Chapter 4: Non-akuma action
"We're going to the festival now, Maman," Marinette announced as they exited through the bakery.
"Alright, dear," Sabine said, "Have fun." she added, looking pointedly at Adrien.
Marinette giggled, "Could you throw these out when you close down tonight?" she asked, putting the near empty carton of macaroons on a shelf under the counter by the register.
"You take good care of my daughter," Tom's voice rumbled as he came up to stand beside his wife.
"Of course, sir. I give you my word," Adrien replied.
"Nino must be outside," Alya said, not seeing him in the bakery.
"So, lets go then," Adrien said, taking Marinette's hand and leading her to the door.
"Hey, bro," Nino greeted him as they left the bakery, "Wow, Marinette, looking good," he added.
"If it weren't for the fact that I know you and Marinette have been friends for years, I might get jealous of the look you're giving her," Alya said, walking over to Nino and putting her arm around his waist.
Nino blushed slightly, then wrapped Alya in a hug and kissed her soundly.
"Come on you two, come up for air," Adrien teased, and chuckled at the way Alya seemed to stagger for a moment as they walked. He looked over at Marinette as she lay her head on his shoulder, a soft smile on her face. "What?" he asked her, and his breath caught in his throat a the look she gave him.
"I saw the look on your face when Nino complimented me," she replied. "You might as well said it out loud, 'Yep she mine, not yours so get over it'"
"Sooooo, I can't be proud about my girlfriend being a hottie?"
Marinette opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the sound of squealing tires and a loud crash. The foursome trotted the rest of the way to the intersection, and saw the accident.
"At least it wasn't an akuma," Marinette said under her breath.
Two cars had tried to occupy the same section of the intersection at the same time, the result was one car was now on it's top, and the other on it's side. As they watched the battery of the car on its side shorted out, causing sparks that ignited the small pool of gasoline that had formed, the sight of the flames causing the occupants of both cars to scream.
"Nino, call it in," Marinette said, pulling Alya with her, "we'll see if we can find something to help."
"Right," Nino said, pulling his phone out.
"Let's do this," Adrien said, when they reached an empty alley. "Plagg, claws out!"
Marinette hesitated, "Tikki, are you up to this?"
"Marinette, if we don't do something those people in the cars are going to die," Tikki replied.
Marinette nodded, "Tikki, spots on!"
"This is sooooo cool!" Alya gushed, "Trixx, lets pounce."
A moment later the three heroes charged out of the alley, and returned to the scene.
"Chat, the car on its side, get on top and cataclysm the door so you and Rena can get the people out,"
"Right, milady," he said and nimbly leapt to the top of the car in question. "Cataclysm!" he shouted, then put his hand flat on the driver's side door. After it had fallen to rust, he reached around the driver and unbuckled his seatbelt then pulled the driver out.
"Got him, Chat," Rena said, and jumped down off the car with him. "Perfect timing," she commented as an ambulance pulled up, the paramedics bailing out and taking charge of the man.
"Here's another," Chat said as he landed with a woman in his arms. "That's it for that car." he added.
Ladybug, meanwhile, was on the side of the upside down car opposite of the flames.
"Get my babies out first!" the woman behind the wheel cried, "Please, get them to safety!"
Ladybug nodded, and found she had to change plans. She hadn't known there were kids in the car. She punched at the back door, her fist going through the sheet metal, and she grabbed the interior framework and pulled. With a shriek of tortured metal the door ripped off, and she quickly crawled into the backseat and helped the two children out of their car seats.
"Here you go, officer," she said to the police officer that was standing there. Making sure the two kids were under control, she turned back to car.
"Ladybug, get clear!" a fireman shouted, "The gas tank is going to blow. Ladybug!"
Ladybug ignored the warning. She had to get the driver out. She unbuckled her and kicked the door off. "Hold on tight," she told her.
There was a muffled whump, and the car on its top was completely engulfed in flames.
"No!" Chat shouted when he saw the interior of the car filled with flames.
"Up here." Ladybug voice called, from across the intersection. Everyone looked up and watched as she lowered herself from the top of a streetlight, the womans arms around her neck, and Ladybug holding her around the waist. "Here we go," she said as she touched down.
"Thank you, Ladybug." the woman said giving her a hug, then went back across the street to reunite with her children.
"That was close, Milady," Chat said as the gathered crowd applauded and cheered. "Please don't scare me like that again."
"No promises, mon chaton," she replied, bopping him lightly on the nose. "Time to bug out," she added when Chat's ring chirped. The three heroes leapt away back to an empty alley where they changed back.
"Dudes, you missed all the excitement!" Nino cried as his three friends walked up. He went on to describe the events. "I even caught it on my phone for the Ladyblog," he boasted to Alya, bringing the video up on the screen to show her.
"Thanks," she said giving him a kiss on the cheek, "I would have come back to get it myself, but the crowd had gotten so thick I couldn't get through."
Alya held back as Adrien came up and talked with Nino.
"Not bad, Rena," Marinette whispered to her.
"That was so cool, and you do that often?"
Marinette giggled at her friends enthusiasm, remembering she she first became Ladybug. "And you never get used to it," she told her, "It always feels good."
A short time later and the two couples entered the park where the festival was being held.
"Someone's hungry," Adrien teased as he heard Marinette's stomach growl loudly at the aromas drifting from the food stalls nearby.
"Hey, I had an earlier breakfast than you did," she protested, then leaned over to whisper into his ear, "I went down to see if Tikki was in the cookie jar in the kitchen and Maman caught me and made sure I ate breakfast,"
Adrien kissed the top of her head, "Well then, I guess I'd better get you something for lunch," he said. "Alya, Nino, lunch is on me."
A short time later, Adrien watched as Alya and Nino took their meals and headed over to one of the many tables. He looked around and saw the stall that Marinette had chosen to get her meal at. He walked up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.
"Made up you mind on what you're eating?"
"Uh huh," she replied, "It'll be ready in a moment," she added.
Right on cue the operator of the stall came up and handed a bowl and a small box to her, "That'll be 8 euros," he announced, then looked to see if anyone else was in earshot, "A special price, just for you, Marinette."
"Thanks, Henri. Don't forget to stop by for those special cheese cakes," she said, as Adrien paid for the meal.
Adrien followed her over to the table with Nino and Alya and he sat beside her on the bench like seat. He looked over at what was in the bowl and saw assorted vegetables and shrimp in a dark brown sauce. As he watched she opened the small box and added the rice from it and stirred.
"How did that come to only 8 euros?" he asked, "I mean that a lot of shrimp."
Marinette smiled, "Henri is a friend of my parents," she replied, then speared a shrimp with her fork and popped it into her mouth. "Oooooo, that's so good," she said softly, "Papa gave him a special price on some of his special chocolate cheese cakes, and he returned the favor for me with this. Would you like to try some?"
Adrien smiled at her, "No, you go ahead, I'm not hungry yet." He watched as she ate, obviously enjoying the meal and he was surprised that she quickly finished the entire bowl. "How do you stay so. . . small eating like that?"
Marinette smiled sweetly at him, "I don't eat like this all the time, this is special," she replied, then leaned over closer to him, "Plus I get my exercise at night," she said softly so only he could hear her.
Once she was done the foursome threw their trash away and started walking around the festival, the sound of music growing louder as they neared the center of it.
"They sound in good form today," Nino commented as they reached the fringe of the crowd listening to the music. As they watched Luka hit a final chord, and Juleka played the final riff on bass. The applause was thunderous and long.
Marinette looked around knowing that if Juleka was here, Rose couldn't be too far away.
"Hey, Rose, over here!" she called when she saw her. She noticed that not only was Rose there, so was pretty much the rest of her class.
"Did you guys see that accident a few blocks over?" Kim asked.
"Sure did," Nino replied, and quickly brought the video up on his phone. During the babble of conversations over the scene, Adrien noticed that another band had taken the stage and began playing a slow song.
"Would you care to dance, Princess?" he asked and was stunned by the huge smile Marinette gave him.
"It would be my pleasure," she said, placing her hand in his and following him to the dance area. Her arms went up around his neck, and she felt his around her waist.
"Remember when we did this at Chloe's party?" he asked.
"But this is better," Marinette sighed, laying her head on his chest her eyes closed as she savored the moment. She suddenly felt the stutter of his steps, and he grew tense. "What's wrong?"
"Let's just say that Alya's taking our picture before is gonna seem like nothing."
"Huh?" she asked as she lifted her head and opened her eyes. Not far away was a group of reporters, including Nadia Chamack with her cameraman. "No," she almost whimpered. She would have run away but Adrien held her.
"I'll be with you, Princess, and won't let anything happen to you. No offense but it's more me than you that they are interested in."
Marinette took a deep breath then let it out, "Okay," she said, "I trust you, mon chevalier."
"So, I'm your knight huh?" he asked as they headed over to the reporters.
Marinette smiled up at him, her arms gently wrapped around his upper arm, "Uh huh, I'm your princess, and you keep me safe," she said, "Besides, I can't keep calling mon chaton in public. People might put things together."
She was surprised when he stopped and turned her so they were facing each other. Her heart skipping a beat when he lowered his face to hers, his lips gently claiming hers.
Marinette could hear the click of the camera shutters, but found that she couldn't care less about them.