Chapter 4:

Marinette POV

I thanked them for letting me stay and ducked into the bakery. I watched them drive away from the window and slumped onto the couch.

"Good morning, Marinette," my dad said.

"Morning, Papa."

"How was your friend's house?"

"Fine. He has a really big house. I feel bad that he's all alone."

"Doesn't he have parents?"

"Yeah, he has a dad but he's kind of...estranged."

"I see. So who takes care of him?"

"A lot of people are hired to, but I think his main caregiver is a woman named Nathalie."

"Is she nice?"

"Yes."

"Did you eat breakfast there?"

I nodded. I was feeling a little tired, so I went up to my room. I flopped onto the bed and pulled my phone out from my bag. 34 texts from Alya. Great.

Without hardly reading any of them, I FaceTimed her. She answered right away, but I didn't have time to be amused.

"Marinette, spill!"

"Okay I'll start from the beginning," I said. She waited patiently. "So after you left I went to Adrien's house and I had originally planned to just drop off the homework and leave, but the gate opened so I had to walk up to the door."

She was shivering with anticipation.

"I didn't even get to knock when Adrien opened the door. I was basically foaming at the mouth trying to hand him his stupid homework and he threw up all over my shirt, poor thing."

"He what?!"

"I told you that yesterday when I texted you!"

"Oh yeah maybe you did. Well I forgot, keep going!"

"Okay, anyway, he pulled me into his house and made me take a shower in his giant bathroom and gave me some new clothes to wear."

"Were they his clothes?"

"No, I guess they were just some of his dad's stuff that he designed, I'm not entirely sure though."

"Wow, designer clothes and showering in Adrien's bathroom, Chloe would probably have a cow."

I laughed. "That's not all."

"Oh?"

"We had dinner and then his assistant lady asked if I was going home, but before I could answer she suggested that I stay the night."
"YOU SPENT THE NIGHT?"

"Did I not tell you?"

"NO. NO YOU DID NOT. CONTINUE."
"Well we decided to watch a movie, and ended up picking some scary American movie where if you watch a tape you have seven days to live until you have to pass it off to someone else."

"Why not just watch it over and over again on the seventh day?"

"That's what I said! Anyway, I don't remember the ending because I fell asleep on him on the couch-"

"Oh. My. God. Girl this is insane! First you shower in his bathroom and then you spend the night and fall asleep on his couch."

"Right next to him," I added.

She squealed. I squealed. It was a squealing match.

"So what happened this morning?"
"Well I woke up on the floor and he was in the corner of his room like, talking to himself or something weird, but then we ate breakfast, I changed clothes and he took me home. I only just got here."

"Wow. I just- I don't know what to say."

I shrugged.

"So are your stuttering days over then?"

"God I hope so, but I'm not gonna rely on it."

We both laughed.

"Hey my mom is calling me, I'll catch you later," she said.

"Okay, bye!"

She hung up and I put my phone on its charger. Tikki flew out of my purse to greet me.

"Well that was an interesting night," she said.

I nodded.

"You bet it was. Hey do you know why Adrien was talking to himself this morning?"

She looked around.

"I umm...I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do!"

"No! I really don't, I was in your bag the whole time!"

I stared at her avoiding eyes for a while, but let it go.

"I know you know something that I don't, but I'm not going to pry."

"Just...just be kind to Chat Noir, alright?"

That was a weird thing to say.
"Am I ever unkind?" I was honestly curious. I mean, despite his puns and overall annoyingness he's still my friend and I would never want to hurt him.

"No, it's not that it's just...I don't know."

"Alright...well we've got patrol tomorrow, I could have a real conversation with him then, if that's what you mean."

"Sure that would be nice! Maybe you'll get to know him better, and then you might find out his identity!"

"Tikki, you of all people shouldn't be encouraging that. You know we're supposed to keep it secret."

"I know, but aren't you ever a little curious?"

"All the time. I mean, we aren't supposed to reveal our identities, but does figuring it out still count?"

"I'm afraid so. If it'll make you feel better, nothing happens when you figure it out, and you wouldn't be the first to do so. Actually, most of the past Chat Noirs and Ladybugs figured it out eventually."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but they usually were superheroes for a bit longer than you've been."

I felt my face fall.

"I see."

"Don't worry about it, Marinette, it'll all work out in the end. You don't have to know who he is, especially not now."

I smiled. Tikki seemed a little strange today, there was a lot of contradicting herself, but I decided to ignore it. It was probably better to just let things go.

I laid down and stared at my ceiling, trying to figure things out.

Adrien POV

Nathalie greeted me when I got home, informing me of a shoot I had in an hour. For once I was glad, at least doing a shoot would take my mind off things for a while. It wasn't that I didn't want to think about it, or figure out what Plagg meant, I just needed a break. This was as good of a break as I could get. I sighed and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

"So, Adrien," Plagg said. "You got a crush on Marinette?"

"What? I-no! I mean, she's cute and super nice and amazing and all, but you know I love my Ladybug."

"Yes, mmhmm."

"You haven't been making any sense, Plagg."

"I will eventually."

"Ugh, could you stop talking in riddles for once please?"

"NO! I'm not allowed to tell! You'll just have to figure it out on your own. Show a little love to Marinette."

"Alright, whatever. I need to take a shower, so a little privacy would be nice. Come talk to me when you decide to make some sense."

Plagg shrugged and left, and I got into the shower. Great, more nonsense for me to fry my brain over.

Just as I was getting dressed from my shower, I heard a scream from outside my window. It was strange; it sounded more like an angry scream than anything.

I looked outside and saw a couple fighting. They were drawing a lot of attention, but they didn't seem to notice. After a while, they both stormed off in their separate ways. I watched the girl walk away, holding onto the necklace around her neck. I hope this wouldn't lead to an akuma, or worse...two...

Marinette POV

I only saw the akuma when it's victim was completely transformed. I didn't see any sort of event that might have caused it, and I couldn't recognize the person who was akumatized. Either way, Ladybug still had to stop them.

"Tikki, spots on!"

As soon as my transformation was done, I jumped off of my balcony and into the streets, chasing the akuma. It wasn't very long before Chat Noir was right beside me.

"How's it going, M'Lady?"

"Hey, Chat. Do you know what it's about this time?"

"I'm not certain, but I have a pretty good idea."

"And that is?"
"Well I saw a couple fighting today, and both of them seemed pretty upset. They ran away from each other, and the girl had a necklace."

"Okay, so if it was her that was akumatized, the akuma could be in her necklace. Did the other person have anything like that?"

"I'm not sure, I wasn't watching."

By then we had caught up to the victim. It was, in fact, the girl who had been akumatized. I could see a necklace, more of a locket really.

"Hey! Who are you?" I shouted.

She turned around.

"My name is Electra! And I have come to zap the love out of everyone in Paris!"

"Didn't Kim get akumatized kind of like that?" Chat asked me.

"Yeah, it always seems to be love akumas."

"Love hurts," he said, swinging on his baton to catch up to Electra again.

As I followed, I wondered why she wasn't coming right for us. Usually akumas are created by Hawkmoth to get our Miraculouses. Maybe she had a different priority. I guessed it was whoever she was fighting with earlier today.

Chat and I finally caught up to her...again, and the fighting began. She was fast, and we had to avoid the lighting like things coming from her necklace.

This akuma was tough, and it took forever for me to realize that regular fighting wasn't going to do anything. I had to use my lucky charm.

"Lucky Charm!" I yelled, throwing my yo-yo into the air.

A fishing rod? An idea struck me.

"Chat! Keep her busy!"

He was good at that. As she was distracted with Chat bouncing all over the place, I climbed up the lightpost to have advantage from above.

I used the fishing rod to hook the necklace and pull it off of her neck.

"NO!" She screamed, but I was already reeling it in.

Once it was in my hands I snapped it, causing the akuma to fly out.

"Time to de-evilize!"

I swung my yo-yo and caught the akuma inside of it.

"No more evil doing for you little akuma."

Soon the process was over and the butterfly flew out.

"Bye bye little butterfly!"

I threw the fishing rod into the air, using the magic to clean up all the damage done by the akuma.

I met up with Chat again.

"Bien joué!" We both said as we fist bumped.

The beeping of my earrings distracted me.

"Ladybug, you're about to detransform!"

"Time for my coach to turn back into a pumpkin. See you, Chat!"

I ran off, making it home just in time for me to detransform without anyone noticing where I went.

Adrien POV

I didn't mean to see it, I really didn't. After the akuma was defeated and Ladybug left, I went into an empty alleyway to detransform. I was on my way back home, as Adrien, and in order to get there I had to pass the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Which was normal. Everything was supposed to go as normal, until something in the air caught my eye. It was like someone was being flung threw the air.

Only that wasn't it. It was Ladybug, changing back...into Marinette.

Author's Note:

CLIFFHANGER...

Anyway, it's finally posted! I know it took me forever and for that I'm sorry but thank you for your patience! As you know I recently went on vacation to Paris and London, which was amazing by the way, 10/10 would recommend, but on the way back I got a cold which moved into my ear, and tore a hole in my eardrum. Go me! So I've been sick, half deaf, and totally unmotivated to do anything, but here it is! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please review and tell me your ideas and suggestions for upcoming chapters! Thank you! Until next time (which, hopefully, won't take as long)!