Chapter 4
The next day of school went off without a hitch. The Xavier group was exhausted after Logan's training session that morning. Luckily for them the Professor decided that an evening off would be beneficial for them. Unfortunately, that meant Logan was allowed to schedule 2 training sessions for the next day.
"I'm, like, not even going to be able to move Friday for dancing," Kitty whined as the girls walked to the Metro to get to the shopping center Alya wanted to go to.
"Tell me about it," Amanda agreed. "I'm not used to getting such a physical workout. Most of the stuff Dr. Strange teaches me is about mental control and strengthening. If I had known you guys were going to need my help one day I would have started some strength training or something!"
Marinette and Alya chuckled at the girls complaining while secretly being glad that they were not in their shoes. As the group walked Marinette and Alya dropped back to talk with Rogue.
"How are you feeling today?" Marinette had asked Kitty about Rogue earlier but only received a shrug from the Valley girl while she stated that Rogue went through these moods sometimes and that she would ask for help if it got to be too much to handle on her own. Marinette didn't like the idea of someone suffering alone so she had roped Alya into helping her learn more about the southern mutant.
Rogue looked up and seemed to be surprised as to where they were. "Ah'm fine Mari. Ah think ah'm just going through some growing pains with my powers."
"I'm not even going to pretend I would know what that is like," Alya commented. "Can you explain? Maybe we could come up with some new ways to help."
Rogue smiled at the girls. "You gals are sweet but if the professor can't help me control mah powers or the voices in mah head ah doubt that you can."
Marinette and Alya exchanged startled glances. They had no idea that Rogue couldn't control her powers. Heck, they weren't even sure what her powers did.
Alya was the first to speak up, "Can you explain how your powers work?"
Rogue sighed. She figured she might as well tell them and get it over with. She had hoped nobody would ask and she could walk around without everyone making sure they had enough distance between them and her. "Well, ah absorb thoughts, abilities, and characteristics of the people ah touch. In some cases ah can take on physical attributes as well."
Kitty had dropped back with the three and added, "You should have seen her when she had to absorb Sabertooth. It took her forever to get rid of all the hair that grew everywhere!" Kitty started laughing and Rogue joined in.
"The worst part was ah had just shaved mah legs the day before and ah had to do it all over again." Marinette and Alya were a little confused as to what a Sabertooth was but was happy to see Rogue smile. Unfortunately that didn't last long as she went back to her story, "Mah powers first showed up at a school dance in Mississippi. Ah was there with my crush Cody when someone bumped into him causing him to bump into me. I absorbed quite a bit that night, ah left the dance disoriented and thinking that ah was Cody. The poor boy is still in a coma and the doctors don't think he'll ever wake up." She looked at the ground to hide the tears threatening to spill over. "That was over a year ago and ah still can't touch anyone skin to skin without knocking them out."
Marinette and Alya wanted to cry for the girl next to them. No wonder she doesn't want to go to the club, Marinette thought. "I'm so sorry Rogue." Marinette reached out and hugged the mutant.
Rogue was shocked and didn't pull out the hug right away. As soon as she realized what had happened she quickly put some distance between herself and bluenette. "Didn't you listen to mah story?" Rogue snapped at her. "Why would you hug me after that? What if I had absorbed you too?"
Marinette looked startled by her outburst. "I just wanted to make you feel better. You're all covered on your arms and shoulders so I didn't think it would be an issue." Marinette looked like she wanted to cry which made Rogue feel bad for snapping at her.
"Ah'm sorry," Rogue mumbled. "Ah'm just not used to anyone willingly touching me."
"Except Gambit," Kitty added.
"Is that why you snap at him," Alya questioned.
Rogue nodded before correcting herself, "Well, that's partially the cause. The other part is because he is an insufferable flirt who kidnapped me and tricked me into helping him with some family issues in N'Awlins. All he had to do was ask for mah help. 'Course ah probably wouldn't have helped but that is beside the point. He's also the self appointed "God's gift to women" and just sees my situation as a challenge that needs to be won before moving on."
"Wait," Alya held a hand up to stop the girls. "He kidnapped you and they are still letting him hang out with you guys?"
Rogue just looked at her kinda funny. "He did it to get help for his father. It wasn't like he was gonna rape and murder me. It was a case of good intentions, bad execution," Rogue shrugged.
Alya hid a small grin thinking that the southern mutant wasn't being completely honest with herself about her feelings for the Cajun. She would have to see what she could do about that.
Since Rogue had shared her secret, Marinette decided to let Rogue in on a secret of her own. "I'll let you in on a secret about me," she said softly to Rogue. "I have a HUGE crush on Adrien and it was only in the last few weeks I've been able to talk to him without stuttering like an idiot."
"It's true," Alya nodded vigorously. "I was beginning to think I was going to have to take drastic measures to get the girl to loosen up around him." The four girls laughed.
"You know," Alya said with a twinkle in her eye, "Mari does a great job designing clothes. I bet she could make you something to wear to the club that would knock "God's gift" for a loop."
Rogue looked doubtful. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up but ah don't want her to go to the trouble."
"It's no trouble," Marinette assured. "I've almost finished the dress I'm going to wear. I'll start working on some sketches as we ride the metro. I'll make you a deal. If I can design a dress that you love then you will go dancing with us on Friday."
Rogue gave a small smile as the girls stepped onto the subway. "Fine, ah'll take your deal. But ah am super picky about mah clothes so good luck."
Kitty and Marinette squealed while Alya just smirked with a knowing look. As the six girls rode the Metro to the shops at Centre commercial Beaugrenelle, Marinette got started on her challenge. She didn't figure it would be that hard to come up with something Rogue would wear. She was so engrossed in her work that she almost missed their stop. Luckily Alya was paying attention and pulled her off the train with the others.
"Show me what you have so far," Alya suggested as they exited the Metro and headed up to street level. Marinette handed Alya her sketch book and Alya whooped. "She's going to love it!"
"You think so? I wasn't sure about the bare skin around the cleavage." Marinette studied her design a little longer. "I would like to change a few more things before showing it to her though." Alya nodded and handed the book back to her best friend before motioning the others to follow her into the first shop. As the group wandered around and looked at clothes Marinette watched. She was waiting for inspiration to hit so she could figure out what the sketch was missing.
When they had found out yesterday that Nino would be DJing she had taken a design she had already been working on and made a few modifications so she could wear it on Friday. When she got home from shopping she still had an hour to do some sewing before going out on patrol. She would have to work hard on Thursday to get her and Rogue's outfits ready for Friday.
She was still thinking about how to get all the work done in 2 days when she saw something that caught her eye. She walked over and pulled it off the rack to examine it closer before putting it back and going out of the store to sit on a bench and finish her design.
As the rest of the group walked around trying to find the perfect outfit there was a commotion at the back of the store. "I ordered these boots a week ago and now that they are here they don't fit!" A woman shrieked at the saleswoman helping her.
"I'm sorry miss but this is the size that you ordered. If you want I can order you another pair at no cost but it will take another week to get in." The sales clerk looked uncomfortable as everyone turned to look at the scene the customer was causing.
"Unacceptable," the woman scoffed. She had blonde hair that hung down to her waist with the sides pinned back with a golden barrette. "I demand to get those boots in my size right now."
Alya grimaced before whispering to Amanda, "That could be Chloe's mom." Amanda nodded her agreement as she turned back to the rack of dresses and tried to ignore the scene being caused.
The argument between the two women kept getting louder until the manager came out and tried to calm the woman down. The employee was an emotional wreck as the customer tried to tell the manager that she should be fired right away for being incompetent. The employee runs to the back with her hands over her face to hide the tears.
As the employee tries to calm herself down she doesn't notice the purple butterfly that lands on her name tag. A pink/purple outline of a butterfly appears over the woman's eyes before she says, "Yes Hawkmoth." A dark purple cloud covers the employee before dissolving to show the woman had been transformed. Where once she had wavy dark brown hair pulled back into a bun it now hung down her back in a light blue braid. Her skin had lost its rosy color to be replaced with snow white skin. Her lips were colored the same color as her hair with a darker shade of eyeshadow over her blue eyes. She wore a long white dress that hung to the floor with a split starting just above the knees and shimmered in the lights as she moved. On her feet were an exact copy of the boots the customer had been yelling at her about. With an icy blast of air Chill Out exited the back room searching for the source of her anger.
At the back of the store Amanda and Alya had finally found their perfect outfits for Friday. Amanda's was an ombre wine-colored asymmetrical mini dress. The right shoulder was left bare while the other was a flutter of light wine-colored material that stopped just below the elbow. The top and skirt of the dress hugged her curves. It started off as a light wine-color with a light smattering of glitter while gradually darkening as it went lower, ending in a dark red wine with a plethora of glitter on the skirt.
Alya's dress was a cinnabar red halter top dress with a tear drop cutout out in the middle of the chest. The dress was trimmed in gold with a gold belt circling the waist. The straps for the back of the dress crisscrossed the back leaving most of it uncovered. The skirt flared out slightly at the hips so it came up some as you twirled and stopped a couple of inches above the knees with a slit up the right-hand side that stopped a little above mid-thigh so that when you twirled it flared even more.
As the girls started towards the dressing room to try on said dresses the door to the back room was blown off its hinges and an akuma walked out of the back room screaming in anger for the bothersome customer. Both girls jumped for cover. Alya tried to get her phone out to start recording while Amanda snuck back to the rest of the group to get help.
Marinette heard screaming coming from inside the store where her friends were shopping and jumped up to look in and see the door fly into the store. "Looks like Hawk Moth decided he'd had enough time off," Marinette quietly said to Tikki while looking for a safe place to transform. She ran to the store next door and managed to duck into the changing room to transform. "Tikki, spots on!"
Once her transformation was complete she raced back to the store to face the Akuma. She saw that the X-Men had slowed her down some but she had frozen Rogue and Amanda to the wall. Kitty was currently ushering the cornered customers out of the store while Jean had a force field around the woman who called herself Chill Out. When they saw Ladybug, they gave her a quick smile.
Jean gave her a quick rundown of the situation. "It's too hard to get into her mind with Hawk Moth in there. Although, I do believe that I can recognize Hawk Moth whether he is transformed or not now that I have tried to touch his mind."
"That will be a great help later. Do you know where the Akuma is?" Ladybug was looking for the item the akuma had landed on when she noticed a dark purple item hidden under the blue braid that had just swung off her shoulder as Chill Out kept circling trying to blast out of the bubble Jean had created.
"Found it! I'm going to need you to distract her while I get the item. Usually that's Cat's job but since he isn't here we'll improvise." Jean nodded and dropped the shield. With her not having to keep the girl contained she quickly broke Rogue and Amanda out of their ice cocoons but they were so cold they weren't going to be much help.
Kitty had evacuated all the trapped people and came back into the fight. She phased down through the floor and reappeared at Chill Out's feet pulling them down so that she couldn't move any further. This caused her to scream in frustration. She took a deep breath before pushing out with her arms causing the floor to turn into an ice rink. This caused Kitty to get stuck in the floor as well since the cold made it more difficult to concentrate on keeping herself phased. It also made the floor brittle enough for her to free her own feet while Kitty worked on getting herself out of the floor. Jean had floated up off the floor and sent a blast towards the frozen villain knocking her off balance and giving Ladybug the chance to get close enough to grab the akumatized item.
Once she grabbed the name tag she dropped it on the floor and stomped on it, freeing the black and purple butterfly. "No more evildoing for you little akuma," Ladybug said as she split her yoyo and started twirling it. "Time to de-evilize! Gotcha," she exclaims as she traps the akuma in the yoyo. "Bye bye little butterfly," she gives a small wave as a pure white butterfly flies out of the now open yoyo. "Miraculous ladybug!" Ladybug exclaims as she throws her yoyo into the air. A swarm of pink and red goes around fixing everything that was destroyed as the saleswoman returns to normal.
The saleswoman looks around before asking, "What happened?" Ladybug knelt beside her and let her know what had happened just as the police show up. They take the newly de-transformed woman and walk her out of the store to talk with the special therapist they now had on staff for the akuma victims.
Marinette waves at the group before running out of the store to find somewhere to de-transform. As she walked back in a couple of minutes later she sees her friends continuing to shop as if nothing had happened. She supposed a little fight like that was no big deal after all the training Logan put them through. As Amanda and Alya went to the register to purchase their dresses the rest of the group moved out to the main walkway to wait for them.
Marinette entered the next store with the rest of her friends and headed back to the section that housed shoes and jewelry. She may make clothes and hats but she still had to buy shoes and jewelry. She looked around and found the shoes and some jewelry she wanted to complete her outfit for Friday.
"Rogue," the bluenette called. "I finished my idea for your outfit. Will you please take a look and let me know what you think?"
Rogue came over and took the book she was offered. When she saw the design, she could only stare. "It's perfect!"
"Really? That's fantastic!" Marinette did a happy dance that drew the attention of her friends.
"What's fantastic?" Jean looked over Rogue's shoulder and saw the design. "Oh, Marinette, that's gorgeous! You made this? Today?"
Alya smirked proudly. "I knew you could do it Marinette! It's too bad we don't have more time so you could make all of our dresses!"
Marinette smiled shyly. "Thanks guys. I just hope I have enough time to do Rogue's dress justice. I just need her to pick out shoes and jewelry to finish it off."
"Ah think ah saw some boots over here that will go with it. And ah have the perfect bracelets so it's just a matter of finding a necklace." Rogue turned and walked towards the shoe section. Kitty took a good look at the design and headed after her to help her find the perfect pair.
"Thank you, Marinette," Kitty whispered as she went to join the gothic mutant. She was glad to see her friend smile and excited about something.
"No problem," Marinette responded. "I'm glad she liked it. It's good to see her smiling."
After everyone had seen the sketch they split up to resume the search for their own dancing dresses. Alya found some jewelry to go with her dress but Amanda didn't find anything else. Jean had some good luck though.
She found a mini dress that showed off her figure and long legs. The form fitting gold layer was covered with a looser green chiffon layer. The dress has 2 spaghetti straps with the gold layer showing at the bust line. The green material covered the rest of the dress down to an inch above the end of the skirt which was just the gold layer once more. The skirt stopped just short of mid-thigh. There was matching gold bow tied around the waist. She also found a matching pair of gold strappy sandals, gold bangle bracelets and earrings. She still needed to find a necklace though.
As they went to the next shop Kitty was finally able to find her dress. It was a pink, lacy, off the shoulder dress that reached to mid-thigh. The sleeves were small lacy bell sleeves that hung down to just below her elbow. The top was designed like a tube top while the skirt flared out slightly and fell in the same floral design as the sleeves. She also found some Grecian sandals that matched the color of her dress.
Marinette and Rogue also found the shoes they needed to complete their outfits. With that store finished they decided to stop by a shoe store where Amanda saw the perfect pair of heels for her dress. Alya did some looking around and also found some strappy sandals that went well with her dress.
After that shop, the girls decided to hit one of the restaurants before hitting the jewelry store. After some debate, they settled on Noura. After they ordered they turned their attention to planning out the details of Friday night. "The club doesn't open until 11 p.m. so we will have plenty of time after school to get ready." Marinette looked at the girls. "Which is good because I still have to make Rogue's outfit. Since I have to do that we could get ready at my place and then meet up with the guys at the club."
"That works for me," Alya agreed. "How about you guys?"
The four X-Men looked at each other and nodded. "We'll have to come by later though. Logan is going to be putting us through a quick training session before we get ready."
"Well that stinks for you guys," Marinette said as she pulled a face. "But it'll give me a chance to do the finishing touches on the dresses so we can see Rogue's face when it's ready to be put on." The girls all grinned at Rogue who just grinned back.
"Ah'm hoping to knock a certain Cajun down off'a his high horse," Rogue said with a mischievous grin.
"Girl, with that dress you'll have all the guys at the club drooling after you," Alya teased causing Marinette to frown.
"I didn't think about that," she muttered.
Rogue reached out and covered Marinette's hand with her gloved one, "Don't worry. Ah'm not gonna try to steal Adrien from ya. Do you have a sketch of the dress you'll be wearing?"
Marinette nodded and pulled out her sketch book. Flipping through the pages she finally found what she was looking for and showed the girls the design. "You are gonna look amazing," Kitty cried. "If that doesn't get Adrien's attention then the boy is just a hopeless cause." That statement caused all the girls to giggle.
"We're beginning to think being homeschool for so much of his life has left him a little too innocent to even think about that kind of stuff," Alya said while trying to keep a straight face.
"I don't think it is just Adrien," Jean commented with a wave of her hand. "Scott can be a bit dense as well."
"Like, what do you mean Scott can be dense?" Kitty cried only to be shushed by the others before continuing in a quieter voice. "Girl, he like, fawned over you for the past year while you were dating that jerk Duncan!"
Jean blushed at that. "He didn't really did he?"
The other three Americans looked at the redhead like she had sprung a second head. "I thought you were supposed to be a telepath," Amanda said while rolling her eyes. "How did you not know that Scott was into you? I didn't know you guys very well then but even I knew he had a crush on you." This caused Jean's blush to deepen.
Trying to get the attention away from herself she asks, "Alya, is there someone special you are trying to impress on Friday?"
Now it was Alya's turn to blush. "Well, I am kinda hoping to maybe find out what Nino thinks about me." She twiddled her fingers as she refused to look at anyone, especially Marinette as the girl started to bounce in the seat next to her.
"I knew it!" Marinette crowed. "I knew that you liked him since Ladybug locked you guys into that cage together last year." She started giggling and began planning how to hook the two of them up.
"Ummm, ah'm confused," Rogue interrupted her thoughts. "Why did Ladybug lock Alya and Nino in a cage at the zoo?"
"Oh, that was back towards the beginning of last school year," Marinette started. "You see, apparently, Nino thought he had a crush on me so he asked Adrien for help asking me out. Although Nino just stood there frozen like a statue so Adrien did the asking." Marinette got a dreamy look on her face as she remembered Adrien asking if she wanted to go to the zoo.
Alya took over the story from there with a twinkle in her eye as she also shook her head at the star struck girl, "And Marinette had such a dazed expression on her face from that thought (kinda like the one she has now)", that got her a smack in the arm from said friend, "that I had to let Adrien know that she would be there. But Marinette freaked out when she found out I wasn't going to be there to help her so we decided to use the headset walkie talkie things so I could coach her without being there. Long story short, Nino had done the same thing so Adrien was also there doing the same thing for Nino. It was a mess! Then my dad got akumatized and started letting the animals out of the cage and things got really crazy and Ladybug locked me and Nino in a cage together to keep us away from the animals."
The four X-Women just sat there staring at the two before busting out laughing. About that time their food showed up so they tried to get themselves back under control. The two French students just looked at each and shrugged before digging into their food.
"Ah can't believe your dad got akumatized," Rogue said as her laughter died down.
"That's the thing," Marinette said as she turned to the striped haired mutant. "It's become such a regular occurrence that nobody really thinks twice about the akumas showing up. In fact, Adrien and I are the only 2 in our class that hasn't been akumatized." The girls looked shocked at this statement.
"How often do these akumas show up?" Jean questioned.
"About every other day or so. Sometimes more often," Marinette said with a shrug. The four shook their heads. As everyone ate the subject kept jumping to different topics. Once everyone was done they asked for the bills.
After they paid their bills they walked down the hallway towards the shops that sold jewelry. "After we get done here I need to stop and get material for the dresses." Marinette stopped to look in the window of a fine jewelry shop. There was a beautiful golden necklace with a ladybug charm on it in the window. If she wasn't worried about revealing her secret identity by wearing it she would have been seriously tempted to buy it. Shaking her head sadly she hurried to catch up with the rest of the group.
They hit two more shops where the girls found their jewelry pieces they needed for Friday before deciding to call it a night. The girls walked with Marinette to the fabric store so Rogue could pay for the material it was going to take to make her dress. The group looked around at all the beautiful fabric. "You know, sometimes I wish I had taken up sewing," Amanda commented as she pulled out a sparkling purple fabric. The others nodded. After that stop was done the girls started to once again walk towards the Metro to get back to the bakery where Ororo was picking them up.
Marinette walked into her room and dropped her bags on the floor before collapsing on her lounge. Tikki flew up out of her purse to hover in front of the tired girl. "You look exhausted. Maybe you should skip patrol tonight?" Tikki suggested as she studied Marinette.
"No," Marinette said firmly. "If the X-Men can do this then I know that I can as well." Tikki sighed as she nodded. Marinette quickly grabbed some fabric and hurried over to her work area to start measuring and prepping the material for cutting. She worked for the whole hour but managed to get her dress finished and Rogue's was outlined and ready to be cut.
Tikki flew up next to Marinette to inform her it was time for patrol to begin. Marinette nodded before saying, "Tikki, Spots On!" Once the transformation was complete she went to meet up with Chat at the Eiffel Tower.
When Ladybug arrived Chat Noir was already waiting for her. She quickly told him about the Akuma she had encountered at the mall and how the group of X-Women helped her handle the situation quickly. Once he was up to speed they started to split up to start patrol when their communicators beeped. Ladybug frowned as she tried to figure out what would be going on. As they answered they heard Cyclops' voice. "I know we're a little late but we were hoping to join you for patrol tonight."
"Who is we?" Chat asked
"Well, actually this time it is Nightcrawler and Magik."
"Alright. We're at the Eiffel Tower now getting ready to head to our different areas. How soon can they be here?" Marinette informed the leader of the mutants.
"How about right now?" Nightcrawler asked as Ladybug let out a Marinette-like squeak and turned around to the two behind them.
"Now works," said an equally startled Chat. The duo put their communicators away. "I guess you're with me Nightcrawler." With that said Chat turned and jumped off the Eiffel Tower towards the west side of the city. Nightcrawler 'ported after him leaving Ladybug alone with Amanda.
"I guess it's girls' night," Marinette said with a grin as they headed towards the east side of Paris.
After an hour and a half the four met back at the Eiffel Tower to discuss anything they might have noticed tonight. Since it was a quiet night, Nightcrawler and Magik left shortly after they met back up leaving Ladybug and Chat Noir by themselves.
"Ladybug," Chat asked as they too were getting ready to leave.
"Yes?" Ladybug turned to look at her partner.
"Do you ever think about letting me know who you are under the mask?" Chat seemed to have found an interesting spot on the floor as he asked.
"I've considered it," Ladybug answered while wondering where this conversation was going.
"Really?" Chat looked at Ladybug this time. "Why?"
Ladybug shrugged her shoulders before sitting on the ledge and letting her legs hang over. "It would be easier to communicate if we knew who the other was. Then we wouldn't have to wait until both of us are transformed. And if something happened to one of us we would be able to give some closure to the family members. And I trust you," Ladybug had gotten quieter as she kept listing off her reasons.
Chat sat waiting to see if she was going to add anything. He knew that she trusted him in battle. He just wasn't sure if she trusted him with other information. "So why haven't you told me?" He questioned gently as he scooted a little closer.
Ladybug let out a small sigh. "Because under the mask I am not anything like Ladybug. I'm clumsy and shy. I can't even talk to the boy I like without stuttering like an idiot." She gave a little laugh. "I guess I just like that you know me as Ladybug and I don't want you to see the other side of me. You might not like me."
Chat laughed at that, "Somehow I don't think that what I think of you will change once you decide to tell me." He smiled at the spotted heroine. "I just want you to know that when you are ready to tell me I'll be here and I promise I will not be disappointed."
Ladybug returned his smile and nodded before swinging off towards her house. Once safely back in her room she let her transformation drop. Once Tikki was free she flew to her little nook and grabbed a cookie to munch on.
"I know I'm not supposed to let anyone know my identity," Marinette said as the Kwami took another bite of cookie, "but sometimes I really want to let Chat know. If only so that if something happens to me he can let my parents know."
Tikki nodded in understanding. "You know I think that your identity should stay secret. But I will support you if you feel the need to reveal yourself to Chat." Marinette nodded as she went and got ready for bed.
"Good night Tikki," she murmured as she fell into bed. She was out before Tikki had turned off the lights.
XXX
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