Madeline-Chapter 6

Madeline watched Gabriel's retreating form with interest as he made his way down to the Egyptian wing of the museum. How had he come by that book? The Miraculous holders guarded their secrets carefully and any information on them was rare. Was he a Miraculous holder? Somehow, she didn't think so, but that didn't mean it was impossible. How then had he gotten the book?

Shaking her head, she walked across the marble floor to the doors, showing her identification to the guard at the desk. She had been so busy all day, she had almost forgotten to eat lunch. Madeline's stomach rumbled as she neared a street vendor selling gyros, her favorite. The smell from the cart made her stomach rumble again and she put a hand on it to quiet the noise.

After paying for her food, she sat down on a bench in the Louvre plaza. As she ate, her thoughts turned to Gabriel Agreste once again without her even realizing it. He was certainly handsome and he wasn't actually engaged, but they were still worlds apart from each other. He had wealth she could only dream of while she was struggling to make ends meet.

With a little groan, she remembered why she had wanted to have lunch out here in the first place. Picking up the newspaper she had tucked under her arm, she glanced at the apartment listings again. There was nothing available, at least nothing she could afford. Even the cheapest places were still out of her price range.

"What am I going to do?" she asked the empty plaza. She made more money at this job, but with the threat of La Panthère hanging over her, she didn't want to wait much longer to move.

"You could start by giving me a bite of that," her kwami squeaked from where she sat in Madeline's purse. Madeline chuckled, breaking off a piece of bread for Duusu as she continued to study the apartment listings. She had changed her number, but if La Panthère knew who she was, she couldn't count on that keeping her safe for long.

Tears prickled her eyes. She hated feeling like a scared, cornered child. She knew she was being watched, but not knowing who was doing the watching made her even more nervous.

"Pull yourself together," she scolded herself, wadding up the wrapper for her lunch and tossing it into a trash can as she walked back toward the Louvre. Crying wasn't going to do her any good right now, she would simply have to keep thinking.

As she walked back across the marble floor, Madeline noticed a piece of paper on the ground. Stooping down, she picked it up and examined it. It was a design for a dress, a flowing emerald green dress she had seen at the benefit dinner where she met Gabriel. Frowning, she glanced down the corridor where he had disappeared. Was this his?

Taking the steps that led down into the Egyptian wing, she moved through the rows of artifacts until she came across Gabriel who studied a nearby tapestry intently.

"Hi," Madeline smiled, making him jump and nearly topple into the display. She tried to suppress her giggle, but couldn't quite manage it. There was something about him that was just so endearingly cute. She held up the sketch, raising her brows questioningly.

"Is this yours? I found it where we collided earlier."

Gabriel's ears turned scarlet and he nodded sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Th-thanks."

"No problem," Madeline smiled. "It's really good, you know. I'd like to see more sometime. You have quite a talent."

A genuine smile spread across Gabriel's mouth and he nodded. "S-sure. I'd like that."

Madeline pulled a pen out of her purse and took the sketch back from Gabriel, scribbling down her number for him on the back. She wasn't sure why she was doing this, only that she found herself inexplicably intrigued by him.

"There's my name and number," she said, handing him back the sketch with a little toss of her hair. "Call me sometime, okay?"

Gabriel looked a little stunned, but agreed as she left, a small smile playing over her mouth. She didn't know if he would call or not, but giving him her number had felt right somehow.

"Good thinking, Madeline," Duusu whispered as she sat down at her desk once again. "You can find out what he knows about Miraculous holders if you go on a date with him."

Madeline stared at her kwami. Truthfully, she hadn't been thinking about strategy at all. All she had been thinking about was how nice Gabriel's smile was and how different he was from the other men she had dated.

"Oh no," she muttered, scolding herself for letting her guard down, especially now. She'd have to be more careful.

The shadows stretched long as Madeline left work that night to catch the metro back to her apartment. She had stayed longer than she meant to today, but she found herself wandering back to the tapestry in the Egyptian wing more than once, trying to figure out what had interested Gabriel. As a result, she hadn't finished cataloging pottery from a recent dig in Greece until much later than usual.

Yawning, she stretched her arms over her head, twisting so that her back popped. The only thing she hated about this job was sitting all day long. But a night of crime fighting would loosen her up nicely. Besides, she could use the distraction from her problems. Particularly a handsome blonde one.

As she passed the police station, she noticed a crowd that had gathered and stopped to take a look. To her surprise, she saw Gabriel standing in front of a horde of cameras with the police chief, being presented with a medal.

"On behalf of a grateful city, we would like to honor Mr. Agreste for his heroic actions in saving so many lives from the orphanage fire."

Applause rang out as Gabriel shyly accepted the medal, shaking the police chief's hand and then the mayor's. The police chief stepped to the side so that Gabriel could approach the microphone which he did reluctantly.

"I-I don't know what to say except that I'm e-extremely humbled by this award," Gabriel spoke nervously into the microphone. "But I wouldn't be alive today to receive this award if it wasn't for Night Wing. She saved my life."

"Are you saying that this mysterious vigilante is real?" a reporter demanded from the front row, shoving a microphone closer to Gabriel.

"Yes," Gabriel nodded to confirm his answer. "I owe her my life."

Madeline's jaw dropped as a rumble of questions rose up from the reporters. Had he really just confirmed her existence to a bunch of reporters?! Now everyone would be keeping an eye out for her and her status as an urban legend would be in jeopardy. Grinding her teeth together, Madeline reminded herself that Gabriel didn't know what he had just done. But still…

At that moment, however, there wasn't time to think about it anymore. Madeline caught sight of a man with bright amber eyes standing across from her. While the crowd watched the presentation, the man watched her. The hairs on the back of Madeline's neck stood up straight and she knew she was looking at La Panthère. But who was he?

Backing away slowly, she darted down the steps to the metro. But instead of catching the train that would take her home, she darted down onto the tracks and into a maintenance tunnel on the other side. Madeline leaned against the slimy wall and took a deep, steadying breath of stale air. Now what? Her options were limited and she didn't want to give the man any opportunities to follow her. There was nowhere to go but forward.

The passageway twisted and wound around until at last she found a ladder leading up to a manhole cover. Sliding it gently aside, she found herself emerging on a street across from the Eiffel Tower. At least the man who had been watching her was nowhere in sight.

"Looks like we're taking the long way home, Duusu," she murmured, letting out a string of mental curses. She had to find La Panthère before he got to her first. She had to survive.