A/N: Whaaa, I'm so sorry, this took me like forever...! And despite that, it isn't even that long. Also, literally nothing's happening in this chapter. It's just a sort of story-preparing section. I guess.
Enjoy! :)
The room was redolent of a tempting, flowery scent, the light of the early morning pouring inside, making shine even the matte surfaces. In the middle of the room, on a large carpet, which claimed an enormous part of the place, a salt-and-pepper haired small man was meditating. His wrinkled face radiated his calmness and composure as if the troubles of the world didn't affect him at all.
He slowly opened one of his dark, small eyes, gaze darting towards an old phonograph sitting on a Chinese-style commode.
"The children are having a hard job nowadays, don't you think, Wayzz?" he asked seemingly from no-one.
"Indeed." Came an answer and in a few moments, a little, turtle-like creature was floating in front of Master Fu. "But what do you expect? The previous generation offered four heroes, not three. And one of them is the enemy of the other two now."
The old man's eyes filled with sadness. "But if I wouldn't failed in protecting her, bless her innocent soul, Hawk Moth wouldn't have become..." he trailed off.
"And I thought you grew out of this 'what would have happened if I' thing" Wayzz said with a soft smile on his little mouth. "Don't worry, these children are smart and strong. Smarter than you were as a kid, that's for sure."
Master Fu chuckled at the remark. "They are, they are" he nodded and slowly straighten up to walk beside the fine piece of furniture. "But I would say, could not they use another friend...?"
Wayzz flew beside his chosen one, watching as he opened the phonograph and following his gaze to the golden haircomb.
"If you thinking about the bee miraculous holder you chose, I wouldn't use the word friend. That girl isn't capable of teamwork."
"That is the reason I have chosen her" the old man glanced at the kwami. "You know just well the main reasons why I chose who I chose. And she needs help. She will never change if she does not see a reason why. And the miraculous of teamwork and communication will balance her."
"But it's hazardous." Wayzz shook his head. "The bee miraculous is the miraculous of ordering as well. It can unbalance her just as finely as it could do her good."
"I understand" the oldster sighed. "But we won't know if we won't try."
Marinette Dupain-Cheng yawned with a delicate little hand in front of her wide-opened mouth. She was exhausted and it really wasn't too surprising, considering that she didn't sleep more than four hours in the night. Although, she managed to climb out of her warm and enticing bed so she wasn't late for once.
Munching on her buttered croissant (fresh from the oven, yumm), she stared at a blank page in her notebook but quickly realized that to design something with just a few hours sleep behind her was very near to impossible. And we're talking about something if she didn't notice her crush as he sat down onto his seat, just as tired – if not more.
Adrien yawned (somehow managed to still look like a model) and streched his arms as he leaned back, instantly falling asleep.
His friend stared at him in disbelief. "Really, dude?"
"Tell me about it" Alya spoke up with amusement in her voice, catching Nino's attention. Her gaze darted towards her best friend, whose eyelids were fluttering close slowly, head nodding off. "Marinette is the same. I couldn't make a proper conversation with her in the mornings for a year now. If I didn't know better, I'd say these two are raving together during nights."
"Yeah" Nino nodded as he sat down onto his seat, still facing Alya. "I wanna know though, what're they doin' to be that sleepy. I mean, I played through some nights but not that constantly."
"I doubt that Mari doesn't sleep because she's playing video games" the vlogger said, leaning into her palm, lazily browsing on her phone. "Though I don't believe what she always says for an excuse. I saw her notebook. If she's really staying up night because she's 'got inspired' or 'just had to finish that idea', her notebook would be full of new designs. Which isn't."
Nino just hummed in thought but when he noticed an ominous glint in Alya's hazel eyes, he suspiciously narrowed his owns. "What're you plannin', woman?"
"Nooothing special" she said and turned towards her book as Miss Bustier entered the classroom. She glanced up again. Nino was still staring at her. "Come to the library after class" she whispered at last.
Nino made an 'I knew' then an 'I won't like this' face and turned to his desk, flicking Adrien's cheek to wake him up.
Around the middle through class, Miss Bustier turned around to face her students. "Everyone's very calm today..." she murmured, then her eyes flickered to the side. "Oh, why didn't you said that Chloé is absent?"
And really. The blonde, painfully mean-girl streotype daughter of the mayor wasn't there.
"Sabrina?" Miss Bustier asked in hope to know why Chloé was absent but surprisingly, Sabrina just shoke her head, saying she didn't know either.
"Fine then" the teacher turned to her desk to write Miss Bourgeois' name as absent. It only took a few seconds, and she soon continoued her lesson, not realising that two of her students were actually sleeping, even as their friends were constantly flicking, tickling, stabbing them with their fingers to wake them up.
Thankfully, Hawk Moth hadn't decided to spot anyone with negative feelings today, Adrien thought as he was standing at the school gates, not so sleepy anymore (sleeping through four lessons can make magic) but definitely tired. He just wanted a good shower and to play some violent video games. He wanted to hunt down zombies or something because it was fustrating that after he was so confident in his fencing skills which wasn't only improved by his fencing classes but also sometimes when he fought as Chat Noir – he just recently realized how great a fencing foil his baton made, his teacher decided to rise the difficulty level from normal to hardcore. He couldn't win once against him for a month.
He picked up his bag and put it onto his shoulder as he saw a white limousine turning into the street, and stepped down the stairs with ease, enjoying the spring breeze. As he reached the car, Adrien opened the door and started to sit down in, but something stopped him. He saw something yellow reflecting in the dark, obscured window. Normally, this wouldn't make him stop. Yellow can reflecting in his car window as much as it pleases. But this yellow had human form, and it was on the top of the school building. And, unlike to Japan where every school has a flat roof where you can safely ditch class on, this Parisian high school roof wasn't safe to be on so, naturally, no students were allowed. (Although he's been on its roof a few times, but he's a superhero and he already has been on every roof in Paris anyway.)
But when he turned around to see what kind of idiot is having fun on the roof, he saw nothing. Adrien glanced at the car window. Yeah, it wasn't there either. Was he imagining it? He looked around. No yellow on no roofs. Okay, so he's hallucinating. Great.
"Mr. Agreste?"
He almost jumped out of his skin. It was rare for the Gorilla to speak. Also, he had a voice a mafia leader would.
"It's nothing" Adrien said politely, sat down in the car and closed the door.
When they took the road, he thought he saw the yellow figure again, but he probably just imag– wait a sec. Yellow figure. It easily can be an akuma! But nothing happened so far, he thought and sighed. It can wait. He'll go home, have a rest and go to patrolling. He'll discuss it with Ladybug. They were going to meet up after all.
"What're we doin', exactly?" Nino asked. He and Alya were facing each other in a narrow alleyway, Nino leaning against the wall and Alya against the other. Even like that, they were barely half a meter apart, and Nino could smell Alya's sweet scented parfume clearly. He tried to ignore it though, because it made weird things with his nerves. "You say in class to meet up in the library. Then, when I'm there, you send me a text to meet up in this alleyway, in this ungodly hour no less. It's almost midnight, Alya! I'm killin' zombies this time 'round."
"Yeah, yeah. And because it's almost midnight, you should lower your voice a bit." She glanced up from her phone, its blue-ish light reflecting from her eyes and glasses, and illuminating her beatiful face. Nino tried to ignore this as well. "So, I've got a blow about Ladybug and Chat Noir."
"Weren't we nosing after Adrien and Marinette?"
"I know!" Alya waved her hand. "But we see them every day, yet this – to reveal the heroes' identities – isn't a common chance!"
"So?" He asked her to continue.
"Someone from the Ladyblog has sent me a private message," she started to explain. "He said that he didn't want to post it publicly in case the heroes are following the blog. So, he said that his mother saw them two nights in a row on the top of a certain building. You know, his mother is a cleaner in the Eiffel Tower and she saw them from near the top. Twice!" she said excitedly. "You know what does it mean?"
Nino blinked at her slowly. "They like to have dates on roofs...?"
"Oh, that'd be so cute..." she trailed off, but snapped in a second. "No, you idiot! It can be a meeting place of theirs! You know, for patrolling and stuff!"
"You say we're goin' to that 'certain building'?"
Alya shook her head, "Nino, Nino, Nino." Then, she grinned. "We are at that 'certain building'!"
Nino straighten himself up. "What is your plan, Inspector Césaire?"
Alya giggled and pushed her glasses up on her nose. "Since we wouldn't hear a thing if we stay down here... I already discovered our surroundings. There's a fire-escape ladder on the wall of the building's backside." She grabbed Nino's elbow and began to drag him along. "We climb up and eavesdrop."
"Wouldn't they see us?" Nino asked, letting her to guide him (rather mightily). "Or hear us. I mean, you said the other day that Chat Noir probably has advanced hearing, being a cat and all."
"We'll be careful" she said stubbornly. "They won't suspect a thing."
