on her homework, when she had some much better lessons to look forward to - and an adorable teacher to go with them!
Author's note: geez, I didn't mean to let this chapter run so long! It took a fair amount of time to lay out the groundwork for the story, summarizing where things stand at the end of the tv series, preparing for things that will happen later on. Some bits weren't strictly necessary, like the scene with Manon (though I did need a reason for Marinette to be away from her room) and the bit with the Chat Noir puppet (which I just couldn't resist including); otherwise I couldn't cut out anything much to make it shorter.
I'm so done with Lila. Sorry, but it's not purely done because I don't like the character; I just don't have a place for her in this story, so I wrote her out. I'm not sure why she was at Francoise-Dupont College in the first place, or how she would be able to leave, so I made her an exchange student. I figured she probably comes from a fairly privileged background in order to support her constant lies, so if she complained enough, I'm sure she'd be allowed home. Sorry to disappoint any die-hard Lila fans!
I'll try not to make the next chapter so long, or to draw out the suspense much more than I already have. The pace of up-dates in this fandom seems pretty fast, but I just can't keep up that kind of pace; I'm too meticulous about my writing, and I can't have my fics threaten to take over my life any more than they already do! I've started writing the next chapter, and I also have a fair chunk of draft done for chapters way ahead, so please try to be patient - I'll write in the gaps as quickly as I can, promise! ~ W.J.